I have been in the e-Commerce business for many years now.  I first started doing business on the Internet in the early 1990′s, and there were few doing e-commerce when I got started.  Mostly, I am a merchant, selling items over the Internet.  From time to time, though, it is good for a merchant like me to shop online so that I can see how other e-commerce business operate, experience their checkout experience, etc.  It’s a good learning experience. I do actually purchase on the Internet on a fairly regular basis, from companies like Amazon and other large Internet retailers.  I also purchase things on eBay on a fairly … [Read more...]

There has been a debate for years now in the business of blogging, writing and publishing of content on the Internet.  For those of us who write content on the web as our business, we need to maximize the amount of money we earn from each article or blog post that we write. What is the debate? Who do you write for? Do you write for Google, or do you write for human readers? What do I mean? Writing for Google Those who write for Google are very big on researching everything before they write at all. What topics does Google like, and pay a premium for? What keywords should I feature in my article, and especially in the title, to capitalize on … [Read more...]

Not long ago, back at the end of March, I wrote an article in which I talked about my recent Web Hosting Experience.  To make a long story short, I had been hosting with HostGator, and had some issues with their hosting, and thus I decided to return to my old hosting company, Servint. To be honest, ServInt really offered me bulletproof hosting the entire time that I was with them.  My reasons for leaving were kind of stupid, in retrospect.  I left because: HostGator was cheaper I felt I didn’t have the technical skills necessary to manage a server at ServInt Servint T-Shirt Really, these reasons were not good reasons to leave a … [Read more...]

What is monotony?  Well, the dictionary definition of monotony is: Lack of variety and interest; tedious repetition and routine. I am a strong believer in having a routine.  I like having a regular set of things that I do daily, weekly, or on some regular schedule.  This is true in my personal life and also my business life.  Today, I am primarily talking about my business life, though, since the subject matter of this site is about business, money making and such. The problem with having a firm routine is that it can become monotonous.  So, the question becomes, how do you combat monotony? Monotony If I get into a period in life where I … [Read more...]

Recently, I launched a new selection of products.  This time, my new product line is a selection of language learning courses.  Right now, I am offering courses in just two different languages, but I have plans to add several other languages as well. The product launch went over very well, with many sales.  I was quite happy with how that went.  It made me realize that I had been missing the boat on these courses, as I had been procrastinating on launching the products for at least a year.  I should have done it earlier. Today, though, I got a bit of a surprise.  Somebody named BobW left a comment on my site, saying this: Hi, Bob. I was … [Read more...]

Over my years of writing on the topic of making money, both online and offline, I have written on the principal of producing multiple streams of income.  That is a theme that I have written on numerous times, and it is a theme that I live my life by. What do I mean by “multiple streams of income?”  Well, it is fairly self explanatory.  What I mean is that it is a wise strategy to grow a number of different business ventures to the point where they make an income for you, even if it is only a small income.  Let’s say that you grow 6 or 8 different businesses into such small streams that produce income.  Perhaps none of … [Read more...]

In the past couple of days, it’s been in the news about lawsuits filed by the United States Department of Justice against Apple and a number of US publishing companies.  The case is related to alleged collusion among these companies to raise and fix the prices of electronic books, or eBooks.  In all of this, it seems that Amazon.com is the hero and Apple and a number of publishers are the villains. But, is that really the case?  Let’s look at what is going on here. Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos You see, over the years, since eBooks came into existence, the writer of the book, or the publisher has set the price of the eBook.  Several … [Read more...]

A few days back I wrote an article about how to earn money blogging.  Basically, my conclusion was to write on a topic for which you have a passion.  Write about what you are interested in.  Your passion for the topic will shine through to your readers, and that passion will make you very successful with your site.  That, my friends, is how you earn money.  Or that is my opinion, anyway. Oh, I can hear a certain subset of readers of this site saying to me: But, Bob, I am not passionate about anything really, at least nothing that would make for an interesting blog. Well, my first reaction to that is that there is no topic, in my view, … [Read more...]

I hear from so many people who sincerely want to make money online.  Their whole purpose of wanting a website is to make money.  I have even heard from people who put up a website on a topic that they hate, that has burned them out, etc, just for the purpose of making money. I am sorry, my friends, but the number one thing is that you need to do a website about something that you are passionate about.  Choose a topic that you love, and one on which you have expertise.  With that combination, you will make money. But, even if you choose a topic which has the right nix of passion and expertise, you still need to run the site for a while, … [Read more...]

If you want to make money from your website, one thing is for sure, you have to mind your website.  You have to keep it healthy, fresh and welcoming.  If you ignore these things, you are sure to lose readers and your website popularity will surely suffer. Google has a program where they monitor websites.  If you have a virus or some kind of malware on your site, when your site shows up in Google search results, there will be a big warning there that “This site may harm your computer.”  Additionally, if you decide to go to the site anyway, when you click on the link to go to the site, a warning screen pops up to make sure you … [Read more...]