Well, I'm trying my hand at affiliate marketing again and trying a new angle this time. I must admit that the allure of working hard for a short season and then working maintenance on a network of virtual real estate is a vision of mine. This week I'm promoting a brand-spanking new product from Alex Goad called Affiliate Payload.
I guess I caught the bug of the independent entrepreneur all those years ago when we dabbled in Amway. 1996 ... ah, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Obviously we didn't strike it rich in that business, but it planted a seed inside of me that refuses to die.
Working from home is part of the realization of that dream. Freelancing provides me some control over my time, although at a considerable cost in cash equity at times. However, it is a trade-off that we have been more than willing to make thus far.
Going forward, I'm working on developing several products of my own to sell through an online marketplace such as ClickBank. One product will be about how to work from home freelancing (since I have some experience there ;-)). The other products I'm working on are still top secret, but I'll let you in on the deal as soon as possible!
Anyway, if you've ever been interested in affiliate marketing, the ins and outs, how it's done and how to grow beyond simple information products like ClickBank and into cost-per-action (or CPA) network sales, then you should really check out Goad's product, the Affiliate Payload.
Click on that link and you will get a full review by yours truly, plus the chance for one heck of a bonus!
Showing posts with label SAHD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SAHD. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Time Management 101
How do you strike a balance between work and family, especially when you work from home? In this blog post I will share a few ideas that have worked for me, as well as analyze why it's so difficult, especially in the case of the work at home parent...
The Problem
From my perspective, the problem comes in primarily because we work from home. It's a lot different when you leave the house for 8 to 10 hours a day to work from an office or other away from home facility. Even then people have difficulty sometimes in separating work from their home life, and many even allow the job to take over their lives (i.e., the all-demanding boss becomes the dictator of all of your time). However, the issue seems to actually be compounded when we work from home. Here, every time I check my email there is a chance I will receive a work-related message. Every ring of the telephone could be a client calling about a job. Instead of having at least a physical barrier to help us distinguish work from home, we've actually made the conscious decision to work from home! While this creates a challenging situation in the best of times, during the summer and other breaks from school it can become overwhelming as everything seems to be happening at the home front all at once.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is important for anyone working from home, even more so than someone who works outside the home. In fact, it can be one of the best time management tools for the work at home parent. Let's put it this way ... if you work at home, you had better set some goals, or you will never know if and when you have accomplished what you set out to do! Take the time to think about what you really want out of life and what it will cost you in terms of your time and commitment. Then, you have to decide what is most important. Put your time emphasis on those things that are most important to you! Look, you only live once and your kids will only be kids one time around. If you spend every waking moment working, whether for yourself or for 'the man', you'll wake up one day to find that you may or may not have achieved your financial goals, but your children will be long gone. This doesn't mean they will hate you or not have any respect for you ... but more than likely the whole reason you decided to work from home will have been lost - forever.
I know for me the goal of working from home has always been two-fold. First, it has never really been about the money. I'm always learning new ways to make a living from home and I'm sure my income will continue to increase. However, it is and probably will always be less than I could make as a manager in a corporate environment. I should know. I've been there, done that. So why am I working from home? My goals have always been fairly simple, even though sometimes I lose sight of them fairly easily.
It's My Time, Isn't It?
First and foremost I have always wanted more control of my time. Nothing irritated me more than having to ask for approval to take a day off or to take vacation time that I earned. I was always resentful of the ever-shifting lunch break. Sometimes it would be at the same time, sometimes my boss would suddenly call a lunch meeting literally minutes before I was heading out the door. What would have been a pleasant picnic lunch at the park suddenly became a mandatory lunch meeting will all the company yes men and lackeys. What shift I worked, where I worked, and when I could go to lunch, break, and vacations - all of these things were determined by my boss. It always felt like I had no real control over my own time. So, my first goal in working from home was a selfish one, but I wanted control back of my time. It is easy to lose sight of this goal, especially when working from home. As a freelance professional, suddenly the clients have a direct line to my home, to my personal email, right into my life! But before I share a solution with you regarding this first goal, let's take a look at what is probably the second most common goal for parents who decide to work from home.
Are Those My Kids?
Sometimes when we work away from home we get the feeling that we don't know our own family. We can grow distant from our spouse and especially from our kids. I know for me when I worked as a manager in a plastics factory my days were very long and that was part of the expectation that came with the territory. Most of the time my children were still in bed when I left for work and there were many days that they were already in bed when I got home. On some occasions they would stay up late just to kiss me goodnight as soon as I walked in the door, then off to bed they went! I found myself wondering who these kids really were. After all, I had no idea ... I simply wasn't taking the time to get to know them!
So another goal of working from home for me involved getting to spend some time with my children. Now, I will admit that this hasn't been all roses, as you no doubt will concede if you work from home. The ideal situation is far from reality, especially when the children are smaller, which has been my experience thus far. I have three children all currently under the age of eight, so they are starving for attention and would love to have the opportunity to monopolize my entire day if I were to let them. However, this would be counter-productive too, right? After all, if Daddy doesn't work the bills don't get paid! So there is a fine line here that demands our attention. We don't want to fall into the trap of allowing our children, who are now co-habitating with us in the "office", to monopolize all of our time so that we get nothing else done. By the same token, we don't want to end up working 24/7 so that despite the fact that we are working from home we still never spend any time with the family! So what is the solution? There is one simple thing that has worked for me. It is not without it's own set of problems, but it has helped dramatically in setting boundaries for me while working from home. It is the schedule, or the work calendar.
The Work At Home Schedule
So how does it work? It's simple really - you just have to take the place of your boss! Set yourself a schedule and a limit to how many hours you will work each week. Make a commitment to your clients that you will be available for a certain number of days each week and then for specific hours of each day. Now, be flexible - after all, you did decide to work from home to get back some control of your time, right? I'll share with you part of my schedule so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.
Officially, my work day starts at 12:00 noon and ends at 8:00 p.m. Yep, that's right. First off, I've decided that I like to sleep in. Is there anything wrong with that? Not really, not when you work from home! Next, I work straight through lunch and breaks. I don't smoke, but even if I did I would probably do it from my desk rather than go outside. I do use the restroom (why do we call it that?) and make a "tea run" to the kitchen every so often. However, breaks always used to irritate me at work. They came at inopportune times and always seemed to interfere with my thought process and work flow. So, since I'm working from home, I cut them out. As for lunch, I usually eat before I start working and if I decide I want a small snack during the work hours, I'm lucky enough to have a lovely wife to fix me something I can eat while working through lunch. On some days I will take a lunch, but guess what? It's entirely up to me!
This schedule allows me to spend some personal time alone in the mornings as well as spend some time with the family. In addition, after work I can spend some time (although less during school months) with the children as well. However, most of the evening time after my officially scheduled work hours I allow for time with my wife or time on personal projects, whether they be income related or other areas of interests (read: hobbies). The only kicker here is that if I get too carried away in the evenings I sometimes stay up waaay to late. Oh, well I guess that's ok because I do get to sleep in.
Finally, it's up to me what days of the week I work and when I take a vacation. As a freelance professional, I have found that most clients are respectful of this concept. After all, I did decide to work from home for a reason, right? For me, Saturdays are always off limits. We observe a seventh-day Sabbath and so we don't do any work related stuff from Friday night at sundown to Saturday night at sundown. For many people, Sunday would be their day of religious observance. Others may not have any such preference at all. Whatever your view on this point is doesn't really matter, as long as you set aside what days you will have off - no matter what. You have to make time to take time off, or working from home will take over your life. It can be worse than a job if you're not careful You thought your old boss could be a hard task-master, wait until you meet your own dark side! So for me, Monday through Friday are the standard work days. I do work on Sundays, on occasion, however I fully reserve the right to take every Sunday off.
As for vacations, most clients don't care when you take vacation - just be sure and notify them ahead of time that you are going to be out of the "office". Working from home, I find that vacation time is more a function of me having the money saved up to do something or go somewhere. After all, since I'm working for myself from home, I don't have the luxury of a 'paid vacation' benefit. I have to make sure I budget appropriately and set aside enough money so that once or twice a year I can take time off without feeling the pinch of no money for a week.
Conclusion
I know this has been a long post, but I'm hoping you really got something out of this. Just to recap, I want to go over the things that have helped me manage my time better while working from home.
The Problem
From my perspective, the problem comes in primarily because we work from home. It's a lot different when you leave the house for 8 to 10 hours a day to work from an office or other away from home facility. Even then people have difficulty sometimes in separating work from their home life, and many even allow the job to take over their lives (i.e., the all-demanding boss becomes the dictator of all of your time). However, the issue seems to actually be compounded when we work from home. Here, every time I check my email there is a chance I will receive a work-related message. Every ring of the telephone could be a client calling about a job. Instead of having at least a physical barrier to help us distinguish work from home, we've actually made the conscious decision to work from home! While this creates a challenging situation in the best of times, during the summer and other breaks from school it can become overwhelming as everything seems to be happening at the home front all at once.
Goal Setting
Goal setting is important for anyone working from home, even more so than someone who works outside the home. In fact, it can be one of the best time management tools for the work at home parent. Let's put it this way ... if you work at home, you had better set some goals, or you will never know if and when you have accomplished what you set out to do! Take the time to think about what you really want out of life and what it will cost you in terms of your time and commitment. Then, you have to decide what is most important. Put your time emphasis on those things that are most important to you! Look, you only live once and your kids will only be kids one time around. If you spend every waking moment working, whether for yourself or for 'the man', you'll wake up one day to find that you may or may not have achieved your financial goals, but your children will be long gone. This doesn't mean they will hate you or not have any respect for you ... but more than likely the whole reason you decided to work from home will have been lost - forever.
I know for me the goal of working from home has always been two-fold. First, it has never really been about the money. I'm always learning new ways to make a living from home and I'm sure my income will continue to increase. However, it is and probably will always be less than I could make as a manager in a corporate environment. I should know. I've been there, done that. So why am I working from home? My goals have always been fairly simple, even though sometimes I lose sight of them fairly easily.
It's My Time, Isn't It?
First and foremost I have always wanted more control of my time. Nothing irritated me more than having to ask for approval to take a day off or to take vacation time that I earned. I was always resentful of the ever-shifting lunch break. Sometimes it would be at the same time, sometimes my boss would suddenly call a lunch meeting literally minutes before I was heading out the door. What would have been a pleasant picnic lunch at the park suddenly became a mandatory lunch meeting will all the company yes men and lackeys. What shift I worked, where I worked, and when I could go to lunch, break, and vacations - all of these things were determined by my boss. It always felt like I had no real control over my own time. So, my first goal in working from home was a selfish one, but I wanted control back of my time. It is easy to lose sight of this goal, especially when working from home. As a freelance professional, suddenly the clients have a direct line to my home, to my personal email, right into my life! But before I share a solution with you regarding this first goal, let's take a look at what is probably the second most common goal for parents who decide to work from home.
Are Those My Kids?
Sometimes when we work away from home we get the feeling that we don't know our own family. We can grow distant from our spouse and especially from our kids. I know for me when I worked as a manager in a plastics factory my days were very long and that was part of the expectation that came with the territory. Most of the time my children were still in bed when I left for work and there were many days that they were already in bed when I got home. On some occasions they would stay up late just to kiss me goodnight as soon as I walked in the door, then off to bed they went! I found myself wondering who these kids really were. After all, I had no idea ... I simply wasn't taking the time to get to know them!
So another goal of working from home for me involved getting to spend some time with my children. Now, I will admit that this hasn't been all roses, as you no doubt will concede if you work from home. The ideal situation is far from reality, especially when the children are smaller, which has been my experience thus far. I have three children all currently under the age of eight, so they are starving for attention and would love to have the opportunity to monopolize my entire day if I were to let them. However, this would be counter-productive too, right? After all, if Daddy doesn't work the bills don't get paid! So there is a fine line here that demands our attention. We don't want to fall into the trap of allowing our children, who are now co-habitating with us in the "office", to monopolize all of our time so that we get nothing else done. By the same token, we don't want to end up working 24/7 so that despite the fact that we are working from home we still never spend any time with the family! So what is the solution? There is one simple thing that has worked for me. It is not without it's own set of problems, but it has helped dramatically in setting boundaries for me while working from home. It is the schedule, or the work calendar.
The Work At Home Schedule
So how does it work? It's simple really - you just have to take the place of your boss! Set yourself a schedule and a limit to how many hours you will work each week. Make a commitment to your clients that you will be available for a certain number of days each week and then for specific hours of each day. Now, be flexible - after all, you did decide to work from home to get back some control of your time, right? I'll share with you part of my schedule so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.
Officially, my work day starts at 12:00 noon and ends at 8:00 p.m. Yep, that's right. First off, I've decided that I like to sleep in. Is there anything wrong with that? Not really, not when you work from home! Next, I work straight through lunch and breaks. I don't smoke, but even if I did I would probably do it from my desk rather than go outside. I do use the restroom (why do we call it that?) and make a "tea run" to the kitchen every so often. However, breaks always used to irritate me at work. They came at inopportune times and always seemed to interfere with my thought process and work flow. So, since I'm working from home, I cut them out. As for lunch, I usually eat before I start working and if I decide I want a small snack during the work hours, I'm lucky enough to have a lovely wife to fix me something I can eat while working through lunch. On some days I will take a lunch, but guess what? It's entirely up to me!
This schedule allows me to spend some personal time alone in the mornings as well as spend some time with the family. In addition, after work I can spend some time (although less during school months) with the children as well. However, most of the evening time after my officially scheduled work hours I allow for time with my wife or time on personal projects, whether they be income related or other areas of interests (read: hobbies). The only kicker here is that if I get too carried away in the evenings I sometimes stay up waaay to late. Oh, well I guess that's ok because I do get to sleep in.
Finally, it's up to me what days of the week I work and when I take a vacation. As a freelance professional, I have found that most clients are respectful of this concept. After all, I did decide to work from home for a reason, right? For me, Saturdays are always off limits. We observe a seventh-day Sabbath and so we don't do any work related stuff from Friday night at sundown to Saturday night at sundown. For many people, Sunday would be their day of religious observance. Others may not have any such preference at all. Whatever your view on this point is doesn't really matter, as long as you set aside what days you will have off - no matter what. You have to make time to take time off, or working from home will take over your life. It can be worse than a job if you're not careful You thought your old boss could be a hard task-master, wait until you meet your own dark side! So for me, Monday through Friday are the standard work days. I do work on Sundays, on occasion, however I fully reserve the right to take every Sunday off.
As for vacations, most clients don't care when you take vacation - just be sure and notify them ahead of time that you are going to be out of the "office". Working from home, I find that vacation time is more a function of me having the money saved up to do something or go somewhere. After all, since I'm working for myself from home, I don't have the luxury of a 'paid vacation' benefit. I have to make sure I budget appropriately and set aside enough money so that once or twice a year I can take time off without feeling the pinch of no money for a week.
Conclusion
I know this has been a long post, but I'm hoping you really got something out of this. Just to recap, I want to go over the things that have helped me manage my time better while working from home.
- Set Goals - why are you working from home? Put every work decision into perspective in light of these goals. For me it was more control over personal time and more time with the family. If your goals are similar, then set boundaries around these things and protect them from your work!
- Scheduling Calendar - Set a work schedule, and stick to it! This will help you keep a balance between work and play. Before I had a schedule I had weeks were I would not get any work done. Other weeks I would flip-flop the other direction and work my butt off, but never see my family. Having a daily schedule and weekly set-in-stone "off" days has allowed me to be more productive and to ensure time with my family.
- Enjoy Yourself - This one wasn't covered earlier, so consider this a bonus - your reward if you will - for reading this far into the blog post! Anyway, you have to enjoy yourself. You were miserable at work at a regular job, right (most people anyway)? So why be miserable at home? Find something that you enjoy doing, and do it from home to make money. I can't stress enough the importance of being happy with your "work", especially now that it takes place in your home. Before, you could make the effort to leave your work problems at work. Now, the live with you. So enjoy yourself, enjoy your work and enjoy your family!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Check It Out: New Blogroll
OK, so before I had a list of "resources" ... whatever that meant.
I went on a search this evening for the elusive WAHD. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's right ... in search of the work-at-home dad! It's fairly easy to find a nice list of SAHDs (stay-at-home dads), but finding the group that stays there AND manages to work there, all the while being a dad no less, is very tough!
I assure you that I am qualified to do this type of research. I've been online for over 10 years. I've used search engines that pre-dated Google! Of course, they are all gone now, but that's beside the point. Even now, I'm a freelance writer and I provide SeRPs (search engine results pages) for the best human-driven search engine online. However, when it comes to the WAHD, I believe it's an endangered species!
Anyway, my hunting tonight pulled up some new blogs. Now before you go tearing me up, I already know that some of these are not WAHDs, but rather SAHDs. That's okay too ... I picked them because they are witty. So there you have it ... a new blogroll of the blogs that yours truly will be checking out over the next few weeks. Care to join me?
I went on a search this evening for the elusive WAHD. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's right ... in search of the work-at-home dad! It's fairly easy to find a nice list of SAHDs (stay-at-home dads), but finding the group that stays there AND manages to work there, all the while being a dad no less, is very tough!
I assure you that I am qualified to do this type of research. I've been online for over 10 years. I've used search engines that pre-dated Google! Of course, they are all gone now, but that's beside the point. Even now, I'm a freelance writer and I provide SeRPs (search engine results pages) for the best human-driven search engine online. However, when it comes to the WAHD, I believe it's an endangered species!
Anyway, my hunting tonight pulled up some new blogs. Now before you go tearing me up, I already know that some of these are not WAHDs, but rather SAHDs. That's okay too ... I picked them because they are witty. So there you have it ... a new blogroll of the blogs that yours truly will be checking out over the next few weeks. Care to join me?
Monday, July 23, 2007
A Day In The Life Of ...
Ever wonder what a day in the life of a SAHD WAHD looks like (OK that acronym wasn't funny!)? Well, I thought I would share with you what my day was like today. I'm sure that every stay and home dad and work at home dad has a vast and different experience, but I have always been intrigued, and I though you might be intrigued as well.
So, here's what happened at my house today.
Come back tomorrow, and perhaps we'll have another chance to visit.
So, here's what happened at my house today.
- 7:30 AM - Kids woke up. They are now my alarm clock.
- 8:30 AM - Watched 'Home on The Range' with the kids on DVD. We promised them we would watch it with them last night.
- 10:00 AM - OK, this is when I actually started 'working', if you can really call it that. I have a writing assignment that I started last night, and should finish up today.
- 12:00 Noon - Time for lunch. Spent more time with the kids. Not like they were not here while I was writing, but my wife pretty much kept them occupied so dad could 'work'. Unfortunately, we really don't have a spare room to set up as an office, so the PC is in the corner of the living room. Sure, I can type in the middle of a three ring circus, can't you?
- 1:00 PM - Watched some NASA videos with my son. He is really into the space thing, so this was cool. It is one of my interests as well.
- 3:00 PM - OK, it's back to the grindstone ... well, actually the keyboard. I picked up a second writing assignment, so I can begin working on it as soon as I am done with this one. I missed a tech support assignment on the tech job board ... someone else picked it up while I was offline with the kids. Oh well, life's full of opportunities ... you just have to decide which ones are the most important.
- 5:30 PM - Dinner time. We take time to eat together, although it is usually in front of the boob tube. I guess it's better than nothing, but this is an area I would like to improve on.
- 7:30 PM - Back to the writing gig. The kids are in bed now (their bedtime is 7pm), which allows me much more coherent thoughts when doing creative writing (if it can be called that).
- 9:30 PM - Woo Hoo! I'm finished with my writing assignment for the day. After roughly six hours of work, I've completed 15 keyword articles for submission. I also received payment offers on two exclusive articles I submitted over at Associated Content. This makes the day a productive one.
- 10:00 PM - After a short break, I'm back online, going over my blogs (I currently have 5 semi-active blogs that I am trying to get in shape to qualify for an advertising program). I'm posting, posting, posting, trying to get everything in shape for the advertising market that's out there.
Come back tomorrow, and perhaps we'll have another chance to visit.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
The Journey Home
My journey home began a long time ago, when my son was born.
He is six years old now, soon to be seven. From the moment I knew that my wife was pregnant, I started looking for a way to earn a living that would allow me to be home with my wife and my family. I investigated numerous multi-level marketing schemes, direct sales (cold calling, door-to-door) programs, Internet marketing scams, etc. You name it, I probably have checked it out.
You may be asking why on Earth I would want to put my personal career on hold (assuming I've got one) to stay home or work from home and help take care of children (now there are three!). Let me elaborate on that in another post. For now, suffice it to say that I have a deep-seated desire to be a genuine part of my children's lives, to shape their character - who they are and what they stand for. I don't want to leave the raising of my children to the public education system, daycare, or even to my wife alone. I want to be an integral part of their upbringing.
So, as of June 19th, 2007, this dream has become a reality. On that day, I turned in my resignation for a job going nowhere to a boss who's already arrived there. I stepped off the platform of 'my career', and onto the path of the 'real men'. In my book, real men are the ones who stay home.
After all, anyone can have a career. However, you may sometimes note that those who arrive at the top of their 'game' frequently arrive there without some or all of the members of their family.
Thank God I finally stepped out in faith to do what my heart has been telling me to do for years.
He is six years old now, soon to be seven. From the moment I knew that my wife was pregnant, I started looking for a way to earn a living that would allow me to be home with my wife and my family. I investigated numerous multi-level marketing schemes, direct sales (cold calling, door-to-door) programs, Internet marketing scams, etc. You name it, I probably have checked it out.
You may be asking why on Earth I would want to put my personal career on hold (assuming I've got one) to stay home or work from home and help take care of children (now there are three!). Let me elaborate on that in another post. For now, suffice it to say that I have a deep-seated desire to be a genuine part of my children's lives, to shape their character - who they are and what they stand for. I don't want to leave the raising of my children to the public education system, daycare, or even to my wife alone. I want to be an integral part of their upbringing.
So, as of June 19th, 2007, this dream has become a reality. On that day, I turned in my resignation for a job going nowhere to a boss who's already arrived there. I stepped off the platform of 'my career', and onto the path of the 'real men'. In my book, real men are the ones who stay home.
After all, anyone can have a career. However, you may sometimes note that those who arrive at the top of their 'game' frequently arrive there without some or all of the members of their family.
Thank God I finally stepped out in faith to do what my heart has been telling me to do for years.
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