Selling With Your Own Web Site

Many people have their own product, a book, a CD, a craft, or other product that they would like to sell with their own Web site, but they can't find simple instructions on how to get started. In this article, I'm going to explain how to sell your product with your own Web site. It boils down to four steps.

1. Find a Web server:
You need to put your Web site on a computer that is running a Web server program and is connected to the Internet. There are three choices:

1. Your own server. This requires you to be, or to hire, a system administrator responsible for system maintenance, software updates, backups, and security. This also requires a high-speed communications link to the Internet. This is practical only for large organizations.
2. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Along with a broadband or dial-up connection to the Internet, many ISPs also provide you with a small amount of personal Web space. There are several problems with using this Web space, even for a small business Web site. The storage space and monthly transfer allowance is too small, and if you decide to change ISP, you lose your email address and you need to move your Web site.
3. A Web host provider. There are many companies that sell Web site space on their servers. These companies offer three grades of service:
• Free hosting. The hosting service makes money from banner ads that they display on your Web site. Sometimes the storage space is too small and the monthly transfer allowance is usually limited.
• Shared hosting. Your Web site shares a server with many other Web sites. Some hosting providers put too many Web sites on each server, or someone else's Web site monopolizes the servers processor or bandwidth. This slows down your Web site.
• Dedicated hosting. The hosting provider sets up a separate server for your Web site alone. Whereas shared hosting can be acquired for as little as $5 per month, dedicated hosting cost hundreds of dollars per month.

Recommendation:
Most small businesses can't afford a dedicated server. You can use your ISP's webspace or a free host for learning purposes, but usually only shared or dedicated hosting lets you use your own domain name. You will want to register and promote your own domain name, not put a lot of effort into promoting a domain name provided by a free host.

There are many Web host directories that let users rate web host providers. Visit several of these directories and choose a web host provider with a good rating. The most important specification to look for in a Web host provider is "up time". They should have a 99.9% up time guarantee.

2. Design and Build your Web site:
A Web site is nothing more than a collection of webpages. Webpages are very similar to documents that you would create in a word processor. A word processor, like Microsoft Word for example, uses invisible "tags" to layout the page. Whereas Word uses "Rich Text File (RTF) tags, a webpage uses Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) tags. But the concept is the same.

You never actually see or deal with the tags in a word processor document. Many people use a web page design application that lets them avoid dealing with html tags on a webpage. But most serious webpage design requires you to deal with html code directly. There are three reasons why you would need to deal with the html code directly:

1. Your web page design application refuses to format the webpage exactly the way you want it.
2. There is an error on your webpage.
3. Most word processor documents are static. A webpage usually contains powerful little programs called "scripts" that work with the html tags on the page.

Recommendation:
Before venturing into creating your own Web site, spend a few weeks experimenting with html tags to create webpages by hand. You don't need a Web server to test your webpages. You can load them directly into your Web browser. In your learning, focus on linking pages together that reside in different folders. This is where most beginners have a problem.

The first step in building your Web site is to create or choose a template. As I mentioned earlier, a Web site is nothing more than a collection of webpages. But all webpages for a Web site should have the same basic layout, color scheme, and navigation elements.

There are thousands of free and pay templates available on the Web. Actually, every Web site is a template that you can explore by selecting View | Source in your Web browser's menu. The most import thing about selecting a template is that you are comfortable with it. If the template uses complex code, the chances of getting an error occurring are high, and you may not be able to fix it.

Recommendation:
Select a template you like, but don't use it directly. From the html coding that you learned by following my previous recommendation, hand code a similar template. Now you will have a template you understand and are comfortable modifying and fixing if it becomes necessary.

Generally, you will create webpages on your local computer and upload them to your Web site, usually using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Most web designers keep a local copy of their entire Web site on their local computer. Here they can test a webpage before uploading it to the live Web site. If your design uses active servers pages (ASP), you may want to install a Web server on your local computer for testing purposes.

3. Set up E-commerce:
E-commerce involves setting up shopping cart software and a means of accepting credit card payments. There are three possible ways to set up e-commerce:

1. Set up shopping cart software and a secure order form on your Web site. Then process the orders using your regular off-line bank processing service. This is good for people whose Web site is an extension of their off-line business. But setting this up from scratch for a Web only business may be too costly.
2. There are many companies on the Web that will set you up with a merchant account. This service may or may not include a shopping cart. In either case, before the user enters their credit card information, they are transferred to the secure server of the merchant account. Setup costs for a merchant account can run into hundreds of dollars. In addition, there are transaction fees and monthly fees.
3. Many small businesses use online payment services. Most online payment services can provide you with a shopping cart, but in many cases, all you need is to place some html code provided by the online payment service on your Web site.

When your customer clicks on a "Buy" button on your Web site, they are transferred to the web site of the online payment service where they enter their credit card information. You receive an email notification when a transaction is completed.

Online payment services don't charge for setup or monthly fees, but the transaction fees are similar to a merchant account. Fees run about $0.35 and 2.5% per transaction. After a delay to prevent charge backs losses, you can login to the online payment services Web site and transfer the payment into your bank account.

The oldest and largest online payment service is PayPal which processes over 600,000 transactions per day.

4. Promote Your Web site:
Unless someone makes a lucky guess as to the URL (Uniform Resource Locater) or address of your Web site, you will receive no visitors. Simply placing your Web site on the Internet does not result in traffic. You need to promote your Web site. There are many ways to promote your Web site, some free and some pay, some very effective, some a total waste of time. Below are the main methods of generating traffic:

1. Advertising. You can purchase advertising on Web sites that do have traffic. You can also purchase advertising in newsletters or e-zines. Don't assume that the Web site with the most traffic or the newsletter with the most subscribers is the best value. The secret to successful advertising is testing. Test different advertisements in different locations.
2. Pay per click. Almost all search engines will let you purchase search words. When a search engine user enters a search for a word that you purchased, a link to your Web site will be returned at the top of the results. Sometimes you "bid" on a search term. In that case, when a user of the search engine enters a word that you placed a bid for, a link to your Web site will be returned in the results below all Web sits that bid more money.
3. Traffic Exchange. A traffic exchange is a Web site where you login and click to visit other people's Web sites. For each Web site that you visit, you receive a credit. You can exchange your credits for visits to your Web site. If you don't feel like making the effort to visit other people's Web sites, you can purchase visits to your Web site. The quality of traffic from traffic exchanges varies between very poor to totally useless.
4. Search engines. You can submit the address of your Web site to most search engines for free. After you submit your Web site information, the search engine will scan or "spider" your Web site with a program called a "robot". The robot will provide information that allows the search engine to list your Web site in their database, and rank it for relevancy. When a user of the search engine enters a search for a word related to the content on your Web site, a link to your Web site will be returned in the results at a position depending upon the relevancy of your webpage.
5. Link popularity. Different search engines use different methods to rank the relevancy of a webpage. One method uses the number of links on the Web that point to the webpage. To take advantage of this, you need to get links to your Web site posted in as many places on the Web as possible. One method to accomplish this is to write articles related to the topic of your Web site and make them available for people to post on their Web site for free.
6. Web presence. To get traffic to your Web site, people have to know you are out there and what you have to offer. Getting involved and contributing useful information in online forums and message boards is one way to establish your presence on the Web. People reading your messages may put information about you on their Web site. Another advantage of this method is that it keeps you in touch with what's going on in the areas related to the topic of your Web site.

Selling your product with your own Web site boils down to the four steps explained in this article. This article is in no way comprehensive. Complete details about each one of these steps would to fill entire books. This article gives you a general overview and enough information to get you started.

Copyright(C) 2004 Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author
To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter

How The Right Domain Name Can Improve Your Sales

So you're starting a website and have visions of making hundreds, even thousands of dollars in sales a day.

You've done your market research, found a profitable niche, planned your website's theme and layout. Now all you need to do is build the site, buy a domain name and - voila - the cash starts rolling in.

Hold on there cowboy. While making lots of money with your website is very possible, it's not as easy as it used to be.

Increasing competition, fickle web searchers and crazy search engine algorithms make earning money from your website a little harder than it used to be.

Don't get me wrong though: If you're serious about making a living online and you work hard, you can make more money than you ever dreamed possible. The key is that you have to realize that every little decision you make in your web business helps propel you to the top and give you that edge.

One way to get an edge over your competitors and keep your customers coming back is to choose the right domain name. (Your domain name is the unique name that identifies your Internet website.)

Here are the top 3 ways the right domain can help you build a killer cash generating website:

#1 A good domain name helps your customers remember your website:
How many times have you found a great website, forgotten to bookmark it and then completely forgot the name of the site? While some Internet users do use the bookmark function, many other Internet users do not.

They assume they'll be able to return to a good website by remembering the URL or through the search engine where they found it. But that's not always the case. Search engine rankings fall; people forget which search engine they used or which keyphrase your website came up under.

Tip: Choose a domain name primarily for your target audience. Make it simple - preferably 2 words only or 3 short ones at most. Try to choose a .com or a .net or even a .org ending - people just don't remember a funky extension like .name, .tv or even .biz.

If you can, make it an action phrase that describes what your website can do for your customer. For example, if you repair laptops, something like: www.fixlaptop.com would be a lot easier for your customer to remember than www.laptopland.com

Why is this easier? Because people don't have time to remember your URL. They are focused on what THEY want to do (i.e. 'fix laptop'.) therefore it's much easier to remember your URL if it describes what they want to do.

Choosing a domain name like this also has the added advantage of telling your customer EXACTLY what you can do for them. No questions or confusion. ('Do they sell laptops? Do they sell laptop parts or add ons? Do they fix laptops?')

#2 A good domain name helps the search engines rank you for your chosen keyword:
Although this is still up for much debate, many webmasters and SEOs think that a domain name with your top keywords in it is much better than a domain name without your keywords.

They think that search engines use the domain name to help rank your website. So, in theory, someone with a website about affiliate programs would rank higher (all other things being equal) if their domain name was http://www.affiliateprograms.com than if their domain name was http://www.makemoneyonline.com.

Tip: Try to include your top keyword or keyphrase in your domain name if you can - but not at the expense of your audience. If they can't remember it, they probably won't come back or recommend it to anyone.

#3 A good domain name establishes you as an authority on your specific niche:

I was advising someone just the other day who wanted to start their first affiliate marketing website. They were about to make the same mistake almost all newbies make: choosing a domain name that was way too general.

Here's the thing: Unless you have the resources of Amazon, Yahoo or shop.com, you just can't compete with the overly general sites. Successful marketers will tell you that the most profitable websites are found in the niches. A good domain will reflect your niche and, as such, establish you as the authority in that area.

Think about this, if you need a part for your Toshiba Laptop, would you rather go to a website named www.laptops.com or a website called www.Toshiba-laptop-parts.com? Which one do you think will have a larger selection of Toshiba laptop parts? Which one do you think is the authority on Toshiba laptop parts?

Choosing a good domain name can help you stand apart and keep your customers coming back to buy more. By following these three tips, you can choose the right domain name and skyrocket your website sales.

Kate Fox is contributing writer to Web Conversion: How To Sell More With Your Website

For more free tips and articles on how to improve your web conversion rate and make more sales

BUSTED! The Real Truth Behind Today's Top 4 Internet Marketing Myths

Let's face it...

One of the biggest "roadblocks" to starting an online business is all the misinformation, or myths, out there about Internet Marketing. You're bombarded with SO MUCH information (most of which is total garbage) that it's nearly impossible to figure out what's real and what's a total lie.

So... It's Time To Dispel Some Of The Top Internet Marketing Myths!

Internet Marketing Myth #1: "It takes years and years of technical expertise to build a money making website."
That's complete Bull S#@%!! So-called Internet gurus have sold us on the idea that making money online is easy just to get us to buy their product. Then when you do invest in their course - possibly spending money you don't have - you find out that you have to buy yet another product just to find out how to actually implement the theories taught in the first course.

They make is sound so easy in their sales letters, but when you get the actual products they leave you hanging when it comes to actually using all that "insider information."

MAXIM: The truth is... Without an ounce of experience you can have a clean, functional website READY TO TAKE ORDERS in 7 days or less. (That even includes 3 days for getting your all your various accounts setup and web page copy written.)

It doesn't take a technical genius to put up a one page, sales letter website that takes orders and accepts credit cards... but there are several things you should know before you begin building your "mini-site".

Knowing how to setup your own websites can save you hundreds, even thousands of dollars in actual, out-of-your-pocket expense and thousands more in lost revenues... not to mention the weeks and months of frustration from trial-and-error you'll save by having these strategies!

Internet Marketing Myth #2: "Building and maintaining a money-making website is expensive."
Listen... Some "gurus" will give you a laundry list of "must have" tools and resource that can cost a fortune. Many of these products ARE actually worth the investment. But, some are just being "pushed" for the affiliate commission. (There's no money to be made in telling you about the free and low cost resources that are available to build your websites.) Some are extras that WILL enhance your profits, but they're not essential to your success.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with earning money from a recommendation, if the money is not the primary reason for the recommendation. If someone really has the best interest of his/her clients in mind AND the product benefits the customer in a major way, there is absolutely nothing wrong with earning a few bucks for referring a customer to a valuable product or service.

MAXIM: The truth is... By using some, almost secret, free and low cost resources, you can have a site up and running - even accepting credit cards - for less than $20 of up-front expense. (But don't let the low price fool you. These are some of THE best resources on the Internet.)

If you can't afford $20 to get started, you need to seriously consider that Internet Marketing is not for you. I don't say that to sound harsh, but it is a fact, in order to make money you need to spend A LITTLE money.

I understand that not everyone can afford $400 for and HTML editor and $149 per month for a dedicated web hosting account. I strongly believe what one of my mentors Jeff Paul taught me... "Test small, lose small."

In the beginning, you shouldn't go out and buy all the whiz bang software gadgets and fancy graphics. Stick to the basics, but don't scrimp where it counts! And, of course, I'm going to teach you the places where it counts the most.

You can get started with an absolute minimum investment. Then, when you have some experience under your belt and you're ready to take your online business to the next level, by using some advanced resources to dramatically enhance your profits and make your online business tremendously easier to manage.

There are two more myths that I've "busted", but I don't have the room to talk about them here. If you want to get a free ebook with all 4 myths and discover the real truth about each one, visit:

http://www.MiniSitesMadeEasy.com/InternetMarketingMyths

Dan Kelly is the creator of a brand new video tutorial series that gives you a step-by-step, nuts-and-bolts, look-over-my-shoulder guide to building YOUR Internet Empire in a flash.

"Discover The Step-By-Step Formula That 99% Of All Newbie Internet Marketers DON'T Know And Will Never Find Out!"

The Most Profitable Internet Marketing Strategy Ever

So what's the most profitable internet marketing strategy you can apply to your business right now and start profiting from it for years to come?

It's having your own responsive mailing list.

Here's how it works:
You CAN start today by collecting the names and email addresses of people who's interested in what you're selling. And start selling it to them.

There is no doubt about it, owning a responsive mailing list is THE most profitable thing you can do online. It's more profitable than ...

Writing eBooks or reports.

Getting thousands of visitors to your site.

Having the hottest sales copy on the Internet.

Having a "top 1%" Alexa rating.

Being the smartest person on the planet.

It's even more profitable that having an army of affiliates!

Or ANY other ONE thing that you can do online.

Having your own responsive mailing list means that you can make offers week after week for YEARS, and your list will faithfully buy what you recommend. Now THAT'S marketing power!

If that sounds good to you ... keep reading.

The only way to reliably have a mailing list that is HIGHLY responsive is to build it yourself. The good news is that building a list of your own is actually VERY easy when you know how.

In fact, you probably have the seeds of a small list right now, even though you might not know it.

Let me be 100% clear. You do NOT need an advanced degree in marketing, need a big time "guru" reputation, have to spend thousands of dollars, or a huge mailing list.

All you need is to have something to say, and to learn HOW (and when) to say it in a way that gets subscribers to take action now!

To help you get started building your own profitable list here's a few marketing tips that you can apply today:
You can work together with other site owners. The idea here is that you get traffic that I'll never see, and I get traffic you'll never see. So, we make an agreement that allows us each to benefit from the other's traffic.

The most common form of this is what is called a "thank you page private co-registration". That's a fancy way of saying that I'll show your subscription form on the thank you page of my website, and you'll show my subscription form on the thank you page of your site.

The thank you pages involved here can be found in a variety of places. Each one has the common denominator that they are viewed after a visitor takes action. This is good, because studies show that visitors who take one action are likely to take another action.

Here are some common thank you pages where you can place your subscription form:

• After a sale is made.
• After someone subscribes to an ezine.
• After they download a free gift.
• After they complete a survey.

The possibilities are endless, and this is one of the most underused marketing methods around.

So if you can find a site that compliments your site, these arrangements can be a powerful list building method.

Houa Yang makes it easy to profit from any mailing list... no matter the size.

Truths and Lies of Internet Marketing

A long time ago you decided that working all the hours God sends every week and being away from your family just has to be wrong. You know what? It is. There is a way to right this wrong and it has to do with the Internet. But you knew that already. So what is the next step?

You have been looking online in the search engines and maybe in the newsgroups and you have seen plenty of opportunities. Most of the hype you read sounds much too good to be true and most of it is. However, there are some real opportunities out there. You just have to know where to look. Don't follow the other sheep, work it out for yourself.

Where do you look? Who holds the keys to this bountiful virtual treasure chest? Do you have a chance at success?

From here on in we'll confirm some truths and dispel some lies which you'll find all over the place online.

Lie: I can earn amazing sums of money online really quick. I can quit the 9-5 within weeks!

Truth: Pure hype reigns supreme on the Internet. The claims of huge downlines, 6 figure incomes overnight and massive mailing lists with no effort are complete drivel. Nothing is easy to make a go of and online it's no different. It's possibly even harder to make your fortune online since the rules are always changing. Staying on top of and driving these changes is where your success will come from.

Lie: Working your online business is easier than working the 9-5.

Truth: Making a true success of your online business is, more often than not, a whole lot harder. You are directly responsible for the amount of money you put in the bank at the end of the month. You will need excellent time management skills and organizational skills. Possibly the hardest thing is the motivation. To get up every day and motivate yourself to switch the computer on, knowing you have to get down to some hard work can be very tough some days.

Lie: My time is my own. I can work whenever.

Truth: Your time is your most precious commodity. There are daily demands on your time from your family and the business of everyday living. Real life carries on regardless of whether you have a spreadsheet to prepare or not. Managing your time actually becomes a delicate balancing act. You cannot ignore your family if you're working at home - and anyway, one of the reasons you wanted to work at home was to spend more time with the family, right?

Lie: My children will enjoy the extra time I can spend with them.

Truth: Still with this time thing. Yes your kids will be happier to see you more around the place but they will also become confused as to why you can't play with them more and may even come to resent this. The delicate balancing act is indeed a thin tight-rope walk and you've got to be a masterful acrobat to pull it off. It can be done however and this shouldn't put you off.

Lie: Build it and they will come.

Truth: Whilst this may have been true in the very early days of the Internet with the most basic of search engines driving traffic, these days nothing could be further from the truth. Building your website and getting it online puts you on the first rung of the ladder. Getting enough traffic to make your website profitable is your next goal. There are many places online which claim to be able to do this for you, only 2-3% of these places will be worth your time.

Lie: The Internet is just one big playground for scammers.

Truth: The Internet, with it's anonymity, is indeed a fertile breeding ground for the more unscrupulous among us. While scammers get all the press there are plenty of real people like you making some nice piles of coin from the Internet perfectly legally. The information revolution is upon us and you better get onboard.

Lie: All my friends and family will want to join me.

Truth: Your friends and family will think you're completely mad. While you may find one or two people who're open to your dreams and visions, most will simply ridicule you so be ready for that. They may not talk about you openly but they will think you're wasting your time. Ignore them and prove them wrong. You can do it. Success is sweet.

At the final analysis, if you want to work at home on the Internet, become truly financially and spiritually free then the odds are not stacked in your favour. This being said, with the fire of determination burning inside you, with the strong desire to enjoy a life of no money worries and more quality time with your family then you will succeed. It takes time, effort and hard choices but you can do it.

Just do one thing every day to improve your position and that's all it takes.

Here's to your ultimate success!

Riley.

Riley McBride has been online since the early days and is a very successful Internet marketer who, up until now, has kept his secrets to himself. After having amassed a small fortune using the Internet alone he has decided to break his silence and spill the beans. Check it out: Online Home Business Tips

You may reprint this article as long as you keep this resource box intact and ensure the link above is hyperlinked for web reprints.

The Most Overlooked Website Marketing Strategy

Avoid selfishness. It causes problems everywhere, and the e-biz world is no exception. To succeed, you must know your audience, care about them, and go the extra mile to meet them where they're at.

Maybe you're brainstorming a new website: "My website is about me, my services, and my products"

Maybe you don't go around saying that explicitly, but it still might your subconscious attitude. Most of us can identify with the joke, "I'm not much, but I'm all I think about."

Yes, you should think about your services and products - their benefits and limits. Think about yourself - your own limits as an entrepreneur. And if you want people to buy, think about these things in terms of your prospects.

• Who are they?
• What are they expecting?
• What are they searching for?
• How do they perceive your products, your niche, your approach?
• How might you be confusing or disappointing them?

Our pervasive selfishness, also known as bias, is hard to escape- a big blind spot to see around. The best way to get around it is to survey your prospects, and, if you can, watch their behavior around whatever you sell or do or make.

For example, I've been planning to write an ebook about public speaking for six months now, but haven't gotten to it yet. I knew it was further down my priority list, so I put an offer on my most popular public speaking webpages: "Answer this survey and I'll send you a free copy of this $25 ebook when it comes out!" - I've got about 50 responses already. When it comes time to plan the book's contents, I'll already know what's most interesting to my target market.

Likewise, I did a survey when it was time to title my first alternative medicine book- I brainstormed about 100 of them, chose my 10 favorites, and let my online health readers choose their favorite. The one they preferred was the winner by far. It wasn't even close. It also was NOT the one I liked. See?

Maybe you're writing copy: "I'm going to describe my offerings in the language most natural to me."

Sometimes that works. If they're looking to grab them with a particular flavor, you might use, for example, folksy language or tech-speak. But that doesn't always work. What if they don't know your jargon? What if they don't know your favorite words and concepts?

We get so comfortable with the words, phrases, and metaphors from our business and social circles we forget not everyone knows them. You can keep your jargon if you define it. Otherwise, translate it into everyday language. Even better, find out what the most popular keyword equivalents are, and use those.

Trust me as an experienced writer and public speaker. Too many times, I've been surprised to reap confusion where I swear I had sown clarity. I no longer underestimate how much my audience will misunderstand my meaning. The burden of clarity is upon me, not them.

Maybe you're building a website: "I'm organizing my website around my ideas about my business."

That may work out just fine, but if when doesn't, visitors get confused, don't find what they're looking for, and leave without regret. On a website that's new to them, there are only so many times they'll click before they're gone

What you think about your offerings doesn't matter if you don't know what your prospects need, what they care about, and what their problems are...

• How do your offerings meet their needs and solve their problems?
• What words are in their minds when they come looking for solutions?
• What referral search terms are showing up in your web statistic logs?
• Are you using those terms in your navigation?

Your prospect may have the problem you solve but not be looking for your kind of solution, or they may not call the solution or the problem by the same names you do. Jargon again. Find out what they call it and how they think about it. Find out what they actually search for, and call it that on your website

Make a bridge between your prospects' minds and your own, and they'll stream across in droves.

Since 1999, San Diego SEO Consultant Brian B. Carter, MS, has reached more than 2 million readers online. His most popular site ranks in the top 1% of all major websites. His second book, "How I Made $78,024.44 in Six Months Using the Carefully Guarded Secrets of AdSense and Overlooked Keywords" will be available in October, 2005 from Ranking-High-on-Search-Engines.com.

Internet Marketing - The Easy Way to Make Money

Some 8 months ago, my brother in law returned from America singing the praises of a course he had been on which had given him the knowledge to be able to reach a number one ranking for any keyword within Google and all the other major search engines. Happy days I thought! I could foresee the end of years being a civil servant and listening to bosses who thought the unimportant things in life were actually important! Money it seemed actually did grow on trees – all it took to do this would be a couple of months hard work between my husband and my brother in law and I and we’d be raking the cash in – how easy is that? In my own mind I had already decided that giving up work wasn’t that far away, picked the colour of the sports car I was going to have and decided on Portugal for that luxury villa.

We researched the market and settled on our first internet business, realising the potential income from being a number one ranked site in Google or any other search engine.

So far so good! We submitted our site mid April and it was indexed not long after – next stage completed without delay. It was then that the hold ups started to occur – suddenly the so called ‘sandbox’ effect kicked in – we’d heard about this before but never knew how it could affect us – ah well 2-4 months seemed to be the length of time we’d be sandboxed but we looked at this philosophically and saw it as an opportunity to get links from other websites and ensure a high ranking on our ”release” from the infamous sandbox.

We are now 6 months down the line and patience is definitely the keyword - we secured a PR3 at the last Google update in July and hope to be at least a five at the next one – our on page and off page optimization is what is required and our link building strategy is ongoing – for all of you people who think link building is easy think again – it’s laborious and frustrating as in our experience you get one link for every three or four requests you send.

I still hold the optimism that our site will take off and eventually rank very highly in all of the search engines. I think we have learnt to be more patient and more forward thinking – crawl before you walk! However, for the ‘easy to make money out of it’ syndrome it certainly is not and all of you new internet marketers out there be prepared for the long haul!

I’ll keep you posted!

How Your Business Can Pick A Software Developer

Eventually, your business is going to need to have some software development. Your business is unique - you can't rely on a huge, faceless corporation to handle your unique needs with a shrinkwrapped, mass produced, production-line solution. You need custom software, and to get it, you'll need to pick an outside software developer. A hired gun.

It's hard - after all, most businesspeople aren't technical people. You want a Clint Eastwood - tall, confident, and ready to solve your problems with cold steel - but you usually get a techno loser - short, geeky, sniveling wimp with no backbone and no ability to get anything done.

Unfortunately, I've heard stories about selecting developers from all sorts of people. Bad stories. I can't even begin to count how many people have wound up with large bills and more problems then when they started. Fortunately, I've developed four dynamite questions you need to ask when you're choosing a developer.

1. Does your developer solve problems or just write code?
A professional software developer isn't in the business of writing code; rather, he's in the business of solving problems, and code just happens to be one of the way that he (or she) does it. On the other hand, many developers will want you to spell out exactly what kind of program you want him to write. He doesn't solve problems; he just writes code the way he's told, and hopes it will fix the problem at hand. With a real software developer, you wind up with a solution that leaves everyone happy.

The market is full of contract programmers masquerading as software developers. Be careful.

2. Are they trying to give a solution before they know the problem?

Some developers will offer to send you a proposal after a ten or twenty minute phone conversation. It is impossible to accurately assess your situation that quickly; they are trying to provide you with a 'one-size-fits-all' package. Real software developers will not provide you with answers, proposals, or fees until they know enough about your business to have an informed opinion. Unless your developer is willing to spend enough time to really know what your problem is, you won't end up with the solution that you really need, because your developer is making random shots in the dark.

3. Are they in love with a particular technology?
Software developers can fall in love with their favorite technology; it's not uncommon to see developers who only develop with Microsoft or Sun technology, for example. A professional software developer, though, focuses on benefiting his client, using whatever technology is necessary. You want to hire someone that will use the technology that's best suited to your business, whatever it may be. You shouldn't have to pick a developer based on what technology he's familiar with; he should be able to take care of almost any technological problem, either by doing the work himself or outsourcing to someone in his network of contacts.

4. Are they charging by project?
Amateur software developers tend to charge for their time, not by the value of the work they perform; so do contract programmers. Real software developers, though, charge based on value provided to you - by project - NOT based on time. This is because amateurs are afraid that they won't be able to complete the project in a reasonable amount of time, so they want reassurance that they'll be paid for their time in any situation. Experienced software developers, though, are confident in their ability to deliver code under their estimate, they are confident in their ability to provide value, and they that they can provide value that's worth MORE than their time is. You shouldn't be making an investment decision every time you consider calling your software developer.

That's it. Ask these questions studiously, and you'll get a programming dynamo. He'll be able to handle the tough questions and give you the tough answers, and you'll get bulletproof software.

How To Develop Software For Your Business

Software development is a risky business
Many software developers are barely skilled at their trade, much less at business. They can't understand how your business operates - and their code isn't unreliable.

It crashes constantly.
It isn't professional.
It hurts your business.

If you want software developed for your business, what can you do?
You need a software development professional - a consummate businessman, and you need to deal with him on your terms. How can you do that?

First, you need to make sure that you find a professional who understands business - your business. He has to listen, and be cautious before giving advice. If he tries to drop a pre-packaged solution on you, drop him. Make sure he charges by the project, not by the hour - hourly rates are great for developers, but not for clients. Hourly rates mean they get paid *more* for every bug they create - so they create as many as they can.

Once you have chosen a developer, the next step is to come to an agreement on what needs to be done. Don't worry about the particular technology used - the developer should worry about that. Worry about what you need on your end - and stick to your guns! You know your business best, and your developer should respect that.

After you have an agreement, you get a contract signed, and then the real fun begins. Insist that your developer give you regular progress updates - including early versions of the software (called 'builds'). That way, bugs can be detected early, and there will not be any surprises when the project is over. Depending on the project, you may be able to get a build every few days, or every week. The more frequent, the better.

When the project is finally over, you get to take a deep breath. Relax. Sip champagne - or Heineken, if that's your thing. Don't get too relaxed, though, because you will have to start the process over again soon. Business is constantly changing, and your software has to evolve with your business. That's good, though, because every project makes your business more profitable, and more profit in less time is always a good deal.

Collaboration Software - Building An Office Without Walls

The rise of the internet has given businesses a new way to think and function on both the individual level and as a whole. Today if you are in a business that doesn't have or use the internet, then you are giving up valuable advertising and productivity. Whether or not your company uses the internet we are all aware, to some degree, the effect the internet has on advertising and promoting businesses on a global scale. However, we may not fully understand what else the internet can do. We may not realize that using the internet to our advantage can also include increased productivity by building a virtual office; one without walls. Okay, so how do we build an office without walls then? In this article I will be discussing how to basically build this kind of office and how it can help you be more productive and organized.

What is an office without walls?
Now if you are sitting there picturing yourself sitting on the grass outside holding hands with your fellow employees that isn't what I meant by building an office without walls. Of course you still have physical walls but with use of the internet and collaboration software you can create an environment in which the information you share and collaborate on can be exchanged employee to employee so easily that it will seem as though there are no "walls" to prevent you from being as effective as you can be.

So what is collaboration software?
Collaboration software is software that is used to collect the ideas and documents from multiple people into one document without having the group formally meet together to discuss their ideas. It can be done individually without leaving the office. Collaboration software allows you to exchange your calendars, spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents with everyone in your, group, company, or whomever.

How does collaboration software work?
There are essentially two types of collaboration software. Most collaboration software is centralized, which requires an IT infrastructure to make it usable. Setting up an IT infrastructure can be very expensive and time consuming. Collaboration software that is centralized can be very beneficial for team collaboration but it sometimes requires that all who wish to share the collaboration documents have the same software set up on their computer. Some of the collaboration that requires the use of an IT infrastructure includes the following:

• Groove Network
• Microsoft Sharepoint
• Documentum
• Filenet

There is another type of collaboration software which does not require the use of an IT infrastructure and requires very little installation time. NextPage is one example of collaboration software that doesn't require an expensive IT infrastructure. Another advantage that NextPage has is that you can share documents with anyone; they don't have to have the NextPage software on their machine to view the documents that you send them. This can be useful if you are preparing a document for a client where you need the input and editions from your fellow co-workers but then want to send the finished product to your client who isn't using the same software. He/she can still open up the document when they receive it and you can easily track editions to the document using NextPage's collaboration software.

As you can see, using collaboration software can be very beneficial to keeping documents you share in your office and with clients organized and up-to-date. With the implementation of collaboration software, you can create an office without walls and without bounds with regards to productivity and organization. All that remains is for you to go get it, and get it implemented!

Best Practices in Offshore Software Development

A Software Model that emphasizes on global delivery of quality software build by talented pool of professionals at an economical cost from a development center that is located in a foreign land is Offshore Software Development.

The burgeoning competition to be branded as the Quality Offshore Software Development Company has signaled the requirement to implement the best of the resources and innovative strategies. After a jerk of the start-up phase, HyTech Professionals has implemented the approach that encompasses the minutest details, which had been or may have been easily overlooked by the nascent businesses to win the client interest. Clearly, the enticing feature of Outsourcing is cost savings without compromising on quality. To achieve this objective, the initiative should begin with the Best possible approach by the offshore client and the Software vendor.

Huge cost savings, time optimization and talented technocrats in a minimal risk environment are often accompanied by some challenges such as communication gaps, decreased visibility to project status, unexpected spikes in budget allocation and cultural hindrances.

The opening channel to venture in Software Offshore Development is the Smooth flow of communication between the offshore client and the vendor. A constructive dialogue between the two sides is not limited to verbal communication, but is aggressively pursued in writing, meetings and conferences.

Seamless communication can be reinforced by working on a global clock, which is accomplished by implementing work-schedules with a time overlap between the software offshore client and the vendor. Though, it may be expected that the offshore vendor works in accordance with the client suitability. Local presence of the offshore vendor can be of an added privilege to the client, as it guarantees direct and constant interfacing. The flexibility and ease to approach the offshore vendor strengthens the client confidence.

Another factor that should be taken care of is the Budget forecast for the project. The Technical and Business Analysts should take into consideration the following:

• The vendor Rates: what is more suitable to the project requirement. Should the accepted rates be "Per Project", "per Hour", "per Month" etc?
• The Risks involved in accomplishing the task
• Is the quality being compromised for an attractive price?
• See through any hidden costs. For example: Change or modification in the Client specification, Re-doing of any deliverable.
• The Offshore Vendor Resource matrix that cover the attributes required by the Client

Once the offshore client is confident that the terms of engagement are clear, both the Teams coordinate the efforts and work on the project. The Engagement Model may be transparent to win the client interest and hence the one that adds value to the relationship.

To foster the nascent relation between the offshore client and the software vendor, it is imperative that the offshore vendor architects the design such that which ensures an uninterrupted work-flow. Implementing a development environment that is a replication of the offshore client environment serves as a conduit to smooth accomplishment of tasks.

Apart from setting up an extension of the Client backdrop, the teams engaged from either side should delegate their tasks through a single point of contact to eliminate any ambiguities that could arise due to multiple interfacing channels. All the tasks relayed between the Offshore and the Domestic teams should be anchored on close communication and active follow up.

How much ever one decides to implement an error-free design, some issues or unpredictable lags can reap up and slow down the work-process. Such issues if handled with a mutual consensus and cooperation from both the parties can ramp up the process to successfully achieve the target.

In conclusion, a summary of the steps for the best practice in Offshore Software Development are:

1. Implement a Transparent Model that is customer-centric
2. Conduct a proper survey to shortlist the best suitable vendor for the project
3. Finalize the contract that explicitly defines the Financial terms and states Service Level Agreement
4. Fragment the Software Lifecycle in phases- from Inception to Delivery
5. Develop and deploy the accomplished tasks in a close collaboration with the Offshore Client.

Five Steps to Create Your Software Product with Outsourcing

Many executives and investors are skeptical that software products can be developed using outsourcing. Even more skepticism is expressed at the idea of outsourcing version 1.0 of a product. Yet Accelerance clients are using outsourcing to create their products right now. What is the secret to using outsourcing to successfully develop a software product?

Many people believe outsourcing is useless when you are in the Fuzzy Front End - that fuzzy zone between when a market opportunity is known and when serious software development can begin. They think you need to slog through the Fuzzy Front End by coding a prototype of your product. If so, you need the development team here, not several oceans away.

Another false assumption is that you need to write a comprehensive specification for your software during the Fuzzy Front End. Many companies use a very formal product definition process, optimized to remove as much "fuzz" as possible. How long should it take to design a software product before development can begin?

Obviously time is of the essence when developing a new product, but before the development process can begin you must have some idea of what your software will do. It is best to find this out from your prospective customers. But how can you involve your customers early and often in a collaborative process, when both of you are not sure of what they need or want? And what does that have to do with outsourcing?

According to Steve Blank, founder of several software startups and now lecturer at the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, you don't need a product development process. You need a customer development process. You need a process to discover what ornery problem your potential customers have that will cause them to part with their hard-earned money to solve that problem by buying your software.

The first step of Blank's customer development process is Customer Discovery. Here are his steps of customer discovery:

• Create a product (or product demo)
• Meet with customers and answer these four questions of customer discovery:
1. Have you identified a problem customers want to solve?
2. Does your product solve these customer needs?
3. If so, do you have a viable and profitable business model?
4. Have you learned enough to go out and sell?
• Change your product to reflect what you learn
• Iterate until all questions can be answered positively

Is there a way to shorten these iteration cycles? The Accelerance answer is, don't code up your product or prototype at the start. Use an HTML editor to create screen mock-ups. Then link them together to tell the "user stories" of your software product. They show the major use cases of your product. Demonstrating the use cases this way is like putting your product requirements in motion. It simulates how the real product will be used.

HTML is easy to edit and requires no programming. You can make quick iterations before committing your product ideas to code.

Here is the five-step Accelerance formula you can follow to successfully design your product:

1. Describe your product idea and its benefits
2. Create a demo of the major use cases showing the biggest benefits of your software
3. Perform the Customer Discovery steps described above, iterating until you & customers are satisfied
4. Write an MRD using screen shots from your demo as illustrations
5. Develop and test your software

In modern business, you should focus on your core competency and outsource the rest. In the Accelerance five-step process, the first 4 steps of defining your product idea, completing the customer discovery process and documenting the requirements must be part of your core competency. The last step is not.

Anybody can develop software. But only you can figure out what your customers will buy. And that makes your software development a non-core process. Use this five step formula to take advantage of low cost outsourcing as an effective way to get your product developed quickly.

Software Companies: Generate New Revenue Streams and Decrease Costs with Custom e-Learning Content

It's no secret that software companies operate in a very competitive space where rivalry is increasingly fierce and where profit margins can be razor thin. New, smaller software companies are sprouting up each month and the leading software companies continually make strong advancements forward leveraging massive cash flow reserves. This cycle makes it difficult for the mid-sized software company to compete because (a) they don't typically have the cash flow necessary to take giant leaps forward in the industry and (b) because they need to continually move forward to stay ahead of the smaller software companies that are vying for their slot in the marketplace. Consequently, making the jump from an unknown to a mainstream brand can prove to be very difficult for the mid-sized software company.

Finding ways to create new revenue streams and to decrease current costs is imperative to the success of companies caught in this cycle. They need to be thinking on their feet, thinking ahead and thinking creatively, all at the same time. This can be a daunting task, as any software executive will tell you.

Despite all of the challenges that face the mid-sized software market, there are several ways to create these much needed revenue streams and to decrease current costs. New advancements in technology and its use in training and development make generating these revenue streams possible.

Setting the Stage
It is almost taken for granted that when an organization purchases a software package from a reputable vendor, a certain amount of end-user, customer training will be either bundled into the purchase price or made available to them for an additional cost. If training isn't available to the end-user customer, the learning curve on the new software package is going to be fairly steep, depending on the complexity of the software.

Typical training expense categories associated with most mid-sized software companies include:

1. The salaries of offline trainers
2. The travel expenses of offline trainers
3. The costs of producing hard-copy training manuals
4. The time involved in offline, onsite customer training

These expenses should be under a watchful eye and should be consistently viewed as expenses that could be alleviated to some degree to not only improve the company's attractiveness in competitive bid situations but to increase the profit margins of the supplemental training services provided by the company.

At the same time, in the background, mid-sized software companies should be looking for ways to create new revenue streams that they aren't currently capitalizing on to work in collaboration with their cost-reduction initiative.

Step 1: Lowering Training Costs Using Custom e-Learning Content
The first step to any well laid-out cost-reduction plan is to decrease the costs the organization currently incurs in order to get a better handle on profit potential from sheer cost savings. Previously we outlined what our target cost categories are. Now we're going to lower the costs associated with those categories by leveraging custom e-Learning content.

Take this scenario: A mid-sized software company that develops intranet portal systems currently employs 3 trainers that are onsite with clients for end-user training 3 days per engagement and they each average approximately 50 engagements per year for a grand total of 150 days on the road per trainer or 450 days on the road collectively.

For these trainers, the onsite training program for the end-user customer may look something like the following:

Day 1: Software Introduction and Primary Functions
Day 2: Functional Use and Administrative Actions
Day 3: Real-World Functions and Labs

Lowering the costs: By leveraging custom e-Learning content, the company used in the above scenario, can effectively reduce the onsite time required for each trainer, thereby reducing all costs associated with the training program across the board.

By using a professionally designed, self-paced, custom e-Learning module to focus on the Software Introduction and Primary Functions training that normally occurs on Day 1 and then delivering that learning module online to their end-user customers at the time of purchase through an e-Learning Management System (LMS), this company could decrease travel time for all 3 trainers by 1 day per engagement. This would decrease travel time for each trainer by 50 days per year, or 150 days collectively during the year. In addition the end-user customers will already be familiar with the software package before the trainers ever set foot in the front door.

This would successfully:

Decrease the costs associated with those 150 days of travel that are now being saved.

Enable the company's trainers to perform more training engagements OR enable the company to decrease the number of in-house trainers it employs.

Decrease the costs associated with creating and publishing the sections of the hard-copy training manuals that deal with the Software Introduction and Primary Functions training session that normally occurs in-person on Day 1 of the training engagement.

Taking it one step further: Reducing each trainers travel schedule by 1 day is good, but it isn't good enough. Software companies employing this cost-reduction method should take it one step further to enhance their end-user customer's experience. They need to make sure that their end-user customers are learning what they need to know to ensure time isn't being wasted covering the same topics when the trainer visits the customer site in-person.

To do this, the software company needs to look at how they plan to deliver the online training to their end-user customers. They will want to make sure that the end-user customers can track and manage the online training portion of their sessions, whether it is self-paced custom e-Learning content or real-time online trainer/student collaboration. Selecting this delivery platform can be difficult but it should include the following basic functions:

1. Student Knowledge Assessments
2. Student Success and Progress Tracking
3. Real-Time Interactivity
4. Self-Paced Learning Delivery

By selecting a delivery platform that addresses all four of these facets of end-user customer training, the mid-sized software company can not only decrease their own costs but enhance their client/vendor relationship by delivering more than what is normally expected or experienced in today's software market. What's the bottom line? The customer is pleased with their user's performance and the value they received from the software company.

Step 2: Creating Revenue Using Custom e-Learning Content
Now that we have lowered our costs, the company needs to look at how they can use their new learning technology to generate new revenue streams for their organization.

Take this scenario: The mid-sized intranet portal software company used in the scenario above now has their own proprietary basic end-user e-Learning module to cover 1 day's worth of what was previously onsite training. The company has effectively reduced their overall, offline training costs. Now it is looking for ways to generate new revenue streams using this technology to (a) make back their initial purchase costs and to (b) create more profit potential for the entire organization.

Creating the revenue: One way for a mid-sized software company, such as the one we're using in our example, to create this much needed revenue stream is to create subsequent, more advanced, self-paced, custom e-Learning training modules. Attractively priced, these learning modules could be made available to their end-user customers online without incurring any additional offline training costs.

In order to do this efficiently and without incurring additional offline training costs, the company needs to make it easy for the end-user customer to purchase the more advanced training content and make it easy for the end-user customer to track their own learners as they attend the training courses so they can readily see its effectiveness. By investing the money today to build the more advanced, custom e-Learning content, this mid-sized software company could realize profits from the training modules within 12 to 24 months once they begin marketing and selling it to their existing client base. Such profits would be dependent on development timeframes, how they market their new training service and their chosen modes of delivery.

Taking it one step further: Making the more advanced e-Learning content convincing and attractive to purchase from the client standpoint takes some ingenuity. People are very susceptible to purchasing something that is located right next to the checkout lane at Target. Similarly, it stands to reason that client of this mid-sized software company will be more apt to purchase additional e-Learning content if it is readily available to them and if they can purchase it without any hassle.

One way to accomplish this is to publish the new, more advanced, self-paced e-Learning modules to the company's LMS portal and then make the modules available for purchase via credit card using e-Commerce or via standard invoice with a single phone call. This essentially acts as the product stands we all see at Target next to the checkout lane. Since everyone needs to pass through checkout lane, it makes sense to put additional products available for purchase there. In other words, if the mid-sized software company is delivering portions of their beginner training program online to their end-user customers, this more advanced e-Learning content should be available for purchase right next to those basic training modules, thus, increasing its visibility and increasing the attractiveness to buy from the client perspective.

The Completed Solution
Because of the tight software market and the strain put on mid-sized software companies to perform, if these companies can decrease the costs associated with their current training programs and create new revenue streams at the same time, it becomes a win/win situation both for the vendor and for the customer. The software company gains a competitive edge and continues to move forward while the client gains an easy-to-engage training program and added value from their software vendor.

Fundraising Software - How Can That Help Me?

Fundraising software lets you connect with donors in a way that is unlike any communication you've ever had before. You can diversify your fund raising efforts with software and manage all of your day-to-day activities. There are many companies that sell fundraising software suitable for your organization. Much of the software is capable of helping you in different ways and it is available at different prices. However, you can get free software for small non-profit organizations.

Some of the software on the market is designed to help you with free fundraising ideas, while other free fund raising software deals more with accounting. You can generate thank you letters with the software for your fund raising needs showing the donors that you really appreciate their support, yet you do not have to spend time drafting all the letters because the software does it for you.

Some of the free fundraising ideas you can get by using fund raising software have nothing to do with selling any items. The software gives the donors the option of making a donation electronically on a recurring basis. This saves you the hassle of having to make phone calls every time your organization has a fundraising campaign.

One special feature of fund raising software lets you send reminder emails to donors of upcoming fund raising events. Not only this software help you get more donations through fundraising ideas, but you might also get volunteers for your events as well. These donors might also give you other free fund raising ideas that you might never have thought of.

Using fund raising software takes you from a desk job to dealing with the public where most of your fund raising takes place. This is sophisticated system that has features such as:

• Internet usability
• Simple maintenance
• Requires very little training
• Full Integration with your website
• Secure site for making donations online

You can store all your donor information and free fund raising ideas for new campaigns. It is one piece of software that your charitable organization can't afford to be without.

Fund raising software can save you a lot of time.

For a website totally devoted to Fundraising visit Peter's Website Fundraising Answers and find out about Fundraising as well as Charity Fundraising and more, including Cheerleading Fundraising, Church Fundraisers and School Fundraisers.

Software Automation Helps Increase your Bottom Line

When you own a small business, time is money. And every time a task that should be automated is handled manually, it wastes your time and your business loses money. To make matters even worse, performing these tasks manually, in front of clients or prospects, projects the wrong image.

Even though technology is readily available and even affordable, many small business owners do not take full advantage of these powerful software packages. It may be hard to believe, but only a small percentage of business owners have the technical expertise necessary to handle the automation process. The others have neither the time to learn nor the ability to hire the experts to do the job.

But one thing is certain: One way to increase your business's bottom line is to get software that automates the tasks you do manually and consequently, inefficiently.

Something as simple as contact management software is so valuable. First and foremost, searching for contact information is never more than a few mouse clicks away. Some software will even allow you to access this data while away from you office.

Have you finally mastered your email system? Love the way it keeps you off the phone? If you're not careful, you'll soon be wasting as much time responding to your email as you did returning your phone calls.

There's not enough space to list all the benefits of using autoresponders or all the ways to utilize autoresponders in your business. Here are just a few - use them to send out product and pricing information, to capture contact names and addresses, to help with frequently asked questions (FAQs) lists, to deliver different chapters of an e-book - anything that keeps your company name in front of existing or potential customers can be handled more efficiently using an autoresponder.

Raise your hand if you're still carrying around your paperbound daily planner! Throw it away and get software to keep track of your appointments and those of all your employees. You'll appreciate how easy it is to know who's doing what and when.

And think about how much time you spend each year gathering the paperwork your accountant needs at tax time to prepare your company income taxes. Why allow your accountant to charge you his or her hourly rate to do the type of data entry you could have been doing all year long IF you had only purchased AND installed business accounting software.

If you think, "Well, I do this only once a year," you are right, but remember, there are many more income-generating things you can do with the time you are wasting. Every second of saved time helps your business operate more efficiently.

Even the most automated of offices is doomed should your hardware ever crash and your data not be backed up. And we're not talking about "if" this crisis will occur; we're talking about "when" it will occur. There are so many easy-to-use and affordable backup software programs available that you've no good excuse for not backing up your valuable data.

There are many other business tasks you can automate but there's not enough room to list them all. Tasks like project management, employee management and inventory management are more efficient when they are automated. You can even translate your paper marketing and sales information for fast and easy delivery via the Internet.

There's no end to the list of office tasks that can be automated using the software that is readily available today. Put together an office automation budget and decide which tasks are the most important to automate. Then get going - you've got work to do! Copyright © 2004 Cavyl Stewart. For more information on software to automate your business or other small business programs, visit: http://www.find-small-business-software.com/software-directory.html - Also, be sure to check out my Exclusive, 100% free ecourses.

How To Choose The Right Accounting Software For Your Business?

With any good luck and a good amount of hard work, you're having the same problem many business owners today are facing. Your business is growing rapidly and you're having problems controlling your finances. Time and time again, that Microsoft Excel spreadsheet you've been using just isn't getting the job done for you.

So, you've decided that you're ready to take the next step, and buy a full-featured accounting software program. Many options are available to choose from, but I believe the best solutions to be Quicken Premier Home and Business by Intuit, QuickBooks Pro also by Intuit, and Peachtree Accounting by Sage. In order to decide on the right package for you, you need define the type of business that you operate.

With the rise of self-employment (businesses with one or more owners but no paid employees) a need has arisen to manage business and personal finances on one platform. Intuit has released Quicken 2005 Premier Home and Business to fill this need. This software is perfect for the small business owner who receives income from investments, real estate, and/or internet marketing. Also, Quicken 2005 Premier Home and Business is well priced at only $89.95.

For more typical brick-and-mortar business owners, you will usually need a more robust solution like QuickBooks Pro or Peachtree Accounting for functions like payroll reporting and check producing. Each piece of software has its advantages, but don't forget that QuickBooks has been the standard in business accounting software for many years now. As for features and basic operations, both applications will provide you the same functionality and convenience for your business.

One additional factor to consider in your decision is that Peachtree Accounting is less expensive than QuickBooks. Both starter versions of Peachtree and QuickBooks are priced at $99.95 each, but the full-featured version of Peachtree is priced at only $199.95 while the full-featured QuickBooks Pro is priced at $299.95.

At the end of the day, the biggest advantage QuickBooks offers over Peachtree is compatibility with other applications. For example, most commercial banks (Bank of America, SunTrust, etc...) provide you with files designed to work directly with QuickBooks, so that you can read, study, and decipher transaction details. Also, some banks will allow you to update account information in real-time with QuickBooks. Check with your bank to see what accounting software their online services support, and you should be able to make your decision.

Software Tools To Help Your Business Sell More

Sales are all about leverage, because there is only so much you can do on your own. But, with the help of these simple tools, you can easily double, triple and quadruple your productivity and make more sales.

PhoneTray Dialup
PhoneTray Dialup allows you to receive and screen phone calls while you are online. The program uses your V.92 modem and Call Waiting service from your phone company to detect an incoming call. If you have Caller ID on Call Waiting, also called Call Waiting ID or Visual Call Waiting, PhoneTray will show the caller's name and number, so you can decide if you want to answer the call or ignore it. If your internet provider supports Modem-on-Hold, you can put internet on hold, take a call and continue browsing after you finish talking.

PhoneTray logs all your incoming calls. It keeps the date, time, name and phone number of each call. You can view a complete call history or calls received today, this week or this month. You can select what type of calls you want to see - all calls, local calls, long distance calls etc. Because PhoneTray Dialup logs all calls (you can keep the log as an Excel file), you can easily follow up on your prospects.

More information: http://www.deprice.com/phonetraydialup.htm

Cure Reminder 2.1
With the help of Cute Reminder software you can easily create desktop sticky notes and make reminders for an appointment, birthday, phone call, bill payment, meeting, oil change, TV show and other events or tasks, so you can concentrate on your business.

The program automatically tracks the history of related events and stores the information into archive. Individually colored skins, support for audio files in various formats, schedule, linking files and Web pages to reminders and printing. The user-friendly interface provides comfort at your workplace whether at the office or at home.

Cute Reminder will make it easy and natural for you to manage your information, it will protect your mind from overstrain and encourage your creativity.

More information: http://www.deprice.com/cutereminder.htm

TextAloud
TextAloud converts any text into spoken words. Instead of the valuable time you spend reading on your computer, imagine being free to relax, get up and stretch, or work on other things while the information you need is read to you in a pleasant, natural sounding human voice.

Better still, leave your computer behind. TextAloud's unique Text to MP3 conversion can save your daily reading to MP3 audio files to download to your portable MP3 player. Listen to email, online news, or important documents while you exercise, work or commute.

Just imaging how much more business you can do, if you listen to your e-mails while driving back home, rather than wasting hours on e-mail chores in the office or at home