What would that feel like?
Creating content for your website
When you first start your website it’s exciting and you seem to have tons of ideas. After you get your foundation going and your content laid out you sometimes start to hit a creative wall or worse start to feel like you aren’t a good enough “writer” and that your content may not be strong enough. Together we are going to talk about this and help you break through.
First Thing First,
We can easily be our worst critics! When your taking on a new business venture or project you may feel some insecurities about what your doing. It’s easy to keep this allll to yourself afraid people won’t approve or won’t like your content. Get out of your head!! Your not trying to create the next Harry Potter novels. Your goal with a blogging website is to help people. Be a real person, and choose to write about things your passionate about and not things you think the most people will be interested in.
When you are getting ready to write new content put yourself in it, think about what you would want to read about in relation to this topic. If your blogging site is about something your interested in, taking this angle should be easy.
You don’t have to be a “writer” to create great content. When someone comes across your website it’s usually because they have a problem or are looking for advise on a topic. These visitors aren’t looking for a fiction novel or a sales pitch, they are looking for real honest feedback, they are looking for something they can relate to.
Create a Template
Organizing your thoughts can be a challenge when you have lots to say and want to get everting down. You want to come across real, but also organized. You can loose your audience if they don’t understand where your going with what your saying, or if your content is hard to follow.
When I’m doing product reviews I almost always start with a template. In my template I start with a problem per say, the reason I looked for a solution. Then I talk abut the road to discovery, things I looked at and inspiration I found. I then describe materials I needed. I then walk through the process of using the products and finally the outcome. To finish the content I will go through some personal take away sand recommendations if I have them.
Of course not all situations, products or ideas will fit directly into the same template. That’s ok, the idea of a basic template is to get you started to that you can start to develop ideas in an organized fashion and see the direction your content is taking you.
The main goal here is to have a conversation with your reader. The most engaging content is the content that comes across as real over being staged or set up as a sales pitch. People aren’t stupid, they will see through sales tactics and may not read content from your site again.
Add The Visuals
Nothing helps making your point more clear then some pictures. Personally I like to take and edit my own as much as possible. I use a site called Canva.com to help with a lot of my picture editing and design, I also use them for some of their free images if I can’t get anything on my own that illustrates exactly what I need.
You need to be so careful with the media you choose for your sites. Because your blogging sites and content is monetized the last thing you want is to use is an image or video you don’t have permission to use. This is called copyright and it is illegal, especially when your using someone else’s work to make money. There are serious consequences for doing this. Best advise, be original. If your going to talk about a product go to the store and take pictures of it in real life. If it is something you have at home stage it in your environment. These make some of the best impressions for your reader because they feel like they can relate to the images and get a real sense of what your talking about.
Strong media inserts along with real content makes for great posts and pages for your blogging website. It helps you create a brand.
Final Touch
After you have gone through the wrong process, and plugged in your media, it’s tome to sit back and read it from start to finish and see how it all flows and has come together. At this stage your checking for spelling and grammatical errors you may have inserted along that way. You want to look at your content as whole and see if you are able to get your full idea across and covered everything you wanted to. Don’t be supposed of you find more things to wrists about or make changes during this process. Embrace the development.
Once you are happy with accomplishment it is time to add your affiliate links and monetized you’re content. The reason I say to do this last is because your first goal is to create great and engaging content, your final task is to add some money making potential. The reason I like to do this is because if you put your money making potential first, your content may come across as a sales pitch. When you put the money making potential last, you have created something first that will help people, and for doing that people may feel more inclined to take the advise you have given to take action but buying a product or service your have talked about.
I hope this was helpful and to have some ideas boiling to get your content going. By following these steps you may find it easier to keep writing and also develop an organized website fore people to visit.
I love hearing from my reader so please leave a comment below with any questions you may have, or even to add a little something you do to develop your sites…
Keeping Yoruself Motivated
Keeping yourself motivated when you have an online business can be tough. You are your own boss like you have always wanted to be, you have no one to be accountable to but yourself. You can put in a full day or half day of work at your own discression. Everything, your success and your failure is all up to you.
When you are first getting started it can be alot of work. It can be a big adjustment, and you can easily fall into some bad habits. I have talked about creating a scedule and a daily plan in other posts on this site as a good way to stay on track with your dialy to do’s, but how do you keep yourself motivated to stick it out and kepp going when things get tough, or you dont feel like working that day. I put together a list of some things you can do to help.
- making personal goals
- make financial goals
- remind youself daily of your why
- set goals and monitor your progress
- reach out to like minded people
- sometimes work outside of home
- do what your love
Making personal goals…
Personal goals are not financial goals. They are things you want for yourself. A personal goal could be to feel more independant and have the freedom to travel more. To spend more time with your family and friends. You could want to completly give yourself a fresh start a new beginning, to finally buy a house. Yes to accomplish some of these you will need fanincial support. But the first step is to identify what you want.
Im sure you have herd the saying money cant buy happiness, and that is ture. People who work for the creation of money with no season other then to have more of it find that they are intelectually empty. They dont have much but thier work. And worse, somtimes dont have people they care about to share it with. It is extreme, but it happenes to many people. There is nthing wrong with wanting to work hard and make a good financial living. Make sure you give all that energy directiona dn meaning.
A life without direction is somthing you may want to keep away from. So to come back to it, make some personal goals, these goals create your WHY, they are the reason you do what you do and the reason you will find a way to make it work and find your success. By including people in your ‘why’ you will create witnesses to your succes and people to hold yourslef acountable too. When the end result is to accomplish your personl goals and your ‘why’ it can be a powerful tool to stay motivated and on track.
Make financial goals…
When you have identified your ‘Why’ it is alot easier to put a finsncial gpal to it. To plan and budget what it would cost in oder to achieve these goals and to find a place in life you would be happy.
This part takes some work and can become a bit overwhelming. The development of your ‘Why’ is the dream, the finacial goal is the reality of how you achieve it. When you start to develop the finalcial plan start small. Allow yourslef to achieve small battles along the way. This will help you keep motivated. Maybe one of the financial goals is to pay off your credit card, create a countdown list, post it somwhere you can see it, and everytime you make a payment cross off your total and write down the new one. This will allow you too see continued success, even if it is small contributions at a time it is somehting you can see happening the way you wanted it too.
Make sure your financial goals are resonable. Plan for the big picture, start with a small goal of somthing like an extra $100 a week, and know what you will do with that money. Work towards that and accompish that. Then add the next step, maybe that would be to reach more clients in order to add another $100 to your weekly goal, plan on what you would do with that, and keep going.
Remind yourself daily of your why…
Check in with your goals dalily, the little ones and the big ones. Building your new future will take time and things will change and redevelop constantly as you move forward.
Something I have seen become a great success for people is to create a goal borad or image board. A board you will keep in your office and look at every day when you sit down and start working. Things you will want to include on your board are things that identify your ‘Whys’ and your financial goals. Images are very powerful, your subconcious focuses on them even when you dont realise that it is. The images will make you feel happy, they will remind you everyday of what you are working so hard for.
Some days will be good and other days tough. You may even find yourself on a bad streak of not moving forward fast enough or not at all. Keep an eye on the prize and remind yourself why you started to do this in the first place. Revisit all the things on your board that you want to achieve and things you want to have for your life. It will all come if you put the work in to achieve it.
Set goals and monitor your progress…
Setting your goals and setting up realsitic expectations takes some time. Once you have put the time in to do all that, you want to make sure you are tracking and revisiting your goals to make sure your on track to achieve them.
There are a number of ways to do this. You can create an excel sheet to track all your expences in one colum and your income in another. This helps to give you a visual of where your money goes each month so you can see if there are any opportunies you may have missed that you can input for the next month.
Be honest with yourself with financial situations, face your bills and your goals head on. If it stresses you out at first use that as motivation not to feel like that anymore.
Your goals should alos include content and development goals. You want to be sure that you are creating content regularly on your sites so that they stay relevent and fresh. You will want to create weekly and monthly goals for this and check in on them regularly. I keep lists on my cell phone for content ideas as they come to me to use as insiraption incase I ever have a moment of writers block. I have found this every helpful and effective.
Make goals for social media reach and following. You will be on facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, google plus and more to share your content in attempts to draw more traffic. You can set goals for followers and traffic for your site. Monitor things that work and dont work and make changes accordingly.
Monitouring your progress regularly is important, pressious time could go by filled with lost potential if you are not on top of things. I like to check my progress daily, its the first thing I do each day before I get strated. Somtimes I find that doing this helps set my to do’s for the day. When I see things happen and things moving in the right direction I find it also gives me lots of motivation for the day.
Reach out to like minded people…
When starting new business it can feel a bit lonely. Not all your friends and family will understand what you are trying to accomplish, and may not understand how you plan on making money online.
If your business doesnt take off right away you may find that people will tellyou that you are waisting your time and that this money making online thing wont work. Overtime this kind of negitivity may wafre you down and you may start to believe it…. Well believe this, online spending is currently calculated in the billions, thats right! Billions! More and more people are serching for a more convient shoping method, products a click away and information faster then ever. People are liking the convientiance of shooping from your couch and produts and servces beimg delivered instantly or to your door step.
There is nothing wrong with working at your online business in order to get yourself a chunk of the pie…
When I started my online business I had no idea what I was doing. There are lots of platforms for hosting websites and lots of training available for you out there. I chose to use Wealthy Affiliate for my website and learning. On this platform I have met many like minded people, all with the same types of goals. I have had the pleasure of offering help and support to people who needed it, and I also have access to many people able to do the smae for me. To be honest, if it wasnt for me finding Wealthy Affiliate, I may have given up on building an online buisness. I have had success and I have had tribulations, and without other people to talk to that are experiancing the same things I was I would have listened to friends and family when they said just give up already, or, there is no way you can make a living with a blogging site.
Like minded people can be the differnace between success and failure when starting a new business… Find some people you can connect with and feed off of each other to reach your online goals.
Sometimes work outside of home…
Working form home on your own hours and your own schedule is a dream for many. Working at home can be its own enemy though. When your at home you are faced with the decission to work or to work on the honey do list that you have on the fridge that can also seem never ending somtimes. You may find yourself captivated by some day time tv while having a cup of coffee and before you know it hours of pressious time has escaped you.
Self motivation and focus is key, aloting time for eveyething you want to accomplish will help, and sometimes it takes getting out of the house and changing the scenory.
On many ocasions I have been known to go and find a spot at the park accross the street with my dogs at a bench under a tree and enjoying some fresh air, limited distractions and some alone time to get things done. I find doing this sometomes helps with my creativinty when Im feeling unmotivated. Now I know you wont have access to wifi at the park, so this is some good content building time, when I get home I add my affiliate links, fill in the blanks with some reaserch and then post and share my thoughts on social media.
Coffee shops are a good place. If you are someone who enjoys a good cup of coffee, get up, get dressed, pack up your laptop and head off to your local starbucks or coffee shop. Have a coffee, tap into their wifi and off you go.
Workiing from home doesnt mean you have to be straped to your home office all the time. That over time may feel like being trapped just as you were when you were working 9-5 for someone else at an office. The ability to take your work anywhere is one of the major bonuses of the online world…
Do what you love…
In life if you do what you love and love what you do, you will never feel like youor working and you will find yours more content and happier in your life. If building an online business is somehting you are interested in build that business around youor passions. If you like DIY and decorating, build a website about that. If you have a passions for video games and consoles, build a buiness around that.
When you are building a business around somthing you love, you wont get tired of it, you will enjoy researching it and writing about it, you will want to try out new products and services. And of course your readers will be able to sence that passion through your writing.
“Do what you love, and love what you do”
Buying A domain
There are many forms of hobbies and business these days. With the expanding world of social media and the internet, many people use these outlets as a way to make a living or just a side income. If you are interested in a blogging website, you can easily get away with using a free website builder like a siterubix website.
If you are interested in creating a website that you can monetize, and want to be affiliated with the hundreds of companies that offer commissions and rewards for promoting and selling their products, you will want to buy a domain.
Buying a domain tells these companies you are the owner and decision maker and have the right to use affiliate links and promote their products. As a domain owner you will also get better ranking within the search engines, better ranking means more traffic, more traffic equates to higher earning potential.
Learning all this, I made the decision to buy my domains over using free platforms. I host them on Wealthy Affiliate using a yearly subscription to save me money over paying monthly.
Step by step…
When I want to purchase a website I log in and go to the website manager. And Then I start brain storming my ideas for site names through the domain search option.
Unfortunately as the world of online businesses increase the available names for domains decrease. So if you have a good idea, don’t sit on it, buy the domain and then build out all your content and money making plans after. Its a small price to pay up front to insure you get the domain name that you want.
Domains range in price, there are .com .org .net to choose from. For the purpose of building an online business it is recommended that you purchase a .com domain for your website. The nice bonus is that the .com sites are usually a little less expensive.
When you put the desired domain name in the search bar all the options available to you will come up. You do want to choose something with a key word in it that relates to your site, you also want to choose something simple and too the point so that is it easy to ready and easy to type in.
You want avoid using dashes and underscores between words like a few of the options above show as available. These options use the website name you want however the dashes and underscores make it hard to type out, and therefore possibly harder for the search engine to find when people search organically for the key words associated with your website.
Once you have chosen a domain that you want to build your business with you add it to your cart and get ready to purchase it. The price you see is the real price for the purchase of the domain in USD. This price is for ownership of the website for one year. When you purchase the domain through Wealthy Affiliate like I do it will automatically charge your credit card every year to renew the subscription and keep you the owner of the domain name.
Once you go to the cart you will follow 4 steps to complete the purchase.
First step confirms the domain name you have chosen and the price you are about to pay.
In the second step you can choose to pay the price yearly, or you can pay for multiple years up front, at the end of the term, say you chose to pay 5 years in advance, the yearly subscription of the domain price will kick in.
Step 3 is where you put in your personal info for the ownership and registration of your domain.
The last and final step is to purchase your site with the credit card of your choice. In the future if you need to change or update the payment information it is quick and easy.
Once the purchase is complete the website domain will be registered and you are ready to go. Now once this is all set up you will be able to choose a WordPress theme that you think will best be suited for your blog niche. The creating process is of my favourite part fo the whole process, I love the set up, the detailing, and adding my own unique touch.
Once you have your platform set up you are ready to start filling it with all the pages and posts that will develop your niche site into an authority site.
Your website doesn’t rank on the search engines right away, sometimes it can take a few days. Don’t be alarmed if you don’t find your website right away. If you choose to use Wealthy Affiliate to host your websites, when your site is indexed you will receive notification of it. I have had sites index within a day or two and others have taken up to a week. Just know that once it is registered and paid for it will index.
I hope that by finding this post you have decided you may be interested in the world of online businesses. If you need any help or have any questions you can always leave me a comment below or contact me through Wealthy Affiliate if you chooses to set up a free account.
Editing Your Work
When you first start your blogging sites you will probably have lots to learn. At least I know I did. Due to this, the content you write when you first start will change and evolve from the content you will later write.
Knowing this, you may be leaving some opportunity on the table. I suggest going back and checking out your later work.
Recently I decided to take my own advise and do just that. I was shocked with what I found. I found grammer errors, formatting errors and opportunity for further monitozation. Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes your affiliate links have an expiration date on them. This creates a broken link on your site and when google and other search engines crawl your site it can hurt your rankings.
Things to look for when going over your content;
- Grammer and spelling errors
- Broken and expired links
- Adding more input and internal links
- Formating
- Monetization opportunity
Broken and expired links
By checking back on older posts you can check those links to make sure they are working. If there are any issues change them out for new links. Broken links are missed opportunity in more ways then one. The first is the search engines may rank your page or post lower, it will also be flagged for a site error. The second is that when your readers find your site they won’t be able to follow the link, resulting in missed commisions.
The above is an example of google analiztics. When it crawls your site it looks for broken links and errors, and when it finds them you will see error msgs on your pages or posts on the analytics dashboard. You can get more details and fix the errors of course, and then submit a fixed report with google.
More input to add
Another benefit I found from going back through old content is that for some topics I had more input to add. In some of my posts and pages I was also able to add some new videos and audio for those visitors that may prefer to watch a video then read my article.
I also had other pages and posts on my websites I was able to refer too. Incase you didn’t know, referring your reader to other posts and pages on your site is something that search engines like to see. Why? you ask, it’s aboit site trust, why would they trust your content if you don’t. Internal links tells the search engines that you believe in your content, and are trying to be helpful by keeping readers on your website instead of sending them to affiliate sites every chance you get.
Formatting opportunities
As you learn more about blogging and how to capture your readers attention, you will notice progression on how you format your content. To my surprise when I went back to older content I realized it’s not at all what I would do now. Editing images, breaking up long winded paragraphs, changing content and wording, along with adding or deleting ads and affiliate links. These are all things that play a part in your formatting. It’s makes a difference… trust me.
Monetizing opportunity
Helping people and making money while we are doing it is why we are in this business. It is amazing how many opportunities you may have left on the table that you didn’t even realize.
Adding random links and ads throughout your content will not entice your readers to click or want to follow any of your advise on service and products. Adding links and ads randomly takes away the credibility of what your saysing, it’s creates visual distraction, and your content gets lost.
When your adding affiliate links and ads it has to make sence, it has to flow with what your saying and be strategically placed. Call to action lines are a great way to get your reader to take action. They can be very effective when used appropriately. Getting your visitors to click on links and ads is not a sneaky endeavour, your want your visitors to want to click. You want to capture their attention and get them excited about what your talking about. When you do this, your links and ads add value to your content and your website. Value will equal commissions.
If you would like to read the whole article that the above image is from, follow here..
The above image is from the Wealthy Affiliate platform I host all my websites on. On all their training they have a call to action link under their videos, or placed within the content when it is appropriate to advise readers there is a link available for more information. The call to action doesn’t have to click here, like you may have assumed. It can be a highlighted link that’s a phrase or sentence like the example above. Readers don’t always respond to click here, they may think your trying to sell them something and avoid the link.
Making money isn’t a simple and easy process. It does involve some hard work. Your work will pay off if you stick to it and don’t cut corners along the way. Building a business has been a big learning curve for me. If there is anything I can you with let me know by leaving a comment below…
The about me page
There are a few staple pages you will want to have when you start building your website. You will want an affiliate disclosure page, a privacy page and very important… an about me page.
The about you page helps shape your brand, it gives your visitors the ‘why’ behind building out this site. It gives them insight as to why you may be an authority on the subject and niche you are building a site around, and it helps create a connection.
When your readers feel connected and they feel like they can relate to you, you begin to create loyalty, loyalty strengthens your brand, and with that strengthens your business and money making potential.
What’s involved in a good about me page?
This is an example of a template that I use when creating an about me page. You don’t have to follow it completely, remember this page is about you, you can make it anything you want it to be. The entire point of an about me page is to give the reader some insite on the author of the website.
I like to use templates to get my ideas going and to get started. I almost always change things as I go, but it’s nice to have a starting point rather then a blank page where you don’t know where to start.
For those of you that like a more visual walk through and example I collected this video form the Wealthy Affiliate platform I host all my websites on.
You can click on the image above, or click here to be taken to the Wealthy Affiliate platform where this and many other videos are available to its members. Don’t worry, it’s totally free to check out the platform. And if you want to see more and decide to create an account, you are in no way obligated to buy a membership or give any credit card information up front. That’s not at all what the platform is about.
The author of the video is one of the founders of Wealthy Affiliate. Incase you were wondering who Kyle was, and why he would know anything at all.
Knowing the importance of your about me page, I hope you don’t leave it too long once you get your website established. It isn’t an easy page to write. Seems silly but it’s true. You may also think, is it really that important? and put it off. Refrain from doing that, get it started and posted as soon as you can.
You can always go back and make changes later if you need too… updating pages and posts is a good thing to do from time to time. So get started and get going with your about me page if you haven’t already.
If you are having any troubles with your page or have anything to add, leave a comment below and let’s talk about it…
Creating a Clean and Organized Site
The saying “The first impression is a lasting impression” is as true in building an online business as it is in many other aspect of your life. When someone clicks onto the link in their google search to open your website you have seconds to catch their attention before the reader or potential client decides if they want to stay on your site or go to the next one.
What are some things people are looking for?
Speed – We live in a world of I want it now! because of this people searching on the web have little to no patients for things like waiting for the webpage to load. There are many things out of your control that can effect that, for example signal strength and the devise the consumer is using. But there are also many things you can do as the website developer and business owner to help assist with loading speed.
- dont over load your website with plugins
- try and avoid graphic over use
- make sure your site is user friendly to different devises
Clean and Clear – Someone did a google search for keywords that you have in your content to attract that traffic. Make sure that when they get to your site they can easily find what they are looking for. Have an initial website plan and build off of it. Nothing is set in stone, and things are sure to change as your site builds out, but having a good foundation to build off of can make all the difference.
Make sure your menus are neat and well maintained and there is a good flow to the overall site. Ideally you want the visitor to stay on your site and search through other post and pages as well. Incase your wondering what I mean when I say make sure your menus are neat and maintained, I mean make sure they make scene. You wouldn’t add a page about puppies under a heading titled car parts. Things like this make the visitor loose interest and trust in your authority. Impressions are everything…
Blogging type website are really gaining popularity, there is a lot of money making potential once they are monetized and they start to gain rankings online in the search engines. Im not sure what platform you are thinking of using or are using right now, but I use WordPress. Heres a quick link if you want to build a free website to try WordPress out…
When using a blogging type website you will have the option to create pots and pages. Posts will be in a blog real on the main home page, and your pages will be added to your menu. Plan ahead and decide what content will go where. Its one extra step that will make such a difference.
Stay away from to many graphics!! – this is a big big mistake I see people make all the time. When I started to build my online business I started my learning on a platform called Wealthy Affiliate, on this platform I was given the opportunity to get feedback on my website along with offer feedback to others. Was a great learning experience and a really big eye opener for me. I learned a lot about how people saw my site, and learned a lot about how others didn’t realize how much graphics and other things on their sites like random ads and images pulled away form the message they were trying to send rather then add to it.
Graphics can be super powerful, some people want more of a quick visual to help tell the story, others will take the time to read more depth into things. The important part here is to create both dynamics together. You don’t want your graphics to over power the written text and you don’t want the written text to seem like it will take hours to get through. It really is a dance trying to find the perfect balance. But please, take the time to find that perfect balance…
Advertisements – this is a bit more of a sensitive one. lets be honest, the entire reason you spend so much time researching, creating content and building out your site is in the hopes to do what you love to do but also have the power to create some income while doing it. There is nothing wrong with that at all, its great! just don’t go crazy.
I have see many many sites where the creator loads their home pages with google ads and click promotions. The visitors eyes are so busy trying to figure out where to look they forget why they went to your site to begin with.
Adding ads and promotions within your content is another popular way to integrate monetization into the website. That is ok to do, but make sure it makes sense, make sure that it doesn’t completely interrupt with the flow of the writing and the experience of our visitor. You want traffic to grow and you want people to come back, maybe even share some of your content on their social media or with friends.
You are creating an authority site, a place where people trust what you have to say, part of that trust is built when they don’t feel like your only intention is to sell them on something.
Overall layout and feel – you want the overall layout and feel of your site to tell a story without having to say anything at all. If your site is about dogs and cats, you may want the impression to be fun and lite. The font, the color story, the graphics, all have to play into that. Lets create an example… If the website is talking about playful pets and products, but the site itself is black and white and has victorian wallpaper as the background, the visitor will be very confused. That doesn’t sound like a playful pet website to me. Take that same website idea and have the same elements speak to the overall theme of the site, the impression becomes completely different, the overall experience has more charge.
Think about all the websites you have ever visited that you really enjoyed being on, or you purchased something from. Be it your favourite clothing label or purchasing a service, Im sure part of the trust you had in that site came from the first impression.
Always start with a plan. Have an idea of what message your are trying to send with your site. Create that foundation and build out form that.
If you have any questions about anything please leave a comment below, lets talk about it…
Keeping track of business costs
There are a lot of great perks from working from home or having your own business. As your business grows you will start to acquire some business expenses. Keeping track of these expenses is a very important part of your ongoing success in your business.
Why you ask? Well there is a lot of in-depth details we can get into in regards to business expenses and tax write offs, but to scratch the surface and help paint the picture for you, keeping track of all your business expenses can give you some great tax relief at the end of the year. For the first year you can probably keep track of most of your expenses your self, I would recommend scheduling it in for every Friday morning, or another day if it works better for you. Just make sure you keep on top of it. Doing it weekly will help keep it more organized, and will insure you don’t miss things or loose receipts. Once you start to notice your expenses increasing a lot with your income, I would highly recommend getting in touch with a good accountant and have them as part of your business team. Having solid book keeping and tax records are a key part to a successful business.
Your accountant can give you all sorts of advise about tax savings and expenses that you want to have to support the business. There services at the end of the year are also tax deductible. Any business person will tell you that a good accountant and clean book keeping can sometimes make or break your business. Every dollar counts, don’t miss out on tax savings!
So now you are wondering… what are some things you can write off, and what sort of expenses should you be keeping track of?
– Dining out: when you dine out and meet with clients or business partners, those meals are tax deductible. Keep those receipts. As long as it’s in some way work related it counts as a business expense
– Car: if you travel for work, and I don’t mean across country, if you are driving to meet clients or customers, or you are going to meet with suppliers or research new products, every time you use your car for work purposes the km are deductible. A portion of your car payments and insurance can be added to your business expenses along with any up keep required to keep it running smoothly and safely
– Mortgage and home expenses: when your business base is your home you are able to write off a portion of your mortgage and utility bills to your business expenses. You can also add any internet, phone and cable expenses as well. In order to calculate what percentage of your home is tax deductible, you need to figure out what percentage of your total homes square footage is dedicated to your home business space, that percentage represents how much of your mortgage and utility costs can be added to your tax deductions.
– Business: any and all expenses related to your business, stationary, business cards, flyers, advertising… and the list goes on, anything you spent money on to help grow your business can be tax deductible.
So what’s tax deductible. Well when you are an employee of a business your income is taxed first and then you keep the rest. Business tax I structured differently. Your expenses come off of your gross income and then your taxes are paid on the income left over after that. Again there is a lot more detail involved in tax, which is why I strongly suggests seeking professional help, but for the purpose of this post, I’m merely trying to open your eyes to the potential and the importance of good book keeping and keeping track of your expenses
How do I keep track? Keeping track can be very simple when done regularly. For example I do my expenses every Friday morning before I get into my daily routine. I open up a spread sheet I created for the month, and plug in all my expenses for that week in. The first column is the date, and then I have a volume for food, car, business etc to follow, and the plug in the totals from all the receipts I have. If your good with spread sheets you can create a formula to have to totals auto populate at the bottom of the page in a spot marked totals, if not, just manually calculate and have a totals column the end of each day and then add them all up at the end of the month. Create your spread sheet to reflect your businesses specific needs, what works for me may not work for you. Keep all your receipts you collected and staple them together, and then put them in a folder marked for that particular month. At the end of the month print off your expense sheet add it to the folder along with anything else you collected for your expenses including utility and internet/ phone bills and file it all away safely for tax season.
The key it to keep on top of it!
I can’t stress to you enough how important it is to keep on top of your book keeping. Trust me, you will thank me in tax season when you go to do your taxes and everything is organized and filed properly, and things go more smoothly.
You work hard for your money, don’t leave anything left on the table.
If you have any questions or some great organizing tips you use for your book keeping please leave a comment below and share it with everyone. Thanks for reading…
Choosing the Right Niche
Choosing a niche is the first step to creating your online business. Many people really struggle with this part because they put to much emphasis on ‘what niche will make the most money?’, ‘what niche has the most affiliate links?’, ‘what niche are people most interested in?’… That is the wrong mindset…
Yes all of those things are important, but they shouldn’t be the most important things you are considering when choosing a niche.
The most important thing is to choose something that you love, something your are interested in and something your feel passionate about. When you are writing your content you want your readers to be engaged and interested in what your are talking about, you want them to visit your site again and follow some of your suggestions to help them find products to buy. How can you expect to create that kind of experience if you don’t enjoy or are interested in the niche you write about.
Love what you do and do what you love…
When you love what you do it will come out in your work. Your readers will be able to feel it and it will help make a better experience. There are tones of affiliate links for every niche out there. There are millions of people that shop online every day, meaning your online business has lots of earning potential.
Building a business online requires lots of work and effort on your behalf. You will be spending a lot of time writing about, reading about and researching your chosen niche. Choosing a niche that you love will make this process a lot easier and way more enjoyable. If you are interested in the niche you choose, work wont feel like work and you will find that it is easier to come up with ideas for your site, and that you will be able to give your site the time it needs to grow into a place of authority within your niche, and a highly ranked website that has strong money making potential.
Keep this simple and very important thought in mind when your are choosing your niche…
If you are struggling to find a niche, or you have some great ideas you would like to share, drop a comment below and lets talk about it.
Create A Work Space
When you made the decision to start a home based business there was probably a lot involved in the decision. Maybe you didn’t like having a boss. Maybe you have hit a spot in your life where you wanted to build a better financial future. You might be a stay at home mom looking to make some extra income to help support the family. We all have our reasons for wanting to create something else….
I chose to build an online business because I wanted to take more control of my life, I wanted to build something for myself, have that accomplishment of owning my own business… I was tired of the corporate run around where I felt that no matter how hard I worked I wasn’t really moving forward.
I cant believe I’m about to say this, but there is one thing that the corporate world got right… It is giving you a place to be at a certain time, dressed in a certain way, and ready for a days work. Success from working from home does need some of the same things. Although the idea of working from home on your lap top by a pool is a wonderful vision, it wont always lead to the most productive work days. Creating your own work space, or your office is a key point to success.
Your home office doesn’t have to be this massive set up that takes up room you may or may not have in your home. It can be a spare room, or a small den. It can be a special place you create in the basement, or family room. Whatever you decide to do, make sure you create a space in the house that is yours! its your creative space where you can retreat too to get some serious work done when you want to.
Creating this space should be fun, start with the basics, a small desk or table, a lamp, a few pictures of the dogs and the family, nothing crazy. Put up a calendar on the wall or on the desk so you can use it to map out some goals for yourself to keep you on track. If its a room you have to yourself, paint it your favourite colour, and add some fun decor elements…. The idea here is to create a space you enjoy going to everyday, or whatever days you decide you want to be working on your online business. There is something motivating about having a place to go that is your own to get some work done. It will also help you get closure when you decide you need a break. You can simple turn your computer off and close the door… Walk away until next time.
Im still in the process of building my space, I have many ideas of how I want it to look. I earned my own little get away and so did you. So be a proud business owner and give ourself an office… and then please share it with us here, leave a comment below, even a picture if you would like 🙂 I would love to see what you come up with…
What to do Writers Block
Ok this happens to everyone… At some point in your blogging and website development career you will have moments, days, and maybe even a week of writers block.. Its frustrating, especially when we have work to do and things we want to accomplish.
Let’s talk about this a bit more. Creativity is the juice we use to get the brain going to create the wonderful content our readers want to see on our sites. Things like stress, pressure, lack of sleep, poor diet, can all contribute to the lack of motivation or the frustration of writers block.
So what can you do about it?
Do some online searches – sometimes it is as simple as doing some online searches for products and articles about your niche. Through doing this you may find yourself stumble on something that lights the spark you need to get to writing and back to work.
Go for a walk – fresh air! Don’t underestimate the power of fresh air, we work from home, we eat, and sleep at hm. Sometimes we just need to step out of our space for a while and get some fresh air. Go for a walk with the dog or grab a friend. The process of exercise is a great way to get the blood flowing and can help relieve a lot of the tensions that may be contributing to your writers block…
Take a break – take a break from your home office. Either go and do something in a different room, go read a book, take some time outside. Do something away from the desk or your work space. Maybe take your laptop outside and sit under a tree. Go to a coffee shop and find a window seat or a quiet corner. Sometimes all you need is a change of space to help clear the block that is holding your fingers back from a perfect typing storm.
Go out and check out products – in an online world we are constantly relying on searches to find everything we need to create our content… Why not go and see first hand some of the things that are available. Take notes of what you see, maybe a picture or two, heck you could blog about the whole day and what you found as a consumer sourcing out products in person in comparison to what you can find online …
Reach out to like minded people – there are many platforms and places where you can reach out to people that are doing the same thing as you… Building an online business.. So tap into that, talk to them and see what they are up to, whats new and if they have any suggestions. I keep in touch with many like minded people on Wealthy Affiliate… Its a great platform to learn from and meet some wonderful people.. Whenever I get stuck, I reach out for help and there is always someone there to offer some support.. Check it out, click here.
Stop working – yep I said it. Stop what you are doing, put your work away and give yourself a day or two to do something else other then work. Have some fun, visit family and friends. Come back refreshed and ready to start a new day… later.
There are many things you can do to try and get out of your writers block. Try a few and see what works for you, and please share what you found works best….
