"I'm grateful for helping me start my online business - website, blogging, etc. for my holistic medical - dental products and tutorials. Thanks Tyrone"
Most blog platforms come with some basic blog designs. They may call them templates or themes or something similar, and usually they are not bad although some customisation is pretty common. I often see some common mistakes, and hopefully you will be able to avoid them.
Include an about page
Make it prominent and make it truly about you, not some resume-like page.If people find your blog and like what you have to say, they are going to want to know something about you.
Have contact information visible
An email or maybe even a phone number should be included. Your email can be displayed as a graphic to prevent spammers from harvesting it easily. I would suggest using an address that has your domain at the end to be more professional. e.g tyrone @ internetbusinesspath.com, rather than tyrone @ gmail.com.
Visible contact information will make you seem more real and although people may occasionally contact you, it will be far less often than you might think.
Include a picture of yourself
Blogs are personal, even business blogs, and people who visit yours will want to know what you look like. It’s also easier to built trust if your picture is visible. Though, you don’t absolutely need a picture, but it’s strongly recommended. Sometimes people might think you are hiding something if you don’t have one.
Show a top posts or articles page
Some of your blog posts are going to be much more popular than others (you may be surprised which ones they are). I call these your pillar articlesDon’t bury your pillar articles, your most popular blog posts. Highlight them somehow. You might for example have a top posts section in the titlebar or sidebar.
I have a most top articles section and I list my most popular posts based on the ones that are read the most. Other people do it slightly differently. For example, Brian Clark at copyblogger.com has a “Popular Articles†in his sidebar and under that he lists his most popular blog posts. Yaro Starak, on his blog Entrepreneurs-Journey, calls his most popular blog posts “Popular Articles†and lists them at the very top.Somehow or another highlight them. You might do something as simple as create a category called “most popular†and include popular blog posts in that category.
Don’t have a blog banner that is too big!
The banner is the top portion of your blog that goes across the top. It might have a picture of you there, the name of the blog, perhaps some graphic — they vary quite a bit.You don’t want your banner to be big. No one should need to scroll down to see your content. People decide really quickly when they first reach a Web Site, and that includes blogs, whether to read or to leave.
Create a visually appealing blog
Avoid bright colors. Stick to reasonable fonts like Times New Roman and Arial. Have someone with a good eye look at your blog, preferably a graphic designer. Everytime I start a blog and I’ve started dozens for myself, for friends, and for clients, I always get a graphic designer to at least look at it after I am done.
The problem is that it might look OK to you or me, probably neither having a particularly good eye nor appropriate training, but it still might look really ugly to others. Having a graphic designer take a quick look at it is good insurance.
Keep it simple silly!
Some blogs are just so busy: they have one, two, sometimes three sidebars just crammed full of all kinds of stuff. With some of it you wonder why is it there. What purpose does this serve? Now in my opinion calendars are a prime offender. What good is a calendar there? Some people like them, but to me they serve no purpose.
Empty space in a blog is not only allowable, but it’s a good thing. It helps focus eyes on what is important, which is your content and hopefully the few things you choose to put in your sidebar.
Most blogs start with a basic template which is then customised over time. These tips will hopefully help you that with customisation and help you avoid common mistakes with blog design.
Blogging has been around for many years and more recently it has been considered as one of the addicting fads. Many teenagers have resorted to blogging as an outlet for their emotions, a little online nook where they can blurt out whatever just bugs them or whatever makes them feel elated. Savvy marketers have discovered that blogging is one of the best Internet marketing methods that won’t cost you a cent.
What is Blogging?
It is the widely used term that refers to web log. Basically, a web log (a.k.a blog) is an online journal. A blog could be set up to no cost at all, and can be used for just for the fun of it or for business reasons. Blogging for your Internet business is one fastest way to boost the visibility of your products and services. A few ways to boost your internet advertising with the help of a blog are:
Keep your clients or customers abreast on your website’s alterations. Your new products and services on your website could also be announced through your blog.
Keep track of your business objectives and plans through open writing. Your blog content can be easily stored through archives. What could be better than searchable information that could be easily accessed by anyone browsing the Internet? Knowledge can give you a real advantage.
Air your opinions, advice or reviews on specific services or products that are related to your business. Publishing is a very easy process with blogging.
Include links that will fetch back links and continually improve your ranking on search engines. By writing great articles on your blog you will attract these links quickly. Affiliate links could also be included in your blog to earn more extra income.
Collect response through the ability of blogs to fetch comments from your blog readers. You can learn and improve your products and services by receiving feedback from your readers.
Connect easily with other bloggers. When other bloggers notice that you have something good in your blog, they will put you in their favourite lists that will automatically link you to their blogs.
As you can see, there are many advantages by using blogs to market your Internet business. Go ahead, take action today and try some of these ideas in your Internet business.
Did you know that you can make a full time income by blogging? You are able to create an online income business that earns you 4 or 5 figures every month by just spending 1 or 2 hours a day? If you are looking to create this kind of side income, this is the right article for you.
You do not need to be an expert, you do not need to have a PhD in business and you do not need to have a degree in doing so. All you need is know how to blog. With a blog and a proven blogging system that I’m going to share with you, you will be able to create an online income business within 3 months.
How To Create Income From A Blog?
Choose a topic
Before you create your blog, you must know which topic you are going into. The best is to choose a topic that you are passionate in. Choose a topic that you have intense passion. After that, try to narrow down your topic or find a niche within a market. For example, instead of blogging about fishing, blog about fly fishing.
Create a blog
Next, create a blog. Creating a blog is very easy and there are numerous resources on the Internet to help you. I would recommend setting a domain name and hosting your own blog and using WordPress. Read setting up a blog to get in depth instructions.
Create quality content
You need to have quality content because it is what people in your market are looking for. Nobody is going to visit a blog that has no value to them. In internet marketing, content is king. Therefore, if you are going to create an online income business, you will need to provide value for your market, through quality content in your blog.
Market your blog
Once you have content, you are ready to bring in visitors to your blog. This is about traffic generation, where most people fail and give up. Traffic generation is not as complicated as you think. As long as you are willing to take action, traffic will come. Create a daily, monthly and yearly traffic plan, and then stick to this plan and take the necessary action according to your plan.
Offer a product or service on your blog
The last piece of puzzle you need is an offer. An offer is how you make money. Insert money makers or advertising into your blog such as Google Adsense or affiliate marketing. This is how you can make money from your blog. In fact, writing quality content and getting traffic is what takes time and requires work. This step is easier because once you have content and traffic, making sales for you will be a lot simple.
This is how you can create an online income business by using a blog. Remember, action produces results, if you are not taking any action, nothing is going to happen. So take the first step now and decide which market you are going into.
In this world, the Internet Business community has been portraited as living the high life, driving fast cars, eating and dining out all the time and socialising with celebraties. It’s definitely viable to do that, though in my opinion the best thing an Internet Business has brought for me is “Freedom”. Here’s my “words of wisdom” below:
I’ve found that a successful Internet businesses must start with a solid foundation. As I’ve seen, most Internet businesses will integrate a blog onto their website and start to build a solid foundation of pillar content. Pillar content or pillar articles are posts that are written to help a consumer establish what your Internet business is all about.
What Is Pillar Content?
This termed was first coined by a famous blogger called Yaro Starak at his website Entrepreneur’s Journey. Yaro provides the following detailed definition:
“A pillar is blog content, usually an article, which does some very important things:
It will bring in a rush of new readers and backlinks (other sites linking to your blog).
It will continue to bring in more readers over time as you and other people refer to it, even though it may be buried in the archives of your blog.
Eventually it will bring in traffic from search engines (this is largely because so many other web pages link to it).
You can list it in a separate area (like an articles page) with all your other pillars so your best content can easily be accessed and your value clearly demonstrated.
It is not time dependent, so in twelve months’ time it will still be relevant and popular.”
Why Is Pillar Content Important?
Looking at the bigger picture, pillar content is your foundation of your Internet business as it will continue to bring consumers and readers to your website. You may think that just having a product or service to sell is all that’s needed to run a successful business. Not quite so. Consumers today are very hungry for information and want to know more about your business. Therefore providing pillar content relating to your products or services can add value for your consumers and generate more sales for you.
For example, if I were selling a watch online and it had a description and listed features, it may not be enough for a consumer to purchase the watch from my site. Reason being, most people would want to read reviews from others who have purchased this watch and see their feedback. What if I wrote an article about the watch talking about the history and make of it and asked an expert to state their opinion, and had other consumers respond with comments and feedback. Then this would provide social proof and adds value to your product without the consumer leaving your site and spending time looking for more information elsewhere.
Examples Of Pillar Content
Most pillar content articles are longer than 500 words and have lots of practical tips or advice. There are many different forms of pillar content you can create and I have listed some examples below for you to apply to your industry:
How To Article – shows people how to do a certain task or instructions on building something
Definition Article – defines a term in your industry
Present A Theory Or Argument – writing to present some unique thought
Release A Significant Resource – a report, podcast, video
A “List” Article – it’s very easy to scan and share. Can be a top 10 list or action points
Technical Or Visual Guide – a screen capture presentation or how to fix something using a video presentation. It is also a very detailed step by step blueprint on exactly how to complete a task.
I’ve seen how effective pillar content can be for any Internet business and I recommend you have at least 10 pillar articles on your website before marketing to consumers. That way you’ll provide them with something valuable to read and also gain their interest to come back again. If you can write an article each day using the above examples, then you can build a very strong foundation for your Internet business.
I didn’t write this post to brag about the figure I made from my niche business. I write this to inspire you and let you know that it’s possible to make $8,425.00 in one day just from an Internet business with the right tools and strategies in place.
Selling Online Full Time Whilst Working 10 Hours A Week If you have ever emailed me via on my contacts page you will get an automatic response that says:
Greetings,
Due to high workload, we are currently checking and responding to email once on Tuesday and Thursday at 4.00pm A.E.S.T.
Please read our F.A.Q section, it will answer your questions faster: http://www.dbv.com.au/index.php?main_page=faq
If you require urgent assistance (please ensure it is urgent) that cannot wait until either at 4.00pm on Tuesday or Thursday, please contact us via phone on (02) 8004 3567.
Thank you for your understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness. It helps us accomplish more to serve you better.
As you can see I have a system in place to let people know that I only check my email on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is also the time I devote to that business. This is a deliberate choice I make because I want to spend my time doing many different things, some work related (business building), some health related (exercise) and some for fun (seeing friends, family, eating out, etc).
If you want to achieve figures like this or higher in a day, you need to set realistic expectations and then match your activities to meet those expectations. Then hopefully, like I have managed to do, you can create a fantastic lifestyle built around an Internet business.
How To Achieve These Goals? The most important concept I have learnt about running a successful Internet business is to set up the right systems. When I first started out I did everything in the business, from deliveries to ordering and dispatching of products. I realised how hard I was working and not working smart, since we think the Internet is suppose to give us the fantastic lifestyle compared to the 9 to 5 work. So I made a hard decision and looked at what activities I did that brought in the most revenue and outsourced the rest.
It wasn’t easy at first because I had got so used to the routine that I still had the itch to be involved in running the business rather than let the business run itself.
So how did I change?
It wasn’t until I found out that I had to go overseas for a two and a half weeks for my partner’s relatives wedding. It was a turning point for me because I had to set up the systems for the business to run automatically whether I was there or not. Some simple things I implemented before I went away:
I hired a virtual assistant to handle all sales enquires and manage orders for me
I set up automatic debit payments from my credit cards to pay suppliers and bills.
Set up an automatic email responder training customers to read the FAQ instead of waiting for a reply. 90% of the questions are similar in one way or another and can be answered in an FAQ.
Before I knew it, I came back from an overseas trip with more money in my account than I had before the trip. What a surprise it was for me! I can say that I am a true testimony that it’s possible to earn a full time income from part-time work having the right systems implemented.
I remember in 2001 when I first read a book about entrepreneurship, it changed my mindset and became the turning point in my life. Once I started to embrace new ideas and have an open mind to business opportunities, I started attracting more of it. It was a phenomenal change for me and I started to notice the different mindsets of people around me.
What Is The mindset Of An Entrepreneur?
An Entrepreneur sees the world differently and applies different principles to the environment they are in. They are a great strategist and a master at leveraging their skills and time to grow their business through people, money and technology. There are two different approaches that I see, the employee mindset and the business owner mindset.
Employee Mindset
Previously when I was working in a real estate agency as an employee my day was set and I had to be at work between the hours of 8am to 5pm. I was given work to complete by my boss and told when to have lunch. Basically I was told what to do during my time at work and getting paid for it. Unfortunately a majority of the population has been trained this way and it stems from the days of schooling. We were taught and given homework at school, which meant if we didn’t complete it we would get some sort of punishment or if we did complete it, we would get graded with a number. This way we were trained to complete a task because we were told to, not because we thought how will this benefit others or make a difference to the world and my life? The employee mindset is what I call “lazy” thinking because we are spoon fed what to do and how to do it. We get paid for just getting up and going to work.
Business Owner Mindset
As a business owner I take complete ownership of what I do everyday within my business. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I do everything in the business. What it means is that as a business owner I see the world’s opportunities differently.
An Employee Mindset Vs. A Business Owner Mindset
An employee’s mentality is to follow commands.
Write and Distribute Articles, Reports and Ebooks.
Internet users are all interested in one thing – information. Use this to promote your business by creating high quality content and allowing others to reprint it for you. One great way to do this is to distribute a brandable ebook or special report. This is one that a website or list owner can change to include a reference to their website. This doesn’t mean that it looks like they are the publisher, it’s just a way for them to include information on where the ebook was downloaded from and (if applicable) to include their affiliate link for your products and services.
Participate in Newsgroups, Forums, and Mailing Lists. There are hundreds of forums online and you can find one for almost any topic imaginable. Most allow you to include a signature line that will be attached to every message. This is a chance for you to advertise your site. Visiting these forums to post thoughtful questions and offer your expertise will mean your signature is viewed by others and will bring you free, targeted traffic. Of course how much traffic you get depends on how often you post and whether your signature makes people want to visit your site. A good approach is to use an ad you’ve had success with elsewhere as your signature.
Join Networking Sites to Build your Personal Network.
Networking sites are designed to make it easy for people to meet others in their industry and to advertise their products and service. Similar to offline networking events where lots of people come together for the sole purpose of meeting people, online networking sites work the same way.
Use Classified Sites and Traffic Exchanges.
Classified ad sites and traffic exchanges have gotten a bad reputation, but they really do work if you know how to use them. If you’re promoting a product or service that advertisers can benefit from then they’re a great place to get traffic. Although not very many consumers visit this type of advertising sites, lots of website owners do in order to make sure their ad appears on the site. While there they can’t help but notice other ads and if one catches their attention you’re likely to get a visitor.
Run a Contest.
People love the prospect of winning something – that’s why a contest can be a great traffic generator. The key is to choose a prize that will attract people from your target audience. If you make the grand prize a new laptop you’ll get entries from everyone who would like to win a new laptop (which is basically every computer user in the world!). Get more targeted traffic by choosing something that your target audience is interested in but wouldn’t mean much to other people. To start promoting your contest do a search in Google for “Contest Directories†and you’ll find lots of places to list your contest for free.
Include a Powerful Signature on all Outgoing Email.
Every time you send a piece of mail you have the potential to get a visitor to your site. Simply create a “signature†that is automatically added to every outgoing message. Use the signature to briefly explain what you do, give your USP or slogan and add a hyperlink to your site. Once it’s set up you don’t have to think about it again!
Try Newsletter Classified Ads.
There are lots of newsletter publishers who give classified ads to new subscribers. Although these don’t typically bring a huge response, they can generate some traffic if you offer something with a high perceived value but low price tag. They’re also a great way to test new ads to see which ones get the best response. Once you’ve found a winner use it in a PPC campaign, make it your new email signature, run it as a top sponsor newsletter ad or use it as your forum signature.
For the past 2 years I have been using Hostmonster as my preferred hosting provider. If you have not decided on a domain name, I suggest reading Choosing A Domain Name For Your Internet Business to learn how to choose the right domain name for your business.
My reason for choosing Hostmonster
Back in 2006 when I was looking for a cheap hosting service and something reliable and provided lots of storage space I searched around for numerous hosting providers. Also the price was a crucial factor for me and I thought about why I needed to pay expensive hosting costs when Hostmonster could provide for everything I needed.
Customer Support
On many occasions I had to contact them to ask about how to fix up certain things in the backend for my website and everytime I have been given excellent service from their customer support team. No wonder they are able to support that many websites.
Affiliate Programs
Hostmonster does have a very generous affiliate program. By driving customers to sign-up at HostMonster, you will receive $65.00 per referral. What you can do as well, is sign up as an affiliate and also get half price for referring your own hosting.
Price Value
They offer unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth at $4.95 per month currently (as of January 2009). To make it clear, they monitor the CPU usage and do not allow very big sites to host on the server, to compensate for the unlimited space and bandwidth offered. Still, with all the features they offer, HostMonster is one of the best choices in my opinion for hosting.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been preparing myself to start the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS), where I attended my first class today at 9.30am in Sydney CBD. I was really excited and anxious at the same time because I was wondering if my idea would become a viable business by the end of the course.
How I Found Out About NEIS?
Back in December 2008 I was looking for other opportunities to increase my weekly cash flow and to do a course to learn more about marketing and growing a business. My initial approach was to do a search on Google and to read blogs to gain ideas. Funnily enough I stumbled across a business blog where it mentioned the NEIS program and described about his personal experience attending this course many years ago. It got me interested and I started to make a few phone calls to find out how to apply for the programme.
What Is NEIS?
You might be wondering why I was interested in this particular programme? NEIS is an Australian government funded programme (only available to residents of Australia), and is aimed at assisting people to explore the opportunities of starting their own business instead of going to the workforce. The additional benefits of the programme are:
a short 4-5 week course on small business management and planning equipping you will the necessary business skills to start your new business
12 month support financially
mentoring assistance to you to guide you through your new business
The government has provided an excellent opportunity to people like myself wanting to start a new business, but don’t have enough capital to start. Also, I knew there was a cost to attending business courses at Tafe and having a personal mentor, which made it even more appealing for me to apply for this programme.
Requirements
Before applying for NEIS you must also be on a Centrelink benefit. In my circumstance, I was unemployed and able to apply for the New Start Allowance through Centrelink.
How It Works?
The people I met in NEIS within my class, came from all types of backgrounds ranging from senior positions in corporate companies to mechanics. Therefore most people can apply for this programme. Here the stages you have to complete before going onto NEIS:
As mentioned the requirement is that you must be on a Centrelink benefit.
Once you begin to receive your benefit / allowance from Centrelink you will need to attend a Jobseeker network which Centrelink will refer you to. They will provide you a Jobseeker number and you have to fill out the relevant forms.
Submit a fortnightly form to Centrelink to let them know of your job seeking or course attending activities. (In this case you will be attending NEIS for a period of around 12 weeks)
Inform Centrelink once you have been accepted in the NEIS Programme
Attend NEIS short course for 4-5 weeks and then present your business plan to the panel 2-3 weeks later.
Normally it will take an additional 2 weeks to process your business details to Department of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations (DEEWR).
Attend a final group meeting to be inducted and assigned a business coach taking an additional week.
As you complete each step you will gain a better understanding of how to run your business and be provided with training and mentoring to help you succeed. After the final group meeting you’ll be out to start your new business.
How Can It Help You? If you think you are eligible then I would recommend applying for NEIS. Even if you attended the business course it’s worthwhile to gain the knowledge and learn more about running a successful business.
Most blog platforms come with some basic blog designs. They may call them templates or themes or something similar, and usually they are not bad although some customisation is pretty common. I often see some common mistakes, and hopefully you will be able to avoid them.
My name is Tyrone Shum and I'm on a journey to outsource and automate my business to allow me to work only 12 hours a week. On this website I share with you my outsourcing strategies to achieve this goal and I have a passion to teach others about what I do. Read more 