Earn Money Scrapbooking Thursday, Apr 5 2007

If you enjoy scrapbooking and wish you had more time to dedicate to it, this could be the perfect business for you. There are several ways to earn from scrapbooking which we will look at here in this blog.

Become a Product Seller

You can sell scrapbooking products to other scrapbookers. If you want to join a reseller program such as Creative Memories, you will have backup and support, but also a minimum monthly order to get a decent discount. Or you could just find a wholesaler yourself and buy the products!

Selling scrapbooking products can be done on or offline, which is a nice option. Online, you can set up a webpage with photos of dropshipped items and have the dropshipper fill the orders. You never even have to touch the products! Offline, you might set up a display that could be presented to stores in your area, or you could put ads in the local paper.

Apart from selling third party products, you could create your own acid-free cutouts and pages that require only inserting the photos and sell these to busy moms who don´t have time to be creative!

Teach Classes

Creative Memories is where I learned to teach scrapbooking classes and I have to say that it is a lot of fun. But you don´t have to be with an organization to do this job. All you really need is a handful of ideas, a great sample photo album and the supplies.

You can easily set up classes in your home or a location in your town. Depending on how you want to work it, you can charge a small fee and have people buy their products (which you will have on hand) separately, or you can charge more and include basic products in the class fee. The students would have the opportunity to buy extras if they wish. A scrapbooking class can run for one day, just to get people started, or you might offer a full month-long course to help your students create an entire album.

Teaching others to do what you love is a very enjoyable experience and most scrapbooking teachers really have a blast doing their job! You could offer private classes as well to help students get organized.

Offer Custom Scrapbooking Services

Instead of teaching others how to make photo albums, why not do the albums yourself? This is the perfect opportunity to earn money doing what you love! You collect the photos from your client, get a basic idea of what they want (show sample pages for ideas) and then off you go, organizing the photos. You can earn fairly well at this, up to $75 a page, for truly original layouts.

I have actually seen scrapbooking services auctioned off on Ebay, so the online possibilities are just as good as the offline ones. Advertise online and in local newspapers to bring in clients. After that, word of mouth and repeat customers will be your biggest source of income.

Well, this was a long post! I hope you are inspired to get out there and start scrapbooking for money!

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Finding a Blog Host Wednesday, Apr 4 2007

You might have thought about starting a blog, or maybe you even have one set up for personal use. Blogs are a great way to let your friends and family know what is going on with you, but they are also an excellent way to earn money . . . if you know what you´re doing!

You don´t need to pay anything to set up a blog, but you might find it easier to do so if you want to put up ads. Sites like WordPress that offer free blogs also tend to be rather picky about what you put on them! Make sure that you read the fine print very carefully before signing up for a free blog host, to make sure you know what you are allowed to put on it and what is forbidden. Blogger is one of the few that still allows paid reviews and Adsense.

If you decide to go the route of a paid blog host, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, if you aren´t terribly tech-savvy, it might be a good idea to find a place where they offer free uploading of popular blog software.
Living Dot is one that features free uploading of two major blogging software programs, WordPress and Movable Type. This eliminates trying to figure out how to download the software and then transfer it to your new host and can be very handy.

Depending on your budget, you will want to look for pretty low monthly prices. For me, the host also has to accept PayPal since I don´t use a credit card, which is another consideration when you are looking for a blog host. Here is a list of blog hosts that accept PayPal as payment.

You might also want to consider a site that either offers a free demo or allows you to pay by the month. This is important if you aren´t sure about the host. That way if things don´t work out, you don´t lose a year´s investment and can easily move on. The ability to import and export your blog is a valuable option, since it means you can switch from host to host without losing all that hard work!

Once again,
Living Dot is recommended for all of the above reasons! I plan to move this blog over to
Living Dot within a month or two. Which brings me to another point. You will want to invest in a domain name, so when you switch hosts, you don´t lose all your visitors, they can still use the same domain name and it will lead them to your new blog! You can get good deals on domain names at
GoDaddy where they are actually having a big sale on .info names, just .99 cents each. A regular .com name will run you about $8.95, but if you do a search for coupon codes ahead of time, you can get a discount.

With these tips in mind, you should be able to find a decent blog host in a relatively short amount of time and have your blog up and running in no time at all! Stay tuned for my article on how to earn money with your blog.

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Sell Homemade Cloth Diapers Wednesday, Mar 21 2007

Ok, here´s a new business idea for you WHAMs out there! If you can design (or find a great pattern) and make your own cloth diapers, you can sell them. This is the perfect job for a mom with small children because you can test your product out before selling!

There are a lot of diaper patterns out there that you can use as is or adapt a bit to create your own design. If you are good at designing, you could always open up a regular disposible diaper to use as a pattern. It is a good idea to make removable inserts out of an absorbant cloth that will allow you to dry the two pieces separately, since dry time can be extra long with cloth diapers.

You will also need to choose a fabric or two. Something nice and absorbent for the inside, and something very cute for the outside. You could even offer several different designs. Or for that matter, expand your line to include plastic pants and other diapering accessories!

Starting up your new business shouldn´t be too difficult. You can offer your products online, on eBay or in your own special webstore. Offline, advertise your products anywhere that moms might see including supermarket bulletin boards, the local paper, daycares, etc.

Check out the Diaper Junglefor more information and free patterns.

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Start Your Own Seamstress Biz Monday, Mar 19 2007

If you are at all handy with the sewing machine, you can start up your own business sewing for other people. It is a skill that seems to have fallen by the wayside in the last few years, so if you can do it, you can earn.

There are two basic ways to go about this. If you are a stunningly great sewer, then you might as well take advantage of your skills! You can make custom-fit wedding and graduation dresses and tailored suits. However, if your skills lean more towards the high school home ec style, you might want to keep things simple.

Obviously, if you do custom tailoring work, you can earn a lot more than if you don´t. Even if your skills don´t quite make the mark, you might consider enrolling in a sewing course that will teach you to make your own patterns, etc. The amount you can earn is limited only by your imagination. Some wedding gowns go for thousands of dollars and since you will be fitting it, you can charge that much if you have the skill.

Extra can be charged for doing little details like hand-sewing pearls or embroidering designs on the clothing that you make. You can always suggest this to the client as an option.

To get started in custom tailoring, you will need to do up a couple of samples. Offer to do a dress or a suit for free for a friend, as long as they pay the materials. Take photos and get testimonies. Now you can put ads up online and in the local paper to get clients. If business is slow, consider doing some clothing up for placement in a consignment shop.

 Now, if you aren´t exactly an expert in the area of sewing, you can still earn, although it certainly won´t be thousands per project! You can offer your services as a basic seamstress. That means you will be doing simples stuff like hemming skirts and pants and taking in clothing. It is certainly not the most exciting position in the world, but it brings in steady money. After all, how often will you need a wedding dress? And how often do you need to take up a new pair of pants?

 See? It is more cost effective to go with simple sewing, because you will get repeat cusomers! That means less marketing for the same amount of cash. You might want to print up some business cards and drop them in the bag with the finished order when you return the clothing to its owner.

Even if you are doing very simple work, there is no reason you can´t move up in the world! Try taking a class, or challenge yourself to design a dress for your daughter or an outfit for your son. You can also make things to put into a consignment shop at this level.

Being a seamstress can be a good job, especially once you have built up a client base!

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How to Choose a Good Home Business Idea Friday, Mar 9 2007

Brainstorming a decent idea for earning at home can be a bit grueling. How do you decide which business is best for you? Today´s blog is to help those of you who haven`t yet decided what to do.

First you will need a pen and paper (or a computer) and some quiet time. Take five minutes or so to write down all your skills and interests. Leave nothing out. If you once worked in a pizzeria when you were ten, add that to the list. Mom skills are to be included, so that means mending, ironing, etc.

Once you have your basic list, go down and cross off everything you hate to do. For me that would include laundry and ironing!

This should leave you with a considerably shorter list. Now comes the hard part. Try to think of a business idea for each skill you have put down. If you come up with more than one, that´s great! For example, if you put down cooking, you might write “catering”, “frozen dinners”, “home bakery”, etc. Don´t start to judge the ideas yet, just let them flow. This part of the process can take some time, so if you have to, do it over a few days.

Once you have your business ideas, run down the list and choose the three that appeal to you most. Write them down on a separate piece of paper and write out the pros and cons. For example, let´s say I chose “catering”, “home child care”, and “freelance writing”. I would then write the negative and positive side of each one. Here is how I worked out freelance writing.

Pros: Flexible hours, at home all the time, I enjoy it, good pay if you get good assignments

Cons: Long hours on the computer, poor pay to start with, very unstable.

If you have more pros or cons than the other, you might want to ditch the idea. Select the best idea and start working out a theoretic business plan. If all three ideas lose their appeal once you really start thinking about them, go back and select another three.

This should help you narrow down, if not pinpoint, the perfect home business for you.

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