Archive for April, 2007



Can You Make Money Online?

Sunday 29 April 2007 @ 11:04 am

by James White
Anyone can make money online it’s simple, you don’t have to be some sort of guru or have lots of money. If you are an affiliate or internet marketer there is one thing you need and that is traffic. There are so many methods to generate traffic and most of them are FREE this is the best thing about internet marketing.

Say you work full time 9 till 5 job you could spend 2 hours each day and not spend a dime on advertising. After a while you have your own residual income setup for virtually the rest of your life.

Here is the best advertising method I use and it is rather common if you haven’t heard of it you need more research or just email me and I will help you. It is Search Engine Optimization with this it helps you get ranked highly in the search engines for whatever phrase you wish. Basically you need the phrase embedded in your sites content so that it makes sense then the search engines will rank you highly for that phrase, remember this is the BASICS.

The other method which you must use in order to receive traffic and rank higher in the search engines is LINKS. These are very important to rank highly, submit to directories and email websites and request for a reciprocal link. The more links you have pointing to your site the higher you will rank. When you request a link remember to write to them how it will benefit them and what a valuable resource it will be without sounding like you are trying to sell it.

One critical element to your success which doesn’t involve traffic is taking note of what works on you. Let me explain, when you see an advertisement what makes you click that one over another one. Even when you receive an email what makes you delete some and click on others. All these things need to be noted down so you can use what works and stop using what doesn’t work, this is very critical to your success.

Finally one other issue that needs to be addressed, when getting links try to get one way links pointing in to your site this will help you rank high in google. To rank high in yahoo it doesn’t matter you can have reciprocal links or one way. This may change soon as google is planning to rank based on the one way links relevance to the content in your site, this may take a while for them to put this system in place. This means that your requests by emailing the sites will be more crucial in promoting your website than the other means.

James.W

Here is a great opportunity worth mentioning Proven Home Business it has taught me everything I know, highly recommended for newbie’s.If you have any questions or queries or just need some help please do not hesitate to contact me at support@recruitprofits.com

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Avoiding the Top 10 Reasons for Home Business Failure

Sunday 29 April 2007 @ 10:04 am

by Bizymoms.com Management
When you are starting your home business the last thing you want to focus on is failure. If you address the common areas for failure up-front you will no doubt succeed.

Here are some expert opinions about what a business owner should and shouldn’t do to keep a new business afloat.

1. Don’t start your business for the wrong reasons.
Would the sole reason you would be starting your own business be that you would want to make a lot of money? Or maybe that you wouldn’t have to answer to anyone else? If so, you’d better think again.
On the other hand, if you start your business for these reasons, you’ll have a better chance at winning success:
· You have a passion and love for what you’ll be doing, and strongly believe based on study and investigation that your product or service would fulfill a real need in the marketplace.
· You are physically fit and possess the needed mental stamina to withstand potential challenges.
· You have drive, determination, patience and a positive attitude.
· Failures don’t defeat you. You learn from your mistakes, and use these lessons to succeed the next time around.
· You thrive on independence, and are skilled at taking charge when a creative or intelligent solution is needed.
· You get along with and can deal with all different types of individuals.

2. Avoid Poor Management

Many home businesses fail due to poor management. New business owners frequently lack relevant business and management expertise in areas such as finance, purchasing, selling, production, and hiring and managing employees. Unless you recognize what you don’t do well, and seek help, you may soon face disaster.

Neglect of a business can also be its downfall. Care must be taken to regularly study, organize, plan and control all activities of its operations. This includes the continuing study of market research and customer data, an area which may be ignored by many once a business has been established.

3. Insufficient Capital

Another common for a home business is to have insufficient funds for operations. Many home Business owners underestimate how much money is needed and they are forced to close before they even have had a fair chance to succeed. They also may have an unrealistic expectation of incoming revenues from sales.

It is equally important to consider not only the costs of starting, but the costs of staying in business. It is important to take into consideration that many businesses take a year or two to get going. This means you will need enough funds to cover all costs until sales can eventually pay for these costs.

4. Choosing a Poor Location

Location is critical to the success of your business. Whereas a good location may enable a struggling business to ultimately survive and thrive, a bad location could spell disaster to even the best-managed home business.
Some factors to consider:
· Where your customers are
· Traffic, accessibility, parking and lighting
· Location of competitors
· Condition and safety of building
· Local incentive programs for business start-ups in specific targeted areas
· The history, community flavor and receptiveness to a new business at a prospective site

5. Lack of Planning

Anyone who has ever been in charge of a successful major event knows that were if not for their careful, methodical, strategic planning and hard work success would not have followed. The same could be said of most business successes.

It is critical for your home business to have a business plan. Many fail because of fundamental shortcomings in their business planning. It must be realistic and based on accurate, current information and educated projections for the future.
Components may include:
· Description of the business, vision, goals, and keys to success
· Work force needs
· Potential problems and solutions
· Financial: capital equipment and supply list, balance sheet, income statement and cash flow analysis, sales and expense forecast
· Analysis of competition
· Marketing, advertising and promotional activities
· Budgeting and managing company growth

6. Lack of time you can spend on the business
Many people start a home business on a part-time basis while raising children or working outside the home. Others start full-time when family and finances allow. However you begin, figure out how may hours per week you can devote to the business. Make a weekly chart of your activities, examine it, and determine where the business fits. Don’t assume you have time and find out later you don’t.

7. Negative attitude towards the business

Negative attitude will take you nowhere. Invariably having a positive attitude towards your business and life in general will encourage you to move on.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

8. Lack of Commitment towards your efforts.

The owners of successful home businesses are the ones who are committed towards their efforts in making the business a success. You cannot achieve success without working towards it. Failing to do so will only make your business a failure before you even realize it.

“The only place you’ll find success before work is in the dictionary.” May B. Smith

9. No Website
Simply put, if you have a business today, you need a website.
At the very least, every business should have a professional looking and well-designed website that enables users to easily find out about your business. Later, additional ways to generate revenue on the website can be added; i.e., selling ad space, drop-shipping products, or recommending affiliate products.
Remember, if you don’t have a website, you’ll most likely be losing business to those that do. And make sure that website makes your business look good, not bad - you want to increase revenues after all, not decrease them.

10. Forgetting the success factors

When it comes to the success of any new business, you - the business owner - are ultimately the “secret” to your success. For many successful business owners, failure was never an option. Armed with drive, determination, and a positive mindset, these individuals view any setback as only an opportunity to learn and grow. Most self-made millionaires possess average intelligence. What sets them apart is their openness to new knowledge and their willingness to learn whatever it takes to succeed.

So finally, you don’t have to be one of those unfortunate people. All you need to do is to become more informed, take the necessary steps when required and know what to do!

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas Edison

http://www.bizymoms.com has been dedicated to helping moms work at home for over 10 years. Visit today to enjoy free resources which include live chats, interactive message boards, informative articles, and of course help and advice from the Bizymoms’ Home Business Support Team!

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Opportunities For Work At Home Moms

Sunday 29 April 2007 @ 10:04 am

by John Gatens
Moms working at home are more susceptible to distractions than anyone else, especially if children are present. Sometimes friends or family will call in just to see the kids, or to have a coffee, so getting the housework done can be just as difficult for work at home moms as it is for moms who have to commute to the workplace.

Fortunately, there are many opportunities for work at home moms so that they can remain at home and care for their family while still contributing to the family income. Most work at home opportunities allow for liberal working hours, providing deadlines are met, as well as have a relaxed dress code. Most work at home moms believe that if it was not for the lack of dress code, they would have trouble getting their work done.

Probably the hardest thing for a work at home mom will be deciding which opportunity is worth their time and effort. There are some which have produced limited success like surveys for example, and I say limited because some are very time consuming. Perhaps a better option is Typing From Home, and there are many opportunities for this type of work.

Having a website can also make excessive demands on time, so it is vital for work at home moms to choose the right opportunity to maintain the balance of running the home, looking after the kids and making enough money to be able to quit the day job.

Some time should be devoted to researching what opportunities are available and what will fit in with everyday family life. Avoid programs that ask for a huge enrolment fee to get started, as there are plenty to choose from which are free or ask only for a nominal starting fee. Fortunately the Internet has thrown up many options for moms working at home.

For Opportunities, Tips & Ideas for Moms Working At Home, visithttp://obo-opportunities.com

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Work At Home: Effective Money Making Solution For Home Based Parents

Sunday 29 April 2007 @ 9:04 am

by Mario Churchill -
There comes a time in your life where you need extra money just to make ends meet. If you have a family to feed and children to send to school, it would definitely be a challenge just to provide them a comfortable and happy life. If you are forced to quit work in order to take care of your children at home, then the best way to earn money for the household is to work at home.

Today, there are a lot of home based businesses that you can get into in order to earn that extra cash you need. Thanks to the internet, you will now have a chance to earn a lot of money. In fact, some people have been really successful with work at home schemes that they even decided to quit their present jobs and focus more on their home based business. Why? The simple answer is that they are able to earn more from work at home opportunities than their previous jobs.

Home based business or work at home programs are one of the fastest growing industry today. Not only will you be able to earn cash right at the comforts of your home, but you will also be able to take care of your children at the same time.

However, before you consider work at home schemes, you need to know what will suit you best. Here are two of the most popular work at home programs that you can consider using in order to make money right at the comforts of your own home.

First, affiliate marketing is one of the fastest growing internet based businesses today. With a desktop computer and an active internet connection, you will be able to start your own affiliate marketing business. All you need is a website to start this kind of business. Affiliate marketing is like making your website a billboard. However, you don’t just post links and banners in your website you also need to attract people to visit your website in order for them to click on the links and the banners and buy products from the affiliate company.

To do this, you have to generate laser targeted traffic to your website by promoting your website. The first thing you need to do is to have some sort of topic or niche for your website and you need to focus on that niche. It is important that you should be knowledgeable about a particular topic in order for you to keep a steady amount of readers in your website by changing the content weekly. For example, if you choose an affiliate program that offers pet products, then you have to discuss pet products and about pets in your website. Once you get your visitors interested in reading the topic, you will have a great chance of getting them to click on the banner and buy from the affiliate company. This is where you make money. For each purchase of the product from the person who was from your website, you will earn a commission. Although this may sound not much of an income earning business, think about how many people there are who surf the internet everyday.

Another great work from home program is by selling some of the things in your house that you consider as clutter in auction websites. For example, if you haven’t used your Hawaiian lamp with a hula dancer for years and consider it as a useless junk that is just cluttering up your home, you can be sure that someone in the internet will want one for their own home.

These are two of the best home based businesses available. As a parent, you can be sure that you will be able to keep an eye on your kids and at the same time, earn that extra money for the household.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on a great business opportunity and learn how to make money checkout his recommended websites.

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Tax Write-offs You Need - Everyone Needs to Start a Home Business Now!

Sunday 29 April 2007 @ 8:04 am

by Ron Toomes
It’s tax time and everyone is feeling the pain. There is a widely unknown source of write-offs for any every day person. Having a home business allows anyone to take the write-offs that the Corporate Giants get. Yes, you can get great business deductions with a home business! The best thing about a home business is that you probably will not have nearly as much overhead as a traditional brick and mortar business. You do not have to pay for office or business space; just pay your rent along with your other bills. And you can get all of the tax write-offs those corporate giants get with your home business. Plus, you are working as an independent, which means you get to manage your own hours, work where you want, take time off when you need it, do the work you love to do, and more.

Tax Advantages for the Home Business Office

Home businesses have many tax advantages and benefits. Here is an example of some various home business deductions you can take advantage of:

Home Office Deductions -

If you use a room in your home or apartment for your business office, you can take the home office deduction. You simply need to use one space in your home for work for your business solely, and nothing else. This will have you qualified to take the deduction. To make sure that you will qualify for the home office deduction utilize one room in your home as your work office, and use it for nothing else.

Home Office Renovation Deductions -

If you make any upgrades to your home office you can deduct those expenses in your taxes. For example, if you paint your home office, fix something, have an addition created, or any other renovations you can write-off those expenses in your taxes.

Property Cost Deductions -

You can also write-off a portion of your rent or mortgage payments for the year due to your use of your home office. You will need to figure out how much square footage your home office is in relation to your entire home. Then you can calculate how much you can deduct depending on how much you pay in rent or in your mortgage.

Tax Deductions for a Home Business -

There are so many deductions to take advantage of. You should make yourself fully aware of all of the tax write-offs you can take advantage of. Here is an outline of those many possible home business tax write-offs.

Home Office Security -

If you keep your home office under security, such as by using a security alarm system, using camera monitoring, or other similar ways to keep your home office safe, you can probably write-off those expenses in your taxes.

Utility Expenses -

The cost of your electric payments can be deducted for as much electricity you use in your home office. You will have to calculate how much you spend on this in order to deduct those expenses. If you pay for a business telephone line, you can write-off that expense.

Transportation Expenses -

You can deduct your expenses for traveling to destinations to conduct business, such as going to the bank, visiting a client, dropping off paperwork — anything you do when you run errands for your business — you can deduct those expenses. If you move into a new home during the year you can deduct the expenses of moving the business part of your home.

Miscellaneous Home Business Deductions -

When you entertain clients or meet them for dinner, you can deduct the travel costs, as well as the cost of the meal or entertainment. Usually you can deduct up to 50% of these expenses.

When you buy something such as software, office supplies, and etc. you can deduct those expenses because they are a direct expense of your home business. Do you want a new computer? You can deduct a new computer, printer, scanner, or any other office equipment you use. Do you contact clients via internet or have a business web site? Deduct your Internet Provider, hosting costs, and your Domain name costs.

Have you taken any classes, seminars, or other training that is directly related to your home business? You can deduct those expenses.

How to Manage Home Business Taxes -

The one main key to getting all of the home business tax write-offs is managing your home business taxes well. You will need them well maintained and well organized. You need to keep records of all of your expenses in order to be able to take advantage of those home business deductions.

Receipts: Keep receipts from every expense you have throughout the year. You will need these so you can show that you did pay for these business costs.

Travel Logs: In order to take advantage of the travel deductions you will need to keep a log (best kept in your vehicle) of where you travel, why you are traveling there, the time and date, the starting mileage, and finishing mileage.

Maintaining Your Home Business Taxes Throughout the Year -

As mentioned above, it is advised that you keep your receipts and logs well maintained throughout the year by keeping them well organized. You can do this by starting some files for each month or quarter and track your expenses for each amount of time. Keep them all calculated for the period of time you choose so that when tax time comes around you won’t have to do as many calculations all at once.

Having your own home business has numerous benefits from all ends, and the best one may just be the tax write-offs you can take advantage of!

Ron Toomes has been in the Automotive Business for 25 years the last 10 as a Synthetic Lubrication Executive Jobber and Web Site Owner. Ron writes articles for:Go-Synthetic.com and Big Sky Oil

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Home Business Opportunities & The Scams To Avoid

Sunday 29 April 2007 @ 8:04 am

by Naz Daud -
Many Business Opportunities and franchises are now are home based. The advantages are great. You can wake up at 7.30 in the morning and start work five minutes later. Many of these opportunities only require a computer, high speed internet connection and a phone.

You can work around your family life and forget completely about office politics. You become the boss and answer to only yourself. So how does one evaluate a home business opportunity or franchise? In this article I will examine the types of businesses that one should be highly sceptical off or even avoid altogether.

Avoid any multi level marketing scheme where you cannot see a market for the end product or the retail price of the product is far too high. One such scheme I researched recently involved selling vitamins at much higher prices than the high street prices. They justified their costs due to the fact that they had a superior product. Now in my experience if you as an agent are trying to sell a very expensive product why should normal people trust your product to be superior to a major high street store?

Be highly sceptical of gambling schemes that persuade customers that their chances of winning are higher through them then buying normal lottery tickets from the supermarkets. Most are crafty schemes designed to take money of normal people without any payout or much lower percentage of payouts then normal lottery tickets.

Definitely avoid any products that have not yet been independently tried, tested and approved. One such product that I heard about recently claimed that it could save users a lot of money on their fuel costs. The idea is that you use their product in your vehicle on a regular basis and you can achieve savings of over twenty five percent! I do not know if this product works or not. My main concern is that if it worked as well as it is claimed to do, why have the major car producers not yet latched on to it? Why have the large motoring organisations not yet recommended it to their members?

Avoid any scams that involve fortune telling, psychic ability or magic. Many of these are cleverly designed to take money of people who are easily fooled. Have you have heard of the saying “there is one born every minute?”

Definitely do not get involved in any pyramid schemes. Usually the only people who tend to make money in these types businesses are the ones who are at the top of the pyramid. Most people end up losing money in these and they have been made illegal in many countries around the world.

Be very wary of any businesses that claim that you can make a fortune working only a few hours a week. If they were as good as they claimed to be why are they selling the secret to you for such a small sum of money?

Finally never pay upfront for any home working business opportunity where they refuse to reveal full details until you have paid them a large sum of money.

Some home based franchises are extremely good. The great thing about buying a franchise is that in most cases you can speak to other franchisees and find out how well they are faring. They will be happy to tell you all about the franchisor, the products and the difficulties that they encountered.

Always speak to an accountant and lawyer before signing any franchise agreements and paying over any sums of money. A home based business does have its rewards and if you find the right opportunity it could be the start of a new life.

Naz Daud Business Franchise OpportunityBusiness Directory & Franchises Ireland Franchises

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6 Steps To Starting A Real Home Business

Sunday 29 April 2007 @ 8:04 am

by Kellen Bell -
Here are 6 steps in the right direction to starting a home business the Correct way. I have been working online for about 6 years and I have bought or tried almost everything. After learning alot, I thought I would share some of the most important parts to getting you started in working at home.

Plan first! Write down something that gives you a focus. There are some pretty good reports spread out over the net about business planning,When starting a business it is crutical to plan. Some people write full business plans and others just make a time-line of things they want accomplished, either way having something is better than nothing.

Incorporate, it is important that you create a business-like image. I was told before that you have to portray the life you wish to lead and as a professional you must conduct yourself as such. Registering a business has many advantages with taxes, credit and more and entitles you to other things that non-business owners can-not do.You can find services and do-it-yourself kits that will help you get setup.

Your NOTHING without a DotCom! You have to have a real domain name http://www.whateverandaday.com/yournamehere is not professional. Really, does this make you want to give them money? I don’t feel moved. You must get a domain name and hosting to be even slightly considered as a real business. Domain names go for under $10 now a days and hosting can be found for under $8 a month, something that shouldn’t be to out of reach for most marketers.

Accept Credit. Credit cards rule on the internet. Most People don’t care to send in a money order anymore, its slow and can get lost in the mail, just not the best way to pay online. So you must accept credit cards if you plan on selling your own products or anything that you will deliver directly to the customers yourself. It is still a good idea to offer to accept money orders just don’t ship anything before the payment clears with your bank. Still offer the option for people to mail in payment, some people like to do business this way and you would open your sells up slightly.

Advertise. I know it sounds simple enough but you would be surprised by how many people skip this step. I guess they think having a good page is enough, but the internet is huge and you must get the word out about your site. Not just to anyone though, the key is to target you advertising to people who want what you have to offer. There are a variety of methods that one could take to advertise your new site: pay per click(google, yahoo), ezines, newsletters, search engine optimizing, and others.

Followup. Each person that comes to your site after clicking a well-targeted ad is a potential client. They might not necessarily purchase something the first time they visit. Studies have proven that it takes upto seven exposures for someone to purchase a product, and you just can’t get that if you don’t followup. You can use and low-cost autoresponder and a free giveaway to attract subscriber, then send them emails reminding them of you services.

Well, I have shared 6 secerets to starting your business off on the correct path. Please use this information to better yourself, your community and our world. Thank you for reading, pass it on.

Kellen Bell, Co-CEO of Thinking Forward Enterprise, Free 3 Day ecourse on making a $100 a Day signup at Free Home Business Ecourse

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How To Produce Promotional Materials On A Budget

Saturday 28 April 2007 @ 5:04 am

by Shen Gerald
You have a small business. And because of a tight budget, you do not wish to engage a graphic designer for your marketing and advertising needs. Yet you want to produce decent graphic promotional materials for your business.

Fret not. This article will show you how to do that. It will introduce you to the various low cost resources that are available, enabling you to produce your own promotional materials.

Firstly, we need to know the various marketing and promotional routes that are available. The list below shows some of the more common promotional channels:

1. Pamphlets and brochures

2. Posters

3. Newsletters

4. Website

Routes 1, 2 and 3 require some sort of printing services. A common platform that is used to relay design layout and artwork for professional printing service is the PDF file format. In another word, most printing service can directly accept PDF as the artwork source. Thus, you will need to find a way to output your finished artwork as PDF. Fortunately there are free options out there. Below are two of them:

1. Scribus opensource software for desktop publishing. This can be used to produce base file or artwork for print. It outputs to PDF.

2. Open Office suite can also produce PDF outputs. For pamphlet and flyer layout designs, open office may be good enough. Additionally, you may wish to do some of the fancier graphics in another program and import them into Open Office Writer as bitmap image files.

For more specialised graphic design works, there are many free options as well. The more popular ones are:

1. GIMP for general and web graphic design. This software is the free equivalent to Photoshop, which is one of the most widely accepted graphic and photo editing software in the world.

2. Blender3D for 3D graphics. This program is ideal for making rendering such as 3D logos and product packaging.

Both software can output JPEG or TGA files which can be imported into your preferred desktop publishing program such as Open Office Writer.

Well, we have listed the various software options. Now, where can we get them? These tools can be downloaded off the internet. To do so, simply search for them using the major search engines which will lead you to their homepage. Download links should be available on their homepage.

Additionally, having a source to photographs is important. Depending on the nature of your business, having a reasonably good digital camera may be essential. You may need it for shooting product and presentation shots.

Please understand that this is just an article on the various low cost options out there. Learning how to use the tools requires time and effort and is thus not within the scope of this article.

Thank you for reading. I hope that it has been useful.

The author’s website features ideas for small businesses as well as unique business name card templates for individuals and small businesses.

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A review of the Perfect Wealth System

Saturday 28 April 2007 @ 5:04 am

by Rod Larrivee
I have been a full time marketer for the past 3 years and have developed a incredible online business. I am constantly looking for better ways to make money online. I found a new system called The Perfect Wealth Formula, which I will give my review on.

There is a new marketing opportunity in pre-launch called the Perfect Wealth Formula, which I decided to take a look at. I know that this sounds like an MLM to you, but it’s not. You see, MLM stands for Multi Level Marketing which means that you get paid for referring members many levels deep. Perfect Wealth Formula is more like a 2-tier affiliate program with highly lucrative payouts.

MLM and Network Marketing opportunities are fin, if you have a good one, but honestly, they take time to build, and the residual income can be fantastic. But, what if you want to make big money tomorrow, this week, this month. There are few legitimate programs online that allow you to do this,

If you want to make money on the internet, you need to know how! Most marketers, 95% to 98% of them, lack the skills and training required to make serious money from home on the internet. The 500K Perfect Wealth Formula System combined with the owners 500K marketing and training system provides a marketer with Extensive Internet Marketing Training system with a world wide opportunity and a real chance to succeed!

I saw all this, so I joined, and guess what? It was all true. This really is an incredible business opportunity.

The marketing plan referred to by many as the heart of the system, is respectively named the ‘Power House Marketing System.’ It is a step ahead of the rest, which gives Perfect Wealth Formula members’ an unfair advantage.

The average marketer can create a serious potential five figure monthly income stream where they can earn $400 on every sale many times daily. What makes this so incredible is you also earn affiliate commissions allowing true leverage! What is even more exciting is you don’t have to pass up any sales, like most other direct sale companies! You can be making big money like I did, in your first week.

I joined PWF to help others make money with this business and guide them to success. I have developed an exclusive team website in addition to all the resources provided within the program itself.

I am glad I took time out of my busy day to review and join this program. Finally, an alternative to the Home Based Business, giving you the opportunity to make some real money, honestly, fast.

To join the top team with Rod Larrivee visit http://www.newperfectwealthformula.com

Rod Larrivee is a Successful Internet Marketer based in Vancouver, Canadahttp://www.newperfectwealthformula.com

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Needle felting - Relax, Create, Make Money

Saturday 28 April 2007 @ 4:04 am

by Debb41
Needle felting can be rewarding. Indulge in a relaxing hobby and make some money.

Never heard of needle felting? It’s a great way to create just about anything with wool using a dry felting technique. All you need is a special needle, foam, and wool.

You can find raw sheeps’ or alpaca wool by searching on the internet. Get medium to fine wool. Purchase the wool straight off the animal or already cleaned and carded.

You need a barbed needle. These special needles are, also, available through a search for needle felting supplies on the internet. Start with a 36 triangle needle. The needles are usually $1.00 apiece.

Needle felt your work on a foam block. This protects you from the needle and gives you a great surface for felting the wool. You can find foam chair pad inserts at craft stores that will work. Your foam needs to be at least 2 inches thick.

Lay your wool on the foam and poke it with the barbed needle. The needle tangles the wool. After several jabs, you will see the wool begin to felt. Keep moving over the surface with the needle until the entire piece is felted. There are needle felting books available to help you learn the technique.

First and foremost, relax! To bring peace of mind, focus on something that you find fun to make. If you’re making something in which you have no interest, you will be uptight and stunt your creativity. Have passion for your craft and it will show in your work and attitude.

Now that you’re relaxed, create! With needle felting, patterns are unnecessary. Just use your imagination for uniquely you projects. You can create almost anything with needle felting. Here are a few ideas to start:

  • Hats
  • Pillows
  • Rugs
  • Purses
  • 3D sculptures of personalities or animals
  • Apply designs to felt and other materials
  • Wall hangings

When you get good at needle felting and projects are cluttering your house, then do a little research to see if people would be interested in purchasing your creations. A great place to check is ebay. Do a search of your item, see if others are selling it, and find out the going price. If you will make a profit after your cost and time, then sell your items on ebay or locally. People love handmade crafts.

So, take a deep breath, relax, create, and make some money.

Visit http://www.owning-alpaca.com/needle-felting-tutorial.html for free needle felting projects and information. Debby McCandless raises alpacas and uses the fleece to needle felt three dimensional characters and other projects.

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