Judy Taylor is a stay at home mom who has been working from home since 2001. She has created a weblog to keep in touch with parents easier: http://i-am-a-stay-at-home-mom.blogspot.com
I am always advised by some of my friends and relatives that I’d better to find a job and spend some time out of home. I really don’t know why they advise me to do that while they are not happy with their jobs, getting up early morning everyday, taking the kids to daycare or leaving them with the babysitter and … . The worst part of their life is the money they make with their full time jobs. The luckiest one can have 10 bucks per hour after paying tax. They also have to pay for gas and other expenses that their cars have every month.
So what advantages does working out of home have for them? Why do they encourage me to do something that they are not happy with it? The advice I always give them is much better. I advise them to stay at home and let their kids grow under their nose. They don’t know how pleasant it is when you see your baby takes his first step or says his first word. Most of them are used to hear these news from their babysitters.
You may be a mom or dad with the same issues and problems with your full time job. I don’t want to ask you to quit your full time job right away, stay at home and think about working from home. I always try to teach people on my weblog and articles to be broad-minded and not to make any limitation for themselves. They can use their extra time they will have when their kids are slept or at the weekend to find some extra streams of income. Even if you don’t need to make any more money and you are happy with your current income but sooner or later you will need some more money. Your children will grow up and there will be many new things that you will have to provide for them. So it does worth if you spend some of the time you are used to spend to take nap or watching TV on finding good ways to create some new streams of income.
But how to get started?
1- First of all please keep in your mind that I do not want to tell you that you will become rich by working from home in a few weeks or even months. In fact you have to avoid all the get rich quick programs. I emphasized on this because I know as soon as people decide to try a working at home business, they turn on their computers, look for a easy work at home job that fits stay at home mothers or dads. It is the time that they can be cheated by scammers. So this is the first thing that you have to take into consideration if you want to work at home and make some extra money.
2- You need to get organized for spending some time on this business every week. This is like other businesses. Only serious and organized people can succeed. If you are a person who starts several businesses and becomes interested in different things but gives up at the first steps or if you become interested in different things just because one of your friends or relatives calls you and talk about it for a few minutes and then you lose your interest even before trying, just because one of your other friends calls you and says she doesn’t like it because of this and that, then you have to change yourself before you start a work at home business and become a stay at home mom (or dad).
I have been working from home online for many years. I could achieve to refer 22,000 people to one of the legitimate work at home programs and teach them everything that I knew but only few of them could make money. Not that it was hard to do. It was not hard because I could do it and a lot of other people could do it before me. Just because they were not serious and organized. They had not made a serious decision. This is the most important step. If you decide seriously and then take action and don’t give up, you will be able to become a successful stay at home mom who not only enjoys being with her family and children – and of course her children enjoy her presence at home – but can make reasonable amount of money.
3- Improve some of your computer skills. You don’t have to be a rocket scientists to work at home but you need to know the basics of computer and internet. When you want to work online and through the internet, you will be dealing with these terms very frequently:
- website
- weblog
- web directory
- email
- link
- search engine
- search engine optimization
- electronic newsletter or ezine
- autoresponder
- forums or discussion boards
- internet marketing
- advertising
- email advertising
- banner and banner advertising
- pay per click advertising and pay per click search engines (PPC)
- joint venture
- link exchange
- domain registration
- web hosting
- auction websites; e.g. eBay
Do not scare if you have not heard about some of the above terms. They are very easy. Soon you will know that working from home and through the internet is much easier than what you thought.
Just open one of the main search engines like Google and enter any of the above terms that you are not familiar with. You don’t have to learn in detail. Just the basics is enough for getting started.
4- After improving your knowledge, decide what you want to do to make money. There are zillions of ways to make money from home by using your computer. You will have main options:
- Sell your own products or services
- Sell others’ products or services
Don’t think that you have to have a factory for having a product which can be sold through the internet. Your product can be very simple things from candle, wooden cross and … to your articles, cookie recipes and e-books.
It is also as easy as 1, 2, 3 to promote others products and earn commissions. There are thousands of affiliate programs that you can join and become able to promote thousands of different products. Some affiliate programs pay as much as 75% commission to the affiliates.
Good Luck!