MONEY

As a stay at home mother, I sometimes find it very difficult to know that my husband is working 12 hours a day to support the family. I understand that my "job" is to take care of the children, but sometimes I feel like I could be helping him a lot more if I was making a bit of money. So recently I turned to a little something called "the internet" to begin adding a bit more cashflow into the household. Here's the trick, though, BEWARE of the scams!

There are many sites out there that offer "BIG MONEY" and they'll show you a video with some joe having made 100, 000+ bucks in a month, this is not always a "scam", in fact it can be quite true, but frankly, a stay at home parent doesn't have the time to do the work required to make that much money. In fact, most of these sites will ask for a "small payment" of 50 bucks per month to get you started to making this "big money", but, for the 2 hours a parent has to work on this stuff per day, the payout will never be MORE than 50 bucks a month, so is it really worth the time?

So, I went on a quest to find a few ways to make money as easily as possible with minimal time consumption and here are my conclusions:

Auto-profit Machine: Money on Auto-Pilot

If you look to the right of the page, you will see an ad for the "auto profit machine", this is one of the "easy ways to make money" things that I found on the internet.

This system is pretty good because you LITERALLY don't have to do ANYTHING to make money, of course, those who do will make MORE money, but that's up to you. Out of every system I have tried (about 5 or 6) this one is the best. It doesn't have you pay them the "initial cost" and then tell you you will make MORE MONEY if you UPGRADE, it doesn't ask you to make a website, it doesn't ask you to sell crap to your friends, nothing. Like I said, you can literally do nothing and make money.

How the heck does it work?

Well, if you click on the ad to your right, the video will tell you everything, it's a bit lengthy, so I will just explain in short form: You sell the "auto profit machine". So basically, you pay 50 bucks (one time cost, no upgrades and no unexpected "monthly payments")and then you make 25 buck off of each sale generated through your "affiliate link".

For example, my affiliate link is http://ProfitMachine.me/rhamel/index.php. And, if you were to click on it, you would see the video. If you bought from this link, I would make 25 bucks and could deposit it into my paypal account tomorrow.

The site generates its own traffic and I get 70% of the traffic sales that come off my affiliate link and the other 30% of the traffic goes to other members of APM, this is why you can make money by doing nothing and also why the more people that are generating traffic, the more money you and I can make. The best part is that you can make your money back in 2 sales, you don't have to wait 5 months to start getting profit, it happens at sale 3. Check it out for yourself.

What I find to be the best part about APM is that if you don't get your money back within a month, they allow you to keep using the system AND refund you ALL of your money (50 bucks). So, even if you invest now and make absolutely nothing, you get it back by the end of the month.

The thing to ALWAYS look for when finding ways to make money online is their REFUND and cancellation policy.

The Traffic Brokers

Traffic Brokers is a legit way to make money if you don't know the internet as well as you'd like to. Traffic Brokers is basically an affiliate based Ad company. Basically, you email websites, have them post an ad to their site and offer them 85% of the payout that the company gives you. It's very legit in the sense that it's easy, but it's very difficult to find that first client. Some people do make a killing, but others don't. It costed me 5 bucks to evaluate the system and I could easily see how it could generate the equivalent of a full-time income, but the time you have to invest in the first few months is a bit over-the-top for a mother of two doing work from a single laptop and not wanting to make long-distance phone calls!

The system costs 5 bucks to check out, then 50 bucks (american) to invest. Be warned that this IS a monthly cost, not a "one time payment".

Here is the link, but try to ignore the money amounts that this guy is claiming, it is quite true that you can make 600, 000 per year off a business like this, but truly only if you've worked at it for 5 years and spent 100 hours a week on it! http://www.trafficbrokers.com/

The refund policy for this one is fairly simple, you don't get your 5 bucks back, but you can use the system for 2 months and you can request a refund by day 60 and get the 100 bucks (for those 60 days) back in FULL. You can contact the company themselves or Clickbank, it's generally a quicker refund if you contact Clickbank.

Clickbank

SO...

This is the one i am sticking with.

Cost: FREE
Time: As much or as little as you want.

So, if you don't already know what clickbank is, it's basically an online bank that has all sorts of products that you can sell. Because i know computers a little better than most, this is probably the one program that I can make a super decent profit from.

The products that Clickbank has have a huge payout per sale(up to 75%). So, Basically, you take the idea of Traffic brokers and apply it to Clickbank.

What I do is I find a product that I like and that I believe may be easy to sell. For example, the product I am currently working on is called "Revitalize her Drive". It's basically for marriages that are struggling in the sexual aspect of things, but it does it in a very clean way.

So, i take this product and then I have to find prospective clients. The best way to do this is to use google word for the product. For example, for "Revitalize Her Drive" i would use words like "save my marriage", or "help get my wife to sleep with me" (God, i hope they don't do a search on my computer if I die suddenly tomorrow, haha). So then I find a website that looks like it has potential for buyers of this product and I find their "alexa" rating (http://www.seotoolbag.com/a_rank.php) if the number is higher than 1 000 000, I go to the "contact us" link, and I send them a pitch. Simple as that.   If their number is lower than a million, it's best to assume that they have enough traffic that they don't really need your profits, so move on and don't waste your time pitching to those guys, they're rich enough to blow you off!
Because it's free to do this, I can spend 5 minutes on it or 12 hours, whatever I want.

Here's an example of the pitch I send:

Dear (enter Site name here),

My name is rachel hamel and I run a Performance-based ad agency. I have a product here called "Revitalise her Drive". It's a product that I feel would help many of your site frequenters to improve their marriage. I understand that ad space doesn't come cheap, so here is my proposition:

Simply by placing the ad to your site, i will give you 85% of the payout from the company per sale. You will find this money and statistics fully accessible to you any time of the day to be withdrawn at your convenience.

Here is a link to the product that I'd like you to consider advertising: http://a3476bk401o-fn8dlnnsq9igbn.hop.clickbank.net/

For this particular product, the company pays out 54.00, this means that you make a whopping 49 bucks per sale, just for placing the ad on your site. Please contact me for further details.

Sincerely,

Rachel Hamel
RHamel Advertising
rhamelads@gmail.com

So, the pitch is simple, it's absolutely free to do it and I get money for each sale I make. Also, I can just sell as many products as I want at a time and still make money from it.

So, if you are looking to make money, those are just a few of the ways that you can get started. If you have just lost your job recently, just try one of those things, (you can't lose anything with clickbank). Often, they really can supply you a full-time income within a couple weeks. Plus, once you have the client base, it not only gets easier, but it becomes RESIDUAL income. Can't beat work tht pays off for years to come!

Anyhow, I am beat, if you need more tips, just contact me at rhamelads@gmail.com, if you live in the area, we can do coffee and I can just show you.

Have fun!

Baby, Baby

Today, I was thinking back to when I was pregnant. It seems so long ago and, as much as I am blessed to have had 2 beautiful and healthy babies, I am quite happy to no longer be pregnant. Here is a list of 5 things I distinctly remember about being pregnant, remembering these things is what make me certain that yet another baby IS NOT in my immediate or distant future.

1. Ultrasound Worries

Every night before a scheduled ultrasound, I remember getting this gut-wrenching feeling, thinking that I would get to the ultrasound, the specialist would find that there were TWO babies in my womb, or that the baby had some kind of health problem. I remember getting so stressed about the ultrasound that it made my morning sickness worse. This in and of itself would not be enough to never have a baby again, but coupled with an ultrasound specialist who would leave the room unexpectedly to fetch the doctor, that is enough.

For my second baby, I was living in Quebec over the first half of my pregnancy and, after a night of worrying about what the ultrasound might turn up, the specialist walked out of the room unexpectedly, stating that she needed the doctor's opinion about something. Had she told me that it was because she couldn't get a good measurement because of the baby's position, that would have been okay. The fact that she just ran out to get the doctor made me want to punch her because she made me think that my baby was not in perfect health.

2. The Comfort Factor

Going to bed every night, even when I wasn't even showing yet, was one of the hardest tasks of the day. I remember spending all night flipping around and punching pillows to try to get comfortable. Of course, as soon as I was finally comfortable, my husband would move. He would either get into my space, or he would move because having my leg draped over his face just was not comfortable for him, either way, it sucked. Out of the 10 hours I would be in bed, at least 5 of those hours would be spent getting comfortable.

3. Pain

Is it just me, or does a normal headache just feel worse when you're pregnant? Of course, when your pregnant, no matter how much you hurt or where, the doctor says, "tylenol". I once complained to my doctor and asked him to write me a prescription and, when I looked at the paper, it said, "TYLENOL"! Thanks a lot, buddy. The worst of it was when the pelvic pain started in my 4th month, when I could hardly walk and, somehow, doctors, friends and family would take it upon themselves to tell me that it meant that I needed to walk. How do people expect you to have motivation to walk when you are carrying 30 pounds of extra weight and your pelvis feels like it's in the wrong place? I wouldn't even have to finish this list to not want to be pregnant again, this one is enough.

Carrying on...

4. Friends and Family

Don't you just LOVE how, the moment you tell someone you're pregnant, the first thing they do after the initial "congrats" is bombard you with advice about raising your unborn child and grab the chocolate bar out of your hand? Admittedly, not all the advice was bad, but when I was having my first child, it was overwhelming. When I was pregnant with my second child, the advice was still fresh enough in my mind that I could quote every word that came out of their mouth.

5. Hormones

If there's anything my husband can remember quite distinctly about my pregnancies, it was the hormones. I sometimes laugh at Jude because he can being crying one second and laughing the next, but that's how I was when I was pregnant! Now, you know it was bad when the woman actually whole-heartedly admits it, I WAS HORMONAL! There are not many things that I will agree with my husband about as far as "emotions" go, but those 18 months of pregnancy (2 babies, remember?)were, by far, the most emotionally unstable months of my life.

Even though the pregnancies were difficult and I often felt like a giant balloon, the babies aren't so bad. Like I said, they're a blessing. Sometimes I think that God makes it hard to be pregnant so that the pain of labor will pale in comparison to the thought of one more day with baby on the inside, scratching at your womb. Plus, it helps to know that, at the end of it, there will be a tiny, wrinkly human, waiting to be loved and cuddled!

Boredom

I don't know about you, but one thing I deal with on a daily basis is BOREDOM.  Some days, the entertainment of television or music is just not enough to fill what seems to be a quiet life.
Don't get me wrong, my kids keep me busy, my husband keeps me busy, but there are very few things that I "get" to do that are just for me.

Generally, by the time I have time to actually do anything, Andrew is at work and the kids are in bed.  This means that I can't go out and that I have to stay semi-quiet until about 8:30 PM, which is when they seem to not be bothered by noise at all (generally speaking).  There are days when bedtime rolls around and I am relieved to have my day over with, but other days, I just feel lonely and the boredom starts to feel a bit depressing. 

Here's the sad part:

At this point, I can easily be doing my hobby; scrapbooking, but, somehow, I don't feel creative enough for that.  Then of course, there's an excuse for everything; I'm too tired to clean, too sore to exercise and I have a headache so I can't read.  So what do I end up doing?  I'm sure I am not the only one, I bet you can guess!

I SIT ON MY A** AND WATCH TV!

Thinking back on all the time that I have wasted away in front of the tube just sickens me.  All that time I could have spent exercising and having the body of a supermodel, or cooking healthy meals for my family, and I spent it in front of the t.v!

Unfortunately, television is one of the few things that temporarily satisfies my need for entertainment (sad how we need that, eh?).  I don't have to work or be creative to do it, I even have the full use of both of my hands, once the kids are in bed.

So, here are a few things (other than television) that I sometimes do to stop from being so depressingly bored, this should not be offensive to you if you would rather sit in front of the t.v, because, guess what?  I DO TOO!

1. Sleep : As a mom of 2, this is something that does actually help me a lot.  When a mom sleeps, even if it's in the middle of the day, it should never be considered lazy (even though, in my case, it sometimes is) because being a mom is extremely tiring and sometimes escaping into your dreams during a powernap can give you just enough adventure that you can wake up feeling refreshed and entertained.

2.  Blog: That's right.  Boredom is the number one reason I started to blog.  Truly, a 21 year old shouldn't have so much to talk about, but keep in mind, I am a 21 year old WOMAN, haha.  I know I don't know it all, but I like to pretend for about a half hour a day by writing about things I really don't know much about!  It helps me to find ways to relate to other moms that might be like me: a bit anti-social and glad to be stuck in the house, somedays!

3.  Call my brother: I bet you think this is kind of weird, to be calling my brother after the kids are in bed and sometimes even talking for a few hours at a time, but he's my brother.  My brother is probably one of the few (maybe even the ONLY) people that I can be entirely myself with.  So when I have a chance to talk to him, I am quite happy to and will often spend a good 2 or 3 hours on the phone with him.  Sure, we may spend most of that time cracking jokes and being silly, but having a good relationship with my siblings isn't exactly a waste of time, is it?  My sister also lives near my brother, but she seems to be the only one of us who gets tired enough to sleep before 2 or 3 in the morning!

4.  Make plans for next out-of-town trip: Seems a little silly to do this when you are months away from going out of town again, but I just love to do this.  For those of you who don't know me, I live in a small town that only this month got its very own Tim Horton's.  Everyone around here makes the five hour drive to Winnipeg for various things, like shopping or doctor's appointments.  For some reason, I like to spend a few weeks before our next trip looking up which locations in Winnipeg have coupons for free meals or side dishes, I look up hotels to see which ones are the nicest at the best value and I even check where they are located to make sure our car won't get vandalized. 

5.  Sing and dance obnoxiously: Once that 8:30 mark hits and the kids are sound asleep and pretty much impossible to stir, I will sometimes crank up the music and sing and dance pretty much as loud as I can.  I don't know why it feels so good, but sometimes it's just what I need to get the last of my energy out to finally force myself to sleep.  Although people didn't know it until now, this is why I ask that people call before they visit! 


Anyhow, those are just a few ideas of how I combat Boredom.  I'd be quite happy to hear what some other parents do when no-one is looking!

Discipline, Discipline

The Age-Old Technique

Being a parent, I often find it hard to find a method of discipline that works. I value the self-esteem of my children dearly, not wanting to hurt them when I discipline them, yet wanting them both to learn through my discipline.

Don't get me wrong, I am probably on the "sterner" side of parenting. My son is 18 months old and when he touches things that are dangerous, he gets a slap on the hand. I find that it teaches him that those things are dangerous, without him having to hurt himself. This has actually benefitted me greatly, as I no longer have to worry about going over to non-childproofed homes and my own home is not "child proofed" because there is no need for it.

The thing that I found the hardest, though, was disciplining my son for whining and crying. A while ago, my child figured out that, when he cryed, he would get attention, not long afterwards, he started doing it all the time. But, what was I to do? How could you teach a child to stop whining or crying without reason? Finally, out of utter desperation, I found my answer: counting!

Yes, it's true, the age-old method that your parents probably used on you, worked on my child. My husband and I decided on counting to 5. Now, every time our 18 month old starts whining, either my spouse or I will say, "you have 5 seconds to get a hold of yourself." We then proceed to counting to five.

The first time was very difficult. When we got to 5, we had to flick him in the mouth! How disheartening for us! But we only had to do it once! We have never gotten past 3 since!

So, next time you're ripping out your hair due to your child's incessant whining, just give it a try. If it doesn't work, he won't remember it anyway!

Unfortunately, the same can't be said if your children are a little older and they whine. I am not yet dealing with older children, but I suppose time-outs could be inforced? They say a child should only be left in time-out for as many minutes as their age until they reach the age of six. ( 3 minutes for a 3 year old, for example.)

Jude has been having timeouts since he was 6 months old, which, looking at my 6 month old daughter now, I realize was probably much too early (even though it seemed to work).

It's was quite important to us for our son to understand why he was getting his time-out or, when it called for it, his spanking. We try to tell him and explain. For example, if he reaches up on the table and grabs for a pen, we pick the pen up, show it to him and say "don't touch, dangerous" and lightly tap him on the hand (signifying what danger is). If he does it again, the tap gets harder and harder, although it's been a long time since I've had to do that.

The other thing that really bothered my husband and I was when Jude would throw his food off of his tray while he was eating. This would always result in a long clean-up, which can be difficult while nursing child number 2 and dealing with bedtime routine. This is one thing that Jude also gets a slap on the hand for, when he doesn't listen the first time. We found it important to carry out the discipline after the first warning, because when he would get 3 warnings he would just keep going until the third warning, almost like he knew he still had 2 chances to do whatever he was doing.

The trick, for us, was to make sure that our son (as our daughter is still much too young) took us both seriously. I needed to know that I could have respect from him, even when daddy wasn't around and the trick to that was to share the discipline. I am quite proud to say that I have never muttered under my breath, "just wait until daddy gets home." I understand that that could really hinder their relationship, even though there are times when disciplining him seems outrageous, because he can be so darn funny!


Discipline is a hard one for any parent, you really have to understand your child and his or her needs and, in my opinion, spanking really should be reserved as a last resort or for something really awful. Remember, though, if it's something you feel you might regret later, just don't do it. It's better to have a child get away with something than to always second-guess yourself.

Once, my son made me so angry that I put him in his room and left him there for over a half hour. He really was fine and managed to find things to play with, but I knew that if I spanked him while I was angry, I would hurt him. The goal of discipline is to teach, not to harm. Leave the "punishments" at the door, they teach absolutely nothing.

While in Public, it's important that our children don't feel like we would be too embarassed to discipline them.  Even at the young age of 1.5 years, Jude seemed to catch on that we wouldn't raise our voices in public.  We decided that this was not a habit we wanted him to get into.  Now, when we go out for dinner or go to the grocery store, Jude gets the same discipline he would at home.  It is now very rare that we have to slap his hand, but once in a while, we do have to and, oddly enough, we don't get the looks from other adults that we had feared we would get.  In fact, it's almost as though they respect that we discipline our child!  Not exactly what we expected!  We have now concluded that it is not "making a scene" if you have to use your "stern voice" or even slap their hands, we just will not spank on the bum as we feel like that would be disrespectful for Jude.  If he really needed a spanking, we would take him to the car or the bathroom. 



Luckily, since we have started implementing the counting, it is rare that we ever have to discipline him anymore.  I suppose he understands to stop whatever he is doing when the counting begins. 


Please, keep in mind that what I offer is not advice.  I know that every child is different and that parents have different parenting techniques, I love to talk to other moms about their methods of discipline to see if there could be more that I should implement on my kids when the need arises or sometimes, I just need the pat on the shoulder that says that I am not being a tyrant! 

Hope you all got something out of this one! Have a good day!