Home Based Business vs Home Job Opportunity

You are here because you either want to know what a work at home based business is or you want to find one. I am going to explain to you what a “work at home based business” really is and tell you the similarities and differences between a home based business and a work at home job opportunity. They are not exactly the same thing even though many people think they are.

I get a kick out of a lot of home business owners. They tell me that the reason why they want to run their own home business is because they don’t want to work for a boss and they want to be able to make their own hours and have the freedom to do as they please. Hey, that’s what a home business is all about. I had no choice. I started my own business because I lost my job. But trust me, I wish I had quit my job long before I lost it, because this is the life. But what about you? Are you really running a business or are you just working another job without realizing it?

Let’s look at some similarities and differences between working at home and running a home based business…

Are You Running A Business Or Working A Job?

The bigger question is, how can you tell? Well, the best way to tell is by looking at what you do on a daily basis and see if you’re a slave to it. If you didn’t do what you did today, would you still make money? This is a problem with people who freelance. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking freelancing, as it pays very well, but unless you work, you don’t get paid. That’s why, as well as copywriting pays, I wouldn’t want to be a slave to that business model, which is why I don’t take on copywriting clients regularly. I’ll do one from time to time, more to help out somebody who can’t afford the outrageous prices of some of these guys, but I’ll never make it a steady income.

Anyway, let’s dig a little deeper into the similarities and differences to find out the answer for you…

When you have your own home based business then you are obviously working at home while running it. So, in that regard they are very much the same. However, a typical work at home job means you will be working for a company or another individual. This is basically the same as going to a regular offline job every day except you get to do it at home.

You should never pay to work at home for a company or an individual. They should be paying you, not the other way around. But a home based business opportunity is different. You will almost always have to pay to join them. It might be a onetime fee or a monthly fee but either way it will cost you.

You likely have your own online home based business if you do one or more of these things to make money:

  • You make money at home by selling products. These can be products that you created yourself or products you are selling as an affiliate.
  • You earn money online from selling (flipping) websites or blogs that you have created or purchased and fixed up.
  • You make money from selling adverting space on your websites or blogs.
  • You make money online by selling articles or content that you have written.
  • You make money with Adsense on websites or blogs that you have built and got ranked highly in the search engines.

There are certainly other ways that you can make money at home online which would constitute you having your own online home based business, but the ones listed above are the most popular methods. Basically it boils down to if you make money from your own websites or blogs, or by selling something that is created by you then you have your own online home based business.

You likely have a work at home job if you do one or more of these things to earn money:

  • Someone else pays you to create something for them for a specified amount of money.
  • Someone else pays you for writing articles, blog posts, advertisements, sales copy, information products, or other content for them.
  • You get paid by someone else for building or designing web sites for them.
  • You get paid for taking surveys, reading emails, posting in forums, clicking ads, filling out free offers, or performing other similar tasks.
  • You do anything else for someone where they pay you for your time and work.

As with the home based businesses, there are other ways you can earn money that would constitute you having a work at home job but those listed above are some of the most common. Basically you have a work at home job if someone else pays you to do something for them.

Do you see the differences between the two?

It comes down to whether or not you make money from the sale of products or services. If you do then you have your own online business. And if you are getting paid by someone else for a service you provide, you have a home based job. There are exceptions to this rule but that’s basically the way it is for the most part.

When you own a home based business you make money doing things that benefit you and your business. You do keyword research and build your own websites. You do your own marketing and advertising. You make money from your visitors and customers. You are in control of how much time and effort you put into building your business and how much money you can potentially make from your work.

For example, if you write your own information product (ebook) then build a website and write a sales letter to sell it, then you have created your own business product. You will then market it using various internet marketing techniques and hopefully a lot of people will buy it. This is part of your own business and everything you do for the product benefits you. How much money you make from it mainly depends on your own efforts and you can continue to earn from that product for years.

On the other hand, when you have an online work at home job you must work the hours needed in order to complete the task you are getting paid to do for someone else. You will do the work and then give it to your virtual “boss” so they can use it for whatever they needed and pay you for it. You are helping them build their business, not yours. As soon you are done and get paid for your home based work, you will no longer make money from whatever you did. You have to find another new “job” to continue making money.

With a home business you keep earning money even if you aren’t working. Once you have built it up to the point where money is coming in regularly, you might be able to take an entire month or longer off to go on vacation and your income will stay the same. With a work from home job, your income goes away as soon as you stop working.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both but I highly recommend starting your own home based business rather than doing work at home jobs. The reason is simply because you must have your own business if you really want to create financial freedom for yourself and continue to do so into the future. You will not get rich doing work at home jobs because you will always have to keep working and completing tasks for someone else to get paid. You can only work so many hours in a day and you can only earn so much for your work. There’s a low ceiling on how much money you can earn from work at home jobs. You have a lot higher income potential as well as leverage and options with a home based business.

If you want to earn a good living online and not become a slave to it, you need to think long term. In other words, you want to set up a business model that will pay you in the future for the work you do today. Take a look at what you’re doing today and see if it’s something that you’ll want to be doing years from now. If the answer is no, maybe you want to rethink your business model. It’s never too late to make changes that will bring you a greater income with a lot less work.

Now is the time for you to sit back and really think about how you are making money at home online. Do you have your own internet home business or do you have a work from home job? There’s certainly nothing wrong with doing work for someone else and getting paid for it if that’s what you enjoy. However, if you are worried about your future or want to create financial freedom for you and your family, you really need to get started on your own online business right now!

The next time you are looking for “work at home based business” you will know that phrase is actually two separate things combined into one. You can do both or you can choose a side. You now know where I stand on the issue.

Are you looking for a way to start your online home business or add an additional income stream to an existing internet business? Here are my top recommendations for the best home business opportunities.

Stop Chasing Shadows and Start Making Money!

The title might give you a clue to what’s coming here and it isn’t pretty or even very nice, but unfortunately the truth often stings, and this is a truth that really can’t be ignored. At least not by anyone who is actually serious enough to want to make money from the time they spend online. What is this latest revelation to put a dent in the vast majority of wannabe internet marketers?

Its all about chasing shadows.

By that I mean latching on to this or that latest, most innovative idea that some self styled money making guru has put out in the hope it’ll go viral and make them a lot of money off the backs of all the headless chickens who will follow them blindly down a dark alley. Its a shame but a truism nonetheless that people will follow where someone they see as an expert leads. Even if they lead them to certain disaster, which is what most of the gurus tend to do to their flocks.

The trick is to recognize a shadow when you see it!

They are all around and most of them promise a lot while delivering little or nothing. The old saying “if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is” should be uppermost in your thoughts when confronted with a “great idea to make money online”. Chances are, that “great idea” will make money for its creator but will leave you spending a lot of time chasing that particular shadow in circles and not making any money from it yourself. That wasted time would have been better spent working on your own long term income stream that you know works because you have actual proof it works. And I don’t mean some hyped up sales page statistical chart which is probably faked or doctored in some way to make it look highly favorable. Like “I made $10,000 in a week” should really read, “I worked my ass off for two years solid and eventually one week I made $10,000… but my average is closer to $1,000…”.

Ok, that’s the reality of working online. Most people who do make money, only make an average amount and often its just enough to consider it a working wage. But if you can get to that stage, you can truly say, hand on heart, that you make money online. Because you do and you are living off it! Then you are at least qualified to show others how you do it, if you want to that is.

Think about this…

If you really did find a working formula that made you, say $1,000 a week online on average and it kept producing income no matter what, would you want to sell that idea to a bunch of noobs for $47 a pop and expect to retire on the proceeds? No way, man! It does not compute. It simply does not add up. And it does not make any sense to do that. I certainly don’t go shouting from the rooftops how I make my money online. Hell, I don’t want the competition taking a slice of my pie and neither would anyone who really does make good cash online.

So what does that tell you about 99% of all the “golden opportunities” that are rammed in your face every time you surf for ways to earn money online? Yep, they’re not what they seem. They are shadows and if you go chasing them you will be disappointed.

So the moral of this article is to find something that works for you and work hard at making it work. Its the only way to truly make money online, as there are no free lunches and shadows are fleeting at best. Good luck and I wish you every success!

5 Ways for College Students to Make Money Online

There are several thousands of college students interested in finding out how they can earn money on the internet. College students do not have a lot of time because of classes, studying, activities, and so on. Assuming that college students need money as quickly as possible, blogging is not always a feasible option due to the amount of time and commitment it takes to maintain a blog. So, how can college students make extra money online? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Online Surveys, Get Paid To (GPT), Read Emails, etc

There are a number of different companies that have hundreds, even thousands of emails that need to be read every day. Of course, the top executives of major businesses do not have hours every day to spend reading emails. The solutions they find is outsourcing to other people, like college students looking to make a little extra money. You should be able to find several companies willing to outsource such tedious tasks as online surveys, product testing, mystery shopping and more.

2. Freelance Writing

Can you string a sentence together? If so, then you have what it takes to earn extra money online as a freelance writer. You do not have to have a degree in English or journalism to succeed. In fact, if you are able to write in a way that is easy for others to read, they you have everything you need, You can find work online by signing up for job posting services and finding projects that you can do.

3. eBay & Amazon

College students have been quite successful with selling stuff on eBay and/or Amazon to make a little extra cash when they need it. As a college student, you most likely have stuff that you can sell to other college students. In addition, other college students have stuff that they may be willing to let you sell on the online auction site for them and earn fair commission. You can also find dropshippers or wholesalers that are great places to find products for you to sell and earn money on eBay. Garage sales and estate sales are also great places to find stuff to sell that will not cost you a lot of money up front.

4. Online Tutoring

The pay for this type of service varies from one college student to the next. Some companies are available that you can sign up with if you prefer. In fact, online tutoring is a service that is in high demand these days, and getting more and more popular by the minute. If you enjoy helping other people to learn, online tutoring may be the perfect way for you to make money online. Depending on the service you decide to go with, you can expect to work from a couple of hours or more every week.

5. Online Juror

Do you know what lawyers do to practice and hone their talents? Places are available online that stage mock court trails so lawyers can get the practice that they need. If you become an online juror, you can expect to make as much as $60 depending on the complexity of the case. There is no guarantee that you will get a case, but it is worth a try if you need to earn a little extra money.

So, if you are a college student that needs some extra cash, or are looking for ways to jumpstart your future, you may find some good opportunities to do just that above!

Working At Home is Bad For Your Health!

When I used to drag myself to someone else’s office five days a week I always dreamed of working at home! The thought of not having to get dressed, not having to rush to get out the door, not to having to sit in traffic was enormously appealing to me.

The reality, as so often in life, is a little different. There are the slight annoyances – suddenly the electric bill, water bill, toilet paper purchases, coffee costs, and several other expenses go through the roof – but is probably off-set by the savings on gas, lunches and snacks at work. There is also the fact that you are the one that gets the door-to-door salesmen and the telephone survey “opportunities”.

The single biggest issue I had working from home and sitting online in front of my computer all day – was health. Basically building my own business was hugely absorbing and I could work for hours upon hours and not get up from the computer at all – in fact I barely changed positions many days. My body hurt. I didn’t have full-blown RSI but I would certainly have developed it had I not noticed and changed my keyboard and mouse positions around to stop myself hunching over the keyboard quite badly. Luckily, I also realized the toll all this sitting was taking on my health so I began making sure I get up from the desk several times a day to walk around or do some quick body weight exercises.

I got lonely too – although I have always vowed loudly and often that I didn’t go to work just to meet people – not going to work I certainly found quite isolating. My poor partner came through the door every afternoon to a barrage of chat as I practiced using my voice again! That only lasted about a month or so and I got used to it though. It was tougher for me because I was living overseas at the time, but then I am also quite self-contained so I don’t need to have social contact every day. If you do I seriously suggest you think twice about working from home – it is a very different environment than working in an office.

Then one day you look up and find you don’t fit your jeans anymore. Even if you don’t currently walk or cycle to work, even driving involves a few more calories moving between car and buildings than moving from bed to home office, and all too often, via the fridge. If you don’t want to put on weight when you start working from home you really are going to have to make an effort to exercise. I am lucking that I take martial arts lessons three days a week. For me, this is all the fun parts of exercise without any of the boring bits – and that’s the key you need to find something physical which you enjoy doing to get you away from the computer and active. The human body is not designed to sit inactive in front of a screen for hours on end. If you don’t plan to get some exercise into each day your working from home lifestyle will be far from healthy.

Doing this for a living can be very rewarding. There are a ton of benefits, but there can certainly be some negatives too. You have make a real effort to maintain a social life, exercise regularly, and get out of the house for at least a little while each day.

Home Business Tips – What I Look For in a Home Business

Let me start off by saying that I feel that the best home business is one that you build from the ground floor up and is uniquely your own. Having said that, some people don’t want to go through all the trouble of starting a business completely from scratch. They would rather start something that already has a solid foundation… something that they can just plug into. For those people, this post is going to share what I personally look for in a home business out of the box. You may want to make note of these things.

At the top of the list is product. A home business has to have a solid product (or service) to sell. I’m talking about one that solves a burning need. For example, in today’s lousy economy, many people are out of work and in debt. So a product that can truly relieve debt or one that can teach people how to make smart investments can really come in handy. A home business that sells such a product would be one that I would personally get involved in because I know for a fact that I could sell the product. If you can’t sell the product, the business is worthless. It also has to have a product/service that I would buy (and so would others) even if there was no money making opportunity involved. If the only reason anyone is wanting to buy something is because of the business opportunity then it is doomed to fail.

However, product isn’t enough. Many people first starting out in a home business have no idea how to promote it. They may have turned on a computer for the first time for all I know. So a business, in addition to a great product, has to have training… lots of it. There are many ways to promote products online. The ideal business will teach all of the best methods in explicit detail and keep them up-to-date in the fast changing marketing world. In fact, the training section has to be so comprehensive that it would eliminate the need for the person to get any other books or courses on the subject of marketing. Trust me, these businesses are few and far in between.

Finally, there is what I call ease of use or simplicity. Now please don’t confuse simplicity with no work. People who think that they can just push a button and they’ll start making money are in for a rude awakening. Any and every business takes work. A legit home business will take anywhere from 90 to 180 days to really start seeing a substantial profit (often times much longer). What I mean by simplicity is that anybody, no matter how intelligent, can follow the system and make it work. The steps are simple, even if they do require a bit of work.

For me, THIS is the ideal business. If I were going to start from scratch, (and thank heaven I don’t have to) then this is what I would personally look for. In all my years of doing this, however, I have found very few so called “home businesses” that have all three of these things. Most are lacking in one of the three areas. Either there is no legit product, or a poor one, no training or poor training, or the system is so convoluted that Einstein couldn’t figure it out.

So trust me. If you ever find such a business, grab a hold of it with both hands and don’t let go. You may have just found a gold mine. If you want my personal recommendation then here it is.