Working at Home on the Internet

Put Your Online Affairs in Order: Prepare for Your Demise

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 As you may know, I lost both my parents not all that long ago. At the time I had some posts prepared and had some friends cover for me for the Blogging aspect of my business.

But, it did get me thinking of my own mortality and how my sister and I had to look everywhere for insurance papers, bills and junk to find everything we needed to clear my parents estate (it’s still not totally done)

I depend a great deal on the advertising revenue generated by the Website and all of my Blogs. Even the old Blogger Blog still generates a little income without touching or writing on it for well over a year.

So, since I didn’t really have a way of handling my Online Affairs, I decided to try to come up with a list of important information that someone would need to access my accounts and take whatever steps they felt necessary upon my demise. I thought I would share what I came up with with you.

Some questions to as yourself…

• What happens to all of that money if (when) you die?
• How will it be collected for your estate?
• Who would even know how or where to look?
• Who could actually get your money?

And don’t forget about…

All of the accounts you pay online such as your Hosting and Domain fees.

Should your spouse (or whoever is in charge of your affairs) leave the accounts open for residual income?

Put your Online Affairs in Order…

Gather all of your account(s) info in one place.

• List the accounts by Name
• Write out the Exact URL
• Your User ID
• Your Password (and secret question if there is one)

Do this for All your Ad Accounts, Affiliate Programs, Hosting Services, Domains and anything else pertinent to your Online Business. Keep All of the information together in a safe place where your Spouse/Friend/Partner/Trustee can access everything without having to look everywhere to get what they need.

Update this information as necessary, ie when you change passwords or open and close accounts.

Even though most of us prepare for this situation in our Offline Lives with Wills, Lockboxes and Lawyers, few of us think of what will happen to our Online Assets when we die.

Remember the Boy Scouts Motto: BE PREPARED

Can you add to the list? Is there anything else that you think needs to be addressed for your Online Affairs?

October 3rd, 2007 at 12:53pm | Posted by Joe | Management, Organization, Work at Home | 3 reader remarks | Print This Post

What Day of the Week is Your Best Day?

 I was going over my stats the other day trying to figure out what the best day of the week was for posting about various subjects to reach certain types of readers.

• Monday I get a lot of  traffic from the search engines. The most common search terms are “work at (from) home” and “internet work”. No big suprise there. But, what type of posts should I concentrate on writing for that day? I thought that the Work at Home Tips series was the perfect thing for Monday’s. So, with the exception of today, I will try to continue in that direction.
• Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday and Sunday are pretty hap-hazzard in who stops by. I get a bit of a mix from SE’s, Return Visitors and Referrals from other sites. I’m not sure how to really handle that type of variation in visitors. These are the day’s I usually post whatever happens to come up. It could be about something I read about, thought about or just about anything else that has to do with writing, stats and of course, working at home.
• Wednesday is almost always the best day of the week, especially with visits from Return Readers. These are the one’s that are more likely to click through from RSS and comment on a post and are Bloggers themselves. That is why I usually present more of the Plugins and fixes and other information pertinent to blogging and people who use the medium for Home Business. This is also the day I am more likely to ask for opinions on things that pertain to this Blog or my Business. I trust my friends and value what they have to say.
• Friday is all about the Working at Home Blog Carnival. Most of the traffic I get is from people who like carnivals, work at home, run a business etc. It’s been around for so long, I think people just naturally stop by to see what’s on the menu each week. Most are referrals from the Blog Carnival Home page or people participating in the carnival. That and a lot of regulars stop by to see if there is anything interesting happening. The Carnival is a Keeper.

I haven’t had a poll in quite a while, so maybe it’s time I had another one. I would like to know if you have ever really talken an indepth look at who visits your blog and what day of the week ends up being your most heavily trafficed day.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

The poll will be in the sidebar all week, so if you want to think about it and come back to particiapte, that’s Ok. If you would rather just leave a comment instead, that’s Ok too.

August 27th, 2007 at 10:58am | Posted by Joe | Community, Organization, Polls | 5 reader remarks | Print This Post

7 Necessary Steps When Launching a New Blog

Did you know it is a lot of work to launch a Blog? Of course you did, and so did I. But I almost forgot How Much Work it really is to set things up the way I want them.

Why am I telling you this? Because FINALLY after two years of waiting and trying to secure the URL I have wanted is now Mine, all mine… mcbsconsulting.com will be the Main Site for My Computer Back in Service. That, if you don’t already know, is my actual business. Helping people when they are having problems with their computer, Website or Blog. But I won’t bore you with that right now, I’ll bore you with some of the steps I will be taking this time around.

• The easy part is done, I installed WP 2.2.1. This was never a question as I have found WordPress to be the best platform for my Bogging.
• Picking a Theme is not quite as easy. The first one I tried would not render anywhere close to Internet Explorer using FireFox. The next choice was a little better, but no final decision yet.
• Then there is the matter of Plugins. Luckily, I have tested quite a few and have a good idea of what I want to do with the presentation and usage features they provide.
• Meta Data is something I really have to work on. The Blog Info and Tag line are set, but Keywords are important to get right in the beginning. Content will help with that later, but I want to get a head start with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
• Setting the Options the right way now will help later. I set the Permalink structure without the date, just the Title/post will show for entries. I always wanted to do that here, but it would cause problems with ALL the links, internal and external.
• Another important thing to do is to register with all of the pinging services and sites like Technorati and FeedBurner. I still have to set up with Google for a Sitemap and get the code for StatCounter.
• I also want to have some posts written and ready to go Before the launch. That way, I should have a head start on posting and it should be easier to maintain a consistant schedule.

Even with the experience of Blogging and being part of such a great community, it is still a lot of work to get a Blog off the ground. I have no doubt that I have left things out but this little list will keep me busy for quite a while. Not to worry, I will let you know when I Do launch My Computer Back in Service.

Let me know if you come up with any suggestions for missing steps in comments, Please.

August 8th, 2007 at 11:24am | Posted by Joe | Basics, Blogging, Management, Organization, Resources, Tips | 4 reader remarks | Print This Post