Scrapbooking is a favorite hobby of many. It involves displaying one's favorite photographs in a unique and beautiful way. Scrapbooking supply stores have opened in many cities and towns, making it easy to find beautiful embellishments for our memories.

Lots of people love the look of scrapbooks, but some do not have the time or skill required to make their own. Scrapbooking can be somewhat time-consuming, especially to novices. Creating beautiful scrapbooks for others can provide you with a lucrative and fun home business opportunity.

Getting Started with Your Scrapbooking Business

To create scrapbooks, you will need albums, paper, page protectors, adhesives, and decorative accents. Scrapbooking supplies can be found at many craft stores and specialty shops. They are also available online. If you can find them in bulk, you can get a better price on them, lowering the cost of your creations.

You can save money by having your customers purchase their own albums, or by purchasing them as you go. You will recover your costs once the scrapbook is paid for, but when you're getting started buying a lot of albums may not be feasible. Another way to save money in the beginning is to buy only basic supplies at first. You can always buy more embellishments as needed. Another option is to join a Direct Sales company that sells scrapbook supplies or rubber stamps and use those supplies as the foundation for your business.

Promoting Your Business

Promotion of your scrapbooking business can be done in many ways. You could place ads in newspapers and other print publications. Fliers showing pictures of some of your favorite creations can be placed in various locations. You could even set up a portfolio website so that potential customers can browse numerous samples of your previous work.

Craft fairs and festivals provide great opportunities to promote a scrapbooking business. They give you the opportunity to show entire albums that you've done. They also allow you to speak face-to-face with interested parties. You can answer any questions they might have, explain techniques, and show some of the materials you use.

Scrapbooking is a passion for many. If you eat, sleep, and breathe scrapbooking, creating scrapbooks for others and making money doing so could be a dream come true. Many people's busy lives do not allow them much time for hobbies, and they would gladly pay someone to make a beautiful album featuring their treasured pictures. Offering this service can provide you with a steady income while allowing you to spend more time doing something you enjoy.

As someone with very little time and patience, I would definitely hire someone to do my scrapbooking for me — in a heartbeat!

My friend, Dawn, has put together a complete course on Scrapbooking for Profit. So, if you LOVE Scrapbooking, find out how to turn that into cash (or more cash if you're already a Consultant for a Scrap company).

Click here to check it out.

Warmly,

Nicole

Last week, my friend, Kelly McCausey and I were chatting about “easy” ways for a mom to experiment with an online business (for cheap or free) and I recommended starting a blogger blog. Will it make you a *TON* of money? Well, odds are, no, but it can and has for some people.

But, the important thing to me is that it can get you past many of the roadblocks and enable you to learn and apply and test ideas and PLAY around without feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Once you get your blog set up and get a chance to experiment, and learn how to do things like get traffic, sign up for affiliate programs, etc… THEN, you can move ahead to bigger pastures.

(The only problem with this theory is that, if you decide to start a website or switch to a Word Press blog later, is that you'd be, in essence, starting over. So, look at this first blogger blog as a learning tool — or see my PS below and start off with Word Press to begin with.)

Of course, if even blogging is new to you, then I highly recommend the courses at www.JustAddSweat.com

I put together 3 blogger guides there. One for craft blogs, one for review blogs, and one for recipe/cooking blogs. They are VERY simple and will walk you through everything from choosing a niche, setting up your blog, finding ways to make money from your blog, and getting traffic to your blog.

HOT TIP: If you're in a Direct Sales business, this is a GREAT way, to easily develop a following for your customers and leads. You'd promote, review, recommend, and discuss your own products,  answer questions from customers, and just be accessible.

Warmly,
Nicole

PS. If you prefer to use a Word Press blog (as many people do and I highly recommend it) because it offers more flexibility, I recommend you check out MomWebs.com for hosting. They'll set up your blog for only $10. Check it out here:   Word Press Help for Mom Bloggers.

***

Please send me your best selling stories about

– specific products you sell
– why you joined the company
– customer testimonials about products
– your business opportunity
– why you are a top director and recruits should join your team
– stories you tell yourself about your future success
– what sets your company apart from the competition
– your overcoming obstacles stories for motivating team members when they are down
– any other stories you use in your business – use your imagination

This is an AWESOME chance to get wide exposure for your direct selling business. So tell me your best stories and send them to kristie.tamsevicius@gmail.com.

***

Kelly and I launched 3 new article packs this week:
Home Biz
Direct Sales
Healthy Eating

Swing by and grab copies for the ones you want at Easy PLR Articles (Don't know about PLR? See the post below this one for free training.)

I also wanted to let you know about an awesome deal. One of my clients, Jimmy D. Brown, is the co-creator of one of the very first PLR product sites online. (Created 3 years ago … well back before EasyPLR was started).

This site set the bar for *good* PLR and it offered COMPLETE infoproducts with PLR rights.

I can hear you now, “Get to the point, Nicole!”

My point is that this site has had the doors closed for some time, and they are reopening soon.

AND.. Every product since May 24, 2004 is still available. If you join now, you get instant access to over 75 Products in the Rough and 190 Niche Product Profiles! Worth more than…
$53,830.00
And, you're NOT going to believe the price!

If you'd like to be notified the second they open the doors…
CLICK HERE

Just let ME in first!

Best wishes,
Nicole

PS. If you're on the fence about whether you want in or not for the PLR site, sign up for the notification list. You can always decide later.

However, I know a lot of my readers are in Direct Sales and have very few, if any, stats available to them. That, unfortunately, IS a problem.

Here's where I'm going to jump on my soapbox and lecture.

If you're investing all your time and energy into your Direct Sales business (as you well should if that's your focus) — if you have NO website of your own, you're not building an online presence — and you're making a mistake, in my opinion.

Think about it for a minute. What if your Direct Sales company decides to cancel its Consultant program, or the new management is unethical, or it goes out of business, OR… what if you find a new company that you love even better?! Then, all your hard work is gone, the minute you terminate your contract. Even if you've built up a ton of advertising expenses — it's ALL gone.

Now, I'm certainly not bashing direct sales. I think it's a great way for Moms to make money from home. However, you do have to be smart about it. Get your own website or blog. Seriously. Even if your company does not allow it. Just don't mention their products or the company by name. Just use your site to collect email addresses, and stay in touch with them.

I hear you now… “I don't know how to build a website.” You don't need to know how!

There's a great sitebuilder that I've recommended for years now and it's especially great for Direct Sales Moms. You don't NEED to learn about building websites — spending time learning that would be distracting from your focus.

Here's the service I recommend: Easy Website Builder (and yes, it's a referral link, but I'd recommend it to my mother and my best friends — heck, I HAVE. Right, Annette? )  It's really as easy as it gets!

For instance, if you're in a Health-oriented Direct Sales business (because we all know how finicky they are about advertising) — then create a one page site that says “Get my free report on …. topic… Sign up Here” and send your traffic THERE. Even if no advertising at all is allowed, you're in the clear.

From there, you can track your stats in the site builder stats (or website stats) and you're able to see what is and is not working for you — including your advertising.

I hope that helps. If you have any questions about WHY you'd want to create a website … or what to put on it, just post in the comments. I'll be checking my blog daily, so I'm happy to answer your questions.

Have a wonderful week!
Nicole

Hi Nicole. I'm a work at home mom, and I know I should invest in my business, but I can't cut through all the hype. What tools do YOU personally spend money on?

Here are the items I pay for monthly. Of course I often buy products as well, but these are just the items I pay for month after month.

1. Virtual Assistants – $1000
   I outsource much of my day to day work to my wonderful Assistants.
2. List & Traffic
   This is Jimmy D. Brown's coaching group. I've learned more from Jimmy than I have in some of the courses that I've paid a ton of money for. Plus, Jimmy is honestly one of the nicest men on earth, so I really enjoy learning from him.
3. Aweber
   This is the autoresponder that I rely on to send you all the ecourses and newsleters you receive.
4. Mom Content
   This is a PLR service that provides me with recipes and articles each month that I can use on my websites.
5. WAHM Cart
   My shopping cart for all my ebooks that I've written. It also runs my affiliate program for me.
6. Mom Hosting
   Unlimited hosting for all my websites.

Whew! I know it looks like a lot, but, honestly it costs a lot less money to be successful online than to start a franchise, for instance. I know with the holidays coming, you might be making a wish list for Santa. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather get something for my business than ANOTHER picture frame.

If you're in Direct Sales, perhaps you'd like some advertising or leads for Christmas. Or maybe a table to take with you to Expos? The next time someone asks you what you want for Christmas … you'll be ready!

If you have any questions about the products or services above, just ask.

Have a wonderful week!
Nicole

However, summer is also the time when you can get ahead of the competition! While they're lazying away the days, you can get things in place to be light years ahead of them by fall.

How do you do this? One big part is planning and scheduling. I know… yuck. I hate it, too.

However, if you know you'll only have an hour each day to work your business, then think of the ONE thing you can do that will impact your bottom line.

If you're in Direct Sales that means PICKING UP THE PHONE. That's the best way to get those events booked and get your schedule rockin'.

If you're in Internet Marketing like me, then you may need to do some rotating.
Write and Submit Articles
Post to your Blogs
Add content to your websites
Add content to your autoresponders

Got an online store?
Do a little promoting of your site every day. Whether you write and submit articles, write a press release, or promote your affiliate program, get the word out.

Get things in place so your business is building, a little each day.

Yes, we have the flexibility to work our businesses when we want to, but sometimes that can bite us in the butt by allowing us the flexibility to NOT work our businesses as well.

Get going. I'm cheering you on!
Nicole

Hi Nicole and thanks for featuring me My name is Carrie Lauth and I started dabbling in online marketing about two years ago when I was doing a direct sales business. After months and months of solid effort I was getting nowhere except into debt with that business model! I hated the phone calls and sales aspect of it. Meanwhile I had built a website and started monetizing it with affiliate and pay per click programs, and incidentally that income started to surpass the direct sales income…and it was nearly passive as well as very inexpensive to produce! No buying product and no phone calls. I was sold. I stopped doing direct sales entirely and focused totally on affiliate marketing. I now have 14 websites and I absolutely love building them.

Business-Moms-Expo.com – This was my first site and it's a resource for Moms who are investigating their work at home options. It features an ecourse for Moms who need some direction in starting their online business.

http://www.Natural-Moms.com – I love to talk about birth, babies and breastfeeding.

http://www.InsteadofTv.com Features a newsletter with tons of tips to help parents limit the impact of tv in their kid's lives.

Carrie, do you offer any great freebies?

My business card site, CarrieLauth.com features several valuable (no junk!) freebies for work at home Moms.

What are two products or resources you can't live without in your business (or have helped you the most)?

Mom Masterminds, the mentoring and coaching program, and XSitePro (no longer active) – I absolutely love it for building new sites.

What's your best advice for someone just starting out in online business?

Find a mentor and study what she does! I latched on to Alice Seba after discovering her IBMoms site and I try to apply her marketing wisdom to my own sites. I buy (as much as possible) the products she recommends and generally do what Alice says. LOL! I believe in shortening the learning curve as much as possible. As busy Moms, we don't have forever. We need to learn how to make money now and without taking too much time away from our families.

Check out Carrie's articles at LadyPens.com

“I *heart* my autoresponder”

Do you think that's too geeky?

I am a woman in love with my autoresponder and I want the world to know!

Ok, I'm joking a little. But all joking aside, an autoresponder is an invaluable tool. I know my business would suffer without mine.

What is an autoresponder?
An autoresponder is a business partner. It sends your messages out automatically easy as pie — whether you are at your computer or not.

Some examples:
* My newsletter gets delivered to you through my autoresponder.
* If you signed up for my ecourse, you received it through my autoresponder, automatically, whether I was at my computer or playing Whack-a-Mole at Chuck E Cheese.
* If you've ever ordered anything online, you probably received a confirmation email automatically through … you guessed it – an autoresponder.

If you are in Direct Sales, you might be wondering what this has to do with you. Well, my friend Annette wrote a great article that ran in last month's issue of the WC citing several ways to make your Direct Sales business more efficient and more effective by using an autoresponder.

You see, Annette is a busy lady.
She successfully runs her Direct Sales business. She homeschools. AND she does all the other important stuff that we WAHMs juggle every day. How's she do it? Well, I'll let her tell you about it in her article.
click HERE to read Annette's article
Her autoresponder even trained her downline and followed up with her leads while she was on a company cruise. You can't beat that!

If you own an online business not related to Direct Sales, your business could also benefit from an autoresponder. You can automate your contests, write ecourses, manage all your newsletters in one place (even family ones), follow-up with customers and more.

Here's a free trial for the autoresponder that I *heart* –
CLICK HERE to try the autoresponder I recommend If you sign up and have any questions, just let me know and I'll give you a hand.

So now you know why I love my autoresponder.

Speaking of love, I just posted a picture from my vow renewal this summer. See the post below.

Maybe I'll get a “I (heart) my hubby” bumper sticker instead.

Have a great day!
Nicole

PS. If you'd like to get more amazing articles like Annette's, then be sure to
subscribe to the WC here.

PPS. Stop by Annette's blog to sign up for her training and learn more about her business opportunity. She's a great lady!

Free reprint articles are the perfect solution. There are people all over the world who have written informative, entertaining articles on topics and you have permission to share them.

Just make sure to include their ‘resource box' at the end of the article. Here's a new collection of articles written by women (with reprint rights). http://ladypens.com/

By the way, sharing articles is a very good way to get free advertising. If you're unfamiliar with the benefits of writing articles for others, then check out my article about it… Why-Write-Articles.htm
I hope you see the potential of this type of free marketing.

If you have any questions, just ask.