Archive for January, 2009

How Is The CPSIA Going To Affect Your Business?

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Is the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act going to negatively impact your business? (If you’re not sure what the CPSIA is, you can learn more here but in a nutshell it’s an act that will require expensive component testing of kid products that is prohibitively expensive for some small business owners.)

I feel confident that people whose business involves hand crafted baby and kid items will find a way around this act, or it will be amended somehow.

Still, this is a good wake up call for anyone who relies solely on the sale of handmade products for their income stream.

It’s a call to action to:

Diversify Your Income

On this blog I have long encouraged product sellers to develop secondary income streams with ideas like affiliate marketing and creating information products.

Now is the time to get started on this if your business revolves around handmade baby and kid products. Like I said, I’m optimistic that the creative people who have these types of businesses will figure this thing out, but even still…

Your cheese is getting stinky. It’s time to find a new source of cheese.

Here are just a couple of ideas for you:

* Let’s say you make handmade wooden toys for kids. Could you write an ebook for parents on encouraging creativity with open-ended toys? Make sure you have an affiliate program for your product because I for one would promote it!

What about a cookbook with your favorite kid friendly recipes?

* Do you sew cloth diapers, baby slings or baby blankets? Could you start a review blog to publish well written, honest reviews of baby and toddler products? These reviews could be monetized with affiliate links and Google Adsense or other contextual ads.

A few random ideas that popped into my head:

* Create a cookbook for parents of allergic kids (wheat/dairy/corn/egg/soy/peanut/etc free recipes)

* Create a specialty diet cookbook (vegan/vegetarian/Paleo/raw/Weston A Price/whole foods/low carb/etc)

* Start a blog and write about what you know (start a recipe blog, a niche blog, a mommy blog, etc)

* Offer consulting services based on your area of expertise. People will pay for homeschooling advice, fitness advice, nutrition advice, cooking advice, marriage advice, business advice etc

* Offer your services as a ghostwriter or virtual assistant, niching yourself as an expert in a particular area based on your experience as a business owner (early childhood education or homeschooling for example). When you have a tight niche like this you can command higher prices per hour.

* Do you have any other ideas? Leave them in the comments area below!

Tags: Blogging, diversify your income, niche blogging
Posted in Internet marketing | 2 Comments »

The Hottest Niche for 2009

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

Hey, I didn’t say it.

She did.

Do you subscribe to Rosalind Gardner’s Net Profits Today newsletter?

I do.

If you don’t know Rosalind, she is considered one of the most successful affiliate marketers online, and has one of the most popular guides to affiliate marketing, called The Super Affiliate Handbook.

I read this book a year ago and agree that it is one of the best educations in affiliate marketing that you can get, and everyone who wants to succeed in affiliate marketing should read it.

Anyway, back to her newsletter.

The issue I got today was entitled: [NPT] Your best niche NOW…

Guess what Rosalind Gardner says is the hottest niche for 2009?

I’ll give you a hint.

(Get it?)

GREEN. Going green. It’s where it’s at in 2009.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should go changing directions in your business because that’s not smart.

Target market, and focus and all.

But.

Your website visitors, blog readers, podcast listeners, newsletter subscribers, etc…

They might be thinking green.

So how can you meet them where they’re at?

Here are a couple of ways.

Oh and what about

and may I also suggest?

Would any of this make it easier to earn in this hot niche?

Posted in Internet marketing | 2 Comments »

I’m Going to BlissDom Y’All!

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

I don’t know HOW this snuck up on me, but it did.

Just a couple of days ago I found out about Blissdom – a blogging conference for women – and now, thanks to Mom Masterminds, I’m going!

I’m excited. Totally excited.

This will be the first conference of its kind that I’ve ever attended. The idea of meeting some of my favorite and much admired bloggers pickles me tink.

Not to mention the opportunity to learn some awesome stuff about improving my blogging strills!

But I don’t want to be selfish and keep it all to myself.

That wouldn’t be very bloggy of me, would it?

So I want to know what YOU want to know.

I’ll be blogging live and Tweeting live and taking lots of pictures (and hopefully borrowing a video camera from someone – Mom are you reading this? LOL! I didn’t get the video camera in the divorce agreement!) and tons of notes.

I’m an avid note taker, but instead of just typing and jotting down what is interesting to ME, I want to give my note taking some purpose and try to answer questions from YOU.

If you were going to be there, what would you ask, and of whom?

Take a look at the line up of speakers and sessions.

And let me know below what your top questions are. I’ll listen hard and do my absolute best to find the answers, ok?

And be checking back here and here on Friday and Saturday, February 6 and 7 for my answers.

Mom Masterminds is sponsoring me.

Anyone interested in sponsoring my wardrobe?

Posted in Blogging | 1 Comment »

Making Money as a Ghostwriter

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

One of the easiest ways a mom can break into her own internet business is by writing for others.

Ghostwriters are absolutely essential to an online business owner and their services are always in demand.

While I do not use the services of a Virtual Assistant every month, I DO employ ghostwriters each and every month – sometimes several ghostwriters.

What Do Ghostwriters Write?

All kinds of things! They may write articles, blog posts, email newsletters, sales copy, product descriptions, ad copy, press releases, etc.

I mostly hire ghostwriters to write blog posts and articles for me on a monthly basis, but I’ve also hired out press release writing, copywriting, and copy for opt in newsletters.

It’s words that sell with an internet business, and words that drive traffic to websites.

How do you go about making money as a ghostwriter?

Nicole Dean has put together another one of her fantastic guides called Making Money as a Ghostwriter.

I had the opportunity to read this guide yesterday and thought it was wonderful. It covers the following:

How to find clients for your ghostwriting business right away so you’re in business and making money fast
How to maximize your income with ghostwriting so you’re not just working by the hour but building up more passive income
How to marketing your services effectively so you’re not spinning your wheels online
How to write articles quickly so you can make more money in less time

All of Nicole’s Just Add Sweat guides are excellent. Each one includes audio interviews with women who are doing that business successfully online. This one is no exception.

If you’re a great writer and would like to make money doing what you love, consider Making Money as a Ghostwriter.

Posted in Reviews | No Comments »

Should You Use PLR On Your Blog?

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Absolutely.

Well that was easy. Moving on…

No seriously folks, there are many good reasons to use PLR (private label rights) content on your blog. I see this question come up from time to time on internet marketing forums and blogs and it still makes me scratch my head.

Why wouldn’t you use PLR on your blog just as you use it everywhere else?

I suppose the concern is that since it is ghostwritten, it won’t sound like “you”, and your blog readers will be able to tell that it’s PLR.

That would be absolutely true if you misused PLR, but you are too smart for that. I know that because you read my blog.

PLR is meant to be a framework, not the finished product. It’s the rough draft. You can absolutely use it on your blog – if you take the time to add your voice.

Publishing a blog takes a bit of a commitment. Your readers want to see good content from you or they will unsubscribe from your feed in a second. It’s not easy to crank out awesome posts all the time if you don’t have a little secret weapon.

To help you understand how PLR can help you fire up your blog and why to use it, download this free report:

Fire Up Your Blog with PLR

It explains 6 attractive benefits to using PLR content with your blogging, 12 creative ideas for using PLR and more.

And it won’t take you all day to read either. It’s a quick 3 page report with plenty of ideas you can use right away to inject some heat into your blogging efforts.

Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments »

Two Things to Make Your Business Soar in 2009

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

There are a couple of things that could make your business soar this year. If you’re not doing them already, taking the steps to make one or both of these things happen could make your business unrecognizable next year.

They are:

Launch a Podcast and Start an Affiliate Program

Let’s talk about starting an affiliate program first.

I can’t tell you how often I come across a fantastic product that my target market would love, but then when I search around to find an affiliate program, I can’t find one!

Would it surprise you to hear me say that the internet needs MORE great products?

As an affiliate marketer, I don’t have ENOUGH high quality products to promote on my sites.

What’s holding you back from starting an affiliate program?

If you don’t understand the benefits of starting your own affiliate program, let’s talk about that for a moment.

Why launch your own affiliate program?

It’s pretty simple.

To make more sales! My affiliates make more sales of my products and services than I do. It’s just not possible for me to be everywhere marketing all the time. My affiliates are happy to send traffic and customers my way and I only have to pay them when they produce sales! (Far more cost effective than paying for advertising with no guaranteed results, or paying someone an hourly rate to market for you.)

The ladies at MomsTalkBiz have an excellent, easy to understand guide to starting your own affiliate program.

If you need any help with the technical aspects of starting or running your affiliate program, get this guide.

If you prefer one on one help and need someone to take your hand, hire me to coach you on setting up your affiliate program, recruiting affiliates and helping them succeed.

As an affiliate marketer and someone who also has her own affiliate program, I know what affiliates need to succeed in making money with affiliate programs.

So let’s talk about podcasting for a minute.

So how could podcasting help your business?

This week on WahmTalkRadio, I joined Kelly McCausey to talk about why podcasting has been so important to my business. Definitely go over there and have a listen.

In a nutshell I said that podcasting benefits my business because it:

- was the easiest way I had found to have high ranking, well trafficked, authority sites in my niche link to me for FREE (my podcast is huge linkbait!)

- a fantastic way to make myself unique among my “competitors” – some of whom are far more talented than me.

- provides another way to give my market unique, interesting content that they can consume

- is a HUGE lead generator that gets people talking about my site in message forums and elsewhere

- helps me create unique content almost effortlessly

Podcasting sounds intimidating but truly isn’t technically difficult. (Plus, you can hire someone to do some of the techy stuff if you like.)

I’m not a techy geeky kind of gal at all but I even do my own show editing, although when I started I didn’t.

Again – if you want some of these great benefits for your business that podcasting could offer, get some help to get that going!

Incidentally, you can have this Podcasting & Internet Radio guide for FREE if you hire me to coach you.

What are you going to do DIFFERENT this year to get better results from your internet business?

Posted in Internet marketing | No Comments »

Food PLR – your peeps love it

Monday, January 5th, 2009

food plr I’ve been meaning to tell you more in depth about Yummy PLR for a little while now and am just now getting around to it. (Sorry!) Got a quick question for you:

When was the last time you searched online for a recipe?

I did twice just in the last week, and my son searched for a recipe last week too (he loves to cook and is our resident baker and dessert guy).

I’m betting you have searched for recipes too. Your target market probably loves recipes and foodie articles. I mean, who doesn’t eat?

I love using Private label rights (PLR) and recipes and food articles are no exception. I have one recipe/food related site in my niche, but I use the content for more than just publishing to the site.

Yummy PLR is a food PLR membership site which means you subscribe to get awesome recipes and food related content each month, at a great price. They also sell individual PLR article and recipe packs if you just want to test them out or only want one pack for a particular purpose.

Even if you think your market wouldn’t enjoy recipes and foodie articles, they might. Think about it for a minute.

(Just a few ideas off the top of my head!)

@ Reps for kitcheny direct sales companies could print out recipes or create free downloadable cookbooks for their hostesses and customers. (MAN is that ever a good idea! If you’re a Pampered Chef or Taste of Home or Tupperware Lady or Spice Girl and don’t jump on that idea, well… I don’t know what to say!) You could incorporate

@ Market to work at home moms or working moms generally? How about using the Crock Pot recipes to create a free giveaway? Busy moms love using their slow cookers (I know I do!).

@ If your niche is homeschoolers, ditto. Homeschool moms probably also include kids in meal prep since their kids are around all the time too (quite true of my family, as noted above). I love kid friendly, healthy recipes.

@ Frugal niche? Cooking at home saves money – and requires recipes.

@ Mommy blogger or parenting website? Do parents cook? You bet! Bundle up some awesome kid friendly or healthy recipes and create a cookbook to sell or giveaway as a bribe for your newsletter.

@ Health or wellness marketer? If you sell supplements, I bet your customers would love healthy recipe or meal planning ideas. Again – you could create a free healthy recipe ebook to give to new customers or to use as an upsell product to get your feet wet in information marketing.

I’m sure you could come up with more ideas relevant to your business. Just think about it for a minute and do a little brainstorming.

Do your customers/website visitors/etc EAT?

If so, they’ll probably enjoy recipes from you. The cool thing about PLR is that you can edit it. So if your crowd is vegetarian, tweak the recipes to make them veg friendly. If your crowd is weight conscious, edit them appropriately. If your audience is more interested in saving money, ditto. You can change the recipes around as much as you like to make them work for your business.

The articles and recipes are well written and very low priced. At this time a membership is only $12.95 per month and members receive 10 new articles and 30 new recipes each month. Individual packs sell for $10 each and include either 10 articles or 40 recipes.

Take a look at the packs Yummy PLR has to offer and consider their membership program too.

I’ve been a member for a long time and my website visitors just gobble the content up.

(Couldn’t help myself!)

Posted in Reviews | 2 Comments »

My New Toy

Monday, January 5th, 2009

acer mini laptop pink

Barbie is jealous.

My Acer mini pink laptop is cuter than hers.

And smaller.

(That’s my 5 year old daughter’s laptop.)

I think it might even be pink-er than Barbie’s.

In any case, it gets attention everywhere it goes. It’s super easy to carry around. It fits in my purse – which is small!

acer mini laptop pink

See how small it is in comparison to the coffee cup? From where I’m sitting right now, the screen is actually shorter than the cup. It’s so lightweight and easy to carry, unlike my other laptop which is heavy and big and I have to schlep it in a big bag with a shoulder strap. It’s hard to hide in the car and I’m always worried about it getting stolen when it’s in there.

When I first spotted someone working on one of these, I couldn’t believe it was a real laptop. I figured it was a PDA or something. But it has 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive. And I have no idea what any of that means, but it sure sounds impressive. (See? You don’t have to be a tech geek to be an internet marketer, something I’m always saying.)

My other laptop is on its last legs, and when it poops out I’ll have it repaired and keep it for part time use.

But I’m loving this mini laptop. (My last two laptops have been Acer and I’ve been quite pleased with their product. I bought an Acer on the recommendation of the woman who repairs my computers. She says it’s one of the best and they very rarely ever see Acer laptops in her office.)

My Mom got the Acer Mini Laptop in Pink on Amazon as a gift for me.

Thanks Mom!

Tags: acer mini laptop pink
Posted in Reviews | 15 Comments »

9 Days of Free Internet Marketing Advice

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

It’s very simple.

Just go HERE and sign up for this FREE 9 day ecourse from Mom Masterminds.

Get some great advice for making your business better.

You won’t regret it.

HERE is the link again.

Are you still here?

Shoo!

Go sign up.

Posted in Coaches and Mentors | 1 Comment »

Special Offer – Expires Monday

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

To help you get 2009 off to a great start, I decided to offer a SWEET deal until January 5th (that’s Monday).

One of the services I offer is a Website Review. You can see more of what that means here:

http://www.carrielauth.com/hire-carrie.htm

It can be extremely valuable to have another pair of eyes looking at your site. If you’re determined to make 2009 stand out in your mind as the year you earned a full time living from your website, this might be a wise investment.

It includes:

An hour long coaching/strategy session with me
An audio I record just for you with tips on how you can improve your website for more sales and traffic
And ongoing email support for an entire week so you can ask questions and get feedback

Check it out again here:

http://www.carrielauth.com/hire-carrie.htm

Until the 5th only, I’m offering this service (normally $100) for only $75. Email me at clauth@gmail.com and we’ll set up a time and I’ll give you further instructions.

This month only you’ll also have access to a special report and audio full of ways to build incoming links to your site – links are what make your site important in the eyes of Google so this one is not to be missed!

Email me to get started.

We just released a brand new article pack yesterday, perfect if you’re in the green/natural niche:

http://naturalmomplr.com/natural-family-articles.htm

Posted in Special Offers | No Comments »

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