Call me naive, or maybe optimistic, but I didn’t always “believe in” computer viruses. It’s probably the biologist in me. It’s hard for me to swallow the concept of an inanimate object having a living ailment. And to be fair, nobody really believes that computer viruses are real viruses. Still, I just couldn’t bring myself to admit that they do exist.

So I may sound silly, but there’s no harm in that, right? Wrong. Because of my denial, I refused to buy virus protection for my laptop. And I’ve recently paid the price. After lots of crashing and restarting, I finally took my laptop to a computer repair place. They had to reinstall the operating system (which I could’ve done myself, if only I’d made the recovery disks). Before they did the reinstall, though, they found a whopping 53 viruses! So much for not being real.

On the bright side, I didn’t really have a lot of data on my computer. And I had just done a backup less than a month before the crash. So no harm done, except for the computer repair center’s bill.

Lesson learned? I hope so. I accepted the computer shop’s free Avira antivirus software (which is a pain…now I can’t download video games). But for now, according to that software, my computer is virus-free.

The moral of the story is probably twofold. Just because you don’t believe something doesn’t make it not true. And backup your data often.

Do you use antivirus programs? Which ones?

A quick follow-up to my post about the Rapid Video Blogging program. Gideon Shalwick recently did a webinar where he answered people’s burning questions. Check out the tell-all webinar here.

If you’re serious about getting started with video blogging, it may be wise to take Gideon’s course. After you see the webinar or read the report, head over to the signup page.

Sorry to get this out so late, but his course closes in less than 2 days.

Ready to get started? You can join the Rapid Video Blogging course as long as you act fast.

Being a parent is hard work. Single parenting is harder in some ways, and is arguably one of the most difficult forms of parenting there is – for a number of reasons.

One major issue is childcare and its associated cost. For children attending daycare, the costs can be enormous, especially when the parent makes a low income. According to the department of labor, women generally earn less than men, so income matters.

While staying at home is often a wiser financial decision (saving money on childcare), it’s difficult to find jobs for single mothers that pay the necessary bills.

Another problem for single mothers is the much-needed time off from work during the end of pregnancy or immediately postpartum. Though it’s illegal for an employer to fire a woman for taking maternity leave, it can happen, especially at smaller companies or for women who don’t know their rights.

And what about breastfeeding? Mothers get so many strong messages that “breast is best,” but maternity leave is usually only about 12 weeks…nowhere near the 1 year of breastfeeding recommending by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a far cry from the 2-year recommendation of the World Health Organization.

The Internet, for now, provides a way for single mothers to remain at home and have a more flexible lifestyle while raising children. Though I haven’t worked hard enough to make a living online, it is possible (according to the many “friends” I’ve met online…not all of whom were trying to sell me something).

People can work at home as virtual assistants, freelance writers/editors, bloggers, Internet marketers, call center representatives, medical billing workers, transcriptionists, and more. It’s all a matter of finding something you’re interested in, and having a financial cushion to help while establishing your business.

Here on Crayon Writer, I’ve sort of been spinning my wheels. I tend to try too many tactics at one time. I’m a wannabe blogger, freelance business writer, freelance magazine writer, and internet marketer. Some of that is simply my personality (I enjoy multitasking), but it’s also a sign of failing to make a decision.

If you work from home, whether as a parent (single or not), or not, did you make a decision to focus on one income stream? If you diversify, how do you give it your all with the various methods you choose?

One of the common themes on Crayon Writer is making money online - something I do, but something I strive to do even better. Believe it or not, I had NO idea that I could make money with YouTube and video blogging. Maybe I’m just the last to know, but in case I’m not, let me tell you about my friend Gideon Shalwick who has it down to a science.

How many videos have you watched today? How about YouTube videos? If you do ANYTHING online, you cannot help but watch at least a few YouTube videos daily.

But did you know there’s a way to make money off of YouTube? And NO – you don’t need a channel with millions of views every month.

Gideon Shalwick, an online video expert, has it all figured out.

And he’s telling it ALL in a 92-page, easy-to-read, report he just put out for you and me: Rapid Video Blogging. I sure thought I’d heard it all before. But after reading Gideon’s hotly awaited report…I realize this is a Whole New Game!

After you download Gideon’s free Rapid Video Blogging report, also check out the video that comes up. Because I just bet it opens your eyes to how ANYONE can succeed online without having to bow down to gurus. In fact, doing it Your Way is the KEY to this system. Check out the report that got the industry buzzing
about it even before it got out!

PS. Gideon has fine-tuned his method over years of experimentation, and it’s all in there, at zero cost.
So if you’d rather ditch outdated methods of making money online, this is the place to be:

Rapid Video Blogging

Once you’re done reading the report and watching the first video, check out the second and third videos. Gideon cranks out cool videos pretty much as fast as he can think. In the second video, he takes us behind the scenes of his famed home studio setup, showing us everything from lighting to editing to ‘getting comfortable’ tips. In the third video he goes through a case study of an ordinary guy whose making decent money on the topic of acne.

You can find the report and all three videos here, at Rapid Video Blogging.

Will YOU be the next Rapid Video Blogging success story? You’ll have your chance very soon!

For those of you who’ve been reading Crayon Writer for a while, you know I strongly want to homeschool or even unschool my now five-year-old daughter. As a single mother, though, I recognize that we need time apart, so I enrolled her in preschool when she was a little older than three.

Preschool worked out off and on, and I still felt that I was primarily homeschooling. I purposely chose preschools that were strongly play-based, so the academics were light. My daughter has been learning to read and do math at home for the most part, and she very smart too.

As the big 5 approached, I started interviewing various play-based kindergartens and even the local public school. In the end, I decided to send her back to her preschool so she could continue to play while I taught her at home.

But to my surprise, a couple of weeks ago my little one announced that she wanted to go to kindergarten, not “play” school, and she didn’t want me to teach her at home!! All of a sudden I had to scramble for a school. The play-based kindergarten programs I found were okay, but either far away or had days that were too short.

Believe it or not, despite my strong objections to the “traditional” school philosophy, my daughter will start at a regular, public kindergarten this week! And she’s thrilled. Me…not so much. My issues with traditional schooling involve homework, grades, testing, “socialization” aka peer pressure and bullying/teasing, and extrinsic motivational techniques.

A little background: I have been a substitute teacher (which included several teacher-of-record jobs) for more than 7 years, and I’m currently in teaching certification program. I know how much standards, grades, and tests are stressed, and I’ve seen what negative effects schooling can have on children. Despite my professional aspirations, it seems to me that school is primarily a method to create conforming citizens who tend to go along with the masses. Not what I want for my child.

On the other hand, I went through public schooling, and I came out with a very open and questioning mind, probably because of my parents’ influence. So it’s likely that my daughter will be similar too.

This week will be the beginning of a new adventure. I’m sure I’ll be a regular volunteer at her school (gotta keep an eye on things), and maybe kindergarten won’t suck the fun out of learning (like I imagine it might).

The important thing is that I’m following my daughter’s lead. I’m letting her have a say so in how she wants to be educated (within reason), which is still in the spirit of unschooling. As long as she’s happy and safe, I’ll let her chart her own path. It’s tough being a parent!

Blogging can be a journey (like this one), a passion, a hobby, or a business. And everything in-between. But sometimes life happens and your blog can wind up the last thing on a long “to do” list. That’s what happened to me and one of my old blogs.

Marana Unwrapped was a blog about the town I lived in, just northwest of Tucson, Arizona. I started out pretty interested in it, some people subscribed to it, and I even got added to the town’s email group for the press. But then I moved out of the town of Marana, and somehow thought I should let the blog move into oblivion.

I let the domain name expire and that was that. But something kept nagging at me over the past couple of years. I knew that blog had potential, and it makes no sense to turn down the opportunity. After all, trying to restart an old blog may be worth it. I checked to see if the domain name was still available (it was), and I re-bought it.

It seemed reasonable to sit on my decision and think things through first. I decided a new WordPress theme was essential, and I got to work on that. I changed some categories, updated and added a few pages, and tried my hand at some CSS/PHP code tweaking. It’s still not perfect (I need to Photoshop some of the heading’s pictures), but it’s ready to reintroduce to the world.

With the restart of an old blog comes decisions about how to drive traffic to it. Word of mouth and Twitter may be the best way to jumpstart it. Local blogs have the advantage of being extremely targeted. Later I may go on to create a Facebook page and maybe even submit articles to submission sites. Getting traffic is always a fun adventure.

If you get a chance, take a look at the old content on Marana Unwrapped. Even better, if you’re a Tucson reader, feel free to send me story ideas and news. Let me know what you think (here or there). I’m all ears.

Have you ever made the decision to restart an old blog? What plan of action did you take?

I love getting comments on my blog posts, so if you’re thinking something while reading my posts, please let me know. One thing I have noticed recently, though, is comments that make no sense. What’s funny is that they have some elements of the post in them, but overall they’re gibberish.

Part of being a “do follow” blog is dealing with comment spam. In case you don’t know, “do follow” means that when you comment here, my site provides a link to your website (assuming you put that information in the comment form). That’s great for building Google PageRank, so I guess a lot of sites comment here just for the links. It doesn’t hurt that my page has some PageRank juice to give out too.

For that reason, I have my comments on moderated status. If you see your comment hasn’t been approved in a couple of days, please feel free to email me. It’s possible I didn’t get to it yet, or it might have wound up in my spam folder. I generally don’t weed through the hundreds of spam messages I get for one or two real comments.

One type of comment spam that’s hard to catch is the “repeat everything” comment. This is where the comment is actually an exact duplicate of some snippet from my posts or from others’ comments. They sound real, and it requires my delving into my memory to realize that it’s something I’ve seen before.

Another common type of comment spam is the “great post” comment. Those are just annoying, but they’re fairly easy to spot. They might say, “Nice blog,” or, “I agree with you,” or other non-specific comments.

Luckily, the Akismet spam catcher thingee does a good job of keeping out most comment spam (like the ads for viagra).

What kinds of comment spam have you had to deal with?

A couple of months ago I finished my first semester in a teaching certification program at a local college. It was my first time taking online classes, and it was an experience. I found that I don’t really like online courses, or at least not the way these were taught. There was no classroom instruction. Rather, we were given a series of assignments to complete, based on our readings or classroom observations (if we were in a practicum course).

I think the program would be much better if instructors taught via webinars and video presentations. Students could then call in to the webinar with questions, we’d still have the opportunity to be lectured to, and we’d be able to interact with our fellow classmates.

Also, the work was incredibly easy. All we had to do was turn in assignments and we’d pass the course. Maybe I’m used to harder material and harder teaching methods, having gone to a “top” university for undergrad. Or maybe this program just isn’t that challenging (and maybe that’s the way they want it).

More recently I ran into problems enrolling in one of the courses. It was a week into the course and apparently once you’ve missed that much it’s too difficult to catch up. I pleaded my case – that I needed this course now in order to complete the program on time (and other reasons), that I was confident I could (easily) pass the course despite missing that week, and that it should be up to the student to take that (fairly low) risk. But it was a no go, which annoys me.

In order to help me reach my goals, I was offered a chance to take some classes if I signed a form promising to pay back any federal financial aid I received should I not fulfill a minor requirement (even if I completed, passed, and paid for said classes using that financial aid). Luckily, contracts class in law school (and the red flags popping up all around), made me refuse to sign the questionable document. I likened it to signing a blank check.

On the bright side, I think I’ve found a feasible way to make up for lost time by  taking a heavier courseload in the fall.

What’s interesting to me is how difficult it’s been to handle administrative things with this college, as opposed to undergrad and even law school. Perhaps it’s because it’s a small college. Or maybe times have changed since I’ve gone to school, and a college education is less about education and more about red tape. The last time I was in college was only about five years ago, though.

In any event, I‘ve learned a valuable lesson. If I want a higher education in this manner, I’ll have to take control of my own learning and anticipate the red tape ahead of time. Then I’ll be better prepared to argue my case when problems arise.

Have you taken classes at a small college? What about online classes? Has your experience been smooth sailing or rocky?

One of the things I love about the Internet is how much information is available online. Recently I listened to a webinar about Internet marketing, and I got very intrigued. I’m no stranger to making money online, though I haven’t made a ton. I’ve dabbled in making websites and blogs, I’ve done some affiliate marketing, and I do freelance writing online as well.

At the end of the webinar, the guest host, Adam Short, discussed his company’s website. He has a virtual classroom called Niche Profit Classroom where students learn about how to get into niche websites. Since the class was only $1 for a 14-day trial, I had to give it a try.

I was amazed. His classroom is simply overwhelming. There is so much information, and it’s all good information. His teaching method is through videos where the student is literally looking over his shoulder while he’s at the computer. There are hours of videos and webinars to learn from, and the video/audio quality is top-notch.

Even better, if you remain a member you can use Niche Profit Classroom (NPC) to host domains for you, and he has an awesome download that allows you to create websites/blogs with the click of a button. I found the site so helpful that I was compelled to write a Niche Profit Classroom review.

Now, Internet marketing requires a LOT of work, primarily in keyword research and traffic building. You have to find hot markets and then research them thoroughly to make sure they’re really good. And once you finally get around to builidng your website, you still have to drive traffic to it and make their visits worthwhile.

Niche Profit Classroom makes this easier for you by giving you access to downloadable “niche packs.” These packages include keyword research already done for you, and they give blueprints about how to go about building traffic.

If you’ve ever considered getting into Internet marketing, which involves selling a product (usually an e-book), I would highly recommend checking out Niche Profit Classroom. It truly has a wealth of valuable information. And the 14-day trial will let you try it out for only $1, or if you do pay the monthly fee, you have 30 days to get a full refund.

I haven’t yet built my first niche website (I joined only 14 days ago), but I’ll be sure to report back when I do. I know that a well-built and well-positioned niche website can make money even when you’re not actively working on, which is perfect for being a stay-at-home mother.

So what are you waiting for? Now that you’ve read my Niche Profit Classroom review, head on over there and give it a try!

Have you tried Internet marketing? Are you considering it? If you try NPC, let us know how it went.

I haven’t used an alarm clock in many, many years.

Why not?

I hate them. They’re loud, obnoxious, and they wake me up! I know, I know. That’s the point of alarm clocks. But I find them an intrusive device, and I don’t use them anymore (except on very rare occasions).

You may be thinking, “The nerve of that woman! Alarm clocks are a necessary part of life. Just like wearing a watch.” Well, actually, I don’t wear a watch either, but that’s a story for another time (no pun intended).

My disdain for loud alarms may actually have its roots in high school. I went to a school that didn’t use bells. When it was time to change classes, we changed classes (when the teacher gave his or her okay, of course). We had to use our minds to stay on-time while stopping at our lockers or chatting with our friends.

Sometime during college, I started realizing that I often wake myself up before the alarm goes off. I must have started practicing this skill, and I tried my best to make sure I didn’t have to be anywhere super early. Also, I generally find that I won’t sleep past 8a.m. no matter what time I go to sleep at night.

Eventually I had my daughter, and that just solidified my habit. Babies wake up all the time, and my daughter especially can’t stand sleeping once the sun is up. Surprisingly, I can always go back to sleep when I want, but somehow I can still set my mental alarm for how long I plan to stay asleep.

Waking without an alarm doesn’t work so well when there is a schedule change, though. If I suddenly have to start getting up at 5 a.m., I will set the clock. But worrying about sleeping through the alarm generally wakes me up before it sounds.

Not having to rely on alarm clocks is refreshing. There’s something unsettling about being awoken from a sound sleep by a loud, scary noise. It makes waking up harsh and unkind. I highly suggest giving it a try, maybe starting with a weekend or during vacation.

What about you? Do alarm clocks play an important role in your daily life?