This week I interview Angela Wills of MarketersMojo on how to keep from being overwhelmed in running your online business.



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Resources Mentioned On the Show

Marketers Mojo

Aweber

WordPress

RoboForm

This week I interview Dawn Stegall of FaithfullyYours and ScrapVentures about starting and running a scrapbook business from home.



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Resources Mentioned On the Show

Faithfully Yours - Scrapbook supplies for Faithbooks.

ScrapVentures.com - Tips on starting your own scrapbook business.

Copyright © Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

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Whether seeking a supplemental income or a full-time income, many folks have undertaken the task to discover a viable home based business solution to meet their personal needs.

For most folks who contemplate a home business, a low-cost or no-cost solution is not only nice, but also very necessary. Many also seek to find a home business that will permit them to maintain their regular day job in order to protect their base income.

Taking the cautious approach to a home based business and keeping one`s job during the start-up period is often a very good decision. By maintaining one`s job, one can maintain the health of their personal finances while permitting their home business grow healthy and strong.

Fortunately, most home based businesses can be started with little or no cash, can be maintained on a shoestring budget, and can be operated successfully with only a part-time investment.

One day, the business will be strong enough to support itself and its owner. When that time comes, it will make good sense for the business owner to leave his or her outside job to dedicate more time to growing and maintaining their new thriving home based business. You will know when that time has finally arrived.

The nature of a home based business makes it easy and very realistic for most folks to take the plunge into home business ownership.

Yet, many folks put off starting their own home based business, because they have the misconception that they will have to risk thousands of their own hard-earned dollars at start-up. Then later, if their business fails, they fear they may be forced to take out a second mortgage on their house just to stay out of bankruptcy.

Are you one of these folks? Do you let your fears of failure keep you from reaching for your dreams?

If so, then allow me to introduce you to a few home business ideas that you can start for less than $100 and can be started and operated very profitably as a part-time business.

THE LIFEBLOOD OF ALL SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES

First of all, let me advise you to search out a business model that will deliver steady and repeat business. It is the one thing — above all others — that will assure that your company can survive the test of time.

HOME-BASED MAIL ORDER:

Home-based mail order is a good example of how one can quickly grow a home business income. Mail order is a low cost start-up business that can be launched for around $100 USD.

With proper planning, your home-based mail order business will not require up-front inventory purchases. In the mail order business, it is not uncommon to rely upon drop-shippers for product fulfillment services.

By utilizing drop-shippers, we can sell the products, collect the money and then purchase the products from the wholesale outlet. The wholesale outlet will then put a return address for your company on the product packaging and deliver the product directly to your customer.

Your primary expense in the mail-order business is advertising. Classified advertising tends to be a relatively inexpensive form of advertising with thousands of outlets available to the small business owner.

WHOLESALE BUSINESS:

Buy low — sell high. You can acquire high quality, top-of-the-line merchandise for a fraction of the retail cost.

AUCTIONS:

Auctions can be an excellent source for buying cheap and selling high. Both government auctions and Internet auctions can lead to some excellent profit opportunities. Auctions are an excellent tool for both acquiring and selling merchandise.

MAKE AND SELL YOUR CRAFTS:

Crafts are a hot seller at country fairs, swap meets or anyplace where people gather. Make your own crafts and sell them for a tidy profit!

SELLING INFORMATION:

Selling information by mail is another good example of an inexpensive home based business start-up. One can gain the resale rights to information for usually about $50 USD. Other costs will include printer cartridges, paper and postage. There are plenty of free classifieds sites on the Internet, in which to successfully advertise your information.

WRITE INFORMATIONAL BOOKLETS:

Write and publish your own informational booklets; sell them at a high price! All you need is a little know-how, a printer, paper and stamps. This is a GREAT home business idea! You can also sell the resale rights to others, for extra profits. In this age of the Internet, you may also take advantage of the fact that selling information is one of the most profitable endeavors one can pursue online.

OFFICE SERVICES:

Offer office services for hire in your local paper. You`ll be surprised at the amount of regular office business that can be gleaned from one little classified ad Word processing, typing, accounting, data entry, proofreading, transcription, promotional letters and newsletters. All these tasks can be accomplished right from your own home office.

AVON REPRESENTATIVE:

Yes, Avon`s been around for eternity, hasn`t it? Then it`s not such a bad prospect as a home based business, is it? I once knew  a woman who did so much business as an Avon rep. that she had people calling her and knocking at her door wanting to order products at all hours of the day and night! Once you are an established Avon representative, you, too, will turn a good profit.

CONCLUSION:

On your search for the ideal home based business, try not to get caught up in any scams that will run off with your money. There are thousands of scam artists out there just waiting for the next sucker to come along. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Just use your good judgment and invest wisely in proven methods of earning extra income.

About the Author:

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Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy has helped thousands of people in over 200 countries around the world start and run a successful home business. Discover 3 easy steps to start your own home business and subscribe to The Home Biz Guy’s Free Home Business Secrets Mini-Course at:

http://www.PlugInProfitSite.com/main-23595

I get email frequently asking about specific “Google” programs or if it’s possible to make money from Google in general. While it is possible to make money from Google, many of the “Google Money” systems are deceptive.  Here are some of the deceptions and truths about making money with Google.

Deception 1: Google is hiring people to place ads.

Truth: Google simply offers tools that allow you to advertise (Adwords) or make money placing ads (Adsense) on your website.  It’s not a job.

Deception 2: Top name companies are hiring people to place ads on Google.

Truth: Top companies aren’t hiring people to place ads. Instead these “top” companies have affiliate programs and will pay you if you help them sell their goods and services. Google Adwords is a tool you can use to help sell your affiliate items. However, it’s not the only way. I don’t use Adwords and I still make money with affiliate programs.

Deception 3: All you need to do is “data entry” or “type” ads into Google to make money.

Truth: This is my biggest pet peeve when it comes to offers about Google money. Done incorrectly, using Adwords can cost you a fortune with no return on investment. Adwords is an advertising tool in which you can Google to run your offer (they show up on the right hand side of a search page) and you pay only when people click. Sounds simple but if you don’t understand keywords you can be paying for clicks made by people who don’t meet your target market and that’s wasted money. If you pay 10 cents a click and get 100 clicks a day, you’ll be paying $300 a month in Adword advertising. You need to know keywords, your market and how to write an ad that has buyers clicking otherwise its wasted money.

It is possible to make money using Google’s programs. But you aren’t simply going to sign up and type ads. Like any other work-at-home venture, you need to study and understand how it works and how to market. You need to develop a plan and stick to it.

So how do people make money using these programs? Here’s an example I just started. This month I launched a blog/site called BusyMamaWeightLoss.com. In a keyword search I knew that weight loss was a popular search term. Because it’s important to niche and I know moms struggle to find the time and energy to work on weight loss, I focused on the mom target market. The site offers free information about weight loss and is monetized using Adsense (banner at the top of the first post and within the post itself). I use Clickbank affiliate products in the box under “More Resources” and rotate other affiliate offers under “Great Offers. Right now the site is marketed using SEO (search engine optimization), articles, and social networking. Because it’s new, the traffic and income is low. These things take time to build up. Adword advertising could speed things up, but the best keywords are expensive and since the site is free I’m not sure that is the best use of advertising money. One exception is that in the past I have used Adwords not to sell stuff but to help build my email list.

WorkAtHomeSuccess.com is also supported by affiliate programs and paid ads. I used to run Adsense but recently removed it because so many scams and questionnable programs were being offered, which brings up another point. It is important to choose your affiliate partners carefully. I screen all ads and have personally used the affiliate products I offer so I can be sure they are safe and viable work-at-home tools and resources.

Do people make LOTS of money using Google resources and affiliate programs? Some make obscene amounts of money. Most hardly make any at all. The success of such a venture is up to you and how well you understand and implement what’s required. If you think you can just post a site or blog and make money, then you’ll likely fail. But if you take time to research your keywords, set up a good marketing plan, implement and maintain your site, then you can make good even great money.

If you’re interested in learning the details on how to make money using Google Adsense and affiliate programs, there are a couple of resources I can recommend. I have used all of them so I know they are good.

Super Affiliate Handbook – This is a great resource on all the aspects of finding a topic, picking keywords and getting online. Plus it offers tips on using Adwords if you’d like to take a try at that. I bought this eBook several years ago and saw a big increase in my affiliate commissions once I implemented a few of its ideas.

The Niche Blogger – This program was put together by a mom who paid of over $70,000 in debt using blogs and affiliate programs. Many online entrepreneurs, myself including, have starting using blogging platforms (Wordpress) to run their sites because it’s so easy and search engines love them. Niche Blogger is an online course that takes you step-by-step through the entire process of picking a topic, searching for quality keywords, knowing the competition and more. I also like that it uses videos to show you how to set up a Wordpress blog…for the technically challenged, the videos are great! Plus she sets up in a day-by-day fashion so you can pace yourself and not get overwhelmed. Plus there is a forum to ask questions, get feedback, and read about the success of others.

Super Affiliates This is a huge program that also takes you step-by-step through the process of choosing topics and keywords, and getting online. But there is so much more. Almost too much. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much there is… eBooks, videos and more.  What I like most about this program is that each month it offers a “Business in a Box” that includes everything you need to get a site online including the squeeze page, keyword rich articles to use in marketing, PPC ads, autoreponder emails and more. It’s basically all the prep work done for you. You just need to implement.

Affiliate programs and Google Adsense are two of my favorite ways to make money online. But as I said before, there is nothing automatic about it. Like any good business you need to know what you’re doing and do the work. But it can be fun (you can have a site on any topic of your choice) and it’s so flexible that you can do it around any schedule.

What would it mean to your business if you had 1,000 customers sending you MONTHLY payments for your own membership site?

When I hear those kinds of numbers being thrown around on salesletters, I’m always skeptical.  I can’t help it, it just sounds “too good to be true”.

Well, someone has made a believer out of me.  He’s not only broken the 1,000 paying member barrier once … but he’s done it TWICE! (Update:  He’s now done it THREE times!)

And, get this: all three times it took less than two weeks without any “product launch” or “guru partners” lined up to pull this off.

What’s more, he’s prepared a videocast that teaches exactly how he did it … and I’ve got you a FREE pass to watch it with absolutely no strings attached.

** Don’t have a membership site?  Don’t worry!  He’s also gonna show you how to have your own original membership site up and running within 48 hours!

Block off some time for this coming *Thursday* night to join me and Jimmy D. Brown for an “exclusive” presentation.

It’s completely free and you can view it all online with no telephone calls or charges of any kind.

Get all the details Here

During this breakthrough event you’ll discover…

– How to get 1,000 cash-in-hand, paying subscribers for your membership site even if you don’t have “guru” friends to help you with a “product launch”.

– How to setup your own membership site in just 2 days if you don’t already have one of your own.  (His wife, who has absolutely ZERO experience setup one by following this simple plan … he’ll show you how.)

Again, you can grab all of the details and register for this event here
We’re excited about you joining us as Jimmy shares some meaty information with you on Thursday night.

I have used several of Jimmy’s great resources in the past and found them to be very helpful. Like you I’m looking forward to checking out his great new membership resources.

P.S.  Once you register he has a specially prepared PDF for you to download for your videcast “curriculum”.  It’s a fill-in-the-blanks guide to help you make the most of the
videocast.

This week I talk with Amy Bass who paid off her $72,000 debt through niche blogging.



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Or Download here:

You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources provided in the podcast:

The Niche Blogger

My Debt-Free Goal

There are people that are making a living from their blogs. However, its not enough to simply post a blog online and expect the money to start rolling in. Like any other work-at-home option, blogging requires research and planning.  Here are some tips to get you started:

1)      Learn from successful bloggers. Finding a blogging mentor or getting information from people are currently doing what you want to do, is the fastest way to learn what it takes to succeed. It will cut down on your learning time and help to ensure that you don’t make mistakes that will prevent you from making money.

2)      Dedicate time and effort to the process. This is one area that many work-at-home wannabes struggle with. Blogging isn’t a one-time effort and it’s not just about posting articles. It needs to be marketed and tweaked. It needs to be treated like a business or a job in that you have to work on it and monitor it.

3)      Understand that it takes time to make money. While you can earn a few bucks within a short time, the big money won’t come overnight, if it comes at all. The income starts small and builds over time IF you continue to update and market the blog.

TheNicheBlogger by Amy Bass is a blogging course that not only can help you set up and make money from your blog, but it can show you how to make passive income from it as well.

This week I answer listener questions.

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Or Download here:

You can also subscribe through iTunes.

Resources provided in the podcast:

eBay

Here is a guest post on great ways to brand and get the word out about your business!

Whether you’re starting a new company, managing a nonprofit or looking for ways to refresh your image, there are lots of ways to use marketing and branding techniques to improve and update your business. To make sure that you make the most of the resources around you, consider these tips.

1. Define Your Brand.

You only get one chance to make a good first impression. Clearly state who you are, what you do, why someone should buy from you and why you’re different.

2. Develop a Brand Positioning Statement (in two sentences or less).

Create a statement that succinctly describes your products and services as they relate to your clients’ needs. Refreshyour positioning statement as needed.

3. Create a Plan.

Think through the details for getting your products, services and business in front of the right people. Write it down. Refine it over time. This is called a plan.

4. Get Feedback from Customers and Prospects.

How do you find out why your business isn’t where you want it to be? Get out and talk to customers. Talk to prospects. Find out what they need and how you can fill their needs.

5. Reinforce Your Message.

It takes at least three impressions for someone to remember your products and services. Get the word out about what you do over and over again using a variety of media types.

6. Deliver Benefits Which Customers Really Desire and Value.

How does a customer know whether or not your offering can fix a problem that they don’t even know they have? Describe benefits: how your product or service uniquely satisfies a need, fills a void, provides a solution or identifies a problem.

7. If It’s Broken, Fix It.

Find ways to constantly improve your business. If something isn’t working, be prepared to change it.

8. Identify What Your Brand Means to Customers.

Loyal customers are your greatest asset. Find out just how loyal your customers are by asking them to tell you exactly what makes your offerings valuable to them.

9. Audit and Track Your Success.

Use the services of a colleague or a research firm to perform quarterly or semiannual audits to see how satisfied your clients are or are not. Take action on the information that you get from these audits.

10. Match Your Pricing to the Value That Your Clients Get from Your Offerings.

Test different price points for your products and services. Research the price points and pricing models from competitors in your field. Value is in the eye of the beholder.

11. Organize Your Products and Services in a Logical Way.

Consider your offerings as a system of products and services that work together. Be sure that they are clearly named, priced and marketed so that clients can make an informed and clear buying decision among, and between, your offerings.

12. Spend as Much Time as You Can Getting to Know Your Customers.

Write down a detailed description of your ideal client. Once you’ve found them, take the time to understand their needs, issues and buying patterns.

13. Include Your Product and Company Name on Everything.

Reinforce your image and brand by putting it on everything from email signatures to note cards, websites, direct mail pieces, marketing materials and voicemail messages.

14. Tell a Story About Your Product or Service.

Everyone loves a good story. Write an account of a how a client found you, a problem that you solved for them, or the successes that they’ve experienced with your products or services.

15. Tell Your Clients’ Stories Using Their Words.

Testimonials and reference letters are effective ways for your clients to sing your praises. Develop a collection of “client stories” that you can access at a moment’s notice.

16. Push for Quality.

Strive to delight your clients by exceeding their expectations and meeting your promise for results.

17. Speak to Your Clients in a Language They Can Understand.

The style, tone and content of all communications to your clients should be easy for them to understand. Avoid acronyms and technical terms unless widely understood by your audience.

18. Get Out to the Marketplace – No Matter What.

Whether or not your business takes you beyond hyperspace, get out and talk to other business owners. Get involved in industry associations. Attend conferences and other educational events.

19. Establish Solid Business Processes.

Document and update the basic series of actions that describe how you run your business. Include steps for taking orders, answering customer inquiries, post sales interactions with customers and other aspects of operating your business.

20. Stay Relevant.

Business people often “reinvent” themselves. Keep up to date on issues and developments in your industry that may affect how (and what and for how much) you sell your products and services. Be on the lookout for opportunities to meet client needs in a new and different way.

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BLUE SAGE Consulting, Inc. is a SOMWBA-certified business consulting firm, established in 1997 to work with companies to successfully market and sell their products and their services. Check out our business tips and trends at www.bluesageconsulting.com or call us at 508-497-9999.

The NicheDemon Niche Marketing System

The NicheDemon Niche Marketing System describes itself as the “stripped down, no-nonsense, step by step version of niche marketing at it’s best” and its pretty accurate.  While there are lots and lots of resources teaching you how to make a living on the Internet, many get complicated and teach potentially costly methods (ie PPC marketing) that are usually better utilized later when there is a better understanding of keywords and copywriting. The Niche Demon Niche Marketing System essentially eliminates all the “noise” that comes with many other Internet marketing resources, offer just the very basics to get started.

The NicheDemon Niche Marketing System goes through all the basics of identifying a niche, choosing keywords, determining if there is a market, assessing the competition, and finding products. It takes you step-by-step in getting online including choosing a web host, buying a domain name and installing Word Press, tasks that can be overwhelming to the newbie.

One of the best features is the five day traffic building tips that give you specific marketing tasks, most of which are free or low cost, to start making money from your niche site asap. It then offers more advance tips once you’ve mastered the basics. It also provides warning on what not to do.

The Niche Demon Niche Marketing System is a good beginner resource. Its designed for the person who  knows nothing about affiliate marketing, setting up a website, or making money online. It’s straight forward and very easy to read.  If you follow the steps, you should have a good start to a money-making niche website.

The Niche Demon Niche Marketing System is a new product by Suzanne Welsh who is offering a significant discount as an introductory offer. The system is regularly $47 but through the NicheDemon Special offer its only $27.