The longest total solar eclipse this century started in India, sweeping east across China and into the Pacific Ocean.

This was an unusual new moon, not only because of the eclipse, but because is is also the second New Moon in Cancer. This rare event is called the “Secret Moon.”

Astrologer Lynne Hayes says, “Because Cancer rules the Moon, it is particularly powerful in Cancer and because this is an eclipse of the Sun, the lunar influence is even more powerful. The Moon presides over all issues of emotion, but also our emotional connections to each other and to our ancestral history. Cancer is known for its concern with family matters but that sense of family extends beyond the nuclear family, and even the extended family, to the entire tribe of which we are a part.  Some of us have strong family ties; others of us create our own tribes that serve the family role.”

You can read Lynn’s full article about the new moon and the eclipse on her Astrological Musings.

Cap for Astro Cancer YogaBabes

This stonewashed cap looks great and wears well. It has an embroidered design of a Cancer YogaBabe, with a brass closure that allows for the one-size-fits-all design.

And Happy Summer Solstice!

The sign of Cancer begins on the Summer solstice – longest day of the year on June 21st. This year the new moon in Cancer followed on the  22nd.  This is my second anniversary for this Solstice time. You can check out what I posted for Cancer Yoga Babe last year.

My favorite astrologer, Lynn Hayes has an interesting post on Caner and this new moon.

From her article today,

“Cancer of course is the sign of the family and nurturing those we love, but it also extends to our ancestors, our tribal affiliations, the inheritance of our clan.  Many of us have chosen our own clan and have created new family linkages, and these are extremely important to the development of humanity.  The more aware we become and as our wisdom becomes deeper and broader, the more we need to share it with others rather than stay comfortably protected in a womb of safety. “

For Lynn’s entire article you can read it HERE.

Help save the planet while you rehydrate in style with an eye-catching BPA-free water bottle from SIGG. Made from a single piece of aluminum, it’s ultra-lightweight yet rugged and crack-resistant. To minimize unwanted tastes and scents, the inside is lined with a water-based, non-toxic epoxy resin that exceeds FDA leaching requirements.

* Holds 1.0L
* Recyclable & reusable
* BPA-free

This is a report on who won my Yoga Babe Cafe Contest, and the results of my efforts to create a contest.

On May 9th I posted a Yoga Inspiration contest to win a YogaBabe product. I posted a notice of this on Twitter and Face Book where I have 195 Friends, most of which related to yoga and 337 followers on Twitter.

To my dismay only one person entered the contest so of course she had to win.

Andrea said she would like to see a design with the words, “Calm Focus, Breathe” because she uses those words with her practice. I created the design for T-shirts and a clock which you can see by clicking on the clock. Andrea chose the clock to use with her practice.

During this time Darren Rowse ran a 31 Days to Build A Better Blog event and just released a book on that project. On June 9th Darren posted a blog, “13 Lessons Learned Launching an eBook.”

I was particularly struck by his lessons numbers 5 and 6.

# 5. Email promotions out performed blog post promotions for affiliates

My initial findings in watching affiliates promote the workbook is that those who have promoted it to their email lists seem to have driven more sales than those who blogged about it.

Those who blogged about it seem to have driven more sales than those who Tweeted about it. While I don’t have enough information on how big people’s lists and readerships are the anecdotal info that I do have is that email won the day for this product.

6. Facebook…. Not so Good

One of the promotions I ran for the workbook was on Facebook by sending a message to all my ‘fans’ on my page there. As far as I can tell that didn’t really convert to more than a couple of sales.

Considering there were 14,500 people who received that message it probably wasn’t the most successful of promotions.”

When I read that Darren Rowse, the guru of blogging with so many people receiving that message, I stopped feeling like such a failure in my own endeavor.

My question to anyone is, what do you think about all the hype about FaceBook being good for marketing? I think it is great for connecting with friends, but if Darren Rowse only made a couple of sales out of 14,500 people that’s something to think about.

Last year at this time I began my Astro Yoga Babe designs with Gemini. You can find that post HERE to see some Gemini personality traits.

There is an excellent article today on the blog, Learning Curve on the Ecliptic about Gemini.  An excerpt from her article:

“Gemini represents our communicative abilities, how, and to what extent we choose to reach out to one another, verbally, orally, and to a lesser extent, physically. …

If you know someone who has a ridiculously large circle of acquaintances and friends, talks a lot, loves networking, writing, chatting, has a wide range of interests and knowledge, it’s a certainty that Gemini figures heavily in their astrology. . .”

Click on the clock to see other Gemini Yoga Babe products.