But when it comes to websites, there seems to be two camps: one that is concerned with providing a beautiful site and a great first impression, and the other where their website is just there to make money.  Unlike the real world, the look of your website doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with people ending up there.  Sure, an ugly site might make someone want to leave right away, but the content of a website has more to do with getting traffic than the looks.

If you are on a smaller budget, it makes more sense to invest your money in the content of the website and the looks of it later.  If you notice, this site has great content, and though I think that it looks okay, it certainly could use improvement in how it looks.  But it works for the user, and makes money, which really is the goal of this site.  It isn’t here to make you cry and think “this is the most beautiful site ever”.

Now, I am not condoning that you make something really ugly such as those sites that you always saw back in the nineties that had blinking and flashing text.  What I am saying here is that as long as you make an effort to provide great service to your customers, have your products available with an intuitive shopping cart system, and provide relevant information, in the big scheme of things looks don’t matter.  The site will still make money.

But when it comes to the online space, there initially seems to be little in the way of established business models you can buy into.  Sure, you could buy an established website and in many cases that can launch you into a position where you have an immediate return on investment.  There are also chances of the business failing as well, but that is the same challenge you would face if you were buying a brick-and-mortar business as well.  Buying these proven properties can quickly add revenue to your business and with the small investment that you need to get started (typically in the 6 to 20 month earnings range), you can recoup your investment quickly.

There are other options available to you as well.  Instead of buying an established business, you could clone an existing one.  This can be done a little easier online, but there are many examples where this can be done in the “real world” as well.  When it comes to cloning a real world business, you will find that unless you know their business intimately, you will have to do a lot of testing, base your projections on some educated guesses, and evaluate the results.  This method of creating a new business can definitely be profitable, but there are also pitfalls as well.  When you consider that a business can appear successful but really be in financial trouble, the thought of cloning a real-world business does pose a lot of risks.

Cloning an online business also has its own share of risks and rewards.  In this case, the financial risks are usually a lot smaller and there are more resources at your fingertips that you can utilize to research your competition.  I will get into this subject in a future post and share my methods of finding, researching and duplicating online businesses.

Working with proven business models not only help you to reach success with your business in a shorter time frame, but they can also reduce the amount of stress that comes with creating a whole new business.  By following a proven model, you should be able to succeed in a shorter period of time, but just like any other business venture, there still is an element of risk.  So, the next time that you are thinking of starting a new business venture, take a look at the franchises that are out there as well as your competition – you might find the inspiration that you need to start your next business.

One of the problems that I have been plagued with is interruptions from my children.  Our children are not that old (8, 5, and 3), so they quite often barge into my office unannounced putting their needs and questions first.  This has caused me to lose my train of thought and to have decreased productivity during the day.  This has meant that I have had to accept that I won’t get much done during the day while they are awake and I have changed my business hours accordingly.

But if you really want to operate a business out of your home while you have children at home, consider the following five ideas to make your business and parenting a lot smoother:

1.  Have an Office with a Door

One of the easiest ways to show your children that you are at “work” is have a door on your office.  The reasoning behind this is that they will associate you needing to work in your office as your job, and your time outside of the office as their time.  Granted, this association won’t be made overnight, but as the children grow up, they will understand that you work too and respect that space.

An added bonus to having a door on your home office is that you can separate your family life from your work.  When you are done work for the day, close the office door and focus on your family – those business ideas that you have been working on can wait until tomorrow.

2.  Have Set Work Hours

One of the biggest temptations that I have had working at home is that I can “go to work” whenever I want.  This can be extremely convenient especially those nights where you might be suffering from insomnia, but can also blur the lines between work and family.

Typically kids understand that their parents go to work and then come home to spend time with them.  By setting work hours you not only ensure that you will have some time set aside to be productive during the day, but it will also help the children understand that there is some importance to your business.

3.  Work While they are Sleeping

If you are truly serious about your business it is very important to get some time where you can work without interruptions.  But if your children are little, this can be very difficult as they won’t understand that you need to focus.

For me, I have found that I am most productive while my children are sleeping.  This doesn’t mean that you have to stay up until the wee hours of the morning or anything like that, but it really gives you two good time slots:  at night after the kids go to bed, or in the morning before they get up.  Your choice will depend on whether or not you are a morning person or not – personally I work better at night.

4.  Get Enough Sleep

I find that the one thing my business and kids can do to me is take away the time I need for sleep each day.  A little bit here and there is ok, but the side effects from lack of sleep can affect your family life and your business.  I find for myself that the less sleep I get each night, the less patience I have with my children and customers.  The last thing you want to do is something that would affect those aspects of your life, so make sure that you get enough sleep.

If your children are little enough to still take naps, consider taking one yourself.  This can be a great way to get an extra hour or two of sleep in each day without affecting your business hours.  Don’t feel guilty that you are taking time away from the business for your nap – you’ll be more effective when you are back in the office.

5.  Take a Break

The one thing that most of us entrepreneurs are guilty of is being workaholics.  I know that sometimes I put in very long hours to get things done.  Sure we reap what we sow, but there comes a point where there are diminishing returns – we all get tired out.

Make sure to take some time for yourself outside of the office and your family.  These breaks don’t necessarily have to be very long, but they need to be time spent to recharge your batteries.   It can even be as simple as going to a movie, eating out for lunch or just going for a walk.  The key here is to get out of the office (you don’t want to become a hermit), see the world, and possibly get inspired.  For me, it helps to recharge my creativity and patience and has a whole really benefitted me in all aspects of my life.

If you’ve made it this far, I congratulate you – I don’t usually write posts this long.  But the truth of the matter is that this subject is near and dear to me.  Take the above ideas and apply them to your life and situation and I assure you that your life and business will be much better and more rewarding as a result.

But just this past week while on a business trip, my four year old decided that she wanted to spin around on my office chair.  I am sure she had a grand old time, but it didn’t last long.

You see, she knocked my computer over, which in turn made my headset smash on the floor and break too.  Thankfully the damage wasn’t any worse, but it certainly could have been.

Needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson this week, and you can learn from my mistakes.  I took for granted that my home office was safe from my kids, but based on my experience, I was wrong.  So for you entrepreneurs out there that work at home, take a second look at your office and make sure it is child-proof.

Some simple things that you can do to protect your home office from your children are:

1. Put a lock on your office door and keep the door closed and locked when you are not there
2. If you don’t have a door, get one.  An alternative to a door could be something as simple as a baby gate, provided you have a doorway into your office
3. Teach your kids that it is important that they don’t go in your office while you are not around
4. Put any breakable items away when you are done for the day.  This can include breakable items on your desk, computer headsets, and your MP3 player.  If there is a possibility of it getting broken, then hide it.
5. Make sure your spouse understands that the kids don’t belong in your office.  If they don’t, they may not pay enough attention or discipline the kids when they are found in there.

Even though you may make every effort to keep your children out of your office, there will always be a chance that they get in there anyway.  But by taking the right precautions, you reduce the chances of them doing any damage.  Think of child-proofing your office as risk management.

Some of the most common examples would be the Christmas shopping season from September through to December which applies to retailers both online and offline.  Another good example is the season that we are in right now in North America – back to school.  If you are a retailer (online or offline) that sells school supplies, clothing, or computers, your income should be up right now.

The point is that if you know what customers are looking for a different times of the year, you can setup your business to take advantage of what you know, and offer the appropriate products at the appropriate time.  Most industries have seasonal trends that you can take advantage of, and if you don’t know what they are, you should ask your customer – they will usually tell you exactly what they are looking for.

But you also need to make sure that you are prepared for the dips in spending (or revenue) during the slow seasons so that your company isn’t forced to shut down.  A good example of these types of trends would be college students using proxy sites.  During the summer when they are not in school, traffic to these types of sites pretty much disappears.  But, during the school term (September through April), these types of sites do very well.

So make sure that you are aware of seasonal trends in your business.  Be sure to take advantage of the busy seasons where you have the opportunity to increase your profit, and prepare for the slow seasons to ensure the survival of your business.  If you follow this advice, your business will have a very fruitful life now and into the future.

So, I have decided to purchase an Asus EEE PC which is a netbook computer.  If you aren’t familiar with what a netbook is, you can think of it as a really small laptop (10” screen in this case) that has exceptional battery life (up to 9.5 hours on the one I bought).  Now, being that it is a smaller computer, for some people, typing on the keyboard could be an issue.  So far, I am doing alright on it, though my typing speed is far from what it would be on a regular computer, but it looks alike it will just take a bit of time before I can type on here just as fast as a regular keyboard.

Anyway, the sole purpose of this netbook is to help me to get work done without distractions.  This means that I won’t be installing games, an email client (though that certainly could be a good idea for most people), or other applications that would diminish my ability to get work done.

It also means that at the end of the day, I can shut off my computer and leave work for the day instead of knowing that it is always there on my desktop.  Though this is just the first few days of trying this out, I’ll report back to let you know how effective (or ineffective) it has been having a dedicated work computer.  I think the results will be very positive.

But is hosting your websites with just one company smart?

This is a question that I was faced with this week.  You see, I have a number of my sites spread out over a variety of servers, but that is most because of the SEO benefits that I obtain multiple webhosts.  But, the bulk of my sites have been hosted on two VPS (virtual private servers) machines and account for about 90% of my online income.

The reason that I went with VPS hosting was that some of the sites (for example my proxy servers) require more power than a typical hosting plan.  But with the extra power, comes extra space as well (that proxy websites don’t need), so I figured that I could use the extra space for my other money sites.

This week though, both of my VPS machines went down and I proceeded to contact my hosting company, only to get no answer from their support department.  It meant that this site was down as well as 800 or so of my other web properties and I was losing money by the minute.  At this point, there was only one question on my mind:

Is hosting with one hosting company smart?

Well, in this case it sure wasn’t.  To go from making money to making next to nothing at all isn’t a good business position to be in.  Sure, they were able to get my hosting back up nearly 24 hours later, but frankly that isn’t acceptable at all.

So, I have had to reevaluate my thoughts on hosting everything with one company.  After this weeks experience, I have decided to spread out my website network so that if one host has problem, I still make money for the day.  This might mean a bit of an inconvenience, but in the end I believe that it will solve more problems than it will cause.

What do you think about hosting with just one hosting company?  Share your thoughts below.

But you can do keyword research without keyword tools.

I know that this might be a little bit against the grain, but hear me out.  You see, lately I have been working on creating some niche store websites.  Specifically, these are eBay affiliate websites and they will just be another income stream in my business operations.  Though I started out using keyword tools, I really haven’t been using them for these types of sites.  In fact, the following is the “keyword tool” that I have been using:

My wife.

Now that might seem a little silly, but sometimes it makes more sense to use a resource that is an expert in the field instead of relying on a computer.  In my case, my wife is an avid scrapbooker, and a Close to My Heart consultant, and has been scrapbooking for the past ten years and she does a very good job.  In that respect she is very close to the niche that I was targeting, and could provide me with the keywords and categories of products that I needed to make the site complete.

Sure, she couldn’t tell me the search volume or the competition (that is what keyword tools are for, right?), but she did have an intimate knowledge of the niche itself, and could provide me with information as to what a customer in the niche I chose was looking for.  And in some respects, this is more valuable than any keyword research tool out there.

So, the next time you are considering entering a niche that you are not familiar with, consider talking to someone that would be your potential customer.  They can point you in the right direction as to the products you should be selling and tell you exactly what your target customer will be looking for.  In some respects, that is more valuable than the information any keyword research tool can provide you.

But the one thing that I didn’t touch on were some good practices to follow when looking for small town investment properties.  Since most of us would be more familiar with city real estate, there are some things (and potential quirks) that you need to be aware of when investing outside of larger cities.

The first thing that should be on your mind is employment opportunities within the community that you are looking at as well as the employment opportunities in surrounding areas.  Ideally, the small town would be within driving distance of a city so that they have plenty of options when it comes to employment.  If you cannot find something in your price range close to a city, make sure there are employment opportunities within the community – the home buyer will need to make money somehow to pay their mortgage.

The age of the home also plays an important factor.  Unlike cities where it is common for older homes to be torn down for new construction, some smaller communities have a large amount of old housing stock.  A good example would be the village that I live in – we live in one of the “newer” homes and it was built in 1976.  Age can be a deciding factor as to the resale value and potential of a property because most people associate a younger home with a higher perceived value and better condition.

The construction of the home is also important.  What you will find in smaller communities is that there are a larger number of custom renovations which can include everything from an addition to the home, to other things such as plumbing or electrical.  Based on the fact that a large number of these jobs are not done by professionals, it is advisable that you get a home inspection prior to purchasing the property to ensure that there are no hidden problems.

Speaking of home inspection, when buying a property in a community outside of a city, it is even more important to spend the money and get a professional opinion on the property.  Quite often there are hidden problems, or other headaches (think of asbestos as being one of them) that can significantly affect your ability to make a profit on the investment and a home inspector should be able to find these problems for you.

Though in some cases, there might be a little more work involved when making your decision regarding a small town real estate investment, as long as you make sure to do your due diligence, there are plenty of opportunities to make a good return on your investment.  Just make sure to follow some of the guidelines that I have provided up above and you should have a good investing experience.

But at the same time, I hear a lot of grumbling from these same people that they really aren’t making any money online.  I know that this can be a challenge for some people, but in the case of these people that I have been talking to, they are all doing something wrong:  they aren’t monetizing their sites.

Now, I suppose that this would be common sense if you were to look in from the outside, but somehow during the time that these people have been building their sites and promoting them, they forgot that in order to make money from their sites, they need some sort of monetization strategy.

Some of the more common monetization strategies are as follows:

1. Contextual/Banner Ads:  The goal of this monetization strategy is to get people to click on your ads and then you make money.  Some examples of this include Google Adsense, Bidvertiser, Adbrite, etc.
2. Affiliate products:  By including a link or banner to an affiliate program, you make a commission each time someone buys something through your link.  Some examples of this would include Clickbank, Pepperjam, CJ, eBay Partner Network, and Amazon.
3. Your Own Product Sales:  If you have a product that you have created (whether physical or digital), you can sell it on your site and make a profit each time someone makes a purchase.  Some examples would be an ebook, course, or video series.

Even though that you need to monetize your site in some fashion to make it profitable, you should still hold the customer experience to be more important than the money making aspect.  What I mean by this statement is that you should make sure that your site still has value for the visitor and is not just a collection of ads with no content.  Even though you want to make money off of each visitor, it makes sense to try and get them to be a repeat visitor so that you will have opportunities to make money from them in the future.

In conclusion, you can’t expect to build websites and automatically make money from them.  You need to remember to monetize your sites through such things as advertising, affiliate products and even your own products to make them a profitable part of your online portfolio.