My Coches de Cuba image collection is now up in the gallery! You are going to love these cars...
Coches de Cuba (Cars of Cuba) - the first Gallery - or use the link on the right.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
cuba tales II - Calle 62
One of the highlights of Cuba was visiting a Cuban bar on Saturday night. It's a little snack bar that has music and entertainment at night. Jon had been there before and just loved it, so I had heard about it, but to actually see it for myself was something completely different. It was beautiful! We got there around 9pm and got a table. By about 9:30 or 10 the tables were all full! The band started probably around 10:30 or so, and by 11 the place was really busy. 
Not only were the tables full, but people were standing and dancing in the street and on the sidewalk across the street, or at the restaurant across the street. The locals can't all afford to go and buy drinks, so some of them bring their own - we saw a couple different guys with their own rum and mix.The kids were beautiful. There were a couple of little girls, probably 8 or so, who were dancing - and they could dance! It was priceless!
Reminded me of my little sis and made me wish I could take her dancing. Salsa is a great dance style too. Watching the cuban people dance is just incredible. 
I wish I could move half that well! There were another couple of even smaller girls dancing up on the side of the stage during an intermission when the band was taking a break - again, incredible!The band was good too. I really enjoyed watching and listening to them. The girls on stage were dancing pretty good too. Boy can they move! It certainly inspired me to take some serious salsa lessons and learn to move my own hips like that - or as close to that as I can get?
They had a little dance contest. First they pulled 6 girls out of the audience, then they had them each do a little dance. Then the girls were to pick a guy to dance with and the contest continued with the couples dancing, the guys dancing, and the finalists dancing. Finalists were determined by the audience applause. Would you be surprised to know that it was a local couple who won? They rocked. Just watching them dance together, or separate was amazing! I was definitely voting for them right from the start! There were a couple of girls from Montreal who were in the contest and could shake it pretty good - but nothing near as good as the locals. The couple pictured above isn't the one that was in the contest - they were out dancing on the street - but they were just as good from what I saw!
The price of beer was comparable to what it is here - maybe a little bit less. It was $2.50 (Cuban convertible pesos), which converts to around $3 or a bit less. Probably less than you'd pay at most bars here, but not THAT much less. We did find it cheaper other places, but more on that in the Varadero Walk tale (coming soon).Our night concluded with a Taxi ride back out to our resort - about 15 minutes out of Varadero. And yes, that 1927 Ford was indeed our taxi! Is that beautiful or what? I will be posting an album on my Photographity site with Cuban cars - it is a must see if you love those classics! I'll let you know when it's up...
It was interesting to talk to the taxi driver. Jon got asking him about politics and how the government is compared to what it used to be and all that fun stuff. Basically, the guy was saying that the only thing he would change is higher salaries for everyone. So, even though it is a communist country, the people seem to be happy and content with the way things are run - except they'd like to be paid more. Interesting.
And that concludes our trip to Calle 62!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
cuba tales I
Christmas in Cuba was as good as I hoped/expected. Nothing ever quite lives up to my expectations, but I certainly wasn't disappointed! We met some great people, saw some of the Cuban countryside, got some great photos, enjoyed a warm sunny beach - ahhhh I did not want to leave at all! I could have easily handled at least another week there without getting bored or going crazy. ;)
We left home Monday morning, the 22nd. Our flight was out of London at 4:55pm. We arrived at the airport a bit over 2 hours before our flight - and you should have seen the line-up! Apparently they were having computer problems when checking everyone in for our flight, and we ended up waiting in line for over 2 hours. Our flight was delayed as a result, but at least they didn't leave without us! ;)
While waiting in line we met the two parties ahead of us in line - who both happened to be going to the same resort that we were! The chances of that are pretty small, since there are sooo many resorts, and just about everyone on the plane is going to a different one. We met Alex and her mom from London, and another gal and her mom from Toronto. Great people, fun to chat with, and we enjoyed hanging out with Alex and Jean later in the week as well.
So our flight finally left closer to 6, which meant we arrived in Veradero, Cuba around 9. It was after 10 by the time we got through customs, got our luggage, found our bus, exchanged our money, and made it to our resort, Melia Las Antillas. As soon as we stepped off the plane in Veradero, though, I could feel the dramatic temperature change, and knew I was going to love it!
Customs in Cuba was a cinch. Thorough, but not overboard like it tends to be in Canada or the US. We were in and out in not time, there were no looong line ups, and it was all very well organized. We actually had to wait for our luggage after going through Customs because it was so quick!
We got to our resort, checked in, unpacked, changed, then headed downstairs to check out the drink situation. The lobby bar was super quiet that night, so we went and found the "Disco Fun Pop" bar. Yes, it is actually called that! It was pretty busy that night, so we hung out there for a couple of beer before calling it a night. It turned out to be a nice little spot the rest of the week as well. It was great to watch everyone dance and just observe the people that were there. A lot of germans were at this resort, and we saw a number of them that night - including one guy in a very unique outfit. He was wearing a tank top that was almost more like a vest - it had three or so buttons that were undone, and was almost a sheer material. He had a beer belly, a mohawk, and patched jeans. We were amused. ;) We saw the same guy later on in the week several times, including one day when we went for lunch and he came to lunch in his Speedo - not a pretty sight! There were some amusing people there for sure...
Our first day there was overcast and cool - but still a hell of a lot nicer than Ontario! We spent a fair bit of time hanging out at the lobby bar, drinking cappucino (some of them with Baileys), and hit the Disco Fun Pop again in the evening. It was a pretty low-key day, but still enjoyable!
Our second day was warm and sunny, so we spent a good part of it laying by the pool - ahhhhh, the sun! It was delightful! They had some hammocks hung in spots around the pool as well, and those were nice to nap in a couple of times. The pool was huge - and there were tons of chairs around it - probably over 100 just around the pool. The resort holds about 350 people, so it's a good size without being too ginormous. There were at least that many more chairs down at the beach, if not more. There were four bars spread out through the resort. The lobby bar (24 hour), the disco bar - which seemed to be only open certain times, the beach bar (10-5) and the pool bar (open til midnight or so). There were three a la cart restaurants - which we never made it to. And there was a buffet and a restaurant by the pool. The variety of food was great, and it tasted pretty damn good too! I had heard before I left about how the food down there is very bland - but I can't say that I found it to be so! I certainly had no complaints.
The rest of the week was spent doing a jeep safari, visiting Veradero, walking the beach and chatting with people we met there. There will be more to come, including pictures, on the highlights of the rest of the trip...
We left home Monday morning, the 22nd. Our flight was out of London at 4:55pm. We arrived at the airport a bit over 2 hours before our flight - and you should have seen the line-up! Apparently they were having computer problems when checking everyone in for our flight, and we ended up waiting in line for over 2 hours. Our flight was delayed as a result, but at least they didn't leave without us! ;)
While waiting in line we met the two parties ahead of us in line - who both happened to be going to the same resort that we were! The chances of that are pretty small, since there are sooo many resorts, and just about everyone on the plane is going to a different one. We met Alex and her mom from London, and another gal and her mom from Toronto. Great people, fun to chat with, and we enjoyed hanging out with Alex and Jean later in the week as well.
So our flight finally left closer to 6, which meant we arrived in Veradero, Cuba around 9. It was after 10 by the time we got through customs, got our luggage, found our bus, exchanged our money, and made it to our resort, Melia Las Antillas. As soon as we stepped off the plane in Veradero, though, I could feel the dramatic temperature change, and knew I was going to love it!
Customs in Cuba was a cinch. Thorough, but not overboard like it tends to be in Canada or the US. We were in and out in not time, there were no looong line ups, and it was all very well organized. We actually had to wait for our luggage after going through Customs because it was so quick!
We got to our resort, checked in, unpacked, changed, then headed downstairs to check out the drink situation. The lobby bar was super quiet that night, so we went and found the "Disco Fun Pop" bar. Yes, it is actually called that! It was pretty busy that night, so we hung out there for a couple of beer before calling it a night. It turned out to be a nice little spot the rest of the week as well. It was great to watch everyone dance and just observe the people that were there. A lot of germans were at this resort, and we saw a number of them that night - including one guy in a very unique outfit. He was wearing a tank top that was almost more like a vest - it had three or so buttons that were undone, and was almost a sheer material. He had a beer belly, a mohawk, and patched jeans. We were amused. ;) We saw the same guy later on in the week several times, including one day when we went for lunch and he came to lunch in his Speedo - not a pretty sight! There were some amusing people there for sure...
Our first day there was overcast and cool - but still a hell of a lot nicer than Ontario! We spent a fair bit of time hanging out at the lobby bar, drinking cappucino (some of them with Baileys), and hit the Disco Fun Pop again in the evening. It was a pretty low-key day, but still enjoyable!
Our second day was warm and sunny, so we spent a good part of it laying by the pool - ahhhhh, the sun! It was delightful! They had some hammocks hung in spots around the pool as well, and those were nice to nap in a couple of times. The pool was huge - and there were tons of chairs around it - probably over 100 just around the pool. The resort holds about 350 people, so it's a good size without being too ginormous. There were at least that many more chairs down at the beach, if not more. There were four bars spread out through the resort. The lobby bar (24 hour), the disco bar - which seemed to be only open certain times, the beach bar (10-5) and the pool bar (open til midnight or so). There were three a la cart restaurants - which we never made it to. And there was a buffet and a restaurant by the pool. The variety of food was great, and it tasted pretty damn good too! I had heard before I left about how the food down there is very bland - but I can't say that I found it to be so! I certainly had no complaints.
The rest of the week was spent doing a jeep safari, visiting Veradero, walking the beach and chatting with people we met there. There will be more to come, including pictures, on the highlights of the rest of the trip...
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
water holes
We were playing CashFlow the other night, and I drew a card that was offering a piece of raw land for sale, with a creek running through it. It got us on the topic of creeks. I realized I was very lucky growing up, as the first two places we lived - that I remember - both had creeks running through the property.
The first place had a creek that ran near the barn. There were minnows in the creek. Probably my most distinct memory of the creek is when Mom would make tapioca pudding and we'd take it down and put it in the creek to chill. Looking back, it seems like a looong way to have to walk to the refrigerator, but hey, it worked!
I remember wading in the creek as well - the water was always extremely cold. But when does that ever stop kids? The creek joined the river on the edge of our property, and when our parents were with us, we'd go down to the river as well. The path to the river crossed the creek, where it had carved out a mini canyon for itself, and we'd find all kinds of minnows down in there.
The second place we lived again had a creek that ran into a river on the edge of our property. This was a bigger creek, and came out of a huge culvert at the upper end, with a pool. On hot summer days we'd go play in the pool and the culvert - although the water was still rather chilly! I remember one time some of my siblings found an eel or two in the creek. That was pretty exotic for us. We'd never seen such a thing! This creek also had small fish near the river end.
I was lucky to grow up around so much water. We always had a lake near by to go swimming in the summer, or to go have picnics at. Rivers were abundant as well. We did a lot of canoeing, and spent a fair amount of time camping by lakes and rivers. There was the annual Swan Trip - a grand canoe/camping adventure, where we'd go and camp on an island. I'd like to make that trip again one of these summers.
I remember one particular camping trip, just before my brother Hiram was born. We were supposed to go to Brown Bear (out by Swan) with my uncle and his family and a couple other families, but Hiram was due right around that time, so my parents decided we'd go on our own camping trip closer to home. We went down by the river, at a spot a few miles from our home, and camped on a sandbar. I remember building a "tabernacle" (from the Bible) in the sand with leaves, sticks and stones. I think Mom still has pictures of that camping trip somewhere.
My earliest memories of swimming are of being afraid of it. I was terrified to get out in the water where I couldn't touch the bottom! Even with a lifejacket, I would be freaked out. I'd get myself all psyched up to go swimming, determined that this time I was going to swim by myself, but sure enough, we'd get to the lake, I'd get out on the dock, and I just couldn't do it! So my dad would eventually get me out in the water and then leave me to swim on my own. I am not sure why it was so terrifying, but it was a fear that took me a while to get over! He'd leave me on my own, practically forcing me to swim, and I'd panic a bit - and remember, I was wearing a lifejacket! I did eventually get over that fear...
Yes, I was lucky to grow up around so much water. I now live in Southern Ontario, and guess what? There isn't any water around! Sure, there are the great lakes, and the Detroit River, but they aren't play friendly, unless you have a boat or something. I miss the little lakes and rivers that you can really get down to and enjoy... I miss swimming in the summer, even when it was chilly. I miss picnics and camping by the lakes.
So I've decided, that when I am wealthy, I will purchase a summer home in BC. It's not a place I can ever again live year-round (I can't handle the winters), but I would definitely like to have a summer home to spend a few weeks each year! My winter homes will be somewhere warm and tropical - Thailand maybe - but BC will also be a special place to me as well.
The first place had a creek that ran near the barn. There were minnows in the creek. Probably my most distinct memory of the creek is when Mom would make tapioca pudding and we'd take it down and put it in the creek to chill. Looking back, it seems like a looong way to have to walk to the refrigerator, but hey, it worked!
I remember wading in the creek as well - the water was always extremely cold. But when does that ever stop kids? The creek joined the river on the edge of our property, and when our parents were with us, we'd go down to the river as well. The path to the river crossed the creek, where it had carved out a mini canyon for itself, and we'd find all kinds of minnows down in there.
The second place we lived again had a creek that ran into a river on the edge of our property. This was a bigger creek, and came out of a huge culvert at the upper end, with a pool. On hot summer days we'd go play in the pool and the culvert - although the water was still rather chilly! I remember one time some of my siblings found an eel or two in the creek. That was pretty exotic for us. We'd never seen such a thing! This creek also had small fish near the river end.
I was lucky to grow up around so much water. We always had a lake near by to go swimming in the summer, or to go have picnics at. Rivers were abundant as well. We did a lot of canoeing, and spent a fair amount of time camping by lakes and rivers. There was the annual Swan Trip - a grand canoe/camping adventure, where we'd go and camp on an island. I'd like to make that trip again one of these summers.
I remember one particular camping trip, just before my brother Hiram was born. We were supposed to go to Brown Bear (out by Swan) with my uncle and his family and a couple other families, but Hiram was due right around that time, so my parents decided we'd go on our own camping trip closer to home. We went down by the river, at a spot a few miles from our home, and camped on a sandbar. I remember building a "tabernacle" (from the Bible) in the sand with leaves, sticks and stones. I think Mom still has pictures of that camping trip somewhere.
My earliest memories of swimming are of being afraid of it. I was terrified to get out in the water where I couldn't touch the bottom! Even with a lifejacket, I would be freaked out. I'd get myself all psyched up to go swimming, determined that this time I was going to swim by myself, but sure enough, we'd get to the lake, I'd get out on the dock, and I just couldn't do it! So my dad would eventually get me out in the water and then leave me to swim on my own. I am not sure why it was so terrifying, but it was a fear that took me a while to get over! He'd leave me on my own, practically forcing me to swim, and I'd panic a bit - and remember, I was wearing a lifejacket! I did eventually get over that fear...
Yes, I was lucky to grow up around so much water. I now live in Southern Ontario, and guess what? There isn't any water around! Sure, there are the great lakes, and the Detroit River, but they aren't play friendly, unless you have a boat or something. I miss the little lakes and rivers that you can really get down to and enjoy... I miss swimming in the summer, even when it was chilly. I miss picnics and camping by the lakes.
So I've decided, that when I am wealthy, I will purchase a summer home in BC. It's not a place I can ever again live year-round (I can't handle the winters), but I would definitely like to have a summer home to spend a few weeks each year! My winter homes will be somewhere warm and tropical - Thailand maybe - but BC will also be a special place to me as well.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
more fish friends
We have acquired new additions in our fish tank. Jon picked them up on Thursday. There's a clown fish and a peppermint shrimp. Neither have names yet.I think Shiloh (the blue damsel) is happy to have another tank mate. They get along great. The Clown took a few days to get used to the tank, but he now is comfortable enough to swim merrily around the tank. He's such a cutie! I love clown fish.
Patrick the star is moving around the tank more than he did when we first got him too. You never really see him moving, but boy does he get around! He'll be on one side of the tank, and then next thing you know, he's on the other side, or sitting on top of the rocks. You can see him up in the left side of the tank in the first picture.The shrimp is pretty cool.
He kinda sways back and forth as he walks. And we've seen him sitting right on top of the starfish as well. He's more active now and moves around the tank a fair bit. And he's see-through! How cool is that? He's got these super long antenae/feelers and just looks funny.And remember the worm I mentioned the other day? Well, Jon did some research and found out what it is. It's a bristle worm, and we've got to try and trap it. They sting, and could be dangerous for the poor fishies.
And there's the latest chapter in our fish story.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
website ventures, part 1
I decided to start blogging about my new "baby" website. I want to document how I'm doing it, and figured since I'm already a regular blogger, this might be a good way to do that - plus it just might help someone else with ideas for their own websites!
My website is still in its infancy, but has certainly progressed past the newborn stage. Here's what I've done so far.
It all started when I got a hold of a tutorial called the Affiliate Masters Program (or the .zip version here). The tutorial takes you through, step by step, how to set up a website to provide tons of valuable information (for FREE), and how to make money through selling other people's products, google adsense, and various other methods of monetizing. The key point, though, is to create tons of value for your visitors!
This was along the lines of what I'd been wanting to do - an online site that once it was set up would practically run itself and make me money while I was sleeping, or vacationing, or whatever the case may be. And the beautiful thing with this is that you can pick a topic that interests you, something you can get excited about and enjoy doing.
So the first thing I did was to brainstorm some topics, ideas that would interest me, things I know something about that I could write about, and so on. I wrote out a whole long list, and then went through that list and picked out 3-5 niche topics to research. You want to narrow it down, drill down if you will, until you have a very precise, specific topic. If it's too broad and general, then it will be hard to do the research and get specific keywords, and it will be hard to rank well for that topic in the search engines. You can always add on more later once your initial niche website is established!
The research is not my favorite part, although some people just love it. The research for a project like this, involves picking some keywords for that topic and checking to see how much demand there is for those keywords (how many people are searching for that keyword) as well as how much supply there already is (how many websites come up when you search for that keyword). Ideally, you want to find keywords for your niche topic that are being searched by a lot of people, but don't have too many suppliers already. You want to be able to rank well in the search engines, so that you can get free targeted traffic!
I narrowed my topic down to one niche topic: romantic couples games. I then went on to do some more thorough research on just that one topic.
As I was researching keywords, I would type my keyword into Google.com and then go and visit at least the first 10 websites that came up, to see if 1) they were relevant to my topic (a competitor), 2) I could glean any ideas from them, 3) to see if they were quality websites (or if I could easily surpass them as far as quality goes) and 4) to see if they might be possible partners (with products I could sell on my own site, a site that I could request to trade links, etc). I learned a fair bit during this research, got some good ideas from sites that I found, and learned things that I wanted to avoid from other sites that I found. I kept track of all of this info and stats in an excel spreadsheet. (More info on the research in a later post - complete with copies of my spreadsheets.)
From my research I was able to determine a handful of good keywords related to my topic to use. I chose ones like the obvious romantic couples games, foreplay games, sexy games for couples, fantasy and roleplay games, and other such similar keywords. From my research, they seemed to have enough demand, and the supply definitely left room for a new and better website on the topic.
From there I went on to choose my domain name - I actually registered several. I was able to get romantic-couples-games.com (my main domain), as well as some other variations of the words. You definitely want to have your main site keyword in your domain name, so I was very pleased to find that one available!
The next step was to start creating the actual content, and designing the website. I started designing the website in DreamWeaver, but eventually moved it to a Joomla site, which is much easier to manage, even for someone who doesn't know html! I started with a very basic design - after all, the focus is on content not on design. Sure, you want it to look nice, but it's even more important that you deliver value to your visitors!
I started with the home page, and wrote up a few paragraphs about romantic couples games and how they can help make things more interesting, exciting and intimate in a relationship. I made sure to use my main keyword, romantic couples games, several times throughout the paragraphs, heading, and the title in the browser as well. My website still has pretty much the same original content on the homepage, so you can see basically how I structured the content, with the keywords, etc.
I moved on from there to create other pages about foreplay, sex positions, sexy food games, roleplay and fantasy, and homemade sex games. These were the original 5 internal pages that I started with. I went on to add the rest, like shower sex games, sexy oral games, talking dirty, and even more recently, sexy christmas ideas, love letters and sexy lingerie.
Since the original creation, I have been regularly adding new content, new products, new freebies, etc. The more value you create, the more awesome free stuff you give away, the more your visitors will want to come back, refer their friends, and buy the products that you recommend!
I also started a Sexy Tips Ezine, that I send out once a week (Mondays) with a sexy game of the week and a sexy tip of the week. I keep it short and sweet, but again, provide value! All of my ezines are also then added to my site after they go out, which also adds more content and value to the website itself.
I started out doing a separate blog as well, and linking it to my site, but I found that to be rather time consuming, and decided I would be better off adding the content I was putting on my blog to my actual site and having it all in one place. I do love blogs though, and it's good to have a "feed" for people to follow, so I found out how to do a feed of my website - my Sexy Tips Blog Feed - which is set up through feedburner.com. This feed simply displays the content of my site in a blog format. Every time I add a new article or page to my site, it updates in my feed.
Since the time I started the website, I have grown my newsletter list to 28 subscribers, I have grown my daily visitors to an average of 40 or so per day, and I have had a total of 3 sales with my affiliate programs, as well as 1 sale directly from a PPC campaign.
There's an overview of the project. In my next few posts I will go into more detail on things like the research, getting newsletter subscribers, the freebies I offer, how I get content, article marketing, and some of the other techniques I have used.
My website is still in its infancy, but has certainly progressed past the newborn stage. Here's what I've done so far.
It all started when I got a hold of a tutorial called the Affiliate Masters Program (or the .zip version here). The tutorial takes you through, step by step, how to set up a website to provide tons of valuable information (for FREE), and how to make money through selling other people's products, google adsense, and various other methods of monetizing. The key point, though, is to create tons of value for your visitors!
This was along the lines of what I'd been wanting to do - an online site that once it was set up would practically run itself and make me money while I was sleeping, or vacationing, or whatever the case may be. And the beautiful thing with this is that you can pick a topic that interests you, something you can get excited about and enjoy doing.
So the first thing I did was to brainstorm some topics, ideas that would interest me, things I know something about that I could write about, and so on. I wrote out a whole long list, and then went through that list and picked out 3-5 niche topics to research. You want to narrow it down, drill down if you will, until you have a very precise, specific topic. If it's too broad and general, then it will be hard to do the research and get specific keywords, and it will be hard to rank well for that topic in the search engines. You can always add on more later once your initial niche website is established!
The research is not my favorite part, although some people just love it. The research for a project like this, involves picking some keywords for that topic and checking to see how much demand there is for those keywords (how many people are searching for that keyword) as well as how much supply there already is (how many websites come up when you search for that keyword). Ideally, you want to find keywords for your niche topic that are being searched by a lot of people, but don't have too many suppliers already. You want to be able to rank well in the search engines, so that you can get free targeted traffic!
I narrowed my topic down to one niche topic: romantic couples games. I then went on to do some more thorough research on just that one topic.
As I was researching keywords, I would type my keyword into Google.com and then go and visit at least the first 10 websites that came up, to see if 1) they were relevant to my topic (a competitor), 2) I could glean any ideas from them, 3) to see if they were quality websites (or if I could easily surpass them as far as quality goes) and 4) to see if they might be possible partners (with products I could sell on my own site, a site that I could request to trade links, etc). I learned a fair bit during this research, got some good ideas from sites that I found, and learned things that I wanted to avoid from other sites that I found. I kept track of all of this info and stats in an excel spreadsheet. (More info on the research in a later post - complete with copies of my spreadsheets.)
From my research I was able to determine a handful of good keywords related to my topic to use. I chose ones like the obvious romantic couples games, foreplay games, sexy games for couples, fantasy and roleplay games, and other such similar keywords. From my research, they seemed to have enough demand, and the supply definitely left room for a new and better website on the topic.
From there I went on to choose my domain name - I actually registered several. I was able to get romantic-couples-games.com (my main domain), as well as some other variations of the words. You definitely want to have your main site keyword in your domain name, so I was very pleased to find that one available!
The next step was to start creating the actual content, and designing the website. I started designing the website in DreamWeaver, but eventually moved it to a Joomla site, which is much easier to manage, even for someone who doesn't know html! I started with a very basic design - after all, the focus is on content not on design. Sure, you want it to look nice, but it's even more important that you deliver value to your visitors!
I started with the home page, and wrote up a few paragraphs about romantic couples games and how they can help make things more interesting, exciting and intimate in a relationship. I made sure to use my main keyword, romantic couples games, several times throughout the paragraphs, heading, and the title in the browser as well. My website still has pretty much the same original content on the homepage, so you can see basically how I structured the content, with the keywords, etc.
I moved on from there to create other pages about foreplay, sex positions, sexy food games, roleplay and fantasy, and homemade sex games. These were the original 5 internal pages that I started with. I went on to add the rest, like shower sex games, sexy oral games, talking dirty, and even more recently, sexy christmas ideas, love letters and sexy lingerie.
Since the original creation, I have been regularly adding new content, new products, new freebies, etc. The more value you create, the more awesome free stuff you give away, the more your visitors will want to come back, refer their friends, and buy the products that you recommend!
I also started a Sexy Tips Ezine, that I send out once a week (Mondays) with a sexy game of the week and a sexy tip of the week. I keep it short and sweet, but again, provide value! All of my ezines are also then added to my site after they go out, which also adds more content and value to the website itself.
I started out doing a separate blog as well, and linking it to my site, but I found that to be rather time consuming, and decided I would be better off adding the content I was putting on my blog to my actual site and having it all in one place. I do love blogs though, and it's good to have a "feed" for people to follow, so I found out how to do a feed of my website - my Sexy Tips Blog Feed - which is set up through feedburner.com. This feed simply displays the content of my site in a blog format. Every time I add a new article or page to my site, it updates in my feed.
Since the time I started the website, I have grown my newsletter list to 28 subscribers, I have grown my daily visitors to an average of 40 or so per day, and I have had a total of 3 sales with my affiliate programs, as well as 1 sale directly from a PPC campaign.
There's an overview of the project. In my next few posts I will go into more detail on things like the research, getting newsletter subscribers, the freebies I offer, how I get content, article marketing, and some of the other techniques I have used.
Friday, December 5, 2008
pets of the aquatic and plant familys
We have pets. And we like our pets. They aren't the furry, cuddly kind, nor are they the yappy, noisy kind. They are nice and quiet, don't make a mess, and while we can't play with them, they are rather fun to watch!
Our aquatic pets are Hermie the hermit crab, Shiloh the blue damsel, Patrick the star, and a random little worm that we just saw last night and haven't named yet. Sadly our aquarium has had many casualties as well, including the cutest little clown fish, who I miss very much, and a beautiful emerald crab. We are enjoying the ones that are left though. When we first got the star, he just sat up in the corner by the heater, but lately he has been moving all around the tank and we have really enjoyed watching him and looking to see where he's going to end up next. Last night we saw him sitting on the crab. Poor Hermie just never realized that the little nook he was in was in Patrick's path!
Our plant pets are just as fun - although they don't move even as fast as the starfish! We have a couple of pineapple plants that we grew from the top of pineapples that we bought this summer. Perhaps in a year or so we'll have our own homegrown pineapples! Then we also have our mimosas that Jon collected from pods he picked up from other trees here in town. We've grown a couple from seed, and we also have one that a very kind lady dug up for us from her back yard! Unfortunately, we've also had casualties in the plant world, with one mimosa that a damn squirrel bit off - yes, bit off and had the nerve to leave the top part lying there in the pot, severed. It was a sad day! We have since managed to get another to grow from seed though, and it is currently about an inch and a half high or so, sitting in the kitchen window and opening up a little more every day. Oh the joy of having other little lifes living in our house!
Our aquatic pets are Hermie the hermit crab, Shiloh the blue damsel, Patrick the star, and a random little worm that we just saw last night and haven't named yet. Sadly our aquarium has had many casualties as well, including the cutest little clown fish, who I miss very much, and a beautiful emerald crab. We are enjoying the ones that are left though. When we first got the star, he just sat up in the corner by the heater, but lately he has been moving all around the tank and we have really enjoyed watching him and looking to see where he's going to end up next. Last night we saw him sitting on the crab. Poor Hermie just never realized that the little nook he was in was in Patrick's path!
Our plant pets are just as fun - although they don't move even as fast as the starfish! We have a couple of pineapple plants that we grew from the top of pineapples that we bought this summer. Perhaps in a year or so we'll have our own homegrown pineapples! Then we also have our mimosas that Jon collected from pods he picked up from other trees here in town. We've grown a couple from seed, and we also have one that a very kind lady dug up for us from her back yard! Unfortunately, we've also had casualties in the plant world, with one mimosa that a damn squirrel bit off - yes, bit off and had the nerve to leave the top part lying there in the pot, severed. It was a sad day! We have since managed to get another to grow from seed though, and it is currently about an inch and a half high or so, sitting in the kitchen window and opening up a little more every day. Oh the joy of having other little lifes living in our house!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
money mindset
As I was relaxing in the hot tub tonight, with my glass of wine and a good book, I got off on an interesting train of thought. Interestingly enough, it stemmed from the storyline of the book I was reading. It's one of that epic fantasy series. About ordinary everyday folk who become heroes and save the world. The thing that jumped out at me tonight was the whole thing of going back to their roots, who their family was, where they were from, and being heroes in that respect. One character is the king of a dead country, and goes off to fight a war against the shadow on behalf of that country - unknowingly inspiring others of his countrymen to ride along with him. And the stories of other characters are similar. The point is, it got me thinking about my own heritage, where I have come from, and what I'm going to do with it.
The first thing that jumped to mind was money. It's been one of my pet topics lately, but frankly, it's been something that has plagued my family for literally generations. I remember discussing it with my dad one day. We were discussing the religious or spiritual aspect of it, but I remember a comment he made about other more distant relatives, particularly my great grandfather and great uncle, and how we hear about these great opportunities they have making lots of money, but next thing we know, they're broke, or close to it, and looking for another opportunity. And they never seem to break out of that cycle. In this particular conversation, we were talking about a "spirit of poverty" over our family - again, the spiritual aspect - and how it needed to be broken (through prayer, faith, declarations, etc).
So I started thinking about this tonight and immediately compared it to my more recent experiences and learning. I was in the whole religious/spiritual circle for a while, and believed that pretty much everything was the result of or caused by an evil spirit or demonic power. Now I'm not saying that that isn't the case, but I've since seen things and learned things that have made me go hmmmm. For instance, let's look at the secular parallel to this "poverty spirit" thing...
In spiritual circles, like the one I was a part of for a number of years, poverty is caused by a demonic spirit, a "demon" if you will that subjects a person or people to this particular condition. The way to get rid of it is to pray, command it to leave, and have faith that it has left, or is leaving. This is all fine and good, but in essence, it leaves the control and power in the hands of someone other than me. Even if I pray, command it to leave, and have "faith" that it is so, if it doesn't happen, I will simply think that for whatever reason either a) it isn't God's will at this time (there's a lesson for me to learn in this poverty still) or b) I'm not praying hard enough or don't have enough faith. Either reason leaves me with very little power and very little substantial information to work with.
The secular parallel brings a new light to things. Instead of there being a "spirit of poverty" or "demon of poverty", there are unsupportive mindsets and beliefs. Practically speaking, this means that I have grown up with beliefs about money that support poverty. For myself, some of these beliefs include, "You have to work hard for your money", "You have to get a good job to pay your bills", "Rich people are greedy and likely did something evil to get their wealth", "You should only have what you need to survive" or "It is noble to be poor." These beliefs weren't necessarily spoken ver batim, but they were certainly implied, particularly in the religious part of my upbringing. Incidentally, the reason I was taught these things, was that the people who taught them to me were themselves taught that by someone else. I'm certainly not placing blame on anyone here. But the fact of the matter is that this is what I was taught regarding money.
My family never seemed to have quite enough money. It didn't matter what job my dad worked, or didn't work. Things stayed the same. And I still see it in myself and in my family today. We're running our own businesses, working for ourselves now, and yet where is that "extra" money that we've always dreamed of? When do the bills stop and the money for me begin? Is this speaking to you?
Do you remember when I talked about financial thermostats? This is what it all boils down to. When I was comparing the "spiritual" and "secular" views (which really aren't as different as they'd like to think...), I realized that this thermostat is exactly what's going on. And here's the major difference I found between the spiritual and secular: the spiritual leaves the control and the responsibility in God's hands, while the secular puts the control and responsibility in my hands. Now, there's nothing wrong with believing in a higher power, be it God, the Universe, or whatever you choose to call it. But the problem that I see, is that with religion, if something doesn't happen, people say it must not be the will of God. There must be a lesson to be learned by it not happening.
Here's what I think. Yes, there is a lesson to be learned - but it has nothing or very little to do with God or what he wants, and it has absolutely everything to do with you and what you want. You can pray, command spirits, and have faith as much as you want, but if it doesn't happen, who is to blame? Is it God? Or is it you? Here's what I am learning: I (and only I) am in control of my life, my destiny, and what happens to me. I am the one who chooses how to respond to circumstances and situations. I am the one who chooses how to spend my time and my money. I am the one who chooses how far I will advance financially, personally and professionally. I am the one who shapes my own destiny. It is my choices, my beliefs, and my attitudes that either limit or expand where I will advance and where I will fall short. I am not a victim, I am in control of my own life and my own circumstances. I am the only one who has the ability to take a situation that seems really shitty and turn it into a great opportunity by the way I respond to it.
As soon as I take responsibility for my own life and my own circumstances, that is when I am free and can do whatever I want! The sky is the limit once you have truly taken responsibility for your own life. Then it doesn't matter what anyone else does to you, says to you, or thinks of you, because you are in control of your own life. And in my opinion, this is where religion is lacking. As long as you have "someone" to fall back on, to place blame on, you will never be able to truly take responsibility for your own life. And if you cannot truly take responsibility, then you cannot truly be free to create your life the way you want it. Religion is too quick to "blame" the "will of God", and to say that if it doesn't happen, it is because it is not the will of God.
So all of that being said, this is what I intend for my destiny in relation to my heritage to be. Right now, today, on the 3rd day of December 2008, I, Jessica Webb, take full responsibility for my actions, my words, and my life, right down to every little situation and detail. I am no longer a victim, but I am in full control of my life and my destiny. I create my life the way I want it to be, and no one can stop me by what they do, think or say about me or to me. I am successful and prosperous in all that I do, because I do it to the best of my ability and do not give responsibility to anyone or anything else. I am breaking the pattern of poverty and blame, I am turning those negative, unsupportive beliefs into positive, life-changing beliefs and habits. My destiny is to not only experience wealth for myself, but to let it cascade down to my family and all of those in my circle of influence. This is what I choose to do with my heritage, and what I choose to leave as my legacy and inheritance.
The first thing that jumped to mind was money. It's been one of my pet topics lately, but frankly, it's been something that has plagued my family for literally generations. I remember discussing it with my dad one day. We were discussing the religious or spiritual aspect of it, but I remember a comment he made about other more distant relatives, particularly my great grandfather and great uncle, and how we hear about these great opportunities they have making lots of money, but next thing we know, they're broke, or close to it, and looking for another opportunity. And they never seem to break out of that cycle. In this particular conversation, we were talking about a "spirit of poverty" over our family - again, the spiritual aspect - and how it needed to be broken (through prayer, faith, declarations, etc).
So I started thinking about this tonight and immediately compared it to my more recent experiences and learning. I was in the whole religious/spiritual circle for a while, and believed that pretty much everything was the result of or caused by an evil spirit or demonic power. Now I'm not saying that that isn't the case, but I've since seen things and learned things that have made me go hmmmm. For instance, let's look at the secular parallel to this "poverty spirit" thing...
In spiritual circles, like the one I was a part of for a number of years, poverty is caused by a demonic spirit, a "demon" if you will that subjects a person or people to this particular condition. The way to get rid of it is to pray, command it to leave, and have faith that it has left, or is leaving. This is all fine and good, but in essence, it leaves the control and power in the hands of someone other than me. Even if I pray, command it to leave, and have "faith" that it is so, if it doesn't happen, I will simply think that for whatever reason either a) it isn't God's will at this time (there's a lesson for me to learn in this poverty still) or b) I'm not praying hard enough or don't have enough faith. Either reason leaves me with very little power and very little substantial information to work with.
The secular parallel brings a new light to things. Instead of there being a "spirit of poverty" or "demon of poverty", there are unsupportive mindsets and beliefs. Practically speaking, this means that I have grown up with beliefs about money that support poverty. For myself, some of these beliefs include, "You have to work hard for your money", "You have to get a good job to pay your bills", "Rich people are greedy and likely did something evil to get their wealth", "You should only have what you need to survive" or "It is noble to be poor." These beliefs weren't necessarily spoken ver batim, but they were certainly implied, particularly in the religious part of my upbringing. Incidentally, the reason I was taught these things, was that the people who taught them to me were themselves taught that by someone else. I'm certainly not placing blame on anyone here. But the fact of the matter is that this is what I was taught regarding money.
My family never seemed to have quite enough money. It didn't matter what job my dad worked, or didn't work. Things stayed the same. And I still see it in myself and in my family today. We're running our own businesses, working for ourselves now, and yet where is that "extra" money that we've always dreamed of? When do the bills stop and the money for me begin? Is this speaking to you?
Do you remember when I talked about financial thermostats? This is what it all boils down to. When I was comparing the "spiritual" and "secular" views (which really aren't as different as they'd like to think...), I realized that this thermostat is exactly what's going on. And here's the major difference I found between the spiritual and secular: the spiritual leaves the control and the responsibility in God's hands, while the secular puts the control and responsibility in my hands. Now, there's nothing wrong with believing in a higher power, be it God, the Universe, or whatever you choose to call it. But the problem that I see, is that with religion, if something doesn't happen, people say it must not be the will of God. There must be a lesson to be learned by it not happening.
Here's what I think. Yes, there is a lesson to be learned - but it has nothing or very little to do with God or what he wants, and it has absolutely everything to do with you and what you want. You can pray, command spirits, and have faith as much as you want, but if it doesn't happen, who is to blame? Is it God? Or is it you? Here's what I am learning: I (and only I) am in control of my life, my destiny, and what happens to me. I am the one who chooses how to respond to circumstances and situations. I am the one who chooses how to spend my time and my money. I am the one who chooses how far I will advance financially, personally and professionally. I am the one who shapes my own destiny. It is my choices, my beliefs, and my attitudes that either limit or expand where I will advance and where I will fall short. I am not a victim, I am in control of my own life and my own circumstances. I am the only one who has the ability to take a situation that seems really shitty and turn it into a great opportunity by the way I respond to it.
As soon as I take responsibility for my own life and my own circumstances, that is when I am free and can do whatever I want! The sky is the limit once you have truly taken responsibility for your own life. Then it doesn't matter what anyone else does to you, says to you, or thinks of you, because you are in control of your own life. And in my opinion, this is where religion is lacking. As long as you have "someone" to fall back on, to place blame on, you will never be able to truly take responsibility for your own life. And if you cannot truly take responsibility, then you cannot truly be free to create your life the way you want it. Religion is too quick to "blame" the "will of God", and to say that if it doesn't happen, it is because it is not the will of God.
So all of that being said, this is what I intend for my destiny in relation to my heritage to be. Right now, today, on the 3rd day of December 2008, I, Jessica Webb, take full responsibility for my actions, my words, and my life, right down to every little situation and detail. I am no longer a victim, but I am in full control of my life and my destiny. I create my life the way I want it to be, and no one can stop me by what they do, think or say about me or to me. I am successful and prosperous in all that I do, because I do it to the best of my ability and do not give responsibility to anyone or anything else. I am breaking the pattern of poverty and blame, I am turning those negative, unsupportive beliefs into positive, life-changing beliefs and habits. My destiny is to not only experience wealth for myself, but to let it cascade down to my family and all of those in my circle of influence. This is what I choose to do with my heritage, and what I choose to leave as my legacy and inheritance.
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