Archive for January, 2008

Opinions are Cheap: Watch Where You Shop!

January 24, 2008 | Author: Rob | Filed under: Business Advice

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Opinions are cheap everywhere in the world…

If you want to be successful in the online marketplace or any industry for that matter you must watch whose opinion you seek. Opinions are one of the cheapest commodities on planet earth. Everyone has an aresenal of opinions on all topics. Opinions are so common and cheap that 99% of the opinions you will hear in your life are free! In today’s world most voluntarily give away a free commodity to anyone that will listen!?

I’m not about to say this in a mean spirit but it’s true; before you ever share an idea with someone qualify or disqualify them in your head first before you ask their opinion on a topic. Impossible is not a word that I use; ever. (except for here ) If you ask someone who has lived their whole life in one small town about the idea of …

The Podcasting Series: Part One: The Introduction

January 22, 2008 | Author: Dave | Filed under: SEO and Marketing

What is podcasting?

The word “podcasting” makes the process sound more mysterious than it actually is. A podcast is nothing more than an audio file you record and then place on the internet, where people can play them directly from your website or download them to listen to later.

That’s it.

Why should you care?

More and more people are turning to podcasting on their blogs, and with good reason. Podcasting is still in its infancy (as is blogging, really), but it’s already a very popular and rapidly-growing medium. Podnova had just over 22,000 podcast feeds…today, they have over 390,000.

That’s a one-year growth rate of over 1600%.

If you haven’t considered providing a podcast, you should. However, as with all things, you should do it properly to get the results you want.

What results do you mean?

I’ll use my own results as an example. On my blog LagORama, I occasionally put a very …

Invoice Place - Easy Invoicing and Quotes

January 21, 2008 | Author: Dave | Filed under: Money Matters

Whether your home business is centered on writing, web design or graphic design, it has one thing in common with every other business. Sooner or later, you’ll want to get paid.

While you could simply send out emails outlining what services you’ve provided and the total payment due for those services, it’s always more professional to submit an invoice for payment. There are quite a few services that exist to do specifically that, but today I want to look at one in particular: InvoicePlace.

The System

InvoicePlace has a very easy-to-use interface, allowing you to customize your invoice in whichever way you need. It tracks your previous customers, so invoicing a client in the future becomes even easier. It has an additional advantage over more traditional invoicing software since it stores your information on the InvoicePlace servers. This allows you to log into your account from any computer and work on the …

Building a Back Door to Your Site for Stats

January 18, 2008 | Author: Rob | Filed under: Business Advice

Building a back door to your site or blog is a great idea if you wish to exclude yourself from type-in and search engine traffic in your stats.

It’s easy to do searches to see how you rank then click the link for the satisfaction of finding yourself through a search engine. The problem is if you do this frequently at the end of the month when looking at the aggregate of your statistics they will be skewed by you who is arguably the websites most heavy user! Same applies for type-in traffic. A great way to guage how your site is doing regarding word of mouth and penetration is how often people are just typing in your site because they remember it and want more. If you type in your site directly to your browser every time you visit…

To build a back door it’s really easy just make a free …

Track Spending Habits to Improve Your Finances

January 17, 2008 | Author: Rob | Filed under: Money Matters

The best way to make a decision is to get as many facts as you can and make a rational non biased analysis of the situation before deciding. Why is it that when it comes to your financial matters which are arguably one of the most important facets of life you just wing it? I say it’s important because let’s face it; we need money to live. We often sacrifice 1/3 of our day 5 days a week to work; for money; to support ourselves.

We’ve all heard of budgeting, cash flow and other buzz words but have you ever tracked your financial habits? I mean really tracked them down to the last bill. When I was in University I had a computer program and I would track every single dollar I spent unless it was change. Change didn’t matter maybe it should of but I didn’t’ bother keeping track of …