Blogtrepreneur | Entrepreneur Blog

101 Resources for Managing Your Money Online

Steven — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 17:42:03 +0000

With a hard-hitting credit crunch beginning to take its toll on the masses, and rising fuel and food costs already causing distress, more and more people are turning to the web in order to cut costs and to make use of the valuable financial tools that exist online. We hope this list comes in handy, and let us know if you feel there are anymore that deserve a place below!

Budgeting & Money Management

There’s an always increasing number of tools and websites devoted to helping you manage your money. Each of these will be unique, but many have similar functions for budgeting and tracking expenses, and some will integrate with your bank accounts. The list includes both free and paid tools:

Online Savings Accounts

Online savings accounts offer much higher interest rates than you can get from traditional bank savings accounts, and they can be pretty convenient too. Of course, these banks will not be available to all parts of the world. The list is separated by the US and UK.

US:

UK:

Invoicing Tools

For those of us who bill clients, online invoicing tools are a big time-saver, and they can help you to stay organized by knowing what invoices have been paid. Many of the options listed here include both a free and a paid version, or a free trial period. Some of the items on this list strictly handle invoices, and others provide additional money management functions:

Invoice Creator for Excel

Free Invoice Templates for Excel

Bill4Time

Cashboard

Invoice2Go

Online Payment Processing

If you’re selling products online or providing freelance services, these tools can make it easier and convenient for you to get paid. Of course, they can also be convenient if you’re doing the paying:

Websites and Blogs

Want to learn more about managing your money? There are a number of excellent websites and blogs that you can follow to enhance your financial knowledge:

Yahoo! Finance

MSN Money

CNN Money

The Wall Street Journal

Articles

The articles below are excellent starting points for learning more about finances:

Money 101

Five Basics for Building a Solid Financial Future

Top Five Risks to Your Retirement

Mobile Money: Five Tips for Managing Your Finances on the Go

Little Income, Big Debts: Managing Your Money in Your College Years

8 Steps to Managing Your Money

Stock Trading

Online trading can provide cheaper transactions than traditional trading. Here are some of the leading options:

Online Stock Trading Reviews

Calculators and Tools

If you want to see how much a mortgage will cost you or how much you need to save for retirement, online calculators are a great resource. This is just a sampling of what you can find online, but these are some of the most useful ones:

Household Budget Worksheet

Tax Withholding Calculator

Retirement Savings Calculator

Mortagage Calculator: Fixed vs. Adjustable Rate Mortgages

401(K) Savings Calculator

Will You Save by Refinancing Your Mortgage?

Mortgage Payment Calculator

Calculate Your Estate Tax Liability

The True Cost of Paying the Minimum on Your Credit Card

Universal Currency Converter

Currency Converter from Yahoo Finance

Exchange Rates

Image by Daniel Starrason

If you liked this post, then you’re gonna love:

9 Barriers to Success with Social Media

Steven — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:28:24 +0000

Most bloggers would love to get more traffic with social media, regardless of how much they’re getting now. Unfortunately, a relatively small percentage of bloggers ever see significant results. If you’re looking to get more out of social media it’s important to know what’s holding you back so that you can fix it.

1. Lack of a Network

When most bloggers start using social media they wind up submitting their own posts to Digg and maybe some other social media sites, and they get very few votes. At this point, it’s typical to wonder how others can get hundred or even thousands of votes while your submissions barely get any.

One of the keys to being noticed on social media sites is to build a network. Digg is notorious for favoring users that have a huge number of friends (although changes to the algorithm have improved this somewhat).

A strong network can help you with just about any aspect of blogging, and social media marketing is no different. There are a few specific ways that your network can help you to get some exposure through social media. First, members of your network are more likely than others to vote for your posts.

I’m a frequent user of social media, and I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes my voting decisions are influenced by my relationships with other bloggers. I think it’s only human nature to want our friends to do well, so building a strong network will lead others to look for opportunities to vote for your posts.

Second, many social media sites include a feature for sharing a link with a friend. StumbleUpon’s share feature can be used directly from the toolbar, and Digg’s shout system is also used extensively by many Diggers. The more friends you have, and the better relationships you have with these friends, the more opportunities you will have to request a vote when you need it most. Also, many bloggers send requests to friends via email or IM.

Third, your network will impact the overall readership of your blog. Those who are very well-connected and active networkers tend to have large, responsive audiences. These audiences will be more likely to vote for your submissions without any prompting. On many blogs you’ll see buttons (such as the “Digg This” button) or links to make it easier for readers to vote.

If you’ve been struggling to gain any momentum with social media, take a look at your networking habits. Have you been actively getting to know other bloggers and social media users (this involves more than simply adding someone as a friend at Digg or StumbleUpon)?

2. Lack of a Plan

Social Media Marketing is like any other type of marketing, it requires strategy and execution. If your current plan only involves submitting your posts and hoping that they get a bunch of votes, that’s not much of a plan.

Your social media plan should be defined by what you want to accomplish. The most obvious benefit of social media marketing is traffic, but the traffic means very little if it doesn’t convert into something. Otherwise, you’ll be left with some impressive stats for a few days, but nothing of real value to show for it.

Do you want to use social media to gain subscribers (difficult, but possible)? Do you want to build links? Do you want to brand yourself or your blog through social media? Whatever your goals are, it’s important to understand what is most important to you so you can develop a plan to make it happen.

Your plan should also include the type of content that you’re going to promote through social media. Are you going to use informational posts, resource lists, controversy, humor, news? Find the type of content that will best help you to meet your goals.

The specific social media sites that you’ll be targeting should also be a part of your plan. There are hundreds or thousands of different social media sites, and it’s just not possible to effectively target more than a few. To have the best results you should be an active user at the sites that you’re targeting so you can get to know the users and what types of content work well. Then you can cater your content to that specific audience.

3. Lack of an Audience

If no one sees your content, no one will be able to vote for it. I mentioned earlier how building a network can help you to build a larger audience that will be willing to vote for you content. I’m sure you’ve noticed that most of the submissions that reach the front page of Digg are from major sites (like TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Smashing Magazine, etc.).

These sites that have a huge audience have a much easier time getting votes than a blog that has 100 readers. For smaller blogs it’s unfortunate, but your success with social media will be more difficult than it would if you had a much larger audience. That doesn’t mean that you can’t have good results with social media, but it does mean that you should keep working on growing your audience so that things will get easier with time.

4. Poor Content

One of the obvious reasons for not succeeding with social media is the content itself. I know when I started using social media I submitted a few things that completely did not fit with the audience. Not everything will draw attention from social media users. The content not only needs to be of high quality, but it also needs to be something that will appeal to these users.

If you’re new to social media, spend some time just going through the popular submissions and see what you can learn about the types of content that tend to generate a response. Think about how you can apply this to your own content. What can you create that will be relevant to your blog that will also appeal to this audience?

5. Forcing Content

As I mentioned in the previous point, not all content will work with social media. If you’re trying to force the content, you’re unlikely to get results. I use a few niche social media sites for web design and development, and every now and then I’ll come across submissions that are completely out of place. None of these submissions will ever make it to the front page and they’ll never get any type of exposure. It’s simply a waste of time for the person submitting the content.

Forcing can also apply if you are submitting every post you publish to social media. It’s very unlikely that every post will be a good fit for social media. If a particular post doesn’t have much of a chance for success, don’t force the issue. Wait until you have a post that is a good fit and you’ll have much better results.

6. Lack of Focus

While your social media plan is important (point number 2), it’s also critical that you stay focused on your plan. Over the course of time it’s easy to get distracted by the numbers involved with social media and forget about what’s really most important to you.

I think a good example is a blogger who constantly tries to get to the front page of Digg. There are plenty of other sites that are easier to have success with, but if you lose focus and just keep going after traffic from Digg, you’re likely to get nowhere.

7. Poor Timing

Timing is often overlooked by bloggers that are targeting social media traffic. Most of us learned quickly that blog traffic in general is lower on weekends, and that also applies to social media sites. So if your submission is featured on the front page of a social media site over the weekend you will get less exposure and less traffic than you would if this happened during the work week. On the other hand, less bloggers are targeting social media on the weekend, so getting to the front page might be a little easier.

I’ve also found that the time of day can have an influence on social media traffic. I target Delicious with my blog and I’ve noticed that being on the front page during the work day in the US will lead to more traffic than being on the front page at other times of the day.

Timing is often hard to manipulate (you can easily control when you publish a post, but controlling when it gets to the front page is a different story). However, you should give the timing some consideration. Test some things and see what works well for you.

8. Submitted by the Wrong Person

Many social media sites will make it easier or harder for a submission to have success based on the profile of the user that submits the item. If this is the case, your chances for success will be greatly improved if you can get a user with a strong profile to submit your post. You may have friends with strong profiles, or you may have one yourself. If you’re targeting Digg you’ll probably want to have someone specific submit your best posts, otherwise you’ll be taking a big risk if someone with a very weak profile submits a post that you were hoping to get to the front page.

9. Ineffective Titles

Standing out at a social media site is pretty difficult because there is so much content competing for the attention of users. The strength of your title will have a big influence on how many people click-through and how many people vote for you.

Not only is the title of your blog post important, but the title of the submission is also important. In most cases this will be the same, but sometimes you’ll see savvy social media users alter a title to make it more appealing, which can drastically help the chances of success.

What’s Your Experience?

What have you noticed to be critical to success with social media?

]]>

UcoZ: Hosted CMS Review

David — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:08:43 +0000

Sometimes, blogging software just isn’t enough and you have to transition to a full blown content management system, where you can easily run polls, guest books, photo albums, forums, and more, but the change can be difficult if you don’t have the technical knowledge on installing and configuring complex applications like Drupal.

Those that enjoyed the hosted environment of WordPress.com might enjoy a new hosted service called UcoZ. Ucoz provides its users with an almost Drupal or PHP-Nuke (if you can remember back to when that was popular) like content management system that supports a variety of features out of the box that go beyond just blogging.

There were two features that really excited me about UcoZ, the first was that UcoZ includes unlimited disk space, something that most hosted services do not provide, and usually when they do, they don’t allow the uploading of multimedia files. UcoZ has a section dedicated to uploading your podcasts (mp3’s) and videos, as well as easily embedding YouTube videos and whatnot. When you first sign up, you don’t really have unlimited space, but like Gmail does, it has a counter, which starts at 200MB and grows from there over time. It is based on some formula mixed in with your sites traffic. The more traffic you get, the faster your space grows.

The second feature that really drew me in was that UcoZ includes FTP access, something that no other hosted service like this has ever allowed from my experience. FTP access allows you to quickly, and easily upload huge blocks of content, images, videos, and the like to the service, making it easier to build out your content fast. Without this ability, most other hosted services are frustrating to use.

While signing up, UcoZ allows you to select either a subdomain or use your own domain to host your site. I would recommend using your own domain if you have one as there is only one dot com available in their list. The good thing though is that there also dot org, dot net, dot co.uk and other extensions for those not willing to purchase a domain.

The other great thing about all of these domains you can have a subdomain on is that they also support multiple languages, and so if you want to blog in German, Ukrainian, or Russian, you can easily switch the language of the site.

Once you’ve signed up, you need to chose the theme you want to use, and you’ll have many options ranging from themes relating to online games to business, to personal, and everything in between, and once you’ve selected your theme, you aren’t stuck using it as is because there is a full customization tool that allows you to change the header images, content blocks, colours, CSS, and even the template code. You have full control over what you show the world, and it is a very nice feeling, though maybe more complex and involved than most users will ever need.

For those of you always tweaking things, you’ll love the built-in backup tool which allows you to backup your current theme before making changes. This means you can come back to previous looks if, like me, you mess everything up. I love when companies are smart enough to save me from myself.

I was surprised at how easy many things are to use. Once I realized I could edit nearly all of the content through links on pages, rather than moving through the options in the administration panel, adding content all over my new site was quick, and painless. It was also nice to see how things would look live, without having the administration interface in my way.

The UcoZ community seems to be thriving, with the support forum having very few areas that haven’t seen a new post in the last half a week, many having had replies in the last twelve hours. I feel a little shocked that I hadn’t heard of this service before, as it definitely feels like a pretty powerful CMS, hosted in such a way that users will never have to worry about upgrading their software, or worrying about their own bandwidth and storage space.

For those that are interested, you can also make money if you enjoy the UcoZ service by joining the UcoZ Money affiliate program, where each member you introduce to the system will earn you $0.50. While that is not a lot of money, it is still more than you will get from hosted blogging services like WordPress.com or TypePad. You can also receive 10% of the funds that any users you referred purchase any extra features, like instantly upgrading their space, or removing the UcoZ credits from the bottom of the page.

When I went to learn more about their current membership, it definitely appeared to be uniquely Russian and Ukranian in nature, but that shouldn’t put people unable to speak those languages off, as it, unlike many newer competitors, has been thoroughly tested.

Would I recommend UcuZ to people? If they wanted a hosted CMS platform, then definitely. If they only wanted to blog, I might tell them to stick with WordPress.com, unless they needed the ability to edit their template heavily.

7 Critical Success Factors for Blogs

Steven — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:00:25 +0000

Every blogging niche is different and each individual blogger has his or her own approach, but in the vast majority of cases there are a few factors that are absolutely critical to the long-term health of a blog. Some of these are obvious, but it can be a good starting point for new bloggers, or a refresher for those of us who have been blogging for a while. Getting back to basics and focusing on the critical success factors can lead to more productive use of our time and a more effective, streamlined approach to blogging.

1. High Quality, Unique Content

The no-brainer number one factor is the content itself. Blogs are all about content, and that’s what readers want more than anything. Regardless of what topic you cover or what angle you take, provide your readers with original, interesting content that they can’t get just anywhere, and you’ll be well ahead of most bloggers in your niche.

Without quality content you can only go so far. Even if you do an excellent job with all of the other critical success factors, your success will still be limited. Whatever you are doing to build and promote your blog, be sure that you’re always focused on providing the best content possible.

2. A Network

Relationships with other bloggers are invaluable. When I first started blogging I had no understanding of how personal it is, and how much your network will have a hand in your success. From the time you start blogging (if not before) you should make a strong effort to interact with other bloggers, especially those in your niche.

A network can help you in so many different ways, including link building, promotion, exposure with guest posts, social media, and more. Networking is so critical that I challenge you to find one truly successful blogger that does not have a strong network of contacts.

3. Consistent Effort

Simply having great content isn’t enough. For a blog to succeed long-term you need to produce it on a consistent basis. That doesn’t mean you need daily posts or you have to constantly be writing. However, you do need to show some consistency to readers and avoid long breaks with no posts.

I have seen a number of blogs over the past year that have put out some really nice content, but they have struggled with consistency. In most cases these bloggers lost interest and moved on to something else (which is fine). But if you want to be successful in the longrun, consistency is a must.

4. Conversion of Visitors into Subscribers

A lot of us bloggers (me included) tend to check our stats on a regular basis. Personally, I set goals for myself each month and I use stats as one of my measuring sticks. However, visitors really mean very little aside from maybe earning you some advertising revenue. Ultimately, you’ll need to find ways to convert those visitors into subscribers.

Subscribers become repeat visitors and loyal readers. They are the lifeblood of blogs. Without subscribers, what would blogs be? Getting traffic is great, but don’t forget about finding ways to convert those visitors into subscribers.

5. Community Atmosphere

One of the reasons readers enjoy blogs so much more than static websites is because of the interaction and engagement that is possible. Successful blogs will effectively build a strong community around the blog. When readers feel like they know the blogger and fellow readers personally, they’ll be much more likely to come back on a regular basis.

Long-term traffic and repeat visitors are key to blogging success, and building a community is one of the best ways to encourage repeat visits. It’s what sets you apart.

6. Diversity In Traffic

Regardless of which sources send you the most visitors, you need to make an effort to diversify. Putting all you eggs in one basket is not safe. Rely too heavily on Google and you’ll see your income drop when your rankings fall unexpectedly. Are you getting a high percentage of visitors from social media? Make an effort to also build up some other significant sources of traffic for stability.

7. Inbound Links

Gaining diversity in traffic is much easier when you have a lot of inbound links coming your way. Links will bring click-through traffic (especially links from major websites and blogs), and they’ll also serve to improve your search engine rankings.

As a new blogger you may need to spend a good deal of time building links to your blogger. Although it can take some time, there are substantial long-term benefits. Any blog that’s generating buzz and drawing attention will be getting some links.

What Factors Do You Think Are Most Important?

Do you agree that these 7 factors are all critical? What would you add or take away from the list?

Blog Mastermind Re-Opens Its Doors

adnan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:11:23 +0000

It seems like forever ago that I wrote a post to this blog, let alone a post about Yaro’s blog coaching program - Blog Mastermind. However, it was around a year ago where I first mentioned the revolutionary new training course that would help you to boost traffic and income to your own blog, and I’m here again today briefly to give you an update on what Yaro has been doing.

Last year, Yaro Starak from Entrepreneurs-Journey.com fame came into the spotlight after releasing a new e-course aimed at those looking to earn an eventual income from blogging. I was (and still am kind of) one of those people looking to expand my horizons online, and so quickly wanted to spread the word, having chatted to Yaro a few times via email and having read his blog for a very long time.

Whilst I never got to take a look at the course myself, Blog Mastermind soon became a hit for all those moguls attempting to take the blogosphere by storm, and Yaro I’m sure was enjoying the fruits of his hard work.

But 6 months ago, Mr Starak closed the doors to the program in order to give it a good ‘ole revamp, and to really make the course concrete and time-proof.

The Result?

Blog Mastermind has literally just re-opened its doors, and everyone now has a chance to grab the e-courses and the bundles of extras that come along with it. Here are some of the types of lessons you can hope to see:

Module 1: How To Set-Up and Optimize Your Blog For Explosive Growth From Day One
Module 2: How To Create Blog Content That Magnetically Attracts Devoted Readers
Module 3: The Exact Traffic Techniques That Took My Blog From 0 to 5,000+ Daily Readers

Those are only 3 of many courses that will take you from beginner to blogging pro, and will hopefully put you on track to be earning 5 figures or more from blogging. Yaro himself earns anywhere between $10,000 and $35,000 per month just through his blogging empire - and this income is constantly growing and diversifying.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

All social marketers know that proof is the most important catalyst for a consumer decision. In this case, the Blog Mastermind sales page is no different. Whilst it is fairly long, I really think it gives you great detail into what you are purchasing, and an awesome combination of text, audio and video really helps you to get an insight into the mind of a blogging entrepreneur.

The screenshot above shows only a few days’ earnings via Yaro’s promotion of a product through a blog post and by emailing his list. In fact, Yaro shows you that building a list of targeted email subscribers can be golddust in terms of opening earnings opportunities. In fact, it’s something which I’ve got in mind for Blogtrepreneur!

Other Resources

Before Blog Mastermind went live, Yaro made sure to entice people with some great videos. Two of them you can check out are below, and they really help to capture the essence of what blogging for money is really about:

However, my most favourite piece which Yaro released a few days back, was an interview with Blog Mastermind student Alborz Fallah.

The interview (which you can get in audio or text form) depicts how Alborz has turned his blog within the course of about a year, into something worth $5 million today. His blog CarAdvice.com.au has been a hit within Australia, and the guy gets paid to review cars such as Lambourghini’s and other emerging cars - definitely a dream job!

The Final Lowdown

Yaro didn’t pay me to write this review. I wanted to make this crystal clear, and I also want to say that I myself havn’t seen the courses which make up Blog Mastermind for myself.

What I can do is vouch 100% for Yaro Starak and this relaunch, because to be frightfully honest, he has been one of my biggest inspirations in the blogosphere, and I’m not embarrassed to admit that.

In terms of payment, there are 2 options you can choose:

1. Pay $97 a month for 6 months in total to access all of the lessons. This will mean you can break the information into bitesize chunks for you to try out on your brand new or existing weblog.

2. Pay $497 upfront and save yourself $85, and you’ll be able to access all of the lessons right from the beginning, to take at your own pace.

I admit that this might be quite a hefty sum for a new blogger, so here’s what I will throw in:

1 Month FREE Text Link

Yup that’s right. If you order Blog Mastermind through my affiliate link, I will give you a free text link in the Featured section on Blogtrepreneur.com for 1 month.

This will actually help you to put the lessons that you learn into practice by getting free promotion and the links are DoFollow, meaning you will also get some good SEO benefits for your site.

Send me an email through my contact form once you have made the purchase, and I will get back to you and put your link live on the site!

There you have it. If you do try out Blog Mastermind then please leave a comment and tell me what you think about it. It’s been a long time since I posted here, so I thankyou for bearing with me for the past few months. Hopefully I can bring this site back up to scratch and continue on my domination of the blogosphere!

Check it out: Payday advance services for fast cash needs.

How Can You “Snakes on a Plane” Your Business?

adnan — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:45:42 +0000

Having been reading Adam Gilbert’s blog for quite some time now, I always thought he would make an awesome guest post for Blogtrepreneur. Last night Adam sent me this article through, and he hasn’t failed to disappoint. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did.

The other night I happened to be flipping though the channels and stumbled on Snakes On A Plane. I had never seen it and who can resist hearing Samuel Jackson yell, “I have HAD it with these mothaf%$&*#g snakes on this motha%$%#*g plane!”

I never saw this movie, yet I immediately knew what it was going to be about. You know it’s going to be a thriller type movie that entails getting the mothaf*&^%ing snakes off the plane.

I knew what I was getting into. And that’s the idea.

Without anyone telling me anything they made a promise to me. It just so happens that the title was good enough to be able to do that.

When it comes to your business, usually you need more then your name (and tag line) to tell people what you do. You might have website copy or a pamphlet or a business card or all of the above.

In this day and age, sadly when a business keeps their promise it’s shocking. However, some people do expect a company to keep their promises. After all, why assume the worst?

But most people never say anything if they like something (because they expect a certain something – as they should). Think about it. You definitely are a customer of many places because they do something a certain way.

If they changed that certain something you might stop going. For example, when I used to go to the diner under my old building where I lived and I’d order my grilled chicken sandwich or turkey burger, every single time, my man Sammy would bring me like 10 pickles. He knew I loved pickles and I didn’t have to ask him for extra pickles.

Maybe it’s the way you joke around with your clients. Maybe it’s because your clients can relate to you with the stories you tell them. Maybe it’s because you treat them like family. Maybe it’s because you want the best for them…and they know it. Whatever it is.

Most people are too busy to say something nice though.

But if you believe in what you’re doing, and people are coming back and referring clients to you, don’t stop what you are doing!

It could be the smallest thing that people really enjoy…like free pickles. But the idea here is that I grew to expect those pickles.

The idea here is not revolutionary. It’s extremely simple.

Keep doing exactly what you do if people are coming back and referring customers to you. It could be the smallest thing that people love.

And the most important of all:

Keep your mothaf%$&*!g promises!

Adam Gilbert helps people stay consistent when it comes to their health and fitness like no other company in the world. For more information about his company please visit MyBodyTutor.com. He also writes a popular blog at GuruGilbert.com.

How to Attract Advertisers to Your Blog

Steven — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:00:11 +0000

If you’re a blogger who is trying to make money by selling ad space, chances are you have read some tips from others about how to attract and retain advertisers. I currently have two blogs. One is about a year old and the other is about four months old. One always takes priority over the other. One has no problem keeping ad slots filled, and even generates more interest than I can accommodate. The other has struggled to attract advertisers.

Rather than just writing generic advice about selling ad space, I thought I would share some of the things I’ve learned through my own blogging experience. Because the two blogs are run much differently and because the results are about as opposite as they can be, I think it’s a great learning experience of what sells ad space in real world scenarios.

First to keep things from being confusing throughout the article I’ll give a brief intro to the blogs that will be referenced throughout this post. First, my primary blog that was started about a year ago is Vandelay Website Design. That blog had no advertising for about the first six months, and has sold out all ads spots for the past six months. Traffikd was launched in February with some affiliate ads, but has drawn very little interest from paid advertisers.

1. Earn Respect in Your Niche/Industry

One of the biggest differences between my two blogs is that Vandelay is fairly well-established in its niche, while Traffikd is still a relative unknown. Advertisers are most likely familiar with the top blogs in the industry that they target, but they’re not going to know the smaller ones. Advertisers make an effort to attach themselves to blogs that have earned the respect of their readers and are seen as leaders in the niche.

It sounds somewhat obvious that being a respected source of information will lead advertisers towards your blog, but it’s often kind of an afterthought when you’re reading advice about selling ads. From my experience, this is one of the major factors. Advertisers are willing to pay to be seen on leading blogs, but they’re unlikely to want to spend the time to set up an ad campaign with a smaller blog, even at a low price.

At Vandelay I’ve put in the effort to earn some respect, and the result is ads that sell. On the other hand, Traffikd has only gotten a smaller amount of time invested in it, and the result is that most people still don’t know about it, and ads that are harder to sell.

2. Get Visitors

Advertisers are drawn to those blogs that have impressive stats. I get asked about traffic levels all the time from advertisers. It’s usually the first thing they want to know, even before price. As the number of visitors to Vandelay has increased each month, the ad prices have also increased, and advertisers have continued to come in steadily.

Traffikd on the other hand is currently drawing around 8,000 unique visitors per month, which is not enough to bring consideration from many advertisers. Sure, some individual bloggers and small companies may be interested in advertising to an audience of this size, but other companies that do a lot of advertising online simply won’t feel that it’s worth their time.

From my experience, even low pricing does not make up for a lack of impressive stats. I know from my experience trying to sell ads at Traffikd and from seeing countless other bloggers running huge discounts and special on ads that attract only meager interest. Dropping prices can often show advertisers that something’s not right or you wouldn’t have to drop the price.

If you want to be able to sell ad space and charge a premium, do what it takes to build up some stats that will generate serious interest from potential advertisers.

3. Be Proactive

Selling ads isn’t all about putting up a page with your stats and prices and watching the inquiries and sales as they come flooding in. At first it’s likely that you’ll need to reach out to some potential advertisers to see if they have an interest. The first few months that I sold ads on Vandelay I generated about 40% of the ad sales from proactively contacting those that I thought might be interested. All I did was visit some other blogs in my niche with about the same size audience, click-through on their ads and found some contact information. At first I thought this might not produce results, but about half of those I contacted wound up buying an ad.

The key is to have reasonable prices (not necessarily bargain basement prices) and give them the details of your audience. If it’s a goof fit, there’s a chance they’ll buy. If I had sat back and waited only for advertisers who contact me, I would have had some empty ad spots for a few months.

With Traffikd, I’ve hardly been proactive at all. I haven’t had the time to contact advertisers (even though it only takes a few minutes) and I think the results are there to be seen. When you’re approaching potential advertisers keep your email very brief, but be sure to give relevant details. Quickly explain your audience, list some stats, and give them your various ad options with prices and payment information. I’ve never had anyone object to being approached for this reason.

Those who are running advertising campaigns are frequently searching around the internet for good places to advertisers, so you could actually be saving them some time. Also, be professional. A respectable company will not want to attach themselves to someone who is not professional.

4. Have an Identifiable Market

If you haven’t launched your blog yet, give some consideration to your target audience. If you have already started your blog but you’re having problems selling ads, you may be able to make some small adjustments to your approach that can help you to have a more distinct and discernable audience.

Advertisers want to know who they are reaching. They’re rarely interested in putting up an ad without knowing that the people seeing their ad will be well-targeted. The Vandelay blog has an audience that potential advertisers can easily identify, and they know who they’ll be reaching. This is critical.

5. Choose an Audience that has Potential Advertisers

If you hope to sell ad space on that blog that has a targeted audience, there better be some potential advertisers looking to reach that market, or you’ll struggle to sell any ad space. With Vandelay, I have an almost unlimited number of potential advertisers that are interested in reaching web designers and website owners. Even if ads aren’t selling well, there’s always plenty of people that I can proactively approach, and if I’m willing to put in some time the ads should sell.

At Traffikd I write mostly about social media, and there are fewer advertisers looking to reach this audience, although there are more than there would be in some other niches. This is fine with me, I anticipated that going in, and selling ad space wasn’t my primary motivation for starting the blog. If it was, I probably would have leaned towards a slightly different target audience.

If you’re not sure if a potential niche has willing advertisers, visit some other blogs on the niche and see who is advertising. If all you’re seeing is the same affiliate ads on each blog, it may be a sign that it’s difficult to sell direct ads in that market.

6. Post Relevant Details on an Advertising Page

If you’re serious about selling ads you should have a page set up specifically to address those who may be interested in purchasing an ad. Many bloggers will mention some of the details of their target audience as well as all the relevant stats, the different advertising options, and maybe the price. Some bloggers don’t like to publish the prices. At Vandelay I have a page set up that does list the price, and I just edit this page whenever I increase the rates. Some people don’t pay attention to this page and email me with basic questions that can be answered here, but I think it still saves me from some unnecessary emails.

On Traffikd I haven’t taken the time to set up an advertising page, and I know that is hurting my chances of selling ads. Obviously potential advertisers want to know some relevant details and stats, and some won’t make the effort to contact you if they’re not posted.

7. Respond Promptly to Inquires

When you get an email about advertising, that is coming from someone who wants to work with you. By responding promptly and answering all their questions you can show them that working with you will be a positive experience. Show them good customer service and they’ll be more likely to buy that ad spot that they’re inquiring about.

8. Be Consistent with Posting

Blog advertisers are somewhat putting themselves at your mercy. If you decide not to post very often throughout the time that they are advertising, their ad will be seen by less people than it could be otherwise. Sporadic posting patterns may concern advertisers. On the other hand, consistent posting will assure them that you’ll continue to post on a regular basis, and that means that their ad will be seen.

9. Follow Up with Current and Past Advertisers

Before your current advertisers have the ad expire, make an effort to reach out to them, thank them for being an advertiser, and ask if they would be interested in renewing the ad. Just because they don’t contact you on their own doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested in renewing.

Also, keep a list or database of your past advertisers. If you need to sell a spot at some point in the future you’ll have a list of potentials that are familiar with you and know what your blog can deliver. If they had a positive experience they may be interested in advertising again down the road. Also, if you launch another blog with a similar audience you could have some warm leads for advertisers right away.

What’s Your Experience?

Do you sell ads on your blog? What have you found to be the most important factors?

This post was written by Steven Snell.

5 Alternatives to Social Media Marketing

Steven — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:00:31 +0000

Social Media Optimization is one of the most common methods for getting significant exposure for bloggers. Sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and Delicious are constantly sending large volumes of traffic to submissions that are the most popular with users.

An effective Social Media Marketing plan can help to take a blog from nowhere to being well-known in a short amount of time. However, social media isn’t a good fit for every blog, and not all bloggers choose to participate. For those who would rather draw traffic in other ways, there are some traffic sources that are capable of giving you the same type of exposure as a front page appearance on a major social media site.

In this post we’ll look at five ways that bloggers can quickly gain tremendous exposure without social media, and without paying for any advertising. Just like social media, these methods won’t be for everyone either, but you may find something that fits very well for your niche and for your audience.

1 - Get Mentioned by Google News

Google News obviously reaches an astronomical number of visitors each month. And as a result, the stories that are mentioned there and the sites that are linked receive a surge of traffic similar to what you might experience from social media. In fact, the audience that reads Google News is a much more diverse, well-rounded audience than that of most social media sites.

Getting mentioned in Google News is not easy, as you may have imagined, however, plenty of bloggers and website owners have been able to do so. Google News only indexes sites that are news-focused, so this will exclude a number of blogs. If you think your blog would be a good fit, they provide some advice and instructions for getting listed.

2 - Submit a Press Release

An effective press release with a significant story to share can also create a large number of visitors to your site and plenty of valuable exposure. In order for a press release to work for you there will need to be something truly newsworthy in the release. Modern online resources make submitting press releases so easy that most editors are flooded with them everyday. Those that have nothing exceptional to say will simply be ignored.

If your press release is able to catch the attention of some editors you could receive outstanding exposure from various types of media and you could get plenty of inbound links as a result. There are a number of services out there that will help you to create an optimized press release and submit it online for you. If you’re interested in writing your own press release, see How to Write a Great Press Release: A Sample Press Release Template.

3 - Get a Link from a Major Website

Websites and blogs that have huge audiences are capable of sending tons of traffic to any link that they mention. I had a situation a few months ago where one of my posts that was about 3 months old at the time got a mention and a link from Lifehacker. That post on Lifehacker sent thousands of visitors over a period of a few days, even though it was published on a weekend. That traffic from Lifehacker generated enough bookmarks that my post made it to the front page of Delicious that day, which wound up sending even more visitors.

Like the other methods of gaining exposure, this can take some work. If you have a post or a resource on your site that you think may be worthy of a mention, send an email to an editor to mention how it can be of use to their audience. Remember that these people get plenty of emails like this everyday, so respect their time and give them a reason to mention you.

4 - Write a Guest Post for a Major Blog

In my opinion, guest posts are the most under-appreciated method for growing a blog. Sure, there are a number of guest posts published everyday across the blogosphere, but if most bloggers realized how effective they can be, there would be 10 times as many being published.

Guest posts will typically include a very brief bio about you that includes a link to your website or blog. This link will not draw the same type of traffic as the other sources mentioned here. A guest post might only bring a fairly small number of visitors in comparison, but the effects in terms of subscribers can be very significant.

A guest post is an incredible opportunity to prove your worth to readers of a large blog that shares your target market. My blog Traffikd has seen its best days in terms of subscribing growth on the same days that guest posts were published at ProBlogger. While those posts may have only sent a few hundred visitors each, they accounted for a nice boost in new subscribers with each post.

5 - Get Listed in Web Design Galleries

Web design and CSS galleries can give your website or blog some amazing expsore and can send plenty of traffic. In order to get listed you’ll need a standout site (see Conor’s post 9 Design Styles to Get You Into CSS Galleries), but those who get listed in major galleries will see a big spike in traffic.

The visitors sent by CSS galleries may or may not be targeted, depending on your audience. Most of the visitors to these sites are designers and technically-savvy internet users or bloggers. If this is similar to your target market, this could be great exposure. If it’s not your target market the results will be limited, but you can at least get a bunch of quality inbound links. For a nice big list of galleries to submit you site to, see Inspiration Overload: 100 CSS Galleries You Need to Check Out.

This post was written by Steven Snell.

Will You Create The Next Facebook?

adnan — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:59:06 +0000

Jason Pereira blogs at The University Kid and is currently running a gigantic contest for what he hopes will be the next big thing. Check it out!

Hello all, and thanks to Adnan for allowing me to guest post on this kick ass blog.

Today I thought I’d talk about a topic that most entrepreneurs are interested in - launching the next big thing. Everyone wishes that they had been the brains behind Facebook, behind Twitter, behind Wordpress…websites that fulfill simple needs but are amongst the most popular websites out there.

You see, as entrepreneurs we strive to be better than everyone else – in very few other industries in the world can you have your name known by millions in less than a few short years. You will constantly hear stories about entrepreneurs launching ideas that sound like they can really kick off. How can you launch your huge project, one that you will want to develop into one of the largest online?

Do Not Rush

I have this problem when getting together a new project – I get all excited about it and want to get things done instantly, even though that is usually not possible. I used to end up rushing and the whole project suffers as a result.

Do not make the same mistakes! Make sure that you set yourself achievable goals, and stick to that time frame – make it challenging enough so that you’re not sitting on your behind all day, but make your time frame long enough so that you’re not cramming to get the job done.

Remember to take breaks during your work as taking just five minutes to clear your mind can bring you a lot more ideas than if you worked nonstop for ten hours.

Leverage The Skills Of Others

There are some things I’m just not very good at, no matter how hard I try – design and coding being two of them. Very few people are good at everything, and if you cannot do a task that you need, hire freelancers. Remember that in business, time is money and if you spend all day working on something that would take a freelancer twenty minutes to do, you are losing money.

Work on the things that you are strong at, and let someone do the others. If you are scared about people stealing your ideas, make sure you sign a non-disclosure agreement before hand and only use people that look trustable. You can get a good idea of the quality of a person by looking at his/her ratings on websites like Get A Freelancer and Digital Point.

If you want to create the next Facebook, Myspace or whatever, just remember you cannot do it all alone, especially if you want it to grow – you will need help at some point or another, so why not start getting it from the beginning?

Aim Big

Most projects you launch will fail. That is a fact – although you want every idea of yours to become big, very few of them will be.

However, do not get discouraged by this – remember, every learning experience adds to you as the web entrepreneur and even if you do not create the next big thing… so what? I’d be happy if one of my websites had just 0.0001% of what success Google has had.

If you aim big, wanting your website to be the best in the world but you fall short, you’ve still achieved a lot. If however, you start off your project with shaky ambitions, aiming low, you will only achieve low. Most famous entrepreneurs today had nothing before their one idea hit it off, and they’re no better than you. So if they can do it, why can’t you?

Do Not Be Scared of Competition

This is one of the biggest complaints I hear by entrepreneurs whenever I speak to them about projects their launching “I can’t compete“, “It’ll cost too much” or “My competition is far more established”.

Get rid of those excuses now. There are solutions to everything; if you do not have one, keep looking until you find it.

I love competition. It gives me something to aim at and measure my success by, and it also reminds me not to laze around and get into gear as soon as possible – if I don’t work hard today, someone will take my place tomorrow. Embrace your competitors – heck, you can even learn from them – and you will do far better than you think you will.

Be Organised

If you could see my work desk at the moment you’d accuse me of being a horrible hypocrite, however, one of the biggest things you need to do when attempting to launch a huge project is be organized. Haven’t I said that time is money? Well, if you’re not organized you are wasting time, and leaving money on the table.

Simple things like getting a notepad from your local grocery store to write things down; keeping a planner of events and even setting a timer on your desk to ensure that you do not waste time on things that are not helping you can give you a tremendous kick start in the business.

There are various programs online that can help you organize yourself more. One of the ones I use is Fruitful Time Task Manager and although it costs a little bit, it is worth it. However, there are plenty of free options available if you do a Google search.

Use these five tips and you will be well on your way to creating a killer project that will take off. No matter what your project is, as long as you are confident in the idea behind it and have the necessary tools, you will succeed. Remember that you can always look for funding if your idea is good enough – quite a few large projects in the blogosphere today (Entrecard for one) have gone down this route. Good luck!

Recommended: Finance your new project with a business loan from Rapid Advance.

7 Business Lessons You’ll Learn from Blogging

Steven — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:00:37 +0000

When it comes to blogging for money you’ll get a wide range of opinions on the subject of whether a blog is a business in itself. Personally, I feel that a blog can be a business on its own (without any other services or products being sold) because I see plenty of them every day that are making money. Of course, a blog can also be used very effectively to promote and improve an already existing business. Either way, running a blog with the intent to make money either directly or indirectly will help you to learn a number of valuable business lessons.

My blogging experience started with the intent to blog for the purpose of promoting a service (web design); however, over the past year I’ve taken an interest in learning more about blogging to earn a direct income as well. During that time I’ve learned more about business than I could have by reading or studying without actually putting anything into practice.

Blogging is an excellent proactive learning experience for anyone interested in business and entrepreneurship, and I’d like to take a look at 7 lessons that you’ll learn from blogging. While you may or may not have already had a textbook knowledge of these lessons, blogging will give you a first-hand, real-world knowledge that is always superior to anything you can read in a book.

1 - Networking is Critical

When I started blogging I had no idea how important a network is to a blogger (in fact, I didn’t know much or anything about blogging). I quickly realized that every successful blogger has a strong network of friends and colleagues online.

Building a popular and profitable blog without a network is just about impossible. Likewise, in the business world a network can be the difference between an average career and finding exciting and challenging opportunities.

For any entrepreneur, regardless of what type of business you are building, a strong network will be one of your most valuable assets. Take the time to meet others in your field and find some ways to work together or to help each other.

2 - Businesses Need a Plan

When starting a new blog it can be tempting to jump into things and just start blogging. Modern blogging platforms make it extremely easy to get started quickly, but the need for planning still exists. If you hope to run a successful blog you’ll need to have a plan to get there. Most likely this plan will evolve somewhat over a period of time, but you should always have some direction in mind to keep yourself on track.

In the business world a lack of planning will lead to almost certain failure. While a blogging plan and a traditional business plan or marketing plan may be very different, blogging will at least teach you the value of taking the time to plan and the results of ineffective planning.

3 - Making Money Online is Realistic, but Not Easy

Many people start new blogs every day with the hope of quitting their day job in a month. After all, people like John Chow and Darren Rowse make a significant amount of money with their blogs, so why can’t you? Well, I believe that anyone can earn a substantial income blogging, realistically only a very small percentage will earn that type of income. The biggest thing holding most online entrepreneurs back, in my opinion, is effort. Yes, it is realistic, but it won’t come easy.

Aside from blogging there are plenty of other ways to make money online. Running an e-commerce site, affiliate marketing, keyword sniping, all of these approaches will take real effort, but all are realistic. The problem is that most people see making money online as an easy way out, but they don’t want to put in the time that it takes to be successful (which is almost always less than the time it would take to build a traditional business).

4 - A Great Idea without Consistent Effort will Only Go So Far

Having a great idea is just the start. In order to take that idea and actually profit from it you’ll need to put it into action. Throughout my time as a blogger I’ve seen others that have had plenty of potential, but it seems like the consistent effort just wasn’t there.

Regardless of what type of business you are running, the necessary action is critical. If you have a great idea don’t wait around while someone else beats you to it.

5 - Integrity Counts

Blogging is very personal in nature. Many of us follow particular blogs because we connect with the writer. Because of this, integrity is a major issue in blogging. I know personally I tend to really respect bloggers that are transparent and seem to have honest intentions.

In the business world there are always going to be temptations to take short cuts, but in the end integrity does count. In most cases those short cuts might help you temporarily, but they’ll usually come back to haunt you. Whatever type of business you are working in, make it a priority to be seen as reputable and trusted.

6 - Not All Expenses Are Bad

A few weeks a go I wrote Expenses are Part of Doing Business Online. One of the main reasons that I wrote that post is because it seems like a large percentage of online entrepreneurs see all expenses as negatives, and they tend to feel that doing business online makes expenses unnecessary. While it’s true that most online business have expenses that are far less than traditional businesses, there are certainly some expenses that are more than justified.

If you’re a blogger you may learn the value of quality hosting when one of your posts gets to the front page of Digg. Or you may learn that paying freelance bloggers is a cost-effective way to build quality content for your blog that generates even more money in advertising revenue. There are plenty of expenses that can make your business more profitable, the key is minimizing the unnecessary expenses and being willing to spend on those that will help you grow the business.

7 - Building a Business is a Long-Term Experience, Not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

Most bloggers tend to give up very quickly when they find that they are not making money as early as they had hoped. Blogging is like any other business in that it can take some time to be successful. Sure, there are a few examples of blogs that are profitable very quickly, but they are the exception, not the rule. If more bloggers took a long-term approach to making money there would be a lot less that give up along the way.

If you are building a business, remember that you are building an asset. With a long-term, asset-building approach your business will have a much better chance of success.

What Business Lessons Have You Learned from Blogging?

I’d love to hear some of your personal experiences from blogging that have taught you valuable lessons about business and entrepreneurship.

This post was written by Steven Snell.

The Limitations of Social Media

Steven — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:00:52 +0000

I’m an active user of social media, and sites like StumbleUpon, Delicious, and Digg have been incredibly valuable for helping me to grow my blog for almost a year now. Many other bloggers, like me, have seen the power of social media, and it’s very easy to get sucked in and focus the majority of your efforts catering to the social media audience.

While I am certainly an advocate of social media marketing, I also think it is critical to understand the limitations of social media. If your primary goal in blogging is to generate traffic through social media you’ll probably be left with some impressive stats and not much else. Stats alone really don’t mean anything, so it’s important to get what you can out of social media, but rely on a balanced plan for long-term blogging growth.

Social media sites can be a tremendous source of exposure and they’ll help you to build links and indirectly search engine traffic, but the visitors you will get from social media marketing will have some limitations that you’ll need to be prepared for.

Sales

If you’re hoping to drive traffic to your site in attempt to sell a product, social media is not going to be your best source of traffic. The percentage of social media visitors that will buy anything from you will be ridiculously small.

However, this doesn’t mean that social media marketing is a waste of time if you’re trying to sell products. My approach in this situation would be to set up a blog on the site and post articles that would be of interest to those who might actually buy your product, but cater the posts to social media audiences. Don’t try to sell anything to them, just get their attention.

A big hit like this with social media can produce a lot of inbound links to the site, which can help to improve your search engine rankings and indirectly increase your sales.

Ad Clicks

Much like product sales, social media visitors are unlikely to click on ads. If you’re monetizing your website or blog by some type of advertising like AdSense where you’re earning money for each click, you probably will make very little from social media traffic.

This horrendously low click-through rate can actually wind up costing you money because some programs will drop the amount of money you make from each click if your click-through rate goes down. You may want to try a different type of advertising, or remove the ads altogether.

Long-Term Traffic

Most visitors that you get through social media sites will never return. Ultimately, social media is a great source of traffic for a few days, but it will eventually fade away unless you can keep publishing new content that draws results.

Although social media traffic is typically very short-term, there are some powerful long-term results if you have a solid plan. You can use social media as a way to build links to your pages and increase search engine traffic, which is long-term (usually). Additionally, it’s possible to gain subscribers through social media, which will also help to increase your long-term traffic.

Can’t Eliminate the Need for SEO

Social Media Optimization (SMO) should not be a replacement for SEO. The two should work hand-in-hand. Because search engines send targeted traffic and because they tend to be more consistent and stable than social media, you should never ignore the need to maximize your search engine traffic.

Some bloggers get a few thousand visitors per day from social media and maybe a few hundred from search engines, so they spend much more time and energy optimizing for social media. While I do think it is a good idea to target social media, that traffic will often be very fickle. Search engine traffic is generally more stable, so your SEO efforts today could have an impact for years to come.

Can’t Provide Balanced Traffic

Even if you are having some success from a variety of different social media sites, well-balanced traffic is always important. Having balance is critical because many other sources will be more responsive than social media, plus it’s just much safer. Social media traffic can dry up any time, so if you have no balance you will be out of luck. Regardless of what type of traffic you are after, balance will always provide some safety.

It’s Difficult to Convert into Subscribers

The rate at which your visitors will become subscribers will generally be lower with social media, but from my experience it’s not as bad as you might think. All of my best days in terms of gaining new subscribers have been the days when I had a big success with social media. Of course, those are also the days when I had the most traffic to my blog. While your conversion rate my be lower with these visitors, the volume of traffic can still help you to achieve a nice boost in your subscriber count.

If you hope to gain subscribers through social media, you’ll need to give these visitors a very strong reason to subscribe. One of my favorite approaches is to target the same social media sites repeatedly. If visitors see your site consistently in the “popular” section, they’ll start to see that there’s something worth paying attention to.

Another approach that can work very well is to mention an upcoming post on a related topic. Some visitors will subscribe in order to be sure that they don’t miss the post. For a more detailed look at the subject, see my article Gaining Subscribers Through Social Media: Is It Possible?

Social Media Marketing Isn’t an Entire Marketing Plan in Itself

I mentioned earlier that drawing traffic from a balanced variety of sources is ideal. In order to achieve this you’ll need a more complete plan than just using social media. Don’t ignore other priorities like building a search engine friendly website, building links, developing repeat traffic, etc. Social media should be one aspect of the complete marketing plan.

Repeat Traffic is Limited

One of the most difficult things to do with social media is to get visitors to actually come back to your site at some point in the future. Ideally, visitors will become subscribers and regular visitors, but that’s not going to be the case with the majority of your visitors, so you’ll also need to focus on giving visitors a reason to come back for a second visit.

From my experience I’ve found that Delicious is a good site to target if you want to build repeat traffic. As users bookmark your pages they’ll be one step closer to coming back later. One my slower days I usually still have a small, steady flow of visitors from their old bookmarks at Delicious.

It’s not an Easy Fix

Some bloggers and marketers see social media as a way to quickly get a flood of traffic, rather than working hard for a longer time to build that traffic. While it’s true that social media can produce large volumes of traffic much faster than just about any other source, you can’t just submit anything and experience success. In order to have a really popular item with a major social media site you’ll have to out perform thousands of others that are competing for that traffic.

You Can’t Create Positive Results Without Great Content

There are really two basic elements that can lead to success with social media: 1) the content itself, and 2) your network of friends. If you have a large number of friends or contacts that will be willing to vote for your submission (or if you’re willing and able to game the system) it is certainly possible to get loads of traffic to a post that’s not that great.

However, if this is the case the long-term results won’t be there. You won’t get much of an increase in subscribers, repeat traffic, or links. With high quality content you will be able to achieve those things. If you’re going to target social media, take the time to create the best content you possibly can, and the results will follow.

What’s Your Experience?

Do you market your blog with social media? What limitations have you seen?

Check it out: Payday advance services for fast cash needs.

Bouncing Back from a Failed Attempt

Steven — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:00:11 +0000

One of the realities of starting a business is that there’s a chance of failure. Almost all successful entrepreneurs, online or offline, have failed at least once, if not many times. It’s pretty rare to hit it big with your first attempt.

Risk is a necessary element of entrepreneurship, and without risk the reward would also not be there. The risk is what keeps a lot of people on the sidelines, leaving plenty of opportunity for anyone willing to work hard and take some chances.

Whether your online business is a blog, an e-commerce site, a membership site, affiliate marketing, a service of some type, or anything else, failure is a possibility. For most entrepreneurs the difference between success and failure is a major motivating factor that drives them towards their goals. For many of us, dealing with and overcoming failure will be necessary at some point in order to keep moving forward.

Doing Business Online

Fortunately for online entrepreneurs, the internet provides unlimited potential with a relatively low level of risk. Because of this there are obviously millions of people across the world working online or attempting to make money with an online business. The reasons that internet entrepreneurship appeals to you (such as low cost of entry, low overhead costs, no need for employees, flexible schedule, global operation, and unlimited opportunities) have also drawn plenty of others as well.

Reasons to Bounce Back from a Failed Business Attempt:

Most Don’t Succeed Right Away

It’s pretty rare to find an entrepreneur that achieved big success right away. A natural progression involves some failure and the ability to bounce back and keep trying.

It’s What Separates the Successful from the Unsuccessful

If you aren’t willing to pick yourself up and make another attempt, you’re guaranteeing that you won’t be successful as an entrepreneur. Those who are willing to keep going and keep striving for success will be pretty likely to achieve it at some point.

You’ve Learned from Your Failed Attempts

The best thing about failure is that it can be a great learning experience. Most of us learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. Everything that you learn from a failed attempt can be used to improve your effectiveness and your efficiency in the future, putting you much closer to success.

There’s No Need for a Huge Investment

As I said earlier, one of the main reasons so many people are turing to the internet as a way of doing business is because there isn’t really a need for a large investment with most internet businesses. If you’re running a traditional bricks and mortar business and it fails, you’ve probably lost a substantial investment. In order to bounce back and try again you’ll need to take another big risk financially. With internet businesses you can start something new with very little financial risk.

Tips for Bouncing Back:

Keep Your Ultimate Goal in Mind

I think all of us have something that makes us want to succeed with an online business. Money is an obvioius motivational factor, but many of us also desire the flexibility that comes with working online. Whatever you ultimate goal is, try to stay focused on that motivational factor and you’ll have an easier time overcoming your failures because you understand that bouncing back is necessary in order to meet your goals.

Evaluate What Lead to Failure

Failure is only a learning experience if you understand what caused the failure. Rather than jumping into something new immediately, take some time to evaluate what worked and what didn’t. Can you continue to build on the things that worked and make some changes to the things that didn’t work? Find a way to implement what you’ve learned into your new venture.

Build Your Network, Leverage Your Existing Network

Networking is important for any entrepreneuer. Sometimes those who are building an internet business tend to overlook the need for networking because the internet can easily be cold and impersonal. However, building a strong network can help you with any online business that you want to build. Once you have a network established find ways to work with others to use the connections that you have made.

Keep an Open Mind

Try not to box yourself in when it comes to your online business ventures. There are so many different paths to making money online that you need to keep an open mind. You may think you have a particular method that is the right path for you, but don’t be closed to other valid options that may arise.

Get Help When You Need It

One of the tendencies of most people who start an internet business is to try to do everything on their own. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about expenses being a necessary part of doing business online. Most of us are hesitant to pay for any type of product or service that isn’t completely essential. However, there are some services that could truly benefit your business depending on your needs. Concentrate on what you do best and find others who you can hire to take care of other aspects of your business.

Make it Happen

The biggest difference between those who have succeeded with an online business and those who haven’t is the simple act of making it happen. Don’t sit on the sidelines, take action and move towards your goals.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Have you had to bounce back from a failed attempt?

This post was written by Steven Snell.

10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs

Steven — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:00:34 +0000

Social networking is obviously very popular online today. Unlike general networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, there are a number of smaller networks that focus on professionals and businesses. These sites can be an excellent place to gain some exposure and to communicate with other entrepreneurs. Here is a quick look at 10 networking sites that should be considered by entrepreneurs.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has quickly become the leading social network that specializes in professionals. Many users have their resume posted on their profile and a growing number of employers are using LinkedIn as a recruiting tool. Entrepreneurs who are not looking for jobs can still use LinkedIn as a great resource for meeting other professionals and gaining some exposure for their own work.

PartnerUp

PartnerUp is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs find joint venture partners, co-founders, executives, and board members. You can either post your opportunity or search the listings placed by other entrepreneurs. There are networking capabilities through forums and an Ask a Question feature.

Konnects

Konnects focuses on professional networking by giving each member their own profile page. You can join communities, get to know other members, and just generally network with other like-minded professionals.

Ryze

Ryze has been around for a while but isn’t as well known as some other networking sites. On Ryze you’ll get your own profile page that can be customized, you can add friends, leave messages for others, and join groups.

Biznik

Biznik’s tagline is “Business networking that doesn’t suck.” Their approach is aimed more at entrepreneurs and business owners than employees looking for a job. There are a number of different communities for major cities in the U.S.

Cofoundr

Cofoundr is a private community for entrepreneurs. It obviously intends to help members find co-founders, as well as to build teams and network with other entrepreneurs.

StartupNation

StartupNation is a community site for entrepreneurs that includes networking aspects. The forums are very active with a wide range of topics being discussed. StartupNation also includes a number of articles relevant to entrepreneurs.

Upspring

Upspring aims to provide businesses with an opportunity to increase exposure and attract more customers. Members can register for free to get a profile page, join groups, and network with others. There are also premium options for a monthly fee.

Fast Pitch

Fast Pitch claims to be the fastest growing social network for professionals. You can set up your own profile page and network with other professionals.

Xing

Xing has a large and active community of professionals. You can network in many of the same ways as you can with the other sites listed here.

Which Networks Do You Use?

Are you a member of any of these networks? Are there others that you like?