Melody's Mommy News
February 25, 2005
Melody's Weekly Special
One Month Sponsor Listing on Front Page
Just $10.00! (Introductory Offer)
What's New?
I have added a new site to the Melody's Mommy family. It's called Mommy Coupons. Ever wished that you could find coupons to shop at your favorite stores online? Well now you can! Mommy coupons has tons of printable coupons that you can print and take on your next shopping trip. There are also tons of online coupons that you can use when shopping online. Don't make another purchase until you visit Mommy Coupons!
I am now starting to recruit team members for my Discovery Toys Team. If you are looking for a great home business opportunity take a look at Discovery Toys. They provide all the training and support you could possible need to get started with your own home business today. I will also be available to coach you. The best thing about Discovery Toys is the quality educational toys that they have for children of all ages. Browse through my store online and you will start to see that Discovery Toys is an expert when it comes to designing fun toys to help your child learn. After looking through my site, e-ail me if you would like more information. Brandy@melodysmommy.com
Home Business Opportunity of the Week
Each week I will select a business opportunities from our message boards to feature. Want to see your opportunity listed? Go introduce yourself and your business on Melody's Mommy Message Boards! Hint: If you are a frequent "poster" on our message boards, I will use your ad first!
Country Bunny Bath & Body
Darleen
Enjoy shopping and pampering your skin with our high quality bath and body products that are made with natural ingredients. They do not contain any mineral oil, harsh drying alcohols and are DEA free. View our opportunity on how you can start your very own business today for $89 (No inventory required). Visit my website at: http://www.cbunnyrep.com/3755 for more information. Thanks for visiting!
**February Special** As an added bonus for joining this month, receive a FREE Rolling Duffle Bag along with your new kit! Offer ends 2/28/05.
Work at Home Jobs
The following work at home jobs are offered on a one-time basis, see if one of them might be a good match for you! (Please note that these leads are unresearched. I have done a quick check on them, but make sure you investigate any opportunitiy for work online before joining.)
Telecommute Business Broker
Exciting opportunity to join the internet's largest and most visited "website-for-sale" marketplace. Immediate openings for experienced business brokers. Receive inquiries and screen potential listings. Must be comfortable selling companies valued between $100K to $5Mill.
Claims Adjusters
This dynamic and growing TPA and adjusting firm has opportunities for Claims Adjusters posted on their website. Flexible hours, work from home, and excellent opportunities for advancement. Please visit this company to learn more about their services before applying: http://www.geyoung.com
Sales Consultants
This NYC-based, new media company has an exciting opportunity for Sales Consultants posted at thier website. Sales Consultants represent the company's products and services to businesses within assigned territories. To explore this opportunity, visit: http://www.empoweredmarketer.com/company/application.htm
Foreign Language Transcriptionists
Join one of the largest reporting and transcription companies in the world! This growing company now has home-based opportunities for Foreign Language Transcriptionists available for review at their company website. Learn more and apply online: http://www.ubiqus.com/Group_recruit_FLT.shtml
Instructors
This unique language and cultural training institute has opportunities for Instructors posted on their website. Bachelors degree required. Native-level Spanish speaking skills. Additional information and instructions are located on this company's website at: http://www.bilingualamerica.com/main/instructors.asp.
Telephone Interpreter
Pacific Interpreter has opportunities for Telephone Interpreter posted on their website. Must have excellent oral/written skills in English and target language/s. Knowledge of medical terminology is helpful. Additional information is located on the Pacific Interpreter website: http://www.pacificinterpreters.com/recruitment/tele_interp.html
Welcome Wagon Account Executives - Nationwide
Telephone Advisor
Do you have knowledge to share? Could you give others valuable advice about their relationships, computers, health, finances or anything else? This is a great opportunity for anyone with a knack for chatting and something to share. Becoming a KeenSpeaker is FREE! To learn more please visit: http://www.keen.com/give/answers.asp
Network Administrator and PC Technician
Consultants
The Councils of Advisors has opportunities for Consultants posted on their website. Will provide investment consulting to the investment communities. Ranges from Accounting to Transportation.
Loan Officers
Graphic Designer and Web Developer
National Web Design has opportunities for Graphic Designer and Web Developer posted on their website. Graphic Designer: Must have 2 years experience, Animation helpful.Web Developer: Maintain servers and work in Unix and Windows environments. For more qualifications, please visit the website.
Authors and Photographers
Westcliffe Publishers has opportunities for Authors and Photographers posted on their website.
Writers/Artists
ArtistMarket has opportunities for Writers/Artists posted on their website.
Designers
Freelance designers, join this online network and work for a world-class association. Work at your own pace in your own environment. Learn more at this company's website: http://www.onletterhead.com
English Trainer
GoFluent has opportunities for Coporate English Trainers posted on their website. Help people to refine their English skills. Must be able to work a minimum of 4 hours a day, 4-5 days a week.
Instructors
Course Bridge has opportunities for Instructors posted on their website. Must be passionate about your topic and enjoy sharing with others your knowledge and experience. Additional information and how to apply are located on the Course Bridge website: http://www.coursebridge.com/html/instructor_application.asp
Online E-structors
Article of the Week
Do you write your own articles? Post them on my message board for consideration. You may see them in the next newsletter!
~Publishing Children’s Personalized Letters ~
Graphics
My name is Tina and I write and publish my own children’s personalized letters. Also, I want to tell you that I am not a pessimist. I am a realist, and I appreciate when others are up front about any issue. The time invested and wasted, not to mention money, led me to produce this article on graphic use. With that said, this article is not meant to discourage you from starting your own letter service but just the opposite. You must understand the requirements of what it takes to start this business, and starting this business begins with graphics. With that out of the way, let’s begin the journey about selling your own personalized children’s letters.
~Graphic Mode Choices~
When you are beginning your investigation into starting a letter business you will find you basically have three choices. You may either join the numerous companies on the market that will let you buy their pre - written letters with the graphics already included, buy pre - printed stationary at your local office supply or discount store, or produce your own. I must give a word of caution concerning mass produced letters, and the pre - printed stationary route. Usually companies that produce the mass letters require that you pay a fee to obtain the information, and then you will have to buy the letters separately. Your choices of letters are limited as far as graphics, and the ability to personalize to the extent that you desire. Also availability of the letters will vary in cases of stock supply, and shipping times too may cause havoc with you letter business. There have been occasions where companies will decide to no longer carry the fill in the blank graphic letters, and then you are stuck with a real problem, especially if there are letter orders waiting to be filled! Outside of these issues, there is the idea that so many others are doing the exact same thing. Pre - printed stationary has drawbacks too. The stationary that you will find at your local stores are easy and convient. However, you must realize that stationary such as this is printed in sheets of twenty five, and the cost is much higher. Many times if you live in a small area your choice will be limited. Office supply stores as of 2003 were informed that their supply volume would be cut. It seems that the constant fluctuations of the wood, and thereby the paper industry, were causing too much havoc on the stationary companies to produce the varied papers. They were looking at their bottom line of dollar signs. The fact that many could produce their own letters at home with graphics has limited supply. Also graphic producing companies were already on the internet, and the many different graphic choices that anyone needed were readily available, and at better discounts. The idea of personalized letters for children is that they will have a unique letter, and I did not want to cheat the children, nor embarrass myself because my stationary was on every shelf in the country! That is the exact reason I choose to build my own letters. I knew that it would feel very good to be able to say that I was real part of the letters, in essence even if I did not create the images myself, I felt that my heart and soul were represented on the page. This is a decision that you will have to make, after all it is your business, and the decision making is left up to you!
~Quality Graphics~
In reality unless you are born with the ability to draw, and have experience with the many graphic creating software’s, you will have to find quality graphics to create that beautiful personalized letter. Granted you can learn the software available on the market, but this will take a lot of time to learn. As I was soon to find out being ignorant on a subject matter will affect your letter writing campaign. Here is what I needed to know, but did not find out.
Quality Graphics Are Comprised Of:
(1) Graphics are saved in special formats such as (preferably) JPG, but there are others.
(2) The images are saved in a high resolution such as 300 dpi (digital pixel image).
(3) Graphics will need to be compatible with the graphics editor software.
The importance of having high resolution graphics mean that your letters when printed will not looked distorted or blurry! The benefit of saving an image in JPG is that the images have a faster downloading time, and they may be resized. However, you can not resize up to a bill board size! You will loose quality. You do need to know that JPGS have their problems too. They will loose color quality if you consistently save it. It would be wise to make a backup copy of the original, and use the copy in your personalized letters. You may use your graphics editor program to compress at a higher resolution, so color image loss will not become an issue. Make sure that you understand how compression will affect your graphic. Work with it because your graphic artist does. Personally, I have found that the use of JPGS work for me. Please remember that your printer is an important part of the letter process. Most printers on the market today will print great quality, but if you have an older printer, think of investing into one that will. It is clear those graphic artists are worth their weight in gold.
~ Graphic Cost $$$ ~
You know the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’? The real cost for me was the wasted time and hard earned dollars because I did not investigate the graphic issues as soon as I had decided to write personalized children’s letters. In fact though the real monetary cost of the graphics are very reasonable! Considering that many downloadable graphic sets range from $10.00 to $2.95 per set for 5 to 27 graphics in each set seems totally fair. Sometimes graphics on CD are offered by the individual artist. The up front cost is more expensive than the individual downloadable sets, but in the long run are a much better value. Prices range typically from $14.95 to some as high as $50.00. Several sites are now promoting exclusive membership clubs. The ability to obtain quality graphics without everyone else on the internet having access to some of their best work helps you stand out in the personalized letter business! Clubs are not only becoming popular, but some artists offer sets for an introductory price, and then raise it after a specified time limit. Eventually many will pull the set, and later offer it on a cd only. Great bargains can be found through out the year when they offer a two for one sale, or variations thereof. It seems this occurs during specified seasons such as spring, fall or winter. Many times this seems to coincide with the major holidays! Graphic artist are expanding their product lines too, which means you can offer an expanding array of products! Everything from cup cake picks, bookmarks and printable boxes for candy and gifts, will give you options to offer your customers to include with your personalized letters! Of course you do not have to go with the more expensive sets, but many times you will find that the other necessities such as frames and corners, (i.e. graphics which go around the outside of your text) come with the larger sets. This is not always true, so you will need to carefully choose what you want.
I hope you have enjoyed and gained some knowledge from this article. Please feel free to contact me with comments or suggestions as to how I can improve the article. I wish all of you the best of luck with your business.
Sincerely,
Tina
That's it! See you next week!
