IM101 Step 2: Establish Your Differentiating Email IDs

Ok, it's summer and you've just setup your business to make money online as a Sole Proprietor or LLC called Howe Productions (since your name is Sarah Howe - note: that I just made this up - any relation is purely coincidental.). You're really excited to get started with the two ideas that you've finally decided are worth pursuing with a passion to earn some online income. You've created your main business domain called howe-productions.com with a main contact ID of sarah@howe-productions.com.

Meanwhile you've decided that your two marketing ideas are going to be built on a primary business idea (travel photography - eztravelpics.com) and a secondary personal project (yoga hot spots). However the secondary idea is going to be a blog only and not its own domain (yogahotspots.blogspot.com). Once setup, you now have two more email contact IDs - sarah@eztravelpics.com and yogahotspots@yahoo.com. Everything looks good, right?

Now the first problem. You want to submit some articles, Flickr pictures, and use some forums to start promoting your sites. Which email ID do you use when you register? Also, you want to setup some Adsense ads, plus some site analysis tools. Which email ID do you use now?

The core problem here is the use of your specific taglines for promotional links vs. general tools to manage the marketing strategy. Do you want all of your travel promotions to show sarah@howe-productions.com or sarah@eztravelpics.com? What if you write some yoga articles?

The solutions to this is pretty easy to do but also easy to miss. Just remember to use your parent email ID (in this case sarah@howe-productions.com ) for any online tool that manages mutiple sites - things like Google Adense and Adwords, Sitemeter, Feedburner, etc. Use your specific email for promotional sites such as articles and article taglines, blog comments, Web 2.0 community sites, etc. Promotional sites should always point to the specific site you are try to monetize thus the need for a specific email Id tuned to that site.

Case in point: I started using an article submission service that required a tagline for every article (such as 'Don is an Internet Strategist and ... you can reach him at don@agilemarketer.com'). However, I wanted to submit to wholly different categories. I switched the email and tagline only to discover that my previous marketing articles now had taglines and email ids completely in the wrong category!

So, here are my strategies for IDs :
1. For a single online strategy - use a single domain email id (makes sense)
2. For a parent company strategy - create a parent domain email id and individual ids for each site you create.

Note: If you plan a Blog with no domain for either 1 or 2, I strongly suggest using Yahoo mail as your primary id (this is because of the promotional tools that Yahoo has). You're going to have to have a Yahoo id anyway (more on that in future posts).

This may not make a lot of sense to you now, but it will in the future.

Next up, using the Web 2.0 community to promote your site before you're even close to finishing it.

IM101 Step 1: Start Internet Marketing with EPIC Steps

I've spent most of the spring working on providing you the free advice necessary to get started online. You'll be seeing a combination of blog entries, articles and emails (for those who have subscribed) that tell you exactly step by step what you need when promoting and monetizing your online business.

My goal is not to provide all of the deep details of each step - you can learn these from any of the ebooks I promote. I'm going to focus on the action steps with a brief explanation. My only assumption is that you understand how to use some of the basic internet tools, services and strategies (again, any of these can be found in Newbie List Machine or Honest Riches).

So, let's get started!

I hope you've spent some time reading and reviewing my free ebook, Passions to Profits. This should have solidified your basic online idea - your first starting point. Remember, this idea is based on my EPIC principle: basic Education, Passion, your key Idea, and focused Control. I'm telling you right now that if you follow this principle you will succeed! Just by getting one simple education guide (E - Education), understanding what you love to do (P - Passion), going online with one idea (I - Idea) and staying focused for a duration (C - Control) the dollars should start to appear.

Next, be sure to review my previous Agile Marketer posts:

Business Before Web
Website Hosting
Get Listed in Search Engines Early
Use the 80-20 Rule to Make Money Online
Where to Focus Your Marketing Dollars

Read, review and get ready! Part 2 is coming soon - differentiating your online email IDs.

Finally - Replace the Blog Title with Post Title in Blogger

They finally did it! Blogger now has the 'pageName' tag that allows you to add the post title as the page title instead of the blog title: post title. This has been a bane with Blogger for quite a long time.

Just add this code after the Blogger [head] tag (note: gt and lt signs are replaced with [])

[b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/]
[b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl']
[title][data:blog.pageTitle/][/title]
[b:else/]
[title][data:blog.pageName/][/title]
[/b:if]

Note that this is only for the new Blogger template - not the old template.

Internet Marketing 101: Business Before Web

I wanted to start this essay on the positive benefits of defining your business first before building any online sites, blogs or special projects. (Note: this article is primarily focused of those living in the US - but, you may find some benefits in other countries as well).

What many people tend to forget is that there is a significant tax incentive in this country if you define your online work as a business. This is much easier than you think and should be your primary focus before doing anything else. If you haven't started this activity I would strongly suggest taking a look at the rest of this article!

By no means am I a lawyer or an accountant - but, I can give you the basics from what I have learned. The core lesson I want you to get out this is that by declaring yourself as a business, any purchases, costs, fees, etc. can potentially be deductions on your taxes if your business is at a loss for the first year or more. This includes any equipment you may purchase dedicated to your online work. Granted, if you make a lot of money then you will be taxed - however, the expenses you have for your business will reduce that profits such that the tax impact won't be as great.

How does this work? First, there are three basic forms of a business you can setup in order to do this - Sole Proprietor, LLC, or Corporation. I'm going to focus on the Sole Proprietor for now because it is the easiest and cheapest way to get started - you can do the research online for more information regarding LLCs and Corporations.

A Sole Proprietor simply means a business entity that has no separation from you, the individual. However, it is still a business - thus, even though the business debts and profits flow through to you, the accounting and tax advantages are still separate. It is a simple way to have a trade name for yourself while using basic accounting expenses and profits.

Setting up a SP is typically very easy in any state. Although the rules tend to differ slightly state to state the basic steps are:

1. Find a name for your business - I recommend a generic end expression such as Enterprises, Services, Systems, Productions, Adventures, etc. For example, you might pick Smith Enterprises. I like to recommend this only because your primary business focus may change.

2. Register your new name with your state - this is defined as running your business under an assumed name. There typically is a small registration fee of $10-$35 and a very easy form to fill out. Check your state's Secretary of State website to find out what you need to do.

3. Publish your assumed name - Some states require you to publish your assumed name in a local city newspaper showing your intent to do business under that name. This will only cost you $10-$20 (this only has to be in your small suburban paper - not, a major city paper.)

4. Get a Federal Tax ID - Once your name is approved by the state, get a Federal Tax ID so you don't have to use your SSN for receiving income (this is free).

5. Get a checking account and a credit card under your business name. It will have both your assumed name and your own name on the accounts. You should use these from now on for any business transactions.

That's it!! Now you can do business under your new business name, purchase equipment, supplies and training all as part of that name. For example, once my business was setup I specifically purchased a laptop devoted only to my online work. I never install or use personal software on this laptop - business only. That capital expense was not only deductible on my taxes, it is also something that depreciates in value over time which may be deductible in the future as well.

Any general expenses can be deducted against your profits as well such as printer paper, fees, training, traveling, disks for backups, advertising, etc. Using a tax accountant is advisable to understand the additional forms you must complete at tax time.

To keep track simply pick up a copy of Quicken and create three accounts for each year:

1. Cash Expense Account - for general expenses
2. Capital Expense Account - for office equipment, computers, peripherals, etc.
3. Income Account - for any income from your affiliate accounts, ebooks, special offers, etc. - all the ways you make money online.

Just keep track of everything in those accounts for each year. Use these to help you categorize your finances at tax time.

One final note of warning - as a sole proprietor you are still personally liable for any legal actions. It does not protect you or your income as a corporation would. Always consult a lawyer to find out more about your own liabilities. Nevertheless, becoming a sole proprietor is much better than just using your own name and SSN!

Passions to Profits - New Free Ebook

Just wanted to let you know I just finished up my new free ebook called:

Passions to Profits: Using Your Own Interests and Skills to Make Money Online

This ebook is focused primarily at newbies who are looking for ways to generate ideas to make money online. I think most people struggle with this issue of where to start.
What was most interesting about writing this ebook was the free tools I was able to use to create it completely from scratch - including the writing, layout, pdf generation, e-cover image, 3d ebook generation and image editing. Yes, all free!!!
I would guess this book took me about 10 hours to write, 3 hours to edit, and about 2 hours to package. It shows that you can do this pretty easily now.
If you're interested in what I used - just download the ebook and look for the Bonus Chapter. It has links to all of the tools.
Enjoy! You can get it here: Passions to Profits

Internet Marketing 101: Website Hosting

This is a first in a series of Internet Marketing entries that, I hope, help you with your online businesses to make better choices. I plan to write more of these over time to eventually end up in an internet marketing how-to section of this site.

Ok class, here it is up front - I've got to tell you that I hate website hosting and hosting centers. Frankly it has been the bain of my online existence. Exasperating, frustrating, and downright mad, the website hosting world is a morass of insanity these days.

Costing anywhere from $1.99/month to hundreds of dollars a month, picking a hosting center can be a daunting quest. But, the good news is that I think we're reaching the end of this era soon.

So let me step back a bit to tell you my own experiences with hosting. I've currently used five different hosting centers since I started online. I've paid anywhere from about $6 to $20 a month depending on features. Over that time I've had system failures, outages, lost files, 85% uptime in one case, virtually no support, and slow page response.

Now I can't really say that everything has been negative. There have been moments of stability, support and good feelings. But, really not that often. And, so far in my book no one has stood out for me. And when I'm trying to make money online this is a huge impact!

What are the basic steps for hosting? Let's start with that. Let's say you've purchased a great new marketing package that consists of .php files and a MySQL database. Sounds simple, you're excited to run it - all you have to do is find hosting that supports this. Easy!!

Almost all hosting centers support PHP scripting, MySQL and a bunch of other utilities on their Linux servers. All you have to do is sign up with your credit card, create an account, use a utility to create your database instance, upload your files and launch! (Ok, easier said than done!)

Now comes the real trouble. The files you uploaded don't work, the database connection is failing and you're getting security setting issues for the file system. You try to contact support but they're offline - now what?

Top Hosting Problems

What is the problem here? Well, there are multiple reasons but the top ones, I think, are:

1. Many hosting centers are not very good at managing many sites on single servers. I think that many don't even care for the price you are paying.
2. A lot of these centers are fronts for a larger, offshore company that sells virtual centers. These are divied out to buyers to act as virtual hosting centers. (Funny story, I happened to use a center like this only to find another center that had copied the pages from the first one that still had the old company names and copyright dates.)
3. Your price is mostly a direct reflection of the support you'll receive. Paying $3/month doesn't pay the salaries of a large support staff.

I could go on here but my point is this: if you are going to use a hosting center then I would suggest the following:

1. Make sure the hosting center is located in your own country.
2. Find a center that offers 24x7 support preferably by phone - but a quick response ticketing support system will work too.
3. Try to talk to the sales people first - ask them about support, features, how many people work at the center, uptime - even ask them where they are located (do they work for the center directly?)
4. Make every attempt to use a month by month plan rather than a 6 or 12 month plan if you need to back out. If it is bad - get out!!
5. Use the internet for hosting reviews to see how other's experiences have been. Choose a center with a high rating.
6. Choose a host that seems large, well established with an extensive infrastructure. This helps assure your site's uptime.
7. Don't forget to check that your site supports your website files - php, asp.net, cold fusion, etc.
   

The good news that I refered to earlier is that this model is dying out. Small hosting centers will start to dissappear. The reason? The big guys are moving in and they're cheap; real cheap.

Amazon, Google, Yahoo, EBay and Microsoft are starting to see the value of a massive, shared, flexible infrastructure that can be extended to you, the user. Their own huge computing network can be partitioned in small chunks as virtual hosts allowing customers to deploy websites for pennies. Things like the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is an example of what is coming. Even Blogger from Google is a kind of free host.

Get ready for the future, but for now - use my advice above. And, hopefully, you won't quite a jaded as I am with hosting.

Top 10 Mistakes of Internet Marketing

Many of us have tried to learn how to make money online using all kinds of inputs: ebooks, forums, videos, audios, trial and error, etc. If you're like me you find yourself constantly second guessing or just being frustrated when you see an Internet Marketing guru use a new bag of tricks to make yet another five million dollars in days.

Recently I polled a list of internet marketers on what they felt were their biggest mistakes made in their own online careers. I seeded the question with my own mistakes with the intent to get a discussion started.

What was revealed was extremely interesting coming from many who are very experienced. I decided to collate the list and rank them in what I thought is the best order based on the number of responses I received.

So, here we go - enjoy the list, and, use this to power your own online business!

Top 10 Mistakes of Internet Marketing

1. No Autoresponder - I think almost everyone responded to this one. Not having an autoresponder means no email list to work with. No list means re-marketing for every new product or service. The gurus make the BIG bucks here because their lists are huge!

2. Product Pricing Too Low - If you have been following Frank Kern's latest endeavor you'll see this is one of his emphasized points. Many are afraid to see the price point high thinking you'll lose customers whereas the opposite may be true. The psychology may be that something expensive is valued whereas something cheap is not.

3. Not Using Your List - Much like #1 even if you have a list you may not be marketing to it. Your list is your lifeline according to most. Use it!

4. Too Many Projects at Once - Ah, the age old story. I'm completely a victim to this - losing focus on a single project to start another. Yes, it is good to have ideas but keep them on a pad of paper by your side and leave them for later! There was a lot of noise from everyone on this one.

5. Test Marketing Before Jumping In - Well, there isn't much more to say about this other than do your research and plan carefully.

6. Offers to Never Seen Products - Whatever you do, don't do this. You must either buy or barter the product you are going to sell. If it is bad you definitely want to stay away and keep your customers away as well.

7. No Affiliates for Your Product - One marketer responded that he estimates he lost over one million dollars just from this simple mistake. Use your affiliate network to help sell your own product - it is like an exponential web, that, if good will grow your income at a massive rate.

8. Bad Sales Copy - Borrow, beg or just pay for this unless you are a great copywriter. This can sink a great product faster than anything.

9. Knowing a Niche is Profitable - Again, much like #5 this mistake is very common. You're excited, build a site, promote only to find out that those hours and hours of work went to waste. Ouch!

10. Not Outsourcing Faster - This is truly the power of many vs. the power of one. Outsourcing means getting help to build your site using such services as Elance.com or Amazon's Mechanical Turk. It is inexpensive and can accelerate your effort.

Some of the runners up were:

11. Bad Adwords Ads
12. Not Using Freebie Lists
13. Poor AdSense Testing

There you have it. If you can take away some of these lessons to use in your own work you should be better off and be able to make money online. Enjoy!

Time to watch the Oscars.