If you are interested in saving money (you are, aren’t you?), I recommend that you check out FREE resources before you shell out any of your hard earned cash. At this time in internet history, there is simply no reason why you have to pay for basic information because the internet is loaded with valuable content for newbies.
You will find plenty of FREE info at The Site Wizard to increase your internet smarts, and that will not only save you time and money, but it will put YOU in a much better position to evaluate the product launches that we are constantly bombarded with.
You KNOW you need a quality website to succeed in your online business, BUT …
Do you want to design and build your own websites? Can you write your own HTML code? Would you rather drag-and-drop to a template to build your website? Or, does all of that scare the bejabbers out of you and you just want to see how website building software works?
XSitePro Webinars
In any case, here’s your chance to get a look at the new XSitePro 2 for FREE. If you are a newbie to internet marketing, I highly recommend that you participate in one of these webinars to enhance your web smarts even if you don’t want to buy XSitePro 2. These webinars have a great reputation for delivering understandable educational content, and as beginners, couldn’t we all use that!
If you can’t attend at a scheduled time, REGISTER ANYWAY because XSitePro will be sending out links to watch the video recording of these webinars after the event.
What Stephen Pierce has to say might be the answer YOU are looking for. It’s worth a look. If you don’t know about DTAlpha Talkback, I think you should.
As you are probably aware if you are using WordPress to operate your blog, it’s not so easy to upgrade each new release and keep all the stuff you’ve already done, especially if you forgot what is in your wp-config.php file.
WPAU to the rescue!
After I finally figured out how to reset my admin password, as soon as I logged in there was a notice to upgrade to the latest WordPress version (2.5.1 as of this writing). Now I am generally pretty good at following directions, but I’d rather not if I don’t have to.
So I took the coward’s path and opted to get the wpau plugin and upload it to my WordPress wp-content > plugins folder on the server. I hold my breath when I try one of these things that I have no experience with, but this plugin worked great. I updated eMarketWorks to the latest release of WordPress with no trouble. So I didn’t set any breath-holding records this time. In fact, it was all over in about a minute.
My Windows computer crashed and took my administrator access to this blog down with it (my password no longer worked). Has that ever happened to you? Having wearied of Windows and perpetual restarts, I bought an iMac and trudged out into the fields to plow new ground.
But I still could not log into eMarketWorks. After poking around in WordPress.org, and wondering why this particular problem seemed more or less ignored, I finally found emergency.php. With some trepidation, I followed the (actually very simple) instructions to the letter, and … Voila! in a matter of seconds I was able to reset my administrator password.
If you ever have that problem, I recommend trying the emergency.php route before anything else. I am very happy with how that solution worked.
New to internet marketing? On a tight budget? All the gurus telling you to buy their stuff?
Wait!
There is a goldmine of free products and information on the world wide web. So before you buy anything expensive, look for the free stuff. The simplest approach is to use a search engine like Google or Yahoo. Just search for: free fill-in-the-blank; for example: free website builder.
The only problem with this approach is your time. You have to do the searches, then you have to try out whatever comes up to find out if it is what you are looking for. On the other hand, you can’t beat the price.
Begin Planning with free business plan software
I’ve made a point about using planning as a step-by-step how-to guide for developing your business so here is where you can get a free business plan template and a free pdf guide book bundled with it from planware.org.
"… Free-Plan registration is completely free and there are no strings attached ! You will not be added to any email list as a result of registering. Check our privacy policy at <www.planware.org/privacy.htm>.
To register, simply e-mail <freeplan@planware.org> quoting within its body the serial number displayed in the table/box located in the middle of the first page of the Free-Plan Template file (FREE-PLAN_TEMPLATE.DOC).
You will be e-mailed back a password with simple instructions to unprotect the Template. Once unprotected, you are licensed to use it as an outline structure & guide for your business plan. It can be freely modified and there are no restrictions on how and where you distribute your completed plan based on the Template. (A little mention would be nice <g> but that is at your complete discretion)."
Freeplan is comprehensive so don’t feel like you have to do everything that is suggested. Start with a Short Plan. The idea is to familiarize yourself with the elements of a business plan and use those parts that are most relevant to you personally. Let me know what you think of it.
I try to keep in mind that a plan is nothing, but planning is everything - in other words, plans are meant to be revised as you get new ideas and information, and as your knowledge and skills grow.
More Free Stuff Later
From time to time, I’ll point out places where you can find other items that are both free and useful. Please add any suggestions of your own.
PS You don’t have to be a beginner/newbie to make good use of free stuff!
