Melanie Mendelson

It can take time to secure a legitimate work-at-home job.  If you are currently employed, first talk with your employer.  You might be able to work out a telecommuting position with them.  You could work at home on a part-time or full-time basis and be able to keep all of your benefits.  If they don’t offer telecommuting, or if you are unemployed, you can check with local companies.  Unless you have the right skills, however, it is unlikely that you’ll be offered a work-at-home position starting out.

Realize that with most work-at-home jobs, you’ll be an independent contractor and not an employee.  You’ll gain a flexible schedule but you’ll lose benefits such as health insurance that are provided by employers.  If you are comfortable with that, there are several companies that you can contract with.

To find jobs you can either go through classifieds such as Craigslist and message boards where jobs are posted or you can seek out a company that regularly hires at home workers.  For the first, you’ll have to weed out the scams and beat the competition.  For the latter, you need to know what type of work you want to do at home.

One position that requires little to no experience is a virtual call center.  To work for these companies, you’ll need a computer with high speed internet and a second phone line.  You can process order on things from pizza to exercise equipment.  Most of these companies have online applications and require a phone voice test or interview.  You can find them for searching for virtual call centers.  Check with the Better Business Bureau to make sure they are legitimate before giving them your information.

Transcription is another job that can be done at home, primarily medical transcription.  These jobs typically require a few years of experience or schooling, so contact transcription companies and find out what they require. 

If you don’t want to be tied to one company, you can offer your services to business, both online and off.  Consider writing, designing, or coding.  Look at freelancing sites and, if you have any skills, you can work from home for clients.  This can take time to build and lacks the stability of some work-at-home jobs, but it does offer freedom and flexibility.

With persistence, the right skills, and good timing, you’ll be able to find a work-at-home job.

About The Author: Melanie Mendelson is a stay-at-home mom who makes 6 figures with her Internet-based business. Get her “6-Figure Secret” FREE at her website http://www.goforyourdreams.com

To build a large mailing list you need to offer something of value to your subscribers and find a way to connect to possible sign ups.  Your offer should have both immediate and long term value.

Start by deciding what you’ll give to your subscribers as an incentive for signing up.  This can be a small report or it can be an email series describing how something is done.  Decide what your subscribers will want, then give it to them.  To keep them from unsubscribing, offer them a long term benefit beyond just affiliate emails.

After you plan for both your immediate reward and long term appeal, it’s time to get your list opt-in in front of people in your niche.  Some of the best ways to do this include giveaways, paid ads in other newsletters, article writing, and forum posting.

If you are in the internet marketing niche, you are probably familiar with giveaways and have possibly used them to build your own IM list.  Consider using them for non-internet marketing niches as well.  Contact others in your niche and see if they would be willing to contribute to a giveaway that you are forming.  Spend time working with the contributors and on marketing the event. 

Another way to build a large mailing list is to target readers of other newsletters.  If you haven’t yet, subscribe to your competitors newsletters.  See which ones offer sponsorship in their emails and contact them to see how much an ad would cost.  The advantage of this is that the people who opt in to your newsletter are likely to open and read your email.

If you don’t have the budget to advertise or the resources to run a giveaway, you’ll want to consider free methods such as forum postings and article writings.  These methods take time and your list won’t grow quickly, but with some effort you will add new subscribers every day.

For forum postings, simple go to busy forums in your niche that allow a web address in the sig file.  Follow the rules and don’t spam.  If you offer helpful information, people will click on your link and sign up.  For articles, you want to focus on offering helpful but incomplete information.  Use the resource box to encourage users to sign up for the full story. 

By taking the right actions, anyone can build a large mailing list.

About The Author: Melanie Mendelson is a stay-at-home mom who makes 6 figures with her Internet-based business. Get her “6-Figure Secret” FREE at her website http://www.goforyourdreams.com

Before you give your money or information to a person or organization, you want to make sure they are trustworthy.  On the internet it is easy to claim to be anything or anyone, but you can learn how to avoid online scams. 

Common online scams include auction fraud, employment or business opportunities, and ponzi or pyramid schemes.  To avoid auction scams, deal with reputable sites, check a seller’s feedback, and don’t pay using cash or wire transfers.  If the seller suggests an escrow service, make sure it is legit.

Avoid jobs that require you to pay money to be trained.  Be careful about responding to ads claiming no experience required and don’t respond to unsolicited emails offering employment.

Ponzi or pyramid schemes lack real products and instead promise money by getting you to recruit others to join.

Many scams can be avoided simply by doing a background check.  Both honest individuals and scammers will leave a trace of their actions.  Typing their name and business name into Google or other search engines should give you some results.  If you find a lot of complaints about a person or company, it’s a clear sign that you should move on.  If you don’t find anything, good or bad, that should also raise a red flag.  If they claim to have been online for years they should have a web presence.  Not having a web presence means they were either lying about that or that they might be an old scam artist operating under a new name.

If you have a business or charity name to investigate, go to the Better Business Bureau to check them out.  The BBB covers both the United States and Canada.  Individuals won’t be listed here, but most business and charities will be.  If they aren’t, or if there are a large number of complaints, you may be dealing with an online scam.

Asking for reviews in forums is a good way to avoid some online scams, but take all answers with a grain of salt.  Some people are extremely gullible or have a monetary stake in the scam and will defend it.  Others will assume anything that they have not heard of before is a rip-off.  

Finally, you need to trust your instincts.  If you feel that something is too good to be true, walk away.  Your own judgment will rarely lead you wrong.

About The Author: Melanie Mendelson is a stay-at-home mom who makes 6 figures with her Internet-based business. Get her “6-Figure Secret” FREE at her website http://www.goforyourdreams.com

Being an introvert in today’s business world is quite a challenge.  Networking, prospecting and selling are especially difficult. However, despite being an introvert, I was able to build a very successful business.  You too can succeed even if you are not a “people person” if you follow these strategies:

Don’t Fight Your Nature

Constantly forcing yourself to mingle, chit-chat and cold-call will take its toll.  Doing things that you hate on a regular basis is a surefire recipe for burnout.  All that stress can take years off your life!  Don’t try to be someone you are not.  Instead, try to develop the business model that fits the real you.

Focus On Your Strengths

Introverts typically have great analytical, problem-solving and listening skills.  Also, many introverts excel in writing.  What are your strengths?  How can you utilize them in your business?

Find The Right Business

Jumping from one business opportunity to another and quitting everything you start - does it sound familiar? People fall into this trap because they get excited about the profit potential but fail in doing the work involved. When evaluating potential businesses, ask yourself - will you really be able to do the work involved in the business?  If not, can you hire someone else who’ll do it for you?

Outsource Direct Selling

You can hire other people to do the selling.  Even if you are on a budget, you can still get “commissions-only” sales people who get paid a percentage of sales, which means no upfront cost to you.

Use Online Networking

The Internet allows people to find the right business contacts and skip the usual schmoozing.  You can network with people through discussion forums, social networking websites or simply by sending an e-mail to introduce yourself.  Using the electronic contact is easy, efficient and not intimidating. 

Market On The Internet

Even people who hate selling can succeed in Internet marketing.  Your website does all the selling so you don’t have to.  Orders are placed on the website without your intervention, and customer service is done via e-mail. The Internet is truly an introvert’s dream!

About The Author:

Melanie Mendelson is an introvert who makes 6 figures with her Internet-based business.  Get her FREE Internet Business Blueprint at her website http://www.goforyourdreams.com 

There are many different ways to make money on the Internet. Here is an overview of the five most popular online business models:

Sell Digital Products

The term “digital product” means that the product is delivered electronically. The customers will download the product to their computers. Some examples of digital products are downloadable e-books, audio/MP3, graphics (clipart and stock photography), video and software.

The digital product business model is very popular because there is no inventory, no shipping and no fulfillment cost. Since the product is an electronic file, it costs you nothing to make an extra copy - therefore, the profit margin is 100%!

Sell Physical Products

“Physical products” are the products that are shipped to customers through the mail. Customers place orders on your website and you ship the products to them.

There are several ways to get those products - you can make them yourself (for example, arts and crafts), buy them directly from a manufacturer or buy from a wholesaler (at quantity discounts).

If you dont want to deal with the inventory and shipping, another alternative is to use a dropshipping service. Dropshipping means that the inventory is stored at the wholesaler company. You collect the customer information and payment, give it to the dropshipping company and they ship the product to the customer. Your profit is the difference between what the customer paid you and what you paid to the dropshipper.

Become An Affiliate

Affiliates send visitors to other companies websites and get paid a percentage of all the sales they refer. You dont have to worry about creating websites, dealing with customers, shipping and payment processing. Your only job is to advertise those websites and send people there. People will buy products from those websites and you will be paid your commission.

When you become an affiliate, you will be given a unique link with a tracking code. In your advertising, you will send people to that link. This unique code will ensure that all the sales will be properly credited to you.

Sell Advertising

If you have a website that gets a lot of visitors, you can sell advertising on it. Other companies will pay you for advertising space on your site, just like they pay to advertise in magazines and newspapers.

Thats how all those “free websites” make money - they sell advertising. Free content attracts a lot of visitors. The higher is the number of people who visit the website, the more money you can make from advertising.

Provide Services

There are many types of services that can be done on the computer through the Internet. The most common examples of such services are website design, programming, graphic design, writing, data entry and transcription.

Many companies will gladly pay someone to do computer work for them on a project basis, so they dont have to hire full-time employees. As long as the work can be done without face-to-face interaction, you can do it from home on your computer and make money.

About The Author:

Melanie Mendelson has been making a living on the Internet since 2002. Get her FREE step-by-step Internet Business Blueprint at her website http://www.GoForYourDreams.com

Yummy beautiful dessert that is really easy to make - no cooking skills required!

Ingredients:

10 strawberries
1 8oz chocolate bar

Wash strawberries, and dot with paper towels to dry. The strawberries have to be really dry, otherwise the chocolate won’t stick to them.

Put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for several minutes until melted.

Put a piece of parchment paper on the counter (so the chocolate strawberries don’t stick). But if you don’t have parchment paper, you can use a piece of foil or a large plate.

Dip strawberries in chocolate, and lay on the parchment paper.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes, so the chocolate hardens.

Enjoy!

Melanie Mendelson
http://www.goforyourdreams.com/

Restaurants have a bad rep for making us fat. However, you don’t have to give up eating out if you are trying to lose weight. You can still eat out and lose weight if you follow these strategies:

Get Zero Calorie Drinks The easiest way to cut down on calories is to avoid soft drinks. A large coke has as many calories as a burger! Don’t get sugar-loaded drinks. Instead, drink water or unsweetened ice tea. Freshly brewed ice tea is very popular in restaurants because it tastes good and doesn’t make you gain weight.

16 oz dark chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp liquor (optional) (if using, coffee liquor goes really well here)

Break up chocolate into small pieces.

Heat the cream just to the point of simmering.  Watch it the whole time, since boiling cream can overflow the pot!  Remove from heat right away once it starts to simmer. 

Stir in the chocolate and liquor (if using), and keep stirring until the chocolate has melted completely.  Let cool, then put in the refrigerator. 

Check the consistency of the truffle mixture after 2 hours in the refrigerator.  You should be able to roll balls from it.  If it’s too soft (impossible to roll balls), put it back in the refrigerator and check again after 30 minutes.

Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.  Once the truffle mixture is the right consistency, use a spoon to put some of it on your hands, roll into balls and put the balls on the parchment paper. 

Put the baking sheet with truffles in the freezer for 30 minutes.  After you remove them from the freezer, put on a plate and enjoy!  Store the truffles in the refrigerator.

Melanie Mendelson
http://www.goforyourdreams.com

Ingredients:

2 lbs skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
oil for frying

Sauce:
1 cup orange juice
5 tbsp white vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
4 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece of ginger root, grated
1/2 tsp red pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch

Coating:

4 egg whites, whisked
1 cup cornstarch

Directions:

Combine all sauce ingredients except cornstarch and mix well. 

Put chicken pieces in a bowl and pour 1 cup of the sauce over the chicken (reserve the rest of the sauce).  Mix it with your hands so all the chicken is covered with sauce.  Leave to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Put the remaining sauce in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  In a small bowl, whisk 1 tbsp cornstarch with 1 tbsp of water.  Add cornstarch mixture to the sauce and stir for 2 minutes, until sauce is thickened.

Fry the chicken:

You will need to fry it in batches, so the chicken pieces are not crowded in the pan - they need to fit in a single layer without much touching.

Heat the oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan) in a large frying pan over medium-high heat.  Put 1 cup of cornstarch in a large plate.

Coat the first batch of chicken pieces - dip them in the egg whites (so they are covered in egg white all over), then remove from egg whites and roll in the cornstarch (so they are covered with cornstarch all over). 

Put the chicken in a frying pan.  Fry, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, until golden-brown all over.  Remove from the frying pan. 

Add more oil to the pan (enough to cover the bottom of the pan).  Repeat coating and frying with the remaining batches of chicken.

If the sauce got cold, reheat it.  Pour the sauce over the chicken, stir so it’s coated, and serve.

Melanie Mendelson
http://www.goforyourdreams.com

This recipe is for true avocado lovers!

We want to enjoy the pure taste of avocado that we love so much!

No mixing it with lame fillers like tomatoes or onions - just the pure succulent taste of tender, buttery avocado that you can roll around with your tongue and enjoy every moment of it!

Take 1 ripe avocado. Cut it in half, remove the pit, scoop out the flesh with a fork. Make sure the avocado is fresh and does not have any brown in it - spoiled avocado is a no-no for us, true avocado lovers! Mash it with the fork, and sprinkle with some salt. Make sure to taste it before putting too much salt - we want the salt to bring out the taste of avocado, not overpower it.

That’s it! Avocado and salt - everything genious is simple. Enjoy! You can just eat it with a big spoon… without anything else to interfere with your avocado-eating experience!

Melanie Mendelson
http://www.goforyourdreams.com