Today’s post may be considered off-topic maybe – or a bit of a rant perhaps.  And, as always, I am just going to start writing and see where the post even goes…..

Yesterday, I was looking through a few of my RSS feeds to see if there was anything new I should read about.  I stumbled onto a blog post about Kate Gosselin doing Dancing with the Stars, which basically asked readers what their thoughts were on moms who had ambition and how they were seen by others.

The post isn’t what got to me – (even though Kate Gosselin is not one of my favorite people, I don’t really feel it is any of my business how she conducts her life).  What got to me was where the comments started heading.

I was a stay at home mom for a couple of years before I started working from home.  And, my mom was a stay at home mom my whole life.  So, when I read comments that are truly ignorant and completely out of line towards stay at home moms, I tend to get a bit worked up about it.

Here is the original post:

Is Mom Ambition a Bad Thing?

It was a good post, which opened up to some great discussion.  But, when it got to the comment that:

Most ambitious moms has more to offer a child. Someone that cooks,cleans, watches soaps, and shops all day has few skill to transfer to their young. Also, moms that have to ask their hubby for spending money show that they are not adults or responsible. If mommy does not have goals, daughter won’t either.

Wow!  Just….wow.  Comments like that just really get to me!

I can’t believe that in today’s society, women are attacking each other for their personal decisions – but as if that isn’t enough, they are still spewing forth such completely ignorant garbage!

First of all, that is NOT what stay at home moms are doing!  Sure, maybe there are some, but to put every single stay at home mom into that category is just insane!

Most stay at home moms that I know, are doing pretty much what your daycare worker is doing day in and day out – only difference is, that daycare worker is seen as contributing to society because she has a J-O-B which she gets paid for every day!

Guess what?   When your kids are home all day, there are meals to make, and a house to keep organized.  When kids are in school or daycare all day, your house doesn’t get near the mess that it does when they are home.  And, because most of these stay at home moms have sacrficed a good career – (I gave up a career as a nurse) – the family finances are usually very tight.  So, there days also consist of trying to make do with what they can afford.

We don’t lack ambition – in fact, I think any woman who chooses to give up a career and stay home with her children is very ambitious!  No one can even imagine what is involved in being a stay at home mom, but it seems like there are sure a lot of people who feel they are experts – because they go out and contribute to society by working, they feel that they are “above” the ones who are simply staying at home.

And then to say that moms who aren’t working can’t transfer any skills to their children?!  I can’t even begin to write about how far from the truth that statement is!

I learned more from my mom than anyone else I know – and I am hopefully passing on that knowledge to my kids.  I would far rather be passing the skills of how to be a good person, how to care for people you love – and skills like that compared to maybe teaching them the skills of say, internet marketing or building an effective website!

I get really upset by these kind of comments, and I can’t even begin to put them all into a post like this, because I know that everyone has such opposing views.

Personally, I can’t understand how anyone can judge or make any kind of statements on how someone else chooses to live – be it going to work outside the home, staying at home with the kids – or even working from home.

In the end, we are all moms.  We are doing the best we can.  If you don’t agree with how I am doing it, that is fine.  You are welcome to raise your children your own way, but that does not give you the right to say why you think your way is better than mine.

And, I would never choose to do that to another mom.

What are your thoughts on these kinds of comments?  Do people seriously still believe that stay at home moms are not being good role models for their children?  Why do moms always feel that they need to attack other moms for how they are doing things?  There will never be a right or wrong – all we can do, is do our best.

**Photo Credit:  Yoshi Aka

There is usually a bit of shock that you – especially when you are a MOM (gasp!) – would be involved in such a shady business venture.

Well, to put the record straight for anyone who thinks that is all internet marketers do, I am going to give a bit of a run-down of some of the other possible ventures we are involved in.  And, for any of you who are wanting to learn a bit more about Internet Marketing, and start working from home – you can pick up some ideas of possible avenues you could try for earning your own income.

While I am not the official source for the Internet Marketing term – to me, it involves marketing a product, idea, or business on the internet.  There are tons of ways of doing that – and they don’t involve spam or anything else that is remotely illegal.  It is simply another means of advertising and marketing your product to get it in front of your target customers.

The internet has opened huge doors of opportunity to everyone – and has helped to level the playing field a bit for the average person who has an idea for a product, or who has a small business – to get it seen by more people than they could have before.

Here are just some ways that you can be involved in Internet Marketing:

1.     Affiliate Marketing: Simply put, affiliate marketing is when you promote and market someone else’s product in return for profit when an action is taken.  Usually, it is when a customer purchases a product – you will get a certain percentage of the sale price.  Affiliate marketing has been widely used by even the top businesses, and became a pretty mainstream way of doing business when Amazon became so well known for their affiliate program.  It is a very good way to make some extra money, or to take it to the next level and make it your sole income.  There are many people who are making very good money doing this full time – but it isn’t something you can just jump into and expect to make money.  You need to learn how to market that product, which involves a series of steps, such as keyword research, SEO for your website (if you choose to go that route), or learning how to do Pay Per Click advertising, link building, article marketing and a whole lot more.

2.    Article Marketing: I mentioned this in with affiliate marketing, and it does tend to go together.  But, you can use article marketing for your own product or business as well.  It involves writing many keyword optimized articles, submitting them to sites on the internet – which will bring traffic to your website.  This takes time, and patience, but is a very effective means to build up traffic to your site.

3.    Product Creation: While most people shy away from the thought of creating their own product, it is said by many people that this is the best way to establish a solid income online.   Again though, it involves a lot more than just going out and putting something together that you think people would want to learn about.  You need to make sure there is a market for a product, which involves at a minimum, keyword research and market research – and you need to make sure that you are putting out a product that can genuinely help people, or give them the knowledge that they are searching for.

4.   Offering Services: I made my start in internet marketing by writing articles and editing for other marketers.  I learned a lot during this time – and still do some work for a few of my original clients who have been with me for so long.  This is a great way to get started, or even to use as a full time income – but although you want to start out offering lower prices so people can see your work, you want to make sure you start charging enough to make it worthwhile to you, or trust me – you can end up burning out pretty fast!

5.    Blogging: There are a lot of people out there who are blogging and who make their entire income from that.  What a great way to make money – by writing about something you love!  But, there is a lot more to it than that – and I am not really the expert in that field.  Blogging takes commitment, and it isn’t something you can just expect to make money from overnight.

6.   E-commerce: Whether you are selling your own products from your brick and mortar business, or using a dropshipper to send goods to your customers, selling products online reaches a huge audience and has become something that is open to just about anyone who wants to sell online.

The truth is, there are a lot more ways that you can be involved in internet marketing – running your own membership site, selling on ebay, flipping websites – the list goes on and on, but the basic premise behind everything you do is learning to market so that your product, or the product you are promoting, is being seen by the customers who are searching for it.

And, that can end up being more work than most people realize.

I am not just playing on the computer every day, reading emails and chatting on Facebook – I have spent countless hours learning new strategies and trends, working on the tedious tasks like building links to my websites, submitting articles to directories and a whole lot more.

So – if you think Internet Marketing is something you would like to get into – find some people you can trust to learn from, and be prepared to put the work in.  But, it will pay off – and eventually you will end up like the rest of us, who learn to love everything we are doing.  It almost becomes an obsession – which can be hard for other people to understand.

Especially when they think that all we are doing is sending spam emails out to everyone on the planet!

PS:  Here are some great resources for you to follow and learn from:

•    Warrior Forum: This is, in my opinion, one of the best learning resources for internet marketing by far.  Pay the extra money and join the War Room – trust me, it is worth every penny, and the best part of it is the subforum of posts by Allan Says (the forum owner).  Avoid the WSO forum, unless you absolutely know what you are needing.  Some of the names to follow and learn from (that you can trust), are Steven Waganheim, Kevin Riley, Bev Clement, Michael Oksa, JayXtreme, Tiffany Dow and others who you will learn to trust.

•    If you are interested in learning more about Blogging, you can go to http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/.  This is just a really good site to follow, with very good advice.It is written by a successful internet marketer, Yaro Starak – who has great hair by the way, and is not at all hard on the eyes;-)

Some days I really wonder where the glamor and thrill is of working from home!

Don’t get me wrong – I love my kids and am thankful every day that I get to be here with them!  But, some days…….

All I have to distinguish my “office” from their “play area” is one small plastic carpet cover for my chair.  It doesn’t give me much space, and I feel like Les Nessman from WKRP (you would need to be over 30 to understand who I mean!).

Yet – for some reason, my kids will spend the whole day standing beside my chair – one on each side – talking, coloring, writing, playing….unless I remind them about my “office” rules.

Oh – how I long for a real door sometimes!

Having the chance to really make use of the skills and knowledge I have learned over the past 3 years was so exciting for me!  And, to see results so quickly, makes me feel pretty good too.

The site I was working on wanted me to help them with everything – because they were targeting an international market.  It is actually a very competitive market, and it will require more work still.

But, I have their site already getting steady traffic every day, and the stats show that the people coming to the site are exactly the ones they were wanting.  They have already had a couple signups for their mailing list (which I wasn’t even ready for!  I still had to finish setting the emails up to go out!).

So – I am pleased with how that is going.

Meanwhile, as if I didn’t have enough going on, I finally bit the bullet and signed up as a consultant with Heritage Makers.  I had finished a book about my Grandpa, which I received a couple of weeks ago.  When I saw the book, and how it made me feel to hold it and actually be able to read it – I knew I had to be a part of this.

I already have a bunch of people who want to create their own books after seeing what I did.  The fact that they are hardbound books, and not just scrapbooks, is amazing.  And, they are so much simpler to do!

I just don’t have the time or the space to do traditional scrapbooking – as much as I tried.  This is so much better for me.  I can do it all online and don’t need to get anything out and set up.  I can create whatever I want, and if it turns out really good, other people can order their own copy. (I have 3 people who want one of my books I did!)

So – I will mention from time to time how things are going with that.  I don’t imagine I will do many parties, as I don’t know what I would be like with that.  But, I imagine I will be able to talk to people and show them what is involved, and let the product sell itself.

If you want to see what Heritage Makers is about, you can go to www.YourStorybookLife.com to see my site.

I am very excited for 2009!

Obviously, this is something I have been doing for awhile, and I love it!

If you have ever thought that doing freelance writing is something you would like to try, but maybe you were afraid that you aren’t much of a writer, or it isn’t something you would be able to do, take a look at this guide!

Here is the link – no email required, no strings attached….

www.FromHomeMomsWorkSource.com/freelancewriting.pdf

I give some great tips on getting started in the freelance writing world, and include links to some really useful resources when you are getting set up.

I am nowhere near the writing level of Shakespeare, but you know what?  I am able to write my thoughts out as they come, and make written material out of it.  And, anyone can do that if they try.  Writing can be so much fun, and if you don’t stress about the grammar and using poetic words, you will be surprised at how simple it can be to become a writer online!

I wanted to give you a heads up, and if you have been searching for online freelance writing jobs that you can do, make sure you get a copy of this guide – my gift to you!

www.FromHomeMomsWorkSource.com/freelancewriting.pdf

Good luck!