We got a Facelift!

We are still working out the whys and wherefores... but Acting Balanced has a whole new look today!  Please let us know what you think - good and bad... and bear with us as we tweak the look and feel of Acting Balanced until we have just the right balance for us!

A few new additions and updates include:

• A facelift for the blog and pages
• Including a fabulous new header and blog button from my good friend Rebecca from Cre8tive Compass
• Better access from our menu bar
• A contact form
• Pin it buttons on every picture
• Updated About Us info

Acting Balanced Then and Now.... January 2011 to January 2012

Wow!  I was looking through some old emails and pitches today and was struck by just how much Acting Balanced has grown and changed since this time last year.... I've now been blogging for over two years and while I know that I still have lots to learn, I think I'm starting to get some things right...


As for growth... I couldn't believe it when I looked at a pitch from early January 2011 and it had these numbers:
"more than 1650 google connect followers, over 1050 twitter followers (@chascouponmom) and a combined reach of over 1050 on Facebook (personal and fan page)"


Just one short year later and Acting Balanced now has:

Monetizing Your Blog - Sponsored Posts

I try very hard to bring the readers of Acting Balanced interesting and fun content and sometimes I am able to combine those two things with some extra spending money that I'm setting aside in my Bloggy Conferences Fund - I am open to family friendly sponsored posts and I find some great companies to work with directly but I also find them through referral sites.

I thought I'd share one of my favorite places to get sponsored posts with you today!

The week ahead...

Well, I'm trying not to plan too much... Liam was born three weeks early, so baby E can arrive at pretty much any time... or he can hold out until his due date... either way, plans are somewhat difficult to make - but - I am feverishly putting the finishing touches on several things here at home and for the blog...

So far, my week looks like this...

My in-laws are arriving from Canada today so we'll have extra help around the house... and someone to watch the kids while I'm in the hospital... the only downside is that I've been enjoying sleeping in the guest room for the past month and it's been great to have my own queen sized bed... and a private bath so I don't disturb the rest of the fam on my many, many trips... but, Wayne is right - the upsides are huge!   As for today on the blog, I have a book review to go up later this afternoon and I encourage you to check out all of my giveaways!

Tomorrow, the Brilliant Lenses giveaway ends and the very last bonus entry for the $750 Fall Follower Giveaway will be announced!  I will also have a new Sunday Family Story to go up... and of course, tomorrow evening I will be putting up my MMMmonday post with the recipe linky!  On the home front, there is a MOMs Club family party to attend if we want... it should be a blast...

Monday, the Fall Follower Giveaway ends, I have my next doctor's appointment and I have a quick volunteer job to do at Robyn's school... there's also a meeting of my MOMs book club, but that's in the evening, and I'm not sure I can stay awake... but I'm going to give it a shot...

Tuesday, I will be posting sporatically... just PINT and the line up announcement for the Baby/Pregnancy Celebration... I'll be busily working behind the scenes to get all of my reviews and giveaways in.. although I've already started...

Wednesday, the GIVEAWAYS begin in earnest, and while many are directly pregnancy/baby/new mom related, there are several that will appeal to everyone - including a CSN Gift Certificate that can be used at any one of their 200+ online stores, a temporal artery thermometer that I love for the whole family, and even a few gifts for older siblings!  From Wednesday to the following Thursday, there will be AT LEAST TWO GIVEAWAYS PER DAY, so if you don't want to miss anything, I highly recommend that you subscribe by email, so you don't miss a thing!!!

In the midst of all of the Baby/Pregnancy/New mom celebrating, I will also be hosting a guest blog from an author I love, and posting some other great things, so don't despair... it's going to be bigger and better than ever!

Of course, I could just go into labor and leave all of this in Hubby's capable hands, but I figure he's got enough on his plate, so I'm hoping that E will let me get everything locked and loaded before we head to the hospital....

How are you spending your weekend and week?

I'm also spending the weekend hopping around the blogosphere, since at 8.5 mos pregnant it's counter-indicated to be hopping around the house:

Alexa Ranking and Review Exchange

Do you use Alexa Rankings as part of your media package?  I am working hard to lower my Alexa ranking to make it an attractive part of my P/R info... one of the ways to do this is to have peers review your blog... and rate it!

If you are also using Alexa, and would like to do a review exchange, please leave a comment here with your alexa page and I will do a review for you.

My page is http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/actingbalanced.com#

H.

Dealing with rejection... the hazard of pitching companies for reviews and giveaways

I have been working hard on setting up some great events on Acting Balanced... generating more giveaways and reviews to share with my readers... and because of that I've been pitching companies right, left and center... 


Honestly, I expect to be rejected... if a company decides to work with me, I feel privileged ... they are sending out free products and have to justify their expenditures and giveaways. I figure that if I don't ask, I won't know what their policies are... and I have to say that even when rejected, I reply and thank them for their time and consideration and wish them well. It's their prerogative to choose what criteria they want to use - be it # of twitter followers, unique visitors, PR or alexa ranking... or some combination there of... they have a limited amount of product and want to get bang for their buck... and that's their right... I still have a PR of 0 and it's primarily because I am not a highly focussed blog... I post a whole variety of things and don't spend a ton of time worrying about meta tags, SEO and specialization... so if I don't qualify for a review or giveaway, I move on to something else... it may well be the company's loss, but there will be other opportunities...

I love that I am supplementing my world as a SAHM by testing products and reading books, offering giveaways and generally increasing my blog traffic that way - but I'm not going to complain or begrudge a company for having a policy...


Today was a unique experience though... I got a misdirected email from a company I cold called by email - the person that received my email to their general mailbox had been trying to forward my email to someone else in the company to ask how specifically to respond to unsolicited requests like mine that didn't meet their criteria... instead I got the email request...


I knew already that I had been rejected, so I emailed back politely and said that as a blogger, I appreciate when a company lets me know promptly and nicely that they are not interested in my opportunity.  I also let them know that sharing criteria for bloggers, links to newsletters and social media, other ways to stay abreast of what is happening at their company are welcome, too!  


As I said before, having worked in an industry where I spent 80% of my time cold calling companies, I expect rejection - I know my blog is small and similar to hundreds of other blogs out there... but if I don't ask, I'll never get bigger and I'll never know what opportunities I missed by not asking.


I will say one thing though - the combination of the embarrassment felt by the individual whose email was misdirected and my polite and cheerful response means that the company has offered me an opportunity to review one of their products on my blog in the next few months...  and gets my foot in the door to prove to them that bigger isn't always better...


I'm also hoping that one day my blog will grow to the size where reviewing for them more regularly would be an option - I love their products and fully expect to try and pitch them again in the future.


This post was inspired by a discussion thread on a site I belong to where bloggers were taking issue with a company's requirement for Google PR to qualify to review products... my take on it is that I appreciate them being upfront about their need... because I don't have a strong PR - mine is 0 - I just didn't bother to apply... I know that there are other bloggers who will have the opportunity to review those products... and that's okay - someday I might get my shot...


Questions for my fellow bloggers:  What are your expectations when you pitch companies?  How do you deal with rejection?  Do you have any interesting stories to share about pitching companies?   Do you have a % that you are aiming for when you start to cold call or email companies through pitch/marketing sites? 


Okay - this makes a second inspired rant today... I think I'm on a roll and should stop while I'm ahead.. or behind as the case may be :)




I am also participating in the following hops:


   

 

I'm featured on Talkative Thursday's

Welcome to Talkative Thursday's - Week 5

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Talkative Thursday's is hosted by Mommy of One and co hosted by Lucas Journey with SPD.
This week's Feature Spotlight Blog is Acting Balanced
You must follow all 3 blogs to participate. 

Announcement:
Link up every Thursday - August 12,19,26 and Sep 1 - and be entered into a drawing to win your button on both our blogs for 1 month.


We also randomly choose a blog each week to feature as the spotlight blog.

RULES:

• Follow the blog in the #1, #2 and #3 SPOT.
• Grab the Talkative Thursday's button, and make a post on your blog, with the button so new follower's know where to submit comments.
• Submit your URL to the linky  below, please have it go to your new blog post with the button.
• Follow as many blog's as you want!!

 If your a new follower, you can leave a comment on this post and on the other host's posting letting us know, and we will follow back.

Other blog hops I'm participating in today:

Saturday...for sharing and catching up

If you missed what's been going on around here or are new to the fray...

*** I passed my 3 hr gestational diabetes test - with flying colors, so no GD this time around ***I am still bruised and battered from Monday's procedure, but the bruises are starting to fade and people are starting to believe me when I say that my husband really doesn't beat me ...I have learned that I will never be a good IV drug user... way too many telltale bruises everywhere...
Acting Balanced is going to be part of a very special giveaway this fall...I've teamed up with fourteen other wonderful blogs to giveaway $750 to one lucky follower!Watch this space for more details!If you want to get a jump on things and follow all 15 blogs, click here
I spent some time reminiscing about back to school... the post is here
And of course there was an especially yummy recipe on Monday here

I'm participating in the:

and

hosted by: Mrs 4444 at Half-Past Kissin' Time
where I've hooked up a couple of great reads from around my bloggy world:
From Hallee the HomemakerFrom Big Teeth and Clouds I'm also going to be hanging out at the Lady Bloggers Tea Party this weekend... you should drop by for a cup!

I have also linked up with Saturday Sound off from To Be Thode
Hope you are having a fabulous Saturday!
If you aren't following yet, you might miss what's coming up next week....
Sunday Family story... family reunion reminisces...MMMmonday back to school recipePost it Note TuesdayNearly Wordless Wednesday (will be pics of my little Surfer dude and Robyn at the beach for Surfer's Healing)and that's just the beginning of the week... 

I'm featured on Friendly Friday!

 I was chosen to be featured on Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog!

If you haven't checked out their Friendly Friday... maybe this is the week that you should... and you know they are a great blog hop, 'cause they picked little old me to be featured :)


For my regular readers... a quick note of thanks - Everyones good wishes and prayers were felt and I passed the 3 hour GD test!!  Ach Baby's placenta does not affect my insulin and therefore I didn't get Gestational Diabetes this time!!!

If this is your first time stopping by, pull up a chair and take a gander around... I've been blogging since December of 2009, and I started this blog because I was tired of being pigeon-holed by the number of characters that Facebook would give me for status updates so I decided to start a little blog to keep my family up-to-date and maybe make a few new friends...

then the bloggy world opened up to me... I found places like:

Pump Up Your Book  & Booksneeze.com that look for bloggers to review and promote books for authors and publishers, and then the world of product reviews from places like Mama Buzz and My BlogSpark and I was hooked on yet another dimension of blogging...

But despite all the book reviews, product reviews and giveaways (currently on hiatus) the things I like most about my blog are being able to share stories about my life, my family and things that go on in the world...

Three of my fave memory posts are:

Kakabeka Falls

Iwannastay

I'm A Tea Granny

My family is also an important part of my world, so I either blog about them, or in the case of hubby - let him blog for himself occasionally...

Robyn, my 12 year old is a budding photographer - and here are some of her recent pics
Liam, my almost 4 year old, is a unique little handful... and here's a post about him
and Ach Baby will make his appearance and complete our little nuclear family on or before November 8th... and here's a recent update on his progress

If you aren't completely bored... can I suggest that you become a follower... I am making a HUGE announcement here on Acting Balanced at 12:01pm this afternoon and you don't want to miss it!!!

I'm going to the NoGoBlogHer blog hop party

My friend Maya at Musings of a Marfan Mom and Stefany from TobeThode are hosting the 

and I'm participating ...

1. When did you start blogging? December of 2009 ... wow, 8 months already... time flies :)
2. Why did you start blogging? I was tired of the limitations of Facebook to tell my story... then I got hooked on the possibilities and my blog has been expanding ever since!
3. What is one thing you are going to do this week that is WAY cooler than going to BlogHer? I'm taking my 1 hour glucose test for gestational diabetes, which I failed with my first pregnancy... and so will probably also be taking the 3 hour test too... so much cooler than a trip to NY don't ya think :S
4. Share a post that you think says a lot about you or is your favorite.  this is my fave

I've been featured!

I'm a Supahstah today on Mother of Pearl It Is!

If you've just found me and my little slice of imbalance, welcome! 

Feel free to poke around and check out my blog!

If you're a regular reader, please check out my feature here

If you haven't entered my give aways, there are two currently running:

$25 Walmart Gift Card from Cascade

Covermates Covers

An Announcement!

I have officially switched over to my own domain... http://www.actingbalanced.com - please update your blogrolls and my buttons if you have them.  If you subscribe by feeds, here are the new ones:

RSS: http://www.actingbalanced.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Atom: http://www.actingbalanced.com/feeds/posts/default

If you subscribe by Networked Blogs, Facebook or Google Friends, it should have automatically migrated...

Sunday Stories will return next week... and don't forget to come and visit tomorrow for MMMmonday!

Friendly Wednesday: Blog Tips

Today on Friendly Wednesday, I am featuring another fellow mommy blogger, Melissa from Mommy Living the Life of Riley! who is way more tech savvy than I am and who has shared snippets of two great blog tips with us for managing graphics!

If you want to be featured on a future Friendly Wednesday, please let me know - just leave a comment saying you want to be featured!

My bio:

I'm a former Science teacher turned stay-at-home mom. My blog is about my interests now, such as parenthood, contests and sweepstakes. I always try to give my point of view on a variety of topics and infuse those opinions with plenty to make you smile! I’m reviewing products and hosting giveaways here too!

How to Add a Scrolling Image Bar to Your Blog!
I wanted to write this post tonight because it is a question that I get from a lot of my readers and it is a great tool for any blogger to use. This is a very convenient way to squeeze as much content onto your site without having a blog that continues on FOREVER! I want to try and explain in a few steps how you can turn your sidebar into a scrolling sidebar so that you can display an unlimited amount of graphics in a very small space. Before we begin, I want to admonish the following:
PLEASE DO NOT TINKER WITH YOUR HTML CODE IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE DOING SO.
REMEMBER TO BACK UP YOUR SITE BEFORE PROCEEDING:
First, you should decide wherever you'd like to install your new scrolling image bar on your blog. Most of the time, this will be done on a sidebar, but you could also easily use this code to create an image slide show in a post of yours as well as in the footer region of your blog too. Next, you should insert the following code above the images that you'd like to scroll together:

Read more here >>

Clean Up Your Graphics!
Today's "Tackle It Tuesday" theme is going to address how to make your blog load faster as well as give you many more search engine links. I'm fairly new to this whole blogging hobby, but I have been dealing with HTML code, in an amateurish way, for quite a while. I'm a big believer in making any website or blog more streamlined, because there's nothing worse than waiting for what seems like an eternity, for a page to load. I myself have left many people's blogs and have never returned, for just this reason. Everyone's time is valuable and what could be slowing your site WAY DOWN is the abundant use of graphics.

I personally enjoy visiting Website Grader (http://websitegrader.com/) to fully analyze my blog for free. Simply type in your blog address as well as your e-mail address, and Website Grader does the rest. It will give you an in-depth report on a full scope of issues and even give you a numeric "grade" between 1 and 100. My grade is currently a 73. When I first started, it was a 62. Here's what I did on "Tackle It Tuesday" to raise my score:

PLEASE DON'T TRY THE FOLLOWING IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE TINKERING WITH HTML CODE.
Also, make sure that you back up your blog page before continuing.

Find your image graphic HTML code on your site. Most of the time, this is very prevalent in your sidebars. Then, graphic by graphic, search the html code and see if there is an alt=" " code inside that html image code. If there is, then great! You do not need to do anything else. If there is NOT, then simply add it inside the bracket with a description of the graphic. Please see the example below:

Read more here 

Thanks for these great tips Melissa!  

**Don't forget to enter my Safety Tats Draw

Yay for Blog friends!

I am humbled to say that AB has won two more awards:

comes from my friend and recent guest poster: Outnumbered Mama from The Busy Woman's Guide to Surviving Motherhood

As with all blogs, this one comes with strings... and an opportunity to showcase some new bloggy friends I have made in the past few weeks!

Rules: Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

So without further ado, here are my nominees for the Lovely Blogger award in no particular order:


Poohbear and Mommy 
Kelley's Family Jewels
Mommy Living the Life of Riley
The Sporadic Cook
Serene Designs
Life of a Modern Mom
The Bird Nest
Finding the Pot of Gold 
House of Hepworths
Creative Attempts
Theme a Party
Living Proof that God has a Sense of Humor
The Attic Girl
Deb's Here
Moving on from the Drama
To Be Thode
Life Happens During Naptime




I also received the Stiletto Award from The Husailey Bunch
Please go and read about the Stiletto Award Here

and am required to share it with 5-10 excellent bloggers, and while all of my new bloggy friends above also qualify for this award, I wanted to tap a few more friends too, so my nominees for this award are:


Out of the box and into the Kitchen
The Snyder 5
The Busy Woman's Guide to Surviving Motherhood
Becoming Homegrown
Hallee the Homemaker
Angie Mizzel

Comments on Blogs...

I used to start guest posts from my couponning blog by saying I feel like I'm at an AA meeting when I get up and say "I'm Heather and I'm a coupon addict" and now I can say I'm going to double meetings because not only am I addicted to coupon shopping, but I'm also addicted to comments :)

People often say that they start blogging for all kinds of reasons... to help, to share, to journal, to put their thoughts down for posterity... whatever the reason, for me one of the driving forces behind my regular blogging is to get comment love... to communicate my thoughts, deeds and pictures to a whole audience of people (you included if you are reading this) and hopefully to get feedback...

In that vein, I've been really working at giving better comments - making sure that when I visit my bloggy friends that I find something more than just a generic word or two to say that I was there... I hope to contribute something...

As for this blog, and the Couponning 101 blog I am really working to create material that is comment worthy - but I am also striving to find new and wonderful blogs to read ... since I can't expect to get huge waves of comments and followers if I don't share and read too!

At the beginning of the month, I stumbled upon Harriet and Friends and found her March 1000 Comment Challenge which means I need to leave at least 30 quality comments a day on blogs I follow, find and read...

I've also found that some of the best bloggers I meet have left me wonderful rich comments here on this blog which have encouraged me to seek them out and find out what else they've been writing...

I will have to say though... that sometimes I visit a blog or read a post and can't think of anything nice to say, so I say nothing at all and go back to visit another day...

Since starting to blog a few months ago, I've really fallen in love with the whole bloggy world and how it has enriched my life... I open my email and hope that there are new emails saying that my posts have  been commented on!   I actually feel a rush when I've been away from the computer and come back to see that there are 3 new comments!

It has gotten so bad that I've now joined CCWA since I know I need to stand up and say "I'm Heather and I have a Comment Addiction"

How do you feel about comments? Are they an important part of why and how you blog? Do you solicit comments?  Do you join networking groups to get more readers and more comments?

As a slight deviation from the topic... I saw this comic today and since I'm talking about comment love - this struck me as a good lesson:

MMMMonday and an announcement!

I've renamed Make it Mondays - cause everything I make is MmMm good.. okay not really, but I hope that the recipes I post here are both yummy and low cost...

and the announcement is that starting this Wednesday, Acting Balanced and Couponning101 will be featuring guest bloggers with posts I know you will be interested in reading!  If any of my blogging friends want to contribute to Wednesdays with Friends please just shoot me an email here! and let me know what topic you would like to cover...I'm up for just about anything :)

So without further adieu... today's MMMmmmonday Recipe is:

Pina Colada Spring Cake!

This is so simple and I stock up on the ingredients to have on hand...

1 angel food cake mix
1 15.9 oz can of crushed pineapple/with juice
1 cup of sweetened coconut divided
1 tub of cool whip topping

Preheat the oven to 350F and spray a fluted bundt pan or angel food cake pan with baking spray (or you can make a 13x9 rectangular cake - its flexible)

In a bowl mix the angel food cake mix with the crushed pineapple until thoroughly incorporated, then mix 1/4 cup of coconut into the batter

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of coconut into the pan and then pour in the cake mixture

Bake cake according to package directions - it will probably need the longest length of time specificed because the pineapple is juicy.  Test cake with a toothpick for doneness.

Let the cake sit for a few minutes before releasing from the cake pan.

Let cake cool and frost with cool whip and top with remaining coconut

2nd award...

Same as the first...

I want to thank my friend Sherri at MissIndyBabbles for re-nominiating me for the sunshine award, after I had given it to her... I was going to ignore it, but then I got to thinking about how hard it was to get all the blogs I read down to a group of twelve, so I've decided to devote another day to sharing SUNSHINE with friends and fellow bloggers and introduce you to twelve more fabulous bloggy friends... who you should visit and tell them I sent you :)

Many of these blog friends I have met through a great web connection blog called SITS (the Secret is In The Sauce)- I would nominate them for an award such as this, but they do such a good job of spotlighting blogs and letting us connect with each other that it would probably not be prudent for them to have to choose only twelve, so instead I am featuring twelve new bloggy friends that I have met through SITS and have visited my blog recently so that I could meet them :)

These are the rules I must oblige by in order to pass it on:

- Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
- Pass the award onto 12 bloggers.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are my nominees, in no particular order....

JDaniel4's Mom - a mom and former teacher who is also a transplant to South Carolina :).  She has great contests and info on her site, and I found a great world math day post there yesterday :)

B Sparkly - a neat mix of family commentary, product reviews and even samples of things she sells on her esty store.

Blue and White Life - another regular commenter on my blog :) thank you!  Her blog is another wonderful mix of personal anecdotes :)

From My Kitchen to Yours - Jamie is also trying to live on a weekly budget and posts her menus!  She also has neat stories about other things going on in her busy life!

Diary of Me... Jeannie, Jane, Angel, Mommy - the name says it all :)

An Unpink Life -great ideas, tips and commentary!

Circle Rice - lots going on in this lady's life - we met in the blog world over having family with Alzheimer's Disease... not the most positive way to meet but glad we found each other's blogs

Random Musings from a Single Gal - Yes, I do actually read blogs that don't involve mommy things... and since her most recent post lamented on how she could only give out 7 awards on her last blog award... I'm going to make her stretch and find 12 more :)

Airing my Dirty Laundry, One Sock at a time - you just have to read THIS Post!

Theta Mom - she has great insights into blogging and has built a great following - so in awe ... and her latest post while I was writing was THIS - so apropos :)

Spirit of Power - Keri blogs about her life, good recipes and more

Becoming Homegrown - Another wonderful blogger... I love reading her recipe reviews like this one

I hope that this award finds all these women happily blogging and you find some new blogs to read!