I am a normal, work from home mom, who started my own home business working from home. This article will show you how you, too, can be a work from home mom.

After I gave birth to our first baby, Hana, I really couldn’t see myself going back to that old job working for Mr. What's-his-name for a measly salary and leaving Hana with a babysitter. I didn’t realize how deeply I would LOVE my baby. Do you know what I mean by that? When I was pregnant, I thought, "Right. Have the baby. Find a babysitter. Go back to work. Done." But I loved her so completely and so profoundly, that I really didn’t want to leave her. Plus, she was really high-needs and I had spent the last year learning her cues and I felt that only I knew exactly how to comfort her. Would a babysitter really be able to do that?

So I set out to figure out what home based business opportunities were out there. First I told my employer that I wouldn't be coming back, but offered to work for him from home. He seemed mildly interested. So I asked for $30 an hour. I never heard back from him. So I took that as a "No". Ha ha!

Then, one of my friends offered me some work doing proofreading and editing a magazine she was creating. That was great, except that it wasn't a lot of work, and I ended up making only about $200 a month. Proofreading is a viable home business idea, and you can do it while the kids nap, or at night after they go to bed. There are websites where you can bid on jobs, such as one called Elance. www.elance.com.

Another thing I looked at was starting a home based daycare. But then I thought about all the colds and flu I'd be bringing into the house... And I also thought I wasn't really cut out to stay home with more than my own kids all day. I think I'd go nuts.

So I started thinking about the Internet and how many people make a living from it with home based business opportunities. The only problem was it was really hard to know which companies to trust. I would estimate that I wasted about $300USD trying out different things that turned out to be scams. I was so frustrated!  And I felt like a real idiot. One eBook I bought walked me through exactly how to build a one page website to sell an eBook. First I wrote the eBook, then went to all the trouble to build the website, paying monthly fees for hosting, using their templates, etc, and then I never even got a single visitor to my site! So then the eBook explained how to PAY to get people to visit my site – frankly, this person was getting rich off me and I wasn’t earning a penny.

The nice thing about having your own web based business is that it can be about whatever you want it to be. Whether you are into scrapbooking, or cooking, or home organizing, or perhaps you left a job as a flight attendant and your website will offer travel tips to families traveling with children! The possibilities are endless.

If you decide to build a website, you will either have to learn all about html or a wysiwyg program like Dreamweaver, or go with a company that has templates and does it for you. You will have to attract visitors to your website (otherwise you will not make any money) and there are a variety of ways of doing this. One is to write articles like this one. Another is to make sure that you build enough content-rich pages so that you get noticed by Google and your site shows up when people search for your keywords. You could pay to get traffic, but there are other free ways of getting traffic. The key to my success, I think, was choosing the company carefully that I was going to give my business to and, ultimately, trust to help me learn how to do everything, because I really didn't know anything about the Internet when i started out.

Be very careful of get-rich-quick scams. There is NO SUCH THING. Any legitimate business takes work, real hard work. There are no shortcuts, and that's all there is to it. So any legitimate business will be upfront and clearly state that this is going to be a lot of work.

When you research the variety of website-building companies out there, make sure they offer all-in-one packages, and they make it clear what you will get for your money. Make sure there are no hidden costs or extra things you will have to pay for later. Don't pay more than $30 per month (I pay $299 per year for my program). At the very least, they should offer:

·Domain name
·Fast, reliable hosting
·E-mail & telephone customer support
·Point and click page building
·Unlimited Number of pages & unlimited E-mail accounts
·E-mail forwarding
·Page templates
·Statistics
·Credit Card Processing
·E-commerce
·Blogging
·Submission to Search Engines
·Auto Re-submission to Engines
·Web site analysis for Engine compatibility
·Tracking of Search Engine 'Spiders'
·Search Engine Listing report
·Search Engine Ranking Report
·Unique Keyword search reports for search engines
·Ranking Reports for Directories
·Keyword Research tool
·Fully Customizable Look & Feel
·Step-By-Step Marketing Guide

Also, what kind of customer service do they offer? Email them a question and see if they get back to you or not. If they don't, don't give them your money! Also, do they make it clear on their website who they are and how they can be reached? I hate those sites with no contact information. It's like they have something to hide.

I am so glad I took the leap and started my own website as a result of the many home based business opportunities I researched. It has been a great learning experience for me. I found what works for me. It has made a difference in my life and I hope it can make a difference in yours too. I wish you all the best.



Suzanne Doyle-Ingram is the mother of two daughters, Hana and Alexa, and married to her best friend James, who is a stay-at-home dad and educational game developer (and he makes a mean grilled chicken!).  She is also the creator of www.pregnancy-leads-to-new-babies.com, an informative site for pregnant women and new moms, which provides information on pregnancy, labor, and how to take care of your new baby.