How Can I Help Your E-commerce Business?
May 8, 2009 by Tyrone
Firstly I would like to make an announcement:
Winner Of Blog Design Contest
At the beginning of April I posted a contest for anyone interested in getting a new blog design. I would like to congratulate the winner of this contest: Helen who currently has a food blog at http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/. I have sent her an email to congratulate her and I am very excited to work with her in designing a new blog.
How Can I Help Your E-commerce Business?
I have been very encouraged to see thousands of visitors come to read Internet Business Path in the recent months and this blog is continually growing with new articles and reviews about E-commerce.
Lucky Draw Contest: $1,500 Customised Blog Design
April 2, 2009 by Tyrone
For the month of April, Internet Business Path dot com and eBlogProfits will be giving away a customised blog design website with web hosting and a domain name. This package is valued at $1,500 and it will be given away to one lucky reader.
What Do You Get?
- A unique design, crafted to meet your individual needs and the unique nature of your blog.
- Free installation of a blogging platform (Wordpress)
- Free hosting service for 12 months
- A Search Engine Optimised (SEO) blog
- Installation of up to 10 widgets
- Includes up to 10 email addresses
If you are interested in starting your own blog, want to transfer your existing blog from another website, or would like to have your blog redesigned, then you need to enter this contest!
How To Enter To Win?
The great thing about this contest is how easy it is to enter. You earn one entry by simply filling the form below and opting into our newsletter. It’s easy, right? But there’s more! You can earn five more entries if you blog about this contest and link to this post using the following keywords:
- Blog Design
- Customised Blog
- Profitable Blog Design
Have your post send a trackback and you’re in! If the trackback doesn’t work, then enter the URL in the comments.
We will be accepting entries between now and midnight April 30th. The winner will be drawn the following Thursday at 12pm (AEST) and announced on this site. Good luck and enter now!
Tyrone Shum
Wishing Everyone Good Luck!
Outsourcing Increased My Productivitiy By 200%
March 9, 2009 by Tyrone
Recently I’ve been testing some new ideas with “outsourcing” for Internet Business Path and from what I can gather, it’s been able to increase my productivity by at least 200%. What I did before outsourcing work to people was to create a mindmap of what the business needed in order to grow and continue to run without my input. Below is the mindmap of my businesses in it’s simplest form:
If want to create one, a really good software to use is FreeMind. It’s very easy to learn and very powerful for any business because it allows a business owner to laid down their ideas in a logical path. Since applying a mindmap to my business I’ve been able to design the system to increase my productivity by 200%.
How Do I Outsource If I Don’t Have The Money?
Firstly let me say, if you don’t have the money to afford $3 – $5US an hour to pay someone to handle your tasks that needs to be done repetitively, then you shouldn’t be in business. Okay, I’ll be fair and tell you this: I had the mindset previously to do everything myself because it was always about not having enough money. I know how you feel when you first start running an Internet business or is still a one man show, but it’s having the courage to step out of your comfort zone and learn to delegate tasks to other people to do. It’s not going to be perfect at the beginning, but with a little training, some trial and error and time you will be able to leverage your time and increase your productivity.
Outsourcing Administrative Tasks
An example that I’ve been able to outsource for $3 US an hour is the ability to get my virtual assistant to check and reply to customer service emails every second working day. Provided that I have given the guidelines and information for how to respond, I have eliminated at least 10 hours a week of my time that I used to spend replying and following up emails. When you think about it, it only costs me around $30 US for a virtual assistant to free up 10 hours of my week. Isn’t that worth the trade off when my time is worth $500 per hour? There are many other examples I could give you on how to outsource your work, you can read more of it in my Internet Business Blueprint report.
A Web Developer Will Solve All Your Website Issues
If you’ve read my business timeline, you would know that I graduated with a Computer Science degree from UNSW. Even with a degree in Computing Science I’m still not a good programmer and I choose not to be. I would rather leave the technical issues for a web developer that I can hire on an ongoing basis and pay them to work on my projects. It would take them a couple of hours to do something that would take me all week. Hence the websites I design and this blog you are reading has been designed by a web developer I hire and I simply project manage the process to achieve a great result for my clients.
A Bookkeeper Will Keep The Tax Office Happy
If you’re like me and hate seeing piles of invoices and accounts unreconciled, then I know you would hate book keeping. It’s a crucial part of your Internet business and without it there’s no way to measure how well your business finances are doing. There are systems that allow you to keep track of your business online, but not all of them are compatible with the tax laws within your country. Therefore I still purchase accounting software that is meeting Australian standards, such as MYOB Accounting. I hire a book keeper to help make sure my accounts are up to date and to generate reports to show me the financial health of the business. I hire a book keeper on a monthly basis where I can have all my paper work batched and she will enter the information at one time. She makes sure that my books are up to date and tax is paid on time and I don’t get calls from the tax office. She would save at least 20 hours + a month of book keeping that I would have had to do myself, all for the cost of a dinner with my partner.
I’m Still The Writer And Internet Marketer
I love writing and expressing my ideas on Internet Business Path and will continue to do so for a very long time. I found that it’s a great way to communicate with people from all over the world and I love receiving feedback and comments. I do this because I’m passionate about Internet business and if you know me I usually share my ideas with my friends and family most of the time. I could outsource the writing to a ghostwriter quite easily and let someone else do the marketing, though I have learnt that these are my strengths and communicating and promoting my business is my passion.
Tyrone Shum
Outsourcer
What is RSS and How Do I Use It?
February 2, 2009 by Tyrone
I’m asked regularly what RSS means and I thought it’s important to explain what it means and how it works.
What Is RSS?
RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. This may not mean much to you but it is the technology that millions of people on the Internet use today to keep track of their favourite websites. In a nutshell, RSS is a way for users to subscribe to their favourite website and download their content automatically, such as articles, music, podcasts, video and almost any other digital media available. That way you don’t have to visit their website again to get the latest update.
The idea behind this concept is that if you have a RSS reader (which you can download) you will be able receive all this content in one location and it is more efficient rather than individually going to your favourite sites.
How To Use RSS?
Firstly as mentioned above you need to have a RSS reader to subscribe to the content. There are numerous RSS readers on the Internet today and many of them are easy to use. Simply Google the word “RSS reader” and you’ll find a whole list of ones to choose from. A couple of free and easy to use web based readers I recommend are Google Reader and Bloglines. I use Google Reader and it’s very simple to use and does the job for receiving RSS.
Both of these RSS readers work a little like email. When you’ve subscribed to a few website feeds, you’ll see unread entries from them and they will be marked as bold. As you click on them you’ll be able see the latest update and read it right away. Once you’ve read the item it will be marked as ‘read’.
The best way to learn how to use a RSS reader is to simply subscribe to some feeds and try it. Both have a help section to teach you how to use them if you get stuck.
Why Are There So Many Different Buttons Just To Subscribe To RSS?
As more and more users are using RSS, more companies are releasing new software to offer more services and functionality. You’ll notice on websites the icons coming in all shapes and sizes.
Any time you see any of these icons, it means that site offers a feed you can subscribe to. Simply click on the icon and you’ll be on your way to subscribing to their feed.
What Next?
Hopefully after you’ve read this article, you’ll realise how powerful RSS is for you and business. RSS is designed to make your life easier and save you time. So don’t forget to subscribe to Internet Business Path below.
Tyrone Shum
RSS Marketer
