Work at Home Hawaii

Hibeam.org off the beam?

2008-02-27T23:21:00.005-10:00

While looking for resources helpful to budding Hawaii entrepreneurs, I came across a site called HiBeam.org. HiBeam is an acronym for Hawaii Business and Entrepreneur Mentors which "was founded in 2000 to help launch and build new technology, biotechnology and life sciences companies by providing them with expert professional advice and access to funding sources. Since then, the HiBEAM portfolio companies have raised over $100 million in equity funding."

While the site looks promising, it appears to currently be inactive, as it were, with no events listed for Feb 08 and the last news item being posted more than a year ago on 2/23/07.

Anyone know what's happening with hibeam.org?

Work-From-Home Jobs in Hawaii Could be on the Rise

2008-02-20T16:03:00.004-10:00

A significant increase in the number of telecommuting work-from-home jobs in Hawaii if bills being presented in the Hawaii state legislature are passed, according to an article in a recent edition of the Pacific Business News.

If passed, the bills, Senate Bill 2238 and House Bill 3271, would give employers in Hawaii tax credits based on the number of telecommuting workers they employ, the number of hours those workers log, and the location of the company.

Employers could recoup from 75 to 100% of the expenses they incur for employing telecommuting workers.

According to results of a study by the Dieringer Research Group conducted in 2007, the number of telecommuters in the United States has increased by 65 percent in the last three years. And if the new bills are passed by Hawaii lawmakers, that number will spike in the Aloha State.

Shutterstock.com: Make money from your digital pics

2008-02-16T16:43:00.002-10:00

Nowadays, it seems like just about everyone has a digital camera. While that may not be true, just about everyone has a cell phone and most cell phones of today have built-in digital cameras.

And with easy access to these picture taking devices, people are turning into amateur photographers. Just today, for example, I went hiking out in Hauula on Oahu's windward side. While I forgot my digi cam at home, I did have my cell phone. As such, I was able to click a few pics, including the one posted here.

You may not be aware of this, but there is a market for your digital camera pictures. One place that I reviewed is shutterstock.com. The deal with shutterstock.com is you submit pictures that you have taken. Shutterstock.com lists many dos and don'ts for picture submissions, including the fact that pics submitted must be at least 4.o megapixels, which eliminates all of my cell phone pics plus even the largest pic on my ancient 3.2 megapixel digi cam!

What is the compensation ($$)? You get 25 cents for every pic of yours that someone visiting the site sees and then downloads. Nope, not a lot of bucks but if you submit a bunch of pics over time, the chances of making some spare money is more likely.

Additionally, you can make some money from shutterstock.com by referring buyers to the company. According to shutterstock.com, if you refer friends and acquaintances to the site and they sign up, you'll get an incentive bonus. So, for example, if you clicked here, checked out the site, liked it, and signed up, I'd get a bonus.

I read one guy's review of shutterstock.com and he said he has submitted 200 pictures and takes in about $80 to $100 a month.

Other sites similar to shutterstock.com where you can make $$ for pictures you take are www.istockphoto.com and us.fotolia.com

Is working at home a good fit for you?

2008-02-13T11:24:00.003-10:00

Back when I was in my 20s, I worked as a loan adjustor for a Servco Financial Corp., a locally based Hawaii company. For those wondering what I did as a loan adjustor, basically I was a debt collector. In other words, I called up or visited face-to-face people who had fallen behind on loan payments to the company. As an adjustor, I was given some latitude in negotiating repayment terms with delinquent customers. For instance, I was able to waive late fees and in some cases delinquent interest payments.

I worked out of Servco Financial’s main branch on King Street right next to Fort Street Mall. I was fortunate to have the company pay for my parking (big issue and headache, particularly for folks working in downtown Honolulu. Plus, I got a mileage allowance if I had to go out in the field to collect debts. I mention all this here because I could have very well done much of my work from home.

This is not to say that I would have done an effective job at home, but given a telephone and access to the company’s computer network (not available back then but easily available nowadays), I could have done much of my “adjusting” work from a desk in my home.

An ABC news bit about the pros and cons of working at home posed some questions to determine how good of a fit a work-from-home situation would be for people. And those questions included.

Are you highly disciplined and goal-oriented?
Can you be effective without a support system?
Do you have a dedicated work space?
Can you thrive without office camaraderie?
Can you work well without constant direction?
Can the work you do be done from anywhere?

People who can answer yes to all these questions will find that working home will be feasible.

Photo credit: David A. Harvey (sol.as.arizona.edu/~dave/)

Site Review: telecommute-jobs.com

2008-02-09T17:43:00.000-10:00

Loking for a telecommuting job (i.e. a job to work from home)? Got $39 to pluck down? If you do, there is a site called telecommute-jobs.com that seems on the up and up.

Did some checking and couldn't find anyone calling telecommute-jobs.com a scam. In fact, the site has the Better Business Bureau stamp of approval. Ditto for the Internet Trade Bureau.

You can post your resume for free there. And if you are an employer (in which case you likely wouldn't be reading this blog) you can post job listings there, also for free.

However, if you are hunting for a job and want to submit aps thru the site's job bank, you will have to subscribe for the $39 fee, which is for a three-month subscription.

A good thing is that telecommute-jobs.com offers a money back guarantee in the first thirty days if you are satsified with them. At the site's FAQ, they say that "only 3 out of every 200 purchasers ever request a refund from us." Take that for what it's worth.

I searched but could not locate a testimonial link from satisfied subscribers who landed telecommuting jobs through the site.

To be honest, by clicking on the links to the site above, I have an affiliate link affixed to them. What that means is if you go there and decide to subscribe, I'll receive a little $$. Would appreciate that. And if you want to keep me out of the loop because you don't trust me, click here to go to the site sans affiliate link. No problem.

Get Paid $10 to review a website

2008-02-07T17:40:00.000-10:00

Came across this opportunity where by reviewing a website and providing feedback about its pros and cons, you get paid $10.

The catch is that there are a glut of wannabe reviewers and not a whole lot of websites to review (yet?).

Anyway, you might want to check this site out. It's usertesting.com

Envelope stuffing for bucks..legit?

2008-02-02T19:03:00.000-10:00

The short answer is no.

Here's the deal. For those who pursue this undertaking (usually for a fee of $29.95 or some amount along that line) thinking that they'll make some easy bucks while stuffing envelopes while kicking back watching TV or listening to music on their iPods, they're in for a nasty surprise.

It's a scam.

Yes, it is true that there is stuff to stuff in an envelope, but the "stuff" inevitably is a letter soliciting folks to get into the stuff-envelopes-from-home-to-make-bucks biz.

What happens is that even though people realize they've been scammed, they'll pursue it. After all, they're out $29.95 (or whatever) and they've at least got to get their money back.

And who knows, maybe, just maybe they'll hit it big.

Good luck.

My suggestion is to look for opportunities that you feel good about, that are based on honesty, and that you are truly interested in, and not just the money part of it.

That, in my opinion, will lead to success.

January 2008 income update

2008-02-01T14:15:00.000-10:00

Well, the first month of 2008 has come and gone and it is now the time to report on how the month went earnings-wise for my first push at work-from-home online entrepreneur.

Working from home on my computer, I earned $242.65 in the month of Janurary 2008. Here is the lowdown for the month

Inboxdollars.com $58.64
Google adsense $13.72
Amazon affiliates $1.60
Adbrite $0.88
Shoppingads.com $25.00
Associatedcontent.com $142.70

Inbox dollars.com $58.64--This is one of three get-paid-to-read email sites I subscribed to. Actually, after doing some research, I found out that there are other sites that are rated more favorably than this one. In fact, inboxdollars.com was rated by one reviewer as a site to avoid. I have not reported the income from the other two paid-to-read sites because the earnings have been neglible and I have discontinued participating in them.

Google Adsense $13.72-- Earnings started to pick up toward the end of the month after I made a change to the color scheme of one of my sites. We shall see what earnings will be for a full month will the revised sites. What I have learned is that ad placement and color scheme have an effect on click ratio for adsense ads.

Amazon affiliates $1.60—I put up links to Amazon’s books and gadgets on my blogs. I probably will stick with this for a while and experiment with placement and color schemes to see if these changes will make a difference.

Adbrite $.88—Not even a buck generated. Plus, the ads are very intrusive. I’ll give adbrite another month or two to see if revenue picks up. If not, I’ll ax adbrite and look at other options.

Shoppingads.com $25—All this came from a sign-up bonus so the net “real” income is zip. This is another thing I’ll be looking at to determine whether to keep or ax.

Associatedcontent.com $142.70—I wrote a bunch of articles and got paid for ‘em. Plus, associatedcontent pays an incentive for page views to articles I wrote. This is a good income generator. No big bucks but steady bucks. What I have been doing is writing articles for my blogs and submitting these same articles to associatedcontent. What this accomplishes is added content to my blogs and some direct income for the articles.

Overall, it’s been a decent start. I’ll be happy to make $200 in February and average that for every month in 2008. My day job and my responsibilities to my wife and family take up a bunch of my time, so I won’t have as many hours to devote to my work-from-home venture. But we shall see.

Photocredit: floridatoday.com

A Hawaii writer's resource: Hawaii Publishers Association

2008-01-24T14:57:00.000-10:00

For everyone living here in Hawaii, one of the things we're experts at is what it's like to live in Hawaii. We are experts about where the best place is to buy groceries, to get gas, to watch movies, to go for a hike. Name it, we're Hawaii experts of one sort or another.

Just think if we all had the gumption to write about our experiences. What stories we would tell.

And if at this moment you have a hankering to write about your Hawaii experience and perhaps make a buck or three for it, there are potential markets for your work.

A nice collection of links to Hawaii-based, Hawaii-centered publications has been provided by the Hawaii Publishers Association. I counted three dozen links to Hawaii-based magazines, 11 newspapers, 2 book publishers, and 9 "multi-title publishers."

Photo credit: www.hawaiipublishersassociation.com

PTR email for bucks--Do Your Homework First

2008-01-22T18:12:00.000-10:00

If you grew up in Hawaii and are old enough, you might remember the TV show "Checkers and Pogo." Well, I grew up in Hawaii and am old enough, so not only do I remember C&P, I was even on their show.

One of my favorite parts of the Checkers and Pogo show was when they celebrated the birthday of one of the kids on the show. And one of my favorite parts of a birthday celebration was when the kid had a chance to reach into the penny jar to grab as many pennies as he or she could. Man, did I dream of having a chance to stick my big mitts into that jar to grab a whole bunch of pennies. Well, I never did have that chance when I was on the show but I did win a game that I entered, but that is another story.

Anyway, the point of this as it ties into to work-at-home is that those paid-to-read (PTR) email companies on the web are just like those pennies in the penny jar: there are so many PTR companies out there, many more than I imagined.

Currently, I am enrolled in three, and have earned about $70 from the three combined in about a month of occasional email reading for bucks. What gets me is that after checking this blog, the three PTR sites I have chosen are not even in the top 20 of the most favored sites.

What this tells me is that if I had done my homework beforehand, I might have made much more than $70.

So what I recommend is that you do your homework before sticking your hand into the PTR email penny jar. If you do, you stand to make some bucks, potentially a lot.

Photo credit: iolani88.blogspot.com

In-Home Childcare Business

2008-01-16T22:24:00.001-10:00

I don't have the stats, but my guess is the number of parents who have to work to make ends meet and thus need childcare assistance is likely to grow.

As such, the demand for childcare providers is likely to grow. If you are considering establishing a childcare business in Hawaii, one place to look is PatchHawaii.org. Their website is very comprehensive and is worth a look.

On Marketing

2008-01-16T22:14:00.000-10:00

Marketing is an important aspect of developing and growing an at-home business, and, for that matter, any business.

I will admit I'm a neophyte at marketing, but I hope to learn and apply.

One of things I hope to develop at some point is an eZine to spread the word about at-home business ideas and opportunities.

I found this blog post that has some ideas to consider.

Thanks, Mrs. Turner

2008-01-14T00:23:00.000-10:00

My wife came home this morning and handed me a copy of a magazine titled "Start Your Own Business" (Winter Edition). I didn't ask here where she bought it, probably at Longs Drug in Kaneohe.

Whatever the case, I browsed through the mag and found some interesting articles, including ones titled "75 Boom Businesses to Run from Home For Under $500" and "Lowcost Launch" which listed 20 work-from-home business opportunites that could get off the ground for under $100.

The mag has a website for those interested: http://www.sbomag.com/

One of the many suggestions is to sell things online via ebay.com. I know of a couple people--my former officemate at work and my niece--who have done this as a way to make some extra cash and they had success. Even if ebay selling isn't for you, you might consider taking a look at magazine.

Thanks, Mrs. Turner. Appreciate the magazine.

What are the Top 100 At-Home Businesses for 2007?

2008-01-09T12:44:00.000-10:00

I've been kind of slacking on staying up to date here. I have two other blogs that I devote my time to, but that's a poor excuse.

Anyway, guilt or responsibility compelled me to get to work here. In my continual wanderings, what I came across is a site called startupnation.com, which listed the top 100 home-based business in the United States. The winner in the "most lucrative" category: Medical Solutions International where Robert Woltz has grown a business that connects nurses on short-term contracts to medical facilities. The company grossed $11.2 million in 2006.

MSI has a network of more than 10,000 registered nurses with more than 500 actively placed at any given time in hospitals in the U.S. and internationally. Nurses get benefits, incentive programs, flexible work schedules, and long-term stability.

Startupnation.com has categorized the best home businesses in a variety of categories including most innovative, wackiest, grungiest, most wordly, and, my favorite, most slacker friendly.

To see the Top 100 list, go here.

Go check out what other people are doing.

Swollen Pickles and Goal Setting

2008-01-07T12:07:00.001-10:00

Goal setting is a good idea. And it's an especially good idea for us work-at-home folks trying to make a go of things online.

I came across a site called Swollen Pickles. Can't recall how or why I came across the site. In any case, the bloggist here has kept track of his online earnings for 2007. He has set specific goals regarding the amount of money he wanted to make from his blogs and the number of site visitors he was hoping for. He also set a goal for his body weight. He then month by month posted updates on this progress toward his goals.

This got me thinking that I should set some goals, post them here, and update my progress. Not a unique idea in the blogoshphere but worth a try.

Even if you're not interested in goals, check out Swollen Pickles for some ideas on how he made money online in his own work-from-home scenario.

Considering Work in Medical Transcription?

2008-01-04T15:02:00.000-10:00

I was talking with my wife this morning, and she suggested that I write something about medical transcription work-from-home jobs. My wife works at Queen’s Medical Center in the emergency room as a psych assistant/tech. She told me she had met Queen’s employees who work from home doing transcription work for QMC. The work basically involves listening to dictated messages left by doctors and typing out notes for medical record keeping.

For instance, Doctor Wong does a heart surgery on Joe Q. Payshun. During and after the surgery, Dr. Wong dictates notes about the operation that are recorded. These notes are then forwarded to a transcriptionist, who may be employed by the hospital where the operation took place, self-employed and doing contract work for the hospital, or employed by a medical transcription company contracted by the hospital.

According to the United States Department of Labor, medical transcriptionist jobs are projected to grow 14 percent in the next ten years. This, says the USDL, is “faster than average” compared to other occupations. The reason: the increasing population and more specifically, the increasing population of the aged. This makes sense because older people require a greater number of tests, treatments, operations, and procedures. Most of these require documentation. And medical transcriptionists are needed as part of the medical records documentation process. I couldn't find any job postings for transcriptionists at Queen's but I did find one local listing that may be worth a look for those interested.

Accordingly, employment prospects for current and job-seeking transcriptionists are good, particularly at physicians’ offices, especially those that are part of large-group practices.

What are requirements to be a transcriptionist? Understandably, most employers want transcriptionists who have experience. Additionally, employers seek transcriptionists who have completed post-high school training in transcription work. Here in Hawaii, medical transcription classes are offered by at least one of our local community colleges—Hawaii Community College on the Big Island. I couldn’t easily find other classes here, but they are likely to exist. Nationwide and online, numerous options exist for transcription training and certification.

What do transcriptionists get paid? According to the USDL, medical transcriptionists make on average $14 an hour. Medical transcriptionists in the bottom 10% pay range made less than $10 an hour while those in the upper 10% range earned more than $20 an hour. In some situations, particularly for work-at-home transcriptionists, the pay is based on production rather than time. In other words, the transcriptionist is paid by the number of lines he or she produces. What this means that fast, accurate, and adept transcriptionists can potentially make more money in eight hours than a transcriptionist who works for an hourly wage.

For more information and suggestions about working as a medical transcriptionist, there is a good article on Associated Content here.

Photo credit: www.answers.com

MaxGXL

2008-01-03T16:51:00.000-10:00

I've exchanged emails with a guy who is promoting a product called MAXGXL.

A local guy, Frank Carillo, passed word to me about the product, which is being pitched as "the world's most powerful antioxidant." Frank has a blog up here.

MAXGXL is known as a glutathione accelerator and was formulated by an immunologist named Dr. Robert Keller. If you are curious or skeptical, head on over to www.pubmed.com to peruse the thousands of studies done on glutathione.

I haven't done this (yet) but it sounds like it's worth a look.

Primerica

2008-01-02T07:35:00.000-10:00

Ever heard of this company? I have. Here's how.

A couple months ago, my wife got to talking with a guy at work (she works at the ER at Queen's Medical Center). The guy, in addition to his day job as a social worker, was involved with a company called Primerica. He asked my wife if she was interested in help with our finances and if she was interested in making some additional income. Yes and yes to both questions.

Soon thereafter, the guy is at our home in Kaneohe gathering info about our debts for a financial analysis and also giving us a pitch about Primerica. The pitch sounded good to me (and even better to my wife). But I am a cautious and skeptical guy.

My wife ended up signing up with Primerica. She's in the process of learning what's necessary in order to take and pass a licensing test to sell life insurance in Hawaii for Primerica. Out of pocket costs so far $99.

I did some digging on the web for Primerica and found mixed reviews. Some call it a scam. Some call it what it is: Multi Level Marketing (ever heard of Amway?). Some call Primerica a good company with plenty of upside "for those who work hard at it."

Kinda like Amway, the big bucks come not from product sales but from getting folks to buy in to the company and hustle to bring other folks in.

I'll be helping my wife with this venture and will report in about our progress.

One Way to Get Traffic

2008-01-01T09:53:00.001-10:00

I've made a decision to devote my time to a couple or three blogs and making a go with these.

Consequently, I've been spending a lot of time searching around on the web (which is starting to bug my wife) for biz ops and biz ideas. One of the key ingredients to success in business on the web, in addition to keeping our spouses happy and content, is traffic, meaning the number of people who visit our sites/blogs.

A suggestion I come across repeatedly is to write specific, helpful content targeted to the designated readership. And to write a lot! Doing that over and over is the start of a good foundation for a successful blog.

Another path to success is come up with a gimmick that isn't just fluff but that can really help people. And I found one gimmick here, which tells you how much your blog is worth in $$. Now whether what you find there is helpful or not, you make the call, or the click, as it were. What I found myself doing is plugging in blog site URLs into this site to see how much various blogs are worth. Lots of amazing numbers.

For the record, this blog is worth a whopping total of $0.00. Yup, nada. But I hope to persevere and see what happens.

Another blog I maintain, is worth over a grand. :-) I've been working on that one a while longer so there is hope. Again, Happy New Year to all!

From CNN.com: 10 jobs that can be done at home

2007-12-31T10:27:00.000-10:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

My day job is a teacher. Specifically, I teach English at Leeward Community College. Have done so for the past 17 years. A handful of my colleagues work from home, conducting their classes via the internet. I have been considering doing the same, if not for my entire load of classes (5 per semester) then perhaps just one or two. My wife recently took a class (from UH-West Oahu) via the internet. I saw how her internet classes were conducted and how much she learned, all without having to be sitting in a classroom for an hour, three times a week for sixteen weeks.

So when I came across this article by CNN.com, I thought that other people who had job experience or aspirations in other fields might want to know that at-home opportunities do exist in all kinds of areas.

CNN has also some stories about telecommuting. Worth a look.

What kind of home business should you start?

2007-12-30T19:10:00.000-10:00

This is a question lots of you probably have? I found an answer here and it's worth a read. Also worth perusing is the askjim.biz site. Lots of good answers to common questions that prospective business folks like us have. If you want answers to specific questions about starting a business in Hawaii, here is a good resource. As a result of reading the post from the askjim.biz link, I also have added links to the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce and others in the "links" section of the blog. Good reading!

E-Commerce Starter Kit

2007-12-29T13:51:00.000-10:00

If you are thinking of delving into an internet business to sell a product or service or maybe you're just curious about what this whole thing is about, take a look at this free resource made available by Inc.com. The info available includes advice about picking a web business model that works for you, establishing a merchant account for your web business, legal aspects of e-commerce, customer service on the net, and adding a human touch to your web site.

Get paid to read email--It does work.

2007-12-28T08:55:00.000-10:00

Money can be made from these get-paid-to-read-email sites. I'm signed up with inboxdollars.com and have been making some small kine bucks from them (over $30 in the last few days--click on the screen shot at the bottom of this post for verification). The $5 sign-up fee is for real. If you do decide to go with inboxdollars.com or other get-paid-to-read-email sites, I'd suggest creating a separate email account via yahoo or gmail or a webmail site of your choice and having all the email for your home business sent there. That will help keep you organized.

Tip: look for offers that pay you to sign up for free trials. I've signed up for free trials and canceled prior to the end of the trial period. If you like the product or service offered, by all means keep the product or continue the service. But if you don't like/want/need it, remember to cancel or else you'll be billed. Usually canceling involves sending an email or making a toll-free call.

A Tip on Generating Articles for Online Pay

2007-12-27T11:42:00.001-10:00

As I have mentioned before, one way I make money from home is by writing articles for Associated Content. This morning, I alloted two hours of time to write articles. A strategy that I learned to use with some effectiveness is just to write and let the writing inspiration and juices flow. I don't stop to take notes or proofread or edit. I just let 'er rip.

If ideas for other articles come to mind while I am composing, I do stop to make note of these ideas. Today, that didn't happen, so I was able to stay focused and generate the two articles I had set a goal of completing.

I didn't the whole two hours to write the articles. I probably used an hour. The other hour I spent proofreading and revising the two articles plus two more I had composed yesterday. Plus, I used part of the second hour to post the four articles to Associated Content. BTW, if you want to know more about associated content, go here.

I hope to get at least $5 per article. Sometimes, I am offered less. Only a handful of times has an article I've written been flatly rejected. If one or more articles are really good, then I might get as much as $50. That has never happened before for an article I've written but there is always hope.

The Day After Kalikimaka

2007-12-26T13:47:00.000-10:00

Survived Christmas. Spent part of it writing a couple of articles for Associated Content. Slept in this morning and spent the ayem with my wife. We had to run an errand to town (we live in Kaneohe). Then it was back to the windward side to Long's Kaneohe where we spent an hour or so waiting for my wife's prescription to be cleared up.

Now I'm at our Kaneohe hale, doing some work-at-home stuff, namely checking email (a handful of paid-to-read stuff), working on the website, looking for news and info to post to the blog.

During my searching, I came across an opportunity called the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript. I haven't tried it, but like many other work-at-home via the web plugs, the reported upside rewards sound enticing. The cost is $97 and includes

- The Plug-N-Play Viral Website Making Software
- The "Butterfly Marketing Manuscript"
- FireSale Script Plug In
- The Viral 'Thank You Page Script' Plug In with One Time Offer Module and List Builder
- Giveaway Script Plug In
- Instant One-Time-Offer Page Plug In
- Mike Filsaime Teaching Butterfly Marketing On Stage

I did some searching to determine if the Butterfly Marketing Manuscript is a scam or not. My search indicated that money can be made but the learning curve appears steep. I did locate a portion of the manuscript (called the "leaked chapter") that you can take a look at. Nope, you don't have to pay anything for this.

Good luck and let us know how it goes if you do check it out and make millions.