WAHM Connections

Write A Book In 45 Days

2007-04-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

Write A Book in 45 Days - Andy Wibbels sent me this note "I'm running the book writing workgroup again for anybody that wants to write a book in 45 days. The group starts on April 25 and runs through June 6th with 6 calls."

Who is Andy Wibbels? Glad You Asked!

Here's the rundown on the Author of bestseller Blogwild! A Guide for Small Business Blogging (published in N. America, UK and Poland).

About Andy ~

Veteran blogger (6 years+)

Best Marketing Blog of the Year 2005 & 2006 from MarketingSherpa, Inc.

Contributing author to Business: The Ultimate Resource and Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars.

Featured in Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Wired and other national/int'l media as a recognized expert in blogging and related technologies.

Site for the book http://GOblogwild.com/

Business blog http://andywibbels.com/

Ranty personal blog http://andymatic.com/

Group blog editor at http://coachamatic.com/

Corporate background: elearning, organizational development.

Creative background: stage production and playwriting.

Lives in Chicago, Illinois USA.

Now about Write a Book in 45 Days ... Course registration is $197 ($147 for Blogwild book owners).

Click Here Write A Book In 45 Days

Website Marketing - Using Blogs to Turn Your Web Site into a Traffic Powerhouse

2007-02-06T16:27:00.000-08:00

Using Blogs to Turn Your Web Site into a Traffic Powerhouse - Khemal Dole If you use the internet on a regular basis, you are sure to have heard about blogs. Many people use blogs to write about personal topics, feelings, and opinions. But did you know that blogs are also used as a business marketing tool? The interactivity of blogs along with the ease of creation and maintenance makes them an attractive option for online marketing purposes. Developing a regular readership of your blog can help you to achieve several goals. You can build solid customer relationships, inform people about your products and services, and generate links for search engine optimization purposes. Take a look at the many ways that having a blog can benefit your business and you'll find ways to use blogs almost immediately in your marketing efforts.

Setting Up a Blog

Setting up a blog can be pretty simple if you have the patience and time to learn how to use one. You can choose to design your own blog format on your existing site or you can use a blog from Wordpress or www.blogger.com. Your marketing goals will help you to decide which type of blog to use. Blogs from www.blogger.com are free, but since they're not a direct component of your web site, you may have to optimize them differently than you would than if you had a blog integrated into your site. If you choose to use your own design and have it be a direct component of your site, you have more control over design and function and you may also be able to market your blog more easily.

Profiting from Blogs

Blogs help you to be profitable because they allow you to market your products and services without using overt sales messages that may cause prospects to stop visiting your site. Instead, you use blogs to communicate information and subtly promote your own products and services while you help others. This creates goodwill for you and your business. There are many opportunities for using blogs to turn a profit. Learning about each of them can help you decide which ones are right for your business.

Blog Articles

Blog articles are a great marketing tool because they allow you to showcase your expertise in your chosen field. You can publish articles on almost any topic related to your business and continue to provide information to your prospects and customers. Blog articles can also be optimized for the search engines by using specific keywords that help people find your web site. If you pick the right keywords, you can start seeing improved traffic results in as little as a few months. You can also integrate your blog with your viral marketing efforts by encouraging people to share your articles with other people.

Keyword-Optimized Blog Postings

One of the great things about blog postings is that they can be as short as 75-100 words and still help you accomplish your internet marketing goals. When you keyword-optimize your blogs, you are using specific keywords to help people find you when they do searches for information. The more specific your keywords are, the better your chances of being found by your target market. Another positive aspect of short blog postings is that they make it easier to maintain your blog from day to day. Instead of having to write 500 or 1000 words every day, you can take as little as a few minutes to dash off a 75 or 100-word paragraph that gives information or lets people know about new products and services.

Linking with Blogs

One-way links are one of the best search engine optimization tools available. One-way links are links that are placed on other web sites that point people to your web site. When you post articles and other items of interest, people may like them enough to post the link on their web sites. The more one-way links you can generate with your blog, the better your chances of improving your search engine rankings and driving more traffic to your web site.

Affiliate Marketing with Blogs

You can also participate in affiliate marketing by using your blog. When you sign up to be a member of an affiliate program, you'll want to do as much as you can to promote those products and services and generate commissions. Having a blog makes it easy for you to promote the products and services of other companies. You can write a short post about a new service or write reviews of helpful products and services and include your affiliate links. When people visit your blog and become interested in the products and services discussed in your postings, they may become interested enough to click on your affiliate links and make a purchase. As long as the products and services are appropriate for your target market, you can use a number of affiliate links so that you can make money in several different ways.

Creating a Buzz with Blogs

Blogs are part of a technique called buzz marketing. Buzz marketing is when you create a "buzz" about your company and turn prospects into loyal customers. Creating a buzz is simply putting your message in front of your target market and getting them excited about your products and services. There are several ways to create a positive buzz about your business using your blog. If you post interesting items, you'll generate interest in your blog and encourage people to link to your web site and share your blog with friends. Buzz marketing can also be accomplished by using your blog to promote products and services. The tone of your blog can make or break your buzz marketing efforts. Straightforward information and boring posts will probably turn people away from your site. If you make posts that convey your excitement, enthusiasm, and passion for your products and services, you'll start to create the same passion and enthusiasm among your prospects. Using this technique can help turn your blog from just another web page into a dynamite marketing tool that keeps visitors coming back again and again.

Google AdSense with Blogs

Google AdSense can also be used with blogs to earn extra money. Google AdSense is a simple and free way to earn income while you are also promoting your products and services with your blog. You can sign up with Google for free and go through a web site review. No obscenity or adult material is allowed in the AdSense program, but most other web sites will qualify. Once you have been approved, you keep posting to your blog. The AdSense program will give you advertisements based on the keywords used in your postings. If you write a post about recipes, you may get ads about cookbooks, restaurants, or food distributors. You can choose where the ads go on your page so your blog maintains its unique look. When people click on the links provided with the ads, you'll earn a small commission. You can earn even more extra money by putting a Google search box on your blog. When people use this search box, targeted ads will appear in their results. You will get a commission from each ad they click.

Blogads

Blogads is a service that was created to put advertisements on blogs. Advertisers develop their own advertisements, choose blogs to target, and select the amount of time they want their ads to appear. Bloggers can accept or refuse to put the ads on their blogs. The Blogads service gets a percentage of your commission earnings since they host the ads and act as the intermediary between advertisers and bloggers. The more people visit your blog, the better your chances of earning money with this program.

AdBrite

AdBrite is similar to Blogads as the company acts as an intermediary between bloggers and advertisers. With this program, you can place banners, text ads, and vertical ads on your blog. As the blogger, you choose what advertising opportunities are made available to your visitors. Businesses can visit your blog and purchase advertising directly from a link on your page. AdBrite manages the payment process and the relationship between advertisers and bloggers. Like Blogads, the company keeps a percentage of the money you earn for the work they do at moderating the advertising relationship.

Selling Customized Products

To further create a buzz and improve your brand identity, you can sell merchandise from your blog that is customized with your logo or color scheme. When you have a loyal following of readers, your chances of being able to sell this type of merchandise improve greatly. You don't need to go out and have items printed only to sit in your office unused. You can use one of many companies to print products on demand, as your customers order them. This eliminates the need for inventory and reduces your chances of wasting money on products that don't sell. You can find some of these companies by doing a search on your favorite search engine.

Whatever methods you choose, blogs can be a great way for you to develop your brand and create a community of loyal customers.

Khemal Dole owns and operates http://www.PaychecksDirect.com, a completely FREE service which helps many first-timers and even experts find their perfect Work At Home job. Visit http://www.paychecksdirect.com right now and see for yourself why so many are flocking to his site.

How to Blog for Cash!

Writing Online - How to Write More Powerful Online Text

2007-01-14T10:01:00.000-08:00

How To Write More Powerful Online Text - Although there are significant differences among the various types of online communication, there all have one critical thing in common - they're read off a screen. There are substantial benefits, too, in that while your message is on someone's screen usually it has their undivided attention. You are genuinely "one-to-one" with them and that's something you must respect - you are literally "in their face" and encroaching on very personal territory. The bad news about online communications is that your message can be "disappeared" faster from a screen than with any other medium.

There are a few more stark facts about online communications that significantly influence how your message is received. One, according to the world-acclaimed web expert Dr Jakob Nielsen, is that 79% of online readers don't read - they scan. That's a little like the way people browse through brochures. What it means is that your message must be delivered in a way that allows key points - and benefits, of course - to be picked up at the same speed as readers scroll and scan.

Secondly, Dr Nielsen has also calculated that when people read from a screen they do so at a rate 25% slower than they read print on a paper page. That's because, despite high-resolution screens and all the other technological wizardry, on-screen text is harder to read. For this reason your messages have to be very much more concise than they do for printed media - some experts say screen text should be just half the length of its paper equivalent. In my view, therefore, there are two very important things you have to remember if you're going to get the best out of online text.

Firstly, go with the flow of the physical restrictions and write so you minimize their effect. Also, create your text so it works well for scanners (human scanners that is) by highlighting key points in bold - not italics or underline because people think those are links. That way people get the gist of your message while scrolling, although of course they will stop and read more carefully when an emboldened section really does catch their eye.

Secondly, bear in mind that even in its short little life the internet has already started to put its early folklore on a nostalgic pedestal and this plays a key role in determining what works online now. Having begun its days as an electronic kaffée klatch for individual tekkies the net has developed a very personal informality and straight-talking ethos that, miraculously, is being preserved and perpetuated with considerable success. And that's all the more astounding when you consider the vast commercialism that's replaced the early net's endearing woolly-sweater-and-sandals innocence, naïvety and honesty.

Never mind, though. There are other good reasons why brief, straight, plain - even blunt - speaking is a sensible style to maximize the success of your online text. Obviously it helps overcome the physical restrictions (see above) and also works well in such a personal, one-to-one medium that is, literally, in your face.

Today you only have to think how emotional people get over the issue of receiving "spam," to understand just how firmly the PC or PDA or other forms of electronic screens have established themselves as part of their users' personal space. "You don't just use a computer," my late mother used to shout when she came by my office to see if I was still breathing, "you wear it."

Well, although I don't exactly read it a story and kiss it goodnight I'm bound to feel pretty close to my computer (and the messages it displays) especially as I often spend more hours a day with it than I do with my family. The moral? When you're writing online text, in fact online anything, respect the close relationship people have with their screens. Knock before entering, then be the perfect guest. Be direct, don't waste their time, but remember to say please and thank you. Then leave before you've worn out your welcome. That's the way to ensure not only that you make a good impression, but also that you'll get invited back.

E-mails

The one huge problem nobody seems to have solved yet, as I see it, is how to handle the vast amount of e-mails that most of us receive every day. Even I, as a humble one-person-band little business employing no-one other than myself and my two rescued dogs who spend most of the day asleep under the desks in my office, receive between 50 and 100 e-mails per weekday. Some clients of mine receive double that. No doubt busy business people I don't know receive even more. How do you prioritize those? How do you decide which ones to read now, which ones to read later, and which ones not to read but to dump?

Ah, ah, I hear you say, what's that got to do with writing? Let me tell you. If you're writing a personal e-mail to a friend there's no problem, particularly as you're more likely to send it to their personal e-mail address than their business addy. But what about business e-mails that you want the recipient to take notice of? How do you make the best of the medium when your e-mail is likely to be surrounded by at least 49 others all shouting for the same person's attention?

In the earlier days of the internet, if you were smart and could write a snappy short phrase you could attract attention in the subject line, perhaps including the words "relax, this is not spam." Now though, the spammers have cottoned on to that one and if you see a subject line in your e-mailbox saying "not spam" it almost certainly is - to the extent that this is the first thing looked for by most of the spam filters you can get.

Spam filters will also choke out all the obvious spammy words like "free" and "opportunity" and "give away." And you can't be believed if you write something really homely and innocent sounding like "message from your cousin Marianne" because that's what all the porno spammers do. So what's the answer?

Or, so what's the problem? If the recipient of your e-mail is likely to know you and knows that what you have to say is usually interesting, they'll open it and probably sooner rather than later. It's when they think your message is not likely to be of use, relevance or interest to them; that's when you're relegated to the delete tab.

So what's the most efficient way of ensuring people open your e-mails? You have to be interesting. That's what's in it for them, and their previous experience of your being interesting provides them with the incentive to read your new e-mail.

It's also a good idea to confirm the fact that you're interesting by getting over "what's in it for you" in the first few lines of the text. If you don't readers are often tempted to move on without going further, especially if they have 27 other e-mails to read. However here we risk straying into pure online marketing areas and once again, there is an impressive selection of reading matter available that goes into chapter and verse about that. But I do want to emphasize this point about being interesting.

Whereas the e-mail marketers might be agonising over how to write subject lines that get through the filters and get people to open the e-mail, a fair few of them may be missing the point that it's not the subject line that matters so much as the name of the sender. If the recipient doesn't know the sender it doesn't matter how cuddly the subject line is, they won't open the e-mail for fear of being sold some ugly garden furniture or pornography or even a virus. If they do know the sender but also know that he/she/they never have anything interesting to offer, they won't open that e-mail either.

Do I hear the ringing of bells in terms of the quality of message? In online communication probably more than any other kind we have a tendency to forget that all the electronic gizmos are just enabling devices, and that at the end of the day the only thing that really matters is the message, not the means of delivering it. If the recipients of your e-mails know that you usually communicate interesting messages with something worthwhile in it for them, they'll open yours even if the subject line is "more boring BS from Bobby."

Text messages

As we progress further down the route of wireless, mobile communications, happily the boffins are busy finding ways to increase the screen sizes so we can use slightly less strangled abbreviations on the screens. But text-based comms for marketing are probably the most miniaturized challenge for copywriters since the old subliminal advertising scandals of the 1950s and 1960s. (They had to keep the messages short and powerful then too.)

If you're tempted to use texting for marketing purposes, do please consult a professional, and a professional copywriter, not a professional telecommunications guru. Despite only working in half words and soundalikes, text ads are difficult to get right, because of the fact that there is so little to play with and so little room for manoeuvre.

Websites

This is the Big One. This is the topic that has given birth to more experts than there are websites, and that runs into the muchomillons. Everyone you meet has their very own views on what makes the perfect site and that varies from the all-singing, all-dancing variety that looks great on a fearfully expensive turbo-charged computer but takes ages to load into most people's cooking PCs ... to the belts-and-braces merchant who believes a website should load faster than he can sneeze and has to give him all the info he needs within the first three bullet points. Are they all wrong, or are they all right?

At the risk of sounding boring and repetitive, once again the answer lies in researching your audience. The bad news, though, is that very often websites have to do not one but several jobs to do for not one but several audiences. Unlike offline print media whose audiences tend to be easier to define, many websites are expected to work as advertizements, brochures, catalogues, shops, customer service centres and technical support bureaux all rolled into one.

This does not make life any easier for those of us who work at creating and writing websites. And although we all have our pet theories there is no single, simple answer to the question "how do you make a website that works as powerfully for audience Z as it does for audience A?"

Probably the most sensible way to define and manage the variants of your site's audience is to split it into two broad groups - new visitors and re-visitors - and ensure that home/landing pages give a clear, simple direction for either group to follow. In the early stages of a website that's probably as much as you can do, but there are ways in which online audiences can be researched and website traffic tracked which will give you clear indications of how to develop the site in the future. However that's something you should discuss with specialist internet and e-commerce experts - it's not a writing issue.

It helps to compare your website with an offline business or other organization, even down to size and proportion - from small boutique to huge department store. At the small end it's obviously much easier to map a site using common sense. At the large end common sense works too, if you take the analogy to the limit. When planning a commercial or otherwise interactive website think of an offline equivalent that works well for its customers or users, and translate its key good points for online use. The sort of offline equivalents you might use for the analogy are:

¨Shopping mall or department store

¨Large public library or government department

¨Bank, insurance bureau, travel agency, real estate agency

¨Bookshop, giftshop, etc

If your website is not a trading site as such but is to act more as an online showcase, then think your way through your organization's most successful capabilities overview presentation. If the approach and content work face-to-face, they're likely to work on a website too.

Of course you can't control the order of presentation on the site in as disciplined a way as you can live. But if you invite site visitors to look at your credentials in a logical and appealing (to them) order, there's a good chance many of them will follow your suggestions and not necessarily jump about in non-linear grasshopper fashion. That's especially true if your content holds their attention equally well at each stage of the progression - there's nothing like sudden boredom to make grasshoppers take a huge sideways leap.

Many internet purists are going to shout abuse at me for comparing websites with offline media, saying that online comms are completely different. But please hush for a moment, folks, while I explain further. I do not advocate trying to squash and squeeze offline material into online manifestations like podgy feet being squelched into shoes 3 sizes too small.

What I advocate is to use the logic from an offline application if you know it works well with people, because the people who look at your organization's website are people - and what's more, it's likely they're from the same or similar audiences as those of your offline comms.

If you know that the thought process behind your offline business communication works very well, why on earth should you consider rethinking your whole strategy and taking a completely different approach for the website? Remember that old line, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it?" In the same way, if a strategy works and you can't foresee any reason why it should stop working in the near future then don't change it. People are people wherever and however they receive your message.

Obviously the way you implement the logic, and what you hang off it in terms of text and other written material, yes, all that will be different online. Websites involve many considerations which do not enter into the offline picture - for example, writing text with one eye on Search Engine Optimization, which is a specialized discipline in itself.

Another very important consideration is for the writer to work very closely with the technical developers and maintainers of a website, because what and how you write is very closely linked with the way the site is structured and how visitors use it. All in all, if you're undertaking anything other than a fairly simple and uncomplicated website it's safer and more effective to use professional specialists all round, writers included.

But do not let anyone try to persuade you that creating a website requires you to undergo a brain transplant. By all means show respect for the technical expertise required to make a good website work well, but equally be aware that at the end of the day all that really matters is how well your website helps you communicate with your audience, not how to calculate the square root of its exponential gigafactor.

Okay, so now we've got the logic right, what do we say? Let's look at some key issues connected specifically with websites.

Obviously you need to create a skeleton structure first of all, and usually that needs to be done in close cahoots with the web designer. The primary objective when putting together the skeleton structure is to make the site work as well as possible for visitors and not, as some designers would have you believe, how many fancy animations and galloping gargoyles can be incorporated and to hell with how long they take to load on old systems using dialup access.

Please don't forget that some people - your customers, perhaps - are still using dial-up access and not only can that be expensive (in the UK at least) but also it's slow and often dependent on the foibles and vagaries of ordinary telephone lines. Assuming that many countries will continue to depend on dialup access for some years to come, slow-loading websites are not going to be very successful in markets outside of the mainstream industrialized nations.

That's one of the reasons why I believe simple, uncluttered websites work far better. Another of those reasons is because I think they're stronger and more effective anyway!

As for the text itself, shorter is sweeter. I normally set about both my offline and online work with hedge clippers several times before I submit it to clients and/or for publication, and when I wrote the text for my own website I took an axe to it over and over again before I was happy. As I've said earlier, it's as hard if not harder to write concisely than it is to waffle on, so writing text for websites is no picnic.

One useful tip, though, is to write down your thoughts in as much detail as you want, and then ask yourself "okay, now what is it that I'm really trying to say?" Often you'll find that you come up with a vastly simplified, shortened version of all those words and you can express your thoughts in a fraction of the space.

A good example of this happened years ago when I co-wrote a book about jewellery with Antwerp-based gemmologist Norbert Streep and we agonized for weeks over a suitable title. At the end of our fourth or fifth brainstorming session I said to Norbert, "how have we been referring to it all this time?"

"As the Jewellery Book," replied Norbert.

"Then that's our title," I said, and it was, too. The publishers loved it.

As with all online text, short, straight, simple and to the point is preferable for any form of website text, even if there is pressure from elsewhere to write it in the "corporate voice." If you do get pressurized it's worth reminding the pressurizer that no matter how big and important the corporation is, its website gets stuck straight into the faces of visitors via their screens and with that level of physical intimacy we really do have to speak to them as one human being to another.

Business website-speak should be as natural and informal as the way you would speak to someone across a table in a meeting - not as informal as chit-chat over a beer at the golf club, but certainly not as pompous and stuffy as the Chairman's Statement in the Annual Report and Accounts. And now if the pressurizer asks "why" you can say, because that's how the culture of the internet has developed since the 1980s and if we go against the grain, we are unlikely to maximize our online business opportunities. (That one works especially well with Financial VPs/Directors - remember to squint meaningfully at them while saying the words.)

One thing I must point out here is that although your website should be written in a way that's crisp, short and to the point, this does not mean that you should keep the range and variety of information to a minimum. On the contrary; one of the beauties of a website is that it can offer a great deal of information to visitors who want to read it all, but unlike with a brochure, if site visitors don't want the lengthy detail it stays tucked tidily out of sight and out of their way.

In people's understandable efforts to keep websites short and sweet they sometimes avoid including background information, archived material, back issues, related articles, etc. Yet some visitors are likely to find that stuff quite useful. And apart from the relatively small cost consideration of website size, there's no need to exclude such material - all you have to do is make sure it's sectioned off in an appropriate part of the site.

Anyway, a great many excellent books and other publications on how to create a good website exist at the time I'm writing this. In the main their advice will be excellent, but do please remember to see the wood from the trees. In the gushing welter of information you'll find about the subject you, in your role as writer, must keep your eyes focused on your audience, "what's in it for them," and how to communicate "what's in it for them" via the most direct and effective route.

Canadian-born Suzan St Maur is an international business writer and author based in the United Kingdom. In addition to her consultancy work for clients in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia, she contributes articles to more than 150 business websites and publications worldwide, and has written twelve published books on business writing, marketing, publishing and humor. Check out all her current books here.

To subscribe to her free biweekly business writing tips eZine, TIPZ from SUZE, click here.(c) Suzan St Maur 2003 - 2005

For more home business online tools and strategies - Visit WAHM Connections

Want to Get a Handle on Money? Discover how to get out from under the Debt Crunch

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Small Business Owners - How Effective is Your Sales Cycle?

2006-12-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

How Effective is Your Sales Cycle? - If you are an independent professional or small business owner providing services, here is a simple four step sales process you can use to close more sales and expand your business.

1. Generate Leads

Developing a list of prospects to market to should be one of your core marketing activities, and one of the main goals of your website. Some traditional ways to generate leads include asking for referrals, networking, writing articles, or speaking at professional associations and conferences.

You can also generate leads online by offering an enticing giveaway report or ecourse at your website, submitting articles to online directories, writing a blog, posting to someone else’s blog or a discussion forum, using pay-per-click ads, and advertising in ezines or at websites.

2. Fill your Marketing Funnel

Growing your business often comes down to a numbers game – the more people you have in your marketing funnel who are interested in your products and services, the more likely you are to be financially successful. Save a list of all your contacts in an online database so that you can easily follow up with them and keep in touch. Implementing a marketing funnel strategy can have a huge impact on your profitability. Giving the customer alternatives can be an effective way to make more sales.

3. Keep in Touch

The more frequently and consistently you follow up with prospects and clients, the better your chances of growing your sales. You can follow up with a phone call or an invitation to coffee or lunch. Or, you can keep in touch with an email, a newsletter, an article, a postcard, or an invitation to a no-charge talk. Have a way to contact your leads at least seven to nine times because most people aren’t ready to buy the first time they meet you or visit your website.

4. Open the Relationship

This is my term for ‘closing the sale’. I like to reframe the beginning of the sales process as ‘opening the relationship’. It sounds less intimidating. Your goal in following up is to develop a relationship with prospects and demonstrate your expertise, not to promote sales. This is your chance to demonstrate that you really understand the challenges they are experiencing, and that you can help them solve their problems.

Get people interested in who you are and what you have to offer before you try to sell them anything, and your sales efforts will become effortless sales.

Copyright 2006 by Jan Marie Dore. www.janmariedore.com

Jan Marie Dore, "The Women Entrepreneurs Success Coach," helps women business owners and independent professionals attract more clients with creative marketing strategies. Get her marketing tips and FREE report ‘7 Critical Women Small Business Marketing Mistakes’ at http://www.femalepreneurs.com

Business Blog - Do you have a hard time staying Focused? I do!

2006-11-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

Over the last year I have dabbled in blogging from a business perspective - I started with a blog here on Blogger that got wisked away by their automated program then I started again with this one. Ironically - I've learned to love Wordpress because the search engines seem to gobble posts to Wordpress and index them FAST. Still, I have a couple blogs on Blogger - Eliminate Debt - Create Wealth and this one. The others I have started on Blogger just didn't hold my attention long enough. As for my other blogs, let's see:

WAHM Connections - an online home business resource that discusses everything home business but it never developed into a very focused home business blog - WAHM Connections then some Marketing Basics posts defined my second blog on WAHM Connections. You can read it here - but again - couldn't seem to create a "laser-focus" as I wanted :-( I still post there especially niche marketing insights.

Then I built an affiliate marketing blog which I worked hard to keep it about being an online affiliate marketer. A couple weeks ago I threw up my hands and said "Tammy, you just want to start from the beginning with SOMETHING" so I am now doing just that with Internet Marketing Strategies - Start Up Tips. This new blog is on the same domain - but I feel it's going to work much better because I'm staying close to the theme of "start up" and baby steps to marketing online. Internet Marketing Strategies

That particular domain also has a website apart from the blogs - Success Connection which is all about creating a successful business by growing YOU. Coaching you to success - it was more of a test site because I wasn't sure how to share what I knew at the time. Success Connection - Create the Successful Entrepreneur in YOU.

Finally of course - my two truly niche blogs are indeed successful:

Selling On eBay Tips and Holiday Decorating Ideas - Somehow, I just intuitively knew how to keep them focused. Go figure. Let's talk about your blogs - do you have a hard time keeping the focus tight, the theme focused? What do you do to keep you blog from meandering off into unrelated stuff?

Tammy - Business Blog Resources
WAHM Connections

The Identity Theft Protection - Are the Experts Up Front?

2006-11-04T19:16:00.000-08:00

The Identity Theft Epidemic : What The Experts Aren't Telling You
By Jonathan Kraft

Picture yourself walking down the street, all alone. It's late at night. It's a bit brisk, and the wind is blowing through the tall buildings on both sides of you. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, someone runs by you, knocks you over, grabs your wallet, and takes off.

It sounds like a scene from a movie, and there may come a time in the future where this type of person-to-person crime is only found in movies. Why would anyone rob a bank, or rob an individual, when they could simply use a person's information to obtain employment, credit cards, and lines of credit?

By now, everyone knows what Identity Theft is. Identity Theft has been showing up in the news for several years, and there has been a large public awareness campaign since the FTC Report in September 2003.

In their report, the FTC shared that the average Identity Theft victim spends over $1,400.00, and more than 200 hours, just to clear their good name. Reports now are saying that victims can end up spending much, much more in terms of time, money, and frustration.

Other people may be willing to spend that kind of time and money, but if you don't have an extra $1400 or 200 hours, read on!

What is Identity Theft?

Identity Theft couldn't happen to me, right?

What can I do to protect myself?

There is good news.

Identity Theft Insurance?

What is Identity Theft?

ID Theft happens when someone takes any piece of your personal information, and fraudulently uses it to obtain access to your credit, bank accounts, or to obtain employment.

How can it happen?

There are literally thousands of ways your information can be stolen, and, as Harris County district attorney Chuck Rosenthal knows, if it can happen to him, it is proof that identity theft and fraud can happen to anyone. "Rosenthal said nearly $8,000 was stolen from his account before it was discovered […] He said that he still has problems because of the crime -- his check was refused when he tried to buy supplies for his daughter."

There are thousands of stories like this one, which you have already been hearing about in your local or national news.

What can you do to protect yourself?

To be proactive, here are what the "experts" are telling you to do. Read this list carefully, and while you do, think about what it would mean in added time and frustration for your life:

Avoid giving out your Social Security number…Shred or destroy bank and/or credit card information…Shred or destroy any credit card or other direct mail offers…Create passwords containing numbers and letters…Avoid buying or making donations via the phone…Buy goods online only from a reputable Web site…Install a computer firewall at home… Read the privacy statements for all your accounts and your bank's liability clauses…Check your credit report more frequently… Use only one credit card for purchases… Avoid shopping online… Update your computer virus protection daily… Install Spyware software on your computer to be sure that you're not accidentally having your keystrokes recorded… Drop your mail in the blue post boxes, not in your mailbox… Don't leave mail in your mailbox overnight or on weekends... While you're at it, sign up for a locked mailbox, because you can't trust that your mail will stay in your mailbox… The list goes on...and on...and on...

The "experts" are telling you to rearrange your entire life to proactively defend yourself against Identity Theft. However, what no one is telling you is this:

There is no 100% guarantee that your information won't be used. No matter what you do, you are as likely a target for Identity Theft as any other person you know.

Approximately 2,500 Washington County (Maryland) Board of Education employees discovered this when their Social Security numbers, names, birth dates and other private information were accidentally posted on the school system's web site for up to 45 days during 2004.

Consumer Reports states, "It is an equal-opportunity crime, affecting victims of all races, incomes, and ages. Overall, more than 33 million Americans, about 1 in 6 adults, say they have had their identities used by someone else sometime since 1990."

There is good news

If you become a victim of Identity Theft, you basically have two choices. You can try to handle it on your own, or you can let a professional help you.

If you try to handle it on your own, you might try to contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB). A visit to the BBB's web site reveals this statement:

"If your complaint is against the identity thief, it is unlikely that the BBB can assist you. We urge you to report the identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission.

So you visit the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) web site, where you read the statement: "The FTC serves as the federal clearinghouse for complaints by victims of Identity Theft. While the FTC does not resolve individual consumer problems, your complaint helps us investigate fraud, and can lead to law enforcement action."

In other words, the BBB and FTC will give you information on how to spend 200 hours and $1400, and will let you report information to them which can "lead to law enforcement action."

Beyond that, you're on your own, because they will not work to restore your individual credit. But they will send you a 25 page book with some very helpful information. Good luck.

This is not to fault the BBB or FTC. It's only to say that they do not have the resources to, on a daily basis, help over 27,000 people restore their good name and credit. Clearly, Americans need a different kind of help to resolve this issue.

Identity Theft Insurance?

Several companies, including Citibank and the three credit repositories, are offering different kinds of credit monitoring services. You have probably seen the very funny Citibank ads, promoting the protection of your information from thieves, and as a result of the ID Theft epidemic, Citibank now offers protection for their credit cards. This is an excellent idea, but credit card fraud only accounts for approximately 40% of Identity Theft cases.

What about the other 60% of identity theft cases? Well, most often, they happen when someone is using your name to obtain credit or employment. The three credit bureaus have stepped in to offer you credit monitoring services, which will let you track what is going on with your credit on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. This way, if your information is being used by someone you don't know, you will know about it the day it happens and, ideally, you'll be able to do something about it. The cost ranges from $4.95/month to $19.95/month. With these services, you're generally still on your own to get the issue resolved, but hopefully the early detection will help you be able to resolve the issue in less than 200 hours, and with less than $1,400.00.

Another company has stepped in, because they have seen this trend, and the need that consumers have for protection from identity theft. Kroll Worldwide is the world's foremost risk consulting company. They've been responsible for things like:

Tracking Saddam Hussein's money after the first Gulf War, creating an evacuation plan for the Sears Tower and many of the world's tallest buildings, and handling high profile cases such as the Enron debacle.

Kroll has created a product which not only monitors credit on a daily basis, and (like the credit repositories) gives you credit reports in a way that you can understand them, but they also assign a personal licensed investigator to you, who will do the work along side of you, to get your credit and identity restored and to track down the thief who committed the crime. This saves you time and money

Identity Theft shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, many state and federal law enforcement agencies are predicting that the problem will get worse before it gets better. Other companies are sure to follow the lead of Kroll in providing Identity Theft solutions. Probably no other company will be able to match the background and experience of a company like Kroll, but they will create similar products to help consumers, and within the next 3-5 years, Identity Theft protection will become an important part of the insurance-type products we use to protect ourselves on a daily basis.

In short, what the experts aren't telling you is this:

There is no guaranteed way to protect your information,

In an advanced age of rapid and electronic banking and communication, your information is publicly available to anyone who wants to find it,

If you've been a victim before, you're more likely to become a victim again, and

Identity Theft, as a crime, is here to stay.

Changing the way that you do things reduces the likelihood that you will become a victim, but you have no way of being sure that your information will stay your information.

The real state of affairs today is that you are walking down that dark street on a windy night, and someone robs you, but you don't know it, or feel it, for days, weeks, or months.

Having Identity Theft protection with highly qualified companies like Kroll is like walking down that street, knowing that you have a highly trained personal bodyguard watching your back and walking by your side.

Jonathan Kraft is a specialist in computer-related Identity Theft and options within the legal system. For more information on how you can protect yourself and make sure that your information stays your information, visit www.consumerfairplay.com/idtheft.html

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Web Site Copy - What Works?

2006-09-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

Web Copy Do's and Don'ts By Cathy Wagner

We've all heard you need good copy to sell on the Internet, but it's harder to find, specifically, what constitutes good copy and what to avoid. Here's a list of do's and don'ts, I hope it helps: Don't...

- Don't expect web site viewers to get excited about your offer when the first thing you talk about is you and why you created your site or got into your business. This kind of information is nice to include, but it really belongs on your "About Us" page.

- Don't yell at your visitors with a lot of exclamation points and hype. Internet users are becoming more and more immune to hype. Being honest and straight forward will instantly command more attention.

- Don't dazzle their eyes with lots of different fonts and moving graphics. Be professional. Yes, it's possible to add all kinds of fancy doo-dads onto a web site, but professional sales sites don't use most of them because they detract from the sales message. If you don't want to stand out as a beginner, don't use them.

- If you're selling a tangible product, don't make visitors hunt to find photos. Offline stores have known for years that, sometimes, all it really takes is for the customer to see the product. An effective sales site is more than just copy, be sure to include high quality pictures of your physical products.

Do...

- Always lead with words that clearly and honestly convey the benefits of using your product or service. Prospects are not interested in who's selling a particular product until they are interested in buying it. The first thing your copy needs to do is tell people what's in it for them.

- Speak to your customer as though they were sitting in front of you. Of course, I don't mean to use a lot of slang, but it is important to relate to prospects as a real person. You don't have to be formal or 100% grammatically correct so long as your prospect can easily grasp what you're trying to say. Read your copy out loud to be sure it flows.

- Use simple language. This does not necessarily assume your prospects have below average intelligence, but it does assume that they are busy and easily distracted. In today's world, who isn't? Visitors will appreciate the simple and straight forward approach.

- Don't forget to tell your readers what to do next. If you want them to subscribe for something, be sure to say so, otherwise, send them on to the buy page clearly. Sprinkle several links to the buy page throughout your copy, especially if it's really long, so potential customers will never be frustrated by having to search for the "buy" button.

Effective business presentations on the web are the result of persistant effort. You must monitor your results and get help if necessary until you see the results you want.

Cathy Wagner, owner of http://www.OneStopInternetBusiness.com, is a writer/author, webmaster, and online business expert. Her articles and business advice have been published all over the Internet. She's personally helped a wide variety of online business people sell their products and services more effectively. Please visit her web site and check out her ebooks for a comprehensive, yet inexpensive, Internet business education.

Tammy - WAHM Connections

Why selling on eBay is a real home business opportunity...

2006-08-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

Your Home Business Online - Starting Your Own Internet Auction Business
c) 2006 by Jason James - Auction Resource Network

Many of us dream of owning our own business and taking control of our financial destiny but precious few of us ever dare to take that chance. Of those that do risk everything for the chance to control our destiny by opening up our own company, the majority fail and are forced to rejoin the workforce again in shame. An Internet auction business may be the best chance most of us have to actually realize that dream of independence.

Auction selling via the Internet offers people a chance to start a company with very little money or resources. A lack of start up capital is the primary obstacle preventing most people from being able to own a company of their very own and stop working for other people.

Because you can enter into the world of online auctions on a part-time basis and make some extra money while still hanging onto your job until things take off, the risk of losing assets such as cars or homes is nonexistent. You will be making money from the start if done properly and you won't need to take out a second mortgage to finance the start up costs.

Study the Site

An Internet auction is not complicated to initiate or run, but it can be more involved than you would think. Since you are new to the world of auction selling it would probably be your best bet to use a site like Ebay to list your items. With relatively low costs and over 10 million visitors coming to the site every month, Ebay or sites like it are where you want to begin listing items for your online auctions.

One of the biggest mistakes new Internet auction business owners make is to rush head forward into posting their first item and waiting for the bids to roll in. Unfortunately, more often than not, those precious bids never come and people give up before ever really giving the process a chance.

You will want to study the Ebay business website and familiarize yourself with how it works before posting any listing. Go through and find all of the tools offered that you think are relevant to your particular needs. Read the advice offered by Ebay or the hosting site you are using because there is definitely a wealth of information at your fingertips that will help you succeed if you take the time to use it!

Start Small

You are not going to want to list any large ticket items in the beginning. This is because Ebay and sites like it use a feedback rating system to help people determine who is a reputable seller and who is not. Your rating will be zero at first so the chances of someone being willing to take a chance on buying something expensive from you when they have no idea about your business ethics are practically zero.

You are going to want to sell lower priced items at first to both familiarize yourself with the process and build your feedback ratings. In fact, you may even want to buy something through the site first because this will help you safely build your rating while showing you how things look from the buyer's perspective.

After you have built up both your rating and your confidence (while putting some cash into your pockets!), you then will have a much better chance at selling a more expensive item. Building your own Internet auction business will take some time, a lot of patience, and hours of research if you really want to be successful and stop working for other people.

Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.

More Jason James articles can be found on WAHM Connections here.

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Internet Marketing - Something Rotten in WAHM - ville....

2006-08-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

WAHM - You see this acronym across the internet... Work at Home Mom. I know my main website is WAHM Connections so it might look like I am shooting myself in the foot with this week's newsletter BUT after two years of working online, I've decided to be up front about some of the lies and misconceptions about online marketing. Nope - I'm not talking about fast talking internet marketing gurus that pull a fast one with their ad copy. I'm talking about a segment of the "work at home mom" community. There are alot of women that run their home business online and stay smack dab in the middle of groups, networks, etc of other WAHM business owners.

This week's issue of my WAHM Newsletter has alot of great information but the most important aspect is where I set the record straight on some of the online marketing strategies put out there by well meaning but misdirected WAHM business owners.

You can read this week's issue up online HERE then I'd love to talk to you about it here or on one of the blogs on my site WAHM Connections

Tammy

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Information Product Creation - Step by Step Guide to Create Your own Info Product

2006-08-14T16:46:00.000-07:00

Create Your Own Information Product - Sonic Info Riches is ready ~ If you want to create an info product but don't
know how to get started then Sonic Info Riches is perfect. This step-by-step guide to coming up with product ideas, evaluating them for the target market, prioritizing them,
and then building the outline that will ensure a well-received information product is all part of Sonic Info Riches.

Tammy

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Stylish Laptop Bag - Cool Laptop Totes... Who knew!

2006-08-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Stylish Laptop Bag - I must truly be a redneck because I've never seen such cool laptop bags for women. In particular this beautiful tote in Jade - but I even found a pink laptop bag or tote if that's what you call it. Actually, I was looking through Franklin Covey for (and yes, I found one!) a college planner with room for tests and projects etc for my daughter that is returning to college. But I digress, if you are looking for laptop tote bags that are stylish, cool, even fun then Franklin Covey has them here => This one is my favorite...
Pienza Laptop Tote - Jade

Blog - For lack of a better word... serious bloggers connect people

2006-08-10T10:40:00.000-07:00

Having my own blog has given me a whole new way to connect with other people.

This particular blog may not scream READ ME but that is going to change FAST! I have other blogs that I've used to talk about things that matter to me - personally and professionally that do have a small faithful following. Just this week, I've decided to let this spot on the net be where we can talk about blogs, blogging and the people behind the blogs that impact our lives, our business and the world around us.

So how about you? Do you have your own blog(s)? I'd love to have you say HI and leave a comment so I can visit your blog - an easy step to know more about YOU. If you read blogs but haven't taken the plunge yet... that's okay. My favorite resource for getting ready to seriously write AND connect using a blog is Patsi and Denise's ebook "The Build a Better Blog System"

Here's what you get with this ebook. (Patsi and Denise have really made blogging a professional medium for promoting yourself and your business)

Build a Better Blog System
Why publish a business blog
7-step worksheet
Blog design
Set-up tutorials, step-by-step
How to set up Typelists
RSS Feed Readers
Add me to your TypePad people list
Set up Amazon Affiliate and book list
Getting subscribers: Bloglet Tutorial
Password Protecting a Site
What is Pinging?
What is a Trackback link?
What is a Permalink?
Writing for your blog
How Often Should You Post on Your Blog?
Keys to writing effective posts
Top 10 Reasons to Do an Ezine AND a blog
Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog to Deliver Your Ezine
16 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
How to get your blog listed on Yahoo
How to get your blog listed on MSN
And much, more more.

The tutorials and articles will provide you with detailed steps on how to set up and maintain a professional blog that is designed to represent your company's visual identity and create effective client relationships.

Most online professionals using blogs today have found that their rankings with search engines have improved, traffic to their websites has increased,
and business opportunities have expanded rapidly.

Honestly, I know you don't be left behind. Blogs work for building business and getting more clients. Besides, you get to put your blog link whenever you make a comment on a blog that inspires you. How cool is that? You do your own link building using your thoughts, words and expertise that lets others know exactly how to find you. Social connection is what we want - business or fun - it's all in the connecting. Build a Better Blog System

Tammy
WAHM Connections

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Blog Neglect - A Crying Shame ....

2006-08-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

Starting a blog that isn't taken care of - nurtured along and bathed in encouragement, is a crying shame. Now, I know I haven't done as much with this particular blog because I'm rather bitter about what Blogger did with my first WAHM Connections blogbut honestly, this blog deserves better than what I've given. I put a great deal of energy into my WAHM Resources and Marketing Basics blogs. Why not this one?

Still unsure but ready to remedy it ~ FAST! I am going to change the direction of this blog. This will become by blog about the social networking power of working within the blogosphere. Man - that's pretty wordy huh? :-) People, people power blogs. People write, connection, argue, correct and support opinions. There is more to having a blog than simply writing. The near failure of this blog is my fault because I haven't poured enough of "me" into the writings, the posts.

So ... with all this said - Glad to have you find me here - Let's connect and talk!

It's not enough to read someoneone's blog or even laugh, cry as you read their thoughts and feelings... it's when you stop long enough to say how the post "strikes" you. Tell me, how does it feel to stumble onto a blog where you know nothing about the person behind the words? What questions do you have for them?
What would really force your hand to say "hi" or "I don't think so!" even "that stinks"? I really would like to know.

Tammy (online marketer enthusiast and affiliate business owner closing in on my two year anniversary of working on the net)

Extreme Business Makeover - Mark Joyner Videos

2006-08-09T16:50:00.000-07:00

Well, after all the talk and previews - it's almost here... Have you heard the next release by Nitro Marketing? I just wanted to give a quick update about the Extreme
Business Makeover... Of course, there has been alot of buzz in the Internet marketing
community because this information is something else.

This information is changing the way people do business online (and offline) and is single-handedly skyrocketing profits for the select few people that have already
applied this information...

If you haven't yet checked out the audio and tons of videos yet make sure you do so right now, because they will only be available until Thursday night here

This is release is particularly exciting because it's not everyday you get a one
on one consultation with Mark Joyner!

You can check out the past videos here. ~ Tammy

The Right Dropshippers Can Make You a Fortune on eBay

2006-08-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

Drop Shippers Can Make a Fortune on Ebay
Copyright 2006 by Jason James Auction Resource Network

Drop shipping has become the latest craze in business and is helping to drive the latest surge of new websites being created today. Drop shippers are creating multiple websites selling numerous product lines and making a fortune in the process. Just type any product you can think of into a search engine and just look at how many pages of websites come up-and most of them are drop shipping companies selling their wares!

Drop Shipping Benefits

The reason why drop shipping has become so popular and exploded so suddenly is that it is simply the most efficient way to sell retail goods. People surfing the web find a site selling a product they want and then make a purchase. The website owner (drop shipper) then passes that order along to their wholesaler along with payment and shipping costs.

From there, the wholesaler processes the order, packages the product with the website owner's business name on the packaging, and ships it directly to the customer. The website owner bought the product at wholesale price and then sold it to the customer for whatever price they thought they could charge, and profited from the difference. It really is pure genius!

But, there is more to this than you think and the beauty of dropshipping gets even better!

First of all, there is virtually no overhead because there is no store to operate (or employees to pay!) or any inventory to maintain. Stores like Wal-Mart may get better wholesale prices because they buy in such large quantities, but they still do not make as much profit on each item as a drop shipper due to the costs of operating their stores.

Drop Shipping with Ebay

Although websites are definitely cheaper to create and operate than a conventional retail store, they still can require a fairly sizeable investment of time and money. Between paying for servers and either creating or paying for content, websites can definitely eat up some time and money. But, this is where Ebay comes in.

For a small fee, you can post your wares on Ebay and benefit from the millions and millions of people who surf the site every year. This way, you never have to worry about maintaining any website and you can start selling products within a day or two.

Due to the incredible traffic on Ebay, it is definitely possible to make a fortune by drop shipping from the site. If you just think of the Ebay fee as a business expense, there really is no downside to the arrangement and it can definitely be more profitable than operating your own site and worrying about getting people to visit your site.

While some people may not like the idea of depending upon Ebay for their business, the fact remains that drop shippers can substantially benefit from the partnership.

Due to the incredibly low operational costs of drop shipping, the Ebay fee is a very small price to pay for the convenience and high traffic offered by the site. If you are thinking about going into drop shipping but are not crazy about the idea of creating and operating your own website, consider posting from Ebay because the benefits far outweigh the small fee charged by the site.

Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.

Insider Secrets to Email Marketing - Derek Gehl's Email Guide

2006-08-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

Just Released: Version 2006 of Derek Gehl's advanced email guide, "Insider Secrets to Email Marketing."

Get over 390 pages of the exact strategies and test results that Derek used to earn $3.5 Million last year alone!

If you want to quickly build an email list of 1,000s of qualified buyers... get "whitelisted" with Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail and guarantee the delivery of every email you send... discover the 3 NEW criteria used by "spam filters" to deliver your email... and MUCH more...

... then check out this comprehensive new guide to generating massive profits through email marketing RISK FREE! Click here now.

Free webpage builder software to check out - built for monetizing

2006-07-25T19:53:00.000-07:00

VRE - Virtual Real Estate - Free software to try out. Here is a brand new way to give your affiliate income a Simple Boost or Big Jumpstart at no cost to you. This is a cool software that lets you build pages with built in Adsense and contextual advertising. This is slick. Check it out here ~ Tammy

eBay Business Opportunity - eBay Selling Can Net You Serious Income

2006-07-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

Ebay Selling Can Net You Serious Part-Time Income (c)2006 by Jason James
Auction Resource Network

No one really knows just how big this Ebay business could actually become because it continues to grow at a mind boggling rate with no apparent end in sight. Over a billion dollars of merchandise is sold every month and that figure just continues to grow. While you might not be interesting in using online auctions to provide your sole source of income, you may want to consider Ebay selling as means of creating viable part-time income that can really add up over the course of a year.

Endless Possibilities

While Ebay continues to diversify its services and allow customers more and more options, online auctions remain the heart and soul of their business. If you are just interested in using Ebay selling to generate part-time income without the hassles of working for other people, then Ebay auctions are for you.

One of the reasons why Ebay is such a popular means of generating part-time income for so many people is because it takes so little investment and time to get started. If you have a computer and Internet access along with either a digital camera or access to a picture of the item you are selling-well, you basically have all you need to get started!

Of course you will also need to register with Ebay before the fun begins. For this all you really need is a checking account, a credit card, and a few minutes to sign-up. It is not impossible to register on Monday and begin selling items on Tuesday. Really, it is just that simple!

To begin with and for a better idea of how to navigate and use the site, most people opt to search their homes for things to list on Ebay auctions. Frankly, the sky is basically the limit with respect to what you can choose to list because Ebay selling is a pretty wide open field. Of course, Ebay does ban some items from being sold so be sure check out their website for a listing of unacceptable items.

For people who love to go antiquing and spend their weekends scouring flea markets for the best deals, making substantial part-time income is no problem at all. This is especially true for people who really know how to spot a quality item at a great price. It is nothing to buy something on a weekend and turn around and sell it for double the price they paid for it (or more!).

If you are creative and like crafts or painting pictures, Ebay selling can be a great way to get started in a field you have always dreamed of working in while making money in the process. An Ebay store can be an excellent way to turn your hobbies and passions into cold hard cash and perhaps even build your reputation.

Honestly, the list of possibilities could literally go on forever it seems because Ebay auctions offer people the chance to earn part-time income in any number of ways. The start up costs are minimal and so are the risks. Just be sure to use accurate descriptions and answer all questions promptly and your part-time income potential is limitless with Ebay auctions!

Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits selling products at online auctions.

How Steep is Your Learning Curve? Online Marketing

2006-07-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

Tired of being behind the eight ball with your internet business? Tell me ~ Just how steep is that learning curve of yours? Are you feeling pretty good about your blogging, your website design, your marketing plan? OR.... Are you feeling overwhelmed by all the different things you have to learn AND there's not enough time in the day to do it all ~ I know for me, I've been scattered learning all that it takes to market online. From affiliate marketing to Google Adsense, it seems that it's hard to come up with a source for all this information in ONE place.

I wish I had this kind of resource when I was starting out two years ago :-)

Well, yesterday ~ Jason James opened the doors on UNCUT! Internet Marketing - A Fresh Marketing Video Program that lets you work your way through over 30 videos on the whole gamut of internet marketing. Nope - They aren't just videos by Jason. He actually rounded up top successful and respected internet marketers in such fields as eBay, Google Adsense, Blogging, RSS, Writing Ad Copy and Email Marketing.

I've actually seen what he has put together ~ my words aren't going to do it justice so I want you to take a moment to see what I'm talking about at UNCUT! Internet Marketing Videos. I don't know how many slots are still available - less than 400 worldwide so if you want to tackle that learning curve with GUSTO then get your membership today!

Tammy
PS ~ You can read and hear my testimonial right on UNCUT!

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Google Adsense Niche Web Site Templates - 100 Brand New Templates

2006-07-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

Joel Comm released his big Instant Adsense Templates today at noon EST and they are almost half gone. This package is huge - I've seen it! Now I know - There’s alot of talk about how to make money with Google Adsense.

Joel wanted to create a package of adsense ready templates for different niche websites that could help you build your own Google Adsense Profits.

We’re talking 100 brand-new, totally original templates optimized for Google AdSense…Plus over one hour of brand-new video designed to show anyone how they can instantly launch a site using this product…

Joel has put together a 40-page manual that provides step by step instructions for putting all the pieces together…

We’re talking something for everyone that wants to build an online business with Google Adsense - using templates for niche sites, Blogger, Wordpress, PhpBB and even templates for XSitePro.

Remember, only 2000 sets were made available and they are flying out fast!
His servers are getting slammed so see if you can take a peek at what comes in Joel’s Instant Adsense Templates

Let me know what you think! Tammy

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Successful Entrepreneur - Be LASER-focused

2006-06-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

Focus Not Diversify! This Jason James article brings up the most important rule of business success ~ Stay Focused. Focus on your Niche, Focus on your Goals, Focus on Your Market, Focus on Your Plan. I've spent over six months trying to streamline things down because I started out with to much STUFF. It would have been easier to just dump it all and start over ~ It's a serious consideration! Tammy

Focus not Diversify!
Copyright 2006 by Jason James
Auction Resource Network

If you are just starting your own Online Business from home, I have a strong advice you should take from me:

Be LASER-focused!

With advertisements on the Internet displaying "Earn $5,000 a month", "Get rich quick" or "Earn free cash", operating an Internet Business demands more focus than ever on the part of the owner.

You cannot afford to be swayed so easily by such advertisements and programs. Give your new Online Business a chance to grow and it will reward you later for your efforts and investment.

You will be surprised that too many people do not think that way somehow.

Truth is: you can only do so much work at a time. People can attempt to accomplish many things at the same time and in short span a time but more often that not, they accomplish nothing much, if any at all, in the end.

If you are just starting your own Online Business from home, stick to it faithfully in spite of the obstacles you will encounter (you definitely will).

Sticking to your plan and working to build your own business on the Internet is very much like watering a plant. You water the plant everyday and magically on one day, it does not need you anymore. The plant has grown into a tree and provides shade and fruits for your enjoyment.

I understand if you are in a hurry to make your Online Business successful. Who is not?! However, focus and patience is what determines the success of your Online Business as with any other kinds of business.

While I am not against looking into other ways of making your money, you should always stick with your new Online Business first and make it your top priority.

The only good time you should look into other opportunities is when you have expanded your Online Business successfully that it does not require as much attention as when you started or after learning that your current Online Business may not be working.

Jason James is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran and an eBay Seller of 4 years. His website "The Auction Resource Network" reveals his inside secrets, tips, and sources that help him pocket over $10,000 per month on eBay. His proven step-by-step system shows even users with little or no business experience how they too can make huge profits
selling products at online auctions.

P.S. Seeking Insider Tips to Succeeding in Online Marketing?
**Boost Your Bottom Line! Special Preview Video of Jason James UnCut Marketing - Launch in 12 days! Watch Your Free Preview Videos Here <=

Tammy
WAHM Connections

Home Business News - Blogging Tips

2006-06-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

Blogging tips for business owners just starting out.

* Remember that your "title" of your post is like creating a title for a web page. The search engines read your post titles the same way. First!

* Start your post and each paragraph with one of the keyword phrases that your post is about. Unless your post is simply a personal journal, a blog with a business slant requires a sense of search engine rules.

* Stay on topic through out the post. Those keywords and keyword phrases will count.

* Create more than one post on any given business subject. If you write a post or article on home business budgets then set time aside to write several article along the same theme. Don't even think of loading your blog with keywords just to get the search engines humming (spamming is the ultimate NO NO with blogs!)

* Link posts that related to each other, refer to the resources found on another post within the same blog. Keep them in the appropriate categories. So that your category "Advertising" will have posts about writing ads, writing headlines, advertising resources, mastering the art of preselling, converting visitors to customers with ad copy. Cross link them so that a reader that is learning how to write compelling headlines can click through to read the article on converting visitors to customers. All of these steps will make your posts and your overall blog more RELEVANT to search engines AND your visitors.

* Look for blogs that discuss a specific category that you pursue on your own blog. Let's stick with Advertising. Make a list of the topics you can discuss with your readers that go right along with what you have already created. Link to these blogs, make comments, discuss them on your blog. You will again be MORE relevant (hey, your blog will be too!)

* Get your blog listed in directories and promoted in ezines that are within the same niche.

Learn how to be yourself within your blog. Professional, Yes but YOU!

Tammy
WAHM Connections

Natural Home Spa Products - New Shop is Open

2006-05-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Natural facial care products, exfoliating soap, handmade castile soap with more home spa products being added daily at Home Spas by Tam. Yep! I finally have my store up and am stocking the shelves. Despite my loss of my other online store, I am so happy to have the chance to re-open my shop! All of the products are natural, handmade when ordered in small batches with high quality essential oils.

Of all the skin care products, my favorites tend to be the hand and foot scrubs but the shea butter lotions and creams are glorious. I work closely with the business women that hand mix and create these high quality bath and body products. If you stop by to check out Home Spas by Tam be sure to bookmark it because it will take me another week to have all the shelves lined with everything. Create your own spa - at home! So cool :-)

Tammy

Blogging to the Bank - Rob Benwell

2006-05-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

Making Money Online - Blogging to the Bank is Rob Benwell's excellent new ebook that gives all the details the exact blueprint Rob uses create wealth online using free blogs to his affiliate sites. Proves the point, you don't need your own website to master the art of affililiate marketing.

Create blogs to promote your clickbank products and earn money. It's really quiet impressive - Blogging to the Bank My only advice on Blogging to the Bank ~ remember the rules of search engines - no spamming, keep everything you put on the net to be of value. There are no shortcuts when it comes to search engines. Alot of what Rob Benwell writes works, a few techniques that don't feel right, aren't.

Tammy

Successful Entrepeneur - Good with Money and Debt

2006-05-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

Successful Entrepreneur - Lately I've been reading books about the characteristics of the successful entrepreneur. It's a great guide for those of us running a home business because we all know that we have the ability to learn new habits, new ways of looking at things and new ways to handle life in general. It's a matter of making the changes that put us up there with others that are successful. We know that truly successful entrepreneurs are good money managers - otherwise our success will be short lived! To be able to say we are "good with money" and out of debt ~ we need to follow financial advice from those who KNOW.

Leo Quinn's Take Your Paycheck Back Again is my favorite resource to recommend to anyone wanting to get control of their debt, their finances and business money because Leo's system gives you everything you need to get out of debt faster than you think possible AND teaches you how to handle your money with a program that is under $70 including the Debt Cruncher software. Want to master this money thing?
Click here

Tammy ;-)
WAHM Connections - Successful Entrepreneur

Handmade Soaps - New Home Spa Shop

2006-05-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

Handmade soaps - natural bath and body products made by other women that work from home is now part of my own local business. Home Spas by Tam is my own retail business here in Augusta, ME that is now coming to an online spa shop. Natural handmade bath and skin care products is at the heart of our little shop. Today, I'm adding more handmade soaps including a wonderful castille soap for sensitive skin and a foot scrub with Ylang-Ylang and lavender. Doesn't that just sound incredible? I am simply downright smitten with these wonderful products so it will be easy to share them both online and here in Maine. My Shop Home Spas by Tam

Tammy
Now off to do my newsletter for WAHM Connections so I can get back to stocking the shelves in my little home spa store. :-)

Tipping Point - Can We Talk?

2006-05-04T03:29:00.000-07:00

Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell Reading Tipping Point? Let's Talk! After all this time, I finally picked up my own copy of Tipping Point yesterday while waiting to pick up my car. I have got to say that Tipping Point is one of those books that is hard to explain in a few words but its very thought provoking and engaging to read.

I'm an obsessive thinker - wondering if I've got a "handle" on whatever I'm discovering. Gladwell has written a book that explains phenomenon at the core - PEOPLE. Tipping Point reads like a high thinking but private chat with Gladwell. He pulls information (stories, facts and statistics) from all over the societal map then ties it all together to explain ideas, change, motivation and random occurances. Still sound hard on your thought process? It's not ~ really, its just my lack of words to explain a great book.

If you've read it or if you are reading Tipping Point now...tell me ~ what do you think? Yawning - Did you catch a yawn?
Tam

Envision the Goal - Make it Happen

2006-05-03T15:19:00.000-07:00

Is it goal setting that makes us successful? Nope.

It's action. Continous forward action that leads to success. As long as you are on a path that leads straight to your goal. It's that every day plodding that actually gets you somewhere. Sometimes its fast paced but more often we stumble. But we somehow put one foot in front of the other.

It's just my nature - to never Quit. Quitting is not an option. Yes, I talk about quitting but I don't. I talk about doing things differently but I usually don't do that either UNTIL I have tried every single blessed avenue I can find to make something WORK that I have started.

Somehow in my head, my heart ~ I realize that I'm headed down a foolish path. A path to no where but part of me believes that I will find a short cut back onto the path to success.

Best bet? See if there a path already cut through by others that are heading toward a similar goal. Look at what they did to get there before you. Remain unique, distinct. Don't reinvent the wheel but make your wheels stylin' fun even funky so you KNOW that you are the source of your success.

Tammy

WAHM Blog - Another Attempt ...

2006-05-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

Okay ~ who needs yet another "WAHM Blog" well...ME because two of my blogger blogs are in suspended animation waiting to be revived again AND I want a blog here! So I am starting over with this blog for WAHM Connections.

WAHM Connections will be 2 years old this summer and our focus is mainly finding coaching and learning opportunities for online entrepreneurs. Not business coaching in the normal sense of the word but I tend to gravitate to "experts" that go beyond simply selling an ebook or software. I believe that the best route for online learning especially in business and marketing is where you are able to connect with the mentors you are following. Some offer one to one coaching, others have forums and message boards or exclusive members only sites but they do deliver more than an ebook.

The resources I recommend do not sell you a script so you can "test" it out so they can work the bugs out of their software or gather statistics on how many they can convert to a sale regardless of the quality of the product. So...I only recommend products and services with people I have done business with myself. This is where you connect with what you need to run your business successfully online. WAHM Connections - WAHM Because I'm a work at home mom - I'm working for you and with you. Connecting!
Tammy

Adsense Secrets with Joel Comm

2006-05-03T06:51:00.000-07:00

Where is the serious money online? If you are selling an actual product or service then using Google Adsense to make money isn't really a good choice unless....your product or service has a higher payout with Google Adsense clicks by your visitors than directly buying from you.

My favorite Google "coach" is Joel Comm. Now if you haven't discovered Joel Comm then now is the time. The best bonus available is that when you get Adsense Secrets you have a free membership to his adsense forum. A great medium to get the Adsense coaching you need to really crank up your Google Adsense income. A year of working with Joel ~ I love his newsletter and the forum - It's working for me...just check it out to see it fits your goals. ;-)

Tammy
WAHM Connections