My Boring Story of How I Started Working From Home

I think my story of how I started working from home is much like everyone else's. I was working at a job I really hated. It paid very well and the benefits were a dream.

I might as well tell you now that it was a Government job. I worked at a Post Office.

My Husband's job pays well also and his benefits are good. Not as good as the ones I had, but nothing to sneeze at either.

We have two children. One was in daycare and the other was in 2nd grade. I always felt like I was missing out since I was working all the time.

So Many Choices, Which One Do I Pick?

Ever since I bought my first computer back in 1998, the thought of making a living online has interested me. I've must have tried everything I could think of and spent a lot of money looking for the right online business opportunity.

It finally dawned on me one day that all I was doing was making the "Guru's" rich. I needed to stop chasing every deal and ebook that came along. I knew people were making a good living online and I wanted a part of it!

So it was in December of 2006 that I decided to pick one thing and Master it before I moved on.

I had been making websites for myself and friends since 2001. So I knew I could do that. The one really big problem I had was getting traffic to my websites! Yeah, like no one else has that problem!

I decided to use Adsense because it seemed the easiest to make money with. I didn't buy any ebooks or sign up for any Guru training. I knew my subjects were interesting and other people would find them interesting as well. I just needed to know some more before reinventing myself!

I read everything I could about optimizing sites for Adsense. I dropped any of my sites that were not ideal for Adsense and only focused on those that were.

I tested different layouts, positions, fonts, etc, etc. I become an A/B tester Guru! I just had to know how I could get the most bang for my buck!

Now How Do I Get Traffic?

Once I figured out I knew quite a bit about Adsense optimization, I started learning all I could about search engine optimization. This was the most frustrating thing of all because everyone has a different opinion on what works and what doesn't. Who are you to believe?

Finally, after researched anyone who I thought remotely knew what they were talking about when it came to SEO. Finally, I found two gentlemen who talked the talk and walked the walk. I read everything I could from them. One offered a email newsletter and I joined for free. Those newsletters provided me the information I needed to finally get an idea of how to optimize my websites.

Just like I did with Adsense, I tested, tested and then tested more to see what worked and what didn't.

It took nearly a year for my first two websites to break $100 a day with Adsense. But I had finally done it!. The funny thing is, now that they pull in over a $100 per day, the click through rates seem to increase nearly every week.

Dodging Roadblocks Others Throw Up

During this whole drawn out process, I was the butt of many peoples jokes. Even my Husbands! Many people would want to know "Hey, you make a million off of the Internet yet?" or they would call me "Dawn the Internet Mogul". Most of it was tongue and cheek, but there were some who really meant it in an ugly way.

I've noticed over my 39 years that there are people who always want to see others fail. Don't give them the satisfaction!

I don't know any online program that will make you rich overnight. Just as in the real World, having an Internet company takes time and a lot of work. Many people simply lose Patience and quit just about the time they would start seeing money come in. That's sad seeing them so close and then give up. You must persevere!

The Big Day Arrives

One night earlier this year as my Husband and I were sitting down doing the bills, he said "Darn Hun, do you realize you're making more from the Internet than you are at work?"

I have to admit, I knew I was doing about the same but I wasn't at a level where I'd feel secure in giving up my Rat Race Postal job.

"Yeah, I thought I was pretty close" I said.

"So does this mean I can quit and work from home?" I asked half jokingly, half serious.

He stopped what he was doing, put down his pen and took off his glasses and looked at me and said "I know you hate your job. I know it's very stressful on you and to be honest, I know you don't mean to, but sometimes you bring it home. If you want to quit, go ahead."

You could have knocked me over with a feather!

After I regained my composer, we finished the bills and had a nice long discussion about it. The Children and I could be put on his Insurance for very little money. I had already racked up some retirement from the Post Office, so I had a retirement nest egg started.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized there was nothing stopping me from quitting!

And I did just that a month later, March 2008.

It was scary to begin with. But I was able to stay home with our youngest and save the Daycare bill. I also was able to start doing things with my Second Grader. And the funny thing is, I some free time and have been taking advanced Photoshop classes at our local college along with some advance Photography classes.

If all goes as planned, I'm going to start taking photo's and submitting them to Stock Photography websites for additional income. I really love Photography (two of my successful Adsense sites are over photography) and would love to earn extra income that way.

Well, there you have it. Boring I know but many of you asked! It's not for everyone, but if you have the drive and patience, I believe a person can make a living online. I'll keep you updated as I continue down this path they call Working From Home!

How To Know When It's Time To Quit Your Day Job

It's the question on everyone's mind. Well, anyone who ever thought about working from home.

"When will I know it's time to quit my day job?"

Some people will go through their entire life wondering this question. Some are so afraid of giving up the security of their day job and walking out on the limb of the unknown. These people will never realize their dream of making a living from home.

Others are so eager to quit their jobs, they quit prematurely and find their self financially strapped or worse. Of course, in my opinion, there's few things worse than working at a dead end job you hate! :)

So I've compiled a few tips for my readers on how to know when it's time to tell you boss "Take this job and shove it."

1. Obviously, one of the easy ways to determine when it's time to quit your day job is when your income from your work at home job rises to a comfortable level. This doesn't mean when the income reaches the same level as you're making now. This is any level where you're sure you could quit your day job and still live comfortable. Many work from homers will cut expenses and luxuries in order to be able to work from home. I certainly did years ago in order to be able to work out of my home.
2. When you day job starts holding you back from growing your home business. If your day job begins to interfere with your work from home job, it might be time to say "Adios day job!" If you're sure that you can keep growing your home business if you didn't have to trudge into the Office every day, then it might be the time to make the Big Move.
   
3. When your day job starts affecting your home business. If the stress and time constraints of your day job are hurting your home business, it's time to take a hard look at walking away from your 9 to 5 job. Many potential work from homers let their day job continually hurt their work from home job and never realize that they could have been successful a lot earlier if they had given up their day job.
4. When either job starts affecting your Family. I know how hard it is to work at a day job and try to start and run a home business. It can affect the way you treat your Family. If you find this is true in your case, then you need to sit down and take a hard look at both careers. One has to go. You'll need to ask yourself "Why am I trying to start a home business?" and "Why am I still at my day job?" Chances are, you're starting a home business for your Family. Don't let the stress affect your physical or mental health because just like crap, it rolls down hill. But in this case, it's generally your Family who is at the bottom of that hill and that just isn't right!
   
5. When your ethics are higher than the company's you work for. Believe it or not, I'm seeing more and more people go out on their own because they do not want to work for an unethical company. When you start sacrificing your own moral beliefs, bad things can happen in your life. Life is too short to put up with that!
6. Your co-workers hate you. Many of you will find that your co-workers will despise you for making a living from home. It's only because they are jealous. Many people love to see other fail and can not stand to see someone succeed. They may even go as far as trying to sabotage your home business in hopes you'll fail. I'm not joking, I've seen it happen too many times. Don't let these type of people bring you down. I used to work with a great guy. I even considered him a friend. But he was so negative when I started my home business I finally had to stop hanging around him. I simply chose friends who inspired me and encourage me to succeed.

There can be other clues as to when it's time to quit your day job. You may have your own reasons. The important thing is that you plan ahead for that great day when you walk out the door forever. It's generally not as easy as you think it will be, plus it can be kinda scary.

I know, I walked away from a good paying job with great benefits that I had been at for 9 years. The day I drove out of the parking lot for one last time was really scary. I was thinking the whole time "God, I hope I didn't just make a big mistake."

But I had to do it. It was holding me back from going forward with the business I had at the time. Which, I might add, failed two years later. But that's okay. I survived and learned many valuable lessons that I wouldn't have otherwise. Lessons that helped me on down the road.

My Supervisor said something to me as I was walking out the door that has stayed with me all these years. He said "When I hired you, I was sure you wouldn't hang around very long. I wondered why you stayed here all these years." Wow, you could have floored me. I simply said "I don't know either."

I knew I had stayed because I'd grown accustomed to the security of a weekly paycheck and benefits. I was unhappy, unchallenged and unappreciated. I knew I deserved more.

Since that time, I've started other successful work from home businesses. My only regret is that I didn't walk out sooner!

Work From Home Tips

Work From Home Tips for Beginners

A growing work-from-home opportunity is to answer the inbound customer calls for companies like J. Crew, 1-800-flowers, Virgin Atlantic or Walgreens. These major players and many others like them outsource their customer-service calls to companies that hire U.S.-based virtual agents who work from home.

Most home-based opportunities fall into a few key categories: entrepreneurial (you run your own business), direct sales (you sign up as a consultant with a company such as Mary Kay'there are now thousands of direct sales opportunities in all categories), and contractor (some companies hire home-based independent contractors). The section below offers some opportunities to consider mostly as independent contractors.

Each company has different needs based on location, hours, clients, payment schedules, skills, knowledge, etc., so be sure to check with a few of them to determine the best match for you. Some pay hourly wages, while others require that you incorporate in order to work for them.

This varies with every company and every opportunity. You'll have to check with companies directly to find out what they require. Some opportunities that rely on technology via the Internet require you to have broadband access. Dial-up connections aren't good enough.

Ever dream about making money on your own time as your own boss' That dream can be a reality with a full-time career or part-time hobby in direct sales. Direct sales programs enable motivated women to make money on their own time.

Much like a garage sale, doing online auctions like eBay or Amazon just requires you to have things that you don't use anymore but still in good shape to be sold online. No doubt that you can gain some profits on this one.

Do this for T-shirts, mugs, kids' accessories, housewares, posters, stickers and so much more. In addition to securing orders from strangers who visit those sites, you can also make money by doing some proactive promotion of your own. Encourage your friends and family to place orders, and get them to e-mail all of their friends, too, by forwarding links to your products.

Blogging builds your market. Unless you are a Hollywood star, chances are, only your Mom reads your posts. Mom has a lot of friends, so she lets her friends know how interesting your blog site is. But you need not depend on Mom to increase your readership base.

Search online using keywords "car wrap advertising" to locate opportunities nationwide. Don't be shy about calling around to compare rates and advertising opportunities to find the best fit for you. Never settle on the first company you find since there could be a more lucrative option available to you.

These online advertising opportunities at little or no cost will increase exposure to your online business and hopefully, drive traffic to your site. To make them buy and keep coming back is another consideration that you should work on too.

Some make it really big with PPC advertising. However, it's not for all. There are many others who consider methods of advertising or marketing of their products other than this one. Nevertheless, you can't deny that being paid for every click is a pretty nice arrangement. Just make sure you do it right with PPC advertising so your efforts won't be put to waste.

More often than not, the world of affiliate marketing is one of the common online careers people get into so they can work from home. If you have promotional skills like a pro and a remarkable convincing power, then selling and advertising other people's items or products could work out well for you. The commission that ranges from 20%-50%, depending on the niche and program, isn't that bad at all. The proof are the increasing number of individuals who are into affiliate marketing today.

Publish and sell other people's manuscripts and information products. You would take on all the expenses, promotions, orders, etc. You would pay the authors an up-front fee or pay a royalty on every sale. Many authors want a publisher because all they want to do it write.

Green was once just a color, but now it's a product, process, philosophy and lifestyle. With so many things going green, it is easy to get confused or misled about what "green" really means.

The tips will only remain tips if they're not applied properly. If tons of research are that important, so is correct implementation. These are few ways to promote products online. You can either try them all or concentrate on a specific one. The decision is yours.

They advertise and they drive traffic to your site and the best part is, at no cost. The existence of social bookmarking, social networking and the latest Web 2.0 sites doesn't revolve only for online rendezvous and socializing. They have been great and effective tools in online marketing.

Services like article writing, programming, web development, site administration, copywriting, graphics designing and other stuff that can be done online are now becoming a trend. Most people who work from home are classified as freelancers because they are their own boss and they provide certain services to clients online in accordance to their line of expertise, knowledge and skills.

Much like the concept of print classifieds and ads, some Internet sites offer you a part of their site for you to place ads for your online business. Some may charge you a considerable amount. But one thing's certain, online classified ads help you spread the word about your work from home.

Cold-Calling : Sometimes the best way to land a home-based job is by calling someone you'd like to work for and offering your services on either a full-time or freelance basis. Don't limit yourself solely to responding to advertised openings'sometimes you have to create the opportunity for yourself by initiating the contact on your own.

Many people find that working as a freelance writer is a good way to earn some side cash. While many part time freelance jobs don't pay a ton, they can help you make ends meet when you don't have enough to pay your bills. Writing is not the only type of freelance work available, either. If you can design a website, you can earn money as a freelance web designer. Graphic artists can also earn money on the side creating images for others. Photography and videography are also in high demand online.

Many single work from home moms simply do not have enough money. They work as hard as they can in their jobs, but it is just not enough to pay the bills. If you are in this situation, then you already know that getting a second job is simply not an option. Your kids only have one parent in the picture, and they need you to be around. One option to help you make ends meet is to find a way to work from home.

Do You Have What It Takes To Work From Home?

For many people, working from home conjures up a romantic scene of sitting around the house in your underwear and making an absorb amount of money while doing very little. Take it from someone who not only works from home but consults with other work from home people, that image couldn't be further from the truth!

What Does It Take To Work From Home?

First, let's take a look at the Pro's and Con's of working from home.

Advantages

• No daily drive to the Office. Huge savings on gas and maintenance on your vehicle.
• No Office politics to deal with
• Working hours are flexible
• Able to control your work schedule
• Some tax advantages - you may be able to write off many things you use around the house anyway, like computers, printers, Internet service as well as some of your Utilities. Check with your CPA.

Disadvantages

• Work from homers can become bored or lonely. This by itself can be a distraction.
• No immediate tech support should you need it
• It can be hard for many to separate work from home life
• You have to be a self motivated person and be organized to be productive

What type of People Succeed At Home?

The type of people who succeed at working from home are those who are self motivated. If you're the type of person who oversleeps all the time or constantly running late for work, then working from home is probably not for you.

It's been my experience, by way of working with hundreds of people who work from home, that working from home tends to multiply bad and good habits.

A person who isn't motivated or who needs constant reinforcement from co-workers, will be negatively affected when working at home. If your Boss is constantly having to kick you in the pants to get you to do your job, you'll fail miserably at home. The same is true is you're the computer Solitaire champ at the Office. Sorry, that's just the brutal truth.

The opposite is true also. A person who is already motivated to go out and succeed will need no prodding to go out and make things happen.

Before making the switch from working at home and giving up your day job, sit down and take a long hard look at yourself. Make a list of your bad work habits as well as a list of your good ones.

Tips For Working At Home

Check with your company about doing your job from home. Surprisingly, many companies have programs that will allow employees to work from home, while others have limited programs. For example, they may require you to come into work only two days a week and the rest you can do at home. It's worth checking into.

If your company doesn't offer such a program, why not go out and see if you can find another company in your industry that does offer such a program? With the price of gas these days, even working from home a few days a week can really add up to big savings.

Dress for success. Forget about slinking around your home all day in your bathrobe. Working from home isn't much different that going into the Office. Studies have shown that work at homers who still get dressed as if they're going into work are more productive and more efficient than those who drag around in their underwear all day. It's something about getting ready to go to work that affects our productivity.

Get rid of the distractions! Staying at home to take care of Kids and trying to work from home at the same time seldom works (no pun intended). The same can be said if your friends and family are constantly calling because they know you're at home now. Remember, you still have to WORK in order to get paid!

If you're not organized, get that way! Even if you have to hire an organizer. Studies have proven that organized people are more productive than slobs. (I fit the slob category once also...before I worked at home!)

Hey, I never said working from home was all work and no play. Just sit down and structure your work day. If you start working more hours from home than you did in the Office, then working from home isn't a huge benefit!

Make time for networking, especially if you're self employed. Networking keeps you in touch with others in the same industry. A nice lunch or Coffee break with other like minded professionals keeps the job fun.

Do a reality check on your equipment. If you're still working on a Windows 95 computer from the stone age, think about upgrading. That doesn't mean run out and charge up your cards replacing your 2 year old computer, but old computers, printers and other equipment can have a direct affect on your productivity. Not to mention the risk of a computer crash with older equipment. If you're still on dial-up and Cable or DSL is available in your area, consider upgrading, especially if your job requires Internet access. Not only will you get things done on the Internet faster, but it will more than likely be a tax write off since you use it for business.

Create a functional workspace. This could be thrown into the "get organized" category, but I don't consider them to be the same. A well laid out work area will greatly enhance your productivity. Set aside one whole room of the house for your business if you can. If you've ever worked in a cubicle, then you should have some idea of how to organize your work space to be efficient. Even if you're working from a Niche in your home, arrange your work area to be productive!

Think about hiring a daycare to care for Lil' Johnny. Sure, everyone thinks they can stay at home and take care of the Kids too. Many can't. Most of the time, Kids are a big distraction. If they aren't making too much noise, they're too quiet causing you to have to get up and see what they're up to. If you worked in an Office, you'd more than likely have to have daycare, treat this as no difference.

Fend off the Time Thieves. It's amazing how many people think you have all the time in the World when you work from home. Friends will call to see if you have time to go to the Mall, Family will call to see if you can do errands, and the list goes on. In fact, I've known many people who worked from home that had to sit down and tell friends and family that "Hey, I may be working from home, but I'm still working!"

Working from home can be rewarding and increase your quality of life. But it's not for everyone, no matter how bad they want it to be true. Follow these work at home tips to help you make a smooth transition.