In the online business world there are hundreds of tasks that need to be completed daily, weekly, monthly to make a business easy to find among millions of other websites. Creating videos, submitting your articles to article directories, creating affiliate tools, setting up Squidoo pages, getting listed in blog directories, setting up your social media accounts, or any number of other things. Guess what? You’re not alone. Every online business owner feels the exact same way.

And, any time there’s a problem that means you can profit.

Step One: Figure Out What You Can Do
Figure out the one activity in your online business that you really enjoy doing or that you are good at. I can guarantee you that there are plenty of online business owners or solopreneurs who will pay you to do that one thing for them. Still stuck? Ask yourself if there is something that other people compliment you on or ask for your help on.

Step Two: Create an Irresistible Offer
Here’s what you do next. Put together your irresistible offer. Make it very easy to understand what you’re offering, how it benefits an online business, what experience you have that makes you a good candidate, and then – the price. Give them an offer they can’t refuse.

Important Tips:

Keep it simple. A confused prospect will walk.
Add testimonials. If you have any past clients, JV partners, or anyone who can vouch for you, get an endorsement of your character.

Step Three: Put Your Offer In Front of Those Who Know You
First, contact any past clients who you’ve worked for in the past. Let them know of your new offer and that they can “pay in advance” to claim their spot. Then, contact any marketing friends. Post on Twitter, of course, too.

If you are starting from scratch, use a third party site that removes some of the anxiety over using a new freelancer because they have a third party protection level.

I just signed up and started using oDesk to find Writers and other outsourcers . to help leverage my time.

There are three big advantages to using a third party site.

1. Using a third party site allows you to build your profile and portfolio with each job building trust for new clients since they do all the tracking for you.
2. You don’t need to worry about chasing payments, generally, all clients must have pre-approved finances in their account.
3. Since everything is done via that third party site, it eliminates the out of pocket cost you would need to spend to set up your own website. You can operate literally with no website of your own AND you don’t need to try to drive traffic to that site since your profile is already smack dab in the middle of where people are searching for your service!

What can you offer or even use to effectively leverage your time?

To your success,

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

3 Quick Steps To Sell Your Services

Many people have found that blogging is an enjoyable way to write and journal their activities. While others have learned that the power of “content” on the internet and if you have the desire to write for cash, it’s easily done.

Ghostwriting is such a funny name for an occupation that can make you a good, consistent income. Ghostwriting simply means that you write for other people and they get to put their name to it. They can pay pretty well for this service too. It’s the kind of job you can do at home with just a computer, and the need for start-up money is quite low, if any. It is also a service you can start on the side and build up while you are still working a fulltime job.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself to determine if ghostwriting might be a good fit for you:

Are you organized? You will need to be to keep track of your outstanding writing requests and the order you should do them in, how much you are charging for each type of writing assignment, and contact details for each client.

Are you motivated and consistent? You need to be able to write, even when you don’t feel like it. You need to follow through on promises you’ve made – “I’ll have that article done in 48 hours.” or “Yes, I can write all 20 of those articles you requested.” Do deadlines motivate you or do you find them a big drag?

Ghostwriting is a service. Will you be happy performing a service? Yes, you have your own business but really, you’re not your own boss in that you are fulfilling other people’s requests and you’re on the clock as far as getting the requests done in a timely manner.

Do you have good writing skills? Do you like to write? These two things usually go together. If you like to write you’re probably good at it. While you can always polish your skills and learn how to write for specific industries, you should have some writing talent already. If it takes you forever to write 400 words and you feel like your head is in knots the whole time you are writing, then ghostwriting is probably not for you.

If you liked your answers to the above questions, ghostwriting might be a good fit for you. Here is where I’d do next:

1. Research ghostwriting as a business on the Internet and spend some time learning all about it. Give yourself a time limit, though, or you could spend months and months learning and never actually start the business.

2. Research what other ghostwriters charge for different size articles, reports, ebooks, blog posts, email fodder, etc. Then you’ll know the going rate and you can determine your prices. You might want to start out on the lower end until you build your business and then raise your prices gradually.

3. Start a portfolio. Just like a model needs a portfolio of her best work to help her get jobs, you need a portfolio of articles to help you get jobs. So whip up your best examples and don’t hesitate to offer potential clients a thorough look at them.

4. Get testimonials from your first happy clients to send to new clients upon request. They probably won’t just send you a testimonial, but it’s certainly okay to ask them for one.

5. Start networking and establishing a relationship with other ghostwriters through Twitter, etc. and ask them to send people your way if they get too swamped. You’ll return the favor too.

Offering your services ghostwriting can be a wonderful way to “bring home the bacon” without actually leaving home. Although you don’t have to work at home, you can also work on your laptop at your favorite coffee shop.

To your success,

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How To Write For Cash

Sometimes what seems like a career actually begins as a hobby for someone. Many couples that are adept at home repairs have a hobby of investing property, fixing it up, and flipping it into a profit. Moms that have a talent for scrapbooking (and I’m not one of them) learn how to to “outsource” those skills for cash to others (like me).

The key to making mounds of money from your hobby is to pick something that you are excited AND knowledgeable about. You may not enjoy home repairs like your neighbor. Maybe you have a passion for taking everyday things and making an extraordinary piece of art from them.

The best thing about profiting from your hobbies is that you’re doing something that relaxes you and gives you joy in life. Not many people can say that about their jobs. In fact, most people in surveys would love to trade in their 9-5 corporate gigs for something more rewarding.

You don’t have to be a degreed expert in a particular field to take advantage of what your hobbies have to offer. Your expertise is simply the time you’ve invested learning your craft.

If you’d love to turn your hobby into a money-maker, then you have to treat it like a business of sorts. You can’t rely on people to just come up to you and hand over their money.

One way you can make money from your hobby is to simply sell the work that you do, if it’s applicable to what your hobby is. If you make jewelry, then you can create a website where you sell it on the ‘net. If you write as a hobby, then you can launch a business ghostwriting for others.

But there’s another way you can cash in on your hobbies – by teaching others what you know about it. You see, if you’re interested in something as a relaxing, enjoyable pastime, then chances are there are thousands, if not millions, of other people who have the exact same interests as you do – and are willing to pay for more information!

Think back to when you first started dabbling in your hobby. Did you read books about it or visit websites to learn from others? From knitting to golfing, people pay for information that helps them enjoy their hobbies even more – and you can be the resource they need to make their dreams happen!

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How To Turn Your Spare Time Into Cash

No matter how rich or poor you are, no matter how many things are on your ‘to-do’ list, you still just get the regulation twenty-four hours each day. Sometimes I could use another twenty-four but that isn’t going to happen. I’ll bet that you could use more hours in your work day, as well.

The thing about those twenty-four allotted hours per day is that we can’t spend all of them working. We have to sleep some of them. We have to take time to eat and there is the occasional shower, too.

Our families and our friends require some of our time. Relationships must be nurtured. So…we can allow ourselves just so many work hours each day. Since our working time is limited that means that we must make the very most of the hours that we work. We can’t waste time on unimportant details or on tasks that others can do.

When you shave a few minutes here and a few minutes there, you will make more efficient use of your allotted work hours. Here are a few suggestions and in the interest of saving your time (and mine), I’ll keep this brief and to the point.

Email account efficiency: We all have various email accounts. We use one account for this and another account for that. Checking each and every email account more than once a day can be a time consuming task that you very easily make less time consuming by having all of the email that comes to all of your various email account to come into one gmail account. One email account takes a lot less time than several and you can still maintain all of your various email addresses.

Additionally, you don’t need to spend a lot of time reading and answering emails that are not going to add to your bottom line.

Email comes in several varieties. There are emails that are business related, emails that are important but not business related and emails that are simply frivolous and time wasting. If an email has been forwarded several times, don’t waste your time.

If an email is addressed to a great many people, don’t waste any time on it either. Email can consume a lot of time. You need to filter the important from the irrelevant and only spend time on those emails that are related to your business.

Set up time chunks to help you prioritize your work day: A scheduled work day is an efficient work day. You will get a lot more done in a lot less time if you know in advance and can see at a glance what task is next on your list. I like visual aids. I write out my time chunks with colors on a daily calendar as a visual aid. It can help you allot your time efficiently and productively!

Focus on result producing activities: When you make your work day schedule, you need to be certain that the tasks that you schedule are the ones that will in fact make your business grow and thrive. Don’t waste your time, effort and energy on tasks that can be done by others.

Take time to investigate outsourcing. You can add hours to your day each and every day when you outsource the mundane business tasks to others.

You can outsource such tasks as bookkeeping and accounting, article/E-book writing and submission, travel and event planning and ad writing. Others can do these tasks better and more efficiently than you can and your time is better spent on growing your business, making those contacts and generating new business!

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Simple Ideas for Work-at-Home Time Management

I have used various options as I learned what works or what’s lacking from one to the other.

Considering that it’s virtually impossible to make money online without your own website, it’s important to give your choice web host a lot of thought. Although you can certainly build up a lot of secondary sites using third party websites like Squidoo or Hubpages, at the end of the day you need to own your content. It just makes sense to have your own website. And you can’t have your own website until you choose a web hosting service.

The web hosting program you choose will hook your domain up with storage on the web host’s server. This storage will hold your pages and all the information relating to your website. Many people buy their website domain names and their hosting together – but it doesn’t have to be that way! Finding a good web host will make your online business a lot easier.

Here are three keys to look for in a good web host:

1.Customer Support

Unless you are a technical whiz kid (and you don’t have to be in order to earn money with Internet marketing), you’re probably going to find yourself spending some time talking with your web host’s customer support people. Whether you need someone to hold your hand through the set up process or you need to reach someone right away if your site goes down, finding a company with good customer support is important. Your web host should offer 24/7 support on the phone or through live IM support.

2.Capacity

Your capacity needs are an important factor in choosing a host. If you have multiple sites receiving a lot of traffic, your space and traffic needs will be a lot bigger than someone who just has one popular blog. You should take the traffic and disk space limits of any host into account. Read the fine print on what your hosting company does if the bandwidth limits are reached so you can be prepared if you get an influx of traffic. You should also pay attention to how many separate domains you can have on your hosting. Some hosting plans are only for one website, which makes them useless to most Internet marketers. A web host that offers room for growth and allows you to easily upgrade your hosting plan is ideal.

3.Company Reputation

When you do nice things for people, they spread the word about your services. Web hosts are the same. You should do some research on your potential web hosting companies to see what others have to say about their service and the quality of the hosting. Be sure to filter out the obvious affiliate reviews and sites that are just set up to direct you to one web hosting plan. Searching on popular Internet marketing forums can be a great way to find out your options. Since these folks rely heavily on their web hosting to make them money, you can bet that if you see a hosting company’s name again and again, it’s a safe bet.

I have been using Blue Host for a couple years now and I am always impressed with their support when I can and the small monthly fee can’t be beat! They also offer cpanel, that allows even the most un-tech savvy person to do what they need to do with a few simple clicks and I can host all my domains in one easy place. Click here to check out more about Blue Host.

Here’s to your success,

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

How to Choose a Web Host

Most business owners don’t have the expertise or the time to set up a list management system on their own server (and I don’t recommend you even try). Instead, most use an email list host. This will allow you to collect e-mail addresses from buyers and visitors to your websites, craft booths or brick and mortar store.

Good email List management can be the bread and butter of your business if you set it up and care for it the right way. Capturing a person’s name and e-mail address when they visit your site allows you to send them helpful information, build your relationship with them and offer new products. It’s absolutely essential that your list provider be easy to use and have the capabilities to deliver professional messages.

Look for the following features to find the B.E.S.T. L.I.S.T.

BAD address protection.

Your email list host should remove bad e-mail addresses automatically so you don’t have to deal with them manually. Clearing out bad addresses from your list can save you a lot of time.

EASY opt in creation

Your list can’t exist unless you have an opt in form on your website. The opt in forms should be easy to create within the list provider’s system. You should be able to feel secure in putting the opt in form on your website and trusting that it will work.

SUBSCRIBE/unsubscribe system

Subscriptions and unsubscriptions from your list shouldn’t require any input on your part. Your list members should be added automatically and removed just as easily.

TRACKING capabilities

E-mail marketing isn’t effective unless you can tell how your messages are being received. A robust list provider program will allow you test and track your messages. You can see how many are being opened by your list members and how many are clicking through on your links. This can be a great way to learn how to market more effectively so you can reach your audience.

LIST management

Your list provider should give you the ability to manage several different lists at once. You should be able to send a message to a few lists at once, filtering out people who are on a third list. You should also have the ability to send messages to people who subscribed after a certain date. All of these capabilities will help you market to your list more effectively.

INTERNET connection

You shouldn’t have to wait for your messages to go out due to a server outage on your list provider’s side. Your list provider should be professional enough to keep an active Internet connection to your list management tools at all times. The better the connection, the faster you can work with your list.

SECURITY features

Your email list host should make it clear in their terms of service that your personal information and the information of your clients will be secure and protected from hackers. Since people are giving you their personal information, you deserve to know that the list provider will keep their information secure.

TECHNICAL support

If your list provider isn’t there to help you work through the technical issues to use their system, they aren’t worth your time. You’re using a list provider in order to make your life easier. You shouldn’t have to be hassled with technical details. Look for a provider that offers phone and IM support.

By looking for these features in your email list host, you can be sure that you’re finding a true ally in your business and not just creating another hassle.

Here’s To Your Success,

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

How To Choose Your Email List Host

1. Purpose.

First you’ll need to figure out the purpose of your website. Is it to establish yourself in a niche? If so, you’ll need to do some keyword research to figure out which phrases would naturally attract traffic. Are you buying a domain to sell a product? If so, your product name or a variation of the product name should be your domain name. Ideally, your website’s domain should either describe what the website is about (Membernaire.com is about building membership sites) or it should include keywords related to your domain (FatLossHelp.com is about losing weight, and it includes a popular keyword phrase). Determining the purpose of you website will help you decide what phrases to use.

2. Presence.

How important is it to you to have an exact keyword phrase in your domain? For some websites, you may be able to use another similar phrase. But for others you may need that exact phrase. In the second case, you can try adding hyphens, prefixes or suffixes to your domain name if your exact phrase is taken. This way you’ll still be able to use the phrase and establish yourself in the niche. A general rule of thumb is to use no more than two hyphens in a domain name.

3. Potential.

How big is your website going to grow in the coming months and years? Are you buying a domain name to build a niche mini-site that acts as a feeder site to your sales page? Are you looking to build an authority site in your niche? Your domain name choice should be determined by how much growth you are expecting for your website. A niche mini-site domain name can be a lot more specific and long tail than an authority site. For example, beginnersheirloomtomatotips.com is a very niche specific domain whereas heirloomgrowing.com has enough leeway for you to build an authority site.

4. Price.

You can get virtually any domain name you want, if you’re willing to pay for it. In most cases though, you’ll want to register an unused domain name. These domain names cost anywhere between $7 and $12 depending on what company you’re registering them through (I recommend ______). However, if you have a very specific business name and want to lock in a domain that has been registered, but isn’t being used, you can try contacting the domain owner. Look up the domain name owner’s information in the WhoIs directory and try making a deal.

All of these factors will come into play when you are choosing a domain name for your website. Make sure to carefully consider how your domain name will be used before you buy.

To Your Success,

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

How To Choose A Domain Name

Since I started working online, I’m asked weekly “How Do You Work Online?” or “What Can I Do To Work Online?”

That is a loaded question that is full of a lot of choices, and your first choice is deciding on which business model you are going to follow. If you don’t make this choice carefully, you’ll find yourself hopping from business model to business model, spending money on programs and “secrets,” and not making any profits at all. Trust me when I say that finding a business model that appeals to you and working with that model will go a long way toward helping you succeed online.

I personally started with an eCommerce site, selling my own manufactured products as well as products I sourced. I then had the ability to start consulting other start-up entrepreneurs on how to bring their own product to market and I also did freelance work. But it doesn’t stop there, I also leverage affiliate marketing (where you get paid a commission for products your recommend) but through all the years I have seen or tried more models than I can list.

If you are just starting out there are a few basic business models to choose from that will give the greatest chance of success (and save you from the scammers). Each of them have their advantages and disadvantages. By looking over this list and considering your strengths, you should know where you want to focus your business.

- Information Publisher

When you create your own product, you are in complete control of your stream of income. By writing a product, or hiring a ghostwriter to write one, you can set up a website and sell your product over and over again. You can set up an affiliate program so other people are selling the product for you. The only major downside is that you can spend a lot of time and money working on a niche product that may not fill your expected income.

I just started working with Wishlist, it is a membership plugin you add to your WordPress blog and boom, your membership is site is up and running. Here is a free video on building a community with Wishlist.

- Affiliate

This is my FAVORITE model for a beginner just getting started. Unlike being a product creator, with affiliate marketing you don’t have to spend time and money creating a product. You just need to be good at promoting the product. You’ll earn commissions for sending buyers to the product creator’s website. With the right promotional techniques, you can establish yourself in the niche and make affiliate commissions from several different programs all at once. On the other hand, you are at the whim of the product creator when you use this business model. You never know when a product creator will stop offering the product.

I find affiliate marketing can be a difficult concept for some, so let me break it down this way.

We have a bean bag chair that our entire family loves, all visitors to my house climb in and won’t get out of it and it’s totally not your “average” bean bag chair, really, it kicks butt

So we are always telling people where to buy their own, it’s natural word of mouth recommendation but heck.. what if you can make a few bucks on that recommendation? I do so in three easy steps.

1. I simply joined the bean bag chair’s “Affiliate Program”
2. I bought a URL- http://www.bestbeanbagchair.com that was easy to remember
3. I forward the special tracking link from the affiliate program and to my URL so the store knows I sent that visitor.
4. Money get’s deposited into my Paypal account every month when someone visits the website and buys a rockin bean bag chair.
5. I’m happy to get a few bucks for my personal recommendation (I only recommend things I really do like and use), the store is happy that they just made a sale and the new customer is happy because they have a great product. Everyone wins!

That is the very basics of affiliate marketing, obviously, you can get crazy and promote that link everywhere and make even more money.

- Administrator

Starting your own membership site is another option. With affiliate programs and information products, you’ll earn money from a one time sale. When you own a membership site, you’ll have an ongoing stream of income coming from one website. You can provide monthly reports on a niche topic, host a forum or offer coaching for a flat fee each month. You can even use an affiliate program with your membership site so that other people will send new members your way. The downside is that you need to keep providing fresh content each month to keep your members sticking around.

What hobby do you already have that others can use? Would people be willing to pay you 10.00 a month for a new pattern of the month club?

- Virtual Assistant or Virtual Specialist

The world of the web is exploding around us, website and business owners are always looking for services, what skills do you have that can earn a little extra cash or even your full time income.

One of the best programs I found will guide you to become an Internet Marketing Specialist. The Internet Marketing Specialist 2010 Training Program will equip you with the exact skills, knowledge and tools to be able to fully coordinate and implement your client’s Internet Marketing campaigns from start to finish! This is a great option if you prefer to be service based and have a more reliable income. Of course, the fact that you get to work when you want to work and in your jammies is a bonus.

Plus, you will gain new Internet Marketing tips and tactics to help you further ignite the visibility, traffic and overall web presence for your own business!

As a special bonus, you can bundle your course with a 2 Half Day Clinic Keyword Research and Optimization Clinic.

Use the coupon code for a reduced rate. $100 Coupon Code: IMST2010

There are a few options for you to consider, again, it is important for you to have a clear vision of your own goals and realistic expectation of your time. Unlike what people try to convince you, success to become a millionaire does NOT happen overnight.

To Your Success,

p.s. The Internet Marketing Specialist course starts April 26 and seats are limited so take advantage of this offer now, I’m not sure how often they open the program. Here’s the coupon code again for $100 bucks off: IMST2010

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4 Business Models To Get Started Making Money Online

Yes, the way some people use the “power” the wrong way drives me crazy but in my last quick blog post the other day I noted how more apps are being created to let you SELL direct from your Facebook Fan Page.

I find it interesting to watch how even large, well established brands like Levi’s integrates social media into their overall sales and marketing plan.

Now, there are even more changes that you need to be aware of on Facebook.

First, Ed Dale covers it well- it’s the impact of the the new features from a marketers stand point.

However, in a post by Going Social Now, breaks it down to a more personal impact regarding your online presence.

Bottom line, if you are a Facebook user or using Facebook as market of your online marketing plan, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the topic.

Post from: Online Business Marketing For Home Based Businesses

Are You Keeping Up with Facebook Changes?

Everyday I speak with eCommerce owners that struggle to fight their way into the top search engine results and ask “How can I get more traffic?”.  I cover several tactics in my Beginners Website Traffic ebook but one thing I didn’t cover is how to use the process of selling from your Fan Page. The downside is there is an additional cost in place called “Facebook Credits”.

I can’t help but wonder how this will be viewed by the buying public- a welcome, easy way to shop or another noise factor? At least these apps run on the Fan Page, so if you are not a fan they will not be intruding on your space like the hundreds of Events that fill my Facebook mail.

Social Media: Selling on Facebook | Practical eCommerce

Take a look at the article and leave your comments below, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Why eCommerce Sites Should Watch Facebook