Got Business Cards?

Finally! This is something that is long overdue. I finally ordered business cards today from Vista Print. Part of the reason I was waiting was that I wanted to set-up my website first so that I could include that url on my business card. I know you're saying, "But you already have websites!"

Yes, I do, but I wanted to set up StacieMahoe.com and I finally got that up and running today! Well, most of it anyway. I have two more page to finish up for the final touches and it'll be done. I'm sure I'll have it completed by the time I have the business cards to start passing out. Anyway - I'm excited about both things. What I did was put StacieMahoe.com as the business name on the card and in the url, I was able to put the address to my opt-in page for my softball site. Since softball is my main love and focus, I wanted there to be something on the card about softball. I think it works out rather well.

People will still know to visit StacieMahoe.com if they want to know more about what I do and there is also the link to FreeFastpichTips.com for when I give it out to softball people! :)

Club mom gives away free magazine

Club mom is a place where millions of moms visit to get advice, connect with other moms, and earn rewards. This is one of the first message boards I participated in when I first began connecting with moms online. Club Mom also has tons of information for moms ~ from cooking to beauty, from hobbies to parenting ~ I'm sure you'll find something you can use to enhance your life.

Now when you join Club Mom you can get a FREE 6 month subscription to Better Homes & Garden Magazine. There is no credit card required and there is no cost to join Club Mom. So if you're not already a member, check out Club Mom and get your Free subscription to Better Homes & Garden Today.

Free (no credit card required) Better Homes and Gardens Magazine when you join ClubMom for Free.

WAHM kick in the butt!

For a number of business reasons, my job has decided to end my employee position there and put me on a consultant type basis. I'd be an independent contractor paid by the hour when they need my services/knowledge, etc. Since summer is a typically slower time of year for the business anyway, my last day of work as an "employee" is June 15th. My medical is paid through the end of June and after my last day, I'll more of less have the summer off. I don't foresee getting called in all that often to work. So....that means I'm getting a WAHM kick in the butt. That step that I'd been hesitant to take, quitting my day job altogether, has now been thrust upon me. This may just be the kick I need to take earning from home to the next level. I will take some time to find a schedule that works for me and my children and allows me to be more productive and earn more money at home.

Thankfully, my youngest daughter is now in her last month of pre-school, so the major bill that my paycheck used to take care of is gone. Financially this change shouldn't hurt us at all. I'm sure it will take some time before I find a good balance between taking care of family and taking care of my business, but I know everything will work out in the end. I'm actually quite excited at the thought of being in complete control of my time and activities. I look forward to eliminating my drive to and from town (especially with gas prices the way they are)! Anyway - wish me luck. As of June 16th, I will no longer work outside the home. And I'm actually quite happy about that!

Technorati Tags: my life, Blog, Daily Life, Home, Life,work

American Idol - Final Week

We haven't really been following American Idol all that closely. I mean, we know who's still in and we know who got booted most recently, but we don't watch every minute of every show. In fact, if we do watch, it's mostly to see Taylor Hicks perform. Plus, we like to watch every minute of House.

However, I am very interested in who becomes the next American Idol (Go Taylor ~ Go Taylor ~ Go Taylor!) Can you tell who I'm rooting for. Not that I don't like Katherine, in fact, I think she has a nice voice, but I just enjoy watching Taylor perform more. So, though I may not watch every minute ~ Go Taylor!

Who are you rooting for?

Technorati Tags: Entertainment, Music, My Life, Television

Big House Cleaning!

Well, it was more like a big living room cleaning, but still. I was watching the tv show "Sell this House" and I got inspired to declutter and straighten up my living room. One of our end table had become a catch all for mail, keys, and other assorted small things that didn't have a home. Near my desk I had piled up all kinds of stuff (mostly junk) that didn't belong there. Then we had a number of things under our other end table and a bunch of papers piled on top of my desk.

So.....I went through all those "catch all"/cluttered areas, and cleaned up! I threw away a lot of rubbish and found homes for the many things that had sort of just been dumped waiting for a home. Anything else, I just put out in the garage to deal with later. I just knew I didn't want it in the living room. So that's my next project - go through the garage and declutter there. I'm sure there is a lot that we don't need and a lot that can be put away better.

I can see much more carpet now that I could before and there is nothing on our sofa or our loveseat! It's so nice to have a decluttered living room. I had to take pictures because I don't know how long it will last or when it will be this way again, but I hope we can keep it this way from now on. With four kids, it's not always easy. I don't know how some moms do it ~ their house is just spotless! Now that my children are getting older and they most certainly can clean up after themselves, I need to make it a point to see that they do so and that they have some pride in their home and help keep it clean!

Technorati Tags: my life, Blog, Daily Life, Home, Life

Payment from Amazon

Wow - I'd completely given up on earning anything with Amazon's affiliate program, but their links are still here and there on my website. We'll this month I got my first ever payment from them. A whopping $10.04. I had to sell 14 items to earn that $10. I really don't now if that's worth it or not. That's why I'm starting to do more with ClickBank than Amazon - the percentage you earn is much better. Plus it's an instant download for your customers. Anyway, just wanted to share about my surprising Amazon payment. LOL

Technorati Tags: Work, blog, amazon, affiliate, affiliate programs, Internet Marketing

Offer Freebies and Earn

Max Bounty offers an affiliate program where you can promote freebies, surveys, and giveaways and earn money. Find something that your target market would enjoy and earn. Many programs pay per lead and have both text ads to send to your mailing list or banners you can post on your site. Here are a few examples of what's available:

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That just gives you an idea of the different things you could offer to your visitors and/or list. Some programs have specific instructions on whether you can or cannot e-mail the offers. Some are only allowed to be send to confirmed e-mail subscribers and cannot be placed on websites, so be sure to check the description when you "get links."

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free

A mom's worth, but what about Dads?

The first time I had ever heard about an annual salary estimation for moms was about 5 years ago when I was a stay-at-home-mom. At the time I thought it was really cool to see. It was a way for me to show my husband in black and whitedollars and cents just how much work I do at home.

Recently, there has been quite a bit of talk about a Mom's worth. One of the other softball moms from my daughter's team was saying that it was discussed on a national news channel (must have been when I was on vacation). I found out that there is also an article at Salary.com that talks about a mom's worth. The only "problem" I have with the article is that now it goes into a working mom's worth too. I guess they did that because they didn't want to leave working moms out and make them feel like they don't do as much at home as stay at home moms. I not sure if that's true, that's just what it seemed like to me.

Here's the problem with that: Now that they've decided to include working moms, I can't show this to my husband. I mean after I show him that a stay-at-home mom does about $134,121 worth of work each year, he going to see the part for working moms. That part takes into consideration a working mom's salary plus what she does at home to determine here total "mom salary." I just know once my husband sees that he's going to say, "Well, what about working dads?"

And he's right, after all, if you're going to come up with a "mom salary" for working moms, now men are going to want to know what their "dad salary" would be. This means you'd have to take my husband's work salary into consideration then and on his "dad earnings." If for moms you add on income for housekeeper, van driver, cook, laundry machine operator, janitor, etc then for dads you'd have to add on earnings for things like:

plumber
gardener
groundskeeper
landscaper
dog walker
dog trainer
dog groomer
electronic device maintenance
mechanic
major appliance installer
furniture assembler
child care assistant
painter
tile installer
furniture delivery driver
etc, etc, etc

Now with all that totalled up, my husband would yet again, outshine me in the monetary earnings department. For me that just defeats the purpose of being able to show him this "mom salary." The whole idea was to be able to see that even though I don't earn as much money as him, what I do is just as valuable. But now, I'm pretty sure that he would easily best my $150,000+ annual "mom salary" which puts what he does right back up at a higher value than what I do. KWIM? After all, his "dad earnings" would only have to be about $50,000 to top me.

Earning money with photos

Like any other mother out there I love to take pictures of my kids. But even before I had kids though, I loved taking pictures. I even took two photography classes in high school. So a while back I found out that I might be able to earn money with photos that I take and so can you. I registered to be a photographer at Shutterstock.

The only thing is that you have to upload 10 of your best pictures for them to review before you can really get started. Also, these pics must be 2.5 MB. If you're not sure if your pictures are big enough, they say to take the pixels (i.e. 1280 X 960) and multiply them 1280 X 960 = 1,228,800 ~ the total has to be above 2,000,000. As you can see a picture that is 1240 X 980 would qualify and that's what size most of my pictures were. So, I had to wait until I had accumulated enough pictures at the right size (that I liked) for submission. Well, I'm writing this post because I just finished uploading my 10 pictures. We'll have to wait and see if they get approved. If not, then I have to wait before I can do another submission for them to review.

So, if you also love taking picture and think this is something you'd like to do, click here to sign up as a photographer for Shutterstock.

My blog should be green - how about yours?

Not really easily annoyed by "thoughtless" comments, just idiodic ones ;)

Your Blog Should Be Green

Your blog is smart and thoughtful - not a lot of fluff.You enjoy a good discussion, especially if it involves picking apart ideas.However, you tend to get easily annoyed by any thoughtless comments in your blog.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Pictures of Us from the Wedding

Wow - I finally got a few pictures of us from the wedding back in Jan. No, it wasn't my wedding, but my SIL got married and DH and I and the girls were all in the wedding. I wrote another post about it here if you have no clue what I'm talking about. Anyway, here are a couple more. No, I don't always look like that. It's one of the few days I'm all done up in make-up with my hair up and wearing a dress - all very unusual. :)


Click to Enlarge



Me and DH

Cruisin' in the Bahamas

Boy was that a lot of fun! I most certainly plan to go on another cruise some time in the future. Hopefully within the next 5-7 years (if not sooner). DH and I had so much fun. Even though we went to beaches which we have here at home, it was nice because we had no kids with us, no dinner to cook, no chores waiting at the end of the day, no work tomorrow, etc. It was so nice and relaxing to be able to sit on a beach with nothing to do! I have to admit though, now that I'm back in the "real world" I have a headache. LOL

I think next time, I'll plan the childcare for our kids a lot better so that I'm not as worried about it while we're gone. Then I'd be able to just enjoy every minute of being away. I know I'll still think about them, but I'll also know they're fine. That's why I'd like to wait about 5 years before we go again. By that time our youngest will be 6 and I know I'll worry about him a lot less when he's older.

For those of you who've never been on a cruise before - I give it a thumbs up!

Give it a try