Archive for May, 2006
If you’re already working online, what is the reason? Is it to help support your family financially? Is it so you can buy things for yourself that you normally would not? Is it so you can save up for a down payment on a new house? Or a new car? Or maybe it’s a mixture of all of the above.
When I decided to stay at home and work online, it was because I dreaded going back to work as a receptionist and leaving my daughter with somebody I didn’t know. I wanted to be there for not just for the evenings after work, but all day.
Thankfully, my husband has a good paying career and he can support me in my decision to stay home with our kids. That still doesn’t mean that I don’t want to contribute financially though. So when my daughter was almost a year old, I started looking into working from home.
Eventually, I started my first website, Baby Tips Online. Since then I’ve started quite a few different online ventures. I absolutely love working online, but sometimes I need a little inspiration to get my butt in gear.
I started thinking about the things that I’d love to buy, and I made myself a wish list. I also flipped through newspaper flyers and cut out pictures of things that I’d like to get. I pin those pictures on a board and keep it beside my desk. I call it my ‘motivational board’. When working online starts feeling more like a real job, I just look at my board and feel a new surge of energy.
Each time I buy something off the board, I take the picture off and replace it with something bigger and better. I have pictures of wedding rings, a new bedroom set, shoes, and also big ticket items like a new car and a big house.
I’m a bit of a material person, but I know what’s most important to me. As long as my family is happy, I’m happy. But I’d sure love a new house with a backyard pool!
May 23rd, 2006
I can’t realistically come up with every brilliant idea to get more traffic, increase my sales, or get more subscribers. Every once in awhile, a good idea pops up, but when I’m looking for inspiration, I read one of Jimmy Brown’s articles at his List and Traffic site. He’s got ideas coming out the wazoo. Some of them are things you would never think of, some of them are really simplistic, but not quite so obvious.
Each one of his articles has inspired me to create even more lists of topics, ideas, and marketing methods. And guess how much I pay for this extremely valuable information? I pay only $10 each month.
The kind of information he provides for an unbelievably low price is the kind of ‘secret info‘ that many internet marketers try to sell for hundreds of dollars. The only difference is that Jimmy Brown doesn’t include 99% fluff. He gets right to the point and doesn’t insult you by writing the same information you already know over and over again.
I’m a busy mom with hardly any spare time. I can’t afford to waste the precious time I do have online reading useless information. I’ve signed up for so many newsletters that I can’t count anymore. Some of them have been worthwhile, but most are just big time-wasters.
So when I came across Jimmy Brown’s site, I was so happy to finally find all the information I needed in one site without all the extra garbage I don’t need.
I’m the type of person some may call ‘cheap’. I pinch pennies because I have to. Ten dollars in my pocket usually stays in my pocket unless it’s going to be spent on my kids. So I was skeptical about paying $10 per month, but I thought that if it bettered my online business, it was worth it. If it didn’t, I could always cancel my membership.
Now, it’s been a few months, and I can’t see myself cancelling anytime soon. I would be missing out on information I couldn’t get anywhere else. Ultimately, I would be losing in my business.
I will give you a word of warning before trying out Jimmy’s site. You have to actually use the information he provides you if you want to make it worthwhile. There’s a lot of money in his words, but you won’t see any of it if you don’t apply his ideas and techniques. So bookmark his site, read his articles regularly, and watch your business grow.
To get a free taste of the information he provides each month at List and Traffic, download the Make Six Figures Online Free Report. Just right click, and save to your desktop.
May 22nd, 2006
I was just thinking last night that I wish I had more time in the day. I’m sure almost anyone wishes that 24 hours would go by a little slower.
Between kids, cleaning, cooking, laundry, yard work, and keeping up websites, I can hardly find time to exercise. By the time my husband gets home from work and supper is eaten and dishes are done, I’m so exhausted that exercising is the last thing I want to do. I’d rather plop myself on the couch and watch my evening shows. Tonight is the season finale of ER and I CAN’T miss it.
This is where multi-tasking comes in. Being a mom automatically means you have a degree in multi-tasking. If I really wanted to, I could drag my exercise bike upstairs and sit it in front of the TV so I can exercise while watching ER. But after a long day, that just seems like too much work. Instead, sitting on a fitness ball while working at the computer seems like a better idea.
If your posture is bad at the computer, then sitting on a fitness ball will correct it. It also works your core muscles and improves your balance and stability. If you want to break out a pilates video, you can use your fitness ball with that too.
There’s plenty of uses for it.
The only thing I have to figure out now is how to keep my 2 year old daughter from grabbing the ball and running while I get up to pour myself a glass of water.
May 20th, 2006
Working at home is great for moms (or dads) who want to help support the family financially while still being at home with the kids. Unfortunately, it’s not easy and it’s not for everyone. Running your own websites or blogs involves a lot of things, including marketing your site, driving traffic to it, and networking with other site owners, not to mention actually maintaining your site’s content. This all takes time, and for many, it’s a full time job.
If you’re doing this while trying to raise kids at the same time, it can be hectic and stressful. Your time needs to be managed extremely well to be successful. This means you can’t afford to stare at your computer for hours while trying unsuccessfuly to come up with new ideas. You might as well be tapping your head and rubbing your stomach - you’ll get just as much work done.
If I work at the computer for too long, I lose my creativity and momentum. Eventually, I hit a slump and it’s almost impossible to get out of. I guess you could call it temporary writer’s block. After a certain amount of time, I lose my focus and I don’t get any work done.
That’s what happened to me this evening. After awhile, I realized I needed a break from the computer. Because I work at home, I’m allowed the luxury of walking away from my desk and occupying myself with something else to give my head a rest. So I ran myself a nice bubble bath, lit a few candles, and sat in the tub for about an hour. As soon as I relaxed, ideas started popping up in my head. Now I’m back at the computer, smelling better and full of things to write about.
Getting away from the computer and doing something relaxing is a great way to snap out of your slump and get back into the game. You can only sit at the computer for so long before your brain shorts out.
May 20th, 2006
There’s so many things to get done in a single day, and I can’t realistically get everything done that I’d like to. So I’ve recently started making ‘to do’ lists to make sure that I accomplish at least one thing each day.
Each morning, I spend a few minutes writing down the things I’d like to get done by the end of the day. If I don’t get everything done, I’ll add the unfinished things to the next day’s list. I also make a ‘weekly to do list’. This helps to keep things in check, and it also helps me remember the things I’ve planned to get done. Looking after my kids all day has a way of erasing my memory.
Speaking of my memory, I also keep a pen and pad of paper handy at all times for when a brilliant (or not so brilliant) idea strikes me. Sometimes this happens at three in the morning and by the time I get out of bed, I’ve forgotten how I was going to take over the world.
When I’m feeling writer’s block coming on, I’ll go back through my notes and new ideas will spring up. I’m the type of person who needs visual stimulation because ‘out of sight, out of mind’ completely applies to me. So by keeping my lists and notes, I never forget ideas and I keep myself accountable for getting important tasks done each day.
May 13th, 2006
Before you even start your business online (or any business for that matter) you should have some specific goals in mind. For some, these goals may be physical. One of my goals when I first started online was to buy a new computer. Having a newer computer would help me achieve even more goals faster. For others, goals may be psychological. Getting across to thousands or even millions of readers can be a very powerful feeling. Their goal may be to educate people on a certain topic. For most stay at home moms, their goal is to be able to stay at home with their kids while helping support their family financially. This was my ultimate goal. Now that I’ve achieved that, I keep raising the bar and working hard to reach new levels.
No matter what your goals are, or how silly they may sound, you should write them down. This will help you visualize each level of your success. List them in the order that you would like to achieve them. Once you’ve done this, keep that paper somewhere where you can always see it. Keep it on your fridge, or taped to your computer monitor. Once you achieve the first goal, cross it off but don’t erase it. You always want to see that you’ve already come that far and hopefully it will give you more motivation and incentive to continue on.
As you’re writing down your goals, remember to start small. If your goals involve money (and let’s face it, most people’s will), you should start with something realistic like paying your power bill. Once you’ve reached that goal, you can aim for something higher. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as your next goals are realistic yet challenging to keep you striving for them.
If your goal is to make thousands of dollars in less than a month, then you might want to reconsider that first goal. Working online is a lot of hard work and making a decent income can take a very long time. It’s not for everyone. Some people just aren’t cut out for it. But if you’re enjoying it and you’re seeing progress, keep trucking. It took me almost a full year before I made my first $100 from Google Adsense. I’m a busy mom and I can’t spend as much time as I would like online. But the important thing is I didn’t give up and I always had faith in myself that I could do it.
So write down your goals, have faith in yourself, and start making money!
May 5th, 2006
There are so many things to be done each day along with even more distractions. It’s also nice to have a few minutes of peace and quiet to relax and refresh our brains. So how do we find time to get everything done all in one day? By eliminating the time wasters so we can focus more on our work, that’s how!
Here are a few big time wasters to avoid:
Forums - Forums are great for getting your sites out there, especially if the forum’s theme is similar to your own. However, it’s very easy to get sucked into them and even easier to spend hours reading and posting. If you spend all your time on forums, you won’t be spending time on your own site creating more content or tweaking ads and design. I set aside no more than a half hour for forum posting each day. Don’t get me wrong, many joint ventures are formed through forums. There is also a lot of valuable information on forums that some people try to sell in ebooks. Just make sure you’re spending a reasonable amount of time on them and leave time for other important marketing methods as well.
Email - I’m bad for checking emails countless times throughout the day. Because most of the emails I get are not time sensitive, it really make no sense for me to do this. Lately, I’ve been closing my Outlook Express after I’m done checking emails instead of keeping it open. With it closed, I don’t see or hear everytime I get a new email and spend much less time checking them. I’ve also started checking emails only once in the morning and once in the evening. This has saved a lot of time for me. Another thing I’ve done recently is unsubscribe to anything that’s just fluff and isn’t helpful to me.
Checking Adsense Stats - If you have Google Adsense on your site and you’re like a lot of other people I know, you check your account every hour (some of you even more often) to see how much money you’ve made since you last checked. If not, then good for you. If so, then you need this tool. With Firefox, you can see your Adsense stats displayed in the corner of your screen updated at least every 15 minutes. Now, I only log in to my account once at the end of each day to see which ads performed better than others. I’ve probably saved myself at least a half hour each day with this extension.
Reading Other Blogs or Websites - I like to browse other sites and especially blogs for interesting and sometimes useful information. I’ve been a little slow (alright, really slow) with the RSS thing. But now, If I come across a site or blog I really like, I’ll subscribe to their RSS feed. Now instead of checking all my bookmarks, I just check my feed and click on the headlines that I think might be useful information. I only do this every few days now instead of every day. Most of the blogs I subscribe to only add new content every few days anyway. This is also a huge time saver.
Typing - This one may not seem so obvious, but how fast you type can mean the difference between taking five minutes to write an article and taking 20 minutes to write it. By learning to type properly you can shave off hours in your week if you do a lot of writing. If you ‘hunt and peck’ with each index finger, you’ll be wasting time looking from the keyboard to the monitor, then wasting even more time editing all your typos afterwards. Learn how to type! You’ll thank yourself in the end.
May 5th, 2006
You Know You’re A Work At Home Mom When…
- Your desk is covered in bottles, sippy cups, toys and parenting magazines.
- It’s sometimes noon before you get out of your pajamas.
- You have to lock yourself in the bathroom to talk to a client because the kids are too loud.
- You have to delete ‘alsdfj’ and ‘ajsdkf’ from your articles because your kids were playing with the keyboard.
- You stop writing your latest newsletter so you can change a poopy diaper.
- You reply to customer emails with one hand because you’re holding your baby in the other.
- WAHM means Work At Home Mom and not WHAM, the band from the eighties.
- You’re watching Oprah while you’re marketing on forums.
- Your daily commute is from the master bedroom to the spare bedroom.
- On the phone, your client can hear Baby Einstein playing in the background.
- You’re checking emails at 2:00 a.m. while feeding your baby.
- Your work wardrobe consists of sweat pants and t-shirts with spit-up stains on them.
May 3rd, 2006
