Work at Home Resources, Tips, Jobs, Scams, Discussion and Services

Help! Working From Home With Kids on Spring Break

Gayla — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0000

When my kids are on Spring Break, I always find myself trying to get my work done in between keeping them from being bored, running errands and trying to spend as much quality time with them as I can.

Without having to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, does anyone have any tips to share with me and other parents who are faced with the same situation?

What are some new and entertaining things I can occupy my kids with for an hour here and there?

What do other work at home parents do to keep everything running smoothly without sacrificing their work or their family?

Protecting Your Identity as an Affiliate Marketer

Gayla — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:53:00 +0000

Maybe I’m just too trusting when it comes to disclosing my information to various websites I partner with to make money.

As an example:

Affiliate sites always ask for your social security number and your date of birth. I’m affiliated with approximately 15 programs. All of which I have conducted in-depth research for complaints of violation notices of some sort. If the searches yield nothing but praise, I sign up – no problem.

Is there honestly that big of a risk of your identity being stolen from a source as such?

I guess I don’t think about it so much because I live in a small rural area where the gals at my bank know me by face and name and should anything look fishy on my account, I’m notified immediately.

But for those who don’t have that luxury, when is it too much.

My Questions to You are:

Is there a real risk of disclosing your birthday? Should you just choose another ‘fake’ birthday (perhaps your mothers birth DAY but YOUR birth YEAR)?

What other information should never be shared and what can be done to protect your identity?

What sort of precautions do you take when looking for affiliate partnerships?

A View from the Parlor – Maximize Any Niche Topic

Gayla — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

In part two of my two-part project/series on maximizing niche topics we’re going to take the topic of Movies. That’s it! Simply Movies — or is it ’simply movies?’

Movies happens to be one of those topics that if you jump in, you better be serving up something super hot and super FRESH! Because the competition is ~~broad~~ GY-nor-mous!

The topic ‘movie’ alone generated well over 2 Million searches in a single month. So you can only imagine what your competition is going to be.

Some various sub-niche topics you could touch on might be:

* Reading ‘the book’ just before watching the movie and doing a comparison.

* Remakes versus originals

* Highlight actors starting in specific movies/roles

* Actor discussion – Bio’s, personal life versus movie life

* Movie Theater News – there are a ton of old old movie theaters in my area alone that are still open for business. It might be fun to explore movie theaters around the country/world.

* Movie Snacks and the companies who make them (I’d be happy to sample and review them for ya)

* Invite readers to submit photos of theaters near them – hold a contest

* New on DVD

* Feature Classic Movies and discuss

* Highlight memorabilia for sale on Amazon or eBay

* I heard a ‘blind’ critic the other day. It’s quite fascinating the take he has on movies versus the ’seeing’ critic. Heck of a niche to expand on.

* Movie Download

* Drive-in theaters

* Red Carpet Reviews

* Award Shows – Golden Globe, Emmy, Oscar, etc.

* Home Movie Equipment – New and Antique

* Home Video – YouTube – etc.

* On location – news from behind the scenes

I’m sure there’s much I’ve missed — so if you happen to have additional suggestions to throw in the ring, please do.

Step Into My Parlor

Gayla — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:49:58 +0000

Blogging may not be ‘rocket science,’ but it is does require a bit of Fortune Telling!

Step into my parlor whilst I explain…Won’t you?

Fortune-telling, by definition is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means.

I said it was similar, NOT an exact!

You don’t have to rush out and have business cards made up declaring yourself a Madame or Swami.

When it comes to blogging, you have to possess the ability to ‘think outside the box’ and predict what your future visitors will be looking for based on the topic you’ve chosen to write about.

Just to have a little fun peering inside my own little blogging crystal ball, I called on four friends to throw a single topic back at me. Purely by pulling the first thing that came into their minds and sending it to me.

From those single topics, I am going to share with you, ideas of just how broad a single topic can become if you simply look into the future (and yesteryear – whichever the case may be) at all the possibilities.

The first topic that came in via my request was “The 80’s”

The 80’s lasted for ten whole years (Doh!) so surely there’s 10 years worth of content anyone can drudge up, right?

Honestly, this is a great topic because in one month alone, 80’s and various searches containing 80’s generated over 500,000 searches.

Quite a little niche huh?

Some topic directions I would consider are:

Movies – sub-feature the main actors and their bio’s

Actors – then and now

Music

Video

Fashion

Hairstyles (did you know there are whole websites dedicated to the mullet?)

Cartoons

Biggest Hair

Hot weddings and divorces (remember, the royal wedding of 81?)

Who was born? Who died?

Books (Girls, you remember Ralph? — “Forever” by Judy Blume?)

Politics (Jelly Bellies were made famous during the 80’s through politics)

Small towns making big news

80’s toys (I still have my Charlie’s Angels dolls)

Auto Industry – best and worst cars – which did you own? (Shov-ette – nuff said)

Travel

Feature items from the 80’s that are selling on eBay or Amazon

Role Play – take yourself back in a time machine and write a letter then to yourself today

One hit wonders – what became of them? (Soda Pop Rock) Oh and I wrecked my Chevette jammin’ to Carmacamilion! It’s so true!

Big Hair Bands – do they still have hair?

80’s tee shirts

Televisions shows and cast

Video games, then and now – I always did love Megamania

80’s Theme Parties – discussion, items and where to purchase

A look back at proms

Make-up trends – What were we thinking?

Time Machine Features

Laws and how they’ve changed – are we more safe today?

Did I forget anything? How many of you can think of other topics that fall into the category of “The 80’s” that might give a whole new direction of thought?

I’ve got a few more topics coming up, so check back and see how much fun we can have with those topics!

Do you have a topic you’d like to explore? Either drop the topic in the comment section of this post or contact me via email for a private ‘niche’ consultation.