Is Working from Home Really Possible?
Submitted by: Barbara Murtaugh
I never thought of myself as a stay-at-home mom. I liked the direction my career was going and always thought that I would work outside the home, even after my children were born. And that’s exactly what happened . . . until my son Sean was 3 years old. That’s when little sister Melissa joined her big brother Sean.
After the birth of Melissa, my husband and I decided that with the stress of both of us working full time, never spending any time with our children, and the rising cost of daycare, it was time for me to come home. The question was, “Is working from home really a viable option?” Would it be possible for me to be a stay-at-home mom to my children, and have an income from a job that I enjoy and that is beneficial to our family, both personally and financially?
Bloom Your Blog
Unless you blog to avoid having to spend money on therapy then you probably want more readers then you currently have. I’m no pro so I’ve been surfing around looking at other successful blogs and trying to grab some ideas.
I found some great info over at the Internet Marketing Sweetie Blog by Alice Seba. I’d summarize here, but she did such a nice job cutting to the chase it would be just as fast to give her blog a quick visit. How to Get Blog Traffic – 11 Steps to Growing Readership
You’ll also find some invaluable advise on affiliate marketing that can go a long way towards making your addiction to blogging pay for itself or perhaps even some extra gas money (albeit not much).
Blog on!
The Best Thing About Running Your Own Business
Perhaps the best thing about running your own business is the effect it might have on how your children view how things work in this world. I recently received an email from a WAHM that was moving and will help drive this point home. It’s not all about money.
Nicole Pauling is a “muralist” and she paints murals in York PA and the surrounding area. Her business, Artistic Expression Murals, brightens up rooms, swimming pools (one of only two in the U.S.!), offices, businesses, and windows. Nicole is a mom and entrepreneur and like most of us stays very busy day-to-day.
One day her 5 year old daughter, Katrina, came home with a box of rocks and asked her to sell them for her so that she could buy food for those who needed it. Nicole said, “Honey, no one will buy plain rocks.” Katrina replied, “That’s ok. Then I’ll paint them.” And that’s what she did. Since then she has collected almost $150 and 300 food items to donate locally in York, PA!
Read that again!
This little girl had learned that if you want to raise money for something that you can do so by creating something and selling it to people who wanted what you created. She also has learned that the oft-heard “that won’t work” shouldn’t deter you from trying! When Nicole said no one would buy plain rocks, she didn’t take it as a reason to give up, but rather as a reason to think of what she had to do to make it work! She painted them!!
This lil’ entrepreneur and world-changer has raised hundreds of dollars to buy food for people who can’t afford to feed themselves enough. She’s a shining star that can teach all of us some lessons.
For more information about this lil’ superstar check out this article in their local newspaper, The York Daily Record: Kindergarten girl paints rocks to feed the hungry
In the Business of Saving Children’s Lives
Kristin Salgado, a registered ER nurse and mother of three, developed an instructional DVD that shows the basic steps of proper CPR and Heimlich maneuvers for children. With the help of a local production company (Tommy Rosa film productions). Together they’ve come up with a fantastic video, that’s informative, educational and is up to date with the latest CPR techniques. As a mom Kristin knows how hectic things can be every day. Not too many parents have free time to go out and get certified in CPR, nor does this DVD certify you , but it does offer a very good “crash course”.
Kids Meal Deals Needs Recruiters
Dana Davis, a stay-at-home-mom (sahm) with two young boys, had an idea she believed in and she didn’t let all of the “good” reasons not to run with it get in her way. She has boldly launched a new site for families looking for affordable family restaurants called Kids Meal Deals.
Kids Meal Deals offers parents a searchable database of family and budget-friendly restaurants. Restaurants can be found by zip code, food type (coming soon), or name. The resource is easy to use and can be especially helpful when planning a Summer vacation or road trip to unfamiliar territory.
Dana realizes she can’t bring in restaurants that want to promote their locations by herself so she developed a recruiter program for stay at home moms and dads. Basically she’s looking for restaurants to subscribe to a monthly listing in Kids Meal Deals database for a reasonable fee. She needs help getting the word out to restaurants outside of her Columbus Ohio area. In return for bringing in a new restaurant you’ll receive a $50 reward and immense appreciation that only a stay-at-home mom can describe. For more information on this cause visit: Kids Meal Deals Recruiters.
We wish Dana and her family much success in their venture!
The WAHMs Toolbox – 100 Links and Resources
This site, Bootstrapper, has assembled a nice list of web resources for mompreneurs and WAHMs. They’ve organized hundreds of quality sites into sections including; ‘articles’, ‘blogs’, ‘networks’, ‘business resources for women’, ‘parenting’, ‘work at home resources and ideas’, ‘time management’ and the ever useful ‘miscellaneous’. Check it out here: The WAHMs Toolbox – 100 Links and Resources.
Earn 49 cents a day!!!
If that title got you this far I hope it’s curiosity at work and not excitement over earning 49 cents a day!
But, in the event you are looking for ways to earn a little extra like so many of us with websites here’s a little information about an advertising network that I really like:
They call themselves Project Wonderful 
and their system really is pretty wonderful. It’s the easiest ad network provider that I’ve ever used as a publisher (website owner) and it’s also the easiest from the advertisers perspective. It only takes a few minutes to get setup (adding their ad code to your site) and within minutes prospective advertisers will begin submitting their READY-TO-RUN banner ads to you for approval. If you’re ok with the ad you click a link and the ad will begin running almost immediately.
What’s really cool is the advertisers bid for placement on your site so as more advertisers line up the more they’ll bid. This competition is what I like the most about their business model. Of course it isn’t a get rich quick scheme, especially for those of us who have small websites, but as the sites grow in traffic and the ad network grows in popularity and numbers of registered advertisers, the bids will increase without the need to create a media kit, change pricing, or do anything other than tend to the site and approve ads.
It’s been a few days since I got started and the ads are generating 49 cents a day right now and rising all the time. It’s not much, but I really do believe in this and I’m already bringing in more then the Google ads were fetching for me.
You can find ad spots here on WAHM Blog and on these sites:
moms dot com and moms dot com directory
dads dot com and dads dot com directory
Check it out for yourself!
How Mompreneurs Use Elance to Find Clients
I’ve been familiar with Elance for years and although I’ve never utilized it I’m aware of many situations where entrepreneurs and clients have connected to do great things together. What is Elance you ask? Here’s how they describe themselves: “Elance is an online workplace where businesses find and hire people “on demand” to get work done quickly and cost effectively.”
Elance recently posted a series of 3 mom articles about mompreneurs that utilize Elance to keep business rolling in. The most recent article was about Sue Kristoff 
who started her business, The Kristoff Group LLC, after she had a couple of children and decided to trade in her daily commute and co-workers for her family. Her freelance technical writing business is doing well and she spends about 10 hours a week serving clients right now while her kids are young. Sounds like a great plan to me!
The other two articles offer glimpses into two other moms that have decided to take control over their time and destiny. They can be found on the Elance blog here:
WAHM Blogs
Here is a list of some WAHM blogs worth checking out:
Internet Marketing for Mommies
Randomly Chaotic and Frequently Mundance