Can you imagine using the word "blog" ten years ago? Very few people would have had any idea what you were talking about. The word doesn't really roll of your tongue. Today, almost everyone knows what a blog is. And millions of people have their own blog. Blogging is a great form of self-expression. But it's also a great way to generate some revenue online. The biggest problem many bloggers have is getting started with... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Joel Ownby) Accepting payment online for your products and services sounds like a pretty simple endeavor, and at a low level it is. Understanding what is happening behind the scenes is an entirely different proposition. Understanding the nuts and bolts of payment processing will grant you the ability to provide better customer service, generate more accurate cash flow and projection data, help you to better understand technical issues involving payment processing... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Tim Golen) This article is for three primary audiences. It's for the business owner who does his own programming and development. It's for the business owner who has hired or contracted a developer to work for him. It's for the developer doing the work. I will be discussing the single piece of software that can increase your efficiency more than any other investment. Yes, it is an investment in your business... Continue Reading

Providing your audience, customers, and potential customers with free, valuable information is a cornerstone of running an online business. If you give enough stuff away for free, and make sure that that stuff is high-quality and indicative of your high standards, then enough people are going to want to pay you to get to the rest of what you know that you will be able to make a nice living from your online income. One... Continue Reading

I wasn't always a fan of roller coasters. When I was a little boy they terrified me. I think my mother took me on one and in my mind that would be the last time I would ever ride one. I remember seeing Space Mountain at Walt Disney World and thinking to myself "no way!" Sometime around fifteen years old that changed. I was at Marriott's Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, with my best friend... Continue Reading

Sitting down to have a conversation with someone who is an expert in your niche or field of interest makes for a great blog post or article for your site. Not only are you exposing your readers to this knowledgeable person they may not know about, but you are also giving yourself the opportunity to learn things you didn't know and possibly to even find a mentor for you and your business. But don't just... Continue Reading

Of all the ways to make money online, writing a well-thought-out, well-researched, and relevant ebook can be one of the best ways to start earning some income on the side. Here are some things for you to consider as you endeavor to create and write your own ebook: Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Chris Harper) When I was about nine years old, my parents won a drawing for a $1000 shopping spree at a local store in my hometown and decided to use the money to buy a camcorder. As I recall, there were only about six to choose from, and they all recorded onto VHS tapes. The only differences to consider were brand, size (though none were small), and ease of use. Needless... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Chris Harper) If you have spent time on YouTube, then you've probably seen at least one user's YouTube channel. And if you've seen more than a few, then you may have noticed that the design and attractiveness of those channels varies widely from user to user. Some of them are highly attractive with custom imagery, while others make your eyes hurt to look at them. If you have a YouTube account... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Joel Ownby) In the early days of the Internet, commercialism had not made its entrance and no one was thinking about tracking traffic, much less analyzing it. Nearly a decade later, we had progressed to tracking visitors in the form of "hits," which did not tell you effectively even how many individual people actually visited your site. Now after nearly another decade, we find ourselves in a virtual analytical paradise comprised... Continue Reading

Perhaps it is the way creatives are wired or the difficulties of collaborative projects, but too often creatives have a file management system that is.....well, "creative." Organization is often not one of our strengths. Yet keeping advertisements, stock photography, designs, proofs, versions, illustrations, and production files organized will maximize your efficiency and your ability to collaborate with all the members of your team. Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Jared Newgent) We've all heard it, and we all know about it, but what is it really and what is it really doing? Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Tim Golen) It's no secret that technology changes faster than most people are comfortable with. In an adoption of Moore's Law, Gerry Butters (former head of Lucent's Optical Networking Group) claims that the amount of data coming out of an optic fiber is doubling every nine months. Since the Internet is held together with these fiber "tubes," it means that new people and resources are coming online at an alarming rate... Continue Reading

Pretty Link is a great WordPress plugin that provides an alternative to the other link shortening services out there. Like some of them, it helps you to shorten unwieldy URLs like affiliate links while also providing tracking, but Pretty Link takes things a step further and makes your links, well, pretty. And since the way it does this is by allowing you to use your existing domain name, it provides a nice little extra brand... Continue Reading