Thursday Thirteen: 13 Reasons I Work At Home

13 Reasons I Work At Home

1. I am a full-time caregiver and don't have time, or energy, for a job outside the home

2. I can be my own boss and set my own hours

3. If I want to work in the yard instead of the office I can, or I can work on a riverbank fishing for a king salmon

4. There is no problem getting a sick day off if I need to take one

5. I can make what I want to make based on how much work I put into the job. My income is for the most part within my control

6. Lunch hour can actually last an hour instead of 30 minutes

7. I don't have to go through acquisitions and filling out various permission requests and all sorts of BS to get a new piece of office equipment when I have to have it

8. I can decorate my office in any manner I want to and have all the plants and pictures of kids in it I want to

9. I can have posters for Fire Fighter charity fund raisers on my walls if I want (you know the ones I mean)

10. I can let my cat sleep on my shoulders while I am working (yes, he really does fall asleep on my shoulders while I am writing.)

11. If there is an emergency at home I am just in the next room

12. I can attend the office Christmas party and then just walk down the hall to my bedroom, no driving required.

13. I can spend more time with the people I love and less time around obnoxious co-workers



See Comments for links to other Thursday Thirteens!

I want a hammock for my muses

No, really, it's for the muses. I'm not thinking a place to lounge and soak up the nice summer days like a sponge, the muses really want it. You're not buying that story, are you?

Okay, seriously, one of my complaints about my yard is the fact that there are not two trees of sufficient size properly spaced to support a hammock between them. I love hammocks and would love to have one out in the yard suspended between two trees on which I could toss some pillows and blankets and lounge in the warm afternoons and ponder the occasional passing cloud. It's good for the muses don'cha know?

But, alas, I have no ideally spaced trees of sufficient size. I do have a set of trees that are spaced just about right for a hammock, but they are not big enough to string one up between them yet.

My niece had a hammock at the old ranch in Washington, I loved resting in it, and we had a hammock at a place that we had once years and years ago, so I know I like the things, but I'm going to have to resort to getting one with a stand if I want to have one around here any time soon.

At least when my trees grow up they should be nice shady trees for it. They are a pair of lovely birch trees. Actually, the one on the left in the picture is a cluster of about 4 trees, not just one. For now I'm in the market for hammock stands, though, so it's nice that there are sites like Hammocks Rock where I can research the different types and figure out what is best for my style and the decor of my yard.

I don't want something that is going to look ugly out in the yard, I'd much rather it blend in and compliment the way things look out there and be a base I can build around since it will be a long term part of my yard (at least until the trees grow up enough).

I'm thinking natural wood, since I have a love for natural textures and colors. A nice natural wood stand with a good sturdy cotton hammock strung up in it. That would be nice and go so well out in the yard. Then the muses would be happy, don't ya think?

Seriously, the muses would LOVE it, I'm sure they would get more prolific for me then... well... at least in my dreams as I am snoozing away the summer days.

I want paper storage for my office

I have been looking around me and thinking just what sort of things I need in this place. I'm not talking about high-end techno gadgets or fancy technology designed for keeping the office on the cutting edge of science. I'm an old fashioned girl and if I could slip my computer into a little wooden box and disguise the monitor so that it looked like it was some sort of magical portal I would. I would like to be able to not see any technology in here at all.

Since that is not a doable objective, however, at least not at the moment, I have been instead thinking in terms of low end gadgetry that is needed to make things run smoother in here.

I want to get something that can help me in sorting paper for the printer and bookbinding and such. I go through a lot of paper and paper of different types based on what it is that I am up to, and it tends to get jumbled and in a mess if I am not careful, so I want something that I can use to sort it into types, sizes, colors, and purposes.

I went to Amazon to look for something like what I want and found the following examples:

Both of these are along the lines of what I am thinking, but I have to admit that the price left me cringing slightly. I'm not going to be able to drop $60 to $80 on storage boxes for my paper right now, so my search will go on. I'm sure that somewhere out there I can find what I need for a better price, if not - I'll make it and write a tutorial for you all on how I did it. ;-)

Cell phone accessories

What would you do if you did not have your cell phone? Chances are your cell phone is the pulse of your business. It keeps you connected to clients and customers, helps you coordinate projects and arranges interviews or meetings. You probably sore your contacts on your cell phone and in a pinch there are some nifty games that can help to pass the time.

With all that your cell phone means to your business, don't it make sense to take good care of it?

Wirefly has relaunched their accessories store and they have all of the cell phone accessories you need to help keep your cell phone protected and on top of the business game.

Need a new carrying case for your Motorola RAZR? How about a Bluetooth headset for your phone? Maybe a car charger? Or my personal favorite that I would love to get for my own office - a Wireless Signal Extender.

This Wi-Ex YX 510 PCS/CEL Wireless Signal Extender (YX510) can help you to amplify the signal of your wireless phone in your home or office. The booster will cover approximately 2,500 square feet, so it is great for nearly any size work area where you need better coverage.

My phone keeps refusing to work if I lean one way or the other in my office chair, so something like this would be a great addition to my office area.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement for Wirefly

My websites - Wyvern

I've been working on my websites more than my blogs, so the blogs are starting to feel a little neglected around here. But I am still here and I am still working on things.

One site that I was working on yesterday is Wyvern, and I am particularly proud of how it is shaping up. Wyvern is an informational dump site for the information I am collecting on dragons.

I have this whole region in the world of my fantasy novel where there are to be dragons, and Wyvern is the first in what will be a series of interconnected pages where I will collect information and pictures on the dragons of my world.

I've included historical information and pictures from both heraldry and top fantasy artists to help depict just how wyverns looked, I will also later on (when I finish drawing it) be including bone and muscular structures and various things such as pictures of wyvern nests and various things to help the reader visualize these most believable of the dragon species.

Click the banner to visit the site

Gold Investments

Gold. There are few things that can make your hear race like the word "gold". Monex Deposit Company has gold coins and ingots ready for investment purchases. Coins, which are actually defined as ingots, have a currency value while the true ingot are generally gold ingots of pure bullion that is cast in a convenient size and shape.

Investing in gold and other precious metals is a wonderful way to diversify your investment portfolio and the Monex Deposit Company can help you with their staff of dedicated hard asset professionals that are ready to help you with your investment.

In business for over 30 years, Monex is a name that you can trust when investing in precious metals. They are America's best dealer and have competitive precious metals prices.





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The preceding has been a paid post for the Monex Deposit Company

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Forever Stamps - a closer look

So, what exactly is the Forever Stamp? Here is a picture of one for anyone that has not seen them yet.

Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer John E. Potter said that the Liberty Bell was selected because it resonates as one of the nation's most prominent and recognizable symbols associated with American independence.

The stamps are available wherever stamps are sold and will remain at the price paid for them forever, eliminating the need to buy one and two cent stamps after price increases. However, when there is a price increase additional purchases of the Forever Stamp will reflect this new price, so to buy more when you run out you will need to pay the new price of a first class stamp.

Forever Stamps - buy enough and they will last you forever

My dad was telling me that he heard on the radio that someone had bought $8,000.00 worth of the fixed rate stamps from the post office. I'm not sure that if I had eight grand to spend stamps would even be on the radar for me. There is just not much that they are used for anymore to need buying them.

Someone did the math, and $8,000 for 41 cent stamps would be 19,512 of them. So if you use them at a rate of 81 stamps a month it would take you 20 years to use them up.

I have not checked that math myself, but it sounds reasonably close to a ballpark figure at the least. It just don't make sense to me to spend that much on stamps without a really good reason for it.

Debt consolidation [paid ad]

When you work for yourself it is easy to find yourself unable to keep the amount of money spent to the money you make. The weight of bad debt gets to be impossible to keep under control.

If you are struggling against too many credit card bills, and looking for ways that you might be able to consolidate your debit to help you in lowering your monthly bills, then you should check out the information available at the CircleDebt website.

CircleDebt can help you lower your bills and consolidate debt, whether you are looking for a home equity debt consolidation, or bad credit debt consolidation. They want to help you to get out of debt as quickly as possible and have articles written by industry professionals and tools to help you calculate your financial situation.

Don't let the bad debt get out of control, find out how you can consolidate your debts and make your monthly bills easier to handle.





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The preceding has been a paid post for CircleDebt

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Guerrilla Marketing Tip - Espresso Coffee Cup Sleeves

As I was making my third cup of cappuccino I was hit by another possible guerrilla marketing idea. Maybe talk to a few of the locally owned espresso stands in your area and see if there is a market in supplying them with cup sleeves that have your business information imprinted on them.

This would be something that would cost a bit to get going, and you would have to look into where you can get custom imprinted cup sleeves, but think of the possibilities of having all those morning commuters sitting in traffic reading the side of their morning coffee and thinking about how your business could make their lives a little easier.

If anyone tries out this tactic please let me know how it goes for you. Thanks!

Guerrilla Marketing Tip - Voice Mail

It is so easy to get a phone with voice mail now, and it is a great way to advertise your special promotions for your business. You can add in a message about your business, or maybe comment on a special deal that you have going. You can encourage callers to visit your website for more information or to place an order.

All Inclusive Resort [paid post]

Looking for a great way to see your destination, before you book your vacation? You want to check out the information at Vacations.net. They have information on accommodations with detailed room options (and ratings on resorts from travelers who have been there before). Want to know more before you go? In addition to a virtual tour, they have information on culture, history and even recreational activities that you might be interested in.

Check their site out for the Best All Inclusive Resort offerings, and great rates with savings of up to 50% off regular rates.

For more information on the all-Inclusive vacations that you can find, or to make reservations, visit their website at www.Vacations.net or call them toll-free at 1-888-205-3315.


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The preceding has been a paid post for Vacations.net

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Didn't get wotk in yard done

My time spent nursing the busted ATV trailer home messed up my plans to get some work done today on my retaining wall I am building out in the yard. So I never did get much work on that done today. I did dig in a pipe that will be used as a water-flow-through for two decorative ponds, but that's about all I got done.

MacGyvered the ATV trailer tire

I took my ATV down to the service station to get a couple of cans of heating fuel. I lost the cotter pin and washer on one of the trailer's wheels on the rough trails and as a result the wheel came off the trailer.

I was not too worried, I just MacGyvered a fix by taking a link from a short length of dog chain I use to keep my tool box from walking off. I took a moment to straighten out the chain link with my pliers then put the tire back on and slipped the makeshift cotter pin in place.

I kept it slow, so it was almost 11pm by the time I made it back home, but the fix-it job made it.

Never insult someone for having grown up watching MacGyver. ;-)

Father's Day Gift Ideas

Have a dad that works hard? Looking for something special to tell him just how much you appreciate his efforts for the family? This Father's Day leave a gift basket on his home office desk to say "Happy Father's Day" in an extra special way.

It can be hard to find the perfect Father's Day Gift idea, but with a gift basket you can be sure to find something that he'll love. Remind him to get out and enjoy the day with The Charcoal Connoisseur™. A grilling/BBQ/marinating/cooking gift basket that should entice most any dad to leave work behind and get out to the grill he loves this Father's Day.

Also check out the selection of other specialty baskets that GourmetGiftbaskets.com has to offer, baskets with themes such as gardening, golf, football, fishing and more.


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The preceding has been a paid post for GourmetGiftbaskets.com

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Guerrilla Marketing Tip - Top Ten Gadget

I have been pondering the Google Gadgets (in case you couldn't tell) and thought of a good use for the things in marketing. Creating a top ten list gadget that pertains to your business. Ideas might include:

Dog sitter or walker: top ten pet names/obedience problems/pet foods
Answering service: top ten ways to answer the phone/messages left on answering machines
Book reviewer: Top ten books this week/my top ten book picks
Tour guide: top ten places to visit/ten things to pack/top ten things everyone needs on vacation
Car mechanic: top ten causes for car trouble/lowest gas prices in the area/car gadgets
Caterer: Top ten recipes/things to have at a party/party blunders

The ideas are endless, I'm sure by now you have a lot of ideas for your own business.

Google Gadget

I pointed one of my friends to the Google Gadgets. ::snerk:: Just got growled at for how addictive the things are. I love them, I need to make up more myself. I got one for tracking my yo yo dieting efforts already, set it for friends only. Also have one for a Writing Quote of the Day, as I mentioned earlier, and going to make one for caregiver stuff.

Anyone have more ideas for uses of them things?

Orlando Vacation [paid post]

Looking for someplace to take the whole family for a vacation this summer? You might be interested to know that Orlando is not just for the kiddies, there is a lot to do in Orlando for adults too. Stuff like the Charles Hosmer Museum of American Art - which has the largest collection of Tiffany glasswork on display. Or how about Kennedy Space Center for the space enthusiast? Or you can go and pay a visit to a few of the area's top rated golf courses. Go out shopping and afterward enjoy one of the great dinner shows.

And be sure that you take advantage of the travel guide that Orlando.com has to offer, you can get tips on entertainment, dining, nightlife and more. Start planning your vacation by checking out the hotels in orlando that Orlando.com offers - They claim to have the most comprehensive travel and vacation arrangements in Orlando.

From shopping to theme parks, golf courses to great places to eat there is no better vacation destination for adults as well as kids than Orlando Florida.



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The preceding has been a paid post for Orlando.com

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Guerrilla Marketing Tip - Create your own Google Gadget

The Google Gadget is a great way to draw traffic to your website, you can add in a link back to your site when you make a gadget, which means that you can draw visitors back to your website easily when they add the gadget you made to their iGoogle home page.

Check out the possibilities at Google Gadget - from lists to pictures, countdowns to quotes of the day, you can create all kinds of things for your business customers.

Google Gizmo - Writing Quote of the Day

I was meandering around Google as part of setting up a blog for writers and I found this great gizmo they have that is called the gizmo creator.

I made a writing quote of the day gizmo - not sure if this will work, so if you want to have the dealie you may need to email me and have me invite you the right way - but we'll see if this works to let you add it to your iGoogle screen - Writing Quote of the Day

ItsMyMarket.com - free UK classified ads

Working at home means that I am always on the lookout for places that can be used for advertising my work and even to buy great things. That is one of the reasons I love online classifieds sites.

ItsMyMarket.com is a free UK classified ads site that also provides a dating service, blogs, localized weather reports and even local cinema listings. They are a great place to have everything you want all in one centralized location.

A check of their classifieds shows listings for everything from property and autos to jobs, even lost and found stuff or personal messages. They offer information on how to avoid scams as well, to help keep you safe when shopping online.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement for ItsMyMarket

Work tip - daily desk ledger

I've started keeping a ledger page on the desk beside me where I can do a fast notation of anything that happens concerning money for that day. I'm still working on just how it is to be set up, but so far it's working okay to help me see what is happening on a day to day basis and keep better track of money flow in the office and income - outflow on things.

I want to expand it as I determine what all is needed so that I can track each source of income and what is going on so I can see where I am making the most money each day.

current tracking is for

• Advertising sites
• AdSense
• Writing Sites
• Site hosting etc fees
  
• etc....

Customize your own ledger for what pertains to your site, such as:

• AdSense
• eBay
• Direct website sales
• website hosting etc fees
• other...

Customer Relationship Software

Imagine a Customer Relationship Software (CRM software) that would make it possible to know what your website visitors are looking for. Knowing their search preferences, what browser they use, their screen resolution, even what media players they are using.

What if you could see where they come from and how many pages they visited on your site? You could use this information, and much more that you can get using AIM Promote, to tailor your site to the needs of your customers.

AIM Promote is a crm software that lets you see your customers and tend to their needs in ways you never thought to before. It allows you to automate a wide percent of your sales process. Thirty-two possible automated actions can be set to trigger nine possible conditions. Actions that allow your salespeople to more effectively work leads rather than waste their time on small tasks that eat up valuable sales time.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement for AIM Promote

Out of the home tip #2: windy days

One pesky problem that you face when you are trying to work outside is the wind spreading your paperwork around. You can solve this by collecting a series of decorative glass paper weights to be left at your preferred outdoor workspace so they are always handy when you need them.

I suggest clear glass ones with flowers inset if you have a choice, although depending on where you live and your preferences decorative stones such as large quarts or obsidian or glass weights with things like scorpions inside might be the better option for you.

Some examples from Amazon.com....

Directory of Schools [paid post]

When you work at home it makes sense to make use of online classes for learning skills to enhance your work at home career. Many find it appealing just because of the ability to be able to tailor their classes around their life rather than around someone else's. There are drawbacks to online education, however, such as the large number of schools to choose from. How do you know which one is right for you?

The Directory of Schools makes it easy for you to sort through the various schools that offer online education and pick the one that is best suited to your goals. Interested in expanding on your work by learning to be a graphic artist? Maybe take a few accounting courses to help make running your business easier at tax time? How about taking some fashion design courses?

The Directory of Schools can help you to narrow down your search in more than 9,230 degrees and professional certificate programs in over 1,355 online schools. With so many different online degrees and professional certificate programs to choose from, you will want to settle in with a cup of coffee and browse through their website to see what works best for your goals.

The Directory of Schools is dedicated to ensuring the excellence of the schools they partner with and use in-house verification to review accreditation or vocational industry standards relevant to each school.



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This post was a paid ad for the Directory of Schools

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Guerrilla Marketing Tip - GeoCaching

Here is a guerrilla marketing tip that I have never heard of anyone trying out before, and one that is particularly suited to anyone that has a business that caters to the outdoors types.

Take something useful that has your business logo on it, such as a compass or map case and map or whatever promotional but really useful thing you have and go find a local geo-cache to leave it in. You get the fun of going on a hike to find a geo-cache and the thrill of discovery and get to leave behind a little memento of your visit that doubles as advertising.

If you want to take it to the next level set up your own geo-cache sponsored by your business (I'm doing this for my Alaskan ATV blog and maybe one or more of my websites - such as FamilyCaregiver.info maybe).

I suggest that if you set up a cache that you leave a good pencil for people to record their entries in the log book (since pencil lasts better than most pen inks and a pencil survives climate changes better than a pen), and leave behind a pencil sharpener (not a knife, just a small 39 cent pencil sharpener for a kid's pencil box). That way people can resharpen the pencil when needed.

I was maimed by my nephew's dog

One of my nephews dogs was running loose on a snapped chain just before dusk this evening, and I went out to tie her back up. The cats decided that since I was there it was time to eat the dog's food. The dog, of course thought that was not a good idea, so she jumped into a lunge to go after the cats just as I was trying to fasten the chain in place.... and almost took off my right thumb.

It's now all skinned by the dog chain on the inner edge of the first knuckle, which leaves me typing one handed with my left hand.

What is bad is I have several hours of typing work to do and tomorrow I have to make some strawberry beds. I got some cement when I was in town tonight to use in making stone retaining walls around a electric pole set up on a hill in the yard. The walls will reinforce the slope so it don't erode away and the strawberries... well, they will make wonderful munchies.

LAP-BAND system for weight loss [sponsored post]

As a freelance writer I am asked to write about a lot of things. A recent series of articles I have been working on for my weight loss blog are on various weight loss options and diet profiles. The first article in the series is on the LAP-BAND® System for laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. While doing research for this article I was rather surprised by what I found.

I had always thought of the Lap band system as being something that was highly risky or a fad, nothing that anyone should actually consider. That view changed during my research into just what the LAP-BAND® System is and what research has been done on the system.

Places such as the Monash University Medical School in Melbourne, Australia, and independent U.S. clinical trials by the FDA, have shown that the LAP-BAND® System is more effective in treatment of significant obesity than nonsurgical alternatives such as very-low-calorie diets, pharmacotherapy, and lifestyle changes.

Take for example the Monash University Medical School study. It was conducted in 2006 and showed that surgical treatment using laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding showed significantly better results than nonsurgical alternatives in the level of weight loss, improvement in quality of life, and resolving the metabolic syndrome.

The study divided 80 subjects into two groups of 40 subjects each and showed that the surgical group had a weight loss of 21.6% of initial weight, 87.2% of excess weight. The nonsurgical group showed weight loss of 5.5% of initial weight and 21.8% of excess weight. Metabolic syndrome was initially present in 15 (38%) patients in each group, after 24 months it was present in 1 (3%) of the surgical subjects, 8 (24%) nonsurgical subjects. Quality of life was also significantly improves in the surgical (8 of 8 subscores) as opposed to the nonsurgical (3 of 8 subscores) group.

There are a number of facilities that specialize in surgical weight-loss, including the fast growing network of Journey Lite surgical facilities. Journey Lite has highly skilled and experienced bariatric surgeons and a team of healthcare professionals that are dedicated to providing the safest and least invasive surgical weight-loss solution and the most comprehensive support programs available today.

The LAP-BAND® procedure is intended for severely obese patients with Body Mass Index (BMI) of at least 40, those with a BMI of at least 35 with one or more severe conditions in addition to the obesity, or those who are 100 lbs. or more over their estimated ideal weight. There are multiple reasons why a patient that meets the above criteria may otherwise be unsuited to the LAP-BAND® procedure, including the presence of severe cardiopulmonary diseases, inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, or patients who have exhibited a pain intolerance to implanted devices.

If you are considering the use of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding to assist you in significant weight loss you should research the procedure through sites such as the Journey Lite website (www.journeylite.com) and consult your doctor to find out if the LAP-BAND® procedure is right for you.




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This post was sponsored by Journey Lite

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Be the boss no one loves

Working from home is not an easy thing to do. There are distractions both in the form of interruptions and in the form of things that need to be done around the house.

One of the points that you must learn to contend with in separating house work from working at home is the realization that there is a difference between the two.

Work at home entails all the various things that you need to do as a part of your business. The things that make you money.

Housework are the things that on any given day you avoid like the plague, but feel drawn to as a moth to a flame when you are supposed to be working. Things like mopping, ironing, scrubbing the toilet, cleaning the tub drain... stuff you decide is better than sitting in a chair working at the computer.

I am currently wondering if my time would not be better served today putting roofing paper on the back porch. It leaks when it rains and being a nice sunny day it's the perfect day to do that, and I would not be locked away inside at the computer working on stuff. But I need to resist the temptation. Yes, it needs to be done, but if I was working for someone else I doubt they would be amused by my calling in and saying "I don't want to come in today, it's too pretty for working indoors so instead I'm putting a roof on my back porch." I'd probably be told I was fired. And what if I had hired someone to do this work and they called me up with that excuse? Would I think it was a reasonable excuse even if it meant my business lost money because they refused to do the job they were paid to do?

Pause for a moment when you find that you want to go off and do something else, think about if you worked for someone else or if it were someone you had hired that wanted to do what you are planning. What would the reaction be?

You're the boss. Don't be lenient on yourself just because you are working for yourself, if anything you should be harder on yourself than any boss you have ever had before.

Just feeding the spiders

After far too long I am sending out my emissary to plant the Technorati flag upon this blog in the name of "Me" and to lay claim to this blog of mine for now and all Internet eternity so that all who visit Technorati may know to whom this blog belongs.

Thank you for your patience.

:::sends out little mini emissary with spider food for the Technorati spiders:::
Technorati Profile

Work At Home Ideas: Ironing

Here's an idea I never would have thought up, but that makes sense after you think about it, for a home business. Ironing.

Yup, ironing. I was looking over a forum for working at home and in their business ideas section there was a post about ironing and it seems that there are quite a few people that are making good money ironing stuff for others. Who'd have thunk it?

The setup for such a business seems to be fairly easy, just get a place where you can do your ironing. (I suggest smoke and pet free to be sure that you don't cause someone's allergies to act up.) You of course need to be at least proficient with how to properly iron something and the right way to fold and/or hang clothes after they have been ironed. Cleaning stains would be a good addition to the ironing, but I'm not sure that would be a necessity.

Oh, and don't accept any jobs from judges, we all know by now I am sure just how expensive it can be to loose a pair of judge's pants. ::snort:: Take a lesson from that and make sure that you have something set up to keep you from being sued exorbitant amounts of money for something happening to someone's best suit or a woman's wedding dress or whatever.

People seem to be offering pickup and delivery for their services, which is a nice plus but not essential. I'd suggest not forgetting gas costs and wear and tear on the car if you offer pickup and delivery.

(Image courtesy of crisderaud at SXC.hu)

Wellington Estates Ltd. [Paid Advertisement]

I never would have considered people in the United Kingdom to be interested in living in a place such as Cyprus, but it seems that at least Wellington Estates Ltd. thinks that it is a great place for those living in the UK to look for vacations or retirement. Wellington Estates has North Cyprus Property that they are offering up to people in the UK for vacation and retirement with promises that they have made sure that the properties are 100% owned by them and not the homes of a dispossessed Greek owner.


This post is a paid advertisement for Wellington Estates Ltd.

Looking for advice from other WAH's?

Looking for someone that can answer questions about working at home or maybe that can offer some advice on how to handle a situation that you are facing? A quick Google search will turn up sources such as the Work At Home Forum where you can meet up with other work at home business owners and share advice and information. There are a lot of other forums and various places where you can talk to others that work at home so do a little looking around and find a place that you feel comfortable with.

Search engine marketing [paid post]

Being the site owner of multiple websites, I know that creating a website is only half of the work. Another large segment of the success of your business is in proper search engine marketing.

A recent survey showed that over 40% of those questioned said that they found the website they made a purchase at through a search engine, nearly half as many guessed at the URL with various other marketing sources (including television advertisements) falling well behind guesswork. With that large of a market relying on search engines it only makes sense for you to rely on search engines as well, right?

Whether your website is selling something or has advertisement based income, visitors make the site work for you. And to make the site work you need to know how to draw in the visitors. You need to know about search engine marketing techniques such as one-way links back to your website from quality websites that compliment your own site. This is known as link building and is one of the best ways to raise your website to the top of the natural listings on search engines.

Another way to gain the higher rankings and more site visitors is through pay-per-click listings. Something that many people don't realize when they are looking into pay-per-click advertising is that there is a difference in cost between key phrases. If you target only a small number of the most popular keywords, then you are probably paying more than you need to for keyword advertising. By changing the key phrase just slightly you can save on key phrase advertising expenses and target more of them. For example: target people searching for 'widget gizmo doodads' instead of 'widget gizmo thingamajigs'.




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This post is sponsored by Customer Magnetism

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Working in the yard in summer

Being summer I have to spend a lot of time outside working in the yard. This means that I will want to take my work out there with me as often as possible. Last year my brother had got a wireless router that he gave to me and I got a wireless card for my laptop, now I just have to get them hooked up and I can take the laptop out by the pond in the back yard to work.

I have a 100 foot retractable phone cord that I have been using until now, but I want to get the wireless working instead. Otherwise I have been pondering the notion of just installing a power outlet and phone jack near my favorite outside working spot.

I'm addicted to working on the Internet, huh?

Out of the home tip #1: traveling office

Getting out and about is most of the fun of living in Alaska, and I assume that no matter where you live you would prefer to take your work at home job out of the home as often as possible and work in the yard or out at a park or wherever.

With this in mind I present the out of the home tips.

Tip number one: buy a small briefcase or, if you are into crafts and need more room, an old suitcase and outfit it with a few necessities of your business. A pad of paper, pens, maybe a small box of stuff for your craft projects (clay, beads, yarn, sewing stuff, whatever). Keep this traveling workspace where it will be fast and easy to grab and go with only minimal additions for your current project.

I'll come up with more out of the home tips and publish them as I come up with them.

High yield savings accounts [paid ad]

As a full-time caregiver, I know just how important it is to set something aside for your future. To have something that you can fall back on when you are ready to retire. And how important it is to have an emergency fund that you can access when needed.

When you are in business for yourself it is important to have an emergency cash fund that you can fall back on when you need to. This is money that should be parked in a high yielding account so that when you are not in need of the funds, they can build on the interest. One source for finding reports on the different kinds of high yield savings accounts, and the latest bank promotions, is the eMoneyCentral.com website.

eMoneyCentral.com can help you find the highest bank yields and latest bank promotions to help you invest for your future wisely.

This post is a paid advertisement for eMoneyCentral.com

Time Card for the Home Office

This mini-article is on the creation of a time card for use in the home office for keeping track of your work hours. It can be hard to track the time that you are working when you are working for yourself, so a time card may make sense.

A basic time report card layout might be as follows...

______________________________________________

Name:_________________________________________

Work Project:____________________________________

Date - Time In - Time Out - Time In - Time Out - Hours worked

______________________________________________


The time in and time out is used to keep track of when you start and stop working. (I.E. for lunch or a break or your favorite TV show).

For more ideas on time cards and time card styles, do a Google search for "timecard" and check the images.

Hayfield Dental Care clinic [Paid advertisement]

Have you been trying to find a good dentist? Live in the Washington area and want to have a one-stop dental clinic? The Hayfield Dental Care clinic knows that their customers don't want to have to go somewhere else for a procedure, that is why they have dentists that have all received advanced or specialty training to perform almost any procedure in their clinic. For most procedures there is no need for them to refer their customers to another office.

One of the dentists that work at the Hayfield Dental Care clinic is charles brown dds pc. Ranked first in his class for the 1996 academic year, he received the Academic Achievement Award, the Quality Care Award and Resident of the Year award from UMMC in 1997.

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This post is a paid ad for liamferris.com

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Map tote

I picked up this great folder deal meant for scrap bookers at Wal Mart for four dollars. It was on sale from five-something. I love it, it's got big paper holders so I can use it as a map case for the maps for my fantasy worlds. I want to get a few more of them when I can get back down there. Just because of how perfect they are for that.

Cathing up.... on lack of sleep

I hate those insane weeks where you are working so hard you don't sleep and you find yourself falling asleep in mid thought and shaking your head to clear up blurring vision.

It seems like every time I get caught up there is something that comes up and sets me back and I have to double or triple time it to catch up again. Imagine what I could have accomplished if I never had to play catchup again. ::sigh::

:::shakes out of reverie and runs to catch up.....:::

BEGOTH Fashion Dolls from Bleeding Edge - not your normal fashion doll

These are not your momma's fashion dolls. With names like Julia Doom, Scorpio Vixen and The Divinity, the BEGOTHS™ from Bleeding Edge™ are fashion dolls for Goths. Tagged as "Toys That Refuse To Conform" they are collectible dolls that are finding devoted collectors and Crypt Club members. More than 6,000 subscribers to the BEGOTHS newsletter attest to the likeability of these Gothic fashion dolls.

You can find out more about the BEGOTHS at the Bleeding Edge website through the link above. Also be sure to check out the Kindergoths™ dolls and the 7 inch tall action figures that Bleeding Edge has as well.

Hurry, these dolls sell out fast - I saw one of the Fashion Dolls marked as selling out today.




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The preceding has been a paid post for Bleeding Edge

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Desk Exercises

I've started keeping a pair of 2 pound dumbbells in my office so that I can work with them a few times a day to help my wrists relax so that they don't get stiff from all the typing that I do. I seem to be writing almost non-stop from the time I get up to the time I got to bed and I am sure that the only thing that has saved me up until now has been the fact that I have to get up several times an hour to see what one or the other of my parents needs me to do.

The dumbbells are a great way to move the wrists in a different way and exercise them some so that they don't get too sore.

Bookkeeping ::pounds head on desk::: I hate it.

I spent most of the night going through my books and getting things organized to make my book keeping easier. I'm exhausted and contemplating swearing off every doing my own books again. ::shakes head::

I tried to use Microsoft Money, but I was not very happy with the apparent online storage of my banking information. I don't want anyone other than my banks storing that information.

Universal Studios Tickets [paid ad]

There is something about movies. They're a magical thing. It does not matter how old you are, you can not help but have some movie that you just love. One that makes you think of adventure and wish that you could be a part of it - if only for a little while.

I would have loved to have been a cinematographer working behind the scenes on movies, but I went with a writer instead because of the luck of the draw placing me in the wrong place to get into movies. When my parents and I went to the lower 48 on vacation years ago and ended up down in California, I of course, had to take the Universal Studios tour. It was amazing and ever since I have wanted to get the chance to visit the Universal Studios theme park in Florida as well.

I've had a bit of time to look around at Orlandofuntickets.com and, because of my experience talking about them, I have been keeping an eye on them as a place to look for discount Universal Studios Tickets when I am ready to go live out my dreams of the movies in Orlando. And you can be sure that when I go I'll get some of my friends to join me there for a group vacation and be getting tickets to Disney World and Kennedy Space Center and other places as well. In fact Orlandofuntickets.com has tickets for all Orlando theme parks, dinner shows and attractions and they say that they have will guarantee you the lowest ticket prices. So I'll be checking them for all kinds of fun ideas when I get the chance to go.


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The preceding has been a paid post for OrlandoFunTickets.com

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

don't fall into the "But it's sunny, I want to play!" trap

As summer settles in it is getting harder and harder to face sitting in the office all day long rather than going out and working in the yard or playing on the ATV or going fishing or... there is so much to do in Alaska in the summer. From boating to hiking to planting flowers the list goes on. And with so few really good days (I hear that Anchorage was ranked last in the top 100 best cities for bar-b-cue days), it is so hard to be good and ignore that little devil on the shoulder telling you "work can wait, come and play!"

So, how do you appease that little devil when he decides to start encouraging you to go out and play rather than sit inside? Plan your weeks out.

You should have a good idea of what times you need to be working (for me I have to be at the computer from 6am to 9am if I want to make any money), you should also know when things are slow enough you don't have to be there (I can usually take it easy anywhere from 3pm to 5pm). Maybe your working is entirely dependent on you and you can work best at 2am, or maybe you have to be ready to go at exactly 9:15am. Whenever you need to be at work is the first thing to mark out on your weekly time sheet.

Now, you also know how long you have to be working to make ends meet. Or at least you know if you have to put in 9-5 hours or just a couple hours a week. Decide how much time has to be dedicated to working, deduct the areas you already marked as "must be working" and the remaining time is what time you can shift around and put wherever you want it to go to fill out your work week.

Check the weekly weather report now. Is there rain for the next three days then a few days of sunny weather? If you want to take the kids to the amusement park or zoo you would want to fill in as much work hours on the rain filled days as you can so that when the sunny weather arrives you have your work done and can go play with the kids.

More dangerous is the sun for three days, then four days of solid rain in the forecast. You plan for playing for three days and say "I'll make up for it when it's raining!" But what happens if the weather man was wrong? You're looking at sunny skies and are stuck with twice the work you should have had because of three days of playing. You need to decide that yes, it's sunny for three days then raining for four, but... do I really want to be working at a burnout pace for those four days? What if a movie I have been wanting to see is on and I can't record it? What if an old friend stops by or calls? What if there is an emergency?

Don't schedule all of your work in the last few days of the week, because you might have a hard time catching up when the time comes. Instead plan that you need to work a set amount of time on the sunny days as well, and stick with it. You have your reward times, and you can schedule to get to do the things you really want or have to be doing. If you balance out the work and play, then you are going to have a much better chance of making your work at home job work out and get to making you an income you can retire on.

The Work at Home Newsletter made Blog of the Day!

I just wanted to share this, since comments in my last post tipped me off to the fact that I hit Blog of the Day. :::big grin!::: They love me, they really love me! (Or at least their system for picking blog of the day loves me lol)

I'd like to thank all the little people... oops, that's for an Oscar, huh? Okay, I'd like to thank all my readers and especially PayPerPost. :-D It's good to be a Postie!

Customer relationship management software

Have you been looking for a better way to manage your customer relationships? If you need to get a streamlined, easy to learn customer relationship management (CRM) software, then you should look at the crm software offered by AIMPromote. You can get a free trial, to help you see how AIMPromote can help your company streamline the sales process and improve follow-up.

Only the key administrators need full access to the software, the pieces available to your sales team can be changed with the click of a button to help keep things simple and let your sales team move more easily toward a sale rather than fight their way through confusing software.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement for AIMPromote

Man arrested for operating a "warehouse bank" from his home in Seattle, WA

A "warehouse bank" is defined by the Department of Justice as "... a bank account at a regular commercial bank in which all clients’ funds are commingled or pooled, for the purpose of concealing the client’s ownership of the funds."

This is tax fraud kiddies, it's bad. Just ask Des Moines, Wash., resident Robert Arant. Arant operated Olympic Business Systems (OBS), which had made promises to customers that they could legally hide their income, assets, and identities from the Internal Revenue Service.

Olympic deposited almost $28 million of customer funds into accounts OBS maintained in its own name at commercial banks, then allegedly used the money to pay its customers’ bills and expenses. And all the while making promises to leave no paper trail for their customers that the IRS could follow.

It may sound, on the surface, like a good deal. Hand your money over to someone else and let them pay your bills and you have no paper trail. Which is what Olympic Business Systems did for its customers. Customers of Olympic were charged around $75 a year in fees, plus fees for wire transfers and for initial account set-up. Another $30 bought them a debit card so they could access their money easier. Standard access was apparently through check, money order or wire transfer.

The website (now taken down) had solicited customers "who would rather not deal directly with the banking system." According to court documents, unsealed Tuesday, people were offered the discretion of a Swiss bank account without their having to go to Switzerland.

Now, most of you reading this should already know what the fellow did wrong, but for the few that might be asking "what's so bad about that?" here's a few details from the press release issued by the Department of Justice yesterday:

Judge Lasnik’s order held that Arant “is or should be aware that courts have repeatedly held that warehouse banks are tax evasion schemes.”

A California federal court in 2004 permanently closed a similar warehouse bank. Details about that case are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv04785.htm.

In 2005 a federal court in Oregon sentenced operators of a warehouse bank to prison, after their criminal convictions. Details are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv05070.htm.

The lesson? Don't run a warehouse bank, it's illegal. Check into any Internet banking you get involved in to make sure that it's not a warehouse bank. One of the identified customers of the bank had no idea they had been involved in such a thing, my guess is they just opened up an online bank account that looked too good to be true. And we all know that if it's too good to be true it's not true. Or is highly illegal. Or both.

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Trivia for the day: The Justice Department obtained injunctions against more than 235 tax preparers and tax-fraud promoters since 2001.

Download free Norton Antivirus from Google at freeantivirusinfo.com

Looking for a good antivirus that you can trust? Running a business, particularly one that requires you to log into the Internet and surf the web, is something that demands a good antivirus program that can help you to protect your information and the investment that you have made in your computer.

You can now download free Norton Antivirus from Google at freeantivirusinfo.com. Norton and Google are names that you can trust, and you can get twelve optional programs as well such as the Google Toolbar, Skype, and Google Earth. Even Firefox - the best (in my opinion) browser available.

Check out freeantivirusinfo.com to find out more about how you can get this free download of Norton AntiVirus and other Google programs.

The preceding post is a paid advertisement for freeantivirusinfo.com

Business Plan Breakdown - Define your Company

What is your company? What do you sell? Why are you in this particular business? Spend a few minutes thinking about these questions and your answers to them, try to decide if your answers are good enough reasons to be in the business you are in or if maybe you are in a business that does not particularly appeal to you.

It is important, when you are in business, to be doing something that you love to do. If you wake up in the morning and groan about having to do something, then it is not going to be a good business. If you do not love to work on cars, you don't want to start up a mechanics shop. If you cringe when you see a number, forget that job as an accountant. Decide what motivates you to be in business, in that particular business, and write it down. Also write down what you see as being a part of that business.

If you are a mechanic, what kind? Do you work only on a certain make and model of car? Do you only work on older or only newer cars? Pickups only? Are you just into the engine stuff or do you do body work? How about painting? Installation of stereos and alarm systems?

Risk management recruiting [paid post]

What do you do when your work at home job has grown to the point that you need to get employees? You want to be certain that you have found the right people to help drive your company through this delicate transition phase from your simple dream of being your own boss to being a full fledged company. Right? One of the areas that you want to be particularly careful in filling is the role of risk management. When you are ready to find someone to take on risk management for your business you can trust A.E. Feldman Associates, Inc. to find you the right fit for your company.

A.E. Feldman Associates have been providing a high standard of service and commitment in the recruiting field since 1967 and have a reputation for successful placements. Their recruiters have all had successful careers in the industries they represent, so you know that they know what they are looking at when they are matching employees to your business.

Practice areas include: financial and risk management services, legal and legal support services, communications and technology, human resources consulting, and luxury products.



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This post is a paid advertisement for A.E. Feldman Associates, Inc.

This blog post was based on information provided by Blogitive. For more information, please visit Blogitive.com.

Google Earth for vacations

Oh, another idea for Google Earth and it's usefulness to those working from home. If you're like me, then a lot of your friends and co-workers are scattered across the Internet. Google Earth would be the perfect way to collaborate on vacation planning. Each of the people that is involved in the planning for the group get-together and vacation could tag places on Google Earth that they would like to see while on vacation and the group make plans based on that for where to go and what to do.

It would be a great virtual guide, that you can all collaborate on, to your destination before you even get to the destination.

Google Earth

It has been a while since I have had the time to mess around with Google Earth. That thing is getting to be rather kewl! Far too kewl for me to risk looking at it more before I have got my work done for today, I could get lost there quite easily. I'll go back and check it out tonight if I can remember to.

Right now I am fascinated by the 3D buildings, and primarily by the fact that it looks like they have it set up so that you can create your own 3D buildings and share them. This is something that I can see great potential for with writing - particularly collaborating on a novel if you can set it to where only you or one or more select others are the only ones that can view the buildings that you and them create.