How To Work From Home Online

Starting an Internet Home Business

2010-04-05T19:33:00.001-04:00

An internet home business can take one of many forms. But the easiest one to set up is usually a website or a blog. For a very small start up cost, just about anyone can become an "infopreneur". What this means is creating a site around a topic that you already know about or enjoy finding out about.

The mistake that many people make when setting up their site is that they don't think it through. If your website is going to become your business - then you need to treat it like a business right from the beginning. Setting up a business plan is a first step that is often skipped. Without thorough planning, a lot of time, effort, energy and money can be wasted. Not only that, but disillusionment sets in and the venture is quickly abandoned.

But what should a business plan include? For starters - long term goals, short term goals, and the steps you plan to take to achieve them.

Long term goals are where you basically see your business 1 year or more down the road. How much revenue do you want to earn from your site (make sure it is achievable), how many visitors per month do you expect, what types of offline activities (like consulting, or speaking) do you want to blossom out of your site?

Short term goals are basically the same thing but over a shorter course of time - say 1 to 3 months. If your blog is new then you have zero visitors today. How much traffic do you think you can attract in 1 month? How fast will this number grow?

The steps to get there include your plan for marketing and monetizing. It is all about trial and error. But tracking your efforts and the results is important. This way you can determine what works and what doesn't.

When it comes to building a website - you may have the best intentions but without a technical background, the road can be rocky. There is a new site in town that focuses on how to create an internet business called OneMightyWoman.com. Not only does this blog walk you through the ropes of setting blogging goals and choosing blog topics - but it also supports and features other sites out there that offer resources to help women bloggers. Definitely a must read!

What are your blogging goals and what steps have you taken to achieve them?

Things to Consider When Working From Home

2009-05-05T23:02:00.003-04:00

Once the decision to work from home online has been made, most people jump in head first without doing any upfront planning. Granted there are a lot of decisions to be made and it can seem overwhelming.

Even before you choose a name for your business, you must consider a few other things.

First, you must decide what your online home business will be about. What will you write about every day?
Do you know enough about the subject and are you willing to learn more?
Are other people using Google to search for words related to your potential business?
What is your competition like?
Is your business topic or in webspeak - your keyword - profitable?
How do you plan to monetize your site?
Is monetizing important to you?

Once you have formed a plan and answered the above questions then it is time to take a look at the mechanics of running a website from home.

What platform will you use?
Finding a template that works for you.
Learning the basics of html.
Learning about SEO and website promotion.
Figuring out how much time you want to invest in your new work from home job.

I will address many of these questions on this website. After all, I have been through them myself. Hopefully this will help you get started a little faster than I did.

If there is something that you would like to see me post about, please let me know so I can be as helpful as possible.

Work From Home Internship

2009-05-02T07:36:00.002-04:00

If you haven't heard of Wendy at Sparkplugging then you are missing out on a wonderful work from home resource. Wendy has helped so many people gain a foothold on the internet and get their home based businesses off the ground.

Right now her site - Sparkplugging is taking applications for a ten week blogging internship. This is a wonderful opportunity for someone that is interested in taking their website to the next level. There is so much "behind the scenes" work involved in promoting an internet business. After all web traffic only comes through good marketing. You can have the most wonderful site but without traffic it is nothing. This internship should provide some excellent hands on experience in the areas of link building, internet marketing, search engine optimization and internet research.

From what I understand, the applications are rolling in. So if you are ready to commit to ten hours a week for ten weeks - then opportunity is knocking.

Good luck!

Do I Need To Be A Writer?

2009-05-02T07:05:00.002-04:00

Before you decide that you want to work from home online - you need to ask yourself this question: Am I a writer?

So many sites will tell you that writing is not a requirement. But I think differently.

Creating original content is a key to online success.

Why? Because Google hates copycats. Sure you can use content from article directories or what is know as "PLR" articles (basically articles that you purchase and republish). But if the same exact article is already published on the net somewhere then your site won't rank as well in Google search results. And ranking well with Google is important for gaining traffic to your site.

Besides writing for your own site - you will find that working at home on the internet involves marketing your site. This means that you will need to write numerous articles for article directories, posts for blog carnivals, and descriptions for directories.

Granted, what you write does not need to be earth shattering - it just needs to be original.

The good news is that there is no cost involved. The bad news is that all of this writing takes lots of time and energy. But what home based business does not require tons of elbow grease?

I know some people that have circumvented some of the writing by hiring high school and college students on a per article basis. Definitely a good option if your income is high enough to cover the cost.

So, before you dive in head first, think about the writing angle and whether it's a good fit for you.

So You Want to Start A Blog....

2009-05-01T22:38:00.002-04:00

I made my decision to work from home online about 2 years ago.

I was a stay at home mom raising four children. In my previous life I was a professional, making a good salary and working endless hours day after day. I gave it all up to raise my family. But after 11 years of family life, I wanted more. I wanted to reassure myself that I could do more than laundry and dishes - and do it well.

Of course, both my budget and my time were tight. So I read an article about businesses that you could start for under $20. Blogging was one them. Using Blogger I could start to work for home for free. How wonderful!

According to the article, the money would just start rolling in. Using Google Adsense and affiliate marketing my website was sure to be an overnight success.

Well, anyone who has attempted working at home online knows that it is much harder than it seems. There is a whole new virtual world out there to learn and explore. There is tons of potential. But the downside is the time drain. It is impossible to absorb all of the information and avoid the scams.

Once again, every webmaster has succumbed to one scam or another. You see, new bloggers are easy prey.

What happens is that someone decides that he or she wants to start a work from home business using the net. They invest time, energy, even money, in designing the most awesome website that ever existed. It is pretty, it is informative, it is sure to be the new "it" place on the net.

Once the site is up the waiting begins. The long wait for visitors. The traffic stat codes are in place and now we are ready to track the visitors. I remember those first days of checking every 5 minutes to see who stopped by - where they came from - and how long they stayed.

After a week or a month or more, and still only a small trickle of traffic, desperation starts to set in. Why isn't there traffic? How do I get more hits? What am I doing wrong? And that is when the new webmaster decides that they need this package or that product.

And when these things don't even work, many people just pack it in and decide that this work from home thing is for the birds. Time to get a "real" job.

Do you hear the voice of experience talking?

Now maybe I am just slow to realize when it is time to jump ship. But I am a work at home mom - a WAHM. I do this because my first priority, my first job - if you will, is my family. My online job is supposed to be part time. Actually my goal is to create a passive income stream. And, yes, over the years I have achieved a certain level of success.

Most importantly, I have learned what doesn't work.

What I will share here are my ideas and opinions on what will lead to online success.

I would love to hear your comments as well.

Work From Home Resources

2008-12-06T19:51:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note - I know many of us are searching for work from home resources that can guide us to a successful online career. That's why you're here, isn't it?

Anyhow, I will eventually hit on several websites that I rely upon for good advice. But sometimes nothing beats plain, old fashioned print. You know - a book.

The downside to "How to Work From Home" books is that they are often outdated before they even hit the bookstore shelf. Technology changes that quickly.

But recently I came across a title called How to Make Money with Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog. There is some decent information here. The first few chapters quickly lead the reader through setting up a blog and straight on to keyword research. Not many resources do this - and honestly, keywords are so much more important than you know. If people aren't searching for it, then it's not worth writing about.

Also, this book has some good lists as to where to submit your site for free and also lists on which sites to ping whenever you write a new post.

Now if these terms are foreign to you, don't fret. I hope to cover them some time in the future. But if I don't, please shoot me an email and I will absolutely cover it for you.

Best Work From Home Jobs

2008-12-06T08:37:00.002-05:00

What are the best work from home jobs?

The answer, obviously, will be different for everyone.

For me, the ideal work at home position is something that

Allows me to work during odd hours
Is easy and cheap to set up
Has the potential to make a decent amount of money,

I work from home because I made the choice to quit the workforce when my kids were born. Now that they are older - I need to start contributing to the family coffers. But I still need a flexible schedule to handle all my mom duties since we have no other childcare or household help.

That is my story in a nutshell.

Other people have a ton of different reasons to try and earn money at home.

Whatever the reasons, the question is the same - How do I find the best work from home jobs for me?

I can tell you that making money online was and still is my first choice.

Am I a techie? No. But I do enjoy computers and being online. Always have.

Am I writer? No. But I don't mind writing posts and articles. And this does help.

Did I ever think that I would have my own website - or better yet, a small portfolio of them? Not on your life.

But here I am.

I chose this path as a work at home mom because I read somewhere that a blog was a home based business that you could start for under $20.

Great! I set up a blogger blog in minutes. This blog had a catchy little title with no real topic.

I started writing about whatever stuff came to mind - which wasn't much. Because, you see, I'm kind of shy. Yeah, go ahead, call me an introvert. I don't put pictures of my kids all over the net, I don't write controversial stuff, and I didn't write much, in fact, because "people I know" might be reading - and what would they think? These so called "problems" really held me back in the beginning. But I learned that none of these issues were important when it came to working from home successfully.

Oh great - a blogger with nothing to blog about. My work at home venture was stuck on the ground.

On top of that, my site was ugly, and I couldn't code for beans. So, I spent most of my first year online wasting time and stressing about stuff that really didn't matter.

But I am not a quitter. And I tend to stay in a bad situation longer than I should. So I stuck with it, learning and learning and learning. I read everything I could find and had to figure out what was legitimate advice and what was total cr*p.

Thanks to resources like Griz's make money site, I learned some important stuff about the "behind the scenes" work that makes an online home business successful. I discovered the importance of keywords and backlinks, how to choose the right blogging platform for me, and how to read and evaluate my stats. Thankfully, I find all of this to be incredibly fascinating since it probably bores many another person to tears.

So, the answer for me is that the best work from home jobs involve working online. Maybe it is the best answer for you too.

Free Work From Home

2008-11-04T13:18:00.003-05:00

Can you start a free work from home business? That is the million dollar question.

Many people get started online like I did - using a free service like Blogger. After many years of raising kids, I was ready for a little something more. I didn't have huge amounts of capital to invest (read: none), my time was still limited, and while technology is a hobby/interest of mine - I have no formal programming training.

I recall reading an article somewhere about home based businesses that could be started for under $20. Yeah, right, sure.

Well starting a website was on the list using a free hosting service - Blogger. The make money online part would come from a service like Adsense.

It sounded pretty easy - set up a site, write some stuff, put up the Adsense code, and the riches would start pouring in. I would even settle for a trickle.

Now, I am a private person by nature, so writing for the entire internet was not a natural feeling for me. And really, what would I write about - stinky diapers and playgroups? But I wanted to accomplish something on a professional level - so I forged ahead and started what I wanted to become my thriving online business - my personal blog.

Ha!

You guessed it - I wrote my heart out and no one came. I didn't know squat about internet marketing, keyword research, search engine optimization, and everything else that goes along with building a successful website. My site was so home grown and basic that it was glowing green.

After almost six months my website traffic was still low and I was still learning the ropes. Many people give up at this time. Having spent countless hours without making money online, they get discouraged. But not I - after all, I am known to hang on long after what is considered a reasonable amount of time (but that is another story).

So where am I headed with this? Well, just know that there is no free lunch. And a free work from home business does not exist. Even if there are no dollars required the amount of time needed is huge. But that is the case with any endeavor - an online business or not.

If you are willing to put in the time, stick with me. I have learned a lot of lessons through trial and error and I will put these forth in a future post. But my family is calling and I am out of time for the day.

Work From Home Jobs

2008-11-03T13:14:00.002-05:00

Here's a little background on me. I started looking for work from home jobs when my first child was born twelve years ago.

The world was a different place back then - the internet was a baby too. And work at home opportunities consisted of stuffing envelopes kind of work. In other words - scams!

I am an educated women and had a professional career before becoming a stay at home mom, but still I fell for a few of these get rich quick promises. In fact I was probably more vulnerable than most. After all, it is hard to go from making a good salary in an office environment to changing diapers and doing laundry all day long. The rewards were still there, they were just measured differently.

As the internet exploded during the late nineties, working from home became more and more realistic. But make money online schemes cropped up everywhere as well. Can you blame scammers from trying to make a buck too?

In the end, online jobs and traditional jobs are not all that different. Both take determination and hard work. I have seen women succeed all over the net. Websites, blogs, stores....you name it are run by successful women straight from their kitchen tables.

These women have created their own work from home jobs and are making a name for themselves.

But I can't help but wonder, how successful are they - really? I suppose that does depend on how you define success. But in my mind internet fame is secondary to dollars. And the fact of the matter is that not a lot of women make money in their online ventures.

My time is worth a lot. If I am working hard to develop good sites with good information then I need to make money and then I will feel successful.

I aim to make this site the place to share ideas to help women succeed in their home business.

Work From Home Contact

2008-11-03T13:12:00.002-05:00

You may contact me at workfromhomedigest [at] gmail [dot] com.

Work From Home Terms and Conditions

2008-11-03T13:02:00.002-05:00

And yet more business:

Work From Home compiles the best information possible here, but all information should be considered my personal opinion and NOT fact. It is your responsibility to verify any information and conduct your own research before making any decisions or taking any action. Work From Home is not liable for anything that occurs from your use of posts contained here.

Work From Home Privacy Policy

2008-11-03T12:59:00.004-05:00

I just need to take care of a little business here - behold my Privacy Policy:

Work From Home Digest recognizes that your privacy is important. This document outlines the types of personal information we receive and collect when you use Work From Home Digest, as well as some of the steps we take to safeguard information. We hope this will help you make an informed decision about sharing personal information with us.

This site strives to maintain the highest standards of decency, fairness and integrity in all our operations. Likewise, we are dedicated to protecting our customers', consumers' and online visitors' privacy on our website.

Personal Information

Work From Home Digest collects personally identifiable information from the visitors to our website only on a voluntary basis. Personal information collected on a voluntary basis may include name, postal address, email address, company name and telephone number.

This information is collected if you request information from us, participate in a contest or sweepstakes, and sign up to join our email list or request some other service or information from us. The information collected is internally reviewed, used to improve the content of our website, notify our visitors of updates, and respond to visitor inquiries.

Once information is reviewed, it is discarded or stored in our files. If we make material changes in the collection of personally identifiable information we will inform you by placing a notice on our site. Personal information received from any visitor will be used only for internal purposes andwill not be sold or provided to third parties.

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In some cases, we may collect information about you that is not personally identifiable. We use this information, which does not identify individual users, to analyze trends, to administer the site, to track users' movements around the site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. The information collected is used solely for internal review and not shared with other organizations for commercial purposes.

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If you do not agree to the Work From Home Digest Privacy Policy as posted here on this website, please do not use this site or any services offered by this site.

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Work From Home

2008-11-03T12:20:00.000-05:00

Hi! Welcome to Work From Home. I am a WAHM (work at home mom) and am making my way on the internet.

I am the owner of several websites and have been at this business for about a year and a half. Luckily, I seen a bit of success and through trial and error I am determined to make money online.

By creating this blog I am breaking my first cardinal rule - do not create a make money online site! Everyone says that the competition is rough - and make money sites just don't make money.

But having been at it for some time I just have the need to write it all down.

It is a way of organizing my thoughts and sharing what I learn.