I work at Home

Perks

2009-09-22T00:27:00.000-07:00

Working from home has it's perks. Today I am dragging my laptop out into the garden and I am going to sit under the tree. It is a lovely day outside and to miss out would be a shame. I still have some work to complete.

I hope you all have a wonderfull day too.

Ready for Christmas

2009-09-17T03:48:00.000-07:00

I popped into the garage this morning. If you want to make money online or offline you should remember the big holidays and take advantage. I decided to dig out some of my tools and see what I can do to put something on my stand at TAYM and maybe something comes of it that is worth blogging about.

It seems early to start thinking of Christmas, but not if you are in the selling game. If I want to make something I have to start now. Even if you are only writing, remember, it is better to start early. Once Christmas is done no one reads Christmas stories till next year.

Join me on Buskia

2009-09-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

I write for a living, but whether you are writing for fun or for money, getting read is the thing. On Buskia you can get read and make a bit of extra cash on the side. Everyone needs a bit of extra cash.

On Buskia you can construct an article of your liking. They moderate and post. If you keep it within legal and ethical standards and you are the originator and owner they don’t mind. Even If you copy over some work from your blogs they post it. You don’t need to be a brilliant writer to post with Buskia

Buskia also have a lot of tools to help you get read, to watch your stats and to make more money. They make it easy to publish. Even if you are in a business you can use Buskia to promote your business. You can also use it to strengthen your online presence and branding. Apart from being a business tool, it creates an extra income. Your business promoting will now start paying you.

If you are like me with no business to advertise, you can still exercise your creative muscle; or you can simply do it for the money. You get paid per page view, so the more people looks at your articles the more money you make. If you invite your friends, you get paid for their page views too. It is all very simple and straightforward.

Joining is also free. That is the best part to me. I started earning without spending. Join me on Buskia and you can start earning too. Click here for my link.

Chat and make money

2009-09-16T01:30:00.001-07:00

If you are into making money on the net, you may like this. I have been on Morachat for a while now, and I get paid every time I hit post. This is a chat site where you make money by chatting and when you invite your friends. The rules are very simple and the site easy to use. So do join me. Click here.

Another ad on

2009-09-15T01:28:00.000-07:00

I found a site that really helps getting everything under one roof. Mybloglog.com helps me to tie everything together into one neat package. Well almost everything.

I found another interesting site

2009-09-14T01:07:00.004-07:00

I speak a lot about promoting my blog. I need to, not only because I love knowing someone someware is going to read what I wrote and be able to use it. It is also about creating an income.

Sharethis helps me with this. I did an article on this to go with the other two, ‘Blogging for an Income’ and ‘Get more readers, make more money’ I did on Triond. It is called, 'Get shared and make money' and it is about Sharethis.com.

You should try it.

Another place to write to.

2009-09-11T03:35:00.000-07:00

I found another place to write and make money on page views. Buskia is a great place to do just that. Here you also get paid per page view, with the added benefit that you can ask your friends to join and then make some affiliate income too.

Please use my link to join.

Getting your blog noticed.

2009-09-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

Blogging for a living I had learned fast how to get an income from my blog and how to increase that income to the point where I can survive on it. Article writing helped a lot. I submitted my articles via Triond and linked it to my blog. As the articles got read some of the readers dropped through onto my blog via the links. While the articles got attention, my blog also got attention.

Two articles in particular that got a lot of attention were ‘Blogging for an Income’ and ‘Get more readers, make more money’. That gave me an idea to start an articles series on getting your blog read. If you have any ideas that can come in handy do ad it to the comments with a back link.

Blogging for money

2009-09-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

When I started out blogging I was an uphill battle to get more people to visit my blog. Day after day I had zero visitors. Problem was I am not into this for fun; I needed to replace my income. I had a four month window, after that I would be looking for a job if I did not make it.

I had to figure this out fast. It took a while though. I did a lot of reading on other blogs, got a lot of advice and though things started moving, it wasn’t happening fast enough. Then I noticed the share button. Look around, blogs have share buttons, and behind it you find an array of tools to use. Here you find lists of social sites where you can link your blog and promote what you wrote.

Each of these social sites works differently, but on most you have to work at having a bit of a following. Spend a bit of time making friends and finding connections. When that is set the rest will start happening.

There are a lot of easy simple things you can do to promote your blog. I wrote some articles on this too.

Another sideline.

2009-09-07T00:23:00.000-07:00

When I blogged about extra income lines on and offline and did a piece on Socyberty I thought I had my say. Then I read Sandies comment and decided to pay a bit more attention. I had a look around and found one more offline income line. This is a really creative business idea.

I came across a flea market inside of a shop called Traders all year Market. Here you can rent a stand and then pack out your stuff. The good part is that I don’t have to be there. They have staff running the till; I simply keep my shelf stocked.

I grabbed a stand immediately. If you are in Somerset West pop in and take a look. It’s opposite Loins Square, in Myburg Street.

I posted more on this here.

Fencing the garden

2009-09-03T02:52:00.000-07:00

Having recently been retired on a disability income far less than my usual income I decided to start a vegetable garden to help support my family. Due to the nature of the area we live in, the fruits of my labour dissapear at night. To stop this I have to get it fenced on. An ordinary wire fence will do fine if I can fund it.

If you would like to help click here

Motivated or Not?

2009-09-03T01:30:00.001-07:00

Motivated or Not?

Shared via AddThis

Slow going

2009-09-01T01:04:00.002-07:00

I havent been blogging for a day or two because I have been travelling. On I travel you can see some pictures of the weekend. This was great fun, but I have to get back to work for a change. My backyard farm are growing and and things are starting to look up.

Mulitple income streams

2009-08-28T06:16:00.002-07:00

Working from home, places one thing squarely in your hands; your income. You are in full control of where it comes from and you also carry full responsibility. If you work online like me, you are also aware of the multiple income strategy. Having many income streams makes a world of difference.

All of the hardcore on liners will tell you that you should create more than one income stream. Even if you are only buying and selling, adding Google ads or having affiliate links on your site is a great idea. Visitors not interested in what you do, may still follow one of your links or click on one of your ads. All of this brings income.

While online multiple income streams are an old idea, there is a little tail I would like to add to this. Even if you make your living online, get an offline income stream. I am not talking something major. Something simple that does not take up a lot of time will do. I have a chicken and a cock at home. Pets I inherited from my grand children. Every month or so I round up the chicks and take them to the pet shop. It’s very little work for a bit of cash on the side and very handy while you wait for a transfer or for a check to clear.

There are a multitude of little things around you that can produce that extra income stream you want. An extra income stream usually stem from hobbies and pets. I garden as a hobby and usually end up cloning more plants than what I use. When I have time I pop into a local plant shop and the owner usually take over some of what I have. I did nothing more than what I usually do, apart from popping into the plant shop.

Even if your work from home income is offline and you visit the net only occasionally it is a good thing to consider these small sources of alternative income. You never know where it can lead.

Finding You

2009-08-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

In Money making Tour I showed you all of the ads I have on my blog. All of this is very nice, looks cute and all that, but it is only the start. Remember a while back I blogged on the secrets of business. The first secret was having a product. No product, no business – simple as that. The ads and links I have on my website is the product. It comes all neatly made, ready to stick on and free.

The second secret to business applies after you filled up your blog or website with ads and links and other woolies that can make you money. Your client needs to be able to find you. On the internet it works the same as in real business. If your client cannot find you, then you have no sales. If you have no sales you have no business.

Getting the client to find you is not that hard either. You have to do your bit though. Search engines provide a lot of potential clients if the clients can find you in the listings. It’s another pre made tool you can use. Like everything on the net, you have to know how.

Most people that use search engines only looks at the first couple of entries, the rest gets ignored. You do it too when you search. If 1000001 entries are listed when you search your topic, do you ever get past page four? The first couple of entries are where you want your site to be then.

I found a simple little thing you can do to move up in the listings. It is actually something that went right past me. It is cashing in on the way search engines work. A search engine not only looks at the content of your site, it also takes a look at what is linked to your site. It reads all of the back links you have posted with your comments. It does that with every site or blog it gets to. How does this work for you?

When a search engine finds a site that has a lot of back links on a lot of other sites, it assumes that a lot of people likes the content of this site, and moves it up in the listings. What does this mean in practice?

Every time you read a blog, make a comment and ad a link to your site, you move your site up a fraction in the listings. So every time you go out and do the social thing, leaving your mark before you go, you improve your client’s chances of finding you in the first four pages of his search.

At first this went right past me. I am not a social type of person. I also don’t comment easily. I had to change this. Changing it makes it easier for you to find me. That is what we both want.

A money making tour.

2009-08-25T00:56:00.001-07:00

I think it is about time to explain the workings of this site. I bragged before that making money on the net is not so difficult. It is finding sites that actually pays out that poses a problem. I solved that problem by constantly reading reviews on make money type sites. A good site will show up on more than one unrelated site.

A tour around this blog can also help you to build your own. so we start right at the top next to the heading with Exit Junction. You can see a small block flashing orange up there. Exit Junction serves advertising to people leaving your site. It also has a good afiliate program. If you enroll via the page that opens when you click on the little block, I get comission every time you earn. Other people in turn then do the same for you.

From there we go left to find Adgetize on the sidebar. This is an afiliate program and e cheap way to advertise your blog. They work on a points system and you get paid for posting on your blog every day and for clicking on their ads. They even have an autopay system so you can advertise your blog and the payment gets deducted automatically from your earnings.

The next one you get going down is my all time favorite Triond widget. Here you get payed per view. Every time someone reads something I wrote, I get paid. You should try out Triond. The results is quite spectacular.

Below this you find a light blue and white block for homepages-friends.com. They set you up with a homepage for your browser on wich they put a search bar. Whenever you search, you earn. Your favorite charity also earns. They also have an afiliate program, so click the block and then ad one to your site.

Below this one you find the Amazon block. If you buy here, I get commission. I put this one on because I am told they have a good afiliate program. Do take a look.

Below this is the Adgetize advert. This is what your blog advertisement will look like when you advertise with Adgetize. This of coures precedes the well known and dependable Google ads. It does work. Combine this with the google search bar and pile up a bit extra.

The rest going down are simply widgets and fidgets. The ones at the bottom I am sure you recognise though. The ones on the main body of the page were either put on by Google, or I put it there to male a point. That is except rhe green one. That still have to prove itself.

An interesting concept

2009-08-23T23:35:00.000-07:00

I came across something really interesting. You can earn by doing what you normally do and support a friend. You should try this.

No weekend blogging

2009-08-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

On weekends I am banned from the net. I slipped this one in with my phone to say, have a fun weekend.

A training tool to use

2009-08-21T07:19:00.001-07:00

Robert Kusakis once said that every one of us is only one skill away from being a milionare. He never mentioned wich skill, but I gor the idea when my friend Rose said something about some of her students. 'These are all post graduate students, you would think they can manage english properly.' she said. She gives english language courses for Post Graduate students at the university - most of them graduated in engeneering or cemistry or something like that.

Since I mostly write for a living that set me thinking. How good am I at the skill I use most. It appears I am not too good at it. I actualy thought I were doing great. That was untill I started submitting wirk to Triond.com. When you submit anything to them, it gets screened. Then they send you a polite letter to tell you where it were posted. If you failed the screening, they send you an equally polite letter to tell you what mistakes you made and where they put it so you can correct these mistakes and post it again.

I love that, I simply sit down and correct my mistakes. It works very well. I started thinking of myself as a literary genius. Then I started getting reviews saying that my work has too many readability errors. That made me sit up. Readability error means that, whatever I wrote, someone is going to struggle understanding it. Not good when you blog or get paid to write.

So using the tool is simple, submit to Triond. Its cheaper than a writing tutor and with a bit of effort you can figure out your own mistakes until you dont get back any error reports.

The secret of money on the net

2009-08-20T00:48:00.000-07:00

The one thing they never tell you about making money on the net is that it is a lot of work. I mean a really big lot of work. If you can get through the work though, it gets easier. The initial load that usually makes most people drop out in the beginning.

If you think about it, for someone new to the net it can be quite an experience. First off, you get on the net and then you start getting all of these offers on how you can make money the easy way. Then you find out that some of then don't pay pout in your country. Then you get some that looks like it does and suddenly things looks great. You get into it and start waiting for the money. Only nothing comes.

No wonder so many people tells me it is not possible to make money on the net.

The secret to making money on the net, the thing no one tells you, is actually very simple. Once you found something that pays, you still have to market it. That takes work. you can find lists and lists of good places to make a buck, but once you are hooked up, where do you find your client.

Finding ways to market your business, or article or whatever is where the hard part starts. It takes constant work to get enough people to link up with your site or blog or page. The ones making the money is the ones doing the work and who keep doing it. Don't give up.

A new concept in marketing

2009-08-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

I picked up Succeed magazine and found an article on marketing which attracted my attention. It were written by Tamara on Brandtoweb.com. I still have to look that one up but I found other references to the same thing.

Its a new concept in marketing called Horizontal marketing. It is about cutting cost by involving other unrelated companies in your marketing drive and distributing costs amongst all of the participants. A neighbour helping neighbour type of idea.

I am still chewing on this idea but it sounds rather old fashioned and unused to me. One example used is that of a hair salon and a nail salon situated in close proximity combining their advertising and promoting each other instore. It works if you can convince the owner of the other business not to be territorial. Both can win.

If you ever saw this in real life, do leave a comment. We would all like to know.

I learn the hard way

2009-08-17T06:25:00.001-07:00

At the risk of repeating myself. When working from home you have to define two things clearly. Being clear on these two points will spare you a lot of heartbreak later.

The first is working space. Define the physical space where you will be when you are working. If you have an at home office, that is very nice. If you don't , make the space, even if you have to convert a cupboard for working space. If you run out of ideas visit Simply Freestanding, they are quite capable to help.

Once you defined the space, you know you are working when you are in that space. The whole family will know you are working when you are in that space. When you are not there , you are not working.

In the same instance, clearly define what you are supposed to be doing when you are working. Even if you are not going to go look for financing, work out a business plan. It helps you to find holes in your plan that can be repaired before they become real life problems you have to pay for.

Defining what you do when you are at work, can sometimes be a bit complicated. I write blogs to generate an extra income stream. My travel blog becomes a book after every major trip. Being at work sometimes mean I am busy booking time at a B&B and planning a trip. It also means I am at work when I am some place relaxing next to a pool or taking a tour through a museum.

When I am sitting next to my neighbours pool or going to the coast to see my mom I am not at work. These are silly little concepts which can make or break your day.

Defining these two areas is very helpful if you have to sit down in a family meeting and explain to the kids why you should not be disturbed sometimes.

In your SMEtoolkit you will find a lot of assistance with working out a business plan. On the South African site you can even download a handbook from Sanlam to help with this.

Like I said, at risk of repeating myself. If you do these things when you start out, you prevent problems later.

The Put Ur Pic experiment

2009-08-13T23:40:00.000-07:00

I have been giving a large volume of free advice on ‘I work at home’. I am not into giving worthless advice though. To test the advice I am giving you I decided to start up a real life work from home business. This isn’t some project someone sold some place. It is a functioning business with all the bells and whistles working out of my home office.

Starting out I had to find my product. I picked quick printing. It is a service product combination. Pot simply, if you bring the picture and the shirt, I print it where you want it.

Now comes the second part - finding the client. I will be using online and offline methods, monitoring it and informing you what happened.

You can already find my business listed on SME toolkit and you can find a small website there too. I am also building a website, a mobile site and a blog for Put ur Pic. After this is done I am adding a Squidoo lens too. The logic behind this is that the more places on the net my business can be found, the more easily it can be found – especially by search engines.

I am not doing much off line promoting at the moment, apart from having my business name and number on a few T-shirts. As we go on I will ad more and keep you up to date as to how it is going and what worked.

Please dont hesitate to leave a coment with a backlink to your site.

Me and my clients

2009-08-10T23:40:00.000-07:00

The client or customer is the basis of the business. No sales, no money - easy as that. Finding your customer and keeping your customer is of vital importance to your business. In working from home or trying to build a small business this is even more important because big companies can often afford marketing mistakes you can not.

Finding your client changed radically in time. In the olden days, before internet, every business had a shop front. When someone were looking for something they simply walked down main road and went to the right door. life were simple back then, but the problem were the same; how do you get people to walk into your door?

Finding your customer does not have to be expensive though. When I started my first garden service I took finding customers to the extreme and simply went knocking on doors to find customers. It takes the finding bit to the extreme. This is a cheap, though not easy approach. Some buisinesses use this approach, making use of sales people traveling and speaking to customers. The sales people usually gets paid commission, so if he is no good, he's not expensive. Most of us takes another approach.

We help our cleint find us. Instead of running around trying to find the one interested in what we offer, we find ways to help those interested find us. There are a lot of buisinesses built on helping you find customers. Offline there are lists and lists of ways to get the attention of the guy that carries the wallet. It starts with things like handing out pamflets and doing newspaper ads right through to big promotions. These can get to be expensive.

Online things are a bit different than what we were used to. Showing your customer where to go can be less expensive and you can even make your advertising pay for itself. More about this in the next post though. I found a site that is not only interesting but helpfull too.

I came accross this one in a magazine and took a look. If you are trying to make it on your own and you are starting to feel you need to be an expert on everything, this is for you. It is called SME toolkit and there are different sites for different countries. This sites couvers everything you need in your buisiness. It even gives you a free website and a free listing in a biusiness directory. Do take a look.

If you have any thoughts on this please use the comments box below and remember to ad your backlink.

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The second thing you need

2009-08-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

In business there is one commodity you need as much as a product. That commodity eventually makes or breaks your business. Without it you have no business. It is as hard to find as diamonds and gold if you don’t know where to look. If you know where to find it , your business thrives.

In normal everyday language we call this commodity the client. Has anyone ever told you that production minus sales equals scrap? That is the long way to say that whatever product you have, if no one buys, you have no business. Your client must be able to find you, or at least be able to find your product. That is a point sometimes missed to the detriment of many a business.

When you are on your own, working from home, does your client know where to find you?
The ones who never did any business with before, how do they find you? If you know how to answer these questions, then you have the basics of a working business. If you don’t, we should talk. You wont get far without clients. I hope you also realize that its not only having clients that makes your business work. It is also having enough clients. What does that mean?

I went through Ashton yesterday. Being my usual curious self I stopped at a few stores. I soon realized that here things are much more expensive than at home. I know the markup on some of the stuff in the shops and for a moment I thought moving out here and opening a shop would be a great idea. At the markup these people put on their products I can make a killing.
Hanging around a bit, I saw something else. They don’t have many clients around these parts. It’s a very small town. At the turnover they have the only thing dying would be my budget.
The moral of the story; if you don’t have enough clients to carry your business expenses, you have to compensate somehow or close down.

So the big secret – you have to have clients. We will talk more on finding them in the next post.

The secrets of doing business.

2009-07-31T23:47:00.000-07:00

To some of us doing business seems very complicated, but it is no more complicated than the life you deal with every day. If you get to know the basics, the rest is easy. Where do the basics start though?

It’s easy and it stays the same whether you work online or wash dogs in your back yard. To do business you need to have a product. Your clients like to get something for the money they are spending. You can be selling an item, a service, or even a contract to do something or deliver something at a later stage. We call it your product. You give the client the product, and the client gives you money. We call that doing business.

All of this is a very simplified version of what happens in real life. It is also universal, no product for the client to spend money on, no business. Big companies spend a lot of money on developing products for this simple reason.

When you work at home you usually do not have the budget or facilities to develop products, but a lot of businesses needs the small entrepreneur to sell their products. Finding products is no problem. If you are working online you can follow my links to find some interesting products and ideas. You can also use the ‘Ask questions’ section if you are looking for something specific. I will try to accommodate you.

Even though having a product is crucial to business, in the next post I will tell you about something even more crucial. Without this your product becomes useless junk.

Feel free to use the comments section to leave a comment and leave a back link to your site.

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The other thing

2009-07-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

The second thing I have to watch out for also hides in what I do every day. You already know I have blogs to attend to, run an online MLM, post pictures on sale sites and are trying to get a book published. I forgot about Diziette's Emporium, where you can find the most interesting stuff.

All of this sounds like fun. It looks great. It anso hides my one weekness. I keep going all over the place. I try to do everything and get nothing done. That kills working from home.

When you work from home be organised. Do one thing at a time and get it done. It is better to be good at one thing and make money than to work at a lot of little failures.

I must ask though, please tell me how you are doing. I don't like sitting here talking and saying nothing worth anything.

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You can take a look at the pictures in this blog here or click on this thumbnail.

Two very important things

2009-07-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

I very quickly found two obstacles in my way. The first were a very simple little thing we never think about when we work for someone else. In fact, when you start working for someone else it is a given.

It is so simple, you clock in in the morning and there you go. The boss decided when you start and doing what. When you work for yourself it is quite a different story.

Getting out of bed were my first obstacle. It is so easy to hang around a bit longer, specially in winter. Working online you can still pull pout the laptop and get something done. That sounded great. It did not work for me. I had to find another way.

Simply dragging myself over to the PC and starting did not work either. I had to do something else.

What works for me may not work for you, but try this. I get up in the morning, and do the whole shaving and getting dressed for work thing. I see my wife off (she is still having fun at the office). Then I sit down and do my piece for the day and some.

Its a ritual for success full people. This getting up thing I mean. J

The pictures on this blog can be viewed here in full size. (Click Picture)

Other than blogging.

2009-07-26T23:56:00.002-07:00

If you want to work at home you can do a lot more than blogging. There are sites that allows you to open an online shop. One of these is Cafepress. They offer products, do the printing, packaging and delivering. You don't have to buy the products they print on. You don't have to spend any money with them to start a shop.

Your part in this is to create your shop front and to ad your designs to the products. Once you have done this you have to market your shop. For this they supply buttons and link addresses. This green one is one of those. You get everything done for you, you simply need to read and follow instructions.

To get started on Cafepress, I took some of my pictures off my PC. Some of them you will see on my blogs. I also dug up some of my old print art programs, and I am on my way.

Marketing your shop is more complex and much more fun. Cafepress supplies buttons. These you can ad to your blog. You can put them on your website. You can even ask your friends to ad it to their sites.

You can also use the address of your shop. Ad it to the signature you put on your email. Use it every where you go. I put mine on my.opera, twitter, facebook and every where else I go. I also have it on my business card.

Cafepress also supplies a newsletter template which you can use to build a regular mailing list and tell your customers about new designs you added. Click the block below.

There you have a prepacked way of making money. It is up to you to use it. So lets get going. J

To be successfull online

2009-07-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

Being successful with making a living online is hard work starting out, but as you learn your trade it gets easier. Some of us are online bloggers, making it on blogging alone. Personally I believe in using everything I can lay my hands on.

I run three different blogs, one on working from home, one on travel and one for general ravings. To these blogs I linked my online shop, and any affiliate connections I have. I also use any buttons I can find that links to other things I do like online MLM. This forms an interlinked matrix which eventually starts bringing in money. It comes in drips and little drops at first and if you keep at it, it eventually turns into a river.

Amongst the lot I have Pay per Click ads, affiliate links, online shops and even a game that brings me money. I have even found an online publishing house where I am working on getting a book published – I only pay when it sells.

These are a lot of things to have, but having things does not make you successful. Any businessman will tell you that, no matter what you sell, if your customer cannot find you there are no sales.

This is where your success starts. It all starts with marketing. By showing your customer where to find you and what you do. Working online is your business. It’s the simple things you do that bring customers, weather you are doing all or only some of the things I do.

• Do something, like adding your link to the signature at the bottom of your email.
• Write the link to your business any where you do your phone number.

• Write articles wherever you can post for free and link your business to the article wherever you can.

• Visit blogs, and leave a sincere and relevant comment and put your link in the space allowed for it.
• Read up as much as you can on internet marketing and practice what you learnt.

That is just 5 things you can do to market your business. Success comes when you keep doing it and keep learning your trade and how to market your business. It makes no difference what you do online.

Persistently use all the free innovative ways you can find to market it. That brings success. Finding the right thing to do and doing it constantly.

I would love to hear how you are doing. J

Building a blog to make money

2009-07-22T02:14:00.000-07:00

The list below are by no means complete, these are just the things I looked at myself. I am a blogger myself so I will take a more serious look at building a blog that pays.

When making money on the net it is good to have different things going. When I blog, I try to use everything I can, I try never to blog without an interesting picture. Remember, the picture is named and that name shows in the search engines somewhere. Apart from helping to get traffic in, it also ads a bit of colour to your blog. I use Picasa to edit the picture and put on a heading and watermark. These pictures appear on my Picasa web album, with a link to the blog it comes from. Another bit of easy advertising.

Blogging I use everything I can. On my blog I can link words to other sites. I use the hyperlink to link to my other blog, or to a website where I have an interest. You can even link to a friends site if you struck up an agreement to send each other traffic from your sites. You can use these links to lead your reader to other sites with relevant information, but I prefer to use it to have my readers go to profitable places instead. Even your online shop can benefit.That is a place that is profitable to me in some way.

Learning to use buttons were a biggie to me. Using something like this one to get your reader to another place works because it gives a bit more information on where the link goes. A button also ads a bit of colour to your blog. If you don't know how to use it it is worth the trouble to figure it out. Use all the bells and whistles when you blog.

Another interesting and profitable addition to your blog is affiliate programs. A lot of these programs puts a link on your blog that opens a window that shows off the products available and allows your reader to buy - sometimes without even leaving your blog. Apart from adding colour you will find readers coming back for this because now interesting reading and their favorite shopping spot are covered in the same bookmark. Keep on fiddling with these things and learn to use them.

All of these things you have to build in yourself, but there are some features provided by the Host of your blog which helps to give your blog a bit more spunk. Make use of all the widgets and goodies supplied by your host. I specially love link lists and blog lists. Even things like being able to read the latest news or check the weather brings back readers because you make things a little more easy for them.

The last bit (and best) of money making I use on my blog is Google ad sense. Google puts the ads on your blog and you get paid when someone clicks on them.

This is the way I do it, so lets get working?

Where do we get the money

2009-07-20T00:23:00.001-07:00

When you want to build a home based income on the net, where does the money come from? Making money on the net has many different faces.

Top of the list is Ad revenue; build an income by monetizing your blog with Google Ads. I have three blogs on Google blogger which I in tend on monetizing with Google ads; this one, I Travel and Diziettes. If you have a blog or even a website, you can make money with pay per click advertising. Google are willing to place ads on your blog, and when visitors click on these ads you get paid, simple on that. The more visitors you have, the more clicks you can get and the more money you make.

If you don’t feel like running a blog or setting up ads you can always go to Helium or Squidoo. These are for people who want to write for a living, without having to run a blog or website. Both of these sites have everything set up. You can collect ad revenue and on Squidoo they have the Amazon affiliate program already connected. No hassle, just sit down and write.

After this (in my book) come affiliate programs. This is a long name for advertising someone else’s products. You get to put a link on your website or blog and when one of your visitors click on this link and buy something you get commission. The nice part about this is that the company that gives the program worries about packing and delivery and collects the money from the client. Amazon has a very good affiliate program.

Next on the list is running your own shop, using a facility supplied by someone else. A good example of this is Cafépress and Lulu. Cafépress carries a range of goods on which they will print your design and then deliver and collect on orders from your shop. Lulu is a publishing house, which allows you to have your own bookstore and to do self publishing.

On the net you can also Buy and sell to make money. Good examples here are Ebay and Bid or Buy. Both these allow you to list whatever product you choose to sell. Here you have to supply your own product and deliver yourself. Not really my type of thing, but there is money to be made.

If you are a people person you can join a MLM like Be Motivated Today. Take care though. In this area there are a lot of big promises by people who want to make a lot of money fast. No matter what they tell you, to build an MLM is work and more work. No easy money until after the work is done.

At the bottom of my list is the filling in of market research forms. This I have not done yet. There are companies though which are quite willing to pay you to fill in a form and send it to them.

All of these are working, paying ideas. If you follow the links you can do it for yourself. Just be very careful. There is another way to make money on the net. You can get scammed so do your homework carefully and stick to reputable sites.

So let’s get earning. J

Alone and inspired

2009-07-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Working from home means you are on your own most of the day. I sometimes struggle with this. Some days it feels like the sun just wont rise. It is at times like these we all needs a bit of inspiration.

Here is something to use when things are feeling a bit low. On Inspired Entrepreneur you will fond a free e-course that will help in times like these. Do take the time to use it.

It also helps to build your own support group. Make friends with other work from homers. Facebook and my.opera.com is a good starting point to start finding friends who understand what you do.

Another useful way to find motivation in the hard times is to sign up to Be Motivated Today for a 9 day trail and find their mood boosters. I find it useful.

So lets get going. J

The best blogging tip ever

2009-07-18T02:31:00.000-07:00

The best blogging tip I ever got were about the pictures I put on my blog.
I had a lot of problems uploading pictures. Uploading was slow and sometimes aborted in the middle of the upload. Then someone told me to reduce the amount of pixels of the picture. This reduces the volume, speeding up the upload and your blog (or website) opens faster because there are less to load.

I struggled with this until I started using Picasa from Google. With Picasa I reduce the amount of pixels by exporting the picture to a new file on my PC. This also allows me to place a watermark on the picture.

Picasa also allows me to do direct blogging, straight from Picasa when I am blog to Blogger from Google.

If you don't have Picasa yet, try http://picasa.google.com/

So lets get working. J

Cutting costs, making money

2009-07-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

The hardest piece of advice about working at home to follow ever were to cut anything that does not bring in money. When you are working online megs you use is megs you pay for. Downloading pictures and apps you don’t need uses megs. When you work for yourself you need to cut costs and increase income – you pay for everything now.

It all sounds very simple. That is until you start realizing that the hours and ours you spent chatting with your friends and years of relationships you have built is costing you. You are not only paying for megs that brings no income, you are spending time which should be putting food on the table.

I had a rough time with this but I had to find a balance which fit into the budget and the time schedule.

I am not saying don’t have friends, just watch the figures too.

So let’s get working. J

Working the hours

2009-07-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Its supposed to be easy, I think... Its not. Working from home means you are the boss. You decide what you are going to do and when. So what are you going to do when the sun is shining outside.

Personally, the sun outside is no problem to me. My problem starts when my wife is home. I love hanging out with her. After 20 years, its still fun to hang out with her - never a dull moment.That is where the problem starts. Nothing gets done. Even though I dont work because I have to its still bothersome - I mean to have to choose.
My wife is home tomorrow.

I solved the problem. I am sitting here in the middle of the night, while she is sleeping, finishing up everything I can. Tomorrow we hang out. Next week she is out every day, so I will work in the day. Easy as that.

How creative are you when it gets to doing what must be done to keep your buisiness afloat. Heard of thinking outside the box, here is where you need it. Working at home is where you have the freedom to change hours and ways of working to fit your life. So lets get going. J

I work from home

2009-07-16T02:06:00.000-07:00

I work from home, I work for myself. I have to.

Blindsided by one of my own decisions I landed up without a job and even worse, unable to go back into the field I worked in. It happened suddenly, with me unprepared. My first reaction was shock. My own stupidity actually came back to bite me. Then I smiled, it’s a blessing in disguise. Now I can sit down in front of my PC and do what I have always wanted to do.

I work from home. This being my only income I learnt fast. The rules are the same, whether you do MLM (I am in IFA), are an avid blogger or decide to open a Doggy Parlor in your garage, the basics are the same.

· Get off your butt. No one is going to tell you to get up in the morning to start working. No one is going to tell you what to do. That sounds nice, but when you work from home nothing gets done without you doing it.
· Set your working hours. Even if you are doing it part time, decide when you are going to work and keep to that. Make it clear to friends and family that that is working time. People steal your time with the best of intentions, so set your boundaries. Do it for yourself and others.
· Dedicate some workspace. Create your own home office, even if it is a closet you modified. Creating order and structure is part of work, it is the part which pays dividends when you get busy and start looking for stuff. This is where you are going to spend a lot of time.
· Be professional even when you think no one is watching.

Now you have that, let’s get busy.