The flexibility of working from home is a big plus. You can roll out of bed at 8:55 and still be on time for a 9:00 conference call. And you can even take that conference call in your pajamas if you feel like it. If you need every Tuesday afternoon off to take your daughter to her music lesson, that’s not a problem. You are the boss. You schedule your own work hours. In a traditional workplace, you have a set schedule. You must be at work at a certain time each day, and finish work at a set time. Your boss won’t care if your daughter gets to those music lessons or not. Then there’s work attire. Whether it’s a uniform, or other professional attire, you can be sure it’s nowhere near as comfortable as the jeans and t-shirt that is the standard uniform of a work at home individual.

Job satisfaction is very high when you work from home. You have the satisfaction of being your own boss, and of building your own business. It is a great feeling to start with a dream and build that dream into a successful, thriving business. Another bonus is that you make the decisions involving your business. If you are deciding to do something new with your business, you can just get started with it and not have to worry about your idea being rejected by a supervisor. Or worry about someone who isn’t familiar with your company making a decision that could be bad for your business. With a typical working environment, on the other hand, you are just an employee. You don’t have a say in how the business is run, and you must follow the directives of a supervisor, or manager. Also, when you work for someone else, you are helping to build their business. All of your ideas, suggestions, and hard work are wasted on someone else’s dream.

Of course, one of the main reasons people start a home based business is to make money. And, the money you make with your own business is the reward for all of your hard work. You choose how much of a salary to give yourself. There’s also the financial benefit of saving money on gas and food. Preparing a lunch at home can be very economical. And, the high cost of gas shouldn’t concern you too much since your daily commute is walking down the hallway to your home office. When you work for someone else you are working to fill their pockets with money. You do not get to share in the profits of the business, and probably are not paid anything near what your skills are worth. Then there are the added expenses of professional working attire, lunches out, and gas to commute back and forth to work each day.

Good job prospects are hard to come by right now; starting your own home based business means that you don’t have to depend on the current job market. You can create your own income. And, you can do this by being your own boss, dressing as you please, spending more time with your family, and setting your own schedule. It’s a win-win opportunity.

My children love Simply GoGurt! A package lasts about a day in my house. My older children have to be quick to get any at all with my 7 year old around. And, as a mom, I’m happy to see them loving such a healthy snack as yogurt. New Simply… Go-Gurt is made from simple ingredients moms look for and contains no high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors or flavors. Each convenient portable yogurt tube contains a good source of calcium and vitamin D. Simply stated, Simply… Go-Gurt is a good-for-you, low fat yogurt snack that I can feel good about giving to my kids. New Simply… Go-Gurt is available in two kid-friendly flavors, Strawberry and Mixed Berry.

1. Selling isn’t actually about talking someone into doing something. It’s about filling your customer’s needs.

2. In order to fill your customer’s needs, you need to know what they are! How can you know anything about your customer if you are always—TALKING!?

Selling is actually the art of listening to your customer’s needs and communicating with them how your product or service will fill that need. Listening: it’s the most important part of selling. It’s the most important part of communication! Listening! What do I mean by listening?

When you ask your kids to clean up the living room because guests are coming over in 20 minutes as they are playing Nintendo, did they hear you? They aren’t moving! lol

Mom: “Did you hear me?”
Son: “Yeah, Mom. I heard ya.”
Mom: “What did I say?”
Son: “Something about 20 minutes.”

Hearing and listening are actually two different things. Webster’s defines hearing this way; “perceived by the ear”. However, listening is defined as “paying attention in order to hear; heeding”. Hearing is the recognition, by the ear, that some sound has occurred. Listening is the attention given to that sound so that it is understood.

Oh, understood! Your son heard you, he just didn’t pay any attention. Believe it or not, many small business owners do the same thing to their customers. They hear them, but they don’t really pay attention enough to understand the significance of what they said. The difference involves what we call Active Listening.

Biz Owner: “Our company has the most fabulous widgets”
Customer: “How much are they?”
Biz Owner: “$42.99. They can slice and dice and chop …”
Customer: “Oh, no thank you.”
Biz Owner: “Our widgets come in several colors to match your kitchen.”

What the business owner missed completely was that Mrs. Customer has a problem with the price. What’s the first thing she asked? If the business owner was actively listening, she would have picked up on the fact that price was a big issue for Mrs. Customer. She didn’t care about what colors they come in or any other features of the widgets because she had already decided not to buy based on the price.

Now, if the business owner had been actively listening, she could have asked her some questions and let the customer speak in order to learn where she was coming from. “Is that too much for you to spend right now?” Maybe Mrs. Customer’s husband is out of work and they simply can’t afford anything right now. Maybe doesn’t understand what a widget can do for her. “Well, I don’t mind chopping onions.” If the business owner had pointed out all the ways this device could save her money, Mrs. Customer might see more value in that price. “Widgets can do so much more than chopping onions and save you time and a lot of money on some of the other products you normally buy!” Save her money?! Now she’s listening to YOU!

Active listening is not only a matter of paying attention to what your customer has actually said, but other things as well. 1. Reading between the lines.
2. Asking questions for clarification and getting to know your customer and her needs.
3. Showing that you care about your customer and her needs.
4. Responding to your customer’s needs by sharing what you can do for them and not what they can buy from you.

Learn the art of actively listening to your customers and you will build friendships that will keep them your customers for a lifetime!

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JoJo Tabares holds a degree in Speech Communication, but it is her humorous approach to communication skills which has made her a highly sought-after Christian speaker and writer. Her articles appear in homeschool publications, such as Homeschool Enrichment Magazine and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, which also endorses her Say What You Mean curricula including Say What You Mean When You’re in Business. You can also find JoJo on web sites such as Crosswalk.com and Dr.Laura.com. For more information on communication FUNdamentals and Christian-based communication skills for the whole family, please visit http://www.ArtofEloquence.com

Backlinking is the method of enhancing your website traffic through inbound links from other sites. And these are not just any sites; they are reputable business sites and blogs that have established them on the Internet. It is not always easy to gain access to these sites and their loyal visitors.

Social Bookmarking

Try social bookmarking. Maybe you have seen all those cute little icons at the bottom or middle of the page on websites and blogs. What are they?

They are links to social bookmarking sites. When you bookmark something, you want to be able to come back to it later without a lot of trouble. These sites allow you to submit articles that are ranked by other members. Content that is ranked high has a chance to be featured on the front page to gain even higher visibility.

To get the ball rolling, you can sign up for these accounts for free. Some of the most popular are Digg.com, Facebook, Twitter and Delicious. Facebook and Twitter are actual social networking sites where you can post links to articles posted on Digg, Delicious and your own website. With an extensive network of friends (and their friends), you can create a ton of backlinks in no time.

On your website, you can then post an icon for these social bookmarking sites. Readers who are members also, can click and post your article there.

You can be proactive and post your article there as well, with links back to your website. If your business associates and friends are also members, they can vote for your articles and you can do the same for them.

Here, quality does count. Votes will be cast for the best content that meets the needs of your peers. You can achieve a high status here for consistently great performances. That, in and of itself, can multiply your backlinks as everyone will be looking for your latest creation.

So, what are you waiting for? If you feel that your search engine ranking is not what it could be, it could be your backlinks or the lack thereof. Social bookmarking can help catapult you onto the front page of Google and Yahoo when you and others submit your content on those sites.

Private label rights materials (PLR) are articles, ebooks, autoresponders as well as sales copy that are written on a specific topic and sold for individuals to use for their online business. When you purchase PLR materials, you are permitted to edit, modify, take apart or add to it. These materials can be a tremendous asset for you and your business. Here are just a few ways that you can use mom PLR content to build your business:

1. Increase website traffic and search engine rankings. Mom content PLR can be used for blog posts. You can purchase either pre-written blog posts and post them directly on your site or take a pre-written ebook and break it into multiple blog posts. Having new and fresh content on your blog helps increase readership and increases the frequency that search engines visit and catalog your site.

2. Build your list through free reports and giveaways. Mom’s are always looking for ways to do things better and more efficiently as well as ways to help their children and families whether it be through healthy eating or crafts. Mom PLR can be used as a free giveaway to build your list.

3. Make money! Obviously your ultimate goal with your online business is to make money and help support your family. You can purchase a complete Mom PLR package that includes an ebook you can sell, a sales page, download page as well at matching graphics. In less than the time it takes to make the kids lunch, you can put up a new product or site and start making money.

Perhaps one of the greatest values of niche Mom PLR content is the ability for it to help us achieve balance between work and family. For Mom’s with an online business, our biggest priority is our children and family. We ultimately made a choice to work out of the house so we can be more accessible to our children, fully participate in their growing up and their many school and extracurricular activities. Mom PLR makes doing “it all” so to speak much easier.

On those unexpected days when someone gets sick, needs special supplies for a school project or simply is in need of more attention than usual for one reason or another, mom niche PLR can save the day. One of the best mom niche PLR sites is MomPLReBooks.com. They have affordable, extremely high quality products available for download day or night. In fact, the quality is so good you can download a package of blog articles and add them directly to your site with no re-writing at all.

Mom content PLR is an essential tool for building your online business and achieving balance between work and our children and families. Check out all the amazing offerings at www.momPLReBooks.com. Topics include time management, spring cleaning, healthy eating, weight management, personal development for Mom’s, diabetes and other health related issues, building an online business and many more! Limited quantities are available for each piece of mom PLR so visit today and order yours.

In celebration of Spring, and lazy mornings, I am hosting a giveaway of a Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls gift pack that includes a VIP coupon for Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls as well as a photo album to help keep your family’s sweet morning memories close at hand.  

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment on how you enjoy Sunday mornings (or any lazy mornings) with your family or what your favorite childhood memories of Sunday morning breakfasts are.   I will choose a winner, randomly, on Monday, March 29th.  ***Note**** – the product, information, and gift packs were all given to me from Pillsbury and MyBlogSpark. 

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

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.

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.

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: