It’s natural for a new work at home job seeker to have tons of questions before they begin their search, and also often during their search. There are scams scattered everywhere you look on the Internet and one has to be extra cautious.

Perhaps a job seeker has already been scammed and wants to be reassured they won’t be a victim again? Or maybe they just need to know exactly where to start? The answers to the below questions and the following tips will help.

Q - Do I have to have experience in order to work at home?

A - For work at home in general, one does have to have basic Internet navigation skills and basic typing skills. For a lot of the telecommute jobs that are available, one does have to have certain skill sets. However, it depends on which company you are applying for as to what skills you need to get the job. For each job listed, it usually states “specifics of experience needed” and often times will require a resume from you. A few of the companies will train you on the job and if so, it will be stated on the company’s website. Also some of the companies will require you to train on site for so many months of said company before you are allowed to work at home.

Q - Can I make enough money to pay my bills from working at home?

A - Yes, it certainly is possible. For telecommute jobs, it all depends on what company you apply for. The pay varies for each job/company. For best results and if possible, try to work for more than one company to help secure your income.

Q - Does a telecommute company require any fees to get started working?

A - The only fees that should be required are for specific software in order to do the work, a headset for customer service, a foot pedal for transcription work, and for some companies, a background check. If a company requires any other fees than the ones listed above such as start up or registration fees…these are scams. Always do your research.

Q - What types of jobs are offered in telecommuting?

A - There are many jobs available for you to choose from including:

* Customer Service
* Data Entry
* Admin Assistant
* Freelance Writing
* Blogging
* General and Medical Transcription
* Coding
* Web Design
* Tutoring
* Graphic Design

Q - How does one research a job lead to find out if they are a scam or not?

A - Below are the number one signs of a scam:

1) Registration fees
2) No contact information
3) Statement saying you will make $xxx amount of dollars in a short time
4) Free hosted website

Below are some sites for you to search out certain online scams:

fraud.org/
scambusters.com/
consumeraffairs.com/scam_alerts/scam_alerts.htm
econsumer.gov/english/
search.bbb.org/
ripoffreport.com

Important Tip: You can also type in the name of the company with the word “scam” behind it in the home page of google.com to find out scams

Q - How many hours do you have to work when working from home?

A - For telecommute jobs, it depends on what company you apply for and how many hours they require. The ball is in your court, you can work for as many hours as you wish and for how many companies as you wish. Just make for sure you are not over-booking yourself. Always consider your family’s needs as well.

Q - Where is the best place to find a telecommute job?

A - You can find jobs through many different sources. You can find a lot of them on message boards and Twitter, along with the other social media sites.

You can find them on job boards such as:

careerbuilder.com
monster.com
indeed.com
craigslist.org
genuinejobs.com

You can also find them by doing a search on google.com

Q - Will I need a resume to find an online job?

A - Yes. Almost all legitimate telecommute companies will require a resume from you. They want to know if you have the skills required to do the specific job. Also it is best to include a cover letter along with your resume.

The important thing to remember when searching for an online job is, have patience. Most often, you won’t find a job overnight. Keep applying consistently to the job leads that you think you are qualified for.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich 

You can find more articles by Tammy at Work At Home Articles, where you can also find more job leads, home business tips, and more.

You can also find Tammy at Work At Home Jobs.

Nowadays a lot of people are looking to the internet for ideas on how to make extra money from their own homes. The good news is that it is possible to find and do the the right part time online job from home.

The trick in order to become successful is to find the right opportunity amongst the many make money opportunities that are available on the net. I will explain a few great online income earners and show you how to find and do them successfully.

Part Time Jobs - Freelancing

By definition, freelancing involves individuals who are not working for just one company but for a variety of companies.

Although freelancing is a great way to earn money online, your success will naturally depend on the type of skills you possess. Certain freelancing work programs involve very specific skills like bookkeeping, programming, etc whilst others require more basic skills levels like answering the phone, entering data, etc.

In order to progress to freelancing as a way to earn income every day, you will first need to decide what skills you have that might be beneficial to prospective employers. Do you have a certain skill or set of skills that you are excellent at? What tasks can you perform adequately? Do you possess any special training that you can put to use?

Once you have proper positive answers to these questions and are able to provide yourself with a genuine skills assessment, then you now need to search for online jobs on the internet with your defined skills in mind. The internet is abound with literally hundreds of websites whose primary purpose is to put together freelancers with project providers. All you need do is use the proper search terms in your favorite search engine, peruse sites that come up and make contact with project providers whose work you feel you can handle.

Blogging

A blog is actually a website where the blog writer (blogger) writes content on either a specific or a variety of topics. Visitors who have similar interests visit the blog regularly to read the content, leave comments, be updated on current news, etc. Just about anyone can start up a blog and become bloggers and the best thing about this is that it can be done for free. Huge blog platforms offer people the opportunity to open free blogs which can normally be started in a few minutes.

The best way to approach this is to blog about a specific niche or interest. If your blog is fresh, regularly updated and has great unique content, then search engines will rank it higher and you get more visitors.

As soon as you have established yourself in a specific niche and your blog becomes busy, you can now start to make money from it. One effective way is to put up text or banner ads for other sites and charge them a monthly fee. Alternatively you can place ads from large ad networks and get a cut of the advertising clicks. Another way is to do affiliate marketing by putting up product write-ups and reviews and inserting your affiliate link.

Ecommerce Sites

Ecommerce sites account for millions of dollars of sales that take place on the net every single day. Ecommerce is a very big topic and as such cannot be explained completely in just one short article. However, I will provide you with a brief summary on how you can profit with an ecommerce site.

Ecommerce stands for electronic commerce and it involves commerce being conducted by electronic means ie. through the internet. In this instance, products and services are offered for sale on the internet and the purchase of these products or services also take place on the internet as well. Examples of products could be ebooks, cds, dvds, tvs, etc. Examples of services could be advertising, hosting, etc.

Your first step would be to decide what product or service you will offer and whether these will sell and are suitable to be sold efficiently through the internet. Your next step will be to secure an appropriate domain name, take up hosting and then build a website displaying your product/service thereby making your offer. As the buy and sell process takes place electronically, you will need some sort of electronic payment option like credit card acceptance. For this, you will need a merchant account or link up with a third party payment processor. You will also need to establish effective delivery of your product or service to the customer. For instance, will it be delivered electronically or will you have to ship it to the customer?

In order to get prospective shoppers to your site, you will have to do some internet marketing. You may use paid methods like pay-per-click advertising and banner ads or you can choose a free method like SEO or article marketing, word of mouth, etc.

Earning With Photography

Online earning with photography is becoming very popular as it is easy to do and pays quite well. No, you do not need to be an expert to make money from this online opportunity - you just need to be able to take decent pictures. This income opportunity works like this: Many web designers, software developers, print and electronic publishers are constantly needing images to use in their product. A large number of images websites have cropped up catering for this need. These websites list images from freelance photographers. If an image is chosen to be used, the user will have to pay a once-off royalty fee. This fee is then split between the images website and the photographer.

To start off, visit these images websites (search for them on your favorite search engine) and see what images are popular - these sites normally list how many downloads each image has had. The more downloads, the more popular an image is. Now, take pics very similar or even better than the popular listed ones. Register with these images websites and upload your images. If somebody chooses your image and downloads it, you get a commission.

I hope my little article has been interesting and beneficial to you. Maybe I have helped make things a little clearer for you and provided you with a starting point on making money online.

Article Written By Nikita Phillips

Nikita Phillips is a work at home mom who writes home business articles and operates a free traffic site.

For more free information visit: http://www.thehomeworker.org

Typically a work at home professional uses a work schedule to get daily tasks completed. Are they really necessary? Does one make more money by checking off a to do list? It basically depends on lifestyle, your children and ages, your business needs, your family’s needs, and how much time you need to work.

Work at home schedules aren’t for everyone. Some people don’t even follow any set routine. They just get up each day knowing what needs to be done and gets working. And yet some desperately needs a daily routine to keep them on track and successfully checking things off as the day unfolds. I for one, fall in the latter category. I’m not naturally organized, so I significantly benefit from a work from home schedule.

Below is my typical work schedule for the week (updated for the new year)

Tasks I do daily… First thing in the morning and last thing I do before turning in for the night, I check all emails and website stats. I also do my job lead search and postings in the morning after emails. Twitter networking is also on my daily things to do (depending on how my day is going). Forum rounds, for the ones I help moderate and a few of my favorites.

Monday - Website updates and backups, article idea searches, writing (for my own submissions and sites, guest blogging, ghostwriting)

Tuesday - Blog updates and blog rounds, writing (for my own submissions and sites, guest blogging, ghostwriting)

Wednesday - I try to make it to most forums on my list, then if time allows, I do more writing.

Thursday - Article idea searches and writing.

Friday - I highlight the tasks that needs doing for the following week and check for any needed site updates. If time allows, more writing.

Evenings - Sometimes I work an hour or two, only if I feel like it or if needed. It’s usually just 1 or 2 nights during the week, give or take.

Weekends - I work on weekends ONLY if I absolutely need to. Otherwise my weekends are for family and me time.

I realize that the above type of schedule won’t work for everyone, as we are all unique and have various types of home businesses. For my business, I offer free work at home job leads and advice and this routine is ideal for me.

If you find yourself not getting things done (on time), you may benefit from a set schedule. Set one up that meets your individual needs. If you already have one and still find getting things done challenging, you may need to do some tweaking and also make a few lifestyle changes. I have a large desk calendar with ample space for listing tasks for each day of the week/month. It’s in front of me at all times and I try to plan out each week every Friday. This helps me out immensely and makes me feel more in control of my business.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich 

Tammy  is the founder of Work At Home Jobs, a free work at home resource website offering free job leads, work at home articles, home business ideas, and much more.

You can also visit Work At Home Articles for more work at home job leads, articles, and more.

Is it really that time of year again? Time goes by so fast, especially if you’ve been relatively busy with your home business within the past year.

There are so many things to remember when preparing your tax returns, as well as knowing exactly what is considered taxable. Let’s take a quick look at what may be taxable in your work at home situation.

Here are just a few that I’ve listed below:

1. Monthly Internet bill. I know this is the number one item on my list since I work at home and I have to use the Internet to make my income.

2. Monthly hosting bill if you own your own domain name. This is another important write off for your business, especially if you own several domains/websites and your hosting bill is considerably high.

3. Monthly phone bill. If you own a business and you use your phone to run your business, then yes, you need to write off your phone bill.

4. Business transportation mileage. If you use your automobile for business, such as home parties, this is another important taxable write off. Fuel prices has went up considerably. You need to keep careful track of all your transportation expenses (including gas receipts), and file anything and everything that you can.

5. Advertising expenses. Some people pay for advertising for promotion purposes and some do not. If you do pay for advertising, then you need to file these expenses on your taxes. Depending on the type of advertising, it may or may not be taxable, but it’s always safe to file all expenses.

6. Charitable contributions. Your contributions must meet specific criteria to be considered taxable. It’s still important to record all contributions for the year and your tax adviser will sort it out accordingly.

There are definitely more that need to be listed here. I just wanted to go over a few of the top ones to consider for your business. To do a more elaborate research on what is taxable, you can visit irs.gov.

Tips for organizing your tax documents

Don’t wait until the end of the year to start getting those important documents together. Start at the beginning of the year and place all relevant papers in their proper place. There are so many people (and I used to be one of them) that just shove these documents into hiding anywhere they can find, and not where they are supposed to be kept for fast reference.

For example: I have a file folder in my file cabinet that houses my office expense receipts, ink cartridges, paper, pens, pencils, software receipts, new computer/printer receipts, and the like. When you purchase something for your business, immediately when you return home, place those receipts in their proper folder.

Earnings and expense records

I’ve learned over the years to keep a document for my earnings and also for my expenses in safe documents on my computer. I also actively backup all my files on a regular basis. You can of course figure out your earnings and expenses at the beginning of every year, but wouldn’t it make much more sense to do this as you go along with your business and record each transaction? It would definitely save you a considerable amount of time by doing this daily.

Basic office supplies for organizing your work at home office

calendar
file cabinets
interior or manila file folders
hanging file folders and labels
Microsoft Money or Quickbooks accounting software (if you choose), you can always keep active spreadsheets for business accounting purposes
sticky notes

With careful home business planning and organization skills, you will be more career productive.

Important: Also with precise organization, you will know at a moment’s notice where these documents are if you are ever audited.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy offers work at home articles, free work at home job leads, and other business resources on her Work At Home Articles blog.

You can also visit Tammy at Work At Home Job Leads offering more free job leads, work at home articles, work at home tips, and more.

Work at home ideas are obviously very important for anyone who wants to put the corporate world behind them to work from home for themselves. Without ideas and opportunities there’s not much for you to do unless you come up with a great idea for yourself. Being your own boss and making money with your own home based business is definitely the way to go, there’s little doubt about that, but without a home business idea your hopes of making money are severely hindered.

If you are going to start your own home business so you can work at home for yourself, you definitely need to make a plan because without a plan you will find it very difficult to succeed. In order to get that plan in place you need to first be sure you have the motivation, time and resources to fulfill it. Then you need to decide where you are going to start, and finally how you are going to manage everything. If, after all of this, you are sure you want to work at home and what you plan to do, you need to get started and make it happen.

Don’t worry if none of the following work at home ideas sound perfect for you at first glance. Use them as a starting point and think around them to come up with your own ideas. For example, think if there is something similar that you could do or something you could add to an existing idea then go for it. Brainstorm by writing down every home business idea that you think of even if it sounds stupid or weird. Sooner or later the perfect way to make money will come to you!

Here are three work from home ideas that you could get started on right now…

1. Freelance Work

If you have some sort of skill such as web design, writing, programming, proofreading, transcription, marketing, finance, or just about anything else, you can hire yourself out to do freelance work for other people. Go to a site like elance.com or guru.com and you can get setup pretty quickly. You won’t necessarily need a web site for this one but it will help to give some information about yourself and samples of your work.

2. Build Your Own Network of Sites/Blogs

Blogs are fairly easy and cheap or even free to build, and so are static websites for the most part. In fact, with resources like blogger.com it’s possible for a regular person without any special skills to get a blog online for free in a matter of minutes.

Getting a blog or website online isn’t a problem. The more important part is finding a niche that you can compete in where people have money and are prepared to spend it. A few examples would be weight loss, making money, debt, health issues, and certain hobbies. However, you can’t just jump into any of those broad niches because they are way too competitive. First you need to narrow it down to a few smaller niches within those topics.

Once you learn how to find good niches you will be able to crank out blogs in no time. Build an empire of blogs and monetize them with Adsense, affiliate links, paid advertising, etc… Then learn some internet marketing and SEO techniques to bring in quality traffic to them and soon enough the money will be rolling in.

3. Sell Content

There are many ways in which you can make money selling articles and other content that you have written. There are websites that will pay you for articles, such as associatedcontent.com and others. There are also a lot of internet marketers and bloggers who will gladly pay for well-written articles on almost any topic in tons of different niches. Just go the Warrior forum, Sitepoint forum, or Digitalpoint forum and you will find sections on all of them where you can sell your content.

Remember if you want to work from home, you will still need to work hard, have self-discipline, patience, and think creatively to come up with new ideas and make current ones work. Finding the right work at home business ideas is one part of being self-employed that cannot be ignored. The more innovative and creative you are the more money you can make. The best ideas are the ones that make other people wish they had thought of it themselves, so that’s your goal!

Article Written By Trent Brownrigg

Trent Brownrigg says that in order to work from home successfully, you must learn how to do it from people who have many years of home based business experience.
At http://work-at-home-based-business.com we have several experts giving you the best work at home information online.

Do you have young children at home? Would you prefer to stay home with them rather than send them to a daycare? If you answered yes, then working from home may be for you. More so now than ever before, moms are staying home with their kids while working from home.

There are two options to choose from if you want to make money from home while staying home with your children. First, you can ask your current employer if you can start working from home. This is a great option if you have a job that can be done from home however, this may not always be feasible. Even if it is feasible, your employer may not be too excited about the idea.

For those who cannot do their current job from home, don’t fret because there is another option. The other option is to start your own home based business.This may seem a little overwhelming and you may not know how to get started. However, did you know that you can start a home based business without much difficulty or stress and with only a small initial investment?

If you want to start your own business and work from home, you need to start by doing some research. The best place to find information on a home based business is online. The reason for this is that the majority of home based businesses have something to do with the internet. You need to consider proven business opportunities that have been around for a number of years. Unfortunately, there are a lot of business opportunities out there that are scams which only make money for the people advertising them. You need to beware. It helps if you can find people who are already successful working from home and find out what they are doing.

In conclusion, working from home can give you the best of both worlds. There are stay at home moms who are taking advantage of this lifestyle and enjoying the flexibility that goes with it. Why not you? With your own home based business, you can choose when and how many hours you work while still spending time home with your children. What could be better? Just remember to do your research first to help find the best opportunity that will allow you to stay at home with your kids and make money at the same time.

If you are looking for a legitimate business opportunity with a company that has been in business for over 50 years, visit: http://www.freedomsuccess4u.com/

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

 I do have experience with a few work at home assembly companies, just as many others have. They were learning experiences and ones that will definitely not be forgotten. This article is for individuals that are currently thinking about purchasing home assembly kits. To those, I’m willing to share my inevitable fate.

For the first company I remember sewing Christmas oven mitts. The mitts were green with red poinsettias on the front. Since I had (or thought I had) lots of sewing experience, I thought I had a pretty good shot at making some satisfactory mitts and making some money. I think I mailed in three and each one came back with the bad news of “not passing the company’s inspection.”

For the second company I wrapped ribbon around wooden open hearts. I hot glued three tiny ribbon roses on one corner with a different colored ribbon hanging from the roses. There were one dozen in each kit. I thought they were exceptionally attractive.

I was absolutely blown away when after my second shipment, the company actually accepted the hearts I had made and was paid. I was thrilled, but there was a catch. I was limited to just one shipment of one dozen per month. That sure wasn’t my idea of making money from home.

I think I only sent in one more shipment and I kept the last set of hearts I made. They are green and white and they look elegant hanging from my Christmas tree.

For the third company, I beaded earrings. It took me forever to complete just one pair. The thread easily knotted and needless to say, I was just a tad frustrated. I ended up sending in just two pair and of course, they did not get accepted. Well from that moment on, that was the end of home assembly for me.

I advise anyone thinking of assembling crafts from home for various companies, save your frustration and don’t do it. Your time can be much better spent on searching for legitimate work at home jobs that pay you an honest wage. Or you can of course sell the products yourself for a nice profit.

I’m not saying every home assembly company is a scam. I have not done extensive research about them. But from the ones I’ve dealt with and also heard about from others, I say, “It’s not worth the time.”

The only website I have is for the beaded earrings artisancorpofamerica.com/product.html

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Tammy offers legitimate and researched work at home companies, free job leads, work at home articles, and more at Work At Home Jobs.

You can also find more work at home articles by Tammy at Work At Home Articles.

What do you have planned to grow your business?

What can you do to boost your income for the holidays?

What are your plans for your customers?

What are your business goals for the coming year?

Yes, a lot of questions, and ones that are so easy to procrastinate until another day. Well, this is another day. These are things you currently need to carefully consider. Your success essentially depends on your future plans. So, what will you be doing for your business?

Below are some simple tips to think about

* Send out holiday greeting cards graced with your logo. I think it adds more of a personal touch if you add a handwritten message inside your card along with your signature instead of a typed one. Also, always include a business card inside the holiday greeting card.

* Send out a special holiday newsletter to your customer base. Include your best tips along with specific holiday sales. This is the time of year to show your customers you really care by offering generous discounts on special products and/or services.

* Have a holiday contest and offer real prizes to draw in targeted traffic. The contest could entail many things depending on what your business is about. I’ve seen many forum contests that have been successful and they range from various types . Another idea that works well is creative writing contests, these could involve articles, blog posts, poetry, and the like. Perhaps a fun trivia contest would be a hit with your audience.

* If you have products available online, offer free shipping for a limited time throughout the holiday season. This sale booster always gets the interest of online shoppers. Always include your business card along with the shipped product.

* If you own a website and offer advertising space, have a discount sale on a select few of your ad options. Everyone is looking for reasonable advertising around the holidays. Extend the sale into the new year as well. I have found people are looking for new target places to advertise in January.

* Include a freebie with your holiday sales. This could be a gift card, an ebook, or anything you can offer for free that benefits your business.

* If you’re involved with article marketing and are consistently writing for your business, incorporate your articles into an ebook. You can either sell the ebook or offer it as a freebie to your customers.

* Provide extra special customer service! This in itself is the most important aspect of your online presence. This should be practiced all year round. Good customer service is crucial to your business. If you don’t show your customers good service, then you may as well not have a business in the first place.

Here are some suggested business goal tips to consider for the new year

* Make your goals realistic. However, you should set goals that give you the initiative to surpass what you actually think you can easily achieve.

* Put your goals in writing and post them where you can easily see them daily.

* Join at least one new social network in the new year

* Make it a point to stay more in contact with your customers

* Try and incorporate more creativity into your marketing plans

For the new year, I will be spending more time in consistently adding more content to my website and blogs and more time on article marketing.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich

Need advertising for the holidays or anytime of year? Stop by and see our specials at Work At Home Jobs.

Tammy also offers more work at home articles on her Work At Home Articles blog and much more.

Around the world, people everywhere are discovering that blogging is a great way to make money online. The reason? Blogs can usually be set up at a low cost and started with a minimum of experience. Two very popular tools for blogging are Google Blogger (blogger.com) or the easy to use Wordpress (Wordpress.org). Both make it easy to set up a blog. But what kind of blog should you start?

Recipes and cooking tips are two very popular topics on the internet. People who cook, love to share their stories, good or bad, with other people who love to cook. If you can tell someone else about a product that failed, a recipe that actually worked, or even a five-star restaurant quality meal that you stumbled upon, wouldn’t that be great fun? Now, what if your experiences in the kitchen could make you money as well? Blogging about regional dishes is especially interesting to folks who can’t travel to your area but would like to make something different. Have a little fun with it and include your own personal kitchen disasters like “the day the potato exploded”. People want to laugh along with you as well as learn something new.

If you’re questioning whether or not you have the skills needed to create a recipe blog, you probably aren’t giving yourself enough credit. You love to eat, right? Well, that’s one skill down. Can you write a recipe that’s easy to follow and accurate? There you go! You don’t have to be a trained chef or know all the fancy cooking terms, just enjoy what you do. You will probably want to have a digital camera so you can include pictures of the recipes you make, but it’s not necessary. You’ll find sites where you can download pictures that will suit you just fine. Most importantly, you’ll need to have patience. Your blog won’t get noticed as fast as you’d like, but before you know it you’ll be chatted-up all over the blogosphere.

Of course, you want to make money with your recipe blog. By using one or more of the following methods, you’ll have a real home-based business that will start producing income for you and your family.

Make Money by Selling Products: A recipe blog offers an opportunity for the entrepreneur to build a home based business by actually selling products online while blogging about them. By offering cooking products, cookware, cookbooks, and other tools that the budding chefs of the world would like, you are sharing your interests and your opinion while making money. If you are a retailer at heart, this method of earning income could be for you.

Make Money by Selling Advertising: Your blog may not be popular at first, but never fear. It won’t be long before readers start finding you and your traffic starts to increase. Once that happens, advertisers will be interested in promoting on your blog.

Make Money by Selling Your Blog: Successful bloggers, those whose readership has grown enough to be noticed by the search engines and/or media, can even sell their blogs to others and earn an income. Popular topics in high-traffic websites will get your name and your blog noticed, remembered, and visited. Some people create blogs just to sell them, in fact, so this is another idea to keep in mind.

Isn’t it incredible to think that by just sharing your love of food you can earn an income? With a bit of hard work and learning a few blogging tips, you will be able to create a one-of-a-kind blog that shares your stories, family recipes, favorite restaurant tips, cooking disasters, or whatever you want to share. Just be sure that you have your “stamp” on it, that it is uniquely yours, and the readers will follow! But, you can’t profit until your recipe blog is a reality. Get started today.

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

Setting up a Niche Recipe Blog is a fun and lucrative business to start with a minimum of money and equipment. Get step-by-step help by grabbing your JustAddSweat.com Guide to Making Money with a Recipe Blog. Need recipes for your new blog? Check out PLR Recipes.

You’re home with your kids because you value mothering. You want to nurture them, care for them, and love them.

But you also need to work from home. Maybe you’re a writer, or an internet marketer, or a top eBay seller. How do you balance them both? With care, dedication, and discipline, you can thrive in both your business and your mothering! Here’s how:

1. Plan your Goals

One of the problems I ran in to was that, as an author, there were countless things I could have been doing to market my books. I’d think about them, dream about them, read books about them, but I didn’t have time to actually do them. Maybe I could accomplish one or two, but not nine or ten. And I needed to realize that and stop beating myself up over it.

When you are at home with your kids, you are at home with your kids. You will not be able to work eight hours a day productively. But you may be able to work two or three hours. So given that, what is reasonable to expect of yourself? How long will each thing take? And what can you put off until a different season in your life?

What is most important to build your career right now? Is it writing? Is it starting a blog? Is it starting articles, or researching money-making techniques on the internet? Make a list of everything you want to do, and prioritize it. Then only do your #1 or #2 priorities for a time. And forgive yourself if you don’t get everything on your list done! You’re doing what is possible, and that is enough.

2. Find Regular Hours

I know that sounds impossible with small kids, but it can be done. I used nap time for writing. Every day for two hours, even when I myself was tired, I would write. When the kids stopped napping, they still had downtime after lunch in their bedrooms. We instituted this early, and they stuck to it. That was their time to do puzzles, play in their beds, or look at books (and later, read).

Another time that works well is first thing in the morning, unless you have children who wake at 6:00. Try to stagger their bedtimes so that they do sleep until 7:30, and then you can start at 6:30 a.m. Or, if you’re more of a nighthawk, do the opposite, and work after they go to bed for an hour. Once children reach the age of 4 or 5 they can also get their own cereal in the morning, and then this can be their video time.

3. When You Do Work, Be Productive!

Don’t check emails (unless they’re business related). Don’t check Twitter, or blogs, or news (unless that’s part of your “job”). Only do what’s on your list!

If you are working at home to make money, then show up for work at your appointed time and WORK. Even if you’re tired, or grumpy, or have PMS. If an employer were paying you, you’d show up. So show up, even if you yourself are paying you!

4. Find Things the Children Can do on their Own

Keep certain toys, or the playpen, simply for Mommy’s work time. Don’t feel guilty if you’re not playing with them constantly. They can be on their own for 30 minutes, as long as you’re still supervising and know what they’re doing! You don’t have to interact with them constantly; kids do need some time to be on their own. This may only grab you 20 minutes to half an hour, but even that can be important.

5. When You’re With your Kids, Be With Your Kids

Finally, when you’re not working, be with your kids. Don’t run to the computer every moment they’re busy to see if you can “grab 5 minutes”. You’ll wear yourself out and you’ll feel like nothing is ever done correctly. The kids will get into trouble or call for you and then you’ll be annoyed.

Do something fun and active with them every day where they have your attention. Go to a playgroup. Take them to the library. Go for a walk, do a puzzle, or read some books. Have time where you really are with them, and not just supervising them in the same house, and you’ll likely find they don’t resent the time you take away from them quite as much.

If you’re a stay at home mom, you are never going to get as much done as someone who is not with her kids. You’re just not. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work. It just means you’ll do it differently. But you’re still being a great mom to your kids, and that’s irreplaceable.

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

And now I’d like to invite you to download my FREE planning charts, including personal planners, organization checklists, daytimers, chore charts, and more, so that you can organize your work and your outings! Sheila Wray Gregoire is a syndicated columnist, and the author of four books, including To Love, Honor and Vacuum: When You feel more like a maid than a wife and a mother. She blogs at tolovehonorandvacuum.blogspot.com.