Shorten that link!

Once again in my web surfing, I've come across a very useful site I'd like to share with everyone.

This one is http://bit.ly - note no www used here.

This web site allows one to shorten the long web site link names into 10 characters or so, great for Twitter's 140 character limit.  I've experimented with this several times and never had an issue.

Further, http://bit.ly will also save your links and track the visitor activity to it.  Developer information is provided for additional api developments.

This is an incredibly easy to use and useful link for Twitter, Facebook, e-mail links, etc.  Highly recommended.

Extra Money via Rental Properties

Here is another good way to make extra money, save your taxes, potentially help out others, and an area in which I have personal experience.  Rental property.  Now is certainly an ideal time to find inexpensive properties, though many of them may require repair and rehab prior to renting.

In our little 'barony', we own 3 properties: our primary residence, a townhouse, and our former single-family property.

Circumstances justified and sometimes compelled us to rent these units:

- Our grown daughters and their small children needed a place to live

- We had enough savings to cover at least six months in rent in a case of vacancy

- We felt that in the long-run (and we're only in our 40's), our properties would increase in value - despite the real estate disaster of 2008-09 - and provide an additional stream of income in retirement.  This could result from either rental income, sale of the property and subsequent investing, or a reverse mortgage.

- Real estate is good for portfolio diversification.  The stock and bond markets have demonstrated volatility over the past 18 months, and while real estate has declined, at least one owns a tangible, physical asset. (1)

- Our rental properties are within 10 minutes of our primary house, allowing us to keep a vigilant eye on them.

- If we wished, we could form a "property management company" allowing us to gain increased tax advantages from business write-offs. (2)

Taking on the responsibility of landlord is neither taken lightly nor without research and planning.  One must conduct thorough research on the marketplace to determine the rental need and property values.  If money is expected soley from rent, one must not incur a mortgage that exceeds rental income.  Also to consider are property taxes, fire and disaster insurance, and the cost of utilities, if those are offered.  One must also vett potential tenants, running credit reports, and asking for references.  Certain communitys - our townhouse is one - require association fees as well.  Those must be calculated in the overall monthly budget.

I won't lie - there are negative sides to the rental/landlord tenant aspect too.  We had a tenant in 2009 that lost her job and was unable to pay rent for a few months.  Despite our efforts to work with her, she could not or would not pay and her lease was not renewed.  Our next step to collect back rent will involve taking her to small claims court if the back rent is not settled. 

A second example of the down sides are a need to be immediately available if serious issues arise.  We had that experience this past summer when our second property had a fire started by a faulty bathroom exhaust fan.  Even though we were already in bed, we obviously needed to respond immediately.  Fortunately, no injuries resulted, and insurance picked up the majority of the cleanup and repair cost. 

In the end, we manage to do better than break even on the properties while providing our daughters with a residence we know is safe and secure.  Further, in the long run, the property value will increase and we have assets to sell in worst case scenarios.






Disclaimer:

1) We are not financial planners nor claim to be.  We strongly recommend consulting with a financial planner to discuss whether real estate is a good (or desirable) option for you.

2) We are not accounting or tax professionals nor claim to be.  Individuals considering forming a business, property management or otherwise, should consult with a qualifed tax professional for details.


- AJ

This Thanksgiving, despite a difficult economic and personal year, I have many things to be thankful for:

- My friends and family

- My constitutional right of free speech and expression

- I appreciate and am grateful to the readers of this blog and our web site and hope they value its content.

- The relationships I've started to establish on Twitter and Facebook

- Linking up with older, long-lost friendships and classmates - those days were some of the best in my life

- Living through a terrible economic and personal year with my sanity, marriage, and life intact

- I am eternally grateful to my business partners - Caspar, Molly, BMac - for helping to realize a dream

- To my parents, for their emotional and financial support when times got really rough.  Also for the gift of a wonderful trip to Europe (an earlier birthday present).

- To Rich and Lisa - I am thankful that you found each other and love at last.  I am equally honored and thankful for serving as the best man at your beautiful wedding in Niagara Falls.  Semper Fi, my friend.

- To my current classmates for stimulating conversation and collaboration on our SAP work.

- To Fred and Wendy for your friendship, advice, support, and sanity checks.  You two truly are the cats meow.

- To Lilly and Melanie, for budding online friendships.  You are interesting, intelligent, talented, and beautiful, inside and out.  Never let others tell you otherwise.

- To the folks at the Department of Labor that have assisted me with sorting out major messes with a previous employer - could not have done it without your ongoing guidance, knowledge, and assistance.

- To my sister, Mandy, for her support and our improved communication and relationship.

- For all those I've missed - I apologize and thank you for all that you've done.

I look forward to the future with open eyes and ambition for projects unfinished and those yet to start.

Happy and healthy Thanksgiving to all - we each have much to be thankful for.


- AJ

Review of an excellent how-to freelance site

Making a decision to and starting a business is a major effort with many hurdles to overcome.  I browse the web daily looking for interesting web sites and content that is relevant to our effort to help our visitors ease into entrepreneurship.  Sometime sites are good, even great; many are spam or scams trying to get you to spend money to make money.  Thesmallbizpro team is not about that.  We believe in providing information to get your business started and keep it running.

Today I was lucky.  I came across a "How-to become a Freelance Developer" site by a talented professional - Amber Weinberg.  Her web site is http://freelancefolder.com/how-to-become-a-freelance-web-developer/comment-page-1/#comment-33434.  On this site, Ms. Weinberg provides a 6-month road map for going freelance with a brief month-by-month summary of actionable items.  A link to her personal portfolio is also included.

A solid summary for "knowing what is involved", potential entrepreneurs will find value in understanding the process and volume of work involved in building and running a successful operation.  Links are also provided at various points for freelancing resources, blogging tip sites, and others.

As she notes, Ms. Weinberg's steps are primarily appropriate for those interested in careers as freelance developers.  Those interested in freelance writing, editing, or other pursuits will glean some general information here, but will need to look elsewhere for specifics.

I do have two very minor observations: some of the links provided are services that must be paid for though many comparable programs are available for free via download (see BizonaBudget), and I think networking and market research/testing is not emphasized enough early in the process.  In order to successfully go it alone, a niche must be determined early (perhaps even before the 6-month process) and the waters tested for viability and potential profit.

Despite these minor reservations, Ms. Weinberg provides useful and salient information for anyone interested in freelancing.  We at Thesmallbizpro thank her for the contribution to the freelance business community and wish her much success on her journey.


- AJ

Who put that 'Key' in my 'Word'? Keywords are key!

Also known as an index term, subject heading or descriptor, keywords are arguably the most important feature of blogs and websites.  These "terms" or "keywords" capture the very basics of a posted topic of a document.  We can debate about layout, content, format, flash and CSS, etc., but if a site can't be found by a search engine, those points are moot.

Probably the most common use of keywords on the web are tags which are directly visible, often containing words, phrases or acronyms, and can be created by non-technical people. Index terms are created either manually with subject indexing via document analysis or automatically using sophisticated methods of keyword extraction and automatic indexing . Index terms may be taken from a controlled vocabulary or freely assigned.

For sake of simplicity and usability, keywords are stored in a search index with common terms such as articles (the, a, an) and conjunctions (and, but, or and nor) eliminated for efficiency.  Virtually every website in English contains the word "the"; including it in a search would create massive numbers of pages retrieved and information overload.

Since keywords essentially describe the essence of an article and assist site discovery, using them carefully and appropriately is vital to search engine optimization (SEO) and bringing traffic to your site.  A good (and free) tool I've found for determining relevant keywords is available at: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/.  Simply enter in a keyword and the Wordtracker engine suggests approximately 100 alternative terms.  Wordtracker is like having a virtual thesaurus for your website!











 - AJ

Excellent link about advertising tips for a website

Simply put, this article by Daniel Scocco is an outstanding, detailed version of various ways to use advertising on a web site or blog.

Fact-full of information, Scocco lays out the Pros and Cons, where to find advertisers, how much to charge, where to find the advertisers. 

You will never need another guide other than what Scocco has written out.  Read this if you are serious about blogging and web sites, and want to maximize your earning potential.  Be forewarned - it will require work and time - this is not a quick-money scheme.

Thank you to Daniel Scocco for this very valuable information and sharing it with us.

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/how-to-find-advertisers-for-your-website-the-ultimate-guide/

Self-employed? What the IRS thinks.

For tax reporting purposes, the IRS has several classifications of working individuals including:

• Contractor
• Employee
• Self-employed
  

The first two categories were covered in a previous blog post.  In this one we review the IRS rules on what it considers self-employment.

The IRS considers a person as self-employed if:

The individual has a trade or business as a sole proprietor; or

The individual is a member of a partnership or limited liability company (LLC) that files a form 1065

Persons might also be considered as self-employed if owning a part-time business in addition to a regular job.  The weekend handyman or computer tech with his own tools and customers might be considered self-employed despite having a similar employee position with a company.

A complete summary of all employee listings is on our web site:  http://www.the-small-biz-pro.com




For additional details, please consult the IRS small employment web site: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/