Archive for the 'Corrie Petersen' Category

Tips for Writing Successful Articles and Blog Posts

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

Writing articles and blog posts is important for your business, but it won’t do you any good if you don’t know how to make it happen. If you remember back to your school days you’ll know your English teacher taught you how to write proper sentences and she also talk you how to write paragraphs and stories. If you struggle with this, go back to the basics and search online to help you find tutorials or websites that offer help with writing.

When you write articles or blog posts you must start with an introduction paragraph, then two or more paragraphs explaining the information you provided in the introduction paragraph, and then a conclusion paragraph. Everything you write should follow this no matter what. When you write everything like this you’ll have great content and people will find it’s easy to read and understand.

If you find this is hard to do, the best thing to do is create an outline that includes what you want your article or blog post to be about. You don’t want it to be sentence by sentence, but rather the key points or highlights you want to cover. An outline will help you to have an idea of what you want to say and you’ll know the proper order for everything. It’s important to use this technique with every article or until you get to a point where you can write them on your own without the help of an outline.

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Guest Post: 3 Important Tips to Keeping your Children Safe

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Parenting can be very rewarding, but at times the things our children do can scare us. One of the scariest things a small child could do would have to be to get lost. They can be in a store with you looking at something and before you know it they’ve wondered off and are no longer in the same area as you. Another thing they can do is think they know how to get home by themselves only to find out it’s not possible and they’ve gotten themselves into a neighborhood that’s not familiar.

This can happen in any community and at any time and it can scare not only the child, but the parents as well. Training your children to know what to do in any situation like this is a good thing to do, but it’s not always done and the main reason is because some parents are blind to these situations or we just think it will never happen to you. If you think this way you’ll regret it sooner or later if it were to happen to you.

While it’s scary to think it could happen to you, it’s very important to make sure you’re children are safe and educated. Here are a few tips to help you to protect your children.

1. If you go to the store with your children regularly it’s important to talk to them about what to do if they get separated from you. Teach them who to talk to and who not to talk to so you know they’re safe. If you visit a store regularly you could set a place to meet if you get separated from each other.

2. If your children must walk home from school or a bus stop you need to make sure they can get home if they have to do it on their own. Walk with them from school to home and home to school and when they feel they can do it alone let them make the walk alone, but follow behind them. (more…)

Why do I Need a Blog for my Site?

Monday, January 30th, 2012

I had a question that was posed to me this weekend and it made me do a lot of thinking. The question was this: Why do I need a blog for my site?

This question came from a person that’s new to marketing online, but wants to grow and have a successful business. She had a lot of questions about this process, so I thought the best way to handle it would be to write an article to help her.

Your website is a great way to show people the products or services you offer. You can go into detail on what you offer and your website will give you the ability to allow them to purchase right there while they’re on the site. What your website won’t allow you to do is share tips that show your market how your products or services can help them, you won’t be able to show your market why they should buy from you, and you can’t share information about your company and your products.

Creating a blog and posting those kinds of messages to it will give you the ability to do all of those things on a regular basis. You’ll have the ability to place your blog in front of your market on a daily basis. You’ll also have the ability show your market that you’re an expert in your field through the posts you make.

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Are you financially able to be a WAHM?

Friday, January 27th, 2012

Our economy is troubling right now. Many people are losing their jobs, taking pay cuts, or losing hours so that businesses can continue to keep their doors open. The economic problems are affecting everyone, not just the people that are losing their jobs or taking pay cuts.

If you are a work at home mom or a stay at home mom, this can cause stress in your life. If your spouse has lost his job or taken a cut in pay or hours, you may be feeling the stress of knowing that you may have to go get a job to help make ends meet. I know this is something that you don’t want to do, so this article will show you some steps you can take to make sure you don’t have to get a job outside the home.

• Store

One way to save money at the store is to buy only the items that are essential. Don’t buy that awesome shirt that you just know would look great on you, don’t buy that must have pair of earrings to go with that new dress that you purchased, and don’t buy your husband that cool hat that would be an awesome addition to his hat collection. These are luxuries not necessities and so if it came right down to it, these could go by the way side.

Another way to save money at the store is to consider buying in bulk. If you have a Sam’s Club or Costco, you should consider buying your meats, chicken, and canned goods there instead of the grocery store. You will save money in the long run because these items can either be frozen or left on the shelf for several months.

One last option to consider at the store is to purchase generic items when possible. If you think about it, can you really taste the difference between name brand and generic French fries or soup? There may be certain items like cheese or lunch meat that you will want to purchase a name brand rather than generic, but if you can consider generic as much as you can.

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Tips for Saving Money by Living Frugally

Friday, January 13th, 2012

January can be a difficult time of year for some. If you over spent during the Christmas season or you used credit cards to pay for your Christmas gifts, you may find yourself stressed about how you’re going to pay for everything. When this happens, it’s important to find a way to eliminate the stress and pay for the bills as they come in.

The best way to do this is to live frugally for a time. Depending on how much you need to save, you may need to do this for a few months or you may need to adopt the frugal living lifestyle. There are a number of ways to make to do this and a few of them are listed below.

Going out to eat is a habit we’ve all become a custom to and it can cost a lot more money than it would if you were to make your meals at home. Depending on where you live and the place you go, you could spend $30 to $60 or more on your meal. When you go to the store to make your purchases you will spend $5 to $15 on a meal depending on what you prepare. That’s a huge savings each time and that savings could go to pay the bills.

Another way to save money and live more frugally is to use price matching and couponing. Depending on the store you go to and the coupons you use, you could save as little as $5, but you could save a substantial amount which could total $50 or more each time you go. $50 could buy a tank of gas or pay your electric bill, so the savings with this option could be tremendous.

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2 Tips for Gaining Customers through Article Marketing

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Gaining customers is the only way to grow your business and reach your goals. While there are several ways to make this happen, one of the best ways is to use article marketing. Articles give your customers or potential customers a chance to see what you can do and you can show them you’re an expert in your field.

There are a number of ways to come up with article ideas that will help you gain customers, but there are two that will make it happen a little easier.

1. Keywords

Search article directories and search engines using keywords that are geared to your target market and look for questions and tips that come in your searches. These things will make for good articles and you’ll find your customers or potential customers will want to read them.

The best way to come up with the keywords is to think about your target market and what they need and want. Put yourself in their shoes and use keyword searches that come to mind based on those thoughts. It’s a good idea to write them down so you can use them again later.

2. Surveys

Articles are supposed to help your customers or potential customers so what better way to do that then to ask them what they’d like to see you write about? When you do this you’ll find they’ll want to read what you write because they’ll know you’re writing to help them with their needs.

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Tips for Setting Frugal Goals for 2012

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

The New Year is in nine days and if you’re struggling to make ends meet or if you want to set a goal to take a vacation in 2012 you may need to consider doing to frugal living in order for it to happen.

Setting frugal goals is a wonderful way to spend less and have more and the New Year is the perfect time to make that happen. There are a number of things you can do to make it happen, but it’s best to start now so you’ll know exactly what to do to make it happen. Here are a few suggestions to help you set the frugal goals for 2012.

I would say the area you’ll see the most savings when it comes to living frugally has to be at the grocery store. An easy way to save at the store is to purchase generic items whenever possible. Now you make find that’s not always possible or you may not like the generic item and if that’s the case you’ll need to purchase name brand, but if you can’t taste the difference, you should do it. For example, we don’t like generic cheese, but we don’t have a problem with generic soup when it’s used in a meal and not a stand alone item.

Another way to save money at the store is to use coupons. Now you must be careful on this because there may be times when you have a coupon for the name brand product, but if the price isn’t lower with the coupon and you don’t mind a generic, you need to go that route. You’ll need to pay close attention to the prices and quantities or you’ll end up spending more than what is necessary.

One last technique that will help you save money at the store is to use price matching. If your store offers this, you should take the time to write down the price of items you need at other stores and then ask the cashier to match it if it’s higher at the store you’re at. This is a practice that not all stores follow, so it’s important to check before you take the time to do it.

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4 Tips for Avoiding Stress on your Marriage during the Holiday Season

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

During the holiday season life is always busy. You have all the Christmas shopping to do, cards to write, and baking to do along with all your regular day to day stuff. It can get stressful and hectic at times which makes it hard. A lot of times we end of grumpy and taking things out on the ones we love. This time of year is also stressful due to the amount of money you have to spend on gifts and other Christmas things.

When this stress happens, often times, we end up taking it out on the ones we love and a lot of times that ends of being the spouse. This can add stress to the marriage which is not good. It’s better to not let the stress of the holiday season effect your marriage, but that’s difficult to do. Here are some tips for making the holiday season less stressful on your marriage.

1. The best way to handle the stress is to not go at it alone. Do your holiday shopping, cards, and baking together as a couple. That way you won’t feel like it’s all coming down on you and this gives you a chance to be together.

2. Another way to handle the stress of the holidays is to spread it out of the month. This will help you to prevent the last minute things that can make you feel overwhelmed.

3. While you may think it’s next to impossible, scheduling “me” time is very important during the holiday season. This time can include getting your hair or nails done; taking a nap, watching a movie, or whatever else you feel is relaxing to you.

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Tips for using LinkedIn

Sunday, December 18th, 2011

LinkedIn is a like an online resume’ so to speak. It’s also a great way to be high on the Google search engines for your name. Depending on the popularity of your name, you might be the first site listed.

The number one thing that is more important than anything is your profile. If you don’t have a complete profile, you’re not going to get anywhere with it. It’s possible, a partial profile page could do you more harm than good, so you must be careful.

Now that your profile is created you need to add contacts to your profile. To start you can search for people you know like friends, family, and co-workers. Connections will help you to meet other people which will ultimately introduce you to people that will help you grow your business or they’ll help you find a new job.

After you have added all the contacts you have it’s time to join groups so you can find more people to add. You’ll want to join groups that are related to your business or the type of work you do for a living. You’ll want to communicate with people and network with them before you ask them to be a contact.

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Are you worried about your finances?

Friday, December 16th, 2011

If you are a work at home mom, you probably find yourself worrying about your finances quite often. When you are unsure of your income from month to month, this can add stress to your life. You know home is where you want to be and you know being your own boss is your dream, but worrying about the money was never supposed to be a part of the big picture.

There are many ways you can save money so you can live your life without stress. It honestly depends on you and your family and what you are willing to sacrifice or give up to be able to continue to stay at home.

As moms, we know how to stretch our dollar as far as possible. For some this may come very easily, but it may be really hard for others in the beginning. There are many things you can do to make this dream of yours continue.

Being a frugal mom is the way to go. This article will give you some tips and tricks that will help you stretch your dollar and make it go a long ways.

• Phone

For some, a landline is a must. That may be the only way you will have an internet connection. If this is the case, think about your cell phone. Do you really need one? Is it possible for your husband to have one and that’s it? If you spend your days at home and your evenings and weekends with your husband, what is the point in paying for the service?

Another thing you need to do is talk to your phone company to see what features you can eliminate to save you money. There is no point in paying for those features that you are not using.

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