Dawn's Work at Home Blog

Blog Contest for all of my Blog Readers

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:58:00 +0000

I am running a contest on my personal blog. It is open for all of my readers of all my blogs, you are all invited. Awesome scrapbook software giveaway. It is a fun software to design to your scrap book, it is a lot of fun with really cool features. This contest is completely free-no purchase to win. The winner will not need to enter any credit card information so there is no strings attached.

I have been having a lot of fun with this software myself! Go ahead and check out the contest details and join today- Blog Contest, Software Giveaway. The free software is a $40 value and I am sure you will enjoy making some great memories in this. Good luck to all, make sure you enter the contest!! The contest is free and simple with a great product.

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Too Many Distractions

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

It is Wednesday again? Yes, I guess it is. Time for another Wednesday's Online Business Mistake. Today we will talk about distractions. I know I have talked briefly about them in the past, but they are too common! I still get distracted easily here but I am able to recover from distractions much easier now then I did in the beginning.

When you have an online business, many times you are running this business from your home. Working at home is wonderful but you can be distracted much easier. There are some things that are beyond your control (such as family issues) but there are also things that draw your attention away from work and then you forget what you were doing. How many times have you been working your online business at home and you see something (whether you find it in a magazine or during your research) that catches your eye. You want to look up more about it online, even tho it has nothing to do with your online business. This is ok for break time, but it can be distracting if you look it up while you are working.

There are many examples of distractions when working at home with your online business. I used to think that "this is my online business and I work at home so I can do what I want for now. I will get back to work later." Not a good idea!! It is too easy to think that because you work at home or because it is your online business (you have no boss beside yourself) that you can step away from work to look at this or to do that. If you are in the middle of working but decide "hey, I am going to do something else and get back to work later," guess what? You will probably forget what you were doing before you stopped working or you will not end up finishing the great ideas that you had (whichever you were working on at the moment.) I know, I have done this. I have got distracted while doing research about business in the beginning. A few times it ended with me getting involved in scams or me finding something else and completely forgetting what I was doing. I have had this happen too many times and now when I am in the middle of doing something, I will wait until I am at a "break point" to stop.

Of course I still get uncontrolled distractions (school nurse calling for example), but I recover better from them then I did when I allowed myself to get distracted too easily with "controllable distractions." One great example of a controllable distraction would be Facebook. This can be a big distraction unless you are marketing on Facebook at the time. Don't get me wrong, Facebook can be fun and yes I like to play my Farmville but it has to be on a break time!

There are many distractions that you will encounter, try to make sure you do not get distracted in the middle of your work. Remember to set a break time so that you can do all of your fun online stuff when you are taking a break or done for the day. I like to set an amount of things I am going to accomplish before allowing myself to take my break-at least that is how I do it now! Wish I did it that way in the past.

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Affiliate Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:48:00 +0000

Wednesday here again! This time goes by fast. For this week I would like to talk about my mistake in Affiliate Marketing-this is also a common mistake. Many people have made a lot of money with Affiliate Marketing. It is also a way to earn without spending any money. It can be profitable and the only thing you would have to pay for is advertising if you chose to.

Affiliate Marketing is promoting somebody else's product. It can be an easy income if you know how to advertise effectively. You don't need a product, you are promoting somebody else's. You also don't need a website, the person's product will already have a website. Sounds great, right?

Well, I am not the perfectionist at Affiliate Marketing. I am not one of the huge 7 figures a year Affiliate Marketers, so I don't have an exact blue print to follow for everybody. One thing I can tell you tho is don't make the same mistake I did in the beginning!

In the beginning, I didn't know much about Internet Marketing and didn't know a thing about Affiliate Marketing. You can imagine that when I heard these "gurus" claiming 7 figures with easy steps, I was so excited! My biggest mistake with this was I believed too many "gurus" and I promoted whatever looked like an eye catching product. Yes, you want to sell what is hot but you also need to make sure it is legit. I repeat-my biggest mistake was promoting any product that looked like it would catch people's eye. Now you can make sales with this but you will do much better if you promote things you know work. I found it easier to promote (and also morally right) products that I have physically tested and know that they are worth the price. It is easier to talk about it as you know the good points from experience with the product. If you share it on your own website or blog, you will know that you are promoting something of value if you personally like it. This helps with your reputation. Think about it; you keep pushing a product that ends up being garbage (even if it is eye catchy and hot), once people start to catch on this product is bad it can come back on your reputation. People who bought through your link because they trusted you will no longer trust you. This will hurt future sales.

Rule of thumb, don't promote anything that you have not personally tried. You can have paid sponsors on your site but I would list them as sponsored or advertisements so you are not completely endorsing it. If you are actually promoting and recommending a product, make sure you tried it and it is of value and legit.

I have been battling a bad migraine headache for the last couple of days, I apologize if this is not as well written as I have been under the weather. I didn't want to miss the Wednesday Online Business Mistake tho!

Market Your Business to be Memorable

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 18:21:00 +0000

Do your customers remember you? When potential customers think of a product your business offers, do they think of you? Well they probably don't unless you give them a reason to remember you. When you are marketing your business, you need to do something that is memorable. You want your customers or potential customers to remember you when they think of the product and not a competitor. If you just advertise with a simple message that is kind of generic, people probably won't remember you. Make sure you stand out from the crowd, many business have competitors and you want to be in front of them in the customer's mind.

A great example of memorable marketing is the KIA Soul. They have the life sized hamsters that drive the car and are always "getting down" to some music. I am sure you have seen the commercial where the hamsters team up with robots and dance to LMFAO's song Party Rock Anthem, it has been on TV a lot. My kids love that song and also love the commercial. Every time we hear Party Rock Anthem on the radio, we picture the dancing hamsters in our heads. My kids start dancing and say "Mom, the dancing hamsters are on!" KIA did some memorable marketing here. I started laughing in the local convenient store when this song was on and somebody in line behind me made a comment about the KIA.

Another great example of memorable marketing is the Snickers Peanut Butter Squares commercial. I am sure you saw this one too. It is quite memorable, you know the one with the sharks. Sharks are at the table in a conference room setting and they appeared to be taste testing. When Steve was mentioned eating the Snickers Peanut Butter Squares, the shark says "Steve was delicious." At the end of the commercial (tho the end was not played as often) a guy pokes his head in for the Snickers Peanut Butter Squares and the shark says "Eat both squares please." This is definitely memorable marketing.

Now if you market in a memorable way like Snickers and KIA did here, you will definitely have customers and potential customers thinking of your company when they think of the product. I remember KIA before any other car manufacture commercial. Be creative, it will pay off!

I Won the Daily Contest at RedGage

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 15:41:00 +0000

I talked about RedGage in a couple of posts back. You can earn a little extra money uploading your pictures and sharing your useful links. It is a fun site with a nice community and it is completely free to join.
I have been there a week now and got an email earlier that stated: Congratulations you are the daily contest winner! Nice.
They have a daily contest where the winner wins $25. It is a nice little bonus from a site that is so easy to use, free to use and is fun to share pictures with! I love this site.
Would you like to earn a little extra money uploading your pictures and also gaining back links to your useful blog posts and articles? Come join me for free here: http://www.redgage.com. Maybe you will be the next daily winner! If you like to take pictures, I recommend them especially if you are not a professional. There are other sites that you can sell your pictures on but I honestly do not know many of them as I am a photographer by hobby not professional. You do not actually sell your pictures here, you upload them and earn money based on page views. It is not a site to get rich on but you can have a lot of fun and earn a little extra easy cash.

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-List Building

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

It is Wednesday again! Hard to believe time goes this fast. You know what that means, right? Yup it is time for our Wednesday Online Business Mistake. This week we will talk about list building.
I am not a pro in the list building department which is why this is one of my online business mistakes. In all reality being a blogger since 2007 and sharing valuable information since, I should have a great list of people waiting for my emails right? Truth is, no I do not. It is really my own fault and mistake that I do not. I have been told by many that I should focus on email marketing. I never really got that involved with email marketing for the most part. I wasn't consistent enough either. I do have the form on the right side of the bar and I had great ideas for my weekly newsletter, but I never followed through with it in the past.
I can't really say what my main reason is as I am not sure, tho a lot of times when I had something to good to share I usually posted here.
List building is very important for your online business. It is a great way to connect more with your readers and your customers. I would like to start to work on building a list and faithfully put out a weekly newsletter. Maybe provide valuable updates or at least legitimate opportunities for my readers and subscribers. As I said, I am not a pro at this topic. I do know that it is a very powerful tool for any online business and that you need to be consistent if you are going to be doing it. However, I do not recommend creating a list to just sell, sell, sell to. I think your reputation could be hurt and you will lose subscribers if all you do is email "buy this." I believe it would be of more value if you create a list of subscribers and offer them real information or at least offer free tools that would benefit them. Of course you could also use it to market to your subscribers but let them know that you are not just out to make that quick sale. Let them know that you value them as a reader not for money!
If anybody has any tips on list building and email marketing for your online business, we would love to hear your comments! I am looking into which company I would like to use for my list building and for my newsletter.

Work at Home Online-Don't Forget Breaktime

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:29:00 +0000

I have some days more then others that I put in many hours of work online. Yesterday and today were days of more hours of online work then off! I often have to remind myself on these days, yes it is a good thing to take a break.
It is easy to get caught up in what you are doing and figure you will just keep working until it is all done. Sometimes tho, your body needs to be away from the online work (or even just be away from the online part) for a few. You are more productive if you give yourself some time to do something else not online work related. Yesterday I didn't take much of a break and phew I wore my mind out. Today, I jumped right into work and kept going. Started to feel like I was having a hard time concentrating and was starting to feel tired.
I then remembered that I pushed myself yesterday and now started to today as well! It was then I shut down for an hour (I already had my oatmeal for breakfast) and went for a nice long and fast paced walk. Not that I was in a hurry to get back but sometimes a nice fast paced walk in the brisk air with the sun shining on you is enough to refresh you. It was nice to see and say hi to people I know along the way. It is also good to get up and exercise too.

Just a friendly reminder to allow your body and mind to take breaks from online work. I know I need to remind myself from time to time. It does some wonders! Ok, now I must get back to work.

Earning Money Online With Your Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:52:00 +0000

There are many sites that you can earn some extra money online with your pictures that you take. I am not a professional photographer so I don't belong to many of these sites at the moment. One site you can earn money online for your pictures is called Redgage.
This site is cool as you don't have to be a professional photographer. I am not saying you are going to earn a lot of money online in the beginning with them, but they pay you per views. The more views your content gets, the more you make. This can add up as you upload more content.
You know what is another great feature on this site? You can share your content from your blogs or your articles. You can also write documents to share there. I just recently discovered them thank you to a friend, and I have found them to be a cool site. You can earn a little for the views you get to the links you share too. If you share a link to a post on your blog, you gain traffic and a good quality back link. You then can earn money for sharing the link to your online content.
There is also a raffle everyday with a chance to win a $25 pre-paid card. Redgage is completely free to join and upload. There is no fee to use the site, no upgrading at all. Check it out today and have some fun! Oh and earn a some extra money online too.

Join me in earning with your pictures and links here: Redgage.com

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Keeping on Track of Business

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0000

In the beginning of my online business adventures, I didn't even think goals were important let alone know how to stay on track with them. I did discuss goals and their importance in the beginning of my Wednesday's Online Business Mistake postings. However, making goals is only half of the battle. You need to make sure you stay on track with those goals! What good are goals if they are only going to get set aside on the shelf?

In order to stay on track with your online business goals, you need to first make sure you view them weekly. This is at the very least! It is too easy to set them aside and not look at them or think that you will get back to them. One of the best things you can do to make sure you stay on task is make a list of things that you need to do each week. From that list, make a schedule so you fit all of this into your week-make sure you make this a doable schedule. Now as you are working your own online business working at home, it is easy to get too laid back from your schedule. I used to do this. If I had something else that I would like to do, I would do it instead of staying on task. If there was research that I wanted to do, I took way too much time to do it and my schedule fell behind. It is too easy to fall behind on your schedule when you are working at home with your own online business. It is too easy to think: well, it is my online business or yeah I work at home so I can do it later. No you can't. Not recommended, it will become a habit of putting things off!

I recommend that you make your list and make sure that you finish a certain amount of things before rewarding yourself and doing something fun. For example, if I finish what I needed to accomplish before taking a fun break, then I can go out for a little while and do what it is I wanted to do. You are now rewarding yourself for getting so much work done instead of putting off your work for something fun. I know how easy it is to get off track and I make sure that I do what I need to do with my online business before I go do fun things. Of course some things such as kids activities get put right into my schedule from the beginning. But anytime I want to do something for a day or so, I make sure to accomplish things I need to.

Trust me, it really is too easy to put things on the back burner when you work at home with your own online business! Don't let it happen to you. Sure you work at home with your own hours, you do need to accomplish things by maintaining a schedule. Sure it is your own online business and you are not working for a boss, all the more reason to want to push to succeed!

Too many times I have put stuff off, please learn from my mistakes! I know this post sounds like a broken record but it really is important and worth being repeated.

A Fresh New Year-Get Rid of the Bad Ideas

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:07:00 +0000

With the beginning of the 2012 here, we need to think about what worked and what didn't work in 2011. Now is a good time to get rid of ideas that didn't work. We all get ideas and some are great while some are not so great (it happens to us all.) As I go back through the year of 2011, I look at all the ideas I had- all of the marketing ideas I tried for business.
Dust off the ones you tried, liked but forgot to go back to. If you tried and liked it but forgot about it, try it again! Sometimes you get into something that looks great but you get into so many other things that you forget to go back. That happened to me last year-with a couple sites!
The sites you use all the time and are happy with, of course we will continue to use them. Look at the ideas and sites that you may have tried and they did absolutely nothing and don't show you much potential. If it looks like something that just isn't or won't work for you, don't use it anymore. If it hasn't worked but shows potential, try to use it a little differently and see if you can get it to work!

Just go through all your ideas and all of your marketing efforts. Get rid of things that show no potential and push more on the ones that are working or showing potential. I know this sounds obvious, but sometimes we get involved in other things and forget to go back to things that really work. I found myself doing this over 2011 and I have been reminded lately of good sites I used to use but somehow got busy and away from them.

2012 is Going to be a Wonderful Year

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:28:00 +0000

Less then 2 hours from now will be the start of the new year- 2012! I have done many things on New Year's Eve throughout the years and this year we are staying home. Well we went out for dinner earlier but now we will remain home the rest of the evening. Makes it a nice quiet and relaxing night to bring in 2012.

I just wanted to remind everybody that this is going to be a great year for all, life is what you make it to be so make it a great year for you and your family! Start the new year out right by being safe. If you are out drinking, don't drive and if you are driving please don't drink too much! Also, watch out for other drivers as unfortunately people still drink too much and get behind the wheel. It is a crazy night to be out on the roads, be safe and have a wonderful night!

Make it a point to make 2012 a wonderful new year for yourself and family, you deserve it and 2012 is the year to do it! Hope you have a wonderful and safe new year, Happy New Year 2012 :)

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-New Year's Resolutions

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000

With 2012 coming up in a couple days, I thought that New Year's resolutions would be a good topic for our Wednesday's Online Business Mistake. This is something that many of us are guilty of but not all of us like to admit to it (I know from experience-I didn't always want to admit to it.) New Year's resolutions are not a requirement for your online business but they can help you get yourself on track to a new financial future.

I have made many New Year's resolutions, not all are about my online business. Some are personal and some are business. When you choose to make a New Year's resolution (whether it be for online business or for personal), you should do what you have the power to in order to keep it. Look at it as a promise to yourself and we discussed the importance of keeping promises. It is just as important to keep your promises to yourself as it is to keep promises to others.

Now if you make a New Year's resolution, make it something that is not impossible. Don't set yourself up to fail at it, you will become discouraged. In other words, don't tell yourself that your resolution is to be a billionaire by the end of the year. First off, this is vague with no details how you would do it. Second off, if it was that easy to be a billionaire there would be more billionaires out there. Make it something simple such as: In 2012 I will create goals and track them each week. I will do (fill in the blanks) to make sure that I earn more money in 2012 then I did in 2011. My New Year's resolution is to finish all projects I started in 2011. I got into many things in 2011 and did get quite side tracked. I started a few projects that I believe will be valuable. One of my resolutions is to see them through to the finish. I also have a New Year's resolution for my blogs: spend more time on blogging-researching and writing more posts. Taking more pictures for my photo blog and writing down more recipes that I create for my cooking blog. This year I will stick to my resolution. Too many times in the past I have broken my resolutions but not this year! It has hurt me and discouraged me the times I broke them.

What is your New Year's resolution? Telling people your resolution ensures you will do more to achieve and keep it. It is harder to break a promise that others know about!

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Too Much Spam

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:20:00 +0000

I can't believe it is Wednesday again! This month has gone so fast for us here with Christmas coming. Today's mistake I would like to share is about too much spam. In the beginning you read all about sharing your link everywhere. You also see some sites that give you special code for sharing your link in forums. I know that I see many people spamming their links all over social sites, forums, people's blogs and so many other places. Some people really do not realize they are being obnoxious and hurting themselves. I know I spammed a little in the beginning. It is too easy to do when everybody tells you that you need to share your link and they do not tell you to be careful not to be too spammy.

In a forum, you should really only share your link in your signature. Of course this does depend on the conversation and the forum. Some discussions are started just to share your business with others. But as a safe rule of thumb to avoid too much spam, you really should just include it in your signature.

When using social media, you should limit the amount of links you share in the day. We all share links (some people share a lot of other people's content throughout the day) but you do not want to post too many links in a day. This goes for any social media site including Twitter.

In blog comments, you should not add your link to the comment. There is a place to add your link in the form and this will highlight your name adding the link to your name. If you add your link to the body of your comment, your comment will probably be labeled as spam.

You should never email anybody your link without proper permission. I do not use much email marketing so I am not really going to add much here. If anybody has suggestions about email marketing effectively, you can leave a comment or contact me and we can see about a guest post.

These are the biggest places I see too much spam, and yes I was guilty of spamming a little bit in the beginning. Not that I was meaning to and I did not go out of my way to spam people but I used to put my link in places that I really shouldn't have.

One thing I can recommend-when you see quality content or even something funny, share it on your social media sites. Search engines and also your followers will be happy to see you sharing other people's content without being rewarded. I share things that I find useful, funny or just a great read.

Earning Money Online Writing Articles

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 17:47:00 +0000

I have discussed writing articles in the past and how it can benefit you. There are many benefits to writing articles online. One is that you build up your presence online, this you need if you are going to be working at home online. Another is that it can help spread the word about your business. Many article directories allow you to write and earn money online too. Some of them pay you per page views and some pay per article.

I recently discovered another great site for a real and legitimate writing service. Companies post jobs they need and then us writers write the articles for them. It is quite simple once you get the hang of it. You do not need to be a professional writer, I didn't go to college and get a writing degree myself. They allow you to earn money for writing articles online and you can be paid weekly. There is no fee to join, I am not an affiliate. There is not even a referral program so I do not receive anything for you joining. At the moment the writing articles to earn money online is only for US residents but I have heard that they are going to be expanding this for the UK and a few other countries.

The name of the company is Textbrokers. You sign up, submit a writing sample and wait for them to grade it. They will place you at a level that they feel is appropriate based on your sample. You can earn a higher rating (if you place a 3 or below-5 is expert) once you start writing articles for companies. It is really a great site to earn money online writing articles! The articles are specified how much you will receive upon completion and you go through the list of jobs and pick the articles that you can and will do. You get paid weekly by Paypal. If you work it like a job, you can very easily earn a full time income writing articles online here on this site.

Check out http://www.textbroker.com for more information!

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Keeping Promises

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:19:00 +0000

This sounds simple and many people would like to think they don't break promises. It does happen tho and sometimes you don't realize you did it. It has do with-you guessed it-being organized. I confessed to my past organization problem. Tho it is still a battle for me but now I know and accept that I have the problem so I work hard at not having an organization problem.

When I wasn't very organized I had a few promises that I know I broke. Not good for business! I never meant to break promises but when I wasn't organized, I forgot many things. Promises are very important to keep!

I make sure now that if I make a promise to readers, clients or anybody that I write it down in a special place. That was my problem, I wouldn't write everything down and I would forget. I have had to apologize to people a few times throughout my years and I feel bad about it. Not only do I feel bad about it, it also doesn't help your reputation. I want people to know they can count on me and the couple promises I forgot about let those people down. They were understanding about it and I did come through for them but I do not like the fact that they had to remind me. Don't let this happen to you. It is easier to break a promise then you think when you forget to do it! Now I am good at keeping my promises, I learned from my mistakes!

Managing Life During the Holidays as an Independent Online Merchant

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:16:00 +0000

The slow recovery of the economy and weak job market has created a shift in the American workforce. Instead of working the typical 40-hour week, many Americans work from home and/or start their own small businesses to generate the income they need. Quite a few people have found some success becoming online merchants of products they make themselves. Online merchants can actually make pretty good money, if their products are in-demand and they market their stores well. If you are an online merchant, you’ve probably noticed that things can get pretty crazy around the holidays. Inventory management, order management, and life management can all become a little tricky when customers are visiting your site in droves and ordering more products that you can feasibly make in a short period of time.

Here are some tips to help online merchants keep things under control during the holiday season:

1. Plan ahead for the influx of orders. October and November might be slow months for you, so you could spend some extra time making more products for your store during these months. Then you’d have enough products to send to all your interested customers in December. If you didn’t start planning ahead this year, don’t worry. There are other things you can do to help make things less stressful. Read on.

2. Ask for help from friends and family members, especially if you run your online store all by yourself. Packaging and shipping products to customers can be very time consuming, especially when you’ve had a lot of orders come in. You might want to ask people you’re close to for a little assistance. You could even compensate them for their time in some way. If you’d prefer not to pay them, you could offer to do something else for them (like babysit their kids or knit them a sweater).

3. Make use of affordable small business software you find online. If you know you have trouble keeping track of your inventory, get some inventory management software. If you know you get a little frazzled when a lot of orders come in, look into order management software. Software like this can help you keep track of your orders, inventory, and shipments. It can also make your life a lot easier.

4. Communicate with your customers. Email them if you know that their order won’t be arriving as soon as they’d like. Be open and honest with them about what’s going on with their order, and they’re likely to be more understanding about any delays.

5. Remember that the holidays are a time for people to relax and enjoy life. Managing your online store may be time-consuming, but it shouldn’t be stressful. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t accomplish everything you’d like to. Just do your best and enjoy your successes!

This guest post was written by Carolyn with Blog Content Guild.

Earning Money Writing Online at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:45:00 +0000

I have been writing online for various places for a while now. It is a very rewarding job, you can work online and you are in control of your hours and your income. It can be a little harder to control your earnings tho. Being you work online at home and not driving to a place that you punch in for 8 hours, it is easy to get distracted and get laid back. I know as it has happened to me, at least with my writing. I have been busy with business, blogging and family but to be honest-I have had more time then what I have used to write articles lately.

I read a great article today that I thought everybody who enjoy. It was the motivation to kick me in the rear and get me back into writing more articles for some of the directories. I haven't slacked off completely, it is more of a break I think from the article directories. I have still been writing paid articles for my readers who request them. The article is If You Aren't Earning at Least $20 an Hour Writing, You Should Be. This is not a sales article, nothing to buy just a great article to read!

Now that I had my little honest reality check, I need to get back to writing! Have a wonderful day

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Organization Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:46:00 +0000

It is Wednesday again! So that means we have another topic that I have made mistakes with. The topic for today is organization. I know I have talked about it before but it is a big mistake I have made and is very important so it deserves another mention!

Organization is something that some people do naturally and others really have to work at it. I am one who really has to work at it. I like to have a clean house and a clean car, I even like to have a clean work space. Unfortunately clean is not organized in my case. I used to have sticky notes all over and notes in several different notebooks. I even have different papers throughout many different folders in the filing cabinet. Papers that should be grouped together were in different folders. Can you see a problem with this?

If you have your papers scattered in various places, you will forget at least one thing. Probably more then one but I can safely say that you will miss at least one. Organization is very important to your business. If you keep everything together that should be together, it will all be there and ready for you. This sounds very basic to many of the lucky people who are naturally organized. But to somebody like me, I need to constantly remind myself to put things with the other files. It really is easier (at the moment) to just drop it in any folder and say you will deal with it later but seriously, your business can't afford to have no organization. I am getting better now, it took a lot of reminding in the beginning!

Organizing is something that you will need to do in a manner that works best for you. Just make sure that you do organize, without organization your business will suffer. Hopefully this is a good reminder for anybody who is like me-don't just throw it in any old folder, and don't put a bunch of notes in various spots for the same topic!

Why No Comments on Your Blog?

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 04:28:00 +0000

Do you allow comments on your blog? I have been reading some great blogs lately but have noticed many blogs that do not have comments enabled. It is a shame really, I like to leave comments for the blog owner if their post was interesting or if I have something to add. Comments on blogs also give you communication between the author and the reader. Comments can be very important!

Some people I think do it as they are worried about spam comments or they have already received too many spam comments. Put comment moderation on if spam comments are a problem. Seriously, your readers should always be allowed to leave you comments. Interaction will keep your readers interested and they will also know you appreciate them reading when you answer them.

I had to put the comment moderation on as too many people were spamming me with their links, but I check comments usually once a day (sometimes less but usually more) and I approve ones that are not clearly spam. I like to hear good and bad feedback from my readers. I do not expect everybody to agree with me and I do not know everything. Many times readers offer me valuable insight and knowledge. There are times my readers have questions and just a comment about my blog. There are also times that people point out something I may have done wrong or that they do not agree with. All of these comments help us grow and I appreciate them all! If you are one who doesn't have comments enabled on your blog, you are missing out on some wonderful interactions with readers.

Thank you everybody who reads Dawn's Work at Home Blog. Thank you to all our readers who share your opinions, knowledge and everything else with us! You guys and gals are great and really have helped me to learn a lot along the way of my blogging adventures.

An Excellent Article to Read About Working at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:18:00 +0000

One of my readers had contacted me with one of their blog posts as it had to do with working at home. I am glad she did contact me, it is a great post! It is called 8 Dangers of Working From Home to be Aware of. I wanted to share this with readers as it is an important article to read if you work from home or are looking to work from home. It is not anything scary, just some things that you need to be aware of or you may end up running into problems. Things that if you are aware of them, you will be able to avoid them in your work at home career.

I would like to thank Kate for sharing this with us, it really is a useful article for anybody interested in working at home.

8 Dangers of Working From Home to be Aware of

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Setting Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:50:00 +0000

I was going to do another topic today but one of my readers had reminded me of goals. It is something that people underestimate and they are very important to your business if you want to succeed-whether you have a business online or offline.

In the beginning I read a couple of articles talking about goals. I didn't take it seriously, I didn't realize the importance. I just figured that in my mind I knew what I wanted and was going to work at it. I never set up real goals when I first started working online. I knew I wanted to make enough money to support my family-that is where I left it at. This did not do any good to my online working adventures!! People had told me that I needed to set my goals and make a business plan to achieve my goals. I still didn't take them seriously. Again I thought to myself-I know what my goal is and I just want to make money online and support my family.

That thinking got me nowhere. Sure I had made a little money online at that time but nothing significant or even worth saying I was making it. Finally I read another article really detailing the importance of goals and how to set goals. This time since I was not seeing any success yet and it seemed like I just wasn't going to be the one making money online, I decided that maybe I should take it seriously. I did set goals, detailed goals. Not just in my mind that I wanted to make money. I wrote down details such as how much I wanted to earn in a certain amount of time. I wrote down how many visitors I wanted my blog to get each day in the beginning and how I would like this to increase. I wrote down the many details of exactly how much and how I was going to do this. My business plans were easy to write down after doing the details of my goals.

Trust me when I say that setting goals is probably the most important step you will take for your online or offline business. You do need to keep it reasonable tho. Make sure the amounts you set forth are achievable. In other words, do not write down in the beginning that you want to make a million dollars in the first month. This will only get you discouraged when you get yourself hyped up and find you are not able to make the million in the first month. Whatever your goals are-they can be certain number of visitors, certain amount of money and so much more- make sure you write them down and look at then often. Make sure your business plans match your goals!

Questions About Blogging?

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:43:00 +0000

I have been doing some thinking lately (it has been known to happen sometimes.) I have been asked many questions about blogging throughout my blogging history. I always enjoy helping people with the many questions we have. I have a plan that I would like to work on in the very near future and it would be great if I could get our readers to help with it! It is really simple, I just need you to email me any questions you may have about blogging, getting traffic, starting a blog or anything you may have a question with. Sound simple?

I have a lot of thinking and planning at the moment so I am not going to post the juicy details yet on my blog. I will answer your questions right away and will let you know some of the details while answering. I think this could be a great project but if it turns out not to be the best plan I have had, at least I am still helping my readers by answering their questions! Any questions you may have would be great. Just email them to dawn@dawnswela.com. This is not the same email as the contact email through my profile but I will be able to keep it a little more organized this way.

Have a successful week everybody!

Wishing us All a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 16:48:00 +0000

Thanksgiving is a wonderful day to celebrate with the family. It is nice to sit down with family eating a huge meal. I gave up telling myself that I will not eat too much, I always end up eating to much so there is no sense in me pretending I won't. I know not everybody celebrates Thanksgiving but for all who do- I wish you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Remember if you drink too much, do not drive and if you are driving do not drink too much. Stay safe, there were already many accidents yesterday. Hope we all have a wonderful day!

Wednesday's Online Business Mistake-Believing the "Gurus"

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:49:00 +0000

I have made many mistakes along my path. Both online business and personal mistakes. We all make mistakes and there are some that I did not learn from as quickly as others, but I always try to learn from my mistakes. It is important in an online business to learn from mistakes as you will make them-trust me! I am hoping that Wednesday's Online Business Mistakes will help you to learn from some of my mistakes.

This week my mistake in discussion is believing in too many "gurus." It is easy to believe them when they talk about all the money they made and you see their name all over the Internet. Before I knew much about affiliate marketing, I used to believe in too many of them after seeing their names all over the Internet. I thought that many people trusted them and that they were well known for their online business. I found out later that they had the better sales pitch. These gurus had a lot of people pushing their product because they were just getting a commission from your sale. I know this sounds pretty basic to people who have been involved in an online business for quite some time, but it is not basic for people looking to work at home.

There are all sorts of "gurus" out there too. Many will tell you that after buying their product that you will earn a ton of money. They will tell you that it is so easy to wake up in the morning and have money in your bank account. Truth is, many of these "gurus" made their money because they have good affiliates getting them sales of the products that they are selling you. There are a lot of decent ebooks out there, some valuable information to learn from too. There is also a lot of junk that just earns them money. I had spent a bunch of money on various opportunities from various "gurus" who claim I would make money and well, most of it ended up being a waste of my money. There are some excellent online business opportunities out there but make sure you do not waste the money on the ones claiming you will be rich online overnight. Do not invest in ones that will make you money without work. Start a real legitimate business instead of buying all this stuff with false claims.

If you have an online business, I am not saying here that you shouldn't invest in good products that can help your business grow. I encourage you to invest in your online business so it will grow. I just recommend to you not to believe everything that you read online no matter how many times you see their name across the Internet. Chances are, the person reviewing the product is getting a commission for you buying it. Just do your homework and investigate a little before buying anything. You don't want to waste a lot of money on this stuff. It is money that would be better spent growing your online business legitimately.

Blog Contest-Tupperware Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Dawn Conklin) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:33:00 +0000

I was hopping through some of my favorite blogs today and found that Thrifty Momma is having a contest. She is giving away a 5 piece Tupperware bowl set to a lucky winner. This contest is open to US residents and it ends on November 30th. The entry rules are real simple, check it out! A chance for a nice set of free Tupperware bowls, all you have to do is visit her blog and tell her why you like Tupperware. Sounds simple enough, right? Go ahead and enter, there is no purchase and no risk for anything just the possibility of winning a great set of bowls. She has a nice blog, I am sure you will enjoy your visit while you are there.
I have entered, Tupperware bowls are great bowls. I wish everybody the best of luck with the contest!
Check out the details here on her blog: http://www.thriftymommaramblings.com

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