Sewing

I've got a gerzillion Mamacloths to sew today, I'm working on a set of 5 diapers, and an extra either for my shop or for my friend who's havin a baby this summer. And cloth wipes, one side soft flannel, one side silky velour. So soft and nice to use, these are a splurge and a luxary with cloth diapering! Not only limited to cloth diapering, these are great for cleaning up lunchtime messes or hands that have been playing in the dirt. I'm hoping to find some fun fruit and veggie flannel and make some that are more targeted to non-cloth-diapering families soon. Marketing them as baby's special wash cloths :)

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50 links to starting an online craft business

50 Helpful Links to Starting an Online Craft Business

Everything you could ever want to know about starting an online crafts business as a work at home mom out of your home

1. Starting your craft business without debt

2. Etsy or Ebay?

3. Setting up Etsy

4. Setting up Ebay

5. Feedback on Etsy

6. Feedback on Ebay

7. Your site’s Page Rank

8. The benefits of starting a business blog

9. All you need to know about Paypal

10. Google Checkout?

11. Creating a business plan

12. Craft Econ 101

13. Don't do seller games

14. Importance of dividing your shop into sections

15. Making your site user friendly

16. Setting prices

17. Shipping- pad it with your fees?

18. Joining sellers groups

19. What are Street Teams?

20. Free Advertising

21. Paid Advertising

22. Your target audience

23. Choosing your items for sale

24. Taking Pictures

25. Using free photo editing software

26. Keeping the kids busy while you work

27. Social networking sites?

28. Myspace/Facebook benefits for your business

29. Ordering business cards

30. Getting your supplies in bulk

31. Selling your product wholesale

32. Packaging your sale

33. Friendly customer service

34. KISS

35. Your description

36. Copyrights

37. Patents

38. UPS/Fedex/USPS

39. International Shipping

40. Sales and Clearance

41. Buyer Beware

42. Insurance

43. Business licenses

44. Selling to friends

45. Advertising with Google Adsense

46. Dealing with copycats

47. Researching competition

48. Coming up in the searches

49. Balancing with your family life

50. Taking a vacation

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Staying home

We've decided for the meantime to have me stay home with the babe and back out of doing transcription. Transcription was great for helping us out in a rough patch in our lives, and I'm more than thankful that I never had to put Babe in daycare, but now that we've worked through some financial things (still got a LONG way to go!) we decided God is calling us to have me be a homemaker full time.

It's been so nice! I was a little giddy/nervous the first day, but after Babe went to bed 90 minutes early due to being so worn out from our fun 'eventful' day, I knew we made the right decision. 'Stuff' can wait. We can eat more dried beans. And I'll enjoy more precious time with my sweet baby, and preparing our home.

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Blogging info

Going over our budget today- seeing if I can live off of blogging. No, just kidding. I am seeing if I can give up transcription, though, and just do odd side jobs that don't require a weekly commitment. I know that would help reduce the stress level considerably in our house!

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

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Taking Pictures

Want to add a boost to your Etsy shop? Or maybe even your Ebay listings? Come on over to Mommy Techie and learn how to use a free program easily and make your listings pop.

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Confessions in motherhood

I scheduled a job interview for yesterday at noon. Babe goes down for her nap usually around 11:00 so this would be perfect. I knew I'd have to conduct the interview in the bathroom, on the opposite end of the house, but that's not a big deal.

Come 11:20 a.m. naptime was nowhere in sight. I frantically folded the 4+ loads of laundry residing in the port-a-crib and put a dozen butterscotch chips (no dye) in the bottom of her plastic glittery Valentine's day cup from Grandma. Set child and cup 'o candy in the crib and the interview was conducted without a blip (other than my tendency to over-explain everything). Came out to child happily retrieving butterscotch chips from her cup.

Guess what my new parenting tactic is? Other people, like Musician's Friend, who I'm on hold with at the moment, understand a few baby chirps, but it's much simpler to write notes on phone conversations sans the grabbing fingers, loud input, and overall baby 'help'

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Taking your own child's protraits

I wrote this on Associated Content and wanted to share. I'm thrilled with the way our pictures have turned out, they really are meaningful to us.

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Blogsvertise

What a great way to advertise! Blogsvertise is a great solution for a work-at-home mom who is looking to make some money from home while doing what she loves- writing- and a great service for advertisers, who are looking to get their name out there on the web! As a new business trying to make themselves known on the web, exposure is everything.

Blogsvertise is a company that links bloggers to advertisers, so that bloggers can incorporate their company name and website into regular blog posts, and get the information out there. As blogging popularity catches on, and with people using sights like Google Reader and Bloglines to keep up on favorite blogs, companies like Blogsvertise are going to be in high demand.

Just think of when you are looking to buy something on line. If you pop up the words in a Google search, wouldn't you like to see a bunch of sites on the first page of the search engine? That way you can easily find what you are looking for, not be sent on a wild goose chase trying to find the correct company website. This is just what Blogsvertise does, it builds links to companies so that their product and information is easy to find.

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Working at home

Again, I've found quite a few work at home businesses that are legit and require no startup cost. This one I applied for, was approved, and then decided I couldn't do it because my toddler insisted on shrieking whenever I would talk on the phone. But if you have some time uninterrupted, say, during nap time, Work at Home West takes incoming calls (no telemarketing) for different businesses and you can schedule appointments, etc, over the phone. I throughly researched them before I signed up, and they come back all clear.

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Associated content

In my never-ending quest to make ends meet while staying home with my little girl, not to mention avoiding spending my entire paycheck on the rising cost of fuel, I've tried all sorts of different gigs. One successful one was Associated Content, which I still write for on occasion. They are a legit company that pays per article, and you can choose your own topic. Minimum of 400 words, you can pump out an article on something you know about in 15 minutes or so. Not too bad! I've made over $200 here, and with their performance bonus I still make some money every month on stuff I've already written. Not a get-rich-quick scheme, but a great way for Mommy to make some money during Jr.'s nap time.

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wahm.com

wahm.com is a huge resource for those who want to work at home! You can get tons of help on their forums, they have tons of links for those who are looking to work at home, be it in sales, telemarketing, medical transcription, medical coding, technology, computer programing- anything. The people on the forums are very helpful and can give advice based on their experience. By far the most comprehensive website for working at home that I have found, and I've been working from home telecommuting over the interent, for years now!

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