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The Top 3 Keys To Building A Home Based Big Money Business

admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:07:46 +0000

When I look at the title of this article several things stick out. Many people want to build a home based business that pays them very well, but most do not achieve that goal.

In this article we want to analyze what it takes to build a home based big money business so that you can succeed.

1. When you look at the word building that lets you know you are going to have to start from ground zero and work hard. To develop a lucrative home-based business is going to take a lot of effort on your part.

Most people start on a part time basis and really do not comprehend the effort that it requires to make big money from home. This does not necessarily mean you have to create a second full-time job.

You can do this on a part time basis if you will focus your efforts and take the time to develop Internet marketing skills. The key is to work hard when you’re working and make your time count.

2. You must find where people are currently spending money in order to sell products. This makes sense because if you want to make money you need to have products that are in demand.

It’s much easier to go into a market where money is being spent then it is to develop a new market yourself. The Internet,thankfully,will be a big help to you along these lines.

One thing that many home based business owners will do is to target a specific niche. This allows you to focus on something that will pay you well or might be of interest to you and is one way to eliminate some of the competition.

3. Automate as much of your business as you possibly can. There is no way that you physically do everything it takes to build a business to a large level.

Eventually you’re going to have to outsource some of your daily tasks. You’re also going to have to automate your business in ways that make it easier for you to maximize your efforts.

A great way to reach thousands of people with the click of one button is by using an auto responder. Another example is using a submission service for your article marketing campaigns.

Doing pay per click advertising with search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing is still another example. Once you have your campaign in place it can continue to operate and bring you quality traffic with very little time required on your part.

These are three keys to building a home based big money business. Understanding these three keys will be paramount to your own success

Dreamweaver 10 Site Management Tools

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:08:54 +0000

Hey, you lookin’ ta save some time—save some time in Dreamweaver? Cool, you’re in the right spot! So check this out: Here’s a list of 10 super-slick tricks to save time while managing your websites in the titan of web design, Dreamweaver. Now this list assumes that you’ve got a good foothold in Dreamweaver, and that you’ve gone through the site definition process as well (that’s Site > New Site), cuz many of these features simply won’t work without a defined site. Kay, enough blabbin’! Grab a snack, lean in close, and let’s take a look!

Time-Saver #1: The Ass Haulin’ Starts With Assets!

Assets are one of the coolest parts of the Dreamweaver interface. Within a defined site, open up the Assets panel (Window > Assets), and you’ll see a column of icons down the left-hand side of the panel, which categorize all the materials you have at your disposal in your site, including images, video files, flash content, and even things like colors and external links. Pop open a category; then take a look at whatcha have. For example, go into the Images category, and you’ll see a list of file names in the bottom half of the panel, and a thumbnail view of the image in the top half. This means you’ll never lose another image again. Sweet!

Time-Saver #2: Mach-10 File Transfer With Dreamweaver’s Files Panel!

Forget about using third-party FTP clients—didja know Dreamweaver’s Files panel has everything you need built right in? Just click the Expand To Show Local And Remote Sites button in the panel’s top-right corner, and the panel maximizes to show your remote site on the left, and your local site on the right. Then what? Drag ‘n drop, baby! Or even better—and this is my favorite part—select a file in one view; then at the top of the panel, click either Put (in the case where you’re uploading a file to the remote site) or Get (to pull a file down to your local site). The reason why this is my favorite part is cuz if the file resides within a sub-folder or two, Dreamweaver will actually build the folder structure for you on the other side, so all your links and paths remain intact. How cool is that?!

Time-Saver #3: Light-Speed Link Management With Change Links Sitewide

Ya goofed on a link throughout your site, huh? No need to throw in the towel just yet. Dreamweaver’s Change Links Sitewide command will getcha outta your jam. To give it a try, just choose Site > Change Link Sitewide. In the dialog box that appears, use the two fields to correct your link—although the language used in the dialog box might twist your brain for a sec. In the Change All Links To field, type in the old link—that is, the link that you want to change; then in the Into Links To field, type in the new link that you’d like to use to replace the old links. Make sense? Kay then, let ‘er rip! Just one word of caution: Before doing any sitewide command, including Change Links Sitewide, it’s a real good idea to take five seconds and back up your site, just in case you royally goof.

Time-Saver #4: Rapid-Fire Find And Replace!

Dreamweaver’s nuclear-powered Find And Replace is the freakin’ bomb. You’ve used Find And Replace in other programs, right? But have you ever used one that’s on mega-steroids? Check out this juicer by choosing Edit > Find And Replace (in a rush? Hit Ctrl+F in Windows, or Cmd+F on the Mac). At first glance, it doesn’t look like anything special, right? Well, pop open the Find In menu and have a gander at all the different places you can search. Current Document, Open Documents, Entire Current Local Site, and so on. Next, whadda ya wanna search for? Pop open the Search menu and make a choice. This is where things get real heavy. Source Code, Text, Specific Tag, or my fav, Text (Advanced). Go nuts, have fun, and be careful!

Time-Saver #5: Cookin’ With Cloaking!

As you’re working on updating your site, you can save a lot of time by enabling cloaking. If a file or folder in your site is cloaked, it will be ignored by certain site functions, such as Put (uploading) and Get (downloading). For example, if you have folders of PDF and MP3 files already uploaded to your live site, there’s no sense in uploading them again when you update other parts of your site. Instead, just cloak ‘em and Dreamweaver will ignore them. Cloaking’s turned on by default for your defined sites, so if you didn’t turn it off, you should be good to go. To cloak a file or folder, select ‘em; then from the Files panel option menu (top-right corner, bub!), choose Site > Cloaking > Cloak. There ya go! There’s just somethin’ cool about the word cloak. “Captain! There’s a folder of PDFs de-cloaking off our port bow!” Anyway, have fun!

Time-Saver #6: Soupin’ It Up With Site Synchronization!

So many files, so many folders…how can ya keep track of it all? Easy. Get Dreamweaver to do it for you, so you can watch TV instead! Here’s the goods: Dreamweaver has this awesome command (I use it all the time) called Synchronize. What it’ll do is take a look at the remote version of your site and the local version of your site, compare the two; then tell ya the difference. In other words, it’ll tell ya what’s updated, what needs to be uploaded, and what’s out of date. It’s pretty sweet stuff, and it makes keeping your site up to date a freakin’ breeze. Give it a whirl by choosing Site > Synchronize Sitewide. In the dialog box that appears, choose what you want to synchronize, and the direction you want to synchronize in; then hit Preview. Easy as that!

Time-Saver #7: Last Minute Link Checkin’!

One of the last things that should be done before a site goes live is checking that all the hyperlinks and paths to other content is all functioning. Of course, back in the day, this used to be done manually. Thank god Dreamweaver has a built in command that’ll do this for us (yay, no more wasting weekends checking links one by one!). So here goes. Choose Site > Check Links Sitewide. Dreamweaver’s Results panel appears, open to the Link Checker tab. Within, Dreamweaver lists (to your horror!) any broken links. Better you find out about ‘em now though, right? Now here’s the cool part: Lets say there’s a busted link on your index page. You could click on index.html in the left-hand column, but why? Just single-click on the link path in the right column, and you can fix it right there—without even opening the file! How awesome is that? So, just make your way down the list, make your fixes, and Bob’s your uncle. Or maybe he’s my uncle. Anyway, you get the idea!

Time-Saver #8: Faster! Faster! It’s Site Reports!

Dreamweaver comes packed with a set of site reports just waitin’ to be run against your site. You can use reports to troubleshoot your site, test content, or make sure certain tasks have been completed. Give ‘er a go by choosing Site > Reports. In the Reports dialog box that appears, choose what you’d like to run your reports against; then from the list at the bottom, choose what reports you’d like to run, like Recently Modified, Accessibility, or for the SEO-conscious designer, Missing Alt Text. Yup, she’s a sweet ride—so whatcha waitin’ for? Get reportin’!

Time-Saver #9: Warp-Factor Nine, It’s Design Notes!

Whether you’re working as a part of a design team or all by your lonesome, Design Notes provide a great way to keep track of those bits of information that usually wind up scribbled on scraps of paper, bits of toilet paper, or scrawled in the palm of your hand. A document’s status, a project’s deadline, edits, communication between team members—Design notes are a great way to keep things straight. Drop a note into a file by choosing File > Design Notes; type a message into the Note field, and hit OK. That’s all there is to it. Set it to open every time the file’s opened, and the Design Notes dialog will appear, letting the user know what’s up. Sweet!

Tim
e-Saver #10: Auxiliary Power: Check In/Check Out!

Team members pissin’ ya off? Is it their B.O., or the fact that they keep over-writing your work? Sounds like it’s time ta implement Dreamweaver’s Check In/Check Out feature. This guy’ll ensure that team members don’t overwrite each other’s work as they build and update a web site, and they’ll be able to see who’s working on a particular file, so they know who to strangle while they’re waiting for a it to become available. To use Dreamweaver’s Check In/Check Out feature, all team members must have the Check In and Check Out setting activated for the site they’re working on, and Design Notes turned on. This is all done in the Remote Info tab of the Site Definition dialog box. As for that B.O. issue with your team members, I’d recommend gentle suggestions; and if that doesn’t work, Febreeze. A lot of it.

Alternatives to Bankruptcy

admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:31:45 +0000

As anyone who has seriously examined Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection knows all too well, filing bankruptcy may be the absolute worst thing that borrowers can do to improve their financial position. For desperate folk suddenly realizing that there is little they can do on their own to achieve debt relief, bankruptcy might seem like an attractive possibility. After all, from our earliest memories, Americans are taught to respect bankruptcy as the (for whatever reason) dignified end to debt crises. Whether playing board games or watching cartoons, we’re taught that bankruptcy is just what is supposed to happen once any borrower has debts that they can no longer responsibly manage. In our culture, bankruptcy is simply expected to be the final debt solutions to personal economic strife. Even as the nature of consumer debt changes from hospital bills and department store accounts to the burdens of credit cards too easily granted and too quickly filled to their limits, bankruptcy maintains a mythic allure as an all-inclusive cleanser for financial woes.

Much as the debt protection of bankruptcy may have seemed a godsend for the generations that came before, there are now any number of new bankruptcy alternatives available for those debtors who have faced financial misfortune. More to the point, once a consumer takes time to fully analyze the Chapter 7 bankruptcy program, they may very reasonably wonder whether or not bankruptcy would be the correct choice for any debtor regardless of their own situation. Successfully filed and discharged, bankruptcy protection could indeed offer consumers new beginnings. In the best scenario, the fortunate borrowers could even start their financial lives over from ground zero, but that is only after they have suffered a harrowing ordeal that risks the utter ruination of their credit rating as well as the potential loss and seizure of any even vaguely valuable possessions.

The relief that people may feel when entering the bankruptcy program is understandable, really. Given that most borrowers seriously considering bankruptcy have already had to deal with (the sometimes hourly) harassment from bill collection agencies and watch their mailbox fill to bursting with past due notices from credit card companies, it is not that surprising that the average consumer – struggling to pay their credit cards and other debts – would jump at the chance to have a specialist take over their affairs. The very idea that debtors would no longer be held responsible for their actions alone comes as a sort of salvation that impels otherwise cautious heads of household to essentially hand over the reins of their economic futures. Certainly, the bankruptcy lawyers charging more and more outrageous fees are not going to argue against what may as well be thought of as their own product. Despite the amount of time the lawyers may spend with their clients (they are paid by the hour, as you probably know), very few attorneys will spend even five minutes counseling borrowers about exactly what they are getting themselves into. Eliminating unsecured debts (credit cards, primarily, as these things tend to go) should be a priority, but wise debtors must recognize the limitations of bankruptcy protection under the current statutes. Above all else, they should know not to trust their attorneys for advice beyond their specialty.

From the moment that potential clients enter their lawyers’ offices for an initial consultation, the attorneys tend to assume that the bankruptcy has already started and begin to ask questions about the best way to proceed. Of all the ways to decide whether bankruptcy is the best solution to credit card debt elimination for a client and his or her family, expecting fair and balanced advice from the lawyer potentially paid to handle their case presents problems that should be obvious to all borrowers. It is not always the lawyers’ fault, exactly. Becoming a successful attorney requires the sort of mindset that tends to ignore or flatly disregard competing notions of financial stability and methods of resolution. If anything, this mentality should be what any borrower would want to look for in their attorney, and such presumptions force the real problem. At this late stage of the game, debtors should be more interested in finding a debt management specialist who can knowledgeably tackle all of their specific issues and questions – even the questions that borrowers aren’t even aware that they have.

Thinking, as they tend to do, that they will be able to buck the odds and turn the system to their advantage, there are a number of elements to the modern bankruptcy that most attorneys are loathe to mention despite the overwhelming importance of those elements to the people planning to file. Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, the debt elimination bankruptcy program that was once upon a time the only sort of bankruptcy, is now far more difficult to successfully enter. Congressional legislation from just a few years ago has irrevocably changed the rules concerning the Chapter 7 process. Nowadays, borrowers attempting to file for Chapter 7 must be able to prove that they earned less than the median income for their state of residence. For debtors living in lower income regions of typically high income states like New York or California or Massachusetts, this can be absolutely ruinous. Even worse, the filers’ incomes are determined by a relatively random period set months before they actually file. If someone attempting to declare bankruptcy depends upon a seasonal rise in business or a commission that effectively makes up a dramatic percentage of their annual income, the earnings extrapolated from that small sample size could be thoroughly skewed.

More importantly, debtors who are denied access to the Chapter 7 program by court appointed trustees should understand that they do not simply get to start over and try another avenue toward debt reduction. Instead, these borrowers are automatically switched over to the Chapter 13 debt restructuring program. With Chapter 13, debts are not eliminated. In fact, under this type of bankruptcy, borrowers are effectively forced to repay their lenders as quickly as possibly under court assessed budgets compiled using Internal Revenue Service data. As with Chapter 7 bankruptcies, the incomes that the government calculates could still be completely inaccurate depending upon the earning period from which they determine their figures and also utterly unfair since the courts do not bother to look at the specific region in which the filer lives. Within Chapter 13 bankruptcies, though, things get even more convoluted because the budget under which the borrowers are expected to survive (giving all additional funds to the accumulated creditors, naturally) also depends upon their state of residence. Meaning, people filing for bankruptcy in Seattle will be expected to have no more than the average costs of living for the entire state of Washington. In this way, the newly bankrupt have been forced to take out second jobs, pull their kids out of private schools, or even, in some extreme circumstances, sell their homes in order to relocate.

Of course, for many of those borrowers whose financial situations are so grave that they must first contemplate the bankruptcy so-called solution, they do not need further impetus to take on a second or even a third job. This is yet another of the, for lack of a better word, hidden expenses of bankruptcy. Most borrowers have already girded themselves for the costs of bankruptcy attorneys – though they are always, ALWAYS greater than even the most well prepared debtor could dream – and the miscellaneous costs that arrive whenever the government is involved. Even the actual filing of bankruptcy shall require hundreds of dollars up front (for some reason, neither the lawyers nor the courts will allow those seeking to file bankruptcy any amount of credit). There is also the cost of essentially purposeless debt management courses from government certified
instructors that filers must successfully pass before first submitting paperwork and before their ultimate discharge could be processed. As you should now expect, these courses (far from cheap – since only a few ‘schools’ per region pass government certification, they have no reason to follow the market pricing) shall be paid solely at the borrower’s expense.

Perhaps the greatest true cost, though, is the sheer amount of time spent compiling all necessary documents and verifying that all information given to your attorney and the bankruptcy trustee is accurate beyond a shadow of a doubt. Remember, no matter what your actual intentions may have been, inexact data given to the federal authorities could be judged as fraud in criminal proceedings. Forget one teensy portion in a step-brother’s mining operation? What about that great-uncle’s time share absently gifted? And are you really sure you recorded every single bit of your income from six months ago? Every single bit? So sure that you would risk imprisonment should things turn out to be accidentally falsified? This is what bankruptcy protection actually entails. Much as there may seem a temporary relief from stress once you have passed on your credit card debts to another source, there arises an entirely different crest of tension. The bills may have stopped, true, but what exactly was on those reports? What was and was not spelled out? Beware of any supposed solutions that involve budgetary conditions prescribed by the Internal Revenue Service and guarded by the ever more ambitious watchmen of the federal justice department.

At the end of the day, for even the luckiest of those consumers filing for bankruptcy protection, Chapter 7 still cannot guarantee the elimination of all of their personal debt loads. Secured loans, those debts maintaining attachments to actual property like cars or homes, tend to demand said collateral before giving an inch toward debt resolution. Child support and alimony – as well, if needs be said, tax liens and those financial obligations resulting from criminal trials – are obviously not to be touched, and, after a late 80s legislative fiat, student loans are also out of bounds. The medical community and various health insurance political action committees have been trying for some time to make sure that hospital bills will also be rendered immune to Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, and, make no mistake, the credit card companies are dancing as fast as they can to ensure every single credit account receives the same treatment.

This is not to say that there is no point to bankruptcy as we currently understand the process. As long as there is a chance to eliminate credit card debt, certain types of borrowers profoundly unlucky in their own personal finances should do whatever is necessary to attempt to clear the registers. However, for most ordinary consumers, just cutting back on purchases and maintaining a reasonable household budget shall eventually have the same effect. Whenever there is even the slightest chance of fixing personal finances without resorting to professional help, the debtor must take every last attempt to manage their own obligations however seemingly severe the deprivations. The American economy is in trouble. We are entering a recession. Still, that does not mean every worker need presume the worst nor that they should give up – which, for all intensive purposes, bankruptcy suggests. Cutting costs will never be pleasurable, debtors will have to adjust to a different lifestyle, but, once consumers look closely at the bankruptcy option, they will almost always choose any other alternative for eliminating their credit card debts.

Even beyond careful budgeting practices, there are other maneuvers that consumers may attempt. Many credit card companies or similar lenders will offer forbearance or a stay of payment due dates if borrowers can show some cause for the delay however vague or gliding upon the rim of truth. Sickness, unemployment, familial tragedies – any decent excuse when articulately and passionately explained to an understanding representative of a lending institution may well prove the difference between bankruptcy and a survivable program of debt repayment. After all, as long as people continue to go bankrupt (and, no matter how much the enlightened borrower shall try to avoid bankruptcy, there will exist a segment of America determined to declare bankruptcy as some fated penance), creditors shall worry. Lenders don’t want to force anyone into Chapter 7 protection. Consumer credit card debt elimination as vouchsafed by the government, however rare and dangerous, would be the absolute worst possible consequence for the banks involved.

We do understand that severe financial mishaps may necessitate governmental intervention. There is a reason that the United States originally offered such protection. However, most of the personal bankruptcies filed in America could be dealt with by other means far less damaging to the debtors’ credit and pocketbooks. Even beyond simply following disciplined household budgets and talking over the potential for re-structuring debt payments with creditor representatives, there are entire businesses that have grown up to assist consumers in their struggles with personal debt loads. Most everyone is at least familiar with the Consumer Credit Counseling program thanks to the industry’s non-stop marketing campaign, but, with increasing analysis from watchdog groups, it turns out that many of these companies are funded by the credit card conglomerates independently from whatever fees they charge their supposed clients. More to the point, the repercussions upon credit and the cost out of pocket are not much different than what borrowers could expect from bankruptcy proceedings.

Debt settlement companies, on the other hand, though they are far less publicized (and, a new industry, exponentially less well known than bankruptcy protection by most Americans) negotiate with the credit card companies on behalf of their clients in order to reduce the total balances of the assorted debts that have accrued. Considering that – so long as bankruptcy remains a danger to their supposed holdings – lenders are more than willing to agree to something around fifty percent of the debtor’s actual obligation in exchange for virtually guaranteed payments from the debt settlement company, there is an obvious benefit for every borrower that would qualify for the settlement program. It’s not for every debtor, of course. A handful of lenders still stubbornly refuse to bargain regardless of the cause or value of the specific account. However, every debtor should at least inform themselves about the debt settlement option and take advantage of free initial consultations whenever they are available.

As with any financial predicament, there is no way for a short article such as this to fully explain all the myriad possibilities and potentials a debtor may come across when attempting to eliminate his or her debts. Every debt scenario is different, after all, and there is no way for the borrower to come to a full understanding of what lies ahead without personal investigation. Credit card debts and unsecured floating obligations may cripple budgets temporarily, but, leaving aside the stresses unfulfilled payments may engender among heads of household, there are generally several different alternatives beyond Chapter 7 bankruptcy with which debtors may avail themselves. Look around. Cast your net around the varied solutions and see how they would best fit your particular circumstance. For an unfortunate few, bankruptcy may indeed be the only decision that makes sense, but, arduous as that choice may be, there’s a certainty that knowledge brings. Fiduciary protection (for, once again, unsecured debts; largely credit card accounts) from the federal government will always be there for the most desperate sort of borrower, the books will be balanced, but, with any luck, some chapters may not be closed.