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Katelyn Thomas

Expert Guru
Katelyn Thomas is a freelance writer who specializes in home and garden topics. Besides tending her own gardens, she has landscaped yards and given landscape advice to others. She has written and taught an online course on plant propagation and taught a class on container gardening for her county's library system.

Katelyn has raised show quality Yorkshire Terriers, worked as a veterinary receptionist and trained quite a few dogs for family and friends. Since Katelyn has been an aviculturist for over 20 years, she also knows
quite a bit about the bird world. She has a special fondness for the smallest true parrot, the parrotlet, and
the super intelligent African grey.

As a small business owner, Katelyn has quite a bit of hands-on business experience. She has owned a
daycare, started an errand and pet sitting service and published a parenting magazine. She has helped
other people start their own businesses as well, both in person and through online non-credit classes.

Katelyn's small business experience led to an interest in internet marketing and website creation. She has
created websites and blogs for herself and for other businesses and has taught classes on starting a web
site for small businesses.




5 Tips from Katelyn Thomas

Customize Your Blog to Attract More Readers

If your blog has the same old tired look of all the other blogs out there, you may be losing out on attracting new readers. Many blog readers feel that bloggers using the default templates aren't as serious about their blogs as people who make an effort to customize their blogs. You can make your blog stand out by:
* Hiring someone to create a custom new design for your blog.
* Paying for permission to use a template with a limited number of users.
* Making a few adjustments to a standard template yourself. Changing the background color and using a custom header can make an old, tired template look very different.

Children's Garden Party Theme

If you are looking for a children's birthday party theme that won't destroy your budget and your home, you may want to take a look at the garden party theme. Garden parties:
* Can be very inexpensive and have the added bonus of taking the mess outside.
* Provide the opportunity for some budget friendly activities, such as using dress up clothes, serving tea and tiny sandwiches and offering etiquette lessons.
* Are great for craft projects, such as letting children paint their own flower pots, which are functional and fun.

Dealing with an Itchy Dog

If your dog is constantly itching and scratching, there are a few things you can try to bring it (and you) some relief. To soothe your itchy dog, you should:
* Ask your veterinarian to check for external problems, such as fleas or parasites.
* Discuss medical treatments, such as cortizone shots, with your vet.
* Use a good oatmeal shampoo for pets to temporarily relieve itching.
* Consider switching to a dog food specifically formulated for dogs with allergies.

Make Your Garden Pet Friendly

If you have dogs or cats, you may want to take a hard look at how pet friendly your garden is. To keep your garden pet safe you should:
* Avoid using chemicals, including concentrated fertilizers in areas your pets can access.
* Use pet safe mulch. Mulch made with cocoa hulls can be toxic to dogs.
* Plant non-toxic plants in areas near your pets. You may be surprised by how many common garden plants are poisonous to pets.

Create Your Own Buzz with Press Releases

If you are starting up a new business or are planning an exciting new development, you may want to let the media know about the event with a press release. You can create your own buzz by:
* Thinking about why people should care about your new venture. For example, if you are a pooper scooper, you will want to highlight how nice it will be for the folks in Anytown to be able play a rousing game of catch without picking up anything unpleasant because James forgot to clean up after his pup again.
* Being quotable. In fact, throw a few quotes right into that press release, even if you're just quoting yourself. It makes it easy for reporters to look like they got information from an exclusive source.
* Making sure you submit the press release to local news services and online services like prweb.com for complete coverage.