unakfrszftx

The Working Parent's Home Office--Organization for Success

The Working Parents Home Office Organization for Success

If youre a parent that works at home, you already know about the ongoing conflict between your business and your family obligations. Home based businesses are rapidly becoming the norm in our world of high technology. As a parent, this is great news, as it allows you to be in the house with your kids while still creating a necessary income. So, when combining your work life with your home life, how do you find the proper balance, so each can be stable and successful? To begin with you need to have the correct tools at your disposal for whatever your work at home business is.

While this may sound easy, the lack of organization can be a death knell to your home based business. Beyond strong organization, youll also need to be able to communicate with your family effectively, set limitations, prioritize your day, stick to your commitments, and learn how to be flexible. Sounds like a lot, doesnt it? Its not only possible, its very manageable, and while the balance will rarely be perfect, optimizing your schedule and your office will lead you to not only a stronger business but a stronger family unit, as well. The following steps will help get you started:

Communication

Whether youre running an internet home based business or another type of work at home career, start with communication. Explain to your family what your home based business will require in order for it be streamlined. This is all about expectations, and may include establishing protocol for interruptions, discussing your normal working hours, and basic rules to be followed. Be ready to listen, question, and explain every detail fully.

Organization

Its essential to have the proper tools in order to work at home successfully. Be sure to have a strong internet connection (especially if you have an internet home based business), a dedicated telephone (it can be a cell phone), a place to keep files and notes so you can find them quickly, and a way of organizing your incoming work.

Limitations

Your family is important and they are probably the main reason youre in a home based business to begin with. However, your children need to understand youre working even if youre only in the next room. Youll need to set limitations with them so they know how to approach you in non-emergency circumstances. You could designate a signal that will visually tell them you cannot be interrupted unless it is an emergency. This can be as simple as a closed door or a sign you hang outside of your office.

Prioritize

Invest in a calendar, whether the old-fashioned type or computer software, to use as a planning tool. This is one of the most important steps you can take if you work at home, because you need a place to pencil (or type) in appointments, school activities, deadlines, etc. Get into the habit of updating your planning tool throughout each day so you can set your priorities well in advance.

Commitment

If you tell your son that youll be at his soccer game be there. If you tell a business associate you will be available to talk on a certain day and time, make sure you are. Your word is important within your family and your business so unless something happens that you cannot control, live up to what you say. If you do have to break a commitment, be open and honest about it and be ready with an alternate plan. If this happens it is essential that the alternate plans you made are adhered to.

Flexibility

As with anything in life, learning to be flexible will save you, your family, and your home based business unnecessary stress. Things happen in life, try to find different solutions and different methods when issues pop up.

A work at home office can truly make a difference in narrowing the gap between career and family, especially if the office is organized and the expectations with your family are firmly in place. Combined, it will allow you to remain the stabilizing force you need to be both in your home based business and in your family.

Ruby River is the proud owner of an established home business whose business affiliate is one of the oldest and continues to be the most successful within the billion-dollar personal development community. A genuine business opportunity promoting financial and emotional change is available without hype. Success is a Choice. Serious, entrepreneur minded, visit http://www.livegreatlife.com

posted by nwwhimy @ 5:24 AM 0 comments

Bad Internet Traffic - Does this Exist?

During my last 8 months of being an affiliate marketer, I have learned a lot of about making money online and I have become moderately successful at it, too. One of the most important lessons that I learned is that traffic equals sales! There are many fundamental rules about internet selling and one of those general rules of thumbs is that it is very likely that any respectable website can make 1-2 sales (at least) per 100 visitors. My visitor counts started off small, and I made a little bit of money. My visitor count is now "respectable" and I now make a "respectable" amount of money. But how far does this theory go and when does good traffic go bad?

Annecdote #1: About 3 months ago, I got an email from a very anger person stating that my website was nothing but a fraud due to the fact that they got my link from an adult website (why they were on this site in the first place is left to be seen!). I did some research on why my link was found on a certain website and I found that one of my content ads from Google had the line "Get Off Your Fanny..." I later learned that this rather tame word "fanny" has different meanings in other countries (we are talking about a global economy here!). This triggered an Adsense ad on an adult website. So my first point here is that you do not have control at times where your ad may appear in the world wide web! Secondly, do I care? In this case, I do to some degree. I do not really care that it came from an adult website. Traffic is traffic (even if someone may be upset with this). What I do care about is that I PAID for this click.

This is when good traffic goes bad! I did some careful research on the statistics of those who visited my website from this adult website. Sure enough, I received about 30 clicks at $0.10 a piece (a total of $3). Out of that $3, I received zero sales and additionally, 29 of those people "bounced" (meaning they stayed on my website for less than 5 seconds). This is not a good investment and I made sure that this site would no longer post my ad (and I did change the wording to remove "fanny" from the equation!).

Annecote #2: One common and highly publicized way of attracting traffic to one's website is through free classified ads. The first time I did this, I was kind of shocked what I saw. My visitors to my website jumped to an additional 150 unique visitors per day (after the initial postings.) WOW! I then went and checked my sales: Zero additional sales. I went and researched my classified ad statistics and sure enough, about 145 of those visitors bounced. Does this make classified ads "bad traffic".

It can, but not really! Remember this: these ads are free. And out of the 5 visitors that did stay on my website, I got two of them to sign-up for my opt-in letter. Ultimately, that means I paid zero dollars for each lead. That is definitely worth something. The biggest question here is time. How much is your time worth? To post classified ads requires time and (if you are strapped in time like I am), time is money. Further, this additional traffic hurts my visitors per sales statistics, but who cares! It is ROI (return on investment) that truly matters. The investment in this case is time, not money.

Traffic is currently king on the internet when it come to making sales. In my opinion, though, traffic only goes bad when you pay for it and it does not produce sales. All free traffic is good (no matter where it comes from). But beware, free traffic sometimes come at the cost of time. Is an hour of posting classified ads worth more than a new blog entry or a review of another product? That is a decision that you, the online marketer, must make yourself!

Matthew Bredel is a 32 year old online entrepreneur and engineer currently living in San Diego, CA.

posted by nwwhimy @ 3:34 AM 0 comments