Photo by d70focus.

This is a guest post from Josh Garner, a practicing SEO professional. He’ll be sharing some of the things small business owners and the self-employed should be wary of when looking to hire an SEO.

As a Search Engine Optimizer (SEO), my job is to make use of a number of methods in order to help a site rank higher in the search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.).

I’ll save you some of the boring parts, but SEO is a pretty important aspect of any serious business venture with an online component. However, my business is also a pretty strange one. It requires a lot of experience, research, and patience to effectively get a website to rank highly. Because of this, a lot of what I do is still a mystery, even to clients I’ve had for over a year.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of “SEOs” out there taking advantage of the unknowing site owner, leaving a bad taste in their mouth about what SEO is and how it can help. With this post, I would like to give you a few signs that someone is trying to rip you off. These are seven signs of SEO scams.

Continue reading »

Photo by ~ My aim is true ~.

This is a guest post from Joshua Clanton, a freelance web designer who blogs about web design, creativity, and productivity.

Do you remember a few years ago when social commentators were talking about how the western world was quickly becoming a post-literate society? Though it may be a bit premature to say what will happen in the future, with the rise of blogging and the ubiquity of email, it seems that the death of writing has been greatly exaggerated. And for those who work online, writing is even more crucial than it is for brick and mortar businesses, since it often replaces face to face interaction.

Continue reading »

Photo by Rashuli.

The entrepreneurial promise of the web rarely lies in one big, undiscovered secret, which, when discovered, will re-invent your income and set you up for life. Instead, it’s located in the plethora of modest opportunities available — and your ability to combine them into a larger whole.

If I tried to make a living with the revenue generated by Anywired alone, I’d be eeking out an existence on around $125 a week. It’s only because I’ve tapped into four addition sources of income (editing Freelance Switch, freelancing, blog consulting and selling on eBay) that I’m able to earn a modest full-time income online while working significantly less than full-time hours.

One of the primary mistakes I see made by those hoping to earn a living online is that they focus all their efforts into one source of income, only to find that it yields modest results — results that are certainly not enough to live on. They assume this is because they’re doing something wrong, when in fact, most online income generation methods are very deliberately designed to yield modest results. The companies behind them want to get a lot of value for little pay-out. In other cases, results are suppressed because they have to be shared between a thousand other entrepreneurs trying to make money in the same way.

I’d suggest you reconsider pouring hours of work into making a single income stream perform better. Instead, think about how you could diversify and combine multiple income streams into an income river.

Continue reading »

Photo by Danilo Paissan.

They are: the perfectionist, the ‘done is good enough’, the devil on your shoulder, the workhorse, the innovator, the technophile, the guilt-tripper, the workaholic, the scheduler and the friend.

Which inner-boss are you working for?

This post will identify 10 breeds, as well as explaining how you can make the best of them.

Continue reading »

Photo by Angela7dreams.

This is a guest-post by Gary Arndt.

In March of 2007 I sold my home of eight years, put my possessions in storage and set out to explore the world. Since then I’ve visited 34 countries and territories and have been able to update my blog on an almost daily basis. My goal was to see as much of the world as I could. Blogging was secondary. I had been running a personal website since 1998, before they were called blogs, so keeping a journal of my adventures was natural.

Blogging from the road isn’t easy, especially if you want to take it seriously. In many places finding internet access is difficult if not impossible. Internet cafes vary dramatically in quality and there is no guarantee you’ll be able to use a USB drive. Here are some of the things I’ve learned from blogging which can help you lead your technomadic life.

Continue reading »

Darren Rowse (www.problogger.net) and Chris Garrett (www.chrisg.com) have written a book together, and it looks to be the most definitive resource yet on how to earn an income through blogging.

Best of all, it’s a real, paper book you can hold in your hand, packed with 240 pages of information. eBooks are nice and all, but nothing beats the real thing. At around $16 last time I checked, it’s certainly a business expense you can justify.

The book is ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.

Photo by Todd Baker.

You don’t have to answer to a boss.

You can work the hours you want.

You can work from where you want.

You can choose your own clients and ventures.

You can do things your way.

With those things in mind, it’s no wonder that being self-employed is often seen as something worth envying. When I tell people what I do for a living, it’s surprising how often I get the response: “Wow — how can I do that?”

Most of those who’re envious of my workstyle earn quite a bit more than me — so it’s obviously not about the money!

In truth, I think it all comes down to one thing: the assumption that being self-employed must equal a stress-free lifestyle.

I think the root of this idea is that the toughest aspect of work is answering to others. Once you remove that from the equation, it seems logical that stress would leave with it.

This is not quite true. There are a million ways to earn a living through self-employment, but you will always have to answer to at least one person: you.

How would you grade your inner-boss?

Continue reading »