The Frazzled VA

Melody on May 20th 2008

So where are you when the winner is picked?

It never ceases to amaze me that people enter to win contests, explain how they absolutely MUST win this in order to get their life organized, save money on groceries, set up their website, launch their product, or whatever the excuse may be. Yet, when it’s time to pick a winner, they are nowhere to be found.

I’ve been on the admin side of many contests over the years and I see over and over again, winners never claiming their prizes. Most of the contests have a time line of when to claim their prize by and only a small portion of those contest hosts pick a runner up. So if the winner doesn’t claim the prize, nobody wins.

In addition, by not claiming a prize, the contest sponsors may feel like their donation wasn’t good enough or something and perhaps they may not donate again. This means less prizes for the next giveaway.

I know people are busy and sometimes forget or perhaps something comes up on the day of the drawing. But if you’re going to spend time entering the contest, then please people, make sure you go back and see if you won, even if it’s a day or two later.

So heres my two tips for today:

Contest entrants: As you enter contests, make a note on your calendar of the drawing date so you don’t forget.

Contest hosts: Implement a ‘runner up’ policy for all of your contests so that those who truly want to win, get a chance to do so.

Melody on May 10th 2008

If you’re asking yourself why I chose The Frazzled VA as my site name it’s because that’s pretty much what I am by the end of the week. I operate a busy VA business, manage a family with two teenagers in it and life is just busy. In addition, there are times like today, where something happens that just sends me into a spin for a while and even if I’m not physically exhausted, I am mentally.

So let me tell you about my frazzled day today. It started out great, I had a To Do list of all the things I was going to get accomplished by noon so I could take the rest of the day off to relax. Uh huh, should have known better.

Although it went well the first part of the morning, things starting going wrong when I tried to do tech work…. TECH <– That should have clued me in not to even attempt it since I’m a non-techy person.  You’d think installing wordpress on a site and then adding the template would be simple, and for many it probably is but this is me we’re talking about and it was anything but easy.

First, my site host provider allows me to host multiple sites in a single account. To do this I simply have to add a domain and create a different directory. Well… that’s all fine and dandy *IF* I could remember what my domain name is! I get in there and set it all up,  install wordpress and pat myself on the back for a job well done. Great job Mel, that wasn’t so hard.

…. Hey, why isn’t the site showing up? What the heck?!

Now, my buddy Kit is trying to talk me through this over the phone and she’s like… uh, are you sure you entered the right domain name? So I get to looking and low and behold I didn’t! Ugh… so back to the drawing board I go.

Delete wrong domain directory - check, Create new directory with the right domain name - Check, Double check that everything is correct - check, Install wordpress - check. Check the site - Bingo! It’s up.

So I go to upload the template through FTP and… wait a minute, where’s the directory I just created? Hmm…

Yep, it’s nowhere to be found. So off to call tech support I go who promptly tells me they can see it just fine. I look and look and look some more. I walk through my ABC’s with the tech dude who is sure I’m just missing the “Fr” file that’s sitting between “Fi” and “G” but it’s not there.

Frustrated, I thank him for his time and hang up. Call my buddy Kit again to see if she can check it and it’s showing up for her! So, the kind soul that she is, she uploaded my stuff for me and we’re off to tweaking the template. FOUR hours later, we finally finish and I’m F-R-A-Z-Z-L-E-D.

All-in-all, I’m glad to have had the experience, but from now on, I’m leaving the tech work to those who have the patience for it.  

And there you have it… why I consider myself The Frazzled VA.

Melody on May 10th 2008

It’s been a long time coming but I finally have my blog up. I still have tweaks to make but it’s live and I’m totally excited.

Thanks to Nola Cooper for doing my header graphic. Double thanks goes to my buddy Kit Singleton for helping me make changes to the blog and for walking me through installing wordpress TWICE! — that’s for another post and is exactly why it’s call the FRAZZLED VA.