MOMETEK's Guide: Business

Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Making a Website for Profit. Part Three

George dollar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

There's yet another blog site. Not that I recommend going away from blogger, but this might be best for those who don't want the bells and whistles that blogger provides. The same bells and whistles that could distract you from getting your thoughts onto the screen.

It's called Medium and it was created (surprise) by the original founder of blogger. It's also one of the apps that you can put on to you strikingly website.

The app allows you to either put your own profile on there, which will post your own unique content. Or, if you are not that creative, you can create your own category, and add your favorite story, or if you are lazy, you can just add a random category.

At the time of this writing, I don't have any content or categories of my own, but I did find a category called "Matter". Matter had a few interesting tech articles, so I figured that was the best choice.

Call me lazy, but really, I'm just impatient.

Okay, I was distracted. I wanted to get this article out sooner, but spent most of the time reading articles that had nothing to do with this post. This brings me to my warning: The articles are written by very talented people and if you are not careful, you will not be able to get anything done.

Anyway, Medium is fully integrated with Strikingly making it easier to get content onto your page. Getting fresh content onto your page will draw potential customers.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

The 80/20 Principle and how it applies to You

There's a book you should check out: The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less. This goes into detail on how in life we only use 20% of what we have 80% of the time.Well, it's not exactly 20% and 80%. Sometime it's more extreme: 90% of the world's wealth is held by 1% of the population and some people only use 1% of the English language (consisting of four letter words every other syllable) 90% of the time to name a few.

To relate this to the home (keep in mind that the percentages will vary):

You probably use only 20% of your wardrobe, 80% of the time
You use 20% of your kitchen Gadgets 80% of the time
You use most likely 20% of your software 80% of the time

Chances are, only 20% of your time benefits you. If you are trying to start a business, it's likely only 20% of what you do is actually useful. The rest is busy work or, what I like to call "stalling work". Something I have a nasty habit of doing. I'm still trying to break that habit.

If you are looking to streamline your life, the best place to start is reading this book, then applying the principles accordingly. If you can remember to do so, ask if what you are doing really does help you. Go through your stuff, and try to remember the last time you used it. It's likely you only used it a few times soon after you bought it, then stuff it into a drawer/closet to be forgotten about.

It might be an opportunity to make some extra cash. Check out Ebay or Craigslist to sell those unused items.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Using CafePress

I've opened a CafePress shop. I've tried them in the past and until I started to add things to my store, I had forgotten why I stopped.

CafePress is a bit expensive for just promotional products, especially when a lot of this is given away by companies for free. Just look at this clasp wallet. Believe me, there's not much markup here. The Beach bag isn't too bad, but still, we got a similar thing from PEPSICO when Mike got his job... For free... AND it's well made.

I'm probably better off spending $100 up front and buying a case of promotional items from Athens Screen printing (a local business), then sell it. If you can buy the case, the profit margins are much larger.

I don't have $100.

I guess I'll have to get my creative on and work on some images. Or, I'll just hire my girls and have them come up with something. The only way I can justify some of the prices is to have killer artwork.

The good news is that CafePress has changed their pricing structure. I can now have more than one item sporting different "masterpieces". That's good, since I do have some ideas for the Journals (not available yet).

CafePress Shop: http://www.cafepress.com/MOMETEK

I still have a lot to with the design of the shop. At the time of this post, I just have the standard template up. In a few days, it should look more like this blog.

Friday, March 7, 2014

MOMĒTEK's Guide Google+ Page

I'm working on separating MOMĒTEK's Guide from Nancie's Web as I'm trying to keep "Nancie's Web" as a family site. Even then, I plan on eventually phasing that out to "This (not so) Boring Life". So here it is:

www.google.com/+MometekBlogspotdotcom

I'll be adding more gadget reviews, awesome links, and products that make your life more streamlined. After all, in this modern world, being inefficient is not a good idea.

I've also added a community for mothers who want to share their own tech posts, ideas, and ways they have made their life more "streamlined" so that they can spend more time with their family.

If you are interested: https://plus.google.com/communities/109608549399198474562

The community is geared towards mothers who want to use tech to make their lives easier -so that they can spend more time with their family. However, anyone can join.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Free Stuff: Evernote

Image via CrunchBase
Possibly one of the most useful free program you will ever find. Considering that I've tried many, MANY different programs, that's saying a lot. You can check it out here at http://www.evernote.com

Now, suppose you see some really interesting page on the web that you are absolutely sure that you are going to use in the future. Of course, we all know that it will just get buried in your bookmarks and you will probably never use it again. If you do, you end up just searching for it because you can't seem to find it. Worse, if you do find it, the page is gone.

Enter Evernote Web Clipper. You sign up for an account (important if you have more than one device/computer) then install the software on your computer and whatever device you own. Then when you come across the site you want the notes from, you simply highlight the text you want to save, right click on the highlighted text (or click on the icon in the toolbar), and add it to Evernote. Now it's available to all of your devices and computers. Add your tags to the note to make it even more easy to search.

One feature that I found the best was the text recognition in photos. Take a photo with your smartphone and the text in the photo becomes searchable. I have been using my Blackberry Curve to take photos of posters and text since it's much faster than typing it.

This is a great tool for everyone, including stay-at-home moms who have a lot going on.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Online Bible Study

So, you are trying to come up with a sermon, or maybe you want to do some personal research on specific spiritual topics. You could spend hours, or even days searching and reading the Bible to find the answer you want - or you can use these two great sites:

Biblegateway.com
youversion.com

Both have searchable Bibles in just about every translation available, both have reading plans, and both allow you to use your smartphone to read and search the text.

There are differences.

Biblegateway has a more intuitive search engine and a better list of resources available.
YouVersion has a better mobile app (one that I use on my blackberry) and is also community based. You can also have a journal entry so that you can keep your notes in the same place, and if you have an insight you want to share, you can contribute it to the community.

I've used Biblegateway when I'm discussing scripture with others in forums and Facebook, but I use YouVersion for my personal devotions. Both sites are a great tool to help one grow spiritually.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Printing Business Cards

I'm just starting out, so printing business cards can be a bit pricey when you are starting out at $0. So I dug around and found the leftover business card sheets that my husband had used for his business. Then I found and downloaded a template for Open Office. It took me all of 15 minutes with absolutely no problems.

God MUST want me to continue with this, then. I don't think I've ever had a time where I printed business cards out that I didn't have problems, everything from software bugs to the printer running out of ink in mid-print. Then after working around the software bugs and refilling the printer, there's a printer jam on my last sheet. By then it's one o'clock in the morning and I pretty much give up on that idea.

My next step is to convince my husband to loan me some money to pay for it to be done professionally through Mitchell's. They did a pretty good job with my husband's cards and it was cheaper and less hassle than printing them.