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It was 10:00 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving. In just a few hours the doors to our inner-city church would open, and we would host our urban neighbors, many of whom were Native Americans, to a free Thanksgiving dinner.

We were making last-minute preparations when we heard a loud knock at the front door. Another interruption, we thought as we trudged toward the door. When we opened the door, we were greeted by two delivery men from Sears.

“Will you sign for this?” one of the men asked as he shoved a clipboard my way.

“Sure, what is it?”

“A freezer,” he answered.

“We didn’t order a freezer.”

“Someone did,” he said. With that, he and his burly partner pushed past me and wheeled a full-length deep freeze up the steep steps and into our church.
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It is easy to see that your mailing list is one of your most valuable assets, but do you really know how to make money with it? Making money with your mailing list can be made easier and more effective by the following guidelines.

1) Be cautious of third party lists and send your e-mails to a permission-based list. You can work to build your own permission-based list by encouraging your target audience to sign up for your e-mail communications at every opportunity. Don’t assume you have permission, please ask for it!

2) Reach your subscribers more often and on time, but not too frequently. By setting your newsletter to go out regularly once a week, you can build a close-knit relationship with your readers. The more you talk with them, the more they trust you, the more likely they are to buy what you recommend. It is important to send your newsletter periodically, and on time. However, if your newsletter is sent too frequently (e.g. more than 3 times a week), then it will feel like an advertisement or an imposition rather than a service or a gift.
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A Christian Comedy Essay By Rev. James L. Snyder

I have always suspected it but, being the gentleman that I am, I have never made an issue of it. Now, I have scientific evidence to support my long-held suspicions.

I’m not one to gloat but this does call for some kind of celebration. After all, it is not every day things go my way. And, it’s not every day that I can pull one over on the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, and have scientific evidence to back me up.

I cannot tell how many years she has harassed me about washing my hands, especially before dinner. “Have you washed your hands yet?” “Go wash your hands before dinner.” “I hope you washed your hands.”
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A Christian Comedy Essay By Rev. James L. Snyder

Now that the 100-year race for the Oval Office is completed… or so it seems… we can all get back to what we were doing prior to this event. The problem is, I cannot remember what I was doing before all of this nonsense began.

Oh, yes. I remember now. We were all complaining about how stupid our government leaders were and how the politicians were making a mess of things.

For those of you who think a presidential election changes all of this, I have some wonderful swampland that I can let you have at a good price. And if you can’t afford the price, there are some amazing bailout programs coming from Washington DC.

Every four years we go through the motions of electing a president thinking a new president brings a magical spell to our country called “change.” It is amazing that the more things change in Washington DC, the more they remain the same.
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A Christian Comedy Essay By Rev. James L. Snyder

I do not often get under the weather; after all, as tall as I am my head is usually in the clouds. At least, the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage thinks this is the case. And who is to argue with her. But this time I was under the weather.

My head was stuffed and every other breath I took I had a sneezing fit. I felt miserable. I looked miserable. I know this because my wife said, “You looked miserable.” And, I was miserable.

Being in such a delicate condition, I had completely forgotten what time of the year it was. In fact, I did not even know what time of the day it was.

I vaguely remember my wife saying something to the effect that she was going somewhere and to be ready for something or other. In my condition, I could not have cared less. She could have taken a trip to the moon and I would not have cared. All I wanted was to be left alone to wallow in my ocean of misery.
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Anyone who wants to work at home knows about all the scams out there.  The internet is full of work at home scams.  People will advertise a work at home opportunity, and tell you that you can take advantage of it for just a small investment of $29.95, or $45.95, or $79.99.

But when it comes right down to it, why you should you pay someone to work for them?

Think about traditional jobs you have applied for or worked.  Did you ever have to pay to be considered for those jobs? Of course not! If that was the case, companies would have a hard time finding employees.

Anytime your asked to pay to apply for a job or begin working, this should be a red flag that the “job” advertised is actually a SCAM.

Also, what information about the job do you have?  Many times, the scams don’t tell you much about the job itself.  If there is a job description at all, it is often very vague.  Why do you suppose that is?  A lack of information about the job or the company is another red flag for a scam.
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This week I want to discuss making yourself marketable online, not in selling products, but in getting hired.  Given our current economic state, a large majority of middle-class workers are asking themselves,  “what can I do to bring in a little extra income? “  With all the online job postings available, particularly work-from-home positions, its difficult to find a perfect fit, but there are a few key things you can do to help yourself in the race for another job.

Consider these steps to help you along the way:

1. Explain what you do.

Think about any sales position youve worked or any youve heard about.  What is the salesmans goal?  To tell a customer what the product is and why they need to buy it now.  Finding work online functions on the same principle: what do you do for the company and why do they need you now?  As simple as this sounds, this is the most important part in getting the job you want.  Think about it: why did you purchase the last major item in your life?  What helped you make the decision for your specific product against another?  Sell yourself first by selling what you do.

2. Show the company your unique traits.
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A Christian Comedy Essay By Rev. James L. Snyder

It was one of those weeks when I was not feeling up to par. Even though I do not play golf I felt a few strokes less than normal, and every little thing teed me off.

I just was feeling rather poorly and wandered around the house in a listless manner. It seemed like I had some kind of nervous jitters. I would sit for a few minutes and then get up and walk around and then I would sit again, all the while speaking incoherently.

It got so bad the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage noticed I was acting stranger than normal. She is an authority on the various levels of strangeness in our house, especially those associated with Yours Truly.

There is the normal level of strangeness of me just walking around with a goofy look on my face.

Then, there is the strangeness that pervades my person when I have done something wrong or have forgotten to do something I was emphatically told to do. This ranks a close second to the first one.
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Starting a home business and turning it into a long-term profitable business venture is the dream of millions of people. Many pursue that dream and succeed; others fail and give up, but most never even try.

Remember you can\’t build a successful home business if you never even try and you certainly aren\’t going to get far if you can\’t get up from your failures. You are in control of your own destiny. You have the freedom to choose success, failure, or just keep cruising through life on your safe wagon never going up or down.

Below I have given you three idiot proof home business success tips. They are the basis for creating any long-term profitable business. If you follow and stick with them, you won\’t fail.

Idiot Proof Tip #1 - Promote high converting products with large profit margins.

It\’s very hard to make a living if you are only selling products that make you a few dollars profit per sale. If you want to build a profitable home business you should be promoting products that make you at least $25.00 profit per sale. Remember, that this is what you need to make in profit so you must factor in your expenses and make at least that much extra per sale.
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It seems everyone these days is talking about blogging. Everywhere I go, I find articles and forums devoted to this craze. I also have heard from many home business owners who are trying to figure out what a blog is and how they can use one to their benefit.

The term “blog” is short for “weblog”, which just means an online journal or “log”. You can jot down personal thoughts and notes, post articles you’ve written or keep track of interesting websites you find. The sky is the limit, it seems, when it comes to blogging. A blog is something entirely of your own creation and you can use it to share your thoughts with the world, well….with anyone you can get to read it anyway.

One of the main debates going on about blogs is whether blogging can be done to improve Search Engine rankings for businesses or to create a buzz about business websites. Both of these can be true if the blog is used correctly. Many resources show that once a blog is created, many times it is listed in Search Engines within 48 hours. This was true of the blog I created for Christian Work at Home Moms.

These are many ways to create a blog. The easiest by far is to use one of the free tools available online, such as Google’s Blogger. You can create your blog for free using their online tools and templates(nothing to download). After you have created the blog, you can then publish your blog through them and “Wa-La” – your blog is posted online for the world to see.

Once you’ve created your blog, you will need to decide how you will use it. Will it be a personal blog, full of thoughts and comments for yourself alone or maybe your family? Or will it be a business blog, with articles and tips for potential customers? If you want your blog to be found by others, blogging experts recommend that you begin by setting the title and descriptions for your blog. These are similar to the the title and descriptions you set for your website. Try to make them meaningful because they are what people will see when your blog is returned in a Search Engine. If your description is simply “my blog”, you may not draw the attention you’d like.

If you are blogging in the hopes of attracting customers, make sure to use wise use of words and links in your blogs. Try to avoid the “click here” link. Instead, opt for links within descriptive sentences. Add the HTML link within the sentence and attach it to the words that are closely related to the page or site you are linking to. For example, to link to my website I would not use “click here” as my link. I would say, “Please visit Christian Work at Home Moms for home-based work resources.”

There are many ways to get your blog noticed outside of optimizing them for Search Engines. For instance, there are entire websites devoted to listing blogs dedicated to any topic that you can think of. One of the best such websites devoted to women-created blogs, is BlogDaisy.com. You can also use free tools such a FeedBurner.com to track the traffic on your blog and to create a dynamic title box that can be used to display your blog headlines on your website or even in your email signature. Each time you update your blog, these headlines are instantly updated.

There are many ways to use a blog for either personal or business use. If used correctly, a blog can be a terrific tool to inform potential customers of your business. Be sure to update your blog at least once a week so that the content remains fresh and you remain in the Search Engines.

-By Jill Hart