Who Knew Cereal was so Good for you?
Recently General Mills announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.
Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in children’s diets.
Other cereal benefits:
Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children’s diets.
Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet today.
More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.
Studies also demonstrate the benefits of eating breakfast. A 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office.
For more information about kids and cereals, please visit Cereal Health and Wellness.
Disclosure: the above information and free cereal coupons were provided to me by General Mills through My BlogSpark
Want More Backlinks? Try Guest Blogging
Blogs are fun ways to get your expert information into the hands of others. Also, if you have a business website, blogs are useful for communicating with customers and prospects. If you don’t have a blog yourself, consider lending your brain to someone else’s and enhance the traffic coming your way at the same time.
When you run an online business website and/or a blog, there don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. Providing quality content alone can take up several days not to mention handling the marketing and the administrative duties. For a few fortunate entrepreneurs, they have learned the benefit of outsourcing. With more time to concentrate on lead generation and traffic, guest blogging is more fun than marketing campaigns.
Blogging?
If you have written content for your site, then you can write a guest blog post. They are usually shorter and slightly less informative. That doesn’t mean that the quality of the post isn’t good, it just means that the surface of a topic is touched upon so that the reader will look forward to future posts for more information.
The field is wide open for you, initially, you’ll want to blog on topics with which you have at least a passing familiarity. As you establish yourself as an expert in your business area (through other marketing tools), others may be beating down your door for the opportunity to have you guest blog for them.
Choosing where to Blog
Choosing the quality of your guest blogging venues is as important as choosing the quality of your backlinks. Always go forward and not backwards. Start with friends and business contacts. The super busy folks that are familiar with you won’t usually pass up an offer to have someone else blog for them.
An intimate knowledge of the blog topics gives you an idea of what topics will work and which ones won’t. Try to choose a topical area where you can write a series of similar articles. For instance, choosing a 4-part post on constructing email templates for your affiliates is easier to manage than four different post topics. Besides, your readers are sure to come back for more of the same.
Blogging Nuances
Ask about links in your posts. Some blog owners may say yes to contextual links or just offer you a bio box. Take either one and use it to your advantage to create quality backlinks.
Interact with those who comment. Getting to know your audience will increase their trust of you and the chances that they will click on your link and head on over to your website.
Want to increase backlinks to your site? Guest blogging for others whose sites can elevate your status swells the traffic to your site so you can make more sales.
Congrats to the Winner of the Progresso Soup Package
The winner of my first ever give-away, who will receive an awesome prize package from Progresso Soup is Elizabeth! Congratulations!! Stay tuned for future contests.
Use Article Marketing to Gain Backlinks to Your Site
Backlinks are an important traffic generation method. By linking to your site from other sites and blogs, visitors always know how to find you with a click of the mouse. Article marketing is one tool in your arsenal that can yield a wealth of backlinks.
Article Marketing
Many people overlook article marketing as outdated, but it gets the job done and in the simplest fashion. What you want with a website is traffic and credibility. With so many websites and blogs all clamoring for attention, having a terrific reputation goes a long way.
Article marketing lets you share quality content with other online entrepreneurs and writers. When you submit to article directories, others can view and use your content. You get the all-important resource box to lead others to your online headquarters so that they can see more of you.
If you find an article directory that allows links in the body of the content, then readers can click and immediately find themselves on your website. Or, you can use the resource box to post a direct link to your site.
Optimize Your Articles
While you are writing informative content that others will want to read, don’t forget that these articles are also ranked by search engines. With each article consider using keywords to enhance your rankings.
Let’s say that you were writing about baking. Well, “baking” is a common search word so you could use some other word like “bread” or “baking bread.” For that two-word phrase you want to use try and rank this article high by having it appear naturally several times. For a 450-word article, you don’t want your keywords to appear more than 4-6 times. Search engines frown on overstuffing with keywords.
Using Backlinks
If you get a chance to use contextual links, for goodness sake, don’t use anchor text (the words that disguise the link) like “click here.” That sounds just like an ad and others won’t click it. Also, the service may frown on it as blatant advertising.
For your resource box, include catchy and enticing words. You will end with a link to your website, but this can be masked with anchor text as well instead of just the usual website address.
With your articles, don’t give away all of your secrets. If you tell everyone all they want to know, why will they want to click and visit your website? Give them a taste of what you can offer. For the rest, they will have to make use of that link.
The written word will not be trumped no matter what anyone predicts. Article marketing has an important place in your marketing plan and adding links to all your articles (or resource boxes) multiplies your chances of success.
For more information on how to utilize article marketing, I highly recommend:
5 Tips for an Easy Bedtime
As a single, work from home mom, I get alot of productive work done in the evenings after my youngest son is in bed. Therefore, an easy, early bedtime is essential for my business. One thing I have learned over the years is that not every bedtime routine will work for every child. But, I’ve listed 5 tips below that I always have the most success with:
1. Give a nutritious snack about one hour before bedtime. This will help to ward off the “I’m hungries” just as their little heads hit the pillow. I also limit, or only allow a small amount, of liquids beginning about one and a half hours before bedtime.
2. I don’t allow any loud games, wrestling, running around, etc., after dinner. That way my son doesn’t get all hyper and full of energy.
3. A nice, warm bath or shower. I have used the lavender scented baby bath when he was younger – but, at age 7, he doesn’t want to smell like lavender anymore. 
If you have a younger child, or a girl – I recommend the lavender baby bath as it does help to calm and relax your child.
4. Read a story, or watch a nice calming show or movie.
5. Begin putting your child to bed about 15 minutes before you actually want him to be in bed – this will help you to not feel so rushed and frustrated with the inevitable bedtime stalling roadblocks your child will try to throw in your path.
Please share your bedtime tips and tricks below. And, if you like to spin your own bedtime stories, visit http://www.dramau.net/ to submit your own original story for a chance to win a year’s worth of St. Eve Kids’ sleepwear.
My First Ever Give Away!!!
I was sent the Chicken Tuscany so I could try it out. The soup was delicious, with chicken, great northern beans, spinach, zucchini, celery, tomatos, onions, and other ingredients. The soup is seasoned just right and I loved the conistency of the broth. Very filling. Truly an easy, and satisfying way to include fiber in your diet.
I also received the branded bowls and spoons shown above. My children and I absolutely love these ceramic bowls! They are just the perfect size to fit a whole can of soup comfortably, and are microwave and dishwasher safe.
And, I am giving away a prize pack that includes 2 branded bowls, 2 branded spoons and 1 can of Progresso High Fiber Chicken Tuscany soup!! All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment below telling us how you try to incorporate more fiber into your diet. One winner will be chosen randomly – contest ends on December 20th.
Creating a Money Making Machine at Home vs Creating a Money Sucking Disaster
So, you’ve heard of people making money hand over fist on the internet and you know it can’t be that hard, but you don’t have a clue how to get it done. I know these feelings first hand. I remember back in the day when the internet was first becoming a household word. My niece told me that she had received a virus through an email. I was appalled! ‘My God,’ I thought. ‘How in the world could she contact a cold through a machine?’ I didn’t even know how to email, let alone what a computer virus was.
The internet was a mystic illusion. I knew that somehow these websites would pop up when you typed in some words, but had no clue how they got there. When I found out a good friend of mine was a “webmaster” it put me in the mood of deep reverence. I thought she had somehow gotten a masters degree in her spare time on weaving webs (you know, like spider webs?).
When I finally entered the community of the World Wide Web I was awestruck by the technology of a chat room (good grief!). In that chat room I found out people were making a living with businesses on the web. I learned what it meant to be a webmaster and because I had always owned my own successful businesses I was sure I could somehow create a business online. I mean, how hard could it be? I found a web building system and built a web page. I mistakenly thought that once you had a page built you just left your computer on and it would magically go up on the search engine Yahoo and everyone would be beating the doors down to get to the site. Domains? Hosting? Never heard of them. Marketing? I knew all about that in the brick and mortar world, but I didn’t translate that knowledge to the web. Let’s just say I didn’t know the FIRST step of success online and therefore my first attempt at an online business was a complete and utter failure.
Of course I was massively disappointed. I had always been able to create success in business, what was I missing? All these other people had thriving businesses online and mine had flopped in a major way. How was this possible? It wasn’t until several years later that I learned what I had done to create failure. And oh boy was I embarrassed. I look back now and can’t believe I thought I could create success without the proper education, without ANY education!
It IS true that anyone can generate a successful business online. It’s NOT true that you don’t need the education and tools to get it done. The steps of success for business online follow the same rules as brick and mortar business and the first rule to success is proper education. There is a learning curve and if you are serious about making a living at home you will cut the time it takes for success drastically if you educate yourself in the art and science of business online before you open the doors to your establishment.
There are many ways to get this done:
1. Most universities have courses today for online business (highest cost)
2. There are online courses (medium to high cost)
3. Video/audio/written and recorded courses (low to medium cost)
4. Books and eBooks (low to medium cost)
One great resource is here http://www.advantagemarketingforyou.com/sale/black-friday.html It will get you started on the right foot at a very reasonable cost. It is a simple, straight forward program that teaches all the basics and will propel you to success in a timely manner.
Here’s to your success!
Kim Mutch Emerson
AKA Koda, the Jedi Master of Prosperity
http://www.thebigfatgiveaway.com
Follow me on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000382383965&ref=mf
Review – Affiliate Niche Packs
Name Of The Product: Affiliate Niche Packs
Where You Can Buy It: http://www.nicheresearchpacks.com
Product Description:
Everything you need to get started in a new niche as an affiliate. With each pack you receive a description of the niche and your ideal target market, recommended affiliate products to promote, a list of 1000+ keywords as well as 100 domain name suggestions and 100 article and blog post ideas.
You also receive an extensive guide on how to get started including 2 different marketing strategies along with daily tasks and check lists.
Who This Product is Intended for:
Anyone who is interested in affiliate marketing or wants to increase affiliate income by going into a new niche.
This course is especially for you if you:
- are new to affiliate marketing and don’t know where and how to get started.
- are a seasoned affiliate marketer who wants to get into a new niche.
- want a step by step action plan for generating a new stream of income.
- want to save time and don’t want to research a new niche yourself.
Uses:
Each Affiliate Niche Pack provides the information and tools get you started in a new niche. Follow the marketing strategies and create content that will attract potential customers.
Pros:
Affiliate Niche Packs are for anyone interested in or currently actively involved in affiliate marketing. It saves you days of research time and helps you stay on track with the action plans and marketing strategies. You can sit down and focus on content creation or hand the package and instructions off to one of your assistants.
Cons:
You are limited to the niches that have already been researched and are available for purchase as packs.
There are plenty of article and content ideas included in the pack, but the content is not written for you. The resource section does include links to sites though where you can buy relevant content.
Personal Opinion:
The Affiliate Niche Packs are an excellent resource for anyone who wishes to build a successful affiliate business.
Nicole Dean Answers Your PLR Questions
As promised, each Friday I have a guest blogger on Best of Both Worlds at Home. Today’s guest blogger Nicole Dean from EasyPLR.com will answer some of the common questions that bloggers ask about PLR or Private Label Rights articles.
*Welcome Nicole.*
Hi Tammy! Thanks for inviting me to come by and get a chance to get to know your readers.
*For those that are new to the concept, what is PLR?*
PLR or “Private Label Rights” articles were invented to make it easier and more profitable to be in online business. Any blogger or webmaster knows that you want to create a large amount of valuable information to keep your online business growing. It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a Food Blog or are selling Beauty Supplies – you’ll want articles for your blog and also for your ezine or newsletters to offer fresh information to your customers on an ongoing basis.
The problem comes in creating it all. That’s where PLR comes in. PLR articles are written by professional writers and sold to multiple people. It’s kind of like splitting the costs of having them written for you. You get great content at a very affordable price (usually around $1/article). The great thing is that you can edit the articles to make them more in your voice, and use them in your home business.
*What is the best way to use PLR content to increase my affiliate income.*
The absolute most important thing you can have for your online business is an ezine, ecourse, or some kind of email mailing list of people who are interested in what you have to offer and say. PLR is one of the easiest ways to make that happen – and help grow your affiliate income at the same time.
You can use the PLR in several ways to achieve this:
1. Add the PLR articles to your blog as blog posts, tweak with some
of your own tips and ideas, and include a “call to action” at the
end of the article or advertisement for a product through your
affiliate link. Then, send the readers an email note telling them
about that blog post. OR
2. Include the article in your ezine and send it out to your readers.
Include the product recommendation in your email.
Each option has its benefits.
If I was sending an email with an article about food and cooking, I could interrupt with a sponsor ad like this…
— Sponsor Ad —
Would you like to share your favorite recipes on a blog and get paid to do so?
Find out how it works here:
Get Paid for Sharing Your Favorite Recipes
— Sponsor Ad —
And, I could include a call to action like this at the end:
If you love food and share recipes for free, why not get paid for it?
Be sure to check out my favorite resource to see how it works at Get Paid For Sharing Your Favorite .Recipes.
See? Of course, you’d want to make sure the affiliate products that you were promoting were totally related and relevant to the article that you’re sending – which should be only what people signed up to receive.
For instance, if you have a homeschooling list and they signed up to receive information about homeschooling, then by golly, don’t send them stuff about scuba diving – unless it’s an underwater homeschool project that you can do with your kiddos.
*Is it ok to “tweak” plr content to suit your needs?*
Absolutely. In fact, I highly recommend doing so. Add the following:
*
Personal stories.
*
Tips.
*
Examples.
*
Photos.
*
Lists – like this one.
*
Video.
*
Quotes from famous people.
*
Related Products.
*
Relevant News.
And, anything else that will make the PLR even meatier and more YOU!
*Will using PLR content hurt your search engine rating?*
Not at all. First of all, the sad truth is that most people that buy PLR articles do not ever use them, so there really isn’t as much competition out there are you might think.
Secondly, those that do use them, normally post the articles quickly and don’t do any search engine optimization or editing to make the articles unique. So, by doing those things, you’ll be head and shoulders ahead of the competition – and the search engines will still love you.
*What should you look for when deciding what PLR content to purchase?*
Unfortunately, there is a lot of junk PLR online. The things I recommend looking for are PLR sites that meet _all_ of these qualifications.
*
The site has been around for some time with a good reputation.
*
The owner is a respected name that you can find when you Google
him/her.
*
Visible contact information provided on the site.
*
The option of purchasing packages of PLR as opposed to being
locked into a monthly membership.
*
The ability to buy only the topics that you want, instead of
getting a huge package of recycled junk.
*
Preferably a site that sells limited quantities of the PLR. (Some
sites sell the same content to thousands of site and allow them to
do the same. NOT good.)
Be picky. It’s your money and it doesn’t do you any good to purchase articles that are so poorly written that you have to rewrite them completely in order to use them at all.
*Where can I find PLR that meets all of the standards above?*
You’re in luck. I started one of the most-respected and referred PLR sites on the internet back in 2006 and it’s still going strong. All of my articles are written by professional writers and then edited by a second writer. Both of my main writers are paid highly and have been working for me since 2007. Our PLR packs are sold in limited quantities and we always include extra bonuses with every pack.
If you’d like to see what we currently have available, I encourage you to check out:
Thanks for reading & I’m happy to answer any questions if you post them in the comments section below.
Warmly,
Nicole Dean
Visit My: Internet Business Success Blog
What Are Backlinks Anyway?
It sounds like some place you go after dark that you shouldn’t go. But, backlinks are actually a good thing as far as getting noticed on the Internet goes. Keep reading and you’ll find out all about them and how they can be useful to you.
Backlink Basics
To put it in the simplest terms, backlinks are links from other websites and blogs back to your website. They increase your visibility on the web and also make the search engines really happy with you. It sounds easy, but getting links can take some time and effort.
Also, did we mention the spiders and bots? They work on behalf of the search engines. These technological marvels crawl not just content but also inbound links (backlinks) to your website. So, you’d probably figure that you can go to every website you can and post a link back to your site, wouldn’t you? In the grand scheme of things, this is not always a good idea.
Here’s why. Those bots are smarter than you think. They even evaluate the types of backlinks you get. For instance, let’s say that you are just beginning and are trying to establish yourself. You go to other sites and ask to exchange links with them for free. Some are readily eager so you do it. As it turns out, these sites are offensive, plagiarize content and don’t know the first thing about keyword optimization.
Now, all of these things won’t be true at the same time but it goes to prove a point. A poorly kept website or even a troublemaking one can lower the quality of your backlinks and thus your favor with the search engines. What you want is backlinks that are of the same or preferably better quality as your site.
Quality Backlinks
How do you determine quality? One way is to look at their following. Do they have a lot of readers? Are their articles rated on the first page of search engine results? Does everyone know their name (just like “Cheers”)?
Keep your links within your chosen niche. While there may be some gardening websites with a high search engine ranking, linking here won’t do you any good if your website sells crafting supplies. The bots look at that too.
So, what criteria do you need to consider when approaching the subject of backlinks?
• Choose similar or better quality websites to use for your backlinks
• Choose websites and blogs with similar topics of interest as yours
• Ask friends and family members with websites (of good rep, of course) to exchange links with you
Get the word out about your website. Use any resources you have available to you first and then go searching for other high-quality sites to bring you more traffic.
MomPLREbooks – Quality PLR at a VERY affordable price.