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Blogging for Home Business
About a year ago a friend of mine started his own home based business. I can’t go into the details (upon his request), but he essentially took his favorite hobby and wanted to make some extra cash.
He is not a very technical guy so he asked me about a website. I told him he should blog and he replied with laughter. I took the time to break down how easy it would be using a platform like WordPress. That intrigued him. When I broke down how WordPress would let him have a blog and a traditional site wrapped in one – he was almost sold. I eventually convinced him by offering to do the initial set up. The next day I easily set up his blog and it was up to him to provide content. Provide content, he did! He was a voracious blogger. He actually posted twice a day. He posted once in each of his categories: starting a home business and another category related to to his product.
It didn’t take long for him to call me. Just about 2 weeks later he was excitedly telling me about a guy that contacted him wondering about a custom project. I would classify the blog as a success at that point. Over the next year we documented the advantages the home based business blog had meant for his business. Here is a list of some of the real life tangible benefits of the blog:
-He sold the custom project mentioned above
-A local newspaper got word of his blog on twitter and did a story on him
-A related industry quarterly asked him to contribute – getting his name out to thousands of potential customers
-He met 2 local (relatively speaking) tradesman who were in his field and offered him great advice and opportunities for collaboration
-He ranked on Google for a number of long tail keywords that eventually meant he was getting substantial traffic to his site that even led to some sales
-The home business category was great for motivation – it kept all of his triumphs and mistakes in a neatly ordered online diary that allowed him to reflect. It also helped him make sure he didn’t make a mistake twice.
A home based business is the perfect match with a blog. As you can see above, it is a great networking tool that you can be used for personal motivation as well. If you want to give your home based business a jolt, harness the power of the internet and blogging.
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Common Questions about Blogs
I have been running a number of successful blogs for years. I have been pulled aside at many social gatherings and asked questions by people who are interested in what I do. These people are completely new to blogging and they always ask the same couple questions. Instead of repeating myself over and over again I will use this article to answer those beginner questions…
Do I need a blog?
Well really this is up to you. I think if you have a business or a business website then yes you definitely need a blog. It gives you the chance to communicate with potential customers, build brand recognition and get traffic to your website. It is the proverbial “no brainer”. If you aren’t self employed and just want to hobby blog there are benefits there as well. Blogging about your passions can be very therapeutic.
Does it cost much?
Blogging can be successfully done for free. There are hundreds of sites that will give you the software, a domain name and they will even host your blog for you. You could start a free blog tomorrow and never pay a cent. If you want to take it to the next level you can buy a domain name for about $10 per year and pay another $10 a month to host it. With a hosting package like that you could even run five or ten blogs. Blogging for free is very possible and even if you want your own set up it is still quite reasonable.
Can I make money?
Yes you can. If you have a blog that gets decent traffic there are numerous ways to monetize it. It would be another article to go deep into how to monetize your blog. On a high level you can sell advertising on your blog, offer affiliate products, sell your own product or even ask for donations. Not every blog will make money but every blog has the potential.
Where do I get started?
You can look for free blogs on Google or you can just jump in with the two most popular free blogging platforms; Blogger and WordPress. Simply visit their sites, sign up, follow the instructions and away you go. It is that simple to become a blogger.
Is It Easy?
Sure it is. There is no one to judge you so it is super easy. Setting up a free blog is simple, you just follow the instructions. As for the act of blogging, it is as simple as using Mac Pages or MS Word. There is a learning curve if you want to become a power blogger. The great thing is, anything you need to learn is easily found on the internet, and it is usually found on a blog! The only thing you really have to work on is being consistent and thinking of what to write.
These were definitely the five top questions people interested in blogging asked me. If you are thinking about starting a blog, you now know the answers to your most pressing questions. I wish you good luck in your journey, and remember content is king!
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Choosing Your First Niche
Step One – Brainstorm: Brainstorm a list (big ass possible) of all of your passions and interests. Don’t even think about making money at this point, just focus on getting a list as big as possible.
Step Two – Analyze: Look through your list and pick out 10-20 different interests or passions, that you feel you could promote on the internet. If you think you could make money online with all of them, then pick your favorites. It is easier to market something you enjoy.
Step Three – Adwords Tool: Now that you have 10-20 niche terms, it is time to visit the Google Adwords Tool. Do a search for each of your terms, one at a time. Below the search box will be a table full of data. Take note of the Estimated Cost Per Click (CPC) and Searches Per Month columns. If they are not showing up then just click the little drop-down menu titled Columns and add them.
For each of your terms multiply the CPC by the monthly searches. Write the number you get for each term beside that term. This will give you a very rough idea of the potential worth of your “niches”. This number isn’t to be taken literally by any means but it has some value when you are trying to sort through what niches you want to attack.
Step Four – Competition: You could take your top result from last step and attack that, OR you could take it one step further and check out your competition. Just do a simple google search on each of your niche terms, one at a time. For niches with multiple words, make sue you wrap it in quotes. Take note of how many websites come up for each term. Write it down beside the numbers you came up earlier.
Now divide the “potential worth” by the number of websites. You will have some fractional number. In general the higher the number, the better it is to choose that term.
This is not an instant niche answer. It might not always work perfectly, but it is a great way to quickly discover a potential niche. Try it out and choose something to market today!
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Introducing Your Offer and Instilling the Power Benefits
In general, your sales copy has only a few seconds to grab the interest of a prospect and move them along to closing the sale. That means you have to provide a quality introduction to what you have to offer and follow it up with all the reasons why your product should be chosen above all others. Here are some simple ideas on how to introduce your offer and quickly instill a sense of urgency about those power benefits.
First, don’t spend a lot of time on fancy words. Write the copy just as if you were speaking to the consumer in person. This will help you to avoid using too many words, and especially to stay away from using too many technical terms that could turn off your prospect before you ever grab their initial interest. Essentially, you are letting the consumer know they have a problem and you have a solution.
Next, get into the meat of that solution. Point out the main benefits of the product in question. Relate those benefits to common situations that come along with the problem. Illustrate how those benefits quickly and easily remove obstacles and restore order to a chaotic set of circumstances. Driving home how problems get solved quickly and easily will help to sustain interest.
Third, toss in some added power benefits. These can be anything from pointing out the time saved can be used for more enjoyable tasks to noting how the product helps to cut down on related expenses. These value add talking points will help to demonstrate that the product is truly indispensible, and make it even more attractive.
Last, recap the benefits. You can use a summary format for this, perhaps even a bulleted list. This helps to reinforce the benefits in the mind of the reader and prepare him or her for the close of the sale.
Using this technique will make a huge difference in the way your prospect responds to your product, and how quickly you can move on to closing the sale.
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Choosing A Web Host
In addition to buying a web address, an online business will need to be hosted somewhere. After all, a website is essentially a collection of graphic and text files uploaded onto a remote server so other surfers can access your files. If you don’t have a web host, then what you basically have is a lot of files on your own personal computer that nobody else can see.
The first major choice that an enterprising business owner will have to make in regards to web hosts is if he or she would like a free or a paid web host. There are advantages and disadvantages with both.
The major advantage for a free web host is, of course, the fact that it’s free. Taking advantage of not being forced to fork out cash monthly for web hosting can save a business hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. For those of you who are starting on a shoestring budget, a free web host can be a real option for saving money.
There are several disadvantages inherent with free web hosts, though. The first being advertisements – the vast majority of free websites force ads onto their pages in order to pay for the hosting, which can be a major turn-off to visitors. (There are some free web hosts that don’t force advertising, but many of these close due to lack of revenue – since if people have the option to turn off advertising, most will!) In addition, several of the free web hosts don’t allow FTP, or File Transfer Protocol access. While this may mean nothing at all to you at the moment, once your online business really takes off, having FTP access means that you will be able to do so much more in regards to customizing and optimizing your site.
Generally speaking, it’s much more recommended for businesses to spring for the paid web host if at all possible. There are some places where you can get basic web hosting for under ten dollars a month, and you can switch web hosts at a later date should your requirements exceed the capabilities of the cheaper web hosts.
Should you elect to go with a paid web host, the amount of options out there could compete with the number of stars in the universe. You can choose to be based out of your own country or go international – while being based in your own country may seem like the obvious option, if you’re trying to appeal to an international crowd and your target is English speakers, being based out of the US is probably the best idea, even if you are located in another English-speaking country. You can choose to pay as little as five dollars a month or as much as five hundred.
It’s worth your while to put a good amount of research into the various web hosts out there before settling on one. A general rule of thumb regarding web hosts is that the old adage is true – you tend to get what you pay for. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the 500 dollar host will suit your needs better than a 10 dollar host. It all depends upon the technical specifications of your company and how much service and capabilities you need to keep it running.
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WordPress Fever
WordPress is a pretty simple platform. There isn’t a lot of danger or ptifalls associated with it. I don’t want to scare anyone but there is one issue that can be quite dire. WordPress may infect you and your site with a disease…Plugin Fever. This plugin fever will start before you know it and will have you mindlessly activating plugin after plugin until the inevitable happens…plugin fever! Symptoms include;
lethargic response time
on page confusion
ugly design lesions
In some rare cases – outright fatal errors.
Chilling, I know! Luckily this disease is easily avoidable and fully curable. You just need to protect yourself with these steps:
1. Self Analysis – Take a step back and think about if you really need a plugin. Plugins add a lot of great features to a site but do you need to have each one that tickles your fancy? My guess is no. Take a look at your installed WordPress plugins and really think about if you need them. Does your plugin help generate traffic? Does it help keep people engaged? Does it offer a feature you need on your site? If you say no to all of these you might want to think about deleting that plugin. When you start adding plugin after plugin you are risking slowing your site. You also risk a possible conflict between plugins or a plugin and your theme.
2. Eliminate Redundancy – One of the quickest ways for plugin fever to set in is to have multiple plugins that do the same thing. Go through your plugins and see if any of them offer you the same functionality. If they do, then one of them is redundant. You don’t need 4 SEO plugins. You only need one XML sitemap generator. There are plugins that will help your visitors submit your site to social bookmarking sites — one will do the job. Every redundant plugin you have has a chance to break or slow down your site. Instantly remove any redundant plugins.
3. Upgrade – Once you have trimmed the number of plugins you use, make sure all of your plugins are upgraded. This is an easy process and should be taken care of quickly. Plugin upgrades will usually address security and any possible conflicts. You can do this in your back office easily so there are no excuses. Everyone has some plugins, and they need the same care you give the rest of your site.
These three steps can help ward off Plugin Fever. It is up to you to ensure your site is in perfect working order, and these three steps can help optimize your plugins. It is easy to get carried away with plugins since they can do just about everything. You need to remember that too many plugins can slow down or break your site. They can also conflict with each other and your theme so be very selective.
One last piece of advice. If you ever notice serious issues with your WordPress site – then deactivate all plugins and see if that fixes the issue. If it did, reactivate each plugin until you find the one that caused the error. Remove the error causing plugin. This will come in handy at least once in your WordPress days, that I can promise you. Good luck and may all your plugins run smoothly!
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Center Youtube Videos in WordPress
If you run a wordpress powered website you have probably wanted to embed a Youtube video at one time or another. Video can add interactivity and excitement to a blog post. Luckily, WordPress and Youtube make this a very easy process. Centering your Youtube video can be a tricky process though, especially if you don’t know any coding. There is a very simple fix though, that will ensure you can center any youtube video, or any object for that matter.
First you have to get the video into your post. You go to Youtube, click embed (under video), choose your options and copy the code. You then take that code and paste it into the WordPress HTML editor. Remember you have to set to HTML, using the button in top right corner. Then you simply paste in your Youtube embed code. Now you have the video in your post or page.
Once you have that done you can switch back to the visual tab on the WordPress editor. You will see your video (or object) as a large yellow box. Ideally, you could simply click on that box and click the center button on the editor. That doesn’t work. I am not sure exactly why, but it is probably because the center command in WordPress inserts html code that the object doesn’t recognize. Even if you wrap the object yourself in < center > tags it won’t work.
The fix is pretty simple though. You just have to navigate back to the html part of your editor. You won’t see the yellow box now you will see the embed code for the video. Right before the embed code, enter:
div style=”text-algin:center;” (in between html brackets of course)
And then after the end of the embed code:
/div (also in html brackets)
When you switch back to your visual editor you will notice the yellow box is centered! Now that you have learned this code you can center any youtube video or other object in each of your posts. Use it often enough and it won’t be long until you have the code memorized. Try it on your next blog post and let me know how it works.
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What Kinds of Jobs Can Be Outsourced?
Any business – whether it is a home business or a large corporate venture – entails a lot of things. With a large business, it is quite easy to see that there are a lot of things involved, but even with home businesses there are various processes, such as the planning aspect, the finding work aspect, the execution of the tasks aspect, the communication aspect, the payment handling and accounting aspect and the further investment aspect. If you are planning to be a home business entrepreneur, you can see that there are various things for you to do. So, which of these can you outsource?
Now, with the Internet making the whole world such a closely-knit domain, you can find professionals to handle all kinds of tasks. They will even plan a whole business venture for you if you have the funds. However, at least initially, you will be on a budget and would like to outsource only things that you really cannot do.
The best idea, then, is to outsource some of the execution aspect of your business. Like, if your home business is about handling content writing jobs, you could outsource the actual writing part. However, the things that are integral for keeping your business going such as planning, obtaining work, communicating with clients, payment handling, etc. should be done by yourself. A lot of people obtain work for higher sums of money and pay a flat rate to writers whom they outsource the work to, keeping the difference as their earnings.
It really helps when you outsource the execution part of your work because of various reasons.
The execution part is always the most laborious task. If you are running a website design and development company, the actual designing of the website is the most difficult thing. If this aspect were outsourced, you could focus on getting more clients, while at the same time you are getting the jobs done as well.
Also, you can control the execution part better. When some content is written by your employee, you could check its quality and send it back for proofreading or editing if required. When someone designs a logo for your client, you could review it and suggest changes. You can thus supervise these things overall.
When your business grows, you will find that you need to outsource many more things. You might need someone for data entry just to maintain the records of your business. You might need someone just to communicate with your various clients and keep them updated with what’s happening. You might need someone to handle the bidding or other routes in which you obtain work. You might even need a virtual manager to handle all these aspects of your business at once.
Know that it is possible to find outsourcing professionals for all your needs, from telemarketing to the complete management of your business. The main thing is in knowing when to use these professionals.
