Success Through Positivity

As I draw more readers to the blog...slowly but surely, I have come to the realization that I can't simply wait around for people and networks for this blog. In my networking journey, I have found different blogs and people that strongly relate to this blog as well. Now I know one of the rules to a successful blog is to brand yourself. So referring to similar blogs may be harmful, but I really was inspired by one blog in particular. www.iwillchangeyourlife.com is a personal blog that offers advice from the perspective of a constantly evolving individual. This constant determination to better and change oneself is the perfect description of my idea of the everyday entrepreneur. In particular the article entitled, "30 fundamentals of a wonderful life," was completely inspirational. I believe that the fundamentals that he speaks about can greatly influence ones success in the entrepreneurial realm. It is truly inspirational to find people like that who have such a great spirit and drive for life. The corny line of, You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To, is reborn here. From reading about Peter and his struggle, I really came to admire his take on life and his appreciation of the moments of his life. I realize that this blog is more of an emotional and motivational niche but people like myself can take a lot out of it and apply it. I want to take time to thank Peter for all his great writings and inspirations and I hope that he changes your life as it has definitely changed mine. Again, I hope you readers out there take this post to heart as it really does embody my ideals and values.

Making Money Blogging...becoming a blogtrepreneur

In my young career in blogging I have found that there are thousands of blogs that are saying the same exact things. Distinguishing one blog from another is very difficult, but important in being successful. I understand that writing this post, I probably don't have too much credibility but I can offer up some tips from my short experience. I don't possess a large amount of expertise on the technical side but I can provide strategic pointers. Obviously your writings are gonna be the main focus, not your layout or your ad programs. The first thing that i've learned is that you have to write about something you're passionate and knowledgeable about. Internet readers are savages and can rip you apart when you post crap. Put some time and flare into your writings. State your ideas, don't be afraid to criticize or be controversial. Putting yourself out there and on the line will help you express your blogs more freely. Another writing tip I can offer up is in regards to blog titles. Writing a concise and interesting blog title can greatly increase the appeal of your posts. Making them relevant and intriguing will increase your visibility and will grab the attention of your readers. Amongst the thousands and thousands of blogs, people write about everything in their daily lives. If you're looking to retain an audience you must be specific and stick to that niche. Many blogs have so many random posts that the site becomes stale and boring. Feeds are there for a reason, to shorten the time it takes to read your favorite posts. People want information that is relative or it becomes a waste of time. These tips are mainly relative to establishing your audience, obviously, layout, optimization and marketing are other key factors that will help monetize your site. But your audience is your key, not your advertising in making your first steps towards pro blogging. Establish your audience then work on monetizing your blog.

The Power of Numbers Idea

First off it's been a few days since I last posted, but I've been trying to map out some good subject matter for the coming weeks. I'm happy to see those that are still subscribed to the feed after this short time. I'm really looking into moving this site to a dedicated server and domain. So be on the lookout for that and I will also keep you updated. As somewhat of a social entrepreneur, one of my long term goals has been to donate a generous sum of money to a charitable organization. I care about a lot of issues in the world; AIDS, hunger, environment, etc., but I really don't know too much about the specifics of these organizations. Many people do donate to individual organizations and that's great. But what about people like me that don't know where to donate and don't want to put all their eggs in one basket. I envision a service that can do this on a large scale. A service that can pool the resources of a large community with a goal of benefiting the world. People would be able to donate any sum of money and have the ability to vote for their organization or leave it up to the community to decide. The more votes an organization receives, the greater the donation to that specific charity. The key feature with this idea is that people can donate while benefiting more than one organization. The power of numbers can take this model to the next level. Now creating a non-profit or not for profit organization is no easy task. There are ways to make money from this but it should not be priority number one. An entrepreneur who is willing to take on this task with the sole purpose of benefiting others can have great success. This idea for me is special because it does have such a large benefit for others less fortunate. Those out there who would like to get an idea like this off the ground please let me know, as this is something i've always wanted to do, but lacked the know how.

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Millionaire?

So you read my post title and are intrigued by the idea of becoming a millionaire. Not being a millionaire myself I can't truly say what it takes. Living in a more affluent city, I've pressed the flesh with many a successful persons. One of the qualities that I admire about these people is that, surprisingly money does not drive their lives. As entrepreneurs, money and profit margins are everything. It envelops our everyday lives, we wish for what we don't have. It's just human nature. But those that have succeeded I've found, rarely were the I want to be rich type. Their success was driven by their strengths. I believe that it is this type of greed that turns the focus away from true entrepreneurship. Now I've always held money as something that I can always have or earn and therefore I would like to believe that money isn't everything. I received one of my most valuable pieces of insight while I was an intern at a start up health food company. It was here that my boss told me that, "I don't want money to control my life, rather I have a vision of where I want to be." Depending on how you look at it, it may seem the same. But seeing things in a bigger context can greatly improve your ability to succeed. Money should be a mechanism for success, and not your goal. Don't be blinded by all the cars, jewelry, houses and material things, remember what is important to you. Some people have that mindset of, making money is everything. If you're not enough without the money, you'll never be enough with it. Stay focused on your goals and have an open and attentive mind. Again these are my takes on entrepreneurship and I really just want to hammer these ideas home, so bare with me and don't forget to comment. Thanks for reading!

Get Rich Quick...Dating

On one of my earlier posts I referenced a successful website called http://www.plentyoffish.com. I was intrigued by the success of this site and decided to research other dating sites on the web and found some interesting things and was also surprised that I didn't find things. I found that most dating sites are very successful whether they are regional or national or worldwide, whether they cater to a certain attribute or race. Recently, these sites have experienced a bit of a plateau, but are still going strong. There is great value in this type of relational database site as, let's be honest, so many people are looking for that special someone, its basically integrated into our society. One thing that I didn't find that I thought was striking was a speed dating type website. Speed dating is a hot trend especially here in the new millenium. Why not create a site that does this through a simple chat application? If you've ever played online poker, most applications use a lounge, group and table subset. Something like this system can be applied to a speed dating site. The game...20 people in a chat room 1 minute rounds. Each person has 1 minute to chat then rotates. The rooms can be organized by ethnicity, religion, orientation, etc.... The interactivity of this system can improve any of the existing websites right now, but can operate solely in its own new niche. I think this type of system may give users more control and it also provides an exciting new venue to meet people in. Any takers on this idea?

ATTN: Looking For Smart, Talented and Motivated Individuals

Everyday Entrepreneur is all about finding those people who, at the least, have that entrepreneurial spirit. You don't have to own your business, you don't have to be a corporate executive. EE is about those people who aren't bounded by the typical business model/idea. By now, those of you reading the few posts that i've put up, should realize really what this blog is all about. I'm not afraid to share some of my ideas, and I would like to find those others who are willing to share their ideas as well. I want to find people like me and collaborate, my plans eventually for this is to switch to more dedicated servers/domain...blah..blah, and create a forum. But without an audience I don't really see a point. So i'm calling on everybody to start commenting, get this melting pot burning. I'm only one person but am looking to turn this blog into a "we," or "us" type venue. I want to be able to turn some heads while doing this and if you want to join me subscribe to the feed, post a comment, let me know there are other people like myself out there. I look forward to listening to your ideas as well as hearing comments about my ideas. Thank you.

Making Money Off Other People

Web 2.0 is all about interfacing with technology and generating your own content. But it doesn't have to limit itself to myspace and youtube type content. I read an article about a year ago about a young startup company that created user generated designs to put onto clothing. Designs were submitted online and then users voted on which design would go to the printers. Now, many of the online printing operations have some sort of user voted content. You can take an important business lesson from this creative idea, listen. Sometimes the best ideas come from those you are selling to. Now I don't mean go out there and steal ideas from other people, i'm saying that you should adhere to what your audience is telling you. Unless you know you are the best at what you do, you can always benefit from someone else. So what other ideas can you apply this to you ask? Well, think of what people do on the individual level, they write, draw, sing, dance, act, etc.... The possiblities are endless when you talk about the human ability. There are so many talented people in the world, why not use their talents. Now I don't want to limit anyones creativity so I don't want to give anything too specific. Just remember to always pay attention to details. As i've said before, don't limit yourself to one dimension of business. Take one aspect and melt it with another then take that idea and create a masterpiece.

Motivations For Taking THE PLUNGE!

A lot of us, "entrepreneurs," have had our difficulties risking the plunge into running our own businesses. But most aspiring business folk do just that...aspire. It is a known fact that most ventures crash before they even take off. The best ideas for me have come while walking around with my buddies saying, "wouldn't that be cool if someone started something like this?" For me, I've always paid close attention to these things, as the demographic is what I know the most about. I know there are a lot of people out there who have had great ideas, the shortcoming is the follow through. Most of these shortcomings come from three things.

1. lack of confidence


2. lack of experience


3. lack of expertise

Obviously money is another, but money should never be an insurmountable roadblock. In fact you should look forward to confronting that roadblock once you take The Plunge. The first thing you need to take The Plunge is a confidence in your product/idea. If you cannot stand next to your product and be proud of it, stop. People are going to invest in you and you better be able to back it up. If you feel that it can't compete, make it compete. There is always a way of working with an idea to make it stronger, find it and then exploit it. Another thing that i've learned and it may be cliche is, never let anyone tell you that you can't. I don't care if you're a high school dropout, the greatest qualities of a good entrepreneur cannot come from a classroom. Some of the smartest people that i've met are complete idiots when it comes to decision making and development. Entrepreneurs who are good decision makers know that they are. Good entrepreneurs don't need to open a book for an answer, they make smart choices by knowing things ahead of time. Lastly, a lack of expertise is the single greatest damper on The Plunge. Let's face it, most people don't have an MBA from Harvard in Business. But should that really matter? My mother always told me, don't put all your eggs in one basket. This applies to education. Whether you learned something in the real world, classroom, or casual read, it all matters. Just because you're not an expert doesn't mean you're an idiot. Take every experience and learn from it. If you're watching t.v., analyze what you're watching, learn from it. The more you take in, the more you can apply, get out there and pay attention to every detail of every second of your life. Taking The Plunge is a risk, no doubt, but putting yourself in a mindset to succeed will yield great results in the end. Have confidence in yourself and let's see what you can do!

Got Personality?

In a world of millions of URL's, it is hard to separate each other. People hate automated or cold websites. Giving your website a personality is crucial to keep traffic moving. A lot of sites today offer up their goals as their best foot forward. Sure, making money is a great thing but you should do it in a manner that pleases people. If you go buy a car, you have to buy the salesman first. Some of the best potential business people out there are the ones that take your order at a restaurant, or your real estate agent. Giving your readers a little taste of what you are behind that computer screen is somewhat of a comfort. We all have different personalities, why not apply those to your site in order to distinguish yourself. After all, its the content you provide that supposedly is driving your site. This post for me has a special purpose. I want to find those people that aren't in the business of making money, but in the business of investing in people. I could care less if I can make money off thousands of clicks, i'd like to think of myself as a business sociologist. I want to better understand people in order to motivate my entrepreneurial spirit. I'm looking for people like myself that aren't blinded by the almighty dollar. People are so focused on making money these days that they don't retain those relationships that have helped them. I really do hope that there are other people out there like myself, who aren't in it just for the money and are willing to help each other in a quest for success.

Make Things Free...Make Money

To quote one of my favorite t.v. shows, "SWAG! Stuff We All Get."(Steve Carrell - The Office).

The world seems to be giving stuff away. Just do a quick google search for "free stuff," and you're bombarded with promises of t-shirts, cups, memberships and so on. One of the great free trends is the trend of taking pay sites or what would be membership sites and making them totally free. Now with the advent of adsense, yahoo! search, and other ad serving programs, businesses have discovered a way to eliminate the burden of online monetary exchanges without sacrificing their potential revenues. As more and more companies pour money into ad programs the greater the need to create larger impressions. So what is out there that can be totally free? Many things I believe can benefit from adopting such systems. No more membership fees, no listing fees on eBay, etc.... Really, unless you are selling a product, there is no need to charge for things anymore. If companies are willing to spend millions on advertising, you might as well spend your time marketing. For example, one of the most successful free ventures out there was Plentyoffish.com. Amongst the plethora of pay dating sites came this simple database. Without the flashyness of aesthetic design, plentyoffish.com took on a sort of craigslist of dating. It gave users the opportunity to join this niche, with its simple interface and a few key services, without having to pay any outrageous sign-up fees. Through the use of ad serving, Plentyoffish.com was able to generate a substantial amount of revenue. I will not disclose how much they made, but let's just say it was enough. So my challenge to you is...what other services can you automate online that will eliminate an online exchange of money?