Another year has passed quickly for me as your Guide to Home Business and Working from Home. As I look forward to what should be a very interesting 2008, I wanted to take a moment to again say "Thank You" to you - my loyal readers and visitors and to my guest contributors for your support over the past year.
Here's a review of what I consider to be the top 10 Home Business and Work at Home features, stories and news items that appeared here during 2007. I'd love to hear what your favorites were and what topics you'd like to see here in the year ahead.
1. Ten Home-Based Business Ideas for Moms
Like the shot heard 'round the world, this list of home business ideas for Moms generated a wave of controversy among the blogosphere as perhaps being a bit chauvinistic and old school. No insults were intended and I didn't say I thought they were the best ideas. The purpose of the piece was to get you thinking by giving you examples of real-life home businesses being operated by work-at-home Moms. Many of you actually appreciated the piece for what it was.
Read: 10 Home-Based Business Ideas for Moms
2. Working from Home: Are You Pursuing the Right Strategy?
It all started from reading a blog post by Duck at the Motley Fool entitled, The Truth About Working from Home that provided a lighthearted look at the telecommuting life. One of the first questions addressed is "How Did You Get Started?" I was a bit surprised by the answer - the work from home job had found Duck, not the other way around. I then realized that the same was true for me. With perhaps one exception, the working from home opportunities have come to me over the years. Since then, poll results have indicated that more often than not, the work at home job found you and not the other way around.
Read: Working from Home: Are You Pursuing the Right Strategy?
3. D-I-Y Search Engine Optimization Tips
Organic optimization of your website for search results is both an art and a science, but it's not rocket science. The science part of SEO lies largely in understanding the algorithms, or formulas used by the search engines to determine where sites rank and making decisions on which keywords - terms or phrases people use to conduct a search - to target. The "art" portion of SEO is how you go about implementing techniques for search engines to find you. Here are 10 tips to help you move up in the organic or "natural" search rankings.
Read: D-I-Y Search Engine Optimization Tips
4. How to Find a Proven Legitimate Online Business
My guest, Cynthia Minnaar, provides her tips on looking for a proven legitimate online home business and establishing whether an opportunity is legitimate or a scam. As she points out, there are thousands of scams on the Internet as well as legitimate online home businesses and for new visitors to the Internet the task of trying to distinguish between the two can be very overwhelming.
Read: How to Find a Proven Legitimate Online Business
5. Medical Billing - Avoiding the Scams
My guest, Paul G. Hackett takes a three-part look at the Medical Billing industry and the educational opportunities to learn Medical Billing. Everything you always wanted to know about medical billing but were afraid to ask - direct from the expert.
Read: Medical Billing - Avoiding the Scams
6. Home Business Idea - Freelance Writer
Ever think about becoming a writer? Many people who like to write wish that writing were their profession. Actually, it can be and while getting established as an independent writer is not especially easy, it may not be as hard as you might think. The nature of the writing profession is such that it's great both as a home business idea and it offers a better than average work from home job opportunity. Whether you want to be your own boss, get the first-hand lowdown on being a freelance or work from home writer.
Read: Home Business Idea - Freelance Writer
7. Marketing Your Home Business with a Blog
Seems like everyone's doing it - should you? A look at blog marketing as an effective, low cost promotion tool for your home business - even if you don't know anything about creating Web pages and don't have a Website of your own.
Read: Marketing Your Home Business with a Blog
8. Health Insurance and Your Home Business
Here's an issue that will eventually face most people who have a home business or are otherwise self-employed. And it's one that is a hot button in the upcoming Presidential primaries: Health insurance affordability and availability. Let's face it: Americans are getting pretty fed up with health insurance in this country. Especially for those of us who are in less than perfect health who don't have access to group health insurance. We're not getting any younger and finding and keeping affordable health insurance gets tougher every year.
Read: Health Insurance and Your Home Business
9. Beware of Phony Work from Home Job Offers
If you're going to divulge personal information online (or over the phone, or using any method, really) you need to be sure you know with whom you are dealing. There are many people today who are looking for work from home jobs or who want to start a home business. That means they are potential targets for unscrupulous operators. That also means that if you are in that group you need to be more vigilant than others and do your homework.
Read: Beware of Phony Work from Home Job Offers
10. Article Marketing Overview
Article marketing is a website promotion and PR tool that can be very effective as well as very inexpensive. If you're not sure what article marketing is all about, what is involved, or what article marketing can do for you, this overview will give you an idea and help you decide if you might want to use article marketing to ramp up your home business promotion efforts.
