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e_Marketing Blog Different Remote Blogging Interfaces We've been testing our new remote blogging interface for the Link Builder Network called Blogging Central, and while doing that I decided to enumerate some of the alternative remote blogging interfaces I am aware of. These include some very interesting and quite powerful programs. Here are the ones I've looked at: Windows Live Writer - This is a slick program from Microsoft that interfaces with many different blogging platforms including Wordpress and b2Evolution - the two I am most interested in. I haven't actually tested it with other platforms such as blogger.com, but I am assuming it will work. For better or worse it lets you create complex posts that include tables and css elements. As with some others, this program requires you to individually configure each blog account you want to access. When you are dealing with more than 50 accounts, as in the case of the Link Builder Network, this can be a royal pain. Scribfire for Firefox - Scribefire is a Firefox plugin. In other words, it only works with the Firefox browser. Scribefire is a very slick way to interface with many different types of blogs - including Wordpress, Blogger, Moveable Type, and a few others - but not b2evolution. It lets you create relatively complicated post layouts using tables and images, and it even lets you edit previously created posts. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to setup your logins. You will have to manually enter more than 50 blog logins for the Link Builder Network. And you will have to do that for each computer you want to use it with. w.Bloggar - This is another free program that has been around for a while and has gone through a number of versions. It is currently in version 4.03, so you can be sure it is fairly stable. This program will interface with all our Wordpress and b2evolution blogs. It takes a bit of getting used to, and you must set it up for each of the blogs, but once set up it is quite efficient. We have used w.Bloggar for approximately 12 months to make posts for clients, so we know it is reliable. It is a bit more restricted on the formatting side - no tables, for instance - but this is probably a good thing. You can also load all your account logins and passwords by entering them into am .xml file and loading them all at once - a major time saver to be sure. There are other programs like these, but I am not familiar with them. The advantage of Blogging Central is that it is a dedicated system designed especially for posting to the Link Builder Network Wordpress blogs. Once in the system there is no need to login to each blog, and you can send the same post to as many as 4 blogs at once. I will have a Blogging Central video up very soon. New Goa Villa Rentals Video Check out this new Goa Villa Rentals Video we just created. Goa is on the west coast of India and has a very interesting cultural mix of Indian and Portuguese. Great weather, awesome beaches, and stunning places you can rent. Twitter Tools and Strategies - Twitter can be a boring waste of time, or a great way to build and enhance a profile, group of followers, online reputation, etc. It's been around long enough now to have an established track record as a useful social networking forum. Not having months of serious Twitter experience I've been surprised at the superficiality of most tweets, and especially surprised at the kind of filler some people use...but whatever... If you are looking for suggestions on how to leverage the "power" of Twitter for your marketing efforts, check out the resources listed here: Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR, which includes links to resources like the Big Juicy Twitter Guide (Caroline Middlebrook), Newbies Guide to Twitter (Rafe Needleman) and many more. |
TradeShow-Display-Experts.com - where you can find low cost trade show displays, popup displays, retractable displays, banner stands, and beautiful, long-lasting trade show graphics. Choosing a Business Opportunity - Making Money in Your own Business by Rick Hendershot, Small Business Advice Millions of people are desperate to escape the 9 to 5 grind. One popular alternative is to look for a business opportunity that turns you from an employee into a self-employed entrepreneur running your own business. There are many good reasons why this can be a wise move. Being your own boss means you can set your own hours. This can be very important if you have small children who need to be looked after, or simply want to spend more time at home. Working from home can also save valuable time, if the alternative is spending two or three hours every day commuting back and forth to your work place. And of course, working for yourself also gives you the opportunity to make more money -- a whole lot more money. In other words, being your own boss gives you that valuable commodity called freedom. It sets you free from the limitations of being someone else's paid employee, and in return makes you responsible for your own future. As a self-employed entrepreneur you are free to set your own hours, establish your own work habits, choose what work you will do or will not do, create your own products, drum up your own customers, and do what you have to do to make those customers happy. And perhaps most important, when you are self-employed you are free to set your own prices and make as much or as little income as you are able. You will not have to answer to anyone other than yourself, your suppliers, and of course, the ever-present taxman, after you become successful. How to get started -- Two Alternatives There are two obvious ways you can go about starting your own business. The first way is to quit your day job and launch full bore into your new business. We'll call this the "all or nothing approach". The second way is to continue on with your current employment and develop a business on the side, in your spare time. We'll call this the "spare time approach" to starting your own business. Depending on your point of view, taking the All or Nothing Approach can be either "ballsy" or just plain reckless. Unless you are independently wealthy, planning and timing are very important with this approach. That's because once you leave your previous employment your source of income will be gone and you will have a limited amount of time to make your business work. It is "sink or swim". And you can sink pretty quickly without a source of income. So that means you should plan the changeover to self-employment very carefully. Every situation will be different. An acquantance of mine was able to step from his quasi-government job into a private consulting business because he spent the last few months of his employment developing leads and contacts within his industry. When he went on his own he had customers waiting in the wings and was able to more than double his income in his very first year. But most of us are not so lucky. We do not have the quality leads, the specialized skills, nor the opportunity to use our present employment to build a launching pad of potential customers before we take off into the wild blue yonder of self-employment. Most of us are starting from scratch with a few vague ideas, a questionable set of yet-to-be-defined skills, and severly limited income. So our venture into self-employment had better take off within a few months or we're likely to crash and burn. That is why the Spare Time Approach is best for most new self-employed entrepreneurs. The spare time approach lets you test your ideas, develop your skills, and build your business slowly. If you are unsure about the products or services you intend to sell, the spare time approach lets you try out different product lines and see how well they fit in with your overall objectives. Often new entrepreneurs find their first ideas are not realistic, or there is no market for the services they want to provide. Or they find they cannot charge enough to make any money providing the products or services they have chosen. Choose your product carefully Like all new entrepreneurs, whether you take the "all or nothing approach" or the "spare time approach" you should be very tight-fisted with your limited resources. That means do not invest any serious money in a product or business idea until you have checked it out thoroughly. The best way to "check it out" is to
This applies whether you are looking at an "online" product such as an MLM or affiliate scheme, or a more traditional product or service aimed only at local customers. For example, an associate of mine produces Business Card Displays. The idea behind this product is that it provides new entrepreneurs the opportunity to set up an advertising service for local businesses. The entrepreneur creates a network of displays placed in high traffic retail outlets like grocery stores, hair salons, and bowling alleys. Then local advertisers can place their business cards in one of the sixteen slots in the displays across the network. If someone browsing one of the displays sees a service they are interested in, they just take a card for future reference. The manufacturer can show you examples of successful advertising networks where his displays are used. He will also provide testimonials and contact information from real people who you can ask how well the product is working for them. And to top it off, he uses the product himself in a network of over 40 displays, and can provide hands-on information about how it actually works in a real-life situation. For advice and "mentoring" he can be contacted by toll free telephone, email, Skype, or MS Messenger. This is pretty rare in the world of "business opportunities". Many are run by "take the money and run" types who make wildly exaggerated claims about how successful you can be. But in many cases they have never actually made the idea work for themselves. As any successful entrepreneur will tell you, your choice of products is crucial to your success or failure. Many products are simply bogus ideas with no hope of working. And many others are designed to produce maximum profits for their creators, and minimum profits for people like you and me who sell them. So no matter how hard you work, or how committed you are to being successful, if you choose the wrong product you will be operating with a millstone around your neck. Get more information about the business opportunity mentioned in this article, and read more about how to start making money. Rick Hendershot is a writer and online publisher. For online promotional ideas see Online Promotional Ideas. |
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