Double Chocolate Brownies

By Devin Alexander Healthy Decadence

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet) - I used the standard size, I didn't have any of the mini sized on hand. ;)
Butter-flavored cooking spray

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 inch non-stick cake pan with spray.
In a medium mixing bowl, using a sturdy whisk or spatula, mix the applesauce, vanilla, egg whites and sugar until they are well combined.

Add the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir the mixture until it is just combined and no lumps remain. Pour it into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the chips evenly over the top. Bake the brownies for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry (a few crumbs are okay).

Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and allow them to cool 5 minutes. Cut into 12 equal brownies. Makes 12 (1 brownie) servings.

Each brownie has: 88 calories, 2 g protein, 19 g carbohydrates, 1 g fat, less than 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 133 mg sodium

Traditional Double Chocolate Brownies have: 260 calories, 3 g protein, 37 g carbohydrates, 12 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 1 g fiber, 165 mg sodium

From Devin Alexander Recipes

This was so yummy, but without the guilt! :)





Enjoy! ;)

Work At Home Tips To Boost Your Holiday Income

By Tammy Embrich

Work at home holiday sales will soon by brimming for many home business owners with Christmas and the new year. What better time to end a busy prosperous year and start thinking about an even more prosperous one? That's right! This is the ideal time to start thinking and planning ahead for all the exciting possibilities for holiday sales, the upcoming year, and the overall growth of your business.

What do you have planned to grow your business?

What can you do to boost your income for the holidays?

What are your plans for your customers?

What are your business goals for the coming year?

Yes, a lot of questions, and ones that are so easy to procrastinate until another day. Well, this is another day. These are things you currently need to carefully consider. Your success essentially depends on your future plans. So, what will you be doing for your business?

Below are some simple tips to think about

* Send out holiday greeting cards graced with your logo. I think it adds more of a personal touch if you add a handwritten message inside your card along with your signature instead of a typed one. Also, always include a business card inside the holiday greeting card.

* Send out a special holiday newsletter to your customer base. Include your best tips along with specific holiday sales. This is the time of year to show your customers you really care by offering generous discounts on special products and/or services.

* Have a holiday contest and offer real prizes to draw in targeted traffic. The contest could entail many things depending on what your business is about. I've seen many forum contests that have been successful and they range from various types . Another idea that works well is creative writing contests, these could involve articles, blog posts, poetry, and the like. Perhaps a fun trivia contest would be a hit with your audience.

* If you have products available online, offer free shipping for a limited time throughout the holiday season. This sale booster always gets the interest of online shoppers. Always include your business card along with the shipped product.

* If you own a website and offer advertising space, have a discount sale on a select few of your ad options. Everyone is looking for reasonable advertising around the holidays. Extend the sale into the new year as well. I have found people are looking for new target places to advertise in January.

* Include a freebie with your holiday sales. This could be a gift card, an ebook, or anything you can offer for free that benefits your business.

* If you're involved with article marketing and are consistently writing for your business, incorporate your articles into an ebook. You can either sell the ebook or offer it as a freebie to your customers.

* Provide extra special customer service! This in itself is the most important aspect of your online presence. This should be practiced all year round. Good customer service is crucial to your business. If you don't show your customers good service, then you may as well not have a business in the first place.

Here are some suggested business goal tips to consider for the new year

* Make your goals realistic. However, you should set goals that give you the initiative to surpass what you actually think you can easily achieve.

* Put your goals in writing and post them where you can easily see them daily.

* Join at least one new social network in the new year

* Make it a point to stay more in contact with your customers

* Try and incorporate more creativity into your marketing plans

For the new year, I will be spending more time in consistently adding more content to my website and blogs and more time on article marketing.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Need advertising for the holidays or anytime of year? Stop by and see our specials at Work At Home Jobs.

Tammy also offers more work at home articles on her Work At Home Articles blog and much more.

PLR vs. Free Reprint Articles: Which is Best?

PLR vs. Free Reprint Articles: Which is Best?
by Nicole Dean

Content is always in high demand. Right now the focus seems to be on Private Label Rights (or PLR) articles. PLR articles are pre-written and sold in packages to online businesses looking for content. The big selling points of PLR articles are that you may edit the articles and that there is no author bio required (so they don’t have any outbound links).

Compare PLR articles to free reprint articles. Free reprint articles from places like ezinearticles.com or freeaffiliatearticles.com are written by people who have something they’d like to share. (Or, they are sometimes written by people just publishing junk, in the hopes that they’ll get some incoming links. But, good article directories will delete those, so we’ll focus on the good ones here.)

So, which is better? Honestly, each has its place. Sometimes you’ll find an excellent free reprint article that you’ll want to share with your readers and you won’t mind a bit having an outbound link, especially if there is an affiliate program associated with it. The free reprint article added value to your readers, and you didn’t have to write the article. That’s what free reprint articles are all about.

Other times you’ll already have an idea in mind for a topic and you’ll just want a boost getting that section of your website done. If you run across a high quality PLR package on that niche, you’re set to go.

So, how do you know which PLR service or membership to choose? Here are some guidelines to follow:

1. Some PLR sites offer a monthly membership where you receive a grab-bag of articles – on any topic. If you already know what you need, this may be a waste of money. Other PLR sites will list topics and you can buy the articles in a shopping cart. That ensures you receive the articles you need when you need them.

2. Are the articles written by professional writers with experience? Or are they outsourced to the cheapest overseas help they can find – no matter the quality? If the articles are going to be a reflection of your business, you’ll want to ensure that the articles are well-written.

3. Who’s running this thing? Is the PLR site run by someone who knows about content or someone who thinks they can ride the content wave and make a quick buck? Make sure you’re hitching your wagon to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Those are just a few tips to keep you from wasting money on a PLR site that you can’t use. Continue to use free reprint articles, but look into PLR articles as well. They can both benefit your website and your business.

Nicole Dean invites you to check out EasyPLR.com – where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles on niches sold in very limited quantities.

I, personally, recommend this site for all your PLR article needs.

Charged For Working At Home?

Let's take a look at what the word "charge" means.

The first 4 results for The Free Online Dictionary; Thesaurus and Encyclopedia says...

1. To impose a duty, responsibility, or obligation on
2. To set or ask (a given amount) as a price
3. To hold financially liable; demand payment from
4. To postpone payment on (a purchase) by recording as a debt

So, if the word "charge" means the above, I think this means exchanging currency (money) for a work at home job. Yes, that's what that means alright. ;)

Wait a minute...something is just not kosher about the above statement. In fact, it makes me royally disturbed thinking about it! It amazes me that so many people have not caught onto these well-known scams and lies that cloud around the Internet like a grotesque swarm of flies.

Many people are disguising themselves as a reputable person or company and scamming these innocent people that just want to make some money online. What's even more amazing is that these people are continuing to get away with it!

Let's get with the program here.

The ONLY fees that should be attached to working at home are the examples below:

1. Some legitimate companies will require a background check before hiring you if you will be dealing with sensitive information. There is usually a fee for a background check.

2. A lot of customer service positions will require a headset, and maybe some software.

3. Most transciption work positions require a foot pedal that connects to your computer.

If a telecommute (work at home) company asks for any start-up fees or membership fees to get started...be aware that they are most likely trying to scam you.

I certainly hope you are not being charged for a work at home job. If you are, double check with the above 3 examples of legit fees to rule out scam.

Always do your own research on any job leads that you see. You can do that by typing the company in question into the sites below:

http://www.fraud.org/

http://www.scambusters.com/

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/scam_alerts.htm

http://www.econsumer.gov/english/

http://search.bbb.org/

http://www.ripoffreport.com

You can also type the company name and the word "scam" behind it into www.google.com and if it's a scam company, the scam will show in the results.

Two Ways to Keep Your Business Running Smoothly Through the Holidays

The holidays are right around the corner. Many business owners find it challenging to run their business while getting through the holidays. I think Michelle approached this topic well and she offers some great tips. Thanks for a wonderful article! =)

By: Michelle Shaeffer

The holiday season can be a test for any work at home mom. It’s challenging enough to juggle business and home on regular days. The holidays can feel like a three-ring circus has moved in. Thankfully there are ways you can make it easier to keep up with it all.

1) Know and Accept Your Limits

You only have so many hours in your day. If you know you’ve got holiday commitments and things to do, cut back on business tasks that require your time. You can do this by scheduling less or delegating more.

It may help to take a few minutes and list out what the most important things are that you want to accomplish during the holidays. Is it creating memories with your children? Spending time with your family? Whatever your goals are, write them down on a sticky note and post it on your mirror or somewhere that you’ll see it and be reminded so you can stay focused.

Strive to be realistic and know that it’s okay to say “no” to things, or to say “not right now, but later.”

2) Work in Advance

If you blog, write up your blog posts for the holiday season all at once and then set your blog to post each one on a different date.

Complete your newsletter early and have it ready and scheduled to go out at it’s regular time.

For Twitter, try setting up tweets through Tweet Later.

You may also want to plan a sale or other promotion to keep income flow steady while you’re stepping back a bit from business. Be sure to add it to your pre-written blog posts and your scheduled newsletter so you can promote it while you’re off enjoying the seasons festivities.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Work at home mom extraordinaire Michelle Shaeffer publishes The Muses Brainstorm, a weekly ezine with tips to help you balance, manage, and market your home based business. If you’re ready for inspirational guidance and bright ideas sign up free at www.thesmallbusinessmuse.com