Want more success with women? Don’t do it yourself

Want more success with women? Don’t do it yourself
“My wit is more polished than your moustache” — Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Act 1.

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What is a Domain Name and Why Would You Want One?

What is a Domain Name? Before we can go into what a
domain name is I’m going to tell you why we need them as
the answers compliment each other. The Internet is just a really
big collection of connected computers (a network). For the
purpose of explaining domain names you can think of the Internet
a bit ike the phone system and just like the phone system every
computer on the Internet has it’s own phone number except an
Internet phone number is called an IP addresses. This address is
made up of up to 12 digits in the form 123.123.123.123,
computers use these IP addresses to send information to each
other over the Internet.

When the Internet was first created it quickly became clear that
these IP addresses were not easy to remember and another method
was need to make these addresses more human friendly.The
solution to this was the Domain Name System (DNS). Basically the
DNS is a really really big phone book for computers. When
you type a web site address into your web browser it checks the
DNS for that website name and finds the IP address. Once it has
the IP address it can then send a message to that computer and
ask it for the web page you wanted.

Ok so you know a domain name is part of a web site address
but which part? Lets look at a website address so we can
identify and discuss what bit of it is a domain name.

http://www.allwebhosts.com.ru/indexhtml

The above address is the home page of the this web site. It can
be split into 3 main parts. The first part is http:// this just
tells your web browser what kind of information it is going to
get and how to get it. The last part is /index.html this is name
of the files on the remote computer that you want your browser
to get. The bit in the middlewww.allwebhosts.com.ru is a
domain name. This is the name that your computer sends to the
DNS to get back the IP address.

So you know what a domain name is and that there is a phone book
called the DNS to change your easy to remember domain name into
an IP address that you computer can understand. The Internet
phone book (DNS) is special in that everyone on the Internet
needs to be able to use it. This makes the DNS very very big
(100+ million addresses big). Due to the size of this phone book
it needed to have a carefully organised and managed structure.

Domain names themselves are split into different levels like
a hierarchy. The DNS system uses this hierarchy to search
the DNS for the IP address of the domain name it is trying to
find. The last bit of a domain, in the previous example the com
part is called the top level domain. There are a large selection
of top level domains like com, net, org and info. There are also
very similar endings called country level domains like uk and
de. Each of the top level and country level domains are managed
by a different organization, sometimes these are companies or
non profit organizations and sometimes governments. In the
domain business these organisations are referred to as the
registries. Each registry looks after it’s own part of the
domain name system.

If you decide you want to use a domain name in the top level
domain com, like mycompany.com you would have to have this name
assigned by the registry that manages that top level domain (for
..com a US company called VeriSign). The process of being
assigned a domain name is called domain registration.

Domain registration is more like a lease than a purchase.
You are renting the second level domain (the mycompany bit) from
Verisign for a specific amount of time normally between 1 and 10
years at a time. Most of the organizations that allow you to
register a second level domain charge a fee for each year that
you register the domain for. With almost all domain names you
are also given the option to renew your registration (lease)
when it is close to running out (expiring).

Once you have registered a second level domain you are free to
create as many third level domains (sometimes called sub
domains) as you like.

Once you have registered a second level domain you are free to
create as many third level domains (sometimes called sub
domains) as you like. In our previous example the www is a sub
domain of itxcel.com.

Most of the registries that manage these top level domain names
do not allow individuals or businesses to register domains
directly with them. To register a domain you need to use a
company like Allwebhosts. We act as a registrar and send all the
required information and the registration fee to the registry.
Registrars are useful as they hide the differences that exist in
each of the registries from the customer and provide a simple
step by step process for registering a domain. A registrar also
allows you to manage and track all your domains from one place
rather than having to deal with a different company for each top
level domain.

OK so I know what a domain name is, Why do need one? Can
you image what a nightmare it would be if you had an email
address like myname@123.246.128.255 or a web site address
http://123.246.128.255/? These addresses are possible but not
very easy to remember. Now if you register a domain name you
could create an email address like myname@mycompany.com and a
web site address like mycompany.com. These are much easier to
remember and look 100 times more professional.

One of the important points about registering a domain is
that once done you have an exclusive right to use that domain
for as long as you keep the domain registered in your name. If
you do not renew a domain at the end of it’s registration period
it will again become available for registration by someone else.
For this reason even if you don’t want or need a web site at the
moment, it’s still a good idea to register a domain as soon as
possible. Just imagine if your competition registered the domain
name of your company or product. Although there is a process in
place to retrieve these domain it can be long and complicated.
It is definitely simpler to spend a little money up front to
secure your chosen domain names.

Want to Start a Work at Home Business and Fire Your Boss?

Do you dread Sunday night because you can’t face another long week at a job you hate? Maybe it’s time to start your own work at home business. Working at home via your own computer and the internet puts you in charge; it’s not just a job, it’s your future. There are basically 3 ways to succeed online and fire your boss. You can either:

Sell or advertise other peoples’ products and services.
Allow other people to advertise their products/services on your website or blog.
Sell or advertise your own products/services.

Let’s look at each of these in further detail . . .

Selling or advertising other peoples’ products can be done in several different ways:

1) Probably the most common and easily understood is e-commerce. You start a work at home business by establishing a web ‘store’ with products from one or more manufacturers or producers and you sell them to consumers from your website for a profit. This type of site follows the more traditional business format and is very much like your local department store at the mall but without the physical presence. And though this type business is more easily understood and follows a more traditional business plan, it usually take a more significant up front investment to get started than the other businesses listed.

One way you can help reduce the initial expense is through drop shipping. Some manufacturers will ship product directly to the customer. In this way you can avoid the hassles of maintaining inventory, and a warehouse along with all the confusion of shipping and receiving. With drop shipping you get to sell name brand products on your site, and let the manufacturer take care of filling the orders and customer service.

2) The second way of selling other people’s products is through Network Marketing. And though start up costs are usually quite a bit less than traditional e-commerce, and many companies still allow advertising and recruiting over the internet, this business takes considerable one-on-one time with customers and recruits. But if you have strong people skills and enjoy interacting with potential customers, this could the business for you.

You would want to take great care in choosing the marketing company you want to work with and make sure the product you would be selling would be a product you would buy, whether or not there was an income opportunity attached.

3) The very lucrative and last form of selling is called affiliate marketing. This is where you sell or advertise another person’s product for a percentage of the profit. Estimates have it that affiliate marketers will earn over $6.5 billion in commissions in 2006. Yes that’s a ‘b’ – Billion. And I don’t know about you, but I want a piece of that pie. Selling through an affiliate program is a great way to sell on the Internet without getting knee-deep in product.

Allowing other people to advertise their products/service on your website/blog is the second basic way to start a work at home business and takes two forms:

1) You can sell advertising space on your website/blog. Most people who sell advertising on their own site use services like e-Bay to advertise the availability of advertising space and you will need proof of the number of unique visitors per month to your site. While this method would probably net more profits for you the website owner, it would also require more time and energy than using the next form of advertising.

2) With this form you can allow an advertising service provider or network to place ads on your site, relevant to your site’s content. For each visitor to your site that clicks on the advertisement or completes the predefined action, you earn a fee. There are a number of advertising service providers the three of the largest and most successful are AzoogleAds, Google and Yahoo. This is a no hassle way of advertising.

Selling your own products/services on your website/blog or through advertising is by far the most lucrative method of earning on your computer but also is one of the most difficult. Not only must you come up with products and services to provide you must first find a market for these products and services before you begin. There are several ways to earn with your own products:

1) You can write and sell an information product such as an e-book or report. Compared to traditional products or books these reports and e-books are extremely inexpensive to produce and are almost all profit. There are products available online (e-books) which will walk you through getting your first e-book or report to market. This is a great way to start a work at home business and begin part-time and on a shoe-string budget.

2) You can also sell your own services. Whether you’re in real estate, a tutor, gardener or virtual assistant you can sell online. Unfortunately you are limited in what you can earn in this type business by the amount of time you have available to provide your service; there’s just so much of you to go around. You will also need to network on the web in order to sell your services effectively. There are social networking groups online to help you with this endeavor.

3) You could produce software or physical product to be sold to consumers. Though these two options can be very lucrative there is a far higher risk due to the amount of funds you would need to invest in testing and production. There are a lot of up front costs to these options; but the opportunity to earn is quite good.

Now that you have a basic knowledge of the income opportunities on the web, you may want to learn more about one or two of these options. There is a great deal of information on the internet to guide you as you start a work at home business. Succeeding online can be one of the most rewarding career moves of your life and could soon allow you to fire your boss.

Will My Virtual Business Be Worth Anything If I Want to Sell It?

A question I get all the time is “Will My Virtual Business Be Worth Anything If I Want to Sell It?”

The answer is ABSOLUTELY, especially if you build it as a continuity business with recurring incoming cash-flow.

Why? Well, think of it as your cable or your web hosting company where you have to pay them month after month to use their services. Therefore to sell your business at a premium, you have to think from the perspective of the acquirer and focus on the value creation areas.

Some of them are:

1. Diversify your customer base: If your business depends too much on a few customers, it will be harder to sell. Aim for having a customer account be worth less than 5% of total sales.

2. Remove yourself from the daily operations: The value of a small business goes up in accordance to how efficiently it operates and how financially transparent it is. Its value grows as well, when an owner-manager becomes less central to its daily operations. A virtual business can help you increase the value of your company by implementing processes and digitizing operations.

3. Create Contractually Recurring Revenue: All revenue dollars are not created equal. Revenue dollars from a continuity programs or a contract for annual maintenance, annual licensing fees, a recurring retainer fee, technology license, etc. are much more powerful value drivers than projected sales revenue, time and materials revenue, or other non-recurring revenue streams.

The benefits of starting, managing and growing a virtual business are endless; especially when it comes to increasing the value of your company. Profitability is hugely important in a privately held company valuation, and because your overhead expenses are low, it allows you to maximize your business profits. This in turn means it can result in a significant market value increase.

Here is an overview of the best 7 virtual business (or small business) exit strategies:

1. Employees: A few methods to selling a virtual business to your employees are the ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), an MBO (Management Buyouts) and MBI (Management Buyins)

2. Charitable Trusts: This is a great strategy for those virtual business owners who want to benefit from charitable giving. A few methods are CRTs (Charitable Reminder Trust) and CLT (Charitable Load Trust)

3. Family: This is when you want to transfer your virtual business to your children or a family member. A few methods are gifting stock, GRATs (grantor retained annuity trust), FLPs (Family Limited Partnerships), SCINs (self-canceling installment notes), IDGTs (intentionally defective grantor trusts) and private annuities.

4. Co-owners: When buying out a partner the co-owner transfer channel is a good method. It includes buy/sell agreements, rights of first refusal provisions and other transfer techniques.

5. Retire and Sell to an Outsider: When retiring, numerous of the previous mentioned methods can be used. Such as charitable trusts, private annuities or grantor retained annuity trusts.

6. Continue in the Business but Sell to an Outsider: This strategy is usually implemented when an owner needs growth funds but does not want to invest personal assets. It can be sold to a private entity or to a public one.

7. Going Public: This is the process of offering securities (common or preferred stock) of a private company for sale to the general public.

You can see an example of a real sustainable, successful virtual business (100% virtual and paperless) at groupbenefitagency.com

Sharing the wealth: want to get a piece of the eBay pie? Joining its affiliate program can be a good way to do just that.: An article from: Entrepreneur

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This digital document is an article from Entrepreneur, published by Entrepreneur Media, Inc. on February 1, 2005. The length of the article is 890 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Sharing the wealth: want to get a piece of the eBay pie? Joining its affiliate program can be a good way to do just that.(Net Profits)
Author: Melissa Campanelli
Publication: Entrepreneur (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2005
Publisher: Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
Volume: 33 Issue: 2 Page: 40(2)

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