Bring It On - Learning New Tricks

I have to admit... The blogging world has completely swallowed up the past several days for me. As if I didn't know already that this is quickly becoming an obsession, James asked the moment I grabbed the laptop tonight "What? Blogging again?" Yes, yes, I am.

What started out as a simple test for work, then just kind of a thought that was put on the back burner, has now blossomed into a full force research project. The more blogs I read, the more I want to know how they did some of the cool stuff on their pages.

Exhibit A: Airing My Dirty Laundry, One Sock at a Time. I now have discovered how to create a book for Kindle. I've always wanted to write a book, though I'm not sure that I will. But thanks to seeing it posted on her page, I now know how to go about it if I should ever decide to.

Exhibit B: Freelance Lady. By combing through some of her posts I was able to find www.cj.com which is an amazingly easy site to use for people who are looking to advertise on their blogs. You'll note to the right the new section labeled Awesome Affiliates. I added the Google AdSense, but at least with CJ it's companies I know and actually shop at. I feel much better promoting places I actually know something about.

Exhibit C: Mamamusing. I have officially joined my first link up today. Not sure what it will bring to my site, but it directed me to a couple cool new blogs to follow. In following them, it led me to www.BlogLoving.com which coincidentally allows you to link your Blogspot right into it. No double posting like I've found on the other directory sites like BlogHer.com.

I didn't realize when I first started this page just how evolved the Blogging world has become. Speaking as someone who works in marketing, these are things I should know. That I need to know. I'm just excited that I decided to give it a second look because there's so much to learn. To steal McDonald's tagline...

"I'm lovin it!"

I'd Like to Work From Home, But How???

Lena ended up staying home sick today because she was running a fever this morning. I guess the fresh air yesterday didn't help like I'd tried to justify it would. I climbed up into her bunk this morning to give her more cough medicine and she just laid her head in my lap for a good 15 minutes.

It's days like this that I wish I could be a stay at home mom. Here my daughter is sick and I had no choice but to go to work. I know that legally she's old enough to stay home alone, but that doesn't mean that I wanted her to. I wanted to be home with her today. She's feeling icky and as her mommy, I feel I should be with her. Problem is, if I'd called in today, I wouldn't have been paid for the holiday and we can't really afford for me to not get paid. We need every dime right now.

I have been looking into how I find a job that I can work from home. I'd like to start out part time in the evenings and on weekends. Eventually I'd like to work full time from home, but currently I rather enjoy having that fancy thing called health insurance. 

I'm very comfortable with Microsoft Office and I fancy myself as pretty handy on the computer... Trouble is, it seems almost impossible to find something legitimate out there. I've found plenty of BS sites that basically just end up sending me loads of SPAM that I have to sort through and mark appropriately. In all truth, outside of Google and Craigslist, I haven't the faintest idea where to start. 

I was looking through a lot of "Mommy Blogs" yesterday where they referenced that they work from home... But how? Where do I look? How can I tell if it's real or if they're just trying to snag my email address? Any tips or suggestions would be greatly welcomed. 

I followed a link on Pandora today about creating a website to help launch a business, but again I don't know where to start. I don't have any products to sell. All I have is my geeky obsession with Excel, my newly acquired knack for social media marketing, and the fact that I can train people how to answer inbound sales calls. Does anyone know where I could find a market for that?