Dummies Guide to iHomeschool Network Membership

Do you need immediate help? Voxer (search JimmieAQuick or jimmieaquick@gmail.com) or text 901.383.0180.

Otherwise, please contact Jimmie info@ihomeschoolnetwork.com or jimmie@ihomeschoolnetwork.com. Email is always your safest bet. Bad ways to reach Jimmie are Facebook direct messages or tagging in the Facebook group.

  • Jimmie handles: all review project details (including payments)​, stats questions, any other general iHN membership or policy questions
  • Brandi handles the iHN blog. You can reach Brandi at brandi@ihomeschoolnetwork.com

Looking for something in particular? Use Ctrl F to search keywords on this page.

We suggest a password manager such as LastPass to keep up with logins. For example, you can save this page in your password manager and include the current password.

Frequently Used Links

Suggestion—create an iHN folder on your browser’s bookmark bar, and save these links inside it. Then you will always be able to find these things.

*These links/information are confidential for members only.

Membership Requirements

GUEST POSTS ON IHN BLOG

As a new member, you are required to submit one guest to the iHN blog during your first 12 months of membership. What you write about is up to you as long as it is family-friendly and beneficial to homeschoolers. You’ll receive a signup form, complete with suggestions for topics. Your due date will be based on your chosen post topic. 

iHN blogging directions can be found here. You ​will receive an automated email letting you know that you have been added as a user to the iHN site. When you ​receive the email, just click the link and reset your password. The iHN dashboard where you can log in is here. Please use the directions here to log in, fill out your bio, and save your post.

  • You will receive posting instructions and a reminder before your due date.
  • The due date is always the first of each month prior to the publishing month. (For example, a post that will be published in August is due by July 1.)
  • No images are required for your post. We take care of that. However, you may include quality images throughout the post to support your ideas (tutorial, examples, etc.)
  • Do not write book round-ups. If you mention any books in your post, be sure to include a description of the book and not just a title and link.
  • There is no word count maximum.
  • Please fill out the SEO and keywords when writing your post.
  • You may use affiliate links, although we will not accept posts that are straight product or book lists. Please use the word (affiliate) prior to any affiliate link for proper disclosure. Amazon links are not permitted.
  • You may tastefully promote your own products within your post.

Any questions, edits, etc. need to go to Brandi Jordan at brandi@ihomeschoolnetwork.com.

COMPENSATED PROJECTS

Remember that to apply for any compensated project, you must have your stats, mailing address, and PayPal email in this doc. (You do not need to submit this form every time you apply for a project. However, you can also update your stats, PayPal email, or mailing address at any time by filling that out again.)

Bloggers are chosen for client work based primarily on stats not on order of application. If you are interested, please apply up until deadline regardless of how many others have expressed interest. Clients want to know the reach of the campaign, and this is why we go by stats above other considerations. For some campaigns, there may be the option to volunteer to do the project without compensation. This is a good way to get some experience with iHN projects as you are growing your traffic and social media numbers.

Do not apply for a project unless your address is up to date in the stats doc. Having products shipped to a  wrong address in unprofessional, wastes resources, and also delays projects. If you aren’t sure, submit a NEW entry [CLICK►] stats doc.

Beesbusy serves as our headquarters for compensated projects. This link will take you to our discussions where you can apply for projects. Look at your projects to see all the campaigns you are part of.

Please read application threads carefully and research the product to be reviewed before volunteering. When the application thread closes, the project manager (Jimmie) compiles the bloggers’ stats and creates a detailed proposal to the client based on the particular group of bloggers. Once the client approves the reach of the team, each blogger is notified she is on the team by being added to a specific project in Freedcamp.

As per the vision and policies, iHN has the following stipulations about following through with projects.

After being added to that specific project in Beesbusy and receiving the product or details for access to it, you have 10 days to back out because the product is so troublesome to you that you cannot recommend it to your readers (or because of some personal crisis).

If you back out of a project after this 10 day grace period, you must reimburse the client (via iHN) the compensation you would have earned and find a replacement blogger to take your place. In addition, you will have to overnight ship the product (if applicable) to that replacement blogger.

Backing out of the project affects the entire proposal and weakens the final result of the review since a replacement blogger has less time to use the product and to write a review. Please do your utmost to follow through with your commitments. iHN is a network of support for professional bloggers. We expect you to honor your word as a professional. If you need additional support to get your review done, please ask for help. We want you to do a good job and be fairly compensated for it.

Your main takeaway here is to research the products as much as possible before applying and to communicate early with Jimmie when there are problems.

If you need to make any edits to your paid project, you will be notified via email and asked to make those prior to payment. If you don’t hear anything, then you know your post was okay.

PAYMENTS

Payments are made on the 1st of the month after a campaign is complete. Jimmie generally waits until the end of a review campaign to check all the reviews at one time. You will be paid on the next first of the month. (Sometimes payments come early.)

If there is ever a time that you do not receive payment for a project by the 2nd of the month, please email Jimmie.

PAYPAL

According to our PayPal account rep, we must send the payments as Pay for Goods or Services in order to comply with their terms. That is why you see PayPal taking a small fee out.

If your Paypal email is the same as your communication email, it lessens the chance of mistakes. You can have multiple email addresses attached to a single PayPal account without affecting your login credentials. It simply means you can get money via many email avenues.

FROM PAYPAL: You may add up to eight email address to your PayPal account, through your profile. Log in to your PayPal account.Click the Profile icon near the top right corner of the page. Click the + beside Email address. Enter your new email address and click Add Email Address.

Because PayPal tracks your income and sends you tax documents where required, iHN does not issue 1099s for your income sent via PayPal.

EMAILS

As a member, you will be manually added to our member email list hosted on (referral link) EmailOctopus. Please do not unsubscribe from that list as long as you remain a member. Otherwise you won’t know what’s going on! (Right?!)

Link-ups

iHN used to organize link-ups for the network, but now members can jump on the fun and get all those backlinks! If you want to host a link-up, feel free to organize it and invite iHN members to join you.

HOW TO INFORM iHN

It’s suggested to use BOTH methods for greatest exposure.

  • post in the Facebook group
  • send Jimmie <jimmie@ihomeschoolnetwork.com> an email with your link-up details, deadlines, and event image so she can send it out in an email to the entire iHN membership list

(The link up is yours, so you get to set the parameters. If want you broadcast it outside of iHN, of course you may.)

Miscellaneous

Download our calendar of blog themes to help you with content planning.

Making a PRETTY & PERSONAL Review of a Digital Product password: checklist