Sunday, August 27, 2006

Creating a website - part 1

If you plan to work on the Internet, then it only makes sense to have an internet storefront. I'm not talking about the shops that you can set up from Amazon or eBay etc. I'm talking about a website that shows your business, a site that is about your work rather it is selling a novel that you have written or selling a service that you offer.

The first step that you have to decide about your on-line business is what it is. Are you an affiliate for a site such as Amazon where you post links to books in a specific category? Do you have an affiliate site that lists only Norman Rockwell posters from AllPosters? Maybe your website is used to sell your own artwork or hand-made dolls? Do you want to create a site for quilters that has AdSense ads on it? Or a site for your group or club that allows them to raise money for something?

Whatever the business is that you are going to be running over the Internet you need to do some work to define it and the market you will be targeting.

So, that is your goal for this week:

- Define your business and the target market for it. -



Example 1:

Business Name: Work at Home Newsletter
Business Type: Newsletter delivered via blog posts
Target Market: People seeking to work on-line from home
Who I am not targeting: Anyone that creates SPAM sites - All advertising no content
How does this business support itself?: Through AdSense ads and selected advertisements from select advertising sites with some select affiliate marketing links.
What are my principles in regards to this site?: I want to provide readers with genuinely useful information that they can learn from and use to grow their own on-line businesses. I want to be selective in the advertising that I present to the readership, maintaining a commitment not to advertise products that I do not feel would be of interest to the readership and providing to the best of my capability the clearest and most accurate representation of products/services/websites and other advertised or contextually linked services/websites/products as I can.
What is my commitment to the site?: I am committing thirty minutes to one hour a day to the upkeep of the site and as much time as is requires every Sunday for the writing of specific articles that will target the needs of small business owners doing business on the Internet. It is my goal to have the articles published by evening in Alaska so that they will be ready for viewing by readers early in the morning on Monday to allow them to, if they desire, start their work week with the most pertinent post from the Work at Home Newsletter.

Example 2:

Business Name: Family C.A.R.E. (Family Caring for America's Retired and Elderly)
Business Type: Blog and website
Target Market: Family Caregivers - particularly those caring for one or both parents
Who I am not targeting: professional caregivers such as nurses or home health aids
How does this business support itself?: Through AdSense ads and some select affiliate marketing links on both the blog and the website; though selected advertisements from select advertising sites on the blog.
What are my principles in regards to this site?: As a full-time family caregiver I want to provide a means for other caregivers to share their experience and knowledge with their peers and build a resource for those new to what I believe to be the highest stress unpaid job in the world. I want to be selective in the advertising that I present on both the blog and the website, determined to maintain a commitment to present only products that I feel would be of interest to the readership and providing, to the best of my capability, the clearest and most accurate representation of products/services/websites and other advertised or contextually linked services/websites/products as I can.
What is my commitment to the site?: I am committing thirty minutes to one hour a day each to the upkeep of the website and the blog. In addition I will commit as much time as is required every Friday for the writing of specific articles that will target the specific needs and concerns of family caregivers. It is my goal to have the articles published by evening in Alaska so that they will be ready for viewing by readers early in the morning on Saturday to allow them to, if they desire, start their weekend with the most pertinent information.



Worksheet:

Business Name:
Business Type:
Target Market:
Who I am not targeting:
How does this business support itself?:
What are my principles in regards to this site?:
What is my commitment to the site?:
Notes:



Next week: Next week I want to get into the mechanics of starting to design your site or, if you already have one, revising it to create the site that you envision.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Orlando Rental Information

People looking into the development of a small business might consider the opportunities presented by the many opportunities within the Orlando tourism industry. The industry, which is worth billions of dollars to the Orlando economy, makes up a large part of the area's economy. The increase in need for Orlando Rental Home properties has seen significant growth in the downtown area of Orlando over the last 5 years, offering a mix of historic homes and luxury condominiums. And the central Florida area offers a wide range real estate opportunities including: historic neighborhoods, rural communities, old-fashioned towns, gated neighborhoods, and golf course communities. Residential development on the edge of downtown Orlando was spurred by a focus on family living, creating a traditional neighborhood with architecture that is reminiscent of the pre-1940's era.

The preceeding Post is a paid advertisement

Friday, August 25, 2006

Open Office

I love Open Source programs, and the best one for simple word processing tasks that I have found is Open Office from http://www.openoffice.org/

Their About Page has the following information on the program:"Product Description

OpenOffice.org the product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety of file formats, including those of Microsoft Office, and the vendor-neutral OpenDocument standard from OASIS.

Available in over 65 supported languages with more being constantly added by the community, OpenOffice.org runs stably and natively on Solaris, Linux (including PPC Linux), Windows, Mac OS X (X11), and numerous other platforms. Our porting page lists the platforms (ports) that OpenOffice.org can run on.

Written in C++ and with documented APIs licensed under the LGPL open-source license, OpenOffice.org allows any knowledgeable developer to benefit from the source. And, because the native file format for OpenOffice.org is the vendor-independent OpenDocument open standard, interoperability is easy, making future development and adoption more certain."


And for those wondering just why I think they should take a look at this program, I present the OpenOffice answer to:

What’s so great about OpenOffice.org?

"As the name suggests, OpenOffice.org is the most open office suite available:

* no commercial licences or software compliance issues to worry about
* no language barriers - if it’s not yet available in your language, the chances are it will be soon
* available on all major computing platforms
* the first office suite to comply with the OASIS OpenDocument format
* the source code for the software is freely available under a full OSI certified licence

OpenOffice.org is synonymous with quality

* the roots of OpenOffice.org go back twenty years, creating a huge wealth of experience
* hundreds of thousands of users have participated in the beta testing of version 2
* with a fully open development process, OpenOffice.org has nothing to hide - the product stands or falls on its reputation

OpenOffice.org is friendly

* the software looks and feels familiar and is instantly usable by anyone who has used a competitive product
* it’s easy to change to OpenOffice.org - the software reads all major competitors’ files
* OpenOffice.org is supported by a global community of friendly volunteers, only too happy to provide assistance to newcomers and advanced users alike"


If you are looking for a good free program for word processing you need to look into Open Office

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Car Insurance

Car insurance is one of those things that most people have to worry about, particularly when they have their own business. There is always a need to drive somewhere to pick up office supplies or meet clients or various other things that are a part of having a home business - such as taking the kids to soccer practice. And with the price of gas today, it can be nearly impossible to afford high car insurance prices on top of that.

If you are shopping around for car insurance, or just want to check things out to see if you can get a better price, you can comparison shop for car insurance prices for all 50 states using CarInsurance.com. They make it easy to buy auto insurance online, providing quotes of rates from companies in just a few minutes. In some states the process can be completed in 15 minutes giving you fast proof of insurance.

The preceeding Post is a paid advertisement

Home Office

A home office is a big part of working at home, but what exactly is involved in setting one up? If you are one of the lucky few, then you have a spare bedrom or a garage or idealy a guest house that can be turned into a home office. Most of us do not have that luxury, however, and our home office becomes the top of the dresser, the dining room table, a coffee table in the front room... Better equipped home offices might have a desk instead of one of those. It might be built into a closet. Maybe an old wardrobe has been converted to serve as the home office and closed away when company comes by.

Whereever you have to put your home office, you need to start small and plan just what you need to accomplish with it. Can you make it fit in a small closet, or should you sonsider relocating a collection to the closet and converting the space where the display case was into desk space?

Do you need a wall to put a bullitain board or are you more in need of shelving? Do you have an inventory you have to find somewhere to store? Can it go somewhere away from your office? Say inventory in the top if the master bedroom closet and office in the breakfast nook in the kitchen?

By starting out with what you need and deciding what you would like, then comparing that to what you have and figuring out how to combine it all, you can have a home office that will serve its purpose nicely and help you build toward the future office of your dreams.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Accessible Search by Google

Important information for anyone that has a website as part of their Internet business. Google has developed a new search page for visually impaired users. Accessible Search looks at the compliance of sites to Web Accessibility guidelines and uses that as part of their ranking system. The more compliant your site is, the better chance you have for a high rank on this new search page. Rather you can code your site yourself, or you need to turn to the services of a search engine marketing firm, it is well worth it to go over your site and decide how you can better optimize it for Web Accessibility. This not only gets you a better chance at better Google ranks, it opens your site up to so many more users that might have otherwise been unable to access it.

The preceeding Post is a paid advertisement

Welcome to the Work at Home Newsletter

This newsletter is basically just my effort to help others in their efforts to work at home while chronicling my own efforts.

I am a full-time caregiver for my parents and unable to work outside the home - which leaves me seeking ways which will allow me to earn money from home so I can continue to provide care for my parents and still afford to pay for my own care costs.

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