Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

This Blog’s Identity Crisis

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

I’ve been quiet around here lately, I know. As I posted over at the Mom Masterminds blog, this blog is having a bit of an identity crisis as of late. Allow me to explain.

As part of my ongoing efforts this year to examine, improve, and focus, I’ve sold another website with the overall goal of moving away from the work at home Mom market.

My main target market is the one I speak to with my podcast (and several smaller content sites). I also have an active blog over there.

I’m not entirely out of the wahm market as I still have an information product for natural business owners (and want to be’s), private label rights article packs for natural business owners as well as several free ecourses for that market. But that’s ok with me because it still fits into the same larger market.

But this blog all of a sudden doesn’t quite fit neatly anywhere.

I certainly don’t want to get rid of it entirely. I enjoy talking about being a work at home Mom. I like sharing my wins (and trip-ups!) with internet marketing. I like helping people and guiding

them to good products and services that will help them make smart business decisions.

So I’ll put the question to you:

What do you like to see on this blog?

I got some fantastic feedback from the commenters on the MM blog which has given me some food for thought.

Nell and Angie said they wanted to see more personal “life as a wahm”" stuff here. (Nell also suggested I ask myself some pointed questions to figure out my goals with this blog.)
Erin said to mix it all up so my readers could see my unique perspective on marketing online.
Linda said I need to keep digging to find my target reader here.

What’s your take?

Two Things: An interview and be nice in what you ask for

Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Two things I wanted to mention:

Crissy of Indie Biz Chicks asked me on her show to talk about the benefits of digital product selling in your business. If you do or if you don’t already have a digital product for sale on your website, listen in. We talked about some of the benefits of such, including:

  • Residual income – creating a product once and earning again and again
  • Varying the source of your income online – we all know how important it is to not put all your eggs in one basket
  • Reusing content you already own – you can create an infoproduct by gathering and expanding content you’re already using somewhere else.

And some other stuff. Go have a listen at Crissy’s site.

Secondly, I wanted to share an experience I had with an AT&T customer service representative yesterday.

I had a really huge phone bill this month. First I made three international phone calls (I interviewed a guest for my podcast who was from Ecuador and another was from Quebec.) but then I also noticed that I was being charged for a lot of calls to Audio Acrobat.

That didn’t make sense to me. I do my interviews by calling my guest and THEN dialing in to AA to record the call for me. Turns out I was charged both for calling the guest AND then for dialing AA!

I had no idea this was the case until I called AT&T. I could use my cell phone to do interviews I suppose, but I get poor reception at my home and I also don’t want to take a chance on getting staticky interviews.
I had free unlimited long distance on my old land line phone plan, but not here. So. I called and asked the customer sevice rep and talked with her (that’s when I found out about the double long distance charges!).

I had her sign me up for the unlimited long distance and then took a bold step.

I explained to her that I was a work at home Mom who made a LOT of long distance calls. I told her I was unprepared to pay this bill (it was double what I expected) and asked if she would make the unlimited long distance plan retroactive.

She put me on hold for a second and then came back and said that she would give me a significant discount on this month’s bill as well as a $50 cash back reward. :-)

I was actually shocked! I think there are a couple of reasons she was so willing to work with me.

Firstly, I was kind and respectful. Even though it irked me that I was being double charged for long distance calls (does that make sense to you?) to my Audio Acrobat account, I kept my tone friendly. After all, I doubt she’s responsible for that policy!

Secondly, I gave her a reason why. Studies have shown that when you take the simple step of explaining the reason WHY you need something from someone, they’re much more likely to try to oblige you.

I’m not sure what this has to do with being a work at home Mom or online business, but I just thought I would post it anyway. ;)

Making Your Ebook Even Better

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Have you written an ebook?

In my continuing efforts to “examine and improve” my existing projects this year, one of the things on my list is my first information product, the Natural Mom Business Guide.

It hasn’t been updated since 2007 and I would like to tweak it a little each year to make it better for my existing customers and future ones.

Things change on the internet. Some of the tools I recommend today I may not be in love with in a year. Marketing methods and tactics also change somewhat. I want the NMBG to continue to be an awesome tool, so to editing I go.

To that end, I’m pretty stoked that I have Jimmy D. Brown’s coaching to help me along. I’ve probably mentioned before that I’ve been a member of his List and Traffic membership site for over two years now. I consider it one of the best values on the Internet in terms of internet marketing!

You can get a free ebook here by Mr. Jimmy all about improving your ebook. This info is great whether the ebook in question has yet to be released, or not!

Get a copy of it here: 30 Writing Tips for Ebook Authors.

I’ll be reading this this weekend, along with some other juicy reports I own of Jimmy’s while I’m stuck in bed.

I’m having some surgery on my foot and Doctor’s orders – I can only get up for bathroom privileges for 3 days. I haven’t had that much rest since I gave birth last. ;)

Enjoy!

Hello world!

Saturday, March 1st, 2008

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Nell’s Move and a Valuable Interview

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Nell Taliercio has been blogging about her MommysPlace.net website and the recent changes she’s making to the site.

Christina Lemmey interviewed me as one of their wahm success stories over there and I thought I would share that.

If you’re just getting started you might find it inspiring and valuable too.

Why Aren’t You My Customer Yet?

Saturday, February 16th, 2008

I just sent this out to my affiliates and thought I would publish it here for those of you who aren’t yet my affiliate (I still love you, but if you want to sign up I would be ever so grateful. Go here. Thanks!).

But first let me say one thing. If you have a Mom-ish website, you need to have some content on your site about Green/Eco-Friendly living. Why? Because it’s hot. Green is the new black you know. :-) Read on.

It’s early on a Saturday morning but I am up working. Why?

Because I wanted to get this article to you right away so you could start earning residual commissions by promoting http://www.NaturalMomPLR.com

Whether or not you serve the “green”, “natural family” market or not, you must have noticed how HUGE this niche is getting. Everyone is going green – and not for St. Patrick’s Day either!

Earth Day is coming up in April. Are you ready? We are! Infact we’re waaaay ahead of ya!

If you’re not already a customer of Natural Mom PLR, check out our article packs. The one on Green Family Living would be perfect to get your feet wet with…. get those articles published on your website or blog and enjoy the additional traffic from keyword searches like the following:

  • earth day
  • earth day projects
  • earth day activities
  • earth day lesson plans
  • when is earth day
  • earthday
  • earth day events
  • what is earth day
  • first earth day
  • earth day ideas
  • earth day for kids

I could go on but I won’t… you get the idea! And goodness, I’ve done all the work for you.

If you have a mom related website, have you added a Green section yet? Why not? :) http://naturalmomplr.com/green-living-plr-articles.htm

Ok here is the article I promised you. Take care and have a great weekend!

p.s. you will find more resources for this and other products here: http://www.affiliatesfun.com

How PLR Benefits Your Business

PLR, or Private Label Rights content is a concept that is mysterious to many, but is really very useful – even essential to the success of online business owners. Purchasing PLR content for use on your websites and in your newsletters or other materials can be quite beneficial to you and your business. It can save you time, money and the headache of having to sit and write all your content yourself.

PLR articles can be edited and changed to suit your specific needs and to personalize the content to your website and your target market, which is one reason that it is so versatile and profitable.

PLR can be used in many different ways. For example, you can use PLR to add fresh, informative content to your website, blog, an e-course or newsletter. You can utilize it to create an e-book or other information product to sell. You can give PLR articles to your affiliates as a means by which to promote your current information products. There are literally dozens of uses. Your imagination’s the limit!

An e-book or e-course can virtually be created from PLR by using multiple articles and breaking them up or piecing them together to form the book or series. Sending out several emails for the e-course over a 5-7 day period will put you in front of those on your list or help you to build a list. Then, the e-book can serve as another stream of income.

If you’re an affiliate marketer and struggle with creating enough content to promote products to your website visitors, PLR can be just the ticket. Product reviews lend themselves extremely well to making affiliate recommendations. Articles can also promote affiliate products as a resource for more information or to solve a problem the reader is experiencing.

Using PLR in your business can free you up some time to spend on other more specialized tasks that are your focus and things that you probably enjoying doing more than creating content.

For PLR content that serves the natural mom and green family market, visit http://www.NaturalMomPLR.com. Get articles, natural product reviews and healthy recipes written by – and for – natural families.

Don’t forget to replace the url with your affiliate link. :-)

Create Your Own Economy

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Cara of The Household Helper took a detour from her usual topic – household management – to talk about personal finance, namely, the recession and what we as individuals can do about it.

Her guest was Christine McKinley, a CPA who writes helpful advice for us wahm/internet marketing types. This show reminded me of my overall philosophy around finances.

I don’t believe that recession has anything to do with me as an individual, and if you listen to the show, you’ll get some good advice from Christine about maximizing your personal finances regardless of what is going on in the nation at large.

I believe in personal responsibility. Succeed or fail – it’s mostly up to me, not what the Feds are doing or not doing, not what my neighbor is doing or not doing.

I believe in choices. If gas is expensive, I can whine about it or I can do something productive. I can drive less often and with more care. I can spend less in other discretionary budget areas. I can convert my car to a Greasel. I can increase my earnings.

But sitting around wringing my hands about “the economy” is a worthless exercise.

Moms Talk Radio

31 Days to a Better Blog

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

On Moms Morning Show today, Kelly talked about participating in the 31 Days to a Better Blog. She also put a challenge out there at Mom Masterminds.

I’m always up for a good challenge so I jumped right in. Day One, I updated my boring old About page over at my other blog. I made it a little longer, more personal, more upbeat and benefit driven.

But I’m also going to be making some changes here too. First, moving to Wordpress. (No offense Blogger, but it’s over. I’ve moved on. It’s not you. It’s me. Ok, it is you. I found someone else!)

I have a VA working on this now. I also have a super cute new blog skin I’ll be using.

Do you want to participate? Read the 31 Days article here and leave a comment below and let me know!

Moms Talk Radio

How Positive Are You?

Friday, February 8th, 2008

Last week on Mom’s Morning Show, we kicked off the first of the panel style format. 4 of us discussed the topic at hand, which was Being Positive in Life and Business.

We each ranked ourselves on a scale of 1-1o. I gave myself an 8. One of the reasons I’m able to stay positive despite challenges is by focusing on what’s going right in my life.

I started keeping a Gratitude Journal a few months back. It’s not complicated. I just write down 5 things at night before I go to bed. They could be simple like “a really great cup of coffee”, or more deep like “healthy children”.

I find that the more I do this, the more grateful I feel. And when I’m feeling grumpy, I can look back and see that it’s when I’ve neglected to do this daily practice.

Most of us are amazingly fortunate to be here on this planet and to be alive and have enough wealth to own a computer and live in a warm home and have adequate food and clothing. Compared to many we’re all rich.

The mere act of sitting down every day and documenting at least one thing that you are grateful for is a powerful way to begin or end your day (I like doing it at night because I sometimes involve my kids and talk to them during the bedtime routine about what they were particularly grateful for that day).

Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions a person can feel and it’s literally impossible to feel sad at the same time.

Moms Talk Radio

Setting Realistic Goals for Your Online Business

Friday, February 8th, 2008

There was a time when I was truly fed up with goals. Goals had gotten me in debt, goals had gotten me frustrated beyond belief, goals made me depressed and anxious and goals created tears.

Then I realized that the types of goals I was setting were all wrong for me.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t do well with outcome oriented goals. I do VERY well with ACTION oriented goals.

You see, one type has to do with what others do. Will they sign up for my mailing list, will they buy my product, will they visit my site.

The other type has to do with what I do. How often I’ll blog, how many articles I’ll write, how many pages of content I’ll add.

I don’t know about you, but I’m far better at controlling what I do than what other people do!

The other week on Mom’s Morning Show, Tishia, Chele and Kelly spoke about goals. They discussed the fact that setting realistic goals is very important, especially for a new work at home Mom. And that if you need money now, working by the hour offering your services is the way to go – and you can always build up your passive income on the side while you get some cash flowing in.

Great advice, that!

Moms Talk Radio