First of all, captions... yes, we have a winner in my "create-a-caption" contest which ended at noon yesterday. Walking away easily with a majority of the votes was Artesia - and here is what most of you would like to think our little beaver friend is really thinking...
...and then you twist the two twigs together...and Voila!... something new for etsy.com.Congratulation to Artesia - I'll be in touch a little later today for some contact information on where to send your new cultured pearl earrings!
Caffeine... no, not the kind you find in coffee or tea or Mountain Dew or your favorite energy drink. I'm talking about Google's new search engine, which is proving to be the bane of many SEO gurus' existence. For anyone who hasn't noticed yet, Google has been rolling out their new Caffeine search engine algorithms over the past few weeks in a number of markets and from everything I've seen, it's pretty much had a disastrous effect across the board. Of course, Google is continuing to tweak their programming, but in the meantime a number of sites - Etsy included - are feeling the pain of this behemoth. Unfortunately, timing couldn't be worse since Etsy's been doing a number of its own updates to improve site search capabilities and shop visibility... and it appears that the changes each site is doing is resulting in a lot of very unhappy people. I've spent more hours tweaking my shop listings to try to better my SEO standings in the past two weeks than I think I've done in the past year! Will it help? Time will only tell, but in the meantime, I'm also getting back to work on my own website and exploring the wonderful world of SEO at a deeper level. Some days you really have to wonder if any search engine can really efficiently handle the amount of information that's available on the web today, but I think once Google works the kinks out, it may do a heck of a good job!
That leaves us with FrankenDog - which is how I'm lovingly referring to our pooch Sadie this week. For the last few months she's had this "bump" on her side that's been coming and going, but in the last few weeks it's gotten larger and while the vet said it was just a sebaceous cyst and not a huge worry, it was time to get it removed. One of the amazing things in this experience was shopping around for good
care for her at a reasonable price. If you think human health care is ridiculous, let me tell ya... veterinary care has such a wide pendulum of pricing it's almost hard to fathom. We had gotten a quote on getting her teeth cleaned at her last check up - a mere $1200 at our "regular vet" (yes, they're in an upscale area, but c'mon) and the lesion removal would have tacked on another $500 at least. Now don't get me wrong, I love my dog, but seriously... I've had surgeries that didn't cost that much. After shopping around a bit, we finally decided on a clinic in North Phoenix. It's a low cost spay and neuter clinic that also provides regular vet care. One thing that this clinic offers is allowing pet owners to opt in/opt out of things like pre-op testing, extra iv hydration or additional pain medication, but since I prefer to make sure everything goes smooth and comfortably, I went for the whole kit and kaboodle. The final price tag? $405, including take home drugs... and honestly I was very impressed by the care of the office staff, the vets, and the fact that Sadie was a pretty happy (if not a bit wobbly and woozy from the pain meds) puppy when I picked her up about 6 hours post op. With the staples and shaved skin, she does look a bit like FrankenDog, but she's pretty frisky and is taking it all in stride. The fact that Al is babying her with more treats and extra cuddling and attention probably doesn't hurt!
That's it for newsy type stuff in my world for this week. In honor of National Siblings Day, I thought I'd leave you with a fun little quiz about famous siblings. See how many famous people you can match to their equally famous siblings! I'll post the answers tomorrow!
___ 1. Emilio Estevez
___ 2. Loretta Lynn
___ 3. Shirley MacLaine
___ 4. Abigail Van Buren
___ 5. James Arness
___ 6. Olivia DeHaviland
___ 7. Phylicia Rashad
___ 8. Dana Andrews
___ 9. Lorna Luft
___ 10. Angelina Jolie
a. Ann Landers
b. Peter Graves
c. Debbie Allen
d. Liza Minelli
e. Warren Beatty
f. Charlie Sheen
g. James Haven
h. Steve Forrest
i. Crystal Gayle
j. Joan Fontaine
Caffeine... no, not the kind you find in coffee or tea or Mountain Dew or your favorite energy drink. I'm talking about Google's new search engine, which is proving to be the bane of many SEO gurus' existence. For anyone who hasn't noticed yet, Google has been rolling out their new Caffeine search engine algorithms over the past few weeks in a number of markets and from everything I've seen, it's pretty much had a disastrous effect across the board. Of course, Google is continuing to tweak their programming, but in the meantime a number of sites - Etsy included - are feeling the pain of this behemoth. Unfortunately, timing couldn't be worse since Etsy's been doing a number of its own updates to improve site search capabilities and shop visibility... and it appears that the changes each site is doing is resulting in a lot of very unhappy people. I've spent more hours tweaking my shop listings to try to better my SEO standings in the past two weeks than I think I've done in the past year! Will it help? Time will only tell, but in the meantime, I'm also getting back to work on my own website and exploring the wonderful world of SEO at a deeper level. Some days you really have to wonder if any search engine can really efficiently handle the amount of information that's available on the web today, but I think once Google works the kinks out, it may do a heck of a good job!
That leaves us with FrankenDog - which is how I'm lovingly referring to our pooch Sadie this week. For the last few months she's had this "bump" on her side that's been coming and going, but in the last few weeks it's gotten larger and while the vet said it was just a sebaceous cyst and not a huge worry, it was time to get it removed. One of the amazing things in this experience was shopping around for good
care for her at a reasonable price. If you think human health care is ridiculous, let me tell ya... veterinary care has such a wide pendulum of pricing it's almost hard to fathom. We had gotten a quote on getting her teeth cleaned at her last check up - a mere $1200 at our "regular vet" (yes, they're in an upscale area, but c'mon) and the lesion removal would have tacked on another $500 at least. Now don't get me wrong, I love my dog, but seriously... I've had surgeries that didn't cost that much. After shopping around a bit, we finally decided on a clinic in North Phoenix. It's a low cost spay and neuter clinic that also provides regular vet care. One thing that this clinic offers is allowing pet owners to opt in/opt out of things like pre-op testing, extra iv hydration or additional pain medication, but since I prefer to make sure everything goes smooth and comfortably, I went for the whole kit and kaboodle. The final price tag? $405, including take home drugs... and honestly I was very impressed by the care of the office staff, the vets, and the fact that Sadie was a pretty happy (if not a bit wobbly and woozy from the pain meds) puppy when I picked her up about 6 hours post op. With the staples and shaved skin, she does look a bit like FrankenDog, but she's pretty frisky and is taking it all in stride. The fact that Al is babying her with more treats and extra cuddling and attention probably doesn't hurt!That's it for newsy type stuff in my world for this week. In honor of National Siblings Day, I thought I'd leave you with a fun little quiz about famous siblings. See how many famous people you can match to their equally famous siblings! I'll post the answers tomorrow!
___ 1. Emilio Estevez
___ 2. Loretta Lynn
___ 3. Shirley MacLaine
___ 4. Abigail Van Buren
___ 5. James Arness
___ 6. Olivia DeHaviland
___ 7. Phylicia Rashad
___ 8. Dana Andrews
___ 9. Lorna Luft
___ 10. Angelina Jolie
a. Ann Landers
b. Peter Graves
c. Debbie Allen
d. Liza Minelli
e. Warren Beatty
f. Charlie Sheen
g. James Haven
h. Steve Forrest
i. Crystal Gayle
j. Joan Fontaine
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