I was searching though the net, and came across this article. I hope you enjoy this. This is an article that was written by Lisa LaMotta.

How To Make Money Online

Fifteen billion smackers: That’s the value Microsoft recently slapped on Facebook when the computer giant invested $240 million for a 1.6% stake in Mark Zuckerberg’s online social-networking site. You could seethe with envy–or you could chase your own fortune on the Web. Some online businesses require only a few hundred dollars in equipment, while others demand significant hardware and perhaps even a warehouse. Some might make you rich; others might just cover beer money. And all involve various levels of time, capital and technological skill. In Pictures: Eight Ways To Make Money Online “Some people have dreamed about owning their own business and have not followed through because of the investment in resources,” says Jim Griffith, head of eBay University, for those aiming to set up shop selling goods at the online auctioneer’s site.

“The Internet allows people to at least try without making a large initial investment.” Army veteran Brandi Ramos of Springfield, Ill., did it. As a single mom in need of extra income, she started her online retail career peddling “big and tall” men’s clothing on eBay. Three years later, Ramos, 32, makes a good living working online out of her 600-square-foot basement packed with hanging displays and baker’s racks piled with tupperware containing underwear and belts. Ramos aims to offer quick service, answering all e-mails within four to six hours. She claims to net $25,000 on $100,000 sales a year, and even earns a few bucks per order on shipping. If managing inventory seems too big a chore, play virtual landlord and charge other retailers monthly fees (or per-transaction fees) for the opportunity to market their products on your site. Amazon.com (nasdaq: AMZN – news – people ) nabbed 28% of its revenues this way in 2006.

Craigslist is another take on this model: The 25-person company, worth a reported $2 billion, charges businesses to post help wanted ads in San Francisco, New York and L.A.; it also collects fees for apartment listings in New York City. Total page views per month: about 5 billion. <<ENTIRE ARTICLE>>

I was doing a little searching of the internet and came across this article written by Guy Kawasaki. It’s called The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs….it’s really eleven, but it’s an interesting read. Check it out.

The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs

(Since I’ve antagonized the venture capital community with last week’s blog, I thought I would complete the picture and “out” entrepreneurs to begin this week. The hard part about writing this blog was narrowing down these lies to ten. Luckily, my partner, Bill Reichert, had already documented this list of the top ten lies of entrepreneurs.)

We get pitched dozens of times every year, and every pitch contains at least three or four of these lies. We provide them not because we believe we can increase the level of honesty of entrepreneurs as much as to help entrepreneurs come up with new lies. At least new lies indicate a modicum of creativity!

1.“Our projections are conservative.” An entrepreneur’s projections are never conservative. If they were, they would be $0. I have never seen an entrepreneur achieve even her most conservative projections. Generally, an entrepreneur has no idea what sales will be, so she guesses: “Too little will make my deal uninteresting; too big, and I’ll look hallucinogenic.” The result is that everyone’s projections are $50 million in year four. As a rule of thumb, when I see a projection, I add one year to delivery time and multiply by .1.

2.“(Big name research firm) says our market will be $50 billion in 2010.” Every entrepreneur has a few slides about how the market potential for his segment is tens of billions. It doesn’t matter if the product is bar mitzah planning software or 802.11 chip sets. Venture capitalists don’t believe this type of forecast because it’s the fifth one of this magnitude that they’ve heard that day. Entrepreneurs would do themselves a favor by simply removing any reference to market size estimates from consulting firms.

3.“(Big name company) is going to sign our purchase order next week.” This is the “I heard I have to show traction at a conference” lie of entrepreneurs. The funny thing is that next week, the purchase order still isn’t signed. Nor the week after. The decision maker gets laid off, the CEO gets fired, there’s a natural disaster, whatever. The only way to play this card if AFTER the purchase order is signed because no investor whose money you’d want will fall for this one.

4.“Key employees are set to join us as soon as we get funded.” More often than not when a venture capitalist calls these key employees who are VPs are Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun, he gets the following response, “Who said that? I recall meeting him at a Churchill Club meeting, but I certainly didn’t say I would leave my cush $250,000/year job at Adobe to join his startup.” If it’s true that key employees are ready to rock and roll, have them call the venture capitalist after the meeting and testify to this effect.

5.“No one is doing what we’re doing.” This is a bummer of a lie because there are only two logical conclusions. First, no one else is doing this because there is no market for it. Second, the entrepreneur is so clueless that he can’t even use Google to figure out he has competition. Suffice it to say that the lack of a market and cluelessness is not conducive to securing an investment. As a rule of thumb, if you have a good idea, five companies are going the same thing. If you have a great idea, fifteen companies are doing the same thing.

6.“No one can do what we’re doing.” If there’s anything worse than the lack of a market and cluelessness, it’s arrogance. No one else can do this until the first company does it, and ten others spring up in the next ninety days. Let’s see, no one else ran a sub four-minute mile after Roger Bannister. (It took only a month before John Landy did). The world is a big place. There are lots of smart people in it. Entrepreneurs are kidding themselves if they think they have any kind of monopoly on knowledge. And, sure as I’m a Macintosh user, on the same day that an entrepreneur tells this lie, the venture capitalist will have met with another company that’s doing the same thing.

7.“Hurry because several other venture capital firms are interested.” The good news: There are maybe one hundred entrepreneurs in the world who can make this claim. The bad news: The fact that you are reading a blog about venture capital means you’re not one of them. As my mother used to say, “Never play Russian roulette with an Uzi.” For the absolute cream of the crop, there is competition for a deal, and an entrepreneur can scare other investors to make a decision. For the rest of us, don’t think one can create a sense of scarcity when it’s not true. Re-read the previous blog about the lies of venture capitalists, to learn how entrepreneurs are hearing “maybe” when venture capitalists are saying “no.”

8.“Oracle is too big/dumb/slow to be a threat.” Larry Ellison has his own jet. He can keep the San Jose Airport open for his late night landings. His boat is so big that it can barely get under the Golden Gate Bridge. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are flying on Southwest out of Oakland and stealing the free peanuts. There’s a reason why Larry is where he is, and entrepreneurs are where they are, and it’s not that he’s big, dumb, and slow. Competing with Oracle, Microsoft, and other large companies is a very difficult task. Entrepreneurs who utter this lie look at best naive. You think it’s bravado, but venture capitalists think it’s stupidity.

9.“We have a proven management team.” Says who? Because the founder worked at Morgan Stanley for a summer? Or McKinsey for two years? Or he made sure that John Sculley’s Macintosh could power on? Truly “proven” in a venture capitalist’s eyes is founder of a company that returned billions to its investors. But if the entrepreneur were that proven, that he (a) probably wouldn’t have to ask for money; (b) wouldn’t be claiming that he’s proven. (Do you think Wayne Gretzky went around saying, “I am a good hockey player”?) A better strategy is for the entrepreneur to state that (a) she has relevant industry experience; (b) she is going to do whatever it takes to succeed; (c) she is going to surround herself with directors and advisors who are proven; and (d) she’ll step aside whenever it becomes necessary. This is good enough for a venture capitalist that believes in what the entrepreneur is doing.

10.“Patents make our product defensible.” The optimal number of times to use the P word in a presentation is one. Just once, say, “We have filed patents for what we are doing.” Done. The second time you say it, venture capitalists begin to suspect that you are depending too much on patents for defensibility. The third time you say it, you are holding a sign above your head that says, “I am clueless.” Sure, you should patent what you’re doing–if for no other reason than to say it once in your presentation. But at the end of the patents are mostly good for impressing your parents. You won’t have the time or money to sue anyone with a pocket deep enough to be worth suing.

11.“All we have to do is get 1% of the market.” (Here’s a bonus since I still have battery power.) This lie is the flip side of “the market will be $50 billion.” There are two problems with this lie. First, no venture capitalist is interested in a company that is looking to get 1% or so of a market. Frankly, we want our companies to face the wrath of the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice. Second, it’s also not that easy to get 1% of any market, so you look silly pretending that it is. Generally, it’s much better for entrepreneurs to show a realistic appreciation of the difficulty of building a successful company.

Read more: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_top_ten_lie_1.html#ixzz0MTjY0CQx

50 Ways to get Free Advertising

 By admin

This year, Apple generated $400 million in free publicity with the iPhone. How did they do it? By creating a newsworthy product and putting on a show for the media. With a little ingenuity, you can get this kind of free advertising, too. Read on for 50 free advertising ideas that will work for your startup. Small efforts, large responses…

1. Send out press releases: Press releases are a highly effective method for getting your business mentioned by mainstream media. Write about newsworthy events and developments in your business, then submit your release to newspapers, radio stations and TV outlets. This is a great way to get free, credible publicity.

2. Host a contest: Get media attention and encourage customers to visit you by holding a contest. Do you have a music store? Host a battle of the bands. Bookstores can host a competitive poetry slam. Create a fun event that will generate buzz for your business and get people in the door. Charge an entry fee to those who plan to compete so it won’t cost you a dime.

3. Use public places: People like to read the Starbucks community bulletin board while waiting for their drink. Put up posters in public places like post offices, libraries and coffee shops. You’ll have a high-traffic ad hanging up for free.

4. Enlist the help of friends and relatives: Pass your business cards and samples out to everyone you know. If you’re a photographer, for example, give prints and photo albums to friends and family and ask that they tell people about you whenever they share the photos. You’ll get free word of mouth marketing from excellent sources.

5. Gain a bit of notoriety: Do things with a splash to make headlines. I’ve you’re opening an Italian restaurant, proclaim that you have the best lasagna in town, then put out a challenge to others. This sort of newsworthy event will have media outlets giving you tons of free publicity.

6. Write a letter to the editor: Has your local paper published a news story that is related to your business? Write a letter to the editor for a free and effective way to get your company in the paper. For example, dog walkers can respond to an article about new leash laws. Use this opportunity to highlight the ways that the story affects your business in positive ways.

7. Get on the radio: Do you have a remarkable or controversial product that people want to talk about? Contact local radio stations and offer to be a guest on their show. You’ll get free air time access to thousands of listeners and get to tell people about your product in your own words.

8. Announce your publicity: When you get an article in the paper or a spot on a radio show, let other media outlets know about it. They won’t want to miss out on your story if they know other publications are interested in it. This way, you’ll get free publicity with a ripple effect.

9. Do charity work: Gather your employees and do some charity work in your community. Get visibility for your business at a trash cleanup event, Christmas tree recycling drive or a walk to cure breast cancer. Keep your ear to the ground for opportunities to get a group out there and be visible doing positive things. Be sure to get t-shirts with your company name and logo on them so you’ll have free ads walking around for the entire event.

10. Silent auctions: School and church groups usually have fairs and field days during spring and summer months. Look in your community to see if there are opportunities at these events to put your product or service in the silent auction. The group will benefit from the profits of your item, and you’ll have free publicity sitting on the auction block. <<REST OF ARTICLE HERE>>

Unemployed or Employed: Increase Your Income with Residual Programs

Many people don’t have an idea of what residual income is. Residual income is when a person makes money from another person over and over again. For example, say that you were to get involved with an internet system that pay you commission for recruiting someone. You usually get two commissions, the sale commission and the residual commission. The residual commission renews itself either every month or every year, depending on what company you are with.

That means say you made $50 residual income. That repeats itself every month or year. Now imagine that you have recruited 10 people or more, things start to look really good. If the system you are using does residuals monthly, you’d be making $6,000 extra a year residual by recruiting 10 people. If it was a yearly residual you’d be making $500 extra a year recruiting 10 people. That is just an example, but that is the power of residual income.

Overtime this can be very rewarding to you. This is the reason that many people are able to stop working their regular jobs and make income online. This is how people are making a living off the internet. It all takes time and research to find the right system that works for you and pays the right amount of residual income you are looking for. If you are to get involved with an affiliate program, making residual is going to take a lot long to build a lot of extra income than if you were to join a reseller system.

Most of the people that you see on the internet that have made thousands and millions are involved with a system that has residual income. This is basically that you don’t have to work for once you’ve recruited people. It just renews every payment period. On the other hand it does take work to grow your residual income, because you do have to recruit people or in other words advertise to people that are interested in what you have to offer.

This also brings up the subject of traffic. Without traffic, you will not get much business. If you don’t get business, you’re residual income will be none. Getting the word out about your product is the most important thing. Just like anything in the world, you will not get any people interested in what you are involved with if they don’t know anything about it. It’s a new era, and the internet is the way to make lots of extra income.

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 12

It’s been about a week since I’ve last written an article or press release. I’m trying to get the hang of this new program I got to make videos. The program is Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 12. It’s much better than Windows Movie Maker. I’m just playing around with it right now. Made one video with it…..yeah, the video that is above.

I plan on getting back on track with writting articles tomorrow. So I say…..

Trying to get things done this week, so I can head back to New Jersey for a couple of weeks. Rehab my hamstring that I pulled last week. Ummmm…..let’s see what else can I think of?!?!?

Guess nothing for right now. Oh, I think I am going to eventually cut my hair. If you’re going to do business and try to do things in a professional manner, I guess I have to look the part. I guess it’s time to look clean again…..

 

 

I’ve been kind of lazy these past couple of days. I went to my friend’s house on Friday, and caught the lazy flu. Didn’t do much there…

That night went out to Club Ibiza, which was a night that I can’t quite remember…it happens sometimes. All I know is that I didn’t get in until 5 A.M., and had to wake up at 8 A.M. to get home in New Jersey so I could get to New York to help my dad put in an AC for my aunt.

My Aunt's place in Harlem

Let me tell you that the drive home to New Jersey was absolutely frustrating!!! Traffic, traffic, and more traffic. I hate traffic. There’s almost nothing else in the world that gets me more irritated than traffic. I was in traffic for 4 hours, and should only take me two hours to get from MD to NJ.

My Home in NJ

After I got home in Jersey, I was to frustrated to do anything…my apologies.

We’re back on track now though; I’m going to get some things done this week….

I Think I’ve Turned Into Some Kind Of Journalist. The funny thing I don’t like to write at all, but for some apparent reason I have been writing my a@! off lately. Just writing, writing, writing. I’ve been writing on a lot of motivational topics, as well as leadership issues, and ways to make money. Still…..I can’t believe I’ve been writing so much.

I spend my days in front of a computer…sounds fun right? It can be at time (thank goodness for the internet).

I’m falling into a little hole though, I don’t know what to talk about anymore. There is only but so much a person can talk about on certain subjects. I think I’m going to have to expand my horizons, but I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to do that.

I’m trying to think of some articles to write before I head to my aunt’s house, then head to New Jersey and New York. Yeah I have to go to New York this weekend to help my dad out. We’re putting this new AC thingy into my aunt’s apartment. We’ll see how much fun that’s going to be considering I have one good leg at the time. Positive, I love New York.

OK, well not my dog. My cousin’s dog hates going outside. You put him outside…he is ready to come back in. Kind of funny, just stares at the crack of the door. His name is Max and he’s a Pug. Cute little Pug, but ridiculous. What dog does not like to run around outside?? I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND!!!

I guess that’s what makes Max so special. That and being afraid of any other dog to mankind no matter how small or big….

Other news today, I freakin pulled my hamstring during training. That’s a good two weeks of no sprints……

YEAH FOR ME!!!!

This is the second time this has happened to me while sprinting, on a track, with track spikes…..

IS THAT TELLING ME SOMETHING?!?!?!

Guess I just have to rest it up and ice……..LOTS OF ICE. I hate ice.