Starting the New Year 2013 with New HomeBiz Projects

It's been a long while since I last posted anything on my HomeBiz blog. Having shifted it from another hosting company and then giving up the domain for this current version. Well in business there are ups and downs, and finding the right niche in the business blogosphere was just the same, not to mention very extremely competitive!

Well at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Meanwhile you would need to restructure and re-organize (sounding just like those big corp after having taken a major hit in their profits). And looking at my old website, I decided to redesigned the new template using an existing blogger template. Kept it simple but still looking nice. Nothing fancy, just try to make it soothing to the eyes at the very least to avoid garish design that would not go well with visitors that happened to drop by.

Anyway, the past 2 years was huge letdown by Google with their Panda and Penguin algorithm, and very likely made many affiliates and webmaster cry bloody murder. My own sites was not spared either despite not doing anything spammy and trying to be as authoritative as possible and yet still got hammered by the software that has no soul and empathy. It was just doing what it was programmed to do. After all it was a robot, and robots has no heart. You have been terminated! So to speak! That's why in the Terminator movies, the heroes had a hard time fighting those robots!

Anyway, I'm trying to re-look for a new angle for my SoHo Home Biz site. The old stuff were a bit too negative, and scaremongering probably won't get you anywhere much. I would still keep it around and just archive it in my website somewhere as it progress.

In the meantime, a friend of mine introduced some interesting online scheme. The returns look great, but if it is too much of a good thing, it may not be so good as it could be a scam. Anyway, just give it a try and at least recover my capital first. Not the first time I lost money.

As they said, "Fortune comes to those who dare." and I have dared many times.

Anyway good opportunity are not so easy to come by, but if one does come along, even though it is high risk, well, if you got spare cash to risk it for high returns, why not give it a go?

Of course not everybody has the stomach for this. And thus still kept on chugging at their old job, or hard to sell MLM program, and various other agency stuff. It takes a hard nut to clear the 80% failure rate. As Napolean Hill observed, you just might be at the tipping end on the verge of success and then you gave up. Not knowing you were so close to clinching the big deal of your life!

So reach for the stars, and keep your feet firmly on the ground.

To HomeBiz success!

Increase your own income

Whoa! Saw this news splattered on the Star newspaper front page saying, "Big Pay Hike". Wish it was so. Mine was just a meagre 0.9% increase in comparison against the benchmark done by Robert Walters Global Salary Survey for 2011. Although their survey indicated a sharp increase of 5% to 30% increase for many of the professionals, looking at my category I'm nowhere near that increase nor earning that income range. Perhaps some would say I should be working harder or carry the balls of my superior more or whatever. Well I've been working for a very long time and I found I like to call the shots to get things done. So working for someone else does curb my ability on my decision making.


Note: Rate RM3.056=US$1

Web business idea

I know there are many internet marketers out there trying to make a killing but not making any headway. There is this post that came up on my comment here saying click, click, click you can generate so much sum of money.

So let me show you what they mean and how it works.
USD0.01 X 100,000,000 clicks = USD1mil
USD0.10X 10,000,000 clicks = USD1mil
USD1.00 X 1,000,000 clicks = USD1mil
USD10 X 100,000 clicks = USD1mil
USD100 X 10,000 clicks = USD1mil
USD1,000 X 1,000 clicks = USD1mil

Everybody happy become millionaires. Yippee!

Were if it that easy I've become a millionaire already. It is a simpleton idea. But the fact is where are you going to get those clicks?

The thing is they are all selling homogenous products. Which means if I'm selling sugar, you are selling sugar, everybody same-same and no USP (unique selling point), then you will have a hard time. If I do something interesting and sell organic sugar, then can jack up the price because there is something special about organic sugar, it is derived from plants grown organically and thus should not be contaminated by pesticides or other chemicals. Even then it is almost similar product. Slightly better USP.

On the other hand, if you can find some special niche, something that not many people wants to do, but something that you know very well, that's your USP. And how to achieve some success with it? Use SBI of course. It provides the tools on how to leverage what you know to create an online web business.

So far SBI has worked well for me. And so are my friends and many people. It is not a lazy-get-rich-quick system. It requires work on your part. If hardwork turns you off then don't read on. In fact don't read all those people selling ebooks about making it online. They are all the same with not much value in it. Get a real proven system like SBI.

By leveraging on what you know, you can create a niche area where you could either earn back from:

• Google Adsense - the simplest earning model but requires a lot of hardwork to get website traffic
  
• Get advertising sponsors - requires selling skill, but first your website must have traffic to show. Has a better income return from monthly renewals.
  
• Sell tangible products - eg organic sugar
  
• Sell intangible products - eg services
  
• or a combination of tangible and intangible products
  

The monetizing model requires thought, and what works for one, may not work for another. But before it does so, you need to put up the website first and draw the traffic in with your well writing content geared for both humans and robots (for SEO purposes) but ultimately it should be written for people because that's where your main target should be.

Good luck!

Another SBI Signup, yey!

What makes SBI so much better as a web business? Even though it took me awhile to convince my friend eventually he got sold on the SBI web business model, and that also despite signing up a normal webhosting and making a few blunders like trying to use the free Wordpress.com blogging platform.

Initially he wanted to blog like one of those pro-bloggers who has quite a high traffic rank. I checked through that blogger using Alexa ranking and yes, this guy has very good website traffic with an Alexa ranking of around 69,000! Very high indeed. Much better than my travel site which has a ranking of 600,000.

Then on further scrutiny I found that his bounce rate was rather high. According to Alexa his bounce rate was measured as 70%. Since this guy was just blogging only, I cross check with my blogging website, which also gave me the same result, approx 70%. Alexa must be using a different criteria for measuring bounce, because in my Google Analytics, my blog website has a 89% bounce rate, so my guess is that this pro-blogger is experiencing the same.

So what does bounce rate means? A bounce is when a web visitor happens to find your website on search, curious about your site and drop in for a quick look to see whether it has the information that they need. If you are just blogging about everyday inane things, very likely it would not interest the visitor much. A quick glance (give about 3 to 5 seconds) and if they don’t find what they need it is sayonara, goodbye, adious!

Whereas on my travel website with proper structure and well written content for visitors who are looking for specific travel information hanged around longer, reading what I have to say, and either they click an ad or leave a comment or inquiry. Now that would be your most wanted response, right? If you are running a web business you definitely want your visitors to inquire more about what you have to offer. And for your info, the bounce rate for my travel site is about 45%. That’s a big difference when you compare it with a blog.

So if you just blog aimlessly you are unlikely to get the desired result even though you may get very high website traffic. That’s why when I first started out with SBI, they have a very good action guide that takes you through the steps of creating a REAL website. i.e. don’t blog, though you can create a blog to compliment your website, but your website should be a website that is geared towards giving the information that people wants and eventually get the desired response.

Here’s an interesting sidebar from Ken Evoy of Sitesell:

----- SIDEBAR-----
Many SBI! owners who are not affiliates recommend SBI! to their friends, family, local businesses, etc. For no commission? Why? Because they love SBI!, and because this monetization model does not fit their main one (ex., selling real estate). If you are an SBIer AND a 5P affiliate...

Do the same, except collect a commission, too! :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----

Haha, and I do recommend SBI to my friends who wants to start an online business. Those that didn’t heed my advise tended to wonder aimlessly in their online seeking of business.

So now that one of my friends has signed up SBI, he is now going through the action guide and digesting the finer points of setting up a web business. So will see how’s his progress in the coming months.

So what about you?
Blog or build? Webhosting or SBI?

Don’t be like my friends who didn’t heed my advise earlier and wasting so much time (and money). Take up SBI and do it right first time. (Against the advice of Billy Lim’s Dare to Fail school of thought).

Create business website that is lasting

A recent newsletter by Ken Evoy talks about how to create business website that is lasting. It strikes the fact that many people who use the dubious method of gaming their website trying to fool search engines to get top ranking in the search engine would surely be in their demise. Having created a website using Site Build It, I could vouch the fact that my traffic continue to grow, grow and grow. Sure it may not be fast, but remember, the tortoise beats the hare because of dogged determination and not by using shortcuts.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are very much aware what those SEOers are trying to do. Just a note, it was reported that Google made 400 adjustments to their search engine algorithm in one year alone should you tell you something about what Google is trying to do. They are trying to weed out those websites that are trying to fool the search engine in order to get good high page ranking in the searches. By getting one's website list high, the notion that you will get high website traffic and that would eventually translate to profit. The thing was, those website do not provide much in terms of value to visitors.

So going by the doctrine:

"Every page you create should be truly useful content, something that adds value for the reader."

This is every bit as true today as it was in early years of World Wide Web. Create business website that provide good quality content to attract visitors. And good quality content can be very lasting for many years to come, giving each visitors or repeat visitors the value of using your reference. You gain credibility, and become sort of like a guru, and if the visitors like you and your product, they will make a purchase that you recommend or even buy your products on offer.

In the words of Ken Evoy:

"Keep it real. Add value." Old-fashioned? Yup, dating right back to the beginning of capitalism. If you don't add enough REAL value to your customer to make her feel that she's made a profit off of you in exchange for her dollars, you are, in the long run, doomed.

As an affiliate, if you want real success promoting products and services online, you simply must add value for your audience. Let's summarize that as...

VIVO! A Spanish word, it means... "Live!" It also stands for... Value in. Value out. That reciprocity is the road to business success, which ultimately impacts how you LIVE!

Create value for your visitors (and the Web as a whole). They are delighted to return value to you. There is no mystery why there are so many delighted SBI! owners. Nor is it a surprise that the sites of everyday people receive thousands of visitor per day, who LOVE their sites.

It's no mystery if you understand... VIVO!

Search engines like Google is definitely scrutinizing each website, and well, knocking out those scammy review sites and not to forget eBay is slamming those who use hubpages, Squidoo, and Blogger, which have long been "splogger/Web spammer heaven.

And, of course, Google tracks all that, refining their search algorithms even further. Sooner or later, they're going to devalue links from hubpages, today.com, Blogger, Squidoo, and most of the article-marketing sites (all those that don't work hard to ensure quality submissions).

Even nowadays, the web surfers are getting savvier than ever. They learn fast. Spotting that fishy, get rich quick, low-value website that just isn't providing them with the value that they want. And the next thing you know, they are off to another website.

Respect your audience. Respect yourself. Respect the engines. Provide them with the kind of answers, information, and resources they won't be able to find anywhere else.

Provide them with YOUR original content. It's not only good karma, it's good business. And good for YOUR business.

1. Avoid the SEO and GRQ schemes that are rooted in exploiting a weakness on the Web. Those holes get plugged.

2. Contribute YOUR OWN unique well-crafted content to the Web. Keep doing it! Value is cumulative.

3. Respect your audience AND Google. They pay your bills.

So find out how you can create business website that is lasting by using the tools provided by Sitesell Site BuildIt system that has been helping so many people trying to find success online.

HomeBiz Entrepreneur

Ever consider becoming a homebiz entrepreneur? It could well be a refreshing change from a corporate employee. Is a fast pace corporate life and a high consumption lifestyle your thing, or would a laid back shift to low gear and self-reliant lifestyle giving you back the freedom to be with your family the answer to your prayers?

Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slow, says "Work devours the bulk of our waking hours. Everything else in life is forced to bend around the almighty work schedule."

Many people feel the need to regain some aspect of their working life. Answering to bosses whims and demanding orders is a sure way of losing control. Worse are those that has a distinct look down upon their subordinates thinking they are the king of the hill and grinding their employees like some soldiers in the battlefield.

One way to escape the control freaks would be to start your own business, perhaps an online homebiz using Site Build It system. After all, you may receive a pay package but felt that it is not equivalent to your talents and skills, or perhaps you have a greater skill but remain untapped or even unappreciated by your current employer. You do indeed have skills, far greater than you realize, skills that can take you far and further than being an employed would take you.

Neil Croft, author of Authentic: How to Make a Living by Being Yourself, says "Enough of us recognise our need to understand and realise our own potential, and it becomes clear that helping big corporations to become bigger and exploit better fails to deliver that for us." ...

The frustration of working under corporate workforce is just that. You are but a small little cog in their wheel of fortune. Losing you isn't a big matter to them. There are many others who could easily replace you even if you are in some senior position, where politicking is at their worse. So you may make millions for your company, and of course they may give you some bonus, a raise and some lip service. However if you can make millions for company, you know how to work the ways of income generation, so why not create start up and do it on your own?

The Advantages

Homebiz entrepreneurship liberates you from the reins of working life. You create your own job functions, you decide on your own working hours and you make your own work-life balance. Homebiz entrepreneurship is informal and ideal if you thrive on informal work at home business settings.

Doing your own work at home biz allows you to determine your own measure of success. There is a tremendous satisfaction in setting up your own homebiz and running it successfully. You will feel happier from what you have set out to do on your own.

The Disadvantages

As a homebiz entrepreneur, you face challenges of being focused in your home based business and the need to be self sufficient. You must always remain on track and stay on the path to success and not let distractions lead you on a time wasting detours. Distractions reduce your productivity and hinder your ability to achieve your daily objectives. Pull yourself together whenever you find yourself distracted and doing trivial things especially when there are important and urgent task at head that you need to tackle and settle it.

You also need to know the difference between distractions and diversions. Diversions staves off boredom and keeps you motivated. They are breaks that keep your mind fresh and to provide you interest to perform at your peak.

Here are some suggestions to minimise distractions:

• Clear your desk of anything unconnected with the task at hand
  
• Divert your phone to a voicemail
  
• Unless you need to answer each and every email urgently, you may look at your email at specific times of the day. Eg check once in the morning, once in the evenings.
  
• Resist taking extended lunches or tea breaks
  

Sometimes the task at hand seems like a big wall and you find yourself procrastinating. Try to break your task into smaller segments, and as you complete each segment, move on to the next. You will feel the satisfaction grows as each segment is completed. There may also be instances where you admire your each of your completed task, yes admire them, congratulate yourself with a reward too, but don't waste too much time as there are more things to do!

Networking

Running your own homebiz entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, especially when starting it off. You may feel isolated away from your friends and colleagues and might miss the hustle and bustle of activities of an office. So do widen your network with people which could be vital to your homebiz success. They could provide you with information or leads that would lead to sales generation or open doors for opportunities. It also helps you to keep track of what is happening your area of work. Schedule a time of when to meet up with people and build up your contact list. Contacts is vital as it was once said and still remains true to this day even with the wide online information network, "It is not what you know, but who you know that would bring about your success."

Start Your Own Small Home Business

Everybody needs a source of income to survive. Whether living in the big cities or living in the outback country, money is the medium of exchange accepted by everybody in the world to do commerce and exchange goods. Sure there are still barter system being used for those outback places, but eventually this will make way to a monetary system that is far more convenient and reliable.

But with the current state of constant changes in the commerce world, the reliance of being a salaried employee for a lifetime employment is no longer as rosy as before. We can read in the papers whenever a company is not doing well, some of the cost cutting measures has always been to trim off workers. Redundancy they call it. It is one thing to read about it in the papers and quite very different if you are the one being laid off. And if it happens to you, you will ask, "What do you mean I am redundant? No longer useful for the company?" Well, that's just it. Redundant. No longer useful to the company.

They may give you some severance package but usually this will last you for a short time, and you will need to spend the time and effort to look for another job. If you have a family to feed, and you are the sole bread winner, the pressure is on you to quickly find another job. It is not nice being out of work and desperately needing an income. Especially if the market is flooded with job seekers and your skill set is not much different from the rest.

Company may also be looking for young dynamic go getters rather than hiring an older person. For one, their pay is cheaper, they may have more energy, they may be more enthusiastic and though they may have a lack of experience, it makes them more eager to learn.

Job security? This word is no longer available for hired salary worker. No, the new economy where a person becomes an entrepreneur and knows how to create his own business anytime without anything, that's where the security is. No longer does company give a lifetime employment. Even in Japan the work culture is changing. They are one of the few countries I know where the salary man gets a lifetime of employment and usually the company they are working in is the company they will ever work for life!

If you are still holding on to a job, kudos to you. But you should consider doing something on a part time basis, not just to complement your income and make it a second income source, but to learn how to start running your very own small home business. You will never know the skills you learn can be an additional invaluable knowledge for your current work as well, thus boosting your potential demand in the job market. Or if you decided you want to be your very own boss and fire your company instead of them firing you; hey, anything is possible!

So give yourself some thought about where you want to head in your life. Most people do not have a plan for themselves. Just doing things aimlessly letting the winds of change blowing them to and fro. Like Jim Rohn said, "You may not be able to control the direction of the wind, but you sure can change the direction of your sail boat and stir the boat."

But usually most people will just read articles like this and just throw it one side and say, "Nah, this is not for me. I'm living comfortably with my current job. I feel great and I don't want to spend the time running around doing anything extra when I can just rest and relax." I was like this too. Living in the comfort zone. But there will come a time, an event in your life that will really jolt you to realize that you will need to do something in your life, or life will pass you by and left you wondering what you did wrong.

So give it some thought and think it through and consider your options.


Related link: Starting your own home business