New Business Ideas: Photography & Blogs, Blogs, Blogs

By Sweetie Staff

A few more business ideas have been added to Business Idea Library. The first will take you outside the home for a fun photography career and the rest are ideas for your next themed blog.

Kid Sport Photography Business: Love kids, sports and photography? Why not put them all together in this rewarding business.

Recipe Blog: If you love to cook, have some fun and make some profit sharing your favorite recipes.

Craft Blog: Avid crafters can blog too. Share your craft ideas and patterns.

Review Blog: Dish on your favorite (and not so favorite) products and get free stuff!

That’s it for now. We’ll be back with more ideas soon.

My Sweetie - New Pic!

By Alice Seba

Are You Making as Much Money as You Need to Be?

By Alice Seba

You probably have a reason you started your online business and for many of us, the main driving reason is financial. Sure there are other perks about being able to work for ourselves, work at home and usually do stuff we love to make money - but behind it all is usually a financial goal.

For some, it’s pocket money. For others it’s a supplement to a full-time income outside the home, raising funds for our children’s educations and for others, there is a need for a full-time income from the business.

My question. If you’ve set a financial goal for yourself, are you there or getting close? If not, what’s keeping you from getting there?

Myth: If You Don’t X, You’re Leaving Money on the Table

By Alice Seba

It’s well-intentioned advice and you’ve probably even heard me use the words before, but the next time someone tells you:

“If you don’t X, you’re leaving money on the table.”

The reality is, every single one of us leaves money on the table in many, many ways. Even big companies with huge resources leave money on the table. We can’t possibly take every money-making opportunity and apply it to our businesses. Whether it’s for lack of time, lack of skills, lack of resources or it just not fitting into our business plan, there’s no need to sweat everything we could be missing out on.

Of course, that’s not an excuse not to take action and to use the many marketing opportunities available to you…but rather know your business and know what’s right for you. There will be plenty of money on that table.

Online Audio 101

By Lisa Hartwell

In this series of guest blog posts I’d like to explain the importance of using audio in your online marketing: why you should use it, how to overcome your fears, and some of the best applications for audio to promote and enhance your websites.

Why Bother with Audio?

There are several reasons why you should be using audio and video within your websites and to promote your business. I’m going to focus on audio in particular, as there are many more qualified than me to tackle video, but the reasons for using them are the same:

• The Internet is all about communication. Sound is one of the best ways in the world to communicate because people can hear your passion and sincerity
• You may be an excellent writer but people respond and learn in different ways. Some prefer the written word, some audio, and some video. You want to attract and talk to as many people as possible, using the method they will respond to best
• The written word can be powerful, but you will make a more personal connection and increase confidence and trust by letting folks see and hear you. Developing a relationship is key to marketing and your potential customers are going to feel they know you better if they hear your voice and see your face
• You may not be a great writer and your personality will likely come across better in audio and/or video
• Audio and video offer you the opportunity to spread yourself around the Internet and utilise websites and directories that thousands or even millions of people search every day

What’s Holding You Back?

We all come up with reasons why we never quite get around to doing the things we know we should. When it comes to creating audio, the main reasons seem to be:

1. It’s time consuming to learn the technical aspects and create the audio
2. Not having the right equipment, either because of the cost or because you simply don’t know what to use
3. Not having the technical ability to create and distribute the audio
4. Your voice. Let’s be honest, we hate hearing our own voices on recordings and we assume most others will too (if you like your own voice then you are probably already using it)
5. Fear of failure. Like so many new and untested experiences, we often fear failure enough to prevent us even attempting them.

I’ll be addressing all these issues in future guest posts and hopefully helping you see how easy it is to create audio and publish it online. I’ll also be giving you some ideas of how and where you can use that audio.

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• Lisa Hartwell