From One Work from Home Mom to Another...

My friend Sara is a great example of what it means to work from home and still raise a family. This link is to an interview of her for AOL Jobs. She is a great freelance writer, a loving mom, and a great friend. Great Job, Sara! Congrats on the recognition!

What it Means to Be a Work from Home Mom

And Finally...

Here is the third and final installment in the series on defeating writer's block.

Remedies for Writer's Block

Writer's block can be cured with a few simple steps. If you are serious about busting down the wall of mental stuntedness, you need to read this whole series and do what it says. Seriously!

This is the only source on writer's block you'll need.

Also, feel free to check out the other great articles on the website.

Continuing to Break Down the Wall...

This is the second installment in the series meant to help freelance writers break through the career killing disease of writer's block. Writer's block is no laughing matter. If you cannot write to save your life, you cannot write to make a living. If you're experiencing even the slightest twinge of writer's block you need to read this article and stay tuned for the final installment which tells readers all about how to get passed it and get back to writing!

What Causes Writer's Block

While you're there, make sure to take a look at other online money making ideas. You might find something else you can do at home for legitimate money.

Busting Through Writer's Block

If you're a freelance writer and/or novelist like me, then you know that there are times that the muse abandons you to spend time watching daytime television 'stories' and eat Hot Pockets. This article series is a great place to go when you want to break through the writer's block and get back to making money.

Breaking Writer's Block

This website is also the location of many of the money making ideas articles I have been writing over the last few months. If you are tired of being a freelancer, there are tons of other ways to make money using your particular skills, talents, and ambitions.

Read and enjoy!

Totally Web-ulous: The Importance of Web Presence

 

The Internet, also known as The Web, is the most powerful tool in the freelancer’s toolbox. Without it, the freelancer is left looking for work by pounding the pavement, is stuck sending in finished projects via bike messenger, and communicating with client’s and potential client’s using the old fashioned and overlooked wall mounted dialing device.

The importance of the internet is more than obvious—it slaps you in the face the moment you wake up in the morning when the urge to check your Facebook newsfeed becomes like an ache that you must scratch while sipping your other addiction, espresso. Neither you nor I can go a day without our addictions—the internet and the caffeine, for good reason.

Our world runs on cyberspace, and if you want to get your piece of the ever growing black hole you need to hop into your cyberspace ship and set a course for internet success.

All mixed metaphors aside, as a freelancer, you can’t really find success without some kind of online presence. No one will want to put their precious project into your hands if they don’t know where your hands have been. Your online presence is a huge part of your freelancer resume, if you don’t have one, you might as well tell your potential clients that your spaceship ran out of plutonium rods and you have to drop out of hyper drive (you don’t have the skills so you might as well not apply).

The online presence is so important that many employers are screening applicants by doing a Google search with the applicant’s name. If a potential client did a search for your name, what would they find? If the answer is nothing or ‘my Facebook page’, you are in deep space sludge!

If you want to add a boost to your chances of landing that dream client or project you need to create an online presence immediately.

First things first, you need to purchase a domain name and create a website. Visiting www.GoDaddy.com will get that step completed in an hour. My website, www.DanicaSorber.com,  was provided by Website Tonight, and is hosted by GoDaddy.com. The service is cheap, the design process is painless, and the results are…well, see for yourself.

Second, you’ll want to register yourself with various online freelancing sites like www.Elance.com, or www.oDesk.com. Both of these sites have TONS of freelance jobs available, and once you build your profiles, you’re given a permalink that you can insert into your website contact information, or add to your sales letters and resumes.

You can see my oDesk.com profile here.

Third, you should start a blog, which, as you can see, can be a great way to create an online presence. Though, I don’t have many followers yet, I do hope to gain a few more with my work, my networking, and my awesomeness.

Fourth, you should start creating online content of your own. If you’re a freelance writer like me, you’ll want to apply to be a contributing writer for other blogs, online magazines, specialty sites, or discussion groups.

I am a proud and excited contributor for www.iGotMomPower.com, a website dedicated to the sharing of experience, advice, stories, heartaches, and triumphs amongst moms (and sometimes dads). You can see my contributor’s profile here.

The fifth but not last thing you should do to create an online presence is to create social networking profiles that are strictly for professional purposes. Sure, social networking sites are meant for personal use, but more and more people are seeing the usefulness of creating professional profiles and connecting with other professionals around the world. One of the most popular professional networking sites is www.LinkedIn.com. Registration is free, and you can connect to professionals in your own industry, or cross industry lines and rub elbows with potential clients in other areas.

You can see my LinkedIn profile here.

If you want to be a successful freelancer you need to make use of the most powerful tool ever invented—the internet.

Get online.

Get connected.

Get noticed.

 

Prioritizing Without Palpitations: Making Daily Life Work

Despite what the name says, being a freelancer doesn’t actually leave you enough free time in the day to get the things done that you need to get done. You can work from 8am until 8pm to make enough to make ends meet, but where do you fit the rest of your life? Where does your family, your home, and your spiritual life fit in with all of that freelance work?

I find that making time for each piece of your life in the day isn’t as difficult as some would think, but it does take some sacrificing on your part in order to make a balanced life for you and your family.
A daily balance is obtained by making sure you put your priorities in order, and making sure that what’s more important is getting more of your time.

In order to give you a taste of what my day is like, I am going to drill a hole into the locker room of my day and let you have a peak at what’s important to me and how I use those priorities to shape my day.

My Spirit



First and foremost, I put my God before anything else in my life, as it should be. Before I even check my email, chat with my clients, or even brush my teeth (that comes after my coffee and breakfast), I sit down at my desk and log in to my Word of Life Online Quiet Time Diary.

You may not be a Christian, but if you have a spiritual routine that you enjoy doing, make sure to find time in your day to do it. You’ll find that even 5 minutes of focusing on what brings you peace and focus will add depth and stability to your day.

My Spouse

Next, I focus my attention on my husband and his needs. He works from home, and he has a lot of administrative tasks to do first thing in the morning. In order to make sure that he gets the time he needs to work without stress, I feed the children breakfast and make sure that they are busy playing.

Not only do I make room for my husband during the day, I also make sure to put him and his needs above my children, my home, and my work. Why? You’re probably shocked that my husband is prioritized above me kids…well, here’s why.

If my relationship with my husband suffers, it affects my children, my home, and my work negatively. If my relationship with my husband is healthy, everything else falls into place.

I balance out my day by giving at least 2 hours of my undivided attention to my husband, and that’s usually in the evening once the kids are in bed. We watch TV together, play World of Warcraft together (come find us on the Sentinels server), or play card games together. Can’t have true balance without my other half.

My Kids


(Ruth, Timothy, and Naomi)

This is a picture of my children, my blessings, my precious gifts…they are beautiful, they are amazing, and they are a handful! Not only am I their mother, I am also their teacher, their coach, their cheerleader, their nurse, their disciplinarian, their friend, their enemy, and their comforter. I am many things to my kids, and I love each and every one of my roles, but finding time to tend to all of my duties can be very difficult.
I am lucky enough to have a great nanny who cares for my kids while I work, but once 3pm arrives, I am mommy full time once again. Despite the fact that I have a nanny, I am still available to my children no matter what they need. Honestly, I love the unannounced visits, the random kisses and hugs, and the smiles—all things that help make a really bad day a whole lot better. Sure, the unannounced visits during chats with clients can cause trouble, but my clients know that I work from home so the occasional toddler chatter in the background is expected from time to time.

If your blessed enough to have kids, you need to make time for them during your day. Even if you can only spend 2 hours with them, make those hours count. Turn off the TV, pull out the craft box and spend time chatting, exploring, learning, creating, and loving with your kids.

If you don’t have kids, you can totally skip this step and jump right into making your home your next priority.

My Home



Recently my husband and I became homeowners for the first time. We’ve gone from 1000 sq ft to almost 3,000 sq ft…that is a lot more space—a lot more space to CLEAN! Three kids can make a mess, but so can my husband, my cat, and my puppy. There are a lot of creatures to tidy up after, but I have to make sure to find time during my day to care for my home. In the morning, after I have my time of spiritual focus, and then see to my family’s needs, I spend the remaining hour before the nanny arrives to clean like a fiend! I wash dishes, start a load of laundry, feed the pets, pick up the living rooms, vacuum, and sometimes I even get a sip of coffee or juice in there somewhere. I make sure that my home is clean so that when the nanny arrives, I’m not embarrassed to let her in the door.

In no way am I saying that the wife should be the housekeeper, but I love providing a clean and safe home for my family, and the perfect time for me to get cleaning into my day is in the morning before I start work.

My Work

Now…finally…we’ve come to what you’ve all been waiting for. I usually start work around 9:30 every morning. I love being a freelance writer because I get to choose who I work with, what projects I take on, and how much I charge per project. My mornings are loaded, my work day is long, but when the end of the day comes around and I prepare for bed, I can rest comfortably knowing that I have balanced my day and that I have accomplished everything that I wanted to do.

You can take a chip from my snack bag and set your daily priorities to match mine, but you may not have the same things going on in your life that I do. The most important thing you can take away from this blog post is that you need to sit down, make a list of what’s important to you, and make room for those things in your day.

If I can make time for my God, my husband, my kids, my pets, my house, my clients, and actual work…you can make time for your priorities.

A Weighty Subject: How to Write Content about Weight Loss

So, you’re ready to start an affiliate marketing site, complete with blog and informative articles. You’ve even decided on a general topic: weight loss. After all, everyone wants to lose weight, right? Your site should make it into the Google Top Ten in no time flat. But weight loss is so broad a topic, that it’s hard to narrow down. By thinking of your readers’ needs however, you can create succinct content that delivers value and encourages click through.

Bariatric Surgery

Weight loss surgery, whether traditional gastric bypass or the less invasive “lap band,” is becoming increasingly popular. Depending on the physician’s expertise and the patient’s willingness to undertake some difficult changes, it can also be quite successful. It’s also a goldmine for blog content. You can devote entries to types of procedures:  adjustable gastric banding, vertical banded gastroplasty, sleeve gastrectomy, Roux-en-Y bypass, and biliopancreatic diversion. Discuss the benefits (rapid weight loss, reversing or improving diabetes and heart disease); risks (clots, infections, surgical complications, death); and side effects (malnutrition, vomiting, gall bladder disease). Interview people who have had each type of surgery: what were their experiences? What has been difficult? How has it changed their lives? Interview physicians. Discussion cost and payment options. Help your readers make informed decisions, while at the same time adding original content and boosting your rankings.

Exercise

Everyone knows that successful weight loss involves eating less and exercising more. The trick is finding the time, the motivation, and a routine that’s affordable, maintainable, and halfway interesting. The eternal struggle between modern man and optional physical activity will provide you with endless blog fodder. Write about low-cost exercise options. Review various fitness chains. Discuss workout wear for the chic--and those for whom it’s less than flattering. Write your own exercise diary--and record others’ attempts. Do computer games really lead to weight loss?  Should you go with cardio, weights, pilates or yoga? How can a person add exercise when simply bending down to tie her shoes leaves her out of breath? Is it possible to create an exercise routine when you have four children under four? When you have a sixty hour work week? When you’re disabled? When you’re sixty-five? Your readers need to know, and will return to your site over and over again to find out.

Diet

Again, everyone “knows” the answer: make healthy changes. More fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fiber. Less refined carbohydrates, artificial additives, dehydrogenated oils, other fats and sugars. Fast food is the devil. Or is it? Even when we know our lives depend on it, making dietary changes is difficult. You can use your blog and article content to keep readers up to date on the latest studies on nutrition and weight loss, while at the same time encouraging them to make the small changes we know really do work. Chronicle your own attempts to give up sugared sodas, fries, or (horrors!) chocolate.  Experiment with popular (safe) diet fads; record your impressions and results. Discuss dangerous diets--and those which have proven to be beneficial. If you have the time or the funds, you can even try (and blog about) popular commercial weight loss programs. Do they work? Do they make weight loss easier? Harder? By mingling consumer information with nutrition science, you can keep your readers informed, inspired--and coming back.

Motivation

No matter whether a person chooses to lose weight through surgery, diet, exercise or a combination of all three, he’ll struggle with motivation. There comes a time when vegetables are not as satisfying as chips. Where one’s sorrows cry out for a tub of ice cream, or inhaling a package of cookies really does keep family harmony. The challenges of life make it hard to stay motivated. As a result, most people gain back the weight they make such great efforts to lose, and eventually they stop trying. In your site content, you can explore the reasons why people struggle to lose weight and keep it off.

Interview people who have successfully maintained their weight loss; share their stories and methods to inspire your readers. Write about ways people can more effectively handle the emotional challenges in their lives--without medicating themselves with food. As with each weight loss topic listed here, pay attention to the comments and discussions each piece gathers; these are the subjects your readers care--and want to learn more--about.

In the end, you’ll probably find that, while you initially put up your weight-loss site to add to your income, you’re also providing a valuable service: helping readers improve their health. A quality site with attention to accuracy, quality content, and reader service does both.

About the Author: Leah Guinn is a freelance writer and mom, and spends a lot of time researching and writing on topics that would make other people faint in frustration.