I’ll be the first to admit that building traffic to my sites is something I should work harder on. I know what to do, but making the time to do it is often another matter. Very, very bad of me since I’d do far better and earn more with more traffic.

I’ve long since slipped on one of my big goals, which was to comment more often on other blogs. Other blogs can be a great traffic source, especially if you post relevant and insightful comments. It really can bring in traffic.

The trick is standing out from the crowd. Commenting on popular blogs means your comments get seen by more people, but it also means you have more people commenting before you have even seen the latest post.

Be controversial.

Being controversial can also bring good traffic, especially if it’s on a current hot topic. No one cares if you think goldfish are better than neon tetras. But if you have a strong opinion on something popular, whether it be the latest Harry Potter (book or movie), the current field of candidates for the next Presidential nominations, current events in your field and so forth, you can encourage traffic, comments and links.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Internet has revolutionized home business. Work at home entrepreneurs are no longer limited to starting a daycare, freelancing or joining a direct sales company. Not only have existing home businesses been revolutionized, but new possibilities have opened up.

The internet opened up new possibilities for all the classic home businesses. Suddenly anything that didn’t require face to face interaction had the potential to be done online. And even businesses that do require face to face interaction have been changed, as new advertising options appeared.

But other home business possibilities opened up online as well.

Being on a blog, how could I not mention blogging right off the top? You can blog on just about any topic. It can be a hobby or a serious home business. Some bloggers have made huge names for themselves in their chosen topics.

Blogs are essentially just one type of website. And of course running a website is another kind of home business. The two are quite similar in many ways, but they are generally run a little differently. You add pages to a website according to how you want the navigation to work. With a blog pages are listed chronologically, but can also be accessed by category. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the random dreams my husband and I have is to buy a home. Just a nice, basic starter home. Then when it’s time to upgrade, rather than sell it, we’d love to rent it out. Get some income from that property.

That’s not particularly close to happening for us. Property in southern California is insanely expensive, even when you just want a condo.

I’ve always figured that we would want to have a property manager. It just seems worth it to me to have someone handle the headaches and the occasional urgent call from tenants. You don’t earn as much then, of course. The property manager gets a share. But I keep thinking of all the troubles we had at a condo we rented. I’d want a better property manager than that one; she was sometimes hard to get ahold of.

But my husband thinks he could handle it. And if we reach that point, I can see the point of listing a rental property someplace like Rentals.com. Sure you have to spend some money on it, but if it gets you more exposure to interested renters, the money should be easily worth it. Lots of potential renters search their site, and these days I have more faith in people searching the Internet than browsing their local newspaper classifieds.

A basic listing there is only $39 and you can include unlimited pictures. The Premier listings jump up to $99, but still I wouldn’t think of that as a bad price overall. I suspect the price would be worth it, as it sounds likely to get your home rented out sooner.

Still, it will be a while before I get to be a landlord. It’s fun to think about though.

Article marketing has been promoted as one of the great ways to build an online business. You write and submit articles, building links to your website and building a reputation for yourself. It’s a pretty nice deal.

But it is not always the right way to go about promoting something, especially on your own website. Your site should always be providing what the visitor wants, and if that’s not information, you don’t want to direct them toward information. They need to be directed toward the product they want.

The goal of article marketing is to build relevant links to selected pages in your site. This helps them to do better in the search engines.

When you do article marketing you need to think about what it is people want from you. If they’re going to buy, a review article may be more appropriate on your website than one on how to use the product. The how to use article may be sufficient, however, for submitting to article websites for the links. Read the rest of this entry »

Now that I’ve covered the basics you should do before starting your home business, let’s talk starting up your website. Before you even start worrying about the search engines and marketing, there are some basics you should add to your website.

1. Unique page titles

Don’t use the same title on each and every page. The page title should be relevant to what’s on the page. Don’t limit yourself to using your business name on your home page either. People don’t care as much about your business name as much as they care about what you have to offer.

2. Test your design

This doesn’t have to be as hard as it sounds. Yes, if you have access to multiple machines with different operating systems and different browsers, test on as many combinations as possible. I like to use BrowserShots.org to get screenshots on 7 different browser/system combinations in a relatively short time. How long depends on how busy their server is. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m participating in the eMoms “How To” Group Research Project. There were a lot of great topics to choose from, and I chose to write about how to get a business started from the perspective of legal issues, bookkeeping and writing a business plan.

Setting up a home business sounds pretty easy. In a lot of ways it is. However, there are some aspects you should consider to make your life simpler in the long run. Many people skip certain details because they don’t see the need. But if you get it wrong you can greatly complicate your life and make it harder for your business to succeed.

Basic Legal Aspects

I’m not a lawyer, and you will need to check the exact rules in your area, but there are a few basics I can tell you to check. One of the first things you will need to consider is whether your home business will be a sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation. Most home businesses start as a sole proprietorship, as this is the easiest to set up. Setting up a corporation or LLC has certain tax advantages, but can be more complex than many people want to deal with right at the start.

You may need to get a DBA (Doing Business As) or FBN (Fictitious Business Name), especially if you are not using your real name in your business. Some areas may require one anyhow.

Your area may require that you publish your use of this name in a general circulation newspaper. This is very easy to do, and you will probably start receiving ads in the mail from companies that offer a section for these ads. You will have perhaps a month in which to do this, and your ad will need to run for more than one issue in many areas. Your county clerk can help you understand the rules in your area.

You may also need to get a business license. Some areas don’t require this for home business, but others do. This may be required at either the state, county or city level.

How easy this is can depend on the zoning laws in your area. Some say you can run just about any home business, so long as you don’t add to the traffic in the area or store too many supplies. Others make it much more difficult. These generally vary by city, but some states add requirements of their own. Read the rest of this entry »

Running a home business is tough. You can come up with all kinds of reasons why you can’t work hard enough on it, why you aren’t doing the things you need to do to succeed and so forth.

It takes a lot of self-examination to realize when you aren’t allowing yourself to succeed. The excuses can just feel so real. They seem to be genuine obstacles that you cannot get around.

And sometimes that’s true. But often it’s not.

Take the lack of time excuse. Sometimes this is genuine. Other times it means you aren’t making the sacrifices you need to make. Something as simple as watching less television can open up a tremendous amount of time for your home business.

There can also be the matter of when you work. If you have flexibility in when you work, are you taking advantage of your best working times? Or maybe you’re goofing off when you get quiet time.

Working toward success involves working on your habits. Your habits can make it easier or harder to succeed.

So how do you do that? Read the rest of this entry »

One of the delights of social bookmarking is when you see something you hadn’t submitted yourself take off even lightly.

I had that happen with a post on this blog and StumbleUpon. I got a sudden peak of traffic. Come to find out, someone had Stumbled my post What Tools Do I Prefer to Use for My Home Business? It was a real treat to Stumble across something of my own, when I hadn’t submitted it myself.

That is, of course, one of the delights of sites such as StumbleUpon. Even if you don’t submit something yourself, it can go somewhere for you.

You can Stumble your own pages, of course, but if you overdo it you risk your site being banned. I stumble my own stuff only on occasion. As I have more and more success, I expect to gain a better understanding of what appeals to each site.

In general, I think it’s posts and pages that are either pretty funny or very useful.

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