I didn’t really elaborate on www.mesosource.blogspot.com in one of my previous posts. The reason I picked “Mesothelioma” as the topic of choice for my blog was because after doing a lot of tweaking around on Adsense, I found that it was one of the most highly bid for keywords. When I say most highly bid for I’m talking $28-$42 per click and high search volume on the keyword to go along with it.

The way I researched the bids on particular keywords was by placing a mock ad campaign on Adwords after paying the initial $5 to start. I set my monthly campaign budget to something like the effect of $90,000 (of course I had the campaign on pause, this was just to allow all the highest bid for words to show up within my budget).

I then clicked on “Tools”, followed by “Keyword Tool.” This is where I entered all the keywords that I had heard of having high bids after doing a search on the web. Next, I clicked on “Estimate Search Traffic.” This is where I was able to learn the estimated bid for each one of the keywords I had entered. After seeing the profitability potential of “mesothelioma,” I proceeded to create a blog consisting of various open articles on the web. All it cost me was $5 as opposed to expensive software/lists on the web promising to do the same thing. Next thing I know, I’m up and running with www.mesosource.blogspot.com.

Many people make their entire living off of blog revenue such as Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. Although, I must admit, it is extremely difficult to make a significant amount off of blogs. I, myself have avoided this concept of making money especially on this website as I want it to have a clean look.

However, I do have several other blogs that I am trying this concept with, my main one of which is www.mesosource.blogspot.com. I don’t know how well it is going to work with my other websites so I am going to try and experiment with this one. My reveneue really depends on how much traffic I get to www.mesosource.blogspot.com and how much interest people have in what the website has to offer in terms of ads and the click-through ratio.

Why Follow the Herd?

If one just looks at the social hierarchy present in our society it becomes apparent as to what works and what doesn’t in terms of being successful. Of course, success is an ambigious term and it’s definition is reliant on the individual defining it. Nevertheless, one must realize that 1% of the population in the United States is possesses more wealth than the other 99% combined. That statistic is startling. So why would you ever think of doing exactly what that 99% of the population is doing if you want to get to where the wealthier minority is?

Which is riskier? Having a job or owning a business?

It is really about being extraordinary and doing all you can to avoid the ordinary. We have been fed this concept where one has to go to school, get good grades, get into an Ivy League school, and only then will one be successful. One’s entire success depends on their grades in this system and ultimately leads to one source of survival-a job-which, might I add, is much more risky than owning a business where one has unlimited streams of income. If you lose one customer, you still have 999 customers that you are still receiving revenue from. Whereas, if you have a job, and you get laid off you have nowhere else to go for the time being.

The Answer

The overwhelming answer in my mind is entrepreneurship. And even more than that is to do what you love. So if you love helping people get better-then go ahead be a doctor. Society will reward you for it. Still, if you see a job as being a burden and not just because you are lazy, then why not do something you are passionate about? Be innovative. See entrepreneurship as doing something you love and helping people at the same time. The way you do this is by creating value. If you create a product or service then customers will find the value of that product or service more valuable than the money they are handing over to have it. Similarly, you create value when you gain revenue for the product or service you provide. One of the shining points about entrepreneurship is that it can really help improve the human condition. If you find someway that can improve life for other people, you can potentially capitalize on it. That, in essence, is what capitalism is all about.

So in all, do what you love and create something with people in mind. If you do, society will reward you for it -and you won’t have to worry about losing your job.

Some people might think six months is an awful long time to make a sale on ebay, but it took a lot of time and effort to find the right product to sell. I just made my first sale on eBay yesterday with a profit of $20 and I look to do the same from now on until I can bring in a continuous stream of income. The entire process was a long one filled with finding a genuine supplier (not a middleman), setting up a business registration with the state, setting up a resale certificate, getting a credit card, setting up a business checking account, setting up a merchant account, and the hardest one of them all: finding that perfect product to sell at a decent margin. Who knew there would be so many steps involved. Late nights staring at the monitor at 3am repeatedly probably wasn’t so good for me, but at least now I don’t have to rely on a JOB for the summer.

As for the spyware removal service, I’m picking up the flyers from Staples today. Hopefully I can get a return on the $20 it cost me to get copies made.

Young Wealth Weekly recently tapped me on the shoulder and said they would like me to write for their ezine. Myself, already being a subscriber was thrilled at the offer and happily accepted. It is a terrific ezine might I add, otherwise I would not have previously been a subscriber. I highly suggest to all you other young entrepreneurs out there to check it out: www.youngwealthweekly.com. It goes out every week and covers everything from management and marketing to Internet businesses to finance to personal development. So be on the look out for future articles by me and all the others at the YWW team. This ezine is going to be huge, make no doubt about it.

I’m in the preliminary steps of getting my spyware removal business off the ground. It shouldn’t take too long. I’ve got the flyer done, I just need to run to Staples to get copies of it made. Initially, I’ll be doing all the flyering myself but as time goes on I’ll hire people to do that depending on how profitable this gets. Here’s the flyer, let me know what you think:

I’ve been subscribing to Josiah Mackenzie’s new Young Wealth Weekly newsletter for a few weeks now and I must say I am very impressed with the quality of the content and the revolutionary move it is taking to finally bring youth and wealth together in a way to really make it accessible to young entrepreneurs all around world. I highly recommend to those of you who want to stay in the know and take advantage of the innovative tips and insights it gives as to entrepreneurship to sign up for Young Wealth Weekly at www.youngwealthweekly.com. It’s absolutely free and is sent out every Thursday, so make sure you check it out.

Sometimes we fear things and we don’t even know it. Whether it’s running for class president, starting a new club at college, or starting a new business, certain things- whether it be the fear of failure or uncertainty in our abilities- things hold us back. But I’ve learned that the best thing one can do is to just take the leap. I know it sounds ambiguous, but that’s all there really is to it. If you believe you can be a success at something, you just have to go for it. Often times our brains are hard wired to think negatively, and so it is important to overcome this automatic connection by continually reinforcing positive thinking patterns. And by doing this it makes it easier to take the leap, which is exactly what I am doing.
Now the summer is officially here and I’m ready to take bigger leaps this time. I have a full time job now at a consulting company, which, as much as you may disagree with having “entrepreneur” and “job” in the same sentence, is proving to be a very valuable experience for me. I’m talking with vice presidents from JPMorgan, SEO specialists, consultants, and a wide range of professionals pulling in six-figure salaries everyday. I am confident that my time at the company will prove invaluable. Many of the people who I work with are highly experienced in the business world with people boasting PhD’s in business from presitigious schools such as Columbia. I’m proving myself valuable at the company and look to create as many contacts as possible.

Now most college kids working at my job might be working there to save up for a down payment on a car or such. Myself- I’m saving this money to fund my next big project. It’s a risk, I know, but it’s one I’m going to take because I truly believe this project has huge potential to become something big. I think it solves a huge problem and has a large enough audience to be a success. So stay tuned, you’ll want to.

For me, motivation has always been something primarily internal. Some receive motivation from observation of worldly things, or watching events like someone complete a difficult task through a disability. These are all valid sources of motivation. But I think the greatest source of motivation is the one that comes from within. Eliot Wasmund recently did a piece on Kobe Bryant and includes part of his monologue. Kobe Bryant is certainly one of those individuals that derive their motivation from within. It is the same determination and motivation that he feels that keeps him playing phenomenal basketball, that is the same felt by magician David Blaine and Evil Knieval, and that felt by entrepreneurs around the world. You can find Eliot’s post here: http://www.eliotwasmund.com/archives/85

This is not to say one can not find motivation in things such as these:

With final exams very near, it’s been difficult to post as much as usual. However, I do have things lined up for the summer and you can definitely count on my blogging frequency to go up. Here are some things I’m looking forward to:

• Experiment curb painting.
• Delve into new niche for new online business.
• Find local sponsors for new online business.
• Continue to work on www.campingcook.com and get SEO down cold.
• Reading list (see below)
• Find out what I need to do to start ‘Facebook’-like project.
• Attend New Jersey Business & Industry Association meetings and try to meet as many CEOs as I can.
• Attend speed networking events over the summer in Princeton, NJ.