Morning!

Ever have an insane urge for free quality wordpress themes?

Now, true – I still completely believe that when you’re going professional, you really should invest a premium theme like:

Invest in a PREMIUM Wordpress Theme – Money well-spent

Themes like WPZoom Yamidoo and  Studio Press  are truly nifty indeed!

But…if you want to explore what’s out there in the free and open vast wilderness of Wordpress land, you can visit the following exciting destination.

Free Wordpress Themes Free Directory

When you visit the page above, you should see something like:

As you can see, you can choose lots of great parameters – the number of columns, the ability to set theme options, the colors, fixed-width, threaded comments, etc.etc.etc. 

So!  Let’s say that you want to check out all the themes that are blue and have two columns.  You can check off

• blue under Colors
• two-columns under Columns

like so:

Once you have checked off your requirements, click on Find Themes:

Once the search is completed, you’ll have to scroll down the page to see the result…but you should see something like:

And that’s how you can find bunches of great Wordpress themes for free.  Remember, the page to get these gems is:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – speaking about Wordpress, have you seen:

WordPress Blog Publishing System Logo Iron Patch|

How to Create & Post Your Own Wordpress Blog -10 VIDEOS|

Optimize Wordpress for Massive Cash Video Tutorials CD|

Web site, wordpress blog and graphic design service|

Search Engine Optimized WORDPRESS BLOG Installation SEO|

LEARN HOW TO USE WORDPRESS MAKE MONEY ONLINE BLOG VIDEO|

BLOGGING MADE EASY WITH WORDPRESS TUTORIAL VIDEO-Resell|

Wordpress Themes for Blog, Business, Membership Sites!!|

Morning!

You know, the past few weeks have been rather difficult for me – the things that have crowded for my attention would make Ringling Brothers weep in admiration!

That being said, it’s all part and parcel of life.  To those who have been given much, much is demanded, and let me tell you – the demands that had descended upon me like a gentle snuggly avalanche of angsting doom completely sapped virtually 100% of my usual never-say-diet attitude.

‘Course, that’s life and what parenting is all about.  I am blessed beyond belief that my kids are comfortable coming to me at all hours with all issues…and am grateful that I was able to save the day with style, grace, 39 cups of coffee and 5 shiny new bo-staffs.

But. 

What about me and my responsibilities? 

I have a great client for whom I’m designing a website and have been keeping that mainly on my local computer; have to get that online yesterday. 

I finally shed my self-pity regarding my karate skills and now attend/do classes to the best of my abilities, and shun any ‘poor me!’ atitudes that might want to creep in (yay!).

But the biggest lesson is this.

For the past, oh, hmmm, 10-20 years?, I’ve cloaked myself with an impermeable layer of self-preservation.  That meant that unless I really REALLY cared about an individual, I could not be hurt whatsoever; I never gave anyone that power over me to cause me to second-guess myself.  And even when I would become friends, I had zero problems with dropping those people in an instant if they showed the slightest hint of taking my friendship for granted.

Yes, it’s true – I’m very hair-trigger on that.  It’s a character flaw/benefit that saved my emotions dozens of times over the past 20 years.

But I digress.!    Anywhos, when I chose to see my interactions as black and white, it made life much easier for me.  Oh, sure, I learned how to view situations thru other’s eyes…but that was mainly an academic exercise.  If the situation impacted ME directly, there was only one right way to interpret it.  MINE.

The thing is, though…little actions that can cause big hurts simply have to be viewed thru the overall knowledge you have of a person…even if (and this is a big IF), those actions seem not to walk the walk your friend/family talks.

This idea goes against everything I’ve believed in the past 20 years.

But the past week has shown me – my way MUST span the whole rainbow spectrum; I cannot choose to accept only black and white views/actions.  Because if I hold the path and stay true to my ideals, I’ll end up losing something extremely precious in the end.

And that’s pretty stupid indeed.

So….let’s bring this post back to the most important person reading it – you!

Here’s your takeaway. 

Just because you might be an enlightened friend/family member who knows HOW to lose your ego to foster communications…it doesn’t mean the people you love have the same ability.

So you HAVE to (not "should" – HAVE TO) deactivate your normal self-defense shields and say, "Okay!  I know you don’t meant to hurt me – let me understand instead."

After all, what would you do if:

Remember, nobody ever woke up in the mornings and said, "Jeepers!  Let’s go hurt the ones we love!"  Well okay, some people probably do.  But they’re not those of whom I’m speaking right now. 

Friendship rocks.  Love rocks.  Life rocks most of all!  Be sure you give yourself permission to embrace it all.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about Rainbows, have you seen:

Guitar String rainbow color Acoustic Guitar colorful|

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925 silver large rainbow calsilica ring US 6 UK L|

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2 RARE NATURAL WHITE CREAM RAINBOW KEISHI CROSS PEARLS|

Have you ever had a friendship you really treasured?

If so, have you ever been open and honest with each other when problems occur?

What’s that?  You never had the need to bring that up yet?  My gosh, why on earth NOT?

If there’s one thing my 4+ decades of life on this planet has taught me, it’s that everyone has failed mind-reading 101…and sometimes, actions/words will cause some pretty painful results for the people you love.

But here’s the challenge.  Sometimes, it’s really easy to let your pride and own feelings of hurt overwhelm you…and to ignore the fact your friend was speaking from the heart.

Speaking from the heart, walking the walk you talk.  It’s the mantra by which I live my life.  Sometimes I think it’s a rather stupid mantra, mind you, because I end up getting hurt.  My life would be so much easier if I would just play the games many other people play and keep some friendships at a superficial level.

But then again…then I wouldn’t be me.  Go figure.

But I digress.

If I were to pick a point of clarity for me regarding friendship, it would be how blessed I am when my friends are honest (even if I completely disagree with their viewpoints).  Honesty…it rocks. 

But dealing with it – it can hurt as well. 

And here’s where so many people fail horribly – when they get hurt by their friends, they turn to sarcasm to protect themselves or justify themselves…even if their friends were being nakedly open, honest and vulnerable.

That just plain sucks.

Having been married now for 16+ years, and also having now been raising a passel of kids/stepkids for, hmmm…. 16+ years too, I’ve (finally!) learned the art of never immediately reacting when friends/family act bizarrely.  

I know how to put myself in the other person’s shoes and see the situation from their eyes and let me tell you, the breathtaking sheer stupidity of their actions at times is hard to believe.

But get this – just because I might think they took a flying leap off the logic train,  does not whatsoever detract from the basic fact – their feelings/thoughts are just as valid for them as mine are for me.

The very worst thing you can do when someone you love expresses hurt or anger is to trivialize their feelings…or use sarcasm in your response. 

It takes guts to be honest, it takes guts to be open, it takes guts to allow yourself to be vulnerable.

When your friend/family member expresses herself or himself to you, it’s an action worthy of respect (that is, of course, unless said person insults you or tries to cause you grief).  You might not agree, you might allow your emotions to cloud your feelings and get truly angry as well…but please, never ever ever react with sarcasm. 

Sarcasm can damage the basis of friendship far more easily than you can ever imagine; it will scare off your friend not only from being honest in the future, but also make it highly improbable that your friend will trust you enough to be open again.  And if it’s a strong friendship, that’s really one hell of a loss.

My post,

A friend is ALWAYS a priceless gem and you’re never too old for more

goes into it a weeee bit more. 

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about friendship, have you seen:

LOT of 3 Bob Marley Friendship Bracelets|

Magic 1997 MIB Friendship 7 #2 in Journeys into Space|

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W.I.T.C.H. Vol 4 Fire of Friendship by Disney (2004)|

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New 2 CANADA FRANCE Friendship Flags Lapel Pins Broche|

Fancy Jewelry 925 Sterling Silver Friendship Bracelets |

I was just asked what autoposter I use on Twitter, and was moved to write the following.

As you’re probably aware, Twitter is one of the most useful tools for getting your particular word out.

Thing is, though….if you, Iike I do, use Twitter to showcase great links and posts besides your own, it can get tedious as heck to manually enter the links one by one and then post them at the times of your choosing.

Enter Social Oomph.

Social Oomph is an autoposting service which allows you to:

• Autopost blog updates OTHER than your own
• Add hashtags to posts
• Upload a text file of hundreds of links and then post them once every few hours and the like.

There’s more it can do (lots more, actually) but that’s what I personally use it for myself.

The applications are numerous indeed!  If you’re a niche marketer, you can set up auto posts regarding authority blogs in your niche, resulting in readers thinking, hey!  This person knows where to find information!  Let’s go check her out!

Such thoughts are Good Things indeed. 

Social Oomph has both a free and a paid service; I highly recommend the paid (which is what I use – it includes the bulk upload of text files and more). 

If you want to take your Twittering to the next level, definitely check it out.  Your bottom line will thank you for it.

Click HERE to check out Social Oomph.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about Twitter, have you seen:

TWITTER for DUMMIES Pocket Edition (2010) – NEW|

Twitter Scheduler Tool-Automate Your Tweets At Anytime!|

TWITTER – How To Get Huge Traffic & Make Money, Free!|

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Sometimes, I think the gods that watch our lives get just plain bored and decide to fling in a few dozen curveballs at the least opportune moments.

You know what I mean I’ll bet!  Ever have a passion that you utterly adore beyond any human comprehension, and then whammo, your ability to excel at it is simply taken away?

Well, for me, get this…it’s something both as simple and as complex as adult karate sparring. 

I know, I know – weird, eh, for a 40-something mother of 4 to say?

Every single time I step outside of my 1st person experiences and watch myself from a distance, I have to laugh bemusedly.  You see, long long ago, back before the earth’s crust cooled….I never really did martial arts.  I only began it almost 3 years ago and discovered, much to my surprise…that I loved it. 

One of my senseis understood it well back then, and said I was merely making up for lost time.  Over the past few years, I’ve written tons about it as well including:

• What taking the hit in karate taught me about blogging – personal courage
• What beginners karate taught me about blogging
• Black Belt promotions, messed up ankles and more
• SURVIVING the Circle of Love (and smashing your fears to teeny tiny bits)
• What being kicked through the air taught me about blogging – When your blog is attacked
• You’re ONLY too old when you’re dead
• Age is but a freakin’ number
• What would YOU learn from being pounded into the ground?

As you can see, martial arts became a big thing for me.

Well.  Enter last August. 

Last August, I had learned that my ankle problem is unfixable and that some time, be it tomorrow/next week/next month/next year/next decade/etc., it will simply collapse in a heap.  And (I’m not proud of this, but it happened), I gave into my fear regarding my future health and basically stopped all martial arts (just sat on the sidelines and watched).

What was that, 4-5 months ago?

Last week, I finally had a huge talking to with myself…and said to myself, okay self, self-pity sucks, there are handicapped people who do martial arts, it’s time to return.  And I did!

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that last Tuesday, it was driven home full-force to me that I’m no longer capable of making good on my promise to myself and my senseis a few years ago – that of truly earning a black belt because of 100% perfect physical condition. 

Now, to many folk….that’s really a trivial thing.  And intellectually, I can understand that as well; a black belt is a black belt no matter how it’s earned.

But….I had decades before of viewing myself as handicapped, and then for 2 glorious years, broke free of that…only to realize now my true physical limitations.

In other words, what I so desperately desired…was no longer feasible for me.

I wanted to cry.

Something so deeply personal is something I don’t share with many folks (I only talked about it with my husband who understands it intellectually and validates my emotions about it.  He can witness my journey but not relate to it).   So…I ended up having to make peace with it myself.

In other words, I had to face icky reality and boiled down the process to one easy step.

And here it is.

Life happens. 

• It might not happen as you want.
• It might not happen as you had hoped.
• But that doesn’t make a freakin’ difference whatsoever.

The tide won’t hide just because you shake your fist at the ocean and scream, don’t you dare come in!

When you are blindsided by reality, you have two choices.  You can turn it to your benefit or you can simply crawl away and die inside.

To be honest, I wanted to die inside when I was dealing with this.  I didn’t want to accept my reality.

So I sat there in my fluffy blue 21 year old LL Bean housecoat that was given to me by my parents when I got my first job at Bell Labs and simply stared at the screen…and asked myself, just whom am I honoring with my despair?

Myself?  Hell no, I’m an incredible person and deserve only the best. 

My kids?  They see Mom give up.  I don’t think so.

My senseis?  They always have good words for encouragement, so not there either.

I wasn’t honoring anybody or anything. 

And that’s definitely NOT walking the walk I always talk to my kids.

What’s the upshot of this story?

Yesterday I participated in adult self-defense class…and made certain to modify everything I did so as to not aggravate my physical condition…but still learn to the best of my abilities.  I got to do the "punch thru the heavy bag to the other person’s spleen" conditioning and bloodied my knuckles – I remember looking at them and saying, ah hah!  The kid still has it in her! 

So.

So, I’ve made peace with myself.  I’ll never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever become the martial artist I had once dreamed.

Never.  Ever.

You heard it here first.  Barbara Ling will never attain the goal she had set for herself those years ago. It’s a physical impossibility.

But that doesn’t mean I cannot excel to the best of my own ability…and modify my goal to what I CAN achieve.

Going thru the above realization was one of the most painful character-building things I’ve done to date.

And because I’ve now experienced it, I can guide my kids/friends in the future, should they encounter such challenges too.

Everything happens for a reason.  I will confess, sometimes I really truly just wish these delightful life lessons would happen to someone else besides me; they’re really draining!  I’ve done my time, I’ve done my piece…sometimes I wonder just when will it stop.

And then I realize, it never will. 

My life, like yours, is fraught with challenges, be they physical, mental, emotional, relating to love, relating to work, relating to living the life you desire. 

And honestly, that’s really the only way TO live life. 

You take what comes at you and you make it work to the best of your own abilities.  You take responsibility for your actions, you take ownership for your feelings, you take control of how you choose to react.

In other words, you don’t rely on anyone else and you don’t count on anyone else (after all, for all you know – your best friend might not understand or might not get your email or whatever, so they’re not there for you).

You face it naked and alone. 

And then you give yourself permission to be the very best….you CAN be.  It might be tough to accept; but you gain a hell of a lot of inner strength once you manage that impossibility.

Take it from someone who knows.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

Farmville

You know about Farmville, right?  It’s an application on Facebook that turns people like you and me into mindless zombie-like critters, aching to grow farms of incredible destiny?

Well, would you believe that people now even can make money from it? 

is one such profitable guide.  Think about it – lots of people want to excel at the game but not put in the time or effort.  Thus, they’re willing to part with a few dollars to get the secrets in no time flat.

Guides for popular online games are nothing new!  Consider the World of Warcraft, you know, things like:

Search around on, say, Clickbank…and you’ll find dozens of such guides like so:

So…if you are experienced at something the world enjoys, why not make an infoproduct from it? 

It could help you on your way for finding a simple way to make money online.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about Farmville, have you seen:

ACEO original watercolor of my home on Farmville by KAS|

Farmville – Hints, Strategies, Cheats, VERY EXTENSIVE!!|Best on Ebay! 100% Satisfaction, Fast Delivery 100+Sold

Farmville Tips & Tactical Guidelines|

ACEO original watercolor of my home on Farmville by KAS|

Farmville Secrets & Tactical Strategy Guide FACEBOOK FV|

1870’s Farmville Va Money Order Business 3ct Official|

Vintage 30s-40s-50s Cotton Fabric, Novelty, FaRmViLLe|

I ♥ FARMING ONLINE Sticker love decal FarmVille Vinyl|

Awhile back, I wrote:

Invest in a PREMIUM Wordpress Theme – Money well-spent

And I still do believe in that idea.  Still, though, until you really have done your time with trying to hack up free Wordpress on your own, you might be tempted to make do with one of the thousands of free themes out there.

And that’s okay, of course.  Prior to selling off Virtual Coach, I bought a premium theme for it and really like the way it turned out.   But take a look at THIS site (the one you’re on right now).

Looks pretty premium, right?

But it’s not!  It uses the Branford theme and guess what…it’s free!

However, it DOES require some hacking to get it to look exactly the way you want.  And if you want a great hand-holding guide for it, I came across one at

Make Your Site SOAR!

I love the graphic they include:

Turn

into

before lunch!

So…if you want a premium-looking site, but don’t want to spend the money, but DO want to know just how to customize it wonderfully – do check out

Sites That Soar

It can definitely help you get off on the right foot for 2010.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

I like cheap.

Actually, I much prefer free!

But I’ve also come to realize…if I want my site to really stand out from every other resource online, showcasing a quality layout can truly make a difference.

For me, "quality" translates into  the following 3 components (and you can see an example at my former site, Virtual Coach):

• Tasteful visual goodies (ie, jquery sliders that showcase a moving gallery of articles/pictures)
• Intuitive layout (ie, categories/pages are already structured in such a way that makes it simple to navigate)
• Useful content (that’s where you come in!)

Now, if you can hack your Wordpress code yourself, you can easily achieve the above.  Alas, however…not everyone can.   And in cases like that, investing in a Premium Wordpress theme can make quite a lot of sense.

I used the WPZoom Yamidoo theme over at Virtual Coach; it was definitely worth the investment.

Another great place for Wordpress Themes is Studio Press – over a dozen niche themes are available like

and many more.

Thesis is also a very popular theme – you can check out the showcase of sites that use it here (including Copyblogger!).

And don’t forget WooThemes – you’ll find goodies like

Now, what about free wordpress sites?  This site, BarbaraLing.com, uses the Branford theme – I customized it to my liking and for my own purposes here, it works very spiffy indeed.

I even found a book that walks you thru HOW to customize it as well (with plenty of other excellent tips) over at

Sites That Soar

So…if you don’t want to pay for a custom theme, but DO want to know how to make one sing…you should definitely consider that.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

Morning!

I certainly hope your holidays were as wonderful and enjoyable as mine.  But get this – it was NOT because of the gifts…whatsoever.

Not that our gifts weren’t utterly and mind-blowingly magnificent, of course!  The hit present for our kids were the dollar store laser pointers – Honorable Boy 1 and Honorable Boy 2 spent literally hours pretending they were spy masters and scribbling secret codes onto the walls in the dark (love their imaginations!). 

(I have to thank the neighbors’ kids for this idea – 2 weeks ago when I came home in the dark, I spotted a bright Shoot Me Now! dot dancing in my garage, and realized it was from the neighbor’s backyard.  Being a stiff-necked individual, of course I said to meself,

Jeepers!  I HAVE to get those!

But I digress.    )

Anywhos! 

And the kids got the husband and me….really bizarre gifts as well, but the best part was Honorable Girl 1 handwrote 5 adventure stories to go with each present.  My gosh, her writing is beyond college level (exciting, intriguing and just plain fun!)…and what a thoughtful thing to do for us.

The laughter and love we all shared – it reminded me that the holidays really are all about family – the people you love, the friends you cherish, the laughter you share.

And that…that says it all. 

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

Morning all!

It’s soon to be 2010!  Are YOU prepared to make money for 2010?

Let me tell you, I sure am!  And I’ll be announcing that soon (big changes are coming for Virtual Coach and my work as well)….but….but….

But I digress.  :)

I’m happy to announce that in holding with other gigantic online retailers, I’m offering a sale of the Big Huge What Usually Costs $77 but Is Now Only $47 today!

In other words, you can boost your money making skills and get Income Fitness GOLD PLUS Easy Free Local HIGH SEO for only $47.

How’s that for a deal?  It’s been 3 months since I released that book…and lookie here:

high seo

My site is STILL #1 out of 94 MILLION.

Quite frankly, investing in the how-to for that above is worth $100s – it’s truly a no-brainer.  We’re talking 12+ YEARS of marketing secrets you’re getting!

The GOLD package includes:

  Easy Free Local HIGH SEO – The COMPLETE 64 page guide that will show you the EXACT steps for mastering SEO for your local business niche.


 Income Fitness Blueprint . the complete 170+ page step-by-step guide to build a strong, healthy lasting income starting today.

BONUS #1 -  Ultimate Footer Ad . I have resell rights to the Ultimate Footer Ad, a MUST have tool for your lists (I have it active over at my site at Virtual Coach and you can read more about it at my review HERE.  ) . Gold customers receive this as a bonus, it sells for $47 on the official page. Value $47

  BONUS #2 . No Hype, Just What Works . 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog . My blueprint that teaches you how to get up to speed yesterday regarding profitable blogging, Value $27, currently on sale at my BarbaraLing.com site

BONUS #3 -  Job Seekers Power Advantage Deluxe . One of the tenets of Income Fitness is to look out for friends and family alike. I created this product especially for job seekers.and I.ll bet you might know one or 3 of them!

Please do feel free to give YOUR friend this critical job-hunting resource..with YOUR compliments as well.  Value $57

 
BONUS #4 . Income Fitness Hotsheet . A handy one-page reference guide you can print out and keep by your desk, Value $9.97. 

BONUS #5 . Twitter Hotsheet . Quick 1 page Twitter secrets reference guide, Value $9.97

BONUS #6 . Facebook Hotsheet . Quick 1 page Facebook secrets reference guide, Value $9.97

BONUS #7 . Video Marketing Hotsheet . Quick Video Marketing 1 page secrets reference guide, Value $9.97

BONUS #8 . Income Fitness Mind Maps . Quick-reference guides for Immediate Income Fitness, Value $27

BONUS #9 . Income Fitness Video Tutorials . Easy-to-follow video tutorials for everything Wordpress Value $27

TOTAL Value of Special Package. $242!

Quite honestly, taking advantage of this sale for only $47 is a no-brainer!  And I’m happy to offer it to you for the 2009 Cyber Monday.

Click BELOW to take advantage!

Your future bottom line will truly thank you for it.

Remember!  We’re talking an iron-clad guarantee and THE knowhow you NEED to rank in the top 10 for your specific search keywords…..truly, it’s simply a no-brainer.  Gift yourself today!

Your 2010 will thank you for it.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling