Sack your Boss

Ways to Prevent being fired by using Internet

2008-04-15T05:07:00.000-07:00

Your Personal Computer can be a job ender. As you read this article you should be asking yourself : Is the policy of my office allow me to be browsing online or reading story?

The restrictions between computer use at work and at home are not very clear to so many employees. People do a lot of things online such as communication, watch Television, shopping and get news but there should be limit on where this is done. It is very important for all employees to understand what their employer's policies are when it comes to email and internet usage. This is because nowadays employees are losing their jobs following computer-based related circumstances.

1. Becareful about what you Blog.
There is a term for being fired because of a blog, it is known as "dooced". Dooced.com founder Heather Armstrong writes on her site that she lost her job a year after beginning the blog for writing entries that involved colleagues. This is her word to her site visitors" Be ye not so stupid" never write about work on the internet unless your boss know and approve your article about your work on the internet.

2. Playing Away
Playing games on the PC such as Solitaire is one of the ways of whiling away hours unknowingly and this act is not good for the workplace. A US based economist Richard Bayer once said that employees who use a company computer for personal matters on company time whether playing games or checking their mails are essentially stealing from their employer.

3. Looking At Pictures
Downloading, uploading or viewing of inappropriate pictures or offensive contents all amounting to misuse of the internet. According to a recent study by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute nearly one-third of bosses have fired workers based on this. Remember, the computer system belongs to the company and courts have consistently nowadays on the side of the employers when it comes to computer-related termination.

4. Posting Your Picture
Recently, social networking may be gaining an air formality. Employers are beginning to monitor social networking sites, not only do companies fear employees posting proprietary information, but they don't want to find photos of the boss dancing on the table drunk at the holiday party. Opinions posted that is contrary to the employer's values can also get employees into trouble.

5. Writing R-rated emails
Many employers going to about quarter in the US have sent an employee packing for e-mail related offenses. When you write, put it behind your mind that someone inside your establishment is reading it. As most of establishment about 43% that monitor email do it automatically while about 40% do it manually by reading and reviewing it by human beings.

Conclusion
A word they say is enough for a wise don't jeopardize your career due to some unpopular acts as highlighted above. Study the policy of your establishment as regards to the use of internet and you will be guided on what is expected of you.

Olufemi
Nigeria

7 Steps to a Money Making Website

2008-04-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

Have you been considering setting up your own website to make money on
the Internet? Perhaps you already have a business or a business idea and
want your own presence on the web. Or maybe you just know that you
want to make money on the Internet but have no idea what is involved.

To give you an idea of what is involved I will outline the 7 steps you need
to take to set up your own money making website. This will give you the
basics of what is involved and allow you to do further research and make
progress in each of these seven areas.

Step 1 : Your business idea

If you already have a business or a business idea, you can skip this step.
If not,then spend some time writing a list of all the things that interest you.
The chances of succeeding in your new business are far greater if you are
doing something that you are passionate about. This way it won't feel like you
are doing a job when you start spending time on this. Don't worry too much
about a product at this point, just think about the things you like to do perhaps
you like cooking, or playing football, or foreign travel. Try to write down at least
5 things that you enjoy.

Step 2 : Research your Market and Analyze the Competition

Once you have completed step 1, you need to find out if there is a market
in the areas that you are interested in. At the same time you may want to
avoid entering a market that is highly competitive. From my experience
the best way to analyze this is by using a tool called Wordtracker.
You can try this for free at
http://getresponse.net/t/715159/431685/207003541/2/
Note that the trial version is a cut down version of the much more
powerful full version and only includes statistics from one search engine
rather than multiple engines.

Use this software as a brainstorming tool and type in your interests that
you came up with in step 1 (or your original business idea). Wordtracker
will return related keywords,which you can then select and add to your
"basket". At this stage it is best to keep an open mind and fill your basket
with around 1000 keyword phrases. Finally you can do a "competitive analysis"
on the keywords that you have chosen. This will allow you to see how many
searches a day are done on a per search engine basis for each keyword phrase.

In addition to this you will also see the number of competing websites and
a value called a "KEI" which is a "Keyword Effectiveness Index". You have a
better chance of succeeding if you choose keywords that have a KEI above
100.If the KEI is above 400, then you have an excellent chance of success.

Ensure that you spend sufficient time in this planning phase, repeating the
above process again and again until you have a good set of related keywords
with good KEIs. Once you have chosen your keywords you should check out
your competition by typing the keywords into Google and looking at top
websites for each keyword phrase that you have selected. The Google and
Alexa toolbars can help you with your analysis of competing websites.

Step 3 : Choose a Product

If you don't already have a product in mind, the next step is to decide on
your product or group of products. Before you do this, try to do some
research and find out exactly what your potential customers are looking for.
What sort of questions are they asking? Google Groups are an excellent place
for doing this sort of research.

One solution is to join some affiliate programs (related to your chosen
keywords of course). Affiliate programs are usually free to join and pay you a
commission for directing customers from your site via a special affiliate link.
You can find a lot of information about affiliate programs by searching for
"Affiliate Programs" on Google.

Another alternative is to sell your own product. This could be something that
you have made yourself such as a craft item or an informative e-book, or a
product that you dispatch using a drop shipping service. It is also possible to
buy resell rights to e-books and software written by other people.

Before you make a final decision, work out what your profit margin will be
and do a rough calculation of how much money you will make based on the
estimated traffic from Wordtracker.

Step 4 : Choose and register a domain name

The next stage is to decide on and register a domain name.There are many
websites selling domain names and you should be able to get one easily for
less than $10 per year. There is no need to sign up for a domain name with
your web hosting company if they are charging more than this as domain
names can be transferred easily between hosting companies.

Try to choose a domain name that has some of your keywords in it.
It's also an advantage to have a name that is relatively short and easy to
remember.

Step 5 : Find a web hosting company

There are hundreds of web hosting companies available. Some even provide
hosting for free. I advise against using the free services if you are setting up
a business, as this can look unprofessional, especially since most of them use
advertising on your site as a way to recoup the cost. This is fine for a personal
website, but if you are serious about making money you need to choose a reputable
web hosting company.

Ensure that you are happy with the disk space and bandwidth allowances that
your hosting company provides. Other things to consider are the customer support
services, reliability in terms of the percentage of down time expected and the interface
for uploading files. There are many websites that offer reviews and comparisons of
different hosting packages.

Step 6 : Build your website

At last, you are now ready to start building your website. Many people skip
the research stage and dive straight into this part, but your chances of success
are much higher if you spend time on the research part first.

Depending on your knowledge and experience in this area you may decide to do
this yourself, or pay for a web designer to do this for you. If you are doing it
yourself, it helps to know HTML, but there are also many web page editors such
as Front Page and Dreamweaver which you can use to construct your website with
little or no knowledge of HTML.

Try to ensure that your site is clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate
and that it looks professional. Have someone proofread your copy to ensure
that there are no mistakes. Also ensure that you use your keywords from your
Wordtracker research in the title of your page, the headings and throughout
your copy. Use one or two of your chosen keyword phrases per page and don't
overdo the use of your keywords as search engines may consider this as SPAM.

Step 7 : Market your website

Finally you need to market your webpage. It is simply not true that you can
just build a website and wait for visitors to come without doing any form of
Internet marketing.

Internet marketing is a huge topic, out with the scope of this article.
The sort of techniques that you may want to consider include reciprocal
linking, writing and publishing articles, pay per click (PPC) advertising such
as Google Adwords and Overture, classified and solo ads, participating
in discussion forums that allow a signature in your postings and
advertising on related (but not competing) websites.

These 7 steps take time and effort, but if you do your research
and persevere you are likely to see excellent results.

Don't forget, that once you have been through this process once,
you can repeat it again and again until you have multiple websites
making an income for you while you sleep, or relax on the beach!

This article is credited to Suzanne Morrison is the owner and webmaster of
http://getresponse.net/t/172991/431685/207003541/2/
For those who don't have the available time or experience to follow these
7 steps, she recommends a Plugin Profit site a ready to go site with
5 streams of income, built for you within 24 hours signup at
http://phemephe.com/pips.html

The Blogging Way, the Bank way.

2008-03-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

One of the ways to make money on the internet without stress or extra cost of a website is to start blogging for free. This is an avenue for people without technical skills or those who don't have the resources to invest on designing, hosting and maintaining a website.

In another way, blogging might also be serving as a benefit to website owners as a mechanism for adding content to their site thereby getting new pages indexed in the search engines more quickly.

To start a blog is easy once you have opened a free account at Blogger, owned by Google. There is no need for any technical skills to start posting your blog, all that is required is to follow the step-by-step instructions of the blogger.

Using blogger you can have unlimited numbers of blogs with templates of your choice; you can also choose to host them on your own website or for free at blogspot.com.

Come up with an interesting topic for your blog, it can be in any areas of human endeavours such as sports, politics, computers, Internet, Hobbies, Vacations, to mention a few. Try to post to your blog at least once or twice a week. It is better you write your articles for yourself making it original and unique. But instead you can always publish other people's contents and they must be acknowledged for their work by putting the author's name at the bottom of the article.

To start blogging is not the end but the first step towards making income from the net, the next thing to be done is promoting your blog. Highlighted below are some of the things you can do to promote your blog:

i. Ping weblogs.com and other search engines and directories.

ii. Submit your blog address to blog search sites and directories.

iii. You can promote your blob using pay per click search engines such as yahoo search & Google Adwords, if you have money.

iv. Set your blog to display RSS to feeds, then submit your blog's RSS to major RSS feed directories online.

v. Put your blog URL in your email signature or any online discussion forum in which you are active.

vi. Install a blogroll.

vii. Be an active commenter

viii. If you plan to have anything printed up, put your blog's web address on it. You can print your blog URL on business cards, stickers, etc.

ix. Take advantage of blog software features that help to promote your blog.

x. Exchange Links with other bloggers or blog owners.

xi. Write articles or free reports for other webmasters to publish and put your blog URL in the byline.

I hope this article will be of great value to you courtesy Olufemi a Software Developer, with one of the fastest growing Software company in Nigeria.

Do you have what it takes to be an e-entrepreneur?

2008-03-24T04:38:00.000-07:00

These days, it seems like everyone wants to work
from home and make money on the Internet. But
before you even turn on your computer, the first
question you have to ask yourself is whether
you’re cut out for this kind of work.

The fact is, building a home-based business isn’t
for everyone. Some people like the commute. They
really do enjoy having a boss who tells them what
to do, and they like the routine of working
nine-to-five for an ordinary salary that can
barely pay the mortgage. Personally, I think
they’re nuts.

More reasonably, there are people who are
concerned about the risk of starting up their own
business. They’re not sure it’s worth the
investment of time and money, and they’re scared
of the responsibility that comes with running
their own company. They wonder if there is
another way to escape the rat race.

I’m sure there is. You could win the lottery or
wait for your Aunt Sue to keel over and leave you
her condo. Or maybe you could sit down with a pen
and paper and draw the blueprint for "The Next
Big Thing". Anything can happen... Right?

For me, what happened was creating a successful,
self-running Internet marketing system. It didn’t
happen without effort. It didn’t happen without
at least some initial investment of both time and
money and, of course, it doesn’t happen now
without me making sure that the taxes are filed
and the paperwork is done. But it happened.

I’m my own boss. I work from home according to my
own schedule and I get to pocket all the cash my
business makes. If you’re prepared to give an
e-business the time, the work and the money it
needs to get started and get growing, it can
happen for you too.

Article excerpted from "Dotcomology":
Don't Pay A Dime For Any Ebook, Marketing
Course, Software Program Or Anything Else Until
You've Read This Groundbreaking Document...
Click Here to Discover "Dotcomology" Now!

Use articles to boost your online Presence

2008-03-24T04:17:00.000-07:00

Writing good articles is one of the best ways to get free targeted traffic to your website or blog and it is not hard at all.

You don't suppose to be an expert before you write on any topic of your choice. Just choose an area that is related to the theme of your website/blog, carry out little research using search engines and you will be surprised that you will have enough knowledge on that subject too.

Highlighted below are few tips for writing your articles:

(i) Think up a catchy headline to attract readers. If you’ve not re-written your headline at least a few times, it could probably be better!

(ii) Try to keep the length of your article to around 500-1000 words

(iii)Keep paragraphs short and to the point – lots of white space makes your article easier on the eye for readers

(iv) Don’t forget to spell check your article and if possible get someone to proof read it for you.

Once you have your article written, you must remember to add a resource box. This is your chance to tell everyone about you and your website or blog.

If someone has taken the time to read your article right to the end, the chances are that they will be interested in finding out more. This is a great opportunity for you to gain another targeted visitor to your site.

Your next task is to submit your article, complete with its resource box to as many article directories as possible. Start by adding the article to your own website or blog, then submit it to as many directories as you can find.
Some of the directories where you can submit articles are listed below:

i. Article City - www.articlecity.com

ii. Article Dashboard - www.articledashboard.com

iii. Article Directory - www.article-directory.net

iv. Ezine Articles -www.ezinearticles.com

v. Go Articles - www.goarticles.com

vi. Idea Marketers - www.ideamarketers.com

vii. Internet Home Business Articles - www.internethomebusinessarticle.com

viii. Search Warp - www.searchwarp.com

Just to mention a few of them. I hope you will boost your internet presence with articles.

Olufemi

#1 Mistake Most Blogs Do

2008-03-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

As much as this might surprise most bloggers, the #1 mistake most blogs are doing is not publishing their content via e-mail, as a supplement to their RSS feeds.

Just think about it: while RSS is growing strong, it still only penetrates about 5-6% of the American online population. Furthermore, according to a recent BlogAds survey, "only 12 percent of the blog reading audience said it used RSS always or often".

If you're delivering your blog content only via RSS, you're missing out on about 80% or more of potential regular readership/followship.

THE KEY BLOG PROBLEM

There are millions of blogs already, but really few people have the time to watch more than a few daily. But if they come back just once a week, they can be quickly overwhelmed with the amount of new content.

That's why it's crucial to provide a "best of", a helping hand to guide your readers to the "must-read" content you publish … and delivering this content either as a standalone “blog-zine” or as part of your regular e-mail newsletter.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Deliver your blog posts as they are written via RSS, but then also publish a regular (weekly or monthly) e-mail e-zine with your "top blog posts" for those that are still not in to RSS.

Don't do just one channel, do both.

E-mail is still the #1 end-user content delivery channel ... whether we like it or not. Using e-mail (as a supplement to RSS) to deliver our content is just good business practice, at least for now.

THE CHRIS PIRILLO EXAMPLE

Chris Pirillo is the publisher of one of the most popular sites on the net, Lockergnome.com. He was actually the first to proclaim e-mail as being dead.

But still, while he preferrs for his subscribers to use RSS instead of e-mail, that isn’t stopping him from using or promoting either RSS or e-mail.

COMPARING BLOGS, E-ZINES, E-MAIL AND RSS

If you’re reading this article and thinking that blogs are actually “beyond e-mail”, just consider the following reality.

RSS and e-mail are content delivery channels; the tools that enable us to deliver our content to end-users. Blogs and e-zines on the other hand are two different internet media content formats, differing in how/what content is provided and presented through them.

RSS/e-mail and blogs/e-zines cannot be directly compared. Blog content and e-zine content can both be delivered via RSS and e-mail, and there is no direct business/logical relation between, for example, blogs and RSS.

Blogs are "personal" conversations, opinions and news, delivered in a linear structure, usually written in a more personal style, and confined to a limited number of content types.

E-zines on the other hand are more similar to magazines or newspapers, carrying content presented in a complex non-linear content structure, and having the ability to carry many different content types that do not mix well together if provided through a linear content structure.

A typical e-zine might include:

- an editorial;
- a leading article, representing the prevailing topic of a specific e-zine issue;
- supporting articles, clearly structured to show they are secondary to the leading article;
- links to "best of" blog posts in the given timeframe;
- links to the most relevant forum topics and posts;
- a news section;
- a featured client case study;
- different advertisements (banner ads, textual ads, advertorials etc.);
- a featured consultant;
- a Q&A section;
- a featured whitepaper;
- etc.

Providing all of this content demands a complex content structure and a strong and experienced editor. The blog format simply does not provide the level of structure needed to effectively present such a complex content mix.

But that's not to say that blogs are in any way inferior to e-zines, they're just different. And businesses need both, and they need to deliver both via RSS and e-mail.

Personal preferences towards content delivery channels and internet content media formats have no place in business. What matters is what our audiences want and how they want it.

About the Author

Rok Hrastnik is the author of »Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS«, acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide to RSS for marketers by leading RSS experts. The complete guide on RSS for marketers: http://rss.marketingstudies.net/index.html?src=sa2

You've got a blog. And its going nowhere.

2008-03-19T09:44:00.000-07:00

You've got a blog. And it is going nowhere.

You started a blog a couple days ago, a couple weeks ago, a couple years ago and it isn't doing anything for you. You thought blogging would be a fun way to write about something you're passionate about as well as make some money along the way.

So you started off on your merry jaunt with pep and zest, gleefully self-publishing and building what you hoped would be a resource for passion, publishing and profits.

Then reality hits.

You find yourself falling behind with your blog and losing touch with the topics you track and start wondering if it is even worth it to keep this running commentary online. You have tons of draft posts saved but never publish them because you don't have the energy to finish them. You have lots of comment spam to weed through and suddenly doing the dishes seems a like a lot more fun. Your blog becomes a waste of money. Your blog becomes a waste of time. Your blog becomes dead weight.

Shouldn't there be some way to make money at this?

The frustrating truth is: most blogs don't go anywhere.

Thousands of people all over the world start blogs every single day - and many of them hope to make money from their blogs. Maybe a few dollars here or a few dollars there... maybe enough to pay for their hosting.

But they are just wasting their time because they don't have a plan.

You can make over $10,000 a month blogging.

You've heard about folks building blog empires and making a living writing about topics they love and are passionate about. They make revenue every day by hosting ads on their blogs or earning commissions on related products and services.

But where do you start?

You need a blueprint! You need to know the top strategies for making money on your blog so your blog pays for itself - and then some! You need to know where to find a constant stream of content related to your blog so you never run out of things to write about. You need to know the top strategies to get your blog in the highest search engine rankings. You need to know the best practices to make sure your Google ads get clicked on - and you get paid! You need to know how to choose a niche that you love - but is also popular enough that it will make you a monthly salary. You need to know how to design your blog to be a click-seeking missile that guarantees your advertisers clicks and you some commissions. You need metrics and statistics so you know where your traffic is coming from, where it is going and how you can adjust it for maximum traffic conversion. You need to know the top tricks and tips so you can manage your entire blog empire from a simple set of tools. You need to know what software to use so you can quickly build new additions to your blog network that enhance and compliment what you've already got. You need to know which plugins and strategies to use so you can keep your blogs free of comment spam and hackers.

Visit www.1800webmaster.com/sixfigure.html to learn more about successful blogging.
About the Author To read more about how you can increase your blogging profits visit www.1800webmaster.com/sixfigure.html Feel free to publish this article, but please always include an acitve link to my website.

Why Blogging Is Essential To Your Business

2008-03-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

In the 'good old days' - about three years ago - you used to keep in-touch with your customers using phone calls, email messages and face to face meetings. Nowadays the world has changed. People expect even more frequent updates, yet it's nearly impossible to meet with every business contact on a regular basis.

Thankfully, blogging has come to the rescue. Setting up a blog on your web site - and having an associated RSS feed - means you can keep in constant touch with your clients and potential customers. Plus you don't have to email them and they can get your latest news without having to visit your web site.

So how does this all work? A blog is really a fancy name for a web page that gets updated regularly. It's nothing special. There are several methods of writing 'blogs', but they are nothing more than computer programs which allow you to easily update a web page. Far and away the easiest way to start a blog is with a website called blogger.com.

However, for keeping in touch with your customers, RSS is the key. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. What this means is that your blog can be automatically delivered to people who want to read it - you don't have to send it to them and neither do they have to come and collect it. All they need is the address of your RSS Feed and their RSS Newsreader can do the job for them. There are several RSS readers available and new web browsers incorporate the ability to read RSS feeds and keep them updated.

Why Blogging is Essential to Your Business

Whenever you add new content to your blog, the RSS Feed automatically gets updated in everyone's Reader program or web browser. That means you are guaranteed to be able to keep in touch with clients and prospects. You don't have to do anything other than produce the content. Equally, you don't face the problems of email filters and anti-spam programs blocking your email. Furthermore, people tend to read RSS Feeds because they have subscribed to them. Whereas they tend to ignore non urgent emails.

As you can see, there are several advantages to Blogs and RSS Feeds. But it doesn't stop there. Search engines love them. That's because blogs provide fresh and new content - precisely what searchers are looking for. Hence the search engines are actively pushing blogs higher up the search engine ranking. This means if you don't have a blog for your business, you are seriously reducing your chances of a high search engine ranking. You need a blog nowadays to get noticed by the search engines.

So, blogging is essential. Not only does it improve your web presence, it also means you can keep in touch with clients and prospects more easily. And all the marketing research you can find will tell you that keeping in regular touch with your customers is an important component in gaining new business. So get blogging!

About the Author: Chet Holcomb of http://www.internetpromotions.biz is a successful marketing expert providing advice for web marketers and webmasters on how to promote your website, or product using marketing tools that work.

17 Mistakes Professionals Make with Their Blogs

2008-03-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.

Are you getting results from your business blog? Is it getting harder for you to spend time on your blog because you’re just not seeing how it is going to pay off? If so, you’re not alone. Hundreds of blogs are started each day and many of them are abandoned after several months because it takes time and energy to keep a good business blog going.

Make no mistake, blogs are a great tool for building community, interacting with potential clients, and marketing your services. And, it’s not enough to set one up and post occasionally. You have to use it effectively to drive traffic and gain readership.

We’ve discovered several common mistakes professionals make with their blogs. Mostly, they aren’t using some the features available to them with their blogging software, because it hasn’t been sufficiently explained. Eyes glaze over with the mention of RSS, pinging, trackbacks and permalinks. Professionals may be ignoring these things, hoping they don’t really need to know.

But they do if they want results from their business blog.

Here’s a list of what we found on a recent trip around the professional business blogosphere:

Content:

1. Not posting frequently enough. (Recommended: 2-3 times a week.)

2. Content is not focused, and the target audience is not clearly defined.

3. Posting articles that are too long, instead of using extended post features.

4. Not linking profusely (because the professional isn’t researching their field on the internet).

5. Poor spelling, bad grammar and typos.

Design

6. No name of author in tag line or on side bar.

7. No author photo.

8. No signature or name in the footer; no way to tell who wrote post on a multi-author site.

9. No subscription form; no way to get blog updates through RSS or email.

10. No way for readers to leave comments and use trackbacks.

11. Too many categories or none at all.

12. No information about their business services and products.

13. Calendars for no reason at all (what is the point of those calendars anyway?).

Marketing

14. Blog isn’t submitted to blog directories.

15. Not pinging each time a new post is published.

16. Not using trackbacks referring or linking to other blogs.

17. No blogroll or list of favorite blogs or websites.

If you’re considering using a blog to build your business, optimize it by taking time to learn the features and steps that will ensure success.

A blog is like any other marketing tool – you've got to use it correctly to get positive results.

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Get an ebook and take the time to learn about your blog software or hosting provider.

2. Hire a professional blog expert to coach you on how to rev up your blog.

About The Author

Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman are two blog experts who have teamed up to form The Blog Squad (http://www.fixmyblog.com). They provide advanced training and coaching for professionals who want to beef up their blog for marketing optimization. Each month a blog is selected as Blog of the Month and undergoes a rigorous makeover. At the end of the month, the blog must pass the Blog Squad Seal of Approval to be certified a success. Patsi and Denise also publish a popular blog at http://www.buildabetterblog.com

16 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

2008-03-19T09:35:00.000-07:00

You've got your blog set up and you've started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?

Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.

1. Set up a Bloglet subscription form on your blog and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, associates.
Http://www.bloglet.com

2. Set up a feed on MyYahoo.com so your site gets regularly spidered by the Yahoo search engine (see tutorial on http://www.biztipsblog.com)
http://www.my.yahoo.com

3. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your target niche. Don't write things like "nice blog" or "great post." Write intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.

4. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish. http://www.pingomatic.com

5. Submit your blog to traditional search engines: http://www.submitfire.com

6. Submit your blog to blog directories. The most comprehensive list of directories is on this site: http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

Tip: Create a form to track your submissions; this can take several hours when you first start so schedule an hour a day for submitting or hire a VA to do it for you.

7. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.

8. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.

9. If you publish a newsletter, make sure you have a link to your blog in every issue.

10. Include a link to your blog as a standard part of all outgoing correspondence such as autoresponder sequences, sales letters, reports, white papers, etc.

11. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures and flyers.

12. Make sure you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to.
The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. It is a document type that lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication. These RSS documents (also known as 'feeds') may be read using aggregators (news readers). RSS feeds may show headlines only or both headlines and summaries. To learn how news aggregators/RSS readers work, see this site: http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-readers.htm

13. Post often to keep attracting your subscribers to come back and refer you to others in their networks; include links to other blogs, articles and websites in your posts

14. Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts. What is TrackBack? Essentially what this does is send a message from one server to another server letting it know you have posted a reference to their post. The beauty is that a link to your blog is now included on their site.

15. Write articles to post around the web in article directories. Include a link to your blog in the author info box (See example in our signature below).

16. Make a commitment to blog everyday. 10 minutes a day can help increase your traffic as new content attracts search engine spiders. Put it on your calendar as a task every day at the same time.

Tip: Use a hit counter to track your visitor stats: how many unique visitors, how many page views, average length of visit. You can get a free hit counter at http://www.sitemeter.com

About the Author

Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging classes and marketing services for independent professionals. Read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.biztipsblog.com, http://www.coachezines.com and http://www.bizbooknuggets.com

12 Reasons Why You Need A Blog

2008-03-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

Why Should I Blog? I Simply Don't Get It"

This post on a popular discussion forum set me thinking - and I came up with 12 reasons you should blog.

Read them and get started on your blog. Or better still, go get your blog up and running and THEN come back and read this :)

1 - You Do Not Need To Know HTML

One of the biggest hurdles many hopeful website creators face is they don't know to design a webpage. Blogs overcome this - all you do is type into a box, and the blog software automatically converts it into a webpage and publishes it on the World Wide Web for anyone to see.

2 - You Are 'Forced' To Keep Your Content Fresh

Blogs are essentially online diaries. It doesn't make sense to write in your diary every month or two. Similarly, running a blog itself 'forces' you to update it often. And refreshing your blog often makes it more useful to readers and consumers - and by extension, to search engines who are in the business of presenting *their* clients with valuable resources.

3 - Your Blog Is AUTOMATICALLY Optimized For Search Engines

Search engines love fresh content. But that's not the only way blogs are powerful tools to rank high. Indeed, most blogs are structured to offer a high degree of search engine optimization.

All sections of your blog are linked together. The terms used as link 'anchors' are keyword-optimized. Categories can be created to host themed content. Navigating through your blog is intuitive. Archives can be customized, and generate hundreds of pages of content that act as 'search engine spider bait'.

4 - You Get A Built-In Linking Structure

With very few exceptions, most blogs are structured to be a tightly integrated network of links - to other sections of your blog! It's quite easy for a visitor to get 'lost' within your blog... without ever leaving it.

Calendars link to posts on specific dates. 'Recent Post' listings point to your freshest content. Archives connect all your earlier posts. Search boxes let browsers look for certain kinds of content. And it all happens automatically, without you spending hours on creating a link structure or sitemap!

5 - You Generate Multiple Content-Rich Pages

Every post you make on your blog is content. And by intelligently setting up your archiving preferences, you can turn each post into many different forms of content, each on a page of its own. Blog regularly for a few months, and you could end up having a 100+ page website - all filled with relevant, keyword-optimized, themed content!

6 - You Can Keyword-Optimize Your Blog Extensively

All parts of your blog's template can be customized. And a very powerful way to do it is by inserting relevant keywords. It's a do-it-once job that will give you ongoing benefits for as the life of your blog. You can include keywords in your blog title, description, blog post headings, trackback links, comment invitations, archive titles, and category names.

7 - You Create An Online Community

If your blog is on a specific theme, you can build a loyal readership and develop an online community. You can even take it a notch higher by tying it in with a forum or membership site. Ask for comments, suggestions, ideas and feedback, or invite reader participation. Pretty soon, your blog will be growing organically - even if you don't write a lot!

8 - You Initiate Conversations With Readers

Of course, the first step is yours - to initiate a dialog with readers. You could do it with your blog post, asking a question or by inviting comments and interaction. Your blog will be read by an audience that's already interested in your subject or theme. This conversation will be priceless to you, the blog owner.

9 - Your 'Inbound Link' Process - Trackbacks

Blogging is about distributed conversations online. Links are an integral part of such an informal network. Trackbacks are a kind of blog technology that make it possible - and simple! Your blog will benefit from the inbound links a trackback will bring, and you'll also get extra traffic from other sources.

10 - You Can Syndicate Your Content Easily

Getting readers for your content is good. Getting your content out where many more readers can see it is GREAT! Syndication (via RSS feeds) is built in to most blogging platforms, giving you a quick and easy way to get a wide readership for your blog posts.

11 - You're Creating Stuff Search Engines LOVE

Search engines exist to offer their audience a compilation of the best resources on a subject or keyword. Your blog is the answer to a search engine's prayers! By sticking to a theme and presenting the content in an organized, structured, intuitively connected pattern, your blog will be appealing to search engines in a way only a very professionally planned and designed website can ever hope to be.

12 - You Get 'Alternate' Traffic Sources

Remember what we saw about blogs being linked and networked together? Bloggers like to share opinions with others. And when they 'talk' about you, they are going to point to your site, or a post on your blog, to show their readers what they mean. They become 'alternate' traffic sources - for YOU!

Other tools like blog rolls, furls, favorite bloggers and more can drive sporadic - but sometimes big floods - of traffic your way. And best of all, it's effortless and costs you nothing!

Not yet convinced? Well, then maybe blogging isn't quite your cup of tea. But if you trust me, try it - you just might be pleasantly surprised.

About the Author

Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is author of 'Blog Profit Ideas Exposed - 33 Ways To Profit From Blogs" - http://www.BlogProfits.com - and 'How To Profit From RSS Feeds" - http://www.RSS-Marketing.com and publishes 8 different 'niche' blogs and has been reporting on marketing with blogs and RSS feeds since 2001.

11 Ways to Promote Your Blog

2008-03-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

1. Ping weblogs.com and other search engines. When you ping a blog, you are telling the search engine that you have updated your blog content and that your listing should be refreshed. Weblogs.com is a blog update notification service that many individuals and services use to track blog changes. Pinging your blogs to the search engines is the fastest way to get the search engine robots to visit your blog. Also, many people browse these sites to find something new.

2. Submit your blog address to blog search sites and directories. You can submit your blog's url to websites such as Technorati, Daypop, Blogdex and Popdex.

3. If you have some cash you can promote your blog using pay per click search engines such as Yahoo Search and Google Adwords.

4. Set your blog to display RSS feeds and submit your blog's RSS feed to the major RSS feed directories online.

5. Put your blog URL in your email signature. If you’re a regular at any online discussion forum, you can also add your url to your signature line at the bottom of each message you post.

6. Install a blogroll. A blogroll is a collection of links to other weblogs. Services such as Technorati spider your links to tell who’s linking to you and who you’re linking to. If you show up on someone’s Technorati link list for their site they’re likely to visit your site to see what you said, increasing your exposure. Blog owners can also visit your site to check it out if you show up on their referral logs.

7. Be an active commenter. Try to leave comments on the blogs that you regularly visit. Most comment systems also provide a way for you to leave a link back to your blog which begs a visit at the very least.

8. If you plan to have anything printed up, put your blog’s web address on it. You can print your blog URL on business cards, stickers, leaflets, etc.

9. Take advantage of blog software features that help to promote your Blog. For example, if you're using Blogger, you can do this by turning on: "Email This Post", "Post Pages" "Site feed" and the Blogger Navbar. These features will help attract new visitors to your blog.

10. Exchange Links with other Bloggers or blog owners. This is another effective strategy for generating targeted traffic to your blog for free. It involves contacting other blog owners for a possible link exchange partnership. All you have to do is locate blogs that are related to yours and contact the webmaster to swap links.

11. Write articles or free reports for other webmasters to publish and put your blog url in the byline. The ‘byline’ is the short paragraph that goes at the bottom of each article and describes who the author is and what they do. If you write good content, your articles will be published by other webmasters and many readers who like your article will go on to visit your blog.

About the Author

10 Tips for Bloggers

2008-03-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

Tips for creating a blog.

There are no hard and fast rules on how to blog. Having said that, bloggers will likely increase their exposure by following some simple blog guidelines.

1.) Stay on topic.
Opinions are generally accepted but the content of the items in the blog should all relate to a general theme. Unless you have an uncanny knack for wit, humor or cynicism, the majority of your readers will be interested in the content that relates to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of interest. Most readers won't care that you eat Cheerios for breakfast. They may, however, be interested in the fact that vinegar takes out stains and that toilet paper rolls make great wreaths. Define a topic and stick to it. This will ensure that you create a loyal following of interested readers.

2.) Stay informative.
If you are attempting to create the impression that you are knowledgeable about a specific industry or sector, be sure that you stay current on news. If you are endorsing a product or voicing an opinion, be sure to check your facts; your reputation is at stake. If you are offering an opinion, be sure to qualify your post, making it clear that the content is intended as an editorial.

3.) Old news is not news.
While blogging every day can be a drain, it is important that the information presented is current and accurate, writing an article or blurb about something that happened 6 months ago, will not be of interest to many. Telling your audience that Martha Stewart was convicted and will be going to prison, after her sentence is completed will make people question the value of your columns.

4.) Adhere to a schedule.
Create a schedule and stick to it. Realizing that blogging requires time and effort, don't create unrealistic expectations and be unable to deliver. An occasional lapse or holiday is generally understood but readers returning to find stale, out-dated content are going to find another blog with similar content. New blogs and RSS feeds are popping up on a daily basis. If you have worked hard to develop an audience and a community you don't want to lose them due to lack of communication.

5.) Clarity and simplicity.
Keep your posts and blog entries clear and easy to understand. Remember, the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don't always translate. Sometimes a little explanation goes a long way.

6.) Keyword-rich.
If the goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, include related keywords in the title of the blog. Use the title as a headline to attract interest. Each item post should have a title that will attract attention but still be relevant to the post. The title should be no longer than 10-12 words.

7.) Quantity matters.
In order to attract the attention of search engines, you will need to develop content and substance. A headline or simple sentence is not going to generate the interest of readers or help with search engine ranking. Be sure to archive old blog posts to develop a large portal of similarly-themed content.

8.) Frequency.
If your blog content is updated frequently, search engines will tend to spider the pages at regular intervals.

9.) Spell checking and proof-reading.
It only takes a few extra moments and can save you from having to make embarrassing explanations. Remember that whatever you publish on the Internet can be found and archived. Think carefully about what you post before doing so.

10.) RSS.
RSS will increase your blog's reach. It is important that you include your blog's content in an RSS feed to increase readership and distribution.

Most weblog audiences are small, but with time and regular updates audiences grow. Bloggers may never have more than a few hundred readers, but the people who return to regularly are generally interested in what you have to say.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing and publishing RSS feeds and NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software.

10 Benefits of Being a Blogger

2008-03-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

In fact Blogger provides you with free several templates which you can customize in addition to a domain name hosted on their server. You can host your blog on your domain if you like to. Here are some benefits I found while blogging:

1) Easy to manage. A blog can be set up by even a novice in no time. All you have to do is post and publish. Blogging can get as simple as that or even more complex.

2) Easy to update. Blogs can be updated weekly or daily instead of sometimes monthly for a static website. Even adding a few paragraphs a day can be done in no time and can be beneficial to your search rankings.

3) Get spidered quickly. Search engine spiders crawl blogs with greater frequency than static webpages. I have had webpages that took over eight months to be indexed in Google where as Yahoo sometimes index my blogs in weeks sometimes days.

4) If you write articles then you can post all of them on your blog in addition to free reprint content that is widely available everwhere. The more content you have the better.

5) You can get your website indexed quicker. An article or a piece of news about your website with an optimize anchor link will send the spiders your way in no time.

6) Sell advertising space. If you have a popular blog then you can create a revenue stream by selling ad space. Blogads is one of several places where you can sell your ad space to major companies.

7) Similar to offering ad space, you can add Adsense to your blog to monetize your content. What I love about Blogger is that once you plug in the Adsense code into your main template, a new page is created and Adsense is automatically displayed when you make a post.

8) Review your affiliate products. If you have a blog that is in a niche then you can find affiliate programs for that niche and do reviews of them for a commission. Every time someone purchases the product or service through your link you make money.

9) It is still early to catch on. Blogs and RSS feeds are used by the minority of internet users which makes it excellent for you to start blogging right now. Less than 10% of the Americans which is the biggest online market use this emerging trend.

10) Can be syndicated. An easy way for your readers to stay in touch with updates is to add your blog to their My Yahoo and My MSN. They can see the latest information and how long ago it was added.

11) Yes a bonus! Savvy marketers know that if you add your blogs to My Yahoo you can have it indexed in no time by Yahoo. You can use these two websites to inform blog directories that you have updated your content.

a) http://WWW.Ping-o-matic.com

b) http://WWW.Rssfeedpromoter.com

So with all those benefits in mind there is no reason you should not start your own blog. So when do you decide to go blogging?

About The Author

Nicholas Dixon has successfully use free articles as his primary source of marketing. Subscribe to his Free Four Day Email Course on how to use free articles to generate business and traffic at SubmitYourArticles@Getresponse.com or visit http://WWW.Oceanroc.Blogspot.com.

ceo@Oceanroc.com

Planning Your Business Plan

2008-03-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

Before you put pen to paper, find out how to assess your business's goals and objectives.

One of the most important reasons in planning your plan is that you may be held accountable for the projections and proposals it contains. That's especially true if you use your plan to raise money to finance your company. Let's say you forecast opening four new locations in the second year of your retail operation. An investor may have a beef if, due to circumstances you could have foreseen, you only open two. A business plan can take on a life of its own, so thinking a little about what you want to include in your plan is no more than common prudence.

Second, as you'll soon learn if you haven't already, business plans can be complicated documents. As you draft your plan, you'll be making lots of decisions on serious matters, such as what strategy you'll pursue, as well as less important ones like what color paper to print it on. Thinking about these decisions in advance is an important way to minimize the time you spend planning your business and maximize the time you spend generating income.

To sum up, planning your plan will help control your degree of accountability and reduce time-wasting indecision. To plan your plan, you'll first need to decide what your goals and objectives in business are. As part of that, you'll assess the business you've chosen to start, or are already running, to see what the chances are that it will actually achieve those ends. Finally, you'll take a look at common elements of most plans to get an idea of which ones you want to include and how each will be treated.

Determine Your Objectives

Close your eyes. Imagine that the date is five years from now. Where do you want to be? Will you be running a business that hasn't increased significantly in size? Will you command a rapidly growing empire? Will you have already cashed out and be relaxing on a beach somewhere, enjoying your hard-won gains?

Answering these questions is an important part of building a successful business plan. In fact, without knowing where you're going, it's not really possible to plan at all.

Now is a good time to free-associate a little bit--to let your mind roam, exploring every avenue that you'd like your business to go down. Try writing a personal essay on your business goals. It could take the form of a letter to yourself, written from five years in the future, describing all you have accomplished and how it came about.

As you read such a document, you may make a surprising discovery, such as that you don't really want to own a large, fast-growing enterprise but would be content with a stable small business. Even if you don't learn anything new, though, getting a firm handle on your goals and objectives is a big help in deciding how you'll plan your business.

Goals and Objectives Checklist

If you're having trouble deciding what your goals and objectives are, here are some questions to ask yourself:

i. How determined am I to see this succeed?
ii. Am I willing to invest my own money and work long hours for no pay, sacrificing personal time and lifestyle, maybe for years?
iii. What's going to happen to me if this venture doesn't work out?
iv. If it does succeed, how many employees will this company eventually have?
v. What will be its annual revenues in a year? Five years?
vi. What will be its market share in that time frame?
vii. Will it be a niche marketer, or will it sell a broad spectrum of good and services?
viii. What are my plans for geographic expansion? Local? National? Global?
ix. Am I going to be a hands-on manager, or will I delegate a large proportion of tasks to others?
x. If I delegate, what sorts of tasks will I share? Sales? Technical? Others?
xi. How comfortable am I taking direction from others? Could I work with partners or investors who demand input into the company's management?
xii. Is it going to remain independent and privately owned, or will it eventually be acquired or go public?

Plan well before going into any business so that you will not be planning to fail.
Goodluck

Olufemi

An Introductory note to Business Plans

2008-03-14T04:09:00.000-07:00

Why is a business plan so vital to the health of your business?

A business plan is a written description of your business's future. That's all there is to it--a document that desribes what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. If you jot down a paragraph on the back of an envelope describing your business strategy, you've written a plan, or at least the germ of a plan.

Business plans can help perform a number of tasks for those who write and read them. They're used by investment-seeking entrepreneurs to convey their vision to potential investors. They may also be used by firms that are trying to attract key employees, prospect for new business, deal with suppliers or simply to understand how to manage their companies better.

So what's included in a business plan, and how do you put one together? Simply stated, a business plan conveys your business goals, the strategies you'll use to meet them, potential problems that may confront your business and ways to solve them, the organizational structure of your business (including titles and responsibilities), and finally, the amount of capital required to finance your venture and keep it going until it breaks even.

Sound impressive? It can be, if put together properly. A good business plan follows generally accepted guidelines for both form and content. There are three primary parts to a business plan:

The first is the business concept, where you discuss the industry, your business structure, your particular product or service, and how you plan to make your business a success.
The second is the marketplace section, in which you describe and analyze potential customers: who and where they are, what makes them buy and so on. Here, you also describe the competition and how you'll position yourself to beat it.
Finally, the financial section contains your income and cash flow statement, balance sheet and other financial ratios, such as break-even analyses. This part may require help from your accountant and a good spreadsheet software program.
Breaking these three major sections down even further, a business plan consists of seven key components:

i. Executive summary
ii. Business description
iii. Market strategies
iv. Competitive analysis
v. Design and development plan
vi. Operations and management plan
vii. Financial factors

In addition to these sections, a business plan should also have a cover, title page and table of contents.

How Long Should Your Business Plan Be?
Depending on what you're using it for, a useful business plan can be any length, from a scrawl on the back of an envelope to, in the case of an especially detailed plan describing a complex enterprise, more than 100 pages. A typical business plan runs 15 to 20 pages, but there's room for wide variation from that norm.

Much will depend on the nature of your business. If you have a simple concept, you may be able to express it in very few words. On the other hand, if you're proposing a new kind of business or even a new industry, it may require quite a bit of explanation to get the message across.

The purpose of your plan also determines its length. If you want to use your plan to seek millions of dollars in seed capital to start a risky venture, you may have to do a lot of explaining and convincing. If you're just going to use your plan for internal purposes to manage an ongoing business, a much more abbreviated version should be fine.

Olufemi

Top Tips for Young Entrepreneurs

2008-03-14T03:12:00.000-07:00

This article is credited to a young promising Akash Mehta, who is a web solutions consultant specializing in rich internet applications. I know this will really benefit my visitors and encourage you to do the right thing to get your desired result. especially beginners in online business.

Here are some tips for the technically-minded young entrepreneur -- both the aspirant service provider and the ambitious salesman -- to help them overcome these challenges and succeed in their ventures.

1. Be ready to handle the challenges of a business.

Running a business isn't easy. With customers to deal with, clients contacting you at any hour of the day, products to maintain and possibly even staff to manage, operating a business is very intensive. Before you begin anything, consider whether or not you really want to be in business. Running a business isn't for everyone -- you may be technically minded, but running a profitable business is a different thing altogether. Look at the market leaders -- Google, for example, is managed by three people: two technically minded founders, plus an experienced professional in the business-oriented role of CEO. Still, if you have an idea, and you really want to go into business with it, don't give up now. You just might it make it big!

Another important issue you will have to deal with is time, or a lack thereof! With school, work, and everything in between, you could soon find yourself trying to get through 30 hours of work every day. Running a business is more often than not a full time job, and at some point, something's got to give. Think about where you want to go in life, and make your decisions accordingly. For example, you could be part of a sporting team, or you could go into business, but you probably can't do both. Often co-curricular and non-school (where applicable) involvements are the first to go; to maintain your social involvement, consider attending user groups, where you can also network and create opportunities for your business.

2. Plan your idea on paper and be ready to explain it to others.

When you're running a small business, opportunities can come up at the most unexpected times. You may run into a potential client at a party, a conference, or even a bus stop. You can't let everyone know about your new product or service but the more people who do know, the more opportunities you're likely to get, and therefore the better your chances of making it through your first few months in business. Get the word out -- you might just chance on a recommendation to a potential client!

Work out your business model and the most useful, concise description you can come up with for your goods or services. Let me take this opportunity to recommend my ingenious patent-pending project management system -- I call it Pen and Paper. Working out a plan with pen and paper is often far more effective than typing it up, and gives you more time to think it out while you write. Be ready to explain your business to anyone at any time; with this plan in hand, you shouldn't have any problems. Without a plan, your explanations can end up being inconsistent, sounding unconfident, and achieving little or no effect.

3. Make good use of all the resources available to you.

Often, young entrepreneurs don't have a lot of capital, but there are still many resources available to you. For example, if you're building a web application for the financial services industry, do you (or more likely, your parents) know any accountants of economists? If you need to quickly undertake a photo shoot for an advertising campaign that a friend has offered to help out with, could you set something up in your parents' garage? For some, imposing on friends and family to help get things moving can be awkward, but learning to take advantage of the available resources is going to give you a huge advantage as a young entrepreneur.

Lack of access to capital can often become a challenge for young entrepreneurs -- basic business development resources such as ad campaigns can become a problem if you don't have a budget. With a bit of thinking, however, many of these problems can be alleviated by taking advantage of the resources at hand.

4. Build your product to be as complete as possible before seeking financial assistance.

So, you're developing your whiz-bang product, and suddenly you realise that the Flash charting library you've been using in your application actually costs $1200 for commercial use. You pick up the phone, call Uncle Rob and ask if he can lend you the cash. He politely declines. A series of calls to your other relatives end in a similar fashion.

As an entrepreneur, you have ideas with a lot of potential. Just as you will eventually sell your product to potential customers, selling your product to potential financial backers is even more important, and this makes explaining and clarifying those ideas a priority. Develop your product as much as you can before seeking financial support; if possible, put together a demonstration video. The more you can demonstrate your idea, the more convincing you'll be. Building on the advice that we discussed in point 2 above, potential financial backers -- especially venture capitalists -- are very important to the success of your business, and deserve an appropriate amount of your attention.

5. Maintain a professional communication channel.

When dealing with clients, you may find yourself working with mature professionals who are high up in their respective corporate hierarchies. Getting them to take you seriously is the tricky part.

If at all possible, live locally, but work globally. Run your life in your local neighbourhood, but until you're older and feel confident to deal with clients in person or over the phone, you might consider restricting your customer base to offshore clients (although for US-based entrepreneurs this isn't always an option). Assume the role of a mature industry professional, and you'll be treated like one. When you go professional, age won't matter unless you make it matter. Preparing stunning introductions and speeches always helps for the times when you have to work locally; keep a standard speech in mind and make sure you can deliver it confidently as needed.

When you're working globally, keep communication to email -- definitely don't offer instant messaging as a method of communication. With email, you have a chance to gather your thoughts, and to work out how to respond to clients. As a young entrepreneur, you often have to tread carefully and make sure you don't lose anyone from your limited customer base. With email, you can take the time to prepare a professional response that conveys your intended image. Instant messaging should be avoided at all costs, especially if you plan to contact clients using the same instant messaging profile you use to contact friends -- this creates all sorts of opportunities for revealing your lack of experience.

6. Monitor progress and keep track of tasks.

The last thing clients want is for you to miss a deadline because you were out on a date or partying with friends. Keep a reasonable separation between your professional and social lives -- the so-called work/life balance -- but keep track of your progress in your life as an entrepreneur, and maintain a close eye on your daily operations.

Often a dedicated calendar and marker pen are sufficient, but develop a system that works for you and allows you to keep track of deadlines, pending tasks, and goals. Importantly, establish many goals, and give each a definite deadline; then make sure you achieve these goals within the time frame you have given yourself. Of course, this is easier said than done, and requires a lot of self-discipline.

Make sure you keep an eye on the big picture, of course. Work out when you expect to start generating revenues, when you want your products and services to be ready, when you aim to secure your first customer, and so on. If you see progress in general sliding, consider putting in a few extra hours here and there, or (if possible) hiring some help -- reliable offshore freelancers are plentiful, and the kid next door might not mind helping you out here and there in return for a bit of pocket money (although again, this might be a bit too close to home).

7. Be prepared to fail.

Let's be honest -- most start-ups just don't take off. However, this eventuality shouldn't be confused with "failure." Every time you start a business, you gain a new raft of experiences, extend your skill set, and learn valuable lessons for your future enterprising.

In the event that your business doesn't make it big, and you end up pulling out of it, look back on what you've learned and consider what you plan to do next time. Chances are that you intend to start another business in your lifetime; when you do, you'll be one business the wiser, and ready to deal with new challenges. There's always another opportunity; dust yourself off and keep on going! You haven't failed; you've progressed.

8. Have fun!

You might have built a fantastic product and sold it to half of your target market. Perhaps it even made you rich and famous and put you on the cover of TIME magazine at 16! But at the end of the day, the question is: did you have fun?

It may be the case that your product doesn't take off, you can't find any suitable buyers, or the world simply isn't ready for your product or service. In any case, always keep an eye on the big picture, and make sure you enjoy what you're doing. Entrepreneurialism requires a lot of enthusiasm -- you can face some serious challenges if you don't take pleasure in your daily business activities.

I hope you have grab something from this his well thought out article courtesy sitepoint.com.

Olufemi

Launch Your Blog, Laugh to the Bank

2008-03-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Are you ready to start blogging?

That's right! By the end of this article you'll be publishing your own blog using Google's own Blogger technology.

What is a blog?

Here's a direct description from the Blogger website:

"A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It's a place to collect and share things that you find interesting— whether it's your political commentary, a personal diary, or links to web sites you want to remember.

Many people use a blog just to organize their own thoughts, while others command influential, worldwide audiences of thousands. Professional and amateur journalists use blogs to publish breaking news, while personal journalese's reveal inner thoughts. The blogging experience is about not only putting your thoughts on the web, but hearing back from and connecting with other like-minded folks."

Why publish a blog?

Publishing a blog allows you to instantly create new content-rich web pages. These new pages can be linked to from the home page of your current website and/or promoted separately. By creating additional content-rich website pages and promoting them from your home page or through other means, you'll be accomplishing two important things
1) You'll provide more value for your website visitors. This increases the "stickiness" of your website making people stick around longer and ultimately trust you more. On the Internet, trust translate to profits!

2) Search engines LOVE fresh content created through blogs. By publishing your own blog and adding fresh content to it on a regular basis, you'll attract the attention of the major search engines who will list your website in their directories for FREE. That's right! As soon as you have pages of your blog in the search engines, you'll start attracting free qualified traffic to your site without paying a dime for it.

It could be a place simply to publish your thoughts... kind of like an online journal.

Or it could be a place to post news and information about your business.

Or it could be used as a promotional platform to drive traffic to your main website and products you are affiliated with.

Ultimately, the choice is yours.

Again, here's Blogger's own summary of what a blog is:

"A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It's a place to collect and share things that you find interesting— whether it's your political commentary, a personal diary, or links to web sites you want to remember.

Many people use a blog just to organize their own thoughts, while others command influential, worldwide audiences of thousands. Professional and amateur journalists use blogs to publish breaking news, while personal journalese's reveal inner thoughts.

The blogging experience is about not only putting your thoughts on the web, but hearing back from and connecting with other like-minded folks."

What I hope you realize is that you are now empowered to express yourself on the web however you want through your blog. Whether you do it for personal reasons or professional ones is up to you.

To start making money with you blog this three steps will be necessary:

Step 1 : Write your own Articles.

Step 2: Format your Articles to your taste

Step3: Tell people about your new blog

Before we get into the action of marketing your blog, let me expand on the philosophy of why blogging and publishing content online is so important and profitable...

First, most people surfing the Internet are looking for information. In other words, most people are not actively seeking to buy a product. And nearly everyone expects to get the information they are seeking for free...

Speaking specifically about the marketplace of people who are "interested" in having a home business and/or making money online, most of these people want to find good information about the subject first.

Therefore, becoming a provider of trustworthy information about home businesses, work at home opportunities and online money making ideas positions you as the source for what people are actually looking for in the first place.

If you have an Ad sense Google Account you can add Ads code to your blog to make more money.

Click customize on the Layout menu, then click on Page element and on the layout click on Add page Element and series of elements will be shown to you click on Ad sense and follow all the step by step procedures to success.

When you are done view the blog and give Google say like ten minutes to show your Ad sense according to the content of your page as it may be showing general Ads for some minutes.

As visitors to your blog click on the Ads by Google on your blog a token is paid to you by Google.

To see more value added Articles that can change your life you can check my other blog at http://www.Phemephe.blogspot.com, while if you desire to make more money that will make you to sack your boss in a short time do go to my website at http://www.Phemephe.com to find the best home based business ideas and opportunities working from home.

Cheers!

Olufemi