Sound Engineer

My friend, V, has asked me to look into what it takes to be a sound engineer, so I am going to be doing some work on the career of sound engineering even though I am not sure just how well that plays into a work at home job. We'll explore that a little, though, and see what I can come up with on it. Okay?

First off is some places that teach sound engineering:

Full Sail School of Recording Arts. Film, Art, Design, Music & Media production.

Wikipedia Audio Engineering information.

Audio Engineering Society "The leading professional association worldwide for professionals involved in the audio industry."

This is just a few resources to get us started here, I'll look into things more and get some ideas for if this could be a work at home career and go more in-depth on what a sound engineer is as I work on this series of posts.

I need a genuine home office

Me and mom were talking, and we decided that I need to set up a genuine bonifide home office where I can work from. I think I'll take the room where we are storing things right now, and clear it out and buy some shelving material and such and build me a real home office with built in desks and shelves and all so that I can work in comfort based on what needs to be done and not have to shiver as I type like I do in the basement office where I am now.

The basement works good as a place to put my bedroom, since I like to sleep in a cool darkened room, but trying to work down here is distracting because when my fingers get chilled they can't type so I end up correcting typos left and right.

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More on being a technical writer

Useful links I found:

Tech-Writer.net - has articles on being a tech writer including information on tech writing as a business.

US Department of Labor Writers and Editors

Writer's Write on Technical writers

CNN Money Technical Writer ranked 13 out of 50 for best jobs in America. This is a must visit site for anyone looking into this as a career

More information on technical writers

I found a website with good information on technical writing - check out the Technical Writer entry at the California Employment Development Department.

Also, if you do not yet have a copy of the 2007 Writer's Market, pick one up. They have the hourly wages (high, low and average) for technical writers as well as listings for 75+ publishers that a technical writer can submit to.

2007 Writer's Market
by Robert Lee Brewer

What is PayPerPost up to?

Okay, my favorite little group of blog advertising people over there, PayPerPost, who have helped me to grow blog traffic here at the Work At Home Newsletter, are up to something. They're not saying what it is, but there are hints that it's going to be big. Kind of makes me nervous when they do things like that. lol I mean, shoot, the first thing that came to my mind was "Oh shooot, they're buying out Google!" ::snicker:: Okay, maybe that is a little high of an aspiration, but I have stopped putting anything past them guys and gals.

My next thought on just what they might be up to is some sort of new release on their system, but they just had a major release and that's not exactly newsworthy stuff around here, so I moved on to ideas such as maybe they have found a network to distribute the RockStartup program - nah, I think it's something else. The last time they went into top secret hush hush "We have a seeeeecret" mode they popped up with a monster truck, so what would top that?

I think they picked up a small jet for getting around with their Postie Patrol.

Yup, that's right. I mean, shooot, they could have picked up the jet owned by the Alaska governor on eBay not very long ago, we were auctioning that baby off for the 2 million we had into it. Nice little corporate jet to let the men and women working at PayPerPost avoid them cramped commercial airliners as they cruise from their base off to visit Posties all over the place and go to conventions and such. What could make more sense for them than that?

So, there is my guess. I think that PayPerPost has got themselves a new corporate jet.

See! I even have pictures:

(okay, so I GIMPed up a jet. You have to admit that it looks cool, right?)

Technical Writer

Okay, at long last I have got around to discussing technical writing. Sorry about the delay.

What is a Technical Writer? A technical writer is someone that designs, creates, and even updates as necessary, technical documents, help files, user guides, and other written material that assist in defining how a technical product (such as a program or electronic equipment) works or is used.

The primary task of the technical writer is to convey the technical workings of something in as concise and easily understood a manner as possible. The primary audience is usually non-technologically inclined end users.

Qualifications for being a technical writer are usually having a mixed background in both technical and journalism or writing. They may have degrees such as computer science, communications, or telecommunications. They should be experienced enough that they will understand what the end user of the written material will be needing.

The higher paying jobs are usually those where the technical writer is writing for the more technical savvy readership rather than for the home user that wants only to know how to turn the product on and make it do what they bought it for.

The technical writer usually works closely with developers or programmers so that the technical writer has a firm understanding of the product they are writing about and can present it properly according to the specific requirements of the product, the person that hired them, and the end user.

Who is spying on you?

Chances are, if you ended up here because your mom or dad left this up on their home computer, it is your parents. ;-D

In fact, parental control over what kids get into on the Internet is one of the primary uses of spy software. Along with employers keeping tabs on the Internet use of company computers by their employees, parents can use spy software to monitor what their kids are doing on the Internet.

Did you know that Spy Software can be used to record anything from web sites that are visited on a computer, to recording passwords that parents can later use for things such as gaining access to Instant messenger sites and e-mail accounts so they can find out who their kids have been talking to and what they have been talking about.

Child predators are a real threat to kids, and parents have to balance the scales between privacy and safety. It's like knowing where your daughter hides both the key to her diary and the diary and walking the line between peeking and not peeking. Sometimes a parent's only choice is to peek into that diary if they are going to keep their child safe from harm. spy software gives you a way to find that diary key when you need it most.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement
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Thursday Thirteen - retirement

It's Thursday, and there is a lot I need to get done here. I considered doing a Thursday Thirteen about it all, but I went to visit the Thursday Thirteen site and the lady that runs it is closing it. :-(

She's looking into selling the rights to someone else, (and I have been considering asking about that myself), so I am not fully giving up on TT yet. As a possible final offering of Thursday Thirteen for my blogs here are... (Sorry, no code, header graphics, or blog roll - they were all retired by Leanne.)... (other TTers are welcome to link to their own TTs in my comments and as soon as I can get a blogroll on here I will move them to it. Thanks!)


Thirteen Things I need to do around the Work at Home Newsletter, or it's going to close too:

1. Build a template for what exactly I want to cover on business spotlights so I can better highlight home based business opportunities for people

2. Refine the template on the blog so that it is more aesthetically pleasing

3. Get the website up and going and linked to the blog

4. Marketing marketing marketing

5. Get a "to do" list that is focused on things I need to get for this business

6. Find more articles for the newsletter from other writers to better broaden the points of view on things presented to the readership

7. Set up a hour a week to work exclusively on defining the week's goals for the Work at Home Newsletter and getting things in line for smooth publication and work flow that week

8. Give readers something interactive that could give them more reason to come back other than just reading things? Need to ponder on this

9. Taxes. UGH!! Must get information on taxes up, must do my taxes. ::hides::

10. Set up a blog roll for other work at home blogs to exchange links with the Work at Home Newsletter

11. Talk to Bill at PlatonicSolid.info about what it might take to set up a basic shopping cart site for people with home based businesses. As many small businesses as he works with he should have a lot of input on this.

12. Write up a few articles over the weekend (if I can find the time to breathe) that I can publish here throughout next week

13. Print this list so that I don't loose it under other posts and forget what all I need to get done here.

High Paying Opportunities for Bloggers! - $10, $75, $125 - even $1,000 for one post!

I do a lot of advertising for the folks at PayPerPost, and they have been going through a lot of changes there. One of their changes has been to start up a program where they segment the blogs. This is a way to help award bloggers that have higher traffic on their blogs. For example, it is not uncommon for Posties (that is bloggers that write ads for PayPerPost) to make $1,000 on just a single sponsored post.

I'm routinely seeing posts for $10, $15 and more that I can post to my blogs, and others that have requirements I am not quite to meeting yet (higher Google Page Ranks etc), that go for $50, $75 and up! There are opportunities there now for $84, $90, $125, and $1,000.00.

And, unlike other sites that charge as much as 100% markup, PayPerPost only charges a 35% service fee. PayPerPost lets you keep the lions share of the advertising money that you work hard to earn! Sites like ReviewMe take half of the money for every post. This is very simple math that adds up to more money in your pocket and high paying opportunities at PayPerPost.

Whether you have a low traffic blog like this one is at the moment, or a high traffic blog that brings in hundreds or more visitors a day, PayPerPost just makes sense for bloggers that want to choose what they are blogging about (even in their advertisements) and have more control over their own blogs. PayPerPost requires all of their bloggers to provide disclosure, to let their readers know they are being paid to write the posts in their blog that the people are reading, which is why you will see some of the posts on here (like this one) display a note that they are sponsored or advertisements.

So come on, what are you waiting for? You could make money blogging about the things that you blog about anyway. Shoot, you can make money just by reviewing this post and saying how lousy my blog here is. (yes you can give a negative review of my blog and be paid to do it!) Isn't that a good deal? How much easier can it be to make money on your blog? lol

Dangers of buying PDAs from eBay

It can seem like a great temptation to buy a PDA off eBay, but let me tell you that it can be a headache. I bought one, the fellow vanished and I was forced to file an item not received claim. Thankfully I got my money back via PayPal (they ROCK!!!!!). Did I learn my lesson? Nope, I went and bought another one from a fellow with almost 200 feedback and good feedback score. He advertised a "Like New" PDA - I got it and it won't sync to my computer no matter what I have done or tried (checked for SUDS) and it has breaks in it that he did not mention in ad and is trying to blame on me or the USPS, and two taped places on the cord he had not mentioned that he did admit he knew about.

I'm very frustrated and annoyed, but mostly because he is holding my feedback hostage. If he actually made an effort I would give good or at least neutral feedback, but the guy is talking himself into negative feedback and I have never gave anyone a negative before.

The Alexa Rank

If you have a website, chances are you have encountered the Alexa Rank. This is a measure of your website by Alexa. The flaw to it is, that the measure is primarily calculated based on how many people with the Alexa tool bar view your website. I don't know about you, but I don't have the Alexa tool bar and I view a lot of websites, so why is the Alexa Rank such a powerful thing?

I don't know, but that is how it works. One way that I have heard to help with Alexa ranking is to display the widget on your site - which presumably lets Alexa see how often the widget is downloaded and lets them count the visitors that don't have the tool bar. I don't know if that is true or not, and I don't know if it is good for the site or not. I have seen instances where people have said their rank went up after they displayed the widget. Presumably this is because if Alexa had over estimated on their site, the widget lets it even out and that mens it drops down some. So it is a hit or miss on if your site would be better off with, or without, the Alexa widget.

A basic widget looks like this:



Or get a more fancy one like this:



Also available are graph charts for those in the top 100,000 sites.

Grokodile - new regional directory [Paid advertisement]

There is a new regional directory for websites and blogs. It's called - Grokodile.

If you live within North America, you can add a site for your local area to it by finding your community and adding your blog or website to the directory.

This is an excellent way to get your local business on a directory for people to find it that are searching locally for a business. I went through and added this blog (you can find it here - Work At Home Newsletter on Grokodile) and I was surprised by the number of towns they had listed for Alaska - even little native villages!

They believe that a good measure of visitors to a site is how many people are finding them through it, so the more visitors that a site sends to them via a link, the higher that site is pushed in the listings.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement
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Catching up slowly

Okay, I know that I have been neglecting this site for a while, but I am in the process of catching up other websites and blogs and getting my taxes sorted out and writing and and and.... the list goes on indeffinately

I am planning to get that information on being a technical writer up, though, so just bear with me a little longer and I hope that by Monday that will be up here. (yes this coming Monday, not the third one from next century lol)

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I'm back after sicklies

The sicklies got me down for a few days here, but I'm back now. Throat is still sore, but thankfully I am not seriously considering a trip to the doctor's office like I had been yesterday about this time.

I got wrappers for throat lozenges and throat sprays and home remedies and over the counter stuff all over my desk and nightstand. Spent the better part of the weekend whimpering and trying to figure out how to swallow without it meaning extreme pain, but the throat is feeling better tonight and I am in hopes that by tomorrow, next day at the latest, I'll be over this and on the road to full health again.

How to increase your page rank [Advertisement]

You already know the importance of having a website, even if your business is a small local business such as window washing or dog walking you want to have a website. Now I want you to consider what you are going to be doing to get people to find that website.

You probably already know, or at least have heard, that websites are not ranked high at Google unless they have a high page rank assigned to them by the ever elusive Google Algorithms.

Most people have figured out with even a little trial and error on marketing that one of the primary mechanism used by Google's Page Ranking algorithms is the links that lead back to a website from other websites and blogs all over the Internet.

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Request a Work At Home business profile

I want to encourage you to request information on work at home businesses and I'll start a list of types of businesses that I can cover on what it would take for someone to break into business at particular jobs.

I plan to get at least one business a week looked into and give you all an idea of what the business is all about and what needs to be considered when you are planning to start work on such a business.

Free trial - Personal time management software

Now here is something that any home business owner can use. A way to manage their time!

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Available either in standard or professional editions, Achieve Planner helps you get organized and stay on track in the things that you need to do. Rather it is remembering the kids have soccer practice or remembering that you need to call the print shop and get your new fliers printed in time for the community craft bazaar.

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What do I do for fun in Alaska?

I'm working diligently on my Alaska ATV blog, getting it organized and ready for a summer of activity. I won a 2006 Honda Rancher ATV at the local liquor store last September and got in a few rides before winter set in, so now this year it is going to be my number one means of entertainment whenever I can get the time to escape and go out cruising for a little while.

I've already been checking out the local geo caches and such to look into going geocaching with my brother's GPS system.

I'm also going to be looking into the local ATV clubs again, last year when I looked a little bit they all seemed to be located 70 miles from me. Time to look again and if I have to make my own club.

HDMI cables for the home office

If you are lucky enough to have a room in which you can spread out your home office, then chances are, like me, you want to be able to put your printer more than 3 feet away from your computer. The problem is, your choice of distances is generally 3', 6' or 12' if you are lucky enough to find a cable that long. Anything over that and you have to start using extensions and careful wiring to get the printer where you want it and then you have a poor quality signal.

Don't give up hope yet, you can get hdmi cables that let you stretch out to 10 meters that have been tested and certified to maintain a 1080p signal. Not long enough? How about 60 meters with an Equalizer set up at the end to repair the signal? Forget about setting up the office with whatever your local electronics store has in stock, go online and buy the cables you need to spread out between the back spare bedroom where your office is located and the breakfast nook where you love to work in the mornings and early afternoons.

Oh, and while you are planning this nice sprawling office, don't forget to look into HDMI wall plates. These let you get the finished look of professional installation and you can run the cables through the walls and/or basement rather than across the floor. Then just walk into the breakfast nook (or wherever you like to work when no one else is home to disturb you) and plug into your HDMI cables that lead back to your home office. Heck, put several throughout the house so you can work wherever and whenever you want.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement

for tca-inc.net and is a PayPerPost Post

A look at the Children's Party Planner market

Just figured I would add on a few websites that show what the market is like for children's party planning businesses. Part of the work in designing a business plan is in looking at the competition and seeing what your niche could be that would make your business a viable one, so here are some others that are in the business of children's party planning to help you get a few ideas on what you should be offering or doing.

Kids Parties Connection

Tiaras and Treasures - Northeast Ohio

PartyPop.com - resource to find local Party & Event Planners

Shopping Cart [Advertisement]

One of the sites that I had looked at for children's party planning talked about having an online presence for the business. A place where you can have your clients find you in a local internet search. I've talked before about marketing locally, so you should already understand the importance of that.

By getting a shopping cart for your new business you can let parents select the most common services you have to offer from a list of things such as balloons (helium or standard), face painting, grab bags of small age related toys, tiaras for girls and crowns for boys, magic capes, ….etc…

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More resources for the Kids Party Planner

Some of these are more geared for parents than those that work in the business of planning children's parties, but they would be of interest to anyone that is thinking of how to run such a business and what kinds of ideas work.

PBS party planning by age - An age by age breakdown of do's and don't's for planning parties for small kids. Aimed at parents but well worth reading by anyone planning to host a kids party.

Starting a Children's Event Party Planner Business - these guys have some good information, but I am not very sure about their 'over the internet certification'. If you want proper certification go to the local Police Department and ask about a background check on yourself for working around children. It was what I did when I was going to work as a certified babysitter at one time.

Tips from Play-Dough - this is Hasbro's site for ideas for children's parties and is aimed at parents.

Work at home ideas form Mommy Savers - Not a lot of information, but worth looking over anyway.

Links for Children's Party Planner work idea

I went out and found a few links that might help anyone that is interested in the idea of being a party planner for children's parties:

Party planners cash in on kids' parties.(regional MEETINGS & conventions):
An article from: Westchester County Business Journal
by Joan Stableford
This is a booklet type thing at Amazon that looked like it may or may not be of interest. Definitely worth reading their descriptions and stuff for it.

Start Your Own Party Planning Business and Get Paid to Plan Parties - e-book offer that is scammy generic information looking ad stuff, but gives you a good idea what is needed in the description of their offered e-book.

Hayfield Dental Care [Advertisement]

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Work at Home Opportunity: Children's Birthday Party Planner

The first Work at Home Opportunity that I want to spotlight is the Children's Birthday Party Planner. This is a job that is easily defined as someone that knows the various details for how to throw a great party for children and can do so with enough skill to hire out their services to others.

A Children's Birthday Party Planner might specialize in children of a specific age range, say children age 5 to 12 that would be interested in things like clowns, pony rides and magicians that the person may have some knowledge of or connections with (such as a cousin that is a part time magician and a friend that runs pony rides at the state fair each year).

To be able to make a business out of something like this, you need to understand kids of your chosen age range and enjoy planning activities that they will also enjoy. There is no margin of error for "they might like this" you need to know the audience and be able to pull off entertainments that they genuinely enjoy and can participate in safely. Otherwise you will sink very quickly in your efforts to launch a new business.

If you can pull it off, then word of mouth will spread from one parent to another and should keep you in work until you can get your marketing figured out.

Things to consider before you start approaching a business like this.

Do you enjoy holding parties for children? Would you be okay with holding a couple of kids parties every weekend and sometimes on weekdays?

Can you schedule well enough that if you do have to overlap and host two parties on the same day you can do it without being late for the second one or running out early on the first?

Do you know where to find things like cakes, party supplies, and entertainment? Can you handle booking for a clown to perform and do you want to hassle with paying entertainers and caterers and such out of what you are paid for an event? Can you provide a good enough estimate to a parent that you will not have to alter the amount unless the parent alters their requests?

Do you have access to a place to store party things that you might want to purchase for your business such as a bunch of tables, decorations, and other things that your would spend a lot of money renting as opposed to just purchasing yourself?

Do you have access to places, or can you easily book a place, where children can go for a party if the parents do not have a suitable place for the party? (Such as trying to host a sleepover paty in a 2 bedroom apartment with a connected kitchen and front room).

Do you know what kinds of foods kids like? Do you know where to find a caterer that can cater children's parties?

These are by no means an exhaustive list of things to be considering, nor is it all pertinent, but it should give you a better perspective on if this is for you or not.

New segment for the Work at Home Newsletter

I have decided that the Work at Home Newsletter needs a new feature added to it, so I have decided to begin writing a spotlight on work at home opportunities that nearly anyone can start up.

I'll discuss what an opportunity is, what someone might define the business as, and give some ideas for how the business might work and be run etcetera.

Some of these will be easy to get started with little or no money, others may take investments of time and or money. Please note that *I* am not looking to make money through selling anything to start a business, but I will offer suggestions on where supplies might be found such as craft paints, clay, paper products, fabric, etc.

If you have any suggestions on business ideas that you would like to see me cover, then please leave a comment or drop me a e-mail

sandra [at] phantascene.com

Monex Deposit Company [advertisement]

I've talked about the Monex Deposit Company on my blogs several times before. I've encouraged you to look into the possibilities of precious metal investing, but now I want to show you one of those possibilities.

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Businesses that you can start at home

There is a lot of talk about working from home, but what exactly can a person do from home that would let them create a business around it?

You might be surprised. Take a look at things that might interest you and see what kinds of possibilities there are:

Antiques - You could start up a business finding antiques that are inexpensive and resell them at a profit. If you're a professional (DO NOT try it if you don't know what you are doing) you could even buy damaged antiques, restore and sell them.

Art - either as a buyer and reseller or as a artist yourself you can buy, or create, anything from paintings to one of a kind figures and display pieces.

Bicycle Repair - you can run a bicycle repair shop out of your garage or a shed in the back yard.

Birthday Planning - hire yourself out as a party planner for children's birthdays or adult birthdays or whatever you have a skill at planning and coordinating. Don't just go general catch-all party planner, specialize and make connections that allow you to give the customer the best you can when you get a job.

Books - buy and sell used books over the Internet at auction sites or affiliate programs or your own storefront.

Cartoonist - either for your own syndicated online cartoon or one you sell to magazines or newspapers.

Clothing maker - Seamstress work for making custom fit pieces or specialty order items such as prom attire or wedding attire.

Collectibles - buy collectibles such as dolls or cards or coins and sell them on auction sites for a profit.

... you can see that the list could go on and on. So think of the things you love to do and consider if it is something you love enough that you would like to do it all the time. Then see how it could be turned into a marketable skill.

Business Plan

I am working on creating a business plan for my writing work. It is something that every one that wants to start up a business, even if it is home based, needs to consider carefully and work up for their business.

A business plan is not just used to find investors and funding for your business, it is a guide to what your business is, what it does, and what it will be in the months and years ahead.


When you sit down to work on a business plan you might want to have a good book on writing a business plan. Something such as Your First Business Plan: A Simple Question And Answer Format Designed To Help You Write Your Own Plan (Your First Business Plan) by Joseph A. Covello, Brian Hazelgren
is recommended.

The business plan is fairly straightforward and if it is only for your own personal reference, a device to help keep you on track, then it does not even have to be fancy.

You will want some basic sections in the plan, such as:

What is your business: defined in one brief sentence.
I.E.: I am a freelance writer that writes fantasy realism novels, website content, and Internet advertisement copy.


When will you work: what hours will you be keeping for your business? Depending on the kind of business this might be very flexible (I work whenever I have a chance and some time to work), or it can be very strict (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. EST).

What are your financial goals: Is this a full-time or a part-time job to you? How much do you need to be earning from it to meet the money you feel you have to be making at this job?

Work samples: self explanatory, it is samples of your work. Something that you can show yourself or others to show just what it is that you do and give an idea of your best work.

The market: this is where the research work comes in. Look at the market for what you are doing and see just what else is out there that can fill the needs you are filling. How does your service stand out or differentiate itself from others like it? Are there no other businesses covering your niche? Is it so saturated that you need to find a more defined niche that you can cover?

Magazine subscriptions [advertisement]

If you are planning to start up a new business this year, or to expand one that you already have going, then you might consider getting a subscription to a business magazine or some news magazines such as Newsweek, The Week, Time, or any of the other magazine subscriptions that are available through sources such as Mags Direct.

Mags Direct has a 100% satisfaction guarantee. "If you are dissatisfied for any reason, you can cancel your subscription and we will credit you via your original payment for all issues that haven't yet been sent to you."

Looking for a gift for someone? Mags Direct will send a free hand written gift card to the recipient.

This post is a paid advertisement for Mags Direct

Staying focused

Staying focused when you are working from home is important, as I noted in my last post. Here are some ideas.

Only allow yourself a set length of time for researching something. If you are a writer then don't get bogged down in research.

Limit your lunch hour and breaks to what someone would get if they worked a regular 9 to 5 job. That helps you get into a focused mindset of work time vs time to take a break.

Pitfalls of working at home

When you work at home you need to know how to stay focused on a project. There is a lot of things that can be a distraction. Such as I just finished watching the Shawshank Redemption when I should have been working and now am too zoned out to get up and turn off Naked Gun 33 1/3. Okay, scratch that, I'm too lazy to reach a foot to the right and pick up the TV remote to kill the television.

That's done now. But you get my point on too much that can distract you from working. I could make a massive list here on what all can distract a person and not even start in on the things that can be found online or even on your own computer to be distracted by. So you have to be disciplined to work at home.

How exactly do you discipline yourself? That varies. Sometimes I work best under pressure, other times I can't get things done when on deadline because I feel pressured and over stressed. I'll hunt up some good ideas though, okay?

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Organizing my desk

I've been trying to figure out the best way to get my desk organized before I have it all finalized on how this basement office is set up. I think I like the current sort of G shape that the desks are making, where I have a U work area with a small section that jogs into it on one end. Now I just have to get things to a point that my monitor and keyboard are in good places for me to see what I am doing and set up my laptop where I can move work between it and the main computer more easily. I also need to keep the layout board for storyboarding my novels and put up shelves for my writing books.

Can your business benefit from a podcast or videocast?

Have you considered if your website or blog might benefit from a podcast or videocast? Podcasting is sort of the poor man's radio show and videocasting is the poor man's television program.

You can create a podcast or videocast on just about any subject that you can make a radio program or television show around from work at home businesses to UFOs and conspiracy theories. If you can create a blog about something you can build a podcast about it. Need pictures? Maybe make up a videocast instead and syndicate it using YouTube. I have considered several times making a videocast of quilting or painting and publishing it through YouTube. Maybe make a videocast of car maintenance for your car website?

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Work at home vs live at home

It is not always easy to scheduled time for working at home that does not conflict with the time that you have to put in for actually having a home.

Things such as doing the laundry, loading and unloading the dishwasher, fixing meals, housework, and that pesky sleep all tend to add up to make it harder to get the work fit into the schedule. Then when you are trying to be on call for not just one, but two people that you need to be ready to jump up and go see what they need -- working at home is something that is part miracle to accomplish and part -- no, it is a road straight toward insanity and some tend to travel down it faster than others.


Some people can drive down the work at home highway for years and barely feel the stress of balancing work and life at the same time, others are doomed from the moment they turn onto the busy freeway of dual work and play lives. How do you find the right balance to avoid having a blowout? I'm not sure, I suppose it is something that works differently for everyone. Some may thrive with their children pitching in, others may flounder if they are disturbed in the slightest. Some can recover fairly well from a disturbance, others may have lost an entire workday because of one. The trick lies in determining what kind of worker you are and scheduling your work, as best as you can, to take advantage of the times when you can be your most productive. Either mid day or 3 a.m. does not matter, only that you can get the work done and still be able to be a part of your non-working life.

That is why we choose to work at home, after all, so it makes no sense to spend so much time working at home that you never feel like you are at home.

Paper in the Cyber World

I have found that even with my work at home efforts, Internet Ad Copy Writer, being focused on an online world, there is still a certain amount of paperwork that builds up from my work.

Some of the work is repetitive, requiring the same information time after time, and making it not only innefficient, but costly to need to print the material on an "as needed" basis, so I have set up a filing cabinet where I can file away the hard-copies of things that I need printed but will be referring to again at a later point.

It seems strange to have a hard copy file in an office that is dedicated to online work, but it works best for me.

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