Rohail Rizvi

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve added a couple new plugins to the site. First off, you can see the Top Commentators for the month in the right sidebar. Your name will be linked with the URL you use to comment on this site. Furthermore, if anyone links to a post on this site, they automatically receive a link back from this blog as opposed to simply a trackback.

How to Blog for Profit for Beginners
If you’re just getting started with blogging, I would recommend getting an account at blogger.com. Get a free blog set up and choose a niche that you think would be profitable. To get an idea of what keywords are profitable, use the keyword tool provided to you by Google on your Google Adwords account. Following this look for articles related to your niche that you can use for free from sites such as ezinearticles.com. If you are going to be writing your own content, make sure the niche you pick is something you are passionate about.
This is the process I used with my first AdSense project, MesoSource. I must say the research paid off as the site is still my top AdSense earner.

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If you’re like me you can’t wait until break when your amidst exams just so you can get to implement your ideas. However, if you’re also like me, you feel a strong urge to just “veg” out over winter break with your new plasma TV (like this guy). It can be hard to stay focused on your winter goals especially with family around on the holidays. Here are some tips to keep you focused and productive over this winter break (that I myself will attempt to implement):

• PUT THE SIGN UP. Motivational posters tend not to be a permanent motivating force, but if you can manage to put up a sign on your bathroom mirror that reminds you every morning of what your goal for break is in one sentence, then that can be very effective. Personally, mine is going to be taken from Steve Jobs: “If today was your last day on Earth, is how you are about to spend it the way you would?”

• SET YOUR GOALS. Set your goals for the next day, the night before. If you’ve never done this before try it for 28 days and make it a habit. Also, have specific goals that you want to reach over winter break.Whether that means travelling to certain cities or meeting a certain sales goal, write it all down.

• BET AGAINST FAILURE: To ensure yourself some motivation in reaching your goals, why not bet failure against the one thing you as an entrepreneur are afraid to lose the most? Write out a check of a significant amount of money and give it to a friend that you trust. Tell them that they are allowed to cash that check for themselves or for a charity you’d like if you do not reach your particular goals. This can prove to be a very motivating technique.

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Sometimes things just go downright bad. After two weeks of hardcore promoting and going door-to-door and dorm-to-dorm with my associate, it was just last night that it became apparent Walamu was not letting users post their items. I was wondering why I wasn’t getting any new posts…

By the looks of it, we lost out on at least 30 new users posting books at a horrible time considering this is the time of year when most students are selling their textbooks.

Yeah that news didn’t make for a good night. Throw final exams on top of that and you’ve got a real recipe for a not-so-great mood.

It should have been caught earlier, but I figured I would have gotten a feedback email from a user if the site was not working properly. Now I know not to rely on that.

The site is in working order now and hits are at their all-time high. I’m going to use what I learned this semester and do everything I can to propel Walamu to the next level for the spring semester.

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For some reason, a lot entrepreneurs, like Noah Kagan of OkDork.com, love burritos. In fact, I just had my first official burrito last Saturday at Qdoba. Those things are huge! Coincidentaly, burrito places like Chipotle are proving to be spectacular businesses and even more, they seem to be one of the best marketers around. Just take a look at Chipotle’s hilarius marketing campaigns for it’s burritos that I’m sure you’ve seen driving down the interstate.

Check out all of Chipotle’s hilarious ads at www.chipotle.com.

I’m curious as to what all the other entrepreneurs prefer out there. What’s your favorite burrito?

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As you probably know, I’ve been a part of the MindPetals network for quite a while now. MindPetals boasts an impressive network with members doing everything from Internet Marketing to starting their own diamond ventures. David Askaripour, the founder of MindPetals, has done a phenomenal job with the site and it’s growth.

The thing I like about MindPetals the most, however, is how helpful and supportive it’s founder Dave is to it’s members. It is clear he is an avid writer and churns out meaningful articles by the boatload. But what’s really impressive is his likeliness to help out a member in the network. For example, he’ll even interview all your competitors for you just to get a member the latest scoop on his competition! I can definitely say I’m pretty up-to-date on all my competitors . MindPetals has received some criticism on it’s similarities to 9rules (even right down to the logo!); However, I find that David is doing something different and creating an entirely new place for all us young entrepreneurs to play and network. I find David’s efforts extremely supportive and he is growing a great network of entrepreneurs at MindPetals. Aside from MindPetals, Dave also runs the blogs Flush the toilet and Marktale. Keep it up Dave and way to go on the support for the network!

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Being the hardcore bootstrapper I am, I’ve turned down every opportunity to borrow money (Although, recently I’ve been told that borrowing money doesn’t make you a non-bootstrapper). The thing is I have about $6000 in mutual funds and I’m having a hard time deciding whether I should borrow money as opposed to selling the mutual fund shares. I know it seems like if I have money, why not use it? However, at the same time, it’s a lot less liquid and will take some time for those funds to become usable. So if you were me, would you:

1) Borrow money and pay interest in the end

2) Sell the mutual funds (Already with gains of 24%)

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With the holiday season fast approaching, you’re bound to see those classic Norelco commercials with the Norelco Santa sliding down a snowy slope on a Norelco electric shaver. This year, however, Norelco is trying something new. With the immense success of viral video marketing, Norelco is jumping on the bandwagon. I clicked on an ad, which I rarely do, I was led to a site for the new Norelco Body Groomer. The site features a smug guy in a bathrobe answering all your questions about the body groomer. There’s also a hilarious music video to go along with the Q&A. Check it out, but be warned that most of it is pretty vulgar.

http://www.shaveeverywhere.com

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Thanks to everyone who subscribed to my blog. It was more people than I expected to be honest .

We’re about a week away from finals here at Rutgers so things are starting to get busy again. Finals also means it’s about time to go all out on marketing. Hits are going up on Walamu and an growing number of people are hearing about it here. I have one final crazy marketing stunt set up for the final week. I’ll let you know how that goes.

The end of the semester also means winter break is about to start. There are several things I want to accomplish during this time, but mainly I’ll be catching up on some must-reads:

• The Richest Man in Babylon
• The World is Flat
• Automatic Wealth for Grads
• Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway
• The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook
• The Magic of Thinking Big
• Permission Marketing
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Buying Foreclosures
• Cash Flow Quadrant
• How to Win Friends & Influence People

If anyone has already read any of these books, please let me know your thoughts on them!

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As you can see, I finally jumped on the bandwagon and got myself set up with feedburner. As you can also see, my readership count is very lonely, so please subscribe to my blog! (Click on the orange button towards the right of the page.)

You can also subscribe by email to get the latest updates straight to your inbox by entering your e-mail in the space provided on the rights side of the page.
I’ll be working on getting my readership up right after finals are done, not that that is my major focus, as I’ve always just let whoever manages to find my site, find my site. Nonetheless, it’d be nice to see some new readers once in a while.

Thanks!

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icraveWordPress, one of the many sites on the icraveNetwork, was recently launched. icraveWordPress is one of the first sites of it’s kind. No longer do bloggers have to search through an endless array of themes to find the ones they like and then download each one of them individually. icraveWordPress allows users to see what a theme looks like right on the page you are on (the page automatically converts to the theme you would like to see), as well as allows users to download
a multitude of themes with a single download as opposed to downloading individual themes one by one. The site has various sets of themes available for download by alphabetical set (i.e., themes starting with A-C).

In my opinion, this site is just what any new or current blogger needs to get just the right theme working for their site. No longer do you have to worry about downloading a theme just to find out that it doesn’t work. icraveWordPress’ themes are sure to work as they aggregate all the working WordPress blog themes. I personally know the pain of having to find themes that I like and download them each individually. No more of that. With icraveWordPress I’ll be downloading all the themes I need with just one click.

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