ideas

How To Keep Your Finger On Your Market’s Pulse (And Why You Have Probably Already Fallen Behind)

by Paul Joseph July 27, 2011 Featured

Keeping “your finger on the pulse” is a phrase I use to describe how entrepreneurs should keep in touch with their niche markets or keep up-to-date with market trends in general. This is vitally important especially if you are working online. At times, when we work online, it is very easy to get caught up in your own little bubble and forget what the rest of the world is doing. That is a big mistake . If you are operating in a particular niche, you may not realize how quickly you can lose touch with your target audience. You get so caught up with running your business, and if you are not dealing with customers on a daily basis, very soon you can lose touch with their core values and forget who you are speaking to. This can be disastrous because if you lose touch with your target audience’s dreams, wants, needs and desires, then your whole marketing approach has just gone out the window. The John Carlton Mentality Famous marketer and copywriter, John Carlton , has often said when he is researching to write copy for a company he never talks much to the head people in charge of the company. He knows they are way too far removed from the target audience. Their focus is often concerned about what they want, how they think they should be promoting the product and what they think is important. You may remember from one of my previous articles this is classic thinking like a fisherman and not like a fish mentality . Carlton would commonly go searching way down the company ladder to get a better insight about the product. He wanted to talk to the people taking the phone call orders or dealing with product returns – more grassroots level information. He always knew he had written a good piece of copy when the top company people did not want to run the piece because it made them uncomfortable. He knew he had bombed and had to go back to the drawing board if they loved his piece and it was exactly what they wanted. I’m Not Shopping – I’m Doing Research! Last weekend I went to the shopping mall with an entrepreneur friend of mine who sells physical products. This type of “people watching” is great market research for two reasons: To keep a finger on the pulse of the current physical product niche To keep a finger on the pulse of society and general trends for new product ideas (physical or digital). My friend wanted to make sure they were still in touch with their niche market because they had been busy running their business. They wanted to see how the competition was promoting, packaging, pricing and marketing their product. Was there anything new or that had changed in any of those areas? For example, a new marketing angle, different price point, etc. Most importantly, we paid attention to what people were buying in the niche. If you have been living in your online world, don’t underestimate how quickly you can lose touch with your target audience, especially if you are no longer a member of your target audience. If you were once a poor university student and you design cheap and trendy clothing for students, but since then your company has gone crazy and this is now your full-time job and has been for the last year and half. And long gone are the days of cramming for exams, getting no sleep and surviving for a week on half a bag of rice, two cans of tuna and a celery stick. Then you may need to get back in touch with your target market, because you have lost touch with your target market . People Watching To Find A New Product Or Niche While people watching is great to keep up-to-date with a current niche you may be in, it is also great at stimulating new ideas . Your ideas can come from what you see people buying, how you see people behaving or the types and groups of people you may notice. You can gather your new ideas and come home and do some keyword research and market research on them and investigate the market online. Is there possibility for an information product? Are their affiliate products? Could you release your own product? Look At Trends One trend I noticed was that of stationary. Within the shopping mall there were three individually branded stationary shops. Keep in mind that you can also buy generic stationary at the grocery stores, department stores and newsagents within the mall. One stationary store, Kikki K , has exploded in Australia. I remember walking past these stores and I used to think: “How on earth are they making money? How many notepads would they have to sell to pay rent?” Obviously they can do the math, because Kikki K is the 18 th top female owned business in Australia earning $30 million a year . That’s a lot of pens and notepads! Getting A Piece Of The Market Obviously, some other “people watchers” saw that the stationary market was booming and jumped on board. Now if you went head to head with Kikki K you would get slaughtered. You need a unique selling proposition ( USP ). The other two stationary stores had their USPs sorted. One had a grungy, more edgy feel to it. From the look of the store, to the music they were playing, to the stuff they were selling, it screamed “coolness”. In fact, so cool, I nearly didn’t go in to the store cause I didn’t think I was cool enough! Talk about a barrier of entry and only wanting to speak to your target audience. These guys had it down pat. The last stationary store had aimed its niche at the kids market. Selling fun and brightly colored stationary sets of everything imaginable. Although as an adult male it didn’t really tickle my fancy, I saw many a father pulling out his wallet for his young daughter. And the funniest thing, the upsell potential is huge and the staff probably don’t even have to do it. Why wouldn’t you want a whole matching set of stationary? I can imagine the young daughter saying to her dad, “Well Dad, now that I have the hot pink pencil case, you know I will need the matching hot pink pencils, pens, notebook, diary, eraser….” It’s Time To Go Shopping! So turn off the computer for a few hours and get back into the real world . You will be surprised at what you can learn and the ideas you can get. Leevi Romanik Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: ideas, kids, music, online, trends, young

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How To Keep Your Finger On Your Market’s Pulse (And Why You Have Probably Already Fallen Behind)

by Paul Joseph July 27, 2011 Featured

Keeping “your finger on the pulse” is a phrase I use to describe how entrepreneurs should keep in touch with their niche markets or keep up-to-date with market trends in general. This is vitally important especially if you are working online. At times, when we work online, it is very easy to get caught up in your own little bubble and forget what the rest of the world is doing. That is a big mistake . If you are operating in a particular niche, you may not realize how quickly you can lose touch with your target audience. You get so caught up with running your business, and if you are not dealing with customers on a daily basis, very soon you can lose touch with their core values and forget who you are speaking to. This can be disastrous because if you lose touch with your target audience’s dreams, wants, needs and desires, then your whole marketing approach has just gone out the window. The John Carlton Mentality Famous marketer and copywriter, John Carlton , has often said when he is researching to write copy for a company he never talks much to the head people in charge of the company. He knows they are way too far removed from the target audience. Their focus is often concerned about what they want, how they think they should be promoting the product and what they think is important. You may remember from one of my previous articles this is classic thinking like a fisherman and not like a fish mentality . Carlton would commonly go searching way down the company ladder to get a better insight about the product. He wanted to talk to the people taking the phone call orders or dealing with product returns – more grassroots level information. He always knew he had written a good piece of copy when the top company people did not want to run the piece because it made them uncomfortable. He knew he had bombed and had to go back to the drawing board if they loved his piece and it was exactly what they wanted. I’m Not Shopping – I’m Doing Research! Last weekend I went to the shopping mall with an entrepreneur friend of mine who sells physical products. This type of “people watching” is great market research for two reasons: To keep a finger on the pulse of the current physical product niche To keep a finger on the pulse of society and general trends for new product ideas (physical or digital). My friend wanted to make sure they were still in touch with their niche market because they had been busy running their business. They wanted to see how the competition was promoting, packaging, pricing and marketing their product. Was there anything new or that had changed in any of those areas? For example, a new marketing angle, different price point, etc. Most importantly, we paid attention to what people were buying in the niche. If you have been living in your online world, don’t underestimate how quickly you can lose touch with your target audience, especially if you are no longer a member of your target audience. If you were once a poor university student and you design cheap and trendy clothing for students, but since then your company has gone crazy and this is now your full-time job and has been for the last year and half. And long gone are the days of cramming for exams, getting no sleep and surviving for a week on half a bag of rice, two cans of tuna and a celery stick. Then you may need to get back in touch with your target market, because you have lost touch with your target market . People Watching To Find A New Product Or Niche While people watching is great to keep up-to-date with a current niche you may be in, it is also great at stimulating new ideas . Your ideas can come from what you see people buying, how you see people behaving or the types and groups of people you may notice. You can gather your new ideas and come home and do some keyword research and market research on them and investigate the market online. Is there possibility for an information product? Are their affiliate products? Could you release your own product? Look At Trends One trend I noticed was that of stationary. Within the shopping mall there were three individually branded stationary shops. Keep in mind that you can also buy generic stationary at the grocery stores, department stores and newsagents within the mall. One stationary store, Kikki K , has exploded in Australia. I remember walking past these stores and I used to think: “How on earth are they making money? How many notepads would they have to sell to pay rent?” Obviously they can do the math, because Kikki K is the 18 th top female owned business in Australia earning $30 million a year . That’s a lot of pens and notepads! Getting A Piece Of The Market Obviously, some other “people watchers” saw that the stationary market was booming and jumped on board. Now if you went head to head with Kikki K you would get slaughtered. You need a unique selling proposition ( USP ). The other two stationary stores had their USPs sorted. One had a grungy, more edgy feel to it. From the look of the store, to the music they were playing, to the stuff they were selling, it screamed “coolness”. In fact, so cool, I nearly didn’t go in to the store cause I didn’t think I was cool enough! Talk about a barrier of entry and only wanting to speak to your target audience. These guys had it down pat. The last stationary store had aimed its niche at the kids market. Selling fun and brightly colored stationary sets of everything imaginable. Although as an adult male it didn’t really tickle my fancy, I saw many a father pulling out his wallet for his young daughter. And the funniest thing, the upsell potential is huge and the staff probably don’t even have to do it. Why wouldn’t you want a whole matching set of stationary? I can imagine the young daughter saying to her dad, “Well Dad, now that I have the hot pink pencil case, you know I will need the matching hot pink pencils, pens, notebook, diary, eraser….” It’s Time To Go Shopping! So turn off the computer for a few hours and get back into the real world . You will be surprised at what you can learn and the ideas you can get. Leevi Romanik Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: australia, business, ideas, internet, phone, trends

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How to Become an Idea Machine

by Paul Joseph July 8, 2011 Featured

“I think and therefore I am” said Descartes. A modern day successful entrepreneur might as well say “I think and therefore my business thrives.” Entrepreneurship thrives on ideas. Ideas are the fuel that drives business, the lifeline in times of crisis and the basis of entrepreneurship itself. Importantly, good ideas are incredibly hard to come by. Where as bad ones abound. So how can you generate great ideas for your business? And the right ones too? It’s an Ideas Factory Out There First of all, to know what you can do differently, you have to know what exists. Knowledge and information greatly powers your capacity to think innovatively. Often, entrepreneurs are great at obsessing over every single news snippet related to their business, but they ignore other areas of interest that they may have had in their lives. For instance, if you’ve set up a Social Media Marketing business, what are the chances that you’re reading about theatre or art, or music? Keeping abreast with information and interests can greatly help you with idea generation and innovation. A great example of this would be Steve Jobs. In his Stanford Graduation speech, he talks about dropping out of college and attending classes that purely interested him. He talks about his interest in Calligraphy, and how that interest led to the creation of beautiful font options in the Personal Computer.  It is just a small example of how, a little, ‘by the way’ interest led to an idea that rules how we type on our computers in today’s world. Write Them Down – They’re Important There are many complicated idea generation techniques out there, like Mindmapping and the Ishikawa Diagram technique. Try them and if they work for you, that’s great. But the chances are they will be mere stimulants. If you focus on being well-rounded, pursuing interests outside your business, while also passionately pursuing your business interests, you’ll never lack ideas. In fact, you’ll have so many ideas that you will not remember them or you will just not have the time to implement them. The best idea generation tip is to not forget or lose good ideas. Make a list and review them whenever you’re consciously working towards generating new ideas. The likelihood is that you can build on an existing good idea you might have had months ago, and make it a great one. Get Out of the Idea Often, when you’re an integral part of your business, there are view points you’re completely missing. If you’re sitting in front of your desk and trying to figure out what the customer wants it’s going to be harder to come up with a great idea. Going out there and interacting with customers, getting out of the situation and actually putting yourself in your client’s shoes can help you understand what they really want. With great insights, great ideas are born. Sometimes, getting out, also means distancing yourself from your business. When was the last time you took a day off from not thinking about your business? It may not always be possible to take a holiday, but how about going for a movie, spending time with your family or just re-reading your favorite novel and giving your brains time to recharge. Taking a break helps your subconscious mind ruminate over ideas and present them to you when you’re ready. What are Great Ideas for? An entrepreneur must routinely look at different ideas and analyze them. Not just business ideas, marketing or promotion ideas, but little innovations that businesses make, say to cut costs or motivate employees to think big, their hiring practices and so on. A deep understanding of what makes ideas great will not just help you with generating better and better ideas, but it will help you evaluate your own ideas better. If you’re not naturally inclined to a fascination with great ideas and innovation, develop that obsession. Read about how Bill Gates started Microsoft and about how Pixar does such great work. Understand how Google’s 20% percent project time for its employees has helped generate some of the greatest ideas in tech history. Analyze how Music Record execs create millions worth of record selling artists. The world abounds with great ideas, start following them, chase some of your own, and soon your business life will be full of wonderful ideas. Giving it Time & Chipping Away at it The truth is that out of 100 ideas, 1 might be half-decent. Great ideas are hard to come by, but by consistently chasing them, you make idea generation a part of your personality. Some of the biggest innovators of our time have personality types that can be defined as ‘idea-chasing’, which involves constantly thinking about the next big thing. The best part is that this thinking seems to come naturally to them, and the motive is not always profit. Often, it’s about creating something absolutely innovative and mind-blowing. Take Richard Branson’s Flight to Space, for instance. Agrees, that an idea like that needs billions of dollars to bring to life, but there are hundreds of billionaire entrepreneurs who are merely chasing more billions. It is the innovative entrepreneur like Richard Branson, who wanted to offer something different that came up with it and in the process, makes more billions than the rest. Innovative businessman didn’t become star thinkers overnight. But they chased great ideas constantly. They chipped away at it, like it was what they were born to do. Give it time, chip away at generating great ideas, take it easy, get out of the box occasionally but persistently chase ideas and you will start generating good ideas on a daily basis. Idea generation is the first step to innovation, and innovation is the key to a successful business. So do what it takes, to get those great ideas! Preetam Kaushik is a freelance writer/independent columnist and an avid blogger. He is a web 2.0 expert and writing consultant serving a wide array of clients. Read more about Preetam here .

Tagged as: business psychology, business-ideas, client, entrepreneur, family, ideas, personality, space

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Interesting Ideas from STARTup Live Vienna

by Paul Joseph June 17, 2011 Featured

An event called “STARTup Live” in Vienna(Austria/Europe), an initiative of STARTeurope, showed the potential of European startups: Several entrepreneurs presented their ideas, formed teams, worked on the concept for a weekend and finally pitched the results to a jury of experts – the best results were awarded with prizes, such as space in an incubator or marketing budget. There was a broad… (Visit Yourstory.in for full news, other content, and much more!)

Tagged as: concept, content, european, frontpage, ideas, other-content, potential, yourstory-in

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Young Entrepreneur Interview: Jason O’Neill of Pencil Bugs

by Paul Joseph June 14, 2011 Featured

If you’re a kid or know a kid who is or wants to be an entrepreneur, you’ll get a lot of inspiration out of today’s interview. If you’re an adult entrepreneur, you’ll be surprised the lessons a 15-year-old can teach you! We recently caught up with Jason O’Neill, entrepreneur, author, and inventor and founder of Pencil Bugs . With all the talk of “today’s youth” not having drive and ambition, we’re always happy to see examples of just the opposite. And we see them all the time in young entrepreneurs like Jason. Like so many who are bitten by the entrepreneurial bug early, Jason didn’t come to entrepreneurship on purpose, but once he had a taste of it, he ran with it – in a big way. Read the interview below and see how a nine-year-old turned an idea into what promises to be a lifetime of entrepreneurial adventure! You started Pencil Bugs at the age of 9. Did you go into the venture with the intention of making a business out of it? How did it progress? I had no intention of starting a business at nine years old. It really happened by accident and by taking one step at a time. In 2005, my mom was making a product to sell at a craft fair. I wanted to help her and I thought that if I did, she would split the money with me. She said “no” and suggested I come up with my own idea. After a few trial and errors and drawing some designs on paper, Pencil Bugs were finally born. Pencil Bugs are colorful, bug-like hand crafted pencil toppers that fit on top of a #2 pencil and come packaged with their own Certificate of Authenticity. I made a small supply for the craft fair and they all sold out quickly. After that event, I knew it was a good idea and that I should keep going with it. What has been the biggest business challenge you’ve had to face, and how did you overcome it? The biggest challenge is that I am a kid. Some people think that I am just some kid making a little craft. They don’t always realize all that it takes or what goes into having a business. Probably the hardest thing is having my peers understand what I do. Has your age ever been an advantage? Aside from the fact, as I mentioned before, about not everyone understanding what you do, there are some legal issues that come with being a minor in business. But for the most part, being young has more advantages than disadvantages. We don’t have to really worry about earning a living yet. We can take things slowly since we have lots of time to be adults. We have the opportunities to learn and experience things that most schools don’t teach kids. Most people are really supportive of kids doing positive things, whatever that may be. And probably the biggest advantage of being a young entrepreneur is that there is less competition, although more and more kids are going this route. My entire business has been a learning experience for me, and everything that has happened is something that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to experience if I were just going to school. As a young entrepreneur, do you feel like you gave up any of what it means to be a kid? Would you do it all again? Having my business has never interfered with being a normal kid, and that is a very important thing for any young entrepreneur to remember. We have a whole lifetime of work ahead of us, so even if we start a business while we are young, it’s important to still be a kid first and have fun and do all the normal things kids get to do. My parents are really supportive of me and make sure I stay balanced. Because of my business though, I have had opportunities that most adults don’t get to experience. I don’t feel I have given up what it means to be a kid, and I am happy I got the chance to experience a whole different side of life. To answer your question of would I do it all again, my answer would have to be “I don’t know” because I don’t like to second guess what I have already done and I also don’t set definite plans for the future. I like to keep my options and opportunities open and see what happens. Last year, you published a book, Bitten by the Business Bug: Common Sense Tips for Business and Life from a Teen Entrepreneur . What has that experience been like? Do you plan to write other books? Publishing a book was a big milestone for my business. It was really exciting that after the book was released I was invited to speak at bigger events. It has opened up even more doors for me. I am working on another book with an environmental theme and have a children’s book about the Pencil Bugs characters that hopefully will be out next year. You are involved with giving back to the community and could even be considered a “social entrepreneur.” Why has that been a focus throughout all you’ve done? I wanted to help out others that may not have the opportunities that I had. People have to remember that there will always be people less fortunate than you. Since the beginning of my business, I donated to various children’s charities such as foster homes and hospitals. In addition to that, I have also had a fundraiser for the past three years for Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California raising money to buy teddy bears for the kids. I have had great success with that and in 2009 I raised over $5,000, which all went to buying the bears. Making money is grea,t but it’s what you do with it that really counts. Even if a person can’t give a lot, I always say every little bit can make a big difference in someone else’s life. What three pieces of advice do you have for young entrepreneurs interested in starting their first business? The best advice I can give is: Try your ideas, because doing nothing guarantees nothing. Start out small, because there are lots of ways you can try a business without going into financial debt or taking big risks. Be willing to help others along the way, since you probably haven’t gotten to the place you are all by yourself. What are your plans for the future? Since I just finished my first year of high school, I am looking at a lot of different opportunities. I plan to continue my Pencil Bugs business although I will probably take it in a different direction with the actual products. I also have other books that I am working on as I mentioned before, and I really like the public speaking aspect so plan to do as much of that as possible. Aside from my business plans, I still want to go to college and get a computer science degree, with a focus on video game design. Of course, all that could change since I still have three years left of high school.

Tagged as: book, books, business, california, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, ideas, money, plans

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Young Entrepreneur Interview with Steve Greenbaum, CEO of PostNet

by Paul Joseph May 18, 2011 Featured

When you’re a small business owner, you can use all the help you can get. This is especially true when it comes to startup or operating capital. So when we heard about a contest that PostNet was running, where entrepreneurs can win up to $15,000 to get their business off the ground or help take it to the next level, we wanted to make sure our readers were aware of it. Steve Greenbaum, the CEO and Co-founder of PostNet, who is sponsoring the contest, agreed to an interview, and he’s got some great news about the contest, as well as valuable advice for young entrepreneurs. Enjoy the interview, then go enter the contest! What is your background and the history of PostNet? I co-founded the PostNet franchise program in 1993 with my business partner Brian Spindel. PostNet is the nation’s first and only Neighborhood Business Center with more than 700 locations worldwide. At our stores, we work closely with business owners to identify their objectives, build upon their ideas, and develop the best solution to meet their needs. This could include anything from designing and printing custom invitations or signage for an important company event, to helping create a brand image for a new business or existing company looking to re-invent itself. Give us an overview of this contest – how can people enter and who is it open to? In celebration of National Small Business Week , business owners looking to take their business to the next level are encouraged to enter our Boost This Biz contest. Any small business owner can visit PostNet’s Facebook page to share why they are deserving of the grand prize. The winner receives a $10,000 cash grant and $5,000 towards design, print, copy, and shipping at their nearest PostNet location. The five entries with the most votes by June 8, 2011 will move on to the final judging round, where an impartial panel of fellow entrepreneurs will choose one grand prize winner. The remaining four finalists will each receive a $200 American Express gift card. Why did you choose small businesses as the target audience for this social media contest? Every day, our franchisees work with talented and aspiring entrepreneurs across the country to help them grow their businesses. By giving one of those businesses a chance to win this prize, it’s our way of recognizing all the hard-working small business owners who make our economy tick. What are the advantages for a small business entering the contest on Facebook? Small businesses that enter the Boost This Biz contest on Facebook not only have an opportunity to win $15,000 in prizes from PostNet, but they can use this as a chance to market their small business on Facebook. Facebook is a great medium for small businesses to gain more exposure and to interact with their customers. By entering the contest and sharing their entries to get more votes, the entrants are promoting their company, which we hope will generate more business for them. How did you come to choose this prize? We wanted to choose a prize that would have a real impact for the small business that wins. The $5,000 in services from PostNet will help the grand prize winner with all of their printing and graphic design needs. The $10,000 grant from PostNet gives the winner flexibility to use that money where they need it most, so they can use this prize to get the biggest boost from the contest. What advice do you have for small businesses starting out in this economy? Starting a business in this, or any economic climate, requires proper planning, capitalization and execution. Start with planning. Make sure you have considered all aspects of the business with a focus on what customers want and need. If you are selling a product or new service that could potentially be associated with a fad, flavor, or trend, do your homework. Make sure you are in a position to take advantage of a trend, but be realistic about the lifecycle or longevity of the business. In the budgeting process, one of the most important aspects of your plan or projection is to estimate your break even and consider a contingency plan including the availability of additional resources in the event that you don’t hit your targets. People primarily fail in business for two reasons. Undercapitalization, and/or mismanagement. As long as your plan has been well researched from a customer needs perspective and you are adequately funded, it is critical to think and act like a business owner, not a clerk. Work on your business, not just in your business. If you do that, your chances of succeeding and prospering are far better.

Tagged as: business, economy, entrepreneur interview, entrepreneurs, facebook, ideas, social

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How I Used My Offline Knowledge To Make Money Online

by Paul Joseph April 15, 2011 Featured

My name is Mark Riddix and I am a registered investment advisor . I have worked in the finance field since my graduation from college and started my own investment advisory firm five years ago. I never dreamed that I would venture into the blogging arena. The Story Begins My path to producing online income was an interesting journey with many twists and turns. I would like to take a little bit of time to tell you about it. I have always had a passion for investing from the first time that I heard about a stock and a mutual fund. I bought my first mutual fund in college and have been investing ever since. Every financial asset interested me so I decided that going into investment management would be a career occupation. I had been working as an investment advisor for about three years and was always coming into contact with people that had questions about investing. My business catered to higher net worth individuals so I wanted to start a site that would address the needs of regular everyday investors. I had the bright idea to create a financial blog . I figured that I could provide a little insight into the world of investing and answer questions that my site’s visitors might have. I named the blog Buy Like Buffett because he was an investing role model of mine and the name sounded pretty catchy. I really wasn’t seeking to make money online. I was just looking for a way to share information about investing with other people interested in the topic. I Start To Blog I proceeded to start blogging and wrote about my thoughts and opinions of different investments. I began blogging part-time and tried to stick to a schedule of writing at least three posts a week. I did this consistently for the first three months and then I started slacking off. I was getting very little traffic to my blog and my interest began to quickly wane. After a few months I started to skip my weekly posting schedule and was blogging only a few times a month. I was close to giving up on blogging because it seemed too time-consuming and pointless. Why bother writing a post? No one is going to read it anyway! I had experienced blogger burnout in my infancy and was not even aware of it. Fortunately, I did not give up and decided to keep blogging for a few more months. I recommitted myself to posting and would write a post at least three to four times a week no matter how I felt. I wrote about all sorts of topics related to investing. I wrote about some of my personal stock purchases and my stock sales. After a few months, I started to receive the occasional email from someone who was reading my blog. That really got me pumped because it meant that someone was reading what I had to say. Making Money Through Ad Networks My readership was slowly growing. I still had not made one cent blogging but that wasn’t my primary focus in the beginning. I was blogging to provide information . It struck me that I could monetize my blog after about six months of writing regularly. I then went in search of ways that I could generate some income. I wasn’t looking to make a fortune. I just wanted enough money to cover my web hosting fees and money that I had invested in my blog thus far. My search led me to a number of different ad networks . I have probably used every single ad network out there. You name it and I tried it. I used Google Adsense , Adbrite , Widgetbucks , Chitika , Clicksor , Linkworth , and Commission Junction . I generated a little side revenue each month from these networks to cover my fees. I made my first ever blogging profit after about a year and realized that there was money in blogging. I was not making a lot of money by any means but even a few hundred dollars is a lot when you are used to generating no online income. Making Money Blogging I began devoting more time to building my site and increased my posting frequency. I started to write a post at least once a day and sometimes twice a day. I spent hours each day writing content, marketing, and promoting my website. I started submitting guest posts to a lot of larger financial blogs in order to build my name in the online financial community. I had 15 different staff writing positions at various financial blogs and churned out content on a daily basis . This gave me greater exposure and only helped to build my brand further. My business was still generating money for me offline and my website was now starting to bring in additional dollars every month. My monetization strategy was finally starting to pay off. The writing jobs were bringing in a few thousand dollars a month and my income from ad networks was increasing. Next, I started running paid posts . I had produced so many posts that other websites were contacting me and asking to run sponsored posts on my site. My blog was seen as an authority in the finance industry. I began by charging $25 to $50 a post and quickly increased that amount to a couple hundred dollars a post . As my site’s popularity increased, I abandoned banner ads, text links, and most ad networks. My focus became on selling advertisements directly to companies . I emailed a few companies in the finance space and began structuring monthly advertising deals myself. Selling ads is simple when you inform companies how they are saving money by paying a monthly fee versus paying for each click. I eliminated the ad network middleman and was making even more money. Making Money Selling Products As my blog’s popularity grew, I noticed that online income was becoming a bigger portion of my monthly household income. My online income monetization strategy expanded to include producing digital and physical publications. I wrote a personal finance book on money management and long term investing. The book has been sold directly through my website and through traditional bookstores. I also produced an investor guide to the Best Mutual Funds. I used my offline knowledge of financial assets to make money online. My blog posts and financial products started to open more doors and I was able to get published in national magazines. I had a few articles run in Forbes . Recently, I had a story about my investing experiences run in the Wall Street Journal and an upcoming story in Black Enterprise next month. All of these opportunities have led to greater exposure for me, my business, and my website. Now I only write articles for a small number of websites and my pay rate has increased exponentially. The next step was to share a lot of the knowledge that I learned from my three years of blogging, so I created a blog detailing my journey to making online income. The blog was self titled, Mark Riddix dot com , and is filled with lots of information on all of the ways that I found to make money online. This site explains all of the ways that website owners can start generating passive income . I also wrote an ebook called How To Make $2,000 A Month Online . Most bloggers may not have the success that Yaro did blogging but anyone can make at least $75 a day online. Making Money Via Marketing My latest venture has led me down the path of affiliate marketing . I have been able to create additional income by reviewing and promoting different blogging products and services on my latest website. I started marketing sponsored tweets, blog reviews, and hosting services. I am careful to only recommend products that I really believe in. As individuals buy specific products through my site’s links, I am able to make a percentage from each sale. Niche blogging has become a new interest of mine. I have started creating a few more blogs catering to specific topics that people are interested in. I have been filling the sites with content and have added Google Adsense and Amazon Affiliates links selling blogging products. These newer blogs will not require me to tend to them daily and should generate their own income. Recently, I have launched an article writing service that provides content for Internet marketers and website owners. I have hired a couple of writers to write the articles so that I can focus more on content management. This business is only two months old and is already bringing in a nice amount of income each month. The money that I make online gives me extra capital to invest and put into the market. My goal each month is to take the money that I make online and use that to purchase more stocks. This plan has worked really effectively so far. My blogging experience has taught me that there are so many paths to making money online that any website owner can benefit from. How Can My Story Help You? One of the things that I would like to get across is the importance of perseverance when trying to make money online. Small hiccups occur from time to time but you should never allow them to deter you from your long-term money making goals. I learned how to make money online through the trial and error process. The exact same thing can work for you. You may find that your site isn’t optimized to sell your own products but is perfect for selling the products of others through affiliate marketing. I have learned that the key to online success is to match the right blogging topic with the right product and the money will start to trickle in. Coming up next on my column here on Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, I will go through a step-by-step process that I used to take a relatively unknown site and attract web traffic and advertisers. I will explain the entire process that I went through and how I launched my plan of attack four years ago. In the beginning finding ways to make money online was not the easiest thing in the world to do but I learned a lot in the process and would like to share my experiences with you. My goal is to make the path easier for the next online entrepreneur who is seeking to find their own path for making money online. One of the things that I absolutely love about working as an entrepreneur is the freedom it provides. You have the freedom to create your own schedule and plan activities around your work. I love being able to open up my notebook and earn money online at anytime of the day or night. Whether you are seeking full-time income or just some supplemental side income, your online business can help you reach your goals. In upcoming posts I will take the time to discuss the following areas: How to Take Your Offline Knowledge And Use It To Make Money Online How to Start A Blog From Scratch How to Make Money Writing For Your Own Site And Other Websites How to Grow A Website From A Small Readership Into A Loyal Following How to Sell Products Related to Your Niche Online How to Take The Money That You Earn Online And Increase It Through Investing Each of these topics is a real passion of mine and played a role in my journey to creating an online income stream. Hopefully by sharing my experiences, I can provide some insight into any questions or issues that you may be having. That way you can be on your way to making money online that much faster. I am looking forward to sharing my ideas with you in future posts and hearing from you as well. Mark Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: entrepreneur profiles, ideas, knowledge, marketing, money, Sponsored, work

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What is the Future of Entrepreneurship Education?

by Paul Joseph March 23, 2011 Featured

Seven top young entrepreneurs and leaders in the entrepreneurship education movement shared their thoughts during a panel at the Future of Entrepreneurship Education Summit (February 18) at the University of Central Florida . The summit, created by Extreme Entrepreneurship Education (also led by young entrepreneurs), gathered over 130 top entrepreneurship education leaders from government, foundations, organizations, media, and corporations to talk about the future of the field. Their panel was moderated by Donna Fenn, author of UpStarts! , and included: Ryan Allis of iContact (earned over $40 million in 2010). Ryan built the firm from its start in July 2003 to its current size of 240 employees and 67,000. Scott Gerber of the Young Entrepreneur Council . Scott is a serial entrepreneur and Scott is the most-syndicated young entrepreneurship columnist in the world. Trevor Owens of the Lean Startup Machine (LSM). LSM teaches entrepreneurs how to rapidly improve their businesses through a customer feedback process called customer development. Chris McCann of Startup Digest . Startup Digest publishes a weekly email newsletter of the best events in 57 cities and 6 Universities to over 100,000 subscribers. Caryn Shick of Incuba8 . Incuba8 is a series of initiatives that inspire and generate entrepreneurial activity that cultivate cultures of action, fully vetted ideas and make concepts a reality. Travis Kiefer of Gumball Capital . Gumball is a social enterprise that has challenged over 3,000 students at 25 schools to raise maximum revenue and awareness on poverty alleviation using only $27 and 27 gumballs. Ankur Jain of the Kairos Society . Kairos is a student run, not for profit foundation created to tap the power of the brightest undergraduate entrepreneurs to develop business innovations with global impact. Watch the Full Panel To watch the full, 1-hour panel, visit the following links: Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa3VIbHYdIg Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O9dx98j5yc Part 3 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyI5KeaispI Part 4 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBaJEvofzzY Visions for the Field Starting with the end in mind, below are the participants’ personal visions for the field of entrepreneurship education: Entrepreneurship education and financial literacy should be required for all high schools. There should be viable opportunities as entrepreneurs should be given to those who are not college bound. There should be less business plan competitions and more events where youth can test their ideas. The overall density of entrepreneurs should increase so entrepreneurs don’t feel alone. Students should have their context shifted so they realize they can create businesses that solve big social problems. Highlights How do we get there? Below are highlights on strategies panelists provided for aspiring entrepreneurs and those supporting aspiring entrepreneurs: Reaching the first 100k is the hardest.  But once you reach this level, it becomes easier to scale.  You’ll need to spend three to four years to reach the $1 million revenue and ten years to reach the $100 million mark. It’s important to create business models that aren’t based solely on raising money.  Instead, create a solid product or service and generate sales.  The pay-off should not be the goal of venture capital but rather the creation of a solid business model. It’s not about the best idea but the EXECUTION of the idea.  Know the landscape of your industry and your company and know how to play the game of business. It’s important to learn how to sell.  You don’t need a product but you will need to have masterful sales skills. Get started selling before you focus on building. Written by Michael Simmons and Malla Haridat. Michael Simmons is the co-founder of the Future of Entrepreneurship Education Summit and Extreme Entrepreneurship Education . Malla Haridat is the founder of New Designs for Life and a blogger at 9to5entrepreneur.com .

Tagged as: entrepreneur, field, game, ideas, society, thoughts

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How To Leverage Your Time & Revenue During A Business Transition

by Paul Joseph March 15, 2011 Featured

Since starting to blog here on Entrepreneurs Journey, I have been giving plenty of tips and advice for building exposure and creating profile, using methods I have utilized with clients. Now I want to talk a little about my own journey and slight change of direction for me, and share what I learned about leveraging time and creating additional revenue streams with you. Now Or Never When I started my public relations business, McDuling PR, back in 2007 it was a pretty big step for me. I already had a few clients on the side when I left my full-time employment, but basically found myself in a deal-breaker position – it was now or never to make it work . I didn’t have the luxury of a nice cash cow or rich husband to give me a buffer to play it safe and build it up slowly. I had to really go for it, or not be able to pay the mortgage or put food on the table. And that’s exactly what I did – fortunately it worked out very well for me. Now, four years later, I have a number of fantastic clients I work with – all of whom are inspiring individuals in their own way. The only problem is the amount of work it takes on my part. It is all consultancy based work and requires a lot of input, time and effort . And if I want to make more money, I only really have two choices with this scenario – put my prices up (and there is a ceiling on how much one can charge for public relations services, as there is with most other industries) or take on more clients. Physically, I can really only work with so many clients at a time while providing a good service, and having a little bit of a personal life. I have one person who works for me part-time, but I pride myself on providing personal service to my clients , so there is only so much I can outsource to him. Plus, I don’t really want to be managing people while being responsible for them. It is not what gives me joy – it just adds to my stress. Many service providers find themselves with the same conundrum, and many of my clients are in the same boat. I work with them to help them discover additional revenue streams, and this is literally what I have done for my own business. But, rather than adding these additional revenue streams to McDuling PR , I created a whole separate identity – and Stratosphere Me was born and launched in February this year! Solutions The philosophy behind Stratosphere Me was to provide a number of solutions for individuals (not companies, but individuals – including entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, athletes and business owners) to generate exposure for themselves and thereby grow their profits. The high-end solution is consultancy work, where they will quite literally pay me to do this for them. However, other solutions available to them include: attending a workshop where I will show them how to do it for themselves, being part of a mentoring group, offering product sales, and finally one-on-one Skype consultations where I provide ideas for exposure specific to their situation or industry. How To Leverage Time It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that I can make more money for less effort working with a large group of people at the one time, rather than taking them all on as individual clients. Plus, the workshop and mentoring group options are far more cost effective for people who have budgetary limitations. Obviously, creating and then selling a product is the ultimate solution in leveraging time really well, because I only need to create it once and then I can sell it multiple times. I want to reach an international audience , because what I am teaching is applicable on a larger scope than just here in Australia. I am not originally Australian – I was born and raised in South Africa and then Ireland, before moving here as a teenager. I consider myself a global resident as I am very widely traveled, and would like to settle elsewhere in the world for at least part of the year. My husband is Dutch, and moved out here when we met, so we are often on the move and like to explore other countries. Therefore, it was important for me to consider whether my business was easily transferable . My products will be for sale in US dollars and are available for an international audience, and I plan to take my workshops to the US next year. I consult over Skype with people from around the world, and provide guidance and practical ideas for a small one-off fee payable over Paypal . Therefore, my business is truly international. How To Create Additional Revenue Here are some ideas and suggestions to provide additional streams of revenue for your business: If the main source of revenue for your business is currently purely service-based, is there an option to create product to sell online and to your database? For example, if you are an accountant, could you provide an in-depth report that offers tax-savings advice? If you already have a product, for example a report that your clients download, could you create a multimedia product (video and audio) to offer something extra for a higher price? Again, if you are service-based, why not offer workshops where attendees can learn from you how to do whatever it is you offer, themselves? The bonus is you can then film the workshop to create your product. This is an example of really leveraging both time and resources. Webinars are a great opportunity to offer distance training and seminars that can also be interactive. The higher your profile, the higher value people will place on being apart of it and the more they will pay. Imagine how much a webinar with Richard Branson or Bill Gates would be worth for example. I am interested to hear of other ideas to leverage time and create additional streams of revenue, particularly for service-based businesses. This is a transition I am currently going through and I am keen to learn as much as I can to ensure a successful result. Kerry McDuling Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, business, clients, ideas, online, skype, small-business, workshop, young

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How To Enhance Creativity Part 2: Unlocking The Secrets Of The Unconscious

by Paul Joseph March 14, 2011 Featured

Hello again, I didn’t get through all the techniques for enhancing creativity in my last article, How To Enhance Creativity: Why Lady Gaga Works & Brainstorming Doesn’t , so we’re picking up from where we left off and running with it! Our unconscious mind is a vast resource of infinite wisdom and creative insight . In part one, I referred to some experiences of how my creativity was able to produce all kinds of useful and unique insights and information to help me with business decisions and choices related to my personal life. The trick is finding ways to tap into this resource. Tapping Into The Unconscious There’s a really cool story told by Dr. Richard Wiseman , which is a great analogy for how our unconscious mind works and how to tap into it. It’s called listening to the quiet girl in the room. Imagine you go into a room, there are two people in the room. One is very vivacious, chatty and loud, the other is very quiet and reserved. You ask these two characters for help with solving some problem, and the loud girl immediately bursts forth with a torrent of ideas and information, it may not be very useful, unique or interesting. The quiet girl on the other hand, doesn’t say anything, because she doesn’t get a chance to with her noisy counterpart monopolizing the spot light. Dr. Wiseman says this is really how our conscious and unconscious mind operates. Our conscious mind is the noisy one ; never shuts up, always prattling on with an endless run of thoughts and ideas, it may not be very useful, relevant or interesting. Our unconscious mind on the other hand, can have some extremely useful and unique insights to share, but we rarely hear from it over the chatter of our conscious mind. So how do we deal with this? In my experience, doing various kinds of meditation has helped me immensely with quietening my overly busy mind. Moving meditation , like yoga , works well if you’re not someone who can sit still for long. If sitting still doesn’t drive you crazy then there are numerous types of still meditations available. I practiced Vipassana meditation for a number of years and I’ve never had such clarity of mind and creative insight as when I kept up this discipline. I’ve fallen off the wagon however and am well overdue for another stint of training! Dr. Wiseman cites another way to access our unconscious, and we’ll go back to the story to find out how. So, this time when you go back into the room, you head the noisy girl off at the pass by asking her to do some kind of time consuming task which keeps her distracted. Then when she’s occupied, you ask the quiet girl again for help with your problem. Now that there is space for her to share her insights, she can tell you numerous innovative and unusual solutions to your problem. This leads us to some other great ways to get your conscious mind out of the way to let your unconscious work on innovative problem solving . How Puzzles Help Creative Thinking Ap Dijksterhuis , a psychologist from University of Amsterdam conducted a series of experiments to test this theory. He would pose a problem or ask a question of the participants in the study. Then he would have them distract their conscious mind for a few (3) minutes with something else (you could use a crossword, a computer game, a word finder puzzle, anything that requires your undivided attention for a few minutes.) The study found that when people engaged their conscious mind and allowed their unconscious to work on the problem, they came up with almost twice as many creative and innovative ideas and solutions compared to when the conscious mind was involved. Pretty cool huh? I don’t find this is one of my favorite techniques for getting in touch with my subconscious, but it’s definitely a very quick and effective technique to get in touch with your hidden wisdom and insights. Prime-Time Again In the last article I mentioned awakening creativity through mental priming in relation to thinking of Lady Gaga, there is also another kind of mental priming mind available. When we work intensely on a problem for a while, we mentally prime our minds to immerse ourselves completely in the problem. Then we need to do something completely different. This could be going to a museum, an art gallery, watching a film or looking through magazines or books that are not related to the topic we’re working on. The idea is to allow our mind to perceive things from a different perspective and come up with new and innovative ideas and concepts as a result. Changing our perspective in other ways enhances creativity as well. Using our imagination is key here. We can use our imagination to think about how a child or a friend or an artist or accountant might approach the problem we’re struggling with. Consciously activating our curiosity also helps awaken our creativity. Children are extremely curious, and they are also extremely creative. Curiosity is a key link to creativity as it drives us to question things and entertain novel ideas in relation to a problem. I’ve discussed the benefits of play at length in other articles as a way to connect with our creativity. If we take 15 minutes break from the task we’re working on to play, it can re-energize us and bring fresh perspective to the problem. Dr. Wiseman has a few funny examples of play he recommends to help lighten things up. He says to try finding ways to put the words “cheese” & “pie” into our next meeting or telephone call. Maybe if you leave a comment at the end of this post, see if you can find a way to make these words fit into what you’re going to say. How Stress Shuts Down Creativity Stress shuts down our creativity and innovation very quickly. When we feel worried, we become very focused and concentrated on trying to figure whatever it is we think will help us avoid any further pain or punishment from the stress related issue. This creates a type of risk-averse behavior in which we rely on established habits and routines and tend to see the world through tunnel vision . The result is that we default more to linear, sequential thinking patterns as opposed to multidimensional, holistic thinking, which is the essence of creative thinking. In previous articles, I mentioned how exercise and spending time in quiet, natural settings is great for stress reduction. You may already have your own effective stress reduction techniques, it’s worth remembering that these are vital to enhancing your creativity and innovation, not to mention improving our overall health, well being and work performance. A Quick Trick To Relax And Enhance Creativity Psychologists Ronald Freidman and Jens Forster discovered a quick technique to make people feel relaxed, and enhances creativity. Apparently, when we like something we pull it towards us, and when we dislike it, we instinctively push it away from us. This act of pulling towards us is associated with positive feeling and relaxation , and the act of pushing away is associated with negative feeling and tension. Freidman and Forster found that by having participants place one hand under the table and pull it up towards them, they scored higher for creativity and innovation as it created that feeling of positivity and relaxation. They didn’t need to lift the table off the ground or anything, just place some upward pressure on the underside of the table as though pulling it towards them. Participants who placed their hands on the table-top and pushed down scored lower due to the feeling of tension and negativity. So we can always give this technique a try when we’re working at our desk and need to do some speedy relaxation and creative thinking. Why Lying Down On The Job Should Be Mandatory For Creative Thinking This brings us to our final technique for enhancing creativity, and it’s one of my favorites. It’s called lying down on the job! Ha-ha! Can you believe there is scientific proof that lying down on the job is actually beneficial to innovation and creative thinking? Please God, someone post this up on their workplace notice board! Darren Lipnicki and Don Byrne from Australian National University tested people’s creative problem solving both standing up or lying down. They found that participants solved problems 10% faster when lying down . The reason for this is not completely understood, but it’s possible that lying down decreases activity in a part of the brain called the locus coeruleus, and this appears to improve creative thinking. So next time the pressure is on to be innovative at work, just take five to lie down on the job and see what happens! The studies in this post come from a fabulous book, 59 Seconds , by Professor Richard Wiseman . It’s a brilliant book and I highly recommend it. Once again, please leave any comments you have in regard to the ideas in this post – I challenge you to include the words “cheese” and “pie” in it! Thanks for reading, and here’s to your creative success. Neroli Makim Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, ideas, internet, online, personal, problem, time, words, young

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