- by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Recently I started reading a book with a seemingly
improbable title, "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferris.

In the book, Ferris makes a number of assertions about how
we all, whether employed or self-employed, can work less and
enjoy life more through leverage.

He makes some excellent points and I’d encourage you to read
the book.

A couple of pages in the book, however, caused me to re-
think one specific activity I engage in on an almost hourly
basis -email!

Though I’ve tried to "tame" the email tiger in the past, I
always seem to slide back into the habit of whacking the
"send / receive" button every 15 minutes and getting side
tracked.

But, this book reminded me that I really need to start
living (again) by the "5 Golden Rules" I suggest for
everyone else.

Rule #1 - Only Check Email Twice Daily

It amazes me how many people tell me they go out of town or
on vacation and only check email once daily and the world
keeps on turning.

If you can do it on vacation, why can’t you do it at home?

Only check email two times daily.

I’ve chosen 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m. as my times and plan to
cut that down to just once a day at 4:00 within the next 60
days.

Rule #2 - Separate Business and Personal

Operate with a different email box for both your business
and personal email.

This keeps personal crisis from spilling over into business
and vice versa.

That way if you must "cheat" a little because of a special
project, you reduce your chances of getting derailed with an
email that could have waited if you never saw it.

Rule #3 - Eliminate Customer Support Email

Never handle customer support via email, especially if you
handle your own customer support.

Always route every bit of customer support through a help
desk system that tracks each "ticket" and communication with
the customer.

Also, this enables you to manage people’s expectations about
when they’ll receive a reply since you can place hours of
operation on a help desk.

Rule #4 - Not Every Email Warrants Response

Somewhere along the line, many of us adopted the belief that
every email message needs a response from us.

NO!

If an email needs to get deleted with no response, do it and
don’t feel guilty about it.

Rule #5 - An Empty In-box Equals Bliss

Never, ever, under any circumstances leave email messages in
you in-box to handle them later.

You won’t handle them later and it just leaves you with a
general sense of uneasiness about leaving things incomplete.

At the end of the day, take one of three actions on every
message in your in-box:

1. Delete it

2. Refer it to someone else

3. File it in an email folder

Supposedly email would make all our lives better, but that
little dream train ran off the tracks for me back in 1997.

Don’t let email dictate everything from your work hours to
your general mood, or even whether you have a "good" day or
not.

Take control of email and use it as a tool, not as an excuse
to feel productive when all you really succeed at is wasting
time.

—-

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-
author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to
work less, get paid more… and have tons more fun!

"The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business"

==============================
Are YOU a "Lazy Achiever"?
"The Lazy Man’s Guide to Online Business"
How to Work Less, get Paid More and have
tons more Fun! Proven tips, tricks, techniques
and strategies of Superstar "Lazy Achievers"!
Click=> http://www.getmoredonefaster.com
==============================

      - by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The world’s most popular search engine just keeps chugging
along - the little train that could (and did) make billions
of dollars and dominate the Internet landscape.

Like a giant tree with a root system extending deep into the
earth, Google seeks to expand and diversify far beyond mere
online search.

In their quest, the little elves at Google never seem to
sleep and toil endlessly to bring us new gadgets and gizmos
intended to make our lives better, both online and offline.

These four latest free offerings from Google’s Labs
http://Labs.Google.com - will help you do everything from
organize your thoughts to find the local pizza restaurant’s
phone number through your cell phone.

** Google Code Search **
http://www.google.com/codesearch

This one should have the geeks salivating like Pavlov’s dog
sniffing out a rump roast!

This new search tool at Google allows you to search for
public source code, the lines and lines of code that make
your nifty software programs actually function.

Instead of writing all the code themselves, programmers can
find and grab huge chunks of code free for the taking.

This makes a great staring point not only for programmers
who want a leg up on finishing projects, but also neat for
would-be software entrepreneurs who want to surf for ideas.

** Google Voice Local Search **
http://labs.google.com/goog411/

Ok, I’ll admit to some skepticism when I saw that Google
would help me find the number for the local barbershop just
by talking into my phone.

But Google actually surprised me when I dialed
1-800-GOOG-411.

The phone asked me to say the city and state I wanted to
search, and then asked me if I wanted to search by business
name or business category.

Once I found the business I wanted, Google went ahead and
dialed the number for me.

I found the service no worse than the automated search from
the phone company, and Google offers this service FREE.

Well worth a call if you find yourself paying some hefty 411
fees to the phone company or your wireless provider.

** Google Reader **
http://reader.google.com/

The jury is still debating whether my dear sweet mother will
ever subscribe to an RSS feed (the syndication feeds from
blogs, news services, and more), so I’m not sure how
universal RSS will ever get.

However, Google doess offer a free RSS reader online that
enables you to easily subscribe to blogs, news feeds, and
any other RSS feeds you like.

The readers lets you organize your feeds, update, and view
them all in one place.

Not as powerful as some readers you pay for, but very
functional and hey, you can’t beat free!

** Google Notebook **
http://www.google.com/notebook/

Google Noetbook is the most recent graduate of the Google
Labs.

This handy program allows you to organize your notes and
clippings as you travel the web.

Instead of just bookmarking a site in your favorites and
trying to remember why you liked it, with Google Notebook,
you can highlight what you want and click the "clip" button.

You can then organize your notes however you want and then
search through your note text at any time.

You can even share your notes with others.

Google Notebook is available through your web browser after
you download and install special extensions to help you clip
items you find on the Web.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of www.TheNetReporter.com - a hard-hitting, no-
holds-barred website that will teach you step-by-step and
click-by-click how to really cash-in online…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Discover what really works RIGHT NOW… plus the new twists
on tried and true Internet Marketing techniques that create
a profitable “real” business you can be proud of…
=> http://www.TheNetReporter.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

      - by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 
We talk about surveys all the time in Internet businesses.

What purpose do they really serve?

It took me a long time and a lot of mistakes to realize
just how valuable they can prove in your Web and info-
publishing business.

How could we best describe a survey?

I like to think of them as scouts bringing back information
to you on what your customer base really wants.

In short, surveys tell you exactly what hundreds, even
thousands, of people in your market want to buy from you.

In a former life I believed in doing things the hard way
and learning (or maybe not learning) from mistakes.

Not anymore though, now I believe in doing things the smart
and fast way.

Instead of trying to figure out what people want on my own
(and losing time and money in the process), now I take
advantage of something most people in marketing still don’t
understand.

If you ask people questions the right way, most of them
will happily answer and give you the data you need for your
marketing.

In my FREE special report "Survey Riches" (available free at
http://www.ebookfire.com/surveyreport.shtml), I make the
following statement about their value.

"How any website owner can skyrocket buyer response,
shortcut product development and massively increase profits
virtually overnight using simple survey techniques".

By the way…

I didn’t write that practical report for statisticians, who
wouldn’t agree with it anyway.

If you got an A in college statistics, don’t waste your
time with this report, you couldn’t handle and profit from
its information.

Why?

Because what you know about "stats" has nothing to do with
figuring out what you should sell to customers.

What can the right kind of survey do for your business?

It can tell you the moods, wants, and needs of your
customers.

They won’t buy what *you* think they need, they will buy
what *they* think they need!

When I finally realized that, my business took off and
never slowed down since then!

At a minimum, every website owner should focus on adding 4
types of surveys to their arsenal:

1) Website "Exit" surveys
("Why are you leaving without buying?")

2) Current customer surveys

3) Leaving customers surveys

4) "Most Burning Question" surveys

Don’t make conducting your surveys complicated or
difficult. You can conduct physical surveys with your own
email program, use a script / software installed on your
site, or use a 3rd party service provider.

If you go this last route, make sure they provide fast
"real time" results with easy visual reporting.

There are four types of questions you can use in a survey:

1) Multiple choice with only one selected answer;

2) Multiple choice with pick all answers that apply;

3) Put things in order of their preference;

4) Fill in the blank.

All of these types of questions can help you find out what
they need to know in the way of offering the right products
or services to your audience.

Regardless of *what* you sell, when first starting out, you
want to design your surveys so that you can find out the
following types of information:

1) What will they buy next?

2) What do they already own?

3) What do they like / love?

4) What do they dislike / hate?

5) What do they need now?

6) What is their current skill level?

You do this by designing your survey with the following
rules in mind:

- Keep it short and sweet, just a few questions.

- Stay focused on your audience and don’t ask touchy or
private questions.

- Tell people why you want to take the survey and how you
will use the results under your strict privacy policy.

By the way, I use what I call my "Magic Survey Formula" to
get massive responses and overcome any reluctance to
respond to questions.

The "formula" basically goes like this:

1. You want to offer an immediate bribe to entice a
response.

2. Make it easy for them to respond with that knee jerk gut
reaction, no thinking, just reactions from their true
feelings.

3. Tell them up front that you are deliberately bribing
them with something worth more than the time &  trouble
they take doing the survey.

Finally, as a last check on your survey, ask yourself:

- How would you feel if you got an email asking you to take
this survey?

- Would you feel comfortable answering the questions?

If you can say yes, then go ahead and survey your audience.

Now, how do you find people to take your survey?

I use the following rule of thumb for places to take a
survey and ask people what they think about a particular
subject or product.

Go any place where they won’t accuse you of spamming or
some other suspicious or inappropriate behavior.

Your own common sense and prior experience on the Internet
should let you find those places.

They will include:
- Your own opt-in list
- Other people’s lists
- Newsgroups
- Ezines
- Exit popups on your web site
- Your auto responder
- Discussion groups
- Forums and more!

I can tell you from personal experience that if you want to
take your business to the next level, conducting surveys is
the way to do it!

Surveys help you line up a whole bunch of ready, willing
and eager customers for your product and avoid days, weeks,
months - even years - of frustrating effort *guessing* what
people want to buy!

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!"

Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

- By Jim Edwards

      - © Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It rates easier than ever to start a new business on the
Internet.

Never before have the opportunities been more available,
the tools cheaper, or the prospects of success more likely.

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran looking to expand an
existing online business, a casual dabbler looking for a
part-time income, or an offline professional wanting to
expand your market online, the following five key steps
will help you reach your goals.

Key # 1: Define Your "Target"

Clearly list and explain what you want to accomplish in
your web site business.

We all think about what we want to get or accomplish in
life and our job.

But did you ever list it specifically in terms of money,
traffic to a web site, or more sales online?

This principle and simple activity applies to an ebook, a
new website, an ezine or any other business goal.

Defining a clear target will give your conscious and sub
conscious mind something definite to shoot for.

Examples include: the number of subscribers to your ezine;
sales per day on your website; pages written in an ebook;
new advertising sources found; number of affiliates
recruited… and more.

Key # 2: Define the Cost"

You must "define the cost" in terms of the tools,
resources, and people you need to reach your online
business target, no matter what type of business you
operate.

How much will it cost in time per hour, per day, per week
and per month for each of these items?

Also, how much will it cost in terms of money to operate
the business, buy traffic, pay for hosting, design and
more?

Sit down and map out the costs before throwing open your
doors (or wallet) so you don’t get hit with any nasty
surprises.

Key # 3: "Make a List"

To create a real business that can be systematized, you
must list off every single thing or element connected with
your business, from the first idea to making daily deposits
into the bank when your idea bears fruit.

You may not know how they’ll all get done right now, but you
must recognize that eventually each of these items must get
done.

You can easily come up with a fairly comprehensive list by
brainstorming just to get them down on paper.

Then, when you think you thought of everything, let someone
else take a look and poke holes in your list with all kinds
of additions and questions.

Key # 4: "Prioritize"

Here you must list all the elements you planned in number 3
in the exact order of how you should complete them.

Car makers must build in a planned order, or the finished
product won’t work.

Once you sketch out your complete plan, let someone else
take a look to see if you forgot a step.

In fact, they might just point out that you forgot to tighten
the lug nuts and the wheels fell off at the dealership!

Key # 5: "One Step At A Time"

Most people want it all and they want it now!

Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way.

Whether you do all the work yourself, outsource the job, or
a combination of the two, everything must get done in the
correct order in the correct way.

My motto reads, "Multi Tasking = Inefficiency!"

Don’t try to do two different jobs at the same time, you’ll
most likely screw up both and waste time and money doing
them a second time.

Doing web site copy and checking email don’t mix.

Creating auto-responder messages while checking
voice mail don’t mix.

So pass each milestone on your roadmap to get things done
properly and in sequence.

Launching an efficient and effective online business is not
difficult!

It just requires careful planning, step-by-step execution,
and attention to detail in order to greatly increase your
chances of success.
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-step and click-by-click how to finally create your own money-making mini-sites…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!"

Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

      - by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
    http://www.thenetreporter.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

One of the greatest things about the Internet means that you never run out of new things to try.

Somebody always comes up with the next greatest thing to solve the problems created by the last "next greatest thing" to hit the computing world!

These three software programs (below) rate a must-look if you ever buy a new computer, your hard drive seems sluggish, or you ever worried about the fine print on that software package you’re about to download from the Net.

Oh, and the best news, all 3 are free to try (and only 1 to buy)!

Destroy "BloatWare"
When I bought my wife’s new computer many months ago, I put off setting I up for her for almost four months.

Why?

All the "bloatware" I knew needed to get deleted off the new machine before she could use it.

I ended up uninstalling no fewer than 15 programs, including: Earthlink, AOL, Norton Ghost, Norton Anti-Virus, Google Toolbar, Office 2007 Trial, Yahoo Toolbar, Microsoft Money, Quicken, and more!

"Bloatware" refers to all the software you didn’t ask for that the computer manufacturers force-feed you on a new computer so they can churn a few extra bucks.

Aside from the security risks, the main problem with bloatware basically comes down to the fact that is slows your computer’s performance, eats up hard drive space, clogs your Windows registry, oh, and before I forget, you didn’t ask for it!

Next time you buy a new PC, consider using a free program like www.pcdecrapifier.com to remove these unwanted programs before you start loading it up with the files and software you do want.

The Ultimate De-Frag
Every savvy computer user knows you should perform basic maintenance on your PC on a regular (or semi-regular) basis.

This includes cleaning up old temp files, deleting programs you don’t use, eliminating unused desktop icons, and defragging your hard drive.

In fact, of the items just listed, defragging creates the biggest impact as far as increases in system performance and overall speed.

Unfortunately, the defrag utility that comes with Windows only does a mediocre job.

I recently used a software program called "Diskeeper Professional" from www.diskeeper.com to defrag my hard drive and found it far superior to the windows defrag utility.

After using the program my computer booted windows faster, started other programs faster, and generally lost that "sluggish" feel a computer gets after heavy use for several months.

You can use the software free for 30 days. By the way, I personally did not set up the software to run all the time, but only when I wanted it to actually defrag my hard drive.

EULAlyzer
Be honest: you don’t read those 20 page agreements that appear before you install most software.

Unfortunately, those agreements make it possible for some companies to do nasty things on your computer like serving ads on your desktop.

A free application from www.javacoolsoftware.com called "EULAlyzer" will scan EULAs (End User License Agreements) for any trouble words and bring them to your attention.

Now I wouldn’t worry too much about using it with companies like Microsoft, but would certainly run any EULA from a shareware, contest, or freebie site through the free EULAlyzer filter to look for trouble.

–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-step and click-by-click how to finally create your own money-making mini-sites…

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!"

Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-