How Do You Find Niches Online And Make Money With Them

Writen by Gary A J Martin

The internet is a huge place with so many web sites on a hugely varied amount of subjects.

FInding good niches with lots of interest is more difficult because of the massive variety.

So, where is the best place to find profitable niches?

A site you may have heard of before. Ebay.

Yes. That site

It has so many different categories and an almost infinite number of sub categories.

All the research on the various popular categories, and sub categories has been done for you.

So what you do is look up a category you are interested in, or just browse topics until one catches your eye.

What you will see is the main category and a list of all the sub categories within that niche.

What you could do from here is develop a group of sites on this topic all linked together. Thereby, any visitors from one of your sites in the network most likely will visit other sites, since you will have links to all your sites within that niche networkon each web site.

Next, each site needs to be monetized. Here you can use Adsense, affiliate programs, and links to your own products you are selling.

Naturally, you will be trying to capture the name and email address of every visitor to each of your sites.

Since they have shown an interest in one of your minor niches, all lists you gain from here can be cross promoted. For example, a major topic is cat supplies, which has a series of sub categories, such as, cat collars, cat toys, litter boxes, and so on. All related to cats in some way. So all people interested in one of these sub niches likely have cats and will find value in the other sites you have put up in your cat network of sites.

Finding content for your sites is not difficult either. Staying with the cat theme, hire a ghost writer to research and write content for you on each topic. Or you could interview an expert on cats and give them credit for the information. Likely by doing this, they would be happy to give the interview for free. Everybody loves free publicity.

Do this on ten main topics and within 6 months to a year, you would have a full time internet income.

It really is as simple as this. Obviously work would be required. But no success comes before work, right?

So, how many niche network group of sites do you want to build?

Copyright Gary Martin 2006 All Rights Reserved

Gary Martin, an expert in Internet Marketing, shares a wealth of information on his website www.multiplewebincomestreams.com If you want to learn how to make money online and pick up free resources visit http://www.multiplewebincomestreams.com">this site today.

Quottake Fivequot To Take Away The Fear

Writen by Richard Sloan

Starting a business can be a scary proposition. But if you take five key steps, there's a way to take away the fear.

1. Research. Knowledge about your market, your targeted customers, your advantage, and your competition can provide you with clarity -- and position you to be decisive about your opportunity.

2. Protect Your Idea. Visit www.register.com to find out about reserving a website name. Go to www.uspto.gov to learn about what steps you can take to protect your idea. If you haven't yet, contact a reputable intellectual property attorney to walk you through what the process is for applying for a patent or registered trademark.

3. Start Part-Time. Instead of making the leap from your current job to running your own startup "cold turkey," consider keeping your job for security and start your business on the side part-time. This will help you avoid taking unnecessary risks and it will ease the transition financially.

4. Outsource. To keep the complexity of your startup to a minimum, consider outsourcing functions like accounting, payroll, information technology, public relations and more. You might even want to outsource manufacturing, packing and shipping, and sales. Keep your strongest skills and most strategic activities—perhaps things like design, marketing, and/or customer interaction—in-house.

5. Be Willing to Fail. Come to terms with the fact that the best entrepreneurs fail. But if you're smart you can limit those failures to small battles along the way. The key is to win the war! Know that failure is something that's just part of business—as it is in life—and that you can work through those failures on your way to success.

Our bottom line:

If you want to get started with your great idea, "take five" and take away the fear!

For more information about Richard Sloan and the Sloan Brothers, please visit http://www.startupnation.com.

Cost Efficient Skip Tracing

Writen by Ron Cooper

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine. One of the best collection managers around, Todd from FDS in Wilmington NC. We were discussing what a collection manager needs to know about skip tracing that will benefit collectors. His response" skip tracing is important because you can't collect if you can't find them. However, collectors need to concentrate their time on collections not skip tracing".

Now that's a dilemma. So I started thinking, "How to streamline your skip trace process so that your collections process is not interrupted?"

After some serious head scratching and a couple of Dr. Peppers, the answer came. Below is a step by step process to quickly and efficiently work a skip trace account.

First, determine a set time to skip trace. I recommend non peak collection hours. Now, get out of collector mode. Mental attitudes of collectors and skip tracers are different. To skip trace is to play a game of chess, where the pieces are real people.

STEP ONE- FILTER THE ACCOUNT

Can you work the account in the first place? Determine that it is not in a legal status, under bankruptcy or assigned with any internal code that should not be worked. Filtering the account will save time and money. The most important filtering element is the value of the account. Search efforts should be in direct relation to the value of the account. In other words, the more they owe the more you should search.

STEP TWO- PROFILE THE ACCOUNT

Knowing what you are looking for makes it easier to find it. The same holds true when you are working your accounts. Determine the type of account being worked so that unnecessary steps are not taken that waste time and money.

First, check your notes on the account and in the file. Confirm the addresses and phone numbers were not transposed or digits omitted accidentally. (Typo account) If the person has moved and has honestly forgot to tell you. Chances are simple searches will produce results. Contact neighbors, employment or references from the notes/file and call ALL numbers, even if you think they are disconnected- you never know. (Unintentional account) If the contact can't offer any information then you may have a challenge. (Runner Account)

STEP THREE- TIER THE ACCOUNT

Keep in mind this rule of thumb. Usually, the more they owe the harder they hide. Setup your search procedures on the value of the account. When going to a higher tier encompass all search procedures from previous tiers.

Low Balance

Statistics show that a large majority of the residence of the United States move every four months. Find a trusted outsource company and once every four months batch these accounts out to them. Doing so more often will not be cost effective. Try to get discount prices. Develop a strong relationship with your outsource company, if they produce lower than national average (20%) use a different company.

Quick Find

Let's answer two questions quickly. Is the person deceased? Is the person incarcerated? Determine if they are deceased by going to www.ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com enter the name or the social security number. If they are reported as deceased information will show when and where. If no information appears there is no record. To determine if the person is incarcerated in a federal prison, go to www.bop.gov . For information about state prisons contact that state's department of corrections.

If no information was found, go to www.argali.com. You can search by name, address and phone number. Try www.netronline.com. Enter the state, county, address or name and you will get the owner of the property, tax value, map of the neighbor and all kinds of good stuff!

Full Search

Here is where you pull out all of the stops. I use a worksheet that I have developed over the years that has over 40 different helpful searches on it. Here are some of those searches: the credit report (ONLY if you have legal access), neighborhood stores, hunting/fishing license, workers compensation records, possible civic groups, leagues, trade associations, criminal record, civil record, electric company, satellite company to name a few.

Still not located? Consider placing the accounts to reputable companies (yes they are out there). Let them earn your business. Split accounts between them. Only use one that will sign a Confidentiality Agreement and a Hold Harmless, it never hurts to protect yourself.

And as always, happy hunting!

Ron Cooper ACCURATE INTELL http://www.accurateintell.com PO Box 30485 Greenville, NC 27833 (252)375-0262

What Is Reverse Merger And Is It For Everyone Part 2

Writen by Joseph Quinones

Many Reverse Mergers have been successful when done properly that is why I never consent to doing one without providing the company with the possible problems that can arise and how to deal with them.

I also provide the client with the alternatives to Reverse Merger, such as Regulation D Offering, Direct Public Offering and private placement.

One way to make sure that the Reverse merger is going to work is to buy one hundred per cent of the shares owned by the shell owner, but this is not a guarantee because there could be shares unaccounted for.

Proper due diligence is a must, and you must be immune to smooth talking salesmen.An alternative to a Reverse Merger is a Direct Public Offering, DPO.

Direct Public Offerings are increasing in popularity since the shell prices are skyrocketing and companies are becoming aware of the problems associated with Reverse mergers.

And if a company is trying to obtain financing Direct Public Offerings are preferable to a venture capital investment, venture capital firms demand a large portion of the company and will not be passive investors.

Venture capital investors will be very involved with the company and will make demands that can be detrimental to the company's success, they may not give you enough time to put your business plan in place.

An IPO is probably out of the question because you must convince an underwriter that your company is the next Microsoft, or you will have a difficult time getting someone to do the IPO for you.

An IPO is more expensive and time consuming and will take the decision making out of your hands place it in the underwriters hands.

A DPO is targeted to affinity groups such as employees, suppliers, distributors and customers. These groups usually are familiar with the company and are loyal to it.

DPO's are registered securities offerings that allow you to market the securities directly to the public. The Internet can be use to market the securities but if your website doesn't have a lot of traffic nobody will know about your stock offering.

So that leaves affinity groups as your best source of funding, unless you are a google and the investors are looking for you.

As the large corporations continue to reduce their work force and are leaving a lot of talented people with the option of an unemployment check or starting their on business, we find that a lot of the job creation is being left to small businesses.

These small businesses must find capital in order to expand or to fill order, small business have created over 20 million jobs over the last 15 years while big business has been cutting them. If this creative force had the capital they could propel the economy to unheard of levels.

DPO's fall under "SCOR" small corporate registration and are for companies doing under $25 million in revenues and have a capitalization (share market value) of less than $25 million dollars.

By doing a Direct Public Offering you are raising capital that will not be costing you monthly interest payment, and is a permanent source of funding.

You will not have to give a large portion of the company to investors, a venture capitalist will demand a disproportionate Amount. Private funding is always more expensive in terms of equity and control.

As a public company you can better negotiate future financing requirements, and use the company stock for acquisitions. In a DPO filing you only need 2 years of audited financial as compare to 3 years for other filings.

All this sounds easy but in reality it isn't you need somebody with experience to hold your hand and guide you through the process.

You must make sure that you are ready for the commitment and are prepare to devote the required time to this endeavor. Talk to your affinity groups about the possibility of investing in your company, this will give you an idea as to who is a potential investor.

Keep updated records of your customers and friends in the community who may be contacted later on. It may become necessary to purchase a mailing list, if you are medical product company or laboratory you would know some of the Doctors in your community but not all of them.

Stay in the planning mode and take necessary step while you are preparing for your DPO, such as having one year of financials audited and having a business plan prepared and printed, so that you don't have to incur all the expenses at once.

Give us a call so that we can start planning together, the more prepare you are the less you will have to rush later, everyone everything done yesterday but the process takes time.

Regulation D Offerings: This rule provides an exemption from the registration requirements of section 5 of the Securities Act of 1933. Such transactions are not exempt from the antifraud civil liability, or other provisions of the federal securities laws. (See my article on Regulation D (504) offering.

Nothing in these rules obviates the need to comply with any applicable state law relating to the offer and sale of securities.

Rule 506: Provides an exemption for limited offers and sales without regard to the dollar amount of the offering. This offer does not limit the number of accredited investors, but the nonaccredited investors is limited to 35. for a description of accredited and nonaccredited investors see my article on Regulation D (504) offering.

Rule 505: Offerings may not exceed $5,000.000.00 less the total dollar amount of securities sold during the preceding 12 months period under rule 504 or 505. This exemption limits the number of nonaccredited investors to 35 but has no investor sophistication standards.

Rule 504: Offerings allows business to raise a maximum of $1,000,000.00 in a twelve month period, under Rule 504, Rule 505 or section 3 of the act a business can raise only $500,000.00 by the sale of securities to persons residing in the states of Montana and Alaska, which have no disclosure law. In states that have disclosure laws companies can raise up to $1,000,000,.00.

Rule 504 has no prescribed disclosure requirements, no limit on the number of purchasers. Offering under Rule 504 are relatively simple to prepare, which reduces the cost and delay and does not require an underwriter.

Joseph Quinones, President of Genesis Corporate Advisors has spent over 25 years in the securities industry. In 1992 he founded JDQ Financial Group, Inc. and proceeded to build it up from a one man operation to the point where it employed many traders, advised numerous client and generated millions in revenues. For additional Information Please visit: www.genesiscorporateadvisors.com For questions email: josephquinones@genesiscorporateadvisors.com

The Great Business Myths That Dominate Our Lives

Writen by Sanford Kahn

Myths—these unconscious or semi-conscious beliefs have a strong influence on how we orient our behavior and actions.

The ones that seem to influence us the most are directed towards our personal lives. But, there are business myths that have a profound impact on our decisions. The problem arises when some of these myths are believed to be true when in actuality they maybe false or only partly true. The goal of this article is to explore some of these business myths and their accuracy.

Let's start with a business myth that is the outgrowth of the information society. That is--- INFORMATION IS POWER. If this is true, then the more information you acquire the more powerful you will be. While it maybe popular to subscribe to this myth, the fact is the myth is not true. Information, especially as you acquire more is not power but can easily lead to confusion. The power comes from knowledge and understanding how the acquired information can benefit you both on a personal and professional level. Knowledge and understanding can be obtained from seminars, reading, etc. I would venture to guess, though, that seventy-five percent of your practical business knowledge comes from personal experience—the old fashioned trial-and-error method. Knowledge is the filter that sifts the information into its useful parts.

Let's examine a few other business myths that may significantly influence how we perceive our economic climate.

With the last economic expansion lasting for over nine years some people now have the feeling that the business cycle can be eliminated and recessions are things of the past.

This myth is true--- if you can remove humans from the face of the planet. Outside of this, the business cycle is part of human behavior.

Why is there a business cycle? Someone once noted that people can tolerate any condition except the possibility of one. This condition is prolong periods of prosperity. Incredulous as it sounds; this observation contains more than just a kernel of truth.

When the economy starts to recover from a stiff downturn, people are understandably doubtful about the young expansion. They hold back on their discretionary spending and their use of debt. As the upswing continues, people tend to become less risk averse or slightly more greedy.

As the upturn ages, people become more confident and think the expansion will last indefinitely. Business people take-on more debt to leverage their profit margins. The consumer will also be increasing their debt burdens to finance their growing consumption habit. Soon a point is reached where the cost of the debt is growing far faster than the incomes to pay both the principal and interest expenses.

Now the expansion starts to stall because businesses and consumers can not sustain this credit expansion. A period of credit liquidation ensues and a new downturn begins. The severity of the new downturn depends on several factors. These include the oversupply of goods and services, the level of debt buildup, and government economic policies (namely tax and trade policies).

The business cycle will always be with us. Each cycle has a life of its own and varies in both amplitude and duration.

In our present economic environment the one important factor that will govern your ability to grow and prosper is your liquidity. Are you loaded up to the hilt in debt? If you are not liquid, how can you take advantage of business opportunities? Liquidity is King!

One of the popular and often repeated business themes is that we live and work in an economy that is changing quickly. But, what is changing rapidly—is it trends or events?

As Aesop illustrated in one of his old and respected fables, The Shepard and The Sea, the sea has many moods. What you see on television, hear on the radio, and read in the papers are events. These events change quickly and abruptly. Economic trends on the other hand are smoother. They change very slowly but take on a life of their own and then go to an extreme and reverse.

It will be your ability to adapt to the changing trends that will insure your success both personally and professionally. Why? Because if you do not base your planning on long-term economic trends then it will be difficult to adopt a framework in which to base your financial decisions. You will be rushing about putting out current fires instead of devoting your energies to long-term planning. Then, what is the pivotal long-term economic/business trend that will significantly impact your business planning?

The dominant long-term business trend will be deflating price structure. This results principally from the increase in competition due to the rapid spread of technology. This state-of-the-art business technology now allows the small entrepreneur to compete successfully with the large mega corporations. This technology isn't just limited to the United States. Companies abroad can now be players and compete with ours. When competition increases prices must go down.

As a business person, coping in this type of environment will require that you devote more of your energies and capital in building the market value of your business by increasing its free cash flow.

This can be accomplished by #1 continuously cutting costs and #2 adding value customers that can or will have the potential to meet your threshold return-on-assets. Do not add customers just for the sake of building market share. Build market share by adding value customers.

Sanford Kahn, Business Author/Speaker, has been a professional speaker for over 30 years to both the corporate and national trade and professional association markets. He was the host and producer of the popular Times mirror cable vision series "Ask the Economist". Mr. Kahn has authored many articles on the business impact of future economic trends. His most recent publication is The Great Economic & Business Myths That Dominate Our Lives. For more information please visit his web page at http://www.businessspeaker.biz.

What Is A Marketing Guru And Are All Marketing Gurus Created Equal

Writen by Mike Considine

So what is an online marketing Guru? Well one of the definitions for the word Guru is "somebody who is prominent and influential in a specific field and sets a trend or starts a movement"

You notice it doesn't mention anything about honesty, integrity or the obligation to help you make money. I would break online Gurus into two classes. Both have a Guru status because they are very successful at making money online. The differences in the two groups are one group honestly has as one of their primary goals, helping you to make money. Sadly there are way too many in the second group whose primary mission is to sell you anything that you will buy. They don't care if the information or the product is next to useless just like the example that we found while doing a Google search on making money online.. The information that site was selling for $49.97 is widely available for free on the Net and the major part of it is outdated and just doesn't work any longer.

The fact is some marketing strategies become ineffective so quickly that the reputable Guru must continue to update their products for them to be worth anything. Those that continue selling products and or information that they know does not work, only care about one thing… the money they can make off the millions of people trying to make money online. So how do you tell a good Guru from the one that is only out to take your money? Good question and one that is not all that easy to answer, but let me tell you what I have learned over the last eight years the hard way.

1- If is sounds to good to be true it ALWAYS is. This is something we have all heard a million times, but we still end up buying something based on a hyped up sales letter. Fight the temptation!

2- If they say making money online is easy then run away, because it's not. Come on if making money online was that easy you would already be rich. Building a business online is just as much work as building an off-line business. If you're not willing to put in the hard work and time then save your money, no software will do all the work for you.

3- Look for total marketing strategies first and then look for the tools to automate the tasks as best as you can. There are many marketing strategies to pick from and spending your time researching each before you start to buy software, could save you a truck load of money.

Do you know what is meant by virtual real estate? Do you know what a mini-site is? How about a money site or feeder site? Do you know what kind of sites Google classifies as spammy sites? What kind of site does Google love? DO you know the difference between a white hat site and a black hat site? If you don't know the answer to all these questions you need to do some research before you build a website.

I'll write a future article comparing different marketing strategies and list resources were you can find good information on each. Until then do some research on Google… join some marketing forums and read what others are saying about their experiences. Just keep in mind… if it sounds too good to be true it ALWAYS is!

My name is Mike Considine owner of Home Base Service Company. Finding out this is harder than you first thought? How would you like to stay in the game but not spend a bunch of money or take any time away from your family? What would you think about joining a Co-op that hires the staff and uses the Pros to build a portfolio of web business and shares the profits with you? What would you think about paying a small monthly fee for only 24 months and owning a share of the profits for the lifetime of the portfolio's holdings? This new concept is called Affiliate Co-op Marketing and you can get more information from here ==>Affiliate Co-op Marketing

How To Hire Your First Cleaning Employee

Writen by Steve Hanson

You may have started your cleaning company part-time and thought that as the business grew you could quit your "day job" and put more time into the business. But as your cleaning business grows you may find you can no longer manage all the tasks you need to handle, no matter how much time you devote to it. If you do not have time to market your business or to keep in contact with your clients regularly, it may be time to think of adding an employee. Hiring help not only allows you to keep your cleaning business growing, but also allows you to take some much needed and hard earned time off.

Start your hiring process by making a list of the tasks needed in your cleaning business and then decide on those you want (or need) someone else to do. Your first employee should be more than just someone who takes the extra work off your shoulders. This individual should be able to help with the overall growth of your cleaning business by helping not only with cleaning responsibilities, but by making sure they provide great customer service.

As you start the hiring process, decide on the job title and prepare a comprehensive job description. This will help you to focus on the responsibilities you want your employees to have, and then when you hire your first employee, he or she will know what his or her duties are.

As well as a job description, you will need a way to evaluate job performance. You should give a written evaluation regularly. During the first year of employment you may want to do evaluations at 3 months, 6 months, and then at the end of the year. After the first year, job performance evaluations are usually given annually on the employee's employment anniversary date. Also be prepared to offer constructive feedback as needed. If an employee is doing a task wrong, you need to take steps to immediately correct the situation.

Hiring the right individual can take time. Set realistic goals for when you want that first person on board. It may take longer than a week or two to advertise, interview and get the right person on board. As you interview potential candidates, look for individuals who have an eager and willing attitude. You will be able to train most of the specific skills an individual will need. If you find someone who has the right attitude don't overlook them if they have never run a buffer, carpet steamer or backpack vacuum.

You may be eager to get someone on board once you have a job description prepared. But before you advertise for help, make sure you have the following addressed:

Is your employee covered by your insurance? Check with your insurance agent to make sure your policy covers employees. As an employer, you'll also need to provide workers compensation insurance. Your agent should be able to help you get the right insurance.

Do you have an employee manual and is it up-to-date? Your employee manual will cover the orientation, evaluations, time off procedures, equipment policies, and the overall working responsibilities that your employees will have. It may also include safety information - or the safety manual may be a separate document. All of your policies should be in writing before your employee's first day of work.

Your cleaning employees will most likely be working in buildings after hours, so you will need to conduct background checks. Your clients may not require background checks of cleaning employees. However it is an added selling point for your services to let any potential clients know that all of your employees go through a background check before they start working for your cleaning company.

Have a training program in place. This can be a detailed manual or guidelines for one-on-one training. The training program should include how to perform all tasks that you expect your new hire to complete. In addition, as your cleaning employees will be working with chemicals and equipment, they need to have specific training to address safety issues to comply with OSHA standards.

If you are a one-person operation you may not have obtained a federal employment identification number. This number is required once you hire employees. To get the necessary form to obtain a federal ID number, go to the IRS website at www.irs.gov.

Register with your state's employment department. All states have a system set up for unemployment compensation. Employers are required to pay into this fund through unemployment compensation taxes.

Set up a payroll system for withholding taxes and making payroll tax payments to the IRS. Check with your accountant to make sure you file the necessary paperwork.

There are specific labor notices the government requires you to post at the worksite. The Department of Labor's website at www.dol.gov has a listing of the federal posters you need to post. Check with your state's department of labor to see if they have added requirements.

Hiring your first employee is big step towards the growth of your cleaning business. Making sure you have all of your i's dotted and t's crossed before you bring someone on board will help with the transition of moving your cleaning business from a one-person shop to the next level. Your cleaning business can grow exponentially with the right employees and it all starts by getting that first employee on board!

Copyright 2006 The Janitorial Store

Steve Hanson is co-founder of TheJanitorialStore.com, an online community for owners of cleaning companies. Sign up for Trash Talk:Tip of the Week at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com. Read success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com .