If you are in the field of online business you must have heard of online marketing. Internet marketing, online marketing, e-marketing and web marketing are just the same terms to describe the use of the internet in marketing and promoting your products, services or business. In recent years, online marketing has provided global consumers a higher distribution of information. With today’s increased competition, you must possess the skills and capabilities to attain success. Every success story entails hardships, ups and down, but it’s up to you to learn how to avoid the pitfalls with online marketing. That’s why we are going to discuss the top ten reasons online marketing fails.

Reason #1: The lack of effort and time needed to learn new information about online marketing.

To reach the success you are aspiring to obtain, you must spend adequate efforts and time learning what can lead you to it. Get as much as new online marketing information you can and take time to study them before you use of them for your company’s growth. The more knowledge and experience you can possess, the quicker you will reach your goals. Often the best online marketing techniques will come to you suddenly, but evolves out of all the information you might know. Do not let your business be deserted by others, make it stand out by utilizing new online marketing strategies. Wide varieties of new information are available throughout the web; just encode an online marketing in Google and you will find what you are looking for. Never stop craving for more and new information, techniques, or techniques about online marketing for you will never grow personally or financially if you are not learning something new.

Reason #2: Similarity with other online business websites.

To increase customer’s interest, your website must be different from other online business web pages. Visitors get easily bored if they browse and always see the same products, content, and pictures. In order for your online marketing to be successful, you should make your website distinguished from your other competitors. Always make use of unique online marketing ideas when creating your web pages, for it will matter a tremendous amount when trying to attract more potential customers.

Reason #3: Your website is confusing and inconvenient for visitors.

One of the reasons for using online marketing is to promote your products or services to your target audience on the internet. Having too many products, pictures, links, etc. in your web pages can cause confusion and a confused mind will take no action; thereby leaving you without the number of customers that you could and should attract with your online marketing efforts. Try to be simple and focus on a particular product or service with your website. Making sure your other products are in the background of the main product or service you would like to promote. A long navigation system will make people get tired of finding what they want and can cause them to prefer other convenient sites.

Reason #4: Your website is just a sales presentation.

Increasing your sales may result from online marketing, but you must not totally focus on sales alone. Online marketing will benefit you if you provide useful information about your business within your website and attract more potential and actual customers to purchase your products.or services. Most of the time sales do not arise from the first visit, so make use of your online marketing techniques such as providing free information, tips or newsletters to give visitors a reason to come back to visit your website.

Reason #5: Failure to set specific demographic targets.

With online marketing, setting a specific demographic target is very important because you will be more focused on what type of customers you want and what you must do to attract them. Failure to settle the target will increase the risk of failure when promoting your products, services or business; moreover you will not gain the full benefits of online marketing when it comes to increasing your sales and growing your business.

Reason #6: Unsecured ordering pages.

Security for any type of investment matters for almost everybody. Unsecured ordering pages will greatly cause your business to lose sales which contradicts the goals of effective online marketing. Numerous free secure ordering forms are made available on the internet, so this should never be an issue.

Reason #7: A lack of back links to your website as a useful strategy in effective online marketing.

Providing links leading back to your website from a high ranking web page will also give your site a high rank. Linking is the key to success in having your website found on the major search engines and will bring traffic to your website; therefore, increasing you number of potential and actual customers.

Reason #8: Lack of perseverance.

Most businesses fail online due to lack of persistence and giving up too soon. Online marketing will take a lot of time to fully succeed. It could even entail years to become a major player and to develop strong customer relationships, build partnerships and see financial rewards.

Reason #9: Insufficient follow-up.

Within any business following up with a prospect or customer is very important because it will provide you with more of the same types of results that your business desperately needs to grow. Online marketing often fails because many companies fall short in following up with its online visitors; thereby, stunting the growth of brand awareness.

Reason #10: No promoting your website.

Increasing the consumer awareness of your online business can leverage your success. Several online marketing elements and strategies can be used to promote your website, increase traffic and attract more customers. If you lack the funds to pay for promotions, you can use many free ways of advertising your business awareness online such as participating in forums, chats and submitting free links to search engines.

You will need all the help you can to survive in this competitive marketplace, so make use of the online resources you have to gain greater success with online marketing and learn from these failures. Prepare yourself properly and get ready to do what you must due because the success of your business online is in direct proportion to your knowledge gained from other’s mistakes.

By: Assassin Marketing

About the Author:

Dr. Keith Webb, of Assassin Marketing, a Dallas marketing company which created the Online Domination System, an online marketing system which allows businesses to dominate the front page of the search engines. Visit http://assassinmarketing.com or contact us at 866-998-8641

Marketing Warriors

A WAHM (Work At Home Mom) has the best of both worlds! She is making money from home and spending time with her kids.

Do you have what it takes to join the ranks of thousands of successful Work At Home Moms across the world?

If you answered ‘yes’ then you are probably right. But before you jump in the deep end, spend some time thinking about these five simple questions to get you started.

Do you know who you are?

There are millions of different ways of making money from home. In order to find the one which will work best for you, you need to know who you are. What is your past experience? What qualifications do you have? What are your natural abilities? interests? talents? Are you creative? Administrative? Do you need to be around people? Or are you happy working alone?

You have something to offer that no-one else can. The most successful work at home moms have discovered what that is and made a business out of it. You can too.

Do you know what you want to accomplish?

You want to become a WAHM. Yes! But when you think about making money from home do you want to earn enough to cover the ‘extras’ (the ballet classes or summer camps) or do you need to earn a second salary – or the main salary for your family?

Do you want to build a business? Or is it a bit extra? It is so important to know what you want to accomplish as a WAHM before you start out. You might not get there straight away – but you know what you are aiming for.

Do you know where you are going with this?

Do you know how to set targets for yourself? Do you know what your short term, medium term and long term goals are ? Do you know what the first step is, to get where you want to go with this? (usually research, research and more research!)

If it is important to know what you are heading toward, it is vital to know where you go next. You will not achieve your goals by wandering hopefully in the general direction of them. Have a plan! Where do you go next?

Do you know when you are going to fit it all in?

You might be asking yourself this already. How does a WAHM manage to build a business – however small – around the diapers, the washing, the cooking and the homework?

It is possible! But you are really going to have a steep learning curve in time management as you start!

It gets easier as the kids grow, but can you plan in sections of time to work on your business during the week (or preferably the day)? It needs to be thought about before you start – especially if you are investing money as well as time.

Do you know whyyou want to be a WAHM?

Work at home moms are the women who don’t have to drop their baby off at daycare every morning, who can be there to read stories before the afternoon nap, or to pick up their kids from school and who can afford to do it without feeling guilty that they should be ‘at work’. Most moms look at ways of making money from home because they want to be there with their kids.

And when the going gets tough – because work at home moms work hard you will need to keep in mind why you are doing this, rather than sitting in a company office downtown. You will need to keep yourself motivated.

And I think maybe it is the ‘why?’ that will most enable you to succeed as a WAHM.

By: Kirsty Cussens

About the Author:

For loads of help, links, ideas and resources in becoming a WAHM, please come to http://www.IdeasForWorkAtHomeMums.com

Moms Prosperity Network

What Exactly is a Wahm?

A WAHM is a new breed of mom who manages to stay home and take care of her family while earning an income on the side. Work at home moms have resulted from the highly competitive world we have now as well as the increasing cost of living. These Moms are in a quandary because while wanting to take care of their families, they cannot however give up their money-earning capabilities.

Most work at home moms have been career girls at one time or another. But this was before they found out that they can stay home and become successful in business while they work from home. Most WAHMs are super moms who can be the best homemakers and also the best business people.

Some Mothers have decided to look for work that allowed them to telecommute. However, most WAHMs have decided to go for the best home business ideas they can find and take it from there.

A WAHM is not your ordinary mom because she can already be earning an income while cooking food for the family on a Sunday morning. She may be going to a swimming party with her kids but she also tows all her products and brochures, hoping that she can somehow find the time to talk to potential clients while watching over her kids.

Some WAHMs can start their day cooking breakfast while alternately checking their mails at the computer. Some manage to update their websites or confirm an order from a client while preparing dinner. There are Work at Home Moms who fetch their kids at school while renewing old ties with friends who also have kids in the same school.

These mothers are actually women innocently clad in their casual wears with two or more kids in tow. However, their looks can be deceiving because right inside their bags may be some jewelry or beauty products about to be delivered or shown to potential customers.

A WAHM can be found in the groceries purchasing the family’s monthly food allowance but her mind may already be plotting the next home party plan she is going to host for her high school batch mates. You may think she is hosting the party for socialization sake but think again-she is actually hitting two birds with one stone. That is, reuniting with former classmates and introducing her direct business to them.

Ask any child with a work at home mom and he will tell you how un-boring life can be with a Mother that works at home. Her schedule may be hectic but she will always find time to push her direct selling business while making sure her family gets the care they deserve.

So if you ask me what a work at home mom really is, I will tell you frankly. A WAHM is a home maker, a direct business enthusiast, a multi-tasker, a marketing manager, and everything that she needs to be to make sure that her family is well taken cared of while she earns on the side to keep her family financially stable.

By: Sam Wolfe

About the Author:

Sam Wolfe is an expert in the field of direct sales and direct selling opportunities. Her website at http://www.DirectSalesWomen.com provides many direct sales and work at home opportunities for WAHMs. Find out more today at DirectSalesWomen.com.

Wahm Shares Success Secret

  

Family Yoga Lesson

Family Yoga Lesson

   Poof! You are a millionaire. Poof! You are 125 pounds lighter.

Wish it were that easy? Check this out . . .

Have you ever started New Year’s Resolutions and failed? Or just started projects but being a mom always took over everything else in your life you were looking to achieve? It’s so easy for us to focus on everyone else but ourselves as caregivers. But I have an answer for you.

This is a solution that you can start anytime, achieve goals in short increments, have accountability and a support system all over the world.

I am on day 3, of season 1 of the 100-Day Reality Challenge. You can sign up at CCOR or Co-Creating Our Reality page to start and create your own reality.It works with the universal laws and you choose your own practices to achieving your goals and expectations within your 100-Day Season.

What are some of my goals? I want more energy, so I have been dragging myself out of bed earlier to exercise and my kids are exercising with me so it’s becoming a family thing! pretty fun. I also want to attract prosperity ($500,000 to be exact), just enough to pay off some things and purchase the home I have my eye on.

My other intention is to work on projects I have been wanting to create for some time now and one of them is this blog!

I will post videos on my Youtube channel of my progress so keep an eye out. I created a new blog channel called iMomNetwork.

What are some goals you would like to achieve but something in your life felt like it was blocking you? Start co-creating your reality today. When you join be sure to stop by my page and say hi and share your intentions for your season!

Blog Traffic Tips

Blog Traffic Tips

Forums are concentrated communities of highly targeted prospects that are all interested in the same things.

Why are they a great place to market your home business?

1. Forums are HIGHLY targeted.

2. You can learn great new tips and tricks on any particular topic.

3. Your links remain over time and increase in number with every one of your posts.

The biggest reason that forums are a great place to market your business is that people that click through to your ads will already be familiar with affiliate marketing or internet marketing because those are the types of forums where you’ll be promoting your business.

If a prospect from a home business or affiliate marketing forum sees value in what you’re promoting and joins your business they’ll already know how to get off to a fast start without your help.

You’ll be promoting your business through what’s called a “signature box”. I don’t get thousands of hits a day, but I probably get 20 – 30 highly targeted hits on average. With forums, that’s enough. It’s a constant flow that slowly grows over time.

If you post a comment on a highly viewed thread hundreds of prospects in a single day may see your signature box advertising your lead capture page.

I want to make it very clear that you should not post a comment just to get your signature box seen. This is SPAMMING and it’s distasteful.

The other forum members will know what you’re doing and they will remember you as being someone that tries to take away from the community instead of trying to add to it. Only add to the discussion if you have something of value to include otherwise just read, learn, and wait for your turn to chime in.

How do you find forums?

Just go to Google and do a search for home business forums or network marketing forums, you get the idea. Save yourself some time, if it looks like no one has made a post in a forum for the past month it’s probably not worth your time.

Here are a couple I visit regularly: wahm warriorforum

First you just register as a member of the forum, set up your “signature box”, and then simply participate.

Like I said before don’t SPAM! Chime in when it’s your turn and don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you’ve had a burning question that you haven’t been able to find the answer to – forums are the best place to ask that question.

Find 5 forums in your target market and register yourself as a member. Commit to making a least three posts per day per forum from here on out.

Signature Tip: Always send people to your personal capture page that will grow your own list!

Sample Signature:

Residual Wealth Factor FREE 7 Day E-Course ads $1,000’s to your monthly income: yourleadcapturepagehere

By: Debbie Penner

Photo by Steve Woods

About the Author:

Debbie Penner, a seasoned marketer has been using a paid proposition lead capture system with great success. If you’d like to take a look at this proven, predictable method for building your own lifetime of residual income, and even try it out at no cost, Click Here

Network Your Way To A Work Home Job

Networking for Work at Home Moms

Networking for Work at Home Moms

Find the job you want. Apply. And wait. Right? Or more less, hope really bad and wait. This is the norm when it comes to employment, and if you thought home based employment was any different, think again. It’s actually just as bad or even worse because the competition for a work home job is fierce. So many desires a real job working from home but remain unsure how things are conducted when it comes to the virtual world.

First you should know that communication is vital. Be open and willing to network with any and everyone related to your work home interests. It is possible to network you way into a job. Plug yourself into great networking forums such as wahm.com (this stands for work at home mom) and scour the telecommuting boards and such. Great info. You can also try workplacelikehome.com. Great group of people and wonderful support. Now there are hundreds of forums dedicated to working from home but these two prove to be the best help for me when I needed it most. But do not just stop there. If you familiar with the particular area you would like to become involved with such as Virtual Assisting, Medical Transcription, Writing, Websites, or the like. There are tons of associations and National as well as Regional chapters and groups you can join. Believe it or not, you can even become inventive and create your own local group for your passion. Think of how many people are looking to plug themselves into activities that have not been started yet in their city. These things are all good, but you do not have to stop there.

I want to show you possibility. Mega sites such as Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail and countless others, enable member groups and have become very popular meeting places for exchanging information and providing support. You can learn about resources, tips, and advice for free. All this without paying any fees. Let’s not even get to social networks such as Myspace, Facebook and more.

Though there are many online tools you can research to gain much needed work home information, do not neglect your offline market. You want to start with your local surroundings? Have you ever mentioned the option of telecommuting to your boss? How about companies in your area that hires workers from home? You may become surprised to find out how many. Most of these companies require you to work onsite for sometime before transitioning to work from home. This is to ensure you are properly trained as well as ensure your commitment to the company. Check your local newspapers regularly and visit company websites to check job listings. Even if the position you find doesn’t specify working from home, it does not mean it cannot become a possibility for the employer. You can even take the initiative and inquire on your own with companies regarding work home positions. It just well could be that they do not advertise their job postings through print or online medium and you could luck out on finding a great opportunity.

Finally you should search job engines whenever possible. These days there are thousands of them in every job category. Just do your research and select a few that you trust and visit on a regular basis. When you are searching, you want to use good search terms such as “telecommute” or “freelance” or even “virtual”, “telework”, “remote” and “off-site”. You should always avoid “work at home”, While you can surface some good leads, they will be filtered with scams and work home businesses. Keep this in mind when putting in a certain amount of time and study associated with your search. It takes patience and diligence to stick with the search of your right “fit” concerning home employment. But if you are committed enough to sticking with it, and taking advantage of your given resources, your search can be followed by accomplishing a successful home career.

By: TinaLynnLove

Photo by Piotr Bizior

About the Author:

TinaLynnLove is a work home mom who’s helped people find legit work home jobs since 2005. Grab her career kit with hundreds of work home jobs listed Here

Join Ultra Selects

Wahms

Wahms

When you are considering working from home, there is a set of decisions that must be made before anything. First, you need to know if you really have the skills and equipment to work from home. Then, you need to decide how you can put those skills to work – either through a telecommuting employer or your own business venture. There are many opportunities for working mothers to explore, especially online. Becoming a successful work from home mom is dependent on your research. Finding the right match for your skills, income expectations, and equipment is vital for a successful work from home venture.

Sometimes the best place to start a work from home career is where your last career ended. If you have done customer service in the past, there are a ton of virtual call centers such as LiveOps, West at Home, and Alpine Access that hire experienced customer service professionals and people with retail experience. Companies that hire home-based telemarketers are often looking for new workers and pay an hourly rate, with flexible schedules.When you work as a customer service agent from your home, you just need a reliable Internet connection and a working phone. Do you have experience in the hospitality industry? Some companies hire virtual concierges to schedule tasks for busy executives.

Experienced in childcare or teaching? There’s a growing demand for online tutors with the right qualifications and patience to teach kids online.

If none of the above seem to fit, there’s always a chance to use your skills to form your own administrative assistant business. Virtual assistants are becoming widely accepted as an essential member of the virtual workforce — and they can easily branch into new areas once they’ve grown a small list of clients. Usually, you need to have proficient internet skills and a comprehensive knowledge of word processing programs, as well as the ability to make and take calls from home.

If you want to start your own business, the opportunities are endless – but it will take some work and dedication. You can start with a direct sales company and sell products from an established brand to friends and neighbors. You’ll be working on commission, however, so you’ll need to plan your budget accordingly. Another option for starting your own business is offering a local business such as daycare, personal assistants, or pet walking. All of these will require that you leave the house from time to time, but they can help you generate income. Just be sure to check the licensing requirements in your state before you make a decision. If you’re more of a mompreneur than anything, you may want to start an online business.

Ebay stores and other retail prospects are always a good choice for moms, and there are many websites such as Work at Home Mom (http://WAHM.com) that have offer support and guidance for online ventures. Just make sure that you do your homework and don’t get caught up in any scams pr pyramid schemes – they seem to run rampant on the internet. Many stay at home moms have found a home in the internet marketing community by directing web traffic to a website and then recommending certain products and services.

Decide first what type of job you’d like to do and then work from there. You don’t have to limit yourself to one source of work from home income. Many moms take part-time telecommuting jobs while they work on building a business of their own. Don’t limit yourself to what you know, take time to explore your options. Make sure you find an online community for support that you can turn to for new ideas, job leads, and guidance. There are a ton of successful work at home moms out there that love to share their expertise.

By: Melissa Brewer

Photo by CynthiaTurek

About the Author:

Melissa Brewer is the author of the Little White Ebook of Homeshoring Jobs, the complete guide to work from home call center employment available at LittleWhiteEbook.com. She has worked as a freelance writer for the past 9 years and currently resides in Washington, DC, three miles from the Obama White House.

Making money from home

Making money from home

Some pointers on how to make money online: 

 

- One of the most popular ‘home business’ jobs is affiliate marketing. This is usually done through businesses which offer affiliate programmes that you can join up with. Most established companies have a bevy of recognisable brands to offer to affiliate marketers. Marketing other peoples’ goods and earning a fee is the simplest way to get going. 

 - Making a site is relatively simple, that’s only half the work involved. It’s also important to drive traffic and learn how to market your site. The problem with working on the internet is that 99 percent of these money-making programs offered are a waste of time and (your) cash. 

 - Don’t only click on every ad you see to find revenue resources; try to find networked groups of WAHMs (work-at-home moms) who have found success in earning cash on the internet or off and ask them for tips. They can give you some ideas about which programs are actually worth putting time and money in. Investigate message-boards and forums. Some forums allow users to post links in the body of a message. Be sure you read all the forum policies carefully prior to trying this, or you may be banned for spamming. 

 - The difficult part of associate marketing is sticking with the business until it starts to make a profit. You find advice spammed all over the Web, but how much of it can you believe in? Web scams exist in their thousands, each one designed to bait suckers with the promise of easy riches. 

 - Internet success is fairly easy; it just calls for a plan. Most webmasters just try anything and everything, haphazardly. You can contact a great variety of customers and communicate with anyone in the world, speedily. You can use your email opt-in list to send updates about your special offers, products and newsletters; whatever you think your consumers want. 

- If you have a site set up, you need to design it. All your site needs to include is a review page about your products with client testimonials stating that each product works well and is worth buying into. 

 - Commit time to testing out different strategies in order to discover the ones that work best. Select a business type that you find agreeable and that you are passionate about. Then do some research. Set up your own blog or website. Build a mailing list. Replicated affiliate sites won’t provide that for you. Start with what you know. 

 - The more surfers you attract the greater your ability to get more sales. Upload content-rich pages on each one of your sites and include keywords that will climb to the top of search-engine results and increase traffic volumes. Research in advance, don’t just react to circumstances. 

 - Buy a domain name that’s very similar to to the affiliate marketing product you’re attempting to publicise. Don’t, however, infringe on the copyright of a brand name. That may annoy the brand owner. 

 - When your business is up and running, if your product isn’t getting sales, move on and try another. Do not hang about hoping that it’ll sell; the odds are it won’t. 

 - Internet marketing requires brand name exposure. Content on your site needs to be search engine optimised. Get your brand all over the Web in order to generate useful traffic. Targetted traffic is what you’re aiming for; if you get a viral video on Youtube about hang-gliding, but you’re selling finance, you won’t make much cash off it. 

 I hope these few basic pointers will be of some use to you in your online marketing enterprise.

By: Gen Wright

About the Author:

J. O’ Rahilly writes for affiliate internet marketing and secured loans UK web sites in London, UK.

Online Job Examples Work From Home

More and more people are choosing to work from home rather than in a traditional office setting. These individuals are reaping the benefits of more flexible hours and workloads, allowing them to spend more time with their families and doing what they enjoy. Today, there are several options on the Internet for those people interested in working from home in a variety of job fields and industries.

Some of the most popular and successful work-at-home jobs for unskilled and common workers are survey completion, research, price shopping, and responding to e-mails. For those individuals with more skills the jobs are even better and more plentiful. The most prevalent jobs are found in transcription, writing and design, computer programming, counseling, translating, and crafting. It is beneficial to obtain certification or career training in order to make more money and get better jobs.

One of the biggest concerns for individuals looking for work online is scam artists who try to get people to buy materials and other supplies with promises of better pay and good jobs. To avoid these types of scams, it is a good idea to never agree to pay for a service unless it is accredited by a well-known organization, preferably by the Better Business Bureau.

There are several helpful sites that offer work to individuals choosing to work from home. Jobsearch.about.com is an accredited site that lists jobs from various organizations that allow work to be completed from home. HEA Services offers over 2,500 work-at-home jobs listed on their database with over 1,000 new positions added annually. HEA allows people to submit their resumes for employers to look over and also lists specific jobs that individuals can browse to find the right one for them. HEA specializes in finding jobs in many different fields and allows users to search based on location and level of experience. JobBank USA is another helpful site allowing individuals to search for jobs and post their resumes. They have the added perk of including helpful resources that give examples of successful resumes and cover letters to help individuals get a job.

Some well-known companies are now allowing their employees to work from home and are providing work opportunities for individuals in need. The popular airline Jet Blue hires reservation specialists to book flights for customers online, right from their own homes, but requires at least two years experience in customer service. Another business is Key for Cash, who looks for experienced typists to enter data and other information for businesses that do not have the time or need for full-time employees. This type of work is easy, can usually be done on an individual’s own time frame, and pays decent. Working Solutions is a company that hires agents with good communication skills to do work for their various clients. They also have specific needs for multi-lingual people to communicate with their diverse client base. LiveOps is a networking company that hires agents to call people to try and sell their services. They have a special group that specializes in processing food deliveries to ensure accurate food orders. They also have a need for bilingual agents to make a variety of different sales calls in order to get the best and most accurate responses.

With a vast majority of at-home workers being women or stay-at-home moms, there have been several sites started that are geared specifically to these women. WAHM is an online magazine specifically designed for stay-at-home moms who have a desire to work. They offer helpful articles that give tips and advice on how to find work at home. They have job listings and other business opportunities specifically geared toward moms, along with a fun column from WAHM creator Cheryl Demas. The site also has links to other helpful sites. MommyEnterprises.com shows job opportunities for work at home jobs. They also help moms find bargains online and sites that provide freebies to stay-at-home moms. The site also links users to other moms so they can talk about jobs and give advice to those in need. Bizymoms.com is another great site that offers job searching services free of charge. They have vast contacts with successful women who have secured good careers while working at home. They allow users to network and talk to others to get the best advice.

Today there are more and more job opportunities becoming available to people wanting to work from home. With the help of useful websites, people can now network and search job listings to find the right job for them in the field of their choice. No matter the reason, whether it’s a desire to spend more time at home or a want for a more flexible schedule, people now have the option of staying at home while working a job.

By: Greg Heslin

About the Author:

Greg Heslin is a best selling author on various legitimate work from home opportunities. To learn more about real work from
home opportunities and see “check proof” of how some people are making $1,758 a day working from home, you can visit
his web site at:
http://www.Work-From-Home-123.com

Marketing Warriors

Are You Happy Being A Work At Home Mom?

I have a confession.

I’m a mostly-sane WAHM. I’m far from the ‘got it together’ work at home mom that I’d like to be.

I believe that there are a lot of women out there like me – clutching onto your sanity while juggling family, daily work requirements, basketball practice, ballet recitals, PTA meetings, and the many other responsibilities we carry on our shoulders.

If you’ve been a WAHM for more than a minute, you know the predicament we face. We chose to work from home so that we could spend more time with our children. This is great in theory. What happens, though is that we end up with no scheduled and defined work time, so it becomes a struggle to find time to spend with our kids. When you hear other people say “It must be so nice to work from home so you can spend time with your kids all day”, you roll on the floor laughing. If only it were so simple! Finding the balance between work and home can be a constant struggle especially when work IS home.

I remember the days when I worked out of the home in an office job. I had two separate and distinct compartments in my life. There was the office, where I could work in peace and quiet, focus on projects and be productive. And, then there was home, where I was able to focus on my children and have fun. I had scheduled working hours, and also distinct family time.

Now, I have the ‘hom-ffice’, an odd melding of home and office. The line between the two compartments is unclear. My office is now an extension of home. And, home is becoming an extension of my office.

Because of this dilemma, I find that I’ve got the focus of a gnat. Here’s how my work day goes.

I wake up, grab a cup of coffee, and sit in front of the computer to check my email. Fifty new messages. No problem. I get ready to tackle the first one.

“Dear Nicole, I was wondering if you might be interested in” …

“juice in a sippy cup, pretty please my pretty mommy?”

Whoa!! Ok, brain switch! I turn and look at my little girl who just crawled out of bed. She is a perfect picture of childhood, with her big brown eyes, sweaty wildly curly hair and big grin. I hug this rosy-cheeked angel and go to the kitchen to get juice. Then, I sit back down and attempt to read my email

“Dear Nicole, I was wondering if you might be interested in my new affiliate program selling” …

“the new Lego robot I built!”

Brain switch again. I swivel my office chair and see my son, his blue eyes twinkling, and his face beaming proudly, holding up his Lego creation. I ‘ooh’ and ‘ahhh’ over the new Lego invention — a robot that can climb walls. I rub his blonde head and tell him how wildly creative he is. He grins and goes back to Lego-building.

I swivel back to work, and try to get as much done as I can between the many interruptions, karate practice, dinner and bedtime stories. Oftentimes, late at night, you can find me working, while watching late night TV shows. My husband comes in to check on me. I swivel my chair to get my good-night kiss and I tell him that I just want to wrap up a few last projects. I stagger to bed late at night only to start again, before the kids wake up in the morning.

Are you seeing the pattern? Is there any wonder that I’m mostly-sane? Look at your own days and I’ll bet they are very similar to mine.

Despite the frazzled hours and days, and all the distractions, I love being a WAHM. The honest truth is that I wouldn’t trade my job for any corporate job in America.

However, as I meet more and more work at home moms, it’s becoming apparent that I’m not alone in my struggles. Other moms are setting expectations that are just not matching reality. What can we do about it?

1. Reclaim your office:

If you have one room that you can dedicate to your work, stake your claim on it. Clear out all toys and non-work items. Make your “hom-ffice” a real office. No more messing around with half a commitment to your business. Your office is your turf. Protect it.

2. Buy a timer:

If your children are old enough to understand the concept of time, invest in a timer. It’s a life saver. The next time you need uninterrupted working time, tell the kids that you’re setting the timer for 20 minutes. If they give you 20 minutes of uninterrupted work time, then reward them with quality time with you. Play a board game together or go to the park.

Set goals this month to reclaim your work area and your time, and you will take a step closer to being a happy, relaxed, and successful WAHM!

By: Nicole Dean

About the Author:

Nicole Dean is the mostly-sane Mom behind http://ShowMOMtheMoney.com – helping WAHMs Succeed. You’ll also want to check out the Home Business Ideas section if you’re looking for ways to make money from home.