I never really understood Ruby on Rails. I had it on my list of things to do for a very long time - learn c++, ruby on rails, take bin out, but based on some Ruby on Rails developers it is a more worthy time investment than the two other options. The best thing I can see about it in conjunction with Amazon’s Web Services is the saleability. It’s like having a whole load of power there - when you need it and not when you don’t!

It claims on the website I was looking that “ruby does a lot more with a lot less code” and that its quick to dispense and integrates easily across the board.  Bold Claims but I can see that if you build a Ruby on Rails Portfolio it should work out for you, its one of those illusive less common code bases that will brighten up any cv and almost assure you a role at a Ruby on Rails Company due to the lack of professionals covering it. Unfortunately for me I will probably never get round to mastering it - because as of yet I have never found something I can’t deal with in php etc. But should I ever find the need I would probably hire rather than learn, ROR definately worth a look though if your a new developer with a bit of spare time - then when you get pro - give me a call!!

When I first started my business 5 years ago I was nieve to the world of Business Banking. I knew I needed a business bank account, so I could get the cheque book I needed to pay suppliers, the card to pay for goods online and that I also needed credit card processing services, so I got them all in one from the nearest bank.

My haste perhaps could have saved me a fair bit of time back then, I could have gone with a cheaper bank or thought more deeply about getting Business Funding rather than struggling to survive in the first year. I have since learnt from this but I still am glad I went strait into it. One thing that could have saved me a few grand that year was that the bank I opted for gave me Free Business Banking, but only for 6 months. Whereas now if you shop around you may manage to find 12 months + of free business banking - something which is worth (as I said) upwards of a few hundred quid for most business’s.

Its also important to go with a stable and ethical bank, stability will help you grow your business without worrying about them closing down on you and ethical will ensure that you work with people who understand how business should be done.

As part of a series I intend to give away a business idea once a week for the next month. The pre-post to this is here, essentially the ideas I will provide are ones which I have not personally managed to use yet, and don’t think them personally viable in the short to to long term future - hence I am giving them away to you, for free! ( a link in return wouldn’t hurt :D)

This weeks one I call “Skill Investment” or “SkillVest”

---

The idea in brief was that there are a huge amount of job sites, places to get jobs doing almost anything. One thing there isn’t is a way people can online easily find start ups in which they can provide their work as an investment in the equity of the startup/fledgling company. The Job sites that are out there do their job well, but allow no room for equity propositions as a pose to wages.This came about because I had a spare day in the week at one point and I considered that if I could provide, say PHP or web development services to a start up company, in return for perhaps 5%, then was I able to do that for 20 start ups, the equivalent in return would potentially be a better gamble than simply filling the time with paid web work.This idea would work - I am significantly sure there are many people willing to work in return for equity in startup co’s. I am also very sure that start up’s need a good way to easily find people to fulfil jobs on the cheap that are willing to give up equity.

It is a lot more complicated than your standard site, with the equity part being a lot more legally confusing, especially across international borders. An Escrow like service would be needed to be established in order to enforce the payment of users. Or perhaps not?

---

If you think this is a good idea then please feel free to act on it, if you would like to chat about the idea or maybe include me please feel free to email me at woody *at* critix.co.uk.In the mean time if you want to read up some of my other ideas about business please do:

• 5 Startup Business Points - A few pointers that it may be worth refreshing yourself with
• Mission Statements - Important or not?
• Networking - Internet Style

Here’s the plan. I have a lot of ideas, a complete encyclopaedia of stupid, clever, business and non-profit ideas. I have kept notes about all the ideas I have had since I was about 17 in a custom built (in php) personal fileofax completly aimed at my mental and how I like to display, expand and think of ideas. There’s a fair few gems that I look forward to investing in when the finances and time suit, but there’s also a fair few long shots, ideas that I am not sure I would touch even if I did have the time.

Rather than letting them rot until they hold no value in the current time I figure I will throw a few out there, give them a way - a giveaway business idea if you will.

I don’t want anything in return, maybe a little recognition if you like what I am saying, or a bit of flame if you think its useless - hell you can make it work and not say a thing - at least its better than it never happening.

So staring next week I will give a way about 5 of my business ideas over the coming month or so, providing you with everything I thought about it, what made it pop into my head and why I am not doing it right now. Subscribe now using the box on the left - don’t miss out

I don’t know what it is about America recently, I seem to be more drawn to their start ups and fledgling companies for interest sakes.  For example this morning I happened across a scheme run in the US  where by members of the public can donate to a charity in the form of they Donate a Car. Born and based in the UK and have never seen the concept of donating a vehicle before, but I have had a fair few bangers that are not worth my time, money or attention any more. I have always noticed the “cash for cars” ads, never used one but it’d be cool if when your used car gets to the dead stage and you can afford a replacement, for the combination of donating and removing the heap from your drive to be combined.

This site I saw works by they take your car (collect it from wherever) as part of their Car Donations scheme. As far as I can see in this example the charity then sells the car on and redistribute the sale cash accordingly (they say they only spend 5% on overheads - mentally low figure to run by) to your selected charity or organisation (that you select when you register). It says that your used vehicle will be “used to help single mothers, distribute educational materials, help homeless and more good deeds.” It does sound like a very positive use of second hand cars although I can see theres another viewpoint of it if you look deeper.

That’s not to say a UK charity / organisation couldn’t use this format, someone who collects vehicles or perhaps other items - probably used, sells them on, keeping a small chunk towards paying all the overheads and giving the remaining to a needy charity. The downside I feel with these situations is the objectivity of the charity and its ideals. The charity or organisation will use the funds to its own ends. But I suppose all charity’s operate this way, we should just choose the most appropriate to our sense of morals I guess. This United States one I found funds Free Children’s DVDs and anti-drug videos, which to me represents positive work although it has a Christian spin which I personally may not donate too, but its all positive and is a good way to change unwanted cars into charity support.

I have noticed over the last year or so a huge boom in online financial comparison services. From the likes of Money supermarket who started comparing loans to confused.com and now gocompare.com that lets you find a range of prices for car insurance. Its a booming market and is effectively just affiliate marketing on a national mass market scale. I like the idea, I mean its a win win deal. All the companies using them to sell get more car insurance sold, the middleman gets a cut and the customer gets cheap car insurance, I mean that’s pretty mutually beneficial for all parties. Its rare that on such a large scale something can work so well. I cant help but think that if the insurance companies were dynamic enough they would have started their own equivalent sites, or sold more successfully to avoid the need to use these middle men sites. But then I suppose they may well do, and even if they do perhaps the extra sales are always welcome so they can never have enough outlets to sell insurance.

In that way I cant see that a well implemented version of a comparison site can fail. Provided it is run well, set up with flare and allows you to easily compare car insurance or another financial product then it cant really fail, the moneys there!

What would you do if you were the richest man (or women) alive? would you revel in the fame or stand back? Personally the latter would be my choice. This week with the growth of my current company increasing I have been largely thinking about exit strategy’s, planning my what ifs and my backup what ifs. A plan is important for me - gives me something to beat, something to surpass.

I suppose provided I make it to the multi billionaire status I will probably split my time between family and sustained growth of my empire. I have plans of space and intend to leave earth permanently before I die, perhaps that ambition is a bi-product of a misspent youth, with first person shooters, star trek games and farscape the igniting flame. But wont it be cool when we make it to proper outer space? Where you could just jet off in a direction and see completely new things unseen previously by any human. In business terms I think space is so inconceivably huge that its the equivalent of 1000 gold mines the size of 134million earth’s in terms of available business pursuits. You could operate a deep space expedition or just farm red sand on Mars, operate a hotel on Pluto or pretend to run a jedi school..(lol)

So maybe we will be the generation to which 80% of exit strategies were underplanned, maybe we will find a trick to an extra 60 years of life or work out how to see Mars in person for under £500. I guess we have to keep at our real world business’s - I just don’t see technology slowing down!

Another Week, 7 days, 10080 minutes,  604800 seconds - Here’s a little look into the life of a browser - this just happens to be a firey fox on an acer laptop

• Creative Photos by Chema Madoz - If you have ever studied photography or just want an interesting 5 minutes..
• Matched.co.uk  - £15 per month per site? Worth signing up to help microsites pay their own way
• Get Rich Slowly - Now I saw this site about 6 months ago but skimmed over it - I should have paid more attention - is a good place to spend some time.
• Ajax Widgets - Now I am NOT a script kiddy, I like writing my own bits from the ground up. But here’s a great collection showing you what can be done with a bit of Ajax knowledge - check out the awesome fish eye effect!!!

The current buzz around hedge funds is obvious, but a lot of people wouldn’t be able to describe what one is - but do even the investors know?

What comes to mind when you think of funds? Money? Investing? Though there are many types of funds, each has its unique characteristics. Some are made for individuals while others fit large companies. Funds can have both high and low risk. Yet there is one type of fund that is gaining attention that many people have no clue about. It’s called a hedge fund.

Since its start in 1949, hedge funds have been gaining much popularity by investors around the nation. A hedge fund is a “private, unregulated investment fund for wealthy investors (minimum investments typically begin at US$1 million) specializing in high risk, short term speculation on bonds, currencies, stock options and derivatives”. So if this involves high risk, why would anyone want to invest so much money into it? Well, that answer is simple. Hedge funds are out to make profits, no matter what.

They are unaffected by the market. So even if the market was plunging, a hedge fund investor could still make big profit. Hedge funds can usually protect against declining markets by using different hedging strategies. These strategies differ with each type of hedge fund and investment style. But using these strategies would help bring profit even in a bad market.

Another reason for having hedge funds is hedge fund managers are paid a percentage based on the returns they get. This is appealing to them because they would rather not deal with mutual fund fees. Investors in hedge funds have the freedom to invest in stocks, without letting anyone know what stocks they have invested in. This has added some risk to the stock market. But of course how much of the stock market is under the hands of hedge funds, no one really knows. Some have estimated that it is some where near 50%.Others say there are 4,000 hedge funds that have power over $400 billion.

Though hedge funds have much advantages, just like anything else, they also have their share of disadvantages. An investor should not rely on his or her past knowledge of hedge funds and investing. It is imperative to study the field and how everything works.

Some advice can be taken from Kurt Schacht “While hedge funds are growing in popularity, they escape easy definition,” stated Kurt Schacht, executive director of the CFA (Centre for Financial Market Integrity). “While we all may think we are sophisticated investors, it’s imperative that investors make sure they fully understand the structure and attributes of the vehicle in which they are investing in.” Having a good understanding of hedge funds and how to make them work to your benefit is critical to the success of your business. Never underestimate the power of learning about the market in order to benefit from it. Don’t rely solely on hunches or feeling in the game of risk. When you do have a hedge fund, it requires you make an investment in knowing how the game is played. In the end, you’ve gotta give some to get some.

I’ve touched on microsites before, but lets go a bit more into the concept. The idea is essentially this, build seperate, small websites that are good for several reasons:

• Being Separate from your mainsite has its advantages. You can be more specific, where you couldnt build a 5 page detailed look at one product easily on your oscommerce you can on a seperate site. Also by being seperate you can highly target your seo more blatently without worrying about jeperdising your main branding. Similarly you can express other thoughts on a topic, for keyword placement and to attract different end users only to lead them to your main site.
• A setup microsite can act as a bridge drawing people to your main site.
• A setup microsite can feed PR to your main site (hosted with a seperate company)
• Quick to set up
• Done correctly it can provide free advertising, free customers to your site, free PR boost for your site and even create a revenue.

Effectively you decide on your main site, 2 sites or small network of sites - your flagship big push project/s and then build a network of smaller, supportive ‘pusher’ microsites to aid the growth of your main site. They are designed to be left alone with little to none maintenance post development (which should only be a day or so) and self sufficient, paying their own way.

Here’s a few steps I would advise you read before proceeding with developing a good microsite network as a base to a main site.

Steps:

1. Get a different host - Hosting accounts are key to making use of microsites. It is probably not nescessary to have a different host for each site - maybe 2 microsites per hosting account in different niches. This is because each different hosting account will have different IP (shared hosting might have a load on one ip.) Different IP’s will help defuse your spread to the search engines. (it will help but I am sure google is not stupid to this!)
2. Get a good keyword relative domain - “candle-wax.com” would fit a candle wax subsite.
3. Go Niche - Choose an absolute niche - go niche and then niche of that niche. The better the niche the more chance your microsite has - if you sell a range of candles, make a microsite about candle wax types.
4. Build around a main site - using the previous example if you ran an online candle shop you could build microsites on: candle wax, bees wax, candle products, candle gallery, homemade candles, original candles, world candle records.
5. Time Manage microsite production - Limit your time on each project - I tend to allow a day every few weeks to building a microsite. Its not always constrained to a day, and doesnt always take a day - but don’t waste years making it stunning, stick to the basics - good original content, good link structure and clean code.
6. 1-15 pages - its only a microsite, start it as a microsite, plan how many pages you are going to have and fill them with good original content.
7. Links - Stealth links work - make it a ‘fake’ online shop that when the person clicks ‘add to cart’ it sends them to your main site, its also a great chance to get some real contextual links to your main site. Use words that are what the pages they are linking too.
8. Monetize - I will explain further down but done well will actually make money as well as helping your main site.

So if you manage the above you should be able to create 1 microsite in a day, 1 effective, targetted, long tail niche micro site in around 8 hours. Then what? Well then you push it - as you would any other site - but provided you have chosen your niche well and seo’d your pages this shouldnt be too hard. Strategic linking of your microsites together can help although you want google to think them as different as possible so use different sources for linkage, dont typically link them all together and try and differentiate them all from each other. Also do not use your main site to help them - this is not benificial. Use the microsites to boost your main site not the other way round!!

Monetizing your microsites should more than cover the costs associated with setting them up, therefor allowing you a free place to advertise, draw customers and further dominate your niche.

First things first stick some pay per click or similar on there - although typically you are trying to get people to your main site - so not over the top otherwise you might loose customers for only a few pennies. Using Matched.co.uk you should be able to make a minimum of £15 per month, unless your site is badly designed and poorly linked too (and you don’t have 5 good pages on it). You give them 5 urls that you will stick links on and they will approve/not approve you and give you a bit of code. Having this ad on your site will then get you £3 a month. Not much but 5 of them and you get £180 a year - that should more than cover hosting and registration fees . You are limited to 5 sites with each account on matched though (each with 5 pages = £75 a month)

Kindly use this link if you are going to use Matched so we can all benefit

Further monetization with amazon affiliates, Commision junction or ebay auctions is all good progress but as the site is so niche you are not likely to get huge returns on the effort. Personally I keep it reasonably simple but I have got a few micro sites running all of the aforementioned.

So try it out - microsites as a base for a larger web project! - If you require further consultation regarding seo powered by creative microsites then let me know

---