Digital Business Views

Ever notice that tiny little eye just above your laptop screen? That’s called a web cam, and these days it can be employed to do some pretty dirty work.

Take this example: oDesk. Basically it’s a service that hooks clients up with service providers, and helps clients make sure they’re getting their money’s worth by spying on the service providers while they work.

As a freelance writer, I find this pretty alarming. One of the reasons I started freelancing was actually to get away from micromanaging, control freak bosses! I don’t want someone checking in on me while I work, no way. That’s why I negotiate a per-project fee — if I slack off, I want it to be on my dime, not the client’s, so that there is no reason for them to get all huffy about it.

There are much better ways to use the Internet to keep track of people. Rather than spying on someone via their web cam, you could use group management software to keep in touch with all of your freelancers: keep their contact info handy, maintain a shared calender, automatically remind them of deadlines, and so on. Databases and writer logins are fine with me too — but tell me you’re going to snap pictures of me with my web cam occasionally to be sure I’m working, and I’ll run screaming in the other direction!

Technorati Tags: group management software, oDesk

I subscribe to a few newsletters for freelance writers. Some are about marketing, and others have writing tips or ideas for how to build your writing career.

I’ll never forget what one of my favorite newsletters said one day. It was talking about creating a daily schedule that keeps you productive and energized, and one of the suggestions was to reward yourself at the end of the day with a hot bath instead of a quick shower.

I did exactly that the other day. I had some major deadlines I was trying to meet, so after a long day of working, I made sure to relax in a hot bath.

Our bathtub is a big, high-sided claw foot tub, and I’ve often wondered how kids and elderly people would fare trying to get in and out of it. I guess if we stay in the same house until old age, eventually we’ll have to think about what we want to do with that tub to make sure neither of us have accidents as we age. I love my hot baths and can’t go without, so I suppose when the day comes that I can’t step over the high side of a claw foot tub, I’ll have to consider investing in a walk in bath!

How do you reward yourself for a hard day’s work?

Technorati Tags: hot bath, walk in bath

Advertising your product(s) on the internet is certainly not a new idea anymore.  I know of people that almost never have to walk into brick and mortar stores anymore.  Of course, car repair and doctor visits are hard to accomplish on the web, but for many if not most of our other needs, we can utilize the internet.

I found this to be especially true when I had small children.   I never wanted to take them to a place of business!  And I began to realize that if I wanted to run a business, that was the only way for me to do it, too.  So now I have a small internet business where I have in one place lots of tricks and resources to help a harried mother.  I started it when we moved to Tampa. Tampa Pay per click advertising has been instrumental in helping me to make my business a success.  

So whether I’m trying to sell a Bumbo or Bebe Pods, or one of those Elmo potty training DVD’s, any type of help I can get with my internet business is a big plus-especially in the crowded market of baby items AND the crowded market on the internet!

Technorati Tags: Bebe Pods, Bumbo, Tampa pay per click

There are a lot of options for businesses who want to build a Web site, but the newbie website owner or small time business owner may find themselves a bit overwhelmed by all of the options.

For instance, you may hear a lot of talk about dedicated servers versus shared servers. A dedicated server is essentially a server that handles only your website’s traffic. As you can imagine, this is a very good options for websites that get a lot of traffic, such as a popular ecommerce website. Having your own server can mean greater reliability — that your website will be there when your customers need it.

Shared hosting, on the other hand, means that your website is just one of several on the same server. For the majority of small businesses, this should be just fine, but be sure to keep close tabs on your website’s traffic as it grows, so that you can move to a dedicated server if it becomes clear that you need one.

It can be a little overwhelming, building your small business website for the first time. Luckily, unless you are expecting a lot of traffic right off the bat, you can probably get away with getting fairly basic hosting, and upgrading later on as your website grows!

Technorati Tags: dedicated server, shared hosting, Web site, website

My favorite sushi restaurant is a perfect example of how you can work in an industry, gain experience, and then open your own small business.

The restaurant is owned by a married couple; the husband, who is Japanese, does all the cooking, and the wife, who is actually Thai, greets people, takes orders, and serves the food. As a result, we’ve only ever met the wife, but she is an absolute sweetheart and we just adore her.

The two of them actually started out working at a very popular sushi restaurant in town. The husband worked as a chef there too, and the wife worked as either a hostess or wait staff (I can’t remember which). Although the husband already knew how to make sushi, working at the restaurant was a good way for him to learn how sushi has been Americanized.

For instance, the wife has told me before that the Japanese don’t eat ginger with sashimi (which is just raw fish, no rice), but I love ginger with sashimi, and so do many Americans. Also, there is a sushi roll called a Philadelphia roll, or a Philly roll, with salmon and cream cheese in the middle — obviously not a traditional Japanese recipe (or name)!

Anyway, working in this restaurant enabled the husband to hone his skills without getting a culinary education, allowed them to see what the sushi restaurant business is like in our city, and gave them a way to save up money and start their own business.

Technorati Tags: culinary education, small business, sushi

I wouldn’t consider myself to be some kind of big time investor. I have done some bonds over the years. And I have partaken in some capital funds. But here recently I bought my first common stock. I figure that the market is down right now. And the whole idea is to buy low and sell high. So now must be a good time to buy! So I went with a company that is down but I think will come back full force when things get back to normal. I chose Harley Davidson or HOG as they call it on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shortly after I bought this common stock, a proxy arrived in the mail. I opened it, and it was like an election form. I had the opportunity to vote for or against a bunch of people that I had never heard of. Imagine that: stockholders really do have a say in how the company runs. We really are the owners. Of course that means there are a lot of owners. I imaging that they hire some sort of document imaging service to take care of compiling all of these proxies. I guess the bottom line is that I would not have considered myself to be an owner of this company if they would not have sent out these proxies.

Technorati Tags: document imaging service, HOG

As some of you know, I have decided to pursue my dream of being a travel agent.  After my summer job last summer as an aid at a popular agency in town, I decided to go to school to become a fully fledged agent.  I took classes by correspondence while holding down a fulltime job, and I just started last week at the same travel agency that I worked at last summer.

Even though I have the schooling that I need, the agency has an intensive four week training program for all new agents to learn how they do things.  It involves many things including presentations, video training and role playing.  If we don’t pass the training we don’t get the job.

Yesterday, we practiced booking a vacation for a family by setting them up for Cancun Isla Mujeres tours and booking a date for them to swim with dolphins.  We were paired up with travel agents from our location and they sure didn’t make it easy.

With a few more weeks to go, I feel confident that I will pass the training and become a full fledged travel agent - I think I have finally found my calling.

Technorati Tags: Cancun Isla Mujeres tours, swim with dolphins

While many people are complaining about the current world economic situation, I have been looking for opportunities to prosper.  You see, as an entrepreneur at heart, I can’t help but see this recession as an opportunity.  While some may try to take advantage of others in these times, I have been creating businesses that help others in their time of need.

Take for example the families that have lost their jobs.  It would just seem inhumane to take advantage of people in that situation (or take advantage of anyone for that matter), but instead I have come up with a solution to help many of them out.

You see, many of these families have accumulated a lot of valuable objects such as gold jewelry, paintings and other collectibles that have monetary value.  Even though most of them know that they can turn to these items to help sustain their lifestyles, many of them don’t have a faint clue how to sell jewelry online or where you can get the best price for their paintings on their walls.

I provide them with my services as a reputable gold buyer and seller and help them to get top dollar for anything that they want to sell.  I take a percentage of the sale, but everyone so far has been very happy for the help and hope new cash in their home brings.

Needless to say, I think a recession isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  It is just an opportunity for businesses to help out in their community so that everyone prospers.

Technorati Tags: gold buyer, sell jewelry online

When you go on vacation, you probably get tempted to do some shopping. If you get things that you’ll actually use then this is fine. Unfortunately, most people get trinkets that they end up throwing away later.

Here are some tips for buying items on vacation that you won’t regret buying:

- Don’t buy something just because it has the area’s name on it. Sure you loved your trip to Banff Alberta but how many times are you going to want to wear the sweatshirt that has the name of the city on it? Buy something you’ll wear a lot instead like a handmade shirt from a local artisan.

- Be smart about comparison shopping. While you’re in Banff, you will probably go to Banff National Park. Don’t buy something at the visitor’s center there without first asking the locals there if they know a place where you can get the item for less.

- Use coupons when you travel. Most people don’t think about taking coupons with them on a trip but this is a really great way to save money while you’re there. This way, you do have money to spend on shopping.

- Leave something behind when you get something new. I love this travel trip! It means that you come home with new stuff but it still fits in your house.

Technorati Tags: Banff Alberta, Banff National Park

This video offers tips for improving your search engine rankings. Site ranking for keywords affects your bottom line. Increasing keyword rankings can drastically improve traffic and revenue. Tips include: focus on content, avoid duplicate content, create entertaining content, avoid boring content, don’t refuse links, avoid link farms, engage in social media.

Technorati Tags: search engine rankings, seo