A well-designed website is a good start for your home-based business, but it is only a start. To be consistently profitable, you may have to put your “eggs” into several marketing “baskets.” You can do it by creating multiple revenue streams that generate a steady flow of cash from various sources.

Additional revenue streams can be integrated with any small business. For example, you can monetize your online presence with affiliate advertising, new selling channels, authority blogs, e-books and much more. Best of all, the more revenue streams you can manage, the more potential you have to make money from home.

What Kinds of Revenue Streams Are Available?

There are hundreds of types of online income streams, from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to RSS feeds to social media and beyond. The ideal mix will produce a steady stream of cash for your stay at home business. Here is some advice for creating multiple revenue streams when working from home.

How to Choose New Revenue Streams

Without a doubt, multiple revenue streams can help boost your overall income, but not all online opportunities are a good fit. Every new opportunity requires some level of time management, and often a financial investment as well. The revenue streams you choose must be worth the amount of time, money and effort you will ultimately spend on them.

Be wise and realistic. Consider your goals and aspirations for today, six months ahead, and several years from now. Thoroughly research the revenue streams that could possibly meet your objectives and select prudently.

• Read user reviews, business blogs and other insightful resources before investing in any new business prospects
• Consider the size and age of your business, and how adding a new revenue stream will help it grow
• Learn if there are any fees to launch or maintain your new idea
• Estimate the effort you will have dedicate to your new income stream to learn how it works
• Calculate the amount of time it will take to maintain your new prospect from week to week
• Read the fine print carefully and look at the big picture
• Lastly, weigh the potential for your new prospect to make money versus the probability of any negative impacts

How to Add Multiple Revenue Streams to Your Website

Your ecommerce business can establish multiple revenue streams by adding more selling channels. In addition to selling items on your own site, you can also market on alternate networks. Amazon Webstore and eBay Stores are two of the most well-known sales channels, and there are many others. The additional revenue streams will help boost your web presence and sell more merchandise.

Another excellent way to add new revenue streams to your website is by hosting affiliate advertising. Let other related businesses link back from your site in banner ads or PPC spots and get paid by the click. Google AdSense is one of the most effective and reliable ways to launch an affiliate ad campaign. AdSense is free, easy to use, and comes with all the tools and advice you need to get started.

Expand On Your Authority With Multiple Revenue Streams

Businesses that offer services instead of products can also benefit from additional revenue streams. You can offer yourself up as a web authority on whatever services you provide and make money for sharing your knowledge. It doesn’t matter whether your business is lawn care, accounting, web design or medical transcription — every work at home entrepreneur is an authority on his or her own business.

• Put your authority to use by setting up an advice column or blog to offer opinions or tips about your business. Today’s consumer has a thirst for intimate knowledge, so leave yourself open to providing answers as an authority, and make yourself available every day. Post columns with keyword-rich titles and content, then monetize your blog with AdSense or other advertising feeds.
• Start a membership program and reserve your best advice for those who pay dues. You can charge a reasonable fee for one-on-one consultations, special news releases, downloadable e-books, webinars, videos, audio presentations and more. Pretty soon you will have multiple revenue streams funneling cash payments right into your account.
• Perhaps the simplest way to set up a new revenue stream on your blog is to embed a PayPal button and request a small token of appreciation. Visitors who value your knowledge and advice just might reward you with some cash.

Conclusion

With all the options available to monetize your stay at home business, there are lots of reasons to add a few new revenue streams. Several sources of income can help improve the online visibility of your business and provide a more reliable profit margin. No matter what kind of economic future you can envision, creating multiple revenue streams when working from home is a smart way to realize it.

Time management is a skill that everyone should take the time to learn. Knowing how to use your time to your advantage allows you to accomplish more and have more free time for your own enjoyment. Many people know that they could use help with their time management skills, but they often do not know what skills need refining.

The following 15 questions can help you evaluate your strongest and weakest time management skills.

1. Are the tasks you select to work on each day the ones with the highest priority?
   Many times people will select tasks on how easy they are to complete instead of their importance.
2. Do you wait to the last minute to complete a task or often need to ask for extensions because the job is not completed?
   Failure to schedule tasks by priority cause missed deadlines.
3. Do you make time to schedule your priorities each day?
   Creating a to-do list allows you to create a map of your day. You cannot reach your destination without having a map.
4. Do you know how long it should take to complete a task, and can you evaluate how long it actually takes you to complete it?
   Knowing how long a task takes helps you create a schedule. Knowing how long it actually takes you to complete the task will help you find places where you are wasting time or how to schedule more time for the task.
5. Are you often interrupted during the day?
   Work from home professionals are often interrupted by family and friends. Knowing this is a problem can help you approach the subject with your loved ones.
6. Do you schedule extra time for emergencies?
   Sometimes you need extra time to complete a task, or an unavoidable interruption occurs. Having a little play in your schedule either lets you accommodate these events or gives you more free time if it is not needed for the tasks.
7. How is your goal setting skills?
   Can you create an end goal for the day, week or year? Without a goal in mind you cannot accomplish the tasks needed to achieve that goal.
8. Can you distinguish between the priorities of tasks, even if they are for the same end-goal?
   Accomplishing the most difficult tasks first often makes a project go by quicker.
9. When you accept a new assignment, do you review it carefully and prioritize the tasks needed to achieve the goal?
   Starting a project blindly can lead to chaos and wasted time.
10. Does stress interfere with deadlines?
    If deadlines are giving you stress, you may not be setting your priorities correctly to achieve your goals.
11. Do you find hard tasks make you easily distracted?
    If you are becoming too distracted during a task, you may wish to break it down into smaller components.
12. Are you working overtime to complete goals?
    If you have to put in extra time to complete a task, you may need to reschedule your priorities to accomplish the goal.
13. Do you review your goals weekly?
    Things change every day. You should take a few minutes once a week to review your new goals for the following week.
14. Do you say “yes” to new tasks even when you mean “no”?
    It is not unusual to take on too many tasks at once. Learn to say no.
15. Are you eating right and getting enough sleep?
    A well-nourished and rested person will function better than one who is tired and weak.

If you think of affiliate marketing as a game, then your score would be your profit. Each mistake you make lowers your score, and doing things correctly raises your score. In this game, beginners will tend to make mistakes based on typical human nature. The two general themes of beginner mistakes in affiliate marketing are a lack of quality and a lack of flexibility. When you do low-quality work, you don’t have a solid foundation for a business, and when you aren’t flexible enough, certain changes in your environment can cost you a lot of money. In what follows, we’re going to look at four common mistakes that newcomers make in affiliate marketing and how to avoid them.

Static Content and Links

When you produce any sort of content for affiliate marketing, then you have to keep the ability to come back and edit it later. If you have an article in a directory that leads to a sales page, and the offer the link points to dies one day, then not being able to change the link can lose you a lot of money over time. Along similar lines, if you can’t update your content to take into account new information in the relevant industry, then you’ll have a hard time getting potential customers to make a purchase since you’ll look unprofessional. Maintaining the flexibility to change your content and links means that you’re able to adapt to future conditions and continue to make money over time with affiliate marketing.

Inadequate Tracking

A major part of success in affiliate marketing is being able to figure out what’s working for you and what’s not. To this end, you have to be tracking everything you do so that you can see which of your ideas are working and which are not. If you aren’t tracking properly, there’s also an added danger of not being able to prove if you’re being paid fairly. Finally, if you don’t have any results to look at, then it can be hard to find the motivation to work hard on your campaigns.

An Absence of Split Testing

If you are keeping proper records by tracking all of your web traffic and conversions, then you can split test different aspects of your campaigns to figure out what makes you the most money. Split testing in affiliate marketing is the gradual process of making small improvements over time to optimize your campaigns. With each improvement that you make, you’ll find yourself making more money from your web visitors.

Not Thinking Long Term

Being impatient is one of the worst mental mistakes that you can make if you want to work from home as an affiliate marketer. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most common mental mistakes for beginners. If you don’t focus on the long term health of your campaigns and your affiliate marketing career, then you’ll have a lack of motivation when immediate results do not come like you expect them to. You’ll also have no understanding of the concept of building assets over time. Affiliate marketing is about the gradual cultivation of money-making properties, and it’s not a quick way to make some easy money in just a few days.

When you are able to schedule your time effectively you become a happier person. Why is that? Organization and accomplishment both provide a sense of happiness, and everyone likes to be happy. Chaos and hectic thought patterns lead to mismanagement of time, careers, businesses, and even personal lives. People that are always frantic accomplish little and are always unhappy.

Many people think they know what time management is, and many will even try to do it for a while. If they have been properly educated on what time management is, they see a change in their lives and businesses and become happy, if they only assume they know what it is, they often give up on the skills and return to chaos. This is simply because they are misinformed about the definition of time management.

Avoiding these common beliefs about time management will help anyone master their time and create the calm and happiness they desire at work and at home.

1. You Do Not Need A List: Everyone should take a minute at the beginning of the day and create a To-Do list just for that day. It does not have to be long or complicated. It just needs to be a list of the highest priority things you need to accomplish that day and that day only.
2. Not Having Personal Goals: Knowing what you want out of your life will help you create situations in your life to accomplish those goals. If you do not know what your personal goals are, you will not have a reason to accomplish any of your tasks each day.
3. All Tasks Are Equally Important: Not all tasks are the same. You should take time to set priorities on your tasks, accomplishing the most important first. Failing to set priorities often leaves the more important and harder tasks for last.
4. Distractions Are Okay Since You Work At Home: Distractions are simply that: a distraction. You need to minimize your distractions when you are working. Home life and business life must be kept separate so that you can minimize chaos.
5. Waiting For The Right Time Is Not Procrastination: Whenever you delay a task it is procrastination, pure and simple. There is never a right time, there is only now. When you have a task that needs to be accomplished, unless it is a medical or family emergency, now is always the perfect time.
6. Make A To-Do List That Includes Everything: You should never create a to-do list that has more than 5 or 6 items on it at one time. You will place your brain in to overload and it will automatically rebel and not want to do anything. This is just human nature. When you look at the list and see that there is only a few things to accomplish, it will be easier to see a finish line and it will make it psychologically easier to complete.
7. The Busier The Better: Being over busy is not productive in the long run. In fact, many people become physically addicted to the adrenaline that is created when you are over busy, making it bad for your health. The truth is a steady pace helps you accomplish more: think of the turtle and the hare story.
8. Everyone Must Multi-Task: Multi-tasking is the anti-productive method to anything. At the end of a multi-tasking day you have 10 things that are half accomplished, that is it. When you complete each project from start to finish you will find more satisfaction and the ability to complete more tasks in the same time period.
9. Skip Lunch And Other Breaks: You need to take breaks throughout the day, and you need to have lunch. Your energy and concentration levels depend on your body functioning properly. To function properly you need to be properly nourished and you need to move about to keep the blood flowing. Taking intermittent breaks throughout the day will help you accomplish more.
10. No Time For Fun: You need to make sure that you have time to relax and have fun. Rewarding yourself for a job well done is not only an incentive to continue to effectively manage your time, it also well deserved. You must make time to be happy if you want to have time to work.

In affiliate marketing, there are two main factors that determine your profit. The first factor is how many people you sell to, and affiliate marketers can spend hundreds of hours of work each year trying to boost this number. The second factor is how much money you make per customer, and it often seems like this is a factor that gets ignored. To be successful in affiliate marketing with today’s economy, then you’re going to have to make as much from each individual customer as possible because fewer people are making purchases in all industries. Being able to make an upsell a non-zero percentage of the time is a key method for bringing up the amount of profit you pull from each person who buys from you.

Facing the Facts

It takes resources to bring in new customers just like it takes resources to get existing customers to spend more money. A number of studies have been done comparing spending on these two ways of increasing the bottom line of a business, and what most of them have found is conclusive evidence that going for the upsell is a more efficient use of time and effort.

There are two things that you should take away from this. First, it’s an efficient use of your resources to work on methods for upselling or making future transactions with previous customers. Second, maximizing your profit per customer has a side effect of increasing the effectiveness of your efforts to build a larger customer base by increasing each customer’s average profitability.

When Dealing With Physical Goods

There is a distinct difference between what it takes to upsell on physical goods and what it takes to upsell on digital goods. When you’re doing affiliate marketing where physical goods are being bought and sold, then one thing that you’re looking for is a way to tie in some sort of replacement-based warranty. These plans are pure profit based on statistics, and are an excellent service to provide for your customers. Depending on the nature of the products, you can also upsell them installation services or various accessories. Electronic devices in particular are excellent for this.

Upselling With Digital Goods

There are generally two types of people who are buying digital goods, and to make a lot of money with affiliate marketing with these goods, you’ll need to understand both types. The first type of customer is buying something primarily with the purpose to learn. When you’re upselling to these customers, you’ll have a ton of options since you can always continue an education. The second type of customer is buying a product for the purpose of pleasure. You can upsell to this type of customer by providing interesting products at low prices that are easy to justify as an impulse purchase.

Using a Mailing List to Upsell

An upsell is essentially a chance to sell to a single customer more than once. When you build a mailing list to make money with affiliate marketing, then you’re essentially doing the same thing. However, while traditional upselling only gives you one or two chances to get your customer to make an additional purchase, using a mailing list can get you dozens of chances. When you increase your number of attempts by a factor of ten, then you boost your profits drastically and make a lot more money.

In the past three or four years, the American economy has gone from the world’s leading source of wealth to one of the shakiest and most uncertain economies in the world. It has been down, it has been back up again, and it has teetered on the brink of another recession. Those who are still employed are making less, and those who are unemployed are looking for any way to make money. This is where network marketing opportunities really begin to shine: they aren’t simply for those considering full-time self employment. Instead, their “work at your own pace” philosophy promotes making as much — or as little — income as your time and motivation level merits.

So, how can you best use a multi-level marketing setup to make a solid supplemental amount of income each month? And how can you make the most amount of money while putting in the least amount of time after a long day at the office?

1. Using multi-level marketing as a social tool or evening sales opportunity
   Many network marketing schemes actually work in ways that don’t seem like a second job. Instead of pushing clients to make “hard sells” to people by knocking on doors, they instead encourage them to host things like “parties” where they invite a group of friends or family members over to talk about the products over coffee, snacks, or even other gossip intermingled among the discussion topics. This helps make sales, as people feel more comfortable in groups of friends, and the social atmosphere helps work feel like leisure. That means no stressful sales pitches, no unfamiliar faces, and no “work” mentality that can be exhausting after eight or ten hours in a traditional office setting.
2. Network marketing is self-guided and requires no minimum earnings per month
   Typically, network marketing representatives can get a bi-weekly paycheck by making as little as ten dollars during an earnings period. And while no one aspires to a ten-dollar paycheck, it’s worth noting that there are no high minimums to receive compensation. Many other business opportunities require representatives to make as much as $100 or $200 in an earning cycle in order to qualify for a paycheck, placing a high burden on them to make a certain number of sales or commitments. Network marketing, typically, does not function this way at all and is geared toward those seeking supplemental income rather than primary earnings.
3. By establishing a sales force, you can work less while earning more
   Network marketing is often referred to as multi-level marketing because it encourages the initial sales representative to get their friends and family in on the action of making sales. It does this by promising the original sales representative that they’ll earn a small commission on each sale that their team makes. And, if they hire a certain amount of people — maybe five, maybe 25 — they’ll earn a cash bonus on each check simply for getting the company’s message out with a broader group of individuals. This means they earn money based on their own sales, the sales of those they refer and manage, and on the total number of people that they’ve brought into the fold. Essentially, they could be earning income while taking the night off and enjoying a movie and some popcorn. That’s a pretty good deal in an economy which is always encouraging harder work for lesser pay.
4. Online sales opportunities allow people to buy a product — and generate income — all day
   Before the internet, network marketing representatives would have to rely solely on their offline sales to generate income. But, thanks to the digital age, network marketing professionals now typically operate their own online storefront that allows people to purchase their products and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That means they can be earning income while they’re working at their primary, full-time job. And it could be enough income that they simply won’t have to do very much work — or any at all — once they leave the office at 5pm.

A Great Part-Time Earning Opportunity

The great thing about being your own boss is that you can be flexible. And network marketing opportunities promote maximum flexibility in the amount one can earn, the way they can earn it, and just how much they can earn on each sale they make. Representatives who use a network marketing company’s tools to their full advantage — from commission structures to online storefronts — will find themselves able to work from home and make a good supplemental income without spending an entire evening earning it the hard, old-fashioned way.

If you’re the kind of person who loves to take pictures, why not earn some extra income at it? You don’t need to be a professional photographer and you don’t need to have a studio or thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment. All you need to do is submit your work to microstock photo agencies, and if accepted, they will sell your photos over and over. You won’t get rich, but it’s a fun way to supplement your income. Some people even do it as fulltime work.

How Does It Work?

Microstock photo agencies work by selling licenses for the use of a work on a royalty free basis. The term “royalty free” is somewhat misleading as it would seem to imply that there’s no compensation for the work. Royalty free, however, does not mean that a photo is free to use, it simply means that the user can normally use the photo many times over and on different projects without having to pay “royalties” for each use. The creator of the photo maintains all copyright privileges.

Regular stock photos, also known as rights managed photos, are sold with very limited and very specific rights for their use. They can be purchased as an exclusive or non-exclusive photo.

What You Can Expect

The Internet has made it possible for microstock agencies to flourish. Microstock companies source their images almost exclusively over the Internet. They do so from photographers of all skill levels. While the traditional rights managed agencies would only use the best professional photographers to provide them with images, microstock agencies will accept images from anyone so long as they pass their minimal standard requirements. Now, anyone with a decent digital camera that can take pictures of at least four to six megapixels in size–depending on the agency’s requirements–can submit their work, and if approved, begin earning money.

As stated, you likely won’t get rich selling pictures this way, though. Most stock photo agencies generally pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $.25 – $25 each time they license the use of one of your images. Based on personal experience, you will be getting many more $.25 payouts than you will the higher ones.

If you’re taking pictures anyway, though, why not take your better, more interesting ones and submit them? Do this regularly and consistently, and you will begin to see your account grow. Just remember, though, that you won’t be making money if you think you can take just any image and have it accepted. You will need to put in the work.

Is This for You?

Don’t expect to take pictures of your garden or the family pet and have them sell. Oh! And please! No sunset shots–they already have an abundance of those. Try to depict objects and scenes in new and interesting ways.
If you use people in your shots, you’ll need to get model releases. You’ll need property releases to use pictures of properties, cars, motorcycles, planes, boats, etc., of notice, unless they’re used editorially.

You’ll have to put in time editing your pictures. You’ll want to make sure that they don’t exhibit any noise (in digital photography it’s the equivalent of grain in 35mm pictures)–this is a big reason pictures get rejected. Also, product shots need to be generic, you’ll need to remove trademarks and logos. Make sure to crop the image if needed, adjust levels, color, contrast, even white balance if necessary. When you’re done with all that, you need to keyword your pictures.

Keywording is critical in getting your pictures in front of the client. Keywords are, basically, the categories a picture could be listed under. The more keywords you use, and the more creative you can get with their usage, the more times your picture will appear before clients when they search using one of those keywords.

Get Started

Only you can decide if this is something you might like to pursue. But selling photos online is a good way to make extra money if you’re taking pictures anyway. And, who isn’t nowadays with digital cameras being so prevalent? So why not start submitting your better pictures to different agencies and before you know it, you’ll be able to afford a new camera, lens, flash, or maybe that vacation you’ve always dreamed of taking!

As today’s baby boomer population continues to age, there are more and more senior citizens who will need qualified, versatile and, perhaps most important of all, personable service providers who can not only be relied upon to provide necessary services but also will be pleasant and easy to spend time with. Senior citizens need services ranging from concierge assistance for simple tasks like grocery shopping and picking up dry cleaning and groceries to more personal tasks like providing in home medical care as they age. If you are a compassionate, knowledgeable and honest person, then you may be able to build a satisfying and profitable home based business serving this growing population of aging Americans.

Help Senior Citizens Stay Independent As A Concierge

In the high paced corporate world a concierge service is one of the many perks provided to important executives too busy to spend time picking up cartons of milk or even walking their own dogs. Concierge services which are targeted to senior citizens offer an expanded menu of services in order to allow their customers to continue to remain independent as long as possible. While your clients could move into assisted living housing they may prefer to remain in the homes that they have lived in for years or even decades. As they age, though, they may not be able to safely continue to cook for themselves or even drive. Your services allow them to keep their dignity and safety as they age in their homes. Some of these services include:

• Caring for pets
• Cooking or dropping off meals each day
• Paying bills or handling other basic paperwork
• Driving clients to and from medical and other appointments
• Reminder services
• Lifting heavy items
• Organizing and cleaning garages, basements, attics, closets and other areas
• Caring for pets
• Providing fitness training in your clients’ homes
• Mail delivery and pick up

Keep Senior Citizens On The Go With A Transportation Service

Allowing senior citizens to remain a part of their communities and families by providing transportation can be a segment of your concierge business or a wholly separate home based business. While many senior citizens are able to use public transportation or ask family members or friends for rides to and from medical appointments or to see friends, most senior citizens are unable to rely on these methods for regular transit.

As they age, they may be unable to safely use public transportation due to mental health concerns or disabilities. Even if a bus is accessible to disabled persons, if a senior citizen cannot walk to a bus stop form his or her home, then he or she will still need alternate transportation. The key to being the ideal driver for senior citizens is to making sure that you are able to be reliable and consistent when driving your clients. They are relying on you to be consistent and patient at all times, and, of course, to always be on time when arriving to pick them up and drop them off at their destinations.

Owning a home based senior transportation business can mean spending a great deal of time waiting in doctors’ waiting rooms or in your car for your clients. If your client is able to tell you when he or she will be ready to be picked up then you may be able to use that time to run errands, but if he or she cannot then you will be on call. Be ready to pass the time while you wait for your client without being annoyed if he or she takes longer than you expected.

Key Success Factors For Senior Focused Home Business Owners

Whenever you own a business focused on providing services to others, it is essential that you are able to consistently provide those services with a great attitude and an eye toward quality customer service. When you are considering a business serving senior citizens, however, being able to be patient, kind and competent at all times is even more important. Like children, your clients may be relying upon you to ensure their safety while you transport them to and from their doctors’ appointments or to administer their daily medicines. However, they are also counting on you to provide those services and others in such a manner that they are allowed to keep their dignity and independence as they age. This means continuing to treat them as adults, even if you are put in uncomfortable positions, such as trying to keep a client from hurting himself if he becomes confused.

It’s true of almost any occupation, and indeed almost any person: there are a wide range of personalities that characterize us all. Freelancing personalities have added importance, though, as some of them can lead to more successful outcomes and others can cause real headaches for the freelancing professional. There are typically ten personality types that the average freelancer may be categorized under. Which of these seems most similar to your own situation?

1. The Freelancing Loner
   The “loner” personality type is someone who got into freelancing simply because they cannot stand working with other people and feel they would be better off working for, and managing, themselves. These people are typically quite driven, although their loathing of social interaction can make it difficult for them to relate to clients and land new ones as their freelancing enterprise matures.
2. The Social Butterfly
   On the complete opposite end of the social spectrum is the so-called “social butterfly” freelancer. This individual thrives on — and practically craves — social interaction. They’ll easily spread their message across multiple social networks, and throughout their own offline social circle, and probably see a rapid increase in their earnings and number of clients after they begin their freelancing occupation.
3. The Magnate
   And if that social butterfly’s success just keeps going up and up, they’ll soon enter a new class of freelancer personality: the business magnate. They’re the kind of business owner who is never satisfied with the status quo and can easily expand their freelancing business to new areas, eventually leaving freelancing behind in favor of owning their own enterprise.
4. The Control Freak
   The allure of freelancing to many people is that it simply involves no boss or management team. They can work for themselves and themselves only, with just a rough direction and a few guidelines to keep them on task. This type of freelancer is typically quite successful, and may even enjoy managing others — which lends itself to expansion and further success.
5. The Greedy Freelancer
   Still others are drawn to freelancing because they can supplement their income or reach new annual salary heights that their traditional office job did not afford them. Money can be a powerful motivator, but these freelancers would do well to remember that clients are paying for quality — not quantity.
6. The Work-Life Balance Freelancer (aka The “Millennial”)
   It’s no secret that the so-called Millennial Generation seeks a delicate work-life balance that generations before them were more willing to give up in the name of success. Many freelancers simply what this balance for themselves, and feel that being their own boss means they’ll be more likely to achieve it.
7. The Reputation Freelancer
   For many freelancers, their name is their brand — and their brand is their reputation. These freelancers are extremely focused on getting credit for their work, whether that means a byline, a statement of credit, or a public acknowledgement for what they’ve done. Every piece of credit boosts their ego, reputation, and likely profits.
8. Counter-culture
   For many, freelancing is a way to break free of corporate chains and work for themselves in a community of individuals, rather than corporations. They’ll focus their efforts on working for fellow freelancers, or sole proprietors who own their own business. And they’ll brag about it, too.
9. The Experimenter
   Freelancing isn’t for everyone, and so a large number of freelancers belong to a group of experimental individuals who are trying the occupation on for size and attempting to determine whether or not it meshes with their assumptions, requirements, and business sense.
10. Semi-Retired Freelancers
    Because freelancing can be done as a second job, or in someone’s spare time, many retired Americans choose to freelance in order to supplement their retirement income or pensions, or to have extra money for things like health care and vacations. Because they’ve accrued a large amount of experience in their field over the years, they are able to charge a bit more, work a bit less, and earn only what they need on a leisurely basis.

Which Type Are You?

These ten freelancing personality types cover most every kind of freelancer currently pursuing supplemental or primary income. Each personality has its pros and cons, and many of them could even be viewed as “phases” of freelancing. That is, many people start as an experimental freelancer and move through the ranks to become social butterflies, business magnates, and ultimately successful individuals. A good number of these freelancers will even turn their skills and clients into a traditional business, using the freelance opportunities they find online as a stepping stone to a better, self-managed lifestyle.

Out of all the advice you will ever receive about owning your own home based business, the most important advice you will ever receive is this: The Customer Is Everything.

Customers are the reason your business is a success or a failure. Customers determine how much you will expand and grow. Customers are the most important thing to your company – period. It does not matter how savvy you are at creating a business plan, or how well you manage employees, if the clients are not satisfied, you will not succeed.

With this in mind, the good news is that customers are usually easy to please, even if they are web-based customers that you never encounter in person. The following 10 tips can help you gear your business practices into one that will always place your customers first.

1. Be Different Than Your Competition: This is especially important for businesses that conduct all of their business on the Internet. Competition is always there, so you must set yourself apart from other companies offering the same product or service. Provide your clients with something of value in addition to their purchase to show you appreciate them. It could be something as simple as a free ebook.
2. Automate Your Office: You should not waste time on things that can easily be automated. Use filters on your email so you do not have to comb through mail, use templates to create web pages and brochures. This frees up your time to concentrate on customer satisfaction.
3. Time Management: Make sure that your day is not filled with unnecessary tasks. All too often time is wasted looking at meaningless paperwork that should have been filed weeks ago. Again, free up your time to interact with your customers.
4. Market Effectively: When you are marketing your product or service you should concentrate your efforts on people that are in need of that product or service. By establishing a relationship with potential clients in this manner you will begin to build a bond with the public. Random marketing is a waste of time and money and is not specific enough to gain a customer base from the efforts.
5. Response Time Matters: If you receive an email or phone call from a client, you should respond within 24 hours. In fact, if it is at all possible, you should respond within 2 hours. Many times time zones and work hours prevent such quick response times, but a real effort should be made to respond within a day. This gives the customer the feeling that they matter to your company.
6. Follow Up On All Orders: This may seem tedious, but you will be surprised how receptive your clients will be to this simple act of concern. Clients that feel that you care about their purchase enough to follow up will make additional purchases. They will also recommend you to others, which is the ultimate form of advertising.
7. Provide Refunds: You should provide refunds without hassle or condition. While this may not make business sense at first, it really does. Clients that believe they can return something if they do not like it will in fact make the purchase. Many online retailers have lost sales simply from charging a restocking fee.
8. Survey Your Clients: Asking your client to complete a survey, and offering a bonus for doing so, is a great way to learn how your business is doing in the eyes of the consumer. You may find that there are things that you had not realized are holding back your success.
9. Create A Newsletter: Offer your clients a newsletter that provides tips and valuable information about your product or service. Include newsletter only freebies and discounts to encourage subscription.
10. Contact Information: Offline businesses need to make sure that customers can easily contact them. Make sure all advertisements contain the street address, phone numbers and email information on them. Make sure store hours are clearly posted. Have an answering service for after hour calls. Clients need to feel that their calls are important. Online businesses need to ensure their customers that they are legitimate businesses. Make sure that there is contact information available on each page of your site. On your “About Us” page you have a physical location listed. Make your site easy to navigate so that even the most inexperienced Internet user can easily find what they need.