Working at Home on the Internet

My First Blog Day Links

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Here we go with yet another Link Fest… This is for Blog Day, once a year on August 31, blogday.org has a day to celebrate Blogging. I just visited their site and there must be a lot of bandwidth being used because the site has crashed. Must be a popular site today, huh?

The idea is to find 5 new (to me) blogs and link to them and let them know they have been nominated or listed for Blog Day.

I have tried to find other Blogs in my niche, so here is what I came up with:

1.  In The Garage is from The nGen Works and is just about… just about anything work at home related. There are a few contributers so I don’t know who to address, but it looks like a fun site to visit.

2. Work at Home Blog is a journal of a Work at Home Mom named An-Ge-La who seems be on the right track in her endeavours to succeed in working at home. Give her a look, you may find something you like.

3. Nirvana is a mixture of internet, work and joking that is based in Bangalore, India that has some interesting information that is both informative and is presented with a sense of humor. Enjoy, I am.

4. iBloggedThis is a technology and related topics blog. They seem to relate very well to anything internet as well. Take a look and judge for yourself. (I couldn’t leave a comment telling them about the link, so I sent an E-mail).

5. Escape from Cubicle Nation is a really good find for anyone who works at home with or without children. It’s main focus is the transition from working in an office (cubicle) to being self employed from home. One of my better finds.

Well, there you have it… Now to prepare for BlogTipping Day Tomorrow…

I hope you don’t think I’m overdoing this linking thing, but they are all work at home or internet related. I have no idea yet who to include for tomorrow, so stay tuned to find out.

~~~ this will not turn into a link blog… this will not turn into a link blog… this………..~~~

August 31st, 2006 at 03:01pm | Posted by Joe | Blogging, Community, Linking | 4 reader remarks | Print This Post

Put the Customer First

I was just sitting here trying to get some work done, and as usual the TV was being used as background noise (if I’m not listening to music). A show came on the History Channel about Jeff Bezos. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he is the one who started Amazon.com in his garage in 1994.

At the breaks they had interviews with Kate Spade and Bobbi Brown discussing their businesses, fashion and cosmetics respectively.

Although the jist of the whole show was about Internet Business, the common theme I picked up on was about Customer Service and keeping a quality brand name. (Liz Strauss has a few very good series on her blog about Branding and Customers, which I would recommend to anyone interested in building a brand.)

It seems that each company has a philosophy of keeping the Customer Satisfied. The old cliche of “The customer is always right” fits right into the way they all do business.

Some examples shown on the program:

• ~~ Jeff Bezos instills the customer first policy in all his employees. He does this with his own energy and enthusiasim continually working toward customer satisfaction.
• ~~ Kate Spade, after some under-quality products were sent to distributers, recalled the product in question. Even though the retailer said they would honor any return, Ms Spade wouldn’t allow the product to be put on shelves and risk a customer that was not happy with her product.
• ~~ Bobbi Brown has an extensive line of cosmetics which do very well for themselves, but she keeps the original product available for the people who have become attached to it. A loyal customer should not be forgotten for a new fad.

The point of the show and any good business plan has to include the Customer. Without the Customer, there Is No Business.

Where do you place customer satisfaction on your list? Does the customer’s opinion count to you?

August 30th, 2006 at 03:24pm | Posted by Joe | Attitude, Basics, General | reader remarks | Print This Post

Where to Draw the Line?

I started asking myself some questions last night and started writing them down. This was never intended to be an actual post, more of things to think about, but I think they are good questions to ask if you intend to run a business on the internet.

Mostly they are reflective of how much you should think of yourself and your business.

~~ Is it stupid to put links for Job Opportunities without affiliate links in the sidebar?

~~ It gives people a place to look for work on the internet, but I get nothing out of it…

~~ Should I just put affiliate links to opportunities, or keep it the way it is?

~~ I AM in this to Make Money, just like everyone else.

~~ I am getting a lot of out-clicks on them, am I just sending people away?

~~ If someone finds something from the links, I doubt they will be back to visit once they get what they want.

~~ Where do I draw the line of being nice and making money?

I am trying to be useful and present useful information, but I need to think of myself as well, I only made $116 from adsense this week.

I actually made a decision in writing this… I am going to try to find affiliate programs for the referrals. I think that if I can help someone find a job or otherwise make a living on the internet, I should at least get a finders fee.

What do you think, am I being selfish? Should I leave the freebee’s there and hope someone is kind enough to come back and click a money link?

August 29th, 2006 at 01:19pm | Posted by Joe | Advertising, Affiliates, Linking, Work at Home | 4 reader remarks | Print This Post