My Favorite Online Resources for Starting A Gift Basket Business or Any Business

Helen Hecker - My Favorites!

What I ACTUALLY love and USE every day!

If you're planning to go online (and you should soon!) these are some of my best resources for starting a gift basket business, home-based or small business.  I can save you a lot of time, energy and money! Of course I wish I knew what I know now when I first started! I spent hundreds of hours, researching.  There are many choices.  There isn't any one place to go where you can get all the answers you need.  Below are some of the Internet resources for starting a gift basket business I found that'll save you a lot of time and money!

Resources for Gift Basket Businesses 

Ebook On Writing Ebooks! - For Your Ebooks

This ebook is offered so CHEAP, you can't afford NOT to get it!  It'll get you writing in the right way fast! I know! I sat down and wrote a quick ebook after one read through of this ebook! If you're going to write an ebook you'll want to know exactly how to do it by learning from the Internet's foremost expert on ebooks.  I've read several ebooks about writing ebooks and this is by far the best.  Great bonuses too!  Jim makes it very simple and has a great formula for writing.  He says "If you can write a letter you can write an ebook."  One of the best tips that worked so well for me -- when you sit down to write, don't stop to edit.  Just keep going until you reach the end.  Then when you have all your thoughts down in hopefully an orderly process, then go back and edit. This really worked for me.  I had a habit of going back and correcting the  spelling every few minutes or so, often losing my train of thought. Keep the TRAIN going until you're done!  You can go back and fill in more thoughts, ideas and facts when you're done. Jim is full of great tips like this. Most I've never read about or heard of before.  Lots on how to market your ebook also. Ebooks can range in length from 25 pages and up.  Everyone has experience to draw on.   I've written several ebooks and I've been putting each one up on it's own 'content' minisite. (I've also written and published many trade books through my publishing company.)  You can use one of Yanik's sales letter templates down below as the minisite or main page on it's own content site, with a thank you page, OR write your own sales letter--  but for the first time or two I  recommend the templates.  There is a true art to writing sales letters.  A bad one won't sell any books!  For more information: 

Click Here For Best Ebook On Writing Ebooks!

Best Website Builder!

This is by far the best and not well known YET-- a sleeper but the word is slowly getting out!  Not only is it HALF the price of Frontpage and Dreamweaver-- it is EASY, EASY, EASY to use!  I've put up several websites NOW ands putting up more and I have NO website building experience!  It has built-in features for adding AdSense and affiliate marketing ads, etc.-- You'd never find these in the other two programs. I did not want to suffer through those programs.  I read so many bad reviews-- how hard they were to use etc.  This is the best way to get your website(s) up.  After researching html editors (don't need it!) and text editors (don't need it!) and web building programs like Frontpage and Dreamweaver (don't need them!)  I found the best of them all.  Again-- It's so easy to use! And I'm not a computer 'techie' by any means. I heard so many people complain, and read so many bad reviews, about Frontpage and Dreamweaver (both expensive) that flatly stated both programs weren't easy.  With this program you don't need to write any html code and the interface is so simple to use. It has so many great features that help with links, Google AdSense and affiliate marketing too.  Everyone I know who is using it raves about it too! You can see my full review at: 

Click here: Best Website Builder

For more information Click Here!:

Best Website Builder! 

Best Web Host!

You'll need a Web host.  I spent a week, honestly, reviewing hundreds of Web hosts.  Who would believe there are so many?  I read dozens of reviews -web hosts offering a thousand different packages. It seemed odd that each reviewer picked web hosts to review that other reviewers didn't mention-- but likely because there are so many.  I eliminated all that had any significant bad reviews or customer complaints.  After carefully reviewing them all I finally settled on what appeared to be the best and IS! They have a generous amount of bandwidth 1Tb ,and 20 GB of storage and unlimited email addresses-- you'll want this-- once you get your email addresses (you'll be using different ones for support, info, etc.) spammed and have to change you'll be glad you have an unlimited supply.  The have outstanding support-- fast. I have quite a few sites and they help with everything-- extras like setting up a blog. They've been in business for nine years too and are really inexpensive. If possible sign up for a year at a time. Their monthly fee is $7.95  which is cheap  and very competitive. They offer to their customers a discount for those who sign up that they refer.  You can get a referral fee and you decide on how much discount to give-- up to $97 for the basic plan.  So one can make $97 for the referral.  Instead I am giving the whole discount back to you.  So when you sign up UNDER MY CODE  name TwinPeaksPress, they will automatically deduct $97  from your bill! Should be around $26 for the WHOLE YEAR that way. No fooling.  I guess they do it to get new customers they hope will stay for a few years.  When I signed up I got this discount also and my first YEAR was something like $25.!  I think I get something like $5 referral applied to my future renewal for a second tier. Not really interested in that but you would be able to get it for your referrals.  To get the $97 discount, when you sign up use TwinPeaksPress exactly with the caps in the promo code box.  Important to remember-- you want to pick a good web host in the beginning ---it isn't easy to change hosts! I've  found the support to be excellent!! And I don't have to worry about running out of bandwidth, etc.  You'll need the email addresses for your sites(s). You'll get plenty of everything with the smallest package! The best  thing to do, of course, is compare them to a lot of other hosts BEFORE you sign up for your own peace of mind.  If you don't have time then take my word for it! More info:

Click Here For Best Web Host!

Best Autoresponder!

If you plan to have a newsletter, announcements list or freebies that come from another location, you'll want an auto responder service. Get the one I have-- they're the best!  They've been around a long time and they are easy to use.  They manage my email lists and send out my newsletters and announcements, etc.  It's easy to use their web form to put a subscribe box or sign-up button on your site. They keep a database for you with your newsletter subscribers. You can have as many lists as you want.  I have several.  They send web form responses to people who sign-up (opt-in), with a series of follow-ups  and send out your newsletters etc.  This quality company has been in business for a long time and are very professional.   They have an easy toll-free line for support too which is unusual, and which I've used with very little waiting and sometimes no waiting!  The top dogs in Internet marketing all use them.  They're the best. My choice too! For more information:

Click Here For Best Autoresponder!

Best Sales Letter Templates You Can Use For A Mini-Website! 

These are great templates for every sales letter imaginable.  You can use them for putting up a minisite for an ebook too. You just use the pre-made template and type in the words  that apply to your product.  Saves many hours of work trying to figure out how to sell a product, what to do or focus on.  It's really all done for you.  Copywriters charge hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars to write sales letters.  You don't need it with these templates. It also includes templates for every kind of letter imaginable.  Really a must for any business when you want to save time and are not the best copywriter!  Especially good for newbies! More info here:

Click Here For Best Sales Letter Templates!

 Best Affiliate Marketing Handbook!

My favorite ebook on affiliate marketing has great detailed resources - for example, a complete listing of all the affiliate networks you can sign up for--  drawbacks and recommendations on which to sign up for and which to avoid.  It's loaded with tons of personal tips that I immediately put into play.  The author made more then $436,000 in the first year as a newbie!! I refer to it almost daily and have used it many times over. I keep this handy. More info:  Click Here!

 Best Article Marketing Service!

I love this service!  Get this service like I did!  Don't get labor-intensive article submitting software that submits articles.  It can take a couple of hours or more to set up each time, can tie up your line and doesn't humanly review your article for errors!. You won't have as many article directories to submit to.  Getting this article service is like getting a few FREE employees.  No kidding!  I signed up for lifetime service and rely on my articles to back link to my sites and to raise my page ranking and to bring tons of traffic to my sites.  If you have a website up you want to write short articles and submit them through this service.  Other services charge a ton to send just a few articles.(I can't believe they are still in business--  ten times more expensive.)  I can't believe how easy it is.  I've submitted dozens of articles to thousands of people via hundreds of article directories and countless other blogs, ezines, forums, announcement lists, etc., in literally minutes.  I just copy and paste in my text, choose categories and answer a couple of questions.  I can send an article in for distribution in about 5 minutes!  The time and money Article Marketer  saves me is priceless!  Again forget the article submitting software.  That is too much work for you! Ties up your phone lines, laborious inputting to each directory-- no no!  I compared them all!  This is like hiring someone to do the work for you! You can get a lifetime subscription, like I did, NOW for a low price-- they are raising prices soon they tell us. You can sign up for a free limited release trial too but get the  quarterly, annual or lifetime subscription.  Don't fool around.  You want to get out to their TOTAL number of article directories not just a limited amount. If you're selling anything online, you must write articles  -- and use this service!  Nothing else even comes close in ease of use and cost!  For more info click the banner:

I Add Resources -- for Gift Basket Businesses, Home Based or Small Businesses Regularly  --                

There you have it.  Just some of my favorites.  I'll be constantly updating this page as time goes by as I come across more helpful resources that I use and can personally recommend.  Make sure to sign up for my newsletter "Helen Hecker's Biz Hotline"  to keep up-to-date on what I find. Get my favorite  meaty ebook---FREE " The eBay Seller's guide" too!

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