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JAN'S IDEA BOX

Simple ideas, motivation, and brainstorming for beginning entrepreneurs. Folllow my journey as I learn about internet business, blogs, and websites. Get to know some fellow internet entrepreneurs and enjoy some off topic ideas, too, while you're here.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

WORDPRESS UPDATE

Well, I did it !

I had help from my son. We both had some free time at the same time (rare lately) and he walked me through getting a template of choice on my blog. Part of the problem was the ftp client I had downloaded. He suggested Core FTP and it was easier than the one I had from the WordPress site. I really enjoy working with WP for blogging.

Today was another milestone, freeing me to move forward. I felt like I was swimming against the tide trying to make time for my blogging. Now I'm glad I hadn't gotten any further. My time will be used more efficiently now that I use WordPress and my own domains.

Many thanks again to Bob!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

GRADUATED TO WORDPRESS

Today I used WordPress for the first time.

I struggled most of yesterday trying to figure out how to get WordPress to my domain. I finally had to give up and go to work rather fustrated. This morning, refreshed I read some answers from the blogs I posted on and found something I overlooked.....the link in my e-mail from Fantastico (I used Fantastico from my cpanel on my domain to upload WordPress) to admistration on my blog! I still haven't figured out how to get my WP blog template of choice up, but I was able to familiarize myself with WP. I just love it. I really like how it catagorizes things. As much as I have to learn, I found it fairly easy to use.

The hard part is getting it to the domain. If I had a few bucks I would have taken one forum's poster's suggestion to give some high school kid some gas money to do it for me!! It would've been well worth it. I do like the satisfacation of figuring it out myself now that part of it is over. I am out of energy and time to figure out how to get the template I want on the domain. Actually its a sub domain because I hope to have a website companion to the blog.

I will probably keep this blog here for quite awhile and use my time and my energy for new projects on my own domains instead of changing this one over, for now.

FORUMS

Here's a couple more forums I post in.

Biz Social, Yaro's Forum and Earner's Forum has blogging topics in their forums. (Be sure to check out their entire forums!) Yesterday I spent hours on my own trying to learn to upload a WP theme to my sub domain. I finally went for help in the forums last night and am waiting for an answer. What I like about going to forums about questions is that if someone is too busy or doesn't know, they don't answer. I don't feel like I'm bothering anyone.

On Biz Social there is the FAQ link at the top. Its a great resource of answers to basic questions. If you are new to this, be sure to check it out.

As we sit alone with our computer its easy to feel isolated. Joining a few forums is great to fill a bit of our human need for socialization, learn something new, rub cursers with the "big boys", get personalized answeres to our questions, and see there are others out there struggling just like us.


Wednesday, August 23, 2006

TEMPLATE FOR POSTS

First post with a post template!

IT WORKED! I hit new post and I just typed over the words and everything is in the font, size, color, and justification I want!

If you find yourself repeating the same basic post design, make yourself a template and streamline your posting. I'm sure there is an easier way to make your own template, but this is how I did mine. I figured it out on my own through trial and error. It's simple really and you don't need to know Html.

I started a new post.
  1. I wrote "first line"
  2. I double spaced and wrote "post here"
  3. I highlighted the first line, changed the font name, size, hit bold, changed the color, and the justification.
  4. I did the same for the second line, but skipped the bold.
  5. I went from "compose" to "edit html" >highlighted all>copied (control/c)
  6. Title it "template", and save the post as a draft, in case I had to make changes.
  7. I went to my blog>settings>formating>post template.
  8. Pasted (control/v) the code in "post template".
  9. Go to "new post" and type over "first line" and "post here" to create a new post.
  10. Publish it, hit refresh, and see if it works.
  11. If it works, delete the draft of the "template" post!
  12. Post as needed...

YOUR TALENTS

Discover and use your talents to progress on your entrepreneur journey.

I love to write! A request for a few hundred words of content, quickly turns into 2-3 times that much.

Here is how I use that talent as I travel the path of the internet entrepreneur:
  • Write for my blogs
  • Trade for tutoring, sites, etc.
  • Sell content for sites
  • Post in forums
So what are your talents? You probalby have more talents than you realize. To find your talents, break what you do into specific tasks. For example, I work at a call center. By no means is this my talent or am I proficient at it. I take catalog orders. My job description includes taking orders (I flounder with the computer functions), entering customer information (I constantly struggle with entering numbers correctly), and being a personal shopper-not an order taker (here lies my talent). I love the personal shopper area. I don't even have to think about taking care of the customer, helping her, connecting, and having her feel good about shopping. A large percentage of them comment on how nice and helpful I am before the call is over. They have fun shopping with me. My genuineness shows over the phone. I am talented at customer service.

Next, ask yourself a few questions and remember to be specific:
  • What do you do for fun?
  • What do you do that people would pay/trade for?
  • What do you have knowledge about?
  • Does your current job provide you with experience or knowledge?
  • What do you get complimented on?
  • Do you volunteer services or a talent.
FOR FUN
Photography, writing, being outdoors, designing, creating, and talking.

PAID/TRADED
Photography, writing, caregiving, customer service, blog set up, graphic design, and child care.

KNOWLEDGE
Disabilities, home education, writing, caregiving, home birth, management, customer service, and the outdoors.

JOB EXPERIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE
Disabilities, customer service, business proceedure, management styles, writing for newletters, photography, recreation, and incentive programs.

COMPLIMENTS
My mood, constant smile, helpful, photography, writing, dependable, being a friend, creativity, hard working, being a mom, great ideas, dancing, fun to be with, and friendliness.

VOLUNTEER
Writing, photography, child care, donate platlettes, help with blog set up, graphic design, and Boy Scouts (outdoors).

Doing this exercise I found out I look very talented on paper (if only I could give myself a raise)! This list gives me a more realistic view of myself,
I never saw myself as all that talented. Looking over the above lists I can see some talents are reacurring. There is also a variety of talents to choose from.

Look over your own list. Now that you know your talents, pick three to focus on and brainstorm how you can use them to reach your goals as an internet entrepreneur.

Here's some content I've researched and written for trade or pay. I have great self satisfication, seeing what I wrote on a site!

airsoft gun page
chicken pox info site

Sunday, August 20, 2006

MOVE OVER GOOGLE AD

After much flailing about I moved that google ad that was rubbing annoyingly on my articles, over. I have to give special thanks to my fellow Netpreneur Forums member, L146705, for his/her time and help. I will be posting soon on some simple help for google ad placement and a few basic html codes that I even I can figure out how to use!

Today I placed a few referral buttons in my sidebar. I haven't heard or seen a lot of people use them, but I think they can't hurt. My blog targets very new people, so they may be interested in Firefox, and AdSense. I found topics just for blogs in a couple forums, will make a post with links soon.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

CREATING A CONTENT SITE

Passive income can be brought in by a good content site.

Inspiration for the Internet Entrepreneur had a good article to get anyone started on developing a content site.

Starting out, you might not have funds available to ad graphics or photos. You can still create a quality site. There are lots of sites that privide them for free or very inexpensively. When doing the search, start with "free" and then add what you are looking for. You can help out new artists, they may be willing to provide original work free or inexpensively for the exposure. You can also offer free ad space as an exchange to someone starting out. The Simple Source
is a completely free internet download resource where you can find high quality website templates, logos, icons, and scripts to help you create your website.

If you are fairly handy with a camera, take your own pictures for your site.
  • Be creative and take a photo of just a corner of a computer or a close up of a portion of a leaf. Look at professional artists for inspiration.
  • Family and friends will probably model for you for trade (lunch, copies of the photos, etc) or very inexpensively.
  • A local business may allow you to photo items in exchange for a CD with the photos for them to use for their ads (guitars in a music store, gear in a painball store, etc).
  • You will have original and unique graphics.
  • Rename the photos with topic relevent words (entrepreneur at computer, airsoft gun with female, etc)
If you have some skills, but not all that you need to develope a site, partner up with someone who has the skills you lack and can use yours. He's a previous post in Ideas about a partnership option.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

DO YOU KNOW THIS ENTREPRENEUR?

Don't be restricted by what others may think!

I could tell you right now who I am writing about, but I want this to be more than an article filled with trivia about a well known entrepreneur. I want to break through stereotypes and restricting formulas of how to be a successful entrepreneur, the “type” that grows up to be entrepreneurs, that failure is bad, or stop when you find success….I want your mind to open up to the possibilities that anyone can be an entrepreneur.

This clumsy farm boy was born at home on the family homestead that was built by his great grandparents. His ancestors were immigrants from Germany and Switzerland and came to America in the 1700’s. His parents were part of a strict Mennonite sec. He was often uprooted by his father who traveled from town to town chasing business ventures that failed. When his mother grew tired of it, his parents became estranged and his father continued pursing his dreams, never to succeed.

His job history started with being fired from his first job at a small German newspaper at 14 years old. At 18 he started his own business. This young man worked hard with the help of his mother and aunt for 6 years to only have his business fail. After the failure, he moved from the east coast to Denver, CO. Within a few months he learned a new skill and took it to NY to start another business. Within 4 years, this business also failed. This unsucessful entrepreneur returned to his birth state, 28 years old and penniless. He didn’t even have any belongings because he couldn’t afford to bring them with. He relied on the kindness of a former employee to store his belongings till he could have them shipped to him. Eventually the former employee helped him pay to have his things sent. He couldn’t even get a job on his uncle’s farm because he was considered an irresponsible drifter by most of his family.

It took him till he was 40 years old to find love. It was cut short after 17 years (a short marriage in those days) when his wife became ill and died leaving him alone and childless. He never remarried and had no heirs when he died in 1945.

This determined entrepreneur was not defeated by failure. In 1886 this young man gathered up what he had learned and the skills he developed over the years and he started yet another business. It looked promising; he got his first big order. The trouble was he lacked the finances to purchase the raw ingredients to produce his fresh milk caramels. Though he had nothing to secure a loan, he went to a local banker. The banker was so impressed that he backed a loan for this entrepreneur with his own signature. The entrepreneur, still in his apron, literally ran down the street to pay the bank, when the money came in! During the next 14 years, the Lancaster Caramel Company became very successful and was sold for one million dollars to a competitor, the year was 1900.

The company wasn’t sold to provide a comfortable retirement for its owner; he sold it to devote the profits and himself to his year old business…The Hershey Chocolate Company. Milton Hershey is the entrepreneur that your have been reading about.

While Milton Hershey’s caramel company grew and became a success, he learned to make chocolate the hard way, teaching himself by trial and error. At the time, chocolate making was a guarded secret by the Swiss. It was while Milton Hershey was attending the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago that he first became fascinated with chocolate making. He originally developed the chocolate company to provide chocolates to cover his caramels. The chocolate company had 100 vanilla sweet chocolate novelties (we know these chocolates as semi-sweet or dark chocolate today).

Hershey didn’t allow failure, discouragement, or even a successful business, keep him from moving forward His legacy lives on today and shows no sign of slowing down. To read more about milton Hershey and his way of doing business, go to Hershey's website.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

MY FIRST DOMAIN AND WEB PAGE!

I just got done with an IM tutorial with my son and he walked me through uploading a sentance..."Jan's first webpage" on my newly aquired domain! A small step to many of you, but for me it's a big step! I'm SO excited!

The first project will be a sub-domain for a blog. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to explore Wordpress for that. I want to start with a blog, since I have some confidence in that area. After that...on to websites!

Today, at this moment, I see the doors to my internet future fly wide open. My heart yearns to run, leaping forward into the long lush grass of my internet future, but my time and skill hold me back. For now, I will struggle with small, shuffling steps forward and will be thankful that I am moving. I refuse to be like so many who choose to stand still complaining about what they can't do, waiting for the time to be "right". When my skills increase and time becomes right, I will be several steps closer to being able to lay down in the grass and look up into the clouds, while my internet income shines down on me!

It was said best in Toy Story by Buzz-"To infinity and beyond..." Well, I'm on my way! A special thanks to Bob, my son!


Sunday, August 13, 2006

FORUMS I POST ON

My first love when it comes to forums has to be Netpreneur Forums. It was my first experience posting and it was a very postitive experience. Here's a little about the forums I post in regularly.

Netpreneur Forums

My son Bob introduced me to Khalid and he invited me to post in the forum. I just loved the interaction, learning, and of course writing! Khalid walked me through the basics and was very patient as I learned.

  • Professional
  • Well run
  • Welcoming and friendly
It is a new forum so the community is small. There is a number of members with limited experience, but the ones with more experience are happy to share what they know. The community is supportive and encouragaing. The members are positive and eager to learn and help. I have run into a few members on another forum and they are just as friendly there.

Young Go Getters

I'm glad they go by young at heart and not physical years! I had visited the website and was invited to post in the forum by Eric. I haven't been as active as I would like. Maybe a later post when I know the forum better.

  • Professional
  • Forum is viewed on webpage
  • Informative
This is a fairly new forum also. There is a good number of more experienced members. I like that the forum is part of the webpage. It's one click to the web page and everything is right there to view!

Wicked Fire

I was reading some great information in the blog that Bob suggested and I found the forum. I have a lot of fun in that forum. I like the large community and the increased opportunities to post and learn that go with its size. I do have to be careful when my daughters are around due to some of the language and a few posted pics. UPDATE 9-5-06: The fourm now has icons by the posts to identify it as "not suitible for workplace" (I also interpret that as not suitable for childresn) or if there is nudity to make it more user friendly. There are also the icons to identify the post for other areas as well such as different business areas, if its a request for help, suggesting checking something out, etc.

  • Large forum
  • Experienced and successful members
  • Special catagory for newbie questions
  • Educational
  • Very diverse group
There's teasing and fun and a lot of interaction among its members. Members will tell it like it is. It's a big forum, that's worth the time to look around, you will find lots of help, opportunities, and knowledge. The most extreme of newbies (like me) and the experienced high earners come together to learn and teach and have fun.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

EXCHANGE OF VALUES

It's so easy to be discouraged when starting out and the steps are slow and awkward. It's easy to look at the high earnings of the "big boys" and painfully see the gap between you and them. It's a distraction and discouragement to do that and unhealthy. Use them as motiviation, learn from them, and keep the possibilites in your vision....this is healthy! In the mean time, be realistic.

If you have to measure your growth by weeks or months at first, then so be it. If you genuinely know you are doing your best with what you have, this will be good for you and a source of encouragement. This is not an exercise intended to give excuses to be lazy! It is a way to stay motivated and measure your progress realistically. If you have someone at your level, buddy up with them to be accountable.

Measuring progress

  • 33 cents in itself is fairly meaningless in a week or a month standing on its own. For someone who made 33 cents every couple weeks or for a month-to do so, in a week or day, is a measurable impovement.
  • Evaluate where you are and where you've been.
  • Set an attainable goal with an attainable date.
  • Once you meet it, figure out what you did to accomplish that (repeat or revise as needed), and set another goal.
  • REPEAT (this is how to progress and move forward)
Exchange monetary value for a concrete value when goal setting.

  • Go through your goals and make a list of the monetary value (33 cents, a dollar, etc).
  • Now go back through your list and figure out what you could purchase with that and exchange it.
  • Examples:
    • 33 cents=1 candy bar on sale
    • $1=one item from value menu at McDonalds
    • $2.85=a gallon of gas
If your site earns you a candy bar, or a burger, or a gallon of gas a week or a month, it takes on new meaning and value! Take it one step at a time. Before you know it your site will pay for its own hosting, a nice dinner out, a week of electricity, etc.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

FIREFOX

There is a referal button for Firefox in my sidebar. I added it because it was an opportunity to earn more money from Google. I hadn't tried it myself yet, but knew almost everyone else was.

When I was having trouble on the YGG (Young Go Getters) site. There was a poll and I couldn't vote in it, because I couldn't see all of it. While in the forum, I mentioned I found out that with Internet Explorer I see things differently and maybe that's why I couldn't see the 40+ option. It was suggested I get Firefox (thank you Eric). Well, I stopped putting it off and added it in. I"m sure some of you are still in shock I was limping along with Explorer....I told you I have a lot to learn!

WOW! It made such a difference! I see the internet world as it is meant to be seen! I could vote on YGGl Its faster and more secure. The change over was easy and it imported all my favorites and organized them. I can't wait to have a little time to read all the tools available. The bookmarks (favorites in Explorer) is so much better with more options (I love the tabs). It's easier to use.

Now I see how my blogs really look to most viewers. I will have to re-refresh my blog, but that's OK.

I am editing this already, this is the first post I published with Firefox and I had to come back and let you know the difference.....it was SO much FASTER....I just love it!

Monday, August 07, 2006

PET LOVERS UNDERSTAND






    Charlie
      1997-2006










          At 9 1/2 years old, Charlie could barely walk, so today he was given peace and put out of pain.
            Charlie came into our lives through the humane society. When he was about three months old, his owners moved and left him behind. After a couple days a kind neighbor called the humane society and they picked him up. He had just been placed in his cage in the adoption center, when I walked by. They hadn't even gotten his sign up yet! I had always wanted a Rot with a tail, and there he was. I preferred female dogs, but couldn't resist him! He's been with us ever since.
              Two funny stories.
              1. When he was less than a year old, we were rolling coins and he "stole" a roll of pennies. While I was trying to get it out of his mouth, he swallowed the whole roll! We induced vomiting....a plastic grocery bag came up, but no pennies! Tried again, no results. The next day the pennies finally came up! We would call him "the goat" because he would eat all kinds of stuff.
                • He had his own cat. We simply named the stray cat that he allowed to share his food-"Charlie's Cat". He'd even clean her! I attempted to photograph it and ended up with a picture right before contact and it looks like he was sticking his tongue out at her! (I'll dig out that pic another time). He's tried to make friends with our current cats, but they aren't interested!

                Well Charlie, hope there's a cat who loves dogs in heaven and say "hey" to my parents. You'll be missed......love you, kisses!

                (Charlie was previously in this blog).

                Friday, August 04, 2006

                REFRESHED

                Between taking a few hours off work (avoiding burnout) and being given a few hours off work (one of the residents is gone for a few days), I have been able to refresh both blogs. Since I added AdSense (I think it was the end of May 2006), I made money (31 cents) the first time June 15, 2006. Between then and yesterday I have made a total of 48 cents. Well today I have made 44 cents! For me, its pretty exciting, because I don't really know much of what I'm doing and haven't promoted my blog.
                  Changes I made (the first two may have had a direct impact on income).
                  1. Changed ad placements on blog-included ads in posts.
                  2. Posted in some new forums.
                  3. Re-wrote the description.
                  4. Submitted to a few directories.
                  5. Added my photo to my profile (pic will show up on comments in other blogs, not sure I like both pics up though, but I really like the AZ background on the top one!).
                  6. Added YEBlogger widget (I even figured out how to make it pink instead of the original dark grey!).
                  7. Worked on sidebar.
                  8. Added Firefox/Google referral.
                  9. Added Google search bar.

                  This blog is for learning and I'm learning a lot and making steps towards self-confidence in this area. I've enjoyed the extra time to work on it, the past few days.

                  Bob helped me to get a re-seller hosting account. When he has time (his wage earning job picked up lately), he will walk me through the next steps now that I have my confirmation information. I have plans to start a new blog with WordPress.

                  Valuable lesson-be sure you spell the domain you want correctly! I was tired and in a hurry and I mispelled the name! I quickly e-mailed resellerzoom.com and they held up everything till I sent them an alternative. The correctly spelled name was taken, so I now have 6dConnection.com. Will explain what it means in the furture and my plans for it. That project will be internet entrepreneur related. For now the project is just called 6dC.

                  Future plans-learn how to center some of the side bar additions.

                  Tuesday, August 01, 2006

                  POSTING IDEA

                  Do your posts cover a variety of topics and project updates regularly?
                    Bob, (Inspiration for the Internet Entrepreneur) incudes several topics/project updates in his posts. This is how he orgainizes his posts.
                    1. Lists the topics/projects that will be covered at the top of his post.
                    2. Writes details on each topic.
                    3. Topic/project headings stand out so the reader can easily scroll down to the topic of interest to read it.
                    4. Topics flows nicely together making the entire post easy to read.
                    If you post several times a week, you could assign days of the week to a particular topic or project. If a reader is following a particular topic/project they will know when to check for new content on your blog.
                      Occasionally, you may find yourself posting once or twice daily for a short term project. Bill (30 Days to a Passive Income), posts twice daily as much as possible. He has his to "do list" in the morining and "review" in the evening.
                        Creating posts that fit in with efficient time management will increase traffic to your blog. Let your readers know what to expect.

                        FORUM POSTING update

                        My rank-Entrepreneur
                        Number of posts-102

                        I am an "entrepreneur". I postd my 100th post and that changed my rank on Netpreneur forums.

                        I have been enjoying many benifits to being part of this forum.
                        1. Quality contacts
                        2. Education
                        3. Support
                        4. Invites to link exchange
                        5. Invite to visit another forum

                         
                        Web Jan's Idea Box