The Online Resource Page

If you are here for the first time, click here to read the purpose of this blog. If you prefer to listen to this, click the play button below (you may need to turn up your speakers).

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This blog is just getting going. Our main purpose is to provide in PLAIN ENGLISH the resources you need to succeed online. As an example, go to our online marketing glossary. You'll find many of the key terms used in online marketing explained in simple, everyday English.

To succeed in any subject, it's very important to understand the key terms of the subject. And that will be the theme running through this site: provide you with the tools you need in terms you can immediately understand and USE.

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Thank you and enjoy!

Can You Succeed Online in a Tough Economy?

In my humble opinion, succeeding online involves very similar factors to succeeding with an offline business. There are some key things to learn, but so it would be if you started a new offline business. For example, if you were an expert in the shoe business but then decided you wanted to run a restaurant, you'd need to learn the ins and outs of running a restaurant.

But the basics of running a business are going to be the same: promotion and marketing; hiring and improving staff performance; sales and finance, all of the basics of running a business exist for every business.

However, external factors such as a "challenging economy" can cause business owners to take steps that might not be the correct steps for their business.

I've written a number of posts and articles on the economy and its relationship to the business owner. Here is one brief segment:

When the economy is in rough shape, one of the primary considerations of business owners is to “cut back.” Cut back on expenses, cut back on staff, cut back in any way they can.

I’m here to tell you one area you must not cut back on:

Promotion!

The key to doing well when the economy goes sour is to promote like crazy. I’m not telling you to spend every dime on promotion, but you must promote with an even greater intensity than before.

Go back and look at all of the promotional actions you took that were successful. Put back in every one that’s feasible.

Cutting back on promotion is never a good solution. When the economy weakens, it is even more vital that you ignore the impulse to reduce your promotional output.

I believe the same is true for an online business. If the economy sours, it's not time to cut back on promoting, it's time to increase your promotional efforts. The next few posts will discuss some of the tried and true methods of promoting online.

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What's Better: A Blog or a Web Site?

Before I answer this question, I should answer a more basic question that I've been asked a number of times: "What's the difference between a blog and a web site?"

[If you have any uncertainties about what a blog is, I recommend you take a fast look at the definition of blog in the glossary and then return here. The definition also includes a short video.]

A blog is a type of web site. It has a few unique characteristics that that separate it from an "ordinary" web site:

• New information that is put up on a blog usually shows up in the middle of the page and occurs on a time line. The most recent information is near the top.


• Blogs allow people to interact by leaving comments. This means people can easily discuss ideas with the author of the blog AND with other people who are leaving comments.


• Blogs are much more likely to provide links to other locations on the net. There is a fairly strong agreement amongst bloggers to connect their readers up with other valuable information. You very rarely see this on an "ordinary" web site.


• It is much easier (and often much less expensive) to get started with a blog than it is with a web site.

I see a web site as a place to put up a lot of great information: Information about your products, services, your group, whatever you're promoting. And you can always add new information. But many, many web sites are not updated with the frequency that blogs are. Blogs, by their definition, are viewed as an ongoing journal on a particular subject.

This brings to mind another key factor in deciding whether to start a blog or create a web site. The search engines REALLY like "fresh material." And blogs can very easily be updated weekly, daily or as often as you like. I have published information on one of my blogs and within hours it showed up very highly on Google.

If you're looking to get started and you're on a tight budget, I recommend a blog. You can get information out there very quickly without it costing you an arm and a leg. If your not very technically inclined and don't have the funds to get a spiffy web site started, a blog is a great place to start. If you'd like to get a dialog going with people, go with a blog. If you want to share your views with the world (about a subject, person, cause, etc.), once again a blog is a great choice.

[The next post will provide info on how to get started with a blog.]

On the other hand, If you've got a very large number of products to sell and you're looking to create an "online catalog," I'd recommend you get a web site up and running. If you want to get a LOT of information out there right away, I'd also recommend putting this on a web site. But I would also strongly recommend you get a blog going as well. Your blog can promote your web site and vice versa. More on this in future posts.

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How Do You Define "Success" Online?

There are hundreds of millions of web sites, with that number growing every minute! People have different purposes for having a presence online. Here are the main ones I am aware of:

1. To run a business (either a new one or an existing one)


2. To promote an individual, group or cause


3. To create or improve a reputation


4. To get things off their chest

Not everyone comes online to produce an income. Some just want to communicate their views on a particular subject. And to them, success is not measured by how many sales occurred that day. It may be measured by that one person who said he was profoundly affected by what he read.

There are many sites that promote a particular individual, group or cause. Many music groups and celebrities have their own official web sites, and many of their fans set up unofficial sites. Thousands of charities and non-profit organizations have a presence online. The number of daily visitors would be one measure success for these sites.

Then we have sites that exist to create, improve or in some cases salvage a reputation. Once again, measuring success may not be an exact science, but when hundreds or even thousands of people come to their site daily and many leave positive messages, this would be a good indication of success.

And of course many people are online to produce an income. For some, any extra income is a bonus. For others, they would like this income to be sufficient to quit their "day job" and ideally make a great living.

Therefore success is measured differently depending on your purpose for being online. However, success to a very large degree will depend on your ability to bring a growing number of people to your site, and it will depend on how your site is presented so that people will want to stay AND return for more.

This blog will bring you resources in plain English to help you achieve both.

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The Online Marketing Glossary

I mentioned the glossary in the last post, but I'd like to say a few more things here.

I have been to many glossaries on the net. While reading the definition of a particular word, there's often another word in the definition that I don't understand. So I go off to try to define that word. More times than not, the word you try to define in various online glossaries give you new words to figure out!

So I decided to put together an online marketing glossary that (hopefully) does NOT give you more and more words to define when you simply want a clear understanding of one word.

I'd even recommend just reading through the glossary. You may find words you had some trouble with before that are now very easily explained. You'll also see that a number of the terms have short videos that REALLY help to explain these important concepts. Even if you know all of the terms, it may serve to increase your certainty on them.

For example, you'll notice three terms at the bottom of this article: permalink, comment and trackback. These three terms show up on millions of web pages. Each one has a easy-to-understand definition in the glossary here.

If there are any terms you'd like to see added or you have any questions or comments about the glossary itself, be sure to contact me via email or by leaving a comment below this post.

The glossary will be updated regularly in an effort to stay current with a rapidly-changing Internet!  A wise man once said, "Knowledge is Power" and I believe knowing the key words of a subject is a major step in that direction.

I am thinking about making this glossary available as a file that you can download and read on your computer. Let me know your thoughts on that.

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The Importance of PLAIN ENGLISH

My first post gives the purpose of this blog. If you don't mind, I'd like to state the purpose again, but this time in 20 words or less:

I want to provide you with a TON of resources in PLAIN ENGLISH so that you can succeed online.

This point about PLAIN ENGLISH is very important. If you run into a word or phrase that has to do with online marketing and you don't instantly and fully understand that word or phrase, then you are simply LESS able to apply yourself in that area.

So a major thrust of this blog will be ensuring that you understand everything that you see here. Have you run into some terms on the net that you didn't fully understand? Check out our online marketing glossary, where you will find very simple explanations of these terms.

I believe if you know the key terms of how to do something, you are more able to DO that thing. So when I provide you a tool to help you market your products and services online, I'll be doing so in plain English. I want you to get your wits around something right away and leave here more able to apply it to your scene.

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Purpose of This Blog

Hello and thank you for coming.

There are many blogs and web sites offering advice on how to succeed on the net. Why should you hang around here? It's a question I ask myself whenever I visit a new site. So let me do my best to answer this for you.

First of all, if you're on the net looking for the "get rich quick" scheme or formula, I don't have that here. I have chosen to market on the net in the same way that I have done in the offline world. Therefore, a brief bit of background: