For Those About to Work from Home…We Salute You!

Affiliate marketing is an industry that is filled with self-employed marketers and affiliate network staff members who work from home. If you are currently in the industry and work from home, you probably are having one of the following experiences:

All of Your Dreams Have Come True!

For a small segment of industry pros working from home, working away from the office has created the ultimate existence. These fortunate individuals are taking advantage of all of the perks that working from home has to offer. You can find them working from a hostel in Argentina, taking a long lunch break to be the first in line to buy the new Jordan’s or spending their days finishing up work by the pool on their phones.

Wait…This Isn’t as Cool as it Sounds

Chances are, your working from home experience falls short of the incredible scenario imagined above. Your experience probably falls in to that of most at home workers. Each day, you complain of feeling distracted by family and pets, miss office camaraderie and never feel truly “clocked out”. We also don’t need to remind you that working from home also requires a ton of self-discipline. Each day, dilemmas such as choosing whether to fill out a progress report or watch a 16 and Pregnant marathon seem to weigh on your conscience.

So, how do you find the right balance between productivity and pleasure and begin to thrive while working from home? Let’s break it down in to five simple steps.

Below are five simple steps that anyone working from home can immediately take to enjoy the freedom of working from home, while managing to stay productive:

1. Become Your Own Administrative Assistant: As previously mentioned, working from home requires a tremendous amount of self-discipline. Therefore, you need to stay on task by any means necessary. At home, there is no one available to remind you about an upcoming call or meeting. Thus, every appointment, contact and task needs to be noted. Using an online calendar such as Outlook or Google Calendar to keep track of appointments is a must. So is syncing everything to your smartphone. We also recommend Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools such as Basecamp, activeCollab and Zoho CRM to keep track of daily to-dos and progress towards reaching project goals. To see the big picture, buying a white board allows you to see the status of all of your projects at a glance (and makes you feel as cool as Rand Fishkin during Whiteboard Friday).

2. Holler at Yo Boy (Or whatever the youngsters are saying these days): You should never feel alienated while working from home as there are multiple communication methods available to connect you to your colleagues beyond email, including instant messenger, phone and fax. It only takes a quick chat to become more connected, therefore, you should never hesitate to pick up the phone to ask questions or send a quick IM to discuss anything pertinent with your coworkers or customers.

3. Punch It: With affiliates located worldwide, it can be tempting for many of us to work all day and all night. (Conference call with an affiliate in India at 1 am? Sure!) Chasing profits 24/7, though, can lead to burnout. Therefore, we recommend that your schedule sticks as close to the amount of traditional working hours as possible. Obviously, the nature of the industry doesn’t often allow you to keep the traditional 8 am-5 pm shift. However, working a total of eight hours per day should be your goal. Whether those hours are in a row, or perhaps sandwiched between two four hour blocks, is a decision that’s left up to you. Many at home affiliate marketers like to break up the day by going to the gym (remember exercising?), taking a long lunch or hitting the mall. Whatever eight hour schedule that keeps your mind and body refreshed, yet still allows you to remain productive, is the right schedule for you.

4. Home Field Advantage: Working from home allows you to have total control over your office environment. Desks, lamps and pictures can be placed wherever you feel comfortable. REO Speedwagon can be blared at high volume or (hopefully) may never be played at all. A desk chair can be an exercise ball or an 18th Century English throne. The main advantage of not working in an office is…not working in an office! Therefore, we recommend that you customize your work space with anything that will make you feel comfortable and productive. This is your chance to create your ideal work space. The possibilities are endless!

5. Bring the Office to You: It is said that one often doesn’t miss something until it’s gone. The traditional office space is loaded with valuable items that are often taken for granted due to their everyday availability. However, it can be extremely frustrating to not have common office supplies at home when you need them (i.e. faxing in a W9). We recommend that you purchase as many applicable office supplies as possible including pens, staplers, notepads, scanners, shredders, printers and even fax machines. Having these items on hand will make  tasks run smoother, increase your productivity and help you achieve the rare non-computer related tasks of your job (“You want me to print out that form and send it back to you?”).

Can work at home bliss be achieved? Definitely, if you follow the steps above. So, what are you waiting for? Go crank up the AC/DC, use a bean bag as a chair and get cracking on that progress report!