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Many people want to work from home for a variety of reasons. Maybe you just had a child and want more work-life balance, or perhaps you have an illness that makes it difficult for you to get out of the house. Or maybe you just like being home and want the freedom to work your own way.

Whatever the reasons you want to work at home, you’ll need to choose whether or not you want a job from home, or you want a business from home. Here are eight questions to help you decide.

1. Are You Self-Motivated?

If you want your own business so that you can set your own hours, you will need to be very self-motivated. You’ll need to take time out of your day for marketing, interviewing clients, closing the deal and then doing the work too. You’ll be 100 percent responsible for delivering the work, billing and collecting. You’ll even be responsible for deciding the methods you use to do the work. To do that you’ll need to be a very self-motivated individual.

2. What Skills Do You Have?

Take a piece of paper and write down a list of the skills you currently have, based on what you’ve already done in the past. Can any of these translate into a business? Label them appropriately. Do any of these translate into common work-from-home positions such as call center agent or transcriptionist? Some skills cross over into both, but which side of the list gets full faster?

3. What Sort of Lifestyle Do You Want?

With a work-at-home job you’ll be required to “show up” for work on time each day that you’re scheduled, and you may have little control over that schedule. What’s more, with work-at-home positions it is a lot harder than typical jobs to call in sick, whether it’s you or a child who is sick. Often the first 90 days you cannot miss your schedule at all if you want to keep the position. Are you ready for that? Or, would you prefer a more family-oriented type of schedule that can be adjusted more easily and is more deliverables-based than hourly-based?

4. Do You Already Have a Business Idea?

If you have already researched a business idea, and feel as if you want to do that instead of working for someone else, can you pull it off? What steps do you need to take to make it a reality? Are you the type of person to be able to organize and take the steps needed to get your business off the ground? Can you find and afford help if you’re not sure what to do to get the business going? Does the thought of all this stress you out?

5. How Do You Feel about Punching a Clock?

For some people the idea of clock punching is relaxing, for others it feels like a nightmare. Neither feeling is right or wrong as it takes all types of people to make this world work. If you know up front that you are fine with punching a clock and you’d rather someone else tell you when to be someplace and what to do, then a work-at-home job is best for you. If that feels like prison to you, then a business is probably better if you can do what it takes to get it going.

6. Do You Have Money to Start a Business?

Starting any type of business, even an online business, requires an investment not only of time, but also of money. Have you worked out a business plan and do you know how much money you need to get started? Do you have that money available? If not, do you have a way to get it? Perhaps working at a job first, while you save for and work on your business on the side, is the way to go if you don’t have the funds to start.

7. Do You Need Training and Education?

Both working at a job and owning a business sometimes require skills that you don’t have yet. But that’s okay. Decide if you want to invest in the training yourself to get your business off the ground, or if you would like to try to find a work-at-home job where they will train you from the ground up.

8. What Is Your Biggest Dream for Your Life?

When you think of the future, what do you see? Does it sound relaxing to get up in the morning, have some breakfast, and move to your home office where you sign in to work at your job, taking a break when needed by telling your manager that you have to use the restroom, or go eat lunch and so forth, then when you get off work you’re totally and fully off? Plus, each week you collect a guaranteed paycheck? Or, do you like the idea of being able to do what you want when you want (and likely working more hours than you ever thought you could) but without the guarantee of a specific amount of income each week, knowing that you’re forging your own future?

Whatever you decide, neither is right or wrong. They are both good choices for you. Whether you want a work-at-home job so you can sign off after the day and focus 100 percent on your family, or whether you want a business that will cross boundaries into family time and vice versa but that puts you 100 percent in charge – both are good choices and choices that you are fortunate to have in this age of high speed internet.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

Plenty of bloggers like to write about their thoughts, their day or the crazy thing that happened to them on the way to the zoo. But this type of blogging is generally more for fun than for profit. To make significant money with your blog, you’ll want to focus on keyword phrases and questions your target audience is actively searching for at this time.

When you help people solve problems through free and valuable content that is relevant to your business, you reach larger audiences and build trust. The best part is you get the opportunity to show people how your products and services can help them solve their problems and fulfill their desires and needs.

Let’s say you are a real estate agent. Your potential clients aren’t looking for your recipe for apple pie, the award you won last week or even the number of houses you sold this month. What they want is their questions answered:

→ “How do you buy a house?”

→ “What credit score is needed to get financing for a house?”

→ “What is the best way to invest in real estate with 10% down?”

→ “How do I know I’m buying in a good neighborhood?”

→ “What are the easiest ways to increase the selling price of my home?”

Find out what real estate prospects want to know, and then use those exact questions for your titles. Give helpful info in the blog posts and then refer them to your squeeze page to get your lead magnet, or suggest they give you a call to further answer their questions.

These types of posts can rank high in search engines without tricks because they are exactly what searchers are looking for. And once you rank, you’ll be getting free, consistent traffic from Google.

This works in just about any and every niche you can think of and it’s an easy way to demonstrate your authority while building an audience that is super receptive to your offers and services.

Here’s how you can take this knowledge and double the impact: Use the same approach for your YouTube videos. YouTube is simply a search engine for videos, which is why ranking on YouTube is similar to ranking on Google.

Choose keyword phrases and questions that match what people are looking for on YouTube. Create videos with those titles that are packed with great info. And invite your viewers to visit your website, subscribe to your list or take the action you seek.

Using this method and being consistent will yield powerful results: Free targeted traffic, building your authority with your new viewers and readers, along with gaining a steady stream of new subscribers and customers.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

One little notebook could be worth a million dollars to you. Or more. Here’s how…

Keep track of everything you do and especially all of your ideas. When you start something new, keep a running record of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

Two things will happen:

First, you’ll have more and more ideas, and better ideas, too. The simple act of writing ideas down drives your subconscious to create more ideas. Review your ideas weekly and find the gems. Test out the best ones, choose one and run with it. It could be a million-dollar business.

 Second, teach others how to do that business. If you find an awesome new way to build and email list, build your own lists and then teach others to do the same. If you discover how to launch a product from start to finish in 3 days, teach others to do the same.

Keep your notebook with you at all times. Write in it when the mood strikes, and even when it doesn’t. Resort to an online journal only when necessary. There’s something about the brain and handwriting connection that inspires more creative thinking than simply tapping keys.

So, do you have your million dollar journal yet?

If not, get one and get started. Here’s one I found on Amazon:

Your future self with thank you for it!

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

Site Seals are those graphics you see on places like shopping carts that try to convey your information is safe. For example, the yellow circle with a black check mark that says, “Norton SECURED, powered by VeriSign.” The purpose of the seals is naturally to increase conversions, but not all seals are alike. And some placements can actually hurt your conversions rather than help.

Baymard conducted a study to see which seals people trusted the most, and you can see the results here:

https://baymard.com/blog/site-seal-trust

The Norton Secured and McAfee Secure were the clear winners.

You might think that using as many seals as possible would make the prospect feel the most secure, and thus increase conversions. But it’s also possible that populating your page with trust seals will only add to their anxiety and in the end, hurt your conversions.

Be careful to avoid using trust seals on your squeeze pages, as this telegraphs you’re going to be looking for a monetary transaction. When all you want is their email address, it’s generally best to avoid trust seals and save them for the payment page.

Two out-of-the-ordinary places to test placing trust seals is in your header and your footer. When Petco added McAfee’s security seal to their footer, conversions increased 1.76%. And when they placed the same seal in the top left area of the header, conversions increased a surprising 8.83%.

Bottom line, test everything. You never know for sure until you run an AB test.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

These are all super quick and fairly easy. In fact, there’s not a tactic here that will take more than an hour, and some can be done in just a few minutes. Some can get you traffic pretty quickly and others take time. My suggestion: Do one a day every day until you’ve done all the ones that interest you. Some you will continue to do daily, such as using Twitter, but of course you can also use automation to lighten the work load a bit…

Do product reviews. For driving traffic? You bet. Product reviews are easy to get ranked, especially if you do them in video. Here’s the trick: Don’t make it like every other product review out there. Instead, be real. Use your personality. Have fun with it. And ask the reader/viewer to subscribe to get more product reviews.

One more thing: TELL THE TRUTH about what you think of the product. I once landed on a product review that said, quite frankly, the product wasn’t worth the money. I didn’t buy that product but I subscribed to the author’s list and have since purchased several hundred dollars of products from him because he earned my trust.

Create a keyword list. Then use it to write your articles and blog posts. It’s fine to write about whatever you want, but it’s even better to write about what people are actually searching for. By using a keyword list, you not only get new ideas, you are also better tuned into the market and what might get your articles ranked on Google. Once you write a new article, promote it on social media.

Find questions on forums and answer them in articles. If someone is asking something on a forum, there’s a good chance others are asking the same question. Go ahead and write an article, post it, then post your article link on the forum “for more information” after your answer.

Blogger.com is a high authority site, owned by Google (hint, hint). When you join, find the “about me” section and add your website URL along with your keywords in the anchor text which will contribute to better SEO for your primary website. Do the same with other popular sites online that allow you to create your own profile and backlink to your website.

Register with forums in your niche. Fill out the details on your profile, including your name and website. If the forum allows it, add your website or blog to your signature. Make several useful posts in each forum. What you’re shooting for here is quality backlinks, but if you find you enjoy posting to forums, keep at it. Your posts can drive traffic back to your site for years to come.

Join Twitter. Use Twitter. Seriously. Make several tweets, find people to follow in your niche, and each time you write an article, tweet about it. It’s amazing to me how many marketers still aren’t fully utilizing Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Set up an account at HubPages.com. This is another high authority site which can help with your rankings. Plus the content you post here can also rank high for your keywords. Remember to update your account with new content from time to time. And be sure to include a bio of what you do along with your URL.

All of these are pretty simple and can help to drive traffic to your website. So next time you’ve got a few extra minutes, pick one and get busy. It will be time well invested.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

There’s an expression in the game of poker called, “Going all in.” And it means you’re betting everything you’ve got on your hand. This is the showdown – if you win then you’ve got a nice pile of money. If you lose, you’re out.

In cards you might win, you might lose and generally it doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things. But in your life, ‘going all in’ can be the absolute difference between extreme success and dismal failure.

Mind you, it’s more of a mindset than a money risk, although it can certainly be both. If you’re working a job while you build your IM business, I don’t recommend you quit your job until your Internet Marketing income equals the income you get from your job, give or take.

But your mindset can’t be anything BUT ‘going all in.’ You’ve got to live and breathe your success before you achieve it. You’ve got to know you can do it, or at least have an extremely large suspicion that it’s possible.

You’ve got to commit to your new venture like you’d commit to raising a child. Sorry, but half-hearted simply won’t cut it…

Think of two guys – Sam and Max. Sam dabbles in IM for 10 years, working on his business when he feels like it. Max lives, breathes and eats IM for 10 years. Who’s retiring in 10 years? There’s no question, it’s going to be Max.

It’s time to make a decision – are you all in? Are you going to get your mindset in the right place to start doing what you’ve got to do everyday to make your IM business not just a hobby, but a real actual BUSINESS? It’s your call.

Before I go, let me leave you with this heart-pumping quote:

One day, John and George showed up… and told me we had a gig. I said, “No,
I’ve got a steady job here… I can’t expect more.” And I was quite serious… But
then I thought, “Sod it.” I bunked over the wall and was never seen again by
Massey and Coggins. Pretty shrewd move really, as things turned out. – Sir Paul
McCartney

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

You send out an email and someone writes back that you’re a liar. You post on your blog and someone says you’re an idiot. You create a new product and someone says it stinks and it doesn’t work. Congratulations, because you are doing something RIGHT.

If you’re trying to please everyone, you’re pleasing no one. People who are having a real and positive impact on the world are inevitably met with trolls and haters.

If no one experiences discomfort when they see your work, then your work isn’t having an impact.

Think of every successful person and company you know. Every single one of them has trolls and haters. And likely every single one of them knows that those trolls and haters are clear indications that they are on the right track.

Maybe you don’t have ‘haters’ after all. Maybe you have ‘fans in denial.’ It’s all a state of mind. Remember, when people hate on you, it’s often because you have something they want.

And here’s how to have fun with your haters: Realize that the less they like you, the more religiously they will be checking your page. So smile. And maybe write them this note:

“Dear haters, I have so much more for you to be mad at. Just be patient.”

A tiger doesn’t lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.

Is someone trying to bring you down? They’re already beneath you, and they probably secretly wish to BE you.

So love your haters.

They are often a true measure of your success.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

As you already know, a popular business model for breaking into any niche is to conduct interviews with the movers and shakers of your niche. In this manner you are creating great content, making potentially profitable connections and making yourself an expert by association. But do you know what’s even better than conducting an interview by phone or Skype? Doing it in PERSON. Here’s why:

First, the vast majority of communication isn’t what a person says, but rather the person’s facial expressions, gestures, body language and so forth. For this reason your interviews are going to be better when you can do them in person. By watching your subject, you’ll be able to draw out more information and revelations than you possibly could over the phone.

Second, you could develop a much stronger connection with your subject in person. No matter how much time you spend on the phone or even on Skype, you’re still miles apart and have never actually met the person. You’re much easier to forget this way. But in person, you can make a much stronger impression and create a deeper connection with your subject that allows you to become much closer.

Third, you can prolong the initial connection by inviting them out to coffee or lunch before or after the interview. This makes for a great bonding experience and again increases the odds of your relationship building beyond simply the interviewer and interviewee.

Fourth, you’ve got a great photo opportunity in person. Get your photo taken with this expert – who is probably something of a minor celebrity in your niche – and then use that photo for marketing purposes.

For example, you can add the photo to your website. Use ALT tags to describe the image with something like, “Joe Smith of the podcast Super Abundance with renowned financial expert Warren Buffet.” When people search for Warren Buffet, they could find your photo.

Use the photo on social media. Again, it makes you an authority by association in your niche.

Use the photo in promotions you might be doing, both online and offline. This increases your credibility and elevates you in the eyes of your readers and potential customers.

Naturally there will be many times when an in person interview simply isn’t possible. But when you’re going to another city, check to see who you might set up interviews with while you are there. Watch to see who comes to your city. And when you go to events, set up interviews in advance whenever possible. Also, be ready to do interviews on the fly at conferences – you never know who you might get your next interview and photo with.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

The Streisand effect is the name given for a phenomena that can be used for good or evil – for your own advantage or against you.

In 2003 Barbra Streisand’s lawyer sent a cease and desist letter to the California Coastal Records Project regarding an aerial photo of her Malibu beach mansion on the website. The website operators rejected that letter and all follow up letters and the Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed the frivolous suit.

Here’s what happened: The previously little-known CCRP website includes more than 12 THOUSAND overlapping aerial photos of the entire California coastline. Plus they house an additional 55,000 photos that date back as far as 1972.

Streisand was upset that her mansion was visible in one of these 67,000 aerial shots.

Had she done nothing, likely no one would have ever noticed or cared. But because of the lawsuit, now everyone heard about the site and the photo. Today, you can find that exact photo distributed all over the Internet.

Anytime anything is censored on the Internet, it’s immediately picked up by other websites. Get it removed from one site, it shows up on 10 new sites. Get it removed from those, and it’s on a hundred sites and in the news.

Banned books become highly popular. Movies that get protested see box office surges. Comedians, musicians and magazine publishers prosecuted for “obscenity” become folk heroes. (Lenny Bruce, Jim Morrison and Larry Flint, for example.)

Watergate wouldn’t have made much more than a ripple if it hadn’t been covered up. But six months of lies brought down an entire presidency.

The examples are prolific and you can find more of them here: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Now then – why is this important to you and your business?

Two reasons. First, it can bite you if you’re not careful. Is there something you don’t want known? Did someone say something really rotten about you or your business that people could believe? Then it might be in your best interest not to make a big deal of it.

In the same vein – did you make a major mistake? Rather than trying to cover it up, it might be best to admit it immediately so it never becomes an Internet sensation.

Second reason and food for thought: How can you use the Streisand Effect to build your business?

Every year PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) submits an over-the-top TV advertisement for inclusion in the Super Bowl. It’s often highly sexually-suggestive, and usually the network flat out refuses to run it.

PETA lets it be known their commercial was banned, and overnight it becomes an internet sensation.

And they didn’t have to pay the outrageous Super Bowl ad fee, either. Now that’s smart.

Greenpeace wrote a pamphlet critical of McDonald’s. McDonald’s sued and the case was in the news for over 10 years; the longest libel trial in English history. Thanks to the lawsuit, that little pamphlet and its contents became famous.

And the icing on the cake was when the court ruled the activists had not engaged in libel – now the claims McDonald’s fought to suppress had the tacit backing of the English courts.

Books, albums and movies that are banned by churches, religious groups and so forth nearly always see their sales skyrocket with the ensuing publicity.

Are you getting any ideas? I can’t give you a step-by-step here on what you might do – that depends entirely on your business. But you might keep the Streisand Effect in mind.

Sooner or later you’ll find an honest and ethical opportunity to use it to your advantage, and it’s up to you to grab that opportunity when it happens.

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com

According to Smithsonian Magazine, a Zambian chimpanzee named Julie stuck a piece of grass in her ear and left it there. And she did this over and over again. Why? Scientists say the “grass in the ear behavior appears to serve no discernible function.”

While chimpanzees have “culture” and traditions, including unique behaviors and tools, these things usually have a concrete function. The grass in the ear doesn’t. Best guess by scientists – it’s some kind of a fashion statement.

But here’s where it gets interesting…

After Julie began placing a piece of grass in her ear, her fellow chimpanzees copied her. Mind you, no other chimp group did this – only Julie and her followers.

So what’s this got to do with online marketing?

Everything.

You can tell your readers to buy a product. You can tell them it’s the greatest product ever. You can tell them it will rock their world and change their life.

And some will buy.

But if you purchase the product yourself – if you USE the product yourself – and if you tell your readers about your experience – you will be far more likely to make sales.

Imagine if Julie had tried to force grass into her fellow chimps’ ears. Do you think they would have bought the concept? Not likely.

Obviously your readers and customers aren’t chimps. Humans are better for marketing purposes than chimps because humans are even MORE likely to copy what you do.

If your readers like you, trust you and even suspect you know what you’re doing, they’re going to want to be like you.

And if that means buying and using certain products, they’ll do it. Just be a leader and respect your readers enough to make their own decisions, and many of them will be glad to do what you do. Plus it gives you a ton more credibility. After all, you’re telling them about the products and services you use, not trying to force products down their throat…

Ronald Aqui – https://ronaldaqui-homebusiness.com