To Tell or Not to Tell: That is the Question

I used to think parents who spoke of nothing but their kids were so boring and inconsiderate. After all who is interested in what they have to say about their kids’ eating and sleeping habits much less their entire daily routine. I used to swear to myself that I would never be like that. I would not bore people to tears with what my kid said and did. Then he was born…

All of a sudden I was being plagued by relatives for more information on him and his photos and the eternal favourite, “Who does he look like?” I had to answer all the queries with patience despite being so sleep deprived. Once I left mother’s house and came back to my own it got compounded with her wanting to know exactly what he did every minute. She was missing him badly and I couldn’t deny her the knowledge of his daily routine.

Then to my horror I realized that with minimal prompting I was going into unnecessary details with friends as well. They passed it off as the enthusiasm of the young mother, but I was sunk in depression. Here I was despite my best intentions not to talk about my baby, telling all and sundry about what a fussy eater he was and how he would never take a nap beyond 15 minutes. My efforts to curb my enthusiastic recital were met with concerned “Are you feeling all right?”

So after much angst I decided what I had to do. I had to cheerfully join the pack of parents who need no encouragement to talk about their kids. I had to do it without feeling guilty as everyone does it. Everyday there are so many things that my little brat does which I wish to share with family and friends. So why should I not do so? No good reason comes to mind, so I will now take it one step further; I will blog about my baby. At least that way those of you who are not interested in my child needn’t suffer unnecessarily.

Once that is decided I have a lot of catching up to do. So watch this place for more about my baby boy!

Useful Resources for Working Online

Many of you know that I work as a freelancer and most of this work involves working online for different projects. Given here is a collection of some very useful resources that I have learnt from over the years. I have to tell you that the internet is a very fluid place and I don't know how long the sites will be available. So it would be in your interest to copy down whatever data that you find useful onto your own hard disk if you wish to study it at your own pace.

Yaro Starak is a professional blogger who teaches people to run successful online businesses in the blogging business model. He has recently compiled an amazing resource culled from his different new letters that he used to mail his followers once a week. Now you can access the entire lot in one place. Click here.

If you are looking for a job online it would be a good idea to set up a profile on a freelancer market place. These are the sites from which prospective employers pick up freelancers. Needless to say the better your profile and portfolio the more likely you are to be picked up to do a job. Here is a list of freelancer marketplaces that I have vetted. I have personally done assignments on the first five on the list and have hear of good ratings of the remaining five from friends in the field.

To get a good online portfolio going it is a good idea to set up displays of your work on different revenue sharing websites. You can use Google Adsense to earn on some of them and others will just send over your share through their own payment programs. Here is a list of sites that you would find useful. Click here for revenue sharing sites list.

Look Ma, No Wheels

Peer pressure gets to them even younger. In our days it was the teenage years, some said it had come down to the tweenies (pre tens) but I’ll have you know its hit the five year olds. In the apparent first attack of peer pressure on Rehaan he wanted his cycle’s training wheels off. Gattu has a two wheel cycle, Tejas has a two wheel cycle, I want a two wheel cycle!
(With the training wheels it becomes a four wheel cycle)

So off we went both mother and son to the cycle shop to have the training wheels removed and the shiny new stand fitted. It was exciting indeed to get a two wheel cycle and further more the promise that if he learned to ride it he would get one of those Gems balls with the Ben Ten toys was more than he could handle.

He kept prancing around happily when the cycle repair shop man was working on removing the training wheels and fixing the stand. Fifteen minutes and forty bucks later Rehaan had a two wheel cycle, just as his little heart desired.

There was just one problem, suddenly he could not ride his cycle. The training wheels were missing and the balance was yet to manifest. So after a few shaky starts on the road he dragged the cycle along with him all the way home. The plan is to learn to balance on the new two wheel cycle today with Ma.

Where to sell stuff online : 3 webshops you can sell on

You can sell everything from a pencil to table online these days. All you need to know is where and how.

There are many ways to sell your products online. If you physically produce some product it will be easy to set up your own website and sell them from there. Unfortunately not many people are willing to trust their financial data to a relatively new and mostly unknown website. So it make make more sense to stick with some more popular online shopping websites. Here is a list of the three most trusted and popular websites that you can sell physical goods on.

eBay

With a huge global presence eBay.com is the most polular website to set up shop with. They are free to register with and you can use the same account to buy and sell products. For the more serious seller there is also the option of setting up a seperate eBay shop space online. The security of the site is great and many people are already used to buying stuff at the acutions that they hold. So attracting traffic is not an issue.

Amazon

Once it was THE place to get the book you wanted, now it has expanded its product range. It is very similar to eBay and at amazon.com you even have the option of becoming an affiliate far more easily than with ebay. So you can grab that percentage of a sale even if you don't involve yourself with the product shipping or listing. Again the site is trusted by millions and traffic is not an issue. Although sales tend to be more US specific with a number of things not being delivered outside the US.

Etsy

Setting up a virtual shop with etsy.com is more for those dealing with handicrafts and handmade things. If you are looking for vintage stuff that is in near mint condition you will get it here. To sell on etsy you need to set up your own little virtual shop and add listings of articles that you would like to sell. Naturally they charge a percentage of the sale as fees and they also charge you for listing each item. The dedicated shopper here is usually a woman looking for bargains so adress yourself to her.

The Best Advice I Ever Received

When I was leaving home for higher studies, my father stood with me on the train station and told me, "Remember you are no less than anyone around you!"

It was a simple statement really, but it helped boost my morale and motivation in many a tight spot after that!