David Mercer's blog

Coming up with a great small business idea that is free (or very low cost), and easy to start from home, is the first step to making money - but you have to think outside the box.

The Internet is well suited to starting a business out of a home office (or garage), and, fortunately, it no longer takes much money or time to start a website.

But, if your spidey senses are tingling because you don't know much about online business, don't panic. This is 2013, and reliable, super cheap (or completely free) website builders and Web hosts are everywhere.

It's one thing to start a blog with WordPress, but that doesn't mean it's going to have the best theme, the best content, or the best performance - like the top bloggers around.

But, you don't have to be a world famous blogger in order to create the best blog - all it takes is the right tools and services.

This article lists the best WordPress themes, hosting and other software to help you create a professional blog that drives a truckload of Web traffic, and makes money.

Cheap (almost free) Web hosting that guarantees 99.9% up-time, offers 24-hour support, provides free domain registration, and includes free advertising is now available from Yahoo!

While Yahoo! Web hosting for small business isn't quite free, you definitely get far more Web hosting value than the $2.27 (subject to conditions) per month price tag would suggest.

This article looks at Yahoo's Web hosting plans and compares them to other leading domain registrars and Web hosting companies, to help you choose the right Web host for your blog, business, or startup.

"Want some really great small business ideas (in particular, local or home business ideas) that will help earn money online in 2013?"

Anyone can start their own small business from home these days because it is relatively inexpensive to create a professional website or eCommerce store, and doesn't require any Web experience.

Provided you are prepared to invest a bit of time and effort to set up a great website in order to implement your business idea, there is no reason you can start making money pretty quickly.

Creating a business plan for a new online business (like a blog, professional site, or eCommerce store) requires decent market analysis into the market size, niche, and target audience.

Unlike traditional businesses, online businesses have some great market research tools available free of charge (useful for traditional businesses too), in the form of the Google AdWords keyword tool, and Google Trends.

Google's keyword tool can tell you a lot about the size of a market globally, within a country, and how much traffic given search phrases may generate.

Starting a small or home business with a great business plan is especially important for online startups (like blogs, professional sites & online stores).

This free business plan template provides plenty of useful and practical resources to help you find the information you need quickly and easily.

A great business plan can help you learn how to start a business online, while avoiding some of the most common pitfalls that prevent many aspiring entrepreneurs from making sustainable profits.

A lot of people are looking for work at home jobs or home business ideas in order to make money online, on the side, or in their spare time - in order to make ends meet.

In fact, the current economic recession/depression has led to some startling changes in the way Americans look at how they make money.

According to search data from Google Trends, entrepreneurs in the U.S have switched from looking to start home based or small businesses, and are now focusing on find work from home opportunities instead.

Restoring Web traffic volumes after a Google algorithmic penalty (especially one like Panda or Penguin) can be a very difficult and, often, fruitless task - without any guarantees.

In fact, many websites that find themselves penalized by Panda end up never recovering their original traffic levels and page rankings - and may, if their revenue streams are not sufficiently diversified, go out of business as a result.

Efforts at improving your website's content, link profile, performance, SEO and any other search related issues you can think of, may or may not result in a recovery of page rankings and organic search traffic.

Inset text can make your Web design look beautiful, and while it is cutting edge, it's also super easy for beginners to implement using CSS and a bit of HTML.

Creating text with subtle shadows and shading, that gives the impression of depth, is a widely used Web design technique on many leading blogs and websites.

You can even see it in action in the WSM4B site name - and best of all, it uses lightweight, clean CSS instead of clunky, slow images.

Everyone creating a website, regardless of whether it is a blog, small business site, or shopping cart, should keep Google and SEO in mind right from the start.

Almost every aspect of building a site from choosing a domain, Web hosting company, website builder or CMS, Web design, through to page layout and color scheme, can affect the way Google ranks a site.

While it is never good policy to rely only on organic search traffic from Google, the fact remains that it is one of the largest (if not the largest) sources of traffic on the Web.