4 Great Ideas for an Easy Home Based Business

Do you love the idea of working from home? Does being able to earn an income from your own backyard sound exciting? Then starting a home business may be the path for you. Do you need some tips on how to start an easy home based business? These simple ideas can get your wheels turning, hopefully into profit.One of the most popular ideas for years for an easy home based business has been a home daycare. This allows you to be at home, provide a loving, safe environment for the children of working parents, and get paid – all at the same time. Each state has different regulations regarding in-home day cares, so be sure to follow those guidelines and regulations closely.Do you live in a large, historic home located in a tourist area that attracts lots of visitors? Do you have a couple of extra rooms and a bathroom that you don’t use? Use that space and turn your home into a bed and breakfast for tourists. By offering a suite for guests and a hearty breakfast, your home could become a popular attraction for vacationers, honeymooners, or those just passing through. It’s a win-win for everyone – the space gets used, guests have a unique place to stay on their trip, and you get paid – all at the same time!Another great idea for an easy home based business is cleaning. Let’s face it, cleaning house is one of those chores that has to be done, yet there are few that actually enjoy doing it. And for a person who has a busy life and works outside the home, this is a chore that can often get pushed to the bottom of the list. If you are one of those who enjoys cleaning – consider offering your services to others – for a fee, of course. You could set your prices based on light cleaning, weekly services, or large deep cleanings. Usually if someone finds a good housekeeper or cleaner, they keep them around, and will tell their friends!One last great idea for an easy home based business is pet sitting. Often when people travel for extended periods of time, they are faced with boarding their pets, which can get expensive. As a pet sitter, you would go daily and spend time with the pets, in their own home, or yours, if it is pet friendly, feed them, take them for walks, and give them social interaction while their owners are away. This is a great first job for children or teens. It might also be great for those who love animals, but can’t have pets in their own home.These are just a few of the jumping off points for an easy home based business. Get creative, think outside the box, and start making your own money!

Home Based Business Leads – 5 Popular Methods To Get Free Leads

If you are involved in a home business opportunity I assume you want to make money, to do so you need home-based business leads and the most sought-after leads are free leads. Most people wanting to work at home especially work at home mom’s are doing it part-time to earn extra money so they usually don’t have very much money to spend on getting leads to begin with.

Of course if you have a big budget, paying for leads for a legitimate home based business such as MLM is the quickest way to get a work at home Internet business established. But, this article is about getting free leads for your Internet business to earn money online so let’s get on with it.

These are the five most popular methods that I know of that are used to get free leads for a home-based business opportunity.

* Blogs: Using the keyword(s) that you have chosen in your niche, search for other blogs that allow comments. If you leave comments that are beneficial to the blog post you may be allowed to leave a link to your blog.

If you leave a comment like “great blog” or some other irrelevant comment you will most likely be deleted so make the comment good.

* Article Marketing: This is a great way to get free leads, and there’s a few ways that you can approach this for maximum benefit. The concept is pretty simple and there are some great advantages in using it, one being that you don’t necessarily need a website to get these leads.

Another big advantage is that the articles themselves can rank fast in your keyword niche in the search engines if they are published on authority domains resulting in free leads. The key is using what is called the author box or bio box.

Here you can put in a link that will take your reader to your blog or squeeze page hopefully capturing their email address.

* Forums: Find a forum in your niche and join it. You can easily find forums in a business opportunity by going to Google or any other search engine and typing in your niche keyword(s), the plus sign (+) and the word “forum”.

Now the only reason to join a forum is to post a signature file with your web address so if the forum does not allow you to do so, don’t bother joining it. As I stated before when commenting on blogs, give comments or answers that are beneficial to the question being asked in the forum.

* Social Media: Examples are Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. If you have a small business using this method can get you a lot of exposure. Getting involved is easy; here are a few pointers to help.

You need to find groups in popular categories on your niche topic and join them, and then start sending out friend requests to group. You should start a fan page on any topic of your choice where you can encourage interaction among the fans.

As an entrepreneur you would be remiss in not taking advantage of this method to further your Internet home business.

* Warm market: Three words “don’t do it”. I have a friend who is in the home-based travel business and after three months of his calling all his friends and relatives he had what we call “NFL”, No Friends Left.

If you try to get your friends or relatives involved in your work at home business you will be making a big mistake. Even if you think you have the best home-based business idea, your friends will treat you as a “direct sales snake oil salesman” and will not be picking up the phone when they know it is you.

Final word, if you use even one of the above methods (with the exception of your warm market) you will get the home-based business leads that you need and it won’t cost any more than your time.

New Real Estate Laws and Same Sex Couples

It’s no secret that same sex couples are not created equal. Not only with general discrimination that exists, but being allowed to legally wed (in most states), adding your significant other to your health care plan, or even buying a home together proves to be a challenge. With the new real estate laws and same sex couples, they may now have one up on this jaded system we call “constitutional.”

The Supreme Court has dismissed the existing law that identifies marriage as a joining of a man and a woman. This might be a small step to the general population, but it is huge to gay couples. And while it does not remove all of the other obstacles that they still face, it is a step in the right direction.

So what does this have to do with real estate? Well, the Supreme Court has recently ruled that a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unlawful. For gay and married couples, this means changes that will affect the mortgage interest tax deduction and VA Home loans.

Married gay couples, who until now have not been unable to claim this tax deduction, will now be able to file tax returns jointly. In the past, these couples living in states that allowed gay marriage would not allow couples to file joint tax returns. Since this ruling, DOMA must recognize same sex marriage just as a marriage between a man and a woman, and as such, they will now have the same rights when it comes to the mortgage interest tax deduction.

When it comes to VA loans there is still plenty of work to be done. Currently, a married gay veteran who would like to obtain a VA loan cannot include his/her partner as a spouse on the application. This is because the federal rules require the spouse to be of the opposite sex. While a joint loan is possible, if both are veterans, the VA only allows a portion of the loan to married gay applicants. What a way to treat those who service our country, wouldn’t you say?

While we as a country, are nowhere near treating gay couples equally when it comes to the laws and how they are applied to same sex couples and what we call “traditional marriage,” continued small strides and wins are definitely helping.

Perhaps one day we will all be treated equally. While that is too far down the road for any of us see, maybe one day it will happen. Until then, rulings such as this will help ensure that any gay couple who wishes to buy a home is not discriminated against because of their sexual preference.