Try Wealthy Affiliate for $1

Okay, this is big news. For the first time in over a year and a half, starting March 1, Wealthy Affiliate University is offering a free one-week trial for only $1. That means you can access all of the training modules, community forums, keyword tools and  everything else for an entire week for practically nothing.

I joined Wealthy Affiliate in June 2010 and credit it for the near doubling of my online writing and marketing income by the end of 2010 compared to the previous year. For me, the 30 day article marketing club within WA was worth the price of my year's membership by itself. I was able to use what I learned there to boost eHow earnings (three months in a row have been over $2,000!) and dramatically increase my affiliate marketing income through my niche sites.

The point of my Work at Home Mom blog is to help others find legitimate ways to build significant residual income online through writing and marketing. Wealthy Affiliate is the best collection of educational resources, training, tools and community I've found. It is both an opportunity for those brand new to online writing to find success, and for those with a  few years' experience to supercharge their income.

I encourage you to sign up for Wealthy Affiliate's free Webinar that will not only show you the inside scoop about this great $1 trail, but also give you many ideas and strategies for building an online income.

Best of luck as you take action to meet your goals!

Protecting Your Work at Home Time & Space

As a work at home mom with young children, my writing time is limited and I have to make the most of the hours I have allotted to my online efforts. I've found that I am able to be most productive when my writing schedule is clearly set, family members are aware, and I make every effort to protect my work time and space -- and you should, too. It will make all the difference in your success or failure as an online writer or internet marketer.

 The first objective is to set a schedule for your work hours. Determine what's practical, keeping in mind your ideal time of day (are you a morning bird or does your brain function best at night?) and family schedules. For my situation, it works best for me to work from 5:30-8 a.m. three days a week. I also get some additional work time on other mornings if I'm up early and the kids are sleeping, but three days out of the week, my husband is "on-call" for the kids in the early hours, supervises morning routines and gives them breakfast as I finish up my writing time.

Make sure family members (down to the little ones!) are aware of your planned writing/ working time. Conversely, be fully present for them when you aren't working, minimizing computer time when it's not productive, and your kids will be more respectful of your set work hours.

You'll find that even with a set schedule and plan, you'll need to make an effort almost daily to protect your work at home time and desk/ office area from intrusion, distraction and even your own laziness. To that end, remind family members as needed that you're working, and you'll be able to talk/ help in 10 minutes, an hour -- at your designated stop time. Do not answer the phone while you're doing your work. Do not check your email unless you need something specific for the task at hand.

Keep your work desk neat as a pin -- you will find yourself much more productive when you have a clean, ordered space that feels professional. 

Avoiding distractions online -- unnecessary email checking, reading news or forums unrelated to your work at home daily tasks, and other time-wasting traps -- is crucial for your success. Keep yourself on track by writing a short list of items you need to accomplish at your next work session, after finishing the day's tasks and while everything is fresh in your mind.

I keep my daily tasks list in a notebook stored in my top desk drawer. Each morning, I take it out and keep it by my computer as I work, reminding me of what's next and giving me the satisfaction of checking off items I've accomplished.

How do you protect your work at home time and space to increase your writing income?

Double Your Residual Income in 2011

Have you set your goals for residual income in 2011? I did -- my reach-for-it goal is to double my monthly residual income within the next 12 months. If it sounds a bit impractical, especially since it's taken me three years to build to my current level, here's why I think it just might be doable -- and how you can do it, too.

Why I Can Double my Writing Income in 1 Year

Since I already have niche websites, blogs, and articles and profiles on revenue-sharing content sites, doubling my current residual income should take much less time than it did to get to the point where I am currently. Three years ago, I was starting from scratch -- any niche sites I had were brand new and not on Google's radar. Now, I have the advantage of domains that are several years old, and hundreds of articles that have already been online for years or at least several months.

This means that any new articles I add to my established sites in the coming months should theoretically  earn more, and faster, than previous articles. As I've shown recently, I can increase my earnings on existing eHow articles by adding backlinks.

Furthermore, I am aware of what niches, topics and affiliate products have been profitable for me and those that have shown promise and need more exploration. I wrote plenty of articles for eHow.com that earned very slowly and, conversely, dozens that have been great earners -- all of these give me an idea of what works, and how to duplicate success.

My skills in setting up niche sites, creating attractive, informative blog posts, researching quickly, and incorporating adwords and affiliate links with quality content have all grown over the years, putting me in a better position than ever to leverage my abilities to build long-term residual income.

Hopefully, much of what I've just described applies to you, too.

The Plan: How to Increase Your Passive Income by 100%

Double the amount of residual-earning content you have online.

Will it be that simple? I think so -- but will it be easy? Probably not -- it takes effort, discipline and dedication to work every day toward your passive income goals. This is especially true when you have a primary full-time job, whether it's as an employee or a stay at home mom to young children.But if you break it down into monthly goals, weekly lists and daily action items, you may be better able to follow the plan.

For starters, add up the number of articles, website pages and blog posts you have online -- even if you don't have an exact number, get a rough estimate. For example, someone who has 100 eHow articles, plus 20 at Bukisa, a blog with 52 posts, a niche site with 20 pages, three Hubs and four Squidoo lenses, plus 10 ezine articles, is looking at a portfolio of just over 200 pieces of content currently earning residual income. Adding 200 more in the next 365 days should certainly be doable.

Focus on building the niches and sites that are earning the best, adding more keyword-targeted pages and quality backlinks to your best-earning sites and pages. Don't try to start three more blogs in the coming year -- work on building your current sites to perform better. If there's a niche you just can't resist trying, build a Squidoo lens and a Hubpage on it and use them to test the market before diving into a new property.

If You're Just Getting Started

If you are new to making money online from writing, you'll have a different goal -- there's not much to double at this point and you need to get started and build, build, build in 2011. Use sites such as HubPages and Squidoo to experiment with writing and marketing, exploring different niches. When you find something that interests you enough and shows promise as a money-maker, start a blog or niche site on the topic, adding a page or a backlink every day as you work to gain traffic and eventually, affiliate sales and advertising revenue.

For those who really don't know where or how to start, as well as those who are serious about taking their online income to a higher level, I recommend that you look into WealthyAffiliate and give it a try. This is the only service (other than web-hosting and ejunkie checkout) for which I currently pay money to use. They have an amazing collection of resources, including step-by-step action guides, all in one convenient location. I've attended several recent WA Webinars on affiliate marketing and backlinking and those have been very helpful to me.

Using the WealthyAffiliate Article Club method to build and promote a new niche site, I was able to earn over $1,000 in affiliate commissions from a niche site I built in 2010 -- it has been hugely successful for me so far and I have to attribute much of that success to what I implemented after taking the WA course.

However, if you don't have the money for that right now, don't worry about it because you CAN make a go of this on a shoestring budget. It make take longer and there will be more trial and error to find what works best, but it can be done -- it's how I started out and so did many other work at home moms.

Best of luck in 2011 -- will you try to double your residual income this year?