Get Money Back on Your Holiday Shopping!

If you're going to do your holiday shopping online anyway, why not get some CASH back? Every month, without fail, without minimums, without having to request it, Big Crumbs automatically pays rebates back to customers.

Sign up for a free account, then go to your shopping page before you do any online shopping. Chances are the store you want is there! Here a few:

- Barnes & Noble
- Best Buy
- DisneyStore.com
- eBay
- Gap
- Target
- Wal-Mart
- and HUNDREDS more!

There are similar programs out there that charge you an arm and a leg for basically the same thing. Why not sign up for free?

You have the option to sign up as a Crumb Saver, or a Crumb Earner. A CrumbSaver earns cash back on their shopping through BigCrumbs, PLUS commissions on the shopping of any friends they have directly referred to BigCrumbs.com. CrumbSavers earn the maximum amount possible as rebates on their own shopping (listed beside each retailer).

CrumbEarners earn cash back on their shopping through BigCrumbs, although at a bit lower rate than CrumbSavers. However, CrumbEarners earn when their referrals shop AND when the referrals of their referrals shop, and so on, up to 5 generations.

This dramatically multiplies the amount a CrumbEarner can earn. In fact, CrumbEarners can suddenly find themselves earning additional income from the shopping of thousands of members, many they don't even know!

Containing the Chaos!

I have to admit, I have been a program jumper and it has gotten a little chaotic. I am finally narrowing down my focus to the opportunities I am seeing result with.

Avon: I mostly work this offline right now. I joined at a bad time for me because I'd just had my baby and still didn't quite know which way was up. I nearly gave up, but then I decided that since I still had quite a few brochure/catalogs laying around, I would at least get those out to people and see what happened.

I put the brochures in a plastic bag provided by the company and enclosed a letter introducing myself and offering a discount on the first order. I then tossed the packets onto my neighbors' driveways and porches. The phone started to ring! I started getting orders! I kept tossing brochures, and every time I've gotten 1-2 new customers.

I continue to order more brochures every campaign (new brochures come out every 2 weeks and they call them campaigns). And get them out into the public.

As far as online, I am working with an incredible team with Global Domains International. The Fasttrack Team Truly believes in the "no man left behind" concept. Everyone pitches in and helps the other members build their teams. It's a win-win situation and my downline is finally growing after many attempts with GDI. I am going to be ordering "sizzle cards" soon to include with the Avon brochures I distribute to add some offline advertising to my efforts.

I have decided that Revenue Sharing isn't really for me. It's a little too high of a risk for me right now. I do, however, join these programs and upgrade for the minimum so I can get a 1:1 ratio for my surfing. I do not promote the programs themselves or use them for income, but just for advertising. I also use Paid to Click (PTC) & PTR (Paid to Read) programs to earn free advertising.

In addition to a full time telecommuting job, a husband, a baby girl, and a mentally disabled man we care for, I have my hands full.

The 4-1-1 on Revenue Share Programs

It's the next best thing to MLM! Revenue Sharing requires NO referrals required to make money (though you can reach your financial goals even quicker if you do bring a few friends along).

My take on Revenue Sharing: it's an awesome, easy way to add to your portfolio of online earning programs. You never know when one stream of income may suddenly dry up for one reason or another. Therefore, I prefer and advise not to keep all of one's proverbial eggs in one virtual basket! In a nutshell, you purchase advertising packs,according to your budget, surf the minimum required sites each day/week, and earn a percentage of the revenue earned by the site.

Here are a few pointers to keep you in good shape, should you decide to give Revenue Sharing a try.

1. Start out as a free member and learn the ropes. Every site has different requirements.

2. Check out the FAQs section and make sure you're familiar with how things work before upgrading.

3. Before upgrading, make sure the surf requirements match up with your availability for surfing.

4. This is actually the GOLDEN RULE: NEVER EVER buy more in advertising than you can afford. Income is not guaranteed. You are purchasing advertising and any revenue is a "perk," not a "given."

5. Diversify! Join multiple Revenue Share programs(see above reference to proverbial eggs and virtual baskets!)

6. Purchase the minimum amount of Ad Packs required to upgrade at first. Only withdraw half your earnings, or the value of the Ad Pack is reduced. Recover your money and then buy further Ad Packs from earnings (ideally from another Rev Share site until you have a good portfolio built up).

7. Join multiple sites, but not more than you have time to surf (BTW, let me know if you don't know what TABBED BROWSING is and how to use it for efficient surfing!).

That being said, here are my favorite Revenue Sharing programs:

What Do You Care About? A dNeero Discussion

Exciting New Stuff!

I recently posted about evaluating what is working and what isn't and doing some weeding. Well, due to trying to buy a house, I have had to get WAY serious about that all of a sudden! My "allowance" has come to a screeching hault recently as we try to stockpile all we can right now. Upon self reflection, online business has been more of a hobby than a business. One might even look at it from the outside and say it looks more like gambling!

When I realized that, I determined I need to really scale back on anything that has a monthly commitment if it isn't paying for itself or otherwise extremely useful, and either find a way to fund the programs I'm keeping or cut 'em loose.

Well, during my reflection and evaluating process, I discovered freebie trading. I have started a new blog about it...it's under construction while I work out the kinks in the template, but feel free to check out the content in the meantime!

The bottom line is, freebie trading is an excellent way to fund any online endeavors without risking anything out of your own pocket. Now, when I say that, recognize that in some cases you may spend a few bucks here or there for a trial offer of something, but if you don't like it, you can cancel at any time. You also may find a product or service that you were thinking of using anyway and freebie trading gives you a way to get rewarded for trying it out. That's the case with me and Netflix anyway.

Go check out my freebie trading blog. Feel free to follow me over there, too. You can also come back here and see how I mesh the two together!

Whole Lotta Clickin' Goin' On!

I last updated my stats on April 14. At that time, my LinkGrand balance was $0.32 with 7 referrals. I recently got an email from them as an advertiser (I usually roll my credits into free advertising) that they were having a special. I think you got 10% more views if you used one of their filters or something. I didn't pay much attention.

What DID get my attention though was how many more ads are available to read since that email came out! Evidently many advertisers took advantage of the offer, which means more ads for members to click on! As of today, my balance there is $1.14. I still have only 7 referrals, so that is purely from my own effort! Obviously, I need more referrals to really make some money with it, but this is without hardly promoting it at ALL, just by my own efforts.

I have seen some referral exchange programs that I remember signing up for a long time ago. I am going to look into those again and will let you know what I find out!

My goal is to post a new stats update this week, so stay tuned!

Another "Hair-Raising" Discussion from dNeero!

Join our Killer Downline TEAM Today for FREE

Earn while you learn! More to come, I just HAD to share this! You will benefit from Killer Downline when you join my GDI team (free for the first 7 days): http://www.website.ws/10dollarsfreedom.

A "Hair-raising" discussion!

I always wanted a job at a very young age. I remember having my sites on a Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood. When I got a little older, I was mesmerized at a beauty shop. I was intrigued by the face that by putting blue stuff on someone's hair, you could turn it blond!

The gals who worked there told me how they had gone to beauty college part time during high school. Wow! I could even get school credit for doing this! So, my first week of high school, I marched myself right into the career counselor's office and told him what my plan was. The rest, as they say, is history!

While I am no longer actively working in the beauty field, this discussion over at dNeero got my attention.

Organization Tip: Daily folders in bookmarks

One little time saver that I recently learned was to save my favorites in folders for each day of the week. So, safelists and other advertising sources I want to visit on Mondays are all in Monday's folder. I am also a member of so many networking sites, it's hard to keep up. Many of them PAY, so of course I don't want to miss those!

I can right click on the folder of the day and select "open all in tabs," and VOILA! All of my sites for the day are open. If you try to open too many, Firefox will warn you that it may affect performance. If you have a lot that it becomes a problem you can separate by Monday Morning, Morning Afternoon, Morning Evening. It's still a huge time saver, versus opening each one individually.

Whenever possible, keep your username and password the same, at least for the same type of site. For example, you might use one username/password combination for all of your safelists, and another combination for Traffic Exchanges, etc.

I will be adding links to my favorite paying social networking sites, favorite Safelists, Text Ad Exchanges, and Traffic exchanges very soon. Stay tuned!

Element 5: Weeding - Removing the bad stuff so the good stuff can flourish

Today is our fifth and so far final element in the parable of what gardening has to do with making money online. Today's element is weeding. If you do not pull weeds in your garden, they will spread like a virus and make your garden look ugly. They also zap vital resources such as nutrients and water from your plants. Some weeds literally "choke" healthy plants and kill them.

When I think of weeding out programs that are not producing, I think of the time and energy it will free up to spend on the quality programs.

Today's post is short and sweet. I hope you will take some time today or this week to evaluate the "weeds" in your portfolio.

Element 3: Planting

Continuing our series about what gardening has to do with online business, today we will look at planting!

Obviously, in order to see results in a garden, you have to plant some seeds. I also planted bulbs, which are bigger! A nice garden has a variety of plants. Some are flowers, others are shrubs, and if you like to eat the fruits of your labor, some fruits and vegetables are nice, too!

In my family, I like to plant from seeds, and I prefer to plant flowers. My husband, however, is more of a vegetable gardener (specializing in tomatoes and basil), and likes to start with seedlings that are already started.

This reminds me of the importance of being involved in more than one program. This is also called multiple streams of income. Multiple streams helps keep us from having all of our eggs in one basket. If you pour all of your time and energy into one plant, and it dies anyway, you have no garden. In the same way, you do not want to pour all of your time and energy into one program, only to find yourself flat BROKE next week because the company closed its doors!

As for the seeds and bulbs analogy, I look at it like free and programs with some cost. Free programs are great because, hey, isn't free money awesome?! They do, much like seeds, however, take longer to see results. Participating in some low cost businesses will get you seeing results from your referrals a little bit faster. Just be sure not to take on more than you are willing to risk while you wait for it to grow.

I mentioned that I prefer to plant seeds or bulbs and my husband likes to plant seedlings that are already established. In the internet business world, I think of this as being involved with companies that have been around a long time (for me, that's GDI and Avon), versus brand new companies (EZE2x2, Little Guy Wealth System, and others).

In the overall picture, whether we're talking about bulbs versus seeds or seeds versus established seedlings, the point is to diversify. Stick with well established companies for your "seedlings," but don't be afraid to throw down some seeds (newer, free), and bulbs (newer, low cost programs).

Thoughts & Comments About Memorial Day

Join us in the conversation!

Element 2: Soaking to Soften

This is a continuation of a series of blogs started on Saturday. It all started when I had a beautiful day of gardening. I reflected back on it and these are the lessons I learned and am applying to my online efforts.

As I reflect back on the "trick" of soaking the ground so I could dig the holes or pull the weeds, I think about true social networking/relationship marketing. Joining up a bunch of social networking sites to spam everyone is not going to do anything but turn people off of your opportunity. I try to avoid this, but I see it everywhere! Instead, join those sites, but then NETWORK. Start conversations & be a part of the discussions going on. Befriend and follow people with similar interests and connect with them on another level.

I will be adding links to social networking sites that pay in the near future. These are great because they usually have a lot of opportunity seekers as members. The no-spamming guidelines still apply, even though it will be more rampant on these sites. Lead by example and do not pick up this nasty habit.

I am on Yahoo Instant Messenger (YIM) and a lot of Work at Home Moms (WAHMs) have "blast groups." What that means is you can click on your blast group and send them an instant message all at the same time. It could be a special you are offering, notification that your blog has been updated, an alert about a contest you are running, etc. The idea is that everyone on that blast list then turns around and copies and sends that message to their entire blast list, and so on.

Lately there have been some complaints in the blasting community that not everyone passes along the blasts. Well, I am guilty of that myself sometimes and there could be many reasons for it that I don't need to get into right here and now. It just got me to thinking that the blasters who are getting upset may not be looking at YIM for the networking tool that it is and should be used as.

Element 1: Sunshine - The conditions were perfect

Yesterday, I blogged about my day in the garden and how it make me think about my efforts to Just Say No to Day Care. Today we will look at the first element of that perfect day and explore what we can learn from it.

This element can be looked at a couple of different ways. In one way, we can look at it as a reminder to take advantage of opportunities when we recognize the conditions are right. For example, I recognized GDI as a very good opportunity early on. I've also signed up and quit because the conditions weren't quite right at the time. I either didn't have a good upline with the tools, training, & support (Mama Mentoring) I needed, and/or I just didn't have the time to promote it properly at the time. Now that the conditions are right, here I am again!

We can also look at this element from another angle. That is, the conditions are not always going to be 100% perfect. Sometimes we still need to jump in and do what needs to be done. For example, I will need to keep watering my bulbs and seeds, even & especially when the temperatures rise. In the same way, we need to continue to consistently promote and network in order to excel in online marketing.

It also reminds me that the temperatures WILL rise and I wouldn't want to be having to water acres and acres all by myself. That is a lesson not to take on more than we can handle.

I encourage you to ponder this first element today. Do you have the perfect conditions right now to do what needs to be done? If not, will you do it anyway?

Have you heard of Buzztrends?

I hadn't heard of it until I found this discussion over at dNeero tonight. It's kind of fun! I learned about #howcome, which looks like fun!

Element 4: Watering & tending – I will water the plants on a regular basis in order to see good results.

Thank you for sticking with me on this series! This is element 4 in our series about what gardening has to do with internet marketing.

Today's element, watering and tending, relates to our need to be consistent in our efforts. Do SOMETHING, every day, toward growing your business.

That may include spending time on social networking sites, building relationships (soaking). Other times it will mean pulling the weeds (evaluating what is effective and eliminating what is not).

If you do not water your garden, your plants will die. If you do not pull the weeds once in a while, your garden will become overgrown with them. They will zap the resources that the good plants need and your plants will suffer. In the same way, your business will wither and die if you do not continue to feed and water it. You will become worn out from caring for the weeds that aren't getting you anywhere if you do not stop to evaluate them and remove them once in a while!

I encourage you today to make a daily plan of action. Include how much time you will spend each day with vital tasks such as:

- Advertising. Try to promote each program you are working in at least 10 places per day. At then end of the month, you have roughly 300 posts working for you!). I will be adding a list of free advertising resources to the sidebar soon!

- Social Networking. You may even break it out by each social networking site. This includes sites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Yuwie, 6dgr, EziHippo, any NING sites you belong to, etc.

- Follow up with leads. It's so true that there is a fortune in the follow up. Someone you talked to three months ago may be ready to join your program today!.

- Follow up with your team. Love 'em or lose 'em. Some people won't ask for help, assuming you are too busy for them. Make sure they know you are available, even if it's only one hour a day.

Gardning & the life of an internet marketer

Today was a magnificent day! The weather was 100% PERFECT. My town tends to get into the triple digits in the summer, so when it's in the 80s like I believe it was today, it's, as Martha Stewart would say, "A good thing."

I woke up around 8:00, fed the baby, then got my own coffee & breakfast. I texted a good friend who'd been wanting to spend some time with the baby to let her know she was awake, alert, & ready to party! Then I sat Miss M in her stroller and we went to work in the backyard. I started out watering, then decided to soak the ground to see if I could soften it enough to dig some holes. It worked! Yayy! So, I got some bulbs & seeds out and started dropping 'em in the holes with some not-quite-so hard potting soil.

My friend pointed out that the soaking trick worked well for getting weeds out, too. Sure enough, she was right! So I added that to my spontaneous gardening spree, too. I even strolled the lil' princess out to the front yard for more weeding.

I feel so good, having planted some bulbs & seeds, knowing I will see results if I keep tending to them every couple of days at least. Weeding made the already established parts of the garden much more appealing and pleasing to look at.

As I reflected back on the day, I thought about what I could learn about this in the home based business aspect of my life. Over the next few posts, I will share some parallels I learned along the way today:

Sunshine – the conditions were perfect
Soaking- I had to soak the ground to soften it.
Planting- I planted the seeds and bulbs today, to see results later
Watering & tending – I will water the plants on a regular basis in order to see good results.
Weeding- I had to remove the “bad stuff” so the “good stuff” can flourish.

We interrupt our normally scheduled program...

...to bring you this 4 month update on my beautiful baby girl!

I still can't believe she's MINE.
Her latest tricks include:

- Playing with her feet & removing her socks.

- Putting everything she can get her hands on into her mouth.

- Rolling over front to back and halfway back to front.

- Sitting up in her stroller for cruisin'.

- Looking pretty adorable (if I do say so myself) in her shades (see pic)

Interesting reading re: lung cancer. It's not what you think!

I was shocked today to learn that:

- Lung cancer kills more people annually than breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, and kidney cancer COMBINED.

- The 5-year survival rate for lung cancer is only 15%.

- 60% of lung cancer cases are now diagnosed as nonsmokers or former smokers.
- Two-thirds of nonsmokers diagnosed with lung cancer are women.

dNeero lets you share your thoughts about the subject:

Tattoos ... Unsavory or Main Stream?

See what my thoughts & opinions are and feel free to add your own! You can get paid to be a part of the discussion at dNeero! It's fun!

Social Networking Sites That Pay

MySpace & Facebook are great networking sites, don't get me wrong. I have been able to connect with people from my past that I wouldn't have otherwise. I enjoy updating my status on those sites and letting my friends and family know what's going on in my life.

HOWEVER, I no longer spend much time blogging, posting pics, commenting, etc. on those sites. Why? Because they don't pay me to do it. My time is precious and valuable. If I have the option to get paid or not get paid, I'm going to pick get paid. I even get paid to use Twitter now. More about that in a couple of days.

6dgr
Apsense
MyLot
Yuwie
ZenZuu

Current Stats

I thought it would be good to post my various programs with their current balances & referral count and see where I am in 30-60-90 days from now. The current balance does not reflect the total I've earned in these programs, just the current balance after cashouts and reinvesting my earnings toward more advertising.

Free Program/ Current Balance/ Referral Count
Marketing Pond n/a/ 18 direct/ 3 indirect
Clixsense $1.60/ 2
LinkGrand $0.32/ 7
Hits4Pay $6.95/ 12 on 1st level, 29 on 2nd level
Vinefire $363.09/ 0
WordLinx $0.44 /7
DealsNCash $1.45/ 4 on 1st level, 0 on 2nd level
The BAR $0.33 /0
Adjx $0.41/ n/a
Snap Dollars $12.46/2

Paid Program Current Balance Referral Count
GDI $0.00 0
EX2x2 $0.00 2 on 1st level, 1 on 2nd level

Bold & Beautiful Approach to Marketing

I'm giving myself some downtime today. We have been on the road quite a bit and I just need to sort of decompress from it all before I jump back in head first into my AOMA plan, not to mention returning to work next week! Yikes!

Anyway, I happened to have Bold and the Beautiful on this morning. I couldn't reach the remote and didn't want to disturb the baby, so I left it on.

I had to smile at Macy's creativity in getting around the whole "now that everyone has a DVR and fast forwards through commercials, how do we get our message to them" quandary.

This is how they did it: There is a couple planning a wedding. Today's episode cleverly has the bride to be registering at Macy's and showing her groom how to do it! They even plug it again when her future mother in law walks in and the bride to be explains to her that she has just set up her registry at Macy's! I thought it was BRIALLIANT, really! There were even shots taken "over the shoulder" to show how EASY it is to register at Macy's!

CrAZy DaYs!

Well hubby and I just got back from what we've been calling the "first leg" of Miss M's world tour. We went up to Smith River to visit his grandma (Miss M's Great-Grandma!) and grandpa. Well, grandpa has been on his last legs for quite some time, and we knew that. BUT, we didn't know just how bad it was. He looked absolutely awful when we saw him Friday night. He was skin and bones with dark, sunken in eyes. BUT, he recognized my husband and called him by name. He said he could see Miss M and commented about her.

The next morning we called Grandma on our way from the motel back to her house...and found out, Grandpa had passed away in the night! We were supposed to be home Tuesday, but this turn of events extended it until today due to the funeral.

Wow, this story could get long in a hurry so suffice it to say, we had other stops to make on this "tour" and ended up backing into something, shattering the rear window and denting the rear door of my van. Then, on our way back to grandma's from Oregon, the van broke down about a half hour from Grandma's. We had to get towed to the nearest town and get a ride back to Grandma's. Oh, guess what else! I forgot my regular glasses (wearing my sunglasses at the time!) in the VAN! Well, that turned out OK because it turned out the car was ready at the mechanic anyway. So, $200 later, it turned out to be a clogged fuel filter.

Catch my breath...all that to say, sorry I haven't been online...and we're about to embark on the "2nd leg of the tour" starting Wednesday, so I will catch up on as much as I can. I want to start a tracker for the primary programs to keep readers abreast of my progress! I'm trying to find the best way to do that, so stay tuned!

New Programs Added

I've added a couple of programs:

The Bar - a tool bar you add to your browser and make money! I don't entirely know how I did it, but I've earned $0.29 without even knowing what I'm doing yet!

Global Domains International (GDI) - I needed my own web page anyway. This comes with some tools for getting a site up and running quickly, plus hosting, plus the domain registration, all for just $10/month, which you can easily earn back and then some! Comes with a 7 day free trial so you can check it out before you get charged for your first month. This video explains it all. If you would like to "crunch the numbers," check out the income calculator. My team offers a fun, free lead capture page and free training.

EZ2x2 - Again, I don't totally know how it works, but I got 2 referrals my first day and on my way to getting the ball rolling on this one. From what I've read, once it starts rolling, I won't be able to stop it! My kindda program!

Thursday's Tasks

In addition to my Daily Tasks, I will:

Promote my programs on:

List Joe
Traffic Swarm

Tuesday's Tasks!

In addition to my daily tasks, I will also:

Promote my Work In Your Underwear site, Marketing Pond sites, etc. on:
Traffic exchanges:
Traffic Splash
Hit Safari
Traffic Era

Monday Tasks

In addition to my daily tasks, my Monday AOMA tasks include:

Promoting my programs by posting ads at:
Rockin Text Ads
Mammoth Text Ads
Serious Traffic Ad Exchange
Traffic Warp

Post Specials for Avon, Mineralicious, and Teaporia on BusyShopaholics blog.

Post Specials and network in 3 Social Networks.
Check in with Yahoo Groups.

Daily Tasks

On a daily basis (Monday through Friday, weekends when available), I will click through all available ads at:

Hits4Pay
DealsNCash
Clixsense
LinkGrand
WordLinx
Vinefire

Surf at:
Revolutionary Traffic
Traffic Splash
Hit Safari
Traffic Swarm
Ad Ventures 4u

On a daily basis, I will spend 15 minutes minimum on personal growth and develpment, be it reading or listening to something motivational or goal-oriented.

On a daily basis, I will call at least one lead for a fundraiser.

Time for AOMA

I gave my beautiful baby girl a bath yesterday and she laughed hysterically for probably at least 3 of the 5-8 minute bath. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. It was a moment I am so glad I didn't miss. Today I find myself crying every time I hold her and see that beautiful smile. It made me realize how much I do NOT want to go back to work.

It's funny really because I work at HOME, but it's still WORK and I will still have to be away from the little one at times that the major corporation I work for thinks I should be away (I have some flexibility but not nearly enough to avoid missing major milestones in my little one's development).

So, I have come to the realization that what little time I have left before I go back to work, and also once I'm back working again, will require. All Out Massive Action. I need a daily action plan so that I can achieve my goals. My next few blogs will be my schedule of tasks for each day. I will then attempt to blog my progress!

Stay tuned! Life gets crazy sometimes, though, so I will keep you as up to date as possible!

Hot Off the Press!

I found this amazing, $1.00 report this morning which you can then turn around and sell it for $1.00 as many times as you would like. You won't get rich off this idea, but you will learn lots of other easy, inexpensive ways to make money online in the process. Enjoy the fatter PayPal account!

Brring! Get Paid Every Time Your Phone Rings!

A while back I signed up for Brring. It's a free ringback service. What that basically means is that it's free to sign up. Brring provides you with a new phone number that redirects to your current home or cell phone number. Callers hear a 10 second advertisement from companies from record labels and movie studios to travel services and popular consumer brands. Brring also partners with humanitarian and charitable organizations to run public service announcements.

Every time someone calls you on your Brring number, your account gets credited up to $0.05. You can also earn by creating a profile, notifying your friends, family, or business contacts of your new phone number, and referring others to this free service.

One thing I like about it is that it keeps my phone number private. I use my Brring number on internet forms and on my promotional materials.

I've made $12.65 so far. Not bad for doing something you already do every day: receive phone calls. The minimum to get paid is $10.

Breastfeeding and Co-sleeping resources

Thankfully my baby girl and I have taken to breastfeeding like a duck to water. We were blessed to have LOTS of support while we were in the hospital. All of the nurses on staff in the maternity department are trained in lactation. Plus, we had lactation consultants come by and give us tips for success too.

Our pediatrician also has a lactation consultant on staff who we met with prior to our little one's first check up. The pointers she gave us were very eye opening and nursing feels a lot more natural to us now, whereas before it was more of a wrestling match. Yes, it went relatively well, but that's because I didn't know any better. I just assumed it was a wrestling match for all mommies and babies because babies are uncoordinated at first. She recommended and loaned us her copy of Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers.

One of the things she recommended during our visit was a minimum of two hours a day of skin to skin contact with our baby, be it with me and her or her daddy and her. This also brought up the controversial topic of co-sleeping. She also recommended and loaned us a copy of Sleeping with Your Baby: A Parent's Guide to Cosleeping.

This book helped us sort out the difference between the term "co-sleeping," which many people use when what they really mean is "bedsharing." Since bedsharing is not really an option for us because we cannot do it safely (we are both overweight and I tend to sleep quite deeply, two major no-nos for safe bedsharing), we feel much better knowing that just having her sleep in our room is considered "co-sleeping," and she will benefit from it in the long run.

I know this blog is mainly about my efforts to Just Say No to Daycare, but since that also implies an audience of mommies, I thought these resources would be helpful!

Beware of Scams

In today's economy, many people are looking for ways to pinch pennies here and there, and also make a few extra dollars on the side. After all, we all need to make ends meet somehow.

Unfortunately, with the increased interest in stretching our dollars, there are those out there who are interested in not only capitalizing on this desire, but exploiting it.

I'm sure by now you've seen the Cash4Gold advertisements, promising to pay top dollar for jewelry you no longer wear, broken watches, etc. These commercials have made me a little sick to my stomach since the first time I saw it. Something about it just didn't "feel" right to me. Don't get me wrong, I am all for capitalism and understand that of course, they are not going to pay "top dollar." Of course they are going to pay less than market value so that they can make some profit.

On the flip side, I recently discovered a couple of websites that look at the darker side of this program. Check them out here: Expose #1, Expose #2. I would love to hear your comments!

Right or wrong, I think the lesson here is to do your due diligence before forking over anything of value, be it money for a home based business or your valuable jewelry.

My Why

I'm on here between feedings so I'll just let the picture speak for itself for now!

Promoting the Free Stuff for Free

As I mentioned in my last post, I often roll my PTC/PTR income/credits right back into advertising. Some of the sites I like to use this for are Clixsense, LinkGrand, and WordLinx.

I then use the income from Hits4Pay, DealsNCash & others to help fund the low-cost programs I am involved with.

Here is my favorite low-monthly cost program:



I will discuss this program in more detail in future posts. Feel free enroll in my free candle business eCourse!

The Free Stuff That's Already Working

I think it was on a forum on Myspace where I first learned about Hits4Pay. I signed up and would click almost every day. I never stopped to think about how long it would take to reach payout. I just figured, hey, it's free money and it just takes a few minutes out of my day.

I found a few more PTC/PTR (Paid to Click/Paid to Read) sites and joined 'em, thinking, hey, more free money.

Then one day I blogged about it all on Myspace and got a couple of referrals. Later that SAME month, it HIT me...I was about to reach payout in just ONE Month with just a couple of active referrals! Light bulb moment! Ahhhh-HA! Referrals was the key that unlocked the DOOR!

Now I make payout just about every month. My team is still growing so I know that soon it will snowball even bigger.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered Marketing Pond! I hit the mother load with these "get paid to" or GPT sites. I had the best of the best, all in one place!

The Marketing Pond concept is simple.

Marketing Pond offers a totally free system to anyone that
wants to become a member and earn free money online.

Problems :

A) It's almost impossible to earn very good money by using
one free money program.

B) It can take a very long time to earn enough for a payout
in one program if you do not promote it and have active
referrals.

Solutions :

A) Use multiple free money programs

B) Place the top free money programs in one place. Use one
referral url to advertise them all. Place some of the best free
advertising programs in one place. Bring these together to
create a full circle. Use credits, points and cash conversions to
advertise the place by way of the free programs. Build a team
in one place and that team becomes a part of all the free money
programs and the free advertising programs that you are a
member of. The result is multiple earnings, multiple payouts,
earnings that grow, and less work over time.

That place is Marketing Pond.

You will NOT become a millionaire overnight. I will NOT do all the work for you! BUT, if you do sign up for Marketing Pond and follow the wonderful, experienced, knowledgeable lead of the admin, Valerie Underhill, you can and will make more and more money every month. It just depends on what you put into it. Personally, I use the revenue from many of these sites to roll back into advertising other ventures and/or to fund them.

Come Along on My Journey!

This is my journey to achieve my goal of "Just Say No to Day Care!"

My husband and I are preparing to welcome our first child into the world any day now. I am very blessed to work for a corporation that allows me to work from home. My husband is basically self employed and can also work from home, and we plan to basically work alternating schedules for as long as we can and "take turns" caring for our child. However, we also recognize that this is NOT a permanent solution.

I cannot fathom working 40, 50 hours or more to pay someone ELSE to raise our child. Soooo...welcome to Just Say No to Day Care! This is where I will share my journey to replacing my corporate income, including health benefits and retirement, so that we can achieve our goal of Just Say No to Day Care.

Before we get started, let me say I am not opposed to day care or day care providers. I believe they are a very important part of society. I also believe that they are an important part of child development. I just cannot personally afford it and would rather get a system in place where I do not have to work to pay someone else to raise my child. It works for many, but is not in my vision of our family's future.

I will outline in this blog things that are already working for me, and to what extent, in real dollars and cents. I will also include tidbits about things that I'm testing out. Some things will be free, others will not.

I hope you enjoy taking this journey with me.

Maybe you have the same goal, to Just Say No to Day Care. Maybe you just have a car to pay off. Maybe you are buried under medical bills. Maybe you just want to save up for the vacation of a lifetime. Whatever your "why," you are here because you want to make some extra cash on a monthly basis. That could be an extra $50-$5,000 a month. I believe we all can achieve these goals, whatever they may be!