Adventures of A Work at Home Mom - Melody's Mommy

We have Moved!

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 13:33:06 GMT

This blog has now been moved onto a new system. You can see the new page here:

http://melodysmommy.blogspot.com/

Please make note of the change! :) Thank you!

Newest Edition of Melody's Mommy is now Available

Sat, 14 Oct 2006 01:05:19 GMT

Hey everyone,

The October 12, 2006 edition of Melody's Mommy News is now availabe for you online here: http://www.melodysmommy.com/MommyNews/2006/101206.html

In this issue:

Are You Missing Out on a Ton of Cash on the Internet?

Neilson/Net Ratings is accepting New Applicants - Don't Miss Out!

Start Working from Home Now! - You can do this!

This Weeks Brand New Work at Home Jobs

Freelance Positions Available

http://www.melodysmommy.com/MommyNews/2006/101206.html

Basic Mineral Makeup

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:17:57 GMT

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Mineral makeup is HOT HOT HOT! Created from Earth's minerals, Basic Minerals gives you natural sunscreen, fabulous coverage and a long-lasting glow that can't be matched with gooey liquid or creme foundations.This Business is HOT HOT HOT TOO!Click on the Consultant Information and start working from home today.
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Two Free E-Books to Help You With Your Online Business

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:13:36 GMT

Proven Methods For Successful Search Engine Marketing - (FREE E-BOOK)The FREE eBook covers everything from an introduction to search engine marketing to tips and tricks on how to improve your order page. If you apply all tips and tricks that you learn in this ebook to your web site, it is almost guaranteed that you'll get more visitors and more sales. The free eBook covers all important aspects of search engine optimization on more than 160 easy to read pages.

High Quality Inbound Links - (FREE E-BOOK) Getting good inbound links is crucial if you want to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo and other major search engines. However, it is important that you do it right. Our free eBook tells you everything you need to know about professional link management. If you build links to your web site as explained in the eBook, your web site will get the best possible rankings on Google and other search engines.

The Key to Internet Success – Getting to Know You

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 18:48:39 GMT

I can't seem to get the song from the "King & I" out of my head as I prepare to write this article

"Getting to Know You
Getting to Know All About You
Getting to like you
Getting to hope you like me"

I can't get it out of my mind because that's what online business is ALL about.

Some say it's search engines.

Some say it's a great pay-per-click campaign.

Yeah, yeah...those things are great, but it's important to get to know people and I'm talking about the people that reach your target market. You know, the people you might
think as your competitors.

It's possible you've heard me say it before – competitors can be your partners - but it seems the subject keeps creeping up over and over again.

People ask me questions like, "How do I get people to join my affiliate program?"

And recently, when I spoke at Kelly McCausey's Blogging seminar at her http://www.HotSummerSeminarSeries.com, it came up again. We are talking about joint venture blogs, where more than one writer comes together to keep adding fresh content to
the blog. When we did the seminar, people seemed excited about the idea, but really weren't sure how to find people to write with them.

Well, here's the solution and I hope you take steps to make this happen for you. It doesn't matter what market you are in, you should ALREADY be getting to know the people who are in the same market as you. You should be developing relationships and talking to one another.

This isn't the cut throat world of offline business where you might be competing fiercely with the restaurant across the street. This is the Internet where joint ventures are abound and are literally a goldmine for your business.

Here's Some Ideas for Joint Ventures:

- Join each others affiliate programs
- Create viral ebooks to give away
- Create a bonus for your partner to add to her product
- Interview each other for teleseminars
- Create information products
- Create membership sites
- Use each other's products as upsells
- Connect each other to other important people
- Co-write that joint blog we talked about
- Co-write and autoresponder series

...the ideas are endless.

The point is, if you already have these relationships in place, it's easy to get people to work with you. It's hard work to approach people you don't know and ask themto
promote your product or even contribute to an ebook. But if there's one thing about human nature, we tend to want to work with people who are already our friends.

So, please go make more friends! Then see how your business multiplies. I promise you it will be much faster than a speeding search engine algorithm and more powerful than a
high-cost pay-per-click campaign.

-------------

Alice Seba is a full-time online business owner that thrives on helping others say good-bye to their J-O-Bs forever. Learn more tried and true strategies to increase your profits with kindness at Internet Marketing Sweetie

The Journey to Success in your Home Based Business

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 19:37:18 GMT

Work at Home Success -- How do you measure the success in your life? As a home-based working mom it’s so different than the outside corporate world. I know for me, one day it can be a call from Borders that they are accepting one of my books, where another day it can be that I finally got my 8-year-old to go on a field trip at school. The last two she had missed being too scared to attend and instead spent the day home, sick. Both days, I consider huge successes! Both days, I felt a real winner.

Home based success can mean the little things such as a day we get all our work done while attending a sick child, or being one of the only parents able to attend a school function that your daughter so eagerly anticipated. That’s what we are trying to achieve in our home-based business, the best of both worlds. And having worked at home since 1985 I can truly say, it can be done. As president of Virtual Word Publishing, http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com, I've enjoyed working at home while watching my kids grow up and become just as motivated and determined to succeed in business and life as I am. That’s one of the perks is they get to see what you do.

So how can you achieve this success for your business and family? How can you make more good days than bad? Here are some tips:

Start Early: I find that by getting up an hour or so before everyone else, I can accomplish so much more. That allows me the extra 10 minutes of devotional time, a few minutes to enjoy my coffee alone, and then time to dig into my work. I usually save my peak work for this time as this is truly when I’m at my best.

Regroup and Rebalance: So often
home-based moms feel overwhelmed and
unable to accomplish anything because of this.
Try breaking it all down. Take a day or two and write down your typical day. What can you change to make it better, to make it work? Often when it’s down in writing, it’s clearer to see where changes can be made. Try to lump together tasks and delegate any tasks you can. And above all else-avoid Guilt.

Eliminate time-robbers! We still have to cook dinner, (I tried, it didn’t work!) but I don’t have to talk to my friend, who doesn’t work, for 45 minutes during my workday. Say No!

Also, with my kids I found some of the work I actually could take outside or in another room. There’s no rule that says I have to work at my desk. Perhaps you can create different workstations around the home. Be creative. One work-at-home mom Missy DePew, President and Founder of MomMe TV Entertainment, Inc. has a laptop she carries from room to room so she can be near her kids when she has to absolutely work on her computer. Her new internet television web site, which was created for all moms, http://www.mommetv.com can be very demanding and trying to squeeze it all in can be difficult. DePew states, "With kids, laundry, and a new company – I try but it’s very challenging. You just do what you gotta do to make your ship run.”

Shortcuts To Success: What can you do to make your business run smoother? Constantly be thinking of ways to improve upon your business. Organization is naturally a big one. The more organized you are, the better you’ll be at all things. Spend the time to organize and you'll find you have more time than you ever thought possible.

Another shortcut for me was to create different books of materials that I frequently used so I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel each time and it was right in front of me. Thus, I created different 3-ring binder books of marketing letters, press releases, etc. Now when I want to write a marketing letter or a new press release, I can draw upon some of the quotes from my other letters and I find that often times I can use one of the letters I've already created.

Think about things that you can do for your business. Things that you use often, that you could print out and possibly make a collection of, and then look to as a resource. Or what other times savings tip could you think of that would help your business? Write them down. Now apply them to your business.

Another thing I do is buy paper that has 3 ring holes already in it. When I print out a client’s e-mail, or client’s article, I’ll immediately put it into their binder categorized by topic. I’m now able to find things faster and also can see clearly all I’ve done with the clients. I also color coordinate my clients files. When Client A calls, I grab my red folder and automatically jump into his work mode. It savesme so much "think time."

Focus on Success: Continue to see yourself as a success and focus on your goals. Success is within your reach when you continually focus on your goals, both for your business and your family.

Diana Ennen is the author of numerous books including Virtual Assistant: The Series, Become a Highly Successful, Sought After VA. She specializes in publicity and book marketing and is president of Virtual Word Publishing http://www.virtualwordpublishing.com/and http://www.publicity-va.com/. She also is the publisher of the science fiction thriller, Sledgehammer, http://www.pauloreyes.com/ Articles are free to be reprinted as long as the author’s bio remains intact.

Free no More Chaos Guide for Moms

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 18:59:54 GMT

Free No More Chaos Guide for MOMS

Working from Home with Kids Under Foot Can Be a Challenge, But You're Not Alone. Here's Your...

"Top 10 Tips for Abandoning the Chaos of the Internet Based Mom"

Alice Seba is the owner of Internet Based Moms. If you are looking to work from home don't miss out on this great free guide to help you!! I have my copy!!!!

Get your free guide now

Have an Opinion?

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:54:58 GMT

Win a Disney Vacation for Four!

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:10:53 GMT

Five Top Tips For Making A Diaper Cake

Tue, 13 Jun 2006 16:07:36 GMT

Five Top Tips For Making A Diaper Cake

Diaper Cakes are becoming more popular for baby showers and newborn gift ideas. These cakes, which offer everything a new mom needs for her new bundle of joy, can make any baby shower unforgettable. Not only do they leave a lasting impression, but the new mother can use every item in the cake, from the blankets to the diapers, thus providing a fun and useful gift for the proud mom-to-be. You can make them a three layer to just a one layer depending on the size gift you want to send.

Here are top five tips to making a diaper cake.

1. Fill your cakes with items you know the mother will be using. Diapers and blankets we all know, but items like baby lotions, powder, hand sanitizer, nail clippers, bottom balm, or Vaseline. You may also include a bottlebrush, baby bottle, scratch mittens and so on.

2. Choose quality products when you can. I use Luvs diapers as they are bigger and make your cake more stable. Blanket size does matter. Keep that in mind when deciding on the size of your cake. For example, 7, 8, 10, or 12 29x29 will give you an 8” cake and 30 x 40 will give you an 12“ cake, a burp cloth will give you an 7” (they have really cute and colorful burp clothes out now) for a 10” this size is in between so you can use a 30 x 40 and just bring in one end a little more to make it a 10”.

3. Make sure you wrap cake as this will deter others form touching or moving items around. Use cellophane wrap or cellophane bags, or tulle. Use lots of curly ribbon makes your cakes look so pretty.

4. Have fun and create your own style everyone has their own. Themed cakes are very popular (Disney). Also if the sex of baby is unknown don't fear...mix it up a bit go with neutral colors. If you know the babies room color that is even better.

5. If your choosing this as a business-congrats. Making diaper cakes for a living is so much fun and very rewarding. A few starter tips are: Have professional pictures taken of your cakes. Use these as a portfolio and put them in a book for show and tell. Have business cards made up and brochures. Set your pricing. Tell everyone about your cakes. This is a great time to start because more then likely very few people have heard of a diaper cake so you get in on the ground floor.

To learn more about making diaper cakes for fun or profit or to order a diaper cake go to http://www.makeadiapercake.biz.

******Barb Ireland is the founder of Make A Diaper Cake, http://www.makeadiapercake.biz. Articles are free to be reprinted as long as author’s bio remains intact.