Have you ever noticed that as soon as you try something out of the ordinary, every body and their Dutch cousin seems to come out of the woodwork trying to discourage you. "Are you crazy, you can't make it on the Internet, that's for those techie people, you're just wasting your time and money." I've yet to hear from one of my friends who says, "oh great, can I help you? What can I do to help you be successful?" Wouldn't that be a switch? In fact, the frequent negative reaction of friends and family have prompted most Internet marketers who sell you a program to get started, to put a disclaimer in their first lesson. "Don't tell your family and friends that you're taking this course until you are successful" or something to that effect. What is it about making money on the Internet that every body, and I mean EVERY BODY, feels the need to discourage instead of encourage a person?
Starting an Internet-based business from home is a very lonely proposition. For starters, not many of us start that kind of business adventure while we are doing great in our 9-to-5 jobs. In fact, if you're like me, you started looking at making money from the Internet because you have given up looking for a suitable 9-to-5 job in this economic downturn. Not surprisingly, we are already very susceptible to feeling poorly about ourselves. After all, all we're trying to do is to create a decent income stream from which we cannot get downsized, right sized or let go.
That's why I started "The Business Isolette," I found out very quickly that it is a lot easier to start a business than to keep one going and profitable. For instance, you may have started a brand-new blog with a bunch of great ideas and now you want to monetize it with affiliate links, so, you spend half the night looking at affiliate programs that look like they fit your market niche only to find out that the HTML link doesn't work when you try to link words in your blog to a product that you are discussing. Of course, you can't find a human being that is able to tell you why it doesn't work. Or you're trying to set up a website to discuss your idea and market suitable products as an affiliate. Someone tells you to use XYZ program to start a blog a particular company to use as web host. The only problem is, you can't find a back page and if you do, you need a PhD or yet another course to figure out how to work it. Sounds familiar?
I know I cannot be the only one with problems like that so, I started to become proactive. I started a website, "The Business Isolette", I want it to become a website where people can ask questions and have discussions on how best to do a certain task, no matter what business they are in. E-How is a great resource but it doesn't tell you which computer is the most accessible, how to use speech software in web-pages that don't like direct dictation, how to fix SEO problems in your particular website, write constructive criticism in your comment box or check an active link to see if it really works the way you intended.
There is no website that sends you an encouraging e-mail, IM or Facebook message when you're feeling down and discouraged or one that keeps you on task when you feel like giving up. I still feel like, I can make it on the Internet but to build the Business Isolette into what I envision, I need your help. I need newbeis on the Internet and those of you who have a certain amount of experience in a particular area who wish to participate and thereby get some extra free advertisement for their efforts.
For most of my adult life I worked in the Independent Living Movement, mostly in Centers for Independent Living. Where, for a time, I was involved in job coaching and employment strategies for people with disabilities. I know the pitfalls of the employment market.
My own disability has increased and I need assistance now. Having used computers for a while, I seriously started looking into making money on-line. Just like any novice, I made plenty of mistakes, bought into stuff that does not work or is unnecessary, fell victim to a few Internet scams for which I was the proverbial "red meat" and so forth. Nevertheless, the computer provides the ultimate Equal Work Place for people with disabilities, busy moms and homebound seniors alike. You can customize your screen to whatever is comfortably accessible; work hours when the kids are asleep or supplement your fixed income in a rocking chair on the back porch.
Moneymaking online is, however, fraught with pitfalls, U-turns, dead ends and steep cliffs.