Insight

Becoming an Entrepreneurial Writer: Blogging as A Business Basics

May 17, 2013 By Kristen Gillette Leave a Comment

As newspapers and magazines dwindle, more and more people are starting blogs and online magazines. Niche and hyperlocal media seem to be the wave of the future and larger, broad-based publications are slowly disappearing.

By 2020, 40% of Americans will be working as freelancers, paving the way for the stigma that being “self-employed” meant you couldn’t find a job to disappear, according to Jeremy Neuner, CEO and founder of NextSpace, a company that builds co-working communities.

An easy way to break into becoming an entrepreneur if you’re a writer is to start a blog. It’s not easy to start generating income by blogging, but all the tools are readily available at no or low cost to the creator.

I’ll go into more detail in the weeks to come—this post will focus on the basics of getting a blog and its content created–setting the foundations so that money can be made.

Examples of Niche and Hyperlocal Publications

In Philadelphia, there are several niche and hyperlocal publications that are thriving. Philebrity.com, HiddenCityPhiladelphia.com, NEastPhilly.com, Geekadelphia.com, and more. While some operate full-time, others act more as hobbies that bring in some money for those with other jobs. Depending on your focus, your blog or online newspaper/magazine may or may not have the potential for becoming a fulltime startup company.

Sources of Revenue in Blogging

Most people think that advertisements are the primary source of blogging revenue, but advertising, especially when starting out, won’t make you a lot of money. However, there are some programs that are easy to set up to make a little bit of advertising money—like Google Adsense (which works over multiple platforms including Blogger, WordPress.org—but it won’t work on WordPress.com hosted blogs) and WordAds for WordPress.com. You should also have an easy accessible page on your blog for advertisers to check out with rates, sizes of possible advertisements, and statistics about your blog.

But that’s not all. Other sources of revenue include affiliate programs like Amazon Associates and eBay Affiliates where you get a portion of the sales when people who view your blog buy items from their websites after being directed there by your blog. You can also offer a subscription service for your blog (people pay to get access to some of the content), re-publish your content in e-books and books, write reviews (and other posts for companies) on your blog for money, write guest posts for publications on your niche topic and host events related to your blog.

But, before you can focus on making money you first need to create a blog and get content published.

Picking a Niche

Successful blogs focus on a highly specific, or niche topic. Many feature hyperlocal news or feature a specific sport, hobby, career, or more. Spend time exploring other blogs that are already published and try and find a topic that is fairly unique or lacking coverage. Sometimes, blogs are successful at providing a source of information better than one that currently exists. For example, my online magazine focuses on providing information to adult beginners at ballet. While many websites and blogs exist either providing information for professional and pre-professional dancers, no one was providing information to adult recreational dancers like I intended to.

The most important thing about picking a niche is that should be something you are dedicated to, as you’ll be spending countless hours developing the project, many of them which you probably won’t get paid for at the start. Pick something you love.

Choose a Platform, Buy a Domain

There are several different free blogging platforms available: WordPress.com, Blogger, and Tumblr. WordPress.com is perhaps the most versatile of the three as it allows for the most customizable themes and appearances as well as options to upgrade to paid themes and customizable CSS. WordPress.com also allows you to easily transfer to self-hosting using WordPress.org and will even transfer your blog to a server (like BlueHost) once you decide to move for a fee. Blogger is simpler and less versatile. Tumblr may be a good option for those who plan on doing photo-heavy blogs and magazines; Tumblr isn’t a very popular platform for text heavy posts. Setting up directly using WordPress.org is an option as well, but it’ll run you about $80 upfront for a year, which might not be the best direction to take before you know if your idea will take off or not.

While buying a domain isn’t a necessity to start, it’s a cheap way to make your website, blog, or online magazine seem more legitimate. All three platforms will allow you to buy a domain through their services for around $17 a year, making the setup painless.

Get Started Writing

Once your blog is set up, start creating content to attract readers to your posts. Create simple headlines that are straightforward about the post topic and categories for different topics you will write about on your blog. Tagging your posts is also an important step: create short tags that are relevant to the information you are providing. Spend some time figuring out what topics draw more readers and plan to focus on those.

Share, Share, Share!

Share your new website on Facebook, Twitter, G+, etc. You can create a specific fan page for your website at this point and encourage friends, colleagues, and family to like it and post the widget on your page. Like other Facebook pages similar to yours and follow similar Twitter accounts (either from a Twitter account dedicated to your website or your personal one). Also spend some time finding blogs with similar content and comment on them, and perhaps offer to write guest posts for their blogs to help get your site out there. This networking is essential for the growth of your blog.

Next week I’ll cover more about how to specifically use social media and other resources to help to promote your blog and get readers.

What are your thoughts on becoming an entrepreneurial writer?

Is Higher Education A Waste Of Time For Entrepreneurs?

May 15, 2013 By Mario Favela 2 Comments

Mainstream thinking says that everyone should go to college. Many people say if you skip it you will fail…doomed to a life of low-paying jobs.

I believed this when I was younger, and that’s one of the main reasons I went to a college. Now, I think that reasoning is false. It might have been true in the old days…during our grandparents generation.

But the world has changed. Higher education is increasingly irrelevant. Its gotten to the point where it is actually hurting people. More people are realizing that university can be a waste of time and money. As time goes on, formal higher learning will become less important. At The College Investor, they’ve been showcasing Young Millionaire Investors, and many of them are skipping school for entrepreneurship.

Traditional schools are not good environments for many students. How does it make sense to send the same young people into four more years of school? So they can go crazy sitting at a desk and taking notes? For many, that is a complete waste of time.

Universities and colleges are businesses…like any other. They are looking to grow their bottom line. And they are highly subsidized by the government in the form of student loans. Colleges have gorged on the easy money. It is one reason why tuition rises every year.

And the increase in cost does not translate into better education. The value of a degree has been cheapened to be almost irrelevant. Taking out tens of thousands of dollars in loans for a degree that is no guarantee of a high paying job is foolish. And excessive student loan debt makes it harder to have a happy life after graduating.

It seems like this is unsustainable. At some point, the student loan bubble will burst and colleges will be forced into crisis mode. That could be a good thing. Iit might serve to trim the fat. Perhaps the country would be better served by fewer, higher-quality schools.

So what are some alternatives to college?

Go Blue Collar

For many young people, learning a trade is an excellent choice. Trade schools teach real-world skills. Their programs are usually much shorter and less expensive than four-year college degrees.

Trade schools provide students with a way to rapidly enter the workforce…without wasting away prime years sitting in a classroom. And of course once learning a trade, it is possible to start your own blue-collar service company.

Hey, you might laugh at plumbers, but those guys charge what they want. They make bank. And that’s just one example. Many other blue-collar contractors do just as well.

Entrepreneur’s Education

Another alternative is taking the entrepreneurship route…skipping higher education completely. This choice will become more popular as college degrees are devalued.

I’ve recently become fascinated with rapid-skill building. This means learning only what you need, as quickly as possible. This way you achieve your goals in a short amount of time.

You are blessed with the internet. Everything you need to learn to make money can be found online, mostly free. And you can pay a premium for specific, high-quality information to fill the gaps in your knowledge.

You can learn theory in school, or practice and build skills in real life. Of course there are always exceptions. Some professions require a college degree. If you want to become a doctor, engineer, or judge, then college is required. But unless you plan on going into STEM or law, why bother?

Here is what being an entrepreneur will teach you. Sure you can learn some of these skills in school. But why pay for what you can get for free?

1. Creativity. Schools foster conformity, not creativity. They teach you how to follow orders and be a loyal and obedient employee. This is not a good mindset for a budding entrepreneur.

2. Marketing. Running a business successfully forces you to learn marketing. Learn how to sell yourself, or a product or service. This one of the most valuable skills in the world. That is true in all walks of life, not just business.

3. Technology skills. Learning how to run a business online is essential to success for many entrepreneurs today. These kinds of skill can be learned rapidly online with very little investment. WordPress, basic HTML, SEO, and content creation are just a few examples.

4. Real-world experience. And finally, being an entrepreneur introduces you to real life. College is like a cocoon, a buffer from the real world. Cutting the apron strings and standing on your own two feet is liberating.

You’ll obviously learn more than that, but those are some basics.

It’s easier to take risks when you are young. You have less to lose. It makes sense to chase your entrepreneurial dreams early. Don’t wait. It’s harder after you get older and get used to the security of bi-weekly paycheck.

And college is completely overpriced. For an aspiring entrepreneur, it is just not worth the cost. Why should you spend four years and taking on massive debt? For a degree with no guarantee of job?

Young entrepreneurs can and should avoid student loan debt completely. Money that they might have spent on college should go into starting a business instead. Don’t listen to your parents or guidance counselors. If you have entrepreneurship in your blood, then consider skipping college and starting your business immediately.

Do you think higher education is a waste of time for entrepreneurs?

Four Templates to Save You Time Running a Business

May 14, 2013 By Eric Rosenberg 3 Comments

When you run a business, you get busy fast. I run both a blogging business and a flash mob business, and I get tons of emails and have to create new documents and content regularly. I found that some templates can save me a lot of time if I get them setup ahead of time.

Email Templates

In my blog business, I get regular emails about advertising and partnership opportunities. In my flash mob business, I regularly get emails about getting a custom mob or asking how to join a mob.

I have been able to cut down on the volume by creating new pages on each website, but the biggest time saver has been creating standard canned responses for the most common four questions I get.

I wrote the responses in Word, but saved them in Gmail as “canned responses” that I can use with just a couple of clicks.

Here is a great post on how to setup Gmail canned responses. You can also save emails as a template in Outlook. If you can’t figure out how to use templates or canned responses, you can always save a Word document and copy the text when you need it.

Contract Templates

Many businesses need legal documents when they sell a service or bring on a new vendor, and creating a new contract from scratch can be a huge time suck, if not a big expense.

If your business is simple, you can create basic contract templates to fill in whenever needed. I used Microsoft Word to create forms with fields to fill in with new customer information.

If you deal with high dollar deals or complex products, I suggest working with a lawyer to create a template that fits your needs.

Contracts are a serious part of business, and you don’t want to make mistakes by creating a sloppy contract. Instead, create one quality contract that can be used every time you need it. If you don’t know how to do it, you could also use a service like Rocket Lawyer.

New Blog Post Templates

If you are trying to build your website in Google’s eyes, the best way to do so is with a blog in your website. If your primary business is not blogging, that takes a lot of work, but can take less time if you have a template.

Every post I write has an intro, 3+ sub-headers and sections, and a conclusion. I use specific colors and formats and image sizes to ensure I am consistent, so I created a template that I can copy and paste to get me started.

Excel Templates

If you have to do similar calculations regularly, Excel templates (or Google Docs) are a great resource. I use templates to divide up my cell phone bill and calculate rent and utility expenses.

If you want some spreadsheet template ideas, check out the template gallery from Google Docs and templates for Microsoft office.

How Do You Use Templates?

I only have a few ideas for templates here, but you can use them to save time doing many tasks for your business. Please share your best template ideas in the comments.

Think Like an Entrepreneur

May 13, 2013 By Joe Vennare 3 Comments

Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.

– Anonymous

Precisely! Entrepreneur-think is about focusing on future potential, not short-term sacrifice. Meaning that – at the start – every entrepreneur chooses to act based on what could be, without knowing what will be.

Although no one can predict the future, the fear of the unknown tends to stifle start-ups and would be entrepreneurs from the get-go. Others waste time trying to channel their inner clairvoyant, seeking some sort of insight into what they can expect. Meanwhile, the entrepreneur chooses to pursue an opportunity despite the fact that they have little or no control over how the process will play out. That’s the genius of entrepreneurship – the willingness to assume the risk.

Risk vs. Reward

And we all know what they say about taking risks, it’s crazy! Yes, but it’s also true that there is no reward without risk. You know – the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward.

Sure, this thought process will serve us well in business, but thinking like an entrepreneur can be applied to life outside of the office. It’s a mindset that favors action, squashes second-guessing and inspires ingenuity. It allows us to see each and every opportunity that presents itself, and then helps us determine if it’s worth pursuing. It’s the place – the moment in time – when we stop thinking and start doing; freeing ourselves to try, to fail and to start again.

The Opportunity…

Entrepreneur-think – see an opportunity and then do something with it.

It’s the second part of that sentence that loses most people. Identifying an opportunity is easy – it’s an idea or business plan. At that point we’re all talk. But, actually doing something requires action. Walking the talk is more challenging.

That’s the difference between an entrepreneur and everyone else; their checklist favors actions over ideas.

Entrepreneur-think Checklist

Fewer excuses, faster execution.
Don’t make meetings, make things happen.
Don’t ask why, ask why not.
Stop dreaming, start doing
Accept the risk, earn the reward

Of course, embracing the entrepreneurial spirit is easier said than done. But, that doesn’t make it impossible. If you want to be an entrepreneur you’ve got to do more than think like one. You’ll have to live like one.

Put People First

There are numerous quotes and clichés touting the importance of relationships:

It’s not what you know, but who you know that matters. Or, you’re network is your net worth.

The best part is they’re true. It goes without saying that hard work is at the center of success in business or life. But, so are people and relationships. Opportunities are often tied to people. Connecting with the right people is a surefire way to connect yourself to the right opportunities.

Be warned, networking isn’t an exercise in getting all you can. In fact the opposite is true. Putting people first is the practice of giving all you’ve got. Your goal should be to give more than you take. Ask, how can I help? Then, listen and deliver when people tell you.

Prepare for Fear

All humans are wired for survival. Our brain wants us to eat, reproduce, and stay safe. Everything else is a risk. When we conform we become part of the pack. The pack, the status quo, is our comfort zone and our brain likes it there. So when we seek out new opportunities, accept risk and take a chance our brain will try to sabotage us.

This is just a defense mechanism. One we’ll have to ignore if we want to live like no one else can. So be prepared for fear, and get ready to overcome it.

Accept Uncertainty

No one knows what will happen next. Of course you already knew that. The thing is, entrepreneurs actually accept it and more forward in spite of it.

Entrepreneurs are doers, they are starters and they are innovators. And SO ARE WE! Except we haven’t done anything yet because we are too busy planning, procrastinating and preventing ourselves from doing something worthwhile.

Let’s just accept the fact that we don’t know what’s coming around the corner and commit to taking a chance anyway.

Give yourself permission to follow your passion, pivot when you get it wrong and persist when you’d rather give up. Don’t concern yourself with the how, the people and pieces will find you once you actually start something.

So will you start? Better question: When will you start?

10 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs

May 9, 2013 By Marcelina Hardy 3 Comments

If you’re like most people, you look at successful business people and think, “Gosh, how in the world did they get so lucky!”

While luck does have something to do with it, success often comes from what they did to push their business to the top. These successful people have certain characteristics that give them the tools to do what you only imagine doing for your business. Finding out what those characteristics are could put you in a better position of moving your business forward towards success.

Some of the following characteristics of successful entrepreneurs are from the most successful business people in the nation: William (Bill) Zinke, Larry Levy, and Carol Levy.

Characteristic #1: Make Mistakes Once

You can’t run a business without mistakes. Actually, making mistakes is the best way to grow your business, as long as you learn from those mistakes. If you are not able to accept that you made a mistake, and change the way you are doing something in your business, you’ll never move forward.

Characteristic #2: Thick Skinned

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. You have to be strong enough to handle the disappointments that come along with the job.

When you’ve been hit, get up, brush yourself off, and move on. It’s the only way your business will survive and succeed.

Characteristic #3: Be a Dreamer

Business people dream about what they would like their business to be like in five, 10, 15 years. When they dream, they create a vision, and then goals. These goals are what successful entrepreneurs use to achieve their vision.

Characteristic #4: Believe in Personal Strength

You must believe you can run a successful business to run a successful business. When you know you can do something, you are much more motivated and able to bring out your strengths easily.

Characteristic #5: Leader as Opposed to Manager

There’s a difference between a leader and manager. A leader will take people on an adventure to reach success, while a manager will instruct people what to do to reach a goal. When you’re a leader, you have support from everyone, when you’re a manager, you’re supporting everyone else. Just look at our 5 Key Leadership Traits.

Characteristic #6: Trusting

If you can’t trust people to help you reach goals, you’ll run your business alone. To grow a business to the success you imagine, you need help, and that comes from trusting people.

Characteristic #7: Commitment

Building and growing a business takes a lot of time and work. It’s consistent work. A business owner will not reach success if there isn’t commitment and dedication to the work that needs to be done.

Characteristic #8: Flexibility

The road to business success isn’t smooth. There are potholes, curves, and sometimes you have to make a U-turn. To handle all of the changes that come along with the road to success, entrepreneurs need to be flexible. They need to adjust, adapt, and move on.

Characteristic #9: Good Decision Maker

Entrepreneurs make many decisions about the direction they want to take their business. They must make good decisions most of the time, and be results driven. While mistakes along the way are common, there should always be more good choice than bad ones.

Characteristic #10: Resourceful

Successful entrepreneurs can’t do it all, but they can find people and tools to do it all. Being able to pull from many different places to get the job done will not only move a business forward, but it will grow it quicker and easier too.

The Characteristics of Entrepreneurs

Now you know the most common characteristics of entrepreneurs. Do you have them? If you do, you may have what it takes to grow your business to the success you crave. If you don’t have some of these characteristics, don’t worry. Many times, entrepreneurs can learn how to bring them out and put them into practice. It can take some time, but now that you know what they are, you can start working on yourself, so you can start working on your business.

What are some of the characteristics that you think make entrepreneurs successful?