Hire My Designer: Doug Cloud

Do you have a blog and want to spruce it up with a new look?  Check out Doug Cloud (my designer of my fab “Freebox” logo).  Whether you want a new Twitter background (check out my Twitter background that Doug designed) or a new blog design (you’re looking at mine right now) – I highly recommend hiring Doug Cloud to create and original look for you.  He is an artist and designer -  and loves to work with bloggers.

I know it’s a big step for some bloggers to spend money on their blog design – but I have this advice to offer you:  “Invest in yourself“.  Your blog is (or will become) your business if you are trying to monetize it – and the way your blog looks has a huge impact on attracting new readers.  I want you to head over and read the “Branding Me” article that Doug wrote.  He has great advice to offer bloggers about “building your brand”.

Turn your Blogging hobby into a business at Freebies 4 Mom

Money4Mom Join MySavings Media

Bloggers can make money by being an affiliate for freebies! I recommend joining MySavings Media for access to free sample and coupon offers that make you money. One of the things I love about MySavings Media is that many of the legitimate offers they have are ones I’d be blogging about anyways. So it’s nice to be able to diversify my blogging income by getting paid for a few of the free samples and coupons I blog about. Plus it is simple to navigate their site and they offer personalized assistance which is really key for new affiliates who are learning how the system works. If you have any questions about my personal experience with MySavings Media, feel free to email me.

I’ve written more at Be An Affiliate for Freebies if you’d like to find out what other affiliate programs are available to join. Never assume that your blog is too small to be accepted. I always recommend that you apply, and apply again if you aren’t accepted the first time. Persistence is key to growing your blog and growing your income opportunities.

Money 4 Mom: Starting a Blog?

The most frequently question I get asked is:
How do I start a blog and make money blogging?

Here’s my short answer:
You don’t start a blog to make money, you blog for fun.

Saving money and sharing the freebies is what I’m passionate about. I started my blog for fun because it had become my hobby to find new freebies and coupons. Blogging was the best way to share my finds with the most people. I started my blog with no expectation that I would make enough money to replace the part-time job I held at that time. It just happened after several months of hard-work, and I am lucky that I found my niche in the blogging world and have experienced rapid growth that is uncommon for most blogs.

The truth is that most bloggers are “self-taught”, which means they spend hours and hours teaching themselves how to do things related to blogging. The best way to learn about blogging is to struggle through it yourself and learn as you go. The best resource to go to for help with all things related to blogging is BlogCoach.org. Anyone can learn how to blog, but they have to be willing to make the time commitment to teach themselves.

Blogging is not an easy way to make money. Most bloggers do not see that first penny in their hand for many months (even a year) after starting their blog. Blogging has become a wonderful work-at-home business for me, but it is not a piece-of-cake. I typically work 7 days a week, several hours a day (mostly when my children are asleep). It has also replaced all of my hobbies I used to enjoy simply because it is a huge time commitment and I do truly love it as much as a hobby. But it is still work, and some mornings I don’t really want to get up early to write a new post. But I push myself to keep up with my aggressive posting schedule to keep new content on my blog, and I do find it to be rewarding to help others learn how to save money and have some fun doing it.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions, and I’ll point you to my previous “Money 4 Mom” posts for more information.

Getting Started Blogging
Penny by Penny – The kick-off to the Money 4 Mom series and discussion about how blogging is a slow way to earn money, so you better be passionate about what you write about.

Free Blogging - The biggest freebie in my life is Blogger because it enabled me to have this blog hosted for free.

Monetizing Your Blog
Finding New Readers – Six tips on how to find new people to read your blog. Because growing your readership is directly related to growing your income for most bloggers.

Google Ads – A few tips based on what I’ve learned about Google Ads, also I share a blogging tip with you; how to get your hyperlinks to open in a new window.

Be an Affiliate for Freebies – Did you know you can earn money by showing affiliate ads on your blog for free samples and free offers?

Join Logical Media - My favorite affiliate program for free samples and offers.

BlogHer – Why I love my ad network, and how you can utilize BlogHer’s resources even if you don’t belong to their ad network.

Referrals - An excellent guest post by Northern Cheapskate about yet another way you can make money on your blog.

Blogging Tools
Smarter Email with Gmail – Why didn’t I switch to Gmail a long time ago? It is truly helping me work smarter and I can still keep all of my old email addresses.

Google Alerts – The easiest way for bloggers to stay on top of who is blogging about them, and who may be copying them.

Tips from a Self-Employed Work-at-Home Mom
Your Blog is Your Small Business – Resources to help you treat your blog as your business, because that’s what it is if you are making any money!

Invest in Yourself – Your blog is you and you are your blog, why investing in yourself should be a top priority.

Being Your Own Boss - How to work smarter and set limits on your blogging time.

Feel free to ask me a question, or suggest a future topic by leaving a comment for me here.

Turn your Blogging hobby into a business at Freebies 4 Mom

Money 4 Mom: Smarter Email with Gmail

I finally opened a Gmail account so that I can start working smarter. I made the switch after reading Six Ways Gmail Makes Blogging Easier on BlogCoach and Email: Transform This Tool from Stressful to Useful on Simple Mom. I’ll let these two bloggers tell you why Gmail is better and can help you work smarter. The wonderful part is that I don’t even need to give-up any of my current email addresses in order to make Gmail work for me. I still receive all of my email, it is simply forwarded to my Gmail account and I respond to most of it from there. So, you might be hearing from me from my new email account, I’m simply “Freebies4Mom” at Gmail.com.

Money 4 Mom: Invest in Yourself

Blogging for almost a year now has reinforced for me that an investment in myself is the best investment to make. I never imagined that I would have my own website someday. Or that it would be a source of income. I used to have a mental block in-place that I could not have a website if I did not know a computer programming language like html. Now I look back and think how silly I was to think that was a roadblock. It’s easy to set-up a free blog with Blogger. With the abundance of free resources on the internet, you can learn almost anything you want to learn. You can also find friends to help you, and experts to lend you a hand.

Investing in yourself also means knowing when to do-it-yourself and when to hire an expert. I’ve been aggressive about making improvements to my blog, and I even hired Sashwhy’s Studio to do a professional design for me. Sure, I could have continued a “self-done” blog and learned the design elements as I went. But I knew that I did not have the time to dedicate to learn the design fast enough to keep up with my goals for my blog. So it was a smart decision to hire an expert to help me. When I encouraged some of my blogging friends to also consider a redesign, I reminded them to invest in themselves. I know it is hard to spend any money on your blog when you have just started out and you can’t even see the day when you will reach the minimum payout for Google Adsense. But guess what? If you are passionate about what you write about, your audience will likely continue to grow. If you are investing wisely in yourself, that investment will pay off. Your blog is all about who you are and what you want to do with those you connect with online.

How else am I investing in myself?
I am treating my blog as my small business.

I am drafting a resume that reflects my blogging achievements thanks to encouragement from Classy Mommy.

I am learning about new blogging tools and resources at BlogCoach.

Speaking of investing in yourself, I’ve just found out about a free magazine called Successful Living that you might be interested in subscribing to. I found out about it from My Precious Pennies, who got her first issue in the mail and said this is a magazine worth reading for the quality articles and refreshing absence of advertising. Read here for her full review of her first issue to help you decide if you want to get a free subscription too.

How are you investing in yourself and investing in your blog or website?

Turn your Blogging hobby into a business at Freebies 4 Mom