

Every morning as people wake up and make the commute to work, many dream of the day when they will finally work for themselves. Every time the boss lets someone know that they must give up their weekend plans for the good of the company, people contemplate the benefits of being the owner of their own business.
Are you one of these people?
If you are, it is important to ask yourself some very important questions before you make the uncertain leap into self-employment.
Many dream of the benefits of home business ownership, but few take into account the sacrifices that must be made to bring the dream to fruition. Please don't make this mistake yourself.
You must approach home business ownership with your eyes wide open. Ask yourself the important questions, and more importantly, answer your own questions openly and honestly.
AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION
Are you the type of person who relishes every chance to gather around the water cooler for social interaction?
If so, then home business ownership may not be the right decision for you.
Instead, if you feel that you can be quite content sitting alone at your desk; speaking only to clients and really minding your own home business, then you might have what it takes to succeed as a home business entrepreneur.
If you feel at ease with your own company and don't need a dozen coworkers milling around your desk, then you, too, could savor the freedoms that will allow you and your family, to live the lifestyle you know you want and deserve.
THE KEY TO HOME BUSINESS SUCCESS
Self-motivation is the key to success when you start a home-based business. You need to possess the ability to push yourself ahead. Your drive and determination will be reinforced with every new sale.
The level of success that you will achieve greatly depends on the time and effort you are willing to plow into your new home business. Your organization, planning and marketing skills, will all be put into practice when you embark on your liberating journey from employee, to being your own boss. In fact, you will be the wearer of many hats and gain a wealth of business experience along the way, when you finally make that commitment to work at home.
YOUR SUCCESS RESTS ENTIRELY UPON YOUR OWN SHOULDERS
You will now be the boss. Are you truly able to work independently? Do you have the drive; the tenacity, to persevere with your home based business? Will you be able to invest the necessary time to nurture it, to watch it grow and see it through, from germination to full, glorious bloom? When you're the boss, you are responsible for the success of your home business, from A to Z, from disappointments to victory.
When you work at home, it will empower you to achieve many things you were unable to do when you were stuck working for that tyrant boss. Remember him? He's the guy that wouldn't let you take time off when your baby was sick...the same guy that called you in to work on Thanksgiving Day.
A home business means that you can take good care of your family and make money from home, simultaneously. You will have the best of both worlds! Just think--no more dirty laundry piling up--you can do it while you work. No more scurrying around at the last minute searching for a babysitter either. And no more worrying about getting fired; you'll be the boss!
IN CONCLUSION...
Stay positive and focused on your home based business, even if, when sales aren't up to par, you get occasional negative remarks or derogatory comments from people with stuffy, dead-end jobs. Ignore their cutting words and bear in mind that success is the best revenge! Keep your admirable, positive attitude at the forefront and show them what you're made of!
Anthony "The Biz Opp Mentor" is a Best Home Based Business Ideas and Opportunities Specialist.
www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-18365
Thanks you for viewing this blog. Since it is one of the first blogs on this site, I've taken the time to make a list of possible topics that people can blog about. This list is fairly long, so please feel free to discuss any of the following or come up with your own. Thank you.
Also, here is an extensive list of helpful professionals who have proven themselves to be great mentors to many people.
I hope these prompts trigger you to start a blog here at http://Network.MyInterOp.net.
To Your Success,
Anthony
Anthony "The Biz Opp Mentor" is a Best Home Based Business Ideas and Opportunities Specialist. www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-1836 5
Spark Your Readers' Interest Through Valuable Information And Then Lead Them To Your Site To Make The Sale!
A blog is a type of online journal or diary, typically containing personal stories arranged in chronological order along with images and web links. Many people use blogs as a means to express themselves and to share news with friends and family, but they can also be used to market your business. Blogs are increasing in popularity and can prove to be an effective and inexpensive way to reach more customers.
There are millions of blogs currently on the internet, with topics ranging from technology and product reviews to political commentary to recipes for Mom's apple pie. The number of people reading blogs is continuing to grow as people seek information and don't always trust corporate advertising.
Blogging expert Robert Scoble identifies 6 differences between blogs and any other communication channel.
Blogs are:
Publishable - easy to publish and directly available worldwide.
Findable - they can be found through search engines. The more content you post on your blog, the more likely you will be found.
Social - blogging is one big social interaction. Blogs enable people with shared interests to engage into conversations on different issues related to the topic.
Viral - " Information often spreads faster through blogs than via a news service. No form of viral marketing matches the speed and efficiency of a blog."
Syndicatable - through RSS you can enable blogs being linked to your email software. This way you'll be notified the minute a blog gets updated.
Linkable - every single blog can link to all the other blogs out there. That's why a blog can tap into the huge resource of the 'blogosphere.'
Blogs are powerful marketing tools that can help you reach more customers, establish credibility, increase sales, and share company news without having a huge advertising budget. Blogs have a number of advantages that make them highly effective in promoting your business:
1. You don't have to be a tech geek to start a blog. Anyone can do it, and sites like network.myinterop.net & Blogge r can help you create and publish your blog in less than 5 minutes.
2. Blogs can boost your search engine ranking. The content of your blog is ripe for the search engines and encourages other bloggers who write on similar topics to link to you. Regularly updated, keyword-rich content (not spam) and linking will help boost your site's visibility and in turn attract more customers.
3. Blogs offer multiple ways to deliver your message. If you're not the best writer, you can start an audio or video blog and can therefore still reach your customers in a personal way.
4. Blog posts encourage immediate responses from your customers. Questions, comments and feedback from your customers can help you better address their needs, adjust your campaigns, and react to the market's changing demands.
5. Blogs help you expand your reach online. By pinging search engines and using RSS feeds you can syndicate your content online, boost your reach and influence, and allow customers to control their communications with your company.
6. Blogs increase transparency and help you establish credibility. Blogs are much more personal than a corporate website and because they are regularly updated, customers can remain informed about your business and feel more connected to you.
Your blog can be your selling point and can sway prospective customers to choose you and your services over the competition.
When you start writing a blog, don't push for the sale upfront. Too many people use their blog as a sales letter and end up turning readers off. People are not stupid. They know when they're being sold.
Blogs are about communicating and building relationships with your readers. Use your blog for branding your business, building your reputation and communicating with your audience - not just for making a sale.
There are a variety of ways you can use your blog to communicate with your readers and promote your business, while unobtrusively going after the sale. You can use your blog to:
Write product reviews and link to product pages
(consider signing up to be an affiliate)
Write insightful articles or tips relevant to your audience
Recommend products and services (yours or someone else's)
Post and archive company newsletters
Share company news and product updates
Offer special incentives and promotions
Ask customers to complete surveys and provide feedback
Generating new content for your blog does not have to be a daunting task. You don't have to worry about writing it all yourself. Instead, you can directly post your company newsletters as well as relevant third-party articles, reviews, and links found using sites like BlinkList and Google News. Remember to include links where appropriate to your own website and product pages.
Having a blog also allows you to make regular updates quickly and without needing a webmaster. As you find new content online you can publish it to your blog in a matter of minutes which makes maintaining your blog a breeze.
Should you host your blog or let someone else do it?
In most instances, having a third-party host your blog is best. This frees up your time to focus on other tasks, and keeps your blog online in the event your server crashes. Free hosting is available on sites such as or Network.MyInterop.net Blogger , TongueWag , and Xanga .
However, in some situations it might be better to host yourself. For example:
If your content or functional needs go beyond the scope of normal blogging and require features not offered or supported by existing blog services. You may need to perform testing in an offline mirror site.
If you have doubts that the third-party hosting service will go out of business before you do, or if you want to change hosting software.
If you plan to post complicated HTML (tables, formatting) that requires the use of an online editor.
If you do decide to host your own blog, we recommend creating it through WordPress , a customizable personal publishing platform.
Once you've established your blog, how do you get people to go there and read it?
The best way to promote your blog is to become THE expert in your subject area. Establish yourself as the authority on the topic through valuable information.
Let's look at the sites of three hugely successful bloggers that are quickly becoming 'the voice' for their respective domains that people listen to.
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Let's first take a look at the example of www.seobook.co m .
As you can see they have a very simple site on which they provide information on search engine optimization and the products available. Although this site hardly looks very professional, they have a Google PageRank of 6! This is a much higher number than most e-tailers will ever reach.
As explained in our search engine optimization tactic, such a high PageRank will do wonders for your search engine ranking.
Look at how they added the little post-it on the left on which they ask for questions from readers. This simple method stimulates an open dialogue through which a relationship with the reader can be built. The blogger Aaron Wall also interacts with readers by allowing them to leave comments on the posting by clicking on the link 'Your Thoughts?'
Did you notice the date on the left of the text? Adding the date conveys to the reader that the content of the website is updated daily. This is a clever way to tell your reader to keep coming back for more!
Another example of a successful blogger in a completely different subject domain is Steve Rubel on www.mi cropersuasion.com .
As you can see, he focuses less on writing a story, but points people to valuable resources within his domain through short daily postings. Copy writing probably isn't Steve Rubel's strongest point. Did you see how every posting offers the opportunity to interact with the readers through comments?
The PageRank of this website is even higher than that of seobook.com, an astonishing 7!
Finally, let's look at www. divamarketingblog.com .This is once again a completely different blog from the two examples discussed earlier.
This blog captivates the reader through short quirky postings in which the blogger Toby cleverly integrates links with different websites and resources. As on both of the previous blogs, Toby communicates with his readers through the possibility to leave comments on each short message posted. This third site once again has a very high PageRank of 6.
So how did these bloggers succeed?
All these bloggers have a couple of things in common. The most important element being that they posted great informational content! Did you notice the absence of salesy language?
Furthermore, you could see a couple of other similarities:
A great book on the art of blogging that we strongly recommend is 'Naked Conversations' by Robert Scoble.
The book identifies very valuable tips on how to blog, with nice sections on how to:
1. Get found easily
2. Read and comment on blogs before starting your own
3. Keep it simple and focused
4. Show passion
5. Demonstrate authority
6. Allow comments
7. Be accessible
8. Tell a compelling personal story
9. "Be linky"
10. Build real world relationships
11. Use your referrer log
Blogs like those methioned above tend to get high rankings in search engines. Why? Because of content and linking.
Search engines like Google love regularly updated, content-rich sites - which is exactly what blogs are! Most blogs are updated with new articles and information on a daily basis; over time the search engines recognize them for their wealth of information and boost their ranking.
Blogs also contain a rich supply of links. Since bloggers are always looking for ways to keep their blogs fresh, they are likely to use links rather than create all the content themselves. Links to quality sites, including blog search engines and directories, can lead to high search engine rankings.
In our tactic on search engine optimization we'll spend some more time on how a blog can boost your search engine ranking.
Pinging - Notify The Search Engines That You Updated Your Content
Once you have posted a new entry to your blog, you can "ping" search engines and blog directories and have your blog re-assessed and indexed in as little as 48 hours.
Pinging alerts the search engines and directories that you have updated your content and gets them to scan your site again and use the new information in their placement algorithm. More on this in the tactic on search engine optimization.
Be sure to submit your blog to Google as well as to the following blog search engines and directories:
Many bloggers add tags at the end of their posts. A tag is like a subject or category associated with a blog post. For example, if your latest post was a product review for XYZ product, you may associate the tags "XYZ," "review," and "product reviews" with your post.
Using tags can help readers find your blog in the directories and search engines. For example, people searching for specific blog content on Technorati can find your blog if you use tags with your post.
Social bookmarking sites, such as Digg , BlinkList and Reddit , rely on users to tag their favorite sites, and as more users save and tag your blog, you can experience a boost in your search engine ranking. The tags associated with your blog can also give you an idea about how your readers use and classify your information.
Having a blog to market your business is a great way to win over customers, build relationships, and extend your reach online. Simple and quick to create, a blog will get you in touch with your customers and can be a powerful tool to beat your competitors.
The key characteristic of a good blog is that it focuses on offering great content. Furthermore, it's important to interact with your readers through allowing them the possibility to leave comments or ask questions.
Because blogs tend to have great search engine rankings they will attract a lot of traffic. If you can capture these readers and interest them through the information that you provide, you will be only a small step away from leading them to your site and boosting your sales.
Anthony "The Biz Opp Mentor" is a Best Home Based Business Ideas and Opportunities Specialist. www.pluginprofitsite.com/main-1836 5
