Getting Respect Working From Home

How often have you been working at your home office, when your brother calls you wanting to chat, or a friendly neighbour comes over to ask you for some help? You’re working at home, but everyone seems to think that your work involves sitting around the home doing nothing all day but answer some emails or occasionally talking on the phone.

What can you do to stop these distractions so you can work, and even get some respect for your home business?

Set a Schedule at Home

If you have regular working hours, you can post them on your office door, inform your family and friends, and if anyone comes over to chat during your scheduled work time, you can politely ask them to leave. This schedule will help people realize you are working, and make your business look more professional.

Even better having these regular working hours will help you be more productive if used properly. By focusing on your work at a regular time everyday, you train your mind and body to go into working mode. If you you plan your work hours when you have the most energy, it’s even better.

Remember that this doesn’t have to be a 9-5 work schedule, play around with it at first to find out what hours are best for you, and then stick to it.

Dress for Success

Since the inevitable stereotype of working from home is a person working in his or her pyjamas, try to break the image by wearing comfortable business casual clothes.

You want to be comfortable while you work, but wearing clothes that are too casual, will make you appear less serious, and can make you feel a bit too relaxed to work at your peak efficiency. By wearing business casual, you keep the comfort, but if a neighbour, client, or family member drops by they’ll see that you are treating your work professionally and it gives you an advantage. If they see you wearing old jeans and a sweatshirt or worse actual pyjamas, it will be very hard to convince them that you are working.

Learn to Say No

Sometimes people don’t take a hint, you can tell them that you’re working, print up a super-sized schedule for your door, explain that you’re about to talk to an important client, but they still want to talk.
In this case, you have to firmly tell them that you do not have time to talk, go out for coffee or even let them in your front door. Try to be polite but firm when you do so, don’t tell them you don’t want to talk, simply say you are working but can talk to them when you are done. Give them your schedule and explain that between certain hours you are unavailable, but you’d be happy to talk after work.

Your at home business is important, and people need to realize that working from home actually involves working. So treat your job like a regular job and insist others follow suit, even if they disagree with you.

Dan Clarke is a business coach, specializing in helping people who work at home expand their business, solve problems and find a great work/life balance. Find out more about him at his website, Be Happy Working at Home.

 

 

Workplace Flexibility: An Interesting HR Concept

The world around us has changed so much that some of the things we see nowadays are things we would never have imagined. Workplace flexibility is a concept which if well nurtured will transform the world of human resource.

The whole idea behind the concept is to have some elasticity when it comes to when, where and how work is done. It affords the employee convenience to work at times when they are comfortable and from places where they feel comfortable. At the end of the day, tasks are completed and work is still done. A few HR personnel argue that work is done more efficiently because people work in a more relaxed environment.

What is Workplace flexibility?

It is basically an arrangement between an employee and employer where they agree to have some elasticity in terms of how, when and where work is done, provided that the objectives of the company are met. It should afford the employees some convenience, but at the end of the day they have to do all that is required of them, so as to meet all their obligations to the employer.

Possible ways in which the flexibility comes in

1.      How work is done

There are a number of options here. For example, when it comes to hourly jobs, the employer and the employee can agree to use a monthly or annual hours instead of the traditional weekly hours. This way an employee can take a 3 month holiday provided he gives the employer high quality hours as agreed. People are also at liberty to share one job, depending on the arrangement. One can work from Monday to Wednesday while the other works for the rest of the week.

2.      Where people work

The conventional style of working involves people waking up every day to go to work. Workplace flexibility allows employees to work remotely or from home. How it is effected is highly variable, but there should be an agreement on how many days an employee works at home, as well as how regularly it should be done. Working remotely allows the employee to work in a client’s workplace or from an office that is not his or her main workplace.

3.      When people work

Here, the human resource manager and the employee agree on the time when work is done. For example, if the employee has to work for 8 hours a day, then they could agree that the employee starts his day whenever he is comfortable as long as he is loyal to the dedicated hours. Thus an employee can come to work at 6:00 am and leave at 2:00 pm. He can come to work at 8:00 am and leave at 5:00 pm. Other forms of flexibility on when to work include part time working, part year and variable year employment arrangements. To further illustrate this, workers can put in more hours during peak seasons and less hours during off-peak seasons when there is less work. The amount of leave days can also be altered so as to suit the needs of employees.

Are there pitfalls?

For the arrangement to work, the employee must be very loyal so as to honor the arrangement. It therefore means it might be risky to have such an arrangement with an employee who you have not worked with before. Some employees will fail to honor their part of the bargain, which slows you down.

Sometimes, you need to have an employee around, who you can call upon to tackle emergency situations. This arrangement might not work in this aspect, more so because the employees might be away from the workplace at a time when you need them.

It is quite difficult to promote teamwork with this kind of understanding. Employers’ give up their control over employees, which makes it very difficult to assign an employee tasks which require him or her to work directly with others. Some online software however overcomes this problem by allowing people to interact and have conferences through these platforms.

All in all, it is a good concept. As long as both the employee and the employer agree on how to go about it, is something that should be embraced by human resource departments.

Featured images:

•  License: Image author owned

Sarah Filer has teamed up with Breathe HR to offer HR advice, Sarah has been in the HR industry for 3 years and Breathe HR is a cloud based HR management system.

 

 

Why Your Business Website Needs SEO

The internet is an integral part of any business that has embraced the use of various online platforms to market its products and services. Websites are essential tools for all business organizations. The benefits a website on the development of a business cannot be understated. It is one of the most effective ways to attract the attention of an international audience who may actually be potential clients and customers. Perhaps, websites could not have the ability to execute their functions quite efficiently in the absence of search engines. Undoubtedly, search engines rank the websites according to their popularity or page views per day. It is from this factor that websites are required to be optimized well in order to boost its rankings in the leading search engines. This article explains why your business website needs SEO.

Increased Visibility:

A business needs to have as many clients as possible to enhance its profitability. As much as the physical location of a business is vital, developing an online presence is equally critical. The internet revolution has swept many and as a result, more people are developing a liking towards making online transactions. With such untapped potential of the online fortunes, websites are evidently useful in bridging the gap between the business and the online potential. Unfortunately, there are literally thousands of businesses already with an established online presence. This therefore, necessitates that a highly optimized website is required to compete amongst the thousands that are already online. By doing this, search engines will easily capture it in their first page. A first page ranking in a giant search engine like Google certainly translates into increased visibility, thereby giving your business the potential to be accessed by millions of people from all over the world.

Increased Sales:

If your business depends on its website entirely to make its sales, then this is another reason why your business website needs SEO. In fact, increased visibility of the website is closely related to increased sales. This is because a high number of views increase the sales per view that your website will be making. The impacts of increased sales are well known; your business will be bursting with profits and with enough ambition, you will be able to expand it into a larger one and even develop more websites.

Good Business Reputation:

The main search engine players like Google, Yahoo and Msn have a tendency to give priority to the websites of businesses with a good reputation. In essence, a reputable online presence enhances the confidence people will have in dealing with your business organization through its well optimized website.

There are quite a number of reasons why your business website needs SEO apart from the ones discussed above like the ability to load pages faster, easy navigability by the engines and usability among others. However, developing well optimized websites is not an easy task. It is essential to hire an expert in web SEO to develop and manage your websites, besides feeding it with quality, optimized content.

John is a well experienced web designer and a writer on this site www.make-a-web-site.com.

 

Five Tips to Help You Run Your Business from Home

If you’re a parent or live an otherwise busy lifestyle, working from home can make everything easier. Running your own business is never easy, but when you work from home, you’re able to make your own schedule, be available when your kids need you, and more – not to mention that this flexibility means you’ll have more time to spend with your family or doing hobbies since you won’t have a commute. Interested in taking the plunge and running a business from home? Here are five tips to help you get started:

Tip #1: Choose your business carefully.

There are a lot of scams out there that advertise specifically to stay-at-home mothers (and fathers). They take advantage of your wish to work from home, but unfortunately, you’ll never make any money with these scams and it is likely that you’ll even lose money. Common scams include data entry where you have to purchase a list, blogging where you’re paid per view rather than a base salary or per-post salary, and anything that requires you send a check or money order. You should never have to pay to work! Instead, look for legitimate opportunities that play to your strengths. This can include party-based sales (like Tupperware), freelance writing (where you’re paid per word or per project), taking surveys (make sure you research the company before signing up), and online community management or social media jobs.

Tip #2: Set up a no distraction zone.

Just because you’re home doesn’t mean you can stop everything and referee a fight between the kids or make your spouse a snack. Set up a zone in your house, like a home office, where you can do your work – and while you’re in this area, your family is not allowed to disturb you, unless someone is on fire of course.

Tip #3: Professional communication is key.

Working from home might have some potential clients raising an eyebrow. Make sure your communications are professional. Get a business line if you can afford one or at least make sure your voicemail message is professional. Put up a website where people can see your services. Use an email address from either gmail or your own domain, rather than Hotmail, Yahoo, or another service. If you want people to take you seriously, you need to communicate seriously.

Tip #4: Learn how to say no.

When you work from home, everyone will automatically assume that you can do things for them. Relatives and friends will ask for favors like dog sitting or picking up their kids all the time. They won’t know that they’re annoying you and hurting your business unless you tell them, so don’t be a doormat. Most people are mortified to learn they’ve been inconveniencing you. They just equate being home with having free time. If there is an emergency like a sitter that cancels at the last minute or a neighbor who’s car needs a jump, the great thing about working from home is that you can help out a friend. But in non-emergency situations, learn to say no.

Tip #5: Prepare for business expenses and taxes.

Just because you’re running your business out of your home doesn’t mean that you won’t have business expenses just like any other business. Make sure you budget for these costs, which could include business insurance, travel, office supplies, banking fees, and more. You may also have to pay for childcare some days when you have important projects to get done and your spouse is at work. Also, don’t forget to budget for your taxes! They won’t be automatically taken out of your paycheck like at a normal job, so you’ll owe a lump sum every quarter.

Allison works with BusinessInsurance.org, where you can go to find cheap business insurance if you need a plan for your work-at-home business.

 

What the Flickr You Talking About?

If there is one thing that bugs the flick out of most of us “social media” folks it is a scam.  I know that Flickr has been around for a while, and although it never crossed my mind to use it, there was an opportunity to try it out.

We had just come from a huge wonderful family reunion in of all places “New Harmony Utah” and the urge to share all of the wonderful photographs that were downloaded on my computer on the way back home from my daughter, my wife, and my two cameras (one $3,000 Canon and one iPhone) was tremendously overwhelming and I thought that Flickr would be a cool thing to try out to share.   Now how was that for a completely run-on sentence that reminded me of one of my teenage daughters , although they are no longer teen age and it must have been the mocha carp-a-chino that has invaded my brain and making me think like, no not talk like but I feel the same frenzy, a valley girl. Yikes!  (I thought I owed you a short sentence after that entire dribble).

Being the diligent follower of technology I logged into my Flickr account and began the usually intuitive process of uploading photos.  Having been a professional photographer for some 35 years, I have become an aficionado of the digital age, as most have.  There is no longer the constraint of the 36 exposure “roll” of “film” rather the limitations of your memory card.  The result of this is that where in the ‘70’s I would have been restricted to the several cans of film that would have been loaded from my 100 foot reel of bulk film, there are now virtually limitless exposures available to anyone with the temerity to invest in extra “memory.”  The result of my current process is that it is a rare occasion indeed when my “picture count” is not in excess of the many hundreds, particularly when the event is a hugely family oriented thing, and one can be relatively certain that everyone involved is interested in seeing themselves represented.  I.E. I had lots of images to upload.

Flickr is most enticing in that every move that I made was well received.  There were no questions as to the length or breadth of my photographic content. There were no admonitions of an impending limit other than the broadcast “300Meg” maximum.  After I had uploaded roughly half of my images, at a cost to me of roughly a half of an hour, the little mother Flickr declared that I would need to “upgrade” in order for any but my last 200 uploaded images to appear on my “page.”

Well, Flick you!  I have subsequently uploaded the entirety of the family reunion onto WebShots, a website that is not run by Yahoo but still seems to remain solvent without deception.  I offer this only for those who might be similarly seduced into thinking that most people are actually trying to offer a decent service on the web, and let their excellence entice the payment out of respect.  Apparently Flickr doesn’t think they have to play that game.

I wish you well.

 

Are You Ready? Why Today’s SERP Will Be Unrecognizable In 5 Years

by Josh Dreller

I hate to admit it, but honestly, I’ve been pretty down on search lately. After almost a decade as a search engine marketing guy, I’ve seen this industry grow, mature, and now, plateau.

Do I still think it’s a great marketing channel? Of course! It might be the second best form of advertising in the history of marketing behind word of mouth in terms of effectiveness. Its highly trackable ROI and bottom-of-the-funnel net ability to close all other types of advertising is unchallenged. There are strong reasons why SEM is now 51% of all online ad revenue in this country.

But a lot of the milestones in search have been mainly behind the scenes. Paid search quality scores, big organic algorithmic changes, etc have been major game-changers over the last ten years, but the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) innovation has been incremental at best.

Yes, we did see a shift to “universal search” in the last few years which added map listings, images, videos, products, etc to the page on occasion, but ultimately, the SERP is still a page of links:  static blue underlined gateways to the rest of the Web.

So, going into the Reinventing the Search Experience session last week at the Search Insider Summit, I wasn’t expecting to get absolutely blown away from what I saw from the senior-level engine representatives about the future of the SERP–but I was.

To give you a quick teaser,  Yahoo’s SVP of Search, Shashi Seth declared that “today’s SERP experience will be virtually unrecognizable in five years.”  Wow!

My fellow SEM professionals…I want to give you a moment to let that sink in. Today’s SERP will be virtually unrecognizable in a matter of years. In short, what I heard and saw made me realize that next industry game-changer has already been set into motion.

In five years, search will be reinvented to the point that even makes me wonder where SEO and paid search will fit into the picture. Of course, I only had a glimpse into what the Big 3 are up to. However, I’m sure they’re not even considering giving up their cash cow, but rather how to grow it.

Serving Content In SERPs

Later, commenting on the presentations, Internet pioneer Esther Dyson aptly cited the Bill Gates’ quote:  The future of search is in verbs.

What does that mean? It means that instead on just finding things with search, we’re gong to be doing things with search. Why transport people all over the Web and have that audience be serviced by someone else?

The key to this change (note – I’m unifying the vision here based on their individual and separate presentaitons) is that for a good portion of the top queries, there is a rather predictable set of intents. And if the engines know why people are searching for these terms, then they can present much richer content and features that handful of [very precise] links.

The search engine results page will become an actual Web experience, not just a digital version of the yellow pages.

The engines only gave us glimpses into what’s on their minds these days, but here’s an example on how I interpreted the vision:  think about what users are looking for when they search for a movie’s title. If it’s not out yet, they’re most likely looking to watch a trailer. While it’s in theaters, users are mainly looking for reviews, showtimes, and directions to theaters. If the movie is out of theaters and users are searching for it, they seem to be most interested in where they can rent, stream, or buy it.

So, if you were a search engine looking to rengineer the SERP experience, what would you do?

Well, before the movie comes out, how about showing trailers? Right now, that traffic is being shot off to movie sites where they are monetizing that traffic, not you. I bet if you were an engine, you’re probably be thinking “why am I sending people away when I can provide the same content right here on the results page?”

Right? Think about it. I bet the top slim percentage of queries represent a massive percentage of actual searches. If the engines can really map out the top intentions of each search and present not only the Web links but also highly relevant content to the searcher, then we have our game-changer, folks.

It’s not hard to think how the SERP could provide much deep content experiences for such queries as: used BMW, ipad 2, or American Idol. Heck, even chocolate cake.

Think about it. I bet that most people wouldn’t have to go very deep into the Web if the SERP had not just links, but actual real content such as chocolate cake recipes, images, nutritional info, and where to order one for delivery [and in your area]. It would be as though chocolate cake had a Facebook page.   That’s one I would definitely “like”.

The senior engine reps presented a few mock-screenshots of how they might best display this content to users. For example, in one presentation there was an image of a multi-tabbed large box above the search results where users could flip through various content categories, almost like a microsite.

I’m sure there are many ways they could lay this content out to best service the searcher and it’s not a stretch to think that it would probably even be very customizable and gradually personalized over time.

Ultimately, my guess it that the SERP will probably end up looking like Yahoo’s home page…except all of the news stories, images, videos, product feeds, links, tools, etc. will be related to the query the searcher just typed in.

Well, I’m not sure how this will all net out. The effect of the social revolution is changing everything online and with mobile set to emerge as the dominant gateway to the Internet, it’s inevitable that search will have to change with the times. I’m actually pretty excited to see how my dear, little industry will evolve over the next decade and how it will affect my role.

Are you ready?

Related Entries

• Five Visionaries Sum Up The Future Of Search
• Five Visionaries Sum Up The Future Of Search: Part II
• Where Is Search Going: Yahoo’s Shashi Seth
• Where Is Search Going: More With Yahoo’s Shashi Seth
• Where Is Search Going? Surf Canyon’s Mark Cramer

Related Topics: In The Trenches

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Head-To-Head: Yahoo Search Direct Vs. Google Instant

Mar 23, 2011 at 2:46pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Yahoo rolled out Yahoo Search Direct today, its rival to Google Instant. Yahoo says that its service is focused on providing actual answers, while Google’s is focused on bringing back links. True? Let’s have a face-off.

Test 1: Who’s #Winning For Charlie Sheen?

Yahoo says one of the 15 areas that it’s especially focused on right now with Yahoo Search Direct  is that of celebrities. Well, celebrity Charlie Sheen is still making plenty of news. What happens if I try searching for him at both places?

Typing in “charlie…” on Yahoo gives me:

There are links to Sheen’s Wikipedia page, his Twitter account and a YouTube video about him. Those are all links, not answers.

Meanwhile, Google gives me links, too:

But I have to hand this one to Google. In those links are recent news items about Sheen, which I think are better “answers” than what Yahoo is providing.

Test 2: What’s Playing Near Me?

How about movies showing near me. I type in “mov….” and both show me movie information, even before I finish the word. Here’s Yahoo:

Yahoo gives me three links, to Yahoo Movies, to Movies.com and to Fandango.

Here’s Google:

Again, I hand this one to Google. Google has guessed at my location, gotten it pretty correct and shows me local screening information. Sure, it’s one city off — but Yahoo didn’t get my city at all.

Test 2, Subsection A: How About By ZIP Code

Yahoo’s demo suggested that I might get better results for a movie search if I also entered a ZIP code. So, I gave it one near me:

That’s pretty nice, though it misses out two theaters that are actually more convenient to the 92661 ZIP code and instead lists the Edwards Univesity Town Center location that’s farther away.

What’s Google got?

Yes, same thing Google showed before. If I want more from Google, I have to do an extra click:

And the clicking is pretty good — I get the nearby Triangle Square cinema listed, which Yahoo’s Search Direct display missed.

Now, if I clicked into Yahoo’s own movie results, I also find Triangle Square listed. But the point about Yahoo Search Direct is that I’m not supposed to have to make that extra click.

Test 3: What’s The Weather?

In Yahoo’s demo, they seemed to totally trump Google in how typing only “wea…” would present the local weather:

But in reality, I got a different experience:

And at Google?

I actually got the weather for my area, just by typing the letters “Wea….” I’d say that was another win by Google.

Don’t get me wrong — I love that Yahoo’s bringing this new system out. Maybe things will improve, as it gets up to speed. Plus, if I ran more tests, maybe it would come out as more impressive than Google Instant.

But it’s also not correct to dismiss Google Instant as just showing a bunch of links. It’s showing answers, too.

 

What if I stumble? What if I fall?

What if I stumble?  What if I fall?

When is the best time to get out of the womb and stretch your figurative marketing legs?  Are baby steps the only way to get started?  Is it better to sign on with a big company?

With the recession and baby boomer phenomena occurring at roughly the same time recently, we have had a “perfect storm” in the job market.  Many, like myself, have had the opportunity through layoffs or burn-outs, to step back and take a look at who we are.

I had to re-asses my skill set and be honest about what I want to do with the rest of my life.  That ended up in my returning to school to take a master’s program in internet marketing.  Upon completing this last year I was faced with an interesting dilemma.  Although I have 20+ years of business development and traditional marketing, my exposure to internet marketing to this point has been limited to a few email campaigns, a pay-per-click ad campaign here and there, and selection of a few keywords to give to our developer in the vain hope that somehow our site would get found and we would make more money.

There are so many specialties in internet marketing it can be daunting.  I could spend the rest of my working life studying search engine optimization.  I do read the search engine land publications most afternoons to keep up with what Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Apple have done that day.  It DOES change every day.  There are webinars almost daily to give you a sampling of valuable information at the cost of an hour of your time and exposure to not so skillfully cloaked sales pitches.  It’s like taking a software class (for me); five minutes worth of valuable information surrounded by an insufferable amount of dribble.  Unfortunately one can never predict exactly when that five minutes of insight will occur.  It invariably does occur.  I have learned that it is almost never in the first 10 minutes of the session.  That is usually reserved for the self-aggrandizement of the presenters, followed by shameless self promotion of the event or service the webinar is actually promoting.

There are also a plethora of “free” white papers and e-books designed to fetch your email address in exchange for a glossed over explanation of yet another tried and true or cutting edge internet marketing practice guaranteed to make you tons of money by making your clients tons of money.  Not to mention the other various and sundried podcasts, videos and other media events designed to hold your attention long enough to sell you while you sift out those few pearls and try not to nod off.

At the base of this lies the crux of the decision.  It is not an easy one for a senior marketing dude, and the word senior in this context has several interpretations.  The first consideration is that of honest fear.  Not having played on this field of 20 something’s there is a fear of failure.  Some of these kids have twice the internet marketing experience we oldies have by the time they are 20.  Then there are the Frank Kern’s of the world that were just smart and good and applied Tony Robbins like principles to web marketing and are now legitimate gurus.  There is never going to be a good time to step on to the court and shout “next game.”

But sooner or later you must. There comes a time when the “rubber meets the road.”  I could spend 12 hours a day for the next 20 years studying and practicing and never be as good as all of these kids at what they do.  What I need to be is better in a few areas than they are at what I do. There will always be someone who can write code faster, automate a link building program, or interpret analytics better than we, but there are damn few with the general expertise in small business that we old farts have.  In the past months it has become apparent that there are a multitude of small and medium businesses out there that desperately need to be taken out of the dark ages.  The grey army is here, relatively more educated than most, and ready to charge onto the online market.  The front line may get hosed by the first few machine gun nest, but we will trudge on, and WE WILL PREVAIL!