Blah, Blah, Blog

Sometimes if you use the word special the spam programs will block your email so I’m posting this here.

The reason I call my newsletter the “No Fluff” news is because I respect your time, and I don’t believe in sending out a bunch of garbage or promoting something just to make a buck.

But I am making a very special offer to you to thank you for being a subscriber. If you’ve known me for any length of time, you’ve heard me mention my friend Alice Seba. Alice has been a great mentor to me, and I have a better business as a result of listening to her wisdom.

I would like to introduce you to some of the ways Alice has helped me and give you a huge incentive to do so: Carrie’s Special Offer

Act quick because this offer will expire August 15th.

Lots of Moms want more information on how to start working at home for someone else. My friend Nell Taliercio, aka the Telecommuting Answer Lady, is putting together the first annual Telecommuting Moms Month for anyone hoping to work at home.

The online event starts September 4th and runs through September 29th 2006.
Go to http://www.telecommutingmomsmonth.com to learn more and sign up for Nell’s newsletter at http://www.telecommutinganswerlady.com to be notified of the event details, where to access the calls, and contest information.

Nell is interviewing top experts in the telecommuting field, sharing the stories of other moms who are successfully telecommuting and even holding an “Ultimate Job Seekers Contest”

She’ll be covering various aspects of teleworking/telecommuting such as:

•Job Searching Success Tips
•Approaching a Current Employer for the Telecommuting Option
•Cover Letter and Resume Secrets
•Application and Interview Tips from an Employer
•Telecommuting Tax Tips

This event is a must for anyone who wants to telework – go check it out at http://www.telecommutingmomsmonth.com

Lynette pointed out a neat new tool from Google that you might want to use to share spreadsheets with your VA.

I made a spreadsheet for my VA who is going to be taking care of article distribution for me. This is going to save both of us time and typing. Thanks Lynette!

I came across a thread the other day on a very high traffic work at home Mom business forum in which a woman asked: “How many of you are outsourcing?”

I replied after several other Moms did, mentioning that I outsourced some tasks like:

adding content to websites
website/graphic design
article writing
press release writing

What surprised me was that a few of the Moms who replied before me said things like:

“Noone I know outsources, even those with a 6 figure business..” etc.

I think the bottom line is that people who aren’t outsourcing are either unfamiliar with it and the benefits, or they think they can’t afford it.

The first issue is addressed in Rich Schefren’s Manifesto. I guarantee you this information will shake you up. We’ve had a lot of discussions at Mom Masterminds about it, and all of us agree that although the information isn’t “new”, it’s powerful stuff that can change your business literally overnight. Why?

Because when you outsource you free up time that you can then spend doing the REALLY productive stuff.

I’m working on outsourcing more and more: partnering with other people to create products for me, designing new sites, hiring ghostwriters more, etc. It feels great because I know my business is growing while I play with my kids. That right there is one great reason to outsource more: to get away from the computer and have more family time.

When you delegate tasks you stay excited about your business but don’t get stressed out! The neat thing is, this allows you to be more creative, and the ideas are what make you money.

I have 4 little munchskins and the oldest is homeschooling, so I have no choice but to be smart with my time.

Here are some tips on babystepping your way into outsourcing, even when you think you can’t afford it.

• Figure out how much you can afford to outsource

Take a good look at your earnings last month and your expenses. What’s left? Can you take 20% of that and use it to pay an assistant? If all you can spend is $20, you might be able to hire a VA for a couple of hours to do some things that will free up your time for the moneymaking activities.

• Find someone who will work for less than you

Maybe you can find a homeschooled teen in your area who would love to earn $5 an hour adding pages to your website. Do you have a child old enough that you can train them to do certain tasks for you? If you know how much you earn, you can often find someone who can do activities for less than you earn per hour.

• Outsource the stuff you hate and do what you’re good at

Think of the things that you don’t enjoy doing and see if you can find someone else to do them. As an example, I am really bad at web design. I just don’t have an eye for it and so I frustrate myself, plus it takes me hours to do what a skilled person could do in one hour. So it’s worth it for me to pay someone else to do it. On the other hand, I’m good at writing articles, so I write most of my own. But I also outsource some writing if I’m not familiar enough with the subject matter, because someone else can do it for a fraction of the time/cost that I can.

• As you earn more, outsource more

Once you get a relationship with a VA, and start earning more in your business, commit to earmarking more of your profits to outsourcing. It’s addictive!

Alice Seba has more tips with her Outsourcing Sweetie course.

The buzz about Rich Schefren’s Manifesto, video and such are the inspiration for the next couple of posts here. For the next few days I’m going to be talking about outsourcing when you think you can’t afford it, for starters.

But first something fun: I just downloaded what the Temptation Blocker to test it out. Maybe if you need more self control you could check this out.

I’ve heard work at home Moms say that they can’t stop checking AdSense earnings, email, message forums, blogs, etc and aren’t spending enough time in productive mode.

I’ve gotten much better at this in recent months but there is definitely room for improvement! I wrote an article recently about what happened one day when my internet went out due to a BellSouth problem down the street. I started writing what ended up being my first information product. So I definitely see the power of getting focused and down to business.

I liked Rich’s video the most. One thing he said really struck me, and the jist of it was:

“If you can do something while multitasking, you should either outsource it or not do it at all.”

That really got me to thinking… Every day I add content, write articles or blog posts or autoresponder messages, and a lot of that requires my concentration. But things like submitting articles (copy/paste), putting free reprint articles into a site (more copy/paste) etc… I’m making lists and contacting VAs baby!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:

Articles are a WAHM’s best friend.

Just the other day someone that I have never met, a fellow work at home Mom, posted one of my articles on one of the busiest wahm websites on the Internet. I’ve been getting a flurry of traffic to that site since. How’s that for passive productivity?

I found two more places to submit articles and thought I would share:

http://www.the-best-you.com and
http://www.freeaffiliatearticles.com This one is for people who have affiliate programs. What an awesome way to get additional exposure as well as recruit more affiliates- give them the content that every webmaster craves, as well as a chance to earn money from those clicks away from their site.

It still astounds me that more Moms aren’t doing article marketing. With all of the potential for passive exposure (once you write the article and submit it, you’ll get traffic forever), the main reason many still shy away is because they mistakenly think that they can’t write… or they don’t know what to write about.

Here is a resource that has helped me: Easy Article Marketing. And yes, it lives up to its name. It really IS easy to start writing articles once you wrap your brain around it. I have so many ideas for article topics that I don’t even have time to write them all.

You can even sign up for the free ecourse by visiting this site. What are you waiting for?