So, I am always on the lookout for new ways for moms to make a little extra money on the internet even if they maybe aren’t looking to start a full-fledged business.

One of the women I am an affiliate for sent out an email mentioning a new product she had coming out.  She does specialty guides for moms who want to work from home, and this one looks pretty interesting.

It is about making money by selling digital photographs.

I know I have a TON of pictures I am always taking, and sometimes just of something that looks so nice you just have to take a picture, but don’t know what you will actually ever do with it!

I read through what was being offered in the guide and it looks pretty interesting.

I decided I will purchase it myself and give it a look through.  Maybe I can pick some interesting ideas up – and get some use out of the thousands of pictures I have collecting virtual dust:-)

If you would like to get a copy for yourself, you can get it by clicking this link:  Make Money Online With Your Camera

Once I get a chance to read through it all, I will let you know what I think.

If you have had a chance to get a copy already, let us know what you thought of it!  (Without giving all the details away….)

I promised a bit of a review on the Kindle Case Study I am taking part in. Whether you know anything about Kindle or not, this case study is something that you definitely need to follow!

Dennis (Becker, from Earn1KaDay – which you can read a review about on the E1KaDay review page..) has been working on publishing a book onto Amazon’s Kindle – as well as having a physical version created through Createspace.

Now, if you are unfamiliar with any of this, don’t let yourself get overwhelmed. Kindle and Createspace are Amazon’s self-publishing tools which have created a huge opportunity for anyone out there who would like to write something and have it published.

There are literally thousands of people out there making their living through self publishing on Amazon, and it is getting to be an even bigger market. Amazon helps the self published author with marketing and promotion, and gives an incredible platform to reach as wide of an audience as possible.

Don’t think you can write a book to self publish? Well, you don’t need to. Dennis shows how it is possible to find your market and have the book written for you.

Worried about formatting for the Kindle? Dennis has included a huge self publishing toolkit, as well as offers his followers access to his own Kindle formatting tool which makes getting it easy to have it all made up and ready to publish within minutes.

 Do you have tons of other questions about Kindle and self publishing? Well, he is going through all of this step by step, day after day, to let us see the exact steps he is using – and answering any questions as he goes.

As always with Dennis, there are lots of added bonuses and his case study is written with complete honesty.

He isn’t guaranteeing that his book will be a best seller. He just wants to show us the process, and do what he can to get it to that point.  He has created the book to be sold not only through Kindle but through Createspace as a physical book too, which is something I know a lot of people have always wanted to do.

He makes it very easy to follow and to realize that anyone can do this. If you can write, or if you have ideas that you would like to get into print – you will love this whole process.

I am getting a great deal out of it, as are the many other people who are involved.

Since I was one of the original members, I am able to offer a VIP discount through this link….VIP Discount for Kindle Case Study

It is a great follow along and is something that anyone can do. If you would like to come on board, go ahead and sign up – you will just have to read through the back posts to get caught up, but trust me, you will learn a ton of stuff in this case study that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.

 Join the Kindle Case Study today!

So, after quite a few months, I have returned.  I am sure for anyone just stumbling across my blog, they were likely thinking this one was  just another of those forgotten web properties on the internet…..

Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  The truth is, I have been facing personal struggles since June of last year, and while many times I wanted to come and post, it just wasn’t easy to know what to write about or whether or not I even wanted to continue.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in June of 2011 – and it has been a bit of an uphill battle since then.  I am not going to go into great detail about everything – I do have a blog that I started a couple of months ago to document some of what I was dealing with that you can read at HopeWearsPink.com if you are interested.  I admit it threw me for a bit of a loop, and it has taken me some time to get back into some sort of “normal” where I even feel like working.

As I have posted before, I wasn’t sure where to take this blog sometimes.  I know I get a great deal of people searching for information on freelance writing and affiliate marketing.  Those are both means I have used over the past few years to make money online.

But there are just so many other ways too.  I might just use this as a personal blog to write about what I am doing at the moment – that way if it happens to be something that someone is interested in, then they are welcome to follow along.

I’m afraid that I have been notorious for just overthinking things.  I try to come up with the mile long posts that are full of information to help – but end up with nothing being added because I just don’t know where to start.

So, after some much needed soul searching during my time off, I have decided that whatever I am doing or learning at the time is what I will post about.

I have been doing some stuff with Cafepress through my other blog and have been following along with a Kindle Case Study – which is awesome by the way, and if having your writing published has been something you have always dreamed about, then you need to learn more about this one.

I will post more about it tomorrow, with a bit of a review of what you can expect from it.  I know I have always wanted to write a book – and Amazon has made it possible for all of us to have our own little piece of the publishing pie.  The Kindle is just a part of what you can do – and this case study has been amazing.

So, thanks for sticking with me and I hope to get things moving with this blog again:-)

The following is a great post about understanding the basics about hosting, and how to find the best website hosting providers when you are just getting started online.

Guest Post:  By Tiffany Dow

You can find Tiffany at her blog:  TiffanyDow.com/Blog

Gone are the days when you needed to be a tech guru in order to be able to create your very own website. Now with more tools, software, and pricing options available, anyone can own a website – including moms trying to get their online business up and running.

When looking for website hosting providers, don’t settle for the first one you find. It’s natural to see words like cheap or easy and want to use that service. Unfortunately, cheap or easy doesn’t always mean that their service is necessarily the one you’re going to be happy with. Instead, look to see if they offer certain services before handing over your credit card.

Just like you wouldn’t cook dinner in an oven without any temperature controls, don’t go with a hosting service that doesn’t offer you a control panel. This service, referred to as Cpanel, is an essential component for any website owner.

Most hosting companies will allow you to view a demo of their Cpanel so that you can check it out for yourself. Remember that all control panels may not look alike, so find one that you can navigate easily. This is one essential service that you don’t want to overlook in favor of a cheaper alternative.

Another essential service all website hosting providers should provide is good customer support. This support should be standard with your plan and you shouldn’t have to pay more for it.

If the hosting company you’re considering offers “priority handling” for an extra fee, then skip the company altogether. Companies that consider handling your calls to be an ‘extra’ charge usually believe other standard items are also ‘extras.’

These types of companies are always looking to make a buck and never have the customers’ best interest at heart.  The fact is, customer support should always be readily available to you.

This means twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If your website goes down at three AM, you’ll need to get in touch with your hosting company immediately. You won’t want to wait five hours until tech support opens in their time zone – and you shouldn’t have to.

Also, make sure you look for Fantastico De Luxe when checking out hosting companies. Fantastico is a server side script that enables you to install software seamlessly on your site.

Worried about the technical side of starting your e-shop? Not a problem. Fantastico can handle installing complex scripts like Cube Cart, osCommerce, and Zen Cart. All three of these have difficult installation procedures normally, but with Fantastico you select a few options and the scripts are installed for you. Fantastico doesn’t just allow you to install e-commerce software, you can also install content management systems like WordPress or Joomla.

Website hosting providers can help moms get into a profitable and fun business venture that can yield big rewards both financially and by giving them a sense of satisfaction in being a business owner.

Click here to test drive Earn1KaDay!

I realized that I often mention different sites I use, or places I frequent to learn more about how to make money online – and one of the places I mention alot is Earn1KaDay.  I also realized that while I talk about it alot, maybe I haven’t really given any of my readers an indication of what all is inside this exclusive membership site, not to mention the internet marketing training they will find once inside.

I have been online for over 5 years, and in those years, I have spent more money than I care to even think about on wasted products and programs that promised to give me the answers I needed.  And, that includes spending money on membership sites that just didn’t deliver what they said.

I would start out with a membership site full of excitement, but after one or two months, I would realize that everything they promised just wasn’t being delivered.  There wasn’t the sense of community and often trying to find answers to any questions that came up was pretty much impossible.

Luckily for me though, I took a chance on just one more membership site in May of 2007.

Click here for your copy of 5 Bucks a Day...

See, I had purchased and read a book called 5 Bucks a Day, by someone named Dennis Becker.  He wasn’t anyone I had heard about at that time, but the book looked like it would be an interesting read.  And, like many others I have talked to who have read that book, it actually changed their lives in the sense that they stopped trying to find that “holy grail” of internet marketing, and helped them to sit down and finally start making some money.

Not alot at first, which is the premise behind the book.  Without giving too much away, it essentially talks about how the author started taking simple strategies and put them into practice every day until he got to where he is now – which is exactly where everyone who is starting in internet marketing wants to be.

It is no fluff, and it isn’t full of empty promises.  And, it has been a real eye opener for so many of us.

So – back to May of 2007.  Dennis Becker, the guy who had written 5 Bucks a Day, sent out an email saying he was starting a little membership site for anyone interested in joining.  It would be geared towards showing simple strategies to follow, teaching different methods that people could use to start making money online.  And, it would hopefully take us from making 5 bucks a day to the $1000 a day mark.  (And, just so that you know, there are alot of people in this membership site who have hit that goal….)

I figured I’d give it a try because he seemed like a pretty good guy, and “one of us” – not one of the unapproachable “gurus” that ran many of the other sites I had tried.

And, as you realize now, that was over 4 years ago now and I have been a member since the beginning.  I have never canceled, and it is the one place I do go to regularly and feel a part of a community.

It isn’t like so many of the other internet marketing communities and forums.  It is a lot more than that.

You aren’t afraid to ask questions in there.  You will never be told to use the search function – if you are, they will most often give you the direct link to another thread that can help you.  The people genuinely help each other and feel a loyalty to all members.  In fact, most of the people in there will tell you that once they join, they wouldn’t dream of leaving.

There are some of the “bigger” names in IM inside too who, along with Dennis, offer real valuable advice and knowledge.  There are special deals only for members of E1KAD.  And, Dennis picks up tons of material that we can use to grow our businesses – either through reselling, using as PLR or even just to learn from.

The wealth of information that is available in there is absolutely unbeleivable – but that isn’t even the best part of the membership.  It is the genuine help each member gives to others.  The little tips here and there that can make such a difference.

There is not one person inside this membership area who feels they are above anyone else, and that shows through in every post that is made.  There is a group of people who really help each other and who want to see others succeed.

It is one site that I can honestly say has made one of the biggest impacts to my business.  The knowledge I have picked up, the material I have been able to use, the tricks and tips that people openly share, have all been “mushed” together to give me so much more than I could have ever found if I had kept going along the path I was….(buying every WSO and new product being offered promising untold riches….).

And, that is why I talk about it as much as I do.  And, why I felt it was time to finally give it the honest review it deserves.  Because it is the kind of site that can do more for your business than anything you could imagine – but too many people are afraid they will be burned by another product that is “overhyped”.

Well, I can honestly say that this is one community that I am sure most of the members can say has attributed in one way or another to their success – no matter what level of success they have achieved.

**If you would like to read the book that got all of this started, you can pick it up by clicking here……5 Bucks a Day

**Or, if you would would like to take the Earn1KaDay test drive, click here….you will get access to everything for just $2.95 for a whole 10 days. There is no better deal out there than that!  And, the price you will then pay each month after is nothing compared to what you will get out of it.

But, make sure you get in and ask questions if you have any.  Read through just some of the information that is there – really get a good understanding of what all is included, because even though there are a ton of downloads – there is so much more you will get from the members area.

I guess today is a bit of a rant, (again – starting to wonder if I have some anger issues;-), about something that I see alot of, especially around this time of year.

Everyone has heard all the talk about needing to attend Internet Marketing seminars and conferences if they really want to grow their business.  And, most likely you have heard it said at one time or another that if you don’t attend these seminars, then you aren’t taking your business seriously.  Or, that you are simply making up excuses why you can’t go – as though your reasons for not being able to attend are not really legitimate.

Well, I have to put my neck on the line a bit to say that I don’t necessarily think those sentiments are very fair.

Firstly, I would love to be able to attend all the seminars and conferences that are going on all over the place.  I would be thrilled to be able to meet everyone – all the big names, and some of the not so big names.  Make some friendships, and meet some of the people I feel I have got to know fairly well in forums and membership areas.  It would be awesome to be able to strike up some deals and jv’s and all that fun stuff.

But, the truth is – I have to think of my family first.  And, most of these seminars are in the US, which means I would have to travel a fair distance to get to them.  That is going to cost money – and even though I am making money in my business, I can’t justify taking that money from my kids for their school lunches, or their soccer registration fees.

You see, I am a mom – and while I know for a fact that many moms who are in IM are able to attend these conferences, their circumstances may not be exactly like mine.  Perhaps they are able to put a bit of money away every month to save for these trips.  I use mine to put back into my business by outsourcing what I need and getting tools that will help to grow my business.

So for me to go on a trip like this, would require me to dip into our family funds – and I am not prepared to do that.

Not only that, but I would feel incredibly guilty to go on a trip to somewhere like Las Vegas or New York and not take my kids.  So that would be much more costly, and I would have to take the kids out of school.

Maybe everyone will feel that these are just excuses.  But they aren’t to me.  They are legitimate reasons why I can’t attend these seminars at this time.

It isn’t that I wouldn’t love to be able to – I have already stated that.  And, I believe I take my business just as seriously as anyone else.  For those who say otherwise, you don’t really know every person’s circumstances that may be preventing them from going.

While the rest of us sit and listen to all the awesome partnerships that were formed, and the incredible boost their businesses are getting, we are left feeling a bit like the kid on the playground who wasn’t invited to the party on the weekend – and everyone else is talking about it.

Well, maybe someday I will be able to go.  But, it will need to be without conflict with my kids schedules, or when I can afford to put money away without my family fincances having to suffer.  Until then, I will keep working on my business after my kids are in bed – and hope that my business can grow even if I didn’t attend every conference and seminar that took place!

That is the price to pay when you are a work at home mom – and I am perfectly fine with that.

Many people think that marketers working online are nothing more than spammers who are trying to invade their privacy.  And, it is easy to understand why.  Unfortunately, there are way too many people out there calling themselves “internet marketers” who really are nothing but spammers – but in truth, they aren’t real marketers.

Real marketers ask for your permission to send you offers through email – normally by having you sign up through an optin form on their site.  And, most of these optins will then need to be confirmed by you before your name is ever added to the list, or anything is ever sent out.

Internet marketers who take their business seriously, do not want to have their credibility hurt by sending out any form of spam.  However, there will always be those people out there who hit the “Report Spam” button on their email because they either didn’t like the message that was sent, or they legitimately don’t remember signing up with their email.

That is why it is important to use a service like Aweber.  Using a company that requires a double optin, where the person is asked to click on a link in their confirmation email to ensure that it truly is their intent to sign up for that mailing list, is one of the best ways to protect yourself and your business.  That way, when they decide to scream “spam” down the road, it can be proven that they did indeed confirm their intent.

But, whatever your marketing plan, make sure you do not resort to sending out endless emails to your list promoting every new product under the sun.  That is the surest way of getting a bunch of people hitting the “unsubscribe” button.  And, some people – even though it is wrong – believe that this is spamming them.

Never, ever buy a list from someone else.

That should always be a given, but I see new marketers coming on the scene every day who are desperate for a list of people to send out offers to.

Well, the truth is, there is no better way of getting a list of responsive readers than by building it yourself.  Set up a free report or something of interest to offer in return for their email address, and permission to email them.

Sometimes it can be slow going, but I will write a bit more about some tricks and ideas for building your mailing list in my next post.  Stay tuned!

Every time you make a post to your blog, you have an opportunity to get a flood of traffic to your site.  And, the best part is, even if your blog is brand new – these are strategies you can use to get results almost immediately.  You don’t have to wait for weeks while your blog gets high rankings in the search engines, and you don’t need to keep forking over money for pay-per-click traffic.

So, how can you do this?

Use RSS feeds

Many people get confused when it comes to RSS feeds.  All you need to do is take down the address to your blog feed and your comment feed and submit them to as many feed aggregators as you can find.  There are many kinds of software out there which can help you to easily automate this task if you don’t want to do it by hand.

*There is a plugin by Ed Dale called RSS Bomber that takes a post or a page and creates a single feed for each one on its own – giving you the ability to submit multiple feeds pointing to the same site.

*Another tactic you can use is to take the www out of the feed url and submit it as a separate feed.  The directories will look at it as a unique and completely new feed – giving you double exposure.

*Install the WP plugin RSS Footer, and configure it so that it will post a backlink in the footer for every post in your feed.  You will be getting a ton of keyword targeted backlinks every time you submit your feed.  And, guess what else?  Anyone who comes along scraping your site to steal your content will be giving you a great backlink to your site!

Use Social Sites to their Highest Potential

The first thing you need to do, is sign up with ping.fm where you will be able to associate all of your different social accounts like Facebook, Twitter, digg and many others.  Go ahead and add all of the ones you have, and create any new accounts you need.  You can register accounts just for the blog you are wanting to get traffic to.

The next thing is to make sure that all of your profiles include your blog address and that they are all in sync.  Now, whenever you make a new blog post, you can head on over to ping.fm and post an interesting snippet about your latest post that will be interesting enough to draw traffic back to read it.

You can get almost instant traffic, even to new social profiles that you have set up.

*Look online for the latest plugins you can use with WordPress that will update ping.fm automatically every time you publish a new post.

Give Love to Comment Luv

Comment Luv is a hugely popular plugin that people use on their blogs.  When you comment on a blog that has this installed, you will get a live link back to your own site.  The link that is shown displays the title of your latest blog post, so that every time you make a new post, the link where you left your comment will update with the new post title.

You can see a tremendous amount of traffic from this – especially if you have been fortunate enough to get your comment near the top, or right at the bottom of the post.  You will get a lot of exposure from that location.

Bloggers love this plugin too, because they know that it will encourage commenting on their posts, which in turn brings more traffic to their sites too.  So, you can spend some time finding some good blogs in your niche that are using Comment Luv, and make a point of leaving helpful, and meaningful comments on these blogs whenever you get a chance.  Have their RSS feeds updating to your iGoogle homepage so that you can see whenever a new post is put up so that you can get your comment into the top few spots.

You also want to make sure that when you write your blog posts, that you use compelling titles that will draw readers in.  You only get the one chance to get their attention, so make sure you give them something to make them want to click-through.

All it takes is a little bit of time to get things set up, and you will be bringing in floods of visitors to your blog in no time.

I apologize if you were hoping for something else to read today, however, I have some important words I want to share and while learning about working from home is what most of you are here for, I am sure that all of you can relate to this post in at least one way or another.

Today’s post has nothing to do with making money from home, or Internet Marketing or anything at all like that.

Today, I want to dedicate a post to my Grandma.  A lady who never asked for any recognition, and who never thought she was anything special.

My beautiful, wonderful Grandma passed away just a couple of weeks ago.  April 10th, 2011 to be exact.  I was sitting beside her bed when she went.

Needless to say, I was heartbroken.

You see, my grandma taught me so many things.  She taught me how important it is to be kind.  How to always appreciate what you have.  That family is the most important thing in life.  To always share a smile and to laugh and enjoy life.

I have been so blessed in my life to have grown up in the same community as all of my grandparents.  In fact, I was lucky enough to share just about every christmas with them, many weekends, weeks over the summer holidays – and just so many other visits in between.

But, as many of us do, I look back now and realize that I took so much for granted.  The meals sitting around the table with everyone, going for drives, spending nights sleeping beside them.

My grandfathers both died within a month of each other.  I was just about 30 when they passed, so I was so lucky to have had them for so long, although that didn’t make the pain any easier.  After they were gone, I realized that while I had always still looked at my grandparents as invincible, that wasn’t the case any longer.

I understood that my time with my grandma’s would also be coming to an end, and I made sure that I made up for any lost time that may have happened during my “teenage years” when I was “too cool” and didn’t have time to visit.  And, of course the years when I moved out and was living life without a care – times that I maybe didn’t take the time I should have to spend with them.

I am now almost 40, and have been so lucky to have enjoyed over 10 more years with my grandma.  (I still have my other grandma, who just celebrated her 90th birthday last week).

My grandma was a special lady, and I am not just saying that because I am maybe a bit biased:-)  She worked hard all her life, and she never took credit for anything.  She stayed quietly in the background, making sure we were all happy and looked after.  She baked thousands of loaves of bread in her lifetime – bread that could never be equalled anywhere else in the world.  Every year for Christmas she knitted us all a sweater.

When my grandpa passed away, she moved into town.  At that time, she was also starting to lose her eyesight to macular degeneration.  It seemed just so unfair that someone who was facing moving from her home into unfamiliar surroundings, without her husband by her side, would now also go blind.

She took it all in stride.

She tried to teach me how to bake bread using her secret recipe just before I got married.  We spent a day baking bread together, and I will never forget the fun we shared that day.  And, when I had to get her to knead the dough for me, because I just didn’t have the strength to do it, she never made fun of me, (although I have never heard the end of it from other family members!)

I have so many wonderful memories of her, but what I have the most is the memory of who she was.  There was just no one else like her, and I feel sad every day with missing her so much.

I spent the last couple of weeks of her life by her side a lot.  She was getting sicker, and she knew her time was coming.  She still did her best to smile, and she tried so hard to keep us from worrying about her.

They still aren’t sure what she got sick from, although they are pretty sure it was some form of cancer since it seemed to happen pretty fast.  She had been in the personal care home in our community for the past 2 years, and up until about a month ago, was out dancing on Friday nights with the residents, and visiting her friends in their rooms.

When it was becoming apparent that she was starting to suffer, when I would ask her if she needed anything, all she would say is, “I’m OK”, or “Everything’s OK”.

That was how she was.  She never wanted anyone to worry or fuss over her.

I was with her one morning a couple of weeks ago when she had a small stroke.  I used to be a nurse, but nothing could prepare me for the terror I felt that morning holding her in my arms trying to let her know everything would be alright.  The rest of that day, after she had recovered a bit, she was looking around as though she could see again.  She was smiling and seemed so at peace.

Then, that evening, I went over to her bed to tell her I was going to go home to get some rest.  She reached up to hug me and she gave me a gift that I will never forget – and will cherish for the rest of my life.  She said, “Thanks for being you.”

When I then replied to her, “No, thanks for being YOU”, she just laughed as if to say that she was nothing special.

I told her I loved her, and she said the same to me.

The next day, she had began to suffer so much with pain, that they had started her on morphine, and she was never really able to speak again.

She knew in her heart how hard it was going to be for me, and she took what she had left that night and gave me the most beautiful goodbye.

There aren’t words in the world to explain how much I miss her every day.  And, there is nothing I wouldn’t give to have even just another hour with her.

But, I have the lessons she gave me, and I know that I am who I am today in part because of her.  My children got to know her, and she got to know them.  She never was able to see them, but she loved them with everything she had.  That was just how she was.

So – today I finally feel I can sit down and write these words without the pain being too much.

I hope she knew how much we loved her.  And, I hope she knows how much her goodbye meant to me.

And – I guess if you need a lesson from my post, it can be this:  always cherish time with people you love.  Money, cars, houses – all that stuff is just stuff.  But, your family, your friends – people you love are what make your life complete.  Take the time to play with your kids, call your grandparents, if you are still fortunate to have them, and make plans to see them.

Don’t let life go by too fast without taking some time to enjoy what really matters.

I miss you Grandma.  And, thanks for being you;-)