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Chapter 6: Inventive Ways To Make Cash

Synopsis

There are places like CafePress.com or zazzle.com that let you make t-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc. and sell them without carrying any stock yourself. There are no lower limits, nothing for you to stock and no upfront fees. If you don’t sell anything, you don’t pay anything.

This is a little more challenging, but once applied, may really draw you a whole gob of buyers! Here likewise, I'd target a professional market.

All right, it’s not glamorous. However, it may be lucrative and it's a never ending need. The fantastic thing about writing resumes is that it's an easy part of your business to develop and outsource if you don't like to do it, or don't have the time to commit to it.

Innovation

So, how may a freelancer make the best of a creative medium? Rather simply, if you're mighty with the pen, then dollars may follow. Make cool slogans and humorous sayings and put them on tee shirts, stickers, mugs, and so forth. You may be the creator of the next big fad Tee. Think of the motto, “Sh*t Happens?” I think this was made popular in the flower child seventies. Can you even start to guess how many bumper stickers and tee shirts were sold with this? So, squeeze your brain and produce some fantastic pop culture!

T-shirts come in an assortment of styles and colors. Are you targeting a female audience? You may consider one of the many tee shirts made for women—the baby doll, tank, spaghetti straps, and so forth. Consider the color of the shirt. While colors are attention-getting, they may also clash or overwhelm out one another. Make certain the colors you choose— for the T-shirt itself, any printed message and the colors in any graphic —will work together to produce your canvas. You want your shirt color to complement or contrast with the design. Remember that pinkish letters might not show up well on a pinkish shirt— if the two pinks are too alike.

Have something to "state" to the world. An effective message states it in a memorable way. Think about slogans that have survived the ages, easy word combinations that most everybody has heard. As the tee shirt designer, it's your job to produce new slogans, adages or attention-getting phrases. Short is commonly better as it's more easily remembered. But, even a longer message may be memorable if it flows and has rhythm or rhyme.

Try out different fonts. When picking out a font, remember that legibility counts. But so does visual aspect. Pick a font that adds a layer of depth to your message. If the message is, for instance, "Work drives me mad," then the font may be scribbled or crazy-looking, and yet still legible. Ideally, you'll make your design in a graphics program (like Photoshop) and then use your image atone of the sites.

Consider the art. Draw/design the art to express feelings. Which emotion do you want to conjure up? Distinguish the elements in the image that naturally arouse the desired response and then accent those elements. Are you seeking to make a sense of beauty or fright in those who see your design? The key is to comprehend the pieces of the artwork and build on them.

Place the art and text so that one doesn't distract from the other. Art may be behind the text—if the art itself isn't too busy. Art may be above or below the text. This works particularly well with oblongshaped art so that the art basically underlines or sits above the line of text. Your art may also run along the side of the tee shirt, even crossing from front to back.

Scan and import your art images onto your file if you're using Photoshop or a like application. Incorporating art may enhance your message. Or utilize art by itself if the visual is the message you want to convey.

Ads

An illustration: In my city, there's a really prominent land agent. In all my years I had never seen this specific mode of advertising by an agent. He produced a “paper” about his geographic region. It’s only five or six pages (11x17) and published on newspaper stock. It has all of the local activities, what’s being constructed, how it will affect the biotic community, and so forth. Naturally, the paper is angled toward real estate news, but has just enough of the additional factors to draw in a loyal resident readership. In this paper, he deals ads to mortgage brokers, movers, title and loan companies, auto dealerships, and so forth. Now, when individuals go to sell their homes, who do you believe they’re going to call? Him, naturally! Because his name is before them bringing them news pertinent to their day-to-day lives week in and week out.

It’s crucial for you to know everything about your paper. If you're brand new and are making cold calls, you'll be pelted with questions about your publication. If you are able to answer them right, you'll build credibility with your prospects. If you blunder and can't give solid info, you'll struggle miserably.

You must be acquainted with your rates and the size of each ad you have for sale. Ads can be sold either by the column-inch or by the pages, which are subdivided into particular sizes like Full-page, Halfpage, 1/4-page, and so forth. It's crucial that you become fully-able to spot an ad and distinguish its size. Charge this information to memory.

Make a list of the business people you know. Begin making calls to set up sales. If you're new to the ad sales game, it's safe to assume that you won't have an existing book of business. That surely doesn't mean that you won’t be able to begin selling. Almost everybody knows somebody who's either in management or owns a business. This is your quick market.

It's important for you to produce a sense of urgency for your prospects. Don't be pushy, though. Nobody likes to be pressured into anything. But, keep in mind that you're not selling a physical product like a car or copy machine. Your job is to sell the "concept" of advertising.

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Openers, Music, Logos, Titles and Lower Thirds

To further make your videos look professional, there are a few extra things you can add.

One example is an opener. A video opener is a short 'intro' to your video which makes sense if you're creating a series of videos (such as a course or a vlog) rather than a single standalone video. Openers often appear at the very beginning of a video, or after a brief spoken introduction – take a look at some other videos on YouTube to get an idea.

If you don't have the skills to make your own video openers, you can hire someone to handle it for you either through a site like UpWork or Elance, or even on Fiverr. Bear in mind though that it doesn't have to be extravagant – a static splash screen or short montage of your best clips can work wonders.

Another thing that can elevate your video is to add your logo to the bottom or top of the video. This branding can help to tie your video more closely to your brand and it prevents people from stealing your footage. Creating a logo with transparencies will make it more seamless in your video but make sure it works on multiple backgrounds as the color will change a lot in your video.

'Lower thirds' are a convention of video that involve adding titles to the 'safe' section of your video (the lower portion). You can normal add things like names of people you're interviewing here and it won't cover up faces or other key elements. Add some animation to your lower thirds (applying 'ease in' and 'ease out' as well for a more organic feeling movement) and keep their style consistent in order to ensure that your visual style doesn't jump around. You also want to think carefully about your fonts – and you can find a ton of free ones to use at FontSquirrel.com. Of course you can also use titles in other ways – such as between cuts.

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Chapter 7: Build Backlinks

Synopsis

Though a rather challenging element backlinks have proven to be a very useful tool in creating the interest in any particular site through its referral capacities. However the use backlinks should be done with care as it can just as easily work against the site and cause negative repercussions from the search engines.

Links

In some ways the link building exercise would depend very much on the competitor’s participation. The more competitive keywords would require the use of more carefully designed backlinks and the amounts that would be deemed acceptable.

Therefore some attention should be given to the choice of the keywords as it does play a role is the overall decision making process based on the target intended to be reached.

The speed used to build and feature the backlinks is also another point to consider as too much can overwhelm the site’s thus not allowing it to settle into the domain effectively.

It may end up producing little or no results at all as the inability to get the backlinks settle well. However it should be noted that this is not an unusual phenomenon as time, keywords and traffic draw will eventually dictate the ideal placements on the search engine pages. In the end, concentration on building links and adding content should ideally contribute to the best backlinks.

Keeping the backlinks as diverse as possible also can contribute to the element of interesting content which is important when it comes to encouraging backlinks.

Keeping the variety of different types of links is also advised. If the ideas are the stumbling block for the creativity of the site then concentrating on article links and commenting in forums or building profile links should be explored.

Using the contextual link to create backlinks possibilities is useful and it effectively decreases the risk of sending too many links too frequently to the target page.

Chapter 8: Use SEO. Multimedia And Social Sites

Synopsis

These are all various supporting tools that can and should be used for the enhancement advantageous of any site. Collectively and individually they all have their various contributing positive values, thus exploring them would be well worth the effort.

Social Sites Etc.

For the multimedia assisting tool, the article content should have all the standard elements that would enable the primary message to be done in a way that facilitates its climb in the search engines rankings status.

These would include headers, text and links all of which should ideally be individually addressed and designed for optimum use. A relevantly designed site can magnify the message and make it more effective with the use of images or videos as these tend to engage the senses in a much more profound level.

Multimedia can be embedded relatively well into the downstream websites and visually it is definitely more impactful.

Although the social media tool has been in use for some time now, its full impactful advantageous has only just become an avenue to tap into for most website users.

Blogs, forums and other user interactive systems have only just managed to gain its popularity status because of its more recent wide spread adoption as a current “in” trend element.

Aside from the more obvious benefits it is also able to significantly cause the benefits to be heightened to SEO positioning. Adding twitter, facebook and Linkedln into the mix will also help even further to create the “buzz” for the site.

The SEO tool also contributes positively to the enhance traffic to the site through the better positioning of the rankings done based on the site activity.

Having content that is interesting will lead the viewers to find something of interest and perhaps even convert the viewing exercise into an actual committed revenue earning exercises. This of course is another beneficial aspect of the SEO contributing element to the site’s progress.

Chapter 9: Use Analytics

Synopsis

There are several positive points that can be attributed to the use of analytics for the furtherance of any site. Primarily used to measure, collect, analyze and create some reporting data, the analytics tool can also provide other benefits such as facilitating the researches for business enhancement possibilities.

Analyze It

Using the analytics to measure the traffic is just one of the aspects of this tool. Most users of the analytics tool also acquire information on the advertising campaign’s effectiveness through the information on the number of interested hits on the site and the popularity trend it draws.

There are two main categories of web analytic which are off site and onsite styles. The offsite one refers to the web measurement and analysis regardless of whether the website is individually owed or simply just managed by the individual.

Gauging exercises such as potential viewing possibilities, visibility and comments are all done to provide the information that can be used to address any areas lacking at the site.

The onsite version measures the actual activity once the viewer is at the intended site. The activities monitored would include the actual reactions and intentions of the viewers each step of the way and this information is then used to understand and encourage changes where necessary to further enhance the experience derived at the site in increasing positive.

This is done mainly for gauging the commercial viability of the site and also to redesign any areas that might be contributing to the lack of optimization.

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Chapter 4: Take Advantage Of The Housing Crisis

Synopsis

Taking advantage of almost anything is one way of staying ahead of the money game. Taking advantage of the housing crisis should be no different and with a little knowledge one should be able to successfully tap into this opportunity with positive results.

Housing

Generally when there is a housing crisis most people will find themselves in a very difficult position. Some will have to give up their homes as they will no longer be able to meet the mortgages while other maybe more interested in leasing properties for longer terms until the situation rights itself.

In such circumstances getting into the leasing property business as an opportunity to capitalize and make a tidy sum of money would be advised. However because it is now a renter’s market capitalizing on this does have its disadvantages as now the renter will have a wider array of choice properties to choose from.

Therefore there would be a need to ensure the property available for leasing is of a compatible standard and appealing both in looks as well as price.

There is also the avenue of making money during the housing crisis by buying up properties and rock bottom prices. This is of course only possible if one has a healthy cash flow for long term investment opportunities.

Very good profits can be made when the housing market goes back to a more acceptable state whereby the said properties can then be sold for a handsome profit.

There are also other advantages that can be enjoyed when there is a housing crisis. These may include a lot of freebies that would otherwise not be available.

These freebies can range from zero moving costs to better rental rates. If the individual is looking to make a purchase on a property the housing crisis can bring about the possibility of buying a property that would have originally been out of his or her reach.

Chapter 5: Get Serious About Internet Marketing

Synopsis

Internet marketing is the most popular platform for today’s business entrepreneur. In most cases it only takes a little time and effort and comparatively a very small monetary investment, and for this one is able to reach all corners of the world and its potential customers.

Net Marketing

The following are some reasons as to why one should consider internet marketing for this purpose:

For an individual considering a business venture but has a very limited financial capital, the internet marketing is an ideal platform to exploit for the purpose of getting the product or service recognized. Exposing the individual’s endeavor to a huge audience base is priceless, and this is done quickly and easily when compared with more conventional methods.

The low start up cost and the low operating cost will also allow for great tax relief if there is any at all. When a business takes off the last thing one wants to worry about is how much of the income is taxable. Most governing bodies encourage these types of endeavors over the internet and this in turn helps the individual enjoy good tax breaks.

The high profit margin is also another attractive feature offered to those using the internet for marketing optimization. Not having to hire a large team of people and all the details that come with it is a welcome relief in terms of expenses kept low or minimal.

Then there is the time factor which some find very pleasing indeed. The freedom of having the choice to work at one’s own pace and time schedule can be a good criterion for those not interested in being stressed out.

There is also the interesting element of not having to market or invent your own product. As there is a wonderfully huge list of items available to be marketed on the internet, choosing to sell through affiliates is beneficial.

Chapter 6: The Down Side To Not Cashing In On Opportunities

Synopsis

Exploring opportunities is not something that can be done in the blink of an eye, though for the gifted few it is not an impossible feat.

However with a little bit of in depth knowledge, patience and some know how abilities, it is not impossible to succeed in choosing the right opportunities.

Sitting on the side lines and hoping or waiting for some opportunity to come by on a silver platter is often not only silly but rather unrealistic.

If individuals adopt this kind of attitude, opportunities may never come their way and even if it does it would be unlikely that they would be able to recognize it and make the best of the opportunity being presented.

Some Tips

Being more open minded and alert allows an individual to be more aware of any opportunities that may arise. Most people miss opportunities because they are too focused on the smaller picture and thus miss the immeasurable possibilities the opportunities may present.

Missed opportunities not only don’t benefit, it can also cause the individual to become resentful and bitter especially when those around are busy making it “big”.

This negative effect will eventually fester into making the individual think of himself or herself unlucky, regretful and thus more closed off as the unpleasantness of always missing the opportunity boat becomes a norm.

Risk takers are more likely to take on any opportunity and make the best of it even if the opportunity does not turn out as expected.