Entrepreneurs Reveal Secrets To Their Success
June 19, 2009 by Justin
If you have ever thought about working for yourself, or have leaned back in your cubicle, dreaming about life outside of the corporate drudgery, then you have wondered what exactly does it take to become an entrepreneur? What do you need to do to escape the 9-to-5, to fire your boss, and wander over to the land of the self-employed.
Successful entrepreneurs all follow the same basic principles. Sure, there are a myriad of ways to strike forth on your own when it comes to being self-employed, but you must follow the same basic principles and be fully aware of what’s ahead of you, before you even start.
Probably the three most important elements that you must address are vision, passion and focus. These are three of the most important secrets revealed by successful entrepreneurs.
As the road to self-employment success is paved with potholes, you must ensure that you’re passionate about what you are doing. You must ask yourself why you are doing it, what you’re hoping to achieve. Your passion will help you to get through the difficult times. Passion will ensure that you do not mind working those lengthy hours. There will be no more 9-to-5, it is more likely to be 9-to-9 or even more! Maintain your passion, be crazy like a fox, and this will ensure that you stay on the road towards that target.
You must be able to dream it, to live your dream in your mind. Vision is essential as without it you will not be able to maintain your passion or your focus. When you were sitting in a cubicle, you must have had a vision for the future — where you want to go in life. You need to be able to almost touch it, to have a really tangible vision, so that your hard work as an entrepreneur will carry you to that goal. Conjure up some examples of where you want to be, picture the good life. If you want to have material things, like a brand-new Ferrari, or an oceanfront home, print out pictures of those items and put them where you can see them on a daily basis.
Whilst vision and passion are important elements, you must also be focused. Realize that you can’t be all things to all men, nor a “jack of all trades and master of none”. Know what you are good at and focus on it. Get other companies or individuals to help you in areas that you are not expert at. This focus also means that you will not accept failure as an option.
All entrepreneurs who are successful share these same traits, these are the secrets to their success. It all started out with a vision, a clear picture of where they wanted to go and what they wanted to achieve. They exhibited passion, did not mind hard work, and were always enthusiastic about their business. Successful entrepreneurs are always focused once they have started their journey, and never look back!
What are the secrets to your success?
Adam Toren
Save Your Marketing Pennies - Five FREE Online Promotional Resources
June 18, 2009 by Justin
The following five FREE online promotional resources fall under the category of public relations. Companies automatically assume they need to dole out thousands of dollars to promote products and services, but that’s not the case anymore when it comes to online marketing. In these tough economic times, you can save marketing pennies by tapping into these user-friendly, online promotional resources.
Press Release Distribution Services
Utilize FREE online public relations distribution services to blast out company press releases. Because you submit your company’s press release to these services, you aren’t necessarily guaranteed publicity. However, you have a good shot if you write newsworthy press releases that catch the media’s attention. The services listed below distribute press releases to both national and local media outlets.
http://www.free-press-release.com
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com
Online Event Listings
If your company or business is planning a promotional event (such as open houses, trade shows or golf tournaments), there are many online promotional resources that don’t require a cost. Research local newspapers and magazines for free online calendar listings. The following sites are effective online promotional resources.
Blog Platforms
One of the best FREE online promotional resources is a well-written blog. You don’t have to spend any money to create an effective blog. These are some popular blog platforms that are easy to navigate. There are also free blog templates available online if you want to add color and flair to your blogs.
Professional Social Networking Sites
Sign up for FREE professional social networking sites. Social networking sites allow you to interact, network and promote your business with many people at once. The following sites also allow you to create groups or write articles – effective tools to further promote your products and services.
Article Submission Websites
Write a professional article that makes you sound like an expert in your field. If allowed by the site, add your professional bio and contact information at the end of each article. By submitting free articles to the sites listed below, you expose your company to thousands of potential new contacts and customers.
This is a Guest Post by Zeke Camusio is a serial entrepreneur, Internet Marketing expert and founder of The Outsourcing Company, an Internet Marketing agency with offices in Aspen, CO and New York. Let’s Do It!, his blog, is read by thousands of people all over the world.
The Pros and Cons of Making Money With Twitter
June 8, 2009 by Justin
It’s refreshing to see the entrepreneurial spirit alive and well, especially with new enhancements to technology. Take Twitter for example. It is, in and of itself, a fantastic technological advancement, but so are the income producing programs that have been created. We’ve seen many innovative applications branch off from an existing service, but as with anything, there are positives and negatives. Let’s take a look at the programs that enable you to make money with Twitter.
Without a doubt, Twitter is an excellent business communication tool, allowing more efficient contact with customers. While it has all the makings for a great advertising vehicle, Twitter as of yet has no formal advertising program. So taking your Twitter use to the next level and starting a Twitter advertising program means finding a balance between a sales pitch and a tweet that will lead potential buyers to your website.
If you blog on Twitter and have a good number of followers, this becomes an appealing vehicle for advertisers. You can actually generate income for a blog you are already producing. Of course, you’ll have to be open to running an advertising pitch at the end of your message, which may or may not offend some of your followers.
Twittad is probably the most structured and established program where you can make money using your Twitter profile. One option is to sell ad space on your Twitter account. You list it on Twittad, name your price based on your followers, and if you accept the ad, it will be added to your Twitter profile. Each time the ad is clicked upon, you earn money.
The other Twittad option is its opt-in advertiser campaign. This is particularly useful for entrepreneurs on Twitter because you can send a tweet advertising a product and earn income by doing it.
While it appears Twitter has the makings for some substantial income producing opportunities, advertising gurus point out some of its potential downfalls. For example, Twitter’s retention rate is less than 50%, which means those who visit your Twitter profile once, may not return again. That makes it a bit more challenging to meet your goals for online audience reach.
While there is much hype surrounding Twitter right now, the question is whether it can maintain it long-term. Keep in mind that some find Twitter’s interface a bit confusing, which means many are still trying to figure out its intricacies, like trying to follow conversation threads and figuring out direct messages and retweets.
Whether or not the pros outweigh the cons is a personal decision. But considering the vast audience that Twitter attracts, it’s a sure bet it’s evolution will include an advertising program. For entrepreneurs, that could mean a promising addition to current online advertising opportunities.
If you’ve tried any income producing programs on Twitter or have your own ways of making money using Twitter, we invite you to share them with other entrepreneurs. Leave your feedback and suggestions in a comment.
Adam Toren
Yahoo Launches Image Help For Online Marketeers
June 5, 2009 by Justin
Yahoo is beginning to take some aggressive steps to show their value to online marketers. This no doubt will be a boom for entrepreneurs and those who make their living from Internet marketing. It’s also refreshing to see Yahoo competing to gain back market share lost to Google by carving out its own unique niche among the business sector.
Getting back to its pioneering roots, Yahoo becomes the first search engine to offer companies access to images that have been approved for modification and commercial use. Through its Creative Commons license filter within its Yahoo! Image Search, the search engine has launched a valuable tool for companies in need of photos and other images for their websites and Internet marketing efforts.
The search engine has teamed with Flickr, a leading online photo management and sharing application, to make the license search available to those who use Yahoo! Image Search. The new service makes it less of a legal and copyright hassle for companies to use images. What makes the relationship between image creators and users work are the succinct guidelines provided by Yahoo regarding approved uses of the images.
Yahoo has been on a tear of late introducing features that enhance the experience for companies advertising on the Internet. Another innovative feature from Yahoo is an enhancement to its Smart Ads program. With the new feature, companies now have the ability to customize their display ads in order to target different audiences.
It’s clear that Yahoo is listening to its core group of users and developing enhancements to keep them in the fold. It appears that Yahoo is seeking to outperform the competition in the Internet marketing arena. It should be interesting to see how Google responds to these new features that are extremely valuable to companies, in particular entrepreneurial businesses.
Since launching the Creative Commons license filter, Yahoo has received positive feedback from small and large companies. They are also seeing a jump in Yahoo! Image Search users.
What do you think about this new feature? Yahoo are fishing for your business - but will you switch from your current means of obtaining approved images for your websites and Internet marketing efforts? Leave us a comment with your thoughts.
Matthew Toren
Can Massive Investment Turn Social Networking Into Real Revenue?
June 1, 2009 by Justin
It looks like Facebook is the first of the social networking sites to make a move to address the issue of generating revenue from its enormous volume of traffic. Rather than have its over 200 million users pay for the value of its service, Facebook has received an injection of cash from a major investment company.
Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian Internet investment company, is paying a whopping $200 million to own a 2 percent share in Facebook. The company is controlled by successful Russian Internet Entrepreneur Yuri Milner.
In addition to the investment, Digital Sky Technologies has agreed to buy $100 million of ordinary shares from existing Facebook shareholders.
You might recall that Facebook faced a similar infusion of cash from Microsoft in 2007. In that deal, Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.6 percent share in the company.
It’s interesting to note that in 2007, Facebook’s value was placed at $15 billion. With the 2009 Digital Sky Technologies deal, Facebook’s worth dropped to $10 billion. The decline can be attributed to the frustration among investors that Facebook fails to capitalize on its 200 million users worldwide by instituting some form of revenue-generating program. In fact, Facebook’s private equity investors value the company at only $3 billion.
So what can we expect from the deal with Digital Sky Technologies? Facebook investors might see some movement toward profitability when you consider that Digital Sky Technologies is the market leader in social networking in 13 countries. It recognizes the extraordinary value social networking companies provide to its users. The company has also had impressive financial results in its Internet investments.
But when talking about the deal, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said little on the revenue-generating topic. Rather, he viewed the investment as a means of globally expanding Facebook’s reach for its millions of users.
Although Facebook officers deny that the deal was made because the social network company needed additional cash, only time will tell the financial outlook for Facebook. Zuckerberg has gone on record as saying he anticipates Facebook having positive cashflow in 2010. How the company plans to achieve that outcome remains to be seen.
All eyes will be on Facebook in the coming months to see whether Digital Sky Technologies makes any impact on turning Facebook’ mega traffic numbers into revenue. What are your thoughts about Facebook’s new investor? Leave us a comment and let us know what your expectations are from the deal.
What do you think of the Facebook Phenomenon? Leave your answers in a comment!
Adam Toren
