How Do I Do It All? Top 12 Tips

May 23, 2013 by 2 Comments
20130514-114048.jpg

After taking in a newborn foster baby a few weeks ago, I have been bombarded with the same question, almost every day. "How do you do it all?" Here I will try to give some tips on how I juggle 'it all'. Firstly, I'll give you some background. I'm an adoptive and biological mother to four boys, aged 7, 5, 3 and 1. My oldest has autism, which is a post unto itself. I am also an active special needs foster parent (currently to a beautiful newborn baby girl). I work part time as a … [Continue reading...]

How To Make An Easy Photo Collage For Your Business Using CollageIt Pro

May 22, 2013 by 7 Comments
How To Make An Easy Photo Collage To Showcase Your Products Using CollageIt Pro

I use photos collages all the time in my business/blog. I use collages for blog buttons, showcase my new arrivals and as a social media promotional tool. From CollageIt Pro's website: CollageIt Pro is an automatic and easy to use collage maker on Mac OS X & Windows. It excels with its ease of use and hugely reduces manual work. CollageIt Pro is a TOP 10 Photography APP on App Store! Here you can see some highlighted features: Simply add your photos to your collage; using “Random … [Continue reading...]

Google Panda and Penguin Updates. How Much Should You Care?

May 21, 2013 by 11 Comments
Google Panda and Penguin Updates. How Much Should You Care?

Preface: Since the writing of this post, Google's Panda and Penguin updates have happened May 18th-19th. A very hot topic in the blogging world right now is Google’s upcoming Panda and Penguin updates.  Not sure what I am talking about? Web Pro News has a great post describing the upcoming changes. Basically what it is boiling down to is that Google is going to crack down even stronger on DoFollow links, advertorials, and spam sites. How will these updates affect my blog, and … [Continue reading...]

The Fairy Hobmother: An Excellent Example of Guerrilla Marketing

May 20, 2013 by 16 Comments
The Fairy Hobmother: An Excellent Example Of Guerilla Marketing

The blogging world is a vast space full of niche interests and millions of readers/writers. There are blogs about families, bands, business, social media, and coping with illness, just to name a few. Some blogs are funny while others are factual. You could describe blogs in a thousand different ways.  One word I would not use would be whimsical. Except now. There is one special fairy who floats around the blog universe spreading cheer. Descending from the tips of a land full … [Continue reading...]

Dealing With Jerks: When Your Client Sucks

May 17, 2013 by 3 Comments

For my out-of-the-home job I work at a financial institution.  On a regular basis I am berated and yelled at by clients.  While I do not enjoy being yelled at day in and day out, I have learned some techniques to deal with the small percentage of clients who are just jerks. Policies, policies, policies.  Make sure you set up policies before you launch your business on how you want to handle returns, inquires, etc., and place them on a visible section of your website.  Policies can always … [Continue reading...]

How To Price Items on Etsy/ Hyena Cart

May 16, 2013 by 16 Comments
how to price your items on etsy and hyena cart

Market places like Etsy and Hyena Cart have given SAHMs (stay at home moms) an amazing opportunity to explore their talents and create a micro-business.  But over the years, the exhilaration of looking at unique products on Etsy has turned into despair when I look at the dismal prices sellers are charging for some stuff.  I have done enough business and assessed even more opportunities to recognize when somebody is turning a REAL profit on their business and from what I see, most people … [Continue reading...]

What Is Guest Posting and Why Should I Do It?

May 15, 2013 by 19 Comments
what is guest posting and why should i do it

If you have a business or blog, you should be looking into guest posting on blogs.  Guest posting is when you write an article on a blog which is not your own.  Guest posting is not when you write a post about your company/blog and pay for it to be featured on a blog. There is some debate amongst the blogging community on whether or not a guest poster should be paid for their post.  In my opinion, guest posters should be compensated for their post but the compensation does not need to be … [Continue reading...]

Must-Follow Social Media and Blogging Websites

May 14, 2013 by 28 Comments
must follow social media and blogging websites

We at Thinking Outside The Sandbox (TOTS) try very hard to make sure TOTS has all of the information you need for your small business/blog.  However, we are not experts at everything (shhh, don’t tell my husband). Here are some of the people and websites I love to watch/read to keep myself up to date on all of the changes with social media and other relevant issues.   Mari Smith– Mari Smith is a Facebook expert.  I have only used her free content but it is well worth the … [Continue reading...]

Directory powered by Business Directory Plugin