$10,000 in $100 bills

About a month after I got my first connection to the internet I decided I wanted to build a website. I had no burning ambition to share information, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Bearing in mind I have the technical capabilities of your average goldfish and things weren’t so easy back in 1998, I found it difficult but eventually I did it.

Of course, being somebody who can turn shopping into an Olympic sport, I wanted to make some money from the website. Now, that was really difficult! In those dim and distant days, there were very few opportunities, the main one was Amazon and then it was only Amazon.com.

Now the picture is completely different. There are thousands of affiliate opportunities with all kinds of companies so, today, there is no reason why anybody who has a reasonably popular website, getting a couple of thousand visitors a week, shouldn’t make at least enough from their site to go shopping. Some people are so good at monetising their site or sites, they have made a career from it and have been able to give up the day job.

So how can you make money from your website?

You could try one of the get rich quick schemes advertised all over the web but, remember, if it sounds too good to be true, you can usually bet your life it is. There aren’t that many people making big money from these products and those that do are probably the ones who came up with the original idea. If you want instant wealth, try entering a lottery – your chances are probably better!

More sensibly, you could build a site or write a blog about something that genuinely interests you. If you keep it updated and build up good traffic, then you could find you can earn money from it.

Choosing Your Subject With Money in Mind
One factor is that some subjects are more commercial than others. For example, Ancient Russian Pottery is obviously not a hugely commercial subject whereas a site on popular subject like football or Lord of the Rings or some aspect of travel probably would be more profitable. A popular subject might get more visitors and there are a huge number of specific items and services for sale on these topics. The downside is that you will come up against stiff competition from an enormous number of sites on the same subjects varying from those belonging to big corporations to those of fans.

Amazon.co.uk Warehouse, Glenrothes, Scotland

If you want to earn money from your website, this is something you need to consider.

Think Laterally
With less mainstream subjects, you have to think laterally. OK, Ancient Russian Pottery won’t attract a lot of visitors because it is so specialised but you would need to make the best of those who do come. Books on pottery of all kinds could be offered, travel to Russia is another possibility, perhaps even a language course might be available. So just because your site might not have obvious opportunities for monetising, try thinking outside the box and you might be surprised at what you can find.

Position Ads to Get a Sale
When you put ads on your website, think about how YOU use the internet. Don’t assume that you are the only person that won’t scroll down to look at ads – most people won’t. You need to put your advertisements high up on the page so that people see them (sometimes called ‘above the fold’) even if they don’t read the whole article.

If you mention a book, a DVD or video, or any other product, in an article, put an affiliate text link to it and use the relevant words in the article as the link. You’ll be surprised at how many you can sell and, don’t forget, this will go on working for you long after you wrote the article. This isn’t an invitation to drag the names of all kinds of products into articles because that will be a turn-off to many visitors, but rather to capitalise on natural opportunities.

Book, Movie and Other Reviews
These are interesting for visitors and a natural way for you to put in links to products. Put a link to the item reviewed right at the top of the article and then again at the bottom. Don’t forget to link to Amazon in any countries where the product is available.

Once your site is well established, you can email the marketing department of publishers and ask for review copies. It is best if you do a few reviews first (use your own books or those from the library) so that you can include a link or two to them in your email to show you are serious.

These methods can bring in anything from small, occasional amounts of money up to a good, regular income.

USING WOOD

1. Make house signs

2. Make walking canes

3. Refinish old-fashioned children’s desks

4. Mass-produce quality chopping blocks

5. Make wicker baskets

6. Hand-carve picture frames

7. Make wooden greeting cards

8. Specialize in creating quality doll palaces

9. Build miniature furniture for dollhouses and adult
collectors

10. Create decorative birdhouses

USING CLOTH AND NATURAL FIBERS

11. Knit personalized sweaters

12. Specialize in batik wearing apparel

13. Tie-dyeing

14. Make old-fashioned quilts

15. Make quilts that tell a story

16. Sell macrame products from home, a shop, or mail order

17. Custom rugmaking

18. Create doll clothes and restore old dolls

19. Create unique ethnic and character dolls

20. Produce custom-made sandals

21. Make personalized leather snap-on bracelets

FROM GOURDS

22. Create eating and drinking utensils from gourds

23. Make lamps with gourds

24. Make gourd planters

25. Make gourd totem poles

26. Create gourd creatures

27. Create birdhouses from gourds

FROM MISCELLANEOUS MATERIALS

28. Make face masks

29. Make copper cameos from photographs

30. Make babies’ hand plaques

31. Make dolls with faces similar to their owners

32. Moulding and casting faces

33. Dry flowers

34. Make book-safes: hollowed-out books for hiding valuables

35. Make personalized coffee mugs

36. Make jewelry from beads or seashells

37. Make bulletin boards

38. Embellish and redecorate household products

39. Make salt and pepper shakers from cow horns

40. Make custom wastebaskets

41. Create miniature replicas of antiques out of wood or ivory

42. Crate giant replicas of small insects

43. Decorate decanter stoppers with small clay caricatures of
people

44. Offer natural tattooing with sun stencils

45. Make ceramic plaques of newborn infants’ foot or hand
prints

46. Make lamps from wine jugs, seashells, etched metal, rocks,
transparent plastic, etc 47. Make money from mobiles

48. Make mosaics to decorate functional items

49. Make ceramic lawn decorations

50. Manufacture sundials

51. Make costume jewelry

52. Make weather vanes

53. Make unusual products from seashells

54. Manufacture terrariums

55. Make and sell bottled boats

56. Tint and sell pussy willows

57. Decorate penny match boxes

58. Make bottle gardens

59. Create novelty bottles

60. Manufacture stained glass windows

61. Make sculpture candles

62. Gift wrapping service

SELLING

63. Operate a crafts marketplace

64. Operate a crafts consignment shop

65. Become a sales agent for handicrafts

66. Sell handicrafts at fairs

If it carries on for too long, whilst you wait for that big account to pay up, and you will rapidly arrive at a point where the bank will not extend you any more credit or increase your overdraft, and you will be unable to purchase supplies, or pay staff and other bills. The end result may well be that you go out of business. Just like that!

Obviously this is a worst case scenario which in real life could stop anywhere along that road. However it serves to illustrate how important good cash flow is to a business.

There will be times in the life of your business (probably several) when cash will be in short supply – during periods of rapid growth for instance – so how can you improve your cash flow?

Here are some simple tips to help you over the short term:

Always pay your bills on time, but try to time the payments to be received on or just before their due date. This will allow your money to stay in your account (and therefore available for use), for just that little bit longer.

If you have available cash, take advantage of early payment or prepayment discounts.

Consider leasing equipment or machinery instead of buying it. Remember that lease payments are tax deductible as well!

Set up good, reliable, accounting procedures That way you don’t allow invoices from customers to remain unpaid for long periods of time.

Offer discounts for prepayment. Beware that some companies will still pay by the last possible date, but deduct the discount anyway. Trying to recover the under payment later on will be expensive and probably cost more than the original amount. Still it can be an incentive to some businesses, particularly small or sole trader businesses.

When making purchases of any sort, try to negotiate the most advantageous terms and longest payment periods possible.

Keep stock levels as low as possible

Only buy in large amounts to get a discount when you are sure you can use the entire amount purchased.

Have a Sale! This will help to get rid of slow moving items. Any items that remain unsold, should be donated or written-off and disposed of.

Pay your tax bill on time to prevent incurring penalties.

Go through your recent (last year) purchases and look for unnecessary expenses which you will not repeat in the future.

Be a canny buyer when looking for office equipment or machinery. Determine what you can afford first and see what you can get for that amount. Don’t be seduced by lots of bells and whistles if you really don’t need them.

Look for used equipment and furnishings from auctions, liquidators, and used office furniture stores.

Copyright © Sue Williams 2006

Designing Your Card

First you must decide what your business card is for. If it’s merely to hand out to all and sundry so they won’t forget your name and number then you can cut a few corners with costs and content.

However, if you intend it to make a statement about you and your business, then good quality card, or even glossy finish may be a better option.

As I’m sure you’ll have realised, a good, competent designer will tell you that the card of an undertaker will have a completely different look to that of a musician! It’s all about the image you want to project. Take a moment to look at some of the letter templates in Microsoft Word for example. They include ‘classic,’ ‘jazzy’ and ‘modern.’ This is a great way for you to see the way a letter can be given a totally different look simply by the layout, font and logos.

The same applies to your business card!

Content
You will definitely need contact details. If you prefer to be contacted on your mobile phone (or if you work from home and kids are likely to answer) then definitely use that number. If you have an office and prefer not to take business calls on your mobile, then use the office number. The same criteria apply to your address. I wouldn’t include your address if you don’t normally meet customers at home, but if you have premises where they can visit, then include that address.

If you have an email address – and most people do, then that’s yet another way customers can contact you. The easier you can make it for people to contact you, the more likely they are to do just that.

I see your business card’s purpose as helping potential customers/contacts to:

* remember your name
* remember what you do
* help them to contact you as easily as possible
* get a feel for your business from the image your card presents

You can of course make your own business cards. There are many dedicated business card making software packages for sale, but all the desktop publishing programs such as PagePlus and Microsoft Publisher also have templates for business cards included with all their other templates. Their expertise in design layouts, combined with the wealth of good quality card available at business stationers (some ready with micro perforations) means you can make your own professional cards with the minimum of time and expense.

How to Use Your Business Cards
Once you’ve made (or ordered and paid) for them, don’t leave them stashed in a drawer, I have some ideas for ways you can utilise your business cards:

* Post your business cards anywhere they’re allowed–libraries, colleges, supermarkets.
* Get creative with your cards. Why not try slipping them between the pages of books in your local library related to your business? If you’re a florist put them inside wedding books; a personal trainer could put them inside get fit and diet related books. I’m sure you get the idea.
* Never pass up a chance to pass out your cards. Whenever you pay for anything, if you think the salesperson could use your product or service or might know someone who could, give him or her your card.
* Include business cards when you pay bills by mail. You never know whether the person opening your bill might need your service.
* Don’t forget to use your mobile phone as well! Most phones have the facility to send a business card to the recipient’s cell phone, so they can add your details to their contact section simply by the press of a button or two.

Copyright © Sue Williams 2006

So what should you look out for to avoid a scam?
1. Does it sound too good to be true? If it does, it almost certainly is and you should be very cautious.

2. Is it a multi level marketing scheme (MLM)? It’s true that some people do make money out of them but usually these schemes don’t depend on selling actual products by associates (or whatever name they give to sales people) but rather on getting more and more people to join. Usually, it’s the people at the very top who got in right at the beginning who make the big money.

3. Be very wary of piecework. That is work where you get paid by the hundred or thousand items you produce. This could be anything from stuffing envelopes, producing labels, typing, making jewellery, etc. The rates of pay are usually abysmally low and sometimes the employer charges you for materials. Often, they will claim a high percentage of work delivered is sub-standard and so pay for far less than is actually produced and delivered.

4. Writers shouldn’t get sucked into producing articles for very low paying content websites. These will not give you useful writing credits for use when approaching better paid sites or print publications. Some of these sites pay as little as $5 for 500 to 1000 words. Others offer a share of advertising revenue on pages with your work on them. Usually there is no way to verify the figures for advertising revenue and it’s hard to earn more than a few pence or cents a month from this kind of deal. If you want to write for the internet, you are better off with your own website or with a network like here on All Info About – where you place your own affiliate ad on pages you make and take all the income from them.

Tips for Avoiding Scams
1. Never send off money for materials or information on freelance work. Reputable companies will never ask you to do this.

2. Don’t attend large scale meetings or seminars – these are almost always going to turn out to be MLMs.

3. Be very cautious if you reply to an advertisement and you are given little or no information in response but instead get what sounds like a sales pitch – again this is probably an MLM.

4. Writers shouldn’t think that any writing work will help them towards getting into good magazines or newspapers. Low paying websites will never help your credibility but might damage it, instead.

5. Unless it is a company that you know, always research any business that offers you work. It will help you avoid the sharks and, if they are legitimate, will impress them when you have your first meeting.

6. Remember: if it sounds too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.