Its almost Mothers day and I can’t believe that we just celebrated one not too long ago last year. In my last mothers day post, I wrote about 6 things I have learned in my motherhood Journey. This Mothers day I want to write about the Mom who is struggling financially, to the mom who daily struggles to make ends meet, I see you, this one is for you.
It is for the mom who is struggling financially trying to balance both keeping the home and making a living. You may work outside your home or perhaps you work within your home, It’s to you I dedicate this post too. I am writing here to say I see you and I got your back. Here are 4 things that I feel will help you get your perspective in other to win in your race to become a great mom and to also build a legacy.
Pray:
If you are in that place where you feel harassed, disorganized and you feel like things are spiraling out of control especially with your finances. The first thing you need to do is to pray, this is because when you pray you are connecting to someone who is bigger than you which is our Lord Jesus, you are connecting to him because he knows answers which you do not know.
Going to him in prayer about what you are going through is a good way to begin to source for the solutions to what you are going through. It doesn’t matter that it may not have been what you planned for or that you made a mistake, what matters is that you are reaching out to him in prayers and seeking out answers to questions that are bordering you. To know how to deal with difficult times, read my post on 3 things to do in difficult times.
Plan:
If you have prayed well on your issues, you will get answers from the Lord, sometimes the answers may drop as a thought into your mind, and from that thought, ideas begin to form. Begin to plan with those ideas and thoughts that are coming into your mind.
Some of those thoughts may have to do with cutting down on expenses that are needless and are sucking finances or perhaps renegotiating a loan that you took that is choking your finances that won’t let you plan ahead. It can even be a new way of making money that will increase your financial sources and hence enable you to get out of debt. Whatever that thought is, write it down and begin to plan how you will implement it.
Take action:
All the plans in the whole world without any action to back it up will be useless, begin immediately to take action. Plug that financial hole that is draining your finances, say no to that new shiny loan that will purportedly help you to get out of debt and plug you into a deeper one.
Cut down on what you do need and do away with what you do not need by selling off those excess properties and plugging the cash into your debt to reduce it.
Ensure that you are doing all in your power to stop the excesses that led to your indebtedness. Begin to implement new ways of increasing your income, it could be via a second job or perhaps a home business or even simply adding money-making options to what you are already doing. You will notice that as you take these actions, it will take you out of the rut of helplessness to a place of hope.
Be thankful for the progress you have made:
The little differences that your actions make in your finances, no matter how little it is, celebrate them and repeat them again. It is a baby step, yes but you will keep walking until you walk out of debt. Be thankful for where you are in life and believe God that he is leading you out of financial struggles into financial abundance. Do not fret about the things that may not be working now but work consistently to improve on it until you get better at it.
This post is not a typical mothers day post but I feel led in my Spirit that there is someone who needs what I have written today if that person is you, then Happy am I that I have touched your life today and if you want to be continuously encouraged, join me on Elizabeth Uchealors show and get more of your encouragement dose to help you win.
In today’s post, I will be talking about how you can brand your home business and why you should build a brand as opposed to just starting a business.
The business world is fast evolving and people are searching for the meaning behind a business, the social media era has put so many businesses on the front burner and empowered the consumer to make deliberate choices about why they should buy from a business.
As a home business owner even though you are starting out small, you should be thinking in the long term, what do I want to be known for? You cannot afford to be a jack of all trades but you can afford to be the best of what you are doing right now, that’s why the topic of building a brand as opposed to just starting a home business is something you should carefully consider as you start your business.
A home business is usually overlooked when it comes to branding because people erroneously believe that branding is expensive and it’s for big companies alone. In this post, I am going to show you 3 ways you can cheaply build a brand around your business without spending much.
I will also reveal some resourceful places you can get materials to build a brand of your home business. I had like you to know that brands are mostly visually based and in the online world, visuals play a large role in people actually purchasing from you. If you have a great product but have not taken time to package it properly you may be making less than you should be from your business
Reasons why you should Brand your home business
Branding increases the value of your product: Its easy for people to go and just pick up a product from the market and tell you how much it costs especially if it’s a common product that the price is common knowledge, but for a branded product its hard to tell how much the price should be because people are buying what that product represents for them and not necessarily how much it costs in the market. A brand is a promise that people buy because they believe in it.
For example, you can buy a wristwatch from the shop for a price of $100 d and just wear it without feeling a thing. But the same wristwatch when branded with a known name like Micheal Kors suddenly takes on a new meaning for you. In fact, you are willing to pay more for that same product even if it was made by the same manufacturer, that is the power of branding you. A branded product is perceived to have more value than a product that is not a brand.
Branding tells your story: People buy from brands for a reason, your why is what will draw people to your products or repel them from your products. Your brand is the vehicle to tell that story well. When you use your brand to tell people what you want to achieve, you stake your claim on mind territories and get a share of what people believe in, they begin to expect that which you have mentioned from you and hence become more loyal to you as you fulfill your brand promise.
Branding differentiates you: Raise your hand if you want to look like anybody else, I mean you don’t want someone to look at 3 different products and be able to pick out your product out, that’s the value of branding, you define how you want to look like. Through the characteristics of your product, your customers are able to recognize your product from a mile away. This is the value that is inherent when you brand your home business and people are often willing to pay for that unique difference that is from you.
Having dealt with the reasons why you should brand your home business, now let’s get to 3 ways you can do it.
3 ways to Brand your Home Business
Get a Logo: A logo is that unique icon that is personal and uniquely yours just like you have a domain name, you cannot afford to have a home business without having a Logo that depicts your business, remember the part about differentiating yourself? getting a professional logo is part of it. Your Logo is like your unique identity telling people who you are. Remember how you can tell that a McDonald’s store is in a place just by seeing their logo, that’s how people should be able to tell your products from your Logo.
To make a Logo design these days is cheap, you can do one yourself using Canva or you can pay and use online platforms like Taylor brands, 99designs or even hire a professional to do your designs, whatever route you choose to follow either way you are taking the first step to differentiate yourself.
Crafts a Mission statement: What is your reason for starting your business and what do you want to be known for, this is the difficult aspect of doing business or starting a home business. Some people just want to start a business, they do not want to think through on these two aspects, your purpose and your reason. These two reasons will help you to differentiate your business from the crowd, people buy into why you are doing your business not necessarily because you offer a product or service, they want to know if your business affects lives positively or just for your own pecuniary needs. It’s from this why and purpose that you can craft out your mission statement.
Packaging is important: Packaging is how you present your business to the consumers if you are selling a tangible product, its how that product is presented that matters, inappropriate packaging with labeling defaults or misspelled names shows someone who is untidy and lacks attention to details.
If you are online people will be impressed with the visual aspect of your product before they can buy, remember that they cannot touch your product physically so your chance of convincing them to buy from you lies in how well you present your product. Ranging from the pictures of your products to videos of product demonstration, it should beautiful, neat and appealing.
Also adding small accessories like tags, packaging boxes and labels for a small amount that can make all the difference in your product value.
Suppose you want to get tangible materials that are associated with your products at a very small price, you can head on to Aliexpress and get suppliers who will make custom products for you.
If your product is intangible, ease of access and clarity in communicating your values and services is key to branding your home business.
Finally, I cant keep it in any longer, we are launching a Brand new product into the coffee and Tea market called coffeesantea yeah that’s the reason it looks like I have been on holiday from this page, but I want you to be part of it. So please go here and read about our pre-launch activities. Participate and be part of what we are doing.
It promises to be fun and there are lots of prizes to be won, don’t be told, be there.
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How to make money from an empty space in your home.
Do you have a spare space in your home? you can make money from it, or perhaps you have a garage that is full of Junk that you no longer use, you may just be allowing a gold mine to waste if you are not using that empty space and you are not making good money from it
Today I will teach you 7 ways you can make money from an empty space in your home, you will find out that you can actually add more income to your finances just by using what you already have available or perhaps taking time to declutter your space and renting out that extra space to make you an income that will make your life better.
Are you ready to make money from your home? let’s go
–Rent your Spare bedroom on Airbnb:
Airbnb is an online platform that allows people to rent out their spare rooms which will normally be furnished to travelers and tourists who don’t want to go to the traditional Hotels. Airbnb revolutionized the way people secure accommodations when they are on holidays. I love Airbnb because you get the feel of staying at home while you are on your holiday, I do get tired of staying in hotels because most times what you can eat is restricted to what they have on the menu.
With an accommodation service like Airbnb, you can make your own meals and still feel relaxed in a homely atmosphere. According to a write up on CNBC, the nightly rental incomes for 1-2 bed apartments on Airbnb ranges from 95 dollars to 254 dollars, if you live in any of the 15 cities like Houston, California, Austin Texas, Dallas, San Antonio Texas, Chicago, New York city, SanDiego California, Pennsylvania etc.
-Rent your Garage:
Do you have a garage that is full of junk that is no more useful to you but you are paying for it because of its part of your home. You can go to online platforms like STOWIT and list it for rent. This online platform helps connect people who want to store their stuff to people who have available spaces for storage. The storage area is not restricted to garage alone but also your loft, den or perhaps an outdoor space. You can make up to 15,000 Dollars a year renting out this space which usually will have yielded nothing. The good part Is that you get to keep 96% of your listing price.
–Start a B& B Service:
If listing your spare room on Airbnb is not your thing, then you can start a traditional bed and breakfast service for people who are traveling who perhaps need to spend the night in town. The only difference is that you have to pull in your customers yourself as against listing in a known service site like Airbnb.
-Start a Popup Restaurant:
If you have a large kitchen area with dining and you love to cook, you can start a pop-up restaurant in your home, you get people to book your meals and they arrive during the scheduled time to eat your homemade meals. This will probably work well if you live in an area where people value good homemade meals and they don’t want to break a bank for it.
-Rent your Parking Space:
If you are someone who has an extra parking space that is never in use during the day, you can make money from it by renting it out to people who are in need of it. This option will be valuable if you leave near a busy area where parking is scarce and quite expensive. People will be willing to pay you to park their cars since you will offer a cheaper alternative to paid parking lots. Parqex is a good example of an online platform that connects users with renters.
-Make money from your Garden:
Are you someone who loves to have beautiful gardens? you can rent it for one-off events like weddings, engagements, children’s parties, especially during the season when people prefer to be outdoors than indoor, you will be able to make money using this option if you do not mind having parties in your garden or cleaning up after they are done.
-Turn your Loft / Attic into a private workspace:
Some people love to leave their own house to go and work in places where there are fewer distractions, you can turn your loft, attic or den into a private workspace that you can lease out to people who need it, more like we work model but this is definitely from your home.
Before you get into any of these ideas please ensure you research the legal requirements and make sure your insurance allows you to take any of these options as an income earner for you.
This post is about that momma who may not want to start a full-fledged business but wants to make money from home. In this post, I want to describe7 activities that you can do at home to make money from home without necessarily running it as a full-time business. It does not mean it’s not hard work but it’s like a side hustle that brings you that extra income while you stay home to take care of your kids.
Most of this ideas are not full-time businesses, this is not the place where I ask you to start a Blog, because I know that Blogging is a full-time job if you want to make a success of it. These are called side hustles for a reason, they should not detract from you doing what you normally do.
So here we go
Freelance writing:
If you are what people call a wordsmith, then its time to use your skills to make money from it. When you go to places like Upwork and freelancer.com you will find that people are posting their Gigs, that is advertising their projects for someone to help them with.
Registering on such sites will give you the opportunity to sell your skills for potential income. If you are really good at copywriting you can have the opportunity to charge people who need copies written for their products which they want to sell. Another way you can make money is by registering with sites like Digital Nomads and watching out for companies that are looking to hire writers for their blogs or websites. The good thing about freelance writing is that you get to choose your own timing and how much work you want to do.
Delivery:
This a cool way of making money without having to carry people in your car.The good thing about this idea is that you can just load up your kids into the car, have a wonderful ride while making money at the same time, how cool is that.
Companies like Doordash have restaurants signed up with them who then have freelance workers like you sign up with them to help them do deliveries. The good thing is that you get to choose your working time. Another company that partners with people to help do their delivery is postmates, they do all kinds of delivery for their customers.
Personal Shopper
Are you a person who loves shopping, there is something for you to do, you can sign up with companies like thumbtack a platform that connects personal shoppers with those who need their services in that area. Personal shopping often is interwoven with personal styling, so you can find yourself thinking of taking it to a full-time business as you help more people do their shopping and styling.
Web search evaluator:
A web search evaluator analyzes search results for quality and relevance. It’s a job that algorithms do but the only issue is that it lacks the human angle to it. People are often hired by companies like Appen to help do these tasks.. You can also get to rate videos and ads quality while at it. The only downside to this job is that it is repetitive and boring and sometimes your project may end without you getting another.
Online surveys:
Online surveys are the king of side hustles if you are willing to sign up to as many as possible and be patient enough to take the surveys to make you money. It’s a major way some people make money from home, it may come in different ways, some require that you take their surveys as they are sent your way. Some pay you cash while for some you get points which you can trade for your own needs. Example of such survey companies is Swagbucks, pinecone researchopinion post, survey junkie.
Transcription:
You can join companies that are looking for transcribers for their business. A Transcriptionist help transcribe audio recordings into written formats. You can also join platform like Upwork where you advertise yourself as a transcriber and get to bid on transcription jobs posted on their platform. The good thing about doing transcribing as a side hustle is that it requires little skills, all you need is your ability to listen intently and write down what you hear. An example of companies that hire transcribers is Rev
Doshapp is a new app that is still in its beta testing phase but you get paid to do your shopping in participating companies.what is more, you get to make money from other people when they use your referral link to sign up. This means that you can use your Facebook page to invite people to sign up for the service and you get paid for their referral. Dosh app pays you some money when you shop and travel using hotels that are part of their network.
In conclusion, while you may not be able to combine all these activities at once, you can stager the activities by starting out this way
First, combine this set to start off in making money from home, this is because they require minimal effort and do not require much to start off.
They include Using the Dosh app, registering for online surveys, web search evaluator and delivery. As you become more comfortable, you can then add freelance writing, personal shopping, and transcription.
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What is affiliate marketing? it’s a word that may be new to a beginner Blogger, one who just started blogging or is about to start but to veterans, it’s not a new word, In fact, its a word that means earning income for Bloggers.
Affiliate marketing is promoting other peoples products for a commission payment. Affiliate marketing can be a huge source of income for your blog if you have gained a following and people trust your advice or the services you offer. Just like you are likely to trust your medical doctor if he were to prescribe medication for you.
Bloggers use affiliate marketing for making income from their blogs because most times when you are writing a post where you are providing useful information you are likely to point people to products and sites that will help them to achieve their desired results.
By linking to that site via your post, you help your reader to achieve their goals of reading your Blog and you also make income from that referral, I will count affiliate marketing as a referral based business.
After you have learned what affiliate marketing is, the next thing will be how does it work.
In this post, I will be detailing to you, how it works, what affiliate options are open to you and how to choose the right ones.
How to choose the right Affiliate program
When you want to start affiliate marketing the first thing you need to do is to decide to choose the right affiliate link. This is because if you are careful to choose the right affiliate program, you increase your chances of spending your time promoting products that will pay you better and increase your income earning potentials.The right affiliate link has the following attributes
It fits in with your audience type:
You use affiliate marketing links that tie into the overarching message or niche which your blog is all about or what your post is about. It will make no sense for you to choose an affiliate link whose products do not tie into your niche, this is because most affiliate links are tied to your original post while writing, so if you choose the wrong affiliate link which does not fit into your niche, you may find it difficult to slide it into your post.
For instance today I am writing about affiliate marketing, the easiest thing for me to do is to recommend affiliate products that you can sign up for that pays well. One of such affiliate program is Viglink, Viglink is an affiliate marketing program that is a marketplace for a great number of products covering a lot of niches. Signing up with Viglink will give you access to a whole lot of other products.
The good thing about using Viglink for affiliate marketing program is that once their code is inserted in your blog, they do the affiliate linking themselves. They are able to affiliate any word that ties into a link on their platform thereby saving you the stress of inputting their affiliate URL in your posts. To sign up for Viglink you can click on any of the banners shown below.
Note for instance how I used the affiliate link in the above post, I explained briefly how this affiliate link benefits you and pointed you to where you can sign up for it. This example above fits in with my overall post idea today.
Another example, For instance, my Blog that talks about starting home businesses so it will not be out of place for me to encourage you to use a Shopify store to start your online selling business, it ties into my overall niche. But if I started selling to you a product that has to do with baby teething perhaps I saw a baby teething product which has a good commission and I decided to fit into my post write up today, I will struggle to find a place to fit it into because my post today is not about selling baby items.
Choose Affiliate links with a good commission percentage:
I always love affiliate products that give you up to 40% mark up, of course, it all depends on the final price of the product, for instance, I once made a sale via one of my affiliate links, that link paid me about 45 dollars. It had a 50% commission on it. It was a service based product. I have noticed that the service based product affiliate often pays more. For instance, when you are promoting a course, the course owner is often willing to pay you 30- 50 % of each sale that you make. I believe that intangible based products pay more commission s than tangible products. That’s why people who promote courses and software often make more money from affiliate marketing than those who promote physical goods.
For example, a digital seller of ebooks or courses may pay you 50% commission while an Amazon will pay you 5% or even 2% of the sales. This is where you need to make a decision, do I promote the products that pay me more? of course, you can as long as it fits into your niche. To know which affiliate networks will accept you as a Newbie blogger, click here
Choose affiliates programs with a wide range of Products:
There are affiliates that gather a lot of products under them in that once you are signed up with them you have access to a wide range of products and services. Signing up with one of such affiliates saves you the headache of signing up or applying to each of the products one by one. These types of affiliate programs are called affiliate marketplace, this is because they have a lot of products within all kinds of niches signed up for them. Having access to that affiliate marketplace means you can easily;y apply to the ones you like and have them approve you. Examples of such affiliate programs include Viglink, Awin, and Shareasale
Choose affiliate Links that offer extended cookie period:
This is the time it takes for a customer to come back and make a final purchase. Sometimes a person might click through from your blog to a link but may not be ready to make a purchase immediately. Perhaps that person will come back say in two weeks time to make a purchase. If the cookie length is one week, even though that customer made a purchase finally, it may not be accredited to you so you won’t get paid. But if that cookie length was about 30 days, anytime that person comes back to make a purchase without necessarily going through your blog again, you will still get credit for that purchase.
Choose affiliate links that offer both CPC and CPA:
Most links on affiliate marketing are based on either CPC( Cost per click) or CPA( Cost per action). Cost per click means that as long as someone clicks on your link to the website even if they don’t make a purchase you get paid. Cost per action means that the person who clicked through has to do something, sometimes its a purchase or perhaps fill out a form. Whatever they get to do which was the desired intent of the advertiser, you get paid for such actions. Some advertisers pay for both actions while some will only pay for CPA.
What to consider before you sign up for an affiliate offer
Minimum Payout: Do they have a have threshold of payout such as requiring that you make up to 500 dollars or 1000 dollars before you are paid, you should pick affiliate programs that will pay you out for as low as 50 dollars. For a blogger starting out, every dollar counts.
Promotional Materials e.g banners, videos, links, affiliate panels are the affiliate program structured enough to provide you with the materials you will need to drive your promotions. This is important as it helps give you more options for promotions. For example, a text link may be great for some promotions perhaps through your Newsletter but the visual banners may be good for online social media channels or Blog posts.
Payment method: What type of payment method do they have? PayPal, check, transfer are they flexible with their payment methods? These are important parameters because it’s not enough to make money from the affiliate marketing efforts, getting the cash in your pocket is important too.
Tax forms: Do you need to fill out a tax form before you collect your payment
Are they popular? are people recommending that you join them? this is often an indication that people are being paid, beware of affiliate programs that people are not promoting. I will always advise that you search for a review of such programs before you join them.
How to attach affiliate Links to your Blog posts.
People often ask, how do I attach affiliate links to my Blog posts.
Manually Linking
There are various ways to do this, you can do it manually, meaning that if you are writing your post and you get to the place where you need to use your affiliate links you can refer to it by highlighting and then adding your affiliate link.
Remember that for each affiliate Program you sign up for you are given a special link to your account, this special link is to enable the product owners to track your sales. If you link to just the normal website link provided on their website, you will not get paid because they cannot tell that the customer came from you. Therefore be sure that you obtain a product link before you can then link to that product.
Another way to manually add an affiliate link is to insert the code which often represents the advertiser’s banners on your website.
Automated Linking:
You can use a Plugin like Thirstyaffiliate, they help to cloak your links and protect the income you make from your affiliate links.
You can also use WordPress Auto links if you are using WordPress as your content management system: WP auto link helps list your links for web crawlers so that people can easily click on it.
How to Know which Affiliate Programs will accept you.
Various affiliate Programs require some conditions before you can be accepted into their network. There are however some affiliate programs that will accept you as a Newbie blogger as long as your content is not offensive. Please read my post on affiliate networks that will accept you. By reading up that post you will get access to my curated list of affiliate networks that will accept you as a Newbie Blogger.
Do you have you other ideas on how to choose the right affiliate marketing program for a Newbie blogger? Leave your comment below
