This is a guest post by Frank Angelone.

I have been listening to a lot of keynotes lately by entrepreneurs, especially ones by Gary Vaynerchuk. He’s accomplished so much and his philosophy is to do what you love, work your tail off, care about your customers, and you will be able to monetize. Hearing this from someone who came from Russia with no money to build a 60 million dollar company in Wine Library is very inspirational advice. Its advice I myself have taken, but many people still question how they can do the same thing he did with their business? Like any business, becoming successful takes time and it’s not going to happen overnight unless you work for it. Granted, people here this all the time and it’s obvious, but does anyone truly understand where businesses are headed today?

Gary has stressed the starting an online business is so easy that anyone can do it. There’s no cost to start up like there used to be. So, what better way to get a company started? Free to start and you don’t need a facility. I think anyone can appreciate the simplicity in that. Businesses are headed in a direction where the old way we remember businesses being are becoming no more. Now you may be wondering, what does this mean?

Well, with everyone having the ability to start a business online, you take a business like newspapers. Most people are reading the news online and the need to buy a physical newspaper isn’t in demand like it was 10 years ago. When companies put coupons for discounts off their products in both the newspapers and online, where do you think most people are going to get that coupon off of? Quite simple, it’s the internet. The internet business is taking over physical businesses to be as straight forward as possible. This doesn’t go for all businesses, but with customers being able to purchase products online, they are less likely to go to the location of the business. Why would they? It’s easier to do things online.

Online businesses become more and more accessible as the internet grows by the years. I think businesses that aren’t making a presence online are seriously missing out. There’s so much potential revenue from companies online just as there is at their current location. Today, the money is predominantly coming from their online business. Having an online business is being served to practically the entire world as more people each day engage with each other online. Those companies that are hesitant to bring their company online aren’t only limiting themselves from making more money, but they are being ignorant! The internet is a space where we as people live. Your company will have more luck converting your customer to a sale online than doing it at a location. This isn’t to say that physical businesses can’t make money anymore because they definitely can, however they need to realize the direction businesses are heading. If they fail to acknowledge this, they will be eaten alive by the competition.

So the question is, where is your company positioned in the marketplace? Can you be found online as well as at current location? Please be aware that this is a fact with where companies are heading. It’s not a joke and it’s where many individuals are making their careers off of. My three takeaways that any new or current business should be aware of are as follows…

1. You are not a dominant company today if you don’t have a presence online. The world we live in is changing and growing. You must understand that even though your company may make millions of dollars at your facility, you have the potential to double that with an online presence.
2. Your cost to startup up your business online is NOTHING. For those that run their business through a facility, think how much you paid to start that and business and compare that to ZERO.
3. Listen to keynotes by Gary Vaynerchuk to get an even in depth description of why online businesses are the way to go and why anyone can do it!

Frank Angelone is the founder of Social Tech Zone. He provides individuals and businesses the news and tips they need to better interact with social networks and technology.

Do you know the exact methods many successful freelancers use to write articles on just about any niche? Do you have websites in many niches that need content but you can’t afford to pay?

You have come to the right place. I have been using these 3 simple ways to write articles on any topic I want.

Last week, I gave you tips on how to find article ideas. Maybe you read that article (if you didn’t, do check it out), spent some time brainstorming article ideas and sat in front of computer wondering what to write in the article.

That is exactly why I have written this article. You’ll be able to write content for all the article ideas you have created.

Without any further ado, let me show the 3 simple ways.

1. Videos

This is the best way and I simply can’t stress the importance of this method any better. As far as I know, very few internet marketers use videos to write content.

Here’s how you do it:

Go to Youtube. It has videos on every single topic. Search for the topic you want to write about.

Now go to the videos that appear in the results. Watch more than 3 videos.

Note down all the key points in each video in a paper.

That’s it. Filter the points to three or five best ones and write a post in your own words.

If you are not satisfied with the results you got for a particular search in youtube, search in Google Videos for your keyword. You’ll be amazed at the number of videos that are available for your topic.

2. Article Directories

There are hundreds of article directories out there. When you want to write an article, go to the top 5 directories. I normally go to Ezine Articles, Goarticles, article dashboard, buzzle and article base. Your top 5 may differ and it doesn’t matter as long as you have Ezine Articles in your top 5.

Go to the article directory and search for your keyword.

Note: Not all the articles your find in article directories are good. Some of them are crap. It is better to read many articles and note down the best points that you think your readers would love.

There are articles in these article directories on every niche and you can read them and write an article on your own words.

3. Books

Yes. Books are the best way to learn about anything. By books, I don’t mean e-books. I mean the traditional books.

You can find everything you want to know in these books.

Want to write an article in the health niche? Buy a book from Amazon and read it. Note down all the useful points in the book.

You cannot write everything in the book as it is. You have to do some research on the points you have noted down and write articles based on that.

There are books in every niche you can think about.

The best thing about this method is that, by the time you read 10 or so books in a niche, you will know a lot about that niche. You can create an expert blog or even write ebooks in that niche. So don’t underestimate this method.

A piece of advice: Whatever method you use, don’t use the same content that you heard or read. It is not ethical. That’s the reason why I stressed under each method to write articles in your own words.

By following the above three methods, you can write articles on just about any niche. Have you used any of the above methods to write articles before? Did you find any of the methods useful? Please share your views in the comments.

This is a guest post by Allison Maslan.

Have you ever impulsively jumped on a great new idea to make money only to find that your enthusiasm dwindled after the first week or two? Have you started a hobby that a friend got you fired up about, dropping a big investment to get started, but soon after you completely lost interest?

In order for an activity or goal to sustain itself long enough to be successful through life’s ups and downs, there must be meaning or a passion behind it. This love of your work, relationship, hobby or practice is the glue that will keep you cherishing your wins and picking yourself up after your losses as you progress on your path toward success. When an activity or goal has meaning to you, you are more likely to give your heart and soul to this cause, making sure that you stay focused, labor over every detail, and absorb yourself in every moment. When you spend time on efforts that really matter to you, it’s much more probable that you’ll make the commitment that’s necessary to build a lasting entity.

Millions of people desire to leave the confines of the corporate world to start their own business. Even though they fantasize about the idea of freedom, they become paralyzed with fear at the thought of leaving a safe, secure job. I talk to people all day that tell me they are feeling empty as if something is missing in their daily lives. They spend three quarters of their lives at a job void of soul and passion. Their creativity and drive are buried so deep within them they feel numb and shut down. The status quo, title and a paycheck are not enough anymore. They have upped the ante. They now want to be inspired and fulfilled with purpose in their home and work life.

Then there are those who have taken the haphazard plunge into a business that they are not passionate about, and find themselves feeling like they have fallen into the drudge of yet another boring job. What was once their mission becomes their biggest nightmare. After a few years of being disillusioned they opt to throw in the towel. This does not need to happen!

When the purpose of your business matters to you on a deeper level, your efforts will endure. And when you reach your meaningful goals, success will feel like a shining glory. When you have built something you can be proud of, something you are completely passionate about, the satisfaction is not only in the outcome, it’s in the day-to-day process. If you’re only working toward the destination and not reveling in the journey, you miss out on the abundance of life. When you are only focused on the goal , you may find yourself thinking, “Is that all there is?” while feeling empty, sad and bored, and once again, unfulfilled.

What’s the difference between those entrepreneurs who are optimistic and moving forward and those who are just getting by? I believe that much of it has to do with how you view the glass – half full or half empty. George Sheehan (author, track star, cardiologist), once said, “Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” People with a positive outlook and a life plan don’t get off the track when things change – they just change tracks.

As a life and business strategist, I spend a great deal of time helping clients tap into their passions, and then guiding them to create a business that reflects their inner purpose and dreams. Particularly in this economy, if you are a business owner that is having some slower weeks or months, it is crucial that you stay connected to your mission and why you started the business in the first place. If the business is only about making money, there is not much heart or soul to draw from to get you through.

Here are a few tips to feeding the soul in yourself and your business.

• Surround yourself with inspiring and motivating people. You may find that your usual crew begins to lean toward the negative side of life when times get tougher. Seek out those people who are supportive of your goals. Join groups or seek counseling to keep you motivated and accountable.
• Be Easy on yourself. Change and transformation can bring up all sorts of good, bad and ugly stuff. When you feel yourself struggling, take a break. When you have small successes, give yourself kudos for all your hard work and continue to move on toward your bigger visions and dreams.
• Start now. You don’t want to look back in ten years and realize that you’re still at the same place in your life then as now. Even if you love your life now, growth is a necessary part of your evolvement on this planet. Every single day of your life is precious. Embrace it, and those you love, to the fullest.

Once you finally connect with something that has meaning to you, and your internal passion regarding this is accessed and utilized, your once deadened perception and reality will be pumped with new and energized life blood. I call this your Secret Spark, a perfect mix of meaning and passion that enlivens your life purpose and gives you the drive and stick-to-it-ness to make things happen. When you discover the soul in your business, your work will become stimulating and fun, and you’ll be immersed in your satisfying activity and lose track of time.

Dreams are gifts of the soul.
We need to make every effort
to cherish them, to live them.
Otherwise they only surface in our sleep.
A soulful life is an awakening
and actualizing of our
deepest dreams within.

~Allison Maslan

Allison Maslan, HHP, CCH has been an entrepreneur for the past 25 years and has a vibrant array of nine successful businesses to her credit. She is an author, life and business strategist, homeopathic physician and international speaker. Her book, Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan To Launch Your Dreams Into Reality launches on January 19 2010.

Are you struggling every time you want to write an article? Do you postpone writing because you have no idea what to write?

You are not alone. I have been in that situation many times in my early freelance writing career. Instead of getting depressed, I tried to find ways to come up with article ideas. I learned many ways to brainstorm article ideas by practice. I also read many blogs and got few tips.

Now I’m going to share the 3 best ways with you.

1. Books

I come up with tons of ideas by reading books. I’ll show you how to do it and will also give you an example for it.

When I say books, it doesn’t mean you have to read books related to your niche. You can read any book. I can brainstorm article ideas for the make money online niche by reading health books.

First read the book and write down the key points. You can group the points into categories. Once you have the categories written, try to relate the category to your niche.

Example: Last month I read a book on getting abs (yeah). Whether it helped me to get abs or not, it did help me coming up with article ideas. I had an idea for an article just by reading the introduction.

When I read the introduction, the author of the book stressed on how hard it is to get abs but once you put in work, you can achieve it.

I came up with: “7 Reasons Why Making Money Online Is Like Getting Stripped Abs”

You can come up with many when you read a whole book.

2. Free Wordtracker Keyword Question Tool

This tool is a goldmine. It is completely FREE and I can’t believe many people are not using it.

Go to the keyword question tool (different from the normal wordtracker keyword tool). Type a keyword and you’ll get all the questions people are typing in Google.

Are they hot keywords? It should be because people are searching for it. Are there many questions? There are tons of them.

Here’s what you get when you search for “Christmas”

There are more results for that keyword. I couldn’t capture them all. You can find it by doing a search.

I have written a detailed post on 3 ways you can use Wordtracker keyword question tool.

3. Magazines

This method is different from the first one. There are many magazines available in the market. You actually don’t need to buy a magazine.

Go to the magazines’ home page and find the cover of their current and previous issues.

What do you see in the covers? A cool looking graphic? Yes. But that’s not what we want.

What else do you see? Do you see the headlines of the best stories you’ll find inside the magazine? That’s what you want.

Let me show you an example

I found this headline in Cosmo magazine.

What 81% of Men Expect on a First Date (You’ll be Pleasantly Surprised)

Now I can change this headline to come up with a post for copywriting.

What 81% of Your Customers Expect When Reading Your Sales Page

Sounds cool? You can find thousands of headlines that can be reworked for your niche.

If you follow the above three methods to come up with an article idea, I’m quite sure you’ll never face writer’s block.

Please share your opinion and how you brainstorm article ideas in the comments.

Do you want responsive followers? Are you following hundreds of people everyday in twitter?

You don’t have to do it anymore. You can get responsive followers without following hundreds everyday by using the simple tips I’m going to tell you in this post. The best part is that you can do it for free. But don’t let the word free to fool you.

In order to follow these steps, you don’t need:

1. Money

2. Softwares that cost $97+

Here’s what you need to have:

1. Time (Not a lot)

2. Some knowledge in your niche (which you probably already have)

That’s it.

What about the results? Here are some of the benefits:

1. Followers who don’t mind whether you are following them or not but they will follow you

2. People who are interested in what you share and see you as an expert

3. Followers who actually check out the links you tweet and buy stuff you sell

Without any further ado, let me take you through the simple tips I use to get responsive followers:

1. Post Tips of Value

Whatever niche you are in, tweet tips that people will be interested in. Are you in the weight loss niche? Great. Tweet tips on how people can lose weight fast. You are in the make money online niche? Cool. Share your ideas on how to build a list or get traffic or just about anything related to make money online. You don’t have to think much. You would have written articles or ebooks. Post something from them.

When you tweet tips, your followers will often retweet your message. So their followers will see your tweet and if they are interested, they will follow you.

By doing this, you are also showing yourself as an expert in your niche. Once you give information and build trust, it will become easy to sell whatever you want.

2. Use Twitter Search And Answer Questions

Find keywords in your niche and search twitter for those keywords. If you are using a twitter client, you can create a column for your search keywords. Whenever you find a question, you can hit the reply button and reply to the person who has asked the question. Its as simple as that.

Let me give you an example. Say you are in the dog niche, you can use a keyword like ’stop dog’. This will provide you results with those two words. You will find people asking questions like “how to stop my dog from barking at my neighbors?”. You are an expert in the dog niche, right? Why not help them with a tip?

You can do that in just about any niche. The people whom you have answered will be happy for the help you just provided and will follow you. When they follow you, they will see that you are always tweeting useful tips (see number 1). So they’ll trust you a lot more and buy from you.

3. Retweet Others Often

This is something you might already know. But I don’t see many people doing it. You have to retweet others. Give and you shall receive. Retweet others and you will be retweeted. When you are retweeted, you will be followed by the followers of the people who retweeted you.

When you are doing the number 1 item in this list (posting useful tips), you will often be retweeted. The number of times you get retweeted will increase tremendously if you retweet others.

A piece of advice: Don’t retweet for the sake of it. Only retweet stuff you like. It is just like forwarding a mail. You forward only the ones you like. Its the same with twitter. Retweet what interests you. Chances are your followers will also like it.

So don’t let anything stop you. Start implementing these three tips right now and see your followers grow. You won’t get hundreds of followers everyday but as I said in my previous post, quality matters more than quantity.

Please share your opinion in the comments.