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Small Business Online? Using Affiliate Programs to Make Money Online

Small businesses online are the future of the economy and will most likely play a large part in getting it out of the current recession. With the world going virtual and more of the economy shifting to the internet, each new online small business creates more competition and the possibility of helping the economy get out of the current recession. The shape of the financial world is changing and the ‘nobodies’ of yesteryear are leveling the playing field online.

What exactly is a small business online? Is it the cottage industry of the past or is it the local businesses that go online to create a ‘store front’ on the internet? The answer is neither. An online small business, today, includes the hundreds of thousands of web owners who have blogs, forums, and websites and make money online using their talents, providing their services, and using the various affiliate programs to capture a share of the market.

Online Marketers-? While the traditional small business owner provided only a service; today, a small business owner can market various services and make money online. The service providers have realized the competition online is simply too much. No one company can easily capture a large slice of the market., which is why the service providers work with many affiliate programs simultaneously, providing lucrative percentages to individuals and companies who act as ‘resellers’. This way they are able to capture a large portion of the market without geographical limitations or increasing overheads.

Through becoming an online marketer, any person can become a ‘small business’ owner and create a small business online.

The virtual world provides tens of thousands of opportunities online. Some are scams, some are genuine; and while every article read online has to be taken with a grain of salt, if you read enough and research enough, the best affiliate programs in the business will get your attention. There are names like ClickBank and Commission Junction, which will be repeated over and over again, proving within the realm of fantasy, some reality remains to make money online.

There is no guarantee of success and there are too many variables in the whole scheme of things to allow even the best financial wizards to create predictors of success. Yet, there is so much scope, so much vision, and simply so much opportunity for growth that anyone who does not take advantage lacks the foresight to capitalize.

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Charity Auctions – Find the Best Auctioneer For Your Fundraiser

Live auctions are a great way to raise money for a charitable cause. They create energy and excitement at the event, and allow people to be publicly recognized for their generosity as they raise their paddles to bid on items. Therefore, to ensure active participation through a lively event you want to have the right person as auctioneer. A professional auctioneer has the skills and ability to get the crowd going, ensure that people see the value in each item that is to be bid on, and to squeeze out additional last-minute bids so that you make the most money from your auction event. However, you don’t need to hire a person who says they specialize in doing benefits for charities, and you may want to even beware of the ones that do.

Many people who are new graduates of auction school are advised to start out doing benefit auctions. This is because they have little experience and do not have the skill yet to be hired at a regular auction company. They use charity auctions as their training ground. An auctioneer, who only specializes in doing benefits, may only be doing around 30 to 60 auctions each year, while possibly holding down another job. This may come out to only auctioning for 30 hours a year which is just not enough practice. It takes many more on-the-job hours to become proficient at any job especially to perfect an auctioneer chant. An auctioneer who has speed and a good chant can slow it down if need be for a charity auction. But a slow and untrained chant can never be sped up or made to sound professional.

A professional auctioneer does literally hundreds of auctions all year long, for all kinds of events. This additional experience is a direct benefit to you, in the goal of raising as much funds as possible for your cause. The professional auctioneer has worked with hundreds of different crowds, with countless different bid items, and they know their craft exceptionally well. Someone who claims to specialize in benefit auction may not have the background which would allow them to perfect their craft, the way someone who does this full-time can.

The next time you are holding a charity auction, remember to seek out a professional auctioneer, whose expertise will ensure a highly successful event. Results are what counts for a charitable event, and a professional auctioneer knows exactly how to get that done.

What is an Online Discussion Forum?

An online forum is a way to hold an ongoing discussion by multiple users over time. The term has also been used when referring to the software application that creates the forum. Other names for an online forum are message boards, discussion groups, forums, and electronic bulletin boards.

The predecessors to online forums were the internet newsgroups and dial-up bulletin board systems, which were accessed by dialing a specific number. Online forums have a unique sense of community that is very different from that of a blog or website, and have regular devoted members. Today’s online discussion groups are focused on a variety of areas from politics and technology to dog training. Many established online forums are actually a group of smaller forums that are grouped around a central theme. For example, a dog training forum could have smaller forums covering large dogs, small dogs, Labrador retrievers, German shepherds etc.

Online Forum Software features

A discussion that is held in a forum is called a thread. Some online forum threads can be a one or two comments long to multiple pages of comments and replies going back several months or even years. The threads will remain on a forum indefinitely or until a moderator removes them. Many of the more popular threads become what is known as a “sticky” or a permanent forum entry. Sticky’s are usually the result of a large number of forum members asking the same question over time. By posting a sticky, this eliminates the need for the same question being asked repeatedly. One of the most common stickys’ found are usually the forums posting rules.

Today’s forum software will allow more than one forum to be created which act as a discussion room focused on a specific area of a larger topic. These individual rooms contain the threads started by the various group members. You can compare the structure of a forum to a school. Each room covers a different topic, i.e. math, English etc. and the school structure holds each of these classes in one building. Online discussion forums are structured in much the same way.

Forum software can be grouped into two general categories. The type that allows visitors to make anonymous posts and the type that requires visitors to be registered in order to view or make a comment to a forum thread.

The type that requires a visitor to register usually only requires a valid email address in order to join the online discussions going on within the forum. Some additional features of this type of forum software may allow for personalization of the forum skin, signatures and/or the users’ avatar or image associated with their username. The forum software that allows anonymous posts usually does not allow any type of customization to the user interface.

Forum software applications are available in a wide range of programming languages like PHP, JAVA and Perl. There are different features available and depend on the type of programming language used and whether the posts are stored as text files or database entries. The features available range from the basic text-only to the use of things such as emoticons, which are little smiley face type, images that can be inserted to a post.

Some online forum software packages allow administrator to setup filters and automated scripts that will remove any undesirable words such as cursing, or strip any hyperlinks placed within a forum thread. This helps to prevent abuse of the discussion group.

Discussion Group Administrators and Moderators

The administrator of an online forum has privileges that no other member should have. Some of those privileges allow administrators to edit, delete, move or modify any thread on the forum. Forum administrators also have the ability to close the board, make major changes to the forum such as changing the forum theme, add or delete discussion groups or sub forums within the main forum as well as remove, add to or ban members from the forum.

Moderators are usually given privileges by the administrators and are usually delegated the responsibility to oversee or “moderate” specific forum areas or topics. The moderators of a discussion group help the forum administrator by editing, deleting, and moving threads as needed. They also act as hall monitors warning members for any offenses to the forum posting guidelines. The presence of responsible moderators can enhance the quality of an online forum.

Online Forum Users

The members of any online discussion group usually have the same basic abilities. They can make comments or posts into existing discussion threads, start new threads, and assign an image or avatar to be posted with their name. Depending upon the forum software, users may also be able to send and receive emails or personal/instant messages from other forum members. Members can also create their individual forum signature where they can add a link back to their personal website if they wish. This practice also leads to abuse by members making multiple posts just to increase the number of links to their website.

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