Virginia Breeze

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How can you be a sage if you’re pretty? You can’t get your wizard papers without wrinkles. ~Bill Veeck

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Wisdom is the quality that keeps you from getting into situations where you need it. ~Doug Larson

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What? Unzipping the file is a very important part of the process. Nothing is going to happen until you do it. And it took me a long time to figure out how to do this in an effective manner. But after long experimentation I have found two effective ways to make it happen. Both work well. But only one way is free. You have to pay for the other.

Are you still here? Let’s move on. The paying method involves a guy in a cool maroon dress. Actually he is a wizard and he will take care of things in an effortless manner.

http://www.pc-shareware.com/unzipwiz.htm

The second program will do the same thing but it is not quite as intuitive. Still I have used it so we can’t say it is difficult.

http://www.camunzip.com/

Let’s start with this one. Download and open the program. Locate a zip file somewhere and click on it. Immediately the CAM UnZip program will appear with your zip file. In the top/left location it has Extract to: and the place it would like to go with your files. It would like to go to the desktop.

However you can create a file and put it in the file if you would like to do this. Right click on the START button down at the bottom/left of you monitor screen. Click on Explore. Click on your local disk (C:) and look below it until you come to your Documents and Settings files. Click on this and look on the right side of the window. Here are the files contained in Documents and Settings. Go there with your cursor and right click your mouse. Choose new and create New Files. Then click on New Files. You will see a lot of empty space on the right half of your window. Right click on your mouse three more times and create three files called Plugins, Themes and Misc.

Now go back to the CAM Unzip program and click on the half inch square box next to Extract to: and the files that are exhibited next to it. Your file tree should appear. Find C: and find Documents and Settings. Under it find New Files and the other three files you have created. Left click on Plugins and it should appear in the box next to Extract to:

That’s it! The Unzip Wizard has a similar and even easier process but we have run out of time and space. We have reached the point where we can actually unzip NextGen Gallery. I am sorry it has taken so long but I wanted to do this in a way that would demonstrated to someone with no computer knowledge how to do it. Things should go more quickly and perhaps be more interesting from this point. Later.

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More Writing About Blogging

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Well here we are and it’s the weekend again. The weeks are going by quickly now that the warm weather is here. Why is that? Maybe the heat warms up all the molecules in the air and that makes time go by more quickly.

Doubtful Einstein. And we can’t say time has been going by quickly because we have been having so much fun. Well, maybe you have been having a great time.

But it was not a fun week for your aged blogging buddy. It rained a lot for starters.  And then I found Lorelle’s reply to a comment I made about a month ago when I was experiencing blogger’s remorse and spent time wondering if anyone cared.

Lorelle suggested I not blog for awhile. Find something else to do. Don’t they have group recreation projects in the Happy Hotel where you and the other psycho’s live?

She didn’t say that but I can read between the lines. And she really is a nice person but somebody shoot me before I ever respond to one of her post’s again.

And then there was the surfing forum where I started posting some of my surfing guy photos. I have been trying to do the forum thing because you are supposed to do it.

So I posted some photos and this is what happened. My first mistake was misspelling Rudee’s inlet.

HIM: you would think if you have a house there you would actually know the name of the inlet…

ME: I do know the name of it. I just didn’t spell it right. Did you ever misspell a word?

Probably not in your state of near perfection. Could you please let the sun shine for a few days.

We are tired of the rain.

HIM: I think I have misspelled a word or two in the past.

Sure. I will make it foggy again tomorrow morning but tomorrow afternoon I will allow you to have have some sun. I will keep it rather sunny for Friday and Saturday too. Happy?

Things were going pretty good at this point. I had arranged for some nice weather and my new friend seemed fairly content since I appeared to understand his grandness in the scheme of things. But things started to go south shortly thereafter as I posted some of the surfing photos you see around here.

HIM: I guess I am not the only one worried about our newest poster who can not spell the name of the place he lives and has a true fondness for VB, young boys and fat chicks. Great pictures of some ****ty waves though.

HIM’S FRIEND: got any killer photos of you david—barrels–airs–floaters–video?????????

ME: Sure. Just send me a SASE and I will send you an autographed copy. And thanks for asking. I knew you would come around.

ONE OF THEM: your photos are awful

ME: Appreciate your honesty there Gas

And things went on for awhile in this vein until one of the guys suggested that the FBI might be interested in some of my photos. Apparently he feels people should be dressed up at the beach like they were back in 1910 or thereabouts.

But enough of that. And then there was the guy over at LinkReferral who came out of the blue and gave my photoblog four 2’s when it had been getting 5’s and had an average of about 4.9 (no more). He also left a comment. It read:

Nothing great in this. Put up something new and useful.

Thanks guy! What did I ever do to you? Do you know some guys who post at a surfing forum?

Oh well. The nice things people say from time to time MORE THAN make up for these folks who walk around spreading negativity. And I guess this is the price you pay for trying to stir up some traffic.

But, thankfully, it is the weekend. And it’s not raining outside! It looks like it wants to but clearly someone is keeping their crooked finger in the dam.

Thanks guy! You are a Prince! But you really should start to wear a hat when you are out in this wonderful sun.

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And Jordin if you run into anybody who is spreading negativity around just let it slide off your beautiful self. They are out there but you need not be afraid.

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Entrecard, LinkReferral and 125Exchange have become three major sources of traffic for me in the past month. I had reached a point where I was discouraged about my sources of traffic. Not you! You are a great source of traffic my faithful (paid) reader.

But everything was StumbleUpon and American Idol. And I like both of these entities but I just felt like I needed something else in my life. AI is going to be over soon and SU keeps telling me they are not a traffic source. So I decided to look for some different sources and came up with these three.

And it seems to be working out well. I only have about 200 Entrecard credits but the good thing is that I am exploring other blogs. And discovering new things in the process! Entrecard motivates me to get out there and look around.

And LinkReferral does the same thing. Plus LinkReferral gives you the opportunity to review other blogs and be reviewed. The reviews I have received have been encouraging. Every day I try to look at ten or twenty blogs there. And they don’t time you so if you see something you don’t like immediately you can leave and still get credit.

It’s pretty easy to stay in the top fifty blogs in your category. And they have many thousand of visitors per day. I get an average of about 60 visitors each day from this resource since I started last month.

If you join please use me as your sponsor and I can get credit for that too. I would really appreciate it if you did. And I will do something nice for you too. See the sidebar for a link.

But the main thing again is that I am becoming acquainted with many more blogs.

This is really the slow and steady road to success. And I am not going anywhere so why not try it? Right? And by the way you are coming with me on my way to the top are you not? I hope so. Maybe we can go there together!

125Exchange is my third new venture and it also encourages me to look at other blogs by putting attractive ads in my sidebar that I can view without going anywhere. But it is also interesting for very different reasons. Basically it is motivating me to learn how to design 125X125 banners that will be attractive and encourage folks to click on my blog.

The great thing is that they really work with you on this. I have talked to “Granny” at least twenty times in the past week as we tried different banners. It’s more fun than editing photos and I have gotten better at it. Here is my latest creation. After looking at it awhile I think maybe I should match up the colors a little more.

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It’s smaller than this of course. And I am trying out seven different banners right now for my three blogs. I bought one from Bannerszen for 25 dollars so I could compare the performance of one done by professionals with my own. Do you like it? Here is another one I am thinking about throwing into the mix.

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So far BannersZen and your blogger friend are about tied in performance I am happy to say. Actually I may be a little ahead.

So this is free traffic. You don’t have to do anything or pay anybody (except if you start buying banners) in order to benefit from it. And it’s a creative endeavor as well.

If you or someone you pay comes up with a really good banner that sends folks to your blog like moths to a porch light you are going to be happy. Right?

So that’s what I have been doing lately. It’s a new direction. And I wanted to share it with you in case you are looking for something new too.

Have a great weekend.

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Our Reviews “Very nice site - I love the pic! As for making the blog interesting, I think as long as you are writing about what you love and are passionate about, others will be attracted to that. Hope that helps a bit :)” Evita blog.evolvingbeings.com “The blog is worth $64K+. It may very well go way more than that price. The layout and postings are professionally done. The pictures are great. I think these are the reasons why it’s rank high by pagerank and alexa. This is definitely one of my favorite. Kudos to the author.” Rhea smarterthanagrade5.blogspot.com/ Get your own reviews, free traffic at

Recently I got involved in something called LinkReferral. I noticed that some traffic was coming from there and so I followed it back and investigated the source.

In the past week it has brought in about fifty visits per day. And a lot of that is probably due to the fact that I bought an ad there. But there are also free ways to bring your blog to the front of the line and it doesn’t take a lot of work. The formula involves looking at the other blogs there and also writing reviews.

The reviews are graded by the staff. So meaningful reviews are rewarded. And I have found them to be very encouraging. Here are two of them (above).

There is also a little thing you can put in your sidebar and it is recorded when readers click on it and go to LinkReferral. Mine is at the bottom on the further sidebar. If someone goes there and joins they become part of your group. It’s a MLM arrangement and it theoretically can lead to large cash rewards.

I am not sure how realistic that part is but I have found the whole concept to be useful. I have found some very cool blogs while surfing there. And I have brushed up my reviewing skills while doing a few reviews.

So I recommend this program. And thanks to all the folks at LinkReferral who contributed the encouraging reviews about my blog. I appreciate them and you all very much. Blogging can be a lonely road sometimes and it is very helpful to fill up your tank on a few words of praise once in awhile.