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A Home-Based Business Online
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Practical home business ideas, opportunities
and solutions for the work-from-home
entrepreneur
Issue 130 : April 15, 2002
Sent to 13,556 Opt-In Subscribers
Editor: Elena Fawkner
Publisher: Fawkner Publishing
http://www.ahbbo.com
Contact By Email
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Welcome and Update from Elena
2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Gourmet Gift
Baskets
3. Feature Article - Snatching Defeat From The Jaws
of Victory
4. AHBBO Pick of the Week
5. Surveys and Trends
6. Success Quotes of the Week
7. Advertise with AHBBO
8. Subscription Management
9. Caveat Emptor
10. Contact Information
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1. Welcome and Update from Elena
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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 feature article, "Snatching Defeat From The
Jaws of Victory", is about the importance of not giving up
on your online business before it has the chance to bear
fruit.
Also, this week brings a new segment, the AHBBO Pick of
the Week. I'll be using this segment to personally
recommend some excellent resources to you - some paid,
some free. This week, a freebie - The Affiliate Masters
Course PDF e-book by Ken Evoy, M.D..
Finally, to all U.S. and Canadian readers, don't forget to get
those tax returns in the mail by midnight!
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 .
_______________________________________________________________
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2. Home-Based Business Idea of the Week - Gourmet
Gift Baskets
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Here's a pleasant home-based business that will challenge
your creative and managerial skills. It's a fun business for those
who have a flair for creating attractive and appealing gift
packages.
A FUN PRODUCT
Gourmet gift baskets have become popular in recent years.
They're a collection of desirable items, in a variety designed
to have broad appeal. By determining the markets you want
to target and the type of baskets you want to produce, you
can set your income goals for as little or as much as you like.
CORPORATE ACCOUNTS
From the very large to the very small, businesses have needs
for gift giving on a pretty constant basis. By targeting
corporate accounts, you protect yourself from potential sales
fluctuations common to what are generally considered seasonal
items. Businesses love gift baskets because they're "safe"
compared to other gifts like chocolate (many people now
carefully watch their fat intake) or wine and spirits (many
people don't drink).
Of course, other possible clients for your gift baskets include
associations, retail outlets, fund raisers, and individual
customers who purchase for themselves or as a gift.
CREATIVE DESIGNS
Gourmet gift baskets are fundamentally a few nice items
placed in a unique arrangement and presented to look more
extravagant than they really are. Use your imagination and keep
an eye out for unusual and appealing products. To keep unit
price low, obtain your inventory of most commonly used items
by purchasing direct from the manufacturer or main distributor.
Look for large pretty items; they will give your product bulk.
THEME MARKETING
Focus on a theme and build around it. From a corporate
perspective, create presentations that communicate the
corporate logo or marketing slogan.
Don't limit yourself to just using baskets as your main vehicle
either. For example, a basket with an Italian theme can use
(as its basket) a large pasta bowl to hold a small vinegar bottle,
olive oil, sun-dried tomatoes and kitchen utensils.
Raffia or "grass" can be used to cushion the items, sealed
together with shrink wrap. Finish your basket with a bow or
creative ribbon, and you've got a product that can be retailed
for around $39. Your cost: as low as $12.
-----
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: Snatching Defeat From The Jaws of
Victory
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© 2002 Elena Fawkner
You may find the lure of an online business seductive indeed.
And why not? After all, it holds the promise of true
independence - time and money freedom - from the comfort
and sanctuary of your own home. It tantalizes you with the
promise of unlimited potential, a limitless market. With
immediate results.
All of this is achievable. Except the last. There is nothing
immediate about the results you will achieve when you first
start an online business.
It's estimated that well over 98% of internet businesses bite
the dust after only a few months. How can you make sure
you're one of the 2% who last through the long haul? It's quite
simple, really. Just hang on.
That's assuming, of course, that your online business is
worth hanging on TO. If all you're doing is reselling someone
else's products and not contributing anything to the
Internet community yourself, get ready to join the 98%. But
if you've identified your niche, if you're making an original
contribution to that niche and have quality products or
services to offer that market, you can make it.
But you have to be prepared to stick it out because no
matter how great your site, your product, your service,
your ideas, your abilities, it will not happen overnight.
THAT'S why 98% of online businesses fail. It's not because
they were also-rans, it's not because they did nothing but
sign up for half a dozen affiliate programs and thought they
were in business, it's not because they were dumb, or slow,
or technically challenged or faced too much competition.
It's because they gave up too soon.
You have to allow for the lag factor. You have to be
prepared to not only sow your seeds, but to give the seeds
time to germinate, sprout and, finally, grow. Only then
can you harvest. In other words, not only must you sow
before you can reap, you must wait after sowing before you
can reap.
It's what you do with that waiting time that's critical to your
success.
Think of yourself as a farmer. You wouldn't just plant a
quarter acre of corn and then sit back for the next three
months (or however long it takes corn to grow) twiddling
your thumbs, obsessively checking for signs of life every five
minutes, getting more and more frustrated with every day
that passes without being able to harvest.
No. In the meantime, you'd be busy planting strawberries,
potatoes, carrots and broadbeans. And you'd be busy
*harvesting* the broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts and
asparagus that you planted four months before the
strawberries, potatoes, carrots and broadbeans. While you
weren't obsessing about how the cauliflower, silverbeet,
tomatoes and squash you'd planted three months before
THAT were doing. And keeping an eye on your herb garden
while you were at it.
Like working a farm, working an online business is a constant
exercise in planning, sowing, tending, measuring and reaping.
And patience. Lots and lots of patience.
When you "finish" your first website (you'll understand why
the quotes if you have your own site), you think the hard
part's over. You think that it's simply a matter of uploading
your site to your web host's servers, submitting your site to
the search engines, listing it in directories, negotiating
reciprocal links with other webmasters, publishing an ezine
and generating subscribers, placing paid ads (you'll figure
out what free ads are worth all by yourself), writing
articles and doing a hundred and one other things to drive
traffic to your site.
And you're right. It is that simple.
But it all takes time.
You won't upload your site today and have it indexed by
the search engines tomorrow. You'll send the first issue
of your ezine to maybe 10 people. Or fewer. Your first
attempt at ad writing will bring you zero sales. It takes
you three months for it to actually sink in that you have
to run your ad for a minimum of seven times before readers
will act. And that it's seven times to the SAME audience.
And then, when your site is *finally* indexed by the search
engines, it doesn't appear in the first three pages of search
results for your keywords. In fact, it doesn't appear in the
first *thirty* pages. So you learn about the importance
of high-profitability keywords and you create new web
pages just for those keywords. And submit them to the
search engines. And then wait until they're indexed.
And then check again.
In the meantime, four months have passed, you now have
over five hundred subscribers to your ezine and you're
starting to see maybe fifty site visitors a day. And not a
one of them is buying anything.
You've been working hard, long hours in your business but,
quite frankly, you consider it a good month if you can (just)
cover your web hosting fees with what you're bringing in.
So you start feeling like it's just not worth the time and the
effort and the sacrifice. You're spending at least half your
waking time on this thing and you're not getting anywhere.
A few more weeks pass with no results and you start getting
seriously dejected. You're disillusioned and disappointed.
You're frustrated and generally P.O.'d that everyone else seems
to be able to do this but you.
Your day job, which you detest with a passion, starts to feel
like not such a bad way to spend 8 hours. Hey, it beats sitting
before a computer screen day in day out trying to market to
a bunch of ingrates with nothing to show for it.
So you petulantly start watching TV in the evenings after work
instead of tending your garden. You completely miss the tender
young shoots that suddenly appear in the corn patch. You
don't see that birds are picking off the strawberries and that
the carrots and broadbeans need watering. You don't notice
you have a whole field of potatoes that are ready for harvesting
or that the soil needs to be turned where the silverbeet was
planted six months ago.
Finally, the corn is ready to harvest but half-formed cabbages
and asparagus are rotting because you didn't notice it was time
to water and protect them from parasites. Soon the corn will
join them.
You don't see any of it because you're busy watching TV. If
you'd just hung on a little bit longer, you'd be starting to reap
a healthy crop from your efforts by now. But you didn't hang in
there. You gave up too soon.
Don't let this happen to you. Don't let your business die on the
vine. Continue to feed, water and protect it. Even when you
don't feel like it. *Especially* when you don't feel like it.
Success in this business has as much to do with patience and
perseverence as it does about creativity and talent.
Success could be just around the next corner. Just wait and
see what's waiting for you before you flip the switch.
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** Reprinting of this article is welcome! **
This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you
include the following resource box; and (2) you only mail to
a 100% opt-in list.
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
Also, visit Elena's newest site, Web Work From Home
http://www.web-work-from-home.com
_______________________________________________________________
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4. AHBBO Free Pick of the Week
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>>>The Affiliate Masters Course<<<
This week's pick is one out of the box for those of you
pursuing an online income with affiliate programs. And
pretty much anyone who has a website or is thinking
about it is promoting at *least* one.
Written by Ken Evoy, M.D. (of "Make Your Site Sell!" fame),
The Affiliate Masters Course is now available in e-book
(PDF) format. A jam-packed 207 pages worth, it's an intensive
10 day course on becoming a high earning affiliate champion
by building income through content.
Here's the syllabus:
=> Section One
Business Basics (income and expenses, traffic, click-
throughs and conversion rates); PREselling ... Why;
PREselling and Your Visitor's Mindset; PREselling ... How.
=> Section Two
Brainstorming concepts for your site; picking the concept
with the most profit potential; developing high-profitability
topics for your site (demand, supply and breakout tools and
the master keyword list; the customer end v. keyword end;
how to pick the highest-profitability topics; analyzing and
using the competition).
=> Section Three
Finding affiliate programs for your concept; how to reduce
risk by diversifying; picking the best, safest programs;
refining your concept to just the right scope; the "Valuable
PREselling Proposition"; creating and protecting the perfect
domain name; preparing for your own Mini-Vertical-Portal.
=> Section Four
Building your site (two kinds of visitors); overdelivering
high-value content to readers who deliver high-profitability
to you; how to please the search engines; the Win-Win-
Win-Win; "Find-Click-Click-Click-kaCHING"; the structure
of your site; the content of your site.
=> Section Five
Traffic-building for content sites (the free major search
engines; pay-per-click search engines; the major directories;
word of mouth; e-zines; other traffic-building techniques);
traffic analysis - what's important; click in analysis; click
through analysis; action steps on your road to success.
Of course, Ken's affiliate program (the "5 Pillar Program")
features prominently in the book and The Affiliate Masters
Course will certainly give you a huge jump-start as a 5 Pillar
affiliate but it's very much a generic affiliate course. So,
although he uses his own products to make his point (he IS,
after all, just giving this course away) the principles are
equally relevant to ANY affiliate program, not just Ken's.
Therefore, even if you're not interested in promoting the
Site Sell suite of products and tools (which I HIGHLY
recommend you do), download The Affiliate Masters Course
anyway. You'll refer to it over and over again.
Here's the download link and instructions:
http://www.ahbbo.com/affmasters.html .
_______________________________________________________________
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5. Surveys and Trends
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Sadly, Larry Wack's Surveys and Trends will not be with us
this week due to a hard disk crash (Larry's, not mine). Ouch!
If you subscribed to Larry's ezine over the past month or
so (part of the data he has now lost) please do him a favor
and resubscribe using the subscription info. below.
Look out for the return of Larry's column next week.
------
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Subscribe to "Surveys and Trends" with an email to:
mailto:rypublish@sprintmail.com and say 'survey' in the
subject line.
_______________________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________
6. Success Quotes of the Week
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If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you
want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never
give up.
-- Norman Vincent Peale
Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from
failure, loyalty, and persistence.
-- Colin Powell
Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never--in
nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in except
to convictions of honor and good sense.
-- Winston Churchill
_______________________________________________________________
Like This Ezine? Click to Recommend-It® to your friends!
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=866724
_______________________________________________________________
7. 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 .
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8. Subscription Management
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If you find this newsletter valuable, please forward it
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9. Caveat Emptor
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Although all of the information presented in AHBBO is
published in good faith, I accept no 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.
**I do not endorse any advertisements unless stated to the
contrary. Your money, your decision, your responsibility.**
All advertisements are accepted in good faith. However,
advertisers are solely responsible for the content and
accuracy of their classified advertisements and I give no
warranties, nor accept any responsibility, 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.
_______________________________________________________________
10. Contact Information
_______________________________________________________________
Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
_______________________________________________________________
All Rights Reserved