“Pfft. That’s been done before.”

If I had to count the phrase that has killed more interesting business ideas than any other, “That’s been done before” would be it.

Ironically, it may also be the phrase that will make your business hugely successful…with one caveat. (more…)

Read this post, and in just 10 minutes, you’ll have created your own survey for your customers or readers! Better yet, you will save hundreds of dollars, as you will likely never pay for an online survey tool again…

It used to be, if you wanted to survey your customers or readers, you would have to pony up some hard-earned dollars for a paid online survey tool. In fact, many of these tools carry a monthly fee, and some don’t easily let you export your data–holding you (and your survey results!) hostage. That is no longer the case. (more…)

When it comes to getting a logo designed, you have a lot of choices. Should you hire someone you know personally? Someone another company recommended? Or should you try a site where you can offer a logo “contest” and pay the winner for a logo?

I’ve used several different options to get logos throughout the years:

1. I’ve designed a logo myself.
2. I’ve hired a designer I knew personally.
3. I’ve hired a logo design company.
4. And, most recently, I’ve outsourced logo creation through both 99designs and Design Outpost.

In this post, I will run through each of the above four options in detail, and suggest the best course of action for getting you a great logo design at a low price–based on my own experience. (more…)

If you have a website, or a blog, and you want more traffic to it, please read this post carefully.

I bought erica.biz and moved my blog over to it in December 2007. At the time, I had negligible traffic and only 70 subscribers–mostly my real-life friends.

By December 2009, two short years later, I was getting over 15,000 visitors a month from Google alone–and over 30,000 unique visitors a month total.

Now, I’m going to show you exactly how to do the same thing–get a massive wave of traffic and visitors to your blog or website–for far less than you would pay for pay-per-click advertising! (more…)

This is a guest article by Flexo from Consumerism Commentary. Flexo is currently on a ten-day, ten-venue tour.

The harder you try to succeed, the more failures you will accumulate. Here’s my story:

Flexo’s Failure

I enjoy performing in stage plays, and a play was the scene of one of my failures. I’ve always been the last actor to memorize my lines in the script, being “on book” usually through the final rehearsals before the first performance. My lack of preparedness finally caught up to me while in mid-performance my recurring dream came true: I forgot my lines. (more…)