I was part of GNO’s Grand Giveaway on Twitter and had so much fun tweeting about shopping for the holidays. But the main goal for this event was helping out Mom owned online businesses. So while there were giveaways there was also traffic to their online stores and a lot of “window” and actual shopping going on too. This helped these WAHMs market their businesses.

There are different ways to get traffic to your website and online store. Some businesses provide help with conversion rate optimization once someone gets to your site.

You can also join forums, Twitter, Facebook but not just write about your business. Be friendly and let people get to know you as a person while they get to know you as a business person. It always feels better to buy something from someone you know than from a stranger.

Offer giveaways via blogs, Twitter and your own contests. Help out new online businesses by promoting them (if they are not your direct competition of course). Provide products for bloggers to review. Think outside the box.

Another thing you can do is offer an affiliate program. You don’t need to be rich in order to do this. You can help give your business a boost by starting this in your early stages and then increasing the amount affiliates receive once your business takes off.

What are some things you have done as a WAHM business owner to promote yourself?

I can be a Work At Home Mom and volunteer. Since I began working as a blogger, I always am sure to set aside time for volunteering. Actually my first priority is my health so that I can take care of my family, then my volunteer time.

I use a calendar to keep track of my scheduled work assignments for my blogs, appointments, volunteer time at Peanut’s school, church and my Chronic Illness Support Group. I am sure to schedule lots of down time too so that I don’t overdo it.

I use Google Calendar which has a lot of options to help me keep things organized. You can make things color coded and even share your events online with friends and business associates.

Prioritizing and organization is key to working at home where you don’t have a time clock or a boss looking over you. The other extreme is that you can allow your work to overwhelm you. It helps to have a friend who you can be accountable to so sharing your calendar is a good first step.

One way to become a Work At Home Mom is to blog and to do other types of writing. Kelly McCausey is offering a bundle of 5 ebooks, Easy Article Writing, Ghost Writing Success, Guide to Writing for Pay, Guide to Copy Writing and Guide to Press Releases. All five bought separately would cost $105 but are now only $49.97. Don’t know what you want for Christmas? Ask for this and think of it as an investment in your future.

I recently started a new blog for family news, product reviews and contests. It is Connie’s View and I am very thankful to Christine from Starryskye for the awesome blog design. Thank you to Coleman who hosts my blog and wrote about some issues I had with my blog yesterday. Both Christine and Coleman offer fantastic customer service which is missing too often now.

I’m happy about having a new blog of course, who wouldn’t be? I’ll have a new place to write about one of the most important things in my life – family. I read about family news a lot and am very involved at my daughter’s school. I not only volunteer there, I also take whatever classes are available to parents and volunteers. These classes are not only about education, but about family issues like staying safe on the internet, bullying, healthy eating, maintaining family traditions and more.
I’ll be writing about these issues as well as reviewing family products. I’ll also host giveaways and report on other blog contests.

I have a few other things I’m working on that are very exciting. I don’t want to get overwhelmed so I’m weighing things out now, but these other ventures are strong possibilities. One may be worked into one of my blogs and the other has to do with blogging…stay tuned. You never know what to expect from me! But I will always be doing something to help other work at home mothers informed.

It’s hard for me to believe it, even less write it but I was selfish today. It actually feels good though, in a guilty, I just got got caught eating half a cake kinda way. I went to Walmart at 7:30 AM today and waited in a long line of other people looking for a sale.

I should have been there earlier, but I slept in with the alarm clock going off for about an hour. I needed to be there early because this special sale stated that there were only 10 laptops for sale. There were other items too so I knew there would be a crowd. But I took my chances and went to the store to see if I could get me a Compaq CQ50 139 WM, 15.4″ Laptop w/ 2GB RAM and 160GB HD for only $298.

I knew this was a fantastic deal and after wrestling with the guilt last night, I figured I’d go ahead and get it. We’re still in the process of remodeling and one of the rooms we’re concentrating on is the office. We have two computer desks, a hutch for eBay items and a closet that is slowly being emptied.

We’re going to move Peanut’s desk into the den so that I have more quiet time to work. Her computer can still be monitored by Hubby though. The laptop is another alternative for me to work from the den, work from bed when I feel sick and I can also take it along with us when we go away. This way I can continue to work as much as possible and earn money. That’s how I talked myself into getting this laptop!

I’m thrilled now that I have it, but of course I feel that I have to earn the money back to pay for it and I need to do it quickly. I’ll be brainstorming so that I don’t feel so selfish.