Wedding planning

Are you going to be helping someone with planning their wedding in 2008? Or maybe you are looking forward to your own big day? Want to find a great source for interactive planning tools, expert advice, and even photos that can be used to inspire your imagination?

Check out the WeddingChannel.com website, couples can use the patented online registry system to register for Wedding Gifts and explore the local vendor guide to find everything they need to make that special day th most special day it can be.

The wedding is one of the most cherished days of our lives, so visit WeddingChannel.com at the link above, or at www.weddingchannel.com, to find out more about their services and tools for planning stress-free weddings.

I love being wireless

Working at home is so much nicer since I got a wireless router for Christmas. I can not express how much I love being able to work from anywhere in the house. And I can not wait until summer when I will be able to work from out in the garden by the pond.

Someone really does need to bring full wireless capability to Alaska, I can't find a provider that will work up here, but it would be so nice to be able to go literally anywhere and work on my laptop. I can just imagine kicking back by the salmon fishing hole and logging into the Internet while everyone else fishes. hehehe

Snow auctioned on eBay for $3,550.00

Okay, I have my new work at home job all figured out. I will sell genuine Alaskan snow on eBay! Yup, that's right, I am going into the snow selling business.

Okay, so maybe I am not really going to go into the business of selling snow on eBay, but you have to admit, it is tempting with the stuff going for $3,550.00 a snowbank on the auction market!

Yes... I said $3,500 for a snowbank. Check out the post I made on the fellow who auctioned off a snowbank on eBay.

So... anyone want to buy a genuine Alaskan snowman? Might be slightly melted when you get him, but an overnight stay in the freezer, followed by a spin in the blender, will perk him right back up. ;-)

Foot care product that prevents blisters

ENGO® Blister Prevention Patches are a new product that has been awarded the National Health & Wellness Club (NHWC) Seal of Approval for their ability to prevent blisters. Tested for a variety of characteristics that included their effectiveness at preventing blisters and for relieving blister pain. Ease of use was another factor that the ENGO patches were tested for.

The ENGO Blister Prevention Foot Care Product is available online or at a variety of stores that are dedicated to hikers, runners and other athletic activities. You can find out more about the patches at the above link to the GoENGO website where you can find out about how it works, stores where you can buy ENGO Patches, and information on studies about the patches.

Is your home office healthy?

Do you have a healthy environment in your home office? Is your chair set to the right height for you to work? Is your workspace ergonomically laid out? Do you have a bowl of M&Ms or other snack food ready to sabotage your efforts to avoid an unhealthy lifestyle?

One of my biggest problems is the height of my chair. When I built my new desk I intentionally made it slightly low so that I could sit comfortably at the desk, but my chair is still a little too tall for how short my legs are, so I need to decide if I build a footrest under the desk or cut the legs off on my office chair.

Look around your home office and see what you might be able to change to make it a healthier work environment.

New Year's Resolutions

The New Year is almost here. Time for resolutions to be made and shortly there-after to be broken. Many people will make resolutions that they can not keep, and one of the most popular resolutions is to lose weight.

What will your resolution be? Will you make it something you can stick to? Maybe something that you want to accomplish with your home based business? Do you want to set a resolution to get your home office built this year? Or maybe to move it into its own room at long last and have a genuine home office?

Whatever goal you set, make it something you can achieve. Maybe set the goal to revise your business plan - or write one.

Used cars Austin

Quality Auto Group would like to alert anyone that is in the Austin area to their inventory of clean, trouble-free and dependable pre-owned cars or trucks. Rather you are looking for a car or a truck, for personal or business use, you can find used cars and trucks that have been checked out by certified mechanics, detailers, and body shop experts.

The Quality Auto Group used cars Austin wants your current car and can pay it off if you buy one of their used cars. Suzuki of Texas carries a wide range of cars of a variety of models. Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler and Ford and more.

Visit their website to find out more and call toll free for rapid approval to get the used car of your choice.

Combatting time wasters - part 2 of 2

Phone calls are known to be a time waster. They can be one of the biggest time sinks in the business day. Even if you are already wise to the tactic of requesting friends not to call and chat with you during business hours, you can still end up losing time to small talk on the phone. I have been on calls with people and found myself drug into small talk by them. The most memorable for me at the moment was when I was trying to confirm hotel reservations for Las Vegas and one of the many operators I talked to wanted to talk about what it was like to live in Alaska and how they wanted to visit the state some day. Be polite, but don't forget that your time is money. The person on the other end is probably being paid by the hour, but chances are you are being paid based on the amount of work you get done. Time is money and the more time you spend in small talk on the phone is less time you have to make money. It can add up fast.

E-mail is another time sink, just like phone calls. My best tactic so far has been to only check e-mail if there is something I *have* to see, otherwise I leave it for a few days and then only check it after I have caught up on my work.

There are other places you loose time. General talk with your family and other time sinks, but you will need to evaluate where they are in your own day and how you can shorten or eradicate them.

Combatting time wasters - part 1 of 2

There is a lot of time that slips away during a work day, time that you do not even realize has slipped past until it is too late to reclaim it. There are some things that you can do to spot these time wasters and hopefully stop them before they steal your work time.

Have you ever found yourself kicked back in your chair listening to a song on the radio when you should have been focused on your work? If so then you might have a hidden time waster right there. Songs generally run two to three minutes in length, so if you stop to listen to several songs during the day you could find yourself wasting anywhere from two minutes to an hour or more as you listen to songs. The fix? Change the channel on the radio and experiment until you find a station that you don't stop working to listen to the songs, but that will keep you awake and working. Music is supposed to make the work environment relaxed and productive, not singing or sleepy.

Do you type slowly? That is a time waster for me. I only type about 22 wpm, so my typing slows my productivity way down. You might consider classes or self tests that can help you learn to get faster on your typing speed.

Business Credit Cards

CardFusion can help small business owners start, run and grow their small businesses by helping them to find the business credit cards that are right for their business needs.

When you visit the Business Credit Cards page at the CardFusion website, you find a list of credit cards that includes information such as what kind of credit you need to apply for the credit card, introductory APR, annual APR and more to help you determine which card is the right one for your small business.

Whether you are looking for a rewards card, a rebate card or any other business credit card you can compare the different cards on a single site.

When and where to work?

There is one thing that seems to make working at home particularly difficult. The make or break element of working at home. That is finding the time to work when you can work in peace, but when you are also focused enough to concentrate on your work so that you can do a good job at your job.

My work time is often very late at night and working into the early hours of the morning. It is the only time when I can turn the televisions off and escape the noise. Which means that it is the only time I can actually focus.

I am hoping that as the summer gets here and I am able to work out in the garden area on the wireless Internet I will be able to escape the noise of the television during the day and evening and will be able to get a lot more work done.

You will need to find a time when you can work undisturbed, rather that is when the household is asleep or when everyone is at school or work or wherever and you can be alone for a few hours.

The balancing act of being a small business owner

Working at home is not easy. You have to schedule your work time around the demands of family and possibly even around another job. It is often impossible to find the time for recreation, I know that when there have been family activities I have often worked through them.

A balancing act has to be determined between working and scheduling time for spending with your friends and family, but often when you fail to meet that balance you end up working longer to make up for the lost work time that you had because of a bad day of working or being down from being sick or maybe a headache made focusing impossible.

When you work at home for yourself you have to be diligent about making sure that you stick to the work schedule so that you make up the missed time, but you also have to balance it out with fun time so that you will not burn out.

PowerOptions

Have you been thinking about getting involved in options investing? Perhaps as a way to enhance a current portfolio or maybe you are just starting out? PowerOptions can assist you with the data that you need to invest with stock options. Their patented SmartSearchXL® technology they are the only internet-based data provider providing investors with a support technology that can identify for their customers the highest return option trades.

Their iron condor spread strategy page can help investors understand their options better. To find out more about this and all of the ways that PowerOptions can help you with your investment needs visit the PowerOptions website at the link above.

Who Files Self-Employment Taxes?

According to the information on the IRS website, anyone that is self-employed, a sole-proprietor, an independent contractor or anyone that has net earnings of $400 or more is required to pay self-employment tax. The self-employment tax is paid by filing Schedule SE, attached to the Form 1040.

You can find these forms at the IRS website at www.irs.gov

Small Business Tax and Credit Card Information

It can be an exciting thing to get a credit card for your small business. I know that when I got my second checking account so I could separate my business and personal expenses I was very excited at the prospect of being able to pay for my business expenses on my business card.

So, to help home business owners with figuring out the mess of separating small business and personal expenses I have collected a few links to pages that offer information on business taxes and business credit cards.

IRS Small Business pages

About.com: 6 Steps to Effective Small Business Credit Card Management

About.com: Business Credit Cards

My note: Use your business credit card for business use. Don't charge personal expenses on the card, because it will really frell with your tax records when you go to figure out what were business expenses and what were personal expenses. You got separate accounts for a reason, keep the purchases on the cards separated.

Radiator.com

Running a small business is hard enough without having your car break down. I am lucky in that I am from a family that is mechanically inclined. One of my brothers is a classic car restorer specializing in Mustangs, so when I see that Radiator.com can find thousands of aftermarket Ford radiators, including Mustang Radiator parts and radiators.

Radiator.com carries radiators and radiator parts for a wide range of vehicles. Search for the radiator you need online, even get advice from mechanics that can help you in figuring out what you need. Don't let your home based business suffer because your car is having radiator trouble. Find out more about the wide selection available at Radiator.com by visiting their website at www.radiator.com or via the link above.

E-mail tax scam warning from IRS

I was over at the IRS website getting ready for 2008 and spied a warning from the IRS regarding phony e-mails that have been being sent out by scam artists looking to take advantage of people by posing as the IRS and the Taxpayer Advocate Service (which is a real independent organization within the IRS).

You can find out about this scam by visiting the IRS Warns Taxpayers of New E-mail Scams article on the IRS website.

These e-mails generally seek to direct the recipient to a fake IRS website where they try to steal bank account information. The bait is often promises that the IRS has evaluated the recipient's fiscal activity and determined they have a refund coming, or even requests to help in capturing identity thieves by participating in an IRS sting.

The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails, and their genuine web address is www.irs.gov - I noticed when I was at Google looking for "taxes 2008" that one of the links that came up was for a .com version of the IRS website - don't fall for it. The IRS is a government entity, they have a .gov extension on their URL.

I'll probably expand on this scam later on my How Stupid Do They Think I Am? website, if so I'll drop a link here to that.

Addicting game play

It can be dangerous to get over into the games parts of the Internet. I just wasted a long time playing the Davinci Code and Bewitched on Yahoo games. Those would be the versions of the games where you match up the little block pieces clear a path so you can advance through the game to the next level.

I love those types of games, but I get far too addicted to playing them and just don't know when to stop.

Capella University

If you want to find out more about taking classes online from anywhere there is Internet access, then you want to check into some of the over 100 graduate and undergraduate specializations and 15 certificate programs that Capella University has to offer. An accredited fully online university, Capella University has graduate online degree programs that include business, information technology, education, and psychology, as well as bachelor’s degree programs in business, information technology, and public safety.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Capella Education Company headquartered in Minneapolis, capella university is the first, and only, online university that has received accreditation from CACREP (the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs) for two master’s degree specializations. Students of Capella University come from a wide range of backgrounds and professions, all with the common goal of wanting to earn degrees in their own time and where they want to work on them.

To find out more visit www.capella.edu

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

HP classes online

Did you know that HP has online classes in business subjects for small to medium businesses? Everything from troubleshooting your laptop's wireless connection to running your own direct mail campaign. Check it out on the HP website to see all the courses that they offer.

I have not done much looking into exactly what the classes are or what enrollment entails, but the website says that the classes are all free. I think it is definitely worth checking out whether you want to take a lesson in 'Stress Sanity and Survival', need to learn the basics of CSS, or need to learn some advanced Adobe Photoshop techniques.

Ways around the stress of working at home

Working at home takes a careful balancing act. You need to balance out when you will be working, when you will be spending time with family and friends and when you will be sleeping or eating. It can be hard to work in other things, such as learning things you need to know for your business or working on your bookkeeping or taking time off for a vacation - and what if you were to get sick?

Trying to work from home is almost as much of a stress for me as being a full-time family caregiver. That is why I encourage anything, such as online education, that can help save time and maybe even a little sanity on the part of the person that is trying to run a home based business.

One good tip that I have discovered is to make use of the USPS priority mail when you have a need to mail packages. Did you know that you can order free supplies from the United States Postal Service and have them delivered directly to you?

Online education is another place where I encourage people to find out more. What could be better than being able to earn your degree whenever and wherever you want to work on it?

Working from home is stressful and chaotic, so make as many aspects of it as you can easier on yourself.

Capella University

Want to further your education from the comfort of your own home? Maybe you want to expand on skills you already have or are looking to earn a masters degree in counseling so you can start up a new business as a counselor? With Capella University you can earn a degree anywhere you can access the Internet, making the world your campus.

The reasons for taking classes through an online university vary from being unable to reach a standard four-year university from where you live, to having no time to schedule in time for attending classes. With an online university you can cut out the time it takes to drive to and from class, and do your assignments on your own time. Maybe finish a test while you are waiting for the fish to bite from the banks of a stream? Work on class work while waiting for a client to arrive? Wherever you have a few minutes and Internet access you can earn a degree in over 100 graduate and undergraduate specializations and 15 certificate programs.

The focus of one of Capella's Inside Online Education podcasts is the fact that Capella University is the first and only online university to receive accreditation from CACREP (the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs) for two master’s degree specializations. To find out more, visit Capella University at www.capella.edu

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

Mall King?

How about Mall King? Has anyone played around with the Mall King website? It looks like it might be close to what I was thinking, but I am shying away from the "used car salesman" feel of the site. Should I go ahead and check into it further or run while I can? Any input on this or other online mall sites would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Online Malls

Does anyone have any experience with My Power Mall? I found the site, but I have got lost and confused on what exactly it is supposed to be offering. I think it's just a collection of shops you can buy from and get money back on your purchases?

I was looking for something that would let you build a mall storefront, so that you could earn commissions on purchases others made on products that you placed in your storefront.

Is there anything like that that anyone knows about? I'm not talking about something like CafePress, more like something that would be like an Amazon shop, but where you can put anything you want to in the shop from selected items and earn commissions without having to have to figure out building your own website.

I had thought I saw something like this once, but I can't find it now.

And I still want to know what experience anyone might have had with My Power Mall, just to appease my curiosity on that.

Christmas ideas

Does your home based business have the luxurious requirement of needing to take a truck off-roading? (Yes, there are those that require that - look at those who sell Alaskan wild berry products or operate gold mines here in Alaska).

If you find yourself in need of a good push bar to guard your grill against the hazards of going off the beaten path, then you should drop some hints about the same day shipping on some items that BuyAutoTruckAccessories.com has.

I'm not sure if the grill guards are a part of the things they will do same day shipping on, but they have a customer service center that can answer questions like that and a lot of other things to choose from in their extensive selection of car and truck accessories.

So drop a few hints to Santa that all your truck wants for Christmas are grill front teeth. ;-)

Are you breaking the law? Can you prove you're not?

I just read something scary. An article over at MSNBC dated back on November 26th explains a danger that many small business owners do not even realize they are threatened by until it is too late.

Apparently, Business Software Alliance (BSA), which is the primary copyright-enforcement company for Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., and other big name companies, has been targeting small businesses.

The Associated Press has discovered that in the money made from software violation settlements with North American companies last year, $13 million, the BSA made almost 90% of it from small businesses.

From the MSNBC article:

"It was basically just a lack of knowledge and sloppy record-keeping on my part," said Gaertner, who got a settlement that cost him $40,000.

This is scary to me, it implies that even if I run everything on the up and up and get multiple copies of the program to run it on more than one PC these guys will be intentionally targeting me to see if they can bully me into coughing up a huge sum to save myself a far more costly trip to court to try and prove myself innocent.

That is not right on so many levels. It is hard enough to keep a home business going without having big business strong arming you into coughing up money that you do not owe to them.


source of information - MSNBC

Why did I start the home business I have?

I think that most work at home businesses probably start out from someone wanting to do something that they love. Examples would be crafts makers that turn their hobby into a business, or someone that has a love for dogs and decides to open up a home based pet related business.

My home business started out of necessity. I can not work outside the home, I have to pay bills and eat and so on, so I had to find something I could do from home to earn an income. Even part time, preferably full-time. My love is writing, it always has been. Well, my love, my one true never ending has spanned everything I have wanted to do, love is showing others the world as I see it through my eyes. I remember walking through a field by a creek in Washington as a kid and spying a spider web with droplets of water on it. I was captivated not by its beauty, but by the realization no one else would ever see that the way I saw it. Even if I ran and got my brother and brought him right back - he would never see it the way I saw it, through my eyes. I realized at that point that that was why I wanted to be a cinematographer - to show others *exactly* what I saw.

That still left something out that I would not realize for years to come. The specific "I think this when I see that" emotion of my experience. Writing filled that detail in. I could show them and let them experience all the other emotions through description in writing.

I'm fortunate that the work I must find meshed with my desire to show the world to everyone through my experiences: I am blessed, through accident, to be doing what I love as my home based business. I show people the world through my eyes.

Work At Home Ideas: Honeymoon Planning for Families

Rather it is a new couple that have children from previous marriages, or a couple planning a second honeymoon, today's family is not the same as the families of yesteryear. Newlywed couples today might just have children to consider when they want to get away. Now, yes, the honeymoon is a time for just a husband and wife, and yes, babysitters and grandparents are the ideal, but I am willing to bet that there is a market in today's wedding and travel world for planning trips that would include the children.

One of the best destinations for anyone that has a family is Orlando Florida, with a wide range of theme parks and other things to see and experience. “Disney Magic Your Way” allows families to experience the wonder of the Disney theme parks from one to ten days in whichever sequence they prefer. Orlandofuntickets.com guarantees the lowest prices on Walt Disney World Tickets, so it is easy to organize a special trip that matches the needs of any vacationing newlyweds and their children.

OrlandoFunTickets.com also has the lowest discount prices for dinner shows such as Arabian Nights, Medieval Times and Pirates Dinner Adventure.

For more information on OrlandoFunTickets.com visit their website at the link above and start thinking of other destinations that might be suitable for newlyweds that want to have the option of making it a family vacation.

Work At Home Ideas: Honeymoon Planning

You know there are a million and one travel agents out there, and there are nearly as many wedding planners, but what about a mix of the two? Have you ever wanted to be a travel agent? How about specializing in helping couples plan romantic honeymoons or second honeymoons to various romantic destinations all over the world?

You can set up a home based business as a honeymoon planner and be able to work not just with people locally, but all over the world. Using a website as your primary office you can cater to those looking for that extra special place to go. Romantic destinations and long beaches for taking a moonlit stroll. How about Aspen cabins with private hot tubs?

Work At Home Ideas: Wedding Photographer

Here is a classic work at home idea for weddings. The wedding photographer. Everyone wants pictures of that special day, and if you have a natural talent with taking not only great pictures but amazing ones, then you might consider this as a possible work at home job.

Take care when you consider something like this, since people can get rather picky about their wedding photographs and if something happens you might be in trouble for having lost all of the priceless images of that big day.

With some care and good business skills, however, there is no reason not to consider wedding photographer as a possible work at home job. You can even do sideline work when there are no weddings by doing family portraits or even specialize in taking pet pictures for people that want an extra special picture of their pet.

Live in horse country? Take your equipment into the field not for weddings but to photograph horses for breeders looking to sell or breed their horses. Or specialize in taking your equipment to dog shows and taking professional portraits of people's dogs when the dogs are looking their best.

Work At Home Ideas: Wedding Floral Planner

Every wedding needs flowers. From the bride's bouquet to the groom's corsage. Flowers decorate the aisle, they flow over the altar, petals are scattered for the bride to walk along... weddings are somehow not a wedding if there are no flowers.

So, how about looking into what kind of market there is for floral planners for weddings? Let me explain my idea here...

Pay a visit to FiftyFlowers and look at their selections for bulk wedding flowers browse through categories such as flowers sorted by color, or floral arrangements. FiftyFlowers ships their flowers by overnight express from the flower farms where the flowers have been picked fresh and bulk bundled. Transported by FedEx, the flowers are usually to the bride or wedding planner's door within 2 to 3 days of having been cut at the flower farms.

One of the most popular items at FiftyFlowers is their wedding packages which feature 23 pieces: including - bridal bouquet, bridesmaid bouquet, corsages, boutonnières, and table arrangements. These are pre-arranged floral arrangements that are created according to the specifications of the bride.

As a floral planner you would be helping the bride to select the flowers that would work best for her desired wedding theme. You would need to know a lot about flowers, and about what kinds of flowers your supplier (FiftyFlowers) has to work with, then you would present ideas to the bride for what the best kind of focal flower, accent flower and greenery would be for the appearance that she desires to achieve with the floral arrangements at her wedding.

What kind of flower might look best the longest if the wedding is a lengthy one? Would one type of flower have a similar appearance but more vibrant color than another one? Do you get a more appealing look to a table arrangement with this kind of fern rather than that one? What is the best greenery to use to decorate the walls with swagging? Those are the kinds of things that you need to be able to know, then you just have to find some wedding planners and see if they have any need of someone that specializes in floral planning.

Work At Home Ideas: Wedding Planner

The first job that comes to my mind on what a person can do as a work at home job would be wedding planner. This job would require that you have very good skills when it comes to things like making lists and sticking with them, creating plans of action, motivating others to get things done, and being able to juggle like the star clown of Ringling Bros.

You would have to be able to help someone plan an event out from beginning to end, rather for just two people in a romantic private ceremony or for a bride and groom looking to invite hundreds of friends and family to a luxurious wedding of their dreams.

This is not something that anyone should just jump into, because mistakes here can ruin not only your reputation, but what should have been a perfect day for the bride and groom. You would be taking on all of the stress that the bride and groom face leading up to the big day and making sure it all comes together in perfect synchronization and without so much as a petite four out of place on a serving tray.

Now that I've scared the majority of you out of this one, lets see what else there might be that is not so stressful...

Work At Home Ideas: Weddings

It has been a while since I have done any spotlighing on possibilities for starting your own home based business, so I am going to take a few posts to discuss the possibilities for businesses involving weddings. I have a friend that has a friend who is planning her wedding at the moment, so I guess you can blame that as the reason I am thinking weddings.

Now is a good time to start working on getting ready for a home based business that deals with weddings, since it gives you a few months to get things in order and be prepared for the major wedding months of May and June.

So, what kinds of work at home jobs might there be for people looking to work at home and help with weddings? Let's see what I can think up...

Florida Villas

When you get ready to go on vacation, you don't want to arrive at your destination and discover that the room you thought you booked online was a different package from the one you ended up with. Things like that can ruin the whole vacation. Lowery's understands.

Lowery's has been selling and renting property in Florida since 1947, their office in Kissimmee, FL having opened in 1986. While Lowery's website is primarily targeted toward their UK clients, it also serves as a valuable resource for travelers from all over the world. Created to bring together all of the sale and rental property information for vacationers that are looking to travel to Florida, Thinkflorida.co.uk works on the simple principle that “The unit you choose is the unit you get!”

When shopping for a rental place at Thinkflorida.co.uk vacationers can look for Florida Villas by searching listings for pool homes, town homes and condos on the website. Each unit has a number of pictures and a 360 tour of main areas. This helps vacationers to know exactly what they are going to be renting for their vacation.

For more information visit Lowery's Thinkflorida.co.uk website at the link above.

Hiring down in first quarter of 2008

Work at home? Consider yourself lucky. A survey released Tuesday stated that less than a quarter of employers expect to add positions during the first quarter of the new year.

Twelve percent of companies even reported that they expect to reduce employment during the first three months of 2008.

So, if you have a steady at home job, count yourself lucky that you won't have to be out there trying to find work in the new year.

C64 - 25 years later

Do you remember your first computer? I remember the first computer I programmed, well, I did not write the program, my dad wrote it and then had me feed the punch cards that held it into the computer for him. The thing took up an entire wall in a room next to his office at a place called Data Center in Los Angeles. That was in the mid 1970's.

Then the Vic 20 came out. We were in Washington at that time and my dad bought a Vic 20 as soon as it hit the stores near us. I learned to program on the Vic 20. In 1982 I walked into a store on a military base and there was the dream of dreams - a Commodore 64. Oh, I fell in love. There were a couple of GIs standing there puzzling over what good the computer could be when it had no program and just kept saying error to what they tried to get it to do. I waited until they lost interest, then I went over and programmed it to say "Hello World!" Such a nice little machine.

Later on it was the very first computer I bought for myself, not that same machine, but a Commodore 64. I cherished it and still have it put away out in the shed in the yard. The cords and peripherals have been lost over the years, but I still have my Commodore 64 and still consider it one of the best computers of all time.

I'm not alone, either. Check out the article Commodore 64 still loved after all these years for more information on the Commodore 64. and also Commodore 64 topics. Why, there is even a website dedicated to the beloved Commodore 64 - c64.com definitely be sure to check that page out if you loved a C64 once upon a time in the 80's.

b2evo taking too much time to moderate

I had been using b2evo for some of my blogs on my websites. It is a wonderful program but has a serious flaw that I had not realized until far too late. There is no way to bulk moderate comments. Each spam comment has to be erased one at a time, and you have to go through a couple of steps to erase each one of them. I love that the program has good features for pinging services to let people know there is a new post, but it has awful antispam features. It's taking too much of my time to moderate those blogs, so I have been phasing them out where I can.

Show me your desk

There has to be a little bit of insanity to be willing to show what your desk *really* looks like. I mean, it's not so bad if you take a few moments to tidy things up, get the glass from breakfast off it, the coffee cup from breakfast the day before off it... maybe do something with that bag of popcorn you had for a late night snack a couple days ago and the tube of pain reliever that you used to get through that late night typing session... but... what if you didn't fix all that? What if you left the pile of clay where you have been working on building an alien to help ease the pain in your hands? What if you left the cups and glasses where they would have stayed had you not taken that picture?

Then you get my desk. The messy and dirty thing that is the symbol of normalcy for anyone that cringes about their desk being dirty. The desk with the "lived in" look... I'm not sure what is living in it, but I have been missing chocolate lately so it seems to have a sweet tooth.

Anyway, this is a fun deal called the Show Me Your Desk Meme from Confessions Of A Housewife and I decided that even if it is rather late in the Monday I would play too. So, here is my desk....

And since I am showing that one off, here's my laptop desk too - rules said picture as it is right now, so I did not bother to retrieve the laptop from where I had left it in my bedroom last night. It belongs in the blank area to the right of the ledger there..

Yup, that's more alien building materials there on the desk. I'll post a tutorial on how to build him on ooak.biz when he's finished.

Work at Home Newsletter joins the Smorty blog advertising service

I strive to offer readers of the Work at Home Newsletter not only the best content that I am capable of, but also the most carefully selected advertising that will be of genuine interest to my readership. For that reason I am pleased to announce that the Work at Home Newsletter has joined the Smorty network.

Smorty is a service that connects bloggers with advertisers that are seeking to have their products or services discussed on blogs. Smorty allows me to get paid to blog about things that are of interest to my readers, I have complete control over rather I accept the blog advertising that Smorty offers or not, which allows me to get paid for blogging without compromising my promise to my readers that I will give them content that I feel they are genuinely interested in seeing.

When an advertiser seeks to advertise on blogs using Smorty the blogger has the final say on rather that advertising is right for their blog, this means that although I do freely admit that I will blog for money, I do not have any kind of requirements to blog about something that I might not feel is suited to my readership here.

Being able to hand select the advertisers that I represent is important to me and I am grateful that my readership extends to me the trust to make these decisions and the understanding that being human I will, from time to time, make a mistake in offering something that might not be of interest to them but that I had thought at the time would be of interest.

Thank you all for your time and sincerest thank you to those who have stuck with this blog as it continues to expand and evolve into something that will serve those who work from home for years to come.

Office Tool Box

You probably have a tool box in your car, don't you? And the kitchen junk drawer? But what about your office? Do you have an office tool box? It is not as weird as it sounds, I have an office tool box. It is where I can find nearly anything I need for doing repairs and maintenance in the office.

So, what goes into an office tool box? That depends on your needs. I can tell you what I have in mine and maybe it will give you ideas for your own office tool box.

Non-magnetic screwdrivers: I have a non-magnetic ones because I mostly use them for taking my computer's case off and working on the computer. I have a few sizes of flat head and phillips, ranging from a standard size down to tiny jewelers size.

Paintbrushes: I keep a few small (under 1/2" to 1/4") soft bristled and firm bristled paint brushes in my kit as well, so that I can use them to sweep dust from corners and crumbs off keyboards. They are the miniature brooms of my desktop, so much so that I even keep one in my pencil cup on the desk.

Mini Computer Vacuum: This is a fairly obvious tool, I use it to vacuum things off the desk. I also use it to vacuum dust from the openings on my computer.

Can of Compressed Air: Keyboard cleaner. Also used to spray dust out of the computer when I open the case up for annual cleanings.

Hammer: As tempting as it is at times to take to the computer, the hammer is not for whacking the computer with. It is for when I need to hang a picture or pull out a nail or install a new shelf or any of a million other reasons a hammer is needed.

Electrical Tape: Because you never know when you might need it.

Pliers, wire clippers, needle nose pliers: Again, you sometimes need them and it is best not to have to go find them somewhere.

X-Acto Knife Set: You find all kinds of uses for one of these around the office.

Other things will find their way into and out of my office tool box, but right now that is mostly what I have in it. Just things that come in handy in the office and that I don't want to have to hunt for when I need them while I am working.

Need a little emergency cash?

The holiday season is often a time of overspending, which can leave you in need of a little extra cash in the event of an emergency. While payday loans are not something that someone should take out just for 'I want a little more spending money', they are something that can have their uses. The trick is to never borrow more than you can comfortably pay back at your next payday.

Payday loans are a quick way to get a small advance on your paycheck that will be automatically deducted from your bank when your check arrives. You can find out more about No Fax Payday Loans by visiting Payday Loan Quotes at the preceding link. While you are there check out the loan calculator, which can help you better understand loan rates and how much you will need to pay back when you take a payday loan.

Loan periods are usually 14 to 28 days and can range between $100 and $1,500. Be sure that you research payday loans carefully before you request one, and always be sensible about only borrowing what you truly need and can comfortably pay back.

Office Party for Work at Home Workers

Okay, so you work at home, does that mean you can't have an office party? No, of course not. Reasons to have an office party for your work at home job might range from you have people that help you out with your job that you want to invite over for a holiday party to just a fun way to include the kids in your work when they are normally banned from the office.

All you really need to have an office holiday party is a few hours and a desire to have your home office invaded by friends, family, part time help and co-workers. Make up some cookies and egg nog and some apple cider and decorate the office for the season. Then let friends and family and people that you work with come over and share some holiday cheer.

One reason for having an office party is that no one expects the host(ess) to spend the entire event in a kitchen cooking, so by holding an office party you can have a built-in excuse not to be spending all of your time cooking a fancy dinner for all your guests. Just have a couple of hours of party and some snack foods.

Hotels.com en Espanol

I am guessing that if you work at home you have probably encountered that problem of trying to make arrangements for something such as a hotel room and discovered that your plans were misunderstood. Most people want to find the best hotel room at the best price, and it can get frustrating when there are problems in communication.

Hotels.com wants to make that a little easier for the many Spanish speaking travelers in the United Stated for whom English is a second language. They now have Hotels.com en Espanol, the Spanish website where Spanish speaking travelers can find ofertas de hoteles in Spanish and even get help from a dedicated customer service number. The comprehensive website has been specially designed to meet the needs of the Spanish speaking traveler in the United States.

To find out more about Hotels.com en Espanol visit the website at the link above.

Survival tips for working at home and the holidays

The holidays are here, and you work at home... how do you survive? I don't know about the rest of you out there, but it seems like the holiday season is slowly bowling me over with stress and too much to do. How do we get everything that needs to be done done and still stay sane?

Here are a few tips I came up with for surviving the holidays with your sanity, and your home business, intact.

First off, sleep. I know, I know, I am not exactly the most shining example on this, but getting enough sleep can help you to stay focused and get things done more smoothly. It is hard to get the tree up straight when you can't keep your eyes open.

Spread the work load out some. Do you have several kids or other family members that you bought things for? Instead of doing all the wrapping enlist some elves to wrap presents for you. Maybe you can pay them a little extra for their helping you out with this task while you work on your business stuff?

Let the kids decorate the tree, then resist the urge to redo it so it looks perfect. Would Santa really leave if there were more candy canes on the 3' and under mark than there are up high on the tree? Or if someone had color sorted the glass balls so the tree looks like a huge stoplight?

Shop Online while you can. One way to make this all go smoother is to take advantage of shopping online through stores that allow for local pickup of items and that lets you shop in local stores online. Looking for hard to find or large things like a new television or a Playstation 3? Check out Krillion.com for a great place to compare prices on those items in your local stores.

Let someone else make the holiday dinner, or have a buffet. Instead of cooking a huge dinner like you do at Thanksgiving, have the holiday season be a more relaxed event with a simple snack buffet or a potluck dinner.

Have older kids put up the outdoor lights. If your kids are old enough to be safe on a ladder, then let them decorate the outside of the house this year. Keep a close eye on things, just to be sure there are no accidents, but allow them to do everything from untangling and testing the old lights to deciding where in the yard the inflatable snowman should be put.

Take your work with you this holiday season

Worried about how long you will be gone from your work? Take your work with you when you travel this holiday season.

By creating a portable office in a small suitcase you can take nearly any at home work along with you when you travel this holiday season.

As long as your business is able to be moved from one room to another in your home (such as making beaded jewelery, creating figured out of polymer clay, building websites on a laptop computer, painting) then you can create a mini office in a small suitcase and take your work along with you when you travel.

Just create a suitcase that when you open it up it is an instant office for your work and you are ready to go.

Just don't spend all your time working, enjoy the holidays with friends and family. This is meant to be a way to not have too much to catch up on when you get home, not to be a full-time job while you are on vacation.

Wold Series Tickets

One of the joys of working for yourself is being able to pick and choose your vacation time. I am sure that there are a lot of people out there right now that are scheduling in a little time to get to watch the World Series. Sports have never been much interest for me, but I know they are a large event for a lot of people (don’t believe me, just try watching TV during any sporting season). If you are a fan of sports and plan to take time off to see the World Series then you should check out the world series tickets that TicketsNow has available.

TicketsNow has helped fans purchase sports, concert, and theater tickets online since 1999 and can help you get premium seating even for sold-out events. Visit their website at the link above to find out more about tickets for the World Series.

Why buy holiday cards this year?

There are a lot of great card creating products on the market, from paper you can run through your printer to cards that are made for painting on. You can create truly unique and personal holiday cards to send to all of the people on your card list and create them for a lot less than you would have to buy individual or even boxed sets of cards.

Personalized gift baskets for the holidays

Are you in a business that requires you to have great customer relations? Got a few business contacts that you need a good gift for? How about creating a gift basket for them? This is a great way to add a touch of your business to your gift giving.

If you make candles, ceramics, soap, OOAK creations or anything else that lends itself to being tucked into a gift basket then you can personalize your basket in a very special way that can make your customers remember you for a long long time.

Not in a craft type business? How about a basket of goodies such as cookies and mini cakes? Or print up some stationary and personalized envelopes and tuck into a basket filled with coffee or tea goodies.

There are a lot of ways that you can make a great gift basket that anyone on your list will love.

Baby gifts made personal

The holidays are here, did you remember to get something special for everyone on your list? If one of the people on your list is a new mommy, or an expecting mom-to-be, then you might want to take a look at the personalized baby gifts that The Nest Baby Shop has to offer. You can get a wide range of gifts, many of them personalized, that make wonderful holiday gifts.

How about a piggy bank with up to 12 characters on it? You can have the baby’s name engraved on it or something such as “Millionaire” or “Retirement”. How about engraving the year that the baby will be ready for going off to college or turning 18?

There are a lot of great gift ideas to be found at The Nest Baby Shop, so take some time to browse through the site and get something especially for that little one or the mom to be.

Don't forget the website

Something that goes along with podcasts and blogs is creating a business website. Make sure that you consider if you need a website for your business. Even if it does not lend itself to making a podcast or blog there is a very good chance that your business can benefit from a website of its own.

And if you do create a blog or podcast, it is much better to have a website to send people to for it than sending them to a free hosting site such as blogger or off to iTunes.

Is podcasting right for your business?

You have probably heard of podcasting, you might even listen to podcasts or could even have one of your own already, but how do you know if you should have one for your business? This is a question that I have asked myself a few times as I consider rather to start up a pod cast or not.

The conclusion that I have come to? If you have a business that offers information that can be delivered to a listener in a manner that allows for them to listen to you describing things on the way to work in their car in the mornings, then you probably have a business that can produce a podcast. Obviously not every business is able to support a podcast, but there are a lot of businesses that can and do maintain a podcast, so sit down and write up some ideas that you might have for shows and produce say 10 different shows. If you still have a lot of ideas for more shows chances are you can at least do a weekly podcast on it.

Credit Cards

Are you looking for the best credit card for your small business? Did you know that you can get credit cards that let you earn airline miles when your employees spend money with their company credit card? I did not know about that until I was looking at offers for credit cards that CreditCardSearchEngine.com has available for travel rewards and found the US Airways Dividend Miles Mastercard Businesscard. It lets you get free additional cards for your employees that earn you rewards.

Other credit cards I saw that offer this were the Airtran Airways A+ Visa Business Card and the Midwest Airlines Mastercard Businesscard. You can check out all of the Online Credit Card offers and find the one that best matches your business needs at CreditCardSearchEngine.com. Maybe you want to find a card that can help you save when you buy gas, or a card designed for the needs of small businesses?

CreditCardSearchEngine.com helps you compare cards so that you can make smart decisions on what card is best for your individual needs.

Have you considered starting a blog for your business?

Blogging is one of the best ways to promote your business, particularly if you run an online business. The trick is not to sell your business, instead offer real information that people can use in their daily life. For example, if you have a business as an interior decorator, offer up ideas that anyone can use to decorate a room, don’t say in every post “Hire me to decorate it for you!” I have seen some blogs and particularly podcasts that try to sell the business rather than offer helpful information. They generally fail to keep readers or worse, attract negative comments that scare potential readers off. Don’t be afraid to start a blog to help promote your business, but be sure that you offer your readers something that they can make use of and not a series of advertisements for your business.

The ultimate business card

I was talking about putting vacation pictures in one of those digital photo frames and came up with an idea I had not seen anyone else offer up before. Us one of those digital frames as a business tool. You can create images on your computer that display your work or items you have for sale, then set the picture frame where customers and clients can see it. How about a collage of your work interspersed with information on the services you offer, providing the customer with visual entertainment and things to read as they are waiting. I’m sure you have already thought of a dozen ways you can use this for your business, so I’ll let you get to some of them.

Shop online using Krillion and get it locally in time for the holidays

I don’t know about you, but I spend so much time working at my computer at home that I just want to be able to buy everything over the computer this holiday season. Running around from store to store price comparing and looking for the stores that carry the things you want to buy just is no fun at all, particularly when you have to work during the holidays because you work for yourself.

Did you know that some of Santa’s smartest elves know how to find even the big items on their list, such as appliances and HDTVs, without having to leave the workshop? They do this by shopping with Krillion.

Krillion is a website that can help you find the things such as westinghouse HDTV televisions that you can get locally. That’s right, you shop around for it online using Krillion to find the best deal in your local stores, then you can buy it from those stores and be sure to have it home in time for the holidays.

What could be easier, or more hassle-free, than being able to do all of your running around from the comfort of your favorite office chair? And with Krillion you can be certain your big purchase will be there in time for the holidays - even if it is a last minute purchase.

Finding legitimate work at home business opportunities

Work at home jobs are something that everyone wants to find, a good home business work at home job allows them to remain at home with their family while still earning a decent income. Finding a legitimate work at home job is often dependent on the person’s determination to do real work at home. A work at home business opportunity can be something that involves computer work at home, but work at home data entry jobs often require the person to be able to market their work at home business themselves. I have no experience with work at home assembly jobs , but I do know that those stuffing envelopes work at home business opportunities are just scams that leave you with the advice to put ads in papers and stuff envelopes to people dumb enough to buy into the scam based on your ad. This blog, and the website I am working on to accompany it, are going to be working to help people find legitimate work at home business opportunities.

Why Work at Home Newsletter?

I began writing the Work at Home Newsletter because I wanted to have a chance to expand my own knowledge about working from home. I had found myself some legitimate work at home jobs that were helping me to work at home on the computer and I wanted to expand on this discovery and help others find out more about work at home job opportunities. My main focus has not been work at home jobs for moms, because there are a lot of other sites out there that cover that particular subject, instead I wanted to provide information on jobs to work at home for anyone that needed to stay home for any reason, rather they were stay at home moms, stay at home dads, or full-time family caregivers like me.

The problem with the Internet is that it is hard to find legitimate work at home jobs, there are so many work at home scams out there that the real work at home jobs quickly get buried under the scams and only a few ever really make money when they work at home on the computer. So, I made this site to try and help others figure out how to get a real work at home job and more importantly how to keep that job going once they had began a work at home business.

Investing in your future

Making sound investments in your future is all just part of working for yourself from home. When you work at home, you need to consider your future. Rather you are doing something in the work at home medical billing fields such as a work at home medical transcription service, or you have a work at home internet business like I do, then you need to be thinking about your future. A work at home job means that you probably work for yourself and that means that you need to invest for your own future.

One of the most loved forms of investments is investing in precious metals such as gold and silver. The Monex Deposit Company has been helping investors with precious metals investments for over 30 years and can help you with your precious metals investments. They can then help you with arranging either for personal delivery of that investment, or for it to be moved to an independent bank or depository for safe and convenient storage.

If you would like to find out how Monex can help you invest in your future, then visit their website at the link above and find out more about the current prices of precious metals and just how easy it can be to invest in precious metals. It could be one of the most important decisions you make as a small business owner.

Work can wait - I need to clean fridge if power goes out

There is a strong wind outside right now, which means that there really is no telling how much work I will get to get done today. I have decided that since the refrigerator is so low on things following Thanksgiving and going into the start of December, if the power goes out I will just unload the refrigerator and give it a really good cleaning out and scrubbing down. That is one of the things that keeps getting neglected when I get to working in the office, I walked in there last night and opened up the door and realized something must not yet have been tossed from Thanksgiving because it smelled like it was getting a second chance at life in there. That makes it well past time to put work on pause and clean the fridge out.

Gift ideas for the home office

I just completed a list of things that I would suggest to people that are looking for good gifts for writers, but I think it would just as well be usable for anyone looking for good gift ideas for anyone that has a home office, so I want to share the post link with my readers here as well. The post is Gift Ideas for Writers on my website The Writing Office. I have given information on gift ideas for any budget from $5 on up to $5,000 - nearly all of my suggestions are well under the $100 mark and most are under $10 to $20, so these are even things that are affordable enough for an adult to help a child pick out for a mom or dad that works at home.