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How To Copyright Your Own Original Work

If you are a serious musician or writer you may at some point want to copyright your own original work. You never know when you are going to need legal recourse for your own protection. Lyrics, music and original unpublished writings are stolen all the time. I am writing this article to hopefully make it easier and less expensive for some of my good musician friends and writers who read this blog on occasion. You don’t need to pay somebody else to copyright your work. You can easily do it yourself. I have personally copyrighted 7 of my own songs with lyrics.

Start by visiting the Library of Congress Copyright Office website. Until recently, as a musician, I had to use a form PA which was the abbreviation for Performing Arts. The form had to be downloaded, filled out and mailed in with your original work including any lyrics, demo CD’s etc. This form is still available if requested. They have recently made it where you can use the electronic copyright. It will cost right about $35.00. Once you enter the site just click on electronic copyright office. Register with a username and password and follow the on screen instructions. The site will allow you to upload your original writing or lyrics and music via MP3. You should know that it will take roughly 4 to 6 months to get your certificate of registration back. You can preregister your work if it’s being prepared for commercial distribution but the fee is considerably higher. It runs about $115.00. The copyright office makes people completely aware that preregistration is not to be used as substitution for registration. You will still eventually have to register your work.

That’s about all I have for you today. If you have some really great stuff and you are considering selling it commercially it may be a good idea to go ahead and protect yourself. In my opinion any serious artist should always copyright his or her own original work.

Best Wishes!

Social Media for Brand Networking

Are you using social media for brand networking? If not then maybe it’s something you should seriously consider. I am guilty myself of not taking it seriously until recently. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Digg, MySpace, Facebook, Delicious and a few others can have a huge impact on the marketing of your business. All of the above sites have millions of dedicated users who may be interested in what your site has to offer. The key is learning how to properly use these tools to your advantage.

Let’s take Twitter for example. Twitter is what I would call a micro blogging platform that allows it’s users to send short instant messages known as tweets. The message can not be more than 140 characters at length. When I first learned how long the message could be I thought, well that seems kind of useless, why bother? I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. I guess it never dawned on me that in that 140 character message you could send a link to a website or a blog or possibly even an advertisers link that you can make money with. Twitter is an excellent social media source to help your business build it’s brand. Just keep in mind that you can’t sign in and instantly start selling to your followers. Like any other business you have to build solid relationships and trust before you begin to try and sell them anything. You can follow Modern Day Peasants on Twitter here.

Other social media outlets like Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Stumble Upon and Delicious should not be overlooked as well. You should know that these sites have outstanding Google PageRank. Just by signing up and entering your site you are building a high PageRank backlink. In addition, if some of your readers Digg your blog articles or maybe give them a thumbs up on Stumble it could feasibly send your website or blog traffic into a whole new stratosphere. Generally speaking a new website start-up is not going to have the PageRank Power to get to the first page of Google, Bing, Yahoo and Aol. The above social media sites do have that kind of power. Use them to your advantage!

I am still learning new ideas about the world of social media and I am no longer naive enough to think that they won’t help. Build your website or business by networking in as many ways that will help you to be noticed. If necessary build your followers one at a time. Be helpful, be friendly and be genuine and in the end the world will know who you are.

Best Wishes!

Boost The Awareness of Your Business

by: Dan Waggoner

Looking for a way to boost the awareness of your business? Consider getting yourself a free Press Release. Make your business or your brand known to the world for free. The big timers do it all the time. Why shouldn’t you? It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in. Musicians, actors, ecommerce, brick and mortar store fronts, websites or any other kind of businesses can and should do a press release just to help boost the awareness of what they do.

1888PressRelease will do exactly that for you. You can also pay them a fee if you want to get additional exposure. The company has been around for quite some time and has different plans available based on your PR needs. They want to earn your business one press release at a time. Just visit their website at the link above and sign up for free. When you get there, check out their user-friendly submission process which takes only minutes to perform. You can attach files, images and logos to your press release making it easier for their journalists and others who need the information to prepare your release for publication. In fact, the company is so intense about the quality of the releases that they keep a dedicated group of editors on hand who do nothing but review and approve each press release to ensure it meets formatting, grammatical and content standards.

If you’re truly searching for a way to put what you do into overdrive then you may want to check these guys out. You can boost the awareness of your own business in minutes.

Best Wishes!

Train Yourself To Say “I can”

by: Dan Waggoner

Think of the possibilities if you could train yourself to say “I can” instead of “I can’t”. I know it’s tough, because I still find myself saying I can’t do something on occasion but I’m getting much better at being aware of it. We’ve been trained as a society to think that we “can’t” do it on our own.

I can’t pay my bills, I can’t take care of my kids, I can’t fix my car, I can’t buy my own home, I can’t write a book, I can’t be a musician, I can’t be a movie star, I can’t build my own business, I can’t become the President, I can’t quit smoking, I can’t say hello to a stranger, I can’t go to work, I can’t understand math, I can’t learn a new language, I can’t be a teacher and I can’t be a doctor. I can’t help myself, how can I help others?

You get my point? Even though our society plays it’s role in training us to think this way, we must play our role in understanding that we live in a country where we can do anything we want if we want it bad enough. Then we must act on it. We have to be committed to it. Immigrants to this country fully understand this concept. That’s part of the reason why they come here. They don’t have to train their-selves to say “I can” because they already know they can.

The human mind is much more powerful than we give it credit. I know I’ve said it before on this blog but I’m going to say it again so bare with me. It’s been proven that it takes 30 days to form a habit. We just have to make sure that the habits that we form are good ones! Please forgive me if it seems like I’m preaching but writing these thoughts down serves two purposes. It helps me to remember and follow the beliefs that are important to me and hopefully it also helps some of you to do the same.

Start training yourself to say “I can” and you’ll soon learn that the rewards are great.

Best Wishes!

Successful eBay Selling Tips

In this post I want to share some successful eBay selling tips for those of you who are either currently selling on eBay or who aspire to do so. eBay can be a phenomenal way to earn extra income for yourself or you can be like the many people who do it as a full time living. These are some of the things that have worked well for me.

Let’s begin.

Tip 1 – Write all your titles in all capital letters- If you look at eBay listings you’ll notice that most people will use capital letters only for the first letter of each word. When people look at listings and they see one that is all capitalized they subconsciously think the listing is more important and will click on it to read more.

Tip 2 - Take advantage of 30 day listings – eBay will let you list a product for 1 day, 3 days, 5 days, 7 days, 10 days or 30 days. By listing your product for 30 days you are essentially lowering your cost per listing because you have to pay eBay every time a listing is sold or ends.

Tip 3 - Offer shipping through the US Post office – The US post office is a very reliable and inexpensive way to ship your merchandise out to your customers and you can get all your Priority boxes for free from them.

Tip 4 - Offer multiple shipping choices -  Give your customer the option of how fast they want their merchandise shipped to them. For example with USPS you can give them the option of Parcel Post, First Class Mail, Media Mail, Priority Shipping, etc.

Tip 5 – Offer Free Shipping whenever possible – Keep in mind that some if not most eBay shoppers are shopping on eBay in search of a deal. If you can offer low cost or better yet free shipping you will be miles ahead of your competition.

Tip 6 - Get your product from a reliable source – Make sure you are dealing with companies that will deliver your goods to you or your customers on time every time.  Companies such as SaleHoo and World Wide Brands have proven track records. They can supply you with an enormous amount of trusted wholesalers and drop shippers along with an extensive list of selling tools all designed to assist in making your business more successful.

Tip 7 – Answer questions promptly – Try to always answer your buyer’s questions quickly. While some people may have the patience to wait for your response, others may not and they will move on to the next seller causing you to lose the sale.

Tip 8 – Use keywords wisely in your titles - eBay is set up similar to an Internet search engine. Keep this in mind when creating the title for each listing. If one of your products is “Nike Air Jordan Tennis Shoes” then make sure you use all of that term in your title. Don’t just write “Nike Air Jordans.”

Tip 9 – Download and use eBay Selling Manager Pro – This program will help you automate many of the time consuming daily chores you must do when selling on eBay such as creating new listings, leaving feedback, sending invoices, sending payment reminders, etc.

Tip 10 – Make all your customers special – Write little notes on their packaging slip thanking them and asking them to visit your site again, deliver their purchased items fast, leave them great and unique feedback if the transaction went well, etc.

Tip 11 - Package sold items with care – When people spend their hard earned money with you take the time to protect their items. Use bubble wrap if needed. You can’t control what happens while it’s being delivered but you can sure take steps to make sure that there is less damage from handling during shipping.

Tip 12 – Buy your shipping materials in bulk - Purchase your shipping materials in bulk to cut costs. Items such as boxes, tape, bubble mailers, bubble wrap are all expenses and should be treated as such. I use a company called Value Mailers. They deliver on time and it certainly helps to keep the costs down.

Tip 13 – Sign up with PayPal – Setting up an account with PayPal will allow people to pay you and for you to pay other people. I also recommend printing all your shipping labels through PayPal as well. You can purchase your postage and print your labels from the comfort of your own home and avoid standing in line at the Post Office.

Tip 14 – List in the proper category – Make sure to put your listings in the proper category. This will again serve to make sure your product gets optimal exposure. You don’t want to be listing your tennis shoes in the jewelry category.

Tip 15 – Make use of gallery tools – Use gallery tools such as Auctiva to display multiple listings inside each listing. If you have a bunch of different product to sell it’s a good idea to be able to showcase your other listings inside each listing. This way your customers can see all your other products you have to offer.

Tip 16 – Remain conscious of your DSR ratings – Detailed seller ratings are your report card for the general public. People grade you on how good of a job you did based on 4 main categories. The item description, communication, shipping time and shipping and handling charges. Keep your customers happy and your DSR ratings will stay high. eBay will also give you a certain percentage discount every month from your final value fees, after you become an eBay Power Seller, if you have good DSR ratings.

Tip 17 – Offer to ship overseas – This can sometimes be a hassle because you can’t print your own labels from home with overseas shipping but it will certainly get you extra sales. The world is a big place!

Tip 18 – Offer a combination of No Reserve Auctions and Buy It Now listings – People like choices and they like deals. Try to offer a combination of no reserve low priced penny auctions to increase the traffic and fun of your site and also do plenty of Buy It Now listings as well to solidify your position in the market place.

Above are just a few of the things that have worked well for me in the past. If you have other ideas you are certainly welcome to add them in the comments as I am sure that people who read this article will be very appreciative of your help. Anybody who has ever used eBay as a selling platform also knows they can always use some more successful selling tips. You can also check out eBay Selling Basics and Getting Started Selling on eBay at their site for additional information.

Also check out the latest post – eBay Selling Tips Part Two

Best Wishes!

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Revolutionary New Tool Will Eliminate Business Cards

by: Dan Waggoner

A blogging friend of mine recently sent me some information on a revolutionary new tool called the MingleStick which will most certainly eliminate the business cards that we all have used for years. Some of my social and business minded friends out there are going to go ape over this one and you all know who you are. The MingleStick is a small inexpensive ($19.95) electronic keychain device that allows people to exchange identity information with the click of a button. I’m sure it will be heavily used by business professionals, college students, organizers and such because it’s supported by both Windows and Mac and will hold up to 500 mingles.

The MingleStick exchanges only ID #s but when you log into your account you get all the information the other user has programmed into his or her accounts public profile such as:

• Name
• Photo
• Email Address
• Business Address
• Home Address
• Cell Phone #
• Business Phone #
• Home Phone #
• Social Networking Profiles such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn

All this can be exchanged with the simple press of a button. Below you can see two people connecting their MingleSticks.

Basically, two users point their MingSticks at each other and press the button. When the red flashing light turns solid green it means the connections has been made. It happens within a split second. Then later on when you’re ready you plug your MingleStick into your USB port on your computer where it connects to the MingleStick website and uploads the information. You just login with a secure username and password.

I’m very excited about this product because of what it means to the business and social networking world as we know it. I personally can’t ever find somebody’s business card when I need it anyway so this is a real winner for me. In my opinion it is definitely a revolutionary tool and it will without a doubt eliminate the hassle of purchasing, carrying and exchanging business cards.

Check it out and see what you think!

Best Wishes

Treat Procrastination Like A Disease

Procrastination will kill your online business. For this reason you must learn to treat it like a disease. You have to give yourself a little medicine every morning and every evening!

Start by writing down your online business goals and understand that they are goals. Remember that old cliche “Rome wasn’t built in a day?” The same goes with your business. Make the writing of your goals special and possibly even frame them above your desk so you can see them all the time. Sometimes it helps to attach pictures. Maybe it’s a house you want to buy when you start to show good profits. Possibly you desire to do some world traveling when you become wealthy so maybe you could attach pictures of the places you want to visit. Whatever the case may be you need something to constantly remind you of where you want to end up in your online business endeavors. Something to help keep procrastination in it’s place.

It has been proven that it takes 30 days for a person to form a habit. Get yourself into the habit of skimming through your goals every morning and every evening. On a separate sheet of paper or poster you should write down all the tasks that you know you need to do on a daily basis such as updating content, updating ads, updating blog, answering emails, writing articles, building website traffic, networking with other businesses and individuals and so forth. I don’t recommend framing this one because it’s possible that you will have to add to it regularly. Place this list above your desk also. Put it right next to your goals so you can easily read it every morning and evening too.

Don’t let your own procrastination get the best of you. Beat it at it’s own game. Treat it like a disease and after some time of doing this you will find yourself well on your way to enjoying a successful online business. Your goals are closer than you think.

Best Wishes!

Virtual Assistant Good Or Bad?

Evidently very good if you have chosen the right company. Bad if you choose the wrong one! A virtual assistant can save your business valuable time and money. You save time by eliminating some of the everyday tasks that keep you from doing what you’re really good at and you save money because you don’t have to pay on a full time basis. Things like FICA, state unemployment taxes, social security, health insurance, profit sharing, holiday pay and more can all be eliminated from your cost. You just pay for their services when you need it. I don’t have one yet, however, I am just now getting to the point to where I can barely keep up so I have been really on top of this subject lately. The company that I plan on using is Team Double-Click. They come highly recommended by the likes of Fox News, Entrepreneur Magazine, NBC News, CNN Money, Staff Digest, Woman’s Day Magazine and more. This company currently has 65,317 virtual assistants available and started their business back in 2000.  They’re always looking for more good assistants too. So if you have some skills, you could make some extra money at home working for them. I must warn you that their screening process for employing you is very thorough so be on your toes. They only want the best people to represent their clients and that is one of the traits that I really like about them. The company has told me that if any of my readers wanted to be a virtual assistant they would need to visit the contractor services area here.

Other tasks a virtual assistant can do for you are, telecommuting, lead follow ups, social marketing, transferring files, typing, etc.

As I stated earlier, determining whether a virtual assistant is good or bad for you will depend first on your needs and second on which company you choose. If you’re like me and you’re almost to the point of overload doing it all by yourself then maybe it’s time to start thinking about it.

Best Wishes!

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