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Are You Intimidated and Excited About Creating Your Home Office?

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Creating Your Home Office

You’ve decided to take the plunge, work from your own home office, and become a successful affiliate marketer. But for some reason, you can’t seem to motivate yourself to take the next step.

You’re excited about the idea and you’ve worked out what seems to be a solid plan. But you keep putting off looking for the furniture you’ll need. You’ve shopped a bit, but start to get confused looking at all of the home office desks, chairs, and additional furnishings.

Feeling Disorganized

To put it bluntly—you’re scared and overwhelmed because you can’t seem to get organized. The anticipation, excitement and exhilaration of your new endeavor are intimidating you. There are two areas you need to tackle in order to be able to approach your new business with confidence.

You must commit to organizing your physical space and your working process. I have tips and tools that will help you do just that.

Your Home Office

In order to decide what chair and desk are right for you and what other items you might need, you need to consider a few things.

  1. How much space do you have for your office?
  2. What’s the best way to utilize the space?
  3. Do you work best in an open environment or one that has a lot of nooks and crannies? (Are you looking for a flattop computer desk or one with various shelves and drawers? If space is limited, you might look at corner computer desks, which are real space savers.)
  4. Do you need additional desk space?
  5. What type of chair do you like? (It needs to be comfortable.)
  6. How will you set up the space so that you can work efficiently?
  7. Will you also be using a printer, copier, fax, etc.?

Once you’ve worked through the physical aspects of your space and have created your office space, it’s time to ensure your business is organized.

Getting and Staying Organized

I’ve discovered eight tools that every affiliate marketer should use each and every day. Taken together, they will allow you to create the ultimate efficient office environment. Here’s how these eight tools function in one of my workdays.

I login on my computer, and thanks to RoboForm, it’s a breeze since this software remembers usernames and password and fills them in for me! PageLeap comes up and there on my computer screen are all of the sites that I regularly visit. I click on one and am taken to it, and RoboForm works its magic again as it logs me in.

I login into Google to access my Google Calendar and Google Documents. The Calendar and Documents allow me to share information with anyone from any computer. I’m using Skype to connect me with a few affiliates as we hunker down for a video conference regarding a new product. I’m recording the meeting using Pamela, a Skype add-on, and I’m sharing some photos of the new product by utilizing SnagIt, a product from TechSmith.

When the meeting is over, I go to another one via Skype. This is thousands of miles away from the last. By the end of the day, I’ve travelled around the virtual world numerous times and have gathered together a lot of new and important information. The great thing is that a secure server has already backed up any new information that’s been generated as I use Carbonite. If my hard drive crashes, I’m protected because I can retrieve everything I need via Carbonite.

You’ve just gone on a tour of an efficient, well organized, and smartly maintained company. Welcome to my world!

Success Can be Yours

Once I had become an accomplished and respected affiliate marketer, I looked back on what I had done to ensure that I would have every chance possible to build a successful business. I asked myself how I had become the guy who seemed to be working hard and spinning his wheels to the man who was now spinning the wheels of his 1965 Shelby Cobra replica?   😉

It came about because I used all of my anticipatory energy in a positive manner as I developed my home office, created my business, and refined each and every aspect. It’s time for you to do the same. Utilize the insights and tips in this blog, and get started. You can do it!

Over to You!

What’s been your experience? Do you have a favorite tool to share?

About

James Martell is an Internet pioneer who discovered the lucrative world of affiliate marketing in 1999. He is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur and a leading expert in affiliate marketing training, outsourcing and natural search engine optimization. James is also the host of the "Affiliate Buzz", the first and longest running affiliate marketing podcast in the industry (since 2003). Google+ James Martell

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{ 18 Responses }

  1. Julia says:
    Nice article, thanks for the tips. Staying organized is key to keeping focused and getting things accomplished. I always make a to do list every morning for everything I need to get accomplished that day.
  2. Matt says:
    I have worked from home for nearly 3 years now and if there is one thing I can recommend it is to ensure you are comfortable!! I used a dining chair for over a year before finally getting a decent office chair - sweet relief!
  3. John Holland says:
    Thanks for the motivation. My home office currently consists of a desk in my basement, not exactly conducive to productivity.
  4. Ayden says:
    I had a bad experience with my home office. It's just not me. There are a lot of distractions. I find that working out of cafes, pubs, parks, etc tend to keep me focused on the task. I even rented a section of an office for a few months - I found that really productive but very expensive
  5. Delena Silverfox says:
    Organization is the key to so many successes in life. I'm one of those that believe there's no such thing as too much organization. If I know where everything is, then I don't have to waste any time when I need it. And when everything has a place, and everything is *in* its place, then I don't waste time tripping over things, or moving things around, or any of that other disorganization frustration. Simple and streamlined; that's how I like things. =) Maybe it's a bit Type A to live with, but I never hear complaints about how easy it is to find things in my home, or how comfortable and clean it is, either! lol Favorite tool for simple and streamlined? Definitely the Buffer app. I installed it with Chrome, and it's been heaven! Nothing has made my social media experience so easy as Buffer has! Delena
  6. John says:
    Hi James, Remarkable post, Very simple tips to follow!! i am agree with you, if we organized things properly it improves our productivity and work quality. Thanks John
  7. Fran Aslam the Onlinewriter says:
    Great tools and awesome post you have shared here. Office home and its tool are important for an organized business Fran a
  8. Simon Canter says:
    Hi James - What I love about this article is the energy which kind of lies underneath it. It's great advice and some super tools, but ultimately you can have all of that at your disposal, and still not succeed if you don't harness the energy and discipline available to us all. Setting up at home is one of the most exciting things you can do, but you have to temper that with self-control and get down to business!
    • James Martell says:
      Yes, agreed that it's all about getting down to business and getting and staying organized can really help! ;)
  9. Andreas says:
    Setting up a home office is a great step for many people trying to make money online and being independent and their own boss. However you have to be very careful and better set yourself real working schedules, as if you would go to a real office, otherwise you may end up delaying work until you shut down your PC before going to bed and get much less things done.
    • James Martell says:
      I have found that those who typically need to be told they need to set themselves a schedule don't make it in business. It is a trait that should be a natural because they're driven to succeed..
  10. ZK says:
    With all the details you provided about ... I would love to see your set up James.Kindly provide us few photos of yours.
  11. Dennis Edell says:
    How many sites can fit on a page-leap page?
    • James Martell says:
      Thanks for the question. You can set-up unlimited categories each with 20 websites per category. Those 20 websites display on the page. If there are more than that a "more" link appears which opens a pop-up for the others. James
  12. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi James, Great post and super tools you've shared with us. Mental disorder leads to physical disorder and vice-versa. Keep your home office orderly and your state of mind follows suit. The key is to be present, to resist the urge to toss stuff around and keep your virtual and physical file cabinets in order. Thanks for sharing James! RB
    • James Martell says:
      RB thanks for the kudos. A little tip I use for keeping things uncluttered revolves around paper. It seems almost everyone who wanders into my home office brings me a piece of page. The rule is for every piece you bring in you must take two with you. Problem solved. ;) James
  13. Julius says:
    Wonderful article! I, for one, works at home and setting up my personal office was never a problem for me. I'm a CKD patient and since working from home was the most logical next step, not much motivation was needed to set myself up. Another thing is I don't fuss much about this and that, I just get it done.
    • James Martell says:
      Sounds like you've got it all hooked up. Way too go!