What Is The Most Useful Website for Entrepreneurs? - Entrepreneur Poll

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It’s time for another poll for the YoungEntrepreneur.com blog.

This month’s question is:

Aside from YoungEntrepreneur.com, what is the most useful website for entrepreneurs that you’re a fan of?

We’d like to build a quality list of websites that young entrepreneurs can refer to in order to help grow their companies.

Looking forward to your feedback! Please cast your vote in our YoungEntrepreneur.com Forum Post.

Here is a list of our previous poll results:

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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The Most Expensive Keywords Online - SpyFu Review - Day 1

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Two weeks ago I listed SpyFu as one of the top tools that business owners can use to help them make money online. It was one of the suggested links from Epiar’s Ken Jurina.

After the post I was contacted by Sidra Condron, Director of Marketing for SpyFu with the following message:

Hi, Evan

I read your description of Ken Jurina’s presentation at SES Toronto, and I wanted to drop and note and say “thanks.” I know that you weren’t able to include a reference to everything that he covered, so we appreciate your inclusion (even more!) of SpyFu in your summary.

We just launched UK services, and we’re prioritizing some other capabilities for the near future, so we are really excited about even more things to come. Thanks again for the mention and all the best to you!

After a few emails back and forward Sidra gave me a three month subscription to SpyFu to check it out and showcase some of the features to YoungEntrepreneur.com readers.

I just started my subscription today and upon logging in I immediately noticed their list of Top 100 lists. In the lists they give you information such as the Top 100 SEM Spenders (if you’re looking to target potential advertisers), the Top 100 Most Expensive Keywords (CPC), the Terms with the Most Clicks per Day, the Top 100 Ad Buyers, UK vs. US Keywords and Websites, and the Most Changed Keywords and Websites.

Here are the Top 5 Most Expensive Keywords (CPC)

  1. Conference calling companies - $51.66 CPC
  2. Purchase structured settlements - $51.48
  3. Home owner secured loan - $50.36
  4. Mesothelioma patient - $50.23
  5. Austin texas dwi lawyer - $50.03

Imagine what the conference calling companies must be making from their online campaigns if they can afford $51.66 just for a click!

I’ll report back when I’ve had some more time to play with the program. So far it seems to be an extremely valuable tool for keyword research. I had run across SpyFu in the past but never paid attention to it until the SES Toronto presentation - I’m glad I found it again!
Has anyone heard of / used SpyFu before?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Should I Rent Out A Desk?

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I moved into my new office two weeks ago and am nearing the end of the renovations. It’s on the top floor of a new building in a very desirable part of Toronto. I got it as raw space and had to put in dividing walls, closets, lights, and countless little details. The space is big enough for the four of us, plus an eight foot boardroom table. There are also two desks that are not being used at the moment that brings me to my question this week: should I rent out the desk(s)?

Here are the pros and cons as I see them:

Pros:

Extra income.

I would expect to make $300-$400 / month from each desk as it’s in a great location at the intersection of Canada’s most popular highway and most popular street as well as right on the subway. It has floor to ceiling windows and marble floors.

Complementary businesses.

If I can find people who run businesses that are complementary to my own then we could both enjoy a boost to our companies from shared resources and connections.

Energy.

I’ve always found there to be more energy in a full office than an empty one. Having motivated people around you can help drive you forward and give you an incentive to do more and reach farther.

Cons:

Unsuitable personalities.

I’ve worked with people who suck your time and can be real downers to the energy of the office. Getting the wrong person working beside you can just as easily sap your motivation and desire to achieve greater things for yourself and your business.

Shared resources.

There will be a number of commen elements that I will have to share with my potential officemates - my internet connection will be slower, I won’t have as much access to my boardroom, and the space I’ll have to myself will decrease.

Future expansion.

I don’t need the desk space right now and have actually expanded my business by hiring outside of Toronto so I haven’t needed more physical office space, but that could change in the future and I could be left without the ability to expand if those desks are taken up.

What would you do? Should I rent out my desks?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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You Can Be Anything You Want - Jenny Craig

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When Jenny Craig had her second child, she was thrilled. That excitement, however, quickly turned to depression when the weight she had gained during the pregnancy refused to go away. But Craig was not one to sit and while away her time being depressed. Instead, she decided to do something. Not only did she lose her own excess weight, but she created a business empire in the process. Today, with over 650 centres around the world, Jenny Craig Inc. has become one of the largest and most recognized companies in the weight management industry.

“I can’t wait for tomorrow,” says Craig. “You can do anything and be anything you want.” In starting up a company that helped others conquer their weight issues, Craig did exactly what she wanted to do. She just happened to make millions of dollars along the way, too. How did this one-time overweight mother of two become not only a successful entrepreneur but also the hero of millions of people around the world?

“When I grew up in New Orleans, my mother was a fabulous Creole cook. Everything we ate involved butter and fat, with lots of starches. I just figured that was the way to eat.

My mother was always overweight after having six children. I was the youngest, and I never saw her thin. She died when she was only 49 from a stroke. Looking into that mirror, seeing her there in myself, made me realize that if I wanted to live to raise my two daughters, I had to watch my weight.

With regard to my own weight problem, I was figuring out what to do. I was always one to exercise, and I wasn’t losing weight. You’d talk to a doctor, and he would just say to eat less. That was the standard reply. Just eat less than you’re eating.

What really started me off in this business was my own research into what kinds of foods I should be eating. I was sure there were a lot of people just like me that want someone to tell them what to do. 

Whoever heard of cholesterol when I first started in this business in 1959? People didn’t pay any attention to what they ate. I noticed a need before it was a whole industry and in that sense, I was entrepreneurial. 

The markets where we had the most competition were our best markets. I realized why. There was greater awareness of the risks of obesity and a major reason is the advertising we and all the other companies were doing. Of course, we didn’t have success stories the first day we opened. So, I said, well, I’ll go out there and do it. And I did, and it seemed to be working so I just continued to do it.

Our timing was good, but as we realized after opening on a Monday with full-page newspaper ads, we had 11 competitors with a foot already in the door. We knew the competition was there, but were surprised at how strong they were in terms of advertising. We realized that we had to do something different. 

That’s when we started researching frozen dinners and found that no other company was offering frozen dinners on the premises. Weight Watchers had frozen dinners in the supermarket, but they were not part of their program. Life should be enjoyed, not wasted counting fat grams and calories.

I can’t wait for tomorrow. You can do anything and be anything you want. I really love what I do. It’s extremely motivating to me.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Top 10 Ways To Save Money Right Now - Entrepreneur University

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Today’s Entrepreneur University comes thanks to Thicken My Wallet, a blog that is run by a recovering lawyer turned entrepreneur earnestly trying to thicken his wallet while musing on the greater personal finance world, small business and everything in between.

Every startup needs to look at ways to save money wherever possible and Thicken My Wallet shares the Top 10 Ways to Save Money Now:

“The stock market seems to have entered a definitive slide (good, stock may actually be cheap in the spring) which means, if you want to increase net worth in the short term, the emphasis has to be on finding ways to save money rather than focusing primarily on capital appreciation. Most of us know about the save 10% of your take-home pay rule but I came up with the following 10 ways to save money now based on my day-to-day life.

1. Carpool or, if you are in the market for a car, buy a car that takes regular gas or diesel and buy a used car.

Last year, I bought a used car but it doesn’t take regular gas. I am getting killed at the pump. What I saved on buying a used car is being balanced off by the additional gas bills (one step forward, one step back one supposes). Ideally, buying a used car that takes regular gas and then leave it home to carpool.
2. Leave your credit card at home during the week-days.

I use to work in an office tower with a series of underground malls underneath and I use to watch people die by a death by a thousand cuts buying something on sale here and something on sale there; all these unexpected expenses add up. Leave the credit card at home so you only spend what cash you have in your wallet.

3. Pack a lunch.

I don’t think I need to expand too much on how much it costs to eat out every day. The additional benefit is that if you take a short lunch at your desk, you may be able to leave work earlier (this is my pattern now).
4. Watch those transaction fees.

I give away money every month being on the wrong account plan at the bank and the wrong cellular plan. I am always over the maximum transaction/time allowed and paying through the teeth in additional charges. As counter-intuitive as this seems, I am adjusted my bank plan fees and cellular plan fee to pay more monthly to avoid those extra charges since the increased plan fees save me more money than the extra charges I use to incur.
5. Save more than 10% at the beginning of the month to make yourself “poor”.

I set up automatic debit plans that take out large portions of my pay cheque at the beginning of the month to my retirement account, mortgage payment (I am prepaying my mortgage down every month), savings etc. By the 10th of every month, my bank account looks like I have no money other than for fixed expenses (I get paid once a month). I fool myself into thinking I have no discretionary income to spend.
6. Buy used or borrow….book, CD’s, DVD’s and all those other entertainment expenses.

If you have kids, why do they really need brand new books or clothes- they tend to destroy both in months…
7. Find free entertainment.

I am finding I am spending good chunks of my weekends at the library (books, free internet access, sometimes they have shows- well, they are for the kids but I am young at heart…), window-shopping (credit card at home), at the gym (not really free but it is included in my condo fee so might as well use it). There are a lot of free things to do especially in a large city.
8. Buy in bulk with other families to really save on items.

My family use to do this when I was a kid. You buy in extreme bulk (I am talking about an entire flank of a cow or 60 boxes of tissue) and you divide it up among several families. The savings really add up buying in that type of bulk.
9. Wait before you buy anything.

My friend and I walked past the Hide House two weeks ago (aka the Old Hide House) which is now in receivership (they sell everything you could think of in leather). I saw something I like there for 40% off but it was on my want list so I went home to think about it. It was gone the next week… which is good. The instant gratification would not have been worth the amount of money I was going to pay.

10. Find the most cost conscious person you know… and ask them before you buy something.

They’ll point out to you where you can find the best deal; it seems to be built into their DNA to sniff out good deals. My brother is one of those guys who will research, research and research before he buys anything. I am in the market for a washer and dryer and so is he. I know more than I really want to at this point about front-loaders vs. top loaders and the pricing of each but if it saves me money, I am all for this knowledge.”

For more information, check out the Thicken My Wallet Blog.

What do you do to save money?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Derek Johnson Interview

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Derek Johnson - Tatango - www.Tatango.com

1. What is the startup story behind www.tatango.com?

The idea came to me in 2007 while I was having lunch with a friend that was part of a Sorority on campus. She was telling me the troubles her sorority was having with getting a hold of everyone in her chapter to let them know about meeting times, event locations, etc. and nothing seemed to be working for them. I thought group text messaging could be the answer to their problems so I went home to look for a solution for her chapter. The surprising thing, I couldn’t find anything online that was perfect for a group like a Sorority. That’s when I had the idea to build my own website that allowed groups such as a sorority the ability to blast out a text message to all their members at the same time.

The website was originally launched as networkText at the end of 2007, and members have sent over 15 million text messages to a wide variety of groups, including college clubs, religious organizations, non-profit associations, athletic teams and businesses since the launch.

On july 15th, we are re-launching the website into private invitation only Beta, under the name Tatango. With the new website, Tatango, users are going to have a much superior user interface, more available features and an increased usability factor. I am going to give 200 invitations to Young Entrepreneur readers, for the Tatango Beta. They can get them here: http://www.tatango.com/invites/ye

2. What is your definition of success and has your company achieved it?

If we aren’t looking solely at financials, any company that is successful in my mind is one that has a service or product that can supply a need in the market that isn’t being filled. I believe Tatango is very successful for the sole reason that we filled a void in the market that no other website was able to filled.

3. To what do you attribute your company’s recent achievements?

There are two groups of people that are responsible for the company’s achievements. The first group is the people that work here at Tatango, Our team members kick ass everyday and deserve way more credit then they get. The second group responsible for the company’s achievements is our users. We have extremely loyal, and vocal users and they have become our biggest marketing tool as they tell others about their positive experience with Tatango.

4. How important have good employees and team members been to your success?

Hands down, we owe the majority of our success to our team members. We have created the dream team at our company and daily I’m amazed at their hustle and commitment to the company. In the marketing department, we have Andrew Dumont and Luciano Mauro, who together have taken our company in only a handful of months from a few thousand users to over 400,000. On the website side, we have two of the hottest young engineers, Adrian Pike and Amiel Martin, who are constantly working crazy hours to keep up with our growth. These guys are machines really, releasing new features faster than other companies with at least three times as many resources as we have.

On another note, I am a firm believer of not wasting time in getting rid of employees that aren’t working out. I have found it easy to find employees that have the needed skill set to get a job done, the real challenge for us is to find employees that fit within the culture of the company. This is key to anyone that wants to build up a business. By being extremely picky and focused in hiring, we have been able to find the perfect team members.

5. What three pieces of advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs?

1. Be Available - I’m the only internet CEO I know who makes himself as available to his users as I am. The majority of our users know my personal cell phone number (206.334.4012 if they have forgot it) and they know that if they ever have a suggestion or any feedback about our website, they are able to get a hold of me. I think communicating with your users is extremely important and is the sole reason why we keep launching features that users love and our competitors copy.

2. Start Small - Start small and you will be able to quickly see if you have something interesting before you look to expand.

3. Don’t Re-Invent The Wheel - No matter what problem you are experiencing or challenge you have in front of you, you aren’t the first person to ever go through it. Seek out advice or guidance from someone that has gone through the same thing you are going through, this will save you from making a lot of costly mistakes in the future.

6. What have been some of your failures, and what have you learned from them?

Our biggest mistake was to not set up our advisory board sooner in the company’s life. Our company’s advisory board has been a huge help to us and we rely on them for a large amount of the challenges we run into.

7. Describe/outline your typical day?

I start everyday at 7AM by catching up on industry news. I usually read TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and I like to throw in ValleyWag for my tech gossip. I’m usually in the office by 9am and from there it’s different every day, though mostly filled with emails, phone calls, team meetings, brainstorming, investor meetings while constantly updating our twitter status. You can check us out at twitter.com/Tatango. I think that’s why I like my job so much, it’s always different everyday I walk into our office. I’m a notorious workaholic, I won’t leave the office till midnight or 1am, but I have started taking Sundays off, so that’s a start to my rehab.

8. Where did your organizations funding/capital come from and how did you go about getting it?

I was 22 when I started to look for the initial funding to get my idea off the ground. I quickly came to the harsh realization that at my age, it was going to be hard. Banks wouldn’t touch us and Venture Capitalists and Angel Organizations said we didn’t have enough experience. This left us pitching family and friends that we knew believed in our idea, but most importantly they believed in us personally to succeed. It took us about a month, doing over 20 presentations in my basement to raise our initial seed money.

Once we knew we had something and we had started to gain traction, we needed additional capital above and beyond the limits that our friends and family could invest, so we submitted applications to 6 or 7 local Angel Organizations. Every single Angel organization that we had applied to rejected us. Wow, that was a huge blow for us, but we took their feedback and comments and re-applied a few months later. We finally got accepted to present to the Bellingham Angels and raised our second round of capital through their organization.

With the growth we keep seeing, we have been recently speaking with several different venture capital firms that have shown interest in our company.

9. What stops you from throwing in the towel and giving up during those frustrating days of running your business?

To be honest, when things get crazy, frustrating, or just near impossible, I never think about throwing in the towel. For me, those are the fun days! When do you get to test your skills and determination more than at those points in your business career? Those are the sort of obstacles that make what I do such a challenge and so rewarding.

10. Do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?

That is really two questions. The first part is the formula for becoming successful, which from my observations is 20% knowledge and education and 80% hard work. A lot of people think it takes a lot of luck to become successful, I completely disagree. Gary Player, a great golfer said, “The harder I work, the luckier I get”, this pretty much sums it up for me.

The second part of the question is the formula to becoming an entrepreneur. This is always heavily debated, but I firmly believe you are born with the entrepreneurial mindset or aren’t, you can’t learn something like that.

11. Who has influenced you most and been your greatest inspiration?

My Father. He is both a brilliant entrepreneur and one of the hardest workers I know. He has both experiences working for large national companies and owning his own startups, so his knowledge and experience has always been a great resource for me.

12. What book has inspired you the most?

I wish I could say I read all the time and that a certain book has really inspired me, but school really took the fun out of opening up a book for enjoyment. Even though I’m not a big fan of reading books, I love reading and staying current with news, especially industry related news. It’s a must to be constantly reading industry news, especially if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

13. How do you go about marketing your business? What has been your most successful form of marketing?

Initially we used two tools to drive traffic to the site. The first tool was using social networks such as Facebook and Myspace to get the word out there about the website. Social networks are great tools if you don’t really have a marketing budget and you want to connect to easily spread your message nationwide. The second tool we used was to pick up the phone and start marketing. We called every type of group we could get a phone number for and wouldn’t hang up until we knew they were sold on the concept.

The cool thing right now is that the majority of our new traffic is derived from user referrals. People that actually stake their own reputation and recommend another service based on their experience is the best type of marketing I could ever ask for.

14. In one word, characterize your life as an entrepreneur.

CRAZY

15. Excluding yours, what company or business do you admire the most?

I think I admire certain aspects of individual companies more then one company exclusively. I admire Zappos for the way they treat and motivate their employees. I admire Apple for their amazing product innovation, which is always cutting edge and I admire Google for their size and scale they have been able to achieve in such a short amount of time.

16. How do you achieve balance in your life? Or do you?

I’m the worst person to speak with about achieving a balanced life. I’m a workaholic, plain and simple. I love to work, and when I’m working I’m extremely focused, and usually things that aren’t work related fall by the wayside. I am very focused on building an Internet company, which takes most of my time; I don’t have much time for anything else besides that.

17. Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 years? 10 years?

5 Years – Tatango acquired and personally on my third startup

10 Years - on my too many to count startup

18. What’s your exit strategy?

I can see Tatango in the future being acquired by a larger company looking to jump-start their mobile advertising reach.

19. If we could introduce you to anyone, who would it be and why? (you never know who we know!)

Roger D. Linquist, the CEO of MetroPCS. This is the only cell phone provider that we currently don’t support and I would love to get them onboard with Tatango, I know my users would appreciate this too.

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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When Is It Time to Go Full-Time? - Entrepreneur Poll Results

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We asked you when it is time to go full-time with your business and you responded! The number one answer was…

1. When your business is paying you more than your current job

“When you make more than your current job with the extra time you’ll put towards it. Although, it must also be a growing business.

When the profit being produced is more then your job, and then go full time if you can see your self in the business in 5 years time.

Yup, I agree with the others: when you’re earning more money running your business than what your day job pays. You shouldn’t quit your day job immediately after you earn a bit, I suppose you have to be earning enough for several months doing your own thing, and then you can quit your day job.

One way is to calculate what you need from your own business in order to meet what you’re currently earning in your employment. Be that in sales or services or whatever it is your business provides. Go back to your business plan, see if everything is on track, from there you could make a calculated decision. But being the entrepreneurs that we are, like NYEF said ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ so sometimes taking that giant step into the unknown is just the kick in the pants you need to start doing some business.

When you make more money and enjoy more what you are doing. And when you’re good to go!

It’s best to get your business to were it can earn your living. on the other hand, if you really have a great idea, you may need to take the leap of faith and go for it before someone else does.”

There was a two-way tie for second spot:

2. Before you have enough cashflow and start by living off of your savings

“I quit my job a year and a half ago, and I most certainly did NOT have the cashflow at the time to do that. But my circumstances were:
(1) a highly technical job that was mentally draining (can you say systems administrator, network administrator, and quality manager all at once?)
(2) sufficient savings to last the estimated interim
I’m just now getting to the point where I’m not digging myself further in the hole, but I don’t regret quitting my day job when I did in the slightest. Necessity is the mother of invention, nothing like a little pressure to make you perform!

It’s best to get your business to were it can earn your living. on the other hand, if you really have a great idea, you may need to take the leap of faith and go for it before someone else does.”

2. Whenever you’re ready

“Whenever you’re ready! No one can really answer that question better than the individual that is making the decision. I read a story in “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill about a great warrior who’s army was outnumbered by a powerful opponent. His army sailed to the enemy’s country, unloaded his soldiers and equipment and ordered them to burn their ships. He told his army that the only way they’ll get out of the country was to win the war. They won! Sometimes when you cut off your escape routes (the easy way out…i.e. jobs, 401Ks, benefits, etc.) then you have no other choice but to embark on the entrepreneurial journey that you desire. With uncompromising determination…who wouldn’t become successful? Another thing is…stop making excuses and talking yourself out of a great idea. Make it happen!!! Make it happens means you do whatever it takes as long as it’s legally, morally and ethically. Make it happen means no excuses and no whining or complaining. Just get it done! Pick up a copy of “Think and Grow Rich” if you haven’t already read it. It’s free at the library and it’s a great book to read…should be read by everyone who desires wealth (time and money). I believe that’s what most entrepreneurs are after…I would be lying if I said that I don’t do it for the money.

I’m not a full time business owner yet, I’m just giving my opinion based on the information I have read in books and what other successful people seem to agree on. I think some people including myself think in the terms of uncertianty, doubt, and fear. If I knew that within 30 days I was going to make 10k a month from my business then why not quit my job right now? But I think some of us are Fearful,Uncertain,and Doubtful about ourselves being able to produce that kind of income. Were waiting for our circumstances to change before we believe. That’s why we have back-up plan’s and those “Safety Nets” in the back of our minds “just in case I fail”. If you read “Think and Grow Rich” you will begin to understand that we are in control of out results. It may not happen the way we expect, but it will happen. What ever image we believe about ourselves is effecting out lives and could be critical to succeeding in our business. So I agree that it’s up to the individual to decide if he will make it completely clear what he/she wants to achieve,when he/she will achieve it and an idea on how to go about that. then we have real financial security, being about to generate money where every we go because we understand how to apply the basic laws of success.”

Rounding out the top 5 were:

4. When your business income is double your earnings as an empoyee for 3 months straight

5. One year after starting the business part-time

Thank you for your participation. Stay tuned next week for our next Young Entrepreneur Poll!

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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4 More Great SEM Tools

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Because of the popularity of last week’s post about my favorite presenter from SES Toronto 2008, Ken Jurina from Epiar, I wanted to take some time today to take some time today to showcase four more of Ken’s favorite SEM tools:

GoLexa – www.golexa.com

Pros:
•tools work right within your browser
•able to access a variety of SEO tools all in one location

Critiques:
•busy interface
•not intuitive as to what a particular button/tool does
•possible error when reaching daily API limit

Cool:
•dashboard of buttons to easily query other SEO tools
•some fields are pre-populated for ease of use

Cost:
•FREE

I4Market - www.i4market.com/tools/backlinks.html

Pros:
• simple to use interface
• displays the text in and surrounding the link
• other SEO tools available beyond backlinks one

Critiques:
• none that we can think of

Cool:
• displays the Page Rank of a site and URL of backlinks

Cost:
•FREE

GSiteCrawler - gsitecrawler.com

Pros:
• crawl simulation provides detailed spidey-vision
• view canonical and duplicate content issues, aborted URLs, page file sizes and more
• automatic XML sitemap creation

Critiques:
• large sites may take a few hours and need to be run overnight
• crawlers will get stuck in a loop on sites with dynamic URLs

Cool:
• one-stop audit shop
• exports multiple reports

Cost:
•FREE

Sidenote: I am also a big fan of GSiteCrawler and have posted about it a number of times in this blog.

Epiar® MarketView™

Pros:
• datamine & analyze 100,000’s phrases from multiple data sources
• huge time saver for identifing/categorizing organic/PPC phrases

Critiques:
• not online, not free, 6th rev. beta development

Cool:
• generates Negative PPC lists for Google, 10,000 phrases/terms long
• phrases can be sorted, analyzed, and tagged by:
– general relevance, target phrase, industry, geography etc.
• generates site plans & detailed optimization guides:
– site architecture, keyword insertion for coding and content on page by page basis for use by site: designer, developer and copywriter

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Technology A-Z

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Pratham [dot] name recently put out a list of the A-Z’s of Technology. How many do you know without having to look them up?

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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Stick To Your Dream - Guy Laliberté

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Guy Laliberté never went back to school, but that adventure would become the world famous Cirque du Soleil. Since founding Cirque when he was just 24 years old, Laliberté has not only changed the modern face of the circus, but has also become one of the richest men in Canada. Worth an estimated $1.5 billion, Laliberté was named Ernst & Young’s 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year for turning his vision into a global empire. Today, more than 50 million people the world over have seen a Cirque du Soleil production.

Until 2010, Laliberté will have his hands full with the opening of three new shows and a special Christmas production. “Our biggest goal is to continue to force ourselves to always start our creative work on a white page and not take advantage of past successes and challenging ourselves,” he says. Just how did this one time street performer turn a group of young buskers into a performing troupe that has become a global phenomenon and a billion-dollar enterprise?

“It was just an adventure, and I was planning to go back to school and have a regular life. Originally the dream was about traveling and developing a job that would permit me to travel. And I decided to go into street performing because it was a traveling job; it would let me go around the world.

We had every problems starting a big top could have. The tent fell down on the first day. We had problems getting people into the shows. It was only with the courage and arrogance of youth that we survived. The sun stands for energy and youth, which is what I thought the circus should be about.

Business is difficult. But it could be approached two ways: Seriously, or with the same way you’re doing your job, with entertainment aspect, with pleasure, with fun. And we decided to try to make it as fun that we do our creativity. I believe that the profits will come from the quality of your creative products. Since the beginning, I’ve always wanted to develop a self-feeding circle of creative productions: The positive financial returns from one show would be used to develop and create a new show, and so on.

I believe in nurturing creativity and offering a haven for creators, enabling them to develop their ideas to the fullest. With more and more talented creators being drawn to Cirque in an environment that fulfills them, these are ideal to continue developing great new shows. I like to not be too involved in the beginning and during the process so as to keep this fresh look and be able to give constructive recommendation on the final production.

We’re not afraid of risking what was our success yesterday in order to explore some new field. We’re adventurous. We like the challenge of unknown territory, unknown artistic field, and that’s what stimulates us. We didn’t reinvent the circus. We repackaged it in a much more modern way. I have seen many successful people fail after they start fearing they might lose what they have built. I don’t believe in pitfalls. I believe in taking risks and not doing the same thing twice.

You know, in life you always have to give yourself some sort of challenge and for me the game of poker, because of the mathematics, the personality aspect of it, I feel very comfortable in it. It’s a great experience. I have a lot of shows here in Las Vegas, so in my free time, I go into the poker room and play there.  In life I’ve learned one thing; if you want to be good you have to connect with the best people. So I got very close to the high-stakes players here. I get to watch them and play with them a little bit.

I am blessed for what I have, but I believed in it from the beginning. Today, the dream is the same: I still want to travel, I still want to entertain, and I most certainly still want to have fun.“ 

Evan Carmichael
YoungEntrepreneur.com Blog Manager

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