If you have a home-based business, it can be difficult to draw the line between “working hours” and “time off”. It can be especially difficult during your family’s vacation. While you may be ready for a vacation and a break, you may also feel guilty for not working. Here are some arguments for both sides of the equation. They may help you decide if you should or should not work during your vacation.

It is true that everyone deserves a break now and then. You have worked hard all year, and it is okay to put your business aside and enjoy a vacation for a week or two. However, it can be hard to get back to work if you lose your motivation. Your two-week vacation may turn into a six-week vacation, which can severely hurt your profits for months to come.

Before you take any time off, create an action plan of the tasks you wish to complete when you get back. If you come back to a set list of goals, it will be easier to get back in the swing of things.

When deciding if you should work during your vacation, take a look at the type of business you have. People with service-based businesses will have a harder time taking a break than someone with a more passive income. If you provide a service to others, let your clients know well in advance when you will be taking time off. Complete all of your pending projects before you leave. And make sure you give your regular clients the name of someone who can perform the same type of services as you, in case they need emergency help.

If you do not currently outsource any of your work, start doing so as soon as possible. This will free up your time considerably and make taking a vacation a lot easier. You will be able to enjoy your time off, and your business will still be “running”. Hire a virtual assistant to handle some of your email or other administrative tasks, hire a ghostwriter to write your blog posts for you while you are on vacation, etc.

If you do not currently have any passive sources of income, such as affiliate marketing links or your own digital information products, you may want to consider creating some. You can load your information products into a shopping cart system that will automatically deliver the download links to your customers. You can step away from your business for a short time and still earn an income.

Of course, you will need to continue marketing your business once you get back from vacation. Creating a passive income source will allow you to earn residual income on work you have completed in the past. But you still need to put time and effort into growing your business.

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A SAHM recently asked if it was possible to earn some extra money for her family by becoming a professional affiliate. She thought perhaps she could add affiliate links to her Myspace page, if this was allowed by the affiliate program’s terms of service.

I agree that you can earn money from being an affiliate — but it’s not as easy as just setting up a website or Myspace page, tossing some links onto it and waiting for people to show up in droves.

It’s like any other online business. You need to determine who your target market is and get to know them. Setup a website that speaks to them — gives them information they want. The affiliate products you promote should solve their related problems or be items that your market is passionate about.

For example, someone might create a site that has tons of pregnancy information. Throughout their site, they can recommend products for which they are an affiliate. This is done through product reviews or recommendations in or after content. You can also add some links and graphics in side columns, but this is not as effective.

Someone who is already selling their own, or wholesale, physical products can increase her income by adding product recommendations with affiliate links to her site. She can add information that her target market is seeking and make affiliate recommendations. In this case, I do suggest that you pick affiliate programs that offer complementary products. And that you try the products before you recommend them.

Promoting the site is just like promoting any other business site: Word of mouth marketing, article writing, blogging (this is a good platform for the whole site, if you’re a good, information, popular writer), press releases, etc.

The main keys to running a successful affiliate site, are getting to know your target market and giving them information they want, in addition to recommending related products and services.

For more information on affiliate marketing, I recommend you read my friend Alice Seba’s Affiliate Marketing Sweetie. Alice, who is a successful online affiliate and copywriter herself, teaches you how to build a long-term affiliate business with proven marketing and website building techniques.

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When you become an affiliate with a specific company, or affiliate program, you are awarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer that you provide to the company. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular forms of business on the web, and an effective way to promote businesses and products.

The basic set up, from the affiliate’s side, goes as follows: You (the Affiliate) find a company or product that you would like to promote. You join the “affiliate program” of the company and receive the tools by which you can send customers to the company’s website. This most often includes a special URL link, which will let the company know that the customer has come from you. You will get credit when people visit the companies website. Details can vary, but in most cases you receive a percentage of the revenue from sales that customers make from following your link.

Alternately, you can setup your own affiliate program, allowing other people to become your sales force in selling your physical products online. You provide them with codes (usually generated by a script) to place on their websites to promote your products. When the affiliate makes a sale, you pay her a commission, usually anywhere from 3 to 10 percent for physical products.

You can see an affiliate program here: Watersweb Affiliates

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The main downside of selling products online is purchasing inventory. The risks involved include buying too much inventory and not being able to sell it. Or not buying enough, and then having no way to meet demand. Or paying too much and not being able to make a profit at the prices you have to set in order to sell the product.

So — what if you could sell a product without having to purchase or stock inventory?

Only in a perfect world, right?

Well, in a word, no. You can sell other people’s products through affiliate marketing. You just link to their products on your website and the prospect clicks the link to go to their site to purchase. A cookie is set on the prospect’s computer, so that when she purchases from the other site, you are credited for the sale, and make a commission.

No inventory, no muss, no fuss.

Naturally, selling other people’s products as an affiliate is not as easy as just tossing a banner on your site and waiting for people to click. You have to know what you’re doing.

And, naturally again, my brilliant friend Alice Seba has put together a wonderful guide to teach you how to do just that. It’s her Affiliate Marketing Sweetie guide.

Maybe you are already working from home, creating your own products or selling those of a direct sales company…but the problem is, if you ONLY sell you own products, it’s impossible to dominate your market. Your customers will be interested in things you don’t have to offer. Might as well sell them someone else’s product and get paid for it. Wouldn’t it be nice to get an extra check or two in the mail each month?

Sounds like a great Christmas present, huh?

Popularity: 21% [?]

I mentioned the four stages of the buying process several months ago. These stages include:

• Need/Want Recognition
• Information Search
• Evalutation
• Purchase

Most online retailers, including at least 90 percent of my clients are reaching customers in the purchase phase of the buying process. If you’re one of these online retailers, this means that you are only reaching those people who have already decided to purchase your product.

But what about everyone else?

The people in the need recognition stage have realized that they have a problem or need, but do not yet have a solution. So what are they looking for is possible solutions to their problem.

For example, an expectant mother knows she is going to need to diaper her new baby. so, she decides to look for diapering solutions online.

Naturally, she will find information about disposable diapers — and also cloth diapers.

As a cloth diaper seller, you firmly believe that cloth diapers are a better choice, and you also know that thousands of other cloth diaper sellers are competing with you for sales.

So, what can you do to attract this new mom, who has just discovered cloth diapers — and has now moved into the Information Search phase of the buying process?

Capturing The Information Searcher: You already have a product sales website. Now, you need an information website, preferably a weblog. Why? The weblog will enable you to quickly and frequently add information to your new website about why one should use cloth diapers, which cloth diapering options one should choose, and why your cloth diapering products are the best (naturally!).

Now you’ve convinced the new mom that cloth diapers are the way to go. She is ready to move into the Evaluation phrase. What happens here? Most likely, she will consult with friends in real life, on message boards and other social networks to find out which cloth diapers are really the best. How do you influence her decision at this stage?

Serving the Evaluator: Start an affiliate program. The more affiliates you have promoting your products, the greater chance you’ll have of running across this new mom. Post to message boards where new moms are members, with a link to your weblog in your signature line (making sure to follow the message board rules). Include your link in your email signature. Make sure your blog has an RSS feed, so you’ll be indexed by blog search engines. Exchange links with other cloth diaper information site and cloth diaper sellers. (The best way to do this is to join each other’s affiliate programs.)

So, new mom’s friends have convinced her that your products are the best. What now? Well, you’re right back where you started, except now you have a new customer, ready to buy your products.

Popularity: 15% [?]