I got my start as a ghostwriter so I’ve paid close attention to how to write website articles. One thing I’ve noticed in my time online is that many people are intimidated to write. They get completely overwhelmed trying to figure out how to do their research and synthesize the information into good web content.

We’ll dig into how to write web content in a minute, but if you’ve been following the rest of the series on getting your website up and running make sure you’ve:

1. Gotten a web host for your site

2. Chosen your niche

3. Decided if you want an HTML, WordPress site, or otherwise

4. Planned your content

After you’ve gotten that all figured out, you need to do research for your web content. Now, there are many people out there who will tell you to just go to an article directory and re-write what you see there. Nothing could be more dangerous! Not only are you infringing on copyright, but you also run the risk of passing along someone else’s badly researched content.

It’s best to understand where the best places to do your research are in the first place. The more information has been passed along the more confused the information becomes. You should try to go straight to the source as much as possible. If you can’t go to the source (what is called a “primary resource”) you should make sure to use authority sources or at the very least make sure that their sources are cited so you know they are legitimate.

Whew! I realize that might sound confusing, so let’s back up a minute.

If I were researching diabetes here are the places I would go to find my sources:

1. American Diabetes Association (because they are a well-known authority)

2. Google Scholar (because I can find journal articles that are peer reviewed studies about diabetes)

3. Questia (because this is an online library with books, magazines, and journal articles that have been printed OFFLINE)

4. Wowio (to see if there are any books on the topic there)

Now, if I didn’t find everything I was looking for I might decide to do more research. But I would still make sure to use high quality sources that I know are accurate and unbiased. Yes, this will take longer than it would to just go to an article directory, but your articles will be stronger and stand out on the web as a result.

The next step is really to organize your research according to your articles. I do copy and paste/type notes into categories of articles. I use a software called Scrivener to organize everything. (It’s for Mac, a similar software for PC is Page Four)

So, after I’ve gathered my research I:

1. Do my keyword research to determine article topics/titles

2. Create a separate tab in my software for each keyword/title (you can just open up a new page in Word if you want to separate your notes)

3. As I come across relevant information from different sources I copy and paste (while citing) snippets that are relevant. I may also type up notes to remind myself of important things for when I write the article later.

4. At the end of going through my sources I should have my notes easily separated according to article topic. That way the information is there for me whenever I want to write my website articles.

Viola! It’s not that hard to learn how to write website articles after all. The hardest part is organizing your research and when you follow this method it will be easier than ever.

If you’ve never heard of Stompernet, then you might not have been in the Internet Marketing game very long. They are most known for having an $800 a month membership site. They are also known for giving great free content and good results. That’s why my attention was peaked when I heard about Stomping the Search Engines 2 and the Net Effect Print Journal.

Now, they actually released Stomping the Search Engines years ago (before I was in IM) and sold it for a hefty price. They are also selling this new one for $500. That’s out of my price range for sure!

Then, I got a mailing for an offer where they give it to you for free.  Uh huh…what’s the catch?

They were actually very upfront that the catch was you are auto-enrolled into a subscription for the New Effect Journal. This is a print magazine that shares their latest findings in getting great search engine rankings and amazing SEO tactics. The good news for those who are worried (like I was) is that you can cancel at any time.

So, I joined in on the offer! Be warned, there are a few upsells. I actually got two of the upsells (the best one is at the end!) but you don’t have to. I haven’t received the materials yet, but I can’t wait to see what kind of amazing things I’m going to learn.

I mean, Stomper hasn’t released anything in my price range in YEARS. Who am I to turn down a $500 product and free edition of their magazine for a measly $10 shipping charge?

You can read a great review of the journal here: Net Effect Stompernet Journal

Stomping the Search Engines II and the Net Effect Journal are something I’m excited to try to get my sites higher in the rankings. In turn I hope to make lots of money off of my sites! I can’t wait to get my package. When I do, you’ll get a full review.  I don’t get commission from this (a friend does ), but I wanted to alert you since I hear they aren’t going to leave the offer up forever. (that’s not hype, I think they are testing). And you can’t beat free.

Check it out here

When I first started out in Internet Marketing someone suggested I take a look at the movie “The Secret.” I watched it and found it intriguing, but also a little bit hokey. I quickly set aside any thoughts of manifesting my dreams. So, why am I doing this mind movies review?

To be honest with you, my mind is starting to change. Have you ever heard that we only use about 10% of our minds? I have…it’s been quoted to me ever since I was in elementary school. This amazing fact has truly stuck out to me over the years. Doesn’t it make sense then, that if you really “put your mind” to something that you could see results?

I think so!

What really got me interested in mind movies was this video with Frank Kern.

In it, he states what a  massive impact the Law of Attraction has had in his own life. He even attracted his own bathroom! (that is not a joke watch the video to understand what I mean.)

A mind movie is basically something you make that encompasses everything you want out of life. It contains short, succinct statements like “I have a happy life” and “I have a loving family with 4 kids”. You place pictures and inspirational things in your movie, and watch it often for inspiration.

I’ve made my own mind movie (You can see examples by signing up with the Kern video), and it’s amazing. My productivity is up and I somehow know that I’m going to get what I want out of life. I feel at peace.

You might be wondering what in the world this is doing on an Internet Marketing blog, but it’s actually quite fitting. If you’re spinning your wheels with your Internet business or wondering how you’re going to be able to juggle kids and work, this is just the thing for you.

Another thing I was concerned about was this not fitting in with my Christian beliefs. That’s actually part of the reason I didn’t pay attention to the Law of Attraction at first. The thing is, it totally fits in! I’m even able to honor God in my mind movie by declaring that I have strong faith, I have no doubts that my faith will become stronger as a direct result.

It doesn’t matter who you are, or what you believe in, you can benefit from learning about Mind Movies.

The creater, Ryan, takes you by the hand to guide you through making your own. Everything you need is included in the package, along with support. It’s amazing and gets my 100% recommendation.

To sweeten the offer of buying through my link, I’m offering a $30 Amazon.com gift card mind movies bonus to the first 20 people to join up. I want you to use it to further your law of attraction knowledge, or to grow your business with other materials.

After you’ve purchased through this link (check out the videos, words don’t do this justice -you’ll be hooked), e-mail me at mindmoviesbonus (@) gmail (dot) com with your receipt and we’ll work out the details of your bonus.

I have gone over the product very thoroughly, and have made my own mind movie using the product, and they don’t leave anything out. Definitely take a look at what Mind Movies can mean to your life.

Okay, part of my job is to help the readers of this blog know what a good opportunity is and what a bad opportunity is. I know of many people who are interested in the Cha Cha Guide opportunity. Is it worth your time?

Well, I actively set out to find out. The only problem is that I wasn’t accepted as a guide. This was very strange to me as I have very good research skills, am a fast typist, and am generally good at all things online. I DID take the entrance test while my toddler was running around like a banchee, but I was very surprised to learn that I had not passed. I also didn’t read the guide I was supposed to read, so it’s totally my fault. Okay, I was a little bit bummed as I really did want to see what all the fuss was about.

A few days later I got an invitation for a new Cha Cha role called an “expediter.” This sounded interesting too!  Apparently I don’t suck that much The basic gist is that you help speed up the process of connecting guides to people asking questions. I tried to log in to try this role out, but the login would not work. Several e-mails to the “guide care” e-mail and no response. I’m starting to feel like they don’t treasure their guides all that much.

That last paragraph made me realize that I should back up and explain what Cha Cha is. It’s actually kind of interesting. You can dial in on your mobile phone and ask a question. Human guides (Cha Cha guides) search for the answer and send it to the person “mobiley”.  (It’s free for the person asking the question.)

Now, this is not big money even if you are offered a role. As a guide you have the opportunity to make a whopping .10 per search. I think the average pay is around $4 an hour. Holy moly is that low!

While I was waiting to go “undercover” to investigate this opportunity for you I did some research on this company and how they treat their guides. What I found wasn’t pretty (suddenly, I was glad that their guide care people didn’t get back to me). In fact, it was downright scary sometimes.

The WAHM.com forum posters defintely didn’t have good things to say. There were a few people here and there who were having fun as guides, but many others had been terminated for seemingly silly reasons. Many people weren’t accepted in the first place, and those who were often felt like they were not paid anything near what they are worth. Debates about the program are rampant.

It seems like a dark world as a Cha Cha guide. In fact, they are heavily regulated to the point of craziness. People who had websites couldn’t post their true feelings for fear of getting banned. Those who did…got banned

So, do I recommend you become a Cha Cha guide? Definitely not. While I wasn’t able to “get in” I did hours of research that told me to stay far away from this “opportunity.”

Working for pennies just isn’t the best way to work online.

Remember, if you want to start earning an income online, sign up for my free books. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions. Sometimes you just want to earn more, and being a Cha Cha guide isn’t going to pay the bills.

I’ll admit it…I had never backed up my computer before! I assumed that everything would always be okay and that computer crashes happened to “other” people. Well, here I am doing a Mozy review for online backups, and it’s for a good reason.

My computer crashed and I lost EVERYTHING!

I was away on vacation surfing the web when my beloved MacBook froze up (which it never did). I turned the computer off, waited the obligitory 10 seconds and turned it back on again. All that came up was a flashing question mark. There was nothing I could do on vacation, but when I got home research showed me that the computer was a goner.

I was lucky in a way because all of my client work for ghostwriting was turned in and all of my products I sell were uploaded into my beloved e-junkie shopping cart (thank goodness!) Pictures of my son were also on my husband’s computer, or loaded into Shutterfly. All in all, I really did luck out. But that doesn’t make it any less shocking to lose products you’ve bought, software, and things I’m sure I’ll never rememeber.

Enter Mozy, the online backup solution.

I now have a new MacBook Pro (it’s glorious!) and the first thing I did was sign up for Mozy. Mozy is an online backup software that sort of catalogs the contents of your computer onto their very secure server. It takes a while for it to backup your entire computer the first time (like a day), and then you can set it to backup from then on whenever you want. I have mine set to backup whenever my computer is idle for a certain length of time.

So, what do I think of Mozy? I absolutely LOVE it. There is no complicated hardware to try and figure out, or weird settings.

Here are the steps to backing up with Mozy,

1. Pay your incredibly low fee of $4.95 (holy moly that’s a low price per month!)

2. Download the Mozy software – for PC OR Mac

3. Start backing up your computer (this will take a day or two)

4. Set it to back up automatically (you won’t even notice it in the background!)

What don’t I like about the service? To be honest with you, it’s worked perfectly. For under 5 bucks a month I have the security of knowing that my files are safe on a secure Mozy server. I don’t have to do anything, or even remember to backup.

Since you’re starting your Internet marketing career I’d say Mozy is an absolute must. As you work on your websites, write articles, and purchase products you’ll want to make sure they are safe and secure. Don’t make the mistake I did! Back up your files, I know that I can finally sleep soundly at night. This Mozy review is positive for sure!

Hopefully you have set up hosting through Bluehost or a similar hosting service by this point. If you haven’t, it’s really easy and cheap to get started. Just click on one of the links I’ve added in the previous sentence to get some help. Of course, that’s just the first step in setting up a new website.

You need to do these things before moving on:

Choose your Niche

Choose the platform you’re going to use

Now then, you need to start thinking about the content you’re going to have on your website. There is no magic formula to doing this, but there are some general guidelines. First, it’s important to know what the people reading your website are going to be interested in.

That means you need to do some research to get some general ideas. You should:

• Visit authority sites in your niche to get an idea of how they are using content
• Look at niche books on Amazon.com to see what kind of content published authors are putting out (browsing the table of contents can give you excellent ideas)
• Check out magazines in your niche to see what the tantalizing headlines are
• Visit forums in your niche via Big Boards to see what kinds of questions commonly pop up

Do you have some good ideas yet?  great!  Write thoughts down as they come to you for content you want to cover.  The Next step is going to be organizing those ideas and doing some keyword research. That post is soon to follow (or might already be around if you are reading this later!)

For now, be sure to sign up for your free eBooks on making fast money online here

I recently came across this article: Feminine Mistake

It actually made me kind of upset.  I think the person’s heart is in the right place, but she doesn’t come across in the right way.  Basically, the article states that women need to stay in the workforce.  That saying home and witnessing every “lost tooth” your children have isn’t worth the monetary losses that come from skipping out on working outside of the home for a few years.

I think her heart is in the right place (because I like to see the good in everyone), but there is no way I agree.  Even if I didn’t have the opportunity to work at home I would still want to stay home in some way shape or form.  Who cares if I’m giving up the chance to earn a position as assistant-to-the-ceo-whose-rear-I-need-to-kiss.

Her main point is that too many women give up those years for their children and then if they become widowed they have nothing to fall back on.  The article also cites statistics like those taking a 3 year break form work lose out on 40% of their pay when they come back.

Women definitely need to develop skills and know where they can get money, or learn to earn money if that time comes.  It’s just plain smart to prepare for your future.

With that being said, it’s just too strong to say that working and securing those high end paychecks is more important than staying home with your children.  Missing those precious moments is something I refuse to do.  That is worth more than any paycheck.

However, I do agree that moms should get their thinking caps on about raising their family if it were strictly up to them (and many single moms already do that!).  The best way I know is to have the best of both worlds.  You can stay home with your children, and be your own CEO right in your living room

Forget the corporate ladder, I’d rather play “Shoots and Ladders”

Women are NOT stupid to want to stay and home and raise their children

Don’t forget to sign up for your free reports on getting started as a work at home mom:

Sign up here!

Flickr Photo by triciaward

I’m going to start off this Sarah Palin post by saying that I have yet to decide who I’m voting for for president.  I’m also not a “feminist” in the strict sense of the word – meaning, my reason for voting for the Republican duo wouldn’t be because I desperately need a woman as close to the White House as possible.  Even so, I find Sarah Palin as the mom to be very inspirational.

Here is a woman who demonstrates that it is possible to be incredibly successful, yet she is able to raise her 5 children (one with Down’s Syndrome) at the same time.  While she’s certainly not living the work at home life style like the readers of this blog do or want to do, she is still an inspiration to those of us who wonder what is possible.

So while I’m not going to let the fact that she is a woman swing my vote one way or another, I can applaud because she has done great things.

Are you struggling to get started making money online?  It’s definitely understandable.  As a mom it is tough to know which end is up.  You start your day full of plans only to find that you just can’t seem to get anything done with those kiddos running around.

While no mom is perfect, it always helps me to look to people who are successful managing their time and their families.

I have a feeling that as the presidential election nears I’ll be looking more and more to Sarah Palin to see how she juggles it all.

I used to be an elementary school teacher.  Back then I was lucky if I could take a few minutes to go to the bathroom, let alone take a few days to go on vacation when I wanted.  This is just reason 2,349,343 that moms working at home have an awesome life.

Lazy days at the beach, hanging with my little boy…nothing could be better!  OK, I’ll admit that I did take my computer along to answer e-mails and make sure all was OK in the online world, but that doesn’t mean I was working my tail off.  The bottom line is that I got to stay in a very nice hotel and simply “just be.”

Are you to the point where you can take off and enjoy yourself whenever you want to?  What’s holding you back?  If the answer is, “my job,” are you content with that?  There are some people who adore working outside of the home.  They like the structure and having a boss to work under.  It’s go to work, complete your work, come home, and you’re done.

OR, are you the type of person who would rather work at home and be your own boss.  Are you the type that wants to be able to take off and vacation “whenever”.  Yes, it can be really tough and there is a lack of structure to contend with.  But the benefits can be really, really amazing.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

If you think you’re ready to start the work at home lifestyle, don’t hesitate to sign up for your free eBooks that will help you get started.

So far in our website building series we’ve talked about getting hosting for your website, how to choose a domain, and how to decide what kind of website you want to have. Well, we work at home moms definitely can’t gloss over the glue that holds all of those things together…choosing your niche!

In fact, you can’t very well choose a domain name if you don’t have your niche picked out. Also, the kind of website you want to build might be dependent on the niche you choose as well. You might find that a certain topic warrants a certain look or feel to your website.

There are many different factors that go into choosing a niche. Some people do quite well choosing something they are intimately familiar with or passionate about. In fact, that is what this website is for me. I’m very familiar with being a work at home mom, and I am passionate about sharing this kind of lifestyle with other moms.

Another person might be very passionate about everything to do with scrapbooking. I don’t know a single thing about scrapbooking, but you can do quite well with that niche! The point is that you really can earn a good income using the things you’re good at, really enjoy, or have a talent for.

You do need to be careful to make sure the niche will be a viable one for you. Just because you like underwater basket weaving does not mean other people do. Or, other people might like it, but they are not willing to spend any money on it.

Since you want to make money online, you need to choose a niche that people are spending money in. there is no need to create your own niche, all you have to do is get in front of the traffic/people who are spending money anyway, and get them into your own funnel.

This can all sound incredibly complicated, so here is a simple step by step you can use to find a great niche:

• Make a list of the things you enjoy and spend money on
• Make a list of the problems you spend money on (ex. acne, parenting problems, pet ownership problems
• Browse Magazines: If there is a magazine about it, people are spending money and are interested in it!
• Do some keyword research using Wordtracker’s free tool or sign up for Nichebot (my favorite because it gives you the best data that you can make money from). Make sure your niche has keywords that get a lot of traffic, and hopefully get low competition (that means you can easily target them)
• Make sure your possible niche has affiliate programs so you can make money
• Decide on a niche that you are interested in (because you’re going to invest a lot of time one it) and that can generate money for you.

That’s almost it! Way too many people make the mistake of choosing a niche that no one is spending any money in. For that reason, I want to reiterate that you need to be sure people are spending money before you start spending time on this.

Go to Clickbank.com and find your niche

Go to Amazon.com and find your niche

Go to eBay.com and find your niche

Are there products people are paying money for in any or all three of those places? Are there Google ads that pop up when you do a search in Google for your niche? If so, there is a good chance that people are actually spending money in your chosen niche, and that it’s a good one to go after for you work at home moms.

If you’re stuck, and don’t know where to get started, be sure to join my newsletter, and get two free eBooks I’ve written on how to succeed as a work at home mom!