7 Questions To Ask Yourself BEFORE Staring A Business Blog

Blogging is the latest buzzword in online marketing and PR.But with so many marketers jumping on the blogging bandwagon, few people are giving a thought to whether blogs are really up their alley, or taking the time to consider the best ways of going about it.

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[Source: 20 Most Popular Blogging Articles - Posted by FreeAutoBlogger]

4 Painlessly Easy Steps To Making Money Online...

Are you thinking about going into business for yourself?
Have you been amazed at the amount of money being made
online?

Unfortunately, many people have the desire to become
players in the world of Internet Marketing, but they're
overwhelmed with the enormous amount of information
available. Don't be intimidated! I've made it easy...

The biggest question I get from people who are interested
in becoming their own boss is, "Where do I get started?
My simple answer - "You get started by finding a problem or
question that a group of people have. Then you create the
solution to the problem or answer there question.

I've broken it down to teach you exactly what you need to
know to get started. If you're curious about the world of
Internet Marketing, follow this simple guide and you'll be
ready to start learning real ways that the pros are making
money online!

First, let me answer the basic question, "What is Internet
Marketing?" I find this term amusing, because Internet
Marketing is no different than Marketing through any other
medium, be it magazines, television, newspapers, even
billboards. Marketing is simply a way to get our message
to the mass public - Internet Marketing is the medium in
which we use

Internet Marketing uses the same strategies that are used
for magazines, television, etc. Internet Marketers simply
adapt traditional strategies to the internet. The internet
also provides many marketing advantages over traditional
marketing, such as low startup costs, easy and effective
tracking, and more efficient ways to reach your target
market.

Another common question I get is, "Does it really work?"
I'll be straight and honest with you. Starting your own
business takes time, it takes money, and it takes work.
Creating a long lasting, profitable business does not
happen overnight. Avoid the get rich quick schemes -
they don't work!

Think about your online business as a real business,
because that is what it is. What you get out of your
business is directly related to what you put into it. Most
importantly, if you do your homework and set up the proper
foundation, your business will grow into something you
never thought possible!

Now that you know the basics, its time to answer the
biggest question, Where do I get started? There are
countless strategies being used right now, all depending on
your level of comfort and experience with Internet
Marketing. Again, don't be intimidated I have broken
everything down for you step-by-step.

Fist things first the marketing platform that I have found
to work the best on the internet is called "Direct Response
Marketing.

===================================
What Is Direct Response Marketing?

===================================

Basically, Direct Response Marketers find consumers in a
certain market who are looking for information and provide
it to them. The benefit of Direct Response Marketing is
that the consumers are already qualified, that is, they are
already actively searching for information on a specific
subject. There are countless tools and resources available
to help you on your way, so let's look at how to get started!

Five Easy Steps to Direct Response Marketing Success:



1. Find a niche. In the beginning, pick a market that you
are interested in. Check out Google Groups, Yahoo Groups,
forums, and blogs to see other people who are looking into
that market. A great tool for checking multiple blogs is
TehniRoti.com.

2. Research the market. Now that you have a market, you
want to find specific out information, like how many people
are searching in that market, and how often? A great tool
to check market size is Inventory.Overture.com.

3. Find the problem. Once you've determined which market
niche you want to begin marketing in, you need to find a
common problem. Start reading through the blogs and forums
to find common problems, needs, and desires.

4. Give them what they want! You have a market, a niche,
and you've uncovered some common questions and needs. Now
you need to create a product that will answer these
questions.

There are several things you can do to create a product -
write a book, do an interview, or create some videos, just
to name a few. You basically want to create a vehicle that
will quickly deliver this information to your target market.

Writing a book may seem like a daunting task, but there
are alternatives. You can hire a ghostwriter to write a
book based on your research, and market this as your own
product. Also, if you don't feel you have enough knowledge
to perform an interview, find someone who does.

Use these five simple steps to get a start on the very
profitable Direct Response Marketing Strategy.

Earn money at home via the Internet

Search the Internet for work-at-home opportunities and the results are pages deep. It's true that you can use the Internet to increase your income and do it from home, but proceed with caution. There are plenty of scammers who make their money by taking yours.

There's no quick way to Internet riches. To earn money, you need to provide some sort of service in return for pay. Like real-life jobs, you may need to pass a test or a background check before getting hired. How much you can make depends on your skill and experience. But where possible, I've listed average pay rates.

Freelancing

If you have special talents, consider freelance work. Freelancing isn't just for writers. Designers, programmers, business professionals, engineers and even administrative assistants will find opportunities.

Many small sites list freelance opportunities. Some let you bid on projects for free. For more opportunities, try Elance.com, Guru.com or Sologig.com. Expect to pay $100 or more for an annual membership.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Internet | Avon | Better Business Bureau | Tupperware | Tutor.com | Direct Selling Association | Virtual | Elance.com | Guru.com

As a freelancer, you won't have the security of a full-time job. Projects could be sporadic. You may spend more time finding work than working when you start out. But you set your own hourly or per-project rates.

Customer service

If you're experienced in customer service, you can do this virtually. In addition to your own computer and a landline, you need a quiet environment. You can pick your own hours. You'll earn between $6 and $30 per hour. Try Arise.com, LiveOps.com or WorkingSol.com.

Virtual concierge

Virtual concierges handle errands and inquiries. You may be assigned mundane tasks like scheduling appointments. Or, you may get wacky requests, like locating clothing donned by a movie star.

You need strong customer service skills. Try VIPdesk.com. Or, if you can sell yourself, start your own service. Compensation starts at $14 an hour.

Transcription

Have strong typing skills and a good command of the English language? Consider transcription work. Experience is required, and you must type 75 words per minute. Visit Tigerfish.com and ProductionTranscripts.com.

Direct sales

If you're good at selling, consider direct sales. Many companies have programs, and it isn't just Tupperware or Avon. You can sell in person or via the Internet.

The Direct Selling Association (www.dsa.org) will match companies to your interests. It also offers advice. Visit the individual companies' sites for information on their programs.

Tutoring

If teaching is your passion, become an online tutor. You connect with students via online chat.

Be prepared to take a rigorous test. Teaching experience may be required. Start by visiting SmartThinking.com or Tutor.com. Expect to make $10 per hour.

Help for the disabled

Telecommuting is particularly beneficial for some disabled people. The National Telecommuting Institute (www.nticentral.org) helps individuals with disabilities find work-from-home opportunities. You'll find job listings and advice.

Watch out for scams

You'll find plenty of scam artists when you look for work-at-home opportunities.

Be wary of companies that promise extraordinary sums of money for little work or opportunities that require a substantial investment. In most cases, there shouldn't be up-front fees for getting started. With direct sales, you may need to buy products. Don't pay more than $500. And make sure the company will take back unsold stock.

Before you get involved with a company, do an online search. Type the company name, along with "scam" into a search engine. You'll see if others have had bad experiences with a company. Also, check with the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) for complaints.

Bloggers Bring in the Big Bucks

How a personal obsession can turn into a popular favorite and maybe even a full-time job

by John Tozzi

Eric Nakagawa, a software developer in Hawaii, posted a single photo of a fat, smiling cat he found on the Internet, with the caption, "I can has cheezburger?" in January, 2007, at a Web site he created. It was supposed to be a joke. Soon after he posted a few more images in the same vein: cute cats with funny captions written in a silly, invented hybrid of Internet shorthand and baby-talk. Then he turned the site into a blog, so that visitors could comment on the postings. What happened after that would have been hard for anyone to predict.

"We just thought, O.K., they're funny,"Nakagawa says. "Suddenly we started getting hits. I was like, where are these coming from?"
An Accidental Entrepreneur

He saw traffic on the blog, I Can Has Cheezburger, which he runs with his partner, "Tofuburger" (she refuses to disclose her real name) double each month: 375,000 hits in March, 750,000 in April, 1.5 million in May. Cheezburger now gets 500,000 page views a day from between 100,000 and 200,000 unique visitors, according to Nakagawa. The cheapest ad costs $500 for a week. The most expensive goes for nearly $4,000. Nakagawa, an accidental entrepreneur who saw his successful business materialize out of the ether, quit his programming job at the end of May: "It made more sense to do this and see how big it could get."

Cheezburger's story is unusual in the upper reaches of the blogosphere in that the time between launching and reaching a critical mass of readers who sustain the site is so compressed. But many of the most popular bloggers have similar tales of starting out with a niche idea—an inside joke, a particular obsession—and watching it explode. Of course, most blogs linger in obscurity and are read by only a handful of people, and few ever reach the level Cheezburger has. What about a blog like Cheezburger lets it break away from the pack?

The initial appeal of the blog may have been a fluke, but its growth since then has been part of a tightly controlled experiment to help answer that question. Nakagawa and his partner constantly tweak the site to see what draws readers and what leaves them cold.

"We basically have a playground where people keep coming to play, so we're trying to create new games all the time,"Nakagawa says.
Building a Community

To drive traffic, they try to time their new posts with when people are most likely to be reading: in the mornings, on their lunch breaks, or in the evenings. Early on, when Nakagawa saw the site getting 1,000 page views a day, he added a widget that allows visitors to rate each post on a scale of one to five cheeseburgers. That helped boost traffic to 2,000.

Readers don't just rate or comment on the posts. They create them. Cheezburger depends on its fans to submit pictures, write funny captions, and send them in. Nakagawa has built a tool to let readers select a ready-made photo or upload their own, add and position captions, choose font styles, and submit a finished product. Any visitor can vote on the submissions, and the most popular ones make it to the main page. The function saves Nakagawa from having to find funny captions for photos, and it creates a lasting bond with readers.

That kind of interaction helps make I Can Has Cheezburger as much a community as a blog. A post by one user will inspire another to play off the theme, forming a narrative. "It's like you're creating a story supplied by people in the community, and then the people in the community supply the next part of the story,"Nakagawa says.
From Inside Joke to Job

The idea of building a community around content supplied by users sustains several top blogs, and most put the idea of community ahead of making money. For Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, who lampoon celebrity fashion on their blog, Go Fug Yourself, the fact that ad sales on their blog now pay their salaries has not changed what they set out to do from Day One: have fun. "It was one of these inside jokes that we thought was going to just stay an inside joke,"says Cocks.

Part of it has to do with the nature of the medium: Blogging creates a direct connection between authors and readers, a conversation with distinct voices carried out in comments and e-mails and other blogs. Nakagawa wants to see how big that conversation—not to mention his business—can get. "It's kind of like, how far can you take it?" he says.

To see a slide show on how top bloggers earn money, click here.