Category Archives: Blogging & Social Media

NetZero 4G HotSpot and Wireless Service – GIVEAWAY!

Do you remember NetZero from back in the day? I do! My mom was all over their free dial up service back in the late 90′s. But since the dawn on Cable and FiOS connections I haven’t really thought about dial-up or NetZero and I honestly didn’t know if they still existed.

Well they do, and they’ve joined 2012 in style with a new 4G wireless service.

My mom passed away in ’04 but I have a feeling she’d be just as excited about this new service as I am. I’m pretty sure she would have signed up as soon as I told her about it because NetZero is staying true to their name and offering plans that start out at $0.00 per month.

They pretty much have a service plan that will fit every budget and usage need.

In case you are wondering what 4G is … well, think of it as broadband on-the-go. A fast wireless Internet connection that you can take with you anywhere that there is coverage. And there’s coverage across 80 cites and metro areas so there’s a nice chance that you are covered!

Here’s what the NetZero Hotspot device looks like:

It’s small enough to conveniently fit in any bag or larger pockets so you can take it with you anywhere. The HotSpot device allows up to 8 simultaneous devices (laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.) to connect to it. There’s also a small NetZero device call the “Stick” that looks and plugs into your laptop like a USB drive and gives it wireless Internet access. You can’t share access like you can with the HotSpot though.

And yes, I named my hotspot, Hermes, and that’s the password in parenthesis. If you are within range you are welcome to hop on! :)

That is, unless you WIN YOUR OWN! Because, as the post title suggests, I do have a GIVEAWAY for you!

[Hermes = Greek god of transitions and boundaries. Quick, cunning, and moved freely between the worlds. Protector and patron of travelers. Seems appropriate, yes no?]

You can win your very own NetZero 4G HotSpot Device PLUS 3 free months of Platinum Service. Yep, that’s their top-of-the-line $49.99/month plan.

I know Santa will be bringing lots of tablets, laptops, and smartphones to families everywhere this year. In fact, he already brought a couple of Nexus 7‘s to our house and couldn’t resist delivering them early despite my weak protests.

Your family will LOVE having fast Internet access wherever they go for all their portable devices. For a chance to win, follow the directions in the form below. There are several simple ways to enter, pick whichever ones you want to do.

If you don’t want to take your chances or wait head on over to NetZero today and grab a HotSpot for yourself. (Psst, they are on sale right now!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* I am being compensated by NetZero to host this Giveaway promotion.

Tagged With: 4G, Giveaway, NetZero

Blogger Beach Bash in Avalon, NJ

Nichole Ann 10 Comments

I was super thrilled to be invited to the first Blogger Beach Bash hosted at the Golden Inn in Avalon, NJ.

And the reason was purely selfish. My son is 3 and I hadn’t taken him to the beach ever before. What better way to do it than with a bunch of bloggin’ friends!

Unfortunately, the X-man ended up being terrified of the ocean and after the first ankle-deep wave he would have nothing to do with it. He wouldn’t even go near the wet sand. And it was H-O-T. And we traveled 2.5 hrs to get there. And I bought a swimsuit (on clearance for $50), a swim suit cover, beach towels, toys, etc. Ugh!

Then he had to go potty and we had to trudge all the way back to the hotel. That’s when I started to overheat, get cranky, and was about to pack it up wondering why I wasted my time and money. Tried to call the Other Half for moral support and basically ended up yelling at him for [being a douche and] not coming. You’ve been there, right? I’m not the only one, right? Some days this mommy stuff really gets the better of me.

Regrouped and cooled off in Luigi’s Pasta restaurant which is attached to the Golden Inn and served the breakfast we mostly missed earlier due to traffic.

Headed back out just in time to see Sandman Matt from the Travel Channel’s hit show, Sand Masters, start his sand castle building lesson and demo. We also received The Can You Dig It Sand Tool Super Deluxe Sand Sculpting Kit. This kit has everything you need to build awesome sand castles like the masters, including an instructional DVD.The DVD might be the best part of the kit if you are sand-castle-building-clueless like I was. We’ve watched it twice. It’s cheesy but full of tips and super helpful.

I can’t wait until the X-man is older and not afraid of the ocean. I’m imagining lots of kickass sand castle building in our future!

After learning the art of sand castle making we headed back to the Golden Inn for a beach side lunch. Next was the Golden Inn’s pool area.

It was X’s first time in a big pool (I know I’ve totally been depriving the poor boy). I was prepared for a big freak out and thought we’d be leaving soon because I took him to the Y a few months ago thinking we’d try swim lessons. He was terrified of the pool then. I mean shaking and grabbing on to me for dear life even though we were just taking a tour.

Well, guess that’s all gone because he had NO fear and we stayed in the pool for HOURS! Seriously. I was shocked. And as a nice bonus I could actually chat with other moms for a few minutes here and there as we moved about the big pool or sat in the kiddie pool. The pool ended up being the best part of the day.

Worth all the earlier stress and trouble?

As we were heading back to the car: “Mommy, I’m going to miss the beach.”

Totally!

Except next time remind me to treat myself and stay over a night or 2. In fact, I think I need to head back to the Golden Inn for one of the Girlfriend Getaway weekends and REALLY treat myself!

First time with his toes in the sand!

Sand Master Matt Long at work.

Learning from the expert! Sandman Matt teaches us the art of sand sculpting.

Shout out to the other event and goody bag sponsors:

The Painted Home
Jordan Schneider Financial
Suddenly Safe & Secure Systems
Visit AC
Hallmark
Honest Tea
Pop Chips
Truly Custom Cakery
Bai Drinks
Boogie Wipes

Tagged With: Avalon NJ, beach days, Blogger Beach Bash, Golden Inn, sand castle building

LeVar Burton, Reading Rainbow, and NYC.

Nichole Ann 1 Comment

The Reading Rainbow App was released the other day and I had the pleasure of attending a sneak preview event in NYC the day before the release. You can read all about the Reading Rainbow App at JustChildrensBooks.com.

I don’t know about you, but I always wanted to be of the kid book reviewers featured on the show!

The excitement started on the train ride when I tweeted that I was on my way and LeVar Burton retweeted me! That totally made this Reading Rainbow and Star Trek fangirl’s day … until I was later able to snag a quick photo opp and exchange pleasantries in person.

Photo by Barbara @ Homeroom At Home

But I became a huge LeVar Burton fan when he emotionally came on stage and told us the story behind the App’s launch while wiping away tears. Reading Rainbow and children’s literacy are his lifelong passions and you can tell.

One of my favorite moments of the event was when Burton introduced us to Tina Fabrique. She’s the original singer of the Reading Rainbow theme song. After so many years, they had just met for the very first time. But that didn’t stop them from singing the theme song together live and then getting all of us to join in.

The quality isn’t great because I was not prepared to film anything but I managed to catch the special moment on video:

After the presentation we were all surprised by a room filled with children reading and playing with the new Reading Rainbow App and a cake from the famous CakeBoss! Thankfully, there were iPads set up for the adults to use too. I doubt the kids would have given their iPads up, they were having way too much fun!

The tablet side of the cake was very good. It was a red-velvet with a cream cheese filling. Yum!

While there, I couldn’t help but admire the view from Studio 450. I risked looking like the tourist that I was and snapped a few pics. I didn’t know it at the time, but the view below shows part of High Line Park and a mural that was completed not long ago by JR, a French street artist. The paper mural is titled “Brandon Many Ribs, Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota,” and is part of the Inside Out Project.

After the event, I walked around NYC a bit and had lunch with Barbara of Homeroom At Home and her adorable daughter – my traveling buddies for the day!

And don’t ya know it, Barbara suggested we visit High Line Park. I was expecting a regular park but was pleasantly surprised! A much to my delight, I had just unknowingly took a picture of it part of it.

The park is built on an old elevated freight rail line and is definitely the most unique park I’ve ever visited. It’s gorgeous in both its architecture and natural landscaping. This is a view from the park of the Chelsea neighborhood.

After looking this mural up online, I found out that it’s new too and was completed just a day or two before I happened upon it. Nice! This Kissing Sailor remix was done by Eduardo Kobra, an artist from Brazil. Lucky me getting to see both of these fresh and fantastic murals in person.

Such a fun and beautiful day all around.

Tagged With: Highline Park, LeVar Burton, NYC Murals, Reading Rainbow

I would tweet 500 times…

Nichole Ann 3 Comments

Are you going to SheCon? I’m not but wish I were, especially after seeing this promo video!

Tagged With: blogging conference, lolz, shecon, timedog, video

Klout Score Observations

Nichole Ann 10 Comments

Just thought I’d share an little anecdote about Klout.

I have 2 Twitter accounts, thus 2 Klout profiles.

http://www.klout.com/nicholeanncom
http://www.klout.com/justbooks4kids

I have one personal Facebook profile. I have public pages for my blogs as well but had linked my Facebook account to Klout before the ability to link pages was available.

My personal Facebook profile was linked to JustBooks4Kids. While poking around on the Klout site to see about adding Facebook to my NicholeAnnCom profile I was brought to a page that said I could merge accounts. As I suspected my accounts weren’t actually merged but rather the link to my personal Facebook profile was switched from JustBooks4Kids to NicholeAnnCom.

Here’s how it affected my stats:

NicholeAnnCom went from 27 to 42.
JustBooks4Kids went from 42 to 27.

So apparently my personal Facebook profile is worth 15 points!

In case you are wondering, I have 203 “friends” on Facebook and rarely use it as a platform for my blog posts. In fact, while I’m on Facebook all the time (thanks to some amazing private groups) I don’t really post much on my profile at all anymore. I just checked and I only have 8 updates for February so far.

It’s maybe more interesting to note that BOTH my twitter accounts are worth 27 Klout points.
Let’s look closer:

NicholeAnnCom has around 850 followers. I’ve only tweeted from it 275 times as I’ve only really started using it the past few months. But I’ve been favoring it lately and using it the most because I want to keep the other account more on the topic of books.
JustBooks4Kids has around 1200 followers. I’ve been slacking and not tweeting from this account as much but I’ve been using it a lot longer.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that my scores flipped the way they did considering that the Facebook link was the only change I made recently. Yet somehow I didn’t expect such a clean and clear score change since Klout is notorious for keeping users in the dark in regards to scoring. More surprising to me was that both twitter accounts are valued the same by Klout.

What does this all mean? Not much in the grand scheme of things but, since I found it interesting, I thought I’d share.

BTW, as of today, I’ve connected my JustChildrensBooks Facebook page to my JustBooks4Kids klout profile. We’ll see how or if that affects my new lower score.

Tagged With: facebook, klout, klout scores, social media

Pin the Source! Pinterest

Nichole Ann 13 Comments

I signed up for Pinterest awhile back but only jumped on the bandwagon the past month or so. And yep, just like everyone says, it’s fun and addicting.

But I’ve got a pet peeve now… people not using the original source page when pinning.

This includes the following:

1. Uploading NON-original work. That would be any picture you didn’t take or create on your own. If you found it online share where you found it.
2. Pinning the image file and not the page where the image is displayed in context.
3. Pinning a Google Image Search result page.
4. Pinning a content scraper’s page. This one can be a little tricky. If the site is done well, it will look like the original source. If the site is “honest” you will usually see a link at the bottom of the post that says something like “via thissiteoverhere.com” citing the original source.
5. Pinning the main site instead of the permalink. For example, http://wwww.NicholeAnn.com instead of http://www.nicholeann.com/2012/pin-the-source-pinterest/ – This is an easy one to overlook if you are pinning fast. But once the post falls off the front page of a blog others will have a terrible time finding the original post and content surrounding the pinned image.

If you aren’t a blogger or our new I know this can be a confusing but it’s important for a few reasons.

First and foremost, it’s important that we give credit where credit is due. If someone took the time to take a gorgeous photo, write an amazing tutorial with detailed photos, or what have you, the very least we can do is show our love by pinning the blog post or site where they originally published their work. Then maybe they will look at their stats one day, see all that love, and be inspired to post more awesomeness.

Another thing, if you pin something that is pretty freaking cool it’s quite possible the blogger/content creator has posted other cool things. If I can’t click through to their site I’ll never be able to know. So sad.

Finally, it’s very possible that the shrunken down pinned thumbnail doesn’t give as much information as most people want/need. Make it easy for everyone and pin the true source so we can all more efficiently waste our time pinning and repinning.

P.S. it’s also part of the official “Pin Etiquette” list:
Credit Your Sources
Pins are the most useful when they have links back to the original source. If you notice that a pin is not sourced correctly, leave a comment so the original pinner can update the source. Finding the original source is always preferable to a secondary source such as Google Image Search or a blog entry.

Tagged With: no repin for you, pinterest, social media

Business on the Web – Link Roundup

Nichole Ann 9 Comments

As we move into a new week, I want to share a few articles and blog posts I found interesting this past week or so.

On the SEO front, Search Engine Land confirmed that Google released Panda 3.2 For those out of the loop, “Panda” is Google’s attempt to lower the rankings of low-quality websites that was first implemented in early 2011. If you’ve seen a change for the better or worse in your search engine ranking this past month Panda may be the reason.

Speaking of Google, they released More Options for Google+ Badges. I haven’t put up a Google+ badge on any of my sites yet but it’s on my huge list of little tasks to eventually do. In the meantime, you can find my somewhat neglected Google+ page here.

At the same time, Jason Cormier of Search Engine Watch explains Why Your Business Needs to Be on Google+ Now. Perhaps it’s time to give Google+ a little more priority after all.

Shelley AKA @TheIQMom asks, Are Corporations Killing Mom Bloggers? She explores the evolution of “mom blogs” (but I’d argue blog culture in general) and ultimately suggests that companies AND bloggers to look beyond the numbers.

What does this mean exactly? Well to me it means, whether you are a blogger or a business, don’t get too caught up in just the numbers chase. Businesses need to look for QUALITY as well (duh?)

Think Traffic provides us with a case study of How Sarai Mitnick Attracts 380k Pageviews a Month and Built a Business Around a Sewing Blog. Now that’s a great example of a blog that is the total package, providing quality content and high traffic.

As bloggers we need to ask ourselves, how do we rise above the millions of other blogs and websites out and become stars in our own niches? And businesses need to figure out how to find and judge the rising stars that reach their target demographics.

Author, Terri Giuliano, truly understands the power of bloggers though. After being told by an agent she’d be lucky to sell even 500 copies of In Leah’s Wake, book bloggers buoyed her sales to almost 80,000 in just 7 months! How inspiring!

Finally, Pinterest is the new darling of social media. Joey Fortman of Real Mom Media and BEN-FM in Philly gives tips to traditional media to leverage the power of Pinterest. Whether you are in traditional media, social media, or run a business you’ll find her tips give you some food-for-thought.

Tagged With: blogging, Google+, pinterest, SEO, social media

Rafflercopter Needs a Mascot Name: Win an Ipad2

Nichole Ann Leave a Comment

I’ve read mixed reviews on Rafflecopter the past few months. I’ve even heard some people declare they won’t even enter a giveaway administered by the Rafflecopter widget. I personally don’t get why but to each their own.

But having run giveaways WITH AND WITHOUT Rafflecopter I can honestly say using Rafflecopter has made my life so much easier. It’s such an easy process to create, run, and finalize a giveaway with the Rafflecopter software.

On the other hand, as a person who enters giveaways from time-to-time, I’m much more inclined to complete giveaway entries when the blog is using Rafflecopter. One reason is that too many bloggers make it hard for you to find their twitter name, facebook page, etc. but when they use Rafflecopter this information is always just a click away.

So anyway, after lots of testing, Rafflecopter is celebrating it’s “birth” and you can join in! Try the system out below by entering to win an iPad 2. Tell them NicholeAnn.com referred you (that way if YOU win, I win too!) and then do any of the optional entries, like submitting a creative name for their mascot.