Did you just have a fleeting thought that you should blog about? If you did, stop reading this right now and blog it or at least write it down so you won’t forget it. Don’t just write down the topic. You need to go ahead and write down all of your thoughts while they are flowing and fresh in your mind. During this time you are “in the moment” and your emotion and passion are actively engaged.

These “in the moment” thoughts will be your best blogs because your passion and emotion will shine through every word. It will set you apart from other bloggers and your true personality will be evident. This is what your readers are craving. They want to know more about you. It is all about relationship with your readers, right?

This blog entry itself is one of those thoughts that just hit me. In fact, I was on my way to get a cup of coffee when it came to my mind so I immediately stopped in my tracks and pulled out my phone (Treo 700P) to start blogging right then and there. I am now putting the finishing touches on this post before posting it.

Just let the words flow. Do not take time to correct your spelling and grammar. If you do, your will lose your train of thought. Just keep writing until you write everything that comes to mind while you are in the moment. You can go back later and correct any spelling and grammatical errors.

If you don’t have a phone with blogging or memo capabilities, keep a small notepad with you that you can write on when an idea hits you. Or, you may even want to have an small electronic recording device with you that you can whip out and record yourself talking your thoughts that you can later transcribe to your blog. Another way you can capture your thoughts without buying anything is to call your own phone and leave a voice message to yourself. This is especially handy when you are driving and can’t easily stop to write something down.

The bottom line is, blog it as soon as you think about it. Blog it or forget it.

- Hill Robertson

To get more potential customers to make a purchase, sometimes it is as simple as giving them what they want. Don’t spend all of your time trying to poke, prod, and cram your potential customers into the product you offer. You should mold your product into what they are looking for. If you do this, you will have a happy customer. This holds true for most any business whether it is an internet business or not.

In my website businesses, I use to give the customer what I thought was what they needed. I would try to put myself in their shoes and decide what they needed based on what I knew. The problem with this method is that the customer knew how their business worked. I didn’t. I tried to push them into the mold that I conjured up in my own head.

Don’t tell your customer too much about what they need. First, listen to them. Then, listen a little more. Keep listening. They will tell you exactly what they need. Once you find out what they need, you can tailor your product to meed their specific needs. Even if you can’t give them exactly what they need, you can probably get closer than if you just forced something on them.

Be sure you over deliver. Give them even more than what you promise. They will realize how much value they get with you. Give them great service and support. Once they like you, you will have a customer that will give you repeat business over and over again. They will recommend you to others who eventually will also purchase from you over and over again. After a while, you will build up a very loyal customer base that will keep you successful for many years to come. It all starts with giving your customers what they want.

- Hill Robertson

Your long term goal in having your own internet business is so you can spend less time working and spend more time doing what you want to do, right? You don’t want to just shift from a job working for someone else to your own job that consumes even more of your time, right? Too many times that’s exactly what ends up happening. Sometimes it can be even more of a burden having your own business because you are the head honcho and have to make sure everything is running as smoothly as possible. You could end up being a slave at your own business. You don’t want to end up like that.

In the early years of my internet business, I just wanted customers and would bend over backwards to get them. I would promise them the world on their website and then spend 10 or so hours a week working on their site for a whopping $50 per month. Let’s see, that works out to about $5 per hour. Not even minimum wage….. That’s not a very good business model. After a while, I slowly started picking up more customers and learned how to better value my time and adjusted prices and more importantly my hours accordingly.

The key to being able to spend less time on each customer’s site was setting up a business system. A good business system allows you to accomplish tasks with little or even no time involved (or at least not YOUR time). For my particular case, I wrote software that would create websites automatically based on some simple customer input. You could think of it as an automatic template. I would plug in the customers information into my software and the software would create the website with the customers data, set up their email accounts, update the DNS entries, configure the database, load up the site on the webserver, and turn the site on. Everything would be complete in just a few seconds. This process would have taken several hours to do manually (and it did until I wrote the software). This software and the process of using it became one of my business systems. Business systems are essential to a successful business so you can devote your time to growing your business. I did not set up business systems for some of the processes that were essential to the growth of the business in the beginning and I am still paying the price to some degree for not implementing a business system earlier.

I would recommend that you document your processes that you do to run your business. Then, take each process and see if you can create a business system that can do the task for you whether it is a software program that does it or you outsource the task to someone else. Either way, do what needs to be done to get the same tasks completed without you having to spend your time on it. This will allow you to spend your time on other important tasks. If possible, do this with all parts of your business as you grow. You will compound your time and efforts this way. Your business will get closer and closer to running without you. It will begin to take on a life of it’s own so you can have a life of your own.

- Hill Robertson

My favorite time to get things accomplished in my internet businesses is late at night. I am pretty much a night owl anyway. My creative juices really get flowing in the wee hours of the morning. Once the clock hits about 10 or 11 at night, my internet business mind kicks into gear. Even though I usually get up around 7 AM to help get the kids ready for school and have busy days all day long up until the kids are in bed around 8:30 PM, I’m just getting going.

I really like working my internet business at this time of night when everything is quiet and I can really focus on my work. I can quietly browse around the internet researching ways to get more qualified web traffic as I monitor web server logs, analytics, and new subscriptions. I start blogging and writing articles. I also work on coding up the next software product or website idea. It is nice and peaceful and I can really focus on good content, software, and products. Take a look at the time stamp on this post. Right now (as I write this paragraph) it is 2:08 AM. I’ve been working since 10 PM. I haven’t had any interruptions - no telephones ringing and no TV distracting me. It is just nice and quiet.

When is your favorite time to work on your internet business? Do you work at night so you can spend time with your family during the day? Do you work while your kids are at school and spend time with them at night? Everyone has different schedules and different motivations for working at different times. That is one of the big advantages of running your own internet business. You can work it when YOU want to. The internet is there 24/7. It is ready whenever you are.

I can get so much more done during these times of peace and quiet when I can stay focused than when I keep getting interrupted by sweet little voices asking, “Can you play with me, Daddy?” Plus, when my children ask me to play with them, I would rather play with them while they are still little and want to play. I can always work the business while they are sleeping. I know in 20 years from now when they are grown and out of the house, I’ll be glad I did. They are only little boys and girls for a little while. Cherish every moment with your kids.

Do I lose some sleep? Yep. Am I tired all of the time? Pretty much. Is it worth it? Absolutely!

Is it worth it to you? Can you lose a little sleep to build your internet business late at night so you don’t interfere with important family time? You can find the time if it is really important to you. It doesn’t matter when your best time of the day is. Just find the best time for you and take action. Stay focused and be persistent. If you can, work your internet business in peace and quiet. You will get more done when you are not getting distracted.

- Hill Robertson

One way to get traffic to your blog or website is by having visitors “stumble” your blog entries by submitting them to stumbleupon.com. You will probably get quite a few visitors from StumbleUpon if someone submits one of your posts. While the traffic isn’t ideal, you will at least get visitors that have an interest in the topic of your blog. This should at least give you a little better chance of the visitor staying on your site instead of bouncing away.

If you don’t have an account already, you should set up account at StumbleUpon. It is simple to do and you can specify the types of sites you like. You install a toolbar on your browser so you can easily give a review of any site you find interesting and want others to know about. You’ll want to be careful about stumbling your own site. It is frowned upon in the StumbleUpon community. Self promotion in this case is not necessarily a good thing. It might even get you banned if it is abused in this way. However, you can encourage others to stumble your posts.

I just added a StumbleUpon link at the bottom of my blog postings to encourage visitors to click on it and write a short review. You can do the same for your blog or website to hopefully increase your traffic.

You will also have a Stumble button on the toolbar. If you click on it, you will be taken to a randomly selected site that has already been submitted to StumbleUpon that meets the criteria of your selected topics as listed in your profile. You may find some really interesting web sites that you never would have found otherwise. Then, you can give them a thumbs up or thumbs down depending if you liked the site or not.

Stumbling around the internet can be very interesting. However, be careful when doing it because it can be a major form of distraction. Before you know it, you will have stumbled away to some really cool and entertaining site and wasted hours of time instead of focusing on building your internet business.

- Hill Robertson

As I have stated several times on this blog, I am primarily a Linux and OS X geek. However, running several web design and hosting companies, I need to have a wide variety of OS platforms available so I can see how the websites look in many different browsers and in many different environments.

Obviously, one of the most prevalent operating systems is Microsoft Windows. Unfortunately, about the only reason I ever need to run Windows is to be able to test websites in Internet Explorer. In addition to testing Internet Explorer using XP, I must also test it using Vista (and any other derivatives such as 64-bit versions and such). I have to test Firefox as well as some lesser known browsers. I also test various browsers under Apple OS X and well as different flavors of Linux.

Having to test in all of these environments is enough of a pain as it is but if I had to have a room full of PCs with all of these combinations, it would be ridiculous. So, how to be best handle this issue? Virtualization

There are two competing products (VMware and Parallels) that give us the ability to run a computer inside of a computer (to put it in simple terms). These “inside” computers are called virtual machines. The virtualization software basically creates a software version of a PCs hardware. Then when an OS is installed or loaded in one of these virtual machines, it “thinks” it is running on real hardware even though it is software telling the OS that it is hardware. Are you confused yet?

Virtual machines have actually been around for several years but it was sometimes difficult to get the software running properly and the hardware requirements of the host machine were beyond most consumer PCs. However, today with memory being inexpensive, processors getting faster, and processors being able to handle virtualization in the hardware itself, it is becoming a lot more feasible and in many cases essential to use Virtual Machine technology.

Using this technology, I can be running Apple OS X as my primary (host) OS with a virtual machine running Windows XP, another virtual machine running Windows Vista, another virtual machine running Ubuntu Linux, and another running Red Hat, and so forth and so on. Also, I can save a “snapshot” of each virtual machine at a given time that I can always revert back to. These snapshots are ideal for things such as keeping a version of Windows with Internet Explorer version 6 before upgrading to Internet Explorer 7. This way, I can load up either image to test either version.

Virtual machines usually boot up faster than if they are on “real” hardware and if they crash for some reason, it is just the virtual machine that crashes. The host operating system keeps running.

One of the biggest benefits to me is if I am using my Mac, I can run all three major operating systems at the same time. They all act just like real machines all networked together.

I could go on and on about all of the benefits but it would turn into an entire book (hmmmm - maybe an ebook….) If virtual machines sound like something you may be interested in, check out Parallels or VMware.

When using virtual machines to run all the major operating systems all on the same hardware, you can have your cake and eat it too.

- Hill Robertson

Are you reading one money making blog after another looking for the one that tells you the quick and easy way to make money online? Are you curiously meandering through all kinds of money making forums looking for the next new thing so you can get in on the action early to make the big bucks? Do you think all these other successful entrepreneurs just happened to get in at the right time in the right market?

Most people that want to make money online just play the internet business game. They are not serious about it. They may even set up a blog where they write posts every now and then. They may even put an affiliate link or two on the site. But they never really stick with it or put enough into it to be successful. It is not a game. You can’t just dilly dally with it and one day just magically generate enough income to quit your job. It is a business. You must treat it like one. You must work diligently. You will not make a million dollars over night. It may even be a little frustrating sometimes when you write post after post and spend a lot of time working on getting traffic to your site only to see that no one signs up for your blog.

You look at the “gurus” of the online money making and dream of doing the same thing. You see how well they are doing with their subscriber lists of 3000 or more while you sit there with 2 subscribers (which happen to be you and your spouse) after 2 months of blogging and submitting articles. You start looking at the 3000 compared to your 2 and you get discouraged. You start to think it is not worth it. This is where most people quit (if they even made it that far).

You have to keep doing the right things over and over to get results. It is not quick or easy. It will take some work and time. Remember, you are building a business. It is not a game. Just hang in there. You will start to see the benefits. Maybe tomorrow is the day you will get that third subscriber (and a real one that is not one of your family or friends). Maybe a few days after that you get 2 or 3 more. It takes time but it is an exciting journey.

The bottom line is you need to take action, be persistent, and never give up. Keep testing different things to improve your results. You will get better and better every day if you don’t give up. The better you get, the better your results will be and you will start to build up a snowball effect that will grow bigger and go faster until you can’t stop it if you wanted to.

So, are you just playing the internet business game or are you serious about it? Only you can make the choices that result in a game or a successful business.

- Hill Robertson

To run a successful internet business, you need to value your time and understand what it is worth to you. If you really take time to think about it, you are probably spending a lot of time on “business activities” that you can better outsource or otherwise take the load off your own plate. It can be easy to get in this trap because you feel like you are working on your business and taking the next step. You may very well be doing that. However, can you spend that time on something more productive that you can’t outsource? Let’s look at this in more detail.

When I started my internet businesses, there were many services I could have outsourced easily. There was also software I should have bought to be able to do certain tasks of my business. Instead, I looked at the cost involved in outsourcing the services and purchasing software. So, in order to “save” money, I would write my own software that would accomplish the same goal as the services and software. But did I really save?

I would find a software product that would help me do a certain business task that I needed to do. It would cost $200. I knew I could write my own software to do the same thing. I would code it up myself so I wouldn’t have to spend the $200. However, it would take me 40 hours to complete the software. Let’s see, that is $200/40 hours. That works out to $5/hour. That is less than minimum wage! I haven’t worked for minimum wage since I was 16 years old. I certainly wouldn’t want to work for that today. Yet, that is exactly what I was doing. In addition, I lost that 40 hours that I could have spent with my family. That 40 hours is gone forever. All for a measly $200.

Of course, if you are starting out and don’t have any money, you may have to go this route to some degree. But really think about the value of your time compared to what it would cost to accomplish the same task through outsourcing in some way or another. There is a cost to everything whether it costs money, time, or both. You can always make more money but the time is gone forever. Think about how you are spending both and then spend your money and time wisely.

- Hill Robertson

Have you subscribed to this blog yet? If you haven’t yet subscribed to this blog, now is the time to do it. The best way is to fill out your name and email address in the subscribe area at the top right of this blog to get email notifications. You get several benefits by signing up for email notifications as follows:

• The popup box will not annoy you any more (see No Aweber Popup for Subscribers Procedure for more info)
• You will get passwords for special private blog posts
• You may get product offers earlier or at more of a discount than those who are not subscribed
• You may get other bonuses that I decide to give at any random time

If you don’t subscribe, you may just miss an awesome deal. Go ahead and subscribe to get updated with great success related information and products. There is no obligation and remember, I will never give or sell your information to anyone, guaranteed!

Subscribe and Enjoy!

- Hill Robertson

The No Aweber Popup for Subscribers Procedure is really taking off. Thanks to everyone who has given me such great comments and posts on their blogs. I left it at $10 for a while since I wanted to give everyone a shot at the low price after I had to remove it temporarily during the first launch. I didn’t feel right after a few comments were made about the sales page not being clear enough about using cookies. So I took it down until I got the sales page more accurate. Now that everything seems to be going good and there is no more confusion, I’m starting the special again and relaunching it.

The special will keep the price at the ridiculously low $10 for another 24 hours. Then, at 11:59 PM EST on Thursday (1/17/08), the price will go up to $35 as the normal price (which is still a great value). Be sure to get it before the special expires.

I also would like some testimonials from those of you who have the procedure. If I use your testimonial on the sales page, I will give you a refund on your purchase so yours will be free.

Here is the link again:

http://hillrobertson.com/aweberNoPopup

Now stop those popups!

- Hill Robertson