Sunday, November 15, 2009

Pet Sitting Jobs


Want to make some extra money for Christmas? A lot of people travel for the holidays leaving their pets behind and in need of a good pet sitter. Consider pet sitting to make some buckamoos :) ..........

jobmonkey.com - If you love pets and enjoy the freedom of a flexible schedule, pet sitting jobs can be a great way to make money.
But becoming a professional pet sitter takes more than just liking to hang out with cats and or dogs all day. There are also business skills required in order to be successful.

Most pet sitters care for people's pets either in their own or the pet's owner's homes. Stays can range from half an hour to overnight. Most pet sitters will feed, clean up after, walk and or play with, and occasionally take pets to the veterinarian (when necessary).

Because pet sitter clients are usually on vacation, at work, or otherwise indisposed, there is a huge trust factor in this job. Often, you will be inside people's homes when they are not there, which is where being licensed and bonded will go a long way toward assuring your clients that you, in fact, mean business.

Liability insurance is also recommended and typically covers injury or damage to a customer's pet or home. Some pet sitters also purchase insurance that protects them against bodily injury, caused either by the pet they are caring for or another animal they encounter, or general injury.

Beyond that, you are working on the go as most pet sitters are relatively physically fit, possess excellent time management skills (to make it from appointment to appointment throughout the day on time), and are creative enough to entertain bored animals.

While there is no formal education required to become a pet sitter, there are some ways you can make yourself more marketable, such as becoming trained in animal CPR, obtaining a business license, and registering yourself with the Better Business Bureau where you are located.

There is also a professional organization for pet sitters, Pet Sitters International (PSI), which was founded in March 1994 by Patti J. Moran, author of Pet Sitting for Profit.
Among the many benefits of PSI membership is the Pet Sitter Locator feature on their website, which is a pet-sitter search tool that gets more than 30,000 searches per month.

To become a PSI-Accredited pet sitter, there is an in-depth program offered that includes emphasis on pet care, health and nutrition, additional services and business and office procedures. There is also a continuing education component to keep accredited pet sitters abreast of any developments n the field of pet care.

Anything and everything related to pet sitters is covered in the curriculum, including caring for birds, barnyard pets, ferrets, horses, livestock, rabbits and reptiles, as well as the obvious (cats and dogs). Other topics include animal diseases; first aid and health; canine, feline and exotic pet behavior; parasites; medical terminology; sanitation; senior pet care; and nutrition. The courses also cover basic grooming, dog walking, overnight sits and pet loss/grief counseling.

On the business side, coursework delves into client consultations, customer service, disaster planning, legal issues, insurance and bonding, marketing, office procedures and safety.

The nature of pet sitting jobs allows you to make your own hours and set your own pay. In order to remain competitive, it's best to find out what others in your area charge, but most pet sitters can expect to make at least $10 per visit, and depending on how long the visit takes and what is involved, upwards of $25 per visit. Depending on how many hours a day you care to work and how many clients you have as well as how large your territory is, you stand to make a decent living as a pet sitter.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

How To Start Your Own Home Based Business

By Jack Morrison

Many persons ask us today whether there are any good home based businesses around. Everyone would like to go for the most positive home based business. There are a lot of options around for making the work at home business opportunities. However you ought to be totally keen for the new home business and also complete your undertakings on time.

Some of the most positive home based businesses in the past were child day centers, personality development courses, handwriting improvement classes and catering seminars. With the internet insurrection the full idea of home based businesses changed abruptly. Today more and more people are venturing into home based situation as they can actually make a lot of profits from it.

Let's discuss what are the most successful home based business around. One business that has hooked the earth by storm is the reseller business. In case of reselling business over the internet you can order wholesale goods to be delivered to your home and then sell the supplies in the native marketplace for a gain. Similarly there are affiliate programs where you market the merchandises of one or more corporations and help to sell the commodities on a commission basis. In case you do well beyond your boards you also get extra commission.

Next in line as the most successful home based business is the auction sites business. In this case you join an auction site and sell merchandises through the auction sites for commission. In case of auction sites the supplies are sold to the topmost bidder. In case you are one of those risky sort then you can invest your money in online shares and debentures. You can also bet your money on the costs of commodities and metals like gold. Gold is one of the most valued and hunted after metals around and the values of gold are always on the rise (and low also occasionally) in the future. The more correct your projection about the rise or fall in prices the more you can earn from your bets. Next in line for most effective home based business is filling in surveys. Companies are fervent to know the customer's feedback to their products and services and also what the clients look ahead from them in the future. A survey takes about 10-15 minutes to fill up and it can get you good money.

The home businesses mentioned above are one of the most positive home based businesses for you. It is now upon you to take which type of home based business would you like to go for.

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Monday, November 2, 2009

Candle Making Crafts: How To Make Money With Your Passion


By Patrick McTigue

People that start to make great candles often consider whether they can make money with their candle making craft. The answer to that is a resounding yes. Candle are super popular, are consumable and people are always looking for a new and different candles.

A critical point to remember is that your candle making craft must be something that stands out in the eye of the consumer. Yankee and Old Virginia Candle Companies own the market on the standard, ready made scented candle in a jar. Unless you have access to a factory, 50+ employees, and a research department, you probably aren't going to compete in this market. This doesn't mean you can't make a significant profit in your new candle business, only that you must be creative and provide unique and exciting creations.

For example, in Lynchburg, Virginia, corporate home of Old Virginia Candle Company, there is an artisan who makes enough money with her candle making craft that she advertises on television and receives orders from all over the country. Her specialty is a technique in which she makes large scented candles in a mold and while the wax is still pliable, she shaves into the candle creating unique curled wax along the candle's sides. This is the type of eye you must have in your own candle making craft.

Another factor that you must deal with as a beginner is accepting a smaller profit per candle. You simply can not expect to be able to price yourself into the market with your candle making craft right off the bat. You will not be able to charge prices that rival the bigger more established companies. The key is to not go overboard and sell yourself short. This seems like a tough balancing act, but it's really not. Just like when you were coming up with the best wax and wicks to use, do your research. See what your small business competitors are doing and make sure you are in that range.

Here is a great tip that you should definitely do. Go to the local Walmart and determine what poorly made corporate candles sell for. Then stop at a craft shop and see what Yankee sells a candle like you are going to make for. Your candle making craft candle should sell somewhere in between this price points. After you've found the range in which other small candle makers are selling their candle for you have a place to start your pricing analysis. You want to spend the time and sit down and figure out the wholesale cost for the candles that you plan to sell. Stay as far away from the low end of the price research as you can feel comfortable with. Remember, you do not want your hand made candles to be compared to Walmart prices, because they will seem cheap and people will associate that with poor production.

Finally, if you are going to sell some candles from your candle making craft efforts, you are going to have to have a place to sell them. You will probably be best served to sell to family and friends first. This will allow you to get some of your candles in people's home, and this will help you spread the word about your new business. You can also set up a booth in a farmer's market or put some of your stock in consignment shops in your area. You can sell your candles on the Internet as well. There are free sites to do this like Etsy, but this will probably give you small results due to limited exposure. If you build your own website, this will help you a lot. This must be factored into your costs, both your time and the advertising required. You will know what your budget and time constraint are, so just do what is reasonable for you to handle. You can make good money selling your candles. You just need to plan your work and work your plan.

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Sunday, November 1, 2009

What Quality Content Can Do For Your Website


By Michael Fleischner

Websites are comprised of various forms of content. Even though many people consider content to be simply text on a page, there is more to consider. When speaking about content, consider all of the page elements that communicate to your website browsers. This includes more than simply words on a web page. Quality content includes words on a page as well as pictures, images, and video. In today's world, it can also mean forums, RSS feeds, and other engaging content.

The development of rich, engaging content is paramount to attracting and keeping website visitors. Whether you are using professionally written content or are simply allowing your website visitor to comment or provide reviews on a given topic, engaging content is important.

When websites contain powerful content, they experience a significant number of benefits both short and long term. Quality content not only engages browsers but provides search engine optimization that results in higher rankings and organic traffic. If you want a steady flow of traffic to your website, focus on quality content.

Producing quality content that is easily seen by search engine spiders can result in much higher search engine rankings. Be sure that your web content involves your audience and creates a dialog with them. The bottom line is that you may have the best optimized content in the world, but if it's hard to follow you can loose your audience in a heartbeat. Think about where you want your visitors to travel on your site. Your content should draw them to where you want them to go.

Each time a visitor has a positive experience on your website you are building loyalty. The more loyal an individual becomes, the better chance you have of converting them into a customer. Web site visitors will also be more inclined to refer others to your website. If content is valuable and created effectively, it can serve as a magnet for browsers interested in your particular products or niche.

If your content is engaging and meaningful, you will attract links to your website and not just your home page. Deep linking can improve your rankings dramatically and are largely based on external links. Provide quality content and watch those links grow naturally.

When websites continue to focus on engaging content, they will find that they receive more links from third party websites and higher search engine rankings. This produces a significant increase in website traffic over a sustained period of time. Once you have the right amount of traffic, your opportunity for increased sales can grow significantly. Make the investment in quality content and reap the rewards.

Successful online businesses produce quality content on a daily basis. This is one of the reasons why they are successful. Not only does quality content engage your browsers, but it creates an environment that people want to visit often. Add the benefit of improved rankings and you can see why good content is so important.

Before you start authoring new content for your website consider the value of what you are going to produce. Take a few extra moments to deliver something of quality and appreciate the rewards. It takes very little to create engaging content and it is essential for online success.

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Top 10 Most Useful Websites For Small Businesses


By Virginia Chou

No matter how small a business is, today it is very common that the small business owners have their own website for the business. It is a good chance for the business to grow. Small business website is not necessarily a sophisticated website. A simple website will do.

Here I am listing some of small business websites useful to promote your business.

Craigslist: Craigslist is a prevailing tool featuring classified ads about almost anything and everything. Craigslist provides local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing, for sale, personals, services, local community, and events almost everything, whatever you can think of, not only this but also discussion on local current events. This is a website where you can advertise to buy and sell things.

Twitter: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Twitter is an amazing tool that can expand your reach to customers and potential customers. It can allow you to stay in touch and connect with thousands and thousands of people instantly. It can help drive your brand and communicate with customers in a way that you've never been able to before, and so much more.

Google: Google offers a wide variety of products aimed at small business owners, and many of them are free or very low-cost. Google is the top most global website in the world which enables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include Page Rank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company's focus is developing search technology.

Adsglobe.com: Adsglobe is the most popular free classified ad posting site in India, USA and worldwide. Adsglobe serves variety of users ranging from individuals to all types & sizes of business entities addressing their unique advertising, marketing or selling needs. Adsglobe has very good alexa ranking. Adsglobe is featuring free online classified advertisement site with sections devoted to Real Estate/Rentals, Jobs, Autos, Merchandise, Local Events, Yellow Pages, Dating/Personals, Services, Pets and Travel where users can search or post free ads. They also allow users to search in most of the world cities and towns which is a unique feature that can be a huge plus for collectors, job seekers or others needing large search query

Amazon: Amazon.com seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. The new e-tailer Business Center will be targeted at helping entrepreneurs find the products they need to service their small- and medium-sized businesses. Amazon's new offering will include quick and easy access to small- and medium-business products. Site has numerous personalization features and services including one-click buying, gift certificates, wish lists, travel, and photo processing.

Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a popular Web site that allows users to create entries in a massive online encyclopedia, can be collaboratively created and maintained by thousands of users worldwide. Any article contributed to Wikipedia becomes free content that may be used, edited, copied and redistributed by users. All materials contributed to Wikipedia must be verifiable by other users.

Facebook pages: Anyone with a Facebook profile has had the ability to add something called a Page to extend some content beyond the profile page. This was a smart thing for businesses to do as you could control the content and fans could subscribe to the content. The functionality, however, was pretty limited and these pages were more like static web page brochures than anything else.

Alibaba.com: Alibaba.com Limited is the global leader in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and the flagship company of Alibaba Group. Alibaba.com makes it easy for millions of buyers and suppliers around the world to do business online through three marketplaces: a global trade marketplace for importers and exporters, a Chinese marketplace for domestic trade in China, and, through an associated company, a Japanese marketplace facilitating trade to and from Japan.

Importers.com: Importers.com is America's no.1 destination for online Business-to-Business (B2B) trade. They provide a searchable, online directory of more than 200,000 international companies, plus internet resources and tools that make it easy to buy and sell products online. All importers and exporters register for free on this site. They help buyers and distributors find new international suppliers. Buyers save thousands by importing products at wholesale prices. They help manufacturers and wholesalers promote their products worldwide. Suppliers save thousands by finding new buyers online.

EBay: EBay offers small businesses a way to buy or sell practically anything to anyone, anywhere. EBay is The World's Online Marketplace, enabling trade on a local, national and international basis. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day. International person to person auction site, with products sorted into categories.

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