Niche Blogging For Profit

There are many different ways to market your home business whether online or off. Most important to remember is not to limit yourself to marketing Internet businesses to online marketing and “real world” business to “real world” advertising.

While many brick and mortar businesses know enough to have websites and possibly online shopping carts, few online businesses expand their marketing plan to include offline advertising.

 Business cards are easy and inexpensive to create. VistaPrints offers cards free of cost – you pay only for shipping. Pass these cards out to people you meet at parties, gatherings, work related events and to people you meet throughout your regularly scheduled day.

Brochures (services) or Catalogs (products) – Depending on what your blogs/sites sell you can display brochures or catalogs in local stores.

Flyers – Similar to brochures except flyers are usually one sheet and contain less information than brochures. You can pass out flyers or leave them in doorways to get people to visit your sites/blogs.

Magnetic Signs – Several business supply stores offer custom signs and letters that are magnetized and can be stuck right to the sides or back of your vehicle. You should keep the wording simple and short but that takes advantage of the most space for your money.

As an Internet Marketer you have to take advantage of every traffic source available. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your customer base ends at your desktop.

When working at home it is important to not let routine tasks suck up too much of your valuable time. Niche  bloggers need to focus as much time on writing and marketing as possible. Answering emails, surfing, commenting on other blogs and networking should be of secondary priority. While those activities are necessary for success, the majority of your time should be devoted to the most important tasks for niche blogging success.

Email – Set aside 15-30 minutes once a day to deal with email. Resist the urge to check email and shut off any automatic email notification.

Surfing - Also known as research. You’ll probably need an hour or so each day but you really should need much more research than that.

Networking- Sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Warrior Forum, while helpful for building a reputation, are also major time-suckers. Update or post only when you have something worth saying of when introducing a new niche blog.

While working at home can be freeing it can also be distracting and tiring. It can also be frustrating to friends and family who think you’ve disappeared because you’re working 10-12 hours a day. There are some things you can do (and some that you can avoid) to keep the good parts of working from home and reduce the bad parts.

1. Schedule one time for personal phone calls. There were many days when I couldn’t get anything done all day because it would seem like every friend and relative would pick that day to call me. If someone calls outside your “phone time” politely explain that you are working and will have to call them back.
2. Don’t over obligate yourself. When people hear ‘work-at-home’ what they really hear is ‘home all day’. So expect to get tons of calls asking you to volunteer, babysit, go out shopping, supervise field trips, etc.,etc. Teach yourself to say no- just like you would if you worked outside the home. Your office hours are your prosperity.
3. Don’t be too rigidly set in your schedule. Things will come up, especially if you are also a parent. Repairmen will need to come fix things, appointments may interfere, kids will surely cause distractions. It happens. Don’t be too hard on yourself and consider it a sick day.
4. Not keeping good business and financial files. Records are essential to knowing how your business is doing and make tax time much less stressful.
5. Spend the day in your pajamas. While this might be an attractive proposition to some, I guarantee you will be more productive if you get up and get dressed as if you were working outside the home.
6. Not setting up “work hours” or at least a stop time to avoid overwhelming yourself. When a company is all yours the pull to work on it as much as possible can be irresistible. Unfortunately you end up neglecting everyone and everything else. And eventually you will end up burning out.
7. Investing money you don’t have. Again it can be tempting to sink as much money as possible into your “baby”. Always work to find frugal ways to accomplish your goals without risking the quality of your work or company.

When you spend eight (or more) hours writing, searching, surfing and networking on your computer it doesn’t take long for that computer to get gunked up. Cookies, cache files, temporary documents, files you downloaded and never looked at or had no use for, ebooks that you’re read or that weren’t any good – all these load up our computer and affect its performance.

That’s why it is so important to perform regular maintenance on your computer. Here’s a list of simple tasks to perform on a routine basis.

Disk Cleanup – This should be done about once a month. You’ll find this task by clicking on your computer, then right click on the disk drive you use most and select properties. A small window will open with a pie graph and a button that says disk cleanup. Disk cleanup will get rid of all the unnecessary files on your hard drive. Your recycle bin, temporary files, etc. will be recommended for deletion. Choose the files you no longer want and hit delete.

Defragment – As you put little bits of information on your computer, they get stored but not always in the most efficient space. “Defraging” reorganizes these files for maximum space efficiency

Clean cookies – Under Internet options on your browser toolbar (at least in Internet Explorer) you’ll find ways to clean your history, cookies and cached files.

Antivirus/Antispyware – You should scan your computer for viruses and harmful spyware weekly at least. Of you have one program that does both great, but if your antivirus doesn’t also scan for spyware you will need to get a separate program.

Add and Remove Programs – If you’re anything like me, you are constantly downloading trial versions of new things to try out. It’s a good idea once a month to go through the programs installed on your computer and uninstall any that you don’t want or that are no longer useful.

Additionally you should schedule some time every three or four months to go through your emails, ebooks, old articles, draft posts, and other tidbit trash taking up space on your computer.

This post assumes that not only do you work from home but that you are also responsible for household tasks and errands and possibly a family.

Working from home is a lot harder than most people assume. When you work outside the home your work time and your home time are clearly defined. However when you work from home sometimes it is hard to know if your next post or the dirty dishes should come first. And sometimes, no matter how many times you tell them not to, children can be distracting and demanding.

So how can you schedule work, home, and play in one day and still get everything done? Beats me, but I have come up with a method that works pretty well.

First I got smart and didn’t even try to schedule work when I knew my kids would be creating chaos. So I clean up, cook, play with the kids and do laundry while the kids are at their most active. This allows me to work on my computer one and off most of the morning while I work on brainstorming and non-computer tasks during the evening when my older children are on the computer and my younger child is in bed.

I also try to simplify my life by assigning certain tasks to certain days. For example I go grocery shopping on Fridays, I do my best to schedule doctor and other appointments on Mondays, and I call my mom every Saturday, etc.

Finally, don’t allow yourself to be too hard on you. Everything isn’t always going to get done, things will be forgotten, deadlines broken.

And the world (and you) will go on just fine.

While setting up a home office depends in part on how much space you have there are certain features that any niche blogger working from home is going to need in order to make their company a success.

First of all you will need a computer with Internet access. You probably already have one or you wouldn’t be considering an online career. If you don’t, however, focus on getting the fastest one you can afford. It would also be helpful if it came with Microsoft Word but you can always buy it extra if not.

Next you should get a computer desk. Look for one that will hold your computer, keyboard, mouse, monitor and printer while leaving room for writing and research materials as well as random office supplies you will need.

If space is limited you should consider getting a 4 in 1 printer/copier/scanner/fax to suit all your needs in the smallest area. In the last couple of years the price of these machines has come down considerably.

The office chair you choose should be comfortable and mobile. If there is anywhere you should spend a little extra money it is on your desk chair. Since you will likely be spending hours sitting in this chair, you want to be sure to get maximum support for your back and legs.

A calender may be helpful for keeping track of your schedule. A cork or dry erase board is helpful for keeping tidbits of information as well as your to-dos.

You will probably want to get a four drawer file cabinet. You will be printing out research material, receipts for web services and other papers related to your niche. Additionally you will collect books and files and all sorts of scraps of ideas and information.

If space allows you may also consider purchasing a bookshelf. Over time as an niche marketer and blogger you will likely find yourself collecting many more than a few books and having them on a bookshelf eliminates the need to dig around in drawers or piles.

Lastly, although no necessary, you may want to have some personal mementos and inspiration do-dads. Being able to draw from something to motivate you forward when you feel like giving up is a good addition to a home office.

Many people who work online for a living skip this critical step for business success. They think either their “company” isn’t big enough to warrant a business plan or that plans are only used to acquire financing and they are using personal funds for business expenses.

My advice is to write a business plan no matter what. Even if your “business” is just you, one blog, and a couple hours each week spent writing. A business plan gives you focused objectives and a clear and detailed idea of what your business is about.

Here are the components of a basic business plan. Use only the ones that apply to you.

1. Business Description – This section should detail the mission, goals and objectives of your company. A mission is a straightforward and concise sentence explaining the purpose of your business. If this plan is for your eyes only don’t worry too much about the language – just write it so you understand it. Goals are what you want to do with your business in the short term while objectives are where you eventually want your business to be. For example a goal is to create a blog that is updated weekly while an objective is to establish yourself as an expert in your niche.
2. Business Model- A business model talks about how your company will be run. For example: home based, sole proprietor, partnership, LLC, or whatever. If someone would take over your business if you fell ill or no longer could work you can state that here too.
3. Marketing Plan – This is just a section for you to list or lay out your plans for getting customers (or readers) and advertising sales.

This is just the very basics. It’s enough to get you to a point where your company seems more like a “real” business. If you are interested in learning more about writing business pans you can check out the Small Business Association or SCORE.

More and more people are deciding to stay at home and work online. The reasons people decide to work online. The reasons people decide to work from home are as varied as the types of jobs you can choose. With the New Year starting over, this month’s posts are going to go back to he beginning and talk about making the decisions to work at home online and the first steps necessary once you’ve made the decision.

I started working from home in order to remain home with my kids. Other people I know work from home because the job market in their areas are so bad they are unable to find a regular job. Some just like the freedom to work in their pajamas if they want to.

While it is nice not to have a boss looking over your shoulder, it can be also be limiting. No one to tell you what and when to do things. No one to make sure all the correct paperwork is filled out. And no one to tell you when it is okay to take some time off either. Also working in your pajamas tends to encourage procrastination and laziness. In fact it encourages an addition to television!

But if you have the desire, dedication, and discipline to make a living from it, it may be the best thing you’ll ever do – I know it was for me.

Luckily there are so many ways to work from home – online or off – that no matter where your interests lie you should be able to  find something that will make a great career for you. I chose niche marketing because I get bored easily and like the ever-changing world of Internet information.

Once you narrow down your choices to one or two your should research what you need to start this business for home.

I’ve started many profit and nonprofit companies for scratch and have helped others start up their home-based businesses. I also research “opportunities” for validity to protect then from scams. If you would like some info or advice feel free to throw me an email.

Oh yeah, Happy New Year.

Password security is always an important issue for people online but it is even more critical (and difficult) for individuals who work online.

As an Internet Marketer I have probably three dozen sites that I have passwords for, at least. As you can imagine trying to remember thirty-something passwords would be maddening if not downright impossible.

There is software available to store and file passwords for easy recall but I don’t trust programs to keep all my passwords secure.

The solution I’ve found is to create three different passwords to use on a regularly basis and created depending on the level of security I want.

For sites that require a password but that don’t contain any personal information that I want to keep secret I use a basic password of six letter and two numbers. Don’t use a word that people would easily guess but that you would be unlikely to forget.

For medium security sites – sites that have some personal information but nothing like your social security number or credit card number, do not use words or parts of words. Instead create a “word” of letters that mean something you but wouldn’t be guessed by someone else. For example you could pick the first letters of the first names of all your cousins on your mother’s side.

In the case of high security, one with critical information, you want to get really tricky. It’s best to use a combination of letters alternating with numbers like A1B2C3 (But of course not that combo). Passwords created in this way are usually strong and secure.

By only using three difficult passwords based on the amount of security your desire, you won’t have to worry about remembering dozens of passwords and if you’re worried about what site has which password all you have to do is write is low, medium, or high after the site name (on paper or in a program) to indicate the password used.

Before you buy one domain, before you purchase web hosting, before you write one single work or find one single affiliate program – know what you want.

“Without focus, every battle is lost.”

Know what you expect from your business. Do you want to be a blogging guru? Do you want to write about niche topics you enjoy and become an in expect in that field? Do you want to slam out a bunch of basic niche blogs and depend on sheer numbers to make you money? No matter how you plan to run your business you should know ahead of time exactly what you’ll do, what you want to accomplish and most important how the two will connect.

In other words how will what you do achieve what you want to achieve?

Before you can know what you want from business, you need to know what you want from your life.  What drives you? Where do you want to be in five years? Ask yourself the following questions to begin your journey towards knowing what you want. Write the answers down on a sheet of paper.

1. Why do I want to work at home? What is my personal mission in life?
2. What is my ideal work day?
3. How much time do I want to dedicate to my business? What is my business’ mission statement?
4. How much money am I willing/able to spend on my business?
5. Does my business mission suit my personal mission? In other words, if your mission in business is to create a new niche blog every two days and your personal mission is spend a large amount of quality time with your family, it’s unlikely both of those things can happen.

The answers to these questions will help you start to see if what you want from your work life is what will help you accomplish in your personal life. When these two mesh, you have a better chance at being successful at both.