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Moonlighting on the Internet

March 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

profitable niche ideasMoonlighting on the Internet
Where to buy: www.amazon.com/

There is no such thing as getting rich overnight with the internet. But with the right kind of information and ideas, you could be looking at creating an extra income from moonlighting on the internet.

Yanik Silver is a well-known “A-list” Internet Marketing guru. His book “Moonlighting on the Internet” is a valuable resource for novices trying to learn how to make money online. The book provides five money-making methods, written by experts in their field: Information Marketing, Selling on eBay, Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Yahoo Stores and Ecommerce stores. Each chapter includes no-nonsense and in depth information on each of the above topics. The Information Marketing section, written by Yanik, provides basic information on, for example, how to register a domain name, set up a shopping cart etc. Rosaline Gardner, a super affiliate, will pass on her insider knowledge about affiliate marketing. Selling on eBay and how to run a successful business is covered by Sydney Johnson.

The bottom line: the book gives Yanik Silver’s and other specialists in their field, proven and tested strategies to make money online. No, this isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but it gives you ideas and the know-how to start small and grow your online business. The book is written in an easy to understand language, without being overwhelming for beginners, but it is definitively geared for moonlighting novices. I wouldn’t recommend it if you are already successfully working online.

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Channels of Profit: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Yourself and Your Business

December 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Channels of Profit: 12 Easy Ways to Make Millions for Yourself and Your Business
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
Review by: ACMark

profitable niche ideasChannels of Profit is a fantastic audio series by Mary Ellen Tribby, expert marketer, on taking your business to the next level. In this series, she teaches you the proven strategies to attract customers with the help of low cost and effective marketing methods for greater profits.

The series comes on 8 CDs and includes a wealth of marketing topics. The author teaches you the proven techniques to explode your business. With the help and implementation of social media, you can make an impact, establish your own power and attract customers and profit. Learn from her invaluable comments on the power of TV ads, radio advertising and direct mail.

Understand how to use your partners, customers and the media to advance your business. To summarize, she gives you a clear message on how to establish your own effective multi-channel campaign that will massively increase your customer base as well as your business’ profit.

Overall, Channels of Profit gives you the wherewithal to take your business to the next level by launching your own, inexpensive, marketing campaigns. Mary Ellen Tribby is an expert in her field and is well worth listening to. Implementing her suggestions and advice will allow you to grow your business into a lucrative venture.

Compare versions and get the best price on Channels of Profit >

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How to Find Affordable and Good Quality Hosting Plans

December 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

writing your first articleWhen launching an online business,  two things are essential. You need to have a website address, aka a URL. You also need to have a website host. A host is essentially a company or service that stores the pages of your website and makes them available to computers and devices connected to the Internet.

Hosting plans come with a wide variety of:
* Prices
* Features
* Customer service policies and procedures
* Reliability
* Capacity

It therefore makes sense to spend some time evaluating your needs and comparing hosts. First, you have to know where to look to find them.

How to Find Hosting Plans

Perhaps the easiest way to begin your search is to type “website hosting” into your search engine of choice. However, you’ll end up with thousands of results to choose from. This can feel overwhelming and may not be the most efficient way to approach this task.

Instead consider asking associates, friends and family who they use to host their website. Ask them if they’re happy with their hosting and how they made their decision. This should give you a handful of hosting options to research.

Also take a look at online hosting comparison charts. However, be aware that many websites that create these charts are also affiliates for the hosting companies. They earn a commission when you click on one of their links
and make a purchase. So make sure to also back up any research found on a comparison chart with your own research.

How to Compare Hosting Plans

Price is only one factor when comparing hosting plans. Because there are so many to choose from you may want to make price your final decision maker. This means first comparing the hosting plans based on:
* Easy File Upload – Does the host support your file type?
* Data Space – Make sure your host can accommodate the size of your website with room for future growth.
* Bandwidth – How quickly will the pages load?
* File Size Limitations – How much space do you need for your website?
* Server Reliability – How often is the server up and how often do they backup?
* Security – How secure is your information? How secure is your visitor’s information?
* Customer Service – How responsive are they to questions and needs?

Evaluating potential hosting plans by these criteria will likely narrow down your choices to just a few options. You can then evaluate them based on price. Website hosting ranges from free to fifty dollars a month and the features and services vary widely. Evaluate what you need and then compare hosting plans. Make sure they can fit your business needs.

We host our websites with a few different webhosts, each of which we have been happy with. They include Justhost.com and Netfirms.com (Coupons and special offers are below.)

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Netfirms Web Hosting for Small Business

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Product Recommendation – Unmarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging

December 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Unmarketing (Hardcover)


Unmarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging
Available at Overstock.com
Review by APLM

Unmarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging is a common sense book by viral marketer and twitter specialist, Scott Stratten. In his book, he debunks old traditional marketing techniques, such as cold calling, and instead turns his attention to relationship building with customers online and offline.

Scott Stratten gives lots of case study examples, which help you to understand the context of each chapter (there are over 50 of them). His funny and entertaining style keeps your attention from the first page to the last. Learn about viral marketing, strategies to treat your customers well and turn them into long-term prospects. Social media, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are covered. The book is filled with lots of great advice and top tips on what works in today’s marketing world and what doesn’t.

Overall, if you are interested in reading up on Scott Stratten’s successful, modern marketing approach of engaging with your customers, Unmarketing would be a great asset to your business library.

Here’s the product description from Overstock.com:

“Stop marketing. Start UnMarketing.Consider marketing. It`s a vital aspect of running a successful business, but lately its practices have been taking a beating. And why not? Do you like getting cold-called just when you sit down to dinner? Having your mailbox clogged with random offers you immediately toss? Do you listen carefully to the ads that interrupt your favorite TV show? No? If these experiences are “marketing,” you – and your customers – probably prefer whatever`s the complete opposite.Instead of trying the same tired methods, what if you could have a new kind of conversation with your customers and prospects? If you`re ready to stop marketing and start engaging, then welcome to UnMarketing.

“Taking an on-the-ground look at the changing landscape of business-customer relationships, UnMarketing gives you innovative ways out of the old ‘Push and Pray’ rut, which assumes that messages sent out blindly and broadly will magically lead to loyal, long-term clients. Instead, you`ll discover a new, highly responsive ‘Pull and Stay’ approach that brings the right customers to you through listening and engagement, enabling you to build trust and position yourself as their logical choice when they need you.”

Learn more about at Overstock.com >

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Product Recommendation: Game-Based Marketing

December 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges, and Contests


Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges, and Contests
Where to buy: www.borders.com
Review by: ACMTimothy

Game-Based Marketing works by using game-based mechanics such as points, competition, and rewards to encourage certain customer behavior and participation to achieve loyalty. Nowadays, with social media being the norm, you don’t have to reward your loyal customers with goods. People are happy to receive virtual rewards and play for virtual status on a leaderboard. These are essential ways to create vibrant viral communities and long-term customers.

The book gives lots of insider tips and advice on using games to generate interest and increase communication and involvement of people. The author, Gabe Zichermann, explains in great details why Gamification is the new buzz word that revolutionizes the web and mobile apps. Through real-life examples of successful games, such as World of Warcraft and Bejeweled, the author teaches the importance of gaming, but also offers a note of caution about the pitfalls.

Overall, if you want to stay “in the loop” with your business, you will need to be aware of Gamification, the effect it has on people and its importance to your business success.

Learn more about Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges, and Contests >


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The Small Business Start-Up Kit

November 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Small Business Start-Up Kit: A Step-by-Step Legal Guide
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
Review by: AMCBecky

The Small Business Start-Up Kit gives you answers to pretty much any question you might have about starting up a business. I find it to be a very practical guide on small business start-ups with lots of common sense information. It guides you through the pros and cons of finding the right legal structure for your business, to choosing a winning business name to finding the right business location. It then moves onto topics such as business plans, marketing, finances, taxes, how to achieve good market presence online, bookkeeping, social media, and any other important topics relevant to being self-employed.

I find the enclosed DVD of great help. It contains useful spreadsheets, such as Cash Flow Projection, Break-Even Analysis, Profit/Loss Forecast. They can easily be downloaded onto your computer for future use. The book also includes helpful tear-out forms, such as Partnership Agreements, which again might prove helpful when starting up a business.

The Small Business Start-Up Kit is, in my opinion, a very useful and in-depth business start-up guide. It is written in a straight forward and common sense language, which makes it easy to read and implement. I would certainly recommend this resource for anybody starting up a business or thinking of doing so.

Learn more about The Small-Business Start-Up Kit at Amazon.com>

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Product Recommendation – Power Friending: Demystify Social Media to Grow Your Business

November 4, 2010 By Leave a Comment

social media tips

Power Friending: Demystify Social Media to Grow Your Business
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
Review by: ACMMom

Power Friending is a great book on why social media should be part of your business strategy and how to do it. The author, well-known webpreneur Amber Mac, explains in easy language how to make social media work for your company. She gives you insights on how to target the right networks, how to effectively engage with customers on social media, how to manage your social media friendships to create meaningful online relationships, how to build trust, how to know if your social media campaign is successful and other related topics. You also learn the basics of social media applications, for example, how to customize Facebook settings and Twitter page elements and how to make better quality videos.

Not only does Amber Mac speak from her own experience as successful webpreneur, I particularly like the fact that she includes many real-life case studies of companies that used social media effectively as part of their brand building strategy.

Overall, if you are starting out in social media and realize the importance of it for your company’s future success, Amber Mac’s book is a book full of great ideas, insights and suggestions. It is written in an easy to understand and down-to-earth style on how to make social media work for your business.

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Product Recommendation – The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

November 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The referral engine

Product Recommendation: The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
Review by: ACMK Becky

Referrals are important to not only get return business, but also to attract new customers to your business. Referral marketing should therefore be part of every business. It solidifies your relationship with existing customers, which then passes the message onto other people through word-of-mouth. Personalizing your relationship with customers will improve your customer service and makes you stand out amongst other competitors. This will lead automatically to increased sales and profits.

The Referral Engine is a book by John Jantsch (author of Duct Tape Marketing). He advocates that every small business should have a system in place to generate and increase quality referrals. He explains what quality referrals are and outlines tools and techniques on how to get them. Once you understand the importance of quality referrals and how to use them efficiently, you are then in a position to generate referrals from ideal customers. Again, he gives an in-depth explanation of the term ‘ideal customers’ and their lifecycle – Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, Refer. This understanding allows you to take positive action and implement referral strategies within your company. Other topics include using social media and technology to your advantage to obtain more satisfied customers.

Overall, this is a must-have guide to the art of referrals. A very informative book that every small business owner should keep on their bookshelf.

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The Playbook for Small Businesses

October 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

playbook for small businesses

New Product Recommendation – The Playbook for Small Businesses
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
Review by ACFKelly

The Playbook for Small Businesses is a small business guide by entrepreneur Steve Henry. It is not,your typical business book, though. The Playbook intertwines his own personal success story with business principles and textbook style lessons. He shares his business secrets and gives insights into his 30 year small business career in an easy-to-read and entertaining language.

Your best indicator that your business is thriving isn’t only the profits you make, it’s what your customers and employees have to say about you. Steve Henry runs his business (used car dealership) with insight, generosity and faith, which creates a very positive environment for customers and employees, which is reflected in the company’s success.

In his book he discusses – with spiritual sensitivity and using football terminology – business principles such as teamwork and cooperation, restraint and avoiding penalties. Each of his principles comes with ideas and techniques on how to achieve the desired outcome. In addition, he passes on his own personal stories recounting what helped him to get to where he is now.

The Playbook for Small Businesses isn’t your everyday textbook. It is a book that offers not only fantastic information on how to achieve certain goals, but at the same time gives the reader valuable insight knowledge from an inspirational and true entrepreneur.

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Product Recommendation – Making a Living Without a Job

October 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

recommended book

Product Recommendation: Making a Living Without a Job
Where to buy: www.amazon.com
Review by: ACBJenny

There are lots of reasons why people turn to self-employment as a way to earn a living. It might be that your job is under threat, that you are utterly dissatisfied with your job, problems with your boss, long hours of commuting, relocating or wanting to be a stay-at-home parent. Whatever your reasons, in order to make it as an entrepreneur, you need good advice and information to get started.

Barbara J. Winter, the author of ‘Making a Living Without a Job’, is passionate about self-employment and the satisfaction it will give you. She has been running her own business for over 30 years and is a popular speaker and workshop facilitator. In her book she passes on her excitement about turning your passion into your daily work.

The book contains important information on how to start and develop your own successful business while avoiding common mistakes. The book guides you from the beginning by encouraging you to do proper research before embarking on your new adventure.

Learn about how to make the switch from being an employee to your own boss and an entrepreneur. The included reading list gives ideas of other books you might want to have a look at, which cover various self-employment issues.

This is a well-written book by Barbara Winter with the emphasis on changing your mindset to be that of an entrepreneur. She gives answers and techniques on how to overcome mental obstacles and changing bad habits and attitudes. It is a great book to read if you are planning to become self-employed. But if you are looking for a book with detailed business ideas, legal issues etc, this isn’t the book for you.writing your first article

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