How to test a business idea

Everybody has at least one great business idea inside them. At least that’s how it seems whenever I introduce myself as an entrepreneur. People always tell me their ideas, what inspired them, and how they see their imaginary business unfolding. Of course, only a very small number of them will ever persue their idea, and in all likelihood, an even smaller proportion will actually make any money from it. So if, like most people, you have a business idea burning in the back of your brain, how do you go about seeing if it is any good (without losing a lot of money and pride in the process)? More »

Popularity: 17% [?]

Amuso.com launches

Finally, after months of hard work, the latest entrepreneurial project I have been working on has gone ‘live’. Amuso.com is the next-generation gameshow platform, where anybody can create and share their own mini gameshow. Currently, the site lets users enter photo and video contests, presented to the viewer in a Hot-or-not kind of way, with the winner being decided by public vote. I could describe the site in more detail, but why don’t you just go to http://www.amuso.com and have a play around yourself?

This project is especially exciting given the boom in user-generated content the web is experiencing, as well as the excellent team i am working with. The founders are both veterans from Yahoo!, and we have several very bright young entrepreneurs, creative developers and internet marketeers driving the site forward.

Watch this space for more updates on the trials and tribulations of launching and running a web 2.0 startup.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Popularity: 17% [?]

A brief history of the viral internet, new SEO tool released, and a top ‘about’ page

Here’s a nice little article chronicaling the top 9 internet phenomenon that have entertained/annoyed almost a billion people over the last 2 decades.

http://www.cracked.com/article_16248_9-most-obnoxious-memes-ever-escape-web.html

These so-called ‘memes’ are a testament to the power of the web as a marketing tool, and in their own funny way provide inspiration for budding entrepreneurs out there looking to make it big on the internet.

Those guys probably had never even heard of SEO (search engine optimisation), but in reality it can make or break your website. There has been a buzz going around the blogging for money community recently about a site called StomperNet who has just released a powerful tool that helps to identify how you can best optimise your website for search engines such as Google. Their SSS (Stomper Site Seer) reporting tool analyses the content of a page, checking your targeted keywords, meta tags and so on, and provides a series of bespoke videos that should help you get your website further up the rankings. The tool is completely free, and I recommend you have a look at it at http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural3/ and make sure that your site can kick ass in the battle for top ranking.

Finally, I have spent much of this evening reading some of Yaro Starak’s archived posts at http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com - one of Australia’s premier blogging for money websites, and one of my personal favourites. If you are new to the idea of blogging as a way to make a living, I suggest you check out his ‘about’ page and read about how he built his blog from nothing to a money-making machine that pulls in over $20,000 a month. It just goes to show that it’s possible to make good money if you pick something you enjoy, work hard and think creatively.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Entrepreneurship Vs working in the City

Recently I have been partying with people who I haven’t seen for over a year, friends of friends who I don’t regularly see and who do not know that I dropped out of University to pursue entrepreneurship. It has been an interesting experience filling them in on how I came to decide I wanted to make money for myself and forgo the ‘trappings’ of a career in the City. Many of these university friends have gone on to work for prestigious banks, law firms and consultancies, and at times it’s difficult not to be jealous of their healthy salaries, job security, ongoing training and clear career path. So here is a nice big list of reasons why anybody with entrepreneurial aspirations should avoid working in large financial institutions like the plague, and work for themselves… More »

Popularity: 41% [?]

New blog design

Regular readers will notice that my blog now looks completely different. I hope you like it. I know I do - there are more prominent slots for Google Adsense and other advertising, an improved comment form, better SEO and lots of other little improvements over my last design. If you would like to use this free Wordpress theme for your blog, head on over to http://www.dezzain.com/featured/dezzain-free-wordpress-theme-timeline-digest/ where there are one or two other interesting themes that caught my eye.

Let me know your thoughts on the new look, and keep checking back for updates - I am planning a series of posts covering business/blog planning over the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Popularity: 34% [?]

Google’s Friend Connect set to revolutionise money making online

Google is set to launch its new ‘Friend Connect’ service for webmasters and money makers looking to add social networking elements to their websites. Following announcements from Myspace and Facebook regarding their new ‘breaking down the barriers’ approach to sharing profile information across numerous sites, Google has introduced a series of easy-to-implement gadgets that are sure to be a hit with site owners.

The new products essentially amount to a handful of plugins which can be integrated into a site with a simple Ctrl-C of some code. The idea is that by making the web more social, Google can drive more traffic to your blog or website as people with similar interests drive their friends to sites of interest. We have already seen this with apps such as BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog, but Google’s offering goes beyond a simple connecting of communities. Features such as ‘walls’, comment gadgets, activity feeds and dynamic quizzes provide a richer user experience, and should help to forge communities on niche sites where a simple message board is impractical or hard to implement.

Perhaps the most interesting element of these new gadgets is their integration with existing social networks such as Facebook and Orkut, which allows users to invite their friends list to join a site they may be browsing. All this potential targeted viral traffic has got me very interested indeed….

For more information have a look at Google’s Friend Connect Preview.

Popularity: 32% [?]