I normally warn people away form the free or buy-in opportunities on the net. Most of them are built for one purpose, to rip of the desperate. There is an old business saying 'if you want to become wealthy than cater to the lowest denominator.' This is true with the opportunities. They all cater to desperate people who need money - now. Unfortunately, these people are so desperate that they will put their grocery money down for the promise that someone will help them succeed.
Of all the WHAM (work at home mom) programs - the only one I ever have - ever will support is WHAM.com. That doesn't mean that I believe their site is 100% danger proof. But, if you need to have your hand held, and to have someone show you how to manage your time, money, and business, then this is the place to find help.
Work at Home Moms Opportunity- are These Hard to Find?
Many mom dream of staying at home and being a full time mom. Money is usually the biggest thing preventing that from happening which is really sad when you think about it.
So in order to be a stay at home Mom you have to find a work at home Moms opportunity that you can start making money with. it does always seem to come back to making money doesn't it!
You can choose to start your home business with many different work at home Moms opportunities. You just have to take the time to do some research to find the opportunities that will be the best for you.
Don't give in and pick the first work at home opportunity you come across. Before you decide you have to thoroughly check out each one.
Most Moms get online to start a business but they want to do something that has to do with kids or with other things that Moms know a lot about. So decide what type of products you would like to sell and then look for a work at home opportunity that has them.
You can also find the opportunity and then look at the products if you don't have any clue about what you want to do. One idea would be to help other moms start their own online business by teaching tips you have learned.
You can find a lot of opportunities that are put together with Moms in mind. In other words, you can find a work at home Moms opportunity that only Moms would be interested in doing.
One website that really caters to work at home moms is WAHM.com. This is a website for moms and helping them make money working at home.
One way many moms choose to do is know as affiliate marketing. This is where you get paid to sell other people's products. There are several good places to elarn more about affiliate marketing.
One website that offers affiliate programs in many different areas is CJ.com. AssociatePrograms.com is another site that has a directory of affiliate programs, affiliate marketing training, and a discussion forum.
This is just a few ideas to start with. Just remember that it is not hard to find a work at home moms opportunity if you are willing to take the time to look for it. The Internet is the perfect place to do just that.
Guy Mendelson invites you to visit his work at home business idea website for hundreds of internet marketing tips. work at home moms opportunity
4/12/08
Work at Home Review: WHAM.com
Free Computer Security Software
I recommend AVG I used the Free AVG for the longest time, about 5 years. It protected me better than Norton did. In fact, I bought a new computer with Norton installed. It was working slow within 3 weeks so I ran AVG and found 250 extra viruses and tracking cookies that were slowing the computer down.
I also use Lavasoft spyware. I do have a fire wall with AVG, and spyware, in my paid version, but nothing beats lavasoft for finding a few 'loose cannons' in the files.
I do not trust Windows Defender - end of story.
I use AVG firewall, but if you can't pay for the full version of AVG then get ZONE ALARM.
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Looking After Your Computer
If you are going to work and do a lot of browsing on the Internet, the first thing you need to learn is how to take care of your computer.
It is far better that you take the trouble to look after your computer regularly, rather than have it freeze or crash when you lose everything on it, at which time you’ll have to pay out a lot to have it fixed.
Here are some tips to prevent disasters:
1) Set your virus checker to update itself automatically. This way, it is always updated with the latest protection.
2) Scan your computer daily when you finish working on it.
3) If on a certain day you happen to download many pages, software, programs, zipped files, exe files, etc., immediately after downloading everything, scan your computer. This way, just in case a virus existed in anything you downloaded, you will catch it in time before it infects your entire Hard Drive.
4) Use your online scanner to scan your computer once a week.
5) Use your adware/spyware checker once a week.
6) Do not open any attachments in emails from people you do not know.
7) Do not open any attachments even from people you do know, if you are not expecting anything from them.
8) A virus could replicate itself to everyone on the address book and send itself out by email, without the owner even knowing this has been done.
9) Do not download free music on the Internet – these free sites are always infected.
10) Do not download any free games from the Internet.
11) Adult sites are particularly prone to viruses.
12) Back up all your data on a daily basis. Use floppy disks, flash drives, memory sticks, zip disks, CD-ROMs, etc.
13) Print out contracts, payment forms, agreements and all legal documents and file them away in a ring-binder.
14) Try not to keep anything to do with your finances, payment details, payment processor passwords, credit card details, etc. on your computer.
15) A hacker could easily access all these details, if they are anywhere on your computer.
Sadly, despite all these precautions your computer might still get infected, as the people who invent these malicious programs are getting even sneakier.
When this happens, the easiest way to rid your computer of a virus is by rebooting your computer. This is not as difficult as it may sound, and if you learn how to do this yourself you could save yourself hundreds of dollars in repair bills.
Author: Pooja Rani
Have You Forgotten About Technorati?
We all know what technorati is. We claimed our blogs when we first started to blog. But, over time we stopped going to technorati to ping our blogs. We let them go out of date. We stopped using technorati.
Now to be honest - I know about the melt down. I know about the apparent 'lost' service rep hiding out in the basement of some dark office tower...as the urban legend goes.
But, despite that, technorati should not be ignored. There is a new tool at technorati that lets you access your tehnorati account from blogger, AOL, wordpress, and other blog platforms using the open ID feature.
It is also important to remember that many ranking systems, such as the one used at sponsored reviews, give your technorati rank importance. That said - thencorati (like Google) doesn't count all your links.
I personally have tried to use their search and am not impressed. After 10 minutes of being told there were no posts in my blogs (of 8 paid post blogs) with the tag 'blog' and then trying a site wide search to be told that no one is blogging on 'blogs' - I gave up.
Visit More Learning Sites:
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Social Networking and Music
Youtube brought social networking and music video together. This community has done a lot to let people meet friends, network, meet business colleagues, and share. This platform has been so successful that other sites have taken the premise one step farther.
If you are not comfortable in the 'kid zones' of social networking then join 3gb community www.3gb.biz. One of the advantages 3gb has over the other sites is that people actually talk to each other. They are not just pumping their own product online and hoping someone else will hit their posts.
This makes 3gb more effective and fun than 99% of the other networking sites. I give this site a thumbs up and think it is a great place for my blog fans. This site not only lets you share photos, but you can share MP3 as well.
If you want to chat with me then just find the following avatar or gracepub
4/1/08
Open Source Survives
(NSDQ: MSFT)
It's bad enough that Microsoft is threatening to sue the independents who are creating open source software. But what's hard to take is their belief that you cannot create your own scripts without stealing Microsoft code for your project. At the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, one show organizer took revenge. Remember, Linux was well established while MS was still working out of a garage.
Jonathan Corbet, the man in question, said in a panel at the Conference in San Francisco last May:
"I feel I've been called a thief," he said levelly during a panel at the event, and pointed out that Microsoft was one of the companies that had patented "thousands of trivial functions ... There's no way to write a nontrivial program that can't be claimed to infringe on someone's patents."
What MS doesn't want you to know is that there is a lot of open source code floating around their programs.
This is an old - old - argument. Open source and corporations have been arguing over ownership of code for generations. There are millions of dollars of stolen code floating through corporate America.
Programmers can identify their work because they may put their babies birth date, or the first date they kissed their husband, into the code. They are always finding code being sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars that contains their code - but gives them no credit.
This could be one reason why Vista won't let so many software programs work on their system. This limits the number of open source software you can use if you have Vista.
What does this mean for us? Open Source doesn't mean second hand, not good enough, or second rate quality. It does mean 'free for public use.'
I use some open source and free software. Most of Google's toolbar tools are open source and donated.
If you want to try out some open source software programs then visit:
http://www.opensourcewindows.org/
http://www.tucows.com/
Should You Try to Control Google’s Adsense Ads?
There is a lot of controversy over whether a blogger should put meta code in their blog templates, and use H1, H2, H3, heading tags to control the ads Google puts on their blog.
I am on the pro side. I find that the meta tags and heading codes gives me the freedom to go a little ‘off topic’ without worrying about having random, low paying, and off topic ads appear in my Google Adsense towers.
That said, many bloggers think they are missing Google’s highest paid opportunities by trying to control the system. They argue that the click through rate may be lower, and that google’s sliding scale will slide farther down in Google’s favor. All – reasonable and realistic possibilities.
The answer to the question is personal, but should also depend on whether you expect to earn most of your revenue from Google. Most bloggers do not.
In fact, most bloggers are lucky to receive one or two checks a year. Not Google’s fault. They tell you how bloggers how to succeed. There are a lot of blogs like this one that teach bloggers how to succeed. The problem is that most bloggers do not get it.
I’ve talked to many new bloggers who think that posting 10 articles a month is horrible, let alone 50 or 100. Yet, they want the same income as bloggers who do post this number of blogs. The facts are clear. Bloggers cannot work on their blog ‘in their spare time’ and expect to earn a full time income.
But, if the blogger does put the work into their blog, I think they should stick with the ads that have proven to pay in the past, the ones which their readers click through most often…and to do that, you need to control Google using legal SEO tricks.
Common Business Mistake: Bad Publicity
Marketing Through Controversy Can Backfire
There are success stories that used controversy to build a brand name and to promote their business through controversial issues. This may include using swear words in the product to outright rebellion against the system. It is true that many of us never hear of a person or product before the controversy. That doesn’t mean their sales increase with the exposure.
Ruffling feathers in some venues may increase sales as people rush out to buy the product (or read the blog/book) to see what the controversy is about. But, think about the long term. When you offend people they want nothing to do with you. You alienate part of the market.
It also stains your company/personal brand. You are never again seen with the same respect or social standing. Branding is the one thing that people remember about you/your business. It is important to make sure that your marketing campaign focuses on the positive – problem solving – customer friendly aspects of the business.
If you are considering to spark controversy then it is vital that you know everything about your target audience. Who will buy the product – not who will jump on the controversy bandwagon. What is the risk assessment. How far do you want to offend people.
Can you realistically expect to earn more money by losing a large segment of your target audience?
Avoid Common Mistakes: Slamming the Competition
Many businesses work hard to offer more than the competition does. They go the extra mile. They take a bigger profit cut. These are all good promotion and marketing tactics. They are the foundation of a solid marketing campaign that will work for small ecommerce business owners as well as brick-and-mortar business owners.
The problem comes when the business owner starts to highlight the differences. There is a fine line between highlighting the best in your business and bad mouthing the competition. Even if the complaints are legit. Even if there are thousands of reviews stating the same thing as your internet marketing campaign does. If you badmouth the competition clients will see ‘you’ as the bad one – sale lost.
Vacations as Tax Write Offs for Writers
Have you ever seen those websites where the owners and successful members are all on vacation, laughing it up, enjoying the good life? Well, why don’t you do it? I am not saying that you need to broadcast all of your holiday pictures across the internet. But, there are some pictures that make you look successful.
One of the best things to do is have your picture taken with successful people. This can be done either locally or internationally. No matter where you vacation, there are dozens of chances to meet someone photo-worthy.
Branding is about fame. It is about making your image and name recognizable. One way to do that is to impact the viewer and make them remember. A good way to do this is to associate with famous people. Keep in mind, fame is relative. It is also illusive. If you hang with famous people – even if no one has heard of them – then you must be famous.
Also, if you use your vacation to promote your product, take pictures at famous places, take pictures with famous people, and research the competition then the vacation becomes a tax write off.
Submit Blogs To Paid Posts Carefully
It is a hard decision to make. I have 30 blogs. They are not all submitted to PayPerPal, Smorty, etc. I have two trains of thought on the purpose. I do have blogs that will earn money at all. I think I would probably make $500 - $1000 more a month if I submit to all.
The problem is, can my blogs carry 30% more load for every new agency? If I submit a blog to all of the big three, that might mean I will need to post 5 – 10 new posts per blog, per agency. This translates into 15 – 30 new blog posts.
This doesn’t count the ‘real content.’ I do use free content, but each of those posts start with up to 100 words of my own thoughts. I already write about 30 posts a week, with 60 more ‘real content’
Not only would my workload increase if I submitted all blogs to all PayPerPost agencies, but so would my subscriber load. I currently have about 35 subscribers. Each of these receive up to 30 posts a week in their email. Doubling this would not only be rude, they would leave me.
It is something a blogger needs to consider. Even paid post blogs have loyal subscribers and they have people who visit their website on a regular basis. I have about 300 return visitors on one blog. I consider them more valuable.
So, what do you do if you need to make more money? The solution is either to increase your page rank so you earn more money per post (I have earned as much as $50 for a post). Or, you can just create more blogs. (note: I said blogs not splogs)
Before answering the question you need to determine which blogs you want to selectively choose the blog posts you want to be on your site, and which ones you don’t mind having ads on.
This will organically divide your blogs. If you are striving for PR4 or higher on a blog, then don’t sign with a company like blogsvertise which doesn’t give you a choice and penalizes you if you continually reject blog posts.
