Frequently Asked Questions

Tipzu is a free web platform that helps you turn your passion into an online business. If you have a hobby or an interest that you can write about, you can start an income generating Tipzu site, or a "Tipzine." Your Tipzine is a website where people can hang out, exchange ideas, get information about your topic, and shop at your store. They can also subscribe to your free newsletter, which provides the main source of visitors to your store (as well as advertising income).

Tipzu handles everything, you just cut and paste your blogs into simple webforms. We take care of every other step in the process of creating a profitable online site.

You get to write about what you love and promote your site to the world (don't worry, we'll show you how). Tipzu provides a how-to guide (the "Cookbook"), web hosting, design, newsletter, store, advertising, customer service, credit card processing and all the technical support you'll need.

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First, you earn all revenues from advertising that appears in the blogs or articles that you publish.

Second, you'll receive income from sales that take place at your store.

If you have your own products you want to sell, Tipzu charges just 5% of the sale price (plus a small credit card processing fee). If you don't have products, you can sell items that we provide (from a list of over 1 million). For those products, you and Tipzu will split the profit 50/50.

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My father is a marketing expert and about ten years ago he developed a system to make a profitable online business. The basic idea was to provide free, valuable advice through a website and newsletter, and offer products at the same time. His site was focused on providing marketing tips.

In 1999 he tried to convince me and my two brothers (along with his wife Maria) to start our own online businesses. I was skeptical. I thought it might work for his site, but I ran a theater company. What would I provide? What would I sell?

We all thought we lacked marketable expertise and experience in building websites. However, as we watched my father's business grow while he seemed to be working less and less, we succumbed to the temptation and started our own newsletters.

All of them have been profitable for years and garner top Google rankings.

Check them out if you're interested:

Joseph Gracia: GiveToGetMarketing (1st in Google out of 89,000,000 sites for "free marketing tips," 4th for "marketing tips")
Maria Gracia: GetOrganizedNow (1st in Google out of 69,000,000 sites for "free organizing tips," 2nd for "organizing tips")
Chad Gracia: ActorTips (1st in Google out of 14,000,000 sites for "acting tips")
Scott Gracia: Throwzini (1st in Google out of 865,000 sites for "knife throwing tips")
Jason Gracia: Motivation123 (1st in Google out of 4,670,000 sites for "motivation tips")

We all make a decent living from these sites, none of us have office jobs, have to set an alarm clock, or report to anyone but our many customers. (Well, I've now outsourced customer service so I don't even have to do that!)

As you see, almost any idea can make a successful "Tipzine" if you follow our Cookbook. Yes, you do have to have a passion, yes you do have to put in time (especially in the beginning) to write your articles and promote your site. But I believe it is well worth it.

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Three things: write about your topic, promote your website, and eventually find products to sell. Let's talk about each one.

First, you need to write at least a few articles, which will be posted on your site and which will become the main content of your newsletters. Many people are daunted by this, but are surprised to find how easy and rewarding it can be. Our "Cookbook" has tons of tips about how to write a great article.

Second, you'll need to promote your site. Tipzu will make sure that people searching on Google and other search engines will find you, but you'll also need to browse the web and find sites that are related to yours. Once you do, you'll use our automated system to ask them to share links with you. We'll also show you how to share your articles with other websites and take advantage of many free ways to get people to visit your site and sign up for your newsletter.

Third, once you have a good size newsletter audience it'll be time to find some products to sell. You can either choose from our database of partner products (check them out at Doba.com and iAmplify.com) or sell your own. If you make the products yourself, it's easy. If you want to sell other people's products, you just have to contact them and find out if they have a drop-shipping or wholesale program. Tipzu will walk you through all of these steps.

That's it. Tipzu will handle most every other aspect of your business, from newsletter management and web hosting, to warehousing and customer service.

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Tipzu is free.

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Tipzu will save you money and time.

Tipzu provides all of these services for free: web hosting, design, newsletter maintenance, credit card processing, product sourcing, warehousing, shipping, returns, inventory management, customer service, and community building tools.

By using Tipzu, you can avoid all the pitfalls of starting your own online business. You'll also get more visitors and customers and a higher search engine ranking by being part of Tipzu.

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The Tipzu Dictionary:

Tipzu: The business and facilitator of newsletter sites.

Tipzine: A newsletter site, including both the webpage and the newsletter itself.

Tipzter: Someone who manages their own Tipzine at Tipzu.

Member: Someone who has logged in to Tipzu, and has certain privileges above anonymous browsers.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization. The process of making your website in such a way that it will come up near the top of search engine lists.

Keyword: A particular phrase that a) is contained within your site, and b) which web users are searching for.

KEI: A measure of how powerful your keyword is - the more powerful the keyword the more likely that you'll get good traffic to your site.

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If someone else has already reserved the name you want, you have two choices.

First, you can try an alternate name for your site. For instance, if you wanted "cars" but http://www.cars.tipzu.com is already taken, then you might try "autos." You can also try a more specific title, such as "car-sales" or "car-repair."

Second, you can wait and see if the Tipzine name becomes available. Tipzines that have no activity for an extended period become available to new members.

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If there is no activity on your account (new articles, subscribers and sales) for 45 days, Tipzu will reserve the right to deactivate your Tipzine and archive it, making the site name available for another Tipzter.

You will be notified several times before this occurs.

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Yes, in fact that's a great sign that you are in a good market. One of the biggest mistakes in business is to think that the best ideas are those that are unique and new. In fact 99 out of 100 successful businesses provide products that have been sold for decades by hundreds of suppliers.

The trick is to build a relationship with your customers so that they know, like and trust you. People buy from amazon.com not mainly because they offer the best price, but because they like the brand and trust the system.

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Generic products in a mature industry, where the mark-up (or profit) is very small are not good for Tipzu.

The best products are those that are not readily available. You can't make a lot of money selling generic guitars, for instance, but you can if you sell hard-to-find models or custom-made instruments.

Look for boutique suppliers (the web is a great way to do this) - there are many, many garage businesses around the world making one-of-a-kind products. Aim for a 50% mark-up.

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Tipzu is primarily for the selling of tangible products, but if you want to provide services, you can. Examples include:

* Consultants looking for clients (therapists, designers, personal trainers, etc.).
* Organizations or individuals wishing to promote their activities (musicians, theater groups, actors).
* Anyone else who wants a web presence or newsletter without selling products.

Tipzu charges $24.95/month or $199/year for service businesses.

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While only a tax lawyer or accountant can provide information directly relevant to your situation, we’ve put together this information for those who are serious about running a business at Tipzu.

There are two types of licenses that you might need: a sales tax ID and an Employers Identification Number (EIN).

STATE SALES TAX ID

State Sales Tax License. There are several names for this license. You will often hear it called a “reseller license,” Reseller or Resale Permit,” or “Sales Tax ID.” Don’t let these different terms confuse you – they all mean the same thing. If you live in a state that charges sales tax, and you sell goods that will be delivered to a buyer who also lives in that same state, then you are usually required by law to charge that person sales tax and remit the collected tax to the state.

There are some exceptions, but in general, unless you have a physical office in another state, you do not have to collect and pay sales tax on shipments to other states as long as your annual sales are less than $4 million.

Many wholesale companies require you to have a state sales tax ID before they will deal with you. This allows them to sell items to you without charging or paying sales tax.

For more information on getting a state sales tax, google the name of your state and “sales tax license”.

FEDERAL EMPLOYER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (“EIN,” “FEIN,” or just “tax id”)

An EIN is simply a number that registers your business with the US government. Even though it has the word "employer" in it, you may need one even if you have no employees. It is not always necessary to obtain an EIN, but there are several benefits to doing so. These include:

* Business Bank Accounts – An EIN is necessary to open a bank account for your business, and if you are serious about your site, you will want to keep your personal and business finances separate. Having a business bank account also lends you credibility.

* Protection from Liability - In today's litigious society, almost everything you may sell has some potential liability. To protect yourself from legal damages and judgments, a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or a Corporation structure can help, and that will require an EIN.

* Privacy - One of the advantages of having an EIN is that you don’t have to give out your social security number to companies that you do business with.

* Wholesale Purchases – Most wholesalers will request an EIN (or sometimes a sales tax ID) before selling you products. They are legally required to do so if they don’t charge you sales tax, and one way to tell if you are getting a true retailer's discount is if they ask for proof that you are a business.

* Tax Advantages - There are numerous tax advantages to running a business in general and many of them can be applied to a home-based business. Your accountant can advise you on this specific issue. Unless you have a legitimate licensed business however, these advantages will not be available to you.

It is very easy to get an EIN and there is no charge. In fact, the IRS now has an online system where you can get an EIN immediately. Click here.

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When you are editing your articles, blogs, or store products, you'll often see an option called "weight" with a drop-down box from -15 to 15. This number tells the system what order something should be in on your webpage. So if you add 10 articles or FAQs, and you want one to be at the top, you need to give that a "lighter" number (-10 will put it at the very top). If you want it to be near the bottom, give it a number like 8. If the list is from left to right, the lower numbers will start on the left and the higher ones on the right.

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