Business Credit Cards

Other Reasons for Editorial Calendars
I’ve previously written in a number of blogs about how an editorial calendar can help you stay on track when building a blog full of great content, whether for your business or otherwise. Usually, I’ve looked at the use of an editorial calendar from a mostly self-centric view, about how it helps writers, editors and even ad sales reps. But Maki of DoshDosh has an excellent (as always) article about increasing your readership with an editorial calendar. In the article, he points out that having somewhat predictable content can create anticipation in your readers and thus get them to subscribe. Maki also lays out a long list of the kind of content you can produce.

Being a Better Blogger
Of course, just having an editorial calendar or a general plan isn’t sufficient. Being a good blogger involves many factors. To wit, Nathania Johnson at Copyblogger offers a look at improvisational acting techniques that make you a better blogger.

Establishing Your Authority, Spread Your Ideas
While you build your skills as a better blogger, you also establish your authority with your excellent content. Chris Garrett offers some tips for how to spread your great ideas and knowledge through blogging.

Sayonnara and So Long
By the way, this will be my last post at Bootstrapper. It’s been simultaneously fun and challenging by degrees. However, my career destiny appears to lie in another type of writing and creating, and I need to move along the closest path for once, after seventeen years of putting off the filmmaking goal. But all those big resource lists written by the Bootstrapper other writers will continue to appear here, as far as I know.

If your business relies on an online presence, you’ve probably already considered having a blog for your business website - possibly to boostrap your business with ad revenue. (Though the success of that really depends on your market as well as what you’re “selling”.)

As you probably already know, blogging isn’t about merely writing an article here and there at random. At least, not if you want some success out of the effort. I’ve already written about this a fair bit and don’t want to rehash it. I do want to point out that I believe critical thinking is important for entrepreneurs, especially for any work in the digital domain.

Particularly important to building the value of your website articles is the practice of deep linking, a subject I’ve written about extensively, as part of “link building”, at a number of places, especially Search Engine Journal.

Link building is important because it’s the act of any effort taken to get other “good” websites to link back to your site, especially particular articles. The link building effort also contributes to improving your site’s authority and “relevance” in the search engines for your chosen niche topic.

In a nutshell, the key purpose of good link building in any given article is to offer relevance to the reader. Link to relevant and worthwhile articles - both elsewhere and your own site - and in ways that are preferably seamless.

Whether or not a particular search engine will assign a measure of relevance to your article depends on their own algorithms, but you should still try to cater to the reader first. So when you write and when you link out to other sites and deep link to your own articles, put yourself in the place of the reader. Does the link you’ve used seem relevant to the context of the sentence, the paragraph, the article? Answer that question satisfactorily and you’ll likely be a better link builder.

By Laura Milligan

Yoga has been around for thousands of years and has enjoyed growing mainstream acceptance in Western society in the past few years, even working its way into the corporate environment. Businesses are increasingly adding free or low cost yoga classes as a productivity booster and perk for employees. While it might seem strange, studies done by the National Institutes of Health have found that yoga and meditation enhance the qualities that are most desired in employees, like an increase in brain waves, enhanced intuition, and better concentration, in addition to the alleviation of common aches and pains. With results like that, it’s hard to find a reason not to add a little yoga into your workday. Here are 10 basic moves to get you started.

1. Mountain Pose: This pose seems simple, but if done properly it should engage your whole body. Start by standing with feet together, hands at your sides, eyes facing forward. Press your heels into the floor and spread your toes while tilting your pelvis slightly forward. Then, raise your chest up and out, but no so much that you look as though you’re standing at attention for a drill sergeant. Lengthen your neck by stretching the base of your skull towards the ceiling while stretching the pinkies on your hand downward. Push your feet into the floor and raise your legs off of the floor. Hold this posture while you inhale and let go on the exhale. On your next breath, raise your arms over your head and hold for the next several breaths. Repeat this several times. This move should help alleviate some distracting lower back pain by making you more aware of your posture, as well as improving balance and self-awareness.
2. Boat: Give your abdominal muscles a good stretch with this pose. Start this pose by lying on your stomach with your legs together and arms at your sides. Take a breath and exhale while you press your hipbones and pelvis into the floor, lifting your arms and legs several inches off of the floor. Draw your spine toward the floor and imagine your chest pressing outward. Tuck in your chin slightly and extend your torso and legs away from each other. Hold this pose for a few seconds, then relax. Repeat at your discretion.
3. Table Balance: Work on your balance and concentration with this pose. Start on all fours with your hands directly beneath your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Look downward and make sure to keep your navel drawn into your spine. Straighten and lift your left leg so that it’s in line with your hips. Get your balance and extend your left arm out so that it’s even with your shoulders. Hold this for 3-10 breaths, then slowly lower your arm and leg. Repeat on the opposite side.
4. Downward Facing Dog: This posture is great for strengthening wrists, which is helpful for avoiding injuries like carpal tunnel syndrome that can make working painful or even impossible. It can also help reduce lower back pain. You begin this posture by getting on your hands and knees, making sure that your legs are hip width apart and arms are shoulder width apart. Inhale and curl your toes under as you would if you were standing on your toes. Exhale and straighten your legs while pushing up with your arms, lengthening your spine while keeping your feet flat on the floor. If it hurts too much to do this, it’s acceptable to bend your knees a little or allow your heels to lift off the floor. Relax back onto your hands and knees after a few breaths and repeat.
5. Tree Pose: Get a leg up, literally, on improving your balance and mental concentration with the tree pose. Begin by standing straight and tall with your feet together. Pick up your right foot and balance on your left, placing your right foot on the inside of your left thigh. Once you have your balance, raise your arms above your head so that your palms meet, keeping your shoulders down. Hold this for as long as it’s comfortable, or about 30 seconds. Relax, then repeat on the other side.
6. Wide Legged Forward Bend: Sitting all day without a break can be hard on the body and can lower energy levels. Help counteract the effects of your desk chair with this pose. Start with your legs twice shoulder width apart with feet forward. Place your hands on your hips and slowly bend at the waist while maintaining a straight back. Place the palms of your hands, or forearms if you’re flexible, on the floor and hold the pose. Slowly unfold out of your pose and return to your original stance.
7. Bridge Pose: Increase your overall flexibility, strengthen your lower back, and open up your chest with this move. It can also help alleviate those pesky energy sucking tension headaches by helping you relax. You begin this move by lying on the floor with your knees bent and your hands at your side. Your feet should be 6 inches apart and pulled in close to your backside. Begin by slowly raising and lowering your tailbone, then slowly take it up one vertebrae at a time until your entire spine is arched upward. Make sure to push firmly into the floor with your feet as you hold this position and breathe deeply. Hold for a few breaths, release, and repeat.
8. Warrior Pose: The warrior pose sounds tough, perhaps because it is intended to be a confidence builder. It also can help improve your balance and concentration, making it easier to keep your mind on your work. This pose starts in the mountain pose with your feet together and your hands at your side. Then, step your feet 4-5 feet apart. Begin by turning your right foot 45 degrees to the left and turning your left foot 90 degrees to the left so that it’s pointing straight out to the side. Slowly bend your left knee until your thigh is parallel to the floor while raising your arms over your head. Slowly lower your arms until your left arm is pointing straight ahead and your right arm is pointing straight back. Hold this position while concentrating on a point ahead of you for 5-6 breaths, relax, then reverse the pose.
9. The Triangle: Improve your balance and concentration by trying out the triangle pose. Begin by spreading your feet 3-4 feet apart and keeping them parallel. Turn your left foot 90 degrees to the left and your right foot 45 degrees inward. Next, take a deep breath while raising your arms straight out from your sides. Then exhale and turn your head to the left so that you’re looking down your arm to your fingers. Reach as far out to the left as you can and once you’ve reached your limit, rotate your arms down so that your left arm rests on your calf and your right arm is pointed straight up. Hold this for a few breaths, straighten up and lower your arms to the side, bringing your feet together. Repeat on the other side.
10. The Corpse: This pose requires of you just what it sounds like: playing dead. This level of relaxation will helps to refresh your body helping you relieve on the job stress and anxiety. Make sure not to fall asleep while doing this one! Begin by lying on your back with your arms at your side and palms facing upward. Then close your eyes and take several slow, deep breaths, allowing your body to completely relax. If you’re having trouble, start with a specific body part and imagine your muscles and skin in that part relaxing. Do this bit by bit until your whole body is relaxed.

You can start practicing these positions before you leave for work in the morning, or try out these simple moves you can do right from your desk during a break. And remember, just like with any kind of exercise, if you have health problems, recent surgeries, or any injuries consult with your physician before attempting any of these moves.

Here at Bootstrapper, we’ve previously published some pretty large lists of resources of interest to entrepreneurs and bootstrappers. But if you’re time-crunched, you probably can’t read 100 entrepreneurship sites with any regularity. With that in mind, and in no particular order, here’s our shortlist of sites that we recommend you try to read regularly. Taken as a whole, we feel that you’ll get a considerably broad view of business, entrepreneurshp, and career success.

1. Seth Godin. Seth Godin is a respected marketing guru who writes in a very accessible style - both on his blog and in his many ebooks and print books. While he’s not strictly writing for boostrapping entrepreneurs, what he can teach you will be valuable, especially to digital entrepreneurs.

2. How to Change the World. Guy Kawasaki interviews a lot of successful business people as well as imparts his own knowledge. His content is also very evergreen, so if you don’t have time to read his articles one week, you can always catch up later.

3. Entrepreneur’s Journey. Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneur’s Journey has long been an incredible resource for entrepreneurs working either offline or online. And Yaro has managed to prove that a blogger can produce a comfortable income with by working only a few hours a day. As well, he’s leveraged his successes into a number of other businesses, on and offline, including two subscription content sites.

4. Copyblogger. While you don’t need formal copywriting training, persuasive communication skills go a long way towards business success, especially if you’re a digital entrepreneur. Brian Clark’s Copyblogger shows the way, offering solid communications knowledge by example.

5. Instigator Blog. If I were forced to pick one business-related blog to read regularly, it would be Ben Yoskovitz’s Instigator Blog hands down. He might resort to lists - which some people don’t like - but his lists are meaty, full of details that impart his considerable business knowledge.

6. Startup Spark. Startup Spark was started by Ben Yoskovitz of Instigator Blog (above), but he’s passed the reins to focus on his second web startup company. It’s been in good hands with various bloggers - currently Shannon Cherry. It’s also the home of the popular blog carnival, Carnival of Entrepreneurs.

7. Bootstrap Me. Shawn Hessinger’s Bootstrap Me regularly offers insight into bootstrapping, as well as online entrepreneuring and reviews of the business segment of the blogosphere.

8. College Startup. You’re never too young to start a business, and during college is an ideal time, what with access to many young, open minds to whom you can pitch your ideas and products. College Startup is aimed at the budding College Entrepreneur.

9. Business Pundit. By all accounts, Business Pundit’s Rob has a degree in business and really gets indepth about business principles, with a mix of case studies, interviews, marketing tips and much more.

10. Blogtrepreneur. As indicated in the College Startup writeup above, you’re never too young to be interested in business. Adnan of Blogtrepreneur admits he’s still in high school, yet has built a successful blog that focuses on blog/ Internet entrepreneuring. In fact, the blog, which was an experiment in bootstrapping, is up for sale and likely to get a lot of interest.

11. AOL Small Business. The AOL Small Business website is, as the name suggests, focused on small business, but it has a wealth of articles about successful entrepreneurs of all ages, as well as case studies of startup principles.

12. BNET. The BNET site offers a wealth of business-related articles, including a library, that relate management, strategy, startup and general business principles. True, some of these articles are aimed at medium to larger businesses, but an entrepreneur who blinds themselves to future possibilities is doomed to be stuck in “small” business mode.

13. Lifehacker. The Lifehacker blog, while about productivity, tends towards tips and tricks about using software for work tasks, whether you work offline or online. It’s a must-read for picking up both software and general productivity tips.

14. Lifehack.org. Lifehack.org is the perfect complement to to Lifehacker. While there is some overlap in the two blogs, Lifehack.org tends towards general life and work productivity tips, not necessarily just about software.

15. Zen Habits. Leo Babauta, a guest on many blogs including the aforementioned Lifehack.org, has achieved an incredible success with his Zen Habits blog. Don’t let the name bother you - it’s not a religious blog. Rather, it’s a blog about simple productivity tips and achieving the appropriate habits necessary for general career success.

True, they’re not all strictly “bootstrapping” sites, but should give you a well-rounded view of business, entrepreneuring, work and life productivity necessary to succeed as a bootstrapper.

[Disclosure: I do have some sort of connection to a few of these sites and bloggers, either in terms of being a friend, colleague or contributor, though that’s actually a result of my respect for the bloggers, not the other way around.]

Yaro Starak of Entrepreneur’s Journey, whom I often quote/ refer to here, asks what would you do if money did not matter? Have you thought about that, especially in terms of business/ career? Yaro also asks what you’d do if money was all you cared about, and goes on to say that blogging is then a poor choice.

My experience is that a large percentage of people would indicate wanting to do something other than what they’re currently doing. As Yaro points out, some people would say they’d take lots of holidays. Others actually say “nothing.” These are often the people that either haven’t thought about it or are afraid to pursue their dreams.

A lot of people talk about procrastination and GTD (Get Things Done), but I always find I have problems with GTS (Getting Things Started). Something I learned very early in my writing career is that writing about something not only helps you to learn about it but often motivates you to learn even more, sparks a career passion.

That said, if you are in an inbetween stage where you are thinking about a career change and know what you’d like to, blogging can still help you. It might or might not earn you enough to bootstrap your startup business, but it will help you towards becoming an authority in your chosen niche. That in turn might lead to the opportunities you need to launch your startup. With or without revenue, blogging can bootstrap your career.

By Christina Laun

It isn’t any surprise that coworkers often find themselves attracted to one another. After all, you’re working in close proximity, seeing each other regularly, and usually dressed more attractively than you would be in a more casual situation. Yet work romances can create a troubling dilemma. Many businesses have strict rules about what is acceptable when pursuing a romance with a coworker, and for a good reason. Often, there is a fine line between what is harmless flirting and sexual harassment, and underestimating it can cost you your career. So if you want to ask out that cute girl from marketing, follow these tips to avoid landing yourself in hot water.

1. Ask her to lunch. Lunch is a relatively harmless request, as business associates often get together for lunch to discuss work related issues. If you’re nervous or want to be extra careful, invite along a few other coworkers.
2. Send her emails. Sometimes emails can be a low-pressure way to ask out the object of your affection at work, and she won’t feel like she has to give you an immediate response. Just be careful what you write–emails are often monitored, and any inappropriate emails will likely be saved for your dismissal interview.
3. Include other coworkers. If you’re afraid to risk it all and ask her out one-on-one, try inviting her out with a group of coworkers. You’ll still get to spend some time with her away from work, but there will be other people around to ease any potential awkwardness.
4. Only ask once. If you’ve asked her out and she said no, don’t press the issue. Repeated attempts at getting her to go out with you will make her uncomfortable and definitely cross the line to harassment.
5. Give non-threatening compliments. One way to show your interest in a female coworker is to pay her compliments. You just have to be careful about what you say, as there are many things that could be taken in the wrong way and could sound inappropriate. One way to do this is by giving a compliment accompanied by a question such as “That’s a nice University of Whatever scarf. Did you go to school there?” That way, she won’t feel pressured to respond to your compliment, and you’ll get to know a little more about her.
6. Walk with her to meetings or out of the building. Make the most of your travel time through the building to spend time with the woman you’re interested in asking out. It’s an easy way to approach her and it’s unlikely to make her feel uncomfortable because your walk has a terminal point.
7. Arrange outside of work outings. You won’t seem like a creep if you ask her to come along on company outings outside of work, and in fact, if she’s new you might even score some points with her for making her feel included in the group.
8. Keep your distance. While you might get away with getting touchy feely when approaching a woman at a bar, at work you should keep your distance. Don’t invade her personal space. Instead, express your interest through your face and body language.
9. Tell her jokes. Jokes can be a great way to get her to let down her guard and think of you as a person, not just her coworker. Just be careful to keep the jokes clean to avoid upsetting her or any other coworkers within earshot.
10. Bring her coffee. Provided she likes coffee, this will be seen as a sweet, non-aggressive gesture. If you’re lucky, you could turn a one time gesture into a daily coffee date.
11. Only approach those who are not your subordinates. It doesn’t matter how attractive your subordinates might be, they should be off limits if you want to avoid future trouble. Even if you spark a long-term relationship, if it goes sour you could become subject to complaints that you used your status as leverage.
12. Make excuses to stop by her desk. Walking by her desk every once in awhile or bringing some papers over to her can be a good way to break the ice and give you an opportunity to ask her out.
13. Keep it casual. If you do ask her to go out, make sure it’s something that isn’t too intimidating. Try asking her to get coffee or dinner before asking her out to come over to watch a movie.
14. Be her friend first. Before you take the leap to asking out a coworker, get to know her first. You may find out that while you thought she was cute, you two don’t really have much to talk about. Of course, if you do, you’ll have a much easier time asking out someone you’re already friendly with.
15. Send her a meeting invitation. Why not get cute about it and send her a meeting invitation through her email? You can keep things casual with a simple catch-up lunch meeting if you want to see how interested she is.
16. Ask for her help on a project. You can often approach a coworker you don’t know particularly well by asking for her help on a project. You’ll get her help and a chance to talk with her that you might not have otherwise had.
17. Take breaks together. Invite her along on your afternoon snack run or trip to the water cooler. If she says yes, who knows, she might say yes to dinner and movie.
18. Use work as a conversation starter. An easy way to break the ice with a coworker is to joke around or talk about work. You can share a laugh about how sweaty your boss was at the meeting or how awful the coffee is in the break room. You’ll be bonding, but in a way that’s appropriate for the office.
19. Leave her outs. If you want to ask out someone from work but you aren’t sure of her interest in you, make sure you leave her an out when you invite her on a date so that she doesn’t feel trapped or made uncomfortable by your request.
20. Get her opinion. If you work closely with the coworker you’re interested in, try asking her opinion on something you’re working on. It’ll let her know you value what she thinks and later on, you can ask her opinion on more personal matters as well.
21. Gauge her interest. Whether you ask around the office to see if she might be interested or just read her signals, don’t pursue a woman that doesn’t seem to be into you. While this is a good rule to follow in general, it’s especially true for the office.
22. Save her a seat. One way you can show interest in a woman at work without being too pushy about it is to save her a seat at your next meeting or conference. It’s a nice gesture and you’ll get to sit by her the whole time.
23. Ask her questions. You’re unlikely to face any lawsuits for trying to get to know a coworker better, unless of course you start quizzing her about her personal life or dress sizes, so take the opportunity to ask her questions and get to know what makes her tick. It will make it easier to ask her out later.
24. Maintain eye contact. This is a good approach to dealing with women at work, as it shows that you are interested in what they are saying. It also makes it clear that your eyes aren’t wandering to places that are inappropriate.
25. Just ask. Sometimes the best way to approach a woman at work is to just do it. That way, you’ll know right off the bat if she’s interested or not, and you won’t be tempted to say or do things that she might find harassing if she’s not interested.

Remember that none of these tips are foolproof–every person has their own comfort threshold and some might take offense at things of which others would think nothing. Stay smart, and who knows? Your office romance might blossom into something more.

It’s true that some niches are more monetizable online than others. But what if you are not an authority in one of the more lucrative niches and can’t afford to hire someone? Being a generalist, I tend to fool myself into believing I can write about anything, but there are only a few niches that I can write about with a level of passion - which is key for a successful blog, but not necessarily a static site.

Now if you’re in the position that you feel your knowledge is not that monetizable, you still have a few options. I’ve been exploring a business model I like to call “cascading cashflow engines”. It is all theoretical, but applicable both online and offline. The gist of the whole exercise is to leverage what you do know into distributed projects that will collectively raise enough capital for your true startup goal. Applied to online publishing, this is an alternate financing method than blogging for startup money.

Cascading Cashflow Business Model:
Basically, I start with a few small projects that I can manage or can find volunteers for. The revenue for these projects (whether websites or something else) is used to fund the next level of projects. These second-level projects usually have some hired help - freelancers. Part of the revenue from the second-level projects is recycled, in hopes of producing more paid work for other people. The rest of the revenue is used to fund some third-level projects, which might have half-time or full-time people.

The revenues keep cascading down the project levels until there’s enough capital generated to launch the real startup goal.

Previous Entrepreneurial Mistakes:
Again, I’ll emphasize that this is a theoretical business model. I’ve been exploring it for years, but I made some serious mistakes before:

1. Didn’t focus on a few areas of interest.
2. Overcommitted resources and had to stop short, making collaborators angry.
3. Bought too much equipment too soon. That is, I didn’t really bootstrap and suffered stunning financial losses as a result.
4. Didn’t consistently apply kaizen.
5. Didn’t take on partners (couldn’t find suitable ones).
6. Over-relied on credit cards, and not even business cards with good rates.
7. Didn’t plan to pay contributors/ hires a share of net monthly revenue.

Summary:
I’ve rectified these problems on what might be termed my third phase of entrepreneuring, which is currently purely online, as a digital entrepreneur. I’m also replicating the successful online business models of some of my colleagues/ partners who are earning between $5-50K/month. I’m also exploring, with partners, web mashup tools and subscription sites.

While all this doesn’t guarantee success, early indications are that the success will come over time, now that I’ve learned from previous mistakes. My cascading cashflow engines will be harnessed over the next three years, in hopes of producing enough capital to bootstrap a film production company (complete with funding of my entry into film school). I know. I don’t like doing things the easy way.

For those of you with unfulfilled entrepreneurial dreams, there are a couple of blog posts I recommend reading. Jon over at OnMoneyMaking says don’t do what you love. He thinks that’s stupid. He obviously had a lot of foresight early in life because he started building his resume at around nine years of age. And the result was that despite a college degree in English, all his other activities scored him a six-figured salaried job upon graduation.

Ryan over at College Startup reflects on Jon’s article but disagrees with him about not doing what you love:

… in my honest opinion, the resources and infrastructure are now in place so that anyone, anywhere, with enough passion, can do exactly what they want and still hit 6 figures within a few years.

I’m a long-time freelancer but also raised “old-school” in the sense that you have to follow some career to be safe in life, to pay the bills, raise a family, have a mortgage, etc. After following the rules and being repeatedly thwarted in my career success (sometimes through self-sabotage), I figure that without a family or mortgage, I really have nothing to lose by following my passion. That is, my original passion, filmmaking - the one I forgot all about while trying to raise money for it the past sixteen years.

The conservative approach is to “do what you have to make a living.” The liberal approach is to follow your passion and make it work. My long-time thinking is to follow your passion, if possible. Just don’t be afraid to make detours if necessary, to survive, and don’t forget your passion, during the detour.

Fact is, the Internet has made it possible (but not necessarily probable) that you can make a living online, whether from blogging as a niche authority, having an online publishing business, software development, e-commerce or some other means. The question is whether you can find your passion, because that’s what I feel you need for online success.

Entrepreneuring might not commonly be referred to as a “career”, but it is as far as I’m concerned. Over time, I’ve met some very interesting bootstrappers. Some of them raised the capital for their businesses - including restaurant chains - through the oddest means - including selling drugs or even writing romance novels. Now that’s not to say you should do either, heaven forbid, but maybe you can find some creative way to generate funds for your entrepreneurial career.

While I’ve publicly admitted that my own websites/ blogs don’t earn a lot of money yet, I believe they could. (Most of my income is from freelancing.) I feel that with the right niche, you could bootstrap your entrepreneuring with bloging, if it’s your sort of thing. I don’t mean publishing a blog for your business. I mean blogging as a means to raise capital for the business you’ve been dreaming of.

Challenge
I’m making it sound easy, and it’s not. To make it work, there are a lot of things you have to do right, in synchrony. I’m also assuming that you have the ability to communicate clearly most of the time. Far too many bloggers do not communicate well, then wonder why no one reads their blog. Communication skills are important in business, as well as for blogging.

1. Pick a good niche. Find a monetizable niche known to have high ad CTR (Clickthrough Rate). This is the lynchpin factor. Without the right niche, you’re better off working over time or raising money some other way.

2. Be visible. Write anywhere from 5-20 posts per day, with word count/post decreasing as quantity increases. The more you write, the more search engine traffic you’ll bring in, provided your writing is entertaining/ engaging/ informative (depending on niche).
3. Develop your own voice. To keep readers coming back, develop your own voice in a niche.
4. Experiment. Try different post styles (see below) until you find something that works for your niche.
5. Persist. Trying for a month or two and giving up isn’t going to take you anywhere. It might take a few months for your site to draw regular readers and/or search engine traffic.
6. Be informed. To pull off an authority blog, you need to know what you’re talking about. If you don’t know, learn. This of course requires a chunk of time for research.
7. Promote. Use social media sites to promote your site and your best posts. This takes time and effort, something non-entrepreneurs tend not to want to spend.

Those of you balking at this advice, please leave the room now. It comes from someone who has concrete proof - in impressive monthly income - that this publishing frequency works - especially 10+ posts - for specific niches.

Approach
In addition to the points above, you have to take the right approach to the actual writing and research. Obviously, the more time you can devote, the more likely you’ll make this work.

1. Start by writing small summary posts and apply the principle of kaizen to improve your writing. (Read this first if you’re starting in a niche that you know little about but want to learn.)

2. Expand your knowledge so that you can summarize it succinctly in your posts. It’s actually harder to express the same information in fewer words, and takes knowledge of your subject.
3. Add illustrations/ images/ videos, if suitable for the niche. Start with Flickr and YouTube, then expand your “sources”. Pay for quality pics if you have to, when you can afford it.
4. Don’t dawdle. If you have an idea for a post, write up a summary. If after brewing it in your head for an hour, you have nothing else to say, post what you have then write an expanded post later. (Just make sure the summary is coherent.)
5. Space out publishing. Some niches require that you post all day long. Wake up early, if you have to, and beat each busy period: morning, noon, evening by publish before those times, not during. (Of course, your time zone matters, depending on who your readers are.) What you don’t want to do is write 20 posts and publish them all in the same 30 minutes. Try to publish 1-5 posts per period, but with at least 10-15 minutes between any two. This is a necessity for staying visible in blog directories and search engines.

Post Style
Your post style is another important factor and depends on the niche you’ve picked. If you’re not sure, experiment. I’m doing that in a particular niche, where I have several partners and hired bloggers. These are small experiments, but should prove valuable. Here are the parameters:

1. Voice: neutral or opinionated.
2. Links, internal: with or without.
3. Links, external: with or without.
4. Images: with/ without.
5. Word count: micro (25+), short (50-100), medium (200+), long (400+), or tome (600+).
6. # Posts/day: 1 to many.
7. Video: with or without.

The number of posts per day that you “should” do depends highly on the niche. However, generally speaking, the more content you have, the more often search engine spiders visit your site, thus improving the chances of lots of traffic. That’s a very nutshell explanation, but some niches absolutely require 10-20 short posts per day for a blog to be a success financially.

Of course, the more posts you do per day, the shorter the posts should be, if you are expecting to gain blog feed subscribers. It’s also less tasking to write 10-20 posts per day if they’re shorter.

Summary
The entire point of this exercise is not to blog about your business - which in this case hasn’t been launched yet. The point is to explore a possible means of generating startup capital to launch your startup. You can use a pseudonym if for some reason you don’t want to use your real name.

My colleague who earns five figures per month swears by most of the above information. As for niches, well, i’m not going to give away all my secrets just yet. However, if you’re clever and do a bit of hunting, you’ll figure out which niches I’m hedging my bets in, along with partners.

I have my regular freelance work that pays my bills. I’m hoping that my experimental blogging/ publishing will also help me start up my photography once again - possibly enough to pay for equipment and a live/work studio - pay for my entrance into film school, and then generate capital for when I do make movies. The double benefit is that I’ll already have a few of my own vehicles for advertising my films.

By Christina Laun

Clients are the bread and butter of any business. Without them, your business simply wouldn’t exist. So it can be hard for many business owners to think about sending clients away, especially those just starting out. But it’s inevitable that you’ll have a client that taxes both your resources and your personal sanity to the point where it becomes necessary to let them go. Don’t worry, you’re not crazy to send business away. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to cut a client loose. It’s not always easy, but it will leave you with more time to concentrate on clients that are easier to deal with and more profitable.

Types of Bad Clients

Bad clients come in many flavors, but these are some of the most common offenders. If you’ve got one of these on your client list, consider showing them the door.

• The Complainer: Don’t expect to ever do anything right for this type of client. Even if you deliver under budget and sooner than expected, they will still be disappointed for a reason they just can’t seem to communicate to you.
• The Something for Nothing: These types of clients ignore the old adage and try to get as much out of you as they can for as little as possible. Often, they’ll get your initial estimate and expect the cost not to increase when they increase the size or duration of the project or keep adding on “little” things.
• The Time Waster: Expect your time to mean little to these kinds of clients. They’ll be hard to get in meetings and when you finally get ahold of them, they won’t listen to what you’re saying. They’ll run you around with changes, pointless meetings, and time wasted waiting, and then complain how much they’re paying you.
• The Aggressor: This type of client is the hardest to work with and the scariest to get rid of. They are often verbally abusive and threaten to sue for the slightest reason. Be especially careful when unloading these as they have particularly short fuses.
• The Know-It-All: The know-it-all is sure that he or she knows how to do your job just as well as you do because they have a basic familiarity with the programs you use or read a book on the subject. What they don’t realize is that your experience and expert knowledge are really what they’re paying for. Nonetheless, they’ll question your every move and drive you crazy.
• The Boundary Crosser: This type of client will ask you for your home phone numbers “for emergencies” and then call you on weekends and after hours just to check in. This kind of client taxes your personal life heavily.

How to Fire Them

Whether you have a client that fits one of these profiles or an entirely different breed altogether, when the time comes to part ways, do you know how you’ll go about doing it? Here are some tips on making the process as painless as possible.

• Do it in writing. This will help to prevent misunderstandings and raised emotions. It will also give you a written record of your interactions with the client if you should need it to back you up later.
• Make sure you get paid prior to terminating your relationship. You’re asking for trouble by firing a client who still hasn’t paid you, even though sometimes this may be the reason that you are firing them. As illegal and unprofessional as it may be, a jilted client may withhold payment for your services as retribution for letting them go.
• Fulfill any remaining contractual obligations to your clients if it is at all possible or you may find yourself subject to the consequences of breaking that contract. If this is the case, you might want to bring in a lawyer to tell you your best options. Remember, you want to do the work you’ve promised to do, as your reputation is still at stake.
• When letting clients go, be honest but not hostile or offensive. If you can’t think of any way to put your reasons for parting ways nicely, then tell them your business is changing directions or that you just don’t think you can complete their project in the manner or timeframe they hoped.
• Don’t just leave your clients high and dry after you’ve let them go. They may not have treated you with respect, but that doesn’t mean you should return the favor. Recommend another business, preferably a competitor, to take the project instead.
• If nothing else seems to work, jack up your prices. Either they’ll part ways with you themselves or the pain of working for them will be lessened by your increased paycheck.

While it might be difficult both mentally and financially to fire a client, in the long run you’ll be doing your business and yourself a favor. You shouldn’t let go of every client that is difficult, but if you’re hitting the brink with a client, it’s time to make a change. In reality, many clients that take up hours of your time are costing you more than they’re bringing in. By cutting these clients loose, you’ll have more time and energy to concentrate on bringing in new, more profitable business, and that’s really what business is all about.