A Tale of 2 WAHMs

What Your Little Black Dress Says About You

You are sexy, outrageous, and daring. You love to push people’s buttons.You are fearless and free spirited. You get people talking… and you don’t care what they say about you. Your style is revealing, trendy, and flirty. You love to look good. If you were a shoe, you would be: Strappy sandals

The Little Black Dress Test

My Comments: Boy this was really a tough one … I was really torn between the one I chose, the middle one on the left and the middle one on the right. I really liked all three. However, by the description, I think I made the right choice. Just not so sure about the sexy thing, rofl! And I’m sure if you asked my husband, he’d whole-heartedly agree on the button pushing fact! Hmm … so now I’m curious … what does your little black dress say about you?

I don’t think we’ve stressed this point nearly enough. If you are in business, you NEED a REAL site. Free sites have really got to go!

Let me explain where I’m coming from here.

I hadn’t ordered from this site, but got these items directly from the owner.  (Not naming names here, nor am I even going to say WHAT it was because I don’t want to embarrass this person). I went to the site basically to see other items and prices. Knowing it was a Freewebs site, I went there already mentally blocking out ads. Usually I can somewhat navigate those sites without problems, but I did have my doubts.

When I got there it wasn’t so bad. As mentioned, I was blocking out ads and trying to focus on the items for sale. That is until I got to the ordering page. Right there smack in the middle of all her prices and PayPal buttons was a big fat “Sponsor Ad” from Google. Not just on the side, but IN with her prices.  Bleh. I scrolled down a little more still looking at prices, and there was another ad, this time for cell phones. Double bleh!

I scrolled back up and could no longer block them out. I had seen too much, now they were jumping out at me. At the top of the page,  there was another ad that was designed to really jump out at you. It was one of those “You have 2  new crushes!” ads. Um yeah, I’m here to shop not find high school love, thanks.

This turned me off. A lot.  What kills me is the product and packaging was really fantastic. The site just really did not match the professionalism of the products. If I had been a new customer not having the chance to see the products first, I would have immediately went somewhere else. Trust went right out the window when I saw all those tacky ads.

People, PLEASE get rid of those free sites! Do you honestly think $10 a month (or less) isn’t going to bring you more sales? Your time put into creating the site is worth something too, and when you slap it up on a free site you are wasting that time. Seriously, just pay the money for the hosting. You’ll make enough to cover the cost of it and then some simply by having a nicer site that’s ad free.

Please look into hosting. It’s really not that expensive. I mean look, Anita has some pretty cheap hosting here. If you are serious about your business, you really do need a real host.

©Lisa Barker

I think women have a gene that causes an adverse reaction to clothing
when hormones go haywire once or twice a month.

I hate the color red.  Why I even own a red blouse is a mystery to me.
  It must have looked good under those trick lights in the dressing
room that can make even a cadaver look sexy.

But it’s not like I went home, tried it on and decided it wasn’t
very flattering and took it back.  Oh, no.  It looked good then,
too…until I had to wear it for something important.  And it was the only
clean blouse in the closet that fit that day because I was retaining water.
  Great!  Now I look like a big balloon.  Just call me Bubbles the
Clown!

But if it isn’t the color screaming at you, “Hey, Bubble Butt!”
then it’s a blouse you bought that fit really well.  You took it home,
wore it once and now your kids can use it to dress Barbie.  After one
wash it’s shrunk for life.

I bought two pairs of shoes two months ago.  Great buy.  One was even
marked down to six dollars.  I haven’t worn them yet.  One pair is now
too big and the other is too small.

This is God’s little joke on women: PMS – Perplexed Mood
Surfing…all achieved by messing with our hormones

I love the contemporary commercials for Midol.   Finally, they’re
telling it like it really is:  poor women, rolling around doubled-over,
gripped in pain, battling fatigue, dizziness and everything else.  And
you know that water retention is part of that, too.

That’s why women have so many clothes and shoes.  We can’t help it!
  You never know when you roll out of bed what type of body you are
going to wake up to.  Every day there’s a new size and shape.

That’s why we all have a favorite pair of sweats or pajama pants and
a big loose cotton shirt.   The usual accessories are a pint of ice
cream and a spoon.  It’s our ‘Don’t bug me’ outfit.

Of course, God thought it would be funnier if he added pimples, hot
flashes and cravings—whether you’re pregnant or not.  At least ‘the
curse’ doesn’t curse just women.  Men have to live on this planet,
too, and they can’t escape PMS either. 

I’m very happy about that.

To love, honor and suffer were the real vows taken when my dear husband
and I married.  My job is to be pitiful.  His job is to wait on me
like a man whose life depends on it.  Oh, wait.  It really does.

So keep that Dove Unconditional Chocolate ice cream flowing and I
won’t take any hostages.  Maybe.

—————————————————————————–
LISA BARKER of Greenfield is a syndicated humor columnist and mom of
five. Her latest book is “Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane …
Doesn’t Mean You Are A Bad Parent!” See www.JellyMom.com for more
information.

Today I got to thinking about half finished projects and half thought out attempts at doing something special online. Two particular online friends of mine are guilty of this, and you know I am too. I’m not going to name names here, but did want to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

First off there is a friend of mine who came up with a really good idea for a product to sell online. I got a call from them when they were still working on it, asking if I wanted to be an affiliate. But of course, I loved the idea! They even sent me a piece of it to read, and I was even more excited to help them promote it. A few weeks later this person decides not to finish the product at this time, but apologized to the affiliates and thanked them for the feedback.  I was a little upset….not really at him, but just because I was really looking forward to seeing the finished product.

I’m sure  they had good reasons for not finishing, even though they had some really nice ground work laid out. I guess I have a hard time grasping the problem, since I usually lose interest AFTER the release. I’m more of the type that likes to actually finish the project, but forget the follow up.

The other person’s story is a little different. Instead of a project with an ending, it was very little set up that is ongoing. Actually it’s a blog game of sorts that happens weekly. Really it’s an excellent idea, but I don’t believe she keeps up with it as well as she should. I rarely participate, since I’m a morning blogger and like to get things out of the way as quickly as possible. If you don’t catch me first thing, I probably won’t get to it until tomorrow. Which I could still play this if not for the fact it’s day specific. By the time I get the notice it’s usually too late.

So anyway, the lesson here is if you are going to do something, do it all the way. Set it up for the day before if you aren’t at the computer first thing in the morning. If you have a project you are going to do, finish it! Especially if you’ve put time and energy into something - you want to follow through or all that time is wasted.

Now you’ll have to excuse me while I go look for things I’ve got unfinished.  :oops:

You Belong in Generation X

You fit in best with people born between 1961 and 1981. You are fun, laid back, and very independent. You are willing to take risks and live your life however you see fit. You are casual, accepting, and friendly. You see everyone as your equal.

What Generation Do You Belong In?

My Comments: Considering those weren’t the easiest questions I’ve ever answered … I think it did pretty darn well! ROFL! Born in ‘77 fit right in there and everything else seemed dead on. Well, except for the Independence thing … although, it’s something I’ve been working on so I must be doing something right! How about you … what generation do you belong in?

I have a problem. For some reason, I have an inability to keep my mouth shut at times. It’s not that everything I say is “bad” or “inappropriate”. Nah, I’m just a rambler. I talk ALL THE TIME, sometimes about nothing at all. I’m also addicted to caffeine (cappuccino and Dr Pepper). I’m almost always “wired”, so this doesn’t help any. Even as a child people use to whisper “does that girl EVER shut up?”.

Fortunately there is a perfect career for me -  blogging. Who knew I’d grow up and be able to cash in on my ability to ramble? Currently there are three different blogs I can ramble on whenever I want that makes a little cash on the side. Each have different topics for me to ramble on so it keeps my friends and family happy to not here me babbling every minute of the day.

Idea Queen’s blog is mostly designed for my every day mom life babbling. You know, things about the house, kids, recipes, gardening, and that sort of thing. Here I’ve talked about issues with my oldest, cool things I did for supper or my bread machine, and household tips I’ve found helpful. I share crafts and activities with the kids here too. Adsense is the main source of income here, although sometimes I’ll pass along a cool site with an affiliate link (I’m addicted to fabric sales, and apparently so are my readers).

Candle Talk is the blog I feel comfortable “spamming” on. Alright so It’s not all advertisements, but mostly where I share what candle I’m burning for the day. Yes it’s a marketing tool, but it gives me a chance to babble about specific scents and things related to our candles. It’s my business to talk about candles, I can say a lot some days. Obviously I make money blogging here because many readers go on to buy candles from us.

2wahms, well I think you know what this blog is about if you are here right now. Mostly business and wahm related stuff. Where I can vent about stuff my family would just completely tune out if I started rambling on because they have NO idea what SEO means (nor do they care). Ya’ll here “get” that random business stuff. It’s main purpose has been an SEO tool for other sites of ours, since we get loads of backward links from here (the more we blog, the more we rack up links, and the better our sites rank).

Now on occasion there comes a topic I want to ramble about that just doesn’t seem to fit any of the other topics. Sure Idea Queen often becomes the “dumping ground” for all things I want to talk about since it’s got that “general parenting” theme (hey I’m a mom, anything I say is by default mom related!). Although sometimes there’s stuff I know an average mom just wouldn’t care about. I know not ever topic I hit on is going to interest every mom, but there’s still some stuff that’s just bit TOO far out there (some of the games I play for example are more targeted to younger, single crowds….it just happens to be MY hobby too). That’s where Associated Content comes in.

Granted I really don’t think general rambling works and I really see it as more of a place for more “formal” articles, but a little personality in them doesn’t hurt. Regardless it’s a nice place to write about topics I want to talk more about and can’t post anywhere else. No one ever said I wasn’t good at organizing my random thoughts and putting them in article form!

So for those of you who can talk for hours about nothing at all, you can actually MAKE MONEY doing just that. All it takes is a little blogging knowledge and an account at AC. It seems the more I ramble the more money I make. Funny how that works, huh?  :grin:

Oh boy has this one hit home BIG TIME in the past couple of weeks.  There is a huge spammer around right now who’s not only spamming a bunch of work at home moms … but also harvesting email addresses.

Between myself, Kara, Val and Lauren I’m guessing that we’ve now received probably over 50 of this women’s newsletters.  And guess what?  We’ve received this many copies within about 2 or 3 issues! 

She’s sent to every one of our legitimate email addresses as well as some fake.  See, I myself have something set up as a “catch all” email account.  So, if someone sends something to anything that ends in @mommyshelperonline.com, I still receive it.  For me, she made up addresses such as contact@, sales@, etc. etc. 

She must be using some form of harvesting software because for Kara and I, she also used an email address that is used to only accept payments.  This email address is not published anywhere besides in HTML code for our shopping cart on one site.

Normally, when I’m adding things to my “unprofessional business acts” series I don’t use names or website addresses unless I have permission.  However, in this case … We’re all so tired of receiving these emails that this time I am going to.  Another reason I’m going to is because this particular women is well aware that this is not allowed.  I know this because I have told her and so has all three of the others mentioned above.

I know for a fact that she certainly read my warning because she did indeed remove some of my email addresses.  I’d also like to share with each of our readers exactly what can happen if you’re caught for spamming and/or email harvesting:

The following is an overview of the CAN SPAM Act from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission):

- > You cannot use false or misleading header information. This must be accurate and identify you or who you are affiliated with.

- > You cannot use deceptive subject lines. You cannot use one subject line to encourage someone to open the email and have the contents of the email say something different.

- > You must offer an opt-out method. This is so that the receiver can choose to not receive any other mail from you. This law is often misconcepted at being for mailing lists only. By law, this is not so. This includes any commerical emailing at all. (This includes business opportunities.)

- > The email must be identified as an advertisement and you must include a valid physical postal address. You must let it be known that you are sending a solicitation email which is an advertisement. You also must include your postal address along with opt-out instructions.

Be sure to read and inform yourself of the full Can Spam Act. Ignorance is NOT an excuse! Did you know that each violation is subject to fines of $11,000.00?

As I said, this particular spammer has been well-warned and has decided to NOT take the proper action. It’s bad enough that she’s harvesting emails. It’s bad enough that we’re recieving issues of a newsletter that we did NOT opt to receive. But we’re not just recieving one per issue - we’re receiving several per issue. It’s gotten entirely out of hand!

The more I investigate this all … the more people I find she’s doing this too. There is one particular yahoo group that is immense in size. She’s apparently chose to take the addresses from these people also. It’s also obvious that she’s targeting work at home moms. I guess I could say this is about the only thing she’s doing right. With her list of websites … she’s targeting the right group, lol!

For those of you that also have fallen victim to Samantha Kobs of KobsMedia, WahmWahm.com, DirectSalesMommy.com and SalesMommy.com to name a few … you can take the following actions to report her:

Simply forward the newsletter that you did not subscribe for to her mailing list provider here:
abuse@streamsend.com (Use this email address ONLY for emails received from Samantha Kobs!)

You can also forward this newsletter to the FTC here:
spam@uce.gov

Now keep in mind … if you’ve fallen victim to any spammer, you can forward the email to the above address to the FTC. This email account creates a database to store the information so they can pursue law enforcement actions against spammers.

And if you haven’t figured it out from what I’ve said above … NEVER, EVER, EVER SPAM! It’s just not worth it.

I think I might have posted this a while back ago but didn’t take the time to check for sure.  lol!  If I did well then this post will just reiterate what I’ve already said.

At one time, Affiliate Fuel was my favorite.  Now don’t get me wrong … I still enjoy Affiliate Fuel very much.  It’s still high up on my list of favorites.  You can read my Affiliate Fuel Reviews here.  I still recommend Affiliate Fuel.

That said though … my new favorite is by far Share A Sale.  Hey, when you can count on a check for sure month after month … yeah, it tends to jump high on the list, lol! 

I have to be quite upfront here when I say I don’t do very much “work” for Share A Sale.  As a matter of fact, when my husband gets the check out of the mail box, he brings it in and says.  Hey, you got another check from that place you don’t work for.

Okay, so that’s almost funny … the last thing I need him to think is that I make money by not doing any work. If any of you have fought the “I’m not just playing online” battle like me … you so know where I’m coming from.

So, I do still recommend Affiliate Fuel, but Share a Sale is definitely my favorite right now. Hey, join them both, lol! They’re both still very good providers.

OH! And I almost forgot … one of my favorite aspects of Share A Sale is their referral program. You receive $1 per person who signs up through your affiliate link. It’s nice to see those dollars add up in my account.

Here’s a few other aspects that I’ve noticed over the years:

The fact that I receive decent commissions from the products that I recommend tells me that they have quality merchants in their program and that they have landing pages that convert well.

The fact that I receive a pretty good amount of affiliate sign ups tells me that they have an attractive program that also converts well for the referrals I send.

The fact that I can schedule paying bills by when I know there will be a check sitting in my mail box tells me that they’re very timely with thier affiliate commissions.

I could go on and on about Share A Sale but you get a pretty good idea about how I feel. Check out Share A Sale for yourself. And don’t forget - if you’re looking for a few quality Affiliate Program Providers, I highly recommend Affiliate Fuel as well.

©Lisa Barker

I haven’t had a bad hair day in a long time, but one hit me this week
five minutes before I was to walk out the door for Mass.

My husband poked his head in our room.  “Aren’t you going to
church?”

“No!  I feel like a HORSE!”  Fwing!  There went another skirt
flying across the room.

He’s a good man.  He may have doubled over laughing when I finally
left the house, but until then he kept a most seriously straight face.

“How could I be sick with the flu all week and lose ten pounds and
nothing fits?”  (Fwing!  There went a pair of pants that would not
button.)  “But last week they all did!  Tell me that, huh?  How come they
fit when I’m fat but not when I lose ten pounds?”

“That’s the way it goes,” my husband tried to console me.

“Well, I am NOT going.”  By then I was stalking around the room in
nothing but my underwear and shoes.  “I want to go.  I want to be
there.  I just don’t want to take my body with me.  I don’t even want
to take my head.  Look at these stupid bangs.  You better get used to
me not having any because I’m cutting them off!”

By then I had on a skirt that still reached the floor even with it
pulled up to my bra.  “Everything is either too big or too small!” 

“What do you want me to say?!”  My husband asked, like a panicked
man before the firing squad.  “If I say ‘stay home,’ you want to
go.  If I say ‘go,’ you….”

“I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!” 

All my clothes were screaming:  Look at me!  My face is bloated, my
boobs sag, I have two tummies—one on top of the other—and no matter
which way I look at myself in the mirror I see no womanly curves just
some kind of blobby form that looks like a scoop of mashed potatoes
plopped on a dish.  Splat!

Worse, now I had to wrestle with the idea that I was going to miss Mass
out of sheer vanity.

I dug a black sweater out of a laundry basket and put it on.  Already
my mood started to soften.  There’s something soothing about black.
  You can dress it up or down and no matter what it never screams at you.
  It barely whispers.  But I can hear it.  It says, “You look
good.”

I found a skirt to match and gave my husband a kiss on the top of his
head before I happily stepped out of the house.

“You look very nice,” he called after me.

“I know!”

—————————————————————————–
LISA BARKER of Greenfield is a syndicated humor columnist and mom of
five. Her latest book is “Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane …
Doesn’t Mean You Are A Bad Parent!” See www.JellyMom.com for more
information.

Last week I posted about finally discovering Associated Content and my general thoughts on the idea behind it. After putting up a few articles this week, I thought I would share my results.

First off I realized I had to really bulk up most of my articles because they didn’t meet the 400 word minimum. Oops. I’ve been very use to writing quick articles for those who don’t have a lot of time to sit and read extremely long pieces (we’ve got compliments on how quick some of our articles are to read, and how they like the fact it gets straight to the point).

My original plan was to just add my articles and see what  happens, but this hasn’t been the case. No worries, I really didn’t have any other project that I wanted to work on this past week and it’s been a little crazy around here. So re-writing articles wasn’t that big of deal. I will note the time it took me to do this though later on to see if it’s really worth the time or not.

In all I added 25 articles to the site. Here’s the break down of all those articles:

- 2 are exclusive content and still pending, I just wrote them this morning.

-  3 were exclusive and currently published (took just a few days, even though they say up to 2 weeks).

- 2 were wrote for their “call for content” but are still non-exclusive (meaning I can still use them elsewhere if I want to, even though I wrote them specifically for that site)

- The other 18 were articles I already had sitting that just needed work. The first 3 had to be manually reviewed, but the rest I published instantly. They were of course submitted for PPV payment only and listed as non-exclusive. I’ve used them in other places and can use them again.

So far I’ve been paid $9.47 for the exclusive articles in up front payment. Which I know, it’s pretty low for 3 articles, but I guess I don’t see it as a big deal because they were articles I probably would have NEVER used anywhere else (and trust me, no one else would have bought them either). They were focused on online games and didn’t fit with my sites. So I see those three articles as something I probably would have babbled to someone about at some point that I got paid for. Keep in mind that’s just the UPFRONT payment I got - who knows what they will get in page views.

As for the rest of the articles and the PPV income, well that’s a pretty small figure. Today the page view totals were updated, and I’ve got an estimated page view total of 86 or $0.13. HA! Well for less than a week (actually 4 days, since I had nothing live until Friday), I can’t say that’s too terrible. Plus the idea of the PPV side is more of a “bonus” instead of a main stream of income no matter which way you look at it. AND this was somewhat instant, since I’ve been signed up for less than a week. It took a whole lot of time and effort to get that many page views racked up on my sites.

The funny part is I really haven’t done any promotion. I just sorta threw those articles up to see what would happen, and already have gotten a few page views and a few buck from it. It was kinda nice to have some flat rate pay for a quick article for a change too, instead of “hoping” that maybe it would drive traffic which would produce income. Plus who knows, as my clout goes up the amount per article might too which is fun to think about.

If you are on the fence about spending time on this site, I would say go ahead and give it a shot. Especially if you have a few articles you’ve already submitted to directories - might as well make a few extra bucks off them