In this time of recession, ABC is taking a moment to try and raise ratings with the celebrity studded Un-Broke, to air tonight at 9 pm Eastern. It’s supposed be funny, yet educational. I’ll be tweeting about it (@MMarquit).

Anyway, the E*Trade commercial promoting the event is funny.

Happy Friday!

Many people find that they can start a nonprofit organization from home, and do a little good in world, as well as bring in a little to help offset expenses. However, it is important to remember that in such cases you are still required to pay some taxes, as Investopedia points out:

While the income of a nonprofit organization may not be subject to federal taxes, nonprofit organizations do pay employee taxes (Social Security and Medicare) just like any for-profit company.

Your organization will not have to pay income taxes (unless you actually make a profit — it’s called a nonprofit for a reason), but there are other obligations you will have to oversee. Before you decide to start a nonprofit organization from home, it is a good idea to consult with a knowledgeable accountant or tax professional, and visit the IRS Web site.

Even though there is a recession on, there is no reason not to improve your marketing efforts. And the good news is that you do not have to spend a great deal of money to market your home business a little bit better. Small Biz Bee offers some great suggestions for improving your marketing — even during tough economic times:

1. Improve your customer service.

2. Say “thank you” to existing customers.

3. Go and connect with old customers.

4. Set up a blog. If you have a blog, keep track of traffic with Google Analytics (it’s free). Find ways to tweak your traffic using social media or by promoting your content in other ways.

5. Google yourself, and then go where people are talking about you to make connections.

While these items don’t usually require an outlay of cash, they might take time. So carefully consider your next step, and figure out what you can do to encourage continued customer support, and build your online presence. You will need to invest some time in it, even if you do not invest any money.

Over at Man Vs. Debt, I read a great account from a guest poster (John Frainee at Plain Cents) about starting a home business. He points out that the Internet has made it possible to start a home business fairly easily. And I have to say I agree. Without the Internet, I would probably be working 9-5 in some office somewhere, instead of working from home and spending more time with my son.

In addition to providing helpful insights into how working from home can be accomplished, Frainee offers some very important lessons. Here are the 3 lessons he says are essential if you want a successful home business:

1. Do not try to sell a product you do not understand.

2. Keep a schedule.

3. Do not expect an immediate profit.

All of these are bits of advice I can agree with. It is improtant to sell what you know, so that you can do a competent and professional job. A schedule can improve productivity. It’s nice that a home business schedule has a certain amount of flexibility, but overall it’s a good idea to stick to the same general schedule. And, finally, it is important for your morale that you have reasonable expectations as to earnings and profits. It can take some time for things to pick up. I spent two years building my portfolio before I started getting solid writing gigs that I felt were truly worth the time and effort.

If you can persist, chances are that your home business will thrive. But you have to be willing to work hard and put in solid effort.

Today is the observation of Memorial Day. It is a time for remembering, and a time for gratitude. I will be taking this time to visit graves of family members and talking to my son about sacrifice and the respect we should have for those who give themselves to help protect us.

What are you doing for Memorial Day?

I don’t recommend freecreditreport.com. In order to get your “free” credit report, you have to sign up for a monthly service. Instead, I suggest annualcreditreport.com, which is truly free for a report from each of the bureaus once a year. And I suggest that you just buy your report after that. It’s not terribly expensive.

At any rate, enjoy the video, and have a Happy Friday!

Back in February, the economic stimulus bill included provisions for the Small Business Administration (SBA) to offer loans to…small businesses. However, as is usual with such ventures, the devil has been in the details. CNN Money reports on the SBA funding for small business:

The SBA has been working since then to pull together guidance for the new program, which will back short-term loans of up to $35,000 that business owners can use to temporarily cover their payments on existing debt. No repayment on the ARC loans will be due for 12 months, and owners will have up to five years to repay them.

The good news, though, is that the SBA plans to be ready to release guidance next month, on Jun 8. The SBA feels it will be ready to accept loan packages by June 15. If you have a small business, and would like help covering your payments, you will actually have to approach your lender. The SBA will guarantee these special loans, called ARC loans, 100%.

One of the big bits of financial news today is the fact that the Senate has approved new credit card rules designed to protect consumers. However, even though consumer protection will likely increase (the House is expected to approve the bill with very little effort), there will be some consequences for those with a home business.

For the most part, requiring increased consumer protection means that the credit card companies will make less money. They will likely try to shift their focus to higher-end clients as a result. And, of course, the credit card industry is likely to want to exact revenge. This means that some home business owners may find it more difficult to get a credit card.

Credit card companies have already been restricting credit and reducing rewards. While the reforms may protect consumers a bit better, it will also likely have the consequence of making credit harder to get in general.

How do you think the new credit card reforms will impact your home business?

I saw an article on ProBlogger today that really caught my attention. The article pointed out some of the more interesting findings of a study from Eyetrack III. Here are the points that ProBlogger singled out from the findings:

1. “Dominant headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page”
2. “Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior…. larger type promotes lighter scanning”
3. “a headline has less than a second of a site visitor’s attention”
4. “For headlines — especially longer ones — it would appear that the first couple of words need to be real attention-grabbers”
5. “Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best”
6. “Shorter paragraphs performed better in Eyetrack III research than longer ones.”
7. “We found that ads in the top and left portions of a homepage received the most eye fixations”
8. “Size matters. Bigger ads had a better chance of being seen”
9. “Close proximity to popular editorial content really helped ads get seen”
10. “the bigger the image, the more time people took to look at it.”
11. “Our research also shows that clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixations on homepages”

I think that these findings can be very helpful to you. You can improve your online writing by giving you something to focus on when you are developing content. Creating smaller paragraphs and attention-getting headlines are more likely to encourage readers to visit your Web site. If you are interested in drawing ad revenue, the information about ad placement and size can also be very helpful.

This information is not just for bloggers and professional writers. You can use the information for online copy and product descriptions on your home business Web site.

On Sparkplugging the other day, I read about an interesting opportunity to earn a little extra money for your home business. It’s called Constant Content, and it serves as sort of a clearinghouse for online content. While it is geared primarily at freelance writers, I can see how someone with reasonably good skills could use it as a source of income, even if writing isn’t your main focus. It matches up writers with people who want to buy online content. Lorna Doone Brewer describes how it works on Sparkplugging:

The way the site works is you, the writer, turn out an article on any topic that pleases you (unless responding to a request, more on that later) and submit it. You set the price and decide if you only want to sell usage rights or full rights. There is a strict approval process that ensures only top quality articles get into Constant Content’s article database, but once you’re in, potential buyers can view and purchase your article. Constant Content takes a percentage off the top (35%) and the rest goes into your account, which is paid out at the beginning of each month if you have $5 or more pending.

She goes on to say that you can get between $25 and $50 per article (minus the 35%) and as much as $100 or more, depending on the quality of your work. And I like that the article are carefully screened for quality. I have been Associated Content as my “fallback” when I have a little extra time to make a little extra cash, but Constant Content might be more profitable. AC will accept just about anything, regardless of quality. However, with Constant Content, your article has to sell in order for you to make money. On AC, you just get your money (even though it’s less).