Niche Blogging | Home Business Weblog Automation

The online world has been on fire with blogging since about 1999, and you may well ask, "so what, and what does this have to do with home business?"  Before I try to answer that, I want to first mention that the word "blog" has its origin in the word, "weblog" and refers to the online logs, or journals written by Internet voyagers for their own personal use and use of their friends, associates, and random surfers.  Some of these blogs, as they do these days, went "viral," becoming well-known and highly trafficked as if by magic.  Well, the magic of word-of-mouth.  As the blogging phenomenon developed and blogging software platforms became increasingly easier to set up and use, clever, entrepreneurial people started putting them to business use.  Thus, the blog, like early online bulletin boards and message boards took on an expanded life as a way to sell stuff.  Read more

Planning Legitimate Affiliate Marketing

I'm glad to be back and posting.  I have not vanished or otherwise left this site stranded alone in the Internet void.  I apologize for not keeping a more visible presence; however, I've been busy revamping my primary business site, updating site files, and making modifications to my shopping cart.  This has required a fair amount of work as I write and code my own pages, and this is not something I'm particularly good at. Read more

Affiliate Marketing–Easy Road to Profitable Online Business?

If you are looking for a low cost way to get into business online, then you have probably heard of, read about, or dabbled in affiliate marketing.  You often hear that affiliate marketing is an easy way to online profits.  Well I want to clarify this point.  You frequently hear about how "easy" affiliate marketing is.  In fact, I may have even suggested that this is an easy way to make money online.

In my opinion, it is easier in some respects to get started because it really costs very little, if anything at all, to get started selling other peoples products.  In any business endeavor, it helps to have start-up capitol, and affiliate marketing (from here on out referred to as AF) is no different.  When you bring up a page on Yahoo! you see the power of money at work it those ads on yahoo.com.  Yes, all of those ads lead back to a "money page," and some affiliate marketer or marketing organization of paying top dollar prices for the Yahoo ad placement, and probably making top dollar in return, as well.

What I like about AF is that it is a sophistication tolerant business model.  Almost anyone at any level of sophistication and expertise can make money with a little effort.  However, to do AF consistently well enough to replace your income–and I think for most of us that means anywhere from between $30,000 to $100,000 a year–takes skill, and that means having the willingness and persistence to go through the learning curve.  Affiliate marketing is not easy in that respect.  You have to respect it, just as you generally have to respect any job or profession to do it well.

Now, on the subject of respect, for those of you seeking to replace your day job, let me ask you this:  Are you good at your day job?  Even if you don't like it, even if it is just a garbage suck of job, even if your manager is pig mutant of a human being, are you good at your job?  The reason I ask is that it is generally advisable to leave a job for another from a position of success.  That's not always possible as some working situations are a complete mess from the get go.  All right, enough said.  Regardless of whatever home business you start, be prepared to plan and have the persistence to see it through.

Is It Really All About the Money?

I just read this great report by Jason Fladlian about  8 mistakes that prevent people–maybe you–from making money on the Internet.  Number one on the list is not realizing its all about the money.  So, I ask you, is it really all about the money?  In a word yes.  I'm not even going to say, "in my opinion."  Yes.  The answer is just bloody "yes" if we are talking about business.   If we are talking about making money online, then yes, our website or sites and offline acitivities are all about the money.  Not understanding that is a crucial mistake.

If you admit this, does that mean you are a cold, heartless bastard?  Mmm, maybe, but probably not.  Consider, even if you are building sites as a fund raising effort to feed starving children in the Sudan, if you don't understand that your sites are all about the money, how successful do you think those sites will be?  If you do understand the money issue, just think how many more children you'll feed because of it.  My point, here, is that hard nosed business logistics are not necessarily in conflict with ethical/moral standards.  The bigger point, though, is that if you and I are really in business, then we need to cut loose all the baggage that isn't about making the site as effective a money maker as it can be.

Understanding that your business, or website, is about making money can be liberating.  People who come to online business, Internet marketing, or ecommerce with a business background already know this.  Those of us who come to online business fresh, without any real business knowledge often take ages to have that epiphanal moment that what we are doing is business.  And business is business whether or not you are doing Internet marketing, ecommerce, or running an online site to promote your brick and morter retail store.

Along with understanding that it's all about the money, it is crucial to know what your business is.  I know this sound simplistic, but you'd be shocked to discover how many people supposedly in business don't really know what their business is.  As a result, they focus time and energy of directions that don't keep them solvent.  I'll say it again, you must know what your business is.  If you understand that, then you'll be able to align and target the many activities necessary to remaining solvent and making a profit.  In other words, you'll be able to focus and better ignore the many distractions that present themselves day in and day out.

Sticking to your business does not mean that you must do only one thing or that you must not diservisify your income streams.  Far from it. You can have as many business models and streams of income as you have time to manage and money to develop.   However, without a business plan to unify your diversified efforts, you'll remain a piker, an amateur.  Now matter what your success, you'll need a business plan to sustain and grow your income. 

Now, its possible that you might be one of those rare individuals who has a complete intuitive grasp of business logistics and planning.  However, if you've never seen a business plan before, you might want to check out examples at the Fed Small Business Administration website. This has great information.  And its free.  My advice, before you spend big bucks on lots of Internet marketing products, learn something about business. 

Many people coming to this site will be arriving after having been exposed to Internet marketing sales letters about how to make money online.  No matter how good those courses or people behind them, the one thing you can be sure of is that the successful people behind the sales letters understand business.  The one thing that most Internet and online home business products don't tell you about is business or the importance of understanding business basics.  With an understanding of business basics, you will be in much better position to know how to use the wealth of information that is particular to Internet marketing and making money online.

Do You Like Yourself Well Enough to Succeed?

So, do you like yourself well enough to succeed?  I was asking myself this as I drove to work this morning.  I’d started off thinking, "How much do you have to like yourself to succeed?"  And, of course, I was thinking about what it takes to start a home business, in this case a solely Internet based business.  It seems to me that before you even start thinking about business planning, if you need to ask yourself at least once if you like yourself enough to succeed–to stick it out through the teething of starting your own home business.

And yes, up above I mentioned that I was driving to work, because I do work.  The truth is, there are some conveniences to keeping the day job.  For one thing, inspite of the aggravations, I do like many of the people I work with.  And second, more practically, it solves the health insurance problem.  I also work in an area that I know quite a bit about, and that also has some advantages.  Now, having said that, there I was driving to work on a day that I really did not want to be going to work.  And that conflict is what many of us–you and I–bump up against.  In having the "job," we lose certain choices.  Or rather, the choice to have a job entails certain consequences and obligations that restrict other choices.

I know many, me included, may sometimes say that having a job isn’t a choice, but to my way of thinking, no matter how coerced I may feel by necessity, nevertheless, at some point I do choose.  It is a hard pill to swallow, having to accept responsibility for what we often seem to have no control over.

Choosing to start your own home business is not the same choice to quit your day job.  I suspect that many reading this are motivated to think about starting an Internet business as a replacement of their day job, but that doesn’t have to be the case.  What motivates you to want to quit your day job?  Bad pay? Lousy boss? Dull and repetitive? At odds with your personality?  You want more money?  A bigger game? More responsibility?  Just what is it that makes you want to fire your boss?

Are you successful at what you do?  I’m making a guess here that people who are generally successful, or at least good at what they do are probably more confident and more likely to like themselves enough to allow themselves the chance to succeed.  Let me ask you this, "Do you feel too big for your job?"  In that case, perhaps it is time for a change.  The question is, then, do you have an exit strategy? 

Hmm, exit strategies . . . . I do not recommend  burning bridges, if possible.  I say that because I, personally, am a bridge burner.  I’ve tried to change over the years, and I think I’m better about this, but there is a part of me that wants to do Sherman’s march to the sea when I leave a job.  We bridge burners do not always do the best exit planning.  So, a word a caution, before you dynamite the "bridge", have something waiting for you on the other side.

 

Online Business Opportunity v.s. Online Jobs

The number of Internet searches related to "online jobs," "work at home jobs," and "work at home Internet jobs" is staggering.  I mean, this is a very popular search request, and I suspect there is a certain amount of desparation driving what might be considered a frenzy of interest.  The phrase, "online job" gets 450,000 local searches on the Google external keyword tool.

When you examine what people are searching for in the way of jobs, you see a phenomenal number searches for data entry, typing, customer service, survey, envelope stuffing, transcription, and the like.  Survey and envelope stuffing "job" are generally scams, and these days "data entry" has been co-opted and corrupted to mean buying into a course that teaches pay per click advertising, such as Google Adwords.  Probably the most common legitimate online job areas are customer service, transcription, medical billing, and virtual clerical/assistant work. 

My impression of the interest frenzy in online jobs is that the job searchers see themselves as relatively unskilled and are looking to the Internet for low to medium wage employment.  Stay at home mothers and senior citizens make up much of the group searching for such jobs.

I did a quick search on Yahoo Answers and found a really good answer to a question asking about the top ten work at home Internet jobs.  Here is an excerpt from one respondant:

Ok, when you say you are looking for a work at home job, what are you really meaning? Are you looking to telecommute for a company that will pay you for data entry, etc?

Or do you mean that you are looking for an online business opportunity? Meaning that you promote products online and make a commission on sales?

Just to make something clear, the paid to read email or paid to take surveys programs are not anything that you will be able to make any money with. You will be lucky to be able to cover the cost of your internet access with those. Trust me, I did those back in 1997 and it is not the same today.

If you are looking for a legitimate home based business opportunity, there are many companies that you can join. Many are the typical home party type companies like Tupperware, Mary Kay, Candles, etc. With these types of opportunities you are required to purchase a kit. You are also responsible for advertising your business and getting leads and customers. Many of these types of companies allow you to run your business online exclusively.

The reason I like this reply is because the writer spells out the difference between online telecommuting, business opportunity, and quasi scams such as surveys, email reading, and data entry.   Actually, data entry–if you are talking about a salaried telecommuting job  may be legitimate.  However, more and more often I see PPC scams being advertised as "data entry" in order to fool people into thinking they are "buying" into a legitimate job. 

This site is really about business opportunity.  Because many of the people coming to Simpleocity are coming from an Internet marketing context, I will be discussing much of what by now may be considered a sort of standard repetoire of Internet marketing.  In other words, affiliate marketing, ecommerce, EBay, selling information products, blogging, site flipping, free lancing, article marketing, and so forth.

However, when you and I talk about online jobs from the perspective of creating our own business, then really there is no limit to the end of possibilities.  Generally speaking, online business–just as any business anywhere–breaks down into two categories, goods and services.  So one question is what are you offering–goods, services, or both?  Wherever you can identify a niche demand, you have a potential business, whether it be web design, a lawn vacuuming service, dog walking, pinball machine repair, or anything else.  I mean, the field is wide open.

I’ll say it again, the field is wide open.  I repeat this because I know a lot of people who see this are skipping around Internet marketing sites, and the discussion in Internet marketing it tightly manipulated by very successful, very clever marketers.  And in IM, the talk is all about Google Adwords, article marketing, and niche affiliate sites, and blog flipping.  Before you know it, you might find yourself thinking that there is nothing else.  Well, those are all fine money makers if you take the time to really learn the skills, but they are just a tiny part of the potential for online home business.

The Internet is a great tool and does change the landscape a bit.  Because affiliate marketing, article marketing, eommerce, and blogging are areas I know something about, I’ll spend time with them and provide resources to learn about them in greater depth.  These are area where virtually anyone can get a toe hold.  However, as I mentioned above, the spectrum of possibility when it comes to home Internet business is mind boggling, and I caution you to not let yourself be manipulated into thinking that affiliate marketing, for example, is all there is to business opportunity. 

All for now.  Thank you for reading.  There is more on the way . . .

 

Your Own Business v.s. Getting the Business

I want to say a few words about my idea for this blog, which really concerns starting your own internet home business.  The key words are really, "home business," and the operative action phrase is, "start your own home business."   Part of the point is to develope a successful online business so that you actually make money online reliably and predictably.

So, you see that the people I see myself writing for are really the people who do not want a job, per se, or who may not want to be dependent on a job.  Some of you may have jobs you love that pay bundles of money, but many of you may see yourselves as a sort of wage slave.  You might even view having a job as an undesirable condition, a sort of vice, as it were.  Personally, I fall into that category.  Unless the "job" is also a calling that you love, I think there has just got to be a better way.

Right now, there is a huge amount of Internet search devoted to finding jobs online.  Many people are searching seeking employment that will allow them to work at  home.  In a sense, they are seeking to replicate their day job at home.  Admittedly, there can be many advantages to staying at home, but the problem, at least for me, is that you are still working for someone else and filing W2s.  In many cases these work-at-home jobs are barely above minimum wage, and so for me, I’m also back at square one. 

If you are one of those seeking an online job you can do at home, more power to you.  I wish you the best, but I’m not sure that this blog is really what you are looking for as the basic intent is concerned with moving away from employment.  However, having said that, I know that I’ve come across information concerning online "job" jobs, and so now that I’ve written this, maybe I’ll put it up. It may be of use.

One of the pitfalls of publishing a blog discussing starting a home based Internet business or about making money online it being flagged as an Internet marketing site.  Well, maybe that’s not such a bad thing, but Internet marketing is so often so far over the top about making money online that all perspective and rationality is lost in the feeding frenzy over getting rich quick.  And that, of course, has nothing to do with business.   And it’s busines–or blind luck–that makes you rich.  If you can do it quickly, then I say "yeehaw!"   And it is business, by the way, that seems to get lost or go missing completely in Internet marketing. 

My beef with jobs is the existential "huit clos" or no exit.  When I talk about starting an Internet business, I’m thinking of the single mom, or single dad, or the single couple unit–even college students in need of more money than a part time minimum wage brings.  I’m not thinking about the MBAs who pull down a million bucks in venture capital or someone who gets $500,000 in start up money from a vulture capital investor.  I think we can get there.  However, we’ll need to turn a deaf ear to hype and understand that without business basics, we’ll be sure to get the "busieness" in the end.