Kim Hughes (www.kimhughes.com) a Real Estate Virtual Assistant has recently been accused of scamming business owners. There’s a lot more detail about this virtual assistant scam over at watshit.com scam reports, but this caught our attention for several reasons.

This is not good news for the Online Real Estate Virtual Assistant community, because up until now they have held a clean record as being honest hard working individuals/companies. Never have we heard of such complaint.

How do you tell if someone is planning on scamming you? How do you tell if someone is a well known scammer? Easy, you run a search, ask for signed contracts and always remember to grab as much information from the service providers in case you need to sue their asses.

A simple search like Kim Hughes Scam now returns the warning sign results.

Be careful who you do business with!

Amanda is one of the few people I respect as an armature SEO. She really does think outside the box. It all started when a friend came and talked to me about giving him a hand in ranking high for a keyword, related to some seocontest2008 contest. Prize for ranking first (if all the rules were followed) would be $1,000. With a prize as small as that you would be right in thinking, what a waste of time, but for some, it’s all about Ego.

Anyway Amanda has been experimenting for the past year or so and she overheard me talking about helping this friend out. Next thing I know, she enters the contest with a unique blog post already late in the game, long after several hundred people had started over 2-3weeks before her. It was her unique post, and some of her enginuity that has now got her ranking higher than that friend that first asked for my help, having started weeks after him, she has skyrocketed from not being indexed, to ranking on the fifth page for that keyword, with only 1 real backlink to her site.

So Amanda, congrats, and show those link buying, spamming fools that it’s really not about all that, it’s about what the rest don’t really know ;)

Free Templates these days are not at all hard to come by, but they suck really bad. Those that are worth buying are over priced and usually flash based with annoying splash pages and bad navigation, found mainly over at . Now the Web Templates there will cost you anywhere around $50 for a simple html template with absolutely no life or personality, to $200 for an equaly distasteful unoriginal design, keep in mind this very same template your paying for could have been downloaded hundreds of times before. Now, you could pay for the Unique template and become the soul owner of it (if no one has purchased it before) for usually $1500+ but you’re still not getting a unique custom designed template to fit your needs, but if you’re alright with that then go for it

I don’t like ready made templates, I don’t have anything against them, they do the job when you’re in need of something to slap content in and move on, but to run your business off a template that litters the internet, and is as unique as a yellow cab in NYC is not a smart move.

My point is, get a custom template, they cost a lot less than those templates over at TM and at the end of the day, you’re getting something your mind creates, for your business, something that does no exist anywhere else. Not to mention that if every template sold over at is available for free. Yes, absolute free, shocking isn’t it? Here are a few templates I picked out to share with you, feel free to download them.

I have about 40 comments for the previouse two blogs to moderate and I really can’t be botherd as most consist of several links to the said posters website, so I will start fresh. Sorry to those who were contructive in their comments. From here on in, any comment with more than 1 link will be disregarded, and I shall try to accept the comments on a daily bases.

If you want a free TM template just comment and add it’s number, if I have time I’ll get you it.

Remember, creative, unique websites are the answer, but, it never hurts to use a ready made one every now and again, just don’t pay a silly price for it - Michael Kane 

I was asked by a client, who owns an amazing domain name, what she should do with it. My answer, “Start an online business.” I think that confused her because of the way she cringed her face and looked at me, “What online business?” she replied 30 seconds later. The story went on for 2 hours before she decided to sell her domain name for some profit, but that’s not the point of this blog post.

When you decided to start your own online business, it’s really important to decide on something you excel in, or at least are passionate about in some way. For example, a mother, may decided to start an online business selling something she’s good at making, like baskets or scarfs and so on, better off doing that than hiring some one to help you set up say, an online hosting company, or online directory (the stupid craze these days) and driving you into the ground.

Don’t take other peoples opinions either, not with much weight anyway, just do something you know most about, make a list, then search online and see who your competitors would be, don’t go starting an online software company and expect to make a living by head butting Microsoft and other tycoons, that will never work out for you.

Why don’t you start a p2p site, sell advertising and channel all the money to zurich, get caught and go to prison, by the time you’re out the interest alone will net you a nice nest egg right? you can spend all your time watching shows you missed (Take this advice at your own risk, I may not, in any way shape or form be held responsible for your stupid actions)

Anyway, at the end of the day, a simple site, with a good eye catching design, yes, a good design is required however small your business is, an idea you feel passionate about or have knowledge in, and a lot of patience is all you need to start off on the right foot.

Making it a success is a whole different story! - Michael Kane