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Home Business Blog: 12 Ideas for Better Blog Posts

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One of the promotional tools you can use for your home business is a blog. I really like these 12 Tips for Writing Better Blog Posts over at KoMarketing. Here are 12 ways you can improve the quality of your blog posts — potentially pulling in more traffic for your home home business:

1. Write with clarity.
2. Identify the objective as quickly as possible.
3. Make your blog post titles strong.
4. Images can help bring interest to your post.
5. Organize your writing (subheads, bullets, etc.).
6. Focus on the subject.
7. Reference sources.
8. Link to related posts.
9. Be concise in a wrap up at the end.
10. Get some feedback before publishing — even if all you do is edit it yourself for spelling and grammar.
11. Consider timing.
12. Evaluate and learn from the results.

Do you have any tips for writing better blog posts?

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Adjusting to New Schedules with the Home Business

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One of the difficulties of working from home is that so often the schedule changes. This is true when school is out for the summer, and your kids are home more. It becomes true when they go back to school. And because my husband is still at university, our schedule changes every semester.

So, sometimes it is a little difficult to get everything done that I would like to. And there are days when maintaining anything that resembles a set schedule is an impossibility. But I suppose that’s what makes working from home so appealing. It’s a little more flexible than working outside the home.

Do you ever have scheduling issues? What are they? And how do you resolve them?

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Is Your Home Business Making These Social Networking Mistakes?

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Yesterday, I mentioned that there are some ways that you can learn to market your home business on Twitter. But what about other social networking? There are plenty of social media sites out there, and you can build a profile and connect. Interestingly, The Wall Street Journal offers some insights on four social networking mistakes that can be made:

1. Basic, bare profile. Make it interesting, and add background information.

2. Little personality. It is important to be yourself, and present yourself as a person. Facts about your home business are dry and boring.

3. Too much hype. While social networking can be a good marketing tool for your home business, you can’t be overly promotional. People get annoyed if all you do is sell, sell, sell without actually engaging.

4. Scarcity in terms of fresh content. Regular updates are important, or your profile will go stale.

I also think that it is important to add that too many social networking profiles can be a problem. Identify the communities to which you want to belong, and focus on three or four profiles that you have time to develop.

Do you have any social networking tips?

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Learn how to Market Your Home Business Using Twitter

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There are many different opportunities — especially with social media — to promote your home business online. And one of those ways is through Twitter.

If you are looking for some help with how to market your home business using Twitter, there is help in the form of a free ebook from Geekpreneur. There are plenty of good, practical tips you can use to help you leverage this social media phenomenon for your home business.

Hat tip: Home Biz Notes.

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Setting Up Your Work from Home “Paycheck”

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One of the things I know as a freelance writer working from home is that a steady and traditional "paycheck" is one of those things that you cannot rely on. Sometimes it can be a hassle getting paid for your work at all! There will always be clients that try to stiff you, or who disappear as soon as you send an invoice.

But there are a couple of things you can do to try and come up with some sort of a work from home "paycheck":

1. Set aside money when you have a really good month. When you work from home, it is important to have a really big emergency fund. Because freelance writer (or any other freelance work) income is anything but steady, you need to plan for the lean times. If you make bank this month, see that you set a good portion aside for next month — just in case.

2. Figure out a regular "paycheck" schedule. This is a great idea from Tamara Berry at Freelance Parent. She suggests that you figure up your annual income (you can use your tax return) and then divide it by 12 to get a "paycheck." You can live off this money each month, and use the rest for your emergency fund.

Do you have any ideas for creating a steady "paycheck" when working from home?

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WAHM Considerations: Time

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I read a very interesting post over at WAHM 2.0 on Sparkplugging. It’s about whether or not you have time to work from home. The insights come from a single mother with a young teen. She points out that the time she has to run a home business is different from many WAHMs:

The moms who marveled at my accomplishments had very different family
situations.  Most were married – and face it – men take time!  Also,
most of them had more than one child – or their children were far
younger than my young teen, requiring more effort and time overall.

I had to laugh at the "men take time!" line. Don’t I know it. If you want to maintain your marriage, you need to devote time to your husband as well as your children. So time becomes a very real consideration when deciding whether the WAHM route is right for you.

Honestly answer these questions as you think about whether or not to begin a home business:

* Right now, before becoming a WAHM, do you have time to do what you need to?

* If you quit an outside job, can your family finances survive while you establish a home business?

* Would having a home business cut into valuable "me" time?

* If you have a husband, would he be supportive of you as a WAHM?

* Are your children to a point where they can take care of themselves to a certain extent? Or do you have the means to hire a little extra help if needed?

Can you think of some other considerations that may affect whether now is the time to become a WAHM?

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