BLOGTREPRENEUR - My life and business

A not-so-final farewell...

2006-06-21T18:23:00.000+01:00

Well, the time has come for me to say goodbye to this blog and my good old Blogger account. Don't worry it's going nowhere, but from now on, I will only be posting at www.blogtrepreneur.com, the rebirth of Blogtrepreneur.

It's been a fantastic 4 months, and has seen my entrepreneurial spirit reach all new highs! What's left now is to thanks all those who have linked to me, and who have taken the time to comment on this blog, and help it reach unprecedented success.

So thankyou, but remember, Blogtrepreneur lives on through my new blog at www.blogtrepreneur.com so head on there straight away, where I'm sure you'll continue to enjoy me, Adnan, posting as the Blogtrepreneur!

My not-so-difficult quest for a webhost

2006-06-16T12:40:00.000+01:00

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So today was the day that I was scheduled to buy my hosting for blogtrepreneur.com. I imagine that many people just search around for the cheapest and most well known webhost, but I wanted to share with you the reasons why I didn't need to go running around.

For a long time now, I have been using www.frozenwebhost.com for all my hosting needs. Every entrepreneur will eventually need a website, and it is only natural that they want to find the cheapest so as to save money and increase profit. It's a known fact.
However, for me, customer service is the main thing. As a techie dumbass (!), I need all the support I can get. Some hosting companies offer 24/7 email support, but often this can get laggy and very delayed.

With Frozen Webhost however, the owner Steve prides himself on being on MSN for a great deal of the day. He is very polite (again this is very important for building a relationship with the customer - a very good tactic for business) and he always has an answer for everything.
And even I do look at the price tag...with Steve, this tag is very very reasonable at only $5/month. What else does a budding entrepreneur need?
So a quick update, Matt should be starting on transferring the Wordpress files to my host, and it looks good for a very nearby release of Blogtrepreneur! Watch out, here I come!

Going off on a Tangent like a True Entrepreneur!

2006-06-14T17:28:00.000+01:00

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Lately, you may have seen that I have been starting to talk more about blogging itself, and focusing on How To Make Money from blogging. It has taken a few kind words from the Director of MindPetals Entrepreneur Network (www.mindpetals.com), to put me back on track.

For those of you who are relatively new to Blogtrepreneur, the reason why I chose such a creative name, was to reflect my love for entrepreneurship, and also to show the format that I would be presenting my experiences in...a blog. Now, I have covered a wide array of topics in this blog (for example How To Start Your Own E-Business), and I feel that I have strayed off the topic a bit lately.

Therefore, I would like to return to my roots, and continue to write about how you too can build your entrepreneurial talent. Every entrepreneur is bound to go off on a tangent whilst writing...it's only natural! I was not surprised to know, reading a few of my favourite forums, that other entrepreneurs also shared the same habit of losing track of their path when they have been struck with a good idea. To me, entrepreneurship is about creation of novel ideas, and about how you can put these ideas into practice.

What I have learnt from this diversion is to stay focused on your goal, which in my case, are to provide the right content for my readers and to network with them and continue to share information round. I have also realised the need for a notebook or pad of paper wherever I am. I always seem to have brainwaves in the most impractical of situations (dropping off to sleep, eating my dinner), and I let these pass without jotting them down. This is a serious mistake for all those who want to capitalize on any ideas, so I will practice using a jotter to help me organize my thoughts.

Who knows, I have discovered a new and uncovered passion for blogging, and so you may see a How To Start Blogging Site popup somewhere...but I will keep you informed! If you ever feel that there is a subject that needs to be discussed, please let me know, but be certain that there will be a whole new level of entrepreneurship in my next blog at www.blogtrepreneur.com. Just to update you on this, I have nearly finished making the design with Matt from www.mandladventures.com, and hopefully the site will be up very very shortly, so stay tuned!

How to boost traffic to your blog: Commenting

2006-06-13T16:57:00.000+01:00

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To continue with my mini-series on how to boost traffic to your blog, in the build up to the launch of Blogtrepreneur.com, I will talk about how commenting is really important to create a sense of personality to your blog.

I often get people commenting on a good article, or on a point that I have made, and I endeavour to respond to these comments. By simply thanking the reader for reading your blog, and by trying to make a conversation within one of your posts, you will be bound to receive retuning visitors and more interest in your discussions.

I also wanted to make certain that by having comments enabled on your blog, does not mean that you will gain a higher search engine rank. Many comment features on platforms such as Blogger make sure that comments do not contribute to a site or commenter's SEO...so don't Comment Spam, it doesn't help!
What does help is if you write constructive comments to a person's article. This is to say that if you enjoyed reading the post, make sure you thank the writer and urge him to continue to write great posts.
Do not put a link to your site in the body of the comments section, unless you have written a similar article on your site, that will help other readers browsing through the comments section.

By commenting, your readers know that you are involved in your blog's welfare, and that you are taking an active stance in trying to increase the traffic. Blogger's who disable comments on their blog, also disable their ability to connect with other writers who share similar interests.

How to boost traffic to your blog: Backlinks

2006-06-12T17:18:00.000+01:00

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Over the past few weeks, Blogtrepreneur has experienced a steep rise in the number of hits, and I owe this down to a few particular factors which I will share with you over the coming days in the build-up to Blogtrepreneur.com.
Everyone knows that by constant posting, you are likely to target a bigger audience and have more keywords in your site which will be searchable by all the top search engines. But there are other methods that can help to increase your site ranking and traffic.

From Day 1, I have exchanged links with any others who have liked my content or who were blogging on a similar topic. I happened to come across Nathan Waters' Entrepreneurship site first on my visit to the blogging world. I emailed him in a plite email, and he responded by linking back to my site, which I reciprocated.

Now in order to gain the most successful backlink offers you must follow a strict ruling of behaviour or eticate:

Say who you are...there is nothing worse than an anonymous blogger. First name terms will do, but don't name yourself by the name of your site.
Introduce yourself and what you do...provide information on how you started blogging, what successes that you have with your blog and any other relevant pieces of information that will help your receiver know a bit more about you.
Explain how swapping links will help you both...Advise your receiver that by swapping links, your websites will gain a higher search engine ranking and will thus increase traffic to both your site. This is in fact true! Google in particular values the amount of inbound links you have pointing at your site. What's more, Google also values the inbound link more from a site with higher credibility. So if you get a linkback from Google themselves, who have a pagerank of 10, you're sorted!
Don't forget to include your site URL and Name...I've had some bloggers contact me about swapping links and then forgetting to put their URL or name of their site in the email. How is someone supposed to link to your site then!
Be friendly and not pushy...everybody hates a pushy salesman and so if you try and force someone into swapping links, chances are they're not going to. So keep your email short, full of sweet and kind words and informative.

For me, backlinks have definitely helped the SEO (search engine optimization of my site). It's a roll-on effect, someone links to you, you get a higher ranking, you get more traffic as a result of this ranking, Google places you even higher due to your credibility and status. All there is to it is a friendly email outlining your aims and blogging URL.

Blogtrepreneur.com themes and colour?

2006-06-09T18:25:00.000+01:00

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Well, at the moment, Matt and I are discussing the colour schemes for Blogtrepreneur.com.
As you will be the readers of the blog, I wanted your opinions on what you think the best colour schemes will be for the page. I said that I want a warm colour to attract readers, on other pages that has seemed to work....any ideas?
Also, please tell me what you would like to see on the new blog. We are both open to new ideas, and really want to optimize the blog for your experience. If you look on Matt's archive page (http://www.mandladventures.com/archives/), I really like the way he has categorized his posts and the fun user interface. Also the tag cloud must be proving to be effective in terms of bringing targeted traffic to his blog.

Go on...Share a bit of link love!

2006-06-09T18:17:00.000+01:00

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Recently, I've been the victim of a bit of link-loving. Well actually, victim is completely the wrong word, because the benefits of being linked too are far from horrible.
At the beginning of this week, my aim was to write a quality post for Darren Rowse as part of his Blogging Group Writing Project. I wrote a post which you've probably seen on my homepage, and then submitted it to Darren through his contact page.
Well two days ago, I looked at my stats on statcounter (still havn't received an invitation for Google Analytics yet!), to see that my traffic had rocketed to 70 odd uniques, another record for me!

Then, by checking on my Technorati account, I saw that another person called Matt from www.mandladventures.com had written a little post about me and what we've been talking about recently. I'll just say a bit about Matt. He has been commenting a lot on my blog, with every comment full of valuable pieces of information (look out for him, his ID is Mithrill). I contacted him to thank him for his support, and found out that he was a great blog designer and as he puts it a "techie". So I asked him if he could help me with the design of Blogtrepreneur.com to which he kindly agreed. Therefore, on the new blog, you'll be seeing and hearing a lot more from Matt. And also, if you need any advice particularly with Wordpress, just give him shout through his contact page.

So, I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, but the main point of this post was to tell you how hard writing work can pay off, and once again, the blogging community can prove to be a great help if you start to get to know a bit more about the people that are close to your blog. Darren has also taught me to share more link love, so I will try and be analysing the blogosphere and finding posts that will help you on your blogging quest.

Why you can't have a Blog without a Blogtrepreneur!

2006-06-07T17:07:00.000+01:00

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Okay, weird headline right! But all will be explained later in this post which I have submitted as part of Problogger’s Blogging Goals Group Writing Project.

My initial motives for starting a blog were very, if not, too simple. I saw bloggers such as Yaro Starak and Darren Rowse, and thought, why can't I make money from Blogging too. And that was it, for a few months while I started my blog, and loaded it up with fresh and inspiring content, I thought only about money and how much I was making every day. Whenever I would come back from school I would check my Adsense....$0...$0.15...$0, I was going nowhere.

I tried to link swap in order to boost my traffic and search engine rankings (which is a must anyway for all blogs who want to be pushed up in search engine results), and submitted some articles to Ezine.com and various Blogging Carnivals. Although my traffic did increase and my Adsense did follow, I was still feeling annoyed that my blog had taken off so slowly.

Then, a few days ago, things suddenly went pear-shaped, I lost my will to write content. If I was making no money I thought, then why bother continuing to write for a petty audience who didn't even care about me or know who I was. This was a huge mistake. As I posted in various forums asking what I should do, I noticed that there were quite a few people, who were actually following my blog. They told me to avoid the blogging burnout by writing less and by caring less about how my blog runs. The biggest tip they gave me, was to enjoy the networking and the social factor that I was getting out of Blogtrepreneur.

This is where my post title comes in. The reason why I created the word Blogtrepreneur, was to serve as a constant reminder to me that I was trying to create money out of my blogging experience. However, more recently, I hav come to translate Blogtrepreneur as something different. By being a blogtrepreneur, you must care for your community, you must respond to comments on your blogging posts, you should do your best to read other blogs and support them through backlinks and linking, and you should broaden your view to the whole of the blogosphere, and not just your goal to make money.

So, what are my blogging goals for the future? To enjoy working with the people who I share the most things in common with, you fellow Blogtrepreneurs. I will strive to always give something back to the community through my posts, which I hope will help you on your blogging journey. And above all, my goal is to stop basing my entrepreurialism around money, even though in the long run, this will lead to my success. Networking is the key, and one which you must grasp by the handles if you want to succeedwith your goal to be an entrepreneur.

Blogger experiences yet more downtime…

2006-06-05T19:01:00.000+01:00

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Lately, Blogger has become more and more unreliable. Today when I tried to write a new article and when I tried to publish my edited template, the upload kept stalling and the percent of upload complete kept reading 0%. Maybe this is to do with their growing number of server problems, which for Google, may be a worrying sign. However, Im sure that they’ll fix it soon.

This incident though, has made me want to move from Blogger so much more. I have discovered how vulnerable my blog is, and the power that Blogger has over my blog is unbelievable. If they wanted, they could shut down my blog without me even trying to contest it, such is their power.
As of now I hadn’t realised how important this was, however, more recently, I have realised that having the maximum amount of control over your blog is very important, in terms of security and readership. Your readers don’t want to see NavBars that you don’t even want to be there. It just clogs up your page and demoralises your visitors.

My advice, go hosted like Im about to do, and stick with the clean lines of Wordpress. If the best of the best are using it, then it must be good mustn’t it!

The stresses of maintaining a blog

2006-06-04T19:30:00.000+01:00

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Recently, I have noticed how much pressure I have put on myself to write consistently (summarised by my last post). This increased stress has led me to doubt my blogging abilities and whether I should really continue with blogging.

I asked a few people about this, including some people on www.youngentrepreneur.com/forum, who asked me the reason why I started blogging in the first place. This got me thinking, however in all truth, I responded that I really wanted to make money, like all the other Problogger's out there. This would prove to be my first weakness.

However the most helpful answer came from Matt who runs a blog at www.mandladventures.com. He gave me some very important advice, which I previously did not consider. He told me not to worry over trying to frequently write articles to impress my readers. "Going with the flow" would be a good way to describe it, but also that I should not feel that I have to keep up to date with the site everyday. Thinking about this now, Yaro Starak at www.entrepreneurs-journey.com only posts every couple of days and yet he still has a readership of 1300!

However, when I read Matt's email, his enthusiasm for the internet really struck me, and some more ideas popped into my head about possible future ventures. I won't go there now anyway.

To summarise from this rollercoaster of emotions and feelings today, I would say to all you bloggers out there not to feel intimidated into writing to maintain a readership. If you continue to post quality content whenever a great idea comes to mind, then you will never hit a "dry patch" and run out of things to say, like I have started to encounter now.

So the future of Blogtrepreneur? Well as promised I will be continuing with my www.blogtrepreneur.com startup in a few weeks time, but I won't feel so obliged to post every day. But when I do post, you can be sure that it will be only the best content that I will provide my readers with. Thanks again to Matt and everyone at Young Entrepreneur Forums and elsewhere for your inspiration and advice.
Blogtrepreneur strives on!

Efficiency and Consistency: Two important entrepreneurial terms

2006-06-03T15:13:00.000+01:00

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For those of you who have been following me as the Blogtrepreneur for the past few months since I have set up this site, you will have noticed that recently I have upped the amount of posting to the site, and therefore (hopefully) you are finding more content that is relevant to the world of business and entrepreneurialism.

As a result of my hard work, I have recently begun to see the benefits of my labour, the other morning I logged into my Adsense account and saw to my amazement that I had already earned $2.60, with the balance at the end of the day finishing at $2.73. Now I'm not a one to share my earnings with the whole world, but I really wanted to highlight two things:

1) I've actually been revising for exams at the moment. But, even with all the time Im putting into that, I've actually been motivated to write more articles for Blogtrepreneur. This is helpful, as it means when Im completely conked out, I can go onto the computer and let off some steam by writing a few articles. In fact, by blogging I have released some of the tension and stress that I have had from exams, and channeled it into constructive articles.

2) Even though I do not follow a strict timetable, I try to publish one post at least every day, so that returning readers always have something new to read. This has helped again increase the number of people that have subscribed to my feeds, which is now currently sitting at 11 subscribers (By the way, you can subscribe too by either clicking on a feedreader chicklet, or by entering your email address at the top of the sidebar).

By being both consistent and efficient and not wasting valuable time (remember time = money), I have actually managed to write more and publicize my blog more, and therefore have optimized revenue, which is something that all entrepreneurs should be striving for.

Different ways to blog: Vlogging

2006-06-02T16:16:00.000+01:00

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In my last post on alternative forms of blogging, I talked about how Podcasting has become a mainstream and increasingly popular way of sharing your ideas, and broadcasting interviews on your website.

Today, I would like to focus on a novel concept of blogging, and a form which I think hasn't been explored much by the top bloggers in the blogosphere.
Vlogging, or video logging uses motion picture as the primary form of content. By implementing continuous action, sound, and text if need be, the user can make use of more information in an easier to use format.

Now, I say in an easier to use format, solely because the number of people who own an AVI player or a video player is on the increase. Therefore, like podcasting, a person can download a video blog post from the publisher's website, or from iTunes, and can transfer the file to their iPod Video for example, and can then watch the content on the move and at their own leisure.

So you want to start Vlogging yourself? Just do a Google search for "Make your own Video Blog" and there will probably be numerous free programs out there which will help you to startup in the vlogosphere. However, as always there are advantages and disadvantages to vlogging. Advantages include:

You can make the vlog with free software
The novelty of your vlog will mean that word will spread, along with more traffic.
You can give your viewers a real insight into your life or business.
You can give much better tutorials, as viewers will be able to see the exact steps you can take in order to design a specific template, or customise your ads in a specific way.

However, and in the case of vlogging there can be incurring costs. Firstly, aside from the software itself, you may have to purchase a high quality and up to date video camcorder which will allow you to make the videos. A webcam may work just as well. Also, you may have to host your own videos that you make, and it is likely that these will take up a sizeable amount of space and therefore bandwidth if you get lots of visitors to your site.

Finally, there is a big problem in terms of placing ads. At the moment, Google Adsense has only just brought out its Google Video advertising program. However, these ads will only show up on your webpage and not in the video itself. Unless you are a keen designer, and manage to edit your video to include some textual sponsored ads, then you may be stuck in terms of revenue.

I hope in the future, I myself will start to vlog, especially with the launch of www.blogtrepreneur.com. You may see a few video tutorials on my new site, but I won't give too much away!

Blogtrepreneur.com coming soon!

2006-06-01T21:53:00.000+01:00

Blogtrepreneur has moved! Please check out the new site at www.blogtrepreneur.com. If you are a subscriber to Blogtrepreneur feeds or newsletter you will not experience any changes!

Just a quick update to let you know that my quest to build Blogtrepreneur to a leading internet blog is underway. I have secured the domain name www.blogtrepreneur.com and will be hopefully getting the hosting in a few weeks time.
Please support the Blogtrepreneur cause by donating through the button in the sidebar, if you feel that my articles have helped in anyway. Any donations will be greatly appreciated!

PixTower Review: Pixel Advertising

2006-06-01T18:13:00.000+01:00

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We all saw how popular Alex Tew's Million Dollar Homepage became over a matter of a few months, with his huge amounts of media publicity, all due to his novel concept of advertising. However since then, there have been an enormous amount of copycat sites, all with the same method of pixel advertising. Some of these were still quite successful but most were not. I even started my own pixel site, and obviously saw no sales!

I was therefore impressed when I read about Nathan Waters' new take on Pixel Advertising, by introducing pixTower (http://www.pixtower.com/). I quote from Nathan's site:

"pixTower is a very, very tall virtual tower made up of many storeys (or pixPartments). Each pixPartment has been purchased, designed and created by either an individual or business. Because of this, each pixPartment is unique; comprising of the blood, sweat and tears of its creator... which ultimately results in an awesome looking tower made purely from pixels!"

Nathan has created pixTower to firstly try and compete with the likes of Alex Tew and to fund his university study costs and accomodation. He also hopes to put profits into more community-based projects, which is another great reason to support him. PixPartments start off at completely $FREE, another superb reason to join pixTower, but for the more plush and bigger advertising blocks, $79 is what you will need to drive lots of traffic to your site.

A great feature of the site, along with the regularly updated blog is the fact that you can design your own virtual apartment. All you have to do is download the template, and create your apartment to suit your taste. And if you don't feel up to the job of designing, Nathan has created a special sister site, uniquely designed to create your own apartment at http://www.pixpartments.com/ run by Tristan Grace, with prices starting at a mere $39.

As a keen reader of Nathan's blog at www.nathanwaters.com, I wish him all the best on this venture, and hopefully this post will contribute to more sales on his site, but be quick, there are only 29 fre pixPartments left. I know I'm heading off there straight after this to design my own!

Blogging Tools Week: Ping-O-Matic

2006-06-01T13:04:00.000+01:00

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Blog pinging becomes important when you've just written a post, or have made changes to your template design, or have added any new features on your site. I always go to sites such as www.pingomatic.com or www.pinger.blogflux.com as they seem to be the most highly ranked on Google.
However you may be thinking what is a pinging service, and that is what I'll explain today.

What is ping? Before blogs were born, many content writers for web pages had a significant problem in that search engines such as Yahoo only indexed their new pages after 6 weeks. Now for a site owner, this would mean not a lot of immediate traffic and slow site growth.
However with the introduction of weblogs, the rules of indexing have changed. A blog can simply use a pinging service to say to a search engine "Im Over Here", and they would get indexed almost immediately.

Pinging to a focus point such as Weblogs.com or Technorati also means that today, search engines need only go to one of these pages to realise that you have added new content to your site, and then they can index all new sites at once.

Whenever you write a new post, head on down to once of the pinging services, type in the URL and Name of your blog, select which sites you would like to notify of your changes (like Technorati), and then ping away!
This free tool has definitely allowed me to keep in touch with the blogosphere and notify the public of the constant changes I make to my site.

Blogging Tools Week: StatCounter and Performancing

2006-05-31T18:30:00.000+01:00

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A stat counting tool is vital for any website, let alone a blog. For me, my stats have shown me how my blog has matured and aged over the few months I have been posting on it.

The best stat counter which I would freely recommend to any person out there is the one at www.statcounter.com. They are the world's most popular stat counter and there reports are always spot on. There are a number of things which are important when it comes to viewing details on statcounter.

Pageviews: This tells you how many times your individual webpage has been loaded and has been viewed.
Unique Visitors: This shows how many visitors have come to your site, who have not previously visited before.
Returning Visitors: This shows how many visitors are coming back to your site, having visited it before.

However, as I am currently using a blog hosted by Blogger, I am not able to make full use of the functions on StatCounter. For example, I am unable to see where my visitors have come from. This is especially important, as I can link swap with any sites linking to one of my articles or posts. I can also check to see whether an article has been Dugg or added to del.ici.ous which is another tool which I will cover later on this week.

As a result, I found another Stat tool to compliment StatCounter called Performancing Metrics (www.performancing.com). Along with the normal visitor count and pag views, I am ble to record where my visitors are going to after visiting my page, and where they are arriving from.

Another brilliant tool which Performancing encorporates is an Adsense tracker. This shows you how many clicks you have had on your ads, and at what times of the day they have been clicked. I have often been notified of a click before it appears on Adsense, so this has also boosted my morale at some times!!!

I would thoroughly recommend that you use these 2 sites to track the state of your blog, and to see how it has developed over time. On the left is the first graph I have ever published for Blogtrepreneur that shows the exponential growth of Blogtrepreneur over the opening few months. Due to this growth I plan on expanding Blogtrepreneur!

Blogging Tools Week: Feedburner

2006-05-30T13:01:00.000+01:00

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Following on from my previous post on Technorati, I now want to cover the importance of using Feedburner for your blogging, and I feel the tools that this site offers are the most important in terms of bringing returning readers to your site.
Now, I will define the most important term first, as it can be quite tricky to understand:

RSS or Really Simple Syndication allows you to subscribe to the feed of a website, blog, or most media content sites. This means that when the website is updated, you are automatically sent the new content via email, without having to visit the site to check. What is more useful about RSS, is that you can subscribe to all the feeds you want, and then you can use a feedreading software like Bloglines to view all your feeds in one place, saving you time and increasing efficiency.

Where Feedburner comes in is quite simple. As a publisher of information, all I had to do was sign up, and then create my feed by typing in the name of my blog and its address, and by finally naming my feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Blogtrepreneur.
I was then able to publicize my new feed by adding a chicklet or button which you can see in my sidebar. To make things really easy for my readers, I put a completely free email subscription box at the top of my sidebar, so that readers can quickly subscribe to my content if they like what they see.

Now, every time I write a new post or article, Feedburner automatically detects the new post on my site, and emails it to my subscribers. I didn't even have to pay for the service.

In a nutshell, Feedburner's services have greatly improved my blog's readership, and it is readership that helps to build a fantastic blogging community which will hopefully spread the Blogtrepreneur name.

Are you a naturally born blogger?

2006-05-29T20:49:00.000+01:00

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I've been reading a lot this week, mostly focusing on the world of entrepreneurship and business blogging, and in doing so has taken me from sites like Problogger and Entrepreneurs Journey, to many of the sites that I link to on my blog.

However, what has struck me the most, are their individual abilities to write fluently, without hesitation, and with motivation and passion about their topic. This has led me to ask the question, are some people naturally born bloggers?

Now, I feel there are many different qualities that a communicator posseses for example the ability to put ideas into text, but in my opinion, bloggers are set apart from this field:

Firstly, Bloggers have determination and goals. It would be extremely easy to think that by looking at high - profile blogs, that money and fame can be made within a short space of time. The reality is very different. What we see now is the result of hard years at work, often without sleeping, socialising and doing activities. These genuine bloggers spend hours upon hours, writing new material for their sites, browsing through the blogosphere for new information and news, commenting on other blogs, responding to questions and maintaining their rhythm. Fortunately for them, the strenuous work has paid off for the bloggers, and rightly so. Anyone who strives for a goal and achieves it through hard work deserves full praise and acknowledgement in my opinion.
Bloggers are organised. Although they might not say in public, many bloggers follow a specific rhythm or tempo that helps cary them through the working week. It is usual for bloggers to write posts a few days in advance, so that if they have mind blanks or an off day, they have backup posts to rely on, and to maintain the stream of new information. I have seen the opposite of this theory work for some bloggers, but I myself always like to plan posts days in advance, or at least think of what I would write, so that I never run out of things to talk about.
Bloggers write eloquently whilst encapturing their audience. This is a must for any successful blogger-to-be. If you do not have sufficient writing skills, or the skill to entice readers into your topic, then finding regular readers will always be tricky. For me, the key to writing gripping posts is the fact that I have genuine passion for entrepreneurship (as I consider myself one!), and feel the need to relay this passion onto you.
Blogger have boundaries. Now this may be the most ambiguous of all the points, but in my mind, it is the most important factor in becoming a class blogger. You don't see writers of high traffic sites telling everyone everything about their personal lives, their daily habits...In fact, most people like to keep their work life and business life seperate. Again there are people out there who like to merge the two together, and in no way am I against this. It's just that having yor own privacy and personal space is good to shield you from the blogosphere when things get tough or when you hit a bad patch.

In short, I feel that only a few bloggers possess these skills, I myself feel (and maybe you'll back me up!) that readers can connect with me through my writing.

In the near future, I hope to build on my love for writing and for the business blogging world, and this is something which you will definitely come to see as this Blogtrepreneur grows! Watch this space!...

Blogging Tools Week: Technorati

2006-05-29T09:43:00.000+01:00

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A few days back when I was writing one of my posts, I suddenly noticed how many different tools I make use of so that my blog can run smoothly. In fact, all the tools I use are completely free, so I've decided to start the "Blogging Tools Week" so that all of my readers can benefit from these great tools, which can help to expand your blog and offer the best comfort for the reader.
And I promise, no affiliate links!

The first tool that I'll touch upon is Technorati. You've probably seen their logo on nearly all blogs, but don't know what its about.
Technorati is the Google of the blogging world. The free service automatically tracks blogs every time they are changed or new posts are added. In addition, Technorati also keeps track of which other blogs are linking to you. This has proven to be very helpful to me, as I can discover whether people have been copying my articles, or simply whether people are being kind by doing a bit of link-loving.
By recording the amount of links you have to your blog from other sites, Technorati determines a rank for you. At the moment, my rank is 363,481, however I'm sure that this figure must be out of 10's of millions of blogs who do not have as much link power as mine.

Technorati also allows you to have a watchlist, a search on your favourite keywords or phrases, so that you can keep track of blogs who are talking about your similar interests.

Although I don't really utilize all of Technorati's search features, I still think that it helps me to keep track of the blogosphere and my progress.

Email back Dennis

2006-05-28T17:54:00.000+01:00

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Please email back Dennis, I accidentally rejected your comment, I would love to link swap with you.
Anyone else who wants to swap links, please email me at adnan_278@hotmail.com.

Different ways to blog: Podcasting

2006-05-27T14:31:00.000+01:00

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You may have read more and more about the growth of podcasting today on the internet, however all that technology can seem a little complicating at times, so I will try and break some of it down so you can discover the benefits and disadvantages of podcasting.

Firstly, what is a podcast?
The name podcasting really comes from the Ipod, and focuses around your ability to listen to audio content on your mp3 player, not only on the Ipod. If you get a bit bored of writing content on your site, then there are many programs such as Audacity, which allow you to record your own show, save it as a .mp3 file, then upload it to your webpage so that people can download your show and listen to it on the move.

Most high profile sites such as Engadget now have podcasting, so that readers do not always have to be connected to the internet to take advantage of valuable information. Programs such as iTunes also have pages where you can browse through many popular podcasts. In short, podcasting is becoming an alternative form of giving information to the final user.

So what are the advantages of using podcasting?
Well, as I mentioned, your readers or subscribers to your content can be on the move whilst listening to your show, and this can appeal to readers with short attention spans, or who simply prefer listening rather than reading.

Podcasting can also be fun for you, giving you a break from the constant writing that you have to do to maintain a growing demand for instant information. Visitors to your site will also have a positive reaction to this new type of alternative blogging.

According to Aaron Brazell, podcasting is also great for interviews, as the listener can distinguish the change in speaker, and can really listen to what they are saying, and enjoy a fascinating debate.

Are there any disadvantages to podcasting?
Unfortunately, podcasting and ads do not go well together. Unless you can find a way of integrating spoken ads into your podcast itself, then you are likely to find that your revenue will be less than with textual articles, where readers can navigate away from your page, if an advert looks appealing to them. Whilst listening to a podcast, if a reader attempts to click on an ads, then in most cases the podcast will stop as well.

Another problem is the amount of space a podcast can take up if you host the .mp3 file yourself. Although a few megabytes of space seems minimal, if you produce regular shows, then you may find that your diskspace and your bandwidth when people download the podcasts may get used up more quickly than with a textual article.

I hope this article has given all you Blogtrepreneurs an insight into different methods of blogging, and how adding podcasts to your site, may help a more diverse crowd of visitors come to your site. Please let me know if you have integrated a podcast into your site.

I myself will try podcasting once I have moved to a hosting plan which is only a few weeks away now. Please feel free to donate to help the Blogtrepreneur cause, and so I can continue to provide you with quality information about the business blogging world.

Google introduces Video Ads

2006-05-27T09:43:00.000+01:00

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This week, after long anticipation, Google launched their video ads for both advertisers and publishers. In the Adwords menu, advertisers can choose to use video ads now to increase the exposure of the product.

For an Adsense user, how the process works is quite simple. You must firstly opt to have both text and image ads. Then all video, image and text ads will compete for placement on your site, with the ads that can potentially make the most money for you, appearing in your 300 x 250 Medium rectangle, 336 x 280 Large rectangle or 250 x 250 square. Unfortunately, these are the only ad sizes supported by the videos.

Then when a user comes to your site, a static image of the video will appear. If the user would like to view the ad, they will have to click on it so that the video will start to play. Publishers can watch their own videos, but only if they click on the play button and not on the URL of the advertiser. The videos will not use up your bandwidth or slow your site down, as they are all being hosted by Google

In terms of earnings, I would have to say that initially, all of us publisher's should notice an increase in revenue, due to the novelty of the video ads, and everyone wanting to see what they're like. According to Google, "Publishers will be paid for site-targeted video ads on a CPM basis. For contextually targeted video ads, publishers will be paid for clicks to the advertiser's landing page."

For more information, visit the Adsense Blog.

My Blogtrepreneuring Habits!

2006-05-24T10:28:00.000+01:00

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This week at Problogger, Darren Rowse has highlighted the need for a blogging rhythm when it comes to writing posts, checking emails and the like. So I thought I would do my own mini-version of how I divide my time up each day.

Now unfortunately for me, I am not able to blog full time, as I go to college from 9-4 every week day. However this is my routine when I come back from school:

Check emails at Outlook and Hotmail, and respond to any queries and offers to swap links
Check my Stats at Statcounter to see how popular my blog has become!
Log into my Adsense account to see how my balance is growing (or not on some days!)
See what's going on in the blogging / business blogging world. This normally involved going to sites such as Problogger, Entrepreneurs-Journey and many others.
See what's happening at the sites that I've linked to (these sites are normally full of quality content).
Log into Small Business Forums to see if I can participate in any interesting threads
Finally, I decide to write a post for Blogtrepreneur, based on the information that I've just read in the blogosphere. In the week days, if I'm feeling tired, these posts are normally short and to the point, but on weekends when Im a bit more lively, I usually get on to doing some key posts.

I generally find that this routine helps me to relax from the hassle of college, but that it helps me to keep in touch with the important news that is happening throughout the internet.

I would love to find out what blogging rhythms other people have, so please feel free to leave a comment.

What are Adbrite and Text Link Ads

2006-05-23T16:04:00.000+01:00

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If you've been following Blogtrepreneur for a while, you will have noticed the constant changes that I make to the site to optimize performance and to make reading my articles enjoyable and profitable!
As well as adding channels to my Google Ads, I have also attempted to sign up with the publisher programs at AdBrite and Text Link Ads (aff). Unfortunately they do not look very favourable on .blogspot.com domain names, so its a good job that I'll be changing that soon!

But many of you might be wondering what these two sites offer, and it is this which I will be explaining in this post...

Adbrite considers itself as an e-commerce site, but instead of selling items and electronics, it sells spaces on people's websites.

If you are an advertiser, you can visit Adbrite's marketplace, or visit the "Your Ads Here" link on the Publisher's website. Then you can pay for a certain period, and your ad will be placed on the publisher's site, with Adbrite taking a percentage of the sale price.

If you want to sell adspace on your site, then all you need to do is sign up with Adbrite, submit your site, and then put a snippet of html in the place you would like your ads to appear. Its pretty simple. Any money you earn will be sent to you in check form, so to sum up, Adbrite basically does all the hard work for you. Of course, you will be able to approve ads that appear on your site.

Text Link Ads, considers itself as a "premier targeted traffic and link popularity ad firm". The concept of the site is similar to that at Adbrite.
As an advertiser you can buy adspace on any site that is selling their webspace.
As a publisher you can sell adspace to anyone and you can drive people to TLA through their generous affiliate scheme. What I like most about TLA, is that fact that they pay directly through Paypal, so there's no waiting for checks to arrive!

To conclude, if you're looking for yet more ways to get more revenue off your blog, or infact, off any site that you own, then Adbrite and Text Link Ads (aff) certainly get high ratings from me!

Starting an E-Biz - Part 5: Marketing your E-Business

2006-05-22T17:17:00.000+01:00

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Hi Guys,
Well here we are, the last and final part in my series of How To Start Your Own E-Business. In the series we have covered Planning, Domain Names and Hosting, Design and Content and Payment. In this last episode, I will discuss the importance of marketing your new e-site.

I will use this analagy once again, as it really proves the point of the sheer scale of the net. Imagine you have just set up a retail shop, but the problem is that it is in the middle of the desert. No-one knows you're there, and the only way you can bring customers to your shop is by spreading the word. Marketing, is the formal word for this method.

There are many different forms of marketing; by mouth, by telephone, but the form which we will focusing on the most is (you've guessed it) on the internet.
Now, there are two roads you can take with this:

You can spend money on attracting more visitors to your site with PPC campaigns such as Google Adwords.
You can optimize your site, in terms of content and processes, so that people can come through Search Engines (Google) and be able to quickly buy a product through your seamless shopping basket.

Of course, with any E-Business, you're more likely to want to spend no money on the site at first, especially if you're unsure about how well it will do. My first piece of advice is to optimize your site for search engines, as most companies get their traffic from MSN, Yahoo and Google. Start by writing text which is full of juicy keywords that describe your site best, so for example, if you are running a golf store, have a caption which says

"Golf Store: For the cheapest prices of golf tees, golf balls, golf clubs, and many more items which can help you lower your handicap".

Phrases like this will attract even the worst of golfers, as all are looking to lower their handicap and improve their game. Once you have added the juicy info. I thoroughly recommend linking to sites which have the same content as you. This does not necessarily mean that you link to a competitors golf shop, but that maybe you look for a blog on your topic and ask if you can swap links. Search engines like Google love sites that share links with as many sites as possible so make sure you do this to increase your rank in the search engines.

Other search engine optimization techniques include submitting your site to Google and adding Meta Tags to the header of your site, but do a search online for this.

I would also say that giving away free information can build up trust between the buyer and yourselves. By offering information or even a product which is completely no strings attached, the buyer feels that they have just got a great deal, and are more inclined to buy from you, as you seem generous in their opinion!

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, you can also choose to use PPC campaigns to promote your site. Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions are probably the best providers around. How they work is quite simple. Simply, go to their sites, select the keywords which you think best describe what your site is about, and then everytime a person clicks on yor advert with your keywords in it, you will have to pay a certain price. The good thing about PPC advertisers, is that you can set your daily limits to how much you spend, and you can also check to see your conversion rate (or put in simpler terms, how many people buy a product after they have arrived at your site through your advert).

The world of PPC is constantly changing, so make sure you do good research on the best keywords before you commit to spending any amount of money. Yaro Starak at Small Business Branding reports how he lost $500 marketing his business in the wrong way.

My final advice therefore is test, test, and test your site again, so that you can optimize the buying experience for your customers. Make sure that they can buy an item without hassle.

If any has made use of these articles and started up their own E-Business, I would love to hear from you, and if you feel these articles have benefited you, please donate to the Blogtrepreneur mission, to provide you aspiring entrepreneurs with easy to access and useful information...

Good luck with your new E-Business!

Blogtrepreneur Update

2006-05-19T17:50:00.000+01:00

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Hello fellow Blogtrepreneurs!
I know I haven't been posting regularly but I have been planning the growth of Blogtrepreneur.
As you may know, I have been included in many Carnivals and competitions, and have been thrilled with the great feedback from one-off and recurring readers.

Due to this, I intend on growing Blogtrepreneur, by hopefully buying my own domain and hosting which should definitely boost traffic and search engine traffic, and as a result will encourage more clicks on Adsense, which is what everyone is after surely!!!

Im more excited about my series which is scheduled to start this summer, I won't give too much away, but what I will tell you all is that a blogging experiment will be setup with the addition of an e-book at the end of the run, which will hopefully increase my internet recognition.

If you feel that Blogtrepreneur has helped you in any way, or if you feel like helping me progress to the next stage of my blogging life, I would really appreciate it if you could donate to Blogtrepreneur through Paypal, the button is under my About Me section on my homepage sidebar.
Of course any donations would be featured on Blogtrepreneur, as I like to make you as my loyal readers feel special!

Thanks again, and keep up the blogging!

How often do you post on your blog?

2006-05-13T17:26:00.000+01:00

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I was reading a great post by Darren Rowse (a.k.a. Problogger), about how he spends his time blogging, and the rhythm he uses on a day-to-day basis when writing new articles.
He writes:

"A year or so ago I used to spend a higher percentage of the time I dedicated to blogging actually writing content. I was blogging as a solo blogger (no network affiliations) and the administrative demands of my blogs were quite low. As a result I used to spread out my posting rate pretty evenly through the day. I would write a post, then move onto email, check RSS and then maybe write another post. I was averaging 25 or more posts per day.

The last month or so things have had to change. The changes have largely been the result of different circumstances and demands on my time (being a part of a large network of blogs like b5media has been a bit part of that). It’s also probably partially as a result of blogs growing which increases the administration levels needed to maintain them (ie moderating comments, responding to emails, participating in discussions etc)."

Darren goes on to explain how now he spends a larger part of his day preparing blog articles and writing them, rather than skipping between internet pages.

For me, I've always tried to write at least 1 post every 3 or so days, so as to keep visitors coming back for more information. At the worst, I post every week, and sometimes I find myself posting a few times a day. I think however, that it is important to keep a consistent blogging rhythm. If you do, readers, and subscribers to your blog feeds will know when to expect your next instalment or article, and so will be enthusiastic and keen to receive confirmation of a new post. If you write on an ad-hoc and unregular basis, I myself, have found that readers tend to lose interest in what your blog is saying.

Problogger comments on the need for advance posting too. I think that if you want to have a really reliable blog, and want to earn money off it, you should keep a few articles as a back up, just in case you have a mind blank one day, and cannot find any decent material to post.

So how am I going to sustain my level of readership you may ask? Well, my aim is to always post on interesting and unique topics, whilst also writing courses for the beginner on a number of topics, for example, How To Start Your Own E-Business.

In the mean time, Happy Blogtrepreneuring!

Technorati Tags : Blogtrepreneur, Blog, Adsense, Problogger

Starting an E-Biz - Part 4: Payment and Customer Service

2006-05-12T17:07:00.000+01:00

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As promised, I will continue with my series of How To Start Your Own E-Business, for all you eager business people out there!
Please read my previous chapters: Part 1 - Planning, Part 2 - Domains and Hosting and Part 3 - Site Design.

In this article I will focus on the various payment methods that a customer can use in order to bring the most profit and revenue out of your site. I will also be looking at how your relationship with customers can affect your sales figures.

Firstly, what methods of payment are there? Like any businesses you can accept cheques, postal orders, banker's drafts or even cash if you're a bit risky, but if you want to get anywhere with your online enterprise, you need to be able to accept online payments. It has been proven that over 90% of people paying over the net use credit cards, so you must be able to accept credit card payments on your site.

How can I do that you may ask? Well, there are a number of options. Your local bank will be able to set up a merchant account for you, but normally they require a hefty safety deposit, and their rates per transaction are not that great. Let's say they charge you 5% per transaction. Then if you have a customer that pays £100 for an item then you will receive £95, and the bank will get £5 of that money. There are also number of online payment services, some of which are cheap and simple, others which are more expensive but a lot more advanced.

For me, Paypal has always been the easiest to use and to setup. In order to start taking payments with Paypal, you will need to register, and altogether the signup process takes about 5-6 days. After that you're free to easily add html code to your site. Paypal now has a shopping basket feature so that people can "Add To Cart" and "Checkout" just like in those sites which seem really professional. In terms of fees, the starting rate is £0.20 plus 3.9% per transaction, which for a third party account provider, is a very reasonable rate. Customers too can pay with credit card, debit card, or an e-cheque, which takes money from their account. Security-wise, Paypal is one of the safest online payment services around, so there are no problems there.
I would recommend Paypal to any new E-Business, however, if you get a lot of sales, I would recommend you look into a more professional solution, as I find that Paypal can scare some customers away due to its eBayish nature!

Once you have set up your Add to Cart buttons and Shopping Basket, which are all fully customisable then hopefully, you will start to see some sales. Note that people do not just turn up at your site just like that. Think of it in this way, having an online shop, is like having a retail store in the middle of the desert, unless people know you're out there, you'll find that you get few visitors, and even fewer sales. This is where marketing comes in, but we'll talk more about that in the next issue.

Customer service is a phrase that we hear a lot nowadays, especially since most of the world is turning to an online solution for their businesses. Without politeness and professionalism, you may not be able to build a very good reputation, and it is reputation that will result in repeat sales and the spreading of the word about your site by mouth.
Here are a few pointers:

Get a freephone / tollfree number: people hate paying for calls, they would much rather move to a fellow competitors site.
Respond to your emails quickly: again, customers are not prepared to wait more than 24 hours for a reply from the vendor, so don't miss out on a sales opportunity.
Fast and reliable shipping: there is nothing more than a lost item in the post, so make sure this doesn't happen to you, unless you want a ton of complaints!
Finally, make sure that your item is in stock: this only becomes a problem if you are dealing with physical items.

There are many more factors which can encourage or put off a buyer, so get in touch with a buyer and see what they think of your site, or get in touch with me, and I will happily review your new site. Stay tuned for the next in the series, and how you can market your business to success!

An update for my fellow bloggers...

2006-05-11T21:07:00.000+01:00

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Hello all,
Well as you can see I have started to experiment more with my Adsense layouts. Instead of using the customary Blogger "I will place your Adsense for you" option, I decided to put a Leaderboard just below the Title Banner. Let me tell you all now that the results have been pleasing and I hope that lots of people continue to click on my links. Also I discovered that channels on Adsense are really useful whilst experimenting and analysing your Adsense.
Whenever you set up ads, just add a channel and that will enable you to analyse how for example your leaderboard is performing, or how many clicks your text link ads are getting for you.
I hope to finish my series on How To Start Your Own E-Business, so if you're waiting for the next instalment in the series, watch this space!
Away from blogging, I have been helping my mum with the new layout of her site www.rukhsanajewellery.com, where we hope to increase the amount of visitors to her site, and more sales!
Anyway, this post was just to let you know what was happening. Keep up the blogging!

Yahoo Publisher Network

2006-05-07T13:45:00.000+01:00

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Throughout all of my posts here at Blogtrepreneur, I have always referred to Google Adsense as the major and best program for PPC campaigns. However, I there are others which have begun to gather publicity and more users, one of such is Yahoo Publisher Network or YPN for short.

In effect, YPN has the same priniciples as Adsense, in that it strives to display ads relevant to the content on your site. What's more is that you can integrate other Yahoo services into your site or blog, for example Add To My Yahoo, (RSS) and Y!Q.

Unfortunately the contextual ad service is only in its beta stages, and as a result is only open to invitation. Also there does seem to be some anger directed at Yahoo! due to the termination of some of their publishers' accounts on the network. According to Yahoo, they had"poor quality traffic".

Despite these problems, YPN is set to compete with Google and other companies for an ads-service.

In later articles I will try to uncover some of the facts surrounding other ads services, such as Text Link Ads and Chitika Mini Malls in the search to find the best paying site for Bloggers.

Google adds new Referrals and Graphics

2006-05-06T15:51:00.000+01:00

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While I was browsing through my Adsense account, I noticed that Google had added new referral products. Among the Adsense, Adwords and Firefox schemes, you can now refer people to Google Pack and Picassa, which is a photo sharing program. For each person you refer to Google Pack you get a $2 commission whilst referring to Picassa will earn you $1, like the Firefox scheme.
The best reward is buy earning $100 every time you refer a customer to Adsense, when the customer himself reaches the $100 dollar mark. Also you earn $20 every time an advertisers uses $100 with Google Adwords.

On top of this exciting news, Google has also just launched the arrival of its new button graphics. In my opinion, they still don't look that appealing, but they are definitely better than the old style buttons.

Starting an E-Biz - Part 3: Site Design and Content

2006-05-04T17:18:00.000+01:00

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Welcome to back to the third instalment in the series of How To Start Your Own E-Business. In this issue, we will be focusing on what I think is the most important aspect if you want to succeed in your new business, the design and content of your website. In Part 1, we talked about Planning Your Business, and in Part 2, we discussed the importance of Choosing a Domain Name and Hosting. Part 3 will show you how you can optimize your design in order to attract more visitors and more sales opportunities.

The first dilemna you may come across when starting your own website, is whether you should hire a designer to do all of your work for you, or whether you should save a bit of money by doing it yourself. In my opinion, I value both options; if you want to save time and want a top notch design within a limited timetable, then it would be better to look for a designer who can do the work for you. Browse various websites, ask for quotes and check out portfolios. Once you are happy with a designer, and have agreed on a price (which can range from £100s to even £1000s for a fully equipped ecommerce site where you will be selling your products), then plan out what you would like the site to achieve, whether it be to gain income from ads or gain sales from your products.

However, if you really want to get to grips with the world of web designing, and have quite a lot of time, and not a very deep pocket (!), then I suggest that you design your site yourself. In order to do this there are a few necessities which you cannot do without:
1) You need to have a decentl computer to be able to handle the amount of information that you're going to be making for your site.
2) You may need to buy in excess of £300 of web-editing software. I will explain this in more detail in a minute.
Most websites are comprised of images, text and maybe videos, but in order to put all of this information together, the computing language of HTML is used. This basically contains a set of instructions to the Internet Browser (eg. MSN Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, or Internet Explorer) telling them how to display all of the information. Anyway, the knowledge of HTML is a must have if you are going to be designing your own site. I advise you check out www.w3schools.com, for detailed tutorials for beginners.
In order to write the HTML you need to have an HTML editor, which is where the mass of software comes into the equation. I have always used and seen Macromedia Dreamweaver as the best of all HTML editors, and think it is comprehensible but yet has a wide variety of tools and options. In order to create those stunning images and logos for your site, I suggest buying Adobe Photoshop, which has always been a leader in image creation. Once you've got all of these programs, its time to get designing.

As I said in Part 1, it is essential that you have planned out a flow diagram showing how your site progresses from the Home Page through to Product Pages and then to Shopping Basket and Credit Card entering. If you don't have one, then you may create a site that has been mashed together without any real purpose.

Start by using Dreamweaver to make a HomePage, a Products Page, an About Page, and a Contact Page. People always want to see who they are dealing with when it comes to buying a product. Then start entering the information on each page, in simple black and white writing with a simple font. Once you have done this then you can start to spruce up your pages with colours and images.
Take pictures of your products and scale them to size in Photoshop, adding any borders that may add to the appeal of the item. Then save each picture in your hosting account and add the HTML to the image source in your HTML editor: www.w3schools.com will help you to code all of your pages. Some words of advice, try not to have any broken backlinks, don't make your site overly colourful, and finally, try not to add so many images that the pages load extremely slowly!
To finish add your shopping cart and some graphics using Photoshop and you raring to go. Upload all of your pages to net and spread the good word!
Please comment if you think I've missed anything out, and good luck with creating your new site. The next article will focus more on Marketing Your New Website.
In the mean time, happy blogtrepreneuring!

Starting an E-Biz - Part 2: Choosing Domain Names and Hosting

2006-04-30T19:59:00.000+01:00

Blogtrepreneur has moved! Please check out the new site at www.blogtrepreneur.com. If you are a subscriber to Blogtrepreneur feeds or newsletter you will not experience any changes!

Welcome back fellow Blogtrepreneurs to the 2nd part in my series of How To Start Your Own E-Business. In the previous issue, we looked at How To Plan Your E-Biz.

In order to start any type of business online, you need to have a website, or a "virtual address" where potential customers can come and visit you to find out more about your product. The domain name of any company is their online address, and it is this address which needs to be just as appealing or recognised by others who may buy your products.
The key to success in choosing a domain name is to firstly always buy a .com name. In most cases, especially with common terms or niches, your desired domain name will already have been bought buy someone else. If this is the case, try and contact the owner to see if they are willing to give up the domain name for a set amount of money.
If this fails, then .net or .org extensions are the next best. Finally if these names are taken to, then there are 100s of TLD's that are of course less popular. Extensions such as .us or .co.uk lack credibility in my opinion, however, it can appeal to customers from the same country.

To register a domain name, I personally prefer 1and1.co.uk, they are friendly, their customer support is pretty good and their services online are easy to use. Pricing for a .com name at the moment is only £8.89 per year, but that price can only decrease over time. For a cheaper solution .co.uk are a breathtaking £1.99 per year, a bargain!

Once you have registered your "virtual address", you now need a "virtual residence" where you can place all your information regarding your business in one place, a holding place for your articles, pictures and videos. When it comes to hosting, there are a few factors which you should consider: firstly, how reliable are your hosting service? Hosts should have an up-time of at least 95%. Also check to make sure that the host offers 24/7 phone support, not an automated service. Finally make sure to check how much bandwidth you are offered. Bandwidth is basically the number of visitors that are able to visit your site.

Personally, for my mum's site I used Frozen Webhost, which came recommended by a friend. Their customer support is second to none and their pricing is very competitive: 10 GB Bandwidth, 1000MB disk, Unlimited emails, Unlimited MySqls (for forums and blogs) is only $5 per month.

Once you have secured your domain name and hosting it is time to start designing your site, and it is this subject that we will be focusing on in the next issue of How To Start Your Own E-Biz.

Kepp it Up!!!

Starting an E-Biz - Part 1: Planning your business

2006-04-19T12:31:00.000+01:00

Blogtrepreneur has moved! Please check out the new site at www.blogtrepreneur.com. If you are a subscriber to Blogtrepreneur feeds or newsletter you will not experience any changes!

Welcome to my four part series on How To Start Your Own E-Business. In these series of articles I will cover Planning your Business, Securing a Domain Name and Hosting, Site Design and Content and Marketing your E-Site.

So, let's focus on Planning your first E-Business. To start any business, especially an online, I would recommend focusing on what you enjoy doing. It might be playing golf, knitting, reading books or cooking. To be an entrepreneur in this field, you need to be genuinely interested in what you are selling, otherwise, you may lose interest and that will result in a loss of sales and money.
Now, using this category (eg. golf), jot down some rough ideas on the type of golf-related item or information that you could use for your site. Don't get me wrong. Information can sell just as well as a physical golf product, things like Ebooks have become famous for their ease in creation and for their cheap manufacture and shipping. However, you will still need a website in order to sell your final product.

Once you have a few ideas, for example golf tees and balls, try and think of a way in which you can stand yourself out from the crowd. If you search for golf tees on Google, there are hundreds if not thousands of small or large businesses hoping to make it big by selling these tees. However, they are faced with too much competition, resulting in lower sales prices, and lower profits. If you can come up with a novel concept or an idea which has little competition then you could be onto a winner. I came up with the great idea of selling personalized golf balls and tees. Although there is competition, this is limited, allowing me to make a good profit on my items.

Planning your website before creating it, will also help you focus your goals, and avoid useless information on the site. I recommend making a site flow, i.e. draw a simple page which shows links, and navigation around the site, no images or content, merely the site frame.

Once you have planned your site's navigation then things such as layout, colour schemes and content will be easier to add, however we will cover this topic and other more thoroughly in my next articles.

What's New on Google Adsense?

2006-04-18T13:08:00.000+01:00

I thought that I should just update what's going on in the world of Adsense.
The Adsense staff have now added a single page "Make an Adsense Code" for all the Adsense veterans amongst us. I think this was because they received a large number of complaints from the more experienced Adsense users.
AdSense have also introduced a referral program for AdWords so now you can earn $20 for referring a new advertiser to the program (once they spend their first $100).
Although I myself have not had much success with Adsense or any other referral programs from this particular blog, I do have some more ideas in the pipeline so that I can get my first $100 cheque!!!
Anyway, keep blogging away!

Selling Niche Products

2006-04-15T10:59:00.000+01:00

I regularly hear from Internet entrepreneurs (such as Robbin Tungett and blogger Yaro Starak), that selling Niche products is the key to success.
But what is a niche product to start with?
A niche is a category, not one of those diverse categories such as "sport" or "films", but a more defined and generally speaking, a niche which appeals to less people. A few examples of this could be "dog food" or "wallets" or "car exhausts".

According to a wide variety of sources, it is niche products that can cause repeat buying (i.e. buying multiple items from the same person), and an increase in sales. Also, another advantage is less competition from similar sellers.

Let me take a real life example from what I have been selling on eBay recently. Every month I acquire too much contact lens solution, and so I decided to research this on eBay. I listed an item of this solution, and the item attracted bids and sold at around £5. Since then, every contact lens solution I have listed has attracted bidders, and there are at any one time only 20-30 items online at a time = less competition!

I would recommend to anyone to start researching a niche product which they can sell on eBay or on their website. Start by going to www.alibaba.com to research an item. Then go to eBay to find the potential profit on an item (use completed listings function to help), and then finally, search on google to find any competition from other websites.

To your success...

How To Make Money on the Internet - Part 3: Affiliates

2006-04-06T10:32:00.000+01:00

In previous posts I have covered various money making sites and opportunities for example Part 1: eBay and Part 2: Google Adsense.
However, for many people, it has been the use of affiliate links on websites which have provided the largest percentage of all website revenue. So I'll try and explain the major points surrounding such a vast topic.

What is an affiliate scheme?
You have a website and want to make money, so you enroll yourself in an affiliate or associate scheme. Let's take Amazon.com for example. In return for signing up, Amazon asks you to place a piece of html on your site, which enables their ads to be seen on your site. Then every time one of your visitors click on the Amazon link, and buy a product from Amazon, you get commission from that sale. These percentages range from 5% to 7.5% of the product price. Amazon then sends you a cheque or money can be sent by Direct Debit (why can't Adsense have this?!).

The amount of money you can make through Affiliates like this are endless, and all of the thousands of schemes out there offer you different commission fees, so shop around for the best payers.

Affiliate Optimization Tips...
Although I do not use any affiliate schemes on my Blogger site (as it does not allow me to do so), I have read articles from other bloggers on how to benefit the most from placing associate ads on your site:

1) Place affiliate ads that are relevant to your website genre/content: If like me, you are running a Business and Entrepreneurial site, with loads of information about how to make money, you don't want ads around your pages showing products for Table Tennis or Horseriding. Target your audience. Put yourself in their position. What would I buy if I was an entrepreneur? Maybe a book or guide showing how you can use Adsense to its full potential. Amazon has loads of books like this on their site, so place ads that show hese books, and you are likely to see more sales.

2) Blend the ads in with your site: Many people still seem to insist that you should make your ads stand out from the general theme of your site. However, I find that whenever I stumble upon a site using an affiliate, I am put off by contrasting colours. Try to use the same colours for your ads as your site, as this will make the products look more personal and professional.

I have only touched on a few points here, but please get in touch if you feel I have left something big out of my list. To finish, I'll give you the top Affiliate Schemes which have had the most success with other bloggers and entrepreneurs:

Amazon
Clickbank
Commission Junction
SixApart (creators of TypePad)

Use a Simple Style Guide when writing for your Blog

2006-04-04T19:20:00.000+01:00

I recently have been fortunate to have an article written for me by Craig McGinty, a freelance journalist who runs a number of websites including www.thisfrenchlife.com.
He is a firm believer that entrepreneurs and small firms can use blog-style websites to boost their business.

"IF you are looking to make your website work hard for you and boost your business then it needs to look professional, he writes.The design and style is something that you most probably take a lot of time over, but what about the words themselves?

It is important that your articles look as one, that readers are not confused by the appearance of the words on the screen and that your audience are comfortable reading what you write. That is where a simple style guide comes in which is a number of rules that your articles will stick to when you are writing them.

If you look at a newspaper you will see that opening paragraphs will often start with the first word in capitals, dates will be in the same format and the use of certain characters will be banned.To give you a quick idea of the style-guide I use, it’s not written down it’s just in my head, here are some of the rules I stick to:

* Every story I write opens with the first word in capitals, check the first paragraph of this article. If you start with the word ‘I’ then capitalise the next word as well.

* Keep sentences short and snappy, don’t use exclamation marks or capitals mid-sentence unless it’s an abbreviation and understand how apostrophes work.

* Stick to the same way of writing dates, I use September 6, 2005 and for the time I use am and pm, but if you are more comfortable with the 24 hour clock use this instead.

* When you write a number if it is between zero and ten spell it out (just like I’ve done) and anything above, for example 17, use the actual number.

One of the benefits you get from sticking to a style guide is more time, as you are not wondering how something should be written.

Misspell search for eBay

2006-04-02T09:00:00.000+01:00

Every one wants to find a real bargain on eBay. But sometimes with the amount of competition from other buyers on the net, getting a good price just isn't possible.

However, while I was surfing the other day, I discovered that many people when listing their mp3 player for example, spell the title of it wrong (either by accident or because they don't know). So for example they might list the auction as "Ipood 4gb blak mp3 playar". As a result when people search for a black ipod player, their item won't show up and voila, no bids.

That's where the Misspell tool at www.misspellsearch.com comes into handy. You type in the correct spelling of Ipod, and it comes out with loads of other alternatives that people may have used in their listing. And because only a few people know about this tool, you could be getting items of eBay for a really good price.

Give it a go and tell me how it goes.
Happy blogging

Google to rival Paypal?

2006-03-26T13:29:00.000+01:00

Being a keen and regular user of Paypal myself, I thought I should bring to attention some great news that I heard that Google is set to be challenging Paypal with their own internet payment service.
Although Paypal continues to earn eBay more than $200 million dollars in a quarter, I've still seen many people complain about account blocking and money problems associated with Paypal. Check them out (beware there are quite a few):
www.paypalsucks.com
www.paypalwarning.com

GBuy, is set to be the latest development from The Mountain View in California with owner Eric Schmidt saying that Google Inc. were about to introduce a "person-to-person, stored-value payments system", which apparently is the same description Paypal gives to itself!
I have had a good experience personally with Paypal. All my eBay auctions rely on Paypal, so I shouldn't really be grumbling. Has anyone had any experiences that they would like to share about Paypal?
I think that with Google the way they are, leading the Internet forward, Paypal are no competition to them, who knows GBuy could be eBay's next associate!

Blogging builds Self Esteem

2006-03-26T13:25:00.000+01:00

Found this article on Blog Business World, and I thought it was actually very informative so I will share the key points about it with you...

Blogging builds self esteem.

Self confidence and a more positive outlook on life is a seldom discussed aspect of blogging. Because bloggers are often thought by many people, to be reclusive and typing anonymous posts into the blogosphere, without any human interaction. While that stereotype may be true of some bloggers, many more blog writers have gained self confidence from their blog postings.

Personal bloggers have found writing their posts to be powerful therapy. Putting their thoughts and ideas to keyboard, and then presenting them to the world is a courageous act. For many people, the personal blog might be their first entry into the internet community. That first step can be very frightening for many people. Once that initial hurdle is cleared, however, the blogger can continue posting with confidence.

Business and professional bloggers gain confidence as well. For many business people, the idea of writing anything can be a daunting task, and the idea of posting to a blog can be doubly worrisome. One those initial fears of rejection, by current and potential clients and customers is overcome, the business blogger discovers that her ideas are welcomed warmly and with enjoyment. The first step to building an ongoing business relationship has been taken in a positive way.

When a business blogger enters an offline networking event, a new sense of self confidence is brought along from the blog. The business person knows the ideas expressed in the blog posts are usually very well received. As a result of that previous positive experience, the effect carries over to other aspects of business life. The blogger already has experience with networking from comments, sharing e-mails with other bloggers, and from knowing the blog is read by others who value its postings.

The blogger will be much more inclined to reach out to others than ever before, and make the initial introduction. After all, a blog is all about starting conversations and building relationships. Reaching out to others is the purpose of blogging. Making that important first impression, of a confident and professional or business person, is very important in landing new customers and clients. Thanks to the blog, the business person can develop that confidence in abundance.

I would truly recommend as a blogger myself to start a blog today. It's free and its very easy to maintain. Register at www.blogger.com just like I've done!

How RSS and Blogs can Increase Traffic for you!

2006-03-18T10:00:00.000Z

Welcome back to Blogtrepreneur, where today I will be focusing on RSS and blogging.

Well firstly, what’s the difference?
Let’s make this clear…
Blogs are frequently updated web pages that a person
must GO TO in order to read the information. RSS
feeds actually COME TO YOU, containing the new
information provided by the publisher.
Blogs simply are posts made by a publisher in an
attempt to express opinions, give advice, or market
their products and services.
RSS is a delivery channel that actually sends either a
portion of your blog entry or the entire post to your
RSS subscribers, giving them immediate gratification,
as well as giving them reason to return to your site.
I think one of the main benefits of using RSS feeds to
notify subscribers of your new blog postings is that
your information can be immediately devoured by
those who are hungry for what you have to say.
Using RSS and Blogs together, your subscribers can
access your new blog posts immediately through
their RSS reader, or aggregator, within minutes of
you submitting your post, and could be quickly revisiting
your site as a result!
What if you DON’T use RSS with your blog?
Let’s say you have a blog set up on your site, but
you don’t have an RSS feed that delivers your new
blog posts to interested subscribers.
You just made a new post that you feel will really
excite your target market, so you decide to shoot an
e-mail off to them, telling them that they just have
to visit your blog to get the juicy details of your
new message.
That’s great, and I recommend that you still take
action by doing this, however, your message may
either get intercepted by spam filters, the recipient
may not check his e-mail for a couple days, and so
on.
Or…
Maybe you intend to send out an e-mail to your list
about your post, but because you have
entrepreneur’s A.D.D. like I do, you get distracted
and forget, or put it off for a couple days.
As a result, the only traffic you’ll receive for your
blog will come from those who either decide to visit
out of the clear blue, or just happen to stumble upon
your site through some other avenue.
How RSS and Blogs Increase Traffic For You!
Of course, if you create good, keyword rich content
in your blog, and continue to add new content on a
consistent basis, search engines will spider your site,
and your search engine positioning should improve
as a result. But there are many other things you can
do…

In addition to making your blog available via RSS
feeds, not only should you mention your blog in every
email sent out to subscribers, prospects, and clients,
you should consider creating a monthly "best of"
email newsletter of your best blog posts of the month
that proactively directs people to visit your blog.
Many people still haven’t warmed up to RSS
technology (oh, but they will), so even though you
must consistently battle the evil "spam filter empire",
creating a "Best Of X Blog"-type email each month is
an excellent way to drive traffic to your blog, and thus
to profitable links on your blog.
Here are some other tips:

1. When you use an RSS feed to promote your blog,
other web sites can publish your blog by pulling RSS
feeds automatically from related web sites (yours)
according to certain targeted keywords or content.

2. You can submit your RSS feed/blog to RSS and
blog directories. This site will give you a nice list of
places to submit your RSS feed:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55.

3. If you already have a blog, but haven’t
implemented an RSS feed, use the content from your
blog to create as many valuable articles as possible,
submit these articles to article directories, and
promote your blog/rss feed in EACH OF THESE
ARTICLES.

4. Add Adsense ads, affiliate links, and/or your own
product links onto your post pages in order to
monetize the increased traffic you start receiving as a
result of your efforts.

5. Participate in forums, helping others with their
concerns, and direct them to visit your blog.

6. Turn your RSS feed into a radio broadcast with
"Podcasting". Podcasting is simply adding audio files
to your RSS feed or blog, enabling subscribers to
listen to new information on their computer, through
an MP3 player, and so on. We’ll talk more about
podcasting in future issues.

7. Blog and Ping. One of the best ways to
get traffic to your web sites is by linking to a web
page from your blog entry, and then send a ping
request to some sights that want to know when
blogs are updated, i.e., when new entries are added.
This technique works like a charm.
RSS technology combined with your own contentrich
blog, geared towards a specific target market, is
a must-have strategy in every online marketer’s
toolbox.

Battle of The Blogs: Blogger vs. WordPress

2006-03-13T17:37:00.000Z

Hey Guys.
Well, I thought I should better start writing an article of the best blog around, as Im thinking of changing blogs. Anyone have any recommendations? As you know, I am currently using Blogger made by Google to write all of my articles, however, I found out through forums, that other people had started to talk about other blogging software, like Wordpress. Well, is it really any good? I'll try and outline the main pros and cons of having Wordpress compared to Blogger.

1)Both Blogger and Wordpress are free! However, with the full (and recommended) version of Wordpress, you need to have your own hosting on which to place your blog. Therefore, you also would need your own domain name, which costs around £6-8 for a .com name, with the hosting which starts off at about £3 per month. Blogger 1-0 up!

2)One of the main things which made me want to try out wordpress was categories. Blogger doesnt have a category feature! Therefore, for all you people out there reading my blog, it probably takes you ages to try and find a topic which you prefer. Wordpress back to 1-1!

3) It is very easy to use Blogger using the WYSIWYG editor, with previews available before you have to publish the article/template. Wordpress, although easy to write articles, does require amateur knowledge of HTML/CSS, which is one of the reasons which I was more inclined to using Blogger. For all you pro's though who can handle the messy stuff Wordpress is the way, but being realistic, most of the population doesnt have a clue about CSS, and WordPress has no preview, so Im afraid that one will have to go to Blogger, 2-1 up!

4) Blogger has few themes. Most of these although 3 column (with room for adsense, affiliates), are pretty similar, and so you cant get any real personalisation. Wordpress on the other hand now has over 400 to choose from, massive choice! Although these dont have the customary 3 columns, they still look pretty damn good, so WP is back on level terms at 2-2!

5) The FTP connection on Blogger is really poor. Although at the moment I only have 10 or so articles, I've heard that if you have 100 articles, it doesn't connect 99 times out of 100, or if it does, it takes an age to upload! WordPress is instantaneuos which another good thing I like about it! 3-2 WordPress Wins!

I think overall, I now prefer WordPress over Blogger mainly because of the customization that's possible, the amount of plug-ins are endless! But now, Im in a dilemna over which one to choose, what do you think I should do? Please reply to this post, or email me using the link in the "About Me" section.

Finally, as I am a broke student, but looking to get a .co.uk or .com site, I would appreciate any donations. If any of you guys out there have been liking reading and subscribing to my blog, then I thank you for allowing me to continue what I like doing.
Keep doing what you're doing!

The Da Vinci Code - Darren Brown

2006-03-10T18:14:00.000Z

Hi again, hope you're all busy making business!
Well I've just finished reading Darren Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and all I can say is WOW! Let me tell you that if you're one for a conspiracy then this book is for you.
Let me explain what it's about without giving too much away for you.
Basically, the story revolves around the murder of an old curator of the Louvre museum, and the reasons for his death, who killed him and most importantly what he was apparently protecting from his murderer. Characters Robert Langdon and the curator's grand-daughter Miss Neveu, help to unravel the meaning behind his death through the breaking of cryptic codes and clues that the curator had left behind minutes before his death.
As the story unfolds, it will become apparent to you that this story is very controversial, taking 'stabs' at the Church, and I suppose it is this which has made it so famous. The Holy Grail is the main theme, the object/thing/idea which everyone is searching for. Do you believe in the Grail? Well start believing because this story challenges its existence, and as the trailor puts it, "threatens to destroy mankind and all it believes in.
I highly recommend this book who anyone who is after a bit of action, thrill and suspense.
Also, check out the great trailer (gives me the creeps!)
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/da_vinci_code/
Keep up the business!

How I make money on the Internet - Part 2: Google Adsense

2006-03-08T19:22:00.000Z

Hello all on this rainy March day here in the UK!
Hope you have all been blogging you heart out.
Anyway, as promised here is Part 2 in my series of How To Make Money on the Internet.
Click here if you missed Part 1: eBay, as it will show you valuable tips on using the ever-growing auction site.
Anyway, in this issue, I will focus on the ever growing phenomenon of Google Adsense. If you are new to this though you may have a few questions which I will try and answer:

1) What is Adsense and how does it work?
Google AdSense is the programme that can generate advertising revenue from each page on your website - all you need to do is add a snippet of code, and hey-presto, your ads appear!.
AdSense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content. And when you add a Google search box to your site, AdSense delivers relevant text ads that are targeted to the Google search results pages generated by your visitors’ search request. So basically, if you have a site on Golf Clubs, then Adsense will show ads from other companies who also specialize in Golf Clubs.
To get revenue, someone must click on the Google Adsense link, and in return, you will be rewarded with a fee which can range to a few cents to a few dollars if you use the right keywords. Most programs like Adsense operate on a CPC (Cost Per Click) scheme, however there are some which also use CPM (Cost per 1000 impressions or views).

2)What are the advantages/disadvantages of using Adsense?
If you have a site which has a high amount of traffic, then Adsense can be very beneficial. Getting a six-figure sum from the program is not unheard of if you have a large amount of people coming to your site daily.
However, there are a few drawbacks: Google only sends your accumulated money once you have reached the $100 mark, so if you don't reach that, then you don't get your hands on that hard-earned cash!Also, by placing content relevant ads on yor site, you may be attracting people to buy items on competitors sites, which is never a good thing in business. Also, if Google finds any trace of malicious clicking (you clicking on your own ads), then your account can be indefinitely suspended...probably for ever! Finally, your site must not have anything of illicit nature (I hope you wouldn't have a site like that anyway!)

Now for the real business, my tips on how you can make money using Google Adsense:

1)Place your ads in a place on your page where all your visitors will see it. It has been proven that generally the top left or right corners of your page are the most eye-catching to visitors.
2)Dont put Adsense on a retail site!Doing so will only hinder your chances of making that all important sale.
3)Use colours which really stand out from the general theme of your webpage. It has been noticed that even the ugliest of sites can make a good income due to the boldness of their ads.
4)Your ads will only make money if you have lots of traffic, and people who are interested in the information your ads have to offer. This is a concept I will talk about in later parts of the series on How To Make Money on the Internet.
Make the leap to Adsense and you should be building up a nice amount of cash on the side, or even you could be a Six-Figure Blogger, and that would be something wouldn't it! Have I left anything out? Please comment on this article, and tell me!

Please see the next in the series on How To Make Money on the Internet - Part 3: Affiliates
Happy Blogtrepreneuring!!!

Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur?

2006-03-02T21:22:00.000Z

I've always considered myself as a bit of an entrepreneur, but what really is an entrepreneur, and what types of things make them so different to everyone else.

According to Wikipedia.com, an 'Entrepreneur' is a "loanword from the French language that refers to a person who undertakes and operates a new venture, and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks."

To be an entrepreneur, I think that you've got to possess certain qualities that make you different from the rest of the wheelers and dealers who want to be the next Richard Branson.
Firstly, and most obviously, you have to be business-minded, meaning that you always want to make money out of every situation possible, whether it be at work, school, college, at home.
Determination is also the key to entrepreneurial success. If you suddenly have a brain-wave, you must be prepared to follow through with that idea and be prepared to work long and hard in order to achieve your goal. I myself have been a culprit of this, but in reality, it is only those who really motivate themselves, that will get all the riches and fame.
Finally, you have to be a bit risky and a bit of a gambler. Thats not to say that you should spend your whole life's savings on a dead-end project, but it means that you should calculate the risks, but then have the guts to make a quick decision, that could cost you or could see you rise up the ranks.
What if you dont have one of these qualities? Dont give up. As the Army advert says "Aim Higher".

How I make money on the Internet - Part 1: eBay

2006-03-02T20:55:00.000Z

Ever wanted to make a little extra cash online, or wanted to turn your internet career into something big? Then this is the two part article for you, focusing on the main aspects of making money on the internet, and how you can generate a good revenue solely from advertising and auctioning.
In this first part I will look at eBay, and how you and others can easily make good money, just from selling online.

I started off selling various items on eBay that I no longer needed around the house, things from young children's books, to unused computer keyboards. At first, the results can be a little disappointing, especially when you are new to the auctioning system, and when you have no feedback to rely on.
After a while however, as my item description began to get more professional in appearance, I realised that people were starting to actually bid on my items, things I thought never would have sold!
Although I generated a small amount of profit from each item I sold, there were also fees which I had to pay for, Paypal fees, Listing Fees, Final Value Fee, Postage....it all adds up!
When you are selling an item, you have to plan how much the item will cost you in all of these fields, if you are going to make a loss, there is simply no point in auctioning your item (unless you are willing to sacrifice a few quid for some good feedback).
My first selling venture on eBay, was through the selling of the Nike Anti - Racism Bands, where I made an amazing £6-8 profit on each band!! It was this that really got me hooked on the power of eBay, and the easyness of making money.
I would recommend though that if you are thinking of starting of making a full - time business out of eBay, you consider your market.
Firstly, which audience are you aiming at? If you are thinking of becoming a full time football boots auctioneer, you need to make your descriptions appealing to teens, and young adults.
Secondly, what is the competition like in your field or niche? If there are already hundreds of people selling football boots at competitive prices, you will have to decide if your products will stand out from the crowd in terms of quality or price.

These are my points that will help all of your listings be successful and will attract potential bidders:

1) The Item title must be appealing, stuff like "ATI Radeon Card X450603924 Dell" is not going to really catch the eye, unless there is someone who actually wants exactly that. Try to spruce up the title a bit by adding exclamation marks "BRAND NEW ATI Radeon Card!!!Lowest price ever". Captions like this will be sure to pull visitors to your item.
2)Once you have lured a visitor to your item description, make sure that its not just a load of gibberish, speak in the customers language. Colour helps!
3)A lot of people simply hike up the postage to cover for all of their fees and loads of profit on top, but I think that this definitely puts people off bidding. If you put a modest postage price, people are more likely to think you are being kinder to them by offering a lower postage amount.
4)Offering a Buy-It-Now price as well as normal bidding can help raise the price of your item, as people can see what you are expecting to get for that item, and so think that the item is more valuable.

I could go on forever with ways to increase hits on your auction listing, but a simple bit of advice, imagine yourself in the customer's shoes and think whether you'd place a bid if you saw your item description. If not, find out ways to improve your listing.

Please read my next in the series, Part 2: Google Adsense, or Part 3: Affiliates

Web Hosting Review - Frozen Webhost

2006-02-25T18:00:00.000Z

Since the start of November 2005, I have been using Frozen Webhost as hosts for my e-commerce website that sells Costume Jewellery (www.rukhsanajewellery.com) Since that time they have more than excelled in their services and so I would strongly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a cheap and affordable host.
Their 3 packages start of at a low $5/month where for this price you can get:
10 GB Bandwidth
1000MB Disk
Unlimited Emails
Unlimited FTP
Unlimited SQL Databases and Unlimited Subdomains.
The highest value package goes to $15/month, where you get 50GB Bandwidth!
Over the time I have been a customer, I have never had any major problems, however if I have had a query, I have just contacted their friendly staff through MSN, where they have been more than happy to look after my needs.
To top it off, Frozen Webhost are ranked joint 1st out of 400 hosts on www.webhostingjury.com
Please check them out, and I strongly would urge you to join their large list of customers!

Top 5 tips for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on your blog

2006-02-25T17:47:00.000Z

Your favorite thing about having a blog may soon be this - they naturally attract search engine traffic. Blogs already have optimized site architecture. Most are set up with a clear navigation, where every page is set up to link back to the other main pages. They also have the inherent potential to be well-linked.
Blog Directories and Site Submission
If you haven’t already submitted to blog directories, you are missing out on some great one-way links. But before you head over there and start submitting, you should know a little about how to optimize your blog. Then your new listings can help your site get the best keyword placement in the major search engines.
Lucrative Blog SEO Tip #1: Lucrative Keyword Choices
You have a choice. You can target a general high traffic keyword you have little chance of ranking well for and get barely any traffic. Or you can shoot for a keyword that gets a moderate level of targeted traffic resulting in more subscribers and sales. I like to call this a “lucrative keyword”. Whatever you call them, here’s the most important thing: They may not get you the most traffic, but they often bring the most profit.
High Traffic Equals High Sales? Maybe Not
You may be surprised to learn that there isn’t always a correlation between high traffic and high sales. Many of the most profitable sites in the world get moderate traffic because their lucrative keywords result in a much higher ratio of visitors to buyers.
Length of Query is a Factor
A recent article in Information Week stated that the highest conversion rates from search engine traffic comes from people who do four word queries. The great thing about your blog is that it can get so well-indexed that you have the potential to show up for any number of four word phrases that are relevant to your industry.
Target Your Blog
It isn’t just the four word phrases that get converting traffic - there are two and three word phrases that can bring you traffic and sales. Targeting your blog discussion to a two or three word phrase that has a high yield of traffic, and yet has little competition, is not a dream of past Internet days. Another recent study revealed that surprisingly high percentages of search engine queries debuted as late as 2004.As long as there are new developments, new products, services and trends, you’ll never have a shortage of these terms if you learn how to discover them.
Lucrative Blog SEO Tip #2: Keyword Placement
Your blog can be set up to repeat the keywords that you want to target just enough times to establish a theme. You can take full advantage of this in your post titles, your category names, the pages URL names, or even a combination of Technorati tags and the text of your permanent links that appear after each post.
Lucrative Blog SEO Tip #3: Timely Posting
Instead of pinging at 15 minute intervals when your site hasn’t been updated, or even pinging after every single post, you can actually get better results if you update or ping just once during one of three sweet spots in the day. Here’s one that you can use today.
Keep Track of Your Stats
Check your web site statistics. If you’re getting spidered every two weeks or even monthly, you can increase your number of spider visits by blogging on the anniversary of the period that the spider comes to your site. It takes a bit of monitoring, but you can often predict when the date of your last spider visit was. An even faster way is to ping at a time when the spider is reading a page that carries your update.
Lucrative Blog SEO Tip #4: Get Linked
Turn on your site feed(s) and use them to promote your blog. If you sparingly include the lucrative keyword you selected in tip two in your title and description, all those link backs will contain the keyword term you most want attention for, which is often noted by the spiders as they follow the link through to your site.
Once there, if you use these and other tips to skew your blog a little more to the search-engine-friendly side, the synergistic effect is better, more profitable traffic.
Lucrative Blog SEO Tip #5: Frequent Updates
The more you post, the more food for the spider, which can cause the spider to react by splitting up its job into several visits, whereupon you have even more content, and so on, until the spider just adds you to a more frequent schedule of returns.
For example, my main site gets spidered several times daily by Google, and yet I can go a week without an update with no change in spider visits. This means my pages get indexed more often and my new pages show up faster. Think of what that could do for the launch of your next product.
Bottom Line for Blogs and Search Engine Optimization
You’ll be happy to know that you don’t have to slave over long blog posts several times a day, all day long to get similar results from your blog. In fact, some blog software will let you set up your posts in advance, so that you can have posts show up daily even though you technically only blog once a month.
A few small changes to your blog can draw more search engine traffic without turning off your blog visitors. Done properly, this gives your audience more of what they were searching for in the first place.

Welcome to Adnan's Blogtrepreneur

2006-02-24T18:58:00.000Z

Welcome visitors,
I have just started my own blogging...seems like a good way to spend time, just writing about myself in the world of business and my personal life. In this blog you will come across why I enjoy business life and being an entrepreneur, and I will share with you, some of the secrets I use to make money, book reviews, web hosting tips and much much more! I also enjoy playing golf which is why I have another blog at www.golftrepreneur.blogspot.com, so please head on down there if you are after golf club reviews, equipments, tips and hints about the fabulous game.
I hope you continue to read my posts, which I will try and put on the net regularly.
Finally if you have any questions, give me a shout at adnan_278@hotmail.com