WAHM Resources Archives

The invention of the internet and the explosive growth it has enjoyed is impacting almost every facet of our personal and professional lives. As more and more individuals have easy online access through computers and smartphones, they find themselves turning to their computers for research, education and entertainment. Businesses and industries are slowly becoming aware that selling their products and services require a whole new method of marketing to potential customers. Work at home moms (WAHMS) mompreneurs, and anyone who is building a home-based business have a wonderful opportunity to use inbound marketing to attract new customers.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing refers to marketing directed at internet users who have performed an action that will bring them to your site. While outbound marketing is effectively cold calling, or contacting a large number of people in the hopes that a few will want to buy your product, inbound marketing targets consumers who are already looking for something that you offer. These internet users are likely to be interested in what an inbound marketer is offering, and in sales terminology they are considered pre-qualified leads. Inbound marketing is more likely to deliver leads that will convert into customers for the products or services you offer as they were already searching for words in these areas that led them to your site.

5 Keys to a Successful Professional Inbound Marketing Plan

SEO for good page ranking. SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization, and it is the single-most important term of all inbound marketing. In simple terms, SEO refers to activities that best position a website to rank high in a search engine’s results. If you are selling handcrafted belts in the northwest United States, you want to be on the first page of web results when a potential customer types “handcrafted belts in Seattle, Washington” into the Google or Bing search engine. (This is much easier to explain than to actually accomplish.) The next four keys all strive to improve SEO.
Fabulous content. Work-at-home moms need to market their businesses by having a website. Then, we must constantly update our website or page with fresh and well-written blog content. The text should include three, four and five word terms that potential customers or clients would search for online. There is an art to writing compelling and SEO-targeted content that will attract new readers and potential customers without triggering red flags from the search engines. A good web content writer that is familiar with SEO will be able to use a suitable percentage of keywords, or search terms to help improve the page ranking of the site. The last thing a good inbound marketing program should do is to make a site too commercial or stuffed with keywords provides value to the reader. A business owner may blog about recent inspirations, road-trips, methods of creating new products, or upcoming public appearances or giveaways.
Outstanding images, fantastic video clips and downloadable material options. This is absolutely essential for work-at-home moms with craft-based businesses. Not only can artists showcase their creativity, we can potentially earn money by charging minimal amounts to download patterns. Links to YouTube videos with step-by-step instructions are another popular inbound marketing tool.
Interactive Features – A great tool to keep a site current and to provide the opportunity for inbound links from other sites or social platforms is to make the site interactive. Of course, users will only want to comment on content if it is in fact worthy of discussion. Users who find compelling content of value, and who are excited to see what the website offers are likely to want to discuss and remark on the site. Offer the ability to accept comments and questions from fans and users through a comment box at the end of each blog post. Provide an email address to “Contact Us.” Set up a forum where fans can interact with each other, and offer real-time communication through a chat function. The potential for future collaboration with other artists or peers providing complimentary services through interactive features online is a largely unexplored area of inbound marketing, and one that could change the way work-at-home moms do business in the future.
Complete integration with popular current social media platforms. As of early 2012, these include such sites as such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, reddit, and digg. Remember, the ultimate goal of a great inbound marketing program is to increase the visitors to the site and convert those visitors to fans and ultimately paying customers. One of the best ways to increase the pag erank (how high it ranks in an internet search) of a site is to have incoming links from other credible and high ranking websites directing traffic to your site. Twitter tweets and Facebook postings can spread the marketing word like wildfire. Russell Crowe tweeted about the Canadian band Walk Off the Earth in January 2012, and within two weeks the indie band’s YouTube videos had well over 30 million hits, as well as numerous offers for record deals, live gigs, and even an appearance on the Emmy award-winning American talk show Ellen. The power of social media as word-of-mouth advertising cannot be overlooked, and is one of the best tools of inbound marketing.Whether you call yourself a small business owner, entrepreneur, work-at-home mom, mompreneur or solopreneur, inbound marketing is one of today’s most effective and cheapest ways to promote your business. Spend some time learning about it, and explore inbound marketing software options. If you don’t want have the time or inclination to do your own, consider hiring an inbound marketing consultant to put together a solid plan to grow your business.

What is your most effective inbound marketing technique? Leave a comment below and let us know!

Are you struggling to support your family on the money you get paid to write? Maybe you’re a work at home mom (WAHM) who needs to make the most of every writing hour available. Whatever your situation, likely you have to earn more, or you have to write more, or both.

Working as a freelance blogger or writer has many benefits, including the freedom to work as much or as little as you like. That freedom can be a double-edged sword if you are not disciplined enough to keep on track and make your goals.

Many writing jobs (especially web content) are low-paying, and if you are a content mill writer, producing a large volume of articles or blog posts each day is critical to generating a lot of articles quickly. Whether you get paid to write 500 word blog posts at $200 or at $25, these five tips will increase your writing productivity and your writing income.

5 Tips to Produce More When You Get Paid to Write

The Pomodoro Method

This intense time-chunking productivity method involves working without any distractions and focusing on the writing task at hand for 25 minutes, then resting for five minutes. (If you are a WAHM like me with an assortment of children running around, this may only work when they are napping or not in the house.)

After four “Pomodoros,” you have earned a longer break. The Pomodoro technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo over 25 years ago to increase productivity through time management. It is based on the idea that working in short bursts with small breaks keeps the brain and body fresh, and therefore improves productivity, important to those of us who get paid to write.

While it is used by people for all kinds of work, the Pomodoro technique is very effective for writing. I found that after a week of working with this method (during my daughter’s nap time), not only did my writing speed increase, but I began to think of different writing assignments in terms of the number of Pomodoros it took to complete them. This allowed me to better compare my hourly writing income on writing assignments, and adjust my rates and client base accordingly.

Use Negative Reinforcement Theory

I discovered another great free online writing tool to keep me on track when I took part in Nanowrimo 2011, and it really worked for me.

Based on negative reinforcement theory, Write or Die encourages writers to write continuously, within a text box. Choose between writing for a set period of time, or achieving a word count. Before beginning a writing session it allows you to choose between the Gentle, Normal, or Kamikaze modes.

In the Gentle mode, you are reminded by a pop-up box to continue writing after a few seconds of keyboard inactivity. Normal mode exudes a harsh “unpleasant” sound while Kamikaze will start to delete the previously written words until you have completed your Write or Die Session!

While a $10.00 premium desktop downloadable version is available, the free online version worked just fine for me.

Use An Online Time Management Tool

Online time management tools are especially useful for writers who bill hourly. I use the free version of Toggl and recommend it for anyone who wants to work more efficiently. I’m actually using it right now as I create this post.

Track the time for each task you are working on, not just the pieces you get paid to write, but even the unpaid ones, and see how much time you really spend on Facebook or Pinterest, checking emails, surfing the Internet, etc.

The key to using Toggl effectively is to remember to hit “stop” when you leave your current task, and to be honest with yourself. A graph shows your total daily work production for the past week, and you can also access older reports. While the online version of Toggl is free, a paid version with a few more bells and whistles is also available.

Stick to a Daily and Weekly Writing Schedule

Experiment with writing at different times of the day. Some writers find they are most productive early in the morning, and can get more done before the sun rises than they can during the rest of the day. Others are slow to get started, and work well into the night. Use one of the methods above to identify when in the day you are most productive.

Try to schedule at least one day off a week to avoid burnout, and make sure you set aside time each week to send out applications for new writing gigs, marketing your web content writing, and taking part in an online writers community like the one at The Freelance Writers Den.

Limit Research Time

As a freelance online writer you need to write efficiently, effectively, and consistently. As you complete assignments for different clients you will get a feel for how long it should take you to research and write the piece. If you spend too much time researching or writing your freelance earnings will suffer.

When I used to get paid to write for the content mills, I allow myself fifteen minutes to find usable sources, and if the allotted time passed and I hadn’t found what I was looking for I released the title and moved on to something else. (Thankfully I replaced all my content mill work and low-paying Craigslist job board gigs with better paying clients over the past 18 months.) If you still write for the mills, choose subjects that you know inside and out to minimize time spent on research.

The key to boosting your productivity and earnings when you get paid to write is to research and write efficiently, time yourself, for each subject matter and client, calculate your hourly earnings, then replace the lower paying writing gigs with better paying ones that you can write well and quickly.

Please note: This post contains my referral links which helps support the work of this site.

WAHM Resources

Inbound Marketing for Work At Home Moms

Get Paid to Write? Produce More and Earn More