Author: Barbara Swafford

Many of you know CommentLuv is my all time favorite plugin. With CommentLuv a blogger gets to let those who comment share a link back to their site which often results in more traffic for both bloggers. It’s a great reward for those who take the time to comment on… read more Don’t Let Your Heart Be Broken

Last night when I was visiting blogs I landed on a beautiful post written by Jodi at Joy Discovered. In the post “Great Expectations”, Jodi shares how we often live our lives by the expectations of others and in the process, forget to live for our authentic self. I don’t… read more One, Or A Million

Many people go under the knife to take years off of their face. Nips and tucks are made, injections are administered and when the bandages come off and the bruising goes down, years have been taken off of their looks and they appear to have gone back in time. That’s… read more Unveiling The Results Of My Facelift

Good Day, Class, Although it’s been awhile since we had a substitute teacher (guest writer) here, today that’s changing. Some of you may have heard of him. Some not. Please join me in welcoming fellow blogger Bamboo Forest, from the fabulous blog, Pun Intended. Bamboo has chosen a topic we… read more Advantages of Guest Posting Outside Your Niche

I love numbers. In fact, my real job is all about numbers. Whether I’m bidding a job, pulling measurements off of blue prints, balancing check registers, costing out jobs, billing customers, preparing payroll or compiling governmental reports, I’m surrounded by numbers. I’m in my glory. Today’s Lesson When I started… read more Numbers – A Love Hate Relationship

When we start blogging we often ask ourselves which way to go. Should we set up a free blog? Or, bite the bullet, and pay for one? Unfortunately we don’t know if we’ll enjoy blogging and may ask ourselves, “Would it be wise to put out the money for a… read more Blogs – Free vs Paid – Is One Better?

In 2008 I set up the Blog Registry to help bloggers get found. As of today, there are 235 entries. Some of the blogs are now nonexistent, some of the authors are on hiatus, but others are going strong. As I was reviewing the entries I saw many familiar bloggers… read more Inquiring Minds Want To Know

A lot of bloggers consider themselves to be private people. In fact, for various reasons, many don’t even publish a photo of themselves online let alone their real name. However, with blogs and social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, our privacy could easily be invaded. Today’s Lesson It seems… read more Don’t Shoot Me

A new year is a great time to reflect back on the old one and look forward with anticipation for what the new year will hold. A new year often means making resolutions and although many resolutions never see daylight, others become stepping stones to a vibrant future. Today’s Lesson… read more Looking Forward

In recent weeks, news of the (2009) “Christmas Day Bomber” has been in the forefront. In fact, it’s come to light the alleged suspect had been sending out warning signs for years by posting his feelings online. In a report by Rueters Abdulmutallab’s Internet postings on Facebook and Islamist chatrooms… read more Mind Your Own Business, Or Not?

Remember the children’s verse: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? That’s a lie. Words do hurt. Take, for instance, the parent who has a child say “I hate you”. Or, the parent who tells a child, “You’ll never amount to anything.” These are… read more The Power Of A Post

~Haiku Lesson~ Inspiration rains At any time, any place Share your source today Today’s Assignment When and/or where does inspiration for blog posts strike you? Feeling creative? Share your answer in the form of a Haiku ~Barbara. P.S. The inspiration for this lesson came from the post “Imagine Slowing Down… read more The Shortest Lesson Ever

Since I call this “your blogging classroom on the web”, I decided it was time we talk about homework; or that behind the scenes stuff we often put off. Today’s Lesson As many of you have noticed, I decorated my blog for the holidays. Since I use a theme which… read more Sexy Bookmarks, Toolbars & Time Savers

Image via Wikipedia The title “Is Google Making Us Stupid” intrigued me. Nicolas Carr authored this post which implies we may be dealing with a population of people whose reading habits, both online and off, are changing. Our audience might be so preoccupied, comprehension of what is written on the… read more Requesting Two Minutes Of Your Time

Millions of people go online each day and share their brilliance. We see it in blogs and comments alike. With the click of a button, those ideas are ours for the taking. But who do those ideas belong to? Today’s Lesson Suzen of Erasing The Board brought up a good… read more If I Said It First, Is It Mine

No, I’m not saying to plagiarize another blogger’s writings. What I am saying is sometimes we write what could be a post and don’t even realize it. Today’s Lesson As I was reading the comments on The Battle Over Comments – Part 2, Davina’s reply reminded me of something I’ve… read more Save Time – Copy & Paste A Post

In the comment section of “The Battle Over Comments – Part 1”, many of you mentioned 50 + comments would be a dream come true; a time for celebration. However, once the celebration is over, how to deal with dozens of comments raises an important issue. That’s the issue of… read more The Battle Over Comments – Part 2

I don’t know of a blogger who doesn’t love getting comments. Comments can give us validation, be the start of a cyber friendship, make us laugh, make us cry, build up our ego and/or give us warm fuzzies. One comment can be the reason a blogger keeps going when they… read more The Battle Over Comments – Part 1

One thing I notice about people, whether in the real world or online, is each one of us has our own unique talents. You know how it goes. Some are very artistic and can make a stick figure look like a work of art. Others can take words and spin… read more I Don’t Get It

Dot over at Deeper Issues and I must be blogging sisters as we both enjoy looking at, experimenting with and/or changing our themes. In the beginning days of blogging, I changed the theme to this blog quite regularly, but now use my test site to play with new themes so… read more What Does Your Blog Say About You

Anyone who has been blogging for any length of time soon finds out blogging can become addictive. So addictive, it can begin to rule our life. Some bloggers stop socializing with their real life friends. Others spend so much time in front of their computer, their health begins to suffer…. read more Blog Yourself To A Smaller World

The topic of how to make money with a blog gets beat to death. You’ve read it. I’ve read it. We’ve all read it. Truth be told, not all that many bloggers are making money WITH their blogs. What’s happening instead is people are making money BECAUSE they have a… read more Let Your Blog Work For You – 25 Ways

I’ve been wanting to use this photo for a long time. After rereading the comments on the “Large Gender Gap Evident In Blogosphere” post, today is the perfect day. Many who commented on the gender gap post were surprised the ratio of male to female bloggers was so large (66.7%… read more If He Can, She Can

Bloggers come from all walks of life. In fact, many people enjoy blogging as it is nondiscriminatory. It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman, rich or poor, old or young, educated or not; the door to blogging is open. However, it appears more men walk through the door… read more Large Gender Gap Evident In Blogosphere

In November of 2008 I wrote a post titled Are Domain Names Over Rated which included a fun “test” where the readers were asked to match the blog name, the name of the author and their avatar (or gravatar -globally recognized avatar). It was an experiment to find out if… read more How Branding Works In Blogosphere

Many of us have read we can have some kind of success with blogging. Maybe it will be a book deal. Maybe it’s the fact money can be made with a blog. For some, just being able to share their knowledge is enough For others, success is measured differently. Some… read more Would You Wait 17,520 Hours?

In his post titled, A New Way To Find Work That You Love Tom Volkar of Delightful Work states, We agree that to be authentic means to be genuine, open, unpretentious, honest and forthright. We also agree that authenticity is good for us. But we tend to disagree on how… read more Seize The Opportunity – A Pro Speaks

One thing about blogs and what’s written in them, is they are free. Blogs are free to read and full of free ideas. In fact, some feel because the content is on the web, it’s free to steal. And us bloggers, because we love this hobby so much, gladly publish… read more Words For Sale

For the second time as I’ve been listening to the news, I’ve heard what I felt were derogatory comments made about bloggers. For the second time, the word bloggers and pajamas are closely joined together. What the story is about isn’t as important as knowing if it’s true. Do bloggers… read more Pajama Blogging – Fact or Fiction