Writing a Business Plan - Waste of Time? | Small Business

“Things you DON’T Need to Launch Your Business” claims that you don’t need a business to make your first sale. But you might want one. Here's Why.

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Social + Business = Good Idea

I'm exploring even more social networking ideas and social marketing techniques that I'll be publishing on in the next few weeks.

While I've done business online, and I've been social online, I've never really combined the two.

I'm looking forward to seeing the outcomes!

Sincerely,

Meg Meyer

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The Center of Muse - Members get classes, e-courses, discounts, and freebies to help improve their lives.
Small Business Services | Executive Business Coach - My company that helps other entrepreneurs and small businesses be more productive and profitable without the expense or hassle of hiring employees.
AN Hosting - Host up to 20 domains on 25 GIGS of space, with 250 GIGS of bandwith for only $6.95.

My Lenses - Writing, Retreats, Travel, Business

What Customers Want [article]

Small Business Owner - your job is to find out what your customers want, and give it to them. Seems like a no-brainer, but most business owners get it wrong. Learn how to do it better.

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Coaching, Training, Learn Internet Marketing - Free

Sign-ups for the pre-season of the 30 Day Challenge by Ed Dale - where participants will make their first dollar online. New members who sign up and join Team Inspiration In Action will receive 30 days of Business Coaching by Meg Meyer, in addition to Internet Marketing Training.

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Holly Lisle launches course on Beating Writer's Block

It may not seem like prolific fantasy author Holly Lisle could ever have struggled with writer's block when you consider that she has churned out 30 books in 16 years. But her career was nearly scuttled when she became a single mother and sole breadwinner. How do you keep writing professionally in a situation like that? Holly dug deep and won out.

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US Gasoline Price heat map

Now you can see what gas prices are around the country at a glance. Areas are color coded according to their price for the average price for regular unleaded gasoline. Also Available, the Canada National Gasoline price heat map.

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I Dugg: Small Business Services - Summer Start-Up Support Special

50% of businesses fail in the first five years. Many of them within the first year. After studying the reasons businesses fail - enters the new "Summer School" Small Business Start-Up intensive to help new business owners start-up right! Money back guarantee for motivated entrepreneurs. Build your business the right way.

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Balancing Affiliate Marketing And Relationship With Your Readers

Which comes first the money or the readers? Trust is a fickle thing. It takes a lifetime to gain and a moment to ruin.

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Blog Book Tours

Also known as a Virtual Book Tour, more and more publishing companies and authors are using the Internet to connect with their readers and fans. Not only is it more convenient for everyone, it is environmentally friendly. Drop by often for the latest new books and fascinating author interviews.

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Using Digg for your Home Based Business

When you run a home based business or a web based business - Traffic Equals Money. Here are seven ways to use Digg to gain exposure, to network, and to drive up traffic (and sales!) to your website.

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Controlling the rhythm of your writing

Rhythm is used to great effect in poetry, but fiction writers sometimes ignore the rhythm they are producing when they write. An unintentional cadence can jar the reader, whereas clever use of rhythm can speed a piece of text up or slow it down.

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Freelance Writer wannabes - Read This!

Get the tips you need to get real about your skill and improve your abilities. Get more freelance writing gigs when you take these three tips into consideration. No matter where you are and what your success level, you can do certain things to get more paying assignments. * Top freelancers make more than $100,000 per year!

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Avoid Scam Business Opportunities

You want to start your own home business, and you know you don't want to spend a lot of money to start - how do you know how to smell the scams and avoid them? 7 tips for weeding out the scams and schemes and picking the right - legitimate - business opportunities that will make you money.

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It's been a while...

I've been so focused on other writing projects... see below... that I haven't been keeping up with this blog.

In the Writing Tips arena... I've got a couple of articles that might interest you.

Six Essential Steps to Take Before You Apply for that Writing Gig

Writers - How to Expand Your Audience

Sincerely,

Meg Meyer

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You might also like:
The Center of Muse - Writing, Design, Motivation & Coaching for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Small & Home Based Businesses.
MegMeyer.com - My personal writing & independent contracting site. Sign up for Writers Groups here.
AN Hosting - Host up to 20 domains on 25 GIGS of space, with 250 GIGS of bandwith for only $6.95.
A Global Community - An Economic Network. Share in growing the community, share in the revenue.
My Lenses - Writing, Retreats, Travel, Business

Six Essential Steps to Take Before You Apply for That Writing Gig

You've decided to try your hand at professional writing. Or you've been trying, but can't seem to get your big break. Use these six essential steps before you apply for that next writing job. Just a little foresight and planning can make all the difference & win you the gig.

read more | digg story

Six Essential Steps to Take Before You Apply for That Writing Gig

You've decided to try your hand at professional writing. Or you've been trying, but can't seem to get your big break. Use these six essential steps before you apply for that next writing job. Just a little foresight and planning can make all the difference & win you the gig.

read more | digg story

New gig as Editor

I've got a new gig as the Editor of the Business Coach site of BellaOnline, the 2nd largest women's site on the net.

I'm pretty excited about it. Feel free to visit through the link below.

Sincerely,

Meg Meyer

You might also like:
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You might also like:
The Center of Muse - Writing, Design, Motivation & Coaching for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Small & Home Based Businesses.
MegMeyer.com - My personal writing & independent contracting site. Sign up for Writers Groups here.
AN Hosting - Host up to 20 domains on 25 GIGS of space, with 250 GIGS of bandwith for only $6.95.
A Global Community - An Economic Network. Share in growing the community, share in the revenue.
My Lens & Portal to more. - Writing, Retreats, Travel, Business
Meg is the Business Coach of BellaOnline

Writing, Reading, Many, Many Words

In the recent weeks, I've been spending some time away from this blog. So, for those of you who haven't made it over to The Center of Muse, here's what I've been up to.

I submitted several new articles to Associated Content.

My Lenses on Squidoo are doing very well. Particularly my shameless self promotion lens.

I've been playing around with Php & WordPress on my main business blog.

The decision to move my google-hosted site to a professional award-winning host.

Oh yeah, I finally updated myTechnorati Profile to include this very blog!

Sincerely,

Meg Meyer

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You might also like:
The Center of Muse - Writing, Design, Motivation & Coaching for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Small & Home Based Businesses.
MegMeyer.com - My personal writing & independent contracting site. Sign up for Writers Groups here.
AN Hosting - Host up to 20 domains on 25 GIGS of space, with 250 GIGS of bandwith for only $6.95.
A Global Community - An Economic Network. Share in growing the community, share in the revenue.
My Lenses - Writing, Retreats, Travel, Business

Organization beats Overwhelm

I've been bombarded with so many ideas of things to write about, reviews, op/ed, social commentary, that I almost have paralysis.

Time for organization & planning, with a side of freewriting.

Sometimes, in a moment of overwhelm, I just get everything OUT, and then organize it into articles and figure out what I want to write or pitch first.

That's how MY decision making process works.

What about yours?

Sincerely,

Meg Meyer

You might also like:
*************************************
You might also like:
The Center of Muse - Writing, Design, Motivation & Coaching for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Small & Home Based Businesses.
MegMeyer.com - My personal writing & independent contracting site. Sign up for Writers Groups here.
AN Hosting - Host up to 20 domains on 25 GIGS of space, with 250 GIGS of bandwith for only $6.95.
A Global Community - An Economic Network. Share in growing the community, share in the revenue.
My Lenses - Writing, Retreats, Travel, Business

Outgrowing Google

In my Exploring Internet Technology series, I've opened different blogs, websites, network in research projects, using different technologies for each. Because when I make a recommendation I want to have as much first hand experience and accurate (to me) information, as I can, for the benefit of my clients and "five" readers.

I started with my evaluation of the Google family of products, back in December. I won MegMeyer.com in an auction, when it became available. (It was previously owned by someone who only had up a few pictures, and it had sat like that for as long as I can remember. If this is YOU, let me know, I'll give you space to host your personal site.) I knew I needed more time to pick a professional host, so I opted to host the "Pre-launch" phase of the site on Google, with their "Applications for Domains."

The suite of products includes personalized Gmail, start page, calendar, IM, and webpages.

The email, start page and all were easy to set up & I've been very happy with them. I'll likely keep my email hosted with Gmail for quite some time.

Due to constraints of my registrar, however, and not exactly helpful help on the Google Group that I posed my questions to - I had quite a difficult time getting the website verified, and had an ugly web address for quite a while.

At first, I didn't mind having www.megmeyer.com-a.googlepages.com as my website name. I was still building the site, playing with page creator, and hadn't publicized it at all, except to a few close friends. But as I got ready to launch, and was able to point www.megmeyer.com to my Google hosted site, the issues started to show up. Page Creator still publishes to the longer, uglier name. Even though, my domain is verified as mine. And while we can access the site through either address, typing certain individual pages into the address bar produces 404 errors.

And since I've spent more time into researching what is out there, I've come upon my ideal solution. AN Hosting is where I'll likely move, for my web hosting. Their list of features, awards, and price are all ideal. With 25 gigs of space, 250, gigs of bandwith, I can host up to 20 sites and never reach the end of that amount. I also like that the servers are located in Chicago, IL.

I'll still utilize Google's other Apps, like gmail, calendar, docs, and Adsense, but I've outgrown them as a viable host for my businesses.

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You might also like:
The Center of Muse - Writing, Design, Motivation & Coaching for Entrepreneurs, Freelancers, Small & Home Based Businesses.
MegMeyer.com - My personal writing & independent contracting site. Sign up for Writers Groups here.
AN Hosting - Host up to 20 domains on 25 GIGS of space, with 250 GIGS of bandwith for only $6.95.
A Global Community - An Economic Network. Share in growing the community, share in the revenue.
My Lenses - Writing, Retreats, Travel, Business