Bloggers Club
I have launched a new blog and bloggers resource site over at Bloggers Club.
To celebrate the launch I am hosting a contest. Be sure to check it out by clicking the link below:
This blog focuses on bloggers and blogging with topics ranging from blog design to making money blogging. All steps to make a succesfull blog and be a better blogger. I will take my blogging experience and helt others succeed with their blogging. Some articles will also be written by guest writers.
Recently published
Use your blog as a marketplace
Come on in and have a read.
Using Digital Point to sell your creations or services
I have posated a new article on my blog, Entrepreneur blog:
Using Digital Point to sell your creations or services
Read and enjoy my friends!
My Workstation
Gary Lee has started a contest at his blog to see who has the best work station at their home. I mainly work from home, and I have a room in my 3 room apartment as my office. I have one laptop and two desktop computers set up. Nothing fancy at all but I thought I would enter the contest anyway and let you guys see how it looks like where I write posts.
The winner will win this Motorola HT820 Bluetooth Stereo Headset which I received to review from a now defunct gadget site. It works great, has outstanding battery life and pretty much syncs up with any phone out there.
I apologize for the crappy pictures, but I do not own a good digital camera yet. It is about time I invest in one though.
Watch out for sites with fake PageRank!
This is no breaking news but it is really something that needs to be addressed and discussed. I was browsing through a webmaster forum when I came across a thread discussing sites with fake Google PageRank that is selling links.
In the thread they showed examples of how they do to manipulate the PageRank for their site and all these fakers have to do is put this code in to a .htaccess file on their server ” Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.google.com ”
I do not know how this work since I have never tried it myself, but what this code does is that it redirects the visitors to Google.com which has a PageRank of 10, then after the first PageRank update they remove the code and their site now has a PageRank of 10.
Of course they can do this with any other domain wich has a PageRank they desire.
My advice is to always look up a sites PageRank and other interesting facts before buying a link on the site and that you do not focus so much on the PageRank of a site, there are a lot of other more important factors of a site when buying a link, like the niche and traffic.
A great tool to use is the Fake PageRank Detector at SEOlogs, it shows you if the PageRank is real or not.
Deals on computers with online coupons
This blog post is sponsored by:
Coupon Chief - Online Coupons
After browsing through Coupon Chief for som discount deals on computers I decided to share some with you. Why not save some of your hard earned cash when you can?
I have choosen to present Dell deals and HP deals which I think are two of the best alternatives for small businesses and for personal use. Their prices are at a good level and the machines do what they should. For nice deals click the links below:
Here are some of the deals:
Save $450 off select Inspiron purchases of $1499 or more.
$200 Off on any customized HP Pavilion Notebook PC configured at $999 or more
So go to CouponChief.com now to get your savings by using the online coupons they offer.
A look at PayPerPost.com
A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a blogger account at PayPerPost.com to check it out since the concept had interested me for a while.
So now I have been a member for some time and thought I would share my thoughts about it.
As a blogger, PayPerPost offers you an alternative way to earn money from your blogging, and my opinion is that it is an excellent add to other revenue streams like Adsense or something similar but you got to be careful what you blog about on your blogs to not loose the quality of your blog and the interest of your readers.
So far I have written 2 reviews from opportunities offered on PayPerPost and I have choosen them carefully from about 50 opportunities available for my blog, all to make it fit the subject of this blog and my readers and my own interests.
From these 2 reviews I have earned only $20, but I feel it is totally worth it and that it really brings value to this blogs community. I will wait and see how this develop before I give a more detailed review and guide of their service but I do think PayPerPost has a great future in front of them. Hopefully their success involves me in some way!
Of course I hope I soon can get better pay from my reviews but for now I will just let my money from PayPerPost grow and see if I can build up a steady income from it through my network of blogs.
Building your trademark
This blog post is sponsored by:
Best Credit Cards
A name is just a name, unless it is given unforgettable meaning. This is the one and only truth when it comes to the world of entrepreneurship and marketing. As such, it can be said that a great portion of concern regarding the whole business building scheme focuses on making a certain trademark or brand known. Often, this is done through announcing certain credentials and executing logical propagandas which will cement the trademark or brand name of the item in the memory of every consumer in the world.
To do this, you must make a good impression regarding your product or service. Although many people think this is rather dogmatic, it always helps to produce positive results especially at the earlier run of your business. Most of the time, a consumer tries out a new brand just for the heck of it. Thus, actually satisfying them will prove to be memorably unexpected. As such, this blank point of positive emotion will be your primary portal to their subconscious.
Sadly, first impressions do not last, especially if you are talking about worldwide gain and profits. This is where advertisements get into the picture. The first step in advertising towards brand making is the set up of ambient advertisements. Ambient ads consist of tarpaulins, posters and banners. Most of the time, these are readable items which most consumers do not pay much attention too, even if they see them often. However, such exposure to your marketing tools will subliminally embed your brand in their heads.
After the ambient ads have been placed, it’s time for you to hit branding promotions big time. Mainstream advertising is one of the best ways of solidifying your trademark or brand in the market. It works in three ways.
First, it reinforces the subliminal impact of the ambient ads. This process makes the subliminal thoughts about your product go to the conscious mind of the consumer. Second, the mainstream ads on television and radio appeal to auditory and visual senses of the person. As such, they should be made entertaining, intriguing and remarkable so that they stand out from other mainstream ads. This second function is perfect for name recall and brand familiarity. Lastly, the mainstream advertisement is the out and about reaffirmation of your product’s quality. It makes first time users remember how great it was to actually have discovered your product. Moreover, it also leads some consumers into actually believing that your brand is impeccable, even if this was not their primary thought.
The last step to take is continuous regeneration of promotional and marketing ideas. Now that you have made your brand name memorable to consumers, its time for you to constantly reinvent and improve it. As you may know, more and more businesses are being set up every day. It’s only but logical to keep on producing bright marketing ideas to make sure that your trademark is always at the top of the game… no matter who the competition may be!
Writing a business plan
This blog post is sponsored by:
Best Domain Name Resources
Writing a business plan is the equivalent to a programmer needing a flow chart- it is absolutely necessary if you are serious about setting up a business successfully. The business plan is essentially the blueprint to your company, and your future. It helps set the direction of your business, and is an actual requirement in most cases when seeking financing. Depending on your business, there are a few elements you should focus on when writing your business plan.
First, you should state your primary objective(s) in the introduction. Explain what the purpose of your business is, the services you will offer, who you will cater to, and what kind of employers you will need, if any.
Next, you will have to summarize the different aspects of your business. Explain the concept of your business, which will most likely include parts of your introduction. After the concept, you will want to summarize the product or service in more detail. Next, it is very important you make out a market analysis. Find out who will need your services, how many, and what kind of competition you could be facing. You will also need a marketing strategy to carry out your plans. This can be from word of mouth as a result of offering a great service, brochures, online ads, billboards, and classifieds. Your marketing strategy should be thorough in finding the best way to get your business known, with offering a better, faster, or cheaper service than your competitors. Lastly, your summary should include your financial situation. Your initial funding, any expected profits that could go towards your business plan, and any salaries or expenditures you will endure should be listed in detail.
Next, you will want to write a brief business description. State the history of the business, core activities, and your current position in the market. If you are just starting out, be sure to outline where you want the business to be in a few years. List any steps you have taken, such as getting business license or rented space to conduct your business in. Be sure to list your weaknesses, strengths, and threats of your business. Focus on keeping your strengths strong, but look at your weaknesses and threats with great care.
A more detailed market analysis should follow your description. Who are the customers, and what is the geographical location of your customers? What kind of purchasing power do they hold, and how many customers from each location can you attend to? Look into the bureau of statistics, surveys, and any other type of informational analysis you can get your hands on.
A more detailed marketing strategy should follow the analysis. Describe ways your business will cater to customers, and in return get more business for you. Find promotional literature opportunities such as flyers or other ads. Establish a clean-cut pricing policy and stick to it, so that your customers will not be confused or mad over false advertising. Find your ‘competitive edge’ by offering free quotes, guarantees, and continual support or supplies.
You will need to identify your business structure and start up costs next. Will the business be run by you, a group of partners, or a limited partnership? Write down your business name, copyright information, designs, patents, and trademarks- and register them if you haven’t already. It is very important you look at your startup costs. They may include accounting fees, market research, planning, legal fees, publications, travel, and other expensive things that should be taken into account. Be sure to label your initial recurring costs, such as lease, gas, electric, wages, software, equipment, and other expenses in a separate category.
Next, you should calculate your break even costs. Add up any possible expense you could think of having for your business, and calculate the amount of sales or profit you will require to ‘break even’. This will let you know where you are at, and if you should market more or less, or even try more desperate measures.
Finally, you will want to choose your administration if possible. Make sure administration you choose are able to perform responsibly and efficiently.
After your business plan is complete, you will want to revise it several times. It will be the blueprint of how to run your business from here on out. You should update this plan every year at-least, or whenever you reach the ‘break even’ point. Remember, the key to every business success is planning. It is strongly recommended you take the time and follow these instructions, if you are in fact, serious about running your own business.
Setting Up Your Own Wordpress Blog
This blog post is sponsored by:
Internship Blog
WordPress is becoming a popular blogging platform for many people because of its many user-friendly features. One feature of WordPress that I really like is the search feature which I believe is very useful. If you already have many posts in you blog for example, and you need to search for one post, you can use the search feature and the result can be quite accurate and fast.
But, what is WordPress and how can we set it up for our blogs? WordPress is a PHP-written blog system backed by a MySQL database. Most of us would love to set up our own WordPress blog, but are quite wary on how to go about doing it. WordPress actually has one of the easiest setting-up methods, but then you must have some knowledge with the computer to be able to go through the installing process the first time. In installing WordPress, you will have to interact with a system database and make an edit of the configuration file. In uploading the software, you must utilize an FTP client and run through the online installing process. After all this, you can now modify WordPress according to your blogging needs.
First of all you must have a web hosting account that will allow you to add a database and a user for it easily in order for WordPress to properly run. WordPress basically stores all its data and information, and since with your blog you post in the database, WordPress has to have full permission to be able connect to the database.
You can instruct WordPress on what database to utilize by editing a file that you can find in WordPress. The wp-config-sample.php that you are given will have to be renamed to wp-config.php. Few lines on the file will also have to be altered by using any text editor, although a good one would be the Crimson Editor.
There are many themes, plug-ins, themes and other changes that you might want to do with your WordPress blog. And as you go along with the process of installing and making WordPress work to your blogging advantage, the rest of the other processes are rather very easy. You upload such themes and other added features in the correct position, enable all of them, and make some more necessary changes, perhaps some more additional details that will consequently make these additions as well as WordPress run correctly and smoothly on your blog. Once you are able to make WordPress installation more than once, you will realize that your very own workflow is being created; this will allow you to make more installations, put additional plug-ins, and have your very own personalized WordPress for will satisfy your blogging requirements in a suitable manner.
For many of us bloggers who might already possess a workflow necessary for installing the WordPress, the installation proper should be the immediate concern. The installation process can be varied depending on the blogger’s skills. But overall, not only is such process interesting and fun, but so are the updating and modifying on WordPress.
Importance of a seperate work space
According to a Harris poll conducted, 72% of all American households are thinking about starting a home business. With the people that actually do, most of them have a separate room in their house for an ‘office’. Why exactly is it important to have a separate room for your office-related work?
The first, and one of the most important, reason using a separate room is beneficial is the IRS policy. They clearly state that you can not use a space for both personal and business reasons, and still receive deductions on your taxes for home business expenses. The costs you run setting up your home office will pay off, as you will be able to take advantage of such deductions available to home office owners. Be carefully, however, for if you are audited, you will have to prove to the IRS that you do have a separate room solely for business. (Some try to get by with dividers or curtains sectioning to divide a personal room, this is not acceptable)
A second reason you would want to have a separate room is professionalism. If you have distractions such as a television, spouse, child, or radio in the background while you are on the phone, this will not give your business a very good reputation for being professional. With having a separate room, you will benefit from the serenity and lack of noise that usually fills other rooms of a household.
Thirdly, it is important to distinguish between work and home life. Separate rooms help do this since you will only use this room for one reason only- to work. Psychologists agree that mixing work and home life can lead to complicated stress-related problems. To protect your mental sanity, it is a good idea to use a separate room for office work.
Lastly, a separate room will allow you to keep your office items, documents, and supplies out of reach from things such as the family pet or children. The first time your important documents get destroyed by the family dog, or your child, you will wish you would have followed through with the separate room after all. Having a separate office items such as pencils or a computer will also ensure that your work will not be interrupted by unnecessary things like your child’s favorite computer game or unwanted viruses.
Having a separate room for you office is almost vital. The money you save from deductions, make it worth it alone. The peace of mind and stress you save will help ensure your sanity. The professionalism and serenity will create a good reputation for you when dealing with clients, not to mention help you with your office work and prevent distractions. The next time you think about setting up a small cubicle, or throw a curtain up in your living room, consider these ideas. If no room is available, doing this is a second-best decision. Otherwise, you are better off starting your home business off the right way.
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About Andreas Bard
My name is Andreas Bard and I am a web entrepreneur, writer and blogger. On this blog I write motivational articles and aim to help you on your way to success with your business venture.
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