Earning money from online auctions is one of the best ways to get started with your own home based business. It's one of the easiest home businesses to start, maintain, and earn a profit with. In fact almost anyone can do it, even teenagers! The concept is simple; buy a product cheap and sell it for a higher price. Think of it like having a neighborhood yards sale, you can sell old items that are just laying around the house or forgotten about in your attic. You can find unused items from your neighbors and friends, or buy a product online for cheap.
that mean that anyone can make money online Well, yes in fact over $44.3 billion in gross merchandise has been sold through eBay last year alone. If you consider all of the other . you can imagine why making money with online auctions has quickly become one of the most profitable business models available.
now consider that $27,500 per year is only 0.001% of the $27.5 Billion sold through PayPal using eBay last year. While it's important to set realistic goals, be sure not to "sell" yourself short. Imagine making 0.01% of that $27.5 Billion. That equals $275,000 per year and that is only 0.01% of the online auction sales. making money with online auctions Well, the first step is to realize that the only person that can make it happen is you. Once you are motivated to start making money with auctions, read as much information as you can. The more you know the more money you will make.
For the purpose of keeping the business concept simple, we will concentrate only on eBay (the largest online auction site). However, as you become more proficient in online auctions be sure to expand your arena and try some other online auctions as well.
What you will need to get started:
A credit card, debit card, or other pre-paid card
Computer and Internet Access
Product - Buy low and sell high
If you are not familiar with ebayObviously, getting the product at a low price and selling for a high price is the "meat and potatoes" of this business and is also the most complicated part. There are a number of wholesale warehouse that sell items for the specific purpose of allowing you to resell the products on online auctions. Often you can find items for sale with up to an 80% discount.
, now would be a good time to go look at their site. It's easy to understand even though at first glance in may appear a little cluttered. You can sell anything you can imagine here. For example, a couple from colorado recently sold real snow from the last snow storm. So, your imagination is your only limitation and remember that one person's junk is another person's treasure.
If all of this seems a little overwhelming, you might want to check out www.bidfuel.com. The site is designed to streamline the process of selling items on ebay and include an exclusive member warehouse and ebay auction wizard (it makes the auctions for you!) All you have to do is select which items to sell, and an auction template is made. The product is then directly shipped to your customer once they make a purchase. You don't have to manage any inventory either, it's all done for you. For a limited time bid fuel is offering free service and an ebay power user's bible. Be sure to check out or you can read more about bid fuel and the other auction related sites here. Start your journey and make money with online auctions.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Make Money Blogging
Blogging - The most popular way to make money
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money blogging. We will teach you how to start a home based blogging business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide.
"A weblog, which is usually shortened to blog, is a type of web site where entries are made (such as in a journal or diary)." (Wikipedia, March 2007) It was not until recently however, that people have been using blogging as a full time home based business and have been making enough money to make it worth while.
So, start to make money blogging Believe it or not, It's actually fairly easy to get started. If you have a access to a computer and internet it can even be completely free! If you do not have a computer at home, you can always go to your local library and blog from there. So, if you are serious about making money blogging, there should be no excuses stopping you.
Once you decide that blogging is right for you, you need to find a blogging platform. There are a number of web sites that will allow you to host your blog. Alternatively, you can create your own website and blog using wordpress. If you decide that making your own blog web site is a little beyond your technical skills, you can use any of the following companies.
Obviously there literally hundreds of other blogging sites that you can use. Feel free to do a search for "free blog" in your favorite search engine.
Once you have a platform from which to start blogging, you need to decide on your "niche" market. Think about the last time you searched on the internet for a topic that you wanted to learn Perhaps you even found our site by doing such a search. The simple fact is, people go to the internet to find information. If you can supply that information, you will begin to accrue readers and profit from that web traffic.
By choosing a niche market, like make money blogging for example, you are funneling the search traffic into a select group of people who will actually be interested in what you have to say. So, rather than coming to your blog and hitting the back button, the reader will see that your blog is about their interests and will stay and read.
The next step is to blog every day. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is thinking that they can post a blog and forget about it. This is NOT the case. In order to make it big, you have to keep readers interested and coming back to your blog again and again.
It's really not hard to do, especially if you chose a niche market that you are interested in. People really do want to know what you have to say, even if it is only opinions or your daily life story. Once you get someone interested, they will come back time and time again and that is where the money is made.
Once you have your ads up and once you attract enough readers, sit back, continue blogging and watch the money come in. Each time someone views your blogs, there is a chance (usually around 2%) that they will click on an ad and you will get paid. Talk about an easy home business! The more readers you get, the more money you will rake in. Some blogs make well over 6 figures a year and the sky is the limit. So why not get started and begin making money by blogging
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money blogging. We will teach you how to start a home based blogging business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide.
"A weblog, which is usually shortened to blog, is a type of web site where entries are made (such as in a journal or diary)." (Wikipedia, March 2007) It was not until recently however, that people have been using blogging as a full time home based business and have been making enough money to make it worth while.
So, start to make money blogging Believe it or not, It's actually fairly easy to get started. If you have a access to a computer and internet it can even be completely free! If you do not have a computer at home, you can always go to your local library and blog from there. So, if you are serious about making money blogging, there should be no excuses stopping you.
Once you decide that blogging is right for you, you need to find a blogging platform. There are a number of web sites that will allow you to host your blog. Alternatively, you can create your own website and blog using wordpress. If you decide that making your own blog web site is a little beyond your technical skills, you can use any of the following companies.
Obviously there literally hundreds of other blogging sites that you can use. Feel free to do a search for "free blog" in your favorite search engine.
Once you have a platform from which to start blogging, you need to decide on your "niche" market. Think about the last time you searched on the internet for a topic that you wanted to learn Perhaps you even found our site by doing such a search. The simple fact is, people go to the internet to find information. If you can supply that information, you will begin to accrue readers and profit from that web traffic.
By choosing a niche market, like make money blogging for example, you are funneling the search traffic into a select group of people who will actually be interested in what you have to say. So, rather than coming to your blog and hitting the back button, the reader will see that your blog is about their interests and will stay and read.
The next step is to blog every day. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes new bloggers make is thinking that they can post a blog and forget about it. This is NOT the case. In order to make it big, you have to keep readers interested and coming back to your blog again and again.
It's really not hard to do, especially if you chose a niche market that you are interested in. People really do want to know what you have to say, even if it is only opinions or your daily life story. Once you get someone interested, they will come back time and time again and that is where the money is made.
Once you have your ads up and once you attract enough readers, sit back, continue blogging and watch the money come in. Each time someone views your blogs, there is a chance (usually around 2%) that they will click on an ad and you will get paid. Talk about an easy home business! The more readers you get, the more money you will rake in. Some blogs make well over 6 figures a year and the sky is the limit. So why not get started and begin making money by blogging
Make Money with Paid Surveys
The Cold Hard Truth
The concept of paid surveys has been around for a long time. Some even say that marketing companies began using paid surveys as early as 1856. Only recently however, with the advent of home computers and the increase in home businesses, have paid surveys come back into the "lime-light" as a way to make money.
Most likely you are reading this because you want to know if you can you get paid to take online surveys. The simple answer is "Yes". Marketing companies or firms will pay participants to answer questions via surveys. They then resell the data they collect to larger companies looking to invest in a new marketing plan or ad campaign.
So your next question is most likely, how much can I make, or can I make enough money to live Well, the answer is "No". The simple, cold hard truth is that nobody has ever become rich from completing surveys. In fact, most hard-core survey participants make enough to cover their power bill or a trip to McDonald's once or twice a week at best. Lets face it, if you could get rich taking survey's I would be completing one myself vs. telling you about them. However, legitimate paid surveys are NOT a waste of time and can be a good source of supplemental income.
Let me explain how modern paid surveys work and then you can decide for yourself if participating in paid surveys is right for you.
There are companies and corporations that spend billions of dollars every year in advertising. You see their ads on TV, hear them on the radio and even get them on your cell phones. Obviously, these companies make money by "convincing" you to buy a product through these ads. they know what will make money for them and what Good question, because they don't know. Some companies will try sample ads to a select population and then monitor their results before ramping up to a full scale ad campaign. Other companies will hire a marketing firm before launching an ad campaign in order to get the best information on domestic trends, user habits and interests. Once a company hires a marketing firm, the firm will then collect data from a select populace using web site traffic results, TV ad results and yes...even paid surveys.
By completing a paid survey, you are offering information about yourself: your habits, opinions, likes and dislikes to the marketing firm. That firm will sell your information to another company that will in turn try to sell a product back to you via an ad somewhere.
So, back to the point; Is participating in an online survey worth your time.If you are unemployed and looking for a job, or employed and still have some free time, then participating in paid surveys might be for you. Marketing firms will collect information about you when you sign up and then use that data to match you with current or future survey needs. If you are selected to participate in a survey, you will be notified and given a link via email that will point you to the survey. Four to Six weeks later you will get a check in the mail for your participation.
Surveys are a great way to make an extra $25 to $50 a week in your spare time or after a long day of job hunting. If you are disabled, or a stay at home mom surveys will work well for you too. You can multiply the number of surveys you are selected for by signing up with multiple marketing firms possibly earning $100 to $150 a week. Just be sure to do something productive between each participation letter you get.
If you think paid surveys are for you, there are a number of legitimate paid survey companies available. For every legitimate paid survey company however, there are a dozen scams. Our next guides will delve more into how to recognize paid survey scams and which companies we suggest using. In the meantime, if you want to make an easy buck or two, get paid to take surveys.
The concept of paid surveys has been around for a long time. Some even say that marketing companies began using paid surveys as early as 1856. Only recently however, with the advent of home computers and the increase in home businesses, have paid surveys come back into the "lime-light" as a way to make money.
Most likely you are reading this because you want to know if you can you get paid to take online surveys. The simple answer is "Yes". Marketing companies or firms will pay participants to answer questions via surveys. They then resell the data they collect to larger companies looking to invest in a new marketing plan or ad campaign.
So your next question is most likely, how much can I make, or can I make enough money to live Well, the answer is "No". The simple, cold hard truth is that nobody has ever become rich from completing surveys. In fact, most hard-core survey participants make enough to cover their power bill or a trip to McDonald's once or twice a week at best. Lets face it, if you could get rich taking survey's I would be completing one myself vs. telling you about them. However, legitimate paid surveys are NOT a waste of time and can be a good source of supplemental income.
Let me explain how modern paid surveys work and then you can decide for yourself if participating in paid surveys is right for you.
There are companies and corporations that spend billions of dollars every year in advertising. You see their ads on TV, hear them on the radio and even get them on your cell phones. Obviously, these companies make money by "convincing" you to buy a product through these ads. they know what will make money for them and what Good question, because they don't know. Some companies will try sample ads to a select population and then monitor their results before ramping up to a full scale ad campaign. Other companies will hire a marketing firm before launching an ad campaign in order to get the best information on domestic trends, user habits and interests. Once a company hires a marketing firm, the firm will then collect data from a select populace using web site traffic results, TV ad results and yes...even paid surveys.
By completing a paid survey, you are offering information about yourself: your habits, opinions, likes and dislikes to the marketing firm. That firm will sell your information to another company that will in turn try to sell a product back to you via an ad somewhere.
So, back to the point; Is participating in an online survey worth your time.If you are unemployed and looking for a job, or employed and still have some free time, then participating in paid surveys might be for you. Marketing firms will collect information about you when you sign up and then use that data to match you with current or future survey needs. If you are selected to participate in a survey, you will be notified and given a link via email that will point you to the survey. Four to Six weeks later you will get a check in the mail for your participation.
Surveys are a great way to make an extra $25 to $50 a week in your spare time or after a long day of job hunting. If you are disabled, or a stay at home mom surveys will work well for you too. You can multiply the number of surveys you are selected for by signing up with multiple marketing firms possibly earning $100 to $150 a week. Just be sure to do something productive between each participation letter you get.
If you think paid surveys are for you, there are a number of legitimate paid survey companies available. For every legitimate paid survey company however, there are a dozen scams. Our next guides will delve more into how to recognize paid survey scams and which companies we suggest using. In the meantime, if you want to make an easy buck or two, get paid to take surveys.
Make Money with Affiliate Programs
Turn Web Traffic To Cash
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money using affiliate marketing. We will teach you how to start a home based affiliate business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide. You will find other affiliate related guides and articles on the lower section of this page.
"Affiliate Marketing" is a popular method of promoting web businesses in which you (the affiliate) are rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through your efforts, much like the practice of paying finder's-fees for the introduction of new clients to a business. Compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit (Pay per click), registrant (Pay per lead), or a commission for each customer or sale (Pay per Sale), or any combination of the three.
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to make money online because there is little to no scamming or fraud. In fact, many home based affiliate business owners rely on affiliate marketing for their entire income.
First, let's take a look at the overall concept of Affiliate Marketing. The process starts when a company has a successful product to offer. The company will build a web site and offer that product to the consumer (or internet user). The next hurdle the company has to overcome is getting web traffic to their site. After all, they can have a kick-butt product but if nobody knows about it, they won't make a dime.
This is where you, the affiliate marketer comes into play. As an affiliate you will have or build a web site that generates traffic and then "refer" part of that traffic to a partner company. The program works well for both the company selling the product and the affiliate because both parties make money in the process and each helps the other become more successful.
For the purpose of this article and the goal of assisting you to make money with Affiliate Programs, we will only be looking at the Cost Per Lead (C.P.L.) commission structure. A C.P.L. program is advantageous because you simply need to convince your traffic to provide their information to your partner company.
Cost Per Lead:
A cost per lead affiliate program will pay for each person or "lead" that is referred to your partner's web site. A Lead is any personal information that a visitor submits to a company for the purpose of allowing the company to solicit their product or services.
Here is a rough example: Let's say that a company offering a "make money with affiliate marketing ebook" makes an average of $40.00 profit from each sale made on their web site. They know, based off of web site statistics and sales, that one in four customers will buy their product or "convert" as it is commonly referred to. They can then offer an affiliate a certain amount of money (we will use $16.00 for our example) for each person they refer to their web site that generates a lead.
So, if an affiliate gets 100 people each month to click on an ad and fill in their information on the company's web site they would make $1600.00. The company would have made $4,000 from the referrals and it will have only cost them the $1600.00. Again, both the company and the affiliate succeed in with this method because the company has extra sales it would not have had without the home based affiliate business and the affiliate gets paid for a product they do not manage or own.
Now, I don't know about you but as for myself, I don't mind having an extra $1600.00 each month from a website that maintains itself. Now, imagine having 10 web sites that all do the same thing for different affiliate programs.
make money as an affiliate Well, yes all you really need is determination and dedication. Use our building a web site guides and start making money with affiliate programs today.
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money using affiliate marketing. We will teach you how to start a home based affiliate business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide. You will find other affiliate related guides and articles on the lower section of this page.
"Affiliate Marketing" is a popular method of promoting web businesses in which you (the affiliate) are rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through your efforts, much like the practice of paying finder's-fees for the introduction of new clients to a business. Compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit (Pay per click), registrant (Pay per lead), or a commission for each customer or sale (Pay per Sale), or any combination of the three.
Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to make money online because there is little to no scamming or fraud. In fact, many home based affiliate business owners rely on affiliate marketing for their entire income.
First, let's take a look at the overall concept of Affiliate Marketing. The process starts when a company has a successful product to offer. The company will build a web site and offer that product to the consumer (or internet user). The next hurdle the company has to overcome is getting web traffic to their site. After all, they can have a kick-butt product but if nobody knows about it, they won't make a dime.
This is where you, the affiliate marketer comes into play. As an affiliate you will have or build a web site that generates traffic and then "refer" part of that traffic to a partner company. The program works well for both the company selling the product and the affiliate because both parties make money in the process and each helps the other become more successful.
For the purpose of this article and the goal of assisting you to make money with Affiliate Programs, we will only be looking at the Cost Per Lead (C.P.L.) commission structure. A C.P.L. program is advantageous because you simply need to convince your traffic to provide their information to your partner company.
Cost Per Lead:
A cost per lead affiliate program will pay for each person or "lead" that is referred to your partner's web site. A Lead is any personal information that a visitor submits to a company for the purpose of allowing the company to solicit their product or services.
Here is a rough example: Let's say that a company offering a "make money with affiliate marketing ebook" makes an average of $40.00 profit from each sale made on their web site. They know, based off of web site statistics and sales, that one in four customers will buy their product or "convert" as it is commonly referred to. They can then offer an affiliate a certain amount of money (we will use $16.00 for our example) for each person they refer to their web site that generates a lead.
So, if an affiliate gets 100 people each month to click on an ad and fill in their information on the company's web site they would make $1600.00. The company would have made $4,000 from the referrals and it will have only cost them the $1600.00. Again, both the company and the affiliate succeed in with this method because the company has extra sales it would not have had without the home based affiliate business and the affiliate gets paid for a product they do not manage or own.
Now, I don't know about you but as for myself, I don't mind having an extra $1600.00 each month from a website that maintains itself. Now, imagine having 10 web sites that all do the same thing for different affiliate programs.
make money as an affiliate Well, yes all you really need is determination and dedication. Use our building a web site guides and start making money with affiliate programs today.
Make Money with eBook Marketing
Cash In on The Information Wave
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money with ebook marketing. We will teach you how to start making money with ebooks. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide.
An ebook, as defined by wikipedia is "an electronic (or digital) equivalent of a conventional printed book." As the internet becomes more and more popular, so to does the transmission of digital information such as ebooks. Naturally, most of us want to find a way to profit from this new trend. If you are one of these people who are looking to make money with ebooks, you have come to the right place.
Understanding and mastering these six areas of an eBay auction are absolutely essential to maximize the success and profitability of your auctions.
There are three basic ways to make money with ebooks. Writing your own ebooks, selling someone else's ebooks, or both.
Writing Your Own ebook - First, let's take a look at writing your own ebooks. It's not all that difficult and if you have ever written an essay for a school assignment you have all the prerequisites already. You don't have to be an expert on your ebook subject, although it helps, as most information can be found online and in your local library. You don't even have to be a good writer as most word processors have grammar and spell checking tools.
So, once you decide that you want to write your own ebook, you need to find a "niche" market or subject to write about. The more specific you make your ebook, the better it will sell.
Your next step is to complete an outline and table of contents. Having an outline will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your new ebook flows well and keeps the reader focused. Once your initial outline is done (you can modify it as you go) you need to start your research. Get a pen and paper and spend several hours researching web sites related to each and every chapter of your ebook. Taking notes with a pen and paper will help ensure that you do not run into plagiarism issues. Be sure to spend a few hours in your local library as well. Research is one of the most important steps, even if you consider yourself an expert on your topic.
Once your research is completed, you are ready to begin writing. Use your outline to keep your efforts organized and on topic. Start with a rough draft and then get your friends and family to proof read it. Never do your one proof reading and editing!
Once your ebook is written, ad some nice graphics and a cover page. Compile the ebook into an ebook format (I suggest pdf) and you are finished. You should not have a unique and original ebook that you can sell.
Selling Someone Else's ebooks - Many of us don't have the "author" bug in us and the prospect of writing our own ebook reminds us of visiting the dentist. Do not fear, there are literally thousands of authors out there that need help selling there ebooks.
Selling ebooks is just another off-shoot of affiliate marketing. Sign up with an number of affiliate programs and sell the ebooks you want using your own website, email lists, or even word of mouth. Many people make their living selling ebooks using affiliate programs.
Writing and Selling Your One ebook - This is actually a lot harder that people think. Most of us are good at writing or marketing, very few of us are good at both. However, if you feel you can handle both roles you can make even more money.
Use the section above to write your own ebook. Read out to better understand how affiliates work. Then, sign up as an advertiser with any number of affiliate programs.
As an advertiser, you tell the affiliate networks what price you want your new ebook sold for and what commission you want to offer your affiliates. In addition, you will want to make your own landing pages for your ebook so that your affiliates can send new customers to your ebook.
Obviously, this guide is designed to provide you with the basics to get started. Please let us know if you would like any additional information added or feel free to leave a comment below. We truly want to ensure that you make money with ebooks.
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money with ebook marketing. We will teach you how to start making money with ebooks. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide.
An ebook, as defined by wikipedia is "an electronic (or digital) equivalent of a conventional printed book." As the internet becomes more and more popular, so to does the transmission of digital information such as ebooks. Naturally, most of us want to find a way to profit from this new trend. If you are one of these people who are looking to make money with ebooks, you have come to the right place.
Understanding and mastering these six areas of an eBay auction are absolutely essential to maximize the success and profitability of your auctions.
There are three basic ways to make money with ebooks. Writing your own ebooks, selling someone else's ebooks, or both.
Writing Your Own ebook - First, let's take a look at writing your own ebooks. It's not all that difficult and if you have ever written an essay for a school assignment you have all the prerequisites already. You don't have to be an expert on your ebook subject, although it helps, as most information can be found online and in your local library. You don't even have to be a good writer as most word processors have grammar and spell checking tools.
So, once you decide that you want to write your own ebook, you need to find a "niche" market or subject to write about. The more specific you make your ebook, the better it will sell.
Your next step is to complete an outline and table of contents. Having an outline will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your new ebook flows well and keeps the reader focused. Once your initial outline is done (you can modify it as you go) you need to start your research. Get a pen and paper and spend several hours researching web sites related to each and every chapter of your ebook. Taking notes with a pen and paper will help ensure that you do not run into plagiarism issues. Be sure to spend a few hours in your local library as well. Research is one of the most important steps, even if you consider yourself an expert on your topic.
Once your research is completed, you are ready to begin writing. Use your outline to keep your efforts organized and on topic. Start with a rough draft and then get your friends and family to proof read it. Never do your one proof reading and editing!
Once your ebook is written, ad some nice graphics and a cover page. Compile the ebook into an ebook format (I suggest pdf) and you are finished. You should not have a unique and original ebook that you can sell.
Selling Someone Else's ebooks - Many of us don't have the "author" bug in us and the prospect of writing our own ebook reminds us of visiting the dentist. Do not fear, there are literally thousands of authors out there that need help selling there ebooks.
Selling ebooks is just another off-shoot of affiliate marketing. Sign up with an number of affiliate programs and sell the ebooks you want using your own website, email lists, or even word of mouth. Many people make their living selling ebooks using affiliate programs.
Writing and Selling Your One ebook - This is actually a lot harder that people think. Most of us are good at writing or marketing, very few of us are good at both. However, if you feel you can handle both roles you can make even more money.
Use the section above to write your own ebook. Read out to better understand how affiliates work. Then, sign up as an advertiser with any number of affiliate programs.
As an advertiser, you tell the affiliate networks what price you want your new ebook sold for and what commission you want to offer your affiliates. In addition, you will want to make your own landing pages for your ebook so that your affiliates can send new customers to your ebook.
Obviously, this guide is designed to provide you with the basics to get started. Please let us know if you would like any additional information added or feel free to leave a comment below. We truly want to ensure that you make money with ebooks.
Make Money as a Freelancer
Freelancing Can Be a Rewarding Career
Making money online is a goal of many, but most don't know where to start. Freelancing is a broad term given to those who sell a service or skill on the internet, or off for that matter. A freelancer is self-employed and takes on clients. He or she performs her skill or service for current customers and then moves on to new clients, occasionally repeating the service for existing patrons.
Becoming a Freelancer:
To become a freelancer, you must first identify a service or skill you can market online. Perhaps you know a bit about a particular topic and can write well. You can market yourself as a freelance writer on your topic. Perhaps you spend a great deal of time on forums or blogs and like to participate in discussions. You can sell your posting skills.
The more experience and expertise you have in a given field the more desirable you will be and the more income you can generate. Technical fields such as programming and search engine optimization are always in demand, and more graphic fields such as design are sought out as well.
Even taking a class or two in a certain programming language or graphic design may give you the skills you need to launch a freelance career. It is possible to make a freelance career out of almost any field of work imaginable. It simply takes skill and a bit of marketing.
Marketing Yourself as a Freelancer:
The most challenging aspect of freelancing is finding a market for your particular skill. Marketing presents little problem for those who specialize in public relations and are selling their marketing skills, but for the rest of us, the ability to effectively market our wares separates those who are successful from those who are not.
To successfully market yourself and your offering, you must go where there is a need. If you are specializing in design, find those who are building websites who need your help. By the same token, if you are a freelance writer, it is not enough to simply maintain a blog demonstrating your skill. You must find readers and eventually clients who find themselves in need of your service.
Establishing a Successful Freelance Career:
Finding your skill set and then finding a customer base are the fundamentals of establishing a freelance career. To make that career successful there are many other aspects to consider:
You must research and benchmark your service and those of similar professionals. Could you be doing more or offering additional services.
Find the ideal rate that brings you the maximum amount of profit with a reasonable amount of work. Are you slaving away for pennies or have your price so high you're putting off clients your rate adequately reflect your level of expertise
Maintain professionalism at all times. Being a freelancer does not entitle you to act unprofessionally. Yes, you set the rules, but those rules also reflect you and your service. Act like a professional and your clients will think of you as one.
Stay current. The world is constantly changing, and you must stay current. Read the latest material and constantly network. Understand the changes to your industry and stay with or ahead of the times.
Making money online is a goal of many, but most don't know where to start. Freelancing is a broad term given to those who sell a service or skill on the internet, or off for that matter. A freelancer is self-employed and takes on clients. He or she performs her skill or service for current customers and then moves on to new clients, occasionally repeating the service for existing patrons.
Becoming a Freelancer:
To become a freelancer, you must first identify a service or skill you can market online. Perhaps you know a bit about a particular topic and can write well. You can market yourself as a freelance writer on your topic. Perhaps you spend a great deal of time on forums or blogs and like to participate in discussions. You can sell your posting skills.
The more experience and expertise you have in a given field the more desirable you will be and the more income you can generate. Technical fields such as programming and search engine optimization are always in demand, and more graphic fields such as design are sought out as well.
Even taking a class or two in a certain programming language or graphic design may give you the skills you need to launch a freelance career. It is possible to make a freelance career out of almost any field of work imaginable. It simply takes skill and a bit of marketing.
Marketing Yourself as a Freelancer:
The most challenging aspect of freelancing is finding a market for your particular skill. Marketing presents little problem for those who specialize in public relations and are selling their marketing skills, but for the rest of us, the ability to effectively market our wares separates those who are successful from those who are not.
To successfully market yourself and your offering, you must go where there is a need. If you are specializing in design, find those who are building websites who need your help. By the same token, if you are a freelance writer, it is not enough to simply maintain a blog demonstrating your skill. You must find readers and eventually clients who find themselves in need of your service.
Establishing a Successful Freelance Career:
Finding your skill set and then finding a customer base are the fundamentals of establishing a freelance career. To make that career successful there are many other aspects to consider:
You must research and benchmark your service and those of similar professionals. Could you be doing more or offering additional services.
Find the ideal rate that brings you the maximum amount of profit with a reasonable amount of work. Are you slaving away for pennies or have your price so high you're putting off clients your rate adequately reflect your level of expertise
Maintain professionalism at all times. Being a freelancer does not entitle you to act unprofessionally. Yes, you set the rules, but those rules also reflect you and your service. Act like a professional and your clients will think of you as one.
Stay current. The world is constantly changing, and you must stay current. Read the latest material and constantly network. Understand the changes to your industry and stay with or ahead of the times.
Make Money From Your Website
10 Easy tips to make money off your website
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money from your website. We will teach you how to start a home based website business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide. This guide is part of our make money online article series. More related articles can be found at the lower part of this page.
Hundreds of thousands of webmasters across the world make money with their websites. Here are 10 easy tips that you can use on your website to make it profitable.
Google AdSense - Make money selling advertising space. While banner ads are not worth your time for the most part, Google AdSense is. Many web site owners make a comfortable living off of AdSense profit alone.
affilate business - Make money referring your website traffic to other web sites. Just add someone else product to your site by joining an affiliate program and forget about it. If you have related content (free information) you will see a slow trickle of income from your affiliate links.
write an e book - Sell your own idea or product. I know it sounds like a day dream, but people do this all the time. In fact, it is the most common method that people use to make money. Write an eBook, offer consultations, or make something people will use. In this category, you are only limited by your imagination.
Create an online directory - Sell text links. Add a directory area to your site and offer to place links to other web sites for a small fee.
became a paid blogger. Offer to blog for companies. Blogging is fast becoming an important link building strategy for online companies. There are hundreds of small businesses that could benefit from a professional blog but, do not have the resources to hire a full time employee. You have a website, put it to use!
open your own e bay shop. Buy low, sell high. There is no easier place to sell than online with your own eBay store. You can concentrate on a particular type of product like coins and antiques or you can sell a wide variety.
Host an online competition. Offer prizes for the first, second and third place winners. Your competition can be on almost anything. Think of a way to offer a competition, create a small entry fee and you are set!
Create a members only area. You can create a members only site about anything from Fan Clubs, Online Newsletters, Courses and Training, Stock Trading Tips, Dating Sites, Personal Advice, Horoscopes, Family Trees, and so on. Again, your only limitation is your imagination. If you have a site already up and running, offer something in your paid member’s area that they cannot easily get for free.
Begin a paid advice service. Free information is great and will draw readers to your site. Once there, help the reader out with some basic information. Save the real “meat” for those that are willing to pay a small fee.
Sell your site. Why drag on a project for years when you can get in, get out and turn a quick (albeit smaller) profit Create your site, get it listed in the search engines, make sure you get a few dollars a week in online advertising and sell your site for a few thousand dollars.
This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money from your website. We will teach you how to start a home based website business. Please leave us comments, questions, or success stories so that we can improve this guide. This guide is part of our make money online article series. More related articles can be found at the lower part of this page.
Hundreds of thousands of webmasters across the world make money with their websites. Here are 10 easy tips that you can use on your website to make it profitable.
Google AdSense - Make money selling advertising space. While banner ads are not worth your time for the most part, Google AdSense is. Many web site owners make a comfortable living off of AdSense profit alone.
affilate business - Make money referring your website traffic to other web sites. Just add someone else product to your site by joining an affiliate program and forget about it. If you have related content (free information) you will see a slow trickle of income from your affiliate links.
write an e book - Sell your own idea or product. I know it sounds like a day dream, but people do this all the time. In fact, it is the most common method that people use to make money. Write an eBook, offer consultations, or make something people will use. In this category, you are only limited by your imagination.
Create an online directory - Sell text links. Add a directory area to your site and offer to place links to other web sites for a small fee.
became a paid blogger. Offer to blog for companies. Blogging is fast becoming an important link building strategy for online companies. There are hundreds of small businesses that could benefit from a professional blog but, do not have the resources to hire a full time employee. You have a website, put it to use!
open your own e bay shop. Buy low, sell high. There is no easier place to sell than online with your own eBay store. You can concentrate on a particular type of product like coins and antiques or you can sell a wide variety.
Host an online competition. Offer prizes for the first, second and third place winners. Your competition can be on almost anything. Think of a way to offer a competition, create a small entry fee and you are set!
Create a members only area. You can create a members only site about anything from Fan Clubs, Online Newsletters, Courses and Training, Stock Trading Tips, Dating Sites, Personal Advice, Horoscopes, Family Trees, and so on. Again, your only limitation is your imagination. If you have a site already up and running, offer something in your paid member’s area that they cannot easily get for free.
Begin a paid advice service. Free information is great and will draw readers to your site. Once there, help the reader out with some basic information. Save the real “meat” for those that are willing to pay a small fee.
Sell your site. Why drag on a project for years when you can get in, get out and turn a quick (albeit smaller) profit Create your site, get it listed in the search engines, make sure you get a few dollars a week in online advertising and sell your site for a few thousand dollars.
HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR HOME BASED BUSINESS IDEAS
Please note; this is an information site only. We are not trying to sell you something below. Please bare this in mind as you read on. This is not a sales pitch.
Do you wish you could work at home, perhaps start a nice little home based business and be able to work it all from the comfort of your kitchen table or spare bedroom . If so, believe me, you're not alone. Millions of people would love to to do the same thing.
Countless work at home schemes and home based business ideas are available, but in this industry you have to be careful you aren't scammed out of money, or that you don't make a big mistake and end up regretting having quit your job.
So think hard before you decide what home work or home based business opportunities you want to take on. Having said that, you really can join the millions who already do successfully work from home. But before you make any life changing decisions, be sure what it is you'd be happy doing.
One of the drawback of working from home is you have to be self-motivated, and this is a very difficult thing to keep up if you don't enjoy the work you do. It's different in the employed work-place when you've got other people around you expecting a performance within the time schedule you're paid for. When you work for yourself the only person you're usually answerable to is yourself.
Although it is possible to find employers who hire people to work from home for them, they tend to be on a per-need basis, and the pay, benefits and work opportunities can be less than inspiring. However, if this is the root you want to take your best and safest option will be to approach professional organisations, not least your local job center or employment office, to see what work at home based opportunities are available in your area. Don't ever pay money out for work at home jobs, they should be paying you!
It is more usual however, for people who want to work from home to prefer the idea of working for themselves, and taking advantage of the unlimited possibilities and the big tax benefits that come from being self employed. It's the dream of millions to be their own boss, and the successful really can make fortunes. However, starting a home based business can be a scary and daunting task to take on. But the lure of the unlimited potentials, and the freedom a home based business venture can bring, spurs people to keep on dreaming and wishing they could find a way.
Certainly, if you really do want to work at home, then starting a home business is a lot better option than working for someone else. But if you're not prepared to work hard for possibly little gain in the early stages, or if you're not prepared to make at least some investment (however small) then forget about most business opportunities.
Peoples fears of losing their investment tend to cloud this issue, and rightly so. The home based business opportunity industry is wide open to scams - so do be very careful. However if you want to be truly SELF employed, then all your new home based business really needs is a good service or product(s) to sell, and the means of selling them. If you could do this cheaply and hassle free that would be ideal, Well you can, and your saviour is ...the INTERNET of course!
These days more and more people are finding the Internet to be a whole new world of home business opportunities. I'll try and help you to get started in your search for ways to make a good living from the Internet. As the Internet offers direct access to the whole world, you have a very powerful medium right there in your own home...what better way to make money.
Learn all you can before you make any final decisions which direction to go, but once you have decided - GO FOR IT.
Do you wish you could work at home, perhaps start a nice little home based business and be able to work it all from the comfort of your kitchen table or spare bedroom . If so, believe me, you're not alone. Millions of people would love to to do the same thing.
Countless work at home schemes and home based business ideas are available, but in this industry you have to be careful you aren't scammed out of money, or that you don't make a big mistake and end up regretting having quit your job.
So think hard before you decide what home work or home based business opportunities you want to take on. Having said that, you really can join the millions who already do successfully work from home. But before you make any life changing decisions, be sure what it is you'd be happy doing.
One of the drawback of working from home is you have to be self-motivated, and this is a very difficult thing to keep up if you don't enjoy the work you do. It's different in the employed work-place when you've got other people around you expecting a performance within the time schedule you're paid for. When you work for yourself the only person you're usually answerable to is yourself.
Although it is possible to find employers who hire people to work from home for them, they tend to be on a per-need basis, and the pay, benefits and work opportunities can be less than inspiring. However, if this is the root you want to take your best and safest option will be to approach professional organisations, not least your local job center or employment office, to see what work at home based opportunities are available in your area. Don't ever pay money out for work at home jobs, they should be paying you!
It is more usual however, for people who want to work from home to prefer the idea of working for themselves, and taking advantage of the unlimited possibilities and the big tax benefits that come from being self employed. It's the dream of millions to be their own boss, and the successful really can make fortunes. However, starting a home based business can be a scary and daunting task to take on. But the lure of the unlimited potentials, and the freedom a home based business venture can bring, spurs people to keep on dreaming and wishing they could find a way.
Certainly, if you really do want to work at home, then starting a home business is a lot better option than working for someone else. But if you're not prepared to work hard for possibly little gain in the early stages, or if you're not prepared to make at least some investment (however small) then forget about most business opportunities.
Peoples fears of losing their investment tend to cloud this issue, and rightly so. The home based business opportunity industry is wide open to scams - so do be very careful. However if you want to be truly SELF employed, then all your new home based business really needs is a good service or product(s) to sell, and the means of selling them. If you could do this cheaply and hassle free that would be ideal, Well you can, and your saviour is ...the INTERNET of course!
These days more and more people are finding the Internet to be a whole new world of home business opportunities. I'll try and help you to get started in your search for ways to make a good living from the Internet. As the Internet offers direct access to the whole world, you have a very powerful medium right there in your own home...what better way to make money.
Learn all you can before you make any final decisions which direction to go, but once you have decided - GO FOR IT.
HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN YOUR HOME BASED BUSINESS
As I have already mentioned, all you really need to start, build and successfully run your home based business on the Internet is a good product or service and the means of promoting it.
I'll show you how to promote on the Internet for free later on (or it at least doesn't have to cost you more than a few dollars). Well thanks to the integral technology inherent within the Internet, that is easy and free too. You don't have to worry about purchasing, stocking and distributing quantities of stock with an Internet based business. Affiliate programs can make all this very easy.
"Affiliate Programs" They are free and very easy to set up and apply for. An excellent way of selling other peoples products or services from the comfort of home without having to do anything other than provide a link to your suppliers website. This link has tracking code within it which your supplier provides for you, and you simply get as many people as possible to click through to their website. All resulting sales are then attributed to you and you are paid commission accordingly. That's how simple affiliate programs are, and there are thousands of suppliers throughout the world willing and eager to have you affiliated with them.
Most companies that supply anything online (and that's practically every product you can think of these days) are looking for additional sales, and therefore will pay anyone who can send them customers. All the big companies do it, including Amazon and eBay. In fact you can pick and choose from almost any industry that interests you, and you'll more than likely find many suppliers willing to pay you.
assuming you are an absolute beginner, your first task is to decide what subject matter you are familiar with and you'd enjoy writing about (think about what you enjoy talking about, or doing in your spare time). Whatever your answer is, that is your best theme to build a website about. I'm going to show you how to do this step by step. Be aware though, it may take you a few weeks to get to a satisfactory level, and a good few months to start seeing a reasonable income, but if you are determined most people can do it. I think you'll enjoy it too.
So, let's begin. Next I'm going to go over the basics of what you need for your new website. I am assuming you have already got a computer and access to the Internet, so you have already made the financial investment needed to establish and manage an Internet based business.
I'll show you how to promote on the Internet for free later on (or it at least doesn't have to cost you more than a few dollars). Well thanks to the integral technology inherent within the Internet, that is easy and free too. You don't have to worry about purchasing, stocking and distributing quantities of stock with an Internet based business. Affiliate programs can make all this very easy.
"Affiliate Programs" They are free and very easy to set up and apply for. An excellent way of selling other peoples products or services from the comfort of home without having to do anything other than provide a link to your suppliers website. This link has tracking code within it which your supplier provides for you, and you simply get as many people as possible to click through to their website. All resulting sales are then attributed to you and you are paid commission accordingly. That's how simple affiliate programs are, and there are thousands of suppliers throughout the world willing and eager to have you affiliated with them.
Most companies that supply anything online (and that's practically every product you can think of these days) are looking for additional sales, and therefore will pay anyone who can send them customers. All the big companies do it, including Amazon and eBay. In fact you can pick and choose from almost any industry that interests you, and you'll more than likely find many suppliers willing to pay you.
assuming you are an absolute beginner, your first task is to decide what subject matter you are familiar with and you'd enjoy writing about (think about what you enjoy talking about, or doing in your spare time). Whatever your answer is, that is your best theme to build a website about. I'm going to show you how to do this step by step. Be aware though, it may take you a few weeks to get to a satisfactory level, and a good few months to start seeing a reasonable income, but if you are determined most people can do it. I think you'll enjoy it too.
So, let's begin. Next I'm going to go over the basics of what you need for your new website. I am assuming you have already got a computer and access to the Internet, so you have already made the financial investment needed to establish and manage an Internet based business.
HOW TO BUILD YOUR HOME BUSINESS WEBSITE FOR FREE
On the last couple of sections I have hopefully made you realise that starting an Internet based business is a good way to work from home these days - certainly if you want to be self employed and enjoy all the time freedom, tax breaks and job satisfaction this root brings.
So, assuming you now know what it is you'd like to build a home business webpage/site around, what is it you actually need. First and foremost, you'll need some software to build a website with. Do a search at your favorite search engine for "free wysiwyg web page editor". Don't panic about the jargon "wysiwyg", it's just an acronym for "what you see is what you get". It means the web page editor software you build your website with is user friendly. By using it you won't have to worry about learning html code (html is the language browsers such as Internet Explorer read). By using a wysiwyg editor your webpage building is as easy to do as using as a word processor. My advice is start getting used to one by playing around with it.
Next we need somewhere to put our website (a web host) so that it is accessible to the world through the Internet. Again we can do all this for free. Do another search at your favorite search engine for "free web space" and you'll see a huge choice. Pick one that you like the look of but make sure the supplier doesn't feed ads through your website either as pop-ups, or actual ads somewhere on each of your web pages. You might like to change your search phrase to "free web space no ads".
One last piece of free downloadable software you'll need is something to upload your web pages from your computer to your web hosts server. Again, don't be scared by the jargon, but what you need is "FTP". This is an acronym for "File Transfer Protocol", and it's very simple to use. All it does is downloads and upload files. That's it. All website hosting services will be compatible with standard ftp software. Do another search, this time for "free ftp". This should give you a wide choice of free ftp clients to work with.
When you apply for your web hosting account you will have been given some technical information for setting up your ftp. Usually it's just a couple of bits of information that your ftp will also ask you for when you're setting it up to start uploading. Once set up all you have to do is a couple of clicks and your new web pages and/or any changes you make to your web site will be uploaded and online.
That's it. You're now ready to create a website and upload it to the Internet. This is where you start creating. Next I'll help you with this and show you how to get going in the right direction.
So, assuming you now know what it is you'd like to build a home business webpage/site around, what is it you actually need. First and foremost, you'll need some software to build a website with. Do a search at your favorite search engine for "free wysiwyg web page editor". Don't panic about the jargon "wysiwyg", it's just an acronym for "what you see is what you get". It means the web page editor software you build your website with is user friendly. By using it you won't have to worry about learning html code (html is the language browsers such as Internet Explorer read). By using a wysiwyg editor your webpage building is as easy to do as using as a word processor. My advice is start getting used to one by playing around with it.
Next we need somewhere to put our website (a web host) so that it is accessible to the world through the Internet. Again we can do all this for free. Do another search at your favorite search engine for "free web space" and you'll see a huge choice. Pick one that you like the look of but make sure the supplier doesn't feed ads through your website either as pop-ups, or actual ads somewhere on each of your web pages. You might like to change your search phrase to "free web space no ads".
One last piece of free downloadable software you'll need is something to upload your web pages from your computer to your web hosts server. Again, don't be scared by the jargon, but what you need is "FTP". This is an acronym for "File Transfer Protocol", and it's very simple to use. All it does is downloads and upload files. That's it. All website hosting services will be compatible with standard ftp software. Do another search, this time for "free ftp". This should give you a wide choice of free ftp clients to work with.
When you apply for your web hosting account you will have been given some technical information for setting up your ftp. Usually it's just a couple of bits of information that your ftp will also ask you for when you're setting it up to start uploading. Once set up all you have to do is a couple of clicks and your new web pages and/or any changes you make to your web site will be uploaded and online.
That's it. You're now ready to create a website and upload it to the Internet. This is where you start creating. Next I'll help you with this and show you how to get going in the right direction.
HOW TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL HOME BASED BUSINESS WEBSITE
Now that you've got the essential tools you need to build your website and put it on the Internet, it's time to learn how to make your website popular and profitable. It's no good having a great website if no one ever visits it, so this is something we have to have in mind right at the very start.
What you should do when building a new website is create a theme to your site. You do this by having lots of unique text about a certain subject. This is why I said earlier that you need to think about what you would be happy writing about. Every page (and there should be at least several, the more the better) needs to be based around certain related key phrases.
I've already talked about Affiliate programs as a means of making money online. Do a search for "affiliate programs" at your search engine, that should be a good starting point to finding the affiliate program(s) that's right for you, or at least give you ideas.
Tip: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Some plans will not work out as you hoped. If you focus too heavily on any one product or service, and things don't go to plan, then you may be struggling. Try to be truly independent by spreading the risk. You are more independent this way because you are not reliant upon any one product or service.
So sell several products and/or services at any given time, not depending on any one of them to survive. Also, this way you can actually provide impartial recommendations on the best products available in your field of speciality.
For example, say you find an ebook written by an authority in your field, and full of good well written advice. Then recommend that title for that reason. If you started writing your own ebooks to sell them you would lose that impartiality. How can people trust your opinion on a product that you have produced yourself, obviously you are going to say how good it is because you want them to buy it. They would have to get impartial advice to find out.
However, if you recommend a product or service that has been specially chosen, and is only one of the many available on the market, then you have chosen that product or service because you believe it to be the best on the market, and you should tell them why you think that.
So if you are not in the position of having your own product to sell don't worry, just make sure you only recommend to your customers the best products that are available on the market for the price.
You may believe that the best way to get rich is to create your own products to sell. That's fine if you're lucky enough to be able to do that. Especially if you can produce the best on the market. But if you can't create such a product or service then sell those that already are. There's plenty of choice if you conduct serious and in depth online searches.
Seek out products or services that are of excellent value for money in your specialised area. When you find them look to selling them yourself. Look for affiliate links, or contact the webmaster requesting how you become a dealer.
Also, please, please understand that you will not succeed overnight. All good things take time, and this is just as true in online marketing. It is going to take time to build your e-business, so you must allow for this. Plan your business strategy around this fact, and prepare yourself or a long-term commitment to greatly increase your chances of gaining success.
What you should do when building a new website is create a theme to your site. You do this by having lots of unique text about a certain subject. This is why I said earlier that you need to think about what you would be happy writing about. Every page (and there should be at least several, the more the better) needs to be based around certain related key phrases.
I've already talked about Affiliate programs as a means of making money online. Do a search for "affiliate programs" at your search engine, that should be a good starting point to finding the affiliate program(s) that's right for you, or at least give you ideas.
Tip: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Some plans will not work out as you hoped. If you focus too heavily on any one product or service, and things don't go to plan, then you may be struggling. Try to be truly independent by spreading the risk. You are more independent this way because you are not reliant upon any one product or service.
So sell several products and/or services at any given time, not depending on any one of them to survive. Also, this way you can actually provide impartial recommendations on the best products available in your field of speciality.
For example, say you find an ebook written by an authority in your field, and full of good well written advice. Then recommend that title for that reason. If you started writing your own ebooks to sell them you would lose that impartiality. How can people trust your opinion on a product that you have produced yourself, obviously you are going to say how good it is because you want them to buy it. They would have to get impartial advice to find out.
However, if you recommend a product or service that has been specially chosen, and is only one of the many available on the market, then you have chosen that product or service because you believe it to be the best on the market, and you should tell them why you think that.
So if you are not in the position of having your own product to sell don't worry, just make sure you only recommend to your customers the best products that are available on the market for the price.
You may believe that the best way to get rich is to create your own products to sell. That's fine if you're lucky enough to be able to do that. Especially if you can produce the best on the market. But if you can't create such a product or service then sell those that already are. There's plenty of choice if you conduct serious and in depth online searches.
Seek out products or services that are of excellent value for money in your specialised area. When you find them look to selling them yourself. Look for affiliate links, or contact the webmaster requesting how you become a dealer.
Also, please, please understand that you will not succeed overnight. All good things take time, and this is just as true in online marketing. It is going to take time to build your e-business, so you must allow for this. Plan your business strategy around this fact, and prepare yourself or a long-term commitment to greatly increase your chances of gaining success.
MAKE MONEY ONLINE BY WORKING SMART - NOT HARD
Most people are paid for their time in doing a job. If they want to earn more they usually have to work harder or longer hours. If they want to work less it's usually hard luck, or they will at least have to take a pay-cut. You are simply being paid for your time and the skills you use within the time you give.
However, if you were the owner of a large successful corporation then things would be different. Then you could let your business pay others to do all the work for you (from directors down). This is why so many rich people can also have so much free time should they desire it. They have a system in operation that is earning their income for them. Think in a similar way.
Get your own money making system in place. As I said earlier, try to work smarter - not harder.
You don't have to go to the trouble of building up a huge corporation to benefit from a money generating system. These days many thousands of people are doing it on their own, sat in front of a computer screen. And yet, from this corner of a room in their home, they have access to the whole world via the internet. Not only this, but thanks to modern technology most of the repetitive work is actually taken care of for them - automatically, instantly and highly efficiently. Your computer can to a large extent actually automate your business.
For example, if you are interested in promoting affiliate programs, you can be receiving monthly commissions for every customer you find. You can benefit from an on-going income for sales made from people who joined the program through you.
Do you like the idea of building a "residual income" that keeps paying month. A residual income is the earning of an on-going income even though you are no longer working on the source of that income. When a writer has finished a novel, or a singer has recorded a song, the royalties continue to create earnings even though the work may have been completed years ago.
Try and adopt strategies that can self run if possible. This is how most riches are made. Equally important is the luxury of having more "free-time", so automate your business wherever you can.
However, if you were the owner of a large successful corporation then things would be different. Then you could let your business pay others to do all the work for you (from directors down). This is why so many rich people can also have so much free time should they desire it. They have a system in operation that is earning their income for them. Think in a similar way.
Get your own money making system in place. As I said earlier, try to work smarter - not harder.
You don't have to go to the trouble of building up a huge corporation to benefit from a money generating system. These days many thousands of people are doing it on their own, sat in front of a computer screen. And yet, from this corner of a room in their home, they have access to the whole world via the internet. Not only this, but thanks to modern technology most of the repetitive work is actually taken care of for them - automatically, instantly and highly efficiently. Your computer can to a large extent actually automate your business.
For example, if you are interested in promoting affiliate programs, you can be receiving monthly commissions for every customer you find. You can benefit from an on-going income for sales made from people who joined the program through you.
Do you like the idea of building a "residual income" that keeps paying month. A residual income is the earning of an on-going income even though you are no longer working on the source of that income. When a writer has finished a novel, or a singer has recorded a song, the royalties continue to create earnings even though the work may have been completed years ago.
Try and adopt strategies that can self run if possible. This is how most riches are made. Equally important is the luxury of having more "free-time", so automate your business wherever you can.
CRITICAL ASPECTS OF BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL MONEY MAKING HOME BASED WEBSITE BUSINESS
Okay, that said its back to the initial steps of building our website. Here are the critical aspects of how you should be thinking when starting a website business from home. These are the foundation principles we felt it is so important to help you understand before getting down to the real work of building your online business.
Step 1.
Get a domain name. You will not be considered a serious business without one, and search engines will probably ignore you altogether.
Step 2.
Get fast loading web-space with no ads. It doesn't have to be expensive, look around to find the best deal.
Step 3.
Find Key Phrases! In order to get high positioning on the major search engines you will need to find the best search phrases you can. The best way, by far, of doing this is to use the services of wordtraker A key phrase will get you a much higher ranking than just a key word, and will also pull you much more targeted visitors.
Step 4.
Build your pages based on the key phrases you find at step 3. Optimize each page using a service or software that can do this for you properly. We recommend webposition gold
Step 5.
Start building up your link popularity. This can be a very time consuming job but is becoming increasingly important in order to get a good placement on the top search engines. For managing and creating link exchanges we use some good software to take care of this process for us. They offer a free trial if this interests at you. Don't forget you will also get free traffic directly from your link partners, as well as the search engines being more likely to index you by finding you through your partner sites.
Step 6.
It may be an idea (depending on how your business is constructed) to set your site up to have an objective of getting visitors email addresses. If so offer a free ezine or newsletter so that people have a good reason to give their email address to you. Make it clear that you will not abuse this in any way and that their email address is safe from spammers. You can set up an automatic response system to take care of subscribers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Get a free version at: . Send this list offers from time to time selling your products and directing people back to your website. But more importantly, keep them happy by sending useful info.
That's basically it!
A couple of final tips:
Your index (home page) page is the most important page and should be the main page you optimize with the best key phrases you can find for your subject matter. This is because search engines place a greater priority on this page than those that are deeper within the site.
However, you should make sure that every page is optimized for a different key phrase (or two) as each page will then act as a potential way to be found; i.e. an entry page to your site for those alternative search phrases.
Around 75% of the worlds Internet users use Internet Explorer. The rest use any of the hundreds that are available. In order to be sure that your web pages look the same in alternative browsers (or at least the most important ones)
This site shows you for free if there will be any problems with your sites view-ability in different browsers, screen sizes etc.
Step 1.
Get a domain name. You will not be considered a serious business without one, and search engines will probably ignore you altogether.
Step 2.
Get fast loading web-space with no ads. It doesn't have to be expensive, look around to find the best deal.
Step 3.
Find Key Phrases! In order to get high positioning on the major search engines you will need to find the best search phrases you can. The best way, by far, of doing this is to use the services of wordtraker A key phrase will get you a much higher ranking than just a key word, and will also pull you much more targeted visitors.
Step 4.
Build your pages based on the key phrases you find at step 3. Optimize each page using a service or software that can do this for you properly. We recommend webposition gold
Step 5.
Start building up your link popularity. This can be a very time consuming job but is becoming increasingly important in order to get a good placement on the top search engines. For managing and creating link exchanges we use some good software to take care of this process for us. They offer a free trial if this interests at you. Don't forget you will also get free traffic directly from your link partners, as well as the search engines being more likely to index you by finding you through your partner sites.
Step 6.
It may be an idea (depending on how your business is constructed) to set your site up to have an objective of getting visitors email addresses. If so offer a free ezine or newsletter so that people have a good reason to give their email address to you. Make it clear that you will not abuse this in any way and that their email address is safe from spammers. You can set up an automatic response system to take care of subscribers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Get a free version at: . Send this list offers from time to time selling your products and directing people back to your website. But more importantly, keep them happy by sending useful info.
That's basically it!
A couple of final tips:
Your index (home page) page is the most important page and should be the main page you optimize with the best key phrases you can find for your subject matter. This is because search engines place a greater priority on this page than those that are deeper within the site.
However, you should make sure that every page is optimized for a different key phrase (or two) as each page will then act as a potential way to be found; i.e. an entry page to your site for those alternative search phrases.
Around 75% of the worlds Internet users use Internet Explorer. The rest use any of the hundreds that are available. In order to be sure that your web pages look the same in alternative browsers (or at least the most important ones)
This site shows you for free if there will be any problems with your sites view-ability in different browsers, screen sizes etc.
HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR WEBSITE BY MAKING IT POPULAR
The way to make your website receive hundreds, or even thousands, of visitors every day is to get it well established out there on the Internet. The best way to do this cheaply, or even for free, is to submit to popular directories. This is an important first step. Building up your link popularity is essential to developing a good relationship with the major search engines. To do that you need to establish as many inbound links as possible, preferably from highly respected directories such as from websites and directories related to your target field.
Many Webmasters establish links by emailing other Webmasters with websites of a similar theme to ask for a link exchange. This is one way of gaining links, but less effective than it used to be because these days search engines see a two way link and do not treat these as positively as one way links.
Submitting to directories is a good way to get one-way inbound links because you don't necessarily have to reciprocate. The one-way link carries more weight with the search engines than if you linked back to the same site. Therefore submitting to the best directories can give a huge boost to your sites ranking and is well worth the effort needed.
There is no easy way to submit to directories other than going to each one directly and dealing with them one at a time manually. There used to be software you could use to do the job automatically but the directories did not like this because of the huge amount of spam submissions they were getting, so the only way you can get into the directories worth submitting to these days is manually one at a time.
BUILD YOUR MONEY MAKING WEBSITE AROUND A THEME
So, as touched upon already, for good placement in the major search engines such as Google you need to have content based on a theme. It is important that each page of your website has a particular theme. This is because one of the most important elements to building your online business is to aim towards getting a good placement on the major search engines.
The first rule to obtaining this goal is to create a theme to your web-pages based around certain key-words and phrases (see step 3 above). Once you have got the key phrases you wish to use, build your page with content built around these words (see step 4).
Assuming that you don't want to spend a fortune on a huge marketing budget, getting a high search engine ranking will be the most critical part of your promotional campaign. As the web continues to grow at tremendous speed, getting a high ranking in the top engines is getting more and more difficult. But if you can obtain this then your site, at least in terms of visitors, is likely to be successful.
On first reading this next bit may sound a little technical but don't worry, its simple and straight forward really once you get into it. Once you have decided which key phrases you are going to base your page on, use this same phrase, or phrases, to make up the meta-tags in your pages' code between the tags. Tags are words between the angle bracketed commands e.g; words go here so your title command would look like this:your page title goes here . The forward slash indicating "end of tag".
To get an idea of what I'm talking about look at the source code on any web-page to see how it looks (simply click "view", then "source" on any webpage). Also bare in mind that if that page comes out at the top of a search engine query then you know that this is a good example of how the search engines like to see it done.
The title tag is very important for including your key phrases that people will be searching for. However also use these same key phrases throughout the body of your pages content (without overdoing it or you could get penalized for trying to spam the search engines).
All this will definitely help in your goal to establish a good position in the top search engines (even though there can be no guarantees). Getting good placement in the major search engines is one of the very best ways to be working smart - rather than hard.
In the next section I'm going to show you how to make your website really popular and busy.
Many Webmasters establish links by emailing other Webmasters with websites of a similar theme to ask for a link exchange. This is one way of gaining links, but less effective than it used to be because these days search engines see a two way link and do not treat these as positively as one way links.
Submitting to directories is a good way to get one-way inbound links because you don't necessarily have to reciprocate. The one-way link carries more weight with the search engines than if you linked back to the same site. Therefore submitting to the best directories can give a huge boost to your sites ranking and is well worth the effort needed.
There is no easy way to submit to directories other than going to each one directly and dealing with them one at a time manually. There used to be software you could use to do the job automatically but the directories did not like this because of the huge amount of spam submissions they were getting, so the only way you can get into the directories worth submitting to these days is manually one at a time.
BUILD YOUR MONEY MAKING WEBSITE AROUND A THEME
So, as touched upon already, for good placement in the major search engines such as Google you need to have content based on a theme. It is important that each page of your website has a particular theme. This is because one of the most important elements to building your online business is to aim towards getting a good placement on the major search engines.
The first rule to obtaining this goal is to create a theme to your web-pages based around certain key-words and phrases (see step 3 above). Once you have got the key phrases you wish to use, build your page with content built around these words (see step 4).
Assuming that you don't want to spend a fortune on a huge marketing budget, getting a high search engine ranking will be the most critical part of your promotional campaign. As the web continues to grow at tremendous speed, getting a high ranking in the top engines is getting more and more difficult. But if you can obtain this then your site, at least in terms of visitors, is likely to be successful.
On first reading this next bit may sound a little technical but don't worry, its simple and straight forward really once you get into it. Once you have decided which key phrases you are going to base your page on, use this same phrase, or phrases, to make up the meta-tags in your pages' code between the tags. Tags are words between the angle bracketed commands e.g; words go here so your title command would look like this:
To get an idea of what I'm talking about look at the source code on any web-page to see how it looks (simply click "view", then "source" on any webpage). Also bare in mind that if that page comes out at the top of a search engine query then you know that this is a good example of how the search engines like to see it done.
The title tag is very important for including your key phrases that people will be searching for. However also use these same key phrases throughout the body of your pages content (without overdoing it or you could get penalized for trying to spam the search engines).
All this will definitely help in your goal to establish a good position in the top search engines (even though there can be no guarantees). Getting good placement in the major search engines is one of the very best ways to be working smart - rather than hard.
In the next section I'm going to show you how to make your website really popular and busy.
THE CAPITAL CITY OF INDIA
THE CITY OF DESTINY
How does one describe Delhi The capital city of India The capital of the world’s largest democracy Actually, Delhi is India in miniature. Delhi is 32,87,263 sq km of India’s fantastic variety compressed into 1483 sq km. Over the millennia, it has wooed rulers, attracted plunderers, and tried historians with so many details. Today, even as it preserves an enviable heritage, Delhi is a true cosmopolitan city always on the move.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Location
Situated in the northern part of the country, Delhi extends latitude 28.38°N and longitude 77.12°E. It is encircled by the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the east and by Haryana in the other three sides. Delhi is an ideal gateway to visit the north Indian states of Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana. Delhi is connected to all the major cities in the world by regular flights.
Climate
Delhi is hot and humid in the summers, and cold in the winters. The average temperature ranges from 25°C to 46°C during summer and 2°C to 5°C during winter. The cold wave from the Himalayan region makes winters very chilly. In summers, the heat wave is immense and adequate precaution has to be taken before going out in the afternoons. The best season to visit Delhi is during the spring seasons of February to April and August to November. It wears a festive look between February and April, the blooming season.
HISTORY
To go right back into an era where mythology and history are too closely intertwined, it is believed that Delhi, then known as Indraprashtha, was the scene of action of India’s great epic, the Mahabharata. Periodic archeological excavations bring in more and more evidence to support this contention.
Thereafter, historians say there have been seven cities of Delhi. If you count the smaller settlements and forts, the number may touch fifteen. Each city has left behind so much story and material for rumination that it requires many a lifetime to know them all completely.
Recorded history exists from the 11th century when Dillika, as this little town was known, found its focal point south of where it is now. This kingdom was known as Lal Kot. The famous ruler of this line of Tomars was called Prithvi Raj Chauhan. He is said to have built many temples and a huge fort called Qila Rai Pithora.
However, their 200-year-old rule culminated with the arrival of the first set of invaders—the Slave Dynasty. One of the rulers of this dynasty, Qutub-ud-din Aibak, built the tall Qutab Minar. The Qutab Minar has five floors. It is 72.55-m high with a base diameter of 14.40 tapering to 2.4 m at the top.
Time moved on and by the end of the 13th century, the Khilji Dynasty was looking around for the best piece of land on which to build their seat of empire. Today where Delhi’s best auditorium stands, the Siri Fort as it is called, was the site the Khiljis had chosen; it is closer to central Delhi than Aibak’s kingdom.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq succeeded Alauddin Khilji and, as vanity demanded, built a magnificent fort at Tughlaqabad. It is perhaps the most beautiful ruin in the country. Standing very tall, its massive structure quite contrasting with the delicate ornate style is still charming. The famous traveler Ibn Batuta recorded that it used to shine bright against the sun like a fort made of gold. There were huge silos at the entry points and this fort had umpteen gates. The story goes that a saint called Nizammuddin Aulia cursed Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq that his city would never flourish.
Perhaps, destiny willed it that way too. In those days of treason, Ghiyasuddin fell prey to his son Mohammad Bin Tughlaq’s ambition. Mohammad built his own city, Adilabad, a few yards away from Tughlaqabad. He enclosed a large area within a wall, creating within it the Jahanpanah forest. Then came the foolish attempt to move the capital away from Delhi. However, he had to shift his capital back to this city within a few months.
His nephew was Ferozshah Tughlaq. The fort built by Ferozshah—Ferozshah Kotla, as it is known—has stood as an inspiring backdrop to many famous bowlers and batsmen. The rest of the structures are, however, not intact. This fifth city, like the sixth city of the Lodi Dynasty, has few of its monuments left. Once again, Delhi saw a shift of capital to Agra.
However, it did not last long. This time the famous battle of Panipat, which brought the fulcrum back to Delhi eventually, saw Sher Shah Suri as the ruler. Sher Shah laid the foundation for the Grand Trunk Road and built the Old Fort. Today the fort complex houses the zoo in addition to preserving some of the buildings inside the fort.
The living legacy of Delhi is Shahjahanabad. Created by the builder of Taj Mahal, this city, with the Red Fort as the focal point and Jama Masjid as the praying center, has a fascinating market planned to shine under the light of the moon, called Chandni Chowk. Shahjahan planned Chandni Chowk so that his daughter could shop for all that she wanted. It was divided by canals filled with water, which glistened like silver in moonlight. The canals are now closed, but Chandni Chowk remains Asia’s largest wholesale market. Crafts, once patronized by the Mughals continue to flourish in the small lanes of the city, once known as Shahjahanabad. Tradition and modernity meet at unexpected places in Shahjahanabad. If you see a man pulling a rickshaw or feeding pigeons, you will see just as many talking over the cello or assembling a computer! An experience of timelessness awaits you at Shahjahanabad.
Modern Delhi, or New Delhi as it is called, centers around Rashtrapati Bhawan. It is architecturally a very impressive building standing at a height, flowing down as it were to India Gate. This stretch called the Rajpath is where the Republic Day parade is held. The imposing plan of this area conceived by Lutyens does not fade in its charm with the numerous summers or winters that go past.
Delhi remains the center of power. Once it was a city of royal power. Then it became the seat of colonial power. Later it was the seat of bureaucratic power. The seat of political power it has always been. Today it is emerging as an important center for corporate power too.
The most fascinating aspect of this city is its cosmopolitan nature. You can find the whole of India in its little colonies and structures. Contemporary times will be far more difficult to record for tomorrow’s history.
PEOPLE
Delhi is not a place in seclusion; it is by nature a homogenous city, which is ready to assimilate all incoming influences—whether they are people, culture, or the languages. The recorded history of Delhi started only after coming of Aryans from the Central Asia. These people, with their large forehead, wheatish complexion, and tall physique were the one whose descendants are even now in majority. Over the ages, the city attracted a large number of races because of its central position and wealth. Even now, the city is attracting people from all over the country who come in search of better life and opportunity. This character of assimilation has given a new dimension and dynamism to the city.
ECONOMY
With a per capita income of 11,650, Delhi is India’s most prosperous state. People here are enterprising with great business acumen. The state boasts of best infrastructural facilities available in the country. Major industries are manufacture of Razor Blades, Sports Goods, Radio & TV Parts, Plastic & PVC Goods, Textiles, Chemicals, Fertilizers, Soft Drinks, Hand & Machine tools, Leather Goods, Galvanizing & Electroplating, Printing, and Ware Housing.
CULTURE
Art
Cruising through the different art exhibitions and galleries of Delhi, one transcends to a different world altogether. Delhi can boast of having one of the most prestigious art galleries—The National Gallery of Modern Art, an institution by itself. In 1976, The Lalit Kala Academy, with the help of Delhi Development Authority, set up studios known as Garhi, the artists’ haven. Inspired by the city of art in Paris, where artists, are provided with studios and lodgings, Garhi was built on these lines. Only qualified professional artists can work here. Their work is evaluated and those with talent and great promise are taken in. The artists are given a free rein to explore and discover their creativity. Though situated in the center of South Delhi, it is cut off from the hustle and bustle of busy city life providing an opportunity to the artists to pursue their interest in a tranquil atmosphere.
At Anandgram in Qutab–Mehrauli is the Sanskriti Kendra, a serene sprawling sanctuary for artists, craftsperson, as well as visitors. Set amidst eight acres of land dotted with two thousand trees, the Sanskriti Kendra was the brainchild of Mr. O. P. Jain, a distinguished art collector. It was conceptualized as a place where creative minds could pursue and interact with others on an area of study of their choice with an aim that from such an interaction would emerge a new sensibility that in turn would enrich and strengthen the bond of our shared culture. Here craftspersons live in mud huts reminiscent of their village homes while, scholars are provided complete studio, workshop, library, and residential facilities. The Kendra has an art gallery for exhibition of work of artists, an auditorium, and an open-air amphitheatre.
Other important art galleries in Delhi include AIFACS Gallery, Art Heritage, Art Today, Azad Bhawan Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art, Delhi Art Gallery, Dhoomimal Art Center, National Gallery of Modern Art, Triveni Kala Sangam, Wadhera Art Gallery, Sahitya Kala Parishad, and many more.
Craft
A city that boasts of a minimum of seven incarnations will have more to talk about than just old monuments in different stages of ruination. Not surprisingly, Delhi has a rich legacy of crafts patronized by the emperors of yore.
Shahjahanabad, Old Delhi as it is called today, is the richest of the legacies. Not only because it is the closest to us chronologically, but also because the Mughals were great patrons of arts and crafts. Go to Matia Mahal’s Pahadi Bhojla and you will find umpteen shops of jewelers who fashion beautiful bangles and necklaces out of bone. Their predecessors were ivory craftsmen. However, with the ban on ivory, they were compelled to change their raw material and switch over to bones of buffaloes and camels instead.
Creating magic with golden thread embroidery or euphoria with semi-precious stones, there are the zardozis in the neighborhood. Zardozi is the art of embroidery with gold thread. These craftsmen work intricate designs on silk, velvet, and even tissue materials. Insignias, pulpit covers, embroidery on the robes of bishops and even the Pope are all created here.
The medicinal value of silver paper (varak) is well known. Thin sheets of silver paper are still wrapped around sweets and even betel leaves. If you are looking for the authentic one, go to Matia Mahal again. A few of the craftsmen who beat silver into thin sheets, by hand, still live here. Once upon a time, there were so many of them that you could just follow the sound of the hammer and reach them. Today you have to do a little asking around to reach some small workshops.
The famed meenakari work, where paint is embossed on silver or gold to give it the look of a precious stone, was once a thriving business of Shahjahanabad. Turbulence of Delhi, ever since Nadir Shah and later the colonial rule, pushed the artisans away to peaceful climes. This group moved partly to Rajasthan, while those who make bangles from lac moved to Hyderabad in the Deccan.
Lacquer work bangles are one of the old art forms still living in Shahjahanabad. Bright shades of yellow, red, and blue are perked up with tiny pieces of mirrors and gold-colored borders with beads to add that extra touch.
Common to many parts of Delhi are the potters. Not only do they fashion pots for the hot summer, which, in spite of refrigerators, are still greatly in demand, they also fashion beautiful clay and papier-mâché dolls. These clay dolls, some as toys and some as decorations and some even as clay idols during festivities, have a diminishing demand from the rural-urban migrators.
Then there are more. Making of incense sticks, of attars (perfumes), brass molding, and so on. Shahjahan’s gift to the country did not stop with Taj Mahal….
Dance
If it’s dance and music you are interested in, then you can choose which kind you prefer watching and concentrate your energies in that direction. If it’s the classical dance form you want to view, go to the Kamani Auditorium or Siri Fort. Triveni Kala Sangam has an auditorium too. Then there’s India International Center on Lodhi Road that offers very good programs. In the cooler months, many dance and music festivals are organized and every corner of the city is alive with various interpretations of movement and sound.
However, if it’s optimistic gyration that you prefer, then put on your dancing shoes and be prepared to rock the night at one of Delhi’s many exclusive dance clubs. These clubs are located within Delhi’s five-star hotels such as Maurya Sheraton (Ghunghroos), Le Meridien (C.J.’s), The Hilton (Annabelle’s), Hyatt Regency (Oasis), Taj Palace (My Kind of Place), and Park Hotel (Someplace Else). Houseguests and members can enter scot-free and the rest of Delhi (couples only) has to pay for some fun. Each place is distinct from the other in its décor, music, lights, and crowd. Ghunghroos, most popular with the younger generation, is perpetually packed in spite of the limited floor space. Annabelle’s and My Kind of Place have comparatively better seating arrangements and an older crowd. Oasis boasts of the best décor. Most of the places have laser lights, which is interesting for watchers as it penetrates the dancers to form myriad shapes and figures on the facing wall. Some places even have a couple of TVs and of course, all discotheques have bars for the ones who need a little spirit to raise their spirits.
For those Delhiites who are willing to go beyond their limits for fun, The 32nd Milestone (32 km from Delhi on the highway to Jaipur) has the answer—Fireball. The place has a futuristic look with the décor resembling the interiors of a spaceship. The dance floor is so large that you can actually move your legs along with your body unlike in the compact discos of Delhi.
Music
Music connoisseurs have a variety of sounds to choose from. The auditoria where these concerts are held are the same as the dance programs. Whether Indian classical, Hindustani or Carnatic, or the lighter ghazals, there is no dearth of choice. When a particularly well-known singer comes to town, it is usually well covered by the press. The papers also reserve a column in their daily editions to display a list of programs for the day. These programs include not only the visual arts but also lectures on a wide variety of topics by scholars or luminaries in that particular field. To see the craftsmen of the city and the country make their wares, you must go to the crafts museum in Pragati Maidan and Dilli Haat. They try to display this form of indigenous talent and let the craftsmen benefit from their skill at the same time.
What’s more, all these places have a café or canteen in the vicinity. So, if you feel like mind-satisfied-is-not-stomach satisfied it can be set right.
Overall, Delhi offers a profusion of cultural activities from light entertainment to scholarly programs.
How does one describe Delhi The capital city of India The capital of the world’s largest democracy Actually, Delhi is India in miniature. Delhi is 32,87,263 sq km of India’s fantastic variety compressed into 1483 sq km. Over the millennia, it has wooed rulers, attracted plunderers, and tried historians with so many details. Today, even as it preserves an enviable heritage, Delhi is a true cosmopolitan city always on the move.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Location
Situated in the northern part of the country, Delhi extends latitude 28.38°N and longitude 77.12°E. It is encircled by the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in the east and by Haryana in the other three sides. Delhi is an ideal gateway to visit the north Indian states of Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana. Delhi is connected to all the major cities in the world by regular flights.
Climate
Delhi is hot and humid in the summers, and cold in the winters. The average temperature ranges from 25°C to 46°C during summer and 2°C to 5°C during winter. The cold wave from the Himalayan region makes winters very chilly. In summers, the heat wave is immense and adequate precaution has to be taken before going out in the afternoons. The best season to visit Delhi is during the spring seasons of February to April and August to November. It wears a festive look between February and April, the blooming season.
HISTORY
To go right back into an era where mythology and history are too closely intertwined, it is believed that Delhi, then known as Indraprashtha, was the scene of action of India’s great epic, the Mahabharata. Periodic archeological excavations bring in more and more evidence to support this contention.
Thereafter, historians say there have been seven cities of Delhi. If you count the smaller settlements and forts, the number may touch fifteen. Each city has left behind so much story and material for rumination that it requires many a lifetime to know them all completely.
Recorded history exists from the 11th century when Dillika, as this little town was known, found its focal point south of where it is now. This kingdom was known as Lal Kot. The famous ruler of this line of Tomars was called Prithvi Raj Chauhan. He is said to have built many temples and a huge fort called Qila Rai Pithora.
However, their 200-year-old rule culminated with the arrival of the first set of invaders—the Slave Dynasty. One of the rulers of this dynasty, Qutub-ud-din Aibak, built the tall Qutab Minar. The Qutab Minar has five floors. It is 72.55-m high with a base diameter of 14.40 tapering to 2.4 m at the top.
Time moved on and by the end of the 13th century, the Khilji Dynasty was looking around for the best piece of land on which to build their seat of empire. Today where Delhi’s best auditorium stands, the Siri Fort as it is called, was the site the Khiljis had chosen; it is closer to central Delhi than Aibak’s kingdom.
Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq succeeded Alauddin Khilji and, as vanity demanded, built a magnificent fort at Tughlaqabad. It is perhaps the most beautiful ruin in the country. Standing very tall, its massive structure quite contrasting with the delicate ornate style is still charming. The famous traveler Ibn Batuta recorded that it used to shine bright against the sun like a fort made of gold. There were huge silos at the entry points and this fort had umpteen gates. The story goes that a saint called Nizammuddin Aulia cursed Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq that his city would never flourish.
Perhaps, destiny willed it that way too. In those days of treason, Ghiyasuddin fell prey to his son Mohammad Bin Tughlaq’s ambition. Mohammad built his own city, Adilabad, a few yards away from Tughlaqabad. He enclosed a large area within a wall, creating within it the Jahanpanah forest. Then came the foolish attempt to move the capital away from Delhi. However, he had to shift his capital back to this city within a few months.
His nephew was Ferozshah Tughlaq. The fort built by Ferozshah—Ferozshah Kotla, as it is known—has stood as an inspiring backdrop to many famous bowlers and batsmen. The rest of the structures are, however, not intact. This fifth city, like the sixth city of the Lodi Dynasty, has few of its monuments left. Once again, Delhi saw a shift of capital to Agra.
However, it did not last long. This time the famous battle of Panipat, which brought the fulcrum back to Delhi eventually, saw Sher Shah Suri as the ruler. Sher Shah laid the foundation for the Grand Trunk Road and built the Old Fort. Today the fort complex houses the zoo in addition to preserving some of the buildings inside the fort.
The living legacy of Delhi is Shahjahanabad. Created by the builder of Taj Mahal, this city, with the Red Fort as the focal point and Jama Masjid as the praying center, has a fascinating market planned to shine under the light of the moon, called Chandni Chowk. Shahjahan planned Chandni Chowk so that his daughter could shop for all that she wanted. It was divided by canals filled with water, which glistened like silver in moonlight. The canals are now closed, but Chandni Chowk remains Asia’s largest wholesale market. Crafts, once patronized by the Mughals continue to flourish in the small lanes of the city, once known as Shahjahanabad. Tradition and modernity meet at unexpected places in Shahjahanabad. If you see a man pulling a rickshaw or feeding pigeons, you will see just as many talking over the cello or assembling a computer! An experience of timelessness awaits you at Shahjahanabad.
Modern Delhi, or New Delhi as it is called, centers around Rashtrapati Bhawan. It is architecturally a very impressive building standing at a height, flowing down as it were to India Gate. This stretch called the Rajpath is where the Republic Day parade is held. The imposing plan of this area conceived by Lutyens does not fade in its charm with the numerous summers or winters that go past.
Delhi remains the center of power. Once it was a city of royal power. Then it became the seat of colonial power. Later it was the seat of bureaucratic power. The seat of political power it has always been. Today it is emerging as an important center for corporate power too.
The most fascinating aspect of this city is its cosmopolitan nature. You can find the whole of India in its little colonies and structures. Contemporary times will be far more difficult to record for tomorrow’s history.
PEOPLE
Delhi is not a place in seclusion; it is by nature a homogenous city, which is ready to assimilate all incoming influences—whether they are people, culture, or the languages. The recorded history of Delhi started only after coming of Aryans from the Central Asia. These people, with their large forehead, wheatish complexion, and tall physique were the one whose descendants are even now in majority. Over the ages, the city attracted a large number of races because of its central position and wealth. Even now, the city is attracting people from all over the country who come in search of better life and opportunity. This character of assimilation has given a new dimension and dynamism to the city.
ECONOMY
With a per capita income of 11,650, Delhi is India’s most prosperous state. People here are enterprising with great business acumen. The state boasts of best infrastructural facilities available in the country. Major industries are manufacture of Razor Blades, Sports Goods, Radio & TV Parts, Plastic & PVC Goods, Textiles, Chemicals, Fertilizers, Soft Drinks, Hand & Machine tools, Leather Goods, Galvanizing & Electroplating, Printing, and Ware Housing.
CULTURE
Art
Cruising through the different art exhibitions and galleries of Delhi, one transcends to a different world altogether. Delhi can boast of having one of the most prestigious art galleries—The National Gallery of Modern Art, an institution by itself. In 1976, The Lalit Kala Academy, with the help of Delhi Development Authority, set up studios known as Garhi, the artists’ haven. Inspired by the city of art in Paris, where artists, are provided with studios and lodgings, Garhi was built on these lines. Only qualified professional artists can work here. Their work is evaluated and those with talent and great promise are taken in. The artists are given a free rein to explore and discover their creativity. Though situated in the center of South Delhi, it is cut off from the hustle and bustle of busy city life providing an opportunity to the artists to pursue their interest in a tranquil atmosphere.
At Anandgram in Qutab–Mehrauli is the Sanskriti Kendra, a serene sprawling sanctuary for artists, craftsperson, as well as visitors. Set amidst eight acres of land dotted with two thousand trees, the Sanskriti Kendra was the brainchild of Mr. O. P. Jain, a distinguished art collector. It was conceptualized as a place where creative minds could pursue and interact with others on an area of study of their choice with an aim that from such an interaction would emerge a new sensibility that in turn would enrich and strengthen the bond of our shared culture. Here craftspersons live in mud huts reminiscent of their village homes while, scholars are provided complete studio, workshop, library, and residential facilities. The Kendra has an art gallery for exhibition of work of artists, an auditorium, and an open-air amphitheatre.
Other important art galleries in Delhi include AIFACS Gallery, Art Heritage, Art Today, Azad Bhawan Gallery, Center for Contemporary Art, Delhi Art Gallery, Dhoomimal Art Center, National Gallery of Modern Art, Triveni Kala Sangam, Wadhera Art Gallery, Sahitya Kala Parishad, and many more.
Craft
A city that boasts of a minimum of seven incarnations will have more to talk about than just old monuments in different stages of ruination. Not surprisingly, Delhi has a rich legacy of crafts patronized by the emperors of yore.
Shahjahanabad, Old Delhi as it is called today, is the richest of the legacies. Not only because it is the closest to us chronologically, but also because the Mughals were great patrons of arts and crafts. Go to Matia Mahal’s Pahadi Bhojla and you will find umpteen shops of jewelers who fashion beautiful bangles and necklaces out of bone. Their predecessors were ivory craftsmen. However, with the ban on ivory, they were compelled to change their raw material and switch over to bones of buffaloes and camels instead.
Creating magic with golden thread embroidery or euphoria with semi-precious stones, there are the zardozis in the neighborhood. Zardozi is the art of embroidery with gold thread. These craftsmen work intricate designs on silk, velvet, and even tissue materials. Insignias, pulpit covers, embroidery on the robes of bishops and even the Pope are all created here.
The medicinal value of silver paper (varak) is well known. Thin sheets of silver paper are still wrapped around sweets and even betel leaves. If you are looking for the authentic one, go to Matia Mahal again. A few of the craftsmen who beat silver into thin sheets, by hand, still live here. Once upon a time, there were so many of them that you could just follow the sound of the hammer and reach them. Today you have to do a little asking around to reach some small workshops.
The famed meenakari work, where paint is embossed on silver or gold to give it the look of a precious stone, was once a thriving business of Shahjahanabad. Turbulence of Delhi, ever since Nadir Shah and later the colonial rule, pushed the artisans away to peaceful climes. This group moved partly to Rajasthan, while those who make bangles from lac moved to Hyderabad in the Deccan.
Lacquer work bangles are one of the old art forms still living in Shahjahanabad. Bright shades of yellow, red, and blue are perked up with tiny pieces of mirrors and gold-colored borders with beads to add that extra touch.
Common to many parts of Delhi are the potters. Not only do they fashion pots for the hot summer, which, in spite of refrigerators, are still greatly in demand, they also fashion beautiful clay and papier-mâché dolls. These clay dolls, some as toys and some as decorations and some even as clay idols during festivities, have a diminishing demand from the rural-urban migrators.
Then there are more. Making of incense sticks, of attars (perfumes), brass molding, and so on. Shahjahan’s gift to the country did not stop with Taj Mahal….
Dance
If it’s dance and music you are interested in, then you can choose which kind you prefer watching and concentrate your energies in that direction. If it’s the classical dance form you want to view, go to the Kamani Auditorium or Siri Fort. Triveni Kala Sangam has an auditorium too. Then there’s India International Center on Lodhi Road that offers very good programs. In the cooler months, many dance and music festivals are organized and every corner of the city is alive with various interpretations of movement and sound.
However, if it’s optimistic gyration that you prefer, then put on your dancing shoes and be prepared to rock the night at one of Delhi’s many exclusive dance clubs. These clubs are located within Delhi’s five-star hotels such as Maurya Sheraton (Ghunghroos), Le Meridien (C.J.’s), The Hilton (Annabelle’s), Hyatt Regency (Oasis), Taj Palace (My Kind of Place), and Park Hotel (Someplace Else). Houseguests and members can enter scot-free and the rest of Delhi (couples only) has to pay for some fun. Each place is distinct from the other in its décor, music, lights, and crowd. Ghunghroos, most popular with the younger generation, is perpetually packed in spite of the limited floor space. Annabelle’s and My Kind of Place have comparatively better seating arrangements and an older crowd. Oasis boasts of the best décor. Most of the places have laser lights, which is interesting for watchers as it penetrates the dancers to form myriad shapes and figures on the facing wall. Some places even have a couple of TVs and of course, all discotheques have bars for the ones who need a little spirit to raise their spirits.
For those Delhiites who are willing to go beyond their limits for fun, The 32nd Milestone (32 km from Delhi on the highway to Jaipur) has the answer—Fireball. The place has a futuristic look with the décor resembling the interiors of a spaceship. The dance floor is so large that you can actually move your legs along with your body unlike in the compact discos of Delhi.
Music
Music connoisseurs have a variety of sounds to choose from. The auditoria where these concerts are held are the same as the dance programs. Whether Indian classical, Hindustani or Carnatic, or the lighter ghazals, there is no dearth of choice. When a particularly well-known singer comes to town, it is usually well covered by the press. The papers also reserve a column in their daily editions to display a list of programs for the day. These programs include not only the visual arts but also lectures on a wide variety of topics by scholars or luminaries in that particular field. To see the craftsmen of the city and the country make their wares, you must go to the crafts museum in Pragati Maidan and Dilli Haat. They try to display this form of indigenous talent and let the craftsmen benefit from their skill at the same time.
What’s more, all these places have a café or canteen in the vicinity. So, if you feel like mind-satisfied-is-not-stomach satisfied it can be set right.
Overall, Delhi offers a profusion of cultural activities from light entertainment to scholarly programs.
SITES TO VISIT IN INDIA
The Forts of Delhi
The best way to know about the glorious heritage of Delhi is to know its monuments, to travel through time back into centuries of history filled with the rise and fall of dynasties that ruled the land. These monuments stretch from Wazirabad in the north to the Qutab and beyond in the south of Delhi. Between these two points, lies scattered the history of this ancient city.
Indraprashtha
According to the Mahabharata, Indraprashtha was the most flourishing city, capital of the Pandavas, with gigantic forts and magnificent palaces. Excavations at the Purana Qila, identified as the site of Indraprashtha, have yielded proofs of the site having remained under continuous occupation up to 1000 bc. The Mauryas, Sungas, Kushans, Guptas, Rajputs, and Mughals held it under their sway. However, of its fabled epic glory no evidence has yet been unearthed. With the decline of Buddhism, Delhi fell into oblivion and for centuries remained an inconsequential adjunct of great contemporary cities like Mathura and Kannauj.
We hear of Delhi again, after a gap of countless centuries, when the Tomar Rajputs came to power, first settled at Indraprashtha before moving to the rocky terrain beyond Tughlaqabad. It is also said that a king called Delu founded Delhi but history is silent about him. Tomar history is verifiable. The water tank called Surajkund, ruins of fortifications, and a bund can still be visited at the stone-strewn site, mysterious as the Stonehenge. The dates are uncertain, but the architectural evidence is incontrovertible. When the Tomars shifted to Mehrauli in the eleventh century and Anang Pal II built a formidable fort to ward off the growing fear of invasions, Delhi got Lal Kot, the first fort strengthened with magnificent ramparts and numerous gates.
The Chauhan Rajputs defeated the Tomar and occupied Lal Kot. It was Prithvi Raj III who enlarged the Lal Kot area by extending it on the eastern, western and the southern sides and named it after himself—Qila Rai Pithora, the second fort of Delhi. With rampart walls, 10 feet in width at places, this fort had numerous gates, some of which can still be identified as giant gaps in the long stretching walls. Hauz Rani and Budayuni Gates were two most prominent gates. At Budayuni Gate, the guilty were tortured and beheaded in full public view. The gate was under constant watch for fear of Mongol invasions. Ranjit Gate on the northern ramparts was the grandest but weakest gate. The Turks had entered Lal Kot through this gate and had it immediately restrengthened to prevent a recurrence of invasion. Qila Rai Pithora continued to be used as the stronghold of the Turkish Slave dynasty Sultans who had replaced the Rajput rulers in 1193. Ruins of Rajput and Mamluk palaces can be seen behind Balban’s tomb near the Qutab Minar.
In 1303, the Mongols under Taraghai plundered Delhi and almost captured it when, quite inexplicably, they rushed back. Back from his Deccan campaigns, Alauddin Khilji decided to build a defense fortress at Siri with strong battlement ramparts and impregnable bastions. It was Delhi’s third fort. It was never attacked by enemies but destroyed by succeeding rulers who plundered it for the free building material for their forts. Timur, who sacked Delhi in 1398, found Siri a magnificent fortress. Only some portions of the Siri walls can be seen today, all else has been destroyed and stones removed.
When Ghazi Malik founded the Tughlaq Dynasty in 1321, he built the strongest fort in Delhi at Tughlaqabad, completed with great speed within four years of his rule. It is said that Ghazi Malik, when only a slave to Mubarak Khilji, had suggested this rocky prominence as an ideal site for a fort. The Khilji Sultan laughed and suggested that the slave build a fort there when he became a Sultan. Ghazi Malik as Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq did just that—Tughlaqabad is Delhi’s most colossal and awesome fort, even in its ruined state. Within its sky-touching walls, double-storied bastions, and gigantic towers were housed grand palaces, splendid mosques, and audience halls.
Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq, who is accused of having murdered his sire, built Adilabad and Nai-ka-Kot—two small fortresses adjacent to Tughlaqabad fort, Adilabad, the fourth fort of Delhi, contained a grand palace of thousand pillars and splendid halls. Later he enclosed the city lying between Siri, Tughlaqabad, and the Qutab and called it Jahanpanah. Ruins of gigantic ramparts of his two fortresses and some portions of the Jahanpanah walls have survived the ravages of time. A small portion of his Jahanpanah watchtower Vijai Mandal still stands in ruins dominating the landscape. But Muhammad Tughlaq himself brought about the ruins of his city by transferring the capital to Devagiri in the Deccan, compelling the entire population including the sick, old and children to move on foot. A few years later, he ordered them back to Delhi. However, the splendor and the soul of the city had been killed.
Ferozshah kotla
Ferozshah, Muhammad Tughlaq’s successor, built his new city northward on the banks of Yamuna. Kotla was the inner citadel of Ferozabad, built like Windsor. It had great palaces and a magnificent mosque that inspired Timur’s envy. Destroyed by the Mughals, Kotla palaces were reduced to mere ruins, exposing to view the subterranean passages and covered cloisters. One can still see the pyramidal structure topped by the Ashokan Pillar brought from Topra (near Ambala), ruins of the mosque, and a three-tiered baoli. Ferozabad stretched between Wazirabad and the Qutab with countless serais and schools and mosques in between. Timur’s invasion of Delhi in 1398 reduced the city to a city of ruins. He took away with him elephants loaded with treasures and costly building material, artists, masons and skilled workers as prisoners. No wonder that the Saiyyads and Lodis who succeeded the Tughlaqs only inherited a depleted empire and empty treasures. No new forts or palaces were built, only tombs. The Saiyyads and Lodis used Kotla as their citadel. In fact, the Lodis had moved the capital to Agra, and Delhi once again fell into neglect.
The Mongols who had set their eyes on Delhi since the founding of the Turkish rule in 1193, and had, in fact, invaded it on 12 occasions between 1245 and 1329 finally descended on the city in 1526 led as an invincible force by Zahir-ud-din Babur who vanquished the Lodis to establish the Mughal Empire. Babur chose Agra as his capital but his successor decided in favor of Delhi. His city Dinpanah was built on the site of Indraprashtha where then existed a village of that name to revive its claim to antiquity. Dinpanah was the sixth fort of Delhi. Within five years, massive gateways and lofty ramparts were completed but unfortunately, Humayun lost his kingdom to the Afghan chieftain Shershah, who destroyed much of Humayun’s buildings in the fort. He called his city Shergarh. Two gateways of his city, Lal Darwaza and Khooni Darwaza, can still be seen in their original grandeur. Within the fort, Shershah built a grand mosque and an octagonal tower called Sher Mandal. When Humayun regained his kingdom with Persian help, he hardly built any new structures. Humayun fell down from the roof of Sher Mandal. As the muezzin called for the prayer, Humayun kneeled down to pray when his foot got entangled in the dress and he tumbled down the steps, fatally injured to die within three days. This was the end of a lovable Mughal emperor. Akbar went back to Agra. Jahangir and Shahjahan also made architectural contributions to Agra fort.
In 1639, Shahjahan decided to shift his capital to Delhi. Within eight years, Shahjahanabad was completed with the Red Fort—Qila-i-Mubarak (fortunate citadel)—Delhi’s seventh fort, ready in all its magnificence to receive Shahjahan. Though much has changed now because of large-scale demolitions during the British occupation of the fort, its important structures have survived, the glory faded with age but still impressive. Passing under the grand Gothic arch and the octagonal open space of the market place—the Chatta Chowk, and the Naubat Khana—a double-storied structure where court musicians played five times a day, we see Diwan-i-Aam. Here is the fabulously crafted baldachino—the marble canopy decorated with the most exquisite pietra dura work. Diwan-i-Aam witnessed scenes of unexcelled splendor when it used to be decorated with golden curtains, gorgeous carpets, and gold and silver railings below dazzling chandeliers. Ministers, Rajas, and ambassadors stood in mute awe of the Emperor in court.
Behind the Diwan-i-Aam are the Zenana quarters with such grand palaces as the Rang Mahal and Mumtaz Mahal. The marble lotus, a fountain in the center of Rang Mahal, carved out of a single slab, is a piece of sheer beauty. In its sculptured grandeur, the lotus is matched only by the trellis wall under the scales of justice in the Khwab Gah. The pavilion in white marble—Diwan-i-Khas—has lost much of its splendor. Here, under the original silver ceiling, stood the world famous Peacock Throne studded with the costliest gems of the Mughal Empire, costing nearly 12,637,500 sterlings as per a contemporary account. On the ceiling slab is inscribed the line, ‘if there is a paradise on the face of the earth, it is here, it is here, it is here’. Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah Abdali, Ghulam Qadir, the Marathas, and finally the British looted and plundered the Mughal treasures and destroyed many structures of immense beauty. Still the Shah Burjan octagonal tower at the corner, and the two marble pavilions, Sawan and Bhadon, named after the Indian months of rain, have withstood forces of destruction. The gardens—Mahtab Bagh and Hayat Baksh—have vanished. A later-day pavilion in red sandstone stands at the center of a dried up pool. It was built by Bahadur Shah II. Moti Masjid, the mosque built by Aurangzeb, is a gem of architecture despite the sickly marble of the new domes—original copper casing having been removed long back.
The Fort still retains some of its lost glory. It is the only fort with some well-preserved royal structures to give an idea of the glory of the Mughal Empire. The Red Fort was the last fort built in Delhi and it witnessed the vicissitudes of fortune, the splendor and the fall of the Mughals, British rule, and finally the dawn of Indian Independence.
Lesser Known Monuments of Delhi
Located between Uday Park and South Extension in South Delhi, Masjid Moth was built by Wazir Miyan Bhoiya, the minister of Sikandar Lodi, in the 16th century.
The Khirki Masjid is located in Khirki village in South Delhi and was built by Khan-i-Jahan Junan Shah, the prime minister of Ferozshah, in the early 15th century. This building is a link between Lodi style of architecture and the ornate Mughal architecture that was to follow.
Located near Hauz Khas village, the Hauz Khas Pond was probably built by Alauddin Khilji in ad 1295. Delhi Tourism holds various entertainment programs here and Alauddin’s tank now serves as an excellent backdrop to cultural events.
Other Places
If your image of India is made up mostly of the documentaries they show on the BBC and Discovery Channel on the cable network then the museum is the place for you. Here you will understand exactly what these programs mean when they happily announce that the average Indian’s idea of the good life is to clamber upon an elephant, ride up to the nearest palace, and spend the rest of the days cracking spices. The National Museum will let you in on these secrets. The museum houses one of the largest collections of Vedic and pre-Vedic relics, exotic paintings, old manuscripts, and mural paintings from Buddhist shrines in Central Asia.
On the bank of the legendary Yamuna, which flows past Delhi, there is Raj Ghat—the last resting place of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. It has become an essential point of call for all visiting dignitaries.
Perhaps the most poignant, the most nostalgic feelings that still bring a tear to many an eye are stirred when one visits 1 Safdarjung Road. Once the permanent residence of the prime ministers of India, it now houses the Indira Gandhi Museum. Here, amongst other memorabilia, lies her saffron bullet-ridden sari, the scorch marks clearly visible even through the glass case. It was here at this table that she had her last breakfast, walked out through this door, along the flagstoned path shaded and flanked by greenery, towards the wooden gate where she was mowed down by a hail of bullets from her own security guards. Visitors stand clustered at the gate shocked into silence, reliving the treachery and the tragedy.
The cool, sylvan environs of the Lodi Gardens, where Lodi kings ambled with their consorts, today witness a new brand of VIP activity along with a daily convergence of people from several walks of life. The gardens are a popular retreat for a wide cross-section of Delhiites who enjoy jogging, quiet walks, picnics, naps under the shade of the boughs of some spreading tree or bush, basking in the winter sun, or simply soaking in the singularly soothing balm-like atmosphere.
Peace and quiet also pervade Chanakyapuri—the diplomatic headquarters where arterial pieces from other parts of the world have been transplanted. Here can be found the American Embassy, the British High Commission, and the embassies and missions of most countries big and small that have diplomatic ties with India. Their national flags flying proud and high, most of the countries represented have introduced striking architectural designs and highly individualistic interior designs. While the names of roads in other parts of Delhi are sometimes cosmopolitan—Josef Tito Marg, Africa Avenue, Max Mueller Road—at Chanakyapuri the roads have a predominance of names which exude a pure Indian essence—Shantipath, Nyaya Marg, Kautilya Marg, Niti Marg….
At the center of the city is India Gate, a memorial raised in honor of the Indian soldiers who were martyred during the Afghan war. The green, velvety lawns at India Gate, particularly, are a popular evening and holiday rendezvous for young and old alike. Ice-cream carts, balloon wallahs, popcorn and peanut vendors, carts selling cold water and cold drinks, panwallahs, men and women selling sweet-scented jasmine gajras (garlands) to decorate a bride, wife, daughter or girlfriend’s hair, do brisk business at the fringe of the lawns.
For lovers of flowers ad beauty, the annual spring opening of the glorious, meticulously tended Mughal Gardens at the stately Rashtrapati Bhawan is a bonanza topped by an amazing assembly of roses in perfect bloom—perhaps the best in the whole of India. Flower shows organized on a regular basis provide an extra edge of inducement to malis (gardeners), plant nursery owners, and the lucky ones who possess a green thumb.
Rashtrapati Bhawan was once the imperial residence of the British viceroys. Built on the Raisina hills of Delhi ridge, this 340-roomed structure has an imposing character overlooking India Gate and Rajpath. It is now the official residence of the president of India.
Down on earth, there is the sight of Vigyan Bhawan that has hosted some of the most important international events and summits. There is the sense of history, intermingled with pride as you go past Parliament House, the curiosity as you glance at North and South Blocks—the decision-making, bureaucratic heart of India.
Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu situated in the central Delhi, and Lotus Temple, a beautiful white marble building and a place of worship for Bahai’s, are two temples worth visiting for those in search of spiritual rejuvenation.
The Jantar Mantar, one of the many astronomical observatories constructed by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur, is situated in the center of the city near Connaught Place.
Through dark times of tragedy, throughout golden, heady periods of glory, since time immemorial, the eddying Yamuna has flowed past Delhi. Displaying different moods—sometimes a muted cadence or a gentle murmur, at others a gentle lapping of water, and in the monsoons, the fury of its swollen, wind blows on the bank—the Yamuna has remained indestructible.
Today, the river has changed course. But as you drive along Ring Road you can still glimpse the shimmer of the Yamuna as it flows past Delhi, and you realize with a start that this ageless river symbolizes the enduring soul of Delhi—enshrining the past, reflecting the present with all its contrasts and harmony, moving towards a tryst with the future. Delhi is the City of Destiny. In a very literal sense, Delhi—the capital of India, the city that history has made—is today still making history.
The best way to know about the glorious heritage of Delhi is to know its monuments, to travel through time back into centuries of history filled with the rise and fall of dynasties that ruled the land. These monuments stretch from Wazirabad in the north to the Qutab and beyond in the south of Delhi. Between these two points, lies scattered the history of this ancient city.
Indraprashtha
According to the Mahabharata, Indraprashtha was the most flourishing city, capital of the Pandavas, with gigantic forts and magnificent palaces. Excavations at the Purana Qila, identified as the site of Indraprashtha, have yielded proofs of the site having remained under continuous occupation up to 1000 bc. The Mauryas, Sungas, Kushans, Guptas, Rajputs, and Mughals held it under their sway. However, of its fabled epic glory no evidence has yet been unearthed. With the decline of Buddhism, Delhi fell into oblivion and for centuries remained an inconsequential adjunct of great contemporary cities like Mathura and Kannauj.
We hear of Delhi again, after a gap of countless centuries, when the Tomar Rajputs came to power, first settled at Indraprashtha before moving to the rocky terrain beyond Tughlaqabad. It is also said that a king called Delu founded Delhi but history is silent about him. Tomar history is verifiable. The water tank called Surajkund, ruins of fortifications, and a bund can still be visited at the stone-strewn site, mysterious as the Stonehenge. The dates are uncertain, but the architectural evidence is incontrovertible. When the Tomars shifted to Mehrauli in the eleventh century and Anang Pal II built a formidable fort to ward off the growing fear of invasions, Delhi got Lal Kot, the first fort strengthened with magnificent ramparts and numerous gates.
The Chauhan Rajputs defeated the Tomar and occupied Lal Kot. It was Prithvi Raj III who enlarged the Lal Kot area by extending it on the eastern, western and the southern sides and named it after himself—Qila Rai Pithora, the second fort of Delhi. With rampart walls, 10 feet in width at places, this fort had numerous gates, some of which can still be identified as giant gaps in the long stretching walls. Hauz Rani and Budayuni Gates were two most prominent gates. At Budayuni Gate, the guilty were tortured and beheaded in full public view. The gate was under constant watch for fear of Mongol invasions. Ranjit Gate on the northern ramparts was the grandest but weakest gate. The Turks had entered Lal Kot through this gate and had it immediately restrengthened to prevent a recurrence of invasion. Qila Rai Pithora continued to be used as the stronghold of the Turkish Slave dynasty Sultans who had replaced the Rajput rulers in 1193. Ruins of Rajput and Mamluk palaces can be seen behind Balban’s tomb near the Qutab Minar.
In 1303, the Mongols under Taraghai plundered Delhi and almost captured it when, quite inexplicably, they rushed back. Back from his Deccan campaigns, Alauddin Khilji decided to build a defense fortress at Siri with strong battlement ramparts and impregnable bastions. It was Delhi’s third fort. It was never attacked by enemies but destroyed by succeeding rulers who plundered it for the free building material for their forts. Timur, who sacked Delhi in 1398, found Siri a magnificent fortress. Only some portions of the Siri walls can be seen today, all else has been destroyed and stones removed.
When Ghazi Malik founded the Tughlaq Dynasty in 1321, he built the strongest fort in Delhi at Tughlaqabad, completed with great speed within four years of his rule. It is said that Ghazi Malik, when only a slave to Mubarak Khilji, had suggested this rocky prominence as an ideal site for a fort. The Khilji Sultan laughed and suggested that the slave build a fort there when he became a Sultan. Ghazi Malik as Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq did just that—Tughlaqabad is Delhi’s most colossal and awesome fort, even in its ruined state. Within its sky-touching walls, double-storied bastions, and gigantic towers were housed grand palaces, splendid mosques, and audience halls.
Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq, who is accused of having murdered his sire, built Adilabad and Nai-ka-Kot—two small fortresses adjacent to Tughlaqabad fort, Adilabad, the fourth fort of Delhi, contained a grand palace of thousand pillars and splendid halls. Later he enclosed the city lying between Siri, Tughlaqabad, and the Qutab and called it Jahanpanah. Ruins of gigantic ramparts of his two fortresses and some portions of the Jahanpanah walls have survived the ravages of time. A small portion of his Jahanpanah watchtower Vijai Mandal still stands in ruins dominating the landscape. But Muhammad Tughlaq himself brought about the ruins of his city by transferring the capital to Devagiri in the Deccan, compelling the entire population including the sick, old and children to move on foot. A few years later, he ordered them back to Delhi. However, the splendor and the soul of the city had been killed.
Ferozshah kotla
Ferozshah, Muhammad Tughlaq’s successor, built his new city northward on the banks of Yamuna. Kotla was the inner citadel of Ferozabad, built like Windsor. It had great palaces and a magnificent mosque that inspired Timur’s envy. Destroyed by the Mughals, Kotla palaces were reduced to mere ruins, exposing to view the subterranean passages and covered cloisters. One can still see the pyramidal structure topped by the Ashokan Pillar brought from Topra (near Ambala), ruins of the mosque, and a three-tiered baoli. Ferozabad stretched between Wazirabad and the Qutab with countless serais and schools and mosques in between. Timur’s invasion of Delhi in 1398 reduced the city to a city of ruins. He took away with him elephants loaded with treasures and costly building material, artists, masons and skilled workers as prisoners. No wonder that the Saiyyads and Lodis who succeeded the Tughlaqs only inherited a depleted empire and empty treasures. No new forts or palaces were built, only tombs. The Saiyyads and Lodis used Kotla as their citadel. In fact, the Lodis had moved the capital to Agra, and Delhi once again fell into neglect.
The Mongols who had set their eyes on Delhi since the founding of the Turkish rule in 1193, and had, in fact, invaded it on 12 occasions between 1245 and 1329 finally descended on the city in 1526 led as an invincible force by Zahir-ud-din Babur who vanquished the Lodis to establish the Mughal Empire. Babur chose Agra as his capital but his successor decided in favor of Delhi. His city Dinpanah was built on the site of Indraprashtha where then existed a village of that name to revive its claim to antiquity. Dinpanah was the sixth fort of Delhi. Within five years, massive gateways and lofty ramparts were completed but unfortunately, Humayun lost his kingdom to the Afghan chieftain Shershah, who destroyed much of Humayun’s buildings in the fort. He called his city Shergarh. Two gateways of his city, Lal Darwaza and Khooni Darwaza, can still be seen in their original grandeur. Within the fort, Shershah built a grand mosque and an octagonal tower called Sher Mandal. When Humayun regained his kingdom with Persian help, he hardly built any new structures. Humayun fell down from the roof of Sher Mandal. As the muezzin called for the prayer, Humayun kneeled down to pray when his foot got entangled in the dress and he tumbled down the steps, fatally injured to die within three days. This was the end of a lovable Mughal emperor. Akbar went back to Agra. Jahangir and Shahjahan also made architectural contributions to Agra fort.
In 1639, Shahjahan decided to shift his capital to Delhi. Within eight years, Shahjahanabad was completed with the Red Fort—Qila-i-Mubarak (fortunate citadel)—Delhi’s seventh fort, ready in all its magnificence to receive Shahjahan. Though much has changed now because of large-scale demolitions during the British occupation of the fort, its important structures have survived, the glory faded with age but still impressive. Passing under the grand Gothic arch and the octagonal open space of the market place—the Chatta Chowk, and the Naubat Khana—a double-storied structure where court musicians played five times a day, we see Diwan-i-Aam. Here is the fabulously crafted baldachino—the marble canopy decorated with the most exquisite pietra dura work. Diwan-i-Aam witnessed scenes of unexcelled splendor when it used to be decorated with golden curtains, gorgeous carpets, and gold and silver railings below dazzling chandeliers. Ministers, Rajas, and ambassadors stood in mute awe of the Emperor in court.
Behind the Diwan-i-Aam are the Zenana quarters with such grand palaces as the Rang Mahal and Mumtaz Mahal. The marble lotus, a fountain in the center of Rang Mahal, carved out of a single slab, is a piece of sheer beauty. In its sculptured grandeur, the lotus is matched only by the trellis wall under the scales of justice in the Khwab Gah. The pavilion in white marble—Diwan-i-Khas—has lost much of its splendor. Here, under the original silver ceiling, stood the world famous Peacock Throne studded with the costliest gems of the Mughal Empire, costing nearly 12,637,500 sterlings as per a contemporary account. On the ceiling slab is inscribed the line, ‘if there is a paradise on the face of the earth, it is here, it is here, it is here’. Nadir Shah, Ahmad Shah Abdali, Ghulam Qadir, the Marathas, and finally the British looted and plundered the Mughal treasures and destroyed many structures of immense beauty. Still the Shah Burjan octagonal tower at the corner, and the two marble pavilions, Sawan and Bhadon, named after the Indian months of rain, have withstood forces of destruction. The gardens—Mahtab Bagh and Hayat Baksh—have vanished. A later-day pavilion in red sandstone stands at the center of a dried up pool. It was built by Bahadur Shah II. Moti Masjid, the mosque built by Aurangzeb, is a gem of architecture despite the sickly marble of the new domes—original copper casing having been removed long back.
The Fort still retains some of its lost glory. It is the only fort with some well-preserved royal structures to give an idea of the glory of the Mughal Empire. The Red Fort was the last fort built in Delhi and it witnessed the vicissitudes of fortune, the splendor and the fall of the Mughals, British rule, and finally the dawn of Indian Independence.
Lesser Known Monuments of Delhi
Located between Uday Park and South Extension in South Delhi, Masjid Moth was built by Wazir Miyan Bhoiya, the minister of Sikandar Lodi, in the 16th century.
The Khirki Masjid is located in Khirki village in South Delhi and was built by Khan-i-Jahan Junan Shah, the prime minister of Ferozshah, in the early 15th century. This building is a link between Lodi style of architecture and the ornate Mughal architecture that was to follow.
Located near Hauz Khas village, the Hauz Khas Pond was probably built by Alauddin Khilji in ad 1295. Delhi Tourism holds various entertainment programs here and Alauddin’s tank now serves as an excellent backdrop to cultural events.
Other Places
If your image of India is made up mostly of the documentaries they show on the BBC and Discovery Channel on the cable network then the museum is the place for you. Here you will understand exactly what these programs mean when they happily announce that the average Indian’s idea of the good life is to clamber upon an elephant, ride up to the nearest palace, and spend the rest of the days cracking spices. The National Museum will let you in on these secrets. The museum houses one of the largest collections of Vedic and pre-Vedic relics, exotic paintings, old manuscripts, and mural paintings from Buddhist shrines in Central Asia.
On the bank of the legendary Yamuna, which flows past Delhi, there is Raj Ghat—the last resting place of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation. It has become an essential point of call for all visiting dignitaries.
Perhaps the most poignant, the most nostalgic feelings that still bring a tear to many an eye are stirred when one visits 1 Safdarjung Road. Once the permanent residence of the prime ministers of India, it now houses the Indira Gandhi Museum. Here, amongst other memorabilia, lies her saffron bullet-ridden sari, the scorch marks clearly visible even through the glass case. It was here at this table that she had her last breakfast, walked out through this door, along the flagstoned path shaded and flanked by greenery, towards the wooden gate where she was mowed down by a hail of bullets from her own security guards. Visitors stand clustered at the gate shocked into silence, reliving the treachery and the tragedy.
The cool, sylvan environs of the Lodi Gardens, where Lodi kings ambled with their consorts, today witness a new brand of VIP activity along with a daily convergence of people from several walks of life. The gardens are a popular retreat for a wide cross-section of Delhiites who enjoy jogging, quiet walks, picnics, naps under the shade of the boughs of some spreading tree or bush, basking in the winter sun, or simply soaking in the singularly soothing balm-like atmosphere.
Peace and quiet also pervade Chanakyapuri—the diplomatic headquarters where arterial pieces from other parts of the world have been transplanted. Here can be found the American Embassy, the British High Commission, and the embassies and missions of most countries big and small that have diplomatic ties with India. Their national flags flying proud and high, most of the countries represented have introduced striking architectural designs and highly individualistic interior designs. While the names of roads in other parts of Delhi are sometimes cosmopolitan—Josef Tito Marg, Africa Avenue, Max Mueller Road—at Chanakyapuri the roads have a predominance of names which exude a pure Indian essence—Shantipath, Nyaya Marg, Kautilya Marg, Niti Marg….
At the center of the city is India Gate, a memorial raised in honor of the Indian soldiers who were martyred during the Afghan war. The green, velvety lawns at India Gate, particularly, are a popular evening and holiday rendezvous for young and old alike. Ice-cream carts, balloon wallahs, popcorn and peanut vendors, carts selling cold water and cold drinks, panwallahs, men and women selling sweet-scented jasmine gajras (garlands) to decorate a bride, wife, daughter or girlfriend’s hair, do brisk business at the fringe of the lawns.
For lovers of flowers ad beauty, the annual spring opening of the glorious, meticulously tended Mughal Gardens at the stately Rashtrapati Bhawan is a bonanza topped by an amazing assembly of roses in perfect bloom—perhaps the best in the whole of India. Flower shows organized on a regular basis provide an extra edge of inducement to malis (gardeners), plant nursery owners, and the lucky ones who possess a green thumb.
Rashtrapati Bhawan was once the imperial residence of the British viceroys. Built on the Raisina hills of Delhi ridge, this 340-roomed structure has an imposing character overlooking India Gate and Rajpath. It is now the official residence of the president of India.
Down on earth, there is the sight of Vigyan Bhawan that has hosted some of the most important international events and summits. There is the sense of history, intermingled with pride as you go past Parliament House, the curiosity as you glance at North and South Blocks—the decision-making, bureaucratic heart of India.
Birla Mandir, a Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu situated in the central Delhi, and Lotus Temple, a beautiful white marble building and a place of worship for Bahai’s, are two temples worth visiting for those in search of spiritual rejuvenation.
The Jantar Mantar, one of the many astronomical observatories constructed by Sawai Jai Singh of Jaipur, is situated in the center of the city near Connaught Place.
Through dark times of tragedy, throughout golden, heady periods of glory, since time immemorial, the eddying Yamuna has flowed past Delhi. Displaying different moods—sometimes a muted cadence or a gentle murmur, at others a gentle lapping of water, and in the monsoons, the fury of its swollen, wind blows on the bank—the Yamuna has remained indestructible.
Today, the river has changed course. But as you drive along Ring Road you can still glimpse the shimmer of the Yamuna as it flows past Delhi, and you realize with a start that this ageless river symbolizes the enduring soul of Delhi—enshrining the past, reflecting the present with all its contrasts and harmony, moving towards a tryst with the future. Delhi is the City of Destiny. In a very literal sense, Delhi—the capital of India, the city that history has made—is today still making history.
Business Development
Although the Business Development Office at Dalhousie medical school is only a few months old, it has already met its goal of forming 3 companies a year. Since last April, the office has helped 5 faculty members at the medical school turn biotechnology research in cancer diagnostics, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis treatment and pain management into commercial enterprises.
The office has also raised $2 million in seed money from venture capital corporations to kick start the companies - Liposome Pain Management, Nova Neuron and Onco-Dynamics. In about a year, each company will require an additional $2 million to $5 million in investment capital. "The growth is exponential," says Neil Ritchie, whose firm, BioMed Management, runs the Business Development Office for the school. "They have the potential to become significant companies."
Ritchie, who doubles as president of Nova Neuron, says his office earmarks research discoveries at the medical school that have commercial potential, helps the scientists form companies, finds investors and defines markets. The office also assists with basics, such as filing patents and drafting business plans. "Our objective is to try to create some infrastructure for building these companies," says Ritchie. He says that health and life-sciences businesses in the Maritimes have thus far amounted to little more than a cottage industry.
Ritchie's office has identified 30 of about 400 research projects at the medical school that have commercial possibilities. "About 10% of basic medical research projects have commercial potential. Of that, about 10% will form the basis of a company."
Ritchie says the medical school is not driven by a desire to reap profits from any companies founded by its faculty, although it may hold up to 10% ownership in some future ventures and intends to charge for the use of its facilities. "All of the intellectual property is owned by the scientist/entrepreneur. The school is interested more in the spin-off benefits of an enriched academic environment."
Have faculty been receptive to commercialization "Initially I had the impression that scientists would be resistant," Ritchie says. "But the reality is that they're starting to understand the importance of having commercial partners. We're seeing a new mindset emerging, and it's not a sellout at all. Scientists want to make a difference in people's lives."
The office has also raised $2 million in seed money from venture capital corporations to kick start the companies - Liposome Pain Management, Nova Neuron and Onco-Dynamics. In about a year, each company will require an additional $2 million to $5 million in investment capital. "The growth is exponential," says Neil Ritchie, whose firm, BioMed Management, runs the Business Development Office for the school. "They have the potential to become significant companies."
Ritchie, who doubles as president of Nova Neuron, says his office earmarks research discoveries at the medical school that have commercial potential, helps the scientists form companies, finds investors and defines markets. The office also assists with basics, such as filing patents and drafting business plans. "Our objective is to try to create some infrastructure for building these companies," says Ritchie. He says that health and life-sciences businesses in the Maritimes have thus far amounted to little more than a cottage industry.
Ritchie's office has identified 30 of about 400 research projects at the medical school that have commercial possibilities. "About 10% of basic medical research projects have commercial potential. Of that, about 10% will form the basis of a company."
Ritchie says the medical school is not driven by a desire to reap profits from any companies founded by its faculty, although it may hold up to 10% ownership in some future ventures and intends to charge for the use of its facilities. "All of the intellectual property is owned by the scientist/entrepreneur. The school is interested more in the spin-off benefits of an enriched academic environment."
Have faculty been receptive to commercialization "Initially I had the impression that scientists would be resistant," Ritchie says. "But the reality is that they're starting to understand the importance of having commercial partners. We're seeing a new mindset emerging, and it's not a sellout at all. Scientists want to make a difference in people's lives."
Resources for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities
If you have a disability and are considering starting your own business, contact the Office of Disability Employment Policy’s new Small Business Self-Employment Service (SBSES) for information. The SBSES World Wide Web site, includes links to other entrepreneurship sites, including the SBA and state vocational rehabilitation programs. It also provides information on a variety of other technical assistance resources for writing business plans, financing, and other issues specific to developing a small business.
Individual assistance is available at 800-526-7234 or 800-232-9675 (V/TTY).
Whether you are starting a new business or expanding an established business, the SBA has a variety of programs to assist you. Free one-on-one counseling is available locally to help entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of planning, financing, management, technology, government procurement, and other business related areas.
The SBA’s Answer Desk is a national toll-free telephone service which provides information to the public on small business problems and concerns. This service provides general information about SBA programs and other programs available to assist the small business community.
Business Information Assistants are available to speak directly with callers between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (East Coast Time) by calling the Answer Desk at 800-UASK-SBA (800-827-5722). Outside of these hours, callers may hear a recording of the information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Write to this service at: 200 North College Street, Suite A-2015,Charlotte, North Carolina, 28202 or send your questions via e-mail at
The Office of Disability Employment Policy has initiated a range of activities with other Federal agencies to ensure that Federal employment programs for people with disabilities will promote small business ownership as a career option, and that potential entrepreneurs with disabilities know about the process and resources for starting a business. Information on these programs can be obtained from the Office of Disability Employment Policy’s
Individual assistance is available at 800-526-7234 or 800-232-9675 (V/TTY).
Whether you are starting a new business or expanding an established business, the SBA has a variety of programs to assist you. Free one-on-one counseling is available locally to help entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs in the areas of planning, financing, management, technology, government procurement, and other business related areas.
The SBA’s Answer Desk is a national toll-free telephone service which provides information to the public on small business problems and concerns. This service provides general information about SBA programs and other programs available to assist the small business community.
Business Information Assistants are available to speak directly with callers between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (East Coast Time) by calling the Answer Desk at 800-UASK-SBA (800-827-5722). Outside of these hours, callers may hear a recording of the information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Write to this service at: 200 North College Street, Suite A-2015,Charlotte, North Carolina, 28202 or send your questions via e-mail at
The Office of Disability Employment Policy has initiated a range of activities with other Federal agencies to ensure that Federal employment programs for people with disabilities will promote small business ownership as a career option, and that potential entrepreneurs with disabilities know about the process and resources for starting a business. Information on these programs can be obtained from the Office of Disability Employment Policy’s
Important Considerations for Potential Entrepreneurs with Disabilities
Self-employment offers many benefits for people with disabilities:
• The freedom, flexibility and independence that come from working for oneself
• The opportunity to work in a disability-friendly environment
• The ability to reduce the need for transportation
• The ability to accommodate changing functional levels
• The ability to create an accessible work environment
• Individuals with disabilities who receive income support, such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability payments, can increase their income while staying within the income and asset requirements of those programs.
But anyone considering entrepreneurship must also be aware of the challenges involved in starting a business. There remains an array of obstacles ranging from attitudinal barriers to lack of coordination among Federal programs:
• The possible loss of cash benefits from SSDI or SSI disability programs
• The possible loss of health care benefits such as Medicare or Medicaid
• The inability to get credit because of poor credit ratings
• The lack of assets to use as collateral
• The lack of access to programs promoting self-employment and small business development
• Government disability programs that overlook entrepreneurship as an avenue from the public rolls to self-sufficiency.
The 1999 passage of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act addresses some, but not all, of these issues.
• The freedom, flexibility and independence that come from working for oneself
• The opportunity to work in a disability-friendly environment
• The ability to reduce the need for transportation
• The ability to accommodate changing functional levels
• The ability to create an accessible work environment
• Individuals with disabilities who receive income support, such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability payments, can increase their income while staying within the income and asset requirements of those programs.
But anyone considering entrepreneurship must also be aware of the challenges involved in starting a business. There remains an array of obstacles ranging from attitudinal barriers to lack of coordination among Federal programs:
• The possible loss of cash benefits from SSDI or SSI disability programs
• The possible loss of health care benefits such as Medicare or Medicaid
• The inability to get credit because of poor credit ratings
• The lack of assets to use as collateral
• The lack of access to programs promoting self-employment and small business development
• Government disability programs that overlook entrepreneurship as an avenue from the public rolls to self-sufficiency.
The 1999 passage of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act addresses some, but not all, of these issues.
Small Business in America
With more than one million new businesses each year, America’s economy depends on small businesses for its vitality and growth. According to the 1997 report of the U.S. Census Bureau, the nation’s 17 million small, non-farm businesses constituted 99.7 per cent of all employers, employed 52 percent of private workforce and accounted for 51 percent of the nation’s sales. Small business-dominated industries provided 11.1 million new jobs between 1994 and 1998, virtually all of the new jobs created during that time period. Small businesses are most likely to generate jobs for young workers, older workers and women, provide 67 percent of first jobs and produce 55 percent of innovations.
Thousands of people with disabilities have been successful as small business owners. The 1990 national census revealed that people with disabilities have a higher rate of self-employment and small business experience (12.2 percent) than people without disabilities (7.8 percent). The Disabled Businessman’s Association estimates that 40 percent of home-based businesses are operated by people with disabilities.
The University of Montana Research and Training Center on Rural Issues for People with Disabilities has documented that entrepreneurs with disabilities have successfully operated a wide variety of businesses: Accounting Services, Air Conditioner Repair Service, Auction Service, Auto Body Repair Shop, Bakery, Bicycle Shop, Boat Making Shop, Child Care Service, Chiropractic Practice, Contract Services, Counseling Service, Farming, Janitorial/Maintenance Service, Piano Refinishing Service, Real Estate Office, Restaurant, Free-lance Writing, Used Clothing Store, Weed Abatement Service and Welding Shop. The type of business that a person with a disability can operate is limited only by imagination.
Thousands of people with disabilities have been successful as small business owners. The 1990 national census revealed that people with disabilities have a higher rate of self-employment and small business experience (12.2 percent) than people without disabilities (7.8 percent). The Disabled Businessman’s Association estimates that 40 percent of home-based businesses are operated by people with disabilities.
The University of Montana Research and Training Center on Rural Issues for People with Disabilities has documented that entrepreneurs with disabilities have successfully operated a wide variety of businesses: Accounting Services, Air Conditioner Repair Service, Auction Service, Auto Body Repair Shop, Bakery, Bicycle Shop, Boat Making Shop, Child Care Service, Chiropractic Practice, Contract Services, Counseling Service, Farming, Janitorial/Maintenance Service, Piano Refinishing Service, Real Estate Office, Restaurant, Free-lance Writing, Used Clothing Store, Weed Abatement Service and Welding Shop. The type of business that a person with a disability can operate is limited only by imagination.
Small Business Characteristics
Although the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) establishes industry-specific definitions, it generally considers any business with fewer than 500 employees, including self-employed individuals, to be a small business. The Federal Reserve Board’s report, “National Survey of Small Business Finances (1995),” found that small businesses were home-based 53 percent of the time. Twenty-four percent of all new businesses in 1993 began with no outside financing. The remaining 76 percent received funding from traditional sources, such as banks, credit unions, and finance companies, or from family members or credit card advances.
Although many people believe that 80 percent of all small businesses fail within five years, statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal a different story. The Census Bureau reports that 76 percent of all small businesses operating in 1992 were still in business in 1996. In fact, only 17 percent of all small businesses that closed in 1997 were reported as
bankruptcies or other failures. The other terminations occurred because the business was sold or incorporated or when the owner retir
Although many people believe that 80 percent of all small businesses fail within five years, statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau reveal a different story. The Census Bureau reports that 76 percent of all small businesses operating in 1992 were still in business in 1996. In fact, only 17 percent of all small businesses that closed in 1997 were reported as
bankruptcies or other failures. The other terminations occurred because the business was sold or incorporated or when the owner retir
Trillion Dollar Bet
This Website accompanies the "Trillion Dollar Bet" episode of the popular PBS television series NOVA which aired on February 8, 2000. "Trillion Dollar Bet" explored the 1973 discovery of the Black-Scholes Formula, which allows one to determine the value of a call option at any given time. The formula "revolutionized modern finance...[and] led to the creation of a multi-trillion dollar industry." The creators of the formula, Myron Scholes, Robert Merton, and Fischer Black, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1997. The Website offers a pithy explanation of this complex formula, analysis of the world of online trading, and a "Traders' Lexicon." A resources section of nicely annotated links and a short recommended bibliography round out the site.
Breakeven Calculator
Professor Jose Antonio Rosa of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign introduces his Breakeven Calculator. Breakeven analysis, Professor Rosa explains, is "a means to calculate the volume of sales at which variable and fixed costs are recovered -- the point at which a product starts producing profits." Users enter variable unit cost, fixed cost, expected unit sales, and price per unit into the appropriate fields, and the calculator figures out general calculations and generates a full report. A helpful glossary is provided as is easy-to-understand analysis.
What's Next Online
What's Next Online is a free online newsletter which focuses on business marketing tips and discussion. Written and edited by B.L. Ochman, each issue contains several short articles about current issues in marketing as well as a list of annotated, notable links. Past issues are archived, and interested users may subscribe to the email version of the newsletter.
Superstar Investor
Superstar Investor is a straightforward, yet comprehensive, collection of over 11,000 investment-related links. Organized into several dozen catagories, including Day Trading, Picks & Trends, Stock Options, and International Indexes, as well as Top Market Commentary, Top Quote and Chart Sites, and Top Stock Pick Sites, Superstar Investor is a trustworthy resource for finding information about today's market.
Workforce Online
Workforce Online is a Webzine that focuses on human resource issues and concepts. The site includes weekly articles, daily tips, and advice, as well as networking opportunities, polls, and case studies. Free registration is required to use the research section, which features a database of HR-related materials, searchable by keyword and topic. The site also includes solid information on legal issues and analysis, basic HR information in the HR 101 section, and a community center of networks and forums on assorted topics. Interested parties may subscribe to a free e-newsletter with site updates and more.
Breakeven Calculator
Professor Jose Antonio Rosa of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign introduces his Breakeven Calculator. Breakeven analysis, Professor Rosa explains, is "a means to calculate the volume of sales at which variable and fixed costs are recovered -- the point at which a product starts producing profits." Users enter variable unit cost, fixed cost, expected unit sales, and price per unit into the appropriate fields, and the calculator figures out general calculations and generates a full report. A helpful glossary is provided as is easy-to-understand analysis.
What's Next Online
What's Next Online is a free online newsletter which focuses on business marketing tips and discussion. Written and edited by B.L. Ochman, each issue contains several short articles about current issues in marketing as well as a list of annotated, notable links. Past issues are archived, and interested users may subscribe to the email version of the newsletter.
Superstar Investor
Superstar Investor is a straightforward, yet comprehensive, collection of over 11,000 investment-related links. Organized into several dozen catagories, including Day Trading, Picks & Trends, Stock Options, and International Indexes, as well as Top Market Commentary, Top Quote and Chart Sites, and Top Stock Pick Sites, Superstar Investor is a trustworthy resource for finding information about today's market.
Workforce Online
Workforce Online is a Webzine that focuses on human resource issues and concepts. The site includes weekly articles, daily tips, and advice, as well as networking opportunities, polls, and case studies. Free registration is required to use the research section, which features a database of HR-related materials, searchable by keyword and topic. The site also includes solid information on legal issues and analysis, basic HR information in the HR 101 section, and a community center of networks and forums on assorted topics. Interested parties may subscribe to a free e-newsletter with site updates and more.
Understanding Dairy Markets
A joint project of the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research and the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Understanding Dairy Markets offers an in-depth guide to using dairy futures and options for price risk management. An extensive futures and options tutorial includes step-by-step instructions to understanding these two concepts, as well as definitions, explanations, a bibliography, and study questions. The Market Data section links to a variety of dairy market data including dairy consumption and productions, futures, stocks, and options; data is available in Excel and ascii formats. The site also contains daily dairy market news headlines, links, publications, and a frequently updated New Additions section.
mba101.com
Created by MBA students for MBA students, mba101 is a full-service portal designed to help Masters of Business Administration students get an edge on the competition by offering current and breaking information on the business world. Three main sections, Research, Business, and Fun, are all accessible from the main page. The site showcases a full spectrum of MBA culture from hard hitting research to fun IQ tests. mba101 also compiles a large collection of business-related news sources and information about and rankings of business schools. Note: The site is optimized for Internet Explorer, and other browsers may have display problems.
The Motley Fool's NOW 50 Index
Fool.com Quotes/Data
Launched on January 3, the Motley Fool's NOW 50 Index is intended to serve as a more relevant and realistic market index for the 21st century. The 50 companies included were selected from 288 nominated to the trustees, and they stand, according to the Motley Fool, "in the vanguard of the trends that will define commerce in the next decades." Users can read about the creation of the NOW 50 Index, a description of the methodology used to construct the Index, and details on all 50 companies. The NOW 50 Index daily numbers are listed on the right hand side of the page, but users can access more detailed information at the Fool.com main Quotes/Data page in the Indices section.
mba101.com
Created by MBA students for MBA students, mba101 is a full-service portal designed to help Masters of Business Administration students get an edge on the competition by offering current and breaking information on the business world. Three main sections, Research, Business, and Fun, are all accessible from the main page. The site showcases a full spectrum of MBA culture from hard hitting research to fun IQ tests. mba101 also compiles a large collection of business-related news sources and information about and rankings of business schools. Note: The site is optimized for Internet Explorer, and other browsers may have display problems.
The Motley Fool's NOW 50 Index
Fool.com Quotes/Data
Launched on January 3, the Motley Fool's NOW 50 Index is intended to serve as a more relevant and realistic market index for the 21st century. The 50 companies included were selected from 288 nominated to the trustees, and they stand, according to the Motley Fool, "in the vanguard of the trends that will define commerce in the next decades." Users can read about the creation of the NOW 50 Index, a description of the methodology used to construct the Index, and details on all 50 companies. The NOW 50 Index daily numbers are listed on the right hand side of the page, but users can access more detailed information at the Fool.com main Quotes/Data page in the Indices section.
How to reserch companies on the Internet
Joshua Blackman, editor of The Internet Lawyer newsletter, here reprints a guide from his new book The Internet Fact Finder for Lawyers. This index lists online resources that are useful in researching companies on the World Wide Web. Most of the Websites listed are thoughtfully annotated and are arranged into subjects including Phone Books, Public Company Starting Points, Annual Reports, and SEC Filings. This site should well serve those who are looking for the best places on the Internet to find more information on companies.
Eurolandia
Eurolandia, an "interactive journey to discover the euro," is a lively guide that teaches a basic understanding of the European Monetary Union (EMU) as well as delivering up-to-date news and resources about the euro and the EMU. Use the menus at the top and bottom of the screen to navigate through Eurolandia's vast collection of resources including News, Euro and Us, Games, and Staff Room, which includes courses and an event calendar. Eurolandia is an excellent resource for students who want a better understanding of the history and impact of the European Monetary Union. The site is also available in Italian.
International Baccalaureate Programme
biz/ed, a UK-based Website devoted to economics and business materials for the academic community has created this resource guide for international schools. The resources are divided into five sections: Resources and Markets, Business Economics, Macroeconomic Arguments, International Issues, and Development Economics. Each section includes a table of resources that can be found within biz/ed and another of links to other helpful Websites.
Eurolandia
Eurolandia, an "interactive journey to discover the euro," is a lively guide that teaches a basic understanding of the European Monetary Union (EMU) as well as delivering up-to-date news and resources about the euro and the EMU. Use the menus at the top and bottom of the screen to navigate through Eurolandia's vast collection of resources including News, Euro and Us, Games, and Staff Room, which includes courses and an event calendar. Eurolandia is an excellent resource for students who want a better understanding of the history and impact of the European Monetary Union. The site is also available in Italian.
International Baccalaureate Programme
biz/ed, a UK-based Website devoted to economics and business materials for the academic community has created this resource guide for international schools. The resources are divided into five sections: Resources and Markets, Business Economics, Macroeconomic Arguments, International Issues, and Development Economics. Each section includes a table of resources that can be found within biz/ed and another of links to other helpful Websites.
Business Process Outsourcing
BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] has been the latest mantra in India today. As the current sources of revenue face slower growth, software companies are trying new ways to increase their revenues. BPO is top on their list today. IT services companies are making a quick entry into the BPO space on the strength of their existing set of clients. We hope to address all issues related to BPO in India on this portal.
We will attempt to explain what it takes to setup a BPO facility in India. Actually, setting up a call center is capital intensive affair. An ordinary BPO center that takes care of pure back office operation [e.g. payroll, data entry etc.] will not be as expensive as a call center.
The philosophy behind BPO is specific, do what you do best and leave everything else to business process outsourcers. Companies are moving their non-core business processes to outsource providers. BPO saves precious management time and resources and allows focus while building upon core competencies. The list of functions being outsourced is getting longer by the day. Call centers apart, functions outsourced span purchasing and disbursement, order entry, billing and collection, human resources administration, cash and investment management, tax compliance, internal audit, pay roll...the list gets longer everyday. In view of the accounting scandals in 2002 [Enron, WorldCom, Xerox etc], more and more companies are keen on keeping their investors happy. Hence, it is important for them to increase their profits. BPO is one way of increasing their profits. If done well, BPO results in increasing shareholder value.
Typically, a customer calls the call center [usually a toll-free number]. After pressing numerous numbers [1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for bank balance!] the operator will answer your query by accessing the database. Call centers address sales support, airline/hotel reservations, technical queries, bank accounts, client services, receivables, tele-marketing, market research.
If a bank shifts work of a 1000 people from US to India it can save about $18 million a year due to lower costs in India. According to Mckinsey, giant US pharma firms can reduce the cost of developing a new drug, currently estimated at between $600 million and $900 million by as much as $200 million if development work is outsourced to India.
Outsourcing is not new - it has been a popular management tool for decade. One can safely say outsourcing has evolved :-
• 1960's - time-sharing
• 1970's - parts of IT operations
• 1980's - entire IT operations
• 1990's - alliances/tie-ups
• 2000's - IT-enabled services
India has one of the largest pool of low-cost English speaking scientific and technical talent. This makes India one of the obvious choice to outsource to. Dell, Sun Microsystems, LG, Ford, GE, Oracle all have announced plans to scale up their operations in India. Others like American Express, IBM and British Airways are leveraging the cost advantage India has to offer while setting up call centers. Several foreign airline and banks have too set up business process operations in India. Indian revenues from BPO are estimated to have grown 107 per cent to $ 583 million and this particular area employs 35,000 people in the year ending March 31, 2002.
Many European and US companies have realized that they should focus on their main business and outsource their Human Resource Department, accounting department etc. Bingo! it is here exactly India fits in! Today US corporations have embraced BPO wholeheartedly.
Managed Care Companies, which is more popularly known as Healthcare payers, are increasingly outsourcing business processes due to changing and challenging business environment and technological and legislative changes. There is a good opportunity for Indian BPO vendors in this space. BPO vendors will need to have good domain knowledge, process know-how and competence with technological solutions to cater to these Manage Care Companies.
We will attempt to explain what it takes to setup a BPO facility in India. Actually, setting up a call center is capital intensive affair. An ordinary BPO center that takes care of pure back office operation [e.g. payroll, data entry etc.] will not be as expensive as a call center.
The philosophy behind BPO is specific, do what you do best and leave everything else to business process outsourcers. Companies are moving their non-core business processes to outsource providers. BPO saves precious management time and resources and allows focus while building upon core competencies. The list of functions being outsourced is getting longer by the day. Call centers apart, functions outsourced span purchasing and disbursement, order entry, billing and collection, human resources administration, cash and investment management, tax compliance, internal audit, pay roll...the list gets longer everyday. In view of the accounting scandals in 2002 [Enron, WorldCom, Xerox etc], more and more companies are keen on keeping their investors happy. Hence, it is important for them to increase their profits. BPO is one way of increasing their profits. If done well, BPO results in increasing shareholder value.
Typically, a customer calls the call center [usually a toll-free number]. After pressing numerous numbers [1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for bank balance!] the operator will answer your query by accessing the database. Call centers address sales support, airline/hotel reservations, technical queries, bank accounts, client services, receivables, tele-marketing, market research.
If a bank shifts work of a 1000 people from US to India it can save about $18 million a year due to lower costs in India. According to Mckinsey, giant US pharma firms can reduce the cost of developing a new drug, currently estimated at between $600 million and $900 million by as much as $200 million if development work is outsourced to India.
Outsourcing is not new - it has been a popular management tool for decade. One can safely say outsourcing has evolved :-
• 1960's - time-sharing
• 1970's - parts of IT operations
• 1980's - entire IT operations
• 1990's - alliances/tie-ups
• 2000's - IT-enabled services
India has one of the largest pool of low-cost English speaking scientific and technical talent. This makes India one of the obvious choice to outsource to. Dell, Sun Microsystems, LG, Ford, GE, Oracle all have announced plans to scale up their operations in India. Others like American Express, IBM and British Airways are leveraging the cost advantage India has to offer while setting up call centers. Several foreign airline and banks have too set up business process operations in India. Indian revenues from BPO are estimated to have grown 107 per cent to $ 583 million and this particular area employs 35,000 people in the year ending March 31, 2002.
Many European and US companies have realized that they should focus on their main business and outsource their Human Resource Department, accounting department etc. Bingo! it is here exactly India fits in! Today US corporations have embraced BPO wholeheartedly.
Managed Care Companies, which is more popularly known as Healthcare payers, are increasingly outsourcing business processes due to changing and challenging business environment and technological and legislative changes. There is a good opportunity for Indian BPO vendors in this space. BPO vendors will need to have good domain knowledge, process know-how and competence with technological solutions to cater to these Manage Care Companies.
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