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With a shift towards free content online, no doubt many entrepreneurs are wondering how they can bootstrap their business if they are not going to draw any sales revenue. It’s a scary thought.

I don’t profess to have a solid answer, but I do have some ideas. Here are a few ways that you can still monetize your startup, even while offering free content or services.

1. Advertising. TV and radio were always based on free content supported by advertising. At least until Cable/ pay per view and satellite radio came along. If you are offering only free content, consider monetizing your website with relevant ads – preferably those sold direct, on a CPM (Cost per Mille, e.g., 1000) basis of pageviews.
2. Freemium. The freemium pricing model seem to be popular with web applications providers. General access is free, but the features that make the application efficient for the target end users cost a few dollars per month. One non-web app that has scored millions of users worldwide with this model is Skype, the desktop VoIP software.
3. Subscriptions/ pay per view. Build a subscription site where premium content is only accessible by members. This does require that you have initial free content to draw potential subscribers, and for you to build your authority online, in your niche. If you’re successful, the numbers are worthwhile. For example, several marketing sites charge $197-299/year, and offer very high quality content that is essential to some professionals. While building up your membership list, you might supplement with advertising.
4. Freedom to pay. This is what Radiohead did: pay what you like. Stupid or brilliant? You decide. I was unable to find the “buy” link on their official site and ended up downloading someone else’s low quality copy. Very low quality. But I’m a Radiohead fan and would have paid anyway. And of course, if I’m in a city where they’re going to plan, I’m even more likely to go see these guys. This monetization model is very similar to “shareware” for software.
5. Buyout. if you have enough capital to build your brand/ presence online, and gain substantial eyeballs in the form of free content subscribers, selling to the highest bidder is a great option. For bootstrappers, this has to be preceded by one of the other forms above, else you’re not likely to have enough capital on hand to reach this stage.

With the exception of maybe freemium and freedom to pay, none of these are all that new. Which monetization model you choose (or a combo) depends on what it is you’re giving away – knowledge or services. Products, on the other hand, are hard to monetize with any of these models.

Popular bands such as Radiohead are now offering free (or pay-what-you-can) music online. Because of this, it’s been speculated that record labels are amongst the businesses facing extinction, along with newspaper publishers and possibly even desktop software producers.

The Internet has of course gone a long way in being a platform for delivery of such content. And with software that runs in a browser, what need will there be for paying for desktop software? Text and other media content also gets distributed from torrent sites, mostly illegally, in violation of copyright laws. So, whatever type of content you produce, you might be wondering whether you can go on charging for it.

Now, only the most immature of people believe that content producers as individuals (programmers, musicians, artists, writers, etc.) should not get compensated for their productivity. But when it comes to reality, not all content consumers behave this way. It’s easier to feel like you deserve to take free content from some big bad company that traditionally made millions/ billions – whether or not they’re now suffering financial losses.

So what do you do if you’re a startup without a financial history? Before I answer that, let’s look at some of the pros and cons of offering free content online, from the viewpoint of the producer.

Pros:

1. Makes your target market happy, thanks to the freebies.
2. Gets them talking, passing on the word – the makings of being viral content.
3. Viral content can generate massive amounts of web traffic.
4. Brings you to the attention of people that might not otherwise know you.

Cons:

1. Brings you to the attention of people that’ll take your free content and never buy anything.
2. The extra web traffic could boost your site hosting bill, and if you have no sales to show for it, you are not going to last long if you’re bootstrapping.
3. Those who sample your free content might henceforth expect free content, all the time, and when it’s not free, might violate copyright and distribute it themselves (after they’ve purchased a single copy).
4. Free content might alienate those without Internet access (about 3/4 of the world’s population), causing them to stop buying your “offline” product.

These may not be the only pros and cons, though they’re the ones that have been most prominent in my mind, as a retired programmer, an amateur composer, and a hopeful future filmmaker. The existence of free content on the Internet potentially impacts my livelihood.

Now, despite being a long-time Star Trek fan (but not a Trekkie), I don’t believe we’re going towards any sort of “free” model globally, for everything. At least not anytime soon. It’s far too complicated to get into that financial model across the world, even with about twelve years of the Internet’s (public) existence behind us. It simply goes against a thousand years or more of human thinking, with many unanswered questions to boot.

That means that for a quite a long time ahead of us, there will be people who will expect to pay for content, and even desire to pay for it. So back to my question: how do you deal with the current atmosphere of free content online, especially if you’re up against content producers who might be doing it for free?

This is a question I hope to explore here in the future.

Writing does not come naturally to most people, but the activity in the blogosphere might suggest otherwise. Unfortunately, regular fresh content is crucial for building up a website, especially for businesses – whether you selling products or services online. Many entrepreneurs have selected blogging as their delivery vehicle for content, both for the informal style of writing needed, as well as because blogs enjoy special “relevance” status in many top search engines.

If you’re in this boat and don’t know how to get started, here are my suggestions:

1. Get started. Launch your business website, if it’s appropriate to do so. This is the general online face of your business and encompasses all online activity that represents your company.

2. Add a blog. Your business blog, if you have one, will be a less formal connection to your website visitors. Add a blog to a subdirectory, not a subdomain. So use mysite.com/blog instead of blog.mysite.com. You can call the subdirectory anything, but I suggest “blog”, “journal”, “notes” or something of that sort.
3. Determine readershp. Whether you do the blogging or hire a professional, be sure to offer a consistent schedule. That’s more important than blogging daily. But be sure to consider who your audience is. Will your blog readers be other bloggers in your niche, potential customers, your (future) competitors, casual visitors, etc. Who should they be depends on your objective for your blog.
4. Use reportage. If you don’t yet have an editorial calendar and are not sure what to write about, or don’t have time for indepth content, start by reporting on happenings in your niche.
5. Add your voice. Gradually add your own commentary to your reportage. Base what you say on your knowledg of the niche. However, be careful not to be insulting or nitpicking. The average blogger can get away with this, but you cannot – not if you’re representing your business. The other thing you can’t do is talk “at” readers. If you’re going to sell, be indirect.
6. Expand your coverage. As you gain confidence in your writing voice, expand your posts. Add original information, share your experiences in your industry, write more of what you know. Just remember who your audience is; this will determine how you write about a topic.
7. Build your authority. Always deep-link to relevant posts you’ve already written on your site, as well to authority sites/ content elsewhere. This helps build your authority in search engines.
8. Show your authority. As you gain even more confidence in writing – as well as website authority in search engines – create original content such as e-books, screencasts, video, audio, indepth articles and reports. Teach what you know. Show your authority.
9. Promote your content. There are a number of ways to promote your best content online, but one of the most effective ways is through social media sites. These including bookmarking and voting sites, as well as Stumbleupon. Keep in mind, though, that social media site members do not like to be promoted to. Some topics are difficult to promote through SMM (Social Media Marketing).
10. Advertise your site. If social media promotion is not appropriate for your  niche, consider advertising, possibly through PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising campaigns or some other form of advertising. Don’t look at the campaign cost on a per visitor, or you’ll lose money. If you need 1,000 visitors to make 5 sales, divided the advertising cost by 5, not 1000. If you can’t justify the cost of advertising, rethink your blogging plan. Consider hiring a blogging consultant for some advice.

If your business has nothing to do with selling expert content, then that’s not something you want to add to your website or blog. If you have the urge to monetize a website, do it on a separate domain. Your business should not be perceived as trying to make money both through your regular products or services offerings and through advertising – unless of course you give your products, such as software, away free.

The average digital entrepreneur likely constantly looks for startup opportunities online. One type of opportunity with a great deal of potential financially is to set up a subscription site. Do the numbers: 200 members per month at $50/mth per subscriber = $10K/mth. If you offer a service or product that only has one-time or low monthly overhead, that’s not a bad side business.

However, there’s far more to building a successful subscription site than just setting it up. Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur’s Journey recently launched his own membership site earlier this year – Blog Mastermind. Now he’s done the unthinkable: he’s showing you how to do your own. He’s on part 8 of a long-term series, and he’s revealed quite a lot of valuable information.

Premise

The pessimist might think this is a nice ploy, because now hundreds of people are going to try, and they’ll flood the market with services – obscuring the few truly good subscription services that might follow Yaro’s Blog Mastermind. The optimist will note the one clue Yaro gave that will clear all the competitors away: establishing your presence online, which is the first step, and takes the blogger “with potential” six months to two years.

My own opinion on the matter is that if you haven’t built at least one PR (Google PageRank) 6 site on your own (or are not associated with having done so), you haven’t established enough presence for a subscription service to succeed. PR is a much reviled measure of a website/ blog’s success, but it’s a ballpark measure of how much linkage you’re getting from elsewhere and thus recognition.

Strategy

Being the mad entrepreneur, a few people and I are exploring the possibility of a subscription service at some point in the next year. It caters to our skills, which is the best approach. This is the nutshell strategy that I’m following with a group of people, separate but related to the partners in my online bootstrapping experiment.

1. Pick the product. Determine what service/ products you intend to build a subscription offer around. This is just the overview stage.

2. Show yoursef. Build your presence in suitable channels.
   1. Build a visible blog/ site.
   2. Establish your name or brand.
   3. Guest blog to make yourself more visible. There are tons of great blogs that want quality articles. Some might be in your niche, and you’ll get a link in the byline.
3. Stealth mode. Build your promotional channels in stealth mode, before you build your subscription service. This includes any or all of the following:
   1. Plan the infrastructure for an affiliate program.
   2. Make lots of online friends who might become affiliates.
   3. Build social media accounts.
   4. Set up the early stage of a private forum with those online friends, who’ll later “tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on.”
4. Scope things out. While your promo channels are being built out, clearly define the parameters:
   1. The service’s feature set. What can you offer that is unique and thus worth buying.
   2. What market are you targetting. It’s always best to go with a niche you know and are passionate about.
   3. The number of subscribers you are aiming for.
   4. What infrastucture needs you’ll have if  you reach your goal (i.e, domain names, websites, hosting costs) or surpass it.
   5. Whether the infrastructure needs to be scalable and whether it can be.
   6. Whether to have phased membership.
   7. Whether to offer early-adopter discounts, and how to do it.
   8. Whether to offer one subscription package or several.
   9. How to price the packages.
   10. How to collect recurring payment.
   11. How to reimburse unsatisfied subscribers.
   12. How to pre-promote the service.
   13. When to launch it.
   14. How to promote it.
   15. Whether you can bootstrap the early incoming funds to support any necessary expansion and promotion.
   16. Whether to stop promoting, depending on phases.
   17. How to maintain a brand and presence to keep the subscribers you have and/or entice new members – since there’ll always be some attrition.
5. Start building. This takes a fine sense of timing. Nothing’s ever new online for long, and you don’t want to have spent money building an infrastructure if it’s not scalable, if you can’t change the product/ service you’re offering, or if you can’t otherwise reuse it.

Summary

There’s a lot more to know than just these five steps, and I urge you to read Yaro’s series. Exactly how you approach such a project depends on your time frame, since you want what you’re offering to be timely. By the time you have enough presence to launch your service, someone else might have already done so. That’s why so many online professionals go with a “product” that reflects their skills and knowledge, which is likely an unique package.

If you’re successful, the payoff can be huge. Some of the membership sites I subscribe to or have subscribed to are rumored to make US$40-100K/month. Can you build enough presence and authority online, and offer enough of a unique or valuable service to “deserve” such returns? Because despite the unwillingness of people to pay subscription fees to newspaper websites, there are many online professionals willing to part with up to $250/month. That’s if you give them something they need, something they can’t get elsewhere, which makes their professional life easier, earns them money, or simply just educates them in their chosen field. I spend anywhere from $40-$150/month on such services at any given time, and might actually be closer to $300/mth in the future.

The opportunities are there. Just remember that if you are essentially a new presence in the blogosphere, you’ve got a bit of a journey ahead of you before you become a successful digital entrepreneur. Don’t be dissuaded, just plan well and get started.

So you’ve got the band, the rehearsal space, the songs and you’re ready to play your first show. All your friends will be there, but you’d really like to have a big audience that’s psyched to hear you sing live but you’re just not sure how to get the word out about your band. Not to worry, rockstars of tomorrow, here is a list of 100 great places you can promote your music and increase your fan base online. Music Forums and Sites

These sites let you upload music, promote new albums or concerts, and get in touch with fans.

1. OurStage.com: At OurStage, you get to "let the fans decide." Upload your music and have thousands of online listeners vote on what they think is the best new sound. You can even win prizes.
2. MP3.com: Learn how to upload your music to attract tons of new fans. MP3.com is hugely popular, so you’ll be getting loads of traffic directed to your music.
3. SoundClick: SoundClick.com lets you search music by category, start a blog, participate in forums, and more.
4. StarPolish: The good folks at StarPolish are "helping artists help themselves." Check out this site for a wealth of promotion ideas and opportunities.
5. MVine: This community-powered website is another place where fans can vote on their favorite artists. Great for indie bands looking for their big break.
6. TuneTribe.com: Register with TuneTribe.com, and let the pros do the rest. Get your "music into the charts," snag an interview, and promote away!
7. ArtistsFirst.com: ArtistsFirst is the "global platform for the new music business." Learn more about this groundbreaking music sharing system by checking out the site.
8. Total Band Hosting: This excellent resource is perfect for any indie bands new to marketing their sound. Total Band Hosting allows you to set up your own site, organize an online gig book, and more.
9. NME: This site is full of valuable information on music news: concerts, interviews, festivals, and more. Submit your music and press releases for coverage, or just learn about the places you should be trying to get into.
10. Artistopia: This site features "total music independence." Become a member, and you could be one of the indie artist profiles, which would give you and your band tons of exposure.
11. PureVolume: PureVolume is still a relatively new company, but becoming a member and creating a profile is definitely worth your while.
12. Music Forte: Talk about your band in the site’s forums, and learn about their Indie Music Promotion plan. Best of all, it’s free!
13. Music Submit: This site is designed to help up and coming musicians promote their stuff online.
14. iodaPROMONET: This popular site helps indie bands distribute their music all over the Internet.
15. Sound of Traffic: Publish your music onto this site and learn how to buy traffic, increase the amount of traffic to your page, and more.

Sell Your Music

Start making a profit when you work with these sites, which are devoted to helping up and coming bands prosper.

16. Fuzz.com: Fuzz.com is a great resource for new bands looking to make it big. Register for free to sell your music online and post information about concerts.
17. CD Baby: Sell your own CDs at CD Baby, one of the most popular online music stores out there.
18. Amazon.com: That’s right, Amazon.com isn’t just for bands with high-profile record deals. Click on the "sell your stuff" tab, and start making a little money!
19. GarageBand: Sell your CDs, learn about upcoming conferences and events, post concert dates, and more on GarageBand.com.
20. BeSonic: BeSonic boasts that it is "The Online Music Promotion Service." Sell your songs on this site, but also take time to browse through other artists’ uploads.
21. 96 Decibels: This site makes selling your original music easy.
22. Arkade.com: Business and technology writer Sean McManus recommends Arkade.com as one of the best sites for selling your music.
23. Emubands.com: Emubands links indie bands with online stores like Napster and iTunes to help you sell your music.
24. IndieRhythm.com: If you’re an unsigned artist with a great CD, check out IndieRhythm.com for a place to sell your album.
25. Audio Lunchbox: Keep 65% of all your music’s sales when you decide to link up with this great Web site.
26. Epictunes: Epictunes is a powerful "online community for unsigned bands." Sell your music and connect with fans and other artists.
27. CD Wow!: Sell your CDs with this British-based company.
28. Audigist.com: This British company specializes in digital distribution, and claims to award artists with "one of the best royalty rates on the Internet."
29. CD Unsigned: This site markets itself as the place on the Web where music enthusiasts can check out the newest bands and hottest tracks before anyone else.
30. Earbuzz.com: Earn 100% of the profits when you sell your albums and individual tracks through this site.

Blogs

Blogging is a great way to network with new fans. Check out these blogs for tips on promoting your music or potential coverage of your band, concerts, and more.

31. Bob Baker’s The Buzz Factor: Bob Baker’s blog about music promotion is a terrific source for any indie artist.
32. Gearwire.com: This article will convince you to start blogging in order to get more buzz for your band.
33. Band Weblogs: Submit commentary to get the word out about your band.
34. GarageSpin.com: The author discusses what it’s like to be an indie artist in today’s music world. Learn marketing tips and send Mike an e-mail if you think your band has something great to offer.
35. CC Music Blogs: This blog is a good resource for staying in touch with the most current music news. Learn how to license your own original works.
36. It’s About Diversity Blog: This blog promotes non-English language music.
37. The Secret Music Life of Kat: The author shares clever ideas and tips for marketing your music online.
38. PerformerMag.com: This article discusses how blogging has influenced music promotion on the Internet.
39. Online Music Marketing with Jay Moonah: Find good tips for promoting your music on the Web.
40. Music Library Association: Read this article to get more information about how blogging can change your entire music marketing strategy.
41. Puddlegum: Check out this valuable article on promoting your blog on the Web site Last.FM.
42. Songbirdnest.com: Check out this blog from Songbird Media Player. They cover new bands, concerts, and music news.
43. Rewriteable Content: One of the best music news blogs out there, e-mail the authors a tip about your new album.
44. Indie Music Xposed: This blog is always covering new bands, music news, and the latest tracks to hit the indie music charts. Participate in the forum to give your band a plug.

Internet Radio & Broadcast Resources

Be your own DJ and plug your band’s music. Create a podcast and interview yourself and other members of the band to meet new fans.

45. Live365: Be your own broadcaster and play whatever you’d like– including your own music.
46. Cornerworld: This site is another Internet broadcasting service. Play your own music, show your own personal music videos, or introduce yourself via video to fans.
47. Gcast: Create your own podcast to connect with other bands and online listeners.
48. Last.fm: Register your band’s music with this site, and they’ll recommend it to listeners with the same musical tastes as you.
49. PayPlay: This fun, user-friendly site categorizes music by artist, genre, date, mood, and type.
50. Magnatune: This ingenious music resource featured in USA Today allows fans to play your music online for free as if listening to a radio station. If they want to download the entire album, they can pay a small fee of their choice.
51. Channel 4 Music: Upload music, comment on blogs, and more.
52. MusicFreedom.com: MusicFreedom.com features a radio broadcast that plays brand new music.
53. MyMusicStream.com: Play your music on this great online radio that specializes in indie rock music.
54. BBC Radio One: This site has great advice for promoting your music on the Internet. Check back often to catch up on music and entertainment news.
55. Ubroadcast: Host your own Internet radio show, during which you can talk about anything or anyone you want!
56. NewMuz.com: Upload your best tracks to this online radio network.
57. SaveNetRadio.org: Get paid to have your songs on the radio! Learn more by visiting this site.
58. Special Radio: This resource is great for learning about submission guidelines for sending in your own tracks and albums, finding out about contests, reports, and more.
59. Pandora: Find out how you can be one of the featured new artists in the Music Genome Project.

File Sharing

Upload your music onto these sites for others to download.

60. Limewire: Post info about your band on the site’s forum or blog.
61. Kazaa: Kazaa lets you publish your original songs and promote your blog or Web site.
62. Morpheus.com: Upload your music into this site’s library. You can also plug your new songs and meet fans on the forums.
63. Audiokingdom.com: Add your music to the site’s directory of mp3 downloads and ringtones.
64. ApolloTunes: Create your own personal account and start uploading music to share.
65. Trackseller: At Trackseller, it’s "nothing but music." Upload your music into their directory, and they’ll charge the listener each time a song is downloaded.
66. Into Music: Start your own label and you can begin selling your music online to Into Music.
67. CDfuse: CDFuse offers your fans free downloads, so there’s no limit to the number of people who can check out your sound.
68. MassCharts.com: At MassCharts.com, they’re "dedicated to the development and exposure of unsigned bands and artists." Upload your music here, and you’ll know you’re in good hands.
69. Broadjam: Broadjam offers an extensive library of music downloads, offers Web hosting capabilities, and features a Top 10 category.
70. iSOUND: "Live life loud" when you log on to iSOUND. Create a profile and talk about your band, upload photos of concerts, and download cool music.
71. M-deck.com: This resource connects music fanatics with several great download sites across the Web. Find out how your music can be included in their libraries.
72. Tradebit: Upload and download your music on this great site.
73. Tunecore: Sell your uploads here.
74. Netunes: "It’s all about the music" at Netunes, where they let your fans download your tracks for free.
75. Download.com: Submit your music so that your friends can download and share your tracks for free.

Networking Sites

Connect with old and new fans by creating a profile with one or several of these networking communities.

76. Facebook: If you’re not already on Facebook, then it’s time to go ahead and join. Post upcoming concerts on your profile or use the invite tool to share with friends the details of your next gig.
77. HearMySpace: This article shows you the "top five ways to promote music on MySpace."
78. Bebo: Another social networking site, Bebo is a fun community perfect for promoting your band and advertising upcoming gigs.
79. iJamr: Network with other bands and fans and encourage your friends to join this community to help get the word out about your music.
80. Tagets: Sell your music directly to your fans with the help of Tagets.
81. MyMusicianSite.com: This site helps "musicians connect with their fans."
82. The Music Network: This site is a community of the best music blogs and forums out there.
83. Buzznet.com: Talk about music, pop culture, and other entertainment news when you log onto Buzznet.com.
84. Broadcaster.net: Upload photos and videos of your band in action to attract new fans.
85. Gather.com: Share photos and video with other members. Talk about your band and learn about what other artists are up to in group chatrooms.
86. imeem: imeem is a powerful resource for musicians to promote their albums at the same time they connect with fans, old and new.

Other Sites and Resources

From promotional materials to forums to blog ideas, these items will help you promote your songs and concerts.

87. Build your own website: Click on the link to get great start up tools for building your own website.
88. Use WordPress to start your own blog: WordPress is free and easy to use.
89. CafePress: Sean McManus’ genius marketing intuition has led him to suggest visiting CafePress.com. Create promotional items like T-shirts or coffee mugs with your band’s logo. Sell them at concerts or on your website.
90. Lulu.com: Publish flyers, newsletters, and more by using Lulu’s excellent self-publishing tools.
91. Moocsounds: This site is great for classical musicians. Sell your tracks and promote your group here.
92. FourFront Media and Music: Get excellent tips for marketing and promoting your band on the Web.
93. Promoting Your Music Online: Check out this Ezine article for more information on how to promote your music online.
94. Music Tweak: Get your band noticed with the help of Music Tweak.
95. Ignite Image: Use the professional advice offered at Ignite Image to give your band the boost it needs.
96. DJTube.com: Plug your band’s best tunes while checking out other artists’ newest hits.
97. Podfeed.net: Feature your own podcast on this website. Talk about your music, upcoming concerts, and website.
98. Evolvor: This blog is a fantastic resource for musicians who want to learn new marketing strategies.
99. EZPowell Music Distribution Company: Read articles to find out how to book an interview and become a master at Internet marketing.
100. mp3musicgrams.com: Upload your music into their library, and it could be sent to someone as an mp3 Musicgram.

Every great band had to start somewhere, and with these tools and resources for promoting your music, you’ll be well on your way to success.

When you started your business, you probably imagined never having to suit up for an interview or conform to someone’s dress code ever again. Right? Wrong. As an entrepreneur, your style of dress is more important than ever before. Show clients that you’re a professional by following these essential fashion rules.

1. Wear what makes you feel confident: This one’s important, because if you don’t appear confident, no amount of tailoring and shoe shining can make up for it. If you feel like an impostor in a suit and tie, wear something else that feels more appropriate for your comfort level. If you feel you look good, you’ll be in a better position to connect with your clients.
2. Suits give an illusion of power: If you’re comfortable in a suit, where it whenever it’s appropriate, the key word here being appropriate. They give off a sense of sharpness and professionalism. Of course, if you’re meeting a client at a coffee shop down the street, you may want to tone it down to business casual.
3. Always wear nice shoes: Run down and scuffed up shoes will make you look like you’re sloppy and can’t pay attention to detail. Clients do not want to see this. Make sure that your shoes look nice, even if they’re not horribly expensive. Remember, a little shoe shine goes a long way. While you’re at it, remember to make sure your belt matches your shoes. Brown shoes do not go with black belts, and vice versa.
4. Dress appropriately every day: Even if you’re just on the couch with your laptop most of the time, it’s important to make yourself presentable every day. Why? Because if you’re bumming around in your jammies all day, you’re not likely to feel very productive. Even more importantly, you don’t want to get stuck having to scramble to get presentable if a client wants you to stop by and meet with them in half an hour. This doesn’t have to mean you’re dressed to the nines, but you should at least wear something that you wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen in.
5. Wear what fits: Nothing screams, "Hi, I’m wearing grownup clothes today" like an oversized piece of clothing. Avoid looking like you’re playing dress up by purchasing clothes that fit appropriately. If you’ve got nice pieces that just don’t fit anymore, consider having them altered. Otherwise, get rid of them in favor of something more flattering.
6. Manage your hair: Shaggy, unkempt hair just doesn’t look professional. Keep your hair neatly trimmed and styled. You don’t have to lay on pounds of gel, but make sure it’s attractive and tidy. The same goes for any facial hair; if you’re going to grow a goatee or moustache, don’t let it go wild. Keep it neatly trimmed for a professional look.
7. Don’t go overboard with makeup: Ladies, makeup can make you look more attractive, but don’t let things get out of hand. You don’t want the person you’re meeting with to marvel at how thickly you’ve caked on your foundation. Keep it natural so your clients aren’t distracted by your looks.
8. Cover up: Again, distraction is a major folly, and skin is sure to take the attention away from you. You want the focus to be on your work and intelligence, not what you are or aren’t wearing. So as a general rule, you’ll appear more professional if you wear more clothing. Not necessarily quantity, but quality of cover. Consider slacks instead of shorts, a sleeved shirt instead of a tank top, and other less revealing pieces of clothing.
9. Know your audience: It’s important to consider your occasion and dress on par with what you expect others to wear. Don’t show up at a construction site wearing a three piece suit unless you want to be laughed all the way back to your car. Likewise, forego your jeans for slacks if you’re visiting someone’s corporate office.
10. When in doubt, overdress: If you’re not sure what the occasion calls for, err on the side of overdressing. As long as you feel confident and comfortable in what you’re wearing, it’s always better to be too dressed up than not enough.
11. T-shirts just won’t work: You may think that your client is charmed by the witty saying on your shirt, but he’s laughing at you, not with you. Instead of a t-shirt, wear a polo or a comfortable button-down. This rule goes for flip flops and Crocs, too.
12. Keep a spare in your car: Keep a few key pieces in the trunk of your car in case you find yourself roped into a last minute meeting and need to take your appearance up a notch. A wrinkle-free jacket, shoes and a belt should suffice. Make sure that they’re versatile enough to work with just about anything you’d normally wear.

If you do decide that your business website should have a blog, and that having a blog can bootstrap your business, you’ll likely want a few pointers on settng up and managing a blog. This is not a detailed guide, but rather a quick overview.

1. Blog setup.
   Setup a blog on a subdirectory of the main site. That is, if your website is at http://www.example.com/, use http://www.example.com/blog/ or some such instead of http://blog.example.com/.

2. Niche selection.
   This is the tough decision. Your blog’s topic niche should be related to your business, but be of interest to readers. First, decide who your customers are, whether they will be your blog readers, and whether they’ll convert into customers. If that’s not possible, the blog can be about a topic related to your business, even just peripherally.

   Either way, your blog builds authority over time, and that authority partly transfers to the main website. That’s where you are selling your products or services, and hopefully it will receive its fair share of web traffic from search engine queries. (I.e., people searching for a specific product or service tend to be ready to buy something.)

3. Editorial calendar.
   Once you’ve selected a niche, it’s easier to come up with a plan for actual articles – an editorial calendar. A strict editorial calendar also indicates specific publication dates. For a blog, you can just come up with a loose schedule and a list of article ideas or actual titles. It’s important that you publish “key” content:
   • Resource lists and general linkbait articles.
   • Profiles and interviews of industry leaders.
   • Comparisons and reviews of products and services, though not of your direct competitors.
   • Tutorials of how to do something related to your blog’s niche.
   • Video screencasts of how use relevant software.
   • Ebooks.

   All of these types of content should be produced with the intent of establishing your blog as an authority on its selected niche.

4. Regular schedule.
   Publish to the blog regularly. If you can publish quality articles five days a week, fine. If you can’t, fine. Just be consistent. Any less than three times per week is not a good idea, in my opinion. Neither is it expected that you publish more than 3-5 articles per day, unless there is an overwhelming reason to do so.

5. Giveaways.
   Use your blog, which does not hard sell your products and services, to occasional give away what you’re selling. You can also hire a design firm to create plugins and website templates for blog platforms (such as WordPress – one of the most popular Open Source platforms). Give the plugins and themes away on your blog.

   Such freebies can generate an awful lot of buzz for you, especially if you do them on a regular basis. Your website’s link goes into the footer, as the sponsor. [Some search engines may discount the value of these links, but you will still get visitors from blogs that use your free themes, and some bloggers will write about and link to your site. So it's still a worthwhile move.]

6. Build relationships.
   Relationship-building is very important online, but it must be sincere and diplomatic. It’s not easy, and you might slip, so do your best to rectify awkward situations. This applies if you comment at other blogs related to your niche, which you should consider doing.

7. Promote and build links.
   All the activities above are for naught if you cannot succeed in building links to your site through good content, social media marketing and ongoing networking with other online professionals. For more reading material, check out Tropical SEO and Search Engine Journal.

This is the tip of the iceberg for building a successful “business” blog, though it should give you a general overview.

For startups/ entrepreneurs considering launching a blog to promote business, heed the WSJ. The Wall Street Journal got it right when they said Blog it and they may come. Blogs, once established, can generate search traffic and/or regular readers.

The operative word is “can”, as there really are millions of blogs out there. It takes more than just writing, though. It takes networking and promoting your blog, as well as authoritative content to establish you as an expert on something. Do it right, and a blog can be more effective than advertising in indirectly producing sales.

What topic should you write about?
One question is ‘what topic’ to cover? Should the blog be about the business? Will anyone care? Will that drive the right readership and convert them into clients/ customers? Would a topic peripherally-related be more useful to readers? I.e., a topic that does not hard sell your services.

For example, a software company CAN blog about their updates and how great they are, but would that drive traffic? Would writing about software development be better? Would enough people read that to make it worth continuing, and are those readers ever going to buy a copy of the software?

Maybe a blog about managing a startup business or team management – with personal case studies – would be much more targeted. Wouldn’t those readers tend to be owners/ managers, and wouldn’t they be more likely to buy the product, thus justifying the blog?

Who should write on the blog?
Then comes the question of who should write this. If you want the blog to also be about the business itself, maybe you, the owner/ entrepreneur, should write. At least initially. If it’s your business, your writing doesn’t cost anything except your time, and you’re more likely to be passionate about it than a hired blogger from outside the business.

If you have the gift of good communication, then you are a good candidate. But keep in mind that the existence of the blogosphere didn’t suddenly create a world full of good communicators. Some bloggers can’t form a coherent sentence, no matter how intelligent they may be in person.

If you fall into that category, being the blogger will harm rather than help your business. Poor grammar and spelling are fine on a personal blog, not on a business blog. And I don’t mean the occasional typo. Mediocrity of topic will also harm your brand.

This is even more important if your website is actually trying to sell products or services. Blogging becomes a supplement to advertising, and can in fact be more powerful. Hiring a professional blogger, someone who can be passionate about a topic can make a difference. Making them a long-term partner, such as through vesting shares and/or a percentage of net profits, should make them more passionate – but it isn’t absolutely necessary. (That is, there are many professional bloggers who are simply passionate about writing period.)

Keep in mind, though, that if your business’ blog does well in readership/ traffic but doesn’t convert that into sales, the cost of your hosting could become a problem – as the Wall Street Journal article points out. So factor both a possible professional blogger and web hosting into your blog operating costs – at least in the medium- to long-term.

Summary
I’ve probably asked more questions than I’ve answered. Bootstrappers tend to do a lot of things themselves, usually because of lack of funds. But even a bootstrapping entrepreneur has to at some point delegate tasks they can no longer manage.

Sounds like a fairly obvious directive, right? Unfortunately, not every company does it. Witness the demise of SunRocket [NY Times, free registration may be req'd], a reasonably successful player in the VoIP market.

VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a group of related technologies that allow consumers to make phone calls over their Internet access – be it cable, high-speed dialup, satellite, power, Wi-Fi, or cellular.

SunRocket, like it’s very troubled direct competitor Vonage, are known as “pure VoIP” providers. They pretty much can only offer a few services, primarily because consumers use their regular home telephones and a special converter.

However, competitors such as Comcast, have a million VoIP customers to SunRocket’s 200,000. Why? Because Comcast is a cable company that can offer “triple play” services. Depending on the Triple Play provider, this may include TV, Internet and VoIP over the same “lines”.

Pure plays cannot offer much more than VoIP service, though a few made an attempt by offering home alarm services. So in terms of a service offering, while there is a market for Pure Plays, it’s probably much smaller than for Triple Plays. Pure VoIP providers simply cannot compete long-term, and were doomed to begin with.

Note, however, that with IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) offerings such as Joost and Babelgum, Triple Plays may very well lose their TV package customers. And with cell phone makers heading towards hybrid models that can work on both cellular networks and Wi-Fi networks (whether in your home or elsewhere), home phone providers may also start losing customers. So Triple Plays may become Single Plays – though probably not for several years.

Companies have to stay on top of these “convergence” trends in VoIP or other markets. Just preparing for the inevitable future is not enough. They’ll have to follow through and actually innovate if they want to stay in business long-term.

Do you have a business that has traditionally been offline? Wondering how you might transform your operations to an online existence? This is a question that many print magazine and newspapers – and other businesses – are asking, in hopes of solving the loss of readership and revenues.

Large (inter)national publications have an easier time of the conversion because they have a wider pool of advertisers. They still have to be innovative, but at least they’ll probably earn some revenues.

Local newspapers will find it difficult, as will other non-web businesses, especially if most of their revenue is earned locally. It’s not that online publishers cannot target ads to visitors from certain locales. Rather, local advertisers may not know or understand this, and thus may be unwilling to give the online medium a try.

If you are considering moving to an online presence, whether solely or to supplement your bricks-and-mortar existence, and whether or not you are a publisher, here are a few tips:

1. Research.
   Some people might have you think otherwise, but not every business needs a website (and not every website needs a weblog.) Make sure you understand if your business has to be operated differently online.

2. Switch gradually.
   Your research may show that your competitors are online and even earning reasonable extra revenues. But don’t ditch your terrestrial operations all of a sudden, thinking you’ll do fine being only online.

3. Start now.
   Switching gradually means setting up a basic web presence first. Then improve on it gradually, with extra features and functionality as you are able. If most or all of your revenue is offline, you do not necessarily have to spend thousands of dollars setting up a slick, AJAXified website.

4. Test the waters.
   Maybe your budget does not yet allow a full-blown ecommerce site or lots of advertising. Why not start by offering valuable information to your customers? What that is depends on your business, of course.

5. Promote.
   Just building a website isn’t enough to draw visitors. I.e., if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. You do have to promote your website, whether online or offline – which does not necessarily cost money.

This is only a very basic summary of the process for transitioning, though it should give you an overview.