Flash forward to a year ago: There are a million blogs on every subject. Look at your own efforts, and you’ll probably realize there’s a good chance nobody gives a shit about your self-hosted Wordpress blog. Suddenly, a lack of amazing content, real work, and a great brand actually prohibit people from finding success. (Believe me, if you were involved with the early blog gold rush, you would find this odd too).

Fact: It’s become a lot harder to make a real career out of blogging from advertising revenue. Nearly every big profitable niche is already dominated, and the top brands (TechCrunch, LifeHacker, Engadget, HuffingtonPost,etc, etc, etc) which are becoming even more sophisticated and powerful. Ipso facto, your gadget blog probably isn’t going anywhere fast.

What next? well, good question. Right now, we have….. [DrumRoll]……. Products!

Blogging and Products

Products are on fire right now. All the blogging gurus (Darren, Chow, etc) are talking about them constantly, causing every other business blogger to blog about them. Lucky for you, I don’t think you’re too late to the party. The product formula isn’t complicated, yet it’s a lot bigger pain in the ass than the old approach to making money blogging. There’s definitely still something in this idea though, and get on your high horse before this passes you too.

The formula

• Make a blog. Blog a lot, blog well. Be kick ass. Social network. Twitter. Blog often. Be original.
• All this hard work above, give it away for free for 6 months. Don’t bombard readers with ads. Hope your savings and motivation doesn’t run out.
• Once established, make products, and sell them. Keep blogging a bit, but not as much. Leave readers hanging. Sell products. Focus on promotion.

So essentially, the new “Products” are either paid memberships or e-books that have the most niche, valuable content. Sound like a lot of work? well, it is. But this is how people are getting big now, so if you want to get big, I think this is it.

The Role Models

Art of Non Conformity’s Chris Guillebeau has simply put on a clinic (expression) as to how to own the internet with his products approach. On paper, I would never have guessed he would’ve found success beforehand, but the guy is on fire and has a wealth of info on his blog. Chris focuses on products on traveling and making money unconventionally.

Tim Sykes

Tim Sykes is the perfect example of the membership approach with a slightly more formal, academic niche – stock trading. Before he kills me for grouping him with other financial traders and analysts he despises, he’s anything but conventional which has led to his great brand. His personality, outstanding trading performance (actual objectively great content), and pretty website make the foundation of his success. If you know nothing about him, watch his video via John Chow on making $100,000/month from memberships.

Other Niches

I’ve found some other niches that could still be up for grabs (which I won’t share, naturally). If you’re serious and up for making a career online outside of content based ad revenue, partake in some due diligence and grab a niche and maybe 6 months from now you’ll be pulling some serious cash that trumps your old $100/month Adsense revenue.

I’m a scatter brain and think this is a common trait amongst creative entrepreneurial type people and readers. If something isn’t worth my time and focus, I get bored and usually put my mind to use in other ways. Think daydreaming. But like most entrepreneurs, inspiration comes at little notice. What do you do with them? “Just remember them?” Yeah, right.

The argument I’m making is get a process down, now, as to how to remember your ideas for business, startups, or lifestyle design. It’s much easier said than done, but be ready for ideas all the time, and be ready to take notes all the time.

My idea book: I failed and failed again at storing my ideas digitally in various word documents that I can no longer find. If you can do this, more power to you really. But I use a simple, clean notebook and pen stored safely at home whereever I am.

Mobile inspiration: At almost all times, I’ll have either paper and pen to take quick notes with or a mobile phone to save a memo to. Both definitely handy, but only temporary. I stress to you centralize your ideas asap to your idea book.

Review and evaluation: Continual review of your ideas (depending on quantity) is probably best, but at least sit down to review them all in one sitting a couple times a year. Organize and cut the lists often – revist your analysis for your favorites often.

Important especially when…While this post may be nothing more than just a friendly reminder to you, a little on where this topic idea came from: I’m currently studying and living in Bangkok until December and the first few weeks I was here I was constantly learning new things and was interested in how business and processes were working differently. It’s amazing how different some businesses and products are over here, and living in a different culture offers just a wealth of insight on entrepreneurial ideas.

So even if you’re fine just remembering things and going from there, I stress that when you reconsider if you’ll be traveling. You never know when or where or how subtle your first big idea will be.

In my distraction from online business and entrepreneurship ventures, I’m not particularly bothered by how traveling has affected me, but instead im a bit hot and bothered about myelf letting school and academic things get in the way. I must constantly remind myself: Don’t let college distract you.

1. Time for life
College is a time to live, grow, and nurture yourself in more ways than just academics. As long as you get decent grades, you’re always eligible for anything business related careers afterwards. You can always make up excuses in an interview anyways for a few poor marks.

2. Experience is more important
I mentioned excuses in interviews if you choose to enter the rat race upon graduation– but they’re probably not even necessary if you have experiences to speak to. Your desire for good grades should always be second to your desire to have great, relevant experience. No exceptions.

3. Most academics aren’t that applicable by themselves
I like business and entrepreneurship, so im a business-finance major. Even though the course content fits my interests perfectly and is somewhat novel to me, most of the things I study I don’t personally want to do when im older. I’d rather pay someone else to do it. I don’t actually dream on implementing activity based accounting processes in my factory when im older. What’re the chances ill run a factory? If so, why would I want to implement an accounting system personally? Many topics in academics are great to be aware of, but an entrepreneur’s time is better spent running and growing a business rather than servicing it.

While I imply nobody should care about grades, it’s not the whole story. If you’re a balls to the wall entrepreneur, that idea is applicable to you. But a large proportion of College-Startup readers are on the edge and bit about whether to to be a true entrepreneur or join the rate race. Many are uncertain of their immediate future upon graduation, much like myself. While I know I need to be an entrepreneur sometime, I’ll probably get some formal work experience when I graduate, so it’s all about a healthy balance.

The main point is re-evaluate your life continually and if you’re getting too wrapped up in school, don’t. There’s a lot more to school in grades, and you’ll have a much more productive, enjoyable, and lucrative college career if you realize this sooner rather than later.

It’s tough stuff. I’m human. I like to stick with my people.

Through the pain of contemplating job cuts, I realized there is a lesson to be learned here. As I analyze each employee, I’ve basically been asking myself whether he or she is indispensable to my company. Are they replaceable at a cheaper cost, or do they have intangibles that justify their salary? Do they bring an insane work ethic? Are they passionate about their position? Do they have a skill that’s very hard to train?

Personally, I think the economy is going to double dip into recession. And if that is the case, jobs are going to be scarcer and scarcer.

The best job security is to become indispensable… irreplaceable.

For a really good overview of the things you need to be a great entrepreneur, check out this article, 25 Skills and Classes Necessary to Become a Great Entrepreneur, which makes the case that the best entrepreneurs know what they are good at and then delegate the rest.

Wake up early. This is a mostly subjective issue, because some of us are morning people while some of us are night owls. But no matter what your preference is, you cannot change the fact that a workday (or school day) usually starts in the morning, and you do have to get to class on time. Waking up early gives you extra time to freshen up and eat breakfast. Breakfast will give you the energy to accomplish your goals for the day.

If you wake up early enough, you’ll also avoid most of the distractions that seem to regularly come up in college since students are notorious for sleeping in. The early hours are great times to focus and get a lot of work done.

Take care of the small stuff. Take care of the little tasks right away before they grow and accumulate. If something can be done in two to five minutes, then it’s probably worth doing right away. Just finished a mug of coffee? Wash it right away before your kitchen sink turns into a tower of plates and mugs with radioactive goo. Do you need to call or email a professor? Do it now while it’s early. When you’ve ticked off the small items on your to do list, you’ll feel amazed at how much time you’ve saved.

Do one task at a time, but group tasks by location or logistics. Human brains are not like dual-core processors that your new laptop or desktop computer has. While our brains can essentially multitask, your conscious mind can probably focus on only one thing. Therefore, it’s a good idea to focus on finishing one task at a time, especially if it’s something important. If you’re finishing a paper or report, avoid turning on your instant messaging application at the same time. When you multitask, you tend to linger on each of the individual things you do, and therefore you waste time having to refocus your mind on doing each and everyone of these.

However, you should learn to group these tasks by location or time. For instance, if you’re bringing your clothes to the cleaners or laundrymat, then you can also do your grocery shopping along the way. You save time, energy and even transportation money by doing only one trip instead of more.

Cut back on unnecessary commitments. There are always parties to attend, club or frat meetings to go to, study groups to study with, and other activities that come your way, whether academic or non-academic. Learn to say “no” to commitments that you think would take up too much of your time from the more important things. It doesn’t mean that some events or commitments are not important. It’s just that you have other, more pressing things that you have to prioritize. Be realistic. Saying “no” does not necessarily mean being rude. Decline respectfully and be reasonable and realistic in doing so.

Avoid or limit distractions. I’ve talked about distractions already but it’s worth elaborating on the subject. Distractions keeps your focus away from doing something and it leads to more time spent on that task. It’s a good idea to avoid or limit these whenever you’re trying to study, work or do other important things. For instance, when you’re in shared living arrangements, establish a personal space because roommates might constantly distract or disturb you. How about finishing your review or your paper first, and then having fun with your extra time after that?

Time management is a highly personal matter. What works for one person might not work for another person. But there’s no harm in trying some tips and suggestions and sticking to them if they work for you. While you will only spend a few years in college, these habits will be important when you work in the corporate world or run your own business full time. So manage your time wisely and free up extra time to improve your college based business.

This is a guest post from twitQA, a Twitter answer site.

Strictly speaking, of course, the answer is no. We can follow whoever we want, or nobody at all. In my opinion, though, this misses the point of social media: proactive interaction. It’s all about putting yourself out there and making new connections. Also, following others is quite beneficial in that it helps you keep an ear on the ground, which is beneficial in generating ideas for your products and services.

Another issue is the reverse, i.e. gaining followers. There are many whose main concern is purely to acquire more followers, which they regard as a measure of success in Twitter world. I definitely think it’s a difficult task to do this in legitimate ways and is an art in itself. However, we shouldn’t forget that the quality of followers you have is as important, if not more so, as their quantity. Imagine persuading industry leaders to follow you and engaging you in conversations. Besides getting their insights to your questions, @replies and retweets are great advertisements for your account among their followers.

Each of us has tried different ways to attract users on Twitter. Which was your most successful tactic? Which one didn’t work as well as you hoped?

Pertaining to College Startup readers, the internet and online business is this ‘unconventional evil’ that is subject to cries of illegitimacy.  These thoughts stem mainly from the easyness that lies in starting a web business. A domain costs $10, hosting can be had for pocket change, and sufficient design is shifting toward a commodity with blogs. What other business has such low barriers of entry that create the illusion that ‘Anybody can do it’?

None.

But these same low barriers of entry hinder most people from succeeding since if you just walk away from the business, you lose a night’s bar tab. Big deal.

While these thoughts are kind of rambling, I’m trying to get to the point that a life of nonconformity in a business and career sense is easy to get started with, but hard to maintain and stick with.  If you do get serious, a life of nonconformity is a serious possibility if you’re interested.

Nonconformity living in action

For example, this post (and it’s obvious keyword of nonconformity) was partially inspired by Chris Guillebeau who runs his own successful and relatively young blog The Art of Nonconformity. From his constant travel and successful online monetization practices, Chris is living the life doing what he wants, when he wants.  He’s essentially making as much money as he wants to by working when he wants, and the strength of his brand is unreal allowing him to do so. The best part about Chris is that his site is so young (Feb 2008), which shows how it’s possible to leapfrog the competition and grow your business at a ridiculously fast rate with some real dedication.

I highly recommend reading a good portion of his site – especially his manifestos which are both inspiring and offer practical online business tips – to get a good iea of how nonconventional living from online business is possible and thriving.

Other Nonconformist internet entrepreneurs

There are tons of great online entrepreneurs out there, but they’ve been around for quite some time (funny how 3-5 years seems like a long time now for the internet). Amongst these are John Chow (his youtube video sums it up), Problogger, and college startup’s own Ryan Caldwell to name just a few.

Point in fact is that as Chris Guillebeau shows us at the Art of Nonconformity, it’s not too late to start an “unconventional” online business to support a fulfilling life spent living most of the time rather than working. Work to live, don’t live to work.

If you’ve been following the Iran protests, you might be aware of the media crackdown and Internet filtering that their government has been doing. Twitter has been instrumental in disseminating information from inside Iran to the outside world because its architecture makes it difficult to filter out. Wordwide, “tweeple” have been trying to help the protesters thru this service. Chris Anderson interviewed NYU Professor Clay Shirky about Twitter on TED.com, and I’ll quote part of it here:

Do you get a sense that it’s almost as if the world is figuring out live how to use Twitter in these circumstances? Some dissidents were using named accounts for a while, and there’s been a raging debate in the community about how best to help them.

Yes, there’s an enormous reckoning to be had about what works and what doesn’t. There have been disagreements over whether it was dangerous to use hashtags like #Iranelection, and there was a period in which people were openly tweeting the IP addresses of web proxies for people to switch to, not realizing that the authorities would soon shut these down. It’s incredibly messy, and the definitive rules of the game have yet to be written. So yes, we’re seeing the medium invent itself in real time.

This is certainly an eye-opener, not just about citizen journalism, but about how Twitter can be used by swarms of people for different ends. In business, a lot has been said on how to use social media to gain more customers or win their loyalty, but it seems like there are more possibilities left unexplored.

Do you use Twitter for your business dealings? How do you harness it differently, and what features do you think it should add to be more responsive to your needs as an entrepreneur?

For one, it’s faster. Time-sensitive decisions can be made on the ground without having to wait for you to get around to it. Of course, it also means there will be less on your plate to worry about. When the pressure to review each and every detail of transactions is shared with others, subject to checks and balances, it lowers your own stress level. Definitely more valuable time for your studies and relaxation.

Giving others a greater sense of responsibility enhances their stake in the company. They’ll see that the company’s success is also their success. Having their voices heard increases morale, fosters loyalty, and makes people more motivated to work, especially if you take the time to recognize their contributions.

Some work tasks can’t be distributed to employees, probably due to their sensitivity. For the others, however, don’t hesitate to train your team. As a former boss told me, you know you’re a good manager once you’ve trained your people to function well even without your supervision.