We Now Return to our Regular Programming

Apologies for the disappearing act this week, but real life intervened! My youngest child was hospitalized earlier this week for a kidney infection, but thanks to modern medicine and a tough little body, they cleared it up quick and we came home today.

Even though my husband was kind enough to bring my laptop and a wireless PC card to the hospital so I could work while my daughter rested, I couldn’t manage to focus my thinking skills long enough to do much other than visit some of my daily reads and leave a few comments. As a result, the Essential Tools feature will return next week.

Just in case you missed it:

• Wendy at eMoms at Home held her second group research project and there are more than 28 Internet Marketing and Home Business How To contributions ranging from How-To Start a Company and Family at the Same Time by Ben Yoskovitz to How to Cross-Market Your Blog and Your Business by SEO Aware and one from me, The Ultimate Guide to Where the Moms Are Online.
• Randa makes some really good points about the I Follow Movement. While it really irks me that so many people have chosen to abuse the generosity of others, I am still at the point where I feel that it will not hurt me to continue Do Follow. Although spammers and others looking for a quick link, beware – I do not hesitate to hit delete if I do not like the looks of the site you linked to!
• Dosh Dosh offers up 19 Ways to Optimize Your Site for Google Images and Get More Traffic – nice list and a few I must say I have missed!
• David teaches us how to Customize the Word Press Login screen. I never even thought to do that, but now that I know it can be done, I can see how it could be a really nice touch for a site that will be maintained by the client.

There are a few of you who have not received your blogging birthday gifts yet – I have not forgotten you – I have just been a little unavailable this week. Thanks for your patience.