As an SEO that works from home I face many struggles every day. Some of those struggles are from clients, however the majority are caused by my own relaxed work environment. I’m not even going to attempt to tell you how to solve client problems. However, if you work from home, I can help you become a bit more productive in your day-to-day work. And it might even help some of you who have to make the trek into the corporate office every day.

Things you need to work from home:

• Dedicated office
• Non-cell work phone
• Reliable Internet service
• Laptop computer
• USB mouse, keyboard, large external monitor
• At least two whiteboards
• To-do / Done Lists
• Google Apps calendar
• Coffee shop nearby
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking and a good headset

The Basics

The dedicated office will keep the kids and pets out as well and also signify that when you are in there you are working. You shouldn’t need a note on the door or anything like that. It needs to be understood that when you’re in your office you are working. The non-cell work phone is simply because cell phones cut out a lot and if you are doing business on a cell phone everybody is going to know it. Reliable Internet service is a necessity. If you are in SEO you already know that and I don’t have to explain why.

Productivity

Working on a laptop keyboard and the trackpad is a horrible waste of time. Get yourself a wireless mouse and a full-sized keyboard and you will be working a whole lot faster. The larger monitor will allow you to accomplish more in your workday. You doubt me? According to a study by the University of Utah you can increase the speed in which you accomplish certain functions by up to 30% by getting a larger monitor. Read the link and go buy a larger monitor now!

The small whiteboard is for your “to-do” list. This is not just a regular to-do list though. It is also a list of what has been completed. This means that instead of simply crossing off something from your to-do list you are also writing the finished task or item on your completed list. Everybody knows that it feels good to see a to-do list shrink throughout the day. But it’s far more energizing looking at what you completed then looking at what still has to be done.

The second whiteboard, the large one, is to keep track of your clients and projects. Having a visual reminder of where you are on all of your different projects is a great way of keeping yourself on task. If you can look up and see that one client needs to have three titles rewritten, another needs to have an infographic created, and a third needs to re-sign a contract you will know this any minute of the day.

An online calendar (I use the one in Google Apps) is extremely helpful because you can block out your day for specific tasks. If you have a meeting from 9 AM until 10:30 you simply block that out. Then you might have the next 30 minutes blocked out for returning phone calls. After that, you may block out the next hour writing the link outreach e-mails. Block out every minute of the day. Fill some of the time with specific tasks that you need to get done and give yourself a couple blocks of time to take care of whatever arises in the middle of the day.

You know those things happen. It happens to all of us. And whatever you do, always block out time for breakfast and lunch. This is necessary not only for your sanity, we all need a break in the middle of the day, but also so that you are not getting up and going to the refrigerator every 15 minutes. Eat large meals so that you are not hungry throughout the day. The refrigerator can be one of your biggest time wasters of the day, at least it is mine.

The reason I specified a laptop computer is because you cannot take a desktop to the local coffee shop. When you work from home there are going to be days when you just need to get out of the house. It is inevitable. The kids might be annoying you, the dogs might be barking, or you might not be in the right frame of mind when you are at home. If you need to leave, do it. In addition to being a place of escape, the coffee shop can be a great place to have a meeting with a potential new client, meet with a coworker that also works from home, or even find new clients.

I would be absolutely lost, and this post never would have been written, without Dragon NaturallySpeaking and a good headset. If you are anything like me, hopefully not, you failed typing in sixth and seventh grades. If so, you will appreciate how easily you can simply speak into a microphone and see year words come up on the screen. Is it absolutely perfect? No. Does it make writing a heck of a lot easier? Definitely.

In Conclusion

Working from home provides way too many ways to distract yourself from your work. Do your best to remove those distractions by keeping your stomach full, your working area for work, and give yourself the excitement of not just of crossing off items on your to do list, but watching your list of completed items and tasks grow.

• Mortgage
• Home equity loan

Mortgage Rates

30 yr fixed	4.07%
15 yr fixed	3.38%
5/1 ARM	2.99%
30 yr refi	4.15%
15 yr refi	3.49%

Home Equity Loan

$30K HELOC	4.74%
$50K HELOC	4.36%
$30K Home Eq	6.00%
$50K Home Eq	5.72%
$75K Home Eq	5.69%

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1. Don’t buy if you can’t stay put.

If you can’t commit to remaining in one place for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. With the transaction costs of buying and selling a home, you may end up losing money if you sell any sooner – even in a rising market. When prices are falling, it’s an even worse proposition.

2. Start by shoring up your credit.

Since you most likely will need to get a mortgage to buy a house, you must make sure your credit history is as clean as possible. A few months before you start house hunting, get copies of your credit report. Make sure the facts are correct, and fix any problems you discover.

3. Aim for a home you can really afford.

The rule of thumb is that you can buy housing that runs about two-and-one-half times your annual salary. But you’ll do better to use one of many calculators available online to get a better handle on how your income, debts, and expenses affect what you can afford.

4. If you can’t put down the usual 20 percent, you may still qualify for a loan.

There are a variety of public and private lenders who, if you qualify, offer low-interest mortgages that require a down payment as small as 3 percent of the purchase price.

5. Buy in a district with good schools.

In most areas, this advice applies even if you don’t have school-age children. Reason: When it comes time to sell, you’ll learn that strong school districts are a top priority for many home buyers, thus helping to boost property values.

6. Get professional help.

Even though the Internet gives buyers unprecedented access to home listings, most new buyers (and many more experienced ones) are better off using a professional agent. Look for an exclusive buyer agent, if possible, who will have your interests at heart and can help you with strategies during the bidding process.

7. Choose carefully between points and rate.

When picking a mortgage, you usually have the option of paying additional points — a portion of the interest that you pay at closing — in exchange for a lower interest rate. If you stay in the house for a long time — say three to five years or more — it’s usually a better deal to take the points. The lower interest rate will save you more in the long run.

8. Before house hunting, get pre-approved.

Getting pre-approved will you save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can’t afford and put you in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. Not to be confused with pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt and credit history.

9. Do your homework before bidding.

Your opening bid should be based on the sales trend of similar homes in the neighborhood. So before making it, consider sales of similar homes in the last three months. If homes have recently sold at 5 percent less than the asking price, you should make a bid that’s about eight to 10 percent lower than what the seller is asking.

10. Hire a home inspector.

Sure, your lender will require a home appraisal anyway. But that’s just the bank’s way of determining whether the house is worth the price you’ve agreed to pay. Separately, you should hire your own home inspector, preferably an engineer with experience in doing home surveys in the area where you are buying. His or her job will be to point out potential problems that could require costly repairs down the road.

NEXT: Are you ready to own?

How much house can you afford? Glossary Take the test

More Money 101 lessons

Home Builder Confidence Rises Four Points in October

October 18, 2011 – Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose four points to 18 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) for October, which was released today. This is the largest one-month gain the index has seen since the home buyer tax credit program helped spur the market in April of 2010.

“Builder confidence regained some ground in October due to modest improvements in buyer interest in select markets where economic recovery is starting to take hold and where foreclosure activity has remained comparatively subdued,” said NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a home builder from Reno, Nev. “That said, confidence remains quite low as builders continue to confront overly restrictive lending policies that are discouraging prospective buyers, problems with new-home appraisals and widespread uncertainty regarding federal support for homeownership.”

“This latest boost in builder confidence is a good sign that some pockets of recovery are starting to emerge across the country as extremely favorable interest rates and prices catch consumers’ attention,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “However, it’s worth noting that while some builders have shifted their assessment of market conditions from ‘poor’ to ‘fair,’ relatively few have shifted their assessments from ‘fair’ to ‘good.’ One reason is that builders are facing downward pricing pressures from foreclosed homes at the same time that building materials costs are rising, and this is further squeezing already tight margins.”

Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for more than 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.

Each of the HMI’s three component indexes recorded substantial gains in October. The component gauging current sales conditions rose four points to 18, the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months rose seven points to 24, and the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers rose three points to 14.

Regionally, the West led all other areas of the country with its nine-point gain to 21 – the highest HMI score for that region since August of 2007. The Midwest and South each recorded four-point gains, to 15 and 19, respectively, while the Northeast held unchanged at 15.

Editor’s Note: The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index is strictly the product of NAHB Economics, and is not seen or influenced by any outside party prior to being released to the public. HMI tables can be found at www.nahb.org/hmi. More information on housing statistics is also available at www.housingeconomics.com.

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