1000 Home Business Ideas

Personalized Letter Writing Business

2011-05-27T16:57:00.000-04:00

Home Based Personalized Letter Writing Business Overview

If you have children, then you’ve probably heard about personalized letters from Santa. But did you consider that this is a real, profitable business. And did you also realize that with a little creativitiy and imagination you could create a year-round home based personalized letter writing business that offers more than just letters from Santa during Christmas time?

In the spring you could offer personalized letters from the Easter Bunny. Now the Easter Bunny's been pretty quiet up until now, but thanks to the letter writing business, you can help bring him into the limelight and give him a voice.

Can you imagine how excited a child will be when they get a letter from the Easter Bunny? Kids love Easter! The candy, colored eggs, Easter egg hunts - most kids are very familiar with the Easter Bunny who secretly drops off their Easter Basket each year.

However you can create any type of letters for spring; they don’t have to be just from the Easter Bunny. You can pick any type of characters you want that you think kids are going to want to get a letter from. Getting a letter from the Tooth Fairy, congratulating a child on getting their "big" teeth would be fun for a child.

How do you think a child would feel when she recieves a letter from her favorite TV character or hero? Why not offer letters from Dora The Explorer, Batman or Spiderman, or how about a letter from Optimus Prime (transformer)? I don't have any young children any more, so I'm not sure who they're watching these days, but with some imagination and perhaps a little research, I'm sure you can come up with lots of ideas.

Getting Started

Starting your home based personalized letter writing business will cost you very little. You already have a computer, and probably a printer. You can purchase specialty paper and envelopes from your local stationary or office supply store, or even online. Then all you need to do is promote your new business.

Promotional Ideas

Daycares

Selling these letters can be a lot of fun. Visit your local daycare centers and see if you can send home a flyer with the kids. To help them to decide that this is a great idea, you can tell them the daycare will get $1 for each letter sold.

This is also a great way to advertise your business. A few children get letters from the Easter Bunny and of course they’re going to want to bring those letters to daycare to show all their friends. Those friends will go home and say how wonderful this was and how much they wish they had received a letter. You get the picture?

Hospitals

Is there a children’s hospital in your local area? One idea would be to start an Easter letter program where people pay for a letter to be donated to a child in the hospital. Hospital stays can be very long. Just imagine how nice it would be for hospitalized children to get a letter like this? Not only will the child feel good, but the person who donated a letter is going to feel very good too.

A great way to promote this idea would be to send out press releases to your local newspaper and TV news stations. You might even think about contacting your local talk radio shows about doing a show on this idea.

Churches

Some Churches publish a monthly newsletter. Advertising your Easter Letter to kids and adults would be a wonderful idea. Here you could offer Easter Bunny, Angel letters, or a general Easter Religious letter. This might even be something that could be put in the weekly bulletin.

A Fun And Rewarding Business

Making money with personalized Letters can really be a lot of fun and very rewarding too. It’s a great feeling when that first parent calls you to tell you how happy their son or daughter is because of the special letter they received in the mail. Christmas and Easter are just two of the holidays you can use to promote your letters. Halloween has pumpkins and witches. Letters from the tooth fairy, or a general letter to say “Hey, good job being helpful around the house and being nice to your sister,” are also great letter ideas for this business.

If you market your letters all year, when Christmas comes around you'll have a list of people who have already purchased from you. Then, when they want to buy that Santa letter, who else would they think of buying it from but you?

Additional Resources
Paper Direct

XXX

Well, there you go... today's home business idea. A home based personalized letter writing business would be so much fun to start and run... and isn't that one of the main goals of a home business: to have fun.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

4 Strategies To Help You Build Momentum For Your Home Business

2011-05-26T14:28:00.000-04:00

Be honest with yourself. Are you one of those people that believe that you just don’t have the time to get your home business up and running? You’re not alone. Many people I talk to claim they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. They wind up defeating themselves and their business looses momentum and suffers. Full time jobs, family obligations, maintaining health and too many other distractions are the main reasons for not building momentum for their business.

You can wind up feeling that your life is spent catering to every one else’s obligations. However, I have some good news! You can find and maximize time to build momentum for your home business. All you need is to find time and commit to using that time for your home business only.

Try the following strategies to make your home based business flourish:

Document Your Daily Routine

The first thing you will need to do find a quiet place and write down your schedule. Document the start and end time on events like getting ready for work, driving your kids to school, your commute to your day job, gym time and any other weekly commitments you have. Don’t forget to include weekends and family time (this is most important).

After completing this exercise you should have a good visual of what your work week looks like. You should see openings in your week.

Set Achieveable Goals

Make your goal easy. Try to find two hours you can commit to spending on your business. You should be able to re-prioritize some time. Before you decide whether a single goal fits into your goals program, you should work that goal through a process that can help determine whether you should be pursuing this goal at the current time. This can take considerable time but it can save you much time and frustration by eliminating goals that are not for you at this time and helping to identify what you need to focus on now.

1. Target in on your goal: Your goal must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Remember:

Some goals must be big and some goals must be long-range.

Significant goals must be broken down into smaller parts to ensure daily accountability. For example, if you want to lose 50 pounds this year, you can break that down to a goal of 4 pounds a month or 1 pound a week and then figure out how many calories you need to cut out or burn off to achieve that weekly weight loss.

2. Identify how you benefit from the goal: People often fail to reach their goals because they concentrate on the costs rather than the benefits. “If I lose the weight,” they reason, “I’ll have to give up this and do that.” Or “If I quit smoking, I know that I’ll gain weight and be miserable and difficult to get along with.”

Instead of concentrating on the negatives, think of the benefits that you’re going to enjoy. As you set goals, make a list of the tangible rewards that will be yours when you reach each goal. Each time you begin to ask yourself whether pursuing a goal is worth the effort, simply take out the list of benefits and read them aloud again.

3. List the obstacles that stand between you and your goal: You need to identify obstacles in order to be realistic and avoid being surprised. People have experienced many times that they had no idea that pursuing such-and-such a goal was going to be so demanding, require so much effort, take so long, and involve so many unexpected pitfalls. Careful planning in advance eliminates much of this disappointment, but you must understand that you can’t always see the roadblocks ahead. That’s why commitment, attitude, responsibility, and focus on the benefits remain constant necessities. Patience is also extremely important. Just remember that by keeping yourself focused on the goal, you can see the benefits and not just the obstacles.

Stay with the Schedule You Created and Re-Evaluate

The next thing you need to do is stick with your schedule. This can be tough because you are creating a new habit. Once you get the hang of your new routine, you should always re-evaluate your schedule. You may be able to find more time to spend on your home business.

Sticking with your schedule means you need to discipline yourself to work. This means that you have to find a way after work, after little league games, after dinner and after putting the kids to bed.

Don’t Forget Your Family.

Spending time with my family is always a top priority for most of us. I find that using the evening hours is best for me to spend on my home business. It seems to be the most quite part of the day. If you have to use your family time to spend on your business, make sure you communicate with your family so they have an expectation of what you are doing. However, I would recommend that you set a time limit so you can spend that time you want with your family. This will provide balance for you.

Embrace Distractions

As we all know life often throws us off schedule. Try your best to embrace that fact instead of fighting it. If your child stays up late, focus on helping your child quiet down and go to sleep. Try not to focus on what you could be doing. Don’t worry. The work will still be there when you are ready. If you have to stay late at your day job, then choose to work late. Usually, you’ll find that it is better just to focus on one thing at a time. You’ll be more efficient and effective.

Having a clear and guilt free mind while working on your business is most productive. To handle new ideas that can distract you while you are working, keep an MP3 Recorder handy so if an idea comes up you can record it or write down the idea in a notebook. You can always prioritize those thoughts at a later time. You will also find that you are using less energy dealing with distractions instead of fighting them.

So there is good news when it comes to finding time to work on your own business. Don’t despair and don’t get frustrated. Just remember that you have total control of your time and you alone can change your habits to build your business's momentum.

XXX

That's it for today. I hope this article was helpful to you in your efforts to build a successful home business.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Jumbo Cookie Business

2011-05-25T13:32:00.000-04:00

Home Based Jumbo Cookie Business Overview

People love novelty and personalization... and everyone loves cookies. Combining these elements in a home based jumbo cookie business makes for a winning combination. If you love baking, are creative and have a flair for fun and decoration, owning a jumbo cookie business will be an enjoyable as well as profitable experience.

Everyone uses cakes as a celebratory food... we know this. However, there are so many that want to do something different. You can give these adventerous individuals an alternative to the same old thing. Instead of a birthday cake, you can offer jumbo birthday cookies. Instead of a cake for Mom's day, create a special jumbo cookie just for her. And... there are so many more choices for flavors, decorations and even sizes.

In fact, you can create jumbo cookies the size of cakes, even with layers. How about a chocolate cream filled double chocolate chip cookie. Or you can design a cookie the size of a pizza! Decorate it like a pizza, and box it like a pizza... but it's sooo much sweeter, and inarguably much more fun.

And don't forget that you can (and should) offer personalization and customization.

The more special attention and customization that you put into your work, the faster your reputation and business will grow. After only a few events you'll be known for the quality of your cookies, as well as their spectacular designs, flavours and uniquness. These cookies will always serve as a focal point of the party or event your clients' put together so you can quickly create client lists with little effort, as long as your finished product has been created with the utmost care and with your clients' needs and desires in mind.

Start-Up Costs

The cost of starting your own home based jumbo cookie business is a lot less than you might think, especially when compared to more traditional brick and mortar businesses. Since you're starting your business from your home you can save on overhead costs, such as rental space, larger equipment and of course, staff.

To start your business from home you will just need the essentials including basic equipment, baking supplies and of course elbow room! You should also designate an area that you use for your baking supplies.

Most people who are considering a home based business of this kind generally have most of what they need, so, again, the initial start-up cost should be low.

Getting Started

First and foremost, you'll need to have access to a lot of cookie recipes. If you don't have a good collection, you can find many, many good recipes online.

Next, you'll need to let the world know about your new business venture. I'd suggest offering your services at a discounted rate for the first little while, just so people get to know you and your cookies. I'd even provide cookies for local events, friends and neighbours free of charge. Just to get your business and products known.

Tools Of The Trade

If you bake regularly you probably already have most of the baking tools you're going to need in your kitchen already. However, if you don’t, rest assured that most of the baking supplies are relatively inexpensive, and some of them can be purchased at a later date whenever you receive a custom order that requires them since otherwise they aren’t used that often.

Here are the tools that you'll probably need in you home based jumbo cookie business:

1) The Obvious One, An Oven!

A regular oven is just fine, however, it should be a full-sized one since you're going to be baking jumbo cookies.

2) A Hands-Free Electric Mixer

A heavy-duty mixer is a must. This will quickly become your new best friend. It’s an essential piece of equipment for any baking, but especially for making cookies. Some cookie dough can get pretty hard to mix by hand or with a hand-held mixer (depending on the mixer of course).

3) Cake Turntable

Sturdy turntables are a necessity. Why? Because a cake turntable will make decorating and icing your cookies so much easier. There are several styles and designs available.

4) Cookie Sheets And Baking Pans

You can use your standard cookie sheets to make your jumbo cookies, but if you want your creations to be standard sizes, or if you're making a cream-filled type cookie, you'll want both the top and bottom cookie to be uniform and the same size. You can achieve this more easily by using either cake pans or pizza pans. As you add equipment buy the best quality pans you can afford. You're going to be using them a lot.

Buying good pans does make a difference. Don't buy the bargain versions if you plan on using them for a long time. Multiple sets of the sizes of cookies you'll be offering will allow you to bake in a shorter amount of time. One 12” pan must cool after baking before you can wash it, refill it and bake again. Your time is valuable. Two or more sets will allow you to use your time to a better advantage.

As your business grows you will probably want to even add more sets. You should have 4 sets of the round size pans that include sizes in 1-inch increments from 5 to 18 inch pans. Larger shapes are available but you must make sure that your oven will accommodate those sizes.

Versatile Shaped Pans - The ball, petite doll pan, horseshoe, and others can be used for many things. The ball pan can be used for all kinds of balls, soccer, basketball, baseballs, and etc. This little pan is very versatile.

5) Cooling Racks

Large heavy duty cooling racks are a necessity.

6) Angled spatula - For applying and smoothing icing.

7) Piping (or pastry) bags – For creating borders and other decorations.

8) Couviers - For changing tips easily.

9) Tips - Basic tips include those used for lettering and creating flower petals, leaves, and borders. Purchase others as needed.

10) Cookie Cutters

Although it's very unlikely you'll find cookie cutters in the sizes you'll need, you can use them to create shapes to add to your cookies, or combine shapes to make a large cookie, or a number of other possibilities. Use your imagination and I'm sure you'll come up with lots of ideas.

10) Digital Camera

A really good camera. Learn to take really good close up pictures of your cookies. When you're trying to establish yourself in your community these pictures will show your customers just what you can do.

Legal Requirements

Because your jumbo cookie business is food related, it's goverend by several governemental agencies and restrictions. However, don't let that deter you. You can apply (where necessary) for licensing and approval, or find alternative facilities.

The following is a list of things that may be required for your business.

City - Provincial/State License

Fed ID No for Tax record purposes and buying from the wholesalers.

Health Dept. Fee - City and Provincial/State

Physical House Requirements MAY include:

3 compartment sink with a grease trap installed
Hand sink and mop sink ( 2 separate sinks)
Lights covered (They make clear plastic tubes that cover the fluorescent bulbs)
Washable surfaces - walls, floors, cabinets, counter tops
Ceiling must be of non-absorbent material
Separate refrigerator, freezer, oven (with thermometers)
Separate Entrance
Storage for Equipment - pans, spatulas, bowls, etc.
No pets in work area
Approved Water source
All Ingredient containers must have covers and be labelled with contents and dated in refrigerators, freezers and cabinets
Heating and air conditioning may need to be separate from the house system

If your cookie baking area is to be a separate building from your house you'll probably be required to have a small rest room installed.

Helpful Tips

Once you've taken care of any legal issues, you can begin focusing on building your business. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Purchase wholesale sugar, flour (eggs if possible) chocolate chips, sprinkles, canides, and other decorations as well as packaging from a supplier such as Candy Plus or Sugar Craft. Buying wholesale will enable you to make greater profits.

2. Offer customers innovative flavoured of cookies by mixing in concentrated flavoring, from a brand such as LorAnn. Flavor combinations you can offer might include dark chocolate and orange, milk chocolate and strawberry, white chocolate and coconut, dark chocolate and raspberry and milk chocolate with coffee flavoring.

Just to name a few. Try to come up with a few "signature" cookies that can only come from you. I have my own shortbread cookie recipe that I've never shared with anyone. Every holiday season I get all kinds of requests for these cookies. If you have such a recipe, it'll give you an advantage.

3. Secure local venues to sell your jumbo cookies, such as farmers' markets, a mall kiosk, city fairs and festivals, flea markets or craft fairs. If you're selling online, set up an ecommerce site such as Foodzie or Etsy, or start your own jumbo cookie blog.

4. Ship internet purchases with cold packs, via two-day or overnight delivery. Some kinds of cookies can easily melt or spoil any time of year, but especially in the warmer months.

5. Consider offering seasonal cookies in shapes that coordinate with specific holidays, such as Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas.

6. Develop different types of products aside from the standard jumbo cookie to bring in extra revenue year-round, such as jumbo cookie baskets, cookie gift jars, or go in the opposite direction and offer miniature wedding-favor cookie tins (decorative tin containers) etc.

Wrapping Things Up

After spending so much time creating your jumbo cookies, you'll have to package them. Here's where you can exercise your creativity as well. Visit your local craft supply store and check out all the different kinds of papers, plastics, ribbons, decorations, and who knows what else, you can use to package your cookies in. You could buy paper doilies to make wrappers for the cookies, or perhaps you might find small (affordable) decorative baskets or fancy boxes. The point is, once you start looking around, you never know what kind of great ideas you come up with.

XXX

Don't forget, whether you're going to start a home based jumbo cookie business, or any other kind of home business, have fun and enjoy yourself.

Until Tomorrow,

Terry

Niche Marketing Business

2011-05-24T14:38:00.000-04:00

Online Niche Marketing Business Overview

According to Wikipdia, the free encyclopedia, a niche market is a focused, targetable portion (subset) of a market sector. Using this definition, niche marketing is the process of finding and serving market segments that are too small for big companies to serve them profitably. Every introductory level business class will teach you that market specialization is the key to distinguishing your business from the competition.

Niche marketing at its best helps to solve real problems that real people live with everyday. If you can come up with a product or service to promote in a niche market that will help people solve their problems then you will have a money making niche market website and can quickly build a long list of potential customers.

Getting Started

One person with a computer, an internet connection and a good idea can go into business for herself on the net and target the people who would be most interested in what she has to sell and do so on a very limited advertising budget. This is the beauty of niche marketing.

Finding the right niche for what you have to sell isn’t really all that difficult. Just think about whom the people are who would be most interested in what you have to sell. For example, if you have concocted a shampoo formula that will take chlorine out of a person’s hair, you can’t compete with giant companies that sell shampoo but you can narrow your market down to a niche and target sales to those who have swimming pools. You buy a domain, get a server, and build a website to advertise your product JUST to people who have swimming pools.

In essence, niche marketing is selling a product or service to those who want or need the product the most.

If you don't already have a product or service to offer, you'll first and foremost find one. The most profitable products are information products, and as I already mentioned, products that offer solutions, solve problems and generally make life easier, better, happier and more enjoyable.

Discovering Problems To Solve And Markets To Serve

Hang Out At Forums

A good way to find out what people consider a problem is to visit the online forums. People talk about anything and everything online. They discuss subjects that they wouldn’t talk about with their best friends for the simple reason that they can remain anonymous. They look for solutions online for the very same reason. By visiting forums and taking note of what people are most concerned about you can search the internet for products and services that will help them solve those problems. Gather the information about the topic. Write or have written for you articles, reports or ebooks about the topic. In this way you can find a topic and build a niche marketing business that helps with the problem you have identified and that will serve the needs of people.

An additional way to use forums to help you build your niche marketing business is to join a forum, identify the problem being most often discussed, post a question that will produce many responses and use those responses to write an informational product on the topic. The fact is that many people will buy an ebook or report that's filled with information they could actually gather for themselves. They'll also purchase ebooks that will tell them what other people with the same problem they have think about or are doing about their common problem.

Visit Bookshops

The day may come when people do all of their researching and reading online but it isn’t here yet. People buy 'how-to' books and books that are devoted to solving their problems and/or making their lives better every day. By identifying the hot market books that are being sold in bookshops (online and off) you can identify a hot niche marketing topic.

Go to the bookshops in your area and take note of the kinds of non-fiction books that are stocked. You should particularly note the ones that are self-help or how-to books. If you can, ask the stock boy which ones are selling the best. He’s the one who knows what is being restocked most often. That failing, ask a floor salesperson the same question. Asking the bookstore owner or manager is the last option. They're more likely to be pushing the books that aren’t selling well in order to make a sale. Learn by whatever means you can which self-help or how-to books are the hottest sellers.

Another option is the online bookstores. You can’t, of course, ask for information from a person but you can research the site and determine which of the nonfiction self-help or how-to books are highest in sales.

Finding out what books people are most often buying can give you some insight into what the hot market subjects are. Armed with this information, you can go about creating a niche marketing website that will have a better chance of becoming successful.

Magazines

You don't have to spend a lot of time with this, but just check out what types of magazines are most popular. You can do this while you're at the bookstore, or do it online. Just visit sites like Magazines.com and see what they're offering. If there's a magazine on the subject you're considering, chances are there's a niche market to go along with it.

Defining A Profitable Niche Online

Deciding on what product or service you will promote in a niche market should be based on a simple principle.

There should be a demand for your product or service. You want to offer something that people actually need, something that will make their lives better, make them feel better physically, make them look better, or help them solve a problem. And, one that's going to turn a profit for you.

Once you've chosen a product or service to market, researching to find the right niche for your product or service is the next most important part of beginning a niche marketing program. The things that you need to know are where they spend their time online, and what makes them tick from a personal and business point of view. There is niche marketing software out there that can help you learn these things about your potential niche market.

The most important and difficult task to do when starting niche marketing is doing site research. As with any business it's much easier to start with something that you're interested in and excited about. Since this is an internet home business, and most traffic (85%) to the websites will be determined by the big three search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN, it's a good place to start your research from. This research should focus on the following three aspects:

High demand: Using tools like Inventory Overture you'll be able to find out whether the product you have in mind is wanted. Type in your niche market term describing your product and you'll see how many searches for this term and other related terms were done in the past month. The number of searches per month will depend on the niche market, but in general look for terms that are lower than 20,000 a month.

Low supply: Take the selected terms and type in these terms in the search engines. The results will give you an estimation of how much competition there is or how many sites are available on the internet for these niche marketing terms. Ideally there should be a good balance between the number of searches and results a month. As a rule, you should look for terms that have less than 1,000,000 searches per month for Google, 400,000 for Yahoo and 250,000 for MSN. Based on the balance between demand and supply you could reduce the number of terms and narrow down your market niche.

Profitability potential: Once you have the reduced list of niche market terms, you also need to know much advertisers would like to pay for each term. Use for example Google Adwords, and select for the last time based on the results terms with the highest pay per click.

With these definitive niche market terms in mind, you can optimize your website for two or three of terms, by adding relevant content to your site, concentrating around these terms. Because the chosen terms (and related product) have been selected based on three criteria which are typical for a niche market and your research conducted with the three big search engines, you have already all the conditions to be successful with you niche marketing business.

How to Make Money from Your Niche Marketing Business

Niche Marketing with Content Sites

Starting any online business will consist of a few basic steps to get a website up and running. The tasks involved may look a bit daunting in the beginning but the initial steps are really pretty simple. In order to set up a website for any purpose you must:

1. Buy a domain. You'll need to go to a site like GoDaddy and purchase and register a domain name. Since there can't be two names the same, you must choose something that's original. These sites have a place for you to type in your choices and find out what is available. The cost is under $10 per year for a domain name.

2. You'll need to get a host for your website. There are thousands of companies on the internet that provide web hosting services. In general terms there are three types of servers. There are shared host servers, dedicated servers and your own servers. You must do some research and find the one that is right for you.

I personally use both GoDaddy and JustHost.

3. You'll have to build (or hire someone to build) the web pages that will make up your web site. In earlier times you had to know HTML code and how to use it to build a website but that’s no longer the case. You can find WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) programs that you can use to build your website without needing to know anything about HTML.

Niche Marketing With Content Sites

The above are just the basic steps to setting up a website for any purpose. Now here’s the part about setting up a content rich niche marketing website.

The first thing to do is to narrow your topic down as far as you can take it. The more narrow the topic, the better your chances are for succeeding. What is meant by narrowing down your topic is this: dogs – small dogs – Poodles – Toy Poodles – Tiny Toy Poodles – Caring for a Tiny Toy Poodle. By making the topic of your website as narrow as possible you will have an audience (potential customers) who are most interested in what you are offering.

Many websites consist of only 1 or 2 web pages. A content rich website will consist of many many pages. The key word here is ‘content’. The content must be directly related to the topic of your website. It must be timely and relevant. If your website is about ‘Caring for Tiny Toy Poodles’ there shouldn’t be any content about anything else.

The content must be organized in such a way that no page is more than three clicks away from the main page.

The information needs to be categorized. Staying with the ‘Caring for Tiny Toy Poodles’ theme, the information can be categorized into sections such as; Feeding, Special Needs, Grooming, Pedigrees, Training, etc. Content can consist of written information like articles or ebooks or it can consist of audio or video products.

The products that you advertise or recommend on your content rich niche marketing website should always be directly related to the topic of your website.

Finally, a content rich niche marketing website should supply a message board or blog as a service to their customers. Customers like to be involved in a website they believe in and buy from. They want an opportunity to share their knowledge and exchange information with others.

Niche Marketing In The Info Product Business

Informational niche marketing websites are the easiest and least risky way for aspiring entrepreneur to build a business without fear of being dwarfed by big business and giant corporations. And the internet has given those with the ability to produce an informational product a big edge. They can find what the giants are too big to care about and make a great living online.

Here are the steps needed to establish an informational niche market website on the Internet:

1. The first thing to do is to choose a topic, a subject that your product will be concerned with. The trick here is to get the topic narrowed down as far as it will go. Go from the general topic of dogs down to small dogs down to poodles down to toy poodles, right down to how to groom a toy poodle, for example. The more specific the topic, the better it will perform.

Choose a topic that will help people solve a problem, make their lives better, and make them look better or feel better or give them specialized information that they need. Choose several narrow topics, though it's not necessary, choose ones you're interested in yourself if possible.

2. Research the market available for the topics you have chosen. Some of these methods were already discussed.

Ask questions. Visit websites with topics that are similar to the topics you have chosen. Read articles. Learn everything you can before beginning the construction of your informational product.

3. Once you're satisfied with your topic, have completed the research and determined that there is a viable market for your idea, the next step is to choose a domain name and buy it (discussed above). Choosing a name is usually done by the process of elimination. Make a list of acceptable domain names that describe the topic of your website. Start with the one with the least number of letters (less than 20 is best).

4. The next step is to get a host for your website. (Discussed above)

5. Other than your own informational product you need to choose related content for your website. There are many places on the internet to find content for a website dedicated to almost every topic under the sun. Some content is free for the taking…some must be bought. You can write or record (audio or video) your own website content. You can have content written by others. Content is the backbone of your website and this isn’t the place to cut corners. All content needs to be relevant to your topic. It's best that it be original, as well.

6. Find and sign up for affiliate programs for products and services that are related to the theme of your informational product.

7. Build your website. (Discussed above)

8. Advertise your informational product. There are many ways to do that but the most common way is by using Google Adwords to get started. However, if you're limited to a very, very slim advertising budget, try using article marketing. Write and submit articles relating to your topic to the article directories such as EzineArticles or Go Articles.

Why Niche Marketing Is The Way To Go

Niche marketing is the last great frontier for the small business entrepreneur. Out there in the ‘real’ world, small businesses don’t have a half fair chance of competing against the giant international corporations of the world.

The internet has somewhat evened the playing field for small business. The net has created an almost equal opportunity for those who are willing to use it. There are several different ways to make use of niche marketing and succeed. All of the ways require getting a domain and a webhost, building web pages and adding content.

Those are just the basic basics of internet marketing in any form. Then there are the choices of how to go about building a successful niche marketing site that will provide you with a profit.

Quick Income Overview

1. You can create an informational product. An informational product can be articles, reports, and columns, audio or video, or other things. These can be sold as stand-alone products or used for advertising or promotional
efforts.

2. You can build a content rich web site that will be so interesting it will draw potential customers again and again.

3. You can publish newsletters and ezines that are so full of pertinent information that people will happily pay for subscriptions to them.

All of the above listed ways can be used to create a home based niche marketing business that has the capacity to make money. There are two things that all of these methods have in common.

1. The topic must be one that helps people solve a problem, makes them healthier or happier, or provides them with information that they want or need in some way.

2. The content of the website, no matter the topic, must be relevant, timely and interesting to the people who are reading it and the website must be easily navigated.

Additional Resources

Ebook - Niche Expert
Ebook - Niche Super Sleuth
Templates - 50 New Niche Starter Templates

XXX

Okay ladies and gents, that's today's home based business idea/overview. I hope it gave you some ideas. And don't forget, whatever business you choose, have fun with it.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Information Research Business

2011-05-23T12:45:00.000-04:00

Information Research Business Overview

If you are looking for an interesting and challenging home based business, an information researcher business might be just up your alley. If you have a way of searching the internet and finding information that most people cannot find, this type of work would be just perfect for you. Many companies and private clients are looking for people with good researching skills to do many types of researching.

The typical researcher looks up information for clients according to their individual specifications. This may include genealogy research. This type of research requires the knowledge of using some of the genealogy sites on the Internet and researching public records in your city or surrounding community. This type of research work is fascinating and can pay very well for the correct information.

Another type of research work needed by companies is deed searching. This job requires a laptop computer and transportation to the local courthouse. Deed researchers look up information about deed holders according to specifications given by the research company or client. Because many public records are not available online, you may have to be located in a specific area to offer this type of research service. You can make good money doing this type of work if you can type fast and have a laptop that you can take with you.

Companies looking for websites similar to their own sites need researchers. They have positions for finding relevant sites that and collecting information about the websites. This might include email addresses for the owner, page ranks and type of content that the website displays. There are many of these positions offered every day and you can make money supplying this information. Most companies prefer documentation with Microsoft Excel.

Why Would Someone Hire You?

Why do people pay for researchers when they could easily do this type of work themselves? Most companies or private clients do not have the time they need to do their own research. Some also have no idea how to start looking for specific information. They prefer to outsource the work and have it done correctly. This is why home research assistants are in such high demand.

As for the genealogy researchers, many companies that do family history researchers need to outsource the work that they have because they have so much work and cannot do all the research themselves. They do some of the research, but they rely on outsourcing to collect the information and have their staff compile all the information into a readable family history. You may be asked to search census records, marriage records, newspaper clippings and even obituaries to find relevant information. Once you have the information, the company uses this information to trace someone's family as far back as specified.

The nice thing about becoming a home based researcher is that you can work on your own schedule and anywhere you have an Internet connection. A typical day for a research assistant is spending all day on the Internet looking through many of the genealogy websites online. This is a very fascinating job with better than average pay. You could make more money in one day if you have the ability to search such sites as Ancestry.com and other such sites.

Realtors that look for homes on the internet that have been recently listed, use researchers. This type of researcher scours the real estate pages looking for new homes for sale in areas specified by the client. These positions pay nicely for every listing found and documented.

This type of business takes some time to do, but does not need a quiet place to work or a stationary desk. You can work anywhere you can connect to the net. If you spend a lot of time surfing the web, like learning and uncovering new information, a home reasercher business would be a great idea for you.

XXX

That's today's home business idea. Hope it gave you some inspiration and ideas.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Koi Breeding Business

2011-05-14T14:55:00.000-04:00

Koi Breeding Business Overview

Breeding Koi can be both fun and worthwhile especially when money is involved. Who doesn’t love extra cash, right? With a lot of time, money, patience and dedication, you could very well be on your way to creating your own personal gold mine. There are some critical steps involved in breeding Koi, and for the average person it may be a turn-off, but for someone who understands the full financial gain, this is only a small sacrifice to score the “big win”.

It would be ideal to keep in mind the saying that, “Nothing happens overnight”. This is so true. Like with most things, breeding Koi is going to take real time and real dedication. This is definitely not one of those projects you want to jump into headfirst, not if you still want your head at the end anyway. Set realistic goals, so at the end, whether the result be good or bad, you are not left totally disappointed.

Money, money, money and plenty of it. The goal here is to make money, but when starting a business venture, a lot of times you have to put out a substantial amount of money in order to get a huge return later and this also applies to breeding Koi. Koi, unlike the usual fish we hear about are very expensive to breed. You want to ask yourself questions like: Can I really afford to breed Koi?, If so, how many?, What colors will I breed, What do I want them to look like, About how big will I want them to get, and if you don’t already have a Koi pond or don’t feel the one you have is big enough then another question may be “Where will I store them?” If you can answer these questions, then very soon you will be in business. Be well prepared financially to bank roll this idea because between purchasing the mating Koi, Koi’s food and equipment, you very well may be on the road to shutting down your business before it ever gets off the ground.

Do research. You probably didn’t get up one morning and decide you want to breed Koi. There are plenty of other people who are breeding Koi or will do so in the future, so read about breeding Koi from others like yourself who are either already doing it, or may know someone who has done it; this will prevent some major mistakes on your part and save some of that money that breeding is supposed to bring in for you. Practice and studying does make perfect. You might even want to frequent Koi breeding forums on the internet. As computer savvy as you are, I am sure you will find everything you are looking for right on the internet.

Technical Koi Information

Let us get technical about breeding koi! Koi was first identified in Japan, to be a multi colored fish in the carp ethnicity. Its special or most dominant feature is in its outer skins vibrant colored spots that give impression of decorated fish. And the name Koi stands for friendship in Japan and may be it is the reason for most of Japanese people to cultivate koi around their household. In Japan koi stands for friendship and love!

With dates back to eighteenth century, koi breeding got the popularity in Japan. Later this fish was spread thru out the world and except the Polar Regions, koi fishes are every where. This fish is adored by all the civilizations around the world. Their huge growth rates have worked as a boon for any koi breeder, economically and socially. The huge growth potential from single parenting koi fish is something a trend that took away the world in the beginning of last century. Even, there are records that too much koi fishes have vastly affected major water ways in different countries. There growth rate holds the economic prospect for any breeder.

Though the breeding started when some ancient farmers noticed the stunning colors in their rice fields, now they are more or less staying in the ponds or tanks. Those farmers took few of them, got some taste and start to think about cultivating them. They have later identified ways to manipulate the colors on these koi fishes. Especially the Kohaku, Sanke, Showa, Tancho, Asagi, Shushi, Bekko, Goshiki, Ogon, Koromo, Butterfly Koi and Ghost Koi are greatly praised round the globe. Their coloring, patterns, scaling are different and distinguishable to each other.

The reproduction process of koi fish is similar to that of other fishes. The female koi fish hatches numerous numbers of eggs, and then it becomes the duty of male koi fish to fertilize them. The female koi fish lays eggs in numbers of hundred thousands. So it is a crowd going to fill any pond likely in few months time. Baby koi fishes are referred as fry. When these hatched eggs are cultivated, fertilized and nurtured, hundred and thousands of fries fill the pond or incubating tanks. This is the reason why some water ways got blocked for koi fish. Think of a two generation cycles from single parenting koi fish.

You get a minimum of hundred thousand koi fishes in few months. Then these hundred thousands fishes will lay eggs reaching their maturity to hundred thousand times to their number. Could you figure out the number? I could not. What I can say, a pond filled with fishes instead of water! This spiraling and spawning of koi fish holds the economic prospect of the koi breeder.

It is only the aqua culturist or koi fish breeder specialist can perfectly nurture the fries. And they need to have patience to do this type tedious job. They can understand which parenting fish to use, how to nurture the fries to get desired colored koi. The main technical aspect of koi breeding depends on the reducing defection rate. Most of the laid eggs do not produce healthy and sound offspring. It is the breeders’ task to cull these defective offspring thru different stages and controlled environment. As not all the offspring pass thru the culling process, lots of fries are used as fish food for other fishes. Only the survived koi that are good in size, shape and color are sold.

Barebones Requirement for Koi Pond

Whatever you’re reason for wanting to start a Koi pond; you may find the range of options to be quite overwhelming. It is feasible to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on your Koi pond before even purchasing any fish! If you’re just starting, however, you may want to start with something a little more budget friendly to determine if Koi ponds are right for you. This guide will cover the absolute essentials of setting up your first Koi pond for just a few hundred dollars and some honest elbow grease. In the future, you may become a very successful Koi breeder, but for now let’s focus on setting up a functional pond that do well enough to keep your fish healthy and happy. After you get the pond in place, functioning, and stable enough to support the Koi you purchase—then, and only then, would you truly be ready to sink into the investment of purchasing the Koi fish themselves.

To begin, you will need the following five items:

1.) A Pond Liner – Simply put, a pond liner will hold the water in your pond. If you dig a hole in the ground and put water in it, it will be absorbed into the soil (unless you’re talking about a LOT of water). Furthermore, you want to separate you Koi’s environment from outside contaminants as much as possible. Consider either uPVC or Butyl; both are readily available from your local home improvement store. If your hole has lots of sharp rocks in it, you may want to purchase some extra layers or padding to protect the liner. Since the padding will not come in contact with the Koi, anything resistant to shredding will work, even an old rug.

2.) A Filter – You cannot have a Koi pond without a filter. Your filtration needs will depend on the volume of your pond, which means that if you want to save you should start will a smaller pond. Unless you are skilled in fabricating your own aquarium filters, you would be best served by purchasing a filter in the store. You need a filter to remove debris, bacteria, and toxins from the water. If you’re working on a budget, take a good look at the filter prices and their recommended replacement intervals making sure to factor that cost into your calculations.

3.) A Pond Pump – This will work in conjunction with the filter to clean your pond water. It is absolutely essential to your Koi’s survival to have a working pump at all times. If you can afford it, you should always keep a backup pump on hand in case of a failure. Make sure to check with your aquarium supply dealer regarding pump efficiency. A general rule of thumb is that your pump should be able to circulate the entire pond’s volume within a couple of hours.

4.) A UV Clarifier – This is a special piece of equipment that fits between the pump and the filter. It uses UV rays to help the filter remove algae from the pond water. Algae are a special concern in Koi ponds since it is often too small to be caught by most filtration systems. The UV rays will cause algae particles to bond together so that they are large enough to be filtered out of the water. It is feasible to remove algae from the pond by chemical methods, but this is considered hazardous to the Koi.

5.) A Test Kit – Even experts need test kits. The quality of your Koi’s water must be checked frequently. One of the most dangerous chemicals to your Koi is ammonia, which can be detected by neither sight nor smell. You will need two different types of test kits, one for pH, and one for nitrate (which will indicate filter performance). Ensuring the quality of your Koi’s water is a major factor in how long they will survive.

Buying Your First Koi

If you’re out to buy yourself a Koi for the first time, you might feel a little intimidated; and you probably should! Owning and raising Koi is a very large and considerably diverse field with many, many options for a beginner. You could spend a couple of hundred dollars for a new fish or thousands for just one. Let’s take a moment to discuss a few points of interest on buy Koi, and provide some tips on how you can avoid overpaying for your first fish.

Try Dealing Locally

This can’t be stressed enough when it comes to buying Koi. There are many variables when dealing online or a through a seller directory when it comes to buying live animals that can lead you to a bad deal. There are many stories of buyers travelling long distances to purchase Koi, only to find something different than what was advertised. Also, some of the larger Koi dealers spend great amounts of money on advertising and sales promotion; avoid paying for this by doing the research yourself. And in the case of ill merchandise, or any other problems, it is always much easier to arbitrate a solution with a local dealer than you have met in person.

Purchase Koi Young

As a general rule, the older and more developed a Koi is, the more it will cost. The only exception is a fish that has matured to full adulthood and is now descending toward old age. This is because of the heavy time investment and diligence required to raise a Koi to adulthood. Adult Koi are also capable of breeding and thus creating more Koi. It will always cost more to “purchase the goose that lays the golden eggs.” Given the high value of these animals, a breeding Koi will be more expensive and even harder to find.

Make Sure the Koi is Healthy

Despite their size and hardy appearance, Koi are very delicate animals. They have very specific conditions in which they thrive, and often can become ill with only a small amount of neglect. Like humans, not every affliction the Koi can carry is immediately visible by the eye; however, there are several things that a prospective Koi owner can watch out for. Physical damage to the fish is the most obvious warning sign. If the animal seems to have suffered trauma, it may have been psychology damaged as well. Animals with uneven or damaged scales might be trouble-makers, causing problems with other fish in the community on a regular basis. Also have a good look at the fins, and underside if you get a chance. It should be pretty obvious when something is wrong. If the fish is oozing any bodily fluids, it has likely been damaged recently. Study the fish for abnormal behaviors.

Inspect the Seller’s Facility

It would be prudent to request a visit to the seller’s raising facilities instead of simply viewing the Koi inside a display tank. You should be concerned and have reservations is the facility is not clean, or has an abnormally foul odor. Take note of how many Koi the seller keeps in one enclosure. Too many is a very bad sign. If you can’t visit the facility, try asking for pictures, or at least asking the deal about his Koi raising practice. You want to be sure the Koi you plan to purchase are a good investment and will not end up wasting your valuable money. No one likes to waste money – especially on something that you can’t get your money back for!

Check for Overbreeding

Overbreeding is what occurs when a Koi breeder mates his fish with other fish that are closely related to it. This can lead to several problems, including unattractive animals. The most obvious sign of this is the appearance of the Koi itself. All Koi should have well-defined patches of color. Colors should not appear scrambled or blend each other.

A Quick Guide to Koi Breeding

Like most fish, Koi carp lay eggs instead of bearing live offspring. In fact, Koi are known to lay thousands of eggs at a time. This process may sound easy and promising if you’re considering breeding Koi for fun or profit, but many factors must be exactly right for even a small percentage of these eggs to survive so don’t get your hopes up just yet. This article will explain the process of Koi spawning.

The first component of Koi breeding is a pair of healthy, mature Koi. The actual art and science of raising healthy Koi is outside the scope of this article, but there are many resources available. If you can raise healthy Koi, however, they will reach sexual maturity as early as three years of age. Sometimes they will not start breeding until they are almost four. It depends more upon their physical growth rate than age. A pregnant female will be relatively easy to notice among other Koi. They will, of course, appear larger, mostly in the abdomen. Pregnancy, however, does not equate to fertility in the fish world. The eggs must be fertilized by a male, and determining when a male is ready to breed is not as easy.

The next most-important factor is an appropriate breeding setup. Generally it is preferable to conduct Koi spawning in controlled environment, separate from the other Koi that you may have. Since the water parameters most appropriate to encourage breeding are somewhat stressful on the Koi, it is best not to place the entire flock under this type of strain unnecessarily. Also, when keeping the spawning pair separate from the rest of the flock, you can better ascertain the type of Koi you will produce if you are trying to cross-breed. Furthermore, you will have much more control over the fate of the eggs, which will improve the overall survivability of your Koi babies.

The ideal setup will have plenty of room for both fish. Expert opinions vary, but temperature should be somewhere around 2-5°C higher. Always remember to give the female an area to lay the eggs; they will need something to attach to. Plant matter tends to work best, but even experienced breeders have been known to use a solution as simple as a mop head to save costs.

Always keep the eggs separate from the rest of the flock. If left open to the adult Koi, they will likely be eaten. Additionally, it is best if there are some “private” areas within the breeding enclosure, basically anything that gives the impression of a nest. Again, some plant matter or even fish netting will work well for this effect.

Koi will naturally breed in the spring. They can sense the time of year through changes in the water temperature. It would be considered extremely difficult to simulate this, so it is best to allow this to occur naturally. If the pair will breed, they will very likely do it in the morning. All of the conditions must be just right. If they do not breed, try adjusting the water temperature; it may be too cold or too warm. Make sure they are well fed. You can keep trying, but it is only recommended to keep the Koi in the breeding enclosure for a few days at a time. They may perish if exposed to the high temperatures for too long.

The eggs, if fertilized, will hatch in seven to ten days after the spawning. While it was said that Koi will lay thousands of eggs at a time, do not raise your expectations that each one will survive. Not all of the eggs are going to make it and you should not expect thousands of little Koi swimming around for your money making. Make sure that you set your standards lower and don’t base your budget on the hopes of thousands of Koi offspring in each batch of two mature Koi.

Maximize your Profits

One of the most fundamental issues concerning breeding Koi for profit is the quality of the parents. The Koi parents will be responsible for producing more and more offspring, and so if the source is tainted/less than ideal, then so too will the children. Many would-be Koi breeders will gasp upon hearing the asking price for a top quality Koi parent, in reality however this should be seen as a business investment rather than a business expense.

Professional breeders have been known to spend tens of thousands of dollars in order to secure a premium parent, and in this business, it is quality that counts and as an absolute bare minimum figure, you should expect to pay no less than $1000. It is crucial that you are well aware of the various figures and amounts involved in this business prior to you actually entering into it. Given the high value of this particular commodity, (and the high costs associated with it as well) having sufficient money both in terms of the capital sums as well as ongoing expenses is a necessity.

Plan your business, your current assets, and your current resources very carefully. In the Koi breeding business, you tend to have to rely upon ranges of numbers, rather than exact amounts. For example, an adult Koi female when pregnant can give birth to anywhere between 50,000-500,000 eggs and whilst not every single egg will fertilise and grow, a significant proportion will. You need to draw an average figure as to what percentage of the laid eggs do not develop into Koi fry, and then write that off as a bad debt, this will have to be included in your profit margins as an expense. You may need to charge more per fully grown Koi fish in order to offset this drain on your finances.

50,000-500,000 is an exceptionally high number by any stretch of the imagination and even with the percentage of the eggs that will fail to grow into fully fledged fry, you are looking at a lot of fish that will gradually grow in size! Again, you will need to be intimately aware of the amounts of food that they consume, in order to ensure that they have enough and do not starve. You may find that some of your fish will grow faster than others and thus as a result, dominate the food supply meaning that weaker and smaller fry cannot access it. It is these small details that you have to be the most stringent and in control of, if you want your breeding Koi for profit to have any sort of measure of success. In the words of that timeless adage:

“Fail to prepare, and you prepare to fail.”

Will you separate the fish from one another as they grow and develop, and achieve their varying stages of maturity? This may become essential in the event that a small number of fish end up bullying and dominating the rest of the pool. Having the fish segregated from one another will also help make it your system more organised and methodical, allowing you to start additional breeding with newly developed adults, in order to continue the cycle of growth. However, just because the number of fish being born is increasing, does not mean that your profit margin is. Make sure that you are at least breaking even before you begin to expand.

Final Word

No one knows what type of outcome you are expecting, except you and since you are the one executing, it will get nothing less than the best effort that you can put forth. Stay ahead of the game. You may not have initially began this venture with an interest in breeding Koi, but most often you will find money is an incredible motivator. Whatever you do don’t give up. The best jobs are those where you can have fun while you work, so be persistent but find newer and more fun ways to accomplish your goal, and in this way, you will be able to stick around and watch your investment grow right before your very eyes.

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Okay folks, that's today's home business idea. See you Monday. Have a great weekend.

Terry

Cookbook Business

2011-05-13T16:56:00.000-04:00

Home Based Cookbook Business Overview

Recipes are one of the hottest topics when it comes to the internet. The reason is because everybody has to eat! Think about just how many different dishes you or the cook in your house makes. That number is probably pretty high on its own, but take into consideration all the different people and types of foods out there and your list just grew 100-fold, at least. The possibilities for the types of cookbooks you could create are endless.

To see just how popular recipes are on the net, do a quick search of the term “recipe” using this keyword research tool (http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/). Take a look at how many times per day the term “recipes” alone is searched.

When I did the search it came up 16,890 times! That’s a lot of hungry people isn’t it? Think about this: this keyword tool doesn’t take into consideration ALL the search engines people use either. So in all actuality, that number is low.

Though you can start an offline cookbook business, it's much, much easier to run an online cookbook business, so this post will focus on your online cookbook empire business. However, you can use the same principals and ideas offline if you so choose.

Getting Started

First and foremost, you'll need to know WHO you're targeting with your recipes and cookbooks. Once you figure that out, you can then cater each of your cookbooks to those people.

To help you get started we’ve compiled a list of possible target markets that search for and buy cookbooks online:

Moms – working, stay at home, work at home, single, married
Newlyweds
Grandmothers
Cooks
Chefs
Men
Dads
Cooking Students
High School & College Teachers
Kids
Frugal Families
Caterers
Wedding Planners
College Students
And more…

Take the time to think about who your target market really is and then provide them with the types of recipes they want and need. Yes, many of your cookbooks will cater to various markets, and that’s ok. Just keep in mind the type of person who would find them beneficial and you’ll be just fine.

One example would be the busy mom. In order to really pique her interest in your recipes, create a cookbook that offers healthy snack ideas that are quick and easy to make.

Don’t compile a bunch of homemade recipes that take all day to make when putting together a cookbook for busy mamas. Save that for someone else who has time on their hands and really enjoys creating things from scratch – maybe cooking students or grandparents.

Where Do You Get All These Recipes For Your Cookbooks?

Now that you know how to attract the right audience for your cookbooks and how to get them to your website, it’s time to start compiling the recipes to include in your cookbooks.

There are numerous places to find recipes and we’re going to give you a few of them in just a bit, but first let’s discuss some legalese.

Copyright Information & Recipes

Recipes and copyright information can get a bit tricky so here’s information straight from the source:

“Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.” - U.S. Copyright Office Website

As you see above, the ingredients in a recipe are not copyright protected.

However, the directions or instructions might be, so in order to keep from violating any copyright laws, you’ll absolutely want to be sure that any recipe you use does not contain the original directions word for word.

Let’s look at what the U.S. Copyright Office has to say about that shall we?

“A mere listing of ingredients is not protected under copyright law. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a collection of recipes as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.”

Now, does this mean that all recipes are copyrighted? No, of course not and honestly the majority of them probably aren’t, but you should still be cautious when using recipes that are not your own or from a trusted source.

Now, let’s talk about 4 ways to find recipes that can be used in your cookbooks.

Recipe Sources

These are:

1. Your own recipes
2. Recipes from family & friends
3. Hire a writer
4. Private Label Rights (PLR) recipes

Your Own Recipes

Do you have recipes that you create at home? These can be recipes that have been passed down to you, that you’ve created on your own or that you’ve adapted to your family’s tastes?

If so, get them on your computer and use them for your cookbooks. If you have enough you could create your very own recipe book (Smith Family Recipes, Taste of Myers, etc.) or use the recipes separately in other cookbooks that you will create later.

Family & Friends

Does your family have a recipe that has been passed down from generation to generation? How about something your favorite Aunt brings to Christmas dinner every year that everyone loves?

Ask your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc. to contribute their favorite recipes to your collection.

Hire a Writer

Another way to compile recipes for your cookbooks is to hire a ghostwriter to write them for you. This is a great way to save time and focus your energy elsewhere be it on your website, marketing efforts, or something else.

Keep in mind that hiring someone will cost money. However, for most the cost is worth it when you look at the time and effort necessary to do it yourself.

Need a recipe writer? Here’s where we go for all our needs: Shelancers.com

Private Label Rights Recipes

The fourth (and our personal favorite) way to get recipes for your cookbook is to purchase PLR recipes. The great thing about PLR recipes is:

You don’t have to write the recipes yourself.
You don’t have to pay someone else to write them for you.
You can edit the recipes as you wish or leave them just like they are.
You can split them up; add them to other recipes, pretty much do whatever you’d like with them to create a product, freebie or something else.
You can get tons of recipes for cheap. Some PLR memberships sell them for less than $1 per recipe.

Of course there are some rules with PLR recipes and depending on where you get your recipes the rules vary. For instance, most PLR content providers will not allow you to submit PLR articles to article directories or offer it as private label rights content elsewhere.

So, be sure to check the rules before purchasing any PLR content.

One other tip: always edit your PLR recipes so they are unique to your website.

An easy way to do this is:

- Leave the ingredients as they are.
- Rewrite the directions.
- Change the title.
- Add a little something to it – i.e. suggestion of foods or drinks that would go well with the recipe.

Become a member at YummyPLR.com and you’ll receive 30 recipes and 10 cooking articles each and every month. Simply compile them all together and Viola! You’ve got a ready made cookbook every month.

Putting Your Cookbooks Together

Here is a sample cookbook outline to help you get started with your first cookbook.

I. Title Page (be sure to include your website link)

II. Disclaimer (Feel free to use something similar to the one in this report, but adjust it to fit your specific needs.)

III. Include an introduction about the types of recipes, a story about yourself or even an article.

IV. Recipes (each recipe should have it’s own page)

i. Recipe Title

ii. Ingredients

iii. Directions

iv. Extras (tips, complementary dishes, etc.)

v. If you have made the recipe yourself or have a graphic to help add to the quality of your cookbook add it to your recipe pages as well.

V. Closing – Upsell, Offer More Information, etc.

It’s a wise investment, especially if you don't have the time, desire or skill, to have graphics and ecovers made for your cookbooks. This will also come in handy if you plan to incorporate an affiliate program later.

Here are a few places you can get graphics including ecovers, banners, buttons, and more made.

http://GetECovers.com
http://DesignDelites.com
http://ClassicCreationsDesign.com

How to Make Money with Your Cookbook

There are a ton of things you can do now that you have your cookbook pulled together and ready to show the world. Here are just a few of the more popular ways to monetize your cookbook, which includes:

Giveaways/Freebies

Sell It

Use Your Affiliate Force

Monetize it with Back End Sales & Upsells

#1 - Give it Away

I know what you’re thinking. “Are you crazy? How does giving away my cookbook make me any money?”

Think long term. By giving away your first cookbook, you can give people a taste of what’s to come. Make it stand out above the rest and offer superb quality and those who see it will come back for more, in return creating revenue for you.

Here are a few ideas for giving your cookbook away:

- Thank you for signing up!

You can easily give everyone who signs up for your newsletter a cookbook of a variety of recipes so that you are sure to cover everyone’s tastes and diets.

- Bonus offer!

Offer your cookbook as a bonus for a paid product of yours or someone else’s. Of course, make sure the product is relevant to cooking, homemaking or other related topic that recipes would go well with.

Although some Internet marketers add bonuses to their products from every niche you can think of, it’s a smart move to target what products your cookbook will compliment to ensure it actually gets looked at. You wouldn’t want to add your cookbook to a product that teaches consumers how to rebuild a car engine.

- Contests & Giveaways

Holding a contest on your blog? Offer up your cookbook as a prize. Or better yet, there are always bloggers looking for prize contributions, so offer to give the winner or even everyone who enters the contest a copy of your cookbook. Remember, the more eyes that see this freebie the better. Again, try to create just one cookbook with a variety of foods specifically for giving away.

#2 – Sell It

This is probably more of what you were thinking when you read the title of this report, Create a Recipe Empire, wasn’t it? The second way to make money with your cookbooks is to sell them online. Because you created one specifically for giving people a taste of what you have to offer, you can easily turn all the others into paid products.

If you’re creating a cookbook each and every month, it’s easy to add new ones after the first one has been set up. Creating a website just for your cookbooks is a great way to showcase all of your cookbooks in one place and offer each of them for sale individually, package them together, and even offer discounts for those who purchase more than one during their visit.

You can even create targeted sales pages for each of your cookbooks should you decide to.

There are a lot of different ways to put your cookbooks online for sale, and the details are beyond the scope of this post.

Research and choose the best for your budget and skill level.

Option#1: Affiliate Programs such as Clickbank and RAP Bank

Both programs handle everything for you – your merchant account (to accept credit cards), refunds, and paying your affiliates. It’s a beautiful thing. The problem is that Clickbank does have some limitations. Let’s take a look at clickbank a bit further.

Who should use clickbank…

If you prefer SIMPLE and easy.
If you want to spend time playing rather than handling accounting and affiliate payments – and sending 1099s, etc.
If you don’t want to pay a monthly fee for your shopping cart, or aren’t confident or big enough yet to take on that commitment.
If you don’t want to handle setting up a merchant account to accept credit cards.
If you only offer downloadable ebooks or audios or videos and have no plans for creating physical books, CDs or DVDs.

Who should NOT use clickbank…

Anyone who wants COMPLETE control over their online business. Clickbank is wonderful, but, for those who want complete control over their business, this may be a source of frustration. Read their legal terms for more information.
If you *ever* plan to offer a physical version of your ebooks, teleseminars, or videos, then Clickbank becomes more difficult.
If you want to sell tickets to a seminar or offline expo, then skip Clickbank. (That’s also against their rules.)
If you want CONTROL over your online business, then you may wish to have your own shopping cart.

RAP Bank

RAP Bank has most of the limitations and benefits of Clickbank, however, one major benefit RAP Bank has over Clickbank is that RAP Bank pays you for every sale immediately. You do have to have a verified PayPal business account, but this is a simple matter. There's no cost to upgrade your PayPal account, and getting your account verified (if it isn't already) only takes a little while, and costs you nothing.

Keep reading for your options.

Option#2: Shopping Cart

If you wish to have more control over your online business, then signing up with a shopping cart service will give you exactly that. Control. But, with control comes more work.

There are tons of shopping carts (or ecommerce solutions, if you want to be fancy) to choose from. Just search google.com if you want to go into an immediate state of overwhelm.

Paypal has a great shopping cart, and it's free. They even provide all the documentation to install, use and get the most out of it. And, of course, because it's through PayPal you know it's secure and supported.

Use Your Affiliate Force

If you don’t have an affiliate program set up for your products, GET ONE!

This one money making tool alone can be the most profitable portion of your business and the best part is, someone else does the work when it comes to promoting your cookbooks. You pay them, but ONLY when they make a sale.

Again – SET UP AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM!

If you'd like to learn more about setting up your own affiliate program, I'd recommend Affiliate Army Profit Videos

Now, Let’s Talk Money and Passive Income.

Once you have your ecommerce system set up, please don’t make the same mistake most other marketers make.

They NEGLECT their affiliate programs.

They sweat over their products and their advertising campaigns to make them perfect. They’ll spend days on their sales page and hours setting up their shopping cart.

Then, they get to the affiliate part. And, they get lazy. Sure, they might plop a few buttons or banners in the affiliate area, but that’s where it ends.

Then, they run themselves ragged, trying to market their website – all by themselves, and wonder why they don’t have PASSIVE income!

I’ll tell you why. Because they haven’t recruited an ARMY of affiliates doing the exact same multitude of tasks that they are struggling to do. With an ARMY of affiliates, many of those tasks would be done for them by folks who don’t get paid unless they bring in sales.

Their affiliates would be …

Blogging about them.
Posting their articles on forums.
Submitting articles.
Buying ezine ads.
Researching keywords & buying Google™ Adwords campaigns.
Buying classified ads in newspapers.
Posting on Craigslist.
Creating Squidoo pages.
Writing reports and ebooks that send traffic to their affiliate link.
Making JV deals with the free reports from the affiliate center.
And, more.

Personally, I’d rather invest time and effort into making my affiliate program attractive to the top tier of marketers and have them do all those things for me, while I focus on other projects and activities.

I hope YOU won’t make the same mistake, in neglecting your affiliate program, and missing out on passive income.

Affiliate Products, Upsells and Back End Sales

The final way to monetize your cookbooks is to promote inside of them.

Affiliate Programs

Here is one program that would fit perfectly inside any of your cookbooks.

Menu Planning Central (www.MenuPlanningCentral.com)

This particular program pays $20 per referral and is a wealth of information when it comes to meal planning. Throw in a promotion at the end of your cookbook that reads something like this to help monetize your recipes:

======================================================================
I'm saving time and money and you can too!

Ever since I found this program, I'm spending less money on McDonalds, Wendy's ... well, you know the drill. Instead of picking up the kids and wondering what I can pull together for dinner, I've started to plan my meals in advance - and you can, too. Stop by this site and pick up a free report about Menu Planning. I think you'll like it.

Your Affiliate Link Would Go Here!
======================================================================

See how easy that is? Just place your affiliate link inside the text box and you’re good to go!

You can find tons of affiliate programs that go well with recipes of all different types. Just do your research and match your programs and products with the content in your cookbook and you’re good to go.

The profits don’t stop inside your cookbook either.

Upsells & Back End Recommendations

Once you’ve sold a product, you don’t want your customer to just take it and run, right? You’ll want to keep them around for a bit longer and make the most of every second of their attention you have.

One way to do this is through the power of Upselling. Have you ever been to McDonald’s, ordered a burger and the cashier asked you “Would you like fries and a drink with that?” This friend is what is called an upsell and you can do the same thing with your cookbooks.

When you customer downloads their cookbook, why not offer them another one of your cookbooks that harmonizes with the one they just purchased? You can simply offer them the cookbook OR you can go one step further and present them with a one time offer where they can purchase the second cookbook for a lower price.

For instance, let’s say your customer has purchased a vegetarian cookbook. When they get to the download page you’ll give them the download link but also offer them another cookbook full of healthy vegetable snacks.

See how that works? Upsell with each and every cookbook you sell because it’s easier to make a customer a repeat one than it is to get them as your customer the first time.

Another way you can easily monetize your cookbooks is to have back end product recommendations. How this works is like this:

Your customer purchases Cookbook A from your site. They are then directed to a Thank You page where they can download the cookbook. On this page recommend another affiliate product like Menu Planning Central or something else comparable.

Either way - DON’T WASTE THIS SPACE! Use it to make more money!

Other Ways to Use Recipes to Create Revenue

Creating cookbooks is not the only way to make money with recipes. Here are a few more places you can utilize recipes in order to make a profit.

Blogs

Create a recipe section and post new recipes each day. There are even scripts you can use that will allow you to post a new recipe each day and spotlight it as the “Recipe of the Day.”

Newsletters & Ezines

Add a recipe to your newsletter or ezine. Spotlight the area to make it stand out.

Autoresponders

Create an autoresponder of nothing but recipes and articles regarding cooking.

If you don’t have an autoresponder yet, we recommend Aweber.

Each of the above places can be used to showcase recipes and then add product recommendations for your own cookbooks, affiliate products, and/or pay per click advertising such as Google Adsense.

Here’s a Checklist to Help You Complete One Cookbook Each and Every Month

(This timeline is based on purchasing PLR recipes. You’ll obviously need to adjust as necessary if you chose another avenue for your recipe creation.)

1st – 5th

Receive your monthly PLR recipes and cooking articles from YummyPLR.com and begin editing the content with your own personal touches, adding graphics, tips, food substitutions, and more.

5th (or once you have your topic)
Contact graphic designer regarding the graphics you’ll need for the current cookbook topic. (If you plan to create a new cookbook each month, which you should since it’s so easy to do you can actually get some designers on retainer so that you know your graphics will be delivered each and every month.)

5th – 10th

Continue editing your recipes and formatting them into a cookbook.

10th – 12th

Add content to your site, blog, newsletters, etc. to attract people to your site and position yourself as the expert.

12th – 15th

Create a sales page for your cookbook. Set up any discount pages, etc.

15th – 20th

Add cookbook to your shopping cart or Clickbank account.
Test your shopping cart to make sure orders will process and products will be delivered correctly.

20th – 25th
Add affiliate tools and resources for affiliates to promote the cookbook. Let your affiliates know you have added a new cookbook and give them a date to begin promoting.

25th – 30th

Make it Live! Let your lists know your newest cookbook is available and offer them a special discount for being a customer/subscriber.

Be sure to post about it on your blog, website, in your newsletter and social networking sites.

If that sounds like a lot of work, you’ll want to check out this site to learn how to outsource: www.OutsourceWeekly.com

Additional Resources

Affiliate Army Profit Videos
Affiliate Program Launch
The Ultimate Cookbook Collection

XXX

There you have it! Today's home business idea. If you enjoy food, enjoy cash and enjoy working for yourself, then a home based cookbook business is probably a good choice for you.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Forex Trading Business

2011-05-11T17:30:00.000-04:00

Forex Trading Business Overview

Forex is the nickname for the Foreign Exchange Market. In the United States, there are several branches of the stock market, each with their own name. For instance, some stocks trade on the Dow Jones, others on Nasdaq. Of course, all stock market transactions in the United States take place on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In other countries the same is true.

However, international trade takes place on the market termed the Foreign Exchange Market, or Forex. Several countries across the world in almost every time zone participate in trade on Forex, with multiple currencies being utilized and stocks and commodities from all participating countries being offered for trade. Because there are so many nations and time zones involved, Forex does not function as a “business day” entity like most domestic stock markets. It remains open for trade 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Forex trading has enjoyed exponential growth and widespread popularity over the past few years. It is only now that online foreign exchange trading is starting to get noticed. Until recently, large international banks were the big dogs in the foreign exchange (FX or forex for short) market, selectively allowing access via telephone trading to Fortune 1000 companies, large funds, high net worth individuals, etc.

But now, there are online trading firms that provide individual traders like you and I with direct access to the largest, most liquid financial market in the world – the forex. A lot of traders seem oblivious to this market. This unfamiliarity is the root cause of misconceptions about this exciting market.

Currencies don’t crash. They outperform stocks. Earn immediate income and stop worrying about job security and layoffs forever.

Why Should You Give The Forex A Serious Look?

Large returns
Currencies trend well
There are no commissions
US$6 trillion a day and growing
The forex is a very efficient market
High leverage: Each pip is worth US$10
There is lots of movement in this market
You can trade 24X5 from home or anywhere
Little capital is required – as little as US$500
You can easily start out by taking 20 pips a day
You can trade whether you have a day job or not
You can hedge at FX Solutions. Not all market makers allow this
All you need is an Internet connection; charting/dealing software is free
This is real-time trading; 2.5 to four second response time; rare re-quotes
Low lot size: 100 to one ratio; US$100 controls US$10,000 (1,000 = 100,000)

The currency (foreign exchange) market is the largest and oldest financial market in the world. It is the biggest and most liquid market in the world, and it is traded mainly through the 24 hour-a-day inter-bank currency market - the primary market for currencies. The forex market is a cash (or "spot") inter-bank market. By comparison, the currency futures market is only one per cent as big.

Foreign Exchange simply means the buying of one currency and selling another at the same time. In other words, the currency of one country is exchanged for those of another. The currencies of the world are on a floating exchange rate, and are always traded in pairs - Euro/Dollar, Dollar/Yen, etc. In excess of 85 percent of all daily transactions involve trading of the major currencies - Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, and the U.S. Dollar.

Unlike the futures and stock markets, trading of currencies is not centralized on an exchange. Forex literally follows the sun around the world. Trading moves from major banking centres of the U.S. to Australia and New Zealand, to the Far East, to Europe and finally back to the U.S. Today, foreign exchange market maker brokers such as FX Solutions are able to break down the larger sized inter-bank units, and offer small traders the opportunity to buy or sell any number of these smaller units (lots).

These brokers give virtually any size trader, including individual speculators or smaller companies, the option to trade the same rates and price movements as the large players who once dominated the market. Market makers quote buying and selling rates for currencies, and they profit on the difference between their buying and selling rates.

The History Of Forex

When foreign trade began, it was not an international trade market. It was borne out of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1944, which set forth that foreign currencies would be fixed against the dollar, which was valued at $35 per ounce of gold. This precedent was first put into practice in 1967, when a bank in Chicago refused to fund a loan to a professor in sterling pound. Of course, his intention was to sell the currency, which he felt was priced too high against the dollar, then buy it back later when the value had declined, turning a quick profit.

After 1971, when the dollar was no longer convertible to gold and the domestic market was stronger, the Bretton Woods agreement was abandoned, and the currency conversion process became more variable. This allowed for stronger backing in the foreign markets, and the United States and Europe began a strong trade relationship. In the 1980s, the market hours and usage was extended through the use of computers and technology to include the Asiantime zones as well. At this time, foreign exchange equaled about $70 billion a day. Today, about twenty years later, the trade level has skyrocketed, with trade equaling close to $1.5 trillion daily.

Originally, trading across international lines was more difficult, with several different currencies involved across Europe. Though the major players in the European market were deeply involved in and veterans of international trade by the time other markets joined in, there were more currencies to keep track of – the franc, the pound, the lira, and many more – than was reasonable. With the birth of the European Union in 1992, the wheels were set in motion to create a single currency that would be used across most of Europe, and the Euro was finally established and put into circulation in 1999.

Forex Today

While some countries have still not accepted the currency as their own (such as Britain, who still uses the sterling pound), the process of currency conversion has been simplified without the large number of various currencies that were previously dealt with. Instead of dozens of currencies, the main countries trade in just a few – U.S. dollars, Australian dollars, Canadian Dollars, Seiss Francs, British pounds sterling, the Euro, and the Japanese Yen.

Another completely separate but perhaps more important concern with trading in Forex is understanding how trade works in multiple currencies. How can you compare the value of a stock across international lines if the values are expressed in two separate, non-equivalent currencies? And how do you measure gains and losses when conversion rate is constantly changing?

Understanding Currency Conversion

When you begin trading on Forex, you have to learn how to convert currencies and note the difference in values, as well as how currencies are exchanged between international lines. This means studying not only domestic market trends and currency values, but also those of foreign markets.

Working With Multiple Currencies

Since Forex is the Foreign Exchange Market, you obviously cannot expect everyone within the market to trade in U.S. dollars (and why not, you might ask? – but remember that not everyone covets the U.S. dollar). With so many variables and volatile currencies being exchanged, how can you know a good buy or sell when you see one without complete awareness of the value of foreign currency?

The first step is to find a source that will give you a basic idea of the current exchange rate between your domestic currency and the foreign currency in question. You should do this as a base listing for any currency that with which you might become involved. Of course, this will not be consistent down to the cent or fraction of a particular currency throughout an entire business day, but at least you will have your starting point from which to begin, almost like North on a compass. Such sources can be found all over the internet, as well as through many brokers, both onnine and in person.

Currency Expression

It is also good to understand the means be which the currency conversion is expressed. The comparison is usually made in a ratio known as the cross-rate. In this configuration, the two currencies are listed in an XXX/YYY ratio, with the XXX position referred to as the base currency. The base currency is usually expressed as a whole number, while the YYY position is expressed as the decimal that most closely matches the based currency rate. It is sort of like making reference to miles per gallon or rotations per minute on a car – a direct comparison of one to the other in the form of a ratio.

The smallest fraction, or decimal, in which a currency can be traded, is called a pip and this is usually the degree to which a cross-rate is expressed. For example, if the British pound sterling can be traded in thousandths, the currency will be expressed to the third decimal place. The U.S. dollar is often expressed to the hundredth of a cent (the fourth decimal place).

In one cross-rate expression example, one U.S. dollar may be equivalent to 117.456 Japanese yen. This ratio would be expressed as 1.000/117.456. The base currency is almost always expressed as a single unit (as in one dollar as opposed to ten dollars), and frequently that unit of measurement is the U.S. dollar. Since the whole number value (or big figure, as it is referred to) of the secondary currency, or the currency in the YYY position in terms of conversion changes so infrequently, often only the decimal portion of the number is mentioned in the Foreign Exchange Market.

Therefore, in the ratio above, you may hear that the yen is trading at .456, with no mention at all of the 117 whole yen that is shown in the ratio. This is because the exchange rate may vary from 117.456 to 117.423, but not to 119.024. Experiencing a change in the big figure – the whole number ahead of the decimal – unless it was only because the number was already within a few thousandths, would represent much too large a shift in value for a single trading period and would be a rare occurrence that could cause the entire market to make a drastic swing in one direction or the other.

If you purchase a commodity in a particular currency, and that currency’s value falls against the U.S. dollar, you can actually make money by selling that same commodity in dollars. The same is true in reverse should the value of a foreign currency increase against a U.S. dollar. Of course, you can only take advantage of such a situation should the commodity be traded in both currencies and both markets in question. We will discuss this process, as well as other ways to take advantage of the Foreign Exchange Market (like arbitrage) in more depth in future chapters.

Once you are able to discern a base value of each particular currency and its conversion rate against others traded on Forex, you will be able to more closely monitor the change in currency conversion, including its inconsistency and volatility. Such ideas will not seem so “foreign”, and you will be caught up and knowledgeable right along with the pros. Then, you will need to learn how to read, understand, and ultimately interpret additional market trends.

Charts And Chartists

Wait, did you think you were going to have to research and map out the market’s past all by yourself? Of course not! There are people who get paid to do that sort of work. They monitor the market hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly so that they can provide big-time traders with the same knowledge mentioned before. The more an investment company knows about the market, the more money they can make. The same is true for stockbrokers. They make money when you make money, and they want to do the best they can to make sure that you make intelligent decisions.

The best part of this is that you have access to the same information as these VIP clients. Chartists, who are essentially market analysts that publish their findings in easy to read charts, produce what is referred to as a candlestick chart. These charts are basically a combination of a line graph and a bar graph that show the trend of various stocks, indexes, or other interests over a specified period of time. Therefore, you can easily determine if the commodity is on an uptrend or if it is taking a downturn, when the last major change occurred, and how long it is predicted that the stock or bond will continue on the current path.

You can actually find information on most commodities and their market trends for years in the past, and some even all the way back to their introduction to the open market. Using this information can help you decide whether it is a good idea to buy or sell the stocks or securities in which you have interest, or if it is better to hold off for a peak in the market trend.

Risk Management

One of the most important aspects of protecting your investments is balancing your risks with reassurances. There are several ways to do this.

Limit Orders And Balancing Risks

A limit order is a standing amount at which you have agreed to buy or sell a particular security or other commodity. For instance, you have designated to your stockbroker that you will not sell X Security until its value reaches a minimum value of Y dollars. At the same time, you will not purchase the same X Security if it exceeds a value of Z. Setting limits for the price you pay for a particular security, as well as the price you will accept to sell it, protects you and your investment in several ways.

First of all, you are maximizing your gains, but mostly, you are avoiding loss. Any loss that occurs with limit orders will always be unrealized loss, or a loss that is not measurable in liquid assets or cash. In other words, until you sell the stock and reap the net loss, it will not affect your net worth. Since you have set a limit that does not allow your commodities to be sold for less than the original cost, you cannot possibly have a loss in your net worth. At the same time, you are also assuring at least a certain amount of profit by setting your sell point high enough to reap that particular profit.

Another way to protect your assets is to hedge. This means that you create and sell a futures contract stating that, when your shares reach a certain value in the future, you will sell your holdings at this predetermined price.

When that price is reached, the order will be processed and the transaction completed. Of course, if you ever change your mind about a limit that you have set, you can place a stop order with your broker, which designates that you no longer wish to trade at the specified dollar amount.

You can also buy on margin. This is very similar to short selling, but instead of borrowing stocks to sell, you are essentially borrowing money to purchase stocks on your own when the market value is down. Then, when the value of the securities you have purchased rises and you are able to sell for a profit, you repay the loan and keep the excess from the sell, minus the broker fees. Of course, all dealings with a stockbroker incur a premium, or fee for services rendered, and it is nearly impossible to trade without a broker or broker service. However, online services are often less expensive than live agents, but you can research to determine what your best option is.

If You're Just Starting Out

To get started in trading in this market, all you need is a computer with a high speed internet connection, a funded Forex account, and a trading system. These three simple things are enough to get you started in Forex trading.

In order for you to minimize the risk of losing money, you need to have some basic knowledge in charting before you start trading. In most Forex trading systems, Forex charts are there to assist you with your trades.

Forex charts are a visual representation of the exchange rates of currencies. This is where you will mostly base your decisions to buy and sell currencies. You have to learn how to read the different Forex charts in order for you to successfully trade in the Forex market.

Demo And Dummy Forex Accounts

If you are just starting to trade in the FOREX market, it helps if you first practice by creating a dummy FOREX account. Through this, you will be able to trade in the FOREX market without risking real money. Although you will not earn money this way, it is a great way to practice trading. Or, you may also try opening a mini FOREX account. With a very minimal investment, you will be able to start trading in the real market and start earning small amounts of cash.

Opening a demo account will allow you to conduct paper trades. It is also one of the smartest ways to enter into the Forex trading market. Practice trades will also enable you to start developing a strategy that works best for you. Experts recommend that you practice until you start making a consistent profit. Those individuals, who jump into the market too quickly usually, fail due to lack of experience. To decrease you failure risk you need to take the necessary time to learn the proper way to trade before investing your capital.

Emotional trading is an instant killer. You must be able to trade without feelings. Even through you have set your stop-loss points, if you are reacting on feelings, you will not execute them on time. When, you set your stop-loss and take-profit points to execute automatically you must stick to them. Do not change them, “because you have this feeling.” You set those limits for a reason. Stick with your original decision.

Mini Forex Account

To minimize your risk and build your confidence when first starting to trade, a mini forex account can be your training wheels.

Mini forex works exactly the same as regular forex trading. The only difference is that the investor only has to put a small amount of money into it to begin with -- as low as $100 or $200. (Regular forex accounts usually require 10 times that amount.)

The advantage of a mini forex account is that it lets you learn the ropes of the forex market through hands-on experience -- books, lectures and demos can only teach you so much -- without risking more than a couple hundred dollars of your own money. All trading is risky in that it carries with it the possibility of failure. But with mini forex trading, the most you can lose is the $100 or $200 you initially put into it.

There are psychological benefits with mini forex trading, too. One of the reasons people lose money in the market is that they hang on to losing prospects longer than they should, hoping the trend will reverse itself and they’ll win everything back -- and then the trend doesn’t reverse itself until after the investor has already lost everything.

Human emotion gets in the way of making sensible trades. Mini forex carries the same risk, of course -- but since the amounts are so much small, the mini forex trader isn’t losing much if he does hang on to a loser longer than he should. It’s a sort of practice area to let the investor train himself to make good decisions. Once he’s mastered the art, he can take off the mini forex training wheels and start investing much larger amounts.

Another benefit of mini forex trading is that it can be utilized by people who don’t want to make forex trading their bread and butter but simply enjoy the thrill and competition of it. Forex trading can be fun, after all, but the fact that you’re playing with large sums of money can make it more nerve-racking than enjoyable. Mini forex accounts bring it back down to the level of enjoyment, like playing penny-ante poker with your friends. The game is the same, but the stakes are much lower, and thus the experience is less risky.

Learning The Ropes

Trading in the Forex market can be very attractive. However, you should also know that there have been people who suffered extreme financial losses in the Forex market. It is true that the Forex market offers a very good money-making opportunity to a lot of people, but it also has its risks.

It is a fact that people who didn’t have the right knowledge and skills trading in the Forex market suffered huge financial losses and some even went into debt. So, before you enter the Forex market, it is essential that you should have the necessary knowledge and skills as a Forex trader in order to minimize the risk of losing money and maximize the potential of making money.

Many people who were successful in the Forex market have went through a Forex trading course to get the knowledge and skills needed to successfully trade in this very liquid and very large financial market.

In a Forex trading course, you will learn about when it is the right time to buy or sell, chart the movements, spot market trends and also know how to use the different trading platforms available in the Forex market.

You will also be familiarized with the terminologies used in the Forex market. Even the basic knowledge about trading in the Forex can be a great help with your money-making venture in the world’s largest market.

There are different Forex trading courses available, all you need to do is choose one that suits your needs as a trader. There are crash courses where all the basic things about Forex will be taught to you in a short period of time, full time online courses, where you will learn all about Forex through the internet and there are also full time real life classroom courses where you can learn the ropes about Forex in a real classroom with a live professor.

You can also become an apprentice. However, in order to learn a lot about Forex as an apprentice, you need to make sure that you have a seasoned Forex trader who can share a lot of things to you about the Forex market.

Here are some of the basic things you should look for in a Forex trading course in order for you to get the sufficient knowledge about Forex trading:

Margins
Leveraging
Types of orders
Major currencies

A good Forex trading course will also explain a lot about the fundamental and technical analysis of charts. As a trader, knowing how to analyze a chart is an essential skill that you should have. So, when you are looking for a Forex trading course, you should look for a course that offers fundamental and technical analysis instruction.

Stress plays a vital part in Forex traders. Knowing how to deal with stress is also a skill that you should develop.

A good Forex trading course should teach you how to deal with stress and trade effectively and efficiently.

As much as possible, you should look for a Forex trading course that offer actual trading systems where students can trade real money on the Forex market or at least trade on dummy accounts in a simulated Forex market. This hands-on experience will greatly benefit you. Besides, the best way to learn about anything is by actually experiencing it. Live trading and simulations should be offered in a Forex trading course.

Online Forex Forums

Most forex trading is done online, with investors looking at forex charts, considering trends, and making decisions.

There’s very little interaction, even via the Internet, with other human beings. That’s one of the reasons that many traders also spend time in forex forums, chatting with other investors and sharing tips.

There are dozens of forex-related forums and message boards on the Internet. Some are tied to brokerage firms, while others are just freestanding forums on forex-related sites. Since the market is active 24 hours a day, you can usually count on the forums being busy at all hours too.

As mentioned, one of the reasons for visiting forex forums is simply psychological: Humans like to interact with other humans, especially when their day jobs require them to be alone with a computer for hours at a stretch.

Furthermore, there are a lot of emotions involved in trading. It’s real money, after all, and often large amounts of it. Online forums give traders a place to discuss the psychological effects of long-term trading, how it can become addictive and nerve-racking, and what impact it has on everyday life. You could think of message boards as being a sort of support group for traders, or the equivalent of the office water cooler.

Forex forums have more practical uses, too, of course. Traders find the tips and strategies offered by their fellow traders to be invaluable. Forums are often rife with people more seasoned and experienced than the average person, which benefits the newcomers. And many experienced traders enjoy visiting the forums because it gives them a chance to share their wisdom with others.

Forex forums are also useful for gauging the general mood of the marketplace. The charts and rates give you the cold, hard facts. But many times making a decision to buy or sell comes from the gut, based not just on the numbers but on how the market FEELS. The forums are a place to see what other traders are thinking right now.

Do they feel optimistic? Pessimistic? Are things looking up? Are they discouraged? All of this information can be taken into account when considering a trade.

ForexFactory.com and ForexForum.net are two very popular, widely visited message boards. There are dozens of others out there, too. All forex forums give traders a chance to connect with their colleagues and to learn from one another.

The Benefits Of A Home Based Forex Trading Business

1. Cost of Entry and Operation:

The modern day Forex market can actually be entered with as little as $200, one of the lowest requirements of any business. Certainly there are advantages to starting with more capital, but almost any motivated person can get involved.

Another significant cost of operation for any business is …time. The Forex markets are open 24 hours per day, allowing you to choose your own schedule. Especially nice if you’re already working at something else. This freedom to schedule allows you to have a Forex business on your terms, where so many business activities require you to operate on someone else’s terms. You can own your own business, your business doesn’t have to own you!

2. Transaction Costs:

A wonderful feature of the Forex market, especially for small business operators, is that there are NO commission charges. YES I said NO commission charges. While most markets charge for commissions in addition to a bid/ask spread, the Forex market only has the bid/ask spread, typically narrower than other markets.

3. Risk Factors:

When operating your own small Forex business, you don’t need employees, or to rent commercial space. You can operate from anywhere you like as long as you have an internet connection. For each transaction or trade your risk is limited to a small percentage of the trade called “margin”. You cannot lose more than your margin and you’ll always know what that amount is up front.

4. Profit Potential:

A small business person or “trader” has potential profits that can range from $200 to $3,000 per trade. Time to complete a trade can be measured in minutes to hours and might be repeated several times per week.

Markets move up and down. The Forex market is structured so that you have an equal chance of profits regardless of which direction the market moves in. Leverage is available at up to 200:1. Depending on your business plan, you may choose to use less leverage.

5. Trends:

Forex tends to exhibit “trending” characteristics. This nicely lends itself to a technical and rules-based approach which is reasonably learned.

6. Summary:

For ease of entry, low transaction costs, controllable risk, and profit potential, the Forex market compares more than favorably with the real estate, stock, commodities, or futures markets. If you would like to operate a business that can be tailored to support your quality of life, the Forex business deserves your serious consideration.

Final Word

I'm not a financial advisor, nor a forex expert. I have dabbled in the forex market over the years, but to start a home based forex trading business, you need to devote time, energy and some cash in studying the market, the trends, the strategies and the overall workings. I never really had the desire to do so, so I backed away from what I, and millions of others, find to be a fascinating market and opportunity. However, if you do have the desire, the fascination and the ability and nerve to take some risks, this would be a perfect home business for you. A final thought here... isn't any new business venture a little risky?

Additional Resources

Amazon.com Widgets

How to Trade The Forex like a Pro in One Hour

XXX

Well boys and girls, that's today's home business idea. This one isn't for everyone, but it does make you think.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Genealogy Business

2011-05-10T18:12:00.000-04:00

Home Based Genealogy Business Overview

Genealogy - defined as 'an account of the descent of a person or family through an ancestral line', or alternatively, 'the investigation of pedigrees as a department of knowledge', is a high faluting description of what, to the rest of us, is known simply as 'tracing the family tree'.

It seems that today we're not content just to know who our ancestors were and how they lived, we want to know the specifics of who those people were: where they lived; what they did for a living; whether those stories of highwaymen, criminals and corrupt relatives is factual, or merely a good yarn spun by Grandma's Grandma's Grandpa, and recounted throughout the years.

Today so many people are eager to trace their own family histories that once desolate Public Record Offices are now able to operate a timetable system, for which those who now fill its halls to carry out their own research, must make an appointment to do so.

This is the perfect home based business if you enjoy doing research, like history and love to learn about our ancestors. Genealogists make a living by creating family trees for other people who don’t have the know-how, time or the patience to do it themselves.

What Skills Would Be Helpful?

Excellent research and organization would be a high priority. These skills and activities are what genealogy is all about. You'll need to know where and how to research each family’s heritage and be able to place all the information you've uncovered in an easy to understand and aesthetically pleasing format for your clients.

Getting Started

Since a home based genealogy or ancestry business is a service, there really isn't much to getting started other than deciding on a name for your company, how you're going to promote your services, how you're going to present your research to your clients (the format -which is covered later), and what you're going to charge for your services.

Doing The Research

Sometimes, especially where unusual names are concerned, and where families have remained in a particular area over several generations, a family tree can be created fairly quickly and easily. However, on other occasions you'll find that you reach a dead end and may end up spending weeks searching for one odd but essential fact (which might never materialise). This type of situation will put a halt in your work perhaps indefinitely. It's in these situations that you, as the researcher, will need patience, clarity of mind, persistence and determination.

Tools And Equipment

It pretty much goes without saying that you'll need a computer and internet connection
Subscriptions to some of the best genealogy websites available to use for your research
A website
Geneology software (optional)
Geneology forms
Wordprocessor
A database of some kind
Supplies for the final presentation of your research to your clients

If you haven't done this sort of research before, you might consider investing in some guides or attending some classes to learn some tips and tricks on researching family trees.

Where To Begin -Getting Organized

Your research should begin by setting up a good filing a data storage system. There are still those of us that prefer to keep our research in actual files so we can spread things out, visually look at the research and find connections that way. So, the system should be one that'll allow adequate storage but also make it easy to retrieve the data later. Many forms are free on the internet. One of the best places for these forms is Family Tree Magazine.com. This site has a chart or form for almost any type of genealogical research.

For those of you who prefer digitally storing your research, there are all kinds of different databases, from simple text-based flat file systems, to complex structured systems. Fear not though, you'll be able to find a suitable program at relatively little cost or even free. Legacy Family Tree has a free Windows based program available for download. This isn't trial software. It is fully functional and is sufficient for your needs, at least right now.

Whichever method you choose to use, software or pen and paper, you'll need to know which charts or forms to use and how to enter the data that you've collected.

The most popular chart is the ascending (ascendant) pedigree chart. The ascending pedigree chart starts with your client -which we'll call the primary for simplicity sake- and move backwards through time. Your first entry will be the primary and then there'll be two branches where you enter the primary's parents. It then moves onto four branches where you'll enter the primary's parents parents (grandparents) and so on. On these forms you'll record the name, birth, marriage and death dates and places of ancestors.

These charts normally record four or five generations on each page, but are available with up to fifteen generations per page. You'll probably find that the four generation per page format is easier and more convenient to work with.

There's also a numbering system for the pedigree chart known as the ahnentafel numbering system (after the older ahnentafel chart which is not used very often today. The numbering system is very easy and works like this:

The primary would be number one on the chart, then the primary's father would be two times the child's number (2x1=2) and the primary's mother would be two times the child's plus one (2x1+1=3). The primary's male ancestors will always be an even number and the primary's female ancestors will always have an odd number assigned.

Another type of form you'll need is the family group sheet. The family group sheet is basically the worksheet that you'll use for your research. You'll use this form to keep track of the primary's family unit and the cousins, aunts and uncles that are in the family. A separate form is used for each single family unit and you'll record dates and places of birth, marriage, death and burial and make notes on this form. You can get these forms from Family Tree Magazine.com.

Getting Down To Business

How To Find Clues In Family Resources

The first step in the actual investigative process is, of course, gaining access to family documents, bibles, books, photo albums and so on. You'll also, of necessity, have to decide which side of the family to trace; whether the male or female line. Usually the male line is traced, making for easier access to similar names throughout the relevant generations. Obviously the process isn't nearly so easy when it'is the female line that your client wants researched.

At this point you'll have to make a very important decision concerning the name. In past centuries many names were derived from places, father's names, and sometimes from the trade one was engaged in. Hence we come across many people named 'London', 'Hill', 'Wood' (places); 'Williamson', 'Smithson' and 'Johnson' (father's names or 'son of '); or 'Baker' and 'Smith' (trades).

The normal process of gathering information, begins with informal chats with members of the primary's family, particularly the older members whose memory can be relied upon to uncover facts which has become a part of the family's history.

Amongst the most relevant information required at this stage are details relating to all family members; names (even of those stillborn or who died at birth or shortly afterwards and whose existence might have been temporarily 'forgotten'), dates of birth, marriage details and dates, details and dates of death, and various other family events including baptisms, educational and career-related information, and so on.

Next is the task of interviewing family, friends and relatives; the older the better, as long as time hasn't weakened their memory. Old family legends are often the motivating factor that initiates contacting you to trace and document the family tree. Stories of blue-blooded ancestors, famous relatives, criminals and heroes, all are handed down from generation to generation.

Many of these tales will doubtless have been expanded and elaborated upon over time, but it's always worth recording even the seemingly tallest and unlikely of tales; it's possible for that unbelievable story to contain a germ of truth or even be totally accurate. Write it all down, or if your interviewees don't object, recorder it.

Amongst the best sources of information virtually guaranteed to set you straight on course for access to the family history in recent decades, hopefully up to a century or more, are family bibles, photographs (often with messages written alongside or on the back), diaries, letters, and tombstones. Access to any of these items, even if you must sit and physically take notes from whatever source is available, will prove a more than worthwhile investment in terms of the time, trouble, and sometimes expense involved.

You may not be able to gain access to some of the relatives, but your client will likely be able to recount the stories for you. Although, you might be able to chat with a few of the family members by phone. It's worth asking.

Ancestral Data Sources

Photographs

Old photos can be on of the best resources for researching your family tree. Many times the date and place that the photo was taken will be on the back of the photo as well as notes from a family member. The type of clothes that the ancestor was wearing can give you a clue to when it was taken, if there is no date. The buildings in the background of a picture may also provide you with a clue as to where the photo was taken.

Postcards

Many times an ancestor who's moved away from the family home would send postcards to keep in touch. Postmarks and photos on the postcards can provide important clues about where to look for ancestors.

Family Bibles

Family bibles are probably the best of the resources you will find in searching out a family tree. Many families kept records of births and deaths as well as smaller family trees in the family bible. Look through the whole bible because sometimes you'll find notes written in the margin that can provide clues.

After Talking To The Family -Where To Look And What To Look For

Once all family sources have been exhausted comes the real challenge of investigating. Your search will lead you to official sources, and not just central records offices and county registers. There are many, many other repositories of information available to the researcher, all of which must be considered in relation to the actual family and whether you wish to restrict your investigations to a limited period of history, or instead, uncover anything you're to able about your client's family as far back as time, money, and ability allow.

The most logical and easiest next step is that of obtaining all official documents relating to recent generations as possible. This usually consists of birth, marriage and death certificates held at the primary's local county courthouse.

You should be able to track down copies of birth, marriage and death certificates from civil records which go back to the mid 1830s. Since mandatory registration, it's relatively easy to trace a tree back to the second half of the nineteenth century. Then the really hard work begins.

Civil Registration

Official registration of births, deaths and marriages, have been compulsory in most of Europe and North America since the mid 1800's. It's relatively easy to trace families back to these dates. This must not however be taken for granted since 'skeletons' known to exist in most family cupboards can often lead the researcher off on a false trail, or perhaps worse still, not come to light in the first place. Here is where a little detective work comes into play.

The astute genealogy researcher might uncover various information the less seasoned historian might instead have dismissed or perhaps not considered at all. Birth certificates for instance are dated on the day registration takes place, which could obviously be days or weeks after the birth.

One of the many inconsistencies that can make your job, as a researcher, anything but simple, is the tendency for many names to be reversed on entry to official records. John Henry, for instance might be entered with his surname written first, therefore to all intents and purposes officially making him 'Henry John' today.

Anomalies aside, a lot of helpful information can be derived from birth certificates, which among other things include the child's name and date of birth, the mother's name and maiden name, and usually the father's Christian name, address and occupation. However, after 1875 the father of an illegitimate child could only be named on the birth certificate with his consent.

Other anomalies which might lead to red herrings, or indeed to totally concealing useful information, include such things such as the actual time of birth of a child, multiple births - a fact which might go unnoticed due to the high infant mortality rate of the past.

Marriage certificates provide less detailed information but might provide access to evasive information such as the parties' father's names and occupations, addresses at the date of marriage, and so on. One of the so-called skeletons in most family cupboards is that of parents either not married until after the birth of one or more of their children, or else married in haste as an imminent birth approaches. But though it might upset many clients and their relatives to discover such information relating to their dearly departed, even people still living, it wasn't actually all that uncommon for couples, even several generations ago, to get married because of a pregnancy or birth.

Death certificates amongst other details will usually include age, occupation, location, date and cause of death.

Adoptions certificates. Even where recorded, they often give just the adoptive name of the child and new parents, with no information provided regarding the child prior to adoption, other than the correct date of birth. Incidentally, various legal and social requirements surround access to adoption information, most of it hinging on the age of the individual adopted. It's not always easy to gain access to information even today regarding natural parents, something which might make your job somewhat harder.

County (Parish) Registers

In the majority of instances, parish records are now maintained at central libraries in larger cities, or at the various County Record Offices.

Parish registers in England go back as far as 1538, to the time when Thomas Cromwell ordered all churches to maintain records of baptisms, marriages and burials within the area of their jurisdiction. From 1598, parish clerks were ordered to forward transcripts of the registers every year to their local bishop. This continued until 1837 when civil registration came into being.

Census Returns

Such documents with which we are all familiar today, provide a more than useful insight into a variety of general and often highly personal pieces of information, including the names of all people residing in the household at the time of the census, their ages, relationship to the householder (from 1851), their occupations (from 1851), and the place of birth of all members of the family or household.

Wills and Administrations

Wills can prove an excellent source of material for the genealogist and, in addition to the relative recently deceased, can usually be relied upon to provide information regarding numerous other relatives, whether beneficiaries or not.

The International Genealogical Index (IGI)

The Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints maintains a compilation of names. Baptisms and marriages are included to approximately 1875, usually broken down into counties, and then into surnames and Christian names. IGI statistics are available on the internet as well as at a computer base located in Utah in the United States, a veritable shrine for genealogists. There is a link to this index in the additional resources section.

Military and Professional Records

Records of those in the armed forces were maintained from 1660 onwards, though not always to the quality or accuracy that researchers of today might hope for. Standards incidentally improved shortly into the nineteenth century.

Those seeking out details regarding soldier ancestors might find official discharge papers more than a little useful, particularly where ranks below officer are concerned. Close to home one might find military museums and military societies maintain fairly extensive records on their colleagues of years gone by.

Other Sources of Information

It isn't just to official sources that one might direct time and energy to uncovering facts about families. A host of other useful sources are available from family members, friends and relatives, as well as commercial and other concerns.

As I mentioned earlier, family bibles and photo albums are helpful, as are letters, books, and assorted certificates.

Newspapers

Local newspapers might provide obituary details. Articles and announcements can also provide useful information not always available from any other source. Announcements of births, marriages, divorces and deaths were often placed in the personal columns of local and county newspapers, or national newspapers where prominent families are concerned. Most families would extract the printed material relating to their relatives, usually keeping the same safe in bibles, photograph albums, shoe boxes along with other documents of one sort or another, or sometimes the more organised family might have its own personal scrapbook in which such documented pieces of evidence might be available for reference.

Gravestones - are havens for previously evasive information.

Contacting Resources

Although there are many resources on the internet for genealogical research, the information is still limited. The farther you go back, the more difficult it'll become to locate information online. This is where some letter writing skills will prove useful.

Whether you use email or snail mail, be polite. Please and thank you can go a long way in helping you get the information you are seeking. When using the mail always include a self-addresses, stamped envelope. When writing your letter, be as to the point as possible about the information you're looking for. Be patient. Many of the libraries and societies that you contact have limited staffing and it may take several weeks to get to your request.

How Far Back Can A Family Be Traced?

Though it's not impossible to trace back to the 11th century, the task obviously becomes far more difficult the further back in time you look. Not the least of one's problems being the level of intelligence, writing ability and accuracy of those responsible for whatever records were made of births, marriages and deaths, if, that is, the record was made in the first place.

Online Resources

These days there are more and more genealogical organizations digitizing there records and uploading them to the net. However, you still have to do some sleuthing to find the specific information you're looking for. The data, online, is only as accurate, reliable and useful as the organizations records and record keeping. But, as I said, more and more info is online, and this makes your job much easier. I've included a number of ancestry/genealogical sites in the additional resources section, but you'll want to add to that list.

Putting Your Information Together

Now that you've completed your research you'll want to display all those wonderful tidbits and historical facts you were able to discover. You may choose just to have the pedigree chart and supporting documents in a binder, however, there are many more creative ways to present your primary's ancestry to them and for them and their family.

With the popularity of scrapbooking you may choose to assemble a scrapbook with pictorial evidence of the locations from which their ancestors originated, reproductions of churches, landscapes, landmarks and even gravestones. You could include reduced size copies of birth, marriage and death certificates as well as photos of individual ancestors when available. Copies of newspaper clippings can also be included.

Another option for those so inclined, would be to put your client's family history into writing, making a book for future generations to read. Using photos, newspaper clippings etc. throughout would make the book something the family would treasure and enjoy.

The choices for displaying or recording your clients family history, once you have researched it, are limited only by your imagination. Put some serious thought into this aspect of your business. This could very well be your USP -unique selling proposition. The thing that separates you from your competition, what sets you apart from the rest.

Final Word

If you love to research and are interested in historical documents, then you should be considering this type of business. Meet the demands that people have to find out their family history and make money doing something you love to do.

Additional Resources

Amazon.com Widgets

Genealogy Research Links

XXX

Well ladies and gents, that's today's home business idea. Hope it was thought provoking and entertaining.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Ebook Business

2011-05-09T17:37:00.000-04:00

Ebook Business Overview

The ability to create ebooks places you in an incredibly powerful position. Ebook selling will allow you to make your own unique product; it will make your business different from any of the thousands of sites on the internet competing for the same customers and selling the same products at the same prices. Your information products will only be available from you and because of this they're easier to market. It'll also be much easier to gain media attention or press coverage if or when you choose to promote your product offline.

Uniqueness aside, ebooks are also the easiest products to deliver to your customer, there are no shipping costs or returns due to damaged or lost deliveries. Ebooks are made of electronic data, simply upload your ebook to your web space and allow customers to download it – your delivery costs are virtually zero. Even better, apart from a couple of minor costs at the outset, your business can be run without cost on a shoestring budget.

Ebooks have become desirable because of their instant nature, you pay your money and tada! Two minutes later all the info you need is downloaded onto your computer (or Iphone, PSP or what-have-you). No hassle, no waiting, no lineups. You begin benefitting from your purchase immediately.

What's An Ebook?

To be thorough, and for those not familiar with an ebook, here's short definition: An ebook is a book that's been published in one electronic format or another, and come in many different electronic formats. Sometimes ebooks are created with ebook compilers. That means that the original writings for the ebook are transformed into another electronic format. This can be done for a variety of reasons. Most of them deal with either protecting the ebook from theft or controlling the presentation of the material.

Originally ebooks were books that were turned into web pages or web sites. Compilers were created to transform those websites into an electronic format that would allow users to read the ebook without being connected to the internet. The compiler would transform the html (hyper text markup language) into an exe (executable) file that could be run on a regular IBM compatible computer. Some people still use this format. Unfortunately with all the security concerns most people are turning away from the exe format. Also, the exe format was only good for IBM compatible computers which limited the market.

Today the most common format used is the PDF (portable document format). A PDF document produced on one operating system can be read on almost any other operating system without having to change anything.

Getting Started

Starting an ebook business isn't going to be a walk in the park, nor is it going to get your rich quick. It'll require hours of research and writing, ebook design and compilation (or design) web design, some knowledge of ecommerce, and marketing. Howver, the payoff can be huge. And unlike many other home based businesses you won’t be limited to your region. The beauty of ebooks is that you can publish them and then distribute them throughout the world. This type of global opportunity doesn’t apply to many other home based businesses.

Another advantage of an ebook business is that you're not tied to the regular 9-5 hours of operation. Once you've written an ebook, you'll sell be able to sell it while you’re awake and while your asleep. Most of the work that goes along with setting up an ebook business is done in the beginning stages. This industry is front heavy, meaning it takes much more effort at the start, but after you set up your infrastructure you can continue to sell with very little daily maintenance.

Unlike traditional hard copy publishing or print on demand publishing, which cost you money either in commissions or printing costs, ebook publishing puts you in charge of your own success, your career, your company and your future. You pay for everything and you run everything and you keep all the money.

In the electronic book industry you'll need some software to create a text document, a PDF creation method, a promotion methodology and a way to automate sales.The word processor and PDF creation capability are available for free with Open Office. The promotion method is free. The sales automation will cost a minimal amount.

What You'll Need: Tools & Equipment

No job can be accomplished without the proper tools. The following is a bare bones list of tools that you'll need. You can expand on this list to customize your own tools but what is presented here are the bare minimums.

Obviously you're going to need a computer and an internet connection.

A word processor. Most people use Microsoft Word but I like Open Office because it has a build in PDF creation feature. There are also a number of templates available to help spruce up your ebook. Once you've written your book, you just click on "convert to PDF" and you're done. You just created your ebook. Open Office comes with an entire suite of office productivity programs... and did I mention it's free!

Website creation software. Each ebook you write should have it's own website that describes its contents, presents the offer, and provides a method to make the purchase. You can use Open Office to crete your webpages, but I prefer a dedicated website creation program such as FrontPage. However, there are a number of freeware and opensource html editors available, so you might want to take a little time and check a few out.

A domain name. You should really register a domain name for each ebook you right. This not only demonstrates your professionalism, but also helps bring in targeted traffic, which equals more sales.

Web hosting. Hosts vary so widely in the features they offer, their operating systems, their prices, and so forth that there is no way I could give you an accurate and detailed enough rundown here. You'll need to evaluate each host and what they offer. You'll also need to compare that to your needs. Hosting can be found as cheaply as $1.50 a year or as expensively as $500 a month. Pretty wide gap there, right? A good price range for a decent service for what you'll need should be between $5 and $25 a month. I actually use 2 different hosting companies; One for my publishing end of the business, the other for my marketing: JustHost and GoDaddy. Both offer unlimeted bandwidth, storage, MySQL databases, email accounts and CPanel.

A RAP Bank affiliate account. The easiest way to automate your sales process is to allow someone else to deal with all the hassles. That's where RAP Bank comes in. Like other affiliate programs such as Clickbank or Commission Junction, you can place your ebook in their marketplace and have other people (affiliates) promote it for you. In return you pay the affiliate and Clickbank or CJ a percentage of the sale. With RAP Bank, they handle paying the affiliates, AND you get paid immediately as soon as you or one of your affiliates makes a sale. There's no 60 - 90 day waiting period, and you get paid directly into your PayPal account.

An autoresponder. An autoresponder is similar to an email program. It resides on a computer that is connected full time to the internet. Your hosting account usually comes with an autoresponder feature, but for marketing, it's much better to use an autoresponder service. The autoresponders we're talking about will allow us to set up multiple emails and schedule them to be sent at specific times and dates. They will also allow us to send out one email to everyone on our list. So, if you have 10,000 people on your list you write one email and everyone gets one copy of that email.

There are also many ways to personalize that one email so that it will have each person's information in their email. It's quite easy, actually. As simple as clicking on a personalization item in a list to be inserted at a specific point in your email.

Due to the rampant spamming that occurs on the internet it's vital that you have an autoresponder service provider that knows what they're doing. The best and ONLY autoresponder service provider that I recommend is Aweber. They're well known in the industry and handle things superbly.

Get Ready To Accept Credit Cards

By and large, your ebook buyers will want to pay by credit card. After all, the benefit of ebooks is that they are terribly easy to get. Just type in your credit card number and in a few moments you're reading through a great book!

You should also provide a mail box where visitors can send a check for your ebook, but this is only to show them that you have an address. It adds to your credibility, but don't expect many orders, if any, through this channel. In fact, if you only provide a postal mail box address and do not provide your customers with the ability to click and pay by credit card, you can expect to lose 95 percent of your buyers. However, put the address on the site, and do process orders that come in that way. Use a box that is not your personal residence for reasons of personal security.

Services abound that will accept credit card payments and send you the money. A common one is http://www.paypal.com/. Paypal and most other services charge an upfront fee and percentage, but the charges are reasonable. Get set up immediately. You want your customers to buy immediately.

Writing Ebooks That Sell

When most people decide to write a book or an ebook they think of an idea, research the idea, write the ebook, and then try to sell it. That's actually the worst way in the world to approach the ebook business. The best way to approach writing an ebook is to find out what people want or need and create it for them. They'll appreciate you and the ebook should sell quite well.

If we take this approach we'll have to find a niche. This word is pronounce two different ways by all kinds of marketers. Some pronounce it neesh and others pronounce it nitch. Whichever pronunciation works best for you is okay.

A niche is a specialized area of interest. It's a collection of people that have a highly specific interest. For instance instead of writing about cars you might want to write about model cars. You could "drill down" even further into the niche and write about radio controlled model cars or how to build a model car race track. The primary rule about niches is the nichier it is the better it is. Of course, there are some other features that should be present as well.

- It needs to be something that people spend money on. Lots of people like jokes and search for jokes every day online. Not too many of them buy joke books, though.

- The people who hold this niche interest also have to be irrational spenders. They have to be the kind of people who whip out their wallet and buy stuff even if they don't really need it.

- The most valuable information is the information that sells. We live in the information age. Creation of information products is a natural result. You'll find that a lot of the information products you'll create contain information that can be freely found online.

So why would people buy your ebook if they can find it for free? The same reason people buy newspapers when they could just run around finding out what's going on. Convenience.

You're spending your time researching their topic of interest and compiling the most relevant information into your ebook. Yes, they're buying free information but more than that they're buying your time.

There are tons of ways to search for niches on the internet. Everyone has their own pet theories as to what makes a niche and what doesn't. Finding a profitable niche is part science and part art.

Profitable niches are a combination of searches and specialized areas of interest. You can drill down (find smaller and smaller niches) until you don't really have a viable market to profit from unless you raise the price of your ebook more and more.

On the other hand if you have too many searches you'll find that you have too much competition. So you drop the price lower and lower until it's no longer profitable to make a sale.

You'll want some competition because if nobody is selling in your niche it very likely the reason is because nobody buys in that niche. Let's face it if you're going to open a restaurant you will probably have a higher chance of success building it next to one or more overcrowded restaurants. Too many places to eat will bring failure to someone, though.

One quick way to find out if there is any competition is to do a search for your niche on Google. Look at the sponsored ads on the right. Check and see how many of them are selling ebooks or information related products.

- Nobody selling = nobody buying

- A few selling = profit zone

- Everybody selling = low profit margin

Here are a few links to help you get started finding your niche:

Search for sub niches

http://www.nichebot.com/

Learn about new trends

http://www.trendhunter.com/

Find out what people are looking for on eBay

http://pulse.ebay.com/

If people are buying magazines they'll likely buy ebooks. Find out what topics are already selling.

http://www.magazines.com/

The books that sell are a clear sign of ebooks that will probably sell.

http://www.amazon.com/

Evaluate the trendiness of your topics based on searches and news reports.

http://www.google.com/trends

Find out how many people have searched your for your topic in the last 30 days. You can also discover how much the top bidders are paying to advertise your topic.
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/

Popularity research sites:
http://50.lycos.com/

http://buzz.yahoo.com/

http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html

Pricing Strategies

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the understanding of what digital actually is to the average layperson. This means that we must look at ebooks in a different light in order to determine their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

When it comes to pricing their ebooks, most inexperienced people just seem to slap a price on their products with little time spent thinking about it, why they've priced it like that, and what factors are going to contribute to whether it's a successful decision. But there's a much more to pricing your product than simply making an estimated guess or checking out what other ebooks are selling for.

There are all different formulas and methods for determining the correct price for your ebook. Let's begin with honing in on your ultimate goals. Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing customers to your business or service, or to establishing the credibility of your reputation. If this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your price on the low side. Some authors have even priced their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of new customers. The key is to find a price that maximizes your profits and the number of books you sell.

This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term customers are extremely likely to buy from you again and again as long as the first ebook they buy is of exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.

However, if your book contains valuable and more importantly NEW information, references, or techniques then you should aim to price it on the high end. After you figure out your goal, you must figure out what your audience's need is for your ebook. For example, does your book solve a particular problem? If it does, and solves it in a way that hasn't been written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your book solves a problem or answers questions in a new and unique way, you should price your book as high as you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way, but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the question or problem that your book solves is one that is important and relevant to the majority of your market audience.

If your ideas are not common knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new technique, you will be able to sell books at a high price. Just be prepared for your competition to undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your book.

Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at this high price. So figure out in advance how long you plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when that time is up, change your pricing strategy. If you want to see large profits over customer draw, aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions to their problems at a low price. If your book is aimed at solving one particular problem rather than general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the highest price the market will bear to bring in the largest profits, and plan to discount the book a number of times throughout the year.

Pricing with Regard to Competition

Let's look at how you should price your products with regard to competition. The reason I want to talk about this first, is simple. When you're looking at pricing, the very first thing you're likely to do is say, hey, so what is everyone else charging for similar products? And you may go from there.

Now there's nothing wrong with doing this at all, but there's more to think about, and a lot more questions to ask than a simple can I beat what this guy is charging for his service?

Your price doesn't have to beat everyone else’s out there for you to get sales. This is something that I learned a long time ago. ou really need to be aware of what other people are charging for their products, but that doesn't by any means signal that you have to go out there and beat them. If you have a superiour product then you should sell it at a premium price.

Premium Products Sell at Premium Prices

Wowing Through Price Is a Bad Move

The fact is, if your price is too low, people look at you and wonder why the heck you're charging that tiny oamount. Never price yourself so low that you think people will look and think wow that’s a quality sounding product, look how little it costs! That's not what they're saying at all. They're saying, “Wow, look at how little that costs. There can't be that much to it.” So in effect, all you're doing here is adding even more value to your product through a higher price. It might be the same product, but I tell you now, it's much more likely to sell more copies at a price that someone might look at and think that it's reasonable, or average than something someone might look at and fall off their chair at how cheap you are.

Offer Different Price Plans

Here's a strategy that's rarely used, especially in the world of online marketing and info products, and that's offering different price plans from the word go. Sure people might change their price, put it up and down to experiment, put on offers and so on, but that's not doing much if your original plan isn't well thought out. You iocould offer scaled down versions of your ebook for a lower price; provide an audio version with your ebook for a premium price; add private messaging options for a different price, etc. I'm sure you can come up with other ideas to enable different pricing options for your ebooks.

Don't be afraid to experiment with pricing strategies. I can understand how you might be worried that customers, who bought your ebook costing $79, would be annoyed that they receive an email for a special seasonal offer cutting that cost in half, but it seriously doesn't work that way. You're not offending anyone by doing this, and it's the only way you'll come up with new techniques and tactics yourself, through testing.

Increase Your Profits From Each Ebook

Insert Affiliate Links - This is probably the other and most commonly tapped profit center used by many ebook publishers, aside from making money from the sale. You can make even more money from your ebook readers/customers by recommending a related or follow-up product or service that's closely related to the topic of your ebook. And, of course, you'll be an affiliate for that product and earn a commission if your reader decides to buy the affiliate product.

Sell Advertising Space - Like the newspapers and magazines, you can include a space in one or some parts of your ebook that's available for advertisements. In this blank space, you include something like “this advertising space can be yours!” and then include a link or a way for the potential advertiser to contact you. You can then charge a rate of your choice and the advertiser sends his or her advertisement to you. Then, not only do you provide him or her with a new copy of the ebook that has the ad in it, you also help spread and circulate the “branded” ebook around.

Upsell Other Ebooks In Your Collection - You can see this profit center being used by big time book publishers offline such as The Dummies Series®, Rich Dad Series®, Goosebumps®, and many others. If you're planning to author a collection of books, all housed under your brand, you can’t do any better than this kind of cross-promotion.

Offer the Exclusive Resell Rights - If you have a proven, hot selling product that is currently being sold to your customers for personal use only, selling its Resell Rights would be a HUGE plus. For instance, if you have a proven hot seller that sells at $9.95, you can probably offer limited Resell Rights to your product for 5 to 10 times the price, possibly $97.00 - $197.00! You would be targeting resellers who are established in the same niche as you are. These resellers are good targets if they want to get their hands on an instant product that they can legally resell and pocket 100% of the sales without having to develop their own product.

Ebooks Aren't Just For Authors

Ebook authorship is not just for authors. Anyone who has an interest in anything could write about their interest and convert in into an ebook. Some of the best ebooks are actually from unknown authors and some of the highest selling ebooks have been written by unknown authors who have a knack for online promotion. Your ebook doesn't have to be of epic proportions, volume doesn't always equate to value. Give your readers the facts, present them well, educate them and enrich their lives. If you can do this in say five or ten pages you'll achieve the same result as if you did it in two or three hundred pages - your customers will still be happy and they'll buy from you again. Your ebook(s) don't even have to be entirely original or groundbreaking either. Just as long as you deliver what your reader is expecting... good, solid educational information.

Selling Strategies

Get your ebook listed in online bookstores such as Amazon.com and Half.com. The fee may be worth it to make many more potential readers aware of your book.

Here are a few more shameless promotion techniques you can use:

- Add a link to your ebook web site at the bottom of every email you send for any reason

- Submit your ebook web page to the major search engines. Your hosting service may be able to help you with this, you can purchase Internet marketing software to automatically submit your information to a list of search engines, or you can go to each of your favorite search engines and submit the site yourself

- Pay for clicks from pay-per-click search engines, so people will more readily see your ebook. In this way, you buy traffic to your site

- Buy ad space in e-zines or newsletters that are reaching your target readers

- Create a monthly newsletter, and tout your book in it every month

- As you build your library, provide links to your other ebooks in each of your ebooks

- Use your ebook as a business card. Send it to organizations or businesses where you'd like to be hired as a speaker or teacher

Final Word

Information is one of the biggest sellers on the internet and there's no better way to package your information than an ebook. Many people are making their fortune by creating and selling their own ebooks. Now you too can create your own ebook and rake in some profits as well. There are many, many resources for ebook writers and publishers, so if you feel lost, or a little overwhelmed at first, take a time-out, do some reading and then get your butt in gear. Nothing's ever happened simply because someone thought about doing it. Take Action! And remember to have fun while your learning, experimenting and earning.

Additional Resources

Whether I recommend a site or not, I'd like to let you know that I am in no way affiliated with these companies or individuals. I will not be making money if you visit these sites, and they have not paid for advertising in this post. Therefore, as you bounce around the net, check references where necessary, and feel free to use other services that you may discover along the way.

Ebook ghostwriters:
http://www.elance.com/ - As discussed at length in Chapter 1, this site has a large bank, or database, of ghostwriters looking for work. You can place an ad here and wait for offers to come in.

http://www.guru.com/ - Like Elance only bigger by almost a factor of ten, Guru also has a database of ghostwriters
looking for work.

http://www.truetalentmedia.com/ - This is a writing service I myself have used.

http://www.allfreelance.com/ - This site contains a catalog of writers too that are available to ghostwrite ebooks
(beware popups).

Templates for creating your own ebook covers:

www.marketbymouse.com/ebooks/ebook_templates.php - This site has free, basic ebook cover templates you can copy and add title text to.

www.freeebookcovers.homestead.com/covers1.html - Here you can also find free, simple ebook cover templates you can copy and add title text to. Template designer requests a web link in lieu of compensation.

www.onlinewebcreations.com/ebooks.html - Like the other template sites, this one sports free ebook cover
templates. The template designer requests a web link in lieu of compensation.

Free graphics software:

http://www.irfanview.com/ - Because it's free, I thought it worthy of mention. This program is not specifically for ebook covers, but it contains all the tools you would need to custom-design your own cover. And it doesn't cost a thing.

Third party payment processors

Use a third party payment processor that has a recognizable name or is a large, popular organization. This will make potential customers feel secure and therefore more likely to give their credit card numbers in exchange for your ebook. Here are a few.

https://www.paypal.com/

http://www.verisign.com/

https://www.authorize.com/

Ebook discussion forum:

Here's a place where you can hook up with other people who are in the ebook business. You an ask questions, help others, or just lurk.

www.ebook88.com/forum.htm

Free FTP program:

http://www.ipswitch.com/ - If FTP service does not come with your web hosting service, here's a free program you can use.

Free ebook listing sites:

Things change quickly on the web, so if any of these links don't work at some times, just move on and try another from the list.

http://www.thefreesite.com/

http://www.virtual-ebooks.com/

http://www.ebooksubmit.com/

http://www.download.com/

http://www.freehound.com/

http://www.infochoiceuk.com/

www.virtual-ebooks.com/subsites.htm

http://www.ebookdirectory.com/

http://www.the-ebook-directory.com/

http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/

http://www.free-ebooks.net/

http://www.ebookpalace.com/

http://www.ebooktoday.com/

http://www.kdhbooks.com/

http://www.free-ebooks.com/

http://www.web-source.net/

www.marketing-resources.com/ebook.html

www.serennea.net/special.htm

www.onelist.com/community/Ebook_News

http://ebooks.searchking.com/

www.stealthpromotions.com/e-library1.htm

http://ebookshop.bizland.com/

http://marketing-resources.com/ebook.html

www.ebook2000.com/cgibin/links/add.cgi

http://ebooks4free.netfirms.com/

http://carver.bizland.com/

http://www.bizinfocenter.com/

XXX

That's today's home business idea. I hope it gave you some ideas and inspiration.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Internet Radio Station

2011-05-07T23:57:00.001-04:00

Internet Radio Station Business Overview

Internet radio involves a streaming medium that presents listeners with a continuous "stream" of audio over which they have no control, much like traditional broadcast media; in this respect, it is distinct from "on-demand" file serving. Internet radio is also distinct from podcasting, which involves downloading rather than streaming. Some of the first Internet-only commercial radio stations emerged in 1995.NetRadio "was one of the Internet's original Webcasters," eventually "streaming more than 100 channels including both music and spoken material. At its height, NetRadio offered more than 125 online radio stations and attracted more than 50 million listens per month, but closed shop after the dot com bust because of funding problems .

While traditional AM/FM radio stations struggle to survive in today's highly competitive world of broadcasting, Internet radio stations continue to flourish. With technology that is both affordable and easy to obtain, today's net-savvy citizens are breaking down new barriers everyday and running either Internet radio stations or talk shows.

Starting an online radio show on your own can require costly materials such as microphones, headphones, a station website and server space. However, you can eliminate all of these costs and materials by creating your own online radio show for free by signing up with BlogTalkRadio.com or a comparable platform.

If you want more control and you want a more powerful platform you can use a service such as Live265. In a few steps you can be up and running with your own radio station. There are a lot of reasons for starting up a radio station, and a lot of choices.

How To Earn An Income With Your Internet Radio Station

7 reasons why you can make a lot of money with internet radio:

1. People listen to radio while they work, on the internet and at home. There a thousands of computers on every block and in every home across North America. People love to listen to the radio on the web at work or home while doing other things. One of the fastest growing businesses on the net is multi-media. It has the big broadcasters worried. It is starting to suck into their ad time and that is where you can make a lot of money.

2. If you have your own radio show, famous people seek you out! When you are a host of your own radio show, you can invite them by phone to be on your show. Steve Harrison has a publication RTIR (Radio and TV Interview Report) that you can get signed up for at his web site, and he will send you contact information on how to get famous guests and writers on your internet radio show.

3. People buy products from people who are famous and know famous people! Imagine you on your radio show on the internet taking a short commercial break. The music pans down and the wonderful commercial plugs your book, your service, your name, and your bank account grows. Because you can implement reason 2, you now have greater credibility to sell your products or services on your own radio show. This is how to brand yourself so that you can earn more money. You become your own brand to offer to stars that they will want to associate with because of Buzz (Talk about you in certain famous or powerful social circles). You get the Buzz working for you and your show becomes ‘Hot’ property!

4. Use Affiliates Ads to get companies to send you checks for your web site. Joining an affiliate program to put banner ads on your web site where your radio show is broadcast from, gives you money for clicks or when products sell. The link affiliate company tracks the click through from your web site by a code put into cookies, and you are mailed a check for your commission on the sales. You can join one of these organizations from my web site at InstructionsToMoney.Net and we have a program to add these to your radio page when you broadcast with RIBN.

5. Advertising. Now you can, as the politicians say, do the math yourself. So you have your own show on Internet radio. If you were on normal radio, it might cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. So by being on the internet, blogging, my-space, and through other PR techniques, you got a good amount of listeners.

Your show is one hour, but you are not talking for the whole hour, you are playing ads and news pieces in between talking segments. That is where more money comes in for you. You can sell your advertising time for a few dollars. One 60 second spot on one show nationally costs over $1400.00

So let’s say you decide to sell your ad time at RIBN (Radio Internet Broadcast Network) for $600.00 a minute. RIBN puts the ad in for you and you get it all produced with little effort on your part other that finding some advertisers and talking on your show. RIBN gives you 10 minutes for your own ad time on your show. Other companies have other offers and charge more for their show time on the net (One even tried to sell me at $5,200.00 a show). So to add up your 10 minutes at your price per spot the total is $6,000.00 a show! Now last time I checked there are 52 weeks in a year. 52 times $6,000.00 equals:

That’s $312,000.00 a year!

Now if you’re making that on one hour, couldn’t you double it on two? Why sure you could. Then your total would be $624,000.00 a year and you could do it from your home with a simple computer with only a few modifications.

RIBN will do practically every thing for you from mixing your show and also setting up archive in mp3 podcast format. RIBN is for doing the work for you. It saves you time to be able to talk with companies about advertising on your radio show so it is well worth the small investment for you to have RIBN doing it.

RIBN is the first network of it’s kind that provides media content for free to their hosts and reporters. With RIBN I don’t need any special equipment to get what I need done and they produce my content to some degree. They also allow music programming with a small annual fee for royalties for the music companies. ASCAP and BMI will allow you to play any other their song writer’s music for just a few hundred dollars a year in a license fee.

Now when you first get started, you may not be able to sell time at that price. You will need time to get known and build a listening audience, so lets say you sell your 10 minutes on your radio show for $100.00 each. That is still $1,000.00 a show and you would be making $52,000.00 a year! That is awesome if you ask me.

6. Free news content to add to your radio internet broadcast. RIBN has resources such as Media Link, PR Web, and other providers that have free news or story segments that you can add to your show. Information about IRA’s or real estate are just one click away on the internet to be added to your show. You can read the segments over the phone and have the audio put on your show, or some come in audio web ready formats already. You can obtain more information from RIBN when you sign up for a show with them.

This is good content professionally done so you sound like the big networks and it is free because advertisers get their branding put into the news story with media link and they have already paid for the story to be produced.

This makes it easy for you to have a professional show by using the resources on the web to make you sound like Fox News, ABC, or NBC with out having to hire the big staff to get the piece performed. They allow companies to use this as long as they are a news agency. Working with RIBN makes it easier because they are an internet news agency.

Your show on RIBN is syndicated and you are given every resource to get a quality broadcast up and running in as little time as possible. You can produce a show any way you like with RIBN with only tow exceptions:

Follow all FCC rules and NO FOWL, HATEFUL, OR LUDE LANGUAGE. RIBN is a network that is family friendly so you get more listeners and can sell your ad time to more companies.

7.Ways you can say things that will make you more money. Did you know that the ad agencies on Madison Avenue have psychologists that teach people how to say things in commercials that make them sell? The old ad for Chevrolet that said: “See the USA in YOUR brand new Chevrolet” was designed to make you think of the car as YOURS! You can observe and hear the same things on infomercials on late night TV. The man with the British accent says: "Isn’t that great, Wow, that so amazing, wouldn’t you agree?”These are what sales professionals call closing statements. Phrases of words that get people to buy their products or services. You can use these phrases in your presentation on your radio show to get people to buy your products also. The phrases I use are:

Isn’t it
Wasn’t it
Couldn’t it
Shouldn’t it
Isn’t that true
Don’t you think that’s true?
Wouldn’t you agree?

By having your commercials on a radio show and talking about your products to thousands of listeners on internet radio, using these phrases, you could sell a lot of products, wouldn’t you agree?

Of course you would because the natural response to this question is yes. That is the psychology of using these sentences to make a person want what you have on the radio.

With practice, you will learn to paint ideas and pictures in the minds of your listeners so that they will naturally go to your web site or call your ORDER LINE number. With this knowledge you can also create commercials for your advertisers and increase your marketability by knowing how to produce more customers responding to your advertiser’s spots on your radio show.

One other key phrase you’ll learn to use is a ‘Which’ Question. Now which would you prefer, a one time payment of 9 hundred and 69 dollars or three easy payments of 5 sixty 5?

Notice that by using a ‘which’ question you do not have the options to say no. You only have a choice to pick between two purchase choices.

Can you see how powerful that can be? You can create small marketing seminars on your radio show to close a person to buy your books and products with out ever giving them the choice not to buy!

Ways to network with other authors and earn even more money.

By having your own radio show with RIBN you can meet authors, business persons, and writers who are on the same path to wealth as you. Some of them will be open to associations and partnerships of mutual benefit that will help you make more money. Once you have proven yourself as faithful allies and have them on your radio show, you can establish friendships so that you can network your interests and perhaps invest in businesses or real estate together. One of the greatest sales trainers in the world with books, courses, and a company that trains people to be successful, Zig Ziglar puts it this way:

“You can get anything in life you want, if you help enough other people get what they want”

Streaming or Podcasting: Which Should You Use?

There are more choices today for creating and distributing your own Radio program than any time in history!

That’s really amazing when you think of it. What used to only be only possible through AM and FM radio stations (aside from amateur radio) can now be done through the Internet via streaming or Podcasting. What's more: for practically nothing, you can reach a global audience!

Anyone with a small budget can create their own Internet Radio station to air his or her own programs. Or, you can spend practically no money and Podcast. Podcasting has quickly become cost efficient and in some cases, free. Plus: it’s now easier than ever to create your own Podcast and you don't need to learn any coding.

The Main Difference - Delivery

The main difference between streaming audio and Podcasting is the distribution method and the content load.

Generally, a streaming station can carry more than one program continuously, should you choose. That means you can webcast you all day and all night. All someone needs to do is have a software player to tune in.

Streaming means you're serving up the audio and wherever it is in your programming schedule is where the listener will start listening when he/she tunes in.

Podcasting is different. Podcasts are usually smaller, self-contained programs which are pre-recorded by you and uploaded to a location (server) where they reside until a listener decides to retrieve the audio program. The listener decides which program to listen to and when.

If you air your Radio program on your own Internet radio station, you should keep in mind that the stream will most likely be available 24-hours-a-day. You might want to continuously loop your program and as you add more, just fill in the schedule. Or, you might want to offer space on your station to others who are creating similar programs. And remember: when using a provider like Live365.com (Buy Direct) to host a stream, you can create pre-recorded shows (or programming segments) or do live broadcasts. There’s a lot of flexibility for very little cost.

If the thought of being the “Program Director” of an Internet radio station as well as a “talent” creating a program seems a little much, then consider starting out offering your show as a Podcast.

Podcasting Can be a Simpler Solution

Podcasts are very flexible. You can create any length show, as often or as seldom as you like. Then, you can upload it into your blog or Podcast provider and let listeners retrieve it and listen as they like.
Once you create a show it will be available as long as you wish. Using Podcasts, you can quickly build a library of shows to offer listeners.

Podcasts are generally recorded ahead of time, allowing you to fuss and mix everything just right. Although all you need is an inexpensive microphone and your computer to create a simple Podcast, some enthusiasts create elaborate sound studios in their home or office to build very professional shows. This is a personal preference. I advise people to start out slow and small and see how you like it. Then, as you grow so can your tools.

There are many resources for both creating programs on streaming Internet Radio stations or as Podcasts.

If you already have decided that you want to stream an Internet station from your own server and you're looking for Windows or MAC sofware solutions, see the Server Software for Streaming Audio and Internet Radio Broadcasting section within the Radio.about.com website.

But, for easy and economical Internet Radio streaming options which require no technical knowledge, familiarize yourself with Live365.com

Tools And Equipment

Tools For Recording

So, you’ve decided on what kind of Radio shows you want to record and maybe even which way to deliver them: streaming or Podcasting. Now, the task is to actually create these shows.

Your needs can be very simple to more complex depending on the type of program you’re going to distribute. For instance: if you’re going to create a Podcast where only you will be speaking, you could - at the very least- “get away” with using an inexpensive headset microphone and free software.

If you want to increase the quality of your broadcast, there are many types of microphones which range in quality and price. For affordable voice recording, I recommend a unidirectional, dynamic-type microphone. Radio Shack sells inexpensive ones and you’ll also find a good selection of higher quality mikes at most music stores.

If you want to create a radio show which features your voice, music, and maybe even other “in-studio” guests or guests on the telephone, you’re going to most likely find a “mixer” a very needed tool in this process.

Audio Mixers

There are two varieties of mixers: hardware and software. What I’m referring to at the moment is a hardware mixer which will physically take the audio output from, say, your microphone, a guest microphone, your CD player (cassette, etc.), or possibly a guest on the telephone and “funnel” or “mix” it all down into one output of audio which you can then input into your computer for digital recording.

Using a hardware mixer allows you to visibly set your sound levels on-the-fly and individually for each audio source. This is how many traditional radio studios and recording studios do it.

Hardware mixers can be found in a very wide choice of prices. At home for my recording needs, I use a Radio Shack 4-Channel Stereo Sound Mixer which features an input for 1 microphone and 4 additional audio inputs. It will also cross-fade between left and right, fade any or all channels at once, mix in mono or stereo and even provide a rudimentary treble and bass control.

My particular unit cost around $60 but at the time of this writing Radio Shack has a newer, streamlined model for $39.00. This is very low end but the signal-to-noise ratio, which is a measure of signal strength relative to background noise, is surprisingly acceptable as is the amount of hum (stray magnetic fields that produce audible noise). Radio Shack also carries a 4 channel/3-Band Equalizer Sound Mixer for about $149.

In addition to a microphone and a mixer, I also use an Alesis 3630 compressor unit to boost the performance of my microphone. Compressors add body and fullness to spoken word and most radio stations and many recording studios use similar equipment on their mikes. This is definitely a luxury but these units are not that pricey. This particular unit is around $100 dollars. You can compare prices here.

This is my setup or “rig” but you can create whatever you’re comfortable with. My little home studio costs a total of about $210 when you add it all up which is really dirt cheap. But, I can also do wonderful audio enhancements because I use a recording application called Adobe Audition (formerly Cool Edit Pro) which is basically a recording studio in-a-box.

With this software I can fix audio, amplify it, equalize it, add reverb, mix it, change the pitch, add a host of effects, filter out noise and much more. Adobe Audition is also a software mixer and I can create multi-tracked projects - one track at a time - and then mix it all down exactly as I want it.

Besides the hardware/mixer route, there are other software-based solutions for recording and mixing sound including WebPod Studio and iPodcast Producer.

More Accessories

If you’re going to be recording guests on the telephone, you might want to check out Teletool 2000. It lets you record telephone conversations or voice messages directly to your PC. Compare prices by clicking here.

And finally: save on long distance calls when talking with guests by signing up for a free account at Skype. Skype is a little piece of software that lets you make free calls over the Internet. It’s free and easy to download (Download Direct) http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home

Original Material, Music Royalties & Getting Guests

If you’re going to do a radio show that features music created by someone else, you will be responsible for paying royalties for the right to webcast that music.

Streaming Rates: There’s No Free Lunch

There are different rates for commercial webcasters, broadcast simulcasters (an AM or FM for instance), small commercial webcasters/simulcasters, non-commercial webcasters/simulcasters and even non-commercial educational entities. Rates vary but nobody gets a free ride. You can see the various rates here.

When you stream a radio station through Live365.com (Buy Direct), one of the real nice aspects of using that service is your monthly fee also includes the royalties you owe for whatever music you play. Boy, does that take the hassle and worry out of things!

Podcasting Rates: What Rates?

When it comes to Podcasting, as of this writing, things are a bit gray.

By contrast to webcasting, a podcast may include a reproduction of a sound recording. Podcasting is an interactive activity. It results in the transmission of a sound recording which is fixed and is accessible on demand by the user. The reproduction requires clearances or licenses - for the sound recording, and for the musical work.

Although the performance rights societies offer licenses to cover the musical works in a podcast, no uniform or industry-wide licensing scheme has developed yet to cover the sound recording.

So, technically somebody is owed something for music or other copyrighted aural works offered within Podcasts but this arena is not yet being policed as stringently as webcasting is. I think the music companies are trying to figure out how exactly to do that.

Meanwhile, there are no doubt thousands of Podcasters using copyrighted music in their programs and not paying fees. I suspect that will change sometime in the future.

Original Programming

For those Podcasters who make available original programming featuring interviews or audio they originate themselves or who own copyrights to any music they distribute, they need not worry about the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group which represents the recording industry.

You can Webcast or Podcast any material you own the rights to. You can also allow someone the same rights by granting them permission.

Of course, if you have a talk show, you won’t have to deal with the royalty issue since more likely than not, everything you say will be original.

Where Do You Find Guests?

Finding guests for your radio shows isn’t as hard as you think. There are various resources on the Internet which offer access to authors, experts, and interview subjects like:

Yearbook.com
ExpertClick.com
PodcastGuests.com
Radio/TV Interview Report

Another excellent way to find topics and guests is to peruse the hundreds of press and news releases that are put out over the Internet through various Press Release portals. You can find a good list here.

Steve Harrison has a publication RTIR (Radio and TV Interview Report) that you can get signed up for at his web site, and he will send you contact information on how to get famous guests and writers on your internet radio show.

Option For Setting Up Your Radio Station

Ubroadcast

ubroadcast.com allows anyone to easily set up an Internet radio broadcast and begin transmitting almost instantly from any location with ubroadcast's software and an Internet connection. To this end, ubroadcast has just released its "Station Manager" software which allows users to host a live radio show.

The software lets the user broadcast live at any time to ubroadcast listeners or upload MP3 and WAV music files, commercials, and other pre-recorded content to play on their ubroadcast station 24 hours-a-day. ubroadcast also claims "...several enhanced features will soon be released to provide a full interactive experience between broadcaster and listener unlike anything else currently available in traditional or Internet Radio."

The software is designed to be used by someone with no prior broadcast experience. It is divided into several areas including station content (Add CDs, Add MP3s, Manage Ads, Manage Playlist), station options, LIVE status, and File upload status.

Because the Federal Communications Commission does not regulate Internet broadcasting, broadcasts on ubroadcast are uncensored. In addition to the live user generated content, ubroadcast also offers HD quality music and other premium content stations.

To listen to ubroadcast streams, download the free "player" software available at ubroadcast.com. At the time of this writing, the "Station Manager" software is also a free download.

I have not been able to accurately assess what - if any - future fees might be in the works from ubroadcast itself.

At the moment, the software and broadcasting privileges are at no cost. I have no indication if this is for now or forever.

Then, there's the music royalty issue. Although there are no royalty fees required from a radio show which features talk programming YOU create, incorporating copyrighted music into your broadcast requires either a waiver from the artist (unlikely) or a royalty payment. ubroadcast points out at its website:

"All broadcasters must adhere and agree to the rules set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, (the 'DMCA') as well as our own broadcasting Terms and Conditions. If you have any question as to the use of a particular copyrighted work, or are unsure if you have permission to use it in a broadcast, it is best not to do so."

I inferred from this statement that ubroadcast is suggesting copyright and royalty issues are your concern as the actual broadcaster.

Speaker.com

Spreaker.com is not the first website devoted to helping people create their own radio shows. But, it does provide some new tools for helping you create one and share it.

Spreaker lets you create any kind of radio show with the help of a "DJ console" which, according to the website, "allows real-time mixing of voice, music and sound effects." This software allows you to switch back-and-forth to live broadcasting or podcast recording. There are controls for your microphone, two decks for music with slider controls for mixing, a sound effects library, and a few other controls to indicate recording, commercial breaks, and more.

Go Live!

You can broadcast live on Facebook and other social media sites with Spreaker, providing an interactive opportunity for you and your listeners. But, you don't have to be live - or broadcasting all the time. You can schedule your show. Spreaker is also an easy solution for creating podcasts.

Plus: there's no need to worry about paying royalty fees for music you play because Spreaker gives you access to a 4,000 track library of royalty-free music.

If you have a blog or website, you can embed the Spreaker player to make it very easy for site visitors to listen to your radio shows or podcasts.

Broadcast or Just Listen

Obviously, with radio shows and podcasts constantly being created, Spreaker is building up a library of content which you can listen to on-demand. You don't need to create an account just to listen and can browse by genre.

To broadcast you do need to create an account which requires your name, email, and a password. The learning curve for Spreaker is very low and the website has even created video tutorials to help you get up and running.

At the moment, Spreaker is free.

BlogTalkRadio.com

A quick way to set up a talk show:

1 Visit BlogTalkRadio.com. Click the link marked "Start your free talk show" at the top of the home page.

2 Fill out the registration page that loads onto your screen. Check the box marked "I want to host my own show."

Submit the registration information.

3 Click the link marked "My BlogTalkRadio" that now appears at the top of the BlogTalkRadio.com home page when you are logged in. Edit your account information to name your show and provide other profile information.

4 Return to the "My BlogTalkRadio" and click the link marked "Add/Edit an episode." Schedule the first episode of your free online radio show.

5 Open your online switchboard from the "My switchboard" link in "My BlogTalkRadio." Use the switchboard to field calls and play audio files during your scheduled online radio show's broadcast.

Read the welcome package and important user information before attempting your first life BlogTalkRadio show.

Live365.com

1. Find an internet radio provider. One of the most popular is Live365.com. Sign up for an individual or pro account, which start at $9.95 a month.

2. Download radio software. For instance, Live365 uses the software Studio365--a user-friendly interface that allows for mp3s, AAC and Wav files. Most importantly, these files will upload to Live365's server, so you won't have to set up a separate server for hosting audio files. The advantage of Live365 is they have the right to host copyrighted songs, so you avoid legal issues.

3. If you don't use a service like Live365, you will have to pay licensing fees out of your own pocket. Determine if a song has been licensed by ASCAP, SESAC or BMI. Contact each of these entities for licensing rights to songs. If you broadcast copyrighted material independently, you'll need to pay for the right to do so--usually a few hundred dollars for each license. This is one of the reasons people pay a monthly fee to a place like Live365--to avoid these costs. However, Liver365 can look more generic.

4. Next, you need to file a "Notice of Use of Sound Recordings under Statutory License" with the United States Copyright Office. This will allow you to play songs for a set fee per song. Note: This fee could go up in the near future (see Warning below). This new fee will apply to Live365 users as well.

5. If you're setting up an independent station, get a program like the SAM Broadcaster. Similar features to the Live365 program. It's a bit more powerful, with better EQ features, info screens (album cover, other info), as well as statistics about the number of listeners. Check out spacialaudio.com for more details.

6. If you're uploading songs to your own server, you're going to need a program like Shoutcast (Shoutcast.com).

Unlike Live365, you host the show on your own server. Keep in mind that as a radio show grows in popularity, you may need to get additional server space. For some, this won't ever be a problem if the demographic is small.

Download Shoutcast's Shoutcast Server application, which allows you to stream online via Shoutcast.

7. If you're only broadcasting your own songs or running a talk show, you won't have to worry about copyright issues. However, you're still going to want a fully-featured software package to run the show. For talk radio, it's important to have live broadcast capability, so you can take calls and do interviews online. Live365 and SAM can both handle live broadcasting. Icecast is another server option, good for live broadcasting.

8. Get yourself a good microphone and USB interface if your computer doesn't have a decent soundcard for inputting a mic. You can then use Winamp, Live365 or other program to record your radio program. You can also use programs like Audacity or GarageBand to edit together a podcast.

Notes:

Radio shows are a good idea for schools, businesspeople, musicians or just music lovers. Often schools are starting online-only radio stations to convey information about the school--much like a newsletter. Students can also run individual stations.

Make sure that the radio station can be played on a variety of media, such as iTunes, Real Audio, Windows Media Player and others. The station will be able to reach the widest number of listeners.

There's a caveat to all this: There will potentially be new legislation on the books which could end up with Internet radio stations being charged the same royalty per song as traditional radio. If you run a voice-only podcast, this isn't a problem. If you play songs, be on the lookout for the new legislation. Check out Savenetradio.org for info about the Internet Radio Equality Act.

freestreamhosting.org

1. Download Internet radio broadcasting software; see the Resources section for examples.

2. Add music to the library of your software. To do this, select "Add Music," browse for your music folder and select the songs you wish to add.

3. Find a third-party server to host a stream of your radio show; see the Resources section for examples.

4. Configure the broadcast settings on your software, which creates a link between the software and the stream to enable live broadcasting. Your third-party server provides all the settings and information. This includes bit rate (quality of the stream), server IP (the address of the Web server) and the port (your personal output and a password).

5. Start mixing. Don't forget to let people know where to find your radio show.

Note: you'll need to press "Start" once you have logged in for the first time; this will activate the server.

How to Broadcast Your Programs

1 First off, to break it down, you will need a music player to broadcast with. I prefer Winamp and highly recommend it so get it if you don't already have it.

2. Next you'll need to download and install a DSP plug-in so Winamp or your music player can broadcast the station. Winamp offers their own plug-in and server you can use called SHOUTcast. You can also use your own server and DSP although I recommend SHOUTcast for beginners, it will handle all of the streaming and host you on their own third party server so you can worry about what you want to play on your station.

3. Once you have downloaded Winamp and the SHOUTcast plug-in and have everything installed, start Winamp and open Preferences ( Ctrl+P ) and click on the DSP / Effects category below the Plug-ins tree.

4. Setup the DSP plug-in until it's configured properly. Afterward, play the Winamp player like you normally would, it will broadcast whatever is currently playing on your music player in real-time!

Notes:

Refer to the README file that comes with the DSP installer for additional instructions on how to use SHOUTcast Radio DSP.

Now all you need is listeners, you can choose whether to make your station public and be listed in the SHOUTcast Radio directory.

If you start getting too many listeners and take too much bandwidth, SHOUTcast won't host you on their server, so you'll need to find a third party hosting solution in your budget range.

Free Streaming Media Software

Icecast

Icecast is a free streaming media project maintained by the Xiph.org Foundation. Icecast is an audio broadcast system that manages both music and voice streaming. Typically, icecast and its streaming utilities use both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis formats. Listeners can connect to icecast servers using a variety of client applications.Chances are good that if you have ever listened to radio stations over the Internet they were using icecast or some related open source technology for their streaming needs.The LiveIce utility was developed for icecast to provide real-time streaming over the internet.

Freecast

FreeCast is a free software application which allows peer-to-peer streaming, sometimes called peercasting. It makes possible an audio (Ogg Vorbis) or video (Ogg Theora) stream broadcast to a large number of listeners from a simple DSL connection.The distributions can be download from http://download.freecast.org./

FireFly

Firefly Media Server (formerly mt-daapd) is an open-source media server (or daemon) for the Roku SoundBridge and iTunes. It serves media files using Roku Server Protocol (RSP) and Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP)

PeerCast

PeerCast is an open source streaming media multicast tool. PeerCast uses peer to peer technology to minimize the necessary upload bandwidth for the original multicastor. Peercast can be used to multicast streaming audio (Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WMA) and/or video (Ogg Theora, Nullsoft Streaming Video, or WMV), or any other stream of data, over the internet. Peercast uses a distributed bandwidth technique to lighten the load of the broadcaster's upstream bandwidth where each listener/viewer will relay the stream they download to one or more additional listeners.

Broadwave

Broadwave serves live or pre-recorded audio over the internet (audio webcast) via the http protocol in mp3. Broadwave allows users to stream audio on a website without the lag time whether you have pre-recorded or live audio.A free version has full features but requires you to host a link . If you do not want to have a link you can buy BroadWave Professional.

SHOUTcast

SHOUTcast is a multiplatform freeware digital audio streaming technology developed by Nullsoft. It allows audio content, primarily in MP3 or HE-AAC format, to be broadcast to and from media player software, enabling hobbyists and professionals to create Internet radio networks.

Audio encoding

mp3 and Ogg Vorbis

There are two major audio formats used for internet radio broadcasts, mp3 and Ogg Vorbis. Mp3 is the de facto standard encoding for the transfer and playback of music on mp3 players .MP3's use of a lossy compression algorithm is designed to greatly reduce the amount of data required to represent the audio recording and still sound like a faithful reproduction of the original uncompressed audio for most listeners, but is not considered high fidelity audio by audiophiles. An MP3 file that is created using the mid-range bit rate setting of 128 kbit/s will result in a file that is typically about 1/10th the size of the CD file created from the original audio source.Bit rates can vary from 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 80, 96, 112, 128, 144, 160, 192, 224, 256 and 320 kbit/s, and the available sampling frequencies are 32, 44.1 and 48 kHz. A sample rate of 44.1 kHz is almost always used, because this is also used for CD audio, the main source used for creating MP3 files. A greater variety of bit rates are used on the Internet. 128 kbit/s is the most common, because it typically offers adequate audio quality in a relatively small space. 192 kbit/s is often used by those who notice artifacts at lower bit rates.

As the Internet bandwidth availability and hard drive sizes have increased, 128 kbit/s bit rate files are slowly being replaced with higher bit rates like 192 kbit/s, with some being encoded up to MP3's maximum of 320 kbit/s.ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, or other information about the file to be stored in the file itself.Tag editing functionality is often built-in to MP3 players and editors, but there also exist tag editors dedicated to the purpose (see filerename.co.uk for a free open source example).

Vorbis is a free and open source, lossy audio codec project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and intended to serve as a replacement for MP3.The Vorbis format has proven popular among supporters of Free software. They argue that its higher fidelity and completely free nature, unencumbered by patents, make it a well-suited replacement for patented and restricted formats like MP3.Software supporting Vorbis exists for many platforms.

Although Apple iTunes does not natively support Vorbis, the Xiph.Org Foundation provides a QuickTime component which can be used in iTunes and QuickTime on both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. On Windows, DirectShow filters existto decode Vorbis in multimedia players like Windows Media Player and others which support DirectShow. Vorbis is well-supported on the Linux platform in programs like XMMS, xine, and many more.

More information about Vorbis-supporting software can be found at the Xiph.Org Foundation wiki. Users can test these programs using the list of Vorbis audio streams available on the same wiki.The ever-popular Winamp can also play ".ogg" vorbis files.

Other audio formats are Windows Media Audio, RealAudio and HE-AAC
Encoding tools to transform raw or encoded audio into a compressed format such as MP3 or Ogg Vorbis One of the more popular encoders for transferring audio to MP3 format is LAME.LAME can be found at
http://lame.sourceforge.net/.

Programming

Once you've decided which way your going to go in regards to getting your radio station up and running (a free service such as BlogTalkRadio or Speaker or create your station from scratch -with your own hosting, software and equipment), you then have to start planning your programming. You'll need to make decisions about what music you'll play (if music is part of your plan), what guests you'll need to invite, what shows you'd like to do, what information you want to share, what types of advertising you're going to sell. All these decisions have to be made and then organized. Radio stations run 24/7, although yours doesn't have to, if you want to get the most from your station it should. Listeners will be tuning in from all over the world, from different time zones and at different times of the day. By preparing a program you'll also be able to announce when a specific guest or show will be on air, what bands or songs will be features, etc.

Determine your format

Maybe you want to offer a variety of programming or stay within a certain genre such as sports or politics. Either option is workable but you need to determine what audience you're hoping to reach. With a voracious appetite for information, internet users are some of the most loyal audiences for information-based programming.

Now that you have determined your format, bring on enthusiastic experts within whatever field you have decided to present. Keep in mind that many times Internet listeners are multi-tasking and you don't want your program to just become background noise. A knowledgeable, enthusiastic host will keep your listeners interested and coming back for more.

Mind Your Schedule

Just because it is the Internet doesn't mean that you should ignore time factors. Keep your program moving and on time. If you are a one-hour show, keep it to one hour! The FCC won't care but your listeners like to budget their time and going over schedule can be irritating and show a lack of respect for your listeners' time. You should consider having a producer for each show that can assist the host(s) with staying on time and taking timely breaks.

Legal Stuff

An Internet radio station is an audio broadcasting service transmitted through the Internet. Because Internet broadcasting does not broadcast through radio waves or use limited frequencies that require licensing, it does not fall under FCC rulings. So you don't need a license in America as a broadcast station would . If you are broadcasting copyrighted material, you may need to pay a royalty .Websites with info on licensing in America:
LoudCity and Swcast are the best options for a small operation. For larger operations there are BMI, ascap, SoundExchange and SESAC. In the U.K ppluk and MCPS.

Final Word

So now you have your own show on http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ and you may feel a bit lost with all that is before you and have more questions. You can find a lot of information online, Remember that you control your show and it’s content. Although the internet has few restrictions that you might find in a normal terrestrial AM or FM station, if you want to expand your fame and gain Affiliates (AM, FM, or satellite networks that broadcast your show) you will need to run your show in a professional manor. The first thing is if you are an adult show, with foul language, you should rate it adult in the options when you add a segment in the dash board controls when scheduling your shows. This is important in that there are children on the internet under 18 that can not listen to adult language or content. If you want to be picked up on AM & FM stations you must comply with FCC rules also.

That is why Howard Stern moved to satellite radio. Radio Stations pay fines for foul words on the air and announcers MUST HAVE AN FCC LICENSE to broadcast on AM or FM stations but NOT ON THE INTERNET. Many announcers have lost their licenses with the FCC or have had the license suspended for breaking FCC rules on AM & FM.

If you want to be on AM or FM and attract affiliate stations to play your show you need to get an FCC 3rd Class Broadcast Endorsed license. There is a short test and a small fee with helps and study material at http://www.fcc.gov/. If you're in Canada, you'll need to submit an application with the CRTC. You can submit
your application online at http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/b313.htm

Additional Resources

Librarian of Congress on Rates and Terms for Webcasting and Ephemeral Recordings
http://www.copyright.gov/carp/webcasting_rates_final.html

Video Series - How To Build An Online Radio Station
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_5888_build-online-radio-station.html

Gcast.com
http://www.gcast.com/

Free Stream Hosting
http://freestreamhosting.org/

We provide free Shoutcast hosting for internet radio stations and individuals that are unable to use paid streaming services, or anyone that just wants to have a go at broadcasting their own radio shows. With our fast, reliable servers, you don't need to worry about your stream buffering when you get too many listeners for your connection to handle - we take care of the bandwidth requirements for you.

The following services and more are included with every FreeStreamHosting account:

Free listing on StationFinder
All streams are listed on stationfinder.org as well as being featured on the free toolbar.
www.StationFinder.org

Free Shoutcast server
A free shoutcast server with a generous 1000 listener limit in up to CD quality 128k.

Free shout box
Your listenes can chat with you and each other in real time using our InstantChatBox.
www.InstantChatbox.net

Free listener statistics
See how many people are listening to your broadcast and where they are from.

Spreaker.com
http://www.speaker.com/

Spreaker provides you with a user-friendly console to manage voice, special effects, and your music library. You could be on air right now! Go live or pre-record episodes and broadcast them later. Invite your friends to follow your show, share your episodes on facebook, and tag and categorize your episodes for easy navigation.

Shoutcast Software Links
http://www.shoutcast.com/

Sopcast
http://www.sopcast.org/

SopCast is a simple, free way to broadcast video and audio or watch the video and listen to radio on the Internet.

Adopting P2P(Peer-to-Peer) technology, It is very efficient and easy to use. Let anyone become a broadcaster without the costs of a powerful server and vast bandwidth. You can build your own TV stations comparable with large commercial sites with minimal resources. Using SopCast, you can serve 10,000 online users with a personal computer and a home broadband connection.

SoP is the abbreviation for Streaming over P2P. Sopcast is a Streaming Direct Broadcasting System based on P2P. The core is the communication protocol produced by Sopcast Team, which is named sop://, or SoP technology.

Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission
http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/INFO_SHT/b313.htm

FCC
http://www.fcc.gov/

XXX

Well that's today's home business idea. I hope you found the information on starting your own internet radio station helpful. I could have turned this post into a book once I began researching all the options available :-) If this is the business you've decided to begin, do some research of your own and find the best choice for you. And don't forget to have fun.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

YouTube Video Production Business

2011-05-06T16:57:00.000-04:00

YouTube Video Production Business Overview

If you like creating videos, and you're familiar with Youtube, then starting a home based YouTube video production business might be a perfect fit for you. This is a home business that works well both online and offline. You can offer your services to the online marketing and business community and to offline businesses as well.

The offline portion of your YouTube video procution business is simple. Approach local businesses who have a shop, storefront or studio setup (you could potentially target work from home business people as well but people with office locations will be easier to start with) and offer to create a Youtube commercial. If you have your own camera or if you need to borrow a camera, this strategy would be very quick and easy to pull off. For a flat fee, you can film, produce, edit and publish their commercial to Youtube and all of the other major video hosting social networks.

Getting Started

Arrange for a camera as mentioned above. Begin making in person cold calls to businesses in your local market. If cold calling is something you're uncomfortable with (like me) then you could advertise in your local paper, distribute flyers or drop off brochures to local commercial establishments. To maximize your efficiency, select an area with a number of different businesses condensed into a very small area.

Enter the business with camera (and possible small tripod if possible/necessary) in hand. Approach the first business person you see and tell them you are a local video marketer. Use an introduction line similar to the following:

“Hello. I am a local video marketer and I help small businesses showcase their business, their staff and their products/ services using video. I am working with a production crew this week to film, edit and produce internet based commercials. If you have 15 minutes or so, I can do a quick shoot right now and have your new commercial up and running before the end of the week. Is that something of interest?”

Use this opening to begin a dialog and eventually pitch your sale. If you have a reasonable price, for example $50 or $100 for full product, they might be very willing to make the impulse purchase. If needed, show them a list of all of the video sites you will promote it to. The list could look something like this:

Youtube
Google Video
Vimeo
Viddler
DailyMotion
Metacafe
Yahoo Video
Veoh
VideoSift
etc.

Once you have a sale and footage complete, take your raw footage to fiverr and have an editor put together all of the clips into a nice 1-2 minute video. If you have the ability to do it yourself, you can save the $5 and just use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie on the Mac. Upload the video to all the networks and follow up with the business owner to show them the final product. Have an upsell prepared (for example, Social networking services, web design, etc...).

Even if you don't plan on marketing your YouTube video production business online, it's advisable to still have your own website to display your end product and describe your services. It also looks more professional for a YouTube Video production company to have a web presence of their own. If you've never designed your own website and don't feel you have the skills or the time to do it yourself, you can get one designed very affordably. Just go to elance, or odesk and look through the freelancers ads or place one of your own.

Don't forget to create your own YouTube commercial to promote your own home business. You can then use it to showcase your work and educate your prospects on what you offer, how it will benefit their business, and what they'll get for their money.

For more details on editing your own video, read Wedding Videographer Business. That post goes into much more detail regarding the technical aspects of working with video.

XXX

Okay, that's today's home business idea. Stay tuned for another one tomorrow.

P.S. If you have any suggestions or ideas that you think might make a good home business, let me know and I'll see what info I can dig up on it for you.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Sample Marketing Schedule for Internet Marketers

2011-05-06T16:50:00.000-04:00

Do you do internet marketing? Even if you sell a product or a service online, internet marketing must be a component of your business plan. Remember, you will not make a sale if consumers do not know you have a product or service available. For that reason, incorporate internet marketing into your to-do list if you haven’t already.

As previously stated, it is important to incorporate internet marketing into your daily to-list. In fact, you will want to do more than that. Internet marketing is such as huge component of selling a product or service online, that you need to devote a lot of time to it. At least once a week, have a day where you do nothing but market or advertise online.

If you aren’t technically classified as an internet marketer, but still need to do the job, you may be looking for guidance. After all, an entire workday is a lot of time to devote to a subject you may be unfamiliar with. This does not mean that you can simply skip internet marketing or give it less attention. It means that you need to develop a daily and detailed schedule.

When creating a daily detailed schedule, start with blocks of time. It is best to start with one hour. During the first hour of your workday, list an internet marketing task or two to complete. For the next hour, move onto a new task. A schedule not only helps you stay focused and on task, but it enables you to devote time to multiple internet marketing tactics, as opposed to focusing solely on one.

So, what should your internet marketing schedule look like for the day?

* 9am to 10am

Write, proofread, and submit one 500-word article to EzineArticles.com

* 10am to 11am

Visit “sample,” forum to market website. Check signature links before posting.

Create a link on the “advertise your business section,” of forum.

* 11am to 12pm

Design a banner for upcoming link exchanges or paid advertising slots.

* 12pm to 1pm

Ask three webmasters for link or banner exchanges.

Research page rank and popularity of websites. Inquire about advertising rates.

Take a break for lunch.

* 1pm to 3pm

Create keyword optimized content and update website with that content.

* 3pm to 4pm

Send 1 advertisement update on Twitter and search for questions to answer with @replies.

Visit Squidoo.com to update page and review links. Update lens with a new paragraph.

Add a blog post. Remember to incorporate a link leading to website.

* 4pm to 5pm

Review internet marketing forums; look for new marketing ideas.

Finish up lose end projects.

Create a to-do list for tomorrow.

The above mentioned sample was just that, a sample. The above mentioned steps are all forms of internet marketing, but there are other approaches available. Incorporate those into your schedule. Your schedule may not be the same as the above, but the layout should be similar.

In addition to trying different internet marketing techniques, your productivity will impact your schedule. If you are a slow typer and proofreader, it may take you more than one hour to write an article and submit it to an article directory. If it does, do not let this get you down. The best way to improve your use of time is with practice. In fact, practice makes perfect.

As you continue to work with your schedule you'll become more adept at allotting the right amount of time for each task, finding new ways to market your home business, and better ways of actually getting things done.

As a home based business owner you have a lot to do and only a finite amount of time to do it in. Schedules and to-do lists really do help you to be more productive, more organized and more profitable.

XXX

Until next time,

Terry

Ezine Publishing Business

2011-05-05T18:39:00.000-04:00

Brief Home Based Ezine Publishing Business Overview

The object, of course, of any business is to make a profit. So a home based ezine publishing business is no exception. When people subscribe to your online newsletter or ezine, their object is to get the information that you are able to provide to them. When people subscribe to your online newsletter or ezine, your object is to make money by supplying that information. With the expansion and diversity of businesses and hobbyists into more and more specialized areas of endeavor, there is an increasing need for more information in ALL areas. And ezines (electronic magazines) are the high profit way to cash in on that market.

Just as ezine advertising has slowed down, paid subscription ezines are emerging as the next hot trend. More and more, the concept of free content on the internet is giving way to paid-for information and ezine publishing is no exception with ezine publishers beginning to charge for subscription to their ezines in lieu of (or in addition to) running paid ads.

So what does all this mean for you, the would-be internet entrepreneur? Quite simply, if you're an expert in anything (and we all are), or are willing to become one, you can turn that knowledge into the foundation of an online business by publishing an ezine on that subject, including your own original articles on a regular basis (don't bother just regurgitating someone else's - if you're publishing them, so are others and the object of the exericse is to make an original contribution) and either accepting paid advertising or charging subscribers a subscription fee.

What's really great about starting a home based ezine business is that you can write and produce your own ezine, with a potential for high returns -from even only a thousand subscribers- by yourself with almost zero investment. And if you're committed to publishing a high-quality, informative and entertaining ezine, you can bring in impressive earnings. As well, this is one of the few business models that's not only scalable (that means as your subscriber base increases you don’t have to work harder for the icrease in profits) but at the same time it's easy to setup and low-risk.

If you can write an email and press SEND, you can publish an ezine that brings in profits!

Why An Ezine?

There are tons of methods of making money online like AdSense publishing, playing the AdWords game, affiliate marketing and many others, but ezine publishing is one of the most lucrative methods online.

Take for example ezine advertising:

Advertising on email ezines, is becoming one of the most popular forms of online marketing. Many experts are making lots of money selling ad space in their ezines while at the same time buying ad space in other ezine ads as well. The cost of buying ad space on ezines is also much cheaper compared to Google AdWords (result may vary depending on the targeted keyword and the market).

Did you know that ads are never removed because people tend to send out archived ezine issues every now and then with your ads permenantly embeded in them? ezine ads have a very long life span compared to email marketing which is one time only.

You can also transfer an ezine easily. Many of the e4zine publishers encourage their subscribers to pass around the ezine to their friends, business associates, subscribers and mailing list for viral marketing effect. Ezines are also HIGHLY targeted. Their subscribers are generally more responsive to your product because they're very interested in your subject matter.

Elements Of A Good Ezine

A good ezine is a special, timely report on a single subject; with high-quality content and a humble resource box at the end. It's a personalized, concise statement from an expert or person thoroughly familiar with a specific field. High quality, content-rich material with virtually no advertising is the key.

The specialized information in ezines is current, and ideally cannot be found elsewhere. They are a logical extension to a trade or hobby. Aimed at a select group, they often contain inside information in the field, hot tips, humorous anecdotes and/or news scoops.

Ezines are not meant for the mass market. In fact, the average number of potential readers of ezines in any one field is relatively small.

With all the print media and visual communications in this country, you might think there is a saturated market.

And that is true when it comes to general interest mass market publications.

However, the need for specific information in highly specialized interests or fields is constantly increasing.

The focus of a good ezine is success:

Success in business
Success in hobbies
Success in health and happiness
Success in dating or relationships
Success, success, success (you get the idea)

The information contained in the ezines should enthusiastically motivate readers to follow the advice.

Getting Started

Starting your own ezine can be a lot easier than you think. This is because all you really need to get started publishing your own paperless ezine/newsletter is:

a computer with internet access (high-speed is preferable)
a comfortable desk and chair
an email progam
a word processor (you can get Open Office for free -which is even better than Microsoft Word in my opionion)
a wealth of content
an autoresponder with a broadcast feature
domain name and website (which is optional)

As mentioned in the overview, you don't need to invest a lot of money to begin publishing your ezine. You may need to put a little out for a domain name, hosting, a professional autoresponder service (all these are optional), and advertising to introduce your product, but that's about it. There are several free autoresponder services that I've used myself, and one that I'd recommend is Razorbot. They offer all the features you're going to need to publish your ezine.

Choosing Your Ezine's Topic

Now that you've decided that your going to publish an ezine, the first thing you must do is choose a topic. Your ezine should cover a topic or subject area that makes you happy. I'm not saying that it has to be a suject that you're intensely passionate about or crazy about; I'm simply suggesting that you focus mainly on a subject you will enjoy learning more and talking about. As with any endeavor in life, if you write about something that you enjoy doing, it's more likely that you will achieve long term success.

Your topic can be on the broad end of the spectrum and should, like I said, relate to something you already know about or something that you would like to learn more about. However, you should stay away from topics that are too broad or too narrow. You want your topic to be broad enough to attract enough readers to justify you spending time maintaining the newsletter and you want it to be narrow enough to allow you to identify the demographics (e.g., age, occupation, interests, etc.) of your audience. If your topic is too narrow you may not have an audience that is worthwhile, in terms of size, and you will be limited in terms of content. Alternatively, if your topic is too broad you will have difficulty identifying your target market's preferences and your newsletter will end up losing its appeal to readers and potential advertisers.

"Software" is an example of a topic that is too broad. "MineSweeper" is an example of a topic that is too narrow. There are just too many kinds of "Software" out there to cover and MineSweeper would attract very few people (I think!). If you narrow "Software" down a bit to let's say PhotoShop, you'd be moving in the right direction.

Now that you have a general idea about what your ezine will focus on, it's time to do some research. You'll need to find out more about existing ezines that cover your topic. If you subscribe to every ezine that you come across that relates to your topic, you'll gain a multitude of valuable information regarding your competition, ways to format your newsletter, and article subject ideas for your first publication. While in the research phase, be sure to write down, or bookmark, where you subscribed to each ezine because this information will be very helpful when it becomes time to begin promoting for yourself. Below are three excellent resources that will get you started.

http://www.marketing-seek.com/
http://ezinehub.com/
http://www.freezineweb.com/

In addition to subscribing to every ezine that you can find covering your topic, you should join related discussion groups and forums to get a better idea of what it is that your potential readers are interested in learning more about. After all, it is the readers that you're trying to appeal to. Below are a couple of forums to check out.

http://www.forumone.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/

How to Choose A Good Ezine Name

Good ezine names are usually 2-4 words. If shorter, they can't explain what your ezine's about, and if longer, they'll be hard to remember. When choosing a name for your ezine, make sure its abbreviation is suitable. For example if it's "CNN", you should look for another name because it'll confuse your readers. A good name also describes what your ezine's about. For example "Home Business Success Tips" is a good name, but "Business Ezine" is not. Some people use "the" at the beginning of titles or "ezine" at the end - like "The Home Business Success Tips Ezine." But both of these words are unnecessary and just make your title too long and more difficult to remember.

Depending on your ezine topic and audience, your name can be serious or playful. If you want to choose a playful title, putting an "O" at the end of it makes it funny. An example of such names could be "The Great Gordino" which comes from the publisher's name - Gordon Bryan. You can browse ezine directories to find many good publication names about different topics. You'll get many creative ideas from other people's newsletter titles.

They have spent a lot of time and effort finding a good name and you can save time by learning from them.

Creating Your Ezine

Once you've decided on the topic of your ezine, you then have to determine what the easiest and most effective method of creating it will be. You have a few options available.

1. You could create each issue manually using Word or Open office, then print it out as a PDF and send it to your mailing list every week or month.

2. You could get an account at one of several autoresponder services (which you'll need to do anyway if you want to be able to really make money online!) Aweber is probably the very best service available, although they are not inexpensive! Another good service is Norabots (For less than $10 per month, you can get the same services, just not quite the same guarantee of deliverability). And then upload your finished work to your mailing list when you want to publish your next issue. Not quite as bad as option #1, but still a bit tedious.

3. Find an online newsletter service like Nuz4u.com that provides the templates, Private Label Content to start your creative juices flowing, hosting for not just your current issue, but also all of your archives, and the ability to create multiple newsletters with different themes and content in an easy to use web interface. If you can use a web browser, you can create an online newsletter! Then all you need to do is send the URL to your new issues to your readers!

The 4 Best Ezine Formats

Ezine publishers today use any one or more of the 4 most commonly used newsletter/ezine formats listed below. Ultimately, you can decide which format is the best choice for you, though each winning format has its pros and cons.

The text newsletter/ezine is the most commonly published. The advantage of this format is that other than writing, you don't need any special skills except those required to use a wordprocessing or text editing program.

The second (and third) option is the HTML based newsletter/ezine. There are two versions of this since there is now an online newsletter service available. Prior to the launch of Nuz4u.com, you only had the emailed version of the HTML newsletter to select from. The HTML version allows you the utmost flexibility when it comes to layout, and with Web 2.0 and the video craze that it has brought with it, the online version is probably the best option of them all!

While the HTML newsletter format requires a certain degree of HTML skills on your part, you can add more sophisticated features to your ezine issues, making them more appealing to your subscriber thus increases your readership value, something that text newsletters do not have. You can decorate your newsletter format, change your fonts, include pictures, videos, audios and more. However, the drawback often faced by HTML ezines is that they often get trapped into spam filters before they reach their subscribers’ inboxes. Whereas the online service allows you to send the URL of your newsletter which, more often than not, WILL get past the SPAM filters as long as you don’t load your email broadcast up with ten or fifteen different links in one email.

The forth and least used among the 3 formats is the PDF newsletter. Publishing your newsletter in PDF format can consume a lot of time and effort on your part but often make up in quality readership.

Due to the commitment, PDF newsletters are usually published on a monthly basis. The great part, though, is that you can put in your affiliate links in your PDF newsletter issue and allow your subscribers to pass the newsletter issue around.

Given the choices, however, you do not have to necessarily choose strictly one newsletter format, as some newsletter publishers today do publish in more than one format. So there are your current choices for an ezine.

Design Considerations

The title at the top of the ezine is the most visual aspect of the publication. It reflects the content and it reflects you. The best name for your ezine is the same as your domain [U.R.L.] name.

Make up a few titles of your own:

How do they compare with the titles of other ezines?

Which rings true for your enterprise?

Check at the library to be sure your title is original and doesn't duplicate other publications currently on the market. The title is your trademark [logo].

Since your ezine is vitally important as a means to generate on-going income, it would be worthwhile to have it designated a ISSN- absolutely free- which is the electronic equivalent of an ISBN for a hard copy document.

Not only does this legally protect your ezine with the National Library of Canada or the Library of Congress , it also ads a very professional touch! You can get an ISSN free. Just Google ISSN or ISBN and your governmental

agency's website will show up. You can download a PDF form from the site, or apply directly online.

The logo can be very simple.

Another aspect of the title at the top of the publication is the date and the issue number. These should be considered in the original design.

Start out with one colour and keep it as homespun and fresh as the news you'll publish. Avoid fancy type styles or those that are hard to read. And don't go overboard with a clever or cute design.

Something simple and clear is what you're after, so an elaborate logo may look out of place. Since a ezine has timely information, the date of the issue should be easy to find.

Any graphics should be kept minimal and simple, but don't be afraid to use subheads- as well as liberal use of bullets- to break up the copy. A few words capitalized or in a larger or darker print help the reader identify the information, and make it easier to read. Keep enough white space to encourage reading, but fill the pages to make the subscriber feel the ezine fulfills its promises.

How Often To Publish

There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding upon a publication schedule. The main one is how fast can you produce a ezine. However, you'll also need to consider how much time you can committ to your publication, and how easily new content can be found, written or purchased.

Work Backwards

You want a subscriber to receive the ezine on a certain date. It needs to be in the autoresponder or mail (hard copy) a few days before that. And before that, how long will it take you to decide on the final layout?

How long will it take you to research and write material for your ezine?

This may be a deciding factor in the size of the publication.

Perhaps you'd prefer to get a four page ezine out every week rather than an eight-page ezine out every other week. If your topic is filled with today's news, then you'll want to get that out to your subscribers as fast as possible.

Other subjects can be done monthly, bimonthly, or even quarterly. Be careful with infrequent mailings, however, because the subscribers may just forget about it.

And what use is a small ezine only a few times a year? Keep your subscribers involved and stimulated; deliver the ezine on a regular basis.

Cordially invite them to participate in your blog or forum, each and every issue!

Give them- absolutely free of charge- the download link to one or two premium info goodies, each issue.

Whatever production schedule you've decide on, commit to it.

Later, when it's successful and you have more people to help you with it, you may step up the production and publish more frequently.

Methods Of Profiting From Your Ezine

There are several methods of earning a substantial living from a simple electronic collection of words that we call a newsletter. You can sell advertising slots if you have a large reader base, include affiliate products where you earn a percentage of the sale, include your own products (if you have any), provide reviews of products or programs for a fee (similar to advertising, but you are putting your seal of approval on the item so you need to know quite a bit about it first!) and the one that I personally use and like the most.

Use your newsletter to ‘filter’ your readers into classifications so you know what they are interested in so you can send them promotions for things they might buy and not just bombard them with sales pitch every week for products they will probably never buy.

By ‘filtering’ your readers, it allows you to market to a tighter niche thereby increasing your odds for a sale. While there may be some copy writers that can sell ice cubes to folks in Alaska in November, chances are pretty good that you may not have obtain that level of wordsmithing just yet.

So, you need an edge, by separating your readers by interests (this is called demographics) you can pin point your promotions better. Send a webmaster a promo about a great new website script and chances are better that they will buy it than if you sent the same promo to one of your readers who wants to read about gardening.

Last Word

Writing and publishing a ezine is a challenging and exciting way to express yourself, give you prestige and acknowledgment in the Web Community and allow you the luxury of insanely profitable JV's!

You can start one with virtually no overhead and a small amount of capital, and you can build up to making profits in the five to six-figure bracket.

There are no secrets or special tricks or skills you need.

What is important is coming up with an idea for a ezine that will appeal to a select group who desires specialized information. And then being informative, entertaining and consistent.

XXX

Well that's today's home business idea. I hope it was helpful. Have fun with it.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Candle Making Business

2011-05-04T17:28:00.000-04:00

Home Based Candle Making Business Overview

In these uncertain economic times it's good to have a few skills that can help you earn an extra income or even replace a less than adequate one. These skills can range from being an experienced transcriptionist to having a talent for web design to creating your own unique candles. What all these skills have in common is that they can be done at home and they can be learned.

For anyone with a fascination or passion for candles, starting a home based candle making business can be the solution to some of their pressing financial problems. In addition to bringing in an income, candle making is -or can be, once you've perfected your creation method- relaxing and very creative.

Candles are very popular in North American homes. The candle business in the US alone is a $2 billion plus a year industry. Seven out of ten homes use candles and many people use them for relaxation. At one time, candles were used only for light. But now, they are used for home décor and to add scent to the home, to relax and in aromatherapy.

Getting Started

When you're starting your candle making business, you must understand that there will be some start up costs. Unless, by chance, you have the supplies given to you, you must purchase the supplies necessary to create your candles. There are many candle making kits on the market today that you can purchase for around $50.00. These kits are wonderful in that it allows you lessons and practice in making candles. It is suggested that you invest in one of these kits and practice with it. Once you are comfortable making the candles yourself, you may go out and purchase all of the products that you will need to create your own candles.

Tools & Equipment

Here's a short list of what you'll need:

a double boiler
wax - usually paraffin but there are other waxes available on the market
various length wicks
molds
jars and other glass cobtainers (optional)
scented oils
dyes

Types Of Candes

beeswax candles
hand-dipped candles
gel candles
votive candles
floating candles
scented candles
shaped candles
chunk candles
taper candles
jar candles
unity candles

Making Your Candles

Let's start with a double boiler. You can probably buy one at any home decor, kitchen or department store, but if you're pinching pennies, setting something up as a double boiler is simple. All you have to do is fill a large low boiling pot with water and place a coffee can or something similar in the center. That's where you boil the wax.

Make sure that the boiler you have in the pan is steady and standing, not floating. The water level should be enough to provide water but not have it disrupt melting the wax.

Once that's ready, you just dump the wax into the center boiler and wait for it to melt. You can acquire fresh wax from different sources: beeswax, fresh paraffin wax, and other wax products are available online as well as at almost any craft store or hobby shop. You can even recycle old wax from spent candles. Just cut up the wax chunks into small manageable pieces so that they would melt faster. A good starting weight that you can work with would be a half-pound of any wax that you're using.

Once you've completely melted the wax you can mix in anything that needs to be mixed. Dyes are usually put in during this stage to give the candles some color. Aromatic ingredients are also put in at this point to provide various scents when you're making scented candles. When you're starting out however, it's best to begin with simple wax candles. If you do want to be fancy on your first try. Crush a few crayons and mix them into the wax with a stick or something similar. Never use a cooking instrument when making candles unless you don't plan to use it again.

Now take your molds – this can be anything from simple cups to shaped bowl, to hand-made specialty molds, and pour in the wax. Be careful in selecting your molds. Empty cans are one of the products yo be avoided. You have to make sure your mold is something that can easily be broken or something from which your candles can be easily extracted from. A simple tip is to place some waxpaper around the inside of the mold so as to facilitate easy extraction. Another tip is to look for molds that have wide mouths so as to make sure your candles can be easily taken out from the top.

While the wax is cooling, you'll have to insert the wicks. It's pretty simple really – you just dip the long wicks into the wax mixture as it cools. Cut them a bit longer than your mold so you can be assured that your candle's wick can be lit.

Making Scented Candles

Making scented candles can be accomplished by using some of the materials you find in your kitchen. But to be sure of the quality of your candles, it would be best to buy materials from the store. Basically, what you will need are wax, wick, essential oils for the scent and coloring materials. For the equipment, all you will need are the kitchen stove, a meat or candy thermometer, candle molds and a double boiler.

The procedure itself is very simple and easy. You start off by placing the wax inside a small pot. Place that small pot in a larger pot with water. The idea is to let the heated water melt the wax. Placing the wax directly over the fire might not be a good idea since the wax burns easily. Use a wooden spoon to mix the wax. Use the thermometer and allow the wax to heat up to 170 degrees Fahrenheit. Don’t allow the wax to overheat. It's advisable to set the stove at a low heat.

You can add your chosen essential oil and the coloring at this point. Stir the wax gently. Ideally, using one ounce of essential oil per pound of wax is more than enough. If you don’t know how much an ounce is, you can use a teaspoon. Half a teaspoon of scent is fine. If you add too much scent material the candle may not burn properly.

After you mixed the melted wax, scent and coloring thoroughly, you can pour the mixture into your candle molds. Make sure that you set the molds on a flat surface so the wax is evenly distributed. Of course, you can intentionally use slanted surfaces to produce some unique looking shapes. That’s your call. When you pour the hot wax, the wick should be in the right place as well. You should secure the wick properly to keep it in the middle of the candle. Pour the wax slowly. You may need to tap the mold lightly as you pour the hot was to remove any bubbles. If the candle sinks, add more wax to the mold.

Place the mold in a bowl of cool water. Use something to weigh the candle down since candles naturally float. Once the candle has been cooled, you can take it out of the water and remove it from the mold.

Make Your Own Environment Friendly Beeswax Candles

Everything today is environment friendly. And why not? Considering how we caused the sorry state of the environment today it's only fitting that we find ways to further reduce the impact of pollution and overall environmental destruction. More often than not, we're taught to find our own small way to help out. And one of that small initiative is using environment friendly candles like the beeswax candles. These kinds are devoid of dangerous chemicals that could be harmful to the environment.

Bees produce wax to hold the honey they harvest. When honey is harvested, the wax is also removed. Aside from candles, it has a variety of applications. Furniture polish, lubricants and candles are just a few of the products where bees wax is used. Making candles using beeswax is very easy. The whole process is no different from making candles using paraffin wax. The natural color of beeswax ranges from cloudy white to brown. The color actually depends on the kinds of flowers the bees are getting honey their nectars from.

When you buy your beeswax, you'll probably be presented with a choice between a block and a sheet of beeswax. Buying a beeswax sheet might be a better choice especially if you feel that melting the blocks of wax is troublesome work. However, with beeswax sheets you won’t have a chance to add colors to your candle. If you want candles with varying colors, beeswax blocks should be your choice.

Get your sheet of beeswax and cut it to the desired length of the candle that you would like to have. Place the wick on one of the edges of the beeswax making sure that you have an inch of extra wicks sticking out at both ends of the sheet. With beeswax, body heat is often enough to mold it. Gently press the edge to make sure the wick stays in place.

Once you have placed the wick, start rolling the beeswax sheet slowly. Ensure that you roll the sheet tightly and straight. If the sheet is rolled too loose, the resulting candle does not look good and probably will not burn as proper as a tightly rolled beeswax candle. You don’t need any adhesive to close the roll. Body heat is often enough to stick the wax together. However, if you find that not working, you can use a hair dryer to help you.

Start trimming the edges or any excess wax to make the candle even. Choose which end you would like to be the top and cut down extra wick of the designated bottom part.

Aside from being all natural, beeswax candles burn longer and provides a warm light and calm atmosphere. It has a sweet and natural scent unlike paraffin wax candles which can emit toxins like lead, benzene and mercury.
Some kinds like the citronella beeswax candles help guard against flying pests. Some people with allergies also find beeswax candles more relaxing than scented paraffin ones. Beeswax candle making has been around for ages.

Making environment friendly beeswax candles is a good project that you and your kids can do. The candles made from beeswax have a number of advantages over paraffin wax candles. The cost might be a little high but the overall rewards are worth the extra money.

Showcase Your Art by Making Gel Candles

Perhaps one of the more popular candles today, gel candles, has captured the imagination of candle makers and artists alike. The uniqueness of the candle has allowed makers to go beyond the conventional candles and even elevated the candle making process to a sort of art form. That may be a little bit of an exaggeration but still the popularity of gel candles is undeniable. And making gel candles isn't that difficult. You can showcase your art by making gel candles whose functions really depend on what you want it to be. You can create a gel candle purely for ornamental purposes only or you can combine the aesthetic with the therapeutic. Gel candles like all candles can be made with essential oil components which makes them great for aromatherapy and moments of relaxation.

If you've been made candles before you probably have a some equipment already but basically all you need can be found in your own kitchen. A scale, a candle or candy thermometer, glass measuring cup, gel wax, zinc core wicks, a hot glue gun, different glassware depending on your preferences and various liquid dye and fragrances for aromatic kinds of candles. You'll have to buy gel wax in your candle store or craft shop. There are three kinds, the low density, medium density and high density waxes. The denser the gel wax, the longer it takes to melt and the larger amount of fragrances it can hold.

Get your glue gun and place a wick in the center of a selected candle container. Melt the gel using a saucepan or pot over medium heat. The melted gel should appear like smooth syrup. You then add the desired color dyes. Keep adding until you reached the target color consistency. The less dye you mix with the gel wax, the more transparent it is when it cools down. It's important to consider this especially when you plan to embed objects inside the candle. Afterwards, the fragrance goes next. Mixing a third of a teaspoon for each gel container is often enough to get a decent scent from the candle. Pour the hot gel mixture into the candle containers slowly and carefully to avoid creating bubbles. Allow the candle to cool and that’s it.

There are, however, a couple of things that you'll need to consider when making gel candles. For example, when selecting wicks for gel candle, the best choice is zinc-cored wicks. Cotton and paper-cored wicks tend to sag or lean over when you’re making the candles and when you’re using the candle.

The containers should never be made from plastic or wood for the obvious reasons that it will melt and burn when you use the candles. This is why glass is the best container for gel candles. Any glass that can withstand heat and has a diameter of 2 and 3 inches will do. The same principle goes with embedded materials. Materials that will burn should never be embedded into the gel but glass marbles, shells, rocks and other non-combustible materials would work fine.

Selling Your Candles

You can sell your candle creations at flea markets, mall kiosks or craft fairs. You can also design and put up flyers around your home town. As well, you can offer to host candle parties (like Tupperware parties). This method has become very popular in the last few years. Hosting a candle party will work very well for you if you have unique candles to showcase.

Pricing your candles will be a little tricky. Not only do you have to take into consideration the cost of the materials, but also your time and the portion of the utilities you used in order to make the candles (power, water, gas, etc.).

After figuring out your costs per candle, you'll then need to decide how much profit you want or need to make on each sale. I would suggest you stick to a pre-defined formula for pricing your candles. Something like: cost + % for your time + % for profit. You'll have to determine the percentages for yourself. But don't be too generous with yourself. Remember that your prospective customers can buy candles anywhere, so you'll want to be at least somewhat competitive (unless you have a really unique candle design that is unavailable anywhere else).

Last Word

If you like candles, have experience making them, or would like to learn how to -and perfect the method/s- then a home based candle making business might be the perfect choice for you. If you don't have much time, or limited space, you can still start this kind of business, but your options will be reduced so maybe you might want to try something different. Making candles can be very enjoyable and creative. Making candles as your home business only adds to the appeal.

XXX

That's today's home business idea. Hope you found it interesting and thought-provoking. Don't forget, whatever business you choose to embark upon, have fun with it.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Credit Repair Business

2011-05-03T17:23:00.000-04:00

Credit Repair Business Overview

The problem with most every home business is it’s either too expensive to set up, takes too long to begin showing a profit, or the “learning curve” is just too difficult or too time consuming for the average person.

Even worse, a lot of offers related to home business that you find in magazines, your mail, and on the Internet are outright rip-offs. That’s not to say they take your money and don’t deliver the product. They deliver the product all right; it’s the product that doesn’t deliver. Why? Because the home business “program” was designed to make money for the vendor, NOT the purchaser.

But there are ways to make money in a home business that are realistic, don’t cost an arm and a leg, and can be quickly learned with just a little time and effort.

The business of Credit Repair is one such business.

Now the very name “Credit Repair” may sound intimidating to some, probably because there are high priced agencies and attorneys who practice it and charge thousands of dollars for their services. But that doesn’t mean they do anything the average person can’t do himself, given the proper knowledge. Nor does it mean credit repair can’t be done as a home business, rather than from an office with dozens of employees.

Before we continue, some explanation is in order. To start with, there are 3 major agencies in the United States who keep records of the credit histories of hundreds of thousands of Americans. These agencies are called “Credit Bureaus” and their names are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. They’re private agencies, have no connection with the US (or any) government, and are a billion dollar a year industry.

Do you want to take out a mortgage? Your lender will be checking your credit history with one or more of the credit bureaus. And once you get your loan, he’ll be reporting your payment history to the agency as well. And based on the information in the credit bureaus’ records, you’ll be assigned a “credit score” that lenders look at to determine your credit worthiness.

The business of credit repair involves contacting the bureaus in an attempt to improve a client’s (or your own) credit score. The process really isn’t that difficult, and involves a few simple steps.

1. Have the client get a copy of his credit report from each of the 3 bureaus. This can easily be done online at http://www.annualcreditreport.com

2. Write letters to each of the 3 bureaus and dispute negative information on the credit reports.

By law, the bureaus then have 30 days to verify the disputed information with the original creditor, or they must delete it. They must then report their findings to the consumer, and also send a copy of the revised credit report.

3. When the credit bureaus respond, examine the revised reports and continue to dispute additional negative items.

You may be thinking “So is that it?” Well, while this explanation may be a bit oversimplified, generally speaking, the answer is “Yes, that’s it!”

If you perform credit repair for pay, there are some legal matters you need to deal with to avoid running afoul of the law. For instance, some states require you to be bonded or licensed. You’re also required to inform clients of their legal rights, and to give them 3 days to rescind their decision should they decide to accept your services.

But these steps aren’t anything you can’t do as a home business entrepreneur. They’re intended to protect the consumer, and in general, are good practices that any ethical business person should be following anyway.

So if it’s that simple, why do agencies charge thousands of dollars for their services? Very simply, because they can get away with it! Most people just aren’t aware of how uncomplicated the process is, or would ever believe they can do it themselves.

Now if you’re looking to start a home business that will make you rich overnight without any effort, then credit repair isn’t for you. But then, neither is anything else. You’d do better to embrace more realistic expectation, or you’ll be forever wasting your money on the home business “programs.”

But if you’re willing to invest some time and effort in a realistic home business, you might want to take a closer look at credit repair.

Compared to just about every other home business it has all the advantages. It’s one of the easiest to learn, least expensive and quickest to start up, there’s a huge demand (nearly 1 of every 3 Americans have some credit problems), and you can make some very, very good money. You can also choose to do it part time or full time. The choice is entirely yours.

Getting Started

To get started, you’ll need to do two things.

1. Get a good book on the process of credit repair and spend a little time familiarizing yourself with the process.

2. Do some research into the laws pertaining to credit reporting and credit repair companies, specifically, the “Fair Credit Reporting Act” and the “Credit Repair Organizations Act.”

Both can be researched online.

Finally, once you’ve launched your home business and begun repairing people’s credit, you’ll have the good feeling of knowing you’re helping people in need. And you can charge them way less than the big agencies and STILL make an extraordinarily good living. That’s a win-win situation for everyone … EXCEPT the credit bureaus and overpriced repair agencies.

Gives you a good feeling, doesn’t it?

Okay, that's today's business idea and overview. Hope it generated some ideas and ambitions.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Online Used Book Reseller Business

2011-05-02T16:20:00.001-04:00

Used Online Bookseller Business Overview

Two of the most dynamic markets on the internet today are books and music. So starting a used book business already has an advantage in that you know there's a ready-made market.

The concept is simple... you buy books for pennies on the dollar from several available sources and then resell them for huge profits online. Amazon.com, Abebooks.com, Half.com, and Alibris.com are some of many mega internet companies that provide you with a selling venue. These websites are accessed by millions of people from all over the world every day. Amazon.com for example, allows you to have access to all of these millions of customers who search Amazon.com for every kind of book imaginable. This is a big opportunity that's readily available to small entrepreneurs just like you. Used books can turn into BIG BUCKS with the help of today’s internet.

So Why Used Books?

Used books are inexpensive and plentiful
Used books are easy to describe and sell
Used books are easy to pack and ship

Getting Started

Startup is very easy with little or no cost. No previous experience is necessary. And your products are readily available, in high demand and inexpensive to ship.

You can pick up used books for next to nothing from places you probably pass every day in your home town. Once you start looking, you could spend an entire day just searching for and buying books. When you return home in the evening, you'll have your inventory. Then just catalogue the books you purchased, log onto Amazon, sit back and let Amazon do the rest. As mentioned above, your start-up should be minimal. Actually, it shouldn’t cost you anything if you already have the following items on hand:

Unwanted books on your shelves. Don’t forget to ask friends and family for donations
A computer with internet access
A printer
Bubble mailers. Size #0 and #2 are the ones I'd recommend
A weigh scale

Selling used books online is one of the greatest opportunities available to home entrepreneurs today. Used book sales on the internet jumped an astonishing 50% since 2007. Now, one of every 12 books sold online is a used book, and two-thirds of those are purchased online from small businesses — with total annual sales of over $7 million.

There are major advantages to starting a used book business online; you don’t need a store, warehouse or delivery trucks, or even staff. You don’t need an MBA or inside connections with wholesalers or drop-shippers. You don’t need to be an expert on books, though a fondness for them will surely help. What you do need is a willingness to learn and a commitment to running a successful business.

Today, you can market instantly to a worldwide pool of millions of ready buyers — even as a beginning used bookseller. You don’t need to advertise, and participating in this growing network costs you nothing until you make your sales.

Books are a proven seller both on and off the web. They sold well 30 years ago, they sell well today, and they'll sell well 30 years from today. All the doom and gloom surrounding the internet causing the death of the printed word was either wishful thinking or fear-mongering. Reading from a screen will never replace the feeling of holding a book in your hands, curled up enjoying a good story. People who love books, will always love books. No matter what kinds of gadgets are developed to "improve" the digital reading experience.

Used books are the perfect merchandise to sell online for several reasons:

Books are easy to find at low cost
Books are standardized items that are simple to describe and sell
Books are compact, non-fragile, and easy to ship
You have very little or zero overhead
You don't need to build a web site
You can make more income WITHOUT going into debt
You don't need to worry about search engines - your customers will already know where to find you
Your own business that takes about 1 hour per day, and you choose your schedule
It’s a legal, ethical, honest, work-at-home business that doesn't require answering the phone, working ridiculous hours, or relying on the latest fad

You Don’t Need Your Own Website

Half.com is an established, well laid out website. It has one purpose and it's very successful at achieving that purpose – TO SELL BOOKS!! It’s owned by Ebay, one of the most well established sites on the net today. The people behind Half.com have proven that they know how to present a site that actually sells. And who hasn't heard of Amazon.com? It has to be, without argument, the largest online bookseller in the world. And it's popularity equals that of Google's.

Targeted Traffic Is Delivered Right To Your Door (So To Speak)

You don’t have to look for customers or spend hours tweaking your site to get a better search engine position. With Half.com and Amazon.com you're dealing with sites that have already established their own name, and are already attracting millions of customers. And these customers all have one thing in common. They’ve come to purchase books – they are targeted customers.

Your Business Is Open 24 Hours A Day, 7 Days A Week

The internet is like Las Vegas, it never sleeps. It's constantly bustling with a large number of people who do their shopping while you sleep. Your “Store” is open 24/7 even though you're not. You're always open no matter when your buyers arrive.

Sites Such as Half.com and Amazon Handle the Details

A wonderful thing happened just within the last few years. Half.com came into existence and Amazon.com started allowing used books to be sold on its site. The great thing about these sites is that anyone can sell books, and you don't need your own website, merchant account, or even a digital camera.

Half.com and Amazon will accept payment from the buyer, provide photos of your books, reimburse you for postage, and drop the money right into your bank account. Plus, both of these sites spend millions on advertising so that they have unbelievable traffic... traffic that may buy your book!

Half.com, now owned by Ebay, started as a place where people could buy and sell used books, CDs, and audio tapes. Now that it's owned by Ebay, it deals in all sorts of merchandise. But, it's still best known for its book market. Amazon, the giant of online book sales, worried that sites such as Half.com could undercut its sales of new books, set up a competing system for the sale of used books. In just a short time, this part of Amazon's business is making a significant contribution to its bottom line. Half.com and Amazon make a small commission on each used book that's sold on their sites. They accept payment (including shipping costs) from buyers and then pay the sellers. But, all order fulfillment is done by the bookseller.

After you've listed your book, Half.com handles the remainder of the sales process. They sell the book, collect all the money for the cost of the book and shipping, and notify you by email that a sale has been made.

In return for this service, they charge a commission on every sale. In most cases this commission is 15%. There may be instances where the commission is less, but that’s for very high priced books. 99.9% of your sales will be at the 15% commission rate.

After taking their commission, Half.com deposits the rest of the proceeds from the sale into your account along with a credit for shipping. When you receive your email notification of the sale, you confirm that you still have the book, pack it up, and mail it to the buyer. As you can see, it’s all pretty easy and straightforward.

Amazon works in a similar fashion. You'll be listing your books in Amazon's "Marketplace." Listing items is easy on Amazon. Search for the title you want to sell. That will put you on the product information page. Then click the "Sell yours here!" button that appears near the product image. The system will guide you through setting up your account and listing your book. Amazon will also ask if you're willing to ship to an overseas address. If you are, your postage reimbursement will be for shipping abroad.

Once a book is sold, Amazon sends an email alerting you to the fact that one of your books has sold. When the transaction with the buyer is complete, Amazon sends a second email giving you the details and the shipping address. Amazon levies two commissions on your sales. Each sale is subject to a flat $.99 commission plus 15 percent of the selling price.

However, Amazon reimburses you for postage usually at the "media mail" rate. Amazon transfers your payments into your bank account and sends an email telling you how much to expect. They do this frequently, but not book by book. You can trigger a payment into your account should you want the money sooner.

Amazon has a Pro Merchant subscription that you should get if you sell a lot of books. But, at $39 per month, it isn't worth it for just a few books. With it you can avoid the $.99 commission that Amazon automatically takes but you will still pay the 15 percent commission on each sale. As a Pro Merchant you also have access to bulk loading software which makes it easier to handle a large number of listings.

On both Half.com and Amazon, you can check your seller account to see what has sold recently and to re-list additional copies of that title should you have more. You can also "go on vacation" with both sites, so that if you're out of town or unavailable to ship books, you won't be penalized. Both sites have seller ratings that buyers submit.

It's bad news if you get a bad rating from a buyer. Usually, buyers are unhappy if the book is slow to arrive or if it’s not in the condition you indicated. It pays to examine your books well and indicate up front any blemishes.

Where Do I Find Books To Sell

First Place To Start

You should be your first supplier. Do you have any unwanted books? If so, they should be your first offering. And don’t be shy about asking friends, neighbors or relatives if they have any books they would like to get rid of. Many times people accumulate tons of books and then, before they know it, they have more books than space. They can’t just throw them away… They’re books!! So, in most cases, they pile them in a closet, in the basement or in the attic. By taking them off their hands, you're actually doing them a favour.

Thrift Stores

When checking out thrift stores, you're looking for books in good (or repairable) condition. Mystery, true crime, sci-fi. These are the best, and if they're in really good shape you'll probably pay as much as a dollar each for them. However, you should be able to sell some for as much as $10 eachy.

There are a lot of gems in thrift stores. Ask the thrift store workers when the new books get put out, be there that day. Find out when they have their —Half Off Day sale, and be there. Try not to let them know that you're a dealer, visit no more than once a week, or better yet, every two weeks. If they know you're there to buy books to resell, they may start increasing the prices of their books. When you go out of town, hit the thrift stores (does that make the trip tax deductible? YOU BET!)

Flea Markets And Yard/Garage Sales

You kind find some real gems amongst the old tires, baby clothes and Apple computers.

Tip: If you find a large lot of books, I mean a LOT of books, that are in good shape and are marketable, skim the cream off, pick out five or ten of the best and buy them. Then talk to the owner (not the kid left in charge, the owner) and tell them that you're a book dealer and would be interested in buying the whole lot. Tell them you'll wait until they've sold what they can sell during their yard sale, and when it's over -I will call and we'll talk" about the sale of the whole lot. Pay the same as you would a dealer for overstock - ten cents to twenty-five cents each. BUT DON'T TALK MONEY THEN, be in a hurry, get their phone number and call them back early in the week. Leave the scene quickly. If, however, the owner's in a hurry to get rid of them, or hurting for cash and she/he offers you the entire collection for an insanely low price, don't be foolish, take the deal then and there. You don't want them to reconsider or change their minds.

Why do you (usually) want to wait? They'll want too much money during the sale. A couple of days after the sale, they're all bagged/boxed up for you to pick up, and it's hard for the untrained eye of the seller to see how many there are (but you remember don't you?), and they're taking up room in the garage again.

Learn to judge numbers of books by looking. Fill up a paper bag with books, then count them. Fill up a plastic bag with books and count them. Loosely fill, tightly fill. Memorize the numbers. These are the things that professional dealers know. I can fit a hundred paperback books in three paper bags, packed tight. Loose packed (like most people do) it's about half that.

At this point you're back at the ten to twenty-five cents each range. But you aren't going to say that. You're going to compute it in your head and offer a lump sum. If there's a hundred books there, offer $10. If the seller doesn't agree to that bring up some negatives to justify your low offer, —Business is slow now, market soft, books aren't in best of condition" etc. and in the same breath bump your offer up.

If it comes right down to it when negotiating, you have to be willing to walk away. Don't force a deal. There are plenty of books out there to buy.

Advertise

This is a good way to generate a lot of calls. Advertise in the local freebie give away type "newspaper.' Usually the general newspaper in your community is too expensive, and not worth it. Church newsletters, club newsletters, that kind of thing is usually very inexpensive, and productive. If you get ONE good hit from a twenty-dollar ad, it's well worth it. Don't dismiss flyers. You can design and print one out on your computer then photocopy a bunch. Put them in people's mail boxes, on car windshields, and anywhere there's a bulletin board.

Libraries

Some of the greatest profits can be made from ex-library books sold at local libraries. When libraries clean out their stock, they'll usually set up a table for the public to buy. If you’re not sure if your library sells discarded books, just ask them. They'll be able to tell you if they sell used books from their premises and when. If they don’t, ask them if they know of any local libraries that do.

Used Book Fairs

Book fairs can be found at large facilities such as your local shopping mall. This is an absolutely awesome place to accumulate a lot of books at one time.

Colleges And Universities

College and University students more often than not sell their textbooks once they've finished the course and/or the term. They're also usually in need of cash. Many college textbook sellers return to campuses at the end of the year and buy back textbooks for just pennies on the dollar. I remeber being offered $18 for a sociology textbook I paid over $100 for. Needless to say, I kept it, though I never read it again.

Get a jump on the competition. Put flyers up on campus bulletin boards or in the school newspaper offering to buy used books (not just textbooks). A lot of students have all kinds of books for courses, not just textbooks.

Choosing What Books To Sell

When you start looking for books to sell, you'll find an overwhelming mix of wonderful titles and subjects.

Bookselling sites give you the unique opportunity of finding the very person that wants to buy your book. Just about any book on any subject will sell on Amazon, Abe, Alibris, Barnes & Noble, and Half.com. To make your business easy to run and maximize your profits however, you'll need to choose books that will sell quickly at a good profit margin.

Fiction / Non-fiction

It's difficult to know exactly what books to buy and sell; fiction or nonfiction. These books are printed in the millions. A good example is autobiographies and biographies. These books are printed in massive amounts consequently saturating the market. So avoid popular fiction and buy mostly nonfiction books. Once in a while you'll stumble upon an out of print fiction / non-fiction that you can sell for a huge profit.

College Text / Reference Books

For a college student to purchase a brand new college book from the college bookstore can cost several hundreds of dollars. These students are looking to save a few dollars anyway they can. Colleges will tend to change their textbooks every two to three years which makes it difficult for the student to find the books they need for their classes. There are some dealers that specialize in selling just textbooks. However, buying earlier editions of a textbook can be risky and probably won’t sell. When searching for college books to buy and resale, look for books that are 3 years old or less.

Specialize

It's very important to not try to be all things to all people. It is important to find a niche within the book dealing industry and become VERY good at it. There are many dealers out there that deal in rare or vintage types of books, and make a fine living at it. But they know what they're doing. You should try to stick with an area you enjoy. If you like fantasy or sci-fi, perhaps start off selling just those types of books. If you're more of a non-fiction reader, then perhaps that would be a good place to start.

Top Selling Book Categories To Keep An Eye Out For

Business
Religion
Spiritualism
Self Help
How To
University, College Reference / Text Books

You’ll find that as you get more comfortable with searching for books, the ones that you need to buy will jump out at you. You'll be amazed at how you'll be able to spot that sellable book despite being surrounded by loads of others.

Hardcover or Paperback? Does It Matter?

The advantages of paperback books are quite simple. They're usually smaller in size and, in turn, lighter in weight which allows shipping costs to be less. A low shipping cost is much more attractive to the buyer which will also increase your profits. Also, since they are smaller, they are less heavy to carry on buying trips.

With that said, obviously the disadvantages of hardcovers are they tend to be larger and weigh more which will increase shipping costs for the buyer as well as for you the seller. Since they are larger, they will be heavier to carry while you are on your buying trips and they do take up more storage space.

The most important disadvantage of a hardcover book is that the sellers you purchase them from tend to think that they are worth more than paperbacks. Therefore, they will cost more for you to purchase which cuts into your profits.

Most times a popular fiction book will be a hardcover. As mentioned earlier, popular fiction whether hardcover or paperback is not a good category to sell. Nonfiction books in both hardcover and paperback should be your first choice.

Can A Book Really Be Judged By It's Cover

When searching for used books to purchase and resell you'll come across some that have clean and tidy covers, virtually in brand new condition while others may be creased or have a “well used” look. The “clean and tidy” books can be worthless while the “well used” books can be worth a considerable amount of money. Subject matter is what you should pay attention to.

How Much Should You Pay For Books

Value has many definitions. Webster defines value as —the worth of a thing, its purchasing power or worth in the open marketplace."

If a commodity doesn't sell it has no value. The book that you're thinking about purchasing has no value until the moment you buy it. And it has no value until the very moment you sell it. Merchandise on the shelf has the potential for value, but the value isn't realized or proven until it's sold. Your inventory on the shelf (or in your home office) has the potential for making money. However, it has no actual value until you sell it.

The Webster's definition uses that magic word —marketplace." Value is determined in the marketplace. In that definition (the macro-economic approach) you don't determine value. The seller doesn't determine value. The marketplace sets value. Many buyers and many sellers make up the marketplace. When you make an offer to a seller, you're only reporting in your expert opinion what the marketplace is telling you what the value is. You may need to explain this to a seller but usually they don't care. They just want to get as much as they can, and you want to pay as little as you can.

You need to sell for at least five times what you paid to make it worth your time and effort and investment. Most of the time you'll hit higher, sometimes you won't. It's a numbers game. Remember this: You make your money when you BUY your inventory.

Determining The Sale Price For Your Books

Pricing can be a very tricky endeavor. Pricing of books for sale on the internet is both an art and a science. It's important to price low enough to attract the attention of the prospective buyer, and high enough to provide you a fair profit. There's sometimes a very narrow margin between too low and too high. And you have to remember that your buyer also has to pay for shipping (or pay for it in the sale price).

The longer you're in this business, the more you'll begin to recognize certain titles that can be purchased cheaply, and sell quickly at just the right price at a very nice profit. Experience is going to be your best teacher. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to over-price some titles and under-price others. But you'll learn. As long as you don't under-price yourself right out of business, everything will be fine.

Final Comment

The internet has opened up many possibilities for individuals wanting to start their own home based book selling business. Many "professional" book dealers really dislike the entry of "amateur" dealers into their space. However, it presents a wonderful opportunity for those of us who love books to also profit from our passion. Although most of us won't reach the level of expertise that book dealers with long experience have, we owe it to our customers and the profession to learn as much as we can and to behave as professionally as possible.

Thanks to the internet, you really can have your own bookstore from your home! Between collectible books, and used books you can have a good time searching for books and enjoy an educational and satisfying career as a home based used (or collectible) book seller. As in all pursuits, success comes with diligent effort and patience.

Start slowly and build your expertise.

That's today's home business idea and overview. If you're a book lover, like I am, this would be a terrific business for you to start. And, don't forget, have fun in the process.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Virtual Image Consulting Business

2011-05-01T14:41:00.000-04:00

It cannot be denied that for the past years, the need for image consultants has been increasing steadily. This is because more and more image consultants are making waves and making people's lives more stylish and fabulous.

Thanks to the reality shows like, Extreme Makeover, Ambush Makeover and Queer Eye for the straight guy, more and more people are becoming aware of the need to look good and to make a god impression.

The main goal of image consultants and makeovers is to assist their clients in expressing themselves, live their lives with self-confidence, and be content with who they are. Image consultants work hand in hand with their clients to make sure that they bring out the best in the them. But makeovers not only consist of the physical appearance they also involve other aspects that individuals employ to make an impression of a person.

Some of those other aspects are "verbal communication" wherein a person carries a conversation with other people and involves the way they speak and how they pronounce the words; the "body language" which focuses on how the person moves, eye contact, context clues and other non-verbal forms of communication; and lastly, the "etiquette" or "social manners" which revolve around how people carry themselves around others.

But because of the fast paced way we live our lives these days, there's a little time for most of us to make time in our hectic schecules for an appointment with an image consultant. However, the need and demand to look good and feel good is still there, so this need, this demand opens up a whole new market and presents an amazing opportunity for an image consultant with a little forsight and technical ability. They say that necessity is the mother of all inventions and one of the breakthroughs related to image consultation is virtual (online) image consulting.

The internet has made it possible for anyone (with an internet connection) looking to hire an image consultant to find the time and the right consultant.

Virtual Image Consulting Business Overview

It's a very convenient way to look good and understand your style. A virtual image consultant makes it possible for people to go through the changes that they want to make without the hassle of leaving their homes or offices.

Additionally, a virtual image consltant makes it possible for the individual to make the desired changes at their own pace. It's also affords the client a great deal of privacy and comfort. Some people feel very uncomfortable making changes. By remaining in the security, safety and privacy of their own homes, or offices, they have can do so gradually, with a great deal less stress and more confidence.

There's no underestimating the importance of dressing well, on a budget within your range and in a way that makes you feel good about yourself. These days it's not enough to just live a healthy, active life, build a strong portfolio or resume and answer all the questions right. Intense competition dictates that we find an edge, an advantage, and a professional image consultant provides that edge.

Just like a regular image consultant that has an office and a network, a virtual image consultant offers the following personal services:

Colour analysis. An image consultant, virtual or otherwise, is trained or has learned to understand what colours best suit an individuals eyes and natural skin colour. They know which colours accent and enhance natural tones and highlights.
Fashion. An image consultant needs to be able to evaluate what a client has available in their closet, what they should keep, what needs to be tossed, and what needs to be acqauired. The fashion knowledge a consultant possesses isn't restricted to just what's fasionable, but also what will flatter the person's body type, colour are needs. If the client is an executive, she won't have much need for revealing dresses and low-rider blue jeans.
Style. An image consultant needs to be able to assess the client's personal style whereby he/she assesses the client's personality and can find the right image for him or her.
Personal shopping. An image consultant will need to enjoy shopping. Many clients will require this service of their consutlatn. This service is connected to the fashion skill set. Once you go through your client's wardrobe, you'll more often than not have to go shopping. This could mean hours at the malls or stores going through racks and racks of outfits, looking for just the right style, image and colour.

Getting Started As A Virtual Image Consultant

Anyone can become an image consultant. You just need a few things that will make you excel if you decide to turn this into a full time business.

For one, you must have a background in an area even slightly related so you can use your experience and offer this as advice to the client. If you worked before as a hairstylist, you know what colours or hairstyles work for a certain person. If you've previously worked in the fashion industry, that would be beneficial as well.

You should also be interested in the different services you plan to offer, otherwise you won’t be able to give your all when helping a client with their problems.

Though their really isn't a licensing or certaification board, it would be helpful if you had some type of formal training and/or certification, especially if you're going to specialize in, say, colour consulting or cosmetics.

You should know that there are no set programs offered in colleges or universities that teach students how to become an image consultant, however a bachelor’s degree in psychology, business, home economics or sociology may prove to be useful when you are managing your business or communicating with a client.

The certification you get to be an image consultant comes from organizations that train people to work in this kind of profession. This will make you confident and knowledgeable about the fashion industry should you decide to specialize in helping people choose what clothes to wear. If your client doesn't have time to buy the right clothes, you'll be the one to gp out and buy for them thus you become an image consultant/personal shopper.

In order for you to become an image consultant, you need to gain some experience. Naturally you can’t charge the same rate as other people who have been doing this are charging so offer your services first for free.

After successfully helping a few people, create your own portfolio and your website so people will know who you are.

Tools & Equipment

There aren't really any special tools or equipment requirements for a virtual image consultant, other than the obvious:

a computer with an internet connection (preferrably high speed)
a printer
a phone
scheduling software
video conferencing software (and a webcam)
a website
style, taste and a love of fashion, shopping, makeup and hairstyles

Taking It To The Next Level

To expand your business as a virtual image consultant, you have to advertise just like any other business. Put an ad in the local paper, market online and send direct mail invitations to clients. And of course, if you've helped out friends, neighbours and/or relatives, testimonials from them would go a long way in building your credibility and your business.

Once you've established yourself as a professional image consultant, you'll begin getting jobs with companies who'll engage your services to help their employees make some improvements. You'll either be hired to do one-on-one consultations or to hold seminars or workshops to instruct employees enmasse.

Given that almost everybody needs an image consultant, it's no wonder that a lot of people are getting into the game. What you do could help someone land a job, find their true love, get a promotion at work or just make them feel better about themselves.

If you choose to start a virtual image consulting business, don't forget that your website will reflect on your business. Don't skimp on it. If you don't have the skills to design a nice site, it would definitely be worth it for you to hire a web designer.

Well that's today's home business idea. I hope it gave you some inspiration or ideas. Remember, as always, whichever business you choose, have fun with it.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Forum Moderator Business

2011-04-28T19:52:00.000-04:00

Forum Moderator Business Overview

As the internet continues to become a fantastic hub for social networking, it also becomes a viable location to build a business around this phenomenon. The benefits of starting an online business are numerous, and have been covered in several previous posts. In regards to the social aspects of the internet world, the most common is still the forum format.

These forums are locations that have increasing numbers, and because of the sheer volume, a website and forum owner finds themselves in need of moderators. This is the kind of a job that enables a person to work at their pace on their time. This provides a great opportunity for an online home business for you social types.

Forum moderators are often in demand, as many sites are growing rapidly with the surge of online jobs, businesses and other internet opportunities. Communities are built around a forum, so the forum needs to remain a source of valuable conversational and informational exchange.

Moderators assure this by eliminating any non-productive conversations, limiting or eliminating any form of negativity between members, keeping out the spammers and promoting a comfortable virtual atmosphere where people freely exchange ideas specific to the goals of the forum.

This keeps the forum running smoothly, and enables the members to speak freely while knowing what they speak about is in tune with the goals of everyone on the site.

Increasing membership is also an aspect many forums expect from a good moderator. This is easily done by simply being a part of the venue daily, and watching for the more valuable threads, which should be bookmarked. This simply means to sign up with a social bookmarking site, like Stumble or Digg, and select the thread. Once it is up on the screen, the moderator, you, would submit the link to the social bookmarking site.

This will enable people to see what a great forum you are working for, and they will stop in and bring their expertise and experiences with them. There are many other simple ways to promote a forum, that the members themselves will do when there are active and quality moderators on the site. Word of mouth, even online, is the most powerful for of all promotion.

Spam is also a major issue in these forums. At times, people will sign up simply to advertise and bring no value to the site or the forum. After logging in on a daily basis, it will be evident, which posts these are, and how quickly they need to be deleted. To keep them out of view of the active members, a good moderator is going to be watchful of these in every part of the forum. If at all possible, it is also important to remove the spamming members to avoid encouraging them to further diminish the forum and the value it holds for the members.

Getting Started

With the variety of sites online, there is an incredible array of potential venues for forum moderators. This makes the position of forum moderator ideal for a home business.

To find clients, first and foremost, visit forums that you'd have an interest in. You don't to moderate a forum on fly fishing if you're not interested in fishing at all. So check out forums on subjects that interest you. You can find a ton of forums simply by doing a Google search for "forums" or specific subject matter.

The forum owner will often post an ad or comment asking for a moderator. You can then reply to the thread or send the owner an email, outlining your services, schedule availablility and fees. Don't forget that you can't moderate a forum 24/7. You'll have to set a schedule. Because of this limitation, you can optimally only moderate one or two forums at a time.

Setting Your Fee

Now setting your fee can be a bit tricky. You may want to do some research, but I think a good rule of thumb would be to charge a daily, rather than an hourly ratel. Small and home business owners, who make up most of the forum owners, are a little leary of hourly rates... If you can manage to moderate 3 or 4 forums (which you can do with a high-speed internet connection and good computer), then you can bid a little less for the job and get a step up on your competition.

You could reasonably charge $50 a day, for an 8 hour shift. This doesn't sound like much, I know, but you're just watching people post comments online. If you moderate 4 or 5 forums, then you can easily make $200 to $250 a day.

Once you start building a reputation and your business, you could add additional equipment -another computer- and perhaps hire a part-time employee and increase the number of forums you moderate.

Final Word

A home forum moderator business not only gives you the freedom to work at home doing something you enjoy, but will also open doors to other opportunities for similar services. Once your established in a few forums, and once you build your reputation, you'll soon find that all kinds of different income sources open themselves up before you.

So, if you enjoy hanging out in forums, chatting and socializing online, then perhaps a home forum moderator service business is just the type of business for you.

That's it for todays home business idea. Hope it gave you some great ideas. And don't forget.... have fun.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Paid Membership Site Business

2011-04-27T16:56:00.000-04:00

Membership Site Business Overview

People are willing to pay for online content. In fact, the "Online Publishers Association" said that pay-for content is emerging as a hot revenue model. Business content, personals/match making, and entertainment are the hottest niches. But even smaller niches, like DVD authoring, sports coaching, marketing services, and dieting are producing profits.

Can you build an income selling subscriptions for online content with your own membership site? Selling online content by way of a password protected website has become big business. Not only is it fast to set up, but the start-up and running costs are minimal. Work from home entrepreneurs and big businesses alike are tapping into this new-found revenue source.

Less than nine percent of online users currently pay for online content. This means the market is wide open for the savvy entrepreneur. Paying for content in 2004 was more than 5 times what it was in 2005. And those numbers of more than doubled in the last six years. That’s a whopping 500% growth! Those who capture the market first in their niche will have the obvious advantage and it’s an international market, so anyone can play.

One of the great things about starting a membership site is you can take your hobby, specialized knowledge or profession and turn it into a profitable business. Your challenge will be finding exclusive content. You can start it part time but it will likely develop into a full time business.

Planning for and setting your site up for autoresponders, automated sign-ups, credit card processing, automated cancellations, etc is all part of a successful membership website. Starting and running a membership site can be a lot of fun and very exciting, however you need to know what’s involved in setting one up, and then managing it effectively.

This whole process can seem a bit daunting. However, as complex as this seems, many companies offer a low cost, easy-to-use software solution. This makes it possible for almost anyone to start and market a membership site at a very low cost.

Various Types Of Membership Sites

There are basically two types of membership sites. There are free sites and there are paid for sites. The two types of membership sites have one thing is common. Their memberships are made up of people who share a common interest or have a common need.

You can, of course, buy a domain, set up a website and not charge for memberships but choose who to admit and who not to admit. This is done when the profit is intended to come from sales to members after they join the site. There are free network sites that might be used for this purpose.

Paid-for membership sites are set up by businesses or individuals with the objective of making money by supplying hard to find information, access to specialized data or lists, or instruction in various fields. Membership sites are owned and operated by people who either own the sites or who are hired by the site owners to monitor and administer them. The topics for paid for membership sites are even more varied than the free sites and certainly more specialized.

Choosing Your Niche or Suject Matter

If you choose to start a membership site about…say….dogs. Just dogs in general won’t attract many members. You'll need to choose a specific breed….and possibly even narrow it down further. Instead of Poodles, your theme should be; Tiny Toy Poodles, Miniature Poodles, or Standard Poodles, for example. Millions of people are dog lovers and the theme of a specific breed of dog should do well.

If you're really into video or computer games, start a membership site devoted to one specific game… not just video games or computer games in general. People all over the world and from every walk of life get really involved with a specific video or computer game and love to talk to others about the game and give each other hints.

There are thousands… maybe millions… of people who love certain crafts and hobbies. However, those who love to quilt aren’t interested in woodworking so your membership site should be about a specific craft or hobby.

Professionals like to talk to other professionals in the same field. Each professional field speaks their own language and find the same things to be interesting, informative or funny. So if you start a membership site for professionals, you should get a good response.

A membership site with the theme, ‘Resell Rights’, should do well, also. This kind of site will need to be kept updated on a regular basis.

Whatever the theme of your membership site is, it should always be your main focus. Every piece of written content, audio content or video content should be about the main theme of your membership site. Little side trips into very closely related fields is alright now and then, but even very closely related subjects should never detract from the main focus of your site.

When you choose the theme for your membership site, you should choose it because it's something that you know a lot about and/or are passionate about.

No matter how many distractions you have, you must still keep new, fresh, relevant and timely content on your website that pertains to the theme of your site.

Your ezines and newsletters need to be filled with helpful and useful information. Be sure to continually check for new products that would be helpful to your membership. New products come out daily and you don’t want to fall behind.

You need to make full use of your autoresponder to keep your members informed and to keep them focused on the objective, as well.

Your blog, forum or message board topics can become unfocused and off-topic very easily. They must be monitored daily…maybe even several times each day.

Benefits of Owning and Operating Your Own Membership Site

Most people realize that there's a lot of money to be made on the internet. What many people don't realize is that it doesn’t take a lot of money to get started with an online venture and begin to cash in. This is certainly true with a membership site. Here are some of the solid reasons why you may want to consider a membership site as your home based online business:

1. There is great potential to create a passive revenue stream. Sometimes referred to as residual income, your membership site can be structured to include a monthly membership fee. That means once you sign someone up, they stay a member month after month. Ultimately, you make a great deal of money from each member who registers with the site.

This really is an easier way to make money than choosing to sell individual products. With products, you basically start all over again every time you pitch a unit to a new customer. This is not true with a membership site. Once you sell someone on joining the site and paying the monthly membership fees, you can turn your focus away from selling and toward ways to keep your site interesting.

2. You have a lot less administrative work to do when you run a membership site. Because people are effectively buying over and over again each month automatically, record keeping is a lot more simplistic. Plus you do not have to put as much effort into sales efforts.

Think about it this way. When you sign up forty new members in a given month at $10.00 per month, that is an additional $400.00 you will earn each month. Over the course of a year, that comes to $4,800.00. Essentially, you do nothing after that initial effort to sign them up. The money just keeps coming.

Now, think about how much money you could make if you signed up 400 new members EVERY month. You can easily build up enough of a membership base to life the life you want –without having to work a second job!

3. Not only do you earn residual income with your members, there is also the chance to earn a few more extra dollars by making backend products available to them. While this is a secondary source of income, it is something you can cultivate when and as you choose.

Because the task of building your customer list is an ongoing thing, your target audience for those backend product offerings is constantly increasing. That is a sales environment that just doesn’t happen in a lot of other situations.

Would you like to be able to market your products directly to what amounts to a list of qualified prospects instead of having to dig for leads? Of course you would!

With the right type of products, you can easily create a steady income above and beyond your residual income.

4. You don’t have to do all the selling yourself. There is always the opportunity to set up an affiliate program. You immediately have hundreds and maybe thousands of people selling for you.

Setting up an affiliate program is not complicated. There are plenty of resources to help you pick a format that is right for your membership site and your budget. As long as you make the compensation worth the time of the affiliates, you can stand to make a great deal of money for yourself.

5. Time. Don’t you often feel that there is not enough of it? How much of your time do you devote to working in a dead end job, for other people?

How many times have you felt like your efforts were not appreciated, much less properly compensated? How much better would your life be if you didn’t have to deal with that sort of thing? With your membership site making money, you can tell your boss goodbye and start using your time for other important things, like family.

6. You create financial security. There’s not much of that these days. But with your membership site making money with monthly membership fees, and the other income you get from selling backend products to your members, you can look toward a secure future. Think of that that means when it comes to planning for your retirement years.

7. You get to do things you never could before. Want to vacation in Florida? How about a ski trip to Colorado? With your membership site up and running, affiliates doing the selling and a steady stream of income showing up in your bank account each month, you have what you need to go wherever you like.

These and many other advantages could be yours. While it takes some hard work on the front end, you have the joy of seeing your efforts pay off.

Take a moment and think about what you would do if you never had to worry about money again. Consider how you will feel about yourself when your work pays off in a big way?

Getting Started

Whatever you call them - member only, membership, subscription, or mentor websites, they all have one thing in common. They are bringing in steady and constant cash flow for their owners, month after month, from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. The array of the topics of these websites is endless.

Some of these paid membership sites provide mentoring or coaching, others publish useful articles or information in a particular field or product. Still others publish the results of tests and studies or product reviews. Some membership sites provide specialized service or act as a meeting place for people with a common interest and then there are those that provide step-by-step instructions for such things as painting or music.

All these sites have one thing in common: to access the website (or the best information on the site) you have to pay for it! Which begs the question…why would anybody pay for information on the Internet?

The answer is simple. People buy information that they could probably find for themselves if they looked long enough and hard enough, because they want to save time or because they think the information will be better or more specialized or because the information just isn’t available to them unless they pay for it.

Just a few short years ago it was almost unheard of to charge for access to a website and almost no one was doing it. Today, however, it's the norm and not the exception. Actually we have internet dating sites to thank for this huge money making opportunity.

It takes some work and certainly the right tools to set up a members-only website but the rewards (monetary as well as personal satisfaction) can be huge.

Setting Up Your First Membership Site

So far, you've identified the niche or subject matter for your membership site (I hope). You've also taken stock of your aims, goals and abilities and decided you have what it takes to operate the site. You've also determined that you're willing to make the commitment necessary to be a success. This is where you get down to the process of designing and setting up your site.

There are several important considerations that will have to be addressed, regardless of what market your membership site will serve. Take a look at each one of them.

Deliverables – What Kind and How Often

If you want to have members who pay for the privilege of using your site, you have to give them something for their money. What you supply in exchange for that monthly membership fee is known as deliverables. There are basically two kinds:

1. Deliverables that are constantly available as long as membership is active. This may include posting privileges to a message board or sending a private message to another member.

2. Deliverables that are provided on a consistent basis, but are not automatically available. These may be products that you develop and release from time to time as part of the membership program. They may also be products you offer at a discounted rate to members only. Ebooks, audio files and video files are some examples of these types of deliverables.

Many membership sites have a combination of both types of deliverables. Doing so helps to keep the site fresh, and also makes the member feel like he or she is getting something over and beyond simple membership.

How many and what type of deliverables is up to you. Deciding on your slate of deliverables should include careful consideration of the following:

What market is the membership site aimed at?
What are the other sites engaged in that market doing?
What would I like to see as a member of this type of site?
What can I include and still keep the membership fee competitive?
What can I add that the other guys are not doing?

Your answers to these questions will play a big role in how you design the function of the site.

Pick a Domain Name

You may think this is no big deal. But it's more than a formality. Your choice of domain name is what your site will be known by. It's how people will find your site when they do searches. It's what people will tell their friends when they urge them to visit the site. In short, your domain name needs to possess these essential characteristics:

It must be easy to remember – this is for both repeating the web address to friends and for members to easily remember the URL even when they aren't at their own computer with its bookmarks.
It must be keyword optimized . You thought your page content was the only place to think about keywords? Think again! Your domain name also should be optimized to show up high on searches.
It must be relevant. You may think it would be cute to call your dating site something like “pinkcanary.com” but do you really think people will take the time to find out what your site is all about? Choose a name that at least hints at the subject matter of the site.
It must be easy to verbalize. Not all your members will email a link to your site to their friends. Some will mention it in passing in casual conversation. For this reason, the name should be easy to say as well as easy to remember. “Artichokehearts.com” is always easier to say than “tenwaystoprepareartichokes.com”. And it is also easier to remember the next day.
You have to like it. After all, it is your business. Make it a name you can proudly pass on to others when you invite them to visit your site.

Membership Site Script

This is simply the software you need to create the site with all the bells and whistles you have decided is needed to stand out from the rest. As you look around, keep the following in mind:

You may or may not find one script that has everything you want. Be prepared to have to purchase more than one. (But for sure, there are some great “all-in-one” solutions.)
Don’t buy anything until you look around a great deal. The idea is to get as many features in one software package as possible.
Read reviews of various scripting software. It helps to know if others found the software easy to use and versatile enough to allow them to set up their sites without jumping through a bunch of hoops.

I've provided a couple of different membership site scripts in the Additional Resources section below. There are many, many different ones available ranging in price from $0 to $1,000. I've used both the multi-membership manager script and the instant membership site creation software. Which is right for you will depend on the type of site you're planning to build and your own technical abilities.

Choose a Payment Processor

Since you do want to get paid for your efforts, you need to put something in place to process payments. It is good for you and also good for your members. When they want to join, they want to do it now, not later.

Different payment processors work different ways. That means you need to decide what payment methods are acceptable:

Debit Cards
Credit Cards
Checking Account Deductions
Online Payment Services

When it comes to credit cards, you also want to decide which credit cards you will accept. Generally, the more you accept, the easier it is for your members. Online payment services like PayPal are very popular today. In fact, you may want to set the processor to allow this option and dump the funds into your own PayPal account.

There are many types of scripting software packages that will include a payment processor. Make sure it is a good one before you buy the software and you can take care of two concerns at once.

Mailing List Manager

Ideally, you want one that will allow you to maintain separate lists. This is helpful in several scenarios:

You can create an opt-in listing for prospects. With this feature, your members can suggest email addresses of their friends that they think would be interested in the site.
You can maintain mailing lists for several levels of membership. If your site functions with a free limited
membership, then two or three levels of paid memberships, you want to house a list for each level. This allows you to send out periodic promotion emails that are targeted to each level in your membership base.
If you go with affiliates as a way to build up your membership, you can also create a mailing list just for the
affiliates. This can come in very handy.
An opt-in newsletter list is also a good idea. That list can be composed of members from any membership level. They just have to let you know they want to be included in the mailing.

A good mailing list manager opens up a lot of doors for effectively using your membership list. Make sure you can maintain at least a dozen different lists at any one time.

Regular Publishing Schedules

The people who have paid to join your membership site depend on you to provide relevant and timely information. It is their right to expect that information to be updated on a regular basis because they may be depending upon it to make decisions. When a person joins your membership site they should be told what your publishing schedule will be so that they know when they can expect to get fresh information. Adhering to that announced schedule is vitally important.

Deciding what your publishing schedule will be for your website is important. Keep in mind the kind of information you will be supplying to your membership. Information that changes hourly will require a RSS feed. Information that needs to up-dated on a daily basis will most likely require a content management system. For weekly publishing of content, you can do that yourself but a content management system can make it a lot easier.

When you are planning your newsletter, you need to decide how often your ezine or newsletter will be sent out to your subscribers. Basically, you need to create a schedule and stick with it. But how often should you publish? How much is too much and how often is not enough? When it comes to frequency, the usual choices are daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

Daily - that means 365 newsletters a year. You could wear out your welcome even with your most devoted members.

Weekly - that is still a lot of work…52 letters a year…a little over 4 a month. Would your members appreciate that much mail from you?

Bi-weekly - Publishing an e-zine twice a month is just often enough to keep you fresh in your subscribers' minds but not so often that they become annoyed with you.

Monthly - doesn’t seem often enough. Your members may forget about you and where your website lives on the Internet.

Conclusion

Owning and operating your own membership site opens up a great deal of potential for you. There is the chance to do something you enjoy while also devoting time to a subject that you care about. Best of all, you can make a lot of money and have time to do the things you’ve always wanted to do.

Just remember that your site needs to be a great one. It has to offer something that is not offered by everyone else. And you have to market it properly or you will never attract members. Spend some time today finding resources that will help you make the best membership site in your hungry market. You could be up and running in less time than you think.

Additional Resources

Multiple Membership Site Script
Instant Membership Site Software

Controversial Memberships (free ebook -instant download)
Membership Site Profits (free ebook -instant download)

Okay, that's today's home business idea. If starting a memership site is something you might like to do, I wish you all the best. And as always, don't forget to have fun building and running your business.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Custom Stenciling Business

2011-04-26T16:30:00.001-04:00

Custom Stenciling Business Overview

Specializing in custom stenciling is a fantastic low-investment business you can start and manage right from a home based office. In the past few years stenciling has once again become a popular interior decorating art medium. The uses vary from decorative wall borders to creating beautiful patterns on cabinet doors to sprucing up that old vase or fruit bowl.

Deciding to start a custom stencil business can prove to be a lucrative venture. Stencils are an easy way to create one of a kind designs on just about any surface from walls to clothing by placing the stencil on an item and filling in the design with paint or other textures. There are many designers and decorators across the country who could be potential clients of your business.

Getting Started

To get started all you have to do is practice. There are many how-to books and videos available that'll teach you specific secrets and methods about creative stenciling. I've included a few tips below, but you'll want to do some research and studying in addition to the few tips I've given you.

1. Create a business plan. This a necessary tool to help you chart how you will market your unique stencil designs, debt financing, and classes needed to keep your design skills sharp as you start a custom stencil design business.

2. Consider an online business when you start a custom design stencil business. You can show off your stencil design using an online gallery and it'll be easier to maintain than a physical store giving you global appeal. You might even want to think about creating a Yahoo Stores. You can customize it to showcase your work, and sell your stencils and/or services.

3. If you're unsure of your current abilities, you may decide to outsource work by hiring additional stencil designers or a web designer. However, if you feel confident enough to do it all yourself, you can save a lot of money on start-up costs in the beginning.

4. Establish an effective marketing plan to bring in specific stencil business. When you start a custom design stenciling business you could consider setting up an affiliate-marketing program to encourage complementary, established businesses to promote your custom stencils for a small commission. Mom and pop home decor shops and small business shops that sell paint could be ideal.

5. Obtain the necessary software, screen printing machines or other equipment needed to create custom stencils for your business, if you don't want to take the time and expend the effort to create them by hand.

Equipment & Materials

Basic materials that will be required include:

paints & textures
various sizes of paintbrushes
additional paint applicators
predesigned stenciling templates
masking tape
rags, sponges etc.

Of course if you have creative flair, you can design your own custom stenciling templates, which I'll give you some tips on how to do in a minute.

Warnings & Considerations

Consider consulting an attorney and accountant to keep taxes, contracts and other legal matters in order.
Take advantage of any business courses offered online or at your local community college to help you succeed when you start a custom stencil business.
Avoid listing standard prices for your services. Your business is offering custom designed stencils. Since every design is custom made it would be difficult to set standard pricing.

Take Your Custom Stenciling Business Online

Stencils are an inexpensive and easy way to transform just about any surface, from walls to clothing. They're also a great tool for teachers and parents looking for creative ways to spend time with their kids. If you can draw or are patient enough to learn how, you could easily start an online stencil business. Again, Yahoo Stores makes this very, very easy and affordable.

What You'll Need:

Website
Design software
Stencil cutter

1. Select a software design program for your stencil store, if you don't want to draw your stencil designs by hand. If you've never worked with a program before, start with GIMP or Paint.net. Both of these programs are free. GIMP has more features than Paint.net, but Paint.net is easier to maneuver. Another option is to purchase a program like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Corel Paint Shop Pro. While all four can be used for a variety of applications, Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro are geared towards photo editing or painting using raster graphics, whereas Ilustrator and CorelDRAW are more for drawing.

2. Enroll in an art class that teaches stencil design. Contact your local community college or art school to find a course.

3. Select a memorable domain name for your business. Then purchase your domain and website. Look for a web host who can provide instant, 24-hour customer support and helpful tutorials on how to set up your website. Look for a web host who can offer you free Google Adword or Yahoo credits, Facebook integration, free templates, plenty of bandwidth, storage space and email addresses and marketing tools such as newsletters, coupon generators and data feeds.

4. Design your stencil site. If you don't want to use a free template but you aren't familiar with Hyper-text markup language (HTML), consider hiring a web designer to help you. Ask around at your art class. You may be able to hire a student for much cheaper than you would a professional. On your site, detail the many uses for stencils. Provide pictures of walls, floors, flower pots, canisters, signs and vases that have been decorated using your stencils. Offer helpful videos. Allow customers to create their own stencils for a fee.

5. Purchase stencil brushes, stencil sheets, tubes of acrylic paint, paint kits, stationary and books to sell on your site along with your stencils, as well as custom cardboard packaging materials. Purchase a laser cutting machine that will work on the materials you intend to sell, such as glass, wood, acrylic, metal or plastic. Features to consider are the work area your cutter will accommodate, the desired thickness of your stencils and the production rate.

6. Find your niche and begin creating your stencils. Create stencils for use in home décor, as cake toppers, or for commercial use. Design intricate stencils for use as borders or exquisite décor. Incorporate letters, numbers, animals, plants, vegetables, fruits, flowers, prints, patriotic symbols, baskets, hearts, stars, space, holiday and seasonal themes, colonial, French country or Victorian designs.

7. Contact local paint and craft stores about selling your stencils in store, in exchange for a percentage of the profits.

Warnings & Considerations

Once your business takes off and you've leased a location, consider holding art classes to help supplement your income.
When first starting out, you may be able to store the majority of your equipment and supplies in a large garage. However, as your business expands, it may be a good idea to rent space, particularly if you intend to hire employees.
Consider starting a blog where you give stenciling advice and offer a handful of free, printable stencils. Put links to your online store on your blog.

Tips On Stenciling

Stenciling is a very arduous task. It requires a lot of hard work and determination. It also requires concentration and focus. Unlike other art forms, stenciling is a very personal art form where in an individual gets to choose his or her design and make her own design too.

Stenciling started with the stenciled patterns in caves. It proliferated with the advancements and initiatives of the Japanese and Chinese. Other cultures like the Europeans and Romans helped in the spreading of the art form.

There are many forms of stenciling. These include wall stenciling, graffiti stenciling and furniture stenciling. Stenciling is used in decorating and expressing yourself. You'll need to ehance your knowledge of stenciling before starting your home based custom stencilling service. Here are some tips that can help in ensuring a quality results.

1.) Use a proficient tool – choose your equipment carefully. Brushes for stenciling have short and firm bristles. They are also round. These characteristics of the brushes will prevent paint from seeping into the edges of the stencil.

Other equipment recommended are sponge and small roller.

2.) Start working from the outside towards the middle. This method will stop the paint from seeping under the edges.

3.) Don't put too much paint on the brush. This'll create a messy output. Dip the brush into the paint lightly. Dab the brush with a piece of paper or cloth if there's an excess of paint.

4.) Apply coats individually. Dry the first coating first before applying the second one. Apply paints thinly. It's better to have a first and second coating than a thick one.

5.) Tape the stencil to avoid it from slipping down or to avoid spaces between the stencil and the surface. Tapes with low tacks are the best materials to use for this procedure.

6.) Use colors to make your stencil design beautiful. Cover the areas with tape when you don't want them to be included in a particular color that you are applying.

7.) Practice everyday. Practice applying the paint and using your brush. Study your design carefully and practice it on other surfaces.

8.) Clean regularly. Clean the surfaces where you'll be working. Clean the brushes that you'll use. Cut your stencil cleanly. Keep your stencil free from any paint. Paint on the edges will damage the outcome of your design. Clean your brushes in between the application of different colours and layers. After cleaning your brushes and stencil, let them dry before using them again.

9.) Keep the stencils flat. Put it between two pieces of cardboard, book or anything that will hold the design flat.

These are some of the things that you should keep in mind before beginning any project/job.. There are other things to do but these few tips are the most fundamental and basic.

Stenciling is a great art. It gives the artist a lot of choice when it comes to design, equipment and materials. Yet, it is only great if you perfect the art and spend time learning it.

How To Make A Stencil

Want to know how to make a stencil? It's fun to create a pattern from a picture you love and have the ability to reproduce it again and again. It's easy too!

Let's say you found the perfect image and want to make it into a stencil. Well, there are many ways to make a picture into a stencil, and depending on the image, various ways to best create a stencil. So, let's explore a couple of options.

First you need to decide if your image will work best as a Single Overlay Stencil or a Multiple Overlay Stencil. If your image is intricate or complex, say like a multi-petalled rose, you may want to use several layer to get the best effect.

However, if you have an image of three balloons that you'd like to turn into a stencil, a single layer would suffice.

So, what do you want your stenciled image to look like? Do you want a silhouette or ghost of the image? Are you looking for a simple picture with one or few colors that has little detail? Or do you want a final image that has more of a hand painted look?

It might help to look at your image in a different way. How much detail is in the image? And how much detail do you want to keep for your stencil? You need to try and visualize your image as if it were broken down into layers – maybe by colors or maybe by shadows versus light areas. Needless to say, the fewer the details the better the image for creating a stencil. At least, when you are just starting out.

The best images for how to make a stencil have high contrast with few variations. What does that mean? Well, in order to create a stencil you need to break it down into sections and the more color variations and shaded areas the more complex your job.

How To Make A Stencil - Single and Multiple Overlay Designs

I should tell you this, Single Overlay Stencils are less work when it comes to stencil painting but can be a little harder when it comes to designing. Take a good look at both options before deciding and then take another look at your image.

Okay, let’s say your image is a black and white photo. That’s pretty easy and takes a lot of the guess work out of it for you – it will work best as a Single Overly Stencil.

So, you've taken a good look at your image and decided that you want to keep the detail and you really desire the hand painted look. Great! A Multiple Overlay Stencil will get your where you want to be. You'll be making stencils with Multiple Layers which is the next step of learning how to make a stencil.

After you've designed your own stencil and really put some work into it you'll want to preserve it for future use. Or maybe you want to use it multiple times. Click here to get some stencil making tips and techniques for preparing your stencils for permanent use. There are a couple of options to do this. You can use a verathane coating, a wax coating, or cut your stencil into a thin sheet of mylar or acetate instead of paper for multiple use or permanent stencils.

When looking for a material to make stencils you’ll want a product that can accept ink without smudging or pooling.

Remember that a glossy finish will not accept ink and will cause paint to run (and seep under your stencil). So I would highly recommend a product that has a matte finish on both sides.

For all of its usefulness, acetate does cause a few headaches — ink that won't stay, a yellow or grayish cast as it ages, edges that curl.

Grafix Dura-Lar is the acetate alternative. It combines the best features of Mylar® and acetate, and offers a variety of products so that you can purchase the film that suits your needs precisely. It is always consistent in color and overall clarity, and won't discolor with age. Dura-Lar is archival quality, safe for overlaying artwork, and it lays flat. It will remain dimensionally stable for as long as you need.

When learning how to make a stencil you'll find that there are many options for the materials to use. In fact, I've heard of people using report covers or clear transparencies. Again, I'm trying to give you as many ideas so that you can experiment and find what works best for you!

Blick Art Materials has a large supply of stencil making materials including the Dura-Lar acetate alternative products.

You can find acetates in rolls or sheets, colored or clear, matte or glossy and even adhesive backed. Experiment until you find the one that works best for you.

Here are a few tips for cutting out your stencil. Rotate the stencil with one hand while you continue to cut in as straight a line as possible, steadily and gently pulling the blade towards you. This will keep your wrist in a more comfortable and natural position and give you more control so you don't make mistake cuts. Twisting your wrist to cut along a winding line is more difficult.

A Final Note

A home based custom stenciling service is best marketed by way of referral or word-of-mouth advertising. It may take a little longer to establish a client base this way; however, the extra time will enable you to gain valuable stenciling practice and experience for your new home based custom stenciling service. If, on the other hand, you take your business online, then you have many more options and avenues for building your custom stencilling business.

This is a very creative business, and one that requires patience and expertise. Learn it well before taking on any large project -like someone's livingroom or an office building. The more you practice the better you'll get, and the better you get the more enjoyment and satisfaction you'll dervice from your home based custom stencilling business.

Additional Resources

Dick Blick Art Materials

Stencil Creation Equipment

I hope you found this business idea and overview helpful. Remember, whichever business you choose, don't forget to have fun with it.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Pros And Cons Of Starting A Business

2011-04-26T16:16:00.000-04:00

Are you interested in starting your own home business? If you are, you may already have your mind made up. However, if you're still toying with the idea of starting your own home business, you may be wondering whether or not your dream is one that should stay a dream or one that could actually become a profitable reality.

To get a good idea as to whether or not you should start a small business, you may want to examine the pros and cons of doing so. These pros and cons may help make it easier for you to decide whether or not a small business is right for you. A few of the most important small business pros and cons are touched on below.

Perhaps, the biggest pro or plus side to starting your own small business is the fact that you will be achieving a dream of yours. There are many individuals who have a dream to start their own business, but many rarely end up doing so. One of the reasons for that is fear. Many are afraid of failure. Yes, you and your small business venture may fail, but many say the ride was worth taking, no matter how good or bad the outcome turned out to be.

Another pro or plus side to starting your own small business is type of businesses that you could start. For instance, did you know that you could open up your craft store, run a payroll processing company, start a dog grooming salon, or start your own hair salon? When it comes to starting your own small business, you will find that the possibilities are literally endless.

In connection with the types of businesses that you can start, did you also know that those businesses can be run in different ways? For instance, if you are interested in opening up a dog grooming salon or even a hair salon, did you know that you could rent your own commercial building space or even run the business out of your home for a while? Also, depending on the type of business you run, you may even be able to have an online store. In fact, it is not uncommon for many small business owners, who sell products, to have storefront retail stores, as well as online retail stores. Once again, the possibilities are basically endless.

Although there a number of pros or plus sides to starting your own small business, you will also find that there a number of downsides or cons to doing so as well. One of those downsides is the fact that there are not really any guarantees. Sometimes even the best small business plans fail. There a lot of factors that go into determining whether or not a business can be a profitable one, like the ability to reach the targeted market, startup costs, monthly expenses, and location. While there are steps that you can take to help improve your chances of success, there are still no guarantees.

Another one of the cons or downsides to starting a small business is the startup money needed. Yes, there are some businesses that have smaller startup costs than others, but almost all small businesses do have startup costs. The good news though is that if you don’t have the required funds, you may be able to obtain financing for your small business project. The only thing is that you need to have good credit to do so. So, if your credit currently isn’t in good standing, you may want to think about working on it now. The sooner you get your credit repaired, if it needs to be, the sooner, you can start opening up your small business.

The above mentioned pros and cons are just a few of the many associated with trying to start your own small business. In all honesty, you may want to think about creating your own pros and cons list. If the pros outweigh the cons, starting your own small business may be something that you should look into doing.

It's my sincerest hopes that these tips are helpful to you.

Until next time.

Terry

Yahoo Store Online Business

2011-04-25T17:20:00.000-04:00

Yahoo Store Overview

Today many people have discovered the ease and quality of online shopping. In addition to the growing number of online shoppers, people are also finding that they can run a successful home based business by selling products online. One of the most popular shopping communities online is Yahoo Shopping.

The Yahoo store is an online store front where people can host their own websites to sell merchandise over the web safely and securely with the most trusted website in the world. Yahoo stores are becoming more and more popular because of the world wide popularity of Yahoo.com.

Yahoo is a global network that receives an average of over 3.4 billion page views a day. Yahoo is the second most visited website in the United States and the number one most viewed website in the world. Yahoo.com had attracted over 1.5 billion annual visitors by the year 2008 and the number of visitors has continued to rise. Just imagine the potential your online store could have if it were being hosted with the most popular website in the world.

Yahoo uses the Ecommerce Wizard software which allows you to add or remove products and details. A business owner may also decide to showcase up to 50,000 items in their store-front. The wizard also includes a great program for web design allowing you to customize your storefront to your liking, however you're able to use other programs of your choice, and even hire a web designer. Using Yahoo as your ecommerce partner is a smart decision because Yahoo.com is the most visited website in the world.

If you're unsure about joining the online shopping community look at all the things Yahoo has to offer. First off, signing up for and creating a store front with Yahoo Stores is as easy as 1,2,3. At Yahoo you can design and build your own website from scratch using Yahoo’s design software called Wizard. Wizard is offered for free or you can design your website using your own website creation software like FrontPage or Dreamweaver. Yahoo even has professionals to build your website for you for an extra fee or you can have your own web designer build your Yahoo store website and upload it to the yahoo hosting service provided.

You can manage up to 50,000 products on your Yahoo store and quickly add and remove items using their step by step wizard programs. If you have an existing web storefront you can easily upload the product database to yahoo and have it up and running in no time.

Yahoo also offers a Merchant Starter Plan for $39.95 a month. The plan includes useful features such as the Wizard software. Wizard offers web design and stock control programs. When making transactions Yahoo uses the secure services of Pay Pal allowing customers to purchase items with popular credit cards or check and money order forms.

Since you're in control of your own store front you can sell whatever comes to mind such as candles, clothes, movies, etc. When stocking your store front you should research popular items and how much the contenders are selling them for; this way you can sell items people are looking for and at attractive prices while competing with the others.

Setting Up Your Yahoo! Store

Yahoo offers a prompt application process that gets your store accepting money from merchant accounts right away. Support for existing merchant accounts is available if your existing merchant account is compatible with FDMS. After you've built your website, uploaded your items and have signed up for your merchant accounts you'll be ready to start making money. You control the prices of your merchandise and you can offer promotions such as coupons, gift certificates, discount pricing, and volume pricing.

With Yahoo Stores, you'll even receive inventory alerts when the quantities of your products are low. You'll be able to manage your yahoo store and categorize your merchandise by color, price, size and any other variable you choose. You can also include trackable links for your affiliate programs.

Yahoo stores also helps you achieve sales by posting your products in their product catalog. The product catalogs are in XML and can be read by shopping directories. Marketing your Yahoo store is easy with Yahoo’s search engine friendly web pages. You get automatic submissions to Yahoo and Google.

You can view your orders several different ways. You can view your orders by email or online or you can also receive your new orders by fax. Yahoo’s easy interface makes it easy to process and ship your orders to the customers.

Automatically email customers to announce order status changes. Yahoo also makes shipping easy by printing out shipping labels and invoices to help you stay organized.

Additional Features

Yahoo Shopping services include price matching which allows consumers to find the desired items at the perfect price by seeing what the others have to offer. When you match prices as the merchant, consumers will be attracted to your web store. Once again the services Yahoo offers are catered to the quality and interest of you and the consumer; when popular items are running out of inventory you will receive email alerts urging you to re-stock your store front.

By running your business online you'll receive orders from all over the world. Yahoo grants you the freedom of using any shipping service you like such as: UPS, USPS, Fed-Ex, and more. Some services such as UPS offer online tools to review and track orders. Keep in mind that tax rates will vary by country, province/state, and postal/zip code.

If you need assistance with your business Yahoo offers a 24/7 technical support line. Yahoo also offers customer service for the consumer. There are many places on the web to partner with for ecommerce but none favor the merchant and customer the way Yahoo does. Yahoo’s services are only of the highest quality and concern for their partners and shoppers. I hope you make the wise decision of creating and running a Yahoo Web-store. Once you’ve built your store-front you will see results at a fast pace, almost instantly filling orders and restocking your inventory.

Other ecommerce sites like Ebay are reasonable but they are nothing like Yahoo Stores. Yahoo offers many options and services that Ebay doesn’t. Yahoo even allows you to use your own domain name. When choosing an ecommerce partner you should review all of the offered services and options.

Yahoo will assist the online merchant with all things necessary to run a professional and successful online store-front. Why choose to use E-bay when you have Yahoo Web-store with Yahoo Shopping. If you aren’t satisfied with the services that other ecommerce sites offer you can easily switch over to the Yahoo Shopping community. Whether it’s your first time running a home based business or you want better service Yahoo is the best choice.

Another added feature that Yahoo Store offers is guided marketing resources and services that will help launch and grow your online business. Not only do they offer marketing services and resources, they also offer web analytics for tracking and testing your web store traffic so you can see what is working and what is not working in your marketing efforts.

Web analytics is probably the single most powerful tool for maximizing your marketing and advertising budget as it allows you to track and test your visitors actions, lets you know where your traffic is coming from, allows you to run split tests, track changes in trends, and this ultimately allows you to increase your conversions and maximize your ROI in your marketing and advertising budget.

Some other added perks and features are display advertising network across Yahoo network (combine with PPC campaigns), free marketing features, and a grand opening email when your store goes live.

Deciding to use Yahoo Web Stores is probably one of the best decisions you will ever make when you choose to open a web business as they are a well known ,one stop shop , ecommerce solution. Yahoo Web Stores literally puts the “E” in easy when it comes to creating a fully functional ecommerce website. So whether you're looking to expand your business -and take it online- or just looking to build an extra stream of income, Yahoo Web tores is your all in one ecommerce solution.

Deciding what to sell in your Yahoo Store

So you’ve signed up for the Merchant Starter Plan offered by Yahoo to start your own business, you have used the Wizard software to enhance your storefront, and you’ve set up payment processing. There’s just one thing keeping your business from advancing! You haven’t a clue of what to sell.

As owner of a Yahoo Web-store in the Yahoo Shopping Community you are able to sell any items of your choice including: clothes, house ware, car-parts, novelty Items, and more. When first selecting items you may just want to start off with a few items that are convenient for you to sell. As your store-front begins to gain business you will want to review what others are selling and for how much. You may also want to see what the hot selling or popular items are. The popular selling items are what you should try to sell in your store.

The prices of similar items that the cmpetitors are selling for is what you will have to make difference with. The better deal you give a customer on a popular item the more business you will obtain. Some might like to maintain a certain theme or interest to their store, if your store-front is for special or certain items the same suggestions apply. For example, if your store is set towards the younger consumer you will want to keep up on what items involve their interest. If you sell home items such as cndles it is wise to select the most popular scents for your inventory.

However, if you do not want to spend a lot of money on big items to sell you might be interested in selling only certain items ranging from party supplies to vitamins. If your store-front is only dedicated to party supplies than you will only need to sell related items such as napkins, masks, games, hats, etc. Also when selecting items you may only want to sell items that can be easily shipped. For example the heavier or bigger an item is the more it will cost for you to ship it.

If you spend too much money on shipping it might not be possible for you to earn the money back from sales. Sensible items to sell if you are budgeting might include cell phone and I-pod accessories. The strategies and tactics that regular shop owners use are the same that you should use for yours even though your business is online.

When looking for items to sell in your store-front keep in mind of the factors that could encourage satisfying sales.

Selling popular items at competitive prices is a sure way to gain and keep customers. While wanting to sell popular items you might not have a supporting budget, therefore it is possible for you to sell accessories to these items such as phone cases, headphones, docking cradles, and more. The items you sell in your store will determine the amount of traffic and customers you receive. Setting up your Yahoo Store was easy and deciding what to sell should be just as easy for you. The most important aspect of your business is the items you sell.

When selecting items rmember to review the pricing of competitors and what items consumers are going after. Once you have reviewed the Yahoo Shopping Community stats you should consider the items you will want to possibly sell.

Once you have your items selected and in inventory you are now ready to start business and earn money. Remember that you are able to sell anything you want in your web-store. If you are running a specialty shop, you should keep up on the newest items and information in relation to your stores theme and demographic. Also remember that selling popular items doesn’t always mean you need to spend a lot of money.

Many people are looking for accessories that match with their personality and style. With the popularity of electronic items such as I-pods and computers, people are looking for ways to make their possessions custom and personal. So if you aren’t able to sell certain items you might be able to earn just as much money by selling accessories and add-on’s for those popular items.

Pricing And Inventory

When pricing your items it is suggested that you should price your items lower than what others charge to keep up competition and maintain a steady flow of consumer traffic. Since customers are able to match pricing, and your prices are better than opposing merchants they will be attracted to your store-front. So keep in mind that reasonable pricing equals more customers, and more customers equal more money.

When a customer fills in an order it is up to you to make sure he or she receives the products. Yahoo Web-store allows you to use any shipping or mail service of your choice ranging from UPS, FED-EX, and USPS. If you would like to check the status of an order UPS offers online tools. To make sure you don’t put too much money out in sending an order you can.

You have the option to set your shipping rates depending on weight, price, location, and more. Because your store is online at Yahoo Shopping you are able to ship orders internationally, however keep in mind that tax rates will differ by country, state, and zip. When popular items are low on stock you will receive immediate e-mail alerts so you may re-order merchandise. It is also a wise decision to keep your inventory organized. You are able to organize your stock by color, size, weight, and other variables.

When keeping inventory it can sometimes be a hassle, but with Yahoo Web-store it is easy. When popular items are low on stock you will receive immediate e-mail alerts so you may re-order merchandise. It is also a wise decision to keep your inventory organized in relevant categories with very detailed descriptions. Yahoo web store allows you to organize your stock by color, size, weight, category, keywords, and other variables.

Keeping your Yahoo store organized using very detailed and keyword specific descriptions. Other ecommerce sites like Ebay are reasonable but there’s nothing like Yahoo Web-store. Yahoo offers many options and services that E-bay and other leading competitors don't offer or have. Yahoo even allows you to use your own keyword specific domain name, remember to use a very relevant and keyword specific domain name. When choosing an ecommerce partner you should review all of the offered services and options.

Why Choose Yahoo Stores

The first thing to look for in your online store provider is great customer service and the opportunity to work with a reliable and trusting company. You want to be able to contact your store customer service team if a problem or question arises and you want them to have a fast response time to answer your questions and give you the correct advice.

Before you sign up with an ecommerce store provider you should check out the “Customer Support” page to see if they offer the sufficient contact information. When you call them do you talk to a customer service rep about your questions, or do you get the run around while arguing with pre-recorded voice. When you contact your online store provider your questions need to be answered within a reasonable amount of time.

Yahoo guarantees great customer service and they are eager to answer your questions regarding your yahoo store. Yahoo Stores have a 24-7 toll free customer support hotline and 24-7 email support as well. If you are unsure of the whole process they also offer Getting Started guides to help you on your way to success with yahoo stores.

Every internet server is going to have downtime, it is unfortunately unavoidable. The hard part is finding a service that is willing to accept the fact that they will have downtime and work with you to make sure that you aren’t dissatisfied with the services. You don’t want to have your online store hosted with a server that is always down because while the server is down you will not receive any sales and customers will not even be able to look at your website.. If a server is offering 100% uptime they are not being truthful to their potential customers.

Yahoo Store offers 99.9 % uptime and a local and remote site backup. Also included is a free BSD(UNIX) operating system. With Yahoo stores all of your personal information is secure and confidential. They offer IP blocking to help keep out potential negative customers. You have full access privileges to your site administration, and you also have many configurable risk tools to help flag fraudulent orders to keep you and your customers safe from identity theft. Yahoo stores offer extensive protection for your website including password protection and domain name locking.

Manage your yahoo store with Yahoo’s Web Analytics real time reporting to stay on top of you sites top traffic and sales sources and shopping cart drop off analysis. Yahoo Stores give you advice on the best keywords to use for your website but telling you which keywords get you most traffic to your webpage and which keywords don’t. Stay in touch with your customers with up to 1,000 email addresses and unlimited email storage space.

Yahoo Stores are the most trusted online stores available. They offer everything needed to start and operate your business from the ground up. Start your business the right way by getting involved with Yahoo Stores and make money online by selling your items from home.

Good luck with your new Yahoo Store. And don't forget to have fun while setting it up and running it.

Wishing you the greatest success,

Terry

Nail Art Technician Business

2011-04-23T17:17:00.000-04:00

Overview Of Home Based Nail Art Technician Business

Nail Art / Design Technicians only became part of everyday self-care a few years ago. Up until then, most people were perfectly happy doing home manicures and having a professional manicure at a salon for important social gatherings or business functions. With the advent of acrylic nail extensions and gel nails and tips the professional manicure became more accessible and thus much more mainstream and now we even have "specialist" nail technicians that can create amazing works of art on your fingernails.

As well as acrylic and gel nail extensions, there are nail tips and all kinds of artistic embellishment available. The elegant extended fingernails can be studded with rhinestones, dotted with glitter or painted with seasonal pictures. As I mentioned above, there are even nail techs that specialize: some specialize in airbrushing your nails, some are experts at applying fine metal foils, and I've even seen techs that specialize in sculpting nails. It's no longer simply a matter of choosing a colour for your nail polish.

Nail art has become so popular now that you can find a huge assortment of nail art supplies and embelishments at your local Walmart or drugstore. When I first began putting art on my nails, I had a hard time finding decorations and had to be creative and make a lot of my own. But now when I go to the beauty department of a store, I can find rows and rows of items for creating nail art.

There's enormous potential for earning money with your own home nail art technician business. You only have to pass by a nail salon a few times to see how busy they are at all times of the day. If you want to try out nail extensions for yourself, and check out the business and your competition, you'll find there's a long waiting list for appointments. As a home based nail art technician, you'll have more independence and flexibility in respect of the hours you work than you would if you worked in a salon belonging to somebody else.

Getting Started

There's quite a bit of debate as to whether you need to be certified or not, and I think to add to the issue, some provinces/states and cities require licensing while others don't. However, I think, if you're offering ONLY nail design services, there's some lieniency in licensing and/or certification requirements. I would recommend, though, if you aren't a certified nail technician already, that you take some courses. There are some health issues and concerns that you should be aware of.

As the demand for nail technician training has increased, the number of centers offering training courses has also increased but they are not all Government accredited educational institutions. When choosing a nail technician training center (before paying anything to them) make very sure the training will lead to a recognised qualification and not just a worthless diploma invented by the owner of the training center.

If you've never seen what fungal nail infections look like, do a search on the nternet and have a look at some pictures. You'll quickly understand why clients would sue you for damages. It would be highly irresponsible to risk inflicting this sort of damage on anyone, so it might be a good idea to take a proper training course. Also, to avoid such things, always, always use top quality materials. Remember, business is about competition, so you want to offer the best service you possibly can. A good reputation will be your key to building a loyal customer base who will recommend you to their friends and family.

A nail technician is intimately involved in the most important and exciting events of people’s lives: from weddings to special occasions, and even to helping someone land that perfect job. Because of this, you need to perfect your tecniques before you actually start charging clients. I know I wouldn't want to be the one to wreck a bride's nail job on her wedding day!
Looking for nail technician training

The basic equipment required for the home based nail technician isn't necessarily expensive and can be purchased online. However, as I mentioned before (and it's worth mentioning again) use quality products. Using high quaility products doesn't just protect you, it also impresses your clients. You want them to have a great experience, and enjoy their nails. Having to get their nails touched up every few days isn't going to do much for your business. Word of mouth can make or break your budding home based nail art business.

Here's a list of the primary tools you'll need to start with:

A nail file machine and emery boards
Many different colours of nail polish
Acrylic and gel nails, tips and extensions
A wide variety of embellishments -different coloured rhinestones, sparkles, decorations, etc.
Paraffin wax
Cotton balls and tissues
Nail polish remover (non-acetate)
A storage container for all your supplies (a tackle box will do)
A portable table (optional but useful even if you're not taking your business mobile)

This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, and if you're like me, you won't be able to stop buying little decorations and new polishes whenever you get the opportunity.

Pricing

Part art, part science, pricing your services is one of the most important and delicate tasks you’ll undertake in your home based nail art technician business. And no two technicians approach it quite the same. As well, there are other factors to be considered in the equation. The area you live and will be working in. Technicians in major metroploitian areas can get away with charging much higher fees. While small town techs have to consider their client-base and what their area can support. Also, how many other salons or technicians are in your area? Is there a lot of competition? Will you have to do a lot of advertising? I've seen rates range from $50 for basic nail extensions, to $25 a nail for the full service -nail application, paint and art.

You might want to set a base price for the nail/extension applications, and then add to it depending on what type of art your client wants.

A Few Final Pointers

Creativity and application are what makes you stand out in a nail technology business. You'll also need to be in tune with new technologies and the latest trends in nail fashion. As a home based nail art technician business owner, you're going to need excellent communication skills and be willing to go the extra mile to provide exceptional services to your clients.

The increasing demand for nail technicians makes it easy for anyone who specialises in the business to have as many clients as they can handle. By offering a nail design service from home, you can offer three things that'll put you ahead of the salons:

1. Flexible hours. You can offer evening and weekend appointments for people who are at work during the day or want to get their nails done when their partner is at home to look after the children. You can also offer an emergency repair service.

2. Discounted rates. Fancy fingernails are not cheap to maintain but your overheads will be far lower than those of a salon owner. You can, therefore, compete with the salons on price and still make a good profit.

3. Mobile service. To put yourself even further ahead of the salons, you can offer a mobile nail technician service. This will be a valuable service for people such as mothers who don't want to take young children to a salon, disabled people who find travelling difficult and anyone where transport would be a problem or parking a nuisance.

Here's an idea just for my readers. I used to do this myself and I ALWAYS got positive comments and big reactions: To create an even more interesting design, pierce one or both baby fingernails (or any nail for that matter). You can purchase little charms for fingernails, and they have a little circular tip attached. Use a darning needle (make sure it's sterile), or if you can find something better, by all means, use it, and pierce the outer part of the baby fingernail. Then insert the tiny charm through the hole you just made with the darning needle. Do this after you've created the art because it's a pain to try to paint around the piercing.

This is an unbelievably creative and fun business to get into. If you're already a nail technician, or if you enjoy doing your own and friends and familys' nails, then this would be a great home business for you to start.

Additional Resources

Nails Magazine

Well, that's it for today's idea. Don't forget, no matter which home business you decide to start, have fun with it.

Until tomorrow,

Terry

Virtual Assistant Business

2011-04-22T17:45:00.000-04:00

A virtual assistant is a contractor who supports businesses, legal offices, medical facilities and large corporations. This professional usually works from home and performs a variety of different tasks that can include internet research, writing, editing, bookkeeping, marketing support, spreadsheet preparation, transcriptions or any other internet or secretarial service. According to Entrepreneur magazine, the virtual assistant industry is becoming very popular among men and women who want to achieve a work/life balance that allows them to attend to family as well as work responsibilities. Becoming a virtual assistant requires little in the way of start-up costs, but does require a thorough knowledge of computers and technology devices.

Virtual assistants are also a popular option over hiring a regular employee because they’re considered independent contractors who have their own office equipment and pay their own taxes, therefore saving potential clients a lot of money in overhead costs.

If you’ve done administrative work in previous jobs, starting a VA business could be right up your alley.

Getting Started

Choose a name for your business and register it with the proper agency. Select two to three business name options, and check with your appropriate state agency to make sure the name is not being used by any other business. Purchase a domain name that reflects your VA business. All professionals in this field should have their own website because it reflects their professional attitude toward their work.

If you want to be a good virtual assistant, you need to set the hours right away and the hourly pay. You also have to set up a spreadsheet of your hours worked so that you have all the necessary documentations down to the minute if the client questions your work or pay. Most clients are easy to work with, but some will take advantage of your time. You have to discuss everything up front before agreeing to do the work.

Some client put high demands on the assistant. Some clients feel that the assistant should be at their beckon call no matter what time of day it is or what day it is. Before agreeing to work with anyone, you have to set your hours and stick to it. If you let a client contact you any time of the day, you will open a door to burn out or become frustrated. Some clients expect a person to be able when they need them and this causes problems with your home life.

Equipment Requirements

Since you're reading this, I can assume you have the primary tools needed to start your home based virtual assistant business, but to be thorough, I'll list the equipment you'll need... plus there may be one or two items you don't have and didn't think about:

A computer with high speed internet access
email program
office suite software
phone
printer, scanner or fax machine
a website to promote your services
a desk
comfortable chair
a quiet space to work

Income Potential

Virtual assistants can make good money depending on what the job duties are and the client.

It was reported by virtual assistant trade organizations that the average full-time VA working in the US would gross about $39,452 annually. Now that isn’t a bad income.

According to the George Washington University forecast of emerging technology, Virtual Assisting will become a $130 Billion Industry in 2008. Thanks to our growing technology, and the fact that it’s easier to just source out work to a VA due to the fact that a business doesn’t have to pay for any benefits when they out-source, this type of service will only get bigger and more in demand.

Finding Clients For Your Home Based Virutal Assistant Business

Finding legitimate virtual assistant jobs can seem like a frustrating task. With so many scams on the web, it seems like there aren't any real opportunities available. But these positions do exist; you just need a few tips to find them.

Having persistence and dedication will put you on the path to landing virtual assistant jobs in no time.

Check out virtual office temp's website. They specialize in connecting companies that need virtual assistance with qualified candidates. The company doesn't charge any application or membership fees. All you need to do is register to receive weekly virtual assistant jobs.

Bid on virtual assistant jobs on Guru.com. This is a bidding website that allows you to bid on jobs. Check out the category titled "Admin (legal, medical, and accounting support" for virtual office assistant jobs. You can bid on projects in your area with a free membership, or purchase a membership (costing about $30 a month) which allows you to apply to virtual assistant jobs all over the world.

The WAHM job board is a great resource for finding companies that need virtual assistance. The WAHM job board is updated daily with legitimate virtual administrative assistant and virtual secretary jobs.

Target local businesses in your area. You can easily find virtual assistant jobs for yourself if you have a good strategy. Employers that are downsizing are looking to hire contract workers. Approach companies in your area about virtual assistance on a contractor basis.

Sign up and complete your profile on freelance websites like Odesk, Freelancer or Elance. Freelance websites will help you find clients, especially if you do not have any. Attach a copy of the resume to the freelance profile. Take any available tests that will help demonstrate your proficiency. View different work categories to look at job opportunities you are capable of completing. Bid on jobs to get work experience. Wait for a job offer and complete the project in the time specified. This way, you will get a positive recommendation from the client.

Last Word

Prepare a good marketing strategy and business plan for your hiome based virtual assistant business. Remember that your business will take time and work. Many virtual assistants often work between 14 and 18 hours a day in their start-up phase. Even after establishing their company, many owners still work long hours, including weekends and holidays. However, as a VA, you can set your own work schedule and work nights, early mornings or during the hours that best suit your lifestyle. And at the end of the day, it'll be you that makes ALL the decisions.

Additional Resources

Until tomorrow,

Terry