The Wall Street Journal put out a story recently on how young entrepreneurs face greater challenges than their older counterparts when they are starting a new business.

The article mentions that with the success of YouTube and other dot come ventures, young entrepreneurs are flocking to get their own companies started but they are strapped for cash and often don’t have the financial stamina to succeed. According to one young entrepreneur they interviewed, “the most difficult challenge is convincing people that you’re savvy enough to do something even at a young age.”

They offer five suggestions for how young entrepreneurs can successfully pitch investors, partners, and customers to get them to believe in your idea and give you the money you need to succeed.

1. Be persistent - “Persistence does work,” says Ms. Darrah, 28, co-founder of Treesje, a handbag and accessory company in Los Angeles. “We wanted to be in Bloomingdales since the very beginning, but got the brush off for the first two years of business. They finally got back with us last year, and now our bags are in Bloomingdales.”

2. Partner up - For young entrepreneurs with no track record of success, the right connection can mean the difference between being in business or not. Unfortunately, most young entrepreneurs lack these all-important relationships. It can help to find a partner that does.

3. Hire the connections - If a partner isn’t readily available, another option is to hire a professional that does. A business consultant, marketing expert or publicist can bring a Rolodex of contacts that a young entrepreneur might not have.

4. Stand out from the crowd - “I think the main problem was getting people to take me seriously since I was so young when I started,” says Tina Wells, who started Buzz Marketing Group, a youth-focused marketing-services company, at the age of 16. “Be willing to take risks in your work,” she says. “For instance, Buzz Marketing published a report that said that college students did not think downloading was illegal, and they were not going to stop. This got a lot of attention for us.”

5. Launch it anyway - “If you’re young and have a great idea for a company or product, you probably won’t get far in pitching an idea that is just on paper to a large company or investor,” says Carlos Barrionuevo, director of business development at NPR (National Public Radio). “Set a vision for what it could be, and do as much as you can on your own. Demonstrate some amount of success. Even if it’s in a small way, others can see where it’s going.”

What have you done to convince investors, partners, or customers to believe in you despite not having a track record behind you?

Evan Carmichael

You hear a lot about the importance of optimizing your website so you can drive more traffic from Google and the other search engines - but how important is it to be on the first page versus the other pages? Does it make all that much of a difference if you are on page one or page 3?

Well according to a recent study, the answer is Yes!

iProspect put out a white paper based on their research of search engine user behavior. They measured the impact that it can have on your business depending on where you rank for a certain keyword.

Their results show that 62% of the clicks for any particular keyword are to websites on the first page of the index results. 28% of the clicks to go websites on pages 2 and 3 while only 10% of the clicks go to websites on pages 4 or higher. According to the study:

“Key among the findings relating to the current search engine user community is that 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of search engine users click on a result within the first three pages of search results. Fewer search engine users are willing to click on results past the third page now (10%).”

There is still some work to be done as it would interesting to know, for example, what the difference is between ranking in the first or tenth position. Both are on the first page of the results but likely get far difference click through rates.

The study, however, does start to shed some light on the importance of search engine optimization. If you are not ranking on the first page for your desired keyword then you are likely not getting any significant results from your SEO efforts.

Either look to change the keyword you are trying to rank for or boost your efforts by getting more internal and external links so you have a chance of coming up on the first page.

Evan Carmichael

I had a meeting today with a company called iCopyright (I actually met with their Canadian counterpart). They opened up an interesting opportunity to me that I had previously not seriously considered for my website: sell the temporary rights for others to use your content. The idea is simple: you have already taken the time to write quality content for your blog / website. Why not leverage the work you have already put in by selling reprints and granting permissions for others to use it?

If you read most blogs about making money online you usually find advice on selling advertising (direct or through networks like Google AdSense), selling e-products, or promoting affiliate programs. What about selling the rights to the content itself?

Leading magazines, websites, and newspapers are always on the lookout for new, appealing content for their publications. If you write on an interesting topic then you might be able to scoop up another revenue source by selling the reprint rights to them. Some of the examples they showed me were of website content owners charging over $100 / month for the rights to use an article. That’s not bad for one article!

Because my website has the largest collection of famous entrepreneur stories online I have been approached by a number of companies who have been interested in republishing the articles we’ve written. We worked out a deal with Microsoft but, until today, I had never really considered licensing as a real opportunity.

The iCopyright team up here in Canada is still working out the final details of the system but essentially you pay a small up front fee ($100), a small monthly fee (under $100), and share the revenues that come in (usually a 70-30 split in favor of the publisher). In return they help promote your content, drive traffic to the website, and negotiate the deals with the publishers who want to use your articles. They handle all the hassle so you don’t have to do it yourself or bring on someone with the added expense of hiring another person.

I’ll keep you posted if this turns out to be a good opportunity or not but it certainly is an interesting way to make more money that I have not heard others talking about online.

Evan Carmichael

Ingvar Kamprad is the founder of IKEA and is one of the top five richest people in the world. IKEA’s annual revenues are now in excess of $10 billion and, next to the Bible, the annual IKEA catalogue is the most widely distributed publication in the world.

What is Kamprad’s message to entrepreneurs? Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

I know that, if need be, there are those who correct my mistakes. If you only knew how many of them I’ve made, mistakes. There are few people who have made so many fiascoes in my life as I have. Only those who are asleep make no mistakes.

If you are starting a business from scratch, you are going to make many mistakes. If you are doing something new or you do not have all the experience necessary then you will be learning by doing. For my business, things change so quickly online that only one out of 50 things that I try hit it really big for my site. Some of the big wins for my site have been optimizing my Google Adsense account (made me realize I had a potential business on my hands), researching and understanding how to rank in the search engines (how I drive most of my traffic), and creating a system that would allow me to add close to 1,500 writers to my site.

Here is how to make business mistakes:

1) Find an opportunity that has a big upside
There are many potential opportunities for you to chase down. Look at the ones that can have a significant impact on your business. If it works will you have a big payoff or will you just be slightly ahead of where you are now?

2) Find a way to get started on the cheap
Most people never do anything with their ideas - it’s too difficult, it’s too expensive, you’re too busy. There is always an excuse to hold you back. Break down your idea and find a low cost way to get it going. If there is a positive response then continue investing into it. Don’t let an expensive project keep you from an exciting opportunity. Find a way to start on a shoestring budget, prove there is a market, and then expand.

3) Find a way to get started today
Don’t create excuses for yourself and put off making a decision. Test out your idea today so you can get some immediate feedback. Don’t be one of those people who see the success of YouTube and then say “I had that idea three years ago but never did anything about it.” Every opportunity has a limited window in which you can achieve success. Do not delay! Get started right now!

4) Don’t give up at the first roadblock
Building a business is not an easy task. The door is rarely held wide open for you to walk through. You need to fight and push your way to get your company off the ground. Not every idea will work, in fact most will not, but don’t give up at the first sign of failure. See if you can figure out another way around the problem. Can you make your offering better? Can you change it somehow to get a faster adoption rate? Can you do something differently to help you get some traction?

5) If it’s not right, move on to the next idea
You have to believe in your ideas but there is no point flogging a dead horse. If you are not getting the response you were expecting and your idea is not generating results, move on to the next idea. Fail fast and fail cheaply. Don’t spend so much time and money on one idea that you can’t follow through on other, just as promising ideas. If you try enough good ideas, a few will stick and you can expand them out to your heart’s content!

Evan Carmichael

I would like to introduce a new series to the Young Entrepreneur Blog: Entrepreneur University. The goal of Entrepreneur University is to bring some expert advice from people who have been through the ups and downs of running their own business and can provide some insight for the rest of us.

This week’s advice comes courtesy of Andy Marken. Andy is the brains behind Marken Communications,  a full-service marketing and communications company. Andy’s advice is on how to create a sales incentive program for your small business.

As any small company grows, attracting and retaining quality staff is one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face. This is particularly the case with getting good salespeople on board. Here are Andy’s dos and don’ts:

Sales Incentive Dos

Getting Started

1. Clearly define the objectives before starting a program.
2. Pre-test the market for the product before the sales incentive program starts.
3. Keep the program simple.
4. Have a complete plan.
5. Gear it to marketing plans.
6. Tie in the program with the company’s over-all theme and objectives.
7. Tie in the promotion with advertising, p.o.p., and other merchandising supports.
8. Promote the program well in advance.
9. Make the campaign two to three months long.
10. Devise a program that is personalized for your company and product.
11. Leave room for flexibility in the program for additional awards along the way.
12. Allocate sufficient funds for proper promotion of the contest or incentive program.
13. Be specific as to the aims of the incentive program.
14. Communicate and stimulate with all means possible — mail, telephone, newsletters, ad specialties, etc.

Appeal to Rank and File

1. Tailor the program to fit the group participating.
2. Categorize dealers by sales potential, so they compete with others of like size.
3. Run a program for company or supplier sales people to coincide with dealer and distributor programs. One will sell the other.
4. Promote the program to all dealers and/or sales reps and, if possible, to their families.
5. Make the incentive program easily understood by those that it is intended to motivate — the most successful are often extremely simple.
6. Make the program fair to both sides: the company trying to make a profit, and the salesperson trying to make a living.
7. Offer an award that is commensurable in value to the assigned task.

Don’t Kid Them on Value

1. Offer a choice of several prizes.
2. Make sure the items are top quality; avoid misrepresentation of value of merchandise.
3. Offer incentives only for performance over a base or average.
4. Make incentives cumulative so salesmen will save for bigger prizes.
5. Keep in mind: money awards alone are difficult to promote and spark enthusiasm for.
6. Take the “pulse” of the sales force to ascertain if the incentive plans really do motivate the extra effort.

Follow-Up

1. Set up a follow-through program (mailers, etc.) to sustain the program.
2. Recognize winners with an announcement to all participants.

Sales Incentive Don’ts

1. Don’t make it too long-range.
2. Don’t set goals too high.
3. Don’t create too much administration.
4. Don’t use contests in which only top performers are winners. This may result in committing yourself to a group of prizes regardless of results.
5. Don’t use gift prizes as a substitute for personal income.
6. Don’t fail to plan ahead thoroughly and carry through completely. If it’s a cash bonus or commission, pay promptly and extend recognition. If a trip, have every detail as perfect as possible and carefully mix solid business with pleasure. Extend recognition via press releases, company publications, etc.
7. Don’t change incentive plan in mid-stream — carry through to the end.
8. Don’t allow exceptions. Rules must apply to all involved.
9. Don’t make the plan complex. Everyone involved should know clearly what is expected and how to get there.
10. Don’t use only your company’s own products as awards. It limits the appeal and appears as if you’re only trying to save money.
11. Don’t offer trip prizes to places where the winners would be uncomfortable — below their ideas of “a nice place” or way above, where partners would feel ill at ease and not properly dressed.
12. Don’t offer prizes of questionable quality or with an unjustifiable price tag.
13. Don’t let your own interest and enthusiasm wane as the program progresses.
14. Don’t wait until the last minute to tell your dealers.
15. Don’t make a big splash at announcement time and fail to follow-up. Standings reports and promotional follow-up mailings are a must.
16. Don’t run a contest any longer than 90 days.
17. Don’t set bases so high that salesmen feel they don’t have a chance to win.
18. Don’t limit incentives to sales or sales volume only. Include incentives for other work such as displays, ads, new accounts, etc.
19. Don’t be dazzled by “get rich quick” dealer loaders. They can come back to haunt you. A dealer with a load of year-old merchandise isn’t always too receptive to new requests for orders.

Evan Carmichael

I am continually fascinated with Facebook and am still trying to figure out an effective way to promote a business that is not event-based through the system.

I have tried posting links to my profile, creating items in the Marketplace, and expanding my network of friends. While it has yielded some results and click-throughs to my my website, it has not been a very effective use of my time compared to other initiatives I have on the go.

Last night I created a new group on Famous Entrepreneurs. I have not promoted it to my list of friends yet because I am wondering how many people will sign up for the group on their own through the Facebook network. I woke up this morning to find that we have 4 members, 3 discussion posts, and 1 wall post. It will be interesting to see how the growth continues.

What I wanted to ask you today is should YoungEntrepreneur.com create a Facebook group? If you type in Young Entrepreneur into the Facebook search tool you will find 113 related groups (while I was writing this post a new group was added so it is up to 114 now). Most of them have very few members and do not keep their group up to date.

Is there room for another group for Young Entrepreneurs? What kind of information would we put in the Facebook group to make it worthwhile and not just another group that dies out? Would this be a useful resource for you or are you not that into Facebook groups?

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Evan Carmichael

I have had a few people writing in asking why I spend so much time on strategies for ranking in Google versus the other search engines like Yahoo and MSN. The simple fact is, more people use Google so if you can figure out how their algorithms work it will drive a lot more traffic than any of the other players.

According to new ComScore numbers, perhaps the most respected index for reporting online market share, Google is widening its lead. Google is estimated to have a 55.2% market share while Yahoo slipped to 23.5%.

The other popular index to measure online search market share is Nielson/NetRatings. According to their most recent figures, Google is at 53.3%, Yahoo is at 20.1%, Microsoft is at 13.6% and other search engines like Ask and AOL round out the rest of the group.

The numbers in Europe are even more staggering where Google has an estimated 88.5% market share in Germany, 89.79% market share in France, and 79.38% market share in the UK!

What do Yahoo and Microsoft have to say about the recent figures?

Yahoo: “Even though we see a slight drop in market share we’re still growing in number of searches and paid search,” said Yahoo spokeswoman Kathryn Kelly. “These are strong indicators of our position in the market.”

Microsoft: Brad Goldberg, general manager of search marketing at Microsoft, provided this statement, “We are pleased to see market share and query volume for Live Search continue to grow in July, as all third-party indices are reporting.”

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask, AOL, and all the other search engines all have their own algorithms and rank different websites on a variety of factors. Which search engine does the best job at returning valuable results is a subject for another time but as long as Google has such a dominating position I am going to continue to optimize my site according to their algorithms.

Evan Carmichael

I have always been a big fan of using the media to help drive awareness about my company and, ultimately, sales. The logic is simple: most entrepreneurs do not have a massive advertising budget to go out and purchase ad spots. By the same token more people read stories than advertisements - so why are you not getting stories written about your business?

Getting good PR is always a hot topic and has been the subject of some of our most popular posts: Writing Press Releases For Your Business - Part 1 and Writing Press Releases For Your Business - Part 2

One of the biggest challenges in getting a good profile on your company is finding the right reporter at the right time who is interested in your story. A great new tool that I discovered that helps eliminate the guesswork is called PR Leads.

PR Leads is run by Dan Janal and it is a fantastic service for entrepreneurs. I decided to try it out after reading about it “The 4 Hour Workweek.” It costs $99 per month and you fill out a profile about your business, listing all the areas that you are an expert in. From there it is like magic happens. You get daily emails from Dan about opportunities reporters are looking for that are exactly up your area of expertise.

It was by using PR Leads that I got written up in the New York Times. One of the categories I selected related to small businesses and I received an email from Dan about a reporter who was looking to write an article for the New York Times on how entrepreneurs can make their companies look bigger. I immediately responded with a detailed answer and the reporter called me the next day. We did an interview and I was published in the New York Times!

It not only sent a lot of traffic to my site but it is something that I can use to help increase my credibility and sell more sponsorships (I put it right on my homepage so you can see it as soon as you land there).

I do not make any money from endorsing PR Leads but I wanted to share the resource with you because it has been so valuable to my business!

Evan Carmichael

Last week I discussed Richard Branson’s advice to start a business because you love it, not just because you want to make money. Today I wanted to offer some ways you can search to find what your passion is and how to start a business from it.

1) What are you good at? Think about the talents and skills that you have. What makes you different from everyone else? Where have you invested time and energy to learn and improve yourself where others have not? Chances are there is something in what you are good at that you really enjoy doing and should develop.

2) What do you do in your spare time? Many people do not choose the tasks they have to do when they go to work. Even entrepreneurs end up doing administrative tasks that they do not enjoy. When you have time off though it is time that you get to decide what does and does not happen. What do you do when you have spare time? Could your personal interest in an activity be turned into a business?

3) What gets you excited? What are some recent thoughts you have had that got you really excited? To run a successful business of your own you need to get up every morning excited to tackle new challenges and build the company. If you lose your fire the business will never succeed. Think about times in your life when you have been really excited - what were you doing? Who were you with? Where were you? Can you create a business from that excitement?

4) Look at your childhood: If the above three have not helped you identify your passions a good final trick is to look back at your childhood. What did you enjoy doing and spending your time on? You can learn a lot about yourself by going back into your own history. This is what Hugh Hefner realized when he started Playboy magazine:

“I had always been interested in publishing. I created my first penny newspaper when I was 10 years old. (I don’t remember how much I made–if anything.)

I did another one in seventh grade called the Pepper, which lasted for a quarter of a century. Later I created a little magazine called Shudder, about horror and mystery movies and radio shows and books.

While I was in college, I edited a college humor magazine called Shaft, where I introduced a feature called Co-Ed of the Month.

I remain very much connected to my childhood … I have never been too jaded or too sophisticated — it keeps me alive every day.”

Evan Carmichael

Last week I met with my Mastermind group and made the decision to offload even more of the responsibilities that I currently shoulder to run my business. With the launch of three major new initiatives my time is getting stretched and I need help.

After carefully looking at my options I chose someone who has been actively involved with my site for the past few months. I offered him a revenue share for one of my projects and his first day on the job was today.

His main responsibilities will be creating the marketing campaign for our project, attracting visitors, recruiting sponsors, and creating the roadmap for new features to add to the project. He will be bouncing ideas off of me but I would like to give him a lot of control to make decisions and run it like his business.

As we were leaving the office at the end of the day he asked me what I did in my business and it got me thinking. Some of the work I do is strategic such as managing the people who work for me and working with partners, advertisers, important clients, and other stakeholders. A lot of the work I do is still operational in nature. I do some of the graphic work and most of the technical work myself (except for the major projects that are over my head). My staff handles the administrative work and other tasks that I do not particularly enjoy.

I do a lot of the technical work myself for two reasons: 1) it is difficult for me to give up control of this area as it is the lifeblood of my business (in case anything goes wrong) and 2) it is too much fun to give up!

My favorite time of day is when I first arrive in the morning and spend the first hour and a half working on a technical project for my site. I have never been formally training in Dreamweaver of programming and have learned everything myself online through different Q&A’s.

Every successful entrepreneur I have spoken with and profiled encourage others to do what you love and you will be successful. I could spend more time on strategic work and remove myself completely from the operations but that would not be as much fun! I suspect that as I continue to grow I will need to bring on more technical people and offload some of those responsibilities but I always see myself doing some tinkering on the site to test out and implement new ideas.

What part of your business do you enjoy the most?

Evan Carmichael