December 18th, 2009 admin
Many have the misconception that starting website is a task reserved for the highly skilled, highly technical. Thousands of talented entrepreneurs pass the opportunity of having a powerful website solely based on the idea that it is expensive and too difficult for the “average Joe”. Freelance writers, artist, photographers and even basic enthusiasts all can now benefit from a website. Gone are the days where this is something you need to worry about! Anyone can launch a website with little to no money spent and get your content our to the millions of potential viewers and expand your reach like never before.
Perhaps the most popular way to get a basic website is to start a web blog. A blog is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112,000,000 blogs.
Free blogging hosting services are readily available and provide a great launching pad to start your website. In many cases, these can be setup and you can be blogging in less than 10 minutes! Below are the top 3 blogging services that offer free accounts that are easy enough for anyone to launch a website blog.
BLOGGER.com
The first is the most popular. Blogger.com is owned and run by none other than search engine giant Google. If you already have a google account (i.e. gmail or google docs) you can use your existing login credentials to get started. The process is as simple as choosing a Blog name and finding a unique URL. Your blog address (URL) will be what you choose followed by .blogspot.com. For example, DetailingGurus.com wanted a blog to showcase their work and products. By choosing the blogger name “DetailingGurus” the blog was created with the following address (URL) http://DetailingGurus.blogspot.com/.
Since this blogging platform is backed by the #1 search engine, it is typically easier to get blogspot.com blogs noticed by Google. Many report that more traffic in shorter time periods are achievable with Blogspot blogs that the others. Another advantage is that Google allows you to redirect your own domain name purchased by almost anyone to your Blogspot blog for free. Others charge for this feature.
Wordpress.com
Wordpress has made it’s mark by offering an open source blogging software for web developers. The wordpress blogging software can be downloaded for free and installed on any internet hosted space. This is typically more difficult and reserved for more technically competent users. The answer to beginers is Wordpress.com.
Wordpress.com offers a service much like Blogger.com in that you can sign up in less than 10 minutes and setup a blog hosted on Wordpress.com. Much like blogger, your web address will be http://[Your Blog Name].Wordpress.com.
Wordpress has become a favorite for SEO experts as the software is open source and easily integrated with tools that help promote your blog. If you are looking to perform your own SEO try this service.
TypePad
TypePad has struggled to find itself in the shadows of the two other heavy hitters. This blogging service has mostly found it’s niche in the art community and in Mac users. It has recently launch microblogging services to compete with socail networking giants like Twitter.com and Facebook. Still a worthwhile tool but not quite the same power as the others.
Posted in Making Money Online, Web Development | No Comments »
June 16th, 2009 admin
Want to start making money online but don’t really have the time to constantly add content and update your site? Well normally I would say skip affiliate marketing but there is a new tool I’ve found that might be for you.
The standard formula is typically build a website with fresh new content FREQUENTLY. This means a blog that you will have to post, say everyday with fresh content so that search engines crawl it frequently and you get nice organic traffic for your niche. Well unfortunately for many, this is what turns most off to this business model.
But fret not! Here is a simple formula for less than $100 of start up money you can have a fully automated money-making website. The first step is (yup, you guessed it), get a basic hosting package and install Wordpress. Next, sign up for an Amazon affiliate account. Once you have all this set up, you are ready for the final step. Purchase the Reviewazon Wordpress plugin and install this on your Wordpress blog.
There are tons of settings to customize your site to what you want it to be but one of the key features is that this script can auto-populate your blog daily with fresh content from the Amazon site. You choose the product category/niche and let the script do the rest! Sit back and watch your site build up to a great, high-quality affiliate site.
You will want to find a way to promote your site to get as much traffic as possible. This can be outsourced by paying for a PPC campaign or as simple as including it in signature posts, email signatures or occasional tweets and status updates on your favorite social networking sites.
Posted in Making Money Online | 3 Comments »
February 12th, 2009 admin
If you are trying to start an online business, chances are you have a least thought about selling products online. With the power of the internet today it is easier than ever to procure and distribute goods regionally, nationally and even globally using basic ecommerce models. Discount shipping providers like UPS and FedEx make it easier than ever to create a track global shipments and it can all be done from your home office.
But what about payments? What if you want to accept electronic payments? What if you would like to accept all major credit cards (Visa, Master Card and American Express)? Not all small busniess owners are ready for the often heavy investments of credit card authorization terminals and the fees associated with these services. Where can one turn to for a low cost, no up front investment credit card checkout shopping cart service?
There are two great options available today. Perhaps the largest and most popular is PayPal’s checkout and cart tool. This out of the box provides very simple integration. Users can create “Buy It Now” style buttons for products and/or services that sends customers directly to the checkout after the first product or “Add to Cart” buttons to allow multiple product purchases.
The second option is Google’s new checkout system. Google has recently added great new tools to allow you to add a very impressive and professional shopping cart to almost any site. This one seems to work a bit better with the floating shopping kart that follows you around and shows what you have added so far. The tool works much like PayPal’s in that you can generate BIY buttons or add to cart style buttons.
The other difference to note is the fee structures. While true terminal services credit card authorization services may require a larger up front investment and equipment purchase, their per transaction fees are significantly lower than both PayPal or Google Checkout. PayPal charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction on sales up to $3,000 a month. Google’s fee is 2% of the sale plus 20 cents, less if the merchant is a Google advertiser.
Another recent benefit released via the Google Checkout blog is that merchants who use FedEx can save up to 21% on their shipping costs. Google?s blog post can be read here. PayPal offers a ?Shipping Center? but there are no special incentive shipping rates with carriers, just free USPS and eBay branded boxes for your business.
Posted in Business, Making Money Online, Web Development | 2 Comments »
