It's About Typography

Take a peek at some fun faces! Type faces that is!

Big Fonts - Sometimes “the standard” just isn’t good enough. Type designers understand that graphic communicators often want more choice of characters than the standard font set contains.
It's About Legibility - Typographic clarity comes in two flavors: legibility and readability. What’s the difference?
Scripts: A Type Of Passion - Most typefaces, however beautiful or well-drawn, add merely the subtlest nuance to the words they compose. Scripts, on the other hand, bring something dramatic to typeset copy.
TDC Medal Awarded to Type Designer Colin Brignall
Typefaces For The Web - Learn about the three rules when selecting typefaces for the web: 1) think simple; 2) big is better; 3) sans are safe.
WGL Fonts- WGL fonts contain a pan-European character set that supports Western, Central and Eastern European languages.

Do You Squidoo?

Squidoo Homepage http://www.squidoo.com


SO, WHAT'S A LENS? A lens is one person's view on a topic that matters to her. It's an easy-to-build, single web page that can point to blogs, favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr photos, Google maps, eBay auctions, CafePress designs, Amazon books or music, and more. Then, when someone is looking for recommended information, fast, your lens gets him started and sends him off in the right direction. It's a place for searchers to start, not finish.Build one lens, build a hundred. It's fast, fun, and free. (And you could earn a royalty--for you or for charity). Our tens of thousands of lensmasters are getting traffic, credibility, and discoverability--their lenses are showing up in top Google results more often than not.

WHY SHOULD I BUILD A LENS? There are a few reasons to build your own lens:
• Share the knowledge: When you know a lot about something, it feels good to share. Help other people discover what you found out the hard way.
• Increase your profile: A popular lens gives credibility to the Lensmaster. A popular lens reinforces your role as an "everyday expert." And a popular lens makes you the go-to authority for those looking for help.
• Increase your traffic: Your lens points (if you want it to) to your blog and to your website. Lenses have huge credibility with search engines, so your lens can help your other sites rise to the top of Google searches.
• Earn a royalty for you, your organization, or your favorite charity. Think of the royalty as a bonus--and don't quit your dayjob yet! A single lens might not earn a lot, but if you imagine hundreds of lenses working to your favor, or fundraising for a charity, it can really start to add up.

WHO SHOULD BUILD A LENS? You should, if you...

1. ...have a Web site and you're not happy with your PageRank in Google, a lens will increase it. That's because a lens provides exactly what search engines are looking for: authoritative insight so people can find what they're looking for.
2. ...have a blog, a lens is a great way to highlight your best posts, to feature a commented version of your blogroll, and to point to the products and services that you write about, read about, enjoy, or want to see succeed. A lens will allow you and your blog to have a bigger share of the commentary and influence on your topic of choice.
3. ...are a yo-yo expert, your lens could be nothing but links to tricks. You'd rank your favorite 100 tricks and point, one by one, to the best examples of those tricks on the Web. And maybe you'd point to Infinite Illusions, the online yo-yo store.
4. ...are a nonprofit or charity (say, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) you could invite all 45,000 of your most important donors to build sites on their favorite topics. The invitation would set the default royalty cash flow to "Donate my royalties to JDRF." If each lens generated as little as $2 a day, that'd be a whole bunch of money earned for the charity. You'd also earn a bounty on every successful lensmaster you brought in.
5. ...are a newshound, a lens allows you to highlight important mainstream and non-mainstream stories for your readers. And if you go on vacation, RSS feeds can automatically update your lens with select news stories. 6. ...are a podcaster, you should definitely have a lens. It would list the details of your podcasts, point to transcripts that some fan had posted, point to your six most recent podcasts, and include the RSS for subscribing to the podcast. The lens would also have a set of links for getting started with podcasting and getting a podcast reader
7. ...are a fan, a lens lets you share your personal take on the object of your affections—without the grind of manual updates. Automatic feeds could add current sports scores and headlines, music news and iTune releases and more. 8. ...are an author, your lens could include links to all your books on Amazon. You could include links to other authors you admire. And an RSS feed from a Technorati search, showing surfers the recent blogs that have mentioned you. And links to conferences where you're speaking, and perhaps a top-ten list of the best ways to understand your writing. You could even have a box pointing to your best (and worst?) reviews.
9. ...are an entrepreneur, your lens on a popular topic could generate two or five or twenty dollars a day in clickthrough and affiliate income. Which doesn't sound like much, until you start thinking like an eBay PowerSeller and build twenty or even fifty lenses on a variety of topics. Did you know that 750,000 people make a full- or part-time living on eBay now? The same effect will probably happen with lenses
10. ... are a person (and you are), you should have a lens about...you. A lens that lists your blog and recent posts and your bio and work history and your Amazon wish list and your Flickr account and whatever you want the public to know about you. Would you hire someone if she didn't have a lens?

Article found on Ryze by T.E.A.M. Mom - Patricia

Check out these fine lenses :
www.squidoo.com/TheMerryBird
or www.squidoo.com/Sheehancarpentry

Inspirational mompreneur stories

Most mompreneurs find the transition to business owner is easier when the business is based at home. Though there are many resources to help you find such franchise or business opportunities--like http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchise/ and www.entrepreneur.com/bizopportunities/index.html --be cautious when considering those opportunities. "The biggest mistake I hear moms making is jumping into a business before they've done the homework and found whether it's a good fit," says Spencer. "Or if it's an opportunity they're investing in, [they don't investigate] whether it's a scam."

When deciding what type of business to start, consider what your talents are and what you're most passionate about. Spencer notes that for work-at-home moms, any business involving the internet--from web design to an online store--can be a particularly good fit.

Olivia Mullin found the perfect fit when she started her personalized stationery and gift company in Brentwood, Tennessee. Mullin started out doing wedding calligraphy for local brides. That led to making personalized stationery she peddled to local gift shops. Her products were selling so well, Mullin brought the business she started in 1995 out of her home and into an office space after about a year and a half.

The idea for the Olivia Mullin Co. was born after she gave birth to the first of her two daughters. A registered nurse, Mullin was on-call around the clock--and she wanted to be more available to her children. "Over time, as my children were growing up, my business was growing up," says Mullin, 44. "It's like having another baby. You're with your children when they're awake, and when you put them down for a nap, you start working on that baby."

For Mullin, the key to growing her company to more than $1 million in annual sales is organizing her time, surrounding herself with talented employees and advisors, and not being too hard on herself when she's not perfect. "Nothing is done 100 percent perfectly," she says. "You have to learn to be OK with that. You're going to forget things; you're going to miss meetings. You cannot beat yourself up."

And Mullin's daughters, now 17 and 13, are being groomed for the family business. Mullin is using her business to instill a solid work ethic and the idea that "the things that are most important are the things you worked the hardest for," she says. Her oldest, for example, had a school trip, and Mullin paid half of it--with the provision that her daughter would work at the business on the weekends to earn the rest. Says Mullin, "She's going to understand what it means to spend [money] and how hard you have to work to earn it."

Hard work can also be fun, which is what Cindy Schwartz is teaching her children with Concierge Connection Inc., the Coral Springs, Florida, concierge business she started in 1997. Schwartz left her job because it was taking too much time away from her children. "I quit because I knew I would be my own boss," says Schwartz, 44. "My kids would never be without their mother on a sick day or a school holiday."

It helps that the bulk of her concierge duties involve fun things like securing tickets for clients to shows--and that her children get to rub elbows with her celebrity clientele from time to time. Schwartz notes that her son, a professional wrestling fan, got to see his favorite wrestling stars in action and even got to meet some of the big names by virtue of his mom's business. Says Schwartz, "I want them to think about things they appreciate and things they've done."
Schwartz says her priorities are what keep her business running at about a quarter of a million dollars in annual sales. The fact that her kids are always first is key. "It's like triage--when you're hitting a hot point, when you have a kid who has to be at the doctor's office by 4 o'clock and you have a client on the phone ordering tickets," says Schwartz. "You can't be late for the kid, and you [have to] take care of the client. I live on my cell phone, and I love the challenges of this [business]."

If you're in the market for a challenge, balancing a business with a family certainly qualifies. But if you plan your strategy, start slowly, enlist some help and follow your passion, you can--like these moms--grow your business while growing your family tree.

Higher Learning
You know how you feel about starting a business, but what are youngsters thinking when they see their moms working out of their homes? Jennifer Dugan's 9-year-old son grew up watching his mom run her Los Alamos, New Mexico-based business, Dugan's Travels, and he understands (and is helping his 7-year-old brother to understand) that Mom works--she just works at home. Dugan says when she's in her home office, her boys are often playing in the same room. They're occupied, but they know she's there if they need her.

For older kids, seeing the ins and outs of entrepreneurship firsthand can imbue them with an innovative spirit. Cindy Schwartz, founder of Concierge Connection Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida, has set an example of self-employment for her kids. "I don't think my kids will do traditional work," she says. "I also know I'm not the only example. My ex-husband runs his own business out of his home, and he's extremely successful. My kids know you don't have to be a doctor or lawyer--you can do something unusual. And they know that both their parents put them first."

Sited from www.entrepreneur.com