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!
by The Happy WAHM
Back in January, I wrote about my new beginnings. My eight-year dream of having a home office – a full space where I can entertain clients and not just a table in a corner of the living room – was finally realized. I don’t think I ever got around to sharing here how the construction went, or how my space looks like, so I will do that now.
Here’s how my work space looked like two years from when I started out as a WAHM. The first two years, I only had a computer table beside my newborn’s crib.
And this is my home office now. Well, not that clean when I’m working. 🙂
I also mentioned in that earlier post my dream of having my sites (I now have four) revamped. Today, I am happy to present the new look for The Happy WAHM. But in case you are visiting this site for the first time, this was my old header.
So you see, my 2014 is proving to be a year of realizations, of dreams coming to fruition. But these things did not happen with me sitting down, twiddling my thumbs, and waiting for things to come into place. I worked hard for these, while faithfully holding on to God’s provisions of good health, strength, and good clients. 🙂
And I would not have done all the hard work without the support of these important people:
My husband, who has fully supported all my endeavors from Day 1. Darna has a stone, I have a husband. ‘Nuff said.
My children, for being… well, the children that the good Lord has gifted me with. They really made my days as a WAHM feel like a walk in the park.
The WAHM community, for the daily dose of support. It’s a big community, so it’s just not possible to mention everyone’s name. But I’ll definitely mention my partner, The Techie Mom, who pressured me to go ahead with the re-design. Pressure! Seriously! Martine de Luna, for the inspiration. We still have that pending consult. Artique, for the header that I have taken down from the site, but will never be let go. And the one whose hands made me beautiful on the new header, Patricia of Fancy Girl Designs. I am, without exaggeration, in awe of her talent. And truly grateful that she took me in despite her long queue of projects.
Needless to say that this site re-launch also signals my more serious take into blogging, so I hope that you will continue to follow my ramblings as I trudge on in my happy WAHMing and homeschooling journey.
by The Happy WAHM
It’s a happy day today!
Well, I really make it a point to choose happiness every single day. But today is a bit extra special. I spent my weekend creating opportunities while chaperoning my eldest child. Yeah, that’s me in the photo, taken by my youngest child, at some parking lot, with my laptop, typing away my ideas for a new service offering.
We’ve been a one-income household for the past five months now, and so far, so good. Well, budgeting remains a challenge, as it will always be. But I’ve been managing our finances for so long that keeping a watchful eye has been the norm.
But while I’ve been successful at budgeting what we have, I still need to add to my income so I can resume adding to our college and retirement funds. We sort of hit a bump with this part of the financial equation, and I have to work doubly hard to get back on track.
So my Saturday was spent building up on my idea, and part of Sunday was spent putting it on my webpage. It’s still a work in progress, and I know it’s not much to look at, but I am not one to procrastinate when I set my mind on something. I’ll improve on it over time. But the important thing now is to get the word out.
So what is it, anyway?
Do you ever find yourself reading an article, or a blog, or even a brochure, and proofread it while you go?
I am that kind of person. I read something, and in my mind, I insert a punctuation, put a hyphen, check the spelling, correct the grammar… you get the idea. And then I go ahead and send a message to the concerned person, when I can. “Hey, _____, you wrote _____ instead of _____. Should be _____.”
It’s not to offend, but to help out. And I do it in private, of course. Thankfully, these people appreciate what I do. And these people, they know how to do it correctly anyway. It’s just that people who are too close to something are not seeing that something as clearly as someone else would from afar. The easiest to overlook are the most common, I’ve observed. And so, this idea.
My Start-Up WAHM venture is now formally offering proofreading and editing services.
So, you ask me: What right have you to offer that service? What are your credentials?
I don’t have a degree, for sure. What I do have is a good head between my shoulders, a set of eyes for detail, a ton of patience to go over anyone’s material, and a lifetime of experience. As far as professional experience goes, I’ve been doing this for my client for quite some time now. I’ve proofread more than a hundred blog post entries in his site/s and more than a dozen of his books and programs since I’ve joined his business, one of which is now a New York Times bestseller and where my name was even mentioned in the acknowledgement page, so I’m pretty confident that I can deliver.
Again, the page is still a work in progress, but I wanted my readers to know about it first, and know about it today, a Monday, a day I claim to be the beginning of another great week.
So please check it out. Send me an inquiry if you please. I’m open to negotiations for mommy bloggers. And will really appreciate you helping me get the word out.
Thank you very much in advance, and happiness all around!
by The Happy WAHM
Hit the ground running this year!
I’m really very excited about 2014, as a lot of things are in the works. I call them new beginnings, as I am finally putting into action the plans that I used to simply dream about.
Plus, a special occasion will be happening in March, and my brother, whom I haven’t seen for a long time, will be coming home for a vacation with his family, also in March. I’m most excited about seeing my nephews, and seeing my kids connect with them. My kids have been practicing their conversational English, while my older nephew has been learning Tagalog.
My dream of having an extension of the house that I can use as a home office will come to fruition this year, hopefully to be completely finished before the end of the first quarter, but if not, I will still have nine months to work on it. I mean work, like earn, so I can fund the works. Ha ha!
I also want to see to fruition the planned revamp of my sites, which has been long overdue. I built my sites on free templates, and have been dreaming of having them designed professionally. This has been put on the backburner for the longest time. I have not had the opportunity to sit down and internalize on what I really want in terms of design, color palettes and such. I just know what I want the content to be. I guess I really have not felt the need to further promote my services because I have been pretty much fully booked, so to speak, and I can no longer afford any more clients. But then again, I just need to have my brand out there, and share best practices that worked for me and somehow be of help to those who are just starting out. So yeah, this year will be about new beginnings, starting with re-organizing my home office, both physically and virtually.
Another big thing is that my podcast interview from last year has just been released. Really thrilled to be to be asked for an interview in a podcast, as this is the first of its kind [that I know of] in the Philippines. The interview happened late at night, after a long workday, so I may be talking nonsense at times. Ha ha! Please be kind when you hear me say “meat on the table” when I really meant to say “food”. I can’t recall much, but I have dwelt on that error right from the moment I said it, until now that I’m writing this post. I have not fully listened to the podcast yet, but my understanding is that it was recorded as live, so no hopes for editing out the faux pas and others like it.
Just click on the play button below, or click this link to see the shownotes. And while you’re at the page, please give me some love and click on the Facebook Like button. Thank you! 🙂
But the one thing that I’m really preparing for this January is the WordPress Re-Run. I really can’t be emphatic enough in saying that having WordPress knowledge is a big plus in going out there and presenting yourself as a virtual worker. Let’s face it. We now live in a world where everyone goes to a website for something. So people are building businesses online, and one out of six websites actually run on WordPress. So virtual workers and online entrepreneur wannabes really need to learn the power of WordPress. You need an online portfolio? Build it on WordPress. You want an online store? Build it on WordPress. You want to have a retainer job online? Your would-be employer will want you to be adept in WordPress. And that’s why we created this workshop, so we can help you with what you need.
And what’s good about attending this workshop is that the learning will not end there. We take all our attendees to a closed Facebook group where they can continue to ask us questions and we’ll continue to assist them with their respective sites. If you feel that you, or someone you know, will benefit from this workshop, please help us spread the word. Just click here to go to the registration page.
And one last thing that I want to share in this post: I have started a journal. Since my mantra for this year is journal, plan and share, I have started writing down my daily activities. And when I say write, I really mean write, with the old fashioned pen. And thankfully, someone took pity on me and gave me a really cool planner, but I’m not in liberty to divulge who the generous donor is. Suffice it to say that the donor is an awesome person, and the planner, equally so. But in case you don’t have a generous donor like I do, this one is cool, too. I have this on my laptop and it’s called the Red Notebook.
I really hope I will have more time to post here this year, but if not, you can still catch my updates via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. I guess it’s always easier to just write short updates. 🙂
by The Happy WAHM
One word. Successful.
And it was.
The workshop borne of a Facebook status of someone in my friends list pushed through despite the storm signal being up at number 2. With only 18 days of preparation, from the moment I made the announcement that I’m going to conduct a WordPress Workshop for WAHMs (without even consulting my partner), we were able to confirm 20 warm bodies, out of the 41 who actually registered. but with the final date not being a fit with their respective calendars, the rest just begged off and asked that a re-run be scheduled, and soon.
This workshop was a first for both me and my partner, Jenn Tan, although I’m not a stranger at coordinating events. I knew what we needed to do and have. Only problem was, we both have demanding clients to take care of. So we thought it best to ask for the assistance of a good friend, Patty, who is a professional event coordinator an event coordinator extraordinaire. I knew I wanted the workshop to be at colab, a place I fell in love with when we had our Real Ways to be WAHM workshop there. And when it comes to food, I knew we’re safe to go with Almost Gourmet, so we did.
The preparation was not easy, especially for Jenn, whose task was to create sub-domains for all the attendees. She had all kinds of trouble installing the script and all, and all I could do was pray that the glitches would be sorted out. True to her moniker – The Techie Mom – she, of course, got everything ready for the event.
The one thing that we really made sure would be out on time was our special giveaway.
Special thanks to the designer of the mug, Chris Oliver Tan, Jenn’s other half, and of course, to The Mug Shop, for the wonderful print.
And a workshop would not be complete without certificates! Those, I printed myself, kudos to my ever reliable Epson L-200.
We loved the questions that were thrown our way, and really, even the basic stuff could not fit in a day of workshop, so to be able to address more of our attendees’ questions, we have created a Facebook Group where we can continue to support these ladies who have bravely trooped to the workshop despite the rains and traffic and storm signal.
And despite the lack of sleep and the stressful days leading to the workshop, I am so grateful that I didn’t have the unsightly pimples to show, thanks to my trusted soap, which you will read more about in tomorrow’s post!
I should not forget to mention, and thank, Xend, for always being so supportive of WAHM workshops.
With the workshop over, and it being a Sunday, I’m going to take a bit of a time off, maybe go to the supermarket with my ever comfortable jeans and shirt, but this time, sporting my new-found A-Strap comfy feet friends.
But before I go, let me say again, THANK YOU to these awesome ladies!
Will there be a re-run?
Stay tuned!
by The Happy WAHM
In less than a month, I’ll be in front of like-minded WAHMs again, doing what I love most – sharing what I know.
This has been in my mind for the longest time, but I’ve been putting it off coz I always succeed in talking myself out of it. I tell myself “people won’t be interested”; “I can’t make it fly”; “there are lots of workshops about the same topic, who will come to mine”; and a host of other negative thoughts. But then, if I count the number of aggregate hours (yes, hours) I spend online answering questions thrown my way, those hours can already make up some weeks.
So why not put together a day of hands on tutorial for those who are brave enough to get acquainted with WordPress, up close and personal! And I’ll have my partner, The Techie Mom, by my side, to whack me on the head if I ever tell you something that is not so true.
So here’s what we are going to do.
We are going to create a subdomain for each one of the attendees. Like yourname.margeaberasturi.com, so that you will have a real hands on experience of the WordPress.org platform.
But you ask: “I already have myname.wordpress.com account. Can’t I just use that?”
Well, yes, you can. But you will be missing out on the fun! And fun has a name. It’s called plugins!
So, yes. Our hands on tutorial will allow you to really create your own site from scratch, and by the time we’re ready to go home, you will be dreaming of ways you can tweak your site to improve its content and design.
Now, for those who already have existing hosted WordPress sites, you can, of course, use your dashboard, and apply what we’re going to share with you, when applicable, to your site.
So, are you ready to join us?
Just head over to this link => Getting to Know WordPress
I will be so thrilled to see you!
