Are you neglecting your blogs? Do you feel like putting them up for adoption or throwing them away? I know this sounds harsh but I am in the process of making that decision. I am re-evaluating all my sites. I am also working on a strategic plan for each site I keep.
Does that make sense? I can no longer afford the time to blog when the mood hits or when I come across something I want to share. That often means stopping what I am doing and posting on one of my sites. Think about it. We cannot afford to do that in our everyday life.
I mean imagine if you were housecleaning, stopped to look up an old magazine on Ebay, then found other distractions while online? House work will not get done. Well, that is what I have just done and must get back to accomplishing my goals for the day.
The same thing can happen with our blogging. If you have more than one blog we must consider being systematic, not anal, but systematic if your blogging is more than just recreational.
This baby boomer life is busy enough and if blogging is part of your weekly activities I, for one, feel we owe it to our readers to either provide quality content. What do you think?
As soon as you get to the Facebook Page of Suzie Cheel she engages you with a video. I love her energy, sincerity and warmth. You get to know her right away while she shares what her page is all about. She is using a Welcome page which I have not seen too often on pages. As a matter of f act I hope she shares how she did it and the apps she used for her html opt in. How very cool.
Her scenic background invites you to go sip on some green tea and rest while you chat with Suzie.
So far she has 91 likes and I strongly suspect it will just go up. I am hoping that she does share some of her cooking tips. Keep up the great work Suzie!
Watch this short clip about a full figured baby boomer who decides to fit in an exercise routine while coming up with blogging ideas. I can call her big because it is me! I am trying to get to my fighting weight. Ha!
Yes, it is the season to enjoy outdoor activities. You can also do a virtual outdoor Blog Carnival right now! So, take a few minutes and visit some of these great blogs hosted by an insightful baby boomer blogger. Many of you know that I am a stickler for About pages. If you really want to get to know other baby boomer bloggers read their About pages.
The blogger, Joe Hauckes, the host of this Blog Carnival has a clearly written about page. It is not long but gets right to the point.See below:
Read this short blog post on Blogging For Boomers about the newest online scam called “Vishing”. Vishing is a new scam that even non-boomers should know about. Very important to read and share this information,
Facebook has annouced major changes in their interface. Now most of these changes involve something called AP!’s. If you are a baby boomer like me who must define most technology terms before digesting here is a quick definition f orm Wikepedia.
An Application Programming Interface (API) is an interface implemented by a software program to enable its interaction with other software.
It is similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. APIs are implemented by applications, libraries and operating systems to determine the vocabulary and calling conventions. The programmer should employ it to use their services. It may include specifications for
routines, data structures, object classes, and protocols used to communicate between the consumer and implementer of the API.
Now, I am really considering going back to school so that I can create some of these cool API’s but that is for another discussion. Let’s go back to Facebook.
If you have visited in the last 24 hours you have already seen the changes. I was given the option to connect to my high school, graduate school and the town where my PO box is located. I decided to choose carefully the pages I will allow. However, all the information I have in Facebook can now be shared with other networks automatically.
I know there are some real privacy concerns. Yet, as far as I can surmise, it should be great for our business marketing efforts. So, I am sharing some current blog posts for your review. Please, for the time being, be very careful about very personal things you share late at night when you thing all is asleep.
I was just on an awesome baby boomer site called The Baby Boomer Entrenprenuer. This blog is run by a baby boomer marketing, copywriting and business coach expert-Andrea J. Stenberg.
Yes, this short post is about her post on Skype but please spend some time enjoying all the other rich information. I was very impressed as you will be also. Her site is bright, engaging and easy to navigate.
In response to some of the discussions about the health reform bill someone sent me another article link. This refutes all the amazingly great points about the bill. I am still very much for the health reform bill. However, I am printing this link in hope that others may provide rebuttals with solid facts to the proposed myths.
According to a recent article by Robert Stock, there will be super help for caregivers with the advent of the new Health Reform Bill. Take a few minutes to read his explanation. I for one, welcome all and any help I can get that will assist my mom for now and hubby and I in the future.
As a childless couple we do not have the foundation of children to depend upon for assistance. Yet, sadly, we know many who have children and do not have the needed support they need during their illness.
Read this insightful article below.
Health Care Reform Will Impact Long-Term Care
Robert W. Stock Contributor
AOL News
(March 26) — As health care reform became the law of the land this week, a huge bloc of Americans with a unique interest in the outcome sat watching on the sidelines.
The 49 million people who care for older family members were hidden in plain sight, as usual, quietly shouldering a burden that so often takes a heavy toll on their finances and their physical and emotional well-being. Many of them — I know a few — are opposed to the new health care law, even though it includes one of the most important steps ever taken to improve caregivers’ lot, especially those of the middle-class persuasion. Of course, hardly any of them are aware of that.
The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Act, otherwise known as CLASS, provides for a national insurance program to help cover the cost of long-term care — something 70 percent of people over 65 will need at some point along the way. The premiums will be much lower than those for private plans, and you won’t get screened out because you’ve already had some health problems. Once vested after five years, enrollees unable to care for themselves will be able to claim cash benefits for as long as needed.
A health aide helps a patient at his home in Miami. The new health care reform law could “transform long-term care” and make it possible for more patients to stay at home, said the chief of the National Council on Aging.
If you’re rich, you don’t require much financial help with long-term care. If you’re poor and can no longer fend for yourself, Medicaid pays the bills, often at a nursing home. For the rest of us, long-term care — at home or in an institution — now requires that we, or our caregivers, choose from among some unpleasant options.
We can spend down our retirement savings until we’re eligible for Medicaid funds. We can protect our savings by taking out expensive long-term care insurance — it costs my wife and me more than $5,000 a year. Or, depending on how dependent we are, we can throw ourselves, or be thrown, on the mercy of our families.
My friend — I’ll call him Frank — was a retired lawyer and in great shape until four years ago. He had just turned 90 when emergency surgery laid him low for months on end. Then his sight and hearing began to go. “I’m one of the lucky ones,” his wife, Helen, told me. “His mind is fine. But he can’t get around on his own — he falls, even with a walker. He can’t make a cup of tea or shower by himself.”
For now, Helen can afford to hire an aide for a few hours a day to help with Frank and allow her to get out of the apartment. “James gives me a life,” she said. The future looks darker.
Surveys show that 90 percent of Americans want to age at home. Frank is no exception, but he never signed up for long-term care insurance. “If I couldn’t keep taking care of him, I don’t what I’d do,” Helen said. “If he went into assisted living, it would use up all our money. It’s very scary.”
CLASS, one of the legacies of the late Ted Kennedy, offers caregivers and care recipients another option. “If it’s successful, if a large enough number of people sign up, it will transform long-term care,” says James Firman, president and CEO of the National Council on Aging. “It will create a market-based economy for keeping aging people at home.”
That’s an important “if,” since the program, by law, must be self-sustaining. Premiums will generally be collected as part of workers’ payroll deductions unless they opt out. The younger the worker, the smaller the premium.
There is a vicious circle built into the current arrangements. Many caregivers must hold down a job and maintain their own separate family household while also watching over an aging parent. That kind of pressure can have consequences.
In recent studies, workers 18 to 39 years of age who were caring for an older relative had significantly higher rates of hypertension, depression and heart disease than non-caregivers of the same age. Overall, caregivers cost their companies an extra 8 percent a year in health care charges and many more unplanned days off.
In other words, the strains of family caregiving can hasten the caregiver’s need to be the recipient of care.
CLASS bids to crack if not break that vicious circle. Its benefits would make it much simpler and less expensive for families to make sure Mom gets the support she needs to be able to spend life’s endgame where she wants — in her own home. Good news for Mom, and good news for the future health of her caregivers.
In the last few days, I’ve conducted a poll of a dozen friends who have been closely following the health care reform debate. I wanted to find out how much they knew about CLASS.
Not one among them had even heard of it. It somehow seemed fitting that this major program, just like the caregivers themselves, was hidden in plain sight.
I just read a motivating blog post written by the son of baby boomers. He shares the grim picture facing his parents due to the stock market preformance and their lost retirement savings.
But why was it motivating? It was motivating because he recognized the resilent spirit of his parents when they found other options to supplement thier income like Ebay.
I also admire his sensitivity to many other babyboomers who are not able to physically or mentally seek other options. He writes an excellent blog post and I wanted to share it with my readers.
I am really hoping that one day I can read or hear the story directly from their parents. If only I could interview them. Plus, since hubby and I have jumped into Ebay with all 10 toes I am very, very interested.
