Everything to do with your shak.
One of the tools that you can use in your home business marketing efforts is your blog. A blog filled with interesting and useful information can be a great way to draw people to your home business web site, as well as build your online presence. However, it is important to promote your home business blog as well.
Darren Rowse, from Problogger, offers some great tips in this video about how you can promote your home business blog using social media.
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Every couple of years, it appears as though the Internet goes through some sort of a complete revolution in how websites look, and in general design. And now, with businesses setting up Facebook pages and getting involved in social media, it seems as though it might be a good time to overhaul everything about your home business web presence.
This can be a good idea in some cases, but you want to be careful. Seth Godin has some advice about some questions you should ask before you spend money to have someone help you overhaul your website. Here are some of the questions Godin believes are most important:
* What is the goal of your website?
* What specific outcomes will occur when the site is working well?
* Who are you trying to please? What kind of person is important?
* Who are you trying to reach?
* What sites have your preferred audience shown that they enjoy?
* Are you trying to close sales?
* Are you telling a story?
* Will you be looking for permission to follow up?
* Do you want people to watch or learn?
* Do you want people to use social media tools?
* Are news updates going to be part of your new set-up?
* Is the site part of a larger suite? Or is this just a single sign post?
* Do you need a great deal of bandwidth?
* How often can you afford to overhaul the website?
* Do you want the site to show up in search engines? And what terms do you want associated with your website?
* Will you need the site to be accessible to disabled groups? (Hearing impaired, sight-impaired, etc.)
* Do you understand that “everything” is not really an option?
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This is another great commercial featuring the ETrade Baby. Shankapotomus. It kills me.
Happy Friday!
One of the things you need to watch out for when looking for home business opportunities is the prevalence of scams. Recently I wrote about the Google work from home scam. I received a couple of questions from readers about multi-level marketing (MLM) as a result. MLM isn’t always a scam; in fact, there are plenty of legitimate MLM companies out there. Cash Money Life offers a very in-depth and helpful look at MLM today. But I do have a couple of thoughts on MLM myself.
Selling anything is hard work
Selling something, whether you are selling Classified ads for a newspaper (I did this for a while), furniture or Mary Kay, is hard work. I know. I watched (and helped) my mother sell Avon products while I was growing up. She made a little bit of money, but really did it for the discount on the products.
I decided that MLM wasn’t for me. At least when I worked for the newspaper, I got a salary plus commission. It was a very simple structure, and I always made a certain minimum that I could count on. (Of course, being a freelance writer doesn’t offer me the set minimum, but I have some clients that I can rely on.) With MLM, you never know, and it is difficult to do well.
If you decide to go with MLM, be sure that you understand what you getting into. I have friend who does MLM and is quite successful. He likes to sell, and he works hard, and has defined goals. He’s a top salesman. But it didn’t just happen. And that’s how it is with any sales business, including MLM. You have to work hard, and market your product if you want to succeed.
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Every so often I get sick. And, as a blogger, I write about it. When you are working from home — especially if you have a home business — you don’t really get sick days. There is always something to do. So here I am, getting stuff done.
Prioritizing your home business workload
The good news, though, is that you can have an abbreviated day if you have workload priorities. When you aren’t feeling well, do an inventory of what you need to get done. Then prioritize it. Are there some things that can be put off until tomorrow? If so, shift those items around. Do only what is necessary. After all, if you don’t have your health, you will be in bigger trouble later. Do what you need to, take care of yourself, and get everything else done later.
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One way that you can get the word out about your home business, and establish yourself as a helpful expert, is to publish ebooks. Publish a high quality ebook and offer it for free, and you can do a lot of good for your home business. However, it is important to realize that your ebook should not be a business brochure. Instead, it should be something useful to others — something they can use to make some sort of improvement.
Over at ProBlogger, Ali Hale offers a 13 step guide to publishing an ebook in 13 hours. Here are the steps she suggests:
1. Get an idea.
2. Let visitors to your site know that you will soon be releasing an ebook.
3. Write your ebook outline.
4. Draft the ebook content.
5. Add graphics.
6. Redraft the texts.
7. Format the ebook.
8. Add a table of contents and any appendices you need.
9. Create a Front Cover.
10. Convert the ebook into a PDF.
11. Do a final proof read and double check links.
12. Publish and publicize your ebook.
It helps to have knowledge of the subject of your ebook, and it can be a bonus if your ebook is based on a hobby that can connect back to your home business. Provide useful content and people will visit to download your ebook, increasing traffic to your site and establishing you as an expert.
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Unfortunately, one of the grim realities of working from home is that burnout can become a problem. One way to combat burnout is to look at your home business and find a way to tie in a hobby or something that you enjoy. I enjoy writing, so it’s lucky that I work from home as a freelance writer. Mary Emma Allen at Home Biz Notes recently wrote a great article on what she has done to tie in her interest in heritage one-room schoolhouses to what she does to earn a living working from home.
This started me thinking. Starting a home business based on something you enjoy is a good way to go. You can be an expert, since presumably you know about what you are selling. Additionally, it helps to keep you motivated when you have a passion. This can ensure that your home business thrives and survives, rather than dying a quick death as you lose interest.
Of course, even if you are doing something you enjoy, it is still necessary to work hard and to stay motivated. No matter how much you love what you do, there are days where motivation is hard. But doing something you love can help you through those days.
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We have a tendency to mark significant events, and 9/11 definitely qualifies. So, instead of a “fun” video, I thought I’d put up this 9/11 tribute video. It’s short, and it’s somewhat thought provoking. Take a few minutes to remember the fallen. And try to recapture a feeling of unity.
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One of the ways you can help your home business attract more attention and grow is to create a Facebook page for it. This is different from a Facebook profile. A profile is more interactive, and it is something that most people have for their personal stuff. A page, on the other hand, is a good way to post updates, photos and other information pertaining to your home business.
You will have to try and attract fans, though. Susan Payton, the Marketing Eggspert at Sparkplugging, has some great insight on putting together a Facebook page for your home business. And she mentions this about adding fans to your Facebook page:
The tricky thing about Pages is you can’t Friend someone the way you can from your Profile. So my suggestion is to go through your Profile Friends and invite those you think would benefit from being a fan of your business’ Page to become a fan. If your Friends aren’t business-related, consider adding friends that are business related to your profile (start by searching for your contacts and clients) so that you can easily convert them over to your business’ page.
You will find that your Facebook page has SEO advantages, and that it can help customers find you — and keep up with you.
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Lately, there has been some chatter surrounding a home business “opportunity” to make money with Google. There are a couple of scams associated with making money using Google. These scams include such titles as “Google hiring home workers” and mentioning that it is possible to make x amount of dollars with a system that helps you place links with Google Ads.
It is important to note that these are not sanctioned by Google. Lazy Man and Money has some insight into this Google scam. It is an interesting read. If you have some time, go read about it.
This is just another work from home scam that promises money for doing very little. And this scam is also being advertised on Twitter. (Watch out for Twitter work from home scams as well.) It is also on Facebook. Although through more sinister means. My cousin’s wife had her Facebook account hacked and messages with a “google4cash” Web site were being put up on her friends’ Facebook walls.
It just goes to show: You can’t be too careful when screening work from home jobs.
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