I love Gmail. I don’t know what it is about Gmail that compels me to keep Gmail active at all times in my browser. Though I’ve used other services, none had me checking emails on a regular basis like Gmail. As a Thunderbird user, moving emails into Gmail was a breeze. The following steps using Thunderbird [...]

In all these years, I don’t think I’ve ever posted anything about starting a blog. Someone emailed me asking how to get a blog and start blogging. So here you go. There’s an easy way and there’s a hard way. The Easy Way Here you just fill out a form, make a few choices, and you’re in business. [...]

Stumped me. What do these words have in common other than double letters (my answer)? Banana Dresser Grammar Potato Revive Uneven Assess To see the answer, click and drag your mouse over the below to [...]

Protesters stand outside of Dubois Cosmetic Labs protesting product testing with animals. Jade leads the charge and has an eventful meeting with snooty Madame DuBois. There, Jade meets the owner of a five-star spa and asks if she could work there. Jade begins her spiritual journey in learning therapy and treatment secrets from faraway places [...]

Merriam-Webster releases new words to its Collegiate Dictionary including… Air quotes: My brother makes fun of me whenever I do this — which ain’t often. Edamame: What took so long? Fanboy Malware: Yuck, but at least we all know [...]

Whew! What a big, but fun job. I had to make sure I got everyone entered (over 1000 entries!) and followed all the rules. It was a blast to hand out prizes and make people’s day. Winners will receive an email from me. Thank you to all the guest contributors, prize contributors, all of the participants, [...]

I wanted to send my clients a little something as a thank you now instead of waiting until holiday time. Every day, I’m grateful for them and I want to show it. But what? I don’t want to send food especially since I’m in Texas. Besides, you never know who has what food allergy. Searching for [...]

July 15 has arrived, but it doesn’t go away until midnight. So if you want a chance to win prizes, better get movin’! If you are stalking us on Twitter, subscribed to one of our many exciting feeds and newsletters, or did something else and haven’t emailed us, be sure to do that. I will announce [...]

Deb Ng no longer works as a freelance writer and has a full-time gig. However, she still works from a home office and doesn’t sit in meetings or watch presentations that bore. The differences between full-time work from home and freelance work from home … Hours: Freelancers have more flexibility in the [...]

The cost of writing fiction versus nonfiction Three things to consider when deciding how long your posts should be 100 useful web tools for writers Slate even has a reading list. Top 100 Management and Leadership Blogs [...]

I can’t help but hear… “You’ve gotta fight… for the right… to own your site” in my head. I can’t help but have that ’80s group Beastie Boys who remade You’ve Got to Fight for Your Right to Party playing in my head from time to time. {Taps head to try to get the song [...]

I finally listened to WordPress and decided to do the upgrade at 7:00pm one evening. Downloaded the .zip file and went to the WordPress three step upgrade guide. Three steps… sure, but not fast ones. First step — backing up. That’ll make even the long-time geek sweat a little. I’ve played with databases a little [...]

All the guest bloggers have blogged. All the post-related prizes awarded. That leaves the winners from last week’s entries and the final prizes (announced July 8). But it’s not over yet! You have one more week (July 15) to get a chance to win one of the following remaining prizes: One $80 [...]

Quinn returns in all new wedding planning adventures in which she competes against other wedding planners. Wedding Dash 2: Rings around the World sees Quinn planning weddings in five countries. Photographer Joe Wright joins Quinn’s crew and captures memories for the bride and groom. This one retains much of the original Wedding Dash features including most [...]

From buddy Steve Kayser:

Happy 4th of July to all Americans. 7 Lies That Prevent Your Great Ideas from Becoming a Real Business Ten Principles of Clear Writing and How to Fix Their Flaws Email checklist from Seth Godin: Before you hit SEND. Freelance Bidding Sites: Good [...]

Prizes: Custom blog design by Jon of Spyre Studios and Freelance Folder, one Alawar PC game package including full copies of Virtual Farm, Curse of Montezuma, and Alex Gordon, and 80 Photoshop brush packs from our guest blogger, Jacob Cass. Just leave a valuable 30+ word comment by July 6, 2008. As a regular reader [...]

Winners of Are You Ready to Hire a Virtual Assistant? entry prizes: April wins Five ebooks on writing from Anne Wayman and Tracy Fitzpatrick wins one full copy of Astraware Classic Collection, which includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire, and Astraware Board games. Congratulations! This entry’s prizes: One copy of Business Daffynitions: Humor from the Workplace from [...]

We have a lot of prizes to award again. But we also have lots of prizes remaining — some you can win by commenting and others by linking, signing up, or one of these. When Good Clients Have Bad Ideas entry prizes: $450 basic WordPress customization package from Kim Beasley.  one copy of Andy King’s upcoming [...]

I write this a few hours before heading to Whitewright, Texas, to Skydive Dallas for my first tandem jump appointment. Ever since I posted I would jump out of a plane if we collected $5000 worth of prizes by this blog’s 8th birthday, I’ve fretted and regretted my offer. Sometimes publicity forced a person to [...]