Welcome!

My name is Arlene and this is my first ever blog! I always wanted to make one but then I thought - you don't actually have anything interesting to say...or interesting knowledge...or humour...

Last year I moved to Northern Ireland to live with my boyfriend, we got a house, and then a husky puppy - Leeroy. Leeroy is 6 months old now (and wild), and because my boyfriend works a lot and the dog needs to be let out every few hours and I couldn't find part time work to fit in with his hours...so I retreated to the internet looking for jobs you can work from home.

Apart from surveys and opinion panels (making 5p an hour - if that), there is genuine work you can do online. Transcription is the best I could find, it's genuine but hard work. A high typing speed, unfortunately, is a must. 60/wpm is usually the lowest most places will accept and I couldn't get past 40 so...back to square one. I'll go further into transcription in a later post.

After transcription, I started looking into online chat advisor jobs. I don't know how many times I have used the chat boxes on websites when I needed help, I always preferred it to calling. I searched for hours and could not find even one legitimate e-help job...anywhere. Apple at Home was the only real-looking job I found but it's USA based and I'm from the UK so I had to give up on that idea.

Years ago, I tried Affiliate Marketing. I had no idea what I was doing (I still don't), but I tried linking up to loans and reviewing then as if I actually knew what I was talking about...I didn't! Everywhere I was looking gave the same advice: find a niche. Something you are interested in and then go from there. But...I couldn't think of anything that I was interested in that would work. I supposed...I liked my iPhone...so I could make a website that listed all the best prices for Apple products! Didn't work. I put in about 10% effort, didn't really review the things I had included and had nothing of interest in the awkwardly made website I created.

So...as a last resort I thought maybe I could try again, now that I'm older and wiser (slightly). While trying to figure out a niche I could use, I realised that there's not really one thing I'm massively interested in. There is, however, as I realised in the shower, a lot of different things I could talk about.

I buy from Amazon, a lot. I honestly love Amazon. So, in this blog, I could include genuine reviews of things that I have actually bought. I love talking about my dog, and since we got him around Christmas we have bought a lot of things that have made our lives easier, so the reviews I include would be fair and honest. I also have random advice for clueless people who have never owned a dog before then get a husky...hard times indeed!

Another reason I always wanted to start a blog is because ever since I was young; I have loved writing, but I didn't bother because I had this fear that someone I know would find my blog and then they would know all my weird thoughts...if I even managed to think up any that were interesting in the first place.

The last reason is, in all my time I spent searching the internet for genuine ways to make money - I picked up a thing or two and I'll include that on my Home-working page.

Wish me luck!

Arlene