I love the convenience of shopping online. I love not having to leave my house and still being able to get a good deal on something I want. Being me, though, I want to know how it works. How do they know when I select something I want and add it to my shopping cart? What totals up the order and processes my payment? What if I want to sell something? Can I do the same thing?

Now I know these online stores are using ecommerce software. That's what gives them the ability to have those virtual shopping carts, to process orders and payments, and put the process into motion that results in their product arriving at my front door.  If I had something to sell and wanted to start my own online store, I could use this shopping cart software too.  Ashop Commerce allows small to medium businesses build and manage an online store.  There is no software to install.  It is completely web-based and fully customizable.  Pricing plans are based on the number of items for sale.  It's easy to set up and has all kinds of great features I didn't even know were necessary.  Now, should I ever have a product I want to sell online, I know where to look for ecommerce software.

Once, when we were in Baraboo, Jeffrey and I went to the Ho Chunk casino just to check it out. Actually, I think Jeffrey wanted to play Blackjack or something, just for the fun of it. We really didn't stay long, though, because the place was loud and crowded and full of cigarette smoke. Oh yes, quite a pleasant place to be. They actually had a non-smoking room where you could play bingo or slots or something. The only catch was that you had to walk through the rest of the entire casino to get there - right through the clouds of cigarette smoke. Yeah, that makes sense.

Needless to say, we didn't go back. Believe me, they have plenty of business without ours. I think a better alternative, if you want to play a little Blackjack or Texas Hold 'em, is to find an online casino and play from the comfort of your own home. No crowds, no smoke, but you still get to play the games and even, hopefully, win some money.  Jeffrey usually plays poker online, and he's doing pretty well with the pretend money.  If he ever decides he wants to try with some real money, I think this site at Pro360.com could be helpful in finding a good, reputable online casino.  Casinos are listed and rated by both the editors of the site and by the players.  You can click to get all the casino info, see screenshots of each site, and see how they stack up in several different categories, like customer support and payout speed.  Until I looked at this site, I hadn't realized there were so many online casinos. 

There are also some handy resources, like the beginners guide to online gambling and some online gambling tips.  The best tip I can think of is not to gamble with any money you can't afford to lose.

I admit it. I like that I can get paid for blogging. Jeffrey laughs at me, and he really doesn't take it seriously.  At this point in time, I couldn't actually make a living from blogging, but there are people out there who use blog advertising and also blog for money, and they make quite a bit of money.  I figure I'm making more money now than I was before, and I can still stay home and do laundry, do dishes, fix dinner, clean the house, and all those other things that never seem to end.  Right now I'm making waffles to put into the freezer and then typing this while they are cooking.  That means I get up every two minutes!

I just recently got this blog accepted by Smorty, so hopefully I will get some good opportunities through them.  Smorty is a service that connects advertisers and bloggers.  They send me an email when there is a new advertising campaign available.  If it's still available when I log in, I can accept it and then have three days to write the post.  Three days!  When I first started the get paid to blog thing, I had one hour to write a post.  Three days should give me plenty of time to research the site that the advertiser wants me to link to and be able to write a post that at least makes it sound like I know what I'm talking about.