1. “You Are awesome”
2. Be Thankful

These are just two things I sometimes need to be reminded of. The second one is actually pretty recent, and I added it after reading a quote on Pinterest. It read, roughly: what if you woke up tomorrow and only have the things you thanked God for today. Now, I’m not religious, but it got me to thinking. I often struggled with my anxiety but being grateful is something that is not only becomes more difficult with anxiety but it can ease anxiety. Double-edge sword and all. Still, I wanted to be more grateful and making a running list makes me feel pretty awesome.

For example, I’ve been able to get gift cards for working with websites like EdenFantasys. I’ve tried some pretty awesome products because of this blog — and for free! I’ve even made some money. Aside from my websites, I’ve had a fantastic time recently with my best friend, who just moved back to the area.

One thing that I am consistently grateful for is a hot shower, with a great-smelling body wash . Starting the day off feeling fresh and clean does wonders for my mood. Sometimes, I’ll be in a funk and forget how much those simple things can do to lift me up. It’s that much easier to feel good, mentally and emotionally, when some awesome bath products have left my smelling good.

Sure, nothing’s perfect but, then again, nothing ever will be. There will always be trials. The best part, though? It will always pass.

In the spirit of being thankful, I’d like to thank you. Thank for you the review and giveaway opportunities. Thank you for reading and commenting. Thank you for entering giveaways. Thank you for following on Twitter and liking on Facebook. Thank you for the conversation and food for thought. I am forever in your debt.

• Gillette Venus Embrace Womens Razor
• New York Color Nail Enamel, Empire State Blue
• 
  Remington MPT-3500 Dual Blade Precision Detail Trimmer

I guess I just didn’t want to talk about the health and beauty stuff here. ;)

Writer Access

Writer Access is a website that I discovered a while . I registered as a writer and performed the writing test so I was rated and receiving updates of new titles; however, I was mostly writing for Demand Media so I didn’t really spend a lot of time getting to know the ins and outs of the website. Unlike Demand, Writer Access simply connects third-party clients with writers. The system ranks writers,  and writers can select any of the available titles at or below their rating. This is very similar to Text Broker, another website  I have been using more frequently.

However, Writer Access definitely has one problem: there aren’t a lot of titles. At any given time, I really wasn’t seeing any titles. I would receive an email about available titles, but others would snatch them up in, literally, seconds. Timing is defnitely crucial with Writer Access. It’s not that it isn’t crucial on other websites but it’s even more crucial when there are so few titles.

Luckily, the system has a few features that help the writer. Clients can post casting calls, describing specific projects for which they need writers. As a writer, I have applied to and been accepted to specific casting calls. If the clients like me, they can add me to their “Love List.” Love list assignments only appear to that select group of writers, and I now have access to more articles that are right up my alley and have better pay.

The pay rates on Writer Access are lower than I am accustomed to. However, not by much. Writer Access offers 2.38 cents per word at level 3, for example. Text Broker offers just one center per word at the same rate. So, a 500-word article earns about $12 while an 800-word article earns about $19. Of course, higher rated articles go for a higher rate. 800 words really is no big deal when I’m writing about a techie subject that I find personally interesting.

After being added to the love lists, I’ve had some assignments that I really enjoy. I’ve also responded to a few very specific casting calls for only one writer. As long as I’m diligent at checking casting calls, I think I’ll be okay. However, I am having a difficult time catching some titles that post very early in the morning. I’ve made some money, however, and for that I am glad. Writer Access pays via PayPal once monthly and uses an electronic W-9 system, which is more user friendly than that of Text Broker.

Not everyone has has luck with Writer Access but it can be useful if you know how to work it.

• Participants must be invited to and accept a campaign in order to receive products to review
• Campaigns became available to participates who were active and highly rated and relevant to the campaign (relevance was determined by surveys)
• Participants earned credit for filing Bzz reports that outlined how participants were spreading the buzz about products. Participants could submit reports for blogs, online reviews, face-to-face conversations and posting on Twitter, for example.
• Activity boosted the member’s rank. Ranks were determined with cutesy descriptions such as “Busy Bee.” Higher ranks received earlier invites to campaigns. Lower ranked members missed out on campaigns, thus having no opportunity to complete more campaign activity to raise rank. It was a catch-22

Despite being active, completing many reports for each campaign and finishing every survey, I wasn’t being invited to campaigns. However, that all has changed. BzzAgent has released a new score system from 0 to 10. Boy, was I surprised to log in and see that I had a 9.6 or so. I completed a single survey and I was at a 10! I finally felt like I was rewarded for my hard work and I immediately was invited to a new campaign. I’ve had a lot more surveys, too. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

There are a couple caveats and folks have definitely been piping up about them on BzzAgent’s Facebook page. If you don’t connect your Facebook or Twitter, you cannot possibly be ranked at a 10. It’s a bit unfair, but it also makes sense. As a BzzAgent, my job is to start conversations and what better way than through social media? Connecting my accounts makes it easier to start those conversations on Facebook or Twitter.

Survey completion is also incredibly important. I have always completed mine. After all, it helps me to qualify for more free stuff! However, I’m logging in even more frequently because I love seeing that big green 10!

The system is also not without its glitches as some activity has made scores go down. It’s still in beta, though, so it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.

Many teenaged girls have some sort of a bulletin board or scrapbook or notebook where they add pictures printed from the Internet or ripped from magazines or photos of random strangers that serves as an idea board. This is commonly an idea board for the perfect wedding but some young women use it as inspiration for their wardrobe, home decor or future job. In fact, I recently saw an adult woman on a TV show who uses this method of planning to illustrate her perfect man.

Pinterest is a digital idea board.

Idea Board -- from BridalBuds.com

Individual boards often feature fashion outfits or interior design but the fact that you don’t need to create an entire idea board means that users are pinning a lot of individual ideas, without categorizing them. There’s hundreds of fashion and beauty pictures that people re-pin because they inspire them and they one day want to try something similar. Recipes follow the same line of thinking. It’s a way of categorizing like ideas, should you ever get around to it, but my impression is that Pinterest is better for potential interests rather than a “must-do” list. No pressure.

Obviously, Pinterest and shopping go hand-in-hand and this is probably where most men lose interest. However, it could easily be grouped to showcase a man’s favorite products or photos of sports teams or events that he finds interesting. An user of any gender could showcase places they’ve traveled, or would like to travel, with Pinterest and many photographers are men. Hell, Pinterest could be used to pin porn videos or images. Non-shopping pins often include witty sayings or quotes that have been turned into images. Pinterest could be used for marketing or product promotion, which is great news for anyone in marketing or who owns a small business. I suppose, my point is, that Pinterest could be engaging for men but they would have to look past its typical use.

The community aspect of Pinterest means that you can expand potential interests and see what others are into. Stumble across a similar user? Re-pin some of his or her ideas. Plus, Pinterest as a social media site is really taking off. People can pin videos or images for any site, including this one, and this leads to links back to the originating blog — although, there are some issues with pinners not sourcing properly — and many bloggers are hopping on the train, using pins are a method of entry for giveaways which, in turn, can generate a lot of buzz and activity on a website. If pinning isn’t something that works for you as a blogger, you can opt out, too.

Of course, Pinterest is a time-sucker and perhaps that’s why so many have stayed away from it. That is why I hadn’t created an account until now and, now, it is only because I wanted to use it to promote my website(s) and affiliate links. I already “pin” things to my life by adding them to my Amazon universal wishlist, saving them as bookmarks or downloading them to my computer and the visual part isn’t always the mos important. Still, I can see why so many women like Pinterest and I could see myself becoming one of them.

I’m pretty set in my ways but I took the time to check out some nomorerack reviews and a lot of people, like me, enjoy the idea but haven’t signed on yet. I know I’m always hesitant to sign up for another website because I have so many accounts on the Internet already and I already receive soo many emails. If I had heard of the website before Chritmas, I probably would have signed up and kept my eye on some of the high-end items. We know how I’ve been wanting an iPod Touch for just about forever (and I have yet to win one in any giveaway).

Have you signed up for No More Rack Yet?

You see, Rafflecopter sounds good and it looks pretty good, too. The problem is, it relies on your browser cookies. If you enter a giveaway and return to the site, you will see the entries you’ve already completed but if you clear your private data, it will appear as though you’ve never entered. The script does not offer a way to check your entry status. It’s not so efficient to navigate through pages of comments but at least you can, to see if you’ve entered before.

Secondly, the script takes a while to load. For whatever reason, it takes longer now than when bloggers first started using it. This slows down my giveaway process significantly, when I’m browsing multiple sites.

Next, bloggers keep requiring us to comment as a form of mandatory entry but this is completely unnecessary. I just don’t understand this. Rafflecopter exists so you can clean up your comments from giveaway spam. I’ll admit, I’m also a bit lazy and I hate scrolling down to comment, reloading the page, scrolling back up and waiting for Rafflecopter to load again.

But it’s not all bad. A lot of bloggers are allowing us to enter by just typing name and email addresses. Plus, you don’t need to add your email address to the comment itself, which is a generally unsafe and totally freaking annoying thing to do.  Being able to post to Twitter or like a page on Facebook is super easy with Rafflecopter.

Multiple websites participating in the same giveaway can post the same Rafflecopter code — which is great as long as you don’t clear your cache. However, multiple mandatory entries can span several lines on the form and it can be difficult to tell when you’ve completed all the entries. It would be nice if Rafflecopter allowed you to put multiple Facebook “Likes,” for example, in one box. At least, I assume they don’t because no one does.

Rafflecopter is an interesting idea but is still imperfect enough to be frustrating to all sorts of users.

1. A gift card can go toward my necessities, like food, clothing or household goods.
2. A $10 gift card is always more useful than a $10 item than I don’t need but a $10 gift card is infinitely more useful than a $100 item for which I have no use.
3. Gift cards give me a choice in what I win so I can be really excited.
4. Some gift cards can be used online so I don’t even have to leave my house or I can still shop from stores that aren’t in the area.

But gift cards have perks if you’re holding the giveaway, too!

1. Gift cards appeal to more people (see my #2 above).
2. Gift cards blur the geographical lines. Sure, I may be in Wisconsin but if I giveaway a gift card to a company that has a website and ships worldwide, I’ve just expanded my giveaway (and potential readership).
3. Gift cards are cheap to send. Throw ‘em in an envelope, or even better, click “Send.” Anyone who has had to mail off their own prizes understands the frustration about this one.

Do you also love gift card giveaways?