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	<title>Small Business Lessons &#187; Business</title>
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	<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com</link>
	<description>Entrepreneurial stories</description>
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		<title>Introducing Cashculator</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/32/introducing-cashculator/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/32/introducing-cashculator/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:50:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cashculator]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cashflow]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/?p=32</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Apparent Software introduces Cashculator for Mac which allows you to better manage your cash flow with a look into the future. Cashculator is well suited for families and small business. It&#8217;s not an accounting software but designed to be an easy to use tool that you&#8217;ll really be able to use.
At this time Cashculator enters [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Apparent Software introduces <a title="Cashculator for OS X" href="http://www.apparentsoft.com/cashculator">Cashculator</a> for Mac which allows you to better manage your cash flow with a look into the future. Cashculator is well suited for families and small business. It&#8217;s not an accounting software but designed to be an easy to use tool that you&#8217;ll really be able to use.</p>
<p>At this time Cashculator enters beta testing but information and screenshots are already available on <a title="forecast cashflow" href="http://www.apparentsoft.com/cashculator">Cashculator homepage</a>.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Analysis of Mac MicroISVs</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/28/analysis-of-mac-microisvs/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/28/analysis-of-mac-microisvs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Feb 2009 10:02:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[article]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MicroISV]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uISV]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/?p=28</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Kosta, who joined me recently in my Apparent Software Mac shareware business, made an analysis of Mac MicroISVs, to see how we should progress. You can read it at: MicroISV analysis &#8211; are you a micro-monster or a small fry?
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Kosta, who joined me recently in my <a title="Apparent Software" href="http://www.apparentsoft.com">Apparent Software</a> Mac shareware business, made an analysis of Mac MicroISVs, to see how we should progress. You can read it at: <a title="MicroISV analysis - are you a micro-monster or a small fry?" rel="bookmark" href="http://blog.apparentsoft.com/imageframer/33/microisv-analysis-are-you-a-micro-monster-or-a-small-fry/">MicroISV analysis &#8211; are you a micro-monster or a small fry?</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Blogging and Taxes</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/finance/26/blogging-and-taxes/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/finance/26/blogging-and-taxes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:27:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[External]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/uncategorized/26/blogging-and-taxes/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you earn lots of money from your blog, John Chow (who does earns loads of money off his blog) posted two articles describing how he setup the legal structure in order to minimize taxes from his earnings.
The posts are:
My Blog Business Structure and Blog Income &#38; Taxes &#8211; Taking The Money Out.
He describes the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you earn lots of money from your blog, John Chow (who does earns loads of money off his blog) posted two articles describing how he setup the legal structure in order to minimize taxes from his earnings.</p>
<p>The posts are:<br />
<a title="Permanent Link to My Blog Business Structure" rel="bookmark" href="http://www.johnchow.com/my-blog-business-structure/">My Blog Business Structure</a> and <a href="http://www.johnchow.com/blog-income-taxes-taking-the-money-out/">Blog Income &amp; Taxes &#8211; Taking The Money Out</a>.</p>
<p>He describes the differences in tax rates, dividends and what is possible to do on corporate money.<!-- technorati tags begin -->
<p style="font-size:10px;text-align:right;">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/blogging" rel="tag">blogging</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/money" rel="tag">money</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/%20taxes" rel="tag"> taxes</a></p>
<p><!-- technorati tags end --></p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Watching for sites to buy</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/25/watching-for-sites-to-buy/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/25/watching-for-sites-to-buy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:31:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/25/watching-for-sites-to-buy/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For several months now I&#8217;ve been watching for a possible site to buy on the two most prominent site markets on the web, Sitepoint&#8217;s marketplace and on digital point. Sitepoint&#8217;s is a better designed site with special tools for an auction, rather than a simpler forum on digitalpoint.
I must admit, after looking for the listings [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>For several months now I&#8217;ve been watching for a possible site to buy on the two most prominent site markets on the web, Sitepoint&#8217;s <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace">marketplace</a> and on digital point. Sitepoint&#8217;s is a better designed site with special tools for an auction, rather than a simpler forum on digitalpoint.</p>
<p>I must admit, after looking for the listings for several months: most of the sites are crap, if not scam. But sometimes there are some gems and I follow these sales. I&#8217;ve even added my own bid 2 times (but never won). My budget is also limited. Perhaps too limited for most of the sites of at least medium quality. Well, time is an issue, too.</p>
<p>On of the good sites on sell now, is Neville&#8217;s <a href="http://www.palmreport.com/">PalmReport.com</a>.<br />
<a href="http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p147/grayprog/Small%20Business%20Lessons/?action=view&amp;current=tempScreenshot.png" title="tempScreenshot.png"><img src="http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p147/grayprog/Small%20Business%20Lessons/th_tempScreenshot.png" alt="tempScreenshot.png" /></a><br />
This site is from a good person and has some real business behind it, even though it is of a questionable subject (palm reading). There are some problems with running the site (it needs a palm reader), but otherwise &#8211; it&#8217;s good looking and brings him about $350/months of revenue.</p>
<p>The auction itself is <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/19789">here</a>. The price now got to $1100 but there&#8217;s more than a week left. The BIN (Buy It Now) price is set to $4k.</p>
<p><strong>Update</strong>: The auction ended with highest bid at $1200, which was  below Neville&#8217;s undisclosed reserve price, so it wasn&#8217;t sold. It&#8217;ll be interesting to see what Neville will do with it.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll be updating on this and other interesting sites on sale here.<br />
<!-- technorati tags begin --></p>
<p style="font-size: 10px; text-align: right">Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/sites" rel="tag">sites</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/auction" rel="tag">auction</a></p>
<p><!-- technorati tags end --></p>
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		<title>A series of posts on starting dropshipping ecommerce site</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/finance/24/a-series-of-posts-on-starting-dropshipping-ecommerce-site/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/finance/24/a-series-of-posts-on-starting-dropshipping-ecommerce-site/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:11:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[External]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Successes]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/finance/24/a-series-of-posts-on-starting-dropshipping-ecommerce-site/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I like the blog of Nevill Medhora.  Here a guy writing openly about his small business and financial situation. I&#8217;m following his blog for about two months now and find it interesting, both in style and in content.Lately Nevell has posted a 6-part series on his e-commerce business, House of Rave. He shares his story of how [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I like the blog of <a href="http://www.nevblog.com" target="_blank" title="Neville Medhora">Nevill Medhora.</a>  Here a guy writing openly about his small business and financial situation. I&#8217;m following his blog for about two months now and find it interesting, both in style and in content.Lately Nevell has posted a 6-part series on his e-commerce business, House of Rave. He shares his story of how he started it and what you should consider as you prepare to open an e-commerce site yourself, specifically if you to set up a dropshipping business. He lists the pros and cons of such a business model and gives thought on the trends in this market.An interesting read. Start with post number 1: <a href="http://www.nevblog.com/2007/12/house-of-rave-com-story-part-1.html" target="_blank">House Of Rave .com Story Part 1</a>.</p>
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		<item>
		<title>Million Dollar Wiki is for sale</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/23/million-dollar-wiki-is-for-sale/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/23/million-dollar-wiki-is-for-sale/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:24:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Successes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/23/million-dollar-wiki-is-for-sale/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The site MillionDollarWiki.com is currently for sale (auction) at Sitepoint.

This site has earned lots of internet media attention, thus it also earned a lot for its owner, Graham Langdon. The business model is quite simple: for $100 each person can buy one web page on this site with 15 years guaranteed hosting. It is MediaWiki powered, just like Wikipedia, so the pages can be edited with ease. The site was mentioned on JohnChow.com, one of the biggest blogs on the internet, which probably brought lots of clients to Graham.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The site <a href="http://www.milliondollarwiki.com/" target="_blank">MillionDollarWiki.com</a> is currently for sale (auction) at <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/auction/16778" target="_blank">Sitepoint</a>.</p>
<p>This  site has earned lots of internet media attention, thus it also earned a lot for its owner, <em>Graham Langdon</em>.  The business model is quite simple: for $100 each person can buy one web page on this site with 15 years guaranteed hosting. It is MediaWiki powered, just like Wikipedia, so the pages can be edited with ease. The site was mentioned on <a href="http://www.johnchow.com/make-money-online-with-the-million-dollar-wiki/" target="_blank">JohnChow.com</a>, one of the biggest blogs on the internet, which probably brought lots of clients to Graham.</p>
<p>Thoughts aside, Small business lessons are one of easiest way to learn about <a href="http://www.businesshostingprovider.com">cheap hosting</a> services in order to promote the new business. These hosting services include <a href="http://www.1-hit.com/web-hosting.htm">web hosting</a> services which help in designing your very first website. It provides links that help in <a href="http://www.domaintraderhq.com">cheapest domain name</a> registration. Registering the name is not the only step, this site help in cheap <a href="http://www.webdevforums.com">web design</a> services. Small business lessons launches lessons that help in <a href="http://www.thehostplanet.com">cheap web hosting</a> service. Small business lesson site provides almost <a href="http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78883.htm">free web hosting services</a> that are useful for the one launching new internet business. These new businesses need <a href="http://www.washington.edu/accessit/webdesign/index.htm">web design education</a> in order to gain cost reduction efficienc<br />
According to the information in the auction &#8220;<em>In the six months since I started this site, it has grossed over $100,000. Without marketing it AT ALL, it earns a consistent $500 per week.&#8221;</em>. Not bad for a marketing stunt. Kudos to Graham for great idea and implementation.</p>
<p>The current price for the site is at $10000. It&#8217;s interesting how far it will go. There are still 14 days to go for the auction. No <em>&#8220;Buy it now&#8221;</em> price yet.</p>
<p>This story is very inspirational, as it is great success with little money down, little technology but good idea and marketing.</p>
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		<title>Beginnings of my first successful website</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/20/beginnings-of-my-first-successful-website/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/20/beginnings-of-my-first-successful-website/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2007 16:40:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Successes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/20/beginnings-of-my-first-successful-website/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I’m starting a series of articles related to my largest success to date, the Parapsychology articles and blog also known as Mind-Energy.net. I’ve started the site in October 2005, I’m very proud of what it’s become now and I have big plans for it yet. It is my successful venture from a commercial standpoint, earning [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I’m starting a series of articles related to my largest success to date, the <a href="http://www.mind-energy.net">Parapsychology articles and blog</a> also known as <a href="http://www.mind-energy.net">Mind-Energy.net</a>. I’ve started the site in October 2005, I’m very proud of what it’s become now and I have big plans for it yet. It is my successful venture from a commercial standpoint, earning me <strong>hundreds of dollars</strong> each month now. The earnings allow me to invest the money into better hosting. better software, better design and otherwise stimulate me to continue to work on it and make it better.</p>
<p>First, a little about the site and why I’ve started it. In 2004-2005 I was interested in healing, mainly energy healing, chakras, laying of hands type healing etc. I’ve taken several courses from a healer woman on some of these matters and was very enthusiastic about all these subjects. Since I couldn’t find good resources on some of these topics and I thought I had something to share from my experience, I’ve decided to open a blog on this topic. I’ve called it ‘Parapsychology articles and blog’, but I include subjects like parapsychological research (telekinesis, telepathy etc) to energy healing and tutorials on that, through psychic mediumship and interviews in the middle.</p>
<p><strong>Blogging software</strong></p>
<p>After research different software options for blogging available at that time, I’ve decided to use <a href="http://www.s9y.org">Serendipity</a>. Serendipity is a great blogging platform, in many ways superior to Wordpress with a good helping community around it and active development. It’s also easily customizable and has a good admin options and interface. I strongly suggest, if you start a new blog, to take a look at this excellent platform. It has great SEO features to give you good results in search engines.</p>
<p><strong>Design</strong></p>
<p>I did the design of the blog myself, based on the default template. I replaced color palette and played a lot with what content I wanted on the sidebars. This is an important issue. I was also constantly modifying and improving the design based on the knowledge I gained from reading other websites, devotes to blogging, web design and search engine optimization (SEO).</p>
<p><strong>Content</strong></p>
<p>I’ve started the site without having a concrete plan of where I wanted to go with it. I started with posting references to some resources I found on the web and considered interesting. After a month I decided to create original content based on my understanding and thoughts on <a href="http://www.mind-energy.net/archives/18-Universal-Mind-article-part-1.html">Universal Mind</a>. I wrote it as a two-part series. My first moderately successful article (in viewing terms) was <a href="http://www.mind-energy.net/archives/22-A-boy-in-Nepal-has-been-meditating-for-6-months.html">A boy in Nepal has been meditating for 6 months</a> which started a series of several article following the news on the “wonder” boy from Nepal. Since it was a bizarre but newsworthy topic, I started to get visits from the search engines, looking for information about the boy. I was later having much more popular articles but this was one where I started to be found well on google and got some attention from other bloggers. I will about these cases separately as there are more things to learn from them.</p>
<p><strong>Monetization</strong></p>
<p>My only source of monetization in the beginning were the Adsense ads. I was not very experienced in optimizing them at that time, so first months were slow. In November and December of 2005 I was only earning $6/month. But persistance pays. In November and December of 2006 I cashed in $250/month on average. I will write more about this in the future.</p>
<p>I’ve had (and still have) many adventures with this site and I guess that with more knowledge and abilities I could do more with it, yet I’m still very proud of it and the story is not over. I’m still growing, both in readership, in revenue and in the amount of good people I “meet”.</p>
<p>Also important, it is an amazing learning experience.</p>
<p>Thoughts aside,<br />
Small business lesson sites teach about <a href="http://www.unifyhosting.com">business web hosting</a> information that helps in acquiring cheapest services. This <a href="http://www.envisionwebhosting.com">website hosting</a> information provides different ways to enhance cost-effective strategies. The <a href="http://www.hosts2002.com">web hosting</a> companies provide promotion for your small home business. Small business lesson site provides <a href="http://www.envisionwebhosting.com/dedicated-servers.htm">dedicated servers</a> that are useful in launching your first successful website. Such types of sites are <a href="http://www.envisionwebhosting.com/reviews/netfirms-hosting.htm">netfirms</a> that launches different internet services, in order to help new comers. These sites show different <a href="http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1591.txt">domain register review</a> of their experience. These experiences help new business launchers to acquire <a href="http://www.azdor.gov/TpT/Motorvehiclesale/mvtaxrate.htm">cheap hosting server</a>.</p>
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		<title>Interview with me about my blogging monetization success</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/19/interview-with-me-about-my-blogging-monetization-success/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/19/interview-with-me-about-my-blogging-monetization-success/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 09 Sep 2007 08:27:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[External]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Interview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Successes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parapsychology]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/successes/19/interview-with-me-about-my-blogging-monetization-success/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Paul from Inspired Blogger has interviewed me about my blogging income from my Parapsychology blog. This is the first time I&#8217;ve been on this side of the interview fence. I&#8217;ve interviewed several people for my site and it was interesting to be on the other side for once. Go and read it.
I&#8217;ll be writing more [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Paul from <a href="http://www.inspiredblogger.com/" target="_blank">Inspired Blogger</a> has <a href="http://www.inspiredblogger.com/index.php/2007/09/09/successful-blog-report-interview-with-jacob-of-mind-energynet/" title="Interview about blog monetization">interviewed me about my blogging income</a> from my <a href="http://www.mind-energy.net" title="Parapsychology articles">Parapsychology blog</a>. This is the first time I&#8217;ve been on this side of the interview fence. I&#8217;ve interviewed several people for my site and it was interesting to be on the other side for once. Go and read it.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll be writing more about my Parapsychology blog story later. It&#8217;s my most successful venture to date.</p>
<p>Thoughts aside, With economical growth, <a href="http://www.envisionwebhosting.com/seo.htm">seo</a> business also reaches to the top of success. Due to this business different technologies are launched including <a href="http://www.networldphone.com">internet phone service</a>. This service help in better communication and a very cheap path for communicating <a href="http://www.envisionwebhosting.com/domain-registration.htm">domain name registration</a> information to the companies. Small business lessons teach <a href="http://www.hostseeq.com">cheap web hosting</a> ways that is useful in cost-effective strategies. These web hosting provides better <a href="http://www.affiliateladder.net">affiliate marketing</a> programs. All the companies that are starting their home based business can use <a href="http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/econ_ostrovsky_internetauction.shtml">adsense marketing</a> strategies that help in their reduction of cost. Small business lesson sites provide cheap <a href="http://www2.cs.purdue.edu/outreach/lessonplans.htm">web design contract</a>.</p>
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		<title>Small business marketing blog</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/18/small-business-marketing-blog/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/18/small-business-marketing-blog/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 03 Sep 2007 21:09:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[External]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/business/18/small-business-marketing-blog/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve found the following website, Egg Marketing Blog, and I like it. I believe if you&#8217;re small business needs marketing and you want to learn more about utilizing the web for it, that&#8217;s the right place. You&#8217;ll learn the benefits of blogging for your business, a series of marketing tips, viral marketing and more.

On another [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve found the following website, <a href="http://www.eggmarketingblog.com/" target="_blank">Egg Marketing Blog</a>, and I like it. I believe if you&#8217;re small business needs marketing and you want to learn more about utilizing the web for it, that&#8217;s the right place. You&#8217;ll learn the benefits of blogging for your business, a series of marketing tips, viral marketing and more.</p>
<p>
On another note,  Small businesses are provided by <a href="http://www.theaffiliatereport.net">affiliate marketing</a> strategies through internet services. These services are provided by the <a href="http://www.tophostslist.com">cheap web hosting</a> which promote the small businesses. These hosting services have special <a href="http://www.businesshostingprovider.com/dedicated-server.htm">dedicated servers</a> which enhance the small businesses and provide different links. These web sources actually try <a href="http://www.sitecarrier.com">web design</a> which specially promotes the level of small businesses. These webs specially design <a href="http://www.1-hit.com/ppc-advertising.htm">ppc advertising</a> schemes holding many entrepreneur stories.  Different businesses are just promoted through the process of <a href="http://www.1-hit.com/email-marketing.htm">email marketing</a> which is the cheapest way to market your goods and services. Therefore <a href="http://www.ntis.gov/fed-services/web.asp">design and host your site</a> for the promotion of your small business. In your initial steps you can get different information from <a href="http://cit.nih.gov/ProductsAndServices/WebServices/WebHostingServices/">webhosting reviews</a> of other sites.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>My first website business experience</title>
		<link>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/finance/15/my-first-website-business-experience/</link>
		<comments>http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/finance/15/my-first-website-business-experience/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:55:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Failures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Programming]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Web]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lessons]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stocks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trading]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/posts/finance/2007/08/my-first-website-business-experience</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[During my adventures with stock day-trading, I've continued to be in contact with the man who taught me day-trading and was building a website with him, plus an automatic day-trading program. But later we split, since he was dishonest with me and didn't pay in time and enough.

Since I was still considering being connected to the finances, I thought of creating a website that will be of service to traders. After some time some ideas arose and I started to write the site. I called it Trading-HQ. It still exists today. The idea behind the site was to create a resource:

    * With reviews of brokers, trading books, information websites, stock pick websites and related software.
    * Easy to navigate
    * Easy to filter for needed information
    * Ability for users to contribute reviews to presented information
]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>During my adventures with stock day-trading, I&#8217;ve continued to be in contact with the man who taught me day-trading and was building a website with him, plus an automatic day-trading program. But later we split, since he was dishonest with me and didn&#8217;t pay in time and enough.</p>
<p>Since I was still considering being connected to the finances, I thought of creating a website that will be of service to traders. After some time some ideas arose and I started to write the site. I called it <a href="http://www.trading-hq.com/" target="_blank" title="Information for stock traders">Trading-HQ</a>. It still exists today. The idea behind the site was to create a resource:</p>
<ul>
<li>     With reviews of brokers, trading books, information websites, stock pick websites and related software.</li>
<li>     Easy to navigate</li>
<li>     Easy to filter for needed information</li>
<li>     Ability for users to contribute reviews to presented information</li>
</ul>
<p>On the technical side, I decided to go with ASP.NET, which I already knew somewhat due to my aforementioned work with the trader. For this I also needed a Windows based web server, which is a bit more expensive than similar Linux based, so I went with a relatively cheap one, to reduce my costs. After some time, the site went up.</p>
<p>What are the three main problems of web business? Traffic, traffic and traffic. Well, it&#8217;s not that simple, actually, as the content and monetizing are also very important. My knowledge at all the areas was pretty low at that time but I didn&#8217;t think so and I was anxious to progress. So what were my actions in of the three areas?</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">Traffic generation</span> &#8211; I knew that I needed to submit my site to many other sites in order to get incoming links and thus raise the PageRank of my site, making it higher in search engines. So, I submitted to search engines and to some other trading related websites I could find. Not much more than that.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">Content</span> &#8211; I added all the content myself. I first wrote about what I knew first-hand from my previous <a href="http://www.smallbusinesslessons.com/posts/finance/2007/08/my-day-trading-lessons" target="_blank" title="Day Trading lessons">day-trading experience</a>, then I looked for sites on internet and wrote about them. Of the hardest to review were the books and stock pick sites. Books, since one needed to read them for a good review. Stock pick sites were not numerous and one needed to use their services for some time in order to build an opinion. I was hoping for people to contribute this content.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">Monetization</span> &#8211; I was building on advertising, like most people do. The easiest and almost the only way at that time was using Google Adsense ad publishing. Of course, there&#8217;s a lot to know about Adsense optimization as well, but this being my first project, I didn&#8217;t delve deep in understanding how Adsense should be utilized for the best returns. So I decided to put one tall ad space to the right of my main content. I understood though, that traffic was the key.</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">What were the difficulties when running the site?</span></p>
<p>Traffic generation was difficult and time consuming. Without advertising one could only get to cheap sites and the regular search engines. I didn&#8217;t know of blogs at that time and they were not yet that popular. <span style="font-weight: bold">Content</span> was very time consuming and it was hard to create quality content without actual use of products, etc. So I mostly had to paraphrase existing descriptions for the various websites and program, taken from their original sites. I needed to search the internet for various resources, filter them and write content for selected items. <span style="font-weight: bold">Monetization</span> was very low. Although <span style="font-style: italic">Cost Per Click</span> (CPC) was good for the financial sector, my low traffic and unoptimized ads were bringing extremely low income. Most of the traffic I had was coming from Google&#8217;s search but over time my Pagerank has dropped (most probably since I was very slow at updating content) and the site started to stagnate.</p>
<p>During the period when sites was still growing, me cheap Windows-based host died on me without any warning due to some theft they&#8217;ve experienced. The site went offline but luckily they agreed to send me my database, which held the content of the entered data so far. I then decided to move to Linux host, so I had to rewrite the whole site&#8217;s backend on PHP. Not a nice experience overall. Since then I&#8217;ve moved to more serious and established hosting providers.</p>
<p>Although I still believe the site could have been profitable and successful (if done right) it was a big <span style="font-weight: bold">failure.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">Lessons learned<br />
</span></p>
<ul>
<li>Building the website itself is only the first step, often the easiest one. This is especially true today, when there are good ready platforms for almost any type of site you might want.</li>
<li>Writing original content is hard and time-consuming work. Far harder than I first imagined.</li>
<li>Building traffic on a content site is a hard process. One needs to know the web sphere related to the project. No content translates to no visitors for content-based site. It&#8217;s impossible to write all of the content for a site like this one by yourself, since you&#8217;re limited by your own knowledge, experience, time and finances.</li>
<li>Traffic from search engines dwindles if the site is not updated regularly.</li>
<li>It was difficult to lift and operate it all alone by myself.</li>
<li>Web hosting stability is important. Not to look for cheap in web hosting as it often turns out badly.</li>
<li>I still lacked in programming, SEO, website design and general site usability skills.</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-weight: bold">Conclusions</span></p>
<ul>
<li>It&#8217;s almost impossible to wear all the hats on web site like this one should have been.</li>
<li>The business model and prognosis should be done ahead of starting a website like this. This could have me lots of time.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thoughts aside, Small businesses used use the opportunity of <a href="http://www.envisionwebhosting.com/reviews/godaddy-hosting.htm">godaddy</a>, providing cheap registration for domain. The search engine could help in <a href="http://www.1-hit.com/all-in-one/php/mrwhois.php">domain name search</a>. When you are confirm your domain name then you can gain the <a href="http://www.complete-website-hosting.com">cheap web hosting</a> services lessons from small business lesson site. This small business lessons <a href="http://www.getaffiliates.net">affiliate marketing</a> techniques that are useful to enhance your business. Once you gain an opportunity for <a href="http://www.1-hit.com">internet marketing</a> then you will receive lots of opportunities for your business. Your first internet business must hold <a href="http://www.registeranydomain.com">cheapest domain name</a> which will be cost-effective. Small business lessons will teach about <a href="http://digitalwa.statelib.wa.gov/newsite/projectmgmt/vendors.htm">business hosting services</a>. Before going for internet business your <a href="http://www.washington.edu/accessit/webdesign/index.htm">web design education</a> will help you a lot.</p>
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