Even though my business focus is on coaching for online network marketing and buiding up a strong business team, I keep an eye out for good "solo" projects as they come along. I get a *ton* of sh… er, cr…. er, stuff in my email on a daily basis and it usually gets ignored. But yesterday I had one show up from a reputable source that I decided to take a look at.

It turns out to be pretty darn cool. And sneaky.

Working out of a home office can be an isolating experience. Certain personalities just can't handle it, while other do just fine. Personally, the transition from busy cubicle life with all the background noise and distractions to the relative quiet of the office in my home was pretty nice.

The situation has changed a bit with my additional role as a stay-at-home dad, but there's still a limited amount of personal contact with the "outside" world – and a definite lack of office colleagues. Except for my son of course, who at nearly 11 months of age has definite opinions how I should run my business. I'm just having challenges interpreting his advice.

There's quite a bit of buzz going around the internet marketing groups about tapping into the online social networks to promote our products and services. As with anything else, there are a good ways and bad ways to go about this. Since I want to go about it the "right" way, which provides real value to those networks, I've been doing some ongoing research on how best to do that.

I came across a post on conscientious marketing which doesn't really address the topic I was looking into, but it did make a point that stuck with me.

The delicate balance to achieve is to find a way to relate the positive experiences and benefits of the products without really getting in people's faces. What is the best route for "socially responsible marketing"?

Criticism for you business efforts can come from unexpected places sometimes. If you have spent any time at all in the world of internet marketing, and especially network marketing, you know that there is no shortage people telling you that it's a sham, it won't work, your wasting your time, money, etc. This usually comes from friends and family, who are well meaning, but don't have the same kind of insight that you do.

You can usually count on other people in your industry to back you up and provide support for your ideas, even if it goes against what "everyone else" is doing. Sometimes you even get extra encouragement because your doing something different.

This is why it was so surprising to me when a coach and friend in my network marketing company started telling me that I could not build a business in internet marketing primarily using the internet as a means of communication.

Use the power of affiliate marketing with your own network marketing company. This process shows you how an affiliate program can not only generate profits, but introduce prospects to your business with no cold calling or high pressure presentations.

This works with any network marketing company you represent – it's especially good for those whose company restricts the use of their trademarks online.

One of the big criticisms people get when starting their own business is friends and family reminding them how large the failure rate is with people who start businesses. For some reason the people who are supposed to be close to you and supportive are the first ones to bring try and stop you from even getting off the ground. They are well meaning, of course. They've probably seen the statistics, heard the stories and maybe have even known some other people who "tried", gave up, and went back to their daily existence and few hundred (or a few thousand) dollars poorer.

More on Business Growth Through Consistency

Having been a student of network marketing and it's methods for years, I have seen, heard or read about many of the ups and downs in the industry. Right now we are in an interesting time where we see some major ups and downs simultaneously.

I'll get a couple of the downs out of the way right now:

Even though I do a lot of research and reading about network marketing and internet marketing, I still enjoy keeping up with engineering and technology. Just recently I was surprised to read in my IEEE Spectrum (the flagship magazine for the worldwide electrical and electronics engineering organization) a short article about engineers being recommended to start their own business.

The surprising part wasn't that engineers are striking out on thier own, that's actually not all that unusual. What caught my attention was that the article in this magazine was actually recommending starting a home business, rather than taking the more traditional route of raising capital, opening an office, hiring staff, managing clients, etc. The article gives a lot of good reasons on why this is a good idea.

For anyone who has spent any time with people on their way to success, the idea of [tag-tec]visualizing a goal[/tag-tec] is nothing new. In fact those who have reached the higher levels of what we consider successful would tell you that it's mandatory.

More on Making the Vision Real

The whole question of "where to start" when starting an [tag-tec]online business[/tag-tec] of any kind can freeze many people in their tracks.

This is really sad, considering that a person has already mapped out (at least in their head) their dreams, aspirations and lifestyle they want to get from this new venture. They can already see the new cars, the nice house, and other rewards from having a thriving business.

More on Network Marketing: Where to Start