Internet Business Tips

Written by vampis06, this article raised my attention. He summarized what he has done to increase traffic in the past 1 year and kindly shared the list with the public.

1. Write posts that is hot to be read right now.
2. Bookmark your site to social bookmarking websites, i.e. digg, del.icio.us, reddit
3. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
4. Break news.
5. Post regularly.
6. Make groups like Google and Yahoo groups, and then include your URL in it – not spam alike
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Write short, pithy posts.
9. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
10. Include polls, meters and other eye catchy.
11. Have an e-mail signature and put your URL in your signature when contacting someone through e-mail.
12. Join mybloglog, its a good way of socializing.
13. Make your RSS subscribe button very noticeable.
14. Use a top commentators plugin to improve comments.
15. Be controversial.
16. Be original.
17. Become top commentator on big traffic blogs.
18. Write about Google, Digg and other hugely popular sites.
19. Use images in your posts.
20. Make a fresh design.
21. Answer your email.
22. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
23. Be patient.
24. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
25. Create a lens and highlight your best posts.
26. Make a content that is worth buying but you give it free – it attracts loads of people.
27. Place alt tags – Placing an alt tag on your pictures will surely help you get a higher Search Engine ranking.
28. Write about making money.
29. Share your knowledge.
30. Use the sociable plugin, It ads all the known bookmarking websites and puts it in your posts. This makes bookmarking easier for your readers.
31. Try and become a guest poster on a popular blog. Be persistent
32. Submit your best and longest posts to article directories.
33. Use Blogrush.
34. Use Technorati.
35. Encourage your readers to digg your posts.
36. Make your blog as different as possible.
37. Never copy posts.
38. Make your SEO as good as possible.
39. Submit Themes, with your link on it.
40. Leave your footstep in forums.
41. Add a sitemap, This helps search engines recognize you more.
42. Redirect your 404 page, Redirecting it to your homepage would help lost visitors.
43. Ping your blog every after you write an article – try Ping-O-Matic
44. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
45. Post your photos on flickr.
46. Write eye catching blog post titles.
47. Use correct grammar.
48. Use YouTube and other video sites to market your blog.
49. Use social networking buttons, on all posts.
50. Admit your faults.
51. Be honest.
52. Spend entire days focusing on nothing but getting more traffic.
53. Write long, definitive posts.
54. Write about blogging.
55. Don’t interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.
57. Pull off some jokes from time to time
58. Add translations
59. Never give up.

I am doing some of the things listed above; but I am too lazy or did not prioritize my time and effort on some of the tips. Got to be more consistent and diligent.

To read the whole article, please check here.

I was asked to include a gallery when I was designing a website for a client. Instead of writing it from scratch, I tried to find a ready-made one which can allow me to easily upload and manage photos without too much hard coding. I found a great gallery using ImgBrowz0r and prettyPhoto jQuery plugin made by Chris Coyier. A really fantastic job. He actually showed how he combined these two and made the gallery. I think it is worthwhile to watch this step-to-step tutorial.

Download

Below is how the gallery looks like:

I also found a cool slider: anythingSlider. Photos or any content including hyperlinks can be featured in the slides and they move right or left. According to its creators, it has the following features:

# Slides are HTML Content (can be anything)
# Next Slide / Previous Slide Arrows
# Navigation tabs are built and added dynamically (any number of slides)
# Optional custom function for formatting navigation text
# Auto-playing (optional feature, can start playing or stopped)
# Each slide has a hashtag (can link directly to specific slides)
# Infinite/Continuous sliding (always slides in the direction you are going, even at “last” slide)
# Multiple sliders allowable per-page (hashtags only work on first)
# Pauses autoPlay on hover (option)
# Link to specific slides from static text links

I definitely will use it in the future. Here is a screenshot of how it looks like:

Changing fonts is always the fastest way to change the look of your website, brochure, advertisement. I am glad to share with you my new finding: a great website which hosts 10,000 fonts. And best of all, they are free! So before you go and purchase any fonts, make sure you check this site: maybe you will find what you want without spending a penny!

After having run a blog for a while, how to monetize it becomes an interest for most bloggers. Yes, there are many ways to generate streams of income with your existing blog; but how to manage them most effectively is a concern, esp. when the bloggers do not want to get involved in any code, with the fear of messing up all the settings. Then what to do? Here comes solution: Max Banner Ads widget.

Download

This is a video which explains what this widget does and how to install and monitor your activities. pretty easy, don’t you think so?

You can specify how many banner ads you want to host in one particular position, and you can let them rotate each time when the page gets refreshed. They can be within posts, after certain codes, or simply as widgets on the classic sidebars.

What’s more, in the dashboard you can have a look at the performance of your ads. There is a detailed statistics about impressions, clicks, CTR (%) … Pretty good little tool for any blogger even if s/he is quite familiar with html codes. You can download it here.

CSS tricks showed us how he developed a website for his friend by using photoshop mockup and then html/css conversison. It is quite interesting to see this approach in website designing. I appreciate that he shared this experience with us.

Part 1: Photoshop Mockup
Download

Part 2: HTML/CSS Conversion
Download

Part 3: Wordpress Themes
Download

Marketing is the essential element driving business of all sizes forward. For sure, marketing involves money. But still there are several ways to cut costs while giving quality message to your target audience. Blogdesign mentioned the following 5 “sacrifice-free” ways to save money on marketing.

1. Get to know your target audience.
“Knowing your target audience means knowing their dreams, their aesthetic taste, and, of course, what makes them want to spend money on a product or service like yours.” It is true, marketing to your target audience helps spending time, energy and money on other audience who won’t help generate revenue. Focusing on the right people does not cost anything, but saves you lots.

2. Package yourself to appeal to this market.
“Once you know your customer base, tailor every aspect of your company and products so you appeal to these people. Your materials, website, and even paint job should be in colors that your customer finds pleasant.” Very straightforward. Makes total sense, doesn’t it?

3. Sell yourself to the media.
“Almost every business has a compelling story or a unique person behind it. Many local and even national media groups periodically do stories on interesting people and businesses. Why not be that story?” He made a very good point here. TV show gives not only exposure, but also credibility to public. If you have the chance, do it.

4. Cultivate a referral culture.
“Customer referrals are taken far more seriously than traditionally advertising, so getting your customers to refer you can be one of your most lucrative marketing tools. ” Yes, word-of- mouth is still the most direct and effective way of marketing.

5.Avoid cold calling.
“Cold calling and other types of broad advertising might make you feel like you are getting your word out there, but there are much cheaper and more efficient ways to market yourself such as business networking.” Excellent point. Networking is the key.

If you want to read the whole article, visit here.

Have a look at the video. Great tips. It is possible to attract more customers via less advertising. What is the key? Service! Unfortunately it is still the missing piece of many businesses.

I am working on a new project of creating a website. In the process of searching for loyalty free pictures, I came across this great collection of 40+ free vector graphics and photoshop brushes. The best of all is that they are available for commercial use!

Yes, as it states,
“You can use these images for logos, advertising, promotional products, and much more!”

Here I just want to list several which attract me the most. If you are interested in finding them all, please visit qbrushes.com

1. Colorful - By MyStockLogo.com

2. Vector Ornaments – By keepdesigning.com

a collection of antique frames and ornament

3.African Animals – By Blackmoondev.com

4. Free Vector Graphics Set – By Pien Duijverman & Smashingmagazine.com

5.Vector Stock – By ysr1.deviantart.com

6. Health And Beauty Brushes – By fudgegraphics.com & Smashingmagazine.com

By Tammy Embrich

Are you often scrambling to find an important printed document? Or are you having trouble finding a simple item such as a stapler? Is your desk so piled up that you can barely see the top of it? More importantly, maybe your child’s homework is buried under the shuffle of papers that seem to be growing in front of you?

If you answered even one of these questions with a “yes” then your office needs some tender loving care organization.

I know when my desk is piled up and I can’t find anything, I sure don’t feel very productive. I find I have a much more productive day if my desk is nicely organized and tidy. I always feel better about my business when I get up in the morning and find everything in it’s place. I mean it just makes sense, an organized office is a successful office.

The following tips will help you have a more productive business

* Always clean your desk off at the end of your work day. For example, put all those papers in their proper place, preferably in a file cabinet. Put all the pens/pencils in the little cup that’s supposed to be holding them. Make sure you have a schedule made out in front of you for the following day.

* Create a home business environment for yourself that will encourage work and motivate you rather than make you want to go out shopping. If it means redecorating your home office to achieve this environment, then do it.

* Organize your documents on your computer and consistently do backups so your information is safe. Make a separate document for your income and your expenses. Keep these updated daily, weekly, or monthly. This way when tax time arrives, you won’t have to do these tasks for the entire year. You can even save these documents to a disk and keep it updated if you want to be extra safe.

* Keep your important printed documents in organized file cabinets. If you don’t own any, invest in some. With a home business, a filing system is essential, just like any other business.

* Always eat your meals at the dinning room or kitchen table with your family. Don’t eat your meals at your desk. By doing so, after your meals you will return to your work area refreshed and ready to take on the rest of your tasks.

* Establish some rules for your home office. If your work day doesn’t evolve around your phone, let your answering machine pick up those calls during the day, unless they are emergencies of course. If you have a busy household, shut your office door and tell your family to knock before entering. If you feel the need to, place a sign, “do not disturb” on your door. Just these two office rules will decrease distractions considerably.

The less distracted you are, the better your focus will be on your work each day. With the help of the tips above, try and create a method for organization with your daily tasks. While doing so, you will most definitely increase productivity, thus generate success for your business.

Also visit Tammy on her Work At Home Forums, where you will find free job leads, work at home articles, home business ideas, and more. A place to get to know others and network.

For any business, sending and tracking invoices to customers is part of the daily work; and we all know how time-consuming it is. Luckily we can use a program that is designed to prepare and track invoices. By using it, at least we can save some some time.

1. Bamboo Invoice – Simple, Open Source, Online Invoicing.
2. FreshBooks – Online invoicing and time tracking service.
3. Transcepta – Electronic invoicing solution.
4. Blinksale – The easiest way to send invoices online.
5. InterlinQ Solutions – Providing a daily job report, time sheets, job tracking, construction reports and mobile billing.
6. Bill My Clients – Easy way to create and send invoices and bills to your clients.
7. Billing Orchard – Online electronic billing software application.
8. 2nd Site – Secure invoicing service w/ online invoice payment & online employee timesheets.