Beauty Dish: Underground Adventures of an (EX!) Avon Lady

Cue the suspenseful music

I am making some big changes to Beauty Dish in the very near future...

In the meantime, I have removed my Bird Call Newsletter sign-up form. All of those folks who are on the list can stay on the list for life, should they desire, but no new folks will be let in! It's now a true secret list, and will be updated whenever I write a very private story that I don't wish to share with the general public.

I have added a Feedburner "Email any updates" link to the upper right sidebar. You can subscribe to this blog and get automatic email updates once each day that contain every word I post to the blog. It's an easy way to keep up with the goings on around here. If you belong to my now Super Secret Bird Call List, you are not on the email subscription, you will have to sign up for that separate.

In No Particular Order...

While 11 finishes writing his face powder adventure, I'm just dropping a little note here to tell you what's coming next at Beauty Dish!

(We've had a lot going on at home, so I'm giving 11 all the time he needs, no rush, honey, you don't have to finish it today!)

I have a fun review of the Instant Manicure submitted by a blogging friend.

I have the grand finale of the Roswell story finally written and ready to post!

And, last, but definitely not least, I am going to answer that question I am asked in email several times a day: How much do Avon Reps REALLY earn? I spent the last six months interviewing and observing all kinds of Avon reps - some like myself who work hard but don't break the big numbers to those who are heavily into the multi-level marketing "Leadership" aspect of Avon where they recruit others and form a large downline. I have the details, folks, this is one report you won't want to miss, especially if you are interested in selling Avon, if you do sell Avon, or if you work for any other direct or multi-level sales company. Some funny stories in the report, too!

Stay tuned! I'm not promising specific dates for any of the above, but that's what's next in the queue (plus the assorted random customer stories that fall into my lap...).

Nope, I didn't drown in the Atlantic!

Please enjoy this photo of Horseshoe Bay in Bermuda while I finish fixing my computer problems...

What the next week will bring

I'll be blogging as I'm able over the next six days. I have a camera, a sassy attitude, a flowered bathing suit, and lots 'o Avon sunscreen. Bermuda won't be the same...

Thanks to all who donated to my little blog fund. I collected enough to cover blog costs for six months, plus partially pay for creating copies of a little book of my stories to hand out to the literati - along with Avon samples, natch. I am grateful, and all donators get that crazy Frankie the pig story in their email!

While I'm gone, if you are new and cruising in for the first time (pardon the vacation pun), please check out my Avon stories and my fun collection of Personal stories.

Please, don't let me forget to tell you the Avon Voodoo story!!!!

Yes, we have no bananas...

I took down those blasted Google ads. Yeah, I made a few bucks, but there's not enough penny clicks in the world to balance that wary, scary feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I want to keep Beauty Dish outside-advertiser free. I really do. I feel good when I can tell you a story about my life, about my Avon, about my boys, my pot-bellied pig, without seeing strange people I don't know, don't wanna know peek through my sidebar.

So click on that Paypal when you think I've entertained you, told you something of use.

No More Ads! Yay!

In other news, I am delivering a nice big bag of potential Prize-Winnin' Avon to my customer with the show terrier. The dog show is three weeks from Saturday! I am going as the "Assistant Groomer" and will take lots of pics!

Beauty Blogging Wit For Hire

I have kept Beauty Dish free of advertising for its entire two and a half years of existence. But the costs of running the site are starting to escalate! Some of my Avon Adventure stories and Avon Product reviews generate quite a few hits, day after day. I am so grateful for the kind PayPal donations I have received to date, but they aren't covering my blogging and hosting costs on an ongoing basis. And to be completely honest, my Avon career hasn't generated enough income to cover both my home and blogging expenses.

I'm going to pursue some kind of gentle advertising. I want your input! At the moment, I am testing a few things out over here. To be honest, these small get-paid-by-the-click ads do not thrill me, but perhaps I am too close to my creation. Please voice your input, friends.

What I would love, most of all, is to find a company, or a small number of companies - each socially responsible - who would like to sponsor both me as a writer and my continuing Beauty Dish Blog. I would love to write the occasional story about a caring sponsor that would help introduce their important works to the world. I'm not talking shilling for random products, but more of a set of wonderful essays that would be at home in any newspaper, corporate journal, or literary magazine.

If you know of any such potential sponsors, please drop me a note or let them know that Beauty Dish has an elegant and irreverent pen for hire!

Thank you for your continued support and love for Beauty Dish.

This and That

Apparently if you have signed up for my mailing list and you use the Hotmail.com service, you may not receive your Secret Bird Call. This is not on my end - it's part of Hotmail's over-eager spam filters. If you aren't receiving your mail from me, this is probably the cause. Check your spam box and see if you can locate the booger! If not, please drop me an email.

What I need right now!

I got the archive links working, got the sidebar aligned, managed to create a link at my old blog to this one. Phew!

The Secret Bird Call is composed and goes out tonight, too!

I appreciate everyone's assistance (so far!), and welcome any further pointers, tips, ideas, and complaints!

If I've been silent...

I lost a bunch of recent email in the computer cookout. If you have sent me email over the last two weeks and I haven't responded, please do send again! Thanks so much!

Happy Weekend!!

I'm going to take a blogging break over the next few days.

In the meantime, Caption the photo!

Need Someone Good with Typepad

I would like to trade a big box of fabulous Avon goodies for some web site assistance. I can't seem to get my blog to line-up the way I would like, and my technical skills only go so far. I also don't know how to have all my archives show up on the sidebar, the list goes on and on....

Would anyone care to trade their design expertise in exchange for a buncha the latest and greatest Avon?

If so, please email me! I'll be away from the computer for a few days, so expect to hear back from me after the 4th!

Thanks!!!

Need some good eyes!

I will be linking in all the content today along the sidebar. I had some trouble with the sidebar not showing up the right way in Internet Explorer. I don't have IE on my machine. Can you guys help out and let me know when things look lined up and when they don't? Is it lined up now, with minimal content? It looks fine in Safari and Firefox to me, but I am on a mac.

Thanks for the assistance!!

Any troubles or ideas or creative comments, please post them in comments, I can use all the help I can get. At the moment I have beautydish.com linking to an "entry" page that leads to this site.

xo!!!