[Build Great Backlinks] 50 Wise Thoughts on Business

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Every day, we get a little bit older and a little bit wiser. But what if there was a way to skip ahead and get years worth of wisdom in a single day?

Confucius once said that there are three ways to become wise:  the noble way to get wiser is through self-reflection; the bitter way to get wiser is through experience; and the easy way to get wiser is through imitation.

Personally, I’d rather wise up the easy way — and that’s why I’ve made the following resource.

To imitate the wisdom of the world’s most successful CEO’s and Founders, I’ve spent the last week sifting through the vastness of the Internet for the most wise thoughts on business. The wise thoughts below come people like Steve Jobs, Andrew Carnegie, Richard Branson, and PayPal founder Elon Musk (who I recently profiled for startup advice).

I’ve organized this post into six sections which you can skip to with the table of contents on the right. I’ll start off with my five favorite business proverbs, which I found here. Then I’ll share business leaders’ wisdom on what really matters, the importance of customers, metaphors for business, business tips, and conclude with my top ten most wise thoughts on business.

 

5 Wise Business Proverbs

#1  On Planting Trees

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

– Chinese Proverb

#2  On Focus

“He who begins many things finishes but few.”

– German Proverb

#3  On Castles

“Building a castle is difficult. Defending and maintaining it is harder still.”

– Asian Proverb

#4  On Perseverance

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

– Japanese Proverb

#5  On Your Calling

“Everyone should observe carefully which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength.”

– Hasidic Proverb

Photo Courtesy of Skoeber

10 Thoughts on What Really Matters in Business

#1  Vision

“Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.”

– Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart

#2  Service

“He profits most who serves best.”

– Arthur F. Sheldon, Early Rotary Club Leader

#3  Knowledge

“To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business.”

– J. Paul Getty, Founder of the Getty Oil Company

#4  People

“Take away my people, but leave my factories, and soon grass will grow on the factory floors. Take away my factories, but leave my people, and soon we will have a new and better factory."

– Andrew Carnegie, Founder of the Carnegie Steel Company

As Mary Kay once said, “A company is only as good as the people it keeps.”

#5  Experience

“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins:  cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.”

– Harold Geneen, Former President of the ITT Corporation

#6  Peers

 "It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction."

– Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

#7  Character

“Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.” -

– Norman Schwarzkopf, US General

#8  Time

“Your greatest resource is your time.”

– Brian Tracy, Motivational Speaker and Author

#9  Your Network

“Your network is your net worth.”

– Tim Sanders (and many others), former Yahoo! Director

#10  Your Customers

“Revolve your world around your customers and more customers will revolve around you.”

– Heather Williams

 

10 Thoughts on The Importance of Happy Customers

I found so much wisdom on customers, I had no choice but to give customer wisdom its very own segment. Great business minds just seem to get that “the result of a business is a satisfied customer” (Peter Drucker).

#1  Think of The Customer as Your Boss

“There is only one boss:  the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down simply by spending his money somewhere else.”

– Sam Walton, Founder of Walmart

#2  Let them Design Your Products

“Who decides what’s in Windows?  The customers who buy it.”

– Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

#3  …Or Don’t 

"You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new."

– Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Inc.

More on Jobs:  21 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs

#4  Talk to Your Customers

“The more you engage with customers, the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.”

– John Russell, President of Harley Davidson

#5  Learn from Your Customers

“Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business.”

– Zig Ziglar, Founder of Zig Ziglar Corporation

More on Ziglar:  11 Life-Changing Business Lessons from Zig Ziglar

#6  Happy Customers are Your Greatest Marketing Tool

“If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”

– Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

There’s simply no more effective, more persuasive marketing tool than word of mouth. Bezos has talked about word of mouth is particularly important for online businesses:  ”If you make your customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”  I would argue that the same is true today regardless of whether the business is online or off.

More on Bezos:  15 Business Lessons from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos

#7  Good Customer Service Never Quits

“Customer service is just a day in, day out, ongoing, never-ending, unremitting, persevering, compassionate type of activity.”

–  Leon Gorman, CEO of L.L. Bean

#8  Like and Respect Your Customers  On liking:

“If you don’t genuinely like your customers, chances are they won’t buy.”

– Thomas Watson, Former CEO of IBM

And respecting:

“It all starts with respect. If you respect the customer as a human being, and truly honor their right to be treated fairly and honestly, everything else is much easier.”

– Doug Smith

#9  Focus on Maintaining Customers

“Every client you keep is one less that you need to find.”

– Nigel Sanders

 #10  The Customer is Always Right

 ”Right or wrong, the customer is always right.”

– Marshall Field, Founder of Marshall Feed and Company

Photo Courtesy of Donna Cymek

5 Deep Metaphors for Business

#1  Business is Art

“Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.”

– Andy Warhol, Pop Artist

#2  Business is War + Sport

“Business is a combination of war and sport.”

– Andre Maurois, French Author

#3  Business is a Seafaring

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

– William G.T. Shedd, American Theologian

#4  Business is a Game

“Business is more exciting than any game.”

– Lord Beaverbrook, Anglo-Canadian Business Tycoon

#5  Business is a Struggle

“Business is always a struggle. There are always obstacles and competitors. There is never an open road, except the wide road that leads to failure. Every great success has always been achieved by fight. Every winner has scars.”

– Herbert N. Casson, Canadian Author

 

10 Wise Business Tips

  #1  Have Fun…

“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”

– Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group, Ltd.

More on Branson:  15 Business Lessons from Richard Branson

#2  …But Not Too Much Fun

“I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do the things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.”

– Michael Dell

#3  Be Decisive

“The first one gets the oyster; the second gets the shell.”

– Andrew Carnegie, Founder of the Carnegie Steel Company

The first person to identify and capitalize on a new business model has a huge advantage over the competition. Act decisively and quickly to benefit. Act slowly and you end up chewing on oyster shells.

#4  Take Risks

“You cannot avoid risk, you just need to manage it.”

– Dr. Neal W. Pollock

#5  Think Positive

“Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

– Henry Ford, Founder of Ford

#6  Work Hard

“Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were.”

–  David Rockefeller

And another:

“No legitimate business man ever got started on the road to permanent success by any other means than that of hard, intelligent work, coupled with an earned credit, plus character.”

– F.D. Van Amburgh, Author of The Mental Spark Plug

#7  Have a Heart

“To be successful, you have to have your heart in your business and your business in your heart.”

– Thomas Watson, Sr., former CEO of IBM

#8 Mess Up

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not making decisions.”

– Catherine Cook, Founder of MeetMe

#9  Make it Personal

“All good businesses are personal. The best businesses are very personal.”

– Mark Cuban

More on Cuban:  10 Winning Business Lesson from Mark Cuban

 #10  Solve Big Problems

“Solving big problems is easier than solving little problems.”

– Sergey Brin, Founder of Google

More on Brin:  Google’s 8 Simple Rules

10 Most Wise Thoughts on Business

#1  Change = Opportunity

“The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity.”

– Peter F. Drucker, Management Consultant and Author

#2  Fast is the New Big

“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”

– Rupert Murdoch, Founder of News Corporation

#3  Lead through Innovation

“Innovation distinguishes between being a leader and a follower.”

– Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple Inc.

#4  Automate (Carefully)

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

– Bill Gates, Founder of Microsoft

More on Gates:  Top 10 Business Lessons from Bill Gates

#5  Figure Out How to Provide More For Less

“The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.”

– Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

#6  Good Business Benefits All

“I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well.”

– Alan Greenspan, American Economist and Federal Reserve Chairman

#7  Elevate the Product

"I'd say stay very focused on the quality of the product.   People get really  wrapped up in all sorts of esoteric notions of how to manage etc., [but]  I think people should get much more focused on the product itself – how do you make the product incredibly compelling to a customer – just become maniacally focused on building it better.  I think people get distracted from that."

– Elon Musk, Founder of Tesla Motors

#8  Pay Well

“I don't pay good wages because I have a lot of money; I have a lot of money because I pay good wages.”

– Robert Bosch, German Industrialist

#9  Don’t Seek Perfection

“Business is complicated and imperfect. Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings.”

– Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy.com

#10  There’s No Limit 

“We are currently not planning on conquering the world.”

– Sergey Brin, Founder of Google

 Photo Courtesy of C@rljones

 

Want More Wise Thoughts?

I hope you’re feeling more than just one day wiser after reading these 50 thoughts on business. But if you’re still hungry for more wisdom, you can check out the inspiration for this article, 50 Great Thoughts on Success. Here’s one of my favorites:

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”

–  Winston Churchill

Before I go I want to leave you with one wise thought, from one of the wisest people to have ever lived, Socrates:  ”The only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing.”

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Nick Scheidies
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

[Build Great Backlinks] Why You Should Love Money

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Loving Money to Attract More of It

The most provocative and controversial aspect of my two million copy bestselling book, Moneylove, is its title. When I first wrote it, in 1978, most people thought money and love were polar opposites. I was a pioneer in suggesting that loving your money was the path to getting a lot more of it.

My concept of Moneylove is not about accumulating huge hoards of cash, or obsessing over money. It's about loving yourself enough to produce the money you deserve, loving your work so you can more easily and happily produce wealth, and being a more loving person so that other people will be attracted to you and to whatever ideas, products, or services you offer.

Love is the most powerful emotion human beings feel, and emotion has a lot to do with the results you get in life. There are probably a lot of millionaires who don't love money, but the ones who seem to be happiest and most fulfilled–creatively, personally, in business, and in terms of making a difference in the world, exude their love and passion for what they do and the success they achieve. When I say they love money, I don't mean they lust after it, or are even motivated by it…they do what they do because they love doing it, and other people–who are after all, the source of all our money, are attracted to that positive energy, and therefore are happy to give them lots of money. Super Wealthy people like the late Steve Jobs, or Richard Branson, or Oprah, or Jeff Bezos of Amazon, or new billionaire Sara Blakely, the creator of Spanx….are driven by their love for what they do. They don't hate money or think it's an evil force–they enjoy the fruits of their labors, and they love everything about what they do in the world, include creating great wealth.

Here are seven great reasons why you should love money.

Great Reason #1

You should love money because it is the way the world lets you know you are on the right path.

Great Reason #2

You should love money because all the world loves a lover, and people will be
attracted to you and what you are offering when you exude that love energy. The message you want to send the world is:

"I am filled with love for my work, my life, and my constantly increasing prosperity, and everyone likes to be near me and buy what I am offering."

Great Reason #3

You should love money because the alternative sucks. Hating or even mildly disliking money leads to poverty and unhappy frustration.

Great Reason #4

You should love money because it buys you the freedom and time to love
everything and everyone else in your life. This means saying to yourself (try it):
"I have a great life because I can afford to own my time and have the freedom to do what I want when I want and with whom I want to do it."

Great Reason #5.

You should love money because it allows you to amplify and multiply your
positive impact on the world. Your personal prosperity proclamation for this one:
"I love the difference I can make because of my financial success."

Great Reason #6

You should love money because is it is the only inanimate object capable of
loving you back.

"I love money and money loves me."

Great Reason #7

You should love money for the sheer fun and joy of playing with it, spending it,
and sharing it. As Sara Blakely, the youngest self-made female billionaire in history, puts it: "Money is fun to make, fun to spend and fun to give away!"

At this point in my treatise, are you convinced that money and love belong together in our lexicon of essential aspects of life?

These two vital parts of any happy and fulfilled life share incalculable common traits.

Here are just ten of them for you to ponder.

1. Energy. Perhaps the most important thing money and love have in common is that they both involve energy, in many instances, the same energy. An energy we create inside our deepest selves and then project out to others. When you're in the presence of someone actually emanating this energy, you can feel it, and it is very hard to resist. Why would you even want to try?

2. Communication. Equally important in having a successful, happy and fulfilling relationship, and in having lots of money flow into your life. Warren Buffet has said that communication is the key to his being one of the richest people in the world:

"You can get an MBA, but if you improve your communication skills, I will guarantee you that you will earn 50% more over your lifetime."

3. Other People. We get our love and our money from other people. These are often ignored when so called prosperity teachers talk about The Law of Attraction. And one of the highest manifestations of success is to have other people love to give you money.

This is one of my favorite personal affirmations: "People love to give me money."

There are no limits to what you can accomplish in life when other people give you what you want in terms of love, money, acknowledgement, advice, opportunity and support–and those are exactly the people you will attract when you project a loving energy, a loving personality, a love of what you do.

4. Painful Loss. Losing a major loved one, or having a big loss in business
can be devastating, And your reaction to that loss can be the direct result of how easily you believe you can replace either that loved one, or that money in your life.

In both love and money, your capacity for resilience–the ability to bounce back from a loss or setback–determines your level of fulfillment, joy and positive results.

5. Showing Off. Both money and love often lead to this. We are proud to have others know we have someone wonderful, attractive, sexy, and charming who loves us or proud that we have achieved lots of financial success. In both areas we sometimes go overboard in showing off to others. And this can lead to resentment.

Here's a prosperity secret: the more people who enjoy and applaud your success rather than resent it, the more likely you are to keep increasing that success.

6. Addiction. You can become addicted to love, and you can become addicted to money, to the point where you obsess about either day and night.

As my late friend and mentor, Ken Keyes Jr., said in his bestselling book, The Handbook to Higher Consciousness," an addiction is any desire so strong that not achieving it makes you upset, angry, or depressed. Here's something to ponder. Ken Keyes Jr. also said, "You are receiving a signal or a warning to get rid of some addiction in your life every time you feel emotionally uncomfortable or out-of-sorts." Ken was not saying you had to get rid of something you strongly desire, but suggested instead that you upgrade it from an addiction or compulsive attachment to a preference for that certain something.

I am not obsessed with making lots of money and getting a lot richer, but I definitely prefer it to the alternative.

7. Old Stuff. In both money and love, we have old history, old beliefs, even old myths that get in the way of our achieving greater success right now.

In love, we may be holding onto a fantasy about what the perfect partner will look and act like. Often these fantasy beliefs came from our parents or other significant people in our early years. In terms of earning money, many people are still holding onto the old belief that you will achieve your highest potential in terms of earnings if you find a company to work for, are a loyal and hardworking employee for forty years, and retire with your gold watch and a generous pension to begin a life of leisure. This construct or concept is filled with an amazing number of stereotypical myths. I'm not sure this fantasy was ever true for most people, but certainly in today's totally transformed economy, the best response one can offer up for that idea is FC or Fat Chance.

Having a sense of lack about love or money in your life might be a message telling you to look at the path you have chosen. When you do this, you might find it resembles an obstacle course, littered with large bags of old stuff.

8. Forgiveness. The degree to which you are holding on to anger or sadness about
something that happened in your love life or your work life is the degree to which you may be living a limited and constrained life. Here's a secret about forgiveness: It's not about being a nice person or making the other person feel good. It's about freeing yourself from those energy-draining limitations and constraints.

9. Stinginess. You can be a tightwad with your money or your love.
What you hold onto tightly gets crushed, diminished, or eliminated entirely. What you freely use and share with others gets enhanced and expanded.

10. Feelings. Money and love share emotional amplitude. We all have strong emotions
that can be triggered in these two areas of our existence. In both money and love,
it's not about achieving a specific goal–earning a certain amount in a certain way, or
finding a person to love who meets very detailed criteria. No, it's about how the results
you do achieve make you feel. What we are all really looking for is the feeling we imagine we will have if that special someone shows up–or the feeling we will have when unlimited cash windfalls arrive.

One of my favorite affirmations that covers both desires is:

"I Am Rich and Lovable."

warm and prosperous regards,

Jerry

Free Moneylove Audio – Exclusive gift.

For a lot more on this subject, Jerry Gillies is offering an exclusive gift to readers of this IncomeDiary article–a forty minute audio on The Connection Between Money and Love. To get your free audio please complete the form below:

Special Note:

This eight week series of exclusive Income Diary articles by Jerry Gillies, author of Moneylove, continues next week with 10 Prosperity Conscious Principles For More Business Profit.

The post Why You Should Love Money appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

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Jerry Gillies
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

[Build Great Backlinks] 7 Lessons From 50 Blog Posts That Send Me The Most Traffic

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I’ve grown 6 websites from zero to over 100,000 visitors a month from free traffic sources.

All sites were in different niches. This method is simple and it works.

People ask me… “How do you get so much traffic to your websites… so easily?”

I tell them, “I do everything better than my competition”. (well… at least try my best to )

It’s really quite straight forward. Create the best content possible and then deliver it in the correct way.

People in my experience… find a way to it. I’m not saying you don’t have to work hard, I’m just say, it’s easier when your working with the best content.

Today I looked over my Google Analytics to see what my 50 top blog posts were. I’ve analyzed them and here’s what I learned:

1. My top posts are lists… Shock!

Out of my 50 top articles, 35 start with a number. When I write, I write in a way, I would like to read. Being dyslexic, I like to summarize things, make it easy on myself to consume information. That’s why I think I do such a good job with lists.

Here’s 4 examples of top lists:

1. 30 Most Influential People In Blogger
2. 10 Christmas Gifts For Photographers
3. 20 Health Experts To Follow on Facebook
4. 10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a Young Entrepreneur

Here’s some examples of my favorite top list titles.

2. Mentioning famous people gets you traffic

9 out of 10 of our top articles mention people in some way.

Think about it this way:

If I wrote an article called: 10 Reasons Why Usain Bolt Can Run Faster Than You

I Google 10 things about Bolt and publish it on my fitness blog.

I don’t need Bolt’s permission to write about him, but I get all of the benefits of having his name associated with mine and what it represents about what is written. If I write about how to run faster, no one will want to listen. But If I said I copied Bolt’s blueprint, people will start to take notice.

3. Linking out can increase the time someone spends on your website

4 out of the top 5 articles on this website link out to over a dozen other websites. These articles also had noticeably longer visitor times.

Don’t be scared to link out and show some love. If you recommend something or someone and your reader likes where you sent them, then they will end up trusting you more.

4. The title can make or break an article

Something that is made really obvious when I look at my top 50 blog posts is… the title can really make or break an article.

If you are stuck trying to come up with a title of a post, go to the supermarket and look at the magazines. Modify titles of articles to make them relevant to something you want to write about.

5. Motivation beats inspiration and instruction

8 out of the top 10 articles on IncomeDiary are motivational. Here’s the breakdown for the top 50 articles:

• Motivational: 24
• Tutorials: 17
• Inspirational: 9
• Reviews: 0
• News: 0

Motivational, is the type of posts that make you take action and start working.

Tutorials, are articles showing you how to do something. These can often be monetized well by recommending products required to do what you instruct in the tutorial.

Inspirational, is the type of post that gives you ideas.

Reviews, we review products and mention them in our customer autoresponders.

News, often something I would shy away from because it’s not evergreen (always relevant) content. If it gives me a positive ROI, then I will publish them.

It seems people value motivation higher than anything else. It’s not often lacking the skills that holds us back, it’s our work rate. Motivational posts help us focus more on our goals.

Although Reviews and News are not featured in the top 50 posts, they are still a relevant part of my blogging strategy. I just prioritize.

6. Have a content plan

I’m a systems guy. I like to follow a blueprint when I’m doing something because it’s tried and tested, proven to give the best results. I have a doc called Contest Strategy which I send to writers to make sure they have every required to do the best job possible. The better job they can do, the more traffic I get, the more traffic I get, the more money I make. This is some of the information I provide for everyone who writes for us:

• Image sizes
• About the author/Gravatar
• Blog post template
• Post publish time & date
• Post title review
• Post titles swipe copy
• PSD graphic files which writers can edit

7. Articles are worth paying for

A large percent of articles published on IncomeDiary and paid for.

One of the highest performing posts on IncomeDiary was published last year and has so far received 9,883 visitors in the last 30 days & 106,338 visitors in the last year. I paid $120 for that article.

The easiest way in my experience to get people to write for you is to ask. Ask your friends, your competitors, your customers, readers, employees. Anyone. More content means more traffic, which means more money.

In this screen shot, you can see that the article is now getting more traffic weekly then it did in it’s first week. I have done nothing to it since the day it was published. None of us are SEO experts. All we focus on is great content and let the universe do the rest of the work

To Conclude:

To write posts that drive lots of traffic, make sure to:

• Write it in a list form, number it.
• Mention people your readers will know, it will draw them in.
• Link out to other websites.
• Write the perfect name for your article. This should be thought about.
• Motivate your reader.
• Keep to a plan & implement.

What type of blog posts are sending you the most traffic right now?

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Michael Dunlop
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

[Build Great Backlinks] Top 50 Young Entrepreneur Quotes

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What goes on inside the head of a 25-year-old billionaire entrepreneur?

Keep reading and they might tell you.

We combed through the interviews, speeches, and rants of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs to find their best quotes. Some quotes will inspire you, others will inform you, and a couple might even just change the way you think about online business forever.

I’ve broken the quotes down into categories like Quotes About Risk and Practical Quotes, which you can view on the table contents to jump to whatever section of quotes you like.  The Internet’s brightest young entrepreneurial minds are talking on subjects from Simplicity to Social Media - and we would be fools not to listen.

Everybody on this list below started their company in their teens or early 20′s and they’ve all achieved wild success beyond their years. A few of the young entrepreneurs on the list’s age has crept into the early 30′s, but that’s still pretty young to be a CEO.

The 50 top quotes from the top young entrepreneurs is below. If you’re interested in this post you may like our 50 Great Thoughts on Success and our Top 30 Quotes To Inspire Entrepreneurs.

 

Getting Started

“I find it best to dive right in and learn the hard way.”

– Pete Cashmore, Mashable

 

“If you do the things that are easier first, then you can actually make a lot of progress.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

 

"A hard thing is done by figuring out how to start."

– Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz

 

"To any entrepreneur: if you want to do it, do it now. If you don't, you're going to regret it."

– Catherine Cook, MyYearbook

 

“If you’ve got an idea, start today. There’s no better time than now to get going. That doesn’t mean quit your job and jump into your idea 100% from day one, but there’s always small progress that can be made to start the movement.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

 

"Everything started as nothing."

– Ben Weissenstein, Grand Slam Garage Sales

 

 

The “Big” Idea

“I don’t have big ideas. I sometimes have small ideas, which seem to work out.”

– Matt Mullenweg, WordPress

 

“I suffer from the delusion that every product of my imagination is not only possible, but always on the cusp of becoming real.”

– Sean Parker, Napster

 

“Choose something unique.”

– Angelo Sotiro, DeviantART

 

"People tend to think that in order to start a new business they have to come up with something new and dazzling, but that's a myth – and it's often propagated by venture capitalists."

– Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne

 

“If Google teaches you anything, it’s that small ideas can be big.”

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

 

 

Being a Young Entrepreneur

“I think I was very naïve early on, but that also meant I didn’t know what couldn’t be done.”

– Matt Mickiewicz, 99 Designs

 

"It's not about how many years of experience you have. It's about the quality of your years of experience."

– Jacob Cass, Logo of the Day

 

“The earlier you start, the more time you have to mess up."

– Emil Motycka, Motycka Enterprises

 

"There's no committee that says, 'This is the type of person who can change the world – and you can't.' Realizing that anyone can do it is the first step. The next step is figuring out how you're going to do it."

– Adora Svitak, Flying Fingers

 

 

Quotes About Risk

 

"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not making decisions."

– Catherine Cook, MyYearbook

 

"If you start with nothing and end up with nothing, there's nothing lost."

– Michael Dunlop, Income Diary

 

“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

 

“Don’t make decisions based on fear.”

– Jake Nickell, Threadless

 

 

Quotes About Failure

"I've also learned that the biggest lessons came from my biggest mistakes."

– Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne

 

"The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is that you'll fail ten times for every success."

– Adam Horwitz, Mobile Monopoly

 

“Running a start-up is like eating glass. You just start to like the taste of your own blood.”

– Sean Parker, Napster

 

 

Quotes About Making Money

“I think not focusing on money makes you sane because in the long run it can probably drive you crazy.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

 

“The companies that I really admire the most are the ones that have a deep visceral understanding of why people use their service, and they figure out ways of making money that are completely consistent with how people are feeling and what they are doing at the time.”

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

 

“Great products sell themselves.”

Kevin Systrom, Instagram

 

“To be successful online, you have to be nimble and evolve where the opportunities are. You have to layer revenue streams.”

– Angelo Sotiro, DeviantART

 

“There are a lot of rich people in the world. There are very few people who have the privilege of getting to invent things that billions of people use.”

– David Karp, Tumblr

 

 

 Following Your Passion

"Every single person I know who is successful at what they do is successful because they love doing it."

– Joe Penna, Mystery Guitar Man

 

“Anything can be done, as long as you truly believe it.”

– Ashley Qualls, WhateverLife

 

“We led with our conviction rather than rational, because rational said it was impossible."

– Daniel Ek, Spotify

 

"Find something you love and do it better than everyone else."

– Gurbaksh Chahal, RadiumOne

 

 

Practical Advice

"My number one piece of advice is: you should learn how to program."

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

 

“If you make the Internet, live on the internet.”

– Matthew Mullenweg, WordPress

 

“A poor logo doesn’t mean a business will fail, and a good logo doesn’t mean it will succeed – it just helps. Ultimately a good logo is something that people recognize instantly and relate to.”

– Matt Mickiewicz, 99 Designs

 

"SEO is a race, not a sprint."

– Neil Patel, Quick Sprout

 

"Don’t take too much advice. It’s just that most people who have a lot of advice to give—there are a few people who are exceptions, and they have a lot of data in front of them—most people generalize whatever they did and say that’s the strategy that made it work."

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

 

"Over-deliver every time."

– Alex Maroko, Game Speed Insider

 

 

 

Quotes on Social Media

"Building and hanging on to an audience is the biggest role of social media.”

– Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal

 

“I believe photos is one of the underlying things in every social network that becomes successful.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

 

“Social media really grew up.”

– Kevin Rose, Digg

 

 

 

Quotes on Startups

"The next big thing is the one that makes the last big thing usable."

– Blake Ross, Mozilla

 

“There’s a lot of pressure to look like the last company that was successful.”

– Ben Silbermann, Pinterest

 

“The pace of change for entrepreneurs is rapidly accelerating, and the cost and risk of launching a new business and getting off the ground is just amazing. The ability to gain user feedback really quickly and adapt to what your consumers want is totally different with the web as it is now. But finding a new market, helping people and taking that original idea and turning it into a business is really exciting right now.”

– Matt Mickiewicz, 99 Designs

 

“Every startup should address a real and demonstrated need in the world. If you build a solution to a problem lots of people have, it’s so easy to sell your product to the world.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

 

"The transition strategies are more important than understanding what the outcome state will be."

– Sean Parker, Napster

 

"We are really competing against ourselves, we have no control over how other people perform."

– Pete Cashmore, Mashable

 

 

 

Quotes on Simplicity

“Every feature has some maintenance cost, and having fewer features lets us focus on the ones we care about and make sure they work very well.”

– David Karp, Tumblr

 

“Focusing on one thing and doing it really, really well can get you very far.”

– Kevin Systrom, Instagram

 

"The trend of design toward simplicity and accessibility in software happened for a reason—simple sells, simple's usable and simple scales."

– Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz

 

"I’m a firm believer in shades of gray."

– Blake Ross, Mozilla

 

“A poorly implemented feature hurts more than not having it at all.”

– Noah Everett, Twitpic

 

 

 

Quotes on Success:

“Success is defined in units of fun. It’s all about being happy.”

– Jake Nickell, Threadless

 

"Success comes down to hard work plus passion, over time. If you work really, really hard over a long period of time, it will pay off."

– Stanley Tang, eMillions

 

“Solving specific problems is what drives me. I am not interested in having a career. I never have been.”

Sean Parker, Napster

 

"I'm here to build something for the long-term. Anything else is a distraction."

– Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook

 

Inside the Mind of a Young Entrepreneur

I love quotes because they’re a window into a person’s mind while they’re thinking their most clearly. And obviously it’s best when the people you’re quoting are as innovative and intelligent as these young entrepreneurs. After compiling a post like this, I feel like I’m swimming in wisdom and insight from the best and brightest.

I would be interested in hearing from you below. Are there were any quotes above that struck you in particular or ones that you disagree with? Are there any young entrepreneur quotes that I didn’t include above that I should have?

If you read this article because you’re starting out on the path to online entrepreneurship, we offer a road map to making money online that links to guides and resources every step of the way. If you’re just looking for more inspiration, I recommend you check out 21 Life Lessons from Steve Jobs.

The post Top 50 Young Entrepreneur Quotes appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

You may view the latest post at
http://www.incomediary.com/top-young-entrepreneur-quotes

Build Great Backlinks
Nick Scheidies
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

[Build Great Backlinks] Introducing Our Niche Site Case Study (With a Twist)

Build Great Backlinks

Share

One of the things that undoubtedly helped me to succeed online was seeing that other people were having success. It wasn’t so much specific examples – not many people shared them when I was starting out to be honest – but just knowing that someone had figured out this making money on the internet thing showed me that I could do it too.

It’s natural to get inspired by the success story of others. I remember hearing about a grandmother who had been writing her whole life but was always scared to get feedback on her work. After finally publishing her book well past the age of 80, she said it was the best thing she’s ever done. It became quite the internet sensation as it really sunk in the idea of “it’s never too late”.

Today I want to announce my own success story. Hopefully. With the launch of a brand new niche site case study where I build a website from scratch and share the results with you all, in public, via this website.

This isn’t something entirely new. Friends like Pat and Spencer have ran their own case studies and had great results. Both from the success of the sites they built and the reactions from their audience. Some of you may remember I also ran my own case study a few years ago, but other business opportunities got in the way and it just didn’t go like I had originally planned.

Most case studies, particularly those that start with a site built from scratch, are generally just a blogger who runs a popular site sharing the results of their own marketing efforts in a new industry. More recently I’ve seen a number of case studies where someone who has had success in this field instead teaches someone else how to build a profitable site and follows their journey.

While those are beneficial to both blogger and reader, I don’t just want to follow that mold. This is ViperChill. If I’m going to do something, we are going to do it different. Do it big.

The reason I say we, is because there’s 3 of us.

One niche. Three websites. Three different people competing against each other. Live, for free, with nothing to sell you.

The Original Idea

I get asked fairly frequently about whether I would be interested in working with someone to help them build a niche site. This invariably either involves them “generously” giving me a small percentage of the site income if they make a profit or is someone who just wants to intern for me to learn what I do.

Since I never know these people, it’s hard to commit to work with someone who might stop working in a few weeks and honestly, if I’m going to be putting so much time into one website, I would much prefer it to be my own.

The intern idea is always a nice gesture, but I’m too paranoid to trust someone I’ve never met with my business operations. At least operations where they would actually learn anything interesting.

I was contacted by Mr.V a few months ago when he had the idea of doing a public case study where I teach him how to build a profitable site and he follows my advice. This would mean that you don’t just get the results of someone who has clearly had success online already. Instead you see the results of a self-professed ‘newbie’ who hasn’t profited from the internet before.

This would be more challenging, but a lot more realistic.

It wasn’t the first time I’ve heard the idea, but it came to me at a time where I could use another site in my arsenal for marketing that isn’t primarily SEO focused. This is something I haven’t had for quite some time.

The Three Pronged Approach

First of all, the people involved are:

• Myself
• Diggy, my business partner and SEO fanatic
• Mr. V

Each of us will be building a website from scratch and starting our marketing efforts on November 1st 2013. This is not just a typical competition between the three of us though. We each have limitations on what we can do.

Glen’s limitations are that I cannot purchase a single backlink, get links from any blog networks or basically do anything to artificially increase my own link count. My focus is going to be entirely social and trying to get links the Google-recommended way. By creating great content in an industry where I have zero authority or presence.

Diggy’s limitations are that he isn’t allowed to rely on great content to build his site. Instead he must focus entirely on SEO. He is allowed to use link networks, build spammy links and anything else he thinks will work.

Mr V’s limitations are simply that he is a beginner to building and profiting from niche websites. He’s allowed to write great content, focus on SEO, buy ads or anything else he wants to do.

All of us have a $1,000 budget for phase one of the project (the first 2-3 months). I think this is a realistic figure that other people could replicate if they wanted to give making a living from the internet a real try. We couldn’t do this for free simply because you have to price in domains, a website theme, hosting, and so on. Every single little fee will also be accounted into this $1K budget.

To summarise, that means we’re approaching one niche from three different angles:

• Growing a website socially and getting natural links
• Growing a website through greyhat SEO
• Growing a site through any means (but as a beginner)

The end goal is trying to build sites which make money. We will of course also be sharing things like traffic stats, traffic sources and any conversions we make whether financial or for an email list.

Why Mr.V Is Crucial

Though I have no idea if myself and Diggy will make any money – at least not in the short-term – we will get some results. There is no doubt our sites will get traffic. Adding someone into the mix who has not built a lot of sites before gives this case study a different dynamic.

For every question that I am asked by Mr.V, I will make sure to share the answers that I provided to him via this blog. This means that I’m not just covering the things I think you (beginners especially) might have problems with, but answering actual problems that are found on the journey by someone in your shoes.

I know this wont appeal to long-term, successful marketers, but I hope people who are struggling online will get a lot out of this.

The only reason I’m calling him Mr.V and not by his real name, yet, is because I don’t know him. It’s possible that he wont put any time into this project or disappear from the internet. I really don’t think that will happen, but I’m just protecting his identity in case anything comes up before we start the challenge (again, that’s November 1st).

I will be the owner of his domain – until the end of the challenge when I transfer it to him – to ensure that we have a third person for the project. If he disappears, then someone else could easily take over and it wouldn’t ruin the case study.

I Want Your Feedback! Here’s Two Chances to Win $250

I thought I would give you a reader an opportunity to put their stamp on this case study by helping us make it amazing.

The first area I need help with giving the case study a name I can use for future updates. I had phrases like “Niche Site Trio” and “Triple Threat Niche Case Study” in my head but lets be honest, they aren’t that great. I have no doubt someone reading this could come up with something better.

The other area I need help is if you see anything missing with this idea or something else I could do to make the case study better for you. Are the limitations that myself and Diggy have a stupid idea? Should the budget be lower (or higher)? Anything you want to make sure we do? The best feedback / suggestion (even if it isn’t used) will be rewarded.

So, that’s two chances to win $250 from me direct to your Paypal account.

I always deliver when it comes to competitions. Jon Cooper of PointBlankSEO was the winner of our BacklinksXXX affiliate competition and we sent him $2,000 of camera gear:

When you consider that people are leaving their homes and moving out to Asia for the possibility to make $1,000/m doing this online stuff, this is something I’m going to be taking very seriously. Even a few hundred dollars per month extra would be a lot for a great deal of the audience here, so I want to provide an on-going case study that is going to help people see what is possible.

Look out for the next update in two weeks when we start, and I look forward to the comments…

You may view the latest post at
http://www.viperchill.com/niche-site-twist/

Build Great Backlinks
Glen
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

[Build Great Backlinks] [GET] How I Stopped Blackhat Forums & File Sharers Distributing My Products

Build Great Backlinks

That’s a slight lie. They’re impossible to stop, but you can reduce sharing by almost 100%. That’s exactly what I did when it came to people pirating my own software and I’ll show you how. But first, a scenario: You’re with your child (or niece, nephew or young cousin) at home and find yourself needing a few hours break to get some work done. Said youngster tells you about a movie they’ve been dying to watch and you see it as the perfect opportunity to get some peace for a few hours. You begin the online hunt to find it.

It’s not on Netflix, which you pay for monthly. iTunes doesn’t seem to have it either. Hulu looks promising, but then you get an error saying it’s not available in your current region. Then, what’s that? A Youtube link for that exact movie. 2 hours long, and in perfect HD quality at that.

Do you click play?

You probably know it’s not there legally, especially when the uploaders description is “I don’t intend any copyright infringement” as they often tend to do. If you’re like anyone who I’ve asked this question to before then absolutely Yes, you would click play.

It’s easy to do something like this when you really don’t have to face any direct consequences of the action. Your ISP isn’t going to turn off your internet. You’re not going to get sued by Disney. And it has 55,000 views already so it’s not like you’re the first.

While this is a rather tame example, I’ve had to deal with copyright infringement quite a lot over the last few years for my own products and services. It started out when I launched Cloud Living way back in my PluginID days, and has certainly continued with software like OptinSkin and even my most recent launch, Backlinks XXX.

Notice the predisposition towards internet marketing products. Anything you launch in the IM niche has a far greater chance of being ripped from your site and shared around the web. IM products are not alone, but ‘pirates’ keep me 100x busier than any non-marketing software has.

I can confidently say that as of the time this blog post goes live, there is no access to Backlinks XXX or OptinSkin that is publicly available. At least not on the first few pages of Google, which is what I believe all product owners should be aiming for. The truth is that you cannot stop people sharing your product — they will find a way. Microsoft and Adobe are billion dollar corporations but any teen can go and download Microsoft Office or Photoshop right now. While you can’t stop it you can limit the exposure to it at the heart of where people find pirated content: Google.

I’m aware there are versions of OptinSkin out there but I am not going to take them down. Why? They’re literally the first ever release of the software and it doesn’t even work properly at all anymore. We’ve made dozens of upgrades since that first iteration. I get a laugh out of people who use customer support and are clearly running a pirated version.

I am aware that writing this blog post is probably going to open me up to a lot of Blackhat marketers, many of whom read this blog, and like the challenge of now putting my stuff out there on the web. This is a topic I really wanted to cover as I believe it can help a lot of content creators, so I’m not going to let that possibility scare me from helping others.

It’s not like people haven’t been trying. I’ve successfully removed hundreds of releases of each product from the web already. A few more won’t hurt, since I’ve very much refined my approach.

This is not only prevalent for Internet Marketing (IM) related products. Even IM forums share fitness products, courses on productivity, WordPress themes and video courses from independent creators. Today I’m going to share with you how to protect your precious product launch from people who simply want to share it with others.

Before tackling this, I did have to think about what must go through someone’s mind to share this kind of information. I’m not an internet angel, I remember getting a pirated version of Photoshop back when I was younger because I simply could not afford to purchase it. That being said, I would never dream of uploading it for others though even if I knew how to share it with total anonymity.

From what I can tell, the main motivations are:

• Earnings from download sites. They pay a certain amount of money per thousand downloads that you generate
• You improve your ‘standing’ on a Blackhat community and build up your rep points. I.e. sharing appeals to your ego
• You don’t like the person sharing the product and want to hurt their business

If there’s anything obvious I missed, please do let me know.

The Single Biggest Reason Why It’s So Easy to Pirate Products Online

There’s nobody willing to take the blame for the piracy.

The forums pass it off to their users in their terms of conditions before you register. The forum user passes the blame off to the file sharing site because he doesn’t actually host it. The file sharing site then passes the blame onto the uploader. The web host passes the blame back to the file sharing site, and on it goes.

Everyone wants to share it but nobody wants to take responsibility for it.

The forums want to share it because this is the major reason why people visit Blackhat forums anyway. The users want to share it because it increases their rep on the site or they make money from the file sharing host. The file sharing host wants to share it because they make money on ads being displayed and can get you to download other software for a commission.

The hosting company with the file sharing site wants to keep getting that big hosting income every month so they turn a blind eye until asked otherwise.

Getting on the Phone with Someone Who Pirated my Software

In the early days of OptinSkin, it was really disappointing to see how much the software had been shared around the web. There was one person in particular who seemed very set on getting it out to as many people as possible.

What made my clean-up operations harder was that these sites will often mirror their uploads to other locations. So you only need to share my software once and it’s automatically on dozens of different websites where people can download it. That gets frustrating very fast.

I got to the point where I was spending so much time filing DMCA requests and the like that it became a little too much. I stopped focusing on where the software was but instead on who was sharing the software.

I found my ‘target’ and sent them multiple PM’s on a certain forum, asking them to please stop. I didn’t get a response. I then decided to try and get their phone number. My thinking was that if I could speak with them, maybe I could reason with them over the phone and they would see that I’m a real person who would really appreciate if they didn’t do this.

As luck would have it, with enough persistence, I got the phone number. Their username had came up on a a gaming forum, where they linked to a website they presumably owned in the signature. Fortunately the WHOIS data was open, and based on the surname being very closely related to their username, I thought I had who I was looking for.

This was nearly two years ago so forgive me for not having this perfect, but the call mostly went like this:

*Ring Ring*

Receiver: Hello

Me: Hello, is this Alisha?

Receiver: No, that’s my son.

Me: Oh, I’m just calling to talk to Alisha about some software he has been using on the internet.

Receiver: Sorry, we’re not looking to buy anything.

Me: Ahh, no. I’m not trying to sell something to you. Alisha actually owns our software already, I just wanted to talk to him about it.

Receiver: Uhm…Okay, hold on.

**Some muffled talking in the background**

Receiver: Hello

**This time it was a very, very young voice on the end of the phone. I would say no more than 13**

Me: Hey Alisha, are you a member of a Blackhat forum called XXXX

Alisha: Yes

**If he hadn’t said yes, I don’t know how I would have continued the conversation**

Me: I’m just phoning because you’ve been sharing my software all over the web. It’s something that cost me thousands of dollars to make, over 6 months to put together, and I would appreciate if you weren’t doing that.

Alisha: OK, sure.

Me: I would appreciate if you could take down the links and threads that you’ve been starting on forums

Alisha: OK

Me: Can you do that after our call?

Alisha: Yes, I’m sorry. That’s no problem

Shortly after the call, the links were in fact taken down. But not until Alisha sent me one last message. He finally replied to the Private Message (PM) I had sent him a few weeks prior.

“Fuck you. Don’t phone me. I’m not the only one sharing your software. Fuck you”

I have to admit I laughed. As soon as the phone was down, the keyboard warrior attitude returned.

Theme Not OK

One of the most prolific sites on sharing the creations of others, especially from designers on Theme Forest, is ThemeOK. They neatly packaged Backlinks XXX up in a ZIP file (videos included), and shared it via a blog post on their website. This blog post subsequently ranked very highly in Google.

As do most of their blog posts. The traffic potential in this niche is absolutely huge…

I didn’t blur out the domain to make them totally anonymous. They’re very simple to find, but they don’t deserve any traffic or free publicity from me (or any blogger).

I filed a DMCA request with the website owner (more on DMCA’s later) and asked for the page to be taken down. After I received a confirmation of the page being gone, I had hoped to get an answer on their motivations of running the site:

He says the other sites copied his information yet he had the power to remove the links almost instantly. It also makes no sense that someone else would promote his site in the file URL. Since that email exchange, ThemeOK actually rebranded themselves to ThemeKO. They’ve definitely found a niche that people are flocking to in the tens of thousands and are looking to take advantage of this:

Trust me, there’s no EXE file that comes with any of my products. Without downloading the file, it will likely either assist in putting malware on your computer or actually give you something like a toolbar, where the site owner gets paid for that install. Or both.

They Will Find A Way

Guess what happened on the very first day of launching Backlinks XXX? I got 10 customers for the income of one!

I decided to try a little idea that I wasn’t sure if it would pay off. I tried to get in on a group buy of my own product because that way I would know exactly who purchased it originally before sharing. Every copy I find on pirate sites tells me who shared it, even if they ripped text directly from my pages.

I’ll teach you how I know who shares something later in the post. And it doesn’t involve anything messy like license keys. My attempt at getting in on the group buy didn’t work, but I guess I should be reassured that they wont give my work to other people very easily.

I found that people were even willing to abuse a vulnerable website (vulnerable meaning it has some kind of hole that allows people to post content on it). Backlinks XXX found itself promoted on the official website of Mary Mary who seem to be quite well known in America (can a commenter confirm?).

On another note, that site is being abused very heavily and those spammy pages rank very highly.

Some people will even go as far as to build their own file sharing forum and the file hosting site that hosts the files. Effectively taking money from both sides of the equation. Allegedly. Legally it seems safer if I add that this may not be the case.

Let’s just say that that Feedurbrain.com (the forum) and iSaveLink.com (the file sharer) who use the same domain registrar, and have the same WHOIS location, is pure coincidence. Also that iSaveLink support threads get answered by Feedurbrain.com members is just totally random and not related.

Feedurbrain is a tricky one because the website owners do not respond to any emails via their contact form. The email addresses’ found on their WHOIS data also doesn’t work. For this one, I had to go directly to their host. Put a domain into Whoishostingthis.com and you’ll find out who their hosting company is.

For Feedurbrain, it turned out to be ID3 (a dutch company) hosting the forum and Namecheap hosting the file sharing site. I’m amazed Namecheap would host a website like this to be honest. I submitted a DMCA request via ID3 and Namecheap and the page was removed from the forum within a few days. However the page is now back and Namecheap never once responded to a single email. All I received was that ‘this has been forwarded to our legal department’

I sent two follow-ups and didn’t get a single response. It doesn’t help when very large, seemingly legitimate companies don’t seem to care that their clients are operating in this way. I wonder how the marketing guys at Namecheap would react if they knew. Anyways…

The Page That Has Saved My Products (And Sanity)

For a good portion of my products now, I invested in a way to track people who simply copy content from a membership site or try to crack a plugin and share it around the web. For instance, here’s what you see when you first visit Backlinks XXX:

I really didn’t want this to seem like some kind of scare tactic, and simply wanted to mention that we’re not stupid and we actively do track people sharing our software and videos. Notice the specific sentence I highlighted. Since we’re using a form of membership software already, all we have to do is tap into that with specific information for each user.

Essentially you can pick a point in your content where you would like to place randomised content (this is unique data you assign to each user) then you track any shares of that item. It will only match one person, and then you can go and look into Paypal or Clickbank or whatever and get more information on that person.

I think this works so well is because nobody is going to have any idea where those sentences are and they actually make fairly decent sense. Since adding this page (and the plugin) I’ve noticed that sharing of the product has stopped by almost 100%.

I haven’t found a single copy of my membership sites shared since I added that security notice and implemented the randomising system. I’m not trying to tempt any Blackhat forums here; I’m simply trying to help you protect your own creations from people who would love to see them spread across the internet.

Usually I would share this with you but let’s not make their job easier. You can get this done for less than $100 on oDesk.

How to utilise the DMCA

The DMCA stands for the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and is primarily what allowed me to get hundreds of files taken off of file sharing websites. Like this:

I’m not a laywer (obviously) so to get specific information on the DMCA I recommend the Wikipedia page for the act, here. As I understand it in its basic form, it enables you to prove that you are the owner of specific content and would like the infringing material removed.

Most file sharing sites have the following DMCA requirements:

• A statement that you’re the original owner of the material being infringed
• Identify the original source
• A statement that the information you’re sharing is correct
• The location of where you believe the infringing material is
• A signature (a digital signature is fine)

Which ends up looking something like this:

Keep it saved somewhere so that you can use it again very easily. I like to use Canned Responses for Gmail so in just two clicks that whole message has been pasted. Then you just change the location URL of the infringing download or page.

9 times out of 10 this is all you need to do and the pages are usually removed within 48 hours. It’s not as difficult as you maybe once first thought. You will make some forum members unhappy though…

Google URL Removals

If you can’t get a specific file sharing site to comply with a DMCA request then you still might be able to get the page taken out of Google’s search results if they are actually infringing on your data. This is a tricky one because on one hand some of them are only linking to the site and not actually doing anything illegal.

However, if they have taken content from your product or your sales material (unique images, sales text, etc) which is common, then the Google URL removal tool is another option to think about.

Amazingly, URL’s get removed within 2-3 hours of submission. There’s always 1 or 2 that don’t get approved that fast – I don’t know why – or not at all. As you can see below though, I have been fairly successful with this.

You can find the URL removals dashboard in Webmaster Tools at this URL.

Don’t Forget the Obvious

I hope I’ve just shed some light on the things that aren’t clear and known to everyone. Don’t forget to think about the other options at your disposal as well. Besides my security page example, this was very much a case of what you can do after this happens to you. Don’t forget about other things to do before as well.

This could be things like using membership site software which limits login attempts for each account and allows you to protect download links to zip and PDF files. If you’re selling a plugin then at least put some form of licensing in the code, even if it can get cracked.

There is a very big business out there online for people to share your products. They get paid by the download companies or get free VIP status on Blackhat forums (along with some rep points). The forums make special areas for people to share these downloads but don’t take responsibility for the content of it.

Essentially they turn a blind eye as it is a major traffic driver to their sites. The fast growth in this niche doesn’t always pay off though…

If you have any of your own advice and suggestions, I would love to hear them in the comments. I really hope this helps some of you with current and future product launches online…

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Build Great Backlinks
Glen
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com

[Build Great Backlinks] 25 Ways You Can Gain More Trust Online

Build Great Backlinks

Q: What’s the most scarce and valuable resource online?

A: Trust.

Trust is scarce because anyone can publish content online. There are no publishing companies or editors to separate the good writing from the bad or to make sure all of the sources are double-checked and cited.

Trust is valuable because if once it’s established, you open up the door to a world of opportunity: more readers, higher opt-in rates, and increased product sales. Thankfully, there are methods to make your website more trustworthy and I’ve listed my top 25 below.

 

25 Ways You Can Gain More Trust Online

#1 Eliminate Broken Links with Free Software

Nothing is permanent – especially on the Internet.

Eventually a link on your website will lead to a place that no longer exists. If a user clicks on that link and is greeted with a 404 page they’re going to be (A) upset that you’ve wasted 5 seconds of their precious time and (B) less trusting of your links in the future.

Avoid this scenario by installing free software that automatically scours your site for broken links and notifies you about them. If you use WordPress I recommend you use Broken Link Checker, which has 4.1 out of 5 ranking.

Oh and if you needed more incentive, broken links are bad for SEO too.

 

#2 Go Blue

According to color psychology, blue "creates the sensation of trust and security." So you may want to consider using a blue color scheme for your website, like Facebook does.

 

#3 Show Yourself

You can establish a lot of trust simply by featuring your name and photo prominently with every article. It can also be good to get a little personal on your about page, as Neil Patel does with a funny cartoon.

Dropbox is a big business. But they still keep a personal touch on their about page: the images and names of all of their employees. Seeing the real people behind a website makes it easier to trust.

 

#4 Proofread

Always read over your entire post one last time before clicking ‘publish’. I find it’s especially helpful to read the text out loud.

 

#5 Nix Autoplaying Audio/Video

Hate is a strong word, but I really, really, really don’t like media that plays automatically when you open a web page. It’s disrespectful to me as a user and it’s the fastest way to break my trust.

Autoplay is fine when the site makes it clear that I’m visiting a page specifically so I can play a song or video (like on YouTube). Otherwise, just don’t do it.

 

#6 Get a Professional Logo

A great logo design doesn’t come cheap, but it’s the single biggest investment you can make in the trustworthiness of your online brand. Your logo will go everywhere you go – from your header to your business card. Hold your logo to a high standard of professionalism and people will view your business in higher esteem.

 

#7 Allow Comments

Let’s face it: humans don’t exactly have a reputation for being respectful online. So putting a comment box underneath your content is a brave thing to do. You’ve carefully built a website and now you’re just going to open it up for anyone to scribble on?

There’s good reason to allow comments, though. By allowing a public forum for opinions both positive and negative, your website shows confidence in what it’s presenting to the world. It shows that you don’t have anything to hide and that you’re willing to accept fair criticism. To me, that equates to a little bit more trust.

Admittedly, some comments are spam and need to be deleted and not every website necessarily should allow comments. Seth Godin has one of the world’s most popular blogs and it doesn’t have comments (thought that’s mostly for personal reasons).

 

#8 Get Press and Feature It

A website’s header gets to make the first impression on its viewer. Press is so important for a website’s trust that Income Diary puts some of our press mentions right in the header, to be viewed on top of every page.

Press creates the type of trust you can’t buy or manufacture. It took over 150 years for The New York Times to build its reputation as a trustworthy news source. But it took only a few seconds for Gene Marks to publish this article mentioning Income Diary. In that moment, The New York times lent a little sliver of its hard-earned trust to our humble blog.

Don’t have any press yet? The first step is for you to find a way for your business to be a remarkable story. That’s the hard part. From there, I recommend this free online create your own press release wizard.

 

#9 Keep Your Copyright Year Up-to-Date

I’ve never thought too much about copyright dates on websites. But when I was writing the last point and scoping out that free press release website, I couldn’t help but notice that their copyright was still for 2010. It made me doubt if I should link to the site.

I determined that the site was still useful even though its owner hadn’t touched in three years (and might not for another three) so I linked to it. But your site might not be so lucky.

Either update every year on January 1^st or use php to add a dynamic copyright date that’s always up-to-date.

 

#10 Implement Testimonials

Testimonials are key to building trust online, especially if you’re selling a product or service. When you have a happy customer or reader, consider asking them to give you a testimonial. Then feature a few of them prominently on your sales page.

 

#11 Don’t Make Promises that You Can’t Keep

If you tell your audience that you’ll have a post up every Monday, you’d better do it.

 

#12 Show Your Trophy Rack

Don’t be overly humble about any honors or awards you’ve received. Feature them prominently on your about page and possibly in your header, footer, or sidebar.

 

#13 Don’t Slip Up (Not Even Once)

"I takes many good deeds to build a good reputation and only one bad one to lose it."

Benjamin Franklin

In life, "almost always" is almost always good enough. If you remember to floss your teeth before you go to sleep "almost always," that qualifies as good oral hygiene.

But when it comes to being trustworthy, "almost always" isn’t good enough. It only takes one single piece of untrustworthy information for everything you’ve ever put up online to fall under suspicion.

So don’t think that it’s okay to lie, cheat, steal, or otherwise misguide visitors to your website "occasionally" or "just this once." As the ever-wise investor Warren Buffett has said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently."

 

#14 Do Your Research

When I profiled Elon Musk a couple of weeks ago, I started out knowing almost nothing about him. So I went on a research-binge. Before I knew it, I had about 20 tabs running across the top of my browser. 10,000+ words later, I knew Musk’s life story backwards and forwards. Only then did I actually start writing the article.

Research might not sound like fun, but it’s a necessary part of being a good writer. You owe it to your audience to be well-informed about your subject. When your readers notice the many references and facts that are the mark of a well-researched article

 

#15 Don’t Overreach

"You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do."

Henry Ford

"Fake it ’til you make it," is usually pretty good advice.

But when you claim authority by flaunting something you haven’t really accomplished, people can smell it from a mile away. I’ve seen far too many blogs with authors who claim to be gurus in SEO, web design, blogging, or social media but who are clearly nothing of the sort.

When you’re first starting out online, be up front with people that you’re a beginner. Invite them to join you on your journey to becoming an expert in your field. At each milestone you accomplish, update your about page.

 

#16 Redesign Your Website

People judge books by their cover and they judge websites by their design. A quality design means quality content that they can trust.

Appearances matter. That’s why one of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s life lessons is to "have an amazing haircut."

 

#17 Admit When You’re Wrong

Everybody makes mistakes. Even though I research and proofread, I still publish incorrect information and misspellings on this site from time to time.

When you make a mistake online, don’t try to cover it up. Fix it, but own up to it. When your audience sees that you’re willing to admit to your errors and even draw attention to them, you’ll gain a reputation for accuracy and trustworthiness.

 

#18 Get Social

At Income Diary, we feature a Facebook widget in our sidebar that proves that over 5,000 people like and trust what we’re doing online. That’s powerful social proof.

You can add a Facebook widget on your website by following this link. Here’s something similar for Twitter and for Google+.

 

#19 Use Specific Statistics

The footer at the bottom of every Income Diary page cites a blog post that got 20,293 hits in one week. Using a specific number like that is more trustworthy than just saying "tons" or "tens of thousands," especially when you can back it up with screen shots from your stat page.

Personally, I love it when bloggers lay it all out on the table for their readers: their traffic stats, their income, and their social growth. Even if your numbers aren’t impressive, you’ll gain your readers’ trust by showing you have nothing to hide.

 

#20 Stay Above the Fray

"Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone. It depreciates their reputation and yours."

Brian Koslow

Online as well as in life, what you say about others reflects more on you then on them. Talking bad about others just makes you look bad.

 

#21 Reread Old Articles Yearly

Let’s say that you published a blog post about how to optimize your business’s Facebook page back in 2011. Since then, Facebook has changed the page layout to the ‘timeline’ – making some of your advice obsolete. In this instance, you should probably delete or correct the outdated information.

I recommend skimming through all of your published content yearly and looking out for expired content.

 

#22 Get Certified

There are a host of organizations and services who verify your websites quality and security. If you pass, you can proudly display their badges on your site and boost your trust with visitors.

Good practice seals (with links):

• Better Business Bureau
• Bizrate
• Green Certified
• STELLAService

SSL Security certificate providers (with links):

• Digicert
• Geotrust
• GoDaddy
• McAfee

 

#23 Pick a Good Domain Name

Your domain name says a lot about your website. To make a good impression, keep it short, use .com or .org, and avoid hyphens.

 

#24 Keep Ads to a Minimum

There’s nothing wrong with having ads on your site. In fact, many of the worlds’ most trusted and respected websites have advertisements – including Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. At Income Diary, ad revenue has played a major role in monetization.

That said, overwhelming your visitors with ads is only going to tell them that you care more about the almighty dollar than their user experience. Keep ads to a minimum and you’re in the clear.

 

#25 Be Selfless

When we don’t trust someone, it’s usually because we think they might be putting their own best interests ahead of ours. When you put a ton of your time and energy into something that very helpful to them – like a step-by-step tutorial, in-depth guide, or free ebook – and don’t ask for anything in return, it communicates that you put your readers’ needs first.

Selflessly help a person once and they’ll trust you forever.

 

Final Words

"If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself."

D.L. Moody

The quote above really gets to the heart of it. Ultimately, the best way to gain trust online is to have genuinely trustworthy character. Be patient, be honest, keep your promises, and treat other people the way you want to be treated.

Post image by laverrue cc

The post 25 Ways You Can Gain More Trust Online appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

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Build Great Backlinks
Nick
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com