by The Happy WAHM
And I believe him!
Oh, gosh! I don’t know how I’m going to write this post while I’m doing the happy dance. And grinning from ear-to-ear, too! 🙂
See, this happened just now. Like right now!
I have just received a FREE copy of Jeff Goins‘ e-book, You Are A Writer, (So Start Acting Like One).
Right now, I’m far from acting like a writer. I’m acting like a child who just had her first plushy doll. A Hello Kitty one. Okay, maybe I was more The Little Twin Star type, but who cares?
So anyway, yesterday, I received an email from Jeff. Yeah, we’re close, so he emails me, and I call him Jeff. In my dreams!
Again, anyway, I’m in his mailing list, coz I signed up, okay? And so there’s this email announcing the price-drop for the Kindle version of the book. It was just $0.99, so I excitedly clicked on the link to Amazon, with the intention of buying. Alas, it was priced at $2.99. I know these things happen, because I always encounter these problems in my line of work. So I decided to send a reply to the newsletter to let them know that there’s some bug at work.
Jeff’s assistant, Stephanie, promptly replied that she has gone ahead and fixed the error. So I went back to Amazon, only to see that the price was still $2.99. So I decided to wait it out. Based on experience, propagating a change can take a while.
Tonight, I went to Amazon again, hoping that I could finally get my book. But instead of going down, the price even went up to $4.99. So I decided to email Stephanie again, just to let her know. I was resigned to the idea that I will just have to wait for another price-drop offer.
And then lo and behold! She replied, and again promptly, with an attached PDF and MOBI files of the book! Turns out, the offer was for US customers only, so what I thought was the bug last night was actually not a bug at all, but a location limitation set at Amazon.
So now, I’m happily writing, and tomorrow, I’ll be reading about me being a writer. Ha ha!
Here’s an advance review of the book. It is an effective motivational tool. Merely having a copy now has motivated me to write this real quick blog post, and it has made me more of a fan of Jeff. And I think I have just done something really important about being a writer.
I wrote! I am a writer! 🙂
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, at my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
It’s always fun to run a giveaway! And this one is extra fun for me as I’ll be giving away an unlimited class pass to the WAHM Weekend Expo happening on October 25. Yey!
The WAHM community has grown exponentially in the past two years, from the time that the first WAHMderful Workshop was organized in 2012, and it continues to grow every day. More and more professionals are now opting to work from home to escape the horrors of the daily commute. Mothers who have been staying at home to care for their children are now actively pursuing income-generating activities to help out with the family finances. In fact, we are no longer limiting this event to just WAHMs. Everybody’s invited to join us this year, so you can explore the possibility of engaging in a business, or practicing your profession, from the comfort of your home.
So who is everybody?
You, who are a gainfully employed head of the family, but dreaming of spending more time with your little ones because you are missing out on their milestones.
You, who are employed in a company you hate because you are doing tasks you no longer enjoy.
You, who are a creative person but stuck in a technical job.
You, who wake up at 4 am to get to your desk at 7am, and leave your desk at 5pm, but reach home at 8pm. Darn traffic!
You, who had to miss your daughter’s birthday party because the boss called for a strategic planning on a weekend.
You, who spend almost half your gross salary on transportation, lunch allowance and wardrobe.
You, who have to sacrifice your privacy so you can have a helper to cook your food, clean your house, and take care of your children.
But maybe you are not any of the persons above. Maybe you just want to be able to work in bed, or at the park, with your bare feet up, without a bra, hair going all directions, and not care. Or maybe you just want to be able to go see a movie or run your errands on a weekday to avoid long queues. Or maybe you just want to make everyday cuddle day with your little ones. Or homeschool!
Whoever you are, and whatever is your motivation, you are invited!
What’s in store for you then?
Here’s how the program looks like. Yey! I’m one of the speakers, see?
10:00 to 10:45 am
Business Ideation: Profitable Business Ideas (Speaker: Jeff Cua)
How to Land your First Virtual Assistant Gig (Speaker: Marge Aberasturi)
11:00 to 11:45 am
Managing your Kids while Working at Home (Speaker: Mariel Uyquiengco)
How to Get (and Keep!) Your Freelance Writing Jobs (Speaker: Tina Rodriguez)
1:00 to 1:45 pm
How To Succeed & Not Suck at Social Media Management (Speaker: Engr. Grace Bondad Nicolas)
Money Smarts: Beginner Level Investing & Personal Finance (Speaker: Fitz Villafuerte)
2:00 to 2:45 pm
Legalizing Your Business the Hassle-Free Way (Speaker: Dandy C. Victa)
Retailing Business: Branding and Word of Mouth Through C2C (Speaker: Govind Daswani)
3:00 to 3:45 pm
Computer 101: How to Use and Care for your Investment (Speaker: Jennyfer Ang Tan)
Be a Photo Editor: Basic Photo Editing & Photography Jobs (Speaker: Kimberley Timbol-Reyes)
4:00 to 4:45 pm
How to Create a Winning Business Plan & Reach your Perfect Clients (Speaker: Joy Gurtiza)
Eating Right & Easy Meals when you’re a Busy-holic (Speaker: Lourdes Labii)
And here’s what your investment will look like:
Entrance Fee (will not attend any talk; fees apply to those who are 21 years old and above only. Children are free to enter): Php 100
Workshop pass (need not pay entrance fee separately):
Php 350 to attend 1 class/topic
Php 900 to attend 3 classes/topics
Php 1500 for an unlimited class pass
But, wait! I did say that I’m running a giveaway right? So I’m actually giving one (1) unlimited class pass to one lucky winner! Just join the fun at the link below. And please spread the love by sharing this link with your friends. Even if you don’t get lucky, you would have helped a friend.
I’m going to draw the lucky winner on October 17, so there’s still time for you to submit your entry, and help me spread the word.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
And because I’m in a giving mood, as I always am, I’m throwing in a little extra. If you help me spread the word about the giveaway, and the person you shared it with gets lucky and wins the pass, you, my dear, are going to get The Happy WAHM bag, pictured below. 🙂 You can also register for the WAHM Expo here.
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, at my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
My favorite firstborn turned 15 today, and the whole family spent the day at a crochet workshop. I really thought she was going to be an only child, but my story has been written long before I was born, so I’m just glad I didn’t dare attempt to edit it.
Isabel. We named her after my grandmother. I never knew my lola, as she went home early, so I respectfully asked my husband if we could name the baby after her. My husband’s family seemed to have a penchant for at least three names. In fact, only one of the eight siblings was lucky enough to have just two names. He is the youngest, so maybe my parents-in-law simply ran out of names to give. The other seven had three names each. So to be in a better position to get him to approve my lola’s name, I said he could take care of the second name. But in the end, he told me that I could take care of that, too. So I chose to give her the name of a teacher/fashion model who bravely fought cancer, and was gracious and faithful until the time that she no longer needed to fight.
The dynamics of my relationship with my firstborn is quite different from my relationship with the two younger kids. Maybe because she’s a teenager now, and I still try to treat her like my baby. Plus, I was late in forming a bond with her, for which I will forever be regretful. She was born at a time that I was still fighting my way up the corporate ladder in a male dominated workplace, and so parenthood was more focused on securing a better career position than in the actual mothering. I became a mother before I was ready, so my idea of motherhood was a bit twisted. Working hard, earning more so I could provide for the needs of my baby. I was still reading books on corporate dynamics, instead of how to form relationships with children.
While I considered myself a hands-on mom at that time, it was not really enough. She was a picky eater, and it would take her hours to finish her meal, so I would end up leaving her with the yaya to wait for her to finish her food, while I go on ahead with all the other things that I needed to do. I lacked the patience to wait up for her, and it did not occur to me to learn why she was being picky, and do something about it.
She was almost 7 when I became a WAHM, and even at that time, I still shortchanged her. I was pre-occupied with my newborn, and I just assumed that because she’s older, she was better at coping without me hovering over her all the time. Big mistake. A child will forever need her mother whatever age she’s in.
I can write a whole book on all the things I regret of not doing for my firstborn, but she’s fifteen now, and I really can’t turn back time. So all I can do is move forward from here. I thank God for the opportunity of homeschooling her before she grew up to be a teenager. Those years at least gave me time to get closer to her and get to know her more as a person.
These days, she has friends in school and she has activities that moms are no longer welcome to take part of. I still try to encourage her to invite friends to our home and be a cool mom, but those days are few and far between. As her mom, all I can do is be supportive of her passions, the latest of which is crocheting. I was surprised when she asked for crochet hooks and yarns last Christmas. And last month, when I told her about the crochet workshop that I saw posted on Facebook, she asked if she could attend. And so we celebrated her 15th birthday at a crochet workshop today, in full force.
I think I should consider giving her a bigger space for this newfound passion, because now that she has a better understanding of the different yarns and hook sizes, I’m afraid that her plastic box will no longer be enough.
Add to that that she also has a growing book collection, a bigger space is indeed in order. I guess I have just written down my 2015 goal here. Save up for a room renovation so the girls will have a bigger room. A mom’s gotta do what she gotta do, yeah?
Special thanks to my good friend, Patty Cuyugan of Mrs. C’s Sugarcoated Life for posting the workshop schedule on Facebook, as I would never have found out about it had she not shared it. And to the Gantsilyo Guru herself, Trey Ajusto, for her patience with my daughter during the workshop. I’m now seriously considering learning the craft myself, as it may be another great opportunity to further form a bond with my daughter.
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, at my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
Have I ever mentioned here that I sit on the board of a Science High School in our town?
Well, I do. And about two weeks ago, I was asked by the Chairman of the Board to review a proposal by a contractor for the maintenance and upgrade of the units in our Computer Laboratory. The proposal was for the upgrade of the RAM, replacement of the CMOS battery and installation of Windows OS, among others. Apparently, more than half of the units have been corrupted and the solution they were looking at was to reformat the corrupted units. That means having to re-install the OS.
But the process will be costly. And when I asked the technician if the OS he was going to install was licensed, he could not give me a straight answer. So suffice it to say that he was going to give us a cracked OS, which did not sit right with me since we are an educational institution.
Budget being tight for an enterprise license of Windows, we decided to look at open source alternatives. Husband found Ubuntu, and decided to try it out first with our kids’ PC at home. They do have their own PC for their homeschool because it has been a sacred rule in our home that Mommy’s home office is hers alone, and that no other person can use Mommy’s PC. It’s exclusive for Mommy’s work. 🙂
So husband downloaded Ubuntu and installed it in the other PC, and we have been all agog about it since.
The Office Productivity Suite
My first concern was, how will the kids create documents? My PC will continue to run on Windows, of course, so how are we going to exchange documents? Is it compatible with MS Office?
Well, it is. It has a complete suite of office counterpart, called the LibreOffice. Microsoft Word is called the LibreOffice Writer, Excel is LibreOffice Calc and PowerPoint is LibreOffice Impress. You can create a document and save it with .odt extension, and your Windows-based PC will open it in WordPad, then you can save it as .docx. Or you can simply save it as .docx with LibreOffice. Why make life complicated? 🙂
Then there’s LibreOffice Draw, which I assumed is the counterpart of Paint, but I’m finding it a lot better. It can produce technical drawings, posters, etc. Making a flow chart using Draw is easy-peasy! It also allows you to manipulate pictures and images in many ways and save them in a range of image and document formats.
MS Access is LibreOffice Base, but I have not explored it yet, as I have somehow developed an allergy for the words query, MySQL and Dbase.
LibreOffice Math is equations and formula editor. Really neat, as it allows you to perfectly format mathematical and scientific formulas, from fractions, exponents, integrals and mathematical functions, to inequalities and systems of equations. And what’s neater is you can use it as standalone, or you can use it with Writer, Calc or Impress.
I have not tried it yet, but I believe that the counterpart of Outlook is Thunderbird.
The Software Center
This is the part where I really fell totally in love. It’s overflowing with apps for office and homeschool use! It’s great that they have categorized the apps, since there are literally hundreds of them, into education, books and magazines, fonts, games, business, graphics, etc. Among the apps that we have so far installed are the Periodic Table, Stellarium, GeoGebra, KAlgebra and Scratch. There are also educational application bundles categorized into Pre-School, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary, so you get most of the apps you need according to the level you prefer in just one click. 🙂
I have barely scratched the surface of the features here, and I’m sure you are going to find something for your personal needs. The RedNotebook for journaling, KMyMoney or sKrooge as your personal finance manager, FreeMind for mindmapping… the list is long!
I believe Ubuntu is a great alternative for homeschooling families and work-at-home professionals who simply cannot afford the expensive license for Windows and Mac OS. We buy laptops and desktop PCs at such a high price because vendors make the installed OS part of the selling point. But you can actually build you own desktop PC at a fraction of a branded PC’s cost and simply install this open source OS. And get a lot of free apps to go with it, too!
I’m now so envious of my kids for having all these cool features in their PC, I’m seriously considering installing Ubuntu in my tablet.
[Photos from ubuntu.com and ubuntuhandbook.org]
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, at my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
Inbound Marketing. In my eight years as a work-at-home mom doing mostly virtual assistance, I have not given this a thought. At all. At least, not for my own websites. I’ve been like, okay, this is my work, I have my goals, and the goal is to have my client’s pages appear on page 1 of Google.
In the early days of my online career, I worked with a UK-based Internet Marketer. His business was all about designing profitable websites, search engine optimization, email marketing and social marketing. He builds really attractive websites for clients, with the goal of engaging visitors and converting those visitors into customers. But before a website gets visited, the site needs to be optimized so that people will find it in searches. That’s where SEO or search engine optimization comes in. We try to study search behaviors of a particular target market. We find out what are the keywords our target market is using when they do a search for a particular product. Then we use those keywords in our meta data and content. When visitors land on the site, we try to engage them with a call-to-action button, convincing them to leave their email addresses so we can do our email marketing. It was fascinating at best, boring at worst. My tasks included creating wireframes, researching keywords, writing content, creating links, watching over analytics…and just about any activity that would put our sites on page 1, and have them stay there. We tweak strategies when the graphs are showing a dip, and remain aggressive when the graph is on an uptrend.
Then I built my own business site, and set up my own blog, and conveniently forgot to apply the wealth of information I learned. I was like, okay, I need a domain that will represent who I am, and it will be my brand. I’ll set up my meta title, meta description and meta tags. And I did. I researched for my domain name, checked out competition, decided on my keywords, and set them all up. The sites went live, and I went my merry way to work on another stranger’s SEO, leaving my own sites without much content, hoping that by some miracle, people will find me.
Sadly, it doesn’t work that way. And it never will.
I did not even have my own analytics on my blog, until about two weeks ago. In my mind, what do I need it for? I am gainfully engaged with a client. I don’t have to stress about people finding me.
Fast forward to August 30, 2014. Thank goodness for one Martine de Luna, who invited me to attend the Spiralytics workshop on inbound marketing. Listening to the speakers awakened a desire that I’ve been trying to keep a lid on for the longest time. The desire to write.
I mean, they were talking about how powerful content can be. And I know I can put out content on any given day.
Yes, I’ve been writing. But am I being read? I don’t think so. So now, I want people to find me. And maybe inspire them with my content that they will come back and regularly visit. And I’ll be the world’s biggest hypocrite if I just don’t say it straight here: I want to monetize my blog.
So, with my stock knowledge on SEO and email marketing, I’m now making it my goal to apply what I have learned about inbound marketing. It’s going to be a challenge, and it will be a slow process as I still have to prioritize my virtual work as operations manager for some guy’s business in the land of stars and stripes, but I can make it happen. I will make it happen.
First stop: the 46%. According to Jimmy Cassells, 46% of online audience would likely follow a site with customized design. And my site? It sat on a free template since the day I built it. So my fist mission has been to finally act on my dream of getting it professionally-designed, and it can’t get any more professional than Fancy Girl Designs, so I went to her.
I think the design process was my biggest stumbling block. I see beauty in everything around me. A blogger friend launches a site, I go ooooh wow! And I kind of dream, I want something like that. And then another blogger friend announces a re-design oh her site, and I go oh, this is what I want my site to look like!
Same thing with the color palette. I just like each and every palette that I see on my newsfeed every day. So it really was a monumental task, creating a mood board for the designer to have an idea on the look that I want to have for my site.
But as you now know, I did it! Here, let me share my mood board with you…
I was a zombie for two days for pulling an all-nighter for this mood board.
Errrr… I didn’t actually work on this one for two nights. Truth is, there was another mood board which I worked on the first night, but it was totally scrapped. Not worthy of sharing here.
But back to inbound marketing…
I’m really looking forward to becoming a more productive blogger in the coming days and applying the fresh knowledge that I have learned from Rhiza and Jimmy. And between you and me, I’m realizing that it really helps when you’re happy with your site. You tend to write more. 🙂
‘Til my next ramblings!
