By Holly Reisem Hanna

You’ve just launched your new home-based business and now it’s time to start promoting your business to attract new customers. As a first time business owner and entrepreneur I know how difficult it can be to market your business on a shoe-string budget, but there is hope. Here are seven inexpensive ways to increase your businesses visibility and attract new prospects.

1. Social Networking: From Facebook and Twitter to My Space and LinkedIn it seems everyone everywhere is involved in some type of social networking. The great news for business owners is that you can create a profile on any of these mentioned social networks and promote your business for free.

You can write about your area of interest and include links to your website, or feel free to create or join a group that revolves around your specific niche. Facebook alone has over 200 million active users, and Twitter sends out tweets from power-house celebrities like Oprah and Kelly Ripa. With this large of an audience imagine what social networking can do for your business! Cost: Free. (more…)

Tricia Kennedy is new to the work-at-home world and discovered it as a result of necessity. After finishing her undergraduate studies, she moved to Los Angeles for almost a decade following a young person’s optimistic journey to find her career niche.

After a variety of roles in a variety of industries, not to mention a couple of adventures, she found her way to graduate school in order to find a career that combined her passions for helping others, business and psychology.

Tricia moved to Dallas immediately after completing graduate school to pursue her new career in organization and change consulting. Her future was finally in her sights and when the economic downturn struck. (more…)

By Holly Reisem Hanna

Lately I’ve come across some blogs that have had entries either a few sentences long or others that have been pages long. This got me to thinking… what is the optimal length for a blog post?

From my personal experience when I come across a blog post that is only a few sentences long, I usually think, “Why should I bother reading this”? On the other hand when I come across a blog entry that is 1000 + words I usually lose interest half way through.

Many search engine optimization (SEO) gurus are firm believers in long articles and posts, because they believe it generates more organic traffic from the search engines.  I tend to believe that a blog post should not just be optimized for the search engines, but that it should be optimized for the reader first. (more…)

I am giving away one free 125 x 125 banner ad for the month of June on The Work at Home Woman!

Would you like to win?

To enter, leave a comment on any blog post and then email me at holly@theworkathomewoman.com and let me know what blog post you commented on. (more…)

Rebecca Cline had several reasons for choosing home-based franchise Caring Transitions as a vehicle to reenter the work force.  After working in retail prior to staying at home with her girls, she knew that a business that offered a variety of opportunities and challenges was essential.  Rebecca also knew that she wanted to be adding value to someone’s life – not just selling them a product.

Caring Transitions, a home-based franchise provides services which help seniors and their families negotiate the challenges of downsizing.  They offer a range of services from helping clients sort and pack, to unpacking, getting settled, conducting estate sales and managing the move day. (more…)