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A Home-Based Business Online
March 18
Sent to 9,075 Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: AHBBO Publishing
Online Home Business
Contact By Email
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Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue!
This week's article is about the importance of multiple
income streams, a crucial issue for those of you who
rely heavily on only one source of income in your online
business. With the slide the stockmarket is taking on
the back of recent dotcom busts, it's important for all of
us to make sure we don't have all our eggs in one basket.
To this end, this week sees an excerpt from the "Write A
Book" online course, from Steve Manning. If you're looking for
another income stream for your business or have ever
wanted to write a book (we all have one in us, as they say)
I'm sure you'll find Steve's writing as motivating and inspirational
as I do. You can sign up to receive daily instalments of the
course, which is free. Details at segment 4.
Finally, I want to take this opportunity to clarify a possible
misconception I may have inadvertently created with the
article from a couple of weeks back entitled "Un-Due Process".
In that article, I referred to the spam-intercepting software,
SpamKiller. The owner of the software has
suggested that my article incorrectly gave the impression that
the software automatically added addresses to the recipient
list of spam complaints. This was not my intention.
To set the record straight, although SpamKiller includes a feature
whereby the user can have the software scan the body of an
email for all email addresses and URLs contained therein, it is
the user who must manually decide and select which of those
addresses actually receive a complaint. The software does *not*
send a complaint to all those addresses automatically. You can
check out SpamKiller for yourself.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this
week's issue.
Remember, this ezine is for YOU! If you have comments
or suggestions for topics you would like to see addressed,
or would just like to share your experiences with other
subscribers, I want to hear from you! Please send comments,
questions and stories to Contact By Email .
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Grow, process (if necessary) and sell fresh, preserved and dried
herbs (seeds, parts, plants). Examples are dill, basil, cumin,
celery seed and cilantro (coriander).
It is surprising that with so many gardeners and the high prices of
herbs on the shelves of the supermarkets, that many more haven't
gotten into the lucrative field of herb growing and processing.
When you're in the store for herbs and spices, they are usually
expensive -- $2.00 per ounce and up. Still many still grow wild! Bay
leaves for example are available free by the bushel on bay trees
that grow all over the south.
To be successful in the herb and spice business, grow things that
do well in your area -- that you have adequate facilities and room for.
Of course, you can expand the list of possibilities with a greenhouse
and various climate control devices, plus soil manipulation. At the
least you will probably need a small greenhouse (or hot frame) to
start your plants and perhaps a screened area for growing and/or
drying that is secure from insects and other pests.
For the rest of this report, visit
http://www.ahbbo.com/herbspice.html .
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There are many more ideas like this at the AHBBO Home
Business Ideas page at free home based business ideas
with more being added all the time.
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© 2013 Elena Fawkner
Over the past few days the news headlines have been focused
on Wall Street and the downward spiral of all of the major stock
indexes. As usual when one of these shake-outs occurs, the
popular media tries to reduce the issues to easy to understand,
bite-size morsels. A favorite strategy is to profile a "typical"
small investor who had all his eggs in one basket when the market
crashed and now his entire life savings are nothing more than red
ink on his personal balance sheet.
Had our typical small investor diversified his portfolio, investing
some of his capital in blue chip stocks, some in tech stocks,
some in property, some in bonds, chances are he would still be
in the black. The same can be said for anyone running an online
business. The online environment is so dynamic and volatile, and
so many so-called "hot" opportunities come and go (and don't do
much in between), that devoting your entire enterprise to just one
product or service offering is nothing short of dangerous, if not
outright foolish.
The answer, then, is to place a few eggs in several baskets, so if
the bottom falls out of one, you can still make an omelet with
what's left. In other words, diversify your product and service
offerings to generate multiple streams of income.
SOURCES OF INCOME
Here's five ideas to get you started:
1. Affiliate programs.
2. Own products and services.
3. Website advertising.
4. Ezine advertising.
5. Content access via subscription.
We'll look at each of these individually in a moment, but first, one
important caveat. The concept of multiple streams of income does
NOT mean you should rush out and add new products and services
to your repertoire willy-nilly.
Whatever you choose to offer must be closely related to the subject
matter of your site. If your site is about pet care, don't try and sell
saucepans. To do so is not only a waste of valuable time and other
resources but you compromise the integrity of your site's purpose,
not to mention your credibility as an expert in your field.
But even more importantly than that, all traffic is not created equal.
Sure, if you create a separate page on your pet care website just for
your new saucepan line you may attract one or two site visitors you
may not have attracted otherwise. But those visitors were interested
in saucepans, not pet care. Once they reach your site they'll
assume you've lost the plot and click away faster than you can say
“where'd he go?".
Far, far better to have fewer site visitors who are all highly interested
and motivated by the subject matter of your site (highly targeted
traffic) than relatively more visitors who are only somewhat interested
and motivated (untargeted traffic).
The return on your investment will always be MUCH higher from
targeted traffic in the form of repeat visits, referrals, recommendations
and, of course, all-important sales.
OK, let's turn now to the five sources of income.
AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
The first and most obvious source of income is affiliate programs.
I'm sure most of you are already well-familiar with the concept but,
if not, you can get a quick primer by reading the article at
http://www.ahbbo.com/affiliate.html .
To be effective as an income-generator, the affiliate programs you
choose should be closely related to the subject matter of your site
in the sense that a visitor interested in your website content will
also be interested in the subject matter of the affiliate program you
are promoting.
To start your search for appropriate affiliate programs, visit
http://www.associatesearch.com
OWN PRODUCTS
While affiliate programs are a good place to start, you are working
on commission. For significant, long-term, sustainable income
you need to develop your own line of products and services. This
does not necessarily mean you must personally create the product
or service; it just means you get to keep the profits on any sale.
You could, for example, sell products you purchase from a
wholesaler. Under this type of arrangement, you buy the product
for a certain price and sell it for a higher price. The difference is
your profit. The profit under this type of arrangement will, 99% of
the time, be significantly higher than the commission income you
generate with affiliate programs. If you don't want to bother with
the hassle of storing inventory and shipping orders, make
arrangements for the wholesaler to drop-ship orders to your
customers instead.
Of course, you can always create your own products as well. A
good option for an online business is a digital product such as an
e-book since production and distribution costs are extremely low.
Your customer simply downloads the product from your server to
her hard disk. But you don't have to restrict yourself to digital
products. You might choose to write a book and have it
professionally bound and printed. Or you may choose to make
your book available in both digital and traditional format with
different price points to reflect the different production and shipping
costs.
WEBSITE ADVERTISING
Once you have generated consistently high, targeted traffic to your
website, you can begin to think about charging for third party
advertising on some of your website real estate. The price you
can charge for banner advertising depends on your traffic whether
your advertiser pays you to simply host his banner or whether she
pays you per click-through. Particularly if your revenue depends on
click-through it is very important (both for you and your advertiser in
terms of repeat business) that your advertiser's product or service
is relevant to the overall subject matter of your website.
Your pricing would generally be set at a CPM rate, for example $20
per thousand page views. So, if your site receives 5,000 page
views a week, that's $100 a week in advertising revenue. The more
targeted your traffic, the more you can charge as your CPM.
EZINE ADVERTISING
You have, I'm sure, heard it said many times that a great way to
generate traffic to your website is to publish an ezine (electronic
magazine or newsletter). that's certainly true. Ezines are a terrific
traffic generator. But they can also be a source of revenue in their
own right.
Once you hit 1,000 subscribers (as a general rule) you can start
charging for advertising in your ezine. Again, CPM is a good
pricing model to start with. I price my advertising at $5 CPM. This
means if I have 8,000 subscribers, a classified ad costs $40; if I
have 9,000 subscribers, a classified ad costs $45, and so on.
Again, the more targeted your subscriber database, the higher your
CPM. Some very highly targeted, specialized ezines can charge
as much as $40 CPM or more. Others that are very general and
untargeted may only be able to generate $2 CPM. Again, the time
and effort you expend in targeting your market audience, the higher
your potential revenue.
CONTENT ACCESS
The number one commodity people are looking for online is
information. Consider making your website content available on a
members-only basis, charging a membership fee for access. Your
content has to be of genuine value to your website visitors, however.
don't try this if all you're offering is a collection of other people's
articles.
The type of content that lends itself well to this type of arrangement
includes things like apartments for rent listings (eg
http://www.westsiderentals.com ), home-based job openings, that
sort of thing.
Members-only sites that consist of a collection of freely available
products and tools can also work well if, by joining, the member
saves him or herself many hours of independent searching and
collating the relevant materials.
Apart from information, entertainment-type content also lends itself
well to a pay-for-access type of arrangement. The obvious
example is the highly lucrative internet pornography industry. Say
what you will about it, it is a business model that most online
entrepreneurs would love to be able to replicate in their own industry,
if only they could generate the same level of interest. It's that
targeted traffic principle yet again!
As I said, these are just a few ideas to get you started. Once you
start implementing these, others will suggest themselves to you.
It really doesn't matter what you do so long as it works for you. By
all means, if something works well, don't stop what you're doing.
But don't rest on your laurels either. Make sure you always have
other wells to drill if today's runs dry.
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** Reprinting of this article is welcome! **
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use the autoresponder copy which contains a resource box;
(2) you leave the resource box intact; and (3) you only
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4.
by Steve Manning
Welcome to your first lesson on how to get your book written
faster than you ever thought possible.
My name is Steve Manning. I'm the creator of the run-away best-
selling, writing success program, "How To Write A Book On
Anything in 14 Days or Less... Guaranteed!"
I envy you. You're about to write a book. And although I've
already written several myself, I know the thrill that comes with
starting a new one. I see it every time I give my lecture to
professionals all over the world. These are folks who are just
like you. Folks who have an overwhelming desire to write that
very special book (fiction or non-fiction). And if you've already
made the decision to write your book, I don't need to tell you
all the benefits that can come your way.
Many of my clients are professionals. Folks like doctors, lawyers,
consultants, speakers, engineers, professors and so on.
Hundreds of them. From all over the world! They know exactly what
a published book means to them. It means greater notoriety, more
success, credibility, status, revenue, lead generation, and much
more. In fact, there are as many different reasons for writing a
non-fiction book as there are people who want to write them.
And I've helped my students do it all.
If you're thinking about fiction maybe you see yourself as the
next Grisham, or the next Creighton; the next Danielle Steele or
the next Anne Rice. You've got a story to tell and you want to
tell it... as wonderfully as possible.
Let me tell you that I'm here to help make it happen for you. My
passion (call it a magnificent obsession) is to help as many
people write as many books as they want to write--and get them
published!
That's why I personally answer more than 100 emails a day, field
dozens of calls and personally edit my student's work. People are
always amazed when they call to order my success program and
they get me personally. They're amazed when they call me at
10:00 at night to ask a question (I invite my students to do that)
and they get me!
Now, there's no way I can cram all the information, details and
strategies of my success program into a series of emails. My
hope is that you'll take the information I give you here and realize
the value of the total program, then go back to my website
() and order it.
If you do, you'll have all the information you could possibly
need to write as many books as you could want to. And, you'll
have me at your beck and call, too, just as hundreds of my
students do!
If you don't order the program, well, at least I've done everything
I possibly can to make it happen for you, in the brief time we've
got together.
Let's get started.
The first piece of information I want to give you is so profound
that most people simply don't get it. It is the very basis of
speedwriting. Someone once asked Isaac Asimov why he was
so prolific. His answer was unbelievably simple, complex and
informative.
"I guess I'm prolific because I have a simple and straight-forward
style!"
So powerful are these words that they should be engraved in stone
and placed on the desk of every writer who has ever thought about
producing a book.
"I guess I'm prolific because I have a simple and straightforward
style."
Ironically, Asimov could just as easily have said, "I guess I
have a simple and straightforward style because I'm prolific."
The two statements are co-dependent.
If you want to be prolific, you must have a simple and
straightforward style. But the only way you can have a simple
and straightforward style… is to be prolific.
I'll explain…
Do you know ANYONE who does something well? If they do it
well, chances are very good they also do it very quickly. Now,
this does not mean in order to do something well, you should do
it quickly. It means only that those who do something very well
almost always do it quickly.
They have mastered the details, they have mastered the
techniques, and they have mastered the process and the
challenges. With this mastery comes proficiency. And
proficiency will always be accompanied by speed.
Now my next point of explanation…
In order to write well, you should write the way you talk. If you
write the way you talk, your writing will always be very
understandable to the reader.
There will be no convoluted sentences. No $25 words, where a
50-cent offering will suffice. There will be no misunderstanding.
No misinterpretation. When you talk to friends, you don't 'put on
airs' in your speech. You speak to be understood, and (with the
exception of politicians) you usually are.
And just about every writing instructor, agent, editor, publisher
and reader will tell you that if you write the way you talk, your
manuscript will be infinitely more readable, publishable and
sellable.
You've already mastered the art of talking. You've been doing it
ever since you were a few months old, and you've been honing,
practicing and developing your talking skills just about every
day of your life!
You have mastered the details, you have mastered the
techniques, and you have mastered the process and the
challenges. With this mastery comes proficiency. And
proficiency will always be accompanied by speed.
Does that last paragraph sound familiar? I used it to describe a
person who has mastered a skill previously.
You talk relatively quickly because you know how to talk. You
know what you want to say and how you want to say it.
Those who know how to do something well, usually do it quickly.
You know how to talk, so you talk quickly (by that I mean you
don't labor over every word). If you want to write well, write
the way you talk…
The logic is inescapable. If you want to write well, write quickly.
If you write quickly, you will always write the way you talk (you
won't have time to develop the awkward sentence).
If you want to write well… write fast!
If you want to be prolific, write quickly.
If you want to write well, write quickly.
The faster you write, the better you write!
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You can receive future instalments of Steve's free Write-A-Book
tutorial by signing up at his website. Instalments arrive at
daily intervals.
Click here to go to Steve's site:
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Steve Manning is author of "How to Write A Book On Anything
In 14 Days Or Less ... Guaranteed! -- An Expert's Step-by-Step
Guide".
"DOWNSIZED?" Thousands have... Take control of you future!
Master your own Destiny while making $2-300 per day.
Now you can EARN...while you learn!
Click below for Free information.
5.
TIP #1: How to quickly add a name to your address book.
Outlook Express: When you're in the Inbox, double-click on the
message. This will display it in its own window. Then, on the
'From' line (in the message header), RIGHT-click on the name of
the person or company that sent the message, and select the
"Add to Address Book" option. The name will be added.
Netscape Messenger: While reading a message, pull down the
Message menu, and select "Add to Address Book."
Eudora: While reading a message, pull down the Special menu, and
select "Make Address Book Entry". Or, as a shortcut, you just hit
Ctrl-K on the keyboard.
TIP #2:
Have you received an email that was forwarded to you, and it
contains information that should have been kept private? Can you
stop this kind of "forward-itis"? Not really. Some people will
forward all email. They're incorrigible forwarders, and love to
send messages all over the place. The only way you can stop them
is to NOT send them confidential mail in the first place.
If someone sends you a message alerting you to something that is
bad or outrageous, don't forward the letter unless you're sure
it's true. Especially those messages about "mail viruses".
Forget them. You cannot get a virus just from reading your
e-mail. Those kinds of viruses simply do not exist, and the only
damage--scaring the people who don't know this--is done by
foolish people who forward such messages.
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Tips by Tom Glander and Joe Robson of The Newbie
Club. The best Newbie Site ever to hit the Web.
7. Subscription Management
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9. Contact Information
Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
Online Home Based Business
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