Trials Of An Internet Entrepreneur – A Humorous Beginning

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It’s hard to believe that it all began almost a year ago. Time really does fly when you are consumed by the task at hand or even worse, constantly perplexed. My wife and I thought it might be fun to start an Internet store as a side business to my Professional Engineering and Contracting business. After all, I’m somewhat computer literate. How hard or demanding could it possibly be? I figured there must be a cookbook solution somewhere that would define the exact steps that if taken, would catapult us to stardom.

Little did I realize that life on the Internet is quite a bit different than the world of absolute truths that I exist in as an Engineer. Everyone is presented as an expert but few people seem to agree on any given topic. How can perceived reality differ so greatly?

The truth of the matter is, that Internet Reality is defined by the search engines and the algorithms they use to present it, and I doubt very seriously that the folks that really understand it will divulge their secrets anytime in the near future. Therefore any understanding of the reality presented, can only be reactive in nature and speculative at best. I made numerous mistakes in setting up our first store before this concept really sunk in. Without realizing it, I was trying to use an approach which may have been functional, but
did not work well with the search engines and therefore would have always limited our success. I finally came to the conclusion, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

My mistakes began at the very beginning, when I purchased a third party PHP shopping cart and loaded it on to a reputable hosting company. Based on everything I was told, this should be a “Walk in the Park” and we should be selling product any day. I was soon to find out that I required a working knowledge of PHP to modify the shopping cart and even worse, my page
requests timed out as often as 60% of the time. Now in all fairness to the software industry, I’m sure there are many quality solutions being offered today. The problem is, which do you buy?

In utter disgust, I turned to a suggestion seen at WorldWide Brands and chose to open up a Yahoo Store. I also purchased the first edition of Online Store Profits and followed it step by step as I created our store and was quickly up and running. From there I purchased Arelis for our link management software and IBP 8 for our site optimization and marketing. Lastly I purchased IDevAffiliate for our affiliate tracking and management needs. I’m sure there are many other effective options that can be chosen, but these are the ones that have worked well for us. Our search engine visibility and subsequent sales continue to improve, and in general “Life Is Good” and we are pleased with our selections.

I share this information with the readers because it’s healthy to admit your own mistakes, especially if it can prevent others from making similar errors. Never use someone else’s opinion, as a replacement for your own that should have been derived by factual research.

Until my next update, have a great day!

What My Friend Taught Me!

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If you are anything like me, you’ve always wanted to discover a way to have an extra stream of monthly income. But what I didn’t want was another job! I wanted money rolling-in around the clock, 24/7. No matter what I was doing or where I was spending my time. I wanted more money, I needed more money to pay my bills! If this is what you are looking for, then this will be the most exciting article you’ll ever read!

You see I wanted something that I could set-up and just let it run on auto-pilot. Something that wouldn’t really require much work, something I could put together during my spare time. My goal was just to obtain an extra $500 a month.

Within 60 days of starting, I couldn’t believe all the money I had made!

Think about where you are today financially… Don’t let yourself in up like all those people still working 9-5 for a living. I think its call a JOB (just over broke). Today more then ever you can’t count on your company to be there when you need them! You must think for the future and create your own retirement. With the price of everything always going up (especially gas) your going to need extra money to help pay those bills.

The other nice thing about this extra income avenue is you can do it whenever you have some spare time. There’s no deadline to meet. Don’t have to drive to get there. Best of all… There’s no boss to answer too! Heck, if you focused yourself, you could be making a full time income in no time at all. That’s where I’m at today!

What I wanted to share with all of you is starting your very own online Internet Home Business. Start it right from home, while watching your favorite TV show. My friend shared with me his 10-step Work At Home plan. And I want to share what I learned with you!

You can do this without a college education, experience, a large amount of capital, raw talent or luck…

Belief enough in yourself to take a chance. Enough to put the principles into action. That’s all it takes a little effort. And in no time at all you'll be more than half way to a lifestyle most people can only dream about.

Good luck and much success to everyone!

Common Sense - The Missing Link in Online Business

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I like to think that my approach to business is 1 part experience, 1 part research and 2 parts common sense. I know my business; that’s my experience. I read as much as I possibly can to strike a balance in my efforts between tried and true and newer methods of business planning and marketing. But to me, the most important, and often lacking in my opinion, is the common sense part of running any business, especially online.

I do not claim to be an expert in SEO or SEM or any of those acronym concepts. In fact, I’m not sure who legitimately can claim to be. In my observation, the rules to those theories seem to change daily if not more often. However, like most online entrepreneurs, I do try and pick up as much as I can from all sources in trying to market and run my business.

In working on both my own business and my client’s, I have found that too often I can get too focused on the technical aspects of my website and business. We are constantly inundated with tips, tricks and techniques for getting more traffic and finding new leads. Please don’t think I’m discounting any of those or disparaging those giving advice. On the contrary, I think it is necessary to take in as much information as possible in determining your own strategies. The problem, in my eyes, lies in getting too involved in these “new” concepts and losing sight or doubt your innate sense of how to do things.

I am not suggesting any hot new modes of marketing, nor am I guaranteeing any way of making thousands of dollars a week! I am merely suggesting that before, during and after implementing any new techniques, you always take a look at your website and all your materials from your customer’s point of view. Better yet, have someone else take a look.

Make sure that you have designed your site and written your copy in a way that is accessible to both ends of the spectrum: the techies and the technically challenged alike. In a perfect world, each visitor to your site would be very computer and internet savvy. Unfortunately, we all know it is not a perfect world. You must make your site as user-friendly as possible.

I spent a lot of time designing my website. I put a lot of thought into what I wanted to say, how I wanted to say it and how I wanted it to function. Those are all important things to consider and steps that must not be skipped. However, shortly after launching the site I discovered what I could improve.

The first thing I did when I uploaded the site was to inform all my friends and family. I knew within two days that I needed to make things a whole lot simpler! I had not taken into account that I have grown up in the internet age and things that I take for granted like knowing how to navigate a site via a site map or navigation bar are not second nature to everyone. I got the best feedback from my 91 year old grandfather who really wanted to see the whole site and know what it was all about. He tries so hard to keep up with the technology, but using the internet is not his cup of tea.

After speaking with him and a few other relatives, I sat down and took a hard look at my site. I went through and made two ways to get to every single page. I tried to simplify things as much as possible. I didn’t change the copy because I had made a point to write copy that was inviting to potential clients from any background. I used my keywords as much as I felt comfortable doing without sounding like a broken record.

Albert Einstein once said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” In our excitement to boost our search engine rankings and generate traffic, I think it’s important to remember those words. The more people who can use your site and hear your message; the more customers you will have!

MySpace Countdown

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A MySpace countdown is a countdown clock that can be uploaded to a MySpace page as either a reminder tool or upcoming events for the person with the page, or to display to friends. There are several types of Myspace countdown clocks to choose from, and there is something for most major occasions. They can be downloaded from many websites off of the Internet. Many of the websites provide the code for one to put on their Myspace page. They contain fun graphics for the special occasion and run visibly like a stop clock.

Various Occasions MySpace Countdown Helps to Celebrate

There are both typical and atypical occasions that MySpace countdown helps users to celebrate. Some of the typical occasions that a MySpace countdown clock can be downloaded for are: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Fourth of July, Halloween, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day, Labor Day and New Years. Some less typical occasions that MySpace countdown clocks can be downloaded for are: Pregnancy, Graduation, Wedding and Anniversary, Special Sporting Events, Vacations, Retirement, Back to School, and a Soldier Returning Home. All come with cartoon-like graphics and some incorporate animation into the countdown clock. There are options to customize what the clock will look like for the celebration. For example, Valentine's countdown clocks may have options such as roses, wine, flowers, hearts, candy, and cupids. This allows the user to still customize the occasion to their taste.

MySpace countdown Caters to Special Interests

Many people with special interests will be able to find a MySpace countdown clock to fit what they like.

MySpace countdown has clocks that feature animated characters from TV and cartoons such as: The Simpsons, Futurama, Scooby Doo, Garfield, South Park, Family Guy, Yogi Bear, Betty Boop, Flintstones, and various Looney Tunes characters to name a few options. Sports fanatics are able to download MySpace countdown clocks that feature future sporting events for the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, and WWE. Some display hearts, cartoon animals, mushrooms, crosses, smiley faces, aliens, flowers, astrological signs, and aquariums.

Effects and Features for MySpace countdown

There are a number of effects and features that are available on some MySpace countdown clocks. Some websites offer clocks that give the user the ability to select the type of music they would like the countdown to play. Others allow the user to pick graphics and colors for the countdown. There are options for users to make their own countdown. Self-generated MySpace countdowns allow the user to put in the date of their event. This will generate a URL code that users can cut and paste into their MySpace page.

14 Tips For Writing An Effective Online Survey

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Developing a useful, well-written online survey that extracts the information you need from your users can be a challenge. In this article, I will review 14 tips for creating a useful online survey.

1) Write a brief, concise survey. Start with a mental framework that focuses on only what is essential to know. Ask questions only if the answers will give you the data you need and can use. If a question is not important enough to include in your report on the survey’s findings, then remove the question. Try to envision each question as its own specific theory that you are testing.

In addition, research has shown that people skim and skip on the web because it is difficult to read lots of heavily condensed text on a computer screen. Most users do not want to scroll through a long page of text, so your online survey completion rate will be higher if the survey is short and succinct.

2) Try to begin the survey with interesting questions. Interesting questions will inspire the respondent to keep reading and complete the survey.

3) Develop questions with answers in the proper format for your purposes. For example, if you believe your students need more time to complete the questions in your lesson, ask, “How long did it take you to complete the unit and accompanying questions?” with various time intervals as possible answers. This is better than asking, “Do you need more time to finish the unit and accompanying questions?” with yes or no as possible responses.

4) Plan ahead of time how you and your company will analyze the information before you send out the final version of the survey. This may affect your questions and format when you realize that the statistical analysis you need to perform cannot be done with these particular question results.

5) Use the simplest language possible and respect the respondent’s dignity when constructing questions. Your survey respondents will undoubtedly come from many different groups, and more often than not, are less expert in the field than you are.

6) Use neutral language. The online survey is being developed to find out what your audience thinks and is not a forum for you to air your perceptions or opinions.

7) Relax your grammar a bit so your questions do not sound too formal. For instance, the word “who” is often acceptable when “whom” is technically correct.

8) Be sure to ask only one question at a time and put them in a logical order. Questions like “If you scored less than 70% on the test and you have taken the test another time previous to this, what do you think would help you receive an 80% or above the next time you take the test?” will be difficult for respondents to answer and even more challenging for you to interpret.

9) Avoid double negatives, difficult concepts, and specific recall questions. Respondents are easily perplexed when trying to interpret the meaning of a question that uses double negatives. Respondents can also become quickly overwhelmed and lose detail of events or circumstances that are farther back in time. Most importantly, if the survey is too complex and/or difficult to fill out, respondents won’t complete it!

10) Try to use more closed-ended questions, with no more than one or two open-ended questions. Respondents usually have a better understanding of closed-ended questions because they are more straightforward and offer responses they can choose from.

Open-ended questions require a written response. An excessive number of open-ended questions can wear down the respondent and reduce the quality of the answers they provide.

11) Scaled response questions should have answers that are at balanced, comparable intervals. For example, offering choices of excellent, very good, good, and terrible would cause you to miss important information in between the values of good and terrible.

12) Whenever possible, responses should be developed as discrete amounts instead of general statements of quantities, with specific options from which to choose. It’s better to ask, “How many times a month do you go to the movies?” “0”, “1 to 3 times a month”, “3 to 5 times a month or more”, instead of “How often do you go to movies?” “almost never”, “one and a while”, “I am there at least once a week”, etc.

13) Name your survey and write a brief introduction. Providing a survey name and a brief introduction are good ways to give your respondents some background and a frame of reference. It also prepares them for what is to come.

14) Craft a well-written subject line for the email you send with the survey to capture your respondents’ attention.

While not exhaustive, the points listed above are enough to get you started in the right direction. In summary, a well-written online survey has higher completion rates and is an effective method for gathering information.

6 POWERFUL VRE(Virtual Real Estate) Business Models You Can Start Building In 2006 Using Google Adsense - Part 1

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VRE -- better known as "Virtual Real Estate" is literally everywhere online.

That's right. Everytime you do a search on whatever it is your searching for via the Internet you get a list of results. Within that list of results lye's thousands, if not, millions of pages of Virtual Real Estate that is making someone out there on the WWW some handsome profits.

The question is... "what have you done in order to stake your Internet "VRE" claim so you too can enjoy some of that profit as well?"

If you haven't started anything yet, that's okay because I did a little research for you and came up with these "6 POWERFUL VRE(Virtual Real Estate) Business Models You Can Start Building In 2006 Using Google Adsense" so you too can benefit like the many others out there online.

The first VRE business model I'd like to talk about are -- Article Directories.


VRE Model #1. Articles Directories.

Article Directories are in my mind are probably one of the best VRE business models on the web simply because they offer your audience and publishers Multiple Channels of information on any topic.

And the facts are, people come online for information.

So, what do Article Directories contain?

That's right... Information! ... and lots of it.

The other great benefit to Article Directories is that you don't have to write a single word if you don't want to because the whole purpose of starting your Article Directory in the first place is to get other people(we also call them authors) to submit their content for your readers and/or publishers to read and use.

Now, the Rule Of Thumb is simple when it comes to growing your Article Directory and that is... the more authors you recruit, the more your Article Directory will grow, filling it full of targeted information for your readers to digest and for publishers to use on their websites.

It gets better, so keep reading.

Did you know that the more pages you have within your Article Directory means... the more search engine food you'll have for the search engines to come and index into their database which will then be displayed within the search engines search results.

Remember in the beginning of this article when I was talking about the search engine results being full of Virtual Real Estate. This is where your Article Directories webpages(or your Virtual Real Estate) will be listed for web surfers find.

This also means that you'll receive a lot of FREE targeted search engine traffic to your Article Directory as it grows giving your authors FREE targeted traffic to their sites and keeping them happy, and at the same time, will be building your VRE nest egg on the WWW.

Are you starting to see the benefits to starting your own Article Directory on the Internet?

I hope so.

But don't go anywhere just yet, I'm not finished.

There's two more things I want to talk to you about before this part of the article series ends.

The first is RSS -- better known as "Real Simple Syndication" and what RSS does is it allows you to syndicate your Article Directories content or just content in general through an RSS feed so that any reader and/or publisher who subscribes to a particular RSS feed within your Article Directory will receive ANY new updated content that is published... INSTANTLY!

The other benefit to a RSS feed is... lets say you have 1000 publishers subscribed to one of your RSS feeds and one of your authors submits a new article at your Article Directory, all those publishers who subscribed to that RSS feed will receive it once that RSS feed updates and when someone clicks on the link within that RSS feed to read the new article, guess where the visitor is sent to?

You guessed it, your Article Directory, with your Google Adsense ads(I'll talk about that in a second) and whatever other related affiliate links you have on that webpage.

Now... for the BEST part, how-to make a $Profit$ with your Article directory.

I'm telling you, this is the easiest money you'll ever make for simply supplying your viewers and the Internet(A.K.A. The Information Super Highway) with what it needs the most, Information!

How do you do it?

Heard of Google Adsense(as I mentioned just a minute ago), because if you haven't, now you have.

What is Google Adsense?

Google Adsense is Googles affiliate program for publishers and how it works is it displays ads targeted towards the content on that particular webpage being viewed.

How do you get paid? Simple. Your reader just has to click on one of the ads within the Google Adsense ad box on that webpage and depending on what the topic is and keyword could pay some handsome commissions(usually between 35% to 50%).

And, guess what? You didn't even have to do any selling OR follow-up.

Not bad and believe me those clicks add up Fast and by having the search engines returning frequently for regular indexing and having RSS feeds(remember, when someone clicks on the RSS feed link on someone elses website they get redirected back to yours with your Google Adsense ads on it and other affiliate links) for other publishers to use on their websites you'll soon see your Google Adsense profits get Bigger and BIGGER!

Well, that's it for now. So be sure to be on the look out for my next installment of the "6 POWERFUL VRE(Virtual Real Estate) Business Models You Can Start Building In 2006 Using Google Adsense".

Avoid Computer Disaster: A review of Spyzooka

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In recent times, our modern society has become completely dependent on computers to survive. Unfortunately, computer hackers have taken advantage of this fact and are using spyware to slow down and render useless many home computers. Luckily, there is anti-spyware software available to regain use of the computer. SpyZooka, a popular anti-spyware program, is easy to use, does not detect false positives, and increases computer speed. This article will review SpyZooka’s effectiveness in dealing with spyware.

Unlike many of the other brands of anti-spyware programs, SpyZooka’s ease of use makes the user more comfortable in dealing with spyware. The interface is clean-lined and modern, not distracting the eye from the most important elements. Simple buttons on the left side of the screen describe the main options. To keep the interface uncluttered, the more specific options are revealed by clicking on the main option tabs. After the initial installation, SpyZooka continues to scan the computer for any spyware threats and displays scan results in a in a results tab. While the ease of use may make consumers leap for joy, SpyZooka also avoids time wasting false positives that occur with other types of spyware protection.

One of the biggest hassles of protecting your computer from spyware is the amount of time required to tackle the issue. SpyZooka avoids this pitfall by only reporting actual spyware issues. This is done by using a complex algorithm that detects and removes only spyware, not the programs that user wants to keep on the computer. It also counts the spyware issues only one time, not confusing or frightening the consumer with deceptive results and complex rating scales. With such time-saving features, Spyzooka gets the computer working faster.

Not only does SpyZooka help the consumer to use the product more efficiently, but it actually makes the computer to run faster. Spyware on the computer has many irritating effects, most commonly things like excessive popups, snail-paced internet connections, home page changes, and unbearably slow computer speed. SpyZooka removes spyware, adware, keyloggers, trojan horses, worms, malware, hijackers, dialers, unwanted toolbars, rootkits, rogue antispyware, botnets, unwanted browser plugins and any other related issues that might affect computer speed. Being protected from so many of the causes of a slow computer almost guarantees faster computer use for the consumer.

As is easily seen, SpyZooka is an effective anti-spyware program that does the job of keeping the consumer protected from computer disaster. Not only does it have a user-friendly interface, but it also avoids false positives and makes the computer run faster.