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Entrepreneur Advice: Tips for Working from Home?

 

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Enabling Creator Ecosystem Success – from Influencers to Marketers – through Education, Events, Memberships, and Partnerships

“VloggerFair” has been rebranded as “CreatorAdvocate,” but will CONTINUE to focus on the creators themselves throughout the year in a subscription service that can be found on http://CreatorAdvocate.com/ now.

“CreatorAdvocate” is not just for vloggers, however – it is for anybody who finds themselves being or becoming an independent content creator.

Our mission, thus, is as follows:

Empowering independent content creators with qualified advice & intelligence based upon actual experience, answering questions that can’t readily be answered, and sharing discoveries of new developments that will further accelerate the ability to create in any capacity.

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ProBlogger: Secrets For Blogging Your Way To A Six-Figure Income

There should be an image here!Blogging has become a popular and fascinating pastime for many, but more and more bloggers are finding it can also be an excellent source of direct or indirect income.

Although the barriers to starting a blog are low, without expert guidance it is easy to get frustrated when success doesn’t match expectations. Written by the creator of the world’s #1 resource for making money with blogs, ProBlogger takes the reader from absolute beginner to earning money from or as a result of blogging. Through step by step practical lessons the reader will choose a blog topic, analyze the market, set up a blog, promote it and earn revenue.

Unlike other books that are big on potential and theory, ProBlogger provides results based on the authors’ own experience of what really works through practical, tried and tested advice. Inside readers will learn:

  • How bloggers make money
  • Direct Income Earning vs. Indirect Income Earning methods
  • Why niches are important
  • 20 ingredients for a successful blog post
  • Optimizing advertising
  • Which advertising platforms work best
  • Expert analysis of Technorati’s Top Blogs — why they work

And so much more…

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Yahoo! Employment Woes

I am to the point where I honestly feel bad for Yahoo! as a company. Not just because of expected layoffs, rather due to the fact that it just cannot seem to catch a break. But in the grander scheme of things, it does seem like the layoffs are mounting. Stressful, you bet. But it is not the end of the world. That and I have been watching a lot of the legitimate work at home options filling up rather quickly.

One side effect to tougher times and an “ever-adjusting” job market has been seeing those people that manage to stay employed. Speaking for myself, I work my butt off. I never work less than a ten hour day and in some rather foolish instances, don’t even give myself breaks.

What kind of terrible employer would put someone through such a thing? Why, yours truly. Yes, I am my own worst boss. Because if I am not producing, I am not getting paid by those I work for. I am always wary of getting too comfortable and do try to keep myself in a position of being as valuable to those I work for as I can.

Personally, I think this gives the self-employed an advantage over those people who have more typical jobs. Certainly not because one type of work situation is better than the other, rather the self-employed are SCARED out of their minds of not having a check come in. We have less security to some extent. So there is no sliding by, we need to do everything possible to produce value. This is what lights a fire under my backside. How about you? What do you do each day to produce value for your employer or those you work with?

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Career Confusion

Today, Richard writes:

I am 13 years old, own my own Web design company, and am torn between two careers.

As of now, Web design is just a hobby. I know HTML, CSS, PHP, use Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and am learning more as I read. However, I am not sure whether or not I should make my hobby a career, or do what I want to do: save people’s lives. I would like to be a neurosurgeon, but am not sure. I know that I have many years of school ahead of me if I choose this career. I love technology, but would really love to be a doctor; PLEASE HELP!

Thanks!

Also, while I’ve got your attention, I would like to ask you something about Ubuntu. I am trying to boot from my Ubuntu CD that I made, but it will not boot up. So, as of now, I have no way to try out Linux. I was hoping you could help me with this, too.

On the first question, I would point out that this was not sent to me directly. Still, I will do my best to answer it regardless. I would say follow your passion, the money will follow. Yes, it really is that simple – it’s just that sometimes it takes time.

As for the second question, I would say that you need to consider the following: Is your computer’s BIOS set up to boot from CD? Or instead, is it just booting up to a black screen? Providing a little more information would go a long ways to helping you out here. Good luck.

Do you have an IT-related question? Perhaps you are just burnt out on writing on the walls with crayons? Whatever the comments may be, drop me a line, and you too can “Just Ask Matt!

[tags]careers,jobs,self-employment,neurosurgeon[/tags]

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Stop Barking And Get To Work!

The work-at-home lifestyle has its ups and downs. From a decade’s worth of experience, I can tell you that achieving that vaunted balance between work and family life is a real trick. Configuring a home office for optimal productivity is key. I’m not just talking about setting up your workplace with the right computer desk and ergonomic seating. I’m talking about the whole enchilada, from lighting, to acoustics, to location, to a basic semblance of sanity.

With a free form schedule, staying on task can be a daily struggle. In my case, I’m easily distracted and so are our dogs. Yip and Yap will bark at anything that moves. The dogs’ distraction quickly leads to my distraction. After fifteen seconds of rapid-fire barking, I can’t help but yell at them to clam up.

This drove me nuts until I stumbled on a simple solution to get the dogs to stop barking. I can now work for hours on end without being disturbed by our four-footed friends.

I love the daytime lighting in my home office, because there’s rarely a need to turn on a bulb. All of my workday lighting needs are filled by natural lighting. The southern and western walls of my office are filled with windows. While this is especially nice in the spring and fall when I can work with the windows open, it took a good bit of time to find the right combination of shades and position the computer monitors to avoid glare.

Unfortunately, the nighttime lighting is less than optimal. I’m still trying to work out the right combination of floor and desk lamps.

And then there’s the basic semblance of sanity…

While my office is somewhat out of the flow of household traffic, it’s still close enough to the action that there are plenty of distractions. There’s little soundproofing between the office and the kitchen and the distance between my desk and the refrigerator is just a bit too short. Truth be told, I’ve given serious thought to building another small outbuilding in the backyard to get my office completely out of the flow. I’ve become so enamored with the idea that I’m working on a book proposal about home office sheds.

Life imitates art. Or is that vice versa?

[tags]home office, self employed, self employment, distraction, ergonomic seat[/tags]

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Getting more PC repair clients

“Join us today, find yourself being dispatched tomorrow!” Sound familiar? Yes, I too have seen this in Web ads from time to time. On the surface, this might sound attractive for the home-based repair tech looking to expand his or her business. Unfortunately there can often be a harsh reality that is overlooked when going this route. Oh sure, we do have some services out there which may provide an outstanding option for all involved. Regardless though, I remain steadfast sure that many of the ‘work from home’ employment (IT related) opportunities need to be looked at with great scrutiny.
Continue reading “Getting more PC repair clients”