Will I Be Able To Build My Own Website?

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

If you want to have a business - or if you want to sell anything at all - you need to have a website of your own. But a website is not free to build, and when you are trying to save up money for starting your business, it can be tough to spend extra on a website. Because of this, lots of people who have their own business also end up asking this question: Can I build my own website? If you have ever wondered this yourself, the answer - believe it or not - is that you absolutely can build your own website, as long as you know a few things.

The first thing you need to do, before you can build your own website, is to register your own domain name. It usually only costs about $10 per year to have your domain name, so the toughest part is actually finding a domain name that works for you. If you or your company has a unique name, this should be easy; it can be much harder, though, if your desired name is already taken!

Next, you will want to use a template that will enable you to mostly set up and run your website on your own. You will be able to update, change, and adjust your site whenever you want if you use a template such as a Wordpress template.

And if you decide to design a website on your own, you will want to make sure you put in some time doing research. Firstly, you will want to research some basic HTML coding; this is not complicated, and it will help you have a lot more freedom in the way your website looks. As for other research, you will need to also put in your time making sure you understand as much as you can about the process of building a website. For only $25 on Amazon, you can get the book Learning Web Design - which is the best resource available, and is usually $45!

You will be able to start building your website as soon as you know what you are doing - and what's more, you will be able to make it look exactly the way you want it to look!

Tips For Creating A Good Work Space

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

When it comes to trying to get good work done, one of the most important things will be making sure that you are working in an environment that is conducive to productivity and thought - and while this is the case no matter where you work, this is especially the case if you are working at home, where it can be so easy for you to get pulled away from work by other things. It is actually quite easy to set up a work environment that will help you to have no problems with your focus and your productivity, but before you start trying to take steps to set up such a work environment, make sure you pay attention to these particular aspects.

Comfort: It will be good to have a comfortable work space, but it is also important that your work space has just the right amount of comfort; while an uncomfortable work space can make your work time unpleasant (and can therefore sap you of your energy and motivation), a work space that is too comfortable can put you right to sleep!

Lighting: When it comes to lighting, there is a fine line that is quite similar to the fine line with comfort; soft lighting will help your eyes to stay focused without getting worn out, but you do not want the lighting to be too soft, as soft lighting can also cause the brain to think that it is time for relaxation!

Quiet: There are many people who enjoy working with a bit of noise - either with music, or with the radio, or with something similar - but hardly anyone wants to work with external noise coming from someone else; make sure you set up a work environment where you control the noise, which will enable you to enjoy external quiet.

When you create your work space keeping these tips in mind, you will be able to be productive in a great work environment regardless of where you are working - be it at home, in an office, or anywhere else!

The Four Most Important On-Page Ranking Factors

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

When you are working on search engine optimization efforts for your website, you will want to be focusing your efforts on both your on-page and off-page ranking factors; of course, each is as important as the other, but because of the fact that on-page ranking factors give you more control, this is the best (and most natural!) place to start for exploring the things you will want to do.

When it comes to the on-page ranking factors on your site, the first thing you will want to look at is your text, as your text will be a big part of where search engines end up ranking you; firstly, it will be within your text that you put your keywords - which are a big part of the way search engines see your website - and secondly, readers will read your text, and they will be more likely to share it with others (and to keep returning themselves) if it is good!

When it comes to the work you are doing within your own website, the next thing you will want to focus on is your headings and subheads; this might seem like something you can push to the side, but realize that search engines use these tags to determine what your site contains, and to determine the order of importance of your content, so taking advantage of these will help you quite a bit!

Another thing worth paying attention to on your website is the text used in your navigation menus; rather than labeling different pages as "Page 1," "Page2," and so on, label your pages with descriptive keywords, as this will help visitors and search engines alike.

And finally, one of the most important things of all on your website (and one of the most often overlooked aspects of search engine optimization) will be the tags on your site; make sure you are properly applying everything from image tags to title tags to meta description tags, as all of these things will go a long way in positively influencing your search engine ranking!

How To Manage Upset Customers

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

When it comes to running a business, one of the biggest keys to success will be making sure that you know how to manage customers who are upset, or who have a complaint about the way they have been handled by you, your employees, or your company.

When an upset customer has a legitimate complaint, they can ruin a lot of business for you if they share their complaints with others, but when you are able to fix a situation with an upset customer, they will often be so impressed with the way you handled things that they will end up sending more customers your way!

The first thing you need to do - regardless of whether you feel their complaint is legitimate or not - is to acknowledge the problem; when you acknowledge that their complaint and convey that you understand the complaint, you will be on the right path to making the situation better.

The next step is working to resolve the problem - but the mistake that many people make when trying to resolve a problem with a customer is that they allow the customer to dictate the terms of the resolution. It can be difficult to maintain the balance between keeping the power in your hands and still being helpful, but this is an importance balance to maintain - otherwise, you may end up with a customer who is not satisfied no matter what you do.

And lastly, recognize the fact that there actually will be customers who you will never be able to satisfy; these are the customers who tend to complain with every company they deal with, and the best way to deal with such customers is to do the best you can and then send them on their way!

Managing upset customers is not always easy, but it is one of the most important aspects of keeping your business in good shape - and when you can start to do this effectively, you will maximize the positive news that customers spread about your company.

Tips For Using YouTube To Promote Your Business

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

If you have a small business, you may have realized that YouTube is a great market to tap into in order to promote your business. And while YouTube can certainly be a great way for you to promote your business, you can also go about it the wrong way, in which case it will be a poor way to promote your business! Before you take the time to try to launch a YouTube campaign for your business, you need to recognize what you need to do for the campaign to go well.

One of the first things you will want to do is create your own YouTube channel, one that is specific to your business. This will enable people to become more and more familiar with you, as they will be able to subscribe to your channel, which can go a long way in helping you on YouTube.

Next, you should study first; take a look at other businesses like yours, and see who has done the best job promoting themselves on YouTube. And here's a hint: The ones that have done the best job are the ones that have the most hits on their videos! You certainly do not want to copy anything they themselves have done, but you can borrow inspiration and ideas from them as much as you would like.

You also need to keep in mind, if you want a video of yours to go viral, that you need to create something that is actually worth spreading around. The beauty of YouTube is that it enables others to do the work for you, spreading the video around; you cannot just have someone standing there and talking to the screen - you need something that catches the eye.

If you let people make the videos for you, you will find that this is the best way to get others to help you spread the word about your business! Depending on the sort of company you have, you can run a contest where the best video gets a certain, high-priced item for free. This will help you spread the word about your company more quickly than anything you could do all on your own!

YouTube is a goldmine just waiting for the savvy marketeer to come along and tap into it; once you figure out the best way for you to use it, you can watch your business soar!

Tips For Keeping Conversations Short

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

People often say that time is money, and even if you disagree with this, you certainly feel that time is important. Time can be anything from money to leisure to fun, but whatever the case, time is an important element for many of us. And even though it might seem funny to figure out how to "end conversations quickly," it is also true that you sometimes find yourself in conversations you would prefer to keep short. And if you learn how to end these conversations quickly - regardless of whether they take the shape of conversations with coworkers, neighbors, or strangers - you will have more time to yourself and the things you want to do.

Be polite: The best thing you can do, when aiming to end a conversation quickly, is to summon every ounce of politeness you can muster. If you are rude to someone when trying to end a conversation quickly, you may find that the conversation actually ends up dragging on longer. On the other hand, your counterpart will leave the conversation feeling fulfilled if you are polite and friendly throughout - which makes it much easier to end the conversation.

Recognize what most people want to talk about: Even though a conversation is supposed to be an exchange between two people, most poeple would much rather be engaged in a "conversation" that focuses on nothing but their own self. Allow the other person to tell you all the things they want to tell you as quickly as possible by turning every question they ask back to them, and in this way they will feel fulfilled with the conversation much more quickly.

Know how to graciously finish: Closing out a conversation is often the toughest part of keeping conversations short, as lots of people try to exit a conversation by making excuses. Instead, you should always end a conversation the same way when you are trying to keep things short: simply tell the person that it was great talking to them, and that you look forward to catching up again!

If you follow these tips, you will not only be able to keep conversations short when you need to, but you will also do so in a manner that leaves your counterpart feeling fulfilled!

Dealing With An eBay Customer Who Does Not Pay

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

EBay is a great tool for anyone who wants to get rid of their old, unwanted stuff or wants to make some extra money. But while eBay is great for selling your items, it is not always great for getting you paid for the items that you "sold." After all, on eBay, you do not get paid first and then give the customer the item - the way you would in a regular store - but instead, you have to wait for the person to pay you after they win the bid, and sometimes they can leave you waiting for a while!

If you are dealing with a customer who has won a bid but has not yet paid you, the first thing you should know is that they have four days to pay. Even though this seems like a while, eBay will not take a complaint unless it has been at least four days from the day when the auction ended. At the same time, however, eBay usually takes these matters very seriously if the four full days have passed without the payment.

The first thing you need to do, if someone has not paid you, is contact them and see if you can work things out. If they are uncooperative or - perhaps even more frustrating - unresponsive, you then need to take things to the next step, which is filing the complaint with the Resolution Center at eBay.

The buyer will again have four days to pay after you file a complaint with the Resolution Center (and will also, of course, be notified of the complaint). Although they are allowed to contact you and try to work out an extension or another arrangement during this time, you are not required to oblige. If they do not pay you within four days, and you have not agreed to any other arrangements, it will go down as an unpaid item.

This unpaid item will be listed permanently on the buyer's account, and you are then able to list your item again, or you can give a Second Chance Offer to one of the bidders who lost on the item. And keep in mind: you can look at people's accounts when they are bidding, and if you run into a bidder with an "unpaid item" on their account, you can block them to keep this from happening to you!

How To Find Items You Can Buy And Sell For More Money

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

If you are hoping to make some extra money - or even if you are wanting to find a creative way to eventually make a full-time living - one idea to consider is finding items that you can buy and sell for profit; with the great reach provided to each and every person by the Internet, it is quite easy these days to find a way to sell the things you have, which means that the main thing you will need to figure out is exactly where you should go to buy these things that you can resell.

One great place to look for things that you can resell for more money - and perhaps the best place of all for really excellent deals - is garage sales; start going out on Saturday mornings and perusing the items for sale at different garage sales, and you will be surprised at how much good stuff you find - but make sure that you also go in with an idea of what it is you are looking for, lest you end up with a whole bunch of stuff you do not really need, and are not really able to sell!

Along the same lines as garage sales is estate sales, and while you will not find nearly the deals at estate sales that you would at garage sales, you will be able to find some really top-notch stuff; always keep your eyes open for different estate sales that are going to be taking place near where you live, and look for items that you feel will be easy to sell (and easy to ship!) so that you can quickly turn a profit.

And even though items at antique stores will run you more money than you would have to pay at a garage sale or an estate sale, you can also find some real treasures here when shopping correctly; visit antique stores and get a sense for what they are carrying, then head online to find which of these you might be able to sell for more money on your own.

A lot of times, people sell things at a low price simply because they need to get rid of these things - and this is the perfect opportunity for you to swoop in and buy this item yourself, before turning around and selling it for a profit!

Writing An Effective Press Release

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

A press release is one of the best ways for you to spread the word about your business, but as with just about any efforts intended to promote your business, a press release will not do you much good unless you take the proper approach; there are a lot of things that go into taking the proper approach - and the proper approach for you may be different from the proper approach for others, depending on a variety of factors - but there are also some basic things that will be important for any press release.

The title of your press release will be the first thing that you should be paying attention to, as this will be the first thing people see when deciding whether or not to read your press release, and it will go a long way in determining which search engine searches you show up in; make sure your title focuses on keywords that are relevant to your business, and make sure it is designed to catch the attention of those who see it.

Another area where you will want to make sure you are focusing on keywords is in the anchor text included in your press release; the anchor text, of course, is the text within your content that you turn into a link that points to your site, and when this anchor text focuses on keywords, it will help the search engine ranking of your site as well!

And finally, make sure that any quotes you include within the text of your press release are both descriptive and specific, rather than being something generic; the quote can be a big selling point of a press release, but if you fail to take the right approach, it can also be entirely ineffective!

In order to ensure that your press release will have a maximum impact, there will still be a number of other things you will need to make sure you are doing, but these tips will get you started on the road to press release success!

Is A Business Degree Right For Me?

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

If you will soon be heading off to college - or if you are already in college and are trying to decide what you want to major in - one of the degrees that will probably stand out to you as a 'good, solid choice' is a business degree. After all, 'business' covers so many areas, and even if you do not know what you want to do after college, there is a pretty good chance that you can achieve your goals if you have a business degree in hand - right?

Actually, it turns out that a degree in business might not be nearly as useful as it once was - and here is why.

Over the years, Business has grown into the major that students tend to choose when they do not quite know what they would like to do after school, and in addition to there already being lots of people interested in business, this creates a situation where large numbers of students are in every single class. Because each professor is likely teaching a handful of classes throughout the week - and because all of these classes have a large number of students - these professors are unlikely to hand out any "writing" assignments that are terribly difficult; which has been proven lately to be a mistake, as companies are looking to hire employees who know how to write!

A business degree can still be a valuable thing to have if you are truly interested in business - but you should seriously consider pairing your business degree with a degree in another area of study that will require you to do a lot of writing in order to obtain a degree. Even though such majors as English, History, or Philosophy have long been seen as degrees that do not have much practical application in "the real world," the starting income for those who have such degrees is actually higher these days than for those with business degrees - so as you choose your major, you should keep this fact in mind!

Tips For Using Search Engine Optimization With Affiliate Marketing

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

If you are wanting to test the waters of affiliate marketing - either to pull in some money on the side, or in an effort to be your own boss and make a living from home, on your own time - one thing you should realize is that it will be of the utmost importance that you are able to figure out how to get people to your website (after all, you will not generate many sales if you are generating no traffic!); affiliate marketing and search engine optimization are both powerful tools if used properly - but if you are wanting to get the most out of affiliate marketing, you will have to pair it with great search engine optimization!

You will want to make sure you have an understanding of what you are targeting within your when you are setting up a website; you will either want to go with a very narrow and specific target (picking a niche that you will focus on, and sticking with this throughout all the content on your website), or you will want to go very broad (exploring lots of different topics and products, and realizing that some will be misses, but that others will be hits).

Another thing you should realize is that some people use the Internet simply to search for information and knowledge about products, while others will be looking for an opportunity to buy; as you create a website that is keyword-intensive, make sure these keywords will be attracting people to your site who are ready to make a purchase, instead of attracting those who are just wanting to gather some information.

And also, realize there is no reason for you to limit yourself on your website to just your affiliate marketing, as you can also make money on your site through pay-per-click ads. As you continue to beef up the content on your website, doing so in such a way that you will show up regularly in search engines, you will be able to seriously boost your income with a nice rotation of ads that get people to click on them - and that get extra money to keep on coming your way!

Tips For Acknowledging The Hard Work Of Your Employees

Get $5 on your Balance +$5 on your Advertiser Balance

One of the most important things when you are running a business will be that you are able to get the most out of your employees - after all, employees who work hard and truly care about your business will act as just one more extension of you, whereas employees who do not care about your business and do not work hard can be a huge detriment in the long run; of course, getting the most out of your employees is not always as simple as just coming up with some magic solution, but when you understand how to acknowledge the hard work of your employees, you will be much more likely to get the most out of them.

One thing that you should be aware of is that an employee of the month award really means nothing at all if the only thing these employees get is the title “employee of the month”; make it clear to your employees what it takes to win employee of the month, and what the process is for selecting the employee of the month, and then make the reward for winning employee of the month truly worth their efforts!

Making sure you are giving your employees time off is another way to get the most out of them; if you are making your employees work during holidays (when other people they know are not working), and if you never give them any bonuses for the hard work they have done, they are unlikely to give you nearly as much as you would like from them.

And of course, as much as hard work is important, relaxation is important as well, as employees will not be able to continually give 100% if they are never able to replenish themselves; even as you create a work environment that expects and promotes hard work, you should also make sure that you are taking care of your employees at work so that they feel relaxed, as this will help them to keep working hard.

If you want your business to be a success, you will need your employees to help, and the biggest step in getting your employees to help is to realize that they will take care of you as long as you are taking care of them!