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A Home-Based Business Online
_______________________________________________________________
Practical home business ideas, opportunities
and solutions for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
Issue 128 : April 1, 2002
Sent to 13,146 Opt-In Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
http://www.ahbbo.com
Contact By Email
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_______________________________________________________________
IN THIS ISSUE
_______________________________________________________________
1. Welcome and Update from Elena
2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Personal
Shopper
3. Feature Article - Ezine Publishing As A Business
4. Surveys and Trends
5. Success Quotes of the Week
6. Advertise with AHBBO
7. Subscription Management
8. Caveat Emptor
9. Contact Information
_______________________________________________________________
1. Welcome and Update from Elena
_______________________________________________________________
Hello again and a warm welcome to all the new subscribers
who have joined us since the last issue.
This week I'm delighted to announce the launch of an
AHBBO sister site, Web Work From Home (WWFH)
(http://www.web-work-from-home.com). WWFH is a very
simple, to-the-point site, designed to show you, step by
step, how to create your own online business. Basically,
it's a roadmap to show you how to replicate what I did
when I created my online business and what I still do to
this day. It's what works.
So, if you've had your fill of theory and just want to cut to
the chase and get going already, visit WWFH. There may
just be something there that will help you. (By the way, I
created WWFH in under one week using Ken Evoy's brilliant
"Site Build It" tool. If you're put off starting a web-based
business by the thought of having to know HTML and all
the other technical bugaboos that go along with creating a
web site, Site Build It's for you. Check it out at
http://buildit.sitesell.com/fawkner.html .)
This week's article is all about ezine publishing as a
business (as distinct from a marketing tool which is how
it's usually treated). It's at segment 3. Hope it gives you
food for thought.
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this
week's issue.
Remember, AHBBO 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 .
_______________________________________________________________
FREE INTERNET TRAINING COURSE
Free course how to build a profitable Internet
business part time from your home.Free Newsletter.
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_______________________________________________________________
2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Personal
Shopper
_______________________________________________________________
Here's a neat idea for a web-based business that will allow
you to satisfy your shopping addiction using other people's
money and get paid for it at the same time! Believe it or not,
there are people out there who do not enjoy shopping and/or
simply don't have the time to do it. Busy executives often
fall into this category, for example. That's where your personal
shopper service can come in.
To start, set up a website that will allow you to take online
orders. To begin with, your services are going to be necessarily
limited to your own local geographic area if you can't source
what you need online. But over time, you can recruit other
shoppers into your network and eventually offer a nationwide
service.
Your customer selects a pricepoint, fills in an online form that
specifies what they're looking for (provide for input fields in
your form that will extract the necessary information) and away
you go! You shop for the item, have it shipped and also wrapped
if it's a gift.
The merchant charges the customer's credit card directly
inclusive of all shipping costs. Your webpage should include an
agreement and acknowledgement that you will be making the
customer's credit card information available to the merchant
for this purpose.
In addition, you charge the customer for your time. One way of
doing this is to charge a percentage of the amount spent by the
customer with the merchant. A couple of disadvantages with
this approach are that you may not be adequately compensated
for your time when the purchase is for a low-cost item. Also, the
customer may become distrustful of you, thinking that you'll
deliberately source a more expensive item than necessary. To
overcome these objections you may instead want to settle on a
flat rate for different levels of service.
Recommended resources:
Get Paid to Shop: Be a Personal Shopper for Corporate America
by Emily S. Lumpkin
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R5469_gpts
-----
There are many more ideas like this at the AHBBO Home Business
Ideas page at http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html with more being
added regularly.
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3. Feature Article: Ezine Publishing As A Business
_______________________________________________________________
© 2002 Elena Fawkner
If you have your own website, or are planning to create
one soon, in the course of your research you will have
read about the importance of publishing an ezine
(electronic newsletter) as a way of generating traffic to
your site.
-- Note to purists: yes I DO understand there is, strictly
speaking, a difference between ezines and electronic
newsletters but for our purposes it doesn't matter so don't
write me. ;)
It's good advice. By capturing the email addresses of
your site visitors (via an ezine sign-up form at your site),
you can develop a mailing list to put yourself before time
and time again, unless and until they ask to be removed.
The idea is that by regularly sending your ezine to your list,
your site visitors get to know you and, over time, come to
trust you as an expert in your field. Assuming you do
competent work, that is.
But ezine publishing can be a lot more than just a
traffic generation tool - a means to an end. It can be
an end unto itself. Your ezine can actually be a
business in its own right.
How can an ezine be a paying proposition in itself? There
are two ways - by accepting paid advertising and charging
for subscription.
=> Advertising
When I started my ezine way back when in July 1999, I was
just following conventional wisdom. I had created a web
site by the same name and wanted to publish an ezine as a
way of staying in touch with site visitors and reminding them
to visit my site.
What ended up happening, though, is that the ezine
became the central plank of my business and the website
became secondary. Why? Well, first of all, I found that I
actually enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing articles and I enjoyed
the fact that other people actually got some benefit from
my labors. But, beyond that, once I had amassed a subscriber
database of 1,000 or so, people started asking me what my
advertising rates were. I didn't have any. I had never really
thought of my ezine as being a revenue generator in and of
itself. The most I was hoping for was to remind readers to
visit my site in the hope that, while there, they would place
an order for one of the affiliate programs I promoted thereby
earning me a commission. Of course, I was also running ads
for my own affiliate programs in the ezine which translated
into income via commissions but, again, the ezine was a
means to an end, not an end unto itself.
When advertisers started approaching me, however, I soon
changed my thinking and my focus and before long, I had on
average ten to twelve advertisers wanting to run ads in my
ezine, every single week.
So, quite quickly, accepting paid advertising in my ezine
became a primary revenue source, certainly way ahead of
anything else that was generating revenue for me at the time
from my website.
Things have changed considerably for all ezine publishers
from those heady days where ezine advertising was all the
rage and demand for ezine advertising space outstripped supply.
No longer do I publish a dozen ads in each issue. Now it's only
five or so but paid advertising remains an important element of
my business plan and it is still a very viable revenue generation
model for you to use in your online business.
=> Paid Subscriptions
Just as ezine advertising has slowed down, paid subscription
ezines are emerging as the next hot trend. More and more,
the concept of free content on the Internet is giving way to
user pays and ezine publishing is no exception with ezine
publishers beginning to charge for subscription to their ezines
in lieu of (or in addition to) running paid ads.
For those who (for some reason) believe that everything
on the Internet should be free (as long as they're not the
ones who have to do the work for nothing, of course), this is,
on a superficial level, probably bad news. But on the other
hand, when someone is paying for content, it had better be
worth it. So the upside is that subscribers to paid ezines are
more likely to be getting (and will demand) better quality
content than they are used to from the typical "free" ezine.
In other words, you get what you pay for.
So what does all this mean for you, the would-be Internet
entrepreneur? Quite simply, if you're an expert in anything
(and we all are) you can turn that knowledge into the
foundation of an online business by publishing an ezine on
that subject, including your own original articles on a regular
basis (don't bother just regurgitating someone else's - if you're
publishing them, so are others and the object of the exericse
is to make an original contribution) and either accepting paid
advertising or charging subscribers a subscription fee.
All right then, how do I start an ezine?, I hear you say.
=> Come Up With a Great Idea
Don't waste your time (or everyone else's) publishing yet
another Internet marketing ezine. How many ways are there
to say the same thing? They're a dime a dozen and worth
even less. Do the hard work of coming up with something
that's original and fresh, something that every man and his
dog isn't already doing. It doesn't matter how specialized the
subject matter - the Internet audience is vast - you will
attract your share of it. In fact, the more targeted your
audience the better. Far, far better to have 500 devoted
readers than 5,000 who may or may not even open, let
alone read, your ezine.
(And don't believe the naysayers who will try and convince
you that because there are already so many ezines being
published there is no room for you. There is ALWAYS room
for quality original content and there always will be.)
=> Write a Few Articles
Before you publish your first issue, write a few articles about
your chosen subject and submit them, together with a
resource box that includes a way for people to subscribe to
your new ezine. This is just to drum up interest so that you
actually have a few subscribers to send your first issue to.
What do I mean by "submitting" your articles? There are many
ezine publishers and webmasters looking for fresh, quality
content for their ezines and web sites that they don't want
to have to create for themselves.
In response to this demand, a number of services and web
sites have sprung up to collect content contributions from
people like you and make it available to people like them.
Here's a list of article submission points to get you started:
=> Announcement Lists
Yahoo Groups (submit from the Yahoo Groups website
at http://groups.yahoo.com/ - you'll need to subscribe
to these groups first):
aabusiness
aageneral
aainet
article_announce
ArticlePublisher
articles_archives
epub
hersmallbusiness
Free-Content
publisher_network
PublishInYours
=> Web Sites
http://www.makingprofit.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.womans-net.com
http://www.boconline.com/sub-art.html
http://www.connectionteam.com/submit.html
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
http://www.mailbiz.com
http://www.UltimateProfits.com
http://www.atozines.com/content/subartic.htm
http://opportunityupdate.com/articles
http://www.selfgrowth.com
http://www.internetday.com/submit
http://www.marcommwise.com
http://www.vectorcentral.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.hotlaunch.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.webmasterslibrary.com
=> Publication
Then, when you have a few subscribers, you're ready to
publish your first issue. Be ready to roll it out pretty quickly
after you submit your articles so you are still fresh in the
mind of your readers.
For assistance with the nuts and bolts of actually creating
your ezine (including what should go where and why) and
sending it out, visit the excellent resource Ezine University
at http://www.ezineuniversity.com .
=> Generating Subscribers
Once your ezine is a reality, you can "announce" it to the
world at large. Here's a list of ezine announcement lists and
directories to get you started:
Before being able to submit your newsletter to these lists
you'll need to subscribe first. Just go to Yahoo
(http://www.groups.yahoo.com) or Topica
(http://www.topica.com) to sign up for the lists you want
to be able to submit to. (Onelist and Egroups are now under
Yahoo):
1_List_Advertise@onelist.com
a1promo@egroups.com
Aannounce@egroups.com
Announce@topica.com
ezine_announce@egroupscom
freelistresources@topica.com
GetMoreSubs@egroups.com
GetMoreSubs@topica.com
ListAdvertise@egroups.com
List_Builder@topica.com
Lits_Of_Lists@egroups.com
Listpromote@egroups.com
List-Your-Lists@egroups.com
List-Your-Lists@topica.com
Mailman@topica.com
Promote_Your_List@topica.com
WritersZines@egroups.com
ZineDirectory@egroups.com
eAnnounce@egroups.com
compu-list@ egroups.com
List_announcements@egroups.com
PromoteList@topica.com
Announce_Lists@egroups.com
Announce-A-List@egroups.com
Here are the ezine sites and directories:
http://scout18.cs.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/NEW-LIST/
http://www.the1000.com (JimWorld's Top 1000 Submission
Sites Directory)
http://alabanza.com/kabacoff/Inter-Links/listserv.html
http://new-list.com/
http://tile.net/lists/addlist.html
http://www.escribe.com/internet/-aannounce/
http://www.escribe.com/internet/lbd/
http://www.escribe.com/internet/listbuilder/
http://www.goodstuff.prodigy.com/Lists/main.htm
http://www.liszt.com/
http://www.paml.net
http://www.newsletteraccess.com/
http://www.promotefree.com
http://www.virtualpromote.com
http://www.wcsu.ctstateu.edu/library/rr_electronic_discussion_groups.html
http://www.webcom.com/impulse/list.html
You'll find other sites and announcement lists to add to these
lists as you go on. This is just to give you a starting point.
Of course, just because you've created an ezine that's a
paying proposition (i.e., profitable) doesn't mean you have to
stop there. You can still create a website and use that to
generate revenue in addition to your ezine. In fact, a
combination of the two is the best way to go - multiple streams
of income are key to the financial stability and security of your
online business.
---
Recommended resources:
Subject matter idea generation and putting your knowledge
on paper - Make Your Knowledge Sell (Monique Harris and
Ken Evoy, M.D.)
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R5469_myks
Creating a high-income paid subscription ezine - The
Paperless Newsletter (Monique Harris)
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R5469_pnpg
Automation software for submission of your ezine - Ezine
Announcer
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R5469_ezan
Marketing with ezines - Ezine Tactics (Lee Benson)
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R5469_ezine
------
** Reprinting of this article is welcome! **
This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you
include the following resource box; (2) you only mail to a
100% opt-in list; and (3) you retain the "Recommended
Resources" section as is.
Here's the resource box to use if reprinting this article:
------
Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
practical business ideas, opportunities and solutions for the
work-from-home entrepreneur.
http://www.ahbbo.com
_______________________________________________________________
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mailto:ahbbo-freelife-nexttrillion@getresponse.com
_______________________________________________________________
4. Surveys and Trends
_______________________________________________________________
© 2002 Ryanna's Hope
==================
ADVERTISING REALITIES
==================
NOT AS FAR AS THE FTC IS CONCERNED!
"Results May Vary" Is An Adequate Disclosure
We call this the "Results May Vary" myth. "Results may vary"
and variations on that theme are not adequate disclosures.
Still we see it, again and again, usually in fine print flashed
briefly across the bottom of a television screen while a
consumer or expert gives a glowing endorsement. If a
"results may vary" disclosure is prominent enough to be
noticed, consumers are likely to believe that it simply means
that not everyone will achieve the promised results. It does
not disabuse them of the very powerful claim that the
results are typical of what they can expect to achieve if
they use your product.
=====================
ADVERTISING TIME LINE. . .
=====================
1891 - The precursor organization to the Outdoor Advertising
Association of America (OAAA) is created under the name
Associated Bill Posters Association of United States and
Canada. OAAA is not used as the organizational name until
1925.
1896 - J. Walter Thompson Company begins using the Rock
of Gibraltar in its advertising for Prudential Insurance Co.
1896 - Full color lithographic advertising prints for Ivory Soap
are sent directly from specialty printers to magazine
publishers, who bind them into magazines. This practice is
soon taken up by other manufacturers.
=====================================
HOME BUSINESS - ANYTHING TO SELL TO TEENS?
=====================================
Between April 2000 and April 2001, the growth of the adult
online population outpaced the teen population. According
to Media Metrix ratings data, the number of adults online
increased 18 percent, reaching a total of over 71 million
users. The teen population increased 11 percent in April,
reaching a total of almost 9 million. The data also reveal
that adults go online more often than teenagers -- the
average adult logged on 15 days in April, while teenagers
used the Internet an average of nine days in April.
(Source: Cyberatlas)
==============================
DOES SIZE REALLY MATTER WITH ADS?
==============================
Among the large ad types, skyscrapers seem to be growing
the most quickly, increasing 436 percent since April. One
reason for this could be the relative ease with which they
are integrated into site content: accommodating a narrow
"vertical banner" comes more easily to publishers than
ceding a large, continuous chunk of online real estate to a
horizontal rectangle.
Despite large formats' growth, the banner ad continues to
dominate the online ad scene, making up about half of all
online ad placements. Banner impressions grew 39 percent,
from 23.6 billion impressions to 32.9 billion.
Smaller ads, such as buttons and bars, also saw a 15 percent
growth rate in impressions (from 20.6 billion to 23.7 billion).
However, the smaller formats' collective share among all
online ads dropped from 46 percent to 38 percent. (Source:
Jupiter Media)
==============================
PLACING YOUR AD AT FINANCIAL SITES?
==============================
More than 44 percent of the active Web population visited
a finance Web site in January 2002, according to Nielsen/
NetRatings, and the sites proved to be the most sticky on
the Web.
Finance sites attracted nearly 51.6 million unique visitors in
January. On average, surfers spent more than 21 minutes
browsing finance and investment sites, with males comprising
53 percent of the total audience and females 47 percent.
Financial Web sites with transactional capabilities, such as
online trading and banking sites, led the way as the stickiest
finance and investment destinations, capturing the majority
of surfers' time spent online. (Source: Media Matrix)
------
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_______________________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________
5. Success Quotes of the Week
_______________________________________________________________
To finish the moment, to find the journey's end in every
step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours,
is wisdom.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Latent abilities are like clay. It can be mud on shoes, brick
in a building or a statue that will inspire all who see it. The
clay is the same. The result is dependent on how it is used.
-- James F. Lincoln
The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings
greater results than actual brilliance.
-- Francois de la Rochefoucauld
_______________________________________________________________
Like This Ezine? Click to Recommend-It® to your friends!
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=866724
_______________________________________________________________
6. Advertise With AHBBO
_______________________________________________________________
Ezine (electronic magazine or newsletter) advertising is
the most cost-effective and targeted form of advertising
online today. This is because the ezine's editor has already
done the hard work of bringing together a large group of
readers highly motivated by the subject-matter of the
ezine itself.
Therefore, assuming you place your ad in an ezine with
a subject matter that fits with what it is you are
marketing, you can be confident of reaching a select
group of highly targeted prospects for your product or
service.
AHBBO offers four different advertising packages:
(1) top sponsor ad placements,
(2) single ad placements,
(3) ad paks (4 ads for the price of 3), and
(4) exclusive mailings.
To learn more about advertising in the AHBBO ezine,
visit http://www.ahbbo.com/advertising.html .
_______________________________________________________________
7. Subscription Management
_______________________________________________________________
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If you find this newsletter valuable, please forward it
in its entirety to your friends, family and associates!
_______________________________________________________________
8. Caveat Emptor
_______________________________________________________________
Although all of the information presented in AHBBO is
published in good faith, neither the publisher nor the
editor accept any responsibility as to the accuracy or
otherwise of the information presented. By making use of the
information contained in AHBBO the reader assumes all risk
that certain information may prove to be incorrect.
All advertisements are accepted in good faith. However,
advertisers are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of their classified advertisements and no
warranties are given, nor responsibility accepted, by the
editor or the publisher in relation to any classified
advertisement appearing in this publication. ALWAYS carry
out your own due diligence! Remember, if it sounds too
good to be true, it probably is.
_______________________________________________________________
9. Contact Information
_______________________________________________________________
Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
_______________________________________________________________
All Rights Reserved