I am fortunate enough to be able to tether my laptop to my phone in order to have access to the Internet at
all times…well at least when I have signal. So far there’s only been one area I didn’t have signal and that was because we had to take a detour off the main highway for construction which took us to a woodsy back road.

I also have an adapter that plugs into the cigarette lighter for power so I can work on my laptop endlessly. I’m sure I won’t work endlessly, but it is nice being able to work as long as I can. After all, what else am I going to do for 14 hours!

So, one of the great things about working from home is being able to work where I want! I can go on last minute trips and still make money. Now, I definitely don’t intend on making every trip a working trip, but since this one was so last minute, it sure is handy knowing I can.

How about you? Are you realizing your dreams of being able to work where you want? If you would like more information about working from home, read Tips for Starting your WAH Business and Leaving your J.O.B. and How to Achieve Your Goal of Working From Home Full Time.

photo credit: Asbestos Bill

So, let’s talk about your schedule

If you have little ones at home, you probably have some sort of schedule set up around your babies nap time and play time or time with Nana or Daddy. If you don’t, I highly suggest you get one because otherwise you’ll find that you never have time to work your business, especially around the busy Holidays.

During the Holiday season, you will need to schedule some time in for Holiday shopping, decorating, baking and celebrating, all while maintaining and building your business. The best way to do this is to use a planner or calendar and actually schedule in times set aside specifically for Holiday happenings.  You may have to do some juggling in your schedule, especially if your little ones have school programs you want to attend.

Having a schedule is a lot like being on a budget. When you keep track of your income and expenses, you know exactly how much money you have to spend on things like entertainment and eating out. When you keep track of your daily activities you’ll be able to see where you can fit that extra time in needed to get ready for the Holidays.

Now let’s talk about marketing

The Holidays open up a whole new world of possible customers, clients and subscribers to your work at home business. Many people do their very first online searches during the Holiday season. Whether they’re looking for that special toy for the grandkids, looking for new ways to decorate their home or a new Holiday recipe, the number of people searching the Internet during the Holidays increases significantly.

With that in mind, you want to make certain your site is found by the search engines. The way to do that is through SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. If you don’t know anything about SEO, click here and read all the articles under the heading Search Engine Optimization.

The other key to reaching new customers, clients and subscribers is to utilize the numerous social networking tools available right at your fingertips. Social networking is the fast becoming the number one way to reach your customers. Through programs like Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, Delicious, and beyond, you can instantly increase the number of hits to your site with a tweet, a status update, by stumbling, digging and bookmarking your site. But the real key is to get your followers, friends and subscribers to do it for you.  You should have on your site, at the very least, a Tweet button, a Facebook button, a StumbleUpon button and a Delicious button. If you use WordPress, there are plugins available that will automatically place these buttons on each of your posts, so when your subscribers are done reading your latest blog post, with the click of a button, they can instantly give a shout out to their favorite social network, a link to your blog. Then their friends and followers see it, and viola, you have a new reader.

Of course no one is going to click on your link if your titles aren’t catchy and the content is crap. Another key to successful internet marketing is having high quality content on your blog or site, in addition to posting regularly. There is a wealth of information here under the heading Content & Article Marketing for you to learn everything you need to know on this subject.

Now is the time to get ready for the Holidays! With a good schedule and good marketing techniques, you will be well on your way to a successful Holiday season in your personal life and for your work at home business.

photo credit: tuchodi