One of the best benefits to becoming an affiliate marketer is that you can set your own hours and work from home. This is an ideal situation for some people. I have personally found that I am more effective working from home. I cut out commute time, can grab something to eat quickly and feel more comfortable. It isn’t an ideal situation for everyone though. There are some unique problems that the affiliate marketer faces when they work from home.
1. Instant Messaging: A lot of business environments will have things like instant messaging and email monitored, so you are wary of wasting time on them. Some places will even have I.M. services blocked. At home though, you are free to message away. Using an instant messenger can help you connect with clients and colleagues, the problem is when friends log on and see that you are available. When I am writing a blog post, the last thing I want to see is a friend pop up on instant messenger. That sounds bad, but oft times it is a complete time sink. At the best, it just momentarily distracts you, at the worst you get sucked into some kind of conversation.
The easiest thing to do is turn off your instant messenger, but like we mentioned before you may need it to communicate. If you use a messenger program for your online work, try to use one that your friends don’t use. For example, all of my friends are on my MSN, but I use Skype for work only contacts. This way I am rarely distracted.
2. Family: One of the benefits for working at home is more family time. This is especially great if you have younger kids, you won’t miss all of their milestones while you are out at work. No one wants to call their family a “distraction” but sometimes they can be. If you were working a full time job, you would sit down at a certain hour and just work. When you are at home you may sit down to work, but then your family may need you for something, or they might interrupt etc… It can certainly kill any momentum you build up.
One way to address this is to set some boundaries. It can be tough to do with family, and of course an emergency will trump any boundaries set but it is still a good idea. You can even sit down with your family and figure out what these boundaries are together. For example, you can say that from 9-12 I am going heads down everyday, outside of an emergency, please don’t interrupt. It also helps to have somewhere quiet and out of the way in the house to work. While these steps may seem harsh, it is actually a good compromise. Working from home will give you a lot more family time, so having some peace and quiet when you need it should be no problem.
3. Pets: I am a big dog guy, I love them and will probably always have one. I actually know there are benefits to having a pet – both health and mental. They are also great to have around the home office. They have a certain calming effect. If you live alone, they are also company. Some people miss the hustle and bustle of the office environment when they start working from home. If you are home alone, a pet can help. The problem is – they are needy. They need to have things done for them. If this interrupts your workflow it can be a distraction.
The key is to train your pets properly. You simply have to make their feeding and bathroom times coincide with your breaks. It isn’t too hard to juggle at all if they are trained well in the first place. You wake up and eat breakfast, so do they. When you eat lunch, they go out etc.. After awhile you will both get used to the routine and instead of a distraction the pet will become a comforting presence.
No one wants to think about their friends, family or pets as distractions. if you work from home though, they definitely can be. Luckily now that you have read this article you will have an idea of how you can address these issues before they become distractions. Use the above tips and you will be able to limit your distractions and increase your profits.
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