I was debating about whether or not to even cover this topic yet, simply because it gets more into a method geared for a specific type of business. But I think for people who want to do something like this, you might want to read this. I was eventually going to include it in the more advanced lessons anyway. But since this is such a big thing today, I figured I´d share it now.
By now, you may or may not have heard about something called Bum Marketing. If not, I´ll give you the 20 cent tour. The whole concept is a little more involved than what I´ll be sharing here, but this will give you the basics.
Anyway, here´s bum marketing in a nutshell.
Remember I talked about finding niches and what to look for as far as how many searches are done for a keyword each month and how many competing sites you have. Well, Bum Marketing takes this one step farther to the point of specializing in niches that have so little competition, but enough monthly searches to actually make it so that you might make a few sales out of the deal. Let me say, you will NOT get rich off of this unless you do a TON of writing.
What you want to do, and this is the hard part, is find a niche where there is no more than 1,000 competing sites for that keyword or keyword phrase, but at least 3,000 to 5,000 searches a month. This will ultimately give you a wide open field to break into this niche.
Let´s do a real time example, as of this writing, to show you what I am talking about.
Let´s go to our search engine and look for a keyword phrase that has very few competing sites on Google.
I decided to start with “movies.’ Yes, it´s a broad phrase, but this tool...
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
Will give you a number of alternatives. So when typing in “movies’ I came up with a pretty long list. I finally got down to one phrase...
’List Of Christmas Movies’
Wordtracker came back with 361 searches. Now, you have to multiply that by 4 to get the total number of Google searches, roughly. That´s about 1400 searches a month. Not bad.
But, the key is, how many competing sites for that keyword?
I then went to Google and typed in “List Of Christmas Movies’ and came up with only 249 competing sites.
Wow! We´ve struck gold. How?
Simple. Write an article on “List Of My Favorite Christmas Movies’
Submit it to Ezine Articles AFTER you have a site set up with:
1. In depth reviews of a number of Christmas movies.
2. Links to be able to purchase these movies online from your Amazon account or whatever place you want to deal with.
3. You can have other movie related items at the site, but the key is to narrow in on your target market.
The Bum Marketing theory is, for every article you write, you´ll make 1 sale per month. Want to make 30 sales a month? Write 30 articles.
Over time, more and more people will see these articles and your income will increase.
Just repeat the process for any niche you want. Yes, the research takes time, but once you find a gold mine, you WILL profit from it because very few people are doing this.
Try it if you have some time.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Lesson 11: Article Marketing Part 2
n the previous lesson in this series, we talked about one way of using article writing to promote your website, by submitting them to article directories and getting visitors from your link in the resource box for the article. In this installment, we´re going to go over another form of article marketing that doesn´t involve submitting your articles to article directories. It can work very well but is going to take other forms of advertising along with it to make it work.
You probably know by now that blogs are a big thing on the Internet. I actually had my own blog long before the term ever got created. About 10 years ago, I had a web page that was my own personal online diary. I would simply go there each day and post my feelings about the day or things that I did. Nobody ever saw it, but I didn´t care. It was just so much fun to know that stuff of mine was on the Internet.
Today, people have turned this into an art form. There are real blogs all over the place. Many of them are really well done and interesting reading. And therein lies the key. If you can set up a blog and really put some good article content on it, you´ll eventually see that people will come to your blog to read those articles. Once you have them there and have captured them with your words of wisdom. That´s when you can pretty much do anything from that point. I kind of look at it as your blog being the capture point and then from there you can send people anywhere you like. Maybe you have another website you want them to check out that is in the same niche as your blog. Maybe you sell an affiliate product that you want them to check out. You can do any of these things from your blog. Just include a link at the end of the article, or middle.
Middle?
Why not? Blogs are not bound by the same rules as article directories where you can only have a link in your signature or resource box. It´s YOUR blog. So you can do anything you want with it. So for example, you can be talking about this great new game that just came out and start to review it. In the middle you can say, “Here, check it out at...’ and then just give them your Amazon.com affiliate link for that product or wherever the product is being sold. Think they won´t go check it out?
The flexibility of blogs is mind-blowing. You are limited only by your imagination. If you´re a creative writer, and that´s why I so stress that writing is one of the most critical parts of online promotion, then there is no reason why you can´t make a few sales off your blog each day.
So now, the $64,000 question is simply, “How do we get people TO our blogs?’
And therein lies the rub, because blogs are no different from any other web page. If people don´t know they exist, then they won´t know to go there.
That´s why we have this whole series on Internet advertising.
One method that we should talk about here, however, since this lesson is basically about putting articles on blogs, is the method of blog directory pinging.
Basically what you do, after you actually update your blog, is to go to one of these services and let them know that your blog has been updated. You simply type in your blog name and URL and then hit the ping button. What will happen is that this service will then ping all the blog directories in its listing letting them know that your blog has been updated.
Here are 2 services that I use to do this.
http://www.kping.com/
http://pingomatic.com/
They´re very easy to use and you should have no problems with them.
You probably know by now that blogs are a big thing on the Internet. I actually had my own blog long before the term ever got created. About 10 years ago, I had a web page that was my own personal online diary. I would simply go there each day and post my feelings about the day or things that I did. Nobody ever saw it, but I didn´t care. It was just so much fun to know that stuff of mine was on the Internet.
Today, people have turned this into an art form. There are real blogs all over the place. Many of them are really well done and interesting reading. And therein lies the key. If you can set up a blog and really put some good article content on it, you´ll eventually see that people will come to your blog to read those articles. Once you have them there and have captured them with your words of wisdom. That´s when you can pretty much do anything from that point. I kind of look at it as your blog being the capture point and then from there you can send people anywhere you like. Maybe you have another website you want them to check out that is in the same niche as your blog. Maybe you sell an affiliate product that you want them to check out. You can do any of these things from your blog. Just include a link at the end of the article, or middle.
Middle?
Why not? Blogs are not bound by the same rules as article directories where you can only have a link in your signature or resource box. It´s YOUR blog. So you can do anything you want with it. So for example, you can be talking about this great new game that just came out and start to review it. In the middle you can say, “Here, check it out at...’ and then just give them your Amazon.com affiliate link for that product or wherever the product is being sold. Think they won´t go check it out?
The flexibility of blogs is mind-blowing. You are limited only by your imagination. If you´re a creative writer, and that´s why I so stress that writing is one of the most critical parts of online promotion, then there is no reason why you can´t make a few sales off your blog each day.
So now, the $64,000 question is simply, “How do we get people TO our blogs?’
And therein lies the rub, because blogs are no different from any other web page. If people don´t know they exist, then they won´t know to go there.
That´s why we have this whole series on Internet advertising.
One method that we should talk about here, however, since this lesson is basically about putting articles on blogs, is the method of blog directory pinging.
Basically what you do, after you actually update your blog, is to go to one of these services and let them know that your blog has been updated. You simply type in your blog name and URL and then hit the ping button. What will happen is that this service will then ping all the blog directories in its listing letting them know that your blog has been updated.
Here are 2 services that I use to do this.
http://www.kping.com/
http://pingomatic.com/
They´re very easy to use and you should have no problems with them.
Lesson 10: Article Marketing Part 1
Okay, this is going to be the first in what is going to be a long series on specific advertising methods. The reason this series is going to be so long is because in my opinion, even above product and web site, advertising is the most important thing when it comes to making your business successful. So going in alphabetical order, we´re going to start with article marketing.
Unlike most other forms of advertising that are pretty much defined by what they actually are, article marketing is a little different. Why? Because unlike say, safelists where you basically just cue up your ad and let it run, article marketing is not so cut and dried. There are many ways to go about this.
But first, let´s define exactly what article marketing is.
Article marketing is the practice of writing an article for the purpose of using it to get visitors to your web site, thus being a form of advertising, though not directly.
Let me explain.
The purpose of an article is to give somebody information. For example. There have been many times when I needed info on a particular topic because I wanted to learn something about it. Now, I could have just typed in the topic name into a search engine by itself but in so doing, I would have no idea what to expect as far as results. So, if I wanted specific info about a topic I would type in “Topic Name’ + “Articles’ and then see what comes up. Hopefully, I will find a list of articles on that topic.
Why do I want articles? Because I know that articles are going to be informative. At least I hope so, as not everybody is a great article writer. But most published articles are usually pretty decent if you go to an established and well known article directory. But we´ll get into that later. The point is, these article directories are very popular with people and you can usually find a good article on the info you need in them.
So how does this actually lead to advertising, especially if you are writing an article on “Natural Acne Treatments?’
When you write an article, and now I am getting into one of the ways to use article marketing for the purpose of promotion, you can include with your submission to these article directories, what is called a resource box. In this resource box is where you put your author´s name and a little blurb about your site. Now, the trick is go get people to read beyond the article and actually read your resource box. I´ll be showing you some tricks on how to do that later. Anyway, by doing this, the person reading the article that you´ve submitted, will read your resource box and, if they find it interesting enough, go to your site, where you can do a number of things. We´ll get into them later as well.
In the next lesson in this series, we´ll go over another way to use articles for advertising purposes.
Unlike most other forms of advertising that are pretty much defined by what they actually are, article marketing is a little different. Why? Because unlike say, safelists where you basically just cue up your ad and let it run, article marketing is not so cut and dried. There are many ways to go about this.
But first, let´s define exactly what article marketing is.
Article marketing is the practice of writing an article for the purpose of using it to get visitors to your web site, thus being a form of advertising, though not directly.
Let me explain.
The purpose of an article is to give somebody information. For example. There have been many times when I needed info on a particular topic because I wanted to learn something about it. Now, I could have just typed in the topic name into a search engine by itself but in so doing, I would have no idea what to expect as far as results. So, if I wanted specific info about a topic I would type in “Topic Name’ + “Articles’ and then see what comes up. Hopefully, I will find a list of articles on that topic.
Why do I want articles? Because I know that articles are going to be informative. At least I hope so, as not everybody is a great article writer. But most published articles are usually pretty decent if you go to an established and well known article directory. But we´ll get into that later. The point is, these article directories are very popular with people and you can usually find a good article on the info you need in them.
So how does this actually lead to advertising, especially if you are writing an article on “Natural Acne Treatments?’
When you write an article, and now I am getting into one of the ways to use article marketing for the purpose of promotion, you can include with your submission to these article directories, what is called a resource box. In this resource box is where you put your author´s name and a little blurb about your site. Now, the trick is go get people to read beyond the article and actually read your resource box. I´ll be showing you some tricks on how to do that later. Anyway, by doing this, the person reading the article that you´ve submitted, will read your resource box and, if they find it interesting enough, go to your site, where you can do a number of things. We´ll get into them later as well.
In the next lesson in this series, we´ll go over another way to use articles for advertising purposes.
Lesson 9: Introduction To Internet Advertising
Well, we´ve made it this far. You´ve put your site together and now it´s time to unleash it to the world. Only one problem.
How?
I have made the last 4 years of my life an almost full dedication to learning the art of advertising online. There are more ways to promote your site online than Carter has liver pills. Some methods work well, some not so well. The problem is, when we first start out, we don´t know which is which. The only way we find out is through trial and error.
So let me jump in at this point and get this out of the way. What is going to follow in this series on advertising is simply my personal feelings on each method. I will give you a technical explanation on how each method works, which probably won´t get much criticism, and then I will give my evaluation of each method, which will probably get a TON of criticism. So be it. I am in no way suggesting that my opinions are right, wrong or anything other than JUST my opinions. So take them with a grain of salt. I will try to back up my opinions with some facts and pieces of logic. But ultimately, you´re going to have to try out each method and see what works for yourself.
Here is a short list of the methods of advertising that I will be covering in this series of lessons.
Article Writing
Auto Surfs
Banner Exchanges
Blogs
Buying Leads
Classified Ads
E-Zine Ads
FFA Hosting
FFA Posting
Forums
Joint Ventures/Freebies
Link Exchanges
List Builders
Manual Surfs
Message Boards
Pay Per Click
Safelists
Search Engines
This will probably be the most extensive part of this whole series of lessons.
Why?
Because I don´t care how great your site is or how great your product is. If you don´t promote it and promote it effectively, you´re not going to get people to your site.
A brief explanation why.
In the real offline world, you can open up a store on the corner to sell donuts and even without advertising, you can get lots of people to come to your store, just because they are driving by. When the Dunkin Donuts opened up down the street from us, I didn´t see any advertisements. I drove down the street, saw the Dunkin Donuts and said “Wow, a Dunkin Donuts!’
Online is a different story. There are no streets. You put up a web site and unless you tell people it exists, nobody will see it, not even the search engines.
So in the online world, advertising is 90% of the game. The rest is having a good product. And even at that, you can sell junk too and make money. Look at the “Pet Rock’ and “Box Of Air’ from the 70s. Those ad campaigns were dynamite.
In this series I will rate each form of advertising with 3 ratings.
1. How many people you´ll get to your site
2. The quality of traffic to the site.
3. How fast you´ll get this traffic.
Again, these are ONLY my opinions and I am just speaking from experience
How?
I have made the last 4 years of my life an almost full dedication to learning the art of advertising online. There are more ways to promote your site online than Carter has liver pills. Some methods work well, some not so well. The problem is, when we first start out, we don´t know which is which. The only way we find out is through trial and error.
So let me jump in at this point and get this out of the way. What is going to follow in this series on advertising is simply my personal feelings on each method. I will give you a technical explanation on how each method works, which probably won´t get much criticism, and then I will give my evaluation of each method, which will probably get a TON of criticism. So be it. I am in no way suggesting that my opinions are right, wrong or anything other than JUST my opinions. So take them with a grain of salt. I will try to back up my opinions with some facts and pieces of logic. But ultimately, you´re going to have to try out each method and see what works for yourself.
Here is a short list of the methods of advertising that I will be covering in this series of lessons.
Article Writing
Auto Surfs
Banner Exchanges
Blogs
Buying Leads
Classified Ads
E-Zine Ads
FFA Hosting
FFA Posting
Forums
Joint Ventures/Freebies
Link Exchanges
List Builders
Manual Surfs
Message Boards
Pay Per Click
Safelists
Search Engines
This will probably be the most extensive part of this whole series of lessons.
Why?
Because I don´t care how great your site is or how great your product is. If you don´t promote it and promote it effectively, you´re not going to get people to your site.
A brief explanation why.
In the real offline world, you can open up a store on the corner to sell donuts and even without advertising, you can get lots of people to come to your store, just because they are driving by. When the Dunkin Donuts opened up down the street from us, I didn´t see any advertisements. I drove down the street, saw the Dunkin Donuts and said “Wow, a Dunkin Donuts!’
Online is a different story. There are no streets. You put up a web site and unless you tell people it exists, nobody will see it, not even the search engines.
So in the online world, advertising is 90% of the game. The rest is having a good product. And even at that, you can sell junk too and make money. Look at the “Pet Rock’ and “Box Of Air’ from the 70s. Those ad campaigns were dynamite.
In this series I will rate each form of advertising with 3 ratings.
1. How many people you´ll get to your site
2. The quality of traffic to the site.
3. How fast you´ll get this traffic.
Again, these are ONLY my opinions and I am just speaking from experience
Lesson 8: Web Site Creation
Okay, you´ve got your domain and your web hosting and you´re ready to start working on your site. Yeah, I know, web design. Yuck! Don´t get me wrong. I love it. I actually started designing web sites before they were even in vogue. My first site was... well, I won´t get into that now. But web design isn´t for everybody.
For those of you who don´t know HTML from STP Oil Treatment, there are alternatives to designing your own site from the ground floor up.
1. Get somebody to do it for you. This is the easiest, and the most expensive. Web designers, good web designers, don´t work cheap. Depending on how many pages you require for your web site, you can spend thousands of dollars on one. But be darn sure, if you get a top notch designer, you will get a top notch site.
2. Get a template. This will still require you to do a little bit of work but templates are, for the most part, a breeze. Most come in a zip file with all the graphics you´ll need. The HTML is already done for you. All you need to do is add your own unique text and links. The amount of HTML you´ll need to learn to do this is minimal. Yes, you will still need to do a little work yourself, but in comparison to doing your own site from scratch, it´s a relative breeze.
3. Get Site Build It the all in one package I mentioned in the previous lesson. You get site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing - all the tools you need, tied together to make it simple for you to build a professional, popular, and profitable business. It delivers success. Check it out. You will not be disappointed.
Regardless of which way you go with this, even with a template, you still have to decide what your site is going to be made of. In other words, what pages? How many? Will the site be static (never changing) or will you constantly be adding pages to it as it goes along? All of this will greatly depend on what kind of site you have.
For example. For my alternative treatments site at http://www.natures-healing-remedies.com/ I basically have 5 main pages.
1. The home or index page is where people first come to the site. This is where you want to give them a basic idea of what they will find on the site. In my case, I also offer a free report. This is great for getting people to opt into your list. But that´s for later in this series.
2. The about us page is kind of like a mission statement. It tells people what we´re trying to accomplish with the site.
3. The products page is self explanatory. This is where you sell your various products, whatever they may be.
4. The articles page is a list of all the articles that a visitor can read at the site about the related topics.
5. The contact page is where people can email you from if they have any questions. Some sites put a contact form on the page instead of an email link.
Now, even though there are only 5 main pages, the articles page actually turns this site into a never ending growth site. Each article listed on the page is going to have its own article page specifically for THAT article. So if there are 100 articles listed on the articles page, the site itself now has over 100 pages. This is how a site builds popularity. Writing is a big key to making money online. Don´t forget that.
So what´s the next step? Well, the next step for YOU is to sit down and map out what you want your site to look like. Use mine as a guide if you want. But ultimately, depending on what you are promoting, your site will have its own unique characteristics.
For those of you who don´t know HTML from STP Oil Treatment, there are alternatives to designing your own site from the ground floor up.
1. Get somebody to do it for you. This is the easiest, and the most expensive. Web designers, good web designers, don´t work cheap. Depending on how many pages you require for your web site, you can spend thousands of dollars on one. But be darn sure, if you get a top notch designer, you will get a top notch site.
2. Get a template. This will still require you to do a little bit of work but templates are, for the most part, a breeze. Most come in a zip file with all the graphics you´ll need. The HTML is already done for you. All you need to do is add your own unique text and links. The amount of HTML you´ll need to learn to do this is minimal. Yes, you will still need to do a little work yourself, but in comparison to doing your own site from scratch, it´s a relative breeze.
3. Get Site Build It the all in one package I mentioned in the previous lesson. You get site-building, site-hosting, and site-marketing - all the tools you need, tied together to make it simple for you to build a professional, popular, and profitable business. It delivers success. Check it out. You will not be disappointed.
Regardless of which way you go with this, even with a template, you still have to decide what your site is going to be made of. In other words, what pages? How many? Will the site be static (never changing) or will you constantly be adding pages to it as it goes along? All of this will greatly depend on what kind of site you have.
For example. For my alternative treatments site at http://www.natures-healing-remedies.com/ I basically have 5 main pages.
1. The home or index page is where people first come to the site. This is where you want to give them a basic idea of what they will find on the site. In my case, I also offer a free report. This is great for getting people to opt into your list. But that´s for later in this series.
2. The about us page is kind of like a mission statement. It tells people what we´re trying to accomplish with the site.
3. The products page is self explanatory. This is where you sell your various products, whatever they may be.
4. The articles page is a list of all the articles that a visitor can read at the site about the related topics.
5. The contact page is where people can email you from if they have any questions. Some sites put a contact form on the page instead of an email link.
Now, even though there are only 5 main pages, the articles page actually turns this site into a never ending growth site. Each article listed on the page is going to have its own article page specifically for THAT article. So if there are 100 articles listed on the articles page, the site itself now has over 100 pages. This is how a site builds popularity. Writing is a big key to making money online. Don´t forget that.
So what´s the next step? Well, the next step for YOU is to sit down and map out what you want your site to look like. Use mine as a guide if you want. But ultimately, depending on what you are promoting, your site will have its own unique characteristics.
Lesson 7: Domains & Web Hosting
In the previous lessons, we've basically started preparing to get into the meat of running our business, which pretty much comes down to advertising. Let's face it, if people don't know that your web site is out there then you have no chance of making any kind of income. So in the next series of lessons will primarily deal with that aspect. Because there are so many types of advertising avenues on the Internet, these lessons will be broken down into sections with each section covering a different form of advertising.
But before we even get into advertising, we're going to have to first get into setting up your web site, which includes getting a domain and hosting.
Because this series has to be as generic as possible, we're going to try to shy away from specific business examples and concentrate on principals that will apply to most businesses. Obviously, there are going to be business models that may not fit in as nicely with this information as others, but we'll do our best to help everybody out there who wants to make a living on the Internet.
Okay, now that the disclaimers and all the preliminaries are out of the way, it's finally time to take our business idea and turn it into a reality. You've narrowed down your niche, you've figured out how much competition you have, how many monthly searches you have and you have a pretty good idea of what kind of traffic you can expect. The only thing left is to actually create your business.
We're going to have to take a few liberties with this series if we're going to have any chance of getting it off the ground. So, these lessons will be geared towards people who have decided to put up their own site and promote either their own products and services or promote other products and services as an affiliate.
Okay, let's begin.
The first thing you're going to need is to find a domain name for your business. This is where you're going to have to use a little imagination. Let's say you decided to sell CDs through Amazon and you decide to focus on the ones that are sold at a big discount, which is usually the older stuff. You might want to get a domain name like www.cheapcds.com, or something like that. You want the domain name to be as descriptive of what your business is as possible. If it's a band review site then maybe you might choose something like www.rockbandreviews.com or something like that. I seriously doubt either of those domains are available, but you get the picture.
To get your domain, simply go to Google and type in "Domains." You'll find about 95 million places to get domains. Lots of people use GoDaddy.com. You can even choose to get your domain through Site Build it an all in one package that may be the best option for many new people getting started online.
After you get your domain, the next thing you're going to need is hosting. Choosing a hosting company may be the most important decision you will make in getting started online. If you choose the right host chances are you will use the same host for several years. Believe me there is nothing worst then having to change hosts especially when you have a successful live site.
So how do you choose the right host? My best advice is check around on the internet marketing forums to see which hosts are recommended by others. My favorite web host and the host I use for this site is My site has never been down,. Also, as you will see in the next lesson an all in one package like may be the best and easiest option for people who are serious about building an online business.
But before we even get into advertising, we're going to have to first get into setting up your web site, which includes getting a domain and hosting.
Because this series has to be as generic as possible, we're going to try to shy away from specific business examples and concentrate on principals that will apply to most businesses. Obviously, there are going to be business models that may not fit in as nicely with this information as others, but we'll do our best to help everybody out there who wants to make a living on the Internet.
Okay, now that the disclaimers and all the preliminaries are out of the way, it's finally time to take our business idea and turn it into a reality. You've narrowed down your niche, you've figured out how much competition you have, how many monthly searches you have and you have a pretty good idea of what kind of traffic you can expect. The only thing left is to actually create your business.
We're going to have to take a few liberties with this series if we're going to have any chance of getting it off the ground. So, these lessons will be geared towards people who have decided to put up their own site and promote either their own products and services or promote other products and services as an affiliate.
Okay, let's begin.
The first thing you're going to need is to find a domain name for your business. This is where you're going to have to use a little imagination. Let's say you decided to sell CDs through Amazon and you decide to focus on the ones that are sold at a big discount, which is usually the older stuff. You might want to get a domain name like www.cheapcds.com, or something like that. You want the domain name to be as descriptive of what your business is as possible. If it's a band review site then maybe you might choose something like www.rockbandreviews.com or something like that. I seriously doubt either of those domains are available, but you get the picture.
To get your domain, simply go to Google and type in "Domains." You'll find about 95 million places to get domains. Lots of people use GoDaddy.com. You can even choose to get your domain through Site Build it an all in one package that may be the best option for many new people getting started online.
After you get your domain, the next thing you're going to need is hosting. Choosing a hosting company may be the most important decision you will make in getting started online. If you choose the right host chances are you will use the same host for several years. Believe me there is nothing worst then having to change hosts especially when you have a successful live site.
So how do you choose the right host? My best advice is check around on the internet marketing forums to see which hosts are recommended by others. My favorite web host and the host I use for this site is My site has never been down,. Also, as you will see in the next lesson an all in one package like may be the best and easiest option for people who are serious about building an online business.
Lesson 6: Starting Your Business
Okay, so you've picked a niche to make your killing in. You've done your research, found something that has lots of monthly searches and not a ton of competition. The only thing you have to do is put together a game plan for promoting your niche to the masses. Of course, before you even do that, you have to figure out how you're even going to get your niche up on the Internet. But before you even do THAT, you better be prepared to do business online.
This is where most people get caught with their pants down.
Why?
Because they don't realize all the things that they can run into.
Why?
Because they're brand new to this. They're entering a world that is so foreign to them that the things I am going to list here wouldn't even dawn on them. So, in order to keep you from waking up one day and wishing you had this stuff, I am going to outline for you a few things you may want to get BEFORE you actually start thinking about building a web site and advertising it to the masses.
1. You're going to need a backup for your computer. I don't care whether you get a zip drive or an online service or duel RAID drives. If your PC crashes and you don't have all your important files saved somewhere, you are going to be in for some serious hurt. I am speaking from experience. I never thought of these things until they happened to me.
2. You're going to want to get a professional email account. You'll normally get one of these with a hosting package. Why do you want a professional email account? Without going into a long boring rant about spam and spam filters and how tons of email just simply doesn't get delivered to these free email accounts like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo and on and on, just do yourself a favor and get a pro email account. The last thing you want to happen is somebody writing to you inquiring about your business and their email either lands in your bulk folder or doesn't get delivered at all. Get a pro email account.
3. Get a safety deposit box. If your house burns down, no backup is going to save your valuable papers and contracts, not to mention all the passwords you're going to accumulate for all the sites and services you're going to subscribe to. And make no mistake about it, you'll have TONS of passwords. Write them all down and maybe once a month, go to your safety deposit box and put the updated papers in it. This way, if you have to start from scratch, you'll at least have every site you belong to, along with your username and password on a sheet of paper. Saves a ton of time.
4. Get a business phone. If you're going to communicate with potential JV partners or customers, the last thing you want is for somebody to call home and have your kid answer the phone. If you're going to run a professional business, get a business phone. Even a private cell phone is fine.
5. Anti Virus and Firewall protection. The Internet is a nasty place. The last thing you want to do is go online to any site and risk getting hit with a trojan or worse. It happens. Not to mention some of the things you're going to find in your email. In today's Internet, going online without anti virus and firewall protection is like sending a blind man through a mine field.
There are other things that you're probably going to want to get over time such as a text editor, a budget and expense program, a filing cabinet and high speed Internet connection, but the 5 things I mentioned above are a must. It's just plain suicide not to have them and they're not very expensive.
This is where most people get caught with their pants down.
Why?
Because they don't realize all the things that they can run into.
Why?
Because they're brand new to this. They're entering a world that is so foreign to them that the things I am going to list here wouldn't even dawn on them. So, in order to keep you from waking up one day and wishing you had this stuff, I am going to outline for you a few things you may want to get BEFORE you actually start thinking about building a web site and advertising it to the masses.
1. You're going to need a backup for your computer. I don't care whether you get a zip drive or an online service or duel RAID drives. If your PC crashes and you don't have all your important files saved somewhere, you are going to be in for some serious hurt. I am speaking from experience. I never thought of these things until they happened to me.
2. You're going to want to get a professional email account. You'll normally get one of these with a hosting package. Why do you want a professional email account? Without going into a long boring rant about spam and spam filters and how tons of email just simply doesn't get delivered to these free email accounts like AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo and on and on, just do yourself a favor and get a pro email account. The last thing you want to happen is somebody writing to you inquiring about your business and their email either lands in your bulk folder or doesn't get delivered at all. Get a pro email account.
3. Get a safety deposit box. If your house burns down, no backup is going to save your valuable papers and contracts, not to mention all the passwords you're going to accumulate for all the sites and services you're going to subscribe to. And make no mistake about it, you'll have TONS of passwords. Write them all down and maybe once a month, go to your safety deposit box and put the updated papers in it. This way, if you have to start from scratch, you'll at least have every site you belong to, along with your username and password on a sheet of paper. Saves a ton of time.
4. Get a business phone. If you're going to communicate with potential JV partners or customers, the last thing you want is for somebody to call home and have your kid answer the phone. If you're going to run a professional business, get a business phone. Even a private cell phone is fine.
5. Anti Virus and Firewall protection. The Internet is a nasty place. The last thing you want to do is go online to any site and risk getting hit with a trojan or worse. It happens. Not to mention some of the things you're going to find in your email. In today's Internet, going online without anti virus and firewall protection is like sending a blind man through a mine field.
There are other things that you're probably going to want to get over time such as a text editor, a budget and expense program, a filing cabinet and high speed Internet connection, but the 5 things I mentioned above are a must. It's just plain suicide not to have them and they're not very expensive.
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