One of the best aspects of Working Online from home or starting your own Internet Home Based Business is you do not need to invest huge amounts of  money in equipment as you most likely already have it. However, depending on the work you choose there are some tools/things you will need to enhance your capacity and make working online from home that much easier and more productive.

When choosing new software, in the majority of cases you have the choice to either buy a commercial product or download a free/shareware product. The biggest advantage that commercial products have over free products is the help and support desk functions, which most companies provide, should you need it.  In the majority of cases the software provider will get back to you promptly as they understand a good customer experience facilitates a long lasting relationship. Obviously the down side of commercial software is you need to fork out money for the package.

In the case of free software the majority of the packages have user forums where you can get help from other experienced users. Some of the larger packages provide both free and commercial support eg OpenOffice.org. My personal experience with user forums is they can be as good as a support desk but you do run the risk of not having your question answered in the time you need. Further you may need to trawl lots forums/websites to find the right answer.  When it comes to the tools that I consider critical to the operation of my business I buy software and/or support. For software I use every now and again I tend to go for freeware/shareware products.

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By Lilian Okado

Where to begin

When defining one’s path on the road to a successful online career, where does one begin?

Before answering this question I would like to state that it doesn’t help much, to speak about making money online if there are no practical examples of how this can be done. It doesn’t help either to only use examples of others’ experiences without also sharing my individual experiences pursuing an online career. Therefore I have written this article largely from my own experiences making money online as a freelance writer.

For starters, the field of writing is diverse and covers a whole range of subjects and areas such as: SEO/copy writing, book writing, report writing, article writing, resume writing, blogging, web content writing, technical writing, business plan writing, press release writing, etc and it is up to you to know or discover which areas best suit you.

If you think about it writing work should be some of the easiest to find online today because practically everyone needs writing services of some kind. Think of all the free articles, book reports, web copies, sales pages, ads that you can find online; each one has a different author at the helm of their creation and development. What of the millions of eBooks available on the net on practically every subject? Fact is, someone somewhere wrote them. It may be the owner of the website or the website administrator who is constantly weaving relevant content for their sites and oftentimes these people get busy. They may have competing deadlines to meet and neither the time, nor the expertise, to constantly pen out technical manuals/professional copy writing for their sites. Therefore many opt to use freelance writers like myself to do the heavy lifting (writing) for them.

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A well known internet marketer who is launching his latest online study program on making money online. I will not mention names – suffice to say 25+ emails in two weeks was a bit much. Especially since this guy is very successful and was continually telling us the course he is marketing had only five remaining places two weeks ago! I do not begrudge anyone success or prosperity – but the hard sell has just been over the top. Beware all of you who are likely to be swayed by hard sell – I was once and once was enough. What left me feeling uneasy about this particular marketers approach is as follows:

1. The price of participation was framed – “I am giving you this opportunity at the lowest possible price I can because I am a nice guy and I want you to share in my prosperity – really I should be charging you a lot more – I am barely covering my costs…” Well that sounds like a descent thing to do right? Sure it does…

Now lets juxtapose that with – “and for the privilege of participating in this program and making money, because you WILL make money on this program, you get to share the profit with me 50/50!” How great is that??? Now that changes the story just a little don’t you think? So much for “this will only cost $X“. Now we are splitting profits!? Again I do not begrudge anyone to make a profit – but to frame it this way is, to me, duplicitous.

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My latest thinking? Do yourself a favour, get some blinkers and focus. At least I need them – or I need to unsubscribe from the numerous mailing lists I have joined or better still NOT to sign up in the first place. You know what it’s like – you start this work online journey and then you become exposed to offers and you sign up for mailing lists. They are all offering great freebies – so why not right? WRONG! They entice you onto lists with ‘freebies’ to sell you things later on.

Not only are the lists about selling  but they are also a major source of distraction. And if you are anything like me – well lets just say I can allow myself to be distracted…very distracted. And distraction is one thing we don’t need when we are trying to work, often alone, from home… it kind of reminds me of uni essay time. We had had the cleanest cupboards and bathrooms right? Well those latest offers are the work online equivalent of cleaning the bathroom. Actually we would be better off cleaning the bathroom…

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Considering earning money online? Why not diversify your income? Assume you are talking to a financial adviser – s/he will always advise you to diversify your investments - you know the saying…don´t put all your eggs in one basket. However, most of us never consider diversifying our sources of income. But why consider this at all?  Because the world is changing and what was secure is no more. No, we are not scare mongering. We are simply acknowledging that given the constant change globally we all need to have some other money making options we can call on and the net seems to be an ever expanding market place.

Like most of you when it comes to income we used to work from the accepted mentality e.g. “get a good steady job” or “learn a trade and you will be set for life” or “get your degree and work hard” etc.  And, like you we ‘trusted’ our one source of income i.e. If we worked 40 hours plus per week, week in and week out, then it would be there… always. But the world has changed dramatically and what the net giveth – the net taketh away – or perhaps that’s vice a versa…. Due to globalization and the Internet, what once was, in employment terms ’secure’ , is no more – just think of how many companies have outsourced work (way) offshore. AND at the same time the net is providing opportunities for work and research and development to individuals. Previously this ‘privilege’ was enjoyed primarily by multinationals and universities – times they sure are a changing….

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Prepare? Yep you heard me right – prepare. I know, I know – you want to sign up for something and get started right?  That’s what we did… and I can tell you from experience though you certainly can do that… it is, in our opinion, not the smoothest route to take.  Preparing yourself and your loved ones will save you countless hours of hassle, wasted money and heartache. After all you wouldn’t enter into a business you’d never seen right? Or buy a piece of real estate sight unseen? And you certainly wouldn’t accept a full-time job (which may or may not pay) without having read the job description or duty statement first right?  Well, this is no different – actually it is.  Earning money online is an online business – your business – so preparing yourself in this context is preparing to take on your business.  On reflection, I can’t believe we failed to recognize that when we first started – and it cost us.

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