There’s little doubt that we’re in a recession. Thousands of people are losing their jobs, the financial sector has been hit hard, stocks have plummeted and unemployment is at its record high.

It’s a pretty scary time right now for many families. Finances are getting tight, and it’s sometimes hard just to get by. What’s worse is that it’s only going to get worse. I’m not trying to scare you, though. There is GOOD news that comes from this.

Even though people are losing their jobs and the state of the economy is in bad shape, there is still hope. Many are finding refuge with a work from home opportunity, earning a part or full-time income from home. There are numerous work at home ideas available to anyone that is looking to work from home. The problem for many is taking the time to research and sift through them all.

That’s where we come in. We have already taken the time to research and provide you only the best in legitimate and honest work at home opportunities. The easy part has already been taken care of for you.

The hard part now is deciding whether or not you’re willing to gamble with your current job. Hundreds of thousands of people are forced to find other employment. The problem is that not very many companies are hiring. How are all of these individuals going to provide for their families?

Don’t think it couldn’t happen to you. That’s if it hasn’t already. Now’s the time to be thinking about your future. There is a recession-proof cure, and it lies within the many legitimate work from home opportunities and within those that are willing to defend themselves and their family. Take the first step today in securing your future.

Starting a work from home online business is tougher than you may think. It takes a lot of work to make it successful and is no different than any other type of business. Hard work, persistence and dedication is the key.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that success will happen overnight. There are too many people that are scammed into thinking that a work from home business will make you rich overnight without any effort. Don’t be naive in thinking this way.

Another problem is that there is too much hype when it comes to online businesses. Do your research, and don’t buy into the success of others. It takes a lot to be successful, regardless of what people tell you. The successful ones have labored many hours over their work from home business and have experienced the success and failures that are associated with it.

Do your part and learn as much as you can. Knowledge is your friend. Put what you learn into practice and build a solid foundation for your online business. You can never learn too much, and when it comes to running a successful online business, you will be grateful for every bit of information and advice you can get. Besides, the internet is changing, so there will always be new things to learn. You must be willing to change for the sake of your work from home business.

You must be patient with your online business. It’s often said that a business is a marathon, not a sprint. That couldn’t be more true. You must be diligent and continually work your online business every day. As time progresses, you will see results.

Don’t set unrealistic goals for yourself and your work from home business. Don’t expect to see results within a certain time frame. If you don’t get the results you were expecting, you could get frustrated and quit. You must allow time for your online business to grow. Keep in mind that success is equal to the amount of effort you put into your work from home business.

One of the smartest things I did was get a group of mentors that were willing to help me. Don’t be afraid to seek help and guidance with your work from home online business. The more help, the better. You need proper guidance and training.

There are too many people giving up on their work from home online business way too early. They just throw in the towel due to frustration. Before you decide to give up and think that it’s not going to work for you, here are some tips to help you stay motivated and focused.

1. Determine your goals. Why are you starting a work from home online business? Write down your goals, keep them close by to look at, and stop at nothing to achieve them.

2. Make your dreams a reality. You must work hard and put forth the effort in order to achieve your goals. The more goals you achieve, the closer will you get to your dream.

3. Be diligent! You will start to see results the more you work at it. Use this to keep yourself motivated. It will become fun and enjoyable to see that your hard work is paying off.

4. Stay focused! Do one thing at a time. Don’t stray and do more than one thing until your task is completed. You will get more done this way.

5. Don’t listen to the crowd. There will always be people saying that you’re wasting your time and that you need to get a “real job.” Do what you believe in, and you can make it happen.

Remind yourself of these tips the next time you feel like giving up. Be part of the 5% that succeeds! You CAN do it!

If you own a blog, then coming up with new, fresh content is important. The problem is that it can sometimes be difficult figuring out what to write about. Well, thanks to this new software, finding fresh content is just a click away.

The software is called Blog Talk Monitor. Basically what you do is set it up this software to run “jobs” for you – specify your keywords, where you want it to search, and it will go out and find the latest information that was just posted online for those keywords.

It can really help you out if you have a blog, but it’s just a great way to keep up to date on any niche you are in. Determine what people are talking about, what they’re reading about, and even what people want.

There is a video that tells you all about this . . .

http://www.blogsuccess.com/

If you have a blog, but you don’t know what to write about, use this tool to find out what people want. You’ll be able to find plenty of things to write about, and you’ll already know that people are looking for this kind of information.

This tool is like having your own spy searching every blog on the net and telling you what people are talking about in your niches.

Go and check this tool out and see how much time it can save you. After you have a look at the video, get your copy of the software right away. You don’t even need to go through a squeeze page to get it.

Have you signed up for Twitter yet? If not, read my last blog post to find out why you should. As I had said there have been many different applications and websites to utulize Twitter, so it really comes to no surprise that there is now an online ad network for Twitter as well.

The ad network is called Be A Magpie. As stated on their website, you can “convert your tweets into bling-bling.”

How it works is you enter your Twitter name, it looks at all of your previous tweets, and calculates how much potential money you can make. You can determine this before you even sign up. Go ahead, see for yourself… http://www.be-a-magpie.com/start.

The types of ads that will be sent through your Twitter name is based on the content of your tweets and the ads that are available. They provide an illustration that better describes what I’m saying.

The ad frequency can be changed from 1:5 or 1:20. Meaning that for every 5 tweets that you make, one ad will be displayed, or one ad for every 20 tweets. I do believe the amount of followers you have is taken into consideration as well. They provide FAQs that you can look over.

Before you sign up, I would highly suggest you think about your followers first. You want their best interest in mind. Yes, you can make some nice, extra cash from this online ad network, but you don’t want to annoy your followers with ads all the time. Just something to keep in mind.

Here’s a review of Be A Magpie that was recently done by Kid’s Cash Connection…

Magpie, for those who don’t know, is an Ad Network for Twitter. Some have raised the question “How do we make money on Twitter?” This company will pay you to use your name to tweet about things that are related to you or your company. They match ad campaigns with the users and tweet the ad in your name. Every time they do this you get paid so many Euros depending on how many followers you have. We got paid $68 US dollars for our first week.

When you get to fifty Euros you can cash out into your Pay Pal account which converts the money into whatever you use. You can also use that money to start an ad campaign of your own. This enables you to advertise your site, blog or company for free!

What I have gathered from the experience is that Magpie will pay you and it is legitimate. It is, however, clear to me that they would much rather have you run an ad than cash out. Remember that we got $68 in one week but when we cashed out and did not choose the advertising option all of the sudden the tweets went silent. Here is a record of our account you be the judge:

2008-11-18 02:41:07 Magpie twittered. You earned! €9.51
2008-11-11 17:35:39 Magpie twittered. You earned! €9.17
2008-11-07 12:44:54 Cashed out () €-54.94
2008-11-07 11:52:12 Magpie twittered. You earned! €8.25
2008-11-06 17:18:31 Magpie twittered. You earned! €8.07
2008-11-04 22:13:57 Magpie twittered. You earned! €7.08
2008-11-04 09:02:40 Magpie twittered. You earned! €6.96
2008-11-04 00:11:32 Magpie twittered. You earned! €6.35
2008-11-03 11:52:58 Magpie twittered. You earned!)€6.25
2008-11-02 23:05:01 Magpie twittered. You earned! €6.00
2008-11-02 14:24:04 Magpie twittered. You earned! €5.98

If you notice after we cashed in, 4 days went by then a tweet after that 7 days went by and then another tweet. We earned €-54.94 in 5 days and cashed out. We made €18.68 in the next 11days!

When I emailed them about this they said that it had to do with the ads that were compatible for us. All the tweets on this page were for Magpie. How was that any different? Is the real reason that they don’t want to pay out so much?

One point that has been raised is that it will ruin the Twitter experience. That there will be too many Magpie tweets.  I have to say that it wasn’t very noticeable from a user standpoint. Now watching Magpie tweets all day long is not my idea of a good time, but it has not gotten out of hand yet.

The deeper implication, however, is that is not how Magpie is viewed by the Twitter universe. They see it as a sell out or a prelude to more ads and marketing campaigns. That is not what they signed up, for as a matter of fact, it is causing people to get quite angry to the point they stop following you, if you promote Magpie.

The bottom line is it is up to you. I think from our experiment if you are looking to advertise something Magpie may be for you. If you are out to make money off Twitter I think you may want to build a strong community rather than turning to Magpie. Here’s the source again… Kid’s Cash Connection

Follow Me on Twitter

Micro blogging is becoming very popular, perhaps thanks to the social site Twitter. Micro blogging is in a sense the same as traditional blogging, but you have a short space to say something. In the case of Twitter you have 140 characters to say “What you’re doing.” Micro blogging and Twitter is a great way to socially connect with others on a more personal level.

The idea behind Twitter is to form a following of other Twitter users. Those following you will be able to receive your updates in real-time. Posting updates is as simple as typing and hitting the “Enter” key. The 140 character limit is to keep your posts short and to the point.

You can make as many updates as you want in any given time period. You can post continuations of a previous post if you require more space than the character limit. There are no set rules, really. You are free to post any content you wish.

There are, however, some guidelines that should be followed when using micro blogging sites such as Twitter. You are free to post links to your own sites, however, excessive self-promotion will be considered spam and can get your account suspended.

There are many different applications and websites that have integrated the use of Twitter:

• Ezine Articles will send out a tweet every time they approve your articles, provided you have your account setup for it.
• Squidoo can send out a tweet on command that will allow your followers to know when you have updated your lenses
• WordPress Plugin – TweetMyBlog – Tweets your latest blog post.

Those are the tools I use for Twitter. I would suggest not having too many accounts connected to your Twitter account. Too many feeds with your own links can get you suspended. I’ve seen it happen firsthand. Wasn’t me, though.

There are many different applications to go along with Twitter as well:

• Twhirl – Desktop application very similar to instant messaging.
• Tweet Later – Let’s you set a specific time when you want to post a tweet.
• There are many others, just do a search for them.

That’s micro blogging and Twitter in a nutshell. Get followers, follow others and make useful and informative tweets on a regular basis. You can gain an amount of respect, and in return, make joint ventures, sales, etc. The whole point is to be social. If you’re not one to be social and open to others, it may not be for you.

One of the awesome things about Twitter is that my tweets are getting indexed by Google almost instantly. Don’t believe me? Try it out for yourself!

Follow me if you dare

Blogging can be a great way to build your online business. Don’t know what blogging is or what a blog looks like? Well, if you’re reading this, you’re on one right now. A blog is basically an online journal where you can share your thoughts and ideas with others, or in this case, expertise.

Blogs can be setup as a website, meaning the blog is the website, or if you already have a website, you can install a blog on your site making your site even more powerful. There are several advantages to having a blog on your website.

Advantage One: Google

Google loves content. Google ranks content very high. Provide relevant and fresh content on a regular basis. Post to your blog at least two or three times a week, if not more. The point here is to keep it updated on an on-going basis.

Advantage Two: Branding

Blogging allows you to brand yourself as an expert in your field. Keep your posts on-topic and relevant to the subject of your blog. Build credibility with your readers and give them a reason to come back.

Advantage Three: Connecting

A blog allows you to connect with your readers on a more personal level. With the use of commenting you can interact with others. Blogging is a more personal approach to online business practices and is sometimes a better way to market and promote what you have to offer. Make sure to create an “About Me” page that includes information about yourself. Remember to add a personal touch to your blog. Build trust with your readers.

Advantage Four: Promoting

Blogging is a great way to promote products and services. You can sign up for affiliate programs and post banners on your blog. This is just one way to monetize the traffic that your blog receives, assuming it’s getting traffic. A blog can allow you to promote anything you want. I would recommend promoting products or services related to the topic of your blog. Get a Google Adsense account and place Adsense ads on your blog for extra income as well.

Here are some blogging essentials:

1. Make sure to use an RSS feed that your readers can easily subscribe to. I recommend FeedBurner.com.
2. Make your blog a “DoFollow” blog so that your readers will want to leave comments on your posts.
3. Use WordPress as your blogging platform to take advantage of the SEO benefits.
4. Install social bookmarking plugins for your WordPress blog.
5. Install CommentLuv and KeywordLuv for your WordPress blog.
6. Actively promote your blog!

Be sure to check out my Blogging Resources for more links and information on blogging.

P.S. Since I’ve started this WordPress blog, my posts are getting idexed almost instantly by Google! That’s the true power of WordPress in action.

Have you ever wondered what all websites are linking to you? Or maybe you would like to know who all is using your articles. Maybe you want to know who is mentioning your name on their blog or website.

Keeping tabs on your name and domain are a great way to see who all uses your content, is talking about you, etc.

Here are some tools to help you do just that:

URLFan.com – Enter your website and see every blog that is linking to your website. Results are in real time and the content is cultivated through the millions of RSS feeds. Your website is ranked and given a number based on every other website. Go see where your website ranks in the blogosphere! This will also provide the content in which bloggers are using to link to you. Very handy, little tool.

Google Alerts – You don’t need a Google Account for this, but I suggest you get one anyway if you don’t yet have one. It’s fast and easy and well worth it for many different reasons. Here’s how Google Alerts works. Enter a search term that you want to receive alerts for. Enter your email address where you want the alerts to be sent. If you’re signed in this will be the email account associated with your Google Account. Any time a reference is made to the search term you entered, you will be emailed alerts for every instance of the term.

Here’s an example: My search terms I use are “Alan Mater” and “http://www.replaceyoursalary.com.” So, every time my name or domain name is mentioned, I receive an alert with a link to the web page that those terms are on. This helps me find out who is talking about me or linking to my website.

These two resources are great if you write articles because you will be able to find out who is using them and posting them on their website or blog.

If you’re not yet keeping tabs on yourself, you should be. It’s quick and easy, and you may just be surprised at the results.

Privacy is very important, especially when it comes to your site visitors. No matter what kind of business you’re in, online or off, you need to have a privacy policy clearly stated for everyone to see.

Having a clear and solid privacy policy is even more important if you have an online business. Trust is a huge issue with many people, and who can blame them? A lot of times you don’t know the face behind a website or have any sort of relationship with the site owner.

Why should you trust them? Why should you give them your name and email address or any other personal information?

Personally, unless a website has a clearly stated privace policy, I would be very weary about handing any personal information over. It is just too hard to trust people these days… sad but true.

If you have a policy statement… great! If not, there is a cool website that will automatically generate one for you. All you do is answer the questions on the form, hit “Generate Policy” and that’s it!

http://www.freeprivacypolicy.com

It doesn’t get any easier than that. So, if you don’t yet have a privacy policy setup for your website, I suggest you go to the website above and get one now. Afterwards, post it on your site for all your site visitors to see.

*Tip*

Put a link to your privacy statement near your opt-in form. This will help boost credibility and sign-up rates.