I chose to stay away from the obvious and instead give you the resources you might not have heard about, while others might be obvious but not quite known at this time. I have divided the must-have business activities in 3 major sections:

1. Communications
2. Sales
3. Finances

1. COMMUNICATION

This activity is vital to any business and without the right tools you might as well forget about starting anything, let alone a thriving new endeavor.  Modern communication spawns across several fields:

• Telephone (voice mail)
• Messaging
• Faxing
• Online Meetings
• Email

With all the phone candy on the market most of these functions can be covered by any simple phone offered by a reliable network. Stick with Verizon or AT&T and you should have no problems with a 3 bar coverage signal in most of continental US.

In order to make yourself available to your clients, you are probably indicating your mobile phone as your primary business phone number. That’s fine and dandy but what happens if your client is outside your ‘realm” and need to speak with them on your “off-peak” hours? That $100 per month will look more like $1000 per month and the whole essence of this article would be lost.

That is why you need the all mighty Google again. Google, in case you didn’t know, is in phone business and if you are a small business, most of the stuff offered by them is FREE. Well, if it’s free – it’s for me!

Go to www.google.com/voice and check out the virtual number you can get and unify all your phone numbers into one. It’s a good read and will help you select the right central number you can now give away to your clients. Just don’t complain when they will be able to reach you from Hong Kong at 3:00 AM your time.

One thing a phone would not do is faxing; unless Steve Jobs is currently thinking of equipping the new iPhone with a thin roll of paper, this function is still bias to the existence of a fax machine or a PC/MAC on your desk.

There are however services that can eliminate the clunky fax machines off your desk and save some space for a cool new color printer, which can be connected to your computer and thus print any fax you might receive (and you really, really need to print it).  Once such service is called Fax It Nice (www.faxitnice.com). The cool part about this service is the flexibility in plans and its simplicity as a program. You can virtually fax anything anywhere without really being at your computer because it does not require any software to download. Their pay as you go program puts the “nice” in the Fax It Nice.

Next runner up – eFax (www.efax.com). Still a good service and easy to understand software but a bit pricey compared to Fax it Nice. Give it a shot and see which one you like the best.

Online meetings

Yes – sometimes you really need these and if you want to appear as a well established business you better know how to handle this function.  During these online sessions, you can share files, video, audio and even screen shots off your computer.

It’s a great tool to have access, especially if you have a lot of demos or portfolios you want to share with your audience. If that’s your need, head over to the nice people from Vyew (www.vyew.com) who offer this amazing tool for FREE.  

Email

– there is one thing I need to add about this – you totally have to check out Google mail and I am not talking here about creating a Gmail account. That would look tacky to your clients, relying on free email accounts.

I am sure, by now you have considered and/or probably already purchased hosting for your website. Usually, that comes with free email accounts. Before you do anything, just migrate your domain to Google and get your personalized email on any computer or phone. [ Read this article to see how it is done ]. I use it and love it.

2. SALES

There is a sweeter alternative to carrying a Franklin planner with you to all the meetings – a CRM (Contact Relationship Manager) system that allows you to track your existing as well as perspective clients, meetings, dates, sales appointments, alarm you when some task or another is due, and the list goes on. You can have all this for around $24 per month by taking advantage of the services offered by 37 Signals on their website (www.highrisehq.com)

Similar types of software can be found at: Sugar CRM (www.sugarcrm.com) or Sales Force (www.salesforce.com).

3. FINANCES

You are probably keeping track of all your invoices, cash flow and bill payments using some sort of combination between and Excel Spreadsheet and QuickBooks. Well, the following is a nifty tool that gives you all that and more without breaking the piggy bank. I am referring to Less Accounting (www.lessaccounting.com) which could be your cup of tea is you are a business with small accounting needs. You will be amazed about its dashboard simplicity and easy reporting, so you know your financial situation at any time.

Others that come close to what Less Accounting can do are: Blink Sale (www.blinksale.com) and Fresh Books (www.freshbooks.com).

These are just some of the applications that are available on the web, so if you are using other ones and have great experience with them, please do share.

Blog directories, Domain Search, Keyword Analyzer and much more

• Google AdWords
  
  This Keyword Tool allows you to enter one keyword or phrase per line for each keyword suggestions. This will help you better target your online ads.
• 7Search.com
  
  This Keyword Suggestion Tool allows you to enter keywords or keyword phrases in order to get additional keywords and keyword phrases suggestions.
  You’ll also be able to see how many searches were done for the last month on this site for each keyword and phrase.
• Keyword Finder Tool
  
  This tool will show you Google & Yahoo suggestions on the same page. Just type in the keywords you are researching and you will get
  many other keyword suggestions.
• RSSTop55 – Top 55 Blogs and RSS Submission Sites
  
  It is a great site if you have a blog and you want to get exposure for it. It lists over 100 places where you can register your blog.
• Nameboy Domain Search
  
  This is a pretty nifty website that will help you find the perfect domain name, even when you run out of ideas.
• LunarPages
  
  Great hosting company with competitive prices. You can also register your new domain name for free when you sign up for hosting.
• JustHost
  
  Another solid hosting company with unbeatable prices and a ton of features. Includes unlimited disk space and unlimited email accounts.
• KeyWord Typo Generator
  
  This script is designed to generate common typing mistakes for a list of keywords for use in AdWords, Overture and other Pay Per Click systems.
• Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
  
  This is a great website when you are looking for lists of related search terms based upon a term or keyword you enter related to your web site.
• SEO Digger
  
  The SEO Digger will allow you to research what keywords your site ranks high enough to be in the Google Top 20.
• Compete.com
  
  This wonderful tool will show you the traffic trends for competing websites, allowing you to compare sites side by side.
• Search Engine Saturation
  
  Search Engine Saturation helps you compare how many pages you have in the search indexes against your competitors’ sites.
• Robots.txt Checker
  
  This is a “validator” that analyzes the syntax of a robots.txt file to see if its format is valid as established by Robot Exclusion Standard
  or if it contains any errors.
• Keyword Suggestion Tool
  
  This free tool will show top keyword phrases from Overture.
• Link Harvester
  
  Link Harverster allows you to deeply query the Yahoo database and gives a good amount of link details.
• Density Analyzer
  
  This tool will allow you to find common words and phrases on your site.
• SEO Book
  
  Good resource documentation about Free Search Engine Optimization Tools on SEO Book.
• Website Spell Checker
  
  One of the worst things you can do is publish a misspelled website. This site will help you identify those mistakes.

The owner, let’s call her Mary, managed a staff of 75 and was struggling with the following problems:

• It costs have gone up despite the recession
• Her company was using POP3 email and she was constantly juggling email between her iPhone, a laptop and her office desktop
• Sharing files between employees was a nightmare
• Calendar sharing was out of the question
• As the company grew, backups were a daily challenge and called for expensive upgrades

Mary contracted a local IT provider that had only one answer – Microsoft Exchange; a costly answer that required not only new hardware and software but also a boat load of extra hours for conversion, administration and training of the staff.

Mary contacted me and I offered a simple (almost free of charge) solution – Google Apps. Google – in their infinite wisdom (I mean that literally) presents an alternative to what the IT company suggested; an alternative that can be setup in minutes and solves all the problems listed above.

All you have to do is make some simple modifications to your domain and email setup. Here’s what Google Apps offers in terms of email:

Email, IM, voice and video chat

Each user gets 25 GB of email and IM storage (50 times the industry average).

Anytime, anywhere access to your email

Gmail is securely powered by the web, so you can be productive from your desk, on the road, at home and on your mobile phone, even when you’re offline.

Sync with Outlook & BlackBerry

Get the benefits of Apps on familiar platforms

Search and find emails instantly

Spend less time organizing email and find emails quickly with Google-powered search for your inbox.

Get less spam

Powerful Gmail spam filtering helps you stay focused on what’s important. Postini filtering lets you customize your spam protection. 

These are all free and very easy to setup. On top of all these, several other applications deserve to be mentioned, like:

• Google Calendar Agenda management, scheduling, shared online calendars and mobile calendar sync.
• Google Docs Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Work online without attachments.
• Google Groups User-created groups providing mailing lists, easy content sharing, searchable archives.
• Google Sites Secure, coding-free web pages for intranets and team managed sites.
• Google Video Private, secure, hosted video sharing.

How does Google do all this without charging? Well – there is a charge of $50 per user per year which for Mary amounted to about $3750 per year. This only in the event that 25GB of email is not sufficient for your users. Compare this and the cost of implementing what the IT company proposed and you’ll see the immediate benefits.

How is it possible that Google can do this? It’s gotta be some kind of conspiracy theory abut I cannot figure it out yet…When I do I’ll let you know. In the meantime, save yourself a bunch of money and a whole lotta of headaches with these awesome Google Apps and you won’t regret it. The link to this great time and money saver is: http://www.google.com/apps/

Cost Savings for Mary
She opted for the free version of the Google Apps and saved a little over $43,000 this year alone. Huge savings for a small company. Maybe she can give some bonuses to her hard working staff instead of throwing them away for unnecessary technologies.

I use Google Apps every day no matter what computer I use. In fact right now I am writing this from an Internet Café. In the Philippines! Via email. Totally secure, totally sweet…

 “What Should I write about? Who would be interested in what I know?” I hear this a lot when entrepreneurs start being active on their blogs. They are all experts in their field of interest but somehow they assume everyone else is too.

I used to think that but soon I found out that  many people, for instance, failed to understand the importance of SEO for their websites. For those who still don’t know – SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.

So bloggers, here’s my technique – feel free to share it and apply it in your work:

1. Pick a subject, any subject you feel you know best or can easily research it; preferably some kind of problem lots of people are confronted with. Describe in 2-4 sentences what the problem is.

2. Identify your audience. In other words – who are writing this for? Who are the people affected by this problem?

3. How can the problem be fixed? List all tools, techniques, methods, links, people, resources, etc. that can help solve the problem. Be succinct with your list but give enough information that everyone can understand.

4. Create the list in a bullet form (people love lists) with links to the each resource.

5. Write a brief conclusion with the benefits of solving the problem “your way” and leave it open for comments and/or questions.

What do you think? Try it out and let me know if this method works for you.

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1. Submit Your Business to Local Listings
   Do a local search for your business make sure your listing is up to date and accurate so customers get the right information about your business.
2. List Your Business in the Correct Category
   Very often the owner (or the webmaster creating the website) categorizes the business listing in the wrong category. Include as many relevant categories as possible to your business to attract customers. 
3. Add or verify your business listing with data providers for search engines
   Search engines and local search sites use data providers (e.g. InfoUSA, Localeze, InsiderPages, MerchantCircle, etc.) and it’s very important that you update their listing of your business. 
4. When Possible Include product / service keywords in your local business listing title
   This tactic will help customers find your business more easily on search engines and you will be ranked higher in the process.
5. Check the Accuracy of Your Full Name and address on all search sites and especially your website
   A full and accurate address generates a sense of trust for both customers and for search engines so make sure that wherever you appear on the web, your information is up to date, accurate and consistent throughout.
6. Hire a Professional and Build a Great Website with an Optimized Number of Keywords and Good Content
   Your company website is the image project on the web to the rest of the world. Show the world you care about your image, your business and your customers with a unique, easy to navigate website. Stay away from cheap imitations, standard templates and cookie cutters (one size fits all) websites. If you want to stand out from the crows so should your website/blog.
7. Get your customers to write online reviews and testimonials about your business
   Many customers look for objective reviews before they decide where to spend their money. Online reviews of your business can also contribute to your ranking on search engines as they give credibility to your business and puts your potential customers at ease.
8. Encourage your customers to talk well on and offline about you
   Create more “buzz” around your business. Customer feedback is always good and you an use that to your advantage to improve your business.
9. Understand and use social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Flickr, etc. to stay in touch with customers and attract new ones
   Use these sites to form a community for your business – this is a good way to communicate with existing customers, advertise sales or specials, and a good way to be visible to potential customers. 
10. Create a Blog and be active on others as well
    This is the cheapest way to sort of “toot your own horn” on line. It only takes time to research and write on your blog but very soon you might be able to attract more and more people who enjoy your products and/or services. In addition – your website and thus the company’s brand will rank higher in the search engines. This might not be sufficient unless you also find other blogs within your niche and become an active contributor.

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Every single day, humans engage in two basic emotions – sexual and romantic. Let’s face it – without them there would be no human race.

A strong and intelligent marketing specialist plays these emotions through visual and suggestive messages and engages the customer on three levels – emotional, mental and desire.

COSMOPOLITAN
While standing at the “15 items or less” checkout line and constantly scanning for more than 15 items in the people’s baskets in front of me, the Cosmopolitan magazine caught my attention. It wasn’t  the provocative Lady Gaga’s outfit who I assume was getting ready to go night-night right after the picture was taken, nor her almost orgasmic semi-smile but the shocking headlines.

Whoever designed the cover of this illustrious magazine is very cleaver and knew that people in line like me will eventually get bored of scanning every inch of the perfectly Photoshopped flesh proudly exposed by the half-naked prima donna and sooner or later will start reading the headlines.

Here are a few:

• 50 Things to Do Butt Naked
• Find Your G-SPOT – Directions so clear, They are like GPS
• Sex up your eyes (with this awesome spring trick)
• Speak his sex language – We decode the secret clues men send in bed

And the best of all:

• THE SEX ARTICLE WE CAN’T DESCRIBE HERE!

At one point I glanced again just to make sure this was Cosmopolitan and not Playboy.

HOT FEMALE VICE PRESIDENTS
A couple of years back, while the entire country got a whiff of Sarah Palin’s “vast” history and geography knowledge, the website/blog trendhunter.com ran an article entitled “Female Vice Presidents”. In the heat of the presidential elections, one would think this might be a cool and informative article to read, especially when Caribou Barbie descended upon Washington with a vengeance. Minus the helicopter and the Remington. Well – it actually received only 30,000 hits. The blog article, not Sarah Palin.

The smart people at Trend Hunter tried something else; kept the article in its entirety and changed the title to “Hot Female Vice Presidents”. The “new” article got over 1,100,000 (for the mathematical impaired that’s over 1 million) views and was featured on CNN, Fox Business News and Associated Press.

HOT MODEL SELLS SALADS
While watching TV with an out-of-town friend – George, he alerted me to a very sexy commercial involving Kim Kardashian and some sort of salad. After viewing it he immediately vowed to stop by at the local Carl Jr and get a salad.

Here’s the video that got my friend all hot and bothered over a salad:

HOT & SEXY BLOG PHOTOS
Recently I was searching ways to add a Google map on a web site and I stumbled upon a very well put together video tutorial that explained in terms I even can understand how to do that. At the end of the tutorial, I was presented with a link to the video creator’s blog. The name itself made me curious – www.easykiss123.com.

Upon entering the blog I was a bit surprised to see that every article was accompanied by a semi-provocative picture featuring great looking women. They were all in good taste and most have quite an interesting twist.

Here is a screen-shot of this blog:

If the title of the article doesn’t entice you to open and read the articles, the photos definitely do the job, tickling your curiosity and pushing your desire button. I have to mention though - the articles and the video tutorials are top notch and drip of helpful information for any blogger or webmaster out there.

Conclusion:
Careful (and in good taste) wording and imagery choice can have an astounding impact on the viral potential of your marketing message. Next time you are launching a new product or service see if you can sprinkle a bit of emotion into your message and the results might just…surprise you.

Now back to my Cosmopolitan article “50 Things to Do Butt Naked”…maybe I can learn something new…

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Well – there always are professionals who will do that for you but you’ll have to pay premium dollar for that kind of service; or you can start a process. Believe it or not jotting down potential business names that enters your brain randomly is not a process; flipping through an art or comic book is. I know! Weird, right?

I like to believe that most of the time I am a pretty creative guy, but recently I was facing the dreary notepad with a bunch of chicken scratches and a trash can full of crumpled papers. Yep – I was trying to come up with a cool name for my next endeavor and my creative tank was as dry as a bone under the Saharan sun. In August.

I was wondering what other people were doing when they had to come up with clever names for their company…because you really have to think in terms of the domain name and not necessarily “A” name. Why? Because nobody really cares what the name of the company is anymore unless they can remember it and can plug into a web browser to read about you and what you do.

And that is rule number 1 – if your company name is: “the-greatest-company-on-earth-that-I-thought-of-abd-I-think-it’s-cool” do not even try to register that name for your website – you’ll gain no clients and probably the ones you have will leave you very shortly.

Before we go into the things you should do to start the process, let’s eliminate the un-cool options:

1. Anything more than 2 words you might as well forget about it; most people have some kind of form of ADD (I know I do…) and you’ll be lucky if they remember one of the words let-alone all 3 and a “dot com” at the end.

2. Drop the thought of having a 3 letter, even a 4 or 5 letter word for your domain name; they are taken and nobody will give them away no matter how many 4 letter words you can email them. By the way xyz.com is taken.

3. Even if you add some “international”, “networks”, “group”, “& associates” to your 3 letter name is still too ‘80s, so might as well come up with something cool like…”Google” or “Crossbow Networks”, etc.

Now – here are some pointers in order to start the process:

1. The most obvious one – open your dictionary
Lots of words and ideas but then again – everyone have thought about that. I even know people (myself included) working with Word and its Thesaurus feature trying to produce some gem.

2. Think of your business and what exactly do you provide
Here are the thoughts of one entrepreneur who found an unusual way to attack the problem:
“…once I decided I wanted a brand, I started thinking about my characteristics. Why? Because ultimately, my clients receive a service that’s inspired by me. I’m my business. So, I found a word that described me in my current state…then, I just added prefixes that I thought would be memorable. As I thought of ideas, I cross checked at domainsbot.com. You can get good suggestions there just looking at available domains. Oh, then I asked my kids to vote on which one they liked the best. So, I have my name all picked out and I love my decision everyday. I don’t think this is the normal process, if there is one…but it worked for me…”

3. Think of your business 5 to 10 years from now and write about it
“Try this. Tell the story of your successful business five years from now, best case scenario. Be descriptive and entertaining. Write it down, and when you’re done look for recurring themes or visual words that paint a picture. Once you have a list of recurring themes and visual words, start looking up catchy domain names based on them.”

4. Find your niche
I know this is overrated but no matter what you do – you will be able to find within your market a niche. The faster you find it the faster you’ll become successful and even gain a cool brand name in the process.

I heard someone say:”My business covers all aspects of the web, so settling on a niche name would not be a wise decision…”

That is so far from the truth I don’t even know where to begin – let me just sneak this one in – if your competition finds a niche before you – you are doomed. You cannot be the jack of all trades…well you can but you’ll also be the master of none. So, find your niche, become the master of your domain and launch your business name based on the niche.

5. Look for inspiration in unusual places like:
Street names, medieval characters, weapons, cool sounding restaurant names, cities, realms or places the science fiction authors are so prolific in their books. Here’s what one business name searcher said in a forum:

“…I took my forum username at the time which came from the name of a street I used to live near when I was in London. So my tip would be to choose something that’s personal to you maybe. Doesn’t really matter if no-one else gets it.”

And more original ones: “I came up with my original company name quite by chance after flipping through a clip art book years ago. I guess browsing through stock photos online could help the creative process too.” “I bought a list of all unregistered 4-letter .com names on NamePros, chose the only nearly-pronounceable one, and made that my company name. To avoid having to pay for a proper name check before registering the business, I added some words to it to ensure it was unique and unlikely to infringe any trademarks even if there were someone else with a similar name. “Awio Web Services LLC”. Awio.com/net/info/etc, awioweb.com, awiowebservices.com…”

“As a creative person myself, I like to visualize things – specifically by color. I’ve seen a lot of businesses and sites with a major color included in the name and used as the overall theme of their site. (IE: BlueNile.com, etc.) Adding an adjective to a common noun could help relieve your ‘thinkers block’. “

Here is the confession of one who just gave up after a bad naming decision. In other words this is not what you want to do: “…In the end I got so fed up and felt so much urgency to move forward that I “just picked” and chose a name whose spelling is very ambiguous. Very few people know how to spell this word. (I didn’t realize this until after spending money on a branding campaign.) The downside: When talking to people I always have to spell the domain! I have to say “Just visit www.blah.com; that’s B-L-A-H.com”. Of course, this sucks, but I’ll tell you right now: I’d still be thinking of a name! (And that was 2 years ago!) Take it from someone who is living a ‘bad’ decision – just pick *something* you can work with and move forward! A name is such a tiny part of the recipe to the success of your business.”

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I remember when I first started my design business I took calls like: “Can you make me a website with 40 pages for under $200?”, “How about a logo? Can you manipulate my photos and put me next to Pamela Anderson?” My answer was always “yes” regardless if I was able to do any of it or not. I figured I have to “blast” them with my knowledge and show that I am an “all stop shop” for everything design related. I even got requests to create architectural drawings and redesign homes!

Needless to say I was the “jack-of-all-trades; master of just a few”. My life was chaotic and barely had time to catch reruns of “Family Guy”. Even more disturbing was the fact that my business was not even growing. That’s when I realized that this “shot-gun blasting” approach was not quite the one I was looking for.
After lots of research and feedback from my clients, I finally decided on my niche market. I start focusing on that and discarded all the other extra stuff. Pretty soon I became the expert in my niche market and clients were seeking me out instead of the other way around. Based on that,  word-of-mouth was and continues to be still very big for me. Plus, it’s free!

If you are just starting out or if you are in midst of “revamping” your business marketing approach here are some things you need to consider:

1. ASSETT INVENTORY

Make a list of your strengths. Narrow them down to 2 to 3 max. Write down the pro’s and con’s for each; list all the ways you can develop the skills you already posses. Instead of dwindling on pleasing everyone with a multitude of services, focus on your strengths and be the best you can be in your field. These are your tools, your weapon and your ammo.

2. SEARCH & IMPROVISE

Find your field, your area of expertise and become the best you can be in that area. If someone is looking for a specialist in your field – you should be on top of that list. If you identify potential “contenders” in your niche market, network with them and find their strengths and weaknesses. Very often a new niche market might emerge just from this activity alone.

3. IDENTIFY POTENTIAL TARGETS

Go through your rolodex, Palm, contact database, friends, relatives, etc. and identify potential connections that are relevant to your “new” approach. If you are targeting, let’s say, the financial sector then contact the person who helped with your mortgage. Ask him/her to introduce you to his/her connections. “Facebook” your marketing approach towards potential clients.

4. KEEP THE PRESSURE ON

Once you identified your niche and thus your potential clients, research novel ways to create the buzz and display your potential. Take advantage of the social media and be active on all fronts. Send emails that have meaning and can benefit your clients. You don’t have to overwhelm them but make a gem of knowledge from every one of your messages. Store them on your website/blog for future reference. Just be consistent and adjust the “marketing” fire according to conditions of the market and especially to the mood of the targeted clients.

In conclusion – business is very fluid and it’s up to you to keep up, adapt, adjust and change course at a drop of a hat. Those who don’t will not win. In the words of a genius:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
And one more: Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.

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Here’s a TV commercial that is not boring – the Korean Air Global Campaign – The Color of Perfection:

Notice the use of black & white cinematography along with softly painted aquamarine; the soothing music in the background. Everything moves in slow motion almost giving you the feeling of a weightless, romantic spa up in the sky. They don’t use airplanes in flight but flying is implied with images that recall a dreamy experience.

While waiting for my flight at LAX, I noticed to the right of my gate a Korean Air desk and instantly the commercial popped in my head. I start looking for the bright smiles of the Korean Airlines flight attendants and sure enough they appeared floating although walking. At least that’s how I saw them still under the spell of the TV commercial. Precise, distinguished and bright, the female flight attendants walked toward the gate and commenced boarding.

What impressed me the most though, was the effort and the extent of their courtesy while seeking possible air-heads taking a nap in the sea of patiently waiting passengers who could have missed their flight. They moved with purpose and efficiency through the crowd while calling last minute passengers.  Now – that’s really good if not excellent customer service.

In contrast, I remember several years ago when my flight arrived late in Miami from Jamaica and I missed my connection to Detroit. So here I am, wife, small child and 3 pieces of luggage trying to convince the staff of a company that starts with American and ends with Airlines that we really need to get to Detroit and it was not our fault for the 2 hour late landing of Air Jamaica.

Needless to say, nobody gave a “flying sh…” – pun intended, about the 3 stranded Michiganders in the Miami Dade Airport. We were told to sit tight and get on the next plane like everyone else. No apologies, no special accommodations, not even a bag of peanuts. Now – that’s really crappy customer service.

I didn’t expect the royal treatment; not even a bump to First Class. Just some sympathy and  2 minutes of your “precious time” while pretending you are trying to help with my problems.

Ask me if I flew with that airline since. No wonder they were on the brink of bankruptcy; no wonder most American companies are outsourcing their customer service overseas; with an attitude like that who needs the aggravation? If the person on the other end shows some respect and courtesy, I can deal with a bit of an accent and not a perfect command of the English language.

What can be more memorable-a great TV commercial or a really bad experience? Let me know what you think. I promise I’ll listen.

1. Sell ad space on your blog
2. Write articles for other companies/blogs/individuals
3. Syndicate your blog posts to other blogs/Sell Blog Subscriptions
4. Sell your own things on your blog
5. Sell third party goods online

1. Sell ad space on your blog

One of the most popular ads is GoogleAds: https://www.google.com/adsense (although they pay you only when someone actually clicks on the ad) and the Yahoo Publisher Network https://publisher.yahoo.com/portal/login.php

Selling ad space is fairly easy to do; just create a section on your blog that describes the benefit for companies/individuals to place an ad on your blog. 

One word of advice though: When you start this adventure, do not fill your blog to the gills with ads – it will not look very professional. Your readers need to see what you can offer first before they will buy anything from you or off your blog. 

You can spot a newbie, right-away by the imense number of ads running on his/her site, trying desperately to make some dough. People do not respond well and they will leave your site fairly quick before you can even write about your expertise. 

Here’s an example from the highly acclaimed blog called doshdosh (http://www.doshdosh.com/advertise) 

Dosh Dosh Advertising Page

Same can be done for a website. The more traffic you have the more you can charge. 

If your blog has low traffic you can always go to TextLinkAds or TextLinkBrokers. Even better connect with your network in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and let them know you are offering ad space on your blog for a minimum of $XX amount per month. You will be surprised of the response you get. 

2. Write Articles for other companies/blogs/individuals

This usually frightens some people but you don’t have to be an expert in a particular field.

You’ll have to show proof that you: 

 - are a creative blogger
 - have articles you wrote and published on your blog, ezines or squidoo lenses
 - comment and are active on other blogs as well
 - are proficient using social media, plug-ins and add-ons
 - have a basic understanding of simple SEO rules

The best way of all is to show that you are a pro is creating, maintaining and actively contributing on your own blog. You should have at least 3-4 months under your belt and a minimum of 30-50 good articles consisting of 250-500 words each .

The core subject or theme of your blog does not matter as long as you write frequently and professionally. Obviously check for grammar. Write well and write often. 

3. Syndicate your blog posts to other blogs/Sell Blog Subscriptions

If the information posted on your blog is in high demand you might want to think about syndicating your blog.

You can accomplish this through 3 easy steps:

 a. Find out what your blog’s feed is (it should look like this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/your-blog-name-here)
 b. Customize your feed through the feed dashboard
 c. Finally – publicize your feed to your readers.

Others have started blogging and got so popular that know they sell subscriptions. See problogger.com 

Again, based on how popular your blog is, the amount of money you can charge can vary. Initially start small and as you add more value you can increase the dollar amount you can charge.

4. Sell Your Own Things

In the fortunate even that you already have something to sell on your own, you’ll have to have some additional tools along side your blog: 

 - If you are selling digital assets (e-books, art, photos, music, etc.) you’ll need an ecommerce shopping cart and a PayPal account.

The alternative is http://www.payloadz.com or http://www.payloadz.com

 - If you are selling physical, tangible products you’ll need all of the above, a FedEx account and…lots of boxes.

The majority of bloggers sell their ebooks and books, usually directly from their blog using a simple PayPal account.

5. Sell third party goods online

This is the part where beginners make the mistake of selecting products that they enjoy disregarding their reader’s likes and dislikes. Chose the products your reader base enjoy and look for. If your site is about web design don’t post ads for MP3 players or mortgage adverts. 

People that come to your site seek your advice in whatever you are writing about so offer them the things that augment your articles and the entire theme of your blog. 

Look for products to sell by signing up as an affiliate. For instance I host my blog with JustHost. I love their customer service and I think it brings a lot of value to every webmaster out there; I therefore promote their company on my site, of course getting a little money for that. 

Other sources where you might find good affiliate programs: 

Clickbank: http://www.clickbank.com 
Commission Junction: http://www.cj.com 
Hydra Network: http://www.hydranetwork.com 

Once you set this up, you’ll need to promote your blog so it increases in traffic and thus your chances of selling directly from your site. How can you do that? See below a list of articles talking about that. 

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