So I decided to start using twitter now and I found it pretty entertaining. Use it in unison with your mood and it
can help accentuate the “Laws of Attraction”. If you want to follow me, I can help you by sending out these ideas I get everyday. My name on twitter is…. you guessed it - simpletiger
Hit me up!
Ok guys, I am a smart guy, but we all make mistakes. It may just be me but I believe StumbleUpon is broken! Check out this screen shot I took today at 9:00 a.m.:
The most irritating thing is I use StumbleUpon to market my site as well as help my friends blogs. When it asks for me to enter the letters from an image that is not there into a form that is not there, I cannot market these blogs!
I looked all over for a contact us page, and even though I’m an advertiser I couldn’t find a support page. What should we do?
You may not know it, but you can have a new business in as little as 30 minutes. New businesses are springing up every day and the best business type for anyone in the services, internet, or entrepreneurial industry is an LLC. An LLC enables you to not only benefit from certain tax laws, but it also protects you personally in the event that something goes terribly wrong with your business.
I own a web hosting company and the dangerous thing about web hosting is that many businesses and individuals are counting on you to keep their sites up and running. If you fail to do this, they may sue you. Now lets say that you have an L.L.C. with all of the appropriate contracts and Terms of Service. There are no guarantees that you won’t be held responsible but the differences are tremendous.
A few years ago creating an L.L.C. required that you speak with a CPA as well as an attorney and spend several hours filling out paperwork and visiting state and local offices. Now you can have all of your information submitted online and an L.L.C. class license in the pipeline in about 30 minutes. Read over this information regarding L.L.C.s and set one up with MyNewCompany today.
I believe starting a web hosting company is a great idea for anyone in the internet and information industry. If you know a bit about server technology and want a good side income, I highly recommend starting a hosting company. You can visit HostGator and have a reseller account set up in minutes. Their cheapest reseller account is $25/month and if you sign up 5 clients total then you break even.
I have adapted several parts of an article about web hosting that I definitely consider one of the most in depth assessments of starting a hosting company. I will leave this article with you as a parting gift. Enjoy!
Why Your Business Will Fail
By: Johnder Perez
This article is not about writing a business plan. It’s not about your lack of technology savvy, nor your inability to slap together a few decent resources and turn it into a web hosting business. And it’s definitely not an article about why you should not start your own web hosting business.
Then what is it about? Good question. It’s about why your business will fail, regardless of how good your business plan is, regardless of how much technological knowledge you possess, regardless of your experience and the resources you have available to you. Your business will fail. Why?
Web hosting is a very competitive field. As startups spring forth on a seemingly daily basis, competition continues to grow and in essence, everyone is after the same pie. Granted the pie continues to expand as well, due to the ever increasing number of businesses finally realizing that they need a web site, and because of countries whose economic condition now make the internet an affordable commodity.
Sure, we’re all after the same pie, and even if you are competing with businesses on a local level, you’re still after the same customers, customers who will pay you money to host their web site.
One question continues to linger on, particularly in an industry as competitive as web hosting: why should customers choose you over your competitors?
It is this question that, if left unanswered, will eventually drive your business into the ground in due time. Regardless of your marketing plan, or how much money you have budgeted for advertising. And no matter how many books you’ve read about managing servers. Answering this question ought to be a priority for web host startups.
Do I Have Your Attention?
Many web hosts have ventured into a plethora of different marketing strategies and explored different avenues when it comes to devising an advertising campaign that will reach their target market. But many web hosts fail to realize who their customers are, and ignore the fact that their very own competitors are out to reach the same customers.
Visit your favourite internet search engine, or more specifically, a web hosting directory and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You are instantly bombarded by a number of web hosts screaming for customer attention. But just how do they grab customer attention?
What? By showing off their features and price? How many times have you seen advertisements of web hosts showing off the features of their web hosting plan, along with the price, and, of course, the name of their company? Now multiply that many times over and that is what customers are seeing.
How does a customer choose amidst a flood of data, features that vary from one host to another, disk space and bandwidth numbers that don’t really mean much for customers new to web hosting, and prices that seem to be randomly pulled out of the air?
Compete By Price?
Okay, so one way of catching my attention is giving me the absolute lowest price imaginable for web hosting. That’s right. Give me your absolute best, ultra-loaded, gargantuan hosting plan for pennies on the dollar, and give me a free domain to boot. Do we have a deal? Yes? Well that’s great! Now, where do I sign up?
You’ve probably seen web hosts offering ridiculous offers with prices that are so low they make you cringe with fear. How do they get away with it? Do they even survive? Who are their venture capitalists, mom and dad?
Competing by price is the lazy marketer’s way of attracting customers. First of all, if you can not afford to offer web hosting at such a low price, why would you be tempted to offer it in the first place? In high hopes of up-selling your clients? Or perhaps because you think volume will make up for it?
Consider this: the people that pay the lowest prices for web hosting usually demand the most service. Let’s be straight up about it: they’re cheap customers. From the experiences of many web hosts who have learned their lesson after trying the ridiculously low pricing structure, it doesn’t make sense to charge customers a low price if they demand the most of your time and resources. You lose money. And you’ll eventually lose customers. Not to mention the fact that you will not make money taking this route. Your business will fail.
What Makes Me Different?
Ask yourself that question: what makes me different? What makes you different? Why should a customer choose your web hosting service over another company’s web hosting service? Don’t you both offer the same service anyway?
If you fail to realize the fact that you need to do something different in order to survive in this business, it will take sheer luck for you to survive. If you’re like everyone else, chances are your business will fail. Your business plan should have outlined a marketing strategy, but you should have also considered the competition, and what it takes on your part to generate enough business to grown and prosper.
Service Differentiation
Essentially, every web host offers the same service in the perspective of the customer. They pay you to host their web site. Wow, big deal isn’t it? With this kind of thinking, your competitors are set to fail because all you have to do is set your service apart from everyone else. Begin by brainstorming to yourself or with your team. How can we differentiate our service enough so that customers can see our service as superior to that of our competitors?
You’ve probably seen many claims including 99.999% uptime guarantee, or 24/7 support. In reality, these hosting companies are differentiating their services, although many are quick to jump on the bandwagon. Can you deliver an uptime guarantee to your customers? Do you provide customer service and technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
What do you provide that your competitors do not? Do you use a control panel that makes it easier for customers to manage the features of their web hosting account? Do you provide free antivirus software that protects their e-mail? Do you provide a solution to SPAM e-mail?
Differentiating your services simply takes a bit of creativity and being able to see your service in the eyes of your customer. What will excite them? What feature will switch them on and see you as the ultimate web hosting service provider? What will make your competitors envy you?
Brand Experience
Web hosting is not as dull a business as you think. In fact, it’s more than just hosting your customers’ web sites and hoping the server doesn’t crash. It takes more than answering the phone and helping them solve their technical problems.
The experience that your customers have with your company is one that is very important, and should be emphasized. The brand that you deliver to your customers is one they should feel strongly about, again, something that excites them every time they interact with it.
Start with your company name. Is it another one of those computer generated, high tech, dot com names, or did you actually think of something clever, something your customers can feel emotionally about? Now let’s have a look at your web site. Did you splash it together using bits and pieces from the web sites of other businesses, or did you do something unique, and make it easy for your customers to navigate?
Are your web hosting plans designed to suit the needs of your customers? Do they have enough choice? Your ordering process – is it easy? Can customers order without running into problems or feeling inadequate? Can customers get in touch with someone if they are having difficulty?
When customers call for customer service or technical support, do friendly representatives answer the phone with a strong feeling of rapport with your customers? Do they genuinely care about the well being of your customers, ensuring that they do whatever it takes to keep them happy?
Let Them Talk
Unless your web hosting business is worth talking about, you will fail. The most effective way of promoting your business is out of your hands. It’s your customers that play an effective role in whether or not your business will succeed.
If your web host startup is just another mediocre, half-assed attempt to make money, or if it’s just a dedicated server sitting somewhere out there begging to be filled with data, you will fail. Nobody will even notice that you exist, regardless of how many ads you put up, how cheap your prices are and how technologically ingenious your team is.
The easiest way to get your business off the ground is to excite your customers and get them to talk about you. Think about it because it really is that simple. When was the last time you told a friend of yours about a product or service you really enjoyed?
Now, what can you do about your web host startup that will get customers to talk about you? How do you tickle them enough so that they get off their seat and tell just about everyone they know about how great your web host services are?
Copyright © 2004 Johnder Pere
Originally posted on WebHostingTalk
Also check out a new website for downloading sample resumes.
Writing a blog can be tough when you can’t think of sources, tags, links and images. A new tool called Zemanta automatically monitors what you are writing and updates information from within your Wordpress, Blogger, and TypePad editors. I heard about it today on Problogger and Darren has a screenshot of Zemanta running in his editor and I have a copy of that screenshot to the right.
I decided to download it and it took less than 20 seconds to download, install and enable. It auto enables while you are editing in WordPress and gives you windows within your post that have recommendations. I highly recommend this tool for any and every blogger.
Because I have helped many businesses get off the ground I have learned the art of effectiveness in business.
Being tied to one industry, one type of business, and one lifestyle is simply unhealthy for me, especially a small industry. My favorite industry to date is the internet marketing and search industry because of the innate ability to adapt and change to what people want.
Working with many different businesses and clients have not only made me a well rounded professional, but they have all taught me a lesson of that works in every business environment as well as what should be avoided.
I believe in changing your direction as soon as you realize you want to. You may be in a sailboat headed to Spain, but lets suppose you want to go to Greece. The difference sailing across the Atlantic may be only a few degrees right now, but you will see when you get there that its all Greek!
Isn’t it interesting that a small adjustment will land you in a completely different place?
If you are in the middle of your voyage and decide you want to go to Greece instead of Spain, why shouldn’t you? Now, because I have opened you up to the opportunity to testify, please don’t cripple yourself with things like I don’t have enough money/time/knowledge of the language or I have children and a wife. Imagine being a child and going with your family to a foreign country and meeting the different cultures you used to watch on Sesame Street. I can’t imagine a cooler childhood.
Now apply that to your business and professional life. The same principles still apply. View this advice as a formula waiting for your input, you will receive the output immediately afterwards.
Because of these changes, I am embracing the ability to change identities and I am moving on to another echelon with this blog. SimpleTiger’s new identity is Serial Entrepreneur. Subscribe to this blog so you can see the new ideas, methods, and advice brought about by SimpleTiger. I look forward to our relationship!
One of the hardest parts about being an SEO professional is pricing your services. You don’t want to charge prospects so much they run away, but then again you don’t want to eat into your profits and sell yourself short either. Before learning how to price your services, first determine your worth. Christine OKelly, the Self Made Chick has very interesting articles and one of them can teach you how to determine your value or worth.
First, I will give you an example of a good pricing structure and then explain it in detail:
With this pricing structure you have total control over what your client receives and how much it costs them. You can both agree on a price with details before signing a contract and then neither of you will have any unexpected costs. If I were to consult or analyze any prospective client’s site, I would initially inform them that most likely they could use all of the services outlined above. Then if the price is simply too high, you can cut away services until it meets their budget.
Some clients may only want link building for instance. You and your client will both know that it costs $200 or so for a link building campaign, and if that’s all they want then thats all you have to do. This saves all the sweat and work of going back and forth and trying to work out details on every single contract you make with each individual client. You spend less time writing contracts and more time completing them.
Much like changing oil in a car keeps it new and strong, tweaking website syntax, keywords, and links help maintain high rankings. The more competitive the industry (like insurance, law, real estate) the more important this continual maintenance is to the high rankings of a site.
One of my clients requires work almost every day in order to stay in the top of the rankings, this is slowly getting easier as the domain name ages and as I learn new tricks to automate each process.
So charging someone for this contract on a monthly basis is pretty easy:
“After we get all of this up and going I will need to do continual keyword research, on page optimization, and website submissions on a frequent basis. I charge a monthly fee for each of these services, but you will receive a discount off of each service since I will be more familiar with your site and needs. The longer the contract with me, the better your discount”
Give them a discount for a longer contract with you so that they will be more inclined to purchase the longer contract. This is absolutely no trick at all because the longer they have their site optimized, the better the results are going to be in the long run. If they have had their site optimized for over 2 years with you, they should really be rolling in the business. It also makes things easier on you because you can more easily set up goals for the client and for your self, and trust that you will have an income to provide those services for the length of the contract.
Try to make changes to your pricing structure before you advertise it and determine if you need to factor in any other services like design elements, server clean up, landing page creation, PPC management etc.
If there is anything else you think I forgot to add please post a comment and let me know. If you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer them.
For more info check out Andy Beal’s post on “Top 10 Business Mistakes Search Marketing Firms Make”
If you are looking at getting your business off the ground quick, or would just like a professional PPC manager for consulting, please call my friend Greg Goodson with Sawtooth Media.
I am now certified by Web CEO Universty as an internet marketing professional. Their course is actually much harder and comprehensive than I thought it would be. I am now certified competent to provide expertise in the following fields(even though I have been for a while):
The “Internet Marketing Professional” course covers the following skills:
Last but not least, I get the cool “Certified” flare for my website that you can see at the top of this post and in the sidebar in the about Jeremiah Smith section.
I definitely loved taking this course and I will continue to go back and reread the course contents in the future. One of the best parts about the Web CEO University course is that all of the contents are updated constantly and nothing is ever left out of date. In every lesson there is a selected readings list which has articles from big guys in the search industry like Rand Fishkin, Jill Whalen, Andy Beal, Bruce Clay, Aaron Wall, and many more.
I actually purchased Web CEO 7.5 Professional Unleashed for only $250 because of a special deal they were having. I downloaded the trial version and thoroughly enjoyed it and decided to purchase the Professional Unleashed version for $479, but then one of the support angels(that’s what they call the customer support professionals 
) emailed me a discount if I purchased the full version right away.
I highly recommend downloading a free version of it here, and give them all of your info because I am positive they will give you another discount soon there after. The training course comes with the SmallBiz Unleashed and Professional Unleashed, and I definitely recommend getting it. If you want an extremely thorough and pretty quick way to break into SEO or Internet Marketing, this training course has all you will need. If you are an expert, the tools alone are very helpful. If you have never even heard of SEO and are interested in learning it, this course will take you from no knowledge to professional status very quickly.
Even if you already are an expert, the collections of articles in the Selected Readings sections of every lesson are enough on their own.
Click on my affiliate link to download Web CEO for free here, and you will receive a free training course with any version you purchase.
After thoughts
Check out this useful sample resume site!
If you try to rank for the term “insurance” good luck. You have better chances of ranking for the term “Google”. If you try to rank for the term “long term care health insurance atlanta ga” it is much more likely you will get a higher position in search engine results. Now think about this, someone who searches for the term “insurance” is obviously not too motivated to purchase long term care or auto insurance because they aren’t being specific enough. Companies like State Farm and Progressive control these vague keyword waters. If you sell long term care health insurance then you probably don’t want to receive a ton of traffic from searchers seeking auto insurance because they are most likely not interested in what you sell. If you only sell to people in your geographic area, then you should be targeting even more narrow terms.
Using specific terms like “long term care health insurance atlanta ga” instead of generic terms like “insurance” is actually called using long tail keywords. People searching for a very specific term are much more likely to buy and therefore long tail keywords naturally have a higher conversion rate. Jamie Clarkson explains Long Tail in her article below:
What Is The Long Tail?
By: Jamie Clarkson
The “long tail” is a term used to describe a type of marketing or business model that focuses on a string of “niche” products and services, rather than the top few hot products. The phrase “the long tail” was coined by writer Chris Anderson, who subsequently wrote a best-selling book by the same title. Anderson and his concepts have since become very prominent in the internet world, having an influence even on major search engines. The term “long tail” comes from the look of a graph charting the popularity and inventory of products and services. At one end of this graph appears a short spike where the sales of mega-products can be seen, while on the other end there is a “long tail” mapping less popular products, in other words those with low demand and sales. It is claimed that the future successful business model will be in following the “long tail,” i.e., selling many less popular products and services, rather than chasing the megahits. The arguments of Anderson and others concerning the long tail include that, with large enough storage and distribution, these less popular products could do as well or better than the bestsellers in the long run.
One very successful company that is often cited as an example of the long tail is the online seller Amazon, best known as a bookseller but also a merchant of many thousands of other products. What we are really discussing is simply the “supermarket” or “superstore” business model, providing numerous small volume products rather than a few megahits. In reality, the long tail has always been around, but it hasn’t been named as such. “Diversification” is one word that describes this type of marketing to a certain degree.
In this regard, in a surprising move that may mark the end of theater-release movies and that follows the “long tail” business model, in November 2006 superproducer George Lucas announced he would quit making such movies, instead turning to TV. Lucas said that for the same price of making a blockbuster hit like “Star Wars” he could create 50 or so two-hour movies for TV instead. This same sort of thinking is occurring in almost every significant field of business.
One thing that has made the long tail more feasible for all types of business is the internet. The internet and the type of technology it represents have had an enormous impact on traditional business models and popular mainstream media, such as the television, radio and music industries. This impact will continue to be felt for many years to come, and the term “the long tail” is likely to become permanently entered into the business vernacular, as more people base their businesses around it.
Using Long Tail for SEO is a time consuming process but you would way much rather have a tremendous conversion rate than tons of traffic depending on the application of your marketing.
If you live in the United States, you have probably heard of the Federal Reserve System. If you look at the front of any dollar across the top it says “Federal Reserve Note”. You also may have heard of the IRS. Do you know where your income taxes go? Would you believe they pad the pockets of a few very very very rich men? Did you know that the Federal Reserve is actually not publicly owned or governmentally operated? It is a private corporation and the U.S. government has 20% stock in it. The depths of this demonic system in control of us all are detailed very well in a 3.5 hour documentary you cannot miss, view it here.
After viewing the above video and learning the sickening truth about why you should quit paying income taxes, head on over to NonTaxPayer and contact Mr. Champion so you can become a nontaxpayer. A good analogy I read goes something like this:
“If someone stole your credit card and charged up tons of things and opened new credit cards and bought a house and car, would you just pay it all off and let him ripoff you and your friends and family? Would you cancel the credit card, refuse to pay for it, and try to get the criminal thrown in jail?”
Since 1913 our country and every single person in it has been completely under control of the Federal Reserve. Every economic crash that has ever occurred was manufactured very quickly by a few extremely powerful men behind the curtains of the Federal Reserve. Since before 1913 they have been working their reach deeper and deeper into Washington and have been able to adjust interest rates to manifest this “business cycle” BS that you and I believe and try to forecast and work with. Ultimately, they do it to add a small sense of reality to this game you and I are being forced to play.
Study the Rockefellers, Rothschilds, and J.P. Morgan. Study the Federal Reserve, IRS, and the 16th Amendment. Understand where your taxes go and demand no taxation without representation. The U.S. Constitution was created by the people for the people in order to protect the people from a growing government. You still have rights, but they are being taken away. Study your rights, use them, and defend them. Do all of this before you get an RFID chip.
After thoughts
If you are looking to perfect your resume, check out this useful sample resume site!
After your child turned 16 would you sell him? Thats hardly an appropriate question. After you have devoted tons of time, focus, and money to something like an income blog why would you sell it? Even if your site is not currently bringing in a profit for you, there are so many reasons why you still shouldn’t sell it.
Your site automatically has a value from the moment you buy the domain name. Many people go by the old tried and true method of: your site “…is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.” Though you may feel like your site is worthless, you would be amazed to know that a site so silly and extraneous as icanhascheezburger.com would actually be worth $1.7 million.
Using tools like dnscoop.com can actually help you determine the current value of your blog or website. A calculator like this uses certain measurements like Alexa Traffic Rank, Google PageRank, Technorati tags, and inbound links to determine the worth of a site.
Your site’s actual true value is only evident when someone is willing to pay a certain amount for the site. Though the dnscoop calculator may say that SimpleTiger is only worth $1,256, I know that I would not sell it for that because of the value I have invested in it and plan to invest in it.
If someone were to offer me $1,500 for the site, they wouldn’t have a deal. $15,000 on the other hand, then I may be able to work something out. It is really all up to you. If you want to find out real quick how much your site is worth, offer it for sale online at SitePoint and just see what kind of bids you receive. If the bids don’t meet your fancy, then don’t sell the site.
The average value of a site is determined by taking the total amount of profit it yields per year, and multiplying that sum by 3. If your site brings in $1,000 in sales per year, then it is probably worth around $3,000. The thing about this measurement is it doesn’t include the worth for opportunities set forth in owning a certain site. If your site has a particular brand established with it, and even though the site is worth $20,000 it could mean the difference between being in business and being out of business. This would apply if you own an online store or use your site to sell products from your store.
Honestly, if you want to know what your site is worth just ask. Ask people who are actively searching to buy a site and see what they think it is worth. I highly recommend holding on to a site for as long as you can. If you no longer feel like maintaining it, then sell it before you quit maintenance as the value of your site will drop with your will to improve it.
Independent Thoughts
Ideally windows backup software should be updated regularly in order to avoid data recovery failures. With online file sharing the risk always remains. This is why investing in a data recovery program is a good idea. Also, a data recovery group helps a lot as well.
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