Work at Home

  

(The Next Step)

Give yourself a great big pat on the back for initiative. I guarantee, we lost a lot of people back at that 4-letter word, W.O.R.K..  What they didn't know was that most of this work is fun!  It's still work, but where else can you apply the same amount of effort doing something you wanted to do anyway, with the potential of somebody paying you to do it?  And the additional rewards?  Read on McDuff.

You've heard the old riddle, "How do you eat an elephant?"  The answer being, "One bite at a time."   ("One byte at a time," if you're into a little computer humor..)

Yeah, OK.  Very little:-)

The point is, if you break your decision-making tasks down into their simplest elements, they'll be much easier to learn and easier to juggle.

Can You Juggle?

Have you ever tried juggling?  I know that as a kid, I tried it a couple of times with absolutely no success whatsoever, whereas others that I knew picked it up immediately.

I have to confess something here.  I knew when I tried to juggle that very first time, that there wasn't much chance of success.  You see, I was born missing the fingers of my left hand.  (I suppose that makes me digitally challenged;-)  But I did try.  I'm pretty sure that anyone who may have been watching probably got a good belly-laugh out of it.  I know I would have;-)  And though it didn't do much for my own sense of accomplishment at that very moment, it did make for a good analogy later in life.  Here, to be exact;-)

In juggling, as with just about anything in life, some people have a natural apptitude for it.  Some don't.

Jugglers don't start off their careers by tossing 10 different items into the air, expecting to have a prayer of successfully keeping them airborn.  They begin with two.  After a little confidence-building practice, they move on to three.

Even starting off simple, they occasionally drop the ball.

Now, try and tell that beginning juggler to start with 10 objects, situate themselves on a uni-cycle 60 feet off the ground, with no practice time, and..  (Gulp..)  no safety-net.

If you were that juggler, you'd be so overwhelmed that you'd either say, "You're out of your freakin' mind," or you'd try it and fall splat on your face.  Yet that's what many business start up kits do.  They drop it all in your lap (after a certain monitary transaction has taken place), and then tell you, "O.K., go."

Relate that scenario to a web-based business model.  If you think you're going to grab hold of 10 different things that are brand new to you, and immediately launch a successful web-based business, you're either exceptionally gifted or you're setting yourself up for a fall with a long drop and no net.

Don't let me scare you off, now..  Just because there are many components to learn about this sort of work, the rewards are clearly worth it.  I'm simply advising you to start slow and work up to what you're capable of.

One option, if you have the money, is to throw a bucketful of it at someone else to get everything set up for you, in a turn-key sort of business model.  Even there, I'll guaran-darn-tee you, you'll still have a learning curve to overcome, and you still won't know how it's done.

OR

You can start by taking a few educated baby steps that will help you determine exactly which way you want to go, and how much you're willing to learn and invest.

Using the Work At Home Supertips method, you'll be given a couple things to juggle, and once you've gotten a little practice under your belt, you'll be able to see which direction you think will offer the greatest satisfaction and potential for success.

So here's a simple view of the crossroads you're at: 

Down one path, you'll find answers to questions concerning your content.

•   What you will focus on -
•   Ways to research your project -
•   What to do with your findings -

The other path will lead you into the technical aspects of doing business on the web.

•   Domain information
•   Hosting -
•   Languages (computer) -
•   Communicating with your site visitors -
•   Promoting your business -
•   Optimising your site for greater effect -

The decision of which path to choose first is entirely up to you.

There are some things down both paths that you'll need to know, and if you're pretty good at juggling (new ideas and concepts, not bowling pins or lit torches;-) you may decide to tackle both paths simultaneously.

I would caution you, however, not to spread yourself too thin, too fast.

As with learning most things, the fundamentals, or the building blocks, don't make nearly as much sense early on, as they do with some practice under your belt.

Once you've gained some study and practice-time down each path, you'll find that the two paths merge again.  It's at that point that you'll be able to make a lot more sense out of both of them.

If you're a quick study they will come together faster for you, and the more practice-time you get in, the quicker you'll be able to develop your goals.

If you don't happen to be a good juggler, or just don't think you're fast enough to be able to do any of this, welcome to the vast majority.   That's the way most of us have felt at one time or another as we stumble over ourselves on the journey to reach our goals.  It's ok to feel that way.  That just means you need a little more time to get things to come together for you.

Like anything you want to get good at, this takes study, practice, persistance, patience, and guidance.

For those of you who fall into that category I would recommend the first path which I'll introduce you to in a moment.  It will give you a little better feel for where you might ultimately be headed.

By this I am by no means implying that you can't, at any given time, jump from one path to the other and then back again.  I am saying though, if you do tackle both paths and find yourself becoming a little overwhelmed, get back on one path or the other and stay there for a while.  This will help to re-focus things for you.

Keep it simple.

Here's one method I've found to be extremely helpful when I come up with a question.  Instead of immediately persuing the answer, I jot it down and research it later.  That sounds easier than it is.  If you don't jot it down, with the idea of getting back to it, your research may steer you off track, scattering your concentration.

Writing your questions down tends to imprint them into your memory.  Now, when you're researching your subject, you'll run across answers to some of your questions in the most unlikely (and even less convenient) places.  When you do, due to that imprinting process, you'll have a better chance of experiencing one of those "Aha!  Eureka!  I've found it!" moments, and you won't have wasted precious time having to search for it.

It found you!

OK. Let's go for a little walk. I've got a couple paths I know you'll be interested in.

Let's start with The First Path, Product Creation and Development.