Finding Your Niche

by Carol Slinker

OK – picture this – here you are, totally motivated to finally knuckle down and write that article or ebook. You've actually found a few hours to really get something done and then Wham! a brick wall – you're not able to write a single word – about anything! Been there?

You tell yourself, "The time is now! I've been reading everything I can find about article and ebook writing, and can't wait to get started!" You've followed all the gurus' advice to "just do it – NOW" and here you are – at the keyboard – nothing to distract you – and you are staring at the white screen. You tap your fingers on the keys – still staring. You mind is spinning with all the things you could write about – after all, the gurus have given you great ideas for niche articles and ebooks, but just what is your niche?

What do you write about? "Oh, yeah", you tell yourself, "I remember, I have to have a passion." The gurus say your niche should be about your passion, but how do you figure out what your passion is?

Just like you, I wondered the same thing. Here I am, slaving away 9-5, grabbing a few hours here and there to try to get an online business started. I don't have time to "figure out" what my passion is – I just need to find a niche and go with it. OK, fine. Nevertheless, there you are, still sitting there tapping the keys trying to figure out what to write about.

That's when I started thinking about what I really enjoyed doing. What am I really good at? Is there something I can really do better than anyone else?

Here are the steps that led me to my passion. Try following these steps to release your "inner passion".

Step 1: What did you enjoy doing as a kid? I mean REALLY enjoyed, that you wanted to do all the time, for a long time, before you worried about getting laughed at because of it.

I loved to play teacher with my dog, cat & dolls as my students and I read everything I could get my hands on so I could "learn everything in the world" (I actually remember telling my parents that.) I still remember crying the first day I went to first grade because they wouldn't teach me "everything in the world" on my first day. I am sure I was a delight to my parents. Especially as I had to explain in detail to them each new thing I learned.

Step 2: Now you should be tapping out all sorts of little ditties on the keyboard about what you like to do. Just type them all out, and then type some more until you begin to see a pattern. Don't get off track with old memories, just keep typing about what you like to do. You're trying to find your niche.

For me, I could see that what I really enjoyed was helping people, with information. Yes, I did become a teacher, but that wasn't really as satisfying as I had dreamed it would be, and after several years I went into research, which has been the most satisfying work I could ever imagine. Plain and simple, I just love looking things up and telling people what I found. Now I get paid to do just that.

Step 3: Found your niche, yet? No? Then answer this question. My friends are always asking me how to _______________ (fill in the blank), or I know more about ________________ than most people I know.

Do you plan the best parties? Can you build a skate board ramp in your back yard? Are you the expert on how to balance the pH in the backyard pool? Do you have the greenest thumb in your part of the world? Do you always play bartender at parties because you have all the cool drinks memorized? or DJ because you mix the best songs? Start your article with How to ______.

Remember, we don't invent our passions or our niches, they are there, all the time, waiting for us to find them. Just like gold.

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Get Paid for Doing What You Like Doing

By Michael Harrison

It's never too late to start in your own business and what's more you will probably make more money. This simple statement should be enough to kick those with ambition to have their own business into action, but very few make the leap.

Ask any overworked executive if they ever dream of having their own business and it's likely they will say "Oh yes! All of the time". In the UK 3/400,000 new businesses are founded each year and the majority of those who make the leap claim they wish they had done it sooner.

So what are the key things to consider? One is not to do it for a negative reason like leaving the day job just to get out. Look for the positives.

* Do something you have a passion for.

* Think what specialist skills you have and how you can employ them to build up a reputation among your new customers.

* Think hard about whether you are emotionally suited to working alone. Isolation is one of the most common reasons self-employed people find themselves returning to work.

* Share your plans at an early stage with people you respect and can trust.

* Focus on and think about your transferable skills - not what roles you have filled.

* Really go through all of your working life. Work out what work you can create for yourself that would allow you to be paid to do the things that you find most enjoyable.

I really like that last point because if you get it right you will be happier and make more money.

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How to Start a Greeting Cards Home Business

By Randy Wilson

Do you like to create pictures and designs, or writing? Do you love to look at the greeting cards in your local stores? Then a greeting cards home business could be for you. This is a business with incredible growth, and income potential. It also gives the greeting card home based business owner several options in the business itself.

A greeting card home business opportunity can have you doing only one part, such as drawing or writing. This same business can be selling e-cards or cards sold in stores. It could also entail purchasing a territory from a larger card distributor.

The first step in how to start a greeting card company is to decide what part of the greeting card business you want to focus on. As a freelance greeting card artist, you would focus only on designing cards for other companies. There are costs associated with this option and could include the purchase of a computer and graphic art software if you don’t already have these items.

If you decide to be a freelance greeting card writer, your home based greeting card business would focus on only writing the phrases to be used on greeting cards. For this, you only need a computer and quick turn around time.

Of course, you can always freelance as both a writer and artist. To get jobs you must contact companies to see if they are in need of freelancers. They pay from $50 an assignment to several hundred dollars per assignment. However, until you build up a portfolio of samples, and sometimes even after, jobs can be hard to find.

Another option is to purchase a vending route from a larger greeting card company. This route becomes your way of starting a greeting card company. You are required to keep current clients stocked in cards, replace old cards with new ones and get new clients to build your income. You have start up costs that can run from several hundred to several thousand dollars in inventory. However, when you take the cards to the clients, you receive your payments right then.

If you want to start your own line of cards, your greeting card business plan would focus on all aspects of greeting card businesses. You will design and write each greeting card inside and out. Your creative freedom would not be hindered by someone telling you what they want. You would make all the decisions and it would truly be your greeting cards business.

Being a greeting cards home business owner would make the internet your best marketing tool. You wouldn’t be able to compete with larger greeting card companies, so you will want to create a special niche for your cards on the web and in small local stores.

This option requires research before beginning the creation of cards for your greeting cards home business. You will need to price printing services and software. Once you have these ready, you can being creating. Go ahead a start creating cards, but at the same time, think of a name for your greeting cards home business and create a website.

Websites are very easy to create, depending on the provider you decide on. Research domain name registries and web site providers. The more web pages and information you want to provide will influence the charge of the web site. A greeting cards home business web site should be able to be effective without many extras at first. The extras can come later.

Once your website is ready, put pictures of your cards and ordering information into it. If you create the web site yourself or pay someone else to do it, make sure the site is search engine optimized. This will bring more people to your greeting card web site and start selling your cards.

Since some people like to hold cards and feel their quality before purchasing, it may be best to have your greeting cards home business web site offer one free card, or one free sample package per household. This gets your cards on the market and helps drive customers to your web site. Also, consider creating a special “Thank You” card that you personalized by you for all inquiries and orders. This is another way to let people know the quality of your cards.

Have the cards printed as the orders come in to the web site. Offer personalized cards to increase sales. Make sure you have plenty of designs for each category. You want your greeting cards home business website to look full, but not cluttered.
You now know several of the options available to start your greeting cards home business. Now all you have to do is to decide which is the best option for you. This business can grow to be as large or as small as you want it.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.
Randy Wilson has dozens of home based business articles such as Best Home
Based Businesses, How to Start a Catering Business and Selling Books from Home.
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Beginners Guide to Blogging

by Jane Foster

Setting Up Your Blog

Blogging is a lucrative source of profit and blogs are easy to set up and maintain. Imagine a life where you are paid to write on stuff that interests you, whenever you want, wherever you are. The mere flexibility of blogging makes it easy for you to just kick back, relax and go on a vacation whenever you feel like it.

In this article, we are going to look into the profitability of a blog and set up a blog of our own at no cost! Interested? Read on!

First, we need to obtain a blog. There are several options - host a blog on your own domain or get a free blog. For starters, let's talk about the free blogs. You can obtain a free blog at www.blogger.com ; or the newer (and better!) www.wordpress.com. If you are a techie, you must have heard of Wordpress, a free blog engine that is robust and infinitely expandable.

Blogger.com is actually owned by Google, so it will be detected on Google's radar faster and you will be indexed faster. Wordpress.com, however, is a relatively new option so I have no comparison on the speed of getting indexed by search engines. However, Wordpress is better in the sense that it has more advanced features such as Trackbacks and Categories. You can also manage your sidebar links more efficiently (more about this later).

Now familiarize yourself by posting your first post on your blog and tinkering around with the options and templates.

Here are a few common "blog-related" words to help you out:

1) Permalink - Permalink stands for permanent link, which is a URL (uniform resource locator) that leads to an individual post that you make in your blog.

2) Trackback - When you post about someone else's blog post elsewhere, your post will show up in their "trackback" section. This feature, however, is not available with a Blogger.com account.

3) Pinging - Blogging seems to be paired with pinging almost every time either one is mentioned nowadays. Pinging is actually the action where a certain aggregator is notified whenever your blog is updated, so that the aggregator may show the newest post of your blog on their website. This is a useful way to gaining traffic, which we shall discuss later.

For now, I shall leave you testing out your new blog and the features that come included with it. In the next articles, we shall discuss the many ways we can gain profit from a blog, as well as tips on how to write posts that keep visitors glued and keep coming back for more!

Blog Content

Now we're going to discuss the type of content that is suitable for your blog in order to make it profitable. First off, I want you to understand that there is no fixed scope that your blog should have, which means you can write about whatever you're interested in.

However, the difference between a profitable blog and a non-profitable blog is the way the blog is written. Just imagine, would you prefer to read your university professor's lecture notes or the latest novel by your favorite author?

You may prefer to read the novel because it appeals more to your interest, or because it is not as mind-numbing as the lecture notes by your professor. However, the most important point is people like to read "light" stuff most of the time. You see, when people log on to your blog, they are not only looking for information - they are also looking for information they can obtain easily, and better still in a relaxed manner.

So, to attract more visitors as well as to keep your current visitors coming back for more, it is very important to add a human touch to your blog posts. This can be done by simply imagining you're talking about a certain topic with your personal friend. An extra bonus for your readers would be a great sense of humor, so try to add funny comments in your articles where they are suitable.

Another important key point is to avoid addressing your reader as a plural unit. What I really mean is you should not write as if you're preparing a speech. Instead, you should write as if you're having a conversation to a single person because this will make your visitor think of you more as a personal friend rather than a person of higher authority.

Besides that, it is also very useful to establish your own personality through your words. Human beings are very curious creatures, so naturally your visitors would want to know as much about you as the information you're offering them.

Having a distinctive personality in your blog would make a world's difference between your blog about gadgets and all the other blogs about gadgets out there. This is a lot like creating your own brand name, where people immediately remember your blog's name when they need to find out information about gadgets, just like how people immediately think of McDonald's for fast food or Nike for sportswear.

So, the lesson for today is to simply write as an equal friend to your visitors, write to them as if you're talking to a single person and establish your own personality on your blog.

About the Author
Jane runs the website Home-Industry - a work at home directory which regularly reviews and updates details of the latest internet home business ideas and opportunities.

To get your own money making website set up free visit: Pluginsite

To receive a free email marketing course email to: home-industry@getresponse.com

Ebooks -- Self-Publishing Your Way to Internet Success Part 1 Writing A Successful Ebook

By Shelley Lowery


With today's advanced technology, it has never been any easier for anyone to self-publish their own ebook. What's more, you can create and market your own ebook (electronic book) for an unbelievably low price.

Once you purchase an ebook compiler and create your ebook, you'll automatically have an entire stock of inventory on hand continuously. In addition, when you begin selling your ebook, you'll pocket nearly 100% of your profits for each sale. As you probably know, the Internet is all about information and automation. Internet users want information and they want it right now. That's why ebooks are considered to be the "perfect" online product. They provide Internet users with the information they desire and can be instantly downloaded.

The key to writing a successful ebook is to write for your potential customer. In other words, you must provide your potential customers with the information they desire. I know, you're probably thinking, "how on earth do I know what my potential customers want?" Well, there are a number of ways you can learn exactly what they want. For example, visit some online discussion groups in the area of your expertise. Go through all of the posts and read all of the questions. If you see the same questions posted on several groups, then this should give you a good idea as to what your potential customers want. Visit forums, message boards, and newsgroups -- subscribe to email discussion lists -- visit Amazon.com to see the top selling books and see if you can develop your ebook accordingly. Once you've determined the focus of your ebook, your next step will be to break your subject down into about 10 - 12 different areas. Each area will represent a chapter. For example, if your ebook is focusing on dog grooming, your chapters might look something like this:

Introduction to Dog grooming
Dog Anatomy
Medical & Skin Problems
Bathing & Brushing techniques
proper use and care of Equipment
Clipper & Scissoring techniques
Specific Breed Trims
Mixed Breed Trims
Safe Handling and Restraints
Rare Breed Recognition.

Once you have created your chapter titles, you can begin writing each individual chapter.

When you begin writing, keep in mind that reading on a computer screen is much more difficult than reading from paper. It not only causes eyestrain, but it is also a much slower read. With this in mind, keep your writing to the point and avoid any filler information that really isn't necessary. Provide your readers with all of the information required for each chapter, but keep it as simple as possible. Write your text in small blocks and leave a space between each paragraph. Use an easy-to-read font such as Arial or Verdana and use black text on a white background.

In addition, make sure you use plenty of white space. White space is the empty space between your paragraphs and around your text. You certainly don't want to overwhelm your readers with a solid page of black text. Not only does it look bad, but it certainly won't keep their interest.

It is very important that you do everything you can to make your readers as comfortable as possible. If your text is difficult to read, your readers will not only become frustrated, but it will also make your ebook appear to be unprofessional. Your ebook should be well organized and enable your readers to easily locate important information.

To spice up your ebook's appearance, you may want to add a colorful border, subject dividers and relevant images. In addition, enlarge your subtitles to enable your readers to easily recognize the beginning of each new section.

By adding these extra touches to your ebook, you will not only improve your ebook's appearance, but it will also keep your reader interested.

In part two of this series, we will focus on Ebook formats. Copyright © ShellLowery.

About the Author: Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com/

And eBook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book.

Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies." http://www.web-source.net/