What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer Marketing is a form of Word of Mouth Advertising

Did you ever have a homepage with Microsoft or are you even old enough to remember those? There's been a steady progression in the world of blogging and I've been along for the entire ride. Now, I'm considered a social media influencer. Influencer marketing is the latest trend on the world wide web, remember that term? Ha. It's been a wild ride. What is Influencer Marketing? 

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own.

Influencer marketing is online word of mouth advertising. It goes like this. I went to a new ice cream shop, I loved the pineapple flavor, I took a picture and shared it all over my social media pages. It's true. I do love pineapple ice cream. If I tell you how much I love it, maybe you'll try it and love it too. Generally, influencers are trusted or are recognized as a celebrity or specialist in their area of influence.

Me? The influencer progression went like this: 

• Microsoft Homepage - I shared my page with my family members to update them on the status of my new baby. (He's 17.)
• MySpace page for my family - like a scrapbook.
• Blog - Here's what we've been doing, doesn't it look fun?
• Facebook page - So, you want how to instructions for the kids activities we've been doing?
• Twitter profile - Because someone told me I had to have at least 5k followers to be of any value. (Twitter doesn't really fit my niche.)
• Pinterest profile - Picture this and save it to make later! My stats skyrocketed quickly, so I wrote a how to book which ended up on Amazon's Best Seller's list and that boosted my influencer status.
• Instagram profile - Everyone's doing it, it's the place to be. So, I did it too.

In between all of those social media platforms, I tried Snap Chat, Periscope, Blog Frog, Google+, and a host of other platforms that you've never heard about. My influencer status grew by leaps and bounds on Blog Frog. Once I caught on to how they got paid when I wrote an article or allowed ads on the page, it was a game changer.

Suddenly,  I realized that I could do that on my own website. I solicited brands, got free product, and a small payment for my articles. This method later became known as the sponsored post. The more sponsored posts I did, the more I was hooked. Next thing you know, I'm a huge (one of the first) Pinterest influencer. It happened while I was looking the other way. 

Over the last several years, my influencer status has grown to include Instagram. People like to see what other people do behind the scenes. That's why these unboxing YouTube videos are all the rage. While I do love to receive free product, as an influencer, it is important that I am compensated for my time. It's how I make my living. Never heard of me? Just Google it.

These days, I like to focus on educational kids' activities and budget friendly family travel. However, my blog is considered a lifestyle/parenting website so I get offered all sorts of influencer marketing proposals. I can afford to be choosy. 

Back in the day, Paris Hilton was one of the first social media influencers. Now, anyone can be an influencer, celebrity not required. You just have to be patient and persistent. There are many bloggers who became influencers by accident. I particularly like this story about the Barefoot Marathoner in the Influencer Spotlight. Like me, she was just doing her own thing, minding her own business when people began to take notice. Surprise, you're an influencer! 

Some Influencers make their money with YouTube advertising. I haven't found the time to focus on YouTube. Notice, I forgot to even mention it my progression list, it fits in somewhere after Facebook. I've helped other websites market themselves with YouTube, but my own profile falls flat. Maybe someday.

We don't have to all love the same things! There are some platforms I just don't love, and they obviously don't love me back. If you want to start building your own influencer marketing business, pick a social media platform that you love. Build it, love it, and they will come. Don't be fake. Just be yourself.

So, how do I use Influencer Marketing?

I get offered products to try. I do a lot of kids' recipes and snacks. So, influencer marketing platforms pair me up with food brands and retail stores who send the product and offer a small payment - they call it a fee. That can be confusing to newbies. It's a fee that I require to publish the article on my website. It's a payment to me.

I also get free tickets to events in exchange to promote the event on my social media pages and write about my experience on my blog.

I get pitched various things to post on my Instagram. I try to curate these to include only things that my followers (largely teachers and homeschoolers) will appreciate learning more about. I charge a fee per post or story.

When I do a sponsored post on my blog, I almost always share it to Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. I charge an additional fee to share it to Instagram because it seems to be a premium service. If sponsors just want me to pin something on my Pinterest profile, I'm happy to do it for a fee. Time is money. Even adding a link to an existing blog post takes time, so I charge a fee for that too. 

What should you know? There are regulations on sponsored posts. Sponsored posts should be noted as such. On my social media pages, I am required to add #ad or #sponsored. Amazon affiliate links require a disclaimer at the top of the blog post. I always say, "This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience." For other sponsored posts, I use different language, 'This is a sponsored post, all opinions are my own." or "Post sponsored by INSERT BRAND." 

What's the biggest rage in influencer marketing these days? I'd say it's tiktok. Notice I don't have that listed above? I'm still thinking about it. Still. I've never been an early adopter, but I do okay. Juggling all of those different social media platforms is very time consuming. Many times, by the time I get around to thinking about signing up for a platform, it's already obsolete. 

Now, how do I find these influencer marketing gigs? Well, these days most of them find me. However,  if you're just starting out, just do a search for 'influencer marketing,' 'sponsored posts,' or 'become an influencer.' There are a ton of sites that help pair influencers with sponsors.

Good Luck! If you have any questions on your journey, feel free to reach out to me.

Recommended:

More on Social Media Marketing from Adventures of Kids Creative Chaos

Summer Messy Play Activities for Preschoolers

Fun In The Sun - 6 Tips For Creating A Mud Kitchen For Your Kids

Kids love mud! And as dirty as they may get, it’s time to advocate messy play so they can learn new skills the fun way. The fastest and easiest way to encourage your kids to get outdoors is to build them a mud kitchen.They'll be tripping over each other to get outside

Building your own mud kitchen is a creative, cost-effective way of enabling messy play for your kids while saving money on an expensive play kitchen. 

You can build your mud kitchen in your own way, and in the end, your kids will have the perfect environment in which to get their hands dirty anytime.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.

Photo: Jelleke Vanooteghem/Unsplash

Six tips to create your own mud kitchen

1. Use What You’ve Got

Poke around your garage and see what you can recycle to save money on your mud kitchen. You can use wood, recycled pallets, and old timber for the construction. Old cookware and bakeware, utensils, and decorations can also be used to finish out the kitchen,

Remember, the idea is to ignite your child’s imagination, so your DIY mud kitchen doesn’t need to resemble a brand-new toy kitchen set. 

2. Stove Tops Add to The Fun

While it’s great to leave some things up to the imagination, it’s a good idea to make your play kitchen resemble a real kitchen by creating a stove top. You can paint the burners on a piece of timber or wood, and you can even add broken or thrifted appliances to your outdoor kitchen to enhance its appearance. You can also use good, old cardboard to create a play stove.

3. Bake Mud Cakes

The fun part of having a mud kitchen is that your kids get to play with mud and get as dirty as they want. All you need to make mud cakes is some sand or soil and water. You can use old cookware and bake ware to contain them and shape them like cakes and cupcakes.

Parents can get involved by showing kids how to create funky-shaped cookies with cookie cutters and molds or add colored pasta to the mud for added texture. This kind of sensory play is an important part of childhood development, but above all, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Pistachio Pudding Play Dough

4. Set the Table

A mud kitchen is a fun way to teach your child table manners. Guide your preschoolers through setting a table and laying out the dishes. Show them the way to arrange cutlery and allow your children to bring some garden leaves to create napkins for a rustic table setting.

5. Add a Sink

Since you’ve introduced messy play to your preschoolers with colored pasta and mud cakes, it’s a good idea to take care of the cleanup. The most logical way to do this is to add a sink to your mud kitchen! To create your sink, use a silver or grey bucket and fill it with water or a big flower put with the bottom plugged works nicely too.

Add a hose in the bucket so that there’s an accessible faucet. This is a great way to teach children how to clean up after themselves. Add some dish washing liquid and a sponge so you can wash all the cookware the kids used before bringing it back into the house!

How to Make your own Dish Washing Soap

6. Dress For The Occasion

Every chef needs a chef’s hat and apron, so make sure to get these for your child. They will love it! Plus, the apron will offer some protection from mud splatter while playing. Rubber boots are a good idea too. Preschool age kids and toddlers love to wear galoshes!

How to Make your own Chef Hat

 

Have fun with your kiddos and their mud kitchen. You may want to wear some rubber boots yourself! Encourage your children to enjoy free and imaginative play, and you can bet they’ll learn tons of kitchen tricks in the process. Pretend play is the best way to learn!

Recommended Reading:

Pretend Play and Play Date Ideas from Adventures of Kids Creative Chaos

Fun Books about Galoshes from Amazon

How did Coronavirus affect the Housing Market?

 Has the 2020 Pandemic Changed your Living Situation?

When you work from home as a social media marketing consultant for small business and an online social media influencer, AND homeschool your kids, you can literally work from anywhere.  A few years ago, we took advantage of  that and bought a cottage in the middle of nowhere on a little lake. If I knew then, what I know now, I would've held out for more money when I sold it in 2020. Even so, for owning it just over two years, I made a little money on the deal. So, what's up with the housing situation anyway?

                                    This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.

Lake house, fixer upper, mid fix stage.

In 2019 the kids decided they wanted to attend public school to pursue building trades and band. As a anxious homeschooling mom, I wanted to feel comfortable with this choice, so we moved back to my hometown and we rented. Lucky for me, it wasn't real renting. My brother had purchased a rental and we moved in while I looked for a more permanent place to call home. Since everyone was out of the house, I decided to go back to working in a brick and mortar environment too and I took a job for Habitat for Humanity.

Then, I looked and I looked, and I looked. Rentals were few and far between and most of them were either outside of my price range or beneath my standards. Let me tell you, I had pretty low expectations, but I wanted my kids to feel safe. I tried to purchase my own home, but every time a place went on the market it sold before I even got a chance to look at it. What was left were the homes that no one wanted. The homes that couldn't get  loans due to major issues or the homes that were priced well over their appraised value. Though, I considered making the leap and purchasing one of these houses, I held out for a home that wasn't a fixer upper.  

However, the home we bought, would've sold for considerably less in 2019, before the pandemic. In fact, the flipper had purchased the house at a 2017 auction for only $25,000. After looking at several houses that were priced outside of my comfort zone and not really what I wanted, I jumped on the opportunity to buy my home at $131,900. Sure, in most communities, that's a great price, but in my hometown the median home price is $85,000 and the houses in the neighborhood were going for considerably less. I needed to love this house for the purchase to make any sense. It was a risky move, will it retain it's value?

However,  despite the housing market situation, I decided to take a risk and make an offer below asking price. The homeowner countered, and I accepted. It was oddly easy, as most houses were selling over the asking price and this house had everything I wanted. Just before I closed, I found out that the house had been the place of a brutal murder. Probably should've countered the counter offer. I was the only one bidding. I'm not mad. I'm thankful to finally have an affordable, safe place to call home.

After the pandemic, the prices of homes in rural areas like New Castle, Indiana have skyrocketed. For those who are looking for 3+ bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, there's a housing shortage. Since Covid hit, more people are realizing they too can work from home. And they can live anywhere. So, they're abandoning high cost urban areas and retreating to rural communities where the cost of living is easier on the wallet and life is simpler. This means, rural areas can raise home prices and because rentals are in high demand with millennials, they can also raise the rent, pricing out low-income families. In turn, many affluent urban areas are actually seeing a decrease in rent as people flock to small towns. You can learn more about that in this article on how 2020 changed the housing market.

After reviewing the article, I took special note of what this is doing to low income families. Working at Habitat for Humanity, it is my job to help low income families find affordable housing and help remove some of the barriers to home ownership. With increasing cost of building materials and virus constraints, many area Habitat affiliates have had to put building new homes on the back burner. Families have had to wait for over two years for their homes to be completed, and Habitat affiliates are losing money and need to raise more funds just to complete the houses. 

The chart below lists several counties neighboring the one where I live. If you aren't from around here, the data may not tell the whole story. However, Hamilton and Hendricks counties have some of Indiana's most affluent neighborhoods. Marion county is the home to Indianapolis, which has seen a slight increase, but compared to cities like Chicago and New York, Indianapolis is an escape to a more rural life. It appears the Coronavirus has changed the housing market. More and more people are realizing they can work from home, and that means that home can be anywhere they want it to be. There truly is no place like home, so why live in a house in a place that you don't love?

Affordable rentals in New Castle, Indiana.

We want to hear your thoughts! Have you moved or considered purchasing a new home in the pandemic? Tell us about it in the comments.

2/1/2021

Delaware County

Indiana

$600

3.30%

$45,065

114,135

Small metro

2/1/2021

Hancock County

Indiana

$790

9.00%

$69,392

78,168

Large fringe metro

2/1/2021

Hamilton County

Indiana

$1,116

-0.90%

$105,062

338,011

Large fringe metro

2/1/2021 Marion County Indiana $996 21.70% $50,458 964,582 Large central metro

2/1/2021

Madison County

Indiana

$792

20.20%

$55,142

129,569

Large fringe metro

This chart from Zumper tells the story with data.

Recommended Reading:

Ultimate Home Repair Guide

How to Create a Safe Family Home

How to Fix Common Home Repair Issues 

Flower Gifts for Mom on Mother’s Day

Mother's Day Gift Guide, Flower Edition

When is Mother’s Day? This year, Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 9. Looking for something special besides

flowers for Mom? This gift guide will help you find the perfect present. Whether you get gorgeous gold earrings

or a beautiful spring blouse, you can still give her flowers! Save I love you and gift your mom with these unique,

floral gift ideas for Mother’s Day.  (This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience.)

Giving flowers on Mother’s Day is a tradition. But cut flowers fade and are a waste of money. If a bouquet of roses

on Mother's Day is a family tradition, you can still give your mom flowers this mother’s day! Gift your mom flowers

with these adorable, beautiful gold earrings with a cascade of flowers on the earring backing.

Gold jewelry gift ideas

Love this daisy print shirt, a variety of floral shirts are available on Amazon. If you've been procrastinating, Amazon is a great place to order online. With Prime, many gifts will arrive the next day. Some cities even have 2 hour delivery services. If this particular pattern doesn't match your Mom's style, you can see the variety of floral blouse patterns by clicking here.

For another flower gift that keeps on giving, give Mom this Cut Flower Garden book. If she loves to garden or has just been thinking of starting a flower garden, this book serves as a guide to

achieve the best seasonal blooms year round.

If you always give your mom roses for Mother’s Day, kick it up a notch with a gold tipped rose fromIHateStevenSinger.com They come in a variety of colors including: red, lavender, pink, and white.

Another flower gift option, is Kenzo flower perfume spray. The scent is a mix of orange flowers and sweet spice that apparently smells like sweet dessert. The bottle is pretty cool too. It makes an elegant gift.

For flowers that will last, this flower box garden kit is perfect for the crafty mom in your life. She can grow her
own flowers year after year. If you have children, they can decorate the flower box together. Whatever

you choose, be sure to tailor it to your mom's personality and interests. The more thoughtful the gift the

more meaningful it will be to your mother.

So, go out and make this the best mother's day ever. For more gift ideas for Mother's Day, check out

our recommended reading list.

Recommended Reading:

Mother's Day Sayings for Homemade Cards

Mama Ain't Happy Quote

6 Reasons You Should You Retrain as A Nurse

 6 Reasons You Should You Retrain as A Nurse

Whether you've homeschooled or attended public school, the field of nursing is a great profession to learn. In the past, not that long ago – once you had a job and were on a career path, you stuck with it. Essentially, jobs were for life, and changing wasn’t something that a lot of people did. If you worked in a store, you stayed a store worker. If you were a laborer, you remained a laborer. However, if you've ever thought about changing careers, now might just be the time to become a nurse!

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Today, things have changed. We’re not even expected to think of our jobs as being for life, and evolving midway through our careers is something that more and more people are willing to do. After all, why be unhappy in your job when you could retrain as something else and start a career that makes you glad to be working and makes you feel as though you are truly contributing to society? 

Technology plays a big part in allowing us to do this. Not only does it mean we can research different careers and apply for new jobs, but if we need to learn how to do something, or we need additional qualifications, we can do that online too, often while we work at something else in the meantime. 

Nursing is one of the careers that people tend to want to go into later in their lives. Whether they have experienced being in a hospital and were impressed with their nursing care, or they liked the way nurses helped a friend or family member, or even if nursing was something that had always wanted to do. Still, their life circumstances meant they couldn’t do it at the time and have to try, later on, nursing is something that is always going to be there for you. 

Get a Guide to Becoming a Certified Nurses Assistant

Nursing is a rewarding career to go into, and if you're thinking of changing your career, this is a great career choice to move to; here are some of the reasons why. 

You Can Be A Nurse 

We need to be honest; although nursing is a fantastic career with many different prospects and areas to progress into, and much job satisfaction, it isn’t something that is going to work for everyone. There is shift work to consider, the job is hard, and you need to be a caring, compassionate person who wants to take care of other people. Not everyone can do this; it’s just not in their nature, and many people might feel uncomfortable and unhappy if they were to become a nurse. 

Learn How to Succeed in Nursing School

However, if you do have the kind of personality and skills that make for a good nurse, and you feel this is what you are meant to do with your life, then there aren’t many barriers to entry. This is a skilled role, but one that offers the chance to everyone who wants to take it to learn exactly what to do and how to do it. You do need to realize that it might take some time to gain the qualifications needed, especially if you're still working full time at your current job, but the fact you can study online means the choice is yours, and the career is open to everyone with the right mindset. 

The personality traits that will make for a good nurse include:

• Patience

• A willingness to learn

• Being able to listen

• Compassion

• Organizational skills

• Dedicated to the job

• Able to cope with shift work 

• Being good with people

• Being physically fit 

So Much Choice 

The term ‘nurse’ is an overarching one that describes the profession as a whole but might not accurately describe exactly what it is you want to do as a career. This is because there are many different types of nurses and so much choice within this seemingly simple career. 

For example, if you love children, you can be a children’s nurse. The same is true if you want to work with senior citizens. There are trauma nurses and OR nurses. There are also different levels of nursing within each sector too. Each type of nurse must have a thick skin, be compassionate, and in a good state of mental health. Nursing can get depressing.

You might ask why become a nurse practitioner or look into other branches of nursing. This is something you can do, even if you're already working as a nurse or if you're changing your career. In either case, you can gain the additional qualifications needed and move across to a different area. In all, there are potentially dozens of different routes you can take when you have your nursing qualifications. 

It’s A Calling 

For some, even the thought of questioning the idea of whether nursing is the right thing to do or not wouldn’t cross their minds; it is simply something they know they have to do, and they'll fight hard to be able to do it. That’s because nursing is sometimes seen as ‘a calling.’ Essentially, this means that those people who feel like this know there is no other career they would be as good at or love as much, and even if it means earning less money or going back to school or rearranging their lives entirely, they'll do whatever it takes to become a nurse. 

However, what shouldn’t be allowed to happen – if we want to be as happy as possible, of course – is to pass up the opportunity to retrain as a nurse later in life when our circumstances change. At this point, your calling can finally be met, and the fact that you can train online and learn as much as possible in your spare time before you qualify is a wonderful idea that means you can now do anything you want, and it will never be too late to try. 

You’ll Have Plenty of Support 

If you're retraining at a later stage in life to become a nurse, you might feel worried or unsure about whether you're making the right choice or not. It can be scary to make such a big change, especially if you haven’t been working, or if your career has been something that doesn’t relate to nursing and caring for people at all. In this case, you might want to start out as a CNA, just to learn the ropes.

There will always be people around to support you. Ideally, some of this support will come from the people you already know, your family, and your friends. Still, if they are, for whatever reason, unsupportive there will be many others outside of your current circle who will look out for you and help you when you need assistance. These will likely be other people training at the same time as you, course leaders, and those who are keen to see you succeed in life. Those you train with and work with as nurses, will become lifelong friends.

With this kind of help and encouragement, you'll feel much more positive about making the changes you have to in life, and retraining to become the nurse; you always wanted to be. 

Every Day Is Different 

One of the things that can start to get people down when it comes to their current jobs is that every day is the same. Even down to the time they wake up in the morning, to the route, they take to work, to the tasks they carry out when they get there. Everything is the same, day in and day out. It's like the movie, Groundhog Day.

This can be comforting, and for some, it is the ideal situation, but this is not the best thing for everyone. For those who don’t enjoy routine work, it can make every day extremely boring, causing them to ultimately be miserable and unfulfilled in their work and their lives. 

If this is the case for you, it will make sense to retrain as a nurse instead. Every day as a nurse is going to be completely different from the next, and you'll never feel bored. The truth is, whether you are working in a hospital, a clinic, a doctor’s office, or you go out into the community to see people in their homes, you just never know what you will get from one patient to the next. It is a stimulating, interesting, fascinating job that allows your body and mind to work. Add to this the immense feeling of job satisfaction that you'll get, and the idea of retraining to become a nurse will seem even better than ever. 

You, Will, Make A Difference

Perhaps the biggest reason that people choose to become nurses either through retraining or from the start of their working lives is how much of a difference you will make to people. If you think back to any time you have ever been in the hospital, it will have been a nurse who gave you the most comfort and help, and a nurse who was able to make a difference to your life and your health, whether you had something seriously wrong with you, or it was a minor ailment. 

It feels amazing to make a difference in someone’s life, in whatever way, big or small. You might also consider a career as an Activities Assistant in a long-term care facility. Some of these positions require you to hold a CNA license, but you get the added enjoyment of entertaining seniors in their last years of life. You can honestly make lives so much better; why wouldn’t you want to retrain as a nurse knowing that? 

Recommended:

Is there a Doctor in the House? Medical Costumes for Halloween

What is Sepsis?