

So, small images from a very big redesign.
Very big.
Advertorial big, in terms of the paints and so forth.
I am amusing myself this morning trying to make this work on a new machine. So, believe me when I say I ❤ WordPress.
Because:



So, small images from a very big redesign.
Very big.
Advertorial big, in terms of the paints and so forth.
I am amusing myself this morning trying to make this work on a new machine. So, believe me when I say I ❤ WordPress.
Because:

Realness in the Web. What does that mean for human beings? What does that mean across all demographics? Across age groups? Across human lives, and adding in Semantics and language.
So when I first “entered” the web as a writer, it was “myself” but I chose a nom de plume like many writers do. This last year, I decided to “drop” that. So FB is “realness” and now this blog is also “realness” – this is a difficult concept to grasp given these times we all seem to be in. Realness is better. Realness is Really YOU.
Okay so, I would never have thought at one time I would want to monetize “myself” but now I do. In life you know, we go through so very much. Educations, careers, relationships – across “time,” but what humans go through is pretty much the same?
They face the same things, the same basic emotions, the same wants and drives, loves, feelings of sadness, all of it.
This last year I took two books with me to the SB Writers Conference. I have a short story in both of them. So, here are pictures of those book covers.

Story is “A Little Irish Honey” and here is the book over in Amazon. I loved the cover an that book. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Lovers-Stories-Under-Covers/dp/158005529X
Before that I was in this one for “Flowering” https://www.amazon.com/Mammoth-Book-Quick-Dirty-Erotica-ebook/dp/B00OGUT3I0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1535982285&sr=1-1&keywords=Quick+and+Dirty+erotica I wasn’t crazy about the cover on this one. Really.
Being a writer is not the most “money making” thing I have ever done, believe me.
But it might be one of the most fun.
I had TOTAL FREEDOM.
So anyway, the persona of my old blog. It is hard to believe I did that much writing here in WP. That thing was like a running scroll.
So when you look at yourself in the web what do you see?
Little pieces?
Little things you said or felt?
Groups of people you used to know or still do?
So anyway.
Monetization.
I was thinking this morning I could probably do that with Advertorial copy.
So this is a new frontier, but I want my old blog there too?
That is like my history, oddly so.
So I am reflection on all the short stories I wrote that were published and the little book I put together that is in Amazon. Imagine if those were translated? I mean that would be ‘global” audience for me.
As a writer.
So anyway more thoughts on this, because I’m sick of not working.
It was a pretty big deal becoming a published writer, it really was.
The FREEDOM in being a writer is that you write anything you want.
So last night I was looking at my old presence in the web as a screenshot of “Valentine Bonnaire” I’m not sure how it would be to “integrate” that blog into this one or even how. I was thinking I should pay to keep that alive? Except that this is my new blog home. https://valentinebonnaire.com/ Imagine that was me in WP since 2007. I think it might have been New Year’s Day when I started it. That is coming up on 12 years soon. It’s just wow, when I think of this and how much time.
❤
Continuing along the path to what is included in Premium as I figure out about WordAds and how that is being run and used here in WordPress.
I’m really glad to have met Jon Burke.
So let me show you what I was looking at yesterday. I see I’m not able to “categorize” and tag right now, that is fine by me. These posts are for the internal admins, anyway. And for myself.
So I have screenshots of things from yesterday.

First looking into what Jetpack is.
I remember there was a year when you could “buy” this? And now it is included in Premium. I’m not sure what it does, exactly but I did see something that was interesting to me, and this is around the concept of Demographics. And language usage.

I did a little research to see what the ads were looking like, here and read this piece.
So I am looking at a banner ad. The question would be do I WANT to brand with that company?
Perhaps I don’t.
In this case I would want control over what is on my page, and I am assuming that the Business version of WP would allow for that.
So I would always want to be branded with WP, but not the company I see in the banner.
So here is how demographics work.
In my demographic we might not want that brand, and we might prefer that brand in a glass bottle. (Because of too much plastic in the sea).
So in this piece from four years ago or so the author took it upon themselves to do a huge survey and it’s worth a read.

Further down on the page we see an ad that does fit with my demographic. How this got there is because I was actually looking at that company a week or so ago? As with anything you look at in the web, it tends to pop up in ad form. I would not mind branding with say that company or Williams Sonoma. Why?
I might like or buy a product from them to cook with.
So for me, “Taste” in terms of who could advertise matters.
So I saw something over at Jetpack yesterday.
It was under the Proofreading function about editing?
Editing of content, and I felt, well, how does this work with various demographics when it comes to WORDS themselves. WordPress is ABOUT using Words. The red line is fab. The green may not be? Here is why. As a writer you want total freedom to express and suppose you wanted to speak of the poet e.e. cummings who broke all grammar rules?
So “realness” and language use as human beings.
Eventually most of us will try our hand at doing a paint project on something, be that a wall or canvas.
For me as an artist, doing a redesign has required much thinking from an artistic standpoint on this paint project I am doing. I am using more than one brand of thing for this. So there are many things I could talk about such as all the paints, how I did something, how I chose the palette and so forth.
What I like best about WordPress is the “realness” of the writers.
Okay so back to that ad site to show you another picture.

This ad appeared at the bottom.
There are three ads I saw.
Of the three only one mattered to me.
I would not “click through” via the blog?
I know where the shop is here in town. Seeing the ad did not help me either decide to go shopping at that store to buy the little tomato shaped pot I thought was cute and looked at once, not the charming pumpkin and tomato tureens I like at Williams Sonoma.
So this is where Advertorial comes in.
If the blogger had waxed rhapsodical and meant it over one of these products?
I would sense what Demographic I am looking at quite easily.
Around the purchase of the paint.
I did not go to a Big Box style store to make the purchase.
I went to a very small Hardware store here in town where my demographic likes to shop.
The closing of the chain Orchard Supply Hardware has made me very sad of late. My demographic is nostalgic for much simpler times.
❤
Again some thoughts for WP admins and all others. Have a few pix for you today but also showing a few experiences as well over last few days.
#1 I am not sure why any email I get from WordPress goes to the spam folder, and I really don’t like that. I rarely check email. It bores me to do so. More and more any talking I do is behind the scenes in Facebook, as it is really fast.
#2 I would prefer to have a conversation right here at my blog. Ease!
#3 I decided I would go look at my email yesterday, specifically for WordPress and I noticed that it is similar to what FB does there, EXCEPT! I got an email asking me to join a group called WordAds. In WordPress. I accepted. Really happy about that.
Okay so shows you the Pilgrim’s Progress via screenshots, and talks a bit about ads and demographics. Who is the market? This is the first question. In Demographics being in WordPress represents a segment of the population. Key concepts = Freedom + Elegance + Ease – so in a sense the advertorial “WordAds” represent readers who choose to BE HERE vs other things.
In a way, your blog is YOUR BRAND.
Your blog is your brand under the WordPress Brand.
I would never want to NOT ADVERTISE WordPress itself at the bottom footer on my pages.
That is called “BRAND LOYALTY.”
I would always want the logo for WordPress in my footer, and so I did that. It signifies my own brand loyalty.
What are demographics?
Demographics are “like groups” under various umbrellas, but they are not sheep.
For instance, I am loyal right now to Valspar Paint for the exquisite quality and texture. Now let me show you some pictures.

This is their presence on Twitter, which I am no longer using at present. You are looking at the company “advertising” itself. One of the things I noticed was that they had developed a BPA free can for the paint? This matters to my demographic. We would see that as “GOOD.” So, demographics are about finding a “niche” that is “like you.”
Advertising is about “selling something” to others.
I loved that the invitation was in my email so I joined!
Here is that picture.

This is what I meant yesterday about “goodness” in the WordPress world.
It’s made up of like minded people under the WordPress brand.
❤
My sentiments exactly here: https://bloggingkits.org/wordpress-announces-yet-another-maintenance-update/
I hope it is the same Mr. Burke mentioned in this article.
Thank you for the invitation to the WordAds Group.
I have some more visuals upcoming that are screenshots for you.
I’ll talk some more about what I think in terms of design and why WP is the most elegant place to run Advertorial.
I ❤ WordPress
Very glad to have met Jon Burke – https://wordads.co/author/jonburke/
https://en.support.wordpress.com/portfolios/
This is probably something I might use in conjunction with the WordAds concept, as Advertorial/Testimonial ads I am writing up.
I used to design advertising for a newspaper, and I wrote ad copy all the time.
It’s hard to believe how long ago that time is now, and how the web has changed all of that. So, on that Valspar “Delphinium Blue” – that would be a post type that would fall under “Portfolio” for me.
My books might also fall under “Portfolio”
I was looking at “Feedback” and what I think this might be is for a group to review a thing “before” someone posts?
Not sure.
❤
Onwards, with trusty Gutenberg.
So I tried a little test this morning with WordAds, except I did not link words because the computer was very slow. It’s old and I haven’t set up the new one yet. What I did was to Facebook from WordPress what I said about “Valspar, Delphinium Corsage” a few days ago. In the meantime I have turned on my “get paid for WordAds” thing because I have “Premium.” As I said, I might as well be a rank beginner compared to the rest of you “tech people” – so there were no comments by any of my friends on that post, which makes me think that they never saw it in FB, not kidding on that, for WordPress Admins.
At any rate, the “translation” button I have on my front page…
Well, what this means is that if I have made a positive and FUN posting, it can be translated AROUND THE WORLD into so many languages it’s uncanny.
So, earlier I checked my stats and a friendly very tech Italian came by for the second time. I looked at his gravatar and also went to his page to see – he would be a TECH person up on things who blogs in here as well. I took a screen shot to show you how I am thinking and using Gutenberg.

Here are more images and thoughts…

This is advertorial with a very positive message about Valspar as in “Testimonial” style of Advertorial, and here is is available with GLOBAL REACH.

That was version that I FB’d earlier today.

Again and looking at the power of GLOBAL REACH via “translators” — this really ups the ante on WordAds as Advertorials.
It is only ethical, in my opinion to give a true opinion or testimonial style ad, and show pictures that BELONG to me as I go. Of the products I am actually using. It would be the same with any stores that I am going to.
Nobody clicked through on FB.
So that was test #1 and I can try again as I think how I might do the linking as Advertorial.
❤
ps: this part is really cute too

Designing a fresh look in a tired old house starts with Paint.
I chose Valspar because my local Ace Hardware store is so charming. I have been shopping with Home Improvement as long as I can remember, and I even had a job there just out of High School when a friend of my mother’s ran a store in the area that is now Kitchen Supplies called “Freeport Imports.”
I love shopping there, and the men in the Paint Department are so kind. It’s a neighborhood place, with lots of staff that answer every question.
It has taken months to decide on the right colors.
I had these gorgeous Valspar paint chips last Christmas. I think the names of the colors made me happy. So I got three of the tiny test cans for $9.99 – mixed for me.

I have to admit “Delphinium Corsage” had me at the name, but so did “Zydeco” and so did “Deep Ocean Floor.” I got those three.

So these are the knobs I found.
I’m doing the kitchen over in a very fresh blue and white scheme, and the quality on the Valspar Paint is just exceptional. I loved Deep Ocean Floor so much I decided to have the paint man do one quart of exterior to paint some trim on the outside. For months I have played around with these chips and propped them next to things.
In the end I decided on a chalk finish for the cabinetry, that I can wax. But the interiors of the drawers and cabinets themselves will go totally Valspar, as will the walls.
I want the kitchen to feel like walking into a patch of Pacific Giant Delphiniums, or Magic Fountains Delphiniums.
I will keep you posted.
❤

Advertorial content
Test Advertorial for Paint, stores, PROMO #1 WordAds
$15.00
Working my way through the set up of my new blog, so this is from the advertising that was “print” at one time. These are two different types of ads.
So yesterday I said I was going to try out a post to see what might happen using WordAds. So, Branding and Demographics, these count.
Advertorial works in a different way to suggest buying a product than Testimonial does. For instance, I love this new paint I have from Valspar, and I am going to be doing a large project that is a design project in a kitchen, except I am upcycling, so appeal is going to be to the upcycling crowd. But where within that demographic? This is where I would craft the appeal. In Advertorial I would write about why I chose Valspar? I could wax rhapsodic about the colors of the paint chips and I could use the art I made to talk about those. 
I loved the names of the paint.
Fresh paint changes things and gives huge uplift. As an artist I love to get color chips and sometimes deciding on just the right one takes some time. I am doing a blue and white look for this kitchen. It’s a classic color combination that can go English or Scandinavian or even French Country, depending and I want a mix of those types of things – really clean look.
This isn’t an overnight project. The design has taken me quite some time to work out starting with the finds. I have rediscovered the joy of shopping at little hardware stores here in town, and so, I went to Ace Hardware for this paint. I enjoy talking to the paint mixers in the paint department of the store. I’m not in the Big Box store mood, nor do I want the Amazon experience of ordering because I like people, and shopping in stores.
So Advertorial goes a little like this. I can show you links to the things I have spoken about here in WordPress.
What is different about Testimonial ads?
A Testimonial ad would be to show you pictures of before and after on a project.
For instance I could drive traffic to Ace Hardware and OSH which are the two places I shopped locally for the objects I needed on this project. I could show you the little sander I bought? With a link. I could show you the sander in action? I could talk about why I am using Primer. Testimonials would be about actually using the products and showing before and after on all of that. In a sense Advertorials and Testimonials are alike in the advertising world, it’s just that the content differs.
So, I am not sure yet about WordAds and taking it as I go?
If I were to tag the stores?
This drives traffic to them just as it would to the paint itself, and the fact that WordPress now translates “globally” – what I have just written functions as promotional for the companies.
Why did I like the blue ranges in Valspar?
My delphiniums!

I bought three little cans of blue paint that I loved from Valspar for the interiors of the cabinets. I knew that I could get an effect that would be a surprise and a smile when I opened cabinet doors and saw different shades of blue, the beautiful blue, Delphinium blue, in all the ranges, inside a blue and white kitchen.
So in a Testimonial, it would go something like this, and in an Advertorial I would write something about why as an artist I wanted those colors.
*Note to WordPress – I just did this as a trial so you could see my thoughts on these things in terms of WordAds but I will not tag this other than to say things that stay here internally until I actually do this. ❤
Mostly I am interested in selling my books!
I thought perhaps I might upgrade to business and I wasn’t sure if that was going to make a huge difference at first?
There is a local company here in town I had looked at yesterday after I saw a news piece. I am loving Gutenberg so far. It’s gorgeous. It really is. So I am reading this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/radcontrol/ about Ad Control to get a sense, and will let you know what I find…
Reading up on Jetpack and https://en.support.wordpress.com/monetize-your-site/
Reading about Simple Payments https://en.support.wordpress.com/simple-payments/
So I made a button, and listed a price but as you can see, if I were really writing copy or managing some advertorial – the prices are much higher. https://moz.com/ugc/where-does-the-advertorial-budget-go-now
Tomorrow I will write up a linked advertorial ad. This has been a test as I go of the features on WordPress Premium.
This is an example of a simplistic advertorial from a Magazine I subscribe to: https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/decorate/looks/a22756712/yellow-paint-colours/
This is an example of how a headline in a tabloid can wreck a brand? https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6843442/b-and-q-paint-smell-ruin-couples-home-renovation/
In the latter case you would use testimonial as cure in extended style.
Using Google as a search engine this is the latest news, and so you can see what would happen with a headline like that one…
This memoir I am going to be writing in NaNoWriMo in November is dedicated to many of my old friends – in Facebook, because it is going to talk about what it was actually like at Newspapers in America before the gut, layoff and merger era. Why this is important now is because we no longer have a Free Press in the country. So the era I am going to be writing about is 1981 – 2001.
So what was Advertorial?
In the days that I started working for a paper, while in college, there was no such thing. This happened in the late 80’s in the Print business.
Advertorial was “canned” news – not written by local papers and not related to the Paper itself. This was bought and inserted into local papers as a “pre-printed” thing. So for instance, “Parade” magazine that many papers featured as an insert in all cities in the country. That was a magazine?
Advertorial was a bit different.
The wall between Editorial and Advertising was a sacred thing at papers.
On that note, the concept of Monetization of a blog.
I’m actually very interested in what WordPress is doing on that.
Over the 20 years I spent working at a paper I did many, many different jobs – one of which was working in advertising and graphic design in the Art Department. I used to write ad copy and design many of the special sections that we ran.
In WordPress I would like to monetize my blog using WordAds, but this will only be for things I actually know about, or really like?
So I am going to show you how I might do a thing like that in my next post using paint, in this case Valspar. So this is a practice post as example. This is an exquisite paint because of the color chips? I just loved it. I am going to do a redesign of a simple room with these paints and so this would be an example of how I would “write” about something I would choose to brand with? In a sense that makes it “Advertorial” at the same time that if I were to tag it? Traffic would go out across the world depending on my tags.
On that note, “liking a brand” – well, this is something that, if you love a brand, you will not mind writing about it – so this is a test today for WordPress Admins so they can see how I would do that. ❤
I’m not going to run this through FB or tag it. This is just an example.
❤
*note to WP admins. I did tag this, but only for WP purposes because of Gutenberg. A side note for you would be to go to Freepress.net and you could see what happened to papers? In terms of who owns what, circa 2018. Gutenberg = FREE PRESS. Beloved that way, it will be.