1. When you think of a home-based business, do you have visions of yourself sitting at the breakfast table in your pajamas making money? If you do, then an internet home-based business may be for you. Working from home means no time-clock to punch, no boss over your shoulder, and the ability to control how much you earn. You can have all this and more if you choose to work from home.2. Do you want to have more time with your family? It’s hard to have enough time with your family if you are working 9 to 5. The majority of your waking time is spent away from home and vacations are hurried affairs that leave you more tired than before. If you work from home, you can be there for your family, spend more quality time with them, and plan leisurely vacations.3. Are you passionate about your work? When you awaken in the morning Are you excited about the challenges that your job offers? Or are you dreading the commute, your co-workers, and the overall work environment? Well, working from home, on your computer, will solve all of those problems. You can choose work that’s challenging to you and make your own schedule.4. Working from home can save you time and money. In today’s economy, commuting to work can be very costly. Gas prices are steadily rising and for many families the cost of gas is another bill to add to a growing stack. If you work a long distance from home, then your time with family, friends, and other activities that you enjoy is extremely limited. Everyone wants to be able to enjoy their lives, therefore, you need to strike a balance between your work and home-life. The time is now to consider the option of a home-based internet business.5. Do you have all the money that you need to enjoy life? Not just money to pay your bills and feed your families. I mean money to travel when desired and to engage in other leisure activities such as shopping, eating in fine restaurants, etc. How about if you want to be able to help others? Does your current income allow any of this? If not, then I suggest that you consider adding a home-based business to your sources of income. There are a variety of businesses to be found on the internet. You have to find a business that you can believe in and enjoy promoting. Its that simple. A home-based internet business is inexpensive to start. You can start at your own pace, and eventually be full -time with the business if that’s your heart’s desire. Don’t wait! The time for action is now!
Is a Home-Based Business in Your Future? 5 Reasons Why It May Be for You!
Online Open Source Education
Online education is increasingly on the public’s mind with many pursuing higher education during the current tough economic times. Accompanying the growth of the for profit online universities, serving these students, is the open source education movement. This movement, headed by MIT OpenCourseWare and the Khan Academy, seeks to revolutionize education by offering free content to anyone with an internet connection. Bill Gates said in an interview that he believes that within five years the best education will come from the web. Coming from a man who has made billions from investing in innovation, such predictions carry an enormous amount of weight.
There is a huge demand for online education materials, not just for those enrolled in online courses, but for anyone trying to learn. The upcoming generation of college freshman have to think hard to remember a time before Google and YouTube. Therefore, it is not surprising that the first reaction of many young students when faced with a difficult problem is to “Google it.” Interestingly enough, with the plethora of online education materials, it probably is the best strategy. A quick Google search for calculus returns quite a bit more than what one could find in a traditional library. Full textbooks, video lectures, practice problems with solutions, internet forums connecting to thousands of helpful experts, computer programs, and more content growing by the day make a trip to the library seem silly unless you plan on using a library computer to access the internet.
So where is the open source education movement taking us? Despite the enthusiasm of many, I do not foresee the destruction of the over priced higher education system (bubble?) any time soon. Although, it would be an interesting case study to submit a few resumes with a list of watched YouTube videos as one’s education credentials. The open source education movement will have an effect, however, in the industry that produces supplemental education materials. There is a whole section of “Learn Calculus Fast!” style education books that could be disappearing off the shelves of your local book store (if your local book store hasn’t already disappeared). How are they to compete with interactive online materials, video lectures, and discussion forums for these subjects? Quite frankly, I don’t see how they can.
More interesting than the business impact of the open source education movement is the psychology behind it. What is driving people to produce their own YouTube videos solving calculus problems? Or spending their evenings in a forum devoted to organic chemistry, helping students with difficulty understanding the concepts? Economists and psychologists came together to find what motivates people to contribute to open source projects and found three primary motivators. Challenge, mastery, and making a contribution are the driving force behind all open source projects. These three elements are clearly prominent in the case of the open source education movement and one can add in the “joy of teaching” as an additional motivator. It is for these reasons that I agree with Mr. Gates that not only will the best education soon be available on the web, but that it will also be free.
How to Make Money by Taking Your Home Based Business Online
Are you now operating or have you thought about running a home based business? Because so many jobs today have disappeared and companies are struggling, there are more and more individuals that are looking to make some sort of income from the internet. And it can be done, if you know how and are willing to work at your online home based business. You need to understand your options for a business or product and need a basic understanding of how the internet works.Running a business can mean selling a particular product that you have created or selling a service you provide. For example, you can make personalized candy bar wrappers which people use for parties, weddings, and other occasions. Or if you have bookkeeping skills you can handle someone’s paperwork for their business. Running a home based business like this means that you need to create samples of your products for your website, or if you’re offering a service you may need to have copies of your certifications and qualifications. When you run a home based business like this of course there is more work involved since you need to actually create the product or handle the service work, but if this is your job full-time then you can easily schedule this.Other ideas for a home businesses you run online can include selling someone else’s product on your website. If your site allows them to click to another home page where they place their order, you would probably get a commission of those sales. Or you can work with drop shippers; these are companies that manufacture, store and ship items that you sell on your site. This is a popular choice for a home based business that you run online since you don’t need to create the product or worry about shipping it either. You simply generate sales from your site and then pass along the information to the drop shipper. This type of product for a home based business might include supplements and vitamins, party supplies, wedding supplies and favors, small appliances, decorative items for the home, jewelry, and even cosmetics. This is a simple type of home based business to run because drop shippers usually make up everything you need for your site, including photos of the items, descriptions you can copy to put online, and so on.Of course to run a home based businesses you need a basic understanding of the internet and how you get visitors to your site. You can’t just put up a website and expect visitors right away. You need to market your site, have content on it, and make sure that your visitors can navigate it easily. If you do these things you can easily make money with a home based business you run online. And if you do, you may find that your internet business becomes more successful than any other job you’ve ever had!