I hate going out to work and the place I work is a horrible bitchy place and I have just had enough now. I’m mum of 2 little boys aged 2 and 1. I have just gone back after second lot of maternity leave and I spend my time thinking of how I can make some money in a way which would fit around my boys so I will be able to stay at home until kids are in school. I keep coming across blogging and how you can use your blog to earn (by putting adverts on it – you get a few pennies each time an ad is clicked) – has anyone tried this?? Any success or not? –  Gemma

You didn’t say what you current job is and what your passions are but here is my take; If you want to make a lot of money online you need to know what you can do and if people would be willing to pay you for it.

My £1000 Formula = Passion + You + Profitable Business

People used to keep saying the cliché that if you love doing something, then money comes after it. This is certainly true to an extend as I am an advocate of following your passions online. However instead of doing it blindly it’s important to research, the passion should be something that that can be monetized in the first place. There are things you love doing that won’t get you money. If you’re adamant about pursuing a track that’s both fulfilling and profitable, then you have to dig further… as the golden rule says- take action!

Making money by putting adverts isn’t what I would recommend as you main source of income. I have none on my website because of the pittance that’s paid on most adverts. For people who are just starting it’s not a feasible way of earning money because you need huge traffic to see the rewards. The important thing here is to start with your interest and what you know, it may even be learning a bit more about your interest by finding similar blogs and you do it better the find products and services that you can promote and you get commission.

Blogging provides a nice profitable income for my family and if you are ready to take action start here.

I love what I do.

I love genuinely helping people.

I am sure you know that already, but today I want to inspire you to start your own blog today.

You see, blogging has done a lot for me. It’s helped me to work from home, spend time with my children  and it’s helped me reach out to and meet other people I would had never met. It’s helped me travel the world and make a modest living from something that I actually enjoy doing.

As if that isn’t compelling enough, here are a bunch of reasons why blogging might be just the thing that you are after.

1. You can help people

The most important reason to start a blog, for me at least, is that you get a very real opportunity to help people. So many people complain that their job isn’t really adding any value to the world and it’s not changing anything. Well, blogging can be a huge help to your readers – even if it’s just solving a simple problem.

You can undoubtedly help in many ways, you can chang the lives of thousands of people by helping them relax, de-clutter and chill out.

2. It’s really easy

Blogging takes no experience and very minimal set up time. You can start a WordPress blog on your own host extremely cheaply and get on the way within 10 minutes. That is one of the major reasons so many people are trying it – minimal barriers to entry and still you have a chance to succeed.

This is a massive advantage if you are thinking about using blogging as a means to make money. Most other businesses require substantial capital to get underway – buying stock, renting a property, etc. but with blogging you’ll need under £100  and you’re set.

3. You can make money

Yep, there we go. The money thing. It’s hard work but it can be done. I make a nice little income from this blog and I’ve other blogs I make a tidy income from. In a world where recession has hit hard and we are in increasingly uncertain times it can be a nice idea to find something extra to supplement your income in case something goes wrong. With a long term and professional approach this is definitely possible.

4. You get more freedom

I get to spend time with my children. I get to travel a lot with my children. I enjoy running mid morning. If I want to go and work in the park for the day I can do it. Freedom is a huge reason to start a blog and make it work at producing an income. You’ll have more space to do the things you want which I imagine is even more appealing if you have a family.

5. You’ll make new friends (which is hard!)

I know this might seem a little strange to some people but making new friends when you are an adult is really quite hard. Generally most of us stay friends with secondary school or University mates but outside of work it can be tricky to meet new people.

Well, since I’ve been blogging I’ve met a bunch of other blog owners who I would now call my friends. If anything ever went wrong I reckon I could probably call them up and ask for help. But, best of all, it’s just nice knowing that there are people out there that help you and whom you can help as well.

6. You can change your life

Almost everyone will, at some point, go through a midlife (or a quarter life!) crisis. And one of the most common things that people say is that they need a change. Well, blogging presents you with a really unique way to change your life because you can work from wherever you want and blog about any topic under the sun. Sometimes starting a new low-cost project like blogging can give you an energy boost that you desperately need.

7. You’ll develop valuable new skills

When you start a blog you automatically start learning about servers, social media, content development, community building, etc. And what a lot of people don’t realize is that these skills are extremely valuable at the moment. There are thousands upon thousands of companies out there who are looking for folks with real-world, practical knowledge when it comes to their own social media and online activities. Simply put – they are lost and need help! From authoring Fox Mum alone I’ve had job offers from companies who would like me to help them develop their online presence. The same thing could happen for you or at least help you add new things to your resume for your current field.

8. It can grow your other bricks and mortar business

A blog can drive sales to another website. But this also applies to bricks and mortar businesses like accountants, lawyers, retail stores, doctors, restaurants, etc. I have worked with dozens of small businesses who author blogs that bring them a bucket load of new customers. Think of a blog as an online avenue for you to connect to potential lovers of your product.

This is how the half marathon leaves you. yep that’s my son watching, he was probably too scared mum was going to pass out.

Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee I have done it. I ran, I conquered, I finished. It was a VERY hilly route, at one point it was just 6 miles going uphill. I have never run uphill that much but i am proud to say i finished the half-marathon race – 13miles (21km) non stop. YES you’re reading right, not a single stop. I was leading the pack that was nearly last and I enjoyed the atmosphere – the cheering and the beautiful Kent countryside. I am so proud of how much I have come in under 2 years. I am sooooooo tired now and I had a terrible cramp after crossing the finishing line. I still cant believe that its really me Sharon who has run the half marathon.

…and i did it in 2:37 and a nice 653 position of the 670 runners. This half marathon had very few amateur runners but non the less I did my ultimate best. Was hoping for 2:30 and under but when i saw the hills I knew I couldn’t but I am very happy with my perfomance Just about 1% of the GB population run the half marathon annually so yes i have just made it into that statistics….but that’s it no more distance races from me. I will continue running as I enjoy it but just not races.

Update - 24 hours later, no pains or aches anywhere, just a nice good feeling. Thank you all for the kind messages, not a chance for a marathon, I will not do that, that’s an athletic feat I won’t dare to do. I won’t even be doing races. Perhaps a 10km and nothing more, half-marathon took every bit of strength I had.  Impossible is nothing.

You can read more on my journey from fat to fit here

If you dream is to lose weight, you can start here. I have written extensively and will continue to share my knowledge on this blog so do come back. If you don’t have a website which is paramount if you are serious about losing weight click here to start.

I can truly say, I loooooooove running and enjoy what I do in my business.

Good luck in your journey but remember to START and KEEP AT IT!

Adios

Today after finishing my last long run (13.2miles) till my half marathon next Sunday and I have been reflecting on my journey. While I remain amazed at how far I have come, I am equally optimistic that anyone (I really mean anyone) can do what I have done and more if they set their heart to it. Yes it’s the old cliché but it’s true.

In Dec 2010 I attended my brother’s wedding; I was horrified looking at the person in the photos. This was clearly me, 196lbs (89kg) and at 5′ 3″(1.6m). I was severely obese. On the 17^th of January 2011, I decided to run and just be a bit more sensible with food. My first run was what I can only call traumatic, it was just a 10min walk-run but I was heavily out of breath. That week I managed to go out and walk-run three times and I was left with an aching body. I literally had to crawl up the stairs, even without running,  getting up and down the stair changing my baby would have left me out of breath and now imagine it after a bit of walk-run. My body was hurting everywhere especially my legs.

On my brother’s wedding with my daughter

In the yester years I had tried all the stuff, from going to the gym (and dropping off after 6 months) to even fooling myself that I was OK despite all the clear signs of being severely overweight. If I kept that sort of life I was clearly digging my own early grave.

Slowly my body began to adjust and it took me nearly 3 months just for me to run this 10minute without stopping. My progress seemed a bit slow at the start but I think this was a very important part of my success as I didn’t push my body too hard. From there I began adding a little bit more extra distance, it would just be small bits extra like going over the bridge next time when I normally turn round before the bridge and I began running a little longer

On the 9^th of July 2011 I entered my first race – the Race for Life for Cancer Research….and whoop whoop I finished in 31 minutes and raised over £70 for charity. That was unbelievable, I had neither race plan nor any targets yet I found myself in the first 100 of the over 1500 women doing this race. Ahhh this race spurred me on to try higher things. Initially I was VERY happy and satisfied with my achievement but as days went by I began to crave challenging myself a bit more.

Getting ready to 5K Race for Life Charity Run

Next was 10K Givaudan Ashford race, it was a tough race I must say…perhaps I bit more than I could chew but I finished in 1:05h. After this race I vowed never ever to do anything stupid and silly like running races ever again.

Givaudan 10K Ashford Race

Now fast forward to 2012, we spend the first half travelling around the world and visiting many places such that my training was inconsistent. I still do run on holiday but some countries are just never meant for running.  In Turkey, for example the temperatures reach 35 degrees in the day so I just did casual running along the beach for a couple of minutes in the evening when it was cooler. It’s really hard work trying to run in sand so it was more fun than anything. I began getting twitchy feet again in the summer and knew it was time for an even more bizarre goal, THE HALF MARATHON. Duh, I even began the training in the summer heat which is not easy….and 3 month later I look forward to my first ever marathon next Sunday the 14^th.

I do have a wee bit of competitive streak in me, which athlete doesn’t? LOL. My speed has been letting down and felt I had plateau and not improving much on my own despite my best effort trying to beat time on my Garmin forerunner time by myself. I joined the local running club 4 weeks ago and every Wednesday at 7:45pm we start our 6mile (10km) run. This has been very helpful and I have knocked more than a minute off my minutes per mile. I am still slow especially compared to the veterans at my club who run so fast and soooo effortlessly. I am normally last or second or third from last but I work on my personal best and these guys have really kept me on my toes and I am surprised at how much I have held my own among these seasoned runners.

So what’s the secret to my success?

1. My children, I know but I have a 12 year old daughter and I didn’t want her fighting the same battle as mine in her adulthood. While she isn’t overweight now (I wasn’t at her age too), I knew that couldn’t last forever. At this age she is active so she can burn off her calories easily but as she grows that will change. Research suggest that obese mothers are more likely to have children obese in adulthood and I was determined that wouldn’t be my children because of their slob mother.
2. My children again, I teach my children that if you set your mind to something you can achieve it. Easy it won’t be but with hard with work they can….it was time to act, do what I preach. Knowing children learn more by what they see than the talk talk, I had to walk the talk and I set myself the challenge of running to lose weight. This has really had an amazing impact on my eldest daughter, she picked up Judo last year which she loves and she does swimming too. Secretly I would like her to do more but that’s work in progress, I want her to keep enjoying what she is doing and lead a healthy lifestyle into teenage hood and adulthood
3. Determination, sometimes you just have to keep at it, your mind will be playing games with you. That I can guarantee and painful it can be but the end goal has kept me in focus. In fact now it’s no longer about losing weight but more of a lifestyle.
4. My business success, there has been a very clear correlation in exercing and reaching greater things in my business. On my run days, after dropping my son off, I am at home at 10am. I then go out for a run and by the time I come back its 11, then I take a shower etc and it’s already 11:30 by the time I sit down. Before I know it its 3pm and time again to pick my son, but these run days are my most effective days of them all. I accomplish so much in so little time because my mind is alert; I find I also get some pretty good ideas on what to do with my business when I am out running. This blog is one such results of how my mind wonders and comes with amazing stuff. I can honestly say when I am running; I hardly have negative thought apart from the pain of running. You don’t need a psychologist to explain this, when I am running I keep telling myself I can do this so everything that comes in my mind no matter how challenging I tell myself I can do this too.

Today being my last long run I woke up feeling like I had a cold and my body and knees felt week. For a moment I though, naaaaah, I am not doing this but I have disciplined myself to always go on my planned runs even in rain (apart from rare occasions when it’s pouring). Yes on some odd occasions I have stayed in but I try not to beat myself too much when I do that and immediately put my focus back on the next run.

So why am I sharing all this?

So you know that you too can do it, what I am doing isn’t new or groundbreaking. It’s simply the result of sweat, tears and blood. There is simply no shortcut to success, yes there are some techniques to help but you still have to pound the streets.

What are you waiting for?

Don’t wait for the New Year to make your resolutions. Most of those die like a dodo do within days and a few within months. Talk to anyone now and find out how their New Year resolution has gone. They will probably look at you like you are an alien that has dropped dead from mars. Your success is determined by YOU and YOU alone, loads of people used to tell me about trying to eat healthily including my dear husband and I would get sooo defensive and angry at them. I hanged on to the stupid belief that some people (like me) no matter how little I ate would remain big. LIE what a big way of conning myself.

If being healthy is your dream, you need no penny as running is free. Just be sensible with what you eat, don’t treat yourself with a doughnut after running, it will not work. Running by itself doesn’t make you lose that much weight; you really need to watch what you eat too. I can’t emphasise this enough otherwise you will just become a statistics of those people who “run but never lose weight”. For me managing my food was a more natural progression, running left my body aching and I just couldn’t bear the thought of putting garbage in my mouth. That would have just killed me and broke my heart. Find something that works for you and motivates you to stick with your goal whatever that maybe – my children for me that was two

If your dream is to earn money working from home you need to begin. If you are working what do you do when you get home? Watch TV? Some sacrifices have to be made to achieve more freedom with your time in the future. Making money online can be hard work and take a while but you need to DO. You need to START, you need to BEGIN. Start today and stop procrastinating and when you start, be a finisher, don’t be like the millions who hit and start the gym on New Year’s Day and never see the place again until the following New Year. Be a finisher, yes starting is great but you get results only if you finish

OMG!!!  That was long but running has seriously transformed my life. The confidence running has given me has not only helped me lose weight but achieve success in other areas of my life and my children’s life. I self taught myself how to swim last year and I can swim 25m comfortably now and 50m with a quick rest. I am still working at improving my speed as I am rather slow both on the ground and in the water but I can hand on heart say I am very proud of myself and how far I have come. It hasn’t been easy but focus and determination has kept me.

Update: I completed my marathon successfully on the 14th, read more here >>>

Good luck in your journey but remember to START and KEEP AT IT!

Doe-doei (Dutch goodbye)

Sharon

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I received an email today from somebody who asked “can you really make money blogging.” She wanted me to show her how it is possible to make a £100 a day from just 1 blog.

Not one to shirk away from a challenge, I have decided to show everyone exactly how I will do it as this blog in new. I have just started it and make money from it as I start the challenge.

Hopefully it can act as a bit of motivation for those of you out there that may be struggling to get going and perhaps are not making much money yet.

Why 90 days?

In my experience, it takes while to build a blog attracts traffic and this experiment is about building a stable, high traffic, long-term money making blog. And it will be a nice to get some extra cash for Christmas as the case study ends midnight 31 Dec 2012.

This is something I feel anyone can achieve good results with, even people who are new to this blogging, the process is basically building solid good content based around you passion and drive traffic to it.

Now I should add this is nothing new, it’s a technique that has been round for years, but its what’s working for me right now and its working really well, right now as I write this my blogging income continues to grow monthly.

Below is the full process I will use:

1. Take a brand new wordpress blog on a brand new domain foxmum.com
2. Locate a good affiliate products.
3. Conduct some keyword research for my blog theme, article titles and keywords.
4. Find a good WordPress theme
5. Create some good content for the blog.
6. Make sure my on site SEO is good.
7. Promote my blog properly.
8. Maintain the blog, testing and tracking.

My goal is to have this blog earning at least £100 per day from this blog in income in just 3 months time! I want to do this to prove that you do not have to spew up hundreds of rubbish and spend money to make money. I want to prove that you can do it with a potent mix of:

1. Quality content
2. Some basic on site and off site SEO
3. ACTION!

So, I predict by Jan 31st 2013 I will be earning £100 per day from this blog.

I will:

1. Endeavour to update this thread every week with what I am doing or have done to the blog.
2. Any income reports will be published monthly.
3. Answer any questions people may have.
4. Be investing a small amount of money in advertising.

I will not:

1. Expensive advertising (It could seriously skew the results if I did)
2. Lie about the income, if the blog flops I will show you (I am confident it won’t however).
3. Desert this thread half way through, but will see it through the end.

Please know that my links to Bluehost in this post are affiliate links and I do earn a commission if you complete a purchase through them. This is at no additional cost to you. If you do make a purchase, please send an email to me through my contact page so I can personally thank you and provide additional support for setting up wordpress  if you ever need it. 

The last thing I want to leave you how you can your own blog today in under 10 minutes. For less than £40 you can start your own professional blog that can, after a few months, earn you a consistent amount of money. This is a massive difference to doing anything in the offline world.

Why Blue Host?
The reason I recommend Blue Host as your first blogging host is because I use them, they are reliable and they have 24/7 LIVE SUPPORT that will help you install WordPress and get started. Don’t worry if you are in the UK, the service they provide is far superior and cheaper than you get here.

==>>Click here to start a blog that matter in under 10 minutes and you’ll be on your way to making money online

Let the race begin and feel free to chime in with your questions or suggestions  as we go…

Stay tuned…

BTW, if you’ve just dropped by for the first time and feel like this thread is of value to you, don’t forget to leave a comment below!

I started my online businesses when I was in working at the Jobcentre and all the mums I know just get it. The delegate authority well, arrange the daily tasks extremely naturally and create an automation in the household that just gets things done. Most of all, they utilise whatever time they have extremely efficiently. This might not be true of all mums but every single mother I know fits this description.

The crucial first step

If you want to make money online, my first recommendation is to start a blog or website. Let it serve as your internet home and branch out from there. Not sure how to do that? No problem, here’s my step by step guide: How to start a WordPress Blog.

Be warned, this will take time & work!

Once you’ve got yourself set up with a site, it’s time to work. And when I say work, I mean it. Making money online is not a way to get rich quick. If anyone tells you differently, be extremely skeptical. There are millions of blogs and websites. The challenge for all of us is to get noticed. After all, in order to make a business work, people must know you exist. Your idea might be golden, but even a golden needle can get lost in a gigantic haystack.

The shocking truth is that when you know how to do some of this stuff yourself, you know that…

• You can get your own website up and running for less than £50. yup you read right.

So can you make it work?

While I know that every mum has the qualities and ability to run an online business, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can make it work. Distinguishing between the two are very important. Can you:

• Dedicate an allotted amount of time to the business every single day?
  Good business owners are consistent in their efforts. Does your lifestyle allow you do allocate a strict amount of time to the business each day? It might only be 30 minutes before bed.
• Deal with failure?
  Dealing with failure is a massive part of being in business. Are you mentally tough enough to deal with failures, pick up the pieces and start again?
• Generate concepts and carry them through?
  Are you able to generate new concepts and ideas and then have the stability to carry them all the way through to the end without getting distracted by life or other commitments?
• Reinvest a portion of the money you make?
  One of the most important points. Can you set aside 20% to 40% of the money you make and reinvest it back in to the business? This can often be the difference between failure, a minor success and a very successful business.

If you just know that you can do all of these things then you are actually further along than you think. The hardest part of starting a business is often developing the qualities and discipline within yourself to make it work. If you have these skills then you are more than half way there.

Okay, so where do I start?

Sometimes the hardest part is knowing where to start things off. You feel like you are ready to do something, to throw yourself into a new pursuit, but you aren’t sure how to kick off. I’m here to tell you that it isn’t that hard – you just need someone to point you in the right direction.

1. Start at the end
At least three times a week I get emails from people asking me how they can monetize their blog or website. Often I look at their sites and think how easy things would have been if they had just considered this at the beginning. And that is the important point here, start at the end. Before you jump in to your new blog or website you should think about exactly what will be the end product. Do this by considering things like:

• What will I sell?
  What final product are your going to sell on your blog? Will it be your own product or someone else’s?
• Who am I targeting?
  Are you targeting a specific group of people? Who are they? How big is that target audience?
• Have I got the material?
  What are you going to do to get them to your site? If it is blog posts then do you have enough material to attract enough people to keep going?

Rather than just starting and hoping you find some direction down the track, you should begin by thinking very carefully about what you will sell, to whom and how. This is very important.

2. Stay exclusively with your passions
The second most important thing to remember is that you need to stay exclusively with your passions. Whether you start a blog or a product website or some other form of online business you need to make sure it is about something you love.

This advice can often seem really wishy washy but I wish someone had hammered it in to me as a young lad. The reason is simple: if you start an online business that you don’t love you will soon give up.

Let’s be clear here. Running an online business can often be tiring and frustrating. Sometimes you have to get up and instead of checking your bank balance you need to find out why your servers have been down all night. Or instead of looking at your new email subscribers you find that your account has been suspended. And if you are tired from being up all night with your baby or looking after the troops you will soon throw it away.

Start at the end but don’t start at all unless you love it. Think carefully about something you are passionate about, something you know and something you can see yourself doing every single day. That is a sure-fire way to make sure you succeed through the tougher times. 

3. But are my passions popular enough?
A very common question that new website owners or bloggers ask is whether or not enough people are interested in what they want to write about. And the answer is, 95% of the time, a resounding yes. Why? Because Google is sending so much traffic to every little corner of the world. If you collect bark pieces that look like Elvis you can bet there are other who want to connect with you.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t do some solid and comprehensive research in to the target market first. You should. All I am saying is that you should try and make your passions fit in to a business and not try and turn a boring business into a passion. It won’t work.

The different ways mums can make money online

What I want to do now is go through a few of the main ways that mums can make good money online. By no means is this an exhaustive list. Rather, what I have done is thought about the most efficient and time saving ways that moms can explore. The idea is to get online for 30 minutes to one hour a day and make some good money after a few months.

1. Product review sites and blogs

The first online business model I want to talk about is product review sites and blogs. This is a fantastic way to gradually build up an income over the weeks, months and years. A good portion of my residual income comes from this method.
How does it work?
Basically what you are doing is setting up small mini-sites or blogs that are focused on reviewing a type of product or products that fall within a particular category. For example, if you know a lot about prams you might want to start a pram review site where you look at all the different prams that get released and review them based on common features like:

• Look and feel
• Materials
• Safety
• Price range
• Etc.

You would be surprised at how many different products you know about. You don’t really even need to try each product once you know what you are looking for. For example, if a fantastic new pram comes out you can look at a bunch of different reviews on Amazon.com and the other big websites and base your review around what other people are saying.

How does it make money?
After a while you are going to find that Google indexes your posts and you will be getting visitors who are interested in your reviews. Because you have focused your articles on reviewing products you will find that your visitors are all ready to buy – they are in a shopping mentality. For this reason you can make money with:

• Amazon.com links and stores
  Amazon pays a commission for every visitor you send that buys something, even if it isn’t the actual product you sent them to. For example, if you have reviewed a new pram and have a link to that pram so people can buy it on Amazon but instead they buy a new Kindle then you will make money on the Kindle.
• Adsense
  Although I never really advise people to use Adsense, product sites are one place where it can work quite well. By placing Adsense ads at the bottom and top of each product you review you can get highly relevant ads that pay as much as $1 to $5 every time someone clicks them. This can equate to several thousand a month, especially if you have many reviews or review sites.
• Advertising
  If your review site gets big enough you might start attracting real world advertisers that want to be associated with your store. I know of several camera review blogs who get paid £1,000 a month to place a tiny advert at the top of their sidebar.

As you create more content and review more products you will find that the income gradually increases and increases. This is a trickle down effect where it starts off slow and builds up as you go.

2. Expert sites and blogs

The second type of model I want to talk to you about is an expert site. This is very similar to what I do at Fox Mum and is a wonderful way to develop a long lasting and sustainable source of income with just a little bit of work each day.

How does it work?
With an expert site you are basically writing about a particular topic that you are an expert in. For example, if you work in marketing you might want to start a blog about marketing in an area you are interested in. Or if you cook the most incredible dinners you could start photographing them and sharing recipes, ideas and cooking tips.

The thing about expert blogs and websites is you can make them about really narrow topics as long as you put your own spin on it. For example, I know there are blogs out there which are solely about walking. They discuss shoes, walking tracks, iPod playlists, funny walking stories, different dog leads, etc. With even a very narrow topic you can find a myriad of things to write about. And if you put a personal touch on it you will find that other people are really interested.

How does it make money?
The interesting thing about expert blogs is that you can make money with all the same methods as the review sites except you now have a second and much more powerful method to tap in to – email marketing. Sounds confusing I know but it really isn’t. It is an extremely simple, hassle-free way to make a long term income that can drastically change your life.

3. A journey blog

The final blog model I want to discuss is all about sharing your journey with the world. It is very similar to an expert site except that here you are sharing your experience along the way, as you do it, as opposed to positioning yourself as an expert. This style of blog has some very distinct advantages:

• It is easier
  These are easier posts to write because you don’t have to research and make sure everything is correct. You just write about your experience.
• You can be yourself
  While you should always be yourself, when you are sharing a journey you can write straight from the heart and just let other people become branded to your style. It is a very natural platform.
• It is easier to get a community
  If your journey blog is centered around a particular topic (and it should be) you will find that people in that niche naturally become quite loyal to you. For example, if you have just got braces and start writing about that journey you will find a lot of sympathetic braces-owners out there who want to read what your have to say.

How does it make money?
This type of site typically does well from growing an email list and the marketing related products to that list. These are called verticals.

For example, if you have a blog about your new pet Beagle you can write emails to your list promoting products like Beagle-proof toys, weight loss food and high quality training guides. As long as you are adding value to your readers’ lives you will find that they can be quite active purchasers.

Some simple but inspiring maths

Here’s how it works:

• Start an expert blog
  Choose a domain name and then start writing articles about your topic. You can get some pointers from my series on how to set up a blog.

You’ll also want to make sure you invest in a cheap blog host.

• Sign up for Aweber and install it on your blog
  Aweber is an email service that allows you to capture people’s email addresses and then send them out your blog posts and follow up email automatically. Growing this list the main aim of your expert site.
• Grow a community
  The purpose of the blog is to grow an active community of like-minded people who love your work. If you can be perceived as an authority you will have a good chance at making a long term income.
• Connect with other bloggers
  In order to expand your reach you should start writing high quality guest posts and then submitting them to other bloggers in your niche. This is a great way to get new visitors to your site.
• Launch a product
  The final stage is to launch a product to your readers and email subscribers. If you have a list of a few thousand people that love your work you will be able to promote services and products to them quite easily. This can be a very complicated process so make sure you subscribe to my list because I am going to be sharing some tips and secrets in this area very soon.

The wonderful thing about this style of blog is that it eventually gains some momentum of its own. Many of the larger blogs found that after about a year they could step back and let other people (guest posters, community, etc.) take care of most of the promotion and content. It is hard in the beginning but does gain traction over time.

Please know that my links to Bluehost in this post are affiliate links and I do earn a commission if you complete a purchase through them. This is at no additional cost to you. If you do make a purchase, please send an email to me through my contact page so I can personally thank you and provide additional support for setting up wordpress  if you ever need it. 

The last thing I want to leave you with is some very simple maths. The idea of this post was not to give you a complete step by step tutorial but rather to inspire you with a few ideas and motivate you to get moving. This simple maths always helps me get through the tough days.

1. Set up costs
Set up costs for an online business are close to zero.

• A domain name and hosting: $4.95 per month from Blue Host (less that £3)
• Total cost per year: $59.40.

For less than £40 you can start your own professional blog that can, after a few months, earn you a consistent amount of money. This is a massive difference to doing anything in the offline world.

Why Blue Host?
The reason I recommend Blue Host as your first blogging host is because I use them, they are reliable and they have 24/7 LIVE SUPPORT that will help you install WordPress and get started. Don’t worry if you are in the UK, the service they provide is far superior and cheaper than you get here.

If you know any mums or mums-to-be who might like this article I would really appreciate if you emailed it to them. Secondly, I have a feeling my readers here might have a lot of valuable and helpful tips to add to the comments section. If you have anything at all to add I would really love to hear it. Please leave a comment.

I see a lot of mums/dads who manage to work at home with the little ones. How do you manage to keep a quiet environment with the children at home (especially now that summer is here)? I love that I have been offered the opportunity to work at home while attending to my family, but it does seem like it could become a struggle. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated. Thanks!! Heather A

To put it simply – chaos.

I work different hours depending on the time of year. When school is out, I work for a couple of hours as soon as they are in bed and then I get up a couple of hours early and work. Then I fill in hours here and there on the weekends when my husband is home. The downside is I get about 6 hours of sleep a night and work 6 days a week. But hey, I’m home with them and that’s what makes it all worthwhile for me. My youngest is in preschool part time so I can work round the school hours too. I can work with my 12 year old but my 4 year old is another matter, he is a handful.

Back in 2008 when I had my son I would just work odd hours. I would work when my son was sleeping or only night shifts. Of course that leaves you with the lack of sleep, but sometimes you have to do what you gotta do.

When he was around 15 months, he had been at home with me from birth and was so attached. Not only was I his mum, but his playmate as well. So stealing a few minutes to myself while he was awake was almost impossible. Sometimes he would do good playing by himself and I could type on a few articles. But any luck of doing anything like this would be lost and I just wait for nap times and bed times. My oldest who was 9 at the time did really well occupying her lil brother. I would sneak off up stairs to get in a few articles when they both seem to be so zoned in each others company, but the minute I heard “mum!” I go back to playing with them again. lol. He is a bit older now and much easier to manage.

Most people work when they are asleep. I would also recommend using a babysitter a few days a week (even just a relative) so that you can work when you begin earning a bit of money. It’s hard when they’re little because they do need attention.

I separate work/play time, because the kids do need their mum, and I need to concentrate!

I bet my life you’d give just about anything to know exactly what to do to make money online fast and work from home! These work from home tips will boost your income. Find out here how to earn from home and increase your income.

I’m finally going to join the blog scene. I’ve been thinking about it & I want to do a blog that is pretty all inclusive for running a household. Personally, I don’t like having to go to one blog for menu planning, another blog for deals, yet another one for cleaning, etc, etc.

I think I have enough topics to do a topic 5-6 days a week, still working on that list. I just don’t know if its a good idea to do something so huge when I first start out.

I don’t even have any idea what to call the blog, so obviously I’m still in the planning stage. I don’t even know if I want to go through Blogger or do my own hosting…. Still planning. LOL

Ok, so now that I’ve got all that out. What do you think? I want honest opinions, but be gentle please.

All I can say is have fun…good for you…and be patient. I know WordPress in and out, have plenty of self hosted wordpress blogs…and it still was a rough road to get it all going. You’re smart to plan the site out (before building). Read all that you can about blogs and stick with it.

Do you know who your target market is? Determine that first…and work outwards from there. What you have to offer sounds great – but figure where to start. Once you find your tribe, you’ll gain momentum when you know what they like, what they’re talking about, what they need…and social media is what helps you to move along this road. It’s so much easier to market these days!

Get ready to market your blog off, too.  Marketing is my thing (that’s what I have been doing for 6 years) but it is a LOT of work and as with any business, a slow return. Hence the patience. So very worth it, however.

Be sure to add social media…you’ll reach a wider audience and plus, it’s FUN!!

Good luck and be sure to share the URL when you’re up!

I bet my life you’d give just about anything to know exactly what to do to start your own blog and work from home! These starting your blog tips will boost your income. Find out here how to earn from home and increase your income

Basically I get a handful of reactions when I mention I work from home.

1. They assume I sell Avon.
2. They think I’m lying about my income.
3. They assume I play on a computer all day.
4. If I don’t sell Avon, I must be doing one of those pyramid schemes.

In the age of internet and smart phones, why is it such an impossible assumption that I can actually make a money from my living room?

I’m griping. But I’ve spend a few minutes out of my time to explain to someone (on another forum) how to work from home, the person who had asked said thank you and then another person comes in saying, “Thank her for what? For lying about how much you can make online?” I’ve already told him off, but my point being is I can’t believe people assume we’re sitting around making pennies or whatever.

And this isn’t to dis anyone who sells Avon and for those who do just make pocket money because that’s all you want.

I know this is just the kind of crud we all have to deal with from time to time. It just irked me. Catherine M

I know what you mean. My friends still finds it hard to believe that I can actually live off of the way I do by what I make online, and I’ve been doing it for a good few years now. Occasionally they still ask things like “Are you still doing your online thing?” Well, hmmmm, did all my bills magically disappear? I always wonder how they think these get paid.

It can take a while for family and friends to understand. I get calls in the day asking to favours like driving to the airport to pick someone and all sorts.  A friend called me to see if I could go for this pickup. It annoyed me that she thought I could just drop what I was doing on such short notice and basically forfeit a day’s work. I did end up going since she kept bugging me to help, but I had to drill it into her head that I needed to earn money just like everyone else and I am not available at last minute.

97% of society is all based on working outside the home. It’s what you’re taught when you grow up – get a job. And no one tells you to work inside the home.

I’ve more than quadrupled my income since I left the work world, but no one takes my work seriously except my immediate family, and even that took a long time. When my brother-in-law & his wife were having difficulty finding childcare, everyone just assumed that I’d step in and babysit since “you’re home all day anyway, right?” — um, no. I work anywhere from 8 solid hours (no lunch, breaks, etc.) on a GOOD day to 12+ hours on a normal day, and I can’t possibly chase a toddler around and get my work done. My friend, sweet though she is, still doesn’t really understand that she can’t just drop by in the middle of the day to chit chat for an hour, or that I can’t drop everything to go shopping with her — I really AM working, harder than I ever did in an office!

And on the flipside of that, I have people who do believe me ask me to get them a job, which is kind of insulting, actually; the work I do is not unskilled labour, and it’s not something that just any random person could do and be good at. I don’t mind pointing people towards other work-at-home resources, but I can’t just snap my fingers and materialise a job for them, and I don’t have time to hold anyone’s hand through the process.

Oops! I didn’t mean for that to turn into such a rant.

I actually cringe a bit when someone asks me what I do. I just say I am an internet marketer and I hope they don’t ask me what that means. Getting into the whole thing just annoys me because I don’t need 101 questions about what I do. I think my hubby is the only one who realises that I am actually here making MONEY, not just sitting around on my butt. My friends are always calling/stopping by during the day and just assumes that I can drop everything and leave. Same with my friends. Girl. I still WORK, I just do it from a different location. So irritating!

But you just get over it and forget about everyone else. You are in this for yourself and your family so none of these other people really matter. People need to see you driving a Range Rover to really believe you have made it, but if you aren’t one who likes showing off or buying the latest mod con they make assumptions about how you are doing.

I bet my life you’d give just about anything to know exactly what to do to make money online fast and work from home! These work from home tips will boost your income. Find out here how to earn from home and increase your income.

I have tried everything and I still find my husband telling me that I need to get a real job. I can’t keep on living like this anymore, it depresses me whenever we discuss the subject. I have tried explaining to him that it can take a while sometimes to get things off the ground. Please I am beginning to consider getting that real job and if you know of any jobs please let me know. -Olivia G

My mum used to constantly ask me, “So what are you doing now?” She hoped then that one day I’ll get a ‘real’ job. She thought my working on the internet was really playing around, but even the real money I made that paid for my real bills then didn’t seem to convince her. She felt I had wasted my time going to University and then not have a “real job”. Now my mum is my biggest fan, it took her long to accept I had moved from the corporate environment but she is now proud of my achievements.

I’ve learned I can’t listen to that sort of thing, it could be from strangers or people you know. I make great money, way more than I made at some office job. I’ve moved up and as a freelancer, I can control my income. I make about as much as I want to earn.

Take the opportunity to commit yourself, set up your own workspace and demand that no one call or bother you while you are working. Even when you aren’t working, work on improving your knowledge, or anything that will earn money for you. Set your hours and stick to them. Now’s the time to redouble your effort to prove to him that you can earn way more than many people by just by working from home

Work on improve your skills and become a better marketer, and so you can have future earnings online. My earnings have more than quadrupled and I’m not alone. Many of the other mums earn the same amount. I don’t work half as hard as I could be, because I earn more than enough now working part time to pay bills and a have extra money for travel and all the other things we love to do. If money is tight you could take a part time job and continue working part time on the business. Just don’t give up.

It’s amazing with all the technology that is here and beyond that people, even loved ones still don’t believe you CAN work from home. Folks who are clueless to the progression that is going on around them don’t understand this concept, and can also be jealous because your are doing something that they only HOPE or WISH they could do. The one great thing I have found working at home is I can pick and choose what I will be doing. I have been working at home for more than 6 years and yes it was tight sometimes financially when I started than when I was working outside the home…but the rewards I reap now makes it so worthwhile.
Don’t give up, stay your ground and don’t let him take away your dream. How would your husband feel if he had a certain goal in mind and you came around and told them he’d never make it and to give it up? I’m sure he wouldn’t like it one bit.

I have detailed several ways to make money online on this blog. I bet my life you’d give just about anything to know exactly what to do to make money online fast and work from home! These work from home tips will boost your income. Find out here how to earn from home and increase your income.