There are many good companies out there who offer services that you refer business to. Sure they may give you a referral fee, or compensate you in some way, but they are making big bucks off of your networking abilities.

We all want to live the American dream (get married, buy a house and become a business owner). Now you can be the CEO of Your Network. Here is a list of ways to do that:

1. Put together a list of services that you yourself can complete.

2. Add to that list all of the other services you would normally refer out and include that in your company offering of services.

3. Make an arrangement with the company that you would have normally outsourced the business to and “white label” their services. That way you get the job completed and your own company gets all of the credit for the quality work.

4. Add the completed job to your portfolio and now you can say you offer everything under the sun.

What you have accomplished in all of this is:

1. Created a company for yourself.

2. Helped your friends and network with whatever services they needed to be completed.

3. Made some extra cash on the side!

Most businesses fail not because they do poor quality work, but because they have trouble finding the clients to do the work for. If you have a large network, that means the heavy lifting has already been done.

• Create a mailing list amongst your friends, family and professional connections. This is an old school method but it never hurts to try. You wish for all the traffic you can get at this point in time.

• Make use of web tracker statistics. These statistics can provide progress reports. It helps to review the trends with your management team to help plan new directions.

• Submit articles to article directories. If you are a professional in any subject (and you should be, bearing in mind that you’re selling something) then it’s time to share your knowledge with the world by posting at an article directory site. At the very least, you get an bonus link which will help your search rankings.

• Have a look at social media sites. This is the signal of the future and traffic reporter sites advise this is where nearly your entire customer base is. Travel to them and take an interest in their lives before you try and sell them anything.

• Use ample of original pictures. Products are only as attractive to the public as they appear online. Don’t make use of stock photography if you have a camera and can take a attractive picture of a product that’s ready to sell.

• Offer a free something as an incentive. This free product can be anything from a free download to free advice or even a free give away. Everyone loves free stuff right? Hence, why you’re reading this free article rather than subscribing to ten high priced news magazines.

• Brand your company whenever possible. Think about letterheads, logos, clipart, promotional giveaways, catchy slogans and punchy nicknames. You’re not selling yourself literally, as in an ordinary guy…you’re selling a company and idea that’s larger than life.

• Look into joining an affiliate network. Even if you can try and catch the attention of your own advertisers, it also makes sense to join an affiliate network and earn income from a entire network of traffic.

• Blog your heart out. Blogging is what keeps people interested in your business. If you don’t feel like blogging then simply add search-friendly articles to your website on a regular basis. Maintain fresh information rolling in!

Facebook is under pressure to take a stand on groups that want to use its pages to air views that are at best controversial and at worst hateful.

A series of blogs brought the issue to light when they decried the proliferation of groups on Facebook that endorse the idea that the Holocaust didn’t occur. “The Holocaust denial movement is nothing more than a pretext to allow the preaching of hatred against Jews and to recruit other like-minded individuals to do the same,” Dallas attorney Brian Cuban wrote in a May 10 “Open letter to CEO of Facebook”.

Hate Speech Online

The presence of Holocaust deniers on Facebook underscores the challenge faced by social media in cases where content is offensive but may not overtly violate laws or a site’s terms of service. Facebook and other social networking sites, for example, prohibit pornography and hate speech but are reluctant to ban groups simply because their views are inflammatory. “All of the fault lines of society and all of the hatemongering that existed long before Facebook was ever even conceived have now moved front and center to their corporate reality,” says Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human-rights organization.

After extensive internal debate, Facebook opted not to remove the groups. “The mere statement of denying the Holocaust does not constitute a violation of our policies,” says Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt, noting that users are forbidden from posting material that is “hateful” or “threatening.” It later removed two of the groups identified as offensive by Cuban after users posted comments to those pages that did violate service terms. Cuban is the brother of investor, blogger, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.

Controversy surrounding speech on Facebook won’t end with the removal of a handful of offensive groups. A report slated for a May 13 release by the Simon Wiesenthal Center will shine added light on hate speech on the Web. The number of Web pages and shared online documents promoting racism or other forms of hatred has surged to 10,000, a 25% increase from last year, according to the report. Cooper estimates that Facebook is the biggest venue, accounting for about 30% of all these online instances of hate.

Critics Press for Tougher Rules

David Ardia, an attorney and director of the Citizen Law Project at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, says that by allowing controversial groups, Facebook is acting well within its rights. “Facebook can decide what’s appropriate for its users,” Ardia says. The social network was lambasted by bloggers who said its reluctance to ban the groups was cowardly. “If Facebook doesn’t want to take a moral or ethical stand on the issue, they can easily make a case that the groups violate their terms of service,” tech blogger Michael Arrington wrote on May 10. Unlike other forms of speech, Holocaust denial has been outlawed in several countries, including France.

Facebook has come under attack in the past for hosting anti-Gypsy groups. The site currently contains several groups defending “white pride.”

In February, Cooper met with Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, to discuss the existence of offensive content. He brought along a PowerPoint presentation filled with examples of potentially hateful material on the site. “The scope of it at this point may be overwhelming them somewhat,” Cooper says.

Facebook Policy Review

Facebook’s Schnitt says the company does not actively patrol for such content; instead, Facebook relies on users to flag objectionable material. That list goes before a team that is trained to “use their judgment” to delete or permit each item based on guidelines drafted by the company’s lawyers and communications staff, Schnitt says. In exceptional cases, including Holocaust denial groups, the operations staff escalates content for the higher-ups to debate.

At the same time, the company seeks outside counsel. “We don’t pretend to know everything,” Schnitt says. The company regularly meets with groups like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as well as government agencies such as the State Dept., to help inform its view of what should and shouldn’t be permitted.

Cooper says he disagrees with Facebook’s view that the Holocaust denial groups on its site are not threatening. “Holocaust denial in the Muslim world is a way to express hatred for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and to call a group of people a bunch of liars, and it is a threat,” Cooper says.

Of course, Facebook isn’t alone in having to deal with controversial or offensive groups and other content. It and other companies, including Twitter and News Corp.’s (NWS) MySpace, may have to get more explicit about their policies, rather than continue to debate what can be considered “hateful.” “As we see in the [Facebook] terms of service, they have very broad discretion,” says Harvard’s Ardia. “They can describe other things which are far less hateful. So far, Facebook has been very circumspect in exercising that control but they don’t have to be.”

Serious prospective clients study your site with interest. They are performing due diligence and assessing your viability as a consulting company. Persons that walk through your internet doors are analyzing you just as you scrutinize that new retail outlet.

The first thing your consulting business blog or website needs to accomplish is extend the “Welcome Sign.” Make sure the site loads quickly. Clients have no patience for sites that are slow to open. When the site opens, capture the client’s attention with representative design and strong content. Know what they want to see and put it on the first page.

What Clients Do Not Want To See
Most clients are internet savvy and have used the internet for research before. They know what they like. They also know what they do not like. Prospective clients look skeptically at sites that have the following attributes:

• Flashy Storefronts – Site developers like the glitzy, new tech flashiness more than actual buyers. Clients for consulting services want to get to the product and the value and shy away from distractions.
• Meaningless Graphics – Generic images that do not relate to your specific product or value are a waste of everyone’s time. If images do not represent your consulting practice, do not use them.
• Poor or Outdated Design – Clients have expectations. They know what content they will read and they skip the fluff. They expect speed and they expect professionalism. Your design must not detract from your product, your value or your message.
• Overkill – The most common error of web sites is over promotion. Deliver your attributes in well scripted, concise posts. Avoid repetition. Be sure to post content that is client-oriented, relevant and current. Build a resource for the client and they will come.
• Poor navigation – Make sure your site is easy to navigate and that all pages are appropriately titled.
• Poor Grammar – Bad grammar, poor spelling and poor writing eliminate consultancy candidacies quickly. If you need a writer or an editor, outsource these services. Retain final draft approval, but your web presence must exhibit effective communication skills.

Over the past decade, there have been thousands of new businesses established around the world. These entrepreneurs have made businesses possible and successful, though many still seem hesitant to embrace the Internet. They believe websites and the Internet are too complicated and that it does not affect their business. Their hesitancy comes from 10 most common myths about business on the internet.

Myth#1 – Everyone’s already doing it.
You can find plenty of evidence to support this myth when you look around. Just about every company has a Web site these days. But nice looking images, just isn’t commerce and it does not result in profit. You’ll find that there is still many ways service can be provided utilizing the Internet. We are constantly evolving in the way we utilize Internet technology.

Myth#2 – It is too late now for the Internet.
Indeed it is too late to put up just some pretty pictures called website on the Internet and profit from it. Besides this fact, we really have just begun. We are just now expanding on broadband and making it more available. Off-line physical data is still in early phases of being transferred to digital storage. Commerce is still being integrated online. The point is, there is still room for everyone.

Myth#3 – The Barriers To Entry Have Never Been Lower.
Launching a Web site is easy. And putting up a Web site to transact commerce is easy these days. But effective, scalable, and successful Internet businesses are created and launched with precise and strategic plans.

Myth#4 – Buying online was a fad.
Buying online was a fad does not hold up against statistics that are showing 30 percent of US consumers had purchased online in the last three months, up from 26 percent in the previous year.

Myth#5 – All you need is a great web site.
What you first need and where it starts is a well-defined service. If you don’t have a clear picture of your customer and exactly what you’re selling, the best web site will not get you profits and clients. Before you build a web site, you should know who your target market is, how to describe your professional specialty, and what specific benefits your work provides for your clients.

Myth#6 – You just need to write something on your website.
The content of your site is much more important than the design. Yes, you should have a professional-looking site, but a brilliant design and dazzling graphics won’t pay off anywhere near as well as a clear explanation of why a client should work with you. Useful material such as articles, assessments, and other samples of your expertise will go much further to persuade prospective clients than flash intros and interactive menus.

Myth#7 – More traffic translates to increased profits.
Before spending money on banner ads, web directories, or pay-per-click listings to drive more visitors to your site, you need to be sure that they’ll want to do business with you once they get to your site. The site has to make sense from a business perspective.

Myth#8 – My business is only local.
There’s no such thing as a local businesses anymore in today’s economy. With the Internet everything these days is online and visible to the world.

Myth#9 – I don’t need a website.
Why would a business not want to be open 24/7, 7 days a week, all year essentially for free? It is the fastest and most convenient way to communicate with everyone in business worldwide.

Myth#10 – The internet automatically will make me wealthy.
As with any business especially on the Internet, great business sense and timing is the needed success formula. Doing business online requires a clear strategy and plans.

Well, believe it or not there are actually people online doing this. They have a website or internet business and the profits seem to be rolling in automatically. The question is how do they do it? Did they just get lucky? Did they find a real secret and are not letting you in on it? The flat out answer is no! They put their heart and soul into their business. They have a relentless determination to succeed. They have the desire to make money online and they were willing to do whatever it took to make it happen.

Look at Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Rockefeller. They all have the same thing in common. They have the mindset that they will not fail. They are passionate about making money. They go the extra mile to help others succeed. I promise you they have failed so many times that it would make your head spin. They have lost millions. But, they have learned from their failures. Fine tuned their skills. They were able to rise above all of it and become the tops in their perspective fields.

If you want to make money online, then you must have that same mindset. Find something to be passionate about. Study and learn it inside out. Become the expert in your field. Create a plan and stick to it! Don´t give up just because you are not making money as fast or as easy as you would like.

If you want to sell flowers online, recipes, market cosmetics over the internet then do it. Go out there and buy or create a data capture page. Link it to your sales page. Then use every marketing tool available to get the money rolling in! Write blogs, articles, create ads, emails, telephone marketing, Write scripts to promote your product or service. Put into your mind that you are going to make money online and you will.