Wednesday, September 28, 2011

New Photo Gifts

I recently added another section to my online store of photo gifts using pictures I’ve taken in various places. Since Café Press has a ton of new products it was especially fun to see how the photos looked on all the new items.

Check it out Here



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Monday, September 26, 2011

Stock Photography Resource

Stock Photography Resource

Below is a list of site where you can get web art and photos for your sites. Enjoy!

http://www.istockphoto.com/

http://www.freefoto.com/index.jsp

http://www.gettyimages.com/Creative/Frontdoor/theimagebank

http://photo.net/

http://www.webshots.com/homepage.html

http://www.gograph.com/

http://www.freestockphotos.com/

http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

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Thursday, February 03, 2011

Ten Things That Make A Successful Entrepreneur

This is a very good article by Theodora Cochrane

Some people say entrepreneurs are born, not made. That’s only partly true. Some people seem to be entrepreneurs from birth. Sometimes the entrepreneurial gene doesn’t kick in until later in life.

Whenever it happens there are ten golden rules any prospective entrepreneur should obey. So get a sheet of paper and let’s get to work. Fill in your qualifications under each heading and see if there are areas that need working on.

1. Motivation. You must be clear about what you want and why you want it. For example, it isn’t enough to say ‘I want to make a lot of money’. What do you want it for? How much do you want? How soon do you want it? How determined to get it are you?

2. Control. You must be prepared to take control of your life. You
decide when you work. You decide where you work. (Work at home, or in the car, or on the beach, etc.) You decide how many hours, days, weeks you work. You decide how much money you make.

3. Prepared to take risks. The life of the entrepreneur is not risk
free. Things can go wrong – BUT – nothing ventured, nothing gained. Learn when to quit and change direction and when to hang in there and weather the storm. If one path isn’t the right one you can always take another. The secret is to keep your eyes open for new opportunities.

4. Resilient. This is very much linked to the previous point. I want
you to think of a tall tree in a high wind. It might thrash about and bend a bit in the gale but only rarely does it break. Why do tall buildings like the Empire State building have a built in factor that allows it to sway in the wind? Both these things can survive intact because they are resilient. They can react to the surrounding conditions and more or less escape serious damage. If they were absolutely rigid they would break under the pressure. The entrepreneur has to be flexible to deal with changes in the marketplace.

5. Enjoy a challenge. Being an entrepreneur is a challenge. It has no place for the ‘what ifs’. (What if it all goes wrong? What if I don’t make any money? What if I’m a failure? What if the sky falls on my head?’) If you’re a ‘what if’ forget about being an entrepreneur and get yourself a nice steady job.

6. Prepared to take the plunge. It’s like standing at the edge of the swimming pool when you can’t swim. Until you take the plunge you will never learn. But every time you do it you become more skilful and the easier it gets. Keep at it and before long you will be diving in from the highest board and coming up smiling.

7. Mix with the right people. There are always people prepared to put you down. Unfortunately these are often family or friends. This isn’t done out of malice, it’s more from a subconscious fear that somehow they’ll be ‘losing’ you – that you are moving onto a different plane. As far as you can you should keep company with fellow entrepreneurs. Take your family and friends with you if you can but never neglect to have regular contact with positive thinkers or you will be dragged back into the daily drudge. Once you’ve shown that you haven’t evolved into some sort of snooty conceited bighead your family and friends might admit that they were wrong!

8. Open to new ideas. Entrepreneurs never consider that they have
reached the highest peak. As soon as they have reached the top of one project mountain they will look for another one to climb. It’s exactly the same adrenalin surge that keeps mountaineers trying for ever more difficult ways of climbing Everest. Others might follow but the prize is to the people who got there first.

9. Willing to learn from others. Be prepared to learn about the skills you will need from other successful entrepreneurs. Attend some of the
bootcamps that are organised. There is one caveat here – don’t become a bootcamp junkie! There are some would-be entrepreneurs who go from one bootcamp to another but never take the plunge and try to put what they have learnt into practice. In other words they keep going to the swimming pool but never actually get into the water.

10. Not content with one success. The true entrepreneur never stops.
Success isn’t the be-all and end-all. As I said before, when he/she has reached the top of one mountain they look for the next one to climb. It’s enervating, it’s fun – and the view from the top is fantastic.

Here’s to your success!

About the Author:
Visit http://www.darkhorsereserch.com or http://www.percydale.com for
more info.

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

What's most important when starting a new business?

I love to read forums. Most of the people offer really good and thoughtful advice. The following was in response to the question, what's most important when starting a new business?

Network, Network, and Network Some More
When I started my own firm, an old hand told me that initially (because of no or few customers) there would be a good deal of down time and that time should be used to meet others and network. Later, he said, there would be no time. I wish I had listened. Join the clubs, meet your colleagues, offer free seminars at libraries, join a networking group, take on a teaching job about your profession, offer to write an article for the local paper, join a sports club, go next door and meet your neighbor, and network all of the time! Always have a flyer, card or brochure handy. Have a good contact application on your mobile phone and plug in everyone you meet and what you discussed -- build a contact database. Ask customers for referrals. If you sell widgets, figure out where the widget buyers hang out and get there. One young business woman I know had a neat little tool for needlepoint she sold at her craft store. By word of mouth at her PTA it came to the attention of a big buyer. Network!

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Sherpa Marketing

I wanted to share a site that has been extremely useful to me in marketing online.

Founded in January of 2002, Sherpa Marketing, Inc. is a consulting firm that provides useful news, case studies, and best practices data about internet and integrated marketing.

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/

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Monday, February 08, 2010

Top 11 Free Photo Editors for Windows

Susan Chastain over at About.com has a great list for those needing free photos for their sites. Check it out Here

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Friday, January 08, 2010

Identify your competitors

You may know some of your competitors, but remember; you are working online. There are most likely lots! And they come and go all the time.

Often a company in an adjacent area will change its positioning to try and address your market, or a new startup may emerge in a related area. You need to create a master list of your key competitors and make sure you keep this up to date.

To do this, Google the terms which describe your industry, your products and services. You can also use a little known feature in Google. In the search box, type in "related:www.yourcompanyname.com" and Google will display a list of companies that it considers related to yours. Look for new companies that show up and see if any of these pose a threat.

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