Building Your Home Business While Working the 9 to 5

Starting a home business while still employed can be intimidating at times.  A busy work schedule and home life along with the pressures of starting a business are enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure.  It can be accomplished, however, with a little patience, clear home business goals and a fresh cup of coffee.

Working  Towards  “Something”

The point of having a home business is that you’re working towards “something.”  Whether you’d like to earn extra income to pay off debt, pay for future bills like college for the kids or become financially independent and quit your regular job, you obviously have some goals in mind.  These goals are the driving force behind your business.  Even when you’re tired and feel overwhelmed with tasks, your goals can keep you motivated.

Write your goals down and keep them in a visible location.  You might want to hang them on the refrigerator, your computer or even on the bathroom mirror.  Place them where you’re likely to see your goals on a daily basis.

Keeping your goals in mind will motivate you to work hard on those nights when you’d rather be sleeping.

Keep a Realistic Schedule/Time Management

Set a steady, but realistic work schedule for your home business.  Plan specific times for marketing, financial assessments, website design adjustments and home office organization.  For example, you might spend fifteen minutes per day marketing your online business.  This doesn’t seem like a whole lot, but you’d be amazed at the results of doing this steadily.  When you’re limited in time, you can’t afford to waste a moment.  That’s why time management is so important.

Being realistic with your schedule is also crucial. Don’t work yourself into a coma.  Plan your home business schedule while considering other aspects of your life.  You don’t want to neglect your family or your primary source of income.  If you can only work on your business five hours per week, then put forth your best effort during those five hours to make the most of it.

Capitolizing on the 9 to 5

One benefit of keeping your full-time job while building your home business is that you have a steady flow of funds.  You’ll be able to put more money back into your business when you’re not depending on every dime to pay your bills.  Even if you plan to eventually quit your regular job, your business can tremendously benefit from it while you do both.

HELP!

If you find it difficult to work on your business at a steady pace, hiring others to help out on a part-time basis might be an option.  Your spouse or an older child might be thrilled to help grow the business, or you might need to hire an outsider to do a few daily tasks.  It really depends on your cash flow, business schedule and the demands of the business.  Some home businesses are more demanding than others.

Although it can be stressful at times, you can successfully operate a home business while employed elsewhere.  Follow these tips for home business success while working the 9 to 5.

To Your Success with Honesty, Integrity, and Honor!

I Promise Myself

I Promise Myself

These are some words that I like to reflect upon often. I like to use them for additional mindset. I thought I would share them with you.

How To Eliminate Writters Block

One of the first things one might consider is…Get the heck out of here! A change of scenery can be worth a million bucks and may be all it takes to get those creative juices flowing like a mountain stream again. If your working in your house, and have a laptop, try just changing rooms. Even a subtle change can do the trick. If your on a laptop, maybe hit the cyber cafe. A good cup of java of your choice, and some breath time, [the time it takes to get there] might do the trick. If your stuck on your PC, try just stepping away and listening to some cool music of your choice. I know for myself, music is very inspirational. When you set out to change your atmosphere, it puts you in a different frame of mind and eases things up a little.

The second thing to consider is moving away from your main writing objective or topic. Instead write something about the time of year your experiencing, like a holiday season. Or perhaps the bird you see outside your window, in my case it’s mostly squirrels. Doing this might be a good way to get back in your groove.

A third alternative may be to try just getting back to the basics. Write your copy as though it was intended for your family or best friend. Don’t think about the audience, think about it as writing to someone you might know. This may not be your ideal avenue to travel upon, but it may just snap you out of your problem that is holding you back, the menace.

Fourth on our list is…Just walk away, ride a bike, take a walk, read a book. Lose the stress. If you don’t, you’ll never find the groove. By taking some time away from the stress you may find the words will flow like that mountain stream again back to you naturally.

With any luck, one of these 4 steps should help you overcome the menace. This should be helpful when your doing any copywriting, article marketing, emailing, or writing any sales copy.

HTML 101 Cheat Sheet

This HTML cheatsheet was made to fill a need that I had to properly write copy for article marketing. It is a very basic cheatsheet designed for beginners who are confused with HTML. It has helped me alot and I hope it helps you too.

*Please feel free to reprint this and use it to get you started. 

BASIC

OPEN = < >

CLOSE = < />

BOLD = b <b>BOLD</b>

ITALICS = i <i>ITALICS</i>

UNDERLINE = u <u>UNDERLINE</u>

PARAGRAPH= p <p>PARAGRAPH</p>

HOW TO CREATE LISTS

ORDERED LIST = ol

UNORDERED LIST = ul

ITEM = li

<ol>

<li>ITEM ONE</li>

<li>ITEM TWO</li>

<li>ITEM THREE</li>

</ol>

WILL CREATE:

1. ITEM ONE

2. ITEM TWO

3. ITEM THREE

<ul>

<li>ITEM ONE</li>

<li>ITEM TWO</li>

<li>ITEM THREE</li>

</ul>

WILL CREATE

• ITEM ONE
• ITEM TWO
• ITEM THREE

TO MAKE A URL/WEBSITE LINKABLE

<a target=”_new” href=”http://agentoffortune.net/&#8221; = This is the URL the viewer will be sent to.

>http://agentoffortune.net</a&gt; = This is the URL the viewer clicks on.

TO CREATE AN ANCHOR TEXT

<a target=” _new” href=”http://agentoffortune.net/&#8221; = This is the URL the viewer will be sent to.

>DISPLAY TEXT</a> = This is the text in the article the viewer clicks on to be taken to the link. i.e; CLICK HERE.

The Beginners Guide to Blogging

As I mentioned in my “Hello World” blog post, that I would tell you if I was not the actual pen of an article. Well, this is one of them that I pulled out of the archives about basic blogging. I felt it was pretty good and decided to make the post. I hope you enjoy it.

A blog is basically an online journal wherein you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read. Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user. Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3’s on your blogs.

Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging.

Basically a blog contains these 5  features:

1. title- which allows you to label your post
2. body- this is the content of your post
3. trackback- other sites can be linked back to your blog
4. permanent link- every article that you write has a URL
5. comments- this allow readers to post comments on your blog.

One of the advantages of blogging, is that it is made of only a few templates. Unlike, other websites that is made up of numerous individual pages. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc.

This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can chose from a  number of templates that blogging websites provide.

Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice. Once they’ve become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other bloggers pages, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members’ blogs.

Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs espouse on their specific themes. This way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Some bloggers even use their blogs as a means to advertise. Some authors advertise their books on their blogs. While other bloggers, use their blogs to shed light to currents issues, events, news and catastrophes.

Nowadays in education, blogs also play an important part. Professors use blogging to document the lessons that they have discussed and taught. This way, students who who have missed classes, can easily catch up with their assignments.

A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs, with millions and millions of people logging onto the net everyday, blogging has become a lucrative move. Some bloggers who run online businesses promote their merchandise online. While others profit through advertisement.

But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives, poems, rants, opinions, find that blogging offers them a medium in which to express themselves.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other.

Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. First time users who want to get an idea of what the blogging world is all about can browse through a number of blogs using these directories. This way they’d get an idea of what these blogging communities are like.

Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are no rules when it comes to blogging. Bloggers have the freedom to express themselves how ever way they want, and the best thing about blogging, is that most blogging sites are free.

There are numerous blogging websites to choose from in the net. This give first time users the option of joining a blogging community that appeals to their interests.

Just search any blogging directory and you’d get a listing of a lot of blogging sites that are available on the net. It’s easy to search a blogging directory, because it is organized according to category. This way you would get exactly what you are after. Blogging is really for everyone. It is fun, simple and easy.

To Your Success in Honesty, Integrity, and Honor!

How You Can Use The “Secret” in Your Daily Life.

Have you ever watched the movie, or read the book “The Secret”? This was the first in a series of self-improvement books/movies that I have personally indulged in. And after having done so, everyone wants to know, how can I use the Secret? This is all well and good because the book is really excellent, and the movie moves you even more. [It did me.] But the one thing that may leave you wondering about is how to implement the Secret in every day living.

One of the first things you could do is not to stop with just watching or reading the Secret. There are tons of other sources on the law of attraction and you need to devour as much of this information as you can. I have a few other books to compliment this on my bookshelf. Learn every aspect of it and how it influences your life.

The idea here is that your thoughts generate positive and negative waves. To understand your thoughts, would make you way ahead of the person that claims only to understand the laws of attraction.

Another part of the scheme in mastering the law is to start to write. Get a notebook and write down the things you desire. Most people don’t even have a clue what their predominant thought patterns are, much less than even knowing what they truly desire.

When you write things down you can start to explore your inner feelings on a much deeper basis. Seeing it on paper sanitizes it from the negativity and clouds in one’s mind.

The next thing to do is to take action. Use the law of attraction toward your goals. When you use a written journal,you can track all of the actions that you take that are in line with your gaols. For most people it’s hard for them to really see how they spend their time. When you set your plan in motion and watch it in your journal you have a better chance of seeing how things are going, or if your attaining your goal. This in turn could be spread out over time.

As time passes with many people taking the same tireless path and getting the same bogus results, they  would say that the law of attraction doesn’t work. But it did work. It gave them more of the same negativity that their thoughts were sending out. I know it works, all I have to do is desire the front parking space when I go shopping. I always get it.

To Your Success!

Hello world!

I’d like to welcome you to The Official Starving Marketers Blog.

Please browse the site and make yourself at home and let’s get to know each other.

Here you’ll find as much information that I can possibly provide you on a wide array of topics concerning Internet marketing and especially working from the comforts of your own home which is what this is all about. [At least for me.]

I hate spam as much as the next person so you will not be directed to an opt-in box or anything of that nature.

I too have fallen victim to the economic downturn and have had to supplement my income to support my family accordingly. I too turned to the Internet in hopes of doing just that…  And I am.

In closing, get ready from some excellent content, which may or may not be my own. If I’m not the author, we will damn sure make it’s known were the content came from and who the author is. Sometimes I’ll come across something that I  feel should be presented to “my team” that is of relevance, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be created by myself. 

You see, to be a good mentor and leader, you have to be able to find all the answers, and not know all the answers. If I did, you would surely not be reading my blog.

In Honesty, Integrity, and Honor,

Thomas