Of course, there’s a bad side to having a sick toddler.

Yep, I caught her bug. I’m the last in the house to catch it, so I guess I’m lucky, but being 4 months pregnant and sick is just no fun. I’m sleeping way too much. I got no work done yesterday, and I don’t know if I’ll be up for working today. This is really a problem because my account is way, way behind, so I really want to help out. At least Brent is off this weekend, so he should be able to watch Ariel while I work this weekend. Maybe there’ll be a bonus. Happens sometimes when the transcription gets really far behind.

Brent is so frustrated right now. He’s been interviewing for a manager position with a company, and all he has to do is have his final interview with the VP to finish the interview process, and the other interview says he’s the one she wants for the job. The VP is from out of state, and just in time to cancel the first interview came down with pneumonia, then for the lunch break interview yesterday she went to the wrong place to meet him. It’s very frustrating, because now it will be a week and a half before she’s back in the area to try again.

Sick toddler day, what fun…

Actually, it’s not too bad. It’s just a fever and runny nose, which leads to clinginess and (usually) extra-long naps. Not that bad a thing.

Considering how much medical transcription work there is to be done, it’s probably even a good thing, the extra-long nap possibility, that is. We’re out of turnaround (I knew from yesterday this was likely today), so they called and asked if I was planning on working today. You know they need you when they call.

I also got a bit more done with the Ad Network late last night and today, so I am really hoping for some good results. I really am enthusiastic about the possibilities of this network because, despite the claims of certain others, say an article I read today, unthemed links DO help in the search engines. Now, they may not help in the future, but for now I’ll use what ought to work. Lots of people would rather they didn’t work, and in general I do stick to themed links as being better for my visitors, but these unthemed ones I just keep subtle. Still quite visible, I’m not playing search engine tricks of that kind, but not something you’d likely notice if you weren’t looking. Ok, so they’re in the footer of each page in about a 10 pt font. As I said, visible but subtle.

It’s been a busy day so far…

I put more ads in my various Co-op Ad Network accounts. It’ll take time for the backlinks to show up, especially the jewelry ones, since that site still needs more complete indexing by Google, but they’ll get there.

I also submitted my site to still a few more directories, so hopefully I’ll get into some of those too. That’s the hardest part about link submissions sometimes; it’s hard to know whether or not you’re getting any benefit or not, or how long it takes for the links to show. Too many variables. But, I am making a great list of places to submit a website to for free without requiring a reciprocal link, which will make this pleasanter in the future.

Now it’s time for some medical transcription.

Tomorrow I’m going to meet someone who I helped to choose a medical transcription course. She’s taking her final now, and wants me to come over tomorrow before she turns it in, and just tell her if she’s blown it. Should be fun to meet her.

The Co-op Ad Network now allows sites to increase their weight by running more than one ad, which is nice if you don’t make them too prominent. I’m going to give it a try here and there; not on the jewelry site just yet, but elsewhere that the ads are more discreet.

I started my first AdWords ads for the jewelry site today. No, not going to share what keywords or what page I’m advertising, but I really hope to get some results. It’s exciting reaching a point where I can advertise a little. I’m taking it easy until I get a feel for how well the ads are working. $1 a day budget is all for it, even though Google suggested $2; yes, that’s right, I’m going for the cheap ads.

I got a whole lot of website work done yesterday. Now I just need the search engines to pay attention to me!

Some of the new sections are a little light on content, since they are generated using a DRM script, so I had to find ways to add content around them. One section, in the engagement ring page, just about gave me fits. It wanted to go horizonatal, causing some awful horizontal scrolling, when obviously I wanted it to go vertical. I finally gave in and put it all in tables to force the scripts to display the way I wanted them to. I really hate using tables anymore, but sometimes they are the only option.

I also added my sites to the Co-op Ad Network. It’s not that I’ve gotten grand results from it yet, but it is another way to get noticed. Google still doesn’t have a good index of more than a couple pages on my site, so I have to encourage it somehow. I’ll keep reporting back on the progress of my ads, so you’ll know if they turn out to be worthwhile. I have limited expectations as to visitors from this; it has more to do with backlinks, just like the directory submissions.