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Income Diversity: Where Does Your Money Come From?

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One of the important considerations to make when you have a home business — or even when you are working a more traditional job — is income diversity. It is important to understand where your money is coming from, and to work on make sure that it is coming from more than one source. (As unemployment continues to show discouraging numbers, this is especially important for those with 9-5 jobs.)

In my work from home situation, I look for income diversity in a number of ways. While a great deal of money comes from my blogging, I am careful to make sure that no one client has an overwhelming amount of my work. I also try to diversify the kinds of things I write. In addition to blogs, I write for a science Web site as a reporter, provide non-blog Web content, and write for my local newspaper. Sometimes I even do some editing. And, just in case, I have accounts at Associated Content, eHow and Text Broker. This way, if I need to, I can write for immediate payment. I also have Google AdSense and arrangements for residual income on some of my blog posts.

But income diversity isn’t just about diversifying the types of business you do. It is also about finding other sources of income. You can do this by making money through sales on eBay, getting another job, investing in dividend paying stocks or participating in P2P lending. The income streams you have, the more secure you are. And if you can earn more through passive income options, that’s even better.

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How Do You Set Your Freelancing Rates?

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I recently came across an interesting article on Freelance Parent at Sparkplugging. This article talked about setting freelancing rates. And I realized that this is an agonizing decision that all freelancers go through — whether you are writing, designing or consulting. You have to decide how to set your rates.

Ways to set your freelancing rates

There are a couple of ways to set your freelancing rates:

  1. Per hour: You can figure out how much you are worth per hour. You can estimate how long it might take you to complete a project and go from there.
  2. Per word/page: If you are a writer, you might set your rates according to word count or page count. Depending on the difficulty of the work involved, you might charge more for some types of work.
  3. Per project: Some just look at the project in terms of difficulty, specifications and time it is likely to take to complete and then set their freelancing rates on this basis.

When you do set freelancing rates, though, keep in mind that not everyone will pay what you charge. I’m happily to a point where, for the most part, if someone doesn’t like my rate, they can move on. There are plenty of others that know my worth. However, I did have to start out taking lower paying jobs until I got some experience. That’s just the way it is.

Do you have a method for setting your freelancing rates?

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Win Great Prizes from Inside Small Business

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Right now, the Logoworks blog Inside Small Business is offering a great contest. Some of the prizes include:

  • Silver logo package
  • Free polo shirts with your logo.
  • Free T-shirts with your logo.
  • Free logo.

This is actually a pretty cool prize list, since it includes items that you can give away to promote your home business. In order to be entered, you are supposed to use copy provided at the Web site on your blog. The copy includes a promotion for 100 free, full color business cards from MarketSplash by HP.

If you are interested in winning the prizes — or just checking out the 100 free business cards — head on over to Inside Small business. It might be worth your while.

image source: radiant guy via Flickr

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Weakening the Effects of Computer Vision Syndrome

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The 'Glasses Apostle' in the altarpiece of the...Image via Wikipedia

For most people, a home business means a lot of time in front of the computer. And, if you are a freelance writer (as I am), that time is even more likely to be a lot. That means that you might feel eye strain and other problems. However, there are some things you can do to help ensure that your vision doesn't suffer as much from heavy computer use. Computer use won't permanently damage your eyes, but you can get eye strain, focus problems and experience discomfort. Family Health Guide offers these tips for reducing the load on your eyes:

* If you need lenses or glasses to see the computer screen, wear them.

* Blink on a regular basis. You may have to force yourself to remember to do this.

* Every 20 minutes, look at something new 20 feet away, and do it for 20 seconds.

* The monitor should be 16 – 30 inches away from your eyes, depending on what you find comfortable.

* The top of the monitor should be at your horizontal eye line, or slightly below.

* Keep your monitor clean.

* Tilt the monitor slightly away from you.

* An adjustable chair can help you change your eye position relative to the monitor.

* Document holders placed close to the monitor should be used for data entry.

* Make sure your work station is comfortable.

Managing your computer use so that it keeps your eyes comfortable is an important part of your home business. You want to be able to work efficiently and effectively, without being slowed down by eye strain.

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Home Business Productivity: Have You Tried Single-Tasking?

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It's a multi-tasking sort of world. So often, we find our attention drawn off in multiple directions as we work on several different tasks at one time. As you might imagine when you really stop to think about it, this is probably not the best method of trying to get things done efficiently. And yet we continue to multi-task.

Enter the concept of single-tasking.

Doing one thing at a time is not really new, but it is starting to make a comeback in some productivity circles. Indeed, Health Money Success points out that you can simplify your day — and increase the speed and quality of your work — if you single-task rather than multi-task.

Instead of doing several things at once, prioritize your necessary tasks for your home business. Then work on them at once. I'm going to start applying the single-tasking method in my daily freelance efforts. Here's my to-do list for most days:

1. Concentrate on email first thing.

2. Go through my reader for news and posts to link to.

3. Write all of my blog posts.

4. Participate in social media (including promoting posts I just wrote).

5. Other writing projects.

Right now, I check my email more than I probably should, and get side-tracked by social media. I think that if I focus my energy better, I am more likely to work efficiently, getting more done — and doing work of higher quality.

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Freelancing through the Holidays

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When freelancing (whether writing, consulting, graphic design) is your home business, you may find that you are getting a drop in work around the holidays. I know I haven’t had as much work in terms of book chapters, reporting and other types of writing that I do.

However, if you have steady clients, it can help. I have a few clients on contract for a set number of blog posts each month — and some for specific articles each week. This is good, since it provides a nice base that I can usually count on. (Although with this economy, nothing is ever certain.)

However, as one might guess, being ready to work at your home business through the holidays requires its own preparation. Here are some things I do to get enjoy a couple days off around Christmas and New Year:

* Prepost on blogs (write the posts ahead of time in the editor and then set a time and date for them to post).

* Work an extra 1/2 to an hour for a few days of the month to get more done ahead of time.

* Outsource some of the work to people I can trust. I don’t get as much money from the assignment, but it gets done, I remain reliable, and I help someone else out.

What do you do with your home business during the holidays?

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Help Others this Holiday Season with the One Dollar Give

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It’s the holiday season, and even though times may be tight this year, there is still much you can do to help others. Even if you can only spare $1.

That’s the idea behind the One Dollar Give. Nearly everyone can spare a buck or two, right? Frugal Dad brought this to my attention. Everyday of this month, a different blogger will be featured — along with his or her charity. You can then donate $1 to that charity. The idea is that with hundreds, or thousands, or more, people contributing only $1, a lot of good can come of it.

So I encourage you to participate in the One Dollar Give. It’s a great way to help this holiday season.

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Tips for Affiliate Marketing on Twitter

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When it comes to marketing your business, social networking is rapidly becoming a must. And one of the common tools used now is Twitter. But sometimes things get a little heavy-handed on Twitter. In such cases of social media, blogging and marketing, ProBlogger almost always has relevant words of wisdom. Such is the case when it comes to affiliate marketing on Twitter. Here are 8 tips offered by Darren Rowse:

1. Be relevant.
2. Personalize.
3. Genuine recommendations.
4. Be conversational.
5. Indirectly link to affiliate products.
6. Be moderate.
7. Listen to followers.
8. Be useful.

I think #1 and #8 are especially applicable, as is moderation (#6) and being genuine (#3). If you are just trying to sell something, eventually (or not so eventually) people will figure it out and you will likely be shunned. And that does no one any good.

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