Business Idea - Blogging for Profit, No Previous Experience Required

Blogs – it seems like just about everyone has one.

If you don’t know what a blog is, it comes from the phrase “web log”, which is an online diary or journal of sorts. People have all kinds of reasons for starting a blog. They may do it for fun, because they love writing or just to have an outlet to express their thoughts, vent frustrations and more.

But you can make a blog into a money-making business, even if you have no blogging or business experience.

How to Get Started

You can actually start your blog completely for free. There are services like Blogger.com and Wordpress.com that make it super easy. But note, John Yeo, profitable blog and creator of Blogger’s Paycheck the recommends that those seeking profit should Wordpress, but in a different way than is explained at Wordpress.com and he goes through it in detail in the course.

How to Make Money with a Blog

Simply put, pick a theme or major topic for your blog and start writing. Even if you have no product of your own, you can still make money from your blog by selling and displaying advertising, earning commissions recommending products and other activities. This is also something John Yeo covers in detail.

What if You Don’t Like to Write

Many people think they can’t blog if they don’t enjoy writing or feel they aren’t talented writers, but that shouldn’t stop anyone. A blog is about sharing thoughts and you don’t have to be an award-winning writer to do that. In addition, the growing popularity of online video and audio open up more possibilities for sharing content. You can also hire a ghostwriter if you want a text blog and want to avoid writing.

The Keys to Profitable Blogging
To profit from blogging, there are a few key ingredients:
1. Target a highly interested audience of readers who happen to be consumers. In other words, people who readily spend money to pursue their hobbies, interests and desires that you’ll be writing about.
2. Create interesting content that people are readily looking for, that they’ll talk about to their friends and come back for over and over again.
3. Sign up for the Blogger’s Pay Check Course that will take you through setting up your blog, building traffic, making money and more.

Advertising on Facebook - The Make Money Blogging Campaign

Well, friends the time has come.

Finally, I have decided to delve into the realm of paid advertising. For those of you that have been following my many Ralph Cramden-like escapades, you will have noticed that I have put my heart and soul into many different ways to communicate my great product(s) to the outside world.

Although the money is coming in.... it's not the river rush, but more of a trickling stream.

Today I am joining the "advertise on Facebook" bandwagon.

Here's what I liked about setting up my ad's... It was easy, and it can be as inexpensive as I like.

Today I set up 2 ads, both ads will run for 1 week. Both ads will cost me no more than $2.00 a day.

It will be interesting to see if that little ad will open the flood gates (as I hope), to the mad rush of incoming cash!

My current pet project is making money from blogging.

I have this report, I purchased it, it is AWESOME! I have been blogging for 4 years and I thought I knew everything there was to know about blogging and how to turn a profit doing it... but this report was fantastic and really put me on a different track.

It was worth every penny... and it was incredibly cheap! Click here for more info

But this blog entry isn't a sales pitch for the "Blogging to the Bank" program, even though it changed my blogging life... This blog entry is all about my experiment advertising on Facebook.

Today, I am going to experiment further... by placing an ad for a friend of mine that runs a Closet Organization Company, it will be interesting to see if 'work from home' guide will draw more clients then a physical product like Closet Experts. Hmmmmmmm

I will keep you posted.

3/22/09 is the end of the Facebook Campaign and I will share with you my statistics and the outcome of my first ever venture into advertising on Facebook.

Wish me luck!

How to Make Money Blogging

How to make money blogging, this article is courtesy of Rob Benwell, you can check out his ebook for more info.

There are two ways of making money blogging, one more profitable than the other. First of all, small business owners find a great advantage in the use of blogs that provide rich informational content and the opportunity for great marketing promotions. But let's take a look at how you can turn blogging into a profitable activity. There are two possibilities: you either get paid for allowing other business owners to advertise on your site or you can include the blog in one of the many affiliate programs that enjoy such a popularity on the Internet nowadays.

In case you choose to exploit the advertising potential of your blog, the best program to work with is Google Adsense; you'll get paid every time an ad on your site gets clicked, regardless of whether this action converts into profit or not. The logical question that may rise here is: how can you get more clicks for the ads on the blog? Don't think about clicking your own ads to make some more money; fraud clicks are a very hot subject in the business, and Google teams are very efficient at identifying them. Such dishonest practice could cost you dearly if you dare to use it.

You can increase the profitability of the ads on your blog by taking advertising into consideration when you design the site. For instance, the fonts and colors used for the ads should be only slightly different from the rest of the page, without standing out. Why? Because the more visible you make them, the more likely it is that they'll annoy the user, and the entire purpose of your blog is to get people to spend quality time on the page. Adsense is a program that displays only those ads that are related to the domain the blog tackles with, so that you cannot complain about too large a number of irrelevant visitors.

Last, but not least, you can use the blog as part of an affiliate program, which involves promoting the products or services of a specific business. For instance if you've got a blog dealing with diving, you can very well turn into an affiliate for a company that sells diving equipment. The amount of money you are supposed to get is usually part of the individual agreement you sign with the other party, and it usually depends on how well you manage to use the blog to actually convince people to purchase one of the products. Friendly links, special discounts, promotions and e-news letters are all part of an affiliate campaign that could turn a simple blog into a great revenue generator.

For more information about Making Money Blogging, check out Rob Benwell's Site by following this link.

10 Great Ways for Working Mom's to Earn Money From Home

The following are 10 great opportunities for the stay at home Mom.
Don't forget you can read all of the archived lists at our blog: www.sharpstarters.blogspot.com

Modern Moms Making Money. Millions Of Laid Off Moms Are Looking For An Honest Opportunity To Make Money Online. Our Website Converts! Take Advantage Of The #1 MOMs Offer Right Now And Get Paid 75% Commission Recurring Click Here!

Jewelry Selling Secrets, Start A Jewely & Craft Business From Home. Kameron Kay Shows You The Insider Secrets To Making Jewelry & Crafts And Selling Them To Boutiques, Shops, Artist Fairs, Bead Shops, And More. Perfect Part Time Job And Income For Stay At Home Moms, College Students, Or Anyone Wanting To Make Extra Money. Click Here!

Real Home Business Ideas For Moms. We Teach Moms To Work From Home With Their Own Home-based Business Online. Santa Letter Business, Start A Recipe Or Craft Blog. Virtual Assistant (va And Admin Work) And Transcriptionist (Typing). Be A Wahm! Click Here!

MyMommyBiz: Ideas For Work At Home Moms. Provides EBook(R)s, Advice, Ideas, Resources. Click Here!

Real People Making Money Online. 20 Ordinary People (not 'gurus'!) Who Have Real Internet Businesses Reveal Their Secrets In These Shocking Interviews. If A Former Construction Worker, Teacher, Police Officer, Carpet Installer And Stay-at-home Mom Make Money Online, You Can Do It Too! Click Here!

Purse Party Manual - Instructions On Hosting Purse Parties. Work At Home Moms Learn The Purse Party Business. Whether You Host Your Own Purse Parties Or Recruit People To Host Parties For You, This Purse Party Manual Will Give You Lots Of Tips And Downloads To Have You Hosting Parties That Pay. Click Here!

Discover Over 999 Ways To Earn Money Every Day Working From Home. If You Have Never Had Any Success In The Past... This Is Especially For You! We Have Tons Of New Jobs And Ways To Make Money From. Great For Students, Teenagers, Stay-at-home Moms, Disabled Workers And Everyone Else! Apply Today. Click Here!

General Transcription 101. As Successful Work-at-home Moms In The Transcription Industry, Weve Made It Our Goal To Help As Many Other People Break Into The Industry As We Can. Our Ebook Details The Steps To Success And Walks You Through The Process In One Complete Guide. Click Here!

Start A Kids Sports Photography Business. This E-guide And Accompanying One-hour Audio Gives The Real Deal About What It Takes To Start A Home-based Kids Sports Photography Business. Great For Hockey Moms Who Love To Get All The Shots! Click Here!

Full Time Work At Home Moms. This Is A Series Of Interviews Of Several Successful Women Who Have Online Businesses. This Book Uncovers The Mistakes And Advice That 22 Successful Work At Home Moms (known As Wahms) Have To Share. Becoming A Wahm Is Work, But Is Certainly Doable.
Click Here!

79 Business Ideas You Can Start at Home

Here are nearly 80 business ideas for you to think about. Some listed here can be very profitable, depending on your level of skills and your location. Some may only start off part time, but could develop into a fulltime homebusiness or work-from-home business later.

1. Start Your Own Personal Shopping Service
2. Make Executive-Level Earnings With Giftbaskets
3. Start Your Own Successful Business Consulting Service
4. Start Your Own Business Financing Service
5. Buy A Franchise
6. Start And Operate Your Own Bartering Service
7. Set Up And Operate Your Own Videotaping Service
8. Start And Operate Your Own Firewood Supply Service
9. Start Your Own Auto Tune-Up Shop
10. Start your own Garden Rubbish Collection Service
11. Start Your Own Mobile Auto Tune-Up Shop
12. Start Your Own Day Care Center
13. Start Your Own Paper Recycling Business
14. Start Your Own Carpet Cleaning Business
15. Start Your Own House And Apartment Cleaning Service
16. Start Your Own Credit And Debt Counseling Service
17. Broker Radio Advertising
18. Start A Money Brokerage Business
19. Party Plan Sales
20. Print and Sell Sports Scorecards
21. Start A Roommate Finding Service
22. Start A Dating And Escort Service
23. Organise and Run Self-Improvement Seminars
24. Make It Big With A Used Book Store
25. Start Your Own Highly Profitable Catering Service
26. Start Your Own Successful Window Washing Service
27. Start A Telephone Answering Service
28. Start Your Own Highly Profitable Shopping Center Papers
29. Achieve Success With Your Own Money Making Newsletter
30. Start & Successfully Operate A Correspondence Club
31. Make Big Money In Real Estate
32. Make Money With Your Answering Machine
33. Buy From The Government Auctions Dirt Cheap and Resell
34. Make Money Making Magnetic Signs
35. Start a Sign Fabrication Business
36. Start A Silk Screening Business
37. Make and Sell House Numbers
38. Start A Profitable House Painting Business
39. Start Your Own Janitorial (Cleaning) Business
40. Dry and Sell Flowers/ Wax Fresh Flowers
41. Grow Fishbait At Home
42. Sell Hobby Items By Mail
43. Write, Print and Distribute Ad Circular for Businesses
44. Start A Pet-Sitting Service
45. Use Your Talent In Your Own Calligraphy Business
46. Turning Your Sewing Into Marketable Merchandise
47. The Business Of Candle (And Soap) Making
48. Set Up Your Own Craft Consignment Shop
49. Build and sell Doll Houses And Doll Furniture
50. Build Scientific Bird Houses For Fun And Profit
51. Make Money In The Clock Mounting Business
52. Sell Decorative Pine Cones
53. Make and Sell Stained Glass
54. Make Jewelry From "Ordinary" Treasures
55. Make Money Buying And Selling Used Cars
56. Make and Sell Lamps And Vases From Bottles
57. Organise and Promote Garage Sales for Others
58. Start a Bed And Breakfast House
59. Set Up A Word Processing Business In Your Home
60. Set up a Furniture Refinishing Business In Your Home
61. Start a Co-Op Coupon Business From Your Home
62. Operate A Cosmetics Business From Home
63. Make Big Money In Your Own Bumper Sticker Business
64. Become a Computer Consultant
65. Manufacture And Sell Embossing Kits
66. Manufacture And Sell Candlemaking Kits etc
67. Start A Picture Framing Business
68. Woodworking From Home
69. Start Your Own Clip Art Business
70. Start Your Own Import/Export Business
71. $1000/A Day Repairing Nintendo Video Systems
72. Design and Sell Advertising Maps
73. Set up Delivery Service With Your Pick-Up Or Van
74. Duplicating Special Cassette Tapes and CDRoms
75. Start A Small Printing Business From Your Home
76. Start A Bookkeeping Business At Home
77. Set Up A Word Processing Business In Your Home
78. Start An Importing Business From Home
79. Make Money With Special Event Videos

Starting a Cleaning Business ... when you hate to clean

Recently I was invited to join two other women who want to start a part time cleaning business. My immediate gut reaction was "Hell NO!"... and then my secondary and third reactions were equally as negative and not appropriate for print but they basically summed my feelings up like this, "I can't stand cleaning my own house, why would I want to clean someone elses?"

And then.... what often happens to me... happened and I had an epiphany.

I realized that I don't have to clean houses to earn money cleaning... I can clean office space!

I enjoy vacuuming, mopping and dusting uncluttered surfaces, provided I have gloves, I don't mind cleaning bathrooms. That my friends, sums up the office cleaning responsibilities... right? I would say that in most offices you aren't going to run into dirty laundry, toys, crayons.... and a sink full of unwashed dishes..... Oh did I mention that most offices don't have dog or cat hair!

So, I set out to do some research.... (most of which was performed in my head... right before I fell a sleep)... I thought back about the cleaning services I have witnessed.

1.) JaniKing - cleaned a post-secondary school I worked at as an instructor in the evening. Basically, they wiped the bathrooms down, emptied the garbages and vacuumed the floors. They didn't clean any table tops or computer monitors... Maybe, they used fantastic on the cafeteria tables, but I don't think so. I NEVER saw a mop on any of the tile floors, but that doesn't mean they didn't do them... I never saw them. AND I remember that they did NOT remove stains from the carpets.

2.) Alfredo - The guy that cleans the office where I work now. Alfredo comes in every Saturday for an hour or so, and cleans the bathrooms and empties the garbages. He also vacuums the carpeted areas... OH, I think I've seen him damp mop the tile floors.

Again.... no toys, no dog hair, no cat hair, no laundry, no dishes.

I guess the question would be, how much would you need to make a cleaning business worth the money. And that question, will be answered after additional research... Until then, have a great day!

Your Opinion ~ New Ideas For Working From Home

For the last 4 weeks I have been racking my brain for ideas to make money from home. Now with the economy the way it is, it is especially hard, as I would guess that people are less likely to spend money on things other than necessities.. (I know I am)

So, I visited the usual suspects and found some great opportunities... but frankly, I have already tried a great deal of them.

Avon: Avon is a great company and a lot of fun... but I found it hard to juggle the kids and my avon schedule. As a single parent, my children were always with me, so we would walk door to door and drop off catalogs and if someone wanted to chat about products... that was invariably when the kids just HAD to tell me something (SMILE). I enjoyed avon and if I could have made more money I would have really really enjoyed it. The way is work is this: As the AVON rep you have to purchase ALL of your advertising material. All of the catalogs, inserts, special promotions, little giveaways... everything, including the avon trademark white paper bags. All that got to be pretty expensive, and took a while and a bunch of sales to actually break even... and it seemed like just when I broke even, then I had to purchase the next months catalogs.

I think with dedication, perseverance and the time available to really sell... This is a good opportunity, I would give it 1 chubby thumb up.

Discovery Toys: I also enjoyed discovery toys, The main vehicle for selling discovery toys is the Home Party. Once I ran out of friends, it was really hard to get anyone to have a party. The toys were great, but expensive, the profit was not exactly what was advertised by the mfg. I can't remember the specifics, but I seem to remember thinking I would be making more then I was, and there was some fine print. PLUS, you had to purchase the starter kit, which consisted of the display items and all the order forms and all that jazz... it was fairly expensive to start up, and honestly, not many people in my circle of friends really wanted to spend the money on expensive toys when they could get the same thing at Target or Walmart for 1/2 the price.

I think that there are people that make money selling these toys, I wasn't even close. I give discovery Toys 1 chubby thumb down.

Consulting: I have been a software trainer/consultant for a while now. When I get a job it's very lucrative, but the jobs are few and far between. My primary goal is the teach people how to use software. Most people taught themselves how to use today's productivity software, and although they can get their job done... they may not be doing it the easiest or most efficient way. many times I can come in just to address the most frequent stumbling blocks and everyone walks away enlightened... however many business owners don't see the value of the training. They feel that since the job is getting down, they don't really care how.

In terms of ease, consulting about something you know is great fun and fulfilling, but it ain't easy to get people to pay for information. I would give this 1 chubby thumb up

Candles, Home Goods: I will be honest with you. I have never had a candle party, a lingerie party, a home goods party, a americana party... I'm not into spending money on that stuff (as evidenced by my interior design style which is a mix between your parents basement and your neighbors garage sale. I just can't bring myself to spend $80.00 on a basket. (Longaberger) Honestly, I did attend several parties and the ones I liked the best were the candle parties, because I like scented things... and atleast when I ordered the box of 9 votive I felt like I was getting something for my money. Now, however, I have kids and candles have gone the wayside. I don't have any experience with selling candles and I would imagine unless they are hugely more popular than avon, that it would be about the same.

Pocket Book Parties: I wouldn't know where to get the products. really. I don't know a think about designer pocket books, I wouldn't know how to tell if the purse is really a coach or not... honestly. However, the purses sell themselves. I went to a pocketbook party, and saw that the person just laid the purses out in the living room and told everyone what the prices are and people just threw the girl money. I would NEVER spend $80.00 on a pocket book even if that was $200.00 off the regular price, I just don't have that in me. (however, I would register 25 domain names at $6.99 a pop just because) So I guess to each his/her own.

In terms of hosting the party and getting a discount on purchases I would say this is a 2 chubby thumbs up... however, I don't know how you would become a seller of these purses. If anyone knows I'd be interested...

Now... the fun part of this blog entry. A POLL

If your neighbor or sister in law or acquaintance from the gym invited you to a "home party" to sell a product please rate these products in the order that you would enjoy and look forward to.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE MY POLL
http://www.polldaddy.com/s/A1EA8336ACCD6E1E/

A Quest for Legitimate Home Business

Good Morning Everyone!

This morning I renewed my search (my ever on-going search) for profitable and affordable home businesses.

Not long ago, I posted a list of 10 businesses that were affordable and pretty good niche markets for the stay at home parent.

After about 5 hours of research I come up with the big one.

This is based on the number of successful franchises available... and my own personal experience.

This opportunity isn't for everyone... because basically, the world is split into three categories when it comes to this opportunity:

Those that can and like it
Those that can and hate it
Those that can't

That's why it's such a lucrative business.... conceivably 2/3rd's of the population will pay 1/3 of the population.... to do it!

It is clean.

That's right. While I sit and blog, in the back of my head I am thinking about the laundry, the unvacuumed floors, the untidy kitchen, the unmade beds, the NEVER SEEN A DUST RAG table tops, the cluttered kitchen table and coffee table, the messy toy area, the refrigerator, the counter tops... You name it... I need to address it.

But alas.... I fall into the second category. Those that can, but hate it. In fact, I would gladly work an extra 10 hours a week to afford to pay someone $100.00 every 2 weeks to come into my home for several hours and clean it up.

Years ago I knew a Slovakian woman who would come to my home and clean it. Here are the tips I learned from her to make it a lucrative business:

#1) Pricing:
Client commits to every 2 weeks - Figure about 4 hours for average house @ $25.00/hr
Client requests, 1 time clean up - Figure at least twice as much

-Here's what my Slovakian friend told me, if she comes every 2 weeks, the house remains cleaner and cleaner and eventually she spends only 3 - 4 hours in the house, but still makes the same amount of money.

If the house is a one time clean-up, it is probably very messy, and with no ongoing maintenance, she doesn't want to be called back once a month to spend a lot of time without getting paid for her time. She values her time at a minimum of $25.00.

She also explained that she always tries to convert one-time clean ups into bi-monthly clients.
She didn't advertise, she got ALL of her clients by word of mouth and towards that end, she ALWAYS did an exceptional job cleaning.

She NEVER brought her own supplies. She would use the home owners supplies and leave a list of items that needed to be replenished before the next visit.

She would leave a list of cleaning tools that needed to be purchased or replenished before the next visit

AND for her bi-monthly clients, once she gets the cleaning and clutter under control she always picks an extra project, like the refrigerator, the kids toy bin, the hall closet or office.

AND it's primarily a cash business.

Let's do the math together:

If you want to work part-time, while the kids are in school, you have approximately 6 hours available. That's easily 1 regular customer a day, and a random new or one time clean up customer.
5 Regular customers a week @ $100.00 a day is a weekly income of $500.00, for perhaps 20 hours of work.

If you could possibly eeek out another client on any given day, that's ... an additional $100.00

---------------------
How to start

The best way to get reliable consist work is... Word of Mouth.

Start with a neighbor or friend and let them know that you are starting a home cleaning business and tell them to let their neighbors know that if they want someone reliable, affordable and trustworthy to come in and clean... they can give you a call. I think you will be surprised at how many people... would like someone to come and help them out with the cleaning.

let me know what you think.

Do What You Love, Love What You Do!

Is finding a job that you love to go to every day a Fairy tale? I don't think so. If you disagree, then stop reading this article now, because you need to believe that you can do it, in order to find the job.


There, have we lost all of the negative nay sayers? Now let's get down business. There are 2 kinds of people in the world. Those that live to work and those that work to live. OK OK there are also the people that don't work at all! HA HA, let's make a couple of assumptions.


First, we are all willing to work.

Second, we find sheer joy in something.


Are you asking yourself, "Did she say, Sheer Joy?"


Yup, I said "SHEER JOY"


Finding joy in something--anything is the key to finding that occupation that you absolutely love. Start to think in terms of "what do you really love doing" not in terms of "what jobs are listed on Career builder" Now... I'm not saying that there aren't those people that love and enjoy the money they earn from a job they hate... MORE than they want to enjoy their job.

Let's face it... if you have a nice high paying job, and it is making your life easier to live and making it easier to raise your family and afford the things you like... you should probably keep that job. This article is really more for the people that are either not satisfied with their jobs or simply can't keep a job.

Think outside the box. It's scary and you might need to move outside your comfort zone... you might need to physically MOVE... but think about it. Really think. And Answer this question.
What 3 things do you really LOVE.

Here's my list:

Books
Coffee
Giving People Advice / Solving Problems

Nice right. Here's what I found... I love books, love to own then, love to read them, love to sell them. So I started an eBay bookstore. I do pretty well, when I keep up on the listing inventory, I enjoy everything about selling the books... except -- keeping up on the listing inventory. (shameless plug for my bookstore: http://stores.ebay.com/attic-stairs-bookshop) So, I make some money, but more like a hobby then a real job. Part of the problem (or at least I explain to myself) is that I have to pay bills, so I can't invest as much time as is required into looking for the GREAT books. Well... I never would have known if I hadn't tried.

I LOVE Coffee... My dream. ..... sigh..... one day, I will own a coffee shop. You know, one of those coffee shops with Internet access... maybe even a couple of PC's on the wall... Maybe a coffee shop / gently used book store. Ahhhhh that would be nice. Let local bands come and play on Saturday Nights... That is what I'm shooting for, that's the dream that I'm putting together.

Now back to you, Why is being JOYFUL important? Because it's true, once you start doing something every day, day in and day out, unless you really love it... it will lose some of it's luster.

Now the hard part. How do you make money doing that thing you love. First realize that not everyone can do what you do. Whether it is reading a book, walking a dog, cleaning a house, using a computer, talking on the phone, liking cats, dogs, badgers raccoons... Find you niche.

If it's animals that are your thing, call the local animal control service, or local vet and tell them you're looking for a job. You get the idea, right?

Don't fall into the trap of under valuing yourself, your product or service. Frequently, because you are offering something that you love doing, that you find easy, you may think everyone can do it so why would they pay. Do the research, Google your job idea. See if there is a specific name for what you like to do, See what other people are paying people to do that job. If it's a business idea (like my coffee shop) then do the research. Take a look at successful businesses, see why they are successful and how they run the work place and what they provide.

Before I leave off on this article... You MUST MUST MUST create a business plan. There are hundreds of business plan helpers on the Internet and I think Microsoft (http://office.microsoft.com/) even has several business templates for MS Word. You business plan is a road map. A Road Map to success... it's helps you measure your success and ultimately achieve your success.

Good Luck keep me Posted.

Put Your Spare Time and Writing Skills To Work

Have you ever wondered about the people you see on the news that make a living blogging? You know, you see them in their pajamas with a cup of coffee, sitting at their computer a couple of hours a day, writing about topics they find interesting.

Have you ever wondered how they find those choice jobs?

Personally, I have struggled with finding extra income doing something I love, and have always thought that adding advertisers to your blog was the only way. I, like many, just thought that these people must be exceptionally gifted and have a HUGE following to have reached that level of blog popularity.

Now, I'm not saying that they aren't. I'm just saying that you don't have to be to earn a nice income blogging on topics you hold near and dear. There are several companies that offer payment for bloggers willing to write about specific topics.

The best way to find these opportunities is to google keywords like: Pay to write blogs, Get paid to write blogs, or something along those lines.

I am currently reviewing a company called PayPerPost. It looks great, the customer service or "customer love" as they refer to themselves is exceptional. I found this company by following the below link:

Your Momma blogs...and we pay her to do it! I though that was funny, and I looked into the opportunity from there.

When I checked out the site, I found several great things about this opportunity.
#1) It's Free. That's right. Guess what that makes it... a legitimate opportunity.
#2) The customer support is very friendly and knowledgeable.

If you are thinking about signing up, one word of caution.

When setting up your account, you will be asked for your blog categories. These categories are very specific and important to the opportunities that you can accept. AND you can only change your categories once every 30 days.

My suggestion is that you read through some of the successful bloggers material to review the types of entries that are working for other bloggers, and also to get an idea of what categories are popular with the opportunities.

5 Ways To Earn Money While The Kids Are At School

In today’s day and age more and more people are supplementing their income with side jobs. That means they go to work 9-5 then they pick up extra hours in the evening or the weekend to try to make ends meet. Over the years I have spoken to many successful people to find out how they started their business. All of these people have one thing in common, they worked hard.

The old adage, nothing is free; is absolutely true. If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme, this isn’t it. These are 5 bonifide business opportunities in 5 niche markets. It doesn’t matter how great the idea, if you aren’t willing to go door to door to sell it, then no one is going to buy!
Having said that, here are 12 great unique businesses you can start for under $100.00

#1) Dog Waste Management – Yeah I know, it’s gross. But I know someone that rakes in (no pun intended) hundreds of dollars a week, cleaning up peoples yards. He sells weekly or bi-weekly contracts depending on the number of dogs. His expenses include, gloves, bags and he opted for a separate pair of shoes for work. He charges $20.00 a visit for contracted clients and $40.00 for non-contract. He said it’s approximately 5 – 15 minutes per yard. He averages $700.00 a week, doing 5 – 7 clients a day. (plus if you wanted to do a mailer, you could go to the town and purchase a list of the people who have licensed dogs)

#2) House Cleaner – Not everyone is cut out to clean. I’m one of those people that is happier paying someone else to clean. There are two schools of thought with cleaning, you can show up and use the homeowners cleaning supplies and appliances (i.e. vacuums) or you can bring your own. The women I hire usually use my stuff and leave me notes when they are getting low on supplies. They only come if I agree to let them come every 2 weeks and they charge from $45.00 to $75 depending on the size of your house.

#3) Nanny or Babysitter – As a parent of 3 small children I am constantly looking for qualified person to watch my kids, especially in the summer. Again, not everyone is cut out to watch someone else’s children. And if you don’t have the temperament, then don’t even try. In New Jersey, Babysitters are getting between $10.00 - $15.00/hr. That’s a long way from the $2.00/hr when I was growing up!

#4) Sell on eBay -- the nice things about eBay is that you don’t have to have money to make money. One of the biggest sellers on eBay is CHILDREN STUFF. Toys, Clothes, books... Its work, and you need to make sure you do the research before you list your stuff, but you can make good money on eBay, especially if you are interested in selling other peoples things on consignment. Then you will actually get paid for your time. eBay has some great help pages to help you get started.

#5) Tele-work – Normally I wouldn’t suggest this type of work for parents of small children, but this article is specifically geared towards those 2 – 6 hours the kids are at school. Many companies outsource their customer service to individuals working in a home office. You can locate these opportunities the same way you would locate regular jobs, you simply go to the job search engines (like http://www.careerbuilder.com/ or http://www.hotjobs.com/ ) and use one of the following keywords: Telework Telecommute or telecommuting. AND remember, you don’t have to limit it to your zip code or even your state. If the work is remote and from home then it doesn’t matter where the company is located. One word of advice: NEVER PAY for the opportunity to work. If the company wants you to send money even if it is a small amount, it is a scam. You wouldn’t expect to have to pay to work anywhere else, then why pay to work remotely. Right?

Telecommuting is great, but only works if you are able to talk on the phone uninterrupted without noise in the background. That means, you will only be able to do it while the kids are at school.

Well, those are 5 great job ideas for earning money while the kids are at school.

Each one of these jobs will produce as much money as the time you are willing to put in.

Don’t forget, it’s always easier with another person. If you know another mother looking for an opportunity, think about joining forces and teaming up.

Enjoy and let me know how you do! You can read other articles and get other ideas on my blog http://mombloggerworks.blogspot.com/.

Real Tips for Mom’s looking to work from home

If you are anything like me, you have spent as many years as the age of your oldest child trying to work from home. It’s an ancient struggle, earning enough to live and having enough time to enjoy your children while they are young. I have been at this for 7 years and I have some practical tips and suggestions.

I know, I know, everyone reads the ads that promise riches and you think… Then you get to the website and they urge you to make a small investment. And you think, “Well, I gotta spend a little money to earn a lot of money sounds ok” Actually, if you think about it, it doesn’t make any sense. Would you normally pay someone to let you work? No, they pay you. If you are required to pay for anything… then you are getting scammed. ESPECIALLY, if you are paying to get a list of “opportunities”. Let’s face it, the only one that is going to actually make money is the person selling the list.

Have you checked:
http://www.hotjobs.com/
http://www.careerbuilder.com/
http://www.monster.com/

Yup, those are the sites people looking for jobs usually try. The difference is, if you are looking to work from home you would use different keywords. You would search “Telecommute” or “Telecommuting” or “Telework”. Go ahead, try it. The nice thing about looking for Telecommuting work is that you are not bound by locality. You could live in Florida and work for a company out of Idaho.

You will find a lot of the “scam” companies or educational companies place ads for these types of positions and once you access the link you will find they want you to pay for the training required to get the position. But there are several positions that are ALWAYS available to telecommuters.

The two biggest categories are Sales and Customer Service. I hate sales. I despise calling people and trying to sell them something. That’s what sales people do, as much as I despise it… it’s really where the money is. Most sales positions are paid on commission, that means the more calls, the better your chances of making money. I prefer having customers or clients call me… that is generally customer service. Since I’m a bit of a computer geek, I also apply to the technical analyst or help desk support ads. Customer service positions generally are either paid per call or hourly. Not as lucrative as Sales, but not as stressful either.

Here’s the other thing. As a mother of three small children I have spent the last 7 years dipping into various opportunities and almost all of them are a no go with young kids. If you have to spend any time on the phone, you just can’t. As you know, you will have 30 possible 45 minutes of nice quiet time PROVIDED you haven’t picked up the phone. As soon as you pick up the phone to take or make a call, all of the kids that that opportunity to either start fighting or they all need to discuss something…with you… simultaneously… very loudly.

The trick is to find something that you can do at home that doesn’t involve phone calls. Start by making a list of things you can offer a perspective employer:

Legal Transcription – Typing Legal Documents from Tapes (if an attorney’s office has extra work it usually means the attorney has recorded documents to be typed on tapes. The secretary listens to the words using a transcriber machine. If you pick up work from an attorney, they will probably lend you a machine with the tapes

Collection Letters – if this is done properly, you can have a series of letter templates that you would just plug in the addresses and print out the letters and envelopes. If you are writing the letters on behalf of a company, then you can save the documents on a disk or flash drive and let them print them out. If you are collection the money for a commission, there may be added expense for P.O. Box and postage and what not.

Data Entry – Could be anything from entering amounts and dates into a spreadsheet to accessing the company database and entering customer information directly into their proprietary system.

You get the idea right? Think about all of the things that you are qualified to do in an office. Then think about how you would be able to do them at home.

So, once you have compiled your list of things you can do from home, you need to plan your strategy. Start close to home, check your yellow pages and compile your list of local companies that may need secretarial help or check your local job opportunities.

Your introduction letter needs to sell your services to your perspective employer. Your letter need to explain how the employer will benefit from hiring you, how qualified you are for the position and allude to a money saving aspect without stating how much you want to earn.

Save the rest for the interview.

I have one last comment before I say, “good Luck” and that is… Spell check your introduction letter AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make sure the letter is formatted professionally.

Good Luck