OIO Publisher is AMAZING and you need to get yourself a copy!

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Considered the top and best way to sell private advertising space on your blog, OIO Publisher is amazing! I have it installed here on Dorm Room Biz as well as my other blogs and use it. The set up and admin control panels are very easy to use and navigate through. Another AWESOME key point is that the support for the system is just incredible - definitely the best support I have received from any online company.

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you all about OIO Publisher again as I know I have talked about it before. If you are looking to make money online from blogging, you need to have OIO Publisher to do it! So go sign up today and take your blog income earnings to the next level!

WooThemes Launches - Wordpress Theme Club with excellent premium themes!

Out friends from PremiumNewsTheme.com have rebranded themselves and relaunched today as WooThemes! The site and service that they have put together, a wordpress theme club, is an absolutely outstanding idea and I encourage you to check it out.

A collaborative effort by Adii, Magnus Jepson, Mark Forrester and Elliot Jay Stocks, I can only imagine what kind of success WooThemes is going to be. With some already great looking themes designed and out there, it is hard to think that they will be able to out do themselves and create something even better.

The concept of WooThemes is great also - you sign up and pay for three or six months membership and get access to any and all themes that are already available and then any that launch during your time as a member. Sounds good doesn’t it? The only better part is the reasonable price! A single user subscription will get you access to over 10 themes right away and more on the way, for only $150.00! Each theme was previously selling at $50+, so this is a great deal for you.

I sent a twitter out to @adii to find out what the hardest part of setting up and launching WooThemes was an his simple reply was “woothemes = blood, sweat, and tears” If you are looking for an indepth follow up on the process of launching WooThemes, keep an eye out on Adii’s site.

Congrats goes out to the guys for a successful launch today!

Want to start a business? Consider opening a franchise!

In the current economic situation, many people are getting fired, loosing their jobs, and looking towards the opportunity to start their own business. But some of those people do not have any clue what kind of business they want to start, or even how to start one. Enter the opportunity to open a franchise. Franchise opportunities are all around you in your life, all you have to do is look around.

There are tons of different franchise available for you and your needs/interests. Whether it is a low cost franchise opportunityor something extreme and expensive. Every year Entrepreneur Magazine publishes their list of the Top 500 Franchises; this is a great place to look if you are interested in the opportunities out there and also to use as a quick guide about different businesses because it will tell you the market they are in, the start up costs, and more.

Here are the top 10 franchises from Entrepreneur Magazines list:

1. 7-Eleven
2. Subway
3. Dunkin’ Donuts
4. Pizza Hit
5. McDonald’s
6. Sonic Drive In
7. KFC Corp.
8. InterContinential Hotels Group
9. Domino’s Pizza
10. Re/Max

About.com also has some great information on franchises and a list of some of the most popular ones out there. There is another website, which hosts a list of the top 500 franchises and that can be found at the Franchise Buyers Network.

I am sure I do not need to explain the huge list of benefits of starting a franchise and the extra level that you can reach by doing so versus starting from scratch, but here are a few just in case.

1. Proven Business - Although it is still risky starting a franchise and launching a business, the risk is lowered because the the model has been proven successful previously. If it hadn’t, you wouldn’t be able to franchise it right? The corporation should be well aware of how to do business in the industry and market that you will be operating and should be able to help you out a lot when getting started.
2. Established Customer Base - Even if you are launching a franchise in a new territory, just having the brand name of your business known by people all around will be helpful in attracting new customers to your location. Perhaps they go to your franchise in another area whenever they visit or always wanted to see your franchise open in your location, now it is time to take advantage of those people! The brand awareness will provide trust, quality, and security to the customer.
3. Marketing - You as a smaller franchise operation will obviously benefit from any marketing efforts that the larger corporation puts out and does. If they run a marketing campaign for a new hamburger or sandwich, you better be sure to have it on your menu because customers will be wanting it. The franchisor can also help you put together your more local marketing plan and provide helpful guidance.
4. Exclusive Territory - Depending on the business you are going to operate, you may be able to have exclusive territory rights to an area which will mean you won’t have competition from within the franchise by another franchisee moving in down the street. This is harder to reach with restaurants (or the territory may be much smaller) but service businesses such as computer repairs or other home repair companies usually offer a good size territory.

Have you thought about opening a franchise? I know I had before. A few of the ones that I have looked at and investigated include: Cold Stone Cremery, Rita’s Water Ice, Five Guys, and Subway.

Apparently in the UK you can rent garage space and parking spots online

I don’t know if there is anything based on a U.S. website like this yet, but there are different websies in the U.K. focused on selling and renting parking spaces and extra garage spots. Talk about an interesting idea.

Obviously there are parking issues in just about every major city, so it makes pretty good sense to open a marketplace where people can buy and sell extra parking spaces at your house, your complex parking garage, or at your companies parking lot.

If you check out the website Parklet.co.uk, which seems to be one of the major leaders in the U.K., you will see how well the idea is working out. Just by searching through different cities you quickly come across tens and hundreds of spots listed for rent. You can rent parking spaces for anywhere between 60-500 euros or $90-$775 per month! Their website says that they currently have more than 3,500 registered users and 5000+ advertised spaces.

The founder of the company is only 28 years old, which is great to hear, and started the compay after being tired of paying high parking costs when going to work and also after having his car dented and dinged many times by people throwing their doors open. So, he decided to searc elsewhere for parking.

“I knocked on some doors and found somebody happy for me to park there and then had the ideas of making a business out of it.”

Are you into World of Warcraft?

I’m not much of an online gamer or a gamer in general but if you know what you are doing, there can be a good amount of money in the industry as a business. There are websites all over the place that sell W.O.W. and other game accounts, accessories, powers, and weapons. If you are looking to buy wow accounts or anything of the sorts you really do not need to do too much searching. Just doing a search on Google will return some results. One such site is BuyMMOAccounts.com. They are a retailer of World of Warcraft accounts. Interesting that you can make money from selling accounts to games isn’t it?

There are some games where people sell extra accessories or add ons for when you are actually playing the games too. Things like weapons, different people/characters, special powers, buildings, and more. The people who buy these types of virtual products will tell you that they are a way to get a leg up on the game and also to help you out if you are really stuck in a certain spot of the game.

I’d tell you it is crazy; but it is also a way to make some money. These types of things are even being sold on eBay! If you are into Second Life, you can even buy property or accessories off of eBay.

BuyMMOAccounts.com appears to be a pretty popular place to purchase your WoW related items. Their website could be a little more attractive and less cluttered, but if you are looking for a Level 70 Draenei Shaman you can pick one up on their website for $399 or maybe a Level 70 Blood Elf Priest for $1149! I sure hope that they are selling some of these things to pay for their costs.

Are you Revoluminary?

When I came across Dorm Room Biz, I was encouraged to find other students trying to start businesses from their dorm rooms. I thought that by sharing my story on this blog, we could get a good conversation going and help folks make some money…

The Inspiration

On a dollar per hour basis, tutoring is about as lucrative a job as any for most college students. Simply look at tutoring gigs on Craigslist about a month before SATs, and you’ll see what I mean. Neurotically ambitious parents will pay through the roof to get their children into a good school or to get good grades. Play an instrument? Interviewed for competitive jobs? Speak a foreign language? People will pay you for music lessons, mock interviews or even for talking to someone in another language! So why isn’t everyone doing it?

That’s exactly what my friend Pete and I were thinking about a year ago. Landing a tutoring gig involved persistent advertising on classifieds boards and guerilla-esque networking to find friend-of-a-friend students. If I was lucky enough to get responses, I’d be asked for references (which I don’t have), asked to work odd hours (that conflict with school) and commute to the students’ homes (I don’t have a car). Somewhat of an archaic process, isn’t it?

Fast-forward to today, and check out the solution we’ve come up with on www.Revoluminary.com. We created a site that allows students to essentially start their own tutoring businesses without leaving their dorm rooms. Here’s how it works.

Getting Started

Go to Revoluminary, create a profile and list a class. It can be anything: math, language, mock interviews, traveling tips to your home city… anything goes!

Advertise yourself

Make sure you list your credentials and set an attractive hourly price. Send invitations using our “Send to a Friend” button. Put together a YouTube commercial and embed it on the site (see mine for an embarrassing example). Add our widget on your Facebook page so your friends can see which classes you’re teaching. The more your do to get the word out, the more students you’ll get.

Build a Reputation

Make sure your tutoring sessions are high-quality and memorable. Test your webcam and microphone ahead of time. Use the shared whiteboard, video-feed and instant message tools wisely and your students will be impressed. To enhance your class, create a relevant file (slide presentation, spreadsheet, etc..) and upload it into your class ahead of time. Finally, encourage your students to provide feedback after the class. The higher your ratings, the more future students you’ll get!

Thanks a lot, Chris, for letting me guest-post. I look forward to hearing everyone’s feedback and to seeing you all on Revoluminary!

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23blogs.com launches new FREE blog roll text link exchange!

Almost every day I get an email from another blogger or website owner asking me if I will add their link to my blog roll, if I like their site and think that the content matches mine, I usually request a link on their site in exchange. That’s a pretty normal operating procedure for bloggers. It can be time consuming, but we all continue to do it pretty regularly. So what’s the problem with this? Simple – unless you keep constant track of the sites that your link is supposed to be on and check them regularly, there is no way to tell if your link stays on their site. Sure you may see the site listed as a traffic source within Google Analytics, but that may only be a couple visitors and then it disappears.

23blogs.com hopes to change that! When you register for their FREE program and add your blog, you will have an html code to add to your blog’s sidebar for their widget. Their widget will then display your referral link and then 10 different links to other blogs – as shown in the image to the right.

Here is the description from their website:

When you register(sign up) and add a blog, you will get a HTML CODE. This code will display 10 other different blogs titles on your blog and you will earn 10x impressions after you put those HTML CODE on your blog. Also , you will get 1:1 click exchange, That’s meaning when your visitors click the ad box on your blog , you will credit 1 click and the system will PAY back 1 click to you.
And now, by using our exchange system, you’ll never worry about the problem again.

23blogs.com offers some different features for their service as well, besides being free. They will give you 1000 impressions when you sign up and add your html code, they currently have more than 10 different styled widgets that you can choose from, you can refer other blogs to earn credits, and you can also get real time statistics.

If you’re looking for a new way to possibly capture some new visitors and manage your link exchanging in a different way, take a look at 23blogs.com and let us know what you think!

23Blogs.com - FREE Blog Roll TEXT Link Exchange.(1:10)

Ways to save your money after college – Check out WaMu!

Ways to save your money after college – Check out WaMu!

I know many of you are in the stage of needing to save your money as young entrepreneurs and some recent college graduates. So, as I wrote about the other day – Saving Your Income When You Graduate – there are different ways to save you money. You could sign up for just a regular checking or savings account or even sign up for an account with WaMu.

WaMu has a ton of different and great savings account options. Some of the services that they offer include online savings, statement savings, traditional CDs, online CDs, and liquid CDs. They also offer great services like IRA’s, mortgages, home loans, credit cards, and money market accounts.

For those of you commercial fans who are not sure if you are familiar with Washington Mutual, just think about the commercials with the older men standing in a circle in their underwear that are afraid of the services that Washington Mutual offers. If that doesn’t help, check out the videos on YouTube. And, if you are interested in setting up a savings account, check out WaMu today! You can even sign up online and get 3.30% APR on savings.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko Book Review

I have finished reading The Adventures of Johnny Bunko and although it was a short and easy read, I didn’t not necessarily think that it was too impressive. This book was the first time that I had read anything in the manga style and thought that it was alright. The story of the book is pretty decent and sort of the usual career advice that you may hear from other people however, if you were a younger student, the advice may be helpful. Here are the 6 different career secrets that the book shares with you.

6 Career Secrets That No One Ever Told You:

1. There is no plan
2. Thin strengths, not weaknesses
3. It’s not about you
4. Persistence trumps talent
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

The story that the characters go through to learn the different advice is comical and will have you laughing at some points throughout the book. Some of the drawings are also funny, however, there is nothing overly thrilling coming from the book in my point of view.

Sorry for the short review, but I just don’t think I can say too much about it. It is a good nice easy read if you are interested in something to just pass the time - I read 1/3 of the book in the bookstore before I bought it. Yet, I also returned it 3 days later for Suze Orman’s Women and Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. Just to make it clear, I did not buy the book for myself, but as a Mother’s Day gift for my mom. However, if it is good, maybe I’ll read it later on just to write a review about it.

Hope everyone has a good week and does well in the blogging and business worlds! Congratulations to those universities that are having their commencement ceremonies! Now, I go back to the overcast weather at the beach and to by other book, Rules for Renegades.

Picked up some new books to read! Check it out!

Just a quick note that I picked up a couple new books yesterday while at Barnes and Noble. I had a gift card left over from my birthday that I wanted to use since I will be taking a vacation next week down to the Outer Banks, NC.

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko - As I was looking through the shelves this book caught my eye. I remember reading something about it on another blog about the different lessons that it reveals about finding your right career and how it embodied some of the lessons from The 4 Hour Work Week. Because it is put together as a cartoon/manga book, it should be a pretty quick read. In just about 15 minutes, I have read half of it. Just didn’t have the chance to finish it at the time. There is even a movie like trailer for the book, see below.

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Rules For Renegades - This was a bit of an impulse buy as I had never heard anything about the book or heard of it in general. But, the green lettering on the cover caught my attention and the descriptions made me interested. It talks about how to make more money, rock your career, and revel in your individuality.

I should probably finish Johnny Bunko tonight or tomorrow and then get started on Rules for Renegades, hopefully finishing up in a couple weeks as long as it is interesting and can keep my attention. Look out for reviews coming soon on them both!