I just put up my first squidoo lens – Learn Wedding Photography and I have to admit I am impressed with how easy it was to set up. Years ago I was introduced to it but I didn’t take the time to use it…I wish I did.
How Squidoo Works
The concept is that you provide the content and create a post as is done with a blog. Squidoo has set up the layout and modules, some are automatically added and they can all be customized. The poster gets a share of the revenue from adsense, amazon and other affiliate programs already set up. For anyone not wanting to set up their own blog and have the hassle of signing up for ad networks and affiliate programs it gets the job done quick.
What I Learned From Squidoo
One of the things I have considered the most lately is the layout or theme of my blogs. Once there is traffic coming to a blog it is easy to make money with ads. How much money is made with the ads depends on many factors and one of them is the positioning of the ads. I will take into consideration that Squidoo has been around a while and has no doubt spent time and money testing different ad layouts for their pages to maximize revenue. I will likely use a similar layout for my blogs intended to make revenue from ads.
Notice the ad placement indicated with the arrows. Chances are this is the best layout if you are monetizing with adsense:
I also noticed the social share buttons at the top of the page. In my experience with adding them to my wordpress blogs I noticed they were the slowest loading items on the page. Being as Google takes that into consideration and even displays page load times in Google webmaster tools I shyed (is that a word) from it. I am going to consider it again.
Visitor Statistics
Squidoo has it set up to easily ad Google analytics code to the post so I will ad it to my reports and be able to see all stats in one place without having to waste time logging into Squidoo to see what is happenning. I like this feature.
Overall
I will try creating more lens and see what happens. If there is some traffic going to it simply because it is on Squidoo then it is definitely worth while. Also, the benefit of being able to add links to other sites on the page has its benefits.
Related posts:
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
My first squidoo lens and how I will make money from it
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Learn Phtography
In another post I talk about learning wedding photography and this post is all about learning photography in general.
In my search for resources to learn photography and have a good time doing it I found Jared Polin. He has a youtube channel called Fro Knows Photo, as you can tell by the title he is an interesting guy. Here is his intro video on youtube:
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Free Learn to Blog Course Using WordPress London Ontario
I am starting a learn to blog course and have classes in London Ontario.
If you are interesting in learning to blog send me an email for the dates.
Email me at: davidloney@davidloney.ca
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Changed the wordpress theme for my blog
I was using the WPLook blogolife wordpress theme because I thought it was nice and clean. There was lots of white space in the layout but I thought visitors would like a website that didn’t have a bunch of graphics jammed into one page.
After taking a look at some other sites I am starting to believe that a bunch of graphics and banners on a page isn’t such a bad thing. It might be that keeping a random visitor from a search engine involves some visual appeal. Having banners on a page almost seems to make it feel more normal as most websites have them.
Some of the marketing guru’s that I follow have really simple layouts for their blogs. That was influencing my decision on what theme to use. Once I started using adsense on my websites I started to have a different perspective.
After a little research and watching some adsense case study videos I started to look for a wordpress theme that was more ad friend and more visually appealing.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Free Wedding Websites
Free Wedding Websites
Get a free wedding website for your wedding to help you plan and share the details of your wedding.
Free wedding websites are available from a few different places. Here is a list.
eWedding.com
- Free and paid packages available
- Easy to set up and start your site in a few minutes
- Has every feature you could need for a wedding
- RSVP Management, Photos, Videos, Downloads, Mailing Lists
- Some limitations on free package
- $4.95 per month gets all features including a domain name
Wedding Window
- Custom Themes
- Planning Tools
- Unlimited Features and Apps
- Step by Step Site Wizard
- Free and Paid Packages available
- Loads of features in the Free Package
Category: Wedding Websites
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Building Momentum with Blogging Part 3
Alright so lets talk about referrals from other websites.
There are a bunch of different categories for this:
- Others Sharing with Social Sites
- Self Sharing with Social Sites
- Syndication
- Webmasters/bloggers
- many others I am not thinking about right now.
Others Sharing with Social Sites
If Jay is pumping out content that is providing some value to his readers than his readers are likely to share their friends. It is only natural that people like to help their friends so they will want their friends to benefit from the content as well. For instance, if Jay figures out how to do something in 1 hour that used to take him 8 hours and he writes about it, then his readers will benefit as they will now have saved 7 hours of their own time, for every time they do the same thing. That is an example of some good content.
Self Sharing with Social Sites
Jay can easily set up facebook pages, twitter accounts and various other social sites to promote his blog. For example, if Jay is into SEO, than he can start a twitter account, follow a bunch of other people that are into SEO too. He will end up with some followers on twitter and when he posts some valuable content about SEO he can tweet about it and likely get visitors from his tweet. There are cool ways to build up followers on twitter but that will have to be in another post.
Syndication
I really think a lot of people have a hard time getting their head around this. But take a look at how movie makers make money. After making a movie they send it out to movie critics…the critics get to watch the movie before the general public. The movie critics start posting online about the movie, whether they liked it or not it is still free advertising for the movie. Then the movie makers will have to send the actors out to all the entertainment shows to do interviews about the movie which creates buzz about the movie too. Keep in mind this is all before the movie even comes out. Then there will be commecials, movie posters on bus stands, newspapers, online ads etc. My point here is that they don’t just make a movie and then send it to a movie theatre and hope people go to watch it. Anyhow, I am getting off topic. So getting back on track…after the movie is made it gets sent out to all the movie theaters for opening day. So they are essentially syndicating their content. Its the same movie, shown in thousands of movie theaters. How does this relate to a blog? Well if you are posting great content on your website, why create content that is about your content and have that published on other websites. Be like an actor going on an entertainment show….except post an article about your content, maybe featuring some content and have it published on other websites.
Then after that, just like movies are put on local cable channels your content can be used by other websites. If you have some really great content, another website might want to use it on their site with a credit to you. And doing that would also raise the level of awareness of your site.
This practice is a normal practice and is used by almost every company in existence, online and offline.
Webmasters/bloggers
Many times I have found out about sites and people from reading or watching peoples content. If you make friends with some other bloggers and they like your content, they are likely to mention it and provide a link to your site. This will drive traffic to your site. Online networking has huge benefits just like offline networking.
There are so many other ways to get traffic to your site I will have to cover it in another post.
Building Momentum with Blogging Part 2
So lets talk about building momentum with an email list.
We were using Jay as a fictitious blogger in Building Momentum with Blogging Part 1, so lets say Jay decides to ad an email subscription form to his blog. This means that people that like his content and want more of it can submit their email address and blog updates directly into their email inbox.
This will drive traffic to the website exponentially. If Jay gets 1 new subscriber per day than after 1 year he has 365 subscribers. He can then send out an email about a new update to his blog and potentially get 365 visits to his blog, plus traffic that is coming from search engines. After 10 years Jay could have 3650 blog subscribers. So then he could do the same thing and have 3650 visitors to his blog, in one day. We could do this once a week and this would provide him with an extra 189,800 visitors per year, and that would be 569,400 page views (if there was 3 page views per visitor). As we learned in Part 1, just from search results the blog could get 569,400 page views per year. Now with the email subscription we are adding another 500,000+ page views per year. So this doubles the anticipated ad revenue and could double the anticipated affiliate revenue.
Obviously this makes a good case for adding an email subscription service to your blog. Take a look in wordpress plug ins for how to add one to your blog.
Building Momentum with Blogging Part 2
So lets talk about building momentum with an email list.
We were using Jay as a fictitious blogger in Building Momentum with Blogging Part 1, so lets say Jay decides to ad an email subscription form to his blog. This means that people that like his content and want more of it can submit their email address and blog updates directly into their email inbox.
Obviously this makes a good case for adding an email subscription service to your blog. Take a look in wordpress plug ins for how to add one to your blog.
How people succeed, and why - Tony Robbins, Frank Kerns, John Reese
I have always been a fan of Tony Robbins and later on found videos from Frank Kern who is buds with John Reese.
Many years ago my interpretation of Tony Robbins materials was that he was a motivator. I thought he made videos that I would feel motivated after watching them. Maybe the content he was publishing 15 years ago was simply motivation or maybe there was more to it that I couldn’t understand at the time. Now when I take in his content it has a tremendous effect on me. I understand that there are a lot of things that contribute to success but most of it is what is in my head. What do I mean? I now understand that the reason most successful people become successful is that they see the world in a different way than most people and/or they decide what environment they are putting themselves in which then has almost certainty to make them think and do things that lead to success.
Throughout my life I always thought that adults were making their own decisions and carefully guiding their lives. I thought I was making all my own decisions too. I finally realized and learned to feel how each person in my life and the environment I was putting myself in was influencing my life, my decisions and my success (or lack of it).
What do I mean by this? I used to always keep myself on a certain track, I decided what my mission was and I went for it. If anything got in my way I figured out how to get around it. While it was great that I was sticking to my mission I didn’t realize that I spent a lot of time and energy on dealing with obstacles. I now know that I don’t have to deal with so many obstacles I only need to deal with the ones that will end up providing me with more return in the form of energy or time then what I will have to put into it. I now focus my energy on doing this that will provide me with a residual return of investment for every day of the rest of my life. For example, if I am going to spend 8 hours a day on doing things that will give back to me in the future than if I have an obstacle that is going to take 2 hours to deal with and cause me to expend 8 hours worth of energy then I stop and take a look at the potential return of an investment of energy on the obstacle. If I am spending 8 hours of energy on one thing, will that one thing give me back 8 hours worth of energy in the next year, and then after that another 8 hours the next year? If not, I don’t bother tackling the obstacle because it will have a negative effect on my life. I want to spend 8 hours of energy on something that will give me back 8 hours of energy every year to come in the future.
Anyhow, this all means to me that when I get driven to do something I have to stop and take a look at what is driving me and is it something that I can logically expect a positive return on. This is not always the easiest thing for me to do, but the more I do it the more easier it becomes.
In the video below with Tony Robbins, Frank Kern and John Reese in it the biggest message I received from it is:
People will do things based on past experiences. If someone tries something once and gets result x, they think they will always get result x. However there is usually a better way to get the desired result.
Free Advertising for London Ontario Wedding Vendors
Free Advertising for London Ontario Wedding Vendors
I have set up a London Ontario Wedding Site and am offering (for a limited time) free advertising to vendors in London on this site.
Why would you want your business listed?
Google search “london ontario wedding photographers” and see the site is listed in a top spot.Currently I am looking for wedding vendors in London Ontario in the following categories:
To get your London Ontario Wedding business listed on this site send me an email – davidloney@davidloney.ca with your business URL and a description and I will post it on the wedding site.
All wedding vendors must be located in London Ontario to be added to the London Ontario Wedding site.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Need a Wedding Photographer?
Need a Wedding Photographer?
I have made a list of Wedding Photographers in London Ontario.
Know a wedding photographer that you think should be in the list?
If you are a London Ontario wedding photographer contact me about
about listing your website and guest posting on this wedding site.
If you need a website for your wedding photography business I can set
up a site for you.
Friday, May 18, 2012
I have been following Tom Ewer's blog
I have been following Tom Ewer’s blog for the last few weeks and I think he is onto something. What I like the most about his blog is that he is totally honest about his earnings and his path to making money online.
One of my favourite blogs about making money online.
OIO Publisher Coupon Code May
OIO Publisher Coupon Code
SHOGUN-DL10
$20 Off!
Category: News, OIO Publisher Coupon Code
Thursday, May 17, 2012
London Ontario Wedding Vendors List
Searching the internet for local wedding vendors in London Ontario?
I have created a website with a categorized list of local wedding vendors in London Ontario.I have also created downloadable list of wedding vendors in London Ontario. To get access to it sign up David’s wedding tips.
If you know of a wedding vendor in London Ontario that would be a great fit for the list please send me an email about them.
Category: London Ontario News, News
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Wordpress Plugins | David Loney
WP 125 Ad Manager WordPress Plug-in
This plug in is pretty slick. It allows you to sell ads on your website very easily. Install the plug-in and then set the ads, when to expire etc.
This plug in does almost everything I need an ad manager to do. It is free and does a great job with a little manual work involved to manage the ads.
To get complete automation of ads, eg. having an advertiser sign up, upload an image and pay this plug in works best.
Wordpress Plugins | David Loney
I finished setting up a members only section for one of my websites. There are some pretty cool features in the membership plug in.
Here is the inside look of the membership plug in:
Here you can set the emails you want sent to new users automatically. And remind members if there membership is about to expire.
This is where the access levels are set. Free subscription levels can be created and unlimited access levels.
A report that lists members.
The membership dashboard (the admin view from inside wordpress)
The options listed in the side bar inside the Admin dashboard.
The options page. Note the additional options and settings available on the tab at the top of the pic.
Payment gateways available.
Subscription plans, unlimited amount of plans.
The membership plug in will ping a website.
This plug-in is sweet, it has all the options I could dream of and can even do drip content. The membership plug-in is a premium plug-in available from my favourite wordpress plug-in source: WPMU.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Brandon David - London Wedding Photographer
Bandon David’s Website: www.brandondavid.ca
Bandon David’s Blog: www.brandondavidphotography.ca
Phone: 1.877.377.0468
email: brandon@brandondavid.ca
May 2012 | Page 2
Reading a blog is so much more interesting when there are pictures with it. I took a look around to find a quick and easy to use screen shot program that would let me grab a screen shot, crop it and easily add it to my wordpress blog.
I found Jing and it works great.
How it works
After installing the program it shows a yellow ball at the top of the screen like this. To make a screen cap, click on the ball and it shows cross hairs to select the area of the screen to capture. Once the area is select it crops the image and the option to upload or save to a computer is provided.
To add the screen shot to a blog, I save the image to my computer and then add it to a page or post like any other image.
Here is an example screen shot I took while typing this post:
The tool allows the user to quickly and easy make a screen shot and add text borders or images to it.
Get Jing here – Its free
Ad Manager Wordpress Plug-in Review
I have a website that is bringing in some decent traffic and wanted a way to have ads on the website that were geared toward the site. I is important to me that I am able to have editorial control over the types of ads that are displayed on my website.
The search for an Ad Manager Plug-in for Word Press
It was very easy for me to find a bunch of ad manager plug ins by using the plug-in search function from within the word press dashboard. Find a plug in that would do everything I wanted was another story. Some plug-ins are made better than others.
Features I wanted in an Ad Manager Plug-in
Fully automated sign up process for advertisers
One of the most important things I have learned about the internet and business in general is being able to close the deal immediately is very important. If an advertiser is able to see rates, stats and sign up and pay all within 5 minutes they are more likely to make the purchase. Without this process it would mean the advertiser might have to spend hours sending emails back and forth to the website owner/webmaster, negotiate a price and then hopefully have their ad set up. That process is way too long considering advertising can be done on a huge scale within minutes with many ad networks.
Ads must be put up and taken down by the Ad Manager Plug-in
I did not want to spend time manually putting up ad code and then taking it down when the ad expired. This just isn’t efficient enough for me. If it takes five minutes to put an ad up and five minutes to take an ad down then I would consider that a waste of time. There are hundreds of 1 minute tasks to do each month and I certainly don’t want another one!
Stats must be shown to me and the advertiser
I wanted to be able to view ad stats and have my advertisers be able to view the stats.
Payment gateway
It really doesn’t matter how much the ad was worth. I still don’t want to have to manually bill an advertiser. I don’t even want to have to run a credit card through each month manually.
So after searching and testing multiple ad manager plug ins I found only one that does this and even more.
Here it is:
OIO Publisher - OIO Publisher Coupon Codes
This plug-in is definitely in my top ten of wordpress plug-ins I use.
Take a look at how I have it set up this blog: Advertise
There is also the option to set up an affilate program to pay people a commission to sell ads on your website. Check out how I have this set up on this website here: Ad Affiliate for Davidloney.ca
News | David Loney
James Farmer (creator of WPMU Dev, my favourite WP plug in source) provides some great insight into the inner workings of SEO from a website promoters point of view.
Apparently there has been a lot of sites that have seen there rank in SERP’s drop as a result of the Penguin update. I can’t relate to this as I have only seen my sites improve in rankings every day, that must be a result of good quality content and doing things properly.
Anyhow, knowing how SEO works is definitely one of the most important things for any business that wants to promote their site online. Many businesses laque the basic knowledge of SEO as I see it everyday when visiting competitors sites. One of the simplest things to do is have the proper title tag for your website. There are still many websites with “home” as their title tag for their root domain. Even worse than that is the sites made entirely with flash that won’t get ranked in google at all. One of the weirdest things I have seen is some photographer sites that look amazing but it takes 3 minutes to load all the pictures they have on every page. I don’t know why some of them think they need to have multiple 3 mb pictures on every page.
Even so, what amazes me more is the tremendous opportunities with google that enough people haven’t figured out how to provide the content a user is searching for when they type in a certain search term. It is still a gold rush on google.
Here is Rand Fiskin’s take on the update, it might be worth 11 minutes of your time to view it.
Rand is the founder of SEO moz which is a leader in the SEO industry.
By the way I made this screen cap with jing. Check out my review of Jing here.
Wordpress Plugins | David Loney
Follow Widget
This is a wicked plug in for gaining subscribers to your content.
This plugin provides a widget that displays image links (icon buttons) to various subscription services and social networking sites in your sidebar (or any widget holder). Helps users in easily finding links to subscription services like RSS feed, email subscriptions, podcast, etc., follow the website’s Facbeook and Twitter pages, etc., and connect via various social networking sites.
Get the plug in here, or search for “follow widget” from within WP Admin.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Fountains for the Garden | Garden Design
It’s surprisingly easy to rig up a fountain in your garden or on a deck, thanks to the widely available array of recirculating pumps that eliminate the need for underground pipes. Just fill the basin once, then top it off every now and again. Most pumps require electricity, so be sure extension cords are rated for outdoors, and if winter temperatures in your area dip below freezing, you’ll probably want to drain and cover the fountain. Better still, set it up inside your home and enjoy it year-round.
Great Planes
With its clean lines and generous 36-inch width, the cast concrete X3 Fountain makes a bold statement in any landscape. You can order the American-made X3 in one of 12 finishes, and it ships for free to anywhere in the continental U.S. With the X3 weighing in at 500-plus pounds, that’s not a bad deal.
Friday, May 11, 2012
James Farmer reports on Google's Latest Update | David Loney
James provides some great insight into the inner workings of SEO from a website promoters point of view.
Apparently there has been a lot of sites that have seen there rank in SERP’s drop as a result of the Penguin update. I can’t relate to this as I have only seen my sites improve in rankings every day, that must be a result of good quality content and doing things properly.
Anyhow, knowing how SEO works is definitely one of the most important things for any business that wants to promote their site online. Many businesses laque the basic knowledge of SEO as I see it everyday when visiting competitors sites. One of the simplest things to do is have the proper title tag for your website. There are still many websites with “home” as their title tag for their root domain. Even worse than that is the sites made entirely with flash that won’t get ranked in google at all. One of the weirdest things I have seen is some photographer sites that look amazing but it takes 3 minutes to load all the pictures they have on every page. I don’t know why some of them think they need to have multiple 3 mb pictures on every page.
Even so, what amazes me more is the tremendous opportunities with google that enough people haven’t figured out how to provide the content a user is searching for when they type in a certain search term. It is still a gold rush on google.
Here is Rand Fiskin’s take on the update, it might be worth 11 minutes of your time to view it.
Rand is the founder of SEO moz which is a leader in the SEO industry.
By the way I made this screen cap with jing. Check out my review of Jing here.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wicked free online screen shot and crop and post program
Reading a blog is so much more interesting when there are pictures with it. I took a look around to find a quick and easy to use screen shot program that would let me grab a screen shot, crop it and easily add it to my wordpress blog.
I found Jing and it works great.
How it works
After installing the program it shows a yellow ball at the top of the screen like this. To make a screen cap, click on the ball and it shows cross hairs to select the area of the screen to capture. Once the area is select it crops the image and the option to upload or save to a computer is provided.
To add the screen shot to a blog, I save the image to my computer and then add it to a page or post like any other image.
Here is an example screen shot I took while typing this post:
The tool allows the user to quickly and easy make a screen shot and add text borders or images to it.
Get Jing here – Its free
Local Business Marketing - Promoting your services
Here is an example of an effective way of advertising your services online. After watching this video I would definitely trust this photographer for a wedding portrait or other photography work.
The video is under 5 minutes and the viewers get to know him personally a little bit and decide for themselves about the quality of his work.
What an excellent way to promote services online and gain trust in your potential customers eyes.
Take a look at the video here.
For other wedding vendors in London Ontario Canada take a look at my list of wedding vendors.
David Loney
I have a few websites on the go and constantly check to see how well my sites are ranking in search engine results. Of course checking google all the time was starting to drive me crazy. With my websites showing up in search results for a few thousand keywords it was really hard to notice the exact results of certain efforts.
I spent a few hours looking around for free keyword rank checkers. And found a lot of cool ones but they were in the neighborhood of $99 per month. So to keep on track with talking about the free ones I found here they are:
1. Free Rank Checker from Clever Stat
This is a downloadable program that runs on your desktop. Its pretty easy to use and get rolling. It lets you put in as many keywords as you would like and then it searches google to see where your site is ranking. It keeps track of the keywords and then running the tool again will show which keywords are going up or down. Here is a screen shot of this.
That picture is from the first run but you get the idea that it will show if your site is ranking up or down.
The program works great but there is limited features. Essentially you get the list as you see above and that’s it for reports.
There is a paid program from the same company but I didn’t bother checking it out.
2. Rank Tracker - Free and paid versions (no saving in free)
The is another downloadable program that runs on your desktop. There is a free and paid version. The free version has many features and reports but is limited in that none of the data is saved. So if you just want to see your current rankings it does that great but there is no historical data. To purchase this program and use all the features is $99.
I have to mention Raventools.com, its $99 per month but man does it have all the features one could want.
Mortgage Agents added to the directory
New Mortgage Agents added to my list of Mortgage Agents for the following cities:
Know a mortgage agent that could be listed in the directory?
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
David Loney
Searching the internet for local wedding vendors in London Ontario?
I have created a website with a categorized list of local wedding vendors in London Ontario.I have also created downloadable list of wedding vendors in London Ontario. To get access to it sign up David’s wedding tips.
If you know of a wedding vendor in London Ontario that would be a great fit for the list please send me an email about them.
Ad Manager Wordpress Plug-in Review
I have a website that is bringing in some decent traffic and wanted a way to have ads on the website that were geared toward the site. I is important to me that I am able to have editorial control over the types of ads that are displayed on my website.
The search for an Ad Manager Plug-in for Word Press
It was very easy for me to find a bunch of ad manager plug ins by using the plug-in search function from within the word press dashboard. Find a plug in that would do everything I wanted was another story. Some plug-ins are made better than others.
Features I wanted in an Ad Manager Plug-in
Fully automated sign up process for advertisers
One of the most important things I have learned about the internet and business in general is being able to close the deal immediately is very important. If an advertiser is able to see rates, stats and sign up and pay all within 5 minutes they are more likely to make the purchase. Without this process it would mean the advertiser might have to spend hours sending emails back and forth to the website owner/webmaster, negotiate a price and then hopefully have their ad set up. That process is way too long considering advertising can be done on a huge scale within minutes with many ad networks.
Ads must be put up and taken down by the Ad Manager Plug-in
I did not want to spend time manually putting up ad code and then taking it down when the ad expired. This just isn’t efficient enough for me. If it takes five minutes to put an ad up and five minutes to take an ad down then I would consider that a waste of time. There are hundreds of 1 minute tasks to do each month and I certainly don’t want another one!
Stats must be shown to me and the advertiser
I wanted to be able to view ad stats and have my advertisers be able to view the stats.
Payment gateway
It really doesn’t matter how much the ad was worth. I still don’t want to have to manually bill an advertiser. I don’t even want to have to run a credit card through each month manually.
So after searching and testing multiple ad manager plug ins I found only one that does this and even more.
Here it is:
This plug-in is definitely in my top ten of wordpress plug-ins I use.
Take a look at how I have it set up this blog: Advertise
There is also the option to set up an affilate program to pay people a commission to sell ads on your website. Check out how I have this set up on this website here: Ad Affiliate for Davidloney.ca
Soil Masters Affiliate Program for Selling Ads
Join the Soil Masters affiliate program for advertising ads on soilmasters.ca.
Earn a commission for ads purchased that you have referred.
Affordable Luxury Meets Outdoor Living | Garden Design
Recent trends have encouraged the growth of luxurious outdoor living that captures the style and essence of one's interiors. What's not to love about enjoying the serene surroundings of the outdoors while relaxing with friends and family, or even a good book? Key elements of the outdoor room include lounge furniture such as a sofa, loveseat or club chair, accent tables, dining furniture and planters to accentuate your outdoor space with your latest garden creations.
Oxford Garden outdoor furniture helps transform your outdoor space into a relaxing, inviting atmosphere that exemplifies affordable luxury. The affordable luxury of Oxford Garden outdoor living can be defined by three traits: extraordinary craftsmanship, graceful design and lasting beauty.
Extraordinary Craftsmanship. Oxford Garden outdoor furniture is built with quality materials that ensure every day outdoor use. Oxford Garden uses the finest materials for outdoor furniture production, including teak, shorea, acacia, resin wicker, powder coated aluminum and composite sling. These materials are combined to create quality outdoor furniture that resists weathering and is resistant to bug infestation and rotting.
Graceful Design. Oxford Garden outdoor living is designed to be both comfortable and visually appealing. Created to accommodate the contours of the human body, Oxford Garden outdoor furniture captures both classic and contemporary style to fit the aesthetic needs of any outdoor environment.
Lasting Beauty. Outdoor furniture known for luxury must also be created to last. Oxford Garden outdoor living is designed with style that is timeless and materials that will endure the elements of the outdoors. As a gardener, your main focus should be the beautiful plants and flowers that bring life to your outdoor space. Therefore, we have created outdoor furniture that requires minimal maintenance and you will grow to love year after year.
For more information regarding the affordable luxury of Oxford Garden outdoor living, visit www.oxfordgarden.com or call 877-866-3331.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Bax Mortgage Group - London Mortgage Specialists
BAX Mortgage Group Inc.
86 Wharncliffe Road South
London, ON
N6J 2K1Website
519 433 4800
Category: London
Free Advertising for London Ontario Wedding Vendors
I have set up a London Ontario Wedding Site and am offering (for a limited time) free advertising to vendors in London on this site.
Currently I am looking for wedding vendors in London Ontario in the following categories:
- Wedding Photographers
- Wedding Cakes
- Wedding Consultants
- Bridal Make up & Hair
- Wedding Dresses
To get your London Ontario Wedding business listed on this site send me an email – davidloney@davidloney.ca with your business URL and a description and I will post it on the wedding site.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Just finished setting up an ecommerce store with wordpress
I am very impressed with the options for this plug in and the ease of use. Within minutes I had Market Press set up, configured options and was ready to go.
There are great options with this plug in:
- Multiple payment gateways supports
- Easily set up coupons
Google Reader (256)
Courtney + Anderson were married at The Textile Museum in Washington DC. I love that their inspiration for their wedding was cocktail hour since they really wanted the entire night to have the excitement + movement of the cocktail hour of a wedding. So fun. :) To make sure their wedding was truly reflective of the two of them, they paid attention to their gut instincts when it came time to make most of the decisions. They also had incredible planners (the lovely ladies of Ritzy Bee Events!) that really got them and what they really wanted for their wedding. Big thanks to Kate Headley for the photos and sweet film of the day!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Handmade Cali Wedding with Snow: Kate + Jared | Green Wedding Shoes Wedding Blog | Wedding Trends for Stylish + Creative Brides
Kate + Jared planned a sunny spring time country wedding at Riley’s Farm in Oak Glen, California. However, sunny springtime is not what they got – instead, they got SNOW! Oh, did I mention this wedding happened two weeks ago! :) Snow rarely happens in this part of Southern California, but it left a pure white blanket over their ceremony + reception. Instead of freaking out, Kate just layered up her leggings and even sported a pair of striped socks that belonged to a wedding guest! The wedding was beautifully brought back together by all of the love and support from the bridal party, friends, and family as everyone braved the snow to witness Kate + Jared tie the knot! Thanks so much to Sara Lucero for the lovely photos.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Couture, high-end gown lines and fabulous accessories make Couture Threads a favourite with brides
When we think of couture clothing, we think of the high end trends fit for the streets of Paris and the runways of New York and Milan. But since those destinations are just a bit far for most Toronto and Southern Western Ontario brides, there’s a fabulous boutique that’s a lot closer to home.
Stratford-based Couture Threads Bridal & Event Dressing is located at 64 Wellington Street in the countryside town of Stratford. After three years, owner, Rose Schuett, has turned Couture Threads into a household name both in Southwestern Ontario and in the hearts of brides.
With mid- to high-end, drop dead gorgeous designer lines such as Frascara, La Sposa, Paloma Blanca, Pattis, Pronovias and Blue by Enzoani, Couture Threads is about offering fashion, shopping, and a “couture experience” for the entire wedding party, all in one local location.
In the past year, the team at The Ring has worked with Couture Threads on both fashion shoots (Fall/Winter 2010 issue and the most recent Spring/Summer 2012 issue of The Wedding Ring Magazine) and trend features. Throughout that time, Rose and her husband Ed have never failed to inspire or teach us something new. Each time we turn to them for something new in fashion to share, we’ve never come up empty handed at Couture Threads. So in light of that, here’s just some of the reasons we love Couture Threads for all things bridal, from Chantilly lace to chandelier earrings…
My other websites:
Wed Design
London Ontario Wedding
Wedding Photographers
Google Reader (259)
After this morning’s wedding with surprise snow, I figured there might be quite a few of you lovely couples out there planning a winter wedding, so lots of fun winter inspiration today! This inspirational shoot is based off the idea of old English Hunting parties. Super fun! And the location is the Seven Oaks Farm, a brand new gorgeous wedding venue located in the scenic St. Croix Valley of Minnesota. There is a lovely orchard and a beautiful Wisconsin style barn with large doors on both sides so you can see straight through. Sounds like a great location for those of you in Minnesota dreaming of a barn wedding! :) Big thanks to the duo of Erin + Carly with Erin Johnson Photography for the design + photos today!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Experienced Lern 2 Liv Productions is an outgoing and renowned videography team offering moving and professional wedding footage
Perusing the site of Lern 2 Liv Productions will likely convince you of the experience that this videography team has, along with the quality footage that couples receive of their special day. Just take a look at some of their samples of weddings—or even of the milestone events and other videos—that this expert team shoots. If you’re looking for complete packages that are tailored to your needs, then you should check out Lern 2 Liv Productions. Here’s what we found when we did...
Backgrounds
Lern2 Liv Productions was founded by Ernie and Livia, a videography team based in London, Ontario. Before we get started on their background, let us first explain the company name, because, as they tell us, like many couples who they work with, we wondered why the misspelling? As Ernie explains, the name comes from a reference to their motto on life: Learning to Live. On top of this is that Ernie’s nickname is “Ern,” and Livia’s nickname is Liv, hence: Lern 2 Liv. It puts a fun spin on things—much like this videography team. The third part of the trio is Derek Roberts, aptly titled, “Now the Most Experienced Camera Operator with Lern 2 Liv Productions.”
So let’s talk about their history. While weddings aren’t the only thing that Lern 2 Liv films, they say their specialty is taking a video and adding fitting music in order to highlight a person or couple’s special history; something you’re obviously interested in when looking for videography services for your nuptials. And with years of customer service and video production expertise behind them, they’ve got the know-how to back them up. David, the newest addition to the triumvirate, brings over fourteen years of experience, including work as a news shooter and music video producer. He’s been nominated for awards for his first-rate editing abilities and has even won an award for video production excellence. If that’s not enough, Lern 2 Liv is highly recommended by some of London’s top wedding vendors, so they’ve also got a stellar reputation to boot.
My other websites:
Wed Design
London Ontario Wedding
Wedding Photographers
Get a Landscaping Business Website
Have a lawn care or landscaping business but no website?
We will create and market your local business online.
This offer is only available to 3 local businesses in each city in the lawn care/landscaping service sector.
This service includes:
- Domain name registration
- Website creation
- Search engine optimization
- Local business directory listings
- Website traffic statistics reporting monthly
- Mailing list setup and ongoing marketing
- Social website integration (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
- Ongoing website management
- Website updates
- Daily content added to your website
We market a maximium of three local business per service sector in each city to maximize your results.
Banksy Inspired Wedding: Mary + Clay | Green Wedding Shoes Wedding Blog | Wedding Trends for Stylish + Creative Brides
Mary + Clay really wanted to have a wedding “on their own terms” and although it may have seemed insignificant, the street artist Banksy was a good reminder for them to not get caught up in the institution. Since they knew they wanted to design the invitations themselves, Mary wrote the text and Clay found the perfect Banksy design to bring it together – his famous Balloon Girl. :) They even continued the red balloon element throughout their wedding day and I just love that Mary wore bright red lipstick with her white dress – which was her mother’s handmade japanese gown.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Brides love Nova of NovaMarkina Photography for her style, personality and passion for her craft
Brides love Nova of NovaMarkina Photography for her style, personality and passion for her craft
Reviewing Nova Markina of NovaMarkina Photography
23click if you Love itGood karma & 2011 Bride's Choice vote included.
Review is written by Staff @ The Ring and is based on • Interviews with this vendor • Interviews with past brides
With images that are stylish, fun, and emotionally provoking, Nova captures the perfect mix between tradition and trend, without ever sacrificing quality. Here's more on this fabulous photographer......
Personally Speaking
Nova's career was born out of pure passion for photography, specifically photographing people and their interactions with eachother. "Having learned on a hand-me-down 35mm Pentax when I was a teen, the dream of becoming a professional photographer in some capacity was always there, however it wasn't until a few years later - a university degree in psychology (something I have been able to implement on almost a daily basis) and few career opportunities - when everything started to happen. I bought my first DSLR and began assisting local photographers with weddings."
Nova's style and personality quickly caught the attention of couples in the London area. Shortly after becoming an assistant to other local photographers, Nova started booking weddings on her own. Before she knew it, she had built up a solid client base and thus, NovaMarkina Photography opened its doors in 2009.
Now, Nova realizes more than ever that this is what she was born to do, "I am 100% confident when I say that I have the best job in the world. I photograph individuals on the most amazing day of their lives, which in and of itself is truly inspiring, and I have the opportunity to push myself (creatively) on a daily basis."
Nova's love for shooting weddings was part of the appeal for Melysa Brown. Melysa was married in March 2011 in Los Cabos Mexico and says she feels so fortunate to have found a photographer she could truly trust, "We have a lot of wonderful memories with Nova, getting to know her during our destination wedding was a pleasure. When I met her I could see, and hear in her voice how excited she was and I knew right there we had the person for the job. She puts 110% effort into her work and you can tell she absolutely loves her what she does."
My other websites:
Wed Design
London Ontario Wedding
Wedding Photographers
North Moore Catering brings NYC style to London for fresh and creative wedding feasts
North Moore Catering brings NYC style to London for fresh and creative wedding feasts
Reviewing Jess Jazey-Spoelstra, Owner & Cook, North Moore Catering Co
37click if you Love itGood karma & 2011 Bride's Choice vote included.
Review is written by Staff @ The Ring and is based on • Interviews with this vendor • Interviews with past brides
While food is Jess' expertise, it's not her only focus. She says she'll do anything in her power to make sure your day is as perfect as your vision. "I can arrange for everything from décor to floral, rentals, transportation, DJ, valet, invitations, favours… you name it, we can do it." We heard that North Moore Catering is known for their excellent food pairings, attention to detail and their ability to remain flexible up until the last minute. With such great raves and referrals, we had to know more about the woman, the food and the company; so, we sat down with Jess, checked out some of North Moore's menu samplings, and discovered just how they make unforgettable meals for weddings.
Food & the city...
Jess has been working with weddings for over twenty years now, having started at Wonderland Gardens when she was thirteen, bussing tables and serving coffee and dessert, which she did on and off while going to University.
Jess' education varied from English to Human Resources before she found her niche in cooking. "I always thought I liked something until I got right into it and then decided, that’s not my dream," she told The Ring. "Catering is my dream, and I’m here to stay."
Though she was a part of the industry for over ten years, it was Jess' move to New York City in 2001 that really made her realize this dream. This is where Jess says she was introduced to many new flavours and food concepts. "I was in love and New York City was my boyfriend!" she says. And this love affair continued for the next six years (even though she had only planned to stay for one). "It was, shall we say, my 'university of food and service'."
When Jess moved back to London in 2007, she decided to start a catering business that focused on NY deli-style sandwiches. The street Jess worked on in NYC was N. Moore St., which everyone called North Moore St.. "I always loved that street and the local vibe Tribeca offered New Yorkers," Jess says, "and so, North Moore Catering was born. It’s my bow to New York City without being cheesy."
Planning her own wedding just after moving back to Ontario, Jess interviewed a lot of caterers who she says seemed to be serving mediocre food at high prices. "I hated hearing the word 'NO', yet it kept occurring," she says. So, she changed her catering vision to focus more on weddings with the goal to come up with new ideas and food/service concepts daily. Jess even travels all over the world and back to New York City to taste and visualize new concepts. "I love taking a new flavour or some sort of visual presentation and changing it to accommodate a wedding for a couple hundred people."
All of Jess' training has been hands-on, which she feels is the best approach. "You can’t learn this stuff in school - I’ve served, I’ve bartended, I’ve worked in the kitchen." And over the course of her career, Jess has learned to work for hours on end with little to no breaks, in every kind of weather imaginable, and is confident that her experience has taught her to overcome any hurdles that can occur at events. "You need to know how to react quickly and how to make everything okay... more than okay, outstanding," which North Moore Catering has done with over forty weddings and countless other events.
My other websites:
Wed Design
London Ontario Wedding
Wedding Photographers