Work From Home: March 2006

Friday, March 31, 2006

Your Internet Home Based Business - Be Transparent, Not Invisible

Busy, busy and busier still. No time to blog but managed to get a few things done and I love seeing things crossed off my list.

After pronouncing it "finally" finished, I went back and re-did my Work At Home Directory index page so it is much smaller and faster to load. I kept trying to cram everything in so people did not have to hunt for information but as the page was so slow loading people would be giving up and not seeing it anyway. This little pruning job involved building several new pages to showcase the various types of work at home. I already had a mom-friendly page and now I have added one for newbies, one purely Internet based and one for typists. I intend to work on the text part of each page but they are up and running.

Funny thing was, the day before I made all those changes, I had my biggest profit day so far - hope I didn't just roast my best laying hen!

Published two articles this week. Basically they are about dealing with people honestly when you have an Internet home based business. You can read them here:

Your Internet Home Based Business - Be Transparent, Not Invisible Part 1 - Be Transparent.

Your Internet Home Based Business - Be Transparent, Not Invisible Part 2 - Don't Be Invisible.

For my next trick I have to get my monthly newsletter sent out. It is supposed to be for March but as this is the last day of the month...





~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Mothers Day and Thoughts Of Flowers and Accidents

Mothers Day today. The weather is at last getting a little warmer, the daffodils and crocuses are adding splashes of colour to the grey outlook. Spring will be here soon.

Drove out of town today to my daughter's house as I was invited to lunch. I went by my usual route which takes me past the scene of a fatal traffic accident that happened at the beginning of February. I really dislike the current craze for leaving flowers and gifts at accident scenes. There were bouquets of flowers tied to a lamp post at the accident scene but, as several weeks have passed by, the flowers have died, the paper wrappers are deteriorating in the wind and rain and bits of plastic wrapping flap miserably in the breeze. It just turns a sad scene into a grim untidy spectacle. There is another accident site on my way to the supermarket. A young man was killed a couple of months ago. There were masses of flowers tied to the railings at this site but again the flowers have died and the wrappers are a mess. I don't know why people think it appropriate to leave helium-filled balloons and soft toys at places like this but they do. We are left with torn wrapping paper, deflated balloons and grubby soggy stuffed animals, the whole thing looks like a macabre tableau which is totally lacking in dignity. I wish this fashion had not caught on.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Spring Cleaning

Managed to write an article today and get it submitted for publishing. It is about Spring Cleaning, not much to do with working at home except that it is this month's writing exercise for Search Warp. I never got round to writing for any of the other categories so it made a change to write something unrelated to work at home, Internet and everything else I usually do. You can see the article here:
Spring Cleaning - The Gender Factor.

I suppose this has been quite a good day. I am just about caught up with my email backlog and I also placed three new advertising buttons today. Considering I have a pounding headache and feel as if my throat has been sandpapered, I think I've done pretty well.

Had a strange visitor to my website. Well, I am just assuming the visitor is strange from the search term. The really strange part was that a person arrived at my work at home directory by searching for "free pictures of nudity in the workplace". Wierd!





~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

New Banners and "Work At Home Mothers" page

Another busy day. Have finally obtained a couple of banners. One is a standard size freebie from Ad Designer. I wanted to avoid using a free one which carries advertising but was unable to find one I really liked amongst all the thousands available to pay for. The other one is a 125x125 button. It only cost $9.95 which is peanuts really.

Apart from messing around designing banners (how can it take so long!) I added a completely new webpage to my website. It's specially for Work At Home Mothers. Although just about everything on the site will help mothers who want to work at home, I decided to make a page with a selection of work at home ideas and tips just for mothers as they don't have much time to search around for things.

Still haven't written a new article. This is getting silly. Must do it this week.




~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Monday, March 20, 2006

Stormpay Robbing Me Again

Discovered that Stormpay had made a chargeback to MPAM so my fees from last month were unpaid. Only found this out when MPAM threatened to terminate me! Tried to log in to my Stormpay account to check what was going on and found that it had been suspended. Now they are doing chargebacks without notifying customers. From what I have seen posted on forums, the next step is likely to be taking funds from my credit card even though I have removed the credit card details from the Stormpay account.

I couldn't remember which credit card I had used for Stormpay so had to cancel everything. Now have to wait several days for new ones to arrive. Most inconvenient but at least I should be safe from Stormpay.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Added Another Page To My Website

Quite a productive day. Wrote a new web page for my "Tips and Tricks" section. This one is about adding banners to web pages. I am trying to build up a collection of tips and instructions for people just starting out. It is not too long ago that the construction of a banner was a complete mystery to me. It is not, in fact, a very complicated thing and, like most things about HTML, it is logical. One thing I do particularly remember is that, when I was struggling to learn things, I had a hard time finding information because I didn't know where to look and didn't know what things were called. If I keep adding to it, maybe one day I'll have a virtual home for confused newbies.

Bitterly cold today, the March winds are in evidence. This week's local newspaper brought the new that we are to have a hosepipe ban starting in the immediate future. It seems crazy: all the weather seems to do in this country through every season is rain. In my mind I know that the climate has been getting progressively drier and the water table levels are low, the reservoirs are way below capacity etc but it still feels nuts. In one issue of the local paper they warn us of the dry climate and the hosepipe ban and in the previous one (or it might have been the one before) they were issuing dire warnings about the danger of flooding. At least I'll have an excuse for not washing my car!

Found a nice website today full of straightforward instructions on HTML. Very nicely laid out, easy to navigate and the forum seems well populated. I'm going to add it to my free resources page tomorrow and I'm going back for another look. I usually like the htmlgoodies site but I think the new one I've just discovered is more easily accessible for newbies.

Good that I made a new webpage. Bad, bad, bad that I didn't write an article last week. Must get one underway and published asap.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Friday, March 17, 2006

Articles Taking On A Life Of Their Own

The day didn't start off too well. Woke up at 4.45am and remained awake. Probably a lot to do with the fact that my control panels for several of my websites were inaccessible yesterday - for the whole day! All I got was a message indicating the panels were not licenced. A support ticket and email to the hosting company produced no response so I was left to stew in impotent fury. Two banners I fell in love with and orderd on Wednesday had still not been delivered by the time I logged of yesterday evening and that is disappointing - I had intended to buy advertising on the website where I ordered the banners. Also I have to do the grocery shopping today (ugh).

Started work as it was getting to be properly daylight. Control panels still not letting me in so I sent another email to the company. Emailed the lady who took my money but didn't send me any banners. I won't be paying her for any advertising. Shame because I liked the website.

Hey! - Things have suddenly taken a turn for the better. Got a Google alert that my silly article about Stormpay stealing all the money has been posted on a forum (one I have never heard of before) and is going to be featured in a newsletter. Another nice email from the guy who was interested in autosurfing. An email from my crazy American co-author-in-waiting.

Finished my review of SFI and put it on the website. Doesn't really do the company justice, there is just so much to say but I think this gives a flavour of what goes on. Here's the link: http://www.huntingvenus.com/sfireview.shtml
Must make mental note to add this link to the index linkbar and sitemap.

Maybe it won't be such a bad day after all. Maybe the supermarket won't be full of mutants this week!


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Monday, March 13, 2006

Sunny Monday - MPAM Review

Woke up at 4.00am and gave up all hope of sleep. Nice to see it gets light before 6.30am now.

The extra hours gave me a chance to have a further look at MPAM/Prosperity With Integrity.

I can hardly wait to get started on my niche website but I am determined to do this in an orderly fashion, so I need to tidy a few things up first. I did write a review of the MPAM programme, to check it out:
click here

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Page 1 of Google

Wow, just checking my website stats and discovered I had made page one of Google for two search terms, one was "home business home typist" and I got so excited I forgot the other one. Doesn't matter, the important thing is that I have achieved a small ambition - ie to get to page 1 of Google for something sensible. The last time I made page 1 was for "My Magic Doubler" and I'm still trying to live that down. Well, we all make mistakes in our early days and anything connected to that programme was definitely a big mistake. It was only a matter of dumb luck that I didn't lose any cash there. So happy to have a credible search term or two working for me.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Big Red Bus, Big Brother and the Chinaman

I just had the slightly odd experience of coming across one of my articles on a blog belonging to a Chinese man living in Hertfordshire (which is not very far away from where I live). The really odd part was that the article was the one about Stormpay stealing money from its members and it was posted just after a blog item saying how great it was to be NetIBA certified to get a reduction in Stormpay fees. Yeah, I remember feeling like that just before they emptied out my account.

Yesterday I was driving out of town following a double decker London bus. When you are stuck in traffic behind one of those big red beasties, there is not much to do apart from reading the advertising on its rear. Had a momentary fantasy of advertising my website there but I'm sure I couldn't afford an ad on one bus let alone a whole fleet, but that's half the point of a fantasy anyway, isn't it.

The ad was a huge yellow poster on behalf of the London Borough of Haringey (the next borough to Enfield, where I live) advertising the fact that they now have CCTV and "are watching". I wasn't particularly struck to learn about the installation of CCTV in Wood Green, I briefly tried to remember how long it had been since I went shopping in Wood Green Shopping City.

If traffic had been moving normally, I probably would have forgotten all about the advertising on the bus but, as I was forced to follow the bus at tortoise speed, the ad remained so much in my face that I couldn't avoid paying attention to it. I realised how thoroughly I had taken for granted the fact that CCTV had been installed in my local shopping centre for a couple of years and that I didn't bat an eye to think it was spreading throughout London and, in fact throughout all major towns in England. I believe that all in all this type of security measure is a good thing if it reduces crime. What scares me is the way we now take this legalised spying for granted. It is not so many years ago that the notion of being able to track people via CCTV in the high street was the stuff of futuristic fiction. It is now fact, Big Brother is watching us.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Sunshine, Surfing and Working With A Tabbed Browser

The sunshine and blue sky look like the promise of spring. Sitting here in my centrally heated office, I can almost convince myself that spring is just around the corner. Alas, the "almost" is a big word in this context. The big fir tree outside my window is being cruelly thrashed by the wind and I know it is bitterly cold.

Apart from sunshine, there's not much to cheer me up at the moment. All the autosurf for cash programmes are showing distinct signs of nervousness. E-profit has shut down for the weekend to make some changes, Dad N Dave's is shut temporarily while David considers legal matters, Safari Cash is in the throes of big changes, Surf Down Under is dropping hints about changes in the near future, Alien Trust is in limbo and 12 Daily has completely disappeared. Finally, the owner of Gotta Lotta Hits went from hero to zero for refusing to be bullied by Stormpay and then suddenly pulling out of the paid to surf business. Everyone is supposed to be getting a refund from Gotta Lotta, I haven't got mine yet and I don't know if I will get back all I put in (via PayPal this time) but I am past caring. The income from these programmes was providing a nice cushion for my advertising expenses, I'll have to cut back for a while.

In the meantime, I managed to write an article, a serious one for a change. I decided to try to write a few articles to help newbies. This one is about setting up groups in tabbed browsers. I took it for granted that everyone with Internet access would be familiar with the joys of tabbed browsing but when someone asked me "what's a tabbed browser?" I realised I was taking too much for granted.

You can read the article if you click here
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Fed Up, Sick Of Stormpay.

Visit Hunting Venus.com Work At Home Directory

I have rarely felt so totally pissed off. Stormpay's antics are still causing me grief on top of all the other things that are making me feel too fed up to work. Today I found out that Gotta Lotta Hits is the most recent casualty and that was one site that stood up to Stormpay and managed to hang onto the funds. The SEC investigation has got everyone, including the owner of GHL, in a panic. If Stormpay hadn't stirred up the 12 Daily Riot, the SEC would never have got interested in autosurfs. Now it looks as if a lot of the programmes are being changed to fit the SEC profile for non-investment opportunities. The outcome is that there will be a lot of messing about, things will be put on hold while sites are tweaked, terminology will be changed but everything will carry on pretty much as usual. It is too pathetic for words.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*


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.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*