Working From Home Businesses

Have fun in learning

Wilf.

*Blogs - They are a great place to find ideas for your article as many different things are discussed on blogs. People share their opinions, ideas, experiences and questions.

*Message Boards - Message boards are a good source of information as well. Follow the discussions and see what things people are interested in and need to know more about. I have written many articles from information I read on the boards.

*Email Discussion Groups - Get involved in discussions. Find what information people are looking for. Not only can you get ideas for your articles, but also you can learn a lot as well by making new contacts. Go to Yahoo or google and do some searching for the right type of group for your business.

*Internet News Sites - Keeping up with Internet marketing news is important. Not only for writing articles but also for keeping abreast of new developments, ideas, technology, etc. Research your articles before writing them and keep your readers informed as well.

*Read your email - Take note of what people are asking you about and what they are most concerned with. Keep a file on hand and record all questions that can be used to create a great article.

*Subscribe to ezines - They can be little goldmines of information and ideas. They let you to keep up to date on the latest products, programs, business opportunities, etc. Some of this information makes great articles.

*Do a survey - Write a two or three question survey and send it out to friends or discussion group members or even better, your subscribers. Give your readers the information and news they are looking for.

For example: What questions do you have about Internet marketing? What resources do you need that you cannot find? Questions like this can give you some great article ideas.

*Read other articles - By reading other articles, you can come up with an unusual twist or angle for an overused idea. It sometimes helps to get different views and insights on the same old idea.

*What would YOU like to know more about - Pick a topic that you will find useful to know, do some research and turn it into a fantastic article.

Always keep an eye out for article ideas. After awhile you will begin to get ideas automatically all over the net. Keep a something to write on handy and when you think of an idea write it down. If you don’t write you ideas down straight away you tend to forget them.

Remember, people want and need basic, straight forward, helpful information. Keep fancy words down to a minimum. You do not want your readers to have to grab a dictionary every second word.

Give your articles a bit of yourself; give them personality and humour. Best of all write as if you were talking personally to the reader and give them the impression you want to help them.

Articles are one of the best ways to get your blog noticed. Having good content makes your readers come back again and again.

(2) Define goals by numbers (”write 1000 words”) instead of time (”2 hours on Mega account”). One of the joys of working at home is you get to quit when you’re finished ahead of schedule.

(2) Train friends and neighbours to respect your working hours.

Clients tell me about neighbours who say things like, “I told the UPS truck to leave the package at your house since you’re always home.” Discourage phone calls with a prepared response, like “I will call you after four o’clock today.” You will be tested. Prepare to hang tough.

(3) Get the family on board.

Deal with their concerns before you start and be prepared to show how you are creating a win-win situation. Clarify what counts as an emergency – a valid reason to interrupt while you are working - and what can wait till dinnertime.

(4) Build breaks into your schedule.

When I started my own business, I was warned, “Plan to get out of the house! Otherwise you’ll never leave your desk.”

Frankly, I didn’t get it.

Why wouldn’t I take breaks? Now as I find myself answering just one more email, or adding two more paragraphs to an article, I see the clock move and realise I must stop if I want to get to the gym or the store before closing time.

Bonus Tip: A dog will force you to get moving, no matter what else is going on in your life.

(5) Make promises you will be motivated to keep.

My weekly ezine motivates me to write at least one article a week. You may be energised by company and client deadlines.

As your responsibilities grow, you will tend to accumulate more and more “real” deadlines and it’s easier to stay motivated. But in the early stages, you’re isolated, you’re working hard and results don’t appear immediately. That’s why some people hire coaches and consultants to create accountability.

(7) Give yourself time to test your commitment.

Not everyone enjoys the work-at-home option. My clients tell me they need six to twelve months to decide how they are responding to this arrangement. You may decide to return to a workplace where you can see real people everyday. Or you may get hooked on having a dog-friendly, gossip-free workplace where you can open the windows all year round.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First step to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com

An analysis of a couple of exchanges soon showed me what I believe the reason was for this.

I had to be a heavy hitter.

Why? Because it was only the heavy hitters that got their ads shown to everyone. If you are not a heavy hitter, who is going to see most of your views?  The heavy hitters of course.

Now; are the heavy hitters interested in your ads? No, in the main they are only interested in having theirs seen.

Look at it this way. If you have four heavy hitters earning say, 10,000 credits each and then you have 10 clickers earning 1000 credits each this means that there is a ratio of 4 to 1. If you are lucky your site may be viewed once each by the 10 and 4 times for each of the hitters.

What does this mean? It means that the 1000 credits you have earned is devalued by a factor of 4. They are really only worth 250 credits. It’s worse than that, especially if you are a free member of a traffic exchange as most of your clicks are generally earning you only half a credit and for some TE’s less.

I have seen on some TE’s where heavy hitters seem to manage so many credits you wonder where they have come from. On calculation they would have to be clicking almost 24 hours a day to amass the number they get.

Where does this leave you and me, the average Joe Blow clicking away for half an hour a day? What chance does your ad have being seen by others just like you and me? Not much I think.

Most of us are working a day job and we want to spend time with our family not be clicking away on unfruitful traffic exchanges.

Maybe we should be focusing on other activities for promoting our sites, spending this time advertising on forums, class ad sites, and spending a lot more time on SEO. Surely this will be more productive of our time!

I, for one am not going to spend my time clicking for hours on end, hoping to become one of those heavy hitters.

I guess not being a heavy hitter could be another way of being called a bottom feeder.

Wilf Gerrard-Staton is a Work-From-Home person. He now runs several blogs on different subjects. Entry to one series is at:   http://www.how-do-you-do.info