You know what I love about WordPress? I can change the future.

Right now, it’s Thursday. You’re reading this on Monday. (Well, maybe you’re lazy and not paying any attention to your feeds. Whatever, that’s cool. You get my point.) Right now, on Thursday, I’m in a wonderful mood. I’m casually sipping a glass of wine. I’m looking around my still fully furnished apartment and thinking, oh well. I’ll deal with the packing and moving later.

By the time you read this, it will already be later. I will be considering burning down my new apartment just to get the insurance money and move to Bali. I will subsequently be realizing that my insurance won’t have kicked in yet and burning my apartment down will bring me no financial benefit. I will likely be drinking wine anyway, but it won’t be quite so casual. Think nice thoughts for me. I think I’ll be needing them. Read More

The home business marketing homeless dude is back to reiterate his lessons.

You may or may not know that I wrote an ebook. In that ebook, I told readers that if they ever had any questions about SEO, they could email me. Lots did, which was awesome. One in particular stands out, though, and I want to tell you about it.

Brandon (hi, Brandon!) came through StumbleUpon. He’d never heard of me before that. He dropped me a line through my contact form and we got to chatting.

He wanted to talk about his blog-to-be. He knows he shouldn’t use Blogger, but doesn’t know what to use instead. If he’s like most newbies to blogging, he’s read the posts where people spit venom at Blogger but don’t give an alternative because the writer thinks it’s obvious. I know I’ve been guilty of that.

So we chatted back and forth a little about Wordpress and the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org and all that totally overwhelming shit you have to think about before you start a blog. We get to what I think is a logical end to the exchange, and he fires back one more quick email. He wants to know about hosting.

Ahh, hosting. Read More

Yesterday, I got a Google alert for my name. It came from a website I have heard of, but not really visited. The website has a subscriber base of about one quarter of what IttyBiz has, give or take, and doesn’t have a bad design. Definitely in my niche.

I dutifully followed the link and saw an article with my name on the byline and my photograph in the top left corner. Here’s what it said, with identifying details removed:

“This week’s [name of series] is a special contribution that [website] Founder [name of dude I’ve never heard of, hereinafter shortened to DINHO] lined up from Naomi Dunford. Naomi Dunford writes for IttyBiz, a blog for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and other work-from-home types. Come by for marketing tips, small business advice, and the occasional very bad joke. Naomi shares with use [use?] her top ways to get a new business off the ground.”

Um, WTF? Read More

Regular IttyBiz readers will know that every now and again, when I do something really fucking stupid, I’ll write about it here and teach you a valuable business lesson at the same time. Because I’m cool like that.

If you were paying attention and actually read the monster home business resources post, you’ll have seen my warning about Skype. If you haven’t, I’ll recap here and say that Skype is WONDERFUL. It took me forever to suck it up and get it but it has totally changed the way I do business. I heart Skype. It has saved me a boatload of money and hassle and is generally awesome.

Except. (You know how they say, “there’s always a but”? Not true. Sometimes there’s an “except”.) If you’ve read any of the must read books/magazines/blogs about home business, you’ll know that the first order of business when you go out on your own is to treat your home office like you would treat a real office. Take it seriously, they tell you. Read More

This is the second post in a three-part guest post series about making money online and avoiding scams during your search. It’s by Joe and Steve of I’ve Tried That. They still maintain they are separate people. I still maintain they are not. Read part one here — How To Make Money Online and Avoid Scams.

If you’re new to this race—the “making money online” race—consider yourself lucky to have made IttyBiz one of your first pit stops. (Editor’s note: Remember the other day, when we were saying that in order to get a guest post on IttyBiz, you have to use the word “shyster”? Additional rule: Please suck up, but do so intelligently like Joe/Steve.) As you’re about to discover, there are LOTS of bogus money-making programs making false claims in an effort to take your money. One thing that’s in your favor, though, is that they all use the same or very similar tactics. Snake-oil salesmen are never original, it seems, and that’s a fact you can use to your advantage. Read More