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Starting An Online

Business From
Scratch
For Aspiring & Budding Entrepreneurs...
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Introduction
Since the inception of E-junkie.info, the entire team has been relentlessly
working towards inspiring and motivating those who like us are awed by the
endless opportunities that the Internet has to offer. This is a blog for those
strive to make a mark for themselves by exploring numerous platforms that the
Internet has to offer. Our articles are aimed towards bringing information,
ideas, tips, examples, updates and changes that can help our readers can take a
calculative and well-informed approach towards achieving their goal.
"Starting An Online Business From Scratch" eBook is one such attempt by E-
junkie.info where we've brought together 11 authors to help you start your
online business from scratch.
Starting one's own business is no easy task. There are so many things that one
has to think about, like what type of business to start, how to go about doing it,
how to use the finances well, what sort of platform to choose and the toughest
part promoting your business. This eBook is your very own guide on
entrepreneurship. Filled with insights and tips by experienced entrepreneurs
and experts.
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We know how difficult a task it is to go about setting up one's own online
business. In order to make things easy we've divided the eBook into 4
categories:
Ideas
Finance
Platforms
Promotion
We sincerely hope that this eBook inspires you to finally get started on your
dream online business without worring about what-to-do-next. Because once
you're done reading this eBook we're sure that you'll be ready to take the
entrepreneurial plunge without any hesitation.
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Table Of Contents
Idea
1. Why Listening to Credible People Is Costing You 7-10
2. Why Your Blog Needs a Business Plan to Make Money 11-15
3. Secrets of Big Breaks, Myths of Instant Success 16-26
4. Should You Officially Register Your Online Business? 27-34
5. 6 Timely Tips to Warm Up to Cold Calling! 35-39
Finance
6. 3 Fresh Ideas For Monetizing Your Blog 41-46
7. Tips On How To Handle The Financing Of Your Online
Business Starting From Scratch
47-50
8. Start As You Mean To Go On: Online Accounting For
Your Online Business
51-56
9. How a Joint Venture Partnership Scored Me Free
Content
57-62
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Platform
10. How To Choose The Best Platform For Your Online
Business
64-66
11. What Is The Best Platform For An Online Business? 67-71
12. 5 Platforms To Create Online Communities 72-76
Promotion
13. Promoting Your Online Store 78-84
14. Are The Words You Choose Driving People Away 85-89
15. Understanding The Very Basics Of Marketing For Small
Businesses
90-97
16. How To Be More Productive With Your Online Marketing
Efforts
98-103
17. Why Your Advertising Is Being Ignored 104-107
18. Social Media Marketing Advice for Online Business
Owners
108-113

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Ideas
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Why Listening to Credible People
Is Costing You
By Kenneth Vogt of Vera Claritas
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to no one. ~William Shakespeare
When we find ourselves in need of business advice, guidance or even simply
information, we commonly seek out familiar confidants. We start with the
people we already know and trust. They might be someone we know on a
personal level. Or it could be we know them on a professional level or just know
of their reputation in a certain area of expertise.
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Their credibility in our eyes may be because of their experience or credentials,
or from referrals from other people who have credibility with us.
Credentials themselves are an interesting topic. We are trusting strangers
whom we believe to have expertise to designate who else has expertise in a
certain arena. For instance, we trust universities to vet doctors and engineers,
and government agencies to vet insurance agents and general contractors.
So far everything is fine. But where things go off the rails is when we start
seeing a targeted expert as a general expert or a trusted friend as a trusted
source on all topics. It's easiest to see when the areas of expertise are far apart.
If your web developer gives you advice on taxation, it may be obvious that this is
not his line. But when your web developer gives you advice on internet
marketing, you may be inclined to assume that he must have this expertise.
Alas, most computer science schools include very little or perhaps nothing at all
in their curricula about marketing.
I just made a direct statement about developers and marketing. Do you believe
me? If you do, it is because I have some standing credibility with you. But I got
out of computer school in 1979 -- long before the internet or even personal
computers. It may be that what I said is accurate. But basing your confidence in
my statement on unrelated credibility can get you into trouble.
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There is no area where this phenomena is more prevalent (and more damaging)
than when it comes to business advice. It seems that everybody will weigh in on
any business topic you like. They all have an opinion, often without a shred of
pertinent experience. But you listen and you trust. Why? Because they are
smart or they are a close friend or they are so confident or they are your beloved
uncle Billy Bob.
You dont have to stop trusting them and of course you dont have to stop loving
them. But do not be sucked in to believing they are an expert on all things
because of your fond relationship.
Just remember:
Credibility has limits.
Credibility has a shelf life.
Credibility requires context.
Trust your doctor about your prescription. Trust your gramma about apple pie.
Trust your buddy about beer. Just be mindful of the limits of their business
expertise.
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Remember that past expertise may not be expertise any longer. Back in my day
we didnt worry about drinking what came out of the tap, says Grampa. I love
you, Grampa, but its not back in your day anymore.
Just because Ive worked with computers my whole career does not mean I
know anything at all about javascript or motherboards or embedded chips. Im
not even sure what some of that stuff was that I just typed. The point is, the
context of my computer expertise is critical if you intend to listen to my counsel
in those areas.
So stop accepting the business advice of credible people who pontificate about
topics outside of their expertise. But when uncle Billy Bob is talking football,
you better listen and listen good.
Author the author: Kenneth Vogt helps expanding entrepreneurs make a wider
wake in the world. Come see how at Vera Claritas. (That's "True Clarity" for you
non-Latin speakers.)
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Why Your Blog Needs a Business
Plan to Make Money
By Jennifer Brown Banks of Pen and Prosper
We spend countless hours conceptualizing clever posts, crafting attention
grabbing headlines, connecting with our community through comments, and
promoting content via social media sites.
But amidst all the madness, few of us take time to determine our direction, or
devise a plan that truly allows us to reap a return on our sweat equity.
Yet one of the most common questions on business related bulletin boards and
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popular how-to sites is How can I make money from my blog?
Experts will tell you, there are various ways to earn pay for your say--- from
selling products, to affiliate programs, to accepting ad placements.
But to optimize your efforts, your blog should ultimately have a business plan.
Here are three of the most important reasons why.
1. A business plan is a decision making tool. It helps you to approach blogging
from a professional perspective that forces you to identify your short and long
term goals and your ideal customer. By putting it in writing, you break
through your blog fog and become more focused and forward thinking.
2. A business plan helps to determine your structure. Will you blog as a sole
proprietor or as part of a blogging team? Will you have multiple sites devoted
to different themes, or one site that addresses an array of topics? Self-hosted, or
will you blog through a free platform first, then convert? The more questions
you can tackle, the easier the battle, and the more strategic you become.
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3. A business plan prevents you from blogging blindly, or following gimmicks or
trends that may not be in the best interest of your business objectives or belief
system. Some examples might be over-sharing, sponsoring comments
contests, give-aways, or embedding videos as blog posts.
Now that you know why, heres what it should include.
WHO -- Who is your target audience? Readers or clients? In other words, will it
be businesses or other writers? Beginning bloggers? Stay at home moms?
Fiction fanatics? The answer to these questions will determine your voice,
language, formality, and level of content. It will also influence which blogs to
guest post to attract clients and potential followers.
WHAT -- What is your marketing plan? Will you promote your blog primarily
through guest posts at top-dog sites? Hit people up through Twitter and other
social media forums? Engage in ad exchanges with other bloggers? How much
money is in your marketing budget? These are all valid issues worth assessing.
WHY -- Whats your purpose for being in the blogosphere? This may seem
simple, but in essence, it isnt. For example, social service agencies may blog to
increase awareness of an important social cause, while celebrities may blog to
increase their fan base. Some writers blog to entertain, while others blog to
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educate. There are even those who use their platforms to vent. There is no right
or wrong reason. However, knowing why you blog shapes your expectations, and
helps you to stay committed during challenging times.
HOW -- How will advertisers benefit from advertising at your site? What are
your subscriber numbers? Your connections? Your influence? Your draw?
When I pitch to other businesses, I make sure to mention the fact that my blog
has won various awards/mentions, has had a Google Rank of 4, and is linked to
sites with much bigger followings like WritingWorld.com and Pocketchange
lifestyle blog. And if applicable, you should share your success stories too.
There are many ways to approach a business plan, depending upon your goals,
blogging personality, and personal preferences.
Just remember, that like any other money making product, your blog will be
much more progressive and profitable if a good business plan is factored into
the equation.
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About the author: Jennifer Brown Banks is a veteran freelance writer, ghost
writer, pro blogger and creative strategist. She coaches writers and businesses on
how to build a bigger platform and ultimately a bigger bottom line. Learn more
tips at her award-winning site Pen and Prosper.
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Secrets of Big Breaks, Myths of
Instant Success
By Gary Korisko of Reboot Authentic
So youve worked your tail off doing all the right things for your business, but
its still always a struggle an uphill battle. And you dont feel like youre
getting the traction or the attention you deserve.
You know that feeling, right? Its exasperating.
And over there is THAT guy whos getting all the attention and all the breaks.
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If only you had the same breaks, surely you could have had instant success just
like THAT guy did.
Its easy to fall into that kind of thinking but negative emotions like jealousy
and envy only serve one purpose: To keep you from achieving the level of
significance youre capable of.
On top of being negative, that thinking is just plain old wrong and Ill tell
you why
What Do The Boogie Man, The Tooth Fairy, and Instant
Success Have In Common?
All three are fictitious creatures.
When someone bursts upon the scene in any industry and becomes successful
quickly, its easy to assume that they got a big break that lead to their instant
success.
What we often fail to realize is that big breaks come to those who have worked
their ass off for years laying the foundation for those opportunities. Lets face it:
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the press doesnt lavish attention upon a nobody doing all the right things.
The world only notices people when they begin to appear above the horizon.
And so we buy into the illusion of instant success.
Dont believe it. Its not a real thing.
The real secret of big breaks is ridiculously simple, and yet largely overlooked by
people in business. Its something I call right work.
Right work is the one thing all the insanely successful people who Ive ever
known have in common. Lets talk about what that means.
Busy Work vs. Right Work
Being busy doing something doesnt necessarily get you anywhere. On the other
hand, being busy doing the right kind of things can lead to amazing
accomplishments.
I could keep you busy 12 hours a day sorting socks, but that doesnt mean your
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day would have been well spent or that any of your activity would get you any
closer to achieving your goals.
You need to learn how to do right work. When you build a strong foundation
rooted in right work, you attract opportunities and big breaks. In fact, they
begin to appear seemingly out of nowhere.
Let me give you a couple examples of people whose ground work paved the way
for their apparent sudden success.
A Familiar Success Story
Firepole Marketing readers should recognize this graph
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To the uninitiated, this graph might appear to tell the story of some guy
named Danny Iny who caught a lucky break in January of 2011 by getting a
guest post accepted on Copyblogger, right?
Hardly. If youve done any reading about Danny, you know that he has been
working like crazy as an entrepreneur since he was 15 years old. All that time
learning, winning some, losing some, and making connections.
So, sure: Danny got a big break online by landing that post on Copyblogger. And
it very likely played a part in the eventual success of Firepole Marketing. But
Id wager his success could more accurately be attributed to all the right work
he did for years before anyone online noticed him.
Another Insanely Successful Person
If you dont know the name Mary Jaksch, you should. Shes a talented writer
and editor, a hugely successful blogger, and one of the highest quality humans
Ive ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Mary is a Master of Mastery. In her life she has mastered music, psychotherapy,
Zen, martial arts, and is now a high-level blogger and successful online
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entrepreneur.
Back in 2008 it appeared to many people online as if super blogger Leo Babuta
picked her randomly out of the crowd and brought her into his blog Write To
Done as a partner.
What all of us on the outside didnt know is that Mary had been building the
foundation of success her entire life. Right work shone through in every single
field she mastered.
And when she decided to start blogging heck, the blogosphere didnt stand a
chance.
As a fan of Write to Done (and a skilled writer/editor) Mary began
corresponding with Leo volunteering to help with the blog whenever Leo
needed it. Her volunteer work was quality work. So when Leo said yes to Marys
proposal to be partners, he may have provided her with a big break, but she
earned it years before by laying a foundation of right work.
So there are two examples: The first a guy who is an amazing business mind
and has spent his entire adult life honing his expertise. The other a Master of
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Mastery who has successfully re-invented herself many times over.
Two very different people but with something very important in common:
Right work.
So What Is Right Work?
There is a set of common characteristics among insanely successful people. I call
it right work because these are qualities that build coalitions, bring people
together, and push processes forward.
Its amazingly simple to do right work and its totally devoid of all the
metrics, conversion ratios, or other analytical details we all normally obsess
about.
What I refer to as right work is simply a combination of hard work, integrity,
and altruism which is an unselfish concern for the welfare of others.
While the insanely successful people I keep referring to work extremely hard,
they all care about something bigger than themselves, their wealth, or their
personal status.
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The breaks enjoyed by insanely successful people are a direct byproduct
of the way they live and work.
How To Do Right Work And Create Your Own Big Breaks
Right work is really just a very simple set of principles that successful people
intentionally live by. Check yourself and see if you are following in their
footsteps.
1: Have An Intense Love Of What You Do
Do you go to sleep and wake up thinking about your work? Not in the ache in
the pit of your stomach way. I mean in the enthusiastic, energized, cant wait
for tomorrow kind of way. If not, maybe you should think about that. Successful
people are so excited by what they do that at times they cant tell if theyre
working or playing.
2: Cultivate A Passion For Learning
The insanely successful dont stop learning when they graduate from school. In
fact, thats usually when they accelerate their education. Theyre in the position
to get big breaks because theyre always on the intellectual prowl.
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3: Spend Your Time On The Right Things
Successful people arent just busy theyre busy doing the right things. They
spend their time on tasks that will get results and delegate the other stuff.
4: Develop Confidence And Fortitude
Most people fold up the tent and quit too early. When things get tough and
youre experiencing resistance, consider that youre probably about to push
through to something really significant. The insanely successful have confidence
in their path and their plan. They push forward no matter what the obstacle is.
5: Live Without Hesitation
To hell with waiting for the perfect tool, the perfect conditions, or the perfect
timing. Do you know when the insanely successful execute their plans? Now.
Better to execute today and have some contingency plans than to sit and wait
for those perfect conditions that will never appear.
6: Practice Sincere Engagement
Its appropriate that this post is appearing here on the home turf of the King of
Engagement. All of the insanely successful people Ive ever known are experts
at engaging others. If you cant make sincere connections with your customers,
your peers, your employees, and your partners you have an uphill battle in
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front of you, my friend. No one gets there alone. Sincere engagement is key. But
it must be truly sincere. Engagement isnt a tactic you can fake to get what you
want its a way of living.
7: Help Those Who Deserve It: A Love of People
Lastly every insanely successful person I know is generous with their time
and sincerely love helping talented people get ahead. Winners dont have to
push other people down to succeed. When put in a position to help someone who
has laid the foundation and done right work, they usually step up and give the
deserving a hand.
If you already practice the seven principles of right work, good for you. Youre on
the right track. If not, take them to heart. Practice these principles in your life
and see if the world doesnt start to look at you through a different lens.
Presently, I am on the hunt for someone who has done right work and laid the
foundation for their business to do something amazing. I have decided to hold a
Free Airfare Giveaway and fly one lucky person round trip to anywhere in the
Continental United States to do something positive for their business. I am
happy to extend an invitation to all Firepole Marketing readers to enter.
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About the author: Gary Korisko writes about The Art of Genuine Influence on
his blog Reboot Authentic. Download his FREE eBook, How To Alienate All The
Right People - a real-world guide to breaking away from the herd and doing
something special. This post was published on Firepole Marketing, a blog by
Danny Iny.
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Should You Officially Register
Your Online Business?
By Yuwanda Black of InkwellEditorial
Ive owned quite a few businesses in my day some Ive registered; some not.
Each person and their situation is different. To this end, following are six things
to consider when trying to decide if officially registering your online business is
right for you.
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I. PAPERWORK
Any type of business you register is going to generate paperwork from good old
Uncle Sam (ie, the IRS). The reason I didnt register some of the businesses Ive
owned is that I just didnt want to go through the hassle of filling out some
inane tax form because I made $7,000 last year.
Some things you will be forced to deal with: Filing annual and/or quarterly
taxes (no matter how much you made or lost); paying business registration
fees; getting an EIN number, filing more complicated personal taxes; etc.
The paperwork for even the simplest business can be, at best,
annoying; and at worst, downright harrying. If youre not adept at this,
dont want to deal with it and/or cant afford to hire an accountant to handle it,
then you might want to accept checks in your own name, instead of registering a
business (at least for a while; more on this below).
II. ABOUT YOUR IMAGE
This is one of the major reasons to register a business. It makes you appear
more professional. Although, I know plenty of long-time online businesss
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owners who accept payment in their own name. On the invoice, simply put:
Make Payable to Yuwanda Black,* for example.
This is especially true since the popularity of PayPal and other online payment
processors exploded. This is because you can invoice clients directly from your
PayPal account, which means all clients have to do is click a button to pay you.
Who theyre paying (eg, you or a company youve registered) doesnt even come
up.
A note about sending paper invoices: If you have a website and the name of the
business listed on the site is, for example, The Writing Tavern, most clients
will automatically assume thats how checks should be made out.
Ive done both in my career and really, once you secure a client, it hasnt made
that much of a difference because by then, they will have the (great) quality of
your product/service work in front of them.
*Note: If you have to fill out W9 forms, you might want to consider getting an
EIN (Employer Identification Number). That way, you dont have to give out
your social security number when you fill this form out. Youll just input your
EIN. FYI, to get an EIN is free.
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III. REGISTERING THE RIGHT WAY
What I mean by this is, if you decide to register your business, take the time to
figure out which structure works best for you (eg, a sole proprietorship, a
Corporation (Subchapter S, Subchapter C, LLC)); etc.
Setting up the right structure is critical to getting the right tax breaks for you
and your financial situation. So, consult a professional and/or do some extensive
reading on it before you decide.
Following is my story to give you some perspective.
Registering My Business: My Story
When Inkwell Editorial, my company, was first started, my sister (the original
founder) set it up as a sole proprietorship.
Once I officially came on as a full-fledged partner, we re-registered it as a
partnership. When we opened the staffing division, we re-registered it yet
again, incorporating first as a Subchapter C, then as a Subchapter S (once we
hired an accountant, he advised us that this was the best structure for us).
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While all the changes we made were based on the needs of the business at the
time, we could have registered as a Subchapter S right from the start and saved
all those filing fees and extra trips to the courthouse.
BECAUSE oh yeah, every time you change the business structure, there
is a fee (gotta love the USAs good ole Uncle Sam he has his hand in every pie
you bake!). Im sure theres some kind of equivalent in every other country too.
IV. ABOUT LIABILITY
One of the main reasons to register a business is to protect personal assets. FYI,
not all business structures offer this protection (eg, sole proprietorships,
partnerships and even in some cases -- corporations).
People sue for any and everything these days. While you may be thinking,
What could a I as an online business owner do to cause someone to
want to sue me, youd be surprised.
So if youre starting the type of online business that opens you up to great
liability, you definitely want to consider registering your business so that your
personal assets are protected youre your home, car, personal savings, etc.).
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V. CAREER UNCERTAINTY
What Im getting at here is, are you sure this is a business youre going to stick
with at least for the next 2, 3, or 5 years. Why is this important?
In my opinion, you shouldnt go through the expense of registering a business if
youre not sure youre going to stick with it for at least a couple of tax filings
(again, unless youre in the type of business that opens you up to great liability).
While registering a business is not all that expensive, it sets into motion
a series of things that have to be taken care of if you decide to close up
shop, which brings me to my last point . . .
VI. CLOSING UP SHOP
If you register your online business, you cant simply decide to quit and thats it.
You have to file closing papers with the government. Otherwise, you will
continue to get bills from the IRS associated with your business eg, quarterly
tax fillings, annual registration fees, etc.
Ive owned three or four side businesses that I did not register for this
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very reason. They were hobby businesses that generated a few thousand
dollars a year. So, I just accepted payment in my own name -- and of course,
claimed it on my personal tax return.
Once I no longer wanted to do the business, there was no closing paperwork.
Now, did I get all the tax breaks I could have gotten had I registered them as a
business? Most probably not. But, Ive been at this long enough to weigh the
headaches of having to file this form and that one for an official business, as
opposed to just quitting and thats it.
I abhor IRS paperwork its like Chinese math to me. Not only that, it takes up
space in my head because I worry if I filed the right form, sent it to the right
department, calculated the right fee due, etc. Id rather use that energy for
other, more productive things.
But, you may be a different personality type.
I did register my major businesses Inkwell Editorial, and the now defunct,
EthnicHomeDcor.com (which was an online retailer of soft home goods). I put a
lot of money into these and wanted all the tax breaks associated with running
them from home and paying for supplies, materials, advertising, travel, etc.
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Final Thoughts: Should Officially Register Your Online Business
While it may seem that Im against registering a business Im not at all. Ive
just found that unless youre going to be in this for the long haul, and plan to
take full advantage of the tax breaks a work-from-home career allows, you
might want to hold off on it.
You can register a business at any time. When you do, be sure to get the advice
of at least a trusted accountant and maybe business lawyer, depending on the
type of online business you open. They will be able to set you up right from the
beginning and youll be well positioned to take full advantage of all the perks
associated with owning a home business.
About the Author: Yuwanda Black has been a freelance writer since 1993 and
is the webmaster of InkwellEditorial.com, a site that teaches others how to start
successful freelance writing careers. She also heads New Media Words, an SEO
writing company she founded in 2008. In 2007, she started earning $100-
250+/day writing SEO content -- in less than three weeks. In 2009, she
developed an SEO copywriting course that teaches aspiring freelancers the skills
they need to do the same, right from the comfort of home. You can take the class
online -- or in person in Jamaica!
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6 Timely Tips to Warm Up to
Cold Calling!
By Jennifer Brown Banks of Pen and Prosper
Many businesses construct online sites with all the bells and whistles, expecting
it to be the equivalent of a lottery ticket to a better life, and a bigger profit
margin.
Though websites are great promotional tools, todays savvy entrepreneur
recognizes that a website or blog should be used in tandem with other
marketing efforts for optimal results. Simply put, an attractive site may get
potential customers to your virtual doorstep, but may not necessarily convert
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them into paying clients.
This is where cold-calling can come in. This popular, age-old technique thats
been used effectively to enhance sales by other industries for decades, can
increase an entrepreneurs client base, confidence and bottom line.
In fact, many will discover that in this technological world, a small gesture like
a phone call can make a big difference. Why? It provides a personal touch, can
help establish immediate rapport, and increases efficiency.
For those who believe cold-calling puts them in the same category as pesky
telemarketers, its time for a paradigm shift. In todays tough economic climate,
one must employ every advantage to stay in the game and stay in the black.
According to Peter Bowerman, author of the Well-fed Writer series, Assuming
youre a competent, reliable writer, if you pursue this business, youll be a
professional marketing a valuable and needed professional service to other
professionals.
Note: This year alone, I landed several major clients by simply dialing up
businesses that had advertised in our local community newspapers. And you
can too.
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Now that you know why, here are six savvy ways to warm
up to cold-calling:
1. Believe in what youre selling.
Are you a killer copywriter? An expert in SEO? Have you written an informative
self-help book that youre convinced bookstore owners in your area should know
about? Ask any veteran salesman and hell tell you the better you feel about
your product or services, the easier it is to get geeked about it, and have others
feel good about it too.
2. Remember, practice makes perfect.
Theres no doubt about it: many writers and sole proprietors are rather shy by
nature. But, dont let that stop you from closing the deal. Write out a script and
rehearse it. However, dont recite it word for word, or it will sound scripted
when youre communicating with others. The more you pitch, the easier it
becomes to score.
3. Work smarter, not harder.
Do a little background research on the companies you target. What are their
strengths? Who is their customer base? Go even further. Purchase lead lists
that specifically identify your ideal client . For example, a list can be bought
according to a preferred geographic area, income level or business type. Keep in
mind that a strategic approach increases your odds of success and prevents
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potential burnout.
4. Understand that theres a psychology to selling.
Whether youre peddling widgets or words, its crucial to get into your potential
customers head. What specific needs does your service or product address? How
can you help others to become more productive or profitable? Assess then
deliver.
5. Recognize that timing is everything.
To optimize your efforts, call when its likely you wont be considered an
intrusion or inconvenience. For example, dont make contact ten minutes before
closing time, or five minutes after the start of business hours. Always be polite
to gate keepers.
6. Mentally suit up.
Boxer, Muhammad Ali, used to chant Im the greatest before entering the ring
with his opponents. And a similar preparation is needed before you do battle in
business! Preparation might be repeating positive affirmations, or listening to
your favorite motivational speaker on audio tape, or visualizing your success
first. Preparation helps to cushion the blows of rejection and equips you to go
the distance.
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Observe these six timely tips and youll discover that cold-calling can be another
effective way to connect with customers and build your business.
Suggested Resource: Successful Cold Call Selling by Lee Boyan
About the author: Jennifer Brown Banks is a veteran freelance writer, ghost
writer, pro blogger and creative strategist. She coaches writers and businesses on
how to build a bigger platform and ultimately a bigger bottom line. Learn more
tips at her award-winning site Pen and Prosper.
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Finance
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3 Fresh Ideas For Monetizing
Your Blog


By Brankica Underwood
Youve all the usual work on your blog when it comes to monetizing it, but it
doesnt seem to be working.

You put the advertising in the sidebar, a very pretty banner you were sure will
get a lot of clicks. Nothing happened.
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Then you added Google Adsense to your posts, but they are making pennies.
You tried optimizing them, changing colors and sizes and still barely making it
to a dollar from time to time.

Well, it is time to step away from the common way of monetizing your blog and
use some creativity to try and make it work.

Spin on a product review

Instead of reviewing a product in your niche as everyone else does, try making a
comparison review instead.

Pick not one, but two great products and review them in the same post,
highlighting their qualities and comparing the features.

Sure, one of them will most likely be better than the other, but that doesnt
mean they both wont sell. You will be presenting the products as a user and not
everyone needs the same features so they will make a decision based on
comparison you made.

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You are actually making it much easier because they can see the two side by
side.
Just think of it as comparing an entry level Canon DSLR camera to the same
type Nikon camera. It is hard to decide which one is better, so the best you can
do to help your readers is give them the details in a comparison and let them
pick.

Solve problems for free

Every single market has its specific problems and as someone who creates
content in order to help people, this should be your main goal helping them
solve specific problems.

Of course, if you give free solutions to problems that usually require some
money, you may think you are wasting your time and potential income.
However, there is still a way to continue giving people free solutions while
having the chance to make some money along the way.

Lets say you are in a swimsuit industry. You create custom suits and sell them
$300 a piece (yes, this is a real example, I am a girl, trust me on this). For a lot
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of girls, this price is very high but they would love to have one of those pretty
suits.
How can you make money without actually selling the suits?

Create tutorials on how to make them, make videos with the main goal to be
helpful. You are giving your trade away for free. But you wont really. Give a
general pattern for the suit, but charge to make one by exact measurements of
the girl. Include affiliate links to stores that sell the fabric or sewing machines
needed to make these suits.

Those that decide to use your free tutorials will often buy through your links
more money for you. And a lot of them will try to make them and realize how
hard it is just to turn around and actually get the suit from you.

Yes, you will give a lot but when people recognize how much you give for free
they will try to pay it back somehow.

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Let the tips sell the tool

This is another spin on reviewing a tool. Instead of writing a regular review,
contact 5 to 10 people that are using it and ask them to share a tip on how to
get the most out of it.

For example, if you were in the blogging-marketing niche, see which of the more
known bloggers are using a tool (for example Market Samurai for keyword
research) and ask them to share their best tip on how to use it.

If you are a mommy blogger, pick a book that is popular in your community and
ask several moms who have read it, how did they implement the tips from it in
their every day life.

The possibilities with this are endless.

Conclusion

Youve heard it so many times, and I will repeat it again think outside the box.
You dont have to stick out as a sore thumb if that makes you feel uncomfortable
but having a unique idea or two can help move your blog forward towards more
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income.

About the author: Brankica Underwood loves to write about social media and
internet marketing and is addicted to internet. Working online full time and
sharing everything she learned along the way. Circle Brankica on Google Plus,
she loves a good conversation there.
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Tips On How To Handle The
Financing Of Your Online
Business Starting From Scratch
By Shaun Chatman
The Internet offers a global marketplace of opportunities, so creating an online
business makes a lot of sense. However it's a harsh reality that 90 percent of
online ventures fail in just five years. Read on discover how to generate the
financing you need for your business to buck the trends.
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Calculate Your Costs
While online businesses have lower overheads than brick-and-mortar firms,
there are still many costs involved. The first key to handling your finances is to
be realistic about your needs.
Can you rely on your own skills, or do you need to outsource computer
programming, website design, bookkeeping, and other business-related tasks?
Consider what you have to work with. Do you have usable office space and a
reliable computer network, or do you need to invest in these too? Web hosting
and server fees, product inventory, office supplies, marketing materials, and
employee salaries are other items you may consider.
Once you've determined what you need to invest in, research how much these
products and services will cost. This is the base amount you need to launch your
business.
Create a Business Plan
Obtaining financing can be a bit like gambling, but creating a polished business
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plan can increase your odds. This document should present all aspects of your
online business and highlight how your venture fills a unique need. A concise
executive statement, comprehensive market research, financial reports for the
present and future, and marketing materials are all important elements.
If that all sounds like a lot of work, consider this: Studies show start-ups with
business plans raise twice the capital in their first year as those without this
vital document. The seed money alone will be worth an investment of your time.
Borrow from the Right Places
Unless you're independently wealthy, you'll probably need to borrow money to
kick-start your online business. Credit cards are an easy option, but they attract
high interest rates up to an average of 36 percent that will chip away at your
profits. Business loans available through local banks and credit unions are a
much smarter choice, as they incur interest of around seven percent. Remember
to apply with your business plan in hand and a slick visual presentation.
Hit Up Investors
Investors will provide the start-up capital, typically in exchange for a share of
the profits. Your business plan will come in handy again when speaking to
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investors. You could meet potential stockholders at small business events in
your area, or find them online through an angel network. It's more effective to
target investors with a proven interest in your area of business rather than
hitting up everyone with a bulging wallet.
Apply for Grants
Many city and state councils offer grants to small businesses. Securing one is a
significant boon, as you can enjoy a financial boost without any strings
attached. Do your research and seek out grants tailored to your online business.
The national website http://grants.gov is a great place to start. Spend time
creating a compelling proposal that meets all the requirements listed in the
grant package.
The odds might be stacked against you, but by focusing on finance your online
business has the best chance of flourishing.
About the author: Shaun Chatman is a well published author on many
authority sites. He lives in Dunedin, FL, and spends his free time playing with
his kids or playing games on http://betway.com/.
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Start As You Mean To Go On:
Online Accounting For Your
Online Business
By Lucy Godwin of X ero
So youre launching an online business congratulations! Whether its going to
be your sole source of income or one of many projects, its vital that you take the
right steps to maximise your chances of financial success. Because your
business is based online, it makes sense for your finances to exist in the same
medium enter online accounting.
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Your company deserves the best technology it will enable you to work more
efficiently, intelligently and productively. One of the biggest boons in online
technology is cloud computing: a system that delivers a wide range of services
over the internet. The cloud is particularly helpful as a financial tool, as it can
easily be adapted to the vastly different needs of any business.
The advantages of online financial applications are numerous, and include (but
are not limited to):
Reduced cost
Minimising spend is at the top of the priority list for any new venture. Online
accounting allows for usage-based pricing, so you can pay via subscription with
no need to invest in desktop software or expensive hardware.
Another cost-effective feature is that your provider can install updates from
their end, free of charge, so your software is always up-to-date without you
having to worry about the effect an upgrade will have on your finances.
Most cloud services offer free trials of their software, so you can make sure to
pick applications that fit your businesss needs, without cutting into your
budget. Business2Community provides a fantastic list of tips to help you choose
which solution will work the best for you.
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Scalability
When you first open a business, it can be difficult to pin down exactly what your
software needs will be. Furthermore, depending on the growth and expansion of
your business, or changes in the market, its likely that youll need to scale up at
some point.
With the cloud, online accounting resources can be upgraded (or downgraded)
seamlessly and painlessly which means your accounting software can be
tailored to reflect your financial needs as they change, so youll never waste
money on systems youre not using.
Accessibility
Because your data is stored online, it can be accessed from any device with an
internet connection, anywhere in the world, by any authorized user. Unlike most
desktop packages, you can set an unlimited amount of users without having to
pay extra.
And because youre working in real time, several people can work on documents,
spreadsheets or presentations without having to be in the same room. You can
create a virtual meeting with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services such
as Skype, which offers basic services for free, with additional paid features if
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you decide you want them.
Furthermore, in online business, the majority of communication is going to take
place in an online channel so customers, suppliers, business partners and
anyone else you have contact with will be grateful if you maximise your
accessibility.
Remote working
Software that can be accessed from anywhere paves the way for a remote
workforce, which, if you choose to embrace it, can be an incredible tool. By using
software located in the cloud, organizations suddenly have a global workforce at
their fingertips. With access to services and talent no longer restricted by time
zones, schedules or geographical boundaries, its much easier for teams to work
together from anywhere in the city, the country, or even the world.
Working like this gives you the flexibility you need for one-off occasions like
working from home, while looking after a sick kid, waiting for the cable repair
guy or when you have a 4am meeting with someone in another time zone.
If you still need convincing, read about the increasing number of businesses
raving about the success of remote working, reporting that employees are more
productive, engaged and committed.
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Security
Using the cloud means your financial data is extremely secure. Think of it like a
tool you probably already use: internet banking. Companies who supply cloud
software ensure their service employs the most up-to-date security technology
so the average desktop is in fact a lot easier to hack than their service!
On top of this, your data will remain safely in the cloud in spite of any external
events such as theft, lost property, or broken equipment.
Integration
If youre working in the cloud, youll be able to manage all aspects of your
business online. This means your CRM, inventory management, point-of-sale,
time tracking, payroll, bookkeeping software, invoicing and other add-ons can
share data and be customised to suit the specific needs of your business. Even
paper documents like receipts can be scanned and shared within your network.
Because your various cloud applications are in sync with one another, theyll
function in real-time so your data is always available and up-to-date. For
example, if you or another user make a changes in your online accounting
system, you can continue working on the most current version.
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With all your financial apps working together, youll have plenty of time to focus
on the core function of your business hurray!
Remember
You can have the most amazing online business in the history of the internet,
but if you havent got your financial systems running smoothly, youre likely to
end up out of your depth. But when all of your financial applications are
working together harmoniously from an accessible, secure platform, youve
taken a huge step towards giving yourself the very best chance at success.
About the author: Lucy Godwin is an Outreach Writer at Xero, a provider of
online accounting software for small business and personal finance. She lives in
Wellington, New Zealand, and advises startups and small businesses on cloud
computing, online marketing and finance. Connect with her on Twitter
@LucyJaneGodwin.
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How a Joint Venture Partnership
Scored Me Free Content
By John Shea
So Ive recently started to utilize a great joint venture partnership with
someone who simply shares a similar common interest as me. I wanted to write
a blog about this and give some examples of how powerful this can be, you can
use this for just about any business, website or blog you choose if done properly.
Back in April of 2012 I started my own WordPress site based around a niche
idea of promoting music video content for a specific genre of metal music. Since
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this was a growing community and bands are emerging left and right, I knew
this would be a great idea for a website if done properly. I researched themes for
WordPress, found a good domain I liked and got started. My website was never
really intended to contain a lot of actual content besides videos but I was open
to possibly writing reviews, I never really had the motivation or a great drive to
really write quality posts about a specific album or new bands.
I started my own Facebook fan page and I put up a main Facebook fan page
Like button widget on my sidebar. So I slowly began to get followers here and
there from website traffic, I didnt want to put any money into Facebook ads or
really go crazy with promotional strategies. My website was already averaging
50-100 hits a day from simply Embedding YouTube videos. I decided to start
looking into ways I could get more traffic and maybe even find my first joint
venture partnership.
How searching for people with common interests landed
me my first joint venture partnership
Since this sub-genre of metal was getting bigger, I decided to start seeking out
Facebook fan pages that might promote this kind of music. I found a page with
around 8000 followers. I sent them a very straight forward message letting
them know about my site and what Ive been doing. Here would be an example
of what I would say if you are looking to introduce yourself:
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Hey, hows it going? I saw you run this page and promote Metalcore music. I
personally run a website that promotes Metalcore Music videos. Do you have
any interest in possibly working together to promote this music?
Now in my case, I found out it was a single person that was running the page as
opposed to multiple people and he was a huge fan of this music, he also wanted
to help spread the word to other people. This was perfect!
So for months I had a form on my site that allowed people to submit an inquiry
to me if they wanted to participate by helping out on the site to submit content.
Every once in a while Id get an e-mail, with most people Id spend a lot of time
going out of my way to show them over Skype/screen share or even talk on the
phone to guide them on how to get started. One guy I even did a screen share
with and he refused to chat over the phone, so I typed out the instructions over
Facebook chat to get him started. What a time consuming nightmare this was!
Come to find out he writes 2 paragraphs and never even published a single
article.
I couldnt find any solid people that would put in a real effort into doing
anything, even if I showed them how to do it they never took action and did
anything with the opportunity.
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How benefiting others in a joint venture partnership will
bring you results
Since Andrew, the owner of this Facebook fan page actually had an interest in
working with me he also spent the time with me to talk over the phone, spend
over an hour on a screen share with me and learn about what I was doing and
how he could help me. In exchange I decided to offer to promote his fan page on
the main page of my website - http://www.metalcorekingdom.com
Over a span of about 4-5 months, Andrews fan page grew from 8000~ fans to
over 10,000 fans. Considering I average 50-100 visitors a day there is a high
chance a lot of fans discovered his page when they were browsing my site. When
Andrew hit 10,000 fans he decided to make 5 YouTube videos talking about his
story and how he got into this music in the first place. He asked me to simply
share his story on the site. I decided to not only share it, but feature it on the
main slider of the home page front and center for any new visitors.
The joint venture partnership free content promotion
Simply asking Andrew for a favor at this point was mutual, I helped him not
only promoting his fan page but even featuring his story on my site.
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I sent him a message asking if he could write to his Facebook fan page of 11,000
people to see if anyone is simply interested in submitting content to the page,
the last thing I expected was to receive near 25 e-mails from people that wanted
to help, some to go as far as viewing the application like they were submitting a
resume asking for specific qualifications.
I was blown away! To think I was struggling to find people that were willing to
work on my site and now Ive got people wondering if they are even good enough
to work with me!
I decided to setup a training series with detailed instructions, it took me about
2 hours to create and all I had to do was simply send all the interested people
the how-to setup. Within a few days I had people submitting music videos and
content.
Hopefully you enjoyed this post about my joint venture partnership with
Andrew, If you are thinking twice about finding others to work with or to
promote your blog, website, or business re-consider the long term benefits!
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About the author: John Shea is the host of the online show - The Testimonial
Technique where he interviews successful online marketers and bloggers. John
focuses on providing value to the marketing world both with written content and
interviews.
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Platforms
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How To Choose The Best
Platform For Your Online
Business
By E-junkie.info
Now that you know what type of business you want to start, you have set
staright all your business plans and designs and planned your finances well,
the most important task infront of you is to choose the best platform for you
online business.
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Just like you need a solid foundation for your house, the same way you need a
solid foundation for your business's website and that's why you need to choose
the best platform.
There are n-number of platforms available like Blogger, WordPress, Drupal,
Joomla or other CMS system. I know with too much of options, one gets easily
confused. And often people come up with different suggestion; use this, use
that, this is more better, this is outdated. But always remember, it's your
business and you're the king. It's you who has to decide!
So how do you decide?

The decision is made on the basis of what your website will provide and
something that can you yourself can change.
For example, Sandy owns a home-based business. While setting up her website,
she asked her friend, Jordon to help her out. Jordon did everything, he chose
the platform and made the website. Now it's Christmas and Sandy wants to add
a temporaray tab on her wesbite just for the holiday season. She calls up Jordon
but he's out of town for the holidays. Sandy is sad, she dosn't want to miss out
on the extra sales that happens during the holiday season. She asked another
friend to help her out but buy the time she got the new tab added, the holiday
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season was almost gone!
Do you know what Sandy did wrong?
She wasn't the incharge of her website. She didn't choose the platform and she
wasn't much aquainted with the existing platform for her website. Therefore,
she faced a lot of trouble in order to make an occasional change.
So the lesson that we all learn here is that, while choosing the platform for your
website it's you who needs to be in the driver seat and don't go for a platform
which is complex. Use a platform that you can yourself change; from
upradations to occasional changes. And everything should happen in a snap!

Bottomline - Avoid being in a situation where you can't update your own
website whenever you want to.
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What Is The Best Platform For
An Online Business?
By Andrew Rondeau of We Build Your Blog
More and more people are starting their own small business and in todays
world having a web site is a must have step to takeif you want to be taken
seriously.
But before you go off and start to build your new website, you have a crucial
decision to make
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What Platform Is Best?
As you would expect there are quite a few to choose from.
And there are better platforms than others and choosing the right platform
for your online business is crucial.
You have two choices.

A free platform or one that costs you money!
The decision is entirely yours but if you are serious about your online business,
the one that costs money is the one to use.
You see, the free platforms would host your website for you on their own
platform and that means you dont really own the websitethey do!
Plus the free platforms provide very limited options as far as showcasing
your individuality or creativity is concerned as they have standard design
options.
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Another major concern
If you opt for a free website platform at the beginning of your small business
journey and then later on decide to upgrade to your own personalized hosting
account, it could cost you dearly.
If your small business takes off and you experience a lot of visitors and clients
and you then decide to transfer to your own hosting account, you will have to
start all over again.

You will not be able to take your free domain name with
you.
If you did find yourself in this position, you could tell everyone you are moving
to a new domain name and online platform and some will follow you but there is
one major, major company who wont and thats Google.
Google could love your free platform website but once you move to your own
hosted account and domain name, Google treats it as entirely new and in their
eyes, you are starting again.
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Soalways, always, always go for your own domain and hosting
account.
By having your own hosting account, you can use the most popular website
platform, WordPress.org.
(Note - this is different from WordPress.com. WordPress.com is the WordPress
hosted version while WordPress.org is the website software you can install on
your own domain and hosting account.)
Below are just some of the benefits of using
WordPress.org:
Free: You just have to pay for the domain name registration and hosting
User Friendly: WordPress is easy to install and use. Within a few hours
youll be able to build your own website or if you are not too technically
minded easily find someone who can do it for you.
Themes: The templates used with WordPress.org are called Themes and
there are hundreds to choose from. You are spoilt for choice and you will
be able to design a website in almost any layout you wish.
Plugins: WordPress plugins (software add-ons) add extra functionality to
your websitefrom security to selling to social bookmarking.
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SEO Friendly: Google loves WordPress. There are some best practise
SEO settings but once set up, Google will quickly crawl and rank your
site.
Support: Across the world there are millions of websites that use
WordPress as their chosen platform which means there is also a lot of
support. If you have any problems with WordPress, a quick Google search
will get you an answer.
Updates: WordPress is regularly updated providing extra functionality
and security enhancements.
If you are just starting out with your very own small business and are looking
for the best website platform, you can do no better than choose WordPress.org.
About the author: Andrew is a full-time Internet Marketing Specialist and
blogger from the UK. At his blog he shares all his knowledge and experience on
how to make a blog.
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5 Platforms To Create Online
Communities
By E-junkie.info
Online Communities have for the score of years are slowly becoming an
inevitable trend. Ever wondered how this phenomena has unfolded?
Building an online community is the key to promoting any business, no matter
the industry you cater to. Online communities serve you leave a imprint
digitally that cannot be undone by any competitor. It is similar to the colors
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painted once on a canvass cannot be undone but cetainly mixed and matched to
alter the look of the painting. Likewise, online communities grow in leaps and
bounds to establish a circle of business to unfold.
The catch word we are looking for here is "Networking" and "technology". How
are these two terms related to the building of online communities?
For starts we all know Internet and its tools have spawned a technological
revolution on an unprecedented scale over the decades. This innovation has
been rightly utilized by the business fraternity to capitalize gains. If we take a
closer look at the nature of these network-based communities, many of them
owe their success to this technological advance too.

However, when it comes to taking a deeper look at these communities, an
eminent expert on the topic, Dion Hinchcliffe opines that "too many online
communities today exhibit worst practices such as lack of sustained community
management, a tendency to use communities for "push marketing", cross wiring
business and consumer motivations, and lastly, starting with the technology
first".
The problem today is there are too many of them which are mismanaged. One
can always call it the "social media" overdose. Starting a community is easy
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since there is no shortfall of launch platorms. The hard part is maintaining
standards through content and audience interaction that makes all the
difference.
Another issue that businesses find frustrating is which platform to choose? How
do they judge its compatibility?
Communities are built as much on technologies as on the human factor that
goes into making it a successful platform. But technology per say should not be
the mechanism for selection nor the popular ratings. Communities do not
become popular overnight but are made so through quality content and
discussions.
Here is a list of platforms that provide a balanced entry into the art of creating
online communities:
1. Joomla
Joomla is probably the most well known CMS and community platform with
roughly 3700 listed members. Based on PHP, it hosts useful discussions, polls
and has a authentic blog besides allowing 3rd party plug-ins to function
smoothly.
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2. Drupal
Drupal.org is an open source community with more than 913,000 members, both
developers and lay users. It offers active forums, mailing lists and discussion
groups. The best part is its granular security module and the multi-lingual
support, offered in over 30 national communities.
3. Lithium
This is the first SaaS based community platform that specializes in social
customer management. The platform takes after social media phenomena and
provides a mix of forums, blogs live chats for a robust online customer
interaction to happen. Moreover, they are totally open to customer feedbacks in
the form of ranks, badges and kudos counts that keeps the community lively.
4. Jive Software
Off late, this community has been in the limelight. More than 15% Fortune 500
crowd is active on this platform. Since the crux of the community is hardcore
enterprising giants, the focal strength of Jive lies in its effective enteprising
issues, security concerns, customizxability and intra-platform integrations.
5. SharePoint
This platform, launched by Microsoft has a record of having the fastest revenue
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growth in Microsoft's history. Launched in 2001, Sharepoint is probably a
veteran in our list. In fact, evrey 2 out of 3 enterprise worker uses Sharepoint
due to the extensive provision of intranet , extranet and portal creation for
document management, with special focus on enterprises.
Having listed some of the trending platforms that you can consider, it is
important to take note of the growth of SaaS technologies. The technology is
providing an alternate mix of software packages for an improved commercial
success. These online communities also owe a lot to the "crowd" that is
enhancing the landscape of discussions and operations. In the real sense of the
term, such platforms cater to building communities of common interest for the
common good.

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Promotion
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Promoting Your Online Store
By Rob Toledo
Your product descriptions are flawless. Youve worked tirelessly to streamline
your user experience, making sure that checkouts will be speedy and secure.
Your client feedback suggests that your customers cant wait for you to make the
bold move forward into the world of eCommerce. You are ready to go live and
take the eCommerce world by storm!
And thenvirtual crickets. Where are all the customers? Perhaps you had an
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initial flurry of interest in your online store when you launched which has since
tapered off, or perhaps you are still awaiting that flurry of interest. Regardless,
if your online store isnt performing in the way youd hoped, it is bound to be a
frustrating and disappointing experience. Luckily, there have never been more
options or tools available to help you succeed in your eCommerce endeavors. The
first step in promoting your online store is to develop a killer strategy to get
your store out in front of the right people. So lets get started:
1. Understand Your Audience
You probably already know a lot about your customers: they like luxury travel
but with an eco-friendly twist, or they are home brewers with some serious DIY
attitudes. Its crucial to put this knowledge to work for you as you develop your
marketing strategies. Winnowing your market down from the whole, vast
internet to a small niche of interested customers is the first step you can take to
most efficiently promote your online store. Once you know who your customers
are, it is just a quick step to understanding how to reach them.
All the widgets and add-ons and social media metrics wont help you promote
your online store effectively if you are trying to reach the wrong people in the
wrong way. (Or even the right people in the wrong way!)
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Consider the following: What are your customers needs? What are their beliefs?
What type of information is likely to appeal to them? Where do they hang out
online? How social media savvy are they? Spending time to explore and
understand what gets your audience going (and buying) is the first step in
developing a targeted and personalized marketing strategy for your online store.
2. Create a Dynamite Business Blog
Now that you understand exactly who your audience is, you are left with a
smaller group of people, but they are people who really care about what you
have to say. This means that they are likely to be more passionate and receptive
to your message. This is a very good thing.
Now that you know what your customers are likely to respond to, the next step
is to create great content to drive people to your site. There are many ways to do
this, but creating a blog is a particularly useful way to engage with your
community. A blog is cost efficient and versatile, which makes it the perfect tool
to help you drive traffic to your store.
Ideally, your blog will not just be a long-form advertisement for your products.
An example here might help: Lets say you sell top end makeup brushes. A blog
post that waxes on about how much better your brushes are than the brushes
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they sell at the drugstore is not likely to wow your customers. They are likely to
smell an obvious sales pitch and click away.
Instead of hard selling in your blog posts, give readers something they will find
useful. For example, post a video entry showing useful tricks for blending eye
makeup, or create a structured To-Do list that teaches readers how to pick the
perfect foundation. Creating useful content keeps you relevant to your
customers and can create a sense of community around your brand or products.
ProTip: Many beginning bloggers worry about running out of things to write
about. However, blogging is an incredibly rich platform for communicating
ideas. You neednt always work in text alone try your hand at a photo centric
post or foray into the world of guest blogging for variety.
3. Develop an Email Marketing Campaign
Email marketing is one of the most efficient ways to foster an engaged and
committed community around your brand. Done the right way, a great email
strategy will keep your brand or product fresh in the minds of your customers
and can be a great way to drive new or repeat traffic to your online store.
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It is wise to consult an email marketing guide before you dive head first into the
world of email marketing because all email marketing campaigns are not
created equal.
A good email marketing campaign provides readers with something as a reward
for opening your mail. Contests, insider information, white papers, and early
product previews are examples of the types of information that will keep people
subscribed. Thinly veiled or too frequent sales pitches will have your emails
sent to the trash and your list members ticking "unsubscribe."
ProTip: Ensure you email ethically by following these tips for permission based
email marketing.
4. Harness the Power of Social Media
Perhaps the most important reason to advertise on one or more of the big social
media outlets is that your customers are already there. If you dont bring your
message to them on Facebook or Twitter or Reddit, someone else certainly will.
Each social media site has different guidelines for advertising, so you will need
to spend some time researching where you want to put your time and your
advertising dollars.
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ProTip: Consider opening up an account on every social media site you can find.
You do not need to advertise on each and every site. Listening to what your
target customers have to say is invaluable. So lurk away!
5. Invest in Pay Per Click (PPC) Ads
Managing a strong and cost efficient paid search campaign can be
overwhelming to even the most seasoned eCommerce gurus. However, done
right, PPC is an extremely effective way to get your brand and your message in
front of your target audience. PPC should probably not replace any of the other
marketing strategies we discuss here, but it is an excellent way to put what you
know about your customers into practice.
PPC works like this: Advertisers place bids on keywords that resonate with
their target audience. (For example, keywords for brides could include:
engagement ring, wedding dress, wedding venues, etc.) When a web user enters
a search query that matches those terms, the sponsored ad may appear.
The benefits of PPC marketing are that your ads only appear to users who have
expressed interest in a topic related to what you are selling. In this targeted
way, even very small companies can get the exposure they need without
breaking the bank.
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ProTip: Selecting the right geographic location is important to your PPC
results. Avoid selecting "all locations worldwide" when you go to place an ad,
since all keywords are not equally relevant everywhere.
6. The Takeaway
It is certainly a brave new world out there in eCommerce land. Developing a
strategy to promote your online store can take time, but the most important
first step you can take is to really commit to a strategy. As a business owner,
you are used to hard work and planning. So, do your research, prepare to take a
lot of notes, and get ready to get your name out there!
About the author: R ob Toledo is a Seattleite who matches the usual
stereotypes. Loves coffee, the rain, and prefers dogs to cats. When not rambling
about marketing and web design, he can be found in the mountains either
climbing or hiking.

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Are The Words You Choose
Driving People Away
By Kenneth Vogt of Vera Claritas

Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department. ~David
Packard, cofounder of Hewlett-Packard Company
I remember as a child when the biggest brands looked and sounded like this:
New! Improved! BUY! NOW! Their words shouted figuratively and their
announcers shouted literally.
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But the world has gotten emphasis fatigue. Were all sick of it. So the best
brands are now turning down the volume. They are being more subtle. They are
inviting us rather than ordering us.
Its easier to yell, so thats what new, inexperienced and poor marketers do.
Even in everyday life, shrieking gets the wrong kind of attention. Raise the
alarm too many times and people will just consider your communications to be
noise. Nobody likes noise.
Consider the difference between these two messages:
"A pure expression of performance and luxury Jaguar."
"Were going crazy down here at Loco Joes Discount Car Emporium!"
There is a reason why Jaguar is getting $60,000 for their cars but Loco Joe is
only getting $6,000 for his.
It is harder to come up with subtle language than to just use brute force. But
herein lies the rub: subtlety is powerful but shouting is merely forceful. Power
wins every time.
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Being harder does not mean it is not worth the effort. Come on, would you
rather be driving one of Loco Joes clunkers or a sleek new Jaguar? (Say
Jaguar to yourself with a British accent to get in the proper frame of mind...)
The emphasis isnt always inflicted with caps, italics or exclamation points.
Sometimes the words themselves do the shouting. There is a whole
"marketingspeak" vocabulary out there and we all recognize it. The words in
this lexicon didnt use to have a marketing connotation but they have been
taken over so that the rest of us good folks can no longer use them without
getting their marketing stink on us.
There are words that have become nothing less than toxic. I have my own
(growing) list. Right at the top is secrets.
It blows me away when someone, in broadcasted advertising, claims they are
going to tell me a secret. Arent secrets supposed to be private? If I told you a
secret and you then blabbed about it on Facebook, I would be none too happy.
But if you ran it in an ad on Facebook, I would be flipped out. Broadcasting
secrets is silly at best and disingenuous at worst. Dont do it.
Another ignoble word is insiders. You cant claim exclusivity when you
broadcast to anyone who is willing to pony up $37. It just isnt that inside. In
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fact, what does the outside even look like?
The list of words to avoid is a moving target. Those who coin such words or are
the first to bring them to a marketing purpose are geniuses. But these words
have a shelf life for any particular use. Guerilla was genius back in the day.
Masters and gurus were once enticing new concepts. What gave them value
was two things: they had a known meaning and it was being put in a new
context. If it is no longer new, the power is gone.
Many of us are not experienced marketers so we do what everybody tells us to
do: model the best. The problem is currency matters in the marketing realm.
Tony Robbins can get away with still calling his training program Mastery
University because he said it first and he said it big. If I try to use Mastery
Academy or Mastery Formula or some such to model the form, it will not have
the same power. In fact, it may have no power at all as the most powerful word
gets tuned out by those who have heard it too often.
Marketing is communication. Communication is a fundamental means of
connection. Connection is a base requirement for human vitality. So when you
write that headline, title or subject line, dont get lazy and just say the stale
words that are echoing in your head from their constant overuse. Dont worry
that you arent some kind of master copywriter. Genuineness comes through.
Sincerity shines like a beacon. Love conquers all. So love your customer or
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better your prospect by making the effort to use language that is fresh and
alluring. It will be worth the effort.
Author the author: Kenneth Vogt helps expanding entrepreneurs make a wider
wake in the world. Come see how at Vera Claritas. (That's "True Clarity" for you
non-Latin speakers.)
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Understanding The Very Basics
Of Marketing For Small
Businesses
By Ryan Barton of The Smart Marketing Blog
This is Julie.
Julie's a beautician, and a good one at that. Right now, she's creating a
Facebook check-in deal for her salon.
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She clicks Save, looks up from her desk and taps her fingers, expecting new
customers to come pouring in.
Where is everybody??
And this is Sam. Sam just heard the first advertisement for his restaurant on
the radio. He looks down at his phone, waiting for it to ring.
This IS plugged-in, right?

Then there's you.
You just launched your first product. To promote it, you launched an AdWords
campaign, you deployed a crafty email blast, you scheduled tweets, wrote blog
posts, and organized affiliate campaigns and now, impatiently, you stare at your
analytics dashboard waiting for a single click to come through.
Where's my first sale??
The problem here the assumption is that marketing is a light switch.
Something you can flip on whenever it's needed.
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It's not.
You can't put coins in the marketing machine today and expect to suddenly see
results next week.
That's not how marketing works.
But if you faithfully feed the machine, if you create a consistent brand voice, if
you keep the marketing light switch on long enough, eventually Julie will
probably see new faces in her salon, Sam's phone will probably start ringing,
and you'll likely experience the joy of that first sale.
WHAT MARKETING REALLY IS
You see, at its core, marketing is an exercise of repetition, fueling message
resonation.
The more your prospects hear your message, the more likely they'll take notice
of it, and the more likely they are to act on it.
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Resonation creates an organic sense of momentum, fueling you to innovate, and
fueling prospects to take notice.
MARKETING YOURSELF ONLINE
Simply having a website isn't enough you can't afford to just wait for
somebody to discover you.
You need to give people a path to your site, telling them along the way why
you're different from anybody else, and what great things they'll come away
with after reading.
Then once on your site, you can't assume readers know what you want them to
do.
So tell them; give them actions read another article, subscribe, buy a course,
etc. and measure the performance of those actions.
The more prospects that see a call to action to subscribe to your blog at the close
of an article, the higher likelihood they'll actually do so.
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Socially, the more prospects that see retweets of satisfied customers, the more
likely they are to consider buying themselves.
I found this to be true when I published my first book.
The more I shared with my tribe the good things people had to say, the larger
each day's sales figures were like a snowball rolling down a hill, collecting
momentum.
MARKETING WITH TOO MUCH FREQUENCY
The one caveat to effective marketing through repetition, is moderation.
Everybody can appreciate the occasional sales message.
But you need to balance retail messaging with other content value
propositions, sharing other authors' articles, and personal anecdotes.
Too many buffered tweets will make you seem robotic and unwilling to engage.
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And seeing too many visitors click out of a pop-up window will quickly yield a
higher bounce rate and lower return visits.
Too much of any one marketing tactic will always have an inverse effect. So
whatever you employ, do so in moderation.
TEST, AND TEST OFTEN
These marketing tactics are unique. What works for me, may not work for you.
You have a responsibility you owe it to your business to innovate.
Your audience is likely changing the way they behave and your marketing needs
to mirror this change. And mirror it by testing new ways of reaching your
market.
Maybe even considering some tactics that were once thought forbidden by polite
marketers (remember, the balance of being polite versus growing revenue).
Personally, I found that a pop-up call to action to sign-up for daily marketing
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tips instantly increased premium subscribers 27% without negatively impacting
my blog bounce rate.
It was a test; now it's standard until I test again.
But you could do the same and receive vile comments from readers.
Another example...
I tested a short-term promoted tweets campaign in support of my newest book
resulting in a really high impression share, but low conversion rate (what really
matters).
You might launch a similar campaign and find your followers are more
responsive to this type of marketing.
But that's what marketing is.
It's identifying plausible channels and tactics specific to your business, testing
them relentlessly, and repeating those that yield quantifiable results.
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TAKING MARKETING SERIOUSLY
If you're serious about marketing, it means doing more than simply tweeting
out links whenever you publish a new post.
That's lazy.
No, marketing means being proactive and forward-thinking.
It means recognizing you're actually going to have to invest some cash. And
time. And getting your hands dirty. And capitalizing on your new-found
personal drive and radical initiative.
So get to it.
About the author: Ryan Barton is a husband, dad, small business marketing
consultant and author of Smart Marketing, Small Business Marketing 101, and
The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Checklist. Follow him on Twitter. He
lives in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
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How To Be More Productive With
Your Online Marketing Efforts
By John Shea
Hopefully if you are reading this post you are looking for more ways to learn
how to be more productive both in general and with marketing online. Im
going to use this post as a way to describe many useful strategies I have used to
help me stay more productive and consistent with everything I am working on,
both with personal tasks and online marketing.
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How To Be More Productive By Setting Goals
Goals in my opinion are going to be the #1 way to setting yourself up to have a
clear idea in mind of exactly what it is you need to get done. I use a very simple
straight forward list that is split into two categories.

The first category is weekend goals that are things that can be done over and
over again each weekend, an example of some of these goals are a combination
of personal and marketing based goals. Some personal examples would be doing
laundry, cleaning my desk of papers, trash etc, vacuuming common areas. Some
marketing examples would be checking a specific website, cleaning up my e-mail
inbox etc.
The 2nd category would be long term goals. I typically split these out into two
sub-categories, general long term goals or specific tasks I would like to get done
for my blog. Ive made it a point to setup my goals without a specific set due
date as I find Im not as pressured to get things done and most of these tasks
can be done at my leisure so long as I am getting the work done. Since I work a
9-5 full time job and have a long commute its more common that Im spending a
lot more time on my weekends working on all of these goals. I start with the
basic weekend goals first and then move into my long term goals.
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How To Be More Productive with Evernote
Evernote is a free application that you can use to organize notes and documents
between multiple platforms. This application has been my savior when it comes
to setting goals and staying organized online. Evernote allows you to sync all of
your work between each of your devices, so for example I could be at home and
add multiple documents or notes to my Evernote account, I could then go to
work and pull up the same information from my work PC or even on my mobile
device. I find having it on my mobile device helps for grocery shopping and
quick note ideas.
For online marketing I have setup my Evernote account in such a way that I
split everything into specific categories.
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For example, my main workbook categories are as follows:
Goals & Daily Tasks: This is split between my long term goals and short
term goals as I explained earlier.
Resources: Website links, useful blog posts, basic template notes for
various programs. General copy and paste templates I use on a regular
basis.
Training Resources: Various notes for online marketing and blogging
courses I have gone through.
Blog Notes: Specific notes related to my personal blog
Niche Site: Another notebook used for resources that specifically relate to
content I use for a niche site I run.
You can check out my Evernote Review here for more details on how Evernote
can show you how to be more productive.
Getting your mind flowing and thinking about how to be
more productive online
I suggest two major strategies to get you thinking more positively about your
goals and actions among staying consistent with your marketing and
productivity.
1. Personal development books The typical recommendation I hear is
to read 10 minutes or 10 pages a day. Check out T he Magic Of Thinking
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B ig , The Slight Edge, Think & Grow Rich, and How To Win Friends &
Influence People just to name some of my favorites. All of these can be
found on Amazon very cheap.
2. Daily Audio I run a niche site that revolves around music and I love
going to concerts, my 30 mile commute to and from work generally was
my time to listen to that new CD or listen to music. Making a sacrifice
to use this time in your day maybe on the commute in the car to work, the
train, and in your free time to listen to audio will really get your mind
flowing with ideas. I personally recommend the Smart Passive Income
Podcast with Pat Flynn. I made a decision to listen to all 60+ episodes
before turning my car ride back into a music hall. Ive managed to listen
to over 20 Episodes in about 2 weeks. Because of this I have more ideas
for my online business and Im thinking more positively about taking
action and staying dedicated to my goals.
Staying focused on a specific strategy or course of action
When it comes to online marketing, there is a wealth of information out there.
Spending time on most marketing forums will make your head spin. Try to find
a specific niche or focus you wish to pursue and then take action. There are
many ways to create positive results, staying focused on a specific strategy will
help you get there.
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My suggestion is to find a mentor, someone that you confide in and believe in
what they are doing. If you can find someone that consistently provides value
then spend more time reading their content, listening to their advice and taking
action on what they teach you. There are many different strategies that can
help you find success, find a strategy you like and stick to it.
I am particularly intrigued by the content and wealth of information that
bloggers like Derek Halpern of SocialTriggers.com and Pat Flynn of
SmartPassiveIncome.com share with their readers.
Hopefully this post will help you get started with some ideas on how to be more
productive and stay committed to your goals.
About the author: John Shea is the host of the online show - The Testimonial
Technique where he interviews successful online marketers and bloggers. John
focuses on providing value to the marketing world both with written content and
interviews.
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Why Your Advertising Is
Being Ignored
By Ryan Barton of The Smart Marketing Blog
Your advertising efforts are being ignored because they're ineffective.
They're boring and predictable.
Your 'best' is simply recycling the old with a different logo. It's no longer a
surprise.
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When you already know what to expect, there's no point in pausing to take
notice, is there?
WHY TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING FAILS
Over the years, you've grown numb to traditional advertising.
While reading the newspaper you ignore the columns of ad space and focus on
your article. You've even become smart enough to ignore the ads that try to look
like a legitimate article.
Watching TV, you fast forward through the ads or walk away from the television
completely.
Online, you now focus your visual attention inside the site's wire design, away
from the banner ads that surround it.
You turn the channel and lower the volume if you still listen to broadcast radio,
and you drive past hundreds of billboards without giving them a second's
attention.
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WHY SOCIAL MEDIA ISN'T THE CURE
The same is true when it comes to social media.
Instead of ignoring an advertisement, you're now programming yourself to
ignore corporate logo avatars.
Moving through your Twitter and Facebook feeds, you move past the corporate
logos, looking for familiar -- personal -- faces you recognize. Because that's
where the real content is -- the real experiences.
Sure, social media may try to relate to consumers on a personal level, but their
angle is ultimately still the same -- to grow revenue, to grow their list, to grow
market share.
And you recognize this, ignoring it.
HOW TO GET CONSUMERS TO TAKE NOTICE
I preach differentiation often. But differentiation doesn't only refer to your
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product or advertising.
Any two businesses can sell an orange. It's how they sell that orange that
matters.
It's in the experience -- the unique, small details of that memory that bring
consumers back for more. And it's that same special experience that makes it
worth talking about.
When you stop taking your customers and their time with you for granted, and
start focusing on making that experience something special and unique and
something to share, that's when consumers will take notice.
And when it something to notice, it's hard to ignore.
About the author: Ryan Barton is a husband, dad, small business marketing
consultant and author of Smart Marketing, Small Business Marketing 101, and
The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Checklist. Follow him on Twitter. He
lives in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.
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Social Media Marketing Advice
for Online Business Owners
By Yuwanda Black of InkwellEditorial
If youre starting an online business, there are a multitude of ways to get sales
and leads. In fact, there are so many that it can be downright confusing as to
where to start. One of the easiest to come down the pike in the last few years is
social media. Its grown by leaps and bounds, with no slowdown in sight.
Ive owned several online businesses long before social media became so
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popular. Now its an integral part of my marketing arsenal. Following is some
first-hand insight into how to use it to get the most out of it.
Some Pros and Cons of Using Social Media to Promote
Your Online Business
Six of the most popular social media sites as of this writing are Twitter,
LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and YouTube (and yes, YouTube is a
social media site, although most dont think of it that way).
Pro: The best thing about social media is that its free. All you have to do is set
up an account and start interacting.
Con: Its time consuming. Social media is about interacting; building a
community. So, you cant just set up an account and send out notices about your
business. The idea is to dispense information that is helpful to your target
audience.
How to Combat this Con: Finding and/or creating content takes time. So, the
best way to get the most out of this medium is to develop a plan.
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FYI, heres an excellent, step-by-step tutorial on how to create an effective social
media strategy; one you can measure the results of in 90 days.
Con: Doesnt lead to immediate sales. In fact, this has been an ongoing knock
against this way of marketing online. Many business owners report that they
either dont get sales and/or they dont know how to quantify the sales they may
be getting.
How to Combat this Con: In order to combat this, you need to first decide what
your objective will be before diving into social media marketing. For example, is
it to increase site traffic; create brand awareness; generate more leads (eg,
newsletter sign ups); etc. Once you know what your end goal is, then its easier
to figure out how to get there.
FYI, this is why its important to create a social media strategy. As you can see
from the link above, determining what your goals are is the first thing you have
to address when devising a strategy.
Pro: You can reach out to a lot of people quickly. For example, currently, my
main Twitter account has over 11,000 followers and I have four more that total
just over 4,000 as of this writing.
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Right there, thats almost 15,000 marketing touches that I ostensibly make
every time I send out a tweet (if I post to all five accounts). And these numbers
are small!
There are social media gurus with tens of thousands of followers and fans. This
is the power of social media if you know how to leverage it.
Pro: You can get instantaneous feedback on a product/service.
Pro: You can use auto tools like SocialOomph.com and HootSuite.com to pre-
schedule posts to go out. This cuts down on the amount of time you have to
spend interacting in real time.
ALTHOUGH be mindful of the fact that the emphasis in social media
marketing is always on the social aspect of it. So while auto tools are great,
they are no substitute for engaging with your audience in real time. Its how you
become connected to your community and build a trusted brand that
cultivates loyal customers.
How to Decide Which Social Media Sites(s) Is Best for
Your Online Business
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There are hundreds of social media sites. And it seems like every day a new one
is popping up. But you dont have to jump on the bandwagon of every one not
even the most popular ones.
The best way to decide which social media site is right for you is to look at the
demographics of your target audience, and interact on the site(s) whose metrics
match them.
As you can see from the chart below, not all social media sites are the same.
Some appeal more to women, some more to professionals; some more to
minorities; etc.
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You want to be where your prospective clients are. So, choose those social media
sites and start interacting in earnest. Ask questions; post links to informative
content; answer questions from your followers; etc. In time, itll pay off big!
Conclusion: Social Media Marketing
Social media is here to stay; its not going anywhere. If youre not investing in it,
you can bet your competition is. And where will that leave your online business
in one, three or five years if you havent?
About the Author: Yuwanda Black has been a freelance writer since 1993 and
is the webmaster of InkwellEditorial.com, a site that teaches others how to start
successful freelance writing careers. She also heads New Media Words, an SEO
writing company she founded in 2008. In 2007, she started earning $100-
250+/day writing SEO content -- in less than three weeks. In 2009, she
developed an SEO copywriting course that teaches aspiring freelancers the skills
they need to do the same, right from the comfort of home. You can take the class
online -- or in person in Jamaica!
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Thank You Note
We are thankful to all these phenomenal bloggers for making this project
possible. We are thankful to all these phenomenal entrepreneurs and experts
for making this project possible. Kudos to all of them for contributing such
insightful and practical articles. For more insights and tips on how to become a
successful entrepreneur, visit these blogs and we assure you that you will not
be disappointed.
Kenneth Vogt: http://www.veraclaritas.com/
Jennifer Brown Banks: http://penandprosper.blogspot.com/
Gary Korisko: http://rebootauthentic.com/
Yuwanda Black: http://inkwelleditorial.com/
Brankica Underwood: http://brankicaunderwood.com/
Lucy Godwin: http://www.xero.com/
John Shea: http://john-shea.net/
Andrew Rondeau: http://www.webuildyourblog.com/
Rob Toledo: http://www.stentontoledo.com/
Ryan Barton: http://www.thesmartmarketingblog.com/
Our special thanks to S tock.xchng and Flickr for being excellent image resources
for this E-book.
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Thank You for downloading this
eBook.
Hope you liked it!
Connect with E-junkie:

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