A Mothers Hope

I have always read about adoptive parents selling books on Ebay or Amazon. I have been afraid of losing money through Ebay and I have not been success with Amazon. I was thinking about when I sold our CD collection during adoption, so I googled selling books online and came across several sites. After comparing several sites and seeing which would buy fiction books, I settled with Powell’s Books. You need to enter one book at time to know what they will pay for the book, but overall my experience was good. They paid to have the books mailed to them and I believe it was within 10 days I received an email saying that the money was deposited into paypal. Powell’s  had the best buy back rate both in money they would pay for a book and books that they would buy.

I don’t know about textbooks, but I know that most of the sites said they would buy back textbooks as well. I wish I would have thought about selling books online when my husband and I were adopting!

In August, I became a Pampered Chef consultant, with the sole purpose of offering it as a fundraiser opportunity. I have enjoyed helping raise a little money for adoptive parents.  I found that when we were raising money some people were willing to help if they received something in return.  It was great that one of my friends offered this when we were in the process of adopting, and I have wanted to do the same.

If you have friends that are consultant of a home based business, ask them if they will donate their commission towards your adoption. If you don’t know anyone, please send me an email and I will help!

One of the things I have looked for in the past was a way to earn money from home. I did not want to do shows or parties, but all I could find was get rich quick schemes! Within the last six months, while creating this website, I came accross a company called Elance. I was coming at it from the contractor’s prospective, but found it interesting that people with computer skills could put together a resume and find projects online. They bid on projects that they are profecient at and if they are awarded the project they do the work from home! 

I wish someone had told me about them sooner. I could have been working at home, instead of pounding the pavement!  I know it is not everyone’s dream to wear pajamas and fuzzy slippers while getting paid but it is mine!

I had an ah-ha! moment this week.  I am a schemer and a dreamer, both qualities I got from my dad.  I do not find these qualities a bad thing, though my hubby may say differently.  Anyway, my dad is running a firework stand for the second year and I thought that this might be an idea for some of you. I would recommend it to people that live in smaller towns, because most of the people selling fireworks are running  on commission base.  I recommend buying the fireworks outright. That you can set your own price and run specials.

I had helped with firework stands back when James and I were newlyweds! A couple from church had there own stand (it really was three sites with stands) and a warehouse that the stored the fireworks. It was amazing! The first day you would walk in and see rows of fireworks and wonder if you were going to sell all. Then on the 4th of July, all you would see were pallets with one or two boxes here and there.

Were my parents lives, they can only sell fireworks for a week before the 4th of July. He has rented a vacant building for a couple of weeks. He did not want to deal with a tent. Plus, you can lock the door and walk away at night and you do not have to worry about the weather.  I believe he is supposed to get his fireworks next week.

To find a distributer just google “fireworks distributer” or “wholesale fireworks distributer” or add your state to either or. I would contact a couple to compare terms and pricing.

I know last year my dad started with a small inventory and placed an order for more fireworks have way through the week before the 4th. There was only one other firework stand last year. The year before there were three or four. You will have to get a permit to sell fireworks and you can find out how many have applied for permits.

If you would like more information, let me know and I will see what I can find out! I would love to hear your comments.

One of the things I did, after we announced we were adopting, was call all my friends that had home based business and asked if I held a show if they would donate a portion of their profits to our adoption fund in place of receiving a hostess gift. No one said “No”, but I chose Pampered Chef and Creative Memories. I wanted something I could get excited about because if I wasn’t excited neither would the people attending. And that would affect how much would be donated. 

I am not a person that would ask out right for money, and this was the closest thing that I did to asking for money.  I held a total of four shows and the combined donations were enough to cover all of my dossier expenses (we live in one of the most expensive states to get documents authenicated and we had to do this twice because of delays in our adoption).

The key is to invite everyone you know, do not decide for them that they will not come or they are not interested. I thought I had done a fair job of inviting people, but found out later that there were a couple of ladies that would have ordered had they known. This goes to show, you need to tell everyone you are adopting and give them a chance to support you!

This was one of the hardest things I did, asking for a portion of their profits. I thank God that I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked, and that they blessed us with their generosity. If you do not know anyone that has a home based business or they are not willing to support you, please email me and I will find someone who will.

Some people have added donation buttons to there website and have had a good response to it. I did not and from the majority of others, they have not had any response to it. You need to set up a premier account with Paypal so that you can collect donations. The downside to this is that Paypal takes a percentage of all money collected through them.  If anyone knows of another site that you can get a donations button, please let me know.  I have mixed emotions about donation buttons, but I would probably set one up again, if we were adopting. You just never know how God will work and we shouldn’t limit Him to what we think will work!

 A good way to get a little income from your website is to add Google AdSense or  BidVertiser. Once you have set up an account for Google go to AdsBlackList and copy and paste the list of links of Made for Ads. This will increase your revenue when people click on the Google ads. With BidVertiser, you can go through the list and approve the ads you want displayed.  I think the income potential with this is based on the traffic to your site, but I know there are adoptive parents that have made some money doing this. Since it is free to set up an account, do it!

One of the easiest ways to raise money for adoption is to recycle ink cartridges. There are many companies that pay you to recycle. I like Empties4Cash and they have included Epson cartridges and toners. I don’t recommend recycling toners. It is a lot more work, for very little pay.

Most people throw their empty cartridges away and there is no cost to them for you to recycle the cartridge. Everyone that I talk to are more than willing to give their empty ink cartridges to me. I still have people, though not as many, bringing me cartridges a year after our adoption.

When I wrote our letter, I included that we were doing this and it was on our site. I did not promote it any other way, unless someone asked. We did not earn a huge amount by doing this, but it did cover some of our dossier expenses. I believe it is a worthwhile endeavor.

Well, I am sure you all are smarter than I am. . .

My parents were in town for a wedding two weeks ago and they were talking about online checking. I thought online banking and billpay only, but they were saying they were getting 4% interest on their checking account. I thought: oh, they must have to have a minimium amount in there to get it. So I just dismissed it.

Wouldn’t you believe, when I got my bank statement they had a blurb about click checking and getting 4% interest.  So I called the bank. They do have requirements, but most we did already! We have to use our debit card 10 times a month, have one direct deposit, one online billpay and e-statements, that’s it.

I am assuming most banks have it because my parents live in a small town with a local bank and we use a credit union. So if your bank does not have it, find one that does!

James and I wrote a letter to family and friends telling them of our decision to adopt. We did this before we had even signed with an agency. I had a website up and a few fundraisers in the works before I wrote the letter.

My main purpose of the letter was to let everyone know that we were adopting. I wanted to do it in a letter so that I could avoid any negative comments about our adoption. After seven years of trying to get pregnant, I didn’t want to hear negativity about adoption or creating a family through adoption.

I had spent a few months researching countries and the cost of adopting. I also took time to read about fundraising and some of the issues related to to both. So when I wrote my letter it included where we were coming from (infertility), where we were going (adoption), and why (international vs domestic).

My last paragarph asked for their prayer and support. I know that the support could have been thought of two ways, I put it there because I didn’t want to hear negative comments. I, also, mentioned a couple of things we were doing to raise money.  Under my signature, I included our website address.

I would suggest that you type up a letter and mail it to everyone. I know that email is quick and less expensive, but letters are more personal and thoughtful. Keep it to one page, because people will open and read it immediately. If it is more than a page, they will have more of a tendency to put it down and get to it later. Then they may toss it without reading it.

Some people put more of an emphasis on their fundraising. My emphasis was on letting people know our decision. I knew that God would provide the money.

I believe it is a must to have a website and/or blog when you are adopting. It is a way for people to see where you are in the adoption process and it allows people to see what things you are doing to raise money for your adoption.

I think it wise to pay for a domain name and hosting service. One of the least expensive is 1&1. Their beginner hosting service includes a domain name and it is $3.99 a month. I have used a couple other web hosts and have found that I like 1&1 the best.

Make it a habit to update your website/blog at least once a week. If you don’t then people will stop coming because nothing new has been posted. I will talk about how to monetize your website in a later post. For now, focus on getting a website and/or blog and putting content on it, ie fundraisers you have done or are going to do, where you are adopting from, where you are in the process.