Archive for October, 2008

By: Tammy Embrich

There is some desperation around work at home town from folks needing to make some extra cash for the holidays. Everyday I see members of many work at home forums searching for an honest online job. Here it is…just two short months before Christmas day.

Is it too late to realistically find a telecommute job and make money with it in time for the big holiday?

Well, that all depends on the type of position applied for and the company. Sometimes folks get lucky and get an interview right away, and other times it could take weeks or months. Most times, it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

Should one feel optimistic about finding a work at home position right away? Absolutely!

A job seeker should begin their search with confidence and motivation. Without it, they won’t get very far. Also, repetition of applications is key when trying to land a home job. Apply consistently and think positive. There is still a chance to make some holiday cash for this year.

But the question is…what type of work is actually available online and where can one find it?

There are many positions that can be done at home. A lot of online companies are looking to hire home-based contract workers. The jobs range from bookkeeping, customer service and support, writing, blogging, transcription, admin assistant, and others.

Search for home employment on job related websites such as careerbuilder.com, craigslist.org, monster.com, jobbank.com, and others. Do a search for those sites with the keywords “work at home job boards” or “home job boards.” If you’re particularly searching for writing or blogging jobs, take a look at jobs.problogger.net.

You can also search on work at home forums, or telecommute job forums. There are usually specific sections for telecommuting jobs. Sign up on these forums and stay updated on the listings.

Important Tip: You will need to create a professional resume that can be tailored for specific jobs…as most telecommute companies require a resume. It’s also a good idea to include a cover letter. Your resume and cover letter is your key to an interview.

Did you know that holiday sales often represent as much as 75% of a retailer’s annual profits? These retailers routinely are busiest at this time of year. So…in truth, it may be easier to find a work at home position closer to the holidays. But, one never knows until placing one foot in front of the other and trying.

I wish you luck, wealth, and happiness throughout this holiday season!

Article written By: Tammy Embrich

Tammy owns and operates two work at home websites, a work at home forum, a recipe site and three blogs.

She offers free work at home job leads for the job seeker, business work at home articles, tips, and more. You can visit Tammy at Work At Home and Real Work At Home Jobs.

By: Carrie Lauth

When I network with small business owners and online marketers, I often find myself asking them if they’ve launched their blog yet. Adding a blog has so many important benefits and it’s no wonder that huge corporations and megastores are also getting into blogging. Especially for the micropreneur however, blogs have several distinct advantages. Here are a few.

1. A blog is search engine food! Google and the other big search engines love content and a blog can help you get free search engine traffic. Recently search engines are giving more weight to blogs because they want to offer the freshest, most relevant content to internet searchers.

2. Blogs create community. Because they are interactive, a blog draws people back to your site again and again. Your visitors will read your post then leave their comments, read comments left by others, and come back to see how the conversation is flowing. Blogs are much easier to manage than message forums too. With RSS (Real Simple Syndication), people can subscribe to your blog feed and be notified automatically when you update your blog.

3. Blogging puts you in control of your site. Posting to your blog is as easy as typing an email or a word document. Why pay a designer to add a page to your website when you can update your site whenever you like, easy as pie? You can blog as often or as rarely as you like to serve your particular needs.

4. Blogs help you grow your bottom line. There are many ways you can add additional monetization streams to your blog so you can make more money in your business without working harder.

5. Your customers love blogs. They can ask you questions, read info about your products and services, and share their opinions. A blog has a more friendly feel than a website.

6. Blogs help you know your target market. As you observe who is leaving comments on your blog, you get to know your market better. This education helps you be a smarter marketer.

7. Conduct market research. A blog is an easy way to conduct surveys and polls to help you get inside the mind of your customers. This information is invaluable to you.

8. Blogs help your customers get to know you. A blog gives your customers a chance to see your personality shine through. People buy from people they like!

9. Blogging is fun. I’ll admit it, blogging is addicting once you get going! There are so many benefits to your business. What’s not to love?

10. As a small business owner, you have a limited marketing budget. Blogging is a free marketing tactic – it only costs you a little of your time. Getting a blog installed and designed on your domain typically costs less than having a new website designed too.
Have I convinced you? Blogging is not a fad or a trend. It’s a smart marketing technique that allows you to build relationships with your target market and leverage the power of the internet.

About The Author

Get help setting up your blog, learn what you should blog about, and get marketing tips to get more blog traffic at www.CarrieLauth.com/hire-carrie.htm and visit Carrie at her business blog, www.CarrieLauth.com/blog.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

By: Tammy Embrich

Once again, the holidays are fast approaching. Thousands of Internet marketers are anxiously searching for some innovative ways to get traffic flowing to their site. A holiday forum contest may be just the ticket. It’s the perfect time of year to start planning and advertising for it.

To start things off…there are a few things you will need to take into consideration before attempting to hold a successful contest.

1. For a successful contest you will of course need to have a good amount of active members that would be interested in participating in the competition. People that visit your forum on a weekly or daily basis.

2. Know in advance what type of contest you want to have. (What your members will actually be doing for the competition). Try and be creative with this…as there are lots of ideas to consider.

3. How will you entice your forum members and prospective members to WANT to enter your contest?

The number one thing that your members will immediately ask themselves is of course, “What’s in it for me?”

Well, there are a number of prize ideas that you could offer:

* If it’s financially feasible, you could offer a cash prize.

*A free advertising package would be an excellent prize idea. You will want to make your free advertising package as attractive as possible. If you have more than one website where the member’s link, button, or banner would appear…that would mean double rewards. And who wouldn’t appreciate free advertising?!

* If you operate a direct selling business…you could give away a product package. And to make your give away even better, perhaps offer additional various mix and match freebies.

* Offer free ebooks or ecourses for your business. Marketers will always appreciate prizes such as these. Plus it would be a big boost for your business.

* If you have a “featured business” or a “featured website” section on your website…this would be a great prize to offer. Have the winner of the contest featured in that section for a full month or however many months you choose.

4. Start a poll thread two or three months ahead of time for prospective entries for the contest including full details and reward offers. Offer two options in your poll.

*YES, Count me in!

*I am not interested at this time

5. Advertise for your forum contest. The best places that I have found and also offers the best immediate results are other message forums. A lot of message forums have a specific section just for contests. Start advertising two to three months in advance.

*Place text links and ads for your contest on all your websites.

* Mass email all your forum members about your contest with all the details and award prizes and encourage them to tell others.

* If you have a newsletter, do a write up about the contest.

* If you own any blogs, post blog entries and include all details and award prizes.

There you have it…some helpful tips for a successful forum contest.

One last thing…Have fun with it and be creative. Don’t have an ordinary event that you see everyday on other forums. Try and come up with something extraordinary or unusual. Most importantly…something that you think your members would have a lot of fun doing.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy owns and operates two work at home websites, a work at home forum, a recipe site and three blogs.

She offers free work at home job leads for the job seeker, business work at home articles, tips, and more. You can visit Tammy at Work At Home Jobs and Real Work At Home Jobs

By: Denise Willms

The holiday marketing season has begun. If you market your business online, you might be busy writing and submitting articles to help you gain your share of that Christmas cash.

But wouldn’t it be nice if you could keep holiday spenders buying from you all year round?

How Can You Turn Christmas Shoppers into Long-term Customers?

If you’re an online business owner with a product to sell, it’s easy to turn a one-time shopper into a long-term customer. You’ve heard the phrase, “the money’s in the list,” haven’t you? Well, here’s how you can use your articles to build that list and a create a relationship with your customers.

What do relationships have to do with selling more of your stuff?

Here’s the math: Relationship equals trust. Trust equals sales. Ta da!

Why Many Article Writers Lose Out on Winning Sales

All else equal, the author’s resource box is where potential customers can be won, or lost for good. The resource box is that blurb at the end of the article where you get to do your bit of self-promotion, and invite the reader to your website.

Some marketers will invite the reader to a page that sells their product, with the hope that they’ll buy it then and there. That could happen. Or it might not.

The reality is, most people who read your article and click through to your website, won’t buy your product right away. So you wrote an interesting article. So what? They don’t know who you are, and it could take some time for them to learn to trust you, and decide you’re someone they’d like to do business with.

If you only offer a link to your sales page in your resource box, a reader might click through, see the sales page, and never come back. You’ll have no way to follow up with them, and turn them into customers.

How to Turn Holiday Browsers into Buyers, and Keep Them Buying More

Many article marketers find it more effective to get visitors to sign up for their newsletter first, then promote their product to their newsletter subscribers. This way, you have time to earn their trust, and you also have the opportunity to sell more products to them after they’re done their holiday shopping.
Instead of sending them to a product sales page, use your resource box to invite them to your newsletter sign up page. You’ll have to put some decent copy here, though. An empty page with just a sign up box is not very encouraging.

And once they’re your subscriber, you can sell them anything you want, any time you want.

Who says Christmas only comes once a year?

About The Author

By creating content moms like to read, Denise Willms helps gain exposure and build reputations for those who market to moms. Go to www.WAHM-Articles.com/forum and sign up for your free account to learn more about writing WAHM Articles, and building your own relationship with the mom market.

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

By: S McIntyre

What are the best ways to advertise for free? This question is asked on a regular basis. There are a whole slew of responses that include from free classifieds, traffic exchanges and blogging to social networking. For many people, me included today’s most recommended choice is article marketing. Why? Simply because it’s free and effective!

Here are three reasons article marketing should be used in your advertising arsenal.

Reason #1 – It’s free!
Article marketing is one of the best free advertising methods. When you write an article, you’re allowed to have an “About the Author” blurb at the end of your article. This is a little bit about you and a couple of links to your website or business. That little “about you” info goes a long way when your articles are read time and time again or when webmasters reprint your article on blogs, forums, newsletters, ezines and websites.

Write using keywords or keyword phrases as this will help in search engine ranking. This also creates backlinks which is helpful in search engines. The more articles you write and submit to directories, the more viral it becomes. It’s a lot of free advertising and a lot of free exposure.

Reason #2 – You’re an expert.
Writing within your niche will only prove you know what you’re talking about. Informative, no fluff, no hype articles will enable people to believe in you and have trust in what you’re saying. People are more apt to buy from people who they trust and by offering free knowledge through article marketing it is the best way to build trust.

Not only do people see you as a credible and trustworthy person, but it increases business relationships and creates branding. Branding yourself as a recognized expert with a solid reputation in your field will earn you more profits in the long run.

Reason #3 – Business growth.
Article marketing can help you grow your business by directing targeted traffic to your site. Interested people will be visiting your website because they see something of value or something that can benefit them in some way and if it benefits them, surely they will recommend your site to others.

As you can see article marketing is not about pitching a sales copy, but providing information and knowledge your readers are looking for. How often do you use search engines to find information? I use it everyday.

Make article marketing your business and use it consistently because it is effective and it works!

About The Author

S McIntyre owns www.WorkAtHomeSpace.com a free work at home resource focusing on telecommuting companies, daily job leads, articles, business resources, tips, ideas and more.

Article Source: Work At Home Space Articles.