Why people write book reviews

I would like to recommend a book to you. If you like reading about psychology and how to persuade people – then check out Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

In case you didn’t click above, here is the link again:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006124189X?ie=UTF8&tag=amianz-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=006124189X

If you clicked through the above link you would have been taken through to Amazon.com’s page for the book.

If you look closely within the url you will see it says “tag=amianz-20″ (roughly halfway through the url address).

The “tag=amianz-20″ tells Amazon that you clicked through from my website. “amianz-20″ was the “affiliate code” they have assigned to me.

If you end up buying the book, they will pay me a percentage – from 3 to 15 % of the book price. So, for this book, which sells for approximately $12, they would pay me approximately 50 cents. If you ended up buying more products at the same time than I would also make a commission for those as well. 

This may not sound too exciting. If its only 50 cents a book than you will need to help sell thousands of books, before you make a decent living. But don’t forget you could also help them to sell iPods, cameras, computers, televisions or other items that sell for a lot more money.  Then the commissions would be a lot more interesting.

The real secret to Amazon’s marketing success was the affiliate scheme – they have over 100,000 affiliates that send them traffic. Amazon wins as they don’t pay for the marketing costs, unless a customer buys. The affiliate wins as the more successful they are, the more they make. And the customer wins, as they receive free content because there is an incentive for the content creator to drive traffic to their site.

Why I got excited about online marketing

There is an event in Dubai on 20th and 21th November. People that are actually making a fulltime living on the internet will be flying in from Australia, Europe and North America to show how they make money online. You can learn more about the event at www.poweronlinedubai.com.

If you clicked through you would see that the event is priced at $397. If you actually buy a ticket, I make a $200 commission – or over 50 % of the ticket price.

Now, it gets interesting doesn’t it? Now – its much more tempting to start marketing online.  I would have recommended this event anyway to my friends – the ones interested in getting out of the rat race.  But with the incentive, I start thinking more ‘creatively’ about marketing for the event.  In order to start making money, I don’t need to invest thousands of dollars in product development – I simply go create content – in my case, by writing, but it could have been video or an audio podcast.  I update my facebook and twitter statuses to let people know about the event.

If you visit www.clickbank.com you can see that you can make upto 75% selling digital products.  Remember, it doesn’t cost the creator of an ebook or downloadable software any more money if they sold an extra copy – so often times they are giving away 75 % in commissions through to affiliates as they want to attract marketers to help them sell.  Same for an event – if an extra person attends lectures on learning about the web, the teachers are only too happy.  Plus at the event they will probably try to “upsell” you various products so they want more visitors to the event.  So thats why they are incentivising me heavily (its not just me, anyone can become an affiliate!).

The url that I am given to market so that Unlimited Power Online knows that the customers came from me is actually http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?af=1022337 but as you can see it doesn’t look clean and people are less likely to click through. They trust it less. So what I have done is to spend $10 on a domain name “www.PowerOnlineDubai.com” and simply have it forward to the above address.   This technique, which I learnt from Ernesto’s coaching, is called a “naked url”.  I could go and promote this url anywhere – on radio, TV or newspapers.

Remember, as the consumer, you are always paying the same price – its just either Amazon/PowerOnlineDubai gives me a commission or they keep it themselves – you don’t lose anything.  They actually want to give away commissions as then they know I will work harder for them – if I’m not making any money than I will stop promoting their products.

How books will become free

People work on incentives. When you realise that you can make a living from creating knowledge than you are more likely to do it. For instance, you can get a free ebook from my coach – the “amazingly useful websites“.  The book is here:  http://www.kickstartcart.com/app/?Clk=3317037. All you do is to visit and enter your email address.

The thing is that he has done a lot of work of researching good sites for you. I help him by telling you about it. You go and download the book – the book has really useful information but it also has loads of affiliate links embedded in it. For instance, he might recommend hosting providers and often they will give him a commission if you buy.  Plus as you have given him your email address he adds you to his mailing list.  If he ends up “upselling” a product to you – he gives me 50 % of what he made from you.  You get a free book, I “look good” to my readers for providing them a good resource and if you ever happen to buy anything both Ernesto and I win.

The old school method of creating ‘edutainment’ meant that you charged people upfront for the book or movie. If they didn’t like it, too bad – they lost their money. The new method of creating knowledge is to give away your best content for free. To use the same method as a free television station – the ones that let you watch the show for free as long as you watch the advertising within it.

This blog post is an example of the new age of marketing.  I spend my time to provide you with relevant knowledge that you have hopefully found useful. A very tiny percentage of you might come to www.poweronlinedubai.com and for each ticket sold through that link I make $200. The more I make, the more I get encouraged to create content.

This is exactly how the world of teaching will change.  Teachers will go out and create good content and give it away on the web.  They will then either make their money through advertsising or from creating their own “brand” and then selling consulting, coaching or tuition to students.

Tips for starting online

Do not spam people with your “sales pitches”. Don’t go on to peoples walls on facebook and start promoting all sorts of products. Or send an email to a large group. This is always a tricky thing – I still ocassionally cross the line between what is “acceptable” and what is moving towards spam. The newbies always make these mistakes.

I do use facebook as a platform to help me get started. For instance, I have linked my wordpress blog so it comes through as a “note” on facebook. I also often use my status on twitter or facebook to simply promote my blog or to encourage people to subscribe to my blog.  Facebook gave me a bigger audiance than starting to build one from scratch (it has taken me a few years to build “friends!”).

To get started simply visit www.wordpress.com and start a free website – it is a lot easier than you think to have your first website. You could start off by joining Amazon’s Affiliate Program.  Find your niche and start attracting traffic. Making a living on the web is not a “overnight” thing but takes a lot of energy and time.  The smartest thing I did was to get an internet marketing coach and start to network with people that were making money online.  This has literally saved me hundreds of hours of work and I’ve already made more money online this month than I have all my previous years combined. 

If you wish to learn a lot more about making money on the internet from some real gurus come to www.poweronlinedubai.com in Dubai on Nov 20/21.  And feel free to forward the link to any of your friends .  I’ll see you at www.poweronlinedubai.com – and if you do end up buying through the link than please let me know and I’d like to treat you to a lunch or dinner (on me!) – we can discuss your business ideas.  Simply send an email to amir@amiranzur.com with your proof of purchase.  To subscribe to my blog visit http://bit.ly/2JQWrB.  See you on the 20th!

I’m feeling cranky because I don’t like certain linguistic inventions that I keep spotting all over the Internet. Notably, I’m not a big fan of the terms “webinar,” which is a snappy little name coined to describe a web-based seminar, and “webpreneur,” a designation for an entrepreneur who makes his or her living on the Internet or from some Internet-based product or initiative.

Yeah, it probably makes me an old fogey. But I still don’t like them. I think that, at some point, you can take things too far, and those are both prime examples. Sure, it’s worked for some words or concepts, but I think those are examples of taking the cutesy little “web-” prefix and attaching it to a word or partial word to make a new term that’s just silly, not informative or catchy.

“Webpreneur” really bothers me more than “webinar.” I mean, can you imagine yourself chatting with an acquaintance at a cocktail party and saying “Oh, yes, I used to work in hospital management/information technology/academia/bottlewashing but I decided to chuck it all and live out my lifelong dream of becoming a webpreneur”? No, no, no. If you really can imagine yourself doing that, power to you. If you can take yourself seriously doing that, then you’re a better person than I am. But I have to tell you that I may roll my eyes behind your back when you excuse yourself to get another cosmopolitan/mojito/insert-name-of-trendy-drink-here.

Also, you may have noticed that one major “web-” word–”weblog”–eventually just shed the “web-” and become just “blog.” I gues it wouldn’t make much sense to say that you’re a “preneur” but for God’s sake, is it really that hard to say that you’re an entrepreneur, period, end of story? And then if someone asks you for more details, you can tell them about the web part? Sigh.

Okay, rant over. There are people I like and respect who use these words, so I’ve made my issue known, and now I’ll stop because I’ve said my piece. I feel a little better now.

According to Jason Clark’s new iMediaConnection article Why Twitter Will Soon Become Obsolete, he brings up a good point that I’ve also noticed with the evolution of online products and technology use in the social media space. We’ve seen it time and time again with sites such as Friendster, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter first popular with younger generations, but once the majority of mass audiences start taking notice and new forms of advertising and sponsorships take flight, there is a shift in interest for further use over time. As marketers grasp these new technologies for the promotion of products, it can proliferate making a site saturated with similar messages, rather than using the communication tools to better understand the audience and provide further customer service and community support.

As Jason states in his article and I agree, “the online community is hyper-sensitive to marketing tactics, and as soon as a social media marketing tool becomes spammy, it immediately becomes irrelevant. Test different media, but let’s not get caught up in just one. Twitter is not the final answer to social media marketing. Staying aware, good writing, and good communication will always be more important. Think “writing” instead of “blogging” or “tweeting.” Remember, what works for one market on Twitter, or some other social media platform, can’t always be applied to every business. Closely monitoring, testing and evaluating the responses are key to success. Make sure before you start to market your business in these spaces, you have a strategy with the proper individuals in place to manage the process.

Don’t Put Too Many Eggs in the Twitter Basket
I’ve seen some intrinsic value in Twitter and many other social media platforms, but honestly, I can see where it could be another short-lived trend. Jason predicts, “Twitter will find its social media and marketing niche, but I cannot see it being nearly as important as some marketers are making it out to be. The retention rate of Twitter is said to be only around 30 percent, which means seven out of 10 people try it out once and don’t come back.”

Crazy world in cyberspace it has become. Are these new forms of communication only to later become trends that fade away? My advice is to not put all your eggs in one basket, but take a diversified integrated approach to marketing your business. People seek real connections, as well as loathe being blatantly marketed products online with little value. First it was email spam and people were flagging to block certain emails and notify their email service provider. Next it was too much tweeting typed on and on from someone in the course of two minutes forcing one to block their responses. What’s next?

A new study in MediaPost’s Engage Teens eNewsletter promoted by Bill Cater, partner of FuseMarketing, highlights eMarketer’s research on the teen demographic and use of social media tools and attitudes toward advertising and sponsorships. “According to eMarketer, advertising on social networks was $1.2 billion in 2008, rising to $1.3 billion in 2009. However, the study also found that only 30% of teens have “friended” a brand on a social networking site. Additionally, over 60% had an unfavorable to neutral opinion of brands advertising on social networks.” Bill Carter provides additional advice to those that wish to reach teens on social media sites for “brands to invest in relevant, paid content that provides some type of added value to teens and then further investment to maintain/update that presence. Social network marketing tactics are not free! Invest in your content, keep it fresh, and success will follow.“

Big Brother, Big Business, Don’t Be Fooled By the Face Either
Well are you familiar with those quizzes on Facebook? Someone behind-the -scenes is tracking your every response, your likes, dislikes, and it’s not just your friends, but rather businesses looking to make a buck off your behavior. Soon there will be a rise of more marketing messages coming your way of products sometimes without your knowledge. You may not have control of those messages being distributed to you either. It could happen tomorrow, if it isn’t already appearing before your eyes today. Are you okay with that? Remember as digital mediums grow, so do the audiences’ understanding and their use of it. People are becoming more savvy with behaviorial marketing tactics and some are not happy with this approach. A good marketer has to be careful with their strategy and provide useful information, provide a way to reach out to the community in an honest manner, rather than push products down people’s throats, or use deceptive tactics to get people to “buy-in” to a specific promotion, program, product or service. Otherwise, in the long -term your audience will retaliate and take a negative approach to your business. Yet, this social media world is new to many marketers all learning what works best and unfortunately through the process some brands may suffer. Good customer service, being upfront with your audience and trustworthiness are important values to uphold.

What’s the Next Wave for Social Media?
As Facebook has gone through a few facelifts to enhance its features, some have complained it’s harder to navigate the site. The audience has not been too receptive to some changes. This past week the new personal URL was introduced for one to add their own name to a URL specific to his/her profile. Yet, in traditional Facebook style there was little or no clear communication to understand the importance and relevancy to what the new URL means. I hypothesized it would help to identify better someone in the organic search of one’s profile to appear close to the top of the search engine results page. At the same time, Facebook warns the user you will only have ONE TIME to create a personal URL and the one you want could be taken. You will NOT be able to change it ever again. As a participant of the site with a profile, what does this actually mean to my further use in the future, or others that wish to review my information? That’s poor customer service if I ever heard. Let’s threaten them, get them to buy into the concept, and make it imperative for others to hurry up before time is running out! Hey, maybe Facebook is actually looking to monetize this new approach by creating a bidding war for acquisition of certain URL’s at a later date? At that point, it could be too late to find out the purpose of this new personalized URL.  Shortly thereafter, or in due time, the audience could decide to abandon the site altogether, because they weren’t pleased and move onto the next Google Wave, or plan to surf the web for something else.

Read my previous thoughts and how it relates to this issue on are we Creating a Bunch of Followers or New Leaders?

AlwaysOn Venture East

Despite the economy in a slump, there are a few new start-ups on the horizon seeking the proper seed capital to get their businesses off the ground, or take their company to the next level of success. It appears to be a tough road ahead, but along every path there are a few bumps to proceed to the next promising opportunity.  Last week AlwaysOn hosted the Venture East conference at the Mandarin Hotel Boston, providing an opportunity for venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs and new start-ups to showcase their products and services, as well as discuss their thoughts around business today during these unpredictable times.

A few local companies offered demonstrations of their products and/or services available today, or are just a step away from the store soon. Maybe you always wanted that surround-sound audio system in your living room, office, or bedroom, but didn’t want to bother building, breaking down walls and investing in all the parts to put it together? Emo Labs has the answer with its built-in speaker technology revolutionizing the way sound is brought to you. Hate the line and check-out counter at the supermarket? Why not consider ModivMedia’s point, click and scan your items, expediting the time it takes to do your shopping and check out. All it takes with their product is a quick minute or two to pay the bill at the register.

There was some discussion of the venture capitalists having to overhaul their internal infrastructure and be more cautious about the types of investments for the future. The old ways of doing business is not working in this economy. Some professionals are jumping ship from traditional firms to start funds of their own to take advantage of the up and coming industries. In the past, too much money was being thrown at IT and very few deals are coming together now.

Business Week reported in These Angels Go Where Others Fear to Tread ( June 1, 2009 issue), that more and more people are shying away from the venture capitalists to further conduct business and are seeking help from angel investors. Josh Kopelman, founder of First Round Capital reported, “…many old-line firms have gotten too big and unwieldy to build innovative companies the way they used to, and many angels, individuals who invest in start-ups, don’t have enough money to back most high-tech ideas . The article continues to discuss the importance “to take [venture capital]..back to its roots, when firms were smaller, more nimble and more likely to get start-ups off the ground.”

More links from Business Week about the attitude around the VC community

Is There An Angel in the Hub?

Angel Investors

As an entrepreneur, angels can be another route to get your business off the ground. Some New England leaders at different local organizations had spoken at the conference. These included Jean Hammond, of Boston’s Golden Seeds, Ham Lord of Launchpad Venture Group, and David Verrill of Hub Angels to name a few, who provided some advice to prepare promising entrepreneurs with the proper tips when approaching angels.

• Find someone you want to target that has experience in your business, or someone that can help to network you in.
• Make sure to have an interesting set of people that are working for your business that can bring diverse skills to the table.
• Be sure to have a great connection to customers and consider bringing a few to the meeting when pitching your product and/or service.
• Make sure to have a proof of concept, patents, etc, validate your target market needs/wants.
• Prove that you have thought through the parameters around the exit and make sure the right fund is a strategic fit.

New Investment Opportunities:
Boston VC’s Offer Hope on the Horizon

Managers of many of the local venture capitalist firms also spoke about the opportunities in Cleantech, discovering new tools and uses within digital media, eCommerce and mobile as a few contenders for consideration. David Beisel, VP at Venrock sees new hope in performance advertising where there is a shift in publishing to ad networks and/or real-time ad exchanges. Yet, in some instances, ad networks can hurt publishers as the business scales. Bob Davis, General Partner at Highland Capital Partners, said there is very little interest in media companies. So if you’re looking to attract any interest, you must be able to engage 100 million unique users each day and the audience must be measurable. Alan Spoon, Managing General Partner at Polaris Ventures spoke about how social media platforms may create awareness, but monetizing this is still a tough struggle. It’s key to focus on what platforms you are using, and what types of intellectual property has been created that can be of value to other companies who wish to acquire those aspects of the business.

Cleantech, Mobile, Digital Tools, eCommerce

Jeff Bussgang, General Partner of Flybridge Capital Partners commented on additional areas of growth which includes virtual goods, where people are willing to pay a premium for a service such as certain subscriptions or online games.

Marketing Matters

Kopelman also sees light at the end of the tunnel vested in interest to “building businesses on information freely on the web, or disrupting markets with cheaper web technology.” As technology has improved, the barriers to entry for many are few, thus positioning many entrepreneurs down an easier path of getting the business off the ground. However, some are finding it tough to gain customer acquisition and further online engagement with their brands that could be attractive to potential investors. In that case Kopelman states, “hire a marketing executive and launch a guerilla campaign.”

Too often, I’ve seen companies, especially new start-ups overly focused on the product and technology development neglecting one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. MARKETING. You can have the best product, but until one can easily identify “what can this product/service do for me?”, then you could have a problem. I’ve seen quite a few glitzy designed websites, all beautiful, but showcasing models, graphs, technical jargon, you name it – still no understanding of the target with the proper research to create a brand that could attract audiences. A skilled-marketer should be a part of the product development and go-to-market plans early on communicating with all parties. This prevents getting too far along the process by taking into consideration how to attract the audience, how to understand the audience, how to define the needs of the audience, and learn to market the business in the right fashion.

Tell me more about your business and be featured potentially in a future blog post. What challenges have you encountered?  What avenues have you considered for your marketing and sales strategy, or what would you like to learn in hopes to attract interest from potential investors? I welcome an opportunity to consult with you, or become a future member of your team in a marketing or business development role.

An article last year in eWeek,“Why Are There so Few Women Tech Entrepreneurs?” featured a report from Business Week showcasing the best young entrepreneurs in tech most likely to shape the world’s digital future. Of the 45 entrepreneurs, only three were women. It still rings true today, where I’ve noticed a gap with many online start-ups dominated by men with engineering backgrounds who continue to gain the attention and support by the media and venture firms. There are a select group of women professionals who have gone out on a limb and have been noted for their accomplishments in technology and digital developments. Well, maybe it’s a matter of time more women come together highlighting the accomplishments of other women.

Joan of Arc was a peasant girl, who despite her circumstances and an army of men, felt obligated to help lead the people of France to defeat the English. At a time of battle, she was capable of raising the spirits of the French troops securing control of Orleans.

Many times, women are the brainchild for new ideas and unfortunately still aren’t given the recognition or taken seriously for their work as some men. Center for Women’s Business Research (CWBR), reported that 10.1 million businesses are owned by women and this accounts for 40% of all privately held firms in the United States. These women run operations attribute to generating 1.1 trillion dollars in sales.

Is it really still a boys club and can’t the gals play with the venture capitalist crowd? I’ve thought it would be a great alternative to create a women owned VC firm that supports women driven businesses. Forbes magazine selected some of the top women with the Midas Touch to support the growth of new businesses after going out on their own to create their own firms. Many were tired of playing only with the boys club and decided it was best to be entrepreneurial as well. Myra Hart, a retired Harvard professor, conducted a report alongside Patricia Greene of Babson College, and other notable women researchers called The Diana Project. They reviewed many of the myths for women entrepreneurs seeking venture capital funding. In the report, “there was a noticeable trend where women received a disproportionately low amount of the venture capital available in the United States,” as reported in eWeek. During these tough economic times, it has created new challenges for both men and women entrepreneurs to seek the necessary funding for the growth of their business where new sources of financial support will be in need.

Why is it some men work together and become mentors for one another, while for the most part some women compete often against one another? Women need to bond together as much as men to move the army of talented individuals to the forefront of the battleground to win. I was considering today that there are few resources that promote the success stories, as well as hearing the challenges for women in the digital space. It would be great to share these experiences first-hand with others, or help connect people that want to make a contribution to new developments. It always interests me to create programs that can cultivate new talent to thrive, brings together people of different backgrounds and different areas of expertise to help new ideas, inspire entrepreneurship, or provide the proper tools to individuals about marketing, sales, and creating further awareness. I would like to join the ranks of women in leadership for making a remarkable and memorable change to empower people, while celebrating our similarities and embracing our differences.

I continue to work towards leading others, or learning from other leaders which include both men and women. It’s about time in 2009 that more organizations such as Girls in Tech have started to develop local chapters to support women of all ages seeking advancement and resources.

For some reason the competition between certain women in power remains strong and not supportive, while men look beyond that with their colleagues in the workforce. New programs for women is a positive thing, however, there is much needed focus at an earlier age for young girls and older women to change the old attitudes about competition and be in touch with collaboration and mentoring one another.

Are you a Joan of Arc in the Making? Or, do you know of one? Let me know!

Tomorrow’s Future is Now

I’ve been researching and thinking about areas that could use new development to help shape our future. Let’s think for a moment a place where one may not have been so fortunate to pursue higher education, but needs the resources available to better connect with others to pursue his/her dreams. Let’s think for a minute, the child in China, Brazil, or even Afghanistan that wants to connect with another child in the United States to tell someone what their daily life is REALLY like and not what the media portrays. Let’s think about connecting people, especially young with old to mentor, tackle real-world projects together, learn from or influence one another. Or, let’s think about this scenario, where a company is struggling lacking the resources to handle programming a new website or application, but a 16 year-old enjoys taking the time to figure these things out and doesn’t know how to bring to market his/her talent. We need to create more environments that prepare young people in this new virtual world to experiment and be open to becoming the entrepreneurs and leaders of tomorrow.

The opportunities in the online business community are going to be the driving force for the future in every industry.  I’ve been considering how I could be a significant individual to help bring together like-minded people to better shape the educational institutions, encourage the companies of today to embrace the new ways of doing business, as well as partner with the youth of tomorrow.

LET’S COME TOGETHER WITH THE COMMON GOAL & LET’S WORK TOGETHER.

Whether one is pursuing his/her MBA, finishing their undergraduate program, or sitting in today’s high schools, young people are embracing the web and tend to be the first to adopt new technology and the different uses of the internet. They use it, have fun with it and enjoy spending time experimenting with the new tools. Why not help them understand how to take something they enjoy and turn it into something marketable as professionals. Why not let them collaborate with others that seek to learn, but feel too overwhelmed and not sure where to start. Why not help build the confidence and provide the opportunity to people of all ages that have the potential to go far with their talent and creativity.

Inspiring Teens to Get Down to Business

We need to provide teens more opportunities in the high school classroom to conduct a case analysis for a small business down the street, or give an opportunity to assist a large corporation, or maybe contribute to the growth of a new non-profit. Why not provide the window into a new world for companies looking to develop innovative ways about solving a problem, create more internships, or provide a setting for young people to express themselves whether virtually in groups, or meeting together face-to-face at conferences across the globe. Why not create a way for teens to document their professional growth in a place they can make their own.

All of these efforts as a way to inspire and groom today’s youth professionally, using the new social tools available online.  At the same time, older individuals will also find the joy of sharing their knowledge and will gain a new prospective in these new learning/work environments.

Here are a few that are beginning to dream that dream, so why don’t we come together to form a strong foundation in order to suspend a global bridge.

MacArthur Digital Media and Learning

RenegadeCEO’s

YouthActionNet

TechStars

YouthVenture

Northeastern University’s Co-op Program

Generations Incorporated

TeensInTech

InternshipIN

DoSomething

One Laptop Per Child

What about the individual that wanted to go to Harvard Business school, wasn’t quite the best at standardized tests, or didn’t have the finances, but knew deep down they could benefit from the program and be the next leader. Why do we shut-down that opportunity for some and not take what Harvard, or other great universities have offered to create new programs for people not as fortunate to take advantage of these occasions. In today’s world, why do we continue to limit people from new ways of working together to build better businesses. Another example is why are trade conventions only available to an elite group to network for those that are employed by organizations that can afford to pay thousands of dollars to attend? Just think of the value of sharing that knowledge with others that could benefit? It’s great that new organizations are starting to form in cities and towns as there is increased demand for these networking events with little or no cost.

We are all questioning what the future will bring. The decline in our economy has dealt with a few crooks along the way that didn’t help any of us, but there will always be new ones around the corner. We can’t push the blame and we can’t continue to put up walls to stifle productivity. Now its’ evident big business is not surviving sticking to some of the old processes and procedures. We are living in a time where we can’t close doors anymore, but rather we need to smash some of the old standard practices and be open to new ideas, flourish in new work settings, and offer new programs to uplift others and allow people to shine together. We need to create more outlets to inspire hope and provide resources to everyone that are dedicated to making their dreams a reality. One may lack the resources or understanding how to accomplish their goals in the business community and get their ideas off the ground. This is why we need to continue to build a bridge that knocks down the walls to provide the guidance and steps to all individuals, all backgrounds, and all minorities. Hmmm..I like the sound of that!

Check out: CMi known as the Cambridge MicroFinance Initiative, holding a special event this Saturday, February 21st, 2008 at 10:00 am, offering a Small Business Crash Course Conference on campus at Harvard University. Looks like the crimson colored college is coming together to seek new ways to reach out to the community and support new business developments.

Words of Wisdom: Not What It’s Cracked Up to Be

At the The State Of the Consumer Internet event, Jeff Taylor, CEO of Eons.com and Tributes.com, discussed the ineffectiveness of some online advertising tools such as search engine marketing (SEM) as one avenue for marketers. He called it the “advertising crack,” as a way to reach out and gain new customers quickly using advertisements through keywords and other paid placement.

Go ahead, take a hit and see what immediate results this new addictive drug for some can bring. It may attract volume, but it will be short-lived. You may see a spike where people will hit your site and drive new traffic, only to fall flat quickly. Usually, people are not interested to be further engaged with your product creating deeper relationships with the content and making greater connections using these types of short-lived marketing tactics. One can have lots of traffic, but what is the quality of that traffic that decides to make a new space one’s home, rather than bounce around leaving the site looking for something new. One needs to measure those significant connections, review the important metrics to recognize the interactions with the content, and how people are spreading the word virally to others both online and offline.

Dave Balter, also agrees bringing people naturally to you, as he continues to keep the BzzAgents authentic with their comments in regards to his clients products, as well as enthusiastic to work with them. One bad “Bzz” experience can tarnish it for everyone.

Tradition Has It’s Place in the Digital Space
Marketing your business in the right fashion to not only engage, but retain audiences is important. One can have the best search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in place and utilize some creative SEM campaigns, but in the end, how is one going to keep a person attracted in the long-run? Providing value keeping in mind what others seek – “What’s in it for me” (WIFM), maintaining an authentic voice, staying abreast of the market trends where there are new needs, desires and interests, networking with others face-to-face, virtually testing new approaches to reach others, as well as traditional strategies to market is an opportunity to grow a new business concept.

So as you are playing with Facebook, or other websites online and you come across things such as RunKeeper.com and say to yourself, “That’s cool – why didn’t I think of that!” I took that opportunity and meet with Jason Jacobs, who created this service among other webpreneurs that are diving into the digital world hoping to Google their way to the top and gain popularity with others. You’d be surprised how many people got their start in this space right in my own backyard of Boston. Whether I consult people, start a site of my own and become a Webpreneur, I enjoy helping to shape that goal for myself and others. Boston’s Mayor Menino and other professionals are taking strides through the launch of the BostonWorldPartnerships.com with an interest to help others promote entrepreneurship building a bridge for the future of business in this area.

Last night, Doug Levin, an entrepreneur and advisor coordinated a speaking engagement to discuss The State Of the Consumer Internet. Welcomed at the event was a select group of individuals that listen attentively to a group of webpreneurs on a panel which included Dave Balter – CEO of word-of-mouth agency BzzAgent, Jeff Bussgang – General Partner of Flybridge Capital, Jeff Taylor – CEO of Eons.com, Tributes.com and founder of Monster.com, Scott Savitz – CEO of Shoebuy.com and newcomer CEO Brad Rosen, of Drync.com which provides a new iPhone application for wine connoisseurs. Among the crowd was Mr. Dan Bricklin, someone we all need to pay homage to for inventing the first spreadsheet.

We’re Making History Baby!
The event was held at The Vilna Shul, a historic Boston synagogue located in Beacon Hill. The environment provided a backdrop with an interesting blend of two worlds mixing the old with the new. As we sat in the temple, one could appreciate the restoration process that was being used to discover the true beauty in the art found behind the walls, while the audience was able to network and learn about the beauty from within each individual. The audience listened with admiration to the executives recounting  their experiences, while some individuals were hoping to make history one day themselves.

Dan recorded the event (MP3 Audio File), so I would like to share it with all of you. Some of the people you hear in the crowd could be the new webpreneurs of tomorrow experimenting in this space, seeking answers from those that have had great success. Who knows, you may learn something of your own, or say, “I use that application on my iPhone, Facebook page, or that’s really neat.” You may want to be apart of that new business development happening, or one day look back on some of the ideas discussed today and say, “I knew them before they were stars,” in the digital space.

Washington DC’s very own Nick O’Neill has launched another blog called Social Times.  He’ll cover all aspects of social media and social networking.  His blog also has an offline component where he’ll help to promote social networking related events. Nick also writes for All Facebook and his personal blog The Webpreneur.

It’s exciting to see more activity in the DC Web scene.  I look forward to tracking Nick’s success with this blog and many others.

Today marks the beginning of a new story. A story which actually started long ago but just decided to emerge in a digital format this very day.

Yes. I’m a webpreneur. Have been one for the last 7 years and as long as the internet exists I will try to adjust to its evolutionary and never ending metamorphosis.

I often wonder how many webpreneurs feel their webpreneurship came about by chance?

I did … until one day while meditating I realized. Hey, I’m a webpreneur … because it was meant to be.

My destiny, if you believe in it or not (doesn’t matter to me) also exists in the digital realm.

If you think about it… we are all beings of energy. Yes.. we are made up of cells, which are in turn made up of molecules, and atoms which are made up of pure energy. Our energy includes everything we feel, think and do; and our creations are an extension of the energy we have put forth.

Does this mean that the internet could hold the very essence of our being?

That’s a question you must ask yourself…

Do you take the laptop with you when you go to the toilet? I’ve heard of it happening many a times. LOL

But seriously. For some, the internet has become a vehicle for true expression of the soul. Things that a person would have never dreamed of sharing in any digital form (written, audio, video, animation etc…) are being shared by the terabytes every single millisecond.

Have you ever read or heard about the quantum leap? If you took Physics or Chemistry you may have… and I truly believe that the internet has provided the closest vehicle to duplicating this mysterious fact of nature.

So what does this have to do with being a webpreneur. Well … if we are made up of energy and we create energy in everything we do, with the internet holding an insurmountable amount of energy, can’t then the internet be the medium by which we expand our horizons?