Christi Bender of Little Tags

Name: Christi Bender

Tell us a little about yourself: I’m a graduate from the Art Institute of Atlanta. I opened my online store this past March. I maintain our website and all products. My 17 month old son assists me daily.

What is your business name and web address: www.littletags.com

What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
The day I got an e-mail from Korbin’s daycare telling me had taken his first steps. I just cried my eyes out. I had missed it for a lousy job. I’m determined not to miss my other kids firsts. So I’m getting my store established so when Korbin has a little brother or sister, I’ll be there.

Tell us a little about your business:
I make Personalize Luggage Tags that are great for kids in daycare or in school. There are many different designs to choose from. I also have started making Custom Candy Wrappers for Hershey Mini’s. Business is slow, but I’m just starting out.

Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women:
Being a WAHM is harder than any 9-5 you can go out and get. If you want to become one, make sure it’s a product that you love dearly. Something you won’t get tired of dealing with after a few months. To be successful, you have to live, breathe and eat your product.

What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
Ebay sells, brocdures at local businesses and word of mouth.

Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned from:
Always have good communication with your supplier. I waited for a month and a half to get supplies once. GRR…

Analyzing Real-Life Examples of Top Ranking Sites

Have you ever wondered how top ranking sites are spending their advertising dollars? Do they advertise offline? Do they outsource their SE positioning work, or do they optimize their own sites in-house? What are they doing to increase the visibility and popularity of their sites?

For this article, I chose two highly competitive keyphrases and one moderately competitive keyword and then contacted three companies who are having success in getting their sites ranked at or near the top and asked them a series of questions.

The two competitive keyphrases:

* homes for sale
* used cars

The moderately competitive keyword:

* shortwave — (as in shortwave radios)

Of course, the examples used in this article reflect the positioning of these sites at the time of writing. Naturally they are bound to fluctuate up and down in the listings. Even so, you’ll likely find them placed closely to where their positioning is described below. And, regardless of where they’re positioned at the time you happen to read this article, the examples and the analysis remain strategically valid.

First Example . . .

Keyword phrase: homes for sale
Site: HarmonHomes.com http://www.harmonhomes.com/

HarmonHomes.com boasts the following top 10 rankings for the keyword phrase, homes for sale:

* #1 in AltaVista
* #3 in Google
* #4 in Fast/All the Web
* #7 in Lycos
* #3 in Yahoo! Web Pages
* #4 in pure Inktomi results (http://169.207.238.189/search/)

It’s important to note that HarmonHomes.com is owned by Trader Publishing Company out of Norfolk, Virginia, which also owns several other large Web sites, such as CareerWeb.com, ForRent.com, Parenthood.com, and Roomsaver.com. Erin Cullipher, Marketing Manager of HarmonHomes.com, gave a quick summary of the site:

‘Headquartered in Virginia Beach, Va., HarmonHomes.com is a leading provider of online real estate classified ads. As a division of Trader Publishing Company and part of the family of Trader Web sites, HarmonHomes.com provides a comprehensive homes-for-sale database for home buyers while serving as a convenient and effective advertising forum for real estate professionals.’

According to Erin, Trader has a complete Web development team that is responsible for each of their domains, with the exception of Roomsaver. It’s also important to note that the main page of HarmonHomes.com is a straight HTML page. However, most of the interior pages, since they are a classified ad site, are database delivered.

Erin answered the following interview questions:

Question: Do you do anything special to boost your site’s link popularity?

Erin: We are lucky to have a strong, built-in system of links due to our company’s network of highly trafficked sites. We have links to HarmonHomes.com on all sites within the network and we, in return, link to all of them as well. In addition, we have agreements with two companies who provide Web sites for real estate agents. To offer a national real estate listings database to the mostly local visitors to these agents’ sites, our link is typically placed under a ‘Search Homes Nationally’ button. In addition, we are pursuing a links page and reciprocal links program with businesses affiliated with residential real estate.

Question: How do you spend your advertising dollars for your Web site?

Erin: Our online business is somewhat unique in that we have two target markets: we sell our advertising products to real estate professionals in order to serve home buyers. So, while we market our products to agents, we also have to drive consumer traffic to the site to satisfy our agent clients and further build our business. As far as our trade advertising efforts, we concentrate our dollars and efforts in the following areas: trade shows, email marketing, print ads, direct mail and online ads. To attract consumers to the site, we concentrate on the following areas: SEO, home show sponsorships and email marketing. To reach both of these markets, we also place our URL on the front cover of every issue of Harmon Homes magazine (78 million issues annually) and advertise the site in the publication. We also conduct intensive media efforts nationally. Both of these initiatives are high impact and relatively low cost, if not free.

Question: Do you purchase keywords from the pay engines like Overture? If so, approximately how much do you spend each month on Overture advertising?

Erin: Yes, we feel that pay engines are integral to our SEO efforts, especially here in the beginning when we’re trying to establish a strong Web presence. We do have an account with Overture. We spend less than $300 on Overture and other PFP engines.

Question: How much actual search engine optimization work do you do on the site?

Erin: Optimization is done on an almost daily basis. In order to serve our customers, the site changes daily. Being graphically heavy and with most of our pages being dynamically generated, we have worked to increase the amount of text on our pages. We have paid special attention to relevancy factors by maximizing keywords and phrases.

Question: Are you using cloaking technology on your site?

Erin: No, we do not use any cloaking technology. Our pages are submitted to search engines manually with no doorway pages, agent name or IP delivery.

Question: Do you hire a professional SEO or outsource your SEO work, or do you do the search engine work yourself?

Erin: We have a full-time Web Promotions Specialist who handles SEO for HarmonHomes.com, in addition to three other Trader-owned sites. She has a Web development background and conducts extensive research on SEO topics. Even with a full-time person allocated to these efforts and significant strides made already in SEO, we realize that we still have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do.

Question: Do you check your rankings periodically?

Erin: While we formally check our search engine rankings weekly based on our keywords, we also informally spot check our rankings throughout each day. We also check random words and phrases periodically to see if there are ‘quirk’ areas from which we are gaining traffic.

Question: Do you monitor your traffic? Do you analyze your traffic and use that knowledge to strengthen your site?

Erin: Yes, we do monitor our traffic. Since we are a data-driven site, we are working very hard to increase and improve our listings. With that, the user experience will improve, traffic will grow and the hard work we do in the area of SEO will pay off even more. We analyze traffic weekly and use the information to improve our placement in search engines.

Analysis of Harmon Homes

Remember that rule number one regarding site optimization is: never mess with success! That said, there are some interesting observations worth mentioning regarding this site.

* Noteworthy is the fact the keyword phrase — homes for sale –does not appear in the main page’s title, description, or keyword tags. However, the keyphrase Houses for sale does appear.

This apparent oversight actually lends itself as evidence that the appearance of the keyword home in incoming links that point to the Harmonhomes.com site is a more important factor that having the keyword in the title, at least on some engines. By the way, we’ve determined this by checking LinkPopularity at http://www.linkpopularitycheck.com/ where our search revealed the following results for HarmonHomes.com:

* AltaVista: 23,630 incoming links
* HotBot: 3,500 incoming links
* MSN Search: 5,221 incoming links
* Lycos: 1,007 incoming links

Impressive! And our research revealed that every single link on every linking page that we happened to spot-check had the keyword homes somewhere in the link. This fact builds an overwhelmingly strong case that incoming links that include your keywords are critical to high relevancy scores. In many cases ONLY the single keyword ‘Homes’ was used to link to the Harmonhomes.com site.

* By taking into account that ‘Houses for sale’ DOES appear in the title, and that there is slightly less competition for the ‘houses for sale’ keyphrase, coupled with the finding that Harmonhomes.com is listed way down at position #20 for houses for sales, we could further conclude that keywords in the incoming links are MORE important that keyword(s) in the title.

* Having the keyword ‘homes’ built into the URL is a smart strategy. We found many of the incoming links listed as Harmon Homes — which certainly gets the keyword homes into the incoming link.

* The fact that HarmonHomes.com is a ‘theme-related’ site with only a single minded focus — homes for sale — should also be considered a crucial element of its successful SEO model.

Now, let’s look at another top ranking site.

Keyword phrase: used cars Site: Used Cars Online - http://www.ausedcar.com/

Used Cars Online boasts the following top ten rankings…

* #1 in Yahoo! Web Sites (directory)
* #1 in AltaVista
* #3 in Lycos
* #3 in pure Inktomi results
* #8 in Google

Used Cars Online is just what the domain name suggests: a Web site devoted to buying and selling used cars. Phil Anderson is one of the site’s Webmasters and he’s in charge of the search engine marketing aspects of the site. Phil was good enough to answer the following interview questions:

Question: Do you do anything special to boost your site’s link popularity?

Phil: We just ensure that we are on every search engine, and we work with several affiliates in sort of a link exchange. We are also linked to or bookmarked by several hundred Web sites.

Question: How much business do you get from your Web site?

Phil: We look for a 2% sales rate based on the number of people that view our site and make it as far as the sales page. (Most of our money is made by people placing ads). We usually make this 2% quota.

Question: Do you purchase keywords from the pay engines like Overture?

Phil: No, we are listed high enough on enough major search engines that we don’t feel it’s justified to pay for keyword search engines. Incidentally, we still end up on some of them any way.

Question: How much actual search engine optimization work do you do on the site?

Phil: This was one of the things we spend the most time on. Having a small advertising budget when we first started out, this was a crucial way of ‘getting the word out.’ We have directly correlated most of our success to Yahoo, even though we are on many other search engines. Our biggest obstacle is Yahoo continually shifting its index in the search for ‘used cars.’ We also worked a long time on our META tags, which are vital for a good position on most other search engines. In fact, we have noticed several competitors that directly copied both our tags and our wording, and they indeed get placed right with us on the search engines.

Question: Do you use cloaking technology on the site.

Phil: I’m not sure what you mean by cloaking technology, so I suppose the answer is no.

Question: How do you spend your advertising dollars for your Web site?

Phil: Most of our advertising is done through newspapers and trade magazines, as this is where people would look when they are going to buy or sell a used car. We also use a good amount of signage in the Baltimore/DC area where we are based. Also, there are many sources of free advertising on the Internet.

Question: Do you check your rankings periodically?

Phil: Yes, as this is vital for our income.

Question: Do you monitor your traffic? How much traffic do you get to the site (user sessions)? Do you analyze your traffic and use that knowledge to strengthen your site?

Phil: We do indeed monitor our traffic; however, we do not give out our actual numbers. Traffic is analyzed to determine the best way to attack any future advertising/search engine placement.

Question: Do you have a search engine marketing person on staff, or do you hire an outsource company?

Phil: I am in charge of this, and if you’ll notice, we are not just top at Google, we are also at the top in almost every major search engine. There are some inside secrets to getting these positions, but I think the number one thing is longevity …we have been around since 1996 which is ancient in the Internet world.

Question: How important do you consider search engine marketing to be in the success of a Web site?

Phil: Extremely important if you don’t pay for national TV or banner advertising. It’s the only way besides word of mouth to get hits. We started out with around 100 hits a day in December of ‘96. Then in January ‘97, Yahoo! put us at the top and our hits increased ten fold.

Question: How large is your Web site?

Phil: As far as number of pages, there are few for the actual site (maybe 10-15), but if you include the car ads themselves as pages, then there are hundreds.

Analysis of Used Cars OnLine

Again, incoming keyword links are the main ingredient contributing to the high ranking of this site.

Our search on LinkPopularityCheck.com, revealed the following numbers of incoming links…

* Lycos: 855
* AltaVista: 575
* MSN: 120
* HotBot: 87

* Most interesting is the fact that Used Cars On-Line was consistently THE keyword link used in every case we spot-checked. Obviously, Phil or someone within the company suggested, precisely HOW their site’s descriptive link should be listed. The success they’ve enjoyed as a result of this focused strategy is the payoff.

* In addition, it should be noted that the biggest link relevancy gorilla on the block, Yahoo, rated the site #1 for their target keyword phrase. This alone significantly enhances the site’s relevancy because a Yahoo link is given much more relevancy weight than virtually any other site on the net.

* Worth noting is the fact that on the home page the title and description tags begin with the keyword phrase. Generally speaking, this strategy will always help, and will never hurt, a site’s relevancy.

* Another boost, especially on Yahoo, is attributable to the fact the keyword phrase is present within the URL.

* Another factor that can only help and will never hurt is that the target keyphrase appears in the company name itself.

* Notice that the keyword phrase is only used once in the visible body text; evidence that repeating a keyword phrase within the text of a page isn’t as effective as some webmasters believe it to be.

* As with almost all high scoring sites, the focus is on one topic, or theme, only! …and that theme is buying and selling used vehicles.

As Phil pointed out, the site has been around for a long time. Although he attributes a large portion of their success to ‘longevity,’ we suspect it’s more attributable to the link popularity that blossoms from a strategic campaign focused on gaining incoming links. Such a strategy, of course, takes time to build resulting in erroneous reports that ‘longevity’ is responsible for success when in fact it is the accumulation of incoming links over time that becomes the actual key factor. And, when links like Yahoo add a major degree of relevancy, site positioning can suddenly improve significantly and traffic can increase, as Phil noted, ‘ten fold’ overnight.

Our next example site is an online store that sells shortwave radios and accessories — a category we’d consider to be only moderately competitive. This classification reflects, perhaps, a more middle-of-the-road analysis that would be typically applicable to the average retail store doing business online.

Keyword: shortwave Site: The Shortwave Store - http://www.shortwavestore.com/

Let’s look at the site’s top 10 rankings for the keyword, shortwave.

* #6 and #7 in AltaVista
* #7 in Google
* #2 in About.com Sprinks
* #1 in AOL Web Sites
* #2 in Netscape

For this article, I interviewed Keith Carcasole, owner of The Shortwave Store.

Question: Do you do anything special to boost your site’s link popularity?

Keith: I used to ask for reciprocal links. However, there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day for that any more.

Now I carefully choose popular non-commercial sites where I can inexpensively advertise via a small text link. It is rumored that some search engines take the quality and popularity of the sites linking to you into consideration when determining the ranking of your site.

Recently I purchased a popular domain www.worldtimezones.com/ and paid to have the Web site designed. It is dedicated to time zones of the world. This handy site is great for travelers, business people and those interested in world politics. These are the same people who might be interested in purchasing a shortwave radio to pick up world news and to listen to free speech stations! Not only do I get to advertise there for free, but I get a quality link that will help increase the popularity of my shortwave site. In some ways, this is actually better than a doorway page because people are visiting the site for another reason. This exposes my site to customers who may not visit otherwise.

I highly recommend this technique to anyone who has time to develop a popular site that offers a service that may be of interest to potential customers but at the same time has nothing to do with the subject matter of your main site.

Question: How much business do you get from your Web site?

Keith: It has been extremely difficult for us to gauge how much business we get from the net because we still have customers who refuse to do business online. This is especially true around Christmas time when people want reassurance that the item that they are about to order is not out of stock and will arrive in time for Christmas. If forced to venture a guess, I would estimate that 80% of our total business from our shortwave division comes from the net, either by phone order or by secure online order. It appears that the remainder comes from radio ads and referrals from friends.

Question: Do you purchase keywords from the pay engines like Overture? If so, approximately how much do you spend each month on Overture advertising?

Keith: We buy keywords on a number of pay-per-click engines. We are currently paying about $125 per month to Overture. The sum of the rest probably totals $25 per month.

Question: If you feel comfortable with this question, I’d like to know if you’re using cloaking technology on the site.

Keith: None of our sites use cloaking at this time. I plan to use cloaking on one of our other sites in the very near future. We are not doing this to Ifool’ the search engines. When we change technology on our site, we will lose many of our high-ranking positions. I plan to keep our old pages cloaked so that we do not lose traffic.

Question: How do you promote your Web site offline?

Keith: Business cards, print ads in magazines and newspapers, radio ads, and when customers call our store we often direct them to the site.

Question: Do you purchase banner ads?

Keith: Not really, however this does not mean that I don’t have banner ads.

1. I do advertise via FREE banner ads on my own sites. If you own another high traffic site (related or not), there is no harm in advertising your products there. Even if you create a site just for your banner, the CPM will still be a fraction of what it would cost to buy impressions elsewhere.

2. I have purchased tile ads and convinced the webmaster to switch me to small text ads for the same price. I find that this yields a higher click-through ratio.

3. Some pay-per-click search engines give you free banner impressions for your top positions, I believe.

Question: Do you monitor your traffic?

Keith: I seldom look at our stats any more. If the orders were to suddenly stop, I would take a closer look. When I look at our stats my main focus is the referrers rather than the volume of traffic.

Question: Do you analyze your traffic and use that knowledge to strengthen your site?

Keith: I like watching where our traffic is coming from. Every few months I calculate how many visitors it takes to generate one sale just to make sure we are getting a reasonable return on our advertising dollars. I use this to adjust our advertising campaigns rather than to strengthen our site.

Question: How much traffic do you get to the site (user sessions)?

Keith: So far this month…(on the 21st day of November): The Web site received 22,945 visits. A typical visitor examined 8.81 documents before leaving the site. A typical visit lasted for 1.25 minutes. The longest visit lasted for 79 minutes. Visitors came from 9,150 distinct Internet addresses. Please note that we expect to ’spike’ in December.

Question: How large is your Web site?

Keith: Here’s proof that size doesn’t matter. Our site is only 33 MB including all images, cgi-bin, and downloads.

Question: Do you have a search engine marketing person on staff or do you hire an outsource company?

Keith: No one on staff is dedicated to this job. What little work we do is done internally. I get to it when I get to it. If something important comes up, I’ll do a little work. Our positions on the search engines are not carefully monitored any more. I think it is important to watch it in the beginning. Make sure the site is fully functional first. Make sure you are competitive and then dedicate some real time to positioning. If you do it right once, you will only have to touch things up from time to time.

Question: How important do you consider search engine marketing to be in the success of a Web site?

Keith: We would not be here without it. Just because we don’t watch our positions every day doesn’t mean it’s not important to us. We know we’re doing well and we can tell by the number of orders we receive every day that everything is working.

Analysis of The Shortwave Store

This example is a good one because it typifies a fairly common approach that many online businesses take in regards to their commercial Internet presence. As Keith noted, he did his search engine optimization work in the beginning and initially spent time soliciting reciprocal links in general and then (rightly) shifted focus to securing incoming links from high quality and popular sites.

Based on his answers, one gets the feel that he is currently letting his strategy ride and tends to check his positioning on an as-needed basis. He uses his sales activity as an indicator of whether or not his SEO efforts are in need of a booster shot. In checking his LinkPopularity we find the following numbers of incoming links…

* 157 in AltaVista
* 108 in Lycos
* 97 in MSN
* 52 in HotBot

…not bad, but not great either. And when digging a little deeper to determine the quality of those incoming links in an effort to tell whether or not they are helping the site’s relevancy we find something lacking. What’s missing is the keyword (shortwave) from the link descriptions.

Unlike the two sites profiled above, The Shortwave Store site lacked the keyword in any of the incoming links that we found. Instead, we found banner graphic links or non-keyword text links such as…

A comprehensive list… More Stations from Around the World

…and although the above link pointed to the URL: www.shortwavestore.com/shortwave-stations.html, it did not contain the keyword shortwave anywhere in the link description.

A better link description would have been…

Shortwave stations
…or at least,
Shortwave stations from around the world

Another example we found of an unoptimized incoming link was…

You can also order online via our secure server at our shortwave web site. Click HERE to order.

…unoptimized because ‘Click HERE’ is not a relevant keyword for the Shortwave store.

A better incoming link would look like this…

The Shortwave Store

And…

*Worth noting is the fact that it’s not necessarily the number (volume) of incoming links that’s important; it’s the quality of those incoming links. Factors such as link relevancy (i.e., are relevant keywords being used to describe your links) coupled with the link popularity of the referring site (i.e., Yahoo is a very popular and excellent referring site) are factors that help determine the validity and weight of a site’s incoming links which in turn help determine a site’s overall ranking.

*On the plus side, the site focuses on a single theme and uses the keyword in the title, description, and headline tag at the top of the page — all solid search engine optimization strategies.

*The site is also no-nonsense — without frames, Flash, JavaScript, or dynamic content. Design simplicity is always a solid search engine strategy.

*Most importantly, the domain name contains the keyword which can only help and will never hurt a site’s scoring chances.

Regardless of whatever shortcomings we’ve found, this site is testimony to the satisfactory success an online store can experience in a moderately competitive keyword arena simply by getting some of the search engine optimization factors right. In other words, your strategies don’t have to be perfect to work well enough.

In Conclusion

Remember this important fact: You need only to ‘outrun’ your competition, not the whole world. It’s unlikely you’ll ever have to do everything perfect — you only need to outperform your competition.

Success comes from knowing the game, analyzing your competition, and just doing a better job than they do. And when you start solid and plan for the long haul, you can often enjoy the luxury of letting your work ride while it continues to produce satisfactory results with only occasional adjustments and minimum effort.

Robin Nobles is the Director of Training of the Academy of Web Specialists http://www.academywebspecialists.com/, where she has trained several thousand people in her online courses in search engine marketing strategies http://www.onlinewebtraining.com/. She’s the content provider for GRSeo (Search Engine Optimizer) software http://www.se-optimizer.com/ and is a frequent speaker at conferences and workshops across the country. She also teaches 3-day ‘hands on’ search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/, and she has written three books that can be ordered through Amazon and other bookstores.


Copyright 2002 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.

Article found at Site Reference

No Wonder It’s So Hard To Make Money Online!

At a recent Internet Conference that my sons and I were teaching, I was reminded about one of the most serious problems that we all face in Internet Marketing, and that is information overload

What do I mean? Let’s look at a typical day in the life of an Internet Marketer.

9am . . .
You sit down to your computer, with the intent of writing a new website, because you just KNOW that this will be the most profitable project you ever built. But before you get into that, you’d better check your emails

You go through about fifty junk letters…. but look! Here’s a message from some well known Internet Marketing Guru. I know he makes GOBS of money on the Internet every day, and he can teach me the SECRET of marketing on the Internet…. and my gosh he’s only going to charge me $49 for the privilege of knowing that secret. I can’t pass that up, so I better order it right now. After all the price is going up tomorrow you know!

So I order that ebook, and start to read it, but then the phone rings. It is just a telephone solicitor, but after I get her off the call, I sit down to my computer again. Let’s see, what was I going to do? Umm…. not sure but I need to run a virus scan to make sure my computer is clean… and while it’s doing that I’m going to get another cup of coffee.

10am . . .
OK no viruses on my computer. That’s great to know… now I can sit down and get started on that website right…. but I better check my emails first….

Oh look… here’s a system that Mr. X used to rake in $40,000 last night while he was sleeping. Boy wouldn’t I like to have that… let’s go to his website..

Hmm…. seems like it’s another program that says write an ebook on Internet Marketing and sell it to people who would like to learn about Internet Marketing….. no.. I don’t want to do that.

Back to work… But you know I DID see something Frank said once about using public domain reports. I wonder if I could use that. So off I go to see if I can find that report. OK, now I have that, and I think I’ll pass for now.

11am . . .
I better get back to work here. Oops, here comes another e-mail. What? This one says the system I’m trying to use to build my business is dead, and now I need to buy their software or I’ll go broke on the net?

OK, I can’t live without that software, I better get it right now.

12pm . . .
Lunch time, I’ll get back to that website after lunch

Sound familiar? Unfortunately it’s all too familiar for ALL of us. There are so many different ways to generate income, traffic or whatever we want to do on the Internet, that we’re constantly bombarded by offers.

Many of them are good, and many of them could make money for you IF you sat down and really applied worked on THAT program and ONLY that program for a few months. But the problem is that we get sidetracked so easily. Most of us never really take the time to focus on the ONE project that we need to get working BEFORE we start on the next

It takes a real discipline sometimes to say no to these tempting offers…. and yes… some of them come from me too. Here’s five simple steps to help you FIX this problem with overload……..

1. Set aside certain periods of the day that you check your emails and ONLY check your emails at those times.

2. Sit down and decide once and for all that you’re going to build a SOLID website, ebook, program, or whatever it is that you want to do. You’re not going to deviate from that plan until you’ve accomplished that goal. Along the way you MIGHT be presented with some software or peripheral program that would work well with what you’re trying to accomplish.

If that’s the case then GREAT. . . get it and integrate it into your online model, but if it doesn’t mesh with your PRESENT project, then either don’t buy it at all, or if you MUST, then put it into a separate folder on your computer called ‘Future Projects’ and don’t mess with it until you’re on track with your present one

3. Make a to do list. This letter is an example. It was the number one item on my to do list for today, I wanted to contact you and write about this while it was still fresh in my mind

4. Find out what time of the day is the most productive for you and set that time aside for your most important tasks. Mine is usually 10pm to midnight

I realize that many readers must juggle their web site efforts with a full time job… but the real key is consistency. Set aside SOME regular time each week to work on your online presence

5. Resolve here and now that there are many ways that you would be able to make money on the Internet, but you can only do ONE AT A TIME… so you’re going to work at ONE until you’ve either made a success of it or it truly has proven not to be what you’d hoped for. If it’s the latter, try to find out why. Was it a problem in promotion? Was it the layout, the text, the headline?

You don’t want to repeat the same mistakes again

My sons and I make money in many different ways on the net, but everything we do that is successful for us always boils down to this simple formula.

I could ramble on for a long time about this, but I think you get the idea. This entire article can be summed up in to one word

. . . . . . FOCUS



Sign up for your free Cool Web Tips newsletter at http://coolwebtips.com. You’ll receive many more PRACTICAL tips about getting more traffic, building effective websites, generating more revenue, and converting lookers into buyers. Frank Sousa is an author, teacher, & developer of the secretspidergenerator. http://www.secretspidergenerator.com

Article found at Site Reference

The deadliest killer of an internet business and how to tackle it

There’s a killer on the loose and it might just be heading to YOUR internet business.

Believe me, this is not a hoax. It’s real, and extremely deadly.

Even as I write this, it may already be moving in your direction. Already it has destroyed thousands of internet businesses, many of them even before they have had a chance to get going.

It’s a dream shatterer.

I have been targeted many times myself, but somehow I have always managed to thwart it, otherwise you would not be reading this now and none of my web sites would exist. I would not have created any products and would not have been able to help the hundreds of people who have asked my advice over the years. In short, I would be out of business.

To my knowledge there is only ONE thing that can stop this killer dead in it’s tracks.

Do you know what this deadly assassin is?

It’s INERTIA. Merriam-Webster Dictionary (http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=inertia) definition: an inclination not to do work or engage in activities

Could also be described as laziness.

Yes, this is the biggest threat to your internet business.

And the one thing that can cure it is ACTION.

If you do nothing, day after day, to get your business off the ground, or to move it forward to the next level, then you might as well not bother.

We all have setbacks. We all come across new material, new ways of doing things almost on a daily basis. The key is to not give up at the first hurdle.

I’ve even come across people who think they can achieve nothing simply because they can’t copy and paste. For every piece of advice, or instruction that you give many of these people, the reply almost always begins with: “But I can’t…”

No wonder they don’t get anywhere and just chase their tails all over the internet looking for “get-rich-quick-without-doing-anything” schemes.

And if you don’t know how to do something but you know it can be done, and you want to be able to do it yourself, then simply learn how to do it and then get on and do it.

Being successful is all down to the application of knowledge. Sure, other factors do play a role, such as timing and luck, but mostly your success will be down to getting something done.

When I bought my first computer I had absolutely no idea how it worked. I could switch it on and that was about it.

When I first got on the internet I had no idea what I was doing. I could search for something on Google and that was about it.

I can now fix many computer problems I can now build web sites, work with CGI and PHP scripts, do copy writing, create ebooks and many other things

I can do these things because I experimented, I did research and I studied how others were doing them. Why? Because I wanted my internet business to evolve and be successful.

The deadliest threat to the achievement of your personal dreams stems from you. It manifests itself as inertia.

The solution to this threat also stems from you. It manifests itself as action.

Take action immediately to help eradicate this threat. Make sure you do something every day to move your business forward. And you will find yourself taking great leaps toward your ultimate goal.

Bob Evans has been doing business online since 2000. He strongly believes that if you don’t apply yourself and get things done then you will never be successful. His marketing action plan is very easy to apply, develop and adapt to almost any internet business. http://www.market4profit.net/marketing-action-plan.php

My Ads Don’t Work, So I Don’t Do Them Any More

Does that make sense? Yet, that is what I hear from a lot of prospective clients.

What that is saying is, “My Marketing Doesn’t Work So I’ll Never Do That Again!” (I’ve actually heard that statement).

Most small businesses don’t understand how to make it work, so they dip their toe in, try it, and when they don’t get what they expect, they leave to never try it again. Yet, generating exactly the number of leads you need every week is not only achievable but rather easy if you understand the principles and failure to understand them results in an 80% failure rate among most small businesses.

Critical Goals (The Keys: Guaranteed success, vs. Highly Probable Failure)

There are a few critical goals and measurements we track in a business. These typically are:

• The number of leads generated weekly (comes from our marketing plan, advertising, networking, referrals, etc.)

• The number of closed sales, and dollars in closed sales every week

• Number of completed jobs (customers, projects, etc), total dollars generated, and profit (gross profit) generated per job every week.

And finally the bottom line generated by the key measurement results above.

• Total dollars sold for the year, profit generated for the year.

• Does the profit generated by your sales pay your overhead.

• After overhead is paid how much extra is generated that goes in your pocket as “net profit.”

The definition of “critical” goals: a goal that IF accomplished will result in

• The total dollars of revenue for the year, the overhead is paid, and having a specific defined number of dollars to put in your pocket.
And IF these goals ARE NOT achieved the consequences will be:

• The total dollars of revenue WILL NOT be reached

• You will likely not be paying overhead and the money will be SUCKED out of your pocket instead of putting it into the pocket.

• AND the biggest consequence, you just entered the high probability that your entire business will fail.

Now that we’ve set the ground work for what critical goals will do for you if you achieve them, and what will be the consequences if you don’t, this leaves us with a rule I give all of my clients:
Critical goals are something that YOU WILL do no matter what.

It’s likely that there are 50-60 other things pulling on you to get done, but since these 5-6 things are SO CRITICAL (success on one side, failure on the other), then NOTHING else is more important. Stop doing the trivial many and focus on the 5-6 critical things that WILL deliver results, guaranteed.

When it comes to a critical goal that appears difficult, our response to that will not be “CAN’T” but rather “HOW?”

Now back to our original statement that

My Ads Don’t Work, So I don’t Do Them Any More

Isn’t lead generation, the leads that come from our ads, one of our critical goals
To generate X number of leads EVERY WEEK.

And our rule was Make it happen no matter what, it’s not CAN’T but HOW?

If our ads are not delivering what we expected, shouldn’t we be figuring out HOW to make them work instead of saying “they don’t work so I’ll never do that again.” We just said CAN’T instead of How. The opposite of our ground rule.

Is business really that simple? Just deliver the Critical Goals?
You bet!

How to fix the ad response rates

For most ads I find these are the critical factors:

1) Who we are communicating to

2) What we are saying

3) How we are saying it (and How must be about the benefit of the product, not the name, specifications, features, and especially not about WHO WE ARE.)

I’ve seen ad response rates jump 10 times on the very next advertisement just from following these ground rules and developing the answers to these questions.

Alan Boyer, CEO of The Leader’s Perspective, LLC is considered one of the world’s leading breakthrough specialists.

With over 35 years of business experience, he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some double, some jump 10 times.

He helps companies worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible….FASTER

http://www.leaders-perspective.com

mailto:AlanBoyer@leaders-perspective.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Happy Home Business Hint: Five Minutes

Everyday.
You’re hunched at the computer, flicking the keys with the greatest of ease - or, like me, poking each stroke with the speed of a…umm…well, it DID rhyme!

Everyday.

You’re mesmerized for hours by the wonders of Internet business - you market, you negotiate, you design, you submit, you research, you chat…a lot…

Everyday.

Enthralled and empowered by your cyber-independence, you plan and scheme, plot and dream.

While life in the REAL world goes on around you…

“Hey Mom, can I have lunch now?? It’s three o’clock!!”
“Huh? Whaa…yeah, five minutes, honey…lessee, click here…”

Funny how the daily grind hasn’t ground to a halt…

“Dad?? Couldya sign this? It just says that you know about my tryin’ to burn down the school and ya assume full financial responsibility…No big deal, couple alarms…”

“Darn HTML code…Hmm? Yeah…five minutes, umm…son??”

Things just keep rolling on…

“Ya GOTTA see this cool fort me and Billy Scuzbucket built, Grandma!!! And we got grenades, napalm, coupla ICBMs…WAAAY cool!!!”

“Whazzat? D’ja want something, sweetie? I’ll be right there…just five minutes…”

Life is like that…

“Are you Dilbert Greenbaumgarten? Sir, are you aware that your children are conducting a warehouse sale of stolen merchandise in your garage? You’ll have to come with us, sir.”

“Yeah, yeah…garage sale, ahh…be with ya in five minutes…just leave the money in the coffee can on the folding table, K??”

Everyday.

Just five minutes…

Whoa…super-important e-mail…ahh, look, be with ya in five minutes…seen the kids?? Honey?

Hello?? Coulda sworn we had furniture before…

Dan Reinhold is the proud author of “The WAHumor Way: Reality Check, Please!”, the essential primer for everyone starting a home business or even thinking about it. With two boys, a dog, a cat, a rat, a wife and a household to keep together to boot, Dan’s also the editor of WAHumor to hang on to his sanity by showing how insane the work-at-home community can be!

Subscribe quickly at WAHumor@aweber.com You could Win Big!!

Dr. Phil, MomsTown, and You!

Kudos to Dr. Phil and his producers! The Dr. Phil team recognizes the issues facing moms today go beyond disciplining children. Today’s mom is hip, savvy, and looking for ways to lead a vibrant and fulfilling life. In an effort to connect with real moms, Dr. Phil tapped our very own friends, Mary and Heather from MomsTown.com to head up the Mom Squad.

Mary and Heather’s second Dr. Phil appearance is scheduled for October 21st, and we’re asking all moms to watch it live, record it, tivo it if you can. We want to send a clear message to the Dr. Phil team that we like shows that focus on issues important to all of us moms. It’s about time the national media recognized we moms are a powerful force!

The title of their first show, that aired on October 5th, was “Moms, Cut the Chaos!” Affectionately dubbed the Mom Squad, Mary and Heather, along with Dr. Phil production crews, were sent to two homes to help the moms get out from under the chaos in their lives. On October 5th audiences saw them in action, helping two moms, Tara and Amy, pull it all together.

Dr. Phil’s producers were so happy with the outcome of the Cut the Chaos show that they are inviting MomsTown back to produce another show for moms. They are airing again on October 21st!

Depending on the results from the airing of this show the producers are considering having Mary and Heather as regulars on the show! I think this is a fantastic opportunity for both MomsTown.com and the work at home mom community both! Let’s all tune in and help these two fellow work at home moms become regulars on the Dr. Phil show!

Visit http://www.momstown.com for more details.

The Entrepreneurial Parent: How to Earn Your Living from Home and Still Enjoy Your Family, Your Work, and Your Life

Book Title: The Entrepreneurial Parent: How to Earn Your Living from Home and Still Enjoy Your Family, Your Work, and Your Life
Author: Paul and Sarah Edwards & Lisa M. Roberts

I thoroughly enjoyed this book because the authors took the time to interview entrepreneurs from all walks of life and how they all manage their schedules with young children, older children, and all of the other responsibilities given to us as parents. As well as holding down a full-time home business and staying sane. I would highly recommend this again to any parent working from home because it gives you an awesome perspective of several work from home parents and where they acquired their marketing tactics, skills, and even provide their sources.

Review by:
Mandu Usoro
M&A Associates~ http://www.homebizmom.net
Specializing in excellent customer service, FREE and PAID Advertising, shopping for every budget, work at home resources and more.

24 Tips To Set Up An Effective Email Marketing Part 2

This article is the continuation of 24 Tips to Set Up an Effective Email Marketing Campaign. 14 tips were covered in Part 1. Here are the remaining 10.

24 Tips To Set Up An Effective Email Marketing Campaign cont’d…

15.Use Compelling Heading, and Subheadings

Break up large body of text with compelling subheadings to hold the interest of your readers.

And also most people will first give a cursory glance over your email before they read the full text. Subheadings provide a quick summary of your email text. If you want people to read your full email text, make your heading and subheadings compelling.

16.Use words like ‘free’, ‘discounts’, ‘bonus’, ’specials’ sparingly

Excessive use of these words in the email text you send out may be construed as spamming. Don’t be surprised if your email copy gets trashed. Avoid these signs: $#%@&.

Perform a quick test with Yahoo free email before you send out your email copy. Sign up for a Yahoo free email account if you don’t have one. Send your email copy to the same account. Yahoo and other similar free email services have Spam filters by default. Watch where your email copy lands. Inbox or bulk mail folder. If it lands in the bulk folder, it is likely that your email copy will be treated like junk mail or Spam.

17.Use in text links

They are still proven to be more effective than banner ads.

18.Make sure all in text links are working

Nothing is more annoying than links that are not working. If you want a link to go straight to your website, then this is how it should be written in your email program: http://www.mysite.com. Most email programs will recognize this as a link. Your email link should be written this way: mailto:emailaddress@yoursite.com

19.Create Your Signature File

What is a signature file? It is a short paragraph that automatically appends to the end of your email messages. It gives people your name, job title, company’s name, email address, website URL. You may include fax and telephone numbers.

Use your signature file to promote your website, products or services, and free gifts you may have to offer. But keep your promotion to a minimum. Don’t overdo it especially if you are using the same signature file for article submissions. As a rule of thumb 3 to 6 lines is a good length for a signature file.

This is how my signature file looks: Gerrick W - mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com We provide information and software tools you need to effectively market your online business. Visit: http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com

Include your signature file in all the email messages you send, even to friends and family. You are spreading word about your business.

20.Formatting your text

For text format you need to limit your characters to 65 characters per line. While typing your text you need to hit hard the enter key to break the lines at the correct character count of 65 or less. Otherwise your text will appear all over the shop in your subscribers’ email programs, making it difficult to read. If possible test with different email programs.

For Microsoft Outlook Express you can automatically set the number of characters per line.

- On the Tools menu, click Options. - On the Send tab, in the Mail Sending Format section, select Plain Text, and then click the Plain Text Settings button. - Set Automatically Wrap at 65 characters, when sending.

You could send out your email copy through Microsoft Outlook Express. Alternatively, you could the copy to your email account. The lines will be formatted to break at 65 characters. Store a copy of the formatted text in another folder. It is now ready for copy and paste.

21.Tracking

This is critical. You want to measure the results of your email marketing campaigns, and know which one works best.

22.Generate Feedback

This area is often overlooked. Provide a means for subscribers to give feedback on how you can improve your product or service, or even ask them why they don’t buy from you. Good feedback will go a long way to build your business.

23.Option to unsubscribe

It is considered spamming, if you do not have a link in your email for people to unsubscribe. Normally, your auto-responder provider will do this for you. Most services will have this link at the end of your email text. This link automatically removes subscribers from your database.

24.Respect the privacy of your subscribers

You must make it clear to your subscribers that you respect their privacy, and would in no way give, sell or rent out their email address.

Keep your word.

Period.

Everyday, people are bombarded by increasing choices. To stay in competition, Internet marketers use cost effective email marketing to keep in touch with customers, and to update them of latest offers and new products. An effective email marketing campaign will see returning visitors to your website and increase sales.

About the Author

Gerrick W - mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com We provide information and software tools you need to effectively market your online business. Visit: http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com

Mompreneurs: A Mother’s Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Work-at-Home Success

Book Title: Mompreneurs: A Mother’s Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Work-at-Home Success
Author: Ellen H. Parlapiano & Patricia Cole

I purchased this book, just like I did all of the others, to organize my business office. I wanted to know the ins and outs of having my own business and how a typical day would or may be for a sahm/wahm. It is definitely not easy but as long as you are organized and have your business hours in place, everything else falls into place and you don’t miss a beat. This book helped me to be a better business mom and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking at how to organize your home office, hours, budget, etceteras. It has it all.

Review by:
Mandu Usoro
M&A Associates~ http://www.homebizmom.net
Specializing in excellent customer service, FREE and PAID Advertising, shopping for every budget, work at home resources and more.

How to Spot Dishonest Work at Home Opportunities

by Erika of ThisChristianWahm.com

In this day and age there are so many work at home opportunities out there for moms. How do you weed out the honest opportunities from the scams?

In my experience, these are the following red flags to look out for when looking for an opportunity:

1. If the ad doesn’t come right out and say the name of their business or what exactly the nature of the business is about, or what you will be doing for them…and you have to sign up with them by giving your information to them before finding out more, I would skip onto the next one.

2. If the business charges you money just for information about the opportunity, move on… Legitimate businesses will never charge you just for information about what they do or what you will be doing for them as a potential employee.

3. If the ad says, “get rich quick” or “make millions overnight with our proven system.” I would not walk, but run from them. If there were a way to get rich overnight, don’t you think everyone would be doing what they do? I’m sure a lot of these fly by night companies are getting rich…they are getting rich on the money they collect from people just for their bogus information!!

4. Home assembly…I would steer clear of most home assembly or stuffing envelope jobs. I’ve yet to come across any of these that are legit. Usually with the home assembly jobs, you have to pay to get a test kit…you send the completed item back to them and they tell you that it’s not done to their specifications. This will happen over and over until you finally give up.

Basically, if it looks too good to be true, chances are it is!

There will be times when a business will ask for start up costs to get going with their business. And in most cases this is fine. They should give you all the information you need to know about what you will be selling, and what comes in a startup kit to begin working. They need to cover the cost of sending you literature, sales tools, and demo products. But, keep in mind you should never have to pay anyone for a work at home job. A work at home job and a work at home business are two different things.

A job is just that. The company hires you to do work for them, and they send you a paycheck. You do not pay them!

A work at home business is run entirely by you. What you make is determined by how much you sell and by how much time and effort you put forth into your own business. And there will be start up costs to running your own business. Whether it be a website, selling products, or services.

There are many companies that are safe and on the up and up. You just need to do your homework before getting involved! Join message boards for work at home mothers and see what they have to say about a certain opportunity you’re thinking about. See what their experiences were; good or bad. And then go from there.

Look up a company with the better business bureau and check them out as well.

Be sure to never, ever, under any circumstances give out your personal information such as; your credit card number, bank account number, or social security number before making double sure a company is for real and honest!

Good luck in your search for a work at home job. There are so many wonderful, honest opportunities out there; you just have to know how to look for them!

———————————————————————————-
Erika runs a website for work at home moms–
This Christian Wahm.com
Do you work at home? Are you searching for a way to work from home?
Stressed? This Christian Wahm can help! Find valuable advice, articles, Christian fellowship and more. Visit her site at: http://www.thischristianwahm.com

24 Tips To Set Up An Effective Email Marketing Campaign Part 1

Email marketing is directing your messages to targeted addresses. These addresses are either rented or gathered from your opt-in list. Don’t worry. This is not spamming. The people whom you send messages to want your information.

An Effective Email Marketing Campaign Will Help Your Business…

· Target your customers

· Build a good rapport with your potential customers

· Lower your ad costs (email marketing is cost effective)

· Increase return on investments (ROI)

“69 percent of U.S. e-mail users have made purchases online after receiving permission-based e-mail marketing, 59 percent have purchased in retail stores, 39 percent have purchased through catalogs, 34 percent through call centers and 20 percent through postal mail.”And, 78 percent of those surveyed say they want to receive e-mail from their favorite online merchants.”Source: DoubleClick

24 Tips to An Effective Email Marketing Campaign…

1.Own a proper domain name

If you are serious about your business, you need to own a proper domain name that will appear in your resource box in all your email marketing campaign. Free domain name like yoursite.xxx.com or www.xxx/yoursite.com will not be taken seriously. It gives people the impression that your business is a fly by night operation.

To build credibility you need to have your own proper domain name (www.yoursite.com) and professional web hosting.

2.Auto-responders

An auto-responder performs 2 important functions. It stores the names and email addresses of your visitors who opted to be on your mailing list, and automates your follow-up process. It can send a single message to thousands of subscribers in your opt-in list automatically.

You can have more than one auto-responder, each sending a different message. Without the effective use of auto-responders, an effective marketing campaign cannot be set in place. Imagine handling the tasks of a growing business without automation.

3.Offer Free Short Courses

The advantage of auto-responders is you can send out messages at preset intervals. You could utilize this capability to offer short email courses lasting from 5 to 7 days. For example I could offer for free a short course Five Days to Effective Email Marketing with this article. Offering short courses is one way to build up your opt-in list.

When your subscribers gain enough confidence in you through email courses, they would be more disposed to buy your products. Needless to say, your products must be related to the courses you offer.

Offering short courses also exposes your subscribers to your products or services.

4.Offer Free Ezines/Newsletters

Ezine is short form for electronic magazines. Share quality and useful information with your subscribers through ezines. Update your products and keep your subscribers posted of the latest developments in your business. This is good for building long-term relationships with them.

When you established your business as a reliable source of information, know-how and expertise, people will naturally be sold to it.

If you have a large subscriber base say 2000 - 4000, you can sell advertising space in your ezine.

5.Be Personal

Address your subscribers by name. You may write something like, Hi [First name] or [Last name], Thank you for your sign-up. People like to be address by name. It gives them a sense of importance. This is psychology 101.

Though your email will be read by thousands of subscribers each day, write as if you are talking to one person at a time. Use singular pronouns like ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘You’, ‘Your’. This kind of approach is more personal.

6.Be Formal

Just because you are writing emails it does not mean that you do away with all the formality of offline letter writing. Maintain proper greetings, Hi [First name] of [Last name], and proper signing offs like to your success, best regards, etc.

7.Fill in the From Field properly

Fill in your name, not crony names, followed by your full email address so it does not pass off as junk mail. Delete and empty trash.

8.Fill in the Subject Field properly

It must be a clear statement that is relevant to content. Don’t leave your Subject Field blank.

9.Remind people how they got on your mailing list

This is good practice. Most people will not remember why, where and what they signed up. Remind them at the beginning of your email how they got on your mailing list.

10.Write as though you are speaking to your friend

Email writing is somewhat different from writing for print. Write as though you are talking to a friend. Don’t sound like a university professor or a kindergarten teacher.

11.Be Concise and get straight to the point

Your email text must be concise and get straight to the point. People don’t have all day to read your email. A good thumb of rule for an effective email marketing copy is 250 to 300 words. Don’t bombard your email marketing campaign with banner ads all over.

12.Use Short Sentences and Paragraphs

Avoid wordy sentences. Keep your sentences short and simple. Don’t clump your text together. Use plenty of paragraphs. It is easier to read the text that way. Paragraphs should be no longer than five lines.

13.Never Type your Text in Caps

Online this is interpreted as SHOUTING.

14.Check For Bad Grammar and Misspellings

An email with bad grammar and misspellings gives your subscribers the impression that you don’t take them seriously. So don’t expect them to take you seriously too. Check and recheck your email copy to correct bad grammar and misspellings.

The opening line is important. Bad grammar and misspelling from the start will get your email copy trashed fast.

This concludes Part 1 of 24 Tips to Set Up an Effective Marketing Campaign. For more tips, read Part 2.

About the Author

Gerrick W - mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com We provide information and software tools you need to effectively market your online business. Visit: http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com

Are content creators in danger?

A few days ago Goarticles.com, perhaps the most popular article database online, declared war to many “Content Creator scripts” and “article crawlers”.

For those new to this concept, this popular scripts crawl article sites, extract the content under a certain cathegory and then publish it on the script owner’s web site… hundreds at a time.

You may find content creation scripts all over the Internet, ranging from $67 to $200, and most support Goarticles.com as one of it main sources…

Unfortunately they are encoutering big problems since the article site giant started to ban hypertactive IPs a few weeks ago. Now Goarticles have introduced an anti-automatic crawling protection similar to the one used by Google to prevent non manual site submissions.

If you are planning to purchase some piece of software or script that claims to build tons of pages based on article content, do ask the vendor if they use Goarticles.com as their main source, or if they are planning to upgrade their script to solve the problem.

On the other hand, it seems possible that other article sites such as Articlecity.com, may decide to implement the same anti crawling protection in order to preserve the high value of their service, while keeping a flow of “real” visitors to their site. Content creators can access thousands of articles, and publish them, without even having to open their web browser. This should be hurting article sites quite enough.

To your wild success,
Jose L. Gonzalez
About the Author

“How to -without the big time hype- set up
a website, promote it and walk down to the
bank for real, cold, Internet Money!”
http://www.marketing-master-course.com

The Work at Home Sourcebook

Book Title: The Work at Home Sourcebook
Author: Lynie Arden

I purchased this book to find out what opportunities were available to me, in the state of Washington or elsewhere. This book was very informative and worth it because of all of the companies available, as well as telecommuting opportunities. I would highly recommend it to any work at home mom or stay at home looking for any type of job working from home.

Review by:
Mandu Usoro
M&A Associates~ http://www.homebizmom.net
Specializing in excellent customer service, FREE and PAID Advertising, shopping for every budget, work at home resources and more.

The Stay At Home Mom’s Guide to Making Money

Book Title: The Stay At Home Mom’s Guide to Making Money
Author: Liz Folger

I really enjoyed this book because I was searching for what would work for me after many failed attempts at other work at home opportunities. This helped me to break it down to what my skills and abilities are and how I could create my own income, with the skills and experiences I already possess. I highly recommend this book for the work at home mom still searching or work out of the home moms, who just want to fire their bosses.

Review by:
Mandu Usoro
M&A Associates~ http://www.homebizmom.net
Specializing in excellent customer service, FREE and PAID Advertising, shopping for every budget, work at home resources and more.

The Finer Points of WAH Etiquette

Business etiquette is vitally important in the corporate world…and more so when you w0rk at h0me.

We here at WAHumor present a basic primer on the finer points of WAH etiquette.

Proper Telephone Etiquette:

When answering a WAH business phone, you first and foremost must answer it yourself. The most pleasing and eloquent message on your machine proves useless when your three-year-old proudly announces to your befuddled caller, “I MADE POTTY TOOOOODAYYYY!!!”

An easily recognized signal to quiet any outstanding clamor is most essential. A snap of the fingers, a ring of a bell or the sharp report of an airhorn may prove adequate. If not, consult your local Army/Navy surplus supplier for…ummm…unadvertised specials.

It is also imperative that you answer in the correct manner - it’s not so much what you say as how you say it. Although you may have had a mad scrabble with several youngsters experiencing Double Stuf Oreo-induced psychosis, upon answering your voice must be perfectly calm and your breathing even. Asthma attacks are very poorly received and could cost business.

In the event of severe noise, a tranquilizer dart gun is not thought unseemly.

Entertaining Clients:

Unexpected Guests: For the purpose of entertaining clients, always use a small secluded room away, and well insulated from, sounds emanating from the main living area. Should such a room be unavailable, build a shed.

Clearly mark the pathway to your chosen meeting place. Be sure to provide the quickest possible access to respect your client’s time and avoid children. Consider installation of an extra large vacuum chute of the kind once used to transport mail in office buildings.

Have suitable refreshments on hand to be certain that you will not leave the room, thereby leaving said client alone and unprotected. If something should spill during the meeting, clean it up promptly and discard it in a large waste basket under your desk. If your client requests something that is not on hand, politely affirm that you have none - even water.

Unexpected Guests:

Use an intercom to ascertain the identity of the visitor, By this method, you may avoid opening the door and the risk of inadvertently inviting them inside. It is crucial that you use this approach at all times - even when the front door is open and the visitor is plainly visible behind the screen door. Feign blindness.

Provide an unwelcoming atmosphere at the entrance - no coat racks, tables, chairs or ironing boards that could hold coats. Should the visitor enter, assume the military “at ease” stance with your hands clasped behind your back. Maintain this position so that the visitor cannot hand their coat to you.

If your guest still enters and wants to sit, it is essential that you have prepared the furniture by placing large, angular rocks under the cushions. Hide old rotten half-eaten bananas and unfinished yogurt cups (with children, there is always a constant and abundant supply on hand) in strategically chosen areas of the furniture to soil your visitor’s clothing so that you may hurry them off to the dry cleaner and resume work.

We at WAHumor hope that you will find this basic primer to be of some use and always be mindful of the importance of proper etiquette for the w0rk at h0me lifestyle.

Dan Reinhold is the proud author of “The WAHumor Way: Reality Check, Please!”, the essential primer for everyone starting a home business or even thinking about it. With two boys, a dog, a cat, a rat, a wife and a household to keep together to boot, Dan’s also the editor of WAHumor to hang on to his sanity by showing how insane the work-at-home community can be!

Subscribe quickly at WAHumor@aweber.com You could Win Big!!

Teryl Zollinger and Top Line Creations

Name: Teryl Zollinger

Tell us a little about yourself:
My name is Teryl and I’m with Top Line Creations. I’m a busy mom of three boys
who are not only into athletics, but into music and academics, as well. You can
imagine how busy I stay, running from one game to music lessons to all the extra
activities at school. It can get  hectic but I love every minute of it! I’ve
been married for almost 18 years and I can honestly say my husband is the
"better half." hehe

What is your business name and web address:
ScrapnSolutions 
http://www.scrapnsolutions.com

What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
I "needed" to get my scrapbook supplies at a discount. TLC was perfect. No
monthly minimums or quarterly quotas. I can even make a little money off by
selling on-line, eBay, and by teaching classes, without ever doing a party!

Tell us a little about your business:
We’re the fastest growing direct sales Scrapbook Company in the world. Top Line
Creations makes scrapbooking Quick, Affordable, & Beautiful! Offering page kits,
albums, accordion books, textured cardstock and patterned papers, rub-ons,
chipboard shapes and monograms, plus much more. Even better our page kits and
albums now come with a mini idea book or idea sheet full of exciting layout
ideas. We’ve done the creative work to

Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women that are
interested in working from home:
Try it for a year and don’t let discouragement get you down. Also, keep an
accurate accounting of your expenses. This is extremely important so that you
know "if" and "how" you’re making money! hehe

What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
I’ve been doing this less than a year so I’m not an expert yet on advertising.
Message boards are great. Find ones that 1) allow you to talk about your
business, 2) have similar interests to what you’re trying to share.

Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned from:

I really didn’t care for  the one and only ever, vendor blender I
participated in. Luckily it was NO COST. I found it very difficult to
communicate strictly by typing to others on the chat line. My fingers don’t go
the same speed as my brain, hehe. It was stressful for me. However, I should say
that others enjoy vendor blenders very much!

Jennifer Ritchie of Cool Candle

Name: Jennifer Ritchie
 
Tell us a little about your self:
I am 35 with 2 kids happily married for 20 years

What is your business name and web address:
 www.CoolCandle.net

What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
Wanted to be home with the kid’s and wanted to start my own company from start
up and help out moms work at home

Tell us a little about your business:
We Specialize In Hand poured gel candles. We also carry hand poured Triple
Scented Jar candles, Wax Tarts, Pillars and Votives!
We also have a great work at home program! I started it out of my home but it
has grown now we have a shop and warehouse and consultant’s I still do most my
work from home in the summer time when the kids are out of school

Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women that are
interested in working from home:
Keep organized it the most importation thing you can do and don’t give up when
thing get slow we all have are good and bad days, don’t let friends and family
make you fell like your work is not a real job. Set work hours and stick to them
but also set family hours

What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
Networking and catalogs always send a catalog with every order. This keeps them
thanking about you.

Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned from:

You can not make everyone happy all the time, some people are just not happy. Be
helpful and try to fix anything that upsets your buyers but also know when you
have done all you can. One time when I first started, a lady got a candle and
said it was messed up and wanted another one for free.
No trouble, sent a new one with out asking for the old one back. A few weeks
later same thing, same lady. so I  keep sending free candles trying to make
her happy. When I asked her to send the old one back she got mad and told me she
did not feel she should have to, but I want to make everyone I sell to happy so
I felt bad for asking. After the 5th candle I told her no more with out her
sending back the old one, well I never heard from her again. I lost a lot of
money shipping new ones for free and took my time away from paying customers.

Do you have any specials going on that you would like to share with our
readers:
Be sure to look and see our Featured Item Of The Week! Join our mailing list to
keep up with the latest sales! You may win a free candle!

Cecile Pryor of Moms With A Spine

Name: Cecile Pryor

Tell us a little about yourself:
I am a work at home mom of three children.  I recently went from full time work
to staying at home after the birth of my third child.

What is your business name and web address:
Moms With A Spine 
www.momswithaspine.com

What inspired you to become a work at home mom:
After the birth of my third child, I realized that I needed to spend time with
my three children.  Fortunately, my husband has a good job and this allowed me
to quit my job and work from home. 
 
Tell us a little about your business:
My business provides information and advertising for other work at home and stay
at home moms.  I am updating the pages daily to provide new and useful
information.

 Is there any advice that you would like to share with other women that
are interested in working from home:
Time Management!!  Try to make a schedule and stick to it.  I would spend all my
time on the computer if I didn’t limit myself to certain times of the day.  This
helps me accomplish the other tasks that I need to get done around the house and
with the children.

What has been the most effective advertising method for you:
I really have not started advertising yet.  Using good search engine
optimization techniques on my pages has helped their ranking with Google and in
turn provided me with customers.

Can you share with us one negative business experience that you learned
from:
There are always going to be people who think your product or service is priced
too high!!  Don’t give away the farm.  If it is worth it work out a deal, if not
move on.

Do you have any specials going on that you would like to share with our
readers:
Yes!  I am offering a free lising in the MomShop section of my website for 6
months.  The MomShop section will allow Moms to shop from other Moms.

There Is No Such Thing As Working At Home

There is no such thing as w0rking at h0me.

Really. It doesn’t exist. It’s not possible. And who are you kidding anyway?

Says who?, you ask?? Just Everybody.

You know Everybody…as in “Everybody says…”

Everybody knows you watch game shows and soap operas all day.

Everybody’s sure you can handle this errand. After all, what are you doing that’s so important?

Everybody’s so glad you’re at h0me…would you watch little Daemon for a few hours?

Everybody gets a good laugh at this “w0rk-at-h0me” thing, because Everybody will tell you that Everybody has to work for a living. By the way, when are you getting a *real* job?)

Nosirree, no such thing…Instead, there’s…Slavery-at-home.

Forget what they say about Lincoln.

Who gets the grocery list, picks up the kids, drops off the dry cleaning and prepares a sumptuous meal replete with exquisite delicacies, a breathtaking sensual delight?
Oh, okay…but who opens those cans???

And all at the same time, you have those annoying, trivial “w0rk-at-h0me” details…Scheduling appointments, meeting with clients (on and/or offline!), answering e-mails, processing orders, conducting marketing campaigns, toting barges, lifting bales…

No, my friend, this “w0rk-at-h0me” fantasy is only a dream. How, in reality, can someone rise in the morning and not jet off to a forced enclosure where you are carefully guarded and scrutinized by “b0sses” and “superiors” who zealously hoard the money you earn and pay a position (not you!) what they determine it to be worth.

How, in reality, can someone enjoy a moment of reflection, introspection or distraction that is not rigidly scheduled and officially ordained, where your “co-workers” labor, hurriedly assigned without regard to their interests or desires?

How, in reality, can someone enjoy the comforts of their own home in a place uniquely theirs and a destiny they create and *not* embark on a crowded, frustrating, lengthy and perilous trek to and from this foreign place where, despite their diligence and loyalty, they can find themselves cast out by authorities unseen and unknown through no fault of their own?

(Oops! Fell off my soapbox…Insert your favorite dream here.)

Nosirree, w0rking at h0me is a liberating, self-actualizing, creatively fulfilling, ultimately challenging and supremely rewarding dream. But, you know…dreams aren’t for Everybody.

Dan Reinhold is the proud author of “The WAHumor Way: Reality Check, Please!”, the essential primer for everyone starting a home business or even thinking about it. With two boys, a dog, a cat, a rat, a wife and a household to keep together to boot, Dan’s also the editor of WAHumor to hang on to his sanity by showing how insane the work-at-home community can be!

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