Creativity Boosters for the Work-at-Homer.
Does your work-at-home (WAH) lifestyle leave you mentally drained ?
From freelance writers to web designers, work-at-homers need creativity boosts.
Here are five activities to try when you are burned out and in need of a creative recharge:
1. Exercise.
Walking outdoors can recharge you. Another option is to pop a workout video into the DVD player or hop onto your exercise machine. Exercise gets your blood flowing and increases your heart rate. Be careful not to overdo exercise so that you are too tired to work afterward.
2. Write in a journal.
Regardless of the type of work you do, a journal can help you to write down your thoughts so that you can focus. If you are in a creative field, a journal also helps you to archive your ideas. You can read them later, especially if you are suffering from a creative block.
3. Call a friend or relative.
Taking your mind off of your work is just like going out to lunch with someone from work. When you rap with someone, you get your brain working. When you return to work, your mind is fresh to begin creating again.
4. Take a nap.
Unless this activity tires you too much, a one-hour nap can recharge your brain. Your mind is very active during sleep. Imagine how many new ideas will surface when you wake up.
5. Take a drive.
Driving with the windows down can help you to unwind and think. Drive along a route with little traffic and let your mind wander. When you get home, you can tackle your work again.
Working at home does not have to deplete your energy so that you become drained during working and non-working hours.
Find a creative outlet or a way to recharge so that you can maximize your work-at-home performance.
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05 November 2008
04 November 2008
Working at Home Becomes Increasingly Attractive
Working at Home Becomes Increasingly Attractive.
By Angela Baca
On October 22, 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on the status of mass layoffs.
For the months of January to September 2008, BLS reported: “layoff events, at 14,811, were the highest since 2003; related initial claims, at 1,510,446, were the highest since 2002.”
With rising layoffs and a sour economy, consider the work-at-home (WAH) lifestyle. It is becoming more attractive as a form of employment.
If you are ready to try WAH, here are some tips to ease your transition:
1. Making a gradual transition.
Working at home might not be something you can jump right into by quitting your job. Use your spare time to conduct WAH job research. When you find a decent opportunity, try WAH employment on for size.
2. Establish a routine.
Whether you work on Saturday mornings or Monday afternoons, you need a routine to work effectively. One option is to record work times for a week and look for a trend.
What time periods produce your best performance? If you don’t have an optimum time, then use a pragmatic approach to scheduling your work time, like working around school drop-off and pickup times.
3. Write a business plan.
Not every type of WAH employment requires a business plan. You can modify a business plan into a WAH plan.
Here are some recommended factors to analyze: how many hours a week you need to work, what wages you will be paid for each hour of work or per work product, how you will track your income and calculate your taxes, and how you will expand your home employment over time.
4. Find a stimulating forum.
If you leave the workplace, you risk losing touch with market trends for your profession. Join a WAH forum or an online forum for similar professionals so that you can exchange ideas and supplement your market knowledge.
Working at home offers freedom from working for a boss.
WAH also requires good judgment and planning.
Using a logical approach to WAH will help you to stay on track and meet your goals.
Keep in mind that WAH earnings are also affected by economic problems just like mass layoffs.
By Angela Baca
On October 22, 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on the status of mass layoffs.
For the months of January to September 2008, BLS reported: “layoff events, at 14,811, were the highest since 2003; related initial claims, at 1,510,446, were the highest since 2002.”
With rising layoffs and a sour economy, consider the work-at-home (WAH) lifestyle. It is becoming more attractive as a form of employment.
If you are ready to try WAH, here are some tips to ease your transition:
1. Making a gradual transition.
Working at home might not be something you can jump right into by quitting your job. Use your spare time to conduct WAH job research. When you find a decent opportunity, try WAH employment on for size.
2. Establish a routine.
Whether you work on Saturday mornings or Monday afternoons, you need a routine to work effectively. One option is to record work times for a week and look for a trend.
What time periods produce your best performance? If you don’t have an optimum time, then use a pragmatic approach to scheduling your work time, like working around school drop-off and pickup times.
3. Write a business plan.
Not every type of WAH employment requires a business plan. You can modify a business plan into a WAH plan.
Here are some recommended factors to analyze: how many hours a week you need to work, what wages you will be paid for each hour of work or per work product, how you will track your income and calculate your taxes, and how you will expand your home employment over time.
4. Find a stimulating forum.
If you leave the workplace, you risk losing touch with market trends for your profession. Join a WAH forum or an online forum for similar professionals so that you can exchange ideas and supplement your market knowledge.
Working at home offers freedom from working for a boss.
WAH also requires good judgment and planning.
Using a logical approach to WAH will help you to stay on track and meet your goals.
Keep in mind that WAH earnings are also affected by economic problems just like mass layoffs.
12 September 2008
How to Make Money Teaching
How to Make Money Teaching.
Each of us knows how to do something that other people would like to learn although most people never take advantage of that fact.
It might surprise you to learn that there are ways you can share your talents and make a significant income without becoming a certified teacher.
Whether you’re knowledgeable about renovating an old house or collecting old china, there’s probably a market for the expertise you have to offer.
If you’d like to make money teaching, here are some ideas for putting your talents to work and getting paid for it:
Make money teaching - Network with local community colleges
You don’t have to be a professor or a scholar to teach a course at a local community college. Many of these colleges offer practical trade courses as well as non-credit courses on fun topics such as “How to Get Started in Genealogy” or “How to Improve Your Memory”.
Write out a list of course ideas you could potentially teach and contact you local community colleges with your proposals. You might find them to be very receptive to your idea.
Make money teaching - Hold training seminars for corporate clients
Do you have expertise in salesmanship, how to get free publicity, or some other aspect of business?
Develop a training course in that area and offer it to the employees of local businesses in your area. You could narrow it down even further and concentrate on a particular niche.
Have you been a successful waiter or waitress in the past?
Offer a training course to local restaurants where you teach their staff how to improve their serving skills and get more tips. Many restaurants need trained, professional wait staff but don’t have the time to teach them all of the nuances of providing good service. After visiting a few restaurants, you’ll be able to see how badly this service is needed!
Make money teaching - Teach an online course
There are a variety of websites that will allow you to design and teach the online course of your choosing and share the profits with you.
One example is universalclass.com. Another strategy is to contact large websites that promote products in your area of expertise and offer to host an online course or seminar for them. This would be a great traffic builder for them and could be quite profitable for you.
Make money teaching - Offer courses for local churches and organizations
If you have craft or hobby skills, contact local churches and organizations in your area such as women’s groups and offer to host a course or seminar teaching your hobby or skill. Don’t think that the skill you’re teaching has to be highly complicated or technical.
Do you have a flair for fashion?
Show local women’s groups in your area how to expand their wardrobe using unusual accessories. You could even hook up with women’s boutiques in your area and use their accessories in the seminar for a small fee.
Most boutiques would gladly pay you for this type of exposure. If you’re a jewelry maker, you could use your own handmade jewelry in the seminar and possibly make a few sales. Think out of the box.
With a little brainstorming, you can find a variety of ways to make money teaching in your local community and online.
People will always have a desire to learn new skills.
Why not give them what they want?
Each of us knows how to do something that other people would like to learn although most people never take advantage of that fact.
It might surprise you to learn that there are ways you can share your talents and make a significant income without becoming a certified teacher.
Whether you’re knowledgeable about renovating an old house or collecting old china, there’s probably a market for the expertise you have to offer.
If you’d like to make money teaching, here are some ideas for putting your talents to work and getting paid for it:
Make money teaching - Network with local community colleges
You don’t have to be a professor or a scholar to teach a course at a local community college. Many of these colleges offer practical trade courses as well as non-credit courses on fun topics such as “How to Get Started in Genealogy” or “How to Improve Your Memory”.
Write out a list of course ideas you could potentially teach and contact you local community colleges with your proposals. You might find them to be very receptive to your idea.
Make money teaching - Hold training seminars for corporate clients
Do you have expertise in salesmanship, how to get free publicity, or some other aspect of business?
Develop a training course in that area and offer it to the employees of local businesses in your area. You could narrow it down even further and concentrate on a particular niche.
Have you been a successful waiter or waitress in the past?
Offer a training course to local restaurants where you teach their staff how to improve their serving skills and get more tips. Many restaurants need trained, professional wait staff but don’t have the time to teach them all of the nuances of providing good service. After visiting a few restaurants, you’ll be able to see how badly this service is needed!
Make money teaching - Teach an online course
There are a variety of websites that will allow you to design and teach the online course of your choosing and share the profits with you.
One example is universalclass.com. Another strategy is to contact large websites that promote products in your area of expertise and offer to host an online course or seminar for them. This would be a great traffic builder for them and could be quite profitable for you.
Make money teaching - Offer courses for local churches and organizations
If you have craft or hobby skills, contact local churches and organizations in your area such as women’s groups and offer to host a course or seminar teaching your hobby or skill. Don’t think that the skill you’re teaching has to be highly complicated or technical.
Do you have a flair for fashion?
Show local women’s groups in your area how to expand their wardrobe using unusual accessories. You could even hook up with women’s boutiques in your area and use their accessories in the seminar for a small fee.
Most boutiques would gladly pay you for this type of exposure. If you’re a jewelry maker, you could use your own handmade jewelry in the seminar and possibly make a few sales. Think out of the box.
With a little brainstorming, you can find a variety of ways to make money teaching in your local community and online.
People will always have a desire to learn new skills.
Why not give them what they want?
06 September 2008
Writing For The Net
Writing For The Net.
By Elizabeth Chayne
The Internet means a lot to the freelance writer.
Submissions with the click of a mouse, quicker replies, and most of all, more markets. We’re not just talking e-zines here, either.
There are hundreds of new opportunities to be found online, whether you’re looking for one-time cases or long collaborations.
What astounds me is that
there are now websites dedicated to making us—that is, us freelance writers—money. Sites that are not scams and actually work for the writer instead of making us work for them. Ah, the wonders of the Net.
There is a catch, of course. Most print editors probably won’t think much of your online credentials, and the people who buy your article may never ask you for another. But if the important thing is having some extra cash in your pocket, read on.
All these sites pay with PayPal, which is pretty much the way to get paid in the virtual world nowadays. Don’t worry, though, it’s real cash!
Constant Content (http://www.constant-content.com/) is a little like the eBay for writers.
You can post up articles you’ve written, along with the prices/terms you’d like to get, and hope someone buys it. Or you can check the “Requests” section where publishers, editors, and people who need a writer put up their requests, along with the prices/terms they’re willing to pay. All content submitted to the site is run through editors, who proofread and check that there is no plagiarism.
Another site where you can publish your articles is Associated Content (http://www.associatedcontent.com/).
You are paid a direct fee for your work, which, like Constant Content, has to be run through editors first. This site has an interesting payment feature known as Performance Payment, meaning that you get paid according to the number of views your page gets.
The current payment per thousand page views is $1.50, though the site says this is subject to change. Note that international submitters are only eligible for performance payments due to tax complications.
Writers on About (http://beaguide.about.com/) are required to send in a certain amount of articles and add updates to their blogs within a certain amount of time.
Currently, the minimum requirement is two articles every fourteen days, and one to three blog updates every week. They also pay in page views.
A tough site to break into is Suite101 (http://www.suite101.com/).
They also have minimum posting requirements, and writers of the site have to go through a selection process. The site pays via Google Adsense, which means you get a share of the advertising revenue.
These and many other sites are a great “modern” way to find buyers, or just stick those articles you wrote “for fun” and don’t know what to do with—who said writing was all about the money, anyway?
By Elizabeth Chayne
The Internet means a lot to the freelance writer.
Submissions with the click of a mouse, quicker replies, and most of all, more markets. We’re not just talking e-zines here, either.
There are hundreds of new opportunities to be found online, whether you’re looking for one-time cases or long collaborations.
What astounds me is that
there are now websites dedicated to making us—that is, us freelance writers—money. Sites that are not scams and actually work for the writer instead of making us work for them. Ah, the wonders of the Net.
There is a catch, of course. Most print editors probably won’t think much of your online credentials, and the people who buy your article may never ask you for another. But if the important thing is having some extra cash in your pocket, read on.
All these sites pay with PayPal, which is pretty much the way to get paid in the virtual world nowadays. Don’t worry, though, it’s real cash!
Constant Content (http://www.constant-content.com/) is a little like the eBay for writers.
You can post up articles you’ve written, along with the prices/terms you’d like to get, and hope someone buys it. Or you can check the “Requests” section where publishers, editors, and people who need a writer put up their requests, along with the prices/terms they’re willing to pay. All content submitted to the site is run through editors, who proofread and check that there is no plagiarism.
Another site where you can publish your articles is Associated Content (http://www.associatedcontent.com/).
You are paid a direct fee for your work, which, like Constant Content, has to be run through editors first. This site has an interesting payment feature known as Performance Payment, meaning that you get paid according to the number of views your page gets.
The current payment per thousand page views is $1.50, though the site says this is subject to change. Note that international submitters are only eligible for performance payments due to tax complications.
Writers on About (http://beaguide.about.com/) are required to send in a certain amount of articles and add updates to their blogs within a certain amount of time.
Currently, the minimum requirement is two articles every fourteen days, and one to three blog updates every week. They also pay in page views.
A tough site to break into is Suite101 (http://www.suite101.com/).
They also have minimum posting requirements, and writers of the site have to go through a selection process. The site pays via Google Adsense, which means you get a share of the advertising revenue.
These and many other sites are a great “modern” way to find buyers, or just stick those articles you wrote “for fun” and don’t know what to do with—who said writing was all about the money, anyway?
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