It may seem like an oxymoron, but why would you need to create a filing systems for your online business? "Online" somehow suggests that nothing is offline. If ever there was a case for a paperless office, a business that is entirely on the Internet seems like the ideal case. Is it?

Let me ask you something: What would happen if you lost your internet connection? You say that that couldn't possibly happen. You have guarantees with your supplier. You have a dedicated line. Your signal arrives via fiber optics. Or maybe you get it by satellite.

There are no end of ways that you could lose your connection completely, and you need to think about what you'd do if that happened.

There could be a brown-out. That's journalist-speak for a widespread loss of electricity. It's not uncommon in some parts of the world for thunderstorms to knock out the power, snow or ice to start pulling down power lines.

A heat wave could cause you to lose your electricity. When everyone starts running their air conditioners, that puts a huge strain on the electricity grid. In Britain, there used to be a noticeable dip in the nationwide electricity supplies when everyone made a cup of tea. It's true.

Another way you could lose your connection is if your ISP was hacked. Big sites have this happen all the time. There are numerous rogue programmers who like nothing better than to break into the most high profile sites; and some of them, who have an axe to grind find themselves at the mercy of a group of people who are determined to crash the site. The entire anti-virus industry, by-the-way, began as a result of malicious programs roaming around the Internet.

Or, may be a careless workman cuts your line while digging up something else. Less frequent, thankfully; but it happens. I can remember a time when an underwater cable across the Mediterranean, I think, was cut in half. It was weeks before the Internet was available for thousands of people.

Another possibility is sunspots. These are known to disrupt communications. Atmospheric disturbances can occur for no apparent reason, too. It just isn't possible to know.

And if you just happen to have all of your computer files, you know, the ones that you used to back up onto the hard drive on your desk, in an Internet cloud, then you're at risk of not being able to access anything.

If you want to secure yourself in business online or offline, you have to provide for yourself the opportunity of bouncing back, like a life-line, when one of your business crashes. The way to go about it is to create multiple sources of income.

In affiliate marketing, you cannot depend on one source of income, because if the business fails, you become bankrupt and helplessly traumatized. Though, some go into affiliate marketing as a source of earning residual income to support their white-collar jobs. Most successful affiliate marketers believe that building multiple streams of online income is the best option.

Before you start creating multiple sources of income, assess yourself; your resources and assets. What are your strengths and weaknesses? How good are you in creative writing? Can you communicate with people effectively? Do you have good managerial skills? Can you efficiently make sales even when the market is on a downward course? Do you have any exceptional talent, skill or capabilities that others do not have?

Answering the questions above, sincerely and without narrow-mindedness, will help you decide on the businesses you can do extremely well. Importantly, your assets can help you in creating multiple sources of income, for instance, working with a laptop is better than a desktop or going to a cyber cafe, because using a laptop is more secure for privacy, it is portable which makes it easier for you to carry and work anywhere, from your bedroom, your kitchen, to your office, you can take it to WiFi hotspots and connect to the internet for free. Also, a smart phone can be a very powerful resource, as you can use it to take pictures of the products you want to promote and place it on your website, check your email for responses from your potential clients, chat with your fellow marketers on forums and social networking sites for the latest tips and hottest products to promote and monitor your business in real-time. With an I-pad, your work becomes easier because you can use it as a laptop and as phone and turn it from becoming a liability to an income generating machine.

Calculate all the time you spend watching movies and playing video games on the internet, you can use that time to research and find more affiliate marketing programs that you can sign up with and start promoting their products and referring potential customers to them. You can make friends on many social networking sites and market the products through banners that have your referral id and make money. It is wise to improve on your marketing skills by finding training materials, attending seminars and workshops in order to be current with the latest trend in the marketing world.

Conclusively, there is nothing wrong with having multiple streams of income because promoting more than one product gives your potential customers a variety of products to select from, it protects your business and expands your scope, and you will not be affected if one of the merchants you are promoting his or her product closes his or her program.

You have probably discovered already that your online business generates a lot of paper. Funny that. So, how do you create an offline filing systems for your online business? How do you keep track of all that paper that seems to come spilling out of your printer. You know that it's important; so what do you do with it?

Hands up if you have as much space on your desk to work as you'd like!

That's what I thought. I don't have enough room either. And one of the most annoying things is that the family seems to think that the mail and anything else that they can think of ought to get dropped on your desk as well.

How can you create a place for everything you need without losing it before you even get started.

Here are some suggestions.

1. Decide what categories will be easiest for you to remember.

Obviously, you can't have a separate file for everything that you print. That means that you need to create categories for similar documents.

2. Products

You probably will want a file for each of your products. That would include all of your development notes and any information about your prices.

3. Web pages

You may want to print each of your web pages and file them as well. If you lose your connection, these backups will enable you to see what you have. You may also want to keep a list of all of the URLs you have, the login pages with their login details. This would include your web host, autoresponder, shopping cart, and blog. Few things are as frustrating online as not being able to login to a site that belongs to you.

4. Suspense files

This is something I observed when I was in the US Air Force. The unit clerk had a folder for every day in the month, numbered from 1-31. Whatever was due on a particular day of the month was put into that folder. Then each day, the contents of that file were taken out.

All of us were able to use it. I used it for, among others things, to remind me to ready various regulations so that I would stay up-to-date on current and new policies. But for your online business, it could be to remind you to review your analytics, for example.

5. Other activities

Files for marketing, list building, or ideas for follow-up messages could go here.

I'm sure that you have thought, at one time or another, about how to create a variety of systems for your online business. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if you felt a bit daunted by the prospect of doing so. Here's a simple way to overcome this challenge.

What is a system?

A system is nothing more than detailed description of what you do in order to accomplish a particular process in your business. For example, when you create a new product, there are certain activities that you complete, not only to make the product, but also to upload it and distribute it.

The same thing is true of sales pages, shopping carts, web sites, and anything else you do to make your online business work.

How do you create a system?

Here is a simple approach that I'm sure will work for you.

Step 1 - write down everything that you know has to be done. Don't worry about putting it in the right order. Just get the information down on paper. I recommend that you write it out by hand. This may help you to think through the process more effectively.

If it helps, close your eyes, and imagine what the process looks like.

Step 2 - rearrange all of the tasks so that they occur in the order that is necessary to accomplish the entire process as quickly and accurately as possible. Systems are created to save you time; so make sure that your's are as efficient as you can make them.

Step 3 - test it. Don't assume that you've remembered everything. You'll find that if you don't test it while it's fresh in your mind, that you'll find it difficult to follow or that you might forget an important step. Of course, you won't know it's important until later when you are relying on the accuracy of the system. I've lost a whole day on occasion because I had forgotten how to do something that was important.

Step 4 - Test it again in a week. Don't go through the process for an entire week. Let it "get out of your system." Then go through it again. Ask yourself, is it as easy to follow as you expected?

Step 5 - Amend your system as necessary. Then print it and put it in a binder that you have for all of your other systems.

In this article, I want to explain why you should create systems for your online business. A system is a written description of what you do to create a product, write a sales page, or any other activity in your business. The most successful online business people have them, and you should, too. But why would you want to? Isn't is a lot of unnecessary work?

In a nutshell, you want to write a description of every process in your business that is so precise that someone with your knowledge of products, but who knew nothing about running the business could do so. Of course, it's unlikely that you'll ever need someone to run it for you; but if you've created a system that is as exact as that, then you'll have no trouble performing each process in the least amount of time.

Why, however, would you want to do it. I mean, given all of the other things you must do, why would you want to take time out of your already full days and make the effort to write everything down?

Well, there are three reasons.

First, it's easy to forget what to do. Sounds crazy. I know. But, some activities you'll only do every few weeks, such as search for and register a new domain name. Other activities you'll do every day, such as create your products.

No doubt, you've discovered already that you sometimes need to remind yourself of how to do something that you've done before. What a waste of time! It would be so much easier if you could just follow a checklist. Well, why not create one?

The next thing to remember is that all of the online services that you use - web host, autoresponders, shopping carts, forum and blog software, etc. - gets updated regularly. If you don't have a description of how your current version works, then it will be a lot harder to figure out how to alter your routine to allow for any changes.

Sometimes steps are combined or eliminated altogether. Without a description of what you normally do, you may not be able to understand how to change your process without spending a lot of time trying to figure it out.

And that's what systems are for: to substantially reduce the amount of time you spend accomplishing everything that you do in your online business.

The third reason is that when your services revise their programs, it will be harder to recognize what has changed if you don't have a description of how it works now.

How To Create A Favicon For Your Blog

IP is over the quota IP is over the quota type='html'>Favicon, what is it? A Favicon is a image that sits in front of your url in the address bar of your browser.

The advantage of creating and installing a Favicon for your
blog is you will not be forgotten when someone bookmarks
you. How many time have you bookmarked a site and the
next day you forgot all about it. Maybe in a month or so you
might come across it

Having a Favicon makes you stand out in a crowd when
someone bookmarks you. You can be seen at a glance.
It's a form of branding your site for recognition. Some
companies will use their logo for their Favicon


The first thing you must do is create an image. There are
many graphic image programs that you can use. Paint is
one that you have in your "programs" in your computer.

After you have created your image go to
http://www.iconj.com to generate your image to a
Favicon.

Most Favicons are generated in a ".ico" file but Blogger.
com does not support that file. But we do have option.

After "Icon Generator" tab.

Browse and upload your image under ("Free FavIcon
Generator and Hosting") (You have to have iconj.com
host your image because the other upload will generate
a ".ico" file which Blogger .com does not support.

After you click upload you will be given a code which you
will copy and paste in your blog HTML.

The instruction to place your code in blogger.com.
1. Sign in to your Blogger account.
2. Click Layouts
3. Click "edit HTML" tab
4. Scroll down through the code to
""
5. Paste the code right under this title tag.
6. Publish your blog.

Bookmark your site first and then click on the link
in bookmark and you should see your Favicon in the
address bar.

While Internet Explore requires that the Favicon be an
".ico" file, Firefox, Netscape, and other browsers can also
display gif, jpg, and png files as Favicons.

If you do not see your Favicon in Internet Explorer,
bookmark your blog in Firefox browser first before you
feel you have made a mistake.

Favicon Video

How to Create an Outline For All of Your Article

We’ve done it through junior high, it expanded longer through high school, then on college it became chapters. No matter how many times a person have done it, writing articles has proven to be a task many has continuously avoided. Now at a time when writing articles could help your job or work, facing the job at hand can be still faced with unfriendly behavior.

While there are a great number of people who do not have the same attitude in article writing as others, there are still those who would rather walk in piping hot coals than do some article writing. What set other people apart from other towards article writing is that they are prepared and has some methods and procedures in writing articles.

One of the methods you can use to prepare yourself when tasked to write in article is creating an outline first. Creating an outline for all your articles makes you prepared. You have an idea of what to do first and make a plan for your succeeding steps. Being prepared makes the job easier and faster. Being organized will allow for disorientation to be shunned away.

An outline can act as the design or blueprint for your article. This will guide you in creating the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. Here in this point, you can write down some of the ideas and sentences that you feel will look good in your article. This could be some of the focal point that could help make your article creative, interesting and appealing to a reader.

A carefully planned and fully prepared project would guarantee and ensure a problem and worry free procedure that can virtually go without any hassles. Creating an outline for all your articles will get you ready and breeze through writing an article in no time at all. Here I will provide you with some tips and guidelines in how to create an outline for all of your articles.

Do a couple of brainstorming and jot down your brilliant ideas first. Think of some ways to attract the interest of your reader. Designate a time frame where you can write down all the ideas that you can use for your articles. By this time you should have done all your research and information searching. Review and reread your ideas and notes, gain mastery and sufficient familiarity with your topic so that writing them down later own would be easy for you.

The next step is to discover your sub topic and sub titles. As you would provide a first sentence for your article, one that would immediately grab the attention of your reader, you would need some as well for your sub topics. To be concise, you would need to get all the facts that will support and go against your point.

These are the frames or skeleton of your article, now its time to add the flesh and the meat of your article. You will need to connect all your paragraphs and sub topics. This will form the body of your Article. While the introduction will usher in the ideas of your paragraph, you will need a conclusion. The conclusion will wrap up your points and drive in what you are saying in your article.

The outline for your article would also require you to write a draft first. This may take more than one attempt but remember that it is called a draft for a reason. Your outline shall be perfected as each draft is written and this draft is meant for your eyes only so there’s no reason to feel ashamed. As you go on, you will clearly see the bigger picture and write an article that will perfectly suit what is demanded of it.

Reread and reread what you have written down. Always refer to your outline so that you wont drift away from what you had first written down. Its not hard to be caught in the moment and get lost in your writing frenzy. Your outline will help you keep in track. All those hours spent in outlining your article will not go to waste. This will serve as your guide in writing articles. Trust and rely on your outline because this will prove to be a very helpful tool in writing all of your articles.

The easiest Way to Create Articles – Public Domain!

There are many webmasters that find writing articles for their site to be a very tedious task. Many people who need to write articles also procrastinate as much as they can to delay the amount of writing they need to do. Many people dread writing articles because they find researching for the topic and writing down original materials will be too taxing on them.

You need to have your creative juices flowing and simply downloading an article would be plagiarism or tantamount to stealing, not exactly. Have you ever heard about public domain? These are articles written down by many authors that have declared their works to be public domain, which means anybody can use it for whatever purpose they want.

While most authors would prefer to copyright their work for their rights, there are also a number who doesn’t mind sharing their work. Public domain articles are not owned by anybody and can be used and abused by anyone. The writers have waived their rights to their works and it is out there for the public to make use of.

You can use public domain articles in helping you write your articles. With the public domain articles you can simply edit them to your own style and rewrite them as you please to make it suitable for your needs. All the ideas are there already and its just a matter of finding the write article with the topic or subject you need.

This is probably the easiest way to write articles. You don’t need to scour around the library or the internet for hours for information and start an article from scratch. For webmasters who are looking for articles to fill their site and to generate a high ranking for their website in search engine results, they can just modify the article by infusing keywords and keyword phrases related to their site.

A webmaster or website operator do not risk any chance of getting sued for copyright infringement because they are public domain, once again meaning that anybody can use it. Writing articles by using public domain wont require as much work as writing one from scratch would. You save a lot of time also.

One good factor in using public domain articles for your site or for any project is that you save a lot of money. You dismiss the need to hire experienced and seasoned writers that some website operators use to write their articles. While a single five hundred worded article would only set you down 10 to 15 dollars, this cost will drastically increase when you need hundreds of articles to fill the needs of your site.

For those who needs articles to generate newsletters or an e-zine, public domain articles will be very beneficial. You do not need to count on your contributors or pay writers to write down articles for your newsletter or e-zine. You can fill all the pages without any cost or the worry of being sued and sought after by the writers. You can simply copy the articles and place them on your newsletter and e-zine.

Public domain articles are a virtual untapped resource that many people fail to realize the true value. The power of articles, keywords and keyword phrases have been deemed invaluable these past few years for many internet based businesses and sites that want to rank high in search engine results.

The number of article and content writers have grown significantly due to the rise in the demand for articles. As newer and newer topics and subjects have arisen, there are many demands for new articles to be written. An industry has been formed and this is a worldwide demand.

Public domain articles have given a great alternative for those who are cash strapped as well as do not have the time nor the skills to do their articles for themselves.

Searching for public domain articles is as easy as 1 – 2 – 3. You can search for them in search engines and do searches in many directories for the topic or subject that you need. Read them and simpy copy paste them to a word processing program and simply edit them to suit your needs.

How to Create a Successful Advertising Plan

Many factors have to be considered when making an advertising plan. Like the type of message to be delivered, the audience to be targeted, how they should be targeted, budget, etc. all of which depends on the nature of the advertisement.

Regarding the type of message to be delivered, try thinking from the point of the customer. What will impress him and catch his fancy. Note down points what the customer expects from the company and what advantage will he have when dealing with the company. Effort should be made to retain viewer or listener’s or reader’s interest in the advertisement until the end. This procedure is known as message selection.

After creating the outline of the picture, pick lines that will actually attract the customer. The message shouldn’t be long enough to bore the customer. Some advertisers are under the illusion that more the matter written, the better the message delivered. Usually they fear that they don’t miss out any information. This does nothing but decreases the effectiveness of the ad and customer is left unsatisfied.

For example, the heading of the advertisement shouldn’t be just “We Sell Clothes”, which is too precise. The liking of the people should be studied and the headline should be designed such that the customer feels that his needs are met. It should also take into consideration seasonal changes like If the season at that time is summer and there are lots of beaches around that area, the heading of the ad should be something like “Summer Clothes for Sale” or “Get the heat off – Buy Swimwear”. The body of the advertisement should talk of the necessities to switch to summer clothes like cotton clothing. It should discuss the health point of view too, like cotton cannot be used as swimwear as it will cause contamination, therefore the swimwear is made of synthetic material. Also include lines about swimwear for overweight people.

Ads are either traffic builder or relationship builders or reputation builder. Suppose the budget involved is less, the target should be relationship builder. Because once the customers are established, they will start trusting the company and won’t switch to other companies. According to a research it takes ten percent less resources to retain existing customers than attracting new customer. If the focus is on brand recognition, the advertisement should be traffic building.

The next point is whether the advertiser wants quick results or long lasting results. If quick result is desired, then a time limit should be levied. Like in case of seasonal sales, the customer hurries to get advantage before the offer is over. So quick results are expected in this case. But the disadvantage with advertisement with time limit is that the customer are bound to forget about the product or the company within a short period and it doesn’t creates a deep impact on the minds of the customer.

Competing against rival company’s ad also contributes to a successful advertising plan. The power of the message should be compared to that of the competitors’. It doesn’t mean that the advertiser should use the same plan like his competitor, it would look like imitation and effectiveness will be decreased. But the advertisement should be planned smartly via a different and effective path, to out-do the competitor’s advertisement.

The description of the product is also very vital like suppose an advertisement is made for a restaurant, it will get customers immediately, if it is attractive. But if the advertisement is for a computer, it won’t yield immediate results, as it’s not every day that someone buys a computer. This is called analysis of the purchase cycle.

If targeting for a higher impact, newsletter is the best bet. But if the newsletters are sent to the real potential customers, then this approach should be adopted for message delivery. It should only be opted be after thorough analysis, no matter what the budget is. Another important point is to always hire a professional advertiser or an ad writer because not hiring one will sometimes be more expensive and results in more losses.