My advice to him was to look at what interests him, then research niches in terms of competition, products and opportunities. I went through the detail with him, and left him to it. Time came and went, but I decided I wasn’t going to nag him. He is studying, has two other part time jobs that keep him fairly busy on weekends, so I figured when he’s ready, we’ll talk some more.

Imagine my surprise six months later when he sat down with not one idea, but three plans to start affiliate marketing campaigns – and one of them was a membership site that I think could really take off! I was thrilled, as we have all the resources we needed to make this happen, and of course I was even more happy that he had seen the value of affiliate marketing. I asked him what made him want to get into this avenue, and his answers were somewhat surprising. He said:

• he liked the idea that this was something he could do when he has the time, even if it’s late at night
• he was very excited about the possibilities, because he had found niches that he is really interested in
• it wouldn’t interfere with his studies – he wouldn’t have to skip lectures to go to ‘work’ (this is a problem he has found with many job opportunties for students)
• although he would need my help and that of my husband, he felt this was something he could learn and do himself, properly. He liked the idea that it would be ‘his business’, and that he would not be a junior working for someone else.

The first three corroborated my feelings about affiliate marketing as a home business. The third one was interesting though. I took a long time to get used to NOT having a boss, and I still struggle with self-motivation and planning – I worked for big companies most of my life and was very used to doing what I was told to do. Here was my son wanting to be his own boss, and looking forward to the opportunity to do so! (I will say this though, he has his dad’s aversion to authority for authority’s sake so this shouldn’t have surprised me at all!)

He started planning his websites, and I insisted he set up an editorial calendar, particularly since I was going to have to help him with article writing in the beginning. His dad helped him do all the technical stuff. What was really nice was the fact that he was spending more time at home (I am still a mum!) and we sat every night for an hour going over what he was doing, what still had to be done and where he was with his plan. It was exciting going through all the baby steps with him again.

What I did find very satisfying was that he thought I was some kind of genius ! Thanks to my training at Wealthy Affiliate, I could give him tried and tested advice and ideas that really motivated him to get going. When we got stuck, I could look for advice on WA that gave us the help and inspiration we needed – some of which we would have paid a fortune for elsewhere.

His first site was launched a few months ago, and his traffic and sales are rising steadily. The second one was put on hold for end-of-semester exams, but it’s back on track and due to be up and running soon. The membership site is on track for a January launch. He’s motivated, excited, and loving the fact that his sites earn him money while he’s asleep! (Sounds just like a student, doesn’t he!) Turns out finding jobs for students wasn’t that hard after all.

Now we just need to get him earning enough so we can retire and live off him for a change!

Far more concerning is the influx of scams in the industry, some of which made headlines this week. There are scam artists in all walks of life, so the growing internet marketing industry was bound to get its fair share. Unfortunately, many of the people in internet marketing have turned to it in desperation. When you are out of work, unable to find a new job and desperately trying to find a way to make money, it is all too easy to fall for false promises.

Here are a couple of things to bear in mind when presented with yet another offer of instant riches and easy money.

• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Be cautious and sensible – especially when you’re asked to part with your cash.
• Read the fine print! Ignoring the Terms and Conditions is just not a good idea. You wouldn’t sign a business contract without reading it thoroughly, so don’t do it online.
• Check the news, because organizations such as the Better Business Bureau do issue warnings about scams doing the rounds.
• Use your head. Desperate shouldn’t mean stupid! Think and act with caution. Taking calculated risks is part of owning a business, but trust your instincts and be sensible.

When I started looking into affiliate marketing, I downloaded hundreds of free articles, reports and books, many of them promising to hold the key to overnight success. Many of them did contain useful advice and helpful tips. Some of them were obviously just a tidbit to entice me to buy something. Almost all of them now sit in a folder on my PC, ignored and gathering cobwebs. When I joined Wealthy Affiliate, I looked at all the tools, resources and training they offer. I looked carefully at what each of those things would cost me if I were to buy them individually from other internet marketers. I discovered that it would take three and half years of membership fees at WA to buy a third of what they offered their members. I earned my first year’s fees in my first three months at WA, and have steadily increased my income since then. I loved that at no time did anyone at WA state that internet marketing, like any other business, imply that I could make money doing nothing at all. Best of all, the people at WA give you honest answers, genuine advice and friendly support. Now that’s something the scammers cannot replicate!

In addition to the usual ‘Moooom, I’m bored’ litany, my daughter turned 11 this week – on a week day. On this particular day I had three deadlines – one for a proposal for a website design to be presented the next day, another for 14 articles that were already a day overdue (I have very understanding clients), and two new landing pages to write for one of my internet marketing sites. Now, I love my daughter to bits, and I understand that this was a special day for her – but there’s only so much one can achieve in the middle of the night before you nod off on your keyboard!

So, this got me thinking about the many methods I have used over the years to keep my kids busy while I get on with work during school vacations. When my kids were under 6, it was a huge novelty for them to pull up a small table and ‘work with mom’. This could be anything from scribbling on a page, coloring in a picture, or doing a few worksheets. The challenge came in when they wanted a chance to ‘type their work’, but there’s always something else you can do while they take a turn on the PC.

I also found that if I set time limits, they would keep themselves occupied for close to the time we had set. So if I said I would come and play for a while in 1 hour, I usually got about 45 minutes of work done before the nagging started again. I will admit that I am distracted and less organized during the holidays, but at least I get some work done.

As they got older, I discovered the joy of playdates. Yes, they still needed supervision, and summer and the swimming pool still present a challenge, but with a friend they keep out of your hair a lot more. The best thing about having a friend over to play is that the favor is usually returned, and you can get a full day’s work in two or three times a week. My daughter has a few friends who live in the neighborhood, and we take turns having the kids (four or five them) for at least one day of each holiday. This is great! In exchange for one day of noise and occasional interruptions, you get three or four days of peace and quiet. I recommend this plan to anyone with kids!

There’s a 9 year gap between my kids, so they’re not very good company for each other, although my son does try to keep his little sister busy when I need help.  I sometimes wonder if the big gap was a good idea, but when I hear friends complaining that their kids who are much closer in age do nothing but fight with each other, I think maybe it was a good thing. Also, my son is old enough to understand that I have work to do, and he’ll often do something fun with his sister just so I can meet an urgent deadline.

When your kids start school, you can still do the ‘work with mom’ game, but now my daughter does her homework with me instead of coloring in or worksheets. This can be a little distracting, especially if she needs help, so I use the time to do tasks that I don’t have to concentrate too heavily on.

The one thing that I remind myself of when I start getting irritated with the kids, is that the main reason I started working from home was to have more time with them. If that means I sit blogging at midnight instead of at midday, then so be it. It also means that I can take an afternoon off to go and watch them play sport, be home with them when they’re ill, and take a break from work and do something silly and fun that is more inspirational and enjoyable than anything else on earth.

I do have some tricks so that my work can survive the holidays, but I can’t imagine spending 8 or 9 hours a day away from my children. And yet, when my daughter was 4 months old, I trundled her off to day care and went back to a full time job for a year without thinking twice about it. Now, I love working from home – for the freedom it gives me and my children, and the career that I have managed to build from the ground up.

Marketing is, to cut it really short, telling people about your business, and WHAT IT CAN DO FOR THEM. Notice that I did not say what you can do, but what you can do for your customers. Prospective customers aren’t interested in how much training and work it takes to create that piece of handcrafted jewelry – they’re interested in how great they will look when wearing it. In marketing terms, it’s the difference between features and benefits. A washing machine may have an economy cycle as a feature, but the benefit – the selling point – is that it saves the customer money because it uses less water and less electricity.

Before you start selling the benefits of your business, take a look at these tips for home business marketing, and consider taking action on as many of them as you possibly can.

1. Your business image
   You don’t need a huge sign on the front door, but you do need some sort of logo. Ideally, if you can afford it, get a logo designed by a professional graphic designer. It will look more professional, and convey your image better than a clip-art one.
   You may not need a ton of office stationery, but you will need a business card so you can hand it over when you meet a prospective customer. Consider getting your business card designed and printed professionally as well – it doesn’t need to cost the earth, but will be worth it for the professional image it will create.
2. Your ‘target market’
   Next, you need to decide who the most likely buyers of your products and services are. This of course depends on your business, but there are two reasons you need to give this some thought.
   If you are selling handcrafted jewelry, your primary target market is female, perhaps between the ages of 25 and 55, depending on the style of the jewelry. This can get a lot more technical, and you can start researching disposable income by age group, etc etc, but we don’t always have the resources for that kind of in-depth research available when running a business at home. Your secondary target market is male, of a similar age, who may be buying the jewelry for the women in their lives. You will concentrate your marketing efforts on the primary target market, as they are the most likely buyers – and will likely ‘guide’ the secondary target market to buy what they want anyway (as so many of us gals do!).
3. Where do you find them?
   Now that you have a primary target market, you need to look at how best to find them to deliver your marketing message to them. Let’s assume that many of the women between the age of 25 and 55 have children. School noticeboards and newsletters may be an avenue that you could use. Local newspapers, noticeboards in the local malls or stores and flyers handed out at shopping areas could work too. Going back to the jewelry example, local craft fairs and flea markets may give you an opportunity to show your wares and gather interested customers – and even if they don’t buy, they’ll have your business card to take home.
4. What will your message be?
   This goes back to selling the benefits, not the features. Using the jewelry again, you will emphasise the uniqueness of each piece, the superior quality of handcarfted items, the difference one beautiful accessory can make to an ordinary outfit, and how great your customer will feel wearing it. If you’re selling a service, you may want to emphasise the benefit of personal, one-on-one service, as opposed to dealing with a faceless voice at a bigger company. Emphasise the benefits of dealing with a small company, where the business owner is the person you deal with.
   Write out all the benefits and work on the two or three that are most likely to convince prospects to buy from you. Then summarise it into two or three sentences that you can use as your elevator pitch – what you will tell people when they ask what you do.
5. What methods will you use to convey your message?
   Ultimately, your methods will depend on your budget. A billboard might be ideal, but not affordable. There are lots of inexpensive ways to get your message across, and you should investigate them all. A website is a great idea, as it allows you to show prospects who you are and how they can benefit quite easily. Used properly, you can build an email marketing campaign targeting your website visitors as well. Online classified adverts, offline newspaper adverts, flyers, local radio and cable may be other methods you can use to reach your target market.
6. Test, test and test
   Narrow your choice of methods down to the two or three you can afford, and measure the responses you get from them. For example, if you put an advertisement in the school newsletter, and get 20 calls the next week, that’s a good response. If an advert in the local newspaper only brings one response, it may not be worth repeating. Measuring your advertising response rate is important – especially if you’re paying for the advertising.
7. Keep at it
   Unfortunately, you can’t advertise once a year and expect customers to keep coming for the next 12 months. Once you’ve tested a few methods, you can alternate between the two or three that worked, or expand on one that really hit home. But you cannot sit back and say, well, that worked, I don’t have to do any more home business marketing!

A website gives you so many other marketing options, I would say it’s probably the most important method of advertising your business. And it doesn’t have to be professionally designed and cost a fortune. I learnt to build a website, write good content, and improve traffic to my site with WealthyAffiliate.com They may be all about internet and affiliate marketing, but their training can be used for any home business marketing exercise. With internet use rising rapidly each year, you have to be online, and know what to do once you get there!

Funnily enough, she came and asked me what sort of internet business she could do – as my 19 year old is starting to take an interest as well, we may as well make it a family business! So I’ve been helping her research some markets, and explaining why she will need her own website, how to get people to visit her website, and what she can blog about. Like everyone else in the house, she also expects me to write articles for her article marketing part of the strategy – sometime between the hours of 1 and 2am it seems! I think I need to spend some time teaching her how to write an article – then I can get some help in that area! Her main concern with niches was that it would be something her friends would buy – and then how much commission she would make! Entrepreneurial spirit, or just a sign that she’s as tired of the effects of the recession as the rest of the family? We’ll use what I’ve learnt on Wealthy Affiliate – she can sit through the tutorials and learn too! The quicker the better – I may need to retire sooner than I thought at this rate.