Daily Blog Tips

What Do You Think About Personal Blogs?

This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. If you want to ask a question,

just write a comment below.

Arwen Taylor asks:

I wondered if you could talk about “Personality” blogs.

These are blogs that people have built solely based around

their personality and things happening in their life.

An example of this would be Dooce.com and

The Bloggers.com.

What do you think it takes to build that type of following?

Do you think that is a viable business model?

To become Internet famous and then profit off that fame?

I think there are two categories of personal blogs

(i.e., a blog that gravitates around the personal life of

the author himself and his experiences) that end up becoming popular

and making a lot of money for the author (if he decided to monetize it)

The first one refers to the bloggers who were already famous

before they jumped on the web. This includes television and

movie celebrities, sport celebrities, music celebrities, business

celebrities and so on. These people already have a big

following, so if they start writing a blog tomorrow, regardless

of the topic and content, many people will want to read.

The second category refers to bloggers who were not famous

before starting their blogs, but who are incredibly funny,

or incredibly insightful, or live an incredibly interesting life,

or preferably all of these.

The two examples you mentioned fall in this second category.

I am not a reader of either blog, but after a quick visit to the

first one you realize the author has many interesting experiences

to share, while the second blog is plain hilarious.

If you fall into one of these categories and like to write,

then perhaps you could create a viable business model

out of it.

However, I still think that creating a popular blog on

a specific niche is much easier and can be much more profitable.

It is easier your visitors will understand upfront what

your blog is about, and whether or not they are interested in it.

It can be much more profitable because by focusing on

a specific topic you’ll be able to find advertisers and sell

products more efficiently.

But what about you, do you think that personal blogs can be

a viable business model? Would you try to build one?

Online Business Guidance

Work from Home - Home Based Business Opportunity Guide

"The REAL Approach to Work from Home Business Opportunities"

Since 2001, Work-at-Home-Business.com has provided the

work from home job education, information and the how-to's

for business opportunity and home based business seekers:

How to Start a Legitimate Home Based Business, How to

Work from Home and Earn a Living, How to Make Money Online

with data entry....How to Succeed Working from Home.

Work from Home

Are you ready! Welcome to your home based

business opportunity guide...designed to help home

business seekers find the best business opportunity

and succeed with a legitimate, profitable,

and rewarding work at home business.

The Internet is filled with advertisements that claim

you can make money easily and fast. Your

local newspaper is plastered with advertisements for

"getting rich quick". You turn on your radio to hear

another work from home testimonial of how a person

who was in debt became a multi-millionaire

entrepreneur overnight from a web-based business.

You watch TV late at night and see more of the same.

This notion starts to peek your interest. You decide,

"Hey! It's time for me to find happiness and financial

success with my own work from home business!

Where do I find the real, honest and legitimate

opportunity?"

It is true that they exist and can be very lucrative.

This can be the best life choice you have ever

made. I know it was the best decision I ever made!

The challenge is finding the right one -

the one that is legitimate, profitable and easy to start.

Before I started my home based venture,

I decided that I was going to investigate several

different online programs and companies to root

out the legitimate ones from the fraudulent ones.

My findings shocked me, but I did find a solution.

The solution has made me thousands of dollars

in profits and has made me financially secure for

the past 10 years!

Business Opportunities

My research included experimenting

with hundreds of online opportunities

including: Internet affiliate programs,

network marketing or MLM, work at

home data entry jobs, paid survey opportunities,

online auctions, online dollar stores, and more.

I scoured the Web to find as many sources

as possible. I joined, spent the money and

gave the programs a try. Wow! Did I waste a lot of money!

These programs are not only legitimate,

but WILL BE extremely profitable.

I found these sources by contacting many

happy clients that will attest to their success.

Testimonials for these programs were not fabricated.

Work at Home

Starting Your Work at Home Business

- Before starting any type of business,

research it at the Better Business Bureau

- Get Advice from the Counselors to America's Small Business

- And for those creative Entrepreneurs -

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Blog Marketing

Online Marketing : Social Networking

And Internet Marketing Quick Start Tips

Source: By Maria Nadeem on site :

http://www.businessbord.blogspot.com/

Having a website for your business simply isn’t enough if it doesn’t

have a high visibility. Your objective should be to get your website

noticed, and the way to do that these days is by writing about it,

and getting it written about in blogs and other social media sites.

Some of the social media tools that you can use to help achieve your

objectives include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and related forums

and blogs.

Twitter is the newest social media tool to appear with a reputation that

has grown extensively in a very short period of time and now ranked as

the third most used social network. Twitter’s attraction is that it offers

a very simple way for people to connect with each other, even President

Obama is known to use it. Twitter is an effective business marketing

tool to point to your website and/or blog updates.

Facebook is one of the largest social networking site around, with more

than 200 million active users worldwide. It offers fantastic business

features and the opportunity of making business contacts. Facebook

now has “Pages” you can promote your business on and get “fans”.

Another attractive feature of Facebook is the advertising opportunities

which reach your specific demographic. There is also an “Events”

feature to help with your internet marketing.

Integrating blogging into your marketing plans is an effective way

to connect with your target audience. Blogs are useful places to post

questions and get feedback about products and businesses.

A business blog is an effective internet marketing tool because it

contains specific industry related content. Search engines will pick

up on the keywords and phrases used and attract a high number

of visitors.

Here are some tips to get you started in your social

networking and internet marketing.

1. Set up a business blog. For an online business, they are perfect as you can build awareness, establish expertise and create a practical communication channel between you and your customers which is ideal for building trust and reputation. Business blogs are generally successful because they allow you to connect directly with your customers and give them an avenue to communicate directly with you.
2. Track and identify those blogs where your consumers hang out and integrate yourself into this community. Post interesting content, make contacts and form relationships. Time spent creating awareness around your brand in this environment is time well spent because you are so significant within that position.
3. Append your signature to all blog comments and outgoing email messages as it offers a personal and effective, and free, way to market your business. Insert your keywords, into your URL in your signature line. Make the actual link your URL. The keyword link to your site may help your search engine rankings.
4. Use video to show your product or service, particularly popular are ‘How to..’ videos. Put it on your blog and website and send it to YouTube. You can also post it at YouTube and simply embed it into your sites.
5. Open an account in a couple of social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Create content that is highly relevant and link worthy. DO NOT SPAM the groups, you’ll lose followers and fans very quickly if you do. Some groups such as Facebook will close your account.
6. Learn Twitter etiquette. The main rules are, don’t spam, spammers don’t last long on Twitter. Always give credit for retweets, don’t do spammy auto direct messages.
7. Add links from your Twitter and Facebook pages to your blog, website and email.
8. Have a plan as to how you will research and investigate social media networks and follow it. Don’t rush things, learn the ropes first.
9. Don’t directly promote your business all the time. Instead, offer ways to help others such as providing resource links, articles and helpful tips.
10. Link to other blogs and websites. Links are what search engines and users make good use of, and search engines need them.

Consumers don’t only want to communicate with each other;

they also want access to the businesses and companies they

buy their goods and services from. Your customers want to connect

with the real people behind the company and know what you are

doing and planning to do.

Business owners are becoming more aware how important using social

media as one of their internet marketing methods really is.

Consumers are more internet savvy, have more access to information

and can search and compare easily. They expect (or at least want)

a company to provide them the information they need and want with

the ability to interact with the company. Social media marketing is

a way to connect to consumers on a more personal level. Now is

the time to put your energy into looking at and learning about

these social networking sites as they are set to radically change

the way businesses communicate.

Something about author:

Michiel Van Kets provides article services for Idea Design, a Tampa Bay

web design firm committed to working with clients to develop their

online Web presence. For information and advice on web design,

blogs and twitter and internet marketing, please visit the website.

Promote a Business Blog

5 Sure Fire Tactics to Promote a Business Blog

1. Involve influential industry bloggers.

By linking to popular blogs, you can gain the attention of both

the influential blogger and his or her readers.

But your blog won’t be the only one to benefit. You’ll be giving

the other blog a little link juice – and be paying them

a compliment at the same time.

Try out a few of these ideas for leveraging other blogs:

• Create a post around an interesting concept published by an influential blogger:Be sure to attribute the information to the blogger and link to his or her post. And don’t forget to offer additional unique insight to make the post your own.
• Interview an influential blogger and turn it into a Q&A post: That blogger is sure to link to your post, and his or her readers are likely to visit your blog as a result. Side benefit: Including the insight of a thought leader will help position you as a thought leader as well.
• Create a list of influential blogs: Include popular blogs from your industry, and include a link, short description and even a screenshot. Online Marketing Blog has successfully done this with its BIGLIST of online marketing blogs. Publish a blog post each week highlighting one or two new blogs to promote the list and acquire another link to the list.

2. Promote your blog via social media.

If your organization already has a solid presence on Twitter, Facebook or other social media channel, leverage your followers or fans to promote your new blog.

For example, when a new post goes live, create a short tweet with a link back to the post – and provide the link on your Facebook fan page.

A few tips to keep in mind:

• Whenever possible (we know how quickly 140 characters can be used up!), include the blog name in tweets and other social media messages.
• Auto-feed new posts to your social media accounts with tools like FeedBurner. But if you choose this option, make sure your headlines are as compelling as possible for social media.
• Maximize promotional efforts by asking employees to add the blog URL to their signatures and personal social media accounts. Employees can also re-tweet posts that they find interesting.

3. Create “link-bait” posts and

“sticky” headlines.

Creating compelling headlines or posts that resonate with social web users is another way to garner attention for your new blog.

Try some of these ideas:

• Write counter-intuitive posts – i.e, “The 10 Worst Online Marketing Ideas” or “The 5 Quickest Ways to Get Caught in the Spam Filter.”
• Incorporate celebrities into posts (if appropriate for your industry) – i.e., “Top 10 Celebrity Tweets of the Week”
• Leverage the sticky headline formula, “number + adjective + sticky message” – i.e., Lee’s recent post, “ 10 Must Read Tips to Start a Small Business Blog” (see image below)

4. Promote the blog on your

corporate website.

It’s important to gain some valuable real estate on the

homepage of your corporate site – particularly in the early

stages of getting a new blog up and running. Create a button

with a link to the blog to appear on the homepage, or at the

least provide a link to the blog in the nav. The Otter Group

does a good job of promoting its blog on the homepage of its

corporate website (see image below).

In addition to the homepage, ensure the blog is included in

the upper and right-hand nav on all website pages.

The goal is to make it as easy as possible for visitors

to find your blog.

5. Promote the blog offline.

For all of the online channels available to promote your blog,

there are just as many offline channels to leverage.

Don’t limit yourself to the online world. Instead:

• Add your blog URL to business cards.
• Promote your blog at industry events.
• Get print publications to pick up blog posts.
• Use word of mouth to let customers and business partners know of the new blog.
• Include the blog URL in the boilerplate of press releases (and in online releases, too).

Of course, these five tips are just a few of many ways to promote

and market business blogs. Whatever promotional efforts you

choose, look for tactics that will help you reach business goals

whether they are increasing awareness, garnering buzz in

the media or driving additional website traffic.

What tactics have you used to promote your blog?

Online Business Plan

A Standard Business Plan Outline

What information needs to be in your business plan?

What is the order of information that will make the most sense to lenders and investors? You can answer these questions with the business plan outlines provided below.

What are the standard elements of a business plan?

If you do need a standard business plan to seek funding — as opposed to a plan-as-you-go approach for running your business, which I describe below — there are predictable contents of a standard business plan outline.

For example, a business plan normally starts with an Executive Summary, which should be concise and interesting. People almost always expect to see sections covering the Company, the Market, the Product, the Management Team, Strategy, Implementation, and Financial Analysis. The precise business plan format can vary.

Is the order important?

If you have the main components, the order doesn’t matter that much, but here’s the sequence I suggest for a business plan. I have provided two outlines, one simple and the other more detailed.

Read more: http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan/A-Standard-Business-Plan-Outline#ixzz3Hl25w4RW

Simple business plan outline

1. Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.
2. Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
3. Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on
4. customer benefits.
5. Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs,
6. where they are, how to reach them, etc.
7. Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management
8. responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can
9. track results.
10. Web Plan Summary: For e-commerce, include discussion of
11. website, development costs, operations, sales and marketing
12. strategies.
13. Management Team: Describe the organization and the key
14. management team members.
15. 
16. Financial Analysis: Make sure to include at the very least
17. your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow tables.

Build your plan, then organize it. I don’t recommend developing

the plan in the same order you present it as a finished document.

For example, although the Executive Summary obviously comes

as the first section of a business plan, I recommend writing it after

everything else is done. It will appear first, but you write it last.

Standard tables and charts

There are also some business tables and charts that are

normally expected in a standard business plan.

Cash flow is the single most important numerical analysis

in a plan, and should never be missing. Most plans will also

have Sales Forecast and Profit and Loss statements.

I believe they should also have separate Personnel listings,

projected Balance Sheet, projected Business Ratios,

and Market Analysis tables.

I also believe that every plan should include bar charts and pie

charts to illustrate the numbers.

Expanded business plan outline

Here’s an expanded full business plan outline, with details

you might want to include in your own business plan.

1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Mission
1.3 Keys to Success

2.0 Company Summary
2.1 Company Ownership
2.2 Company History (for ongoing companies) or Start-up

Plan (for new companies)
2.3 Company Locations and Facilities

3.0 Products and Services
3.1 Product and Service Description
3.2 Competitive Comparison
3.3 Sales Literature
3.4 Sourcing and Fulfillment
3.5 Technology
3.6 Future Products and Services

4.0 Market Analysis Summary
4.1 Market Segmentation
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
4.2.1 Market Needs
4.2.2 Market Trends
4.2.3 Market Growth
4.3 Industry Analysis
4.3.1 Industry Participants
4.3.2 Distribution Patterns
4.3.3 Competition and Buying Patterns
4.3.4 Main Competitors

5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
5.1 Strategy Pyramids
5.2 Value Proposition
5.3 Competitive Edge
5.4 Marketing Strategy
5.4.1 Positioning Statements
5.4.2 Pricing Strategy
5.4.3 Promotion Strategy
5.4.4 Distribution Patterns
5.4.5 Marketing Programs
5.5 Sales Strategy
5.5.1 Sales Forecast
5.5.2 Sales Programs
5.6 Strategic Alliances
5.7 Milestones

6.0 Web Plan Summary
6.1 Website Marketing Strategy
6.2 Development Requirements

7.0 Management Summary
7.1 Organizational Structure
7.2 Management Team
7.3 Management Team Gaps
7.4 Personnel Plan

8.0 Financial Plan
8.1 Important Assumptions
8.2 Key Financial Indicators
8.3 Break-even Analysis
8.4 Projected Profit and Loss
8.5 Projected Cash Flow
8.6 Projected Balance Sheet
8.7 Business Ratios
8.8 Long-term Plan

Some Pet Problems of Bloggers

How do I post a video to my blog from YouTube?

If you've got your own videos on your computer that you want to

share on your blog, Blogger now allows you to upload video

directly! If you'd like to share a video from YouTube, you can

do that, too.

Embedding a YouTube Video

Blogger Help

To embed a video from YouTube, just copy the code from the

"Embed" box on the video's YouTube page. You can find the

"Embed" box in the "About This Video" box when you're

watching the video. You can also get the code from the

"Embed HTML" box on the "Edit Video" page if the video

belongs to your YouTube account.

To embed a YouTube video within a blog post, first click

"Edit HTML" from within the post editor. Next, paste the

video's code into the body of your post. That's it!

Set Up One-Click Video Sharing

If you post YouTube videos to your blog regularly, sharing directly

from YouTube is even easier and you'll only have to set it up once.

1. Click the "Share" button on the YouTube video's page
   
2. Scroll down and click "Setup your blog for video posting."
   
3. Click "Add a Blog/Site"
   
4. Choose "Blogger" as your Blog Service and fill in your Google Account login information.
   
5. Choose which blogs you'd like to add to your YouTube account. You can choose more than one.
   
6. From now on, when you click "Share", you'll be given the option to post YouTube videos directly to your blogs!

How do I import and export blogs on Blogger?

The import and export features on Blogger give your content a

whole new range of portability and freedom, allowing you to

create copies of your own blogs as well as import them into

other existing ones. Best of all-we've made this a very

simple process!

Import as a New Blog

To import content as a brand new blog, click Create a Blog

from your dashboard.

Then under Advanced Options, click the Import Blog Tool

Finally, choose the Blogger export file (.xml) from your hard drive and

fill out the word verification. Click the Upload arrow and your new bog

will be created instantly!

Import Into an Existing Blog

To import posts and comments into an already existing blog, start by

clicking Import Blog from the existing blog's Settings | Basic tab.

Note: Your template will not be affected by the imported content.

Next, choose a Blogger export file (.xml) from your hard drive and fill

out the word verification beneath. By default, all of your imported posts

will remain unpublished until you publish them from your dashboard later.

However, if you would rather have all posts published immediately,

make sure to check the box next to Automatically publish all

imported posts before you clickImport Blog.

If you did not choose to have your posts publish automatically,

you will need to manually publish them from the Posting | Edit Posts

tab before they will appear on the web. You can either publish all the

posts at once by clicking Publish all imported posts, or publish

individual posts by selecting them and then clicking Publish Selected.

Exporting Your blog

To export your blog, simply click Export Blog from

the Settings | Basic tab.

Finally, click the Export Blog button. You blog will be stored as

a Blogger export file (.xml) file which can be kept as a backup on

your hard drive or imported into another blog.

Note: Exported blogs are not deleted from your dashboard or

Blogger.com