Work at Home Moms Articles – WAHM Articles

Last month I came back from my Hawaii vacation and didn’t gain a pound. Strangely, I lost a pound. I’m not on any diet and I don’t need to lose weight, but I strive to eat well and live healthy.

If you have been working on losing weight, it’s easy to fall off the wagon when you’re on vacation. Yes, you’re going on vacation, but your diet doesn’t have to.

Here are five helpful tips to avoid weight gain while on vacation.

Planning
Research your vacation spot and look for accommodations that have a kitchen or kitchenette so you can prepare your own meals. Knowing a bit about your vacation destination will help greatly. I visited Hawaii and it’s an expensive place to live and visit. It was an easy decision for us to make our own evening meals and dine out about three or four times during the 10 days we were there. Lunch time was a bit different, but we found quaint eateries that were inexpensive. You can certainly pack lunches and snacks before you set out for your days of adventure.

Groceries
If you can find a farmer’s market around your vacation spot, buy some fresh fruits and vegetables as they are cheaper than going to a supermarket. They are great snacks while you’re on the go or relaxing in your hotel room.

If there’s a Costco in your area, buy nuts and dried fruits, but be careful of the sugar content. Depending on how long you’re staying and if you have a kitchen, you can buy your meats and other food items. What we did was plan what meals we could have. If you think buying bulk is too much, it’s not considering you can make different meals out of one item. For example, we bought hamburger patties for burgers and for spaghetti. We didn’t, but you could also make tacos or sloppy joes.

Beverages
When you’re on vacation, it’s nice to indulge in some alcoholic or non-alcoholic tropical drinks or foreign beer and wine, but they all have calories and some have more than others. You’ve heard it before all in moderation. Drinking alcohol or iced coffees causes dehydration so water is absolutely the best drink and it has 0 calories. We bought bottled water after we went through airport security and kept the bottles so we could refill them whenever we went out. It also saved us money from buying bottled water each time. Plus, water helps you lose weight by making you feel full.

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A business partnership shouldn’t be entered into lightly. It should be well-thought out by all parties. A written business partnership agreement is ideal and comes highly recommended.

Some business partnerships are born when two or more people are engaged in an enthusiastic conversation. You know what I mean, right? We all have dreams or things we always want to do, but never have make time to do them. So, the conversation may go like this. “I wish I could do____and then I would_____. I could create____and it would be so rockin’ awesome! Can you imagine?! It would be so cool! I would hire you to write press releases, articles, etc. for me OR…” Yep, you guessed right. The big or is to become business partners. Before you know it, you’re both ahead of the game as you continue to brainstorm to come up with a domain name and checking out WordPress templates.

Trust me; it’s not a bad thing to become business partners when you have a business agreement. It’s bad thing when you don’t have a written agreement and things don’t turn out as you expect.

Here are some key factors to look for when it comes to business partnerships.

Business Partnership Agreement
There is quite a few things to cover in the business agreement. One that some people forget is the exit plan. What happens if one wants to dissolve the partnership, death of a partner, adding new partners, how clients will be handled, how to settle disagreements or disputes, expenses, profits and losses, etc.

Who’s the Boss?
Business partnerships aren’t necessarily 50/50 equal sharing. It should be 51/49. You’ll have to decide who will have the upper hand or final say in the business.

Job Duties
It’s important for all involved to know what their responsibilities are and what decisions they are allowed to make without having to wait for the other partner’s approval. This is especially important if you run into a time sensitive matter, you can’t get a hold of your business partner, and you need to make a decision now or lose the client or lose the sale.

Choosing a Business Partner
This is important. There are disadvantages if you choose a friend as your business partner. One main disadvantage is losing the friendship if things go wrong and your partnership dissolves.

Like a job, you should interview the person. You shouldn’t look for a carbon copy of yourself; quite the opposite, your partner should possess the skills you lack. Also, how about their work ethics and how they represent themselves online? You may get someone who have great skills and talent, but lack professionalism which can hurt your reputation and business.

A business partnership has many benefits and if you do it right, take your time, think it out and protect yourself, your chances of finding success together is greater.

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter, and founder of WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free resource focusing on work at home companies and jobs, home businesses and other work at home related topics.

My guest bloggers are amazing and they’re the ones that help me keep the WAHM-Articles blog going. If it weren’t for them I’d find fewer posts on the blog and that’s not what I want for the readers of this blog.

I’m thankful for each one of them and I’m so glad they’ve decided to take part and help me with this wonderful blog. I know I’ve learned a lot from each of them and I know that will continue into the future as well.

Just in case you’re not sure who my wonderful guest bloggers are, you can see my list below.

Sophia McIntyre – http://www.workathomespace.com
Tammy Embrich – http://www.onestopwebemployment.com
Michelle Shaeffer – http://michelleshaeffer.com
Amy Royce – http://itsabloggylife.com
Deb Bixler – http://createcashflowshow.com

If it weren’t for you five ladies, the WAHM-Articles blog wouldn’t be what it is today. We wouldn’t have the help you supply with your posts and we wouldn’t have the information our readers come to look for each day.

I thank all of you for your help and I look forward to many more blog posts to come!

I love summer; it’s my favorite season. On many days summer is just good ol’ fun, but there are some precautions you should take when it comes to your home and family.

Home Saving Tips
- One way to keep your home cool is to keep the blinds drawn and windows closed.

- Avoid using your oven during hot summer days because this will make your air conditioning work harder. Opt to use your crock pot, grill, barbeque or toaster oven.

- Hang your laundry outdoors to dry. If you must use your dryer, run it at night.

- When you’re planning your landscape, look for tall shrubs to shade your home in the hot summer months. Use a sun umbrella to shade your home.

Home Security
People tend to be a bit careless in the summer when it comes to home security. Don’t leave windows slightly opened when you’re away from home. Even if your window is high up (unless it’s a tiny window), don’t think that won’t cause a problem because if someone really want to get into your home, they will find a way. It’s like leaving a ladder and crow bar in your unlocked garden shed.

Family Safety Tips
During the summer, sunscreen is a must for everyone, but getting your daily dose of vitamin D is just as important. Before you slather on your sunscreen, spend about 10-15 minutes in the sun to get your vitamin D.

Hats and sunglasses are important accessories to have even on cloudy days as UV rays can penetrate the clouds. Make sure they are good sunglasses that will protect your eyes.

First Aid Kit
Being outdoors can pose to be hazardous at any given time. Whether it’s a bee sting, pesky mosquito/insect bite or falling off your bike, make sure you have a first aid kit handy. In your kit, you may have an epi-pen if you or someone in your family has severe allergic reactions, an assortment of Band-Aids, gauze, polysporin, antiseptic wipes, tweezers etc. Don’t forget to replace what you have used.

Water
Being near the water to cool off is a given in the summer. Parental supervision is a must for kids who are at the beach, lake or outdoor pool. Inner tubes, water noodles or water wings are not a substitute for parental supervision. These float-like devices provides a false sense of security and they shouldn’t be relied upon. Teach or remind your kids about water safety.

Food
Hot summer days mean a lot of consumption of ice-cream, juices, lemonade etc. Be wary of how much sweets your kids are eating. Be sure to keep fresh fruits accessible within reach. Instead of eating sugary, store bought popsicles, make your own. Also, cut up and freeze your fresh fruits, make fruit smoothies, or yogurt popsicles. Most kids need to be reminded to drink fluids to stay hydrated and plain, filtered water is best!

I hope you have a fantastic summer with your family. Play and stay safe!

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter, and founder of WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free resource focusing on work at home companies and jobs, home businesses, ghostwriting services and other work at home related topics.

It’s okay to take a sick day even when you work from home was one of my work at home tips I offered on Twitter. As a small business owner who works at home, this question is often asked as to what you do when you’re sick.

My answer is depending on how sick I am and I do take sick days which I have taken recently. Some people may think, well, that’s easier said than done. For me, I’m like, how so?

Can you answer these two questions?

1. Is your business more important than your health?
2. How well is your business doing if you’re working on limited capacity?

Granted, some people may be able to work at full capacity when they’re ill, but I have to wonder what kind of quality a person is producing in their work.

It’s great if you have a Virtual Assistant (VA) or business partner to hold down the fort for you when you’re sick, but if you’re a one woman show like me here are two tips to keep your business running smoothly when you aren’t.

1. Set up an auto-responder for your email accounts. It could be a generic out of office/away from the desk and I’ll reply to you as soon as possible type message. You could easily have this already set up in your email settings and all you have to do is enable it.

There are two reasons this is a good idea.

I don’t know about you, but I get a “sick” brain. I’m also impatient and I can be very forward. I can be irritable. It’s hard to interpret tone in email communication and the last thing I want to do is sound condescending, snarky or rude to new clients, current clients or customers.

Secondly, you could be making bad business decisions. Correspondences are best left when you can fully wrap your brain around the subject.

2. You can still market your business on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook by automating your tweets. There are different third party apps you can use to schedule your tweets, but the common ones are TweetDeck and Hootsuite. It’s important to remember to answer your direct messages and replies when you’re feeling better.

Your business should be able to run on its own steam for a while. It’s important to take the time to recover from your illness because your business is as good as the person running it.

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter and founder of WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free resource focusing on work at home companies and jobs, home businesses and other money making opportunities.

As the seasons change once more with milder temperatures it means seasonal allergies are among us again. As a long-time seasonal allergy sufferer, this is one reason I don’t look forward to or enjoy spring.

A few Fridays ago, I decided to take full advantage of the beautiful spring day. Armed with my iPod, I went for a walk. It was only about 12 or 13 degrees Celsius and a bit chilly. It was still a blue and cloudless day. It took about 45 minutes before my nose started getting itchy and I knew right away I had paid the ultimate price of venturing out of my home to an invisible attack of pollen.

When I came home late that afternoon, I was pretty much done. I was in full-blown allergy mode and there wasn’t much else to do.

Over the years, I have taken a variety of antihistamine medication. Some worked, some didn’t, and over time, my body got used to it and they stopped working all together. I guess it was a blessing in disguise and as I became older and more aware of the non-prescription medications, I felt I was doing more harm to my body and I decided I would search for natural remedies instead.

Here are eight home remedies for easing seasonal allergy symptoms.

Tip #1:
Avoid peak pollen times which are usually high in the mornings. Stay indoors when it’s windy and keep your windows closed. On warm days, use a ceiling fan or regular fan to circulate the air in your home.

Tip #2:
Use a nasal saline spray to clean your sinuses. You can purchase a neti-pot and make your own saline solution. You can mix two heaping teaspoons of kosher salt, and one teaspoon of baking soda to one pint of water. Leave this solution at room temperature. Keep in mind, if the solution stings when you use it, use less salt. If you don’t have a neti-pot, a bulb syringe will suffice. Stand over the bathroom sink as the solution will go in one nostril, up your sinuses and come out your other nostril. Don’t worry if some of it will hit the back of your throat because that’s normal.

If you don’t want to make your own solution, you can buy natural nasal sprays at the pharmacy. Depending on the brand, you may be able to find them in light mist to a strong jet steam.

Tip #3:
Don’t hang your clothes, towels or bed linens outside to dry. As much as it is cost efficient, it makes things worse for people who have seasonal allergies.

Tip #4:
Wear a mask when you’re gardening and avoid touching your nose and eyes with your bare hands.

Tip #5:
Wash your hair daily. Yes, it’s a pain in the butt, but pollen stick to your hair and clothes.

Tip #6:
Use cold compresses or cucumbers to reduce puffy eyes or itchy eyes.

Tip #7:
Incorporate more vitamin C, thyme and parsley in your diet. Garlic, nettle, chamomile and plantains has antihistamine properties. Eating more apples, onions, kale, papaya, broccoli, berries, raw honey and drinking green tea or tea steeped in nettle may all ease or lessen the allergy symptoms.

Tip #8:
For me, taking a nap eliminates my allergy symptoms. It’s not always a practical solution, but it has worked for me on many occasions.

Sophia McIntyre is passionate about leading and living a healthy life. Her health blog, Healthy Perspectives is where you can learn more about making healthier choices, living, and maintaining a well-balanced lifestyle.

This week, the WAHM-Articles Spotlight is shining on Sophia McIntyre.

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter and founder of Work At Home Space.com, a free work at home resource focusing on telecommuting companies, daily telecommute job leads, articles, business resources and other work at home related topics.

You can also visit her blog Healthy Perspectives, featuring an array of health topics, nutrition, and fitness for maintaining a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle.

You can find Sophia on Twitter helping others by posting telecommutung and work from home jobs and other valuable tips.

You can learn more about Sophia and her business when you click here to visit her business site or can learn about the heath topics she covers when you click here to read her health blog

One of the hardest things about working at home is staying motivated. February has been a non motivating month for me and I’m not even sure how I became this way.

I’m sitting in my kitchen writing this blog post and once in awhile I’ll look up, look through my French doors, and see a snow covered yard. That is NOT motivating at all! I just want to curl up and hibernate until winter is officially over, but of course, that’s not a realistic thing to do.

I’ve been experimenting by making small, but important changes in my routine so I can find motivation and joy from working at home again.

Since being in this funk, I knew I had to switch gears in my daily routine. After my morning walk instead of heading straight to the computer with my mug of hot chocolate, I enjoy my hot chocolate and breakfast in the kitchen. Most times, I will grab my iPad and start going through my emails or search for job leads to post on my forum.

After breakfast, I’ll go to the desktop computer and finish the rest of my work. I’ve always had a bad habit of not breaking completely for lunch. Sometimes I would forget to eat or grab something small and eat it standing in the kitchen or I would eat while working on the computer.

I enjoy having lunch away from my computer, but then I’m in the kitchen using my iPad to catch up on working on smaller gigs that doesn’t require a lot of brain power. Some may think this is still working and I’m not taking a break, but this works for me as I can squeeze in a bit more production time on smaller paying projects.

Around three o’clock, I head back out to pick up my daughter from school. I get a good hour walk (to and from) so this gives me a lot of time to de-clutter my mind.

If you find you’re unmotivated, try switching gears by changing your daily routine. The important thing is to try and find out why you’re not motivated. Is there something you don’t enjoy doing anymore, or you’re feeling overwhelmed in your personal and business life? Talk it over with someone, find your focus and get support. You’re not alone because there’s always someone who can relate.

I’m glad February is over and I’m looking ahead to being more motivated in March and I know I still have some more work to do. What tips do you have to keep yourself motivated? I would love to read your comments below!

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter and founder of WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free resource offering work at home companies and jobs, home businesses, ghostwriting services and other work at home related topics.

To add variety to your blog and to change the pace, there are twelve types of blog post formats you can use. Depending on what kind of blog you have and who your target audience is try these suggestions or tweak them to suit your blog and reader’s needs and see what kind of traffic you’ll get.

1. Instructional
These are “How-To” posts, step-by-step instructions on how to do something. You can use video, screen shots, diagrams or illustrations to get your point across. These types of blog posts are very common.

2. Reviews
These posts are reviews on virtually anything you can think of. You are providing your honest opinion whether it’s positive or negative. Reviews are highly searched for on search engines.

3. Informational
Informational blog post formats are the most common. You’re blogging to provide information in your niche.

4. Lists
This is a common way to blog as well. These are easily identifiable with titles such as “7 Ways To…” or “Top 10 Worst…” Use sub-titles to make it easy to read.

5. Questions and Answers
This is a great way to write an informational type post. Compile questions you think your audience is wondering about or use questions that have been emailed to you.

6. Rants
Depending on your blog, this could be a rare occasion. If it’s a business blog, keep it clean and honest. There’s nothing wrong with venting and telling it like it is, but be aware you still have your reputation to keep. Being a little controversial is not a bad thing, but it can get out of control quickly so make sure you can keep the flames contained.

To continue reading this article, click here.

The more I use my iPad to write articles, the better I am getting. The touchscreen keyboard isn’t as difficult as I thought originally. I guess I’m getting used to it since I’m also typing much better.

For those who have said using the iPad for writing articles isn’t quite a good idea, I have to somewhat disagree. Yes, it’s a bit of a challenge to type with your fingers hovered above the keyboard, but I have some great iPad shortcut tips to make writing articles faster and easier.

Voice Auto-Correction
This is great feature to have when you’re writing anything. You’ll get a voice-over correction when you mistype a word. You can choose to accept the word by tapping on the spacebar or tapping the suggested word to reject.

Double Tap Space Bar
When you double tap the space bar at the end of a sentence, it’ll add a period and space. It’ll then automatically start the new word with a capital letter.

Hidden Characters
Under certain punctuations, you can find additional characters. The iPad has three separate screen keyboards each where you can find different sets of characters or symbols. It takes time to tap the shift key to find a certain character and then to tap again to return to the alphabetical keyboard.

To make it easier you can hold down the shift key and drag your finger to the key you want. For example, the @ symbol is on the second keyboard. Instead of tapping the .?123 key and then tapping @, I can hold down the .?123 key and drag my finger to the @ symbol and release. Once I release my finger, it will automatically switch back to the alphabetical keyboard.

This is also faster than using your left finger to hold the shift key and tapping the key with your right finger. In this case, you still have to tap back to the letter keyboard.

Typos
You can also easily correct typos by tapping on the incorrect word and the correct spelling will show. Tap on it and it will insert the correctly spelled word.

When it comes to editing, it’s a bit more difficult and I haven’t found an easy way to do it on the iPad so I email my draft article and do my edits on my computer.

There are also paid writing apps that are inexpensive from the Apple store. If you don’t want to use the Notes app that comes with the iPad, here are some recommendations from Copyblogger – http://www.copyblogger.com/ipad-writing-apps/. If you’re serious about writing more than just articles, I recommend buying a wireless keyboard which I’m sure would make article writing a breeze.

Sophia McIntyre is an Internet Marketer, Article Marketer, Ghostwriter and founder of WorkAtHomeSpace.com, a free resource focusing on work at home companies and jobs, home businesses and other work at home related topics.