Since starting this blog, I’ve had many people contact me directly asking various questions relating to business and doing business online. The number one question I am getting comes down to this:

Many people want to start a business, but they aren’t sure what to do.

My advice is pretty simple: stop searching for the next big thing and figure out a niche business providing a product or service that people are looking for.

The thing is – starting a business online doesn’t really have to be complicated. Most people wanting to start a business online would be satisfied with making low 6 figures a year in profits. That isn’t difficult to do. I’m not saying it is easy. I’m also not saying there isn’t work involved. But it’s not really not difficult.

Many people when starting online businesses look at affiliate marketing, blogging, arbitrage, information marketing, etc as options. There is a lot of information out there on how to make money doing these things. It’s not difficult to get started but it can be difficult for most people to see significant income versus having your own product or service.

Business Idea Generation for Serial Entrepreneurs

Serial entrepreneurs are people who create business after business. Sometimes this happens one at a time; other times multiple businesses are created simultaneously.  The skill sets of serial entrepreneurs can vary widely but typically most are creative and strong at both marketing and monetization.

As a serial entrepreneur, my own approach to coming up with new business ideas is probably different than what it would be for an average person. I look to see what people want. Why do I take this approach? I’d much prefer putting my resources behind something that I know has a ready market than trying to create a market on top of everything else. Then it becomes simply a matter of tapping into the people who want to find what it is that I have to offer.

I do discovery through the following methods:

• Social media – what questions are people asking?
• Blogs – what do bloggers mention having a need for?
• Reviews – what reviews show new products/services are lacking but there is a demand for?
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool – what areas are growing in search and where is there potential?
• Forums – what questions are people asking? Where is there apparent need for a new product/service?
• News – what changes are taking place that will result in a need for new products/services?
• Company offerings – what new developments are taking place that would make sense to roll out to my existing client base?

Although most of what I do is in B2B (business-to-business), I am really open. If there is an opportunity, I will go for it.

I am simplifying things a good deal. Since I am an advocate of using domains to attract traffic, the ability to acquire relevant keyword domains also factors into my filtering. I probably look at several dozen new business ideas a month and may pursue only one of them.

Business Idea Generation for Newbies

If you’re at the point of trying to find your first online business to start, you may consider the above discovery methods but I’d recommend taking a bit of a different approach.

I’d suggest to start off with an area you are genuinely interested in. Try and drill down until you get it to a level that is manageable for research purposes. Then go through the above list to see what ideas you can come up with.

Let’s say for example you are very passionate about both golf and travel. You see that on forums, social media, etc there are a lot of people asking about golf courses in various areas they will be traveling to for work or pleasure. You find out that there is no review site of golf courses that lists details about different courses. So you decide to start a site where you collect the basic information about different courses and then allow user generated reviews. You then decide to approach different golf courses, resorts and shops about advertising.  You can also include links for products to improve one’s golf game that would pay you a commission if a sale results (affiliate links). Finally, you want to include one personal review per month and look for courses/resorts to comp you and maybe work out a deal with an airline to be an official sponsor of your site.

Note: I have no idea if a site like the above exists already

It’s a lot easier to start a new business if you already have some basic knowledge of the market as a consumer and if you are enthusiastic about it.

Good luck!

Photograph by NJ..

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Today I’ll be sharing some thoughts about how we snack when interacting with others.

We Snack In Relationships

How we do this

Instead of spending quality time with family and friends, interactions are often becoming bite-sized. We fit in our interactions with others around everything else going on in our busy lives. The amount of time we spend with people may be less and when we do spend time, we are often multitasking.

Examples of how we snack with relationships

When I was growing up, it was rare that my family didn’t sit down to dinner together. If more than two of us were home around any meal time, we would eat together. I used to spend a couple of hours a day – minimum with one or both of my parents.

I conducted an informal survey amongst some friends regarding mealtimes. With the exception of two who have young children, all of my friends said meals were typically eaten on the run – including dinner. All members of a household would eat maybe one meal a week together.

I rarely talk on the phone with friends and family these days. Most exchanges are done via brief email, Facebook messages, instant messenger, etc. Most phone calls are short in duration and often only regarding arrangements to meet in person. (By contrast, friends I have made on the Internet, I do talk with by phone/Skype more frequently it seems.)

Why do we snack with relationships

The pace of life for most of us has just gotten busier. Trying to coordinate a phone call even can be difficult never mind sitting down to a meal with family.

But even when we are with those we care about in person, it’s not uncommon they don’t get our full attention. We’ve become avid multitaskers. Do you tweet when with others? Take phone calls? Check your email or text messages? All of these serve as distractions. I think there is also an almost compulsive aspect to this.

When snacking with relationships becomes a problem

This post is a pretty sensitive one for me. I know that I’ve had many relationships diminish in quality over the years because I don’t dedicate the time to them. I also know that I’ve felt offended when people I am with or talking to multitask.  I’ve also seen marriages of friends dissolve due to lack of quality time. I’ve seen the children of people I care about have behavioral issues due to lack of parental attention.

What should we be doing?

I think it wouldn’t hurt many of us to take some time to evaluate our relationships – especially those that matter the most – and consider if we are snacking when it comes to our interactions and if so, what we can do to change things if needed.

Moving away from snacking doesn’t necessarily have to mean more time, but it’s about making sure quality is there too.

What do you think? Do you believe snacking in our interactions is a problem?

Photo by *Micky

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Video coverage of Apple press conference

Twitlive LiveTechEvents

Blogging coverage of Apple press conference

CNN Money Engadget Gizmodo MacRumors PCWorld National Post (Canada) The Guardian (UK) TheStreet.com The Times (UK) Wired ZDnet

Twitter coverage of Apple press conference

Follow hashtags: #apple #applelive #appleevent #appletablet

Know of other sources? Please feel free to add them in the comments.

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Ever wonder how to get YouTube Videos to autoplay on a website? I’ll show you how to easily do this.

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1. Go to the YouTube page and customize the options for embedding as desired

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2. Highlight the code by clicking in the “Embed” box then right click and choose copy

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3. Copy the code to a notepad file

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4. You need to replace rel=0 with rel=1&autoplay=1 in the highlighted spot above

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5. You need to replace rel=0 with rel=1&autoplay=1 in the highlighted spot above

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6. The end result should be code that looks like the second block.

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That’s all there is to it! If you copy this code into the appropriate location of your HTML file, your YouTube video will now autoplay. Just remember to use this carefully. Some people find it annoying. You also want to make sure you don’t autoplay more than one video on the same page!

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The famous, “I Have a Dream,” speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.  is just as awe-inspiring today as it was in 1963 when he first gave it. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, watch it again.

Very little of what MLK Jr. worked for actually happened during his lifetime. But the groundwork was laid. In my opinion, the primary thing he did get to see was a raising of awareness that had not been there previously.  He did it in such a way that people had to listen, even if they didn’t know, believe or understand. His legacy lives on and the power of his words, thoughts and ideas are all around us today.

The issues that MLK Jr. fought for aside, what he did was truly phenomenal. He spoke out and fought for his beliefs and ignored those that said change couldn’t happen. At a time when people of color did not speak out. Did not take their message to the masses. Did not fight for equality. He did.

Martin Luther King, JR. had no role model to fashion himself after. He had an unwavering belief that there were gross injustices and that propelled him to take action. He has showed us that no matter who we are, where we are coming from, if we believe and are passionate  - if we have a dream – we can make a difference. One person. Can. Do. It.

My question to you is this: what is your dream? What can you do to leave a legacy? What are you doing? What is standing in your way of doing it?

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How Google Rates Links From Twitter and Facebook – Nutshell

• Source of links doesn’t matter, Google treats all links the same
• If a profile on Facebook is private, Google doesn’t know about it
• Most links on Twitter are no-follow so page rank doesn’t flow

Matt Cutts really said nothing new in this video. It was simply backing up what was assumed by most people.

I wonder if at some point, given Google’s move into live search, they will eventually give some kind of weighing to links shared via Twitter.

What do you think?

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I checked with several people I know who use Feedburner on their sites and about half said their sites feeds were updated, the other half said they weren’t.

You can check to see if your Feedburner feed is up to date by going to your Feedburner URL. It should look something like this:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOAL — replacing YOAL with the name of your own feed. If you are using a custom domain, the URL will obvious be different.

Are there posts missing? If so, you can force a manual update by pinging Feedburner. Just enter in the URL of your feed in the box. Wait a few minutes, go back to your feed URL and it should be updated.

Hope this helped someone! If you have any suggestions for me/others or questions, feel free to leave a comment!

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Several months ago, I started to target Gmail users with Google Adwords advertising. I really didn’t think it was any big secret. I use Gmail, I saw targeted ads appearing. I figured out how to target them.

A few days ago, I started seeing an “Internet Marketing guru” start to promote a $97 one-hour video that promised to share the secrets of how to do this.

Hmmm okay. Now I’m not adverse to people making money. But the basic concept is not hard to figure out. And if you can’t figure this out on your own, Google search can come to your rescue. There’s even a video on YouTube that explains it in less than 3 minutes! You can watch it below – for free

Now I haven’t seen the $97 video myself.  There may very well be a lot more to this than what I think. It may give additional ideas that make it worth that much money. What do I know?

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A friend send me a link to this compilation of words of wisdom from Will Smith.

The best 10 minutes I’ve spent this year and I felt I had to share it. Watch it. Let me know what you think!

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Warning: I talk fast and it’s unedited but I did manage to avoid asking “do you follow me?” – at least I think I did!

Listen now

Note: it can take a while for the file to load. If you have issues, click on the download link and you can listen online or download to listen locally.

On the call I also offered a 3 day trial offer for only $1 for the Year of a Lifetime Coaching Program. Here’s how that works: sign up and you’ll get access to the first week of content on the program and our forum. If you like what you see, you don’t need to do anything. On the 3rd day you will be billed $97 and will continue to be billed $97 per month for the duration of the program. If you decide you don’t want to continue, you can cancel from within your Paypal account before the 3 days are up. There are only a limited number of places left.

Photograph by mysza831

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