Confessions of a Work at Home Mom

Wikihow

2009-01-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I contributed to a few more wiki's at WikiHow:

How to Build a Classroom Library at Home
How to Teach a Child to Write Their Name
How to Homeschool a Preschooler

Contributing to an existing wiki is a great way to help the WikiHow community without building a wiki of your own. There are a great deal of existing pages that contain good info, but need to be fleshed out.

A Busy New Year

2009-01-24T09:13:00.001-08:00

2009 is off to a great start!

I've been busy adding content to my new website, Successful Homemaking, and I plan to finish up sections on Easy Salad Recipes and Stain Removal Tips this week.

For my "old" website, Successful Homeschooling, I've created the following pages:

Secular Homeschooling
Secular Homeschool Curriculum

I've also written a Hub and Squidoo for those pages

Secular Homeschooling
Secular Homeschool Curriculum

And I've written the following articles to build links to my preschool pages:

Homeschooling Preschoolers
Homeschool Preschool Curriculum
Preschool Reading

Last Saturday, I took time to write a business plan detailing my content, traffic and monetization strategies for this year. I included a monthly, weekly and daily schedule and it's really helping me stay on track.

I've been reading a book called The 4 Hour Workweek and the author shares a lot about eliminating unnecessary activities and outsourcing. I'm taking his advice to heart and I'll share more about it as I continue to learn.

Blog Directories

2009-01-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am trying directory submissions to create backlinks to my site. Tonight, I submitted my homeschooling blog to two directories - Blog Catalog and Bloggapedia.

Narrowing My Niche

2009-01-02T22:12:00.000-08:00

I e-mailed Tomaz from Financial Freedom Ideas about suggestions for my site, and he said my niche was too broad. I do believe I can eventually land on the first page of Google for the terms homeschool and homeschooling. However, this year, I'm going to focus on winning the terms homeschool preschool, homeschooling curriculum and homeschool curriculum.

I spent the last few weeks updating my Homeschool Preschool section and adding affiliate links from my Usborne e-commerce site. I added a page for Homeschool Preschool Curriculum.

I also created these link lists at:

On My List - Free Preschool Resources
Whatali.st - Best Preschool Resources
Listphile - Free Preschool Resources

This month I'm going to work on creating 4 new articles that link to my homeschool preschool and homeschool preschool curriculum pages.

Finally Monetizing my Website

2008-12-27T12:19:00.000-08:00

I'm finally monetizing my website.

I'm starting with Usborne books in my preschool section and I'll add others as the year goes on.

My goal is to introduce people to Usborne books, and have them use me as their consultant. I recommended specific books on my preschool pages, then created a separate page about Usborne and another about Usborne preschool books. I'm also going to add a page about Usborne's Frequent Buyer Club.

In addition to monetizing my homeschool site, I'm also starting a new site, Successful Homemaking. I am outsourcing some of the content and building this site a bit differently than I built my first site - focusing mainly on high demand/low supply keywords using Louann's technique of writing the pages her visitors are looking for, not writing what she thinks they need to know.

Once again, I'm starting the year off with a little experimentation. I'm excited to see the results!

New Ezine Articles!

2008-12-17T15:06:00.000-08:00

Homeschooling Pros and Cons - The Truth About Home Education

Pros of Homeschooling - 5 Reasons You Should Home School Your Children

Article Marketing

2008-12-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

I am getting back no track with article marketing, and I aim to publish 1 article per week. This week, I posted an article on lapbooking to coincide with my website page on lapbooks. I also posted an article about Abeka homeschool curriculum to coincide with my reviews of Abeka.

New Content

2008-12-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

Last month, I wrote an article for Heart of the Matter. It doesn't look like they're going to use it, so I turned it into a T3 page on my website titled, Homeschool Physical Education.

Article Marketing

2008-11-14T08:05:00.000-08:00

Paul aka "The Mad Webmaster" on SBI is currently running a series on their forums about using article marketing to generate traffic, increase newsletter subscriptions and provide a back link to the main website. He's suggesting techniques I've already been using, so I think I'm on the right track. So far, I've created articles for the following 24 keywords:

Homeschool Activities
Homeschool Writing Curriculum
Homeschool Ideas
Homeschool Games
Homeschooling Facts
Work at Home Mom Online
Work at Home Mom Opportunity
Moms who Work at Home
Working and Homeschooling
Used Homeschool Textbooks
Homeschool Preschool
Homeschooling Preschool
Homeschooling Support
Homeschooling Information
Homeschooling Laws
Homeschooling Methods
Learning Styles
Free Homeschooling Curriculum
Used Homeschooling Books
Discount Homeschool Books
Homeschool Holidays
Homeschooling History
Homeschool History
Affordable Homeschooling

My goal is to publish at least 1 new article per week, and give the article a boost by linking to it from a few other spots on the web.

Squidoos and Article Marketing

2008-11-14T07:52:00.000-08:00

The traffic from my Squidoo lenses has fallen a bit, so I decided to freshen them up by adding photos, links to my website, and links to ezine articles I've published. I'm hoping the updated Squidoos will start ranking again, and the links to the ezine articles will give them a bit of a boost with the search engines.

Here are the Squidoos I updated:

Finding the Best Homeschool Curriculum
Working and Homeschooling
Homeschooling Dos and Don'ts
Used Homeschool Textbooks
Inexpensive Homeschooling
Homeschool Games
Homeschool Ideas

I also updated Homeschool Curriculum Reviews, adding links to specific curricula that have been reviewed. If nothing else, my Squidoo lenses are a bit meatier and they look a little nicer! :)

New T3 Pages

2008-11-13T12:47:00.000-08:00

Last month, I was contacted by one of the owners of Hands of a Child, about purchasing advertising space in my newsletter. I am not selling newsletter ads yet, but I agreed to feature her company graphic in my newsletter in exchange for an interview and a free lapbook.

In addition to centering my newsletter around lapbooking, I created a T3 page on Lapbooks and a T3 page containing my interview with Niki McNeil from Hands of a Child.

I sent out the November edition of my homeschool newsletter on Wednesday. I'm still thinking of ways to increase my newsletter subscriptions.

A Contest!

2008-10-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

In August, I ran a small contest on my website and ended up with 60 C2 submissions on my page of Homeschool Curriculum Reviews.

I opened the contest to the entire web this September, and ended up with over 350 submissions. I am running a smaller contest each month, and I've published the contest rules here.

I promoted the contest on my blog, on yahoo groups, through the homeschool blog carnival, on several homeschool forums, and by e-mailing publishers to see if their customers would be interested in submitting reviews.

I also created the following promo pages on other websites:

Homeschool Curriculum Reviews
Homeschool Curriculum Reviews

And I added a link to the reviews to these lists:

Best Homeschooling Resources
Homeschooling Resources

All in all, the contest was a hit, and I'm planning another large one this spring!

Blogging

2008-09-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

Internet guru, Lisa Irby, encouraged me to start building up my homeschool blog, and it is paying off. My blog is now sending a great deal of traffic to my website, and is being found by Google for a number of keywords.

I include keywords in the title of my post, in the body of the post and in a link to a page on my website. I try to include information in my blog entries that will help my reader. Even if I am simply sharing a story about my children, I end the post with a helpful tip and a relevant link to my website.

I've not yet experimented with link baiting and social bookmarking, but they're next on the agenda. I can only hope they work as well as blogging!

Amazing!!!

2008-08-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

My marketing efforts are paying off! My squidoo and hub for Homeschool Games are on page 2 of Google search results. My website page for Homeschool Ideas is on page 1 and it has an extremely high search volume. It's working!!! I hope to see some huge leaps in traffic soon.

Stolen Content

2008-08-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

When I chose my niche, I knew I was in a highly competitive field, but I had no idea there would be at least 15 other SBI sites in my niche (and those are only the ones I know about)!

There are a few competitors I keep my eye on, and I was perusing one of their sites when I noticed some phrasing that sounded oddly like mine. I took a look at a page on my site about the same subject and, sure enough, the content on my competitors page was a close paraphrase of the content mine, right down to the bullet points.

I e-mailed her, and she responded that she'd paid a homeschool student to write that page, and it came back clear when she ran it through article checker. She asked me for a link to the page in question.

I responded by providing a link at letting her know that paraphrased content is still considered plagarized content. She has not removed the page from her site, but she knows I'm keeping an eye on her and I hope that will discourage her from "borrowing" from me in the future.

Success with Squidoos and Hubs

2008-08-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

My Squidoos and Hubs are beginning to rank highly for certain keywords and are bringing traffic to my site. For several keywords, both I have a squidoo, a hub and an ezine article in the top 30 search results.

I'm continuing with my strategy of creating pages based on high demand/low supply keywords and targeting them with squidoos, hubs and ezines. In addition to hoping these bring me search engine traffic, I hope they boost my sites ranking by providing a backlink to my site.

I recently made a Homeschool Games hub and a Homeschool Games squidoo to link to my page on Homeschooling Games.

I also made a Homeschool Ideas hub and a Homeschool Ideas squidoo to link to my page on Homeschool Ideas.

I wrote ezines for those pages as well that I will make live over the next few weeks.

Traffic to my website is slowly growing, as is my Adsense income and the number of subscribers to my ezine. I think the marketing I've done as outlined above is beginning to payoff.

New Content!!!

2008-08-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last couple of weeks creating the following pages based on high demand/low supply keywords:

Homeschooling Facts
Homeschool Games
Homeschool Ideas
Homeschool Writing Curriculum

I also revamped my Homeschooling Curriculum page, and added the following T3 pages:

Homeschool Reading Curriculum
Homeschool Math Curriculum

I am really trying to strike a balance between writing pages that will bring me search engine traffic and writing pages that contain information my visitors need and desire. The former should pay off in the short term, and the latter help me build long term credibility. At least, that's what I'm hoping will happen...

Another Marketing Blitz!

2008-07-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last week I tested my theory about winning keywords with a supply less than 60 and a demand greater than 500 by targeting them with a Squidoo, Hub, wikiHow and Ezine article. I tried this on a new website page I created called Used Homeschooling Textbooks.

I made the promotional pages while working at the library all day Wednesday. By the time I returned home, the wikiHow page was on page 1 of Google, and the Hub Page was on page 3 of Google. I as so thrilled that I was about to go post on Website Babble, when I decided to check Google Adwords one more time and realized the keyword "used homeschooling textbooks" had very little demand. The high demand/low supply keyword was "used homeschool textbooks". Doh!

I went back and changed the page on my website, the Squidoo and the Hub. I changed the content of the wiki, but I couldn't change the title. I e-mailed someone who may be able to help, but if he can't, the title will remain as is. The wikiHow page has fallen to page 2 of Google and the hub is nowhere to be found.

It seems like my marketing blitz theory has promise, but I have to remember to target the right keywords.

Update 9/3: I just searched Google for the term Used Homeschool Textbooks. My Wikihow and Ezine are on page one in spots 4 and 10, respectively. My article with Article Alley is on page 2. My website is on page 4.

Gaining Exposure through Ezine Articles

2008-07-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, I received the following e-mail from the newsletter editor at CHEN regarding an ezine article I wrote last month:

Hi Carletta, I was online looking for a good "back to school" article for our
online homeschooling newsletter and came across your article called,
"Homeschooling Methods- With Home Education One Size Does Not Fit All!" and
would like to include it in our newsletter for the front page. May I have your
permission to do so?

Of course I said, yes!

It is an amazing feeling to receive e-mails like this. It is proof that the process works!

High Demand, Low Supply Keywords

2008-07-27T05:00:00.001-07:00

I recently ran Google searches on a few of my site's keywords and realized that some the squidoo, hub and wikiHows for some of my work at home mom pages were already being found.

After running a few more searches and looking at demand/supply numbers for keywords where my pages ranked highly, I decided to identify words that had similar numbers to see if I could rank easily for those words and bring traffic to my site.

I found 15-20 words that met the criteria of demand > 500 and supply < 60. Over coming weeks, I'm going to target those keywords with ezines, hubs, squidoos and wikis to see if I can rank quickly and funnel traffic to my site. I started with the keyword Used Homeschooling Textbooks.

I wrote a website page, a wiki, a squidoo lens, a hub, and an ezine article on the keyword last Wednesday. The wiki was on the first page of google later that night, and the hub was on page 2. Very exciting! Until I checked Adwords and realized I'd used the wrong keyword.

Used Homeschooling Textbooks has no demand. The high demand, low traffic keyword is Used Homeschool Textbooks. Check your keywords carefully! I had to go around and change all of the keywords that night.

Today I ran a Google search (using the proper keyword), and the wiki is on page one, my page is on page 4, and the hub is on page 4. No sign of the squidoo yet, but I didn't look past page 4. Not bad for 5 days.

I'm going to post the ezine article today, and make a few lists containing my link this week. I want to see if I can get my page to the front.

Here's some info on building back links using:

Link Lists
Hubs
WikiHow
Squidoo, and
Article Directories.

Feel free to visit some of my hubs and squidoos and leave comments thanking me for all of the wonderful information I've shared!

Buy Used Homeschool Textbooks - wikiHow

2008-07-27T04:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the page I created at wikiHow last week. I wanted to see how the "embed article" feature worked.

How to Buy Used Homeschool Textbooks

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Are you looking for a way to save money on homeschool curriculum? Follow these tips to locate and buy used homeschool textbooks.

Steps

Decide what curriculum you want to use for each each child you are homeschooling. Make sure you consider every subject you will teach.
Make a list of the specific items you need for each subject and child. Include workbooks, lesson plans, answer keys and extra items, like math manipulatives and flash cards.
Write down the publisher, title, edition and level of each item you want to purchase.
Check the retail price of each item and decide how much you want to spend.
Check thrift stores, garage sales, homeschool group sales and used book stores to see if they have the used homeschool textbooks you need.
Search online message boards and websites that carry used homeschooling curriculum.
Evaluate the products' condition. Find out if the materials have any missing or damaged pages.
Find out the seller's payment and shipping terms, and ask for alternate arrangements, if necessary.
Purchase your materials and await their arrival.
Leave positive or negative feedback for the seller in order to help other buyers decide whether or not to make a purchase.

Tips

Most popular used homeschooling programs sell for 50-80% of retail price.
Set up a free PayPal account so you can make purchases online without giving your credit card information to the seller.
Purchase items like textbooks and lesson plans as a set in order to avoid buying similar items that don't go together.
View similar items in person before buying online to make sure you really want them.
Some curriculum publishers have internet message boards where you can buy and sell used versions of their curriculum.

Warnings

Avoid buying products that aren't on your list just because they're a good deal.
Consider the costs of shipping and handling when deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
Ask the seller about his or her return policy.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Buy Used Homeschool Textbooks. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

It needed a little tweaking, but all in all, not bad. I love wikiHow because it makes it easy to put useful information into article format. (Notice I emphasized the word "useful".)

I also love wikiHow because it seems to rank well with Google!

Here's more info about my experience with wikiHow.

Adsense Income

2008-07-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've been earning a check from Google every other month since I put my ads up at the end of January, and I'm now on track to receive a monthly check.

It's not enough to bring my husband home from the workforce, but I've long since earned enough from Google and affiliate income to cover my SBI expenses.

I'm just glad my income is moving in the right direction. I expect the floodgates to open any day. ;)

Google Knol

2008-07-25T08:44:00.001-07:00

Google has opened a website called Knol which is supposed to rival Wikipedia.

The difference between a knol (or unit of knowledge) and a wiki is that knols can be written by a single, credited author who can either accept or deny requests from those in the community to make changes to the knol. Knol authors can also display Adsense and earn revenue from their knols.

Wikis often show up in the search results for my main keywords, and if knols take the same route, I want to be one of the first to create great knols on my subject. I just finished up a knol entitled Homeschool: Everything You Need to Know About Homeschooling. I'm also planning a knol on Homeschool Curriculum that I hope to get to fairly quickly.

I am really glad I used original content in my knol. Knols that are duplicates show have a link beside them showing what percentage of the knol's content was found elsewhere and a link to where the content was found.

One mistake I made when building my knol was creating it on Knol's website. I would write a section, save it, go take care of something around the home. Then write a few more sentences, save, handle other matters again. My knol shows up as version 84, where as most knols I've seen are on version 2-3!

Update 7/26/08: Here's the link to the knol I wrote today entitled Homeschool Curriculum: Find the Best Homeschooling Curriculum for Your Child.

I'll keep you posted as to the results. Feel free to stop by my knols and leave a comment!

WikiHow

2008-07-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

WikiHow is another website I use for back links. It is closely moderated so when posting on wikiHow, make sure you provide helpful, accurate information. (I always do!)

Here are some pages I've created at wikiHow:

How to Overcome Opposition to Homeschooling
How to Save Money on Homeschooling Curriculum
How to Choose a Homeschool Curriculum
How to Determine Your Child's Learning Style
How to Work at Home while Homeschooling

I have added my links to a few existing wikiHow pages, but I don't do that often because it can get too spammy.

Some webmasters have had success linking their sites to Wikipedia, but it is tricky to put an external link there without having it removed, so I haven't bothered with it.

Hub Pages

2008-07-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hub Pages are quick and easy to create. I build them in order to share info with others and get backlinks to my site. Here are the Hubs I've built so far:

Inexpensive Homeschooling
Working and Homeschooling
Choose a Homeschooling Curriculum
How to Homeschool Preschool
How to Start Homeschooling
Debunking Myths about Homeschooling

I use the same photos I use on my website in order to avoid having to purchase photos specifically for the hubs. I am trying to remember to go comment on a few hubs occasionally to see if I bring traffic to my hub. I don't want to spend much time on it though, because my main focus is on my website.

Squidoo Lens

2008-07-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Squidoo is another website I use to build back links for my site. I build a lens related to T2 pages create, and write an article summarizing the content of the T3 pages beneath it. Here are some Squidoo pages I've written. I don't think they look as nice as the hubs.

Working and Homeschooling
You Can Homeschool Preschool
Inexpensive Homeschooling
Finding the Best Homeschool Curriculum
Homeschooling Dos and Don'ts

I use photos from my website on my Squidoo Lenses as well. Once you get the hang of writing articles and creating Hub and Squidoo pages they take very little time. I wrote 5 articles and created a hub and a squidoo all in one day. It is a great way to build links back to your site and make contacts within your niche.

Article Distribution

2008-07-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

Last month, I started posting articles to article directories in order to build backlinks and drive traffic to my website. Some of my articles have hit page 1 of Google.

Right now, I'm posting articles Ezine Articles, Go Articles, Article Alley, Article Dashboard and Amazines. I post the same article on all 5 sites. Because the articles are not published on my website, I am not worried about being penalized for duplicate content.

The secret to writing high quality articles rather quickly is summarizing good content from your site. I write all of my articles using the same simple format.

An informative article like this one on Homeschooling Methods, is set up as follows:
Intro
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 3
Link to More Info
My Bio

This article was based on a T2 page on my website about Homeschooling Methods. The intro consists of 2 sentences summarizing that page. The remaining paragraphs consist of 2-3 sentences summarizing the T3 pages beneath that T2 page.

Some articles are simply condensed, rewritten pages from my website. This article on Discount Homeschool Books is based upon my website page Discount Homeschool Books.

I also format articles in the form of lists like this one on Homeschooling Preschool. I opened with a 2-3 sentence summary of my page Homeschooling Preschool, and made 5 points beneath it containing 2-3 sentences each.

I tried writing original content for article directories, but it took too much of my time and I want to save my best content for my website.

I don't run my articles through SBI's Analyze It!, but I set them up so they would pass Analyze It! if I used it. If the directory asks for a summary, I use the first two sentences from my article.

When I first published this article on Affordable Homeschooling, it appeared on page one of Google and boosted my website page to page one as well. This month Ezine Articles, was the 5th source of traffic to my site. Numbers 1-4 were:

1. Yahoo Answers
2. Google
3. Bella Online, and
4. Baby Center

Bella Online and Baby Center are forums, and the homeschooling section of Bella Online is NOT active. Stay tuned for my tips on building traffic through forum participation. You can subscribe to this blog using the orange RSS button to your right.

Link Lists

2008-07-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

This week I created link lists for the Work at Home Moms section of my website. I went to websites that allow you to create lists of resources, created a list of great resources for work at home moms, and added my site to the list.

Here are some lists I've made at WhatAli.st:
Homeschooling Resources
Free Homeschooling Curriculum
Work at Home Opportunities

Here are some lists I've made at Listible:
Inexpensive Homeschooling Resources
Preschool Resources
Resources for Work at Home Moms

I added my link to this list at Listible:
Homeschooling Resources

I also added my Usborne website to a few relevant lists.

Here are some lists I've made at Listphile:
Best Homeschooling Resources
Low Cost Homeschooling Resources
Resources for Work at Home Moms

I made this list at On My List, but I had technical problems the last time I tried to build a list so I never built any others:
Top 5 Homeschooling Websites

This is a quick and easy way to build back links. Once you are registered and learn how to navigate the websites, it only takes a few minutes to build a list.

Squidoo, Hubs and Wikihow

2008-07-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

I entered some keywords that I wrote Ezine articles for in Google to see if they were being found in the search results. For my keywords related to working and homeschooling, my website, Hub, Squidoo and wikiHow pages were found. And I just wrote those pages this week!

It is nice to know that, however slowly, my hardwork is paying off.

Back Links

2008-07-18T08:40:00.000-07:00

I checked my link popularity through SBI's value exchange, and I have a link popularlity of 49.3 and I have 1,720 back links (according to yahoo). I have no idea what this means, other than that, according to SBI, a link popularity in the 50's is good.

For me, the key to getting back links has been to post in forums and on blogs, answer questions at Yahoo Answers, and create Hub Pages, Squidoo Lenses, link lists and wikiHow pages.

I'll post examples of each over coming days.

Marketing Blitz

2008-07-17T08:23:00.001-07:00

I'm still hovering in the one hundreds in terms of traffic, so I'm still working really hard to build backlinks and boost my site's ranking with the search engines.

One of the new things I'm trying is a marketing blitz when I add a new section of my website.

I posted the new pages here at my work at home blog earlier this week. Yesterday, I wrote 5 ezine articles. I will post each of them at 5 article directories over the next couple of weeks.

I also wrote this Hub Page on working and homeschooling and this Squidoo Lens on working and homeschooling. Later this week, I'll create lists including links to my new pages on several list building sites.

Once I put photos and ads on my new pages, I'll announce the new section on various forums I'm a part of and change the link in my siggy.

I had great results doing this for my Affordable Homeschooling section. So we'll see how well it works this time.

Page Rank

2008-07-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

A friend told me she checked the page rank for my website, Successful Homeschooling, and found that I have a PR of 4. That's awesome!

I downloaded the Google toolbar which allows me to check the PR of different sites. You can find it here.

Added a New T2 for WAHMS

2008-07-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the section of my website for work at home moms. I have some fairly good keywords that I hope I can win. Here are the new pages:

Work at Home Moms
Work at Home Mom Job
Work at Home Moms Opportunity
Moms Work at Home Business
Moms Work at Home Online
Work at Home Mom Online
Moms Who Work at Home

The WAHM section is kind of a mini website within my website, but I've found that many homeschoolers are looking for this information, and I've tried to tie it all in with the theme of working and homeschooling.

It also gives me a chance to promote the income side of one of my affiliates - Usborne. I made these pages about the Usborne consultant opportunity:

Usborne Books at Home Consultant
Home Based Business Opportunity Usborne
Usborne Books at Home Business

Turning a T3 into a T2

2008-06-11T04:20:00.000-07:00

I finished add a new Tier 2 section to my website this week.

I had this page, Affordable Homeschooling, as a Tier 3 page under the Tier 2, Homeschooling Information. This week, I added it to the nav bar, making it a Tier 2, and put the following pages under it as Tier 3's:

Homeschooling Cost
Discount Homeschool Books
Used Homeschooling Books
Used Homeschool Curriculum
Free Homeschooling Curriculum
Free Homeschooling Resources
Homeschool Discounts
Virtual Schools

I also linked it to an existing, related Tier 3 page:

Home School Curriculum Fair

We're also trying out some new things with marketing and adsense. My husband set up some channels for adsense testing. We're also trying the Share This button, article distribution and forum announcements for marketing.

My new pages contain great content so I'm not at all shy about sharing them. I'm adding an announcement to my homeschool blog, and linking new pages to this blog is also part of our promotion strategy in the form of back links.

Only time will tell which of these efforts will pay off. In internet marketing, you have to be willing to experiment.

Affordable Homeschooling

2008-06-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

Last week, I added a new section to my website about Affordable Homeschooling.

I created pages about:

Homeschooling Cost
Free Homeschooling Curriculum
Free Homeschooling Resources
Homeschool Discounts
Discount Homeschool Books
Used Homeschool Books
Used Homeschooling Curriculum, and
Virtual Schools

I honestly believe this is one of my best sections yet, and I'm going to launch it on my blog and in forums next week when I finish my pages on work at home moms.

I think the one thing I have going for me with SBI is my content. I absolutely love my subject, and I am committed to giving my visitors accurate, helpful information.

My First Google Check

2008-04-01T20:00:00.001-07:00

When we checked the mail tonight, my husband said, "Somebody sent you a check." The envelope looked plain to me, which means I probably would have tossed it if he hadn't been with me.

However, I opened it, and inside was my first Google Adsense check for a little over $125. Not bad, considering I've only had ads on my website since the end of January.

That's just one more reason I Love SBI!

Commenting On Blogs to Increase Traffic

2008-04-01T05:20:00.000-07:00

I recently started maintaining a homeschool blog to drive traffic to my website. One of the main ways to drive traffic to a blog is to comment on other blogs.

This week, I subscribed to about 30 homeschool blogs that I plan to read and comment on. My goal is to comment on each blog at least once a week.

Lisa just published some great tips for commenting on blogs.

My Usborne Website is Up!

2008-03-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

I registered my domain name, and James set up the redirect for me.

Check it out!

http://www.usborne-childrens-books.com/