Nov
04
Mom Bloggers, Get Paid For Reviews
Just came across a site that matches moms that review products with companies that will pay you to review their products. You need to be somewhat established, they will ask for your page rank, and how many Twitter-followers you have. Naturally, the better your ranking, the better the pay . . . but if you are new, you could offer reviews for a dirt cheap price to get your foot in the door-everyone starts somewhere!
Check it out:
http://momtent.com/for-bloggers/
Nov
03
Free Business Plan Templates & Advice
Hopefully, you have subscribed to Score.org and already receive their monthly newsletter that’s packed with ideas, resources and tips. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of them, you are in the majority because 99% of the people I’ve mentioned SCORE to have never heard of them. The 1% that has heard of them had no idea what they offered and were shocked when they learned it was all FREE!
SCORE.org is a non-profit, government sponsored agency that provides free professional counsel to small business owners. You can get real help from other experienced business owners that have signed up to offer their expertise. It’s strictly volunteer, but the counselors have been checked out and have made a commitment to follow through. It’s completely free and you can gain advice 24/7 via an online sign up process, or you can locate an office close to you and speak face to face with a volunteer.
SCORE also offers a wealth of how-to articles, tips, forms and other reliable small business helps at the their website and in their monthly newsletter. This month’s newsletter included reference to their free business plan templates, exclusive tips for success from Guy Kawasaki, and an online workshop called, “Quick Start Biz Plan”.
Anyone can use their service. Even if you don’t have a business yet, you can talk to someone about your ideas and what you need to do next. Last year a friend of ours was thinking about starting a solar equipment installation business and we referred him to SCORE for some expert advice. He received replies from three engineer-level consultants that offered a wealth of resources to find out everything he needed to know. It turned out there are agencies that can measure the (probable) amount of solar energy available in different parts of the country and we aren’t in a very good area for utilizing solar power. One of the consultants even suggested some alternate ideas (like maybe wind power supply products) that would work better for our area of the country.
SCORE is definitely one of the best resources available for anyone thinking of starting a small business, and the best part is their price!
Visit their website and find out more at SCORE.org
Find the free business plan templates here >>
Nov
02
12 Topics To Blog About & More
If you write a blog for a living, hopefully you are always watching for new buzz topics to write about. I’m sure you’ve noticed how some of your blog posts seem to spike your traffic while other barely create a blip in the radar. Blog Energizer is a blog written specifically for bloggers to do just what her name says: to energize your blog.
Lynette’s energetic style is truly a reflection of her name, and you will want to bookmark this one or sign up for the updates like I did to keep posted on all she has to offer. She offers a premium service, which I have not checked out yet so I can’t speak for it, but she offers enough for free I haven’t found the need for it. . .(sorry, Lynette).
Some of the free items you can pick up on Blog Energizer are:
-Downloads: The 12 Topics You Need To Blog About Now, A Blogging Planner, A Blog Calendar & Traffic Generating Ideas (All separate downloads, free-well, at least for the sacrifice of your email address!)
-A free recipe book you can offer your readers
-25 quick and easy crafts for the holidays
-Free Ebooks from Barnes & Noble
-2010 Cartoon Calendar to offer your readers
-Learning with Lego magazines to giveaway (or keep!)
You’ll also find occasional ads for guest blog posts. There’s much more, but I think that’s enough to motivate you check out Blog Energizer to get some ideas to spice up your blog.
Happy November!
Oct
31
YEF Opens 2010 Scholarship Applications
The Young Entrepreneur Foundation awards scholarships every year to promising entrepreneurial high school seniors. As of midnight, 10-31-09, applications opened up for the 2010 awards.
NFIB Young Entrepreneur Awards are open to any graduating high school senior entering their freshman year in the Fall of 2010 at an accredited (not for profit) two- or four-year university, college or vocational/technical institute. You can apply online for a chance to win a scholarship valued from $1,000-$10,000. Hurry, deadline is Dec 31, 2009
Apply online at https://www.applyists.net/IntroPage.asp (click on ‘Apply or update a new application’)
Learn more about the Young Entrepreneur Foundation and the EIC (Entrepreneurs In the Classroom) Be sure to check out the free curriculum they offer -http://eitccurriculum.com/
Oct
24
4 Tools That Reveal How You Rank Online
Wondering if your website or blog is going anywhere? Your traffic goes up and down, but do you ever check your Alexa rating? During our blog contest someone asked me how they could increase their traffic and exposure, and she was (pleasantly) surprised when I told her that her Alexa rating was fairly good. She had never checked it before and was judging her blog’s growth simply by her traffic.
I have this nifty little toolbar that I absolutely love because it tells me at any given time where my websites and blogs rank. The really neat part is that it also tells me everyone else’s ranking, too! Having a serious case of business geek in me, I love to watch how different websites grow. It also helps me to know who is doing what is right and who isn’t, my inbound links and keyword density. Does anyone else thinks that’s pretty cool?
If you’ve never checked your Alexa rating, just go to http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo and type in your site’s domain (no need for http or www) and you should be able to see your results. If your site is brand new, then you can register it on Alexa and you’ll show up soon.The best part of watching your Alexa ranking is you can tell what is working on a daily basis. I’ve read that simply having the toolbar installed on your site can increase your Alexa rating…somehow that makes me question how they calculate their stats…
However, the toolbar I recommend is a Firefox plug in called SeoQuake. It gives you much more than an Alexa rating, but it gives you several other nuggets of info – some of which will not make any sense to you at all, but some will be very helpful. You can get your keyword density (and those of similar sites) with can really help with your search engine ranking.
Another excellent tool to find out what you need to do to fine tune your stats is Website Grader. This is another free service that will tell you what you are doing right and exactly what you can do to correct your shortcomings.
I’m not sure how accurate this tool really is, but it’s fun to see if you are really richer than you think you are. Again, I’m sure the factors that increase the dollar value are the same factors that will give you a good grade on the Website Grader. Actually, the data for this widget is primarily taken from Technorati, so if you don’t do much there, you’re worthless (as this widget goes, at least!)
So, traffic is what we all strive for, but isn’t always your best measure of your site’s status in the online world. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t like what you see, do some of the suggested improvements and you might see some dramatic results!
Here’s DoshDosh’s 20 Ways to Increase Your Alexa Rating if you’re desperate!
Welcome to Homeschool Entrepreneur!
Our mission is to help homeschool families create a home business for several reasons; Running a business in the home creates a natural learning environment for all ages, one that will benefit your child in so many ways* . . and the extra money comes in handy, too!
Look at this Homeschool Entrepreneur’s Business:
Let us know if you find a better price than this on ink:
Sale of the Month
Distance Business Training