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Our electricity bill came the other day.
Yikes!
We’ve had a somewhat warmer summer here than last year. Not nearly as hot as the Summer of 2007….how I remember that well since I was pregnant with kiddo at the time! 
Our kilowatt hour meter reading was off the charts for us this month: 880 kwh which is about double what it was in 2006. I remember because our bill would nearly always be about 450 kwh and it rarely varied from that except during the summer months. I’m not a huge fan of air conditioning, but since our son was born we try to adjust the temperature to suit him rather than what we really want. As a result, our bill has creeped up little by little every year.
We decided to try to trim our energy usage from other areas to help compensate for our air conditioning use. In fact, we’ve set on a challenge for this month: our next bill will not be for more than 750 kwh’s despite the fact we’re headed into August shortly. We’re making some changes!
Now, the bill we just received was still only about $100. We belong to a fabulous electricty co-op and our bill is actually quite low compared to other people we know. But we’re also trying to make some changes from an environmental standpoint as well. Do we NEED to have fans going in rooms we’re not using? Do I NEED to dry every load of laundry using the energy-hog dryer we have? Do we NEED to turn the air conditioner on at 9am even on a moderately warm day?
So our goal for our next bill is 750 kwh. To that end, I’m writing this post on battery power, in the dark without the television on! I figured I’d better put my money, or intention, where my mouth is at least while I’m writing about it!
This is a mini-review of a WordPress plugin (that actually works without WordPress too…more on that later) called OIO Publisher. It’s a mini-review because it’s the end of the month and I have just enough time to give you an overview of the plug-in for now and share a coupon that’s expiring soon.
What is OIO Publisher?
As I mentioned, it’s a WordPress plug-in for ad management, but it can also work as a standalone solution if you aren’t using WordPress. Flexible, huh?
It allows you to sell ads directly to your customers and automates nearly the entire process. Just define areas on your site that are available “for sale” and OIO Publisher will take the order from the customer, upload the ad, process the payment and display the ads in the proper places! All you need to do, if you’ve selected it as a requirement before publishing, is to approve the ad in your dashboard!
You can even run an affiliate program! Yes! Tell your readers that if they refer a new advertiser to you that you’ll pay them an affiliate commission for ads placed! Now you don’t even need to find advertisers on your own.
Since this is a mini-review, I won’t give you all the details….I’ll save that for another post. But I should mention that OIO Publisher is really feature-filled. You can designate that ads be shown to people based on where they live (geolocation) and you can even use OIO Publisher to sell digital products other than ads!
Best of all, OIO Publisher is affordable. It’s a one-time payment of only $47 and the developers are always available in the support forum ready to help you customize it to your needs.
I have a coupon for you too! The coupon SOLAR-PROMO will save you $10 but it expires Saturday, July 31st!
Visit OIO Publisher
(If you’re reading this post after July 31, 2010 just visit my Support Desk and submit a ticket asking is a new coupon is available and I’ll send you details!)
I’m making pizza dough today and thought I’d share my recipe! I make mine in a bread machine because I’m a “set it and forget it” kinda girl (hence, the reason for this site) so this is a super easy pizza dough. Make it in just minutes and then take off for the park or run some errands while it does it’s thing!
There are two sizes for this recipe. I personally make the larger recipe because I like to make big pizzas. If you’re short on ingredients, the smaller recipe works in a pinch. I’ve used this recipe for years and love it!
Be sure to add the ingredients to your bread machine bowl in the order they’re listed!
Large Pizza Dough Recipe:
1.5 cups Water
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
2 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Sugar
4 cups All-purpose flour
4 tsp. Bread machine yeast or quick-rise yeast
Small Pizza Dough Recipe: Just halve all of the ingredients above!
**I also add a pinch of Italian Seasoning or oregano, dried minced onion, garlic powder and a bit of basil to the ingredients before it mixes in the machine so that the flavor goes through the dough. For a spicier crust, add some crushed red pepper flakes too! These seasonings are totally optional though.
Set the machine to the “dough” cycle and let it go through it’s paces. When the machine is finished, drop dough either on to a floured surface and then cover with plastic wrap or put into a lightly oiled bowl with plastic wrap. I personally use the bowl method. Let it sit, undisturbed for about 5-7 minutes. If you’d like to get a thicker crust, let the dough rise longer….up to 30 minutes before shaping.
You can spread the dough out onto a sprayed pizza pan or use cornmeal to keep it from sticking. Top with sauce and favorite toppings and bake at 425 degrees for 2-30 minutes (depending on thickness) or until the bottom is crispy and browned to your liking. I like to put the oven on “broil” the last 2 minutes to really brown the cheese.
This dough can also be used to make breadsticks or extra thin and crispy pizzas which can be sliced and served as appetizers.
You may have seen Kyle’s face in my sidebar….he’s the cherished angel and son of a friend and fellow Mom Masterminds member, Melissa Ingold.
On June 19, 2010 Kyle passed away in his sleep. He was just a few days from his 2nd birthday.
As you can imagine Melissa and her family are devastated, as are all of her online friends. Many of these friendships were born in the forums of Mom Masterminds, an online mastermind group of women who have created businesses we run from home. I actually joined Mom Masterminds before I was even married and over a year before I became a Mom because I just couldn’t wait to join them! It’s a powerful, supportive group and we help each other, learn from each other, and in times like this….lean on each other.
The owner of Mom Masterminds, Kelly McCausey, is offering a very special discount to new and even former Mom Masterminds members who may not have finished out their membership requirement previously. She’s offering a full, lifetime Mom Masterminds membership for only $100 which is an 80% discount off the regular price.
EVERY CENT of that $100 is going to Melissa’s family to help pay for funeral and burial costs for little Kyle.
Won’t you help a young family pay for this awful expense? Forget about the membership for a second, and think of how you might come up with money for the most awful surprise expense of all. Could you do it? Could you lean on people to help you? Thanks to Mom Masterminds, Melissa has all of us and we are lucky to have her as well.
You would be helping a family who is in desperate need to move forward. In return, you get a family…a family of women who have been in business for years, and some who may be just starting out. No matter the stage of your business, we’re there. From the monthly resources, to the extensive training archives, to the vibrant forum. It’s really been the jumping-off place for so many successful women you may follow on Twitter or whose blogs you read.
This special offer of only $100 for a LIFETIME membership is an amazing price and it’s for an amazing cause! All of the Mom Masterminds members who are promoting this discount are foregoing our regular 40% affiliate commission so every penny can go to Melissa.
To find out more, visit this link and read more about Melissa, Kyle and Mom Masterminds. Thank you in advance for your help, and I can’t wait to meet you inside Mom Masterminds!
http://www.wahmtalkradio.com/fundraiser-please-help-out-a-wahm-her-family/
…and please….pass this on! Once you’re a member, please pay this forward and tweet and post this as well! Even if you can’t join for some reason now, please pass this link on to anyone who you think might want to join and help little Kyle’s family!
THANK YOU!
Edited to add:Another way you can help Melissa while getting something else in exchange is to become her customer! All of the links below are direct links. I’m an affiliate but I’m stripping my affiliate link from them so every cent goes to Melissa.
Here’s a sampling of what she has to offer!
Online Marketer Sweetie course! Huge course full of information on how to effectively market your products and services online. This course is gigantic and only $47! You also get one free month of Melissa’s Special Report Club membership as a bonus.
More items are listed at InternetMarketingSweetie.com
