Running an online business, Being in education & Doing voluntary work for youth education

Do you like my post title? Pretty snazzy huh. That basically sums up my life at the moment, and it's hard work. I'm taking some A-Levels at the moment (don't ask) which means I'm usually chasing down customers payments in the evenings or during free lessons. On top of that I'm doing a lot of voluntary work for various youth organizations. So yeah, I've taken on quite a bit.

So this post basically is saying, I'm doing a lot, but I don't reduce my workload and don't give up. And if you want to be successful you wont either. I'll try to blog a bit more often now, but no promises.

EZhost.org - A Month On

I haven't made a post in almost a month, criminal of me I know. EZhost.org has been going from strength to strength and at the moment we're just trying to make our customer database more efficient! We're also looking into offering a referral program. I think that's important, getting your customers to promote you practically "free" is a great way to expand even further and it builds trust for your website because everyone's saying EZhost is great, not only because it is great but because they get some free hosting if someone else signs up. I've also bene monitoring EZhost.org uptime at Pingdom and all looks good, we'll probably make this information available to our customers at some point. A customer database is vitally important by the way, for you upcoming websites! Start early and save yourself some hassle.

ProjectWonderful.com

Project Wonderful is a great concept, I'm currently trying it out for marketing purposes. I'll let you know how it goes. You're welcome to try it out yourself ofcourse. Click here.

Quick Tip: Delayed Success

You can throw everything you've got at AdSense, 1800banners, SEO, Viral hype and Social Advertising and nothing happens...days go by. No new customers.


Suddenly, a week and a half later 4 or 5 new customers turn up at your website and by your product/service. Why does that happen? The answer is that an alarming percentage of users wont click on your ad or react to someone's suggestion immediately. But when they get put in a situation later on when they may desire a product/service of your kind...if you're marketing was effective it should kick in and the customer will google your website or visit your web page.


I hope this somewhat obvious yet often overlooked tip is helpful. Don't get yourself down when you don't see an immediate ROI from your advertising campaigns.

Quick Tip: Facebook and Twitter

Creating hype via Facebook and Twitter will create a huge amount of success if your product or service is free (or you offer something free). Otherwise you will find you'll struggle.

Quick Tip: 1-to-1 Marketing Online

Don't underestimate the power of one-to-one marketing just because you're online. One-to-one marketing has the highest return rate because the customer knows you've gone out your way for them.


If you post on forums, facebook..what have you, if you see an opportunity (someone questioning or asking about your market) you reply to it then follow it up with a personal message containing links to your site. MSN, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger again are all good ways to one-to-one with clients on a networking site.

Adapting And Changing A Marketing Strategy

Although some people would say you should create a rigid marketing plan and stick to it, I prefer a more dynamic approach. Sometimes data you didn't have comes through half-way through your advertising campaign and you'd be a fool not to adjust.


For example if you owned a web hosting company, you'd see that google has est -60% searches for terms to do with" web hosting and domain registration" from the UK now compared to 2004. This should lead you to the conclusion many people already have web hosting providers and you should focus on making them change web hosts and the benefits.


On a side note, you'd be a fool not to use Google Insights.

The Best Reason To Switch Web Hosting Providers - Ever

EZhost.org are currently doing a deal where if you contact them in live help you can quote your existing costs from your existing provider and they'll try and offer you the exact same package or more at half the price. Custom built web hosting packages, now there's something.


Give it a go! After all you've got nothing to lose.

Quick Tip: StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon can produce lots of free semi-targeted views for your site. Don't rely on it though, Stumblers have a record for not hanging around and you'll really have to convince them to stay.

Competing In A Highly Competitive AdWords Campaign

Quick Tip: If the cost per click for all useful keywords relevant to your site has gone way past your budget limit. Create a new website or service offering something free and easier to promote on AdWords. Then advertise this *new* site and repeatedly mention the old one on the site. Sure it's a round-a-bout way of doing things and obtaining traffic but better than not having any AdWords traffic to your site and it allows you to compete without needing a large budget.

Quick Tip: Technorati.com

If you own a blog and haven't signed up with Technorati.com you could be missing out on free traffic. (5G3V47WWVSZD)

EZhost.org Offer Free Basic SEO Advice

Go check it out, the staff will review your site and email you suggestions: apply now.

Basic Online Advertising Campaign Guidelines

I used "Free SOAP":

• Free - People love free stuff and will usually happily hand over some details to get it.
• Social Advertising - Twitter, Facebook, MSN, LinkedIn, Forum Signatures etc...
• Oral Advertising - Real Life, Phone Calls, Talking, Creating verbal hype.
• Articles - Blog or Newsletter, demonstrating your expertise.
• Paid Advertising - AdWords, 1800banners, various advertising network.

You should give away something free or at the most shareware. It wouldn't hurt you to have a competition and give something away and collect potential customer email addresses for an opt-in mailing list. Social advertising is free as is Oral Advertising and Articles should link in with your free stuff and services if possible.

This structure should send you on your way for a successful internet advertising campaign.

Market Research

Market research is not as hard as it sounds people. Some believe market research can be harder online because of the large, random amount of people which could be interested in your product/service.


Ask people on forums, chat, IM's and not-so-close friends in real life. Create some figures, how many were interested? What would they like to see changed? Break this down into literature and math. Written reports and crude figures you can use for some cash projections.


Don't overlook this step when starting your online business. It costs only a small amount of time.

My 5 Top Favourite Websites For Businesses

IconFinder.com 
IconFinder.com (originally IconFinder.net) is a great resource for any web designer of if you're just looking for some cool graphics. You can filter out images which are not available for commercial use.


EZhost.org
Yes. Unlimited bandwidth for 99p. Yes, it is my own website. No, I have no dignity. Visit it.


1800banners.com
Its debatable whether this site will increase human traffic to your site or not. I still haven't made up my mind, it gives you free visitors though increasing the popularity of your website. Whatever species they may be.


Google AdWords
The king kong of advertising. If you've got a business and haven't tried AdWords yet, you're doing it wrong. On the other hand many businesses choose to neglect Yahoo!. Be warned, just under 25% of searches are done at Yahoo!... sometimes an alarming statistic.


Shell LiveWIRE
Back in my earlier days this site was a saviour. A vast amount of information for the novice businessman.

How To Get The Best Deal Out Of A Web Host

Every business owner needs three things in the on-line world: a domain, a website and somewhere to host it. I'm going to focus on the first and third part, finding a good hosting provider and domain. 


Lets start with domain names. First I'll note there are many different opinions on choosing domain names and my opinion isn't necessarily right but it based on my experience and professional instinct. The golden rule is be different. If your business is named after you (perhaps your a freelance web designer) then www.yourname.co.uk or www.yourname.com is the best way to go. This is because it makes people remember your name and they're very unlikely to go wondering off to other web pages. If your don't need www.yourname.co.uk consider registering it anyway as here you can talk about yourself personally and link to your professional website.


If you need to choose a professional kind of domain and you still have free reigns over the name, again go for something different. In the field of web design you might choose something like www.flowerpower.co.uk or www.buzzbizz.com. Something memorable.


Finding a good web host can be tricky. You should look for deals as cheap as possible but then really look through the small print hard to find the cons. Others will stick by the old saying "you get what you pay for" but in my opinion, it's just burning money. I personally would go for EZhost of course for web hosting starting at 99p.


I hope you enjoyed this short article.