You may have heard the phrase “content is king”, and there is a lot of truth to that. The more quality, informative content a site has the more reasons a person has to visit that site. Adding a steady stream of articles and other information to your site will help the search engines find your site and will also keep visitors coming back for more information.

When it comes to articles, don’t just stop with adding articles to your own site. Other website owners are in search of fresh, quality content, too and could use your articles. You can add the articles you write to a reprint article directory, and when a website owner publishes your article, the links that you have chosen to add to the “author’s bio box” will be included. A limitless number of people will be able to read your articles and see your links.

Keeping a blog is another way to increase traffic to your site through writing. Update your blog regularly, several times a week. Your readers will come to see you as an expert and will visit your site for more information on the topics your site features. Point out new articles and other information that you add to your website in your blog posts, including links to your site.

A press release is a way to get free publicity through the media. The purpose of a press release is to give the media, usually newspapers, information that is useful, relevant and interesting. Don’t stop with “paper” newspapers – also include online newspapers in your press release distribution.

If you have never written a press relapse before, don’t worry. Here are the basic things you will want to include. Include your name, URL, address and phone number at the top of the page. The words “press release” should be centered, in bold, and in all capital letters under that. Below that, print the name of the person you want the press release to go to, and the release date for the information. If the information can be released at any time, you can use the words “for immediate release”. Give your press release a title, and below that include the “who, what, where, when and why”. At the end of your press release, include three # symbols, centered directly underneath the last line. If possible, print your press release on letterhead that displays your business name and logo.

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It may not be easy, but it isn’t impossible, either. By using some simple time management tricks, a WAHM can find time to “get it all done!” One thing every WAHM should have is a planner. Schedule your family time first! Then schedule in the time you are going to work your business. Once you have your “work time” scheduled, make it a priority to stay focused on your business during those hours. It is very easy to procrastinate when you are a WAHM.

If your work requires you to do lots of different tasks, try to group similar tasks together. For instance, if you are in a direct sales business and you have a team under you, designate one day to be your “training day”. Instead of helping various team members throughout the week, schedule all of your mentoring sessions for one day. Set aside an hour in the morning and an hour in the late afternoon to respond to email and/or return phone calls. By scheduling that time in, you will find that you are able to get more work done and feel less scattered.

You might also consider outsourcing some of your activities. If you find that you are spending too much time on responding to email, returning phone calls, or updating your website, hire a virtual assistant to do those tasks for you. This will free your time up to work on your business, and by spending more time on the parts of your business that actually bring in money, you will be able to increase your profits.

You can also save time by setting aside a block of time each week to do your “regular” errands, such as grocery shopping. If you plan your meals for the week and go to the grocery store once, you will save lots of time during the week by not taking those daily “quick trips to the market”. And while you are planning your meals, try to schedule a few “cook once, eat twice” days. For instance, you can plan on having spaghetti on Monday and tacos on Tuesday. So, on Monday, brown the hamburger you will need for both days. On Tuesday, half of your work will already be done. And if you are making a meatloaf or lasagna, make two and freeze one for later.

Most importantly, do not feel as if you have to do it all by yourself. You are not a super hero. If you have a spouse or significant other, ask them to chip in on household chores. Children love to help out, and depending on their ages, there are multiple things they can do. And when it is all said and done, don’t forget to take out some time for yourself. Everyone needs a break– WAHMs included!

Outsourcing means taking internal company functions and paying an outside firm to handle them. This supposedly saves money, improves quality, or frees up company resources. Whether or not it saves money, and improves quality is a major debate. If you’ve called for information about your mortgage and wind up talking to someone in another country – you’re going to have serious questions about the merits of this practice.

Outsourcing is supposed to cover non-core or non-important functions – i.e. landscaping duties to someone who specializes in the area. However, more and more companies seem to be farming out their call center and customer service areas – both of which are actually critical to the firm’s bottom line. If they’re handing out things like payroll, billing and data entry that’s not quite as public relations sensitive.

Another area you’re likely familiar with is information technology outsourcing – like getting a service tech on the line for a computer problem and finding out you both have trouble understanding each other, and face cultural and time zone differences.
If you want to outsource what do you need to do?

Develop your organization’s philosophy about the role of outsourcing in its activities. Decide if it will help YOUR business. Then, decide what to outsource, where to do it, and whom you want to do it. Work out the legal, pricing and service level agreement terms, and figure out who is going to manage this. If you’re going to outsource, you will need skills in negotiation, communications, project management, and a good understanding of the terms and conditions of your working contracts.

Is this for YOU? Only you can make that decision. Take time to check out all the angles before you jump in. Anecdotal evidence is a good indicator of whether or not outsourcing is working.

No time to make meals? Easy – make them ahead of time and throw them in the freezer. Do this after the kids are in bed – fewer distractions and less stress. You’ll have time to make that deadline.

Haven’t had time to get near the washer? Grab a basket and go hunting for the heaps in each room. Have a laundry sorter set up – whites in one side, colors the other. Train the kids and husband to pitch the right color into the right side and all you need to do it load the washer, turn it on, and get back to work.

Dust bunnies the size of Jack Russell Terriers under your beds? Focus on ONE room a day.
Make a list and when your child is napping or doing something else – dive in. You’re done quickly and can finish your calls or typing.

If your little one is old enough to help you, give them easy chores – dusting or polishing. Too young to dust or polish? Pop them into a back-pack sling and storm your way through the room you want to get done. They’ll be happy to be with you.

About this cleaning thing – as funny as it may sound – do it as you go. Most of us leave things until we absolutely can’t stand it any longer. See it needs doing – do it right away. Better a small thing now, than a monster job later.

Last, but not least – be creative with your time saving cleaning tips. Microwave need cleaning? Stick a bowl of water in it, zap it for five minutes. Voila! Steam cleaned microwave. Put degreaser in mop bucket. Wow – what it does to stains on the floor. Use a sheet of Bounce to collect cat hair. Being sneaky is the cornerstone to cutting corners when you need to tend your home business too.

However, to grow as a person and a business professional, you may want to step outside of the WAHM comfort zone once in a while. You may be asking “Why on Earth would I want to do that?” Well, there are lots of reasons.

Even if you have been able to conduct all of your business online so far, why should you ignore the business in your own ‘backyard’? Check your local paper for the times and locations for meetings of business networking groups or call your local Chamber of Commerce and find out when they hold their meetings. Let’s say you go to the next meeting and there are 30 people there; statistics show that the average person knows 250 people…. Well, if each of those 30 people in your networking group knows 250 people, who knows how many of them may need your product or service?

By showing up regularly for meetings and events, you will get to know the other members. The conversation will eventually lead to the subject of what each of you does for a living. When they, or someone they know, are in need of your services, you will be the first person they think of to ask for help. Likewise, when you are in need of something, you will have an established list of contacts that will be more than willing to help you out!

Plus, these networking groups often have guest speakers and business seminars. Who knows? You may end up picking up some tax tips or learn some community news you wouldn’t have heard about if you were surfing an online WAHM forum.

In addition, these events give you a reason to get dressed up and get out of the house, and sometimes that is the only reason you need to go to them!

There was a lot of hype in the last year or so about turning your blog into a cash machine. Many of the ebooks and programs promoted were pretty scammy in general and involved using blogs to generate huge amounts of replicated content and then filling the pages with contextual advertising programs. This is not what we’re going to recommend in this article.

If you’re blogging to help in promoting your business, you may already feel like you’re making money from your blog since you’re pulling in traffic and talking about your business. You could further monetize your efforts by promoting related affiliate programs or displaying contextual advertising.

Affiliate Programs

We’ll let you know right away that grabbing a banner or button from an affiliate program to post on your blog is not going to be a big cash machine for you. People visit blogs to read the blogs – not look at advertisements. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t use affiliate programs to earn extra money.

What you do need to do is blog about the programs that you want to promote. Share a personal recommendation. Talk about how you use the product. And don’t just post about it once. Revisit a favorite product a few weeks down the road, and then again the next month. Don’t be spammy and hit your visitors over the head with sales messages. Just let them know how much you like it.

Contextual Advertising

In our experience, Google Adsense rarely seems to perform well on a blog. Yet, it’s the easiest to incorporate and a few have indicated that they do earn a steady if small income from their blog ad units.

There are other contextual options such as Chikita Mini Malls and ad units from Yahoo, MSN and Gazoogle. The biggest drawback in ad units is that you never know what might show up on your blog. You’ll have to decide if the profit earned is worth the space you give.

Serve Your Own Ads

If you find that serving ads for others is unprofitable, consider creating your own text ads and promote your own items and affiliate products in that space.

You have probably heard the old saying: “two heads are better than one”. Have you ever thought of applying that to your business? Teaming up with another WAHM is a great way to expand your business while learning new skills.

You can form a “joint venture” with another WAHM and create a way for you to promote your services together. You will both share in the work and the profits. For instance, maybe you are an expert in affiliate marketing and you have a WAHM friend who loves to write. You two can team up on an e-book about affiliate marketing! Or perhaps you have a friend who is awesome at creating podcasts, have her interview you about affiliate marketing and the two of you can sell the mp3. The choices are limitless!

If you have an idea about something you would like to create but do not know anyone to team up with, start researching people that have the skills you need. Send them an email and let them know you like their work and might like to team up. You can also ask for recommendations from WAHMs you already know or put up a post on a message board about what you would like to accomplish.

Whatever method you choose to find potential co-workers, interview several people before you make any decisions; you want the project to be a success. Look at samples of the work each person has done in the past. You will also want to make sure your personalities do not clash, as you will be spending a lot of time working together.

When you find someone you are interested in working with, make sure you both understand how the work will be divided, when the deadlines will be for each step of the project, how you are going to sell your product and how the profits will be divided. Keep looking for other joint venture opportunities as they are win-win situations – you can offer a new product or service to your current customers and the new product can also bring you a whole slew of new customers!

If you are easily distracted, staying focused on your business can be harder than doing the actual work of your business! It is very easy to procrastinate, especially when you are a WAHM. There are always ‘so many other things to do’.

Here is a secret that you may not have heard yet: The dishes can wait! The laundry can wait! So feel free to make those phone calls or answer those emails. The laundry and dishes will still be there, waiting for you! However, if you wait too long to call a client back, they may move on to someone who gets back to them faster than you do.

Why did you become a WAHM in the first place? Did you need to bring in an extra $500 a month to pay off credit cards? Was it to put money away for your children’s college fund? Or was it to save for retirement? Whatever the reason, write it down and put it where you will see it on a daily basis. When you are feeling distracted, look at what you wrote down. It will be easier to work when you remember why you are working in the first place.

You may want to team up with another WAHM. Send each other your goals and keep one another accountable. Call each other at the end of the day and discuss what you accomplished; you can share your successes or lend each other a sympathetic ear over things that didn’t go as you planned.

Stay motivated by setting daily, weekly and monthly goals. If you “work backwards” you will create a road map to your success. For instance, if you are in direct sales and your financial goal is to sell $1500 in product that month. Do the math and you’ll see that you need to sell $375 of product each week. Now, how many home parties do you need to hold each week to accomplish that? How many phone calls do you need to make each day in order to schedule those parties? When you accomplish your goals, give yourself a little treat to remind yourself that you worked hard and achieved success!

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