I started my own online business just over 15 years ago now, and while I am no Richard Branson (yet!) I have made a fairly decent income and managed to support myself during this time – now is my time to return the favor and dish out some of my great small home business tips, ideas, advice and much more.
This blog will cover a multitude of disciplines I have learned while setting up, branding, advertising, and managing my business on a day-to-day basis. As an avid blogger I will try and publish practical advice regularly but feel free to subscribe to keep up to date with the latest posts.
Just remember that even though I may be in the tech industry my ideas and advice are often suitable for a number of sectors and industries.
Successfully Advertising Your online Business
The Internet is a beautiful well of knowledge and resources; to the point where it’s nearly suffocating. Even if your home business offers great services or products, it’s easy to be overlooked by louder competition or simply the ever constant buzz of mass content. Getting your name out there will be what leads to you success. This can be done through: Ads. First, create an engaging, eye-catching ad that will draw web surfers to your site. Then, seek out other websites and offer either money or services in exchange for renting space on their site. By spreading your ad around to different places, you’re capitalizing on a broad audience that is otherwise untouched. Be creative about where you advertise and try to reach a broad spectrum, but be aware that your greatest profits will come from sites similar to your own. Those surfers know what they’re looking for, and if they see you’re offering it at the simple click of a button, you’ll have gained yourself a happy customer. SEO. When someone types in a search on their web browser, they’re very likely to choose a page link off the first page results and move on. A great percentage of them will not click to the second page. As a business and as a website, it’s paramount for you to be found on that first page. SEO accomplishes this by using keywords to make you more relevant to different searches, which increases your chance of showing up immediately in a results page. SEO companies and freelancers can be expensive, but their services are invaluable for increasing traffic on your...
The Rise Of The Mum Blog
What is a mommy blog? While it’s traditionally a blog created by a mother, for mothers, the term has become broader to encapsulate mothers who run a blog in addition to being a stay-at-home parent. The problem with staying at home is the lack of income, and several mothers have turned to their writing skills and blogging to counter this issue. “How do they make money?” There are a few ways. Advertisement. Successful blogs have a large internet audience, and companies looking to make a profit are happy to tap into that customer opportunity through a small fee. This can be accomplished in two major ways: Product reviews. Often times, a company will contact a blogger with the intention of having their product reviewed (favorable, they hope) to the large internet audience. They send the product to the blogger for free, the blogger reviews it, and suddenly the fans are encouraged to purchase the product. All at once, the company has made a profit, along with the blogger. This can also be accomplished by the blogger contacting the company, offering the same deal. This won’t make them immediate money, but the first review will be an example to other companies, inspiring them to offer their product along with money for a review. This is done through sponsored posts – when the blogger devotes an entire post to the product, pointing out all its features, assets, and possibly disadvantages. However, should a blogger devote too many posts to products not relating to their blog’s topic, it often has a negative effect on the fans. A smart tactic is adding a...
5 Things To Remember When Creating A Company Logo
Logos are an essential part of any business; they’re the bright face that greets your consumer and the signature that makes you memorable. Having a solid and unique logo could be the difference between being the most popular in the market and the second in line. When you sit down to create a logo for your small business, here are five important things to remember. 1. Keep it simple. A good logo is basic, uncluttered, and has the right combinations of colors. Choosing the right colors can help your business. That is why many restaurants use the color red in their company logos, as it is a color that makes people hungry or think of food. 2. Attract some attention. Create your company logo with the purpose of grabbing the attention of those quickly passing by. Make your logo’s image something that forces people to take notice of it. One or two colors or symbols are usually enough. Remember, a fast moving car on a freeway isn’t going to have time to see all the details of an overly cluttered or super colorful logo. 3. Be creative. Your goal is to make your company’s logo design so unique and publicly recognizable that wherever it is seen, the public mind will instantly register your product, your company name, and assign that logo image to your business. It is then that the visual connection has been skillfully shaped inside the public mind. Even small toddlers recognize the capital ‘C’ and ‘N’ sitting side-by-side, in black and white boxes, as the logo of Cartoon Network. Just try to scroll through the television...
Why Fear Can Affect The Way Your Run Your Home Business
Fear is a very real thing, and it’s reasonable to be fearful when you take on something as daunting as running a home business. Being afraid doesn’t mean you’re not brave. However, fear that isn’t managed affects your actions and decisions, and can be detrimental to your success as a business owner. Here are four different ways fear influences your ability to run a business: You won’t take profitable risks. If you’re afraid, you’re less likely to be daring. Running a home business is a daring experience. Much like a stock trader who holds their stocks too tight, you’ll never prosper if you never take a chance. This can mean making investments you’re unsure about to improve your business, or reducing the prices of your products to draw in more customers, or changing the entire look of your website. This could all go very wrong, but it could also go very right. You must be willing to take risks. Your work will suffer from the stress. If you’re more worried about making your bills than you are making your business successful, your attention will be on the money and not the product. Consumers can tell the difference. If your product is suffering, then your profits are suffering, and you’ve fulfilled your own worse fear. You cannot let the stress of your needs affect the way you run your business. If there is actually something to be improved, then improve it, but make sure you’re doing so from a professional perspective and not a fear-based one. Your attitude will change. Say you’re intimidated by the thought of people not taking...
Taking Inspiration From Other Businesses
They say there’s nothing new under the sun. This is especially true in the marketing realm, where business owners are constantly at work to come up with something fresh and engaging. It can be overwhelming, and it’s especially tempting to look to others’ ideas when creating something of your own. The trouble comes when the line between drawing inspiration and stealing is called into question. Should you not reference anyone at all? Or is it alright to look for inspiration? The Dangers of Copying: You can be sued. It’s called plagiarism, and it sucks. If you’re mirroring a logo, a website design, ect., too closely, then you’ll run into some very real legal issues. If you remodel your website to be the same look as Amazon, it doesn’t matter if you make the font a blue instead of a black – people can tell the difference and you’re breaking copyrighting laws. You won’t stand out as original. Originality is very important when making a name for your business. No one said you had to reinvent the wheel, but you make an impression upon potential customers in how you present yourself. If your first foot forward is clearly too similar to another business, then customers won’t think, “Hey, that’s a catchy slogan.” They’ll think, “That is such a rip-off.” It could result in your business looking low quality and cheap – a fatal blow. Advertising will be harder. Your business needs to have a unique flavor. If something about your business engages the customer — your name, logo, slogan – then you’re sticking in their mind. That’s the goal of...