Kristie T’s Home Business Blog Fun, mom-geared work-at-home tips and advice on making money on the net.

There’s a new hot spot on the net you’ll want to check out. It’s call Compass Life Designs. It’s a terrific free community just for women that has incredible information, resources, and support for creating a happy life and fulfilling work. (We could all use a little of that huh?)

They’ve got an incredible line up of experts on hand. And I’m darn excited to share that I have been asked to be a Compass Life Design featured small business expert for their home business column.

It’s like flipping thru the pages of your favorite women’s magazine - only you can do it online without getting a paper cut! You’ll find advice on abundance, prosperity, beauty and style, careers, dreams, financial success, health & fitness, home management, parenting, relationships, self care, small business, spirit and inspiration and more!

It’s founded by Kim Fulcher, America’s Reinvention Coach.

Check it out at CompassLifeDesigns.com!

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Webmomz is thrilled to be featured in this month’s cover story of Costco Connection magazine entitled, “Moms in Business“. The article features the work at home advice from myself and other mom entrepreneur experts including Ellen Parlapiano and Patricia Cobe (authors of the book Momspreneurs Online - which I am a contributing author to)

Read about successful mom business owners including:

- Julie Steele - inventor of the No Squeeze Juice Box
- Susan Dunk - inventor of the Toddler Coddler
- Laurie Zerga - inventor of Culinary Camp
- Marina Westerdahl - inventor of Comfy Crawlers padded pants for crawling babies
- Tamara Monosoff - author of The Mom Inventors Handbook and Secrets of Millionaire Moms
- Denise Marshall - inventor of the Mac and Cool, a dish that speeds cooling time of hot meals

Click to read the Moms in Business article from Costco Connection Magazine.

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This weekend I was at the Dan Kennedy Superconference. For those of you who don’t know Dan Kennedy, he is known as the “No BS Business guy”. He helps brick and mortar businesses tap into the power of direct response marketing to skyrocket their businesses. Dan Kennedy’s stuff really works. He is a legend in his time. And that’s why successful online marketers like Alexandria Brown and Lorrie Morgan Ferrero turn to Dan for advice on how to use offline marketing to take their online businesses to the next level.

At the conference, Dan shared 9 critical elements for business success.

1) Riches in niches - identify your ideal customer, where to find them, and how much you can spend to get that customer and still make a profit

2) No one gets rich by themselves - you need a team

3) Continual education and personal development

4) The power of direct marketing - calling customers, greeting cards, postcards, birthday mailers, tear sheets

5) You must continually get new customers and communicate with them in multiple ways.

6) Learn to write copy that sells

7) Ask yourself what is next in your business

The big money is in selling more to existing customers

9) There is power in masterminding. (I know that I personally treasure my mom mastermind group - if you don’t have a mastermind group, you really need to get one!)

Which of these strikes you as something you could implement in your business? Which of these success principles has brought you the greatest success? Share your thoughts here.

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Call it identify theft, stolen credit cards, or credit card fraud - we got punked!

I got a call today from a bank. It seems there is an older gentleman who is deaf and didn’t remember ordering any online advertising on Webmomz and didn’t even know who Webmomz is. No problem, I look up the order, read it back to the bank lady. A lot of people order things online and forget when the credit card bill comes what it was they ordered.

Turns out this guy didn’t order any advertising at all. Someone stole his credit card and ordered a solo email ad, a button ad, and a text link on Webmomz. Now we are out almost $600 in home business advertising revenues.

Not fair to us. Not fair to the guy whose credit card number was stolen. And someone out in “net land” is a real jerk that thinks he pulled something on someone.

Just wanted to make you aware this kind of thing happens. In 4 years of business, it’s the first time it happened to us. I am hoping that they can catch this guy and prosecute.

So if you get a big advertising order, don’t be afraid to question it. You never know if it’s a real order, or a scam.

Has your credit card number ever been stolen? Have you had someone purchase someone on your website with a stolen credit card number? Have you experienced credit card fraud first hand? Share your experience here.

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The Dan Kennedy Superconference is today and tomorrow in Chicago. So I’m headed off the event this morning. It’s kind of cool, a few of my web design clients will be there and it’s so rare that I get to meet any of my clients in person. I’ll let you know who I see and any cool stuff I learn. Catch you later!

Have a great day!

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The other day I was at the library doing some research for a project I am working on with my buddy. He has this seriously Ninja display of tech stuff. First he pulls this Batman styled awesome travel retractable computer cord kit out of his bag so we could connect to the Internet. Sweet! I admit I was a little embarrased that there was so much dust on my laptop screen we could hardly see. He says, “No problem” and whips this cool mini laptop screen cleaning kit and made my screen sparkling clean.

Since I am gearing up to speak at the Postie Con Blogging conference in Orlando on June 1 & 2 (I hope to meet some of you there!) , I wanted to get me a cool travel geek kit too. So, last night I was surfing and found these tech toys - the perfect kit for geeks like me.

1) Kensington PocketLink 4-in-1 Cable - Retractable FireWire, USB, Phone, and Ethernet Cord (AKA The Batman Toolkit)
This bad boy let’s you connect to anything anywhere - even while you are on the road. No more tangled cords in your bag. This hub has retractable cords and 4 detachable connectors.

Hook up to:
- Ethernet or phone
- Internet or LAN
- FireWire or USB for camera or other devices

It totally rocks!

2. Memorex Cleaning Kitfor Notebooks (Say goodbye to dusty laptop screens!)
Keep your laptop screen squeaky clean with this awesome cleaning kit!

Get rid of fingerprints and smudges with the micro-brush. The screen cleaning cloth and solution is perfect for cleaning LCD monitors.

What “must have” tech gadgets do you bring when you travel? Share your favorite travel computer gear here.

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When I think of tie dyed clothing, I think of hippies, flower children, and rock and roll. Tie dye is seriously fun and cool fashion - and it’s making a come back!

Moms. I just came across a really cool site. They made custom tie dye clothing. It’s really neat - you pick the tie dye colors, tie dye patterns, and clothing.

Now of course, you can do it yourself, but then you have to deal with the mess. I’m sure you know how to make tie dye tshirts with your kids, right?

Now why didn’t we have cool tie dye tees at our company picnics like this when I was in Corporate America? And for you moms looking for funky ideas for your daughter’s bedroom, they even have tie dye bedding.

I love seeing family owned businesses like this succeed! Tie Dyes by Rainbow is in Gurnee, Illinois.

What do you think - are tie dye tshirts hot or not? Are they making a come back?

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As your home based business grows, the model of doing everything yourself quickly becomes impossible. If you want to continue to grow without drowning in your own success, you need to expand with a success team.

I have experienced this firsthand in my business ventures. With 4 businesses now, it truly is impossible to handle everything myself and get it done correctly and on time. I hired several virtual assistants, and that has been very helpful. But I was still struggling to handle all the business I was attracting in my web design business - until now that is!

It all started with a vision and a list in my mind of what qualities that person would need to have: initiative, drive, motivation, attention to detail, quick learner, responsible, and good communicator. Well, it took a year of looking, but I finally found that person. Finally now, I can run my web design business, like a business.

What outsourcing< /tag> people if you brought them in to help would make all the difference in your business? Do you need a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper, a webmaster, or a internet marketing assistant? Here’s to wishing you huge success as your business grows in finding the right people to take your vision to the next step.

Do you use outsourcing help now? What kind of help if you had it now would help your business?

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I got a “lovely” note the other day from a listeners of my Speaker Success Talk Radio podcast. She basically was telling me that my podcastWindows Vista system.

“…what happened when I started to listen on a new laptop with Vista was disconcerting, to say the least! The ‘radio guy’ is interrupted by a blip of your intro, for starters, and then your intro seems to be chopped up and put back together in a
way that sounds all right but doesn’t make sense. Fortunately, the interview itself seems all right, but first impressions might put off anyone who listens with Vista.”

I listened to the podcast and couldn’t hear what she was talking about. Then I turned to my tech friend Lynette Chandler. She said it might be the flash player that Audio Acrobat uses that is being quirky for her in Vista.

I sent that listener the MP3 file and she didn’t hear any of the problems she heard before.

Just a word to the wise, if you are using Audio Acrobat for your player for web audio or podcasts, Vista people might not hear it correctly.

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Looking for cool tools to make your life easier? Freelance Switch has an awesome list of downloads to track time for projects, invoicing, project management, web design template libraries, stock photos, business tools, legal, job boards, web tools, advertising and marketing, and other cool tools.

Here are 101 essential freelancing resources from Freelance Switch. Enjoy!

Special thanks to Ryan for tipping me off to this one.

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