I then checked online and found lots of other bloggers alrealy discovered this and posted about it. In any case, if this is the first you're hearing about it, here's what you have to do :

1. Log into your PayPal account.
2. Click "My Account" then "Withdraw".
3. You'll see that there is a new option to "Withdraw to your bank account".

4. When you click this option, you will be prompted to add a Malaysian bank account if you haven't already done so. The process is pretty much like adding a debit card to your account for withdrawals.
5. I was stumped when they asked for the Bank Routing Number but PayPal is pretty proactive and provided a list of codes. They made the process easy peasy.
6. After adding your account, you can then make your withdrawal.

I initially wanted to withdraw $500, but I'm always careful with first transactions, so I changed it to $20. I'll wait and see if the transaction goes through. There's a RM3 charge for withdrawals below $USD400, but it's a small price to pay for peace of mind. With this new service, I don't have to keep my Public Bank Debit Card which charges an annual service fee.

I have to say I looooooooove making money online!

Tags: paypal withdrawal to malaysian banks

Well, time seems to be slipping through my fingers lately. Been so busy with our home based catering business and backend work on my other sites that I missed a really big piece of news.

It would seem that Clickbank now accepts Malaysian accounts.

I was browsing some local sites when I happened to scroll over a banner. Usually, I ignore ads, but I happened to like this banner and rolled over it. What surprised me was that the affiliate link was a clickbank hop link.

I thought to myself, "Now that can't be right... This guy is a local fella. How come he has a Clickbank account?"

I surfed more local sites and started to notice more and more Clickbank hoplinks.

So I moseyed along to Clickbank site and tried to register and "Wahlo! Malaysia appears in the drop down box!!!!"

So I went... "Well Duhhhhhh.... you're late again Andrew"

This is really fantabulous news!

I've always been dissapointed that we Malaysians could not register with Clickbank. They are after all the world biggest marketplace for buying and selling online products. I believe Malaysia was previously on their list of high risk countries, but obviously things have changed. Thanks to whoever helped make that change.

I'd rate this new at #3 after Paypal allowing withdrawals to Malaysian Visa Debit Cards and Adsense allowing withdrawals to Malaysia via Western Union.

So how can Clickbank make a difference to making money online?

Well for starters, any additional revenue stream is always welcome because it's never ever a good thing to rely on only one revenue stream (for most folks it's Adsense).

Second, with Clickbank you get to offer your visitors lots more options in terms of products and information.

Third, we can go full force into affiliate marketing and create websites based on clickbank products, where we were limited to building websites around Adsense and contextual ad revenue model.

I'm going to make time to see what brilliant money making ventures Clickbank offers me....

I ALWAYS experiment with Adsense ad placements and formats. This is to counter ad blindness as much as it is to optimize Adsense as much as possible. Well in January 2008, I found that the half-banner which once used to perform pretty well on my main Adsense website started to suck major lemons. eCPM was going down the tubes and so was CTR. I decided to kill the half banner and replaced it with the large rectangle format. Now what happened since has really surprised me.

Although purists would crucify me for plastering a whole slab of Adsense on my homepage, that fella has been out performing ALL my ad blocks on ALL pages collectively. The thing is as this is happening, I've found that the bounce rate for this page has increased in tandem with the rise in earnings. Obviously people are arriving at this page, seeing this whopper of an ad block and just clicking on it. The sorry victim in all this is Kontera, which I use for all my sub pages.

Now, I expected that earnings from Kontera would dip with the rise in clicks on the large rectangle Adsense block, but it has actually crashed and gone erratic. The chart below shows my daily earnings in the last 2 weeks or so :

What was happening was unbelievable... I was starting to see earnings of 10 cents for 10 clicks or more! Now that's bad. Where I used to be able to earn an average of 15 to 20 cents per click, I've been seeing a major increase in 1 cent or less per clicks the last few months. The peaks you see in the chart above are nothing to brag about. We're talking about less than $1 here. To illustrate how bad Kontera is performing now, I have only just managed to pass the $100 mark at the end of May 2008. That's 5 months to reach $100 - an average of $20 per month or 66 cents a day! Since this has been happening over the course of a few months, it is telling me that one or more of the following is true :

• Kontera's advertiser pool is shrinking - hence the low eCPM and EPC.
• Kontera is somehow able to see my visitors prefer clicking on Adsense so they're punishing me for giving priority to Adsense (this is a conspiracy theory. I cannot prove it)
• It's just market forces at play and market forces are saying my site deserves 1 cent clicks.

Now it's not pride here. I cannot accept the third possibility BECAUSE since deploying the large rectangle Adsense block, my EPC has actually increased by almost 60%. To see if the market as a whole was weakening, I decided to give LinkWorth a try. I'll talk more about LinkWorth in a separate post later, but in the 3 weeks or so that I've been with LinkWorth, I am very pleased with my earnings so far.

So the bottom line is... I am not going to waste my web real estate on Kontera anymore. I've been patient enough. Five months is enough I think. Later this week, I'm going to convert all the pages that were once reserved for Kontera to Linkworth.

Thanks for paying for my hotel stay in Genting, but I gotta say Adios Kontera!

I run a home based catering business, manage more websites than I can handle in addition to being a driver cum homemaker to my kids... and what do I go and do? I set up an online store... that's what.

Something had to give while I was scrounging for time to set up my online store, so it was HomeWithAndrew, then my other websites. When I first started working from home, starting an online store was always on the cards. I just never got enough motivation to get myself off off my ass and do it. Bad example to set for a work-at-home Dad. Yeah.

If I had kept to the schedule I set five years ago, I would have already set up 3 online stores. But who can predict the future. I never knew that running the catering business would take up soooo much of my time. It's a vicious cycle of sorts. The more my catering business grows, the more time I have to put in, which means I spend less time on my online money making. But the original plan was to build my online network to a level where we would NOT have to depend on the catering business.

So why would I go and set up and online store when I already have too much on my plate? Well, it's part of my strategy to NEVER depend on only ONE or TWO sources of income. My online store is a long-term plan to always diversify.

CoolCat t-shirts is a culmination of everything that I love : art, designing, web development, coding and t-shirts. I'm still learning the ropes, managing my store, but CoolCat t-shirts has brought me full circle. Ever since I was a small boy, I loved drawing on my old t-shirts. When I became a teenager, I would make simple templates and printed one-color designs on t-shirts. I experimented with all sorts of t-shirt printing techniques - even potato prints and t-shirt crayons! Then when I was in secondary school, I learnt the art of making silk-screen blocks, which was so addictive that I started a small t-shirt printing biz with a friend after school. The business didn't fly. My partner had other plans and she was the one running the business side of things. So my t-shirt dreams were put on hold. Now almost twenty years later, the wonder of the Internet is making me salivate.

From my research, the secret to Cafepress success is patience. That, I have lots of experience. It's took many years of patient building before my websites started to make substantial money. I plan to set up a few more stores and will probably pass on the designing tasks to my wife and daughter who thankfully share my passion for designing.

Anyway... I'd like to invite you to visit my new online store :

So here I am with my plate overflowing and I'm piling on more. And people say I'm so lucky I don't have to work so hard. Yeah. Right.

Tags: t-shirts,, cafepress,, coolcattshirts

The first year we were in business - when we didn't really have a lot of money coming in from my websites - we were on the verge of panic. It was the first time we really felt the effects of the balik kampung exodus. That year, we were left with less than ten customers during the Chinese New Year month. Thank God we were still holding on to our day jobs - albeit part-time.

After 5 years in the home catering business, we've come to accept the CNY month income drop as part and parcel of our business. That's why we're thankful that our online income keeps things stable.

From day one of being full-time work-at-homers, we decided that we would NOT rely on our online income to sustain our family. There are just too many variables that can swing against your website(s) which will ultimately affect your income. So we work hard and make sure that our home catering business pays the bills and keeps food on the table. Our catering business is also a heck of a lot more predictable than search engine mood swings and their ever changing algorithms. So despite receiving a healthy income from my websites, we ONLY dip into our Google Piggy Bank for the extras during low months like Chinese New Year. Thankfully, December's Adsense payout was a fat one and came in via Western Union just in time for our CNY shopping.

So like it or not, Google has been putting the "Happy" in "Chinese New Year" for our family the last five years. So I guess what I'm trying to say is this - unless you are prepared for the erratic ups and downs of earning an online income, I strongly suggest you keep your day job and save your income from Adsense, Kontera etc for those rainy days (especially if you have a family).

Tags: Google Adsense, Adsense, Home Based Business

I think that there are a number of advantages to this format :

• It adds interactivity to the ads; I believe visitors are more likely to click on an ad if they can interact with it.
• The abillity to scroll means that more ads (variety) can be displayed withing a limited space.
• This should allow for more opportunity for targetted ads to be displayed.
• If this format is applied to Referrals 2.0, then there is a possibility of more clicks (higher CTR).

I haven't seen it (this format) appearing on my sites as yet, but I think I have on other websites. Whether publishers like the format or not, one thing is clear (to me at least) - Google is pro-active and changing to meet the problems of ad blindness, in particular, Adsense blindness.

Tags: google adsense, adsense ad, adsense

My last Adsense check which has yet to be banked into my account

Okay... I know I'm a bit slow. This is probably the third payment that Adsense has released to Malaysians via Western Union. I waited for others to be the guinea pigs before changing my own payment option - mostly because I'm in no hurry to get the cash. All my online income is channelled into savings and investment, so it's not critical that I get my payments immediately. But now that I've done it, I highly recommend you change your payment option to Western Union Quick Cash for the following reasons :

1. It's FREE. No fee, no charge. With checks, I ended up with RM 70 less because of the bank charges here and in the US. Exchange rate will depend on when Adsense issued payment, NOT when you withdraw.
2. You get your payment the day after the status in your Adsense account changes to "Payment Issued".
3. No more waiting and wondering if your Adsense check has been cleared. If there's any problem with your check, then you have to request for a re-issue and that will mean another month or so before you get a new check.
4. It makes your financial planning and recording so much easier. With Adsense checks, I had to "forecast" my bank balance because it takes 2 months before we see the cash from Adsense checks.

How do you know when your Adsense payment is available for withdrawal?
When you log into you Adsense account, you should see a "View Payment History" link that will take you to your payment details page. If you see a "Payment Issued" statement, that means your payment has is ready for withdrawal (if you have opted to receive your payment via Western Union).

Clicking on the "details" link will take you to the details of your payment. This page contains important information that you will need when you fill in the Western Union form to receive money, the most important being the Money Transfer Control Number.

Where to withdraw your Adsense payment via Western Union?
Most banks in Malaysia provide Western Union services. Some banks only offer this service at selected branches. The 2 that I know of that offer Western Union services at all their branches are RHB Bank and CIMB Bank.

How to withdraw your payment via Western Union at CIMB Bank
Fill in the Western Union form to receive money from CIMB Bank. There are 2 types of forms. The Yellow one is for receiving money. The Green one is for sending money. Here's a tip so you don't make a silly mistake like me. The Western Union forms are carbon copy forms - one copy for the bank and one copy for you. The one I took from the counter only had 1 sheet (I assume it was messed up). NO problems though, because CIMB's staff are really helpful. The form is straightforward.

The branch I went to had a specific counter for Western Union services. Me thinks that's the same for any CIMB branch, which is great because you don't have to wait very long. You need to provide ID (any form of identification with your picture) as verification that you are who you say you are. Your ID must bear the same name as the one in your Adsense Payment details page.

It took approximately 10 minutes to get my money. Easy Peasy and I left with this :

I love making money online!
I love Google ADsense!
I love Western Union!

Tags: Google Adsense, Western Union, Adsense

Step 1 : Log into you Adsense account and click on the My Account tab.

Step 2 : Scroll down till you see the Payment Details section. Click "edit".

Click "continue".

Step 3 : You should see Western Union as an option if Adsense has enabled that payment method for your country.

Check the box that asks you to confirm you have a picture ID with a name that matches the name in your Adsense account.

If the name in your Adsense payment option doesn't match your official ID, then you will need to email Adsense and request that they change your payment name to you ID name.

One last thing - remember that you need to change your payment method before the 15th of the month. Making changes later than that means the changes will only take effect the next month.

Tags: Google Adsense, Western Union

So Why Public Bank's Visa Electron Debit Card?
After some Googling, I narrowed down my search to 2 local banks - Public Bank and Al Rajhi Bank. Since Public Bank is nearest bank that offers a Debit Card I figured I might as well apply for it. I heard a lot about Al Rajhi's Debit Card, but there are 3 reasons why I opted NOT to go with AlRajhi.

• First, they require Debit Card holders to open a savings account. Although the process would have only taken a couple of minutes, I decided not to go with AlRajhi for my next reason.
• Second, I read a couple of bloggers encountered problems withdrawing their funds to their Al Rajhi Debit Card. I'm sure it was minor technicalities, but at that time, there wasn't any update as to the problem being solved.
• With all due respect to Al Rajhi Bank and all my Muslim friends, I remember a heated discussion some time back in an online forum (I cannot remember which) where people were expounding on their theories about why Paypal refused to allow withdrawals to Malaysian banks. We discussed the possibility that the "political and religious ideology" of affected countries was a major factor. Now, I don't know if this has any truth in it, but I figured that I'd rather play safe and go with a Malaysian Bank with a solid reputation than one with a "middle eastern" sounding name. In the event "something" happens and Paypal decides to restrict withdrawal to certain cards, I want to have a card from a "safe" bank. If that sounds like I'm a chicken, then yeah... I like to play it safe, especially when it comes to MY money!

The Long Wait For My Visa Electron PIN
Hong Leong's Visa card arrived 2 weeks after application since I already hold their Mastercard. But the Visa Electron application process was a real pain. I've heard a lot about how slow Public Bank is and I must say that I now agree. It took a total of 29 days from application to receiving my Visa Electron and in the process, while checking on the status of my application, their call center staff left me with a very bad impression of their standards of service & quality control. But what the heck... I have my Visa Debit Card now, ready for action!

Now On To MORE Money Making
Paypal's decision to allow funds withdrawal has opened up a flood of opportunities for me. I gather all Malaysians who make money online feel the same. My Visa Electrom PIN only arrived today and I have yet to use the card to verify it works. I have a couple hundred dollars stuck in Paypal from last months earnings, and I'm expecting 3 more payments early December, so I'll probably only make my first ever Paypal funds withdrawal after I get back from our short trip to Genting Highlands this weekend.

I'm am soooooo excited.

I love Paypal...

... and I love my shiny new Visa Cards. I think I'll sleep with them under my pillow tonight... so I can take touch and smell them first thing in the morning!

Tags: Visa credit card, Visa debit card, Paypal, Paypal funds withdrawal

When I first applied to TLA, I noticed that they required sites to be of a certain PR or Alexa ranking. I didn't like it, and I felt that this would be a loophole for abuse by members. Apparently I am correct but who am I to shout "I told you so" now.

I've noticed that many bloggers are just soooo greedy that they take on EVERY advertiser, whether they were relevant to their blog niche of not. This is one of the things that Google hates, so yes... everybody who has taken the time to learn about SEO knows that the first rule of linking out is to link to relevant content.

If you don't know if your TLA plugin is the lates, check your HTML souce, then look for the term "functions tla_ads". If it shows up, then you have the old plugin.

I respect John, but I must caution that this borders on "grey". Using image links to avoid Googlebot's notice is an old trick that will pass automated crawls but NOT human checks. If a human were to manually check your site (don't think that Google doesn't) having an image link like this may make things work and give the reviewer the impression that you are trying to cheat.

Many webmasters this technique because they believe that who they link as affiliates is THEIR OWN business and not Google's. However, remember again that Google seems to be intent on cracking down on paid links. They will surely use manual checks as part of this process and a redirect hidden behind a nofollow will not get through a human check.

I believe that if Google wants to continue waging a war on paid links, it IS going to use every method at its disposal. I suggest you use the techniques described above ONLY after you have decided clearly in your mind that you WANT to continue selling links. To each his own. All the best!

Tags: Text links, Paid links

Basically what this new change means is that ONLY the URL and the Title of the ad in your Adsense blocks will be live. Clicking any other place (ie white space) will NOT take your visitor to the advertiser's website. I've found that roll out is not complete yet. Some sites will have the old format where white space is still clickable. I expect the roll out to be completed very soon with the Christmas shopping season and holidays nearly upon us.

Most of us are familiar with when accidental clicks happen :

• If you still use one of those old-fashioned mouse with the roller ball, you know accidental clicks happen when you move the mouse and the pointer doesn't follow.
• You're sleepy (or bored) at work and you're surfing a site you're NOT supposed to. The boss walks in and you click like mad to try and close the window.
• You're working happily on your computer and your kid suddenly screams coz she slipped and landed in the toilet hole (wait till it happens to you - then you'll understand).
• You click on an ad, THEN see a more relevant one, but you can't do anything about it.
• You rush to finish that spanky new look for your web page and your wife walks past you in her very nice nightie asking when you're coming in to bed (ahem).

So why is Google bothered with such a silly little thing you wonder?

Accidental clicks are STILL clicks and every click registers in their humongous database. Advertisers PAY Google AND publishers for every click, so if a click was accidental, it means that advertisers lose money. Even if each click cost 5 cents, mutiply that by a hundred accidental clicks a day and you get $1850 paid for clicks that were never meant to be.

The new clickable areas are also good for publishers in the long run because :

• There is a lesser chance of you receiving that "nice little email" from Google telling you that they've detected invalid clicks and you're being tossed out of the program. Yes, you will very likely see your CTR and eCPM go down for a while IF you have been blending your ads like mad to try and "fool" your visitors or if your site somehow attracts drunken, sleepy visitors who can't aim their mouse properly.
• Less accidental clicks may attract more advertisers to the content network which translates to a wider range of ads and more potential for revenue.

In the Webmasterworld thread I mentioned above, AdsenseAdvisor (a Google staff who participates in the forum and acts as a representative for Adsense) has this to say :

So here are a couple of things you can do if you find your Adsense revenue affected by this change :

• Use BLUE for your links. There are the default color for links and your visitors are less likely to make accidental clicks on obvious links.
• Opt for image ads where the whole ad space is clickable or try a combination of text and image ads.
• Make your ads obvious - don't try to use blending as a way to "confuse" or "fool" your visitors into clicking ads.

Personally, I have not noticed any change in my Adsense revenue, and CTR continues to be the same. I don't think I WILL see any change because I opted long ago to make it easy for my visitors to distinguish ADs from content on ALL my sites.

Tags: Google Adsense, Adsense, Adsense clickable_areas

• I'm trying to keep my Adsense earnings at an optimum by reducing impressions.
• I'm trying to reduce my dependence on the big brother Google.

Your earnings per click (EPC) is derived from a complex calculation and no one is privy to that formula except Google themselves. However, it is generally accepted that to optimize your earnings, you want the have the following :

• Optimum CTR (Click-through Rate - Not too high and not too low)
• High number of impressions corresponding to targetted traffic
• High Earnings Per Click (EPC)

Now, just to explain things a bit, there are many other factors (just like any other business) which may also influence your Adsense EPC at any one time, causing the fluctuations that you see in your stats :

• Number of advertisers in your niche at any one time.
• Advertisers' budget.
• Seasonal trends - holidays, pre-Christmas, etc
• The general economy
• Many other reasons...

Many newbies to Adsense get all excited and display the maximum allowed Adsense blocks (three blocks are the maximum) on every page, only to see a sharp decline in eCPM, EPC, CTR and earnings. The reasoning is simple. It's called the dilution effect.

Adsense works because relevant ads are displayed based on your content. When people looking for information see relevant ads within your content, they are more likely to click on those ads. When more ads are clicked within a given number of impressions, your eCPM increases. eCPM is the predicted earnings for a thousand impressions.

If you add 3 large Adsense rectangles to every page, chances are Adsense will have a hard time finding 12 advertisers that match your page content EVERY time someone views that page. What happens then is you will get off target ads (ie. ad relevance is diluted). When you get off-target ads, your visitors are either going to ignore those ads altogether or worse, get irritated. Either way, they won't click on your ads AND you will probably lose any chance of that visitor returning.

In an experiment 18 months ago, I removed every Adsense block leaving only had ONE ad block per page. I tracked the performance of those ad blocks by creating channels for every category. Even after a week, I noticed a marked improvement in my eCPM and also my EPC. Of course earnings still fluctuated on a daily basis, but they were trending upwards. I waited another 3 weeks (to collect sufficient data) and then reviewed the performance of each channel. What I found was :

• article pages were performing very poorly despite the high number of impressions they were generating. I deduced this to mean that folks who visited these pages were interested in the content and not inclined to look elsewhere (or click on ads) for more information.
• pages with technical (how-to) information were also performing poorly. This again I deduced to mean that visitors were finding what they needed on those pages and did not need to click on ads.
• free services pages (eCards, downloads etc) were the worst performing.

We don't know for sure how Google arrives at the Earnings Per Click figure, but I'm sure that it varies from one publisher to another, based on a myriad of factors including those listed at the beginning of this post. Put together, my non-performing pages were generating thousands of impressions that were just not converting into clicks, so I removed Adsense altogether from those pages. Reducing impressions obviously meant that CTR increased but more importantly, EPC also increased.

I'm sure you understand now why there are no Adsense Ads on HomeWithAndrew.com. I've always read that blogs are NOT the best performing platforms for Adsense, especially when your blog doesn't focus very tightly on a specific niche. Another reason why many blogs report low CTRs and EPC is that visitors to a blog are more inclined to be repeat visitors who are more interested in the content or to keep in touch with the blogger.

HomeWithAndrew.com is still relatively unknown and most of my visitors are friends and fellow bloggers who visit mostly to keep in touch. This means that it is generating Adsense Ad impressions that don't convert to clicks. WHEN this blog starts to receive higher traffic, I will consider adding Adsense again, although it will be done on a controlled basis. I will add ad blocks one category at a time and monitor their performance.

I hope I've help you to understand how reducing Adsense impressions can actually increase your earnings in the long run! Remember that every blog or website is unique and the only way you can truly know if reducing impressions will optimize your Adsense earnings is to experiment.

Tags: Google Adsense, Adsense ad impressions, Adsense page impressions, Optimize Adsense earnings

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

Finding the experience to run your own home based business won't come without some sort of sacrifice. However, if you are caught in a (dead-end) job that gives you NO opportunity to develop business management skills, you HAVE to find that experience yourself. There is no other way but to break into unfamiliar territory. Very often, it means moving out of your comfort zone. There are workarounds to this problem :

1. Work part-time during weekends or moonlight in the evenings helping out in the industry that you're targetting. If you're thinking of starting a food business, work in a restaurant or open a small stall in your local flea market. While you're making a little extra money, you're learning and getting a feel of the business. Sure, you're going to have to put in extra time and effort, but you DO get the benefit of keeping your day job if you decide your target niche isn't for you. If that DOES happen, don't give up on your dreams. Look for other opportunities. You never know when you will strike gold.
2. Convert to part-time status in your day job and on your business. This may be a better option than the first one, especially if your day job needs you to put in long hours. You have to remember though, that you will likely lose lots of benefits if you choose to be a part-timer. Do this only if you have enough funds to meet your family and financial commitments for whatever length of time you need to build on your experience. Go into your business full-time whenever you're confident.
3. Find a job in a fast-growing company or one that's in a fast-growing industry. Ideally, you should have a strong interest in the industry. Being passionate about your niche is one of the surest ways to succeed. Make sure you learn all that you can about the company and how it operates. While you're doing this, look for opportunities that are directly associated or indirectly contributing to the industry. Starting a franchise of your own might be one option or perhaps if your company getting supplies from someone and you think you could supply those items at a lower cost, ask if your management would consider getting their supplies from you if you had a similar set-up.

If you can't swing any of the three suggestions above, you could always learn from others.

• The Internet is chock full of good advice. Look for forums and entrepreneurial support groups that help new entrepreneurs. Many seasoned entrepreneurs offer great support and advice to newbies simply because they know the struggles every entrepreneur goes through and they just want to help.
• Join an entrepreneurial support group forum. You'll find that many of them charge an annual fee to be a member. This is simply because they offer their members quality advice from seasoned professionals and valuable resource materials. It's sort of like finding a mentor, except you have many of them and they're online.
• One of the best ways you can help yourself is to find a mentor - someone you can trust to help guide you. It could be your boss, your ex-boss or a business owner - someone who can answer your questions and guide you through the many pitfalls of a starting a new business. Not every boss would feel threatened if you tell them you're planning to start your own business. My last boss was someone who truly encouraged his staff to explore self-employment. Running a business is a life-long learning process and even if you don't establish a formal mentor - mentee relationship with anyone, nothing beats learning from the experiences of other business owners.

The biggest teacher though, is running your business day-to-day. When my wife and I started our home based catering business, we had the ONE critical skill that was needed - cooking - and pretty much nothing else. We had to learn as we went along. We made lots of mistakes. A LOT of mistakes, but the secret is to learn from those mistakes. We asked questions. We asked everyone we came into contact with - suppliers, customers, shopkeepers, supermarket staff, coffee shop cooks etc. Many times, these folks say something that helps us like where to find the cheapest veggie, the best equipment and cooking techniques. Best of all, as we get to know people and they get to know we run a catering business, they're more likely to refer us to their friends and family!

Well, that's it then... I hope this series has been helpful in motivating you to break free of your dead end job. I think it all boild down to this - if you want to know how a flavor of ice-cream tastes like, you're going to have to take a bite. Just like running your own business. Big or small, there's just no other way but to jump right in!

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

Tags: Home based business, Home business, Work at home

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

I hate to start off a post with bitter medicine but here goes - if you don't make the time to work on starting your own business, you will NOT have time left. Procrastination is the number one killer of dreams. Yeah right, I was a BIG lazy bum too once upon a time. These days, I even have to limit my quiet time in the loo! But looking back, if that big disaster didn't happen four years ago, I'd still be on my backside, killing time surfing from one website to another - doing "research".

I don't like to use the "time management" phrase, but basically, if you don't prioritize your life and get things in order, you will never have time to dream about being your own boss let alone making it a reality. I have to practise "time management" if I want do everything I have to - from taking the kids to school in the morning, to chopping chicken and washing veggie, to lunching with my kids, tucking them in for the nap, to delivering the food on time right down to playing UNO and Pictionary with them.

The same goes for you if you are serious about starting your own business. The planning stage is critical. You NEED time to learn about your niche, to meet suppliers, to talk with your spouse, to plan your budget, to... well you get the idea. Before you can make time to work on your business, you have to WANT your own business (or at least to work at home).

I can hear you screaming at me "BUT I DON'T HAVE THE TIME!" .

Okay, okay, I hear ya... but there ARE ways to make time...

1. Delegate. Believe it or not, there are lots of things that your staff at work can do without you being involved. If you're not the boss, refer to No. 2. You might be surprised that you actually cut your working hours by up to 2 hours. That's 2 hours you can be at home planning your business or actually working at your business.
2. Prioritize.Prioritize.Prioritize. There is a difference between knowing what is "URGENT" and what is "IMPORTANT".
3. Stay at home more. Most families make regular trips to the mall or entertainment outlets out of habit. Time out with family is important, but time at home with family is just as good if not better.
4. Routine-ize your life. Set a routine for your work and family. When you get into a routine, you can basically predict when you will have time to work on your business.
5. Get a job closer to home. Not easy I know, but most folks spend up to 4 hours daily in a sardine packed bus or traffic jam doing nothing. That's time you could use to hustle for you business.
6. Get a job with flexi hours. Again, not easy I know.

When my wife and I started our catering biz, workload was low, so my wife continued working in the kindergarten in the mornings while I delivered food after work. Then when we were more of less ready to fly, she worked on the business full time while I cleared it with my boss to work as a part-timer in the mornings. I took about two and a half years before both of us began working full time on our home based business. Now, we're going to apply the same system as we think about moving from our catering biz to other less labour intensive income streams and to increase my online income.

So if a less than bright guy like me can do it, I don't see why you can't!

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

Tags: Time management, Work At Home, Home based business

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

For many potential home business owners, their biggest worry isn't about getting enough money to start thier business and but about not making enough money to replace the income and benefits from a full-time job.

However, you've got to start from somewhere first, so I'm going to say something that you've heard a million times - You have GOT to save money! There are a thousand and one reasons to save, but for now, let's talk about saving for the purpose of venturing into your own business.

Many people tend to think too big when they start up a business. They think that they MUST have a five or six figure budget to go into business. The truth is that success doesn't depend on the size of your startup capital. You can have a million dollar budget for fancy office furniture and equipment, a dozen staff and the flashy marketing campaigns but the BIGGEST INVESTMENT you can make in your new business is yourself - your time, your effort, your talents and your dreams.

My wife and I were fortunate because when we started our home catering biz, we only needed less than RM100 to print and distribute flyers. Operating from home also meant we did not carry any overhead costs. In our type of business, customers pay up front for the month's catering. This means that we already have our costs covered AND our profits realized from day one.

If you can't find a business with the same payment model, you MUST start saving at least 10% or more of your income for your startup costs. If you are starting late (let's say age 30, then you need to increase that figure to at least 20%. Even then, you may only be able to cover your backup needs and will still need to rely on a bank loan. This means your dream of being your own boss may not materialize immediately which is a good thing. It may take you anywhere from 2 to 5 years to save, but you can use that time to dream, plan and learn about your future business.

But what if your budget just cannot include saving? It's not so easy, but you have lots of options :

1. Get a weekend job and save the money earned from that or both husband and wife may have to work for a while to earn more. Remember that this is supposed to be a temporary arrangement to raise funds for your home business startup. Don't put ALL your time and effort without considering time and emotional commitments to family first.
2. Budget. It's really amazing how much you can save if you tighten your pursestrings. Go ahead. I dare you to prove me wrong. Instead of your daily Starbucks, make it a regular coffee in a nice coffeeshop. Ride a bicycle to the shop instead of driving. Switch off all the lights in the house that you don't need. Car pool. Use your air conditioner sparingly. If you keep a strict eye on your spending habits, you WILL find lots of extra cash at the end of the month to add to your home business startup fund
3. Sell stuff that you don't need. You'd be surprised how much you can raise - that old motorcycle collecting dust, those power tools you don't use, your time share, your underutilized second car etc. You could hold a garage sale, sell your stuff to a second hand store or better still, auction then off on eBay. I am constantly amazed at the crazy stuff people are selling on eBay - and the money they're getting for it. In fact, if you get good at this, selling on eBay could even become your home based business!
4. Put your money to work. Use the money you raised from working your part-time job, profits from the sales of your stuff and your savings. Putting your money in a savings account gives you very little in return. Find ways to safely invest with higher returns. If you're on a 3 to 5 years plan to raise funds for your home business, then you can use invest in stocks, mutual funds and IPOs. Remember to seek advice if you don't know how to invest. Don't be rash and go for high risk investments that can just as soon burn all your money instead of multiplying it.
5. Get a business partner with the cash. This requires very careful consideration. Many businesses have run aground NOT from financial problems but from the inability of the partners to see eye-to-eye on the nitty-gritty of running the business. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you are a minority shareholder and your partner wants out.
6. Borrow money from family and friends. I don't encourage this unless you have a very, very supportive and tight family. Remember, you have to live with family for a long time and you probably want to stay friends with your friends for a long time too - but nothing breaks down a relationship faster than borrowing money and not being able to pay back. So before you borrow money from family and friends, make sure you have a solid business plan and done your research about your intended business. You have to ask yourself whether those relationships are strong enough to weather the storms of running a business - which may mean late repayments of the loan. If you do manage to pay back the loans on time, remember to include interest. You want your family and friends to benefit from your business too.
7. Refinance your car or home loan. Make sure you do your calculations so that you don't end up with more debt than you can handle. Very often, all you need to do is to just keep a tight rein on your spending for a year or two and you won't have to refinance your car and home loan
8. Borrow money from a bank. For some business ventures, this is the only alternative. Make sure you seek financial counsel from more experienced professionals before committing to long term loans. You need to understand all the terms and conditions to to loan and whether there are any hidden costs involved. You also need to calculate how the loan repayments will affect your personal and businss budget.
9. Apply for micro loans from Government or Entrepreneurial support agencies. If you can put up with tedious red tape, then thes types of micro loans are really a great way to fund your home based business.
10. Use your credit card. I really don't think this is a good option, but sometimes the amount you need doesn't justify the hassles of a bank loan. If you're considering this, consider 1 & 2 first.

Long list... but even longer list of things to consider for each option. Remember... "NO pain, No gain". Getting over the money hurdle is the first step toward being the boss of your own business. Generally all it takes is prudent spending and common-sense money management to save money.

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

Tags: Home business, Home based business, Business capital, Business startup

Following hot on the heels of Paypal allowing Malaysians to withdraw funds to our credit cards, then Adsense offering payment via Western Union, if this bit of news if confirmed, then it will be heavenly for us! Imagine not having to wait for checks to arrive and then a longer wait for them to be cleared. Worse still if you have the unfortunate experience of having your Kontera check sent around the world!

I believe that this email is authentic because the publisher information contained within it can only be known by Kontera, but like I said before, Kontera seems to be very primitive in many ways. I will post a confirmation when I receive an official reply from Kontera. Now... if they would only work on giving publishers a decent control panel that REALLY lets us control things instead of having to email them for the simplest of matters.

So let's say bye-bye to long waits for paper checks and hello to instant (well... almost) money! I looooove making money online!

Tags: Kontera, Paypal, Kontera offering payment via Paypal, Kontera ContentLinks

I really understand if you find yourself so dependent on your job that you end up in a vicious cycle, unable to explore other opportunities. Although most of the obstacles you face when you consider being your own boss are usually just your imagination acting up as you move beyond your comfort zone, there ARE real problems that you will face :

• You have no money.
  Starting a business takes money whether its a couple hundred bucks or tens of thousands, you need capital.
• You have no time.
  How could you? The boss expects you to be on-the-job ON TIME and for most folks that means leaving the house before sunrise and if you're lucky, you get home before your kids are in bed!
• You have no experience.
  You need to know what you're doing if you want to succeed in your own business. Unfortunately, most of us work at a job that is totally boring and unrelated to our passion in life.

These are real problems. They're not problems that can be solved by simply wishing them away or buying yourself an e-book that guarantees you financial freedom. The solutions to these problems will take time and conscious effort on your part, but if you're really serious about breaking free of your "dead end job", you will overcome them bit by bit, day by day.

There are many, many people I know who would be good examples for me to write about, but I'll use the best case study I know - myself. You can name any fear, any insecurity, any mental obstacle that you're facing as you consider being your own boss and I will be able to emphatize with you. I went through it ALL because I was once the world's worst scaredy-cat. Nothing would budge me from my comfort zone. Nothing. But life always has surprises in store for us. Join me in my next few posts as we discover solutions to the 3 main obstacles to breaking free of your dead-end job.

In this series :

1. Breaking Free Of Your Dead-end Job
2. Getting The Money To Start Your Own Business
3. Making The Time For Your Business
4. Getting The Experience To Run A Home Based Business

Tags: Home based business, Work at home

• Number of customers who join
• Number of customers who stopped
• Total number of customers
• Total expenses
• Total profit

I also keep track of my online income by charting the various figures available to me for example for Adsense :

• Monthly Impressions
• Total earnings
• CTR
• eCPM
• Earnings per click

I don't use expensive software - just Microsoft Excel. I've got to admit it - I love seeing making colorful charts and looking at them (must be the creative genes in me) - but even keeping simple statistics can reveal a lot about your business.

For example, the stats for my home based catering business reveal an increase in customers stopping every September followed by a another dip in November and December every year. The first two years, it was quite unsettling to see this happen. Then as we continued to track the numbers we saw the same pattern every year. The many public holidays and long school break at the end of the year is probably the time families go for their vacations and don't need our catering service. We prepare ourselves for this annual 15 to 20 percent dip by setting aside additional savings each month. That way, we can still enjoy our annual family year-end holiday and not have to worry about the slide in revenue, because we know that it's a seasonal thing.

Then as the new year begins, we see a rise in business which usually peaks in July. Why? Well, we asked a couple of customers who used our service only for these 2 months and confirmed our suspicions - ladies just don't like going to the market or slaving in a stuffy, humid kitchen during these hot months, so they cater food from us. So we learnt that hot weather causes a nice upward trend in our earnings and customer count chart!

It also makes good sense to keep track of your statistics so you can see how your business is growing (or not). Whether it's our catering or online income, it's easy to get discouraged (and panicky) when you look at the daily/weekly fluctuations in earnings. But if you keep your stats long enough, you will have enough data to show you whether you are trending upwards(growing), downwards (shrinking or losing ground) or flatlining (no change). We know that our customer base has grown substantially from when we first started, but it's really an encouragement every time we see that growth represented in a chart. And like the example I gave you, your stats will show you seasonal trends so that you can prepare yourself and your business.

Running a business from home can be more stressful than your day job. Income and expenses will fluctuate everyday. Some days you win and some days you lose but if you lose sight of the big picture, it can drive you nuts, so I highly recommend that you keep statistics to preserve your sanity.

Tags: business statistics, small business statistics, home based business, making money online, making money

So as expected again, many bloggers thought it was cool to throw brickbats at John, saying that the widget was not getting them traffic. Well, John clearly stated that one of the best ways to get traffic was to create interesting titles. After all, millions of posts will be competing for that all important click, so who wants to click on a post title "Find a girlfriend for XYZ". Lots of blogger imagine that the BlogRush to be a miracle, hands-free, sit-back-and-chill widget that would get millions of visitors to their blogs.

Anyway, as a result of this avalanche of low quality sites joining the BlogRush network and clogging the widget with post titles for the mentally challenged, John put on his battle gear and went into action. He recruited a small army of reviewers to weed out the blogs that didn't meet the minimum standards.

Okay, so while that's in the process of being completed (he says it will take about a week's time), John is gearing to push out Phase 2 of BlogRush. You can read about Phase 2 on his blog here, but I thought I'd like to give my 2 cents for some of what he's written :

Nice. I like. Orange is a good color for old men who need reading glasses like me.

Obviously he's listening to his network members.

A boon for new blogs who are trying to compete with the big boys for prime space. I think this is just goes to show you that John is in tune with how difficult it is for new bloggers to compete in the open battle field for traffic.

Can you ask for more? Remember that BlogRush is FREE.

With thousands of junk blogs out of the way, your blog's titles will have a much better chance of getting noticed. Then again, since we don't know what the criteria is for "junk blogs", I might just find out that the widget doesn't load on HomeWithAndrew anymore!

Let's hope that the standards are maintained from day one.

This is targetting the scammers who have joined BlogRush expecting a free ride. I want my post titles to be seen prominently on someone else's blog, so it's only fair to give others the same treatment. Burying the widget where the sun don't shine in some obscure place in my blog is just not fair to others. I believe in adding the "Karma" in the BlogRush equation.

With all the work being put into BlogRush, I'm excited at the possibilities it presents. If you havent joined the BlogRush network yet, you can sign up here.

Tags: BlogRush, BlogRush Phase 2, Viral marketing for blogs, John Reese blogrush, John Reese

I found one success guru who teaches us by example. He's an adorable fella and he's got lots of gumption to reach his one and only passion in the world. You know him too, but I'll figure you never thought you could learn the secret to success from him. Well you can....

If Scrat were a real, human he'd be a great home business owner. He faces a multitude of obstacles and challenges that stand in the way of his one true passion in life - nuts.

Like any true hero in life, he stares each challenge in the eye and never backs down with fear. He focuses on what needs to be done, and he does it. Sure he miscalculates and falls flat on his face many a time, but does he give up? Nope... he bounces back with even more oomph.

I remember one snippet where Scrat slides down a looooong hill to take off into the air and grab his prized target - a nut of course - only to land in iced cold water filled with prehistoric piranha. He fights of the piranha with incredible Kung Fu moves to protect his hard earned nut.

That scene translates nicely into what every (home) business owner faces. He meticulously plans and calculates his moves to successfully launch his dream business. Then he finds there are piranhas (of the two legged species) all around him, waiting to tear him and his business to shreds. In the business world, we call these two-legged piranhas competitors and it takes all the smarts and savvy moves we can muster (Kung Fu included if necessary) to beat their attacks.

And that's the way we should ALL be... whether you're planning to work full-time at home, starting your own small business or working your regular full-time job.

Scrat teaches us in this video the secret to success is to focus on what you want, to be determined, to do whatever it takes to reach that dream and to never, ever give up.

This post also teaches us that Andrew is an overgrown baby who still loves to watch cartoons. Long live Scrat!

P.S. For more Scrat videos, visit this link.

Tags: Inspirational Video, Scrat, Home based business, Entrepreneur characteristics, Encouragement, Inspiration