Having a home based business is one of the last viable tax shelters left to Americans. EVERYONE should be taking advantage of this easy and readily available opportunity to save thousands of dollars each tax season. Here’s why this works:

Congress has passed Legislation telling the IRS to give thousands of dollars in tax refunds and deductions to ANYONE who qualifies by operating an honest small or home-based business with intent to make a profit – even a part time business. These are NOT “loopholes,” or “tax dodges” or “tax evasion schemes.” They are legitimate tax breaks that are:

o Authorized by Congress,

o Published in the IRS Code, and/or

o Approved by Federal Tax Court Rulings

In other words, they all are 100% IRS-Compliant!

Congress passed these tax laws for the purpose of encouraging the fastest growing segment of the United States economy: small business. “Small business is the backbone of the American economy,” according to President George W. Bush.

“Average Americans who run a small or home-based business now qualify for more tax advantages than any other category of taxpayer,” according to Ronald R. Mueller, author of the bestseller It’s How Much You KEEP, That Counts! Not how much you Make. “Even the super-rich with their high-priced lawyers and big-time tax advisors can’t get the tax breaks that YOU can, by simply trying to make a profit operating a `side-business’.”

Why the big tax breaks for home-business owners???

Because 70% of the job growth is coming from small businesses, and Congress is “betting” that some of us will hit on a winner, strike it rich, and, then, pay a LOT in taxes. Of course we won’t mind paying a lot in taxes if we’re making a boatload of profits, right?

So what are YOU waiting for? You can save yourself hundreds or thousands of dollars every year by working a home-based business, even if it is very part time.

Even in carefree Hawaii, there’s an expression – Pau Hana—meaning “after work,” Until the last decade, most of our lives were built around work and after work. It always seemed upside-down to me that our society encourages us to work long hours at something we hate in order to get a few hours to do something we really love. When I grew up in the Midwest, it was the highest of compliments to be referred to as a ‘good’ worker or ‘hard’ worker.

Our days are typically divided into getting ready for work, going to work, working, working lunches, working late, going home from work, dinner and doing the work we took home to do and then planning for the next day of work.

And so day in and day out, 50 weeks a year with two weeks off, we follow this cycle. And we join—you guessed it—the “rat race” until we are so worn out that we have to be retired.

As we’ve already discussed, you’ll probably have as many as seven careers (or more) in your lifetime. As my mom said so succinctly when I told her the title of this book, “Yes, no more one job.” If you are value-driven and lifestyle-driven, you’ll find it much easier to create a rewarding career, when it fits in with your lifestyle.

Integrate your life/work choice: not starting over –starting ‘better’!

Just remember, this time, you’re not starting over—you’re starting “better”. In writing this chapter, I wanted to include spectacular stories of people who would inspire you to believe that you could trade your tie for a lasso and ride the open range or sell your BMW and spend the next season of your life climbing Mt. Everest. But, when I looked at the case histories, I found that some of them are indeed spectacular, but others may appear more ordinary for “getting a life, not just a job” is a highly personal venture.

Here are three examples of how people not only changed their careers but integrated their choices into their lives:

I had the good fortune to work with international baseball hero Sadahara Oh, “the Japanese Babe Ruth”. Oh San, as he is called, retired from baseball and yearned to give back to the people some of the joy of the game he had so loved. It was my honor to work with him to set up the World Children’s Baseball Foundation, a camp where kids around the world meet to play ball for a few weeks each year. By sharing what he loved, he created a new career for himself in the process. But he didn’t do it alone. I worked with him to create a board of advisors ranging from Hollywood celebrities to business leaders to other athletes to help make his dream come true. Now he can travel around the world each summer visiting his baseball camps in foreign lands.

Another extraordinary man was already integrating his career with his lifestyles while he was still in his 20’s. I met Douglas Heir while working with Olympians Mary Lou Retton and
Bob Richards on the Wheaties Search for Champions – a national quest for outstanding amateur athletes. Heir was a member of the U.S. Olympic team wheelchair division. He won four medals at the World Olympic Wheelchair games in the javelin and discus competitions. At the time I met him, Heir was also a law student and teaching assistant at Rutger’s University. He would not settle for just one career but rather combined his athletic prowess with his quest for the law.

Gina, another client, discovered that her true calling was in social work. “There is nothing more fulfilling than helping build a community center brick by brick, board by board with your own hands,” she explains. A stint as a volunteer on a local crisis line led her to go back to school at 35 to get her master’s degree in social work. After she lost her job Enron, she thought the world was over but volunteered at the local YWCA. It was there, working with their ‘displaced homemaker’ program, she realized that just getting another corporate job in Human Resources would not be enough.

Too old to change your life?

Many people worry that they are too old to start over. Yet, I’ve found that my clients successfully recareer at all ages. San Francisco actor and writer Dean Goodman dreamed his whole life of doing films, and in his 70’s broke in as a co-star on a Francis Ford Copppola movie.

In doing research for this book, I came across an interesting fact about illustrator H.A. Rey, noted for his charming drawings of Curious George, the nosey little monkey who is always getting himself in and out of trouble. Rey, who lived from 1898 to 1977, sold bathtubs up and down the Amazon River from the age of 26 to 38 until he married his wife, Margaret. Then he embarked on an artistic career that produced the wonderful “Curious George” book series. From bathtub salesman on the Amazon to children’s book illustrator with books now on Amazon.com Quite a lifestyle change!

Life changes brought on by crisis

Not all career changes are planned, many start by accident or when people like you and me go through tough times—divorce, down-sizing and even financial crisis.Actor Ed O’Neil, probably best known as Al Bundy on the classic television show “Married with Children” was a professional football player at one time. After being cut from the pro team, he decided to take a break (like many of my clients do) and stay in Florida where he had been in spring training. He supported himself as a bellboy coincidentally at the same hotel he had stayed at as a ballplayer.

He needed what I call a “station break” in life. This is not an easy time for most of my clients. And in fact, making a transition is often filled with a potpourri of emotions—confusion, anger, regret and hope. And challenges. As a bellboy, O’Neil was called to the front desk one day to carry the bags of some of his former team members who were back in town to play football. Can you imagine what kind of razzing he must have taken? He reports that he kidded them right back – using that sarcastic brand of humor that would become his trademark on TV in the future. And he also accepted the tips. Of all the qualities that help during a transition, I’ve found that the ability to ‘lighten up’ is one of the best. And to realize like O’Neil did then, that this limbo period is not permanent. Someday, you, like O’Neil will move onto the next episode and maybe even a ‘starring’ role.

Where will you live?

Where you live need not be driven by career choice, but by “personal” decision. With a plan of action, the right technology, a bit of capital and lots of ingenui9ty, you can choose to live in the mountains, in the city, on both coasts or abroad—no matter what profession you want to practice. In fact, you may want to choose where you live before you consider what you want to do.

BEST PLACES TO LIVE AND WORK?

Just what are the best places in America to live? MONEY magazine publishes it’s new list each summer, comparing about 300 different areas across the country.

Check your library for other reference books or do a search on the Internet. According to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the best cities for jobs were (in alphabetical order) Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington C. No wonder so many ‘dot-com’ alumni moved to the Sunbelt cities.

SMALL TOWN OR BIG CITY: TECH TAKES WORK ANYWHERE….

If you’re raising kids, you’ll want to choose a family-oriented community. The organization Zero Population Growth considers 10 factors including population stability, crowding, child health, crime, education, air quality and water resources in determining their top cities. But you may want to find out where the best hiking trails are our where the best fishing ponds are located so that you can enjoy your favorite hobbies together with your family.

Remember, “bigger isn’t always better”. A Zero Population growth spokesperson says, “We found a strong correlation between the size of a city or metropolitan area and the overall stress on children”.

To find out more about other areas of the country and even job opportunities in Europe or Asia, check with chambers of commerce and online. Many will send you sophisticated packages including fancy DVD’s of their town. In fact, some chambers and Economic Development groups will refer you to local recruiters for their area, if you have a skill they need. Or just head to the area you’re interested in for a quick weekend. Recently, while staying at a bed and breakfast in a small rural town, the owner tried to get one of my career clients to change her life and help start a local museum with her. All my client had intended to do was visit the area where her grandparents had owned a farm, but the weekend trip turned quickly into a career and life opportunity.

Matching what you want to do with where you want to live can be a creative process. Think about “your” career and life choices. How could you make them happen in a big city? In a small town? Let’s look at these two options with a few different career choices.

1. Want to be a writer/novelist or screenwriter?

Big city: You may choose to be a tech writer at a major computer firm by day and write science fiction tomes by night. You may want to hit New York and get an old college
roommate who lives there to underwrite your off-off Broadway play. Or look up that college celebrity you went to grade school with and head to Hollywood to see if you can get a gig writing for her new reality show.

Small town: Consider turning your family’s Mountain cabin into a writer’s retreat and bring in some old professors to lead some seminars – go ahead, be brave moderate some of the short story workshops yourself. You can telecommute to your company’s headquarter’s in Denver from your ski chalet in Aspen. Really think ‘outside-the-box’, love Yosemite –go ahead and set up a regional theatre repertory program on weekends and work as a forest ranger during the week. Who knows one of the highly-stressed tourist’s you meet may be a Broadway talent agent.

2. Yearn to be a travel tour leader or a river rafting guide?

Big city: You may choose to create ‘arm-chair’ multimedia adventures for local travel firms
or get a gig with your local cable station and start your own travel show.

Small town: Check out the scores of caverns, caves or other natural resources nearby and
become a tour guide for adventure trips. Organize a 21st Century travel blog online linking
handicapped travelers together for the adventures of their lifetime.

3. Want to own your own business?

Big city: Are you a great barbecue chef? Consider setting up your own weekend barbecue
catering business as fund-raisers for schools and other non-profits.

Small town: Open up a summer-time only open-air barbecue pit near the largest campground
in the area. In the winter, find a major food conglomerate to buy your family secret barbecue
sauce recipe.

4. Want to sail around the world?

Big city: head to the nearest marina and open up a ‘time-share’ visit for other would-be sailors who can help finance the boat of your dreams. Borrow a pal’s Digital Video camera and document wealthy yacht-owner’s special occasions. You get to sail for free while you sharpen your film prowess.

Small town: Teach sailing to the scouting troupes in the area or design a senior’s only class for everyone who shares your dream.

EXPERIMENT:

To challenge you creativity, consider small-town/big city options for the following careers and lifestyles:

*Making a contribution to the world.

*Preserving local history.

*Share a love of gardening and landscaping.

As you consider your lifestyle choices and where you’d like to live, there are other factors you may want to weigh:

*Your family situation. Do you have a spouse? Do you want one? Children? Are you a single parent? Does an ex-spouse have visitation rights? Are you single looking for a new partner? Do you have any family commitments that might keep you in a certain area?

*Your bank account. Do you have at least six-month’s living expenses to get you started in your new community? Keep in mind that the cost of living varies from community to city. Six months bed and board in a small town might total only $10,000 or less, while in a big metropolitan city that might not even cover moving expenses for a family of four.

*Your hobbies and leisure life. Can’t live without a quiet walk in the country each weekend? Do you thrive on theatre and nightlife? Whether it’s rock climbing or rodeo wrangling, make sure you choose a locale that’s compatible with you recreational interests or be prepared to start your own rodeo.

*Your social life. True, you can meet terrific people just about everywhere you go. But you may find that your social life revolves around your church or synagogue. All too often many of my clients depend on work to spark their social activities, and when they change jobs they feel left out. Plan to hook up with local community organizations or your alumni chapters in the new location.

But what if you can’t afford to move?

Like many of my clients, you may feel limited by lack of resources – the green kind! But don’t worry, there are ways to beat the bank.

Consider house-swapping, There are lots of online websites that offer to formally swap homes in the country for skyscraper condos in the city. Be sure to check them out carefully to make sure the one you choose is legit. I’ve found that it’s often easier to just tell someone you’d like to swap your apartment for a mountain cabin –professional organizations like Women in Film or the manager of your gym may have a pal or relative yearning for just such an opportunity.

Investigate house-sitting in the city of your choice. If you’re handy, the absentee owner may even pay you a fee for your assistance in fixing that broken porch or mending the roof.

How about going international?

What if you’d love to live in Switzerland or deep sea fish on an island in Micronesia? It’s possible even on a budget. Before you jump off the deep-end, consider these options:

1) You may want to take a leave of absence from your teaching gig and live in Barbados for a month before you make the final commitment.

2) You may want to see if you can get a regular gig in the new locale, even if you yearn to buy a franchise in the region or set up your own small biz. Having a job will give you time to check out the region without touching your own capital.

3) You may want to work for an American company internationally that has offices or worksites in the locals you yearn to travel to in the future. Or explore the area first with shorter trips before packing your trunks for a permanent move.

4) You may want to keep a safety net back home—sublet your house, get a housemate for your home, keep an emergency nest egg in the bank where you come from.

Before you leap to foreign lands, prep for the trek:

Most of my clients spend more time planning a summer vacation than mapping out their life-plans. Even if you’re checking account is minimal, you can get a head-start on your dream for little or no cost by:

1) Studying the language in your spare time (most high schools offer low-cost evening classes).

2) Stopping by the consulate for the country of your choice, make friends with the office staff and see what suggestions they have for you.

3) Check out international trade associations such as the Australian Trade Commission which will be glad to meet with you while you’re still living in the U.S. and help you prep for your relocation.

4) Place an inexpensive ad in the English-speaking newspaper in the Mexico City where you’re yearning to open a sailing school. You may be able to get students to sign up in advance. At least start a subscription or read the paper in online or at your local library to see what the business climate is like in advance.

They did it, so can you!

Here are some lifestyle choices my clients and students have made:

1. From maid service owner in Los Angeles to diner operator in small Northwest town.

2. From high-pressure traveling sales executive to telephone sales J.O.B. (Just only a bridge) and musician at night at a beach resort town.

3. From manufacturing plant manager in the Midwest to handyman at a North Shore hotel in
Hawaii so he could surf all day.

4. From real estate investor in Texas to dating service owner in Los Angeles so she could be near her own “sweetie”.

5. From musician traveling with big celebrity bands to New Age psychic healing advisor in
Sedona, Arizona.

6. From astrologer to therapist in a university town in Nebraska (after going back to school).

7. From university administrator at a college law school, to lawyer on Wall Street.

8. From copy editor to environmental analyst in New Mexico.

9. From television anchor to speech therapist in Alaska.

10. From beauty queen in North Dakota, to fitness counselor at a country club in Puerto Rico.

11. From barrio teacher to education writer in Washington, DC

12. From geologist to character actor at a Florida theme park.

13. From lawyer to off-Broadway play producer.

14. From computer salesperson in Alaska to interactive television engineer in San Francisco.

15. From soap opera actress to costume designer for regional theatre in New Mexico.

What advice do others offer?

“What you own is not as important as how you feel inside.” –salesman-turned-musician

“Allow plenty of spare time to do your own thing,” –banker-turned kindergarten teacher

“Learn how to use a computer—no matter how old you are. It will change the way you work, the way you communicate and even who you meet. Be sure to buy a laptop so you can take it anywhere.” –real-estate entrepreneur-turned inner city teacher

“Do your own thing until the money runs out, then keep doing it!” –stockbroker-turned-old-house renovator

“Don’t compromise – go for it even if it means making some sacrifices in how you live for awhile” –ad executive-turned-film-writer.

You deserve a break!

Many of my clients find that they only rediscover their values and their lifestyle choices by taking some time off. Refreshed, renewed and revitalized, they start again.

Sometimes clients come to me after taking an ‘enforced” time out—because of family illness, an accident that immobilized them for months or a life-or-death crisis. They’re sure they don’t want to go back to their old jobs – and many times they don’t even have that option. But they’re afraid to go for their dreams because they’ve been out of the job market. This is the same challenge many women who have been raising children face when they want to return to the workplace.

I encourage these people to realize that they can life out their dreams. That they do have the “right” to dream. Life is not punishment. It is here to be enjoyed. Go for it. GET A LIFE!

“In the long run,” said Eleanor Roosevelt, “when we shape our lives, we shape ourselves.”

The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make, are ultimately our own responsibility.

Considering Facts Of Working At Home Amidst Chaos! You finally did it. You found your plan and you worked it through and you gave your two weeks notice and you came home to go to work. This is what you’ve been working for over the past few years and who can’t get excited about it? You set up your home office and set limits with the kids, even retrained the dog so he would stop barking at every little thing that wandered by throughout the day.

You’ve been doing all the right things. You roll out of bed at 5:30 in the morning, whip up a little breakfast and get the family out the door. The dog gets a brief walk as a reward for learning his new behaviors, and you are sitting at your new desk by eight in the morning and ready to bring home the family bacon. You are the queen of work at home organization.

At nine thirty the phone rings and your mother in law blows a huge hole in your well thought out work at home organization. She announces that she needs your help and she’ll be over in twenty minutes, and naturally she is right on time. You spend an hour walking her through her bank’s website so that she learns how she can manage her savings account or whatever it was she wanted and after she stands around and chats about the kids. Your work at home organization is now off by almost two hours.

Despite all of your attention to detail and your work at home organization, your best friend calls around 1:00 with what seems like a crisis to her but really is just another bump in the road and really could have waited until that evening. Now you’re under the gun because you’ve spent nearly an hour dealing with her new man crisis and the kids will be home from school in forty five minutes and you have barely accomplished half the things on your well organized list for the day.

Despite your best efforts, you are far behind by the time the kids come home just like you were all last week. By the time your significant other comes home you have cooked dinner, ran a load of laundry through, played with the kids and got them settled on their homework and you want to cry as you feel as though you are helplessly watching your work at home dreams go down the drain. The business answering machine has seven messages on it that you should have called back before noon.

If you’re lucky you can squeeze in a few hours in the evening instead of spending the time with your family, even thought that was the point of bringing you into your home office. Despite your amazing work at home organization, you are failing. You know that if people would just leave you alone you could get the work done and the paychecks would be steady and secure. Things are slipping away and if you don’t change the ground rules, you will be seeking employment outside the home once again. By now you are “Considering Facts Of Working At Home Amidst Chaos”

The Work at Home Perception

Unfortunately, often only those closest to you realize that working at home is actually working at home. Your in-laws and parents, friends and neighbors, and even sometimes a well intentioned but misunderstood spouse loses the concept of work hours when an individual comes home to work. In their minds, you’re now home so you are in control of your own time so it is perfectly possible for you to work around other people, if they even believe you are working at all.

This is a frustrating work at home perspective and one that can seriously disrupt your progress and if you’re not careful, your well organized work at home plan. Many people believe that working at home is really just a scam and can’t be done successfully, no matter what business you set up at home.

The work at home perception that influences your day to day life may or may not be something that you can change. Those around you are going to see things as they see them and it’s up to you to either open their eyes or simply set limits to protect what you have worked for.

It may be helpful to host a small dinner. Inviting those who are your greatest daily distractions over for a small get together and at some point in the dinner conversation bring up the topic about work and all you’re accomplishing. Give them a brief tour of your office space and mention the challenges of getting everything done during the day. When people work in an office, they have the option to stay a little late to get caught up. Work at home parents have a fairly consistent schedule set for them around their children and their lifestyle. Pointing out these little details may help change the work at home perception without creating direct conflict. Most people will put two and two together and realize that whether they understand the concept or not, they are intruding on your work time when they understand it or not.

If kindness and subtlety doesn’t work, then it’s time to get tough. You are not only the work at home organization queen, but you are also a mother lion protecting her den. It is not necessary to lay out the rules with anger or hostility, but it may become necessary to set some ground rules with authority. This isn’t always easy especially when the offender is someone like your mother-in-law or your mother. But it is necessary if you want to protect your work at home experience.

Improving the Work at Home Experience

Despite what people believe about the work at home experience, it can be both financially rewarding and emotionally rewarding. Setting your own schedule is empowering and taking command of your life is exhilarating. Knowing that you have accomplished what nearly 50% of the workforce would love to accomplish and to do it successfully is a serious boost to one’s self image and confidence level.

The work at home experience does not have to be ultimately taxing or frustrating once the basic ground rules are set and enforced. Although sometimes you will find that you will have to be a little flexible. Snow days and sick days are bound to happen. Just because the kids are home from school unexpectedly doesn’t mean that you can’t still get quite a bit accomplished, it just means you will have to go about it in an unusual way.

Even young children can grasp the work at home experience if small and basic concepts are explained to them. It’s okay to let them know that you have to do what you are doing for twenty minutes longer because it’s what allows you to be at home with them. Enlisting their help will enhance the work at home experience for both of you, even if that help is sitting next to you with a coloring book.

Significant others may or may not grasp the entire work at home concept right away. The work at home experience may need to be shared more intimately with them if they are having trouble understanding why the laundry is piling up or why you need help cooking dinner all of a sudden or why you have been so tired at the end of the day.

The work at home experience may be initially exhausting. This is normal. When people initially make the transition they tend to go at it with everything the can because there is a part of them that is afraid they may fail otherwise. Don’t work yourself to death. It’s okay to enjoy the work at home experience for everything it has to offer rather than just sitting inside your home office twelve hours a day every day.

You can enhance your own work at home experience by setting aside a little time for special things everyday. Take your lunch outside, not at your desk. Set aside twenty minutes or so in the middle of the day for an exercise routine. This not only helps keep you going but helps prevent office butt from sneaking up on you.

The work at home experience does not have to be a lonely one. The number one complaint that people have when they transition home is that they don’t have anyone to really talk to during the day, other than clients and potential clients. There are online communities out there that can help cure the loneliness factor. Of course, you will have to exercise caution and not spend your entire day chatting online with people or you will not be getting anything valuable accomplished. However, it is okay to periodically check in with people and share issues and work toward a common goal together. Depending on the business you are running out of your home, you may already have this set up through the business and just need to take full advantage of it.

Working at home is beautifully liberating and a huge shot of confidence. It can be stressful, and it can be wonderfully challenging and rewarding. It can be everything you think it is or it can absolutely exceed your expectations. For those of us who do it everyday, it has been well worth every single challenge and limit and fear and sleepless night. For more valuable information on working at home and making the most out of the work at home experience, visit our Legit Work From Home Area.

The very nature of the work at home opportunity lends itself to manipulation by unscrupulous people and businesses.

First of all, people seeking to work at home with some sort of home based business or network marketing opportunity are usually entering an area they know little about. They tend to believe in the claims made by the ads they read or commercials they see on TV.

Even if they don’t truly believe, hope and a desire to find a way out of their present life encourages them to at least “check out” the latest opportunity to work at home that they encounter. After all, it seems so easy, and many people know someone who is actually making some money this way…or know somebody who knows somebody who is.

To make matters worse, many completely honest network marketing, or other work at home businesses are closely duplicated by a myriad of dishonest people and companies which promise the moon, but generally don’t even deliver a good, honest clump of dirt! Additionally, once in a network marketing program, many people see the only way to make money is to make claims that will help them build their downline.

Still, the biggest problem with any work at home business opportunity has to be the ignorance of the participants. I do not mean this in any detrimental way, but it is a simple fact that most people who sign up for a network marketing business opportunity or other home based business have no idea what they are getting into, or what they have to do next.

As if that weren’t bad enough, what they DO know, or think they know, often does not apply to many network marketing or work at home business opportunities. Just look at business hours for one. Most people are used to working at least some sort of schedule. A network marketer or anyone else who works at home either has to be able to set up a work schedule or accept the fact that they must work when there is work to be done. If that is 3 AM, then so be it. That’s when they will have to go to work!

Another example of the sort of thing encountered in network marketing and other home business opportunities was recounted in Richard Poe’s classic, “The Wave 3 Way to Building Your Downline.”

In this instance, a successful real estate investor got caught by a turn in the real estate market. He saw his wife’s network marketing business as a way out of his financial straits. However, despite the fact that he was an excellent and experienced salesman, he still had an office to work out of and bring prospects to, and many other factors which had served him well previously, he was failing miserably in his attempts to recruit new members for his downline.

A more experienced and highly successful network marketer reviewed his presentation and HIS recommendations were to lose the office, the slick presentations, and the business suit…all the things that had helped support the image of the successful real estate investor. He was now dealing with truck drivers, school teachers, housewives, house painters, small business owners…most of whom were intimidated by the thought that to be successful they had to drive a Cadillac, wear a Rolex, and have their own office.

The truth is that in network marketing, Cadillacs, Rolexes and even offices come somewhere after success, and sometimes they don’t show up at all. Many network marketers may have the money to do what they want, but what they want may be to drive an old Chevy, and who needs an office when you can do quite well using the community room at Half-Price Books or even sitting in the park feeding ducks!

Here’s another point not mentioned in Poe’s telling of this story, but is it possible that the young married couple just starting out in life, or the older couple hoping to improve their retirement might have seen the slick ex-real estate investor as some guy in a suit who drove a big car that he was going to pay for with their hard-earned money!

Looking at it that way, is it any wonder that many people often have a certain degree of mistrust for anyone who claims to be able to show them the way to wealth? At the same time, something inside of them wants to believe that maybe, just maybe, it all COULD be true!

So, along comes somebody with something that looks like a good deal. They buy in, and the next thing they know, their money is gone and they have nothing to show for it.

To make things even worse, those who sign up for a completely legitimate network marketing work at home business opportunity have a good chance of losing every penny. The sad fact is that network marketing is relatively simple, and there are many people succeeding with every kind of work at home business imaginable. However, there are skills to be learned, and, as we have seen, some to be unlearned. There is training that must be undertaken and real work to be done.

The first thing you must do to protect yourself from a work at home scam is to do your homework. Find out everything you can about the company and the opportunity. Get as much independent information as possible. Don’t just read the company brochures and listen to the line of the person recruiting you…no matter how much you respect them.

Next, make sure the company is a good fit for you. My personal test is to ask myself, “Would I feel comfortable recommending this company’s goods or services to a close friend or family member if I were not going to get paid a penny?” If the answer is, “Yes!”, then you are on firm footing, and making presentations or explanations later will be easier.

Create the mindset that you are going to have to work to make this business successful. This means learning about the company and the product. It means that you may have to do something uncomfortable such as speak to a group, or interact with strangers. This doesn’t have to be too difficult, by the way. Network marketing is about networking more than marketing. Go into these situations with the intention of making friends and having interesting experiences. Eventually someone will want to know about that…whatchamacallit…that you sell. This brings us to a final point.

Do not expect success to come overnight. Most of the people I know or know of who have been successful with a network marketing business or any other work at home opportunity have spent at least a few years building their business to the point where they felt they were successful.

Finally, do not let greed cloud your judgment. The old adage, “If it looks too good to be true…it probably is” holds just as true here as anywhere else. True, fortunes are made in network marketing, but the money does not leap into your hands any more than fish leap into the boat when you arrive at the lake with a fishing rod in your hands.

One of the first things you should do is categorize tasks that are similar and do them all at once. For instance, make as many phone calls as you can during one block of time. Knowing you have other calls to make to your home based business clients will help you keep your calls shorter. And it also just makes since. You already have the phone in your hand and your phone book, if necessary, handy. Do the same thing with writing letters and taking care of email. Grouping your chores this way will help you make the most of your time.

Another thing you can do to help you get more home based business work accomplished in a day is to set priorities. Write them down, and then look at your home based business to-do list. If there’s a task or two that won’t take a great deal of time to do, take care of them first, then jump into the higher priority jobs on the list. This gets a few things off your home based business to-do list that you may not get to otherwise, and over a period of days, those unattended to tasks add up to a mountain that seems overwhelming. Getting a few less important home based business chores done early in the day also has a psychological effect of making you feel more productive, and so you become more productive.

You also want to build some breaks into your home based business schedule. Eating lunch and/or dinner at your desk in your home based business office is a big no-no. Make it a point to take meal breaks anywhere but in your home based business office. You might build in a short walk during the morning or afternoon to give you an additional break. You’ll come back to your home based business more refreshed, and this makes it possible to do your work more quickly and efficiently.

Learning to say no is important too. When you’re just starting your home based business, this can be difficult to do. You want your home based business to be successful, after all, so it’s only natural to want to say yes to everyone and everything. But taking on too many clients or projects, particularly ones that don’t really fit with your personal and home based business objectives and goals, can end up actually costing you money, not to mention energy that you could put to better use doing your necessary home based business projects and chores. So before you say yes or sign any contracts, give serious consideration as to whether it’s the type of client or work that fits your home based business goals and if you can realistically take on more work.

Some other tips on making the most of your home based business time include:

Delegate whenever possible

Outline the work for any project in advance

Make appointments with yourself to do certain chores—and keep them

Bring in help if you need to

Organize your home based business office for maximum efficiency

Create a filing system—and use it

Finally, don’t make the mistake many home based business owners make in thinking working harder means getting ahead. Remember that saying about working smarter, not harder? Well, it’s true, and it’s also the best way to prevent home based business burnout.

Super New York Tour

One of the best ways to start a work at home business is by blogging. Blogging can be an easier vehicle for earning money online. It frees you from web design and thus has become a popular option for work at home moms. On that note, this doesn’t mean that it is easy to make money from your blog.

Blogging is an activity that will take time to build up to profit level so you can not expect to see money rolling in immediately. In order to be successful at blogging, your blog needs to be user friendly, if your reader can not understand your blog or navigate through it with ease they will simply move on to the next one. Consider the following tips to make your blog more user friendly and to build up your reader base.

For starters, it’s important to differentiate between using a blog as a personal diary and using it to generate a profit. When blogging for profit you need to establish a professional presence. You want your readers to take you seriously and, regardless of your competition, you will need to have an air of expertise regarding your blog topic. You will be competing with thousands of other bloggers who write about your topic, the better your presentation the greater your success.

In order to create a positive presence from the beginning, avoid sending mixed messages. The format for most blogs are similar and provide the blogger with link tags on the left or right hand margin and in some cases on the top. It’s these links that you want to be careful with. Do not offer your readers random links for various websites. Choose your blog topic from the beginning and stick to it. Every post, link and other resources you provide to your readers should be related to your blog topic. You want to make the user experience a pleasant one; do not bombard your reader with links and ads.

Next, consider your blog template carefully. Avoid a dark background and light text if you can. The reading experience is different online and studies have shown that people process information better when the background is light and the text is dark. Also, a dark background makes the readers tire faster. Another thing to avoid, are patterned backgrounds, for the same reason as dark backgrounds.

The success of blogging relies heavily on subscribers. You want your reader to subscribe to your blog. The best way to capture subscribers is to be consistent and post regularly. With so much information available on the Internet, your readers may go elsewhere if you are not supplying daily content. If you are going through a dry spell and can’t think of anything to say try posting a poll, a link to another blog, comment on a news story or post of list of helpful tips.

Of course it is important to proofread all your posts before posting. When you are running your own work home business it’s important to be professional and credible. Nothing diminishes your credibility faster than spelling and grammar errors. Have someone look over your post for you. If no one is available, read your work out loud.

Many work at home moms are finding success in blogging. You can help to insure your blog will be readable and interesting to your visitors by following the tips provided above.

The last decade of the twentieth century marked the emergence of the Internet as a viable market. And with it the Internet marketing business was born. The Internet has redefined how virtually all businesses work. In the early 90?s, the Internet began its transformative journey to becoming a recognized business market. By the mid-90?s, some online veterans had traded in their trips to the mall for a few hours in front of the computer to complete their entire task of Christmas shopping. And so marketing transformed from being virtually unknown in the world of virtual space, to becoming the next big boom in the marketing world.

In a span of a few short years in the mid 90?s, Internet advertising spending went from zero to over $300 million. Of course that was a drop in the bucket on what was spent on what is now known as “traditional” marketing ventures. But it was an indication of what was to come. Over the last 10 years, the world has seen a significant growth in the use of the Internet. No longer is the Internet available to just a few people. Practically every household has at least one computer that is connected to the Internet. The need for an Internet marketing business grew, as more people started going to the Internet to find the things they need.

We have seen the boom of the dot.com businesses. More and more people started viewing the Internet as a valuable resource for finding things. It was not just a place to find interesting facts. It was a place to find things they might not have been able to purchase in the store. It became a place to find the best deals around as more and more companies found they were able to reach new customers on the Internet. The Internet marketing business became a viable marketing niche. Advertising companies saw the need to expand their services to include Internet marketing.

Even though the dot.com industry started to dwindle, the advertising industry still saw the need for an Internet marketing business. The numbers do not lie. Even though many people see banner ads and pop up ads as a nuisance, the fact remains that millions of people on a daily basis turn to the Internet to do their shopping, find businesses, and connect with others. It is as accessible as reaching for our cell phones now. The Internet marketing business is a niche in marketing that will be around to stay as long as the Internet is up and running.

Many people venture into Internet affiliate marketing a bit nervous about what they’re doing, but they are very excited about the possibilities before them.

This was the case with my girlfriend. She started a site about one of her favorite topics: books! Naturally, when a person thinks of books, they think of Amazon.com, and after a bit of prodding from me, (she’d probably tell you after A LOT of prodding from me,) she really got down to the business of creating her site using images and links from Amazon.

She put a great site together, complete with reviews, links to, and recommendations about all of her favorite books. She created a lot of unique content for visitors, and used FrontPage to put the site together.

(As a side note for beginners, FrontPage is the kind of program that, if you sit down with it for a while, and you know Microsoft Office programs, you really can figure out how it works. This is especially true because of all the tutorials you can read online about how to make the program do the things you want to do. So, back to the story.)

My girlfriend then signed up for the Amazon.com affiliate program, (Amazon actually calls it an ‘associate program’), and began creating individual product links to resell the books she’d reviewed.

Six months later, she’d not spent a lot of time with her site, but was getting about 10-15 visitors/day from Google and other search engines, and eventually, she made her first affiliate sale! This was awesome, and resulted in about $10 in commissions to her. She made her first $10 of passive income!

Today, it’s 6 months later, she recently renewed her site for another year, and it’s left her wondering; Okay, I’ve made some income from my site, so what now?

There are many people who find themselves in this position today. They’ve made some money on a web site from affiliate programs, or from their own products, but they don’t know what direction to go in next.

The next direction to go, is to take your site a bit more seriously. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun working on your site, or that you have to increase the amount of time you spend working on it every day.

What it does mean is that you have got to inspect what you expect. If you don’t know how people are ending up on your site, what they’re doing while they’re there, and what causes them to leave your site, then you can expect to continue wondering “Now what?” as you go through the process of building your site. However, if you inspect and know what your traffic is doing, and how it comes to your site, then you can change your site to more effectively meet the needs of the people who visit your pages. When you give your visitors what they’re looking for, they’re more likely to purchase, which means an increase in commissions and income to you.

So here are three simple things to review, and some tips for increasing your traffic, your sales, and ultimately, your income.

#1 Review Your Site

It’s time to step up your web design, copywriting, and sales skills a bit.

Check out your web site, and have some friends check out your site. Have everyone try to take an objective view, as a new visitor would, to viewing your site.

Web Design

Does every page of your site have a , and tag?

Is the site easily navigate-able?

Can visitors see where they’re at on the site, and see how to get where they want to go? Remember, when someone comes from a search engine, they can come to any page of your site, so you want them to be able to get exactly where they want to go in as few clicks as possible.

Is the color scheme okay for visitors?

Are you providing legitimate content, or are you trying to “trick” the search engines into brining you traffic? (I’ll give you a hint on this one – If you want long-term success, focus on providing excellent content long-term.)

Copywriting and sales

Are you asking for visitors to buy something in a way that’s annoying or pushy?

Are you making a recommendation and letting visitors decide for themselves?

Are you just putting a link on the site hoping that eventually, someone will click and purchase?

Does the site offer incentives or encouragement for visitors to purchase whatever it is on that page?

By knowing the answers to these questions, and reviewing your site for a lot of the little issues with sales and web design, you really can improve the experience for your user, and improve the numbers of visitors who actually become customers.

#2 Review Your Affiliate Programs

Are there other relevant programs you can add?

Are the programs you originally signed up for paying you the same as you can get elsewhere?

I recently found out that the author of a book I was selling through Amazon.com’s associate program had his own affiliate program set up to resell his books. I immediately switched, so that I was reselling the book through him, when I found out he would pay me a much higher percentage than Amazon. Now, don’t get me wrong. I like the Amazon affiliate program a lot. However, by switching directly to selling the book through the author, I can sell the same product and make double the money.

As long as the information is presented in an accurate and ethical way, and the product being sold is the same, I will change affiliate programs in a heartbeat, if the income makes it worthwhile. You should consider the same for every affiliate product you sell, because the difference between 10% and 15% can add up in a hurry, even on small ticket items.

#3 Review your traffic

If you, up to this point as an official web site owner, haven’t been tracking your traffic, then you have to start! You have to start now! I mean it!

If you’re not tracking the traffic that comes to your site with a good statistical method, then stop reading this article right now, go set up a tracking method on your site, and come back to this article when you get statistics set up on your site!

Statistics are the ONLY way you will know what is working and what isn’t. Let me give you an example of why you must have statistics available to you.

UPS is today a multi-billion dollar company. UPS knows how many employees are in a given area, how many boxes can be loaded on a truck, how long it takes to load the truck, how long it takes for the driver to drive the truck, and how long it takes to get everything delivered. This is all statistical information that they have available to them.

Now let’s just say that UPS’s goal for next year is to improve what they do by 25%. They want to ship 25% more packages, offer 25% more employee benefits, and increase sales by 25%.

The numbers suddenly become very important.

Your online business is no different. Your online business can be a multi-million, or multi-billion dollar business, just like UPS, but you have to treat it that way, and you have to know how to improve your numbers. The only way you will know how to improve your numbers, is if you know what your numbers are today.

So track your traffic. Your tracking program should give you lots of useful information, like:

what keywords people are searching for

what page of your site is the most popular

how long people spend on your site

what page they are most likely to leave from

when and what search engines are visiting your site

etc.

Knowing all of this information then enables you to ask two very important questions:

Why are things this way? and

How can I improve this?

Then you can try experimenting with some new ideas for the pages that have good traffic. Some of the new pages you build will do well, and some won’t. Take what works, change what doesn’t, and then re-evaluate. Then apply the things you did that worked to other pages or future web sites. Through this process, your site(s) will get continually better.

So there you have it, three ways to stop asking “Now What?,” and to move forward and make your web site a happy little place on the Internet that people like to frequent.

As I close out this article, I want to remind you of one very important thing someone reminded me of recently.

You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

Within this article, I’ve given you many specific suggestions for ways to improve what you’re doing with your site. This might lead you to think that you have to get it all right. You don’t have to get it ‘right’, you just have to get it going. So what if you learn about something you should have done differently? If you never did it in the first place, you would never know how to improve it. So remember, you don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.

Commit to becoming better through the process, and let the process of action teach you what you can do better. The principle of trying it until it works, and committing to learning along the way, will lead to Internet affiliate marketing success, and ultimately success for you in your life.

Amazon is one of the most popular online shopping centers in the world. Thousands of people shop there every day placing orders for various items from different categories. Amazon made the way of shopping really easy. Within a few clicks of mouse you can get the item you are interested in, delivered to your door in a few days.

So keeping in mind the popularity and ease of shopping on Amazon you could use it to make money. Literally you can generate decent income with Amazon as an associate selling Amazon products and getting paid commission for every single sale generated.

Selling Amazon products is a great option for people who want make some extra cash, without the need of owning the product. Also it might be a great way for network marketers to offset the costs of paid advertising that they can fund using the income generated from Amazon sales. So it might be a great way to make money for different people, no matter what kind of niche they are interested in as the Amazon offer wide range of products to sell from different categories. So everyone will surely find the item in his own niche to make money from.

The way to become Amazon associate and to get started is quite easy and should take no more than several minutes.

Here we go:

1. Visit Amazon site and scroll down to the bottom where you can find JOIN ASSOCIATES link. Click it.
2. Then you can take GET STARTED tour and at the final stage, join the program by filling out the form with required information.
3. After you application will get approved, you will be ready to go.

Once you’ve logged into your associate area you can find plenty of tools that you can easily use to promote Amazon products such as: product links, widgets, slideshows, banners etc. Usually you have HTML code prepared for all of those tools that you can just copy and paste into any website you are about to use for promotion.

Here’s My Amazon Store:

And here we come to the most important aspect of selling Amazon products.

You need to drive traffic to the website you are using to promote stuff in order to convert visitors into customers. There are many ways to promote Amazon items online.

1. You can create free websites and place links, banners and widgets to Amazon products on them. A good example here are Squidoo lenses. You can create free Squidoo lenses ( websites) in several minutes each and use them to promote stuff. These websites are really easy to create, and you can have as many of them as you like. This way you can come up with several Squidoo lenses, each for different Amazon product.
2. Blogging is another effective and free way to advertise. You can create a free blog and monetize it by placing, links, banners and making posts on Amazon products.
3. Writing articles is another way to generate sales from. For instance you can write review of particular product and direct reader to your Squidoo lens to purchase it.
4. Also if you already have a website you can add to it proper banners and links to Amazon products relevant with the content of your website. So this way you keep all content and promotion material related to the one topic. What it means is that you don’t want to promote Amazon items as for instance: shoes on network marketing website.

Those above are just examples of many ways to promote and sell Amazon products. Driving the traffic to your promotional campaign is that what it’s all about.

When you decide to start blogging for money you need to make or change your current Internet business plan, so it can focus on building a strong income stream that can support you for a short or long period of time, it all depends on what your goals are. There are many ways to turn the virtual real estate of your blog into an asset, but its needs to match your overall goals or you will set up your Internet business for failure.

Also, having a business plan will give you a road map to follow and keep your efforts focus on achieving your goals. But, your need to be flexible and be ready to change, because the Internet is a medium on evolution, which makes your Internet business plan an ever changing blueprint… You can call this one of the golden rules of monetization.

Let’s take a look at the three elements for effectively applying your “blogging for money” efforts, that will build a successful online home business:

Content

I mention content as the number one of the three golden rules of making money blogging because without a good up to date content your blog is just another static site, which is OK for some things, but not for a these type of sites. People and search engines expect for a blog to be updated constantly.

To be successful you need to provide content that is of high quality, original, useful to others, and closely relevant to your targeted niche. Is true that some bloggers still mix their personal stuff with their niche content, but if you put yourself in your reader’s shoes, why do think they visit your site for? To read what happen to you in the super market or to read what your blog tagline or slogan is promising. Remember that your content is why people go to your site, that’s why having good information will generate targeted traffic if is relevant to your main topic.

Traffic

Many call traffic the Holy Grail to build a successful online business, which is true only if that traffic is highly targeted, if you try to get everyone to visit your website, eventually nobody will, because they know that you don’t have the information they are looking for. So, make sure you get a lot of visitors to your site that are really interest in the topic or niche of your blog.

Use traffic sources that can send good quality visitors to your site, develop a good link building marketing campaign, focus on SEO strategies to get free search traffic, for faster results invest on PPC or Adwords (Note: Make sure you learn how to use PPC advertising right before using it, or will cost you a lot of money and you may get low responses), advertise on top relevant blogs to gain more exposure, use viral marketing to make your message spread fast, and don’t forget to use the traffic power of social media or web 2.0 tools.

Income

You can’t be blogging for money if you haven’t set up a good income mechanism and sales process. You need have a good income source structure that will earn you passive revenue, you can set a few types of lucrative assets for your site, here is an example of the elements that can be monetize:

• Virtual real estate space.
• Specific words.
• RSS feeds.
• Blog posts or articles.
• List building.

You don’t have to make money from each of these elements, in fact some blogs do just fine by monetizing one or two of those elements. Just test and track everything you do until you find the best profit centers for your site and your niche.

Now what’s important is the type of income sources you decide to use for each or few of those profit centers. Remember that your visitors are your priority, so try to find quality sources of revenue without upsetting your readers. Some of the things you can do use are:

• Sponsor image ads.
• Sponsor links.
• Google Adsense or other type of contextual ads services.
• Affiliate programs (digital or physical products).
• Inline word ads.
• Paid reviews of products or merchants.
• Blog post sponsor links.
• And recommend your own products.

To successfully make your blogging for money effort worth while make sure each profit center in your site have monetization sources relevant to your main topic, this way your or sponsor conversion rates will be higher.

Make sure you apply the three golden rules to your blog with a good Internet marketing plan to boost your success factor.

Learning as much as you can about blogging for money can help you grow your income, this is why that’s one of the main topics I write about here at Bits-of-Gold.com.