Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Top 10 Reasons Why a Small Online Business Flops

Here are the 10 top reasons why small online businesses fail; it is best to be as educated as possible when trying to succeed in any business.

10. Websites that don't get into DMOZ, which is a large directory that helps your placement in search engines, will lose a step in ranks. Adding your site to DMOZ can be a painful and long process, be surprised if you get into this human powered directory at all.

9. Don't turn your web business into a banner site. When people go to a page they do not want to see flashing pictures and arrows pointing to buy something. Your visitors are smart to that kind of advertising and so is Google and other search engines.

8. Websites that don't include a blog. If used correctly, blogs get around the internet through feeds. This concept is very confusing to many people but has been proven to be beneficial.

7. Your web business should be built around a niche. Many people will go to broad. For example, "NFL Football" is too broad. Many people are fighting for these keywords, sure it's being searched a lot but nobody will find your website amongst everyone else. You would use something like "NFL Football Team Jerseys".

6. Tortoise wins the race. This is a business not a get-rich scheme. Your success will involve a lot of work and some time. Many people give up too soon, not understanding the nature of ANY business. Set goals for yourself and be realistic.

5. Link Exchanges are a necessity for getting good page rank from search engines. The mistake many people make is exchanging irrelevant links. If you have a real estate site don't link exchange with the lantern store site.

4. Websites neglect to Pre-sell. Whether you are promoting information, a service or product you need to have some pre-selling art form in your website. Give your visitors information and things that are worth their interest.

3. People don't utilize search engines. Google, Yahoo, Live and Ask make up 95% of all search engine activity. If you have not submitted your site to these search engines, you will have a lot less traffic than you should.

2. Keywords! If you make a website and don't include good keywords, search engines will never find it. For example, if you use "love" as a keyword, it is useless. 5 million other people use that same keyword.

1. It is all about Content! If you don't have good content in your website, visitors will turn away leaving the search engines to follow in their steps. The trick is to keep people at your site for as long as possible. Content is what brings people to your website as the keywords point them to your helpful information, products or services.

10 Recession-Proof Business Ideas

Look for industries that everyone needs regardless of their economic situation

By identifying industries that need help providing the day to day services that everyone needs - food, shelter, clothing, day to day amenities of sustenance, and health care - you will likely find ways to either find a job or identify a market you can serve with your talents.

Find companies that offer products for managing tough economic times

Look for companies that supply temp workers, handle business liquidations, or provide comfort items such as counseling services. They are all going to need help for the extra business they are flooded with.

Try brokering excess inventories through barter or trade

Act as the liaison between people who want to buy excess inventories and people who have them. If you build a network, you can end up getting some of the things you need directly easily.

Offer education, retraining, and tutoring

With people out of work, sometimes from industries that won't rebound due to shifts in technology, you can offer paid classes that help retrain an obsolete workforce.

Package your own products in a new and interesting way

If you're already in business selling products, try bundling them in a new, creative way. Make working with you more convenient, more complete, easier and more efficient than working with someone else.

Establish joint venture relationships that provide synergy

By partnering with another business person to offer both of your client bases more value, you both win and all of your clients win too.

Become a consultant

Many people who get laid off can go back to work as independent contractors for their old employers. It saves the employer benefit costs and you can often charge even more per hour than you used to get paid via a salary

Get online

For a very small amount, you can launch a website, sell products, promote your site and begin making money. Lots of people want to try something new during tough times - you could sell them what they need to make a change.

Don't forget the needs of the wealthy

Affluent individuals who were more in cash than debt are open to finding great bargains and continuing to live their lifestyle. They see this economic time as an opportunity to get in low. You can cater to that.

Invest in you by starting your own business

By investing in your own business, instead of being subjected to the whims of an employer who can lay you off, you can choose your destiny. By establishing an additional revenue stream that allows you choices, you have more freedom.

At Otcots, we believe that our community can transform the world when we come together to share our knowledge, wisdom, achievements, encouragement, and money. Otcots is a community of dreamers, people who believe in positive and progressive change. We appreciate diversity, respect humanity, protect our planet, help others, and try to be the best we can each and every day.

At our membership community, you will find articles, ebooks, videos, resources, turnkey products, inspiring stories and a remarkable group of committed, socially conscious citizens.

Personal Concierge Services - Top 7 Benefits

Do you currently have a hectic, stressful and busy life? Do you want to spend more time with your family and friends? Hiring personal concierge services is a great way to free up time for the activities you enjoy and not get overburdened with everyday tasks.

Here is a list of the top 7 benefits

1. Reduce business expenses Business expenses can be reduced by 50%, since you only pay for the amount of work that needs to get done. It eliminates the costs of training employees and reduces administrative costs associated with hiring staff.

2. Save time Instead of trying to handle everything yourself you can save time with personal concierge services. They can schedule meetings, run your errands, manage your property, organize your home or office and even shop for you.

3. Experience and quality By hiring a professional concierge service you get a highly skilled person (or persons) that has a thorough job understanding based on their many years of experience.

4. Provide specific needs Every business person has specific needs from personal shopping, providing office solutions, running errands to property management. Instead of doing all these tasks yourself outsource them to your personal assistant to save time, money and enable you to focus on your business.

5. Increased flexibility When your day gets very busy you often lose the ability to do other activities that are crucial to running and maintaining a profitable business. Hiring a personal assistant frees up time so you have more flexibility to attend the most important tasks at hand.

6. Reliability and stability Professional concierge services guarantee the quality of their work by providing reliable and stable assistance in accordance with their contract. This gives you the peace of mind to run your business.

7. Affordable prices Instead of hiring several people for specific tasks, save money by hiring an experienced personal assistant that can fulfill a vast number of responsibilities. It will reduce your costs and increase profitability.

There are only so many activities you can accomplish by yourself without feeling overburdened, stressed out and straining your business and/or family life. If you are a corporation, small business, professional, busy parent, new mother or senior use personal concierge services to free up your day to save time and money.