At Home Mom Blog

If You Give a Mom a Martini: A Review

Genesis — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:00:58 +0000

For Mother’s Day, I interviewed Lyss Stern, co-author of If You Give a Mom a Martini. However, I just received my copy of this cute little book, so I thought I would review it. First off, I should mention that I haven’t finished reading it since I have been taking it in bits and pieces . . . but that is precisely what the book is designed for!

It’s a hardcover book, meaning it will stand up remarkably well to tiny grubby fingers, though I can’t say the same for the book wrapper, which my sons removed immediately upon opening the envelope. But the real gems are inside the book, anyway.

If You Give a Mom a Martini is a little book with 100 ways for moms to get 10 minutes for themselves. Each page gives you an idea that you can implement in just 10 minutes to feel better about yourself and that will help you regain a little bit of “you”, the woman who is now buried under dirty sneakers, school lunches and stuffed animals. There are some very cool tips. Here are a couple of my favorites:

From Number 6:
“still wearing maternity pants a year after giving birth? Don’t feel so bad. Log onto gofugyourself.com and be reminded that even the most gorgeous stars have their moments. . . . . . . . . . ”

“Poring over photos of celebrity fashion disasters may not be the most enriching use of your time, but it will make you feel a wee bit better when your child spills juice on your white shirt. Again.”

From Number 89:
“Set up a photo slide show on your computer of a fabulous vacation you took in your pre-mommy life. As you press play, sit back, relax and remember when trips did not include Kids Clubs, chicken nuggets or your mom flap.”

Of course, not all the suggestions are computer related, most of them involve things like finding ways to pamper yourself in just ten minutes, detaching from the present reality and there are a few naughty little ideas hidden throughout the book as well (but done tastefully).

If You Give a Mom a Martini was written by two busy moms who know just what it’s like not to be able to pee in peace and they have come up with some really original ideas that you probably wouldn’t have considered yourself.

So, if you are a mom who could use a little rejuvenation, a break in the routine, this is a great book to pick up. It would actually make the PERFECT gift for another mom, in my opinion, so keep it in mind if you have baby showers, birthday parties or something similar to go to.

You can get your own copy of If You Give a Mom a Martini: 100 Ways to Find 10 Blissful Minutes for Yourself, here
. At just over $10, it’s just the right price to treat yourself or a friend.

Should Your Phone Number Be on Your Website?

Genesis — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:55:07 +0000

One of the things you will hear repeatedly as you work online is that you need to be real and make sure that you have contact information on your business website. The reason for this is simple . . . there are so many scams out there these days that people want to make sure you are a real human being and real contact info helps them feel safer.

But what about the nasties out there? We have been warned time and time again of the dangers of putting any personal info out on the internet because it could lead to stalkers, so what is the happy medium?

It probably depends on each person. I, for example, blog about my family life and put photos of my children online, which many people would never do. Your level of comfort with the internet will affect how much you put out there.

What do you think? Is it a good idea to put your telephone number out there? How did you resolve the situation?

Are You Holding Your Business Back?

Genesis — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:46:36 +0000

Something I see all the time, and I have been guilty of it, as well, is people complaining that their business isn’t going anywhere, yet they are the ones in the way of moving forward. If you aren’t where you want to be, then you could be the one preventing your business from being successful.

Now, before we go any further, I want to let you know that by saying “holding your business back”, I mean unintentionally. We’ve discussed before how many work at home moms, myself included, choose not to grow their business as big as possible because that would interfere with their mothering time. However, in this case, I am referring to those women who want to be bigger and don’t understand why they are so stuck.

What are some ways that you could be holding your business back?

Not investing. Sure, it’s nice to do everything for free, but sometimes you get what you pay for and it is worth shelling out a few dollars a month for a reliable web host or to learn a new skill.
Not getting help. You might think you can do it all . . . and chances are, you can. But doing everything yourself is NOT always the best way to go. Your business will grow at a much faster rate if you get some help with the more mundane tasts such as article writing (if you aren’t good at it), linkbuilding, social media and content uploading.
Being too distracted. As a mom, I understand that it is very distracting to have children around, but it is important to choose a time period when you can be alone and focused on your business, whether that means putting the kids in front of a movie for an hour, hiring a babysitter or getting their dad to take them to the park. Focus and you’ll see big returns.
Giving up too soon. How many times have you found yourself thinking, “This isn’t going anywhere? What am I doing?!” And then your productivity drops because you’ve lost your motivation. It happens to the best of us, but you can’t give in to it. Keep plugging away through the doubts and you will make it through to the other side.

What do you see people doing that keeps them from reaching their goals?

The Top 3 Money-Making “To Do” Activities

Genesis — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:00:07 +0000

Today’s guest post is by a guy I really respect and admire, Jimmy D. Brown. He has some awesome advice for anyone working at home and I thought it would be neat to feature him today.
By Jimmy D. Brown
http://www.HomepreneurHabits.com

I’ve always been impressed with those who can take overwhelming
things and handle them with ease and poise. It never seemed
to work that way for me, until I discovered the secret for
tackling those daunting tasks.

The secret is simple: make things simple!

With just about every major undertaking, things can be simplified
into a handful of “core” components. That makes them manageable.
Manageable fosters productivity simply because I can work on
something that seems accomplishable. And when productivity goes
up, desired results come.

I received the following question from one of my clients…

“If you have to pick, what would you say are the top 2 or 3
things we should concentrate on? I’ve heard the
domain/site(blog) are the most important, then others say
writing info products, others say lists. For short term and
long term investment, what is the most important things to
be working on?”

This client wants things simplified. And rightly so. He knows
the secret to success is getting things down into manageable
chunks.

So, what are these core practices for building an internet
business? There are three things - and three things only - that
you need to concentrate on with your business…

1. Offer Development.

You cannot make money online unless you have an OFFER. It’s that
simple. Unless there is some way for income to be generated, you
can’t get paid. End of discussion. Every business is founded
upon a revenue-generating offer. Now, this can either be your
own offer (small reports, ebooks, membership sites, coaching/consulting,
advertising, etc.) or something you promote as an affiliate and
earn revenue for referred sales.

2. List Marketing.

The fortune is in the list. You’ve heard it an untold number of
times in the past, right? Building and profiting from opt-in lists
should be a major priority on your schedule. You need to devote
yourself to attracting new subscribers and then getting all of
your subscribers to spend money with you … by purchasing your
OFFERS (see #1 above).

3. Traffic.

The third and final thing you need to concentrate on is “traffic”.
This includes both traffic GENERATION (getting visitors to a site)
and traffic CONVERSION (getting that traffic to buy). This includes
things like: starting an affiliate program, buying PPC ads,
participating in joint ventures, utilizing viral marketing tools,
raising your visitor value, tweaking your sales pages, etc.

With each of these categories, you have a variety of options to choose
from in directing your attention. It would be foolish for me to say
“grow your affiliate program” as your number # traffic activity since
I don’t know if you even have your own product to sell. That’s why I
don’t recommend specific activities, but rather three key categories
of business-building.

With each of these categories, find 2-3 activities to work on each
week and you should see results in a short amount of time.

I recommend you work on offer development every Monday, list marketing
every Tuesday, and traffic generation every Wednesday. If you just
spend a couple hours each of these days working on these core parts
of your business, sales should come.

In a nutshell -

-    Find an offer to promote.
-    Setup a list to promote the offer.
-    Drive traffic to the list opt-in page.

Keep it simple. Keep it successful.

—————-
Believe it or not, there is a tremendous “operations manual” that you can download to help you create a plan that works for YOU. Check out “Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business” by clicking here. You’ll learn all the tools you need, how to setup your work space and how to create a day-by-day schedule of recommended activities to start and grow your business.

—————-
Jimmy D. Brown is the author of the 65-page “operations
manual”, Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful
Home Business. Learn The Internet Marketer’s Weekly
R.O.U.T.I.N.E.(TM) at http://www.HomepreneurHabits.com

How to Set up a Fixed Page Website in Wordpress

Genesis — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:00:02 +0000

I personally love Wordpress. It is a very easy to use platform and while you do need to host it yourself, most hosts now offer automatic installation so there’s no hassle. Yet, the vast majority of people still assume that Wordpress is useful only for blogging. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Setting Wordpress up as a fixed page website, or a regular website, is so simple. Let me show you how it works.

Once you have installed Wordpress, go into your Dashboard and then to Settings, the very last option on the sidebar.

Choose Reading.

When you enter this section of the dashboard, you will see two options at the top of the page, under Front page displays, “your latest posts” and “static page”. The latest posts will give you just a blog, while the static page allows you to choose a page you have created, to display as the front page. You should make a page that is named “home” before selecting this option.

When building a Wordpress static site, it is very important that you remember to create new PAGES instead of posts, which is the default. You can order pages, so you can set up several parent pages and then have more pages under these, like this example from Best Man Toasts:

So, what if you want a blog on your static site? Not a problem, here’s how to do that very simply.

First, create a page called Blog, or whatever you want to call your blog. Then go back into Settings, then Reading and you will notice that under the static page that you set, there is an option for Posts Page. Set this to Blog.

Now, when you create a new post, it will appear on the Blog page, effectively giving you a blog within your static Wordpress site. See? Simple!

I use Wordpress for both my blogs and websites and find it works very well . . . plus it’s free. You can find free themes for just about any topic, as well, if you are just starting out. Once you are established and earning money, you will probably want to look into getting a custom design done.

What’s Your Marketing Plan?

Genesis — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:00:55 +0000

Recently, I had a reader, Blythe, comment that marketing online is difficult and crazy. It can certainly be that way if you don’t have a marketing plan, so I thought we would discuss that today.

Online marketing takes many forms and basically you need to decide which ones suit you and your business best, then do them consistently. It’s quite possible to marketing your business online without ever spending a penny, so there’s really no excuse NOT to do it.

Types of Online Marketing

Social Media - This is an area that many people just don’t see the value of. If you are one of these people, then don’t use it. You won’t see results if you don’t understand how to use social media. However, if you are interested in learning, pop over to the sidebar there and under Categories, click on Social Media to learn more.

Paid Advertising - Yes, you can certainly spend money on advertising, but I wouldn’t recommend doing this until you know what you are doing. It is extremely easy to lose money on things like pay per click ads. If you do decide to start using paid advertising, then you should look at banner ads or text links which are offered for a set price.

Blogging - You might not think of blogging as a marketing strategy, but it really is. The search engines pick up on blogs very quickly and you will find that the incoming traffic to your business site when you have a blog is greatly increased.

Article Marketing - Those of you who read this blog regularly already know that I am a big believer in article marketing, so much so that I have even written a step-by-step guide on it. All it takes is time, unless you want to outsource your writing.

Search Engine Optimization - By optimizing your website, you ensure that it is easier to find your site on search engines. It’s vital to choose the right keywords, however, or you will find yourself with too much competition in this area.

Networking - Similar to social media, but minus the confusion, online networking can be invaluable to your business. This includes blog commenting, emailing other work at home moms to make connections, attending wahm or blogger meetups when possible and participating in forums.

How to Set Up a Marketing Plan

Now that you know which types of internet marketing available to you, it’s time to set up a marketing plan and get some work done. This is where it really pays to be consistent. Think of each blog comment, article or banner as a point added to your reputation. You will slowly build up your reputation online and that will result in more traffic. Consistency is key.

Pick two types of online marketing from the list above. For example, social media and article marketing. If you go with social media, you will need to narrow it down to two social media sites, such as Twitter and StumbleUpon.

Now, write down what you need to get done. I would suggest starting slowly so you won’t be overwhelmed. For example, you might decide to send out 5 tweets a day, with one being self-promotional, stumbling three new sites a day and sending out a page of your own once each week. For articles, you might want to set a weekly goal since it is easy to fall behind in writing when it comes to daily goals.

Once you have your marketing plan, write it out by hand and hang it up where you can see it. Make those tasks part of your daily to do list. Once you are comfortable with them, start adding to the list.

Making Your Online Marketing More Effective

If you find that you simply have too much to do and never manage to get to your marketing, keep in mind that this WILL hurt your business. You’ll be losing out on clients that you could have had. The solution? Outsourcing.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you want to submit at least 2-3 articles a week for article marketing, but don’t have the time to write or to submit them. The solution here would be to hire a freelance writer who can provide you with 12 or so article per month and a VA who will submit them to article directories for you. It won’t cost that much and you are getting consistent marketing for your site. If you have a little more money, then consider upping the number of articles you purchase. If 12 a month can gain you traffic, imagine 50?

Online marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. If you make a plan, keep it simple, yet consistent, you will most definitely see an increase in traffic and sales.

Are You In Need of Content?

Genesis — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:28:21 +0000

Over on my writing site, I just added a brand new feature, monthly content packages. If you are looking for a content writer and don’t want to be fussing with titles and ordering new articles every time you need them, then this could be the ideal solution.

Basically, I’m offering a subscription service. You sign up via PayPal and your payment is made automatically each month, unless you choose to cancel. Your content arrives each month, no need to order or come up with article ideas, unless you want to. I will brainstorm ideas based on the information and keywords or topics that you give me and send it to you automatically each month. Oh, and it is quite a bit cheaper than ordering individual articles, of course!

Sound good? Learn more here.

Where to Find Free Images for Your Website

Genesis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:22:15 +0000

Adding photos to your webpages really makes them stand out, but if you don’t have a collection of your very own amazing pictures, you need a source. There are tons of stock image sites online that let you pay a fee to download the photos you need. However, not everyone has the budget to buy many of these, so I’ve put together a list of places where you can find free images, royalty free.

Stock.xchng - This site is the absolute best that I have found for getting free photos. You need to register in order to download, but that’s not a problem. The photos are almost all of great quality, though some topics may be limited. In some cases, you will need to credit the artist or notify them of where their picture will be used.

Photo Quality: ****

Flickr Creative Commons -Flickr is a bit of a turkey shoot. Some of the photos that are stunning are not Creative Commons and thus cannot be used. Some of the Creative Commons ones are just lousy, but you do get some gems in there. It is worth checking out. Just make sure you understand the license rights . . . all require that you give attribution, some require more.

Photo Quality: **

Free Stock Photos - These photos are somewhat limited, but if you are looking for scenic or travel photos, then this is a good place to look.

Photo Quality: ***

Stock Vault - This is a photography sharing site where photographers put up their best work and let you use it for free. You don’t need to sign up to download the photos.

Photo Quality: ****

Free Images - This UK based website offers a variety of categories and free images to download. You have to sign up for their email list in order to get the free images, but it is worth it.

Photo Quality: ****

These free image sites should give you pretty much all the shots you need to spiff up your website and blog! Let me know if you have another site that you use!

Random Posts

10 Things Your VA Can Do

Genesis — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:29:51 +0000

When I first hired my VA, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted her to do. I had a few things in mind, but to keep her busy for the 10 hours a week that I purchased was a bit difficult at first. So, for those of you who are considering hiring a VA, but aren’t sure what she could do for you, here are some ideas.

Directory submission. Submit your blogs or websites to directories, you can even specify if you want only high Page Rank sites.
Article marketing. If you have the articles, get your VA to submit them to numerous directories.
Article writing. Depending on where your VA is located and how great their English is, you may want to pay them to write your articles for you.
Blog commenting. Need to establish more of a presence on the web, but don’t have time? VA’s can do your blog commenting for you. Just be careful that they are doing a good job of it and not writing spammy comments.
Forum posting. Similar to the above.
Travel arrangements. If you need to travel, whether for business or other reasons, chances are you can get your VA to help you set things up.
Online research. Need some information for your business? Get your VA to handle it.
Email management. It can be a bit scary to let someone else into your email, but imagine not having to deal with those junk mails anymore. Additionally, virtual assistants can respond to common questions that come in via email.
Contacting advertisers. If you are looking to increase your revenue with advertisers, have you VA seek out and contact companies that might be interested.
Making lists. If you need a list of wahms, email courses on food prep, or just about anything else, get your VA to compile it for you. You’ll save time and get far more done.

Do you use a VA? If so, what do you outsource?

How to Find the Right Keywords for Free

Genesis — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:29:29 +0000

If you are going to be using article marketing or any kind of search engine optimization on your website, you need the right keywords to get the best results. Just what defines a good keyword?

It has less than 30,000 competing websites with the same phrase
It receives at least some traffic each day (100 or more searches is best)
It is specific, or long-tailed. For example, “coloring books in Spanish” as opposed to just “coloring books”

I run into this frequently as a writer . . . people hire me to write articles that they intend to use to promote their business, but they are aiming for super high competition keywords, like “Make money online”, which they stand virtually no chance of conquering. It´s far better to aim for the more specific keyword phrases and rank high for dozens of them than to get stuck on page 32 of Google for a phrase that gets millions of visits which you will never see.

So, where can you go to find awesome keywords? I have a couple of free tools that I use on a regular basis and which I am going to share with you.

Wordtracker GTrends - If you have been doing keyword research at all, then you have probably heard of Wordtracker. They do an amazing job of breaking down the keywords for you, but the actual site is rather expensive. If you are willing to enter a captcha once in a while, however, you can get access to their basic system for free.

Basically, you type in the word you want to check:

And the tool will come back with a list of up to 100 keyword phrases. You can click on any phrase to have it broken down even further.

If you click on the little graph sign, it will pop up a window that tells you how many competing sites there are on Google, as well as the number of searches per day, complete with a color coded line, red if it´s too competitive or doesn´t have enough searches, green if everything is good to go.

I use this keyword tool most, simply because it provides so much information so quickly and easily. It tends to time out quite frequently, which is annoying, but still cheaper than paying the full price!

Google Keywords Tool - This is a great place to get ideas for new keywords. You type in the base word and it will spit out a long list of alternatives. You are able to see a number of other information, too, such as price per click, competition, searches per day and month, etc.

Keywords are vital for online business success, but of course, if you´re just getting started, free is best!

At Home Mom Blog

If You Give a Mom a Martini: A Review

Other Posts You May Enjoy

Should Your Phone Number Be on Your Website?

Other Posts You May Enjoy

Are You Holding Your Business Back?

Other Posts You May Enjoy

The Top 3 Money-Making “To Do” Activities

Other Posts You May Enjoy

How to Set up a Fixed Page Website in Wordpress

Other Posts You May Enjoy

What’s Your Marketing Plan?

Types of Online Marketing

How to Set Up a Marketing Plan

Making Your Online Marketing More Effective

Other Posts You May Enjoy

Are You In Need of Content?

Other Posts You May Enjoy

Where to Find Free Images for Your Website

Random Posts

10 Things Your VA Can Do

Other Posts You May Enjoy

How to Find the Right Keywords for Free

Other Posts You May Enjoy