More on Sponsored Posts

Martin Neumann of HomeOfficeVoice.com recently featured a sponsored post on his website for Universal Document Converter. As readers of this blog know, I am also interested in getting paid for blogging (why should I miss out on a money-making opp?), as long as it's done in an honest and ethical way. I have been researching how to go about it, so I was interested in seeing how Martin handled it.

I think he was quite successful, but it's still a Catch-22, though.

You see, while I'm happy to know that Martin is being honest and letting me know that this particular entry is being paid for (there is a note that says, "This is a sponsored post" before the text), my expectation when I started reading was that Martin would be recommending this item -- and he did. Aha! Instant skepticism. Let's face it: Would the folks behind Universal Document Converter have paid for a negative review? Would you, if you were them?

But what if he really did like it? Thought it was the best thing since Twitter and dark chocolate Hershey's Kisses?

Is there way around the skepticism? I don't know... Had Martin not told us that this was a sponsored review, I would have been skeptical of the review anyway, so was anything gained by having full disclosure?

I think so, actually. Whether or not the review itself is truthful (we'll never really know), I appreciate Martin's trust in his readers to decide for themselves. He's essentially saying, "Hey, I got paid for this. I want you to know. Make of it what you will." I also think what saves Martin are two things:

1) His specificity. His review is thoughtful and thorough, covering a lot of ground/applications, which makes me more inclined to think that he didn't get the software in the mail, toss it to the side, run to his computer and type, "I love it!"

2) Martin has a reputation for being an authority on work-at-home topics, so the trust that he has built with his readers may be enough to offset any nagging doubts. Perhaps an unknown/newbie would have more difficulty doing that.

This whole concept, sponsored posts, really is a toughie... But I think Martin has proven that it can be done. And done well.

An On-Deadline Rant

I am sooo tempted to rat out a PR exec who left me hanging on a deadline.

Explain to me how a public relations "professional" can send out an email promoting a client and then when a news outlet shows interest, she says, "This sounds great! I'll let you know" and then never does. After repeated emails. And phone calls.

Listen, lady, all I need is an "I'm sorry, I can't reach Rachael at this time" or a "Thank you for the opportunity, but we're going to pass" or something along the lines of "Are we able to reschedule for another time?"

Well, you know what? Now, don't bother. I'm not interested. I wonder how your client feels that you've blown the opportunity for her parenting website to get a glowing review and a free press in this dim economy.

I wish I could type your name and let the social media circles wreak havoc on your reputation. But I'm too friggin' nice. Or just a sap.

I feel better anyway, despite this disgustingly vague rant.

WHY Xtra: 5 Resolutions for 2009*

1. Create contests as a marketing strategy. The popularity of Peter Shankman’s giveaways on Twitter the days surrounding Christmas is proof that people still love a good trivia question.
2. Enter yourself in a contest or competition. Blogger’s Choice Awards, anyone?
3. Create a form of passive income. Think Google Adsense. Or a store (ours is on cafepress.com).
4. Get your company featured in the local press. Ask not what your community can do for you…
5. Guest blog once a month. Ask some of your favorite bloggers if you can take the reins for a day. You'll be surprised at how eager they are for some time off.

*Remember, you can join the WHY magazine mailing list to have each week's Xtra emailed to you every Monday in pretty colors -- and with a photo! Ooh... Ahh...!

I, Local 2.0

ReadWriteWeb is reposting some of its "hidden gems" that you may have missed over the past year. This one discusses Local 2.0, a Web 2.0 way of thinking about how we interact with what's around us.

Local 2.0 brings the promise of Web 2.0 technolgoies to an area near you, driven largely by social networks and data that provide actionable info. The post explains that the work-from-home generation is more likely to interact with and care about local shopkeepers, while its previous incarnation, Local 1.0, had us hidden away in our homes buying online, doing deals over the phone and keeping to ourselves. It argues that local businesses are using the internet to trade with and partner with their peers and that people don't really live online.

This reminds me of something Ford's Scott Monty recently DMed me. When I asked him about maximizing social media marketing, he said, "It's not just about online presence - get out there and meet people face to face." (For more on this, check out WHY magazine's jan/feb 09 issue, which goes live Thursday.)

People still want to do business with people. I can't tell you, as a freelance journalist, how many times I've been asked to conduct person-to-person or telephone interviews rather than email interviews, particularly when time is not a factor. While at one time, we cherished the thought of being able to do everything by ourselves, on our own, there's a new appreciation for "otherness," particularly those right around us.

When a new coffee shop opened in my neighborhood last month, my first thought was, How can I work with them? What services can I offer? I wonder how their hot chocolate is. I don't think I would have cared much several years back, when the thought of doing business with someone in California seemed more exciting and going to Starbucks made me feel cosmopolitan.

Control, Now I've Got a Lot

The end of the year can be chocked full of all kinds of Top 10 lists, many of which are rather innocuous and unhelpful, if you're trying to grow a home business, and often have to do with hair, clothing, entertainment or Barbara Walters (not that we don't like reading them for fun, particularly if we're procrastinating before a deadline). However, there's a great list of the Top 10 Free Tools for Monitoring Your Brand's Reputation on Mashable that's a must-read for anyone who wants to know what's being said about them and their business out there. As Dan Schawbel notes, these conversations used to be held behind our backs and behind closed doors, but now they're taking place right in front of our eyes, and you can choose to be a part of them. In fact, you should be a part of them. Make one of your goals for 2009 to join the social media fray, not just so that you can see some never-before-seen high school graduation photos of yourself (thanks, Robyne!), but so that you can regain some control, in an immediate and economical way, of your brand monitoring.

The Day After

It's unusually quiet here today, despite the fact that all the kids are home from school. New toys and games will do that to a household.

In any case, I was able to finish up a freelance assignment in virtual silence, with the occasional sounds of plastic containers being ripped open and gleeful yells of "Yeah, I made it to the next level!"

Remember, the new issue of WHY magazine will be live on January 1, 2009, although I'm still way behind in finishing up copy. But my deadline is tomorrow. PLENTY of time, right Lucille?

Lucille?

Merry Christmas!

Enjoy the day, and don't berate yourself if, later on, while the kids are playing with their stuff, you feel the urge to check your email or send a tweet. It's hard to turn it off -- even on Christmas Day!

How I Got Here

Sometimes I wonder -- particularly this early in the morning and this close to a big nostalgic holiday like Christmas -- how I got here, how life is hinged by momentary decisions. For those who don't know, the concept for WHY magazine came about as I was standing in my kitchen cooking up breakfast and wondering what kind of publication would be good for Lucille and me to start. Way too many parenting mags out there. Pets? Don't have one. Then it sort of came to me like the proverbial light bulb. I remember staring at my husband, who was sitting at the dining room table, and saying, "I got it! A home-business magazine. We'll call it WHY, which stands for Work, Home and You."

That was in January 2007. Four months later, WHY was born -- with very little fanfare and with pitiful traffic by two highly motivated, albeit web-challenged founders. Word about us spread slowly, thanks to a good concept and execution -- at least we'd like to think so -- and in large part to creative marketing performed by a gal who suddenly regretted eschewing business classes in college (the only one I took was Marketing 101, which was required).

Now here we are in a recession, but we're holding our own, buoyed by low overhead and two founders who continue to be highly motivated. What 2009 will bring, I don't know... There's so many people joining the work-at-home ranks that, I think, our magazine is needed more than ever, but as many wells of income are drying up, there are more of us going after the ones that remain. It's challenging, but, I have to say, exciting too.

Our goals for the new year are to continue to offer you important information -- in a dynamic and easy to read format -- that will help you start your own business, grow the one you already have or just work more efficiently out of your home. We'll hang in there if you will!

As we say in our magazine all the time, sometimes you just gotta take a chance, go with your gut, learn by doing and hope for the best.

It's kind of like parenting. Or owning a pet -- or so they tell me.

WHY Xtra: 5 Freebies You Should Know About*

1. Free Mentoring. Small business owners can get free business advice, as well as mentoring, from SCORE, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping American entrepreneurs improve their businesses.
2. Free Shipping. If you order anything online, your first stop should be FreeShipping.org, which maintains a list of free shipping codes for over 800 online retailers.
3. Free Templates. There are thousands of free templates available online, including a wide variety from Microsoft, which checks the templates it offers for viruses and other problems before making them available.
4. Free Software. You need basic office software, like a word processor or a spreadsheet program, to run most businesses these days. OpenOffice is a free set of basic office programs that you can download.
5. Free Gift. Get 10 of your friends to join WHY magazine’s mailing list, and we’ll send you a cool fridge magnet (get it... cool?) from our online store. All they have to do when they sign up is type YOUR NAME & EMAIL ADDRESS in the comment box, and if we count ten of them, the gift is yours. Happy Holidays!

*Remember, you can join the WHY magazine mailing list to have each week's Xtra emailed to you every Monday in pretty colors -- and with a photo! Ooh... Ahh...!

Change of Heart?

I've been thinking about this whole "getting paid for blogging" thing. It seems unethical, generally, to me, unless it is clear to your readers that you are getting paid for blogs that you write. At WHY magazine, our editorial and advertising are demarcated clearly, because we feel an obligation to our readers to offer content that is bias-free, so that when we say we like ABC Company, you know that we do -- we really, really do!

Google AdSense seems all right (as you can see), because it's clear to the reader that there are ads on the page, and those AdSense ads are so ubiquitous and universally understood that no explanation is really necessary.

But how do the paid posts work? Do bloggers have to write positive reviews? Is truthful and well-written enough? And is there a way to offer full disclosure to my readers while, at the same time, getting paid for reviews of products/sites I would write anyway?

It seems silly to leave myself out of potential money-making avenues when there is a way to do it in which both blogger and reader wins. This is a recession, after all.

I'm going to do a little research and get back to you...

Still Going!

Got 4 stories done since my last post... I think I can, I think I can!

Hang On, Lucille, Hang On!

We've reached that familiar point in the production process for WHY when Lucille is about to strangle me. It happens around this time every two months. My copy is coming in late, and Lucille is starting to get nervous (rightly so) about getting the issue online on time.

"Any copy coming in today?" she asks politely, when I know she wants to hit me over the head with her laptop and shout: "Let's go, already, woman!"

"It'll be fine," I tell her over the phone, knowing that she is sadly shaking her drooped head at me. But I really do mean it.

The problem is, I've been trained by this godforsaken business to be deadline oriented, which means I tackle the dire emergencies first, then the semi-emergencies and so on. It's my little triage system of getting thing done. Therefore, a December 27 deadline seems years away, although I really know it's not, and then suddenly it's upon me, and the pressure is on, and then I buckle down, focus and bang it out.

But I know that not everyone works that way. And I know that tending to the dire emergencies first and neglecting everything else somehow creates a never-ending chain of dire emergencies -- things are on the back burner until they're not and on fire and demanding immediate attention. Then add hungry kids, piles of dirty dishes and laundry and a neglected husband to a raging deadline, and suddenly all I want to do is lie on the couch and watch reruns of House.

Just bear with me, Lucille, and hang on! The copy will get done. On time. Before Christmas. Don't be sad. At the top of my New Year's Resolutions for 2009: Stick to deadlines. Get back on track. Deadline Dina, that's me. You'll see...

Let It Snow!

One of the best perks of working from home is typing away at your keyboard in your PJs and watching the big white flakes (no, not my neighbors...) of snow float to the ground. No messy commutes. No brrr's while you wait for the car to heat up or the bus to finally come. Nothing but pure white love viewed from the safety and warmth of your home office. Already there must be about two inches on the evergreen outside my window, and it just started coming down about an hour or so ago. Merry Christmas to me!

From the WHY Vault*

On a Shoestring: How to cut costs and market through a recession

Join the Marketing 2.0 Revolution: If marketing means billboards and phone book ads to you, shift your thinking. Today, everything is online: online ads, search results, blogs, websites and social networking. All these tools can help boost your sales, and they’re a lot more affordable than the outdated print alternatives. In fact, some options, like social networking (think LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) and blogs are free.

Take Your Newsletter Online: If you’re spending money on printing a physical newsletter, you’re wasting your money. People quickly read it (if they open it at all) and trash it immediately. Consider an online alternative. Email newsletters are easy to set up (try Constant Contact) and they’re next to nothing to send ($15 a month for up to 500 contacts). In them you can link to your website, which will get you more traffic.

Can’t Beat a Blog: Blogs are essentially expert resources. Whatever field you’re in, you likely know more about it than the average person. Use a blog to give readers free information, while establishing yourself as an expert. Link to your website(s) and cross promote. If your company is offering a special promotion or has news, blog about it. Blogs are easy and free to set up, although you can take them to the next level and make income from advertising on your blog (for more info on this, check out this month’s feature, Now You’re Talking).

Hot Off the (Virtual) Press: My favorite form of affordable marketing and PR is a press release. They’re short and to the point. And these days, you can get your news out in minutes online. Sites like PRWeb send your news to hundreds of news sites as well as sites in your industry. This boosts your placement on search engines and helps editors, bloggers and customers find you. Editors and bloggers may contact you to write a more in-depth article on your news or may simply post your press release on their site, getting you more exposure (the good kind).

Pay-Per-Click Ads: Forget print glossy ads. The average local business gets nothing out of them. However, a strong presence online can multiply sales exponentially if done correctly. Sites like Google and Yahoo! offer affordable advertising where you only pay for clicks on your ad. You select keywords that people would choose if looking for your company, then write a compelling ad that will cause them to take action and click. Clicks can cost anywhere from $.10 to $1.00.

--culled from an article written by Susan Payton in WHY magazine's july/august 2008 issue

*From time to time, I'll present info from past WHY articles or WHY Xtras in case you missed them the first time around. :)

Make Lemonade!

I totally agree with the author of this post, that the recession can be your business' best friend because there are, indeed, many companies looking for alternative ways of getting their wares to the general population. Now's your chance to get into the game. Be better priced and offer better quality merchandise or services. Offer them something they've never seen before, and follow up consistently, but not annoyingly. Barter, network... Get out there and don't take no for an answer.

WHY Xtra: 5 Pairs of Words Often Confused #2

1. amount/number: Use "amount" with quantities that cannot be counted and "number" with those that can be. She can't believe the amount of knowledge she gains from reading the weekly WHY Xtras. She only has a small number of tips left to read today.
2. lie/lay: "Lie" means to recline, and "lay" means to place something. You can lie down, but lay the book on the table first. Serious confusion arises because the past tense of "lie" is "lay." Yesterday, I laid down because I wasn't feeling well. Dang English!
3. i.e./e.g.: "i.e." means "that is"; "e.g." means "for example." A comma follows both of them.
4. who/that: If the noun you're referring to is a person, always use "who." The man who just walked into the store is wearing no socks.
5. who/whom: Ahhh, the dreaded who/whom. "Who" is the subject of the clause it introduces, and "whom" is used as the object of a preposition. Who is coming to dinner with Lucille? With whom is Lucille coming?

The Future Is Now

There's an article on charlotteobserver.com today in which tech execs say that by 2020, the line between work and home will virtually vanish.

2020?

I don't know about your house, but work/home lines around here are rather fuzzy today.

I know so many home workers and home office experts who talk about and blog about the delineation of work and home activities -- the importance of separating work from home, establishing work routines and clocking out at a certain time -- but for many home workers that's just not feasible or practical or even desirable. If you're the type who likes writing her blog at 3 a.m. (anyone with young children knows that's one of the best quiet times), then there's nothing wrong with that. If you're the kind of person who frets about these things, then you should be establishing more boundaries in your work/home environment. But I think it's true that the people who are able to embrace the idea of working outside the traditional lines will be better equipped to handle the future trends in the workplace which will only continue to further blur our work/home lives.

Truth be told, I do try to carve out vacations without work, but there are times when that's not possible, like this year when there I was tapping away at a computer keyboard in a Hershey, Pa. hotel room while the kids were asleep in order to meet a deadline. And I'm okay with that. I think that's because as long as I feel like I'm in control of my schedule, I don't mind the occasional working vacation or answering business calls at the soccer field.

Perhaps there will come a time when I will be writing this blog at 3 a.m. not because I want to, but because I have to. One of the best things about working from home is being able to create my own schedule. If and when I am no longer able to do that, when I am being forced to keep up with a round-the-clock working universe, then the result may very well be as Victoria Nash of the Oxford Internet Institute warns in the aforementioned article: "Longer, less-efficient working hours and a more stressful home life."

And that I'm not so okay with.

got mug?

This holiday season, the best-selling item in WHY's online store is a large mug that says: Every day is take your child to work day when you work at home.

To be honest, it wasn't the catchphrase that I thought would click. My money was on: Give a hoot. Don't commute. Work from home. Show's you what I know...

Earlier this year, when Lucille and I decided to put together a line of merchandise geared toward folks who work from home to complement WHY magazine, we didn't know what to expect. Would people like our stuff or even be able to find our stuff in the vast selection that is cafepress? At the very least, we wanted to make enough money to cover cafepress' monthly store charge of $6.95.

So every time I see a new purchase made in our store, I sit in my office chair stunned with a ridiculously goofy smile on my face and then zap Lucille a quick celebratory email. We're on our way to our first million, I tell her. Only $999,900 to go!

I Want to Bang on the Drum All Day

The kids are home and happy and running and loud. Trying to write while making hot chocolate and oatmeal and finding matching socks to get one child out the door. Repeated calls from my husband who is store-hopping about sizes and colors. Mom just called. Ma'am just emailed: What time am I coming tomorrow? Do I like asparagus? Have two magazines in production (one shipping Tuesday) and two freelance deadlines this week and Christmas caroling at 1 p.m. with the girl scouts. Grad school final paper on Ulysses is due Wednesday, and the washing machine buzzer just went off. Happy Saturday!

From the WHY Vault*

States of Being: How to Keep Clients Coming Back

• Be reliable. Show up for your appointments, return your emails, answer your phone, send their order, admit when you’ve made a mistake, and put your best foot forward.
• Be real. There’s nothing more appealing to a customer than dealing with someone who is down-to-earth.
• Be available. When a customer places an order, answer questions and fulfill requests in a timely manner. If you are not available, someone else will be.
• Be flexible. In situations where clients disagree with your approach or have a complaint about your process, be flexible and offer a means to rectify the situation.
• Be attentive. The harder a customer has to work to get information from you, the less likely he or she will return.
• Be easy to work with. Life goes more smoothly when you’re friendly and obliging. Develop a reputation of being “easy to work with” and you will build a strong foundation.
• Be specific. It’s much easier to delete information than it is to add it, so be specific about matters like deadlines, project specs, colors and amounts.
• Be curious. Look for interesting things related to the current scope of your clients’ project. Not only will it develop trust and confidence, but it will help to establish you as an authority and a valuable resource.
• Be interested. Everyone who comes to you has the potential to become clients. If you show interest from the beginning — regardless of their “conversion-ability” — you’ve made them feel important. They’ll remember that!
  

--culled from an article by Donna M. Murphy in WHY magazine's july/august 2008 issue

*From time to time, I'll present info from past WHY articles or WHY Xtras in case you missed them the first time around. :)

Communication Is Vital

In August, two writers totally blew off handing in stories for the sept/oct issue of WHY magazine. One I just didn't hear from, after repeated emails and calls, and the other apparently forgot and then decided our fee was not sufficient – two weeks after her story deadline and after submitting a signed contract. Ugh.

On a far, far happier note, all the writers submitted their stories on time and in great shape for the next issue of WHY, which goes live on January 1, 2009. In other words, it's good to be an editor today.

Note to freelance writers: Editors don't necessarily mind if you're going to be late with a story. Lord knows we half-expect it and pad our deadlines. But communication is vital. If you're running late, tell us. We get it. We're people too, after all. But looking to change contract details late in the game or dropping out of sight entirely -- even if it's due to complete embarrassment because you forgot to write the story (hey, it happens!) -- is a surefire way never to get hired again.

It's a Matter of Trust

Thanks to @byosko for bringing this latest Forrester survey, People Don't Trust Company Blogs, to my attention on Twitter. Earlier this year, I read Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies for a white paper on social media that I was writing, and I found it fascinating. I think any company, big or small, must understand the role social media is playing today in the marketplace -- what's worked and what hasn't -- and Groundswell is not only chocked full of info but, surprisingly, a pleasant read. (Disclaimer: clicking on the "Groundswell" link above will bring you to the book's Amazon page through WHY's associates program, meaning we make a few cents if you happen to buy it.)

The Groundswell survey reports that 77 percent of people trust email from people they know. Makes sense. I know that my mother-in-law isn't trying to sell me a Chevy if she raves about her car or that my best friend doesn't have ulterior motives when bragging about a restaurant. However, only 18 percent of you trust personal blogs and 16 percent of you trust company blogs (the latter number moves up a bit for people who regularly read blogs). I totally get that too. It's hard not to believe that corporate blogs will give you anything but the company line or positive spin. And on the personal side, I know bloggers who are out there to hawk products and get paid, which really does make me skeptical about most of the blogs -- if not all -- I read, particularly when a product is recommended.

I still don't know where this blog, my blog, fits into the scheme of things. Is it a company blog or personal one? Sure, I'm here as the editor of WHY magazine to help offer tips and ideas for home workers, but you also get to hear about my own trials and tribulations of being a home worker (lucky you). In any case, the Groundswell survey only cemented a hunch I already had about the perceived validity of blogging. For what it's worth and although as much as 80-something percent of you may not believe, please know that it's all about the truth and full disclosure here.

And finding the truth (bandied about, debated and whittled down by thousands of bloggers and users) is what makes social media such a powerful tool.

In Defense of Workaholics

You gotta love Jay Leno.

The man's got fame and fortune, and after saying goodbye to The Tonight Show next year, he'll be doing a one hour, nightly show on NBC, according to news reports.

The man apparently loves to work. Even now, he's off doing stand-up gigs on days when he's not taping his show.

My mom, too, loves to work. Earning money and participating in the economic machine. Being relevant in the workforce. Being a role model to her kids and grandkids.

"You're just like her," my husband said to me yesterday. "You like to be busy."

True that. And for me, the best is working toward a goal -- publishing a book, getting your master's, starting a business (perhaps an online magazine for home workers?), learning a new craft or skill -- while you're busy doing your day job.

But not everyone likes to go that extra mile -- especially if there's only a slim possibility of a payoff.

I have a neighbor, a closet writer, who asked me for advice once about how to get published. She was working as an assistant teacher, but had been told that she has what it takes to be a professional writer, which was her dream. I read some of her stuff, and it was good! Excited, I talked with her at length about pitching magazines, scouring the internet for literary agents who might be interested in her pieces, writing query letters, how to follow-up, etc. She looked at me quizzically afterward and said, "I don't want to have to do all that..."

Is it any surprise that after 7 years she's still unhappy and teaching?

I have a special place in my heart for "hustlers": People who love to work and work and work, whether it's to follow a dream, make boatloads of money, or just for the thrill or challenge of it.

You rock, Jay Leno!

WHY Xtra: 5 Websites We Love

Here's this week's WHY Xtra, kids:

5 Websites We Love

1. WhoLinksToMe.com. Check out what websites link to yours. C’mon, you know you want to…
2. HelpAReporterOut.com. Sign up and social media meister Peter Shankman emails you 3 times a day with all kinds of queries from a variety of reporters looking for expert sources. Great free marketing tool.
3. Google.com/analytics. Free web analytics to help you improve your site and increase marketing ROI. We check ours first thing every morning.
4. Hulu.com. You can watch your favorite TV shows anytime, anywhere. We try to limit our A-Team and Incredible Hulk viewings to lunchtime.
5. Twitter.com. Many businesses are coming up with all kinds of ways to harness Twitter’s bite-size messages into effective marketing platforms. Join the flock, and follow us at twitter.com/whysgirl.

Contests and Creme Brulee

Best part about last night's dinner at Morton's? Two words. Creme brulee. Hands down.

I entered another writing contest this week. This one is the annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid contest promoted by Winning Writers, which accepts all kinds of prose entries -- fiction and non-fiction. Since I sent in a short story last year and lost, I changed gears and submitted an essay I wrote in grad school about my son Griffin. The piece was well received by my professor and the vast majority of my classmates, but you just never know. Judging is so subjective. At WHY magazine, we've run a few contests of our own: The first one, in 2007, was a short story contest. The winning entry came from Beth Sears. And this year, we ran a slogan contest, and our winner was Jennifer Murray of The Nimble Assistant. Her slogan: Make your own damn coffee. Work from home. Love that! You can check out Jennifer's winning entry (and other cool slogans) featured on merchandise in our online store.

Still, how do you judge creativity or our reaction to it on a set of criteria? My professor used to tell me that as a reader or editor you'll feel a twinge in your belly when you read that something just isn't right about a piece -- even if you can't formally put what the problem is into words. Is then the converse true as well? I get a feeling of lightness in my belly when I read something in a piece that I think is good. I guess -- if I'm pressed to explain my judging method -- I tend to tally the lightness feelings, subtract the grammatical errors and declare a winner.

I wonder if the Winning Writers judges use such a highfalutin method!

A Night Out

Tonight I'm having dinner with friends, one of those special (and rare) holiday get-togethers where the dining will be fine and the conversation/catching-up will be finer (with a little wine). When you work at home, which, for me, includes weekends much of the time, it really is nice to take a break and go out. The problem is, of course... finding something to wear!

When I worked at an office, my "nice" clothes were always dry cleaned and ready to go at a moment's notice. Now that I work at home, finding anything other than yoga pants and a T-shirt takes a bit of planning and some effort: put jacket in dry cleaners days before so it's ready... try on clothes to make sure they still fit... find make-up that isn't caked or dried up... find shoes, any shoes!

My hope is that when I walk through the doors of Morton's tonight, my friends won't know how much work it took for me to get there and look presentable. They probably won't even notice what I'm wearing. That's what I'm counting on.

Red Flags

We hear so much about good work-at-home opportunities turned bad. On Monday, we posted 5 classic WAH scams to look out for. Yesterday, ABCactionnews.com posted 5 red flags when scouting work-at-home opportunities. Good stuff. We did something similar on this in our August 2, 2008, WHY Xtra: 5 Ways to Avoid WAH scams. They are:

• Never pay money up front to an employer to get the job.
• Consult with the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission to see if the prospective company's name shows up as "unsatisfactory."
• Ask a lot of questions. Legitimate employers should be able to answer all of them.
• Use a credit card -- preferably a virtual one -- to make any purchases needed. Just in case you need to dispute the charges.
• Verify the company's contact info. Be wary of PO Boxes, but keep in mind that plenty of legitimate businesses use them.

Remember, being an educated applicant is your best defense against work-at-home scammers. Good luck!

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho...

There's a good WashingtonPost.com article today on strategies for working from home. Much of it we've covered in WHY magazine, but some of the tips bear repeating:

• Get ready for work in the morning as you would an office job. That means showering, brushing your teeth and getting dressed. We also suggest making your bed, in order to fight the urge to crawl back in.
• Tell your friends and family (and neighbors!) that, yes, you really are working when you say you're working from home. That'll minimize disruptions.
  
• Take lunch breaks -- or walking/running/stationary bike breaks, as I like to do too, to change focus sometimes. Just don't overdo it.
• Keep in touch with co-workers, if you're telecommuting, to remind them that, "Hey, I'm still a member of this office team."

Working from home takes discipline, but if you approach it and structure your days like an regular "office" job, you'll better your productivity and really feel like you've accomplished something by the end of the day.

The Truth and Nothing But the Truth

Finding useful -- and unbiased -- blogs to help you run your business can be tough. Many blogs are thinly veiled advertisements, while others are not so obvious -- they're supported by companies whose products are highlighted for pay, a little secret kept from the unsuspecting reader. Still others are just plain poorly written and unhelpful. I know... I've read them.

Never let any of this be said about our WHY magazine blog! The WHY blog, just like the online magazine itself, is here to provide friendly, useful, practical and honest info and tips to help you run your home business more effectively. We're not paid -- Lord knows we're not paid -- to promote anyone's company or product other than our own, a free magazine for home workers. If we happen to mention a sponsor of WHY, we'll tell you it's a sponsor. No secrets. Promise!

Now on with the tips!

WHY's Tip #1: Invest in a telephone headset, preferably with a mute button. This not only will free up your hands to file, type or change the occasional dirty diaper while you’re on the phone, but allows you to quickly flip on “mute” the second you hear those immortal words, “I’m telling mommy.”

Long Way Down

Well, it's official... The nation is in a recession. If you're working at home, you no doubt have been feeling the pinch over the last few months. It wasn't until the day before Thanksgiving that things really hit home for me, as a freelance writer and editor. I lost a sizable client that day (what kind of client tells you he doesn't need your services anymore just before a holiday?), and I spent much of the long weekend feeling as if I were wearing a hat that was too small for my head, pondering how to replace the income lost in a market filled with an abundance of writers (many of them my friends) looking for work.

I'm optimistic, though. It's my nature. But yesterday when a well-meaning friend said to me, "Dina, you know that when a door closes, a window opens," I couldn't help but wonder how long of a way down it was to the pavement from that window.

WHY Xtra: 5 Classic Work-at-Home Schemes

Happy December, kids! Here's this week's WHY Xtra:

5 Classic Work-at-Home Schemes

1. Medical billing. Start your own electronic claim processing at home and make boatloads of money -- for an investment of $2,000 to $8,000! The promoters promise all kinds of support, but rarely do, making it difficult – if not impossible – to find clients and generate revenues.

2. Envelope stuffing. Promoters usually advertise that, for a “small” fee, they will tell you how to earn money stuffing envelopes at home. However, later – when it’s too late – you find out that they never had any employment to offer.

3. Assembly or craft work. These programs often require you to invest hundreds of dollars in equipment or supplies, or they require you to spend many hours producing goods (aprons, baby shoes, etc.) for a company that has promised to buy them. However, after you've purchased the supplies or equipment and performed the work, the scammers don't pay you.

4. Email processing. After charging you for training materials, the company claims to pay about $20 per email for spamming the same ad you responded to.

5. Typing. After paying a fee, you receive a disk with information that tells you how to place home typist ads and sell copies of the disk to others -- like you -- who reply to you. A classic pyramid scheme.

Join the WHY magazine mailing list to have each week's Xtra emailed to you in pretty colors -- and with a photo! Ooh... Ahh...!

WHY Survey: 52% of Work-at-Homers Have Eco Home Offices

As I sit here in my newly straightened-up work space, with a looming, still undecorated, green Christmas tree at my back, I am reminded about a poll that we conducted earlier this year in WHY magazine. We asked our readers how environmentally friendly or "green" their office was. The poll revealed that 52 percent of work-at-homers around the globe have semi- or mostly green home offices.

I thought the results were pretty encouraging. Forty-two percent of those polled said they’ve “taken some green steps” and 10 percent have a “mostly green” home office. Thirty-eight percent have a conventional home office but “hope to go green” in the future and 10 percent have a conventional office and “don’t have the interest in a green office.” No work-at-homers that were polled by WHY have a completely green home office.

Yes, I know... having a green Christmas tree has nothing to do with greening an office. I was thinking more about the newspapers and toner cartridges that were recycled. My office work space is far from being totally green, but I'm getting there -- although I still can't bring myself to unplug everything in the office every night as my green colleague Kristyn Lak Miller over at EcoVixen says I should. Something to work on...

Out with the Old, In with the Tree

It's the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which means it's time to put up our Christmas tree. As my husband and children scurry about piling up boxes in our living room, I'm trying to clear out the clutter that's already here. I’m sitting here at my “desk,” which amounts to a folding chair and home office armoire in my living room, and there are piles and piles (and piles) of papers surrounding me. When I moved my workspace up here from the basement, for the purposes of natural light and being closer to the kids, all my stuff came with me, and it’s been such a struggle keeping everything orderly.

We had an article recently in WHY magazine about paperwork—hiding it, organizing it, chucking it, etc. That’s what I’ll be spending a good part of this weekend doing. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who likes to jot down little nuggets of wisdom on stray papers, so you can imagine the job that’s ahead of me. Are those sleigh bells I hear in the distance?