Working from home can be one of the most rewarding ventures a person can embark upon, especially if they have children. Working this way offers you the ability to be able to balance work and home life in a way that suits you. Rather than having to be away from home forty hours a week, you can instead spend as much time as possible with your kids whilst also taking care of business. So you can wash baby clothes then do a business deal, all within the hour! There are lots of great benefits, but you also need to find a way to keep your business ticking over too. Managing this without dedicating a huge amount of time to it is somewhat of a balancing act. If you’re a work-at-home parent, you’ll probably already have experienced how tricky it is to manage, but have you ever thought of using social media to give you a push in the right direction?

Where to get started

Social media marketing has quickly become the new big thing in business. It’s hard to find any advert which doesn’t also push the address of the company’s Facebook or Twitter profiles. And, as a work-at-home parent, you too can reap the rewards of social media marketing, and find out how useful it can be to discover new clients and also stay in touch with your existing ones. Best of all, you can take full advantage of social media marketing completely free. Creating a profile on Facebook, Twitter, and the other social networks won’t cost you a penny – and could mean a big uplift in the amount of business you receive. So how do you get started with social media, and what are the steps you need to take to start seeing the benefits?

First things first

Your first stop should be creating your profiles. This means heading to Facebook, Twitter, and the other networks that you want to use, then creating profiles for free. When you choose the name for your profiles, you can either decide on a name for your business as a whole, or simply use your own name. A lot of work-at-home parents operate as freelancers, so try to use whichever name you do when you speak with your customers. After you’ve made the profiles, you’ll need to find followers and/or fans. You can do this in a number of ways, but if you already have an established base of clients, one of the easiest ways to do it is to send out a blanket email to all of them letting them know you’re now on social networks. With any luck, they’ll click through from the email and then ‘Like’ you, or follow your Twitter feed.

Make the most of your followers

Once you’ve got your base of followers and users in place, your next step is to keep them interested. Remember that when people are ‘spammed’ with lots of promotional material at once, they can easily switch off and remove themselves from your network. If this happens, your social media efforts might end up being in vain. The key to making good, relevant and interesting posts is to be sure that you offer your users something other than just adverts; if you can create a blog to post too, all the better. Then you can start to produce regular, relevant content which your users should lap up. If it’s good enough, you may see your social media numbers go up even further. Then, once they’re happy that you’re not just a spammer, you can start to introduce some offers and adverts for your products and/or services. It’s all a bit of a balancing act, but you’ll get there with a little perseverance.

So what are you waiting for? Get on to the social networks now and show the world that work-at-home parents can make just as much of a mark as their ‘big hitter’ peers!

Dee Mason

]]> http://berriesandcreamblogdesign.com/2011/10/06/guest-blogger-post-the-work-at-home-parents-guide-to-social-media-marketing/feed/ 0 http://berriesandcreamblogdesign.com/2011/10/06/guest-blogger-post-the-work-at-home-parents-guide-to-social-media-marketing/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/berriesandcreamblogdesign/~3/mbOEMV_zeaU/ http://berriesandcreamblogdesign.com/2011/09/02/premade-blog-designs-on-sale/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:32:16 +0000 Revka http://berriesandcreamblogdesign.com/?p=2238

In celebration of Labor Day, our premade WordPress designs are on sale for $75. Whether you select a cute or classy design, you’ll receive an attractive, high quality design that will not only make your blog look great but will also help your visitors to easily find your content.

If you’ve been considering purchasing one of our premades, don’t hesitate any longer. This sale runs through September 6, 2011. On September 7th, the prices will return to normal. Get your premade blog design now.

I don’t normally say much about my family or where I live, but I’ll break my silence for a little while.

I live in eastern NC, about 45 miles from the coast. Hurricane Irene hit our county and our town very hard. In fact, if the reports I’ve heard are correct, our town got the most rainfall from the storm – more than 19 inches in one day.

My husband is a lineman for the power company and knew that he’d be put to work as soon as it was safe. So he had me and the children go stay with his parents who live 90 miles northwest of us. The kids and I left home about 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon.

The hurricane was quite large. Even being more than a hundred miles from the coast, we were without power at my in-laws’ for 24 hours. This evening, Robert, my husband, told me that our power at home would most likely be out for at least another day.

We have well water. The well requires electricity to run the pump and get the water to the house. So we are without water. Robert wants me and the children to stay where we are until we have power again. Even then, I don’t know if our telephone service will be restored. Since we have DSL, no telephone service means no internet access.

If you wish to contact us for any reason, please do so, and I or a member of my team will contact you as soon as possible.

Thanks so much for your understanding. It is my hope that all of you are safe and that everything is back to normal soon.

~Revka

Character illustrations used on blogs are often purchased from stock photos sites, like istockphoto. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Except that anyone can buy the exact illustration you so love!

The Solution to the “She has my exact illustration!” Problem

“Characterize Me” is a customizable character illustration that can be personalized to be uniquely yours. Simply select from numerous customization options such as skin tone, hair color and style, eye color, shirt color, accessories, and more. When you are finished making your choices, you’ll have a cute, customized illustration that you won’t see on every Jane and Jill’s blog.

Now Available for Purchase

We are happy to announce that you can get your own version of this cute gal today. This illustrated character is affordably priced at just $47 for the web-ready version and $57 for the web-ready and print-ready versions combined.

Even better, during our character’s two-week launch (August 1 – 14, 2011), we’re taking $10 off the purchase price. No coupon or discount code needed.

Interested? Click the link for the full details on this cute character design.

Don’t forget that tomorrow at our FB fan page, I’ll be answering your questions about blogs, blogging, and WordPress. What questions do you have?

When you are new to blogging, web hosting isn’t really on your radar because most likely, you are using a free blogging platform. You grow your blog, you gain a little notoriety, traffic picks up to the point that you you’d like to be more of a professional blogger. You find that WordPress is generally where bloggers head and find out that you must have your own hosting to place advertisements and monetize your blog. ::::sigh::::

Hosting? What is hosting and why do I have to “buy” it?

Hosting is that complicated middle man between the domain name (URL) and when you can view your blog on the Internet. The “host” does just that. It “hosts” or serves up your site in such a manner as to cause it to be viewable when someone types in or clicks on your URL.

Hosting = Viewable.
Hosting = pay someone to provide that service.
Hosting + WordPress = professional blogging.

Hello, you now have expenses!

Don’t despair. You can get great hosting for less than $100 per year.

Does it really matter who I choose as my host?

If your host does not provide your site with enough speed to load your blog in the blink of an eye, you have the wrong host. It can cost you in traffic, readership, Google page rank and frustrated readers. PLEASE, do your homework and know exactly what you should be looking for.

If you aren’t careful you purchase hosting service from a re-seller from a larger company? Re-sellers are probably not going to give you the same level of service as an actual hosting company. They are only leasing server space from a hosting company. I vote NO especially your first round of purchasing hosting. Watch out for sly, silver-tongued re-sellers who rook you in via a webinar too!!!!

How do I find a great host?

Below is the list of questions about the info I could have used to start with. I certainly wish I had enough knowledge to know before I purchased hosting the first time. I learned the hard way that all hosting is NOT created equally.

1. Will you be allowed to make all the changes to your account yourself, including contact, credit card and other changes?
2. How easy is it to cancel  hosting if you purchase it?
3. What are the limits on the number of email boxes, size of email box, the site size or the bandwidth?
4. Is it possible to install WordPress with “one click”.
5. Is it possible update your WordPress site easily?
6. Do you have full FTP (File Transfer Protocol) access to your files?
7. Do you have full access to your control panel and databases through your phpMyAdmin?
8. Is the host using the most current versions of PHP and MySQL software?
9. Is the host keeping PHP and MySQL software updated?
10. Is tech support available directly from the hosting company?
11. Does the host offer 24/7 phone and/or chat support?
12. Is the hosting company too busy promoting themselves in a manner that is demeaning to women? Have they been sold lately? Does their CEO hunt endangered animals? If so – RUN!

I can’t teach you in one blog post what a lot of the terms mean, so use your fave search engine and learn what they mean or at least get a good idea. I don’t know in detail, but I know enough to have a good feel for their meaning.

Which host do you recommend?

Revka will tell you and (now) so will I, that if you are looking for hosting, we vote for Hostgator (aff. link). Before Revka switched me over to Hostgator, I was personally unable to get my page rank to show at all after 8 months. After 3 days on Hostgator I had a PR2.  I also now  have a WebSite Grade (websitegrader.com) of 99/100. Like magic, I am now getting organic traffic from search engines.

If in doubt, ask for help, use search engines, ask for referrals from bloggers who have been at this for more than a minute.

I hope you find this helpful!

Ginger Jones

Ginger Jones from Attention Deal Shoppers shares coupons, great deals, and other frugal ideas with her readers.

Caring for You is a series aimed at helping you make caring for yourself a priority. After all, if you collapse because you didn’t take care of yourself, who’s going to take your place and care for the precious ones in your charge?

Click here to view all the Caring for You articles.

Mom’s Stress Is Not Like Others’ Stress

Everyone has some stress in their lives at one time or another. But for us moms, the type of stress we have is very different. Why? Because we wear so many hats all at the same time.

Nurse, teacher, psychologist, maid, Laundromat, chef, babysitter, taxi service, and more – all are wrapped into Mom. I often wondered how much we would get paid if we were actually paid for all the ‘jobs’ we do. Really, there is no price you can put on a mom because she is priceless!

But are we stressed? Yep! Some days more than others.

Our Eating Habits May Be Contributing to Our Stress

A lot of moms I chat with seem to have problems getting the right nutrition in general. They seem to find that they are so busy, they don’t have time to eat well. It’s a big problem amongst us moms, but it’s one that we can and should take the time to rectify. After all when our bodies are tired and rundown, we aren’t much good to anyone, so its very important to keep ourselves ‘maintained’ so we can be all we can be and enjoy our families.

In addition to meal planning, one of the first changes that should be made is scheduling meal times.

Actually, a schedule is something I couldn’t live without when my children were growing up. It took some getting used to, but in the end, keeping regular meal times, bed times, appointment, chores, etc. really helped me. So get out that white board and start getting your meal times straight first.

Most importantly, be sure to eat a good breakfast. This will give you (and your children) a good start to the day. You need the best fuel first thing in the morning to jumpstart your day.

Grabbing a quick gulp of coffee and a danish are going to pump you up fast and then give you a hefty crash by 9 a.m., causing irritability, tiredness, and possibly the shakes from low blood sugar levels. Not to mention lowering your immune system, allowing you to get sick faster. These side effects mean that caffeinated beverages do add to stress in a very unhealthy way.

Keep in mind that breakfast doesn’t mean “Trucker’s Special.” A grapefruit, banana, and/or protein shake are much better options. You can never go wrong if you eat an abundance of fruits, veggies and whole grains.

Honestly, eating your largest meal at the start of the day, instead of at dinner time, is a great way to de-stress your body. Trying to digest big meals at night can not only cause weight gain but also stresses the body since it has a hard time digesting food when our metabolism drops off at night.

Certain Foods Can Help Us De-Stress

I thought it would be fun to explore some foods that actually help to de-stress our bodies.

Foods with high protein content that aren’t loaded with sugar won’t cause a spike in blood sugar and will keep you satiated for a longer time. Try mixing cottage cheese with a fruit that is high in vitamin C, like oranges.

Vitamin C plays a role in fighting stress because it’s an antioxidant that fights the free radicals that get released when you’re stressed Your body can digest these easier, putting less stress on the body. And when there is less stress on the body, we can handle all of life’s little problems much easier. Try going meatless a couple times a week and instead amp up on Vitamin C producing foods.

Asparagus helps to stabilize your mood and is high in folic acid. Eating certain vitamins and minerals like folic acid and B vitamins can help keep your mood steady because they’re needed to make serotonin, which is a chemical that directly affects mood in a positive way.

Are you ever looking for something you can really dig your teeth into when you’re stressed? Try crunching on raw almonds to get some aggression out. A good source of Vitamin B2 and E, as well as magnesium and zinc, almonds are low in fats, and high in the unsaturated kind.

Like vitamin C, vitamin E has been shown to fight the free radicals associated with stress, and in particular, those free radicals that cause heart disease. Almonds have also been known to be cancer fighters.

A great lunch option, tuna is high in stress-fighting vitamins B6 and B12. Tuna is also a good low-fat protein source. Don’t load tuna down with fat by using a lot of mayonnaise however. Chose a light mayo instead, or use a vegetarian version. I’m always game to try new things, and I have found Vegenaise with grape seed extract amazing!. Tastes just like the real thing (actually better!), but the grape seed helps to build immunity.

Very rich in antioxidants, blueberries offer a high-fiber, low-calorie fruit option that is also rich in stress-fighting vitamin C. Try them with cottage cheese or as a snack on their own, over cereal and in pancakes or waffles.

Healthy Eating Shouldn’t Be Just for Mom

By the way, get the whole family on a healthy eating habit, adding wholesome fruits and veggies as snacks and as part of the meal. Cut down on anything processed and full of sugar. You will see amazing results and in the end, will deal with fewer headaches and less stress.

Every little change you make is always for the better…a better, less stressed you!

Wishing you abundant health!
Robin Brostovski, CWC

Robin Brostovski is a certified professional health and wellness consultant, and stay at home mom of 2 grown boys. She is a homeschool veteran (K-12) and loves sharing her expertise. She is also ‘mommy’ to her two smaller Maltese babies.

This is just a friendly reminder that tomorrow is “Talk to Me Thursday” at our Facebook fan page.

“Talk to Me Thursday” gives you the opportunity to get answers to your questions about blogs or blogging. Simply visit our Facebook fan page and leave your question on our wall.

You’re doing great! You’ve installed WordPress, changed your permalink settings to a more user-friendly format, and customized your general settings.

There are a few more settings to go through, but first I want to help you get started creating pages.

Page, Post – What’s the Difference?

WordPress beginners often ask me what the difference is between posts and pages. WordPress.org explains it this way:

“Posts automatically appear in reverse chronological order on your blog’s home page. [Note from Revka: Settings can be changed to force your blog posts to appear on a page other than your home page.] Pages, on the other hand, are for content such as “About Me,” “Contact Me,” etc. Pages live outside of the normal blog chronology, and are often used to present information about yourself or your site that is somehow timeless — information that is always applicable.”

Read full explanation here.

Writing a Page

To create a page, log in to your WordPress admin area. In the left sidebar, look for the Pages link. Click on that. You’ll see two more links drop down underneath as shown in the image on the left. Click on the Add New link shown highlighted in yellow.

When you click on that link, you are brought to the editor.  This editor is how you create all of your pages (and posts, which we will talk about later).  The page and post editors are very similar so let’s take a look at it now. You’ll need to click the image to view it full size and read the notes.

You’ll want to insert the page title and then start writing the body of the page. To use any of the tool bar buttons, first click and drag to select the text to which you want the formatting applied then click the desired button.

Publishing a Page

Once you’re done writing and formatting your page content, you’re ready to save, schedule, or publish your page. These options are all found in the Publish section at the top of the column to the right of the editor.

To save your page to be completed at a later time, click the Save Draft button underneath the Publish heading.

To change the date your page is published, find and click the Edit link to the right of Publish immediately. The time should be entered in 24-hour format. (If you don’t want to convert afternoon times to 24-hour time, just publish everything in the morning.)

When you’re ready to make your page live, click the blue Publish button at the bottom right of the Publish section. (Note that if you have changed the Publish date to a future time, the button will say Schedule instead of Publish.)

Need Help?

We just covered the basics of creating pages in WordPress. If you’re feeling lost, you might benefit from a one-on-one WordPress training session. During the session, you will be taken through all sections of your WordPress admin area and given thorough instructions for how to use and manage your site.

You’re also welcome to post your WordPress questions on our Facebook fan page. Questions are answered on our wall on Thursdays.

The WordPress Wednesday series offers a weekly tip to help you get the most from your WordPress powered site. Click to view all the posts in this series.

There are many definitions for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Here’s a definition I found to be simple and to the point:

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art of understanding search engines and and using that knowledge to make a website rank high on search engines.”

Neil Patel via shoemoney.com

Do you feel like your SEO efforts are missing the mark?

If you’ve been working to improve your blog but your search engine rankings aren’t reflecting the effort you’ve been putting in, you may be targeting the wrong keywords or may not be optimizing your content to boost your search engine rankings.

The good news is that Berries and Cream Blog Design can help you.

Meet our new SEO copywriting specialist – Prerna Malik.

Prerna Malik - copywriter and SEO specialist

Prerna Malik is our newest team member and brings an impressive set of skills to the Berries and Cream team. She has a Master’s Degree in English and has worked for over 6 years in Customer Service, Communication Skills Training and Copywriting. Her writing experience includes freelancing, professional blogging, and web content writing for both blogs and websites.

Why take chances with your blog’s SEO?

SEO is a skill that does not come quickly or easily for many people. If you’ve been trying without success to improve your blog’s search engine rankings, consider letting Prerna put her years of experience to work for you.

Prerna has the knowledge needed to conduct niche-specific keyword research and uncover keywords that people search for often but don’t have as much competition as more common keywords.

If you need more help, she can also write customized, unique and well-crafted pages, posts, or articles to help boost your site’s visibility.

Visit our Services A La Carte page for full details.