Thursday, October 25, 2007

Home from California

Six of our family members just arrived home from spending 10 days in Anaheim. (Disneyland). As soon as I arrived home, I immediately looked for an update on how the state of California is.

There was so much media coverage, that we literally spent our evenings watching in horror as the state was burning right before our eyes, all the while the trees could be heard slammimg into the windows of the hotel. The wind was unreal, we heard it was expected to reach 90mph!

Fortunately, we were able to spend two full days in San Diego, visiting the Zoo and Sea World. We were also able to spend a day at Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm, and a day through Hollywood, which included an afternoon at the Santa Monica Pier. Truly beautiful country, and I am very thankful I was able to see as much as we did during our visit there. Our last day at Disneyland (Oct 21/07) was by far not like the first......very smokey.

My heart sinks for the people that live in these areas, which is a vast amount of people. We could actually see the flames on the hilltops and the red reflection on the smoke from Irvine. We were alarmed because the wind was so fierce there. A bit of a restless sleep that night. We could smell the smoke in the halls and we all had sore throats and eyes from walking around for only a few hours.

Though this is nothing compared to all those people that are losing there homes, possesions, businessess, pets, and even family members. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in this state, including all the brave and selfless firefighters, I understand nearly 8,600 are fighting these fires!

California really is a beautiful place, and that includes the people.....everyone was so friendly, and I could see that this was a place that will bounce back. I just hope this all ends soon.
In the plane as we flew over the fires........firstly I was amazed at the size, but more so the amount of fires. I was praying then, and I'm doin a rain dance too!

All the best, and stay safe.
Tammy

Monday, October 8, 2007

In case you haven't already heard.....

BlogRush is a free service that was created to help bloggers solve their #1 need: More Readers For Their Blog.

By adding the BlogRush Widget to a blog, a blogger can get instant distribution for their latest blog post titles across a network of related blogs.

BlogRush users earn "syndication credits" (the right to have their blog post titles shown inside a widget on another related blog) based on their own traffic (loads of the widget) as well as the traffic of other users they refer to BlogRush. Users can automatically refer others to BlogRush via special links on the widget, as well as through the promotion of a special referral URL they are given.

BlogRush is a "Cooperative Syndication Network" that rewards its users for their contributions to the network -- from the impressions they provide of the BlogRush Widget to the referral of other users through 10 'generations' of activity and the impressions of the widget that they provide. BlogRush was designed to be incredibly viral and to provide its users with tremendous distribution leverage to receive exposure for their blog content (onto related content blogs) that they could never achieve on their own; at least without a massive advertising budget.

BlogRush is the brainchild of Internet entrepreneur, John Reese. Mr. Reese is the founder and CEO of Income.com, a soon to be launched social network and media company for entrepreneurs. BlogRush is the first Web property of the Income.com Network, a network of sites and services to help entrepreneurs and business owners succeed. Income.com is based in Orlando, Florida.

Check it out here........BLOGRUSH

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Freelancing as a Career Option

Home bound workers can either consider telecommuting or freelancing. While telecommuting may keep you out of your home for some hours a week, online freelancing is a good way to make money if you are forced to stay at home. For example, homemakers, part-time students, retired folk, or others who wish to supplement their income from jobs or businesses can all consider freelancing.

Freelance Skill Sets

You can start earning as a freelancer as long as you have skills that someone is willing to pay for. For example, writers, web designers, photographers, and programmers can earn a substantial income by creating articles, websites, portfolios and software from home. The Internet is a hot and viable source of income for freelancers from around the world. Your target customers can be webmasters, online business owners, blog owners etc. For example, blogs and wikis are hot sources of income for freelance writers nowadays, and there's no reason why you can't tap into this market if you possess good writing skills.

Freelance Income

On the flip, your income may fluctuate from one month to another. As with all businesses, freelancing does not guarantee a stable paycheck at the end of the month. So keep a small kitty reserve for dry days or have another source of income for which you can work part-time. Be prepared to accept boring, low-level work initially just to keep the cash flow strong. Once you get a good reputation for providing original, high-quality work at reasonable price, then clients will flock to you.

Freelance Advantages

Probably the best thing about freelancing is that you get to work at your pace, in your own hours, from home, and be your own boss. That means, your shop is open 24x7. And as long as you provide good quality work and meet deadlines, your clients will remain happy with you.

In order to be visible, you also need to be seen and heard in the right places, like forums, blogs, online groups, etc. Spend time everyday to visit such sites because they are invaluable repository of freelance gigs and email addresses of prospects. Alternatively you can sign up with freelance sites like Elance.com, GetAFreelancer.com and Scriptlance.com where you can start bidding on projects and snag a few as early as today!

To conclude, a freelance business is one of the best ways to earn money from home and to work for your own self. If you've got a fair amount of time on your hands, maybe you too should consider freelancing as your full-time career alternative or supplementary income source.

(Hint: While you can find plenty of lucrative freelance assignments on Elance, the other sites mentioned above generally tend to feature lesser-paid projects. However, if you're just starting out as a freelancer, the competition on Elance can prove to be really tough. So you might want to first try GAF and Scriptlance to build up your portfolio, and then go for Elance.)

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About The Author

Lewis Low is the founding editor of OnlineBizPromo.com. For more Practical Online Business Ideas and Work-From-Home Opportunities, visit his Work-At-Home directory at http://www.onlinebizpromo.com/