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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 160 : November 18, 2002
Sent to 14,386 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 Business Idea of the Week
3. Feature Article - Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of
Victory
4. Surveys and Trends
5. Success Quote of the Week
6. Advertise with AHBBO
7. Subscription Management
8. Caveat Emptor
9. Contact Information
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1. Welcome 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.
Tired of hitting your head against a brick wall with your
online business? Figure you just aren't cut out for this
kind of work? Ready to call it quits and go back to watching
TV in the evenings instead of laboring over your sales copy?
Well, think again. If you want to be part of the 2% who
actually make a buck from their online businesses, hang
in there. "Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory" is
at segment 3. Of course, if you want to join the other 98%,
by all means go ahead, turn on the tube.
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 Business Idea of the Week - Business Plan Writer
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Many people avoid preparing a formal business plan because
they are intimidated by the size of the task or they don't know
where to begin. While they may avoid preparing a business plan
for so long as they are the only ones who will be referring to it,
when the need arises to raise finance for their businesses,
suddenly the necessity for a properly prepared and researched
business plan can no longer be avoided.
At this point, the business owner may seek the services of a
professional business plan writer. If you have a background in
finance and/or management you may have the potential to be
an excellent business plan writer. There is certainly no shortage
of quality resources available on the internet if this interests you,
ranging from the nuts and bolts of putting a business plan
together to software to make business plan generation a snap.
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This is just one of over 130 ideas from the new "Practical Home
Business Ideas From AHBBO" e-book. Find out more at http://www.ahbbo.com/ideasbook.html .
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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
perseverance 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
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4. Surveys and Trends
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© 2002 Ryanna's Hope
The following is an extract from the current issue of Larry
Wack's excellent weekly, "Surveys and Trends". Subscribe
using the link below for the full issue.
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YOUR EMAIL - THE COST OF IMPROPER HTML MESSAGES
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The email marketing company Silverpop viewed 700 HTML email
messages in nine of the most popular email programs and found
that almost half contained major errors.
Approximately 42 percent of all HTML messages were difficult to
read due to errors such as missing graphics or raw HTML code.
Thirteen percent of viewed emails had extremely disruptive errors
or were completely indecipherable.
According to Silverpop, many of the errors found in email
messages were the result of improperly formatted HTML messages.
Properly formatted HTML messages are reckoned to increase
response rate by as much as 30 percent.
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CONSUMERS AND ABANDONED SALES
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More than three-quarters of online buyers failed to complete at
least one purchase during a 90-day period according to a recent
survey by BizRate.com, the #1 retail mall on the Web according to
Media Metrix. On average, surveyed shoppers abandoned between
two and three carts over the course of last summer with each cart
representing an estimated $175 in lost sales to the merchant.
The panel survey, which drew more than 9,500 respondents,
revealed that 55 percent of online abandoners left their carts
prior to checkout. Another 32 percent left their purchases at the
point of sale when entering billing and shipping information or
after the final calculation of the sale. Apparel was the most
common item abandoned by shoppers, followed by computer goods
and entertainment items (including books, music CDs and videos).
Consumers get easily frustrated with online shopping. More than
40 percent of shoppers blamed their abandoned carts on expensive
shipping and handling charges while 31 percent stated that they
had changed their minds. Another 21 percent cited slow-loading
pages as their cause for terminating the sale. (source: about.com)
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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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5. Success Quote of the Week
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Burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power--a
reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start
in again after a disappointment.
-- Marsha Sinetar
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6. Advertise With AHBBO
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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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7. Subscription Management
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8. 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.
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9. Contact Information
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Elena Fawkner, Editor
A Home-Based Business Online
Contact By Email
http://www.ahbbo.com
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All Rights Reserved