Grahams guide to internet work from home in the UK

Software For The Home Internet Worker part 1.

2006-03-30T12:43:55+02:00

a rather long post today folks but I've tried to cover quite a lot of material, with more to follow soon.

Office Software

When deciding to start a business on the Internet, the question of what software will be required is both vitally important and far ranging. If your budget allows the purchase of big label state of the art software products then by all means use them if you feel it's worth the expense, in my experience however there are many low cost or free alternatives that the savvy business person could make use of and make use of the savings to increase spending on things like advertising and product development.

A must have for any business is a good office suite, for most computer users the first name that springs to mind is Microsoft office. This is a good product widely used throughout the world of computers and business, bur it is expensive, particularly with the constant upgrading to get new features (or patches to correct errors). There is however an excellent alternative option for Microsoft office in the shape of the open source office suite 'Open Office' www.openoffice.org.

This is an excellent product having all the same main features as MS Office, as well as a few that Microsoft have not included yet, and best of all the software is totally free. The Open Office program contains the majority of tools that any business user is likely to require as can be seen in the following feature list.

Word processor compatible with MS Word.
Spreadsheet program compatible with MS Excel.
Database program.
Presentation program.
Drawing program.
The ability to save documents in PDF format.
Creation of web pages.

This means that Open Office has most of the tools that any online business person is likely to need, I use open office myself to do the majority of my business work, especially when writing tutorial and course material as I can save directly to PDF without having to use any other software programs.

If you already have or can afford the expense then Microsoft office would meet many of your needs, although this software is expensive it has an advantage in that most people working in business have already learned how to use at least the basic functions, since it seems to be the industry standard office suite (anyone who has previously used MS office will have no trouble adjusting to Open Office as the functions and interface are very similar).

An important aspect of any online business will be the ability to send and receive email, now many people who have been used to working with email have been used to working with MS Outlook or Outlook express. Although outlook is a fine tool and is perfect for controlling email and contact management it is again an expensive option, if an email program with basic address book capabilities is all that is needed then mozilla thunderbird is an excellent choice, it is available free and integrates nicely with the mozilla firefox web browser I use these two products almost exclusively for email and web browsing due to their ease of use, their features and most especially the fact that they are less vulnerable to security problems than outlook, outlook express, and Internet explorer see http://www.mozilla.org/ .

Although I have not used it I have heard many excellent reports on Pegasus mail as an alternative email program you can find out more at the official site http://www.pmail.com one aspect of this program which may be worth considering is the claim that this email client is completely immune to all security threats which currently affect MS outlook and MS outlook express.

There a number of other programs that are required for online business purposes which can be obtained for free or at low cost we will take a look at the ones you are most likely to need.

Although I recommend Open Office as an answer to many tasks required for the home business owner it does have some limitations, one of these being in the creation of web pages. Even though this program does a good job of creating simple web pages it cannot compete with a dedicated web creation program.

The creation of well designed and professional looking web pages is an essential skill for anyone hoping to run a business online, the problem here of course is that very few of us are trained website designers. Although I seriously recommend that anyone hoping to do business online learn at least the basics of HTML and website design I realize that this can take time, and you want to get your business running ASAP. There are however a number of website creation programs which will allow you to create a website without knowing HTML, costs for these programs can vary considerably but there is one free alternative I can recommend as I make Use of it myself. I have listed some of the software I have used myself below and would recommend any of these programs. The right one for you will depend on a combination of budget and experience.

Note: WYSIWYG pronounced 'wizzywig' editors are designed to allow users to simply add text and graphics to their web page just as if they were using a word processor, the conversion to the correct HTML code is done by the editor without the user having to know HTML. These editors are great for absolute beginners, but do tend to have some limitations, however for most purposes they should be fine, if you really need to add some special effect into your web page that the editor can't handle you will need to learn HTML or find a friend who can do the coding for you.

NVU – an open source WYSIWYG editor, completely free and can be downloaded from http://www.nvu.com/ this editor is designed to be used by the total beginner if you can use a word processor you can use this program. It also has an excellent help system which includes a glossary of Internet and web design terms, so now you actually get a chance to find out what all the 'geekspeak' really means.

Microsoft Front Page – a WYSIWYG editor from Microsoft, relatively expensive and has a tendency to add 'extra' Microsoft specific code to your website, this can cause problems for users using web browsers other than Internet Explorer. Extra code also has the disadvantage of adding to your file sizes leading to slower loading times for your pages. I currently have a copy of Frontpage 2000 and although it is a useful tool I tend to use other website software instead, newer versions may have solved some of the problems but I have not used them so cannot comment.

Dreamweaver – the Rolls Royce of WYSIWG editors and with a price tag to match, very popular with professional web designers, it does tend to add some extra code but is not considered as bad as some editors for this. The learning curve for dreamweaver is quite steep but the results can make the effort of learning to use this software well worthwhile.

Eversoft First Page 2000 – an HTML editor for those with at least a basic understanding of HTML (or at least those who are trying to learn) this is a great editor for people who prefer to work with HTML code directly, it is completely free and has some great features, including the ability to have the toolbars set up according to your ability.

Eversoft First Page 2006 – this is the updated version of First Page 2000 and includes the ability to create your page in a WYSIYG mode, I have not had this software for very long but am becoming very impressed by its abilities, unlike its predecessor First Page 2006 requires paid registration to remove startup and finish nag screens and to unlock its full functionality, however the basic features that it provides even without registration are certainly more than enough for the beginner and even the moderately experienced web page builder see their site at http://www.evrsoft.com/ .

HTML-Kit – another free editor for those who prefer working with HTML code this editor has a large range of functions and has the ability to have a number of 'PlugIns' added to it to give additional features, although not my favorite code editor (First Page 2000 is still tops for now) it is still a very good editor and one I would happily recommend, http://www.chami.com/html-kit/ .

We'll take a break here, and give you a chance to digest some of the information above, I'll have another post up soon with more software that you are likely to need for running your online business.

Regards Graham.

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Setting up Your Home Office Part 2

2006-03-28T12:39:24+02:00

Computer Equipment and some Data Protection Legislation.

Today I want to look at the actual computer equipment you may need in order to run your own online business. Now you may have read that you can run your own business on the internet without even having a computer, these sorts of adverts show up all over the place either online or in newspapers and magazines.

Well these adverts are COMPLETE AND UTTER RUBBISH, you cannot run any sort of online business without access to a computer and the internet. You might just manage to scrape up a few dollars making use of computers in internet cafe's but the limitations on use will seriously hamper your ability to run a business, in fact the only people I can think of who make any money in this way are scam artists who use internet cafe's to send out their dodgy e-mails, making it hard for anyone to track them down later.

Right so we will accept it as given you must have your own computer and internet access in order to run an online business. The problem here is that the vast majority of people do not understand computers and their capabilities, making it hard for them to know just what they require in the way of computer equipment they require to carry out a particular task.

Now when it comes to purchasing computers for business your actual requirements are surprisingly modest, you do not need the latest greatest turbocharged home supercomputer. using a computer for business is totally different from using a computer for home entertainment purposes. A business computer will have no need of a massively expensive 3D graphics display card (remember business use not games or family entertainment), in most cases there is no real need for the very latest high performance processor either.

A business computer pretty much only needs to perform the following tasks successfully.

Run a reasonable office suite i.e. word processor, spreadsheet and database program.
Be able to connect to the Internet either by dial up modem or via broadband connection.
Have a reasonably up to date version of a web browser program.
Have some sort of graphics manipulation software for simple image editing.

Of course if you feel that your budget will allow it having a computer with a little extra power which would allow you to do things like video editing and creation would be nice but for most of us these things are not essential.

So exactly what kind of computer should I buy then Graham? Oh how often have I heard that particular question, my answer these days is always the same and is always two-fold.

What do you want to be able to do? (we pretty much covered that already)
How much can you afford to spend?

It is a fact that for many people starting out on their path to running their own online business that money may be in short supply, but I would always recommend that you best computer for the job that you can afford. Notice I did say the 'best computer for the job', this does not mean going to your local outlet of PC World or its equivalent and letting some slick salesperson convince you to part with large amounts of cash for a computer that is vastly overpowered for the purpose you need it for you are buying a business tool not a status symbol.

If you are buying a new computer then you should be looking for a machine that is targeted for office use, check both online and in computer magazines, there are a multitude of suppliers who can meet your needs, just be sure that you choose a reputable company (check online using google, or in computing forums to see if there are reports of problems with the company delivering on its sales pitch). My personal recommendation would be to consider a company like Dell Computers who specialize in providing computers to business users.

If the cost of a new computer is beyond your current budget, then buying a second user machine is perfectly acceptable alternative providing that:

The computer meets your requirements, i.e. can run your office software.
Is in good working condition, if your own knowledge isn't quite up to scratch here find a friend who does know a lot about computers. (Hint most teenagers these days are very computer savvy but remember they tend to know most about computers which are able to play high powered games not those used solely for business).
One other thing to consider is the amount of RAM memory the machine has, as well as the size of the hard disk, a general rule here is the more the better but we will look more specifically at these requirements at a later date.

When buying second user machines a good option is to look at companies providing refurbished ex-corporate computers, these machines come on the market regularly simply because a large number of corporate computers are leased as opposed to sold. Many lease agreements allow the user to upgrade their equipment after 12 – 18 months at no additional cost, it makes sense for the company to do this even is the machines they have are perfectly up to the tasks asked of them.

It would be wise for the inexperienced computer person to purchase a machine with operating software already installed and configured, although most modern software installation is fairly straightforward and with no special skills required, operating software can have a few quirks of its own making it a bit harder for the inexperienced to install (this is another time when your computer geek friend comes in handy, I know I'm a computer geek!).

So hopefully after this you should be able to get your own business computer system operational at least, but remember we are talking business computer system here, so do try to have a separate system, form the family PC unless you want to take the chance of another family member accidentally deleting your business data!

Now I said at the beginning that we would look at some legislation regarding data protection, as I'm based in the UK (North-East Scotland to be exact) I have to comply with EU data protection regulations. This is very important, contravention of these regulations can carry very heavy penalties, I worked in one job not so very long ago where the possible penalty for revealing a customers data could be up to £1,000,000 thats over $1,500,000 for my friends in the US.

There is a requirement that anyone holding 'personally identifiable data' of others on file must register with the Data Protection Registrar, although some exceptions to this rule apply anyone living in the EU should contact their relavent registrar and check if they need to register. Remember personally identifiable information is any list of names and addresses, hard to run a business without recording your customers details!

For my colleagues in the US there are requirements for you too if you are dealing with anyone from any EU country, these are the 'safe harbor' rules which provide protection for personal data belonging to EU nationals outside of the EU.

The reason I mention these regulations so early on is that I know some people will rush ahead and start building e-mail lists of prospects or customers and I do not want you falling foul of the law, especially as ignorance of the law will make no difference to how the courts will treat you. If you have any doubts check the legislation, check with regulatory bodies or even seek specialist legal advice. I have included some links here which may help, the language can be rather hard to follow at times so I intend to break this down for 'real people' at a later time. In the meantime if anyone would like some help on this they can leave a comment asking for help. I'm not an expert by any means but have had to study this subject whilst I was at college so do at least understand the basic rules and regulations. A search on google under the terms 'safe harbor and data protection' should give results for those in the US, whilst a search under 'EU data protection act' will give results for us European nationals.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/fsj/privacy/docs/guide/guide-ukingdom_en.pdf
http://www.ico.gov.uk/documentUploads/Electronic_mail_marketing_Good_Practice_Note.pdf
http://europa.eu.int/pol/infso/index_en.htm

In my next post I plan on looking in more depth at some of the software which might be required to run a home business. Hopefully I can do this in a shorter post than this as we have covered quite a bit of material today

Regards Graham

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Setting Up your Home Office.

2006-03-26T04:32:27+02:00

When first starting to work from home the setup of your home office is important to the success of your new business. What is so important about where or how I work at home you may ask? Well if your workspace is unsuitable you will at best be working inefficiently which will lose you money and at worst could seriously and permanently damage your health.

A home office need not cost a lot of money but some expense may be necessary in order to get the best from it. I would recommend that you should have at least some the following items of equipment, your exact needs will vary with the nature of your business but these items would prove useful for any business.

1. Desk: a desk of some sort will be an essential, it is possible to make do with the dining room table but this would be an unsuitable solution in the long term. I would suggest purchasing a desk that will hold all your computer equipment, as well as providing a space for writing, many standard computer desks do not have sufficient space to allow you to use them as writing desks. Remember even though you are planning to business on the internet you will always have some paperwork to do so a good desk is a worthwhile investment.

2. Chair: a proper chair is a must for anyone planning on spending a lot of time sitting in front of a computer. The chair should give good support for the lower back, and be adjustable for height. If your budget will allow try to spend a little more on a chair that also allows the angle of the back and the angle of the seat to be adjusted as well. It cannot be stressed too highly how important a good chair is to your health, as a sufferer of back problems I have first hand knowledge of the difference a suitable chair makes in relieving and preventing back trouble.

3. Telephone: obviously a telephone will be a must for any business, but have you considered having a second line installed for business use? This can avoid problems when other household members wish to use the telephone when you are waiting to receive an important call, or need to make some calls. (teenage girls in particular will not thank you for restricting access to the telephone!). Regarding the actual telephone itself you might consider investing in one of the new telephones which can combine normal telephone calls with the ability to make use of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) facilities. With technology advancing all of the time and with broadband access becoming available to more people VOIP systems can lead to major savings especially combined with a system like Skype. You can call other skype users over the Internet for free, and can call standard telephone numbers almost anywhere for greatly reduced costs. Although such telephones are currently relatively expensive they can more than pay for themselves in the long term.

4. Printer: a printer is a fairly essential piece of equipment, for speed and cost effectiveness a small laser printer would be the best choice. If you already have a printer, perhaps as part of a package from the purchase of a computer then by all means use that if you wish, however you should be aware that printing a page with a standard inkjet printer will cost significantly more per page than using a laser printer. Another option which might be considered is a combination printer, scanner,copier machine these can even be found incorporating a fax machine as well. Although these machines are great in the home (or office) when space is at a premium they have the disadvantage that a major fault can leave you without any of the services these machines provide. If this could prove a serious drawback in your business then stick to individual devices as it is highly unlikely that they would all go faulty at the same time.

5. Scanner: for some people a scanner will be an absolute necessity, but it is a useful piece of equipment in any office. A scanner has the advantage of being used as a replacement for a dedicated copier when used in conjunction with a PC and printer, it is also invaluable for transferring printed documents to your computer. OCR (Optical Character Recognition software will allow you to scan printed material and transform it into editable text which can be very useful in business. The scanner can of course be used for getting other material onto the computer such as photographs, drawings or any printed material (it is also possible to scan objects if they can be covered up with a light excluding cloth).

6. Storage: you will need storage for any materials you require for work documents, stationary etc. This could be a simple cupboard or a proper office filing cabinet, in any event it might be worth considering whether a lock might be required to restrict access to your files etc. Loss or theft of sensitive data could be serious for your business, and possibly for you as the data protection regulations in place in the UK and Europe have quite strict guidelines and penalties for anyone who holds personal data of other people in either printed or electronic form.

We will end this post now and in the next one I intend to look at the computer equipment you might need for your business, and will also take a closer look at European data protection laws and how they might impact on you.

Graham

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Setting Up your Home Office

2006-03-24T14:54:37+01:00

Graham

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Starting An Online Business From Scratch (part 4)

2006-03-22T22:00:29+01:00

Almost without fail most sources of information on setting up an Internet based business will concentrate purely on the Internet side of your business, however there are important points to consider that have nothing at all to do with the Internet itself which we are going to look at today.

Now that you have decided that you want to run an Internet based business form home, have you considered the practicalities involved? If in the past you have had a conventional job you have always had you working environment specified for you by your employer.

Well now technically you are the employer – employing yourself! So what does that mean? Well you have to organize your own working environment for a start. Have you actually considered exactly where you are going to work from?

For some people working from the dining room table while the kids are running about beside you poses no problem at all whilst for others it would be pure hell. So do you have facilities to setup a separate work space if required?

Have you considered the equipment you are likely to need? For instance do you require a separate business phone line? What computer equipment do you need? Will you require a printer, a fax, a scanner? Have you organized a desk, a computer chair (very important for your health), will you need storage for files etc. These things although appearing quite mundane are actually a very important part of your business setup process.

Another aspect of setting up your business that is often glossed over is that most books, videos, websites etc will be quick to point out that in order to successfully run an online business the new business owner will require a domain name, a hosting account and a website. A fairly significant number of them however merely tell you that you need these things but don't explain how to set them up this can be quite frustrating for the newcomer who wants to get started

It is all too easy for someone who has been using the net for a while to forget that some newcomers have truly no real knowledge of how to do more than basic Internet surfing. This is not a bad thing, we all started out knowing nothing and gradually learned more as we went along, however for someone who wishes to use the Internet for business some basic tuition in the steps required to set things up will help enormously.

I intend to concentrate more fully on these and other matters relating to starting out on line in upcoming articles.

There are also number of online resources that will teach you all that you are likely to need as well as some really good books both in print and electronic formats which would serve equally well. Below is a small selection of resources which I have found personally helpful and would be quite happy to recommend to others.

http://tutorials.freeskills.com/ a range of free tutorials on a variety of computing and internet subjects, including marketing on the web.

http://www.gcflearnfree.org a range of free courses and tutorials which may prove useful for anyone wishing to start a business.

http://www.designprofessional.co.uk/Marketing.htm a range of information and resources relating to internet marketing - not all free but enough information freely available to make this a useful site.

A search on google for free tutorials or free ebooks on any subject you wish to learn more about should throw up a large number of possible resources, and a search on Amazon will give plenty of inforation on books which can be purchased.

well thats it for now.

regards Graham

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Starting A New Online Business From Scratch (part 3).

2006-03-22T03:08:17+01:00

in part one of this series of articles we looked at why you might want to start an online business, and whether you would be suited to working at this type of business.

Today we are going to look at some of the business models available to the (honest) online business person. Firstly what are we going to sell? Will it be a service, a digital product a physical product or a combination of these. So lets look at the various options in a little more detail and consider some of the pros and cons of each.

Selling a Service: if you want to sell a service is that service one that you can provide yourself, or will you outsource the work to others? If you intend to provide the service yourself are you properly experienced and qualified to do so at an acceptable standard? Will you require further training?

If you have the relavent experience/qualifications, selling a service can be a good way to earn an income working for yourself using the Internet, particularly if your service can be offered solely using the Internet as its medium and can be offered to any country (language constraints allowing). This gives you the potential to reach a huge market, but like any other business it will take some time and effort on your part to advertise yourself and your service to the world at large, but it can and has been done successfully by many online business people.

The main drawback of a service related business is that you can only provide that service to a limited number of people at any one time. After all you cannot work 24 hours a day 7 days a week even if the Internet itself is capable of doing so, the constraining factor is your available time.

Selling a Physical Product: this business model is used by the majority of businesses currently making a living on the Internet, whether that may mean selling items on ebay or having a monster store like Amazon, most are selling tangible objects or “things”. If you wish to sell a physical product there are a certain number of things you need to think about.

Will you be manufacturing the product yourself? If so do you have the facilities in place to do so effectively? (remember products can take of explosively, especially on the Internet).

If you are not going to do you your own manufacturing is your supplier reliable and capable of delivering your product on time and of a suitable standard? Will you require storage facilities for stock?

Have you researched the manufacturing costs? Worked out a suitable pricing model? Have you looked into delivering the product to your customer? Both the manner of delivery and the cost are important considerations.

Selling a Digital product: selling a digital product is a little different from selling a physical product as often there is no actual “thing” for customers to hold or touch, the exception to this would be digital media such as DVD and CD, however with these we are straying into a combination of physical and digital products.

Digital products or “info products” as they are called since they usually provide some kind of information to the buyer e.g. ebooks, video training, etc have one great advantage over physical products and that is that they reside purely on a computer as digital information. You can have tens of thousands of digital products on any run of the mill home computer, imagine the storage space required for ten thousand books, with ebooks these fit on your computers hard drive quite easily. The other advantage is that one created a digital product can be replicated ad infinitum with no further time effort or cost required.

You could set up your business as a combination of the above business models, this would give flexibility but the downsides of all three business models would have to be taken into consideration.

For example lets say you are an expert in certain computer software. You could provide a service providing personal training to business or individual users, you could produce digital training manuals and courses and you could produce printed manuals, CD or DVD training discs. There are lots of possibilities you just need to look for them, however planning the basic steps are crucial to your success.

In the next part of this series we will look at some important aspects of setting up an online business that most books and manuals seem to ignore or skip over.

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Starting An Online Business From Scratch (part 2).

2006-03-21T02:21:44+01:00

When deciding to start a new business most people immediately think “what can I sell?”, this is wrong, the most important thing is “who can I sell to?”.

Just think about it for a second, it doesn't matter what your product might be, how terrific it is or how much of a bargain it might be if no one wants it then you won't be able to sell it. The quintessential point for any business is there must be a market for the product or if no market currently exists then you need to create one.

Now it is possible to create a market look at apple with the i-pod, but the initial cost is massive, the promotion involved in creating a market for a product is a huge undertaking and is just not practical for a startup business.

Therefore we are left with the option of finding an existing market that is not being serviced, or finding some new method of delivering what that markets needs. This requires research into your possible market niche. What is a market niche? Broadly speaking it is a section or group within the overall population who are looking for a particular product or service.

I'll try and give an example, most of us know that golf is a very popular sport amongst a group of the population – therefore making golfers a niche market. This could be broken down even further though, for instance how about left-handed golfers? Only about 10-14% of golfers are likely to be left-handed since that is approximately the distribution of left-handed people in the general population. Now you have found a highly specific niche market, so how about doing some research online to find out what left-handed golfers look for on the Internet?

There are many excellent resources available for carrying out this type of research many of them free or at low cost. All you need to do is make use of them, to find out what your niche market wants.

So let us assume you have done some research on your left-handed golfers and discovered they have a problem getting left-handed golfing gloves – could you supply their want? Could you manufacture, left-handed golfing gloves or find someone who could manufacture them for you?

You have just found a market and found a way to supply that market, you're well on the way to setting up your business, but don't rush ahead too quickly there is still a few things you need to consider before you're up and running.

The next article in this series will look at the different business models you might consider and some of their good and bad points.

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Starting A New Online Business From Scratch (part 1)

2006-03-20T08:10:40+01:00

When starting an online business from scratch the newcomer as well as those who may have run an online business before will be faced with a number of choices and decisions.

The first thing that should be looked at is why you want to start a business on the Internet. There can be many good reasons why you might want to do this but equally if you are trying to set up an Internet business just for the sake of it, then chances are you are going to fail. The main reasons you may wish to start an Internet business are probably going to be one of, or a combination of the following.

* You are tired of your current job, and see it as a dead end running your business would be a better opportunity.

* You want to dramatically change your career direction and try something new and exciting.

* You already have a business and see the Internet as the next logical route for expansion of your business.

* You would simply like to earn a little extra money to supplement your current income.

* You would simply like to work from home, be that for family or personal reasons or just because it is something you've dreamed about for years.

* You've always wanted to be your own boss and this seems like the easiest and quickest way to get started.

Whilst these are all quite valid reasons for starting an online business, you have to really want to do this for it to be a success, because despite what many business opportunities, or Internet marketing 'experts' will try to tell you, an Internet based business will take time dedication and hard work to succeed.

Another point that you the prospective Internet businessperson needs to consider is - "is it right for me? Or am I right for the Internet?"

What do I mean by this? Well an Internet based business model will just not be right for many people, we are all different, some people work better and feel more comfortable in the structured environment of 'conventional' work. This is not a bad thing, but could make you very miserable if you attempt an Internet based business and find it hard to cope with the different challenges and problems that an online business throws at us.

With an Internet based business you are likely to be solely responsible for all decisions, responsible for all the technical aspects of setting up and maintaining websites, all sales and promotion.

In short you will probably have to do everything connected with running your business by yourself, and while some will see this as a challenge and rise to it, others may be overwhelmed and find it hard to cope. As I have said we are all different and not everyone will find the solitude and responsibility of running their own business to be right for them.

It is best to consider the realities of going it alone before you start and possibly save yourself a lot of stress and unhappiness if you think that you will find it hard to cope running a business alone.

If having carefully considered the reasons for starting an online business, having decided that they are valid, and that you will be happy doing everything yourself the next hurdle is, who will you customers be? This is probably the single most important thing you need to consider when starting your online business.

Part 2 in this series will look at who your target market is likely to be and how you will reach them.

Graham Murdo
grahammurdo@gmail.com

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Back again with some thing totally new

2006-03-20T08:02:27+01:00

Hi all, Graham here,

Anyone who's looked in on this blog recently will have noticed that there hasn't been a post for about four months now. Well there are a couple of reasons for that, one being ill health and the other being 'oh my god! What have taken on!'. Yes folks I admit it, I really didn't think this one through properly before starting, there is just so much information that it has taken me this long to start organizing things into a sensible order.

There you have your very first and probably most important lesson if you plan on setting up your own Internet based business, plan, plan, PLAN! There did you get that? Really it is important for you to plan things out before getting started, don't let yourself get fooled into thinking you can do things 'straight off the cuff ' chances are like me you'll fall on your behind.

So now to business (excuse the pun) after a radical shakeup in my original thinking I'm going to be starting of with a series of posts on starting a business online. I believe that I've looked at all of the main points required but would love to here from you if you think I've missed something or if there is a particular point you would like to know more about.

As I've said we are going to start with a general overview then I plan to get down to more specific topics. I'm also currently working on a website that will provide more detailed information on the topics covered as well as providing a selection of tools and resources for the new business entrepreneur.

The main watchword for this site will be value for money in both information and tools whenever possible any software, books etc that we have will be available for free download. Where a free option is not practical or available the aim is to find the best price possible.

Full details of the site will be made available here as soon as all the kinks have been ironed out (notice I'm planning things this time !) so keep a watch for this info when it becomes available.

Right I think I've waffled on enough now so I'll let you get to the first 'proper' post, hope you enjoy it and I'd love to here from you regarding any questions regarding the material.

Regards Graham

grahammurdo@gmail.com

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The First Homeworking Opportunity I Have Signed up For

2005-12-30T13:24:25+01:00

Well I've come across the first opportunity I am willing to sign up for and to reccomend to others as a possible opportunity for them. This site allows bloggers to earn money simply by posting articles, or at least posting decent articles. The mone making side comes from advertising through google adsense adverts placed into your posts each time a reader clicks on an advert revenue is raised, the adverts re shared between you and the site host 1 click goes to them 1 click goes to you a 50 - 50 split. This costs you absolutely nothing to join, payment is made by google not the site owners, the only thing you need to do is keep posting articles. This is not a get rich scheme as the site owners point out clearly, and a certain amount of hard work is required - you do actually have to sit down and write articles. How hard you consider this work to be depends of course on how much you enjoy writing. Articles can be on practically any subject and there are lots of different categories for articles on the site. Anyone should be able to contribute something, you do not need to be an "expert" you only need the will to write honestly about something you know. Take a look for youself, and try it out you really dont have anything to lose and you may actually make some money! http://www.writingup.com/blog/Garth63

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Internet homeworking scams

2005-12-29T11:06:28+01:00

A short post on homeworking scams, as a beginner in working from home using the Internet, but with a good background in computing and Internet use I am aware that the Internet is home to a great many scams and hustles. Don't let this deter you however just be vigilant and remember if something appears too good to be true it probably is. That said the majority of Internet businesses and schemes are run by people like yourself, honest homeworkers trying to make a living. Now to the point of this particular post In my travels around the net looking into possible means of working from home I came across this site which has some good advice on spotting and dealing with homeworking scams amd is definitely worth a look and they provide a couple of interesting freebies as well (note online auction ebook at bottom of page - not bang up-to-date but still useful information). Web addres for Scambusters - http://www.scambusters.org/ check it out you could save money time and a whole lot of grief.

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Hello to all

2005-12-28T09:29:51+01:00

This is the first posting I have made on a new blog which will look into oppportunities for UK residents to work from home using the internet.

I have decided to create this blog to help others who have found themselves in the position of either wanting to work from home. Or who like myself have been placed in a position where working from home has become the only viable option for employment.

A little about myself and how all this came about. I am a well educated 42 Year old male with a background in engineering and construction mainly, although I have worked in wide range of jobs some of which would appear highly unlikely if you actually knew me. I'll post a bit more about my working history later if only to convince others that your current working or non-working background makes no difference to your ability to work from home using the internet.

My personal reasons for working from home are enforced due to medical problems. I have a condition affecting my joints, this is caused by the ligaments in my body being "too loose" the result of this is a lot of pain in the joints at times mainly back, neck and hips although any joint in my body can be affected.

I've told you about my medical problems not to try to gain any sympathy (although any sympathetic atractive ladies who might wwish to come and look after me would always be welcomed ), the reason I have mentioned this is in fact to point out that anyone can make use of the vast resource that the internet has become, and physical ability is not required, merely the ability to spot an opportunity and act on it.

So how is this all going to work? well I have been looking into various ways of making money from home using the internet and will post reviews of different ideas, schemes etc that I find personally to work, I intend to ensure that anything I post can be run from the UK as many on-line opportunities are US-centric and might not be of practical use to UK nationals. I will however look into opportunities that can be run from any location worldwide to cater for those who are not UK based, but the main emphsis of this blog will always be towards UK homeworkers.

Now the big question WHY DO I WANT TO GIVE YOU THIS INFORMATION AT NO COST TO YOU?, anyone who has been looking for homeworking opportunities online has seen thousands of adverts offering to SELL information on how to make a living online.

Well in a way I'm not that different, any projects schemes etc that I endorse after trying them will most likely be part of an affiliate scheme, therefore if I find an opportunity that is right for you and you take it up using my link then I will receive a commission, but remember I do not expect any payment for providing the information in the post, I know how hard it is to get started and I genuinely want to find real opportunities to share with you, if I find something good it's not really going to affect any income I might make, the internet is just too vast for my reccomendations to impact on me personally so why not share? And as I've already said it could actually make me some income as well.

Well thats it for now, if you find this post interesting then remeber to check back, there should be some reviews online soon and hopefully It'll be of something right for you, I'll also let you know if I come across any definate scams, unfortunately there are plenty about.

all the best,

Graham

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