Thursday, February 17, 2011

Business Opportunity – How To Find A Real Online Job

Finding a good business opportunity online can be tricky, especially today when Internet is overloaded with all sorts of information about earning money from your home. All this information can be confusing sometimes and it may seem impossible to find a good, honest job you can do from your home.

There are many people worldwide in need of web designers, programmers, graphic designers, writers, experts in marketing and SEO, etc. If you possess the necessary skills, there is an excellent business opportunity for you - to become a freelancer.

You may probably wander how much this business opportunity costs. The answer is nothing. There is no cost to become a freelancer. You only have to possess some of the mentioned skills and be willing to do jobs for others.

This business opportunity is ideal for all sorts of professionals, experts without a job, students, skilled individuals looking to earn some money and even some IT companies that look for a way to expand their business.

The next question regarding this business opportunity is how to find people in need of your services? One way is to advertise your services to others on your website. The other way is to join sites intended for connecting freelancers and their service buyers. There are new jobs constantly on these sites and you only have to select projects you are interested in doing and bid for them.

Getting a freelance job on these sites is like winning an auction. Service buyers post their projects and then interested freelancers make their offers. Service buyers select freelancers to complete projects based on the offered price and time period necessary for project completion. Every time a freelancer completes some project, he/she receives a feedback from service buyer. The feedback serves as a reputation of a freelancer. As freelancers complete more and more projects, they build up their reputation. Many service buyers also consider reputation when they choose their freelancers.

The key to success in this business opportunity (getting more jobs) is to offer your services for a lower cost until you gain feedback and to offer examples of your previous work. This should increase your chances to be selected as a freelance service provider.

A lot of money can be made with this business opportunity and that mostly depends on the type of project you must complete, time necessary for the completion of the project and the level of expertise needed. Usually projects that pay the most involve Java, ASP, PHP programming, flash, SEO, marketing and web design. There are some jobs that pay over $5000.

Building a web site for your home based business

It is possible to make money online, running your business from home. But to be able to do this, you have to have a web site. Most people starting up a home based business will try and build their own, that's fine if you know what you are doing but can reflect very badly if you don't. Home based business web sites, need to be professional looking but not overly flashy!

Some work from home opportunities include a web site when you sign up but if starting a new business, consider either one of two options.
1) Pay someone to build your web site for you. Look around you, web sites can be purchased at low cost these days.
2) Use a Free template or paid for template. Web site designers work from home too and are happy to work for low fees to get their own home business of the ground.

Make sure your web site is consistent.

Your customers will want to see a consistent web site layout. They don't need to know that you are working from home so a professional, well laid out easy to navigate web site is a must. Most users will make an impression of your site in seconds. The difference between a good looking site and a bad looking site is a potential lost sale.

If you run an e-commerce business from home, don't try and build the shopping cart yourself. Use a third party product like PayPal, particularly good for selling a few products and well respected. Payment processors like PayPal take care of your Data Protection requirements and leave you to get on with promoting your internet business.
Third party software
With a small investment, you can purchase a complete shopping cart or if you are on a tight budget, you could use an open source e-commerce product. Either way if your home based business sells a lot of products, why try and re-invent the wheel!

Paid host or free host?

Don't make me laugh! A years internet hosting with your own domain name costs less that taking someone out for dinner. If you don't make this one investment, then why bother starting a business at home? Owning a domain adds professionalism to your business. How many www. mysite.myinternetserviceprovidername.com web sites have you seen, that are successful online businesses?

How much does it all cost?

Hosting your new  web site and fitting it out with e-commerce might cost you less than a $100 per year. This depends how many products you sell and how much of the work you are prepared to do your self. But be realistic know your limitations and know when to ask for help!  Reference point www.mingamong.com

Good luck working from home.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Best Businesses from Home

In finding the best home based business for someone who dreams of being an entrepreneur, there is no hard and fast list of “bests.” One entrepreneur’s best home based business idea is another entrepreneur’s worst. So much depends on what that business owner-hopeful enjoys doing, knows how to do, and has some of the resources already in place for. Other considerations in determining the best home based business are what the desired market will bear – what the competition is, and how saturated the market is.

The best way for someone who wants a home based business to start is to determine what she or he loves – what she looks forward to doing, what makes the time fly by for him, what she would gladly spend many hours of every day accomplishing. The next step is for the owner-to-be to assess his or her training, skills and knowledge of various industries. Putting the dream list with the skills list should indicate some crossover. Those things that end up on both lists are great indicators of the best home based business type for this business owner to-be. If, for example, a veterinarian’s assistant is tired of making very little money working for someone else, braving the 30 minute crawl along the highway commute, but really loves those horses that her employer cares for. She might well be a great candidate for a riding school proprietorship, a horse farm, or a grooming facility.

Once the industry and anything more specific in the way of products or services has been determined for the best home based business idea, the work is not done. The business owner has to determine that the business will make money. Questions the entrepreneur has to ask himself are “Who will be my customers? Why will they choose my service? How often will they need my services – what will make them repeat customers? Who is the competition? How can I vary my services from the competition – i.e., what might be my niche? And, what should I charge for my services (based on what others are charging in the market area)?

Part of determining what to charge is determining expenses that must be paid to stay in business. Once the entrepreneur determines the price that will be competitive she or he must find out if that asking price will bring in a profit. If the price that must be placed on the product to make a profit after expenses is too high to be competitive in the market the choices are to change the market or change the product. If it doesn’t make the company money, it’s not the best home based business.

PS: This is the ultimate advice at the end of my articles: seeking residual income is the best way to start a work from home business:
Earn Residual Income.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Affiliate Marketing is One of the Most Cost-Effective Ways to Advertise your Business

Ever heard of affiliate programs? These are forms of Internet advertising that rewards the affiliates for driving traffic to the advertiser or for other transactions. The advertiser pays the affiliate to place a link on their website, and the affiliate sends traffic to the advertiser in return. Simply put, it's about paying commissions to people who help you make sales. It's that easy.

Affiliate marketing has its ups and downs. It could be draining if you are not armed with updated information and the technical how-tos. But this article's sole objective is to reach out to you and not to badmouth affiliate marketing.

Here are the following reasons on why web marketers go gaga over affiliate marketing as a form of Internet advertisement.

1. Low cost

Many are scared to go on a home based business because of the capital required. In affiliate marketing, you don't have to spend much to start raking in moolah.

2. Inventories not included

Product management fuss could be very stressing. An inventory is not asked to be maintained. The merchant does the maintenance required.

3. Unlimited income through leverage

When you have a paid job, your monthly income mainly relies on whether you go to work or not. With affiliate marketing, your affiliates could all just lead traffic to your site without having to lift a finger after providing them your ad copy and links. Though not every web marketer earns limitless, it still is a fact that all the necessary matters for the advertiser or Internet marketer are all there to be successful.

4. Go worldwide

With affiliate marketing, you are dealing with a global market place. All you have to do is choose a niche product and prepare all the necessary tools for your affiliates to lead traffic from just about anywhere to your website.

5. Low risk

The very main reason for Internet marketer's enthusiasm with affiliate marketing is its having a low risk factor. Especially for those with low budget set aside for advertising, affiliate marketing is just the way to do it.

6. No closing time

With affiliate marketing, your business works every single second of the day while targeting a worldwide market! What could be better than that?

But all of these will be put to waste if you don't have the right niche product and all the other important tools to make it big in affiliate marketing, i.e., well-SEO-ed website. So better work on this first before ever considering those benefits.

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5 Top Things Baby Boomers Must Do Before Starting a Home Based Business

5 Top Things Baby Boomers Must Do Before Starting a Home Business

Don't quit your day job just yet.If you are a baby boomer looking to start a home business, there are 5 essentials things you must do first.

Leaving the security of a job with an established 401(k) plan, health insurance or other benefits can create a real tug of war for baby boomers who want to pursue their dreams of owning their own business.


Analyze Your Exit Strategy

At the time of this writing, the youngest of the baby boomers are turning 42 and the oldest are turning 60.  No matter where you fall into this group, analyzing and preparing your exit strategy from your job will be crucial to your long-term success as a home business entrepreneur.  Do you have adequate savings?  If you're married, will you be able to participate in your spouse's health insurance?


Create a Financial Plan

How much is your salary now? What are your fixed, variable and frivilous expenses?  Creating a solid plan so that you and your family will know exactly what the financial picture will be until your business gets off the ground and starts generating revenue.


Choosing a Business Model and Legal Entity

There are several business models to choose from; home party plans, consulting, and affiliate marketing to name a few.  You have to make the decision based on your personality and what you are best-suited for.  Choosing a legal entity for your business should be discussed with a tax accountant or your attorney.  Options are sole proprietor, LLC or Subchapter S- Corp.


Set Business Benchmarks

You wouldn't travel across the country without a road map, your business is the same.  Setting financial and business-building benchmarks will help you to create a focused plan that will help you to reach your success.


Get a Physical

What does getting a physical have to do with your business?  Once you leave your job, most likely your health insurance will change and as unfair as it may be, trying to get new health insurance when in your 40's, 50's or 60's can be difficult.  While pursuing your dreams of a home business is something you are probably very passionate about, if you do not have good health to enjoy the rewards of your efforts, then not much else is important.

The baby boomer generation is like no other before it or after it. Technically, we are considered middle-aged, but we are anything but middle-aged in mind, body and spirit.  We know there is more meaning to life than a commute to an unrewarding 9-5 job, but there are also important steps we must take first.  Planning and preparing for your home business now will lead to less headache's later on.

5 Reasons Why You Need A Work-At-Home Schedule

One of the attractions of working at home is the vision of freedom it invokes -- no time clock, no time sheets, and no one to account to for how you spend your time. Yes, it is an attractive proposition, but like so many attractive propositions there is a heavy downside -- you are likely wasting a lot of time.

My husband spends time every day filling out these large spreadsheets to account for his day. He works for a large engineering company and his day often encompasses work on a variety of projects for different clients. He loathes the activity and I have always dismissed it as a waste of time -- that is until my home business recently took off and I realized there simply wasn't enough hours in the day to accomplish all my goals.

I now have my own spread sheet and agenda for the day and I have improved my productivity and reduced my stress immeasurably. If you don't think you need a schedule for your home business then think again -- and read on.

After a spate of relatively unproductive days when my "To Do" list seemed to grow exponentially every time I looked at it I knew something had to change.

Granted I was going through a rough patch. My home business was experiencing growing pains and taking up more than the usual time, my four-year-old was only in preschool part-time, my husband wasn't pulling his weight on the home front, and my extended family was experiencing a number of crises. But I'm also old enough to know there is never a perfect time in life -- you just live the one you've got. These are simply the problems I'm dealing with this year. Next year these problems will be traded in for new fresh ones.

After studying my time and chatting with some other work-at-home folks, I discovered five reasons to embrace the schedule:

1. It's too easy to waste time doing nonpriority tasks
2. It's too easy to get sidetracked or distracted from your current task
3. Unscheduled work time can often overlap into your free time until you don't have any free time at all
4. Your free time can overlap into your work time until you fall behind with important projects
5. Concentrating your time and effort on highest priority projects means more gets done

I'm not the only work at home business person encompassing the schedule. I recently took part in an online forum where men and women had moved to embrace it -- and found it more freeing than restrictive.  After all, you are still the one setting the schedule so you are free to schedule yourself off for a 3-hour lunch, an afternoon, or a whole day whenever you choose.

If you find it difficult setting up your schedule and priorities for the day and week then perhaps your significant other or a friend can help you set your schedule.