New Years Eve

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Hard to believe but another year is just about to end. In a few hours it will be 2006. It hardly seems a blink in time since we were talking about the new millennium and arguing over whether it really begins in 200 or 2001. Doesn't matter now!

Spent all day tidying up my website. I have a lot left to do but it can wait until next year - ha, ha! Well I thought I should try to make a joke, I don't know how many times I have heard that one and it still grates.

Must try to get another article published tomorrow. Getting way behind instead of catching up. Dear, dear this will never do.


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If you want to work from home on the internet but don't know where to start, visit my Work From Home Directory at Hunting Venus.com You'll find all the help you need.

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Is A Free Home Based Business Opportunity Really Free?

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Too busy to blog recently. Now the Christmas cards have all been posted, the parcels are wrapped, the tree is dressed. All that's left to do is a food shopping trip today, house cleaning tomorrow and I'll be ready for the big day. This is, of course, apart from tweaking websites and the million other things I have planned. After Christmas, I am going to start building a new website. Exciting stuff but time consuming.

Here's the article I had published last week but didn't get round to putting on the blog.

Is A Free Home Based Business Opportunity Really Free?
By Elaine Currie

Is it really a free home based business opportunity? Can I make money without paying anything at all? - Those are about the most often repeated queries put forward by people who are hoping to find a way to make money at home online. People who see an advertisement for a free home based business opportunity want to be reassured that "free" means it will never cost them a penny to run their home based business and that they can easily make money at home online without investing anything. I'm amazed they could even start to believe such a thing could be possible.

When people ask me the "is it really free?" type of question, I give them an honest answer. The answer to both question is usually "yes, but…" and they tend to be disappointed and feel that they've been tricked and that the advertisers lied when they offered a free home based business opportunity. It is true that fortunes can be made from a free home based business on the Internet and it can be easy to make money at home online but that is not the whole answer.

I am completely anti-hype but I don't think all Internet advertising is as misleading as people often claim. If you consider the average Internet advertisement, its wording is no worse than the standard "up to 50% off" claims we take for granted in offline advertising. We know that only a selected few items will actually be reduced by 50% and we don't feel at all cheated if we find a bargain with just 20% off its usual price. The thing is, people see things differently when they are searching the Internet for ways to make money at home online, their expectations are far higher, they are more willing to believe improbable claims and their disappointment is, therefore, quick and keenly felt..

If you tried to tell the same people that they could make money at home with an offline business without incurring any costs, they would laugh you out of the auditorium. However, the Internet is a strange environment and people need to get acclimatised before they can recognise a legitimate way to make money at home online and to understand what is "free" in the context of a free home based business opportunity. After just a small amount of experience, people will realise that the free home based business opportunity is going to cost them money one way or another if they want to see profits accumulating at any significant rate. The ones who persevere also eventually realise that the cost of running a free home based business online is far less than the cost of running an offline business.

Let's think seriously about starting a business. First, how about an offline business. Suppose you decide you want to open a shop and sell dresses. Before you see any profit at all, you will have to pay out for premises (rent and taxes), services (fuel, water, phone), stock, insurance and advertising. If you are going to continue with your current employment while you build up the new business, you will also need to find staff and add wages to your list of expenses.

Now let's think about our free home based business opportunity on the Internet. You need to budget for a product (the equivalent of the stock of dresses), a website (the equivalent of the shop premises) and advertising. The list is shorter and now the Internet home based business opportunity is looking like a much better deal by comparison. The products can be obtained either free of charge or for a small price, the cost of a website is small change compared to the cost of premises, this will be a home based business, so you won't incur any additional service charges or insurance. An Internet home based business can be set up to run 24/7 with just a couple of hours work a day, so you can continue to earn money at your currently employment without having to spend anything on staff wages. That just leaves advertising costs.

Advertising your free home based business is the thing that's going to take up the biggest part of your budget. If you were opening your first shop on a limited budget, you would not be able to afford large premises in the prime part of the busiest shopping district where you would benefit from passing trade. You would have to be content with a small side street based shop and, to make customers aware of your business, you would have to advertise. In order to get a steady stream of visitors to your shop, you would need to advertise consistently and continuously. You would need to place your advertisements where they can reach your target market and you would need to make sure your advertisements appeal to your prospective customers so that they would be prepared to make the detour from the main street to check out your products.

The Internet works in the same way. Nobody will know about your new free home based business unless you tell them. You can have the best website in the whole word but, if you don't advertise it, it would be like keeping your shop door locked, the blinds closed and the lights off. No visitors means no potential sales and that inevitably means no profit. You have no advertise, simple as that. There are many free advertising resources available online for your home based business but you need to be selective as, although there are some very good free advertising resources, the results to be obtained from the free companies are not always as good as paid advertising. Another factor to consider is that using the free advertising resources can take up a lot of time and you need to place a value on your time and decide how it can be spent to best effect.

A free home based business opportunity does sound like the ideal thing for the numerous people who are looking for ways to make money at home online but are unwilling or unable to spend any money to do it. Many people leap into the first free home based business opportunity they see advertised and just as quickly give up when they find out they need to invest time and money in order to make money at home online with an Internet based home business. If these people would think things through, they would realise that starting an online home based business is far less costly than starting an offline business and the stage of getting into profit can come very early. Even if a free home based business it is not entirely free to run, being your own boss rather than being someone else's employee is priceless.

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By Elaine Currie, BA (Hons)

You may republish this article only in its

entirety and with this resource box intact


Elaine Currie provides ideas, help and resources

for anyone wanting to work at home

visit: http://www.Huntingvenus.com

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If you want to work from home on the internet but don't know where to start, visit my Work From Home Directory at Hunting Venus.com You'll find all the help you need.

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New Viral Advertising Source

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Just stumbled into AdsVert. It's a free viral text advertising resource. Very easy to set up and totally FREE. Great stuff. Got it set up and running in no time flat. Bad thing I did today was mess about changing a few pages on my website, lurking on forums and generally not being focussed. So much for publishing another article! Must get down to it tomorrow without fail.


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If you want to work from home on the internet but don't know where to start, visit my Work From Home Directory at Hunting Venus.com You'll find all the help you need.

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Our Power Forced Matrix and Top Surfer

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Strange days indeed! What song is that line from? I almost have it - it continues "most peculiar momma". No, can't recall. That line just popped into my head as I started typing and now it will stay there until I recall the song.

I have had a couple of strange days.

Yesterday I went out practically at the crack of dawn. I expect that is a gross exaggeration but is was sure early. The sun was struggling its way above the horizon and its reflection in my rear view mirror intermittently blinded me as I was driving. Although it looked orange in colour, the sun gave no impression of warmth of any kind: it looked as flat and cold as a copper coin set in lead. Oh, but the light was incredible, "golden" is truly the only accurate description: orange or yellow do not come close. We've not had any snow yet but the frost has been so hard, the fields were completely white. Where the sun hit the trees at the edge of the fields, they glowed like pure gold against the grey sky. It was exactly like being in a cheesy Christmas card - lovely!

That was the start of a relaxed but tiring day. Today was far from relaxed.

For once I overslept and didn't start working until nearly 9.30am. If I'd know what was going to turn up in my mailbox, I would have started much earlier. Today was completely mad. It all stemmed from one email but I ended up joining programmes, upgrading existing ones, sending emails, starting advertising campaigns and so on and on.

The new hot programme is Our Power Forced Matrix I won't go into the details, you can check out the website. All I will say is that it is rocking! I then stumbled upon Free Advertising Blog Free advertising that really is FREE. Normally any free ad has a hidden price tag - like you will get inundated with emails from other advertisers but not this one! Great stuff. Then I upgraded my membership in a couple of my favourite traffic exchanges. One thing that took me by surprise was that I had forgotten what great features can be found at Top Surfer It is much more that a traffic exchange and I enjoyed getting reacquainted with it.

In the middle of all my excitement, I had to abandon my projects to go grocery shopping. Yuk! Hate it when chores get in the way but we have to eat.

Today's resolution: write a new article tomorrow before checking email. Will it happen I ask myself.


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If you want to work from home on the internet but don't know where to start, visit my Work From Home Directory at Hunting Venus.com You'll find all the help you need.

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Work At Home Online - It's A Great Opportunity For Women Apart From One Trap

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Sunday, another week gone by in a flash. Did a bit of a revamp on the main website today. That took up most of the day but I did manage to publish another article today. Here it is:

Work at home online programmes offer a great opportunity for women, especially stay at home mothers but there is a trap; recognising the trap and avoiding it is far easier than getting out of the trap after you have been caught.

When you decide to work at home (online or offline), you need to watch out for household chores and ration the time you will spend even thinking about them Otherwise they will form a gang, creep up on you and rob you of precious time. You will end up trying to work at home online in the odd minutes left over from doing housework. You will then be tired (and probably bored) from dealing with the chores and in no state to concentrate on your work at home online project. So, you'll maybe check your mail and decide that you are too exhausted to do anything else. What you decide you will do is shower, get a good night's sleep and hit the floor running tomorrow. Yes, devote the whole day to your work at home online project and catch up on what you missed today.

Even if you have never before tried to work at home online, you will undoubtedly recognise this scene and already know what will happen when tomorrow dawns. If you have ever knocked yourself out preparing for an event, doing all the chores in advance to have a day free, you will know that having a whole day to yourself completely free from housework does not happen. The encroachment of chores onto your time will start early, it will begin with the irresistible urge to tidy up after breakfast.

Those nasty chores you despatched yesterday have lots of relatives and they will have gathered over night while you were sleeping. Mr Laundry has called in his brother, Mr Ironing and as soon as you wake up he will be there sitting smugly in his basket and demanding your attention. Mr Soap-Scum is nowhere to be seen and the bathroom is spotless - apart, that is, from Mr Soap-Scum's cousin Mr Lime-Scale who has sneaked in and dulled your taps. It seems that Mr Dust has brought along his whole family, you can see them in the sunlight, hovering, waiting to leap onto your furniture the moment your back is turned.

If you are the perfect housekeeper, you will deal with today's chores before you even think of doing anything for yourself. Whether your aim is to concentrate on your work at home online project, spend the day shopping for a special outfit, have your hair restyled, get a professional manicure (or anything else that is just for you), you can't ignore the chores. You would not be able to concentrate on shopping or enjoy pampering yourself if, at the back of your mind, lurked the knowledge that your ironing basket is full, the bathroom taps are not shiny and the furniture needs polishing. Before you know it, the day has disappeared. Household cleanliness has been raised several notches but your work at home online project remains in a state of neglect and is in danger of decline.

It is easy to slip into this pattern and allow it to become your day to day life. It won't be long before you are overwhelmed by chores, abandon the idea of being able to successfully work at home online and turn into one of those martyred women proudly proclaiming "I never have a moment for myself". You have to break this cycle before you turn into a housework zombie. The fact that you are at home all day does not mean you should be a slave to housework. It is an established law of physics that housework expands to fill the time available.

When you worked at a job outside the home and commuting, you would not have been available to do household chores between the hours of, say, 8.30am and 6.00pm, Monday to Friday. Like the millions of women who are in the same situation, you managed to fit in household chores and spending quality time with your family and friends outside those hours. Why have things changed? - Because you let them and the only person who can turn the situation around is you.

If you are having a problem with subduing the housework gremlins, set yourself a strict working day in which to pursue your work at home online project and fit the chores into the remaining time. Make sure you keep to this schedule, no matter how hard the chores try to tempt you away, for a couple of weeks Then review what you have achieved and decide where your schedule needs tweaking. Carry on for a week at a time doing any necessary tweaking at the end of each week. Within a month or six weeks you will find yourself able to happily work at home online without having household chores perpetually nagging at the back of your mind.

One of the great things when you work at home online is that you have flexibility as to your daily schedule. Provided you don't let household chores elbow their way in and take over, this is a tremendous advantage. You can organise your work at home online project to fit in with your husband's working day and your children's routine. No more begging the boss for time off to attend a function with your husband or to watch your child acting in a school play: you're the boss, it's entirely up to you when you work at home online.

If your work at home online project develops into a fully fledged Internet home based business, the flexibility of your working day will be complete. You won't have to fit in with your customers' hours because you won't need to visit them or phone them, most things done online can be automated and can be done at any hour of the day or night. You will have more time to do household chores. No! No! That was just a joke: use this marvellous flexibility to enjoy life, it's too short to be wasted in drudgery.


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If you want to work from home on the internet but don't know where to start, visit my Work From Home Directory at Hunting Venus.com You'll find all the help you need.

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Studio Traffic Blocked My Account

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Logged in at Studio Traffic as usual yesterday to do my daily surfing and was hit with this message: "Your account is currently unable to surf, withdraw or upgrade. Please contact Live Help for assistance so that we can schedule a meeting for you. If you have followed our TOS and provide us with any requested information we can get your account services restored quickly." No warning, no explanation, just blocked!

This experience made me wonder whether the complaints about blocked accounts that have been appearing are true after all. Until now, I put those complaints down to malice but it is clear that Studio Traffic has blocked accounts for whole countries at a time. Now the USA, UK, Australia and Malaysia have been blocked and, it appears, will be forced to jump through hoops to get their accounts restored.

Suddenly, from loving Studio Traffic, everyone seems to have become afraid of it. The heavy handed methods of the management are largely to blame. The forum is strictly censored and recently they changed the TOS so that members are not allowed to advertise any traffic exchanges. As many of their members have nothing else to advertise, this is pretty hard. Now they are blocking accounts and not telling members why they are blocked or how they can get unblocked. To find out, we apparently have to download some special software that is full of pop up advertising (and who knows what else), contact Studio Traffic's Live Help and make an appointment for a "meeting". I have one problem in that I have never heard of the software we have to use and have no idea how it works.

The general problem is that people can't get help from Live Help: members are reporting waiting for 2 hours and more in an effort to get through. Someone has posted on a forum (not Studio Traffic's) what purports to be a transcript of a "meeting". The gist of it is that only members who are not in profit will have their accounts unblocked. Members who are in profit will remain blocked until February 2006 unless they agree to work for Studio Traffic as sales persons or on the help desk. This information pretty much accords with a complaint I have seen posted on surf exchanges from a Studio Traffic member who has lost a large sum of money through having his account blocked and closed down.

Whilst I agree that the management of Studio Traffic have every right to do what they think is necessary to keep the programme going, why do we have to have this ridiculous rigmarole of downloading software and booking "meetings"? It would have been more efficient to deal with this issue via email. I wasted such a lot of time today trying to find out what is going on and the answer appears to be that Studio Traffic have suffered through bad publicity, want to save some money and to get members to bring in more new members. The way they hope to achieve this is by holding members' earnings hostage and preventing them from earning any more until they satisfactorily perform a recruitment project. Those that fail will, presumably, have their accounts terminated and their earnings confiscated as indicated by the ex-member who has been making the very public complaints.

I wish I knew how the "meeting" software worked and what I could possibly do in the way of serving Studio Traffic. Guess I have no option here, I'll just have to wait and see what happens. I am sore about wasting time on this that I could have spent on making money!


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If you want to work from home on the internet but don't know where to start, visit my Work From Home Directory at Hunting Venus.com You'll find all the help you need.

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