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How to Effectively Work From Home

By admin in Featured

The number one reason I chose to pursue Internet marketing as an online entrepreneur was the freedom it provides. Having an online business allows you to take your business with you wherever you go and work on it at whatever time suits your schedule. Now, that’s the kind of freedom I am after!

But, in order to make your work at home, online business a success, you must possess a certain amount of self discipline so that you can properly use your energy and time productively.

Here’s a few of the most important elements that I learned that will keep your confidence, focus and productivity strong as you pursue your own dream of working at home…and succeeding.

The most important thing I learned was what things produced money for me and what things didn’t. For me it was no question…article marketing and list-building were the two most important elements to pursue for my business.

In other words, they were the best use of turning my time into money as they provided the best results.

Hanging out in forums and chat rooms…although very entertaining, was simply not cutting it. Forums can be productive for you if you monitor the way you use them and don’t just hang out killing what could otherwise be productive time.

Another important step to take is to cut yourself off from the noise…cut off the world that takes you away from your focus.

For example:

1) unsubscribe from your thousands of mailings. That is a chore in itself, but if you don’t do this, you will continue to be bombarded with offers that will only distract you from your goals. Choose to follow 1, 2 or possibly 3 mentors at a time…and no more. Trust me, the others aren’t going anywhere and will still be around when you’re finished with your present ones!

If this idea scares you, then create a separate email account and resubscribe for those hundreds of promos you will be getting and check it occasionally.

2) Do those things that make money for you first such as sending an email to your list, writing articles for the directories, checking your support desk for any help needed etc.

3) Shut your computer down and accomplish any offline tasks that are nagging at you to complete. I have found that if there are things that I am not tending to in my offline life, they will continue to nag me and unconsciously I am not getting the most out of my mind energy because of this subtle disturbance to my peace.

Value your time: Learn to say “no.” Sounds easy enough doesn’t it and yet there are those that have trouble saying “no” to anyone or any offer that comes their way. You need to choose what and whom gets your valuable time…you only have so much of it. Use your time to enjoy your family or to benefit your business in some way.

Learn to say “no” to time wasters. Learn to say “yes” to your life (family and business)

Set up your work hours and stick to it. For me, this was early in the morning. I would get busy on my business…coffee in hand while most everyone else was sleeping.

If you’re busy writing an article or blog post, time yourself! That’s right, buy a typical timer and set the alarm for the amount of time it should take you to complete this task. This will keep you honest with yourself but more importantly it will keep you accountable for your time!

Don’t spend 3-4 hours on a short report or blog post that should be written within 20-30 minutes. After timing yourself for awhile you might be surprised at what you find. Use this information to improve your time management skills.

Create a daily action list. I create mine the night before so that it is ready and waiting for me when I sit down at my desk in the morning and I never have to guess at what needs accomplishing. It is simply a compilation of tasks that I want to accomplish that day. Better to keep it simple…especially at first until you get comfortable with your own time frames. Don’t make the list so long that you are defeated before you begin.

I move from one task to the other until I’ve completed them all. If I have miscalculated my timing and everything does not get done that day, whatever is left undone goes to the top of my “to do” list for the next day.

Don’t forget the breaks! We need to take 15 minute breaks to stretch our body and give our minds a rest. Ideally you should never work more than three hours straight without some sort of break. But, come right back after your break!

And, last but not least, take ACTION. This is the most important step of all. If you don’t take action, your dreams an ideas remain just that…dreams and ideas. Combine your dreams with action steps…persistently and consistently…and watch your dreams manifest before your eyes!

Becoming an online entrepreneur is one of the most exciting opportunities that has ever come along. Becoming a success at it, is all about your self discipline.

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Kathy Dobson is a free spirited business owner and entrepreneur dedicated to helping others achieve financial and personal freedom through Internet marketing with an emphasis on membership sites.
Learn more about membership sites please visit: http://www.crazycashmembershipsites.com For further tips and resources visit: http://www.kathydobson.com

EBay Warning: Dropshipping? PayPal Is Holding Your Money!

By Melody Wigdahl in Featured

EBay has been the ideal home based business for years. Most of us started with the ‘clean out the garage’ model, and over time graduated to dropshipping, and in many cases, it has turned into a pretty significant fulltime income.

Over the last several weeks, several VERY disturbing changes have taken place at EBay as EBay seems intent on wiping out the very business base that built the behemoth, to focus on the corporate clientele that have taken a much larger position on EBay over the past couple of years, using EBay to sell off their excess inventory directly, rather than selling to the large discount chains as was the previous habit.

Here’s an overview of some of the most significant – and damaging – changes that affect you and I, the folks that have built home businesses around EBay….

1) The EBay Feedback system now only allows Sellers to leave POSITIVE for Buyers. On the other hand, Buyers can leave any kind of feedback they want for Sellers. This means that if you have a problem with a Buyer (gee – that never happens, right?) you are pretty much out of luck! So, if the Buyer feels that he should have received his widget in 3 working days – even though you clearly state that it takes no less than 10 working days for the widget to ship – he can give you a negative! And you are pretty much powerless since there is no arbitration system in place.

2) Neutral Feedback? HAH!! Guess what? They no longer exist! All of your neutral comments have now been converted to NEGATIVE feedback ratings. Top PowerSellers have lost their PowerSeller status and the perks that went along with it – including the extra discounts that were often factored into their pricing. Although the PowerSellers were given a period of time to ‘correct’ the situation – the bottom line is that Buyers are not terribly responsive to such requests – and this means that a huge percentage of PowerSellers…aren’t. An interesting side note here is that one PowerSeller that was hit by these changes…..is also one of the speakers at this week’s EBay Live Conference in Chicago……should be a very interesting speech…….

3) The Final Straw…….dropshipping is huge on EBay. My hubby has been very successful dropshipping on EBay – both through EBay partners such as Doba and others, as well as resources of his own, through his 25 years in the wholesale gift industry. Today he received an email from PayPal stating that any orders that were ‘known to be dropshipping” would result in a 21 day hold on the funds from the customer! The only way around this is to send PayPal the tracking notice when the product ships and supposedly they will ‘release’ your funds.

Personally – I have dealt with PayPal in the past over disputes – and the response times are horrible. Basically, this means that if you have been earning a living dropshipping – you will now have to be financially solvent enough to cover all of your sales out of your own pocket, rather than paying for the product with the funds from PayPal. This pretty much will kill the entire dropshipping business model for most people on EBay.

4) No digital products – Ebooks were a HUGE seller on EBay and it was a great business model! Automated download, a real ‘set it and forget it’ business model if handled correctly. But apparently it was not handled correctly by many and now ebooks and other digital items must be sold in DVD format and physically shipped. exactly why it was such a great business – you didn’t have to ship anything!

At one point, we had 4 stores on EBay and thousands of products, but we have been ‘branching out’ and are looking at other products, such as the EBay Affiliate program, niche store scripts etc.

After this latest round of changes, and the notice today from PayPal, we will be pulling 99% of our products off EBay.

As a home business – it no longer works for us.

Over the next few days we will be posting reviews of the various store models as we take them for a test drive – we will bring the pros and cons of every system!!

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Melody Wigdahl is a serial entrepreneur, lifelong geek and founder of Work At Home Ideas For Women, and The WomensNet Network, Home Of The Amber Grants For Women Entrepreneurs , a networking and resource site for women entrepreneurs. Melody has been working from home for more than 2 decades – web based since 1996 – and loves to share ideas and stories with other entrepreneurs!

© Copyright 2012 All rights reserved. Jayde Online, Inc.

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