Best Home Business Resource

Learn About WordPress

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:23:45 +0000

Have you wanted to start a blog, but are not sure that you can handle using WordPress? Starting your own blog can be a bonus to your existing business. It can help keep your customers informed about new products, policy changes, and even tidbits of information about your particular business. Unfortunately, a lot of people are intimidated by WordPress, the preferred blogging platform.

If you want to learn more about Wordpress before you delve into your own blog, or if you have a WordPress blog already and want to make sure that you are getting the most out of the platform, this seminar is for you. WordPress Orientation is a three hour group session in a web conference room. You will be able to follow along with the lessons and even ask as many questions as you want. The course includes the following concepts:

Get a complete tour of the Wordpress Dashboard
Learn the difference between posts and pages.
Learn How To Use the Visual Editor to create great looking blog posts.
Learn about categories and tags and how to use them!
Learn about Plugins
Learn about Widgets
Learn about Themes
Learn about Exporting/Importing and Backups.
Get Answers to All Of Your Questions!

Sessions will take place:

Saturday, September 19th - 10:00am -1:00pm Eastern
Wednesday, September 30th - 8:00 - 11:00pm Eastern

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Franchise Opportunity - One Hour Parties

admin — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:21:37 +0000

I am always on the look out for exciting new opportunities for work at home moms (and dads). This one caught my attention - One Hour Parties. This company was founded in 2001 and is based in Seattle, Washington. One Hour Parties provides quick party services that are great for a variety of events including work, kid and adult parties. Plus, One Hour Parties provides custom party and event planning services.

The franchise program includes a five day training session in party and event planning. There is a franchise fee and you need to have some working capital. This business is great for a home office setting. The franchise program is not yet available in the following states: Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin.

If you visit their website, you will get an idea of the types of parties that are offered. Some parties are self-serve and the party planner is just responsible for delivering the necessary supplies.

One Hour Parties - Luau

An example of a theme party is the Luau Party. The party includes: Fruit Hula Punch (8 ounces per serving) delivered in our signature Punch Bucket, ladle, cookies (1 per serving), chips (1/2 cup per serving), chip dip, yellow plates, theme napkins, turquoise blue plastic table cover, 8-ounce clear cups, drink umbrellas, plastic lei (one per serving), table confetti, and set up. Price is $5.95 per person.

If you love parties and planning them, this could be a great opportunity for you!

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Promoting Your Home Business

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:44:04 +0000

I was at an event today and I did not have one business card with me. I had the opportunity to give away a few, but I couldn’t take advantage of it. One of the keys to promoting your home business is to always have promotional material on hand. Here are ten ways that you can promote your home business:

Have business cards made up and carry them with you - EVERYWHERE! Drop them in the restaurant giveaways. Hand them to people when they ask what your do, or how to spell your name. Post them on bulletin boards. Include them with any products that you ship. Who knows? One of your customers might pass them on.
Always have catalogs, brochures or flyers in your car and in your purse. If your catalogs are large, print up a one page flyer with a few products highlighted that includes all of your information. Be prepared when someone asks you what you do.
Keep track of who you give catalogs or cards to. Ask for their email address, it is less intrusive than a phone number sometimes. Ask if you can email them specials and discount codes.
Keep samples on hand in your car or wear what you make. I love handcrafted jewelry and I always ask about it if I see a piece that I like.
Talk about it! Be willing to talk about your products. Make a goal to talk to one person a day. Then make a new goal to talk to two people a day, etc.
Make sure that your name, address, telephone number, url and email address are on all of your catalogs, brochures, flyers and business cards. In more than one place if possible.
Coupons, coupons, coupons. If you can, try and include a coupon or a code on your business card or flyer. This may help customers decide to go with your product versus a similar product. Make the coupons codes unique and valid only one time.
Schools and other organizations are always looking for fundraisers, could your product fit? Contact the PTO or head of the organization.
Contact popular bloggers and ask them to giveaway one of your products on their site. Make sure the blogger asks the readers to visit your website in order to enter the giveaway.
Contact local small stores and boutiques. They may be interested in selling your product if it is unique and valuable to their clientele.

Remember, your business is your baby! Be a proud parent!

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Nature’s Sleep - EcoTex Contour Pillow Review and GIVEAWAY!

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:31:42 +0000

WINNER! Jennifer from Life According to Jenn!

Nature's Sleep Pillow

Last week I received two Nature’s Sleep - EcoTex Contour Pillows in the mail from BedroomFurniture.com. I gave one to my daughter, who seems to wake up often with puffy eyes and sneezes, and I saved one to giveaway!

Two Thumbs Up!

My daughter was so thrilled when she received her pillow. The pillow is very soft and comfortable. It is filled, covered and packaged in natural, earth-friendly materials. Nature’s Sleep claims that the pillow is great for allergy sufferers. After sleeping with the pillow for a week, my daughter gives the product two thumbs up! She has had puffy eyes or sneezes upon wakening and she loves how comfortable the pillow is.

The Nature’s Sleep 10 - EcoTex Contour Pillow features:

Cream Velour covering
Naturally hypo-allergenic, mildew proof, anti-microbial and anti-mold
Dust mite and anti-bacterial resistant
Designed with two covers for longevity and protection against microbes / dust mites; Inner Cover is hand wrapped in 100% natural cotton and Outer Cover is luxuriously smooth natural cotton velour — removable and washable
The Pillow is 20″ L x 12″ W x 1.33″ D

Now for the fun part! I get to giveaway one of this pillows to a lucky reader courtesy of BedroomFurniture.com.

Win It!

One random reader will win a Nature’s Sleep - EcoTex Contour Pillow. To enter visit BedroomFurniture.com and leave a comment with your favorite item from their store. This must be done before Extra Entries.

Extra Entries

Please leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

Follow me on twitter and tweet the message (copy and paste): Win a Nature’s Sleep EcoTex Contour Pillow from MWAS and BedroomFurniture.com @WAHresources! http:/www.tiny.cc/DVxBK
Blog about this giveaway - just a short note in another post is fine.
Subscribe to my newsletter (bottom right)
Become a fan of MWAS on Facebook

Other Details

One winner will be chosen at random using Random.org
Please make sure you leave a valid email address. The winner will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond, or another winner will be chosen.
Contest ends July 31st at 11:59PM EST
US entries only

This giveaway is listed on Prizey and was selected as an Editor’s Pick!

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eBay Store Critique

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:44:58 +0000

If you own an eBay store and have not been getting the sales that you want, you might want to purchase and eBay store critique. The eBay Selling Coach is offering an eBay store critique for $19.95. The critique includes an in-depth report of your eBay store with suggestions and recommendations in the following areas:

Key words
Verbiage included in your listings
Seller policies and how they are worded
Photos, backgrounds and tips for improvements
Item pricing and shipping fees
eBay violations

The critique comes with a money back guarantee - if you don’t feel the critique was helpful you get your money back, no questions asked.

I use to have an eBay store, which had some success, but I closed it down because I didn’t feel that I was getting the bang for my buck. How I wish I had this service when my store was open!

The eBay Selling Coach, Suzanne Wells, is Silver Level Power Seller on eBay and has been selling since 2003. She is the author of The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Guide to Successful eBay Selling.

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A New Product for My Allergy Prone Daughter

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:35:51 +0000

I have been giving the opportunity to try a new pillow for my ten year old daughter. She is prone to sudden bouts of what I call “puffy eye syndrome.” For no known reason whatsoever, she will all of a sudden experience an allergic reaction which causes her eyes to puff up and itch. She is now taking allergy medicine to school with her since she has no idea when the breakout might occur.

She will also often wake up with the same symptoms and I thought a Nature’s Sleep - EcoTex Contour Pillow might be a good product for her. The pillow is great for allergy sufferers and is filled, covered and packaged in natural, earth-friendly materials. BedroomFurniture.com has generously agreed to send me one for free to try out. PLUS, I will also be given a second pillow to GIVEAWAY to one of my lucky readers! Check back often to read my review and enter the giveaway.

BedroomFurniture.com is part of CSN Stores, a group of online specialty stores, featuring items such as futons, air hockey tables, greenhouses, bakers racks and many more!

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The Thirty Day Challenge

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 14:41:17 +0000

Thirty Day Challnege

Are you looking to make money online, but you don’t know where to start? Do you have an idea or product and want to learn how to market it? Do you already have a website or blog and your sales are just not what they should be?

Sign up for the Thirty Day Challenge! The Thirty Day Challenge is in its fifth year. Last year was the first year that I joined and I learned so much! Ed Dale and others teach you, FOR FREE, some of the best marketing practices and how to promote your product. Pre-season has just started and lessons will be released soon.

The Thirty Day Challenge is an absolutely free program and is all about making your first $10 online. Even if you are already making money online there are a lot of tips and tricks that will help you optimize your online earning.

This is just a few of the topics covered last year:

Using Twitter and Facebook effectively.
Researching key words and phrases to help market my product.
Starting and maintaining and effective blog.
Writing additional content to get your blog or product noticed.

This challenge is well worth the time that you will spend completing the assignments. Don’t worry if you get behind, the lessons are still available all year long!

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Mom Can Work From Home

admin — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:49:25 +0000

From the maker of TopMomma.com comes a brand new program to educate you about working from home. Mom Can Work From Home was developed by Kim Webb a work at home mom herself. She knows the struggles of working at home and wants to share her successes.

Kim has written an e-course covering such topic as:

How to set up your business the correct way
Determine if you are ready to work from home
Figure out what you are passionate about, and then learn how to make money from it
Learn how to manage your time to get more done
Get a website up and running, with no technical expertise needed
Acquire the tools and contacts for making your business work
Build a network of associates to grow your business
Discover the power of good customer service

Mom Can Work From Home lessons are emailed weekly, giving you time to digest the material and work on each section. If you are still skeptical, the first lesson is absolutely free! If you don’t like the program, you don’t have to continue. Plus you get two additional bonuses: A Special Report from Stacey Crew, The Organized Mom and Learn How To Create Your Own Logo Video Tutorial.

One of my favorite chapter is Lesson 7: Learning the Art of Upselling. Kim discusses why upselling is so profitable and how you can work it into your business. She also lets you know the three biggest mistakes of upselling and how you can improve your selling strategies. Each lesson ends with assignments to help you reinforce the concept.

If you are just starting our working from home or if you want more information to make your business profitable, then this course is a good investment.

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Spring Cleaning Your Website

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:17:19 +0000

I thought this article would be of use to my readers.

Spring is a wonderful time of year but it might not be so wonderful for our online business. The weather is getting nicer and people are spending more time outside, away from their computers. One way to get more people to come to your website is to do some spring cleaning and I don’t mean your house! Our websites can get stale and outdated if we do not clean them up periodically.

There are lots of things you can do to freshen up your site and bring new life and new customers to your online business.

1. Add a new section filled with resources, information and maybe even some special deals for your customers. Use relevant keywords to improve your ranking. For example: if you own a home decor business, offer decorating tips and advice. Show people how to decorate on a budget or how to redecorate with things they already own. By providing information and resources along with your products, you are giving people a reason to keep coming back. This is how you build trust with your visitors and get more sales.

2. Remove all dead links, outdated information and products. Nothing is worse than going to a site and finding links that don’t work or information and/or products that are no longer usable or helpful. Go through all the links on your site and freshen up the content to offer up to date information!

3. Give your homepage a face-lift by adding new graphics, text, etc. Redo your banner and give it some new life. Take out the old graphics and add some fresh new images. Research your keywords and revamp your text with some effective keywords. Write a new introduction to your site detailing all your new additions.

4. If you haven’t yet tried blogging, read up blogging and zap some life into your site. Some free blogging sites are Blogger and WordPress. Blogging is a great way to improve your search engine ranking while expanding your network.

5. Update your product line. Add some fresh new products and offer the old products at clearance prices. Have a Spring Sale and liven up your sales! Keep those customers coming back for more!

6. Add a What’s New page so you can let everyone know about all your updates now and in the future. This feature could get more people to return to your site to see What’s New?

7. Research the colors used on your site. You may find changing the colors of your site can bring a whole new life to your business.

8. Put a small survey on your site. Ask your visitors what they would like to see and what type of products they are looking for. Getting the information straight from the horse’s mouth could do your business a lot of good. Offer your visitors a small gift for answering the questions on the survey.

9. Renew your goals! Make new goals and write out a new business plan. Learn from your experiences, good and bad, and improve your plan for success.

Spring is a time of renewal, revitalization and reenergizing! Our online businesses are no exception!

About the Author:
Terri Seymour (also known as “The eBook Lady”) has over ten years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site at http://www.seymourproducts.com for resources, $1 resell ebooks & software, free tutorials, affiliate programs, free ezine and free business ebook with Master Resell Rights. http://www.seymourproducts.com/free.shtml

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Elance

admin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:27:39 +0000

Elance is an online source for businesses to contract with independent professionals. If you are looking to find freelance work, Elance is a great place to start. They offer many different kinds of employment from web designing, graphic design to freelance copywriting. Elance makes money by keeping a portion of your fee. They also make money by charging extra for an Individual or Team Plan that gives you more searching options and other benefits.

A paid membership will include submitting up to 20 proposals per month, compared to only three proposals per month for the free membership. The paid membership lowers the fee the Elance keeps from your pay and does not charge per wire transfer of funds. The monthly charge for the paid membership is $9.95.

I signed up for a Basic (Free) Elance account and was able to set up my profile with a Tagline, Keywords and Description so that potential employers could find me. The next step is to take the Elance Admissions Test. I watched a number of videos about Elance and how the process works and reviewed the provider guide. You must score an 80% on the test to pass.

The next step is to verify your phone number. Elance will call the number provided and you must speak a confirmation code to verify the number.

After searching for jobs, I found there is one little catch. You only get to choose ONE category in your profile. Categories include Admin Support, Design & Multimedia, Engineering & Manufacturing, Finance & Management, Legal, Sales & Marketing, Writing & Translation and Web & Programming. You can not bid on a project unless it is in the category you originally chose. If you decide to switch categories, the new category is not available until the next billing cycle (usually in one month).

If you decide to upgrade, you can choose additional categories, but they will cost you. Each additional category is $4.95 per month as well. I would suggest choosing one category and then upgrading if you find numerous jobs that you feel you could successful bid for in a different category. Upgrading with additional categories takes place immediately, instead of at the next billing cycle.

I did upgrade my free membership to paid and bid on a job. Keep posted to find out how the service works out for me!

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