Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
The goal of any business is to make money. To that end, many businesses should be focusing on a multi-billion dollar market: moms. Marketing to moms is the wave of the future…and the wave of now!
Why are moms so important?
Moms are enterprising. According to BSM Media, Inc., the amount of money spent by moms is already over the trillion dollar mark. That’s more than the budget of some third world countries!
Also according to BSM Media, Inc., almost ninety percent of moms consider themselves the financial head of the home. The husband may be the one in many cases that brings home most or all of the money, but moms are usually the ones that make the ‘how-to-spend-the-money’ decisions. Moms shop for everything that is related to the household: clothes for the kids, appliances, electronics, outdoor furniture, accessories and home improvement items.
The majority of husbands who shop for these items will consult their wives before buying them. Why do they do this? It is because the wives tend to do most of the research into the products to find the best one on the market for them. Moms influence as much as eighty-five percent of the purchases for their homes. That’s a huge number of moms! Over seventy million!
Take a moment and think about all of the tasks that moms handle in a day. The tasks can include housework, driving kids to and from school and activities, cooking meals and managing finances. They need to keep all of these things straight…and to that they usually employ a wide variety of technology. It is quite common these days to see a mom sitting at a park, watching her kids playing while browsing/working on an iPad, iPhone, or other such mobile device.
Moms are typically quite savvy on the internet. For many years, the trend has been for moms, and women about to become moms, to come out of the ‘9-5’ workplace and come home to start their own business so they can be home with their children. To that end, moms have developed a network of blogs, websites and forums designed to teach moms everthing from designing websites, starting businesses online, marketing to other moms, all while managing their homes. With all of this additional knowledge, moms’ buying power has increased exponentially.
Marketing Mistake?
Traditionally, the only products marketed towards women were household and cooking products. This goes back to the old thought that a woman’s place was in the home. Many companies are now seeing what a huge detriment that approach has been to them.
Women and moms have made a huge imprint in what was traditionally a man’s world. Women are not limited to office jobs. They are CEOs and CFOs. Women don’t just ‘surf the internet’, they are becoming entrepreneurs with increasing influence over internet marketing. These days, having moms shun your product because you are not marketing to them means that they are spreading the word via the internet and in their own communities.
The Future
Moms are influenced by other moms. Several generations of moms are coming together to influence spending habits of major corporations. In the future, you can expect this trend to continue. As moms become more ‘connected’ in the world, their influence over spending will increase [as their circles of influce do].
Gain the support of savvy moms with your products/services and your business will reap the benefits.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Online, one of the most significant keys to success is getting website traffic. The more visitors you have, the better your sales and profits. Presumably, you have a niche and know your keywords. You should also do keyword research regularly to stay on top of what’s popular. Based on these assumptions…here are five tips to get website traffic.
Tip #1 Make sure you are actually tagging your keywords.
Do you spend a lot of time optimizing your content and then neglect to tag them on your webpage? Tags are where search engines look and if there are no tages they will pass right by your web pages. Here’s a quick brief on tags:
- Title tags. Title tags are quite possibly the most important place to situate your keywords. Here is what they look like: <title>primary keyword phrase</title> Your title tag is where you place your primary keyword or keyword phrase. The sentence will describe your business in less than 90 characters.
- Header tags. Header tags are next in order of importance to search engines. They are ranked in order of importance and look like this: <h1>primary and/or secondary keywords</h1> The ‘1’ means it is the most important header on the page.
- Meta tags. Meta tags provide the small descriptive text found underneath the title tag on the search engine results page. Meta tags, like title tags, should be kept brief, be informative, and be kept up to date.
- Alt tags. Alt tags are used to provide a text description of a graphic. Each graphic on your site should have a description and an alt tag.
Tip #2 Add content to your site daily.
Content is essential for traffic and a top search engine ranking. Content is what search engine spiders and look for and index…without it there is nothing to rank or index. You need to give visitors and search engines a reason to visit and index your site. Make a commitment to provide daily content that is optimized and you will see your traffic increase.
Tip #3 Get valuable and incoming links.
The more websites that link to your web pages the more valuable search engines think your website is…although not all links are created equal. Search engines give more value to links from sites that are popular and credible and from sites that are relevant to your website topic.
Here are some different kinds of links:
- Direct link. This looks like a basic website address. For example www.buybymom.com.
- Text link. A text link is when the webpage is embedded in the text. Readers simply click on the link and they are directed to a different webiste. For example: Buy By Mom.
- Deep link. This is a link that is to an internal webpage instead of the home page of a website. For example: Buy By Mom rates.
You can encourage others to link to your website by:
- Adding content to your site
- Submitting articles to directories
- Publishing press releases
- Blogging and participating in social networking forums and social networking sites
Tip #4 Be social.
Now more than ever before, internet marketing is about building a community. Whether you offer a forum on your website or you participate in social networking sites, social networking is a valuable traffic generating tactic. Sites like Facebook and Twitter can be powerful tools for generating links and traffic to your site. Create a profile, post comments and links to your site that will generate conversation.
Get involved. Many forums are industry specific. You should find those that fit your industry and begin participating. You can connect with a highly targeted audience.
Tip #5 Advertise for more exposure and traffic.
Advertising should be approached strategically. When it is, it can be used to promote your content and products or services. Pay per click (PPC) advertising is a highly used option because you can control the advertising budget on a daily basis. You will also have the tools to test and track your advertising efforts. Once you have honed your PPC advertising skills, the return on investment can be very good in terms of traffic and business.
For the best results, you should create an advertising and SEO strategy. Outline your plan and goals and then take action and follow through. Take advantage of these five tips to help boost your business.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
How you think about money is the single most important factor that determines whether you are wealthy or not. So, if you want more money in your life it is essential that you develop a positive money mindset.
However, many of us are taught to think negatively about money. We are told things like, “money is the root of all evil” and “money doesn’t grow on trees.” It is no wonder that we have such a difficult time thinking positively about money! You may have even been taught that rich people are greedy and as a result are subconsciously avoiding wealth and missing out on the great opportunities having money can provide.
As long as you hold on to negative and incorrect beliefts about money, you will never create the wealth you desire or deserve.
To change your money mindset, you must first recognize that money in and of itself is not good or bad. Money is just a tool. In fact, more often than not, money is used to good rather than bad. Think about all of the wonderful charities that have been able to help people all over the world. Appreciate all the good that money can do and is used for. It is an important part of life and is used to make positive changes in the world. Money should be sought after…not avoided.
Recognize that money is abundant. When you were young, you were probably told by your parents that money doesn’t grow on trees. If you are holding on to that belief now, you’re own mindset could be stopping you from attracting money. Of course money does not literally grow on trees, but there is an abundant amount of it for everyone, including you…even in this challenge economy. However, if you believe that money is scarce, that belief will help keep it far away from you.
Giving money away is another way you can help develop a positive money mindset. Wanting to hang on to every cent you have is a stingy mindset and can reinforce that there is not enough of it. Giving reinforces the concept of abundace. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount…just a little something is ok.
Finally, be happy for those who are successful and have money. Many of us were often told, and are still often told today by the media, that those who have money are greedy. As a result, we are very tempted to thing negatively about them. In fact, the opposite is usually true. Rich people often accumulate their wealth by sharing what they have with others and believing in the idea of abundance.
When someone else has money…don’t resent their success! If you have feelings of jealousy, that will only hold you back from achieving your own wealth and success. You should be happy for them and remember that there is enough wealth for you too and you can work towards making your turn come!
By making these changes in how you think about money, you will be well on your way to developing a positive money mindset. Once you begin thinking about money in a positive way, you will have taken the first step on the path of achieving your own wealth.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Most people live paycheck to paycheck, and spend what they want whenver they want. But if you keep up the pattern long enough, you’ll soon discover that the money runs out before you’ve paid all the bills, and there is never any left over for special purchases or holidays. To get control of your household spending and start saving you will need to set up a household budget.
The thought of having to stick to a budget might make you cringe. It does sound restrictive and boring. However, if you really want to create wealth, you will find that a budget can actually give you freedom. You will have control over your finances, know where your money is going and you will have a plan to reach your financial goals. Not spending on a few things that you can do without right now means you will be able to spend on larger, more important purchases in the future.
Here are some easy household budgeting strategies you can use to get started.
Find out how much you earn.
The way you are paid can determine how you budget your money each month. If you are paid weekly, you can calculate your budget based on four paychecks per month. That means that you will have four extra paychecks throughout the year to help with (extra) expenses. If you are paid bi-weekly you can calculate your budget based on two paychecks per month and have two extra checks throughout the year. If you are paid monthly, calculate your budget based on the monthly amount. You won’t have extra paychecks throughout the year, so you’ll need to be careful in budgeting for the extras. For those who are not paid with regular frequency, figure out your annual income and divide it by 12 to determine your monthly income.
Track Your Expenses.
Your fixed expenses will be easy to figure out. These are the items that stay the same from month to month, such as your mortgage, car payment, etc. Your other expenses can be trickier to calculate. To find out how much you really spend in a month, carry a notebook with you and write down everything you spend for the next 30 days. This will tell you what you are spending and where all of your money is going.
Figure out the Difference.
Now, find the difference between what you spend and what you earn each month. If you have extra, a good portion of that should be saved and invested. If you find that you are spending more than you earn each month you have two choices: either lower the amount that you are spending or find a way to increase your monthly income. Doing both is something you might want to consider.
Lower Your Expenses.
Lowering your expenses is the most obvious way to resolve the problem of spending more than you earn. Simple changes made over time, such as renting a movie instead of going out to the movie theater, can add up to big dollars in your bank account. Other changes might be lifestyle choices, such as giving up one car and using public transportation.
Taking control of your personal finances by setting up a household budget is an important first step in creating wealth. As you begin to make wise decisions about where your money is going, over time you will find opportunities to spend less and save and invest more.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Organization can be a great challenge for some work at home moms (WAHMs). For others, it comes naturally. Still others wish they could be more organized but don’t know where to begin. Regardless, getting organized can really help you run an effective business from home. Here are some tips.
The Calendar.
Your calendar can be a simple notebook, an online calendar, or a business day planner from an office supply store. Some WAHMs like a big desk calendar; others prefer an hourly rather than a daily or weekly approach. Choose what works for you – if you have trouble organizing yourself, a more hourly approach may help in the beginning. If you are naturally task oriented and ordered, a weekly calendar might work better for you.
The calendar is where you divvy up your time. It’s where you prioritize the urgent tasks and separate them from the less urgent ones. Your calendar is also where you note the time it takes for repeated tasks – making meals, running errands, doing laundry, bedtime routine with the kids, etc. It can really help to go ahead and write those things in just so you can realistically see how many hours you have to devote to work.
Quick Meals.
Meal preparation can take some time, especially if you are concerned about your family eating fresh, whole foods made from scratch. However, you can cut corners on time and not necessarily on health. Here are some ideas for taking a load off of meal prep:
- Have someone in the family go to the store for you. Keep your list specific and easy to read.
- Divide up meal preparation among family members (this depends on the age and number of people in your family, of course, and does not apply to everyone). Let everyone in the family choose a day when he or she makes dinner, or helps make dinner.
- Delegate clean-up to other family members as well.
- Food does not have to be elaborate to be healthy. Pasta tossed with steamed veggies is quick and healthy, and lean meats like turkey can be popped in the oven and baked while you work. Save the gourmet experiments for the weekends.
Be Realistic.
One of the quickest ways to lose your sense of order and become disorganized is to take on too much. If you are a ‘yes’ person, you may ultimately disappoint your
clients because you promised more than you can deliver. So be realistic about the hours you can devote to working each week, and learn to say ‘no’ when you have to.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Work at home moms like to share tips and tricks for helping each other succeed. There is no perfect formula or guarantee of a huge income while you do nothing (and anything that promises that is likely a scam), but those who have succeeded or know others who have succeeded have some good ideas. In fact, it is this networking and sharing that is success tip number one.
Social Networking.
Join groups with similar interests. There are entire online communities dedicated to supporting the work at home mom (WAHM). Some of the online communities are free to join, some provide space for you to advertise for a small fee and some sites require a fee to join. As noted above, moms who work at home usually enjoy sharing success tips, and having a support community can really help when you have questions. You can also share your own tips and successful ‘moments’.
Another word on social networking – sites like Facebook are becoming increasingly popular among small home businesses.
The Latest Technology.
Don’t be afraid of things like Twitter and online advertising. Success is more likely to come your way if you are connected and available. You might consider a mobile device so you can update people as to the latest information on your business, and so you can respond to clients and prospective clients right away.
Love What You Do.
It’s hard to be successful doing something you dislike. You are likely to lose motivation if you don’t like the product you’re selling, the information you are writing about and so forth. Your passions and interests may not be conducive to a work at home business, but if you are really honest with yourself you can probably find something that interests you that would make a fulfilling business venture.
Be Decisive.
One of the pitfalls that can happen with WAHMs is distraction. Another pitfall is uncertainty. If you aren’t sure that you want to do this particular business or even whether or not you want to work from home, then decide before venturing into business. You can research and ask before deciding, but it can be a mistake to do things halfway (such as starting a website but having no idea how to promote it or update it).
Keep it Personal.
One of the things that business customers sometimes complain about is that they can’t seem to talk to a ‘live human’ in customer service. If you are courteous and take the time to answer people’s concerns, it ups your chances for success.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
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