Effective Entrepreneurship , 4 Comments

Break out of selling services to a product-based revenue model

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The ultimate goal of my journey to building an online business is so that I can stop trading my time for money and earn a living through more passive income streams. This would allow me to watch my kids grow while living on a tropical island paradise and only having to ‘work’ 4 hours a week. Well, you get the idea.

Currently the majority of my revenue comes from selling services (consulting, freelancing, independent contracting, etc). Corbett Barr identified the four most popular online business revenue models and compared them with a cool graph.

As you can see, selling services ranks the lowest in terms of income “passivity”. Selling products is a much more passive revenue model and it better leverages your time as well — create the product once and sell it time and time again. This is why I am on a path to transition to a product-based revenue model.

Easier Said Than Done

Unfortunately, transitioning from selling services to selling products is hard. Here are some of the common challenges: Continue reading →

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Announcing my first digital product: Getting Started with WordPress

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Over the past few months I have been laboring on a project that I am finally unveiling to the world. That project is Getting Started with WordPress (GSWP) – an online course that provides only the most essential information for creating and managing a website built with WordPress so you can get up and running in 5 days flat. Continue reading →

Effective Entrepreneurship 1 Comment

Are you a Talker or are you a Doer?

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There are 2 types of people in the world — those who talk and those who do. I’ve been a talker for way too long and now I’m gonna shut up and put up.

What’s Wrong With Being A Talker?

Talking is easy. Your words spout from your mouth and it’s gone into the ether. You can talk about anything. You don’t even need to be an expert, especially if you’re complaining. Who doesn’t love complaining? Talking makes it easy to blame others. Point fingers and it’s not your fault anymore. Continue reading →

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Migrate WordPress to a new domain in 4 simple steps with BackupBuddy

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Occasionally, you may find that you need to migrate your website to a new domain. This used to be a hassle that may involve transferring hundreds or thousands of files, database migration scripts and days of downtime.

Well if you’re running a WordPress website, BackupBuddy makes migration a cinch.

BackupBuddy is a WordPress plugin by iThemes that provides an all-in-one solution for backing up, restoring and migrating WordPress sites. In this tutorial, we’ll look at the steps involved in migrating a real live website to a new domain name with BackupBuddy. Continue reading →

Web Strategy 1 Comment

Finding Help: How to Hire A Good Web Designer

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This is an article in the Website ClickStart: Simplifying the Steps to Creating Your First Website series. This plain English series is written for regular people (not web programmers or rocket scientists) who need to create their first business website.

Making a good first impression on the web is critical to online business success. Therefore it pays to have a professional design your website for you, especially if you don’t have a good eye for design.

Hiring a web designer can be daunting–What if I don’t like the design? What if I don’t know what I want? Where do I even begin?–these are some of the concerns that we’ll try to address in this article.

Where to Find Good Designers

The first step to hiring a web designer is find a few of them. Here are some places to begin looking:

1. Referrals. Referrals are your safest bet for finding good web designers. Ask your friends and family if they know any. You should also pose the question to your social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Continue reading →

Web Strategy , 2 Comments

DIY Website Options: What You Need To Know

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This is an article in the Website ClickStart: Simplifying the Steps to Creating Your First Website series. This plain English series is written for regular people (not web programmers or rocket scientists) who need to create their first business website.

You need a website to take your business online, but I’m guessing that you aren’t a computer science PhD or programmer. Because of that, technology choices for a website isn’t something that you would know about. This guide should help you figure that out.

This is the definitive guide to making a decision on your website’s publishing platform. We will cover self-hosted DIY websites as well as hosted (outsourced or 3rd party) website builders.

What Are Your Goals and Budget?

The first step is to go back and review your goals and budget. You need to weigh difficulty and cost versus the advantages of a DIY website.

Continue reading →

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Start Blogging To Win Customers For Your Business Online

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How do I get more customers online?

That’s a question that has stumped many businesses, especially entrepreneurs and solo professionals who don’t have much of a budget for marketing.

I have been involved in online marketing for 6-8 years now, and I’ve found that one of the most reliable and surefire ways to attract customers online is through blogging.

To find out more about how blogging can attract customers and grow your business online, I spoke to Annabel Candy, author of Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps. Continue reading →

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Successful Blogging book review

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This blog (The ClickStarter) is my 6th blog–I know, I can’t believe it too–so I would count myself as somewhat experienced in blogging.

But creating blogs by the dozen and creating a successful blog are different things. After 6 blogs on different topics, I think I’m finally on track to make this blog a success, i.e. wide readership and effectively promoting my products.

However, I wish that I had a guide to tell me exactly what I needed to do early on so that I would have achieved more success by now. Annabel Candy’s ebook is such a guide.

Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps offers beginner bloggers a hype-free and practical guide on starting and growing a successful blog and audience, in an easy to understand, jargon-free self-study course. Continue reading →

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Technical Requirements to Launch Your Website, Simplified

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This is an article in the Website ClickStart: Simplifying the Steps to Creating Your First Website series. This plain English series is written for regular people (not web programmers or rocket scientists) who need to create their first business website.

After planning your website pages, written the content, identified signposts and calls to action, you’re now faced with the task of actually putting your website out there on the internet.

This article is going to explain what requirements need to be met to make that happen. These requirements are technical, but stay with me! I’m going to simplify and break it down for you.

There are 3 main requirements that you need to get your website online. To help us understand these 3 requirements, let’s use the (fictional) ABC Widgets as an example. Continue reading →