Doing my secret happy dance

I can't wait to post my stats. 4 more days....

Scheduling for WAHMs

Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail

Scheduling is so important when you have 6 kids and work from home. Here's what I do that works:

Be flexible
sounds kind of contradictory to a schedule, but the best laid plans have to allow for interruptions and inspirations.

First things First
I begin each day with work, usually at 4 or 5a.m. It used to be my "me" time, and I'd use it for sending thank-you cards, reading a favorite book, or browsing favorite websites. Now, I use it for work. Since I am writing again, and that's what brings me joy, I find it appropriate. Once the kids begin to stir, I start making breakfast (big and hot) while they get dressed and make their beds. Their "first things first" is math, followed by the rest of their schoolwork. We have 'landmark times" throughout our day. Lunch is served at noon and no one eats unless their morning jobs and math are finished. Snack is served at 2pm and no one eats unless all of their schoolwork and chores are done. Dinner is served at 7pm and no one eats unless (you guessed it) chores are finished and room is clean. After diner, the older kids have a turn on the computer while the middle & little ones take baths and get ready for bed. We read bedtime stories, and they go to sleep. If I have any spunk left in me at all, (I usually do) I get back on the computer for just a little more work (I love it, really I do.)

So- a schedule can bring rhythm to your day, but doesn't have to be restrictive.

Within our days, we have inner schedules, I have certain writing assignments I work on each day of the week, certain days for certain blogs, and jobs that simply MUST be done before I check my Myspace. I have a certain "daily dollar" goal which is getting increasingly easy to meet. But the basic outline of our day is a flexible schedule that allows for field trips, road trips and sick days.

Do You know the Secret?

Several years ago, I read Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, it was like an Oprah AHA moment. The message was, trust your instincts, trust that things always turn out for the best, trust that things will always turn out the way you want them. Don't stress about things because that doesn't work and it detracts you from your goals; prevents you from seeing opportunities becuase you're focused on bad stuff. When I was in high school, I had this neener neener neener song I used to sing in my head "I always get my waaaayyy" Because it was true- I did. And now I find myself singing it more and more often in my head. That's part of the secret; knowing things will turn out the way you want them. So in comes The Secret; it's the same knowledge that's existed since the beginnings of civilization, only all wrapped up in a snazzy year 2000's wrapper. It's very palatable that way; it comes in a DVD, an audio book and a regular book. I recommend the audio book. The DVD is too corny, it's comedy, really. the special effects are a crack up. Watch it after you've heard the Audio. The book sucks in comparison to the Audio. Unlike other audio books, The Secret uses the real voices of the people interviewed, in all their excited inflection that can't be written. So get the audio, stick it in your car and just listen. It's good stuff. By Rhonda Byrne.

Ebooks for Success

Send me some recommendations, please. I know Guy Lecke's keywords cracker was very insightful. I'm sure you SEO wizards have all used the Google keyword tool to see how popular certain search terms are, but then there's all that other info, like CPM and CPC, what's up with that? Is it better to use the popular search terms with high ad competition, or the least popular search terms with the higher ad competition, and subsequently higher CP whatever, his book spells it all out and helps you understand how to use keywords in a way that helps you market yourself properly, instead of being all scatterbrained trying to get by on your looks or personality (obviously mine is personality, and it's working a teeny bit)

SO- I know there are some out there like "Be a millionaire with adsense in 10 days" and stuff like that. If i ever write one it will be called "How to become a millionaire in ten days even if you don't have 6 kids" Just kidding, if I become a millionaire in ten days I'm not sticking around to write a frigging e-book, I'm going to Dubai.

But seriously, if you've found one that offered helpful hints, gave good advice, or otherwise seemed worth the investment, let me know. So far everything I've seen is all the same regurgitated information that exists everywhere.

Wait a minute, maybe I should listen to it, huh. Nah, I'm addicted to the process, the journey is the destination, this is fun. whatever, it's late, goodnight.

Entrecard trick

If you're using Mozilla Firefox and you bookmark all of the entrecard sites you frequent (like 10 or 20 sites in one folder) then all you need to do is "open all in tabs" Once they're all open, just click to each tab, whatever is on top is new content, comment if you feel like it, drop a card and move on. I actually prefer this method to other subscriptions because honestly- the only time I check my google reader is when I'm adding something to it. And live bookmarks- only 6 show up on my tool bar, so I rarely (if ever) see the others.

I do think it's unethical to visit just for the purpose of dropping cards, if I LIKE a blog I'll bookmark it, but I'm not going to bookmark a site for the purpose of dropping a card when it isn't even a site I enjoy looking at or reading. That said, there aren't many I don't like! The cat one- I just don't get it. And the fetus one. It just isn't updated enough, I want more. It's frustrating.

Win 2 free books

Marthe Stewart's The Martha Rules and Donald Trump's Think like a Billionaire

Amazon affiliates

Why do they make it so difficult? Damn, I feel like I'm going through 25 screens to make one stupid item link. I'd like to just punch in the ISBN #'s from the back of all the books I'm referencing, and then be able to get all the codes at once. We're homeschoolers, we read and love a lot of books. I want to sell them through my kids history project blog and Amazon is making it so difficult. My next step is to try and do a wish list or a favorites list. I'll bet that's easier. Next time I have a spare 3 hours I'll try it (don't hold your breath, I haven't had a spare 3 hours since.... childbirth) I tried using their textlink program but it was hard.

Why would you have 6 blogs?

Because the Philipino ladies all do, and I'm thinking that's how they're making like $90k per year on their blogging.

Links into your blog increase its value.

So having multiple blogs that link to one another automatically gives you in links and potentially multiple streams of income

Currently, MrsH is my only monetized blog. It's got a pagerank of 0

Non monetized blogs have higher pageranks, and are therefore worth more.

So I'm building the content in these other blogs in order to increase their worth, and begin to monetize them, too.

To help MrsH recover it's lost (never existed but the potential was there) pagerank I am linking to it from every article I write for other websites either a content link or from my profile, whatever I'm allowed to do

I am also offering prizes for people with higher pageranks who list me

I'm thinking of starting an e-zine, too

It's all about getting people hooked on MrsH and then trickling into the other blogs from there. So MrsH can grow quickly, and the other blogs can grow steadily feeding off of MrsH

As the value of the other blogs increases I can use them to drop a few paid posts into, without losing their ranking (like MrsH) because they won't be having so many

Another thing I need to do is get rid of those paid posts once they're 30 days old (the minute I get paid for them)

So this is my strategy. I'll keep you posted (Obviously) on how it works. Each blog is themed, sometimes I cross-post. Sometimes I cross-content with a different post on the same material. My topics are movie reviews, cooking, crafts, beauty, success & curriculum reviews. I also have one about my feelings regarding not having any more babies because I predict that decision might cause mental problems, although having 6 kids could also cause mental problems, I guess. And I also own a blog that is my kids' history project. Neither of those last two plan to be monetized except I am an amazon affiliate for the History project.

So there's the master plan. I'll let you know how it works. I'm spending about 20 minutes each evening on non-monetized blog posting and I have a schedule that tells me which blogs to be posting on which night.

Current Rankings

I should be monitoring my current rankings every time I do my monthly income analysis, so today I'll list my rankings, and begin a proper (but partial) evaluation at the end of the month.


MrsHannigan-Alexa-866,264, Google-0, RealRank-average 1849,today2649
Curriculum Reviews-Alexa-9,405,772, Google-0, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)
Home- Alexa- 9,405,772, Google-, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)
Hollywood Alexa-7,881,674, Google-0, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)
Road Trips- Alexa-6,993,234, Google-0, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)
Crafts- Alexa-13,437,894, Google-0, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)
Success- Alexa-13,463,870, Google-0, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)
Cafeteria-Alexa-?, Google-0, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)
Beauty-Alexa, Google-0, RealRank-not listed (I'll get busy with that)

How to remove Kontera Ads from a post

Yeah- this info was kind of hard to find on their site. I had to remove them from a sponsored post on my normal blog and it took me over an hour to find the answer, so a $5 payment ended up lowering my hourly rate tremendously. I considered saying "forget about the $5" but I knew if I didn't find the answer, it would just come up again. Also, I don't do well mentally with unanswered questions. I'm still wondering why we drive on a parkway and park in the driveway. Thank g-d I have a carport.


OK- so at the beginning of the post you're going to (remove my spacing because I don't know how to show you code without interting spaces)

< name = "konafilter"> and then in this space you talk bla bla bla about why someone should be researching insurance or try an obscure search engine or sign up for this newsletter, bla bla bla now it's over and you want to < / span >

that's all. I hope it showed up. remember to remove m spaces, all except the one in between the words span and name.

Entrecard

So far it seems like a great way to drive traffic to the site. My numbers, from other entrecard users, have definitely gone up. Playing around dropping cards & campaigning is boredom completely. I am torn; do I forget about it all and just keep building quality blogs? Or do I pour myself into the marketing and increase my numbers as fast as I can, hopefully over-exposing myself to rack up subscribers and increase inbound links? I'm thinking both. I'll still dedicate myself to posting in Mrs H every day, and updating my stats @ progress regularly here, and update the other ones 2-3 times a week, utilizing a minimum amount of cross posts. I will also.... find a graphic theme & stick to it, changing my entrecard regularly to stay visible. This week or next I will get rid of my "february" graphic headers and upload something more seasonal instead of monthly. Yeah- seasonal graphic overhaul. Good idea.
So the final vote on Entrecard is.... Thumbs up, just don't get addicted.

the 8th and the 9th deadly blog sin

In reference to the post "The 7 deadly blog sins." I add the following:

8. No visible comment area. perhaps she's trying to get us to blog about it instead of simply polluting her comment page. No matter- it sends the vibe that "I do not care what your comment is" and that may be true and valid but really, a comment form is a good thing. Her repeat visitors might stay longer if they're looking to see if anyone responded to their comment.

9. No memorable graphic image in the header. As I was reading her blog, I realized that I had been there before. The posts weren't forgettable (they were funny and easy to relate to) but the look of it was very forgettable. Personally, I enjoy graphic header image banners. It's like your face sitting atop of your blog's body.

That's all I have to say, and if you're having the problem she described in sin #6 go into your browser settings and have every link open in their own tab. Then, you never have to right click to open a tag again.

Incidentally, if you are disabling right clicks in an effort to prevent people from stealing your graphics, please know that all they need to do if they really want it that bad, is to view your page source code for the URL of the photo. OR- if they hold down the alt key and press "print scrn" they can paste your entire front page into any .doc and use their photo editing software to crop and steal your image, or even an entire screen in your website (as a static image.)

Anyone care to post these instructions for mac users? I could go in to the mac and figure it out but really, there are so many blogs to read and the baby is almost ready to burp.

Venting about Kindergarten printable worksheets

$+u&!@ editor She really does hate me. She renamed my article something stupid; removing one of my keywords, making me change the entire theme of the article and so I had to rework the whole thing into something that isn't nearly as focused, and therefore not SEO. I used that title for a reason- I sprinkled the entire text with that word because it's searched for a lot more often than the word she used. and her word has nothing to do with the topic. no one whose search includes the word "managing" will be looking for free printable worksheets for kindergarten. Someone looking for free printable worksheets would very much likely also be interested in a directory of free printables websites, along with a guide to using them and printing them. The new title is "Managing Free Printable Worksheets" So um yeah, anyone looking to train their managers and searches for "Free managing worksheets" will find me. Sorry, boss man. Unless your managers are having trouble with their vowels or reversing their printed letters, then I can't help you.

Here's the article; not in its original form because I had to remove the highly searched keywords that would have made my article easy to find references to Kindergarten. My other Kindergarten articles are doing quite well.

I must remind myself that she isn't out to get me.
I must remind myself that she gets a commission on my revenue; so it's in her best interest to make sure my articles are SEO.
I must adapt a wait-and-see attitude, so I can learn from her.

if that doesn't work then I need to begin writing for another topic because she drives me nuts and I didn't get nearly this kind of obsessive anal-retentive perfectionism
from my other editor.

whew. now, go read the article here:Kindergarten Printable Worksheets: Use Your Printer to Create Kindergarten Lessons for Free

enjoy!

Always learning

I'm sitting here watching a video tutorial that's supposed to teach me how to get work on one of the freelancing websites, I am reminded of the suite101 classes that I thought were so stupid before I used them and now I think they're genius. I am also reminded that I should focus. So off I go, back to Suite 101- canceling my registration at this freelancing thing. Until I am constantly meeting my 1 a week requirement for Suite101 then I have no business really looking for work elsewhere. it would be stupid to leave with the whole webbing-thing working for me over there. each day I make more & more money for an hour of work a week. the editor is just so harsh. But she makes me a better writer. So I'm going back. Just in case you wondered.