I have to admit, these new FTC guidelines for disclosure turned out to be a bit more of a headache for me than I planned for. Not because it’s so hard to decide what to say, but because my family was dealing with a stomach bug all weekend, the time that I had set aside to work on it.

Good thing I somehow stayed mostly healthy. But it still made getting work done rather more challenging than I had planned.

For now I’m keeping it simple. I fully expect things to get clearer as time goes on. For now I have it as:

If you purchase anything reviewed or recommended on this site, I probably earn a commission. Not always, but often enough you may as well assume I do.

When looking at home business opportunities, keep in mind that most businesses fail. That’s as true online as it is anywhere else. But if you don’t try you won’t succeed.

I have no idea if that’s enough. But it’s a start and true enough. No matter how well some people do with any one business model, your average person won’t. Matter of fact, even if you buy the ebook that tells exactly how someone made a ton of money you can’t say you’ll do the same. You can’t even say for sure that you’ll ever get around to reading it. An awful lot of people don’t even take that much action even when they say they want to earn money from home.

And of course I always want to earn a commission if I can on a product. I’d be crazy not to. The money’s right there. Or is it over there? Either way, it’s a bit of compensation for the work I do here. But when the product is good enough and relevant enough, money is not the sole consideration. Quality can overrule $$$, even when we’re talking about money in my pocket.

There are of course tons of blog posts out there you can read up on this for your own needs. New FTC Guidelines over at Matt’s Marketing Blog is a fair read. My understanding is that there will be warnings and a chance to make it right before there are any fines levied, but it’s always better to avoid the hassle in the first place.

The basic thing you need to remember is to keep it honest. You may or may not get caught, but with new rules in place you might just be hurting yourself if you ignore them.

I worked as a medical transcriptionist for a few years.  I hope this helped me to think of the things you might buy that a transcriptionist would appreciate.

Typing Gloves

A good typing glove helps with hand pain from typing for so many hours of the day. They aren’t a bad idea at all for anyone who does a lot of work on the computer. A good pair supports the hand but doesn’t inhibit movement.

Shirts and More from CafePress

Creative people have submitted all kinds of designs to CafePress, and there are some really great shirts, mugs and more for transcriptionists.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

A great productivity tool for the right transcriptionist. It takes some training to get it to work well enough for transcription purposes, but if you know a transcriptionist who’s been talking about trying it, what better gift?

Ergonomic Keyboard

You do have to be a bit careful about ergonomic keyboards. Just about any one you find out there some will love and some will hate. But if you know of one that has been admired, it’s probably a good choice. Be prepared to be amazed at some of the wild styles out there. They do work once you’re used to them, for the most part.

Exercise Ball

Any sedentary job comes with a price, that being a high potential for weight gain. A good exercise ball is good for working out with, and some people even like to sit on them as they work. I tend to recommend the larger sizes for that reason.

Just be sure that the recipient isn’t too touchy about weight issues. Unwelcome fitness equipment is a really, really baaaaad idea!

Shopping for gifts has always been a challenge for me. But I decided to see if I could figure out some good gift ideas for various sorts of people who are likely to come to this site. Always nice to be able to give people ideas for what you want, I think.

Gift Ideas for Stay at Home Moms

Couponizer

The Couponizer is a good choice because so many stay at home moms are highly focused on saving money. It’s tough being a single income family. Having a way to keep those coupons organized can be a big help in actually using them.

Day Planner

This is great for the mom whose family is always on the go. Keeping up with all the activities isn’t easy if you don’t have things written down.

Hire a Cleaning Service

Contact local cleaning services in your area for the mom who needs a break.

Babysitting

Offer to babysit the children for a stay at home mom or pay a sitter for her. Either way she gets some time out, either on her own or on a date with her significant other.

Give a Spa Day

Well, I hear this one works for most women. Doesn’t matter if they stay at home, work outside the home, whatever. A little time to be indulged is a wonderful thing.

Digital Photo Frame

The trouble with digital cameras can be that you take so many pictures you rarely see them, and most people don’t print that many. A digital photo frame takes pretty good care of that issue.

Pay Attention to What She Wants

I can list things all day, but in the end it comes down to what the person wants. Pay attention or even flat out ask for ideas if nothing is appealing yet.

I know it’s Black Friday, and it’s just about impossible to think about doing free things when there are so many great sales out there. I prefer avoiding the crowds, and so I’m sticking with the Free Fun Friday thing.

This week my suggestion is to make a family cook book. Figure out what everyone’s favorite recipes are. Type them up and print them out.

I like to use a 3 ring binder and sheet protectors so that I can organize my recipes as I like and not worry about the inevitable splashing that happens when I cook.

Running a work at home business isn’t easy at any time of year. But it can be harder than usual during the holiday season, with all the shopping, cooking and family obligations.

Why not give your home business a gift to help it grow?

There are many gifts you can give your business. You can commit to spending more time on it. You can buy an ebook to help you learn new skills. You can decide to spend more on advertising. Just think about things you can do to help your home business grow.

Spend More Time

Committing to spending more time on your business is easy to say but hard to do. There always seem to be things that get in the way.

That’s life, especially as a work at home mom or dad. Any parent can tell you just how well kids interrupt them just as things get flowing. It’s all a part of working at home. And they aren’t even the only possible interruption.

Take a good look at where you’re spending your time. See if there’s any time you can commit to your business instead, on a regular basis. Even an extra half hour can make a difference, but the more you work the more chances you have to work on your success.

Buy an eBook

There are so many ways to learn new skills, and ebooks often provide some of the most current information. You’re best off with ebooks that are updated regularly, such as The Super Affiliate Handbook. The Renegade Network Marketer is a good choice for those more into network marketing.

Think about what it is you want to do with your business before you go shopping, however. There’s no point in buying just anything. There should be a skill you want to learn. Think about it, and find out the best way to learn how.

Then apply what you’ve learned. Lots of people miss that step.

Spend More on Advertising

Spending more on advertising can be chancy, but it’s still one of the best ways to get customers for your business. And there are so many ways to do it.

You can hire a virtual assistant to write and distribute articles.

You can buy pay per click ads.

You can buy ads on relevant websites and ezines.

You can do local advertising in newspapers.

You can place ads on Craigslist – if appropriate.

Just Take Action

Taking action is the best gift you can give your home business. You aren’t going to succeed without it.

Came up with a really fun idea Saturday afternoon. We decided that since the kids are on break for Thanksgiving, we’d do one science activity a day. I suspect that some of the idea came from reading this post at The Mother’s Handbook: To Science, or Not to Science, at least subconsciously.

My kids still love science, because we’ve always kept it fun. Sometimes they come up with their own experiments; other times my husband and I help them or we pull out one of several science activity books we have around the house.

Science geeks? Us? Could it be?

Pretty much runs in the family.

Our first experiment was to get a few types of dirt from the garden, then mix them up with some water in a jar and see how it settled out. I’ve been saving spaghetti sauce jars lately because they’re such a good size for random uses.

The kids were quite impressed first by how the layers settled out, and then by how long it takes for the really fine stuff to settle. They’re still checking it each morning.

Yesterday we went for the cornstarch and water experiment. There are plenty of great YouTube videos of this one, but my kids didn’t care because I didn’t pull up any videos until they were actually playing with the cornstarch and water suspension. About a cup of cornstarch to somewhere near a half cup of water, for those who are interested.

They had quite a bit of fun with it, and particularly enjoyed that when they spilled it was pretty easy to clean up. It becomes so firm when you do anything to it that it’s really not much of a problem.

They played with it for about a half hour. Would’ve been longer if I didn’t need them to get cleaned up for dinner.

I haven’t picked today’s project yet. My daughter has asked for something more challenging. Time to really dig into the books.

Some of the titles we use:
How to Make an Egg Swim, Grow Mold, Eat
730 Easy Science Experiments: With Everyday Materials

And if you really want to get into trouble, try SciPlus.com. They’re a science surplus store and I hardly trust myself to go there. Too dangerous to the budget. My husband only dares go there when he’s looking for fun Christmas gifts for the kids and I’m always talking him down on the list of things he wants to buy. Not easy, I want them too! And that’s not even an affiliate link. SciPlus is just that much fun.

I really love keeping science fun for my kids. Even if they don’t choose it as a career path I consider a good scientific education to be of tremendous value. Doing little projects at home and talking about some of the principles keeps them interested.

Twitter has turned into quite the phenomenon. It’s easy to get started, if somewhat challenging sometimes to think of things to say. It’s used by people from all walks of life.

Then there are the people who advertise on their Twitter streams. There are several services that place ads in your Twitter stream or allow you to do so. But there’s a lot of controversy about placing ads in your Twitter stream. It even made the New York Times (may require log in or search Google News).

I have to admit, the earnings they quote for people with big follower lists are pretty impressive. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have misgivings about Twitter stream advertising.

On the one hand, tweeting for me is about building my business. If advertising brings in money and isn’t excessive, is it really a problem? I advertise here, after all. Properly disclosed, such as with the #ad hashtag, it’s not that objectionable.

Is it?

Robert Scoble has some good points about the problems with advertising in your Twitter stream. Just on a personal level of not wanting to offend too many followers, Twitter advertising has issues. Disclosure helps, but is it enough? Value to advertisers, as Scoble points out, is another issue.

One important consideration if you do want to advertise in your Twitter stream is whether or not you tweet enough other things. Even if you only post an ad once a day is that made up for by what you say the rest of the time? In quality and in quantity?

And then there’s the simple fact that if you want to advertise it’s your business, so long as you disclose properly. You may be gambling on your followers, but that’s a choice you can make.

There are options to being paid by an ad network, of course. You can write your own ads for products you like. I would expect a relevant product could generate a sale or so. You have to think about why it is people are subscribe to your stream to have a chance of such ads paying off, and disclosure is still an issue.

Always, always, always, be sure that you’re providing value to your Twitter stream. If you’re not providing something people want, whether you advertise or not, people aren’t going to pay attention to your tweets.

Edited to add: Just came across this post from Andy Beal in my Twitter stream: Poll: Will You UnFollow Those That Place Ads in Their Tweets? – so far 44% say yes!

Ever watch a young child dance? It’s fun. They’re just so unashamed.

Why not join in?

Put on some fun music and get the whole family dancing. It’s fun and can be good exercise. Don’t worry about what your kids think. You can even have a silly dance contest to see who can be the funniest while dancing.

Or you can teach your kids whatever you know about dancing. If you’re like me, that’s not a lot, but if you’re a good dancer they might appreciate the practice later on.

Oh wait, it’s that the media can only see one side of it when they write articles about mom bloggers.

Amy Bellgardt of Mom Spark pointed this one out, and from what I’ve seen it certainly appears to be true. She was interviewed for an article that was supposed to be about the backlash on Twitter over an event at Nestle. That’s not how the article turned out, though. It focused far more on the swag, hotel rooms and meals the moms got at the event.

That seems to be pretty routine for traditional treatment of moms who blog. We’re the focus when they talk about the new FTC rules about disclosure. Never mind that when it comes down to it all blogs will have to consider the FTC rules when accepting any form of compensation for posting.

Apparently mom blogs are an easy target.

It’s hard to know just why this is. I think there’s an image of the bored stay at home mom posting excessively personal stuff about her family and selling out for whatever stuff comes their way. It’s not a particularly accurate image in my experience, but the image sticks.

Blogging is easy to start, it’s true, but success takes rather more. Selling out and being dishonest doesn’t get you all that far. That a successful business can be built from home so easily (relative to a brick and mortar business) should be a source of inspiration.

I came across this on Discovery News and it was too cute to resist sharing here. The cat is just too sweet and demanding of attention, making it incredibly difficult for the officer to do his job.

I know a cat almost that sweet in my neighborhood, except she doesn’t climb people. But she doescome running for attention every time she sees people walking, even across the street. Drives her owners nuts because she’s not so bright about cars.