I have been absent from the blog for a few days and that is not like me.  I don’t have much of an excuse either.  Okay maybe I do.  I got a bit ahead on my intern blog, Mom Giveaways. That was so nice since I have felt like I was behind for the past few weeks.  I gave plasma on Friday! I am sure that I have mentioned this before but for extra money to get my business started I am donating plasma.  It has been a great blessing because my husbands hours have been cut a bit at work and this extra money has gone to buy some groceries as well!

On Saturday, I went to my sweepstakes club meeting. That was so much fun!  I won a big stack of envelopes.  I am so inspired by these woman! I had a sick daughter.  My 2-1/2 year old had a barking cough on Saturday night.  She was fine when she went to bed but at 11pm she woke up barking like a seal. She ended up sleeping with me (my husband works at night) and she kept me up with her breathing, snoring and coughing!  This weekend I was also able to get all my coupons clipped and put away on the left is a picture of my current organizing system.  I learned this system from Money Saving Mom.  This system with be changing very shortly.

Save more money on my budget!

Yesterday in my paper there was an article on the Savvy Shopper.  She is great at matching coupons and sales.  She had a great binder system for coupons.  I used to have a binder that I used for my coupons but when I started selling on ebay I let that go.  So yesterday I pulled out my binder and I intend to fill it up this week with  all my coupons! I am really impressed with how the Savvy Shopper Deals work.  I believe I am going to start following her ways.  I have been really good with coupons for a long time but she shared some tips that I have not used yet! Read more »

Wouldn’t you love sitting on your back porch and enjoy watching your kids play in the backyard, while you make money?  Yeah, me too! I remember when I had my coupon clipping service on ebay and I didn’t have much time to watch my kids play.  I only had time to for coupon clipping, shipping and listing on ebay. During these hours  I dreamed of having an ebook business that I could automate.  I collected a bunch of ebooks to sell.  I bought them with full resell rights.  I was so excited to get started!  I even wrote an ebook about how to run a coupon clipping service on ebay (that disappeared with my crashed hard drive). I was literally about to list my ebook and ebay changed their policies.  This was about a year and a half ago.  They decided to not allow sellers to auction off digital products!  With much disappointment I left it alone. I was moving and I was pregnant.  I didn’t have the energy at that moment to burn Cd’s or come up with another way to automate my business! Read more »

Again my husband I were talking about his ability to write and how to make money off of it. Here is a great article about cashing in on the talent!

Article Writing: Top 5 Skill Demanded By Businesses (How to Cash In)

I just read a recent hiring trend report from Elance.com hiring trends for February and found that article writing is one of the top 5 skills that businesses are outsourcing to freelancers. It’s really no surprise, especially since Elance caters mostly to online businesses. After all, what is the Internet made of? Images and WORDS and it’s those words that are crucially important.

And believe me, most Internet marketers don’t have either the skill or the time to write – or both and that means a lucrative opportunity for people like you with some writing skills.

But outside of article writing, there are other in-demand skills for online ghostwriting, such as copywriting, blogs, press releases, email marketing, white papers and more. This means less competition for you and more opportunities to specialize and actually charge MORE for your services.

If you’ve been thinking of breaking into ghostwriting and doing it quickly, I recommend this guide to ghostwriting. It will show you:

- How to market your services without spending on advertising
- Where to find clients with deep pockets
- Why and how to put up a professional website
- Which industries are virtual gold mines for ghostwriters
- How much to charge to actually make profit
- How to set yourself apart from your competition
- How to develop your portfolio especially when you haven’t had a single client yet and more!

To have a successful ghostwriting business, you need the right tools and strategies that successful entrepreneurs use. This guide gives you the stories of two successful ghostwriters who earn a full-time income writing from home. Not only are they inspirational, but they give some great tips too.

The best part is, because this guide is written for Moms, the price is just right. In fact, you’ll easily earn back the cost of this guide with your first writing assignment. I better just stop writing about it and let you check it out yourself. Click here to learn more about the Just Add Sweat Home Business Ideas for Women, Get Paid To Write: Become A Ghostwriter.

Go snatch up a copy today and get making money!

My husband I were talking about his amazing writing ability (my words not his). I was telling him how he could make money online by writing. He kept saying “How? How? How?” I found this article yesterday about a way that he could make money with his writing.

Becoming A Virtual Assistant: Is It For You?

The other day, I ran into a friend who was distraught
because she had just been laid off. Her husband had recently
taken a pay cut and was afraid of losing his job any day.
They have mortgage payments to make, 3 children to raise…
you know the rest of the story.

Now I knew that this lady had been working as an office
assistant in a construction company. Her eyes lit up as I
gently suggested that she explore working at home as a
virtual assistant. Of course, she had a lot of questions and
rightfully so. It’s no joke to venture into a home business
after years of employment.

Since this situation is becoming more and more common with
the current economic downturn, I thought I’d share the
questions my friend asked and some quick answers to them:

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant or VA is a self-employed, home-based
entrepreneur who assists other businesses, often in
administrative work. In other words, a VA is an office
assistant who never has to step into her client’s office! In
addition, most business owners have particular tasks that
they will turn over to their virtual assistants, and these
can go beyond basic office or business administration.

What skills do I need to become a VA?

The basic skills a VA needs are office and business
administration skills. A VA also needs to be highly
organized, communicate effectively and pay careful attention
to detail. Some clients look for additional technical
skills, such as writing, marketing, social media, blog or
website maintenance, and multimedia production – even
podcasting!

The skill set you’ll need as a VA depends on the type of
clients you want to work with. Find out what they NEED and
build your skills to respond effectively.

What kinds of work does a VA do?

VAs commonly do office-related stuff, such as:

responding to emails
making travel arrangements
sending out faxes
researching and compiling information
business writing
typing up notes or transcribing audios

In addition, VAs nowadays are often expected to:

write and publish or schedule blog posts
work with autoresponders
rewrite private label rights content
optimize a website for search engines
create a slideshow presentation
update websites
set up social networking profiles/pages
create videos and publish them online

Is being a VA a good option for Moms?

Oh yes! A lot of work at home Moms I know are VAs and they
make good incomes from the comfort of their home, without
having to leave their children in the care of others.
Virtual assistance is a home business, which means it’s
flexible. You decide how many hours a day you want to work,
on which days, what type of work you want to do, and even
whom you will work with.

On the other hand, if you have small children, remember that
occasionally you will need to be on the phone or webchat
with a client, supplier or other associate. In this case
you’ll need somebody else looking after your small children
so you can have some quiet and be able to focus on the call
or chat.

How much money can I make as a VA?

The hourly rate of VAs depends on several factors. These
include their skills and experience, whether they specialize
in certain services or a particular industry, and any
certifications they may have (those who are certified by
recognized institutions charge higher fees). VA fees vary
widely, ranging anywhere from around $15 to $70 per hour. So
you can see, it’s entirely possible for a VA to make a full-
time income working at home.

OK, I’m interested. Where do I begin?

You can try and figure everything out yourself, of course.
But better yet, get the guidance of experienced VAs who have
successful virtual assistance businesses. Two such VAs are
Jen Houck and Nell Taliercio who have a combined experience
of over 5 years in virtual assistance. They share their
success stories and step-by-step tips in the Just Add
Sweat Guide To Becoming A Virtual Assistant.

The guide includes:

an audio course on everything from setting up your VA
business, to marketing your services and finding and keeping
clients
a workbook to get you into action
5 videos teaching essential Internet skills
…and more.

This is the guide
that will get your VA business up and running in no
time. Who knows? Becoming a virtual assistant may be the
next perfect “job” for you.