Are you thinking about starting an online home based business from scratch but don’t really know how to get going? Well, then this article is for you! I have outlined seven steps to get your online home based business up and running in a matter of days, or even hours.Here you go…1) Defining Your Reasoning – The first thing you need to do is answer this question for yourself… why do you want to start an online home based business? Write down all the reasons for why you want to start an online business. Here are a few of the more common reasons: financial freedom, luxury vacations, more time with family, new car, new house, money for college, etc…Once you have written down as many things as you can think of for why you want to start your own online home based business then pick the best one that applies most to you. This is what you will use as your “reason” from now on. Now write this one reason on a separate piece of paper and post it everywhere you can, so you will see it many times per day. This will keep you driven and focused on your dreams.2) Domain Name – Since you are starting an online home based business it is obviously very important that you create an online presence for yourself and your business. So a website is an absolute must have. The first thing you need to do before you start building your website is to register a domain name. One of the best places for doing this is godaddy.comSo what should your domain name be? Well, I can’t entirely answer that for you but I can tell you that you want to make sure that your domain name reflects what your business is. Too many people use their names, some “cute” name, or some other irrelevant domain… do not do that unless it actually is reflective of your home based business!3) Choosing a Web Host – If you don’t have a way to host your domain/website, you won’t be able to proceed with your online home based business. Yes, this is a very important step!Here are a few things to look for when choosing a web host:SpeedIt is important to your business success to make sure visitors can see your site quickly. Part of this has to do with how fast your web-hosts servers are. Although there are a few other factors, server speeds are pretty darn important.Customer SupportWeb hosts should offer a variety of customer support options. These are typically toll free phone numbers, email support, frequently asked questions pages, live support, and help forums. Obviously the more support your host offers, the better it is for you if you ever need it.ReliabilityChecking out the reliability of a service is also very important to your website and ultimately your online business success. Hosts usually have several backup systems in case something goes wrong with the main servers. They also can promise less “down time” by backup power systems. I wouldn’t use a web host unless it has at least a 97% uptime guarantee.4) Building Your Site – This will most likely be an ongoing task for as long as you have your home based business. However, just to get something up and going at first here are some pointers…* Keep your text relevant to what you are offering.
* Do not stuff keywords in to your text.
* Do not put banners on your home page.
* Always have a catchy headline.
* Keep the site clean looking and easy to read.
* Dark text on light background is always best.
* Let your visitors know what you can do for them.
* Make navigation very simple for visitors.There are many more rules of website design but those are some of the basic ones that you need to worry about for now. This step is something you will always be keeping up on. Make sure you continue to learn, tweak, test, and build your site.5) Uploading files to your site – So you have built a few pages for your new site, now what do you do? Well, you have to upload them to your web host. Typically this will be done using “FTP”. Now you are probably thinking, “What the heck is that?” Well, don’t worry about all the technical stuff. In simple terms it is a way to get the files, or pages, that you just built onto your website and “live” to the world.You can just ask your web host for your FTP information or do some searching around the frequently asked questions in your control panel and you should be able to find this out fairly easily. Once you do it is simply a matter of putting in the information into an FTP client and watching it upload to your web site.6) Putting your business on autopilot – This is big step in creating a successful online home based business because it keeps you from being completely consumed by it and actually allows you to enjoy your new found freedom.One of the recipes to creating a successful online home based business is to automate as many things as possible. This will save yourself time to do things you do best and actually enjoy your business.One of the best ways to do this is with an autoresponder. An autoresponder pretty much defines itself. It will automatically send out your emails at intervals that you set.A great way to utilize autoresponders is to write up an e-course and/or a weekly newsletter, and then copy/paste those messages into your autoresponder, set the days you want your prospects to receive them, and voila… it’s on autopilot. You will want to have a form on your website for your visitors to subscribe to it. They will put in their name and email address and you will have a prospect to email to over and over again.I have used many different autoresponders since I started my home based business and I can tell you without a doubt that my favorite is Aweber. I use them to this day and highly recommend them. You can find them at aweber.com7) Automating the sales process – The last thing you need to do to get your online home based business up and going is to setup your ordering process, so visitors to your website can buy whatever product you are selling.The very first, and most common way people sell digital products, like ebooks and software, from their sites, is to use a 3rd party merchant called clickbank. You can find them at ClickBank.comSetting up an account with them is pretty darn easy to do and is quite a bit cheaper than getting a merchant account for your self. Just follow their instructions. They are well known and respected so you should feel safe with them.Alrighty, that’s all there is to it. Seven steps to getting your new online home based business set up and going strong. I will admit that for the complete beginner it may not be as easy as it sounds but it is not rocket science either. You could honestly have all this done in just a day or two. Do some reading, learning, a little bit of guessing, and jump right in. Your online home based business will take be up and running before you know it.If you have any questions I will be happy to help. You can find a link to contact me on my website (see resource box below).
7 Steps to an Online Home Based Business
Who Should Join The Chamber of Commerce Education Committee?
Despite the critique, the United States has one of the best education system in the world, and no, it’s not perfect, and it’s almost impossible to please everyone. You have teachers unions, administrators, school boards, citizens, and you can never keep thirty kids in the classroom happy, quiet, and constantly learning. That’s a lot of minds to keep content. Okay so let’s talk about this because I’ve always believed that education is an important topic at every level of government, especially in your own community.
Most chambers of commerce have education committees, and this is very wise because the business community also has a stake in the education of Americans. After all, what good is a worker if they can’t read, write, or do basic math and can’t even count the change back to customers? Obviously you can see that point. If those who are educated are not productive members of society then we have a severe problem with keeping up in our technical age. Our civilization society cannot survive unless we have a solid school system and we are only as strong as our schools were 20 years the prior.
Now then, let’s talk a little bit about a Chamber of Commerce education committee and exactly who should be on it. Is my contention that large corporations within the district or city or region ought to be involved. Along with librarians, K-12 teachers, college professors, college administrators and even those who are running the Boys and Girls Club for instance. Everyone has a stake, and if the Chamber of Commerce is to get involved in education they need to have the proper input from the right people.
Since education is a community affair, and since chambers are part of the business community and an integral part of jobs and employment, it is critical that everyone work together. The chamber educational committee should be networking with businesses both small and large, and community groups before and after school as well. Chamber of Commerce members should be speaking at K-12 schools, and also involve themselves with the colleges and universities in the area not only for available internships, but also to advise on curriculum.
Why do I say this you ask? It’s simple; the curriculum needs to always be changing because the world is changing. Teaching people cursive writing, how to use a typewriter, an adding machine, or even a cash register doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s time for the world to move on, and the education system needs to be able to innovate along with it if it is to provide what the community needs in the way of future educated employees. Please consider all this and think on it.
Effective Marketing Strategies in Product Creation
Marketing includes matters such as pricing and packaging of the product and creation of demand by advertising and sales campaigns. There are other options, of course, like product creation, resale rights marketing, joint ventures and the likes, but they are merely secondary to the above.
If you take the freelance route, it is important to ensure that all rights to profit from the final product, or any materials produced in its making, remain yours. Bookkeeping, physical product creation or delivery of goods can be done better with specialized help. Determining the purpose of the product is vital in niche product creation.
Implementation of Methodology – The choice of implementation of Six Sigma methodology depends on whether development is required on existing processes (DMAIC) or on new process/product design creation (DMADV). Determining what you really want to sell, something that you can be relaxed selling is the first step at the creation of a niche product. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts; to complete turnkey solutions, there is no excessive need to worry about spending time on the actual product sold to the customer.
For instance, you should be prepared to either perform yourself or to subcontract the completion of the following tasks:- Product idea research (are there any existing products or patents already existing for this idea)- Product specification document training (what it will do, how it will look, how will it be powered, and how the user will interface with it)- Marketing study (what it will be named, who would buy this, how much would they pay, how will we get customers to purchase the product)- Schematic or electronic circuit design process- Creation of a bill of material or BOM and an approved vendor’s list or AVL for each component in the design, preferably with multiple sources identified, with a BOM and AVL for each assembly level in the product- Printed circuit board layout design process (single sided board, double sided board, or multilayer board; size of the PCB; board material)- Mechanical packaging design with user interfaces (displays, buttons, switches, key. This removes all product creation costs from your budget as a marketer.
No other database of affiliate programs offers such a possibility for profit on either the affiliate side or the product creation site. Your chosen niche should allow for the creation of more than one product or service.
There are several marketing strategies that are necessary in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site – Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers – Effective use of auto responders (generate automatic email messages) – Online Newsletter – Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect’s email address – Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product) – Advertisement (Ad) Tracking – Back End Sales – Affiliate program etc.