The Shopping Duck » Blogs

What is SOPA and How Will it Affect You?

The Shopping Duck — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 15:16:51 +0000

There are a lot of blogs going dark today. You won’t be able to access their pages. They are protesting a new bill before Congress that involves internet censorship. I thought I would share some information about the bill and how it can possible affect you. Click on the graphic to learn more.

Looking for a New Blog Design?

The Shopping Duck — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:20:52 +0000

A great blog design makes a big difference. If you blog is disorganized or not appealing, you are less likely to retain your readers. I recently decided to take an old blog of mine and revamp it (Blog Zenith). I hired Misty from CEO of Me, Inc. to do the blog design. She was so easy to work with and made any changes that I asked. Plus, her prices are very reasonable.

Right now, she is having a SALE!! All of her Pre-made Designs are 12% off (only $57!) and upgrades/customizations are 20% off. All Custom Blog Designs including installation, optimization (and free blogger to WP transfer included) are 12% off AND you can get 12 months of hosting for only $20 if you choose a custom design package. (Packages start at just $100, price varies by blog, but a great deal no matter what!)

For more information you can read about her designs on her blog. This sale will run from December 30th to January 12th. Don’t forget to mention that The Shopping Duck referred you!

Finding New Friends Weekend Blog Hop

The Shopping Duck — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:30:57 +0000

Let me start by saying Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are celebrating and remembering the things you are thankful for! And as for me…
I’m thankful for all my bloggy friends! Sooooo…..

Welcome to a special Thanksgiving edition of Finding New Friends Weekend Blog Hop hosted by Shelly from My Saving Game, Sam from Have Sippy Will Travel and Jeannette from The Adventures of J-Man and MillerBug! Thank you all for helping make this hop so successful! We love you tons! Now what are you waiting for? Let’s get to hopping! We are finding some fabulous blogs through this hop and having a great time getting to know so many of you! So thank you for linking up again this week to those of you who are hop veterans and welcome to those who are new! Let’s continue to make new bloggy friends and increase our traffic! We do have a few simple rules for you – nothing too tough though. So here we go!

1. Please follow your hostesses My Saving Game, Have Sippy Will Travel and The Advetures of J-Man and MillerBug. Leave us a comment and we will follow you back! (If you already follow us on GFC, we’d LOVE it if you would follow us on Facebook or Twitter.)

2. Follow our Guest Host who this weeks is Cecile from The Shopping Duck.
3. You don’t have to post our button but we sure would like it if you did. Not only does it help our hop grow so we can all get new followers, but each week we will choose a guest co-host and to be considered you must have our button somewhere on your site! If you post our button and want to be considered for guest co-host, please email me at jmanandmillerbug@gmail.com to express your interest.
4. You can link up blogs, facebook, twitter accounts, whatever - just be sure to specify what each link is.
5. Hop around and find blogs that you enjoy. Be sure to tell them you are following them from Finding New Friends Weekend Blog Hop so they can follow you back!
6. Have fun!

Tips for Using Rafflecopter in Your Giveaways

The Shopping Duck — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:18:56 +0000

I have been entering a bunch of giveaways lately. Most blogs are using Rafflecopter to help facilitate their giveaways. Rafflecopter is an application that can help bloggers create and run giveaways on their blogs. It is simple to create a giveaway and makes it easier for your readers to enter the giveaways. Right now, Rafflecopter is by invitation only, but you can sign up for more information on their site.

Here are some of the tips that I recommend when using Rafflecopter for your giveaway. Some of these tips are useful for giveaways that do not use Rafflecopter as well.

Commenting. If you want a participant to comment on your blog for an entry, do not a) make them sign up for membership to comment and b) have Captcha turned on (a code that requires entry before the comment will be accepted). These two things discourage comments.
GFC. If one of your entries is to join your site using Google Friend Connect, please tell them where your GFC box is located. It helps not to have to scroll all over the page looking for it.
Links. If you want me to visit a sponsor page, another blog, etc., please include a clickable link. This is what the link code should look like: In Rafflecopter, highlight the text you want linked and click on the world with the link. You will need to change the link text to your specific link.
Be specific where you want them to comment. If you want them to comment on the post, make sure that your tell them to scroll down to the bottom and leave a post comment, otherwise, they may just leave the comment in the Extra Info box.
Only one Rafflecopter Form per page. Rafflecopter will only work when there is one form per page. If you are running more than one contest, be sure to use this code () without the parenthesis, in your post before the Rafflecopter code. This will ensure that readers will be taken to a separate page to enter the contest.
Make it Visible. I may be coming from a linky on another site. If you post is not at the top, and I can’t find it, I might not enter. Either make the post sticky (in WordPress, click on Visibility under the Publish box and choose Stick this post to the front page) or make another post at the top of your site that lists all your giveaways.
Make the first option easy. If your first option is required and it is Like a Facebook page or become a Twitter follower or GFC follower, come people might not enter. I have seen giveaways that just require the first enter to be name and email address. Or even a blog post comment will work.
Check Your Twitter Text. This is a mistake that I have made. Rafflecopter allows you to copy a previous giveaway as a template. When you copy the giveaway, make sure to check every option. I forgot to check the Tweet About the Giveaway option. Make sure that the text you are asking them to Tweet corresponds with your current giveaway!

For more tips and tricks on using Rafflecopter, check out their blog. There is a ton of great information there!

Using Google Alerts to Find Blog Topics

The Shopping Duck — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:36:55 +0000

Some days I just have writers block. I often hear about great products, services or other fun stuff that I want to share with my readers, but then I forget about them. If you are looking for a new way to research blogging topics, why not try Google Alerts.

Google Alerts is a tool that sends you “alerts” to your email or to Google Reader. The alerts are easy to set up and use. Follow these simply steps to set up your own Google Alerts:

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts. When you are there, sign in with your Google email account so that you have the option of choosing Gmail as your delivery route.
Type in a word or phrase in the search box. For example, I typed in 2011 toys because I want to be alerted when anyone posts about new toys for the 2011 Holiday season.
You now have four options to choose from:
- Type. Choose from Everything, News, Blogs, Videos and Discussions. I choose Everything at first. If I get too many items then I will narrow it down later.
- How Often. You can specify how often you want to receive alerts. If you want them delivered to your mailbox your options are As-it-happens, Once A Day or Once A Week. If you choose to have the results delivered to Google Reader it will default to As-it-happens.
- Volume: Your choices are Only the Best Results and All Results. I choose Only the Best Results. These are the best matches to your keywords.
- Deliver To: Here is where you specify if you want the results delivered to your mailbox or to Google Reader.
Click on create alert. It is that simple!

You can create as many alerts as you want. You will also be able to manage your alerts and change the options I mentioned above. Happy blogging!

FREE Affiliate Training – This Can Help You With Your Blog As Well

The Shopping Duck — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:56:25 +0000

This is the fourth year that I will be participating in The Thirty Day Challenge. The Challenge is a FREE training program that will teach you how to make your first dollar online with affiliate marketing. The Challenge allows you to work at your own pace. You can finish the training in thirty days, or take your time and complete at your speed. If you are not interested in affiliate marketing, but have your own online business or blog, you will be able to come away with some good information as well. I have used this training to build more links and traffic to my own blog!

Some of the things you will learn include:

Using Twitter for Your Business
How to Find Niche Ideas
Analyzing your Niche
Creating Good Content
Backlinking
Using Web2.0 Sites to Funnel Traffic to Your Site
How to Monetize Your Site

Every time I complete The Thirty Day Challenge, I learn something new. It is worth your while to give it a go!

Fotolia.com – Stock Photo Images Review

The Shopping Duck — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:41:07 +0000

When I blog about a product, I try and use the product image in my blog post. When I blog about other items of interest, I always try and include an image that will highlight the subject. Blog posts with images standout!

Unfortunately, many bloggers and website owners are using images illegally. Using Google Images to find an image for your blog post may be copyright infringement whether it is intentional or not. If there is an image your want to republish, you must get permission from the copyright owner before you can use it.

Fortunately, there is another way to obtain great images for a small costs – Fotolia.com. Fotolia.com is a image hosting site that has over 13,716,167 images, vectors and HD videos available. All images offered on Fotolia.com are Royalty free and can be used for all kinds of professional documents with no limit on time or copies.

Credit are used to buy images (with credits ranging from $0.75). Subscription services are also available for those that require many images.

I recently did a search on Fotolia.com for the word “soda” as I was completing an article on diet soda. This is one of the many great photos that I was able to download.

Do you want to try Fotolia.com? I have FIVE two-week FREE trial codes. The first five commenters to this post will get a free code. Use the code and download a few pictures. Fotolia.com is a great place to find photographs.

The New and Improved Shopping Duck!

The Shopping Duck — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:30:34 +0000

If you visit my site, you will notice that I have a new sleeker design. Thanks to The Thesis Theme for WordPress. This theme by DIY Themes is easy to use and very easy to customize. After buying the theme you have access to tutorials and a community forum. I was having an issue with the header image on this site, posted to the forum and received an answer in less than one hour!

If you are looking for a new theme, I highly recommend The Thesis Theme for WordPress.

FedEx Out of Office Blog

The Shopping Duck — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:35:39 +0000

When school is finally out (only 12 more days for us), I need to keep my kids busy. I don’t want them to sit in front of the television all day, so I make a list of fun activities that we can do together. Fortunately, my kids love to craft! Recently, I was introduced to a new blog by FedEx – Out of Office. The FedEx blog features all different kinds of projects – projects for business, kids and even holidays.

One of my favorite ideas from the blog is Creating a Family Journal. What a great idea for a yearly project that includes pictures and updates on each family member!

Don’t forget to check out the Templates and Tools section too! My kids made two bookmarks using the bookmark template from this site. Now we are going to head over to FedEx and get the bookmarks laminated. This will be great for their summer reading books.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of FedEx Office and received the items necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Getting Reader Response

The Shopping Duck — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:13:07 +0000

I enjoy blogging, but one of the reasons that I blog is also to bring in a little extra income for my family. Now that times are tough, any extra income is a help. I just recently read about conversion rate optimization. CRO is the science of convincing your readers to do something that benefits you as the blog or website owner. This is not always easy to do.

Before you decide to start CRO practices you need to get a feel of who is visiting your website. You also need to understand your blog or website’s goals. Often you will need to develop a test to figure out if your goals are being met. Search the web for conversion rate optimization and you can find some good tips, or you can hire a site to do the work for you!