gainfully unemployed » internet business

5 Easy Tools for Social Media Monitoring

chris — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:39:59 +0000

It can be really hard to keep track of everything you do while running your online business. I came across a list of free social media monitoring tools that will help you out with one aspect of your business, website, or blog: keeping track of how well your content does on social media sites.

This is a very useful thing because it helps for research purposes since you can see which kind of work gains traction and what work or yours people like. This is great knowledge. If you create content online, these tools should help you out.

Some are free and some are near free.

See the list at TopRankBlog.

Are you a Twitter power user? Here are 5 Tools to help you track trends on Twitter. That’s right, they’re Twitter trend tools. Say that 10 times in a row.

Social Media Success Case Study: Web Design Startup

chris — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:42:09 +0000

Everyone talks about how it’s possible to build an online business using social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Yeah, you’ve heard this stuff before. But before you click the “back” button and go back to Google to find something else, have a look at a well-written post at inspiredm web design blog about a company that actually used these tools to build a successful business online.

This social media case study differs from most because it actually details how the business owners used different platforms instead of just saying, “Oh it’s easy to start a business online, just get on Twitter!”

On the contrary, this piece is all about how much effort it takes to build a business using social media, which is really the key.

Read Launching a Successful Web Design Startup with Social Media.

Freelance Resources at Freelance Switch

chris — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:14:11 +0000

Freelance Switch is a website I check out at least once a month to find up-to-date articles about how to manage the freelance lifestyle–and folks, it is a lifestyle.

There are always useful articles about things that concern freelancers and internet business owners written by people who know first-hand what they’re talking about.

Here are a few posts that have helped me and may help you.

Freelancers: Do you need a business plan? Maybe

9 Ways to Make Your Writing More Compelling. Grab onto your readers with a vice-like grip.

Marketing Your Website with Search Engine Optimization. This is as good a basic primer on SEO for your web business as I’ve seen anywhere. It is a very uncomplicated look at making your site more accesible and attractive to your visitors and the search engines.

You would do well to subscribe to Freelance Switch’s feed or email list to get up to date info about freelancing.

6 Online Business Myths that are Way Off

chris — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:27:33 +0000

Just like any other human venture, online business is burdened with collective beliefs, common knowledge, and myths that just are not true. Here are a few of the myths.

1) Succeeding in online business is easy. This may be a point that I haven’t quite hammered home on this site. In fact, I may make internet business seem a little easier than it really is. This is far from the truth. Internet business is just as hard as any business out there, just as competitive, and can be just as demoralizing. That being said, if you are a superstar or a hard worker with great ideas, you will climb to the top.

2) Online business takes a different skill set than “normal” business. Online business is just that, business. Everyone who has a website talks about “social media” and “web 2.0″ and the amazing benefits tools like Facebook and Twitter create for online businesses. These tools do create a lot of amazing opportunity for those who know how to use them to stay connected to their audience.

But if you don’t know how to connect to people in the first place or have a valuable service or product to offer, then these tools are not going to magically help you get your message out and make sales for you.

If you have sales skills or marketing skills or the ability to rally people around you, then you will be able to transition right into the internet business world. The same rules apply. Create a great product, give great service, and find the people interested in your product. Hit it out of the park for people, and you will win.

The only difference is that instead of having customers come into your store on the street, your store is now visiting your target audience via computer screen in their living rooms. Or on a beach in Jamaica that has wifi.

3) Online business is for tech people. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sure, it helps to have someone who knows their way around a computer, but internet tools are so easy to use that you really do not need much technical or design expertise. If you can use a keyboard and a mouse and are willing to put in the effort and learn about things you don’t know much about, then you will be able to create a viable online business.

Working on the internet can also consist of your direct skill set. ?If you’re a writer, you can start a freelance writing business, and if you are a web designer or social media pro, you can do the same. ?You can even become an information entrepreneur and create informative blogs based on different themes and monetize them in many different ways. ?For the content writers out there, read my post about how to make money with Hubpages.

4) Internet marketing is just spam. Sure there is a lot of spam out there, but there are hundreds of thousands of legitimate companies doing business online. Every single brand name company has an internet presence. If they don’t, then they don’t exist. There is nothing shady about doing business online. In fact, I would be surprised if in two years you will be able to do any business at all without using the internet.

As people gravitate more and more to the web to do their shopping, to find their directions, to communicate with their friends, and to plan trips and flights, there will be more opportunities for online businesses of all kinds. If you aren’t preparing your small business for an all-internet world, then you may be left behind.

5) I can’t start an online business because the Internet is too crowded. The internet is crowded and it gets more crowded every day. But guess what, the streets of your town are also crowded with businesses, but new businesses start and old businesses fold every day.

Google and other search engines are becoming better at weeding out the fraudulent, worthless, and spam sites, which makes it easier for the high quality online businesses to shine. Search engine traffic is a huge part of success on the internet and if you play by the rules and create a great product, service, or entertainment, you will rise to the top, as the cream often does.

6) I don’t have time to start my online business. Building an online presence for your small business is vital to your success going forward. There are few companies that will be able to avoid doing business online. A website or an e-commerce store selling your product should be a priority for you.

A good (and easy way) to start is by creating a blog. You can even do it for free. Start a free blog at blogger.com or wordpress.com, find a custom theme online so it looks a little more professional, and start pumping out content and your message. There are so many things you can do with a blog to promote your company and your brand. Even just getting out there and promoting yourself will help you a great deal.

Just like in anything, the people who work the hardest and test different ways of doing business to find what works will be the most successful. The thing that the internet does for business is the same thing it does for communication–it speeds it up. This means that you can rise quickly, but you can fall just as quickly.

One of the best things the internet provides though is free access to your target audience. You can find and reach out to your community on so many fronts, it’s ridiculous. And you can do much of this for free because all it takes it time and the willingness to do good work. Getting your message out and driving targeted traffic to your web presence are both important element in the online game. But having an amazing product or service is the most important thing.

Create an amazing product with a great story behind it and that fulfills a human need or solves a problem in an interesting or new way, and you just might be the next online success story.

The Beach is My Office: Working From Anywhere

chris — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:03:51 +0000

One of the reasons online business appeals to me and thousands of other people across the world is that it gives you the opportunity to earn income from anywhere in the world.

I have this image in my head of a guy sitting on a beach in Jamaica (I don’t know why it’s Jamaica, but for some reason it always is) on a chaise lounge with a Corona and a wifi-connected laptop.

He’s just taken a dip in the cool crystal blue sea and is now sunning himself as he checks his ample Google Adsense earnings or affiliate commissions for the day.

photo credit: ** Maurice **

It’s a dream of many people to become a part of this burgeoning “mobile workforce.” Whether you start an ecommerce site, a blog, a forum or community, it is fairly easy to do so.

You don’t need to know how to code. You don’t need to know much about SEO (although it helps). You don’t even need to know how to write well. Every day it seems like a company starts up based on helping people create small businesses, manage inventory, or market products or services online.

Most people probably won’t end up conducting the bulk of their business from a beach in Negril, Jamaica, like my example above, but what’s stopping you from trying. In the process you may find yourself getting an extra check or two each month.

That’s called disposable income. And last time I checked, that’s a really nice thing to have.

The Future of Online Business

chris — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:55:15 +0000

The internet and internet business is only in its infancy, but one thing that I have begun to realize over the past couple years is that there has never been a better time for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

The internet has truly created the opportunity for a democratization of business and commerce that is unrivaled in history. You may call these lofty words, and I would probably agree with you.

But the truth is that setting up a small business has never been easier. The internet gives you the ability to speak to the tiniest sliver of a niche in pointed terms. If you wanted to find where a certain group of people hang out online or what websites or forums interest certain people, a day spent researching on Google, MySpace, Ning, and Delicious will give you all the info you need.

And if you’re someone who has a product or service that interests these people, it is easy for you to speak directly to them. It is also becoming easier to root out spammers and lying marketers because the dialog is so much more direct and clear between seller and buyer. This creates a nice situation for people with quality written content or services and products that actually have value for people.

It is really amazing how much the incredibly high speed transfer of information is changing the world more and more every single day. It is hard to tell what the future holds for the internet–I have trouble imagining what the net will look like in ten years–but if everything goes ideally, great ideas will always reign supreme.