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2 Free ways to brand your blog, and increase blog traffic

3/29/2015

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Are you looking to increase your blog traffic and interaction? There are many things that you can do to increase your blogs traffic, here are some simple ways to do this. Start by hosting Giveaways featured on your blog's website. This can be done by partnering with a company to provide the merchandise to you, or you can supply the product yourself. 

My recent Vista print purchase had scored me $30 in Vista Print cash this week. The notification came by email the following day of my order, and had this ad attached.

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I know many companies offer similar promotions for free store credit as well. Join their mailing lists! If you can catch a deal like this for customizing products make sure you take the opportunity to stock up on some branding gear such as pens, cards, mouse pads, coffee mugs, and even clothing!

I was able to score some AMAZING deals on my shopping haul, the total order shipped to my home cost $8 in product, $4.99 in shipping= $12.99 Which is a savings of $39.50 ( that's for 53 items)!

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  • Stock up when you get the opportunity to use in store credit, with this past deal you could even pair promotional codes to the already reduced discount. This is also the time you want to think about purchasing those costly marketing utensils such as banners, you can also afford at this time to experiment with fancy card stock on your business cards. Hosting a giveaway just turned simple!  

  • Networking, this can be very beneficial to any company. Take some time to focus on local traffic to your blog. Are there any events taking place near you? In Louisville Kentucky we celebrate the Kentucky Derby, the derby is also tied to many local events such as Thunder of Louisville,  and The Great Steamboat Race. These are the types of events you will want to have extra business cards with you, give them out to the local shop owners. Ask questions, do they advertise on social media platforms? If so, ask them if they would be interested in partnering together for a giveaway or product review feature on your blog.

Remember to save your coupons, you can apply them toward marketing your blog at affordable costs, and utilize networking while you attend community events. See a local store with amazing items such as clothing and makeup? Give them a shout out with your favorite items. Make sure to include in your blog post the address, so the post will be found under the stores search terms on the internet.
These are 2 very simple, yet active ways to increase blog traffic and interaction on your blogs website. Make sure you never pay full price again on marketing resources. Watch your inbox for deals.
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My Secret for this year's Spring & Summer 2015 Allergy Relief

3/28/2015

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Today a small God send arrived in the mail. I am an allergy sufferer living in the Ohio Valley which means I live off of a cocktail of allergy medicines that my doctors have tailored to fit my everyday needs. Spring and I have a love/hate relationship already beginning.

I have been battling a horrible sinus infection since the beginning of January 2015 (yeah that's right more than 87 days) they actually have a technical term called
chronic sinusitis
(if this is something if you have never had an experience, you are SO lucky).

Having to deal with fever, teeth pain, head aches, nausea, face swelling, constant runny nose (tissue required every minute), and the worse...Nose swelling, for those of you who do not understand the severity of the issue, lol. Imagine shoving 4 Cocoa Puffs up your nose as far as they will go. Yeah very painful.

Last year about this time my sister in law purchased for me a hot/cold sinus allergy pack which is very multifunctional. I fell in love with this thing and loved it to death like a old teddy bear. I had never really put too much thought into the product, I knew it worked and I loved it. When the day recently approached that my old heat mask bit the dust, I needed a replacement ASAP. Which led me to the amazing website of Heavenly Hollow Distribution.

Here I found
Julie and her amazing products, I even and found a even better ramped up version of my heat mask, a Lavender-Eucalyptus Sinus Mask which is filled with Lavender and Eucalyptus and natural Flax. I had never thought about the filling of my mask, just about how long it takes to heat up. I did notice, even though I kept care of my original by using a protective sleeve,  it started developing what looked like water stains as shown below.

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It took about 2 minutes to figure the stains out, Have you ever browned rice in a frying pan? Essentially I was browning the rice inside the mask, which caused moisture to develop causing this mess every time I microwaved it. YUCK!!

With Heavenly Hollow's mask, I noticed longer retained heat time, NO moisture leaking onto my face now, Thank You for a well made product. Not to mention.. check out how much filling is in my old mask, yeah it all fills into the bottom part like a hour glass.

With my new Sinus Mask there are no worries, the filling is evenly distributed throughout. The Mask is larger than my original which is also another perk, my entire sinus area is covered. The  Eucalyptus in this mask,
brings much relief for sinus congestion, allergies and colds.


If you suffer from allergies, sinus congestion or colds I highly recommend checking out Heavenly Hollow, the Sinus Pack is just one of many items aiding relief. I was
given a sample of Essential Oil of Eucalyptus blend, which has so many uses. This is so simple to use, ever used Vick's vapor rub? Put some of this oil on a tissue and breath in inhaling the smell, perfect for using after a steamy shower; without the burning effects like Vicks.

This product comes in a bottle of 4 oz which you can also put some into your
vaporizer, or use for first aid. Relieve burns, cuts, rashes and more with this versatile Eucalyptus product.


Do yourself a favor and stop by Heavenly Hollow today for your allergy and sinus preventive and natural at home treatment. Relax and make it a spa night with a soak in the tub.
Sometimes I will wear the Sinus Pack above my eyes on my forehead when I have a headache, this is very helpful and I recommend trying it. Just not in public, wear it at home.
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Do yourself a favor and stop by Heavenly Hollow today for your allergy and sinus preventive and natural at home treatment. Relax and make it a spa night with a soak in the tub!

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What's this a surprise? Jewelry Candle Company, Hidden Jewelry In Candles.

3/25/2015

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In the past with wax melts, the entire cube needed to melt entirely. Not to mention the amounts of wasted wax and hidden costs for a smell that lasted around 4 hours. I am truly glad that I have found a nice affordable alternative to corporate produced products of wax melts. Quickly addicted to the company I headed over to the website, to find even more hidden treasures.

Take a look at these candles,

Figgy Pudding Jewelry Candles

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Today I received the opportunity to try Canadian Maple Pancakes without the calories! These wax melts from Jewelry Candle Company are truly a gem. They smell even better than the name, and what's not to love about a local company, right here in Louisville, Kentucky. I have always been a fan for supporting local!

I quickly fired up my scent warmer and dropped in one cube, the office had a lingering food smell that was creeping into our department, and I was all about getting rid of the it! Within minutes the aroma of pancakes filled the room, literally a few minutes after, and it was already a nice pleasant smell. I noticed that as the wax began to melt, just the tiniest amount and already smelled amazing.

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HIDDEN JEWELRY LADIES!!
What I found very convenient about this candle is that you have the option to choose the size ring you will need. The company has many items that they offer, I recommend heading over the the Jewelry Company and treating yourself! And whats not to love about a hidden surprise?
Each Jewelry Candle comes with a hidden jewelry in it that has a value from $10 to $7500!
Your hidden treasure could be a Ring, Necklace, Pendant, Bracelet or a pair of Earrings inside your Jewelry Candle! I will definitely be purchasing from the Jewelry Candle Company, and recommend you check it out. Keep the company in mind when holiday shopping, (I don't know anyone that would scowl at receiving a wonderful smelling candle).

Jewelry Candle has also recently launched their Easter edition of scents, these are great for the older kids, (I mean lets face it my mom still gets me an Easter basket....and I always look forward to receiving it)!

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What are you waiting for head on over to Jewelry Candle Company and see what you have been missing out on.
Let me know if you find a must have scent.

Happy Shopping,
  Stacy

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Shammy Scams...Who are you, and how did you get my info? National Association of Professional Women

3/24/2015

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This week I received yet another letter complementing on my growing business, and trying to recommend a service to benefit myself and the company. This is about the same time that my products have been on the internet long enough to begin appearing in Google's search, curiosity got to me on this company called the National Association of Professional Women.

So I turned to the internet (thank goodness for Google), and here is the down low of my findings.
1. Straight to the companies website and a front page statement
"Join our community of over 600k professional women and revamp your career to success."

OK, so they are a company that joins women together, not to bad right? Further reading into the next page I read more about the online profiles, and connecting with other women who own companies (this is what is claimed to be over 600K professional women).

2. Now over to their social pages, believe it or not your social pages do say A LOT.

The Facebook page of this company has 41,828 likes, wait over 600k women and only 41,828 like the companies page? (In most companies this would be a different scenario if the company is a physical place, however this company is selling services that require internet use).
This means there are links to their social accounts everywhere, so the opportunity is always there. What happened to the roughly 558,172 thousand women? A little suspicious to me.

3. Thirdly, and far most importantly is to head on over to Glass Door and see what past employees are saying. Pretty much a sales company trying to sell use of this platform.  I did some further more research to find many complaints about the company and it's services.
Below is a statement about the companies BBB rating, and statements about complaints.
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It also appears that the company has had to deal with some negative statements in the past, check out this statement in the terms of service. They really focus on having defamatory statements made about NAPW and  its members and or its membership community removed:
(Therefore, users agree not to engage in any conduct which in any way communicates such statements, including by posting them to any Internet site of any kind, whether controlled by a third-party or the user. In the event any user breaches this agreement, the user further agrees to the following)
Sounds a little too  thought out to me? It's a resolution to a company threat, a threat that they have been fighting. It really makes me wonder just exactly how many articles and statements have been removed to this date?

Here's the full rundown from the website

  • User authorizes NAPW to contact the Internet provider in control of the site on which any such statements are posted and demand immediate removal of the statements
  • To the extent such statements are posted on a site controlled solely by the user, user agrees to immediately remove the statements upon notification by NAPW and, should user refuse to do so, user will be responsible for NAPW’s reasonable fees and expenses to seek removal of the statements
  • User agrees that such statements have caused NAPW and/or its membership community to suffer immediate, irreparable harm sufficient to warrant a court to award temporary injunctive relief should such relief be necessary for removal of the statements
  • User agrees to cooperate in every respect with regard to the removal of such statements, including to execute any documents necessary to effect the removal
If, in NAPW’s sole discretion, a user is to be in breach of these terms, NAPW reserves the right to terminate this license as well as the offending user’s membership status. NAPW expressly reserves all other rights and remedies available in the event of such a breach.

4. And to finish my search, I turned to blogs. You can always find some in sightly information from blog posts. I was actually lucky enough to stumble across enough information about bad experiences with the
National Association of Professional Women to make my conclusion.... No Thank You!

I highly recommend checking out this bloggers article about her experience with the companies representatives. It definitely made me feel good about throwing the letter away. I highly recommend that you do the same, you can network many other places for cheaper that have recommendations.

Remember, just throw it away..
  Stacy



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Poshmark, what it is all about, and what you are missing.

3/22/2015

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You will see the Shop My Closet advertised throughout the blog. This mobile app is a very addicting and fun way to shop, and can consume hours of your time. Poshmark is very easy to use, simply upload a item from your closet and share with women across the United States and watch as women all across the United States comment, like, and share your closet fashion.
There are a few negatives:
  1. I had a few issues with a couple purchases, but this can be avoided by checking to see if the seller is active. The one thing that you will not find information on is closing your closet. If someone has deleted the app from their phone, the closet will still exist but that person will not receive any notifications. I strongly recommend that if you close your closet, to make sure to delete all of your listings.
  2. I also do not recommend trading, I hear horrible stories from so many women on how they never received the traded items or the box received was empty. If you purchase through Poshmark your purchase is backed by Poshmark's protection. Which is excellent, I have used it.
I have found that the app works very well, and I have been able to have success with selling items from my closet. I  also have purchased numerous items from the app. The selling fees are simple and straightforward. For all sales under $15, Poshmark takes a flat commission of $2.95. You keep the rest. For sales of $15 or more, you keep 80% of your sale and Poshmark's commission is 20%.

There are numerous perks of shopping with this app, I am sure that we all know what eBay is. So imagine every time you searched for a item, and you missed out.
  • With Posh, all the available items are listed until you remove the listing or the listing sells. Shopping with Poshmark expands the options you will have with locating the perfect item.
Visiting Poshmark for the first time? I recommend checking out a Posh Party. These are specialized times that all Posher's can participate by sharing their items that are within the parties theme. You can simply shop by style, size, and category once you enter a showroom.
In summary this app expands fashion opportunities to those whom either search for certain styles or items, and those who do not live near shopping centers. I have been a loyal Posher of Poshmark since 2012 and although there are a few negatives, it appears to be a platform that will not be going anywhere soon, the growth of users the first few years were not expected to be as high as they were, of more than 25,000 women. I highly recommend this selling platform, and guarantee you will too.
Check it out, see what you have been missing. Check out their FAQ's here.

Happy Shopping,
Stacy
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Up-cycled Boots -You will fall in love with Tigerbear Republik

3/22/2015

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As my love for combat boots grows, I wanted to share with you some knowledge about a company that most have never heard about, Tigerbear Republik.
Tigerbear Republik was founded by 4 friends who came together to create a brand like no other, with the pure intent to F.I.G.H.T. Feed, Inspire, Give, Help & Teach those less fortunate. They are very proud of what they're made of and how their products help the world without hurting it. This company produces products that are recycled, this means that they have up-cycled past products to help cut back on the amount of items we are dumping into landfills each year which is roughly around 69% of our trash!! Check it out here.

The foot bed of this brand is what I would imagine the merger of Mootsies Tootsies and Rocket dog shoes, and for those of you who do not know these brands firstly your missing out, and secondly they are like a cloud.
Style tip: You never want to get leather wet, so if it's raining don't do it. Having faux leather boots as a staple in your closet will insure you will not have to change after realizing it's raining out.

You can score a great deal on these boots at Street Moda, there are about 7 stores that sell them including Tilly's however Street Moda was the cheapest at $39.99 vs Tilly's at $69.99.


Tigerbear Republik Bang Bang
I chose the plaid lace up closure, that features a heel tab for easy on/off, added lace up detailing on the back of the boots, and a cushioned foot bed for added comfort.
Approximate Measurements:
Heel Height: 1"
Boot Opening: 12"
Style: Bang-Bang

Tigerbear Republik Women's Crazyhorse
A lovely faux leather and canvas upper with crochet overlay accents at the shaft, buckles at the ankle and leg opening, side zip closure, and a cushioned foot bed for added comfort.  This style ran a half size small for me.
Approximate Measurements:
Heel Height: 2"
Boot Opening: 13.5"
Style: Crazy Horse
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Beard Oil...What is it?

3/21/2015

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A few months ago my beard oil finished testing and was listed in the Etsy Store. Some may wonder why on earth would I bother to use a beard product? Especially the manly man- you know the ones that hand lotion is pushing it to the extreme. Well firstly there are many benefits from the ingredients,

* Beard oil moisturizes facial hair and the skin beneath.
* Beard oil keeps facial hair flake-free and smelling fresh.
* Acts as a natural cologne.
*Beard oils will instantly give a nice sheen to the hair.
* Tames unruly hair.
* Helps with the beard itching.

Most do not know that in order to grown long full beards you need to show the beard love. This means conditioning your beard, the weather and wind are very harsh environmental factors that can cause breakage to your beard.

Beard oil is very simple to use, and is easy to apply with a glass dropper. The best time to use beard oil is after bathing, and to finish off with combing. Only use a tiny amount, work throughout the beard, and massage into the skin underneath. So simple

I recommend giving it a try, you will be surprised with the softness and so many other extra benefits.
Buy beard oil here: http://etsy.me/1EAvyO4

Enjoy,

Stacy
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Spice up your handbag this Spring.

3/17/2015

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Spring.... bright colors, beautiful weather, and having fun outdoors. During the winter we tend to stray away from bright colors as they may make us look washed out during these months. Start your Spring transition with a spicy handbag, guaranteed to get you compliments. 
  • Start by choosing a color that can become a staple for seasons to come.
  • Think about which pastel colors compliment me?
  • What colors are prominent in my Spring and Summer wardrobe?
  • And lastly you will want to consider some Spring Cleaning in the handbag. Yep.. you know what I am talking about, all of those receipts and clutter collected throughout the winter. (Think about how much more active we are during the warmer months. Do you want to carry a tote bag around, be hands tied?)
I personally prefer a messenger bag, all the conveniences of a purse and you don't have to be accountable for it. It's with you at all times.
Throughout the years I have owned numerous purses, I find that buying a quality purse will allow me to get a longer life out of my purse, rather than the cheaper alternatives.
I have had amazing luck with Coach and Michael Kors and if you are looking for a leather purse I recommend checking out Armani's handbags warning they are an investment. They make very durable purses however, I actually still own my very first Armani bag. Besides needing cleaned it is in great mint condition.
Whichever purse style, color, and material you choose this Spring, make sure to choose a color that you can incorporate into your wardrobe. And lastly choose one that will fit your lifestyle and express who you are.

Head over to Poshmark and shop my closet, as well as thousands of other women's closets.

Stacy
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Steve Madden Ecentric , slip on style.

3/1/2015

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Meet the Ecentric, a dressy slip on sneaker. This style is a perfect transitional piece that will transition throughout the seasons well. What's best about this shoe is it can be dressed up or down, all depending on how you pair them.  A cute, dressy and casual slip on.....could you ask for more?
This style is in the color fushia, they are made with pony hair and get many complements. One nice feature about the Ecentric is that they are nicely padded around the collar of your ankle. This style is the perfect height to still wear socks with, however I would not wear them in the rain as they are a Spring, Summer shoe.

The only downfall that I could find was that the style runs a little small. I always wear a size 8 in brands like Naughty Monkey, Steve Madden, Falchi, Adidas, Nike, Reebok and the list goes on. They may run small due to the pony hair exterior not stretching like man made materials (they do not stretch much at all), but whatever the reason they are still very stylish. To show you what I am talking about in size, see the below picture.

Here I have a flip flop from the Gap in a Medium size 8, not much difference between the sizes.
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I definitely recommend purchasing a whole size up on these on the Ecentric, but they are worth trying. There are many additional colors available. I have also purchased these in the color black recently to dress down for casual days. They have also recently started coming available in leopard and other various prints. These are the perfect shoe to mesh into any outfit, and can be found for around $50 at Steve Madden retailers.

Get you a pair today...
   Stacy


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