Fast Track Your Journey to Home Business Success by Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy Send Feedback to Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

No one has ever logged onto the Internet for the first time and started pocketing dollars in a really short period of time. As with all things in life, there is a learning curve.

SOME PERSONAL HISTORY

Just a few short years ago, I was a working stiff just like you.

One day, I bought and read a book called "Multiple Streams of Income" by bestselling author, Robert Allen. Immediately, I began my journey.

Every night after work and after my wife and children went to sleep, I would get online and explore different ways of using the Internet to make money.

In the two years that followed, I spent over $10,000 racking up credit card debt buying eBooks, membership sites, special reports, opt-in leads, and joining every "guru" recommended business opportunity that flew into my email inbox.

I stayed up learning, working, and drinking coffee until 5:00 in the morning, month after month filled with the hope of making money online.

In my third year of working part-time to build a home based income, I finally broke through and earned over $100,000 in just twelve months from the Internet.

BECOME THE MASTER OF YOUR LEARNING CURVE

Research the lives of all of the "gurus." The one thing that you will learn is that my own experience is not unique. Most of the high earners on the Internet experienced a learning curve very similar to my own.

Chances are that your curve will also be similar to mine, but it is my hope that you can get to the top faster than even I did. Three years was a long time to struggle, but every ounce of struggle was worth the reward I have finally received.

In order to shorten your own learning curve, you must do a few things differently than the rest of us did. You must become the master of your learning curve.

THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO POINTS IS A STRAIGHT LINE

There is only one way to shorten the curve on the Internet:

You must plan to succeed!

Here is the deal. Most people put up a freebie website and select a few affiliate programs to add to their website. Right out of the gate, most people are running for the finish line without any real plan in mind.

After a few short weeks, people begin to see the writing on the wall that says, "This is going to be a long hard road."

People check their hit counters daily for six weeks before they realize that getting traffic to their free site is going to be tough.

At this point, they begin developing their first batch of advertising. Then they spend countless months finding places to show their advertisements for free. Some make an even more drastic mistake by blowing thousands of hard earned dollars on their new and untested ads.

These are the people who will learn the facts of life the hard way.

In time, they will learn how to make their advertising work for them, but most will earn very little money from their affiliate programs.

At this point in the learning curve, most people throw up their hands and walk away from their dreams in utter disgust. Instead of a walking away point, this should have convinced the struggling online entrepreneur that they were simply traveling the wrong road.

YOU MUST PLAN TO SUCCEED

From day one, you must begin to learn about the nuances of web promotion. Read everything you can get your hands on. Don't just read the hype, back it up with the opinions of others who have reviewed the same programs before you came along. Learn from their mistakes and successes.

As you begin to learn, you must also look to make a decision. Do you want to step into a pre-built program that is designed to help you to succeed, OR do you want to create a completely new program of which you are the sole owner?

If you decide to step into a pre-designed and complete turn-key online money-making venture, then you must select the right venture to step into. If this is your decision, I encourage you to examine the Plug In Profit Site at: http://www.HomeBusiness.us

If you decide to go the journey on your own, then do all of the necessary research, planning and preparation that is needed for your success.

PREPARE TO SUCCEED

Decide what you think you would want to do, and then figure out how your planned site will generate a real income.

Internet old-timers know about hundreds of corporation domains that existed with IPO millions, but did not have an actual money plan that could sustain their business model. Most of these companies were among the hundreds of companies that bellied up in the 2000 dot bomb experience.

Don't blindly believe in your plan. Research others on the web who have undertaken similar business models and see if they have survived. Study your competitors in depth to learn what is working for them and what did not work for them. To better understand what has or has not worked for competitor websites, check out their time lapsed progressions using the Wayback Machine: http://web.archive.org

Once you have determined your money plan, then you should undertake the development of a business plan and a marketing plan. Utilize professional assistance if you need to do so. While creating your plans, make a determination as to which domain name you think would be best, then register it along with a hosting account. A good place to do this is at Host4Profit which you'll find in Step 2 at: http://www.HomeBusiness.us

Once you have developed your business plan and marketing plan and have run them through several revisions, then it will be time to buy your domain name and to begin work with a site designer and developer. You may need to have your domain sitting on a web host for your site developer, but this is not always necessary. While they are doing their work, enlist a copywriter to help you with your site sales copy.

When your site designer and developer have your site working, you should then undertake significant testing to make sure everything works as planned. It is much harder to fix problems on a operational site than it is to fix problems on a site that has yet to be launched.

When testing is done, then you should fill in your sales copy and then shoot for launch. Of course, you already have a marketing plan in place, so your preparation here will be simply a matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle into place.

You are finally ready to open for business. Don't be afraid to spend the money to bring your dream alive. Time can replace money in the goal of starting a profitable online business, but money invested can shave years off of your company's growth.

About Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy: I Was A Washed Up Restaurant Worker Desperately Searching For A Way To Save My Family When I Discovered The Internet And Affiliate Marketing... 24 Months Later I Finally Cracked The Code And Started Earning Over $10,000.00 Per Month... Now The Same System That Saved Me Is Available To You! Check It Out Now At: http://www.HomeBusiness.us

8 Mistakes to Avoid When Naming a New Business by Phillip Davis Send Feedback to Phillip Davis

Naming a business is like laying the cornerstone of a building. Once it's in place, the entire foundation and structure is aligned to that original stone. If it's off, the rest of the building is off, and the misalignment becomes amplified. So if you have that gnawing sense that choosing a name for your new business is vitally important - you're right. With 18 years in the naming and branding business, I've witnessed the good, the bad, and the really bad. Here's how you can avoid the worst of the mistakes and get off to a good start.

Mistake 1: The Committee (Getting all your clients, employees and family members involved)

We live in a democratic society and it seems like the right thing to do - involving everyone in an important decision. This approach, however, presents a few problems. The first and most obvious fact is that you will end up choosing only one name - so you risk alienating the very people you are trying to involve. Second, you often end up with a consensus decision, resulting in a very safe and very vanilla name. A better method is to involve only the key decision makers, the fewer the better, and select only the people you feel have the company's best interests at heart. The need for personal recognition can skew results - so you are best served by those who can park their egos at the door. Also, make sure you have some right brain types in the mix. Too many left brains and the name often ends up too literal and descriptive.

Mistake 2: The Train Wreck (Taking two words and colliding them head on)

When forced to come up with a creative name, many aspiring entrepreneurs will simply take part of an adjective and weld it onto a noun. The results are names that have a certain twisted rationale to them, but look and sound awful. Someone starting a high-end service franchise then becomes QualiServe. It's a bit like mixing chocolate syrup with ketchup - nothing wrong with either, but they just don't go together. Other common truncations include Ameri, Tech, Corp, Tron, etc. The problem with this approach is that it's simply forced � and it sounds that way.

Mistake 3: Where's Waldo? (Names so plain they'll never stand out in a crowd)

The first company in a category can get away with this one. Hence, you have General Motors, General Electric, etc. But once you have competition, it requires differentiation. Imagine if Yahoo! had come out as GeneralInternetDirectory.com? It would be much more descriptive, but hardly memorable. And with the onslaught of new media and advertising channels, it's more important than ever to carve out your niche by displaying your uniqueness. Nothing does that better than a well-conceived name.

Mistake 4: The Atlas Approach (Using a map to name your company)

In the zeal to start a new company, many businesses choose to use their city, state or region as part of their name. While this may actually help in the beginning, it often becomes a hindrance as a company grows. One client came to me with complaints he was serving more of the market than his name implied. He had aptly called it St. Pete Plumbing since he hailed from St. Petersburg, Florida. But yellow page shoppers assumed that was also his entire service area. With a little creative tinkering we changed the image of St. Pete from a city to the image of St. Pete himself, complete with wings and a plumber's wrench. The new tag line? "We work miracles!"

Other companies have struggled with the same issue. Minnesota Manufacturing and Mining was growing beyond their industry and their state. To avoid limiting their growth they became 3M, a company now known for innovation. Kentucky Fried Chicken is now KFC, de-emphasizing the regional nature of the original name. Both of these companies made strategic moves to avoid stifling their growth. Learn from them and you can avoid this potential bottleneck.

Mistake 5: Cliche' You Say? (A good name is worth a thousand words)

Once past the literal, descriptive stage, the thought process usually turns to metaphors. These can be great if they are not overly used to the point of trite. Since many companies think of themselves as the top in their industry, the world is full of names like Summit, Apex, Pinnacle, Peak, etc. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these names, they are just overworked. Look for combinations of positive words and metaphors and you will be much better served. A good example is the Fortune 1000 data storage company Iron Mountain, which conveys strength and security without sounding commonplace.

Mistake 6: Hide the Meaning (Make it so obscure, the customer will never know!)

It's great for a name to have a special meaning or significance. It sets up a story that can be used to tell the company message. But if the reference is too obscure and too hard to spell and pronounce, you may never have the opportunity to speak to that customer. They will simply pass you by as irrelevant. So resist the urge to name your company after the mythical Greek god of fast service or the Latin phrase for "We're number one!" If a name has a natural, intuitive sound and a special meaning, it can work. If it's too complex and puzzling, it will remain a mystery to your customers. This is especially true if you are reaching out to a mass audience.

I pushed the envelope a little on this one myself, naming my branding firm Tungsten, after the metal that Thomas Edison used to create brilliant light. However, my clientele consists of knowledgeable professionals who appreciate a good metaphor and expect a branding firm to have a story behind its name. It's also a way to differentiate my services (illuminated, bright, brilliant). So while it works for a branding firm, it would not do well as an ice cream parlor.

Mistake 7: The Campbell's Approach (Using alphabet soup to name your firm)

This is a trend that is thankfully wearing off. Driven by the need for a matching domain name, many companies have resorted to awkwardly constructed or purposefully misspelled names. The results are company names that sound more like prescription drugs than real life businesses. Mistake 2 sometimes gets combined with this one and results in a name like KwaliTronix (or worse - mistakes 2, 4 ... 7, resulting in KwalTronixUSA). It's amazing how good some names begin to sound after searching for available domain names all night. But resist the urge. Avoid using a "K" in place of a "Q" or a "Ph" in place of an "F." This makes spelling the name and locating you on the Internet all that much harder.

It's not that coined or invented names cannot work; they often do. Take for example, Xerox or Kodak. But keep it mind, names like these have no intrinsic or linguistic meaning, so they rely heavily on advertising � and that gets expensive. Many of the companies that use this approach were either first in category or had large marketing budgets. Verizon spent millions on their rebranding effort. So did Accenture. So check your pocketbook before you check into these types of names.

Mistake 8: Sit On It. (When in doubt, make no change at all)

Many business owners know they have a problem with their name and just hope it will somehow magically resolve itself. The original name for one of my clients was "Portables," which reminded some people of the outdoor restrooms or the portable classrooms - neither one a good association. This added to the confusion when phone operators tried to explain their new concept of moving and storage. After some careful tweaking, we came up with the name PODS, an acronym for Portable On Demand Storage. The rest is quickly becoming history as they expand both nationally and internationally. Peter Warhust, President and one of the original founders states, "For the record, changing our name to PODS was one of the best moves we ever made."

Exercise Experience, a former Florida-based company, was frequently confused with a health club. In reality, they sold very high-end fitness equipment. This brings up a very key point - it's better to have a name that gives no impression than a name that gives a wrong impression. Much of the ad budget we spent on Exercise Experience was used to clarify that they sold fitness equipment. This was valuable airtime that could have been put to better use selling the equipment rather than explaining the business. Ultimately, the company folded. It's not to say it was solely because of the name, but I believe it was a factor.

Mike Harper of Huntington Beach, CA, bought a thirty-year-old janitorial and building maintenance company named Regency. We both agreed it sounded more like a downtown movie theatre than a progressive facilities management firm. After a thorough naming search, we developed the name Spruce Facilities Management. Spruce not only conveyed the environmentally friendly image of a spruce tree (something important to the client), it also meant, "to clean up." The new tag line fell right in place Spruce "The Everclean Company."

It's only a matter of time before Southwest Airlines and Burlington Coat Factory and others who have successfully outgrown their original markets begin to question their positioning. Much like 3M and KFC, they may need to make a change to keep pace with their growth and image.

In the fever to start your new business or expand a current one, take time to think through some of these issues. According to the late Henry Ford, "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." Albert Einstein took it one step further claiming, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." By tapping into your creativity and avoiding these potential pitfalls, you'll be able to create a name that works both short and long term � one that allows for future growth. Like the original cornerstone of a building, it will support upward expansion as your company reaches new heights.

Phillip Davis is President of Tungsten Branding. Phil’s life goal of “creating environments where people thrive” reflects his desire to assist in personal, professional and business growth. Phil founded and ran a full service ad agency for over 17 years and now works full time as a company naming consultant. Phil resides with wife Michelle and four energetic offspring outside Asheville, North Carolina Website: http://PureTungsten.com
Email: Phil@PureTungsten.com

The Fast & Easy Way to Start an Internet Home Business by Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy Send Feedback to Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy

Many people think that starting an Internet home business is hard. In fact, there is no business in the world that is faster or easier to launch. If you have 15 minutes and a connection to the Internet, I'll show you how to launch your own Internet business right away.

Before you launch your first Internet home business, you need to understand the basics. The first step of having a business on the Internet is having your own website. This is the major stumbling block for most people. They think getting a website is expensive or difficult. It's neither of those things. Actually, it's free and it's easy. In fact, let's go ahead and get your first website setup right now.

To do this I recommend using a free tool called Blogger. Blogger is used for creating blogs on the fly, but a blog is nothing more than a fancy name for a website. To set up your blog website now visit: http://www.Blogger.com

Once you arrive, click the "Create Your Blog Now" button on the page. On the next page enter a user name, password, display name and email address. Then click "Continue". On the next page enter a blog title and blog address. These can be anything you want. Then enter the word verification code and click "Continue". On the next page choose a template for your blog (this is what your website will look like) and click "Continue". Voila... Your blog/website has been created!

Next, click the "Start Posting" button. A new page will appear giving you the option to add content to your new website. Write a title for your page in the "Title" field and then write whatever you want that page of your website to be about in the larger data entry field below the "Title" field on that page. You can use the tools on that page to change your fonts, make links, format your text, add pictures, etc. When you're happy with what you've entered into the page, click the "Publish Post" button. You just created a new page on your website! On the next page displayed, you'll see a link that says: "View Blog". Click that link and you'll see your website live on the Internet. Pretty easy, right?! ;-) Now you can wash, rinse, repeat and create as many new pages on your website as you want.

But let's turn your website into a business first. After all, websites are a lot more fun once they are making money for you.

Here's how:

Get back into your Blogger account and click the "Template" tab. Then click the "AdSense" link near the top of the page. AdSense is a simple but powerful program that allows you to earn advertising revenue from your website. Follow the easy instructions on that page to launch your AdSense account instantly. On the next page click the "Save" button to save AdSense into your website. Then on the next page click the "Republish" button. Your website will instantly be rebuilt now showing a Google AdSense ad at the top of each page on your website. Every time someone visits your website and clicks one of those ads, you earn money from AdSense. You now have a moneymaking business setup on the Internet. How long did that take? 15 minutes! ;-)

The only thing you need to do now to start the cash flowing in is get people to visit your new website. One way to do this would be to tell your friends and family about your site. Here are two more easy things you can do to drive an unstoppable flow of traffic to your new website:

Traffic Strategy 1: Tell all the major blog directories about your new blog/website. To do this, visit http://www.PingoMatic.com and enter your blog name, blog URL (that's the link to your website generated by Blogger), check all the boxes on that page and click the "Send Pings" button. This will tell all the blog directories about your new blog/website and you'll start getting some traffic from interested visitors to those directories. Do this each time you add a new page to your blog.

Traffic Strategy 2: Go back to your blog URL/home page and click the "Next Blog" button at the top of the page. This will take you to another blog of another Blogger user. Read through a post or two on that person's blog and look for a link that says "Comments" and click it. On the next page you'll be able to type your comments and a link back to your blog inside a form. Once you've added your comments, click the "Login and Publish" button; and a link to your site along with your comments will be added to that blog. Repeat this process as many times as you want with other blog websites. This will "link you in" to a network of sites all over the Internet helping you drive a steady stream of traffic to your blog.

Blogger is a great tool to launch your Internet home business, but it's not the only tool you should be using. To build a solid Internet home business that you can rely on, you need to register your own domain name and website hosting account. A domain name is your unique home on the web that you own and control. Example: domain names are yahoo.com, ebay.com, google.com, etc.

You could either register your own name as a domain or a keyword of something related to the topic of your business. Either way, if you are going to have a legitimate long-term home business on the Internet, a domain name and website hosting account are required. When choosing a domain name and hosting account, it's important to select a company that has a track record for success. The company I host all my websites with is at: http://www.PlugInProfitHost.com

This top-rated website hosting company also provides several turn-key Internet home businesses called "Plug-In Profit Sites" such as the service I provide to Host4Profit customers myself at: http://www.HomeBusiness.us. The Plug-In Profit Site is a very popular and easy way to start earning multiple streams of income on the Internet. In fact, in addition to the blog you launched a few moments ago, you can get a Plug-In Profit Site setup in the next 24 hours and add another 6 easy streams of income to your Internet home business.

Alternatively, there are other turn-key Internet home business systems such as the one described at: http://www.HomeBusiness.org which provides a proven formula to start making money online within minutes of signing up. In fact, I earn an extra 5-figures every month using the above mentioned system myself.

As you can see, starting an Internet home business is actually a very fast and easy thing to do. Now that you know this, there should be nothing stopping you from earning a little extra income from home on the Internet. Persevere and you can make it your living just like myself and countless others have done.

About Stone Evans, The Home Biz Guy: I Was A Washed Up Restaurant Worker Desperately Searching For A Way To Save My Family When I Discovered The Internet And Affiliate Marketing... 24 Months Later I Finally Cracked The Code And Started Earning Over $10,000.00 Per Month... Now The Same System That Saved Me Is Available To You! Check It Out Now At: http://www.HomeBusiness.us