LESSON #11: Who Should You Listen To?

July 12, 2008 – 10:13 am

I’m glad that you’ve chosen to learn from me, but chances are good that you’ve noticed a lot of voices vying for your attention. There are a lot of so-called experts out there trying to tell you how to build your business.

The question is: WHO should you listen to and who should you trust?

(Watch this video…)

Main points:

1) Learn from real experts, not wannabe’s

2) Look for proof and testimonials (but don’t base your opinion solely on it)

3) Listen to someone you can understand

4) Listen to someone who has failed at times

5) Listen to someone who’s not afraid to tell you what you don’t want to hear

6) Don’t write someone off just because they’re trying to make money off of you (unless they are too manipulative)

7) Trust someone and follow them, but not blindly

8] Learn how to weigh the facts (this is the most important key)

Action steps:

1) Find someone to listen to.

Find someone who has done what you want to do. Someone who is a real expert and not a wannabe. Someone you can trust. That person might be me, or it might be someone else. The important thing is that you find someone you can trust, and then follow them with open eyes and a discerning heart.

We need to cover one final prerequisite before we develop the vision and plan for your online business. It’s sort of a missing piece, and I’ll be revealing it in the next lesson.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.

Have a great day!

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LESSON #10: Online Business Terms Defined

July 10, 2008 – 6:22 pm

You may have noticed that the world of internet marketing has a language of it’s own, full of words that you might not be familiar with.

Since I’m going to be using those words throughout the lessons, it’s important that you have some understanding of what they mean, or at least a resource where you can find accurate definitions.

So today I’m simply going to cover the terms. More specifically, I’m going to cover 247 words that are used in the online business world…

(Watch this video…)

If you listen real carefully you can hear one of my kids crying in the background upstairs for the first half of the video (ah the joys of working at home… don’t worry, their mom was watching them)

Main points:

In the video, I showed the definitons for the following words…

Ad Copy, Ad Tracker, AdSense, AdWords, Affiliate, Affiliate Link, Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Program, Affiliate Program Provider, AIM, Alexa, Anchor text, Applet, Attachment, Arbitrage, Article Marketing, Autoresponder, Avatar, B2B, B2C, Back Button, Back End, Banner ad, Banner exchange, Black Hat SEO, Blog, Bloggers, BMP, Brick and mortar, Branding, Business Plan, Butterfly marketing, Cache, Campaign, Camtasia, ClickBank, Content, Contextual advertising, Conversion Rate, Cookie, Copywriting, Cpanel, CPA, CPC, CPM, Crawler, Cross promotion, CSS, Dedicated hosting/dedicated server, del.icio.us, Digg, Digital delivery product, Direct response, Directory site, Domain Name, Doorway page, Download, Downsell, Double Opt-In, Ebay, E-business, E-book, E-mail, E-mail Marketing Campaigns, Emoticons, EPC, Ezine, FAQ, Fantastico, FFA pages, Firesale, First cookie, Flaming, Flash, Folksonomy, Forums, Forward, Freelancer, Free Reprint Articles, FTP, Fulfillment, Ghost site, GIF, Give Away Rights, Graphic, Guru, Handle, Hardware, Headline, Hits, Home-based business, Hot linking, HTML, Hosting, ICQ, IM, Impression, Inbound link, Incentivization, Infoproduct, Internet, Internet marketing, IRT, ISP, Javascript, JPG, JV, JV Broker, Keyword, Keyword density, Keyword research, Landing Page, Last cookie, Lead, Lead capture page, Left click, Link, Link Bait, Link cloaking, Link exchange, List building, Load time, Log in, Login Name, Mailbot, Master Resale Rights, Membership site, Message Boards, Merchant account, Meta Tags, Minisite, MLM, MSN, Mod, Mouse, MySQL, Navigate, Newbie, Newsletter, Netizen, Niche and Niche marketing, Netiquette, One Time Offer (OTO), Online, offline, Opt-in & Permission-based marketing, Outsource, Page impressions, Password, Payment threshold, PayPal, Payment processor, PDF, Phishing, PHP, Physical product, Plugins, PM, Podcast, Pop in, Pop up, Pop under, Post, PPC advertising, PPL, PPP, Private Label Rights (PLR), PR (page rank), Press Release, Presell, Product launch, Public domain, Publisher, Quarantine, Query, Reciprocal Link, Redirect, Reprint Rights, Resale Rights, Resource box, Right click, RSS, RSS Feeds, Sales Copy, Sales Letter, Script, Search Engines, SEM, SEO, Server, Shared hosting, Signature file, Site/Website, Site builder, Solo Email, Spam, Spam blockers, Spider, Splog, Spyware, Squeeze page, Social bookmarking, Social networking, Software, Source code, SSL, Sub-domain name, Super Affiliate, Tags, Target Market, Telecommute, Teleseminar, Template, Thread, TLD (Top Level Domain), TOS, Traffic, Tracking, Troll, Trojan, Unique visitors (uniques), Upsell, URL, Username/ User ID, USP, Viral, Viral marketing, Virtual Real Estate, Virus, Vlog, WAHM, Web 2.0, Web Designer, Web marketer, Webinar, Webmaster, White Hat SEO, Whois, WIKI, WordPress, www, WYSIWYG, XML, Youtube, Yoyo mode, ZIP file

I’ve also put together a PDF ebook containing the entire dictionary of words listed above, along with their definitions. You may download the ebook for a small fee below…

Click the button below to download the ebook for only $7…

(NOTE: After you pay, you must click the “Return to Eric Holmlund” button to reach the download page.)

Click the button below to download it with Resale Rights for only $17…

(NOTE: After you pay, you must click the “Return to Eric Holmlund” button to reach the download page.)

Action steps:

1) Go through the list of terms, and if there are any you aren’t familiar with, take the time to read the definition.

So now you’ll know what I’m talking about when I say FTP and PHP and PPC.

There’s a lot of so-called experts out there trying to tell you how to build your business. The question is, WHO should you listen to and who should you trust? I’ll be answering that question in the next lesson.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.

Have a great day!

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Update About My Belize Trip

July 10, 2008 – 1:17 am

Special Edition

I’m back from my mission trip to Belize, and I’m happy to report that it was a phenomenal trip.

It was a great experience for myself, my wife and our three kids. We experienced many new things, and learned a lot about the local culture.

Thanks in part to many of you who contributed to our online fundraiser, we were able to donate over $10,000 to the ministry, and I will tell you that it was a huge blessing to them. So thank you for your help.

We were working with Laugh Out Loud Ministries, and it was awesome to see what they are doing in southern Belize.

While there, I helped with the construction of the first building on their property. The jungle is amazing, and it’s a very challenging place to build something.

We experienced some flooding from the massive rains that occurred nightly (it’s rainy season), and learned to sleep through loud thunderstorms while nestled under mosquito nets.

We saw tarantulas, scorpions, and snakes. Our son went down there with a cast on his broken arm, but we had to cut if off early after he swam through some jungle streams and it became rotten

On our final day, we were privileged to eat dinner in the one room home of a native Mayan family, in which the father of nine children was celebrating his 39th birthday. The meal was simple, but you’ve never had corn tortillas like the ones they made.

Here’s a few snapshots:

My wife and I in front of a waterfall.

The building foundation I was working on.

Some Mayan children we became friends with.

I also took a couple hours of video, and I will be making a promotional video for the ministry to use. I’ll post a link to the video when it’s done.

A special thanks goes out to the following sponsors who donated extra during the fundraiser:

Mission Champions:

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, Spiritual Solutions for You
Organics by Design, Organics by Design
Gabriel, beach, air, fishing, sun

Impact Partners:

Carl A. Goodnight, Build web based business
Sherif Elsisi, Affordable webhosting and Wordpress Support
Kevin Koop, Article Marketing Strategies
Paul Counts, Make Money Online

Thanks again for your support and prayers!

I’ll be back to posting more lessons starting tomorrow.

Have a great day!

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Posted in Just For Fun | 100 Comments » | Add Your Comment

LESSON #9: Basic Computer Skills You Need to Have

June 27, 2008 – 8:03 pm

We’ve talked about some things that you need to have in order to start an online business, so now we’re going to talk about some things you need to know.

Like I said back in lesson 3, you DON’T need to be a computer expert to be an internet marketer, but you do need to have some basic skills…

(Watch this video…)

Main points:

What you need to know…

1) Using your computer; turning it on, off, etc.
2) Mouse skills: Left click, right click, double click
3) Using Windows or whatever OS you have
4) Navigating your computer
5) Working with windows: Open, close, minimize, maximize, resize, move
6) Multitasking with multiple programs/windows open
7) Creating folders
8] Changing your folder “view”
9) Naming and renaming files
10) “Dragging and dropping”
11) Copying and moving files/folders
12) Zipping and unzipping files
13) Installing a software program
14) Opening a program
15) Copying and pasting text
16) Editing and saving files/documents
17) Save vs. Save As
18) Using a web browser to navigate the internet
19) “Googling” and other online research
20) Sending and receiving email
21) Opening a PDF file with Adobe reader
22) Using productivity software such as Word and Excel, or OpenOffice

Action steps:

1) Go through this list of skills, and if you don’t know how to do something, learn it.

If you’re truly a self-taught learner, then you can learn it all here on the internet for free, as long as you know how to click on a link and navigate some sites that I’ve provided below:

http://www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/ctla/basic_skills/basic_skills.shtml
http://www.spclc.org/curriculum.html
http://www.ctdlc.org/remediation/ (includes quizzes)
http://www.basiccomputerinformation.ca/
http://www.swfpcug.org/faq/

Alright, so now we’ve covered most of the basics… but when it comes to online business, there’s an entire vocabulary that you’ll need to be familiar with. I’ll cover those online business terms in the next lesson.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.

Have a great day!

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LESSON #8: Things needed to start an online business

June 27, 2008 – 12:04 am

We’ve talked about whether you’re the right kind of person for an online business, and whether it’s the right kind of business for you. So today let’s talk about what resources you need to have if you want to start an internet business.

Is it as simple as having an internet connection and a desire to succeed?

(Watch this video…)

Main points:

(Note: for your convenience, there are links within the list below for things I recommend, some of which are my affiliate links)

What you need…

1) A computer

-Doesn’t need to be the latest and greatest
-Can’t be a total dinosaur
-Recommend Windows XP or newer
-Consider a laptop
-spend $200-$1000 for a desktop, $400-$1500 for a laptop

A few places to shop for a computer:
HP Shopping (where I bought my computer and my laptop)
Buy.com (I’ve bought a lot of stuff there including backup hard drives)
Amazon (A good place to compare prices and look for specials)

2) Internet connection (Broadband recommended). I’ve used Qwest DSL for many years, and they’ve been good. Comcast broadband is faster than DSL now, so I’m considering switching over at some point. If you live in an area not serviced by a major provider, you might want to look into Satellite Broadband.

3) Antivirus program. I use AVG; their website is www.grisoft.com.

4) Email (free options available). For example: http://mail.google.com/mail/signup

5) Zip program (free options available). This is a good freeware: www.7-zip.org

6) Productivity software (free option available). Here’s a good free option: www.openoffice.org

7) Startup capital (highly recommended). I recommend having at least $200 available.

8] Credit card (highly recommended). If you’re afraid you’ll abuse it, you might want to consider a prepaid visa card.

9) Paypal account (highly recommended). You can get a free account at PayPal. If you live in a country that PayPal doesn’t allow, read this article for inspiration.

10) Business checking account (highly recommended). Washington Mutual is one of several banks which offer free checking.

11) Business registration (requirements vary – might be optional).

12) Business Entity such as an LLC (Optional). In general, you can probably start as a sole proprietor, and decide later if you want to form an LLC.

An LLC may help save you from paying self employment taxes. It also can protect your personal assets. Consult with an attorney or tax accountant.

If you want to avoid paying an attorney to help with the paperwork, you can often do it the cheapest directly through your state department. I’ve also found LegalZoom to be a helpful shortcut. I’ve used them to form three LLC’s, one non-profit, and two wills.

13) Accountant (Optional).

14) Lawyer (Optional).

15) Telephone (Optional). If you have broadband, you might want to consider Skype for your phone service.

16) Insurance (Optional).

17) Backup drive (Highly recommended). I added this one after making the video. A decent external hard drive can be purchased for $100 - $400. It’s not so important what kind of drive you get; what’s important is that you use it to backup all the files on your computer on a regular basis. I’ve bought several hard drives (including Maxtor, Lacie, and Western Digital) from Buy.com with good luck.

There are a few other things that you’ll need which will be specifically covered in upcoming lessons, so don’t worry about them for now.

Action steps:

1) Go through the list, and make sure you have everything that is required. For the highly recommended ones, do as best you can to get them. For the optional ones, do some research and decide whether it’s something you need.

As I mentioned back in lesson 3, you don’t need to be a computer expert, but there are some things you’ll need to know. I’ll go through those basic computer skills in the next lesson.

As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.

Have a great day!

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