Link Exchanges & Promotion

Still working on RecipesForMom.com and adding new ebooks (just added Coffee Lovers Recipes and currently working on one for Chocolate Lovers). More importantly I'm needing to do quite a bit of link exchanges and submit to a few directories. After thinking about it last night I'm going to have to spend a week on promotions. That will include seeking out link exchanges, submitting some recipes to newsletters that are requesting them, submitting to directories, and writing another article. I figure if I start out actively seeking link exchanges (not just posting that I'm looking to exchange links - I did that already and well, the resonse was very minimal), I'm going to stumble on directories, places to submit recipes, and other ways to advertise.

Although my first choice for links and advertising is going to be text links, I realise I'm going to have to have some buttons and banners on hand just in case. So that should probably be the first thing I do before I start seeking link exchanges.

I've wondered if I should have done these link exchanges as I finished up each site. But then I think, no I think waiting until I was finished with all the sites was a good idea since all my sites are so different. This way when I seek out link exchanges the chances of one of my sites matching one I want to exchange links with are greater since my websites are all different.

It's deffinately true what they say - you are never done with a website!

RecipesForMom.com plus new ebooks

Well now, here I sit with TWO websites finished and THREE ebooks so far to go with them. Not bad concidering it was just Friday when the ideas started hitting me. This is what I was talking about when I said I get an idea an run with it.

Really I'm not finished yet. I have many many more ebooks to format, packages to put them in, and several more websites to finished. Either way I'm quite excited that I've accomplished so much already!

So here's a run down of what I've finished so far:

RecipesForMom.com - Includes links to recipes, listing of cookbooks and ebooks, and resources.

Free Bread Machine Recipes - The name says it all! Lists several bread machine recipes plus non-machine recipes.

Bread Machine Recipes Ebook - includes over 70 recipes specifically for bread machines.

Low Carb Bread & Pastry Recipes - Lists over 20 low carb recipes. Yes those on low carb diets CAN eat bread!

Jam Recipes - Over 100 different jam recipes. Very large collection!


So that's about it *for now*. I'm just about ready to work on getting a few more ebooks ready, then will look to build more websites. LOVE IT!

Dial-Up Sinks!

Ugh!  My first real "debut" and I can't even hear it :(  I've tried many, many times to listen to Wahm Talk Radio shows, but to no avail.  And of course this show I'd REALLY like to hear I still can't.  Yeah, even though I knew I couldn't, I sure tried like heck!  Kelly had promised to send me a CD copy of it so, I'll still get to hear it but the wait!!  I get to read what everyone else has to say about the show and can't even really reply.  I was a bit to nervous to remember the whole thing anyway! LOL!

So, this shall be on my goals list.  I have most of the other equipment and supplies I need for my business.  Next goal is to find some alternative to dial-up.  DSL isn't available in my area.  I don't believe cable is available here either.  Yeah, I'm in the middle of no-where!  Time to do some real searching!

Anita :)

New Project

I love to keep busy, and I love to juggle things in my life. Doesn't mean it's GOOD for me, but that's a different story.......

I've decided to start a new project, one that Anita is still very much a part of but really is "my" project. I went head first into it, snooping around last week for recipes and doing the SEO research on it, then buying the domain names Friday night. I was still working over the weekend against my own rules, but I didn't care. I had an idea, and I was running with it! Plus I kept telling myself that since I'm now helping my mom at the restaurant 2 days a week until school starts I won't have as much time online. Ummmm, really it's not much different than the days I was going to Walmart (which has now been moved to Saturday), but heh, it was an excuse to work!

So anyway, this weekend I got one full ebook finished (really it was just formatting, so it didn't take THAT long - I was just "half way" working over the weekend anyway), and started in on two of the websites that are going to be attached to this project. The big one and a side one. They really will be working together, actually. The way I have it planned out in my head is like this:

1. Visitors will be brought in from the small site, which will have *a few* free recipes. On the website will be an option to buy an ebook with a TON of recipes. This is of course a niche market, not just recipes in general. The niche is "To Be Announced" here. Don't want to give any secretes yet!

2. When the visitor does buy the ebook they are taken to the big site, which has the niche ebook related to the first website, plus will have other recipe ebooks and other recipe/cooking related items.

3.  When the recipes are printed from the ebooks, the logo for the big site will be on every page, thus driving more visitors to that big site to buy more ebooks.

 
I've already got all the recipes I need to make quite a few niche ebooks, and most likely more mini sites to pull in visitors. (I haven't done ALL the research on the other markets, just the first mini site). I figure I will only need a few mini sites to generate a desirable amount of visitors to the major site and sell a good amount of ebooks, along with other items. ;)

Well now, I've shared quite a bit of information here. Hopefully not too much - wouldn't want someone running off with my idea!

~Kara

Soy Wax Candles DONE

Yes! FINALLY DONE! Well, for now anyway. I'm in serious need of some link exchanges for all my websites, so just as soon as I'm done with the next one I'm off to make some exchange requests on a few groups that have a high response rate. I'm just so excited (and exhausted) now that I've finally got the revamp of that website finished. I also had that site accepted to Froogle (Google's shopping directory project), and got my files uploaded so hopefully that makes a huge difference in my search engine rankings. I don't know much about Froogle since I've always delt with affiliate programs, so we will see. (The candles are not via affiliate programs, I'm a wholeseller for Kovacs Creation and she does dropshipping - I've sold those candles mostly locally for well over a year now so about time I paid a little more attention to that website).

While it's after 8pm and I really should get off the computer, I'm just too antsy to work on the new recipe project. I purchased some recipes with resale rights on eBay, and plan on using them in various ways (exact details will be announced when I get closer to having the website and future websites finished).

I still have work to do with Mom's Market, but oh I'm getting SO sick of changing those pages it's not even funny anymore. Even still I know it has to be done and it's going to be worth it in the long run.

Looks like work on the hobby site has been postponed most definately. *sigh* Oh well.

Well I still want to get some more work done, but right now I need to spend a little time with my daughter before she goes to bed. ;)

~Kara

Thank Heavens for Blogs!

Well, I've definitely found a new resource with this blog.  Not only can I keep all my visitors up to date, but also I can keep myself up to date and on track.  It seems like everyday I have something new going on and I'm having a hard time keeping up!  Without this blog I couldn't possibly keep everyone posted on what's going on around here.  The ezine used to take care of that but, geesh...everything changes from day to day...not week to week.  So, today I have lots to say! ;)

 

This afternoon Kara and I will be hosting a chat on Affiliate Marketing at the Home Business Seminar at 5:00 EST.  And I must admit I feel as though I'm only about half prepared so today this will and has to be my main priority.  Usually Kara and I host chats on Online Parties and kind of just go with the flow instead of bombarding our listeners with a long boring seminar where we do all the talking.  It keeps it much more fun and our guests leave with thier own questions answered.  We felt as though with a topic such as Affiliate Marketing that procedure wasn't going to work as well.  We decided we needed a bit of an outline to go from.  Almost done with that...

 

I'm so excited about our Back To School Celebration and have been busily preparing but forms of advertising and promoting I just haven't gotten around to nearly as much as I'd like :(  We recieved our banner yesterday and at the very least I will get it on my website today.  This event is going to be HUGE and so much fun. I can't wait for it get  here!

 

Thanks to Alice Seba of InternetBasedMoms.com I was able to add a nifty little tool that I'm loving both as a publisher AND a reader of many other blogs.  This little tool is called a RSS Feeder.  RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and simple just isn't the word to describe this!  It's better than simple!  It's even made my life a little simpler.  By clicking on the little "add to MyYahoo!" button on the right here, you can have and updates right on your own MyYahoo! page.  Now, I can go to MyYahoo! page and have a quick run down of all my favorite blogs I've been watching.  You can set your preferences of just having the title of each blog entry or a quick little intro of what each blog entry is.  Let's just say I'm loving having all those blogs on one page for a quick review.  Try it, I think you'll enjoy it too ;) (Thanks Alice!)

 

AND I've saved the best for last!  I recieved and interesting email yesterday that made me both extremely excited and scared to death all at once.  Really, I mean it...as I read the email I literally felt all color drain from my face.  Kelly of WahmTalkRadio had invited me to be a guest with Alice of InternetBasedMoms.com and talk about our blogs!!  Ugh!  I didn't know whether to jump for joy or hide in a corner!!  Why?  Well, for one as anyone would be I was ecstatic of the thought of being on Internet Radio BUT...speaking?!?  Me...We're not talking about hiding behind an email or instant messenger.  Actual live (well, almost live) speaking.  I've never been in any situation of speaking like this before.  Luckily, the email had mentioned that this was pre-recorded (Ahhh..pre-recorded, with the luxury of editing)  Sooo, with much encouragement from Kara (Thanks Kara!) I replied with a yes.  And thanks to both Kelly and Alice it really wasn't that bad at all...actually it was quite enjoyable.  It was really nice to speak with the both of them beforehand on a more personal basis.  Sooo...be sure to tune in next week at WahmTalkRadio!  (Thank you Kelly for inviting me!)

 

Till later...

 

Work, Work, and more Work

My what a day it's been - a very very long day. I'm working just a bit of over time today now that the kids are in bed, because tomorrow I'll get in an hour if I'm lucky before I have to take off - I've somehow gotten suckered into helping my mom at her restaurant. She's only open 2 days a week, and now that her husband has gotten a new job it's just her running the show. Obviously she needs some help. Thank goodness it's only 2 days a week and for a month or so. Interfears with my schedual just a bit, but maybe I can sucker her in to free babysitting and house cleaning instead of money for working. That would deffinately be worth a lot more than she could pay.

Well let's see, I've accomplished quite a bit today. Not everything is crossed off my list, but a few things took a little more time than expected. I had hoped to get Soy Wax Candles done today, but didn't. I did end up buying a $5 template, which I did manage to customize today. That was a biggie and more than half the work. Editing all those buttons isn't exactly quick and easy. So the good news is I got the main template done and an additional 12 pages + home page finished. The bad news is I've got another 25 pages to do. UGGGGHHHHH. *Crossing fingers* I can sneak in some time tomorrow to get it done.

I did also manage to update another section on Mom's Market. So I'm now sick to death of codes and I swear I can't stand to look at any more today. I've got to try to get some sleep and hopefully get up early tomorrow so I can get some work done before I have to go - which the computer is going to have to be off by 9:30am so I can get everyone ready, out the door, and down to my aunt's house by 10:30am or so. I won't be home until probably 3pm or so, then Anita and I are hosting a chat at 4pm. I'm hoping I can talk my mom into picking up my kids so I can at least have a little quite time to get major work done.

Now.....time for bed!  

Work on Soy Wax Candles

Yes I know I'm no where even near done with Mom's Market Shops, but I HAD to get some work done on Soy Wax Candles. That site is another that's been driving me nuts and was in need of an update. There's new products to be added, and some major work to be done with the template and TONS of new pages to add, since I've decided to put each product on individual pages. Lots of work yes, but I'm doing this for SEO purposes. I do realise I'm going to have to do some more promotional work on this site, which I'm not looking forward to, but that's alright I can take a day to do it. Shouldn't take me too long to do, and it should be worth it.

Aside from getting quite a bit of work done, we certainly had "one of those days". While waiting for the repair man to show up to fix our AC, we had a storm come and knock out of electricity. What a perfect time - as if it wasn't hot enough in here! I couldn't even run a fan! Apparently it only effected my half of town, as the other half's lights came right back on. How lucky! No, what was really lucky was the fact the repair man showed up 5 minutes after our lights came back on. Boy any earlier and we would have had some REAL problems! I should also be thankful it didn't get real hot until later in the afternoon after the air was fixed. When the lights were out it was still in the lower 70s, so it wasn't too terrible in here (just a little humid because of the storms).  I'm also lucky it only cost me $95 to get the freon charged - it could have cost a lot more.

Well tomorrow is going to be yet another busy day. I would like to finish up the candle website and also get as much work done on Mom's Market as I possibly can so that by Friday I can at least get started on the recipe website. I made some very nice purchases today of recipes that I can resell, so those should keep me very busy for quite awhile! I just can't waite to get started on these!

I'm thinking strongly about purchasing a few cheap $5 templetes to use instead of attempting to build these websites myself. I'm somewhat satisfied with the work I did on the candle site, but think it could be a LOT better. I am no artist, I'm the tweeking queen! Give me a templete and I'll tweek it to the point where it won't look anything like the original but functions the way I want it to. One of these days I'm just going to have to break down and buy a program like DreamWeaver and actually learn it so I can build professional websites. Then again if I can buy templetes at $5 who cares? I have better things to do with my time so best to outsource the things I'm not good at. ;)

Well now, it's way past working hours, but I wanted to come back on for a bit to write about my day. :) Until tomorrow!

~Kara

It's Official...I'm addicted!

Yup, there's no doubt about it!  I'm officially addicted to online auctioning.  And nope, it's not Ebay.  It's MomPack Auctions as I mentioned earlier.  You can't beat it!  It's FR*EE (yes, that is one of my favorite words!)  I spent majority of my day setting up auctions.  I tend to be a "neat freak" and a perfectionist when it comes to those types of things.  No, I'm not saying in anyway that I'm perfection (cause I'm the farthest thing from that!) But, I love tweaking things and making things look just perfect (for me anyway). 

 

I even tried something thats a little new for my style.  Guess you could call it a bit of a "test" for me.  When it comes to writing ads and promotions I usually tend to be more on the personal side.  Hmmm...I don't even know exactly how to explain it.  But usually I don't make the whole long sales page of You get this and You get this.  Buy Now.  Hurry.  If you do this now you'll get this as an added bonus.  But obviously this type of advertising must work or else you would see so many of them.  Soooo, I decided to give it a try.  I set up two auctions today in that manner.  One was for an Ebook Business Pak and the other for a Webmasters Software Pak.  Doing those were kind of fun and like I said just a bit different from what I'm used to doing.  I'm interested in seeing the results.

 

My initial goals for the day was to promote the Back To School Celebration a little more today.  But easily got side-tracked with the auctions.  Hopefully I'll be able to jump into that more tomorrow.  Heck the least I can do it get it on my website.  I guess I was just kind of waiting for the banner to be done first. But I can't wait too much longer...Need to make it a priority.

 

Either I (actually we!, LOL) need to quit coming up with so many ideas OR I need to start working a little more on each project everyday.  I'm still not used to not having as much time to work during the day.  I'm still used to working during the day and right about now I'd be helping my daughter with her homework.  Luckily I've been able to work more in the evenings.  When the kids were in school I only worked during the day and the evenings were for the kids.  Guess things have been just a bit flip-flopped but...that's not good for hubby.  Think I better start setting that alarm clock a little bit earlier.

Mom's Market Shops - Looonnng way to go

Well the goal of today was to swap out links and do some general updating for 3 of the mini-shops at Mom's Market Shops. Eh, after several exhasting hours I managed to get one done. We will see tomorrow and Thursday if the changes made today made a good enough empact to swap out more.
 
The reason for swaping out links was because I noticed something yesterday. Amazon, which carries many of the same products as Nick.com, converts better. I took a good look at my total click throughs, and then at number of products ordered. Wouldn't you know Amazon contributes to twice as many sales as Nick.com when compairing clicks to sales. I have a pretty good idea why too. There's several reasons. One, Amazon carries more products. That's a pretty obvious one. Ok, even still if someone is looking for a specific product, other products don't always catch their attention. But! Two, Nick.com is CONSTANTLY out of stock of popular items, and have a very ugly "product currently out of stock" page, with no "sugestions" for other products that are similar (partially due to not having near as many similar products as Amazon). Last but not least, Amazon has a nifty option - "Quick-Click"(TM Amazon) buying links I can add to my pages. Perfect. I did a little figuring last night and found that those links have a higher convertion rate than just product links. Hmmmmm ok, good to know!
 
Now the down side of Amazon is if it isn't a direct purchase (meaning they click on my link, then add the product to their shopping cart) I only receive 5% of the sale instead of Nick.com's 6%. Then again when you see twice as many products sold and direct purchases paying 7.5% this makes up for it, since a good majority of my purchase are direct purchases anyway! Not only that, but Amazon pays very nice bonuses for top earners. Granted it takes quite a few items to be shipped before bonuses kick in, but when they do it's well worth it.
 
So let's see, Amazon - twice as many products sold at higher commission - works for me!
 
Aside from getting at least one section updated (something like 8 or 9 pages), I got the main article done for tomorrow's issue of the Ezine . Although I had to stop halfway through to take the kiddos outside. Waaay too hot today NOT to go swimming, plus they are talking rain the rest of the week. Today might have been our only day out! Sooooo anyway, after playing outside then comming in for supper I had to of course finish the article, which is why I'm sitting here at 7:30pm. It's been a productive day though and the kids & I had our together time so I feel good (just really tired!).
 
Just crossing my fingers we can survive the heat tonight - the AC is low on freon yet again (I've been positive there is a leak somewhere, since we have lived not even 5 years and this will be the 3rd time we've had to charge it - last time being early last summer), so it's not keeping the house as cool as it should and working over time just to keep it under 80. I shouldn't complain, it's not too bad in here right at the moment but if it doesn't cool down soon it could be a really terrible night. At least it's cooler in here than outside, and with a little luck the repair man will be here tomorrow to slap me with a multi-hundred dollar repair bill after it's finished. Beats suffering the heat I suppose, but wow not exactly an expence I was expecting this month. Darn, just when I thought that credit card was going to be paid off this month........*sigh*
 
Well, now it's bath time so I had better scoot!
 
~Kara

Mom's Market Updated

Not a real big update, but I did manage to find time today to "touch up" the home page on Mom's Market. Ah, so much work to be done and I just don't know WHEN to do it all! I spent  quite a bit of time on some message boards and just doing some general searching, and realised I need to make some changes to my shops where my affiliate programs are. I think if I could take a little time to work on that, it would make a huge difference in my income. At the same time though I'm very anxious to get started on another website idea of mine and would like to be working on it tomorrow if I can.
 
I realise I'm going to have to do a major search for recipes, not only for my new website idea but for the ezine too. I have some very old family recipes comming my way, so I may see if I can get them touched up and use them. That way I wouldn't need to find so many (believe me, I have a HUGE list, and I'm no where NEAR done with what I plan to do with that new site!).
 
Well let's see, aside from Mom's Market still needing updates and me wanting to get that new website started, I noticed another website that needed my attention over the weekend. Oh yeah, just what I needed! Well ok, no biggie - I can do this. May have to put it off until next month though. Surely it won't take me too long to do, even though I basically have to take down the entire site and re-do the entire thing. Really, I WILL get it done! I'm shooting for this week too. It's just going to take a little organizing and I *think* I can manage to get 1 site updated, 1 site re-built, and 1 brand new one build. I imagin if I can just keep rolling I can manage everything.
 
Off to make out a full "To-do" list for tomorrow!
 
~Kara
 
 
 

Learning, Testing & Tweaking

Oooh, what fun!  I've been following a couple of posts about ebay at a couple of message forums that piqued my interest.  I had given ebay a small whirl in the past and just hadn't gotten the results I was looking for so, kind of gave it up.  I really didn't have the extra time to "learn" it.  Now ebay's fees are getting a bit crazy and I didn't feel like eating up the "test" in fees.  So, I decided to give MomPack Auctions a try.  Well, I have to admit.  I've had up to 4 listings so far and it's been kind of fun.  Oh, yeah..and its free ;)  AND...well, let's say it was kind of fun watching my first auction go back and forth between two people for a bit then all of the sudden right before it was over Bahm! Someone snuck in and took it!  Ouch!  But, yeah...it was kind of funny to watch that.  Sorry!

 

A post at Internet Based Mom's on Google Adsense enticed me to do a little tweaking on my ads.  I did a little tweaking on a couple of pages and articles...of course I found the new way better!  And of course I'm can sometimes be all about "matching" and "uniform" so...I'd wanna change all the google ads on my site...Yikes!

 

SEO...ewww...now those are some scary words!  Well, I guess for some of us.  Others, it just comes natural.  Kara and I worked on (okay, mainly Kara...she did all the hard work) tweaking the titles to all of my pages.   Oh yeah, only to find out that I made a Big boo-boo on all of my article pages.  (Probably going on somewhere around 100 of them by now)  Soooo, now I have to re-name all my article pages...Double Yikes!

 

So, as we're tweaking away my titles...Kara has a nice little idea.  I should have a subscription box for our ezine at the bottome of each article page.  Hmmm...Brilliant!  Okay, so now I just have to add some script to each page too...Triple Yikes!

 

Off to do more tweaking...yeah, after a job like this.  See you next year!!

 

Back to School Celebration

Pages done and banner ad creation underway - a good day I think. Anita and I managed to get quite a bit of advertising done too, and hope to see some vendors and sponsors signing up. Still feel like there is more I could have done today, but ah well. Looks like I'm going to take at least part of next week to work more on Mom's Market because I haven't got a new idea for the site started nor have I  updated the home page like I wanted to. Plus I want to help Anita with some SEO work on Mommy's Helper, so yeah looks like I'm going to have to take another week. No biggie I suppose, since I might be able to squeeze some time in to get another website started. My hobbie site and addition to it can waite for another week - I just don't know if I can haha.
 
Ahhhhhh it feels good to know it's Friday though, and there's no pressure to get anything done or answer emails this weekend. I need breaks just like anyone else!
 
~Kara

Event Pages Done (for now)

Well I'm pleased. I got a little bit of a late start today, since I had to make a run to Walmart and bumped into a few friends that I needed to chat with for awhile. That's the great thing about working at home and not having set hours to work - I can take an extra long lunch and chat with friends I don't get to talk to very often.
 
I shouldn't really say I got a late start though, because I did manage to get through all my email this morning and hit a few boards before I left. When I got back though is when I really got to work - getting the networking event pages finished. Ok mostly.  I realise we are also going to have to contact Nola from Classic Creations to do a banner ad for us that we can use not only on the home page of the event but for advertising too. I'm excited to get this started, so I can hardly waite!
 
I do feel a little guilty sitting here past 8pm just finishing up, but well I WAS gone for a good chunk of the afternoon, so it's not like I was neglecting my family or "me" time. I did all that earlier when I went to lunch and to Walmart.  Plus now I'm off to get to the "me and only me" time since the kids are in bed for the night. I love a quiet house :)
 
~Kara
 

Where has the week gone?

Here I had plans to do all kinds of promotional work with Mom's Market, even make some changes and update pages, but I keep comming up with one idea after another. Anita and I did some brainstorming today on another event, which I'll be excited to get started within in the next few days. I just hope I have enough timenext week to do some work on my hobby site. Sadly I may not, because there is another website idea I would like to get started. My hobby site may once again take the back seat to big business. *sigh* One of these days I swear I'll finish it, and make it a money maker too. I found a little extra time last week and ran with a few ideas, so that pleased me temporarily until I can do some real work to them.

I suppose this week hasn't been too terrible so far - I managed to work on the advertising information page, update the Back To School section on Mom's Market, as well as write an article and get it submitted to various places. I did get a section of the shops updated as well, so that also pleased me.

Today I think I may take off just a bit early, and take the kids outside to play. I got a little side tracked playing with my CD collection. Eh, oops. Well what would you do if you found a CD that had been missing for 3 years and was one of your favorites? What can I say, I love music.

Tomorrow I think I'll start working on the new event we have planned for September, and also another idea that's just starting. I think I would feel good about working on those ideas, not to mention that it really is direct promotion and improvement of Mom's Market.

Well the children are getting restless, asking every 2 seconds if it's time to go out yet - I had better get going!

~Kara

MIA??? ME???

Well, yes I guess I have been MIA for a while. Just from here and what seems to be every other form of networking available (and yes, that makes a big difference!) Just to catch up on where I've been...

I've been here without a doubt and working my toosh off. Opening HomeBusinessSpecialists.com and HomeFreelanceJobs.com had turned out to be a bit more than I could handle right off that bat. I can't believe the response we had gotten for the Freelance Jobs site! One part of my "job" in this mix was to handle all the incoming applications. Making sure we had all the information required, reviewing samples...just basically making sure everything was in line and the applicants were fit for the job they were requesting. Okay...well this is a whole new work load added to my regular work...I've managed though, just needed a bit more re-arranging of my schedule. Unfortunately, my networking had suffered as I changed things around.

One thing that surely didn't help is that I pretty much had to take off most of last week. I ended up with an infected tooth. :( Whoa! Do you know what an infection in your mouth can do to your face?!?! Literally, I looked like someone had stuck a baseball in my cheek! (Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit..but really, not that much!) Yes, very painful! So, the dentist gave me some pain killers...Yeah, that gave me that gave me two choices...work in pain or sleep?!? Needless to say for a while I had to choose the sleep. :(

BUT, I did do a lot of work in the meantime. Between my "regular workload" and my "new workload" I was busy doing as much research on Affiliate Marketing as I could. (Fun, and interesting learning experience I might add)
I was thrilled to see the final product of all my hard work which became Affiliate Marketing Information Network! The fruits of my hard work showed off nicely. (Yeah, tooting my own horn just a bit!)

I also had the pleasure of watching MommysHelperOnline.com grow to a new level as it reached the "milestone" of a PR5 on Google! That made me realize just how much Mommy's Helper needed just a bit of a face lift. Just few changes here and there. I had realized that my home page was taking entirely too long to load (which also can hurt you) so, I did a little re-arranging (with-out completely changing everything) of my home page and of course my advertising page was in dire need of some help.

Oh and yes! I decided it was time I learned something about online auctioning so, I placed my first advertising listing at the new MomPack Auctions I look forward to putting up more and more auctions there. Actually, my first one ends in a few hours and it was sort of a learning experience for me.

Soooo, yes...I've been MIA but I've also been working. Time to get back to Networking! After the ezine gets out today of course ;)

Mom's Market work

This week as planned I'll be working on Mom's Market. It's been a trying day to say the least, what with all the interuptions and problems arising. My roof began leeking after yesterday's storms, so part of today was spent making phone calls and getting estimates on how much it's going to cost to tear off and re-roof the back part of the house. Lovely!

Of course on top of this mess, the children have been in extra amounts of trouble today. I had a can of pop dumped on the floor and the blinds in the living room came crashing down (snapping the top part, so the entire blind will need to be replaced - funny this had to happen AFTER we came back from Walmart).

Aside from everything that's happend, I've managed to at least get through my email. That was done in between interuptions, messes, and punishments. I had hoped to work on the "Back to School" page for Mom's Market, but that just didn't happen. I took a quick look at it though, and fixed a few minor problems so it's "good enough" for the time being until I can get some real work done on it. Which is going to have to be tomorrow since supper is almost finished. I at least have a game plan of what I need to do to update that section.

On top of the revision of the current section, I've got an article to write. I'm thinking tomorrow shouldn't be so terrible, since I don't have to go to Walmart (that darn blind is just going to have to waite until Wednesday or Thursday!) and there shouldn't be as many interuptions. Email also shouldn't be as bad since today was catch up from the weekend.

Important thing here is to stay calm, stick to my work schedual, and get as much done as I possibly can. *deep breath* .....wow what a day.

~Kara

Promotion done, for now

Well, I still feel like there's a few things I've missed and didn't get done, but can't think of what they are right now. We signed our first client, and waiting to hear from quite a few who have been given quotes. An article was done, lists compiled, new ideas put into works, and a few link exchanges. Ok, so it really WAS a good week.

Really the promotion isn't done, and really never will be. But much has been put into motion for the next several months (such as a list of article ideas to write and submit, and a signature line created for all groups and message boards I visit often).

Next week I'm anxious to get back to Mom's Market for a little bit, will do some updating and work on a new advertising idea. The top priority for next week is getting my "back to school" page in order. I know it seems early, but I noticed today the old page I had up that's no longer linked is sitting at #3 for "Back to School Supplies", and starting to recieve quite a few visitors (I looked this morning, and saw over 50 for the week so far).

Right now I'm letting out a big sigh of relief that it's Friday, and email has been closed for the day. I really do like business, but just like a true working woman I can't waite for the weekend so I can take it all off my mind. I try to block it all out, and not let email make me feel guilty because let's face it - we all need breaks. Many don't realise how important taking time here and there for yourself and your family really is. I found out the hard way last summer when I spent every day (yes every single day!) working from the time I got up until very very late at night. One Saturday while attempting to finish a few projects I began to get a headache (mostly from stress, and all the long hours with little sleep). I tried to ignore it, sure I absolutely needed to finish my project or I'd fall behind. Well the head ache turned into a migrane and I got seriously ill. It took me out for several days. After that I vowed I would shut the computer off at a certain time (or at least stop working) at a certain time. To this day I still have a cut off time.

And speaking of which, it's that time! Enjoy the weekend!

~Kara

Business Directories

Well now, my search for business directories didn't go over very well today. The ones I did find were a little pricey for us right now, but that's ok. I've bookmarked them and will be comming back to submit Home Business Specialists at a later date. I did manage to find some very high targeted link exchanges that I'm happy with. I'll continue that tomorrow if I have time, or Thursday even. I also got an article writting, and Anita & I got the ezine ready to send out tomorrow. All this on top of answering countless emails and the daily networking.

Tomorrow's main priority is making a giant master list of places to advertise, and also a list to submit articles. Of course I'm going to work on submitting my own link and articles to these places.

I'd say today was a productive day, and I just hope tomorrow is as well. :)

~Kara

More work done on Home Business Specialists

Somewhat of a rocky start to the day I must admit.....I forgot to set my alarm last night, so slept in with the kids and woke up rather late. Immediately got a call from my mother who wanted to drag me off to Walmart earlier than normal. So I got maybe 45 mins of work in this morning. It was 2 in the afternoon before I got home and back to work - so here I sit at 10 til 7 still finishing up a few tasks before spending some time with the kids.

While I still got quite a bit done today such as some networking and changing my signature line to refect the opening of Home Business Specialists, I still have un-checked items on my to-do list and that always drives me nuts. Must be why I stopped making out to-do lists there for awhile. :/

I must admit I got a bit side tracked while visiting the last message board of the day. Mike from IM4Newbies posted an excellent list of places to submit your blog, so I spent probably a good hour or two (in between cooking supper) working on that. Funny I was just thinking about looking for directories and there it was on Mike's boards. What a fantastic find. :)

I'm off to make out my list of tasks to do tomorrow, which should be twice as long as today's. Tomorrow I should have less interupted time though, so should prove to be better.

~Kara

Plans for Home Business Specialists

Well I had planned on doing some promotional work on Home Business Specialists right after our grand opening Thursday and Friday, but much to my surprise the announcement we made in the newsletter kept me busy answering emails and giving job estimates. Plus of course I was busy this weekend with 4th of July activities, but managed to make a "to do" list before a family breakfast this morning. I bought another notebook at Walmart just the other day, and plan on using it just for ideas and plans for the various website I own/co-own.

Soooooo, anyway.....

This week is dedicated to working on promotion on Home Business Specialists. First I'm going to go in and edit my signature lines at many of the board I frequent to reflect the new site. I also need to edit my Ryze page and spend a little time there. Then, I'm going to contact a few website owners about a home page link exchange. I do believe that Anita already has one lined up I just need to contact her. Next I'll search for some directories to get listed in. Finally I'll get a few articles finished and work on sending them out to as many places as I can possibly find. It's been quite awhile since I've written any articles at all, so I may have to spend a little extra time finding new places to send the articles to. I might pull out of a few older articles, change the byline to include HBS, then send them to the new places I find.

That should be plenty to keep me busy this week, but hopefully by next week I'll be able to pay a little more attention to Mom's Market and a few other projects I've got in the back of my head.

~Kara