Feeling all alone as a stay at home dad?

Posted on July 28, 2012 by admin

You are NOT alone. Many of us stay at home dads can start to feel like we are all alone in the world taking on this huge undertaking all alone. There are other at home dads out there, and you should truly seek them out so that you can discuss things and even setup activities where you and your kids can get out. The question is how to meet other dads?

#1 Networking

This is going to be your best bet. Chances are you already have a facebook page,  a twitter page, or some other means of talking to your family and friends. Don’t be afraid to put a message out there asking if there are any other stay at home dads out there. If none of your immediate circle is, there is still a great chance that they may know someone.

#2 Going where other dads are

I have met three different guys that take care of their kids throughout the day. One of them isn’t a full time stay at home guy, but he works nights and loves taking the kids out. I met these guys just hanging out at the park with my kids. When the kids play together you almost can’t help but strike up a conversation. If you feel weird about asking to start hanging out, then just say that your kids are having fun with his and ask if they come to the park regularly. I promise, it won’t seem weird, lol.

3# Looking for groups in your area

We don’t have one here that I know about, but I know that some larger cities have activity groups for at home fathers. Take a look on google, craigslist, or the local section of your facebook account. Just make sure these groups get together at public places, that way you can scope things out and make sure things are legit.

Sometimes finding like minded people can really make a difference in your perspective on things. I know a lot of guys still have trouble fitting into this “alternative” role. Talking it out can solidify your feelings about just how important your role is.

Till next time!

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The Importance of Taking Breaks

Posted on May 23, 2012 by admin

Been a while since I have updated the at home dads blog. Sorry about that ( yeah, I also hate going to my favorite sites and seeing these kinds of posts, lol.)

I have been working very hard recently. Some of the google algorithm changes did weird things to some of my money making sites. I know a few of you have been talking about the panda update as well. I had started working overtime trying to figure out what had happened to my sites.

I then realized that I hadn’t taken a day off from web marketing in over three months. I have been reading this new book Imagine: how creativity works by Jonah Lehrer and came across an interesting story about how creativity often strikes more when one is having some down time.

This explains why the folks at Google and other silicon valley companies tend to have leisure type sections of their headquarters. Playing ping pong and other activities can really spark your creative juices.

I ended up taking a full three days off the other day and just enjoyed taking the kids out and about around town. We even found a couple of parks that we had never went to (one of them I will never go back to, we won’t get into why, lol). I have found that I came back with so much more energy and have started sketching out my online money making business plan for the rest of the year!

Remember all you at home dads, sometimes the greatest thing that you can do is learn to play like you were a child all over again! Until next time…

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Happy New Year!

Posted on January 18, 2012 by admin

It was a wild Christmas season for us all the way up until the new year. I didn’t get nearly as much work done as I would have liked to, but I did have time to read a couple of books on marketing that I have been putting off for years. My wife got me a Kindle fire, and during downtime while we are out shopping or getting the car fixed I find some time to read a chapter or two, lol. You have to do what you can, when you can.

Sales have been picking up a bit. I suppose it has something to do with all of those new internet ready devices that everyone has been picking up around the Christmas season.

I have been going through my stats and the sheer number of people that are accessing my sites using their cell phone numbers or tablet computers is staggering. I am thinking that I really need to pick up a kindle book or two that deals with marketing straight to mobile surfers. It looks like the future is going to be mobile. People have been saying that for years, but it looks like the tipping point is finally upon us.

Once again, thanks for stopping by the work at home dads blog, and we hope you a happy and profitable new year!

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Organizational Skills

Posted on October 20, 2011 by admin

I have been thinking quite a bit lately about how to keep things better organized. The more organized that you are, the more efficient you are going to be during your day.
I ended up taking all of this past Sunday to get myself organized. Here are a few things that I did.

1. I took all of my wordpress passwords for my blogs and put them into a keepass database. If you don’t have keepass then you are missing out. It is a great way to keep all of your passwords safe. I keep a copy of it on a flash drive (password protected of course) so that I can get access to all my things at anytime.

2. Went through all of my paperwork for my sponsors. I set up a folder within a folder setup on my computer to organize things. Pretty much whenever I get a check in I will scan it into the computer. I have a folder structure like this Work/Payments/Month. I have a work folder on my desktop. It has a few different folders there, but I always keep check scans in the payments folder. It use to be just a free for all, but now I sectioned things into individual months to clean things up. I got a bit behind on this. Sometimes it is nice to head to the bank with a stack of checks though, lol.

3. I got rid of all unnecessary items off of my computer desktop. This started getting totally out of control. Usually when it gets too much I will just create a “stuff” folder and cut and paste everything into there for a fresh start. This ends up at some point having “stuff2″ and “stuff10″ lol. Always nice to have a clean working area.

4. Finally picked myself up a in/out basket from Ikea. This one has three different levels. I have one that the wife can put paperwork, requests, mail, etc into. I go through it daily. Things that can be taken care of in 90 seconds or less, then I take care of it. If it is going to take longer, I put it into a “holding” section on the second tier. The bottom shelf is for finished items that I need to file. Still need to streamline this a bit.

Well, that was my Sunday. My wife took the kids over to my Mothers house for a visit, so this work at home dad got to have a full ten hours of work done. Got more finished than I had anticipated which is very rare, lol.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by the at home dads blog!

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Finally got a much needed vacation!

Posted on July 26, 2011 by admin

Been a busy past few months. The kids are still growing like weeds, and I’m busy updating my blogs (managed to get over 50 of them running now) and am finally starting to see a decent profit from them. It took a little while, so never give up hope on your work at home dad endeavors!

We ended up spending a week in Monterey, ca. We finally took that whale watching tour that we had been talking about, and luckily we managed to see quite a few of them. I believe that the tour operators aren’t suppose to get close to the whales, but ours had us so close it looked like we could have petted them, lol. We even got to see a few dolphins. If you are ever on vacation in Monterey, I highly suggest you take one of these cruises. It was totally worth the money. Make sure to take some dramamine though, because half of the boat got seasick from the waves.

My mother took the kids for the weekend. We missed them, but it was also nice to have a little time to ourselves. As two working parents with kids, sometimes it seems like you become strangers at one point. Always try to make sure to set aside some time to spend together every few months to reignite that spark!

Anyway, a stay at home dad’s work is never done, so I’m off to update blogs and approve blog comments. Keep on plugging away guys!

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FatCat Blueprint Review

Posted on June 17, 2011 by admin

I had mentioned the FatCat Blueprint to you guys a few posts ago, and had mentioned that I would get back to you when I finished reading it. Been a little while, lol.

I have read quite a few of these adsense based marketing books in the past. Most of them are just filled with garbage, or worse theoretical nonsense, that doesn’t help any internet marketer in their quest for an income.

The FatCat Blueprint is totally different. This book is written by a guy that has already had a high measure of success in his business, and now he is sharing that information with other marketers.

This book isn’t filled with all of the get rich quick type of hoopla that is going around on many of the forums across the internet. This book only deals with concrete ideas that are designed to make you money on a consistent basis.

It is pretty much a marketing course based upon the idea that Adsense is a easy way to monetize a website without having to constantly waste time doing testing for different marketing types. You may be able to eek out a bit more money on a website if you take the time to find independent sponsorship, but by the time you did all of that, you could have had five additional websites out there designed and making you more money for your empire.

This isn’t the book for the work at home dads that just want to have one website that they spend a lot of time on. This book is designed for the webmaster that wants to scale their earnings. Pretty much it is a similar method that I use. You make a website that earns money, and then make a ton of them on different subjects. These days it is much easier to make an income with 100 sites than it is on 10 sites.

There is minimal fluff in this book. There are a few pages talking about the trials and tribulations of the authors past internet dealings. They are interesting to learn from, but can be skipped for the work at home dads that do not have a lot of time.

I highly recommend checking out this ebook and implementing some of its techniques. The methods work perfectly for those at home parents that do not have a lot of time on their hands, as he also gives a structured method to outsourcing almost everything once you have the financial means to do that.

If you are interested in adsense marketing at all, this book is a must have. I know I have read it twice, and am still getting some new nuggets out of it that I missed the first time.

Buy the FatCat Blueprint – Right over HERE

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Website Promotion on the Cheap

Posted on June 6, 2011 by admin

These days it is quite possible to build a website, promote it, and make some extra cash without doing much of the work yourself. Outsourcing makes it all possible. Instead of spending hours upon hours trying to learn how to do a variety of tasks, just find someone else that has the skills and pay them to do it. It is much more reasonable in price than you may imagine. Time is of the essence for us work at home dads, so make use of it.

After you have your website setup along with however many articles you are choosing to use, it is time to look into promotions. Here are a few cheap and easy ways to get things done.

1. Social Media

Always set up a few different social media pages for your websites. This can be a free source of traffic that does not depend on the whims of the search engine algorithms. At minimum get a facebook, twitter, and digg account that can be integrated with your website (though I haven’t gotten around to doing that here, lol, soon).

With these sites you can get a list of people that have similar interests. Whenever you update your site with an interesting article you can send out a message on these sites which will make a certain percentage of people come and check it out. These are highly targeted people in your niche that may check out some of your advertising.

2. Getting Backlinks

Set aside $20-30 dollars and pick up 4-6 different gigs on fiverr.com or a similar website, there are people there that will get backlinks to some of your websites for you. Backlinks count as a vote in the search engines eyes and can help people find your site. Just make sure that you are dealing with high ranked people, you do not want people using spammy methods to link to your site, that would only hurt it in the long run.

Also space these out a bit. Many recommend even waiting a couple of months before looking for links, this way the engines know your site isn’t just another of the millions of useless spam sites that pop up on the internet everyday. Your site has useful content? Right? (hint hint).

3. Social bookmarking

This can also be easily outsourced on fiverr or other freelance sites. Getting people to bookmark your site using social media sites can help increase the amount of popularity that your website has so that it can raise itself up in the engines. This can also be done manually if you are on a really tight budget. Just remember though, that time is money, especially when you are a work at home dad and the kids are being demanding.

Talking with other webmasters in your niche, as well as being active in forums can help quite a bit. It is important to not be pushy. Just actually use these sites to make friends and offer something back to the community. Keep a link to your website in your profile page and in the footer of your posts. If people want to click, then let them, don’t be pushy about it as that never ends up working.

Hopefully this has given you a few tips that you can use to make your online marketing efforts a success. Thanks for stopping by the blog all you stay at home dads…..and anyone else interested in making a few extra dollars online :) .

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Making Use of Your Hosting Support

Posted on May 30, 2011 by admin

I know there are those of you out there that like to use rock bottom priced hosting providers for your websites. This can work out fine. Me, I like to have access to a great support network as well though.

Most hosting providers offer support as part of their plans. This past weekend WordPressed did one of their new updates in order to fix some security flaws. Usually what I will do is go in there one by one and update every single blog that I have.

Now, this can be a fine method of doing things if you only have a handful of websites. Now that I have over a hundred sites, this can take a massive chunk of my afternoon. I know that there are some methods of updating all of your wordpress installs using SSH commands and all of that.

I’m not extra good when it comes to doing these types of procedures. I also don’t have the time to learn all of it. As a work at home dad it isn’t really something that I want to mess with.

Instead I decided to just send a quick email to my web hosting support and ask them what my options were. Within a half an hour they sent me an email back telling me that they took care of everything for me. Easy as pie, and I watched sponge bob squarepants with the kids while it all happened.

Never forget that you are paying for these services, and it is something that you should take advantage of. If you don’t know how to do something efficiently it’s better to look and see if there is someone that can.

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Work at Home Dads

Posted on May 22, 2011 by admin

Lol, I love having conversations with friends or family about being a work at home dad. It seems that no matter how much money you make, if you make that money at home you still do not have a “real job.” I know for a fact that I am making more than a few of the people that make these comments. Anyone have that problem?

Anyway, just had to get that off of my chest, lol.

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Putting Your Head Down and Getting Work Done

Posted on May 7, 2011 by admin

This is one of those things that I have trouble with sometimes. I will do a lot of work all at once, and then I don’t see the results that I am looking for, so I begin trying to find ways to tinker with what I am doing to change that.

Then, all of the sudden, one day a rush of income begins to come in all at once. By then, it’s hard to tell what changes I made that caused that. Mostly though, it’s just having the work out there. Sometimes it takes months before a website will begin to get traffic, or gets those inlinks you are looking for, or just gets struck with google magic.

It’s important not to spend all day on forums, reading the latest get rich quick ebook, and studying about what you should be doing. Just go out and do it. Once you have the basics down just start plugging away at things. If you spent a week reading a few ebooks, chances are that if you had spent that same week building websites, writing content, or whatever you are doing to create income, you would be much better off.

I’m not sure if this post was for you, or a reminder for myself, lol. Either way it’s time to get some work done while these kids are still tired from the day at the park! Thanks for stopping by the work at home dads blog guys, and thanks for all the encouragement!

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