And what do you do again?

How many times have you heard this question? I've gotten into the habit of just saying "nothing, I'm home with the kids." The honest answer is that I write Search Engine Optimized articles for a percentage of the advertising revenue from large websites and for a flat fee from private clients. I also operate a few niche market websites, write for several random blogs and I subcontract flate-rate SEO writing work to other mom writers. I also have a few e-books and I'm working on some screenplays that I plan to produce with a business plan I've written for my innovative never-been-done-surefire-financing plan for motion pictures. Plus, I consult with local business owners so that they can build their own website (it's not rocket science) and I help them improve their SEO and learn how to balance their online and their local marketing.


People just don't get it.


"So do you... like... work for a company?"


The only time I spill the beans is when I think my story can help someone. My husband and I closed our family business last year. I think people assumed that we had a bunch of money in some secret savings account (because you know, everyone with a failing business is secretly rich, right?) Either way, my husband was depressed and in and out of court, and I just had to write. The feelings of losing the business, were too hard to journal in my blog, so I wrote nonfiction articles. When I started to see that I could earn an income from it, I plowed ahead, with an initial goal of $100 a day, 7 days a week.


The days were long but the bills were paid. No one really knew how we were managing. My girl friends knew, and thought it was cool. A friend of ours once tried to sell us a used computer and told me to "ask my husband for the money" I nearly burst a blood vessel. I'm sure if I tried explaining it to him that he would have ended up confused. I declined the computer offer because I didn't want to explain it.


People always ask what we've been doing since the business closed. Instead of explaining anymore, I just say "nothing." or "taking care of the kids."

Leaving the house each day

I made a commitment to myself a few months ago, I was going to leave the house each day. You'd think with 6 busy children I'd be running around constantly, but I've managed to arrange enough carpools and activities at our house that I discovered once that I hadn't left the house for 3 days. Friends and neighbors had come and gone, I had gotten dressed three times and never actually gone anywhere. Gas was almost $4 a gallon, so it was a smart financial situation. I used to work outside the home for 12-16 hours a day, so this would be, I guess, the natural opposite end of the spectrum. The only problem, though is that it's entirely against my nature, and I was going a little nuts. I'd stand in line at the grocery store and compose blog posts for my fellow shoppers, making fun of me. I'd imagine how I'd feel stumbling upon what they had written. Surely, that's just one notch away from schizophrenia. Just a notch higher than actually having multiple blogs (come on, we all know you have multiple blogs) Anyways, when evening rolls around if I haven't left the house, I step out the front door and sip a cup of coffee on the porch. Nothing is sweeter than smelling the night air, knowing the kids are safe in bed. Sometimes I can hear them giggling and shushing each other. When I finally come inside, after listening to the train a few miles away, the crickets, the wind, the neighbor's dog, I'm not thinking of writing, or web design, I'm just thinking "This is the life."

Time for Work

A lot of work-at-home gurus pitch an organized lifestyle that's probably really comforting to women who have migrated from a traditional employment background. I'm just going to ruin that for you a little bit. Nothing personal, I just want to share how it works in my house. We're organized in a way that's a little more ADD (is it naughty to use that as an adjective?)


My laptop is on all day long and I rarely sit for more than 30 minutes at a time. I have six kids and a work-from-home husband. We eat three family meals a day at our house and we play dirty. That creates a lot of housework. We're homeschooling and while most of their studying is independent, there are times when I'm called to read stories, give daytime baths, cook, clean up little messes, watch a concert, remove gum from someone's hair, break up an argument, mop dog pee or answer the door.


Every time I walk past, I write something. To maintain this insane level of activity, I have come up with a few handy tips:


1- Chant whatever you're supposed to be writing until you can get back to the computer. Sometimes I find myself accidentally walking around the house saying things like "SEO benefits of mis-spelled words" over and over again. My daughter recently overheard me and said "What the heck are the SEO benefits of mis-spelled words?" and I said "That's a great idea for an article, thank you honey." She's still confused.


2- Change the automatic screen saver setting on your computer. I keep my laptop in a central location, between my kitchen and my living room, at eye level. Since I've removed the screen saver, I find I can write a sentence at a time each time I walk past. Sometimes I'll even ask someone across the room to type for me while I dictate the next thought. I've gotten into the habit of saying cha-ching every time I step away from it. Use your browser tabs liberally, and keep sticky notes handy.


3- Make a real breakfast. It creates less dishes, it's more nutritious, it's cheaper, the kids get fuller and if everyone sits down to eat together, there's a possibility that the table could actually be cleared all day until lunch. Make lunch, too. Never leave kids to fend for themselves, they are kind of messy. Even peanut butter and jelly can be a disaster. The crock pot is your friend.


Some organizational strategies are less obvious than others. I don't really have set working hours, and while we definitely have a rhythm to our days, we don't have a schedule. I once wrote down what we did all day and called that our schedule. It worked really nicely until it changed. Such is life, an organic free flowing approach to time management isn't naughty or weird for us, it's just the way we roll.

My Ehow this week

I'm really annoyed that Ehow doesn't offer an RSS feed of members' articles. See my sidebar---------> Those are my article feeds from most of the sites I write for. I can't promote my ehow articles, though because they don't have a feed. They have a comment feed. I think that's kind of lame. Maybe I can use that. No because each article has their own comments, and I can't subscribe just to MY comments. I wish the people at ehow would explain to me why they don't offer article feeds. Maybe it's some kind of genius I can't comprehend. i doubt it. Not that I'm a genius, but I with ehow had RSS feeds, OK. Get with the current century, thank you.

Anyhow- I've been writing three a day since I bought the ebook mentioned HERE and here they are, as of this morning (haven't finished one yet today)

Sorry about the crazy formatting, I wasn't planning to enter them individually and this is how they've turned out. We need a widget or something, can you tell I'm annoyed about this! (ooh- I even had to update the coding, this is way too much work to promote articles. ATTENTION EHOW- I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS.

apparently you have to scroll down... a LOT and I'm really not sure why.

Enjoy the trip

11/05/08	How to Make Money Writing for Type A Mom
11/05/08	How to Secretly Make Someone Smile
11/05/08	How to Homeschool Kindergarten
11/04/08	How to Make Money with Amazon Mturk Hits
11/04/08	How to Find December Events
11/03/08	How to Ignore Parenting Advice
11/02/08	How to Choose Educational Toys
11/01/08	How to Host a Chickenpox Party
10/31/08	How to Plan a Secret Santa Gift Exchange
10/31/08	How to Teach Reading with Video Games
10/31/08	How to Avoid Homeschool Burnout
11/04/08	How to Keep Homeschool Records (For Unschoolers)
11/03/08	How to Find Free Online Homeschooling
11/03/08	How to Make Whole Wheat Pancakes From Scratch
11/02/08	How to Stop Teeth Grinding
11/02/08	How to Find Used Homeschool Books
11/01/08	How to Watermark Pictures with GIMP
11/01/08	How to Make Oatmeal Bath

Ehow is my newest exciting thing

OK , so after reading all of the hype, I went ahead and ordered Maria's Ebook, How to Earn Residual Passive Income on Ehow. OMG- it is really a fantastic e-book. She so very clearly simplifies the process and tells you the very best way to go about earning from the get-go. I already had an ehow account, and it wasn't doing that much. After I read her ebook, I decided to use her proven ideas and open a new account, following her guidelines.

From the get-go, I have earned more using her techniques than I was earning on my own. She is a genius. I didn't even know you could do .... certain things.... on ehow. If I say them I'll be spilling her fantastic ideas, but let's just say that they work. So I will now be publishing 3 ehow articles a day for the next few months.

I was able to use her techniques on other sites as well, and you'll see me writing more Suite101 articles now, too.

Anyhow- I highly recommend you get her ebook if you're wirting on ehow, instead of sitting around waiting to figure these things out for yourself. I noticed a difference within hours of implementing her first idea. HOURS- I hadn't even finished writing my first article yet. AND- this morning, using her techniques, I was able to publish my three articles before lunch time. So- try it, you'll like it.
Click here to view more details
When the weekend is over, I can't wait to show you the screen shots. I am jaw-dropped amazed.