Online Businesses

Work Ethic: I have Two Different Personalities

insidedianeslife2 Comments

(Do you want to work or get a project done at home?  What is your ‘home’ work ethic like? Do you have tricks?)

I consider myself a good worker.  When I am at work I try not to slack off and I am usually on the go.  When the regular tasks are done I usually look for something else to do.  Sitting still does not feel right.

I consider myself a lazy worker.  When I know I need to get things done I will procrastinate.  I will do things that really don’t need to be done (busy work), rest or be on my phone/computer.  Many days go by and I haven’t even hit the things I told myself that needed to be done.

Are you one of these?  I happen to be both.  I am the productive one when I leave the house and someone is paying me to do a job.  I believe if I stop working, then I shouldn’t be getting paid.  So, I am a workhorse.

The lazy me is when I get home.  Doing chores, a To Do List, learning or trying to get my online business going is like pulling teeth.  I am the procrastination queen.
How can I have such different personalities?

mom-mask    (Picture drawn by my daughter.  Love her.)

I think there are two reasons for it.  The first is when I go to work I am working for someone else.  I am taking someone’s money to have me do certain duties.  I don’t like to let people down and I want them to appreciate that I work for them.  On the job I am not suppose to be distracted by my phone or computer.  That makes it easier to focus on work and get things done.

It is so much easier for me to slack off when I am trying to work from home.  I equate home to time off.  So working from home seems like the wrong thing to do.  Plus at home I have so many things that can distract me and does distract me.  I have to be my own boss and the boss I am at home is very lenient one.

The boss (me) may reprimand me, though I know I can not get fired, and since chores or working online (at the beginning) is not making me any money, then I am not worried about money being taken away from me.  Even with those 2 reasons I am still surprised how different my work ethic is when working at home.  I have been trying for what it seems like forever to get myself more motivated.  To take action.

In fact writing this right now is making me happy.  Even in the back of my head my brain is trying to get me to stop and watch a YouTube video about HOW TO DEVELOP AN INSANE WORK ETHIC.  In fact, what I just need to do is finish this blog post and that would be me practicing this ‘home’ work ethic I am suppose to be strengthening.

I also watched a video about a week ago about how most people believe they need motivation to have action, but this video said you can also do the action first and motivation will usually show up.

That is what I am relying on right now.  I am doing the action of writing this and as I get more written hopefully the motivation will kick in for me to finish it quickly and post it.

For those of you out there that are thinking why doesn’t she ‘Just Do It’, I have been trying for decades to fix my procrastination problem.  If you are the ‘Just Do It’ type of person then I commend you.  I am the other type of person (so far) that tells myself to do it, but starts to get overwhelmed as soon as I think about taking action.  And if I feel overwhelmed then I will find other things to do that is easier.

Bad… yes.   My reality… yes.   (for now)

I will keep on working on this problem.  I figure I haven’t lost the fight unless I give up.  I will go now and see if I can get INSANE work ethic from that video.  Hope me luck.

(Side note:  I have just hit 50 followers.  I want to thank you all for coming along on my journey.  I will fight this procrastination problem and get more consistent with my blogging.  Hang in there…. I am working on it.  The funny thing is this is my 50th post I have written and posted.  That averages out to one follower per post.  LOL )

Do you want to work or get something done at home? What is your ;home’ work ethic like? Do you have tricks?

Opening an Affiliate Website – What I Have Learned

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(Have you tried to open an affiliate site?)

I decided that opening an affiliate site sounded like something I could do.  I kept hearing that once it is open you will start receiving passive income  I found a channel on YouTube that had a video walked me through how to make a site, set it up with products and then sign up to be an affiliate with a company.  It was about a 1 1/2 hour video.  I am not great with computers and get frustrated easily.  Even though he opened his in one and a half hours it took me 3 months to get mine up.

Even though it  was a pretty good video, I would change a few things or add more information to help the newbie.  Here are some things I would do differently.

  • I would have listened to the video first then go back and follow the instructions.
  • I would have started from the beginning with the video.  What I did instead was buy a domain ahead of time.  So, when the video showed me how to do something with his web host it didn’t work quite the same way with mine.  This delayed me days if not a full week till I figured out how set it up with my host.
  • I would not buy everything (add-ons) because I bought one that I ended up not needing.  I Just wasted  money and time.  I understand it is hard to know what you will need when you are starting out.  Next time I will use my site first to see if I really need the add-ons that are recommended.
  • I definitely would not sign up for the affiliate company till my site is almost ready to launch.  I decided to go with Amazon Affiliates.  Amazon gives new affiliates a time limit to make their first 3 sales, then they come to look at the site to see if they want to accept you.  I signed up right when I opened my site.  I ended up wasting 3 months, just getting my website made and working, out of the 6 months they gave me.

Now my ecommerce store is designed and ready for the next stage.  At this moment I still would not sign up for an affiliate yet.  Why do I say this?  I say this because I got denied by Amazon.  I am now grateful, but at the time I was surprised.  Looking back I realize that my site was not ready.  Only after doing the following will I sign up with an affiliate company.

For the following, I can only tell you how I will proceed with the Amazon Affiliates program.  Though as I learn more I think I will find that the other companies procedures will vary, but they will probably check out your website before accepting it just like Amazon.

WHAT I WILL DO BEFORE SIGNING UP WITH AMAZON AFFILIATES.

  • Decide most of the products I want on my site and put ASIN numbers in a word document so I can just input them into my store once I sign up to be an affiliate.  Also, that way you can see if there is enough products in that niche.   (It would be good to check out products before picking the niche)
  • Have several blogs written.  I have heard different recommendations.  Anywhere from 5 – 30 written blogs.  These blog posts should be at least 1,000 words long.  Google puts more importance in longer blogs than shorter ones.  One YouTube group even says you should have one or two 3,000 word essays in your mix.
  • Figure how I will get the word out for my site.  How will I advertise my site?  Investigate what I think will work for the new type of site and for my personality.  This took me at least another month to figure out what and how to do ads.  Then it took time to actually do the ads.
  • I may not make my niche so broad.  Having a broad product site takes more work.  At least filling it with products takes more time.  Example:  If I decide to choose mugs as my niche.  Selling every type of mug will be harder to fill my store, than deciding on just selling mugs with an animal theme.  Or to narrow it more I could just sell mugs about cats.  How narrow can I get my niche?  Though, I don’t want to get it so narrow that I can’t branch out if I want to.

Doing the above will make me feel more ready to sign up to be an Amazon Affiliate.  Hopefully, next time I will not be denied.  I did come across a YouTuber that got turned down 5 times before they accepted him.  Finding this out has given me new hope and if I do get denied again after doing all of this, then I will do some more learning, make my site better and try again.  Amazon Affiliates wants us to try again.

Have you tried to open an affiliate site?  What hurdles did you have?

Making Money Online: Playing Games

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(Have you played games for money or think it would be fun?)

I have started looking for ways to make money on the internet.  I am doing this so I am not tied down to a job in a building.  I want to start traveling.

About 3-4 months ago I watched a video about making money by playing games on your phone.  That sounded so cool and something I had the ability to do.  I downloaded an app that would pay me and got started playing.  So much fun at first (and kind of still is).  The thrill of seeing the points adding up felt awesome.  The points get turned into money that the company will send you or you can get a gift card instead.  The lowest you can withdrawal for money (Paypal) is 50 cents once you make 4,999 points. For a gift card you need to make a minimum of 24,253 which will get you a card worth $2.50.

How it works:
1)  You sign up for the app.
2)  They will give you 2-3 choices of games.
3)  You sign up for one or all of them.  This means you pick the game from this app and it will direct you to the store where you can download it.  You must connect through the app.
4)  Once the game is downloaded, then you just press the icon like you are playing a regular game and it will start adding up your points as you spend time playing.

The first downside is the longer you play the less you earn per minute. Example: Let’s say the first 5 minutes you earn 500 points. The next time it gives you 500 points is in 10 minutes. And so on.
The second downside for me is that my phone ran out of space.  I will say my phone is a couple of years old, so if you have a newer one you may have more space to store games.

Since I have been playing one game for a while my next payout is in 7 hours.  Not making much, but it is still more money than if I was playing for free.  I just took my first withdrawal out.  The sum was $10.32. I know that will not be enough money for me to travel.  Even if I played all day I couldn’t make enough to support myself.  Plus I don’t want to be playing all day.

I do like playing games on my phone and to know that I am making a little bit of money is a side bonus.  There are several apps out there that will pay you for playing.  I have only tried one and this one pays you in EUR.  It is called AppLike.

If you find a better gaming app out there share it with me.  Right now I am hooked on two games and don’t really want to give them up yet.

Happy Gaming!

Have you played games for money or think it would be fun?