One of the greatest things about being an entrepreneur is that you have a certain type of freedom to really do whatever you want.

It’s great and can sometimes be really scary to have this freedom, but in the end , this is the environment I thrive in. However I want to point something out. It’s so much easier to be self sufficient today because of the resources available to us. With the World Wide Web placing information at our fingertips, if you need to do something new, the tools and resources to learn about this new task are instantly available.

I’ve always preferred to be a “Jack of All Trades” as opposed to a master of one. And I’ve found that the more open I am to learning, the more success I have. Now let me get to the point. With all this information available to us, it’s hard to figure out who has the real goods and who is just talking nonsense. Well I recently had to good fortune to talk to a buddy of my nephew’s and he was telling me about a great learning resource.

I want to let you know the difference between Business Web Basics and a site like this is that Business Web Basics teaches someone the very first steps of how to start a web business, in addition, how to hire vendors and personnel. The resource link that I’m giving you below if for an individual who wants to build from scratch their own website in a program like Joomla.

Check out Lynda.com

Lynda.com is virtually a one stop learning center for anyone trying to utilize leading technology or software. My nephew’s buddy is actually a Joomla programmer who’s components I’ve used for quite a while.

Lynda.com has full video courses that are well organized in everything from leading software like Adobe Photoshop to coding PHP. They provide course material used in the training so you can get your hands dirty and follow along, which is great for someone like me who learns while doing. For someone self sufficient like myself, having a resource of knowledge like this is very valuable. And their membership plans are well worth the cost.

Check out Lynda.com and leave some comments and let me know what you’ve worked on using their courses. I’d love to see what you’re up to.

So I had to good fortune to hear from a friend of mine named Dean Hunt, and he informed me of this great tool that would allow me to brand my twitter updates. Tweet Brand let’s you take back your tweets. Have you ever noticed when you tweet from many of the cool twitter tools out there they add a link to their tool at the bottom of your tweet!

–> MarketMeTweet <--

Those are my tweets and that link should be mine. Well with this great free tool – Tweet Brand – You can take those links back and link to yourself. Here is an interview with Tweet Brand and Market Me Tweet co-creator Tammy Fennell.

And here is a link to pick up this great tool absolutely free. It only took me 5 min to set up!

–> MarketMeTweet <--

So I get asked questions time to time. What Vendors I use and some of the services I use to conduct my various businesses online.

Most Recently, I had someone ask me how I set up a merchant account online.

I want to be crystal clear that a merchant account is not a shopping cart.

I use iPowerPay and I chose them for several reasons.

1. Easy to set up
2. They take all credit cards
3. Their rates beat my local business bank
4. Included in the price, they set up my account with a gateway (for those of you who do not understand what a gateway is in this context, every merchant account online must have a payment processor called a gateway, and iPowerPay works with Authorize.net).
5. They understand selling services and products online
6. They have great customer service
7. They work seamlessly with any shopping cart solution you choose

In choosing a merchant account online, I find these points to be imperative because if you ever have a product launch you want to be able to pick the phone up, talk to a live person, and tell them what’s about to happen so you can never have money held in an account that you cannot access. I’ve heard of this happening to many large internet marketers, and they now use iPowerPay. I’m lucky that it has never happened to me.

If you’re looking for a merchant account, I suggest you check out iPowerPay

My Business Web Basics launch was a great success! What an awesome adventure. The launch went really, really well and we have a bunch of great new customers that are now enjoying the course.

I want to tell you a little story. Anyone who has launched a product or any type of service online, knows that you plan, test, plan, test, fix, and finally test again. Well, during the launch, everything was going well. My server was fine, my emails were going out as planned, but my shopping cart service had a blip and went down for a while. I use a very reputable and popular service, and never once thought that a problem could arise from there. So much so, that during my launch I was not testing the shopping cart. It was one of my customers who actually got in touch with me to let me know there was an error. I lost sales because of the error, but once I new about it, I was able to call and have it fixed in seconds. All thanks to my list! It’s important to take care of your customers, because if you do, they will take care of you.

Thanks for all the support. The course will go live again. Sign up to the early notification list to be the first to know when I decide to re-launch. When you sign up I’ll send you a free copy of the Business Web Basics Checklist that my new customers are using right now to improve their web strategy and get a better ROI (Return On Investment).

May abundant times be headed your way!
Ann

I just wanted to put up a note and let everyone know that I appreciate the support and that my course, Business Web Basics, has launched. The wait is over.

Go to:

BusinessWebBasics.com

There you can read the letter I was up all night writing and see everything you’ll be getting with the course and all the bonuses I’ve packed into it.

Thanks

Ann

Ok, I just had to put this up for everyone to see. In case you don’t know, I’m about to release a course geared specifically towards business owners. This course gives you everything you need to know about the basics of doing business on the web and takes you step by step through developing a winning web strategy. It’s called Business Web Basics and has been my baby for the last few months. Well I just got the final finished course and it looks GREAT!

Business Web Basics Course

7 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Twitter.

Ok, I know I’ve talked about this many times, but it seems like everywhere I turn SOMEONE ELSE is on Twitter!

From Ellen Degeneres, to Ashton Kutcher, to Lance Armstrong, celebrities are maintaining their own presence on Twitter. They get on there and get followers. They keep their fans up to date on what they are doing and by doing so build their reputation and build excitement about their projects.

Celebrities aren’t the only ones building a presence on Twitter. Businesses, Brands, Shows, you name it. By keeping their brands out there people can stay connected and they actually grow a fan base of people who are interested in what they are putting out before they ever advertise a product.

So, I know I’ve talked about Twitter before, but I really want everyone to get on there and start learning about how to interact with everyone. In fact, I’ve put together a helpful little guide of 7 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Twitter that you can use as you get started on Twitter:

7 Things Every Business Owner Should Know About Twitter.

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. I can’t turn on the TV, the radio, or open a newspaper or magazine without seeing something about Twitter. So I put together this special report that I think you need to read NOW so you can cut through the Twitter mystery and really understand the Twitter value today!.

1. First and foremost, Yes. Yes you do need to be on Twitter. It’s a social network that is exploding as we speak. It may be new to you but don’t be afraid of new things on the internet, you can’t break it. Get on there, get an account for you, your company, or both. It’s free so there are no excuses.

2. Followers. We are taught to be leaders not followers. This is the exception to the rule. Here you want to follow others and have others follow you. A follower automatically receives all your tweets (what you post on twitter). There are so many people on Twitter including celebrities like Jimmy Fallon and Lance Armstrong just to name a few.

You might think, with so many people on Twitter, how can I start to get followers? It is easy! You may be surprised that many people will follow back if you follow them. Use Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com – more on that next) to find people tweeting about topics you like and relate to you or your business. If you find a user and click on their username or profile picture you will land on their Twitter page. Right under their picture, you can click follow and you’ll see their tweets on your homepage. Get out there and follow some interesting people. I can be your first test – follow me AnnPremazon.

3. Twitter Search. Located at http://search.twitter.com. Use Twitter Search to find subjects that interest you and subjects that relate to your business, this is where you can see people and what they are tweeting about.

Follow those people who interest you for three reasons.
a) Many times when you follow someone, they will follow you back – this is good in the Twitter world!
b) Follow people who tweet about subjects that interest you and it will inspire you to tweet on the same topic which in turn sends that info to your followers
c) RT or Re Tweet is also good in Twitter, it says to your followers that you think the information is worth repeating to others this is one of the ultimate compliments on Twitter. (More about this later)

4. Hash Tags. Hash Tags are search identifiers on Twitter that basically flag the contents of a tweet. So let’s say I started a discussion on my course Business Web Basics on Twitter. I tweet something like: “Looking for people who have saved ridiculous amounts of money and time by using my course #businesswebbasics.” The Hash Tag is #businesswebbasics and anyone who puts that hash tag in their tweets will allow those tweets to show up in the Twitter Search for #businesswebbasics. This helps me to track conversations I may start, or it helps my followers/clients to track the conversation as well.

5. Re Tweet or RT and the @ sign. Re Tweets are a great tool for gaining followers. It will help you spread info and supply your follows with information you think is great at the same time. To Re Tweet, you just copy a tweet you like or think is useful and tweet it yourself. Just add an “RT” and an “@username” to the beginning. For example: if my friend JP posted a great tweet I liked about business internet information that said “Great Business Information” and I liked it I would tweet “RT @JP Great Business Information”. The result is I helped JP spread his information and at the same time I share a good tip with my followers.

6. Interact. Now you’ll notice that everything involves sharing with people and following people. That’s because the whole point of social media is to connect and share with people, or to be “Social”. So it’s important that you try and interact with people. Along with tweets and Re Tweets, you can reply to other people directly by clicking reply to their tweet or by writing “@username” at the beginning of your tweet to direct it at them. You can also private message people who follow you if you don’t want it going into the public feeds. From their profile just click on “message” under the actions menu on the right side and type your message. The more you interact with others the better. Warning: it can become addicting so try and set a limit to your twitter time before you start and stick to it every time. I find the best times to Twitter are around 11am and 8pm.

7. Worthwhile Content. Now if you’re new to Twitter, you’ll run across many different types of profiles. Some people will tweet to keep their friends and family informed. “I’m going to the dentist today”, “I just saw that great new movie”, “I love my cat!”

Some business profiles will just post updates about their business. “New version 2.0 of our software available”, “Sale this Saturday”, “Act now and grab this great new product!” Some places will post just news, or just links, or just this or that.

Twitter is only limited by the imagination. In my opinion, if you want to create quality connections and gain loyal followers, tweet useful info. You can tweet about yourself to be accessible and honest and connect with people, but not many people care about your kids pet lizard stinking up the apartment. Tweet about things that you like and relate to your business and keep your followers informed. Tweet something and then leave an open ended question and see if you get any responses. Get on there and get tweeting at Twitter.com.

You can get started today. Follow me at http://twitter.com/annpremazon

So last weekend I went out to dinner at a restaurant. I walked in and stood in line to be seated. The place was packed. I guess you could say it was a restaurant/pub atmosphere.

It was super loud. Even though they said they would seat us in a few minutes, I really didn’t want to wait, but I stood there. They must have sensed my grouchiness by the look on my face because they offered to seat us on the patio, which was awesome! So we go to the patio and sit down, just to realize it’s the only smoking area for the restaurant. I’m hungry, I’m grouchy, and I don’t want to eat in the smoking area. So we get up and leave. As we’re walking through the front door, the owner says “I can seat you in just a few minutes if you’re willing to wait. Can I get you a drink?” He was so nice, but it was just the wrong atmosphere. To loud and to many people. We politely said, no thanks, we’ll be back another time.

We walked down Main Street street. By the way I live in a small beach community, so Main Street is our restaurant row. We went to a new restaurant. The sign outside said “Steaks, Chops, and Seafood.” Tiny place, not very many people… We thought perfect.

The good news is the food was freakin out of this world good! The bad news is the service sucked.

So why do I tell you all of this, and how does it relate to me and the internet? Well, I’ll tell you. Sometimes I get emails, all in caps, different colors, and even if it’s from my best friend, I don’t want to read it. Sometimes I get emails from people I don’t know and they’re telling me about some event or product they’re selling, but the way they deliver the message, I can’t hear it.

I’ve learned, say what you mean, mean what you say, and when you have friends, family, or business colleagues that you correspond with via email, twitter, and facebook. It’s a good idea to be sure they like the tone you set with your message, or they won’t be able to hear it!

So when you go out this weekend, I hope you have a wonderful time in a great atmosphere, and just like you notice your surroundings, start to notice how you deliver your messages via the Internet.

So I spent some time in DC (Washington DC) a couple of weeks ago with some of the best internet marketers on the planet. Notice I didn’t say America because there were people from England, Australia, and even the Rock of Gibraltar. The point is, I heard so many awesome speakers and so many viewpoints on how to use social media that I decided to step my game up a notch. I think it’s pretty obvious that I use Twitter. It’s right here on my blog, as well as facebook and Linkedin, but I always looked at YouTube as driving traffic to somebody else’s website. Jeff Johnson over dinner challenged my thought process and I am taking his advice. So I have set up my own YouTube channel.

Here is the full name: www.youtube.com/annpremazon and the short url: http://budurl.com/APYT

I want to test and see how many views I get by posting my videos in various places. I sure would love you to visit my channel and post a comment. I’ve put up some free videos – Enjoy!

It’s Friday. Awesome day in southern California. Walked Three miles on the beach with my dogs. I loved it.

Worked with several people to help them with their web strategies. It is amazing to me how simple something can be for one person and how complicated it can be for another. Reminds me of a story.

I don’t know about you, but when I was a little kid. Before I had a voice of my own, and I would go to my friend Gabi’s house. Her mom would always ask me if I wanted anything to eat. I always said “I’ll have what she’s having.” So I ended up with a triple decker bologna sandwich. So when it comes to websites, it seems as though people want to have what they see their friends having. And it seems like there’s allot of bologna out there. So today I got to help people really decipher what THEIR needs are. It’s an awesome moment when you see the light bulb go BING! Above somebody’s head.

Other than that I put up a new album of pictures from Underground 5 today on my facebook and have been twittering away.

Have a great weekend
Talk to you soon