The 3 Essential Factors for a Successful Internet Business

The 3 Essential Factors for a Successful Internet Business ...

So you want to start an internet business? With all they hype and downright nonsense on the web these days it is easy to get totally confused. The end result is wasted days, weeks, months, and even years stuck in an analysis paralysis: you are so busy reading the thousands of free ebooks, each of which is telling you that you can be rich overnight, that you end up making nothing at all - or worse still, making a loss.
So, to distill it right down, what DO you need for a successful internet business? I believe that it can be boiled down to three fundamental factors:

FACTOR ONE:

the most important of them all, yet (for the newbie) the most neglected. Yet it is this one factor, over all the rest, that will determine whether you are successful or not.
What is it? Napoleon Hill calls it a "Definite Chief Aim". Unless you have a very clear goal of where you are headed and, with it, enough belief in yourself that you can make it, you will fail. It's as simple as that.
Everything you do, every success, and every failure, starts in the attitude of your mind. So, if you really want success, you had better start by getting your mind in shape. Fortunately, that is easy to achieve - if you would just dedicate yourself to the task of self-improvement. Is it any surprise, then, that the more successful people are, the more they spend on self-improvement books, tapes, seminars, and coaching? Professionals get personal coaching, amateurs try to teach themselves.
If you want to be rich, then do as the rich do: invest in your eduction and personal development. Here is a good place to start: http://midas-secrets.com

FACTOR TWO:

A clear and coherent business plan. "Yes, yes", everyone nods, yet how many people actually get around to drawing up a detailed, written plan? Why do you need one? Because a business plan is the road map that shows you the route to take so as to arrive as quickly and efficiently as possible at your "definite chief aim".
Don't know how to go about drawing one up? For detailed help, why not go down to your local library and read some books on it? Or go to your bank's business advisor. In many countries the government has set up agencies with the specific remit of helping aspiring entrepreneurs to get started. Go speak to them.
But, just to give you a flavor, here are some crucial questions you need to be able to answer if your business is to succeed:

A) Who and where is your hungry crowd? It is no use trying to sell burgers to people who are just leaving a restaurant. They are not hungry. If you want to sell something, your very first task, even before you decide what to sell, is to ask "what do people want"? If people are desperately hungry, they want to be filled, if they are dying of thirst, they want to be quenched, if caught in the rain, they want to be dry, and if feeling lonely, they want to be loved. Get the general idea?

B) When you know what they want so much they would sell their own mother to get, your next question is "what product or service can you provide them that would meet their need or want?"
Be careful to distinguish between SOLUTIONS and PRODUCTS. People caught in the rain don't want an umbrella, they want to be dry. People who are insecure don't want a fancy, expensive car, they want to be noticed, admired and envied. The mother with a newborn does not want diapers - she wants her baby to be dry and comfortable.
The products are only the means to an end. Don't sell products, sell solutions. What solutions can you provide for your crowd with their desperate "wants"?

C) If you have identified your hungry crowd, and come up with some valuable solutions for them, how will you tell them what you can do for them? How will they find out that you have an answer for their problem? In other words, what will be your marketing strategy?

D) Finally, (and this really is at the END of the list, not the beginning) how will you deliver those solutions? Will you sell them a product, or a service? How will it be delivered? How will you collect the money? What infrastructure will you need to put in place before you can even start?
It is no use having hundreds of burgers sitting in your freezer at home when hordes of hungry fans come flooding through the football stadium gates at the end of the match. You need to be there, in place, ready and waiting, with your Burger Van fully equipped with grill, paper plates, and cans of Coke - and, of course, a permit!

FACTOR THREE:

The right tools for the job. Don't try to cook gourmet meals for a five-star hotel on a single-ring camping stove, it is not up to the job.
Everyone on the internet seems to want to run their business for free. The want free traffic, free email, free websites, free autoresponders, and free subscribers. Well, yes, you can make a bit of money online using free stuff. And maybe that is what you should do, while you are first finding your feet.
But if you are serious about your business, then at some point you going to have to get serious about your tools. Professionals invest in quality tools because they make the job easier, quicker, and better. Amateurs try to make do with whatever they can find in the back of the shed. As a customer, which would you rather go to if you wanted your roof fixed, or your ears pierced?
The details vary, but take a look at every successful business and you will find all three factors solidly in place. Making money is not hard. Millions of ordinary people do it quite successfully. You just have to go about it the right way. Concentrate on these three factors, and you will be off to a flying start.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Nyall Bakk is a marketing advisor and the chief editor forAdvertising WorldWide, the best source for quality PPC traffic that converts better than the big search engines. You can exchange links (which will help to help promote your business) by going here: http://www.advertisingww.com/links

Ad Sense ..Is the FREE Ride Over ?

Hello Friends,

This will be short and sweet as it is one of thoses things that need to be acted on quickly. I don't want to burden you with a bunch of sales "hype" since this is just real good information and if you can use it great, if not at least you were told and now I can sleep at night .. it is your call ( no pun intended)

Yesterday I received the following email about a very important conference call I listened to a week or so ago. If you are using Adsense to generate income then this may be a real wake up call for you and the answer to continuing to earn well beyond the Adsense phase of your online business and secure you future financial growth. Anyway here is the email ..

Hi Harry...

Adsense is the rage right now.

Everyone thinks they will make a mint focusing on "Adsense".

Unless you know what your doing, that boat sailed away a year
ago.

Now it's time to focus on a new strategy...

A strategy we call "Beyond Adsense".

Are you ready for it?

www.beyondadsense.com

I own a copy of this call myself and it is extremely enlightening ..

to say the very least,

See for yourself, but do it now since the price is going up in 72 hours.. the information is well worth the small investment.

So, hurry and avoid the price increase..

www.beyondadsense.com

To your success,

Harry Crowder

DE - STRESSING ... The Whole Report

One of the top three reasons for running an online business is usually to have more free time -- but it seldom works out that way. Running any business, especially full-time, can be stressful and time-consuming.

Here are a few destressing tips to help keep YOUR e-business from consuming you:


Solution # 1.
Take the Weekends Off

Running a business full-time doesn't mean that you have to (or NEED to) work 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Take off weekends, holidays, AND periodic vacation time to avoid home business burn-out.

Rest your brain.

Just keep a tight focus when you DO work, and automate your business as much as possible to maximize free time.

As a matter of fact, you should be working ONLY as much as you have to. That's why you quit your day job (or plan to), right? Being able to work when you want and play when you want is one of the greatest advantages of running your own business -- and it's also one of the most easily forgotten.


Solution # 2.
Hire An Assistant When Your Business Picks Up

You can't do everything yourself, and you shouldn't try. When business picks up, the "hired help" can relieve a lot of your stress. I know that a business can get busy before/without producing the profit to hire an assistant, but if you can swing it, definitely do.

Here are a few ways to know when it's time for you to hire a helping hand:

When you can't comfortably handle answering your daily e-mail in less than 48 hours.

Taking a week or more to answer emails, (or not answering it at all), can put you out of business FAST. On the Internet, negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire. Why risk it?

When you can't take a day off without losing a lot of the progress you've made in your business thus far.

Admittedly, there ARE a few things that can't be put off until later. In these cases, your assistant can either help with the task itself, or run the basics of the business while you focus all your energy on meeting that killer deadline.

When you have more than five on-going tasks to maintain at any one time.

By "on-going" projects, I mean things that you need to work on constantly, like publishing an ezine, maintaining a website, updating a membership site, or creating a new product. If you publish three ezines, have two websites, and are writing two new books, here is where your assistant can help out with your day-to-day workload.


Solution # 3.
What To Do When You Just Can't Afford A Full-Time Assistant

An assistant doesn't necessarily have to be a full-time employee. Instead of paying your hired help by the hour, you can pay them on a "per assignment" basis. This saves money that would likely otherwise go to an employee benefits package, and can eliminate the need for extra tax time paperwork that a full-time employee would warrant.

To go a step farther, you can have several part-time assistants with each one specializing in a different area of helping you manage your field. This will be much better than having one "Jack of all trades" that doesn't know a heck of a lot about anything specific to your niche.

For example, if you're a Web design consultant, you can hire one assistant to do each of the following specialized tasks:

a) Handle return e-mail and phone calls

b) Create logos for your client websites

c) Find resources and articles for your website and/or ezine

d) Install and create CGI scripts for you and/or your clients' sites

e) Edit and spell check both yours and your clients' websites

f) Schedule new client website evaluations, and follow up on past clients' results

But understand that hiring more assistants *doesn't* necessarily mean spending more money. You'd only have a small amount of work for each assistant, paying each of them only *a portion* of what you'd pay if you had just one assistant who handled everything.


Solution # 4.
Find At Least One Person Who Can Handle Your Business In Case Of Illness, Emergencies, Or Vacations

Train someone you trust to make intelligent business decisions in the event of your absence or illness. This step will take longer than the others, of course, because you can't just pick anyone off the street for this job.

You need to be confident that this person can and WILL run your business as smoothly and efficiently as if you'd never left the scene, and will KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING.

For instance, although my mother would mean well, she'd have my business in a shambles if she was ever left to run it on her own. She doesn't know how to work a computer, much less an online business. You can explain things 'til you're blue in the face, but if the person you choose for this important job doesn't understand the terminology you're using, it's pointless.

Not only will this person need to act as a temporary "owner" if it becomes necessary, they CAN also:

Recruit, train, and "interview" part-time assistants.

Since they'll know the ins and outs of your business, they should be just as capable when it comes to finding more help. Though the final hiring decision should be yours to make, this person can act as a "preliminary interviewer," screen potential applicants, or scout for new help that will be reliable, skillful, and competent.

Help YOU with important business decisions.

Whether or not this is feasible will depend on the depth of knowledge that you require them (or allow them) to have.

Help keep your costs low.

Although this assistant will have an in-depth knowledge of the workings of your business, you won't pay them as a full-time employee unless you specifically hire them as such. This way, you'd still have all the benefits of "surrogate ownership" in case of emergency, but will also be able to save money by not having to pay them an hourly wage.


Solution # 5.
When You Take Breaks, *Really* Take Breaks

When you fix lunch, don't come back to the computer. Fix it, and turn on the T.V. to watch your favorite sitcom. Grab a book and curl up by the fireplace (or the A/C in the summer!), to read a few chapters of that great novel you got from Amazon.com.

But whatever you do, please ... stay away from your work!

But if you're one of the rare ones who doesn't feel "productive" unless you're exercising your brain during work hours, go to the supermarket for one of those great variety puzzle books and go for the gold. I really don't recommend this last, but you could break open a book on Internet marketing and study.
In short, make sure breaks are REALLY for resting and refreshing yourself -- not simply for leaving the physical vicinity of your work area.

Solution # 6
Eliminate Constant Telephone Distractions

I know how annoying it is to be in the middle of an important project, stop to take a phone call -- then totally forget what you were doing before you stopped to take the call.
Not only is it frustrating, it's also time-consuming.
Eliminate distractions (and the embarrassment of jumping out of your skin in fright when the phone rings) by using an automated messaging service, or live operator. Instead of listing the number to your home office phone on your website, list the number of the 24 hour service to take all your calls. (Just please be sure to respond promptly, or you'll have a drove of angry customers!)

Solution # 7
Learn When It's Best To Say "No"

You can't be all things to all people, and it's foolhardy to try. Enjoying helping people is one thing, but stressing yourself out by taking on too many responsibilities is another. Any reasonable person will understand that running a business is stressful, and that you just can't do it all.
If the person gets upset or bad-mouths you to other marketers because you declined their offer or request for help, remember -- that's the kind of person you wouldn't have wanted any dealings with anyway!
In both cases, you still come out on top, and life goes on.

Solution # 8
Take At Least One Vacation Per Year

If you were working a full-time job, you'd be entitled to vacation time after working "x" amount of hours. When you own your own business, this should be even more applicable as it's generally harder work!
Whether you're alone, or with friends or family, make sure that your vacation STAYS a vacation by not taking ANY work with you on the trip. Don't take any work-related "reading material," don't take your lap-top with you to "work on that new website," don't do newsletter issues, and don't make any business calls!
Even if your vacation is nothing but a relocation to another area of the house for a week, it's one of the only times you're able to take time out that's exclusively for YOU. Don't ruin that or interfere with it by working through your break.
You DESERVE it!

© 2003 Harmony Major

Article by ... well, Harmony Major, of course. ;-) Join her ezine, Straight from the Horse's Mouth , to learn exactly how to make your monthly e-biz income more predictable, how to avoid wasteful spending, and to discover ways to drive more traffic and PAYING customers to your website or affiliate site. It's free! Click here.

GUESS WHO SHOWED UP BY SURPRISE

She surprised us all by coming homefor a visit on thursday.
Remember I said someone had their hand on my shoulder way back in my second post ...
guess who it was ( my soon to be married Daughter - Nikki )
Surprises can be very nice !

DE - STRESS-I-N-G ... more helpful hints

One of the top three reasons for running an online business is usually to have more free time -- but it seldom works out that way. Running any business, especially full-time, can be stressful and time-consuming.

Here are a few destressing tips to help keep YOUR e-business from consuming you:

Solution # 1.
Take the Weekends Off

Running a business full-time doesn't mean that you have to (or NEED to) work 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Take off weekends, holidays, AND periodic vacation time to avoid home business burn-out.

Rest your brain.

Just keep a tight focus when you DO work, and automate your business as much as possible to maximize free time.

As a matter of fact, you should be working ONLY as much as you have to. That's why you quit your day job (or plan to), right? Being able to work when you want and play when you want is one of the greatest advantages of running your own business -- and it's also one of the most easily forgotten.

Solution # 2.
Hire An Assistant When Your Business Picks Up

You can't do everything yourself, and you shouldn't try. When business picks up, the "hired help" can relieve a lot of your stress. I know that a business can get busy before/without producing the profit to hire an assistant, but if you can swing it, definitely do.

Here are a few ways to know when it's time for you to hire a helping hand:

When you can't comfortably handle answering your daily e-mail in less than 48 hours.

Taking a week or more to answer emails, (or not answering it at all), can put you out of business FAST. On the Internet, negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire. Why risk it?

When you can't take a day off without losing a lot of the progress you've made in your business thus far.

Admittedly, there ARE a few things that can't be put off until later. In these cases, your assistant can either help with the task itself, or run the basics of the business while you focus all your energy on meeting that killer deadline.

When you have more than five on-going tasks to maintain at any one time.

By "on-going" projects, I mean things that you need to work on constantly, like publishing an ezine, maintaining a website, updating a membership site, or creating a new product. If you publish three ezines, have two websites, and are writing two new books, here is where your assistant can help out with your day-to-day workload.

Solution # 3.
What To Do When You Just Can't Afford A Full-Time Assistant

An assistant doesn't necessarily have to be a full-time employee. Instead of paying your hired help by the hour, you can pay them on a "per assignment" basis. This saves money that would likely otherwise go to an employee benefits package, and can eliminate the need for extra tax time paperwork that a full-time employee would warrant.

To go a step farther, you can have several part-time assistants with each one specializing in a different area of helping you manage your field. This will be much better than having one "Jack of all trades" that doesn't know a heck of a lot about anything specific to your niche.

For example, if you're a Web design consultant, you can hire one assistant to do each of the following specialized tasks:

a) Handle return e-mail and phone calls

b) Create logos for your client websites

c) Find resources and articles for your website and/or ezine

d) Install and create CGI scripts for you and/or your clients' sites

e) Edit and spell check both yours and your clients' websites

f) Schedule new client website evaluations, and follow up on past clients' results

But understand that hiring more assistants *doesn't* necessarily mean spending more money. You'd only have a small amount of work for each assistant, paying each of them only *a portion* of what you'd pay if you had just one assistant who handled everything.

Solution # 4.

Find At Least One Person Who Can Handle Your Business In Case Of Illness, Emergencies, Or Vacations

Train someone you trust to make intelligent business decisions in the event of your absence or illness. This step will take longer than the others, of course, because you can't just pick anyone off the street for this job.

You need to be confident that this person can and WILL run your business as smoothly and efficiently as if you'd never left the scene, and will KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING.

For instance, although my mother would mean well, she'd have my business in a shambles if she was ever left to run it on her own. She doesn't know how to work a computer, much less an online business. You can explain things 'til you're blue in the face, but if the person you choose for this important job doesn't understand the terminology you're using, it's pointless.

Not only will this person need to act as a temporary "owner" if it becomes necessary, they CAN also:

Recruit, train, and "interview" part-time assistants.

Since they'll know the ins and outs of your business, they should be just as capable when it comes to finding more help. Though the final hiring decision should be yours to make, this person can act as a "preliminary interviewer," screen potential applicants, or scout for new help that will be reliable, skillful, and competent.

Help YOU with important business decisions.

Whether or not this is feasible will depend on the depth of knowledge that you require them (or allow them) to have.

Help keep your costs low.

Although this assistant will have an in-depth knowledge of the workings of your business, you won't pay them as a full-time employee unless you specifically hire them as such. This way, you'd still have all the benefits of "surrogate ownership" in case of emergency, but will also be able to save money by not having to pay them an hourly wage.

Solution # 5.
When You Take Breaks, *Really* Take Breaks

When you fix lunch, don't come back to the computer. Fix it, and turn on the T.V. to watch your favorite sitcom. Grab a book and curl up by the fireplace (or the A/C in the summer!), to read a few chapters of that great novel you got from Amazon.com.

But whatever you do, please ... stay away from your work!

But if you're one of the rare ones who doesn't feel "productive" unless you're exercising your brain during work hours, go to the supermarket for one of those great variety puzzle books and go for the gold. I really don't recommend this last, but you could break open a book on Internet marketing and study.

In short, make sure breaks are REALLY for resting and refreshing yourself -- not simply for leaving the physical vicinity of your work area.

Hang in there # 6, 7, & 8 coming soon

8 Simple Solutions For Working Less & Reducing Stress
© 2003 Harmony Major

Article by ... well, Harmony Major, of course. ;-) Join her ezine, Straight from the Horse's Mouth , to learn exactly how to make your monthly e-biz income more predictable, how to avoid wasteful spending, and to discover ways to drive more traffic and PAYING customers to your website or affiliate site. It's free! Click here.

8 Simple Solutions For Working Less & Reducing Stress

( Solutions # 1 through # 4 )

One of the top three reasons for running an online business is usually to have more free time -- but it seldom works out that way. Running any business, especially full-time, can be stressful and time-consuming.

Here are a few destressing tips to help keep YOUR e-business from consuming you:

Solution # 1

Take the Weekends Off

Running a business full-time doesn't mean that you have to (or NEED to) work 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Take off weekends, holidays, AND periodic vacation time to avoid home business burn-out.

Rest your brain.

Just keep a tight focus when you DO work, and automate your business as much as possible to maximize free time.

As a matter of fact, you should be working ONLY as much as you have to. That's why you quit your day job (or plan to), right? Being able to work when you want and play when you want is one of the greatest advantages of running your own business -- and it's also one of the most easily forgotten.

Solution # 2

Hire An Assistant When Your Business Picks Up

You can't do everything yourself, and you shouldn't try. When business picks up, the "hired help" can relieve a lot of your stress. I know that a business can get busy before/without producing the profit to hire an assistant, but if you can swing it, definitely do.

Here are a few ways to know when it's time for you to hire a helping hand:

When you can't comfortably handle answering your daily e-mail in less than 48 hours.

Taking a week or more to answer emails, (or not answering it at all), can put you out of business FAST. On the Internet, negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire. Why risk it?
When you can't take a day off without losing a lot of the progress you've made in your business thus far.

Admittedly, there ARE a few things that can't be put off until later. In these cases, your assistant can either help with the task itself, or run the basics of the business while you focus all your energy on meeting that killer deadline.
When you have more than five on-going tasks to maintain at any one time.

By "on-going" projects, I mean things that you need to work on constantly, like publishing an ezine, maintaining a website, updating a membership site, or creating a new product. If you publish three ezines, have two websites, and are writing two new books, here is where your assistant can help out with your day-to-day workload.

Solution # 3

What To Do When You Just Can't Afford A Full-Time Assistant

An assistant doesn't necessarily have to be a full-time employee. Instead of paying your hired help by the hour, you can pay them on a "per assignment" basis. This saves money that would likely otherwise go to an employee benefits package, and can eliminate the need for extra tax time paperwork that a full-time employee would warrant.

To go a step farther, you can have several part-time assistants with each one specializing in a different area of helping you manage your field. This will be much better than having one "Jack of all trades" that doesn't know a heck of a lot about anything specific to your niche.

For example, if you're a Web design consultant, you can hire one assistant to do each of the following specialized tasks:

a) Handle return e-mail and phone calls

b) Create logos for your client websites

c) Find resources and articles for your website and/or ezine

d) Install and create CGI scripts for you and/or your clients' sites

e) Edit and spell check both yours and your clients' websites

f) Schedule new client website evaluations, and follow up on past clients' results

But understand that hiring more assistants *doesn't* necessarily mean spending more money. You'd only have a small amount of work for each assistant, paying each of them only *a portion* of what you'd pay if you had just one assistant who handled everything.

Solution # 4.

Find At Least One Person Who Can Handle Your Business In Case Of Illness, Emergencies, Or Vacations

Train someone you trust to make intelligent business decisions in the event of your absence or illness. This step will take longer than the others, of course, because you can't just pick anyone off the street for this job.

You need to be confident that this person can and WILL run your business as smoothly and efficiently as if you'd never left the scene, and will KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING.

For instance, although my mother would mean well, she'd have my business in a shambles if she was ever left to run it on her own. She doesn't know how to work a computer, much less an online business. You can explain things 'til you're blue in the face, but if the person you choose for this important job doesn't understand the terminology you're using, it's pointless.

Not only will this person need to act as a temporary "owner" if it becomes necessary, they CAN also:

Recruit, train, and "interview" part-time assistants.

Since they'll know the ins and outs of your business, they should be just as capable when it comes to finding more help. Though the final hiring decision should be yours to make, this person can act as a "preliminary interviewer," screen potential applicants, or scout for new help that will be reliable, skillful, and competent.
Help YOU with important business decisions.

Whether or not this is feasible will depend on the depth of knowledge that you require them (or allow them) to have.
Help keep your costs low.

Although this assistant will have an in-depth knowledge of the workings of your business, you won't pay them as a full-time employee unless you specifically hire them as such. This way, you'd still have all the benefits of "surrogate ownership" in case of emergency, but will also be able to save money by not having to pay them an hourly wage.

Part of a series.

8 Simple Solutions For Working Less & Reducing Stress
© 2003 Harmony Major

More DE - STRESSING Solutions coming soon ...

Article by ... well, Harmony Major, of course. ;-) Join her ezine, Straight from the Horse's Mouth , to learn exactly how to make your monthly e-biz income more predictable, how to avoid wasteful spending, and to discover ways to drive more traffic and PAYING customers to your website or affiliate site. It's free! Click here.

DE - STRESSING .. Continued

Here are DE Stressing Solutions # 1 & #2 ( again )
and solution # 3 of this 8 Part Series ,Enjoy!

8 Simple Solutions For Working Less & Reducing Stress
© 2003 Harmony Major

One of the top three reasons for running an online business is usually to have more free time -- but it seldom works out that way. Running any business, especially full-time, can be stressful and time-consuming.

Here are a few destressing tips to help keep YOUR e-business from consuming you:

Solution #1.

Take the Weekends Off

Running a business full-time doesn't mean that you have to (or NEED to) work 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Take off weekends, holidays, AND periodic vacation time to avoid home business burn-out.

Rest your brain.

Just keep a tight focus when you DO work, and automate your business as much as possible to maximize free time.

As a matter of fact, you should be working ONLY as much as you have to. That's why you quit your day job (or plan to), right? Being able to work when you want and play when you want is one of the greatest advantages of running your own business -- and it's also one of the most easily forgotten.

Solution # 2.

Hire An Assistant When Your Business Picks Up

You can't do everything yourself, and you shouldn't try. When business picks up, the "hired help" can relieve a lot of your stress. I know that a business can get busy before/without producing the profit to hire an assistant, but if you can swing it, definitely do.

Here are a few ways to know when it's time for you to hire a helping hand:

When you can't comfortably handle answering your daily e-mail in less than 48 hours.

Taking a week or more to answer emails, (or not answering it at all), can put you out of business FAST. On the Internet, negative word of mouth can spread like wildfire. Why risk it?

When you can't take a day off without losing a lot of the progress you've made in your business thus far.

Admittedly, there ARE a few things that can't be put off until later. In these cases, your assistant can either help with the task itself, or run the basics of the business while you focus all your energy on meeting that killer deadline.

When you have more than five on-going tasks to maintain at any one time.

By "on-going" projects, I mean things that you need to work on constantly, like publishing an ezine, maintaining a website, updating a membership site, or creating a new product. If you publish three ezines, have two websites, and are writing two new books, here is where your assistant can help out with your day-to-day workload.

Solution # 3.

What To Do When You Just Can't Afford A Full-Time Assistant

An assistant doesn't necessarily have to be a full-time employee. Instead of paying your hired help by the hour, you can pay them on a "per assignment" basis. This saves money that would likely otherwise go to an employee benefits package, and can eliminate the need for extra tax time paperwork that a full-time employee would warrant.

To go a step farther, you can have several part-time assistants with each one specializing in a different area of helping you manage your field. This will be much better than having one "Jack of all trades" that doesn't know a heck of a lot about anything specific to your niche.

For example, if you're a Web design consultant, you can hire one assistant to do each of the following specialized tasks:

a) Handle return e-mail and phone calls

b) Create logos for your client websites

c) Find resources and articles for your website and/or ezine

d) Install and create CGI scripts for you and/or your clients' sites

e) Edit and spell check both yours and your clients' websites

f) Schedule new client website evaluations, and follow up on past clients' results

But understand that hiring more assistants *doesn't* necessarily mean spending more money. You'd only have a small amount of work for each assistant, paying each of them only *a portion* of what you'd pay if you had just one assistant who handled everything.

Solution # 4 of this series coming early next week ...

For now I am going to resort to Solution # 1 ( again )

Why Publishing MP3 Can Cost You A Fortune

Since this is a blog about Marketing ( Online and Offline ) I thought readers who publish online using MP3 formatted audio might find this Article interesting and helpful - there seems to be some controversay right now about MP3 format usage. online.

Publishing MP3 audio online can mean you having to pay hefty license fees. This article shows you how to avoid any and all fees by converting your MP3 audio to a format that is just as high quality, just as quick to download - BUT - entirely free to use with no fees due, ever.

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Why Publishing MP3 Can Cost You A Fortune
Copyright © 2005 Louis Allport

This was news to me. It might be news to you too:

MP3 is NOT free to use if you're an online publisher. BUT - let me be clear - there are some opt-outs. It appears you don't have to pay any license fees if:

It's for personal use or non commercial reasons (not generating income). OR - if your company revenue is below $100,000 a year.

Now, these rules might change of course. Make sure to check these yourself and ensure you're up to date by visiting mp3licensing.com for full details.

However, when there's alternatives I don't see why anyone publishing audio online would want to or should publish in MP3 format.

So what's the best alternative? Well - it's all about OGG.

Okay, a slightly strange name. Here are the facts:

OGG is just as high quality as MP3.

OGG is just as quick to download as MP3.

OGG is open source - this means no fees due, ever (for full details on OGG visit vorbis.com).

The only current downside of OGG is that it isn't as widely supported by audio players as MP3.

BUT - I'm convinced this will change. As more and more online publishers say "No!" to paying hefty and unnecessary licensing fees, more and more audio will be published online in OGG format, meaning more and more audio players will support OGG.

So if you're currently publishing audio online in MP3 format, what does this mean for you?

Well, my advice is to convert your audio from MP3 format to OGG format, without delay.

Now I'll admit it can be a little bit time consuming, but once it's done, it's done. And would you rather make a little effort to convert your audio, or pay licensing fees year after year?

So how do you convert MP3 to OGG? Easy - use an audio converter. You'll find a ton of high quality free ones by searching download.com and also sourceforge.net. My personal favorite is WinLAME (awful name, great software) from winlame.sourceforge.net.

So use WinLAME to convert your MP3 to OGG. Pay attention to keeping the MP3 and OGG files around the same size (I've actually found OGG files to be slightly smaller). And then compare the audio quality. I'll be surprised if you can find any difference between them.

Now this conversion process might take a while. For about six hours of audio it took my computer at least a couple of hours of processing time. But I just left the computer to it and came back when it was done. You can even leave this process running overnight if you have a lot of audio to convert.

Now here's an extra snippet you need to pay attention to:

Some OGG audio has "Tags". Tags are extra information inside the audio file which often includes the name of the song for example.

At this time (this will probably change) some audio players have trouble playing OGG with "Tag" information in them. So take the tag information out. It's easy and doesn't affect the audio in any way - here's how you do it:

Download "MP3Tag" from mp3tag.de/en/. Install the software, and start it up. Then just choose to "Remove All Tags" from your OGG files. This process takes literally two minutes but is very important.

Now after you've converted and de-tagged the OGG audio, you'll need to upload it to your server of course.

Then you'll have to change all your download links. This is fiddly, but needs to be done. For example - you would need to change all your links from:

www.domain.com/folder/audio.mp3

To:

www.domain.com/folder/audio.ogg

Then test every download link to make sure it's working correctly.

Important Note: Don't forget about the audio you've got in Zip files too. You'll need to recreate those Zip files with OGG audio instead of MP3 audio and re-upload them.

If you're not sure where all the MP3 and Zip files are on your websites, here's an easy way to list them:

Now, this only works on Unix-based servers (which covers Linux servers, FreeBSD...etc - ask your web host if you're not sure)...

This is pretty advanced so don't do this if you're not comfortable with the process. Or ask your web host to do it for you if they're happy to do that:

You need to Telnet into your server and then type the following:

find . | grep mp3 > allmp3

Then type:

find . | grep zip > allzip

This will then give you two files on your server: allmp3 & allzip

Download these files and take a look at them in a text editor. They'll show you the path of every MP3 and Zip file on your server so that you can quickly and easily find which files you need to convert to OGG. Dead handy.

Okay - so after you've converted and uploaded the audio, you'll need to change the text around the download links. You'll need to take out any mention of "MP3" from your website.

I don't suggest replacing it with "OGG" on a sales page for example since that will probably confuse people. Just replace "MP3" with "downloadable audio" or "high quality downloadable audio".

And then on your download pages mention that the audio is in OGG format which is just as high quality as MP3 and just as quick to download. Then link to a couple of audio players that you know for a fact support OGG.

The audio players I personally mention are Winamp from winamp.com and Quintessential Player from quinnware.com.

Important Note About Winamp: As I write this only the Full version (not the Lite version) of Winamp supports OGG successfully. So make sure to tell your visitors to download and install that version. It's still free though so your visitors won't have to spend any extra money just to listen to your audio.

And that's pretty much all the steps needed to convert your published audio from MP3 to OGG, which can save you a small fortune in licensing fees without compromising audio quality or speed of download.

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Louis Allport is the creator of over thirty (and counting) unique and high quality information products selling very successfully online. One of Louis' recent products reveals a proven four-step formula that can make creating best-selling online products a lot more predictable:
http://hectwo.createbest.hop.clickbank.net