Save, save and save

When you work as an independant contractor you are responsible for paying taxes. Working from home has great benefits. I save money on daycare, gas, clothing and eating out.

I am able to save the money because I do not have to pay a baby sitter, no need to get gas as I am usually close by when not at home, no need to worry about office dress codes or buying new clothes and I eat what is in my home.

ChaCha Mainia

ChaCha has really exploded! I have a few people on my team and was happy to hear that I can give 20 invitations in which I have 18 left. If you are interested let me know and we will get you going. Prior to the change only 10 invites could be given.

This past weekend was busy! ChaCha was a sponsor for the Indy 500 in Indianapolis, In. We are getting tons upon tons of questions. ChaCha offered huge prizes to guides this weekend.

You can work as much as you want. There were guides who made over $200 in three days, our incoming volume keeps growing it's fantastic!

Going Back To LiveOps

I was contracted with LiveOps previously and was accepted by Arise. Arise was great until as previously mentioned the contractor rates for servicing clients remained sub-par and the traing costs more than doubled.

I am returning to LiveOps becuase it is a good opportunity and I can reactive easily within a few days.

Sad to say that Arise has turned into a money funnel for the big wigs. Too bad I liked working with AT&T, Apple & Disneyworld.

The key to todays lesson in the work at home lifestyle always have a solid backup plan.

Have A Safe & Happy Memorial Day!

I would like to wish each and everyone a reflective, appreciative, happy and safe Memorial Day. Each year my family takes flowers to the graves of relatives. It goes to show how quickly time flies. Most of the people who used to take me on the trip to the cemetery are in there waiting for flowers.

God bless America

A Totally Random Kudos!

I am a huge American Idol fan! I usually love, love, love the horrible singers at the beginning of each season. Bless them their hearts are in the right spot. However, it is the wrong place and the wrong time for them.

The key to this season was the instruments. I don't recall any of the other AI seasons with contestants that played instruments. Sometimes they forgot the words and that is a good thing. America needs to know it's okay to fall and it's okay to help the ones who forget the lyrics to get better.

This season, David Cook prevailed and I have to be honest. I am very happy he won!

Where does this lead into working from home? As the idols tried and stumbled in front of millions it is okay to stumble when you work anywhere as long as you have help getting back up. Visa versa if someone needs your help reach out and help. You never know when you will need help or when you will be asked to give help.

Commitment

Many people have asked me how do I stay at home and work full time from home. People wonder what keeps me motivated and commited to my stay at home career. Honestly, I get the drive to work from home to provide for my family. Working from home takes an amplified amount of dedication and drive. It entails a very busy online environment with a lot of communication. For me there is no face to face interaction. I rarely have business calls. Company meetings are held online in chat rooms. In fact, my last interview was on AIM.

I keep going and do not give up because I want to be able to feed my family, pay bills and do fun things with my family. I do work a lot but when it's time to play or rest there is no boss insight to stare down their nose. I am not the normal 9 to 5employee! My bosses are my kids. If I can't afford to pay the bills I have a feeling I'd be frowned upon by my little bosses. That my friends is what keeps me motivated and dedicated.

Expand Your Employment Horizons

When seeking a job or opportunity online remember you can always apply to jobs in the languages you are most comfortable speaking. If you primarily speak English but you are also fluent in other languages by all means apply! Employers usually pay more for bi-lingual agents.

If you speak only one language and want to learn other languages take a course in the language you want to learn. Expand your knowledge and increase the amount of opportunities for you. You can search for online courses, attend courses at your community center or even get a private tutor.

I like to subscribe to International penpal services on line to practice the other languages with friends from other countries. It's not work but it is a good way to practice different languages.

Ironically Even When Working From Home Corporate Is Still Out Of Touch

I have worked in huge corporations in the project management role and supervisory role as well. As an independant contractor I appreciate stream lined communication from the companies I work with to help each other out.

Last night I was reminded of how out of touch huge corporations can be. An email was sent from a big wig to all of the 1,000's of independant contractors and it let us know that who ever messed up would be suspended or terminated.

Things like this I do not miss about the corporate world. An out of touch power monster decided to send a statement and it really reduced the moral of the indepandant contractors who were doing a great job.

Blog for $$$

I love blogging. There are sites you can submit your blog to for advertisers to pay you to blog. What you should know is that for most blogging for $$$ sites, you need to have a blog to which you post on frequently for at least 30 days. During the time your blog is active join forums that relate to your blog. Add your blog to the signature lines of your forum signatures. This will allow others to visit your site and it will show the potential blogging for $$$ sites that you do in fact have visitors to your blog.

So far, I have not experienced a blog for $$$ opportunity which allows new blogs to be used as paid blogs. Don't be discouraged if your blog is not selected stick with it. Rome was not built in day ;)

Happy blogging!

Forums

You can look for paid posting positions on forums. Some forums will pay members to post and be active on their forums. It usually is not a lot but for as little as it takes to interact about things you care about and provide encouragement it's great.

If you apply to one of these positions be sure it is a forum with a topic you can provide valuable insight to.

Post At Home

Another good opportunity is Post At Home. It is a pretty simple straight forward job. You publish content on forums, blogs and other internet sites. I have been doing this for a few days and the training was great. It is easy to begin. I had a couple of questions and I was very pleased with how quickly the site owner, Michael helped out.

The company is fairly new. With a new opportunuty comes a learning curve. There are a few bugs to work out but I is always worth it to stick it out.

They are hiring!
http://www.workathomecooperative.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=54

How do I stay motivated?

People wonder how I stay motivated and what helps me stay focused on making a good living while working from home. That's easy. I am a free spirit. If I ever had to go back to the normal office environment with office politics I would be that horse you could lead to water but you could not make it drink.

Typically, each day as the kids are getting ready for school I clean up the office area and the kitchen. I can not work in a messy environment. After the kids go to school I am ready to log into my systems. It is usually quite as I work in the morning.

But mid afternoon I am with my lap top on my couch working away. Again getting paid to chat and post blogs as I am right now is priceless.

When the kids come home from school I am ready for homework patrol, taxi mom, swim lessons, therapy and dinner. Then bedtime comes. After the kids have gone to bed it is usually early enough to work a couple more hours or so.

The sound of their laughter. Being there for anything when they need me and the chance to make awesome memories with them is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I would not change it for the world.

Oh yes, if I want to go on vacation I just take my laptop and off we go. I virtualy work anywhere. Go figure!

Ways To Get Traffic and Referrals

Today, I was invited to join some traffic generation sites that claim to be free. I will post the links and a grade for each experience on the sites. Feel free to use them if you want to.

1. Traffic Generation Network
This site is easy to submit the information. There are a lot of categories to choose from. You get 10 credits to send your information out into the web. Here is the cool part. Rather than paying $$ for advertising you can surf the web for credit. It is a simple process. The link is listed in your profile and you view a page then you instantly get more credits to send your information that much farther into the web. Grade A++

Social Spark

I am pretty interested to see exactly how www.socialspark.com will work. The site has a solid concept. Advertisers hire bloggers to write reviews about a lot of different things.

I applied this morning and added this blog. It was a pretty simple process. I am just waiting for approval from the 'Customer Love Team'.

The people on the site are very friendly. I have already added 7 friends. They found me.

Stay tuned as I will update the blog as soon as I hear if the 'Customer Love' team loves this blog.

Arise

I am certified through Arise. I have participated in several positions as a virtual contractor for Arise. The pay and training for the opportunities were very good. For example, you would pay a certification fee of anywhere from $50-$100 to service a client. I would make that amount back in one day. It was worth it.

My perception of Arise has gone downhill. Connie Addock took over as the new President of Arise. The costs of certification has more than tripled for opportunties. There is a requirement to certify for sales, technical and customer care after you have already paid for the initial Arise certification. Did I mention the pay for the jobs did not increase. Someone is virtually pulling the wool over hard working virtual agents eyes. Too bad because I enjoyed the opportunities.

As a work from home professional there are other work from home opportunities this is why I am dedicated to tell you the good and the bad of working from home.

Regards,
Alison

Get Paid To Be A Social Butterfly? Really?

I have Facebook and Myspace accounts. Recently, I was invited to join Yuwie. Same social networking concept only better! You get paid to post pictures, update your profile, add friends, profile views and a lot more.

I started yesterday afternoon and so far I have 50 new friends. People want to be friends on this community because you get paid. Every time I open my profile there are new friends waiting. Now you can't get 'rich' from this but if you love being social this is the right place for you!

It is free to join Yuwie. Click the ad to get started!