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A Review of Frently dot com – Rent Someone Today!

Guna — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:36:51 +0000

We’ve got a latest site that has just been up this New Year – January 1, 2011. www.frently.com is a new website that offers new and unique features to all. According to Stefan Alexiew the founder of frently.com and a college student of University of Las Vegas Nevada, the website offers users the chance to put themselves and their skills, knowledge, talents, expertise, wisdom, interests, and almost everything else they are capable of doing, up for “rent”. Anything goes. Thats right, they could offer anything up for rent.

This is a new scheme of finding people around the world with all the personal attributes you are looking for. Take your time reviewing the detailed information about www.frently.com.

Below are some information we’ve gathered from Stefan.

URL of the website:

Website: http://www.frently.com

The vision of the Business:

Frently.com offers users the chance to put themselves and their skills, knowledge, talents, expertise, wisdom, interests, and almost everything else they are capable of doing, up for “rent”. From platonic friendships, just a friend to go shopping with, to someone to teach you to play guitar or a dance partner for an event, you can rent all sorts of people on Frently.com. We saw a need for this type of service because there are too many dating sites that match people by interests, hobbies, etc. but there aren’t any of these services to find people for anything else including just a platonic friendship. Nowadays, people have busy and hectic lives and rarely have time to make any new acquaintances and do or learn new things, so we created a service to make this instant and very accessible to anyone.

This website is great because it gives people a chance to earn money while doing the things they love doing. We try to capture what makes each individual unique and what they have to offer to others and help them use it to their advantage. For example, say someone knows how to play guitar and they love doing it, they can put themselves up for rent and offer informal guitar lessons to anyone seeking. Someone could go on our site seeking guitar lessons and type in guitar on our unique search form to find this person and “rent” them for a agreed upon fee. It is a very revolutionary concept that allows people to connect in a unique and different way. Everyone has something to offer for “rent” no matter who they are or where they live. From an interesting story and conversation, to meeting someone famous and hanging out with them for a day, to even learning how to skydive, the possibilities are endless with www.frently.com

The Business Plan or model:

The frently team would like to expand the website worldwide to a point where if anyone seeks a private party for any service, friendship, or anything else, they will go to frently.com. Eventually the goal is to create a perfect search engine for people that have something to offer anywhere in the world. The website is about the people, not small businesses, not huge companies, just the average person that has something to offer the world.

The Background of the Website:

Because there’s a need for people to connect in a way that focuses on their capabilities, attributes, experience, and knowledge rather than the 100’s of dating websites and people looking for love connections. There is a lack of real platonic friendships being made on the internet even though it has become such a huge part of people’s lives. That is why www.frently.com starts.

Plans to Market:

Google Ad Words, Facebook, Twitter

Founder of the website:

Stefan Alexiev – a college student at University of Las Vegas Nevada.

Location of the website where it starts:

Las Vegas, Nevada

Date when this Website started:

01/01/11

Difference from other Competitors:

There are sites which offer some features like frently.com does but no matter how they try to convince people they’re not, they’re still a dating site. The key difference, among many others, that sets us apart from them is that we offer a search engine which helps users find people that have particular attributes, capabilities, or interests and much more. Rentafriend only lets users to type in a zip code and scroll through pictures until they see someone they might want to hang out with…. which in essence is how a dating site works. We try to capture what makes every individual unique and what they have to offer, rather than just their looks and location. We also have a community page where people can post what they are looking for (example: someone that can cook at a special event or a dance partner for a wedding) and people looking to make some extra cash can search and find something that they can do for someone local, for a fee.

We offer many ways to communicate such as webcam, email, chat, facebook, twitter, phone, and more so that it fits all of our member’s needs and wants. Our competitor does not nearly have as many features as well as a easy to use interface and that is how we are different from our competitors.

Comments from the founder:

I do not have any technical web design or programming background so I was forced to hire a coder to create the site for me. After many delays, the site is up and we have gotten a lot of interest because of the unique and strange concept of “renting” people. I appreciate your time and consideration to be featured on your site. Thank you and have a great day.

Please visit: http://www.frently.com

Why 95% Of You Will Fail in 2011 – #1 Reason Why You will Not Make Money on the Internet

Guna — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:49:22 +0000

You probably wonder why I am starting off with such a negative posting as my first post for 2011. Well the truth is that about 95% of us will fail in 2011. We will not meet our goals nor get anywhere closer to where we want to be at the end of the year. I have been putting a lot of thought into StartupBoooster.com itself. I was trying to figure out where I want to be by end of the year. During that thought process, I thought I need to share my findings with you so you don’t waste your year as well.

A year is a very long time to waste. A year could be defined as having 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8, 760 hours or 525,600 minutes. I don’t want to get into seconds. Now that is a heck of a lot of minutes to waste! Do you really want to waste it this year? Well what would you have done differently if you were to go back in time to 2010 that would have made your year (2010) a successful year?

You may wonder where I am going with this. Well my friend, today I am going to lay it out for you why you will fail this year. It is then up to you to make sure you don’t fall into the trap like the rest of the 95% of the Entrepreneurs that wants to make money on the internet will. If you have an answer to the question I’ve posed above regarding going back to 2010, that is good. Unfortunately with today’s technology, you can’t go back in time. That time has passed. You will never get it back. However, you still have a choice to implement them for 2011! With a fresh year ahead of us, let’s start off fresh.

This post will be a bit lengthy. So I suggest you grab a coffee before you start reading it but MAKE SURE you DO READ the entire post. I don’t want to have to tell you that “I said so when 2012 rolls around!”

Are you ready to dig in a little deeper? Well the sad part is that about 95 % of the people that are trying to make money on the internet will fail at the end. You could be a web designer, you could be an internet marketer, SEO guru or whatever you call yourself.

Most of you will give up after wasting so much time and money. You will waste money because there are thousands of marketing materials and money making online materials out there on the internet. You are literally flooded with information such as ebooks, coaching, membership sites promising to make you a millionaire overnight, manuals, etc, etc. Their sales pitch to sell you the material is so convincing that it is hard to say “NO” and click away. I have done this many times myself. I have purchased eBooks that I’ve regretted the next morning because I wouldn’t know what to do with it OR the book didn’t give me anything more than what I already know.

DO YOU AGREE WITH ME SO FAR? How many of you have wasted money like this?

Now let me ask you this – Why are you reading this post? What will you do at the end of reading this post? Go back to what you do normally OR will you take action? Write down the answer and continue to read. We will get back to it.

Majority of the time, in my case all the time, we don’t go back to return the material we bought. We are true entrepreneurs and we don’t want to steal efforts put in by other entrepreneurs. Therefore, we suck it up and move on. Only thing is that we have less money in our pocket for the real expenses.

Please don’t take me wrong. Nothing is wrong with most of the marketing materials available online. Their intention is to help you make money on the internet. They do provide good information that you may already know. But it is you that have to do the work. It is you that can make a difference. They are not going to do it for you. This is the real challenge.

So in summary, you may belong to one of the following groups of people:

You have a big dream but you haven’t taken any steps to fulfill your dreams. You don’t know where to start so you stumbled upon my posting. Well I am glad you did! Make sure you read the rest.
You have been doing this for a while. You have purchased ton of materials promising to make you money online. You’ve implemented every one of those tips and techniques. However, you are not achieving your goals. You find it that no matter how closely you stick to the materials, you are not making huge strides.
You have been online too. You’ve bought some materials but instead of implementing what is suggested in those materials, you are constantly on the look out for someone to hand over a golden key to internet money making opportunities. You are just procrastinating and hoping that the door will open for you real soon.
You have been online too for a while. You’ve bought some materials as well. You have implemented a few things suggested on the materials but you spend most of the times on Forums and other sites digging for more and more insights on to how you can quickly make money. However, you are not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Then its you. You bought every single promising materials out there. You participate in many member forums and paid forums. Instead of implementing what you learn everyday, you are jumping from one branch to the other. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO! All you want to do is to make money on the internet but don’t know where to start?
and finally its you. You are making money online. You have had some success but your dreams are big. You know what you need to do to achieve your goals and dreams but for some odd reason, you are filled with excuses. You are just not taking the steps required to achieve your dreams.

SO WHICH GROUP DO YOU BELONG TO?

There may be other scenarios out there but I am sure you belong to one of the groups mentioned above. No matter which group you belong to, the reason why you are not making money on the internet is SAME FOR ALL!

So what is that strange factor that connects all of the above groups and keeping you from being a successful entrepreneur? What makes you different from successful people?

What am I talking about?

Well before we go any further, how many of you have actually made a New Year’s resolution this year? How many of you have made similar resolutions last few years? How many of you have actually kept them?

Well let me tell you something. If you have kept them, you will probably not be reading this article. You will probably be cruising in a nice paradise island for the holidays.

So now, let’s get back to my point why about 95% of you will NOT make money on the internet this year. Are you ready for this?

I have just finished reading “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey. I strongly recommend you consider reading this book. It is not a new book but it has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. In that book, Covey talks about human programming – not so in those words but he is referring to scripts that are operating in our system on a daily basis. Those scripts define who we are and how we handle all of the situations. Those scripts will define our success.

Covey talks about how majority of those scripts are provided to us through our parents, our friends and family when we were young. Basically someone else wrote the program for you! Strange eh if you think about it.

Many of us don’t realize that those scripts are running within us on a daily basis. Covey says, “the way we see the problem is the problem.” We are programmed from the early days in a certain way. In order for you to be successful, you need to start looking from within – an inside out way rather than looking from outside in. You have all the solutions and the knowledge required for success. There is nothing secret out there that is going to make you million dollars online overnight. You need to build a base and you need to build it slowly. That is going to take time but you need to first look at the programs that are currently running in your brain – your system – YOU!

ACT or BE ACTED UPON

The difference between successful people and the 95% of the people that will fail this year, is that the successful people know how to exercise initiative and the rest don’t. It takes initiatives to create success. It means understanding yourself and reprogramming your scripts so that you can be successful. Yes get rid of the programs that were programmed by someone else for you.

Many successful people take advantage of weak people to build their wealth. Weak people tend to be reactive and they continue to believe they will never be successful as his/her boss, peers, etc. These reactive language is programmed into their brains as built-in boundaries. Imaginary boundaries to success. They are not real but it provides the weak with an excuse not to believe the alternative is possible.

These scripts are embedded in our belief system. Therefore with these scripts still running, we are unable to…

be successful in anything we do
set higher goals because we don’t believe we can reach them
confront problems when it arises and believe me we all have problems to deal with on a regular basis
get a pay increase because we don’t know how to ask
fulfill the dreams of the children and family
live the live to the fullest
etc, etc…

Why because these scripts are programmed to tell us that we will never be successful with anything. Therefore strengthening our own inner belief system will help us succeed in real life. It will help us succeed with online marketing so we can make money online.

So How to ACT instead of being ACTED UPON?

Well it is simple. Just like you can modify or erase a software script from your computer, you can do the same for your own system. You just need to believe that you can do it. So find the script that is holding you back. See how you need to reprogram it. Make the changes in your head and live the life with the new script – yes the “can do script.”

Your belief system will either make you successful or make you fail. Once you learn to program yourself, you will be able to make everything a success. Not just to make money on the internet but also to deal with everyday problems in your lives.

So going back to the above six groups – no matter which group you belong to, your success will be limited by your inner belief system. Start reaching out to the other successful people. Create a relationship with them. Appreciate their relationship. Contribute and start building wealth for yourself.

Here is an example:

Let’s say you spent couple of hundred dollars to buy an eBook. In that eBook it talks about building a foundation around an email list. So you pull together a website and started with marketing. So far you’ve paid for the eBook and the designer for the website.

Now you are pumped up. In your own eyes, the site looks wonderful. You want to get the email list going so you go and join Google Adwords. You want to do some ad campaign to drive your initial traffic. You do some quick keyword research; pick a few keywords and setup your ads overnight.

Google started to send you some good traffic within a few hours. You stay up all night checking your email list for new sign ups… a few hours later, you see your first subscriber. You are excited! A few hours pass by. Now the next day has gone by. So far you have manage to grow your list to 3 subscribers. However, your Google Adwords account says they have sent in 500+ people to your website.

At that point, you may say – “oh well, it is just starting to come in and that you may need to change the website’s look and feel a little and the sales page.”

So you go off and spend a little bit more money with your web designer. Now you believe you got a convincing website or a blog and that your sales page is good to capture your subscribers. Well Google Adwords is continuing to send people but after 7 days, you only have about 10 people and 2 have already unsubscribed. Therefore, leaving only 8.

You thought you were going to have about 250+ subscribers by now and that you will be on your way to make lots of money. You are disappointed. Your Google Adwords account used up some cash to send all those visitors to your site. No one wanted to sign up with you. You basically believe that you are late in the game. There are better sites out there and that people will never go with what you have to offer. YOU GIVE UP!!!

It goes on and on and on until you either run out of money or your partner or your parents kicks you out of the home. You are programmed to try something quickly without a lot of thought into it and then give up.

This sort of failures only going to provide reassurance to your existing “can’t do script” that is is functioning properly. It is going to continue to strengthen your belief system that you will never be successful no matter how hard you try.

So working within that boundary belief system, as an Internet Marketer, you will never make money on the internet. You will only make others richer!

TAKE A BREAK!

Just take a break if you haven’t already. Just sit back and relax. Think about how you conduct business on a regular basis. Think how you can reprogram a certain script that will make you be more proactive and successful. Stop spending so much time gathering information after information. Take action!

Take your time to proactively plan out your new venture. Don’t just run and buy a new eBook or subscribe to a paid membership. there are ton of programs out there that is free. Just like this article, there are many articles out there that will help you. You don’t necessarily have to pay to learn. You just have to sit back and plan it properly.

So in conclusion, you will fail if you don’t change your own belief system. Get rid of your self-imposed limits and boundaries. Believe that you can do it. Start building it slowly and don’t try to make millions overnight. It takes time but if you plan it right, you will be the next millionaire to make lots of money on the internet.

What Action Will You Take?

Now going back to the question I’ve posed above – What are you planning to do after reading this post? Why did you read it? Why I am asking you this question is that I want you to take something with you. I want you to take action and do something for yourself in 2011. I want you to believe that you that you will be successful.

Download my free ebook and subscribe to my newsletter. I will keep you posted on my progress this year. I am just in the middle of hiring a full time Virtual Assistant out of Philippines to help me. I will share my experience with you.

Good luck and God Bless You in 2011! I wish you a prosperous year…

An interview with Mr. Martin Zwilling, CEO and Founder of Startup Professionals

Guna — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:35:33 +0000

Over the weekend I had the privilege to interview Martin Zwilling, CEO & Founder of Startup Professionals. He is also a Callaman Ventures Board Member and Executive in Residence; Advisory Board Member for multiple startups; Arizona Angels Selection Committee; Entrepreneur in Residence at ASU and Thunderbird School of Global Management.

I have known Martin since August of 2009. I have emphasized again and again on my previous postings how important it is to reach out to your peers within your niche. I’ve reached out to Martin and asked him to share my post, 21 Words All Entrepreneurs Must Eliminate To Be Successful, with his readers. Not only he got back to me right away, he also agreed to share my post with his followers on Twitter. Since then Martin and I kept in touch.

Martin has a lot of experience with startups. I thought it would be beneficial to all of you to hear from him. Below are few questions I’ve asked Martin. Martin also helps many entrepreneurs through is blog, Startup Professionals Musings. He blogs daily on various topics to help today’s entrepreneurs.

In your opinion, what does it take to be an entrepreneur in today’s world? (new technology, internet, etc).

The first challenge for any entrepreneur is to identify a real “need,” and then build a solution. Too many invent or fall in love with a “technology,” and assume everyone will want it. That’s a “solution looking for a problem,” and these usually fail. The second challenge is to make a business out of it – how do you make money?; who will buy it?, etc. The Internet social networking model, like Facebook, has convinced people that most things ought to be free, with businesses making money on the advertising. That model doesn’t work for small start-ups, and makes it tough for them to survive.

How difficult is it for an online entrepreneur to get initial funding through an angel investor (any investor)?

Getting initial funding from angels or any professional investor is very difficult. All now expect you to have something already, like a product built, a few customers to prove the business model, and significant “skin in the game.” That means initial funding usually comes from the entrepreneur, or FFF (friends, family, and fools). The myth that you can sketch out an idea on a paper napkin, and investors will throw money at you, is gone (unless you have a successful track record several times over, or a rich uncle who is an investor)!

What does it take to secure funding in today’s internet world?

In today’s internet world, you still need to start with a written business plan, and a strong team. Investors actually fund people first, a good plan second, and the idea last in priority. In all cases, networking to find investors is very important. Emailing your idea to hundreds of investors, or using Twitter and Facebook, is a waste of everyone’s time. Go to local business association meetings, talk to executives and potential investors, and ask their help to get an introduction to VCs, Angels, and potential business partners.

Who will they be competing against?

You compete against a thousand other peers, because the entry cost of providing a solution on the Internet keeps going down. Years ago, it cost a million dollars to develop a reasonable e-commerce site, now web design tools and platforms allow you to do it for a few thousand dollars. That’s both good news, and bad news, since almost anyone can jump into the game. Of course, you also compete against the “big gorillas” of the Internet, like Google, Yahoo, Travelocity, and many others. If they see you are getting traction with your new idea, they can jump in quickly with huge resources and kill you.

What is the one area that an entrepreneur MUST focus more on when writing a business plan?

I look first for a clear definition of the problem being addressed, and how your solution relieves the pain. Most business plans I see start right out talking about their solution, and how everyone will “want” one. “Nice to have” is not good enough – you can’t create real change until the pain level is high enough. The first page of your business plan better be your “elevator pitch” and it better have the “grabber” or investors won’t look for page 2.

In your view, how can an online start-ups get funding and where should they go to get it?

In my view, a lot of online start-ups don’t need funding, because the entry cost is so low. If they start by asking for $500K or $1M, they won’t get it, and they will lose all credibility, because it shouldn’t cost that much. In general, online start-ups should go to friends and family first, and then to local Angel groups if their needs are greater than $100K, but less than $1M. Angel groups are easily found online through www.angelsoft.net.

Do you get a lot of online start-ups for your help?

Yes, I talk to many of these. Often they just need pointers to resources, like how to incorporate, or how to build a business plan, or where to find Angels. These are the questions I try to answer with my blog articles, or via email, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Sometimes they need real help writing a business plan, or making sure it’s adequate for funding discussions with investors. That’s what I do.

If you want to leave one message with entrepreneurs, what would that be?

I think the Internet is a huge opportunity for new entrepreneurs – it doesn’t cost so much to start, it’s changing rapidly so there is a great acceptance of new and better ways of doing things, and it scales instantly to worldwide, so the potential is unlimited.

Do you have any businesses online that generates revenue? What was your first effort online in business?

My current business, Startup Professionals, Inc., is an online mentoring and consulting business that is my revenue stream. This is my first online business, but I have had “brick and mortar” businesses, as well big-company executive experience with IBM, First Data Corp, Fujitsu, and others.

How much time do you spend on the internet daily?

I spend at least a couple of hours a day, sometimes much more, writing blog articles, answering questions on Twitter and Facebook, and trying to absorb the wealth of information that rolls out daily from all the other online sources.

How did you get started? And what was your first gig?

Many years ago, I was on the team that developed the IBM PC, so I’ve been on the Internet since it started. I really only started mentoring entrepreneurs and start-ups a few years ago as part of my “give back” to local universities and business groups. It was so much fun that I decided to start my own company Startup Professionals, to see if I could make it a business. I’m a strong believer that your business should be fun. My first gig was joining the Advisory Board of a local new job site for Baby Boomers.

What would your advice be for someone looking to make money on the internet?

My advice is that making money should be part of everyone’s motivation, but it should not be the primary motivation. Your primary motivation should be to solve some people’s problem, show people a better way, and get a sense of satisfaction. If your primary motivation is to get rich, you may be short-changed.

Startup Capital – Ways to Raise Funding and Grow Your Small Business

Guna — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:03:56 +0000

A principal concern of many small business owners is how to finance the continued growth of their business. While in the past, conventional means like bank loans, and even SBA loans, were popular, today’s economy has business owners reaching for some less-utilized means of finance which, while unconventional, can be as helpful (if not more so) than traditional loan programs. Among others, here are a few popular and reputable ways to finance your business growth.

Find Your Angel

Angel Lenders provide start up or investment capital (usually from their own private funds) in exchange for equity in the business in which they’re investing. Angel investors are often affluent individuals or a group of people who have pooled their resources to provide this service. Angel investing generates a large return due to the risk involved to the investor, but statistically, businesses who employ angel investing are actually more likely to succeed than their traditionally financed counterparts.

Big Money

Venture Capital typically comes from institutional investors, pools of investors, or individuals with high net worth. Particularly common in technology fields, venture capital investments generally involve lending a business money in exchange for equity in that particular business. Since many businesses who utilize venture capital are too small or too new to qualify for a bank loan, the risk to the investors is high, which translates to a high return on investments and usually a sizable interest in the business.

Trade?

Equity Trading is a newly-coined term to describe what happens when businesses decide to leave money out of it and trade equity for services. This arrangement can benefit both businesses since the investor doesn’t need money, simply a skill that the other business needs to utilize, and the business needing the investment receives free or reduced work from a company who has a vested interest in their success. An example where this might be a highly valuable arrangement is if you own a great keyword rich domain name, but lack in online marketing skills and need more traffic to grow your business. By finding a complement, where it’s a win-win situation (you make more money and they make money if they produce results) can be a beautiful thing. But if you’re considering using equity trading, be sure to get documentation of your agreement in case you run into any problems down the road.

Though these methods might seem at first to be odd or unconventional, each has proven to be hugely effective and profitable for the vast majority of business owners who use them. Let’s face it, today’s difficult economic climate has made alternative financing strategies a necessary step to financial success. Taking advantage of these lending tools can provide small businesses with a more flexible financial solution as well as the peace of mind that comes from knowing that their business is on sound financial footing.

This is a guest post from Kevin Kaiser of Startup Biz Blog, bringing resources together for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners. For more, follow him on twitter, @StartupBizBlog.

10 Simple Steps to Killer Guest Posts That Works to Make Money

Guna — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:26:51 +0000

“Location, location, location”, a common term most of you must have heard many times. It is a crucial term when it comes to real estate investment. Guess what, it is the same when it comes to online properties. This is why domain names are sold for millions of dollars. This is why websites with traffic sell for thousands of dollars. This is true when it comes to “Guest Posting” as well. You need to find top sites in your niche and then find a way to post a “guest post” on their site.

I am sure you have been looking into this and have been wondering why people don’t take advantage of it when it has been said time and time again, that “guest posting is the way to go to increase blog traffic and to make money on the internet.”

Well, why haven’t you started yet?

I am sure you are here today because you want to get started. Let me show you how you can get your guest post on top blogs with just a few simple steps. After I tell you how to do it, I will challenge you to submit a guest post right here. Yes to the one and only, StartupBooster Blog – Guest Post Submission!

Also, it is natural to feel that your post may be rejected and hence you procrastinate and not follow through. If you are feeling like this, let me tell you, you are not the only one. So if you want to succeed, do what others are afraid to do… that is to submit a guest post today to my blog and then tomorrow to others. Do not worry about rejection.

Now here are the 10 simple guaranteed steps to putting together a guest post and getting it accepted.

Are you with me so far?

Step 1 – Identify Guest Posting Opportunities and Review Their Guest Posting Guidelines

Identifying a guest posting opportunity shouldn’t be difficult. You must already have many of these blogs on your RSS feed reader. I can assure you that you must be visiting these websites on a regular basis to read their posts, etc but you never thought of submitting your own guest post to that particular blog.

Well let’s get started today. Go through your RSS Feed Reader. Identify all of the blogs that are of interest to you within your niche. Once you identify that, you go and read their guidelines to guest post submission.

Most of them only care about the following:

Relevant topic
Spelling and grammar
Original content

See like I said, it is very simple. You already know the topic you want to talk about. If you don’t identify a blog within your RSS feeds, then do a Google search for your niche. You will come across many blogs that will accept Guest Posting.

Step 2 – Get to Know the Blog

This is the step where many fail when it comes to blog guest posting. You need to get to know the blog and what gets published on that blog before you submit your guest post. You don’t want to submit something that will never be published on that blog… hence this step is crucial.

So browse through the blog. See what sort of guest posts have made it to the blog over the past few months. Some sites may be too new to guest posting, so you may want to look at the overall content to see what the blog owner is writing about.

You also should get to know the popular content on that blog. That particular blog must be attracting a specific crowd, and if you want to target that crowd, then you need to feed them what they want to hear.

You can research using the social media tools like Topsy and Delicious for this. Find out how many times a posting has been tweeted on Twitter or how many times it has been bookmarked on bookmarking sites like Delicious. You can do this without leaving the blog itself because many of them have numbers beside the blog post itself… so you can just note it on a piece of paper to identify the best content on the site.

Step 3 – Figure out What You Want to Write About

You’ve done your homework, not it is time to start writing. You know what is hot on the blog. Well then what are you waiting for? Do some Google search on similar topic and come up with a killer title and a few points to write about.

Once you have that in place you are set to go.

Step 4 – Write Your Post

Do whatever you have to do but do not step over this. You have to follow though this. If you don’t, you will never ever write a guest post. Trust me on this one. It is easy to procrastinate and not do a guest post.

Sit down, grab a coffee, pull up your laptop and start writing. Make sure you don’t copy a post from the same site. You have to be original and you have to add value to their users. You need to bring something to the table that is compelling and adds value. To make it easy, just brainstorm a few points for the title you’ve identified on the previous steps. Then do some research and bring forward killer content to your post.

It is time consuming but it can be done.

Step 5 – Work on Your Pitch

First impression makes a big difference just like in the real world! You need to make your pitch properly. You need to let the blog owner know that you are serious and you have a good post to submit. Please refrain from sending an email asking if you can submit a guest post on topic x, y or z. It doesn’t work like that. Once you have a guest post ready to go, you just need to submit it. That is how professionals do it. If you ask, then they are going to think you are not serious.

You just have to do it. Show them what you got instead of talking about it!

Step 6 – Link!

Go back to the research you have done in steps 2 and 3. Identify some good posts within their blog and link to them in your post. It is key to link to internal content within blog posting. The site owner will love this. Linking to old post helps with Search Engine Optimization and that is why the blog owner will love it. You are also giving credit to his or her previous work.

Step 7 – Add some Images!

Images are good for any posting. When you have relevant images in a guest post, the site owner will move you up the chain when it comes to deciding which guest post to pick from. Get a few screen shots or make one up and then include that in your guest post.

Step 8 – Add a Killer Bio of Yourself!

Yes you are almost done. Come up with a killer bio that will send some traffic your way. After all isn’t this why you are working on this guest post? Your bio should be precise and it should tell the visitor what you are all about. Convince the visitor that they should check your site for more of the same… please refrain from making the bio more than 3 sentences long. Also don’t self promote yourself! Just keep it simple and people will come.

Step 9 – Submit Your Post

Submit your post using the preferred way for that particular blog. Send everything they have asked for. Make sure you are meeting the guidelines.

Step 10 – Check for Your Guest Post and Promote

Most of the time a guest post will appear within a week. If not, you will at least get a comment back from the site owner that he or she will post your blog in the next few weeks. If you don’t get anything back, please send them an email after a week telling them that if they are not interested in your guest post, then you would like to submit elsewhere. If you don’t hear anything for that, then it is safe to submit your post to another blog.

Remember, if you have to submit to another site, you are not repeating many of the steps on my guide. All you have to do is find another relevant blog and submit your post. They will take it. So don’t get distracted at this point.
Most of these top blogs are busy and they don’t make as much time as they should for guest posting. Sometimes it is better to start off with a blog that is not on your top 10 list.

If your guest post is published, then you should do everything possible to market your post. Use social media and tell your friends about it. Let them promote it for you. Do everything you would do if that post was on your own blog.

Now here is the Challenge for You!

Well now that you have gone through this article, you must be pumped up to submit a guest post. I challenge you to submit a guest post right here at my site. Yes to startupbooster.com. This should help you break your fear and it will also give you a chance to discuss about the process.

I can guarantee you that I will get back to you and I will also give you feedback for your guest post submission. That will also help you prepare to tackle other blogs in the future. I am offering to help you get started.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing from you.

51 Reasons Why You Should Not Be Afraid to Fail or to Make Mistakes

Guna — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:55:15 +0000

Many people don’t realize that they are making a mistake when they don’t make any mistakes. Making mistakes and not being afraid of failure should be in your blood if you are an entrepreneur. If you don’t make mistakes, then you are not really trying hard enough to be successful. This indeed is a mistake on it’s own. How could you understand your potentials if you don’t try hard enough?

I’ve collected a few quotes that I thought you should read to motivate you to try a little harder. Don’t let the fear of making mistakes stop you from achieving higher success. Making money on the internet is not that difficult but I can guarantee you that you will not make money on your first attempt unless you’ve paid for a money making system and follow it step by step… even that doesn’t work for many people because they expect to make money overnight and also they are afraid of making mistakes!

Oprah Winfrey once said, “your mistake does not define who you are, you are your possibilities.” Your success will indeed define who you are. In order to get there, you must make many mistakes.

You should read my previous post on “Why Your Blog Will Fail” as well. It tells you what you need to do to be successful in making money on the internet.

See below for many more similar quotes that came from successful people… they were not afraid to try and they were not afraid to make mistakes… you shouldn’t be either.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing. – George Bernard Shaw
Admit your errors before someone else exaggerates them. – Andrew V. Mason
After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It’s better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. – Sophia Loren
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. – Niels Bohr
Any fool can try to defend his mistakes – and most fools do – but it gives one a feeling of nobility to admit one’s mistakes. By fighting, you never get enough, but by yielding, you get more than you expected. – Lawrence G. Lovasik
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes. – Mel Brooks
As you begin to take action toward the fulfillment of your goals and dreams, you must realize that not every action will be perfect. Not everyaction will produce the desired result. Not every action will work. Making mistakes, getting it almost right, and experimenting to see what happens are all part of the process of eventually getting it right. – Jack Canfield
Assert your right to make a few mistakes. If people can’t accept your imperfections, that’s their fault. – Dr. David M. Burns
Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons. – Author Unknown
Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones of genius. – Elbert Hubbard
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. – Scott Adams
Don’t argue for other people’s weaknesses. Don’t argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it–immediately.Stephen Covey – Stephen Covey
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. – Franklin P. Jones
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes. – Mahatma Gandhi
I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge. – Igor Stravinsky
I have to say I’ve made many mistakes, and been humbled many, many times. But you know what? It’s never too late to learn. – Kathy Ireland
If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner. – Tallulah Bankhead
If I had my life to live over… I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. – Nadine Stair
If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake. – F. Wikzek
If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down. – Mary Pickford
If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not taking risks, and that means you’re not going anywhere. The key is to make mistakes faster than the competition, so you have more changes to learn and win. – John W. Holt, Jr.
In the game of life it’s a good idea to have a few early losses, which relieves you of the pressure of trying to maintain an undefeated season. – Bill Vaughan
It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time. – Winston Churchill
It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something. – Ornette Coleman
It’s always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then your mistakes seem worthwhile. – Garry Marshall
Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it. – Cullen Hightower
Making mistakes simply means you are learning faster.– Weston H. Agor
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are: precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it’s a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from. – Al Franken
Mistakes are painful when they happen, but years later a collection of mistakes is what is called experience. – Denis Waitley
Mistakes are the portals of discovery. – James Joyce
Mistakes, obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we had to work on? – Peter McWilliams
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes. – Oscar Wilde
“Picking up the pieces when they fall” begins a journey to living anew with love, courage, and hope for a bright future. – Steve Brunkhorst
Preparation for success means that any failure you meet is seen as an opportunity to learn from mistakes. Remember that failure is your best teacher. – Byron Pulsifer
Punishing honest mistakes stifles creativity. I want people moving and shaking the earth and they’re going to make mistakes. – Ross Perot
She had an unequalled gift… of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities. – Henry James
Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. – Conrad Hilton
The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy. – Malcolm S. Forbes
The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake. – Nelson Boswell
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. – Elbert Hubbard
The man who achieves makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all – doing nothing. – Benjamin Franklin
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. – William Connor Magee
The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. – John Powell
The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake. – Meister Eckhart
There is a certain degree of satisfaction in having the courage to admit one’s errors. It not only clears up the air of guilt and defensiveness, but often helps solve the problem created by the error. – Dale Carnegie
To avoid situations in which you might make mistakes may be the biggest mistake of all. – Peter McWilliams
When you make a mistake, admit it. If you don’t, you only make matters worse. – Ward Cleaver
When you make a mistake, don’t look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power. – Hugh White
Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don’t look back at it too long. Mistakes are life’s way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. – Og Mandino
While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. – Henry C. Link
Your mistake does not define who you are…you are your possibilities. – Oprah Winfrey

These quotes were taken from The Great Inspirational Quotes website.

Entrepreneur: Know The Game Your Are Playing

Guna — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:08:52 +0000

Cover of the book mentioned

I am sure all of you know that in every junction, the decisions you make is essential to the success of your business. You have to make the right decisions to compete with other businesses; you have to make the right decisions to make it through the initial startup stage. You have to know the game you are playing…

Are you playing the right game?

How do you know you are playing the right game? Are you successful with your business and are you satisfied with where you are? Do you know what you need to do so you can be successful with your business? Do you know whom you need to friend with and whom you need to strategize against? Like I said in my opening paragraph, these are all the questions that go through the minds of a typical Executive or a Manager on a daily basis. You need to know at all times, if you change the way you provide a service or if you add an incentive for the customer, how will that change your game and how will it change the game for the market participants. Now who are the market participants? These are your suppliers, competitors, customers and affiliates.

I recommend you read the book “The Right Game – Use Game Theory to Shape Strategy” by Adam M. Brandenburger and Barry J. Nalebuff. The Game Theory explains the importance of focusing on others. In this book, the author uses game theory to explain and map the interdependencies among the participants in your marketplace. It is important for you to understand who is playing the game with you and what values they add to the game. If you have all of that figured out, you should be able to make strategic moves that will benefit you or even the whole industry.

For example, let’s say you operate a blog. Your blog provides information on all of the new movies as they are released. It is an established blog and you are able to get in front of the line to get real-time interview with the stars. However, there are about 5 other sites that do the same thing. One day you woke up and decided you want to change the game. You want to gain a higher market share and provide more information. So you take the steps to understand the current marketplace. You spend time understanding the value provided by other sites. You spend time understanding the audience. You spend time understanding the success rate of getting an interview with a star.

Once you have all of this information in front of you, you can use Game Theory to map it all out. You can give points to each possible move. Your moves can be to go aggressive or try to partner with other sites. Your aggressive move can be something like offering an incentive for your customer such as free movie passes or coup0ns for snacks. You can also give your customers access to live interviews. Introduce something that will put your competitors at a disadvantage. Before you do this, you need to figure out how they will react to this. Are your competitors large enough to provide the same kind of incentives? In your mapping exercise, you need to map all possible scenarios so you can figure out the best move that will either place you in a better position than where you are today or it will place the hold industry in a better position. You probably won’t want to make a move that will hurt your business.

Once you map it all out, you should be able to decide which move will make you even more successful. This sort of exercise is much better than holding status quo. As an Executive or a Manager, you need to always think about this. You need to know the game you are playing and you need to know what moves you have in your fingertips at all times.

You should read my previous post on “getting to know your competitions.” This story should help you identify your opponents well.

Please let me know if you have any views on this. Thank you.

Entrepreneurs: Believe It or Not, You Are Always Right

Guna — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:29:05 +0000

This is something that has been on my mind for the last few weeks as I personally am preparing to make a few changes in my life. More details to come in a few weeks but today I want to tell you all that you are always right. To quote a famous quote, “whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right”, said Henry Ford. Henry was right and many people continue to refer to what he had to say.

Somehow you always seems know to do the right thing, to make the right decision or to make the right move that will shape your path to a successful future. As an entrepreneur, you need to belief in yourself. You need to believe that you are always right. You need to believe that if you make a decision, good or bad, it will always enhance your life. There is no such thing as going back in life; everything you do, good or bad, is always moving you forward.

Changing your mindset to believe in yourself will have a significant impact on achieving your goals. According to many psychologists, we act and perform based on our beliefs. Therefore, it is true that if you think positive all the time, your life will be much better.

However, even with all of these studies and reports, many people continue to fail everyday. They fail because they misguide their inner beliefs; they doubt themselves. Doubting your own inner feelings and thoughts will always misguide you and make you a failure.

For example, if you think something is not possible or it is beyond your ability, then you are not going to spend all of your energy and time to make it successful. You will hesitate to commit your time, your money and your knowledge. Many people think they are too weak to be successful like other well known successful people like Steve Jobs at Apple Computer.

Since we are speaking about Steve Jobs, I want to let you know that I still listen to what Steve has to tell the Graduating Students at Stanford University on June 12, 2005. Anytime you are on a crossroad and is having a hard time making a decision, just listen to his speech. Steve told the graduating class three stories from his life. I suggest you listen to it if you haven’t already.

It is time for you to change your mindset if feel like you are not making any progress in life. If you are doing the same thing over and over again, then nothing is going to happen. So here is what you need to do:

develop your goal – where do you want to see yourself in 3 years?
map out an action plan to get there – whom do you need to talk to and what do you need to do to get there?
do a reality check on your beliefs. Do you believe that you can achieve that goal? Then believe that you will be successful in every one of the actions you’ve outlined on step 2.
so from today, start thinking positively about all of this and go for it. Never settle for a “no” or never settle when you fail until you reach your end goal. You will be successful.

I hope this short posting helps you become successful. I hope you will start trusting yourself, your guts, your inner thoughts and your feelings. You can master your own dreams – go get them…

Niche Marketing Research: Finding Your Niche Market

Guna — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:21:19 +0000

In order to have a successful internet business, first you will need to brand yourself as an expert in something. Identifying that “something” is what I am going to discuss in this article. Branding yourself within a niche market is imperative to your future successes. Since the social media market is huge and is growing on a daily basis, you will need to have your own brand which is independent of everything else you do in your life. This brand will identify who you are and what you like doing the most.

Many people fail with their online startups because they fail to identify their niche. Because they fail to identify their niche, they fail to passionately share and learn everything about that particular niche. You don’t want to be that person so make sure you work hard on finding your niche market before you get started with a new startup. By the time you finish reading this article, you will realize why I stressed on this point again and again.

Niche Marketing Research: Step 1 – Who Are You?

In order to brand yourself as a true expert in your niche market, you need to love what you do. Before you make your decision on a particular niche, you need to spend time self-evaluating yourself to help you determine how you really want to spend your precious time over the next many years.

Here are few questions you should answer before you proceed to the next step. Finding your niche market is not that difficult but you have to be honest with yourself as you prepare to identify your niche market. In this exercise you really need to find out for yourself who you are, what is important to you, what sort of things excite you and where you want to go from here. Once you have gone through this exercise and collected the necessary information, you will carve out a path for yourself to be wealthy and successful.

Here are few questions that will help you identify what you niche is.

What are you passionate about?
What are your favorite activities?
What do you love reading?
What do you love to learn about?
What do you love doing?
What do you love to contribute to?
What are the first three personal attributes that you will use to define yourself?
What are the first three personal attributes that your friends and colleagues will use to define you?
What are your skills?

Some people come online to start a business because they hear others are making ton of money online. However, without following the proper steps, no one can make money online. Or at least you will not take full advantage of the potentials of an online business.

You must follow this first step of the “Niche Marketing Research” because if you skip this step, you will really waste your time from here on.

Once you have the answers to the above questions, choosing a niche market will not be that difficult.

Niche Marketing Research: Step 2 – Finding Your Niche Market

You need to understand that you are really creating an asset for yourself that is outside of everything else you do. This will be your home base for everything else you may want to do online.

So by the time you go through the “Niche Marketing Research” – Step 1, you would have learned a little bit more about yourself. You have to be honest with yourself in order to correctly identify a niche market. So now in this step, you will have to identify a sector that you will focus on to build your brand. You can do this by first identifying a few keywords that will explain “what you really want to do.” You can come up with keywords based on your answers from step 1 of the niche marketing research exercise.

Once you have that information, you can go to Google, Clickbank or Amazon and do some keyword analysis to see what sort of market already exists for this particular niche. I have written a blog post before, how to identify niche markets, which provides information on how to take advantage of these free tools.

In that article, I’ve mentioned that you can use the following free tools to help find the demand and the competition:

Start off with a Google search – run a simple Google search for some keywords within the niche market that you are researching. Analyze the results and the sites that come up on the first page. Then analyze all of the advertisers that uses Google Adwords program for the same keyword. You can find the advertisers on the right hand side of the Google search results page. Both of this information will give you some sense of what is selling and who is selling it.

Go to Amazon.com and search for the same keywords and do the same analysis.

Go to ClickBank.com or other affiliate network and search for the same keywords and complete similar analysis.

Therefore in this “Niche Marketing Research” – Step 2, you are really identifying a few hot niche markets that you can work with.

Niche Marketing Research: Step 3 – Identifying Niche Markets For You

Once you’ve collected the above information on multiple niche markets, you can then narrow down on a particular niche that is just about the right size for you – a niche that you would really enjoy learning and contributing to over many years.

You wouldn’t want to pick a niche that does not contain a lot of information and you shouldn’t pick a niche that is too broad. Pick a niche that has just about the right amount of information. Pick a niche that has the potential to grow. Therefore, you can use the information that is available today to learn more about the niche and then contribute new information to that niche through your own research and creativity.

Once you’ve gone through the above three steps of the “Niche Marketing Research” and you’ve identified your niche, everything else will fall into place. You can promote your brand through viral exposure using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Within a few short months, you will grow your relationship with fellow online adventurers and within a few short months from there, you will establish yourself as the true expert in your niche.

Good luck to all of you. Let me know if you find this article useful. I would love to hear about your niche and your interests as well. Please leave a comment. Thank you.

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