Work @ Home - Series Kick-Off!

There are lots of work at home gimmiks out there.  Most of them seem like the ones that make money mostly rely on luck.  I'm sure there are ones that are valid and good, but for me, I'm still not satisfied; because I'm working for someone else.  Call me crazy, but I want to work my own hours, when I want, how long I want...  I don't want to be forced to deal with unfriendly people.  I don't want to be forced to take an early lunch (or in my case dinner break) and then suffer from low blood sugar the rest of the day (unsteady blood sugar highs and lows are unhealthy for everyone).  Most of all I want to stay home with my son.

Everyone has their own reasons why they want to make a living from home.   And if you're like me, you don't want to be under someone else, with them telling you what to do.  So what is one of the most available resources out there that may lead to income working from home?  The internet.  And what is a huge communication channel you have right at your fingertips?  Your blog.

Now, you can eventually start making an income by selling ad spots, information, handmade items and such through your blog, and these are all great.  But there is something else you can do that is really going to help you out.  Making a passive income through affiliates. 

Working as an affiliate means that your working with someone else.  More specifically for us, working with someone else that will pay you for every customer you bring them.  A lot of affiliate companies will pay you a portion of the purchase price that every customer makes if your work and reference brought that customer to their company.  Some even pay you a month to month portion for as long as that customer is with them.  This is passive income.  Income that comes month to month by simply making the initial effort.  I will be introducing you to programs like these that I come across to help you start building your affiliate network.

Using your blog as a communication tool to promote your affiliates can be very effective.  Another way that is extremely effective and will be very useful to you in more than one way is having an e-mail list.  I have heard some bloggers refer to their lists as GOLDEN.  I didn't start making an e-mail list for my blog until I was already months into it.  I WISH I HAD STARTED SOONER!!!!!  I read over and over about how if you want to be a successful money-making blogger, you need an e-mail list!  But that's all I did.  Read about it.  I didn't start one sooner because I wasn't sure how useful it was going to be for me; if it would be a productive use of time.  Please, let me tell you, anybody looking for success online needs an e-mail list.  Now that I have one, I don't know why I wasted so much time, procrastinating.  What was I thinking?  Why don't I ever take good advice as soon as I recieve it?... maybe I just used to be too skeptical.

Even if you don't think you will need one, please learn from my experience.  I really couldn't think of a reason to have one when I first started.  Then after I forced myself to start one up, I began reaping the benefits.  One reason being, people who are going to subscribe to your opt-in e-mail newsletters, are going to be some of your most faithful readers.  People who care about what you have to tell them.  Having an e-mail list dedicated to those readers is going to save you tons of time.  You can easily promote your events, special blog posts, give them insider deals and information and such more efficiently by notifying them through their e-mail.  Plus, if they subscribed to your newsletter you know they are more likely to participate in your activities.

Now, the question comes, how do I make an e-mail list?  At first I thought I would build one by using my personal e-mail account and just building a big send list that I would send e-mails through.  I quickly realized that this was not the way I wanted to go.  People are much more likely so sign up for your list if you have a sign-up form on your blog where they enter their name, e-mail, hit submit, and done.  The chances of them joining when there is no form and they have to manually go to their own e-mail and send you a letter with their e-mail info themselves are slim to none.  Make it as easy for them to join as possible.  That's why I went with a 3rd party to host my e-mail list.  One that would make a sign-up form for my blog for me, allow me to dress up my letters, and would send them to all my contacts by me simply clicking send.

I looked and looked for a good e-mail provider.  Most that I found only offered free trials for a limted amount of time with limits on the number of e-mails you could send, and after your trial expired you only had so many days to decide to sign up as a paying customer before you lists were deleted.  I tried one company's free trial, and they were ok, but I wasn't impressed enough to feel like I wanted to join as a paying customer yet.  Then I came across a provider that really caught my eye.  Mad Mimi e-mail marketing. 



They offered the best free program - even better than some of the other company's programs that you are required to become a paying subscriber to use.  Mad Mimi's free plan includes full features, unlimited e-mails and free hosting for up to 100 contacts.  That is a really good deal!  Plus they make it so easy to customize your e-mail format.  Adding a header image is as simple as click and drag.
I urge you, please don't to what I did: procrastinate making an e-mail list for your blog.  Its value is beyond more than you could imagine.  Don't miss out on even one subscriber you could have had if you had set up your list and sign-up form sooner than you did.  And when it comes to a great service provider, I was so happy when I found Mad Mimi.  It tops every other provider I've ever found.  So get started on your goal for a work at home income and get your list started today.  Don't wait... Set up your form on your blog before you write your next post.  Seriously.  You'll be happy your did :-)
(Signing up is fast and they make your sign-up form for your blog for you so all you have to do is copy and paste the code onto your blog.  Whether its on a page, post or on your sidebar, just get it on there and start building your list!)