I got an email from Google AdSense informing me that now they will be allowing other ad networks to advertise in AdSense spaces. You can see it on the AdSense blog too.

The idea is to allow even more bidders to compete for the space you’re offering through AdSense. Sites should be able to earn more money that way.

And it’s not just and ad networks allowed in. Google certifies them for adherence to user privacy, ad quality, and speed. You can also block any networks you don’t want on your site.

Personally, I’d like to see samples from the networks to have a notion of who’s advertising what. It’s going to take some research if I suddenly see ads I don’t like. Who do they belong to? I don’t know how easy it will be to tell.

They have only about 9 networks listed right now, with more expected in coming months. It should be interesting to see how this all works out.

It seems to be pretty popular right now for moms to talk about how “bad” they are, basically making light of their mistakes and trumpeting that they’re not the perfect moms that there’s so much pressure to be.

All in all, that’s not a bad thing. We shouldn’t hold ourselves to such excessively high standards. But it’s a far cry from being a really bad mom.

Making a parenting mistake doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Taking time for yourself doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Forgetting a promise you made to your kids doesn’t make you a bad mom.

Matter of fact, most of the mistakes we moms make just mean we’re human. Sometimes they mean we’re tired. But so long as we aren’t doing things that really harm our families, we aren’t likely to really be bad.

Just imperfect. And thank goodness for that.

I’ve long had a love/hate relationship with AdSense. On the one hand, it’s an easy way to monetize a site. On the other, there’s this sheer lack of control over what appears on your site.

Yes, there’s long been the ability to block individual advertisers, but it’s not terribly effective when new sites start advertising all the time and you don’t always see what your visitors see.

Well, they’re letting categories be blocked now. Not a lot of categories, and they’re pretty broad, but it’s a nice start. And this isn’t too new, but I only just noticed the AdSense blog post. Really need to make it over there more often.

You can pick up to 5 categories from the list, and they show you what percentage of impressions each category currently has on your site and the percentage of your income it generates. Nice to know what you’re risking.

It’s a huge category for me, but yes I did decide to block the “Get Rich Quick” category, along with some others that are not relevant to any of my sites. We’ll see if that cuts out some of the too close to scammy or flat out scams that drive me nuts when I think about AdSense.

The next part will be seeing how it goes with earnings. I don’t get as much as I used to from AdSense because I made them much less prominent. If the ads are improved enough, they might get more prominent again to see how much I can earn. Otherwise, I can always keep testing other ads.

How would you spend it?

I don’t care if you already have a home business and call it an added $1000 that you could spend on your business however you like or you haven’t decided what to do and need the money to get started.

How would you spend it?

I’ve been thinking about this post for a few days. I’m terrible at spending money, which is good most of the time, but bad when I should be investing more money into my business. This is a pretty tough question for me to answer.

If only I could say “buy more time” and be done with it! But it’s really not that simple.

I’d probably put the bulk of it to marketing. A part of it to this site because I love this site, but also for some of my other sites that have had less of my attention but have good chances to make money.

One of the strategies I’ve considered is putting up flyers at local colleges. The ability to work at home is great for college students, and I wouldn’t mind getting a little more attention from that area.

Another possibility would be to use it to get a great prize for a giveaway, such as an iPod or similar item. Something that might generate attention on its own as people tell their friends about it.

I’d probably also hire someone for some blog topic research. Probably not writing the posts, just getting some of the research out of the way. I like writing my own stuff and I think I’d be too prone to rewriting the whole thing if I hired a ghostwriter for my posts.

All that could easily use up $1000. How much to each part would depend on what seemed to be working. I wouldn’t suggest throwing money at something that hasn’t been tested on a smaller budget first for the marketing stuff, and hiring help always includes a search for just the right person, and that can cost money too in paying those who just don’t quite work out.

Your turn.

You probably enjoyed making paper airplanes as a kid. Why not go at it again with the whole family?

If you don’t remember how to fold a paper airplanes, there are online instructions to make a variety of planes, from simple to more complex.

It’s also a great way to reuse paper, so long as it’s still in good shape. Or the kids can decorate the paper before or after folding.

Kids are likely to enjoy competing with their planes, seeing whose plane can fly the longest, highest or whatever. If you’re worried about things being knocked over by paper airplanes or (more likely) over exuberant children chasing after their planes, make sure you send them outside to fly the planes.

Just now I’m really glad my husband has a computer of his own. I’m glad of it all the time really, since it means that he can use a computer without interrupting my work. But when mine goes down, what a relief to have a spare available!

I’m thinking a power supply issue, which I’ve gone through before. Computers are the only thing I ever get an extended warranty on, and it has always been worth it on that one item. Just the kind of luck I have with computers, I guess, since it’s hardware issues that I keep having.

But here’s the key to keeping your business running when your computer crashes, beyond just having a spare computer:

Have a backup!

Seriously. Don’t procrastinate on this one.

I use a 500 Gig Maxtor OneTouch drive as a backup. Not perfect, and it has an awful lot of bad reviews on Amazon, but mine is about a year and a half old and hasn’t failed me yet. It has claimed to fail me many times, but an unplug combined with restarting the entire computer has fixed the problem every time so far. It runs backups every night automatically.

Yeah, one of these days I want a new one that won’t keep worrying me that way. But at least it’s keeping my files safely backed up for now.

This allowed me to get set up in a reasonable time on my husband’s computer. It’s not perfect, but at least I have access to all of my files, even if some of his setup is a bit off for me.

I still need to go to the next level of backup, which is a non-local backup. I know some people use all that amazing storage GMail has as a free way to back up their computers, but it’s probably smarter to find a good service that specializes in backups, so that you can get a regular backup program running for you. Much better than having to remember to do it on your own.

This means that your files can survive even more traumatic events than a mere computer crash. I’m in earthquake country, so it may one day pay to think about that next level of protection.

The hard part is that I haven’t installed some of the programs I use fairly regularly on this computer, so I am a little limited. But it’s nice to not be at a complete loss for how to get back to work.

It’s that time of year again. The kids are heading back to school, or maybe off to school for the very first time.

Rather than suggest a new activity this week, I’m going to say look at the things you meant to get done as a family over the summer. The fun stuff. Get going while there’s still time!

I was reading the article Overcome Frustration to Reach Work-At-Home Success at Sparkplugging WAHM 2.0 and thinking about how very true the points it makes are. Working at home is a struggle, not the road to easy riches so many people think it is.

I see so much of that when people ask me questions on this site. There’s this horrible, pervasive notion that working at home means riches, if only you find the right opportunity.

I wish! Oh, how I wish!

I’ve had many people ask me what the best way to earn the most money from home is. Thing is, there’s no one answer. Oh, I suppose I could feed them a line about this program or that with promises of lots of easy money, but I’d be lying. It doesn’t happen that way.

Which way is success?

It’s waaaay over there in the distance. You get to it by picking the right opportunity for you and working hard, possibly for years.

My mom gave my son a new toy the other day. It’s pretty cute, an inflatable remote control dump truck. He loves it, especially since he can use it in the house and not worry much about bumping into walls.

But one part of it comes with a warning to not let children use it. Care to guess which part?

That’s the truck, remote and foot pump. He’s bumped it into walls enough already that I think it has a small leak somewhere. He doesn’t seem to mind.

So…

Which part is too dangerous for children?

Did you guess:

If so, you’re correct! The foot pump is apparently the most dangerous part of this toy! See?

If you can’t read that, it says:

Warning:
This is not a toy and must only be operated by an adult. Keep out of reach of children.

I’m sitting here trying to figure out the danger. I don’t think the accordion folds of it could give so much as a nasty pinch. I don’t think fingers could get badly stuck in it.

About the only danger I can see is a kid toppling over while stomping on it. Maybe I’m a mean mom, but I don’t see that as a problem.

Finding the right home business is wonderful, but it’s not an easy process. You may have to try a few business models to find the one that works right for you.

Trouble is, trying out home businesses can be downright addicting.

Becoming addicted to starting new home businesses is a great way to fail. You overload yourself and never really find what you excel at… or if you do, you don’t have the time to really do it right.

There’s a thrill to starting a new business. New products, a new topic to talk about, a different way to market. It’s fun, and I won’t deny that.

But having at least one business that you are succeeding at matters far more than the thrill of chasing after dozens of ideas. Without success, what’s the point of being in business?

Home business addiction can take a few forms. It might mean you jump from one opportunity to another in network marketing. It might mean you halfway launch a dozen websites, but never really promote any of them well enough to get anywhere (owning a dozen or more sites and running them well is another matter). It might mean buying into every grandiose product launch you read about in your email, spending thousands before you really understand what you need to learn.

Sometimes it pays to just stop. Take a look at where you’re going. Pick something to focus on. Quit trying new things and try to master one thing you know kind of well.

It may take time, and it may be hard to tell early on what business you are most likely to succeed in. You’ll learn more, however, by giving your favorite a solid try with as few distractions as you can manage.