OK let's not panic. Today is turning into one of 'those' days.
Expenses Up, Income Down
1. My Google Adsense income is going to drop by 50% again, in August. Next to Adsense for Content, this is my biggest source of income - I refer Picasa to my Card Making visitors because it's a very handy piece of software...a few months ago they cut the commission by half, so I had a 50% drop then. Now, they are retiring the programme completely - so what's left of my income from Picasa will vanish.2. Discovered one of my affiliate links has not been tracking properly for the last 6 months. Not a great earner, but it all adds up and I'm gutted that I've been wasting time promoting it.
3. A refund on an unused SBI site is unlikely to come to me, because it's in control of someone who I can't get in touch with anymore, so need to try and sell on my subscription (it's only got about 4 months left on it, but the money would sure be handy!).
Everyone is feeling the pinch these days with fuel prices rising etc., so I'm lucky I work online and haven't lost my job entirely or can't afford the petrol to get to work!
...but, I do have another baby on the way and my income is going the wrong way!
So, what IS a Wahm to do?...
No point stressing over something I can't control, this is always a risk when a large section of your income comes from one source. So, I need to do something I 'can' control - I'm just going to have to work at replacing that income with something else, but what?- I could try improve my traffic, more link exchanges, more online activity in forums etc
- Expand into new markets, like doing free Cross Stitch card patterns, as I had intended a while back
- Find a new affiliate product to promote instead of Picasa (but, I 'do' think Picasa is great, and I wasn't just recommending it for the money...but it helped!)
- Try implement my own new 'product' idea on how I can sell my stuff online, but I didn't want to have customer responsibilities when Baby T first arrives in case I can't live up to them.
- Bring my other sites up to scratch, to get traffic and earnings the same as with Card Making World.
- Work on improving my eBay affiliate and Amazon stores - they're doing quite well, so a bit more work might improve things nicely.
- ALL of the above!
Being a WAHM will be tested when Baby T arrives - I know I won't be working as much, which is also adding to the stress because I'm trying to plan ahead. I need to get newsletters and freebies created in advance so that my income doesn't suffer - and get 18 months worth of stuff done before she arrives...in 3 months' time!
Domestic-Goddess-in-Training-Wise
House still needs sorting and tidying. It's still half painted and with DIY stuff cluttering place up thanks to Errant Father walking out without warning. Doing what I can bit by bit, and as much as I can while pregnant and not being able to lift or move easily...doing daily household stuff is hard enough...bringing me onto my next downer-inducing event...My pelvis is finally starting to play up, but I'm lucky I got this far since previous pregnancies have seen it arrive by 3 months! It's called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction (SPD) and means mobility is restricted - even going upstairs to the loo has to be done on all fours!
"The pain is worse when you walk or move and climbing stairs is especially painful. Getting in and out of the car or turning in bed is also painful" (Babyworld.co.uk - see SPD link above)So, childminder is taking kids to school on a morning and I'm not 'getting out', grrrr. Another 3 months of this...nooooo.
...and I'm sick of having a stuffed up hayfever nose and sneezing and peeing at the same time!
Ho hum, the life of a web mum...
(As I'm writing this I see a message "Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail" .....aaargh)
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