support to Internet Business Owner

Web developer / support to Internet Business Owner Success Story > Web developer / support to Internet Business Owner “I wanted freedom from the 9â€"5, to be able to live in exotic locations while still working.” * Web developer / support to Internet Business Owner Find out how from the Working Nomad! What was your role in your old job? Manage corporate websites What is/are your new role(s)? Publishing my own websites and travel writing Why did you change? Wanted freedom from 9-5 and to be able to live in exotic locations while still working. I long had a dream of sitting by a beach with a laptop and a cocktail! Are you happy with the change? Very. I am so glad I took that first small step and I thank my ex-employer for making me redundant! What do you miss and what don't you miss? I miss interaction with people, thats about it really. I used to miss the money but I earn more now than I did working in the corporate World. I don't miss commuting, having to give up so much of my life to work, living for the weekend and four week holidays. How did you go about making the change? I started a website www.workingnomad.com as a hobby and when I started making a modest sum, around £500 a month I decided to leave the UK and live in cheaper places such as Southeast Asia where the money goes a lot further. I never severed my links with the UK and have always based the business here, even when I am overseas. What was the most difficult thing about changing? Motivation to work for yourself, particularly as the amount of work I do does not always mean more or less money. What help did you get? One website helped me, webmasterworld.com, but on the site you have hundreds of experts happy to help. What have you learnt in the process? That alternative lifestyles can be as lucrative as working for big companies. What do you wish you'd done differently? Maybe started a year or two early. Can't think of anything else! What would you advise others to do in the same situation? I think internet based businesses are great because they are suitable for pretty much anyone. Very good for people that are house bound or those who have wanderlust and want to travel the world. My advice is to look for a small niche area that you can become an expert at and follow your dreams. Life is too short to be stuck in an office. What lessons could you take from the story to use in your own career change? Let us know in the comments below.

8 Tips for Building a Better Website for Your #SideHustle

8 Tips for Building a Better Website for Your #SideHustle Just because you have a full-time career doesn’t mean you can’t follow your passion. Having a side gig is an excellent way to bring in a little extra cash, or to work toward being able to go out on your own at some point in time. If you’d like your side gig to grow or need to attract customers in the first place, old fashioned methods like word-of-mouth are a great starting point. However, they can only go so far. To turn it into a true success, you need a solid website. Check out the tips below for building a better website for your #sidehustle. Start With a Logo What you do on the side is still a business. For others to trust it, legitimacy is critical. One way to help build this trust is to take the time to create an actual brand; it all starts with a logo. Think about the colors you’d like to use to promote your brand and consider including your full company name in the logo. Because this is what customers will eventually associate with you, make it something that will last. If you’re unsure of where to start, or don’t have an artist’s vision, consider using an online logo builder or working with a designer. Because your entire site will be built around your logo, along with any promotional materials, this is not an area to neglect. Clarify What You Have to Offer Sometimes side businesses start out a little messy. Because you’re hoping to attract customers, you may offer a variety of services or products without narrowing them down to a specific niche. While this is a normal step of starting a business, it also sets you up for confusion down the road. As it relates to building your website, make what you have to offer clear. Create a services page along with a mission and vision page that is concise and to the point. Consider using a list format and including pricing. The more questions you can take care of with your website, the fewer awkward situations down the road. Assume Nothing: Build Each Page as a Landing Page In the past, it was customary for websites to start with a home page. From there, visitors could peruse the site to find the information they were looking for, eventually landing on a contact or purchase page. Unfortunately, that is now a good way to lose attention and potential conversions. Because of the rise in SEO and search engine marketing in general, visitors may not always find your landing page first, especially if your content marketing scheme is going according to plan. By building each page as a landing page, you provide the crucial information on each page â€" what your side gig is about, how to get in touch and so on. Manpacks does a great job of this by working from a single landing page and keeping the other information to a minimum. There’s still room for multiple pages that go into depth on each topic if needed, but it catches up each visitor no matter where they’re coming from or landing. Focus on Navigation Structure holds your website together. This means that a clear and easy-to-follow navigation menu is critical for success. To simplify your navigation, as demonstrated by The Idealists â€" a project management site that connects brands with those who can fulfill their creative needs â€" consider: Keeping the overall number of pages to a minimum Using a top navigation bar that is fixed on each page Using submenus under each category, instead of cluttering up the main navigation Using clear titles for each page â€" trendy is great, but it could confuse visitors Keep Colors Simple Your colors should compliment your website, not distract from it.  To use color effectively, think about the purpose of your website; chances are, you want to build trust while establishing credibility. To do this, consider doing research on the psychology of various colors, aligning a color scheme with your purpose and moving forward. In many cases, natural colors that blend with nature are a great starting point; however, there are exceptions. Think about what’s best for your brand and go from there. Don’t Underestimate the Importance of a Call to Action To you, the action you want your website visitors to take it obvious. Whether it’s to make a purchase, to contact you or to set up an appointment online, you have an idea of what happens after they’ve found what they’re looking for on your site. To your visitors, it might not be so clear. This is why a compelling call to action is critical. On each page, take the time to clarify what the desired action is: “Contact me today to get started,” “Don’t miss out! Use your email address to sign up for ABC’s mailing list,” “Fill in this form to receive information about upcoming promotions.” Make these actions easy to see by listing them centrally like on United Yacht’s design award-winning site, or put them in a different color so they consistently draw attention. Then, make it easy for visitors to follow through; a lead form is an excellent way to accomplish this. Integrate Social Media Social media is a tricky situation as far as your website is concerned. You want visitors to find your social media sites and to follow you for regular updates. However, once a visitor lands on your website, the last thing you want to do is pull them away after you put the time into getting them there in the first place. Consider incorporating social media links into the bottom navigation of your site. These links are still important; in fact, 83 percent of business owners consider Facebook crucial to their success. However, by linking in a noncentral area, the pages are easy to access, without becoming a distraction. Your social media efforts should compliment your site and drive traffic back, so the links are important to include. Make It Responsive Responsive Web design â€" or Web designs that work on any device â€" are more critical than ever; 94 percent of people with smartphones search for information on those devices. Because 64 percent of American adults own smartphones, this figure is significant. Take the time to learn about responsive Web design, to use appropriate images and to modify your existing website to display and load appropriately on all devices for best results. Need inspiration? Check out this compilation of the best responsive Web designs of 2014. There’s no reason your side gig can’t become your career. Focus in on the tips above to get started on your website and keep dreaming big.

Finding Inspiration and Being Remarkable - Thinking the Seth Godin Way

Finding Inspiration and Being Remarkable - Thinking the Seth Godin Way Like a lot of business people, I enjoy reading business books. I read on all kind of topics, but find myself regularly coming back to the writers who really fire my imagination. If you’ve been on any of my workshops you will know that I often quote from my two favourites: Tom Peters and Seth Godin. Tom I enjoy, but Seth inspires me. Seth’s words help me to look at what I am doing and how I focus on my business and my marketplace. Seth and I have never met, but if he likes it or not, Seth is a mentor to me. He mentors me in a very specific and cool way. I read his words, or listen to one of his books on audiobook, and I start to see the obvious. Of course, things are only obvious once they are pointed out to us. We all need this kind of inspiration in our working lives. We need to find the work or words of others to help us broaden our minds. If we don’t have that inspirational role model, we are stuck with only our own thoughts and ideas. Yes, of course, this is obvious. But only obvious once you see it. The beauty of the e-world we live in is that we don’t have to wait for an author to publish a new book, we can subscribe to their blog feed, follow them on Twitter or Google+, or like them on Facebook. We can often even watch them on YouTube. We can take bite-sized chunks of their thoughts and use these to help us think about our own businesses. Seth talks a lot about being remarkable. Being different and standing out, finding your ‘purple cow’. Being a leader. Getting to that point, however, requires us to think about what we want to achieve, how we want to be known and how do we get there. It requires us to take time away from our desks, open our minds to the endless possibilities around us and formulate a process, a direction, a goal to chase. In its simplest form, a business plan. Most of us will have planned our startup, our next 12 months, our new division. But the constant appraisal and re-appraisal of our businesses by seeking inspiration from others can be the difference that it takes to make us get to remarkable. Be remarkable. Take inspiration. About the author:  James Nathan  runs the James Nathan experience; the Business Development, Sales and Service Excellence Expert for Professional Recruiters.

Whats the Number One Interview Question to Ask

Whats the Number One Interview Question to Ask We all have one. That killer question that nobody else has thought of. The one that will tell you everything you need to know about that candidate. The one you wished you were asked when you were being interviewed. There are some that will stay with you forever and you hope your candidates will too. Weve asked our panel of recruitment experts their one interview question they never fail to ask. Leela Srinivasan I love to ask candidates, “Tell me about the last piece of constructive feedback you received, and what you did as a result.” It helps me understand the candidate’s opportunities to improve that their boss or co-workers have identified in the past. It exposes their humility and self-awareness (or, sometimes their lack of it). It gives me a window into how they generally process negative feedback and approach self-improvement. If they choose something too far back in the past, I ask them to give me another, more recent example. We should all constantly be learning from our mistakes. Leela Srinivasan, Chief Marketing Officer at Lever. Amy Volas What are you seeing in the market that excites you/why and on the flip side of the coin what’s happening in the industry that concerns you/why? Amy Volas is  Chieftain of Avenue Talent Partners. Lars Schmidt Whats the best part of your job? Its a simple question, but the answers can really illuminate a candidates drivers and shed light on things traditional interview questions might not. Understanding whats important to candidates will help you gauge how your opportunity aligns with their value drivers and things that make them happy Lars Schmidt  is the Founder of Amplify. Chad MacRae Recently, I’ve been asking: What makes you laugh? The question lightens the mood, and it helps me assess the fit with the hiring manager and team. Chad MacRae is the Founder of Recruiting Social. Stacy Zapar My favorite interview question is one I always ask and encourage my hiring team to ask as well. At the end of each interview (phone and in-person), I ask Is there anything additional that didnt come up today that you think would be helpful for me to know? Youll be amazed at the information you gather. Relevant project work, competing offer deadlines, background check concerns, visa issues, awards and achievements, etc. The open nature of the question allows all sorts of information to come out that will help you make a much more informed decision. Its also great for candidate experience because no one will leave the interview feeling that there was something important that was left unsaid. Try it and let me know how it turns out for you!? Stacy is the Founder of Tenfold The Talent Agency. John Feldmann “If chosen for this position, how will you evaluate your own success?” If the candidate’s answer focuses on continuous learning, contributing in a team environment or adding to the company’s bottom line, it’s a good sign. If their answer involves salary or promotions, it’s an indicator that they’re less concerned with what they can contribute, but rather what the company can do for them. Even if their priorities are salary and promotions, they should at least be clever enough to emphasize different priorities for the interview. John Feldmann  is a writer for Insperity Recruiting Services. Maren Hogan “Why do you want to work here?” You already have all the technical details about their skills, experience, background, etc. from the resume. Dig into what interested them to come to you. Was it money? Perks? Culture? Were they inspired by your mission or did they hear what a great place it is to work? These details will let you know they’ve done the research and actually want to work for you because they saw something they like, not just because there was a slot open Maren Hogan is CEO and Founder of Red Branch Media. Craig Fisher Why would you want to work with me?.   Anyone can research a company.   But a shrewd candidate will equally research the interviewer.   Business is about relationships. Craig Fisher is  Head of Employer Brand, CA Technologies, and Allegis Global Solutions. Erin Wilson What do you want? Just like that. I have spoken to more than 20,000 job seekers in my career. Almost 100% of those conversations started with this question. I believe the only thing that matters is what you (the jobseeker) wants. As we proceed and you perhaps have other interview activity, my job is to advocate for you yes but above all support the best decision for your career whether that is my organization or another. In order to objectively guide you, I need to know what you want at the core. Erin Wilson  is Founder and Talent Engineer at Hirepool.io Will Staney The best interview question to ask is one I have asked many times before, “Is it better to be perfect and late or good and on time?” The idea behind this question is to understand someone’s motive and if they’re paralyzed by perfection or if they understand when good is enough. You can always tweak something to make it better, but at some point you have to pull the trigger and ship whatever it is your building out. Will is the  Founder Principal Consultant at Proactive Talent Strategies.

The Most Important Reasons Why You Should Hire a Professional Resume Writing Service

The Most Important Reasons Why You Should Hire a Professional Resume Writing ServiceIf you have never been to a professional resume writing service in Las Vegas then you are in for a big surprise. These professional services do more than write your professional resume.The common misconception is that only people who are experienced with the art of writing resumes can and should use this type of service. It is no longer a secret that good resume writing services know how to take the bull by the horns. With the help of these types of services, people from all over the world can write their resumes effortlessly and quickly.In fact, there are professionals who specialize in writing professional resumes in Las Vegas. However, the biggest reason why these individuals offer their services is that they can offer the best professional resume writing service that the industry has ever seen.Resume writing is a tough business. At times, you may have to get creative to create an impressive lookin g resume that will catch the attention of the hiring manager or hiring agent. This is where these service providers come in, because they can help to meet the need of these busy people and create great resumes for them.The quality of these resumes is very important to the process of getting hired by an employer. With the help of these professional writers, you can be sure that your resume will be attractive and memorable. And it will also impress the hiring agent.However, when you go to hire such resume service, it is important that you are able to find one that is reliable and credible. So, if you have the chance to find a resume writing service that offers professional resume writing services in Las Vegas, you should do so right away. It is not a joke to hire the services of such a service.In fact, when you hire a professional resume writing service in Las Vegas, you are assured that your resume will get the attention of every person who reads it. And when you do not get any inter view call, you would know that your resume is effective.The fact that your resume gets through the screening process at this professional resume writing service proves the effectiveness of your resume. If you really want to get the best of the service offered, you should always opt for such professionals in the first place.

Job Search Tip-Show Up on the Virtual Playground

Job Search Tip-Show Up on the Virtual Playground I grew up in a huge apartment building in Queens, NY. There were many kids in the building and there was a playground on the grounds of the apartment building. The playground was a dilapidated messthe swings were often broken, the slides were rusty, and the benches were full of splinters. But for us, it didnt matter because that playground was the place to be. We organized our own games and the group favorite was freeze tag. Every night during the summer months, the kids in the building would congregate in the playground after dinner and play tag until 9pm or until it was too dark to see the other kids, whichever came first. No one made plans to meet in the parkno calls were made, no playdates setyou just showed up. And everyone knew that every kid would show up at the playground eventually.And this is what I love about social media. I dont really care about all the bells and whistlesthe applications, the tests, the questionnaires. What I love about social media tools, particularly Facebook and Twitter, is that when you spend time there, eventually everyone shows up. And everyone is part of the conversation and part of the fun.Many of you probably have similar memories from your childhood. The playground may have been your social scene, support system, and stress buster all rolled into one. For adults, I think that virtual communities can serve a similar purpose. And if you are a job seeker, there is a good chance that if you show up on the virtual playground, you will find others who are a lot like you.In some ways, job search is a numbers game. You need to interact with many people before finding the one that can help you. Its kind of like a really big game of freeze tag. Eventually, the right person will come along and un-freeze you and you will once again be running with the pack of kids.

Give Your Job Search the One-Two Punch

Give Your Job Search the One-Two Punch Have you ever wondered why you havent heard back from a job you posted for? What about that hot lead that turned frigidly cold? Why are things just not happening in your job search? A quick analysis may indicate that youve only taken the first step, you need to move on to step two, or as the post title implies, the one-two punch. There is a lot of competition for jobs right now. It only makes sense that you are going to have to do more than ever before to be the selected candidate for a job. I am not necessarily talking about slick gimmicky things, just invest some sweat equity. Here are some one-two punches you may not be using: Find a job on-line. Find an inside connection. Make a phone call, dont leave a message. Call back at another time to connect live. Send an email. Follow up regularly if you dont hear back. Someone offers to forward your resume. Take on the task yourself if possible. You are given a name of a contact. Follow up immediately. Interview. Send a thank you. Someone says No. Ask why. Create a LinkedIn profile. Use the darn tool. Dont fall into the trap of only going half way with the tasks. The next time you think youve done all you can do, ask yourself, what else could I do? or better yet, ask someone you trust. You know the right answers. Well, at least in most cases. The new rules for job search Do more. Be proactive. Take action. Be accountable. Be in control.