For the past 8 months, I’ve been talking with 20 of the top internet entrepreneurship minds in the world.

What started as a lofty project turned into the most thought-provoking, standard-shifting, and purpose-questioning learning experience of my life.

And today, I’m excited to share it with you.

The World’s Top 20 Internet Entrepreneurs

Towards the end of last year, Michael Dunlop from Income Diary sent me an email that just said, “Wanted to know if you want to Skype, got an idea.”

About two hours later we set sail to create the ultimate resource for internet entrepreneurs by gathering the collective knowledge of the top 20 Internet marketers in the world. That was our mission, and by golly, I think we accomplished it.

Introducing, Web Domination: How 20 Top Internet Entrepreneurs Mastered the Web! (aff link)

Here’s the impressive list of people, each carefully selected for their various expertises, who we talked with to create this ebook.

Jacob Cass

Designing Awesome Websites

If you search for “graphic designer,” Jacob Cass is consistently one of the top three individual graphic designers in the world. His site, JUST Creative, is a goldmine of information on what it means and what it takes to be a world-class graphic artist.

Matt Wolfe

Managing a Membership Website

One goal in any business is recurring income and a great way to accomplish that is with a membership site. Matt Wolfe, from Business and Blogs, makes a healthy 5-figure monthly income from his membership sites and generously told us exactly how he does it.

Tyrone Shum

Outsourcing Your Work

Ever since The 4-Hour Work Week came out, people have been fixated on outsourcing but very few people, myself included, understand how to get started with it. Tyrone Shum, from Outsourcing Live, manages a staff of 5 full-time, outsourced employees at a cost of about $2,000 per month.

Pat Flynn

Blogging to Be Everywhere

If you’re interested in making a living online, you need to read Pat’s blog, Smart Passive Income. In our interview Pat talked about his specific strategies for driving traffic and why he’s able to make $40-50K every month online.

Derek Halpern

Psychology of Blogging

Perhaps no one in the world is more dedicated to the research and data side of blogging than Derek Halpern from Social Triggers. In less than a year Derek has single-handedly amassed one of the largest blogs in the world while posting just a few times per month.

Gideon Shalwick

Video Marketing

Gideon Shalwick is widely considered the top resource in the world for online video marketing. Everything from how he conceives a video, to how he creates it, to how he uploads it is a carefully defined process that maximizes the distribution of his original thought.

David Sinick

Search Engine Optimization

David Sinick runs an SEO agency, BeastMedia, and works with some monstrous clients. In the interview, he gave us a comprehensive look at every detail of his company’s service so we can replicate them for our sites.

Syed Balkhi

Social Media Wisdom

A quick search for “Social Media Expert” will give you 271 million results. One person who will never refer to himself is as a social media expert is Syed Balkhi, from WPBeginner. Yet, three months into his latest site, List25, he has garnered over 100,000 Facebook fans, 10,000 Twitter followers, 1,000,000 views on YouTube, 3,000,000 collective Stumbles, and 5,000,000 monthly page views.

Brian Moran

Facebook Domination

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who understands Facebook Ads and Facebook marketing better than Brian Moran from Get 10,000 Fans. In a year, he went from 0 to 140,000 fans and turned it into a million dollar business.

Ben Jesson

Conversion Optimization

Ben Jesson, co-founder of Conversion Rate Experts, runs one of the world’s foremost website conversion agencies. With clients like Google, Apple, and Sony, he’s able to develop and fine-tune their methodologies on the largest websites in the world.

Yanik Silver

Copywriting Magic

Yanik Silver first dipped his toes into the internet lifestyle in 2000 and has made $15 million from the internet since. Yanik’s secret? His words and the incredibly thoughtful process that he goes through to string them together.

David Risley

Email Marketing

David Risley, now the founder of Blog Marketing Academy, has been around the internet even longer than Yanik (1998). One of his biggest regrets was not starting to build an email list earlier. So now he teaches people how not to make that mistake.

Stephen Beck

Webinar Domination

Webinars are the internet’s most active selling tool because you gather a crowd of people for a live event and have the ability to make a limited-time offer. To help us understand the ins-and-outs of webinars, we recruited Stephen Beck from Wildly Wealthy Webinars.

Michael Dunlop

Website Monetization

23-year-old owner of Income Diary and our client for this project, Michael Dunlop has become one of the world’s foremost experts on website monetization. He wanted us to interview someone else for this topic but I insisted that we needed to know what he knows.

Lewis Howes

Selling Digital Products

Lewis Howes creates educational courses for small business owners on how to get more leads and sales through LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Today he has built multimillion dollar business by selling these courses as digital products.

Josh Bartlett

Software Creation and Launch

Josh Bartlett created a million dollar software product, Easy Video Player, without knowing how to code. His story fascinates me because of his unique approach to getting developers on his team and motivating them to get the work done while maintaining his original vision.

Ryan Lee

Continuity is King

Continuity is a term that’s used to describe recurring-revenue business models. Ryan Lee, the master of continuity, runs a number of membership programs that collectively bring in 7-figures per month.

James Schramko

Affiliate Marketing Mastery

James Schramko isn’t your typical high-profile internet entrepreneur. After running a $100 million car dealership, he has built several internet companies based on old-school business principles. You know, like caring for people, knowing their names, and selling what they ask for. This results in a highly lucrative affiliate market strategy that always benefits both parties.

Cody McKibben

Digital Nomading

Cody McKibben, from Thrilling Heroics, is currently living in Bangkok, Thailand and traveling the world while running a few successful internet companies. He’s an archetype of the digital age and the never-before-possible lifestyle opportunities that the internet provides.

Neil Patel

Internet Entrepreneur

If you don’t know who Neil Patel is, you’re missing out. At 26 years old, he has two wildly successful internet companies (KISSmetrics and Crazy Egg) and a Top 100 Technorati blog in QuickSprout. He’s an entrepreneurial trailblazer and someone who I think every young entrepreneur needs to learn from.

Is This Ebook Relevant to You?

I recognize that the audience here is slightly different than the original audience for this ebook.

But if you’re at all interested, which I know many of you are, in starting, running, and building an internet business, I’ve never found a more comprehensive guide that will teach you everything that you need to know.

Michael started this project by giving us a list of topics that he thought the ebook should cover, and other than that, Nick Scheidies and I had complete creative freedom to pull together the ultimate resource that we wanted ourselves.

I’m excited for it and it’s already helping a lot of people.

If you have questions about the 8-month-long project, what I learned from the interviewees, or whether or not I think the ebook can help you, let me know in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer them.

Otherwise, go pick up a copy of Web Domination (aff link). (Or at least take a look at how Michael is selling it.)

For the last six months, I’ve been learning, working, reading, meeting, teaching, thinking, skiing, golfing, and otherwise pondering the purpose of everything I do, including running 14 Clicks.

Aside from that, Nick and I were invited to pull together one of the most comprehensive entrepreneurship resources the Internet has ever seen. It’s been an eye-opening and life-altering project that’s finally going to be unveiled this week.

More on that in a bit.

What’s Going on with 14 Clicks?

I know, I know. I needed to take 6-month hiatus from 14 Clicks for two reasons:

1. I’ve been busy working with clients. At the end of last year, I signed a lease on a house that I couldn’t afford. This meant that I needed to focus on the work that pays me, which, unfortunately, doesn’t include writing for 14 Clicks. (This site actually costs money.)
2. I’ve been reimagining my vision for 14 Clicks. I want to make sure that I create a resource that helps people do incredible things through entrepreneurship. Not just read, learn, and think about it. I’ve heard from a few of you about the projects that 14 Clicks has inspired you to start, but I think we can do better. And this starts with crafting a clear, long-term vision.

Even though it’s been six months since I’ve updated this site, it’s been growing. In that time, we’ve had over 100,000 visits, almost 200,000 minutes of activity, and traffic grew 59.5% over the previous six months.

Not bad, huh?

What’s this Life-Altering Project?

Also towards the end of last year, somebody asked me to create something for them … something that’s never been created quite like he envisioned.

So Nick Scheidies and I set out to do that.

We researched, we planned, we scouted, we targeted, we asked, we listened, we produced, and we delivered.

What started as a lofty project for a client turned into the most thought-provoking, standard-shifting, and purpose-questioning learning experience of my life.

On Wednesday, I’ll reveal many of the important lessons I learned. If you’re subscribed, look out for that email.

With that, what have you been up to? I want to know because I want to help.

Note: Now Released!

When you were in school, how often did you take the leadership role in group projects?

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, the answer is every time. We’re natural leaders. But leadership comes easier to some than others.

To help you with that, I enlisted 21-year-old professional speaker and leadership expert, Pedro De Abreu, to share seven mighty leadership characteristics that every entrepreneur should develop.

1. Self-Reflecting

When I started in professional speaking, I thought it was odd that I wasn’t getting any call backs for further engagements. Maybe I wasn’t well-versed in marketing? Or maybe I hadn’t worked on a deal to sell copies of my books?

Wrong.

The reason, I later found, wasn’t in the marketing nor in my audience, it was in the speech. My delivery wasn’t right. My timing wasn’t right. In other words, I was the problem.

As soon as I was able to identify the issue and correct it, I started getting call backs and countless invitations for further engagements on the spot.

We tend to go around blaming everyone and everything else for an outcome, while we forget that we were the ones to cause something.

How do you avoid running in to this problem? Take a good look at yourself and answer the following:

• What are your weaknesses and your strengths?
• Is what you are currently doing in alignment with your objectives?
• Do you truly know yourself? If you don’t know who you are, others won’t know either.

An organization will never outgrow its leader. Moreover, the size of your success will never be greater than the size of your leadership.

“You never know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out.” – Warren Buffett

2. Visionary

You must have a vision for your product, your family, and whatever you’re working on. Most importantly, you must have a vision for yourself.

The biblical admonition, without vision people perish, has never been truer. Without vision, you’ll never know where you’re going. Without knowing where you’re going, you’ll never get there.

Although vision is the keystone of leadership, it will never work if your character is flawed. People won’t follow you if you can’t control yourself. And, believe me, people smell phoniness from a mile away.

Your integrity and intentions must remain intact. The only way to build trust is to lead yourself exceptionally well. Watch your words, your time, your actions, and your personal life, always making sure that they align with the person whom you wish to become.

3. Belief

One day, Joan of Arc was marching with an army of ten thousand men through the country side of France when she came across a little boy who was building a miniature city in the sand. Joan immediately asked the boy to move out of the way, to which he replied, “I won’t, because a city cannot move, but an army can go around it.”

The city was his vision. He believed in it.

Whatever it is that you do, whatever your vision is, you must believe in it. Be prepared to spend a lot of time alone working on your dreams. People won’t automatically get you, but if you believe in your dreams just enough, you’ll liberate others to believe in them as well. If you don’t believe in the vision you have for yourself, others won’t either.

Bottom line is this, although execution is important, it is better to believe in the why than to know the how.

4. One Thing at a Time

After I graduated from high school, two of my friends and I had an idea for a web-business. We thought we’d do well, so we packed up and moved from South Carolina to California. The beginning was very tough, as we were barely able to make ends meet.

Eventually we started organizing industry events where we had bands performing for A&Rs and record label executives. Each one of the bands performing had to sell at least 20 tickets at $20 each. Gradually we were able to generate a good profit margin, one ticket at a time.

What I have found is that, in life, any obstacle can be overcome one ticket at a time. If you face your problems thinking that they can be all overcome at once, you’ll inevitably encounter much more failure than you need to. Take them slowly. Let them percolate. Divide and conquer.

As you follow your vision, you’ll encounter your fair share of challenges. But after you accomplish your goals you find that, without the lessons that you learned in difficult times, you wouldn’t be where you are today.

Every great achievement is preceded by many challenges. Take them for what they’re worth and don’t be attached to the outcome. Remember that, when you set out in your journey, the most important step will always be the first one.

5. The Magic of Giving

Out of these seven characteristics of leadership, this is the most mysterious one. I don’t know how it works, but all I know is that it does work.

If you ever want to receive something meaningful, give. Give money to charity, give your time to someone, give something to someone. Get up, go out there and give without ever expecting anything in return. That’s part of the price you pay for your success.

“Give what you want. If you want a smile, smile. If you want a punch in the mouth, throw a punch. If you want money, give money.” – Robert Kiyosaki

6. Inspirational

Hamlet famously remarked that, if he were bounded in a nutshell, he could count himself king of infinite space.

The truth is, most of us live in our nutshells and think that we can simply go on our journey on our own. Little do we know, should we go about our success that way, the chances of ever achieving something meaningful become very slim. You must realize that you are not alone. You must also realize that you won’t accomplish it all alone.

Go out there and network, make friends, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. You’ll find that most people are not only willing to help, but they have also been where you are. They know that the most important task of a leader is to grow others so that they can become leaders themselves

There’s a maxim that states, “a ship only sinks if you allow the water that is on the outside come to the inside.” When your ship starts to sink, those are the people who’ll help you pump the water out – or pump bad thoughts and feelings of inferiority out of your mind.

7. Patient

Journeys are tough. More often than not we find big rocks in our way, we step on pieces of glass, and we run out of money to invest in our vision. But time lends good fortune to those who are willing to wait.

People believe that those who sit and wait are lazy. I agree, but I’m not talking about them.

I’m talking about the people who have done everything they can to achieve their goals and who are willing to wait to reap their rewards. After all, there is a season for everything. You must trust that things will turn out all right.

If you are alive today, it’s because there are greater victories in store for you.

“Work diligently all day – then sleep in peace. God will handle the night shift.” – Chad Hymas

See Pedro De Abreu Speak

To book Pedro De Abreu for your event, click here.

This three-step process is the foundation of everything I do.

When I write, when I speak, and when I teach classes, I start with these three keys.

If you want to be successful, or encourage others to be successful, you need to unlock your potential with these three keys to success (corny, I know, but I couldn’t pass on the pun).

1^st Key to Success: Inspiration

Before you do anything, ANYTHING, you need to be inspired to do it.

So, how do you get inspired? Lots of ways. Here are my favorites:

• Read stories of other successful young entrepreneurs.
• Watch motivational movies and entrepreneurial TED Talks.
• Drive through a rich neighborhood and imagine what it’d be like to own one of those houses.
• Drive through a big city and imagine what it’d be like to own one of those skyscrapers.
• Look at the world’s problems and ask yourself, “Why am I not spending my time trying to solve them?”

One major problem with entrepreneurial education, and education in general, is that they skip this step. They don’t understand that before we want to learn something, we need to be inspired to learn it.

2^nd Key to Success: Know-How

Now that you’re inspired, you need to know how you’re going to become successful.

You need to figure out two things:

1. What do you want to do?
   Start with a product, service, or problem that you’re passionate about. I know, “start with your passion” is totally cliché. But when those I-don’t-want-to-get-out-of-bed days come, it’s going to be nearly impossible to motivate yourself to work on something that you’re not passionate about.
2. How are you going to do it?
   Learn, learn, learn, and learn some more. Every entrepreneur will attribute part of their success to their love of learning. Frankly, the best way to learn is to do. So your next step is to sell. If you start by selling, you’ll know exactly what to provide or create.

Once you know how you’re going to become successful, it’s only a matter of getting it done. Harder than it sounds. Hence, the third key.

3^rd Key to Success: Support

As an entrepreneur, there are going to be days when you doubt the very purpose of your existence.

To get through those days, you need a group of people to constantly encourage you and hold you accountable when you “just don’t feel like it.”

Where do you find a support system?

• Friends
  Since I enjoy entrepreneurship, I naturally gravitate towards other entrepreneurs. Over the past three years I’ve built up a sturdy group of entrepreneurial friends, including the people I live with.
• Parents
  Perhaps nobody has more influence over your life than your parents. If they don’t support your entrepreneurial musings, you need to tell them how important it is to have their support.
• Teachers and Professors
  If you’re in school, find a teacher or professor who you can go to to ask questions that are more important than the subjects they teach.
• Mentors
  Find someone who is doing what you want to do and ask if they’ll mentor you through becoming successful.
• Other Entrepreneurs
  Going back to inspiration, read up on other entrepreneurs to remind yoursel that success never comes easy. You don’t necessarily have to know someone for their thoughts and advice to support you.

How to Use the 3 Keys to Success

Like I said, these three tools are the foundation of everything I do.

• Blogging
  Inspire through blog posts > show how with inexpensive products > support through more expensive mentoring and training programs (coming soon).
• Teaching
  Inspire through success stories > show how with step-by-step advice > support by making them do it.
• Speaking
  Inspire with personal stories > show how through specific advice > support by giving them the slides or selling the books.
• Sales Meetings
  Inspire with the benefits > show them how it’ll work > support them by handling their objections.

Got it? Good.

Are there any other keys to success? Can you think of anything else that these three keys don’t cover? Let me know. You know where.

Have you ever had a crazy customer?

If you haven’t, it’s only a matter of time. And if you know how to deal with an angry customer, you can dramatically change how they feel about you and your business.

Today I want to show you a very angry customer email I received last year and how I made him extraordinarily happy.

Reasonable Customer Email, 8:11

Eugene ordered a book on November 7^th, 2010. Immediately after placing his order he received an automated email. Then I sent him a personal email the next day confirming his address. He replied with his adjusted address on the 11^th. So I shipped the book on November 13^th and he received another automated email.

In total, he received three emails up to this point.

He sent me that email five days after I shipped his book. Mind you, the book was headed to Iraq.

Angry Customer Email, 8:17

Neither the font size nor color has been adjusted from the original email . Let’s call it, Big Red.

Six minutes after the first email, he sent me that beauty.

Initial Response Email, 8:42

I replied 25 minutes after receiving Big Red. Anytime you get an email like that, it’s important to handle it immediately.

Instead of apologizing, because I did nothing wrong, I offered to send him a free copy of the eBook. Actions always mean more than words.

Customer Response Email, 8:55

Eugene promptly responded 13 minutes after my email with an appreciative email of his own.

Promise Follow Through Email, 9:07

Less than an hour after receiving Big Red, I sent him a free copy of the eBook with a more in-depth explanation of what went wrong.

Final Thank You Email, 3 Days Later

Unbeknownst to Eugene, I personalized and signed the book I sent him five days prior to receiving Big Red.

I’ve exchanged a few more emails with Eugene since this incident and I think it’s safe to say he’s a happy customer.

Angry Customer Lessons

Here are a few lessons to take away as far as dealing with angry customers.

• Respond immediately with an honest explanation.
• Offer to make things right even if you did nothing wrong.
• Follow-up to make sure they’re happy.

Oftentimes your angriest customers become your most happy customers if you respond well to their concerns.

Do you have any angry customer stories?