Category Archives: Work at Home Parents

Shifting Schedules (Again): How to Tell When It’s Time

By on April 11th, 2013

As any work-at-home parent knows, your schedule is at the mercy of your family. The exception might be those who have a babysitter or daycare lined up, but for most of us, we have to plug along as best with we can with holidays, changing sleep schedules, summer vacations and the rest of it. Over the almost eight years I’ve been working from home, I’ve had to adjust my schedule a few times. I went from working naps to nights to nights-and-naps to just nights again. I tried mornings and then went back to nights. And that’s where I’ve been …

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3 Cardinal Rules of Working with Kids at Home

By on February 14th, 2013

There is not much easy about our job unless you compare it to something like digging ditches or building a skyscraper. But that at least wears out your body rather than your mind. At the end of a day wrestling obligations to kids and careers, my brain is tired. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels mentally split almost constantly throughout the day. There is no question that working at home with kids underfoot is challenging. But it’s possible…if you follow a few ironclad rules of the trade. Never take on more than you can handle. For most …

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What We Can Learn from WAHM Writers

By on January 31st, 2013

We all know that the work-at-home-mom (WAHM) writers aren’t considered the upper echelon of the writing community. If you didn’t know that, you’ve never read about the cost-savings to be had by tricking desperate WAHMs into providing ultra cheap articles in a particular forum’s Special Offers. Well, as a few of us here can tell you, having children and enjoying a professional writing career are certainly not exclusive entities, and even when you stop to consider the penny-pinching, low-cost WAHM writers mentioned in those special offers and “tricks of the trade” forum posts we can learn quite a bit from their experiences. Focus on Making What …

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Clients We Love to Hate

By on December 20th, 2012

I love my clients. I don’t want you to think I’m a total jerk for getting up here on this proverbial soapbox and bashing the people who routinely buy my services. I’m not bashing them. I have no reason to – in fact, I’m suddenly thinking of dedicating a post to what makes them so amazing, but that’s not as much fun to write so I’ll put that one off for a bit. Instead let me tell you about some of the “clients” that I think we can all agree to hate. Yes, that sounds terribly ugly, but we hate …

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Redefining Your Writing: Cleaning Up Your Career

By on December 6th, 2012

Your personality, preferences and skills influence all of your decisions, and that includes your writing career. Most of us who have our own careers in writing would have a hard time living with a set income again. If I need some extra cash, I take on an extra project, for example. You can’t do that if you’re salaried. Jenn’s recent post on her ambitious goals for 2013 made me start some rusty wheels turning about my own plans for the future. I think it’s time to redefine my work and possibly clean up my career. I’m getting a bit bored …

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Making Money as a Freelance Writer: What’s Most Important

By on November 8th, 2012

If I were to ask those just starting out what is most important in having a freelance writing career, I’m guessing most would tell me what seems obvious. You have to write well. And it’s true that you do need sufficient writing skills to build a career as a freelance writer, but that’s not what is most important. In fact, excellent writing skills don’t even factor into my top three. Stamina If you’re going to really make it in this career, you have to be willing to go the distance – and it’s probably farther than you think possible. It’s …

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Game Changers: Is It Time to Throw in the Freelance Towel?

By on October 25th, 2012

It’s crossed the mind of every freelancer at one point or another, perhaps on the day that a major deal falls through or you learn you’re looking at a divorce or pregnancy. Is there a good time to stop freelance writing? While our knee jerk reaction may be to immediately deny the thoughts of walking away or scaling back, logically there are some times when life requires we reassess plans and make modifications – sometimes big ones. You Need Money Now Freelance writing can earn you some money quickly if you find jobs quickly or you already have a well-established …

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Freelancing Tricks: Find a Comfort Zone

By on October 11th, 2012

One of the hardest things to do as a freelancer is also one of the most critical. You need to find a comfort zone in your professional life. If you don’t find a happy medium where you’re driven to succeed without overwhelming yourself with projects and obligations, your professional life will quickly bleed over into your personal life – and soon you find yourself trapped in a freelance career.  Determine Your Goals Everyone writes for a different reason. Some freelancers want to surround themselves with the written word and they cultivate their passion for writing by pursuing a fully-immersed career …

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Working from Home and Wasting Time

By on September 13th, 2012

There is a lot of resistance to the idea that working at home makes you lazy. I’d heartily agree that stereotypes are generally unfounded among successful business people who choose to work from home, but I’d also offer up the argument that having worked in a few places in corporate America, people are lazy workers at times no matter where they are stationed for the job. Sadly that includes many of us would-be highly efficient writer folk. Wasting Time, Wasting Money I’m going to be bold and suggest that working from home does in fact make you waste time – …

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Profitable Guest Posting

By on August 30th, 2012

Guest posting is popular for several good reasons: Guest posting is an excellent showcase of your skills. Guest posting is a highly targeted form of marketing. Guest posting is an ace-in-the-hole for SEO. Guest posting can be rather profitable. If you raised an eyebrow at my fourth reason, you aren’t thinking about all of the true possibilities of guest posting. What’s Guest Posting? For those who don’t know, guest posting is a rather simple concept. You make a connection with a blog owner. You write an article to be posted on the blog. You include a link back to your …

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