Sasha Gilberg - www.2XC.com

Sasha helps marketers and entrepreneurs achieve a 2XC (two times conversion) on their website, fast. He lists his biggest inspriation as his dad, Will Smith and Bill Gates. Growing up pretty poor, Sasha’s biggest initial inspiration was to create a better life for his family, and at the age of 16, a motivational speaker came to his school, led a talk and finished his talk by saying “Don’t worry if you don’t know what you wanna do, just pick your dream car to get started” – so he picked a Porsche 911 Turbo. With that set in his mind, at the age of 18, he set himself a target of owning that very car by the age of 21, and he soon realised that it would only be possible through success in business. It’s this goal that he’s set himself that has motivated him to push himself harder than he had done before, and inspired him to keep persisting when times got tough.

The entrepreneurs that inspired him the most are Ruslan Kogan, and Siimon Reynolds, and his favourite quote, “Stop waiting for things to happen. Go out and make them happen”

Jack Ross – www.grackleapp.com

Jack is an iPhone app developer, and currently has an app named Grackle available on the App Store. It’s a fun game in which you are a farmer and birds are attacking your farm. As you progress the birds get more dificult, but your weapons get bigger and better.

He lists his biggest inspiration as his brother. – “When he was four years old, he set the goal of becoming a fighter pilot for the Navy. Nearly 17 years later, he is studying aerospace engineering and on the fast track to flying jets. He has never given up and always given his best. He has taught me to never give up and to stay determined to achieve all you can.” Clearly a strong inspiration to someone, even at such a young age. This is Jack’s favourite quote…

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is, everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” – Steve Jobs

Philip Hu - Philhu.com, TacticalKatana.com

Philip originally started Tacticalkatana.com as a fun project with his friend Ryan; it has since then become a zombie apocalypse weapons and products recommendation catalog. The website serves as a guide to the best zombie weapons that can be purchased through the internet. Kind of ridiculous, but a lot of fun.

Philip’s biggest inspirations are his parents, who immigrated to the United States from China in the 1980s with very little, in search of opportunity and a new life. In the process, through dedication and hard work, they have built a prosperous life and family. Philip’s parents’ values of hard work, education, and financial discipline have inspired Philip to become an entrepreneur seeking to make a positive impact with his ventures.

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” – Nolan Bushnell

Courtney Shaye Whittington - www.twidlife.com (under construction)

Her Online business is underconstruction - Its mission is to provide advice, laughs, products and services that help people! Blogging, video feeds, advice and products by herself and “very talented people I’ve met along my journey” all with one gib purpose: Helping women which in turn helps men who help women and so on. Sounds very interesting and should be lots of fun.

She lists her biggest inspiration as Mrs. Joan Averwater, Aka. G’ma Joan, which is interesting to hear. She says her grandmother has helped her believe in myself and is truly one of the most influential women to anyone and everyone that has ever had the pleasure of meeting her.

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” - Audrey Hepburn

Abigail Johnson Akingbade - Veggieab.com

Abigail runs a lifestyle blog which provides inspiration, cooking and cultural advice to eat and live depression free. The focus of her project seems to be based around the idea of adjusting your diet to live depression free, which I’m sure you’ll agree, is a very unique take on a crowded niche, which may just help her to stand out and become a success.

She lists her biggest inspiration as Lisa Irby, and for those who don’t know, Lisa is a full-time Webmaster, blogger and affiliate marketer, who’s been working in internet marketing since 1998.

“Make the rest of your life the best of your life.” – Eric Thomas

Dainis Graveris - www.1stwebdesigner.com

1WD is an online magazine about everything web design related starting from inspirational articles, blogging and freelancer tips, to hardcore coding tutorials about WordPress, jQuery for example. It has grown to be one of the biggest design blogs worldwide.

His first inspiration was Yaro Starak with his blogging course, now there are a lot of great sources like Mixergy.com, Neil Patel, Glen Allsop from Viperchill and of course Michael Dunlop (his words, not mine). From the other side Steve Jobs has been always great inspiration about the way he thought; his biography left huge impact.

Favorite Quote is not surprisingly Steve Jobs words, from his speech at Stanford – “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”, he’s planning on having those words to be engraved on his hand as a tattoo.

Arianna Vacca - mybookfriend.net

Arianna’s website reviews and recommends books for Young Adult readers. The site is still in its early stages, but it’s well constructed, and looks to be very promising.

Not surprisingly, Ariana’s biggest inspiration is Jeff Bezos, from Amazon.com. Amazon started out as the world’s largest book store, which was met with criticism and a lawsuit from Barnes and Noble, but soon surpassed any question, and is the largest retailer of books in the world, and just like mybookfriend, it’s packed full of reviews.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” – Maya Angelou

Matej Bešter - twitter.com/matejbester

Matej is a freelance web developer with over 7 years of experience helping individual to corporate clients grow their business online. Now exploring internet/affiliate marketing as an independent SEO specialist. He doesn’t have a website yet, but follow his twitter in the meantime. His biggest inspirations are Eben Pagan, Steve Jobs, Anthony Robbins, and Frank Kern.

“Go beyond. Way beyond what people expect. Way beyond what you’re paid to do. Way beyond what anyone else does.” – Eben Pagan

Dmitriy Kozlov - PurposeInspiredMarketing.com

Dmitriy’s website is all about marketing, web design, and social media services for entrepreneurs and small business owners. They strive to be a Triple Bottom Line company. Go check out his website, it’s clearly very well thought out and put together. Some pretty familiar names are listed as his top inspirations with the likes of Steve Jobs, Tim Ferriss, and Gary Vaynerchuk.

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” – Steve Jobs

Chris Monery -  britishborntees.com, memorycardsuk.com

Chris’s website provides T-Shirts for all occasions & custom printing (through subsidiary companies). Memorycardsuk focuses on memory cards but also sells accessories, hardware, games and electronics. Two very different websites, and I’m sure you’ll agree that they’re both very impressive and professional looking. Chris doesn’t have a biggest inspiration per se, he’s simply inspired by anyone who started off in life with nothing and made it purely off their own back.

There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory – Francis Drake

New technology is part of the reason logos have undergone some dramatic evolutions over the years. But it’s mostly because these companies and their brands have changed over time.

Apple Logo Evolution

The original logo was designed by Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne and it depicted Isaac Newton sitting under the infamous apple tree. Then, Rob Janoff designed the first rainbow Apple logo with a bite out of it so it wouldn’t be recognized as another fruit.

Microsoft Logo Evolution

The Microsoft employees referred to the “O” in the green logo as “blibbet” and they even had a double cheeseburger in the company cafeteria that was called the “Blibbet Burger”.

Yahoo! Logo Evolution

If you click the “!” in the logo on yahoo.com, it sings, “Yahooo-oo-ooo.”

UPS Logo Evolution

The original logo features an eagle carrying a package with the words, “Safe, Swift, Sure” inscribed on the side.

IBM Logo Evolution

Both the current IBM and the third UPS logo were designed by the same guy, Paul Rand. He also created the logos for Enron, ABC, and Steve Jobs’ NeXT.

Xerox Logo Evolution

Haloid invested in Chester Carlson’s xerography (aka photocopy) invention in 1938 and it became the most successful division of the company so they switched the name and logo.

Kodak Logo Evolution

Kodak was originally called “The Eastman Kodak Company,” hence the “EKC” in the original Kodak logo.

Canon Logo Evolution

Their first camera was named, “Kwanon,” after the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The original logo was a picture of this goddess with 1000 arms and flames.

Nokia Logo Evolution

As the oldest original logo in this list, it depicts an image of a fish because Fredrik Idestam founded the company as a wood pulp mill on the banks of the Tammerkoski Rapids.

BP Logo Evolution

BP’s logo was largely unchanged through its first 80 years until they introduced the Helios symbol in 2000 to represent their commitment to producing energy in all of its many forms.

Shell Logo Evolution

The 1958 BP logo and 1971 Shell logo were designed by the same guy, Raymond Loewy, who also designed the Exxon logo.

Ford Logo Evolution

The 1909 logo was created with Childe Harold Wills’ font that he originally developed for his business card.

Volkswagen Logo Evolution

I know what you’re thinking. Why does the original Volkswagen logo slightly resemble the Nazi symbol? Well, that’s because Hitler had a hand in founding the company. Naturally, Volkswagen phased out that part of the logo and stuck with the center.

Mercedes-Benz Logo Evolution

The three pointed star represents their original intent to make vehicles in land, water, and sky.

Audi Logo Evolution

The four circles represent how Audi started as a merger of the four above companies.

Pepsi Logo Evolution

In 1941, Pepsi adopted the colors red, white, and blue to commemorate the war efforts of the United States.

Mountain Dew Logo Evolution

Mountain Dew was originally invented as moonshine by a couple of Tennessee hillbillies with the tagline, “It’ll tickle yore innards!” This is represented in their original logo.

The Point for Young Entrepreneurs

The evolution of these logos is just one way to show that no company is perfect, but the good ones get started and adapt. Heck, five of the 17 companies changed from their original logo within the first year.

Too many young entrepreneurs wait until the planets are aligned to start their business. Don’t let not having a shiny logo get in the way of what’s actually important… You know, getting started.

#1 Profits Don’t Come Right Away

Since young companies need time to develop, they often require hours of labor with little monetary reward. Time is just like any other investment: if it’s well-spent, it will pay off.

In the case of Coca-Cola, John Pemberton lost $20 in his first year selling the syrup. He wasn’t making any money then, but he was laying the foundation for the next year’s profits (and the 100+ years after that).

#2 Failures are Stepping Stones

Every time you make a mistake, that means there’s one fewer mistake between you and success. The best way to learn how to do something is to totally fail at it – and then reflect on what you could have done differently.

There’s no point in feeling discouraged. Simply learn and change.

#3 Don’t Resist Change

Pemberton’s brain tonic was supposedly a cure for horrible-sounding ailments like, “Neuralgia,” “Hysteria…” and “Melancholia.” But there’s no way that Coca-Cola would be the huge corporation it is today if they hadn’t started marketing their beverage as a soft drink.

As an entrepreneur, don’t let carefully-laid plans blind your eyes to better opportunities.

#4 It’s Never Too Early to Start Branding

By sticking with a tasteful, timeless image, Coca-Cola has turned their logo into an icon. Your brand starts on the same day as your business – so be deliberate and consistent from the get-go.

Even if your business doesn’t have a logo or color scheme, you still have a brand to maintain. You’re building your brand every time you talk with a client or type out a tweet.

#5 Brand Big

Brands like Nike, Apple, and Coca-Cola have permeated the collective subconscious by embodying big feelings and ideas.

Of course, those companies also have multi-million dollar marketing budgets and you probably don’t. But if you have a firmly set vision for what feelings and ideas you want people to associate with your business, it will show through.

The Biggest Brand in the World

Today, Coca-Cola is widely considered the biggest brand in the world – but it has something in common with even the smallest start-up: it began with just an entrepreneur and an idea. How will you apply the story of Coca-Cola to your own business?

Do you agree with Interbrand that Coca-Cola is the biggest brand in the world — or have tech companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple surpassed the Coke brand? Sound off in the comment section below.

As you’ll find in this post, sometimes that means completely changing your product or service. Here are 10 great companies that started as something completely different than what they’re known for today.

Companies Started by Selling Something Else

#1 3M

Formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3 M’s, get it?), 3M started in 1902 as a mining company that sold a popular mineral to grinding wheel manufacturers.

From a mineral, they began selling sandpaper, then masking tape, then “Scotch Tape”, and today they sell over 55,000 different products including everything from car care products to touch screens.

#2 Abercrombie & Fitch

Founded in 1892 by David Abercrombie and Ezra H. Fitch, Abercrombie & Fitch started as a sporting goods shop and outfitter.

They didn’t become a clothing store until The Limited acquired them in 1988. Now they have over 300 stores in the U.S. and they’re expanding internationally.

#3 Avon

David H. McConnell started Avon in 1886 as door-to-door book salesman. Sales were tough at first but he realized that he could gain women’s attention by offering perfume samples.

Soon those perfume samples became more popular than the books, so he founded the California Perfume Company in New York, NY and it eventually became Avon.

#4 Colgate

Colgate was originally founded in 1806 by a soap and candle maker named William Colgate. They started by selling soap, candles, and starch.

Colgate didn’t start selling toothpaste until 1873 and they sold it by the jar.

#5 Flickr

In 2004, Flickr started as a chat room with real-time photo sharing for the web-based multiplayer game, Game Neverending. Soon thereafter, they shelved Game Neverending, expanded the uploading and filing of photos, and buried the chat room.

In March 2005, Yahoo! acquired Flickr for $35 million.

#6 Microsoft

Bill Gates and Paul Allen started what eventually became Microsoft in 1968 when a local computer company gave the 13-year-olds access to a computer. They were quickly banned after they learned how to hack the system and crash the files. But the company ultimately re-hired them to find bugs and fix weaknesses in their systems.

Over the next five years they received sporadic programming gigs until Gates enrolled at Harvard. One year in, Allen showed Gates the latest issue of Popular Electronics featuring the Altair 8800 and Allen convinced Gates to drop out so they could develop software for personal computers.

#7 Nintendo

Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo in 1889 as a playing card company. The game, Hanafuda, became very popular in Japan but they knew the market wasn’t that big. So they began to experiment in other industries. Between 1963 and 1968, Nintendo set up a taxi company, a hotel chain, a TV network, and a food company.

Finally, in 1974, Nintendo entered the video-gaming industry and today they’re third most valuable listed company in Japan.

#8 Nokia

Nokia got its start in 1865 as a paper mill – the original communications technology. In 1868, Frederick Idestam opened his second pulp mill near the town of Nokia, Finland.

After a century of mergers and acquisitions, Nokia entered the mobile communication in the 1980s with the Mobira Talkman.

#9 Twitter

Twitter originated from a “daylong brainstorming session” between Jack Dorsey and his podcasting company, Odeo, with the goal of creating an online SMS service to communicate within a small group. It was codenamed, Twttr, after being inspired by Flickr.

At first, it was used internally by Odeo employees and they launched Twitter to the public on July 15, 2006.

#10 Wrigley

Like Colgate, the William Wrigley Jr. Company started by selling soap and baking powder in 1891. Like Avon, William Wrigley began by selling his products door-to-door and he enticed his customers by packaging each can of baking powder with chewing gum.

The chewing gum steadily became more popular than the baking powder. Today several brands of chewing gum are owned by Wrigley, including Juicy Fruit, Extra, Orbit, Hubba Bubba, and 5.

Bonus: Google

Mark my words, years from now our generation will be saying, “Remember when Google was just a search engine?” And we’ll be like, “Yeah, dude, I remember the first time I used it back in middle school.”

What’s the Point?

One of the biggest excuses young people give for not starting a business is, “I don’t have an idea yet.”

They’re just sitting back and waiting for that big idea. You know, that one-in-a-million idea. They think it’ll fall out of the sky and into their lap when they least expect it. And that’s when they’ll get started.

If you want to be successful, just start selling something, anything. Figure out what people are buying and sell it to them. Michael started his journey by selling Pokémon cards to his schoolmates as an 8-year-old.

What you’re selling will likely change over time, but the principles will stay the same.

Do you know of other companies that started out selling something completely different?

In any case, the internet has opened up a world of opportunities for the entrepreneur-at-heart. Here are 21 businesses that you can start today and run entirely from a laptop and an internet connection.

Development

#1 Web Developer

According to SBA.gov, there were 29.6 million small businesses in the US and Ad-ology found that 46% of small businesses don’t have a website.

#2 Mobile App Developer

In 2010, the International Telecommunication Union reported that there are over 5 billion cell phones in the world and 1 billion of them have mobile broadband subscriptions.

#3 Blog Maintenance Provider

As tracked by BlogPulse, there were 126 million blogs on the internet in 2010 and most of them suck. Most bloggers think they just have to write, post, and auto-tweet. So if you know how to properly post a WordPress blog post, you can offer this as a service to serious bloggers.

Graphic Design

#4 Logo Designer

Since there are 29.6 million small businesses in the US alone, that’s 29.6 million potential logo customers. But most of them already have logos… Yeah, but very few of them have good logos.

#5 Web Designer

According to Pingdom, there are 234 million websites on the net. Like small business logos, most of these websites look terrible. And even the good ones, as you’ll soon see on Retire@21, know the value of continually improving the design.

#6 Book Cover Designer

Right now, there are over 32 million books on Amazon and every one of them has a book cover. According to UNESCO, over 1 million books are published per year. This doesn’t include eBooks.

#7 Mobile App Designer

Much like mobile app developers, there’s plenty of need for mobile app designers. Companies usually contract out to both developers and designers separately to create the app.

#8 Computer-Aided Designer

CAD drawings are typically 3D mockups and virtual prototypes that companies create prior to manufacturing a product. Pretty much every product design starts as a CAD drawing.

#9 Web Theme Designer

According to WordPress.com, there are over 53 million WordPress sites and about half of them are self-hosted. This means, WordPress alone has about 26 million sites that need themes.

#10 Videographer

In 2009, Zappos reported a 6% to 30% increase in sales for products with video. Website owners realize that video converts higher than any other form of content, so they’re starting to contract out for that work.

Writing

#11 Author

According to Authors Guild, a successful fiction book sells 5,000 copies and a successful nonfiction book sells 7,500 copies. Also, Jenkins Group (a premier publishing firm) reports that 70% of books published don’t make a profit. Don’t let these stats discourage you, but it’s hard to make a living as an author.

#12 Editor

Part of the reason books usually don’t earn back their investment is because they have to pay for an editor. You’ll likely earn more as an editor than an author.

#13 Copywriter

With 126 million blogs, there are 126 million websites that need content. If you’re a good writer and knowledgeable about a niche topic, reach out to the top bloggers in that niche and ask if they’ll pay you to write for them.

#14 Transcription

According to Worldwide Freelance, some industry estimates suggest that up to 50% of all non-fiction books are ghostwritten. Often, these books start as audio recordings and the ghostwriter transcribes and spruces up the content. This is just one way to make money as a transcriber.

#15 Translation

English is the universal language of business, but there are roughly 6,500 other languages in the world. Books, websites, manuals, etc. all need to be translated to other languages.

#16 Blogger

Much like authors, few bloggers make a living strictly from blogging. To attract advertisers, you typically need a couple thousand unique visitors per day. Think of a blog as a platform to attract other business opportunities.

Internet Marketing

#17 Search Engine Optimization

234 million websites compete to rise to the top of search engines. If you know how to optimize websites, you can help website owners save a lot of money on internet advertising.

#18 Search Engine Marketer

The other side of search engines is paid search. It’s not unusual for internet marketers to have $500,000 per month budgets for PPC (pay-per-click) and CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) advertising.

#19 Social Media Manager

Don’t let companies outsource their social media campaigns. But a service that helps people set up their Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus profiles is completely legitimate.

#20 Email Marketing Manager

Michael always tells you that the money is in the list, but it takes a lot or work to maintain that list. If you offer to create and automate the email newsletters, it’ll take a lot of pressure off their backs.

#21 Affiliate Marketer

To date, ClickBank has paid out almost $1.9 billion to affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing is another way to make a living as a blogger and it’s the primary way that Michael makes money.

So what…

I know I gave you lots of big stats and that can be overwhelming.

To put it into perspective, Michael has partaken in or hired out at least 14 of these 21 services; this includes over $30,000 on web design updates to IncomeDiary.

There’s a lot of money to be made on the internet. If you have a laptop, an internet connection, and a working brain, the only thing holding you back is you.

Post written by Retireat21 writer, Nick Tart.

To better understand how to build a world famous company, you need to dive into how other entrepreneurs have created theirs.

Here are ten of the world’s most gigantic businesses that started in garages.

10 Famous Garage Startups

#1 Amazon

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 as an online bookstore. At the time, it was completely run out of his garage in Bellevue, Washington.

He sold his first book in July 1995 and issued his IPO two years later in 1997.

Today it’s the world’s largest online retailer.

Address: 10704 NE 28th, Bellevue, Washington

#2 Apple

In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, ages 21 and 26 respectively, started Apple Computers by selling 50 units of Wozniak’s Apple I Computer at $500 apiece to a local retailer. Jobs took the purchase order to a parts distributor and ordered the parts. “The Steves” and their small team hand-built 50 computers in 30 days from a garage in Cupertino, CA.

Today, Apple is the most valuable technology company in the world.

Address: 2066 Crist Dr, Los Altos, California

#3 Disney

About 45 minutes down the road from Disneyland Park in Anaheim, CA, there’s a house in Los Angeles where The Walt Disney Company got its start.

In 1923, the house belonged to Walt Disney’s uncle, Robert Disney. Walt and his brother Roy moved in with their uncle and set up “The First Disney Studio” in the one-car garage out back. There they started filming the Alice Comedies which was part of the original Alice’s Wonderland.

Today, Disney is the highest-grossing media conglomerate in the world.

Address: 4651 Kingswell Ave, Los Angeles, California

#4 Google

As Stanford Graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started what’s now known as Google from Susan Wojcicki’s garage in September 1998.

Soon the project was interfering with their schoolwork, so they tried to sell it to Excite for $1 million. Excite rejected the offer and now Google is the most trafficked site in the world.

Address: 232 Santa Margarita Ave, Menlo Park, California

#5 Harley Davidson

In 1901, 21-year-old William S. Harley drew up plans to create a small engine to power a bicycle.

Over the next two years, Harley and his childhood friend, Arthur Davidson, built their motor-bicycle out of their friend’s 10 by 15-foot wooden shed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the equivalent of a garage because they didn’t have cars.

They officially founded Harley-Davidson in 1903 and today it’s the most well-known motorcycle brand in the world.

Address: Somewhere in northern Milwaukee, Wisconsin

#6 Hewlett-Packard

In 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP in Packard’s garage with an initial investment of $538.

Their first product was an audio oscillator and one of their first customers was Walt Disney, who purchased eight oscillators to develop the sound system for the movie Fantasia.

The HP Garage in Palo Alto is known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley and HP is now one of the largest companies in the world.

Address: 367 Addison Ave, Palo Alto, California

#7 Lotus Cars

In 1948, at the age of 20, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman started Lotus Cars by building the first Lotus racing car in stables behind The Railway Hotel in Hornsey, North London. Chapman used a 1930s Austin Seven and a power drill to build the Lotus Mark I.

Today Lotus Cars is one of the premier racing car manufacturers in the world.

Address: 472 Hornsey Rd, London N19 4EF, United Kingdom

#8 Maglite

In 1950, Tony Maglica moved from his war-torn home of Croatia back to America. Knowing very little English, he settled in Los Angeles and took jobs wherever he could find them.

In 1955, after saving $125, Tony put a down-payment on his first lathe. Then he started working out of a Los Angeles area garage to manufacture precision parts. He incorporated Mag Instrument in 1974 and released their first flashlight in 1979.

Today, Maglite is the standard issue flashlight for all police officers in the US.

Address: Somewhere in Los Angeles, California

#9 Mattel

Harold “Matt” Matson and Elliot Handler founded Mattel out of a garage in Southern California as picture frame company in 1945. To get the most out of their materials, they started using picture frame scrapes to create dollhouses.

Soon their dollhouses were selling better than their picture frames so they turned their emphasis to toys.

Today Mattel, Inc. is the highest-grossing toy company in the world.

Address: Somewhere in Southern California

#10 Yankee Candle Company

In 1969, at 16 years old, Michael Kittredge made his scented candle in his garage out of melted crayons as a gift for his mother. The neighbors took notice and expressed interest in buying Kittredge’s candles, so he started mass-producing them.

Four years later, Kittredge outgrew the garage so he moved the Yankee Candle Company to an old mill in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Today it’s the largest manufacturer of scented candles in the US.

Address: Somewhere in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

What’s the Point?

Everything starts as nothing.

It’s easy to look at the world’s largest companies and think, “I could never start something like that.” And you’d be right. Most of these companies took decades to get where they are today.

They didn’t start by trying to create Amazon, Apple, and Google. They started by creating an online bookstore, a computer, and a search algorithm.

Whether it’s a garage, a basement, or a dorm room, every business has humble beginnings. It’s not about where you start. It’s where you end up.

Post written by Retireat21 writer, Nick Tart.

Ask any good business owner that understands direct marketing “what is the one biggest advantage that if you had it could make you millions?”

They are not going to say their list. Although it is a huge asset. Nor will they say there PPC campaign, or their blog.

All of these are great and essential.

And almost all the most successful people online have these.

But the one thing they will all agree on is their secret weapon is their copywriter.

Whether it’s the entrepreneur who does the writing… or if they hire out this work to a direct-response copywriter who has a proven track record.

If you already have your own in-house copywriter, do it yourself or get a ‘hired gun’ you’re already successful.

If you don’t then what I’m about to tell you will rock your world.

When I first started out as a writer 21 years ago, I got into by accident. I was a door to door commission only salesperson.

How’s that for a tough choice?

Imagine having to go up to someone’s front door you’ve never met and ask them to buy your stuff.

Well I was successful, so much so an entrepreneur asked me to work for him.

This was industrial sales. And when I tried cold-calling it didn’t work.

You had to have an appointment or you couldn’t see anyone.

Next I tried telesales. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried this, but it’s pretty soul destroying stuff.

Out of sheer frustration I wrote a letter and sent it out first class.

And guess what?

My phone started ringing.

They were calling me for an appointment.

I liked this. A lot.

I’ve never admitted this to anyone before, but it was so easy it was almost embarrassing.

This got me started on a quest to learn more about writing sales letters.

Over the years I’ve been able to launch new products fast and profitably.

I’ll show you were you can see examples of some of these successful sales letters later.

But for now before you write another piece of copy, or hire someone else, you need to know the number one skill the gives any writer the winning edge.

And I’m going to tell you what that is in a moment. But first let me tell about selling in print.

In order to sell you must get the interest and desire of the person you want to buy your product.

Next you must bond with them. They must see you as a real person.

After that you give some kind of proof.

Only now can you give them a sample of what you do.

So, that’s the foundation laid now to build a strong building you need powerful building blocks.

They come in the form of fascinations.

Just a quick aside here. If your copywriter doesn’t know about fascinations then you’re not getting anywhere near the results you could be getting.

What is a fascination?

It’s like a mini benefit statement.

Some people call these bullets… however they are far more than just bullet points.

They fascinate you to the point where you must have the answer.

Designed to tease but never to give away everything.

The question is often asked, “Why is lingerie sexy?”

Not because of what it reveals, but rather what it hides.

You may already know your job as a salesperson selling what you sell is to turn features into benefits.

That’s obvious right? Wrong! Most people turn their features into ‘functional benefits.’

In other words they’ll tell you the handle on the coffee cup (the feature) allows you to drink the coffee while it’s still hot without burning yourself (functional benefit.)

Do you see what I mean?

A successful marketer and copywriter will spend a lifetime coming up with better ways to talk about benefits.

The ‘what’s in it for me’ approach.

Until you can say that to the reader’s satisfaction they aren’t going to buy.

Let’s say you tell the coffee drinker that drinking coffee at the temperature you like it – not too hot, not too cold – but just right makes you feel really good inside.

I don’t know if you know this, but everyone craves heat. So talking about what the heat does for them before they get the buzz of the caffeine will help you sell the cup.

And that’s the part nearly all marketers overlook.

It’s the real benefit.

Now comes this question of which is better, long copy or short copy.

I think that’s the wrong question.

If you asked which is better more benefits or less benefits you’re going to get the answer you’re looking for.

Because you don’t know exactly which benefit makes your readers buy.

So putting more of them is almost always going to give you a better chance of making that sale.

So what’s the best way to state a benefit?

Say it in a way that fascinates your reader so much they want to own your product.

A fascination is an advanced way of writing bullet points. It gets to the core emotions of the reader.

It’s what I call ‘State of the Heart Selling.’

How to make this work for you

Let’s imagine your selling an information product.

Hire someone to read it and give it back to you with highlighted sections of anything that’s a benefit, or newsworthy or a breakthrough.

Especially anything that’s exciting or fascinating.

Now you take all of these statements and put them into a word document and reword them into paragraphs that make sense.

Essentially you’re just cutting and pasting at this stage.

Here’s my little secret.

Look for themes you can turn into headlines and sub-headlines.

That way you create desire and interest right from the start.

If you want examples of how I did this then go to my website http://www.scienceofgettingclients.com and look under the tab on my home page called portfolio.

Scroll down until you see the document reseveratrol 500.

On the first page you’ll see examples of fascinations. But even better is the headline.

This got me a 24% response rate.

That’s the power of these fascinations.

You come up with as many of these as you can and then design you’re whole promotion around them.

Before I end here today I want to give you the quintessential skill that allows you to come up with great fascinations.

I reverse engineer my fascinations.

Here’s what I mean:

In the reseveratrol promotion I give the bullet point. “What never to drink if you want to stay young.”

How did I arrive at this?

I looked at the ORAC value of dark chocolate. The ORAC value will show you the levels of anti-oxidants in the things you eat and drink.

Dark chocolate has one of the highest ORAC values at over 1200. But when you add milk to it the ORAC value is halved.

And the less anti-oxidants you have in your body the faster you age.

So there you have it… some of my best secrets only ever given here at Income Diary.

One last thing, then I’m out of here.

Once you’ve written your piece you show it to people who could buy your product. But DON’T as l them what they think.

Instead watch their reaction.

If they say, “Where can I get this?” You’ve done it.

There are however, one or two pitfalls in getting people to do this.

And it has to do with your language and they way you use it.

I have a recording I would like to give you called, ‘Why People Resist You and What to Do About it.’

All you have to do is write in the comment box below the word “YES” and I’ll give this to Michael so he can make it available to you.

That’s it for this month. You now have the unfair advantage to take you to the next level

Clive Cable

The Quintessential Copywriter.

PS If you want me to take a look at one of your benefits and turn it into a fascination you can email me: clive@scienceofgettingclients.com it won’t cost you anything. However I’m only offering this for the next seven days otherwise I’ll be swamped.

If your heading to Underground this year, let us know! Will be great to see everyone.

Top Young Entrepreneurs In The Making

Benjamin Jacques

My name is Benjamin Jacques and I’m the founder of MeltingWaves.com. I’m a graphic design student at the Savannah College of Art and Design and I live and breathe art. I created Melting Waves with the intentions of helping artists in college share their artwork and make a name for themselves so that they can be set when they graduate from school. If you look at any marketer that has products to promote and services to sell, you’ll see that there’s a talented designer behind them making everything look nice and marketable. Well what if designers themselves learned how to create their own products and services to sell and really jumped into the “make money online” business? They wouldn’t have to hire anyone else to design for them because they already have that knowledge! I created Melting Waves to show designers that they have a tremendous advantage in this industry and that they can get started a lot faster than anyone who doesn’t have design knowledge. I really just want to see artists do well because they bring so much creativity to the world and they would have such an advantage over the crowds trying to make money online if they just knew where to begin. That’s where Melting Waves takes them by the hand and shows them how to use their skills to their advantage, to make a name for themselves, increase their incomes, and dive into online marketing industries that they have probably never considered before. I want to bring more creativity into an already beautiful world, and I know I can do that by giving aspiring artists a helping hand when it comes to creating success.

Eddys Velasquez

Eddys Velasquez always knew that the 9 to 5 job was not for him and because of this he decided to take massive action and become his own boss going from $0 to $60 per hour within 1 year, at the age of 15.  He then stumbled on a twitter post that introduced him to online marketing where within a few short weeks he made his 1st $1,500 online in a span of 3 days.  Soon after that he discovered that his passion was to help his friends achieve the same success doing what they love to do and that’s why he decided to start IncomeBoss.com

David King

I started off in myspace marketing when myspace was still cool and built a business using myspace and myspace groups.  As myspace faded away I evolved as the web did and started using facebook, twitter and youtube and blogging.  I began affiliate and info-marketing through search engine optimization and social marketing and haven’t looked back since.  I have been working full time from home online for 2 years now and love every minute of it.  I have info-products in the health markets and in the internet marketing/biz markets and will continue to create more. Consistency and persistency really pays off!

Kirsty Price

My name is Kirsty Price and I am 20 years old, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I am in my final year of studying Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. I started my first business at the age of 19 and I jumped head-first into entrepreneurship to help me pay my rent! At that time, I set up my first ecommerce site and I also dabbled in ebay for a while. This first site was a failure because I really had no idea what I was doing, so I went back to the drawing board and learned from my mistakes. A few months later I started my second business. This time I was determined to succeed. This was another ecommerce site called Mademoiselle Boutique which sold luxury adult products primarily to females. This business did much better because I went away and studied everything I could find about online business in my spare time. I loved running it, but I still wanted something more that my ecommerce site wouldn’t allow for. Before I became interested in online business and entrepreneurship, I wanted to be a teacher. I realised that I still wanted to teach and inspire, but not in a classroom. Thanks to the internet, I could! So in late 2010, I moved on from my ecommerce business and I decided to combine my passion for teaching and online business to create my current business, Laptop Rebels! Laptop Rebels is still very new, but it will soon sell information products and online courses for other young (primarily twenty-something females) people looking to learn the basics about starting an online business so they can avoid working a 9 to 5 job they have no passion for.

Brian Moran

Created Get10000Fans.com after making it big on Facebook in the baseball industry. Using Get 10,000 Fans to teach other small business how to use Facebook to actually grow their business, increase sales, and build a huge following of loyal fans.

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Dusty Reron

My name is Dusty Reron and I am from Lethbridge, Alberta (Canada). I’m the founder of iJailbreak.com, a leading web blog covering everything latest about jailbreaking/unlocking Apple’s iDevices, Sony and any other revolutionary device that can jailbroken. We provide in depth tutorials, app and product reviews, and have been featured on many popular sites. It’s a blog that stands out from the crowd with our focus on building a community that you need to see to understand.

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Jaden Easton-Ellett

My name is Jaden Easton-Ellett and I am from Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). I am currently 16 years old and I am the Co-Founder of a technology blog called iJailbreak.com. Where we focus writing in-depth news, how-to’s and reviews on electronic devices such as the iPhone. Our blog is also a leading promoter of jailbreaking (opening up electronic devices to user driven modifications), where we share our knowledge and help other users jailbreak their devices. Ever since we started iJailbreak.com we have been big believers in running a culture based blog that cares about our readers; not just our profits. This has lead to the success of our blog and has brought us phenomenal results in only 3 months that you need to see to believe!

Molly Dunkle & Katie Barstow

Katie and I started our company together in 2006. We began with a hobby for making lip balm and turned it into a full business. We are just revamping our company website (www.sweetscosmetics.com) this month, and we are hoping to have it finished by March! Our goal for this conference is to learn some techniques and tips for selling online. Looking forward to meeting everyone and networking! Thank you again for a wonderful opportunity, it is going to be a great trip!

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Jack Cascio

I am Jack Cascio and I run an online business “Jump Out The Gym”.  I started this business with the former strength coach/physical therapist of the New York Mets (Jeff Cavaliere).  My business is dedicated to increasing an athletes vertical jump.  I have seen continuous growth with this business and am looking to get into other niches (speed, quickness, etc) as well as releasing my own workout supplement line.

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James Sun

My name is James Sun and I am a Grade 10 high school student at Earl Haig Secondary School who has a passion for business and entrepreneurship. I also am very involved with sports,public speaking, DECA and I also chair a Student Advisory Board for a new non-profit organization called One Prosper International. I first started doing business last year as the President of a Junior Achievement company called RAWR which sold gift baskets and candy kebabs. We had our ups and downs and I learned a lot from the mistakes. This learning experience got me excited to do even more business!

As a result, after our company liquidated, this year, I became the President of another Junior Achievement company named Top-Out. This company has twenty student employees from over the Toronto area. Our slogan is “A Story Behind Each and Every T-Shirt” because we sell unique hand-made customized t-shirts. What really distinguishes us from our competitors is that our products are considered affordable artwork created by students.

Freeman LaFleur

I am the twenty three year old cofounder of LoDo Magazine, Denver’s alternative lifestyle and entertainment source. I’ve been involved in a variety of different startups since the  age of seventeen, including a clothing line, a non profit, and multiple websites. I am a strong advocate of entrepreneurship and personal branding because I know how life changing your first sale or client can be. My eventual goal is to coach others through DIYPersonalBranding.com on how to take their business or service to the next level by getting it online, promoting it effectively, and automating it. I truly believe that we are about to see a massive jump in the number of entrepreneurs over the next few years, as people begin to realize that it has never been easier to start a business and that digital marketing is the biggest game changer in history.

Mattis Weiler

My name is Mattis Weiler, I’m 20 years old and a starting internet entrepreneur based in Munich, Germany, I had the pleasure to meet Michael at the Awesomenessfest in Costa Rica before Christmas. Since I had always been madly into 3D graphics and animation, but was not keen on working 60h+/week on a feature film production as an average paid specialist only following orders and fulfilling somebody else’s dream, I was looking for alternative ways to get make some money with my passion. So I started freelancing and did some minor project work, but it still didn’t fit for me. When I got to meet Michael in December, I was highly impressed of his techniques and the lifestyle he had, and decided to work out a plan of combining my two passions, 3d animation and the internet, and my desire to work where I want, whenever I want.

My website ww.cgiant.com is going to provide a free video tutorial search engine and recommendations covering (3d animation, video, web and photo as categorys)to allow users on specific skill levels to gain quick refferal to the most suitable instructions on their needs. I also plan on providing interviews and reviews to various products like training, software and other goodies related to the making of computer graphics.

Daniel McClure

Daniel McClure is a young entrepreneur that is working towards his dream of running a digital empire that can be run from anywhere. Currently based in the UK, he serves clients from around the globe developing membership websites and blogs that enable business owners to share thier vision with the world. Whilst initially only offering one-to-one web development and marketing services you can now find everything from; review sites based upon real experience, through to marketing focused WordPress skins amongst his digital portfolio.

Recently I have been looking at some of the worlds most success billionaires such as Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Steve Jobs. Although only being 21 years old, I often feel like I’m not achieving as much as I really can, I look at other people who at my age are so much further ahead – sure in some respects I had to come further as I didn’t give a thought in the world to my education till a year after I had done my exams.

They Are The Best At What They Do

Look at Google, we use it because it gives us the results we are looking for quicker than any other search engine, the same applies to Facebook, we use it as it’s the most user friendly and has all our friends in one place. These are prime examples of businesses that just do it better than anyone else, and that is what you have got to do. Whether you are selling online toiletries or you are starting your own social network, it doesn’t matter, what does matter is that the business you own or run is working at full capacity with everything done the absolute best it can be done. Just try your hardest.

They Go For Mass Markets

No one has ever become a billionaire by targeting a small market, all the top companies have mass appeal such as Microsoft who’s aim is to have a computer in every house hold. Having said this, I do believe the best way to approach going to a mass market is starting small and being known for doing one thing great, like Zappos did. They sold only shoes when they started and once they became the worlds leader at selling shoes online, they branched out and started selling clothing and then later a whole lot of other things – that company later sold for $1,300,000,000!

They Use Their Time Wisely

Bill Gates wouldn’t go on Twitter and bitch about how his iPhone is broken or how one of his employees is an idiot, that would be a complete waste of time. Doing some quick maths I worked out that while working for Microsoft he would of made around $630,000 a hour so if he was to spend so much time like us just complaining and giving excuses then he would be a lot poorer. Time is money, it’s a phrase thrown around a lot but it is seriously true, think of it this way, how much do you think you are worth? $5 per hour? $10 dollars? How about $100 per hour and more? Are you really doing as much work as you think you are? Or more importantly are you using your time to do those things as best you can?

They Are Not Scared To Work Hard

The internet has made it easy for some us to work only a small amount of time a day and still be able to make more than enough to support ourselves (take me for example) – however if you want to be a billionaire, you need to work really hard, that means late nights, grafting all the time and no submission. You have really got to work at it around the clock whether you are part of a team or you are the team, the only way to become successful is to do things, and take action, how can you become successful if you are not prepared to work hard? Another thing is to believe in yourself because you will get many doubters and that’s okay, they are entitled to their opinion, you just need to work like crazy to become successful and to basically prove the doubters wrong.

High Profit Margins

Profit margins are something of a daunting area to get involved in, but basically the more the margin in profit the more money these billionaires make, which is why it is essential for them to have the best marketing and advertising campaign, the best quality in products and the best branding they can achieve because this all helps the sales. Imagine if Apple had just had a small advertising campaign and they had poor quality control issues, the profits would be non-existent, however because of the sheer volume of sales for Apple products (on most levels) and the high quality of the product, the money made is very substantial, however because they are a big company they can leverage getting the best deal for their raw materials and this means high profits.

They buy low and sell high so the profit Are Large

Sticking with the above example the larger the company is the more weight they can put behind them to get the best deals for their products and services, smaller businesses do use this method too, although it is usually on a lot smaller scale and usually depends on them buying a minimum amount of materials. The more bulk materials you buy the more items can be made for a lot less, the more items that are made for little the higher the profit margin, and the higher the profit margin, the deeper their pockets become. This isn’t to say that you too cannot get in on this technique you just need to build rapport with your supplier and use as much leverage as you can, whether that leverage is the length of time you have been a valued customer, how many people you send to them or whatever else you can think of.

They Take Risks

Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg and Henry Ford all have two things in common, they all dropped out of college, and they all became successful. In fact they become amongst the most successful people in the world and how did they manage it? They took risks, imagine where the world would be now if Bill Gates hadn’t started up his own software business? What would the world be like now if Henry Ford hadn’t built some of the first drivable vehicles in the world? What about if Richard Branson hadn’t started his own record label early in his career? The world would be a much less interesting place to be I think. The point is that they all took risks, and a couple of them still are taking risks. It’s like the SAS motto reads “He who dares, wins.” This saying is very true, do nothing, there will be nothing, no results, no money nothing. Try your hardest, and take some risks and you could see yourself end up successful.

It seems like only yesterday but it was back in 2006 that I came up with the idea for Retireat21.com. I was at Yanik Silver’s UK Underground Seminar, and I was just networking and discussing ideas with some other entrepreneurs at the event. I was aged 17 at the time and someone asked me if my friends were doing online marketing or if it was just me. I explained it was just me and that it was hard to find anyone young to network and share ideas with. About 20 minutes later with that ‘someone’ and several others we brainstormed the idea that was to become RetireAt21.com. I could hardly wait to leave the seminar and get started on my idea. (Indeed as I didn’t have a credit card at the time I had my father register the domain name there and then). The concept of RetireAt21.com – A Young Entrepreneurs website was 100% me, but it came out of that initial conversation I had with someone (a guy) – whom I have not spoken to since and whose name I don’t even know.

Lesson Learned:
Several Lessons actually — the main one of course being the power of the ‘mastermind’ and networking and attending events like The Underground Online Seminar but also the RIPPLE effect of that ‘someone’ asking me a question and how that question inspired me which in turn resulted in 1000′s of other young people being inspired to take action because of RetireAt21.com. Quite a Ripple Effect I think you will agree.

Since launching back in December 2006, millions of people have visited the site and have been inspired to make money online. I have heard from several top Clickbank vendors and affiliates that told me that RetireAt21.com was where it all started. (Ripple Effect again!) Right now you have the opportunity to do something really big, even if your goal isn’t to become rich, you can connect with and effect a lot of people.

PLEASE NOTE: Any website or service I talk about in this blog post, I have used and tested first, I’m not promoting them just to make money.

How I Created the 2011 Version of Retireat21

To save you tens of thousands of dollars and probably a thousand hours of hard work, I will skip all my failures and take you to exactly how we built the new Retireat21 site and how you can do it yourself for a lot, lot cheaper.

Firstly, before you do any website, you need to register a domain name which is basically the name of your website, for example Google.com is a domain name. Whenever possible I like to ‘explain’ what the site is about in the domain name. In the case of Retireat21.com the goal was to achieve financial freedom by aged 21, and my choice of domain explained that perfectly. Registering it is simple, go to GoDaddy.com and follow the instructions, make sure to grab a .com domain as they are by far the most brand-able and easy to remember. Once you have you domain you need to host it on the internet, once again this is a simple task, visit HostGator and pick the cheapest hosting account which is Hatchling, this will cost you $4.95 a month which is a very small price to pay considering I pay over $500 a month to keep my blog network online. Use the coupon code Retireat21 to get your first month for 1cent. Now you need to connect the two together and then install WordPress, here is a good (and short) video showing you how to install WordPress in 60 seconds.

Once you have WordPress installed, you want to choose a design/theme to fit your site niche, I personally use Woothemes for my blog themes because it gives me a better result then if I was to hire someone to build the site for you. This blog uses the Headline theme and when I started IncomeDiary, for the first year I used the BusyBee theme, these are the two themes I personally believe to be, by far the best out of the Wootheme collection. Buy and download your favourite theme, login to your WordPress Admin and click Appearance on the left side, followed by Themes then Install Themes at the top then upload. Find your theme on your computer and then click Install Now. Once the theme is installed all you need to do is click Active and your blog will now look like the theme you purchased.

Each theme you buy from Woothemes, you get something called WooFrameWork which makes it easy for people like you and I to build great sites. Features include, simple uploading system for advertising banners or Google Adsense, design options (over 10 different colors for each theme) and over 100 other great things.

In this screen shot you can see me adding advertising banners to my sidebar with the click of a button, no additional software required.

The next thing you want to do is install WordPress Plugins to make your blog run better, plugins can do 1000′s of different things so depending on your site and your goals for it, you may want to use different ones. Here’s a list of the ones I’m currently using on Retireat21:

• Popup Domination – a plugin developed by myself to allow me to add lightbox popups to collect email addresses (email marketing makes me the most money). Since launching this plugin over 5000 people have purchased it.
• Gravity Forms – this plugin allows you to add contact forms to your website, I have three, one on my contact page, one on a order page (great if your selling a server or consulting) and then one on my contest page.
• Broken Link Checker – this helps me a lot with my No Leakage Rule, if links are broken, then you either want to edit them so that they work or remove them because that site no longer exists. If people click them, realize they don’t work, it wastes there time and they may end up leaving your site.
• PS Auto Sitemap – when you begin to create more and more pages and posts on your blog, it’s import that search engines can navigate through them all, this plugin creates a sitemap page where every single page on your site is linked to, I link to this page on the footer of every page so that Google can find it.
• OptimizePress – probably my favourite WordPress theme/plugin right now, you can create squeeze pages, sales pages and membership sites. By far the best money I spent in 2010! You can see a review of OptimizePress here.
• YARPP – another cool plugin, if you go to the bottom of this post you will see related posts, this was produced using this plugin. Making it easy for users to find related content, means readers will visit more pages and make you more money.

I don’t use that many plugins, I only recommend using the ones you really need, the more you have, the slower your site will run. If your looking for more WordPress Plugin suggestions, check out this post.

Creating Content for Retireat21

Now it is time to start publishing content on your website, it’s kind of like Microsoft Word & Facebook, you type what text you want and click Publish. No one will come to your website without content, the day I launched Retireat21 I had over 4000 people visit the site and for the past two years although I haven’t published much new content, I still get over 1000 visitors each and every day. Here’s the three types of blog content that will bring you the most traffic, take the least amount of time but make you the most amount of money!

Top Lists

When I started publishing top lists 4 years ago, not many people were doing it and those who were, did it completely wrong. One of my first top lists was called The Young Entrepreneur Rich List and was published on Digg.com. I sometimes say this one list made me “Famous” online – certainly my online profile went up considerably after that list and the mentions I had all over the Web and I even ended up getting interviewed by a Brazilian Newspaper.

Here are the benefits of Top Lists:

• It’s simply research because of this, you can outsource this type of content writing.
• Easily scan able so people don’t have to take all day reading something.
• Extremely motivating, when people see my top lists, it makes them think “YES, I can do it”.

Here’s some examples of top lists so you can try it out for yourself:

• Top 30 Richest Young Entrepreneurs, (try: 30 Richest Female Athletes)
• 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs, (try: 30 Most Influential Football Stars)
• 20 Reasons Why Your Website Is Crap, (try: 20 Reasons Why Your Restaurant Isn’t Making Money)
• 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a Young Entrepreneur (try: 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be Tall)

Recently when starting a New Blog about things to do before you die, I simply did 10 top lists in a row, it already gets over 1000 visitors a day, this stuff works, try it, I make nothing for telling you that, I just want you to succeed.

Conduct Interviews

I started doing interviews big time when I was 19 and I had just got out hospital (Long story – I spent 1 week in hospital in Ghana followed by a further week in England). I had nothing I could do but sit in bed for a month, I decided to look at the top 1000 websites as well as all the big sites I visited often and ask them for an interview. Around 40% of people would say yes to doing an interview (remember every NO you get means you are one closer to a YES) and so I would simply write some questions and email them over to the owners of these top ranked websites. I remember when I got my first big time interview with a top 1000 website, I was so excited and rang my dad, I rang him 5 times more that day with updates on even bigger website founders who said yes to doing an interview.

Publish Guides and Tutorials

My very first high traffic blog was about website design and coding because that was what I was learning at the time (Mind you I never got very good at it and in the end preferred to pay other people to do it for me). I would also pay people to write articles about how to do stuff, such as “How To Code a Contact Form” and then publish it on my blog. I would then go ahead and submit to website directory’s and at the time it was really easy to drive traffic from those types of site, in literally a week I went from 0 visitors a day to over 3000. The best thing about writing tutorials and guides is that they are great at making money, look at this post for example, I teach you a lot of great stuff and in return if you take action you buy some stuff through my affiliate links.

Making Money From Retireat21

I have tried a lot of different things when monetizing Retireat21, for your benefit, I will break them down for you:

• Google Adsense – this is where I started, the site before Retireat21 was earning $50 a day from Adsense but because this site was a different concept it no longer worked and did not make much money so I quickly dropped it and tried something else.
• Banner Advertising – I have a love/hate relationship with banner advertising, benefits are it’s easy to bring in a chunk of money but in return for that money you have to spend your time working with advertisers and constantly need to be looking for more. Another thing which annoyed me was if I doubled my traffic from the previous month, I wouldn’t make any extra money because I had set my rate for advertising and couldn’t change it.
• Affiliate Marketing – something I would highly recommend because your earning potential is unlimited. How it works is simple: You promote other peoples products and if you sell any, you receive a commission for each sale, usually 50%. Pick the right product and you can make a lot of money.
• Email Marketing - Email Marketing goes really well with affiliate marketing because you build a highly targeted list of followers and then email those followers promotions. Another benefit is you can use you list to promote pages on your site and earn money from other monetizing such as Google Adsense and Banner Advertising.

So what should you do? To be honest, a bit of everything goes well, it’s very important to diversify your income so that you don’t keep all your eggs in the same basket. When you start you will find it almost impossible to sell advertising because you haven’t received much traffic yet and have little to no social proof that says “this guy or girl is worth investing in”. I highly recommend you place affiliate ads on your site to begin, this way you will earn only if the product owner earns, it’s a very fair system. Depending on what your niche is and what type of products you want to promote, your next steps are different, I recommend you read this post on Affiliate Marketing.

Going From Small To BIG With Blogging

A lot of people will only want to make a small amount of money, perhaps a few hundred or a thousand dollars a month, which is a great initial goal. But believe me, when you reach that goal, your soon find yourself wanting more and more – and not always because of the money but because the entrepreneur inside you wants it.

In my mind there is very little additional effort in making a HUGE site compared to making a SMALL site. The basics are all the same – it is only the application that is different. Here are my 7 Top Rules for creating big sites:

1. Model Yourself on Someone Else! This is simple, find a mentor or someone you like that is doing things big and copy them (to some extent at least). I find a lot of people are copying people when they shouldn’t because they are copying things that don’t work.
2. Stand Out From The Crowd! This is easy, just follow my content strategy, most people will focus on small quick blog posts daily, sometimes many times a day. Focus on 1 or 2 great posts a week, this will make you stand out, once you make enough money, hire someone to help you write 1 a day.
3. Invest In Yourself! Most people can’t do this until they are earning some money from there site, that’s fine, I was the same. Once you make enough money, hire a designer and get a custom site designed, this will make you stand out and allow you to customize things better so people stay on your site longer, rank better in search engines and of course make you more money.
4. Get Networking! In a 5 minute conversation you will very often think of a new idea or be told something new that will help you a lot. Take time to talk to your competition, friends and other online marketers.
5. Build a MASSIVE List! If you have a big email list or Facebook following, that means every time you have no content or something to offer, you can tell them and they can come back to your site, time after time. One of the most important and easiest ways to get traffic is to make sure the traffic you already had keeps coming back. I have people who have been following me since the beginning, appreciate them!
6. Always Be Trying Something New! I never stop, I always want to change something and improve something. I often call this bullet proofing, making sure my site is so perfect that nothing isn’t at it’s top performance. Put yourself in the mind of your reader, what would they want to see here, what products would they like to buy, why haven’t I visit this page, etc…
7. Never Think Your Better Then Anyone Else! This is something I’ve always believe, the second you think you are the best and become arrogant is also the time you stop learning. Everyone is a ‘teacher’ – even less successful people than you (even if if is only to teach you what not to do). I’ve told people often you should change this, add this, try that and so and they never listened, why? Because I’m 21 and they think they are better then me. I speak to friends, some who aren’t even that big with their online projects (yet) every week because I know I can learn them all.

Today I have tried to in as simple a fashion as possible explain what went into making RetireAt21.com a success – times and strategies do change but much of what I detailed here still works brilliantly (Top Lists, Interviews, Guides etc). Indeed I am very confident that if you follow a similar strategy even as we enter 2011 then you can achieve similar levels of success – even more success. One of my motto’s in life is to always be learning – you even learn from failure. You can even do BLOG POSTS on your failures and experiences as I have done here.

This morning my father shared with me a quote from a friend of his – John Carter – Frankly I think it pretty well sums up my own beliefs about trying something new:

As you head into 2011, just remember to take that risk. If you win, you will be happy. If you lose, you will be wise

Wishing You Huge Success and Happiness in 2011

Michael