That Network Entrepreneurship Blog
How to Launch a Successful User Generated Content Site - Step 1
I've decided to launch a new Web site. I know, I know, "who cares?" People launch new sites all the time. What makes this site any different?
First, I'm going to document the site launch on here. I'm going to tell you how I do it in a couple of easy steps. You will learn the secrets behind launching a (hopefully) large scale advertising-supported content-rich site. You will learn the steps necessary to create the site, where I get content, how the site design and build progresses, how I launch and market the site, and how I build the site quickly to tens of thousands of visitors.
First Steps - What Are We Here For?
The first step in launching a new Web site is to figure what niche are you going to serve and what is going to make your site different. I frequently meet with people who want to learn how to launch their own successful site and I always tell them to pick a niche. Do not go for the broad market as people will get lost in what you're offering and you won't be able to earn enough ad income to satisfy your needs. Of course, I frequently violate this very rule (Learnthat.com, MyTutorials) - but how is life any fun if you can't break your own rules. The flipside is this: if you want a big-monster-of-a-site, you really have to go broad. I have the patience to let it grow and I have an asset few others have.
Launching a New Site on Another Web Site
I'll admit it: I'm going to cheat when I launch this new site. It's going to be on
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Creating a Great Logo
One of the most difficult parts of designing a new website or starting a new business is creating a great logo. A great logo presents an image for your business which can mean success or failure with a client. In this article, I’m going to break down the tips and hints I think are necessary to design a great logo and build an image which will work well for your business. To achieve this goal, I’m going to use a couple different logos and break them down into the elements which make them successful.
We’re going to focus on building a logo for a business, but the same techniques can be used to build a logo for a website, a campaign, or a new project.
Business Information
When you start out to create your logo, you need to know some information about your business. For this article, I’m going to explore creating a logo for Explore Startups, a website which provides free business ideas, free business plans, and entrepreneurship articles on how to start your own business.
1. Business/Product/Service Name: ExploreStartups.com
2. Business Slogan: Find Your New Business
3. Feelings Conveyed: Seeking out your new business, adventure, starting out, professional
4. Contemporary / Traditional / Elegant: Contemporary
5. Color Scheme: Dark Red & Dark Green, Blues
6. Preferred Fonts: None ...
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Certified MBA: Should Grads Get Certified?
As a recent MBA graduate, I have the fortunate experience of having the degree fresh in my mind. I interacted with a variety of people over the last two years with various experiences, strengths, and weaknesses. I went to The Ohio State University for my MBA, but have many friends who received their MBA from schools ranging from a top 5 school to University of Phoenix. I run a business and am looking at different career opportunities and wondered, "does an MBA certification make sense?"
I am a web technologist at heart and the MBA doesn't appear to carry much weight with hiring managers in the IT field. Most of them seem to appreciate it, but it doesn't seem to add to the scorecard in the hiring process. With such a large number of MBA graduates each year and a wide disparity in the education they receive, does it make sense to certify MBA grads with a standardized exam? Will this give employers a method to objectively review candidates?
We all know every MBA is not the same. You get a different experience depending on the school you go to, whether or not it is online, if you go full-time or part-time, and even the groups you are placed in (or choose). Some of the most intelligent and creative guys I know that went for an MBA did an online MBA one due to circumstances in their lives, however, these still are some of the most creative and intelligent business people I know. Would an MBA certification help them get ahead?
Why Get Your MBA?
In determining whether or not an MBA certification would be helpful, let's look at why people receive an MBA. People typically fall into one of these categories: career change, ladder climb, or status changer.
Career Change: many of the people I met (especially the ...
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HelpThat.com: Get Your Questions Answered
I have been working this week on a new site: HelpThat.com. HelpThat is a general questions and answers site.
HelpThat.com will help you get your questions answered by allowing you to post your questions for free for experts to respond to. It is a free way to get your questions answered in any number of topics. With HelpThat.com, you can:
Ask a Question
Ask a question to the community of experts on HelpThat.com. You can ask just about anything - and provide tags which will help people find your question and the answers other members of the community will provide.
Answer a Question
Share all those nuggets of wisdom you've collected over the years. HelpThat.com has a points system that allows people to assign a number of points to a question which you will be awarded with the best answer provided to a question. You have information other people need!
Discover Knowledge
Browse questions and answers from the HelpThat.com community. Learn what other people want to know and the information others can provide. Reading questions and answers on HelpThat.com will provide you insights into the global community and those around you.
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CompTIA Network+ 2008 Certification
The CompTIA Network+ certification is over a decade old and has seen several changes over the years. The last revision was 2005 (with minor updates in 2007), but CompTIA is currently preparing a major revision of the exam: the CompTIA Network+ 2008 certification. This revision will not only update the exam to include newer technologies and best practices, but will also reorganize the exam and create added focus on Security.
The CompTIA Network+ 2005 exam had four major domains:
- Media and Topologies (20%)
- Protocols and Standards (20%)
- Network Implementation (25%)
- Network Support (35%)
CompTIA is expanding these domains to a total of six domains with the 2008 release (final specs not yet released):
- Network Technologies
- Network Media and Topologies
- Network Devices
- Network Management
- Network Tools
- Network Security
One of the benefits we see for individuals pursuing the 2008 version of the Network+ is the enhanced focus on the hands-on aspect of network troubleshooting. By breaking out Network Tools and Network Security, CompTIA chose to increase focus and exposure on these two critical areas.
As with the 2005 version of the certification, the 2008 Network+ certification is for networking technicians with 9-12 months of experience who have achieved an A+ certification.
We're currently working on the next edition of our free Network+ tutorial, covering the anticipated 2008 objectives over on Learnthat.com. We'll post a new entry here when it's finished.
UPDATED: We've started the
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Annual Performance Reviews Sample Comments: Phrases for How to Say It
Since my post on Annual Performance Reviews, I have had several requests to provide sample comments managers can use on the annual performance evaluation to best describe their employees. I decided to sit down and write out some comments that you can use if you are stuck with exactly the right way to say it. Writing out a dozen performance reviews can be hard enough, yet alone coming up with the best way to say things without it being taken the wrong way!
I decided this would be a list of the good, bad, and ugly, so I hope it helps you as you begin to review your employees. These phrases for effective performance reviews can be slightly altered as needed for your employee appraisals.
Attendance and Punctuality
Positive
Jim has been a valued member of team by always being someone we can count on. Jim's attention to his attendance and punctuality has made our team function much better over the past year.
Tim is very reliable in his attendedance and consistently shows up on time.
Janet begins each day refreshed and ready for any of the challenges she faces.
George always ensures his employees adhere to their lunch schedules and breaks.
Negative
Todd is continually late for work and should work on this over the next few months to improve in this area.
Heather fails to show up to work on time and keep a normal work schedule.
Timothy leads meetings which frequently run beyond their alotted time. Over the next year, Timothy should ensure that his meetings start and end on time.
Jane consistently runs late from her breaks and needs to ensure the breaks ...
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Annual Performance Reviews: How to Get the Most Out of Your Employees
One of the times of the year some managers dread is annual performance review time. Unfortunately, we often do not provide frequent enough informal reviews to our employees and have to pop everything on them one time a year. Do you keep track of the accomplishments of your employees throughout the year? Do you correct "on the spot", or save it for a once-a-year bitchfest? Do you keep track of your own accomplishments throughout the year?
More Frequent Performance Reviews
One way you can mitigate the Annual Performance Review Blues is to provide more frequent performance reviews. When I managed a PC Support team at a large corporation, I would often provide quarterly quick review sessions with my employees. This provided them an opportunity to see how I, and their upper management, views their performance, accomplishments, and problems. Many times these were revealing and difficult sessions, but when annual performance review time came, none of what I said was a surprise.
These frequent performance reviews can be written or just verbal, but I always kept written notes of them to ease the pain of writing a dozen reviews at the HR-mandated performance review period.
If the Performance Review is a Surprise, You're Not Doing Your Job
If you walk into a performance review meeting with your employee and the employee is shocked by what you say - you're not doing your job as a manager. The role of the manager is to ensure tasks get accomplished, while motivating and correcting employees to achieve those tasks. Employees should have a rough idea of how they are performing throughout the year so when the annual review time comes around, they are not shocked from the outcome.
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Being Grateful Even When There are Problems
I love my businss but there are times when it's difficult to enjoy it. When money gets tight, or a business partner disappoints, or when things aren't going according to plan, it's easy to become dissatisfied, unhappy, and ungrateful.
My wife read a chapter to me this morning from Max Lucado's new book, Every Day Deserves a Chance: Gratitude for Ungrateful Days. The chapter discussed how to be grateful even when things aren't going your way or even when you're having problems or in a difficult stretch of the business. Max quotes management consultant Robert Updegraff:
You ought to be glad for the troubles on your job because they provide about half your income. If it were not for the things that go wrong, the difficult people with whom you deal, and the problems of your working day, someone could be found to handle your job for half of what you are being paid. So start looking for more troubles. Learn to handle them cheerfully and with good judgment, as opportunities rather than irritations, and you will find yourself getting ahead at a surprising rate. For there are plenty of big jobs waiting for people who are not afraid of troubles.
It is an interesting perspective - especially for those of us that own our own businesses - the troubles of your business are half of what makes up your success. As we used to joke, "Ya know, if we didn't have all these customers, boy we'd be able to get our work done!" Those customers, and the problems they sometimes bring, are the lifeblood of our businesses and we should be grateful the next time we have a customer complaining. We should be grateful the next time ...
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Site Spotlight: Romancetips.com - Romantic Tips and Advice
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I was 21 at the time and had a great collection of romantic tips that I couldn't find elsewhere on the web. I decided to put them up on the web at my ISP's webhosting space, and eventually moved them to a hosting account when I purchased the domain Romancetips.com.
As you can see, Romancetips.com has evolved many times since its humble beginnings. In 2001, I brought in a talented author and editor, Heather Tomasello, to manage the website while I worked on Learnthat.com and other sites in That Network. Heather was a great addition to the staff and upgraded the quality of Romancetips.com tremendously.
In 2004, I wrote
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