Maybe people who have several home businesses simply like to keep busy. Maybe they have a knack at finding great opportunities. It’s certain, though, that having several home businesses can keep the money rolling in. Having multiple income streams can help stabilize your income. Frances Pelletier is utilizing this business tactic. She has not one, not two, not three, but four work at home businesses.

Pelletier began her first work at home business in July of 2005 after her youngest daughter was born.

“I got tired of the retail world and decided that it was time to take control of my life,” said Pelletier, who found her business opportunities by visiting a work at home bulletin board. After finding several different home business opportunities, she decided to sell Mia Bella Gourmet candles (http://www.bamasweetscents.com).

“…With my background in retail and sales management, I knew it
would be something I could enjoy doing and make money from it,” she said.

But that business wasn’t enough. Three months after her alliance with Mia Bella, she decided to sell Personalized Santa letters online. Because she loves selling products that are related to children, Pelletier next began working with her third business, Kids Creations Workshop. There was still room for a fourth business. Pelletier, who does all of the marketing, sales, recruiting, and paperwork for her businesses, eventually started an online directory called WAH Biz Directory, to help others find home based businesses.

Pelletier is married and has two daughters, 10-month old baby and a 5-year old. Pelletier works part-time hours in her business endeavors and says that her children are thriving because as a work-at-home mom, she can spend more time with them.

How does she juggle her family responsibilities and her businesses?

“It is sometimes difficult, but I manage to get some work done during the day when my youngest takes naps,” she said. “I am very fortunate to have a supportive husband who watches over the girls in the evenings so that I can focus on working my businesses. I spend my weekends mostly hanging out with my family and working only in the evening hours.”

No matter how many work at home jobs or businesses you have, it’s important to organize your career and home life to work with potentially profitable businesses that you enjoy, she said.

Posted by Claudine as Make Money at Home at 4:35 AM PST

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Those of you who are trying to work at home through your writing will be interested in creating multiple blogs or a blog network. The theory is that you can earn more money with dozens of blogs than you with a single blog. Some entrepreneurs claim to have a hundred blogs for maximum earning potential. In order to keep so many blogs updated, it’s likely that they are using rss2blog or some similar software to scrape content from other blogs. There has been some controversy associated with using this method, because although a short paragraph from another blog and a link to their blog is displayed in rss2blog, some bloggers grumble that this shortcut is merely rehashing content.

Bloggers who create mega homemade networks use tightly focused niche blogs that are created by based on keyword popularity. The blogs are highly monetized through both pay per click ads and affiliate ads. If a blog stops bringing in the cash, or if it’s shut down, it is replaced.

If you would like to work at home full time through your blogs, you will want to have at least ten monetized blogs. Yo
u can realistically create your content without relying heavily on content from other blogs. Blog pro Darren Rowse has 28 blogs. He has a six figure income. His content is original, written by himself and contributors.

Topics for your blogs will come easy if you have varied interests. Niche blogging is all the rage, and they have the benefit of being able to draw targeted readers. Therefore, it’s good to focus your blogs on narrow topics. For example, instead of blogging about parenting, you will want to blog about parenting 2-year-olds. Instead of blogging about dogs, you can blog about poodles.

Once you get one blog up and running to your satisfaction, start planning the next blog until you have a manageable number of blogs. Use free content sites like EzineArticles so you don’t feel as though you have to write it all yourself. Try to write the bulk of your own articles so your readers will have a good amount of original content.

Posted by Claudine as Make Money at Home at 12:18 AM PST

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Sending articles to article directories for free links has become a common tactic to improve traffic. More and more webmasters are setting up their own directories with easy to use software. It sounds like easy money, but someone has to read the articles and approve them for posting. Imagine reading hundreds of articles to make sure that they are not offensive or full of grammatical errors.

Maybe the time it takes to peruse the articles is worth it. Thousands of articles translates into thousands of pages, and those page should have a fair share of streaming cash. I imagine that article directories could bring in hundreds of dollars a day.

Search engines love to crawl sites that are updated frequently, and with a little marketing article directory sites are certain to have a steady stream of traffic. Authors are constantly looking for new places to post their articles and publishers thrive on free content.

If such directories net a fair amount of income, a person could hire people to sift through the articles. Why not? Someone must be earning money from the directories. There are easily over 400 of them, and they appear to be here to stay. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for these directories, and I’ll keep my ears open to find out if people really are making as great of a profit as I think they are.

Posted by Claudine as Make Money at Home at 9:20 PM PST

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If you work from home of have a home business you may have a story of interest to reporters. Reporters sometimes look for people to interview through online bulletin boards, association directories, and online expert’s directories. A reporter may also seek you out through your home business website or articles you have written.

It’s great to write your own articles, but when a reporter is seeking people to interview, you could consider it as free publicity; you won’t have to do your own writing and article promotion.

People hire publicists for the opportunity with connect with reporters; so, jump at the opportunity to be interviewed by a freelance writer. There are, however, some steps for branding yourself as a professional which may lead to future articles with other staff reporters and freelance writers.

First, provide any background information requested by the reporter. The reporter may ask you for pictures of your product, your picture, or historical information about you and your online or work at home business. Offer the reporter promotional material, a written biography, and articles previously written about you and your business.

In most cases, it’s ok to ask the reporter for a general idea of questions she may ask. You can also ask the reporter about the article’s slant. This information will give you an idea of whether the article will cast you in the best possible light. It’s ok to decline an interview, but do it early in the process.

Otherwise, keep your commitment for the interview. Never pull-out of an interview on the same day of the interview. Always give prior notice if you are unable to help the reporter. Suggest someone else who may help or offer to reschedule. Sometimes, however, it’s not possible for the reporter to reschedule an interview with you. Unless you are in a niche field, and you are the only person who can give the reporter information on her topic, you may have to consider the missed interview as a missed opportunity.

Freelance writers, in particular, may submit articles to several different publications. The reporter may tell you that the article is for a blog, and your story may end up in the New York Times. The reporter may also plan to distribute the article as free content on the web. This means that your story, may end up on hundreds of websites and ezines. Ask the reporter if she could include a link to your website in her article. Some editors or publications may not allow her to do this. Editors may also delete certain information when the reporter submits the story. Therefore, you should ask for the link, but understand that there is a chance that it may not be included.

If you do not have a website, you may be asked to provide contact information that the writer can publish. Her readers will want to contact you for additional information. Be prepared for web traffic and possibly hundreds of inquires after the article is published. Always provide a means for readers to get in touch with a live person. You may have to constantly empty your e-mail box and your voice mailbox. Because other reporters have the tendency to “pick up” article ideas based on published work, it’s important that you are available for follow-ups and additional interviews.

It’s taboo to ask a reporter to read her article before it’s published. Don’t ask. Experienced reporters will probably decline your request. You should offer your availability for follow-up questions, however. If possible, offer a cell phone number so you can answer questions immediately. If you are communicating via e-mail or fax, constantly check your e-mail and your fax machine.

Find out when the article will be published. It takes months for a print publication to publish an article, yet Internet articles can be published immediately. Ask the reporter where the article may be published. Freelance writers may not have specific placement information for the article, but they will have an idea of where the article will be pitched.

People who are interviewed for articles often ask reporters for a copy of the article or a link to it. Writers interview dozens of people a week, and although they would like to help you, they usually don’t have time to send out copies and links. Try searching for the article in a search engine, placing the writer’s name in quotes. You can buy a copy of the print publication in which the article appears.

Working with writers can be a rewarding experience. A single article could boost your business exponentially. Never underestimate the power of the press.

Posted by Claudine as Make Money at Home at 9:56 PM PST

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Working from home can be an isolating experience when you are tucked away in your home office, devoid of face-to-face contact from supervisors or clients. Although working in a telecommuting job or starting your own home business can be rewarding, it’s important to make time for recreation and positive interaction with others. Here are some suggestions of steps you can take to avoid losing yourself in your work.

Make clear divisions between work time and relaxation. Schedule breaks throughout your schedule and set aside time to interact with others. You can schedule 30 minutes, an hour, or more time to be with friends or loved ones. Take a walk with a friend; go out for lunch. See a movie. Participate in clubs and church groups.
Groups with scheduled meeting times are beneficial because members may call you to remind you of upcoming meetings or make a friendly call if you have missed several meetings. Groups hold you accountable if you are a work-a-holic. Sometimes you need a little push, someone to tell you that you are overdue for some fun.

Plan a vacation. Everyone needs a vacation. Get-aways do not have to be elaborate. You can take a day trip to an attraction in your city or a neighboring city. Splurge on an overnight stay in a hotel. Think about all of the places near you that you never have time to visit. Set a date; make your plans and go. Go with people you enjoy. Set a budget and stick to it, so you won’t later regret your adventure. Take a lot of pictures, and have a good time.

Go to bed at a decent hour. It’s easy to get so caught up in your work that you are literally working around the clock. If you work in your bedroom, you are especially inclined to work too much. You need your rest, and late hours spell trouble for your work performance in your business and work at home jobs.

Don’t feel guilty about taking time off. People who balance work and play are healthier and more productive. Your family and friends are more important than your work. You are probably working at home so you can spend more time with your family and become financially independent. Don’t end up sacrificing time with family and friends for money.

Posted by Claudine as Make Money at Home at 3:40 PM PST

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Older is often better. While everyone scrambles around to get the latest, smallest PDA’s, I’ve virtually gone back in time. In my quest to organize my life and keep track of my business contacts and telecommuting, I found an NEC Mobilepro 780 handheld computer, a sweet, piece of technology, while surfing eBay. The large keyboard, nearly full-size, attracted me. Hey, it’s small but I can actually type on it. And the screen is large enough for me to see most of my documents without squinting. I paid about $100 for my NEC. Yes. It’s a bit scratched, the case has seen better days, but the sheer usability of it has help me overcome any hangups I had about cosmetic flaws. This machine is perfect for keeping up with my work at home jobs.

I dug up old press release online, stating that the Mobilepro was recently launched in the year 2000. At that time, it cost about $800. NEC doesn’t make the 780s now, but they are sold by resellers. There are newer, and probably fancier handhelds on the market now, but my 780 is just fine with me. The Mobilepro weighs 1.7 pounds, and some of the standard software for the NEC includes word processing, e-mail, presentation, and contact management software. The Microsoft Windows CE operating system is installed on it. There is also a built-in tape recorder, which didn’t work very well when I tried it. I had to hold the unit right up to my mouth and speak into it. That’s not good for recording meetings. My unit was refurbished, so I’m not sure if all NEC Mobilepros have less than stellar recorders. There is no mouse, of course. The handheld works with a touch screen, a stylus came with it. It has 24 Mg of ROM and 32 Mg of RAM. There is a built-in modem.

Marketed for mobile users, such as salespeople, I can type articles and other documents on the go without getting finger cramps. It’s great when I get a bit of inspiration for my blog, or if I want to key in some notes. Be forewarned, it does not work in the sunlight. I can’t see what’s on the color screen if I try to read something while I’m outside. On the bright side, I particularly like the calendar and the phone contact list. This handheld has helped me organize my full-time job responsibilities and home work at home responsibilities. I list personal and business tasks in the “To Do List” and schedule meetings in the calendar. Sometimes I set the alarm to go off for the pop-up reminder messages. The contact list allows me to type in actual notes about people in the list so I can keep track of my conversations with business contacts. Whenever I take my NEC to meetings, people usually ask me for a demonstration. They think that it’s new, and they are surprised at the cost. In fact, when I showed up to work with it, my supervisor was so impressed that she ordered one for herself. The unit is small enough to keep in my purse, and the batteries last for at least a day before I have to re-charge. The handheld has wireless capabilities and could be synchronized with a desktop or a laptop computer. The Mobilepro has its fans.

Posted by Claudine as Make Money at Home at 10:22 PM PST

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