Archive for the ‘Business At Home’ Category
History of Blogging
The history of blogging starts back further than most people realize. Although modern blogging has been around for at least 9 years, the origins were way back, before PCs became a familiar item.
Before the Beginning: 1983–1990
Back in the early days we had something called Usenet, a serial medium. It had a newsgroup that was moderated. CompuServe was also one of the original newsgroups that became popular.
The posting in the newsgroup was in the control of a single individual of group. These newsgroups were really just moderated discussions. Still, they were the forerunners of today’s blogging (as well as user forums).
The History of Blogging and the First Real Blogs: 1994–2001
What happened was the old online diary that people would keep track of their personal things kind of turned into the blog we know today. The old writers of the online diaries had many different names they called themselves. For example, they would describe themselves as diarists, journalists, journalers and even escribitionists!
Very early on, weblogs meant tracking the updates to a website. What happened over time was that new tools allowed the automatic posting of articles on the web, in a reverse chronological order. This made it simple for the average person, so anyone could get in on the action. This is what came to be known as the blogs we have today.
One of the oldest weblogs is Scripting News, started in 1997, and still going strong today! Take a look back at some of the posts from way back when — they are fascinating.
Here is one I hadn’t heard of as an early blog. Called Wearable Wireless Webcam (no longer in operation), it consisted of someone’s personal life being recorded with text, live pictures and video. They used a wearable computer devise called an EyeTap to transmit the pictures and video live. This type of blogging got a new name “sousveillance” combining the video and text into a journal, some of which were used as evidence for legal matters.
Jorn Barger, in December 1997, came up with the term “weblog”. And now the person the originated the “blog” started it as a joke by making the phrase we blog on a weblog he called Peterme.com sometime in 1999. It stuck as the new noun meaning of the weblog and meant to post to your weblog.
Although off to a slow start, people picked up on blogging very fast. In 1999 what helped was the first of the hosted blog tools. This helped blogging grow in popularity.
You ready for more? Check out the next history of blogging page where we’ll talk about the years 2001 to present…and beyond!
Home Based Business Start Up
A home based business start up is something that you have to consider carefully. If you want your business from home to be successful (and who doesn’t), you have some decisions to make ahead of time. Here are some ideas for home based business planning.
Take Stock of Yourself
The first thing you want to do is take a long look at your strengths and your weaknesses. Evaluate what you’re good at, or what you’d like to be good at.
And also consider what you don’t like, what you aren’t good at and what you don’t care to learn. It makes a difference when choosing your business!
Too many people get carried away with the thoughts of big dollars to consider if they’d like to do the business, day in and day out.
For example, if you really hate writing, running a successful website would be a challenge (although not impossible, as you will see).
If you’re shy and don’t like to talk on the phone, many (but not all) network marketing companies may not be a good match. However, maybe blogging or an internet affiliate program would be just your cup of tea.
So right now, take out a piece of paper and a pencil. Jot down what you like to do. Then note what you don’t like. You’ll need to match this list up with your potential business opportunities and ideas.
What’s Needed for a Home Based Business Start Up?
You don’t necessarily need a ton of money to start a home based business, but some sort of investment will need to be made. For example, if your business is selling home-made widgets on ebay, you’ll need to invest your time in making the widgets, your money in buying the supplies and for your ebay listing.
For a website business, you will have to invest in a domain name, web hosting and perhaps SEO tutorials or courses. You might even choose to have your website researched, designed and written for you with managed web hosting! (Great for those who would love the recurring income of a website, but who don’t like to write.)
Starting a Home Based Business – At Home
One thing you really do want to consider for your home based business start up is where you’ll work. Here in the United States, if you have a dedicated workspace in your home, you can claim it as a deduction on your income taxes. The key is that it’s a space used for your business. Even if it’s just a spare closet where you store supplies, or a desk where you work on your computer.
Starting a home based business means a lot of thinking and working; do you have a space to work that’s distraction-free? Working in the corner of the living room might not be such a great idea if you get too involved with the latest TV show on the screen. This is your business; treat it like one.
Home Based Business Plan
Have you considered writing up a business plan for your new endeavor? If you haven’t, you should. At the very least, you need some goals, action items and time frames.
Who is your audience? And don’t say, “everyone who buys my product” or “anyone who reads my website”. Nope, you have to have a clear idea of who exactly you are writing for, selling to, etc. A scattered approach to your business will just leave you dazed when nothing happens.
Here’s something else to consider: is self-employment right for you? Not everyone is suited to run their own business, for one reason or another. Do you have what it takes to own one yourself?
These are ideas for a home based business start up. It’s up to you to investigate and decide what’s right for your own self.
Top of Home Based Business Start Up Page
Low Cost Reliable Web Hosting
There’s one nice thing about the internet these days- low cost reliable web hosting is no longer just a dream. You can get great low cost web hosting service for less than $10 a month — sometimes even a lot less!
When I created my very first website, the cheapest hosting I could find was $30 a month; and for that I pretty much got nothing except 30 MB of space for my hosting. No instructions, no real help.
Time went on and web site hosting got cheaper, but so did the services! Downtime was all too often, and to make matters worse, my entire website vanished not once, but twice!
Fortunately, things have come a long way. There are quite a few low cost reliable web hosting services that balance a small price with the capabilities you need. But before you buy that plan, know what questions to ask!
First: Your Domain Name
If you don’t already have a domain name for your website, be aware that some low cost web services include a free domain name when you host with them. BlueHost has such a service — free domain with $6.95 per month hosting package. If you don’t already have a domain name, this can be an added benefit.
Even if you don’t want to buy a plan from a low cost reliable web service that includes a domain name, it’s definitely easier when you purchase your domain name at the same place you plan to host your site. Trust me on this one — you don’t want to be dealing with the hassle of getting the DNS addresses pointing in the right direction! Buying your name where you plan to host takes care of that for you.
Who Does the Backups?
It’s very important for you to know how often the hosting service performs backups of your website. Some services do it daily, some weekly…some not at all. You need to know this in advance.
Here’s an example. Say you have your website hosted at company “x” and you use their WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor to create your web pages. That’s so convenient, but it also means that because you did it on their system, you don’t have a backup. Instead, you’re trusting the host to keep your data safe.
What happens if one of the servers goes down and they have to restore your website from a backup? If they backup the data daily, perhaps the worst you would lose is one day’s worth of work. But what happens if the host only backs up weekly? Or not at all?
What’s that to you in lost business?
Low Cost Reliable Web Hosting: What’s in a Package?
If you’re looking strictly for low cost and don’t need anything beyond very basic service, there are three internet hosting providers I recommend from personal experience. Each of these low cost reliable web service has plenty of disk space and bandwidth allowances that are more than enough for most people.
Next is BlueHost, who has reliable, affordable business hosting. DreamHost is my next choice for a great low cost reliable web hosting service; I’ve never had an issue with downtime.
Finally, there is 1&1, who has the corner on the ultra-low cost. Plans start at $3.99 month and you can save 50% off hosting. If you’re just looking to host a very basic site, or perhaps just host some graphics or mp3 files, 1&1 is a definite consideration
(Of course if you want to build a website that generates traffic, check out the options with a managed web hosting service — it’s a lot less expensive than you think.)
What About Free?
If you are really serious about your home business, don’t bother with free web hosting. Either you will be bombarded with banner ads, you will have uptime problems or you will have a tacky domain name. The only free hosting I might recommend is something like PhotoBucket.com that hosts images for you.
Low cost reliable web hosting services are available for less than $50 a year, so it makes sense to do it right the first time.
