Archive for December, 2008
Time Management Tips for Your Home Business
When you are dreaming of a home business, you dream of freedom – freedom from bosses and schedules. When you attain that dream, you see the reality that time is money and every minute counts.
Some days it may feel that you have worked all day and gotten nothing accomplished. When you work at home, everyone assumes you’re not busy. You may be constantly interrupted by relatives and friends who think you’re free. The phone and the doorbell interrupt constantly, and if you have small children, the last thing they want to do is leave you alone.
Here are some tips to help you get a handle on your time.
Plan ahead. Each night before you go to bed, plan ahead what your next day is going to look like. This means working with your own body clock: schedule your most challenging tasks for the time of day when you have the most energy.
Prioritize. Everything you do should be contributing to the ultimate goal of making money. It’s easy to fritter away your time opening email and surfing the web. Know what the most important things you need to accomplish each day are and do them before you ever look at your mail.
Learn from your mistakes. If you plan your day a certain way and it doesn’t work out, what went wrong? Did you try to schedule your most challenging tasks for the same time that your children are most likely to interrupt you? Do you need to turn the ringer off the phone? Whatever went wrong today can be corrected tomorrow.
Allow time for family. When you are just getting started, you may want to work on your business day and night. The more you neglect your family, the more they will interrupt you. Schedule time in your day for your family and don’t let work interrupt family time whenever possible.
Like any other aspect of running a home business, time management takes practice. The more your practice, the more you will improve.
The Importance of Forums
If you have any interest at all in internet marketing, spending time in forums is an important part of your business day. Although some people get carried away spending way too much time in forums, to avoid forums is to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Forums give you an opportunity to mingle with other marketers. You can learn honest opinions of opportunities you are considering by reading posts from other marketers, and you can often obtain valuable products free or at a significant discount. Every time you post a comment or ask a question, you can include a link back to your site or blog, which will help drive traffic. In fact many marketers say their primary source of free traffic is through posting in forums.
All potential internet marketers should begin spending time at The Warrior Forum (http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/). As a newcomer, you may be overwhelmed by all the activity. Get started in the section called The Best Warrior Threads List (http://www.bestwarriorthreads.com/). Or use the Search function to search for a particular topic.
Other top forums for people who work at home include
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/
Forums exist about every imaginable topic, so if you are moving into a very specialized area, do a google search to find a forum specific to that. An example would be to do a search for ebay+forum or freelance writing+forum.
Whatever direction you are going, be sure to make forums part of your business day.
Of course you don’t want to spend all your home business hours posting in forums. Some thoughts on time management for home business owners follow in my next post.
Can You Really Make Money Blogging?
Can you really make money blogging? For many people, a blog is just a place to share their thoughts and opinions. But if you approach a blog as a business, there are several ways to make money blogging.
Selling advertising is probably the most common way to make money blogging. The more traffic your blog receives and the more you establish yourself in a particular niche, the more advertising opportunities will present themselves. You can get started by placing ads on your blog using the Google Adsense program. These ads will be consistent with the theme of your blog. You will be paid for ads that your readers click on.
Selling goods and services from your blog is another way to make money blogging. The most common way to do this is through affiliate links. You can also set up feeds to www.amazon.com or to www.ebay.com. If you are just getting started, establish a blog at www.blogger.com. It is very user-friendly to newcomers and will show you exactly how to do this.
A blog can be used as a way to advertise services. For example, if you are trying to establish yourself as a resume writer, you could set up a blog offering tips for resume preparation, but also establish that you are available to do this service. A blog allows you to show your expertise in a given area.
Consistent blog posting also establishes you as a blogger, and once you have done this you can bid on jobs that are geared to professional bloggers. Visit http://jobs.problogger.net/ for examples.
Keep in mind having an income from this source won’t happen overnight. It will require frequent and consistent posting and actively promoting your blog. One of the best ways to promote a blog or any other website is through forum posting.
Learn more about forums in my next post.
Make Money At Home With Your Computer
You’re staring at your computer wondering how to make money online. You know it can be done, but how? The possible ways of making money online are probably about as numerous as the people who have tried them. But there are a few paths that are more likely to lead to success than others.
Here are the best ways to make money online:
Create a blog. Whatever your passion, you can write about it on a blog. This is a format that makes creating your own website informal, and allows you to have a place to drive traffic. It allows you to have a “home page” where people can find you and contact you if you are offering your own product, or if you are selling services.
Affiliate marketing. An affiliate is basically someone who makes money selling other people’s products. You get a commission from purchases made by people who have seen ads or text links on your site or blog. The key to success as an affiliate is actively marketing your product or the page with your affiliate links.
Auction sites. Auction sites such as eBay offer a way to begin making money online. Get started selling junk around the house. Consider buying items wholesale or through a dropshipping service.
Create your own product. By creating your own product, you can have something to sell that is uniquely your own. Many marketers say having their own product was the turning point to finally beginning to make money online.
Selling services. If you have marketable skills you can get started making money online by offering your services on sites like elance.com or guru.com. Some in-demand skills include writing, web design, translation, etc.
These are just a few of the ways people are making money at home with their computer.
Let’s take a more in-depth look at blogging in my next post.
Work At Home On The Internet
The internet has opened a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs. There are many ways of making money at home using your computer. Some are simple ways of making extra cash, such as doing surveys and paid-to-read emails. Others are turn-key internet opportunities. And then there is the option of starting your own website and building a business out of nothing.
It’s not as easy as it may seem at first. You may hear that all you have to do is turn on your computer, learn a few secrets and you will make a ton of money right off the bat. You will see stories of 18-year-olds who “cracked the code” and make five figures a month. Everyone seems to be making a lot of money without much effort, and everyone claims they are the one to show you how it’s done. For most internet-business-wannabes, confusion becomes a way of life.
The first thing you need to learn if you are interested in an internet business is that most internet entrepreneurs are not successful right away. There is a lot to learn, and like any apprenticeship, learning takes time. It’s confusing knowing who to believe, and if you start chasing a dozen different “gurus” around, you won’t accomplish anything. You can and will make mistakes, and it will be a while before you can quit your day job.
An internet business is a business. Businesses need to be thought out and planned. What are your strengths and weaknesses? How will you go about making money?
Let’s look at some of the ways people make money on the internet in my next post.
Work At Home by Starting Your Own Internet Business
The internet has opened a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs. There are many ways of making money at home using your computer. Some are simple ways of making extra cash, such as doing surveys and paid-to-read emails. Others are turn-key internet opportunities. And then there is the option of starting your own website and building a business out of nothing.
It’s not as easy as it may seem at first. You may hear that all you have to do is turn on your computer, learn a few secrets and you will make a ton of money right off the bat. You will see stories of 18-year-olds who “cracked the code” and make five figures a month. Everyone seems to be making a lot of money without much effort, and everyone claims they are the one to show you how it’s done. For most internet-business-wannabes, confusion becomes a way of life.
The first thing you need to learn if you are interested in an internet business is that most internet entrepreneurs are not successful right away. There is a lot to learn, and like any apprenticeship, learning takes time. It’s confusing knowing who to believe, and if you start chasing a dozen different “gurus” around, you won’t accomplish anything. You can and will make mistakes, and it will be a while before you can quit your day job.
An internet business is a business. Businesses need to be thought out and planned. What are your strengths and weaknesses? How will you go about making money?
Let’s look at some of the ways people make money on the internet in my next post.