I have not been happy with my full time jobs. You may not have been either. Being of sound mind and judgement you may be on an adenture to change your fortunes. You wonder to yourself about the prospects of starting an online home based business. What led you to this decision and what course of action do you take to increase the chances of being successful online?

Let's start with me and see if you can relate to my circumstance.

I started working when I was twelve years old. Didn't make much money and spent what I made on anything I could get my hands on. I worked for fast food establishments as a teenager, because that is what we all do at that age for the most part. It is hard work. There is not much appreciation at the workplace. You can be replaced easily even though you think you may not be able to be replaced. Keep working hard and you may keep your job.

This just sets the precedence for the rest of your life. I joined the military in my early twenties. They pushed the concept of NCO (No chance outside) telling you that you have the best job available for your skill set...for about half of what you would make if your were to do the same thing in a civilian job. Even so, you join their clubs and socialize (in the 80s we called this drinking).

I got out of the military and finished a B.S. in Computer Science while unloading trucks, and setting records, for the largest employer in the United States. I'm a big guy. I have worked on training applications for a sister company to a Fortune 500 engineering and construction company, data collection applications for the largest vending and food distribution company in the United States, and cardiology computer systems for one of the largest employers in the Carolinas.

I continue to work for these companies and find myself broke, stressed out, disenchanted, and desperate. Being computer literate, and having used the internet for about 15 years, I asked myself the question why have I not tried to start an online home based business? Len, you are smart enough to do something like this and you are not happy doing what you are doing now, why don't you try to do something different?

So I did do something different, part time. I love this online home based business so much that my biggest hope is to make it a full time venture. My market is other people who want to do the same and who are asking lot's of questions about how to do it. I give them the same answers in this article.

I spend most of my spare time, about two hours a day, researching and writing articles. You can find them all if you search hard enough (Hint - search for my name in Google and look at the top). I do not have a lot at this point. I am still pretty new at this. The results of my efforts are evident though; because I am already on page one of Google and MSN for some of my keywords after only 5 months of work. I am sure that I am making some of the other online home based business owners very angry because now they have to work a little harder to maintain their placement in the search engines. Oh well!

I do not get real fancy about marketing my online home based business. I am not spamming with email because I do not do any email marketing. I don't do it because I don't like any of the spam I am currently receiving or asking for at least half the time. I am more likely to stop an e-zine subscription just because I am receiving the same message over and over again (Hear that Allen?). I have not been able to figure out the science of Google Adwords, so I do not spend any money on ads.

That is for later when my business is more profitable than it is and I can afford it. I have never been able to generate the kind of traffic with Adwords that I get from articles anyway.

Here are the things that I do on a routine basis so far:

1. Articles - Write original content for the article directories and use Article Submitter Pro to submit them.

2. Search Engine Optimization - Brad Callen's SEO Made Easy is a guideline to optimize articles and web pages(online and

offline optimization).

3. Linking Popularity - Research external link partners and link to as many as is humanly possible. I also do a lot of internal linking.

4. Blogging - This is a great source for content and internal linking. I always link my posts back to all of my web pages.

5. Article Directory - Owning an article directory is the fastest way to get internal back links. Every article contains a sponsor link back to the main web page.

6. Directory Submission - Directory Submitter has hundreds of internet directories for both one way and reciprocal links.

7. Forum Posting - Here it is again with the one way links. I think the search engines just like to see the online home based business owner engaged regularly.

8. Looking at junk email. Sorry if I step on any toes here, but I made the mistake of submitting my website to the FFAs (Free For All). They sent me a thousand emails in one day! I didn't know! This has tapered off now. Something about reporting it as spam to Yahoo (Oops!). I got banned from one of them, but that is OK. I don't like it when someone emails me saying that my ads are not working. I wish spam would go away.

9. Take lot's of pictures - Used effectively in the article directory profiles and your own web pages is an extraordinary introduction!

10. Relax and enjoy it - My main web page got 399 visits yesterday. The trend is up. My Alexa rank is down, which is a good thing.

11. Start thinking - you know, this might just make it!

Expect no support from friends or family. Look at the surprise on their faces when your web page shows up on page one of the search engines. The online home based business owner looks for a rescue that can only come from within and is expressed in the design of something like a web page or an article. That and their friends in the forums who are going through the same thing. Relief from the markets of drudgery and slavery could be just around the corner with all of that help.