So it seems we are in for some tough economic times ahead. It might be time to tighten our belts, do some cost cutting and generally begin the process of running our home businesses as bare bones as possible.

Is this scaremongering?

Well who’s to know. All the economic experts throughout the world never saw the events these past 8 weeks have produced - collapsing Banks like dominoes; the house market in a sudden utter mess (a basket case really); the sharemarket’s dropping billions/trillions in value; Governments joining with each other to prop up the world economy; Governments forced into spending taxpayers billions and so on …

So just on these things that have happened in such a short time, I’d suggest home-based business owners put their heads down, take out their business and marketing plans, and see where they’re at.

Do you run a business that relies on advertising for your income? Well, if I where you, I’d really knuckle down and watch very closely what’s happening.

… And be ruthless about it!

One of the great benefits about running your business from home is that straightaway your overheads are much lower and more manageable.

You have no payroll to cover; no rent or lease for a business premises; telecommunications should be lower, no cleaner or window cleaners.

As this blog is mainly about running an online business from home, our overheads may be smaller but they are still there.

Do you subscribe to lots of membership sites? Are you getting the most out of them? Step back and take a second look. That $47 a month membership site you’re paying for equals $564 a year. It might not be much, but it could be the difference.

Add that to the few bits and pieces you outlay every year - impulsive ebook, DVD, software buying, training courses, fancy seminars and the money really does add up. Lose a customer or advertiser and it could just be the difference between being on Struggle Street or just a small dent into your business.

Of course, I’m not saying dump all such purchases. Education and knowledge are right up there as an important part of being a better and smarter business - but maybe you can start being more selective.

Next, take a good couple of hours and get to really know Skype. Understand all that it can do. There’s nothing better than free telephone calls - national and international - and Skype is your answer.

Next up, your Web Host. Do you really need the upper-end of the scale in web hosting? Cheaper doesn’t automatically mean poorer quality. In fact, I’ve been with some really small hosts throughout the years that beat the pants of the big boys in all facets.

So, tough economic times or not, now is a great time to fine-tune your home business so that it stays small, is a tight machine and has the advantages of being able to be flexible at a moments notice.

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In Part Two, I’ll delve further into this topic and talk about the pros and cons of web apps, all those wonderful freebies floating around that can save you money and finally, taking stock of your current business activities.

These posts are all quality reads…

Sometimes we need people like Seth Godin: massively insightful posts in short bursts - thus his short post The number one secret of the great blogs is almost the ideal blog post: it’s short and leaves you thinking. Perfection!

Chris Brogan. This guy pops up everywhere. I don’t even know how he ever got on my radar. But one day there he was, a Twitter follower and from then on: a “real” social media expert in my opinion.

Two of Chris’s posts caught my attention over the weekend: When Not to Sell Me Something is a skillfully written piece with a simple message. And if you still don’t “get it” then the analogy ending the post - and it’s a vivid one - will.

And then there’s The Right Numbers. Here Chris talks about all those numbers that we - and we all follow our stats, admit it! - want to reach. Be it unique visitors, rss subscribers, email subscribers, conversion rates, revenue.

It’s different for everyone, but there comes a time when you’ve done all that you can do - ie: you’ve reached a saturation point from your own world view - and it’s now time to focus more on the relationship. Me, liking nice big round numbers, am moving every time I read it to a 1,000 true fans model that Kevin Kelly put forward in March.

Finally, I have on my To Do list (which is growing bigger by the day and is all paper-based) a whole section on how I was going to tackle the topic of virtual assistants.

I’ve been noticing a big upward trend of interest in all things virtual assistants over the past 6-12 months - but then I saw that Home Office Warrior has a special department called: Virtual Assistant and the body of work, so far, is plentiful and full of insight and … is written by a real virtual assistant. So head on over there and check it out.

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By the way, if you’ve noticed: Yep! I transfered the blog from one server to another server and got into a bit of a tangle - hence, older posts and comments have gone. They’re backed up and all, just wouldn’t or couldn’t play nice with the transfer - and I’m damned if I’m going to personally re-create all my old posts from scratch. Lets just say I’ve wiped the slate clean and am starting all over again … yes, that’s what I’ll say.

After all these years online, seeing all the latest and greatest web apps come and go you get a little jaded. Yeah another like another like another…

But Twitter is the one web app that frustrates me the most.

One day I think it’s a total waste of my valuable time and brings my productivity to a crunching halt and then the next day I think it’s next best thing since slice bread. It’s puzzling. And I’m still wrapping my head around it. By the way you can catch me on twitter - @MartinNeumann

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How Does This Sound: You start a new blog and within a week you are inundated with 60 or so offers to write posts for you. For a new new blog!

What’s more, you receive more than 29,000 page views in your first week.

To get to such a position within blogging one must surely have developed trust, credibility and probably some mixture of charisma we’ll never understand.

And Darren Rowse is one of those in such a position.

To many involved in blogging, Darren is a legend. His blog - ProBlogger - is simply a must-have in your rss reader.

If you’re a smart cookie, with people like Darren, you follow their every move. It’s a sort of trend watching. I’ve been following Darren’s blogging moves for years now and have constantly gathered new ideas and ways to present my own blogging.

Recently, Darren started up a new blog - TwiTip - and bang! my noise to signal thingy went into overdrive: a professional and internationally famous blogger (book deal and all) starts a new blog on a new topic. That signal was strong. I had to know more.

So what better way than to go straight to the source. Here’s my interview with Darren…

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Q. Firstly, thank you for taking the time for this little Q&A, it’s much appreciated. Now - if my memory serves me correctly I recall that when Twitter first hit all our shores you where pretty much on the fence (and you where not the only one). What has happened since?

Yes you’re right - when everyone started talking about Twitter 2 years ago I was in a little…. shall we say…. skeptical. I had a couple of reservations:

1. Building Up Someone Else’s Property - I remember thinking to myself that it seemed crazy to invest time into creating content on someone else’s website when I could spend time on my own.
2. I Just Didn’t See the Point - maybe it was something about tweets being only 140 characters (and me being verbose) or maybe it was because I saw a lot of people tweeting about their cats (sounds like blogging in the early days) - but I just didn’t ‘get it’.

What happened to change my mind? I guess it comes down to the fact that I decided to give it a go. Afterall - a million or more people couldn’t be wrong could they?

Actually within a few days of starting to use Twitter (I decided to give it a go so that I’d be better equipped to critique it) I realized what amazing potential it had. Yes I was investing time into someone else’s property - but the more I did it the better I saw it making my own blogs in many ways. It drives traffic, builds my brand, deepens relationships with readers, opens up opportunities to interact with others in my niche and it’s a lot of fun.

Q. You’ve moved so fast into the Twitter scene that you’ve even recently launched a new blog - TwiTip.com - Can you briefly explain the idea behind TwiTip?

I’ve been active on Twitter now for around a year and in that time I’ve found it to be more and more valuable. I’m learning so much about it as a medium and am feeling more and more energy for it as I discover new ways to use it, new Twitter tools and new people. I’ve been sharing some of what I’m learning on ProBlogger but there’s only so much I can get away with writing about Twitter on a blog about blogging.

TwiTip is an attempt to capture what I’m learning and to draw others into sharing what they know about Twitter.

I’m not sure where it will end up but at this stage (keep in mind we’re less than two weeks in) the focus of the blog is providing Twitter Tips, Tutorials, News and Tool reviews. I guess it’s a blog with the mission of helping those using Twitter become more and more effective with the medium.

Q. And of course, the obvious question: Will you be looking at monetizing TwiTip in the future - and in what ways?

Yes, at some point I’m sure I’ll begin to experiment with monetizing the blog. In fact I normally would have done so from day 1 - except in this case the topic is a little more tricky. Twitter isn’t a topic that there are a heap of advertisers ready to advertise (for example last time I looked on AdSense there were very few advertisers in that space which is an indication that it isn’t the hottest topic for advertisers). I do suspect that there are some out there though - however my main task at this point is to build up readership a little more before getting into that.

Q. From a small business owners perspective doing business online, how do you think they can use Twitter to enhance their connectivity with their audiences?

More and more businesses are getting into Twitter which is interesting to watch. It actually reminds me a little of when a similar thing happened a few years back in blogging. At that time many of us shook our heads at some of the tactics businesses used with their blogs. Spammy, Hyped, Marketing Talk, Lack of Transparency… and more.

Some of this is going on in Twitter at the moment but probably to a lesser extent (maybe they’ve started to learn their lessons).

I think there are a few basics that businesses should start with when it comes to Twitter:

1. Listen - don’t rush in. Learn the rules, language, tools and culture of Twitter before doing too much. Not only that - set up keyword alerts to track what people are saying about your business and industry.
2. Find Local Guides - find Twitter users who know what they’re doing - watch what they do, learn from them, connect with them and if they’re willing - ask them to help you.
3. Interact - whatever you do - don’t just use Twitter as a marketing spin machine. Engage in conversation, respond to your followers and be real.

Q. For the sake of my readers, can you let us know all the tools you use to run Twitter? Is there a one “must-have” tool?

What I’ve discovered is that as my Twitter follower numbers have increased and as I’ve grown in the way that I ‘Tweet’ that different tools have suited me better than others. So no - I’d say there is no one ‘must have tool’.

Having said that - for me my favorite tool at present is TweetDeck which is a great desktop Twitter client with a feature I find particularly useful ‘Groups’ which allows you to follow the tweets of certain groups of Twitter users - particularly useful when you have a lot of people that you’re following.

Q. Many people (some of them even pundits) question the productivity loss and wasted time that hanging around the Twitter “water cooler” does? Your response to that?

I agree - Twitter can be a complete waste of time. So can blogging, email, using online forums, writing letters, using the phone….

The key is to know why you’re using it, to set yourself some boundaries of how you’ll use it and then to stick to that. Tweet about anything and everything and and it is easy to get sucked into very unproductive habits - but keep your goals and objectives in mind and have some discipline and it can be very powerful.

Q. Can you look into your crystal ball (stop smirking!) and from your point of view, tell us where do you think Twitter is heading? We’ve already had a mini-backlash of sorts against affiliate marketers testing Twitter out. As you’d certainly know, the bigger an app becomes the more likelihood of gaming it, scams and all sort of ways to make a buck will eventually follow. How do you see it panning out?

I think we’ll see more and more spammy activity on Twitter - however there are also some good indications there that Twitter is willing to crack down on spam which is at least somewhat reassuring.

What does seem to be happening is that Twitter is interacting with more and more other mediums and types of services. At the same time new Twitter tools are being released on almost a daily basis. Once again - we’re seeing something similar to what happened in the blogosphere a few years back - a whole industry springing up around micro blogging/social messaging.

Q. Completely off topic now, I’ve noticed that you are using images in probably every post these days - both in your mainstay blog, ProBlogger, and now TwiTip. Did you make a decisive decision one day to go more visual or was it just a natural trend towards including a visual in every post?

The impact of images on posts is something I’ve known about for a long time - yet it is something that can be a little labor intensive so it is something I used to reserve just for what I considered to be my best posts. These days I have just built it into my workflow and ask those writing guest posts or regularly on my blogs to be intentional about including images.

Q. Thanks for your time here, Darren - and I wish you all the best with your new blog (based on the numbers so far, I think you need no luck).

Thanks. It’s always fun to start a new blog - excitement mixed with a little apprehension about how it’ll work out.

Q. Finally, are you a Twitter addict?

I don’t know what you’re getting at…. just because I checked Twitter 6 times during this interview and asked my followers how to answer a couple of the question…. now I’m suddenly addicted!?!?

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I’d like to thank Darren for taking some time out of his busy schedule in conducting this interview and especially giving some decent answers … food for thought stuff.

You can catch Darren on Twitter at @problogger

And you can visit his new blog on Twitter at TwiTip.

So, forgive the messy appearance here - I’m working my way through the site doing a spring clean sort of thing.

Together with all of that, it gave me some time to reflect and refocus about what I’m doing with my blogging.

But that’s another post.

Cheers,
Martin Neumann
Publisher | Editor | Blogger
http://www.HomeOfficeVoice.com

Well it’s my blog and I’m doing it. I have been in the home business game for way too many years now and I’ve seen it all - the good, the bad and the ugly. Yes, a cliche, but all too real. The home business sector still has a low credibility factor, sadly - I don’t think we’ll ever be rid of those “work from home, get rich yesterday” scams, so … what better way than to highlight those that do justice to the home business sector.

So … in no particular order here are my 5 Most Influential Home Business Bloggers going around today…

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1. Naomi Dunford from IttyBiz
With the tagline “Work from home tips to help you stay sane” you kow you’re going to get something good. And Naomi doesn’t disappoint. A fairly new blog on the scene, IttyBiz came across my radar somehow (who knows these days with so much information coming at us from all angles) in recent months. And I’m glad it did.

Naomi is a naturally gifted writer. You can tell by just reading a few of her posts. She’s passionate about her subject, knowledgable and is very opionated - all good traits I like in a blogger.

2. Wendy Piersall from Sparkplugging
Wendy is a legend in the online home business field. Starting off as eMoms at Home she took on the risk of starting up an “internet home business magazine”. Today, her tagline is “Work at Home Resources & Community for the Web 2.0 Generation”.

Seperated into two channels: business and lifestyle, Wendy and I apppear to be on the same wavelength - Business and lifestyle should mix well together. And more recently, Wendy has started SparkplugU, offering various courses in an online university-like setting. Very impressive.

3. Jeff Zbar from ChiefHomeOfficer.com
Jeff has been around the home business scene for a number of years. He’s a well-respected journalist and has apppeared many times in mainstream media outlets - I first noticed Jeff way back from a column he wrote in some business magazine I’ve long forgotten about. Jeff has no doubt seen more than I have ever will about all things “working from home”.

Jeff blogs quite passionately at ChiefHomeOfficer. I like his off-beat sense of humor and writing style. He doesn’t beat around the bush and he has an opinion. Obscure topics are often the norm and his insights is something I value highly.

4. Grant Griffiths from Home Office Warrior
A lawyer, Grant has started “The Internet Magazine for the Home Office Entrepreneur”. He seems passionate about the home office sector, and I notice his team writes quite a bit on virtual assistants - which is great because he can obviously see the trend in that regards.

Grant is also a heavy user of twittter and you can quite easily catch him at all times of the day and have a chat.

5. Emma Jones from Enterprise Nation
Emma Jones is all class. With a book out -Spare Room Startup: How To Start A Business From Home - ahem, where’s my review copy, Emma … - a portal-like blog with forums, Emma knows what she’s doing. And she’s doing it well. Her tagline is “A free resource to help you start and grow your business at home” and with the quality of contributors she has got on board this is one blogger to watch.

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I hope those with a real keen interest in succeeding in their own home business found some new bloggers to follow with this list.

Let me know of other ethical home business bloggers in the comments if you know of any - I’m always on the look-out for any fresh faces.

I have probably tried it all - from advertising models to affiliate marketing and everything in between.

I’ve seen the blogosphere explode over the past two years - bloggers have come and gone, new business models on the back of blogging have appeared.

In fact, as I was learning the art of blogging back in the days when the blogosphere was still pretty much a cottage industry I was more than likely taking in all the new ideas, marketing potentials and all the possibilities that blogging can offer a business.

And you know what, that has probably held me in good stead - because with HomeOfficeVoice I have moved with the times, experimented quite a bit and been open to new ideas.

And today … right now, I am in a happy place. Why? Because from all the hard work of the past 3-4 years of blogging I have brought together a set of models, systems, insights and tactics that provide me - and anyone really - with the ultimate in lifestyle: The Lifestyle Business.

Because as my tagline says: It’s All About Lifestyle!

Okay, So Tell Me About HomeOfficeVoice

With HomeOfficeVoice, my number one goal is to build a relationship and community with my readers - you!

It’s the primary foundation of building my credibility in the online home business sector. It’s really an easy equation: the more quality content I put out there for you guys the stronger the bond becomes. My credibility lives and dies by what I produce here. So my thoughts, ideas, insights and eventual blog posts simply have to be well thought out, provide clarity and offer real life solutions to the basic essence of what this whole blog is all about: living the lifestyle that you want by creating an online lifestyle business.

After some deep soul-searching, a brainstorming session and some time away I’ve come up with a bunch of topics that I’m in tune with and match up with my blogs’ goals.

These topics (categories) include:

I’ll be writing about these topics from the perspective of the home business - especially for those that are looking at creating a successful online lifestyle business.