Hi Friends!  Wow–what a month this has been?!  Since the last time we chatted, both Christmas and the New Year’s celebrations flew by.  So I made the trip from Rhode Island to North Carolina with my two kids and dog.  Eek!!  Since my husband is still deployed (seriously, it feels like he’s been gone FOREVER!) I did the trip on my own.

In fact, both kids ended up getting sick…all over me.  Once it happened in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike.  But by some miracle, I felt cool and calm through most of the trip.  And I’ve felt that way a lot lately.  It’s hard to know where this kick-butt peaceful feeling is coming from, but it’s here, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

Okay, so I will be diving into this further, but I had promised that I would share with you the Work from Home site that has been so successful for me.  You may have seen the ad I recently put up to the right?  It’s for Hire My Mom.com.(there is an affiliate link in there, btw.) How stinkin’ cute is the name?  Really?

Anyway, I still subscribe, even though I have NO more time to dedicate to work.  I’m currently working around 10 hours a week, but that will double next month.

If you are interested in doing something from home to earn additional income, I HIGHLY recommend it.  What actually made me fall in love with the site is the owner, Leslie Pyle’s testimony. I can’t read it, especially Part 2, without needing a box of tissue.  It is amazing.

If you all are interested in further tips about becoming an independent contractor or freelancer,  I would be happy to share, but don’t want to go on and on if that’s not what you need.

Please let me know.

Thanks so much, friends, for stopping by.  And thank you for your patience over the past few months as I left this blog unattended at times.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

© 2012, Amy. All rights reserved.

Well I have been so jazzed to share my work-from-home secrets, I have been keeping the two most adorable kiddos from my great readers.  I know–how could I do this to you?!

His new "look" which is melting my heart!!

Surprise!!!

Dressed for church.

Hanging out in the nursery.

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season.  Jackson is TOTALLY INTO CHRISTMAS for the first time, so I would love to hear some great ideas for teaching kids about the meaning of Christmas.  What traditions do you have for Christmas?

© 2011, Amy. All rights reserved.

If you are familiar with the personal finance expert Dave Ramsey, you that that he recommends this interesting way to pay off debt.  First, make a list and begin by paying off the least expensive item first.  You work your tail off to pay it off –FAST!  Then you move on to the next lowest balance.  It doesn’t matter what interest rate you are paying, he wants you to pay off the cheapest debt first.

As someone who has followed the Dave Ramsey plan, I can tell you that this is a smart move.  If you have your calculator out wondering how this makes sense, it’s simple.  It doesn’t make the best mathematical sense–it makes the most psychological sense.

That is where we’re going to start for Click Clack Mom readers who are interested in making additional income.  There are ways to make income, probably a lot of income, with a slow build.  But in my opinion, nothing is more convincing to you psychologically like making your first dollar online.  You know, the kind that you did from your couch, while the house is quiet.

Getting your first job or first assignment takes you out of the possibly endless cycle of gathering information and knowledge–into doing something and getting a return.  The later is much more powerful.

Do I regret spending the past couple of years gathering information and learning everything I could about digital marketing and creating an online business?

Yes (and no.)

After getting excited about so many things, then not seeing them flourish the way I had expected is a little disheartening.  I just didn’t know how I ‘fit in’ to the blogging world and I honestly couldn’t think of anything I wanted to try to sell.  Brainstorm session after session, writing article after article (for multiple sites), I couldn’t justify what I was paying to learn new techniques and strategies.  I started to believe this was *just* a hobby.

See I was a teacher before I had kids and I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK!  My goal was to slowly build up a business so that when the kids were both in school, I could still work from home.  So that’s when I started setting little goals for myself.

My goal was to make a bit of money so that I could prove it to myself that it could be done. Suspending the disbelief of earning income online is extremely important. It’s hard to prove to yourself that something, anything will actually pan out.

If you are looking to make additional income online, my recommendation is to start as a freelancer.  Now my goal is to move to a more passive income strategy, but there is something POWERFUL in getting started.  In seeing results.

In the next couple weeks, I’ll share with you *the* website where I was offered 3 out of 4 freelancing positions I applied for in less than two weeks.  It came as a total surprise to me, and I actually had to turn one down.  This is a good spot to be in!

Stay tuned!!

© 2011, Amy. All rights reserved.

Over the years, I can easily say that MORE of my stay at home mom friends have a side-business than ones that don’t. Isn’t that kind of wild?! Have you ever been to a Pampered Chef party? Or a 31 gathering? Or known someone that was a rep for Avon or Mary Kay? See…women do this kind of stuff all the time.

I certainly thought about that route, but I honestly don’t think I’d be very good at sales. (Just the thought of it makes me a little nervous.) So, I kept thinking there must be something out there that would marry my natural talents and limited time.

After a couple years of research and dabbling, I’m here to tell you that these are the 4 most popular ways women are making money online:

1. Selling their own products online (through ETSY or something similar)

2. Freelancing / Independent Contractor / Virtual Assistance

3. Affiliate Marketing

4. Niche Websites/Blogging

Over the coming weeks, I will share with you examples of people who are rocking it in each categories. I’ll also be sharing the tools that I have seen or personally used in the category. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions at all.

Also, if you have other ideas that you have seen or used, I would love to hear them! Thanks!

Photo Credit: Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

© 2011, Amy. All rights reserved.

Okay, I’ve decided…I can’t wait until 2012–I am ready to start sharing with you. (Right here, right now:)

But first I want to tell you a story.  My aunt was a journalist for a well-known news outlet in New York until she had a baby and decided to stay at home. Then a couple years later, she had another baby boy. Then a couple years later, a third baby boy.

When all three were in school, she decided that she wanted to go back to work on a part-time basis. Even though she had been a journalist in NY, she hadn’t done anything ‘resume-able’ for years. She ended up working at Starbucks because she said that she had been cleaning up messes for years and didn’t feel suited for anything much bigger right out of the gate. That last comment always made me sad. (Just so you know–I am NOT knocking working at Starbucks. I love the place.) But it made me sad that with a degree and professional experience, she felt like she had been “out of the game” too long to be competitive for a bigger position.

Even though I absolutely want to be a stay at home mom, I definitely need something that furthers my professional goals each year. So a couple years ago, it made sense to me to start writing. I applied to write for the online magazine, Blissfully Domestic.  Each month, I submitted one little article about any health topic of my choosing. Did I make a lot of money doing this?  Ha!  I did not, but that wasn’t my primary motivation in doing this.  My hope was to begin planting seeds that would grow while I had young children in the house.

This way, I would have evidence that I did something besides clean up after messes. My blog is part of it, too. It’s evidence that I did something that was separate from my family life.

When I applied for the freelancing positions in October, it was AWESOME to be able to show off writing samples. They people could see examples of my work and instantly get a sense of my personality and abilities.

Now I know writing isn’t everyone’s passion, but I am sure there is something that you can do to continue to plant seeds for yourself. If you volunteer in your church, received a fitness certification, helped with the Junior League–these are things that you should keep track of for the future. You just never know when you might need to show it off.

What kinds of things have you been up to even while you were parenting?  I’d love to hear your stories and ideas…

© 2011, Amy. All rights reserved.