Work at Home Moms Talk Radio » Working at Home

Blog Week Giveaway!

Kelly — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:38:34 +0000

We’ve sold TEN packages during Blog Week so far and I’ve decided to celebrate with a giveaway.

I’ll give one person a FREE upgraded Blog Week package – and I’m going to draw that person’s name at random from a list of everyone who leaves a comment on any Mom’s Talk Network blog in the next twenty four hours.

Just visit Mom’s Talk Network – and comment on any of the blog posts you see listed there.

Actually, comment on as many as you like! Every comment counts as a separate entry.

On Thursday at 8pm Eastern, I’ll draw one commenter’s name and they will receive the Blog Week Upgrade package worth over $200!

That includes:

Domain Name

Three months of Mom Webs Hosting

Wordpress Blog Install

Theme Install

Header Graphic Customization

What are you waiting for? Comment like crazy!

Site Recommendation: Work at Home Business Options

Chrissy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:18:40 +0000

With Work at Home Business Options making the 100 Best Blogs for Women in Business on AccountingDegree.com today, I had to take a moment and mention them. Actually more than mention but break it down why they would make such a list in the first place.

Shelley Hill and Sophia McIntyre are the women behind this resource site. Upon visiting for the first time months ago I always beeline to the about page, it’s just something I do. I can appreciate the concept and the angle in which they decided to go with it.

Work at Home Business Options is super easy to navigate and has a ton of useful information! There navigation is amazing, making researching each topic a cinch.

The Business Article section for example:

Advertising and Marketing

Article Writing

Awards

Blogging

Business Basics

Business Tips

Home Business Start Up Ideas

Networking

Resources

There is also a section for Exclusive Articles, too.

If you’re into direct sales, they have a section totally dedicated to it. They also offer a direct sales company directory. As I mentioned using the easy drop down navigation makes researching so convenient.

If you think that’s it, think again. WAHBO also offers a shopping directory, a link directory, ghost writing services, affordable advertising and a section on home life. Whew, that is a lot of information! However, I am not finished yet.

The section Work at Home and Jobs is a HUGE section:

Non-Phone Jobs

Quick List Work at Home Companies

Telecommuting

Work at Home Companies Page 1

Work at Home Companies Page 2

Work at Home Companies Page 3

Work at Home Companies Page 4

Work at Home Job Leads

Shelly and Sophia have dedicated there time, knowledge and skill into this resource site and it certainly shows. I highly recommend this to anybody looking into working from home!

photo credit: rharrison

News from Around WAHM Country

Chrissy — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:52:17 +0000

Yesterday I stumbled across a two page story from the New York Times, “Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy Building My Brand”, by Jennifer Mendelsohn that floored me! You mean “Work at Home Moms”, oh I am sorry I think they used the term “Mommy Bloggers” (better make that call as some do not use the term WAHM) are getting big stories in the news that are positive, and in the New York Times to boot? Rock On!

The story covers the Bloggy Boot Camp tour, which was created by Tiffany Romero and Heather Blair, the founders of the Secret Is in the Sauce. Secret Is in the Sauce is an enormous community of I believe 5,000 members mentioned in the N.Y. Times.

Yes another conference to learn more about blogging, gasp! I know how does one keep up, right? I certainly don’t know but I do suppose there is money to be made and knowledge to be gained at these things.

With names like, Scary Mommy (Jill Smokler) on the speakers’ roster, you can bet it was not only educational but entertaining too. I have the unique pleasure of following Scary Mommy on Facebook, she is a hoot!

With women like Mary Fischer of Mommyologist, Ciaran Blumenfeld of Momfluential and Amy Lupold of Resourceful Mommy in attendance, it does entice the thought that I would have loved to have been there! That’s a lot coming from me since I am not all the hip about going to conferences away from home.

I guess I am a mommy blogger, I just prefer to be called a WAHM (Work at Home Mom) blogger, never the less, seeing this article in the New York Times really tells me that us Moms, who work from our home are a force to be reckoned with in the world of making money!

Since quite a few of these WAHM/Mommy Bloggers do product reviews and giveaways I thought it would be appropriate to share some communities that actively support contests/giveaways.

Listed are the top 4 places to look for a good giveaway or contest:

Classy Chics in Business Forums

Twitter using the hashtag #giveaway

WAHM Forums

Mommy’s Helper Community

Please Note: Some of these communities will require membership to view.

photo credit: María Cabello

Planning Your Projects: Week in Review

Chrissy — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:12:12 +0000

Taking the time to really plan out your projects really makes or breaks a really good business idea. In the past week I covered a basic start to finish this four part series of how to Plan Your Projects.

From the Basics in Getting Started I covered the most important and basic things you need to have in place, from time frames to budgets. I covered the basics needed to even consider the actual preparation phase.

Upon figuring out if you have the time and money to begin a new project, moving on to Let the Planning Begin, I cover research and outlines. These key basic steps are essential to the outcome of your project.

On the Building and Presentation section, I give basic tips in many areas of projects people may launch, regarding how to really build it successfully. Taking time to build it right will in turn show in your results.

Ready, Set, Launch gives you ideas on how to launch successfully and with people excited about your project and potential multiple customer/clients at time of launch.

This series is awesome for those just beginning and serves as a great refresher for those who launch periodically. As a person who has ton of ideas myself, it really helps me to keep things in a perspective or I will as I have in the past launch an amazing idea but not to its full potential. By using these steps myself, my projects although building at a rate slow will be built right and launched with success.

Are You In Love with These Links? WAHM Blog Link Love!

Chrissy — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:34:18 +0000

I am such a WAHM blog-a-holic and am in constant search of new and unique WAHM style blogs to read. I am a total sucker for WAHM blogs that bring in a personal aspect of their life.

Let me share a few of my favorites with you:

Working WAHM: Val Selby brings such useful information to work at home moms! However, my favorite part of this blog is her quick tips. These quit tips and the every so often personal perspective of working from home is why I love it so much!

Happily Blended: Brandy’s WAHM blog gave more than just the PR and giveaways, she writes about so much you can’t really break it down, WAHM issues to her personal struggles. We personally clicked one day when I commented a bit on the emotional side to one of her post. She emailed me directly and we had a wonderful conversation.

Eccentric WAHM: Not just because this was created by me, it is because of the two other WAHM’s I was honored to bring aboard. With Noel, Val and me we are rocking this WAHM blog. I love food, which Noel covers with some amazing recipes ideas, meal planning and all that yummy stuff! Val covers my other passion which is fitness with her fitness training expertise, so needed to keep myself and others on the right tract. Well, with me I cover design, crafts and the personal perspective of a work at home mom.

Don’t get me wrong, these are only a few of my favorites, it would take me all day long to share them all! These are at the top of my list to read daily. There are more!

Some others you can consider reading daily:

Nicole on the Net

Tale of 2 WAHMs

Social Media Mom

Planning Your Projects: Ready, Set, Launch

Chrissy — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:11:58 +0000

You got the go and started your project as mentioned in Planning Your Projects: Basics on Getting Started, the research has been completed as pointed out here in Planning Your Projects: Let the Planning Begin and the build and presentation is set as referred to in Planning Your Projects: Building and Presentation, what now?

You are now just about ready to launch your project, the most exciting time for a business owner to embark on. The anticipation and all the hard work put in are almost ready for everyone to see!

READY

Before you announce, here are some things to double check:

Proof read everything again.

Check links on website or sales page you’re using to present the product or service.

Check out how it looks in ALL popular browsers (if you have access to all of them even the not so popular even better).

SET

Weeks prior to the launch you will want to talk up your new project. You will want to get people excited about what it is you are going to offer and be eager to check it out when it is available.

Here are some places you can do just that:

Forums, especially ones you are active on and people know you.

Twitter, announce it here often and get a discussion going about it. People see the talk they will be curious.

Facebook, same as with twitter announce it and get a discussion going.

You Tube, make a video talking about it, hype up a little and show your excitement…this will excite others. Not to mention people want to buy things from real live people so show them who you are.

LAUNCH

It’s not time to launch this baby! Now depending on what you’re launching you have many options. This should have been looked at during the research phase and mapped out in your outline, so you should already have an idea of how you are going to do this, but I will share some of the popular ideas anyway.

Popular launch ideas:

Finding a reputable Product Review Specialist and have them review and do a giveaway

Do a giveaway of your own

Special Promotional Launch Price

Contest

There you have it! It certainly is a long process to start, plan, research and launch a project be it bit or small. Now it is time to market it. Market it right and you will reap the benefits of you hard work!

photo credit: Bdale Garbee

How To Place an Ad for Your Services in Craigslist

Rhonda Warren — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:08:44 +0000

How To Place an Ad for Your Services in Craigslist

Over the past few weeks we have been talking about working at home as a Telecommuter and/or starting your own business as a Virtual Assistant, no matter which direction you chose you will still need to know how to promote yourself in order to find work and/or projects. So today we are going to talk about How To Place an Ad for Your Services in Craigslist.

What is Craigslist exactly? It is a centralized network of online communities, featuring free online classifieds – with sections devoted to jobs, housing, personals, for sale, services offered, community, gigs, resumes, and discussion forums. Therefore, it is a great free way to reach your target market or to search for local telecommuting jobs and/or work as a freelancing virtual assistant.

Below I am going to walk you through step-by-step on how to post your ad on Craigslist.

1. Go to Craigslist.org.
2. Log into your account on Craigslist (if you do not have an account already set up then you can easily do so, its free).
3. Choose the State in which you wish to list
4. Then it will direct you to the Cities in that state to narrow your search. You then will choose the city in which you wish to list.
5. Next go to the top of the left column you will see “Post to Classifieds”
6. You will then be able to choose where you would like your ad posted. You will want to choose “Services Offered”.
7. Once you make your selection it will take you to a list of categories. You then will choose the category that best fits the services in which you offer.

Note: Craigslist now requires that your account be verified by phone in order to post to some categories. Therefore if your account has not been verified then you will need to follow the instructions to complete the verification. This is a really simple process. Your account will need to be verified in order for you to complete the posting of your ad.

Below is a brief description of how this process works. You will enter a valid telephone number. You can choose to receive an SMS message or a phone call. In this message you will receive an activation code in which you will enter into the box provided on the website. Once you enter that code and click continue your account will be activated and you can then begin posting your ad.

Once you are ready to post your ad you will then be asked for the following information to complete your ad Posting Title, Specific Location, and Posting Description (which is where your ad will go). You then click continue and your ad is posted! (Ads are active for 30 days before they are deleted.)

Planning Your Projects: Building and Presentation

Chrissy — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:35:54 +0000

Once you have confirmed that everything is in place to start a project as mentioned in Planning Your Projects: Basics on Getting Started, done your research and created your outline as suggested in Planning Your Projects: Let the Planning Begin it is now time to start the build.

You should have in place a freelancer if you are outsourcing any or the entire project and have the outlined parts for them ready to be sent now. If you are taking this on yourself, it is time to break down the outline to small manageable sections. Remember you should work this around your current business.

I suggest working on it two hours a day, 5 days a week to allow time everyday for your normal daily business to continue.

Helpful hints to a successful build of a written product such as Reports, eBooks, etc:

Proofread by section not all at once.

Add images that pertain to the subject matter, preferably custom images to avoid the stalemate of seeing the same ones elsewhere.

Do stick to what works, such as popular layouts and font styles.

Helpful hints to a successful build of a service such as ghostwriting, virtual assisting etc:

Accurately test your typing speed by visiting TypingTest.com, you want to be fast an accurate.

If you haven’t already made sure your current office (word for ghostwriting) is up to date or at least compatible with most versions, do that now.

Helpful hints to a successful build of a tangible product:

If possible make a few test products and send them out to unbiased reputable product reviewers.

Test and retest the product using general concerns your customers may come up with.

This is not all you can do to ensure the project you build will be successful but they are great starting points. The sky is the limit on things you test, tweak and make better with your product or service. The key thing to remember is…just because you build it does not mean they will come buy it!

If the build was enough to reel in the customers, then presenting it would not matter. However, presenting it is very important before it can ever be launched for all to see!

Thinking about how to present this should have been thought about during the research phase of the planning and mentioned in the outline. If not some extra thought will have to be cued right now.

Some thoughts of presenting your new project to the world:

Will this need to be presented with its own website?

Can this be sold on a shop such as Etsy? Perhaps Amazon or maybe Ebay?

Would to present best of a Sale Page?

Do offline promotions such as business cards and fliers deem necessary?

When you finish the build and have in place the presentation, when should the project launch? Come back tomorrow for the last part of the series to find out!

photo credit: placdarms

Planning Your Projects: Let the Planning Begin

Chrissy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:35:20 +0000

Now that you have the established you can start your new project using the basic list in the Part 1 of this series Planning Your Projects: Basics on Getting Started, it’s time to move on to another step, the planning.

Whether you are taking on as a Do It Yourself or outsourcing it to someone else the planning of your project has to be mapped out. There are a few things that you must do before diving in to it.

Research is first and foremost in the planning stage of your project. Let me share with you a few basic research points:

Find out as much as you can about similar products or services.

Who is your target market and do they see a need for what you want to offer?

What are similar products or services prices?

Are these similar products or services, being offered with other promotions?

Obviously depending on what you are going to offer you can certainly add to this list of research points. For now I will break these down and explain why I believe these are the most important basics to start with.

Find out as much as you can about similar products or services

This is important to do. You want to know how saturated the market is with similar things. By do this it will also help you make your product or service unique to stand out from others.

Who is your target market and do they see a need for what you want to offer?

Do you know who your target market is? You will want to pick a few people in that market and ask questions to. It would not be a bad idea at this point to also see if they would be interested in reviewing your product or service once it’s completed for a testimonial, but I will cover that in the last part of this series.

What are similar products or services prices?

You certainly do not want to be over or under priced. Researching similar products and services will give you a better perspective on where to price yours.

Are these similar products or services, being offered with other promotions?

While you can allow your product or service to stand alone, it is always good to know if others with similar offers are adding anything in with theirs. This gives you an option to plan in special offers to accompany your product or service.

Once you have established your research, you will be ready to outline the project! Outlines are pretty straight forward but here are a few examples in case you get stuck writing it out.

A Standard Business Outline by Tim Berry

Small Business Plan Outline from QuickMBA.com

You can use a format like these or your own. Whatever you are comfortable with will work. Just make sure you do this, as it will make your project flow smoother for you or the person you outsourced.

Now is the time to hire a freelancer to work with or completely do your project or buy any programs you will need to do the project yourself.

It will really start feeling like your project is starting to come to life during the planning stage. Come back tomorrow for more on this series Planning Your Projects.

photo credit: Ajda Gregorčič

Learn How To Start A General Transcription Business

Tishia — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:51:28 +0000

Do you have a knack for typing? Can you type quickly and accurately? Want to earn some extra cash working from the comfort of your home with little or no cost upfront and no experience? Then check out Transcription Crash Course and learn how to start a general transcription business.

The Transcription Crash Course will teach you:

What things you absolutely need to run a transcription service.

The different types of transcript and why you’ll probably only need one format.

Where to find transcription jobs, work, and clients.

Still not sure about running your own transcription business? Think there isn’t any money to be made? After all “who really uses a transcriptionist anyway?” You’d be surprised by the answer! And here’s just a few people who rely on transcriptionist:

Internet Marketers

Podcasters

Busy bloggers and site owners

As an added bonus when you purchase The Transcription Crash Course you’ll receive 3 extra reports.

10 Super Important Tips for Communicating With A Client

The Importance of Time Management – How to Optimize your Time

How To Deal With Slow Seasons in Your Business

Grab your copy of Transcription Crash Course and learn how to start a general transcription business now!