There is a hidden art know as how to win in online contests, many people enjoy the ways to win and make money online but few take the time to actually research and improve their chances of winning and making money. Its all about knowledge.

Firstly you have to make sure that you are choosing a contest that appeals to you. It could be due to your special skills, if there is a certain area that you feel you are good at then make sure you pick a contest that works around that. It could be writing, if you feel that is your area then look for the contests for writers, it will make the whole experience more fun and not a chore.

Then its just as matter of reading all the rules very carefully this avoids trouble in the future. If you have neglected an important point such as entering the contest more than once then that is your error from you not reading the rules, you have to read them all the time.

Try and steer clear of spam and false contests. There are many cases where what you believe is true actually turns out to be false. To avoid these cases make sure you do your research beforehand and perhaps ask around to see if someone has entered one before or knows the website or company in question.

The odds will be in your favor if you do your research beforehand and find out all about the website and company. Check around the designs and see what kind of things they like or what kind of people go to the website, all this will pay of in the end.

Finally you need organization, make sure you know deadlines and have all your entries completed in time. Do a chart of all the ones you have entered and the due dates, be sure to work on the more difficult ones and the ones due sooner first.

Get more help to win online contests with this easy to use guide to winning contests.

When times are tough it’s always amazing how ingenious people get. In fact, during the great depression the chocolate chip cookie was invented! What would we be without that? But it doesn’t have to stop there. In fact, there are tons of money making businesses you can start to earn a little cash in no time flat. Here’s a few for you…

1. Internet marketing consultant.

One of the easiest money making businesses to start (if you have the talent) is Internet marketing assistance. There are hundreds of new businesses starting everyday and guess what? They DO NOT know how to sell their product! Your job is to help them get their website seen and their stories read. If you know how to do this then you can have a great money making business in no time flat.

2. Home health billing professional

This type of work at home business is a top one of the money making businesses you can start. If you do a quick search on line then you’ll find plenty of places that offer training. And, once you have the skills then the sky is the limit. Even during tough times people get sick and that’s where you come in. Many health care professionals will pay you by the job and this can be a great money making business for you.

3. Help people sell their homes!

The one thing that people are doing more than ever is trying to sell their house. And, did you know that a few tweaks here and there can equal big dollars for the home seller? It doesn’t take much to create the curb appeal that will attract the right buyer at the right time. And, if you know how to stage homes, inside and out, then you can have a great money making business for yourself and your family

4. eBay

With this money making business you have two choices. You can sell your own stuff for a profit or you can sell someone else’s stuff for a portion of the overall profits. And, if you know what you are doing then you can build up a business fast. In fact, people will be beating down your doors to turn their trash into cash. Sounds like one of the great money making businesses, huh?

5. Home Based Assistant

With many companies downsizing their staffs the need for a contract worker to do typing, answer phones or set appointments is growing by leaps and bounds. And, this can be one of the great money making businesses of all time. In fact, if you do good work you will get recommended to other businesses and your clientele could grow forever.

The path to finding a money making business you can start now is endless. The above five recommendations are just starters. Make sure you leverage your skills and your talents and be creative. Once you do that then the sky is the limit!

Todd Wesley is an internet marketer that teaches men and women everywhere to actually make money online, from home. Through his program he can show you how to start your business tonight and start making real money this week. To get started go to http://www.WorkAtHomeFormula.com

I have been a business owner and CEO of three different companies and have seen many people give up just when they were so close to success. Here are some of my observations as to what may cause new people to resign in their online business within a short space of time. If you are new to owning an online business then you may recognise a few of these traits.

Owning your first online business is exciting in the first few weeks of starting out until the hardwork and reality sinks in. The secret is keeping motivated, organised and a calm level head in order to move your business forward.

You mentor should be there to aid you and guide you on the initial steps you need to take to get your business up and running from day one. Listen to them, they have gone through this before you and are more than qualified to guide you one your way.

Mentoring and Helping Yourself

First things first, you need to be in a position to help yourself. Although your mentor is there to guide you, they are not there to hold your hands every step of the way. After all you wouldn’t expect your employer to shadow you around the firm for the first few months would you? As long as you know where all the right resources are and these could be company forums, business coaches, handbooks, online tutorials and the like which again your mentor should have guided you through initially. If they do not manage to do this, then either drop them an email, or contact them through their preferred method.

Changing your Mindset

Now that you have your employer hat on, yes that’s right, you need to have an employer hat, absolutely essential. Owning your own online business is totally different to having a boss to tell you what you must do on a day to day basis. You need to change your current mindset and take your home business seriously, even if you are only working this part time, you need to ensure you have a full time attitude.

Business Planning

With your employer hat on, you need to start looking at your online business development strategy (or business plan). What are your goals and objectives, what is it you are trying to achieve in your online business. How, why and when? You need to understand this clearly before you strike out in any shape or form.

· What types of advertising are you going to do to market your online business? Costed versus uncosted advertising. How much money do you realistically have?
· How much advertising and how regularly do you need to do this?
· Who are your target audience for each advertising method you choose?

Once you have thought through your business plan you may wish to pass this to your mentor for feedback. You mentor should once they have your business plan, help you to put things in place to meet that plan. But, in all, it is down to you as the business owner to ensure you carry out the required action to move your business forward.

Personal Development and Training

As a new person you may think you have to read up on every book, course and online forum note before you can actively go out there an promote your business – wrong!

Things don’t have to be perfect before you start doing them. In fact, as you are learning and going along is the best way to generate meaningful training notes/videos/blogs.

Set aside time for training, this is important if you wish to not only change your mind set but to move ahead in your online business. But, don’t make the mistake of setting aside too much time for self development and training and not enough time for your business. This can cause inertia in any business and ultimately ‘death’… of your online business.

Inaction

So many recruits can fall into this trap of inaction if they are left to themselves. As I mentioned before it takes a certain type of mentality to work for yourself. You have to develop and grow. A few good books that may help are

a) Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
b) The Twelve Pillars – Jim Rohn
c) Who Moved My Cheese – Spencer John MD

If you feel you are not doing anything constructive with your online business, speak to your mentor or your peers around you. Find a way to motivate yourself into action. Too many times, you hear about recruits getting disheartened after a number of months in, but if only they had the guts to stick it out a little longer, their rewards were just around the corner. Remember 97% of new online business start ups are doomed to fail – get into the 3% bracket…

Getting into Action

Equally important is setting aside time for your business. Many people will have started their business part time, with a view to making it full time in the not too distant future. If that is the case then make sure you are putting in serious part time hours in a very full time productive way.

Putting in 4 – 7 hours a week is an insult to your home business, you may as well treat this as a hobby, with the hope of getting some money now and then. If you want an online business to work you need to put in a lot of hours in the early stages, perhaps 10 – 12 or more hours a week. The early days in any online business are the hardest. People want to see results straight away, and sometimes the results do not happen like this if you do not put enough time, effort or action into your business.

In part two of this article I will write about what you can do as a mentor to ensure all of the above gets underway and that your new recruit excels in their new found online business, making you lots of residual income.

Expert Author, Internet Marketer, Entrepreneur and Strategist, Colette Morris has personally helped many people over the years to achieve their goals and objectives, through one medium or another. Colette has also provided training, presentations and advice to existing and new business owners and network marketeers to hundreds of distributors and interested parties. Her positive approach to life has also helped her to mentor clients and team members to improve their health and well being as well as their lifestyle and income potential.
See how Colette and her colleagues are helping others globally to achieve their potential at http://colettemorris.info.