Before You Start ...

Before you read any more of the guide - and assuming you are still sitting at your computer - I'd like you to send off 2 emails.

Each of these will bring you a different free training course that is relevant to building your Practical DotCom Business. They will be delivered to you over the next few days, and I'll be referring to them from time to time in the guide.

To get each course, simply send a blank email (it doesn't matter if it has a subject or not) to each of the addresses below:

twmspracticalselling@sitesell.net

This will get you a NetWriting course. Using words on-line to become an effective e-persuader. The words you use are fundamental to the success of your Practical DotCom Business.

tamspracticalselling@sitesell.net

This will get you an Affiliate course. Lots of great advice on creating "single subject" web sites as the basis of affiliate-driven e-commerce that is complimentary to the advice in this guide. Don't worry if you haven't come across the term "affiliate" yet - all will soon be clear ...

This course has been recently revised and expanded to make it even more relevant and "in tune" with this manual - I can't over-emphasise it's usefulness.

Organisation

As you work through this guide, and set up your first Practical DotCom Business, you will be visiting several new sites and signing up for various services. Many of these are going to be re-visited many times, and you will be sending and receiving a good deal of email related to this.

I suggest you think of your Practical DotCom Business as a "project" from now on and give it a short, memorable, and meaningful name.

Create a folder on your hard disk with that name - and make sure you keep all files relating to your PDCB in there. Within that folder, create a sub-folder called "www" or something - and in there only keep the files that make up your on-line site.

In your browser, create a heading within your "favorites" menu for the project, and make sure you always bookmark sites into that heading.

Decide on a user name and password that you will use for this project whenever you are asked to set one up - if it's the same for all your PDCB sites then you should never forget it, or need to write it down anywhere!

If your internet service provider and email software allow it - create an email address with the project name. Depending on your software, you should be able to keep project emails together in one place, either automatically or manually.

All of these steps will significantly streamline the time you spend on your project - and allow you to get back up to speed quickly even if you're away from it for a few days at a time.

Newbie Tip

When you are working between multiple sites - getting a link from one site to insert into your own site for example, you can have more than one browser window open (usually File - New on the menu).

As well as being quicker than closing down one site to move to another, this can be more efficient for dial-up connections as you can work in one window while a page is downloading into the other.

In Windows, holding down the ALT key and pressing the TAB key rotates through the different windows you have open.

But I Don't Even Know How To ...

If you are a complete newcomer to computers and/or the internet - or you think you won't be able to cope with the technology and/or the terminology in this guide ...

Don't Worry!

Firstly, I'll try not to get too technical and there are "Newbie Tips" (like the one above) identified throughout the guide.

Secondly - no matter how much of a "newbie" you are, help is at hand!

The Newbie Club has been specifically created to bust the mystery surrounding using computers and the internet. Free newsletters, tutorials, articles - and a really light-hearted approach to learning - will get you up to speed in no time at all.

They've even started to include on-screen videos that show you oh-so-clearly how to do things.

So if you want to brush up on those basic skills before going any further, click along to the Newbie Club

If you really want to focus on content, and have all the technicalities of page creation, domain registration, search engine submission, link tracking, etcetera, etcetera taken care of for you - but you can't afford to hire a brilliant webmaster - you should look at Site Build It! (SBI).

SBI really does give anyone the ability to create a great subject focussed web site that can generate an income.