When you look at blogs hosted at Blogger such as my Women's Retreat Ideas blog, you might wonder how people get those little social bookmarking icons to show up at the bottom of each post.

It's actually really easy to do, and the video below shows you how. There are two things that might be a bit confusing about the video, though:

1) he says "if you are in Firefox, just do this". But if you're not in Firefox (e.g. you are in Internet Explorer) then what you need to do is scan through your template code to find the place that he is talking about.

2) when he pastes in the code that makes the little icons, he says "you can find this in the forum". If you don't know what forum he is talking about that can be confusing. At the bottom of this post I give the code you will need.

Would you like to have a home based business working with pets? Danielle Chonody from Working With Pets is offering a free ebook specifically geared to helping you start and grow a pet care career or business.

You can click here to get the free ebook and you don't even have to give your email address.

The ebook provides descriptions of 20 different types of pet businesses and their respective day to day activities.

The types of pet businesses covered include the ones you can probably think of - like Pet Boarder and Doggie Day Care - but also some more unusual ones such as Pet Safari Driver, Pet Masseuse and Dog Bakery.

Two weeks ago I spent a lovely afternoon at the upscale arts and crafts Filberg Festival in Courtenay, BC. Among the many talented artisans displaying their work, one display in particular caught my eye. Appropriately nestled under the drooping branches of a big cedar tree was a quiet display of gorgeous wood jewellery.

Tahirih and Gabriel Solomon design and craft unique jewellery made from wood – hence their business name “Solomon Woodworks”. They started their business in 2003 because they both wanted to work on something that they really enjoyed, have a flexible schedule, and also work together.

On their website they describe the inspiration for their business:

We live on Galiano Island, a lush rock along the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. We work full-time making our jewellery, supplementing with the odd carpentry job.

Solomon Woodworks started when Gabriel was working with some exotic hardwoods that a friend had left in the shop. We were going to a party and I didn't have any jewellery to wear, so he said "Give me a minute!" He was back in few hours with a pair of earrings he'd made!

I loved their elegant shape and was amazed at the woods naturally vibrant colour. Realizing this was a chance to create and exhibit the beauty of wood for everyone to enjoy, we embarked upon an exciting journey of discovering and enjoying the art of fine woodworking.

Prior to starting their home-based business, Gabriel worked as an apprentice carpenter and Tahirih managed her family's health food store and café on Galiano Island. Now they work on their jewellery business nearly full-time (on and off, depending how busy galleries and festivals are). The rest of their income is from Gabriel taking on carpentry jobs, and Tahirih being his carpentry helper. Tahirih also does a few

I'm finding that my how to write a bio niche is spinning off into some nice new related ventures. In addition to the related site Executive Bio Templates
, I've started a new blog called How to Write a Totally Awesome MySpace About Me page. I'll be writing more later about the research I undertook to start this new blog, the business case for it, and how it will (hopefully) make me passive revenue.

And for something completely different, check out my other new blog called Women's Retreat Ideas (a long-time interest of mine) and Edible Creations (another hobby).

My goal in talking about these seemingly unrelated sites here at HomeBusinessWiz is to share with you what I've learned about using Internet marketing techniques for niche markets. Stay tuned!

p.s. lesson 1: as soon as you establish your new blog or website, get it mentioned (linked) on an existing site with a high page rank. That's what I've achieved by posting links here (HomeBusinessWiz currently has a Google Page Rank 5, which is very strong). Another quick way to get links is by participating in blog carnivals.

This simple video is the best explanation of what RSS is and why you might want to use it that I've seen to date.

Has this ever happened to you: you're running a webinar meeting and your voice "'hiccups" or cuts out at times. You notice it's especially bad when you are uploading (sharing) a new screen, image or slide with the people attending your Webinar.

Usually the source of the problem is that you have phoned in to your webinar using a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) service such as Skype or Vonage.

Here's why it happens

The way VOIP works is that image uploads take priority over voice. So if the image is, say 500kb and you have a 256kb line, for about 2 to 4 seconds, there will be hiccups in your voice as packets of your voice are sent at the same time as packets of your new screen image. The problem is especially bad if the material uses flash or shockwave -- as they take considerable upload bandwidth.

The attendees will get the image normally (depending on their line speed) and hear your voice with some slight breaks in the sound. With a high speed line, the breaks are almost (or completely) unnoticeable. With a low speed line the breaks become very apparent.

The solution?

Phone in to your webinar using a landline. Or do some testing to see if one particular VOIP works better for you than another. You could try uploading some images while connected to some of the various VOIP services with a friend or two (doesn't make a difference how many people) and see what works best for you.

Have you ever checked YouTube for home business building videos? Granted there's a lot of junk, but there are also some gems. One that I like is GopherHaul. It's a show for lawn care operators and small business owners. Here's a sample episode with a good tutorial on how to make an effective lawn care business flyer.

GetAHelpdesk.com is an Online HelpDesk for Customer Support Service. They have a free option, which allows you up to 10 support tickets a month.

Here's how it works

After setting up your account, you'll be able to put an online support button on your site. Your customers click the button and then open support tickets. This is all done online so there is no emailing required.

The button at left shows what your customers see on your site (note: this is a sample button only).

The first time customers click the button, they are taken to a simple registration page. On subsequent visits they just log in, choose your website name from a drop-down list and then type their question to you.

Why would you want a Helpdesk system?

Not only does a Helpdesk system help you track customer enquiries all in one place, it solves the problem of emails getting blocked by filters. With a system like GetAHelpdesk.com there is no longer a need for customer support email communication, although you can still include email as an additional option.

If your website is big you can upgrade to one of the paid service plans, which range from $19.95 to 59.95 a month, depending on the number of support tickets you have.

What are Google ads?

Google ads are those little "clickable" links that you see on many websites above, below and beside the articles. For example, if you look towards the top of this page, you'll see a horizontal line of text links. Reading from the left, it says "Ads by Google" and then has a number of text links that you can click on. Those ads are placed there by Google, with my permission.

What's the difference between Adsense and Adwords?

Adsense is what Google calls their program where website owners (called "publishers") sign up to allow Google to place ads on their webpages.

Adwords is what Google calls their program where advertisers pay to have Google place ads on other people's webpages.

So the ads on this page are Adsense ads for me (I get paid each time someone clicks on one of those ads) and Adwords ads for the advertiser (who pays a fee each time someone clicks on one of those ads).

I've been doing some research to find reliable sources for SEM (Search Engine Marketing) information. The conclusion I've come to is that forums and blogs are the best source because virtually all books on the subject become quickly outdated.

My two favorite sources of SEM information are the HighRankings Forum and the Cre8asite Forums. At both these sites you can post a question and receive an answer, usually within a few hours.

Tip: when you post your question, check the little box that says "Notify me of replies to this post". That way you will get an email notification when someone has answered your question (instead of having to check back to see).

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.