Interview with Joelle!

This week I am bringing you Joelle, who is a mother to three children and grandmother to one. You'd think her life was busy enough, except she traded in her away from home job to work at home with her teen boys. Can ya blame her? Besides the fast-paced life of being a working mom, she is now able to spend more time with her sons. Hey, I worry about when my boy enters his teen years and no longer wants to spend time with me, I think what she is doing it GREAT. Joelle opens up about motherhood and her business, Freedom at Home Team

Interview:


Tell Me a bit about yourself:
I am a married stay-at-home mom of 2 teenage boys. I love my Heavenly Father and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, reading my Bible, spending time with my family and friends. Some other things that I enjoy are camping, fishing, board and card games, and tennis (playing and watching it).

I love board games with my kids, it is so much fun. I hope that once we get moved and settled down I can finally take my kids camping and fishing. I hear where we are going has lots of areas to do that. We always went as a child and I have fond memories of doing that. I just know your children will as well.


How many kids do you have?
I have 2 teenage boys at home, 1 stepdaughter who's a little older, and she
has 1 child, my grandaughter.


Tell me a bit about your business?
I work with the nation's largest discount dental and health benefits company, having over 1.7 million members nationwide. Our Corporate office is in Dallas, Texas, with over 50,000 people nationwide who work from their homes doing what I do. We market affordable benefit plans, online and/or in our local area. We also talk with others who have an interest in working from home or starting their own business. It's a great legitimate opportunity that lets you really make a difference and help people.


Did you work outside the home before this?
Yes, I worked outside of the home before I had my children. I mainly did office work. Right after I had my 1st son, I worked for a little while at a cleaners. I found out that I was pregnant with my 2nd son while I was working at the cleaners.


What is the hardest thing about being a WAHP?
So far it just seems to be finding the right places to advertise that don't cost anything or at least, cost very little. Then, I guess, juggling finances to try to pick out inexpensive places to do advertising, printing costs for fliers, etc..

Have ya had any luck with certain ones? I hear google is a good one but still not sure, since I haven't tried it myself.


Which do you prefer?
I think I like being able to stay home and work more, just so I can be with my kids. Also, the flexibility is GREAT!!

I love the flexibility, not to mention if the kids are sick I don't have to ask for the day off to be home with them.


Are there moments where you wish you could work outside the home again?
Before I started working from home, I sometimes thought about and missed working outside the home, but I wouldn't change the decision to stay home with my kids for anything. I'm very very thankful that I have been able to do this also.

I know a lot of moms don't have the same opportunity to do that, or maybe don't think that they can. And, it's not that I was able to do it because my husband makes a lot. He doesn't. Honestly, sometimes he was even without work. Sometimes things were tough, but it drew me closer to the Lord, and He's always provided!

We are a family of 6 (four kids, and us two parents) living with a military salary, so I know what ya mean about hubby not making a lot. I've been very happy to be able to stay home, it was only recently that I started earning money which I love because not only can I help pay bills I have a little spending money for small things.


How long have ya been a WAHP?
I have been working from home for a year this month.


What made you decide to be a WAHP?
I just really wanted to stay home with my children.


How do you advertise it?
Free and some inexpensive paid advertising online. Also, I put out business cards, fliers, and brochures. I'm checking into seeing how much our local paper would charge for small ads.


Thank you so much for your time and I really hope you continue to earn money at home. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity and one way to know your teen boys. Hopefully you get to see that grandbaby of yours too.

Tuesday Tip Day

Our tip this week comes from Traci Anderson, the mom-of-all-trades.

What tip would you like to give others that are WAHP or want to be?

Start early. If you don't have children yet, think about ways that you can work from home and take action. It is extremely difficult (but definitely do-able) to launch a business from home with a newborn. It is much easier to plan ahead and be prepared. Also, nearly every opportunity I've found (writing, blogging and direct sales) jobs have been through forum networking. I am a regular on a work-at-home moms site and have actually been offered jobs there. Have patience, perseverance and always remember your "whys". Whenever I feel burnt out, I remind myself that it isn't "all-about-me". It's for my family.

You know I never thought of starting early, but I can see how this would work. Get things established first so you just have to slide right in instead of having to figure out the whole process. Excellent advice Traci.

Are you a freelance writer? What tip would you give WAHP?

Man sentenced in work-at-home scheme

The former president of a defunct nationwide work-at-home-scheme called Club Freedom has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Neil Telafor, 57, of Kresgeville, Monroe County, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. Middle District Senior Judge Malcolm Muir, who also imposed a three-year term of supervised release.

For now, Telafor is responsible for $143,604 in restitution because his co-defendant, Dayton Sauerman, formerly of State College, is believed to be in China with his wife, a native of that country.

I love it when these cheats get what's coming to them!

Check out the full story on Penn Live.com

10 Tips for Busy Moms and Women Managing Work and Home

I found this great little article that gives each of us Work at Home Mom's a bit of a guide to go off of and a set of rules to set in place for ourselves. Somehow having rules to keep you on course helps to prevent becoming sidetracked to often.

Check these...Top 10 Tips for Busy Moms and Women Working from Home

1. ESTABLISH BOUNDARIES BETWEEN WORK AND HOME

Schedule how many hours you will spend at work and stay focused on achieving your three or four most important work goals for the week or day. Work hard at work but know when to go home and when you get there, be at home. Spend quality time engaged in self-renewing activities with people you care about. Women who are well-balanced thrive more in both environments.


2.PREPARE THE NIGHT BEFORE

For busy moms and women, every minute in the morning is precious. Get out the door faster by preparing the night before. Pre-pack lunches, backpacks and purses; coordinate bathroom schedules; plan and lay out clothes; and review the following day's schedule before going to bed at a good time.

3. TAKE TIME FOR WEEKLY AND DAILY PLANNING

Set aside 20 minutes each week and 10 minutes each day to plan your time and schedule, including the most important goals, tasks and appointments. Reviewing your week and day can also give you added insight as to how you can better manage your time.

4. WRITE IT DOWN

Remembering everything without recording it is a challenge that eludes even the brightest minds. Use a planning tool, either a paper planner or planning software and a handheld device, to enter your goals, tasks, appointments and contacts.

5. GROUP LIKE TASKS

Grouping similar tasks or tasks that can be completed together will maximize your time. If you have to revisit the same store multiple times for things that could have been purchased the first trip, you are spending not saving time.

6.SAY "NO"

When presented with a new opportunity on which to spend your time, ask yourself, "What is the wisest and best use of my time right now and what do I have to remove from my schedule in order to make time for this?" If the given opportunity does not meet that criterion, appropriately and graciously say, "No."

7. ESTIMATE YOUR TIME

The easiest way to get overwhelmed is by being unrealistic about how long it takes to complete certain tasks. Realistically estimate how long each of your goals or tasks will take to complete and schedule the appropriate amount of time into your planning system.

8. BE FLEXIBLE

Circumstances change, and new opportunities can be both urgent and important. Be flexible and willing to change your schedule and reprioritize it to accomplish something that is most important.

9. ESTABLISH ROUTINES

Guarantee that you make time for what is important by creating routines. Set aside a regular time in the day to spend time with your spouse, kids, or on those activities that are important to you in your life. For example, spend time each night talking with your family about their day or time exercising.

10. MAKE "ME-TIME" A PRIORITY - RENEW YOURSELF

One of the number one complaints women have about their over-packed schedule is the lack of time for self. Self-renewal leads to having a more balanced life. Make time in your schedule for activities (physical health, escape and people) which are renewing and re-energizing.

The two I have the most difficult time with are saying NO and taking ME time!

What about you?

B.S.I. Investigation - Work at Home Mom Revolution

B.S.I. Investigation - Work at Home Mom Revolution

Tip One: Breath some life into your template. I'm not the biggest fan of default templates, but if you must use one show a little bit of character and originality. Blogger offers little widgets that allow you to play with various colors and placements. Use those. It will show you're not boring.

Tip Two: Ad some contact information. If you don't provide your readers with a way to contact you with questions or interview opportunities, you may be missing the boat a lot more then you realize. Furthermore, there's far too many splogs out there. Sometimes offering up your contact link is all it takes to make you stand out as more then a splog.

Tip Three: Condense your archives to a drop down menu. You can do this in your blogger settings. It will free up valuable advertising space.

Tip Four: Sign up for Sitemeter and/or Statcounter. I use both. With these two little tools you can learn so much about your visitors. You can expand your network, link back to whomever is linking to you and capture a niche by really focusing on the search terms and keywords that are bringing people to your site.

Tip Five: I would make the Job Bank in the sidebar a weekly featured post or even monthly, depending on how often you update. Unless the job ad posters are paying for that space, you could be freeing it up for pay per click ads or Adbrite ad space.


Additional tips anyone?

Thanks so much to Lisa for allowing me to critique her blog. I hope Pam and others take away a little something with this review.

Interested in having your blog reviewed?

B.S.I. Investigation - Pam's Daily Ponderings

B.S.I. Investigation - Pam's Daily Ponderings

Tip One: The first thing I notice that needs to go or be filtered is the Blogger Swap button in the left sidebar. At the time of my visit, Nympho Girl was gracing the space with her presence and well, that's not exactly the image you're looking for to be located just below the adorable photo of your daughter and the one of you and your daughter. If Blogger Swap doesn't allow for filtering, I'd remove them altogether.

Tip Two: I would ad a little splash of color here and there. I know there are a lot of people out there who like the darker more "natural" colors and that's fine. Just show your visitors your an exciting and entertaining blogger by featuring a splash of color now and again.

Tip Three: Give a little thought to your blog post titles. People who use blog readers and feeds will ONLY see the title of your post in most cases. Make sure you are naming them in a way that's going to make them want to open it up and read it. Titles like "frustration" don't exactly peak a curiosity. If you're not going to name them to appeal to the readers, appeal to the search engines with keyword rich posts - had you used something along the lines of Missouri DMV goes Postal and Back you would have made your blog keyword rich for the term Missouri DMV which produced 2396 searches alone in the month of February.

Tip Four: When you are recommending products, check those products out to see if they offer an affiliate program or perhaps see if the product is offered through Amazon. Always try to link up your positive reviews with an affiliate link. Some of my best sells come from my own positive product reviews with text links.

Tip Five: StatCounter and Sitemeter - two little tools that will help you analyze your traffic and ultimately help you dig your niche. Monitor where your traffic comes from, what key terms and words they use to get there and build on that. I can't sing those praises enough! They are a must!

Anyone have any tips they'd like to add?

Thanks so much to Pam for allowing me to critique her blog. I hope Pam and others take away a little something with this review.

Interested in having your blog reviewed?

B.S.I. Investigation - Adventures in Baby Fat

B.S.I. Investigation - Adventures in Baby Fat


Tip One: I would highly recommend showing at least five posts on the front page. Keeping your blog limited to one causes your visitors to have to click more to dig deeper for your content. I don’t believe putting all your posts on the front page is beneficial, but five is a nice number to go with.



Tip Two: Try a different template or play with the colors a bit. Dark colors tend to detour visitors unless of course your content is “dark” then dark is good.



Tip Three: Use the archive widgets. Get your content out there so that your readers can scan through to see if there’s something they want to check in on. Your blog is very limiting to the visitor who is there for a matter of seconds, there’s very little to lock them in and keep them there.



Tip Four: Use your Adsense Widgets to get your ads out there. If you want to make money with your blog, you can’t earn if the ads aren’t there. Play with the template and move the ads around. That’s the beauty of the new blogger. There is lots of room to play.



Tip Five: Get an email link in place so that visitors can contact you. Allowing them the option to contact you with questions over a post is key in letting people know you’re real.


As with all other reviews, if anyone else has anything to ad, please feel free.

B.S.I. - Improve Your Blog with 5 Points or Less

Are you trying to monetize your blog but nothing seems to work?

Would you like an honest critique of your blog?

Can you handle honest and constructive criticism?

Would you be willing to allow this critique to be displayed publicly here or on MomGadget?

I've been thinking about offering up advice via my Work at Home Mom and/or MomGadget Blogs and the meme I participated in yesterday provided that last nudge of inspiration I needed to get off my tail and do something about it.

If you would like to receive helpful advice while helping me provide valuable information to my readers, I'd be more then happy to take the time to 'investigate" your blog and provide 5 points or less on how to achieve your ultimate goal of being a successful blogger.

Either send me your link via Email or provide the link in the comments section of this post.

February Commissions Revealed

It's been a while since I've compiled one of these posts and since a couple of long time blogging friends tapped my shoulder from a forum I used to frequent, I thought I'd compile the monthly commissions in hopes of proving that blogging and hard work can pay off.

I don't reveal what affiliates these are and I won't. It goes against the TOS of many of them. But browsing around all my blogs, it's pretty easy to figure them out.

Affiliate 1 - 1131.00
Affiliate 2 - 595.00
Affiliate 3 - 785.00
Affiliate 4 - 25.50
Affiliate 5 - 116.00
Affiliate 6 - 640.00
Additional internet income resources - 1308.00

Total for February - $4602.00

Keep in mind that I've been working from home since 1999. It's taken a long time to get to where I am and I won't sugar coat it at all. It's probably the toughest job I've ever had, because I have only myself to blame when things fall below a certain level and I have only myself to hold accountable for what I make.

If you have the drive, you can do it and I'll be around to help in any way I can.

How do you monetize your blogs?

After speaking with a relative just a bit ago, I find I'm always 'talking up' or trying to 'sell' people on blogging. It seems kind of funny to me at times when people ask what I do and then to capture the 'look' I get when I respond with "I blog."

Everyone seems to follow that look with a "how do you do that?" and "how can you make money doing that?"

In my mind it's easy! And for others who have been blogging a while, it's easy. But to actually take the time to step outside my own little world and realize that not everyone knows what a blog is or even how you could possibly make money from it.

I thought it might be a fun little project to invite others to share how they monetize their own blogs.

I'll be putting together the most recent list of my "money makers" and will gladly share them here.

I'd like to invite you to do the same.

What I'm hoping to receive are posts that outline the affiliate programs you belong to, a ballpark figure on how much you make with them and how long you've been with the program.

Feel free to discuss some of the pros and cons of these programs.

Try and keep your post as elementary as possible so that those who are wrinkling their foreheads at the very thought can wrap their minds around the possibility.

I made $120 just this morning

This is the second month I've been working with ReviewMe.com testing their product review for cash program.

I didn't want to post my opinion on the service until I had completed at least 4 reviews and until I had received my first pay.

ReviewMe.com is a great program. It is one that takes time though, so you won't want to go into this thinking you'll be quiting your day job next week. In the two months since I joined the program, I've just completed four reviews. But hey, the extra $120 isn't anything to turn your nose up at.

All of my product reviews are conducted through MomGadget.com and are noted as sponsored reviews. I will admit to turning down two review opportunities because they were products I could never see myself using and I wasn't going to fake it even for thirty bucks.

If you're interested in giving ReviewMe a try, please sign up through my link. ReviewMe has just started a referral program - it's nothing overly spectacular, but it is a couple extra dollars here and there.

Work at Home Taxes

I'll be honest, each and every year, I get nailed by Uncle Sam - and I do mean that in the most sarcastic way imaginable.

As much as I love working from home, every year I wind up paying out the nose in taxes. Typically to the tune of a couple'a grand.

There are many a evil thought that runs through my head about not claiming everything, but just as sure as I'm tapping away on my keyboard, Uncle Sam would find some way to nail me even harder.

I know there are many work at home parents out there that make much more then I do - Before I head off to my tax lady - are there any recommendations you can make, links you can supply or prayers you can offer up to help me make it to the other side of April 15th?

Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if Uncle Sam would offer a kiss blown across the room on the way out the door or SOMETHING!

By the way, did I mention how much I HATE paying taxes? I wanna get out of paying as much as I possibly can! I don't care how, just as long as it's legal and won't get me in the cell next to that dude from Survivor.

5 Advantages of being a Work at Home Mom

Maryemma from Home Biz Notes has listed 5 Advantages of an Internet Based Home Business - some of which include: Less Investment More Opportunities Global Possibilities This information set my mind turning on the 5 Advantages of being a Work at Home Mom - for me the top five benefits are:

1. Always available to my children when they need me
2. I can work around my families schedule - sporting events never have to be missed again.
3. I save money by not having to purchase work clothes, makeup and on not having to commute.
4. I am able to keep the house clean at all times
5. No office politics! To me, there's nothing worse then working with an office full of catty women!

So, what about you? What advantages are in your top 5?