by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 12, 2010 | Blogging
Breaking Even blog is mostly business and money related but Fridays, I’m going to write about whatever I darn well feel like. Because aren’t Fridays supposed to be fun?
And when I think of fun lately, I keep thinking about the part of last weekend where I parked my butt on a couch. Instead of watching the Superbowl last Sunday, ie the most watched television program in recorded history, I watched ‘Jule and Julia’. It was a movie about cooking and blogging, two of my favorite things.
I actually enjoyed myself. Meryl Streep’s performance makes me wish I would have met the real Julia Child and Amy Adams makes an adorable blogger.
My first, eye-rollingly geeky first impression is that this movie makes blogging look easy. Within a few months, Julie’s blog gets over 50 comments in one day and by the end, the New York Times has featured her. I’ve been blogging going on three years. Honestly, I’m ecstatic when more than two of you reading this decide to comment.
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 8, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Marketing Monday talks about an impressive internet marketing effort by a business, person, or non-profit. Have an idea for the series? Contact Nicole; she’s always looking for new features.
I had the pleasure this past weekend of getting the heck out of town and finally checking out Rabelais, which is a bookstore in downtown Portland with all books about food. Interesting concept.
What I found more interesting is their online presence, complete with website, blog, and Facebook page. And they are leveraging it all rather nicely. Here’s how:
Rabelais Bookstore comes up third on a Google search for ‘Rabelais’. Impressive.
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 8, 2010 | Blogging
Where has the Breaking Even blog been? It’s a good question.
I promised I’d never write an apology post but this blog needs one. I am sorry I haven’t been keeping things up. For the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at this blog as a chore. In short, I had forgotten why I started writing it, which is that I love not only the idea of blogs but an excuse to write on a regular basis.
I am back in love with the Breaking Even blog, folks!
This week, it’s back to the usual schedule from now on. You can now count on a posting multiple times a week:
by Nicole Ouellette | Dec 10, 2009 | Personal Finance Tips
Daniel Scocco, author of Daily Blog Tips, is running a group writing project on his blog called 2009 in Review. I thought it was a fun idea so here are my best and worst ways I saved money in 2009.
Here are some of the best lessons I learned in saving money over the past year:
Asking for something if I need or want it.
When I moved into my house, I couldn’t help but notice my neighbors left a cool looking bookcase outside in the rain.
Maybe they were putting it outside while they moved furniture around or were giving it to someone else. Really though, I didn’t ask at first because I was worried I’d look like some cheap vulture.
I hopped onto the Ikea website to look at pricing some options. The cost was $69 for a Billy Bookcase… and $250 to ship it. Even my cheap local options still involved similar costs and the hassle of transport and assembly. Was my pride really going to get in the way of saving $100 or more?
by Nicole Ouellette | Nov 9, 2009 | Marketing Monday
Every Monday I profile a person or business doing something cool to promote themselves online. Think there is someone I should consider? Contact me and let me know!
Breaking Even began as a personal finance blog back in 2007. Since then, it’s become about business and other things on occasion but a money theme, even if barely noticeable at times, runs throughout. (It’s no coincidence, for example, that TCT crafts mostly cost under $10 to make.) When asked what my blog is about, I say “Money. Well, kind of.”
That said, I still follow a lot of personal finance and money bloggers and when Phil Villarreal sent me an email a few months ago about reviewing his how-to-save-money book and I accepted, because I like books, especially when they are free and go with the theme of my blog.
I noticed a few weeks after our communication that reviews of his book were all over the blogosphere. Then, his book became a New York Times bestseller.
How’d he do it?
