Shameless Plug.. My Work From Home Forums

I’ve got a great series of posts under development that I want to release as a series, but in the mean time, should you feel the need to read then pop along to another of my sites that is also fairly new and upcoming - Work From Home Forums!

It is undergoing a bit of a facelift at the moment, so things are going to get better - improvements like ad revenue sharing with members, an integrated blog platform and more are planned…  I’ve also got a competition lined up for the summer with (hopefully) a brand new Sony Vaio laptop amongst the prizes, so what are you waiting for - pop along and signup now before all the good usernames are taken

The Big Work from Home Divide

Are you a Work from Home Dad? An Internet Entrepreneur? An Affiliate Marketer? Or perhaps a Mommy Enterprise? Or none of the above???

If you were looking to break out of the 9-5 job which of these work from home blogs might you be tempted to look at? I’d probably take a look at the first two or three but to be honest Mommy Enterprises wouldn’t really interest me, where as my wife would probably ignore the first three chose and plough ahead with Mommy Enterprises.

These blogs all have different target markets and demographics and that’s a good thing as far as getting relevant information is concerned for the reader, but in the case of the “Working at Home” niche there is more of a cross-over than perhaps any other industry. They have information relevant to their niche, but much of the content could be interchangeable.

So, whichever niche you put yourself into, why not take ten minutes to take a look to see what the other half is doing, you never know what you might learn.

Having a Support Network

Working from home can give you amazing freedom to spend time with your family, it can also give you more free quality time to spend as you please, but the one thing that working from home doesn’t give you is a work based support network.

What is a work based support network? And why do I need one?

When your working for someone else and you’re having a bad day there would usually be someone that you can turn to either for help or to blow off a little steam, but when your working from home, alone, who do you turn to?

Again, working from home, alone is, as the name suggests lonely - there is no social interaction with other co-workers, no leaving parties, Christmas parties etc.. - so if this website is here to promote working from home, why am I being so negative??

The answer is that I’m not, I’m here to try to help anyone who feels that way from time to time. I’m sure that we’ve all felt a little lonely or frustrated occasionally and the answer is as simple as if you were working in an office with 100 other people. Whether people are sat at the next cubicle or at the opposite end of the planet they can still make a big difference to your day and there’s plenty of ways to find them as well.

The first obvious choice would be to find a forum specific to your niche, i.e. if your a webdesigner then somewhere like DesignersTalk would be perfect, if you make scale models to resell then somewhere like Scale-Models might be a good place to start, you get the idea! Failing niche forums you could find yourself a nice general Work From Home Forum!

Also don’t overlook local support - almost every part of every developed nation now has business clubs, Chambers of Commerce, small business assistance groups all of which are excellent places to make new industry friends and contacts, go to as many events as you can - be sure to have loads of high quality business cards to give out and make sure to get as many back in return as you can - you never know where that next big sale will come from!

Trouble picking a new domain name?

If like me, you’ve ever had writers block (or domainers block!) when trying to find a good, available domain name you’ll know how frustrating it can be.

Enter PickyDomains. PickyDomains offer to help you in finding your perfect domain name. They not only find you great, available domain names matching your criteria but offer a full money back guarantee should they fail to deliver. Their website describes their service in more detail:

If you need a great, memorable, easy to pronounce domain name that EXACTLY describes what your website is all about - you are in the right place. This is what we do. We find available domain names that are descriptive, concise and are easily remembered. And if we can’t find one, or you don’t like any available domain names we suggest – you don’t pay anything. PickyDomains.Com is completely RISK FREE.

The fee for this service is just $50 - with a complete money back guarantee should you be unhappy with the results. If you are a blogger with real traffic then PickyDomains will (at the time of this post) work with you for free, simply write a post about their service and drop them an email. Just as I’m trying to reduce the number of sites that I own as well!!!!!

Not only do PickyDomains offer the obvious but they also offer a way to earn money by suggesting domains for others. They’ve got a nice interface that checks your suggestions against certain criteria, availability amongst them and once moderated you can get feedback as to whether your suggestions were liked or not.

Should you pick that winning domain name they will pay you 50% of the fee (currently $25) - I’ve got a handful of suggestions currently pending so hopefully I’ll make a buck or two.

Building a Wordpress Blog

Following on from our article on making an income from blogging, we take the post one step further and teach you how to give yourself arguably the most powerful blogging platform from which to build your blogging empire!

Wordpress is arguably one of the most popular online content management systems, and is a great tool with which to build your first online web journal or Blog. It is free to use, easy to set up thanks to the online wizard and so user friendly and simple, that even a novice user will find it a simple matter to get their blog up and running in a matter of minutes.

There are two main methods of starting the process of building a Wordpress blog. You can choose to have the blog hosted on one of the Wordpress servers, which is completely free of charge, or alternatively, you can buy your own hosting and domain name, and install the Wordpress system on it, and then have a dedicated presence online.

The main advantage of investing in your own domain name is that it looks a lot more professional, and if you are planning to make money from blogging, having your own easy to remember domain will allow users to find you much more easily. Advanced users will find that they can configure the look and feel of a Wordpress blog much more easily if it is hosted on their own server, and include advertising and affiliate links much more simply.

The advantage of using the free Wordpress hosting service is that it is completely free, is very reliable thanks to the resources of the company providing it, and is much more simple to set up and administer. Blogs hosted on the Wordpress server are automatically updated to the latest version of the software, and many of the processes of publicizing a blog are automatic thanks to the way that it is configured.

Once you have set up your account, and chosen a name for your blog, you can use the selection of templates in order to choose a distinctive look and feel that suits your taste, and then you can start writing. It is as simple as that!

Wordpress has a simple interface for bloggers that means that you do not even need to know how to create html in order to publish your blog on the internet. You can simply type what you want to write into the editor, and then it will all be formatted for you, leaving you to concentrate on the actual writing and creativity that marks out your blog as individual and worthwhile.

Including links to other web sites and adding pictures to your blog is also a breeze, and is as simple as clicking on a button on the screen. Wordpress also offers a range of tools to help you to promote your blog to interested parties, and is flexible enough and powerful enough to allow you to adapt and evolve your blog to your audience. You can tag articles into categories, and organize your writing to make it easy for users to find a particular post that they are interested in, and there is a large and helpful community of other users on hand to give you hints and tips about any problems that you might get stuck with, all of which makes building a Wordpress blog a pleasure and a very rewarding experience.

Turning a Hobby into an Income

If, like most people, you are passionate about a hobby, you may have dreams of turning it into a business, and making a living from it. There are few more satisfying ways of making a living than from a niche that you enjoy, and indeed, many of the most successful business people in the world are those who are able to invest their time and passions in their work.

The chances are, that no matter what your hobby is, there are other people around the world who share your passion, and these people are your primary market. Whether you are a collector who wants to sell the things that you collect, or an expert in a particular subject able to sell that expertise as a consultant and advisor, there are many ways that a person can turn a hobby into a business.

Before starting a business, you need to be realistic about the time and money that you are going to be able to invest in it. It is no good having all the passion in the world for your new enterprise without having the time and capital to back it up. If you cannot afford to set up a business on your own, but you are certain that it can be successful after doing your research, there are many sources to approach for seed capital for initial expenses.

Banks will provide business loans and there are always investors around the world who will be keen to take a stake in your business in return for an injection of cash at the start up phase.

You should consider how you are going to actually make money from your business. Are you planning to sell a tangible product, or charge people for advice? Either way, you need to establish the market, and find out what kind of prices you can charge for your service.

The great thing about a hobby is that your target consumers are already passionate about it, and will be happy to buy a service that helps them to get more out of their own enjoyment of the subject. Collectors will pay for items to boost their collections, as well as appreciating it if you are going to act as a marketplace for objects that they no longer need.

eBay is one of the best examples of a business that was born of a hobby. It was initially started as a place where a TY Beanie Bear collector could sell items from their collection that they no longer needed, and has since developed into a billion dollar business that is one of the world’s most successful web sites.

While your business may never reach the heights of eBay, the one thing that is for certain is that because you are already passionate about the subject, you will find turning it into a business a real adventure and enjoy every step as you share your pleasure with other interested people.

Writing eBooks for Profit

They say that everyone has a unique skill, and thanks to the unique nature of the Internet in allowing people form all over the world to share their ideas and expertise, it has opened up a huge global market for information on almost any subject that you care to mention, If you are willing to put the time and effort into getting your ideas written down in an easy to follow form, you can start a career in writing eBooks for profit that will prove to be very rewarding and satisfying, as well as offering an excellent source of income.

The first stage in writing an eBook that you intend to sell is to ensure that there is a market for it. There are a huge number of online forums that cater to all groups of people, from advertisers to zoology, and these are the perfect places to find a market for your ideas.

Once you have established that there is a market for your eBook, it is time to start writing it. You should start by writing an outline of what you plan to include, and then do your research to ensure that you are able to answer all the questions that you will ask through your writing. Plan the eBook as you would expect the ideas to be read, tackle the basics of the concept first and explain what you are going to explain through the rest of the book, and introduce the subject at the beginning.

A good eBook will be divided into chapters to make it easier to follow and understand. The simplest ideas will be tackled first and then build up to more complex ideas so that your readership will be ready for the most difficult ideas when they get to them.

The style of an eBook will vary depending on the subject and the level of readership expertise that it is aimed at. Many eBooks are for teaching purposes, so write in a way that encourages readers to delve further into the subject by making it interesting.

Once you have finished the actual writing of your eBook, go back through it and edit and proofread it to avoid any errors, and then get a person who understands the subject to make sure you have not made any glaring mistakes. Finally, get a person who is a novice to read the work to ensure that it can be easily understood.

It is now time to start selling your eBook to the general public. You can either do this through an online publisher like Lulu, or through the specialist forums that you visited earlier. You may want to set up a website that sells the book, or offer other people a slice of the cost in order to sell it on your behalf.

As long as you have established that there is an audience for what you want to write, and written in a way that it makes the subject accessible, you should have no problem in finding people to buy your book, and help you to earn a living from it, and other books that you may write later.

Building an Income from Dropshipping

In the past, setting up a business could be an expensive affair, with many up front costs incurred before you could really start to earn any money. Amongst the most expensive aspects of a business were the premises from which you would operate, and the initial purchase of stock to sell.

Thanks to the internet, it has become possible for almost anyone to set up a website that can act instead of a traditional shop, and use a mechanism called drop shipping to bypass the need to actually purchase any stock.

Drop shipping is a simple process by which a retailer takes orders for a particular product, for example a computer memory card, and then rather buy the item and then sell it on at a profit, simply passes on the name and address of the buyer to the wholesaler, who when sends out the item to the customer direct. The retailer keeps the profit he has made from the margin between the price he advertises the item at, and the lower wholesale cost including delivery that the supplier charges.

The main advantage of building your income from drop shipping is that it is one of the most risk free methods of earning money buying and selling. As the retailer, you do not incur any costs until you actually place an order, and even then, as long as you set a retail price that covers any costs that you can foresee, you are guaranteed to make a profit.

The online auction site eBay is a great place to earn money from selling goods online, and is a medium that lends itself perfectly to the drop shipping of goods. As the seller, all you need to do is advertise goods from a wholesaler at a “buy it now” price that is lower than you might see in a high street store or conventional website, and then wait for customers to order from you thanks to your low prices!

Once you have received an order and payment, simply forward the appropriate details onto the wholesaler, and they will send out the product to the buyer. Many wholesalers are happy to enter into a drop shipping arrangement with retailers, as it means that they are able to avoid any promotional costs, and only supply on an on demand basis, reducing their costs substantially, while you as the retailer are able to pocket a decent no-risk profit on every single item that you sell.

Diversifying your Income Sources

If you are an entrepreneur at heart, and are keen to ensure that you can make a good and steady income that will grow over time, it is important to ensure against a sudden decline in the market by spreading yourself across a number of different fields, and diversifying your income into different markets.

If you look at the top tycoons and businesses in the world, one thing is immediately obvious: none of them rely on a single source of income. Large chains of shops will typically offer a number of different products, perhaps even trade under a number of different identities to appeal to different demographic groups; Business leaders such as the billionaire Richard Branson will operate a companies within a number of different industries; and even fund managers trading on the stock markets will ensure that they obtain a wide and varied portfolio to cover themselves at all times.

If you are just starting out in business, and have not yet fully developed your idea, it is perhaps a good idea to maintain paid employment elsewhere to offset any major risks. If your business is Internet based, and you are relying on search engine results to get traffic to your web site, consider building a second site that will act as a back up in the event that your first loses its place in the results.

Consider investing in other people’s ventures. If you think that someone has a solid idea for a profitable business, but doesn’t have the capital to get it off the ground, try and help them out – for a stake in the company. Over time, if you have a stake in a business that rises in value, which it generally will if the company is well run, you will build equity that you can use in order to invest in other businesses, or simply take out in order to treat yourself.

If you want to be able to ride out the tough times in one business, it is much easier if you have other sources of income coming in, and the more you have, the better off you will be, and the easier it is to continue to grow and widen your net of investment.

It takes money to make money, and if you want to obtain a bigger slice of the action, you will need to buy into new markets, invest in new ventures, and not be afraid to take the occasional risk as you diversify into new markets in order to build your income.

Blogging for Income

Although the Internet has been used for people to share their experiences and lives with others ever since the first connections were made back in the 1970s, in recent years, the proliferation of easy to use web tools and sites like Blogger and Wordpress has opened the floodgates and now almost anyone can set up an online diary or blog in which they can share their thoughts with the world.

Blogs fall into two categories: those that people read and are interested in; and those that they don’t. Some blogs attract thousands of readers every day, and are amongst the most popular sites on the Internet. These online journals are typically the work of experts, who manage to engage well with their audience, and share information and ideas that other people value.

A popular blog that attracts a large number of readers can earn its writer a very good income, and some of the so called A-list bloggers earn a six figure salary simply from their online journal.

If you are an expert in a particular subject that other people are interested in, and can write in a manner that makes your knowledge accessible and entertaining, then it is possible that you could write a blog that other people will enjoy and subscribe to.

Once you have begun writing a blog and started to attract a large number of subscribers by promoting your writing through services like Digg and Furl, you need to find a way to earn money from it.

There are a number of ways that you can earn money from a blog. One of the most popular is to place advertising on it. Google Adsense is one of the easiest advertising programmes to implement. All you have to do is sign up for an account, and then copy a small snippet of code into every page. Every time a reader clicks on one of your adverts, Google will pay you a small amount.

Another way of earning money from your blog is to offer a paid review service in which people who sell products related to the content of your blog pay you a fee to review their product for them.

If your blog becomes particularly popular with a certain group of people, and you gain a reputation as an expert within the community, it is possible to expand into public speaking at conferences and earn money from other sources.

If you are willing to work hard at writing and promoting your blog as you would any other website, then it can be a great way of earning money from the Internet as long as you can find an audience for the subject that you want to write about.