Hustling Housewife Series: #1 How to start a blog for profit So you want a home business or side hustle but don’t know where to start? Here’s the first step. Evaluate what you like and as well as what you are good at. You should start by asking yourself the following questions.... What do I enjoy doing? What would I do free? What do I do for fun in my spare time? What jobs have I had that I really enjoyed doing? When thinking about starting a side business or full time home business you need to think about these things because if you enjoy your work, it won’t feel like work. I love blogging and writing to me it’s fun. I find myself daydreaming about my next post or ebook. My passion is helping other moms create businesses and lay down a path to self suffecienty. So back to business… How to start a blog from scratch #1 Wordpress or blogspot? You need a platform. If you are a newbie blogger and have no technical or little technical experience I would recommend blogspot which is through Google. Blogspot is very easy to set up, if you already have a Google account you just have to go to settings to set up from there. Blogspot walks you through the process. You will be hosted through blogger so there is no fee…there is also no domain and the downside to this is less visibility, but even so it is a good choice to get started and get a feel for blogging and see if you like it before stepping up. Or you can jump right in head first and go with Wordpress, now for me personally, I started with blogspot and I think that is the best way to get a feel for blogging, others might disagree. Wordpress is a little more complex but you can customize themes and make your blog look a lot more polished and professional. There are free themes that look pretty nice and you can even add social media link on some. The coding and monetizing is more complex, I had to have someone help me with mine, not gonna lie. #2 You will need a niche. I started out with a coupon blog five years ago that has evolved to a money saving and home business, well business. It is still weird saying, business. Sorry about that. It’s weird when you take your blog, from blog to business. Again, think about what you enjoy. You don’t want to pick a subject that will be boring, for you or your readers. Here are some ideas Kids/family Fashion Technology Art Crafting/DIY Home Décor Organizing #3 Make Youtube your BFF. I seriously don’t know what I would have done without youtube. Youtube is an invaluable resource for setting up a blog for the first time. If you need help setting up your blog go here. I would also be happy to answer any questions you have. You can email me @ 530shasta@gmail.com #4 Start creating amazing content. Create catchy titles and try to think like the reader and don’t forget to use tags and keywords. Try to keep your content appealing to the eye to by adding amazing pics and make the pic PIN worthy as well, more on this later. #5 Consider buying a domain. I use godaddy for domains. You an do this later it doesn’t matter, but if you have an amazing website name that you are worried someone might take, snatch it up now. Sometimes godaddy has domains for .99 be sure to check out websites like retailmenot for coupon codes before checkout to save big. Once you have your domain you can re-route your blog to your new domain. Here’s an example. I just set up a wordpress site a while ago…bringingmomshome.wordpress.com (so this means it was free and hosted through wordpress) now I bought a domain the one I wanted was bringingmomshome.com was sold so I went with bringingmomshome.org so when you now type in bringingmomshome.wordpress.com it automatically is re-routed to the new website. You can check out my theme I’m using there too. This is a free theme and I have all my social media links #6 Show me the money! Ok, so at this point you are probably thinking so, how do I make money from my blog? This is where it gets a little tricky. Ok, so here’s the thing. I wouldn’t monetize your blog when you first start. The first thing you need to focus on is great content and driving traffic. Without traffic you won’t have visitors clicking on ads or buying products and without great content they won’t even come. You need to be able to reel them in! After you have been posting consistently for a few months at least a few times or more a week then think about putting up ads. If you have google blogspot. It’s relavily easy to set up one affiliate ad network and that is google adsense. Google picks the right ads for you. All you do is go to your google blog settings to set this up. Then look into other affiliate programs that would work for your website. I use Amazon Affiliates, adsense, zulily, ebay, avon (I sell it), etsy (I have a shop), and a few others. #7 Create other sources of income! Consider your blog a launching pad for other ventures. Most bloggers make most of their money from other resources and products like, books, ebooks, courses, newsletters, emails, products they created or sell and speaking or teaching gigs as well as things like web design and business consulting. #8 Don’t turn your back on social media! After your blog is all set up, take the time to make your social media accounts that are cohesive with your blog, as in the same name, I’m so guilty of this one, I got lazy with this and paid the price. It confuses visitors if you use a different social media account than your blog. Take the time to set this up and you won’t be disappointed. Also make it a personal experience, people love to read background stories about the blogger, don’t leave this out. Make your about me page engaging and your picture professional. #9 Focus on building your email list! You can use a free mail service like Mailchimp that helps you organize emails and bring in subscribers. This is super important and something that I learned the hard way, I learned a ton about blogging through trial and error from five years of blogging. If I only knew then what I know now. Oh well, passing on the info to help other moms so they won’t make the same mistakes I did. Hope these tips help get you started, more home business ideas and side hustles to come!

Attention stay at home mom's!!!

Are you a stay at home parent looking to start earning money at home? I need help growing my business and I will help you get started. Contact me @ 530@shasta@gmail.com for more info on how to get started.

Work @ Home Series (#1) Businesses for under $100

Hey gals, or guys. Lol I will be starting a series on work at home business opportunities that are easy to start and the best part.....cheap! So, if you are a crafty person, or most importantly know how to sew, consider an alterations business. There are so many opportunities for this kind of business because in a way this type of business isn't really around a whole lot anymore. A few decades ago it was common to see this kind of business. You rarely see alterations businesses anymore, except for wedding dresses. We live in a time where if something breaks or doesn't fit or is just plain dated, we just toss it. But if you are on a budget, and many are these days, you may want to either consider finding this type of service or, if you know how to sew, start your own work at home alterations business. The reason why I'm posting this is this,first because it is something that just fell in my lap. Here's how I got into it. So, I make handmade clothing and Accessories, I have for years. I posted an ad on craiglist about this and I got not only repeat business, but more customers and a new friend just from one ad. So, I get an email from a customer who wanted to know if I altered designer jeans. Now I had only altered my own jeans at this point but had a lot of experience sewing and designing clothing, so I said yes. I did two pairs of Miss Me jeans (for those of you who aren't familiar, these are expensive designer jeans). She basically told me she couldn't find anyone that was affordable and the only person she could find was totally booked for weeks. Now, when you are just starting out, you want to be flexible with your prices and turn around time. I even did some trades as we(more on this later). Basically you want your first transaction to be amazing! You want to go above and beyond. You want referral and repeat business. One thing leads to another, one person knows someone else that needs something done and you go from there. To start: Make sure you have the proper equipment. A great working sewing machine, threads, pins, notions. You can buy things as you go though. That's the beauty of this business. Advertising: flyers, business cards. Pass them out to other like minded businesses, clothing stores, consignment stores, dry cleaners, boutiques, vintage clothing stores, etc. Post on craigslist, start a Facebook page, offer a free service or discount or even a grand opening contest. You could do a press release and contact your local newspaper. Post on social media. Have a pintrest account, Twitter, instagram, etc. Costs and pricing: Ask for half down for materials if you don't have all the supplies needed. Don't shortchange yourself. Markup about 40-50 percent and include your cost for labor as well. Examples: cost $10 materials, charge $20 then decide if you want to charge per hour or based on the item. So charge what you see fit for your time. $15-20 an hour in my area is reasonable but I prefer to charge by item. A pair of jeans, taking them in, only takes me like 15-20 mins so I would be really shortchanged if I were to charge per hour. So back to trades: when you have a business keep in mind the power of bartering. In this tough economy a cash trade my not be possible sometimes,so think about what you need and would be buying with the money you earn anyway. For example. I traded for jeans and boots before. Why? Because I needed them and I would have bought them anyway. I ended up with about $150 worth of clothing for one job. I consider that a win-win. Everyone is happy! More home business opportunities to come and be on the lookout for my newest e-book The Hustling Housewife:101 Home business you can start today! Peace out mommies