Blog First Ask Questions Later

I stumbled across a very useful link in one of email subscriptions this week and put it all into practise to create this new Blog.This post is full of recommended resources to kick start the Blogging side of your business ventures.

If you did not see last week’s Carpe-Diem Ezine, you will not have seen a rather long link about creating a WordPress blog that I picked up from my subscription to Michael Dunlop’s site http://www.retireat21.com/

( I love this site because not only does it keep me in touch with young entrepreneurs as a resource for Teen Money, but it reminds me that he achieved his success before the age of 18, without a credit card.)

So I thought I’d give it a go myself and follow the “simple instructions” and set one up myself. Having recently found Hostgator as a highly recommended source, http://tinyurl.com/6fbn8b I found an excellent use for my first cPanel experience and created my new hosted WordPress Blog at www.dianecossie.com

I highly recommend the use of your own name as a website or Blog name, it certainly makes you focus on what core messages you are delivering.

If you are anything like me, and enjoy Blogging then you will pick up some of the best resources via TWITTER. I came across one of the best Blogs for layout & content I think you are likely to find, considered by some to be the best there is, run by Australian Darren Rowse, visit : www.problogger.net whenever you can. There are plenty of really useful resources for configuring your content, composing your about me page and with over 50,000 subscribers, I think it is fair to say he knows what he is doing.

Monetizing your Blog with adverts, links and resources with a WordPress Blog is made easy through Plug Ins and Widgets. If you type into Google “WordPress Plug In for …” something usually crops up. Hostgator have Fantatisco built in, so uploading a WordPress Blog is very easy.

Once you have mastered the file location and upload process for your WordPress Plug Ins you can then start to focus on one thing : TRAFFIC.

Finally for the best ways to monetize your Blog to it’s maximum potential, look no further than Blogging to the Bank, written by another young English entrepreneur, it just goes to show that expertise on the Internet has nothing to do with age. Check out his site here http://tinyurl.com/69sncs

For more about combining Internet Marketing & Networking marketing, visit my business website at : www.mycarpe-diem.com

The Instructions Are Already There

If you are thinking about starting an online business, or have simply stumbled from one business opportunity to another for several years, chances are you are not looking in the right place to forward your business.

If you are not sufficiently funded to survive the start up phase of your business online or offline for that matter then you will quickly run out of cash, you will become desperate to make things work quicker than a natural pace and you will find yourself in self destruct mode.

The difference between building a sustainable long term business and a flash in the pan, fingers crossed I hope this works is investment. It’s investment in yourself, and your continuous self education, it is also an investment in your marketing skills. If you are just starting out with NO previous sales, business or marketing skills and you buy an advanced strategy for fast cash — expect to fail.

You simply CANNOT leap frog experience and expertise. You only have to look at the popular TV Show The Apprentice to realise that you simply CANNOT turn up one day and expect to know everything and be an expert from day one. These skills HAVE to be learned.

Before Starting An Online Business Read This

If you are serious about building an online business you need to understand there is a lot of “stuff” you NEED to know and learn and at the same time there are A MILLION DISTRACTIONS EVERY SINGLE DAY trying to divert your attention.

I thought I would add this section while I can still relate to all those frustrations everyone experiences when they begin life on the Internet.

1. You are going to need to learn how to build a basic website. Yes you can outsource everything, but if you are serious about learning Internet Marketing and building multiple streams of income NOT taking the time and effort to learn it is like moving to a foreign country where everyone else speaks a different language.

2. Get familiar with the terminology Internet Marketers use every day. When you are first starting out there will be a lot of very unfamiliar terms, such as Domain Names, Hosting, FTP, Servers, ASP, PHP and many more. Remember you are smack bang in the middle of the technical “guys and gals” who talk websites, software and web talk and the consumer who doesn’t know about these terms, nor do they need to know. I always think I am the absolute WORST dinner guest when my head is full of learning “new computer talk” as it is SO unfamiliar when you start out it is likely to dominate most thoughts you have.

3. Learn that you are going to make mistakes, and that every hurdle in front of you can be jumped over once you have found the right way to do it. I have not found one story of an online marketer that starts with <em>”One day I decided to start my online business, I found it really easy at first and within a month I had made my first million.”</em>

There are many, many more stories that read something like this, <em>” I struggled to make ends meet at first, I mean I even sold my car just to pay the bills, I bought every product, read every ebook I could get my hands and still nothing seemed to be going right. Then suddenly after my first couple of years I got my first real break and now I earn in one month what I used to earn in a year.”</em>

4. Do NOT give up the day job! The number one problem with life online is that the learning curve is SO steep at first that you will not, unless you are extremely lucky earn enough money to pay your bills for at least 6-12 months. In fact if you have had NO previous BUSINESS experience it may take you much longer than that. Yes there are exceptions to the rule, but that is all they are … exceptions.

5. Accept right up front that at first you NEED to make LOTS of mistakes and that EVERYTHING YOU DO WRONG is not because you are failing, it is because you are testing and measuring, then testing and measuring some more. You will NEVER get anywhere online if you give up at the first hurdle, or if you keep flitting like a butterfly from Amazing Get Rich Scheme to Amazing Get Rich Scheme. Take your time, allow at least 6 months to learn the very basics, build a solid foundation from which to grow ,,, then create MASSIVE ACTION and results will follow.