The Cool Stuff

Chronicles of Nani - saving your avatar from that fattening cyber-jello!

I promised I’d let you all in on a little bit of the cool stuff from Yesterday. You probably noticed the new widget in the right column, especially since it’s up near the top. The Chronicles of Nani is now a blog for hire. Well, anyway, there may occasionally be brief posts about products.

Pay-Per-Post is a network that offers people selling products or services an opportunity to promote those products or services for a modest cost. That modest cost goes to the blogger promoting for them. The prices vary from product to product and blog to blog. The way it works at the main PPP site is someone posts a product to be blogged about and what they’ll pay for a blog post. Bloggers can accept those jobs if their blog is qualified. That is, some advertisers require a certain Google rating or number of previous PPP posts for a blogger to take a job. I'll know if I'm qualified for anything after they do their check on my content.

The cool thing about the Pay-Per -Post is that their rules stipulate that there must be regular blog entries before and after any PPP post. That means the actual blog content doesn’t get booted for pay posts! The other cool thing is I pick what I will or won’t promote. My standards won’t get compromised with the service.

That widget on the side means anyone can “hire me” to promote a product by sending a message through the main site, This means that someone with a product to promote can see the widget and click on it to offer me personally a job. Now, I could have put a minimum dollar amount on the widget, but I can’t do that without changing the minimum at the site! That kinda sucks, because the minimum I’d ask for promoting a product for a Chronicles reader is less that I’d ask a stranger! That has a lot to do with showing some loyalty to my readers, but also because I would think I’d expect more to promote a product someone is selling to make a serious profit than if, for instance, a designer with a new store wanted a nod and some good copy that could also be used in other forums. See, I’d get to call those shots if the post is negotiated through use of the widget. There’s just a higher profit margin for design software that there is for design classes, ya know?

If I’m doing a post for PPP, It’s going to have a “PPP” tag on it, but I’ll also write it in a way that you’ll know it’s a “hired post.” I can also say “no” if it’s a product I don’t feel comfortable getting behind. So you’ll never see me promoting anything that's not fit for a “family friendly” blog or anything that just doesn't fit with The Chronicles of Nani code of ethics.

This is all a way to give me a little boost, financially and in spirit. Unfortunately job-hunting isn’t free! I’m hoping I can at least afford ink and resume paper, postage and some raw materials to do a lot of crafting for Christmas this year! (not even looking to make enough to buy gifts, just the stuff to make them!) I also figure, this could give me a little bit of promoting copy to add to my portfolio.

So my only pitch (because I do graphics and promoting, not sales) - if you have an item or service you want some promotion for and you think The Chronicles of Nani might be a decent place to promote it, click the widget! Make me an offer and we can negotiate a price that works for both of us.


creative offers, creative awards!

Another of the not lucrative, but nice things that made me feel good yesterday, was that in my Chronicles of Nani email I had offers, not offer, but offers, for places to show off my creativity in creative teams or collaborative design efforts. If you sent me an email over the weekend or yesterday and I haven’t answered yet, I’m going to reply. I just need to look at the offers, my schedule, see what I have time to do. I‘m not being rude. I’m being contentious and giving real thought to the emails before I respond.


I am proud to show off a new plaque on the awards wall! Vicki, of Bubbles Babbles, has presented me with the “Kreativ Blogger” award! What a cool award! I was so flattered when I saw my name on Vicki’s blog because she called me a “designer.” With the exception of my cast mates in the SAS contest and things I’ve written myself, I’ve never seen me called a “designer” before. I pretty much consider myself a blogger who dabbles in digi scrap design, so it was a nice ego boost to see someone call me that! Thank you, Vicki!!

Now, to earn the award, I must share six things I love. Six things is easy, only six is a little tougher!

I love waking up and the promise of hope that every new day brings. It’s the opportunity to put anything bad from yesterday away and focus on making tomorrow better.

I love kissing David good morning, knowing he’s here for me, protecting me from poverty of not just the material world, a roof over my head and something to make for dinner, but the poverty of will and spirit that can so easily accompany job seeking woes.

I love my family, the relatives and friends who are the base of who I am and those whose pride means so much to me.

I love Kaline and Baggle, my furry kids and the unconditional love they give. (Well, unconditional as long as the kibble bowl is full!)

I love kissing David good night, knowing he’ll keep me warm in body and heart and that he’ll be here in the morning.

I love going to bed at night knowing that I have done all I can to make it a happy and successful day and that I have survived any challenges I’ve faced.

Yeah, I know that’s a mushy, poetic cop-out, but it kinda make ya go “aw,” didn't it?


And now, I’ll leave you with A FREEBIE!!!

credits:Kit - California Dreaming by Darlene Haughin at stoneaccentsstudio.com,
(free with purchase in October) Lyric quote from Diamond Rio,
“I Know How The River Feels” Template Four Corners by Digitalegacies (Nani)

I’m still working on a half dozen scrapbook projects right now, but this one turned out pretty neat. I did the above layout with Darlene Haughin’s California Dreaming. It’s a beautiful kit that’s available at Stone Accents Studio as a “free with purchase” bonus right now, 18 papers and 40 elements, paired up with a kit from anther designer for free when you purchase $15 at SAS. Check out the whole bonus.

I did a couple of templates in the template swap at SAS for their birthday bash. It was fun and I LOVE templates! I had often created templates as a foundation for my layouts anyway and I use both mine and templates from others a lot in my larger projects or ones where I have a deadline in mind. The layout above was one of my own templates and I have packaged it as a Digitalegacies Designs template, my third official template offering and my first one at The Chronicles of Nani. I’m still kinda new at packaging and sharing my templates, so if you use it, I’d DEFINITELY like to see and get your feedback on it, ease of use, etceteras. Of course, if you show it to me, you’ll get that link to “Indian Summer” too!

Sorry, this link is expired.

As always, I appreciate any of your comments, preferably here rather than at 4-Shared, so I’m sure to see them!