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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.

  • Using Social Network Websites For Business

    Social network websites can be very profitable but before you can profit with them you need to understand exactly what they are and how they can help you. Social network sites are websites where people that share the same interests can connect. I’m sure you would have heard of some of the more popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

    With social networking websites people from all over the world can chat, message and connect with one another. The can leave messages, comment on one another’s pages, share photos and more. These websites make communication so much easier even if you are communicating with someone on the opposite side of the world. Many people use social networking websites to communicate socially with their friends and family, but there are other benefits to these sites. There are social network websites for many different niches including, business networking, media and news, dating, investing, music, art and many more.

    People of different cultures and with different interests can connect with similar people worldwide. People can make new friends, meet new people and even develop new interests by learning from others that they meet. Businesses can use social networking sites to connect with customers as business owners meet people with interests that relate to their business.

    A niche social network site like Revelry is designed to connect people who knit and another social site is Deviant Art that connects people who love art. There are many different social networking sites created specifically to connect people that share those similar interests and goals and those people can share ideas, share their creations and just get to know one another. Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace offer many ways to communicate such as sharing photos, music, videos and even creating groups within the site to share media and communicate.

    Most social networking sites are worldwide websites so someone in Australia can connect with someone in England. Anyone in any part of the world can communicate with one another via these websites. The opportunity to meet new people that share the same interests as you and make many new friends is amazing. Social network sites are also a great way to track down people from the past that you have lost contact with. There are sites that are created specifically to find old classmates and friends from extracurricular activities.

    The name says it all with social network websites because they are exactly that – sites that encourage networking socially. However, many business men and women also use these sites for business networking as they are a fantastic means for connecting with potential customers. If a person runs a business that relates to art then they may join the social networking site ‘Deviant Art’ to connect with people that love art. There are many niche social network sites that can enable business people within those niches to connect with their customers.

    Some of these social networking sites have been around for quite a while and other new sites are being created all the time. If you search for social networking sites you will find them in all sorts of niches like sites for doctors, articles, book lovers, scientist, dog breeders and anyone that is interested in sharing information, videos or anything else with like minded people. The business possibilities with social networking websites are huge if you do your research and find the right social network site for your business.

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • How To Work With Offline Companies: Go Local

    If you’re an online company who specializes in consulting, you’d be wise to turn your eye to the thousands of businesses that have no sort of Internet footprint whatsoever. Your business may primarily deal with startups who come to you looking to better their Internet presence, but the fact of the matter is that there are potentially millions of dollars worth of customers who won’t look your way at all. This is not because they’re inherently opposed to the Internet, just that many people are wary of the Internet and don’t know how to approach it at all.

    The people who aren’t on the Internet at all should be a prime concern if you’ve got an online consulting business that deals with helping companies improve their online images. Of course, most of the time you’re used to having clients come to you to request your services, but being proactive on your part can reap great rewards. Not only is this a mostly untapped source of revenue, but also most businesses can benefit from any sort of online presence, even if it’s something as simple as a Twitter account. If you can introduce web-wary clients to these easy to navigate tools, you’ll be able to build a steady business relationship with them and help them take it to the next level when they feel comfortable.

    Of course, the first question to ask is thus: how do you, an online consultant, get in touch with companies who aren’t online at all?

    The simple answer? Go local.

    You likely know of a few hole in the wall spots around town that aren’t likely to have a very strong Internet presence, if they have one at all. Consider actually physically going to these businesses – yes! Get off the Internet for a moment – and see if you can talk with the owners about their online marketing potential. Of course, acting like a door-to-door salesman might not be your style, but consider working through contacts to see if you can speak with the owner on a more “friendly” level, rather than walking straight up and offering your services. Not to say that the blunt approach won’t work sometimes – you might be surprised with how often it will – but being able to work through connections will often make the process easier. And once you have one client under your wing, it’s amazing how fast word will spread.

    The old adage “think globally, act locally” is so true in the case of online consulting companies working with offline customers. You’ll need to think of terms of the Internet – which is a worldwide endeavor – but also bring your local knowledge and connections into play as well. When you combine these two initiatives, you’ll be surprised at how powerful they can be.

  • How to Use Twitter for Your Online Business

    Video: Brad discusses how to effectively use Twitter in your online business.

  • The Offline SEO Approach: Step 3, Engagement

    One of the primary reasons that social media exists in the first place is to engage. Social media gives people a platform to reach out to each other, whether that purpose is fundamentally business or pleasure. People wish to engage with each other constantly, and social media gives people the ability to do so in real time, around the world.

    This is why social media is such a popular way for people to touch base, since it can be done anywhere, at any time. While a physical storefront will have hours of operation, the social networking sites never close.

    Essentially, the final step in the three part process regarding the offline business’ approach to social media should be getting people to engage with you and your business. You want people to subscribe to you Twitter feeds and Facebook profiles in order so you can communicate with them in a regular manner, and keep them interested in your content and wares.

    There are several ways you can use social media to engage your potential customers other than simply leaving messages on a Twitter feed. Many people these days are turning to video blogging, or “videologging,” which is an excellent way to reach out to customers in a way that best simulates the face-to-face interaction that you have with them at your store. If you can post videos of yourself talking about your product, it goes a long way toward creating that kind of proof of expertise that you have when you speak about your product in the store.

    A great way to augment the engagement factor you’ll get through working with social media is to have a blog or website to center everything on. This means that you’ll have a place to reference your potential customers to visit. It’s even better if you can offer an online shopping center as well with your website, as this allows you to take even better advantage of the engagement of social networking. It’s important to be able to engage customers local to you so that they’ll visit the store, of course, but don’t forget about the rest of the world, as well! Offering an online store allows you to make the entire world your selling market, not limited to the locality of your physical store.

    Essentially, as a business owner who owns a physical store, you are in a unique position to use social media as a weapon both online and offline. You can use it to think both globally and locally at the same time, and end up with incredible increases to your revenue. Don’t let the social media revolution pass you by – even though it might sound like a daunting arena to enter, it’s an entirely free way to up your engagement level with customers both locally and around the world.

  • Less is Always More

    Say you are about to launch a new product. You spent months or even years developing the product and studying your target market. And after what seemed like eternity you are finally ready to introduce your creation to the market. The big day arrived; you opened up early and are ready to flaunt your biggest smile to everyone who comes in. By mid-day you noticed that even though many people come in to check out your product only few actually buy it. Now this gave you something to think seriously. What could possibly be wrong with your product? Perhaps there is nothing wrong with your product but there can be something terribly wrong with your marketing strategy.

    When people are looking for products or services to avail they usually go for ones that they are familiar with or have long used. This way they can be sure that they are getting the most of their money. So for a business owner like you who is just starting up in the business industry, it is important to make a good first impression. Sure, you can do this by offering discounts and other special offers. You can even put a large banner in front of your store announcing your special opening sale. But when are not able to offer the right image you may as well consider hiding in your den and reflect on what you need to improve in your marketing strategy.

    But then again you may be doing the right strategy and using the right advertising trick. But have you looked at your logo? That’s exactly what I’m thinking. You could have overlooked the most important part of your product – your logo design. Logos often tantamount to a company’s image, hence, whether it is hip, chic, interesting or boring it is essential to create a logo that gives the right impact to the customers. It doesn’t really matter if you, your friends or employees like or does not like the logo. What is important is the impression that it gives to your customers.

    A good logo must represent the business image appealingly and effectively. It must likewise be practical and functional as complicated logos often leave customers confused and wondering what is actually being sold or presented. Keep in mind that less is always more. Hence, a simple logo design will most likely seal the deal and help you grab more customers. Certainly a colorful and over-designed logo will catch more attention but no company achieves success based solely on their logo. So a simple flexible logo is more likely to entice prospects to actually buy your products and avail of your services.

    A combination of art, science and psychology often creates a good logo. A designer should know this, so if you do not know how to design your logo you can ask their help. Remember that a poor logo can ruin your image but a good one can instantly create name recognition and can boost company sales and services.

  • What Does a Good Headline Look Like?

    No matter how well crafted the body of your content, a headline that grabs attention will always make a difference. Of course, you want to grab the right kind of attention. That is, you want the reader to be attracted by the headline and thus want to read the body of the text.

    You do not want the reader to read the text simply because he or she wants to find out what type maniac would come up with a title like that. Here are three simple tips to keep your headlines interesting, compelling, and attractive to your audience.

    Tip # 1 – Keep it simple, stupid. Yes, the old KISS principle that Toastmasters have used in public speaking for decades also works with the printed word. When it comes to your headline, don’t get too prolific with the word count. Choose your words carefully and use no more than you need to grab attention. A headline is not meant to tell the whole story, but it should help your prospect know what is coming next. is to come.

    Tip # 2 – Make it relevant. Headlines that are misleading may grab attention quickly, but you will lose the reader in just a few seconds if the content has nothing to do with the promises made in bold. It is okay to use double entrendes or other plays on words with your headline. Just make sure that by the time your readership has made it through the first paragraph, they get the relationship.

    Tip # 3 – Make the headline memorable. You want people to recommend the content to other people. If the headline is so bland that it really doesn’t stick with the reader, then you will lose a lot of attention. While you want simplicity and relevance, you do not want boring. Make the headline zippy and something people will want to repeat.

    Headlines are often overlooked as being unimportant or just a formulaic construct of writing copy. Neither concept is true. Headlines are essentials and can play a huge role in grabbing attention. When coupled with compelling copy, a great headline can make all the difference between success and failure.