Archive for May, 2008

By: Tammy Embrich

Look around you…what do you see around your work at home office? What is around your desk? Is there a window in your office? Is your office tidy and organized? What inspires you?

The following are some inspirational ideas you may or may not have thought of…

My work at home office is where I spend approximately forty five or more hours every week. That is a lot of hours to be confined to just one room. So…what inspires me that I am surrounded with in my home office?

Well, I have a lot of photos of my son that sit on top of my desk. Those are a real inspiration to me. Throughout my day, I take little breaks and look up at them. A flood of memories go through my mind…good ones. These are good thoughts and they help keep me motivated.

I also have a framed poem sitting on my desk. It is titled; “To Those I love.” This framed jewel was given to me by my Sister. It was from my Mother, whom has passed on. My Mother always gave me a lot of support with my online business. And all I have to do is look up at that frame and read it, and it gives me all the inspiration I need to get me through my day.

A couple of scented candles also sit on my desk. I light these regularly. My favorite scents…Cherry Plums and Lavender.

You may ask, how do candles inspire me? Well, this is just something that I look forward to on a day to day basis. The scents wake me up in the early morning hours…leaving me with a feeling of restfullness, calmness, and peace and ready to start my day.

I also keep a work at home notebook on my desk. This is really just a big version of my daily to-do-lists. Things that I would like to accomplish everyday. I make it a point to open it and look at it everyday. I change it a bit from time to time to make it fit into my work at home schedule as time goes on and as my business needs change.

Room decor is also important to me. I have pictures on the walls, a couple of plaques, and a curio cabinet filled with crystal (with purple accents, that I’ve collected over the years), and a chime clock. My favorite color is purple and the room is filled with it. I think the decor in your home office is important when it comes to your inspirations. If you don’t like something, change it.

So what inspires you to stay motivated and on task with your business? It could be the simplest thing.

This list beow is just a few things to get you brainstorming…

Photos
Room decor
Business Journal
Work At Home Notebook (scheduler)
Scented candles
Music
Plaques/Awards (your accomplishments)
Reminder sticky notes
Window (looking out your window)…what you see
Written goals
Find a mentor (a business buddy)

See if you can come up with some more ideas to keep you inspired. Your home office needs inspiration to keep you thriving, motivated, and on task.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy is an Internet marketer and offers work at home free job leads, work at home articles, tips, and more. She is the owner of Work At Home Jobs and Real Work At Home Jobs.

Tammy’s two work at home websites focus on free telecommute job leads, work at home articles, and more.

By: Tom J Smith

If you want many one way links pointing to your website, there is no better way than posting to forums. There are numerous forums on the internet that cover all subjects. Some are very popular and well managed. Others are less visited but can still be beneficial in building back links.

The first thing you need to do is try and find a forum that fits your niche. If your website is about internet marketing, there are many marketing forums. If you run a website about dogs, then pet forums are the key. A simple search in Google should yield several forums. Once you find several that fit, then you need to become a member. They all require you to signup before you can post anything. Before you post anything you should browse the categories and see if you can add anything worthwhile. Meaning if someone posts a question, maybe you have the solution and can post the answer.

You will want to set up your profile and signature. This can include a link to your website, the key to building back links. Every post you make will have your signature—a one way link to your website. Each forum has their own rules about signatures. Some won’t allow you to display it until you have made a certain number of posts. Others limit what you can say. Most forums have rules about signature spam.

Be an active member, post your own questions, and answer other member’s questions. Just don’t fill your posts with spam and links to your website. You will be banned in no time. Read the rules and then follow them. Search through the different categories to get a real feel for what people are looking for.

There are another group of forums that allow you to outright advertise your products and services. These are called “free advertising forums” They can serve the same purpose of building back links and drive traffic to your site at the same time. They do require you to register like others but they are a little looser with the rules. Some have categories that allow you to announce your new website or blog. They can certainly help you get your site indexed. If you are looking for these forums simply do a google search for “free advertising forum”

Search engines love forums and as they get indexed, your links will be picked up. Giving you a nice boost in search engines. Some more popular forums are crawled virtually everyday so you link could show up in search engines within days.

Start posting to forums today and you will start building lots of one way back links.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Be sure to visit the free advertising forum at North Star Internet. Announce your website or Blog. Post your products and services for free. www.northstarinternet.com/index.php.
Courtesy of: EZ Realtor Finder

By: Wendy Betterini

Scammers are getting more creative every day, coming up with new schemes to get your money (or sensitive information). Knowledge is power! By educating yourself on the common scams and keeping aware about new ones, you can stop the scammers in their tracks. Remember, if no one fell for their tactics, they would be out of business! Here are some of the most common scams today:

Stuffing Envelopes – There are no legitimate envelope-stuffing jobs out there. Please don’t fool yourself into believing there are. Companies can very easily purchase a beautiful machine for a few thousand dollars that will not only stuff the envelopes, it will also fold, collate and apply postage to the envelopes. Why would a company pay you thousands of dollars a month to stuff their envelopes? They wouldn’t. If you send in your fee for this scam, you will receive a copy of the same ad you responded to, and you will now have to scam other people by placing the ad and having them send you their money. This is illegal.

Typing and Data Entry – Similar to the scheme above, if you sign up for this and pay your fee, you will receive a copy of the same ad, and have to place ads to get other people to send you their money. You earn $20 per “application processed” because you are charging people $20 to get the information. Again, illegal. There are some legitimate companies that will hire you to do typing and data entry (such as transcription or coding) — but they won’t charge you a fee to work for them. If a fee is being charged, it’s a scam.

Craft Assembly – Most of these opportunities are scams because they make their money by the start-up fees you pay. When you receive your kit, you will assemble dozens of earrings, potholders, magnets (or whatever), send them in for payment, and they will not pass inspection. You can try to fix them as many times as you like, they still won’t be accepted. The company doesn’t want the items you assembled, they want your money for the start-up kit. There are a few legitimate companies out there, however. Disciple’s Cross and New England Crafters are two we’ve found so far. We are researching others.

Medical Billing – There are companies that will train you to become a Medical Biller from home, as long as you purchase the Medical Billing software for your computer from them. (Usually costs a few hundred dollars at least) What they don’t tell you is that YOU will be responsible for finding your own clients (Doctors/Dentists). This can be incredibly difficult to do, since most medical professionals already use a billing service, or do their own billing in the office. With the new Privacy laws, medical professionals need to be extremely careful with patient records, and most will not want to trust someone with no billing experience to handle the office billing at home.

Payment Associate/Specialist – A company wants to hire you to place auctions on eBay and accept customer payments using your own accounts). You get to keep a portion of the money, and send the rest to the company. The company is supposed to ship the product to the customer, but they don’t. (or they ship stolen goods) You are now in big trouble with eBay and Paypal for fraud. Don’t do it! Don’t ever use your own accounts for anything other than your own business. Companies should be able to set up their own accounts just as easily as you did for yourself.

Pyramid Schemes – A pyramid scheme is when money changes hands but there is no product or service being sold. “Joe” charges you $200 to join the scheme, and then you in turn need to charge others $200 to join, and they charge others, etc. This is illegal. Remember, there must be a product or service being sold.

Gifting Programs – This is also an illegal pyramid scheme, but they call it a “gifting program” — in other words, you “gift” Joe $200, and then you need to find others who will “gift” you $200, and so on. Illegal.

Chain Letters – These have been around for years! They used to come by postal mail, but now they also arrive via email. There are usually 5 names on the list, you need to move each name up a spot, removing the top name, and place your name at the bottom, and then send $5 to each name on the list and send it out to everyone you know. Highly illegal. There is also a version for online payment services like Paypal, you send $2 or $5 (the amount varies) to the people on the list, and others are supposed to do the same for you. Don’t get caught up in something like this, it can ruin your life.

Surveys & Mystery Shopping – While not all survey and mystery shopping companies are scams, there are quite a few that love to charge you a membership fee, claiming you can earn hundreds of dollars a day. When you sign up, you find more companies that want to charge you a fee to join, and companies that will pay you very little for your time and energy. There are some legitimate companies out there, and you don’t have to pay to find them. Also be aware that you probably won’t get rich from doing surveys and mystery shopping, but it can certainly bring in some decent pocket money.

These next few aren’t necessarily work at home schemes, but they bear mentioning because they’re so popular:

Bulk email – Usually these offers are sent by email, but you’ll see ads like this around the internet also. You can purchase tons of email addresses for a low fee. If you have a home business and you’re trying to get customers or subscribers to your mailing list, sounds like a great deal, right? Don’t do it. Most (if not all) of those addresses have been harvested by spambots. If you send out a mailing to them, you will likely be reported for spam. You can lose your internet service provider, your business, and even have to pay a huge fine for spamming. Not worth it!

Phishing – You get an urgent email from Paypal, eBay or even your bank stating that your account is in jeopardy and you need to update your account info immediately! You click on the link and go to a page that looks legitimate enough, but it’s actually a fake page. If you enter your login and password information, the scammer can now access your accounts. Don’t ever click on a link in an email like this. Open a new browser window and type the company website address yourself. Your account should show whether there is a problem or not. (Most companies would have a big notice in there if you need to update something.) These companies usually have a spoof email address you can send these “phishing” emails to. For example, spoof@paypal.com, or spoof@ebay.com. Simply forward the email with full headers to them. They will investigate and stop the scammer if they can.

Free merchandise – Have you gotten the emails claiming you can earn a free computer, phone card or other merchandise? What usually happens is you would have to pay a membership fee, and then get a certain number of other people to join and pay the membership fee also. Unfortunately, there is usually some little clause you weren’t aware of, and you never do get your free stuff. It’s a waste of time and money.

Nigerian scams – You get a long letter from someone claiming to be the son or daughter of someone important, and they need to have you deposit a huge sum of money into your own bank account, and then wire most of it to them by Western Union. You get to keep a nice chunk of the money for your troubles. The problem is that the check is fake, and takes a few days or even weeks to bounce, and you now owe that money back to the bank. Unfortunately, you don’t have it anymore, you wired most of it out to those people! Another Nigerian scam targets business owners. You receive a large order at your website, or they email to ask if they can order a large amount of goods, and they ask if you accept credit cards. Do not fall for this, the credit cards are stolen and if you ship the goods, you will be out the money AND the goods.

In closing, remember that scammers are after only two things: your money, or your sensitive information. If you refuse to give either willingly, you put them right out of business. For more information on common scams, do an internet search on the FTC Dirty Dozen.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

Wendy Betterini is a freelance writer, web designer and owner of www.CreativeWorkAtHome.com, a resource center for home business owners and telecommuters. Visit today for information on how to make your work at home experience successful.

By: Tammy Embrich

Going about finding work at home jobs is not an easy task. First you have to think about what it is you would really enjoy doing. Also, think about these questions…

What experience do you have?

Are your typing skills satisfactory?

Do you enjoy talking on the phone?

The above questions are factors you need to consider when contemplating a home based job. Most work at home companies prefer an employee with certain types of skills. However, there are a select few that will hire you without experience and offer on-the-job training.

So, where is the best place to search for work at home jobs?

Throughout my experience online I have found work at home message forums to be at the top of the list, but there are other good resources. The list below includes the top job boards.

Careerbuilder.com
Monster.com
Vault.com
Jobbank.com
Dice.com

Also, you can do a simple search for jobs on Google. You will get tons of results for typing in the key words “work at home jobs” or “work from home jobs.”

What type of job are you best suited for?

If you like people and love to talk on the phone, perhaps a customer service job would be a good fit. If you can type fairly accurately and at a fair amount of speed, then maybe searching for transcription jobs would be a good idea. Also, there are many writing and editing jobs available if you like to write, and you have editing or journalism experience.

You might also take a look at blogging jobs if you like writing. Currently, there are many blog owners who simply don’t have the time to come up with fresh content they need to keep their blogs consistently updated.

Beware of all the scam sites

The scam sites are really very easy to spot. For example: if you find a site or an ad that says “Work at home and earn $1000 weekly” this is a sure fire warning of a true scam. Another popular scam ad would be “Simple data entry from home…make $5000 monthly” Any site that promises you X amount of dollars weekly or monthly is a huge warning sign of a scam.

In addition, when searching for a legitimate job…do take the following factors into consideration:

The companies’ contact information. A true work at home employment site will usually give you a telephone number and a support email.

Length of time in business. The majority of legitimate companies have been in business for a considerable amount of time. You can check the length of time in business by looking at the copyright information at the bottom of the site.

Does the company require a resume for home employment?
Does the company require an interview?

The factors above are all signs of a legitimate home employment company.

Determine what your skillsets are and what you are truly interested in doing, and then take action. There are many jobs that can be performed from home successfully. It does take effort and time to do the proper searches. Apply consistently and never give up. By using the steps required, you’ll be sure and find a work at home job that is best suited for you.

Article Written By: Tammy Embrich

Tammy is a Internet marketer and is the owner of Work at Home Opportunities | Work at Home Jobs and Real Work At Home Jobs.

Tammy’s two work at home websites focus on free telecommute job leads, articles, and more.

By: Luat Tran Van

You have two choices to consider when trying get your site ranked higher in search engines. You can hire a Search Engine Optimization Company that is an expert in the field or if you have some time, you can do it yourself.

Research your Keywords

Ask yourself what keywords you think someone might type in when searching for products you sell or services you provide. Though a keyword may be only one word it is usually a phrase made up of keywords. Phrases are more specific and will more than likely be what potential customers use when searching for products or services online.

After a quick brainstorming session write down all that you were able to come up with. Make sure to consider geographical phrases if they are important to your customers and don’t forget of alternative words that could be used (an example could be “new car Littleton”). Make sure to surf the websites of your competition to get more ideas until you can come up with a list in the neighborhood of 20 to 30.

Now you should take two keywords from your list that you feel potential customers will use most frequently. Take into consideration that popular keywords are also competitive keywords and harder to achieve higher ranking with. If your goal is to obtain a high ranking for the term “auto insurance”, the path to achieving it may be long. Try to make your keywords the ones that are most related to your business and not riddled with vagueness or extremely competitive. Make each phrase about two or three words in length like the previous example.

Now that we have your keywords we will move on to the next step.

Site Text

Your site text is made up of the wording that is on your web page. There is a phrase for search engines and it is content is king. Search engines love unique content and your keywords should be placed in key locations within the content so Google understands the relevance your site has to them. Also make sure that your copy reads well around them as it needs to make sense for your visitors who are most important.

Keywords can be placed in headings, at the top of pages, in bold or italics, used as link text for other pages of your site and in your title tag.

Add additional content after you are finished tuning up your webpage. Give more detailed descriptions of the products and services you offer. Provide a frequently asked questions page and pages of articles that pertain to your products or services.

With your design you should keep in mind that search engines cannot read images nearly as well as text. Sites that are made up with excessive flash or pictures really impede how well they can read the content of your site.

Link Building

A common way of thinking about links is that every link from another site that leads to yours is a vote for the popularity of your site. Every quality link you receive can improve your search rankings.

The quality of your inbound links is more vital than the quantity. The preferred and more valuable link is from sites that are relevant to your niche and with authority (highly regarded in the niche). A quality directory with relevant categories is another example. Just a few quality links with authority can have more value for your site than hundreds of lesser quality. Think of it like you do your personal business network. Both can have a strong effect on the success or failure of your business.

Take time to consider all the other relevant websites in your niche such as organizations, industry affiliates and non-competing companies. Send them a email introducing yourself, your products and services and explain how your website could benefit their visitors. Then politely suggest that they create a link to your website from theirs.

Record the Results

Over time you should watch and record your search engine rankings by doing a Google search for your chosen keywords to see where you rank. You can also monitor where your visitors are coming from by watching your hosting reports. Do this for each significant page of your website.

Continue to add to your websites content and increase the links to your website over time. This needs to be an ongoing effort for as long as you want visitors to your website.

As you continue to record the results of your efforts you should see the traffic increase and with that your sales. Know where your visitors are coming from so you can continually monitor your marketing efforts successes. Only by measuring it do you know where and how to improve it.

About The Author

Visit the Authority Web Directory to increase your websites online marketing presence. Plus, you can read more industry information at the Authority Blog.

Article Source: http://greatarticlesformoms.com