Sam Yagan's first successful business idea came to him in the middle of an all-nighter during his senior year at Harvard. His paper on Hamlet was due the next day, and he was kicking himself for not buying the CliffsNotes version of the play before the bookstore closed. "Why can't a student get a study guide at midnight?" he asked himself, and SparkNotes was born.
The series of free online study guides acquired by Barnes & Noble in 2001 for $3.55 million. At Stanford Business School, a different question, "Why can't online dating be free?" led him to his latest project, OkCupid.
His advice for would-be entrepreneurs: Instead of spending a lot of time waiting for a great business idea to suddenly materialize, get out in the world and ask questions. "If you look at things with a quizzical approach, you're going to uncover a lot of opportunities. A lot of times the answers you come up with are going to be wrong, but if you keep asking questions, eventually you'll hit on the little thing that's not quite right, and go from there."
More at:http://www.sparknotes.com/
Monday, June 4, 2007
How To Become A Product Entreprenuer
A very important topic to talk about is how to organize your time when working on your blog or web site. Many readers ask me how I structure my day and it has taken me a couple of months to get to a point where I can function at my peak levels. I will share a few suggestions with you that can really help you be more productive.
Keep A To-Do List.
Each day when you wake up, write down the top 5-10 things you have to accomplish that day. It is best to not do any other web based activities until you can cross off each item on your list because it is too easy to get caught up reading other blogs and forums before getting your own work done. Before you know it, you have spent 3 hours reading and getting none of your work done. If you did not finish an item from your list, carry it over to the next day.
Assign A Certain Amount Of Time For Important Items.
Tell yourself the first thing you will do each morning is check and respond to email for 30 minutes. I know some people think email should not be the first thing you do in the morning, but I prefer to get it out of the way first. You also never know who sent you a pressing item that can help you monetize your site. If you read an email but do not respond immediately, mark it “un-read” so you do not forget that you have to respond later.
Figure Out What You Like Least And Make Yourself Spend Time Doing It.
Sometimes I struggle to write ReviewMe posts and the only way I can get myself to do it is if I sit down and tell myself that for the next 2-3 hours, the only thing I will do is research and review the web site. I force myself to write a review and I go back and proof read it later. Whatever your weak points are, be sure to take the time to do them anyways. They could be valuable to your readers and your blog’s value.
Do Not Check Stats More Than Twice Per Day.
This is a big one. So many people waiste time hitting refresh on their visitor stats and affiliate sales all day. I used to do the same, only to realize that my productivity is so much better now that I only check stats once in the morning and once in the evening. There is nothing you can do to increase your statistics that much by hitting refresh every 10 minutes that you cannot do by checking stats in the beginning and end of the day. Try this for a few days and you will be happy you did.
More at:http://www.johnchow.com/maximize-your-daily-efficiency/
Keep A To-Do List.
Each day when you wake up, write down the top 5-10 things you have to accomplish that day. It is best to not do any other web based activities until you can cross off each item on your list because it is too easy to get caught up reading other blogs and forums before getting your own work done. Before you know it, you have spent 3 hours reading and getting none of your work done. If you did not finish an item from your list, carry it over to the next day.
Assign A Certain Amount Of Time For Important Items.
Tell yourself the first thing you will do each morning is check and respond to email for 30 minutes. I know some people think email should not be the first thing you do in the morning, but I prefer to get it out of the way first. You also never know who sent you a pressing item that can help you monetize your site. If you read an email but do not respond immediately, mark it “un-read” so you do not forget that you have to respond later.
Figure Out What You Like Least And Make Yourself Spend Time Doing It.
Sometimes I struggle to write ReviewMe posts and the only way I can get myself to do it is if I sit down and tell myself that for the next 2-3 hours, the only thing I will do is research and review the web site. I force myself to write a review and I go back and proof read it later. Whatever your weak points are, be sure to take the time to do them anyways. They could be valuable to your readers and your blog’s value.
Do Not Check Stats More Than Twice Per Day.
This is a big one. So many people waiste time hitting refresh on their visitor stats and affiliate sales all day. I used to do the same, only to realize that my productivity is so much better now that I only check stats once in the morning and once in the evening. There is nothing you can do to increase your statistics that much by hitting refresh every 10 minutes that you cannot do by checking stats in the beginning and end of the day. Try this for a few days and you will be happy you did.
More at:http://www.johnchow.com/maximize-your-daily-efficiency/
Earn Money With These Sites
Adoptme.com - Win $100 just for adopting a free virtual pet. Open to all ages.
OvernightStars.com - Win cash prizes in this American Idol type online talent search. Free to enter and open to all ages.
HotPlaylists.com - Win $100 for sharing your iPod song list with your friends online. This site will automatically import your iTunes playlist and create a free page for you listing all your songs. You can also use song lists from Winamp, Windows Media Player, & other music programs.
Halloween Costume Contest - Win $100 just for submitting your photo or see people in their outrageous costumes. Also enter the Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest and win $100.
Earn Cash Online - Get paid to read emails, play video games, sign up for online offers, and fill out surveys.
VirtualMiners.com - Dig for gold and win up to $25 cash. Free to enter, open to all ages.
Mystery Photo Game - View a photo of a small part of an item and try to guess what the item is. All correct guesses are entered to win $10 each week.
TriviaBucks.com - Win money by answering trivia questions. Free to enter and open to all ages.
LifeBets.com - A free game where you bet fake money on the outcome of current events like "will Hillary Clinton become President" or "will Britney Spears win an Oscar"? The top 3 players win real cash prizes. Must be age 13+ to win.
Global Test Market - Share your opinions and get paid. Age 14+.
SigTrader.com - Do you make posts to forums, newsgroups, or online communities? If so, make money by selling the ad space in your signature line. No listing fees or commisssions. Open to all ages.
WallStreetPros.com - A free virtual stock market game where you buy and sell stocks using pretend money. The player who's stocks go up the most will win a $100 cash prize (in real money). Must be age 13+ to win.
StreetRacingWar.com - A free online role playing game (RPG) where you can win a $100 cash prize if you get the highest score. The objective is to get your friends to click your special link. Each click you receive builds up your score. You can also attack other users to steal their money, and you can purchase offensive/defensive items with your game cash. No age restrictions.
Survey Club - Get paid to take surveys online.
Treasure Trooper - Get paid to sign up for online offers, many of which are free to join. You also get rewarded with virtual gold coins and other treasures that can be redeemed for fun goodies including pieces of the Treasure Map. In addition, you get 20% of the money that anybody you refer to the site makes, plus an additional 5% of your friends' friends' profits.
E-Poll - Take online surveys and win free prizes: CD's, movies, video games, gift certificates and more. The more surveys you take, the more prizes you win. Must be 13 years of age or older.
TeenOffers.com - Free stuff for teens: video games, cd's, magazines, contests, beauty products, posters, and more. Only lists free offers that don't have minimum age requirements.
Are You or Your Family Owed Unclaimed Money? - You may be owed unclaimed money by the government. Search the FindMoney.com database of over 11 million names for FREE to see if you name is on the list. This money can come from such sources as old bank accounts, wills, insurance, tax refunds, and previous employers.
Get Rich Online - Dozens of free tools that you can use to create and run your own website. Sell stuff online or make a site with interesting content and sell ads on it.
Search Cactus - A search engine where you get paid for each search you do. Must be at least 13 years old and a U.S. resident.
Get Paid To Take Surveys - US residents only, age 13 or over.
Win Up To $10,000 for taking surveys online.
Make Money Surfing The Web - pays you up to $500 cash instantly for signing up for free offers, searching the web, shopping online, and more. They have paid out over 9 million dollars so far. You must be 13 years of age or older to participate.
Do you want an extra $1,000? - The NPD Group is a top-ten marketing research company and we are looking for people just like YOU. If you're interested in answering online surveys, and would like the chance to win CASH this is a great opportunity for you! This offer expires soon, so join today!
More at:http://www.bored.com/categories/paidtoplay/paidtoplay.html
OvernightStars.com - Win cash prizes in this American Idol type online talent search. Free to enter and open to all ages.
HotPlaylists.com - Win $100 for sharing your iPod song list with your friends online. This site will automatically import your iTunes playlist and create a free page for you listing all your songs. You can also use song lists from Winamp, Windows Media Player, & other music programs.
Halloween Costume Contest - Win $100 just for submitting your photo or see people in their outrageous costumes. Also enter the Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest and win $100.
Earn Cash Online - Get paid to read emails, play video games, sign up for online offers, and fill out surveys.
VirtualMiners.com - Dig for gold and win up to $25 cash. Free to enter, open to all ages.
Mystery Photo Game - View a photo of a small part of an item and try to guess what the item is. All correct guesses are entered to win $10 each week.
TriviaBucks.com - Win money by answering trivia questions. Free to enter and open to all ages.
LifeBets.com - A free game where you bet fake money on the outcome of current events like "will Hillary Clinton become President" or "will Britney Spears win an Oscar"? The top 3 players win real cash prizes. Must be age 13+ to win.
Global Test Market - Share your opinions and get paid. Age 14+.
SigTrader.com - Do you make posts to forums, newsgroups, or online communities? If so, make money by selling the ad space in your signature line. No listing fees or commisssions. Open to all ages.
WallStreetPros.com - A free virtual stock market game where you buy and sell stocks using pretend money. The player who's stocks go up the most will win a $100 cash prize (in real money). Must be age 13+ to win.
StreetRacingWar.com - A free online role playing game (RPG) where you can win a $100 cash prize if you get the highest score. The objective is to get your friends to click your special link. Each click you receive builds up your score. You can also attack other users to steal their money, and you can purchase offensive/defensive items with your game cash. No age restrictions.
Survey Club - Get paid to take surveys online.
Treasure Trooper - Get paid to sign up for online offers, many of which are free to join. You also get rewarded with virtual gold coins and other treasures that can be redeemed for fun goodies including pieces of the Treasure Map. In addition, you get 20% of the money that anybody you refer to the site makes, plus an additional 5% of your friends' friends' profits.
E-Poll - Take online surveys and win free prizes: CD's, movies, video games, gift certificates and more. The more surveys you take, the more prizes you win. Must be 13 years of age or older.
TeenOffers.com - Free stuff for teens: video games, cd's, magazines, contests, beauty products, posters, and more. Only lists free offers that don't have minimum age requirements.
Are You or Your Family Owed Unclaimed Money? - You may be owed unclaimed money by the government. Search the FindMoney.com database of over 11 million names for FREE to see if you name is on the list. This money can come from such sources as old bank accounts, wills, insurance, tax refunds, and previous employers.
Get Rich Online - Dozens of free tools that you can use to create and run your own website. Sell stuff online or make a site with interesting content and sell ads on it.
Search Cactus - A search engine where you get paid for each search you do. Must be at least 13 years old and a U.S. resident.
Get Paid To Take Surveys - US residents only, age 13 or over.
Win Up To $10,000 for taking surveys online.
Make Money Surfing The Web - pays you up to $500 cash instantly for signing up for free offers, searching the web, shopping online, and more. They have paid out over 9 million dollars so far. You must be 13 years of age or older to participate.
Do you want an extra $1,000? - The NPD Group is a top-ten marketing research company and we are looking for people just like YOU. If you're interested in answering online surveys, and would like the chance to win CASH this is a great opportunity for you! This offer expires soon, so join today!
More at:http://www.bored.com/categories/paidtoplay/paidtoplay.html
Art Entreprenuership
The internet is true collaboration and communication realized.
It is time that artists are given the proper tools to benefit from this.
What if every creative professional on earth had the right to a virtual endless room?
By empowering art and artists through technology, we hope to provide every artist
with the opportunity to support themselves by doing what they love — for art’s sake.
To become a pre-beta tester and help shape the vision of this site, enter your email...
More at:http://www.endlessroom.com/
It is time that artists are given the proper tools to benefit from this.
What if every creative professional on earth had the right to a virtual endless room?
By empowering art and artists through technology, we hope to provide every artist
with the opportunity to support themselves by doing what they love — for art’s sake.
To become a pre-beta tester and help shape the vision of this site, enter your email...
More at:http://www.endlessroom.com/
xFruits is a mashup RSS feed creation tool to organize and manage your information systems online
xFruits is a mashup RSS feed creation tool to organize and manage your information systems online. So far, xFruits gives you a few tools they call “bricks” to enhance and simplify the composition of your online information systems. The bricks they have developed thus far are Aggregator RSS, RSS to Web, RSS to Mobile, Post to RSS, RSS to PDF, RSS to Mail, RSS to OPML, OPML to Mobile, Mail to RSS, and... (horns sound) RSS to Voice! Take as many bricks as you like and start building your own feed-based service, then post a link on your website that features the latest RSS feeds of your choosing, post it in your blog or share the link with friends.
“XFruits makes possible the Mashup RSS creation in a very simple way thanks to the Composer.
You can assemble the bricks together so as to build your own feed-based service.
"xFruiter" service's users are referenced.
xFruits has been thought of as from its origin to be upgradeable and modular, and thus, to allow a developer's community to take part in the project. Our ambition is to create dozens of new bricks!”
More at:http://xfruits.com/
“XFruits makes possible the Mashup RSS creation in a very simple way thanks to the Composer.
You can assemble the bricks together so as to build your own feed-based service.
"xFruiter" service's users are referenced.
xFruits has been thought of as from its origin to be upgradeable and modular, and thus, to allow a developer's community to take part in the project. Our ambition is to create dozens of new bricks!”
More at:http://xfruits.com/
CityPixel, the digital internet city. Travel, shop, interact with others, submit your artwork to be utilized on the website
Does reality bite or what? Get a helmet or get into CityPixel, the digital internet city. Travel, shop, interact with others, submit your artwork to be utilized on the website. CityPixel enables you to create your own apartment which more or less acts as your “profile” or home website in the internet city community. Add photos of yourself and arrange the furniture however you like, design it to give it your own personal flare. Unlike reality where the closest thing you have to cool neighbors is the octegenarian accordian player on the fifth floor, (actually true in my case) CityPixel´s apartment complex are full of interesting people you can talk to in your apartment or go into theirs. If you are feeling introverted, do the things you would normally do in real life, watch a video, play a game, explore your neighborhood and community art. This service is free of charge, all you have to do is sign up!
“citypixel is an Internet city. The intent is to provide our community a digital place to travel, shop, interact, and, well, everything else you'd do in a city!”
More at:http://www.citypixel.com/
“citypixel is an Internet city. The intent is to provide our community a digital place to travel, shop, interact, and, well, everything else you'd do in a city!”
More at:http://www.citypixel.com/
MassMirror is a free service that allows you to upload your files of all types: image, documents, music, etc
Need an easy way to upload and distribute files on the web? MassMirror is a free service that allows you to upload your files of all types: image, documents, music, etc., the service doubles as a mirroring service (pun completely intentional). Simply upload your file type to their server with their real-time progress bar. Then your file will be saved onto their supported free servers. From there you’re done, so you can do anything and everything with the link you like, well not everything. For instance, you cannot eat it for breakfast. You can share it with friends, family, co-workers, but it is not edible.
“MassMirror is the easiest way to upload your files to the world wide web. This free service allows you to upload any file (image, music, documents, and more.) for free to the Internet. It is great for distributing files to your friends, family, or co-workers.
This technology enables you to upload your file to our servers with a real-time progress bar. Your file will then be saved and stored on the free hosts we support. Then simply share the url to anyone with access to the world wide web. You can even use this service to mirror file downloads from your own site.
This is one of the most advanced, most compatible, quickest, and easiest upload services on the world wide web .
More at:http://www.massmirror.com/
“MassMirror is the easiest way to upload your files to the world wide web. This free service allows you to upload any file (image, music, documents, and more.) for free to the Internet. It is great for distributing files to your friends, family, or co-workers.
This technology enables you to upload your file to our servers with a real-time progress bar. Your file will then be saved and stored on the free hosts we support. Then simply share the url to anyone with access to the world wide web. You can even use this service to mirror file downloads from your own site.
This is one of the most advanced, most compatible, quickest, and easiest upload services on the world wide web .
More at:http://www.massmirror.com/
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