Happy Black Friday!

Welcome to the first edition of the Work at Home for Moms newsletter! There is a lot to cover this week, including why I’m writing this newsletter in the first place.

As many of you may have noticed, I don’t mail my autoresponder lists all that often. To be very honest with you, it makes me uncomfortable to do so. When I do send something out, it’s because I’m very passionate about something. It’s either something I’ve bought myself or something I’m putting out (so I know it’s great ).

When I do mail out, I get the nagging feeling that I’m not providing enough value to you all. That is NOT who I want to be as a marketer. I want you to know that I’m here to help in any way I can. You’re not on my list or reading this blog just so I can market to you…you’re here because, hopefully, you feel you can get something of value from me.

I love that! It’s my goal to help moms, dads, and anyone else who wants to comfortably work from home, to be able to achieve their own goals. It makes me exceptionally happy when I hear that I’ve helped someone. Marketing in and of itself is NOT at all fulfilling for me. What is fulfilling is being able to help people. Warm and fuzzy feelings all around

So, this is the first edition of my newsletter. I’ve noticed that I really love being able to look forward to seeing newsletters and posts of value from people like Paul Myers, Dennis Becker, Tim Castleman, Tiffany Dow, and so many others I admire so much. They don’t just mail their lists to make a buck, they really care and offer a lot of value.

That’s my goal here as well I also love getting questions. It keeps me in touch with what you need and want. Feel free to send me an e-mail or leave a comment on the blog if you need feedback, want to bounce ideas around, etc.

Let’s get to it!

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Making Money During Christmas

Making money during Christmas is a lot of fun for me. First of all, I absolutely love this time of year. The air just feels better, vibrant, and more alive. People are just nicer to each other. It’s amazing! I also love that there is a ton of money flying around. If you’re even a little bit motivated, you can make money as an affiliate during Christmas.

My favorite way?

Promoting Christmas toys!

My father instilled a love for toys in me. In fact, he still asks for toys during Christmas — last year it was a remote controlled helicopter on his list. He’s a minister with a lot of serious things going on, so I guess it’s a fun escape for him. Anyway, this just proves the point that Christmas toys are fun for everyone! They are fun for the kids (and adults) who are going to get them, as well as for those who are buying the toys in the first place.

What’s even more awesome is that more and more people are turning to the web to buy their toys. They don’t want to fight the crowds and deal with the insanity. Heck, my cousin ended up needing stitches after her Black Friday experience last year! Staying home is a much better option — and people are doing it in droves.

Here is a quickie method I would (and do) use to make money as an affiliate for Christmas toys:

• Look at the Amazon Toy best-sellers http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/toys-and-games
• Decide which toy you would like to promote
• Come up with a fairly generic, but highly related domain name. For example, for the Leapster 2 Learning Game System, I might choose the domain “learninggamesystem.com,” or similar. This helps you avoid any trademark issues.
• Write 3 articles on this toy, with very tightly focused keywords. For the toy mentioned above, you might write articles on “Leapster 2 Learning Game System Sale” and two others containing the main toy keyword.
• Post the 3 articles one at a time, over the span of a few days
• Ensure you have Amazon, eBay, or whatever else you want to monetize with set up on the page (Adsense can work well!)
• Start getting traffic — PPC is a GREAT way to do this if you have the cash. SEO can work quickly as well. Just last week I threw up a site with a single article on it, and it’s ranking on the first page already for a hot-selling toy. Act fast if you want to use SEO, though.
• Rinse and repeat — do this with as many toys as you can, leading up to the holidays. One smart tactic is to choose toys/products you know will be hot sellers all year round

This method is very simple, and just plain works. Your articles should be well-written, informative, and helpful to the buyer. Picture them on the other end of the computer screen. What do these parents want for their children? Are they trying to find the best deal? Paint a picture of the joy on their child’s face.

Also, I’ve found that large, tightly focused graphics work incredibly well when promoting toys for Christmas.

Questions? Ask them on the blog! I’ll be happy to answer

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How to Improve Your Writing

Obviously, this is a very, very broad topic! There are countless ways people can improve their writing. I’m always trying to find new ways to do just that. Another consideration is that writing that moves me may not be writing that moves you. Some people are incredible sticklers for grammar and what is “correct” that they shiver with disgust at seeing anything less. I’ve had people write to tell me when I’ve made a mistake — I’m the first to admit it and welcome the help

It’s also important to consider that writing for the web is a very different thing than academic writing. In many cases, you’re trying to sell something. Perhaps you’re trying to sell a service. Perhaps you’re trying to sell a product. You might own that product or are an affiliate for that product. It might be the case that you’re a ghostwriter (like me!) and you’re writing in someone else’s voice to give their business a boost.

That calls for some great writing! I’m going to lay out some tips that come to immediately to mind for writing on the web. One or more of these tips might stand out to you as something you can latch onto. Writing for the web can be fun!

• Always think about who is at the other end of the computer screen, reading what you’ve written. Who are they? What are their burning desires? What do they look like? What’s going to get them to take action?
• Paint a picture for them with words
• Systematize your writing — everything from the research, to the organization, to the writing and editing can be systematized for much faster writing
• Don’t make your writing hard to understand — people are on information overload. If it’s complicated, be accurate, but interesting
• Don’t just rewrite other articles you see on the web — you’d be surprised at how many people do this without giving it a second thought. You should be researching from high-quality sources, checking your facts, and synthesizing the research adding your own spin. What’s the something new that people are getting from your writing that you’re not getting in other places?
• Don’t feel like you have to write like anyone else — write like you! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought to myself, “boy, I wish my writing had spunk like hers!” Then I realize that we all have different styles and talents. It’s a great thing!
• Study copywriting, even if you’re an article writer
• People value writing because many of them don’t enjoy doing it themselves.
• You really can become an “instant expert” as long as you proceed wisely
• Systems, systems, systems — this will make you more efficient so you can become a better writer overall

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Time Management Tips for Working at Home

Working at home is an enormous challenge. This is especially true if you’ve got little ones running around. Recently, I was explaining what I do to a group of people. These people thought being a WAHM was such an alien concept. Surely I must be making $2 an hour? Surely my kids are just plopped in front of the TV all day?

Ugh. Ignorance is frustrating.

Anyway, that is not the case at all. I actually have about 2 hours a day to work — that’s it. I have an amazingly wonderful husband who is very supportive and helps me out, so there’s that. I’ve also had to develop some incredibly effective time management strategies.

Again, here are some tips I hope you can put to use right away to manage your time at home. I’d love to hear your tips as well! It can get overwhelming with 2 little ones, no matter how efficient you try to be!

• The #1 tip I’ve gotten in my time as an Internet marketer comes from Jason Fladlien. I should only give myself 60 seconds to make a decision — that’s it. I need to choose a new domain name and stew about it for hours? Heck no! I make the decision in 60 seconds. Stewing over the little things was a HUGE productivity killer for me. In that time you spend going back and forth over relatively unimportant decisions, you could have moved your business forward in a huge way. This one is huge for me.
• You need something to keep you on task. http://teuxdeux.com is a great one. The Apimac timer is a great tool. My favorite, however, is the Action Enforcer software. It’s amazing! Really and truly amazing.
• Set office hours. Let your family know when you are working and when you are not to be disturbed. It takes 20 minutes to refocus on something, so having someone wander into your work space is a productivity killer
• 15 minutes IS enough time to get something done. I used to be of the mindset that if I didn’t have a solid few hours to work, it wasn’t worth getting started. As a very busy mom running here, there, and everywhere, I now realize that it absolutely IS worth it.

I hope some of these tips have helped you!

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Suggested Resources

1. Earn 1K a Day — This is my #1 favorite Internet marketing purchase of all time. So much so, in fact, that I’ve been a member for 3 years! They’ve helped me buy a house, talked me through things when I’ve been stressed out, given me actionable business steps that have led to huge breakthroughs in my business, and have been some of my best ghostwriting clients. Here is a link to a $1 free trial

2. Action Enforcer — Seriously, THE BEST productivity tool out there for Internet marketers. You have to have it if you have productivity or procrastination issues!

3. Black Friday Bundle — This is a HUGE deal that includes WP-Twin too. I own most of these products and they ROCK!

Questions? Comments? Just let me know!

Melissa Ingold’s baby has passed away. There are no words.

The worst thing I can imagine as a mother is to lose one of my sons. I have even bargained with God that he could take anything else away from me, but not my boys. I cannot imagine a worse pain.

Please consider donating to the family to help with funeral costs. Kelly McCausey is also offering a special membership offer to Mom Masterminds, with all proceeds going to Melissa.

Donate or Take Advantage of Special Offers

I’ve been in IM since 2007, and have gone through, bought, and used a lot of products. Earn 1K a Day and Info Product Killer have been my favorites, hands-down.

Well, Bring the Fresh has managed to blow me away. It’s my latest obsession, and it’s going to make me a whole lot of money.

Most of you are probably familiar with “The Rich Jerk” and Kelly Felix. I never bought that product…but I know it made a lot of waves right before I began marketing. Apparently he made some choices back then that he is no longer proud of (you can see http://kellyfelix.com for more on that…)

Fast forward to today…he and his best buddy, Mike Long, have set up “Bring the Fresh.” It contains a ton of “look over my shoulder” type videos.

The core videos give you a solid business plan for building niche websites — in the vein of IPK and Google Sniper, but better (with longer lasting results), and easier in my opinion. Kelly and Mike share everything about their sites, and it’s really neat to see and easy to follow — for newbies and experienced folks alike. My sites are already seeing good results.

In fact, I took one site that I’ve been struggling to get a #1 ranking since November, “FRESHened” it up using their methods last week and — ta-da — it is now #1 with 1,088 phrase match searches per day, 3,180,000 competing pages, and 129,000 competing pages that mention the keyword phrase in their title. That’s pretty awesome considering how easy it was to do using their SEO techniques! I’ve even been able to reach #3 on Google for a new, high-competition, product that just launched!

Beyond their amazing niche website building stuff, they go behind the scenes of “The Rich Jerk” plus several other multi-million dollar products and launches they were a part of. They spill a lot of stuff about what went on back then — including the Playboy party, working with “Mystery” the pick up artist, etc.

They talk about scummy marketing tactics gurus still pull, stuff they themselves have pulled, etc. WOW!

There is mindset stuff, a Yahoo Group (soon to be a forum) where everyone can interact, and a TON of content that will take me months to go through even though I dedicate a bit of time each day to do so.

I highly, highly, highly recommend this product no matter where you are in your IM career. It’s been a changing point for me, that’s for sure.

If you’re lost in the wilderness and need a solid plan to follow, throw the other junk out and do this. If you’re curious about what goes on behind the scenes and want to be entertained and enlightened, this is a great product for that.

This is one of those products where there is so much value that the sales letter simply can’t do it justice.

Bring the Fresh receives my highest recommendation

Affiliate-link (it’s a closed affiliate program) to get it now: Bring the Fresh

Bring the Fresh BONUS: For anyone who buys through my link, you have the choice (choose 1) of having me write you 2 original articles to get your sites started ($50 value), having personal e-mail access to me for any help you need as you build your Bring the Fresh sites (priceless ), or access to either my “Freelance for the Web” or “Facebook Advertising” PLR, which sell for $50 (or more) each.

Email me for more details after purchase at: freelancejenn (at) gmail (dot) com

PS. They even give you their cell phone numbers and you can call them for help any time — I don’t have many other multi-millionaires on speed dial!

I haven’t really “been away” from online business so much as I’ve been concentrating on my family (of course!) and some long-standing SEO and ghostwriting clients. I didn’t keep up with the forums as much as I normally do. It’s very, very surprising to me to learn just how much has changed in a short period of time. One of the biggest changes actually just happened, with the “Google Caffeine” update to the search engines. It sounds very interesting! It can also mean some changes to the way we need to do things — it’s all about fresh, up to the minute content.

I really like how Jennifer Ledbetter over at PotPieGirl explains things. Have a look:

Google Caffeine Update

Any thoughts about the update and what it will mean for your business? I believe I’m seeing some nice results for some of my sites from the “MayDay” update and Caffeine…but it could be too early to tell Quality content will truly get you everywhere!

Everyone needs more traffic! If there is one thing I see people (including me!) struggle with time and time again, it’s getting enough visitors to their site and achieving top Google rankings. I do some SEO work for my clients, so I have to test out a variety of new tools to keep their sites at the top of the rankings (as well as my own!). The latest one I’ve tested out is called SEOLinkVine, by Brad Callen.

My initial impression was, “wow! This is some beautiful copy!” The whole look of SEOLinkvine is truly beautiful. I know, I know — it doesn’t matter how pretty something is, all that matters is that it works well. However, I find that enjoy using something a lot more if it is pleasant to use. SEOLinkVine certainly fits the bill.

Not only is it “pretty,” but it is also very intuitive. It’s easy to submit and spin articles using the service. There are also some great videos that teach you step by step what you need to do.

Surprisingly enough, this membership has allowed me to eliminate two other needs — the need for an article spinner and the need for software that tracks Google, Bing, and Yahoo rankings for my site, for my targeted keywords. It’s really magnificent that these two features are included.

Maybe I should backtrack a little bit! Perhaps you haven’t heard exactly what SEOLinkVine is, which is why you’re reading this review! Basically, it allows you to submit articles with up to three links in them. You put spin syntax in the articles (you can do this within your control area or use a service like “The Best Spinner” instead). Then, it will drip submit spun versions of your articles to fitting blogs around the web. These blogs come from all different IP addresses and are of varying ages and page rank. That means it appears more natural.

SEOLinkVine has a fairly large network of blogs. With my initial test articles, I submitted 6 articles total (in three different niches). Unique versions of those articles (I spin mine to 100%) were posted 523 times! That means I’ve got as many backlinks just from the efforts of those 6 articles.

Of course, having links is no good if it’s not doing anything for you. I am now number 2 in Google for a term I’ve been trying to drive up the first page since November ’09 The site is turning into a great earner! In my book, that’s pretty darn good.

Another feature I LOVE is the “get content” feature. You can submit a blog (or multiple blogs) into the system so you can receive content. You are able to be picky about what you accept — and I am! That means I get fresh content posted to some of my blogs (I only accept very well written articles that are highly relevant and over 80% unique). This has also done great things for my site’s rankings (hint — word on the street is that Google likes for your site to have relevant outgoing links. This lets you get that with no work!)

The bottom line here is that this membership is well worth it. I’m seeing great results with early testing, I get free, relevant, and unique content, it tracks your rankings for you, it’s super-pretty, and it just plain works.

I can highly recommend SEOLinkVine (and I’ve tried many services like this, with varying results). If you purchase SEOLinkVine through my link, I will write an article for you (including spinner syntax!) This is a great value — a single spun article can result in 100′s of backlinks using this system!

Just e-mail me at freelancejenn (at) gmail (dot) com after purchase to collect your bonus.

Part of the reason I’ve been sort of MIA on my blog lately is because I’ve been pregnant! I just had my second beautiful baby boy and couldn’t be more in love. Working online, however, has become even more challenging! I now work from home with a 2.5 year old and a newborn.

I never would have thought it in a million years, but having a newborn in the house again has forced me to be even more wise with my time. I’m getting more done than ever before, and in less time! I do it because I have to. There simply is no other option.

For example, I’m a writer, so I write. A lot. In the past 2 weeks I have written 8 ebooks of at least 5,000 words! No, I don’t work all day long In fact, I usually have around 2 or 3 hours to work each day — sometimes not even that.

Here are a few time management secrets that help me get all of this done while still earning a very nice income:

• 15 minutes is more than enough time to take a chunk out of a project. Get rid of the mindset that you need hours at a time. That’s just an excuse!
• When the stars align and you find that all of your children are asleep or otherwise occupied, close those time-waster forums and GET STUFF DONE
• Make sure you are making the most of your time. Do you have a short term business plan? A long term business plan?
• Work like MAD to ensure everything gets done — 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Tweak what your doing so those results get better and better

I don’t pretend to have it all together, but I am extremely proud of myself for getting as much done as I am. I’m releasing new products (like Freelance for the Web), re-releasing older products (like Power Ghostwriting), and ghostwriting.

In short, life is great, so I’ve got to make the most of my time

One of the most popular posts on this blog is the one about being a Cha Cha guide. There is a lot of controversy over whether it’s worth your time or not. Some people are pretty happy with the opportunity, and others are fed up with their points system and the fact that payouts have lowered over time. It really got me thinking about what people are willing to do with their time — some of you are working ALL day long with very little reward.

It’s time to change that, especially if you consider yourself to be a good writer.

There are tons of ways to earn money online. Yes, some of them are pure scams, but others are very worth your time. I’ll always be a writer at heart, so I decided to put together a thorough guide detailing the best freelance writing sites on the web, and what you need to do to start earning with them. For example, would you rather earn $2 an hour answering hundreds of questions, or would you rather earn $25 an hour writing a few interesting articles? If you’d rather do the writing, then my latest product is for you!

It’s called “Freelance for the Web.” I’ve priced it super-inexpensively, just to account for the time it took me to write the guide. You can check it out here:

Freelance for the Web

This is a must-have guide for anyone who wants to earn an income as a freelance writer online.

~

Jenn

I’ve been doing a lot of work for clients lately, but I’m also doing my best to build up some great, passive income. Of course, I couldn’t pass up the Christmas season since it went so well last year! I’ve now been at this for two years, and couldn’t be happier. What other “job” lets you stay home with your toddler (with one on the way!), working with people from all over the world, and getting passive income too?

Part of my Christmas strategy involves toys again. Shocker — just one site I set up in the middle of November (read: less than a month ago) has generated over 1K in revenue. That’s pretty sweet, if you ask me. Other Christmas sites are doing pretty well too. I started late, so I’m happy with their earnings so far. Keep in mind that I’m up to my ears in client work, so all of these sites I’ve done for myself are quick little 1 pagers with some autoblog content, as well as reviews pulled from Amazon.

I really have to get back to work (what, doesn’t blogging count as work?), but here is a quick run down of what is working for me if you’re trying to get some fast Christmas revenue.

1. Register a keyword rich domain name (.com, .org, or .net)

2. Write 1 page of highly optimized content (original content)

3. SEO the blog (I’m using WordPress for these quickie sites)

4. Install PhpBay and ReviewAzon

5. Add some bulk posts to automatically post related products using ReviewAzon + set up PhpBay to add to the template

6. Add some autoblog content to pull from article directories, YouTube, and news sites (like Google News and Yahoo News)

7. Add quick Contact page and Sitemap

8. Do a little bit of random promotion

9. Monitor and add to over time, when I get the time

I’m incorporating a lot of IPK SEO strategies from last year too, by the way. It’s working well, and I’m seeing SEO results, despite the fact that I started so late.

Ho, Ho, Ho!

I’ve had some people from my ghostwriting course ask about Earn 1K a Day since I praise it everywhere I go. The reason I praise it is simple — without it, I don’t know that I’d be making a full time income online while staying home with my toddler. The support I found there (as well as the clients I made through connections!) were absolutely incredible.

Dennis Becker is the owner, and his goal for everyone who joins is that they make $1000 per day. Unlike other sites that hype making this kind of income (but you never see success stories), I’ve seen MANY members announce their first 1K days in the success stories section. I haven’t quite made 1K in a day, but I’ve come close a few times — and I owe part of this success to Dennis and the members of this site.

It’s hard to explain what this site means to me, and it’s hard for me to explain it to others. It’s mainly a forum where members share ideas with one another and answer each other’s questions. There are members with a wide range of experience. From the newest of the new (like I was when I joined) to the people who ARE making 1K a day on a regular basis (and more).

Some of these people were my first writing clients, some of these people helped show me that I could buy my first home…and ALL of these members have supported me in my journey.

I can’t praise Earn 1K a Day enough. No matter what your main online business model is, you need to join this site! The rewards you receive will help you grow your business to levels you’ve never thought possible. I can’t recommend it enough. Seriously…join now

If I’d heard those words when I first started browsing for ways to make money when I first started out, I probably would have clicked away! That’s because there are so many false promises online, and you never know when a good opportunity is staring you in the face, vs. one you need to stay far away from. The good news is that I DID take that leap when I got started 1.5 years ago.

Let me back up a bit. I was a teacher before I had my baby. I had him in the summer of ’07, and knew that I didn’t want to return to teaching. That led me to search everywhere online for a way to make money. In late October/early November, I was lucky enough to come across someone who was offering her services as a ghostwriter. I didn’t really know what that meant, at that point in time!

I browsed her website and quickly realized that it meant writing web content for websites, and ebooks for people to sell. There are many people who don’t have a lot of time to write, but they obviously need content for their websites.

I decided to set up my own ghostwriting website, and start offering my services. Luckily, I had joined some marketing forums (Warrior Forum and Earn 1 K a Day), so I was able to post that I was “open for business.” I got orders that same day!

Long story (a little bit) shorter, that very same week I matched what I used to make as a teacher, per week. I was hooked!

In that year I was able to quit my job, purchase a house, AND triple my income.

It’s now been 1.5 years later, and I’ve decided to put everything I know about ghostwriting together in a package for other people to learn from. Not only that, I want it to be an interactive experience. I’m offering 2 months worth of coaching as a bonus! That means that whenever you have a question, or aren’t sure about something having to do with your ghostwriting business, you can come to me for help.

My goal is to help you earn a full time income as a web ghostwriter. I’m not guaranteeing income for legal reasons, but I’ve helped people reach the 2k-3k per month goal online. My own monthly income has tripled since I got started!

If you want to change your life, and start ghostwriting web content and ebooks today, visit http://PowerGhostwriting.com today to lock in the intro price (I should be blushing, it’s so low!)