Guest Blogger: Loose Thread Stitchers

Here is a motivational letter from Colleen. She is on a journey to earn $30,000 in 30 days. Read her letter and see if you can help, or know someone that can. She is accepting small in kind donations or large investor contributions... who knows if you are one that can be the one!


I would like to start my story by thanking Rebekah for the opportunity to guest blog on her site and tell others my story. It was a very generous offer and I truly appreciate the opportunity.

Good day! My name is Colleen Leader and I am a SAHM who is trying to accomplish a Herculean task. No I am not talking about potty training my 2 year old or take 3 children under 5 to the grocery store at lunch time. That is for a super mom (if she is reading this could she shoot me a quick e-mail with the answers. I would appreciate it! Thanks). I better start from the beginning.

I am fortunate enough to be able to stay home with my 3 small children (4 years, 2 years and 9 months) full time. Over the years watching my children grow, I have realized that an individual can do anything they set their mind to do. I think any mom with small children and a jar full of cookies can attest to that! So I thought to myself, why not, take the chance and finally commit to making my dream a reality. That day Loose Thread Stitchers was born.

You should probably sit down for this. Seriously, are you ready? I am on a mission to raise $30,000 in 30 days to fund my dream – www.LooseThreadStitchers.com. I know you think I am off my rocker but allow me to explain.

I have spent the past 5 years researching and developing an online company that will revolutionize the needlework industry. We have self funded the project until now. Currently, we need an additional $30,000 to finish our site and launch in time for our first tradeshow at the Stitching Jubilee.

I have created a blog to narrate my journey. Each day I will post my adventures in creating funding opportunities and how my work is paying off. I truly believe that $30,000 in 30 days is possible. Won’t you join me and help make my dream a reality?

BTW – My husband and I has Chinese tonight and I quickly ate my dinner and ran right back into the office to finish my work. He just came in the office and handed me my fortune cookie. My cookie read, ”Your dearest dream is coming true”. How cool is that?

I look forward to reading your comments and suggestions and feel free to pass my story along – you never know who could change your life and make your dreams come true!

Things just got interesting!

In Stitches,
Colleen



Hope you are inspired to make your own dream come true or to help Colleen!

Work at Home Mom Forum $25 Giveaway

As one of the owners of a Work at Home Mom forum, call the Smart Moms Forum, I am offering a $25 gift card for an End of Summer Points giveaway. There are lots of ways to earn points, just by posting on the forum, giving us your introduction if you are new, or visiting some other sites and blogs. The one with the highest points wins! So if you want to win a $25 US Am Ex gift card, join the fun (and you do not have to be a work at home mom.... you can work outside the home, stay at home (although we know all stay at home moms work!), or do a little of it all!

Read more about the contest here!

Hope to see you there!

BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH- will be the death of me!

For months, we have been battling with the Blue Screen of Death with Windows XP. I am not a computer tech, but I can find logical patterns in things. Anything I search on the internet for possible causes does come up, meaning that there are many things that have caused the BSOD! I have taken the computer to a computer repair shop, paid for a new power source to be installed (not the problem), returned when it blue screened again, they did not detect a problem. We brought it home, turned it on, and it did it again! Now, I think the problem is the wireless, since that keeps disabling, and have no idea how to fit it. My computer friend will be here tonight so I am going to share my insight with him. But what to do about a computer repair company that does not actually repair the problem $90 later!? Computers- got to have them, especially with an online business, but you have to hate them sometimes too!

If you have had the same problems, share them with me so I can appreciate the camaraderie of computer problems!

Click here to support breast cancer research by purchasing an original Breast Cancer No Excuses T-Shirt

Contests and Blogging

If you are a mommy blogger and trying to make some money with your blog, you know the importance of traffic. Traffic is the key to earning $$$ through one free available money maker, Google Adwords.

So how do you increase traffic? One way is by hosting contests. A great site for seeing how to use contest is Contest for Moms blog. She is giving away of Comfy Easy PC in this post. By linking to her blog or posting a comment, you can be eligible to win.

If you want more tips for making money with a website or a blog, a great resource is our Work at Home Professional Series. Episode 10 is with Pajama Mommy about her ideas for getting more money from your blog. It is well worth the 30 minutes of your time to get these valuable tips and resources! I will post the link soon, but you can go to the Itunes store and do a search for Smart Moms and download it from there.

Click here to support breast cancer research by purchasing an original Breast Cancer No Excuses T-Shirt

Smart Moms Professional Series

It has been a long busy week.

Smart Mom Kim has been working hard this week on the Smart Mom Professional Series. This is a free podcast download for moms that work at home to help them increase their skills, abilities, and to give them some good ideas to improve your business. If you are thinking about working from home, this is a good opportunity to start out on the right foot. You could not buy the experience these women have to offer. Millionaire Mommy gives some tips for becoming a millionaire young, PJ Mommy will teach you how to monetize your website, Suzanne (no Mommy name here) gives helpful tips for working ebay as your home based business.

You cannot go wrong listening to these 30 minutes episodes. Plus they are FREE!

So log on to our blog, 4fabmoms, and download your free work at home mom help.

Click here to support breast cancer research by purchasing an original Breast Cancer No Excuses T-Shirt

Make Money With Your Blog

I am very excited! I finally made $100 with Pay Per Post. I have been posting here and there on different advertising opportunities, making anywhere from $5 to $30 per posts. I finally past the $100 mark! It is easy to do and there is no requirement for what you post or when you post. You review the opportunities available to you and decide if you want to do it or not.

There are a view ways to make money:
1. Sign up to post. Click on the button and you can start your sign up (plus I get a commission for referring you if you post on your blog).
2. Review any of my posts on your blog. By reviewing my posts, we each get paid.
3. Sign up advertisers. If you have an need to get some links to your blog or website, this is a reasonably affordable way to do it. You can sign up and ask for people to post about you and link back to your site.

4. People can hire you to post for them. They sign up to pay what you ask. I have a pretty reasonable rate- $10 a post right now. You can get some links and some good press.


There are some limitations to signing up- age of your blog, how many posts, etc. You can sign up even if you don't meet them all and start when you are qualified.

So far, it has only been a good experience. They are fair reviewing posts and give you an opportunity to fix whatever may be wrong.

Sign up today and start making money on your blog!


Click here to support breast cancer research by purchasing an original Breast Cancer No Excuses T-Shirt

Working and working and working

Working full time and trying to carry on the other activities I was involved in is difficult. There, of course, is not as much time to blog, time to search on the internet, or time to spend with my friends. Just the other night, my friend Betsy and I finally talked on the phone after over a week! We used to talk daily. There is just not as much time.

So if you don't see me blog as frequently, you now know the reason... too much to do and not enough time!

I used to do most of my work in the evenings; now I am in bed at 9:00-10:00 pm.

I used to have the day during my daughters nap to catch up on emails; now she naps at school when I am at work.

The working moms schedule changes! I am changing as part of my new title. Hopefully it will all work out soon!

Work at Home Moms, Make it Official

As many of you know, I have many home based businesses as well as my new outside the home career. I am joined with three other moms as 4fabmoms. When we began this journey last spring, we decided to make it official and become an LLC. Fortunately, one of our partners has an attorney husband who create our official LLC documents. This way, we are not only a business and get to join our many different organizations as a business, we also get to deduct many business related meetings and expenses. We made it official.

There are many ways to set up your home based business, not just an LLC. One thing is for sure, you cannot do it alone.

There is new company that is helping people make their business official. IncParadise.Com. This company is helping thousands of entrepreneurs each year to start their own business. They are not lawyers. They don't charge high fees. All they do is to help with all the paperwork which might be complicated to people who are not familiar with starting businesses.

Some of the services and states that are available are:
Texas corporations
Florida
Nevada
Arizona
Other states may be available.

They also have a virtual office program and executive suites. Starting at $45 per month, you can basically use their office with free phones and internet and their conference room. "Why meet clients in Starbucks when you can meet them in professional office."

It is one more option to make it official.

This is a sponsored post.

Unbecoming a Stay at Home Mom

After four years at home, I am becoming a WOHM- a work outside the home mom. As a mom, I have only been a stay at home mom recently adding the work at home mom part. Now, as my friend Amber says, I am a work at home mom with a moonlighting gig.

I am going back to teaching in one week. I got a great job- a consultant teacher to teachers that teach the gifted and advance middle school students. I travel to four schools and help teachers teach the really smart kids.

A far cry from my last teaching- teaching children with learning and behavioral problems.

I am excited about the job since it is what I always wanted to be as a teacher. I am not excited about getting up each morning and getting my children out of the house. My children have never been forced to get up- or for that matter- have a bed time. All of that will change now. :)

So continue with me on this journey... see how I am a WAHM WOHM! A work at home mom (still with Smart Moms and my preschool site) and a work outside the home mom. What a adventure- what a story!

Multiple streams of income... right?

Blogging for Beginners

As I reach my 100th post on my very first independent mom blog, I have began to research on ways to make money from a blog.

Smart Moms is always looking for ways to make money from home. A blog is a simple way with little monetary investment to make money, if done correctly.

Do I know what correctly is?

Not completely or much at all as I begin to research.

However, believe it or not, this blog, without effort except posting quite a few days per week, has made me around $50 in the past 4 months.

Not much, but not too bad for not much work.

Over time, it will be enough to buy a new pair of shoes without guilt, or eventually pay for a family vacation (my trick is that the money will all go into an online bank account I do not access on a regular basis!).

And the only cost I have in this blog is my new domain- www.the-day-of-a-mom.com (no more blogspot.com!) and that is costing me $5.99 a year from 1&1. And that is even with a free email address!

I am going to be forging ahead with learning about blogging and I hope you will join me. Here is a place to start, a 6 figure income earner blogger with some beginning blogging tips.

Simple Successful Habits

I was tagged long ago by Wendy of Adventures of a Suburban WAHM Success In Weight Loss. The meme was on Simple Successful Habits.

What has made me successful? I am guessing it what you mean by success. In determining what you do well in life, you really have to look at everything you have accomplished in relation to what you wanted to accomplish.

• I am a success as a mother. That has been my goal in life, to be a mom. I am now the mom to two sweet children. I may not be be the best in all I do, but I am doing the best I can! :)

• I am a success in finishing my education as a teacher. From a young age, all I wanted to do is teach! I love teaching and always have. I love going to school, and still continue to do that now and then! Even though I stay at home, I still tutor, teach Sunday school, and some kids activities. It is in my blood.

• I am a successful entrepreneur. I am judging my success on accomplishing my goals I have set so far. When we started Smart Moms, I did not know what we were getting into. As we have come along, I am amazed at what we have accomplished. Now I am so proud of us!

To be successful, there are some habits you have to have.
1. Setting goals. What is it you want to accomplish? How are you going to accomplish it? What do you want as the end result?

2. Make a plan. When do you want your goal accomplished by? What steps do you need to get to the goal? What education or information do you need to gather in order to accomplish it?

3. Work the plan. Schedule time each day to work towards your goal. Jack Canfield of the Success Principles says to do 5 thing each day towards your goal. I at least do that many! But make them things you can accomplish and that will move towards your goal. Don't get too involved with busy work.

4. Reward your accomplishments. No one wants to work towards a goal and not receive praise when you complete it. Praise yourself if there is no one else to praise you! Reward yourself, even if it is just a day off work (although you know that will probably not happen!). Enjoy the fact that you have reached your goal!

In all things, measure your success by judging yourself, not others. Success is about what you see as accomplishments, not what others are accomplishing. Thanks Wendy for encouraging me to think about success today!

Tagged!
Anita gets a log of tags in her work at home mom blog
Suzy on her Core Insight Coaching blog
And Fine Tune Your Business Ethics! at MomsNetwork.com

Multiple Streams of Income on the Internet

Why do I work from home? I work at home so I can be at home to my children. I work at home so I can be here instead having to send them to day care. I work at home so I don't have to go to work! I work at home so I can go to lunch with my mom when I want to. I work at home so I can go to the bathroom when I want to (if you are not a teacher, you would not understand this)!

My other Smart Moms and I had been working at home. We were working a home based business that required us to find others to use our products. Many people do well with that. The Smart Moms were doing well with that! But we wanted to expand our influence. What we learned was so much more! We, four women that thought they were very up-to-date on technology, were missing what we could do for multiple streams of income using the internet.

We still sell products! We have actually found a few more companies we like. But we have also found a new business... helping other moms in home based businesses or those that want to be in a home based business be successful at whatever they choose.

If you are interested in learning more about what the internet has to offer, you have got to read this book, Multiple Streams of Income on the Internet by Robert G Allen. It is quick and easy to understand. I just gave my copy to my friend on Sunday. This is the book to begin with. Then visit our Smart Moms Work at Home Moms Site and see what we can do to help you succeed.

Work at Home Office Hours

On our Smart Moms Forum, we have had a discussion about working office hours when you are working from home. It is so difficult to stay off the computer and do things like clean the house, play with the kids, do the laundry, etc...

So I am challenging myself. I am going to blast out the last few pages of my new preschool activities site (under construction!) and start with office hours next week. Mostly, that will be 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm with maybe an hour in the daytime to check email. Otherwise, I will spend 2 hours checking email!

Working from home is a great opportunity if you take the opportunity to do the other fun parts that go along with working from home and keeping your kids at home.

If you are interested in working from home, I can help. The Smart Moms team is dedicated to helping mothers work from home and achieve their dreams and goals. Interested? Check out our work from home resource site!

You too can be an INFOPRENEUR

I am a partner in Smart Moms -Smart Business, LLC. We just recently became official but we began our work at home journey back in March 2007 after coming across a work at home mom website. We knew we could provide high quality training for moms that work at home, plus try to gather some names of women that wanted to join with us.

Since then, we have learned so much more than we ever thought we could have known about doing business on the internet. We have divided into two paths: working from home in direct sales and working from home by becoming an INFOPRENEUR: an information entrepreneur.

We are building businesses from information we already have. I was a school teacher so I am building a site with preschool resources. You can see the beginnings at Preschool-Activities-Everyday Blog. We have also created an eBook that is a guide to lose weight. You can see the site at 30 Days To A Healthier You!

And the point being here is that 3 months ago, I would not have believed I own and operate 5 different websites and have written 2 1/2 eBooks! And you can do it too. The internet is an amazing place to build and sell information. Everyone wants it, no one wants to take the time to look for it. So build a site with one location for all the top information, and you can make money!

If you want more information and a free report with the links of all the resources we have used to build our business, visit Smart Moms - Smart Business and subscribe to our newsletter. It is free to join and free to get the report. And click on some of the links on the sidebar to see more about what we have done over the past 4 months. We are impressed and hope you are too!

I am on vacation for a few days! No cable, no phone, no internet! Gotta love it!

Qualities of a Wealthy Woman

My friend Amber is posting a series about the qualities of a wealthy woman. On my car, I have "Smart Moms Finish Rich" as my advertisement for my business (see a picture here). As a church going woman, I get some remarks about what does it mean to "finish rich" (at least they are not questioning the smart part...). All people want to "be rich" but no one wants to admit it! Being rich means to be successful in all areas of life, your family, your church, your work, not just the amount of money you have (or don't have) in the bank. I am rich because I have a wonderful husband that loves and supports me with two wonderful children that keep me on my toes. I am rich because I have three wonderful business partners that are working to improve our lives and the lives of other women. I am rich because I attend a wonderful Bible believing church. I am rich because I have 4 loving siblings and parents that happen to all live in the same town. I could continue to list my "rich" areas of life... but there would not be enough room to continue on. If you are feeling "poor", reevaluate your life and what you do have. As Sheryl Crow stated, "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got." If your job is what is holding you back from being rich, visit our Smart Mom site and see if we have something to help you out. Don't go through life thinking you are poor, be RICH!

Our pic in Vegas-

The 4fabmoms in Vegas...

Hello again...

My blog was flagged for possible spam, so I was not able to post for a few days and then I went to Vegas for a week for a conference and then participated in Relay for Life the day I got back... so it has been a busy week! And not to mention the laundry and the house cleaning I have to do to make up for my week away. My husband survived his week with the kids and the kids survived their week with the babysitter and my mom and sister who so graciously watched them some days. I am happy to be home, but I am making up for it this week! I had a great time with my 4fabmoms that went to the conference with me. We did not have any "stays in Vegas" stories, but we had a great time anyway. Many gave me tips as I went and the one I should have listened to was the tip of wearing good walking shoes... but the good walking shoes did not always go with the outfit! So I learned my lesson. I met some great people at the conference, in the airport, on the airplane, everywhere. I wore my Smart Moms - Finish Rich shirt and got tons of questions. What a great marketing tool- and I made them myself on our T-shirt affiliate, SpreadShirt. If you are traveling anywhere I would suggest you make a shirt to advertise your business. It is cost effective for the amount of exposure you get. I wore it to Disney one day and got a hit on our lead site! You never know who is watching! :)
So it is good to be home and not so good to be cleaning the house- my least favorite job!

Spam

Not the canned meat either! This week my husband received an email from an Arbonne representative, and it was not me. Someone got his email because he purchased a gift a few months ago from a company and she is an Arbonne rep at some point. So she is using her email list to send unsolicited emails to all of her customers from her other business for Arbonne. It is pretty funny that she came across someone that already has their own Arbonne rep- HIS WIFE! How many emails a day do you get an email from someone that you don't know? I typically get up to 100 from crazy people that somehow legally got my name from some advertisement or a company from which I requested info, but to get an email from a real person that somehow got your email... it is just wrong. In all business, we should strive to do things ethically and not blast emails to anyone in our address book! Then she had the nerve to tell me I would discolor the name of Arbonne by being annoyed she was sending emails to my husband! You wonder how some people sleep through the night!
I am done with my rant! An example of how NOT to do business.

Another income stream!

I am on a work at home mom forum called Mommy's Helper Community. It is a very friendly forum with real posts and not all ads (my pet peeve). I am so interested in affiliate marketing and how to make money with internet sites and websites, without having to spend a lot of time. Today I found on that forum a company called Zilo. Pretty much is a referral site for your favorite products. You set up your free store by filling it with things you like or find interesting, like my store, and then get paid when people shop from you. You promote on forums and to your contact group of friends and family. The greatest thing is you can set up your store with a referral from me and I get a commission on your store as well (plus anyone that sets up a store from your referral), forever! Here is the link if you want to start your own store- http://www.zlio.com/?r=51692.

With only 51692 stores, you have pretty good odds! Most products I have seen so far are from Amazon. It is such a neat idea!

The second personalized store I found was on online "create your own shirt" store. Our Smart Mom Store sells shirts with our logo as well as shirts for other clubs and groups. You make the shirts, set your commission and sell them. There are a lot on our site that we buy ourselves, so we did not even add commissions. I got three in the mail a week after I ordered them, and they are wonderful! This is so much easier than ordering them from a shop, paying a set up fee, and then having to order 12 or more identical shirts. I was able to order three shirts, three sizes, and two different logos and I paid $44, with shipping. There is a link on the store site to make your own store. It is free. And addictive!

So many ways to create that second or third stream of income! I cannot believe all that I have missed! My mind is opening to the amazing possibilities of different ways to provide for my family and stay home with my kids. As I find more affiliates, I will post them too!