What is Ergonomics?

First and foremost, let’s help you understand what ergonomics is. Basically, it is a series of techniques and principles which are designed to improve health, safety, productivity, and comfort for people. By efficiently setting up your workstation within these guidelines, you lessen or even the eliminate the amounts of stress on joints and muscles thus, lowering the chance of long-term health issues.

Always make sure that you are receiving your ergonomics tips from a reliable resource. Someone who is a specialist in solving back pain might also be able to help you. More specifically, don’t take any advice if it isn’t backed by some sort of scientific evidence or reputable and respected person. Also realize that everyone’s body is different so some of the guidelines in this article will work for you and some may not. Take what works and use it and get rid of those things which don’t work.

Normalizing Your Work Station

In general, there are four areas of your work station which should be considered when you are making changes. They are:

1. Monitor
2. Keyboard
3. Chair
4. Lighting/Environment

It is important that you set these elements up correctly. This will reduce stress on joints and muscles and ultimately increase your productivity. With that being said, let’s go more in-depth on each of these four areas.

1.) The Monitor

Your monitor plays a bigger role than just being a screen to look at. It plays a crucial role in the ergonomic foundation. The first thing you have to do is minimize as much glare as possible from both lighting and windows. The second step is to keep your monitor as far as you can away from your face while still being able to read the words on it. This is going to take some trial and error until you find the ideal distance.

2.) Lighting

Basically, you want your work station have as much lighting as possible without being forced to wear sun glasses. Experiment until you locate the ideal amount of light because you don’t want to make it so dark to the point where you are forcing your eyes to adjust. Here is another important concept to remember: don’t us task lighting when you are doing work on your computer. If you must use it, keep it to an absolute minimum. Some great advice is to mix fluorescent and incandescent light. This reduces flicker and creates some solid lighting for your work station.

3.) The Keyboard

The keyboard is one of the main areas where people tend to use very bad habits. For one, most people don’t keep their wrists straight while they are typing. This can be detrimental and lead to long term joint issues. Experts suggest that you should never use a wrist rest while you are typing in your work station. While some people think that these are great ideas, they can actually cause more harm to your body than good. Finally, make sure that you are not using any supports while you are typing. Instead, keep your wrists slightly inverted inwards (from top to bottom) for optimal positioning.

4.) The Chair

Use arm rests if you have the option. These can give you the extra support you need to work effectively. Next, you need to consider having some form of lumber support built into your chair. Place your feet firmly on the floor. Last but not least, make sufficient room between your knees and the edge of your seat (at least 1-3 inches).

About the Author

Back when Melissa Cameron discovered in the Internet in 2003, she immediately fell in love with freelance writing. She loves doing research on a variety of subjects and is currently writing a series of articles on the back. Her articles emphasize the importance of developing an ergonomic work space after a discussion with a Chiropractor in Sacramento, CA. Melissa lives in Austin, Texas, husband Dave, 2 kids.

Recently, smallbizopinion.com conducted a survey, which showed that “wanting to be your own boss” was in the number two position for reasons why a person started their own business. So, it’s definitely a motivating factor.

However, it’s a big step in becoming your own boss, with many challenges along the way. There is a lot to consider, and a great deal of pressure. Before becoming your own boss, when a crisis would arise there was always someone above you who could step in to save the day. If they didn’t take over completely, they typically would at least help or guide you in how to take care of it.

The Buck Stops Here

You are the boss now, the head honcho…the one who is solely responsible for everything.

As an employee you had the luxury of a routine, support, and even structure set for you, which had probably been long ago developed by the company you worked for. Now, that is all up to you. Developing and setting all the structure, policies, and a work model is your responsibility, and needs to be done even if it’s just you.

There is more to consider when setting up shop in your own home than looking for the right computer, or deciding between a corner desk and a glass computer desk. Relying on yourself has never been more important.

I thought I would take a moment to share 5 tips on being the best boss you’ve ever had.

1.     Keep the Focus. Losing focus is so easy to do, especially in the Internet Marketing business. It’s only you now, with nobody else to rely on or delegate work to, which leaves you also having to deal with the unpleasant chores. But, it’s never been more important to stick with it all. Realizing this, I created a ‘start page’ for my business, which has all my bookmarks organized and readily available each time I log on. All log-in information that I need for multiple websites I use is located at the top of the page, along with my personal statements, messages, and motivational images. This helps in saving time, but also keeps my eye on the goal.

2.     Create a Statement of Pride. If you have been self-employed for a while now, then you have probably experienced how difficult it can be to explain what you do to family, friends, and especially people you meet for the first time. Whether the doubt in their eyes is real or in your imagination, it can be an uneasy feeling. I felt repetitive and going nowhere with all the “Yes…it’s a real job. No…I don’t just work when I want to” responses. So, I prepared a little blurb about my career so that I could explain it, with pride. It really boosted my confidence when I could get someone to understand that ‘working from home’ is just a location, not the actual career.

3.     Establish a Routine. Anyone who has successfully worked at home knows the importance of structure and routine. Without it, laziness and clutter can easily creep in. A good routine will get your mind into the proper work mode, which will lead to a more productive day, week, and career. It also helps to set boundaries for ending the work day, allowing you to enjoy the evening with the family… without feeling guilty.

4.     Kick the Habits. If you are in the habit of checking your social media outlets, such as Twitter and Facebook, you might be tempted to check in more often than you should when working from home. Even checking your email can eat up your time, because it’s right there, so it might lure you in more often than necessary. It could be rather tempting to squeeze in a game of solitaire, or write Aunt Susie since you are sitting at the computer anyway, especially if you are in the midst of a mental or writer’s block. Don’t cave in though, because the next time will be harder to say no.

5.     Block Time for Networking. I didn’t say to give it up completely. Social networking such as Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin each have a place in business, and are often used for more than just socializing. If you use these areas for business, you should still limit the time you spend doing it. You can do this effectively by adding it to your schedule. This will eliminate the temptation of the games and non-professional contacts that are going to be ‘there’. However, they will continue to be there when you are done for the day. If it can wait, then perhaps it should.

To sum it up, starting a home business is more complex than getting a ‘great deal on your Bestar Hampton corner computer desk’. Before you start you need to determine your self-discipline level to see if will get you through the tough and barren times. If you have it for the long haul, then it will pay off and your future will appreciate it.

If you would like to share your approach to being your own boss, as well as how it’s working out for you, I would love to hear it. Please use the comment box below to share ideas, comments, or questions.

What anyone writing a blog should know however, is that with a few very simple steps they could actually start to earn an income from their blog and it doesn’t really matter if it is a private journal, a diary type blog or a blog being used specifically to promote products and services; the process is the same. It actually doesn’t take much effort to do this either. The set up is very simple, especially if you are using perhaps Googles’ Blogger or WordPress (own domain version) to publish your blogs.

So what are the steps you need to take to monetize your blog.

Advertising

There are a number of sites that desperately want to use your blog to place their ads and they are prepared to pay you for the privilege; probably the best known company that does this is Google, using their Adsense campaigns.

You will need to register with these companies and set up an account which tells them how they can pay you, who you are and where you live etc. But once that is done its just a question of following a few simple instructions for activating their ads on your blog. Adsense pays you every time their advert is clicked on, but don’t be tempted to click on your own ads as you will find yourself very quickly banned from participating in the program.

Affiliate Relationships

Plenty of companies are seeking affiliate relationships, either directly or through affiliate marketing companies. Affiliate Window is a good example of a company that operates out of the UK and can help you apply for and arrange affiliate agreements with many different online businesses. Very often with a traditional high street presence as well, people like B&Q, John Lewis, Boots the Chemist and so on.  Typically you can place what are called advertising banners on your blog, or if you find that too intrusive, it can be a simple link that contains a reference back to you as the source of the traffic you send their way. If people buy products after visiting their site from your link then you will receive some commission.

Text Linking

This is an even simpler method of advertising, what happens in this instance is the company (once you have copied their code to your blog) analyzes your posting and identify what they call key words or phrases. They highlight these words and phrases and turn them into a hyperlink that takes your visitor to a sponsored site offering products or services related to that term, but only if your visitor clicks on the link. Again you can earn money from the number of clicks that are made from your site. This is probably the least intrusive method as they are actually using the words you have written and embed the advert within those words. Konterra is an example of a company that operates in this way.

Of course traffic (or visitors) to your blog is the key to earning reasonable money, so if you are getting lots of traffic already and want to earn some money from all those people visiting your blog, then it really doesn’t take much effort.

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Its possible to start an online business completely free of charge and it can be done on a part time basis. You never know these days just how long your job is going to last or how safe you are in employment and it pays to have a contingency plan; especially one that will cost you nothing and can be started in your spare time.

If you do the groundwork and put in a bit of effort building up an online business you can make money online and potentially much more than you ever could in an ordinary job. Also the difference between a 9 until 5 job and an Internet business is that, once the business is set up, it can operate in your absence and will be potentially earning you money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 52 weeks a year; the Internet never sleeps.

With some systems, if you utilize the right tools and introduce people into that system there are ways that you can get a small commission from the work they do, introduce enough people and you can even build a reasonable income outside of your own efforts.

The type of business you choose is completely your choice, you can select subjects you are interested in and enjoy researching; that way it feels less like a job and more like a hobby. In fact I would recommend that you take this approach because that way your interest will remain keen and you will not run out of ideas.

As your business builds and the income increases you can make serious decisions about whether you want to stay in employment or whether you prefer to put more effort into your online business. Remember, there are no constraints, you are in control and you can put in as much or as little effort as you like.

I am not going to kid you, to make money at home through your own online business is going to take effort and the rewards in the beginning will be small. But as your online presence increases and you get more websites and blogs in place, the rewards will come. You just need to do the research and use the right methods.

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To put things in context there are now approaching 2 billion people that use the Internet and there are millions of transactions taking place every hour of every day for 365 days a year.

Around 80% of Internet users make purchases online. That is a lot of people and transactions; so no wonder so many people are now looking to work at home and tap into this huge marketplace.

There is quite a bit of work to do in order to learn the techniques for making money at home, particularly if you want to run a successful home business. So if you are unfamiliar with the methods and you are just starting out, then you are going to need to do a bit of research. It is also a good idea to do that research up front.

If you have already started then don’t worry, better late than never, do the research now before you waste a lot of time and effort going in the wrong direction or getting yourself demoralized through lack of results.

The options you should be considering for an online business include: –

    * blogging for money
    * publishing websites for money

Two of the best tools you can use are: –

    * affiliate marketing, where you promote other people’s products and services then get paid commission if they buy something.
    * placing adverts on your blogs or websites so that when people click on them you get a small commission.
The reason I say these are the best ways is because you can do this completely free of charge. No registration fees, no set up charges and if you use free blogging services or single page website publishers, you do not even have to pay for your online presence.

I don’t know any other business that you can start up for nothing and begin to earn money from pretty much immediately. Of course the key to being able to do this is the amount of traffic or visitors you can get to your websites and blogs without this you may as well pack up and go out to work.

There is a third option, which many people adopt, called direct marketing. This is where you identify a product that has a demand and sell it over the Internet; a good example of this, that many of you may be familiar with, is eBay.

Not that you have to use eBay, with the advent of 3rd party payment processors, such as PayPal and Google Checkout, you can pretty much operate a direct marketing business from virtually any website or blog platform.

You will most likely, with this type of Internet business, have to invest in some level of stock and get involved in the physical storing and shipping of products, but as many people have proven, it could well be worth the effort.

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So how do they do this, well first of all you need to research exactly what it is that blogging is all about. It means understanding the different types of blog platforms that are available, how revenue can be made from blogs and how to use search engine optimization to drive traffic to your blogs so that you can cash in on the many ways of earning money through blogging.

Ideally you will identify a niche market that no one else has yet spotted and make it the subject of your blog. If you don’t manage that, then at the very least make sure you pick a subject for each of your blogs and stick to it so that you can remain focused, even political blogs have their audiences and if you can provide the information they are looking for they will visit your blog.

We also know politicians are busy people that have to appeal to the wider public and canvass their support. So as they are usually busy filling in their expense claims they will very often consider employing third parties to maintain and update their blog portfolios. This is another way of earning money from blogging, being paid by a third party for blogging on their behalf; and not only politicians require this service.

This would not be my favored way of earning money from a blog, if you are doing all the work you may as well earn from that effort directly and ideally increase the value of your blog in the process.

So as an aside, using a third party domain, such as the Google blogs for instance, are fine under certain circumstances, but having your own domain name and promoting that is in my opinion a better option; because you get to add value to something you own. Rather like fitting a new kitchen in a rented home versus fitting a new kitchen in a home you own yourself.

There are lots of other ways of earning from your own blog, using Google AdSense to get Google cash is probably one of the most popular. You sign up with Google and they place adverts on your blog that relate to the subject you have written about, hence the need to stay on a subject, when the add is clicked on you make a small commission, this method is called pay per click.

Joining affiliate programs is another way, plenty of affiliate programs out there that will be happy to let you market their products and pay you a commission if you send a buyer to their websites, in this case you only get paid if they buy something, this method is called pay per action.

Some people write useful information and guidelines and create ebooks that they sell on their blogs or alternatively they may have products or services that they sell using their blog as the marketing tool. This is called direct marketing and either sends you to their business website or as is often the case these days the blog is set up as their only online presence and the products are made available directly from the blog.

You will have to work for this income however and don’t let anyone tell you making money online is easy. In addition to knowing the business, which can mean a big learning curve, you have to constantly and regularly update your blogs; that’s why search engines like them, because they are a constant source of fresh contents. Unlike many websites that have a tendency to become a little static in nature.

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So what are these alternatives, well the first option is to get involved in affiliate marketing or Internet marketing as it is often referred to. There are a number of affiliate marketing opportunities out there and once you have an Internet presence you can apply to companies like Amazon and eBay to ask for an affiliate relationship.

Once this is agreed you can place adverts for the products and services they supply on your websites or blogs. If anyone goes to their website from yours, via the adverts or links you have placed, and makes a purchase you will receive a commission. This type of affiliate relationship is called ‘Pay per action’ (PPA)

Another idea for creating an online business is to place adverts on your websites or blogs on behalf of companies like Google or Konterra. With this method if someone clicks on their adverts you will get paid a small commission. This method is called ‘pay per click’ (PPC).

One little word of warning however, never be tempted to click on your own PPC ads or ask family or friends to do this, because this would effectively be fraud and with companies as sophisticated as Google they will be sure to recognise it as unusual activity, will refuse to pay you and you will be kicked off the program. Its also a good idea if you click on an ad in error, to let them know and stop the payment so that you don’t get kicked out for making a mistake.

This is all probably sounding a bit too good to be true and it is unless you are prepared to put in some work. You have to put in work on researching how to set things up, how to get traffic or visitors to your sites and work producing useful and interesting content that will attract visitors to your websites, blogs and associated adverts.

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While this certainly sounds like an ideal way to earn money working from home it is fraught with land mines.  The most notable one being that many unscrupulous companies advertise this type of job and then ask you to pay an upfront fee before they give you any details or work.  You should never pay a fee in order to obtain work.  That should be the only red flag that you need to see.  When somebody asks you to pay money, especially upfront before they give you anything or do anything, the red flag should be waving screaming:  scam, fraud, dishonest, and any other adjective you want to throw in for good measure.

Honest jobs stuffing envelopes from home are very few and far between.  And just for good measure they are becoming more and more rare as companies send out less correspondence of all types and replace paper with electronic mail.

There are ways to earn cash online and take advantage of the electronic revolution.  Obviously this won’t include anything that has to do with the mail.  But dealing with email and email lists are certainly within the realm of possibilities. 

You always need to remember that there really is no such thing as easy money.  Think about logically if you will.  If you owned a company would you really pay people a good amount of money to do a minimal amount of work that they can pay minimum wage for?  Ask yourself if it makes sense.  Ask yourself if it was you who owned the company would you do that.  Most likely the answer is no. 

Making money at home is a goal that many people have and there are many ways to achieve that goal.  You just have to make sure the path you choose is a legitimate one.  Nobody wants to get ripped off or made a fool of.  Do your research and homework and make sure that the work you agree to do makes sense.  Asks for references and check the BBB or Better Business Bureau. 

Stuffing envelopes at home has probably seen better times.  The truth be told I don’t think that I have ever met anyone that has made money pursuing that endeavor.  If you were to make a quick trip to the post office you would see that the amount of customers that they service on a daily basis has diminished quite substantially over the last decade.  The reason is that commercial mail has decreased dramatically in volume.  Which means very few companies would need the services of a person to perform any such task.

All of this does not mean that work from home jobs don’t exist.  Actually there are more of these types of jobs in existence today than any other time in history.  Here is a small list of jobs that you can do from home:

Virtual Assistant

Medical Transcriptionist

Translator

Web Developer/Designer

Call Center Rep

Tech Support Specialist

Travel Agent

Teacher

Writer

Editor

The difference between these jobs and stuffing envelopes at home is that they are all legitimate.  When searching out a job from home you should always look for a company that is established, the offer for employment has a phone number and physical address and not just a blind email address.  There should be human resource personal available to get information from and ask questions to.  Any quality company is going to want you to fill out an application and go through some sort of interview process.  You should also expect to be told what is expected of you as far as job duties and not just hyped over the amount of money you may make.

Normally making extra money at home is not a scam.  There are many good jobs that let you “telecommute”.  They are ideal for stay at home moms or anybody else that has a reason not to leave their house everyday.

There used to be a day when you could earn money stuffing envelopes.  It was a good job for some people because you didn’t need any specific skill set.  But like everything else this has changed.  Just about every job demands some sort of specialized knowledge or skill.  Take for instance medical transcriptionist training.  You can go to a school and learn the basic medical knowledge you would need to perform this job and then learn how to transcribe.  Once you have gained this knowledge and skill you can then easily perform this job at home like many people already do.

If you want to make extra money then you are going to have to put in a little work to prepare yourself to be able to go out and find work that really pays well.  The good news is that many people have their own home based business that they started from their house.  A lot of these people thought that they would be stuffing envelopes for money and then decided that there were better opportunities that they could pursue that would be more reliable and also pay more.

It used to be that companies would outsource all types of work to people that would want to work at home.  There was work at home mailing, data entry at home, and typing at home.  But just like stuffing envelopes from home those jobs have just about disappeared.  Times have changed and so must you.

Today you can earn money on the internet.  Information flows across the country and across the world in a matter of seconds.  Those who have access to information or the means to gather and disseminate information in a new way on the internet can easily earn at home. 

Earning extra money seems to be an American pastime.  People have been doing it forever.  Probably the first work from home type of job was cooking.  People would either open their houses up and serve others the evening meal or they would prepare the meals and deliver them to those who did not want to cook.  Cooking is just one of many ways to make extra money from home. 

If you want to make some extra money there are certainly ways to do it.  Stuffing envelopes used to be one of the easiest ways.  But the earn from home business has changed and gotten a little tougher.  The hot way to do it now a days is to earn money from internet marketing.  All you need is a internet connection, a computer, and a website.  There are many people making substantial amounts of money while tapping away on their keyboard in the home office.

Internet marketing is certainly more economically rewarding then if you were to make money stuffing envelopes.  You actually could consider the computer along with email the new stuffing job.  I can’t warn you enough to be on the look out for scams with the whole stuffing envelope  job industry.  In all honesty I’m not sure that the industry even exists anymore.

If you want to earn money, work from home, and make a good income then you are going to have put in some work to prepare yourself for that type of career.  The good news is that earning money from a home based business is becoming very popular.  There are many resources available to you on the internet and in networking meetings and groups.

If you want to earn more money all you really have to do is get more than one skill.  That is one of the great things about working for yourself, you can do more than one job and nobody really knows or cares about it.  And really when it comes right down to it that is what we are all after.  We all want to earn money the easiest possible way.

So if you want to work at home stuffing envelopes then you should go for it.  But you must remember that it is a business and you need to follow the rules that were laid out at the beginning of this article.  Make sure you check the company out thoroughly before you commit to anything.

People who get paid stuffing envelopes are a vanishing breed.  So it would be wise to have a back up plan.  A plan that will allow you to keep making money while transitioning away from stuffing envelopes.

That being said you do have to be careful because there are a lot of scams and scammers out on the web hawking online jobs:   work from home.

Working from home jobs normally will normally will have something to do with typing, stuffing, researching, or data entry.  Most can be done with a computer.  If you know how to write there are quite of few part time work from home jobs that you can do.

Any job you consider, full time or a part time work from home jobs, should not cost you anything.  That is a red flag you need to pay attention to.  You should never pay in order to get a job.  If somebody asks you for money…keep looking.  Free work from home jobs are plentiful.  Do not pay anyone ever.

The best work from home jobs will allow you the freedom to work when you want, supply you with enough work to do to keep you busy, and pay enough so that your financial needs are met.

Bloggers higher a lot of writers over the internet.  They outsource articles that they need written, keyword research, and typing.  It is the perfect job for a college student, stay at home mom, or somebody that is just plain sick of “going” to work everyday. 

Wouldn’t it be nice to wake up in the morning, brew a fresh pot of coffee, drag yourself over to the computer while Good Morning America is blaring over the TV, and start typing?  When you are done you could lay down on the couch and take a nap.  Now that is why work from home jobs are so desired and appreciated.

Real work from home jobs can be rewarding and have the ability to free up your time so that you can pursue other interest.  There are quite a few people that make a good living out of their home office doing work for other people or companies.

Any job, work from home, or any other type that you perform must be accomplished with the utmost professionalism.  People will be trusting you to accomplish the task correctly.  You have to remember there is no supervision and nobody is going to want to pay you if the job is not done right.

Remember you should be looking for genuine work from home jobs.  Don’t take the easy way out and think you don’t have to work for your money.  Anything worth doing is worth doing right and that takes work.  Especially when it comes to work from home jobs.