Making Money with Articles: Optimal Article Length

When choosing an article for your website, make sure that it is a length that is optimal for search engine optimization efforts. Articles that are as short as 200 words or as long as 500 words should fit into this category. Even if search engine optimization is not your goal, it is still a good idea to keep your articles at this length for your reader's sake. They are likely to not finish your page if it is any longer. This could leave them Kith only half of the information you wanted them to have or leave them with the impression that your site is too "wordy". Most Internet readers do not read a website page as they would a book, so the shorter the better. Even if this means splitting one long idea into 4 or 5 pages. Be sure to label them so that the reader can pick and choose which part they want to read or so they know what is coming up next to help them determine if they want to continue reading.
 

Making Money with Articles: Niche Websites

Choosing a good niche subject to base your website around is one of the most important aspects of making money off of your articles. This will give you a foundation to build from and you can target one general audience with a pack of keywords that they are most likely to be searching for. You should take each one of these keywords and use it for the basis of one article on each page. This way, even though you are targeting one specific subject, you will be sure to interest a wide variety of people in that one niche. They may also find other pages that interest them, which will keep them returning to your site to learn new information about the niche subject.

The best way to find keywords for your niche subject is to use a keyword software program and type in the word that is the subject of your niche. This will generate a list of keywords or phrases that contain your niche and will also show you approximately how many people search for each word or phrase. Some software programs may also tell you how many sites are out there to compete with for each word or phrase (this will help you know if those sites are worth competing with for the number of searches out there). You then deicide which of these would be most profitable by determining which have the least amount of competitors, so that you have a chance at making it to the first or second page of search engine results, but that also have a decent amount of people looking for that keyword or phrase each month. These will be the keywords or phrases that you will base the pages of your niche site on.

If there are a number of topics that you like, pick the one that you feel would be easiest to start with and then, once that site is built and generating some revenue, you can start another site. The most profitable website marketers, who use their talent of finding niches and combining that with good site content and a handful of affiliate links, have a good amount and variety of niche sites that they have started. You are never limited in what you can do with niche website marketing, unless you find out that you do not have the marketing skills or the needed funding to make it happen. Otherwise, the sky is the limit!
 

The Minimum Wage

In January of 2007, the federal government raised the national minimum wage. This was old news in some states where the minimum wage had been raised months before congress took action. No matter how you look at the increase in the cost of labor, it is going to have an impact on the business climate and on how businesses will make key decisions in 2007 and going forward.

In theory a raise in the minimum wage should be a nonevent economically. It should be a simple adjustment for inflation which the business has already adapted to. In fact, as inflation raises the cost of goods and the prices the business charges, one might expect the wages of workers to rise naturally to match that upward slope caused by inflation.

How you view the good or the bad of the minimum wave increase may depend on which side of the fence you reside, the employer side or the employee side. To the employer the rise in employee costs makes doing business more expensive and affects the bottom line. To the employee, the employer is just being competitive and paying his or her employees a salary that they can live on. In many cases, you may be on both sides of the issue if you own or operate a business but have people in your family who are trying to get by on the minimum wage.

The hardest hit businesses by this upward push in wages is small business. Enterprises that employ a large amount of unskilled, lower paid workers can see a huge jump in the cost of keeping employees because of state or federally mandated increases in employee pay. Many times small business enterprises operate on a thin margin of profit and any change to the cost structure can be a deadly hit to their budgets. Moreover, since the small business model is intensely competitive, there is little room to raise prices to clients or customers without risking losing business to a larger competitor who can absorb the minimum wage increase without increasing prices.

These concerns are part of the reason that from a governmental stand point, congress is slow to increase the minimum wage. There is already a tremendous resentment in the population for businesses that are relocating their production or support facilities over seas to take advantage of low paid workers to keep their bottom line on track. You have to know that employee costs are a big issue when a business is willing to relocate much of their operation to a foreign country and incur all of those costs just to tap an employee base that will work below the minimum wage.

From the worker perspective, it's hard to understand how this trend to take low paid jobs out of the country can be changed. We are slow to stop businesses from taking actions they need to take to compete in the markets which is why passing legislation to stop the exporting of jobs is not a popular idea. While it might help the plight of the worker in this country, it goes contrary to our priority on letting the free market and capitalism play out. Sadly, when the free market does reign, sometimes good people get dealt out of the program.

The best way for American workers to combat competition from unskilled workers overseas is to stop being unskilled. By taking advantage of educational opportunities and gaining valuable skills, they can enter a new market where those skills will land them a good paying job that is not likely to go overseas because of the specialized skills the worker offers to employers. So the best way for government to fight the export of jobs due to high employment costs is not to artificially suppress the market to hinder free trade. The best move is to make our workers more skilled, more valuable and for workers to simply outwork their competition overseas. This is capitalism at work at its best and if that line of attack is followed, the outcome for everybody is a stronger work force, the retention of jobs in America and a stronger national economy as well.

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What Google Knows

It wasn't that long ago that a tremendous scare went through the internet community. The issue had to do with the huge amount of data that can be collected on individuals using search engines online. This large body of information naturally drew the attention of the Homeland Security agencies who are charged with the job of finding out all they can about potential sleeper cells of terrorism in this country.

The stand off came when the government began to demand access to the search records of all users of the major search engines. When this upcoming struggle for privacy began to come to a head, many of us who depend on search engines for both personal and business research began to get that "big brother is watching" feeling.

It's a tough compromise. We know that our government must have the ability to find and put a stop to security risks that might result in another disaster like September 11th 2001. But at the same time, Americans are tremendously protective of their liberties, their privacy and their right to be left alone by the government.

Of all of the search engines who were in the spotlight during that struggle, Google's resistance to allowing undue invasion of privacy of their customers stood out as an act of courage in a difficult confrontation. It turned out that Homeland Security really wasn't becoming "big brother" and was simply researching how to use statistical data to possibly find terrorist patterns in search engine usage. But many of us remember that while Yahoo and others knuckled under quickly, it was Google who stood up and protected user information rather than immediately turn it over to Uncle Sam.

This stand reflects a long established business ethic that Google has maintained to be protective of the data it collects about users of its search tools. That protective nature has more benefits than just building our confidence that Google is a safe tool for all of us to use. Google indeed has at its disposal a tremendous library of personal information on anyone using its search tools. And as the dominant search engine in the industry, this potential includes just about anyone who accesses the internet.

The information that can be collected from you and I as we use the internet can tell an interested party a lot about your interests, what kind of business you are in, your religious views and your political affiliations. Powerful analytical tools are available to take large volumes of search information and translate that into profiles that would be of great interest to the government and to marketers who would love to be able to target specific populations for sales.

For Google, this information has significant value to them as they fine tune their search engine methodologies. They can methodically analyze this data to draw conclusions about how their search tools are working and how they should update the formulas that drive those tools to be more in step with how the internet audience is using cyberspace. Yes, this is taking advantage of their already dominant position to secure that position and make their toolset even more capable of staying ahead of the game. But we really cannot fault Google for using this data in that way. That is just good business.

It turns out then that Google's protective posture when it comes to that massive database of search information serves their purposes extremely well. If they can keep this mountain of very specific data secure and proprietary, it represents a trade secret of tremendous value to Google to help them maintain their market superiority for a long time to come.

This is a case of the needs of the market serving the public good well. For as Google protects our search information so only it can benefit from such knowledge, they also are protecting our privacy from the prying eyes of overenthusiastic government agencies, hackers, marketing campaigns and even the terrorists who could use that information for insidious purposes. Therefore we can be thankful that Google jealously guards this data for its own uses because in the process, they are protecting us along the way.

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Virtual Employees

When we say something is "virtual" in modern terminology, we are almost always talking about something related to the internet. So Virtual Dating is dating using the internet. "Virtual" does not mean something that does not exist. But it implies you are replacing a normal physical entity with a real but for the most part unseen entity that lives online.

The trend in strategic business planning is to incorporate an aggressive "virtual marketing" plan with your traditional plans. So it makes sense that eventually the move to virtual resources would reach human resources with the availability of virtual employees.

In the last two or three years, virtual employment has taken off and become a very real resource for businesses wishing to tap into valuable experience and subject matter expertise that cannot be found locally. Agencies such as Team Double Click and Rent-A-Coder provide an army of ready to work professionals that can step in and get a job done quickly and efficiently for an employer.

The obvious first application of virtual workers is to subcontract to an online employment agency certain task specific projects that have a short beginning, middle and end. Building a new function into a web page is a good example of a project that can be packaged into an understandable project and signed over to a virtual consultant to perform the work and return to the online employer. The handling agencies collect funds via escrow so neither the employer or the consultant are at risk and the handling company claims a percentage of the fee as part of their pay for facilitating the partnership. Everybody wins.

But the concept of virtual employment is going beyond providing another variation on outsourcing to a consultant. Many virtual employment agencies provide administrative assistants, sales support and many other functions normally associated with a full time employee but those services are done "virtually". A virtual office manager can have calls routed to his or her remote phone, emails redirected and conduct office meetings and negotiations with vendors via email or instant messaging. Using these modern tools, a virtual assistant can provide almost every function an on site assistant might be able to do but do so at a lower cost to the employer.

The virtual employment trend in business has obvious benefits for businesses that are in need of qualified help. It opens the door to recruitment sources that can supplement the local talent pool. Many times virtual staffing agencies may have on their "employee roles" people with a specialized background or skill. The agency is skilled at defining exactly what their client businesses need and matching up the right virtual employee to the job so the business has the right skill sets where they need them, when they need them and only for as long as they need them.

In addition to the benefits that virtual employment has for businesses to fill needs for skilled workers, it's an excellent resource for talented workers who want to make a contribution to the business world on their own terms. Virtual workers almost universally work at home or where they chose to work. Often the work is task based with a deadline so the worker can select the hours that fits their family and personal schedules best. And, like working for a temp agency, the employee can build a resume with the agency that improves the quality of work they get over time.

Virtual staffing is a trend that has been a success for all involved as it has matured in the last few years. We can look for this twenty first century methodology for bringing in talented workers to continue to grow as more and more businesses get comfortable with staffing their employee ranks "virtually".

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Is a Degree Necessary to be a Business Analyst

The lack of proper education can be a major drawback for someone breaking into the business world. Many people study business management and other business related courses. There are many diplomas issued each year to hopeful business prospects. When it comes to being a business analyst all the rules change. Although a degree can be helpful, it is not necessary. Experience is the key to success when it comes to a business analyst.

Many great business analysts did not even go to college. If they did it was not in the field of business but technology. A business analyst can earn a degree. There are certification classes one can take to hold the title of certified business analyst. Most have learned from experience not from books.

A good business analyst is one who has prior experience in the business world with trouble shooting. They will be able to assess a business proposal or project and determine needs from data gathered. A book or white paper may not tell a business analyst what needs assessments to to prepare. Only experience can do that in certain businesses.

To better understand what degree a business analyst must have consider it only takes 8 weeks to become a certified business analyst. 2 months of study can explain what the job description is and how to implement it. When you put it in those terms, it may be a little unnerving to some. Those 8 weeks are crammed with information straight from a text book. The real world is slightly different.

A good business analyst is going to understand the concept of code. He or she is going to know there is something amiss when they start researching the problems reported by management. There may be simple solutions which only require added code to justify the means. Other projects many require extensive analysis to determine where the problem lies and how to correct it. Someone with business savvy can figure it out. The problem lies in implementing the plan of action.

The reputable business analyst will be able to speak with management and other stakeholders to hear what problems and solutions have been ascertained. These issues may or may not be the root source of the conflict. The business analyst can determine this. He or she can weed through what management thinks is necessary information to glean the truth. He or she will be able to drop in on IT and see what their take on the problem is. The business analyst will also speak to other low end users who know more about the application of the program. This is where other departments fail in providing what works and what does not compute with real life scenarios.

Does someone need a degree or license to understand the issues of business? No. Does it help to have an understanding? Yes. It certainly looks good on a resume to list degrees and certifications. Past experience and a portfolio of solved issues will go farther than any framed paper.

Customer Relations and the Business Analyst

In today’s market the customer should always come first. This has been the bread and butter of many industries throughout the ages. A satisfied customer is one who will keep coming back. The customer is the one who helps the bottom line. This is true in the field of business analysis. It is the customer’s needs which the business analyst is fulfilling. The business analyst should help to strengthen customer relations. Time put into this is time well spent. Finding the customer to be unhappy is never a good thing. Ask any good business manager what their number one priority is and they will answer customer relations. Sometimes it does not always show.

Many of today’s corporations utilize a big part of their budget on improvements in operations. The target is the bottom line. What they fail to realize is this can and will drive customers away. Targeting the needs of the customer is first and foremost in any business. The same holds true with business analysts.

When going in to trouble shoot a system, the business analyst becomes a production manager. If he or she does not put the needs of the customer first, the project will undoubtedly fail. Listening to the customer to determine what is needed and desired is the start of a good relationship. When the business analyst fails to listen the entire project could not only start on the wrong foot but end in disaster as well.

The business analyst must encourage feedback. He or she must understand just what the customer is wanting, even if they do not know themselves. The customer may know what he or she wants the project to accomplish. They may know how they want something to run. The customer just may not know how to say it. He or she may collect data imperative to the project program. It is the business analyst’s job to determine if the data is even relevant. He or she is the liaison in this relationship. He or she must have good customer relations skills. The business analyst must speak the customer’s language.

Putting the customer relationship first can be a daunting task at times. The bottom line is critical to success on any project. There are times the business analyst will be caught up in keeping cost down and compromise the relationship he or she has with the customer. The customer will be much happier if you go a little over budget and keep him or her happier in other areas of the project.

Sometimes it is easier to prepare reports and allocate spending to IT to accomplish a task than it is to spend time or money developing a plan for customer satisfaction. The price any company could pay for this is a high one. The business analyst is no different. Customer satisfaction means keeping them informed of progress. Speak in a language they understand. Consult with them when a roadblock is met or when a progress point is passed. Either way, keeping a constant rapport with the customer ensures a satisfied client. This can lead to repeat business. This helps the business to grow.