Why is “mompreneur” not in my dictionary yet?!
I have 2 blog entries started with the latest scrappy/stampy projects… but I don’t want to post the hand-stamped card entry until after my hubby goes to the baby shower at work on Thursday (you just never want to spoil a surprise). And for the latest scrapbook layout, I did both sides separately so the 2nd side of the 12×12″ double-page album layout needs to have it’s photos uploaded and all that.
So in the meantime, I’ll bring you an important and much-needed blog announcement! In my exploration of life as a WAHM and savvy web mompreneur, I’ve always been open about my business activities – for the sake of honesty and transparency, but also to help other moms find out what it’s really like out for the average mommy blogger and webmaster (who is not of Dooce-caliber-fame).
It’s tough out there but I am doing my best to make something happen. You hear all the time about people earning $ from the web just doing nothing, so it absolutely infuriates me that I’ve gotten next to nowhere after a couple years of working hard to try to earn some income from my already-in-progress projects (and those couple years came after a decade of volunteer work and running websites and groups for free!!!).
If I ever get famous though, I’m taking my friends with me, dammit. 
I know so many talented, crafty, and hard-working women who are running their own businesses (either on their own, online or offline, or through an established Home-Sales company like Stampin’ Up or Creative Memories) and just aren’t tapping into what is promised. There’s gotta be some tips out there to help create success, and I’m on the lookout…
Here are the changes that’ve been made in the past week or so to increase privacy, but also increase website success:
* After discovering that my cross-posted posts from the previous year were more public than previously thought, I wanted to lock them just as I did this summer with those entries on this blog. Because why lock entries against the nasty word-twisting-and-misusing people if they can just go track them down elsewhere?! For one place, I was able to hide all the posts in a few clicks, but for another site, I’ve actually needed to delete the entire account. 
So my apologies if you were reading my posts elsewhere before now… luckily, krismom.com is fairly accessible to get to, so I hope you keep reading. 
* In other bloggy news, this week I discovered a really awesome sale on nursing covers (promo code “onefree” will give you a FREE cover and you pay only S&H) that I wanted to share with all the nursing moms I knew. In contacting the company from their website about displaying a banner, I came across their affiliate program! Well hey, if I am going to go spreading the word about their offer, might as well be compensated a dollar or you, right? So I signed up as an affiliate!
* The sign-up process required going through a general website that runs affiliate programs for many different merchants, including the maker of the nursing covers. Many of the companies had nice simple banners you could display to advertise their products, and paid a commission for sales (or sometimes for referrals). So considering that I’ve basically sucked at making any income on my websites/blogs/etc. lately (my best week in the past month was $0.99 in one week for the banners on alllll my sites), I decided to give it a try. So you will see some of the AdSense and Google banners replaced by banners of ShareASale merchants.
* In signing up for their affiliate program, I also was introduced to a post about the recent changes to the Federal Trade Commission guidelines for affiliates. They have updated the Guides to include examples of how the rules apply to “mommy bloggers” and other mompreneurs who are using word of mouth advertising. Basically, the rules advise that you should be upfront in disclosing any relationship you have with companies and the products that you endorse (or discuss on your blog without having any kind of relationship with the company). Whether you receive an item for free or are paid for referring other customers to a site, that should be spelled out. You can find the new updates here, but be warned: the document is perfect nap-time reading material. 
If you’re a mommy blogger, small business owner, or otherwise involved in web marketing, you should probably try to trudge through it though (the “good” stuff really only starts after page 51).
* After reading this document, I realized that in my recent post about the Wallflowers, I hadn’t specified that I was NOT writing a review of the products for any reason other than the fact that I’d received them and liked them and had pretty pictures to share. So I went and updated that info to the post. The funniest thing is though that later on, when I was looking at merchants to sign up with in the “Home & Garden” category (I have space for a couple extra ads on the “Our Dream Home” page), a company that sells the Wallflowers was on the list!!! So I think I will sign up with them after all and then I would have to update that information to say that actually now I *am* going to endorse them on a affiliate level! They still don’t ship to Canada though, unfortunately, but some of the other Home product merchants do.
OK, that’s the scoop. And now, back to your regularly scheduled blogging…
October 16 2009 01:42 pm | EZ-blog Oven and work/career
