If you’re looking for a new design challenge to flex your creative muscle, look no further! Everything PR, one of the top PR news websites worldwide, and design crowdsourcing site Prova.fm are organizing a design contest in their quest for the best PR news header. The prize? 350 US dollars.

All you have to do is check out the contest details, browse through the articles on Everything PR to familiarize yourself with the style and general design of the website, then gather your creative and web design forces and start working! Once you have uploaded your proposed design, make sure you share it on your blog, on Twitter or Facebook. You will test it against your peers and your friends and they can vote your work on the Prova.fm site, making you one of the contest favorites.

Why should you join the contest? Other than the cash prize attached to it, this contest also means a chance for you to get some online visibility! Other than being featured in the Prova.fm contest winners hall of fame, your work will be features on a high traffic, worldwide appreciate PR news site which can lead to new clients wanting to hire you!

Now start designing and good luck!

Are you a great researcher with eye for creative photos? Can you write smart and catchy taglines to match those photos and turn them into great ads? Noodle, a site dedicated to helping students find the perfect fit for a college or other classes or education programmes they might be interested in, challenges you to test your skills. All you have to do is join their contest at Prova.fm, find great photos and write matching captions to win up to 10,000 USD.

You don’t actually need to take the photo, but if you’ve taken great one in the past why not use them now? If not, search your friends’ photos or any online resource that allows their photos to be used commercially, write the best tagline to help Noodle advertise their services, and win 100 US dollars for every selected photo-caption combination. Noodle is looking for up to 100 different pictures and messages to go with them, so there are 10,000 dollars to be won.

To get a better feel of what is required of you, check the sample ad below and browse more of them posted on Noodle’s ad design contest page.

Good luck everyone! And happy photo hunting and tagline writing!

This is my all favorite Latin quote. Your homeland is where you’re feeling good, whatever that means for each of us: prosperous, happy, challenged to outrun others, connected to one’s roots, among friends. I always thought I could live anywhere as long there was a reason to do it: a work opportunity, getting an education, trying something new. I believe I can adapt to any place, as long as there are people I can connect with. That is why I’ve always believed I am location independent.

And I really am! I’ve traveled enough to know I’d have no problem changing countries for a while. Actually, I’d love to move to a new country every six months. Hard to earn a living like that? Not really! I am a PR and Marketing strategist. My clients rarely need my physical presence; they just need my ideas, my written words, my advice. As long as I have an internet connection and my laptop, I can do my thing.

I will probably not move anytime soon. But I could. And that sense of freedom is most precious to me. Just like the sense I could just go out for a walk if I wanted to and postpone work a little. Running your own business gives you that freedom. Or a quick glance at it. Because let’s face it, maybe I’ve postponed work a few times since I’ve started managing my own company. It’s a rare event, but it’s a very real possibility.

The Internet has become my extended home. I have friends and family online. My homeland is slowly moving online. That’s where 50% of it is right now. The rest is the palpable world, which might be a city or another in Romania, the so-called suburbs (the nearby villages where new houses are built), a different country, an isolated island in the country of no one. It’s our relationships that give us the feeling of belonging, not the place where we live. And moving around will not make me less of what I am now, I won’t stop being Romanian just because I live abroad.

Patria ubi bene. The pragmatic approach. Your heart tells you where your home is. The sentimental approach. Your office is where you plug in and start working. The “someone needs to pay for all the fun” approach. But the main idea behind all these approaches is pretty much the same: if we’re happy, we can adapt to anything, new places, and new people. Just as long as we stay connected to all those who are important to us. And given today’s technology, it’s hard not to.

In this day and age, we’re all living a Location Independent Life. And if we’re not, we can easily start living it.

This is my contribution to the Location Independent Group Writing Project. If you want to join it, the deadline is May 27, so hurry up!

It seems like Tuesdays have been the days for most posts related to the WoBM Anniversary Contest, the Blogging and Relationships – Write about the wonderful people you’ve met Group Writing Project. So it’s no wonder you get to meet the winners on a Tuesday

As I’ve kept you waiting for too long, here’s who won and a list of all entries:

The first place and first prize, a copy of IttyBiz’ SEO School, go to Andrew for his wonderful entry Three Special Bloggers.

The second place and prize, a collection of Depeche Mode – The Singles 86-98 in mp3 format, go to Joanna Young for her inspirational piece on microblogging and relationships, Why it’s worth sticking with Twitter.

For the third place, we had a tie. So we’ve decided on having to amazing bloggers awarded: Brad Shorr for the Blogging Relationships are Gold for the Soul post, who will be receiving a copy of Lillie Ammann’s “Dream or Destiny”, and Lillie Ammann with the entry Blogging Friends, but as she cannot win her own book, she will be also receiving the Depeche Mode – The Singles 86-98 in mp3 format collection.

All four of them will also get 2 hours of free PR consulting, but I’ll send all the details about their prizes in an email.

Thank you and congratulations again to everyone who’s been part of this group writing project:

Brad Shorr – Blogging Relationships are Gold for the Soul

Sarah Welstead – 7 Rules for Effective Relationship Blogging

Andrew of Good Honest Dollar – Three Special Bloggers

Joanna Young – Why it’s worth sticking with Twitter

CV Harquail – Tweet yourself like the person you want to be

Jacquelyn – How I started the WParent blog

Lillie Ammann – Blogging Friends

Nithya – Building Strength through Support

Alina Popescu – Investing in relationships has excellent ROI

Important Update

As Brad already has a copy of “Dream or Destiny”, he’s donnated his to a random participant. He’ll be enjoying a Depeche Mode collection instead. We played with some numbers and the lucky winner is CV Harquail – Tweet yourself like the person you want to be. Congratsulations!

Daniel Secareanu has tagged me with a wonderful meme that definitely suits a Sunday evening. A random artist is created using random creativity, and here’s what band I’d be in and the name of our very first album!

Do you want to play? Here’s how to decide on your band name, your album name and the artwork to be used on the cover. If you like it too much, well, you can actually use it and start writing songs

1. Go to Wikipedia. Use the “random” search option or click here. The name of the first article you find will be your band’s name.
2. Next, go to “Random quotations” or click this link. The last three-four words of the last quote on the page will be your album’s name.
3. Then, go to Flicker and access the photos posted in the last seven days, or click here. The third photo displayed, no matter what it is, will be your album’s cover. As my friend Loredana noticed, you should also check if there’s any copyright or creative commons for that photo and make sure you can a. use it and b. modify it. You should keep going from one photo to the next till you reach you can use. In my case, it took checking out the entire first page, reloading and then checking a few more. Original photo here.
4. Lastly, use your preferred photo editing software or online tool to put everything together.

If you read this and you’re inspired to see what your first album would look and sound like, consider yourself tagged!

Yesterday was the last day when contestants could submit entries to the WoBM Anniversary Group Writing Project Blogging and Relationships – Write about the wonderful people you’ve met. Here’s the complete list of submitted entries. The jury will now go behind close doors and deliberate! Not really, but we’ll be back with the three lucky winners as soon as possible!

Brad Shorr – Blogging Relationships are Gold for the Soul

Sarah Welstead – 7 Rules for Effective Relationship Blogging

Andrew of Good Honest Dollar – Three Special Bloggers

Joanna Young – Why it’s worth sticking with Twitter

CV Harquail – Tweet yourself like the person you want to be

Jacquelyn – How I started the WParent blog

Lillie Ammann – Blogging Friends

Nithya – Building Strength through Support

And my own – Investing in relationships has excellent ROI

If you want to join the WoBM Group Writing Project “Blogging and Relationships – Write about the wonderful people you’ve met!“, you should really do it now. There are only 5 days left until the deadline, February 28. Four and a half if you think today’s morning is long gone. In case you’re wondering what your struggling for, other than your reader’s appreciation and lovely comments, here are the prizes:

1. A copy of IttyBiz’ SEO School
2. Depeche Mode – The Singles 86-98 in mp3 format (I love them and this particular collection holds all my favorites)
3. A copy of Lillie Ammann’s “Dream or Destiny”

Plus the 2 hours of free PR counseling from me included in each prize. And our cool jury: Loredana, Alex and myself.

Don’t forget to play by the rules in the announcement post!

And if you’re wondering who you’re competing against, take a look at the already submitted entries:

Brad Shorr – Blogging Relationships are Gold for the Soul

Sarah Welstead – 7 Rules for Effective Relationship Blogging

Andrew of Good Honest Dollar – Three Special Bloggers

Joanna Young – Why it’s worth sticking with Twitter

CV Harquail – Tweet yourself like the person you want to be

Jacquelyn – How I started the WParent blog

And my own – Investing in relationships has excellent ROI

Good luck everyone and don’t forget time is flying by!

Another week went by since my last announcement about the WoBM Group Writing Project “Blogging and Relationships – Write about the wonderful people you’ve met!“. As the deadline is approaching fast, I’m back with some news and the obvious reminder to publish those posts in time and let me know you’re in for the prizes. Speaking of prizes, Lillie Ammann offered to also autograph the copy of “Dream or Destiny”! So here’s a quick list of the prizes:

1. A copy of IttyBiz’ SEO School
2. Depeche Mode – The Singles 86-98 in mp3 format (I love them and this particular collection holds all my favorites)
3. A copy of Lillie Ammann’s “Dream or Destiny”

Plus the 2 hours of free PR counseling from me which are an extra something for each prize. As I’m sure you remember, winning entries will be selected by a jury whose members are Loredana, Alex and myself.

If you want to play with us, don’t forget the rules!

• Publish an original article on your blog before February 28
• You may only have one entry per blog. If you have more than one blog, lucky you
• Link to the post announcing the group writing project
• Leave the link to your entry on the announcement post

Here’s the list of entries already submitted:

Brad Shorr – Blogging Relationships are Gold for the Soul

Sarah Welstead – 7 Rules for Effective Relationship Blogging

Andrew of Good Honest Dollar – Three Special Bloggers

And my own – Investing in relationships has excellent ROI

I don’t know if I’ve officially mentioned this, but my entry doesn’t count

Happy writing! Oh, yeah, and the clock is ticking!

Time has the bad habit of flying by and the first two weeks of the WoBM Group Writing Project “Blogging and Relationships – Write about the wonderful people you’ve met!” are now history. You all have a little under three weeks to submit your entry for a chance to win one of these 3 prizes:

1. A copy of IttyBiz’ SEO School
2. Depeche Mode – The Singles 86-98 in mp3 format (I love them and this particular collection holds all my favorites)
3. A copy of Lillie Ammann’s “Dream or Destiny”

Just to spice up the competition, all three prizes include 2 hours of free PR counseling from yours truly. The winning entries will be selected by a jury whose members are Loredana, Alex and myself. To qualify, please follow the official rules:

• Publish an original article on your blog before February 28
• You may only have one entry per blog. If you have more than one blog, lucky you
• Link to the post announcing the group writing project
• Leave the link to your entry on the announcement post

There already are three early entries:

Brad Shorr – Blogging Relationships are Gold for the Soul

Sarah Welstead – 7 Rules for Effective Relationship Blogging

And my own – Investing in relationships has excellent ROI

Good luck everyone! And don’t forget, the clock is ticking!

I can still perfectly remember the first comment on my blog. It’s not about what the commentator said, it’s not about the fact that I was a great fan of the first person commenting, it was about receiving the first comment to something I had written and sparking a conversation. I was so thrilled!

Writing was a daily habit for me at the time. Be it novels, stories, essays, articles and projects for school, I have always enjoyed putting my thoughts on (real or electronic) paper. And I have always enjoyed having people read it and give me their feedback. So the part about having an outlet for my thoughts was not what hooked me to blogging. It was the comments, the conversation and the almost instant feedback. What kept the addiction going was the great number of friendships that resulted from my casual chat with fellow bloggers.

Some of the people I’ve met online have quit blogging, some just are in a different place right now, where we’re no longer able to connect. But what I’ve learned, the feeling of a geographically ignorant circle of friends stayed with me and are now stronger than ever.

Of my oldest friends, Sarah and Bart are still around. Bart has actually become one of my closest friends and a second father to me (if his daughters weren’t enough trouble ) and has supported me through painful breakups, career issues, health issues and shared lots of fun and amazing times with me. When it comes to online friendships, a lot of people say that real life meetings are disappointing. Never my case! Not with Bart, whom I visited together with my fiance, not with my big sis Trisi, not with Zu, or any other person I’ve met through my blog.

Since that first comment, I started meeting amazing people. Powerful, inspirational, funny, supportive, innovative, extremely bright. Mig, Joanna, Bogdan, Deb, Ali, Haal, Mohammed, Liz, Lou, Brad, Karen, Alex and so many more it’s impossible to mention them all and not remembering a few more names every other five minutes. Some of them are listed here, others are listed in my Google Reader (I’ve got about 300 subscriptions). If I wanted to write a personal thanking note to all of them, it would probably take me weeks and I’d get lost in the forest of memories quite soon after starting.

People talk about networking, making connections, I like to say I try my very best to build meaningful relationships through my blog. I don’t care nearly as much about rss subscribers, daily visits and ranks, as I care about the number of people I can call my friends and the impressive number of memories and experiences we’ve shared. Investing in such relationships does entail impressive ROI. Probably not the kind of ROI you might think of at first, but definitely more than you could ever wish for!

This is my contribution to and the official launch of the “Blogging and Relationships – Write about the wonderful people you’ve met!” Group Writing Project. In case you’ve forgotten the rules and prizes, here they are:

• Publish an original article on your blog before February 28
• You may only have one entry per blog. If you have more than one blog, lucky you
• Link to the post announcing the group writing project
• Comment on the announcement post, just to make sure I don’t miss your entry, we can’t always rely on trackbacks!

And the prizes:

1. A copy of IttyBiz’ SEO School
2. Depeche Mode – The Singles 86-98 in mp3 format (I love them and this particular collection holds all my favorites)
3. A copy of Lillie Ammann’s “Dream or Destiny”
   

Additionally, along with these prizes, you’ll get 2 hours of free PR consulting from yours truly.

As for the jury I’ve told you about, the parts have been given to: Loredana, Alex and little old me.

Good luck everyone!

P.S. If you’re not among the names I’ve mentioned in this entry and feel you should be, you probably should And I did think of you when writting this post!