Many direct sales consultants are moms who want to contribute the the family income while being at home with their children. As Annette Yen knows, Noah’s Ark Animal Workshop can help you do just that; she’s been working it with her children for five years now. Read her article below for tips on how to involve your kids in your home business.

As a founding Crew Member and a top leader, and with twenty years of experience in direct sales, Annette will teach you how to successfully start and run your home business.

Get more information about Noah’s Ark Animal Workshop and contact Annette through the InternetBasedMoms.com direct sales directory.

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Little Entrepreneurs - Starting them Young and Creating Good Habits for Life
Written by Annette Yen

I’ve been working from home since my youngest daughter was born. It’s been a great adventure and I’m so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids and bring some income to the family budget. I love it.

The key to making this work for our family has been having our daughters work with me in my businesses from the beginning. Now I know, that sounds impossible. And obviously a newborn can’t stick labels on my mailing etc. But as soon as my kids could walk and talk I started training them to be little entrepreneurs and helpers, beginning first with helping me around the house so that I could get the business work done.

Here are a few quick steps you can take with your little ones to start them on the road to success in helping you with your business and even toward helping them get their own home business started when they’re older.

1. While they’re still in your arms, use a sling or a backpack to carry baby with you while you work. Talk about what you’re doing and how they can help you when they’re older. The key at this age is have them WITH you as much as possible and then use nap time to get those things done that might be impossible to do with a young one strapped to you.

2. When your little ones can walk, have them help you with some simple tasks…filling up the dog food, folding washcloths, snapping beans. Always talk about how much help they are to you and how much you’ll love it when they’re ready to do this job all by themselves. Before you know it they’ll be saying, “I can do it mom!”

3. Praise them often for their efforts. They may not put the fork on the right side of the plate but it’s there and it helped. Let them know it! Make simple jobs easy for them. Put items in drawers that they can reach. For instance, a two or three year old can easily set the table with silverware, but it would really help them if they had a placemat to tell them where each piece goes and if the flatware was in a drawer at their level. You can easily make a vinyl placemat a silverware map with a sharpie. Just draw each piece on there and use the placemats at every meal letting your child set the table.

4. Let them work the business with you. In the beginning that might just be having them sit in the high chair or booster seat at the table while you work the computer and they put paperclips in Dixie cups. Or buy some tape and construction paper and have them tape away … it’s cheap and you’re using items that they’ll be using in the future to really help you with your business. As soon as they’re ready, have them put the stickers and postage stamps on your mailings, strap the packing tape on your boxes (it doesn’t have to be perfect!) sort and/or file your papers, etc. Again, the key when they’re young is working with them and encouraging them.

5. Let them work independently when they’re ready. Kids are often ready to take on bigger responsibilities before you think they are. A 10 year old can easily handle the checkbook and just imagine how great it will be for his math skills too - plus the bank checks his work!

Involve your young kids in your business from the beginning. You’ll be amazed at how the investment of time (and maybe some frustration) in the early days will pay off greatly down the road when your children can handle huge parts of your business without you because they’ve been well trained.

Article by:
Annette Yen and her daughters have worked together in their home-based business from the beginning. You can learn more about them at their website www.kidspartybusiness.com. Find out more tips for raising your kids to be entrepreneurs at www.showkidsthemoney.com.

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Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

Spotlight on Noah’s Ark Animal Workshop - Kids’ Products Direct Sales

Good content helps your site get to the top of Internet searches and it’s important to help make you money once people get to your website. Visitors figure if your website isn’t high quality, neither is anything they can find there. Quality content helps them stick around longer and helps builds trust in the quality of your site and products and services.

Quality content is also important for getting links to your site. You can submit your content to article archives and when other webmasters use your content it includes a link to your site. This raises your search engine rankings. Quality content also gets people talking about you, whether it’s on blogs and on social media.

So, what is good content? Good content should be written specifically for your target audience. If your customers are newcomers to the Internet, you don’t want to use technical jargon that they won’t understand. Similarly, if you are marketing to seasoned businessmen, you want to use more specific terms and ideas so they view you as a reliable source of information.

It may seem obvious, but good content should be well written. In an effort to improve search engine ranking you may be tempted to add many keywords or use other techniques to improve ranking, but if your content isn’t readable, people aren’t going to stick around your website very long. If you can’t keep your vistors’ interest, you’re probably not going to make much money. Plus, you’re probably not going to be able to get anyone else to post your content and link back to you.

While it’s fine to use some free reprint articles, it helps if a good deal of your content is original. There are hundreds of services out there that will give you great content to post on your website for free, as long as you don’t change it. This is great for them because it generally contains a link back to their site and boosts their search engine rankings. It helps you out because it gives you content; however, if the content is all over the Internet, it’s not going to do you much good in getting yourself high on the search engine lists.

If you aren’t confident in your writing ability, practice will help you improve. An alternative is to use private label rights content which you can rewrite, or find ghostwriters to help you. It may take you a while to learn to write or to find quality writers, but after you do you will quickly see the benefits.

Look at your website from the eyes of your customers and see if your content will attract and hold their interest. The better your content the more success you’ll find.

Resources and related articles:

   Should You Write Your Own Copy?
Content Marketing Explained
Private Label Rights Articles

Affiliate link or our product link (Why tell?)

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

The Importance of Good Content

Little Black Dress’s founders Robert McCannel and Erich Yost have joined Touchstone’s corporate team.

For more information about the company and to find out how to become a jewelry consultant, visit the Touchstone Crystal information page in the InternetBasedMoms.com direct sales directory.

Earlier this year two well-known home decor companies merged (see Two Big Names in Home Decor Become One) and Two Sisters Gourmet was acquired by Partylite (read more about Partylite in our Candle Company Directory.

Image courtesy of ellievanhoutte.

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

Two Jewelry Direct Sales Party Plan Companies Merge

Click here to listen to the show and please comment here or there. I’d love to know whether you agree or disagree and if you have questions on the topic, ask here or contact me.

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

My WAHM Talk Radio Interview About Direct Sales

My Reaction
My first reaction to the news was one of disbelief that people don’t already know that many bloggers and review sites are compensated in some way. But I have to remember that there’s a whole world separate from the Internet Marketing and work at home community I’ve been a part of for so long. Many people coming online for information don’t know what an affiliate program so how could they realize that many of the links they click are affiliate links? I myself have occasionally wondered whether a frequently recommended and praised product or service is really all that good or just heavily endorsed because of it’s generous affiliate program.

Other Questions
Some question whether additional guidelines are needed, saying that there are already laws regarding deceptive marketing. Additionally, many think we should be able to police ourselves and that disclosure is simply good business. And there are those who think the guidelines will be of benefit to both consumers and bloggers and help instill trust.

For me, there’s still the huge question of how on earth can the millions of blogs in existence be monitored. My guess is that it’s the companies who pay for endorsements that will end up being monitored and in turn, they’ll require disclosure in order to participate in their programs. Others have asked how it will effect the blogger who is in the habit of casually recommending a product or service they’ve used. Will they be under scrutiny even when they aren’t being compensated?

My New Disclosure
In the interest of complete transparency and compliance there is now a link at the top of this page to my new disclosures section. There’s always been a statement in my website terms of use indicating that I use affiliate links, but now the information is front and center. I don’t think I’ll change anything about how I choose and recommend products and services, it will just be more clear when I may be compensated as a result.

What do you think?
Are you making any changes in the way you blog or link to products? Please comment.

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

Proposed Guidelines Will Require Blogger Disclosure

Ben kindly took the time to answer my questions about the benefits of a logo for a small home business.

  Does someone who runs a home business marketing other people’s products (direct sales consultants or affiliate marketers, for example) need their own logo?

  In contemporary times, branding is fundamental whether you run a large organization or home based business. You need to differentiate yourself from your competitors. For that reason, you will most likely need to have a brand identity, and of course, a logo plays a vital role in creating a unique brand identity.

Moreover, a business logo makes you recognizable for customers. People instantly recognize all about your business when they see your logo on any type of marketing collateral.

  How soon should a new business start using a logo?

  A logo should be used before you start your business operations. Generally, you get all your marketing collateral designed and printed before you actually open your business for consumers. Therefore, start using your logo long before you actually start your business operation.

  How can a new business choose a logo when the business focus or type of products being marketed might change several times in the beginning? Or when they market many different types of products?

  The real purpose of a logo is to portray the vision, objective and target market. So keeping this view in mind about your business and target market, brainstorm about the design of a logo, and get a logo which could be used for the next 5 to 10 years.

  What are some design considerations to keep in mind for a first logo?

  Remember the KISS formula (Keep It Simple Stupid!) as a first priority in logo designing. In addition, it should portray the right message of your business with iconic representation, Fonts and colors should be recognized easily, should look good in black and white, and should not have a resemblance with any famous logo.

  What are some tips for choosing a design company?

  Consider following when choosing a logo design company:

• How long a design company is in the business
• Have a look at previous projects completed by the company
• Go for the most reasonable price
• Consider available customer support
• Check the policy on revision
• Understand the money back guarantee criteria

And in closing, Ben added:

Logoinn was founded to provide cost-effective premium quality graphical solutions to small and medium enterprises. Our dedication to excellent customer service is the foundation of our every client engagement and it sets us apart in our industry. When you need design services, you will find no better partner than Logo Inn.

As a compliment I would like to offer your readers a 15% discount on any service ordered at http://www.logoinn.com. All you need to do is enter this code “MKT-01” (without the quotes) in the promotion code section while placing an order.

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

Does Your Small Home Business Need a Logo?

Of course I think all of my friends are worth following, but here are a few suggestions to start with (in no particular order):

And in a category all his own… @RoyMontero who I suspect would really rather talk to you on Skype than Tweet.

There are many more people I can recommend and I’ll do so in the weeks to come by adding to this list regularly.

Added on June 18, 2009

Added on July 3, 2009

And if you aren’t already following me, please do.

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

It’s #FollowFriday on Twitter

Here are a few ways to turn a special report into a totally different type of product.

1. Create an audio version to give away, or sell. Some people prefer audio products they can listen to while they’re on the go or doing other things. Give in to their demand by converting the special report into an audio report.
2. Use a special report as the basis for tutorial videos, again to give away or sell. Videos are hot nowadays and turning special reports into video provides extra value.
    
   The report can the basis for a series of marketing videos to build your list and/or drive traffic to your site. Get 3-5 top tips from the special report and turn them into a video you post on video sharing sites (like YouTube), for instant traffic for your blog or site.
    
   Or use the videos to promote affiliate products.
3. Combine the audio and video versions you created into CDs and/or DVDs and sell physical products. Physical products don’t cost a lot to produce, but have higher perceived value than digital products.
4. Use a special report as the basis for a podcast, which can be in audio or video format.

If audio and video isn’t your “thing,” how about using special reports to get social?

1. Separate the most actionable tips from the special report into a Twitter tweets and improve your status as an expert.
2. Make a special report a prize on a Twitter giveaway or offer it to all your new followers.
3. Use a special report to create Web 2.0 sites, such as Squidoo and Hub Pages that promote your products or services, or affiliate products.

With a little creativity, special reports can be used to earn money directly or through your affiliates. They can help you gain mailing list subscribers, gather Twitter followers, and establish your expertise. They aren’t difficult to write yourself and are also readily available from private label rights sources.

One of my favorite sources is the Special Report Club. Be sure to use the discount code “save10” (without the quotation marks) to get $10 off your first month’s membership.

How do you use special reports? Please leave a comment to share what works for you.

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

More Ways to Earn with Special Reports

The most obvious way of making money money with special reports is to sell them and keep all the profit. But there are many more ways to earn with special reports.

But first, if you think you can’t possibly make your very own special reports, check out the Special Report Club - and use the code “save10” (without the quotes) to get $10 off your first month.

Now that you have a source for special reports, here are some of the ways you can use them:

1. Let your affiliates sell them for a generous share of the profit; maybe even 100%. Wait… why would you give away all the profit? Because you can still benefit by building a list of buyers. Plus you can earn money on the back-end either by promoting other products in the report itself, or as part of the sales process, or both.
2. Give them away. Use a special report as an incentive for people to join your list. Or make affiliate sales with them by embedding affiliate links in the report. Just add a “Resources” page or sprinkle affiliate links where appropriate.
3. Turn a special report into blog posts. A blog needs regular content and you can easily break the report into posts.
4. Put them together. Combine a few into an ebook. Turn each special report into a chapter or two, add an introduction, conclusion, new title and cover, and you’ve got a brand new ebook to sell or give away to build your mailing list.
5. Use a special report or combination of reports as an ecourse or set it up in your autoresponder series to provide useful information for your subscribers.

One of my favorite things to do with special reports is to rewrite them to cater to a different or more specific niche. For example, I transformed special reports about business blogging in general into a special report about direct sales business blogging.

Ready to make money with special reports? You can jump-start the process with a special report, sales page, e-cover and more, done for you month after month.

Find out how at the Special Report Club. And don’t forget to use the discount code “save10” (without the quotation marks) to get $10 off your first month with Special Report Club.

 
Check back tomorrow for a post about changing special reports into other popular formats.

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

How to Earn with Special Reports

Here’s my favorite

Claim yours at Twitter Signature Styles

Post from: Linda Stacy's Business Opportunity Connection

Promote Twitter with Style