Policy Politeness

My significant other worked at one of the biggest hospitals in the city.  And although she loves helping people, it seems like she prefered working at a smaller doctors office. Why? Too many hospital policies, or shall I say, the mismanagement of too many policies.

One of the biggest culprits was the hospital’s policy on HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and the employees responsibilities regarding the same.Then there were other policies that seemed old and outdated in one part of the hospital but were current in others.  It’s as if the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing, which lead to some employees dissatisfaction, and worst – patient safety issues.  Add to that she worked with resident doctors, who were just learning to practicing medicine, and you can imagine how stressful it was to to work there.  Needless to say, she left and started working at a private practice.

But the reason why I bring this is up is because most of this could of been avoided.  There are some pretty cool policy managment software solutions out there that streamline how hospitals create, update, train on and enforce policy. Thus, hospitals become more organized, have happier employees which results in improved patient safety and overall healthcare quality.  All these operating efficiencies come through because of the addition of a single piece of policy software.

Is this niche undeserved? You be the judge…

Colocation Services

As an online business, you no doubt have begun receiving all sorts of propositions. Today I learned a new term: colocation. It deals with web hosting but is not cloud storage, which is, as we  recently wrote, storing/backing-up your files on a services web servers.  While managed web hosting means you are leasing offsite web servers from a data center, colocation is the term used to describe when a web-based business owns their own servers but wants to house them off-site in an enterprise-class facility.

Why would a business want to do that? To free themselves from liability.  What if your building was broken into, lost power or heaven forbid, had a fire? You might lose everything.  With colocation, your own dedicated servers are taken and stored in a secure, fire protected data center, one with high-performance bandwidth, all the redundant power backups you can think of  for outage protection (many guarantee 10o% uptimes) and with adequate space and temperature controls. But there is also the cost-savings benefit. Since your servers are managed off-site by someone else, you don’t need your own dedicated IT department. In addition, you can upgrade or downgrade your hardware needs as your needs change, all from a shared and rented space.

All this means colocation is footsep in the right direction for your business – a very valuable business proposition indeed.

Sustainable Niche

Most of us have had the misfortune of  visiting either a doctor’s office or a hospital at least once in our lifetime. And why was that medical facility there? Aside from trying to helping people, it was there because medicine is a very lucrative business.   Think about it: what are the chances of doctors running out of sick people to treat? None! In essence then, its a sustainable niche.

What if you had a part in such a niche? Think for instance on how many nurses there are, and how many new people join the medical ranks every year.  If you promoted something they would need, you would have an unlimited number of conversions.  And we are not talking about stethoscopes (although that would be a great niche too). But how many stethoscopes does one person need? No, I’m thinking a more lucrative venture.

I’m referring to something doctors and nurses need to use everyday, a DIFFERENT one everyday. This would produce multiple sales from the same persons: medical scrubs clothing or uniforms.  Nurses, physician assistants and medical assistants need a different one for every day of the week. As as example, check these out: http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/

So there you have it – a sustainable niche.  May it provide good fortune (and health) to you…

Back It Up

What is one of the biggest self-inflicted threats to any business? Data loss.  Imagine your computer (or just your hard drive) decides to poop out on ya at the worst possible time.  If you don’t have a backup (and few people do frequent backups),  very important data could be lost, costing you a lot of time and/or money.

I learned this the hard way last year when my hard disk failed on my 5 year old Dell Dimension PC.  I did have an external data storage drive, BUT I hadn’t done a back up in months because the drive’s power cord broke and I never got it replaced

That really got me to think about online backup storage services. There are many benefits to cloud storage: no need to buy/maintain extra hardware; easy connectivity that is always on (especially in this day and age of high-speed internet access) and since its online, you can connect to your files from anywhere, including your smartphone.

Some things to look for when choosing a provider are  secure ftp hosting service, no bandwith and file type restrictions (for backing up everything from a business plan, to your childs 1st walk video) and cheap pricing.  This space is very competitive, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find one that is right for you. But trust me, back up your stuff ASAP.  One day you’ll thank me…

Trade It Up

I recently had a conversation with an old family friend.  He’s at retirement age and I thought he was going to retire.  But as it turns out, after decades of punching a clock, he failed to prepare for this special time of his life.  So instead of enjoying the fruits of his labor, he still needs to find suitable employment.  And that brings me to this post.  As affiliates, we can make a lot of money, but  if we get stuck on ‘live-for-today’ mentality, we may not sock enough funds for tomorrow and that could potentially lead to a rude awakening.

So what are your options? If you still work for someone, make use of their 401k program.  If you don’t, you can have your own retirement account (IRA, Keogh, etc.). With the Real Estate/Economy debacle, now is good time to buy Real Estate, which traditionally is a good investment vehicle for the long haul. The U.S. Department of Labor provides some tips on ways to prepare for retirement, regardless of age. But a time tested method for reaping wealth longterm is the good ole’ stock market, and trading stock has never been easier since the advent of the Web (and now mobile trading).

Most people appreciate the fact that stock trading is profitable after some homework or due diligence.  A stock is a liquid asset, and the stock market has, on average, always provided yearly returns in the double digits. And although online stock trading is usually done through speculation, there are some strategies that help investors make the best out of the available opportunities. Retirement isn’t cheap and inflation can zap your portfolios value. Some gurus say you’ll need to shoot for at least seventy percent of your preretirement income. So plan on a specific target amount you want to have and build your portfolio accordingly. Diversify your portfolio to minimize risk. Leverage trading software to maximize your returns. These systems help you by spreading your risk around while allowing you to have full-control of your investments.

And when in doubt, seek professional help out.  It is generally advisable to use a reliable brokerage firm. Seek a discount online brokerage firm that offers online and mobile trading of Stock, Options, Mutual Funds, ETFs, Bonds etc. Brokers play a very important role in this industry. They should be able to provide real time information, execute orders efficiently and provide ongoing financial advice to help in your decisions.

So plan ahead and trade it up!.  You and your family will be glad you did…

Another Niche

The Halloween Niche is a great place to start making money online. In 2009 the Halloween niche did $4.7 billion in costume sales. While the average sale for this year was down by 18% the costume budget average has jumped up to $66 which is $10 more than the previous year.  Considering that this holiday is not just a US holiday but it is also celebrated in many different  countries around the world  like England, Scotland, New Zealand, Canada, some parts of Western Europe , Eastern Europe and the Middle East just to name a few. Do you think you can make Money in the Halloween niche phenomena?

The great thing about the Halloween niche is that it’s one of the easier niches to start with when you are pursuing niche marketing in my opinion. There are a few reasons why I believe this; the first reason is because the competition for Halloween niche marketing is not as fierce as other niches. You can quickly and easily rank for Halloween related websites in Google or other search engines by using Keyword Driven domains.   The benefit is that you should rank in Google fairly easily for your related keyword.  The Result will be that you’ll get more traffic which in turn can convert into sales for you.

The second reason I love the Halloween niche is because it has an abundance of affiliate programs that are available for you to use like Amazon, eBay, Anytime Costumes, Spirit Halloween, and my favorite is BuyCostumes (their starting commission start at 10% and can go as high as 25%). You can join their affiliate program by going into commission Junction at CJ.com which is easy to do. When you are inside CJ all you have to do is opt in by going to get links then click on general categories and search for BuyCostumes. The main reason I like BuyCostumes so much is that they have a great affiliate program, they have dedicated affiliate managers that would help you in whatever you need, their affiliate center has a lot of features and options that you can use to help you with your Halloween website.

The third reason I like the Halloween niche so much is that there really isn’t a shortage of keywords that you can target and promote your Halloween sites with. Using Amazon, or BuyCostumes you can find hundreds of Halloween costumes ideas that you can promote, this can make your life a lot easier because you’re not targeting a keyword like “Halloween Costumes” which is extremely competitive, but rather you will be targeting a keyword like “Fairy Halloween Costumes” which has less competition but it’s highly targeted and very specific keyword for people looking for that specific costume.

So to summarize it all up for you: basically all you have to do is sign up for Commission Junction account: opt in for BuyCostumes Affiliate program. Do some keyword research in the Halloween niche; pick a handful of keywords that you wish to target. Build your websites with those targeted specific keywords just remember it doesn’t have to be a big website it can be only a couple of pages and you’ll be fine. Once you get all that done enter your affiliate links into your website and your done.

Now let’s talk about link building there are few ways that you can get your links to your website using free methods that I use, First is social bookmarking like propeller, digg and stumble upon or you can use social media sites like twitter and Facebook.

Another Way That You Can Promote Your Sites by creating videos and posting them on video sharing sites like You Tube. I would recommend that you use a video submission site like Tube Mogul so your video will be submitted to various video sharing sites.

You can also write articles, post them on article submission sites like Go Articles and EzineArticles, Make sure you write useful information that can help people and educate them in some way. Then place your link to your site in the resource area pointing back to your site. A side benefit about submitting articles to an article submission site is that if someone wants to place your article on their site they need to copy it entirely including your resource box which has your link in it which will get you free backlinks as well.

You can also set up a general Halloween Costumes | Plus Size Costumes | Childrens Costumes information blog using Blogger or HubPages and build some backlinks using that site to yours. But I wouldn’t dwell too much on back linking having a couple backlinks should be enough to rank well for keyword specific driven sites. But I would rather you do is continue building new sites and move forward it’s always a numbers game so the more websites you have the more you stand in making more money just remember that every websites not to be successful but if you stick to the basics that I have lined out for you I believe you can do pretty well within the Halloween niche.

-Mario Soto

Parts Galore!

I just retured from a cruise to find out my washing machine is backing up.  Water seemed to be regurgitating all over my laundry area.  Thank goodness the floor is tiled!

So I did some research online on my old washer and found that sometimes a fill valve gets stuck, causing the water to keep coming out.  Then it hit me: could this be an underserved niche? Parts for washer gets about 300,000 searches a month on Google.  And during these uncertain economic times, people are thrifty, maximizing the lifespan of their belongings, including appliances. Problem is, it’s a very competitive market, but an interesting one, nonetheless. There are couple of appliance parts associations within the industry, so this may require additional study.

In any case, back to my washer problem: I ran some more loads and noticed that the water was backing up from the drain, not the washer itself.  Turns out I had a bad drain hose. It was a flimsy one I bought when I moved into the house a few months ago. A quick search for laundry machine parts provided a couple of e-tailers with the right hose on the cheap.  But as usual, when buying online, make sure you get a better deal than you would at a local store when you take into consideration shipping charges. Problem solved, for now…

See The Light

This post brought to you by Net10. All opinions are 100% mine.

As I was doing some research on new affiliate programs, I came across a niche that really honed in on the fact of how my cell phone carrier is giving me a horrible deal on my plan.  I pay for a 1400 minute cell phone plan, PLUS $30 a month unlimited data and that DOES NOT include text messaging.

What did I learn? I learn that there are so many other virtual network operators whose plans provide great coverage at a fraction of what I’m paying.  Take Net10, as an example. Yes, it’s airtime card based, but so  what?   There are no contracts, credit checks, monthly fees, security deposits, activation or deactivation charges, or age restrictions. And you get nationwide coverage, unlimited talk, text AND data for $50 a month!! :O That’s almost 2.5X more than what I pay! see the Light go on now?

Their phones aren’t Chinese, rinky dink knock-offs either.  You can have your pick from leading manufactures such as LG, Motorola, Nokia and Samsung with the bells and whistles you are accustomed too from the more expensive carriers such as bluetooth, a camera, mobile web, etc.

Oh and if you have family outside the country, say in Canada or Mexico, you can get  a special number for them to call you on. Check out this  real NET10 customer.

Net10 provides an awesome value with little to nothing to lose, hence their slogan No Bills, No Contracts, No Evil. What a great niche indeed