Hey, I'm a composer!

Oh, most definitely.  When I do compose I'll start with the piano down stairs and compose from there adding the notes to my sheet.  Then I'll come upstairs to the computer add the notes to a midi program and add instruments as I see fit.  I can always convert the midi to a wave or mp3.

Hey I'm a composer!

Grants - I found some interesting information about them!

While I have mainly concentrated my research to the US I have found out about grants in other countries - the UK,  China, Russia - and some of those grants were even provided by the US!

You don't even need a webcam to make money on the Internet!

How about setting up your own private chat room?  You can either add special code to your web page or use one of your chat programs to set it up.  You can schedule chat sessions, make appointments online for specific chats and on and on.

You can offer tutoring, advice or anything that your imagination can think of.

Another reason that I'm glad that I work from home!

Because I am a smoker!  The last job that I had we had to go outside to smoke during our breaks.  A few other people smoked in the bathroom - I didn't do that only because I was too afraid of getting caught.

Now that I work at home I can smoke when and where I want!  Thank Goodness!

You really should have a website!

Even if its not for business you really should consider having a website.  Your ISP may provide you with webspace but even if they don't you should take advantage of some of the free webhosts that are out there!  You can also "buy" your own website by registering a domain name and paying a webhost to host your webpages!

People advertise galore about "email me for more information" where it would really help them more better if they had a website.  You just don't know what you are missing out on!

Make Money While You Sleep?

Can you really make money while you sleep?  The answer is YES!  

Let's say you make custom jewelry and you want to sell it online.  Well, you could start with Ebay.  You could sell your jewelry using Ebay and put up a picture of your jewelry.  Now depending on how long your auction will last your jewelry will be seen by everyone that views the auction.  Remember the Internet is World Wide! Every time of the day and night your auction will be viewed by people all over the world.  

Let's say you decide to sell your jewelry using a webpage of your own.  If you take credit card orders and have the "Buy" button right on your page that means that when that "Buy" button is clicked you have just received an order.  When your webpage is up and on the Internet it is seen 24 hours a day and seven days a week!  Even while you are sleeping!

A Gorgeous Day Outside but.....

alas I have some work that I have to do!

Drat! and Darn and dagnabbit!

AOL has got me mad!

They are discontinuing access to the Usenet Newsgroups in February. The reasons that they have given include them saying that their members don't use them as much and that there is so much spam and the popularity of blogs.

I do not agree with this. My main reason is because now I won't be able to send or receive binary files! If I have to pay for this service then I will definitely be leaving AOL! There is no sense in me paying 2 services!

Microsoft Word!

I was playing around with this program last night. In fact I was playing with it for a couple of hours! I forgot just how many options this program has! Usually I'll use a more simple program for my word processing but I have a neighbor who is a writer who told me about a problem he was having with the program.

So I'm playing around with it - especially drawing pictures and turning them into 3D pictures and having fun with adding patterns and colors.

I'll have to use this program more often!

Not Everyone Started Their Own Business With A Lot Of Money!

A lot of people that have started their own business did not have a lot of money to start with.  What you do in a case like this is use what you do have which is your time and effort.

I do consulting all the time and there are a lot of things that one overlooks when looking for resources that are available to them right now.  For example one's own computer is a gold mine as far as available resources go and I'm not just talking about being able to go online - I'm talking about the computer itself and the programs that come with them.

Offline you can start your business by using one of the most overlooked resources that one has and that is their local paper.  You have to use what you have to get what you want and even though there are a lot of businesses out there I'm sure your gut will tell you that not ALL of them started out with a lot of money.

A lot to be thankful for....

Just watching the news and hearing all the devastating stories from people that have lost so much makes me realize how much I have to be thankful for.

How do you stay motivated?

This message is for anyone who runs a home based business. How do you stay motivated? I think I lack the dicipline to work out of the house. Does anyone have advice that might help.

I think it all comes from desire. A lot of people have started their own business because they didn't want to or were sick and tired of working for someone else. I posted a message on one of the AOL boards called "Why would anyone want to work from home!" It was kind of meant to be an ironic sort of thing but people hate working for someone else, hate the amount of pay they get, hate the office "politics", hate their commutes...but I think its the desire that helps to keep one motivated. Once you get your first customer/client and you get that first payment then you're hooked!

I stay motivated because to put it quite simply I want to work from home and I want to continue to do so. I don't ever want to work for someone else again!

As far as you lacking the discipline to work from just think of and remember the reasons why you want to work from home. My discipline comes as a result of my business plan, my goals and the objectives that I have for my business.

I would think that receiving orders (and payments) from clients would be a very good motivational reason for maintaining the discipline to be able to work from home. What about being one's own boss? What about working as much (or as little) as one wants? What about actually being able to earn a profitable living doing something that one loves? What abut not having to go thru that daily commute - through the rain, the cold, the wind and the snow? What about being able to work at home so that you can be at home to be able to keep your eyes on your kids? But I think that the most best reason is simply the desire that you want to work from home.

Webcam - Having Fun With My Webcam!

Yes, I have had a webcam for quite some time. It's a small Logitech webcam and it only reaches so far. I can position it to span around my room or to look out the window. My webcam page is at:

http://members.aol.com/Roseb441702/webcam.htm

Here is a picture of my cat:

As far as my webcam page goes I still haven't got the streamlining part right - I think its because of my AOL access - but I'm still working on it. I'd love to be able to streamline myself live when I'm on the Internet. I can do it fine when I'm using Yahoo Messenger but I haven't been able to do it with AOL unless I do it the very slow and complicated way of manually taking the picture and then uploading each new picture to my webspace but that way is so slow and so time consuming.

My 3D entry was accepted at Renderosity! - Yeah!

I finally took the time to just have fun with one of my 3D programs and submit an entry to one of Renderosity's Contests. The theme of the contest is "In Your Element" and my submission was a seascape scene because I would love to live near the ocean! That's my element!

"Dreams" and a business plan for them?

So it got me to thinking if a business could be started using one's dreams? Of course the answer is yes but the hard part is specifically how?

Rose

If Victoria's Secret can make a living on the edge of 'clean' then anyone can! My concern with your idea would be how would you go about nailing down a business plan. It seems that the connection between the two would have to be dependant on the specific dream of the person involved which would leave you with a very individualized (& expensive) way of manipulating that dream into some form of reality based business.

A one night dress rental would help your social gathering if partnered with a hair stylist and perhaps a health farm/spa business - get ready in a day for the big event. Classes in seduction, make up, flirting etc might also be possible????

Just some thoughts to add onto your own. Good luck!

Thank you for your email

I'm sorry but I don't agree and I know for a fact that you are wrong. A business plan can be made for any type of career - I should know because that is what I do for a living! The connection between the dream and the business plan would depend on what aspect of the dream that you want to turn into a business.

Using your own example above regarding Victoria's Secret - it has to do with the illusions of romance which is a popular market for women (and men too if it is "spun" right). Remember when it all comes down a business plan is a piece of paper with the plans for your business. Simply writing down a business plan is not expensive at all - all you need is some paper and a pencil. The implementation of the plans need not be expensive (at least at the start). There are examples galore of those that have started their own business with little money. And indeed a lot of people don't have a lot of money to start their own business but what they do have is desire. That is enough to get anybody started. What you lack in money you make up for with your time and effort.

I think the point that you are missing is that there are ways used to advertise, promote and market one's business using as less amount of money as possible. The problem seems to be that people just don't know what those ways are or think that it can't be done. I know for a fact that they can. I use them myself and I include them in the business plans that I create for others.

Got the munchies!

I have been snacking while I'm typing at the computer screen. Right now I'm crunching on pork skins. So I have got a bad case of the munchies right now.

XXX-Using your webcam to help you make money.

Yes you can start your own business using your webcam. The obvious ones are using them to show pictures of yourself. You could even start a service where you take requests - for a price of course.

If you have a webcam they are not all that hard to make use of. Streamlining video on your own webpage is a bit more complicated but its not impossible. Others are doing the exact same thing using their own websites.

While this is something that not everyone will want to do it sure is something to consider if you like showing yourself off on the Internet.

Comments Received

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posted By Anonymous on XXX-Using your webcam to help you make money.


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Computer Advice #1 - BACK UP YOUR FILES!

I'm still relatively new to rss feeds and news feeds but just yesterday I lost all my news feed links to the blogs that I subscribe to. So now I have to get them back! I had about 20 of them but now I have to remember what they were so that I can re-enter their links.

So let this be a lesson to you - BACK UP YOUR FILES!

Creating and selling your ebook!

I was wondering if anyone has experience with making e-books? Would you share your help on this subject? Also does anyone have any help they would offer using Adobe Acrobat to make an e-book? You can e-mail me off line if you would like. I have gone to the Acrobat website trying to find information on this subject, but that is like looking for a needle in a haystack. If you know what I mean? Please any help I sure would appreciate.

You do not need to have Adobe Acrobat to create and distribute your ebook. Sure the program is popular but you don't HAVE to have it or use it. You are just making this too complicated.

Basic theory behind an ebook is this - You write the book and then you sell the book. Theoretically speaking you can write (type) the book using notepad! I have seen many sites sell their ebook in notepad form. The business plans that I make for people can be considered something similar to an ebook in that they are deliverable by electronic means but they can also be delivered via the regular "snail" mail method as well.

And even better you can use a non-Acrobat way to create and distribute your ebook WHILE you learn Acrobat's program. Again I say you're just making it too complicated. Use what you already have to get what you want.

Taking time out for a little creativity!

I decided to enter one of Renderosity's graphic contest/challenges. The theme of the contest is "in my element" which for me is the beach! Although I live about 70 miles from the closest beach I really love the idea of living at the beach! So I fished out my Terragen program to create my graphic. Teragen is a 3D graphic program that creates landscapes. Land masses and water masses (for my beach scene) can be made using this program.

Now one of my mistakes was thinking that I was going to finish creating my landscape (or should I say beach scene) in one sitting! I know that having patience is an assest but you know how it goes - guess I must have gotten too excited and wanted to get it done in one sitting. But at least I realized that if I wanted to do it good and right that I should take my time and do it that way! So, so far I have created the beach scene. Now I want to do some post work on it.

Some of the fun should be in the actual creating of the scene. And while Teragen can create the landscape and the water mass there is still the small matter of creating the right surface - in my case sand -

As far as 3D graphics are concerned I want to do it all! I'm becoming more interested in modeling characters - both human and non-human - now talk about a lot of detailed work - that is a lot. I also want to be able to model and design hair and clothing for the characters that I create. Wow - talk about ambition!

But its a lot of fun creating them too