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Sara Duggan

Virtual To-Do List Annihilator

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Learn to Curate Content the Smart Way + A Review

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Curate Content the Smart Way - Smart Curation Skills Review

Be the Source for Your Niche Audience

Product Review: Smart Curation Skills by SaraDuggan.Me
A few years ago one of the gals in my mentor group created a product to help people find, organize, and curate content. Her tagline is “Be the Source”.

For whatever topic you are known for, be the source for your audience. You want people to say “Oh, Angela knows all about designing WordPress sites” or “Shelly, is a trained hypnotherapist, she knows all about the latest trends” or “Jackie is the queen of beauty tips.”. You get the idea right?

What is your topic of expertise? What do you want to be known for?

Until recently I was known for crocheting, in fact, my moniker was “mom with hook”. I held that name until February of 2015. No matter where I was online, people knew me as the mom who crochets.

Now, I am known as the “to-do list annihilator”.

How do I get ‘stuff done’? I use systems and processes to streamline my work. Hint: Smart Curation Skills is a system I use.

Let me share another story with you. For many years, I participated in blog challenges and wrote numerous articles. I was a content machine. Some of the posts were spot on and useful, but the rest was just rubbish. The rubbish was simply writing to get words on a screen and to hit the publish button.

Now I ask you, who did that help?

  • My audience? NO, they just ignored it or stopped following me
  • Me? No, it just burned me out
  • Google? Yes and No. There was a time when Google ranked anything considered ‘content’, but not anymore.

[Read more…] about Learn to Curate Content the Smart Way + A Review

Genesis Framework Modern Blogger Pro Hack - Landing Page

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Don’t you just love the Modern Blogger Pro child theme on this site? It’s colorful and includes a lot of the lovely features that are The Genesis Framework. One thing I did notice, though, is that it lacks a landing page. Most Genesis child theme’s have this built in, but this one did not.

All of Lindsey’s (affiliate link) other child themes do have the landing page, it’s just this first one that doesn’t.

Here’s a cool hack that I learned from WPStuffs blog:

Adding a bit of code [included on his site] to a text document and then uploading it to your child theme folder in Cpanel will make one for you.

Sound complicated? I wrote a tutorial [but you can just go to WPStuffs blog and follows his - it works for any Genesis Theme]. You can read it over on the NextLevel-va blog by Lisa Rodriguez.

Before you head over to her site to read the post, download the PDF Tutorial I created below:

Modern Blogger Pro Landing Page Checklist and the Tutorial

You are welcome to share the tutorial with a friend or on social media.

Hire Sara, Your Personal Virtual Assistant

How to Write a Grammatically Better Blog Post Like A Boss

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Grammarly Premium Review

7 Ways Grammarly Helps Me Write Grammatically Better Blog Postsgrammarly_review_post

Some of the links on this site are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
I sometimes receive products or services for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I’ve noticed a few things about myself since passing the big 4 0. My memory is not what it used to be and my spelling recall has taken a nosedive. Is it just me?

I run my documents through Word spell check and try to decipher the grammar suggestions it makes (Am I the only one who thinks they are wrong?) only to end up with missed spelling errors.

I have the darndest time with matching subject and verb tenses. I switch from present to past tense all the time sometimes in the same paragraph. I know, I should know better as a writer. I also find I have a recurring problem with using the passive voice. Grammarly helps with this. Yay!

When I started this site back in August, I knew I would monetize with a few select affiliate partners. As I was searching for companies to partner with I came across Grammarly. After reading about this tool, I signed up for a free account. I installed the Chrome extension and have used it since.

Last month, I finally decided to apply to the affiliate program and was accepted. I was given one month of premium access to try out. Let me just say, it is worth the investment.

Here’s why:

1. Microsoft Office ® Add-in lets you use Grammarly inside your M.S. Office software.

This puts your word processor on steroids. All the power of Grammarly on your desktop or laptop while you write.

Don’t have M.S. Office? You can write within Grammarly and download it as a Word document. [Read more…] about How to Write a Grammatically Better Blog Post Like A Boss

Sample CanvaKala Plugin

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Samples of CanvaKala, a plugin for WordPress

Looks can be deceiving when you fall for ‘shiny objects’ without proper research and trial.canva_kala_plugin_review

Before You Start

Before I get started I want to share a little back story with you. Originally this post was 639-words long. It is now 1945-words long. Why? I wrote a review for the plugin CanvaKala. After using it (or trying to use it) over the last month I decided to turn it into a review and a tutorial.

There is so much misinformation out there about the proper use of photos, where to find them, how to give credit, etc. Using this plugin falsely gives you the belief that the photos you are using are all free-to-use and alter. I found this NOT to be the case.

First you’ll find the blog post that led me to buy the plugin, then you’ll find my impressions (review) of the product as well as a link to another review of the product (which I happen to agree with).

After the review, I provide samples of images using the plugin for various blog types - food, crafts, finance, and education. But, after reading the later review I decided to do some checking on the photos I selected - to make sure the copyright was correct. This is where the review switched paths and turned into a tutorial on How to Find and Use Images Correctly.

1. Brett Ruttecky’s Review

To see the video review of this plugin visit Brett Ruttecky’s blog. This is the pitch that I fell for when I bought this ‘shiny object’. I truly believed it to be a worthwhile product to try and recommend to you. I’m not being disrespectful toward him, I just disagree with his review after using it. Also, I did not get all the upsells so I’m open to that being one of the reasons my experience was different.

2. My Thoughts on CanvaKala Plugin

At first I was excited to have this plugin as I thought it would make selecting photos and editing them easy. It is and it isn’t here’s why:

  1. It is a bit wonky. I’m not sure if this is because I bought the basic version without the upgrade or what. In the video review from Brett’s site, it works fine. (not all fonts work, the layers function doesn’t work, drawing seems to be bipolar)
  2. Image selection, although large, is very limited. In order to add Pixabay, (a great cc and cc0 image gallery) you need to upload 6 of your own pictures. Out of the 10 photos, I tried to upload only 2 were accepted. This alone limits this plugin for me. This requirement is what gets you the API code to use Pixabay inside the plugin.
  3. Photos you can use that are ‘attribution free‘ and modifiable seem to be old photos on Flickr which unless you blog about the past (think black and white old school photos) is not a fit.

[Read more…] about Sample CanvaKala Plugin

Image Monthly Review

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Image Monthly Product Review

Cool monthly subscription for social media content creationimagemonthly_productreview

**affiliate links may be used throughout this website and article. I earn a commission if you purchase through my special links & appreciate your support **

Image Monthly is an easy solution to creating engaging content for social media.

Each month you receive stock images, backgrounds, quotes and a pdf file filled with tips on how to use the images to market your business.

You’re busy running your business. You know it’s a smart move to be on social media. Problem is, where do you find the time?

Finding valuable content takes time. You need to choose appropriate images, select quotes and tips, edit them, and schedule them.

As a virtual personal assistant, I enjoy searching for photos, backgrounds, and quotes for projects.

I can spend hours doing so, but sometimes I just want something quick to put together. This provides that for me - I don’t even have to search for the quotes! 😉

When Kelly McCaussey of Solosmarts (SoloMasterminds) started Image Monthly I knew right away this would be a perfect tool for me (and my clients).

Pros

  • it’s affordable at just $12.97/month
  • 25 new royalty free stock images each month
  • tips and tools to help you use your images (book covers, event banners, and Pinterest images)
  • 10 background textures along with quotes to get you started
  • back issues available

[Read more…] about Image Monthly Review

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