A blog is a type of online journal that a person can use to post on a variety of different topics. People use Blog for just about anything including a shared online journal and advertising their business, among others. A lot of people are hesitant to begin a blog because they feel it is complicated, but really it is not. Here are three very basic tips to get you started, and before you know it you will be blogging in no time at all. A best thing about blogging is it’s free! So follow these steps and start blogging.

1. Content

Think about the content you wish to put into your blog. Is it going to be a personal journal, information on a certain topic, or even a way to advertise your business? No matter what the reason content is important. Start your blog with three of four topics at first. This will begin your blog and get you visitors to your site. Most of these visitors will post comments on the topics and when they do, pay attention to them. Look for any questions in these posts; they will probably give you your next topic without even realizing. Be sure though, before you post your topics you carefully research them. You want to appear as an expert on the subject you are blogging on, so research is extremely important. The more you know on your topic the more of an expert you will appear.

2. Availability
-You need to make yourself available to your visitors. Keep your profile updated and include email instructions for any questions that your visitor may have. The more available you are to the visitor the happier they will be.

3. Personalize

-Once you have your blog created now is the time to add links to affiliates related to your site. One of the most popular sites for bloggers to do this with is clickbank. There are other sites available besides clickbank and are fairly easy to find. All you will have to do is go to your search engine and type in advertising affiliates and you will be amazed at the number of returns. Businesses are eager to have their business promoted and are willing to pay people to do this, what a great advantage for a blog. This site will provide you with a lot of different advertisers that you can place on your blog. What is even better is you can make money while advertising. One important thing to remember when you are adding your links is not to go overboard. Too much advertising can turn your visitors away.

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No matter what the purpose of your blog may be if you follow these three easy steps you will be up and blogging in no time. What even better is when you add the affiliate links you can make great money too without even trying. And that is Three Steps to a Great Blog!

Financial expert Suze Orman talked about steps people must take in our worsening U.S. economy on the Today Show on November 21, 2008. Foremost, we must stop spending and, if in debt, we must get out of debt.

Update: In a recent article, she discussed nine small money steps that can make a difference. Here is an excerpt:

I get so frustrated when people tell me it’s unrealistic to create an eight-month emergency savings fund, or have money saved for a home down payment, or pay off their $5,000 credit card balance. I am not suggesting that you can snap your fingers and have everything taken care of.

What I’m telling you is to move toward your goals in steps. Rather than get lost in the big picture — “Eight months? Are you crazy, Suze? I can never do that!” — focus on what is within your power: the sums you can sock away every week or month to get closer to what you’re trying to achieve.

Put $50 a week into a bank savings account earning 2 percent interest, and in three years you will have saved more than $8,000.

The article continues here: 9 small money steps that pay off big

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CBS News 60 Minutes interviewed U.S. President Elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama on November 16, 2008.  Steve Kroft conducted the extensive interview which was taped on Friday in Chicago.  Of great interest is what Obama and his administration plan to do to address the worsening economic crisis and this was discussed at length. Obama affirmed commitment to helping homeowners …

 One area that I’m concerned about, and I’ve said this publicly, is we have not focused on foreclosures and what’s happening to homeowners as much as I would like. We have the tools to do it. We’ve gotta set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes. [...]

..And the auto industry, but not with a “blank check.”

So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere.

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The interview had a personal side as well, as both Obama and his wife talked about the transition to the White House.  Being leader of the free world is, after all, the ultimate work from home job.

(CBS) Kroft: I know that from talking to you, you’ve said that this has put a lot of, you know, your husband’s involvement in politics has put strains in your marriage from time to time. He’s about to take over the most pressure packed job in the world. But he’s also gonna be home, right?

Michelle Obama: Oh yeah. He’s got a big office at home now.

You know, this entire year and a half has brought us closer together as a family. And we managed to stay close and become even closer with Barack gone most of an entire two year period. And now we get to be together under the one roof, having dinners together. And, you know, I envision the kids coming home from school and being able to run across the way to the Oval Office and see their dad before they start their homework. And having breakfast. And he’ll be there to tuck them in at night. And, you know, again, you know, there’ll be moments of deep seriousness and times of great focus. But, you know, we’ll be together doing that. And that gives me reason to be very excited.

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And no interview would be complete without an update on the Obamas’ search for a dog for their daughters.

See also the full transcript:

• Obama On Economic Crisis, Transition
• The Obamas On Their Personal Transition
• Obamas On Picking The Presidential Pooch

We have the technology for data transfer, but what about data security? Carl Weinschenk examines this pressing issue:

For telework proponents, there certainly is good news in CDW Corporation’s latest survey. For instance, it says that 14 percent of private sector employees telecommute and 17 percent of federal folks work at home. Seventy-six percent of private companies offer remote work support – an increase of 27 percentage points from last year – and 56 percent of federal agencies do as well.

Security remains the top concern of 42 percent of federal and 27 percent of private IT pros. Over 80 percent of the professionals in both groups said that they rate their security systems and procedures as effective. More than half in each group – 56 percent of federal and 74 percent of private – authenticate machines and people separately. Almost 70 percent of employers provide the computers and equipment that telecommuters use.

This is all good. The question, however, is whether it is enough.

For a while, it was axiomatic that telecommuting was the wave of the future. Then the common wisdom shifted, and telework became a disappointment. The reality is that telecommuting can find a way through almost all the doubts and obstacles that skeptics throw in its way. People will goof off if they work at home? It’s possible to compare productivity and incentivize people to work at the appropriate level. (Indeed, in this economy, the incentive should be that they keep their job.) Telecommuting hurts team building and cooperative projects? New software alleviates a lot of the problems of a dispersed work force.

The only immovable barrier, it seems, will be security, simply because what is at stake in that discussion is so much greater: A worker not generating as much work at home as at the office or who feels isolated is too bad. The loss of sensitive data because a home computer is poorly protected is a potential crisis. It is important to note that the CDW study focuses on the attitudes of IT professionals. Of course, it is possible for them to say that they feel the organization is adequately protected. The key, however, is how the CEO and CFO feel. (More.)

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Telecommuters, take a three-minute break and watch “The Job” and see what your commuting colleagues are confronting. We can thank Screaming Frog Productions for this brilliant, satirical short film.

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We should all have such amusing predicaments as this…..

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CareGroup CIO John Halamka has written a probing, in-depth article about IT telecommuting, identifying problems and devising solutions. Here is an excerpt.

In my 10 years as a CIO, I’ve strongly believed that productivity is optimized when everyone meets and works in close physical proximity. That way, teams get the benefit of being able to brainstorm in person, respond to urgent issues as a group and build trust among one another. I didn’t think telecommuting was right for IT departments.

This article is my official about-face on telecommuting and flexible work arrangements. A variety of factors have changed my opinion on the best way to get work done.

First, the travel required to bring employees together in an office has become burdensome and expensive. Metropolitan areas are clogged with traffic, and gas prices are causing financial hardship. On average, I spend 1.5 hours in my car each day commuting a total of 20 miles to and from my office. Many of my staff members spend as much as four hours a day commuting. That’s almost the equivalent to half their workday. At the same time, people’s awareness of the environmental impact of those long commutes is on the rise. If working flexible hours reduces an employee’s commute by an hour or more each way, productivity and staff satisfaction will rise.

What’s more, face-to-face meetings that take weeks to schedule no longer support the pace of IT change and the level of service demands. Finding all the talented employees I need on staff within a reasonable commuting distance is also challenging. And for some jobs, the interruptions an office brings may actually reduce employee productivity. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts recently piloted a flexible work arrangement and found that productivity for 200 staffers working from home rose 20 percent; only two participants had performance issues.

Given these facts, I believe IT leaders are obligated to explore the entire spectrum of flexible work arrangements including telecommuting, homesourcing (a combination of outsourcing and telecommuting), virtual teams, and replacing travel with teleconferencing. Staffing an office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. doesn’t make sense if it requires employees to spend hours in traffic.

The article continues.

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Say it isn’t so. What with broadband, WiFi and all manner of mobile commuting why would the telecommuting trend end? Sue Shellenbarger addresses this very question in a recent column.

The call came toward the end of my hour as a recent guest on a Minnesota Public Radio talk show. “Jim from Minneapolis” said he and many of his telecommuting colleagues were being called back to the office.

After years of working productively from home, Jim said he was surprised and disappointed.

Although working from home has been expanding steadily, some chinks are appearing in the trend. A few big promoters of home-based and mobile-office work arrangements, including AT&T, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and parts of the federal government, have called some home-based workers back to the office, causing some to quit. The callbacks are small and don’t reflect a full retrenchment, but the factors at work — a push to consolidate operations, and the notion that teamwork improves when people work face-to-face — suggest other employers might follow suit as recession clouds loom.

The article continues.

Broadband Reports also discusses this new trend of companies calling workers back to the office.

Shellenbarger’s offers tips for retaining your telecommuting job.

• Perform well. In explaining the callbacks at Hewlett-Packard, Chief Information Officer Randy Mott said last year that telecommuting “had gotten applied more broadly than really made sense,” and would be limited to “people who are proficient and who’ve shown they can perform over time.” Make sure measurable objectives are set for your job, then meet them.

• Increase your visibility. One behavior sure to irk managers is to use work-at-home freedom to move to a location so remote, such as Hawaii, that travel costs soar. Although Intel disputes the assertion, people familiar with the callbacks there cite such abuses as a factor. Wherever you’re located, find ways to remain visible.

• Make an effort to collaborate. Elliott Masie, head of the Masie Center, a Saratoga Springs, N.Y., research organization, says many younger managers are comfortable collaborating online. But as pressures mount, older managers may revert to the notion that to build teamwork, “it’s important for everybody to sit around and sing ‘Kumbaya’ together,” he says. It may be wise to join that chorus.

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From the highly respected Rat Race Rebellion, here is an informative video which will help you in your search for legitimate telecommuting jobs.

Find out more at Rat Race Rebellion, which is owned by Staffcentrix. Who are they? In their own words,

Since 1999, when we launched the pioneering virtual-careers training company, Staffcentrix, and in our various roles as trainers, authors, newsletter publishers, confidants and “lifestyle advisors,” we’ve been helping people around the world “rebel” against the oppressive sprawl-and-crawl trends of modern life and take back control of their lives.

Opportunities await! Get paid for blogging.

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The Vancouver Sun reports on a recent study that confirms what teleworkers have experienced and what employers are beginning to recognize and acknowledge.

Working from home, or “telecommuting,” is becoming more commonplace and popular among workers as technological advancements allow for it.

But is everyone a fan?

The conventional wisdom is that allowing people to work from home can hurt business. Telecommuters may be less productive, more inclined to quit and perform less well than workers at the office. Employers may be concerned that at-home workers are more easily distracted by family and social obligations and opportunities, perhaps doing less in a day and negatively affecting business results.

Critics also maintain that letting employees work from home should be avoided since it damages staff chances for promotion, undermines supervisor-subordinate relationships and increases family conflict. When staff aren’t in the office, they appear to be less loyal and committed as a result. This damages their reputations as promotion-ready and they are sidelined.

Relationships with supervisors are supposed to suffer under these arrangements as well. Managers rely on observing staff to evaluate their performance. When the manager can’t see what staff are doing, distrust could develop, causing supervisors to monitor employees more closely. They may implicitly suspect that the worker is not pulling his or her weight by hiding out at home.

Families could suffer more under telecommuting arrangements since technology reduces boundaries between work and family. People find their loved one constantly working and unavailable, see no downtime for the telecommuter and as a result conflict increases.

Right?

Not according to a recent study in The Journal of Applied Psychology, which firmly debunks these claims. Ravi Gajendran and David Harrison at the Department of Management and Organization with Pennsylvania State University, conducted an extensive review of 46 studies on the subject featuring 12,883 employees. Their results show that working from home is good for business and for staff.

The article continues, itemizing the key advantages of telecommuting.

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