Hosting With A Personal Touch

I'd been looking for a new hosting account that would allow me to
host my reports and affiliate minisites for over a month.

What I didn't need was a lot of bells and whistles, because from
looking at my site reports, Google likes my static little pages (they
aren't one page sites, most have at least 5 articles on them).

Personally page rank falls short when it comes to profits, when you
are in business you have to know your priorities! Anyway, I found
this one hosting account that works for 'non-technical, can't be
bothered with junk I will never use' me.



With 3000gb transfer rate and the ability to host 6 top-level domain names on one account, it was right up my alley.

Sure, you'll read about reseller accounts and all that but until I
see where it's worth all the hassle for me to manage on my own, I
nixed that idea.

I'm no expert in Cpanel, but I know Cpanel has a site with tutorials
that walked me through getting done what I needed to do. Works for
me!

Of course I made a couple silly mistakes with my domain name, but and this is the important part:

Tech support was in action on my email faster than 24 hours,
which in the Web2.0 - We Hate Newbies world of the internet, is something to be appreciated.

You can also use Paypal (which was a must for me). Another nice option when I could pay because money management is critical to a micro entrepreneur like me.

Arvixe offers: Monthly, every 6 months, by the year or you can pay for 2 years at a time.

The Solo Gazette Is No More - Sorta!

I've been going over this blog again and have decided to eliminate
how it's being done. For the past 3 years or so, I've been
attempting to tell people how to operate a micro business.

From time to time I'd add some resources for you to check, give you a
few 'real world of business ownership' articles to think about and
my hope was that the 95% failure rate would go down by at least one
person.

What happened was it increased by one person - Me! This blog has not earned me a penny and yes, I know it's been because I refused to follow the crowd. It's something about "if you're not the lead dog, you're left looking up someone's ass" that made me decide to not follow everyone else.

That was the wrong way to look at it, I must admit. See, I'm not a joiner, don't want a list of people following me on Twitter
nor do I want to keep giving away information no one cares to know - screw that!

I'm in business to make money in the most ethical and legal way
possible for me, pure and simple. This blog hasn't produced any.
It's been fun to write about BOA's brain dead employees, my absolute
failure with Wordpress and share some of the people who are doing
business the way that follows my idea of
good business.

This blog was supposed to be for those who had never
owned a business and coming from an accountant's view, there were a
whole lot of you out there really screwing up. But you know what I've come to
realize, you like screwing up and complaining about the money you
lost.

Sure Frank Kern, Russell Brunson and Ewen Chia figured this stuff out in their teens and twenties, it took me a bit longer to get it: Out of 100 people who buy something from you, maybe 5 will ever do anything with it.

Ok. Georjina Sinese can either continue to be the Mother Theresa of
the freebie crowd (her ass will starve doing it) or she can Cowboy TFU like everybody else and do it to make money!

Here's how The Solo Gazette will play out from this day forward: Highlight the affiliate programs I promote and keep track of the projects I'm working on.

The projects in motion for this week and my affiliate links (yes, I'm using TinyUrl and if you don't like it take your sorry ass elsewhere):

Email ROI Calculator - Palo Alto Software.

Conversion Rate Calculator - Palo Alto Software.

Pure Play Redirects

Salehoo Wholesale Shippers Guide.

Fat Burning Furnace - Weight Loss Without Pills or Potions

Mini Affiliate Sites To Go Live March 20, 2009

World Wide Brands - Wholesale Dropship Resource

Meal Plans 101 - Easiest Dieter's Meal Planning Software Ever (personal opinion only).

From here on those of you still looking for free information or have nothing better to do, you'll be disappointed.

The worst time wasters are those who aren’t going anywhere and want company ~ Brian Tracy

Who Are Your Blog Readers?

It's been an eventful week and while reading the blogs of people I respect online (and it ain't that many let me assure you!), there was a post Darren has on Problogger that still gives me sleepless nights.

How To Build Community On Your Blog. Have you noticed there are no longer count chicklets on The Solo Gazette? For some odd reason, from 500 readers December 2008 to 8 in January 2009, the thing stopped working.

What does that have to do with you?
Knowing who your visitors are streamlines your ability to give them exactly the information they are looking for. On your blog, it's critical in making your messages relevant to the interests of your readers.

Chicklets, Widgets, Talking Characters are nice little touches but in and of themselves does not sell your products or services. People who come to your site or blog have specific interests in common.

For example, parents of newborns may come to read how to get their baby to sleep through the night but the same information holds no interest for parents dealing with the 'terrible twos'. Yes, both groups are parents but that's where the commonality ends.

Darren recommends 8 strategies for building 'community' with your blog and after reading it I thought how it could effectively cross-over to your website.

• 1. Ask Questions of your visitors. Most people hate those 'unblockable' pop overs, but why not add a short survey like the one from the Ask Database to find out specifically what your visitors are looking for. It's something I'm considering implementing this year to 'pump up' the response on this blog.
  
  
• 2. Invite Questions from Blog Readers. This can work for your blog or your website. Sometimes solo entrepreneurs tend to answer questions that haven't been asked yet, thinking that if it were us we'd ask the same question. Your visitors, customers and readers may not be thinking the same thing.
  
  
• 3. Specialize Them. Are you a member of Linkedin, Merchant Circle, or any number of social networking sites? When they come to your site or blog, make them 'members' instead of simply a part of the 'other surfers' online.
  
  People like to be a part of something exclusively for them, whether it is between posts that only they have access or a special bonus offer only they get notified about in advance.

Take these few tips and the ones from Problogger to help you get more mileage from your business efforts. Often it's the simple things we overlook that make the most impact to our bottom line.

That's it for today and I leave you with this -

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a
depression when you lose yours. ~Harry S. Truman