If At First I Don’t Succeed, I’ll Keep Trying

Day 25: Ultimate Blog Challenge – If at First You Don’t Succeed, try try AGAIN!

I’m participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge for the second time. I participated in October 2010 and didn’t complete the challenge. Big Sigh… This go round I had to take a breather and get well because I was doing so much and germs got the best of me. I got a cold, sinus infection, my allergies were acting up and I got laryngitis. That’s just way too much to be dealing with at one time. I was doing a GREAT job blogging daily sort of, until I got sick. I also had tons of work piling up on me and I had to coordinate and attend a few different events for work. Funny enough though… I got a lot accomplished at work while I was under the weather. Talk about BUSY! This is not counting dealing with my hubby, and being mommy to four children. I did blog consistently for the first week and a half, then I found myself playing catch up and back dating my posts to keep them in chronological order (I sort of cheated there). The last time I posted was on April sixteenth and that was a guest post, so really the fifteenth was my last personal post and today here we are on the 25th TEN days later.

I do want to post about certain events that I attended over the last ten days and share my experiences and pictures with you. I was in Raleigh attending the Planet Earth Celebration on Saturday April 16th and due to the bad weather I packed up and went home just before the tornado hit downtown Raleigh. Talk about perfect timing! I live in Durham, NC so my commute is about thirty minutes away. I really don’t watch the news and when I got home I want to say I saw a tweet or a You Tube Video on FaceBook of what happened and I was in shock! I was LITERALLY just downtown Raleigh and had immediately started to see if all of my friends and co-workers that live in Raleigh were okay. The focus of everyone lately has been to collect monetary and food donations for Red Cross for the tornado relief. There are many different organizations and businesses that are coordinating tornado relief efforts. If you feel so inclined please donate if you can to Red Cross.

Well, I won’t get too long winded with this post but I wanted everyone to know that I’m still standing and even though I haven’t been consistently blogging with this challenge I will continue and post regularly until the end of the month (fingers crossed) and hopefully when the Ultimate Blog Challenge comes around again, I’ll join in and have a successful month. I’m also currently participating in Social Media Bootcamp; I get a weekly email and participate in a forum with exercises and tutorials on using social media. I’ll blog about that in detail later on too, so Ciao! AND Remember, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!

Half Way There, Almost at the Finish Line

Day 15: Ultimate Blog Challenge – Halfway through the month

This month I’m participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge and Social Media Bootcamp. Today marks the half way mark for me, I have been posting daily and to keep up as best I can. Conveniently enough I’ve had many events that I’ve attended and makes for great blog content making it really easy to write. I definitely haven’t had any writers block issues this month. I’ve met some great people that I’ll continue to network with after these courses. I’m definitely on my blog daily with the Ultimate Blog Challenge, tweeting out my blog posts, posting it on Facebook, and trying to blog hop and comment as much as I can. I just started using an editorial calendar and I have a day dedicated to blog hopping.

Social Media Bootcamp is teaching how to use Facebook and Twitter to the fullest capacity. This course arms you with the basics. It shows you how to gain fans and followers and engage online with your audience. If you’re a small business owner it also shows you how to tweet and make sales for your business. The biggest part of being in social media is to remember is… it’s about quality not quantity! Social Media allows you to network, build relationships and engage regularly. I would recommend scheduling your tasks daily and setting a time limit so you don’t get sucked into the social media abyss, says the Twitterholic that’s online 24/7! I’m looking forward to the rest of these challenges. I’ll post again at the end of the month with a full recap of everything I learned during the Ultimate Blog Challenge and Social Media Bootcamp.

Ultimate Blog Challenge Take Two!

I did the Ultimate Blog Challenge back in October of 2010 and I had so much fun that I decided to do it again. Now, let me say that I didn’t blog the whole month like I was supposed to. I did have so much going on that October that I dropped the ball. I attended a blog conference and was traveling, which made for GREAT content! I just got so overwhelmed that I wasn’t able to keep up. I hope that is NOT the case this time around. I don’t have any blog conferences that I will be attending this month, I do have tons of local events that I will be attending and able to share feedback. That’s a plus!

The great thing about participating in the Ultimate Blog Challenge is you get to meet new people who are also taking the challenge. You also can gain new visitors and followers to your blog and social networking platforms. You have a calendar to keep you organized that covers all the steps you should take after your daily post. I think I’m ready! So I would like to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to take on the Ultimate Blog Challenge for the month of April. You’ll receive blog support, resources and help from the Ultimate Blog Challenge Team. Thirty Posts in 30 Days! Let’s do it!

Positive Reviews For Jael Custom Designs

I’m on Day #5 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge and today’s assignment is to post a couple of positive reviews about my product or services that were left by clients. I’ll also share why I think I’m successful and why my clients are satisfied with my system and quality of work.

Just letting you know your talent & services are greatly appreciated!!!
~ Sholanda. K
FANTAbulous job! I will be referring all my friends to you. Awesome work!
~ Cheryl. W
I had the wedding invitations printed out and they came out really nice, thank you soooooo much. ~ Ely. H

I have a collection of cards, letters and comments that I’ve received regarding my graphic design services and they inspire me to continue my work and always strive to do better! I believe I am successful because I build relationships with my clients. I get an true understanding of what my clients want and I bring it to life for them. All my work is custom so, you won’t see it anywhere else. I’m very meticulous so if it’s not perfect, it’s not complete! I will give my suggestions and opinion but, ultimately what the client wants… the client gets!

I believe my clients appreciate the fact that I’ll take the time out to speak with them in depth and at times explain what I’m doing if they’d like to know. My clients are more than just customers, I believe if I build a relationship with them and they approve of the work I do they’ll continue to be clients and they’ll refer people. I’m all about word of mouth marketing! It’s always nice to hear positive feedback about work you do that your really passionate about.

Miami Bound…

Today is day #4 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge and the assignment is to post photographs and share apart of you. It doesn’t always have to be about business, I can share a piece of my life with you all.

I am going to be leaving on Thursday and heading down to Miami, FL for the Blogalicious Social Media Conference. I’ve been looking forward to it for months and I can’t wait. I get a mini vacation and hubby gets to walk a couple of days in my shoes while I’m gone! Tee Hee! I don’t expect him to agree to do it again after this! I can just hear him now, when I return… “I’m NOT doing this again” It’s the first time I’ve been away from the baby and I’ve been trying to actively wean him from nursing and thus far it hasn’t been successful. I’m a sucker, after he whines for a little while I ALWAYS give in! So I expect hubby to deal with lots of fussing, whining and questions “where’s mommy”! I never get a break so I thought I’d take this trip by myself. The family usually travels with me to conferences if the kids are out of school on a break. The kids don’t want me to go! BUT… I need this “ME” time. Then I can go a couple more years until it happens again… Let’s hope that’s not the case!  So I have posted pictures of South Beach Miami, FL!

I’ll be staying at a wonderful oceanfront hotel, I have the option of  walking onto the beach whenever I want to. We will be in conference most of the day Fri. – Sun. and there are a few parties and events that I did RSVP to but, I should still have some time to do things on my own. We’re conveniently close to everything! My birthday is the following weekend so I told my blog buddies that we are going to celebrate my birthday while we’re out there! Woot! Woot! Oh, by the way… This is my first time to Florida! I’m driving down with @BusyDating another NC Blogger and that should be fun! We’re meeting up with @jess_benton “That Tech Chick” from TX  and we’re all rooming together. I’ll be blogging, vlogging, tweeting and posting on Facebook the ENTIRE time so if you want to know what’s going on Stay Tuned…

error: Ask And You Shall Receive!!