Working at Home on the Internet » Basics

Four Steps to Protect Your Home Business Computer

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:37:50 +0000

This is a post that I wrote for my business blog, but since it fit so well with us Work at Homers who depend on our computers, I thought it was something that would be helpful to you. If your computer goes haywire, so could your business. Protection is the key to a healthy computer.

It’s important to take care of your computer before you start having problems that cause crashes or worse yet, someone else taking over control of your computer for their own purposes. To that end, I’d like to share four tips that will help you optimize your computers security and keep it running longer and faster:

Get a Firewall. A firewall acts as a barrier between the online world and your home (or business) computer, that filters information to keep your system safe. Everyone needs a firewall to protect the information and functionality of your computer. Some newer computers come with a firewall built into the system, others don’t. Quite a few anti-virus software products have firewalls built in. If you want to make sure your firewall is set properly, contact me.
Block and Remove Spyware and Viruses. Spyware will track your activity online and off to gather information about your computer and you. Viruses can take over the functionality of your computer and use your system for their purposes and they are always bad. The more spyware you have on your system, the slower your computer will be, and put your personal information at risk. Hackers can see and possibly use your personal information once they’ve attached themselves to your system. contact me to make sure your system is safe, or to download anti-spyware/virus software.
Keep your computer updated. Almost every type of software comes with some updating function, usually automatically. These updates can be annoying, but they are very important to the health of your computer These updates are actually patches created by your software and computer manufacturer to keep your system updated and protected. The best thing you can do to keep your computer running smoothly and safely is to pay attention to these updates or to set up auto-updates on your system.
Secure your wireless connection. When setting up a home wireless network, be sure to use the security codes provided by your wireless internet carrier. Many people think using public WiFi spots at coffee shops, airports etc. are safe. Not always true. Whether you pay for the WiFi or the location offers it free, you are vulnerable to hackers as the public WEP key provided is used by everyone in that location. To protect yourself, make sure the wireless connection is encrypted. Ask the service desk, if the location is not sure, don’t use their WiFi. Remember, hackers can see your data as it is going to and from your computer in these environments so protect yourself when in a public setting.

Following these four basic rules is only the beginning for keeping your computer protected and optimized for longevity. For more information on protecting your computer, contact me.

What say you? Do you protect your computer as well as you should? Do you have any other suggestions for keeping your computer safe?

Resetting MCBS’ (my) Game Plan

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:53:19 +0000

It’s getting to that time of year again. No New Year Resolutions like losing weight or quitting smoking, but hopefully something a bit attainable…

Money sucks on the Advertising front, therefore, I have to find new ways to increase ad revenue and expand the reach of MCBS Consulting.

This is only preliminary, but it’s a start…

Write posts on All 3 Blogs at least on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (and Sunday on WAHI)
Work on getting the Forum noticed
Look for Advertisers for the Forum & BB Blog
Guest post on other Blogs (Deb’s to start)
Get some kind of Affiliate links going on everything
Be more active on LinkdIn & Twitter
Push MCBS somehow (including previous)
Talk to Brooke, Deb or whoever else about getting work for a certain percent
Comment on other Blogs more frequently
Keep adding to the list!

Can you think of anything else I should add to the list? Let me know in comments.

Overcoming Adversity by Remembering Where it Started

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:20:42 +0000

“To Solve a Problem, Look Within”… Unknown

Earlier this summer I was in a quandry asking myself, “Where’d I Go Wrong?” and what mistakes I made to be in the dire straights and financial situation in which I find myself today.

Franky, I can’t do anything about the economy or the fact that customers just don’t have the money to spend for Computer Consulting they once did, but I can do something about the way I handle myself professionally on a daily basis.

I also can’t do anything about the e-Book sales at this point because it just plain sucked. I wouldn’t buy it, I shouldn’t have the gall to ask others to pay for something not worth it’s salt.

As far as dropping staticstics and plummeting numbers of visitors, I can see where that is coming from… Lack of Content.

Sure, I have the Blog Carnival, the Weekly Helpful Reads and the Questionable Wrap-up Videos. Hell, I even have Brooke Long writing the WAHM Wisdom page (and she is doing a fantastic job, BTW). All of which leads directly back to me not writing things that could and should be pertinent to other Work at Homers and Small Business Entrepreneurs.

So at this point, I need to make a concerted effort to get back to the original concept of the Working at Home on the Internet’s intent… To provide information and tips as well as a feel for what it’s like to be a Solopreneure to people in the same situation and facing the same Trials, Tribulations and Triumps as I.

Thoughts?

How To Succeed at Failing

Joe Hauckes — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:54:14 +0000

A Surefire way to Strive for Success and Still Stink Successfully

Disclaimer: I have personally tried all (well most) of the following procedures in my endeavours to be a successful entrepreneur, businessman, consultant, blogger, advertiser, webmaster, freelancer, affiliate, whoremaster, lover, husband, father, son and holy ghost and none have worked for me. Try them on for size and see if they fit your lifestyle and dreams and deepest desires because they sure didn’t work for me even though all the books and manuals I have read and paid good money for said they would make me a success in everything I would ever try and make me lots and lots of money living my dreams…

Buy The Book
I have just about every book ever written by the most successful business people in the whole world in every language from every country and continent (I also bought translating programs so I could read them but the books were so badly written in the first place the translator just gave me jibberish so I tried to get my money back for the translator and the books but failed to get any money back and then they cancelled my credit card for not payment because I was trying to make a point that the products I bought were useless) Was I supposed to read them?
Answer an e-mail
Sister deSilvmaadaadan sent an e-mail to me asking for a contribution to her hospice in Nigeria and promised to send me a check for three million dollars in return for my kindness once my check had cleared and the international monetary fund approved her charity for donations from a foreign country but that my check was needed now to get the children of the village she was fostering currently needed food and medicine to sustain them until everything in the courts from the inheritance endowment they were due to receive from the Mother Superior’s estate of her late husband had passed through the legalities involved in three countries jurisdiction.
Join a Survey Service
I love my e-mail, I keep getting invitations to do nothing but take a survey and make a ton of money for every question I answer, only minutes involved, a few questions and I can earn credit to the great offers that they have available throught their partner sites and I can buy anything on offer from diapers (I wish my son was 30 years younger) to free computers (I wish I knew before I bought this one) and the only thing I have to do is fill out more survey’s and answer a few more questions and get more credits in order to qualify to get on the mailing list of the original suveryor for more great offers. I should be able to get cash for all my efforts by 2020 then I can pay for the diapers and computer from the survery I just took!
Buy into an MLM
Now I’m not really sure what MLM stands for. It could be Many Liars Multiplying, Multi Lingual Marauders, My Life Mangled, but I hear that these are the best thing going. All I have to do is buy into this one MLM and my downline will pay me everytime someone else joins their downline and the more my downlines sell more downlines the more money I will make for my upline and since I have a downline I should make money from my downline and pay it to my upline from my downline or something like that. But it sounds like a good deal if I send my upline $49.95 and I make $.05 from each of my signups to my downline I could make lots of cash.
Procrastinate
I am in the middle of writing an e-book about one of the most searched for terms on my blog and I know it is popular because it comes up every day and it is something that people are looking for and I know they would pay good money for the full low down and the ins and outs on the subject. I am in the middle of writing the book, but I have to mow the lawn and fix the leaky faucet and look up my great grandfathers lineage since he went back to the old counrty. Maybe tomorrow or the next day I can get back to finishing the third chapter of the book people will still be looking for it next month or the month after.
Game the System
Ok, I never really tried to do this. Buy an e-mail list and send spammy promotions to things that sound so outrageious that even a kid wouldn’t fall for it (but some adults would), spam so may websites (and get paid for each spam comment) that I used up my whole day and actually thought of buying a spambot just to kick up my commissions a notch and spend more money than I had just for the purchace (that’s Ok, they take credit cards too) in order to make enough to support that Nigerian Nun.
Use Friends and Family
In the way back times when I sold insurance they wanted me to call every friend and family member to try to convert them to our brand of insurance for cars, houses, injury and even life and I found some schemes that were so easy all I had to do was contact those same people and ask them to join in my newest venture that would only cost them a couple of bucks and the return would be so great they would want to put me in their will as thanks, Guranteed. I would only pay a downpayment for the service and then collect all the money from friends and family and it would all be mine, less their 25% commission and annual fee of 50% of first payments by my connections.
Look for the Quick Buck
I have tried to find ways to make money online and offline with as little effort as possible, I probably put as much effort into looking for the easy way out as I have in actually trying to make an honest buck. The thing is, now matter how hard I try, there is no way to make something for nothing.

Working hard and keeping your nose to the grindstone is really the only road to success. So, don’t try some of the schemes I have seen first hand and try to do things the easy way. The True road to success is paved with the sweat of your brow.

How about you, have you tried anything like the above examples? Succeed? Fail? Got any good examples you encountered?

Read the Draft, Take the Poll, Please!

Joe Hauckes — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:45:38 +0000

As quite a few of you probably know, I have been thinking of writing an e-book about the differences between Blogs and Websites.

It will be loosely based on the Blog vs Website series I wrote back in 2006. The reason behind this endeavour is three fold:

The Majority of Google searches leading to the Blog use some variation of the term “Blog vs Website”
There is a lot more information and a lot more detail that needs to be shared on the subject.
Dipping my toe into the e-book realm to see if I can suppliment sagging income figures with e-book sales.

As I said, the e-book is based on the Blog vs Website series and it is in the Very VERY rough draft stages, but I wanted to get Your Take on the whole premise.

So, if you would, please take a Gander at the Draft Here

And then come back and take the Poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Any comments would be appreciated, good, bad or indifferent.

Thanks for all your help.

Joe

RSS & e-mail readers, please click here to Take the Poll.