Are you a Twitterholic or a Twitter newbie? Are you using Twhirl to update your Twitter tweets? Whether you’re just dipping your toes into the water or diving in head first, there’s no doubt that Twitter has become the latest darling of the social networking scene. Aside from the ability to post your own, brief, 140-character updates, Twitter offers a few fun surprises. By now you may be wondering how you can use this neat, little tool to connect and communicate with the rest of the online world. Well, here are five new ways you can use Twitter (and Twhirl) to maximize your connections and boost your business…

First, a quick heads-up on Twhirl (www.twhirl.org): Twhirl is a Twitter “client,” or desktop application, that makes Twitter even easier to use. Twhirl sits on your desktop and basically mirrors the Twitter interface, so you can post updates and monitor your friends’ posts without having to log-in to Twitter. Twhirl also gives you the option of replying to your friend’s “tweets,” or sending them a direct (private) message.

As for new ways to use Twitter, consider the following:

1. Your own personal search engine – You can use Twitter like a private search engine by asking your friends and followers to point you in the right direction.

2. Instant feedback – Twitter can also act as your own, personal focus group. Just post a quick question and use Twitter to solicit surveys, opinions or ideas.

3. Links in a blink – Use Twitter to link to your latest blog posts, sites of interest, etc. Twitter will even shorten the URL for you.

4. Continue conversations – As mentioned above, Twitter and Twhirl make it easy to communicate with your friends via their direct message and individual reply tools.

5. Instant Info – Use Twitter to sign up for updates or breaking news from your favorite websites such as CNN.com (http://twitter.com/cnnbrk).

Lou Bortone is an award-winning writer and video producer with over 20 years experience in marketing, branding and promotion. As an online video expert, Lou helps entrepreneurs create video for the web at www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com. In addition, Lou works as a freelance writer and professional ghostwriter, with a ghostwriting site at www.GhostwriteForYou.com and a blog at www.GhostwriteGuru.com.

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Article contributed by Leah Nevada Page of MicroMentor.org, an organization that helps emerging entrepreneurs grow their businesses through mentoring and advising relationships with experienced peers and business professionals.

Sturdy McKee’s journey to small business success started with a pink slip. The hospital where he had been working as a physical therapist downsized and after a frustrating job search, Sturdy sat down with his wife and had a conversation about what it would take to open his own physical therapy practice.

Once started, Sturdy rapidly built a successful business, and was soon operating at the full capacity of his staff and building space. But when Sturdy began looking for a loan to help him open additional offices, banks were refusing to finance his planned expansion. Then Sturdy found MicroMentor. MicroMentor is a pioneering web-based community and social network that helps aspiring entrepreneurs build successful businesses by matching them with volunteer business mentors from around the country.

After signing up online at www.MicroMentor.org, where he described his business and mentoring goals, Sturdy was matched with a mentor, Jayshree Miller, who had worked as an accountant in the U.K. and was now looking for an opportunity for skills-based volunteering.

As Sturdy’s mentor, Jayshree worked with Sturdy through a series of phone calls and emails to help him make sense of his balance sheets, cash flow statements, and profit & loss statements. She also helped him identify areas in need of expansion. “She reinforced our opinions that we were a healthy company and that we were viable, even though we were unable to secure funding from a bank. [It] gave us the confidence to fund our own growth from our own profits.”

Now, just six years after opening its doors, Study’s physical therapy company has 5 branches and over 20 employees. And just two years after he first sought help on MicroMentor, Sturdy has returned to MicroMentor as a volunteer mentor. “Moving the business to profitability changed a lot of things in my business and my life and I hope to help other people to do that. I want to help people figure out how to plan and make their businesses viable.”

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If you publish your ezine through one of the emailing list services then you will also be provided with tracking stats for each issue. Are you happy with the open rate, or does it seem exceptionally low for each issue? Not only is it important that you publish your newsletter regularly, but equally important is that your subscribers receive it.

Is your list a double opt-in list?

Do you send both a Text and HTML version of your newsletter?

If you have answered NO to one or both of these questions you could be sabotaging your own newsletter efforts!

Why do I need a double opt-in list?

Double opt-in is the process whereby when someone signs up to receive your newsletter via your website they receive an email from your email list provider, which asks them to confirm their subscription by clicking on a link in the email. Once they have clicked on this link they are then confirmed as a subscriber to your list.

This process is known as double opt-in as:

:: they opt-in once via your newsletter sign up form on your website; and

:: they opt-in again by clicking the link on the email that they receive from your email list provider.

It is very important that you have this process in place as it avoids a subscriber being signed up to your newsletter by a third party, and therefore reduces the number of spam reports that you are likely to get. Your subscriber has had to confirm for a second time that they want to be on your mailing list.

The downside to this is that your subscriber may not confirm their subscription, in which case you would lose the subscriber. But if they really do want to receive information from you they will be on the lookout for your confirmation email. And isn’t it better to have 100 subscribers who really do want to receive your information rather than 1,000 subscribers who aren’t that interested?

Just recently I had a conversation with support at my email list provider and asked them about their double opt-in process. They told me that those lists that are set up as double opt-in lists are sent via a secure server that has been approved by the ISPs thereby resulting in a higher deliverability of your ezine. Lists that are not set as double opt-in get sent out on a different server and could result in your ezine being blocked by the ISP.

So even if your subscriber has you on their white list (or friends list) if your list is not a double opt-in list they may not even receive your ezine as it could be blocked by their ISP.

Check with your emailing list service as to their policies on double opt-in.

Why do I need to send both Text and HTML versions of my newsletter?

Again sending both versions of your newsletter ensures that it will get through to your subscriber. Some subscribers have their email programs set up to only receive text emails, and if you only offer a HTML version of your ezine they are not going to be able to read it.

Also, if you've sent your broadcast in both versions there's a good chance it won't be viewed as spam/junk email as spammers don't usually send emails in both formats.

Conclusion:

To fix low newsletter deliverability there are two things you can do right away:

1. Ensure your list is set to double opt-in.

2. Send out both Text and HTML versions of your ezine.

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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I recently ventured into the world of creating digital information products and selling them via my website. One of the biggest dilemmas I faced was deciding which shopping cart provider to go with.

Having worked on various shopping cart systems for clients, I knew my way around setting these up, but when it came to my own online shopping cart system I couldn’t decide the best way forward.

Ultimately I ended up making a poor choice by going a cheaper alternative route, than the service I really wanted. The reason I made this poor decision was lack of confidence on my part – I wasn’t sure how well my product would sell and didn’t want to invest heavily in a service that I may not need or use!

The reality of going the cheaper route? I had customers who weren’t able to download their product or make a payment and I lost revenue because of this!

To save you the same trouble I went through, here are my top 6 tips for ensuring that you get the right shopping cart system for YOUR business.

1. Think about your long-term goals. Having a shopping cart system that grows with your business is crucial to your long-term goals, particularly if you’re planning on launching more products and services in the future.

You'll want to ensure that the shopping cart system you choose can easily handle additional products and services.

2. How simple is the shopping cart to set up? Can you easily do the product setup yourself, or does it require you to hold a degree in computer programming! You don’t want to be spending huge amounts of your time on the phone to tech support, or getting frustrated because the shopping cart isn’t easy to set up.

If the shopping cart system provides you with HTML code that you have to add to your website, consider how comfortable you feel adding this. You may decide that this is a service to outsource to your Virtual Assistant.

3. Accepting online payments. If you’re going to be selling products/services online, whether they’re digital or physical products, you will need a system that can accept online payments. These days customers want instant gratification, which is why digital products are so popular, and you need to be able to accept payments instantly too.

Think about this situation - you go on to a website and in order to buy a product you have to print off an order form and fax it in, or call to place an order! That's not easy for your customer and you will have just lost the sale! The best solution is to get a merchant account, and ensure that your merchant provider’s services are compatible with your online shopping cart system.

4. Cost of your Online Shopping Cart System. It can be a false economy to go the cheaper route, particularly if it doesn’t offer all the features and functionality you want. Come up with a list of what you would like in an online shopping cart system, and then find a service that will meet ALL of your needs.

5. Customer Service. You want to make it as quick and easy as possible for your customers to purchase from you and get instant access to their product. An online shopping cart system that offers digital download of your products will do this for you.

And if you have a physical product ensure that your shopping cart service can calculate postage and print shipping labels too.

Don’t make your customers jump through hoops just to make a purchase from you!

6. Autoresponders and follow-up messages. It’s much easier to sell future products to existing customers – after all they already know, like and trust you. In order to do this you need your shopping cart to be able to keep a database of your customers so that you can follow up with them. Autoresponders are a great way to do this. You can follow up with your customer several times after they’ve made a purchase and check in with them to see how they’re getting on with your product. And you can do this very easily and quickly if your shopping cart has an autoresponder feature.

Keep all of these points in mind when choosing your online shopping cart system, and you will find the perfect solution for you!

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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Marketing your business is one of the biggest challenges for any solopreneur – it’s a task we all find quite daunting, and are simply overwhelmed by all the information that’s available. Below I have put together some information on 3 simple and low cost marketing ideas, which you can easily implement right away to create more visibility for your online business and web site. They all work well for me!

To help you decide which is the best strategy (or strategies) for you, I have listed the pros and cons of each one.

Create a Blog

Pros

:: You can really show off your expertise by posting on a regular basis.

:: Blog posts don’t need to be very long – approx. 200-350 words.

:: If you have some important information to share, you can instantly create a post – no waiting for your next newsletter to make your announcement!

:: If you use a blogging platform such as WordPress, this is hosted on your website. Each time you post to your blog you are creating fresh content for your website, which the search engines love!

Cons

:: You need to post regularly - at least once a week – in order for this to be an effective marketing strategy.

:: You need to feel confident that you will be able to write fresh content regularly.

:: It can be difficult to build a direct relationship with your reader.

Publish an Ezine

Pros

:: Unlike a blog, readers sign up to receive your newsletter so you already have a connection with them.

:: You can build a relationship with your newsletter reader and encourage one-on-one communication.

:: You can go into more depth in your newsletter article than you can with your blog posts.

:: Your clients/target audience can get to know you through your newsletter.

Cons

:: You have to make a commitment to publish on a regular basis, otherwise your subscribers will see you as unreliable, and may even forget about you!

:: There is more work involved in putting together a newsletter than writing a simple blog post.

:: You will need to subscribe to one of the ezine distribution services – I strongly recommend you do this and not send your ezine via your email client!

Article Marketing

Pros

:: If you are already blogging or publishing a newsletter, you have your articles written.

:: It is highly likely that once you submit your article to one of the article submission sites, it will be picked up and published on other article submission sites.

:: Regularly submitting your articles will elevate you to ‘expert’ status within your field/niche.

Cons

:: You have to write the articles if you’re not publishing a newsletter or posting to a blog.

:: It takes time to manually research suitable article submission sites and submit articles.

:: In order for this strategy to be effective, you have to submit your articles regularly – at least once a month.

Conclusion: You can just pick one strategy to focus on, or you can do all three! Whichever one you choose make sure it’s the right one for you. The key is to be consistent in your approach. If you decide to go with a blog make sure you have the time and motivation to add new posts regularly – at least once a week. Don’t start a newsletter if you know you won’t be able to keep to a regular publishing schedule! And for article marketing to be effective you need to submit articles on a regular basis.

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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As a solopreneur being able to follow-up with your clients and potential clients is crucial in growing and sustaining your business, and keeping a steady flow of new clients coming on board. However the downside is the time it takes to follow-up with each and every one of your contacts – after all spending all day following up with clients isn’t a good use of your time; you also need to spend your time on income generating activities and generating cash flow for your business.

So what is a time-starved solopreneur to do in order to maintain follow-up with customers and clients?

Autoresponders are perfect for automating your follow-up and freeing up some of your time. If set up correctly they will follow up with EVERY SINGLE customer who has ever purchased a product from you; or EVERY SINGLE subscriber to your ezine list! Would you be able to undertake that task yourself? The answer is no, you couldn’t, it would be impossible.

This is where you need to get smart and take advantage of technology to automate your follow-up. Create the systems and let them run on autopilot.

What is an autoresponder?

Put simply an autoresponder is a piece of software that will allow you to send email messages to people on your list. Don’t confuse this with spam or unsolicited mail though. These messages are sent to people who have already confirmed that they want to receive email from you; they have either signed up to your ezine list or they have bought a product from you. They have given you permission to email them as they have confirmed their subscription to your list.

The autoresponder is an email that is sent out automatically in response to an action taken by your customer/subscriber, and it can either be just one message or a series of follow-up messages that you set up to go out at certain intervals – you choose what those intervals are.

For example, you could set the first message up so that it goes out immediately someone confirms their subscription to your list, the next message could go out seven days later, and the final one two weeks after that. The beauty of using this system is that you decide how often and what messages are sent out.

The autoresponder doesn’t write the messages for you, you have to do that yourself, but the opportunities using an autoresponder opens are invaluable.

Once you’ve taken the time to set up the autoresponder it all runs on autopilot!

How can you use autoresponders in your day-to-day business?

There are many ways you can use an autoresponder in your day-to-day business, but just to give you a couple of examples:

Ezine Signup. When someone signs up for your ezine you will generally create an autoresponder that immediately gets sent out to them welcoming them to your list – once they’ve confirmed their subscription, of course! Add a second message to go out a few days later, and ask them how they found your free taste, what their biggest challenge is, or if there is a particular topic that they would like to find out more about.

Product Purchase. When someone buys one of your products create an autoresponder and a series of follow-up messages to ask them how they are getting on with your product, are they working through it okay, send them a ‘surprise’ bonus, or ask for a testimonial. Span these messages so that they go out over the course of a few weeks. If you offer a home study system set the final message to check in with them about six/eight weeks after they’ve bought your product to see if they were able to implement the steps, or if there’s anything they need help with.

The secret to autoresponder success

Even though your autoresponder may be going out to several hundred customers (or even thousands), don’t let that deter you from making your messages personal – let your personality come through in your messages, encourage feedback from your recipient, give them a call to action in your messages.

When putting your autoresponder and follow-up messages together write them as though you are writing to just ONE person. Think about the tone you use. Do you keep it informal? Chatty? Light? If you find this task hard pick a contact/client you know really well and imagine you’re writing an email to them. What tone do you use when writing to this person?

Go one better, and actually send your messages to this contact/client and ask for feedback from them. Chances are if they really like the way you’ve written your messages your other customers and clients will too!

I rely on my autoresponders to follow up with my customers, clients, and ezine subscribers – without them I’d find it impossible to follow-up and may end up losing valuable relationships.

I know that many of my relationships with my clients/customers have been established as a result of them replying to one of my autoresponder messages. I would find it impossible to make contact with each and every one of these people personally; the autoresponder does that for me, but then I am able to create a relationship with those customers who do reply to my messages.

Online Business Manager & Virtual Assistant, Tracey Lawton, supports professional speakers, coaches, and authors to operate an efficient, organized, and profitable business. Learn how to create an efficient and organized office in 7 EASY steps, and receive free how-to articles at http://www.OfficeOrganizationSuccess.com.

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This article is submitted by Heike Delmore, President of Jack in the Web - Web Design, www.jackintheweb.ca

We are living in a day and age where doing-it-yourself is all the rage, from do-it-yourself home renovation to do-it-yourself business card design. And now most recently, we have do-it-yourself website design. The question is, is doing it yourself web design better than getting a professional web designer to do it?

In this article we will examine the advantages and disadvantages to building a website yourself.

Complete Creative Power

When building your own website with either template software you have purchased, or a free online application, you get to choose from a set collection of colors, font styles, and fancy backgrounds etc. So it is easy to fully customize the look and feel of your website, right?

Well, not so fast. No doubt you are given a selection of styles and frills, but you are falling short on your company branding. What do these styles and frills say about your branding? Does your website illustrate a recognizable and professional brand that sets you apart from your competition? The answer is no.

Web surfers can easily tell a professional website from an unprofessional one. And when given the choice, web surfers may be more inclined to trust and do business with the more professional looking company.

If you are a student, hobbyist, or the purpose of your website is personal, a do-it-yourself templated website may be the perfect solution for your needs. However, if you are a business, or you are a selling a product or service, hiring a professional to create your website is a must for branding purposes and for setting yourself apart from the competition.

HTML is not that hard to learn

It's true, basic HTML is not that hard to learn. If you have a lot of extra time and energy to pour into learning HTML, you could probably create your first webpage within a few days.

But what will that webpage look like? Professional or amateur? Chances are your webpage will look amateur in comparison your competition's, if your competition used a professional web designer.

Also, what if your code has left serious security loop holes, or your webpage displays incorrectly in some web browsers? Not everyone uses Internet Explorer. And not everyone uses a PC.

If it is important to you that your website reach a large audience - and make a positive and professional impression, then it is a good idea to hire a professional web designer. There is a reason why web programming and web design are professions.

A professional web designer can ensure that there are no security loop holes in your code, make sure users across all platforms with different browsers will see your site correctly, and ensure that search engines such as Google will be able to read your code and index your website!

Let's compare this scenario with that of a recreational photographer: Your Uncle just bought a new professional camera. He has no experience taking photos other than candid vacation snap shots. But he has read the manual and taught himself how this new camera functions. He says he is ready to start charging people to do their wedding photos. Do you hire him to do your wedding photos? The point is, just because someone learns how to use something new, doesn't suddenly mean they have the creativity or expertise to use well.

A professional camera does not make a professional photographer. Just as learning to code HTML doesn't mean your website will look professional.

So now that the HTML is out of the way, how will you create your professional looking logo and or customize the graphics for your website? To do this you will need a graphical software program such as Photoshop.

Is Photoshop hard to learn?

Again, if you have a lot of extra time to learn and master graphic programs such as Photoshop and learn programming languages such as HTML, designing a website yourself may be the perfect solution. Further, your new web design knowledge could be advantageous in understanding how, for example, coding and website content affects how your site will be indexed by Google or other search engines.

Saving Time and Money

If you bought a web design do-it-yourself kit, it probably seemed like an affordable and easy to use solution. Simply fill in the blanks and the program will do the rest for you. Seems quick and easy, right?

The first question you should consider is, how much money is your time worth? If you have a lot of extra time and taking on website design seems like a fun and reasonable thing to do, then this option may be right for you.

But you should keep one thing in mind before you start. What if you invest your time to create your own website and it doesn't work properly, or doesn't to look professional? Then what?

Let's compare this scenario to a home renovation project: You went to Home Depot and bought new shingles for your roof. The price of the shingles were somewhat affordable and they came with a user manual - which is great because it is your first time roofing. Perfect you are on your way. So you take the time and learn how to re-shingle your roof and you complete the job. Congratulations! The only problem is that your neighbors and potential future home buyers can see that it doesn't quite look professional… and when it rains parts of the roof leak… sometimes.

Now what? You have to find a professional to fix the mistakes and the leak. So not only do you have to pay a professional roofer to re-do the job, you also lose money on the shingles you purchased, and you wasted your time.

Doing it yourself may save you money at first, but if you have to hire a professional to correct any problems later, it may end up costing you even more money.

Either avenue you choose, whether you do-it-yourself or you hire a webdesign professional, we wish you the best of luck and all the success with your web design project.

* * *

This article is submitted by Heike Delmore, President of Jack in the Web - Web Design, www.jackintheweb.ca

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You know that having a double opt-in* process for your newsletter/ezine list is a "best practice" in permission based email marketing. Several reasons:

• less chance of being called a spammer by someone who doesn't remember filling in the form (or because someone else filled out the form with their email address);
• fewer bad email addresses in your list;
• some mailing list delivery services require it!
  

BUT--sometimes your subscribers don't click that link they receive from you in the confirmation email. And so you lose 10, 20, even 50% of your "subscribers". Arghh!

How can you improve your opt-in rates?

Generally, the more compelling and relevant your "offer" is to folks, and the easier it is for them to complete the process, the better opt-in rate you will enjoy.

• Have some really strong copy that describes your ezine and the benefits they will receive.
• Provide an incentive for folks to subscribe. A free ebook, ecourse, etc.
• Remind folks that they must confirm (click the link in the confirmation email) to receive the incentive. You can do this on the signup or thank you page.
• Help them make sure they receive the confirmation email, by offering a page explaining how to add your ezine to their whitelist.
• Show them how to confirm. A snapshot of the confirmation email, with the confirmation link circled, is one way to make it crystal-clear.
• Make sure your confirmation email matches the description of your ezine. Use the same wording, etc. Nothing will reduce your confirmation rates like using the generic confirmation email text!
  

Get more marketing and small business tips for Solo Entrepreneurs

*Double opt-in defined:

1. new subscriber fills out a form on your site
2. your list management software sends a confirmation email with a special coded link
3. new subscriber clicks the link
4. subscriber is added to your list
   

Single opt-in eliminates steps 2 and 3.

Terri Zwierzynski is a self-employed business strategist and marketing consultant to solo entrepreneurs, and a grassroots promoter of the solo entrepreneur lifestyle. She runs Solo-E.com, the resource website for the self-employed which attracts thousands of solo home business owners monthly from over 100 countries on six continents (and was recently named a finalist for “Website of the Year” in the 4th Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business). Terri is also the co-author of 136 Ways To Market Your Small or Solo Business.

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The trend of telecommuting is on the rise as employers begin to see the savings involved in both gas and office space. With gas prices at an all-time high, many Americans are looking for ways to do less driving and more companies than ever before are offering telecommuting options to their current employees and searching for at-home employees to fill open positions. The question for the job seeker is now how to find these opportunities. Below are five methods you can use to find a telecommuting position.

First, check your local newspaper. When I began my search for an at-home career, I found my first employer through the Classified Ads section of our hometown paper. I was wary at first, but after thoroughly researching the company through means such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB), visiting the corporate office and meeting some of their current employees I found the company to be legitimate.

Second, search online using website such as Monster.com and Dice.com. However, listings found online must be researched carefully to avoid the scams that abound on the Internet. There are also websites that will you allow to do job research in your own community. One such website is Craigslist.com on which you can choose a city and then refine your search with keywords such as “telecommute.”

Posting your resume on websites such as Hotjobs.com is a third way to locate at work-at-home job. Putting your resume online can bring employers to you, depending on your skills and qualifications. Another bonus of an online resume is that you can easily direct prospective employers to view it. It also makes life a bit simpler when applying for jobs, because you can attach your online resume instead of typing out your job history, qualifications, and so on, each time you apply for a job.

When posting your resume on the web, be sure to create an accurate and impressive representation of your abilities. You don’t want to be wordy when describing past job experience, but you do want to be specific about the roles you’ve held as well as your accomplishments.

A fourth option when looking for at-home employment is to open a phone book and call businesses in your area. For example, if you’re interested in doing administrative work, you might contact churches and small businesses in your area to see if they are looking for office help. Even if they are not currently seeking help, they may know of another business owner who is.

Along those same lines, the fifth way to become a telecommuter is to create your own opportunity. For example, instead of finding a company that will hire you as an administrative assistant from home, consider starting your own business as a Virtual Assistant. You can offer your services to many companies, which can both increase your income potential and allow you the flexibility of deciding which jobs you’d like to accept.

You can also create your own telecommuting position by talking with your current employer about work-at-home possibilities. More and more companies are finding that at-home employees are just as productive as those in the office, if not more. Companies also benefit financially by lessening office space and avoiding the costs of many office supplies. Many companies who are not ready to hire at-home workers will allow their current employees to work one or two days from a home office, so be sure to discuss this option.

The telecommuting field has become highly competitive as more and more people find that working from home is a possibility. Searching for a telecommuting position can be daunting, but by looking in strategic places such as online and in your local newspaper, you’ll have a much better chance. No matter, how you find your telecommuting position, make sure it’s something you would enjoy doing and also something you can make money at.

Jill Hart is the founder of Christian Work at Home Moms, CWAHM.com. She graduated from Grace University with a Bachelor's Degree in Human Development and Family Studies/Bible. Jill has worked from since 2000 and started her own home-based business to assist other Christians who desire to work from home while maintaining a godly life.

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Continued from Part 1

Adding Structure, Accountability and Community to Your Self-Paced Classes

In Part 1 of this series, I offered various ideas for designing your live classes to offer maximum value to your students. Beyond just learning the concepts, students have a much better chance of actually applying your wisdom in their business. If you provide these three important elements in your classes:

• a schedule to do the learning (structure);
• a modest work assignment each week, and a place to post completed assignments (accountability);
• and a rich network of fellow students to share with and learn from (community).

Applying these elements in self-paced classes (i.e., written, audio and video content available to the student on their own schedule) is quite different, and perhaps more challenging, than in a live, scheduled environment. A further challenge is that often, you've designed these courses to be hands-off for you - truly passive. On the other hand, your self-paced classes could be a funnel to more intensive, live classes or coaching/consulting - in which case a dose of you, live, could be the tipping point.

He.re are some suggestions you can incorporate into your own course design; most can be automated, although they may require some intervention or assistance from your VA.

Structure

Live classes come with their own built-in structure, in the for.m of a fixed schedule. However, the student purchasing a learn-at-your-own-pace course has to make a real effort to schedule time to read, listen to the audio, or review the video -- and resist the temptation to do something else instead. As the course designer, how can you build in structure for your customers/students?

• Release the content on a schedule; i.e., don't give it all to them at once. This is the concept behind an ecourse - delivering a little bit at a time.
• Send scheduled follow-up emails. In the introduction to the course, you can suggest a schedule (one chapter a week?), then follow up once a week with a tidbit about that chapter - a case study showing actual results, a teaser, etc. I've seen this done by one of the big internet marketers - I signed up, and once a week I got a nudge email, something like "Have you checked out this technique in chapter 14; it could triple your sales!"
• Help them commit to a schedule. At purchase, ask them to commit to a time/day each week to cover the content of the course. Then, send them an email with an attached Outlook recurring appointment with that schedule! They open the attachment and save it to their calendar, and viola, it's scheduled for them.

All of these techniques can be easily automated with an autoresponder! Remember to customize the messages to make them more personal. And be prepared to respond if they reply -  or have your VA ready to handle this responsibility.

Accountability

Getting folks to read/listen/view/study the material is one thing; getting them to apply it in their business is quite another. Some of the techniques mentioned for live classes will work he.re too:

• Ask them to sign a statement of intent to do the homework (this can be an automated part of the purchase checkout process, for instance).
• Follow up with encouraging messages via autoresponder.
• Offer something extra for a limited time after their purchase: a fre.e review of their homework; fre.e laser coaching to help them overcome a roadblock or problem; a regular live call where they can ask ques.tions.
• Provide an incentive. Encourage the student to complete the course by asking them to send you their completed worksheet(s) and offering a fre.e report, audio, or even a rebate or coupon. Tie this in with structure by giving them deadlines for sections of the work. Again, your VA can handle fulfillment of these incentives.

Community

Providing peer support can be much more challenging when there are no live classes where folks meet each other, but with the proper encouragement from you, I believe it can be done!

• Set up a bulletin board (or listserve) for all purchasers. You'll need to be more active, especially at the beginning, to encourage folks to join and share with strangers. Autoresponders might help; but they may not be enough. This is one area where you might need to be involved directly in answering questions and providing feedback, although as your board/list "ages", peer leaders may emerge naturally (you may even want to approach a few of them to provide continuous, paid support instead of doing it yourself.)
• Offer a free/trial membership in your existing community. This adds value to the course; you are already interacting with your community so it's not extra work. If this is a limited time offer, you can even upsell to your monthly community at the end of the trial.
• Mastermind calls. Again, this requires your time- unless you can hire it out. Either way it can be very effective.
  

Summary

All of these techniques still require commitment on the part of the student - you can't force students to do the work, and you also shouldn't take it personally if a significant number of your purchasers never follow through. But you can make it easier, and going that extra mile will set you apart as a supportive, caring individual that they might want to buy from again.

Terri Zwierzynski is a self-employed business strategist and marketing consultant to solo entrepreneurs, and a grassroots promoter of the solo entrepreneur lifestyle. She runs Solo-E.com, the resource website for the self-employed which attracts thousands of solo home business owners monthly from over 100 countries on six continents.

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Technology gives us all kinds of wonderful tools to enhance virtual classes for solo entrepreneurs. Teleconferences, audio and video recordings, both streaming and downloadable, interactive multimedia, online learning environments, automated learning tools - all great options. But while the bells and whistles might abound, what is it that REALLY makes for a great virtual learning experience?

Last January, I was having lunch with my friend/advisor Sherry Essig. We were talking about a virtual course I was taking at the time that I was really enjoying. The subject matter of that course (marketing) was one I was pretty familiar with as an MBA student, in consulting with clients, and even co-writing an e-book on the subject. So why the heck did I pay several hundred dollars to take a class on a subject I already knew a lot about? And why, when I was finished, did I feel more capable of using that knowledge to improve my business than I might have after reading another book?

As we talked, Sherry started noticing the elements I was raving about: structure, accountability, and community. What I was really paying for wasn't the knowledge (although I definitely learned). I was paying for:

• a schedule to do the learning ( structure);
• a modest work assignment each week, and a place to post my completed assignments ( accountability);
• and a rich network of fellow students to share with and learn from ( community).

Here is a look at these three elements - and how you can apply them to your own course design.

Structure

I think of structure as the element that gets me to sit down and "do the learning"; usually, in the form of a scheduled appointment, with myself or someone else. For a live class, this is a no-brainer. The scheduled classes provide the structure.

However, the trend toward offering recordings shortly after the live class can undermine the urgency of being on the call live. Recordings are invaluable when there is truly a conflict for the student (and can add value to the course overall) -but it also makes it easy for students to rationalize when they get busy (and when are solo entrepreneurs not busy?) and skip the class, knowing the recording is there whenever they get around to listening. (I'm guilty of this!) And then suddenly there is no structure, no timetable to listen to the recording. (Sometimes this means I never do get around to listening to the class.)

How do you solve this dilemma and provide the structure your students really want? I haven't seen anyone with a good solution to this yet, but here are some ideas to experiment with:

• Make the recordings available "on-request". Each week anyone who needs the recording has to contact you. Most students will, I think, shame themselves into not missing more than a couple, just to avoid having to ask each week! If not, you can perhaps challenge them after the second or third request (a great coaching moment!) If the recordings are a valuable part of your offering, upload them to be available to all a week after each class, or at the end of the course.
• Give some incentive for being on the calls live. Something above and beyond what they are paying for (i.e., you can't penalize them for not showing up!) Free ebooks, audios, CD, etc.
• Give an incentive for attending all the calls - sort of a perfect attendance bonus. Maybe even a modest rebate on the cost of the course!

Accountability

AKA homework. Learning and retention is enhanced when the student does something to practice what they've just learned; even better, if they can implement it in their business right away. So how can you encourage students to complete the homework?

• Have students email their homework to you. You could even provide an incentive by offering valuable feedback to your students.
• Provide a space online to post homework. Nothing like peer pressure to get some people moving! This also offers a rich opportunity for the student to ask for help; feedback, etc. (see Community, below). You can implement this with something like Moodle, a bulletin board, etc.
• Ask students to "sign" a statement of intent to do the homework. This can help them make a promise to themselves to work hard to keep up.
• Assign buddies to trade homework. For some, knowing that someone else is waiting can be motivating. This can also backfire if neither student complies - letting them both rationalize away the work. A threesome might work better.
• Check in with students. Send an email and ask them how the homework is going. Sometimes they are just stuck and a few words of wisdom from you could quickly get them back on track.

Community

Just as it's easier to stick with an exercise program with a buddy or a regular workout group, interacting with fellow students can provide the "I'm not in this alone" feeling that they sometimes need. Community can also be an excellent side benefit of taking the class; it can provide a richer learning experience as additional wisdom is shared, and students may even make connections that last long after the final class. You can create community environments for your students:

• Create a bulletin board. Students can post homework, ask for feedback, ask questions, and share their own knowledge. Password protection is recommended, to provide a "safe" environment without fear of a silly question getting aired via search engine later.
• Set up mastermind calls. These are calls, facilitated by you (or your teaching assistant), that are open to whatever the student(s) need to talk about, ask questions, etc. Depending on class size, you might need to break students into groups, each with their own call time, to ensure everyone gets the air time they need.
• Set up mastermind groups. These can be very effective especially in long-running programs. You create the groups, or let students form their own. They will probably need either live help or some instructions on how to set up a powerful mastermind group.
• Establish buddy pairs or triplets. Trading homework, weekly check-ins, giving feedback, are all possibilities to explore. For a long program, mixing up the groups midway can liven things up and give a second chance to students who just didn't mesh with their first buddy.

Summary

We can't make our students learn and use what we teach them. But we can provide a supportive learning environment with the structure, accountability and community elements that make true learning more likely.

Terri Zwierzynski is a self-employed business strategist and marketing consultant to solo entrepreneurs, and a grassroots promoter of the solo entrepreneur lifestyle. She runs Solo-E.com, the resource website for the self-employed which attracts thousands of solo home business owners monthly from over 100 countries on six continents.

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Accepting credit cards online is a great way to boost the success of any online business. Once your business begins to accept credit cards over the Internet, you’ll enjoy greater sales, increased revenues, and better cash flow, among other benefits. This article describes the main benefits of accepting credit cards online, and then presents an overview of the process and all the terminology and background information you’ll need to get started.

The Benefits of Accepting Credit Cards Online

Most business owners choose to begin accepting credit cards as a convenience to their customers, but they are often pleasantly surprised by all the other benefits that accrue to the business. Most notably, accepting credit cards online causes sales to increase. In a traditional bricks-and-mortar store, credit card users make impulse purchases more often than do customers who are paying with cash, because it doesn’t feel like “real money.” Online, this effect is multiplied by the fact that online shoppers can make their purchases within seconds of finding what they want to buy. In contrast, if your site doesn’t accept credit cards, the potential customer who is browsing your website has too much time to rethink the purchase during the time that he or she is calling customer service or filling out the order form and writing a check.

With greater sales, your business’s revenue increases. Even more importantly, your cash flow improves. When customers pay with a check, you may have to wait up to one week for the funds to be made available in your bank account. Credit card payments, however, are processed much quicker, giving you access to the cash you need to run your business.

Another benefit of accepting credit cards online is that you’ll have to deal with fewer bounced checks. The credit card’s available balance is verified at the moment of the purchase, so there’s no chance that you’ll make the sale and then subsequently find out that the customer didn’t have funds to cover the transaction.

What You’ll Need to Accept Credit Cards Online

If you’ve never accepted credit cards online before, initially it can be intimidating, but in essence you will need only four things: an online shopping cart, a payment gateway service, a credit card processor, and an internet merchant account. Let’s consider each of these in greater detail.

An online shopping cart is the platform though which customers make their product selection(s) and input their credit card information. It comprises the catalog of products that you sell, the “cart” to which customers add their desired purchases, and the checkout/payment page where customers provide their credit card information. The online shopping cart is the user-friendly side of things that customers see on the website. It needs to appear professional and secure, so that your customers feel confident entering their financial data on your website. The online shopping card automatically submits customers’ credit card information to a payment gateway service.

The payment gateway service collects that information and securely transfers it to the credit card processor (i.e., the acquiring bank) to request the transaction’s approval. The customer is unaware of the payment gateway service, as it is primarily a tool that allows your online shopping cart to communicate with financial institutions and credit card companies. When selecting a payment gateway service, be sure that it is compatible with your online shopping cart and pay attention to the fees and the level of security offered.

The credit card processor accepts the data from the payment gateway service and then contacts the bank that issued the credit card to verify that the requested funds are available. Once the transaction is approved, the credit card processor sends the results back to the payment gateway service, which sends the results to the online shopping cart system for the customers’ review. (Although the process described above seems long and complicated, it is fully automated and can be completed in just a few seconds.) The credit card processor also deposits the funds into your bank account.

The Internet merchant account, provided by the credit card processor, gives you the authorization to collect funds from your customers’ credit card accounts. All funds will either be deposited into a bank account of your choice or one that you will have to open at a bank designated by the credit card processor.

Unfortunately, if you are only accepting credit cards online (not in a traditional bricks-and-mortar store), many banks view your business as being more high-risk and therefore charge exorbitant fees for the Internet merchant account. The increased revenue of credit cards payments may or may not offset these high fees. Consequently, many online retailers opt to use the services of a company that specializes in e-commerce, as described below, rather than try to obtain an Internet merchant account on their own through their local bank.

All-in-One E-commerce Packages

If you aren’t experienced in the world of ecommerce, getting an online shopping cart, payment gateway service, credit card processor, and Internet merchant account can be confusing, overwhelming, time-consuming, and expensive. Fortunately, as online sales have grown in popularity, many full-service merchant account providers have arisen in the marketplace. They provide all-in-one ecommerce packages, allowing your business to quickly and easily obtain an online shopping cart, payment gateway, and even arrangements for processing credit card payments through a bank. In the long run, many of these companies’ fees are expensive, but the peace of mind is usually worth the price, at least during the first few years that you’re accepting credit cards online. Of course, there are affordable full-service merchant account providers so an investigation is warranted.

When shopping around for one of these all-in-one solutions, take the time to do your research. If a company doesn’t respond to your inquiries promptly, eliminate it from consideration. Ask about the application process and all the fees (application fees, setup fees, discount fees, transaction fees, monthly fees, etc.). Know what the total start-up cost will be, as well as your ongoing maintenance costs. Finally, be sure you know exactly what services you’ll receive and whether there are any limits on the volume or amount of your monthly transactions. Once you have all this information, you will be ready to select an ecommerce package and begin enjoying the many benefits of accepting credit card payments online.

Andy Lax has worked in the credit card processing industry for over five years and is now an Account Manager at IntelliCollect, a merchant account provider that enables business owners to accept credit cards and electronic checks.

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RajeshShakya: E-commerce web site design is nothing different than a traditional web design, but requires a few more extra functionalities and components to handle financial transactions. For those additional services, you will have to rely on third parties. Many startups are intimidated by the process and they do not build web sites that are capable of e-commerce transactions. I am trying to give you just a brief idea of what it takes to design e-commerce sites. I will write different aspects of online business in my future posts. Suggest you to study some of the these aspects of e-commerce site development before you start.

Transaction Security

One of the most important aspects of e-commerce web site design is security that creates confidence in consumers doing online transactions. You need to make sure that your visitors can safely and securely input their personal details, credit card information and shipping information into your online payment system.

Payment Gateway

To build web sites that accept online payments, you will need to incorporate payment gateway services for processing credit/debit cards into your ecommerce web site design. Payment Gateways are connected with your bank through your merchant accounts in those banks.

Look and feel

Aesthetics is another important aspect of e-commerce web site success. It helps to make your visitors spend their time in your site. Competition is so fierce on the Internet.

Software and Applications

There are many different software products and e-commerce applications that can be purchased and even available in the for of free and open source software to help you with your e-commerce web site design and run your online business.

Hire the professionals

If you want to build websites that are e-commerce ready, but don’t have the e-commerce web site design experience needed to accomplish the task, you can hire an e-commerce web site design professional to help you with the trickier portions of site development.

Five Important Aspects of Online Business [RajeshShakya]

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Inc.com: Anyone who does business online worries about how to boost Web traffic. But traffic is only part of the story. Equally important is the conversion rate - the percentage of customers who actually buy something. On average, companies report that only 3 percent of Web surfers actually buy, according to a survey by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation.

Fortunately, there are new tools that can help companies convert browsers into buyers. A company can design several versions of its website and use one of many new software packages to track how each design affects the conversion rate. It's called multivariate testing, and many consulting firms specialize in it. But free tools also are available, including Google's Website Optimizer.

Below, we look at how two companies boosted conversion rates. Stamps.com, which allows users to print postage and shipping labels from any computer, redesigned its website after testing 12 versions of its site with consultancy OTTO Digital. The company's conversion rate rose by 20 percent. Vitamin maker Jigsaw Health tested 10 different designs, with help from consulting firm Future Now. The result: The conversion rate rose from 10.3 percent to 19.6 percent. Take a look at the lessons both companies learned from the process. The changes on display may seem small and subtle, but the effect on conversion rates has been anything but.

Turning Browsers Into Buyers [Inc.com]

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BusinessWeek: Startups scrambling for domain names—the shorter and catchier, the better—find themselves in negotiations with owners of desirable Web addresses. Andrew Frame had several criteria for the name of his VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) startup. It had to be universally pronounceable, memorable, and short—ideally, no more than four letters and two syllables. Of course, the dot-com domain name also had to be available.

Some of these quirkily named young startups—Bebo, the social-networking site, and Etsy, the online crafts marketplace, for example—have caught on. Yet the naming trend has also drawn considerable eye-rolling among Web denizens, inspiring tongue-in-cheek pages like Web 2.0 Name Generator and the quiz "Web 2.0 or Star Wars Character?"

Among these domain-name buyers is Steve Luo, a hardware engineer from California. Luo started buying up four-letter domains early last year after he noticed that the relative scarcity of four-letter domains meant that even random combinations like rmnd.com were selling for many times the $9 or so they cost to register. Luo now owns several thousand four-letter domains, which as of recently included peeb.com ($4,000), qurr.com ($400), and wwuw.com ($900).

The idea that shorter domain names are more memorable, more "brandable," and therefore more valuable has become so widely accepted that many entrepreneurs take it for granted. Domain-name reseller Sedo advises buyers that "a shorter domain means reduced risk of typo errors, easier memorability, faster type-ins, and more flexibility in promoting the domain. For these reasons, most businesses who can afford it buy a domain of five characters or less." But are those businesses really getting what they pay for?

Does Success Hinge on a Domain Name? [BusinessWeek]

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Inc.com: Small retailers who want to take their companies online can now build a store on the Web for free with a new service from FastCommerce.com. Business owners follow a simple step-by-step process to create a store template, and can have their online businesses up and running in a short amount of time.

FastCommerce.com provides business owners with a fully integrated package on the Web that allows them to run their entire operations -- from order processing to sales to inventory control -- without purchasing additional computer software. Online businesses can also customize their storefront with other applications available on FastCommerce.com, including order management and customer management, shipping rate calculator for UPS and FedEx shipments, and automatic e-mails for order confirmations.

The service is free for the first 250 products posted.

A One-Stop Shop for Setting Up Your Own Online Shop [Inc.com]

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CashBulge: 1. Comment on other blogs in your niche.
Probably one of the most powerful ways to get noticed early on and to establish ties & contacts with people that have similar interests. Make sure you post relevant comments.

2. Join forums & communities.
Same as before, join forums and communities that are in your niche. Some useful forums I always reference (for SEO and Marketing) are DigitalPoint and EarnersForum.

3. List your blog in directories and top sites.
BlogFlux is a great blog directory and free to submit to. Start out with this and then expand.

4. Promotion & SEO Blog Plugins.
Depending on which blogging platform you are using you should have an array of tools at your disposal. Get the plug-ins that you need and scrap the ones you don’t.

5. RSS Feed conversion.
Use FeedBurner, its the best in the RSS industry right now and used by all the top bloggers such as ProBlogger and others.

6. Use Technorati.
Technorati is a powerful resource for bloggers. You can see who has linked your story and how powerful your blog is compared to others.

7. Social Bookmarking - your powerhouse.
Getting to that front-page of Digg or Reddit is a gold-mine and will create a tsunami of visitors. A great social bookmarking plug-in is AddThis.

8. Traffic Exchange websites.
Sites like BlogExplosion are a powerful way to drive some new traffic. Basically you browse other bloggers blogs and earn ‘credits’ which you can then redeem for traffic or review posts. It’s good stuff.

9. Linkrolling.
BlogRolling is a link manager service that helps you organize and evolve your list of links. It also makes it easier for people browsing your site to add you with a quick button :).

10. Using Flickr to host your images. Save space.
Well that tag-line basically did it. By using Flickr to host your photos, you can save web space and bandwidth each month and even get a few incoming links depending on how good your photo is.

And many more...

33 Useful Ways to Promote & Improve Your Blog [CashBulge]

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StartupJournal: Start by figuring out what phrases people are typing into search engines when looking for your type of products online. Once you know that, you can buy paid search ads, such as pay-per-click ads, using those phrases and pepper your site with them to boost its search-engine rankings.

Showing up high in search-engine rankings is very important since most people use search engines to shop for products online.

There are some key-word suggestion tools that help identify popular search phrases, usually available free. For instance, Google Inc.'s AdWords Keyword Tool and Wordtracker.com let you type in words and see which related phrases get searched most often. Type "Made in America" into the AdWords Keyword Tool, for instance, and you see phrases like "clothing made in America" and "toys made in the USA" have been searched fairly often recently. But "toys made in America" was searched hardly at all.

You also can experiment with various search phrases by signing up for an advertising program, like Google AdWords. The programs let you bid on various phrases. The price you bid is what you pay the search-engine provider each time someone clicks on your ad. The more you bid, the higher an ad for your site appears on the right-hand side of a search-results page. These programs have monitoring programs that let you see what phrases are most effective in generating traffic and customers on your site.

Increasing Traffic To Your Web Site [StartupJournal]

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EcommerceGuide: Widgets are generating a lot of buzz in the industry these days as more e-tailers begin to capitalize on how these snippets of code can expand the exposure of online businesses — and make them more money.

These mini-applications generally come packaged in a little window, can be dragged and dropped onto a Web page, and offer a scaled-down version of features you would ordinarily get at a full-fledged site.

For e-tailers, this means you can, for instance, showcase your eBay listings on your social networking page, bringing your merchandise to interested shoppers who might not have found your storefront. Those who like what you're selling can even pass your widget on to their friends. Another way e-biz owners can earn extra revenue is by using affiliate marketing widgets at their Web store sites or blogs.

In the latter case is an impressive new widget — officially launching July 23, called PopShops — that promises to make managing affiliate partnerships a snap. Simply put, you can build affiliate storefronts in three clicks: Pick from more than 15 million products from across the top four affiliate networks, click to customize the showcase of products for your site and "pop" the storefront application into your site or blog.

New Affiliate Tool Promises Pick, Click and Pop [EcommerceGuide]

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Reveries: Google may be the world’s dominant search engine, but in South Korea it claims just 1.7 percent of all searches, reports Choe Sang-Hun. The search-engine leader in South Korea, with 77 percent of searches, is a home-grown site called Naver.com. Founded in 1999 by NHN, an online gaming company, Naver capitalizes on both the lack of Korean-language content online as well as the interest amongst Koreans to try to help each other out. In a nutshell, Naver is building its own database of information by letting its users answer each other’s questions.

So far, Naver has “accumulated a user-generated database of 70 million entries.” Cho In Joon, a dedicated user, explains the appeal: “When people I have never met thank me, I feel good … No one pays me for this. But helping other people on the internet is addictive.”

Neighbour + Navigate = Naver.com is what makes the online business tickes!

Naver.com [Reveries]

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