The way information is shared has been changing drastically over the past few years. In the past, if you wanted someone to view an advertisement or read about a product, you’d place an ad in the newspaper or on TV. Now, with social networking sites becoming so trendy, however, word of mouth is becoming more popular than ever. If done properly, this can result in a viral post that gets millions of views in a short amount of time. While going viral may sound easy, there are actually several rules if you wish to succeed at it.

Rule 1: Write to All Audiences

When journalists write articles they’re often told to write at a level that everyone can understand. The same is true when creating a viral post. For example, if you’re writing an article about cars, you don’t want only a mechanic to understand it. At the same time, you don’t want to write something that a mechanic already knows. Bloggers can compromise by writing a post for amateurs, but also including lesser know tips that everyone can benefit from.

Rule 2: Make Sharing Easy

A post becomes viral because a large audience is sharing it through social networking websites. Unfortunately, when it comes to using the Internet, many people are lazy. Even if many people enjoy the post, they may not share it if it requires too much work on their end. Bloggers can fix this problem by adding a “Share” or “Tweet” widget to their website. This allows readers to share the post with hundreds of social networking friends or followers all with just one click of a button.

Rule 3: Name Drop

While not everyone is a fan of name dropping, it can be used to gain a large following in a short amount of time. The process is simple; create a post that contains a list of ‘bests’. This could be best guides, best blogger, most humorous posts, anything the writer wants. The trick is to link back to the ‘bests’ mentioned in the post. Many bloggers will receive an alert when someone mentions their website, and when they see that it’s a positive review, they’re likely to mention it on their blog. If this is done with enough people, the post can go viral.

Rule 4: Create a Post That’s Visually Appealing

When people read posts online, they often skim through the text to locate the important parts. If they’re unable to do this easily, many readers won’t bother reading the entire article. Bloggers can use this knowledge to help their posts appear more visually appealing. For example, it’s always a good idea write several paragraphs rather than one large block of text. Using headings, bolding, italics and other coding can also help to make the post easier to read, thus resulting in more overall views.

Many people say that advertising a small business online is effective, but few small businesses understand the full impact of using pay per click (PPC) advertising. This can help you discover a product’s popularity, and you can also maximize your advertisements and your image online through PPC advertising. This will highlight the top three reasons for marketing yourself online.

Welcome to week #4 of The Entrepreneurs Project! The continued support from you is what keeps this project alive and growing. A common question that I see tossed around a lot is “Is building an online business hard?” what they really mean is “Is building a profitable online business hard?” So, I’ve decided to make it the theme for this weeks project.

The question asked was: What would you say are the 3 most important steps to building a profitable business, and why?

Yaro Starak – Entrepreneurs-journey.com

1. Choosing a marketplace that is large enough and motivated enough to make purchases. If you get this wrong, then you won’t have customers or an audience, so everything else is irrelevant.

2. An ability to market what you do. Many creative people and experts are great at what they do, but they are not natural marketers, so they fail to spread the word about their offers. You need to study and practice marketing in order to reach those hungry customers.

3. A business model that is scalable, profitable and can be automated. You might be good at marketing and target a market that people spend money in, but if your business model is flawed you can lose more money than you make. Your business needs points of leverage where profit can be extracted in an exchange of mutual benefit, that can be scaled effectively without you doing all the work.

Follow Yaro on Twitter: @yarostarak

Jonathan Volk – JonathanVolk.com

The three most important steps for building a profitable online business are: Research, Monetization, and Quality.

1. Research – In order to be successful, you must create a business where there is a need and a market that could sustain a company. So while you MIGHT be able to make some money selling grandma’s green frog statues, the demand overall is probably going to be low. Find something that you both love and there is a need for and you are 1/3 of the way there.

2. Monetization – Ok, just because Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter had no initial plans on how to make money via their website, does not mean you shouldn’t. Chances are, you are not making the next twitter or facebook, sorry. You should be prepared with not only how you’re going to monetize traffic but how you’re going to GET traffic in the first place.

Ask yourself these questions to (hopefully) prepare yourself on how to monetize your website:

a) How am I going to make money with this website? Selling a product / service? Ads? Freemium?

b) How am I going to get visitors to come to my site? PPC? Social media? Email marketing?

You need to have multiple ways to get visitors. Simply relying on “SEO” or “referrals” should NOT be your main strategy initially in my opinion. You need to get the word out about your site instantly… That doesn’t mean spending a lot either. Remember that.

3. After you have figured out what you’re going to be selling or offering, how to get traffic, and how to monetize that traffic, you have to actually follow up with a quality product or service.

Remember the little things matter. Be detailed oriented and meticulous about your product. Once you have a customer, a good percentage of those customers will buy again from you… so you need to keep them happy however possible.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @Jonathanvolk

Tom Kulzer – Aweber.com

1) Find a product/service people are willing to pay money for. If you don’t have a market to sell to, you don’t have a customer base.

2) Price your product/service so you actually make a profit. Many entrepreneurs vastly underestimate the cost of the goods they are selling and are running themselves further into debt with each new customer. Unless you have a great backend upsell process you’ll never stay in the market for long spending more than you’re making.

3) Hugely over deliver in the value you provide to customers. Exceeding customer expectations will earn you loyalty and many word of mouth referrals.

Follow Tom on Twitter: @tkulzer

Lewis Howes – Lewishowes.com

1. Become an expert at a certain topic or niche.

2. Generate compelling, consistent content

3. Aggressively build an email list and network

You need to be an expert at something to be able to sell and generate leverage with others. Content is a way to drive traffic and eyeballs back to your site and capture leads, and your email list and network will allow you to promote your services/products and affiliate products.

Follow Lewis on Twitter: @Lewishowes

Micha Kaufman – Fiverr.com

1. Coming up with the idea: Build something people actually need and constantly practice reduction of features before launching. Simple products have much better chance out there than complicated products, especially in the early days of the startup. Your idea competes with a billion other ideas and people will give you 3 seconds before moving on and never looking back. Simple promise and a single call for action goes a long way in increasing your chance to grab attention. The same goes for a business model – you need to have one from the very start, and a simple model is the best.

2. Staring up: Invest whatever resources necessary in building a top-notch customer support. The first step in doing so is answering customer support emails yourself in the first phase of the company. In our company we already have a team of costumer support aces and I still take some of the support tickets myself. This is your best communication channel with your customers. This is where you learn about the problems and about the new opportunities and it determines how your company looks to the outside world.

3. Growing: It is OK to innovate and tryout new things based on intuition, but take decisions based on as much analytics you can gather – other than feedback from customers, analytics is your best tool for deciding what works and what doesn’t.

Marko Saric – Howtomakemyblog.com

1. Build the platform. You are an unknown person so you need a platform where you can showcase your experience, your expertise and your skills. Build your brand basically.

2. Build an audience. By showcasing your usefulness you will start building an audience and a following. People will start seeing you as an expert in your field.

3. Create a product and sell it. Now that you have a personal brand and you have an audience, create a premium product. It can be an book, a video course, a membership site – anything that fits your niche.

Follow Marko on Twittter: @Markosaric

Corbett Barr – Thinktraffic.net

1) Build something you actually care about.

Building a successful online business takes time, guts and commitment. If you build something because you “think there’s a market” instead of something you really care about, chances are you won’t make it through all the ups an downs you’ll experience along the way. Pick something you’re passionate about to build a business around and you’ll be happy you did 18 months from now when you’re not a famous millionaire like you thought you’d be.

2) Make friends with your customers.

A big mistake I’ve made in the past and that I’ve seen other entrepreneurs make is not listening to and caring about your customers enough. Some people might be talented enough to build a product everyone will love without outside input, but I wouldn’t bet on it myself. You have to talk to people about the problem you aim to solve, find out where the biggest pain points are and show your potential customers you care about them and the niche you’re in.

3) Give them a reason to buy (from you).

Striving to be the best at what you do is just the price of admission in online business these days. Everyone tries to be the best, so you have to do more than that. You need to give your customers a better reason to buy your product than just “we make the best widget around.” Differentiate yourself, focus on a unique sub-market and be the only product to serve that specific need. Don’t compete directly. Make your product stand alone and you won’t have to.

Follow Corbett on Twitter: @Corbettbarr

Pawan Agrawal – Maxblogpress.com

Step 1: Don’t put in too much time in planning. Things never go the way you have imagined and planned. Reality is different and you can know it only by experiencing it. Just start with whatever idea you have in your mind.

Step 2: Track your results properly. See what worked and what didn’t. What worked as you had imagined and what didn’t and ask yourself why? It’s much easier to track online and you can find plenty of free softwares/service for this.

Step 3: Now, and only now, create some long term plan since your plan will be based on reality rather than on the basis of theory or whatever you had imagined even before experiencing it.

Robb Sutton – Robbsutton.com

The biggest mistake I see bloggers make when trying to build a profitable online business is relying on content that doesn’t covert into sales or attract an audience that actually wants to pull out their wallet and spend money on something.

1. Attract a buying audience.
2. Find products that your buying audience wants to purchase.
3. Promote products that fill that need and make products that either do a better job at filling the need or fill a gap that hasn’t been covered yet.

It’s pretty simple and something that profitable brick and mortar businesses do on a daily basis. Without a buying audience…you have no profits.

Follow Robb on Twitter @Robbsutton

Chris Garrett – Chrisg.com

1) Determine your prospect and their need.

2) Determine your value in relation to #1

3) Determine your positioning in relation to #2 and against your competitors

If you can clearly communicate a well differentiated offer that meets the real needs of a specific audience then you have a good foundation for a business.

Follow Chris on Twitter: @chrisgarrett

Tony Hsiesh – Zappos.com

1- Focus on company culture from the beginning and hiring people whose personal values match the company values

2- Start small, experiment, be open-minded, and constantly adapt

3- Figure out what your company’s higher purpose is

Follow Tony on Twitter: @Zappos

Shawn Collins – Affiliatesummit.com

1. Focus on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses – you will sink valuable time into tasks you’re unfamiliar with or simply don’t want to do.
2. Keep it small and keep it all – a big roster of employees doesn’t equal success, but it can result in more stress and grief.
3. Run a business that excites you – if it’s not a passion project, it will become a job.

Follow Shawn on Twitter: @Affiliateip

David Leggett – Tutorial9.net

1)Be very good at whatever you are attempting to do.
2) Commit yourself to being as productive as possible to your idea.You are solely responsible for the success or failure of your project.
3 )Enjoy your work instead of seeing it as a means to an end.

Follow David on Twitter: @theleggett

Jason Schuller – Press75.com

1. Know Your Competition, But Don’t Copy Them
I think it is very important to know who your competition is, but at the same time, do not focus on what made their business successful. Even tough you may be providing a similar product, you should try and diversify and come up with a strategy that is specific to you and your business. A business should have its own individual personality just like human beings do. Personality is what makes us unique, and ultimately is what draws other people to us. When you try an carbon-copy your competition, you lose that individuality and are setting yourself up to be lost in the mix.

2. Quality, not Quantity… Inside and Out
You might think that getting as much product out there as fast as you can would be a good thing, but it really isn’t. In fact, I know of several business (in my industry especially) that have only one product that pulls in just as much revenue as similar businesses with 20 or more products in the same category. In short, go after quality rather than quantity when developing a product for any new business. When I say quality, I mean inside and out. If your product doesn’t look good on the surface in the eyes of the masses, it doesn’t matter how well it is built because first impressions take priority.

3. Make Your Business as Efficient as Possible From the Start
This is probably one one of the hardest things to do until you actually have your business online because you can never predict how every aspect of your business is going to react to the real world. However, once your business is up and running, you should be very much aware of the things that cause speed-bumps in your day to day workflow. Analyze those things, and automate them as much and as soon as possible. If you don’t, you are guaranteed to lose dozens of hours a week working things that could otherwise be automated.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @jschuller

Maren Kate- Escapingthe9to5.com

1. Testing your idea, this can be anything from asking a selection of people, to doing extensive online research but always check your ideas before going forward.
2. Acting on your idea, this is critical to success. You must act constantly, even if you’re only making baby steps to build a successful business.
3. Innovating is the final step in a truly successful business, you must always stay on your toes by building a business around innovative ideas and never losing that fire after you hit success

Follow Maren on Twitter: @Marenkate

AJ Vaynerchuck – Vaynermedia.com

1. Keep costs low.
2. Have a plan to profitability (you do not have to stick to the original plan, being nimble and flexible is important).

3. Execute

David Risley - Davidrisley.com

#1 – Research your prospective niche and know what you’re getting into before tackling it head-on. I talk about this alot in my Blog Masters Club training as well as in my Blueprint report. You want to go into markets where you can help people with real-life problems, or at least something that translates into real life. You need to have that underlying emotional drive in the members of your market, which you then help further along through your content and your offerings.

#2 – Build your list. Everybody needs a list, even if the only thing you plan to do with it is tell people about your latest blog posts. Without an email list, your business is reactionary. With a list, you can proactively drive people’s attention.

#3 – Work on attracting the right type of audience. As tempting as it is to go after sheer numbers, it is actually more important to get the RIGHT people than it is to get anybody who fogs up a mirror when they breathe. You do this by strategically creating the type of brand which will attract the type of people you want. For example, if you complain on your blog all the time, you’ll build an audience of negative people and that isn’t good for business.

Follow David on Twitter: @Davidrisley

Neil Patel – Quicksprout.com

1. Hustle
2. Hustle
3. Hustle

There is no one answer that fits every business, instead you just need to hustle and do whatever it takes to make money. Everything revolves around you getting off your *** and figuring out what you need to do to.

Follow Neil on Twitter: @Neilpatel

Chuck Longanecker – Dtelepathy.com

• Strategy. First and foremost, develop a product around something that you are passionate about. Make sure the product serves a target audience that you relate to and solves a special problem that they would be willing to pay to resolve. Since you can develop an online product around anything, you might as well choose something that feeds your soul as well as those of whom you understand. This will increase your chances of success due to the level of intimacy you have with the product, it’s users and the market in general. For instance if you love travel, develop a unique product or service for a specific type of traveler that improves their traveling experience.
• Development. During product development, focus only on the feature(s) that directly solve the problem that you have identified and make sure your design style and brand reflects your target audience. Make a long list of all your other ideas and file them for later consideration. Once the product is stable and at a point where it is something that you would use personally, release it for free in private beta. Find blogs or other media publications that will help you distribute beta keys to your target audience. All of your product messaging should describe how your product easily solves a common problem.
• Monetize. Collect qualitative insights by polling your current users personally and with a service like survey.io to learn what they can’t live without and what features are missing. Refine and add new features, design and messaging that best serve your loyal customers and suit your vision of the product. Carve out a free vs. paid feature set and don’t be afraid to reduce your free customers down to the basics. Allow your users to invite their friends to sign up for a free month of service to gain more users. Open the site up to the public and cross your fingers. Continue to measure your KPIs (We use KISSmetrics) and refine your product often.

Follow Chuck on Twitter: @barefootceo

Thomas Sinfield – Standoutblogger.com

1. Direction
You need to have a clear direction on where you are heading. Set some specific goals and pursue them.

2. Ability
Either you or your team needs to have the capabilities to achieve your goals (personally, I prefer having a talented team!)

3. Focus

I am a massive fan of this acronym for FOCUS – Follow One Course Until Success. A lot of people never find success because they never stick at anything long enough.

Lynn Terry – Clicknewz.com

1. Choose a niche or market you can really devote yourself to. There are a lot of “hit or miss” ways to make money online, but building a successful online business with consistent revenue and long-term profit potential requires focus and a personal investment of time & energy.

2. Stay focused on your business, and your goals with that business. Getting distracted by other “opportunities” will only delay your business growth. The proverbial grass on the other side of the fence is not as green as it seems – and it still requires mowing. Meaning, you might as well work where you are (on *your* business) rather than hop from one thing to another… never completing anything you start.

3. Building a business takes time and it takes work. Be prepared to invest both, and stick it out all the way to it’s max profit potential. Every entrepreneur goes through phases of boredom or burn-out. This is not a sign that you need to abandon your work and explore other ideas. It’s a sign that you need to power through and get to the next stage of growth.

The biggest mistake I see new online business owners make is to take on too much at once, without focusing on any one thing. To “play around” or treat it more like a hobby than a business. It’s a very common mistake – and the reason that your competition is never really as competitive as it seems. All it takes is a serious person with a clear mission and a genuine desire to succeed. The rest of the details can be worked out along the way…

Follow Lynn on Twitter: @Lynnterry

Nathan Hangen – Nathanhangen.com

1. Decide where you want to be in 2-3 years. What’s your end game and where do you want to go?

If you don’t have a solid plan for your business and your reasons for doing so, you’ll get lost very quickly when something new and shiny comes along.

2. Determine what you like to create. I’m a firm believer that if you’re just going through the motions, i.e. creating something based on someone else’s wants and needs, then the product will be lifeless. However, if you find something you like to do, whether it’s blogging, podcasting, writing novels, or making music, then your passion will come through in the art.

Don’t try to get by with mediocre.

3. Understand your industry.

If you want to enter a new niche or industry, you need to understand how it works. This means you need to know who holds the influence, what type of content/products people are consuming, what the long tail (and head) looks like, etc.

If your audience doesn’t read blogs, then it’s probably important that you don’t focus 100% on a blog. Get to know your market and the people inside of it.

Follow Nathan on Twitter: @Nhangen

This week for The Entrepreneurs Project, I decided that I’d start things off with something pretty cool. I’ve asked a question that is targeted to everyone looking to become a better entrepreneur. Lots of good stuff this week!

Anywho, I asked some entrepreneurs one single question: What would you advice entrepreneurs today and why?

Micha Kaufman – Fiverr.com

Dare and don’t be afraid to fail. We often look at successful entrepreneurs and ask ourselves “what did they do right that lead them to success?”. Truth is, most of them have a magnificent trail of failures behind them. There are a number of very good reasons for that — here are three: 1. Entrepreneurs that operate under the fear of failing perform worse than those who don’t — when taking an exam, are you performing better or worst worried that you might screw your future? 2. If you allow yourself to fail and make sure to learn from your mistakes, next time you start a venture, odds are you will not make the same mistakes again, which means that you will be a wiser, more experienced entrepreneur with higher chances of making a home run. 3. The Internet allows you to put your ideas to the test with very little time and resources. Failing fast is always better than spending years of your life on ideas that have no chance out there. Release often, iterate, repeat and if it does not stick — cut your loses and move on. Good luck.

Follow Micha on Twitter: @michakaufman

Tony Hsieh – Zappos.com

I would say rather than focus on what will make you the most money or be best for your career, figure out what you would be passionate for 10 years and go pursue that. A lot of people work hard at building a career so that one day down the road they think it will bring them happiness. And most of the time, when they finally accomplish their goal, they realize that it doesn’t really end up bringing happiness or fulfillment for the long term. One of the things that the research has shown is that people are very bad at predicting what will make them happy. If the ultimate goal is to achieve enduring happiness, it seems like it’s worth spending some time learning about the science of happiness so you don’t wind up in the same situation.

Follow Tony on Twitter: @Zappos

Christopher Knight – Ezinearticles.com

Single best advice I can give a fellow entrepreneur: Build a data-decision-driven culture that rewards continuous improvement/innovation based on analytics. Often decisions are made based on gut feel, emotions, false premises or incomplete data. It’s better to identify critical success indicators and baseline data for various aspects of the business. What gets measured, gets managed.

Follow Christopher on Twitter: @chrisknight

Jonathan Volk – Jonathanvolk.com

My advice is to get a job! It’s much safer.  Haha kidding. As I’m sure every entrepreneur knows… working the 9-5 grind just doesn’t cut it for us. My actual advice is to build relationships with people who are more successful than you. Put yourself out there, go to conferences, and go out of your way to help those who are more successful than you. By helping them out, they will remember you and it will pay off.  If they have a blog, become an active participant. If they have a twitter, tweet them regularly. When you see them in person, make sure to greet them. I have used this strategy to build relationships with some of the most successful internet entrepreneurs in the world and because of THEIR knowledge and connections, I am continually pressed into growth.

A recent example was when I was launching my first information product on Facebook advertising (http://www.fbadsguide.com). Shoemoney (Jeremy Schoemaker) called me up before I launched the product and gave me loads of information about how to launch an info product and stuff. Although Jeremy is lightyears ahead of me, he still took the time to call me because we had built that relationship. That information helped me have my first 6 figure revenue information product launch.

Summary: Surround yourself with people more successful than you.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @Jonathanvolk

David Klein -Facebook Advertising

Learn how to study.

If you can’t learn information quickly and really understand it,
you will be lost quickly.

Most educations are already outdated when you are learning them.

Those of us that learn fast and can apply that knowledge will always win.

Neil Patel – Quicksprout.com

You should focus on what you are good at and not what you need to improve upon. If you become really good at 1 thing, you can make a good living out of it. And then all you need to do is surround yourself with people who are good at the things you suck at.

Follow Neil on Twitter: @Neilpatel

Jason Falls – Socialmediaexplorer.com

Remove as many distractions as you possibly can that interfere with building and launching your project. This one is a difficult one because so many of your projects will be bootstrapped, done on your own time, funded with whatever dollars you can squeeze out of a personal budget or small investment from a friend … but dedicated time to totally focus on your project is requisite to get it off the ground.
When I launched my online learning site in Beta, I only did so because I cleared my calendar for a solid month and did nothing but that. Now I’m working up to another solid month of commitment to move it from Beta to public launch by putting the finishing touches on it. In the meantime, I’m out there doing my real job to make the money I need to fund the project (completely bootstrapped). In a dream world, I would have had 2-3 months to kick it all off at once, but that’s not the way the real world works sometimes.
Block the time. Dedicate the attention. Stay focused.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @JasonFalls

AJ Vaynerchuck – Vaynermedia.com

I would say the best piece of advise is to never get “too high” or “too low” — try to keep an even keel and look at the big picture.

Follow AJ on Twitter: @Ajv

Jason Schuller – Press75.com

“Let your passion drive you”

It is my strong belief that if making money is your only goal in life, you will probably spend the rest of your life chasing that goal and never end up where you want to be. Money is not a bad thing, and can sometimes become a by-product of chasing your passions, but it really should not be your means to happiness or your definition of success. Let your interests and your passions be the driving force behind whatever you do in life.

Follow Jason on Twitter: @Jschuller

Brian Gardner – StudioPress.com

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be persistent.  In a marathon, there is a thing that is called the “runner’s wall” — which happens generally around mile 20 and consists of physical and emotional drainage. A lot of runners can’t find the energy to get past it, but those who do reap the benefits of finishing the race. With establishing a business, the same concept occurs — there’s usually a time where you want to throw in the towel, when you think things can’t get worse and you feel “done.” That is the point which you define yourself — either as a quitter, or as a champion.

Follow Brian on Twitter: @bgardner

Maren Kate – Escapingthe9to5.com

Dreams are a dime a dozen, consistent action towards a measurable goal is what will get you to your goals.

Follow Maren on Twitter: @Marenkate

Lewis Howes – Lewishowes.com

My one piece of advice would be to build quality relationships with as many successful entrepreneurs, CEO’s and business decision makers as possible.

Your network is your most valuable asset.  Businesses, services, widgets, and products come and go, but if you have a quality network of those who know how to turn anything into a success, then you will always be able to leverage that network.

Follow Lewis on Twitter: @Lewishowes

Thomas Sinfield

‘Don’t put your business ventures before your family’

Whether your latest venture is a huge success, a massive failure or you just get a mediocre result, if you consistently put your family first — they will still be there no matter the result.
However, if you put all your focus on your business and disregarding your family. Even if you hit success — it will be bitter success with a broken family.

Follow Thomas on Twitter: @Standoutblogger

Marc Gingras – Tungle.me

Focus on building a strong team that believe in the vision and want to make a difference.

Follow Marc on Twitter: @mgingras

Chuck  Longanecker – Dtelepathy.com

If you don’t absolutely love what you do, quit. Start doing something you love to do every day. Smart and motivated people can be successful at anything as long as they are solving a problem and are passionate about doing it.

Follow Chuck on Twitter: @barefootceo

David Risley – Davidrisley.com

Outflow = Inflow. It is a simple equation, but basically means that if you want more things to come into you (i.e. money, income), then you need to outflow more (i.e. promotion, blogging, social media, emails to your list, etc.) In other words, get out there! Because talking to yourself and thinking from your ivory tower isn’t going to bring the money in. You got to get out there and rub elbows.

Follow David on Twitter: @Davidrisley

Erica Douglass – Erica.biz

My one piece of advice would be “Don’t be afraid!” Get out there. Launch your product or service. Promote yourself (even if other people whine about you being self-promotional–that’s just their own fear.) Enjoy the ride.

Follow Erica on Twitter: @Ericabiz

Kristarella - Kristarella.com

I’d say be honest about your strengths and weaknesses.

If you are then you can work on strengthening those weaknesses while promoting your strengths to the people that need them most. And realistic expectations from both you and the people you do business
with will help avoid many problems.

Follow Kristarella on Twitter: @kristarella

Shawn Collins – Affiliatesummit.com

It can be really scary to branch out on your own, so if you’re currently working for somebody else, launch your entrepreneurial effort while still drawing a paycheck and benefits at your current company. It’s a good lesson in the sacrifice you will experience as your own boss. Start working on before and after your day job, as well as on the weekends to build your new company. Don’t eliminate recreation entirely, because you need your sanity, but skip vacations and indulgences for a while — it’s time to invest your blood, sweat and tears. This is your first test to determine whether you have that fire in your belly to make your own way, or if you’re just bored with your current job.

Follow Shawn on Twitter: @Affiliatetip

Nathan Hangen – Nathanhangen.com

I would say that the only way to achieve long-term success as an entrepreneur is to find a way to satisfy your short-term needs so that you can focus on your long-term strategy. Anyone can earn a basic living online by freelancing and selling products, but that’s still chasing a paycheck.

The long-term strategy, such as the company you want to build, or the things you are really passionate about, is what you need to focus on, and chasing paychecks can keep you from doing that. Find what makes you happy, and make a commitment to do that at all costs. Don’t lose sight of who you are, especially when there are so many distractions and shiny objects daring you to stray.

Follow Nathan on Twitter: @Nhangen

Robb Sutton – Robbsutton.com

Never give up. Everyone has tremendous potential if you just keep at it. I would guess that 80% of all great ideas never actually make it because of the unwillingness to push through the hard times. Learn from your mistakes and keep at it. Just when you think you can’t take it anymore is always right before you are about to make it. Success is about persistence.

Follow Robb on Twitter: @Robbsutton

Marko Saric – Howtomakemyblog.com

It’s hard work and it is very hard to succeed by creating your own business. Best advice is probably not to quit your job at first, work on your business in your free time — in the evenings, in the weekends.
Cut all the unproductive stuff from your life instead and save time — for example stop watching TV. This will allow you to have a bit more flexibility and a bit more freedom as you will not be under immediate
pressure to succeed and earn money from your new venture. Two great things to have on your side while you are struggling to make it all work.

Follow Marko on Twitter: @Markosaric

Michael Stelzner – Socialmediaexaminer.com

My advice would be to go after those crazy ideas that pop into your mind when you wake up in the morning or are stuck in traffic.  They often can lead to amazing opportunity.  In fact, starting Social Media Examiner was just such an idea.

Follow Michael on Twitter: @mike_stelzner

Daniel Scocco – Dailyblogtips.com

If you are a real entrepreneur, you’ll succeed sooner or later. Real entrepreneurs don’t give up, and that is why I say that. They might fail with their first, second, third and fourth businesses, but the fifth one will make it. If that is the case, I think it’s a good idea to work only on projects that matter to you and that are aligned with your life goals. A good exercise to find what these projects might be is this one: what if your next venture would become a multi-million dollar business no matter what segment or business model you choose. Under this scenario, what business would you create?

Follow Daniel on Twitter: @Danielscocco

Chris Garrett – Chrisg.com

It’s hard to say one piece of advice because I don’t know what this entrepreneur wants or is struggling with. I would say it is rare to find “one size fits all” advice and it is easy to slip into “tactical” thinking, but the tools and tactics we employ should come out of strategy, and what works for me isn’t necessarily going to be the right fit for you.

With that in mind I guess then my advice would be something I just wrote a guest post about. It is important to be sure of the trajectory you are on, and why. A trajectory in this context includes where you have been, where you are now, and where you are going.

Too many entrepreneurs are constantly brain storming and leap from tactic to tactic, scattering their focus and energy. Know where you want to go and how you are going to get there, do not let yourself get distracted.

Follow Chris on Twitter: @Chrisgarrett

Adii- Woothemes.com

Trust your own opinions & ideas. Businesses are built on the vision of the founder(s) and it is that exact vision that makes a business unique, which in term offers the business a competitive advantage over its rivals. And considering that great ideas are a dime a dozen these days, it’s important to nurture that unique, competitive advantage as the main way of ensuring that you are building a sustainable business.

Follow Adii on Twitter: @Adii

Joshua Simbert – Fuelbrandinc.com

If I were to offer entrepreneurs one piece of advice, it would be to fail and fail often.

Most people are scared of it, society at large despises it, but the plight of entrepreneurs is to challenge status quo and whether we like it or not, that challenge comes with a huge fail rate. Accept that failing along the way is part of the process, embrace it, learn from it and push forward. More often than not, an ‘overnight success’ is years in the making and the result of many failed attempts.

Why is this so important..? Because failure is hard, and even more so for entrepreneurs who tend to channel ‘idealist optimism’ to have believed it was possible in the first place. The trick is learning to embrace it as part of your success process. So go ahead, roll up your sleeves and act… if it doesnt work, re-evaluate and try again.  Thomas Edison swore by this practice.

“On average, five times as many people read the headlines than read the body copy. It follows that unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money.” – David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy (the original Mad Man, who was also, incidentally, a spy), once said the above statement. As you continue to read this article, you should know that I will use the term “link bait” to refer to headlines and titles used for blog posts. I think that by the end of this article you’ll understand why I did this. If not, then I’ll just spell it out for you later.

Link Bait Headlines and Titles

Your link bait is the first thing that people see and is usually the hardest thing to come up with too! Much like writing an essay or research paper, finding the right thesis for your essay, paper, article or blog entry is one of the most important steps in the writing process. However, there are a few people who might argue that thinking about the write title would be best saved for after you are done with writing your piece (personally, I’m in this camp… I write outlines and then figure out what a catchy title would be for my works). In any case, whichever way you do it, you’ll definitely want to spend a considerable amount of time coming up with a catchy, grasping eye pulling link bait.

Why is link bait so important?

The truth of the matter is, your link bait (whether a headline or title) is the secret key that unlocks a world of wonders unseen. As the ol’ saying from the movie Field of Dreams goes, “If you build it, they will come.” The same can be applied to your writing piece. If you can produce great link bait, they shall come! You’re audience will literally jump at you to fill their curiosity (reminds me of another saying about a cat). However, if your link bait is dull and fish will simply continue swimming by and never ever think twice about your time and effort spent on writing your piece of work.

You’re job, essentially, is to really think about how to make your words truly do all the working for you. To get second glances at your link bait, to generate a click! Once you’ve got your fish by the hook, reel em’ in even further!

Okay Okay, so how do you come up with great link bait if you haven’t the slightest idea about where to begin or look for ideas? Here’s a great way to stand out from the crowd and get some folks interested in what you have to say…

Link Bait Examples at the Newsstand

Every single day you have tons of people trying to get your attention!

“The average American is exposed to 500-1,000 commercial messages a day (Arens 1999). That’s anywhere from 182,500 to 365,000 commercial messages that a person will view this year alone.” – The University of Washington Website

Do me a favor, head out today and walk across your local newsstand. You’ll soon realize that there are ton of companies competing for your attention and which one stands out to you the most? Now, you have your own newsstand (blog, website, etc) , how will you get your audience to choose you? Link Bait!

You’ll probably have realized by now that there’s Time magazine, Business Week or some other technical or serious stuff out there on the newsstand, right? Well, what we are specifically looking for is the lifestyle magazines – about shopping, housekeeping, cooking or health.

Why these kind of magazines?

Because the editors of these magazines have been figuratively grabbing their target market for years! They know exactly how to shake you up and get you to pick up the magazine. Notice what happens at the checkout line at your local grocery store (check out what folks do)? A good link bait headline or title should literally make your mouth water, raise your heart beat, and make your mind automatically think, “I gotta read about that!”

Link Bait Ideas – Here’s how it works

First and foremost, check out the headlights on those magazines. What headlines are just naturally grabbing your attention?
Here is where you might want to grab a piece of paper…

1. Jot down the link bait that moves you to jot it down.
2. Now, all you have to do is alter them up a bit and you’ve got a good link bait headline or title.

Here are some examples of how you could turn a link bait headline or title that got you into one that will get others:

• “3 Fabulous, Sexy pieces To Revamp Your Wardrobe!” becomes “3 Jaw-dropping Design Tips To Revamp Your Website!”
• “Cutest Beauty Stuff Under $10” becomes “Butter Smooth Briefcases Under $25” (My personal favorite altered version)
• “Nice Guys Don’t Finish Last” becomes “Only The Fierce Finish First!”

Link Bait Group Discussion

You’ve seen them everywhere, why do link bait headlines work so well? How do you respond to them yourself? Looking for ways to be creative with one of your link bait headlines or titles? Leave a comment and we’ll help you out!

Tracking Twitter Traffic

If there’s a blog with good traffic, there’s a big chance that the visitors coming to that blog aren’t solely coming by way of search engines or RSS feeds. More so in recent years, the number of people who may visit your site via social networks such as Twitter and Facebook has dramatically increased, considerably! This is especially true for those blogs that deal with issues that lend themselves well for social media sharing. Allow me to explain…

If you run a blog about web marketing and technology which are two great subjects, people that are also intrigued by these topics and passionate about learning new things on the matter are more likely and inclined to sharing your blog entries and articles. In this particular blog entry, I’d like to talk about one of the key aspects concerning Twitter activity and also tracking visitors to your site or blog via social networking sites using Google Analytics.

But before I get into the details, however, allow me to introduce you to t.co, the official Twitter URL shortening website. Simply put, the service shortens the URLs that you type into your tweet and verifies that the link won’t lead your visitors to some SPAM resources or a page that contains malware. As specified in the front page over at http://www.t.co: “Twitter uses the t.co domain as part of a service to protect users from harmful activity, to provide value for the developer ecosystem, and as a quality signal relevant for surfacing, interesting tweets.”

In all honesty there are only two things that t.co really does that may concern most bloggers and tweeps:

1. To protect Users
2. Collection of data about click and shares

So how does it do these things? When you enter a URL in your tweet and then publish your tweet, you’ll see that it redirects to the intended website or web page.

On the web analytics side of things, the result of your efforts is now much easier to see and visualize. Here is how to check out the results:

The best solution and method is by using the advance segment option in Google Analytics as seen below in further detail:

Google Analytics Advance Segment

1. Select “Advanced Segments”
2. Click on “new custom segment”
3. Select “Source” in the green box and “Exactly Matching “in the gray box
4. Add the parameter as shown in t.co
5. Name the segment and click on “save segment”

If you also use a service like Twitterfeed to automatically post a tweet to your account every time you publish a new blog post, using as the source of the Feedburner feed, you can set the various options in the UTM TAG.  As in the example below, you can track visits that come from your tweets by adding an OR condition in the previous filter.

When adding a filter to the OR I suggest you enter “twitter” as a means and not as a source which is twitterfeed.  For example I use Twitterfeed to automatically publish content on Facebook and so I have tracking sources for both Facebook and Twtiter, not twitter alone.

The results of your newly created custom segment may look something likethis:

Here we have 115 visits from Twitter, of which 101 are from users who clicked on tweets posted via Twitterfeed and 14 tweeps who clicked on links posted personally on twitter tweets.

IF you found this article useful, a tweet is always welcomed! =)

This one is quick and straight to the point, no need to waste your time with tons to read. If you’re not making use of these three mediums of internet marketing, you’re probably not going to do all that great online, especially if you’re business is primarily online.

Let’s define what Internet Marketing is or rather what it includes.

There are three main components to Internet Marketing:

PPC – Pay Per Click – Advertisers pay every time someone clicks on one of their ads on a publisher’s website.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Improves traffic to a website by using the most targeted keyword phrases relevant to the site’s content. Seomoz.org includes both free SEO content and paid services.

SMM – Social Media Marketing – Advertisers create content to organically drive their message via user-to-user promotion through social networking sites such as Twitter, FaceBook, Digg, and StumbeUpon.

Make sure and start getting these things implemented into your marketing plan. You’ll be surprised how each of these things can really make a difference in your business.

Bloggers are constantly flooding the blogsphere these days and the amount of bloggers looking to earn an income with their blog seems to have skyrocketed. Now, I’m not saying that looking to earn an income online is a bad thing it’s just that it seems that everyone and their mom is looking to “make money online” blogging.

Outsourcing blog writing

Anyways, whether you are trying to earn an income or simply looking to share your thoughts and get a response from an audience, NEVER, EVER, EVER SAY you “CAN’T” do something like write blog posts or socialize with your audience! Although I know a number of high income earners online that outsource their writing, most of them do so because they have earned their right to share their blog with other interested parties looking to write about a specific topic that relates to their site. Just yesterday I had a guy ask if he would need to write articles on his site after me telling him that marketing is a big part of gaining an audience and possibly earning from his blog. Yes! It is important to continually write great and awesome content for your site! If you don’t have a passion for blogging or writing about a niche, you’re SOL, that’s the end of it.

Just started and your outsourcing blog writing already?

If you’ve just started blogging and are getting tired of blogging then you’re kind of in the wrong business don’t you think? Outsourcing blog writing to others may not be as great an idea as you might think. Someone else out there may not have the same amount of passion as you do about a subject and may not do your blog justice. If you are a real estate agent, make sure and communicate with the people you plan to do business with and get to know more about them too! Granted, I know some very successful real estate agents who have others blog for them but that’s only because they’ve outgrown the writing and are doing great things for their business elsewhere.

Outsourcing blog writing is bad business; A Realtors Thoughts.

Sometimes. A few days ago I met a real estate agent who posted some very cool internet marketing information on her blog and I asked her if she did all the writing for her blog herself. She told me that it would be ridiculous not to write your own content and be socially connected to the audience you are writing for. She explained that lots of realtors have other people engage potential clients and then when the agent meets the client, they get a different feel out of the agent they thought they had gotten to know online. Well, the same goes for blogging when you’re looking to earn an income from your blog, let people get to know you and build a community around your niche!

Outsourcing blog writing

Summary

Whether you’re a big player or a small time blog writer, nothing beats having a real person behind each blog post to communicate with. I’ve run into plenty of blogs that have crappy content that is not understandable! Outsourcing blog writing is really just plain ol’ dumb in some cases. Anyone who is anyone knows that content is KING on the internet and with internet marketing! However, if you have no choice but to get someone else to write for your blog because of time or something similar, PLEASE make sure it’s someone who can write well and has an understanding of the English language! I can’t stress enough how important this is to either building a list, getting more targeted traffic or community building around your niche.

A frequently asked question by small business entrepreneurs and realtors is, “What is the best way to improve my marketing at minimal cost?” Although I may have a very specific example of how I may personally approach marketing myself efficiently with a limited budget, I’ve decided to come up with a list of great ideas that may literally spark a marketing opportunity that you may not have previously considered. Perhaps you’re looking for the next best marketing method that may elevate your business to the next level? Read through the ideas, you may just find the kind of marketing idea you were looking for; sometimes the best approaches to challenges are right in front of us!

• There are various local businesses around town, target one other entrepreneur in your target market and ask him or her to interview for your podcast or blog. Make sure and let them know that you don’t plan to bombard them with questions but rather that you are asking a few questions. Make sure and thank them immediately by email, gift, lunch, etc.
• Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to market your business online. Search for the sites with high traffic volume that are related to your businesses niche, get a hold of the owner and ask if you can be a guest blogger on their site. This is extremely powerful in niche marketing and for advertising.
• This one ties in a closely to the last strategy/tactic, what you want to do is grab someone that has a lot of experience in the area you are looking to start a business. Invite them out to dinner and ask them to consider referring excess business volume to you. Sometimes these entrepreneurs have way more business than they can handle. With ever successful referral that you receive, make sure and send the referrer a thank you gift.
• Need to build your email list? Here is a great example of how you can use charity to your advantage. Pick a charitable cause, involve you customers and potential clients to participate in donating to the cause by giving them the chance to also enter a drawing to win a very nice (be generous) prize. You’ll be surprise how this could, over time, be very successful when targeting the right audience.
• Get local! Read a local magazine that might potentially be read by a client. Take the time to wither write the author of a particular article and let them know that you truly enjoyed their piece. Whatever you do, do not pitch your business off the back, wait a while until you’ve developed a relationship with them. Who knows, you may find yourself in one of those magazines before you know it!
• One of the great online social networks to take advantage of as a professional is LinkedIn. Check out the LinkedIn groups and associate yourself with the groups that might hire you if you were to build relationships with them. Write an article or comment on other’s posts. Becoming a leader in what you do is extremely important and so this gives you the perfect opportunity to share articles and links to your site, etc.
• A neat idea is to approach one of the shipping company drivers and give ask them to spread the word about your product or businesses by leaving fliers or business cards at the locations where they ship items throughout the day. Make sure and treat them to dinner or pay them a commission.
• One of the most common mistakes I see email marketers make is not making full use of their email signature. If you have a blog and have people who have signed up for updates, make sure and include a link to a product you endorse in your signature, this is extremely affective when you constantly keep in contact with your list.
• Lastly, and most importantly, don’t sell your product at all! What I mean is, get an affiliate program going where your clients can refer customers to you by way of sharing your products to others, either through email or social media networks. If they make a sale guess who also gets a commission? This is extremely powerful when you’ve got a group of clients you’ve worked with before and would like to try and spread the word about your product or services!

This may think i’m stark raving mad but hear me out for a second. Business cards are a waste of your time and money, you should do away with them as soon as possible. Not only are they added to the outgoing waste basket (yes your business has a high chance of being put out with the trash), but they also instill a sense of false security. You’re left with a feeling of having accomplished passing on your contact information but the odds are, they probably won’t call you back.

Still not with me? Recall the last time some stranger introduced himself/herself and past on his/her card to you and you contacted them back? If you answered yes, then you are an odd ball and that’s that. However, for the rest of us, the problem lies in either handing our business cards to people who don’t fit our target market or in the fact that business cards just aren’t worth the trouble having.

For most of us, we give out a business card and hope that they’ll call us to provided a service of some sort and are sometimes left waiting for that phone call to come. You start thinking, “they’ll call me, there is no need to follow up, it will all work out.” Nope, you’re wrong, absolutely wrong. The odds are, you’re probably like me and have lost business cards, thrown them away or simply have forgotten all about them in some desk drawer.

Fear not my fellow entrepreneur, there is a better way of introducing yourself and keeping track of contact information. Not only that but there is an easier way of getting in touch with every single person you’ve ever added to your contact list. What’s the solution? When it comes to sharing contact information don’t! Instead of sharing your contact information make sure and take business cards yourself. Then follow and call your contacts.

Even better, why not create an email web form so that you can access it from your cell phone and add your “warm” contact lead directly into your email list to which they can confirm having been added to your list immediately? Now, with their name and email in your email contact list you can send ALL your contact leads personalized emails with the click of a button instantly!

Would you like to learn how its done with an Iphone? Leave a comment about whether this sounds interesting to you and I’ll write a step by step tutorial immediately. =)