Successful Blog

How to Store, Publicize and Market Your Family Memories

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When someone starts talking about priorities, they usually list family right at the top. Every single day you are creating memories with your family that you will forever cherish.

If you are like many others, sharing these moments brings nearly as much joy as experiencing them!

With all of the advances in today’s technology, the web is the best resource for keeping a record of your family’s precious time together, whether through blogging or online scrapbooking via your personal website.

The first step is picking a domain name. This could be your surname, a phrase that means something special to your family, or even the names of your two crazy cats. Here are a few fun tips to pick a great family-related domain name.

Namify is a great site to check if you are trying to find a cool blog name:

Once you have purchased your domain name, you will need to find a hosting plan that fits your needs. Here is another useful resource to help you pick a cheap yet reliable hosting plan. Here are a few trusted shared hosting providers to choose from. Both of these steps are inexpensive and easy to complete.

Blogging

Some people seem to be intimidated by the thought of blogging, while others blog every minor detail of their life. There is no right or wrong approach. A blog is a great way to digitally capture your family’s most important moments.

You can write about:

  • Holiday get-togethers
  • Family vacations
  • Day-to-day life
  • The crazy antics of your toddler
  • The massacre the dog left in your laundry room
  • How your husband attempted to put new gutters on the house

Think you don’t have the time to blog? You can update a blog in less time than it takes to write a journal entry. There is also the added benefit of having friends subscribe to your blog instead of inundating you with calls about what you have been up to and who is hosting the Memorial Day barbeque this year.

It’s all right there at the click of a mouse. If you are interested in promoting your blog beyond your friends and families, here are a few marketing resources from @dirjournal to read to learn the trick!

Online Scrapbooking

Online scrapbooking is an enjoyable way to share and preserve favorite photos. Scrapbooking has really caught on over the last few years, but it takes a lot of time. There are materials to purchase, you need an area to work in, cleanup is a hassle, and if you make a mistake, it often can’t be undone.

Online scrapbooking doesn’t have to cost money. There are plenty of free downloads available – such as background templates, clip art, and special fonts. You can design scrapbook pages for any occasion, adding as much artistic flair as you want. The benefits of online scrapbooking go beyond clicking the ”undo” button to fix a mistake; unlike a regular scrapbook page, digital pictures will not fade, fall apart, or get lost in a box.

Twenty or thirty years down the road, all of this information will still be available right at your fingertips. Digital memory preservation keeps your treasured moments frozen in time. The internet is here to stay and it will only become better in the future. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about records stored on paper. Begin keeping your family memories online, where they will be available to enjoy for generations to come.

How to Organize Your Digital Reading

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Oh I love paper-back books. The smell, the spirit, the character: They will never be replaced… But eBooks are not made to replace paper books! eBooks are made to give us access to more information we’ve ever thought we’ll be able to access and moreover, take that info home!

I don’t read ebooks thoroughly. Most of my digital books are reference guides I store to bring back up when I need them. So managing that info is very important to me!

Do you have a lot of ebooks and you need a reliable way to organize them all? Or maybe you are looking to create, upload, edit or convert ebooks of your own to share with the world. Having a good ebook management app on hand is becoming increasingly important, as the traditional print literature makes way for the cheaper and more convenient digital format.

Side note: I am sure most Successful Blog readers are here to find blogging tips, so here’s a great free eBook on blogging for you to download.

Here are some good apps to help you to manage your ebooks.

Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader

Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader

Anyone with a Kindle should be familiar with the cloud app, but they might not have gotten to using it yet. You sign in using your Amazon account related to your Kindle device.

Then you can set up the cloud reader for offline reading on your computer. It will give you access to anything you have downloaded or archived, so you can read it through your computer as well as your Kindle. You can also add other books through the Kindle Store right through the cloud program.

cloudLibrary

cloudLibrary

cloudLibrary is a cross-device library that keeps your whole library in sync. The system will automatically remember which page you left a title on, allowing you to pick up that great novel from where you left-off.

BookONO

BookONO

This is an interesting app, because it isn’t a manager in and of itself. It is actually meant to be an addition to Calibre, to make it more intuitive and follow by a different design scheme. So while it will run on its own, it is meant to compliment that app. Which brings us to…

Calibre

Calibre

The most popular ebook manager on the web, Calibre has many different functions. It manages your library, converts to other formats, syncs ereader and mobile devices, downloads news from the web, creates a full ebook viewer and gives you a direct route to your content. You can do more with this one app than you can with most combined.

Alfa

Alfa

If you want something that will simply organize your ebook library, you might be better suited to Alfa. It lets you quickly and easily organize your collections into a single library with a user friendly and clean interface. Customize the look, including making it look like a physical bookshelf. Add tags, rename files, put in descriptions and make custom fields. Scan your computer for ebooks and other literary files. Sync up with different sites like Amazon. It is pretty straight forward.

AllMyBooks

AllMyBooks

I have never used this one personally, but I have heard a couple of people say they have. It is another organization program, but it lets you customize it more than some others. Especially when it comes to the look of the interface. You can also easily share book collections with friends, and send it through email or export it directly to various devices.

Bonus tips and resources:

Do you know of any good ebook management tools and reading hacks? Let us know in the comments

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Monetize Your Expertise with Kajabi

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Monetizing your blog is tough: The line between making money off your readers and selling something you cannot fully vouch for is blurred.

Various website monetization methods include

One of the best ways to monetize your blog is to create your own product, something you can frankly stick up for because you were the one who provide support. The tool I have just discovered seemed quite perfect for the purpose!

The Tool

Kajabi is the easiest way to monetize your expertise to put together an advanced course. It is all-in-one tool that let’s anyone create, distribute and sell content online. This can be online courses, ebooks, training videos and more.

The platform helps with every aspect of course marketing from hosting to selling:

  • Put together an advanced course choosing any types and forms: Training portals, membership sites, live event streaming, premium downloads, etc.
  • Design your course landing pages using the variety of beautiful templates (webinar optin pages, launch pages, sales pages, email registration pages, thank you pages and more)
  • Email marketing: Send emails to your students (including sophisticated segmentation)
  • Upload and host your training videos. No need to rely on third-party video hosting services.
  • Easily design your course and keep the look and feel consistent throughout different sections. All the templates are mobile-responsive, so your students can use your source on their mobile forms.

You’re not just selling your content, but the entire learning experience and aesthetic your content is packaged in

Kajabi themes

  • Provide customer support using built-in community features
  • Promote your course though an affiliate program: Automatically track and calculate commissions for partner referrals
  • Content automation: set your content to go out to users on a schedule based on when they bought the product. They’ll automatically receive an email when new content is released to them.

Content automation

You can also use your own domain for better course branding (This will also allow you to promote your own site).

You can also see your students’ progress (and reach out to them based on that).

Check out dozens of success stories available here.

It should be easy to sell your courses using powerful sales tools too! Provide coupons, announce special offers, access easy-to-read sales reports.

Sales reports

In a nutshell, you manage the creation and marketing of your premium content from a single dashboard. This is also a perfect opportunity to establish yourself as a niche expert.

Ideas

I can imagine that someone reading this article is scratching their heads right now. “Expertise? What on Earth can I teach anyone?” You don’t have to be a nationally recognized expert but you can surely share some useful tricks!

Have you learned to be productive in your own unique way? Are you aware of a solid self-learning guitar playing technique you have tried yourself? Is there a unique money saving routine you are using? There must be something useful you can teach people and improve their lives.

Have a Good Business Idea?

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abizideaThe business world changes every day and if you want your business idea to succeed tomorrow, then you should pay attention to what’s trending today.

That’s right, by keeping an eye on the current market and successful business ideas; you can make an informed decision based on changing consumer needs.

When it comes to learning from current business trends, here are just a few types of businesses that are expected to grow for years to come:

Accounting

Whether it’s for small businesses or individuals, everyone needs help running numbers. If you have a knack for the financial side of life, then starting an accounting business is definitely a promising career. Accounting is a growing business landscape that offers plenty of job opportunities. The field of accounting isn’t something you can just jump into. To become a certified accountant, licensing and training is required. However, if you do have experience, turning your accounting business idea into a reality is a relatively easy and affordable process. From handling company balance sheets to general tax accounting, there’s no end to the growth possibilities of accounting.

Computer and Smartphone Repair

The popularity of computers and smartphones is going to continue to increase exponentially as time goes on. With a little training and basic licensing, you can turn your computer and smartphone repair business idea into a full-fledged career. There are a growing number of repair businesses that specialize in on-site computer hardware and software repairs as well as smartphone screen repairs. In addition, there are also a number of mobile repair businesses that can take care of repairs quickly and on the spot. No matter which direction you take, the computer and smartphone repair industry is really taking off.

Business Planning

If your business idea involves helping others develop their own business plans, then you’re on the right track. As the following article shows, starting a business plan service is 1 of 3 business careers that are actually fun and rewarding for both parties involved. The startup costs for a business planning service are minimal, but the career opportunities are huge. From preparing and formatting business plan layouts to creating financial outlooks, helping others plan their business will provide you with steady work for the foreseeable future. You can even offer add-on services like ongoing business consulting, which will provide you with a steady workflow as opposed to a freelance-style business approach.

Editing

Editorial services take a number of different shapes and forms nowadays. Whether it’s copyediting for online publications or proofreading company documents, businesses and individuals are always in need of quality editors. The best part is, being an editor means you’ll have a flexible career that you can take on in a full-time, part-time, or freelance capacity. Copyediting and proofreading are probably the two main editorial services that come to mind, but you can expand on your business idea to include other services too. Developmental editing, indexing, copywriting, blog writing and editing, ghost writing, and book doctoring are all much-needed services that fall under the editorial services umbrella.

If you want to know your business idea is a worthwhile venture for the future, then take a tip from the top trending businesses above.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of ddpavumba at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including business planning and career outlooks.

I Meant To Do That! How To Turn A Mistake Into Success

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By Jon Norwood

I’ve started four businesses and successfully sold three. The common factor in all of them is that I made at least one serious error right out of the gate. When you’re faced with a fixed and immovable object, caused by either a mistake or due to matters outside of your control, if you cannot change it stop fighting it. But simply embracing it is not enough however. Adapt your plan and make this obstacle part of your intentional offering.

Military strategists, as well as every mother of little children, have learned how to roll with the punches. Adapt to the environment and its challenges. If you want to guarantee your failure, approach your business (and life in general) with a stiff neck and refuse to be flexible. If you don’t believe me, just picture all those poor suckers that collapse while standing at attention with their knees locked!

Real World Example

A businessman opened a “ropes” course for corporations. After he founded the company, spent the revenue building the course and marketing the opening of his new venture, he was informed that he could not sell alcohol. He didn’t think it would be a major problem, but as the months went on, he discovered just the opposite.

The corporations discovered that they had a hard time getting “buy in” from their employees and volunteers that were asked to spend an entire day that far out in the country, and not be able to have a happy hour after the event. In fact, the promise of a happy hour was a major selling point for his competition!

After 2 years of struggling, he was considering closing the doors. Then he had the idea that he could embrace the problem. In other words, he could look for organizations that would choose him over his competition BECAUSE he CHOSE to not serve alcohol.

Religious and conservative organizations found this marketing enticing. To his surprise, many organizations began to choose his course because they would no longer be vulnerable to law suits due to alcohol abuse and driving under the influence! His limitation became a powerful selling point.

Embrace your limitations and find a way to position them as strengths.

Bad location? Say it was on purpose and adjust your offering.
Spent a ton of money on a typewriter when everyone else is buying a computer? Learn to research for the next time. Say you love the quality and send out letters from that typewriter with marketing about your dedication to quality!

There is always an angle! You just have to stop freaking out to see it. It’s not a matter of being misleading in any way, it’s a choice of looking at the situation from a positive mindset and marketing from that perspective.

Author’s Bio: Jon Norwood writes about business and technology at http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tech-talk/. He is also the author of internet providers by zip code. You can find him on Twitter as @mobileinformers.

6 Advantages “BYOD” Brings to a Business

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By Miles Young

One major trend in business now is BYOD, or “bring your own device.” This basically means that employees are responsible for buying and choosing their mobile device. It allows businesses to save money, while keeping employees happy at the same time.

There are also several other business advantages, such as fewer headaches for the IT department, more employee choice and freedom in their devices and a better connection with today’s consumers. Businesses that are newly introducing BYOD do face some roadblocks, but it is worth the effort once the transition is complete. Take a closer look at the advantages to BYOD and what it could mean for your business.

#1: Your Business Saves Money with BYOD

Successful businesses always look for ways to save money. Reducing monthly spend on employee mobile devices is one of the best and easiest ways to do this. In a true BYOD business environment, employees cover the full cost of their devices, including minutes and data usage. This saves businesses thousands of dollars each year. However, most companies offer incentives to employees through discounts or usage stipends, especially at the beginning of the transition.

Only a few short years ago, employees would have complained a lot about BYOD. However, a recent Good Technology State Report shows that 50% of employees are more than happy to cover the costs. This is for several reasons, but the biggest is that it gives them more freedom to choose their own device and upgrade as desired. Many people are dedicated fans to specific platforms, so this allows them to remain loyal to their favorite brand of device. As more businesses turn to BYOD environments for its cost savings, employees will get more used to the idea.

#2: Employees Can Choose the Device They Like

People get very attached to their mobile phones. As a matter of fact, one Mobile Mindset study showed that 73% of mobile phone users admit they would go into a panic if their phone went missing. This obsession is one reason most employees prefer to choose their own mobile device — they have an intimate relationship with it. Everyone has a different preference over the brand of phone they like and what features are must-haves. Businesses can keep their employees happy by allowing them to choose their own mobile device with a BYOD policy.

#3: Businesses Stay on the Cutting-Edge of Technology

Typical smartphone users want to have the latest and greatest technology. This is a major advantage to businesses because employees usually upgrade to the newest phone as soon as they are eligible for an upgrade. This is especially true if you have a younger workforce. Having technology-savvy employees translates to more efficiency for your business, which is why giving your employees more freedom with BYOD is such a good idea.

Additionally, many businesses have spent a lot of money on creating a mobile infrastructure, such as putting business information in the Cloud so it’s easier for employees to get access to. By allowing employees to choose their own mobile device and other gadgets, it encourages them to use the infrastructure your business has spent so much money to create.

#4: Employees Only Have to Manage One Device

With BYOD initiatives, employees no longer have to worry about carrying separate phones for business and personal use. This was a major hassle for employees in the past, and it often meant missed calls because employees only carried their business phones during business hours. With a BYOD environment, your business will have fewer missed calls because your employees will have fewer gadgets to juggle. Plus, the phone will be with them whether they are working or not.

Managing only one device also increases employee productivity, because they only have to get used to one phone. Every mobile phone works a little differently and there is a learning curve, even for technology savvy employees. If your employees are allowed to choose their own device, they will be more motivated to learn how to use it effectively, which has all sorts of advantages to your business. Increased productivity means more profits for your business.

#5: Your IT Department Has Fewer Headaches

If you don’t have a BYOD policy, your IT department probably spends a lot of time fixing mobile phones and plan issues. With BYOD, employees have to seek help about their phones from their cell phone carriers. This means fewer headaches for your IT department and less wasted time. Of course, your IT department still has to find a way to make sure everyone has good security to protect your business information.

All smartphones today have the basic features businesses need, such as access to the Internet and email alerts. So, there’s no reason a business should have to require all of their employees to use the same device, except for security purposes. Your business can make BYOD recommendations about security, such as requiring all employees to use the RIM platform, but there are also other ways to make sure employees have the proper security on their phones. This includes things like requiring two layers of passwords and encrypting all business information. Security is a major issue for IT departments, but policies can be put in place to protect your business.

#6: Employees Care More for Their Device

Another advantage to BYOD is that employees will take better care of their devices if they are responsible for the costs. Your business won’t have to worry about replacing phones or paying for insurance policies related to gadget use and ownership. This saves money and it also means that your business information will be protected with more care.

According to an ARCchart report, 65% of business owners have already transitioned to a BYOD environment or have a plan to transition in the near future, while only 11% have no plans. There are obvious advantages to BYOD if you can successfully get your employees on board with the idea.

Has your business already made the BYOD transition? Do you have any advice for others that want to follow suit? Leave a comment below.

Author’s Bio: Miles Young is a tech geek, business blogger and all around cool person. Follow him on Twitter @mrmilesyoung.