The Main Problem Making Money With Google AdSense

Making Money Online With Google AdSense

First Published: May 22, 2011 EntrepreneurJourney.com

AdSense makes money; there is no doubt about it. However, it’s not a perfectly flawless system you should rely on to make your only source of income. Today, I am going to touch base on this a little bit based on my AdSense experience.

The main problem I am having with Adsense is the tremendous level of fluctuation. There are days when I make good money from Adsense, and there are days when I make not so good money. You may say that proper AdSense optimization should solve this problem. Yes, I thought the same way and experimented optimization only to figure out that this heavy fluctuation is out of my hand. It’s kind of like the Internet has its slow traffic days and high traffic days and we have no control over it.

If I have a situation in which I have no control, I try to resolve it working on something in which I have full control. In the above scenario, instead of wasting too much time on fixing Adsense, I worked to diversify my ad revenues. Besides Adsense, I am running Infolinks, Chitika, and some private ads (mainly on A Dawn Journal). My least expected ad system Infolinks is actually making me the most unexpected money. There are days when my Infolinks revenues beat Google Adsense. I know it is hard to believe, but it has happened a few times in the past.

Just like about anything else in life, online money making sources need to be diversified as well. The century old Adage “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies to Internet entrepreneurship as well and you should never bet all your sites on one income source.

Attributes Entrepreneurs Should Have

What Are Entrepreneur Attributes?

First Published: Apr 16, 2011 EntrepreneurJourney.com

So you want to be an entrepreneur? Well, do you think you have the attributes that are needed to be an entrepreneur? Well, here are just a few of the attributes you need to make sure you are successful as an entrepreneur.

First of all, you need to be a leader. Leaders are the ones who take charge and make things happen. As a leader, you know how to get things done and that is a useful skill to have when you are an entrepreneur. You will lead your company and you will know the type of people you want around you in order to be successful. According to Robert B. Reich, leadership is the most important quality to have as an entrepreneur. As a leader, you will see opportunities around you and you will know to act upon them. You will be able to solve problems and recognize the solutions before you.

As an entrepreneur, you may be working with someone else at first in a company that you are en employee of. However, as you are a leader you will soon want to get out of that situation and away from your peers so you can stand out. This is where two more attributes come in; risk-taking and extroversion. Extroversion is very important because you need to be out-going so you can win clients and get people over to your company. However, more importantly, you need to be willing to take risks. This is because you will need to take risks to be successful. According to experts, an entrepreneur is a risk-taker because they know how to be innovative, how to increase their efficiency and productivity and how to generate new services that people may not even realize they need.

As an entrepreneur, you will see opportunities before you and you will know how to make them work to your advantage. When others are simply watching the world go by, you will be a person who stops the world so that you can achieve what you want.

There is the belief that men make better entrepreneurs than women but this is false. There have been many studies and they show that men and women both have the same type of attributes that will make them successful as an entrepreneurs. If you believe that as a woman, or as a man, you are not suited to be an entrepreneur then you need to begin to challenge yourself so that you can be a successful entrepreneur.

Of course, just because you do not have these attributes that does not mean you won’t be successful. The important thing is that you know how to challenge yourself to make things happen in your life. If you can do this, then you will be successful. If you can just get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself, you will be amazed at what you can achieve in your life. All you can do is try and see where you go with it.

How To Market Your Business On The Cheap

Marketing Your Business Cheap

As an entrepreneur, you are under the gun to succeed because you have put not only your reputation, but your financial future on the line. As a result, you need to find a way to reach customers without spending too much. You don’t have the marketing budget of Coca-Cola, so don’t try to market like them. You need to find a way to market yourself a at low cost, so you can maximize your profits. Getting the most customers, for the lowest amount, is the goal you should set for yourself. So, what do you need to do to market yourself to your customers?

• Provide excellent service and encourage word-of-mouth advertising. When you do this, you are using the best form of advertising, which is word-of-mouth. People trust their friends and family and if those people tell them that you do great work or sell excellent products, that can mean more than a $2 million Super Bowl commercial. Offer your customers deals on future purchases for the business they bring in from their friends and family and always be there for your customers with great service. 
• Forget about newspaper advertising and television advertising, it is too expensive and it doesn’t always work that well. Instead, advertise with promotional gifts. This way you are giving your customers something they can use and wear, while they advertise your company. It works like this, your customer buys something and you give them a free t-shirt with your company name on it. They wear that shirt when they are out and they are a walking billboard for you. People see your company name and logo and the more they see it, the greater the brand awareness is. 
• Go out and find your customers. You don’t need to wait for your customers to come to you, so why not go to them? Bring brochures about your business and go door-to-door if you have to. That shows your customers you are willing to do the leg work for their business and that will earn you respect, which is vitally important. 
• Find ways to out-do your competitors through sponsorship. Show your customers that you care about the people in the community by sponsoring charitable events and offering money or your services to help. You can provide money to churches, charities, schools, animal shelters and community events. That not only gets your name out there, but the more people see it, the more they will recognize you and that will help you make more money from your customers.

Marketing yourself and your business is not always cheap or easy, but by using these methods you can save money and gain customers. You want to get loyal customers because a loyal customer can be worth as many as 10 non-loyal customer. Even if the loyal customer does not spend as much each visit, they will keep coming back and keep recommending your business to others. So market your company properly, get loyal customers and move into the future with your business.
First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Published on: Oct 30, 2010

The Best Small Business Ideas

Top Small Business Ideas and Tips

When you decide to start a small business, you need to determine what idea is going to work the best for you. There are often many ideas to choose from, but the world is changing and the entrepreneur has to change with it. So, in the 21st century, what ideas for a small business are the best? You have to consider how easy it is to start up, and how much it costs. So, here are some of the best businesses to start up as an entrepreneur

1. Yoga Instructor: You don’t need a studio, you can go directly to your clients and all you need is a yoga certification to start this job, making it very cheap to start.
2. Tutoring: If you are skilled in something, then being a tutor is a very cheap business to start. All you need are the books for what you are teaching and a few flyers put up around schools. At that point, you will have everything you need to start this business.
3. Consulting: If you are an expert in a particular sector, then you may want to start a business working as a consultant. You will help businesses and individuals do better in their industry by using your own knowledge to help them.
4. Medical/Legal Transcribing: If you can type fast, have the right equipment and can do a training course, then this is a good business to start because of its low cost and high demand.
5. Web Design: The internet has been around for 15 years, and yet there are still millions of people who need websites to add to the billions already online. If you can make a good web site and have the skills for it, then this is a good job for you. It will allow you to do business from home, while making a lot of money.
6. Photography: If you have a good camera, know how to use it and love to take pictures, then photography may be a good business for yourself. As a photographer, you would take pictures of families, birthdays, weddings, funerals and more. You will also be able to sell pictures online, while editing photos and selling them at everything from sporting matches to school events.
7. Interior Design: If you know how to make things look good and like to do interior design in your own home, then you may want to consider doing it in another person’s home. It is a good business that is easy to start up, cheap to run and highly in demand.
8. Personal Shopper: Do you love to shop and want to spend someone else’s money? Then you can shop for people who are too busy to shop for themselves. This is a good business that is fun, cheap and easy to start up.

As an entrepreneur, you need to find a business that is going to work for you but is going to be cheap to start up. The right business, at the right price, in the right market, can make you a lot of money.
First Published: Published on: Oct 24, 2010 EntrepreneurJourney.com

You Need Only One Strange Idea To Become A Successful Entrepreneur

Being An Entrepreneur With A Strange Idea

When we think of successful entrepreneurs, we think of Richard Branson and Bill Gates, two people who made huge companies out of nothing, making things people need. However, being an entrepreneur also means taking an idea no one has, and turning it into something people will want, even though they do not need what you are selling. Case in point, the pet rock, possibly one of the greatest entrepreneur stories of all time.

Gary Dahl was just an advertising executive from Los Gatos, California, when he hit upon a strange idea. He was sitting in a bar in 1975, listening to friends complain about their pets. From this, he hit upon the idea of creating the perfect pet, which led to the idea of selling rocks to people, complete with instructions. The manual stated that a rock did not need to be fed, walked, bathed, groomed, would not die, become sick or disobey you. He drafted the manual that night at home for the pet rock, filling it with gags and puns and making it seem as though the pet rock was an actual pet.

Dahl then went to a building supply store and bought a bunch of rocks, which he put in cardboard boxes with straw in them and breathing holes. In 1975, Dahl created Rock Bottom Productions, which sold rocks for $3.95. The manual was 32 pages long and was called The Care And Training Of Your Pet Rock, and had everything for caring for your pet rock including feeding and bathing it. It also showed how to teach the rock to sit and stay and even how to roll over, come and stand with help from the owner.  The expenses for this venture were minimal, with the biggest expense being the die cutting and manufacture of the boxes. The boxes themselves cost one penny, while the straw was free. Dahl also had a printing job for a client and had the manuals printed as part of it, meaning he had nearly no expenses for the pet rock.

The pet rock fad lasted for six months in total, but during that short run, which hit the Christmas season, millions of pet rocks were sold. From getting the idea for a pet rock in April 1975, to December 1975 when the fad ended, Dahl became a millionaire based on an idea most would have thought of as completely insane and doomed to failure.

The point of this story is to show that strange ideas can make a lot of money if you know how to market it properly. Selling rocks to people may seem stupid, but it made one man millions of dollars and it has served as an example of how being an entrepreneur can mean following your dreams and ideas and seeing them pay off for yourself. Sure, it only lasted six months but Dahl has more money than he needs now because he took a risk, which is what being an entrepreneur is all about.
First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Oct 3, 2010