Making Friends Out There: 6 Ways to Increase Social Trust

When setting up a brand nowadays, a logo alone is surely not enough. In order to get connected to the world, you need a well-presented online persona. This may include a smart implantation of colors, a clear presence of your core message, a series of content that can show your professionalism in a certain field, etc. However, after got all these ready, do you have the power to pass them to your targeted audience? Of course it is easy to copy and paste content into your social media accounts. The problem is, are people really ‘listening to’ what you say? For most business owners I know, this is not an easy pitch.

There could be a wide range of reasons why your communities are reluctant to ‘make friends’ with you. One of the most common reasons is that they don’t trust you. Trust is the basis for any relationship, online or offline, for business or in person. People only pay attention when they think you are reliable. Otherwise, everything you say becomes suspicious. Building trust is not a task that can be completed overnight, but still, there’re some tips that you can rely on to help increase your online credibility.

1. Be Yourself

Yes, the No. 1 rule you need to follow is this simple. Doing social media is not like handing someone a business card. In the online community, all your information – raging from your office address to the latest customer review towards your product – is just a few clicks away. Faking to be someone ‘better’ (as you think) will never get you far. If there’s an issue on your product or service, don’t rush to hide or cover it, listen to what others say about it and give your feedback honestly. A frank talk will always be a good start for any relationship.

2. Show Your Professionalism

In most cases, professionalism is one thing that will not go wrong for businesses. People usually value professional opinions more than a chit-chat, and tie more credibility to the person who offer this kind of opinion. So it’s important that your content on all social platforms scream results. It’s also necessary that you know all your stuff well and are able to talk one step further on any topic that you’ve started. Leave things that you’re not familiar with aside, but never be afraid to ask questions.

3. Introduce Your Friends

Offline relationships rely heavily on word of mouth, where one person talks to another person who knows good or bad about you. Online relationships are sometimes just the same. People may prefer to ‘talking’ with someone who knows you to find out more about you. In order to prove who and what you are, you’ll need a dozen of friends who would stand by your side and speak aloud to the world for you. Some great examples of this include testimonials, customer reviews, partner references, links to work completed, guest posts you have contributed, links to blogs where you and your content has been cited, white papers, ebooks, and so on. However, the No. 1 tip still works here. Don’t be ashamed even if you only have 5 followers on Twitter. A record of 1,000 ‘dead’ fans will only make things worse.

4. Find the Right Companions

Though it’s a nice thing to have friends with various styles, it’s still important to be aware not to get wrong friends. Be sure that you hang with people you can learn from, people who build you, empower you and make you a better person, not people who kick you down, criticize you and envy your success. Establish real relationships and work together. Take time to know and research the people you connect to. Don’t just trust everyone on first tweet. Just as you need to establish trust with your community, expect the same of those you bring into your circle.

5. Take Time to Do Your Art Work

There’re numerous guides, tutorials and ebook on how to use social media as a business strategy these days. However, being able to find a step-to-step list doesn’t make social media a science work. Actually, it’s more an art work – the art of relationship building and managing. Social media platforms as tools can be easily making use of by almost everyone. It’s how you deal with the relationships within those platforms that may differentiate you from all your competitors. If you find yourself having problem dealing with persons behind those social accounts, then chances are that you are not spend enough time on taking care of your online relationships. Try to get more interaction by asking questions, adding comments and sharing stuff that your audiences are interested.

6. More Deeds Than Words

Businesses are ‘done’, not ‘said’. It’s always more important to let people see what you could do than what you could say. Everything about your online persona – your website, social profiles, blogs, etc. – should have something to back them up. If you claim to be the best dentist in New York, then take the time to help your clients with their teeth problems. You are your own best social proof and will be amazed at the number of clients you will get if you start doing this!

Trust is invaluable, yet not so expensive to build as you may think. Be an honest and nice member in the online community and wait for your neighbors to embrace you back.

This Guest Post is coming from Kevin Gao who the founder and CEO of Comm100 Live Chat, a leading provider of live chat software for business.

Tagged as: social media, Social Trust

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10 Traffic Tips Straight from Michael Dunlop

Michael Dunlop was a teenager when he started a website called WebDesignDev.com. Over four years, he grew it to nearly 200,000 monthly visitors. Then he sold the site for $22,000 so that he could move out of his parents’ house.

Since then, Michael has been starting one successful website after the other. Today, Michael’s 22 years old and the manager of multiple sites that attract over 100,000 visitors per month, including Income Diary.

The newest, Expert Photography, is just 18 months old and already received 137,000 visits last month. It’s safe to say that Michael Dunlop is one of the world’s experts on the strategies and techniques that reliably drive big traffic to websites.

Michael agreed to sit down with me for a half hour and discuss his top ten traffic tips.

The two things Michael thinks about when writing an articleHow to turn a traffic spike into recurring trafficThe post that was so successful Michael had to turn off the commentsThe biggest traffic mistake bloggers make

“Focus on your content first. Traffic is a byproduct of doing great content.”

Michael told me, “I think people are over-complicating traffic. They’re reading too much into all these techniques and spending all their time making sure their blog looks good.”

There’s nothing wrong with having a great blog design or doing SEO the right way. But it is a problem when your spending so much time on the technical stuff that you forget your site’s purpose:  to provide immense value for your visitors. Michael sees too many blogs that don’t have any “great articles that make people think, ‘I’m going to come back, time after time.’”

Extraordinary content is the key to extraordinary traffic. It all starts with Michael’s straightforward mindset:

“When I’m writing an article, I have two things in mind. Firstly, I want to make it as simple for someone to understand as possible. Secondly, I want to make it as beneficial to the reader as possible.”

Simple + Beneficial = the type of content that makes people love your website and want to come back. Michael insists that this model truly is at the root of his traffic success and that it’s really not that complicated:

“We’re not doing anything special with Expert Photography. We’re just writing these really exciting posts. We’re getting people to share them on social media. Getting people to link to them, which makes us rank well, which sends us all this traffic. It’s that simple.”

No matter how good your article is, if the title is wrong then nobody will read it.

When reviewing a friend’s website, Michael noticed that their titles were all wrong:

“The titles stood out firstly because they were using words that nobody would ever search for. If I was doing a post on traffic tips, I wouldn’t throw in a bunch of crazy words into the title to make it sound really interesting.”

“Nobody’s ever going to Google ‘Premier Traffic Tips’. They’re going to Google ‘Traffic Tips’.”

Putting the right keywords in your title is your best chance to rank well for competitive search terms. Of course, the ideal title also grabs a reader’s attention and makes them curious to read more.

Since I struggle to write great titles, I take Yanik Silver‘s advice and brainstorm a ton of possible titles for an article before choosing my favorite. Here are the seven titles I considered for this post:

“100,000 visits per month” Michael Dunlop Reveals his Traffic Strategies“It’s So Simple” Michael Dunlop Explains How to Get TrafficMichael Dunlop Explains How Great Content leads to More TrafficMichael Dunlop Speaks: 100,000 monthly hits is “Simple”Michael’s Income Diary #1:  How to Write Content that gets Big TrafficTraffic Advice Straight from Michael Dunlop10 Traffic Tips Straight from Michael Dunlop

If you’d like to get some headline writing advice from an expert, I recommend a Copyblogger post called How to Write Magnetic Headlines.

If you’re creating great content, you’re bound to eventually get some big spikes in traffic:

“When starting out with a website, we could be getting about 400 visitors a day. Then one day we post an interesting article that does well on social media and it gets about 4,000 visitors that day. That’s 10 times the amount of traffic.”

The only problem with spikes in traffic is that they can be gone as quickly as they come. “The spike of a successful article goes down after two or three days,” Michael said.

But a good website is designed to turn one-time traffic into recurring traffic. Michael says that after jumping from 400 visitors a day to 4,000 visitors a day, “it goes back down to 600 or 700. That’s a big increase from where it was before.”

Michael turns traffic spikes into long-term traffic by asking people to subscribe to his email list. You’ll notice the opt-in boxes in the sidebar and footer of this web page which offer exclusive content for people who subscribe by email. Email is the most direct way to let people know that you’ve published a great new article.

Another way to get first-time visitors to come back to your site is through social media. Income Diary has about 20,000 followers on Twitter and over 3,000 likes on Facebook. These communities bring a consistent social buzz to each new post. Michael has put a box in the side-bar with links to his social media and the suggestion, “Let’s Be Friends”.

“Every time we do a new blog posts, we have all these new fans, all these new people. So every time we do something it’s just going to get bigger, and bigger. That’s real momentum.”

If you want learn more about how to encourage recurring traffic. Michael’s made a video on how to increase your opt-in rate and I’ve listed additional helpful articles below.

It’s no coincidence that Income Diary and Twitter both became very successful around the same time. Michael told me, “When I launched Income Diary, something that was going really well right then was Twitter. Twitter was the in-thing. Everyone was jumping on board.”

Since Twittter was new, Michael’s niche wasn’t yet saturated. Since it was hot, it could still be a game-changing source of traffic:

“I was getting insane amounts of traffic — literally 100,000 visitors in a month from Twitter. And I could take advantage of that so easily by just following thousands of Twitter users a day. Thousands of people would come to my profile to see who has followed them and follow me back, click my profile link, my updates, and so on.”

Michael used Twitter to build the foundation of a thriving online community, but eventually the traffic from Twitter dwindled. He told me, “Now, Twitter has sort of come and gone. But there’s new social media sites opening up every week. Don’t wait until [a social media site] has come and gone. Part of driving traffic is taking advantage of techniques while they work.”"

What’s working right now? For Michael and his brother Josh the answer is Pinterest.  They’re using Pinterest to get massive traffic to Josh’s blog, Expert Photography.

“We’re getting pretty much the exact same results that I got when I started with Twitter,” Michael says.

It’s easy to take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach with a new social media site. But if you always wait until a site is established before you decide to dive in, then you’re going to miss out on the best time to gain traffic. If you hear of an up-and-coming site that might be the next big thing, jump on it. There’s very little to lose by trying it out and a whole lot of traffic to gain.

Fast Company recently called visual marketing “the breakout trend for 2012”. According to social media strategist Ekaterina Walter, “Two years ago, marketers were spreading the maxim that ‘content is king’, but now, it seems, ‘a picture really is worth a thousand words.’”

Attaching a big, beautiful image to your blog post will encourage clicking, sharing, and positive brand perception. But as Michael Dunlop emphasized to me, they’re also a great way of making your content easier to comprehend:

“An image is a really good way for me to know what part in this article is going to be talking about the relevant part that I want to read about.Headlines are good, but an even easier way to spot the section that I want to read is by having a picture.”

As a writer for IncomeDiary, I will often use images to add information/value and to break up the major sections of my post (example).

Visuals are vital to your success online. But that doesn’t mean that you should fill your blog posts with pictures just for the sake of it. Michael warns:

“When somebody’s rushing it, they don’t tend to put pictures up that are generic, boring, something they got from iStock. When your images are not very well thought through, then they don’t really help.”

Images aren’t something to haphazardly tack on after you’re done writing a great post. Put the same care into the visual aspect of your articles as the written portion.

If you’re a regular reader of Income Diary, then you know that our articles are long. Personally, my average is over 2,000 words per article. This length pushes me to provide as much value and information as possible our readers.

For instance, “Top 10 YouTube Channels” could easily have been a 200 word article that simply lists the channels’ names, their subscriber count, and a link to their most popular video. But instead, it’s 2,733 words and the article contains in-depth information for each YouTube channel detailing how they built their following and how they make money from YouTube.

Seth Godin is a great example of a blogger who excels with short content and Michael Dunlop told me that he recognizes that type of content has its place. But for Income Diary, he instructs his staff to produce longer articles:

“You can write articles that are great and that are literally 200 words long. But when I’m reading up on something, it’s really important to me that the author goes into more detail so I can make a better assessment.”

If you want your articles to be ranked highly on Google for terms that are going to pull in a ton of traffic month after month, you’ll increase your chances greatly by writing longer articles. Not only will Google recognize that you’re site is providing more value than the competition, you’re also more likely to hit on long-tail search terms that are embedded somewhere in the 2,000+ words.

With all of Michael’s success with articles getting on the front page of Google, you may assume that he’s an expert on SEO. But Michael insists, “I’m no master in Google.”

Instead, he says, “All I focus on is making sure that my articles are literally the best articles possible. Google just seems to rank them well because they deserve to be at the top.”

Michael’s assertion is backed up by David Sinick – the SEO expert behind BeastMedia and the co-author of WordPress SEO Blueprint. In a separate interview about SEO optimization, David told me, “There are tons of different factors that go into ranking well, but the biggest is high-quality content.”

Recently, Google’s search rankings have been taking social feedback into account, with a special emphasis on +1’s. As Michael observes, “getting articles ranked does depend greatly on how well they’re received by people. The articles that get the most comments, likes, and links are the ones that get ranked the best.”

In others words, don’t think you won’t be able to rank well just because you don’t know the ins and out of SEO. Instead, focus on writing content that deserves to be the top result. You might be surprised by how highly your un-optimized articles rank.

All this isn’t to say search engine optimization isn’t important. At Income Diary, we practice some basic SEO tactics that you can read up on here.

Over the years, Michael has published a lot of different types of content. He’s noticed that certain types of content just seem to do better than others.

“One of the first articles I’d done on Income Diary was called Top Earning Blogs in which I listed top 30 blogs in order of monthly earnings. This article has done so well that by now it could literally have had a million views and thousands of likes and tweets. I’ve actually turned off the comments on it after 290 comments just because I was sick of having to constantly accept and decline comments on it.”

Michael credits the articles success to the fact that its title is a popular search term, that it’s something people wanted to share, and that it attracted the attention of the 30 blogs mentioned in the article (and their healthy audiences).

While article keeps getting traffic to Income Diary month after month, Michael believes that there is still plenty of room for this type of content in other niches and subjects. Off the top of his head, he rattled off, “30 Top Bloggers in the Photography Industry, 30 Best Basketball Players of All Time, 20 Reasons Why it Sucks to be a Chef… Those sort of really link-worthy articles that people share on social media constantly.”

I asked Michael the single biggest mistake that people are making online and this is what he told me:

“People are so excited at the beginning. They go on writing blog posts left, right, and center. But then after a few months, they haven’t made any money and they just give up. That’s why people fail so often.”

Even if you’re doing everything right, it’s unrealistic to expect to have a ton of traffic and income right away. These things need time to incubate:

“My brother didn’t make any money with Expert Photography the first few months. But he kept at it because he’d seen exactly how long it had taken me to grow my websites in the past. Eventually, he was making $100 per month, then $1000 per month, and finally this month he had his first $1000 day.”

Those are pretty amazing results after only 18 months. Josh owes the traffic success to his dedication to producing great content over the long haul (he’s already published over 200 articles on the site and you can take a look for yourself to see their high quality).

Before you give up on a website, give it a fair chance to succeed: commit to publishing quality content consistently.

We’ve been talking about writing content to get more traffic a lot today, but Michael points out that not every article for Income Diary is written with that goal in mind:

“There are other articles that we write because there is a percent of the audience that needs to learn something.These articles are never going to get as much traffic as a ‘Top 30’ post, but we do it because we’re not just writing for traffic. We’re writing because we have a key to you making money and because our blog is all about providing answers.”

Take for example an article I published this June, “20 Tips for How to Make Money with a Service Business”.

Since this article is targeted to the fraction of our audience that operates a service-based business, inevitably it didn’t get as much traffic as my previous post (the broadly targeted “15 Inspiring Business Lessons from Oprah Winfrey”).

But for the percentage of our readers for whom it applied, the information was far more valuable. One commenter said that, “these are the skills I eagerly need now. My consulting is not doing good these last two months and I’m wondering what the real problem is.” Another said that the post had encouraged him to become a “regular visitor” of Income Diary.

So while I hope you take Michael’s advice today to help boost traffic to your blog, don’t let traffic be the only metric by which you measure your posts’ success.

A few minutes into our interview, Michael asked out loud, “How can I talk about traffic for so long, when it’s so simple?”

This is what he said next:

“If you want traffic, write amazing stuff. If what you have to say is great, then people are going to keep coming back. Ultimately, that’s all it is.”

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Why Videos Are Climbing The Social Media Ladder

In today’s competitive world, marketing a product is as important as producing a quality product. Gone are the days when simply producing a product, and putting its one or two commercials here and there, used to be enough to make it sell. Today, a product without a targeted, effective marketing is nowhere on the scene. Marketing can be compared to packaging of a product which gets responsible for leaving the product’s first impression on its viewers.

It is said that unless you blow your trumpet no one will hear its melody, the same goes on with the marketing of your product, the better and louder you do it, the better you end up giving it a visibility in the minds of public. Having said this, the million dollar question still revolves around finding the best strategy to market a product. Surely, social media has been able to browbeat the competition in recent years from all corners, emerging as a clear winner in giving a promotion to a product.

Until a few years back social media was all about texts as everything revolved around it. In fact, search engines were also designed with the algorithm to crawl texts and rank those contents higher that made sense, like it looked at words that appear on pages and the title tags etc. For the same reason, everyone looked to put a wonderful, engaging content on their website and other social media pages. But the frequent Google’s panda update (introduced in February 2011) almost always resulted into a changed algorithm, making a site that made changes accordingly rank higher (or lower). Amid all these frequent changes, the one point which still remained to be further exploited to the benefit of ranking of a site is the crawling of a flash site having a video content by search engines.

The search engine Google is now able to extract content from flash files to include the content that was hitherto not available in search results. A 2011 Nielsen study reflects that a video content has almost 50x better chances of showing up on the first page of search results. This simply means a better visibility chances for sites having a video as a flash content, than the sites with plain text-based content. The other reason behind this preferential treatment given to flash based content is to make a search throw a content which is more refined and user oriented in terms of images, videos and other rich media content.

 The verdict is out; wholly-texts based websites are fading and no longer making a cut with net surfers. Flash based content; especially videos are deriving all the traffic through and around them. Cisco predicts that by 2013, 90% of all web traffic will be generated by videos. This clearly shows the reducing interest of people in texts based information. Instead, they today prefer to get informed in audio-visual form. This has made videos a curious, engaging and beneficial affair for both online users and commercial entities.

Are able to reveal more in a less time: A visual speaks a thousand words. Same goes with videos which are a mix of texts, sounds, music, graphics and other necessary elements. These elements synchronize themselves and leave users getting a complete experience, making a business communicate faster with its audience. This means a saving of time for both the business and its audience.Are able to simplify complex issues and topics: Videos have a tendency to communicate effectively the issues which are complex or things which cannot be seen from a naked eye. With the use of animation any imagination can be given a shape and highlighted to show its minutest detail. This lets businesses convey their messages in a sophisticated way, which simultaneously helps users to get informed in an easier way.Are able to engage audience: Videos cannot only inform but also entertain, making audience gets engaged to them. Their short length is also a reason for attracting even the people with the shortest attention span. With easy engagement both businesses and its audience stand to benefit from the videos.Are able to create a trust relationship between the business and its customers: Being interactive in nature, videos are able to generate emotions in viewers, thus creating a trust relationship between the business and its customers.Are capable to go viral in no time: Graphics videos can go viral in no time. A viral video can help a business make its message reach far and wide, while at the same time users stand to benefit from the experience of watching an effective video.Are able to target specific audience: Videos are made considering the choice, preference and nature of the target audience. The characters used therein are made to behave accordingly to attract and retain the viewership. This makes businesses target their specific audience; while the targeted audience get the content of their liking.Are able to directly nudge a viewer to turn into a customer: Videos have a call-to-do action nearing its end which gently persuades viewers to take action in regard to the message conveyed. Simultaneously, they also assists viewers in making them aware of the steps to be taken in furtherance of the message of the video.Can be used at multiple locations: Videos can be used not only on internet but also in several other places and platforms such as in an exhibition, event or a trade promotion fair. For the same reason, videos are able to generate curiosity across all the platforms they are used at.Can generate testimonials and feedback: Videos are able to generate testimonials about the message given in it. This makes a business come to know the improvements that it has to make on its product or offering and, simultaneously, the viewers end up making an informed decision.

It goes beyond saying that videos are the most powerful social media in today’s time!

This Guest Post is written by Sunny Arora who is CEO of Broadcast2world, an online animated video production company.

Tagged as: animated web video, explainer social media, social media ladder, video production company

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How to Implement Google Authorship in Your WordPress Blog?

Everyone is talking about Google authorship these days, especially the bloggers. Why? And how can you get Google authorship for your WordPress sites too?

Here are the reasons why should you get Google authorship and also few simple steps to implement in order to get Google authorship for your blogs.

Why should be worrying about getting Google Authorship?

Image source: www.bestsellerauthors.com

Google authorship will not only boost your online visibility but it also increases

Social proof (that can visually impact more on your blogs)Image in the rich snippets can bring you more CTR’s

Lets have two samples here:

Without Google authorship (for the keyword – landing page tips)

With Google authorship (for the same result – landing page tips)

Now.. which one do you more likely to open?

If I’m not wrong, it would be surely the one with Google authorship (smiley face on the rich snippet).

Why?

Because it improves the social proof, visual images can build instant trust on Google – thus Google bringing your more traffic to your blog posts.

I hope now you understood the importance of having Google authorship for your WordPress blogs.

Lets get into the details then..

Here’s what you need to do:

You need to link your blog’s content to your Google+ ProfileYou must have to embed “rel=author” in your WordPress account

Step 1: add a link to your Google+ profile

Open your Google+ profile page > edit

Now.. scroll down and link to your site in the “Contributor to” section.

Step 2: Paste the code into your WordPress site

Here I’ll be showing you 3 options (Thesis, Genesis or remaining theme users)

Whoever using Thesis theme on their blogs – getting Google authorship is bit easy!

Here’s how to get Google authorship for thesis users.

Use Google Authorship WP plugin for Thesis: This is the easiest way of getting Google authorship for Thesis users. Simply download this plugin and follow these steps.

Make sure you’ve “Show author name in post byline” and “Link author name to archive” selected under Thesis Design Options > Display Options > BylinesAdd your Google+ profile link to your profile informationAdd a link to your author archive to your Google+ profile, in either your “other profiles” or “contributor to” sections

Or if you don’t want to use any plugin for this, you can simply do this in two easy steps:

Log into your dashboard, go to

Thesis > Site options > Document Head > Additional Scripts

Now paste this:

Replace ‘XXXXXXX’ with your Google+ unique number

Log into your dashboard, go to

Genesis > Theme Settings > Header and Footer Scripts

Now.. paste this

Replace ‘XXXXXXX’ with your Google+ unique number

If you’re using a simple theme (or any theme other than Thesis or Genesis).. follow this steps to get Google authorship for your WordPress site.

Open functions.php or custom_functions.phpNow paste the following

Insert your Google+ profile page id in place of XXXXXX

add_action(‘wp_head’, ‘add_google_rel_author’);
function add_google_rel_author() {
echo ”;
}

Credit: http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-get-googles-verified-authorship-for-your-wordpress-blog/

Final step: Replace all the XXXX’s with your Google+ page unique number > Save it

How to verify that you’ve got Google authorship in your WordPress blog?

You’re done!

Note: Wait for few days to let Google bots crawl all these new added information. Generally it takes anywhere around 4 to 5 days, you’re lucky if you get it faster than this.

Let me know if you’ve any difficulties in getting Google authorship for your blogs. I’ll be glad to help you!

Tagged as: blogging tips to get authorship on google, google authorship, how to get google authorship

Rahul has written 7 articles .

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Don’t Ignore these 5 Insights from 5 Big Online Entrepreneurs

I’ve been lucky enough to have in-depth interviews with 20 of the world’s top online entrepreneurs.

Today, I’m sharing five really important and totally exclusive insights from five of these big online entrepreneurs.

The most important web design trend right nowHow Matt Wolfe makes $20,000 per monthHow much it costs to outsource a full-time virtual assistantWhy social media is like a partyThe one thing that will never change about online business

 

When we asked Jacob Cass about the ‘future of web design’ he said, “responsive design would be at the top of my list.”

A website is ‘responsive’ when its design adapts automatically depending on what device the site is being viewed on. “For example, a website will change its look when you’re viewing it on a mobile device, versus a large screen,” Cass explained.

 

The Internet used to be just on computer monitors. Today, it’s being viewed more than ever on phones and tablets. A May 2012 study from comScore predicts that smart phone owners will become “the new mobile majority in the US” by the end of the year (see chart).

More and more people around the world are browsing the web on small, mobile screens and if your website doesn’t look good on an iPhone or iPad then you’re losing ground with this rising wave of users.

If you’re a web developer, it’s time to learn how to create responsive websites.

If you’re a website owner, make sure your next redesign includes responsive design.

If you want more insight from Jacob Cass, you can check out his blog or get Income Diary’s book of interviews. Cass also identified “HTML 5, CSS 3, web fonts and parallax scrolling” as hot web design trends on the rise.

Broadly, a membership site is a website that restricts access to most of its content to members only. Many membership sites are free to join, but others cost anywhere from $1 to $100 per month.

Matt Wolfe made $1,615.63 in January 2012 from selling 12 different affiliate products. He made a little over $62 with Adsense. Between his two membership sites (The WordPress Classroom and The Marketer’s Classroom), Wolfe raked in about $20,000 in just one month:

The best thing about this type of revenue is that it tends to be recurring. As Ryan Lee explained to us, “instead of always having to get new customers, your job becomes taking care of the customers that you already have.”

The biggest obstacle to success with a membership site is making your exclusive content incredibly valuable. As Wolfe explained to us, “There’s a lot of information out there for free, so you’ve got to figure out what makes your information different.”

Once you’ve convinced people to pay monthly for access, then the challenge becomes continuing to provide value to your community of members so that they’re getting their money’s worth. That could be a full-time job – but if you’re making $20,000 per month from subscriptions like Wolfe does, then you can justify the hard work.

While selling ad space and products are still perfectly viable ways of earning a passive income online, creating a members-only community is more lucrative right now. If you’re willing and able to provide massive, exclusive value to your members, your reward will be a fat, reliable monthly paycheck.

 

A couple decades ago, the idea of hiring a personal assistant who lived in another country was ridiculous. Today, the Internet has made it possible for a team of people to work on a project simultaneously from their computers while living anywhere.

In 2005, Tyrone Shum started a business selling Dragonboat paddles online. Business was almost too good and Shum was working 60 hours a week. After reading Timothy Ferriss, Shum started outsourcing and brought down his workload to just ten hours per week.

Shum has since sold his Dragonboat business and now spends his time teaching people how to outsource work effectively.

 

Every business owner could use a bigger staff. But if you live in The United States (like me) or in The UK (like Michael), then a skilled full-time employee will no doubt cost over $10,000 per year.

Outsourcing works because it allows a business owner to hire a staff in a country where the cost of living is much lower.

“I think you’d be reasonably paying about $450 a month for a full-time virtual assistant working 40 hours a week. For part time, you’d be looking at $250-$300 a month. For contracts, I would probably say at least a minimum of $5 an hour nowadays”

Tyrone Shum, from Web Domination 20

“Personally, I use people from the Philippines. For one, they’re English-speaking. Two, they’re honest and very high integrity. And three, they’ve got most of the technology that most of us use in the Western countries, so it wouldn’t be a problem to work with them.”

Tyrone Shum, from Web Domination 20

If you’ve ever had a staff, then you know managing a team is a lot of hard work. Unfortunately, if you don’t do it right, outsourcing a personal assistant or a team may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Shum recommends talking to a potential employee “face to face” via video call before hiring to get an idea of their character. Another important step in effective outsourcing is to develop efficient systems for managing and training your staff, which Shum details in his interview.

There’s nothing more valuable to a business than a dedicated employee. If your business could benefit from a staff (or a larger staff) but you don’t yet have the funds to pay someone locally, outsourcing offers an incredible opportunity.

We mostly talked with Pat Flynn about his hugely successful blog on earning passive income.

But Flynn is an expert on social media – as testified by his 58,000+ Twitter followers and 26,000+ fans on Facebook… and he told us that social media is like a party.

“You want to approach social media like you’re at a big party. What do you do at a party? You get to know people. You get to understand who they are.”

Pat Flynn, from Web Domination 20

According to Pat, your goal on social media should be to develop a trusting relationship with your audience.

Many people make the mistake of trying to use their social media pages as a platform for selling. That’s a big mistake.

“Selling to people through social media is like going to a party, meeting somebody for the first time, and then saying, ‘Hey, do you want to buy this Tupperware?’”

Pat Flynn, from Web Domination 20

 

Flynn says that “Facebook and Twitter have been amazingly successful at bringing in returning traffic to my site.” He also mentioned the increased brand awareness that comes with being on a site that people are on “all the time.”

But social media is even more valuable to Flynn as an ongoing social event, an interactive community: “It’s great because I can post questions on there and people answer. It really brings a community feel to the brand and that’s a good thing about social media. If people have questions, other people can answer for me before I even have to go there. So that really helps a lot.”

Even businesses should keep social media social.

 

Derek Halpern is one of the world’s foremost experts on the psychology of blogging. We interviewed him to find out more about his popular blog Social Triggers and how to benefit from understanding what makes people “tick” online.

But one of my favorite parts of the interview came when Halpern wasn’t talking about psychology at all. He was discussing the way people often miss what really matters when it comes to running an online business.

“Right now, we have an obsession with shiny objects. Everyone wants to talk about the latest tools, Pinterest, Facebook, and all this garbage. It always changes every six months. It drives me insane!”

Derek Halpern, from Web Domination 20

There’s always something new to talk about on the ever-changing web. New features, new software, new sources of traffic. All of these things matter, but by their very nature they tend to be short-lived.

It’s a good idea to pay attention to opportunities afforded by the latest trends, like how Josh Dunlop has capitalized on Pinterest’s popularity to grow his photography blog. But when keeping up with the latest trends becomes your priority, you’re foolishly ignoring what really matters.

“The only thing that doesn’t change is that you’re talking to people and that those people have problems that you need to solve.”

Derek Halpern, from Web Domination 20

Some people think that you can trick people into giving you money online. Others seem to think that money will just fall from the sky after they set up their website.

The truth is more difficult but also simpler and, I think, much better:  people will give you money online when you solve their problems.

If you’re not making money online, then you’re probably not doing much to solve peoples’ problems.

If you are making money online but you’d like to make more, then it’s time to start looking at how you can create systems and processes that solve those problems better and more efficiently.

These five insights came from the first five interviews of Web Domination. There’s 20 interviews total, so we’re just scratching the surface here (this may become a series if well-received).

As I read through the book researching this post, I was again impressed by the advice these successful entrepreneurs were willing to share. They all seemed to share the attitude that they would be better off sharing their knowledge than keeping it all to themselves.

So that’s my last insight for today: when it comes to the secrets to your success, be an open book. There’s more to gain from helping others than from selfishly holding onto a strategy for yourself. If something in this article struck a nerve with you, please share it with your network and in the comments section below.

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20 Things to be Thankful for as an Online Entrepreneur

Every day of the year is a good day to be thankful.

People who feel grateful have “more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not” according to a scientific study in the Wall Street Journal.

On that note, I would like to share with you the 20 things that I’m most thankful for as an online entrepreneur.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

Albert Einstein

Since I first became an entrepreneur two years ago, I’ve made hundreds of mistakes.

I wish I’d made more.

Even though my mistakes have cost me lucrative clients and long hours, they’ve also been necessary in order for me to learn and continue on my path. I wish I had made more because that would mean that I would have been pushing myself harder and learning more rapidly.

Yes, I would prefer to do everything perfectly the first time through. But that’s impossible. Instead, I’m thankful for my mistakes because they’re the stepping stones to success.

The Internet has made entrepreneurs more powerful than ever before. We can start virtual storefronts that never close and training programs that educate people while we sleep.

And if somewhere along the way we need help, we can always just Google it.

I don’t know if PayPal truly is the “world’s most-loved way to pay and get paid,” but I can say that it’s the world’s most popular. PayPal has become the international standard for online money transaction.

PayPal’s popular enough that it’s usually safe to assume that people you’re doing business with online will have an account through the site. I’m thankful for PayPal because it makes billing clients from all over the world a breeze.

In the last year, about 75% of my business revenue has come through PayPal.

This summer, I went on tour with my band for about four weeks. While my bandmates all had to take work off entirely, I was able to manage my video business over email and write for Income Diary.

Working and maintaining an online business while traveling isn’t easy. Sporadic access to Internet, electricity, and your own personal energy means that productivity can be difficult to come by. Still, some entrepreneurs (like Cody McKibben) adopt the “digital nomad” lifestyle and run their businesses while traveling the world.

Someday, I’ll follow in Cody’s footsteps. Until then, I’m just thankful that I can get up and go whenever I want without having to quit my day job.

Entrepreneurs don’t have to be lone wolves. Working with great people can be the most satisfying part of any job.

The first time I heard of Wikipedia, I thought it was silly. How could an encyclopedia be trusted if anyone could edit at any time?

My opinion sure has changed in the last ten years.

Today, Wikipedia is the world’s most comprehensive, up-to-date, and popular encyclopedia. I use it as a resource while researching nearly every article for Income Diary. Of course, I still check Wikipedia’s citations to make sure that the information is correct.

In addition to being a great resource, Wikipedia operates entirely without ads. They ask for donations every year in order to keep Wikipedia free and ad-free. If you’re as thankful for Wikipedia as I am, consider donating this year.

Entrepreneurs are full of ideas. When the right idea strikes, it can keep you up all night imagining the possibilities.

While I’ve written previously about the importance of sticking with one idea and following through with it, I’m still thankful for every new idea I get. There’s a heady exhilaration to brainstorming a fresh business idea – and few things in the world are more fun.

“Variety’s the spice of life.”
William Cowper, English Poet

Most of my friends have a 9-to-5 job – and while they all take pride in what they do, they all have the same complaint too:  it’s the same thing, day after day.

Online entrepreneurs don’t have this problem. Their agenda on any given day changes depending on what stage of development their business is in. One day, they’re a writer, the next they’re a developer, and the day after that they’re a marketer, speaker, or custom support provider.

Wearing all these different hats is enough to make your head spin. And to be quite honest, sometimes I’ve craved the consistency of “normal” day job. But in the end, I love that my job as an online entrepreneur presents me with a fresh challenge every day.

Social networks have revolutionized the way that we find out about new ideas and they’ve made it easier than ever for the right idea – the right product, business, or website – to gain a huge audience overnight.

I run a service business and one of my favorite things about running it online is that it gives me access to a worldwide marketplace of potential clients.

Just last week I got an email from a company based out of Hong Kong and within 48 hours I was on Skype with them discussing a potential video project. This is the type of opportunity that would never have been available to me only a few decades ago.

This international market has lead to more clients for me, but that’s just the beginning. Many entrepreneurs hire full-time employees from nations where the cost of living is far less and they’re therefore able to pay lower wages. Of course, if you’re selling a product, it’s also nice to have worldwide customer-base.

Email is a great way of communicating online, but it has its limitations.

When I’m looking to get to know a client better quickly and to truly understand their project goals, there’s nothing better than a face to face conversation. Skype makes that possible even when my client works halfway around the globe.

Just as Paypal is the online standard for payment, Skype is the online standard for telecommunication. If my client engages in online business, it’s pretty safe to assume that they have a Skype account. In that case, having a meaningful back-and-forth is as easy as exchanging Skype ID’s and agreeing upon a time to chat.

Skype is also a great way to stay connected with long-time business associates. Michael Dunlop and I will occasionally check in over Skype and discuss my most recent Income Diary article or an upcoming business prospect. Setting my status to ‘available’ every once in a while is a great way to keep my business network healthy.

In interviewing twenty of the world’s top online entrepreneurs, I was very impressed with how much money these people were making while they slept. Sure, it took years of work to build their online empires. But once up and running, some were making thousands of dollars a month without any regular effort on their end.

Since my business is as video service provider, I’m still working very hard for every penny that I earn. But the potential to one day earn a healthy stream of passive income is one of the most appealing aspects of being an online entrepreneur.

“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.”

Muhammed Ali

Starting a business is a risky venture. There’s no guarantee you’ll ever turn a profit. If you do, you’re still just one wrong move from your business unraveling before your eyes.

Of course, with great risk there also comes the possibility of great reward. Personally, I’m thankful for the entrepreneurial risk in my life. It keeps things interesting, gets my adrenaline pumping, and often brings out my best performance.

The older I get, the more I love to learn. Unfortunately, I’m no longer in school so I don’t get to sit in class all day any more.

Thankfully entrepreneurship gives me opportunities and incentives to learn every day. Online business is complex and always changing. Even if I mastered every skill tonight, I would wake up tomorrow with more to learn.

Entrepreneurs learn quickly because they often put themselves in positions where they have no choice. As Roy Ash, said, “An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.”

Since being founded in 1982, Adobe Systems has been creating much of the world’s best multimedia and creativity software including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and After Effects.

These complex and powerful programs enable an individual to produce professional-quality images, designs, videos, and books – all with just their computer.

When I bought a suite of Adobe software for my company just under two years ago, it felt like we transformed from a small partnership into a full-on production studio. As we mastered the software, we became capable of completing jobs in-house that we would have had to outsource before.

If you don’t have any Adobe software, you can download a free trial of any of their programs here.

When I was a little boy, I used to stay up all night writing and drawing. When it was time to get up for preschool in the morning, I had to be dragged out of bed.

Twenty years later, I still stay up all night writing and doing graphic design. The only difference is that I don’t have to go to preschool in the next day. I love that entrepreneurship allows me to follow my own body clock, work when I feel inspired, and go out to the park on days when the weather is just too perfect to pass up.

WordPress is the world’s most popular blogging platform on the Internet for a reason. It’s simply the best way to publish content online. Income Diary is a WordPress site, along with 16.7% of Alexa’s “top 1 million” websites.

A business doesn’t grow in a straight line.

The more clients you get, the more referrals you’ll receive. The more customers you get, the more word of mouth traffic you’ll receive. The more articles you’ve posted to your website, the more traffic you’ll receive month after month.

I love the feeling of building an asset that keeps giving me a better return on investment the more that I put into it.

There’s simply nothing more important to me, whether as an entrepreneur or as a human being.

As an entrepreneur, my life is a blank canvas. I could go anywhere, do anything, fail or succeed at any number of ventures… the possibilities unroll before me endlessly.

I truly have no idea what my future holds. What an adventure!

Let me know with a comment below.

If you haven’t started your own business yet, I recommend reading ’30 Reasons to Become an Online Entrepreneur’.

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Blogger Profile: Seth Godin and The World’s Weirdest Marketing Blog

How do you know when you’ve made it big online?

Here’s one answer:  when you search your first name on Google and you’re the top result.

It’s no surprise that the #1 result for “seth” is the Seth Godin’s marketing blog. The site receives about 600,000 visitors per month and consistently ranks near the top of Ad Age’s Power 150 (a daily ranking of marketing blogs).

Godin’s blog is successful because it’s weird. It’s a “purple cow” – a term he popularized that describes “something phenomenal, something counterintuitive and exciting and flat out unbelievable.”

Below, I’ll break down what Godin’s doing that’s so phenomenal, counterintuitive, and flat out unbelievable.

How being a blogger is like being a musicianWhy Godin’s traffic advice contradicts itselfWhy Seth’s blog doesn’t allow commentsHow Godin made $40,000 in three hours

“Key assertion: you don’t publish it unless it’s good.”

Seth Godin

Your blog is your brand. Mediocre content is worse than no content at all.

Your writing “voice” is the distinctive, unique character that comes through in your language. I’ve talked previously about why it’s so important if you want to be a better writer online.

Each of us is blessed with a natural voice, but truly great writers like Godin intentionally cultivate that voice to make it stronger and more impactful:

I’ve carefully curated a voice in my head that blogs in a way that appears to resonate with people.

Godin compares developing his writing voice to the way a musician develops their own personal sound: “Training helps, listening to records helps, but mostly you blow a lot until you resonate and then repeat, prune, experiment, prune, repeat, prune until a groove occurs.”

Keep perfecting your voice as a writer and eventually you’ll find your own groove – one that’s true to who you are and resonates with your audience.

Using your voice makes your writing better, but it may also make it easier and less time-consuming. Here’s what Seth told Problogger:

“I write like I talk. The reason that’s important is that no one gets talker’s block. And so if you wake up in the morning unable to speak, then you need a physician. Everyone else doesn’t have that problem. So if you can train yourself to talk in complete sentences, and actually come up with thoughts that are worth sharing, then writing isn’t particularly hard—you just write down what you say.”

Godin used to write longer posts occasionally, but now he publishes daily. That’s right: seven days a week.

That’s almost unheard of for a one-man-operation. But it could be even more. Godin told Ad Age that he has “about six bloggable ideas a day.” He keeps it down to one per day as a “compromise” because he doesn’t want to overwhelm his audience with new content.

Godin writes at least one post per day and queues up the extras when he writes more. He’ll regularly look through posts that are queued to publish and replace them with new ones that he likes more.

If you commit to doing a simple marketing item just once each day, at the end of the year you’ve built a mountain.

Writing daily isn’t for everyone, but in general the more often you post, the better. Google favors websites that are frequently updated and I know that I do too:  the more often a website has new content, the more often I find myself visiting it.

Last week, I wrote an article about the importance of writing epic blog posts that are at least 2,000 words long. Godin agrees with me and has told to people who want more traffic to, “write long, definitive posts.”

Yet today, Seth’s posts are anything but long and definitive. Many are under 200 words. Here’s part of Godin’s reasoning:

“Less is actually more, and the length of your speech or your document has nothing at all to do with your impact or your status.”

He’s also said:

“I also find that writing twice as long a post doesn’t increase communication, it usually decreases it.”

So which is the truth? Should you write authoritative posts of at least 2,000 words? Or follow in Seth’s footsteps and keep things short and pithy?

It depends. The length of your post should be as short as possible, while still saying everything that you need to say on the topic. So while an ultimate guide on a complex subject should be thousands of words long, the explanation of a simple principle or idea should be only a couple hundred.

Your readers’ time is valuable and you owe it to them to write concisely. Whatever you’re writing, follow Seth’s advice and simply “say what you need to say, then leave.”

Seth doesn’t worry too much about driving traffic to his blog.

He gets a constant stream of visitors from Twitter, Facebook, Search, and links… but it isn’t because he implements any amazing traffic strategies. In fact, he runs arguably the world’s worst Facebook and Twitter pages (no social interaction whatsoever; every update is just a link to a new blog post).

All the traffic Seth receives is a symptom of the fact that every day he offers something people highly valuable:  a fresh idea, written with alacrity and honesty.

Way back in 2006, Seth wrote a blog about getting traffic that you can read here.

Here are a couple of his points that really stuck out to me:

Lists have been invaluable to Income Diary’s success. Last week, Michael told me that 90% of the site’s search engine traffic is from list posts.

Godin has coined more than his fair share of marketing terms, most famously, he pioneered the concept of “permission marketing” way back in the 90’s. How does this help with traffic? I’m not sure, but it will probably get more people to link back to your blog.

“49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.”

This reminds me that giving more means getting more – and that when you provide links to the sources of your content, you’re giving back both to the source and to your reader.

Finally, here’s the last traffic tip Godin offered. It must be important, since it’s in bold:

56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

I couldn’t help but notice that many of Seth’s traffic tips contradicted one another.

He advises that you “Be topical… write posts that need to be read right now” and then that you “Be timeless… write posts that will be readable in a year.”

He advises that you “Write short, pithy posts” and then that you “Write long, definitive posts.”

In fact, Godin contradicts himself so often that I’m pretty sure he’s trying to make a point:  there are no hard and fast rules for getting more traffic. There are many routes to the top of that mountain; pick the right one for you.

 

I’ve talked about how Matthew Inman and Neil Patel both implement very narrow headers for their blogs, which means there’s more room above the fold for their content.

But Godin does them both one better: his blog design doesn’t have a header whatsoever (unless you count that little gray bar that links back to the home page). Instead, he uses the top of the sidebar to put the blog title.

Godin’s no-header design makes a statement: nothing comes before content on this blog.

Another unusual design decision, Godin doesn’t allow comments on his blog posts. He gets enough questions about it, he actually wrote a post explaining why. Here’s an excerpt:

I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though. First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning. Second, it takes way too much of my time to even think about them, never mind curate them. And finally, and most important for you, it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters.

Godin’s decision to avoid comments is less strategic and more personal. Comments are a great way to connect with your readers and engage in valuable discourse, but they’re also time-consuming to curate and they can distract from the original message of your post.

Since readers can’t discuss Godin’s posts on his site, they often turn to writing responses on their own blogs – which means more trackbacks and traffic for Seth.

A good design can establish a site’s credibility, illustrate its brand, and guide readers to take a particular action, all at once.

But the design of Godin’s blog isn’t particularly good. Yes, it’s simple and effective, but it’s also outdated and ugly. Sorry, Seth.

The blog works in spite of its design. Ultimately, good content always trumps good design. The sandwich is always more important than the plate it’s served on.

“My blogging life is basically goalless. I like the zen nature of that, and paradoxically, it improves results.”

Seth didn’t start his blog to make money and even as its readership grew, he never made an outright effort to monetize. He told Ad Age, that “the only reason I blog is because I love it. I love being able to create something that feels like a gift, giving an idea that spreads, that may improve something for someone.”

Godin’s seen others stumble when forcing monetization on their blogs: “When people start to think, ‘What can I hold back? What can I sell? How can I move people through a sales funnel?’ they start getting themselves into trouble.”

In the connection economy, what’s really clear to me is that there are more opportunities to be generous and to lead and to curate than ever before. If you spend a year or two or five doing that, in your spare time, with no real focus on getting repaid, sooner or later people are going to want more of you … and then you can’t help but get paid.

A site like Income Diary is built from the ground up as a business, so obviously this advice doesn’t apply to all blogs. Godin understand that there are different models:

“I think there’s plenty of room for blogs that exist to pay the blogger, or blogs that exist to turn a profit. That’s just not the kind of blog I’m writing, and I’m not the kind of blogger that could do that.”

Before you go about implementing a monetization strategy, carefully consider whether it’s in line with the type of blogger you want to be. Monetization is best when it comes about organically, through an alignment of your values and the needs of your audience.

“[Blogging] is amateur media; this is not professional media. And every once in a while an amateur gets so good that people come to them and beg them to take money. But if an amateur sets out to be a professional, she starts making short cuts and she starts trading in relationships for cash.”

The above quote if from Godin’s ProBlogger interview, but the amateur/professional distinction must be important to him, because I’ve heard him touch on it several times.

The overriding message is clear: don’t expect to get paid like a professional unless you truly behave like one. Sometimes that means paying your dues for a long time, like how Godin delivered 100’s of speeches before he was ever paid to speak.

As the technology to take great photos, make graphic design, and publish content online becomes increasingly available to the masses, Godin sees more and more amateur creators who are willing to work for free. This means that professionals will have to prove that they’re head and shoulders above the rest if they want to get paid. From his Ad Age interview:

“The future is going to be filled with amateurs, and the truly talented and persistent will make a great living. But the days of journeyman writers who make a good living by the word–over.”

There will always be people blogging for free. If you want to make a living writing online, you’ll have to be talented, persistent, and professional.

Seth doesn’t sell any advertising space on his blog and he’s made it clear that he thinks selling ads is bad for a blog’s traffic.

But he does have the covers of 14 of his books in his sidebar – and under each one is the text ‘buy it now’. Godin’s books are all about marketing and are all very relevant to his blog’s audience, so it makes sense that he would showcase them prominently.

By using his sidebar to promote books that he can stand behind fully (he wrote them, after all), Godin gets the best of both worlds:  money from selling products in his sidebar, without selling out.

In June 2012, Seth started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of his most recent book, The Icarus Deception:

“Please help me show my publisher, the bookstores and anyone with a book worth writing that it’s possible to start a project with a show of support on Kickstarter.”

Godin asked his tribe to back the project in exchange for advance copies of the book, at a discounted price, and with special bonuses. The most-special-bonus was the opportunity to be interviewed by Seth and featured in the book. Even at $1,150 a pop, this reward quickly sold out.

Within three hours Godin’s campaign had met its $40,000 funding goal. By the end of the campaign’s run, Godin had raised $287,342 – breaking a few Kickstarter records along the way.

Godin loves what Kickstarter does for the publishing industry:

“[Kickstarter is] a way that any author with a following can divide the publishing process into three pieces–get the true fans on board early, give them something to talk about just before the book is in stores, and then use online and offline bookstores to do what they do best and distribute far and wide. It moves the power in the process to where it belongs–to motivated readers and their authors.”

If you’re interested in creating a Kickstarter project, I recommend you check out Income Diary’s ultimate Kickstarter guide.

Why does Seth Godin get out of bed in the morning? Here’s how he answered that question:

“I would say that my passion is having people surprise themselves by what they’re capable of. And if I can be present at least a little bit for some of that internal dialog, that’s a privilege and a thrill for me.”

Seth believes in most people more than most people believe in themselves. He wants nothing more than to show them what they can achieve if they truly try – and his blog is perfect vehicle for that.

So Seth gets to pursue his passion every day and he says you should too:

“It seems as though work with passion is so much more fulfilling and efficient that it’s a reasonable choice for everyone, not just an exception.”

Now get to it!

View the original article here

The 6 Most Disastrous Product Launches Ever – And What You Can Learn From Them

If you’ve ever created a product only to see it fall flat on its face then take heed. You may think that the big brands like Coke and IBM, with all the resources at their fingertips, would never release a disastrous product. But you’d be wrong.

As it turns out, the history books are littered with product launches gone bad – some costing literally hundreds of millions of dollars.

Fortunately the bigger the disaster, the more we can learn from the experience. So let’s pick apart some of the biggest ever failed product launches to highlight not only the risks of launching a new product but also what we can learn from these shocking case studies.

Once upon a time IBM were the manufacturers of business computers in the form of their IBM PC. Buoyed by their success, and keen to expand their market reach even further, IBM decided to venture into the consumer market by offering a computer specifically designed for home users. Thus, the IBM PCjr was born.

The pre-launch excitement was palpable – it was the “Apple cult” of it’s day. Computer lovers weren’t just lining up ready to buy the new system months before it’s launch but they were even shunning equal machines released by IBMs competitors. The pressure was on.

Sadly, rather like many over-hyped product launches, the reality failed to live up to expectations. For one, the keyboard was so small and so ugly as to be virtually unusable. Indeed, as sales flagged IBM even swapped out the keyboard for a better one at huge expense but sales failed to recover.

However this didn’t address the two core issues that led to the IBM PCjr’s failure; firstly the machine cost almost double what similar machines were selling for with no obvious benefits.

Even worse, the limited processing power of the IBMjr meant that in many cases software, and even individual files, weren’t compatible between the IBM PC and the PCjr. This meant that anyone wanting to transfer information between the two machines – such as business owners who wanted to do some work from home – were setting themselves up for a fall.

Shortly after launch, when monthly sales were only in their thousands, IBM pulled the plug on their greatest product launch failure ever.

So what can we learn from IBM’s dismal failure with the PCjr? Firstly, if you’re going to sell a product, it must be worth the money you’re changing. Many brands over the years have shown that premium products will sell, but only when customers still consider them fair value.

Before launching any kind of product, market research is essential. Get your product into the hands of your potential customers and ask them for their thoughts. Do they like it? How can it be improved? How does it measure up to their expectations? And arguably most importantly of all (for IBM at least): what will customers willingly pay for your product?

One of the classic product launch failures involves one of the most iconic and well-known brands in the world; namely the Coca Cola company. For years, Pepsi and Coca Cola had been fierce rivals for the title of “cola king” but what worried the Coca Cola company was that they seemed to be losing the battle. Pepsi’s sales continued to grow while their own faltered. Alarmed at dropping sales, Coke decided they need to take massive action.

Taste tests suggested that many customers preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi over Coke so experts set about creating a “new Coke” that was more appealing than Pepsi’s offering. Researchers found customers largely in favour of New Coke and so in 1985 the product was officially launched.

The response was almost immediate. While some cola drinkers did indeed prefer New Coke over the old formula or even over Pepsi, there was a problem. A vocal customer base felt cheated that their beloved drink had been tampered with and started to boycott the new version. Sales dropped still further until, with a heavy heart, executives at Coke had to perform a “u-turn” and reintroduce the old formula.

The really interesting thing about the New Coke saga from an entrepreneurs perspective is that in theory the product should have been a winner. Coke poured huge amounts of time and money into their research and development and indeed on average people did prefer the new, sweeter beverage over the old one. So what really went wrong?

In essence, Coke forgot to consider one vital element – and that was their brand. Not the price, the appearance or the flavor of their drink but rather the feelings people had about the company. For many people, Coke was a part of their identity. They’d enjoyed it for years and rather like supporting a certain football team the Coke/Pepsi divide helped to define who they were as a person.

Indeed Coke’s branding was so strong that when they stopped producing the old formula, some die-hard enthusiasts even started importing it from overseas where New Coke had not yet been introduced. Their customers felt cheated and deceived. The brand had changed – and they didn’t like it.

So the biggest lesson that entrepreneurs can learn from the dismal failure of New Coke is the importance of really understanding your customers. By interacting with them through the enquiries they make and through surveys and social media, you’ll gain a better understanding of what works.

Try to gain an understanding of how your customers view you and what your brand traits are, so that you can live up to these expectations. Consistent branding works; it builds trust and makes customers feel comfortable. It’s how Ray Kroc grew McDonalds into one of the biggest companies in the world, because wherever you see the “yellow arches” you know exactly what you’re getting. Imagine walking into McDonalds to find it selling only vegeburgers and imagine how cheated you’d feel.

In other words choose a brand and stick to it, no matter what.

“Tetris, a failure?” I hear you ask? Right now you’re probably remembering the Gameboy you lovingly owned years ago and the many happy hours you spent playing Tetris. So how could a game that has become such a part of popular culture be considered a dismal failure?

The reason to consider Tetris a product launch disaster concerns the secret battle between Nintendo and Atari. Before it hit the big time, every software manufacturer that encountered Tetris saw the games massive potential and wanted a piece of the action.

Soon many of the biggest names in the industry were battling it out for rights to produce and sell the game on their platform and two of the biggest rivals were Atari and Nintendo. In theory Atari won the race; they got approval to mass-produce the game long before Nintendo got to the table. But there was a problem; they were negotiating with the wrong person. Nintendo may have been late to the game but they rapidly identified the “go-to” guy and began negotiating in earnest.

The outcome was that Atari incorrectly thought they had won sole rights to the game when infact they had been beaten by Nintendo. As Atari had negotiated with a more junior person, the Nintendo deal won out after some unpleasant legal wrangling.

Unfortunately by the time Nintendo was finally crowned the victor, Atari had already manufactured vast supplies of the game to distribute. On losing the case Atari were then faced with an expensive and embarrassing obligation to dispose of all their Tetris game cartridges. In all, they recalled and destroyed over a quarter of a million games, a mistake that cost them millions of dollars.

So while Tetris may have been a major success for Nintendo it also represents a massive disaster for competitor Atari who failed to do their research properly and eventually missed out.

There are a number of points that we as entrepreneurs would do well to learn from this unfortunate saga. Firstly, try to identify the real authorities in your chosen business niche and build trust and rapport with them. Relationships are just as important as ever when it comes to growing a venture and having the right friends can make or break a business.

Secondly while entrepreneurs tend to be impatient, action-oriented individuals, it’s also important to have someone on staff who is well-grounded and will look at the finer details of a project. Whether you employ a staff member specifically or outsource as necessary, don’t underestimate the importance of the right counsel in the form of lawyers and accountants when you’re making important decisions in your business. One badly-checked piece of paper really can bring the roof down if you’re unlucky.

Poor old Coca Cola. As if the New Coke fiasco weren’t enough of a mistake, the UK release of their bottled water product was an even greater disaster leading to possibly more bad press than any other major product launch in history.

By definition, most bottled water sold comes from natural springs where it is considered to be fresher, purer and more healthy than tap water. Many people also believe it tastes better too. All the major bottled water brands sold in Britain such as Evian and Buxton follow this most basic rule. However Coca Cola decided to do something different…

Upon the release of the Coke’s heavily-marketed Dasani water, consumers were outraged to discover that the water they were spending good money on hadn’t just bubbled up from an anchient aquifer but had instead come from a tap in London. No matter that Coca Cola claimed the tap water was put through a purification process and had trace minerals added to it – the fact is that bottled water is seen as natural and healthy while tap water and artificial processes aren’t.

In other words, the product was at odds with consumers from the very outset. Just like the New Coke scenario, the taste wasn’t what mattered. What counted was what consumers thought about the product – and that was over-poweringly negative.

With a PR crisis on their hands and customers feeling cheated and lied to the story just got worse; abnormally high levels of a cancer-causing agent was also identified in the water. As the mineral wasn’t present in the original water, Coke’s “purification” process must have been inadvertently adding it somehow.

Coke quickly withdrew hundreds of thousands of bottles and as consumer confidence sunk to an all time low, the drink was finally discontinued. Indeed, while Dasani is still sold in some countries, the negative publicity in the UK not only led to the product’s withdrawal here but also shelved the launch of the product in mainland Europe too.

There are two lessons here that we entrepreneurs need to keep in mind. The first of these relates to quality control. If Coke was properly testing their water then the harmful chemicals would have been noticed in advance. Never make assumptions about your product or business; instead try to experience it as a customer with fresh eyes and see what your own experience is.

Secondly, your customers aren’t stupid, so don’t treat them like it. The overwhelming response from customers about Dasani water was that they felt cheated and conned. They felt like Coke had tried to take advantage of them, and nobody likes to feel like that.

Remember that your customers are the lifeblood of your business and they should be treated with the utmost respect at all times. Think about how your product lives up to expectations and, like Apple or Dyson, find ways to exceed those expectations in every interaction. When you succeed, you’ll build massive trust and loyalty in your business that can explode your growth.

When the dangers of smoking cigarettes started to become public knowledge in the 1980's, tobacco firm RJ Reynolds hit on a novel idea to grow their customer base; a cigarette that doesn’t give off smoke. The theory was that a smokeless cigarette would not only be more socially-acceptable but would also appear healthier to customers who were concerned about the risks of smoking.

Sadly, the reality was rather different. While the developers made good on their claims of a smokeless cigarette, the complicated process of making a tobacco that didn’t produce visible smoke had two major shortfalls. Firstly the cigarettes were virtually impossible to light and secondly customers found the taste repulsive.

For most customers, one packet was enough before they scurried back to their old cigarette brand. Shortly after it’s launch, the smokeless cigarette was withdrawn from sale, as RJ Reynolds flushed over $300 million of development costs down the drain.

The simple fact is that there’s no point in trying to run before you can walk. It’s doesn’t matter if a cigarette doesn’t produce smoke if the most basic elements aren’t there. If you can’t light a cigarette and it tastes vile then nobody will want it.

As an entrepreneur, remember the old adage that “form follows function”. Ensure your product does exactly what it says on the tin – smoothly and efficiently – before you start trying to add any gimmicks on top to try and make you unique.

Imagine if Popup Domination – the most popular WordPress plugin for building your mailing list – wouldn’t actually add subscribers to your autoresponder. It wouldn’t matter how fancy the popups looked or how easy it was to install – if the core functionality isn’t there then your product is going to fail.

And as a final point, try to keep your product development costs as low as possible. The more money you spend, the higher your risk is. While you may have grandiose ideas about a new piece of software, a mobile app or whatever else, try removing things from the project to see if you can save time and money on development costs without giving up the core purpose of the product.

Entrepreneurs have a saying: “fail fast and fail often”. The more products you release, the sooner you’ll find a winner. And when you land that “big catch” you’ll be in a perfect position to reinvest some of your profits into new features and really turn your product into a market leader.

Many of us have heard the story of two competitors battling it out for dominance in the video cassette market. Strangely, while we all know that VHS was the ultimate winner, with Betamax dying a painful death, the most obvious question is why? After all, most people who tested both formats preferred Betamax citing it’s far higher quality as the reason for their preference. So if a “better” product lost out to an inferior one, what really happened, and what can we as entrepreneurs learn from the experience?

It turns out that Betamax had an Achilles heel that led to it’s downfall; namely the video tapes they made weren’t very long when compared to VHS which made putting a whole movie on a Betamax cassette almost impossible.

As a result of this shortfall, the major Hollywood studios opted to release their movies on the longer VHS format which helped it to almost instantly corner the market. While Betamax may have been a superior product, there simply weren’t enough videos worth watching and so, slowly, even die-hard Betamax aficionados found themselves admitting defeat and investing in VHS in order to enjoy their favourite films.

They say that “no man is an island” and this can be applied just as easily in business. A really smart way to get big fast is to piggyback off an already successful company. In many ways this is why Paypal has become such a big name because they set themselves up as the payment service for Ebay sellers. It’s also one reason that Buffer has become so big – by creating a simple solution to a problem that millions of existing Twitter users have. Piggybacking works, big time.

When you’re considering launching a product take a long, hard look at the market and your potential customers. Try to find related products and services that you can align yourself with and use their success to build your own business as break-neck speed.

So now it’s your turn. If you’ve ever launched a product of your own – whether it was a success or not – please leave a comment below and tell us what your experiences were and what your learned. We’d love to hear from you!

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The Perks of Not Being a Comment Wallflower

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume that you’re a good writer and that you’re eager to contribute to the blogs and sites that you value.  Some blogs, websites and social media feeds, however,  are intimidating and seem all but impenetrable to new bloggers. Even if you feel that almost-primal urge to leave a comment, sometimes an aspect of the site stops you in your tracks. Other commenters are too negative, the site owner never responds, there are too many comments or you just feel like you don’t have anything positive to contribute. The thing is, though, that if you are a good writer then you inevitably do have something to contribute. These feelings of despair and anxiety are normal– we’ll work through your shyness together.

It’s easy to convince yourself to not leave a comment. It’s hard to work through that reasoning, especially when you’re suffering from social media anxiety.

Hostile Environments – With some websites, it seems like you’re on the moon and you’re walking around without a spacesuit. You’ll either be ridiculed or ignored. This is especially true of leading news sites and communities like Reddit. While those negative reactions are sometimes going to happen, you have to put yourself out there. It’s worth it.Test Yourself – Leaving a comment on an article you felt a connection to is a great way to test yourself. You’re a writer—you CAN come up with something original to say. Even though writing a perfectly phrased comment takes effort, you’re full of new ideas and it’s completely worth it to get those thoughts out there.

Blog comments can’t be used as a main strategy in any marketing, branding or SEO campaign. They’re not going to make your blog an overnight success. They are, however, a good way to get your name out to real people that share your interests.

Friends and Conversations – This one is kind of obvious. It’s like going to a party and meeting some a really cool people who become your new creative peers and drinking buddies. The conversation is great, and you end up making some real friends who appreciate your work. If you don’t go to the party in the first place, you will meet none of those people. In this case, comments are the party.Names, Opinions and Links – When you get your name out into the community, it needs to be associated with what you do. If you leave insightful comments, people will think about you later because of what you said, not who you are. If you make positive contributions to enough conversations, people will even begin to look to you for input.Hyperlink - Plus, leaving a comment lets those interested parties find your blog through a simple hyperlink. You won’t be getting thousands of new readers from that little no follow link, but you’ll make it easy for the people who actually matter to contact you. That’s how good blogging relationships start.

Overcoming your anxiety and getting yourself out there are great, but comments also allow you to challenge yourself. As writers, we’re always aiming to improve our craft. If we’re not striving to learn something new at least a few times a week, we’re not much more useful than TMZ employees speaking at an internet privacy conference.  It’s not easy, but you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone and expose yourself to some of the harsher elements of the internet.

Leaving the Perfect Comment – So, you liked a piece of content. You want to comment, but you still don’t know if it compares to what anyone else has to say. You’re a little bit nervous. Why did you finish the article? What kept you engaged? What did you personally relate to? What haven’t other people pointed out? Basically, find out how this blog post or article relates to you personally and explain it. Give your own insight—it might be buried under a layer of clichés and anxiety, but you’ll find it if you look hard enough. Rocky ran up all 72 steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art—it wasn’t easy, but people remember him for it. A perfect comment has the same effect.

Leaving quality comments is essentially for any aspiring blogger or writer. It’s a great way to network, challenge yourself and get your name out there. There will be trolls, elitists and other undesirables. Sometimes the site owner won’t respond, and sometimes your voice will be lost– but the end result is worth it. Comments are a great way to help you get from the sidelines to the starting lineup—they can’t be your only strategy, but you probably won’t succeed without them.

Dustin Verburg is a writer and musician from the wilds of Southern Idaho. When he’s not combing his beard or fighting mountain lions, he writes about internet ethics, good blogging practices and white hat SEO. He writes for Page One Power, a link building company that focuses on relevancy and transparency.

Tagged as: blog comments, Blogging, social media

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Top 10 YouTube Channels

Each year, YouTube videos receive more than one trillion views.

Each month, YouTube is visited by over 800 million unique users.

Each day, 4 billion videos are viewed on YouTube.

And while 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute, there’s a select group of people uploading YouTube videos whose videos have risen above the rest. As they gain millions of subscribers, they also earn millions of dollars – all for maintaining a YouTube channel.

Below, I’ve listed the top 10 YouTube channels based on the number subscribers, as of November 2, 2012. I’ve also done gone into depth, to explain why these YouTuber’s have become so popular and the techniques that they’ve used to make money and get rich with their YouTube videos.

Subscribers: 2,818,054

Total Video Views:  484,011,920

Top Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOoUVeyaY_8&feature=plcp

Kyle Myers started FPSRussia on April 19, 2010 and has already posted 100 videos – about one every nine days. The videos feature Myers demonstrating a wide range of firearms and explosives on his family farm in Georgia.

To keep things interesting, Myers assumes the name Dimitri Potapoff  and a heavy Russian accent. He’ll shoot at some interesting targets like zombie mannequins, “watermelon people”, and images of Justin Bieber.

FPSRussia excels largely because it has a clearly defined niche (people who like “GUNS & EXPLOSIVES”) and it’s simply the best channel for those people on YouTube. Myers is knowledgeable about his weapons and has a seemingly endless supply of things that go “boom” (e.g. automatic shotguns, sniper rifles, and even a full-sized tank).

The videos feature impressive production quality and a sleek, five second animated introduction with theme music.

FPSRussia has also collaborated with other popular YouTube channels in order to share audiences and gain more subscribers. The most notable example is this June 19, 2011 video with Epic Meal Time which has garnered over 6 million views and features Myers “tenderizing” a piece of meat with his pistol.

FPSRussia is likely earning over $100,000 per year just from views. But Myers has also achieved a secondary revenue stream by selling custom apparel on Spreadshirt. To raise awareness about the shirts and hoodies, Myers wears his shirts in the videos.

Subscribers:  2,838,463

Total Video Views:  468,697,450

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/m9FRSghXhDM

“We make your dreams come true, and then we eat them.”

Hailing from Canada, Epic Meal Time has been delivering a weekly dose of bacon since September 2010. Each show features host Harley Mortenstein and friends cooking ridiculous meals with fast food, liquor, and – yes – heaps of bacon.

Their absurd concoctions include “Fast Food Lasagna”, “Candy Pizza”, and “Meat Cereal.” Watching them create and consume these monstrosities is pretty hilarious as long as you can stomach loads of grease, cheese, and calories.

Something as audacious as Epic Meal Time is capable of generating a big viral buzz. After its initial surge, major press attention followed. The Winnipeg Free Press, CBS News, and The Huffington Post all spotlighted EMT shortly after the YouTube channel was started.

Media attention culminated when Epic Meal Time was interviewed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 17, 2011. For the show, they created a variation on a shepherd’s pie that was shaped like a car. They also performed a live show at Comic Con 2011.

Web interest for Epic Meal Time has fallen significantly in the last year, which may suggest that the Internet has a limited appetite for epic meals.

Epic Meal Time takes a gluttonous approach to monetization. They’ve got a line of branded t-shirts, an Epic Meal Time video game app, and they delve into affiliate marketing on their website. A television show and a cookbook are in the works too.

Co-creators Harley Mortenstein and Sterling Toth have both quit their day jobs to focus on Epic Meal Time full time.

Subscribers:  2,965,422

Total Video Views:  760,321,374

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/_NLXlZivlyA

Shane Dawson got his start on YouTube in high school, when he and his friends would turn in videos instead of traditional homework assignments. Since starting the channel in March 2008, Shane has uploaded 215 videos (about one every eight days). In 2010, Shane was recognized by Forbes as the 25th most famous web celebrity.

Now 24, Shane primarily produces YouTube comedy sketches starring him as a colorful cast of off-color characters, including Shanaynay, Ned the Nerd, S. Deezy, and Aunt Hilda. He also spoofs popular music videos and television shows.

YouTube is most popular with kids, teenagers, and young people – and that’s exactly the niche that Shane Dawson TV fits into. Many of Shane’s videos piggyback on the popularity of trending keywords for youth, like “Justin Bieber”, “Taylor Swift”, “Overly Attached Girlfriend”, and “Slender Man”.

He’s also a frequent collaborator with other YouTube personalities.

Like many of the YouTubers on this list, Shane has started a couple of companion channels (“My 2nd Channel” and “My iPhone Channel”) to broaden his influence and total number of views.

Shane also sells t-shirts through Spreadshirt and he sells original music through Amazon, Google Play, and iTunes.

Subscribers:  3,040,564

Total Video Views: 2,893,039,285

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/U0CGsw6h60k

VEVO is an online music syndication platform featuring music by three of the “big four” major record labels:  Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI. Rihanna is a Barbadian R&B singer who’s signed with Def Jam (owned by Universal) and she happens to be the most subscribed VEVO artist on YouTube and the only one in YouTube’s top ten.

The RihannaVEVO channel features Rihanna’s songs, music videos, “lyric videos” (songs accompanies by animated lyrics), remixes, and behind the scenes Rihanna footage.

Rihanna first rose to fame in 2005 the release of her debut album Music of the Sun. She’s a Grammy-winner and a perennial chart-topper worldwide. RihannaVEVO is viewed and subscribed so much because Rihanna has an active community of fans who love her music and want to listen on YouTube.

There are some benefits to being part of the VEVO network and Rihanna’s new music videos will occasionally be promoted on the channels of other popular, related artists.

With nine videos over 100 million views, Rihanna’s videos average many more views than any other channel on this list. Rihanna has earned VEVO millions of dollars in advertising revenue.

The channel also directs people buy Rihanna’s upcoming album Unapologetic online and sign up for Rihanna’s email list.

Subscribers:  3,054,617

Total Video Views:  1,506,092,196

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/evDAi77IDhY

CollegeHumor is a comedy website that was launched in 1999 and today attracts more than 15 million monthly unique visitors.

While the website features content from all over the web, including videos, CollegeHumor started a YouTube channel for all their original video content. There’s a lot of it:  their NYC-based team has churned out over 1,000 videos.

The videos span everything from one-off sketches to animated videos to series like “Jake and Amir” and “Hardly Working.”

CollegeHumor’s YouTube channel started out with a built in audience, platform, and staff of video creators thanks to the success of CollegeHumor.com.

Their racy content has also given them a leg up with traffic. Looking through CollegeHumor’s top 30 videos (all of which have at least 5 million views) a theme emerges:  15 of the videos have sexually suggestive titles or post images.

Sex sells – particularly with CollegeHumor’s primary audience of “childless, moderately educated men under the age of 35 who browse from school and home” (from Alexa).

CollegeHumor has made close to $1.5 million from advertising on YouTube alone.  But they’re making additional money by premiering all of their videos on their own site one month before releasing them to the masses on YouTube. That means they get 100% of the revenue from advertising and more control over the user experience.

Like most on this list, they’re in the t-shirt business too. But they’ve taken it one stop further and actually partnered with an online clothing website, BustedTees.

Subscribers:  3,717,393

Total Video Views:  733,286,546

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/CyCyzB0CedM

With a degree from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Freddie Wong is the most technically savvy video producer on this list. Since February 2006, he’s uploaded 142 videos to his YouTube channel freddiew.

The action-packed special effects here are just a hair below Hollywood standards, but the videos are mostly meant to be funny. Many are spoofs or “real life” versions of popular videogames like Portal, Mario Kart, and SkyRim.

Freddie’s videos have featured the biggest YouTubers around, including Smosh, Ray William Johnson, and Harley Mortenstein from Epic Meal Time.

These collaborations have surely amounted to 100,000’s of cross-pollinating subscribers, but Wong has gone even further and recruited full-on celebrities to start in his videos. Eliza Dushku and Jon Favreau have both brought attention to Freddiew by acting in videos on the channel.

In 2010, Wong was hired by McDonald’s to make a commercial with fellow YouTube star Joe Penna, of MysterGuitarMan. In 2011, Electronic Arts hired him to produce and act in a TV commercial for the Battlefield 3 videogame.

The popularity of the channel attracts clients to Wong’s business, Overcrank Media, which specializes in feature film and video content.

Subscribers:  5,042,690

Total Video Views:  3,762,099,896

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/cRdxXPV9GNQ

“Machinima is the number one video entertainment network for gamers around the world, featuring gameplay videos, trailers, original series, livestreams, and the most up-to-date news for the gamer generation.”

If you like videogames, Machinima is probably your favorite YouTube channel.

Machinima is a great example of the power of the niche. First, they tap into a huge, worldwide fanbase of devoted gamers. Within that they offer playlists that will appeal to fans of particular games or genres.

Machinima has launched several other channels targeted at smaller niches within their overall gamer niche. Examples include Machinima Sports (all sports games) and Machinima Realm (for MMOs and RPGs). Each of these channels boast subscriber-counts in the hundreds of thousands.

In addition to t-shirts and iPhone apps, Machinima sells skins for their viewers to put on their videogame consoles.

They also leverage their millions of devoted viewers (who are largely in the coveted 18-34 male demographic) to promote game releases… at a price. At the time of this article, the Machinima YouTube channels background was an advertisement for Wreck it Ralph, a gaming-centric Disney movie.

Subscribers:  5,713,473

Total Video Views:  1,805,990,512

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/2uJE48aKVNo

Starting on November 19, 2005, Smosh is almost as old as YouTube itself and is the oldest channel on this list. Every Friday, comedy duo Ian Hecox (24) and Anthony Padilla (25) upload a new comedy video, likely parodying the latest pop culture phenomenon.

Smosh’s success started when one of their first videos, “Pokemon Theme Music Video”, went viral way back in 2005. Though the video was little more than Hecox and Padilla lip-syncing to the theme song to Pokemon anime, it garnered 24.7 million views and was the most-viewed video on YouTube for a period of about six months.

Eventually the video was removed for copyright infringement, but Smosh already had a subscriber base and momentum. They built on their Pokemon fans by making a series of videos called Pokemon in Real Life and have also made videos around the Harry Potter, Twilight, and Legend of Zelda franchises.

In 2012, they’ve sought to expand their audience by starting three new channels:  Smosh Games (videogame-related), Shut Up! Cartoons (animated), and El Smosh (Spanish language).

Smosh was tapped to be one of the YouTube’s very first partners way back in 2007. They’ve made over one million dollars from ad revenue since then. They also sell merchandise through District Lines and sell their music on iTunes.

Barry Blumberg, a former Disney executive, took an interest in the young Smosh duo early on and signed a deal to become a partner in Smosh. He’s helped them grow Smosh as a business, which meant hiring a staff and building a website in 2008. In 2011 Smosh was acquired by teen media powerhouse Alloy Digital, LLC.

Subscribers:  5,944,569

Total Video Views:  1,346,455,881

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/xfeys7Jfnx8

Nigahiga is the YouTube channel of Ryan Higa, who at 22 years old is the youngest YouTuber on this list. Ryan first started making low-fi video skits with a few friends back in 2006, just as a way to share a laughs with the rest of his high school.

But early videos like “How to be Gangster” and “How to be Ninja” took off and the silly YouTube videos eventually became a full-time job for Ryan Higa. The channel has come a long way and now it includes comedic original music videos along with traditional vlogs and sketches.

The success of Nigahiga lies in the personality of Ryan Higa. He’s an unpretentious everyman that viewers feel a real connection with. He’s funny too. Still, it’s difficult to fathom what sets Nigahiga so far apart from the rest of the YouTube crowd and justifies its place as #2 most subscribed overall.

International brands have seen Nigahiga’s millions of subscribers as an opportunity to reach a wider audience and Higa has been willing to cash in. He’s made videos raising awareness for Carl’s Jr. Restaurants, The Google Nexus One, and the film Despicable Me.

Subscribers:  6,067,130

Video Views:  2,038,359,848

Top Video:  http://youtu.be/K2oLoBpFmho

“I’m an alcoholic garden gnome with a taste for comic books and hip-hop music. I’ve also been known to produce a few successful shows.”

In the fall of 2007, as an undergraduate student at Columbia University, Ray William Johnson would take study breaks by watching YouTube videos. He observed that people mostly went to YouTube to watch either viral videos or vlogs… and that’s when he had the idea to combine the two.

Equals Three is Johnson’s thrice-weekly YouTube show in which he spotlights (and lampoons) viral videos. Each episode contains three trending YouTube videos and averages about five minutes in length.

Johnson’s content is always fresh and funny because he gets it directly from videos that are already going viral on YouTube. People subscribe to his channel in droves because he filters through trending videos and presents them in a way to get maximum laughs.

Johnson explained his humble path to 6,000,000 subscribers to Forbes:

“There’s an abundance of what some would call overnight success on YouTube and on the internet in general, but that’s not the way it worked out for me. With each episode I’d release, I would try to evolve in a way so that each episode was an improvement on the last. Yet, I would keep the same format of each episode in place so as not to disenchant my core audience. With this, I’d hoped that the size of my audience would increase by a small fraction, say 0.05%, per episode and would eventually add up to much larger numbers over a long period of time.”

Equals Three has expanded its audience further by allowing A-list celebrity comedians to guest host it, including Robin Williams, Kevin Smith, Kal Penn, and many more. In exchange for hosting the show, they get a chance to promote their own YouTube channels.

Ray William Johnson is as notable for the way that he doesn’t make money as he is for how he does make money:

“Please note that I am NOT interested in doing commercial brand deals or product endorsements. I make Youtube videos because I love performing and entertaining, not because I care to make money.”

Johnson told Forbes, “Most product placements detract from that entertainment experience.” He recognizes that his millions of subscribers trust him to deliver quality, entertaining content and that he would be jeopardizing the value of his channel by “selling out” and using it to endorse products.

For now, Ray makes plenty of money by selling t-shirts on his site and raking in millions in ad revenue from his two billion video videos.

Here’s a link to Income Diary’s YouTube channel.  We don’t quite have a million subscribers… yet.

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