Finance Tips

Initially you will probably have enough time to perform all the necessary tasks involved in setting up your own home-based business. There is usually quite a learning curve and you will proceed rather cautiously. This can be quite a slow process. However, you eventually get to the stage where your website it up and running, you have posted a number of videos to YouTube, you are interacting on Twitter and Facebook and you might even be writing the occasional article.

As you add additional activities so as to develop leads for your business, you begin to find that there are not enough hours in the day to perform all the functions regularly and efficiently.

For instance, you might wish to write a few articles a week, but find that the amount of time spent in researching your subject and then actually writing those articles is very time consuming.

Maybe this is taking up so much of your time, that you are neglecting posting to your blog or networking on the social sites.

So what is the answer? Obviously, there are only so many hours in a day. The question is, how best to spend that time.

First of all, you would want to examine the effectiveness of what you are already doing. Are your articles bringing in leads and are they getting you great Google placements? If they are, then your time would seem to be well spent on your article writing. On the other hand, if you are spending a huge amount of time writing your articles and they are not getting many viewings, perhaps you should consider outsourcing this portion of your business. Elance.com lists numerous people who provide unique articles for you at a very reasonable cost.

Perhaps you have been working for weeks or even months, on trying to get a website up and running.

You are trying to do your own capture pages but they still don’t look very professional. This is another thing that can very easily be outsourced. This would be a one-time cost unlike the article writing, which would probably be an ongoing expense.

Just think of all the time you might have wasted trying to get a website up and running by yourself. If you had outsourced this, you would have had the website out there working for you for the last number of months. You want your pages to look professional and it is very difficult for a beginner to create and optimize a webpage effectively. Spending your money in this area is definitely money well spent. Ask around for references and check out the work that the designer has done for other people. There are many styles and formats available and you will like some more than others.

Sometimes, we have the mentality that we have to do everything ourselves or we are not genuine. This is very faulty thinking. The majority of successful internet marketers outsource a good portion of their work. The big decision that you have to make is deciding what your strengths and weaknesses are. Once you are clear on this, it becomes relatively easy to decide what you want to outsource. Don’t try to be an expert at everything. It will not work.

The success you are looking for will be achieved much quicker if you outsource those things that you are either not good at or that you take no pleasure in doing. You will wonder why you did not start to outsource long before now!

With the advancement in technology we are connected to the entire world and this has ensured that there is no dearth of work from home jobs. There has been an explosion of websites in recent times and there is a huge demand for people who can work online.

One of the best ways you can work from home is by freelancing. If you are good with the written word, you can try your hand at writing content for websites. You can scour the internet for projects that fit your expertise and can get started. If you have a technical bent of mind there are opportunities for software programmers and the like as well. If designing is your forte you have clients for that as well. All that is required of you is some effort in looking for jobs and searching for clients. Freelancing is a rewarding option for anyone who has some skills and is eager to put those to use to earn some decent money.

Affiliate marketing is another way you can make money. This is perhaps the easiest way to make a lot of money. To get started all that you need is a blog where you can write something to engage the interest of the readers. After reading your content they might want to click on the advertisements that are on your web page and this is when you start to make money. With every click on the ads in your web page you get paid by the parent company, the ads of whose products are displayed in your site. Going forward, if the customer makes a purchase of the product, you will also be able to earn commission. It is thus an easy way to make some good money.

So, you know your organization needs hosted Microsoft SharePoint 2010. What are the next steps?

Which version of hosted SharePoint 2010 is best for your organization? Should it be hosted in a cloud environment? Is a single server adequate?

These are good questions. Once you identify a Microsoft-certified SharePoint hosting company with which to work, a qualified hosting expert can help you make sense of all the considerations involved in determining an optimal SharePoint 2010 architecture. Until then, here are a few guidelines.

Getting Started With SharePoint 2010

The choice of Foundation vs. Standard vs. Enterprise is not based on the size of your installation or even the number of users. Rather, it is based on how SharePoint will be used within your organization. What functionality will the end users require? Which SharePoint features will solve their business problems?

Why isn’t a SharePoint configuration based on the number of users? The number of end users is less meaningful than what they’re doing with the application.

For example, if 100 users all log onto SharePoint and don’t do anything except stare at their home page, there is absolutely no burden placed on the server(s). If the 100 users do only their wiki or blog updates, there is minimal impact on the SharePoint server(s). If the 100 users click and go from one page to another to look at media files, there is also only minimal impact on the server(s). If, however, all 100 users are uploading documents, downloading documents, and searching through documents, then the server(s) may be seriously impacted.

Why focus on functionality and features? SharePoint 2010 has so many cool features that the temptation to turn on all the features is irresistible.

But, bear in mind that the manner in which those SharePoint features are utilized will significantly impact the architecture of your solution. It may mean adding one or more servers, so that’s why it’s important to comprehend fully how SharePoint will be utilized by the end users.

For example, want a daily content crawl for 100,000 documents totaling 90GB? It’s entirely feasible. However, if you have everything residing on a single server, it may take up to 12 hours to complete if you are simultaneously running your system and SQL server backups. An end user attempting to access SharePoint while this crawl/backup process is in progress may find that the system performs poorly, freezing up at times because it cannot readily access its databases. That’s why if you were planning to give your end users all the features and leave it to them to figure out on their own which are best suited to their needs, you should resist that urge now. Ask them for their input and simply plan ahead.

SharePoint Installations: Some Due Diligence Questions to Ask

To get started on configuring a SharePoint 2010 installation, take several first steps:

1) Estimate your SharePoint user numbers. SharePoint 2010 is a database-driven application; everything is managed and presented via the SQL server database. Knowing the number of users is going to drive your storage requirements, which also affects performance. You should also be able to define who they are. Are the end users casual, daily, concurrent or critical? Are they employees? Contractors? Clients?

2) Determine how SharePoint will be utilized by the end users. What specific business problems are you trying to solve for end users within – and even outside of – your organization? What end user expectations are there?

3) Decide what features you need. The required features not only determine the architecture of your solution but they also dictate what version of the server software you should use. For example, if the ability to have (Excel, Access, Visio, etc.) forms and data access displayed directly within a SharePoint Web site is required, then the Enterprise version of the software is required.

4) Ask the right questions. To determine sizing, versions, and hosting environment, here are some initial questions that you must first ask yourself:

Access

How will users log in? Will you be using Active Directory? Will you require Anonymous user access from the Internet?

Content

Is this an Intranet, Extranet or Internet Web site? Documents and files are a big factor in determining storage requirements. How many do you anticipate? What types of content exist (surveys, images/graphics, forms, discussion boards, lists, etc.)? What are the average sizes of your documents/files? Is that static? How often will it change? Weekly? Monthly? Yearly? Will the content be made available to all users or to controlled groups of users? Will any content require user permission assignments or an approval process before users can see it? Do you require a collaboration workspace for end users to work on documents, projects or meetings? Will you require daily content crawls?

Search

Will you be using the Fast Search feature? Are advanced search features needed? Will users be able to narrow their search results via selecting search topics? Do users need to be able to search for content on a specific site? Or, on a server?

Services & Support

What services do end users require? Status reports, online payroll, human resource policies, etc.? What level of interaction will end users require? How often? Short-term or long-term? What are your setup, support and administrative needs? Who will fulfill those on an ongoing basis? Have you designated administrative roles (site manager, security manager, etc.)?

Custom Development

Do you know if you will be using Web parts? Any third party Web parts? Will direct access to MS Office applications/ other applications be required? Do you need custom functionality?

5) Identify a SharePoint hosting provider. Then, review its standard configurations, pricing and service level agreement (SLA). You’re still in due diligence mode. Ask the hosting company to send you their standard configurations for a dedicated server environment as well as their pricing; this will help you to determine which additional features and options might be attractive to your organization. Remember: Underestimating size requirements for the SharePoint environment can lead to problems down the road. For multiple reasons, squeezing everything into one server may not be optimal, so planning ahead is critical. It’s also important to review the company’s SLA. What level of support is promised? Are 100% network availability and uptime guaranteed? Is the company Microsoft certified? Does it have a Microsoft hosting competency? If security is an issue for you, is the SharePoint hosting provider SAS 70 Type II certified?

6) Contact the SharePoint hosting provider for a consultation and proposal quote. A good SharePoint hosting company has likely been hosting Microsoft products for years and can answer a litany of questions. The company’s SharePoint hosting expert will guide you through the process and help you make smart choices.

The names of actual products and companies mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective registered owners.

Everybody wants more views, more comments, higher ratings and more subscribers for their YouTube videos. A really good video will certainly go viral because it’s just so easy to share the video with friends and family. There is social bookmarking, emails, instant chats, where viewers can just cut and paste a text link and send it to everyone in their address book. Then there are blogs, where bloggers can embed some simple HTML code in their blog posts, and the blogger community soon gets to know about your videos. One blogger puts the video on his blog, another one gets to know about the video, and if he likes the video as well, he now wants to post it on his blog for his own readers. That’s how videos get the viral effect.

For sure, this viral effect is good for your business. The more views you get for your videos, it means that the more exposure your videos are getting. But there is a little problem. Your video has to be something that people like, and they like it enough to want to share it with other people. Otherwise, the buzz just dies down and the video just comes to a sizzling death. And that is certainly not the result that you want. After all, you did put in hours to plan for the videos, shoot the videos, edit the videos, and upload it to YouTube and a few of the other immensely popular video sites.

So you want to make sure that you have got a totally killer video that others would like to share with their friends. A sure fire strategy producing killer videos is to make sure that your viewers have some use for the videos that you make. Whether it’s an entertaining video providing comedy, or a useful how-to video, it’s something that your viewers can find some value. Entertainment value is still value, and if your videos are really funny, they have the potential to reach a really wide audience.

Certainly, it helps if you have a strong subscriber base so that whenever you launch a new video, there are people standing by, ready to spread the video around. But what happens when you don’t have a strong subscriber base, and your video is new? If so, your new videos will find it hard to gather the momentum to achieve the viral effect.

If you find yourself in this position, it definitely helps to do some self promotion for your videos. There are many ways to do this. For example, a website recently came up with a new service to increase YouTube video views and ratings. This is the perfect way to build a track record for your videos. Once you have acquired traction, prepare to handle some really serious traffic!

Before long, the viral effect will take over. Bloggers would have posted your videos (for free by the way) all over the Internet, and you can just sit back, relax, and watch the view counter rise and rise!

When you are first starting out on a work from home job, you may not know all the ins and outs of the business. The best thing to do is to look for a work at home, no fee type of job. That way, you will be putting nothing but your own time into a job, so that even if it does fall through, you don’t have to worry about trying to get your money back. Additionally, many people do not have the money to spend on a fee, so they need to find something that requires no start up money.

Many people love to write, and there are many avenues that can be taken in this career direction. One no fee job is starting up your own blog, and then using affiliate marketing to your advantage. Affiliate marketing companies allow you to place an ad of theirs on your website or blog. When you have a visitor to your site, and they click on that link, you make money. The more traffic your blog gets, the more hits you get, the more money you make. While this type of job takes time to build up, after you do so, it can make you a good deal of money. The best part is that there is very little maintenance after you set up the sites.

Revenue sharing sites are another way to make money at a work from home job. When you sign up and contribute to these types of websites, the company places ads near your content, usually alongside of it where it can be seen well. When visitors to this website read your content, they may click on the ads on your page. The company hosting the page makes money, which they then pass on as a percentage to you. This is a work at home job that requires no fee, and one that anyone can start. Again, it can take time to build up a decent income, but it can be a good job for extra cash.

Work at home jobs are a great way to go in today’s tough financial jobs. Find one today and help pad your pocketbook right away!