1. Rancang Bisnis dengan Cermat

Rancang rencana bisnis online Anda dengan cermat. Pertimbangkan segala aspek seperti target pasar, kemampuan pesaing, sumber daya, bagaimana membangun loyalitas konsumen atau menjalin kemitraan strategis. Pakai referensi memadai, misalnya belajar dari situs bisnis di internet.

2. Temukan Sasaran Pasar Spesifik

Bisa jadi ide bisnis online Anda brilian, namun itu tak ada artinya jika tidak ada sasaran pasar yang spesifik. Temukan celah pasar yang belum digarap pesaing. Jika Anda bertarung dengan pemain besar, pastikan bisnis Anda memiliki diferensiasi yang menarik konsumen.

3. Cari Sumber Keuangan

Rencanakan dari mana Anda akan mendapat modal sebagai sumber dana bisnis online. Pinjaman bank bisa jadi pilihan yang baik. Jangan lupa untuk membuat administrasi keuangan yang rapi sehingga arus keluar masuk tampak jelas.

4. Buat Situs yang Handal

Anda memang bisa memanfaatkan blog yang gratis untuk memulai bisnis. Namun jika berniat serius, belilah domain dan sewa perancang situs yang handal. Pastikan situs Anda tidak rumit, memudahkan pengakses serta selalu update.

5. Promosi Jitu

Salah satu aspek terpenting dalam bisnis online adalah promosi yang jitu. Bisa dicoba bermacam metode, misalnya via Google AdWords di mana pengiklan hanya membayar sesuai jumlah pengakses situsnya. Manfaatkan pula e-mail atau situs jejaring untuk mempromosikan bisnis Anda pada banyak orang.

6. Permudah Transaksi Konsumen

Konsumen harus dimudahkan dalam melakukan transaksi dan pemesanan di situs Anda. Berikan pula tingkat keamanan situs yang memadai sehingga konsumen percaya detail identitas mereka tidak bocor. Tanpa transaksi dari konsumen, bisnis Anda pasti ambruk.

7. Motivasi untuk Terus Maju

Selalu butuh waktu agar bisnis internet berkembang. Sebagai entrepeneur online, Anda perlu energi, antusiasme, determinasi, dan gairah untuk maju. Perlu disadari bahwa sukses besar di bisnis internet cukup langka. Namun tak perlu pula kecil hati karena cerita kesuksesan bisnis online sudah amat banyak.

Despite these variables there are some central characteristics of good site design that have emerged in the last few years, and which are generally perceived by pundits as being core features of good design. While design and creative layout remains an area dictated by personal taste and perception it is important to be aware of generally accepted characteristics in order to assess the comparative visual creativity of one’s own Web site.

A feature that is emphasized repeatedly by many designers is the tendency towards simplicity of design and structure of a Web site. Achieving simplicity of design however is not as easy as it might sound. The modern trend is towards a more minimalist interface and page layout, which facilitates ease of access to the site and usability features. One of the reasons for this trend is that as the number of Web sites proliferates at an even increasing rate, there is a need to create sites that have a clear and obvious message and aim.

Simplicity of layout is therefore a characteristic that is evident in some of the best Web sites around. Very often this refers to a simple one or two column structure. Pages are also read from top to bottom. The days of the complex and involved site structure that requires time to figure out in order to navigate are definitely outdated. A good example of the modern stylistic approach is a site like Protolize (Protolize.org).

One of the main design principles that many Webmasters have lived by in recent years was that it was wise to reduce the amount of scrolling necessary to view a page. However, the modern tendency is for a centered orientation in Web design, rather than the previous left aligned, fixed-width layouts. Many top modern sites have the content centered on the page, which often requires some scrolling. While excessive scrolling is certainly not a good design characteristic, the modern view is that some scrolling is acceptable when it is offset against the better use of white space and content that is situated around a central axis.

In line with the above, there is also a relatively new tendency to focus on the design of the content and not the page itself. In other words, there is less focus on designing a page background for instance and rather paying more attention given to the way that the content is presented on a Web page. This follows from the view that effective communication and not mere decoration should be the main focus of a good Web site.

As designer Phil Brisk states, designers often become focused on detail rather than on paying attention to the way that the content is presented, “With your ‘design’ head on, concentrating on crafting and perfecting style elements, it’s easy to forget to step back and see things through the eyes of your users.(http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/dont_decorate_communicate.cfm) He also makes the important point reflected in many modern successful Web sites that, while it is important to make use of eye-catching design elements to create flair and excitement on a site, “…these elements must always be relevant and appropriate, and not distract from a clear, coherent whole effect.” (http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/dont_decorate_communicate.cfm)

This statement encapsulates a central aspect of the modern trend in site design. In more practical terms this refers to aspects such as more open and less boxed-in page layouts as well as the use of color and visual effects to draw attention to the content rather than the aesthetics of the page. As another pundit states, “the focus is on making the site’s subject look good, rather than making the web designer look good”. (http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm). In the light of these views, aspects such central content alignment become important as it focuses attention on the content, as well as providing a sense of balance and simplistic creative design. A good example of a site that takes this view to the point of minimalism is that of Garrett Dimon’s blog (GarrettDimon.com). This site is designed for maximum access to content.

There are many other design aspects that conform to the modern perception of a ‘good’ website that are worth mentioning. Navigation is conventionally situated on the left side of the page or on the topbar. The latest trend is to rather place navigational elements on the right side of the page. This may be a trend that is linked to the way that navigation in most Blogs function. Similarly, right side navigation also has the advantage of making the content more visible and prominent.

There are many other aspects such as color usage, which have tended to become more low key and less garish. In terms of font size, the general trend has been to move away from very small illegible font sizes to larger fonts to make online reading more user-friendly. All of these trends point towards the central factor in contemporary Web design; namely that content, and access to instant information are key factors in modern Web design.

People that are calm and cool will love this iPod. Blue is calming. It can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly.

Almost everyone likes some shade of the color blue. Use blue with metallic silver accents an elegantly rich appearance.

Check the Personality of Blue to see if this is the color for your iPod, or check the symbolysm of Blue to see if this is the gift you want to offer in your gift.

Personality of the Blue

These are the do-gooders. Intimacy, connecting, creating quality relationships and having purpose is what motivates and drives these people.

They bring great gifts of quality and service and are generally loyal, sincere, and thoughtful.

Blues are motivated by altruism. Blues love to do nice things for others. They look for opportunities to give up something in order to bring another person happiness.

Selflessness rather than selfishness is their guiding philosophy. Many Blues are uncomfortable doing things solely for themselves.

They hold doors for people, offer rides when someone’s car breaks down, contribute to charity, even devote their whole lives to helping others.

Blues crave intimacy. More than anything else, Blues want to love and be loved. A Blue will sacrifice a successful career to improve an important relationship.

Once considered a female characteristic, this nurturing is more accurately understood as a Blue personality trait.

Blues are gratified when they are listened to, when they feel understood and appreciated. They are notorious for revealing their inadequacies because they value being known and understood so much.

In the eyes of a Blue, being vulnerable is small price to pay for the chance to be close. Blues may have their hearts broken more than most people, but they also spend much more time in love.

Blues expend such great effort in making the world a better place that sometimes they need to be told how wonderful they are.

They need to be thanked and specifically remembered for their good deeds. They need sincere gratitude.

They delight in being remembered on birthdays and other special days, especially if the remembrance is personal a homemade anniversary card, a welcome home party, a special day that isn’t on the calendar. Blues need tender loving care.

Blues are directed by a strong moral conscience. Blues are motivated to behave in a proper, appropriate manner.

They have a moral code that guides them in their decision making, their value judgments, even their leisure time.

Blues enjoy being good. Of all the personality colors, Blues come equipped with the strongest sense of integrity.

A Blue would rather lose than cheat. Blues are trustworthy. Blues are the people who should be in positions of power, but seldom are.

Symbolism of Blue.

Blue is the coolest color, the color of the sky, ocean, sleep, twilight. The ancient Egyptians used lapis lazuli to represent heaven.

Blue symbolizes the Virgin Mary. A pure blue is the color of inspiration, sincerity and spirituality. Blue is often the chosen color by conservative people.

Blue is the calming color. That makes it a wonderful color to use in the home, especially for babies. Blue is so soothing that is a good choice for pajamas.

Dark blue is the color of truth and moderation. A blue iris means your friendship is very important to me.

Wednesday’s color is blue. Blue gemstones to wear to feel calm are blue sapphire and blue topaz. Lapis lazuli and azurite are said to heighten psychic power.

Blue Energy

Blue gives a feeling of distance. Artists use it to to show perspective.

This is a good way to understand the energy of the color blue, it allows us to look beyond and increase our perspective outward. It contains a cool vibration that is helpful to communication.

The vibration if blue can be used to open energy flow where it is blocked. Using blue to relax will encourage feelings of communication and peace.

Culture of Blue: In many diverse cultures blue is significant in religious beliefs, brings peace, or is believed to keep the bad spirits away.

Blue conveys importance and confidence without being somber or sinister, blue is associated with intelligence, stability, unity, and conservatism.

Using Blue: A deep royal blue or azure conveys richness and perhaps even a touch of superiority. Navy blue is almost black and is a bit warmer than lighter blues.

Combine a light and dark blue to convey trust and truthfulness, banker’s colors.

Although blue is a year round color, pastel blues, especially along with pinks and pale yellows suggest springtime while deep blue is a colder weather color.

Create a conservative but sophisticated look with subtle contrast by combining light and dark shades of blue.

Using Blue with Other Colors: Mix the color of blue with green for a natural, watery palette. Add gray for understated elegance.

Sky blue and robin’s egg blue, especially when combined with neutral light brown, tans, or beige are environmentally friendly color combinations.

Throw in a dash of blue to cool down a hot red or orange scheme. Grab attention with the contrast of blue and yellow.

Dark blue with white is fresh, crisp, and nautical. Red, white, and blue is a patriotic color trio for many countries, including the United States.

Web hosting depends upon the mutual understanding between client’s side and server side. Web server’s stores and exchange information with other machines. When client request the information, web server provides the stored information. There are software pieces on the both sides to make the data exchange viable. For example browsers like Netscape or Internet explorer are required on the client side.

It’s a bit more complicated on the server side, there are numerous software options available, and they also make data transfer possible between servers and clients via Hypertext Transfer Protocol. HTTP is the available communication protocol on the web. It makes data exchange possible between the web browsers and servers. Server software can be chosen on the basis of your operating system. People using Unix operating system usually go for Apache web server. Microsoft Internet Information Server is said to be good for windows. The process goes step by step like this:

• First of all, URL is dissected in to number of address, path name and protocol by the web browser.

• The domain name server (DNS) translates the domain name which user has entered in to its IP address. Domain names are fro the sake of making websites memorable.

• Now the browser has to decide the protocol to use with. Whether it should be FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

• A GET request has been send by the server to the web server in order to retrieve the given address.

• Browser now translates the data given in to HTML and display results to be read by the user.

• Until the client browser leaves the site, the same process is repeated.

I once had an affiliate send over 5,000 viewers to one of my sales pages without making a single sale. Normally this program converts at over 1%. All of his traffic came from one traffic source and none of the visitors spent more than 10 seconds on my site. I debated over whether I should contact him about it because I’m sure he was paying for the traffic and I believe he was scammed. So learn a lesson from this experience. Before contracting with someone to buy traffic for an affiliate program, get some references or ask about them in forums. Make sure that the traffic is legitimate and can convert into sales.

An important component to generate affiliate sales is targeted traffic. If an ezine specializes in providing information for Exotic vacations, do not advertise an affiliate program for pimple cream. You will be wasting your money. But an affiliate programs for discount rooms in upscale hotels might work very well. Target you advertising to your ideal audience.

Another good place to advertise is forums specializing in your niche. You can find these specialized forums by doing a search. Once you’ve located several of them, develop a signature file that promotes your site. Enter at least 8 posts each day for each forum you are registered with. Provide meaning information in your posts. Don’t just say, ‘Great post,’ or ‘I agree.’ People will see through this and no one will click on your link. By giving good information, people will come to see you as an expert in the field and you will begin to develop traffic.

Do you want to learn other money making techniques? Get my FREE ebook and start making money online!

Right? Of course! But take a second thinking about your website structure. You probably have a default page, like default.asp, index.html or something similar, which work as your homepage. For instance, on my website Toastforums.com, we have a default.asp file. Going to www.toastforums.com and www.toastforums.com/default.asp will bring you to the same page.

So - does it matter which one you use? As I will show you shortly - YES, it truly does matter, and you should think about this EVERY time you make a link to your frontpage.

Let’s take a closer look at the two pages above - the domain name itself and the /default.asp page. It is of course the very same page - it’s only the address in your browser that tells us the difference.

But take a look at the pagerank! (If you don’t have the free Google Toolbar installed in your browser, I suggest you get it now, since I will assume in this article that you have the PageRank information displayed).

At the time this article was created, the pagerank looked like this:

http://www.toastforums.com/
Pagerank 6
http://www.toastforums.com/default.asp
Pagerank 4
As I said before: It is the excact same page! But the Pagerank differs by 2 points what so ever! What does this tell us?

Page Name Consistency is key!

Google will naturally take the two URLs as two separate pages - and calculate the Pagerank for each! And since some of my incoming links go directly to the domain name, I still have a lot of incoming links to the /default.asp page.

But isn’t two well-ranked pages better than one?

As I am writing this, I am also working on changing all the incoming links to go to the root url. So far, this has earned me an extra point in Pagerank (went from 5 to 6 this week), and my best guess is that I will be at PR7 or PR8 within a few months from now.

But as I said earlier, I hope this has proven to you just how important it is to be CONSISTENT with your incoming links - and your internal links for that matter! It doesn’t matter if you link to the root domain or the default.asp page - as long as you are consistent!

I will follow up on this article every time the Pagerank of our websites are updated. So don’t forget to visit BetterGooglePosition.com.

Answer me one more time…

So… What is your homepage address? Take a few minutes to go back to your site and make sure that you are consistently linking the right way. You will not see the results instantly, but you should be able to see some improvement of Pagerank over time…

There have been reports about sites that are making close to $500,000 per month from the google adsense affiliate program alone. Usually most sites are able to run several different affiliate programs at the same time. The really exciting thing is that quite often what you are talking about in these cases are businesses run by a single individual on a part time basis. Of course this makes them very profitable because there are minimal overhead expenses to think about.

Actually the truth of the matter is that one of the key factors that determines what a part time work at home affiliate business will earn for the owner is their skill in promoting and advertising the part time work at home business. Clearly the more competent and successful they are at this, the more money the small home business will make.

There are various tools and techniques that are usually used. For example we have ppc (Pay per click) ads that are very popular with many small home based entrepreneurs because the advertiser ends up paying only for the hits or click-throughs that arrive at their site. This usually comes when the ads appear besides organic search engine results.

Promotional articles and classified ads are also used increasingly to help generate very targeted traffic. However articles usually require somebody who is sufficiently skilled to make it work for them. Classified ads are a lot easier to use successfully for somebody who is just starting out.

How to recognize a genuine internet business idea

The way to recognize a genuine internet business idea is to test it.

It is absolutely amazing how despite the fact that it is so easy to test and try out ideas online, very few people bother to test their business ideas before plunging into them headfirst.

One of the simplest ways to test ideas is to ask the people directly what they think. It is not too difficult to do an online survey that could save you a lot of grief and wasted resources later.

Yet another way is to use the most powerful research tool ever invented and that is, the blog. The huge advantage with blogs is that it is fairly easy to not only test business ideas but even specifics and tiny details in your business plan. All you have to do is craft your posts accordingly to provoke the comments and views that you will be looking for.

You can even go further and test the waters by actually launching your website and placing it on beta stage. That means that the whole project is not yet fully developed and is still being tested and further developed. Many online enterprises and even big names like Google and Yahoo have successfully launched carious online projects by starting them off in beta stage. It gives you the opportunity to back track and even abandon the whole thing if it does not prove workable because after all you have said clearly from the onset that you are simply testing the waters.

These are just three examples of what you can do to help you recognize a genuine internet business idea.

source : articlesbase.com

What’s an expired domain name? It’s a domain name that never got renewed by its owner so that it’s out there, ready for use by someone else. This can be true for a variety of reasons, such as that there was no interest in the original website, that the owner ran out of money, or even that the owner him- or herself died. Whatever the reason for the expiration, when a renewal fee is not paid to continue using that name, it still functions just like any other domain name. There’s one difference, though, and that is that an expired domain name doesn’t have a website anymore. Instead, searchers trying to find this page get something to the effect of “404 error” when they come to the site itself.

This is a waste of traffic when this happens; when an expired domain name points to a “not found” webpage, basically, the person searching for the information has gotten nowhere. Many domain name companies have realized this, so many sell expired domain names either through an upfront and direct sale or by utilizing an auction. With either of these methods, sometimes a domain name can fetch anywhere between under $100 to over $1 million. In some cases, these sales also include the original website.

How do you as a webmaster know if an expired domain name is worth buying for your own use? First, check to see the Google page rank of a domain name that has expired. To do this, download Google’s toolbar and type in the website name of the expired domain name. If the page indicator is grayed out, the name itself is worthless because Google has banned it. The rank itself will tell you how popular the page is, although most not banned would be all right. What you really want to look for as a webmaster is for a page rank number between 6 and 10. This means that the website, in its first incarnation, was very popular.

You also need to find out what’s called the “Alexa” rating of a domain name that has expired. This determines how much traffic has actually gone to a particular domain name. If a website has not received a significant quantity of traffic, there will be no Alexa rating. To tell what the Alexa rating for an expired domain name is, go to Alexa.

Finally, you need to see how many websites link to the expired domain name. To do this, go to Google (usually the best search engine to do this) and type in the command “link:” (with no quotes) followed by the URL of the expired domain name (with no spaces between the colon and the URL). If many links are returned, this means that traffic coming to the expired domain name was legitimate and not somehow simply falsely “generated” to give an artificially high page rank.

But this article is about the other kind of sitemap: The kind that is made for the search engines, like Google, to use in indexing your site. There are several forms that these sitemaps can take, but we’ll get to that a little later.

First of all, let’s consider why you even need a sitemap. Google and the other search engines will index your site even if you don’t have a sitemap. However, there are four main advantages to having a sitemap:

1. If your site uses non-HTML links, such as Macromedia Flash menus or JavaScript menus, the search engines will not be able to follow these links, and so they will not find all of your pages. A code-driven site must use a sitemap.
2. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are more important, and which are less important. This prevents the less important pages from competing with your own pages in the listings.
3. A sitemap tells the search engines which pages on your site are updated more frequently than others. This enables the search engines to ignore your static pages, increasing the likelihood that they will have the most current data on your most dynamic pages.
4. A sitemap enables you to tell the search engines when you have added or updated your site’s content. To some extent, this puts you in control of making the search engines aware of your latest content. Of course, it doesn’t force the search engines to do your bidding, but it tends to make it easier for users to find your new pages more quickly.

So, what is a sitemap?

As mentioned above, there are many possible forms of sitemaps, but we’ll concentrate on the most useful kind, the XML sitemap format created and promulgated by sitemaps.org. This protocol, currently known as “Sitemap 0.90,” is maintained and endorsed jointly by Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Ask, so you know it is pretty much a universal standard.

An XML sitemap consists of a list of pages on your Web site, and standard information about each page. Here is an example:

http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Index.htm
2008-04-07
never
0.3

…

http://www.freelancesubmit.com/Services.htm
2008-04-07
weekly
0.8

…

Don’t worry about the technical details of formatting the XML. We’ll talk about tools that will create this for you in a moment.

There are three things to notice about each entry:

1. LastMod. Tell the search engines the last date (and time) you changed this page. That will tell them which ones they ought to index right away, and which ones they can ignore.
2. ChangeFreq. In case you’re not updating your sitemap all the time, this will give the search engines a clue as to how often they ought to check each page.
3. Priority. This tells the search engines the relative importance of this page, compared to all the other pages in your site.

In assigning a value for “Priority,” on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, determine which pages are most important and which are least important within your site. We’re not telling the search engines that this “Services” page is in the 80th percentile of all pages on the Web, but it is far more important than the “Index” page within this site. That’s where we want our visitors to end up.

It’s easy to identify pages within your site which are lowest priority. Some examples:

- Privacy Policy
- “Contact us”
- “About us”

Please don’t misunderstand this. It’s not that your “Privacy Policy” page is unimportant and so you might as well not have one. It’s that your “Privacy Policy” is important enough to take for granted: Your visitors will find it when they need it. But for search engine purposes, you’d rather direct them to the pages where you actually do your business.

So, how do you create a sitemap?

There are a number of software tools that will create a sitemap by reading your site’s content. You will have to adjust the results, especially the “Priority” settings, but most of these do a pretty good job. Search the Web for “sitemap generator,” or for any of the following specific free tools:

- SitemapDoc
- XML-Sitemaps
- AuditMyPC Google Sitemap Generator

And once you have your sitemap, what do you do with it?

There are three things to do, in sequence:

1. Place the sitemap file into the root directory of your Web server, alongside your main “index” file. And each time you update it, place the new copy there.
2. Notify the major search engines of your new sitemap file each time you update it. For Google, this means to submit it from within “Webmaster Tools.” For other major search engines, search on that search engine for “submit sitemap,” and you’ll probably find where to enter the URL of your sitemap file.
3. Place a reference to the sitemap file in your robots.txt file, as “Sitemap: http://www.freelancesubmit.com/sitemap.xml\”. This will make sure that any search engine will find it, even those that you did not submit it to directly. You only need to do this once, unless you change the name or location of your sitemap file.

Once you have your sitemap created and submitted, don’t forget to maintain it. Each time you add a page to your Web site, add it to your sitemap. Each time you update a page on your Web site, update its “lastmod” setting in your sitemap. Try adjusting the “priority” of your pages from time to time to see if it improves the performance of that particular page. And each time you modify your sitemap, resubmit it to the major search engines.

See Who Provides Service in Your Area

The first step to finding the best Internet provider for a high speed connection is to determine who offers service in your area. Since not all Internet providers offer service in every area, it is a good idea to first call around and determine what your choices are with regard to providers. From that point you can narrow down the options to the best choice for high speed connections.

Determine the Best Internet Provider With Regard to Plan Offerings

When switching to a high speed connection or selecting a new Internet provider for your computer’s high speed connection you will have to peruse the plan offerings of various companies to determine which one is the best for your Internet needs. Within each high speed connection category you will come across various package options and you will have to narrow down the choices based on which package looks the best. This is another way to help you choose the best technology provider for your high speed Internet.

Figure Out Which Company Offers a Desirable Plan for the Best Price

You will also undoubtedly come across high speed plans which are similar in nature between the companies yet be different prices. Therefore, the best thing to do is determine which type of high speed package you wish to obtain and then call around to the different companies to see who offers the best deal on that desired Internet package. After all, who wants to pay more for an Internet package offered by one company when it is offered for a lesser price by another company? Shopping around for the best price is a wise thing to do in order to save money in the end.

Look at What the Company Offers in Addition to the Package Itself

Lastly, when shopping for an Internet provider which offers high speed connections you must also consider what the company offers their customers in addition to the package itself. In other words, factors such as customer service skills, availability of company representatives, technological advancements being made by the company and extra benefits offered by the provider should all be things considered when choosing your high speed Internet provider.

source : articlesbase.com