I was visiting family in San Diego this weekend. Fun trip, lots to do. But on the drive over, I noticed a billboard for Barona Casino, advertising it as the “San Diego’s luckiest casino.”

I just had to laugh. I told my husband that I don’t want to go to a casino that’s lucky. I want to go to one where I’ll be lucky. The casino already has house odds in its favor; it doesn’t need luck.

I know what they meant. That doesn’t mean I had to read it that way.

That’s something important to consider in your own advertising. You can say something, but readers or viewers may not interpret it the way you meant them to. And that’s a bad thing for your business much of the time.

Punctuation Saves Lives

It’s not just poor phrasing that can get you into trouble. Misplaced and missing punctuation can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Just compare “Let’s eat Grandma” with “Let’s eat, Grandma.” Which one is Grandma going to be happy about and which will send her running for the door?

Pronoun Trouble

Just who are you referring to in your advertising? Is it always clear?

While your visitors probably won’t suffer Daffy Duck’s fate due to pronoun trouble, no one likes getting mixed up about who or what you’re referring to in your writing.

This is where the casino ad slipped up just a little. I know they meant to imply that *I* could be lucky in their casino, but the ad as written could be interpreted as the casino itself having all the luck. Who wants that?

The trouble is that the phrasing they used was the most efficient, and most people do understand what they mean to be saying. It’s not the worst example when it comes to something that could be misinterpreted. But it could have been better done.

What Are You Implying?

You may also imply more than you mean to in your ad copy. Maybe it’s hype, maybe it’s something you didn’t mean to say. But it’s misleading to your customers.

This can be a serious problem. It’s not impossible that it can get you into a bit of trouble, depending on how much of an overstatement you make. You can’t claim that your product will do something that there is no chance it can do, and you have to be careful about claims you make that aren’t true all of the time.

This is why business opportunity and wellness product ads have disclaimers, and why the FTC is getting pickier about claims made in advertising. They want average results promoted, not just the extremes. You probably still see a lot of sites making what appear to be promises of wealth, easy weight loss or major health benefits without proof of results, just because it’s hard for laws like that to be enforced. But expect that over time these claims will be checked, and it may be a way to get into legal trouble.

Be sure that what you say clearly and what you imply are reasonable. Have proof available when possible. It may save you a lot of trouble.

It’s important to give a lot of thought to anything you’re going to say to promote your business. Poor punctuation, incorrect phrasing and unproven claims can make your ads say more than you meant them to. That can effect your reputation and your bottom line.

It amazes me how much people want to believe that it’s easy to earn a spectacular living from home. I know all the big sales pages for internet marketing products make it sound like that, but it’s really not that simple.

If you want to know just how unlikely it all is, just take a look at the disclaimers. No matter how much they talk up the ease of big earnings, they have to admit that big earnings are the exception, not the rule.

No matter how much they talk up the ease of big earnings, they have to admit that big earnings are the exception, not the rule.

So much of what people think is the rule for any online business is the exception, not the rule.

Fantasy #1
More time for your family

How I’d love for this to be true! I’ve been working from home since before my oldest daughter was born, and I’ve run my own websites for 7 years now. Running my business hasn’t made it easier to have time with my family. I still have to plan it.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but the simple truth is that any business is hard work, especially in the early days. If you don’t work hard, you slow down the growth of your business and it may never take off.

That said, there are some advantages to an online business. You have more freedom to decide when you work, and that’s a big help. You can run most online businesses from home, and that means you can at least be physically present, even when you’re kind of busy working.

And if you work hard, eventually you get to where you can take time off more easily, as well as learning more about when you work best. It does get better from the early rough days of not having enough hours in the day to handle all that your business needs, never mind everything your family needs. If it doesn’t, it’s probably time to hire some help once you can afford it.

Fantasy #2
Easy money

I hear this one all the time. “I’ve been working at this for x months and I still can’t quit my job!”

True. You can’t.

I worked my online business for three years before I was able to quit my medical transcription job, and it was a risk even then. There are times I wish I still had that assured income.

That’s because this doesn’t come easy. If getting rich were as easy as all that, inflation would probably make us all poor again. But it would probably be fun while it lasted.

If getting rich were as easy as all that, inflation would probably make us all poor again.

Failure in any business is easier and more common than success. Even the most successful business owners usually have a number of failures not only in their past, but in their future.

Fantasy #3
Lots of tax writeoffs

The trouble here isn’t so much that there aren’t a lot of tax writeoffs for online businesses. Any legitimate business expense is a writeoff come tax time.

The trouble is that many people think they can write off all sorts of things that they really cannot. And that gets them audited.

You have to think before you write off any expense. Is it really a cost of doing business or are you lying to yourself?

If you buy a new computer, for example, is it really for your business or will the whole family be using it regularly? My computer is just for business; we have a separate family computer that the kids and my husband play their games on. If I were to replace it, that would be a business expense. Replacing the family computer would not be a business expense.

Fantasy #4
Build it and they will come

Long, long ago, in the early days of the internet becoming popular, maybe this was true. Now, with so many other websites to compete with, not a chance.

You have to market your site. Get the word out. Advertise. Whatever you want to call it, you have to do it.

Yes, there’s such a thing as viral marketing. Wonderful stuff when it works. Thing is, it has to be discovered first. And for it to be discovered, people have to go there. And for people to go there, you have to market it.

Plus there’s no knowing what content will take off virally. You can create something you hope will go viral, but there’s never a guarantee. And sometimes you get taken completely by surprise.

Fantasy #5
Tons of traffic is always a good thing

Nope. Not even close. Not if you want to earn a living from this internet thing anyhow.

There’s good traffic and bad traffic if you’re looking at earning money.

There’s good traffic and bad traffic if you’re looking at earning money. Good traffic has a decent percentage of people who will buy from you or otherwise help you to earn money. Bad traffic overloads your server and doesn’t earn you anything, or only very insignificant amounts.

If you’re serious about your online business, you want buyers! People willing to spend money!

It’s a blast having the traffic on your website take off. I can tell you from experience that it’s even fun if it knocks your server down. Frustrating, but an ego boost nonetheless. It means you’re doing something right even as you scramble to get back online and take advantage of the traffic.

If you don’t earn anything, the ego boost is all the benefit you’re getting. That doesn’t pay bills or put food on the table.

Fantasy #6
You just need to be an expert on your topic

Being an expert is very good for your business. You do need to be one. But it’s not enough to bring you success. There are a lot of experts online, and probably a good number in whatever niche you’re in.

You still have to market your site. No one knows you’re an expert if you don’t let them know. Show your expertise elsewhere. Comment on blogs and participate on forums intelligently. Be helpful, but don’t push people about going to your site. If you’re interesting and helpful enough, your signature or profile links will do that for you without annoying the forum or blog owner with blatant advertising.

There is no one type of job or business that is right for everyone.

Fantasy #7
Anyone can succeed online

I see this a lot. Sales letters promising that the system they teach is so easy that anyone can do it. Yet somehow most people trying any one system will fail at it.

Some of that is from people not trying. Most of it is because what works once doesn’t necessarily work twice online. Another part is that working online simply isn’t for everyone.

That’s true no matter what you’re talking about. There is no one type of job or business that is right for everyone. Some people really can’t stand the isolation common to running an online business. Some just never get comfortable with the tools and processes needed to work online. Some fall too deeply for the idea that buying the information and throwing up a trash website should be all it takes. Some give up too easily. Some honestly cannot afford to take the risk of either time or money.

That’s just life. It doesn’t matter what you want to do, sometimes it won’t be the right choice for you and you need to find a new path. Other times it all clicks and is wonderful. Only way you’ll know how it’s going to go is to give it a try.

Last week I covered some ideas for starting an online business for free. There are some good points about going the free route, but also some bad ones, such as the lack of control. Your free host decides to take away your site, you’re just out of luck.

Better in many ways to pay for a domain name and hosting.

Online businesses really can be cheap to run. I get my hosting from Host Gator, and the plan I use is $9.95 a month and lets me set up unlimited domains… theoretically. Practically, there are limitations on how much processor time can be used, but that’s a limit I only hit once, in an extreme circumstance where I was getting an astounding amount of traffic. Normal circumstances, even with several websites, no problem! And when problems like that happen, they’re still really, really helpful.

Your next cost is domain names. This is an annual cost, and what you pay varies depending on where you buy your domain names. I suggest buying your domain names separate from where you buy your website hosting, so that if there’s a problem you still have control of the domain name. But domain names still shouldn’t cost too much.

Running a $10/Month Business is Much Like Running a Free Business

If you’re only paying for hosting, you’re going to have to do a lot yourself for your business.

The easiest way to set up your site is to install WordPress. Host Gator and many other hosts use Fantastico to give you one click installation of WordPress and other programs. It’s amazingly easy.

If you’re only paying for
hosting, you’re going to have to do a lot yourself for your business.

You’ll need to pick a theme for WordPress. There are tons of free WordPress themes available, and if you know how you can edit them a little so they don’t look like anyone else’s site.

You’ll need to do a lot of writing. If you’re blogging, write every day that you have something worth saying. If it’s nonsense, don’t put it out for everyone to see. If that’s how you warm up, consider keeping a free blog where you just post random thoughts to get them out of your head.

Try to be pretty regular about your posting. A couple times of week is pretty much necessary. WordPress lets you schedule your posting, so if you’re inspired one day don’t worry that you won’t have anything for the rest of the week. Just spread your posts out with the schedule function, and you’ll be in good shape.

Once again, it takes a bit of content to get to where you should be promoting your website. You don’t want to look as though you started and then quit. This is where the scheduler comes in handy. Your prewritten content can give you a break from writing if you need more time to develop further ideas, and no one will know you were gone.

Website Promotion

If you’re trying to only spend money on your hosting costs each month, that doesn’t leave much room for website promotion spending. See last week’s post for free ideas such as article submission, guest posting and social bookmarking.

How Do You Earn Money?

When you’re spending money on your business, earning from it matters. You want to bring in money, enough to make the time you’re spending on your business worthwhile, someday.

AdSense is an easy route to go. Once you have some good content on your site, you can apply. Some say you need to wait six months, but if you have solid content you may be approved sooner.

You should be aware of any affiliate products that you can offer through your website.

Once approved, you add the AdSense code where you want ads to appear, and in a short time it will start matching ads to your content. They won’t always be perfect, and sometimes you’ll see ads you want to block, but it’s one of the fastest ways to monetize a site.

Not always the best, however.

You should be aware of any affiliate products that you can offer through your website. Once you have enough content to be interesting, start applying to affiliate programs. Clickbank, Commission Junction and ShareASale are my three favorite sites for finding affiliate products to offer. Amazon’s Associate Program is pretty good too.

You can offer any products or services you make too. Many writers, graphic designers, crafters and so forth run their own websites. It’s a great way to get your name out there and let people see your work. You never know who might be interested.

Spending So Little is Not an Easy Path

Spending as little as possible isn’t the easiest way to earn a lot of money online. It takes time. You have to find a niche where you can make some good money.

You may wan to spend a little on educational resources to learn what you’re doing. I like the Super Affiliate Handbook for learning affiliate marketing – it gets updated periodically, so it won’t be years out of date, unlike other products. It’s been around long enough to have a well earned reputation as a quality resource.

All you need to go birdwatching is a pair of binoculars, although a field guide to help you identify the various species can be nice too. Head into your backyard, the park or a nature trail and start looking around.

It can be pretty surprising to see the variety of birds you can find in your local area. Kids love seeing birds, especially when you spot a really brightly colored one that you don’t see every day.

Summer is a favorite time of year for many children. There’s no school to keep them from doing what it is they really want to do.

Then there’s you. Mom. Destroyer of plans for a completely lazy summer in front of the computer and television screens. Evil laugh needed here.

Mom. Destroyer
of plans for a completely lazy summer

Not all kids want to laze around the house all summer, but it’s easy for that to happen. They have so much more time to watch favorite shows and play favorite games that they don’t really think about what else they could be doing. That’s where planning for the summer comes in.

Make sure you involve your kids appropriately in your plans for their summer. The older they are, the more effort they should be putting into figuring these things out. You want summer activities to be fun for the kids without running you completely ragged.

1. Turn off the TV and computer.

This is the easiest way to get the kids doing something more than watching TV or playing on the computer. Tell them it’s time for the machines to be off. Include any relevant laptop or handheld electronic devices.

Tell them to find something else to do. You don’t have to order them outside – I personally have no problem with my kids deciding to go read a book when I say “screens off,” so long as they’re still spending enough other time being active or doing things.

2. Enroll them in activities they enjoy.

Not all activities have to be organized team sports. Let’s face it, that doesn’t suit everyone.

Enrolling the kids in activities helps them to find what really interests them.

It takes time out of your day to take kids to activities when they’re too young to get themselves places, but it’s worth it. You’re helping them to develop interests that they may keep for a lifetime or drop in a couple of months. Either way, you’re helping your kids figure out what they love to do.

The hard part is when kids decide to drop an activity part way through when you’ve paid for the whole thing. You have to think about how you’re going to deal with that. Is it acceptable to you?

Sometimes it should be. Sometimes it shouldn’t. Pay attention to the situation and decide which way it should go. Is the better lesson to push on despite problems or is it to find something your child truly loves?

Around here, swimming lessons are a must each and every summer. My inlaws have a pool, so water safety is an absolute must. It won’t ever matter if my kids hate swimming lessons – they will take them until they are highly competent swimmers. That’s the best I can do to keep them safe with access to a pool when they visit their grandparents. Good thing they love swimming lessons for now.

3. Where are the neighborhood kids?

My kids love to play with the neighborhood kids. They run out just about every day to see who’s free to play. I won’t tell you how often the answer is “no one.” It gets kind of depressing at times.

It’s wonderful for kids to have friends all around the neighborhood to play with. Get to know the families in your area. See who is willing to have your kids over or send theirs over to you. Agree that playtime is not TV time.

Playing with
other kids is
great for social development.

Playing with other kids is great for social development. I don’t worry too much about if play with neighborhood kids is active or sitting around playing with toys or just talking. It leans toward active so far, but a big point of it is that the kids are interacting with each other.

The great part about getting to know the neighborhood kids is that it means they’re all safer to play out front, where they can have more space to roam. So many parents have exaggerated fears of kidnapping, but a group of kids is safer than a solitary child out playing… and that solitary child is very safe in most areas.

Judge by where you live, of course, as some places are less safe than others. But don’t let the media tell you to be afraid to let your kids do things you probably did yourself and that were mostly safe. It’s amazingly good for their confidence to do things without adults hovering.

4. Be active yourself.

If all you do is sit in front of a screen all day, why should your kids be any different? Get active yourself and involve the kids. Go on family walks and hikes. Kick or throw a ball around. Play tag.

Not only is this setting a great example for the kids, but it’s a good break for you. If you work at home, you need the time away from your work. It refreshes your mind and may help you to be more productive.

Besides, so many of us mope about wanting to be more active. Get your kids expecting you to play with them and you won’t have much of a choice.