Holly Hopper - Guiding you through the process of putting your business online

Swearing off Caffeine!

haleystar — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:07:51 +0000

I have just decided, like, literally about 2 seconds ago, to swear off caffeine from now until whenever. I know, shocking! Who would want to do such a thing to themselves, right? I know that most of the population treasures coffee like they do their favorite pet, you can't go a day without it, need it to start your day yada yada yada... Well I quit and here's why:

Reasons why I'm quitting

It all started after lunch today. I got back to the office and right now I'm feeling absolutely drained, yet my heart is racing! I am having the worst time just keeping my eyelids open, let alone trying to actually focus on anything. It may be because there is NO work to do here today, nothing, nada zilch. Yet I still have to sit here and put in my 8 hours for the day because that's how 9-5 jobs work. (But that's another blog post entirely.) I'm not bored though, I'm getting plenty of work done on my own websites. =) What gets me is that I went to sleep at 7pm yesterday, yes that's right. I had a tummy ache from some corn chip flecks that got in my food (yet another blog post) which cause my tummy to hurt for about 4 hours after eating. So I went to sleep to try and escape the pain. Woke up at 5:30am this morning, PLENTY of sleep right?! I should be full of energy and super peppy right now, but I'm barely keeping from nodding off on the keyboard. PLUS I've had 2 sodas and about 3 or 4 cups of STRONG coffee today.

I shouldn't be tired!

So I got to thinking about my life before an office job. I worked outside all day training sea lions and otters how to do fun behaviors and performing in shows. I didn't drink caffeine because I was always running around in the sun, I drank water. I never felt this disgusting back then. With all the sleep I got last night I should feel amazing today. So I had the thought to do some research on caffeine and life with out it. My suspicions were confirmed. Caffeine doesn't actually give you energy, it puts your body into fight or flight mode. Makes you anxious, this is what makes you feel "energized", you're tricking your body into thinking it's in danger and needs to perform in order to stay alive. That's called stress and it'll wear you out. That's why you crash when the caffeine wears off. I think I'm crashing right now. I don't like feeling like this so I'm swearing off caffeine.

List of Reasons why Caffeine is bad

It's a drug
Makes you sleepy when it wears off
Increased heart rate/chance of heart attack
Stresses out your body, makes you anxious
Loose stools (probably TMI, sorry!)
Dehydration
Screws up your sleep schedule
Makes my heart feel funny
usually paired with fattening things like sugar, creamer, chocolate etc.
Gives you a headache if you don't have it = mean!

What will I replace it with?

I'm going to try drinking water. Maybe some natural fruit juices as well, but mostly just water. OOoh and milk too, organic of course :P

The Challenge

Caffeine just so happens to be in a lot of things. Chocolate is my biggest concern but honestly by butt will probably thank me if I cut out that calorie dump. =) Tea, sodas and coffee. I've needed to swear off sodas for a while, I used to be an anti-high fructose corn syrup evangelist or sorts. I was also 20 pounds lighter then. I'm not really sure when or why I started consuming that food ingredient again but I know I don't have a good reason. There is nothing good about HFCS so I'm glad to finally be getting the kick in the pants I need to cut it out of my diet again. Tea will be hard because when I feel like being healthy and not drinking sodas I make sweet tea. I know, not exactly healthy either after I dump 10 million cups of sugar in the pitcher. So by my estimations, just cutting caffeine out of my diet should consequently save me about 1,000 calories a day as well. Not bad. I like killing 2 birds with one stone when I can.

Join me?

So if there's anyone else out there who's tired of being addicted to caffeine and the negative impact it has on our bodies, moods and minds and you'd like to join me in this challenge please feel free to let me know! I'm proposing a 3 month period since I've read it can take 2 months for caffeine to fully get out of our systems. If I'm not feeling better after 3 months then maybe I'll at the very least have lost some weight. It's no fun to do things alone so if you want to join me comment below and maybe we can help hold one another accountable to our new caffeine-free lifestyles!

On another note, if you've already cut the caffeine dependency from your life, I'd love to hear about your experience and whether or not you do actually notice a difference in the way you feel. I know there probably aren't many living the caffeine-free lifestyle, but if you're out there please don't be a lurker! The internet is for sharing =)

Ok, off to go dump the rest of my Dr.Pepper down the sink and replace it was a big glass of water.

My job is lame

haleystar — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:46:06 +0000

Actually I'll be quite honest with you all. The majority of my blog posts lately have be written entirely or in part while sitting in my cube "working". We do have work coming in, not a whole lot of it, but there are small things here and there to do. I, however, find myself to be completely void of any motivation whatsoever to work on these projects. Let me give you a little background.

I had a job at another web development company for a while which I really enjoyed. However I didn't enjoy the snarky little emails the boss would send out to the "team" when a simple chat with just the violating offender would have done the job. I didn't enjoy the lack luster "raise" I received. Hint for employers: Don't tell your employees that they're worth more than what you're going to pay them. If you say to me that I'm worth more than what you're paying me then why in the world would I stay? I'll probably go find some one else willing to pay me what I'm worth. Doh!

So I quit that job in an effort to find my freedom working for myself from home. I, however, had absolutely nothing planned out or lined up. I started up a business that I had been successful in a few years back, making balloon animals for parties and corporate events. It took all my time to get this thing going. I started the website, http://www.thetwistersisters.com, got my business cards and balloon supplies. Went door to door leaving business cards on people's porches. I even talked to a few restaurant owners who agreed to let me make balloon animals at their restaurant. This brought in a significant amount of our start up business. But it wasn't fast enough.

Two months went by and The Twister Sisters were just starting to make a little bit of money. However, time didn't slow down for my rent or other bills. I was about 2 hours away from being evicted from my apartment after my rent check bounced. Just about every utility bill I had was late and all 3 of my credit cards were maxed out over their limits. I had nothing in my savings account, (scratch that, I didn't even HAVE a savings account) and time had caught up with me. So I did the thing I absolutely hate doing more than anything in this world. I called my parents to admit my failure at life and see what they could do to help me. Needless to say they were not happy with my financial state at the time, nor the fact that I made the decision to leave a job with no backup plan in place. There was a lot of crying and apologizing happening on my part. But they agreed to help me get back on my feet again but only if I was willing to let them help me reform my spending habits.

I had to open up my entire monetary life to them. My father got access to my bank accounts, got to see every bill and credit card I had, we wrote down all my balances, interest rates etc etc. This was very uncomfortable to me. I had not been very responsible managing my finances and admitting failure at anything for me is never easy to do. Especially to my parents, people that I want to prove that I can survive on my own to. But this was the best thing I've ever done for myself. It is so much better getting back on your feet when you know you're not alone and have people supporting you and cheering you on. We made a plan and I stuck to it. It's paying off too. I've already paid off one entire credit card! It hasn't been easy. I don't go shopping, I don't buy anything really. I actually "borrowed" 2 roles of toilet paper from my current employer last week so I wouldn't have to waste money on something so frivolous. I've cut back A LOT. It's not easy. I want to go out with friends, spend money like there's no tomorrow and wear new clothes. But I can't. I have a bigger picture in mind which is worth the denial of the things I want right now.

So to help me get back on my feet again I had to take up another 9-5. Still in web development but for a different company. I do like the work and the people that I work with. What I can't stand though is being told when, where and how I'm going to spend the majority of my life. 9 -5 is a lot of hours during key parts of the day. It's a lot of time spent working to further some one else's bottom line when I have plenty of other things I could be doing for myself. My hatred for living my life on some one else's terms is what motivates me everyday to get up and work towards my goal of working from home. I have a long way to go. I need to save save SAVE! The next time I quit my 9 - 5 I'll be prepared and I'll be successful.

The Twister Sisters are doing well now. Making balloon animals at birthday parties on the weekends alone is bring in about $1000 a month now. And I've spent $0 on advertising, just about all our clients now come from word of mouth. I've also just taken up an additional freelancing job which looks very promising. I haven't started yet, but as soon as I do I'll be looking to see how much viable income I can make from that each month. What motivates me? Well at my core I'm really a very lazy person. I want to be able to wake up at 10 am every morning. I want to stay home with my dog. I want to be able to run errands in the middle of the day without having to sacrifice eating lunch for the day. When I have kids one day I want to be able to stay home with them and raise my own children. These things are more important to me than eating out at nice restaurants right now or wearing what's in style now. These things are worth the work, late nights and busy weekends. I will get there and I just know it will be worth the wait. So til then you're welcome to follow along with my journey and share the experience with me.

Thing I Can't Stand About Your Email Campaign

haleystar — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:11:24 +0000

Some people have referred to their email lists as their virtual ATM's. Thanks, now that I know how you really feel about me anytime I see an email from you I'll know you're just trying to make another withdrawal. Not cool if you ask me.

I hate it when you see people being super active with their blogs and email campaigns, then as soon as they pitch their product and make their money you don't hear from them again. That is, until they have something else to try and sell you. This annoys me and I know it must annoy others as well. I didn't sign up for your email campaign to become your personal ATM. I signed up because I thought you were interesting and that I would some how benefit by reading what you had to say. If you're going to parade around the internet pretending you want to help people and then only send emails when you have something to sell you might as well just not bother.

People can see through this stuff and after a while your "ATM" will get tired of processing all these withdrawal requests with no deposits. Yeah, you may make some money from it, but you'll earn far more in the long run by actually having an interest in the people on your list for more than how many dollar signs they'll bring in. Invest in people! They want to connect, build relationships, and feel important. Especially if they view you as being some-what of an important person yourself. Taking the time to simply send an informative or helpful email, without any sales pitches, will build trust and convince more people to possibly become customers in the future.

And that's my 4 cents for the day.

How To: Tweet This Button

haleystar — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:38:33 +0000

These days you hear a lot about going "viral". The seemingly magical point at which others start marketing your services for you, thus spreading like a disease and generating more and more interest about you and your product. It's actually a great strategy and can really help boost your web presence if used well.

The question most people have is how do you actually get people to market you? A great tool for this kind of marketing is Twitter. Twitter makes it possible for information to go viral almost instantaneously. You don't have to be super popular or have a ton of followers to get people to start tweeting about you. You DO have to have something interesting and worth re-tweeting though, and you DO have to make it easy for people. So let's focus on those two things

Hopefully if you're getting to the point where you're concerned about people getting the word out about what you're doing then you're already creating some great content for your blog or offering a great service. No matter how many "tweet this" links you put on your site, no one is going to click that button if they don't find your information useful.

Now, let's make it easy for people to spread the word about you. The easiest way to do this is by placing a "tweet this" button or link on your website or individual blog posts. That way when people click your link they'll be taken to their personal twitter account and the text you'd like them to tweet will already be filled in for them. All they have to do is click submit. Simple right? People like easy.

So now, let's get to this elusive button code. Pretty simple stuff here too. All it is basically is a simple html link tag.

<a href="http://twitter.com/home?status=TWITTER MESSAGE
 http://TINYURLHERE">Tweet This!</a>

Now, that text in all CAPS up there? That's what you replace with your own content. You can make your own button or link say anything you want, the one in the example above will say Tweet This!

Also, you don't have to have the http://TINYURLHERE code in there at all if you just want people to tweet a message. However, it's usually a good idea to get the tiny url for you blog post or website and stick it in there so people have a way of getting to your site. Build those pageviews!

Any questions, comments, concerns? Have other questions about Twitter you'd like me to answer? Leave a comment below and I 'll respond to you asap!

Scribbles FREE Icon Set - by yours truly

haleystar — Thu, 14 May 2009 06:22:52 +0000

Alrighty then! Tonight's been one productive night! A blog post and a free icon set for my fabulous readers! Created these by hand drawing them, literally finger to the monitor, so they're totally original and celestial. There's 21 free icons for you to use to spruce up blog posts, bulleted lists, and make funny faces at people on comments. All are in .png format with super convenient transparent backgrounds. Go crazy! Just don't try and sell em unless you're giving me some of the pofitz.

So, how do you get these nifty little icons? Name and email below please. As soon as you hit the download button you'll be taken straight to the download page. No having to check your email or waste time doing other varification stuffs. See how easy I make it?

How To: Get more Facebook Fans

haleystar — Thu, 14 May 2009 04:07:17 +0000

Ok, so let's say you've got a fantastic looking facebook page up for your business. You're ready to connect, share and build relationships to start bringing more customers your way. That's great, except that no one knows about your facebook page and you have no fans. Sad day. So what do you do? You could spam twitter and try and get fans, put a link on your website. But there's an easier way.

So, think about the people that are most likely to support you and become fans when you're first setting up your new facebook business page... Hopefully your friends and family come to mind. Even if they don't really know much about what you're up to in this new entrepreneurial endeavor of yours, they'll probably become your fan if you ask nicely. In my experience I've have about a 50% success rate, which is pretty good if you already have a lot of facebook friends! Most of my friends on facebook aren't people that I actually know in person, like, I've never met them or talked to them. But many became fans of my facebook page when I asked them.

So how do you nicely invite all these people to be your fans without spamming the crap out of the social webosphere?

First, you'll need to go to your page and find this little "more" link on the left hand sidebar of your page. I didn't notice it for a loooong time so don't feel stupid if you're about to have a 'duh' moment and slap your forehead :)

After clicking that more link you'll see a handy dandly new menu appear with another link that says "Suggest to friends". Click that!

Next a magical, yet somewhat overused, lightbox will appear with a list of ALL your friends. This is the slow boring part cause you'll have to manually click on each and every one of your friends to send them an invite to become a fan of your page. Tedious, but really it doesn't take THAT long. Not when you consider how people sent out invitations 10 years ago, via snail mail. So try not to complain too much during this part and just do it :) Oh, don't forget to click submit when you're done ;)

Now all you have to do is sit back and see which friends really love you! The ones that do will become your fans. Now, these may not be people in your target market or people likely to buy products from you in the future. Friends usually expect you to give them stuff for free, "hook-ups" if you will. This is just the way things are. However when you do start marketing your facebook page to potential customers, you won't be embarrassed to send them to your page because you only have 1 fan and it's your mom :) This is building the appearance of having a social presence on the web. No one likes to be the only one at the party, so don't make future customers feel like that's what they are.

So, your mission for tomorrow is to invite all your friends to be fans of your facebook page. Make sure you've got some interesting content on there too! Get a great pic of yourself and post some interesting articles and such on your page. That way your friends don't think you're totally crazy :)

Good Luck and if you'd like to receive more useful and interesting info like this in the future, sign up for my email newsletter. It's gonna be pretty cool and will probably make you tons of money if you do what I say :) Peace!

Free Twitter Background

haleystar — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:07:30 +0000

You're gonna like this one! Just for my blog readers this week I'm giving away a completely free Twitter Background for use on your profile, no strings attached! Check out a preview here:

The actual file will not have any text so you can place your own on it with any image editing software. To download just fill in your name and email address below and you'll be taken straight to the download link.

Free Drupal Theme!

haleystar — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:41:50 +0000

Shabby Chic is the first of many Drupal themes to be offered here at Haleystar.com. It's a scrapbook style theme and looks nothing like what you're used to seeing from Drupal websites. That's how I roll. Very unique, simple and cute. Try out a working demo here: ShabbyChic.haleystar.com

Theme Features:

- 3 Column, table-less layout
- HTML Strict, standards compliant
- Jquery Browser enabled to easily optimize for any browser.
- Drupal 6.x
- lots of sidebar space for blocks, links or ads
- fancy dates for blog posts
- Browser tested and ready to go for Firefox, Chrome, Safari, FF for Mac, and IE7

Act fast though, cause this theme probably won't be free forever!

To download simply fill out the form below so I know who's interested in my themes! Promise I won't spam ya! As soon as you fill in the info below you'll be taken to the download page!

Celestial Prowess - Don't Give Up!

haleystar — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:53:33 +0000

This is why I love social media. You can go from one emotional extreme to the next in 2 seconds flat! I mean that in a good way. I'm trying to think of a way to redesign Haleystar.com. I kind of have a design in mind but not really and I was just having a really hard time coming up with something I like tonight.

So I turned to my google reader to find a post with some inspirational websites for me to admire and get inspired from. I'm subscribed to several design blogs like Smashing Magazine, Creattica Daily, and WebResourcesDepot to name just a few. They're always posting great tips, tricks and showcasing art from all around the web. Always good for some motivating ideas when I can't pin down the ideas spinning around in my head.

So I click on Creattica Daily first for no particular reason. I see a post titled Twitter Art: The Most Inspirational 33 backgrounds. I click thinking I'm sure to find some great imagery to look at. As I'm scrolling down the page I see a very familiar looking girl in a yellow dress peering back at me! Uhhhh, OMG! My background was one of the 33 featured twitter backgrounds at Inspired Magazine!

So of course I tweet about this discovery right away! Moments later other people were retweeting about me! Spreading the news, sharing the love. I just feel really great right now. How ironic is it that just when I was starting to feel very uninspired I get featured on Inspired Magazine for having one of the 33 most Inspirational backgrounds!

Great motivation to keep going. Starting a business is hard work. Building an online presense is hard work. It can be very tempting to give up at times, especially when you're not getting any feedback yet. But just keep at it. As long as you're not doing nothing, you're doing something. Every little step is progress. Every time you @reply some on twitter, every time you reply to a comment on your blog, you're building relationships and taking steps towards reaching your celestial internet. (more on the celestial internet coming soon!)

Keep at it! If you need motivation just send me a message and I'll cheer ya up! I'm a pretty good morale booster, just ask my room mate :)P

Oh, and If you'd like to sign up for my new newsletter just fill out the info below. It's going to be packed full of inspiration, tips, tricks and ideas to get you shining like a star on the web!

Holly's Business Advice: Be Flexible

haleystar — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:13:37 +0000

Life doesn't always work out like we imagine.

All the planning in the world can't secure the outcome we want to see.

The people who are successful in life are those that can flow with the twists and turns thrown at us. Take things as they come, surprises sometimes lead us down paths that are even better than the one we were trying to plan out on our own.

Take today for example. I had been thinking about what to do with my websites for some time now and I was finally starting to clear up all the ideas in my head, write up a plan and get organized in order to achieve my goals.

I've had my haleystar account on twitter for some time now. But I was starting to feel that in order to be in line with my new goals for myself and my business I needed a more personal name, like my real name!

Right after the whole CNN and Ashton Kutcher drama on twitter and hearing that Oprah would be doing a bit on twitter the next day I decided to go ahead and grab my real name up as a twitter username if it was still available. Luckily HollyHopper was still available so I grabbed it and just kind of sat on it. Today I was planning to switch and change haleystar to hollyhopper. But not wanting to lose all the friends and connections I've made with haleystar I had simply decided that I was going to delete the hollyhopper account and then change haleystar to it really quickly. That way I'd keep all my old connections and just inform everyone of the name change. Well. Didn't quite go as planned.

Right after hitting the delete button on my other account I actually started reading the page that explained that any information you want to use on other accounts will be locked to the deleted account unless you change it first. OopS! Then the page refreshed, my HollyHopper account was gone. However, apparently it's still tied up in the twitterverse somewhere and is marked as unavailable so my plan had officially been foiled.

Fail Whale!

I tried to think of lots of other names, Holly_Hopper is already taken by someone who isn't really using it though. Holly__Hopper is still available but I think 2 underscores would be very confusing. So Haleystar will remain.

Not all is lost though!

I started thinking about what I would do now. I was planning everything to be around my name, but thanks to this little unplanned twist, I've come up with an even better, and more clear, vision of what I'm going to do with my website!

Think Haley's Comet. Think celestial. Think stardom. It's going to be amazing and I can't wait to unveil it to you all.

Learn to lean into the turns of life instead of fighting them. The ride may be a bit scarier, but it will work better.

To be updated when I start releasing all this very important info, just fill in your name and email below. It'll be worth it I promise!

P.S. The world of business is starting to change. We're in a recession, blah blah, I know you've heard enough of that by now! However, if you're still running your business the same way you've been running it the last several years, I can almost guarantee you're one of the businesses out there suffering.

There are people making money in this economy. People are spending money! They're just changing how and where and to who they choose to give it to. Our current financial situation is a change, and a pretty large one at that. The ones who are going to come out on top are the ones willing to change with it! Don't be scared, change is good!

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