Work-At-Home Can You Really Make Money?

  • May 16, 2011 5:44 AM

In these hard economic times, is it possible to make a living working-at-home on your computer? People across the US are dealing with the prospect of being out of a job and working from home is becoming more appealing every day. However, there are scams that are taking advantage of honest work-at-home prospects every day and are tarnishing the work-from-home industry.

It s the dream – work from home. Wake up in the morning, work a few hours from your laptop in the kitchen, than call it a day. However, you ve all heard the horror stories; scams where people were stuffing envelopes for $.01 per letter. Make millions of dollars with vending machines or ATMs. You\’ve all seen them, get rich schemes that promise to make millions in real estate. Buy the house for $100K and flip it for $200K, right? While some people do make a decent living doing these jobs, the majority do not. If making millions of dollars was as easy as you see in a 2am infomercial, everyone would do it. So what are the viable options when it comes to working from home?

First, we recommend not quitting your day job. Start by doing a few work-at-home options to test an opportunity. Once you are making a decent income on the side, you then have the option to devote more time to your part-time work and make it a full time gig. That said, before moving to full time a work-at-home job; also consider things like health benefits, large fluctuations in your monthly income and self employment taxes – to name a few. These items will cost additional out-of-pocket expenses and time. If these opportunity costs are outweighed by the potential income, it\’s time to take the leap.

When thinking about what you could do from home, first focus on your skill set. By leveraging the skills you already possess, you can find great opportunities that will allow you to continue doing what you enjoy (assuming you like what you do). As an example, if you enjoy writing, consider becoming a freelance writer or copy editor. A mechanic, work on cultivating your own client base. Lawyer, consult on the side for a fee for legal issues.

When considering a work-at-home job, do not forget to take your hobbies and interests into consideration. You may hate your day job; however enjoy taking photographs on the weekends. This skill could be leveraged into part-time wedding photography. How, you ask? Start by working with friends and family. Offer to be the main or secondary photographer at a family or friends wedding. This is a great option to get your foot in the door, and will help you create a portfolio of work to use as examples. In addition, this will give you job references to use for future work. As another example for an interest in photography, you can sell the photos you take – of any medium. Interested,

The easiest part-time job we ve found is online surveys and focus groups These are companies, such as IBM, needing insight into a product or TV commercial before making it main stream. Though market research, they insure an advertisement or product is ready to take to the general public before investing the money. If you live in a larger city, you may have already participated in such a study. Before the internet, it was hard to do these jobs given travel costs and additional time it took to get to and from the location of the focus groups. However, now companies are now doing online surveys and focus groups. Also, with the internet, the door has been opened for jobs such as selling items on eBay. eBay? You d be surprised how many people now do this as a full time job. It could be selling items you make yourself, reselling items you find at garage sales, or drop shipping items directly from the product manufacturer.

The point of the above is, you don\’t have to stuff envelopes, and the number of legit work-at-home jobs are endless. As a personal example, my work-at-home/part time job/hobby is stock trading / day trading. You may consider the stock market and trading stocks online from home on your laptop (a great link for people considering this). That said, being a day trader can be stressful, please factor this in when considering the job as an option – it takes guts and a fair amount or company research to make money.

Just for fun, this next one may sound crazy… Need a car; how about agreeing to put advertising on your vehicle and get paid? You\’ve seen marketing on the side of taxi cabs (in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc). If you want, you can also get paid to put similar ads on your car, and drive a car with advertising to promote a product. While it\’s not going to make you enough money to quit your day job, it can subsidize the high cost of gas and help with your monthly car payment. Also consider, they put a GPS in the car to insure you\’ve driven the proper miles to \”promote their product\”. If you\’re OK with this, why not?

In ending, pick something you\’re passionate about when pursuing at-home-work. Working from home brings freedom, however you must choose something you enjoy. Do not get caught up in scams. To protect yourself, review the scams at the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau. If you\’re looking into an opportunity promising millions per month, take the opportunity for what its worth. Stuffing envelopes for $.01 per piece is not worth the time, but attending an online focus group during your lunch hour for $100 is time well spent. If the job promises an outrageous income or a free car, then it s probably a scam.

Jason M -
About the Author:
Jason is the owner and author of Resume-Help.org, a leading website in the career vertical. For more information on all the opportunities listed above, visit Resume-Help.org.

News By Anthony Ricigliano – Going Green with a Small Business

  • May 15, 2011 6:55 PM

Author Anthony Ricigliano – News by Anthony Ricigliano: Many small businesses are taking the opportunity to go green for a variety of reasons including social responsibility and the approval of customers. There is also the potential for company-wide green initiatives to cut costs and improve the bottom line. Prior to deciding on what types of actions are to be taken, there are steps that management should take to optimize the initiative. They are:

* The initiative to go green must come from the top of the company. This lets everyone know that the issue is going to be taken seriously as a bona fide direction for the business.

* The initiative has to engage all employees across the company. This is a great opportunity for a discussion on the benefits of going green.
* Green activities must both relate to the business’ mission and further its objectives.

* The initiative must be integrated into the culture of the company. It’s the difference between being a green company and being a company that works off of a green checklist.

Once the initiative has been introduced, it is advisable to start with simpler tasks and activities to get everyone in the company on the same page. Go with actions that are easy to incorporate and follow. Here are ten actions that any company can undertake while wading into its go green initiative:

1) Start a recycling program where cans, bottles, and paper are disposed of in separate containers.

2) Go as paperless as possible. Do in-house presentations on power point instead of printing out meeting materials. File and save documents electronically.  

3) Reduce marketing collateral to only the necessities. This action alone can save a lot of money over the long term.

4)  Commit to buying ENERGY STAR-certified products.

5) Reduce energy consumption by programming computers and other equipment to go on standby after a period of sitting idle.

6) Turn off computers at the end of the work day. One caveat, if older computer screens are in use which have never been turned off, the cooling down process can harm them. Leave them on until they can be replaced.

7) Switch out incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones.

8) Incentivize employees who carpool, ride a bike, or walk to work.

9) Eliminate plastic and Styrofoam cups.

10) Use the front and back when printing or copying.

Starting with these activities will help to build the foundation for bigger green initiatives down the line. Get everybody on board and these actions will get you on the way to being a green business, much to the delight of your employees and customers.

Anthony Ricigliano -
About the Author:
Anthony Ricigliano’s background in information technology, distribution, purchasing and regulatory affairs then gives him an edge with integrating that infrastructure with areas in the company that generate revenues.

The Work At Home Directory

  • May 15, 2011 5:42 PM

These days, many people are worried about their economic future. The ability to find gainful employment is much more difficult these days than it has been in years past. Well, it is difficult if you are looking for traditional sources of employment and income. In today’s global economy, the internet is where it is at as fair as earning money and there are scores of work from home jobs that can pay quite handsomely. If you have skills in computers, data entry, writing, design, or a multitude of other disciplines, you can make a living working from home. Granted, you can only do this if you find a solid source of online employment. This is why The Work At Home Directory is such a helpful venue.

As its name implies, The Work At Home Directory is a centralized listing of many opportunities for earning income online. Some of these methods are new spins on old tried and true strategies. Some are very innovative and original. Then, there are those that will simply be personally appealing to you. Again, there is a lot of variety here and it is all centrally located within the directory.

This is probably the most important point of all. It is never easy to find quality work at home offers. In order to locate decent offers, it becomes necessary to perform a lot of research through the many search engines. Of course, this is a time consuming process and to find a dozen or so good opportunities may take a long time. Thankfully, the advent of The Work At Home Directory has eliminated the need to perform a number of these searches. Once again, the opportunities are listed clearly for your perusal. You can briefly skim the site and immediately come across an offer that strikes your interest. And the quicker you are able to find a job that interests you, the quicker you will be able to start earning money. And earning money is your primary goal and how you spend most of your time. You time should not be spent perpetually looking for opportunities.

The Work At Home Directory is also not a static site. That means that it is updated on a regular basis. Usually, the updates are done weekly. Therefore, new opportunity listings will be posted with frequency allowing you to explore other offers as they are made available. Perhaps over many months of visiting the site, you may develop several opportunities that prove tremendous for providing you with revenue streams. And, yes, this is all achieved without having to constantly skim the net looking for rare and elusive offers. The Work At Home Directory makes the whole process as simple as it can be. It takes all the legwork out of the job search.

In short, if you want to make it big working from home you need to be able to find opportunities when they make themselves available. The Work At Home Directory helps you out in this regard. That is why it is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to work from home.

Walter Stevens -
About the Author:
I have been in the Work from Business for 3 years. My Goal is to retire early and enjoy life to its fullest. I enjoy spending time with family and friends. My past time is hunting & fishing. I also enjoy watching most sports.

Top 6 online survey websites that you can join and make money fast

  • May 15, 2011 4:24 PM

If you are looking for some extra money on internet, paid online surveys would ideal choice. You do not need any qualification or special skills to take online surveys. You may have great confusion when you look for survey websites to join, because there are more than 300 online survey websites on internet. This article would help you to find the ideal survey website and work hassle free.

 

Quick paid surveys

 

This website provides a very good database of 490 online survey companies that you can sign up for free and make money. They provide other research related opportunities such as mystery shopping, get paid to drive and product testing. Since their database is very big, you can find opportunities not only for USA and Canada residents also for other 70 countries worldwide. They charge $67 for their membership, but this money can be earned with just 2 surveys you take.

 

Part time job today

 

This is another good survey website with more than 350 cash paying survey companies in their database. Their database has been compiled keeping the benefit of people from any country. Therefore you do not need to worry about the acceptance of your country by online survey companies. They collect lesser membership fee than other survey websites.  The good thing about them is that they give instant access to their member area where you can take online surveys.

 

Online surveys 100

 

This is another good website which provides good survey companies database at very less membership fees. They collect only $29 as their one time registration fees. This is the most economical website to join and make money fast. They provide more than 200 good online survey companies database with immediate access. You can take surveys and make $2 to $45. For participating in focus groups you may get paid $100 to $150 per hour. You can take phone surveys too for extra income.

 

Paid surveys at home

 

This is one of the leading survey websites with 450 online survey company data base. They offer free bonuses such as get paid to shop and eat and drive car. The good thing about this site is that they give their customers 60 days money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied, you can cancel your membership anytime.

 

Work from home paid surveys

 

Work from home paid surveys is a good website which provides nice income for survey takers. You can join them with minimum fees. You can take online surveys and participate in focus groups. Makin money with them is very simple and good for people who look for extra income from home.

 

Surveys for check

 

This is one website which provides 450 survey companies database and moreover they provide surveys for more than 150 countries worldwide. You may watch a short video on their website to know more about their products.  They claim to give you $10 to $40 per online survey and $50 to $150 for participating in focus groups.

 

You may join one of these top six survey websites to access good number of surveys and make money fast. You can also check the blog of the author.

 

Anand Giri -
About the Author:
You may join one of these top six survey websites to access good number of surveys and make money fast. You can also check the blog of the author.

Can you make money with Clickbank?

  • May 15, 2011 4:24 PM

Everyday more and more people are searching for ways to make money online. What better way to make money than being an affiliate selling Clickbank products. Many times affiliates expect to make money with Clickbank over night, but I have news for you that is not going to happen. Being an affiliate for Clickbank takes work just like any other job. The only difference is that you will not be working on a daily basis.

Newbie’s to affiliate marketing must be thinking how exactly I can start making money with Clickbank. I’m going to give you some information to start you off.

First you go to Clickbank.com and sign up to be an affiliate. By the way it’s free to join.

Second you will want to explore the different products in the market place. You will want to search for a product that does not have a lot of competition. Meaning a product that others are hardly promoting. You can determine this by looking at the gravity. You will want your gravity to be no higher than 100 and no less than 50. The gravity is an average of how good the product is, how many other affiliates are promoting the product.

Third, once you have chosen the product you want to promote, you will need to create your hop-link. Your hop-link is very vital, and will include your username. This is done so that Clickbank can track all sales back to you, and you will be credited.

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Fourth you will need somewhere where you can promote your product or products. There are many different ways for going about this. You can promote your products on a blog (highly recommended). Your blog will take place of you purchasing a website, unlike blogs which are free. The only thing that will cost you is you hosting. It’s highly recommended when creating a blog you host your blog with a hosting company. This way you will not have to worry about your  blog being deleted for inappropriate content that you post. I recommend Hostgator, which is only $9.95 a month. There are many other different hosting companies. I choose hostgator; because they have great 24/7 live support which is awesome.

You can also promote your Clickbank product on social networking sites. To find other social networking sites just go to Google and search social networking sites and you should have a whole list.

Another form of advertising is PPC also known as Pay Per Click. What is PPC? PPC is you placing an ad to promote you business or product on Google. So every time someone clicks on your ad you pay. You pay per click. If this tool is not used properly it can cost you loads of money. Newbies I would stay away from Pay Per Click to start. Start with free marketing strategies and work your way up.

The work does not stop there, I recommend that you write articles over each product you choose to promote. When writing your articles keep in mind you are trying to give a solution to some ones problem or problems. Always remember you are not trying to sell the product but rather give vital information to others.

Writing articles may seem exhausting to you in the beginning, but I want you to always have an open mind about every idea. Remember you are writing to give a solution. I want you to know that these articles you will be writing are not just going to be posted on you blog. You are going to submit these articles to article directories, in turn creating traffic to you blog.

Having traffic is key, without traffic coming to your blog how will you be able to make money with Clickbank. So in order to receive sales you need visitors, better known as traffic. Your blog will contain more information than just your articles.

Let’s recap from the beginning; these are the steps to start making money with Clickbank. One you will need to sign up to be a Clickbank affiliate. Explore the Clickbank marketplace for products to promote. Remember to keep track of your username to create your hop-links. Set up a blog where you will be promoting Clickbank products and more. Remember to host your blog with a separate hosting company. Create informational articles that solve others problems. Submit your articles to article directories. You will first need to post your article on your blog then submit them to article directories.  You will learn more about it as you continue to market online. And with just 3 or 4 hours of work every day you will be on your way to making money with Clickbank.

Jackie R. -
About the Author:

Your MLM Business and Its 3 Pillars

  • May 15, 2011 8:27 AM

If we were to separate your MLM business into its more basic components we could divide it into three different areas that have a unique function. Those three areas are the prospecting or lead generation part where you are trying to generate leads for your network marketing opportunity. The closing part, where you follow up with your prospects and try to close them turning them into distributors in your downline or customers for you multilevel marketing products. And the management part where you try to manage your network in order to help it grow further.

Those are the three pillars that consist your MLM home business and you have to become good at every one of them if you want to succeed in network marketing and start making the income that you desire. If in one of those parts you are not sufficient your whole business would stall and would not grow. Your business, if we use an analogy, is like a machine that needs all its three essential parts to work well and in synchronization in order to perform.

So in order to become successful in the multilevel marketing business model, like the top distributors in this industry, you have to become if not excellent at least very good in all the three different parts. Or at least outsource the parts of the business that you are not good at to others that can do it for you.

But let’s examine those pillars one by one.

First we have the prospecting – lead generation part, where you try to generate leads for your autoresponder, or simply get the contact information of people you meet if you are recruiting offline, with the purpose to follow up with them later. If you are using the Internet that would mean advertising or other free promotional methods like article writing; blogs or websites and capturing pages. And of course an autoresponder. Your job here is leading someone from you advertising message to your MLM website or capturing page and give him incentives to opt-in to your email list. Once in your autoresponder you can follow up with him.

If you are recruiting offline while the process may differ the concept is the same, try to get his contact information in order to follow up with him whether in person or through the phone if the first is not possible.

If you prefer to outsource that part of the business you can buy directly MLM leads or you can pay people to build your website, blog, capture pages and organize the advertising for you.

Second comes the closing part. Here you follow up with the leads you generated trying to turn them into distributors in your multilevel marketing opportunity or customers for the products of your network marketing company. If you work offline you need to have great people skills in order to convince them to do that. Although it takes time to develop that skills it is not impossible to acquire them. It just takes work and time.

If you are working online you need copy-writing skills in order to write the follow up emails in such a way that entice your reader’s interest about your MLM opportunity and gradually convince them that it can offer to them what they are seeking into a business opportunity. Copy-writing can be taught like everything else and there are good books and courses on the subject that can help someone become good at it.

If you want to outsource that part it can be done more easier in online MLM as all you have to do is hire a copywriter for writing your emails. Offline things are much more difficult as you would have to hire a professional salesman to meet or call them in order to close them.

Third comes the management part, which is a euphemism since has little to do with management and more with training and mentoring. At that stage you are basically teaching your downline how to follow your steps in order to build their own MLM downlines, something that would help your network to expand even further and faster.

Of course you can argue that the network marketing company is already offering training to its distributors, but from my experience I haven’t seen a company yet that its MLM training stand alone is sufficient to produce leaders and network builders. Don’t get me wrong, some of the companies are really offering very good education that can be of great use to the distributor but clearly it is not enough.

As you understand it is your job to fulfill that role and after all who is better to do that part than yourself. You have already gone through the first two stages either by becoming good at it or outsourcing them and consequently you can tell them exactly what they have to do in order to master the first two pillars of their home based business.

Now the tricky question is, can you outsource that third part of your MLM business?

Well, that’s a tough question. Clearly it is the most difficult part to outsource and if you manage to do that you could have a fully automated business which I haven’t seen yet. But of course that doesn’t mean that you cannot outsource parts of it. Instead of teaching them one by one you can as well point them to courses, books, and other materials that would help them improve their personal and business skills. Or you can hire people to write tutorials for you.

But no matter what you do, there is a part that you can never omit. That is the mentorship and personal relationships you build with the people in your network. They are your partners and associates so a personal touch should always be there. After all we are human beings and not robots and some emotional connection and relationship building with the people in your network can help the whole organization over-perform. After all they may be building their own home businesses but they are also building your own MLM business too. That’s the magic of network marketing.

Chris Kosman -
About the Author:
We teach you how to succeed in MLM and make the money you want from it. We give you knowledge, training, and information that can set you apart from the masses of ignorant distributors who never make any money in multilevel marketing. Selling your network marketing opportunity may not be easy but we can show you how to do it. Become good at all the Pillars of MLM Business now.