100 Top Entrepreneurs Who Succeeded without a College Degree

Category: Best Articles, Inspiration, Interviews    |    4,841 views    |    9 Comments  |   

Add Website to Free SEO In an earlier post, we posed the question, “Is College Necessary for Entrepreneurs?”  While there are certainly good arguments for both sides, it’s a fact that a college degree does not guarantee success.  And there are countless determined entrepreneurs who have proven that success can be achieved despite a lack of higher education.

Free check your website WORTH We have compiled a list of 100 amazing “degreeless” entrepreneurs who have risen to the top.  Some high-profile entrepreneurs you will recognize immediately, while others you may be discovering for the first time.  Many of them didn’t complete elementary school, and still more are considered high school dropouts.  Their backgrounds and industries run the gamut; however, they all have at least two things in common. Incredible success and no college degree.

My brother, Matthew, and I aren’t on this list (didn’t want to toot our own horns… well, at least not too loudly); however we count ourselves among the golden many who achieved success without attending college.  Entrepreneurs at an early age, Matthew and I had already started six (toot toot) businesses by the time we graduated high school.  We were both offered college scholarships, but turned them down – it was clear to us that college was not in our future.  Within a week of graduating high school, we bought a bar/café/billiards location, which we overhauled, re-branded and turned into a hot spot; and on the 12-month we sold it for a great profit.  Of course, we have gone on to start several more businesses, both offline and online, and we have never once looked back.

While we’ve listed our Top 100, we know there are hundreds (if not thousands) more entrepreneurs who have achieved success without a college a degree.  Are you one of them?  Let us know who we forgot by posting your comments below.

The List

Abraham Lincoln, lawyer, U.S. president. Finished one year of formal schooling, self-taught himself trigonometry, and read Blackstone on his own to become a lawyer.

Amadeo Peter Giannini, multimillionaire founder of Bank of America. Dropped out of high school.

Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist, and one of the first mega-billionaires in the US. Elementary school dropout.

Andrew Jackson, U.S. president, general, attorney, judge, congressman. Home-schooled. Became a practicing attorney by the age of 35 – without a formal education. Read more…

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Top Social Networks for Entrepreneurs

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Social networks are a great place for entrepreneurs to advertise their products and services they offer, as users usually visit these websites every time they have the opportunity. The opportunity on visibility for entrepreneurs is just too hard to be ignored.Social networks have to be harnessed by entrepreneurs as soon as possible for a successful business.

But because of the development of different social networks, social networking is starting to branch out and target specific users – including entrepreneurs.
The following websites are not specifically geared towards visibility of business to their customers, but the tools and other opportunities offered by these social networks are almost invaluable for entrepreneurs.
• Young Entrepreneur (www.youngentrepreneur.com)
As the name suggests, this website is aimed for the youth who wanted to become entrepreneurs as soon as possible. The beauty of this website is that it’s basically a one-stop shop for every possible information that every young entrepreneur needs to start, maintain and excel in a specific business. But adults who wanted to start small can also learn from this website especially on improving online businesses.
• Entrepreneur Connect (www.econnect.entrepreneur.com)
One of the most powerful social networks for businesses in any industry around the country, the website is supported by the publishers of Entrepreneur Magazine. True to their name, this social networking website is aimed for those who wanted to increase their connections to other businesses. Through this social network, users will be able to meet different businesses that could provide supplies or support to your business.
• The Funded (www.thefunded.com)
Getting the right funds with the right terms and conditions is very challenging but this website hopes to deal with those troubles by offering the experiences of others who have sought funding. Users who have joined this website will be able to access different terms and agreements from different funding source. Feedbacks and reviews on funding could also be given by users so that you’ll be able to have a fair idea if your source of funds will be for the best.
• Start Up Nation (www.startupnation.com)
The name of the website may just tell you that it’s a social network for entrepreneurs focused on starting a business. But the website offers more than just simple connectivity for those who wanted to start a business fast. This social network has articles that contain tips and important information that could be used by entrepreneurs when they opt to start a business. Take note of their tips on how to properly conduct elevator pitch as well as marketing.
• Partner Up (www.partnerup.com)
If you’re in need of something that can’t be easily found in your area, this website will be of great help. Partner Up is a website dedicated for businesses who wanted to advertise services and their products to other businesses. Entrepreneurs seeking advice on certain issues related to business could also be found in this website. A directory is also available in the website to easily search members or services needed by the entrepreneur.
• Biznik (www.Biznik.com)
Biznik’s uniqueness is based on the fact that it is a place for freelancers and small businesses. Although the website doesn’t explicitly say that most of their users are small business owners or self-employed, it’s still a viable website highly recommended for freelancers to be visible for more clients. Security is enhanced on the website since real name should be used in this social network. A fee is required for those who wanted to be more visible in Biznik but the basic services that the website offer is free.
• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com)
Undoubtedly the most popular website for professionals, this form of social network could greatly benefit entrepreneurs in meeting other professionals who can aid them in their businesses. Tools offered by LinkedIn are also highly recommended to enhance the users experience on the website.

• Perfect Business (www.perfectbusiness.com)

Aside from being a social network that allows businesses and entrepreneurs connect for mutual advancement, Perfect Business is also full of information not only through articles but videos as well.Webcasts could be viewed by anyone that contains very important information regarding the latest in various industries. Anyone can sign up for free but a monthly fee of $29.99 is asked for a better experience with the website.

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Five Indians among Top 25 Asian entrepreneurs

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Five Indians, including three IITians and all in their 20s or 30s, have made to the list of top 25 entrepreneurs in Asia.

The list compiled by the US-based magazine BusinessWeek for its annual report on Asian entrepreneurs includes four women, including Saloni Malhotra whose BPO company ‘DesiCrew’ targets workforce in small towns and rural areas.

The other Indians on the list include Arun Sahlam, Rohit Nalawade, Vishal Gondal and Gagan Goel. “Thanks to an improved business climate and a wave of funding from US venture capitalists, the region’s entrepreneurs are finding success right at home,” the magazine said.

Sahlam, 30, an IIT Madras graduate, has made to the list with his website ‘Carwale.com’ that helps “car buyers, sellers and owners make better decisions.”

Prior to going the entrepreneur way, Sahlam worked as a software engineer at Veritas Software (now Symantec).

Gagan Goyal, 26, an IIT Mumbai  graduate, has to his credit TRI Technology, a robotics start-up that uses robotics as a platform for practical learning in curriculum.

Another IIT Mumbai alumni on the list, Rohit Nalawade, has founded ‘Consumer Vision’ - a real-time service personalisation technology company, which is his second successful start-up at an age of just 24. He started an electronics services company during his undergraduation years with two other friends, which they sold after 22 months.

Alongside the three IITians, the list also has Saloni Malhotra, 25, and industrial engineering graduate from Bharti Vidyapeeth, whose BPO firm provides access to untapped workforce in small towns and rural areas through a distributed outsourcing model.  The publication quoted DesiCrew’s Saloni as saying, “DesiCrew’s biggest challenge has been to convince clients about the productivity of rural areas and shape the mindset of its rural workforce on service-level agreements required by the BPO industry.” Read more…

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TOP ENTREPRENEURS UNDER age 30

Category: Best Articles, Inspiration    |    608 views    |    1 Comment  |   
PICTURE RANK NAME WEBSITE NAME AGE NETWORTH
1 Mark Zuckerberg Facebook 23 $700 Million
2 Andrew Gower Runescape 28 $650 Million
3 Chad Hurley Youtube 30 $300 Million
4 Blake Ross and David Hyatt Mozilla 22 $120 Million
5 Andrew Michael Fast Hosts 29 $110 Million
6 Angelo Sotira Deviant ART 26 $75 Million
7 John Vechey PopCap Games 28 $60 Million
8 Alexander Levin Image Shack 23 $56 Million
9 Jake Nickell Threadless 28 $50 Million
10 Greg Tseng and Johann Schleier-Smith Tagged 28 $45 Million
11 Sean Belnick Biz Chair 20 $42 Million
12 Matt Mullenweg WordPress 23 $40 Million
13 Kevin Rose Digg 30 $31 Million
14 Aodhan Cullen Stat Counter 24 $25 Million
15 Markus Frind Plenty Of Fish 29 $23 Million
16 Robert Small MiniClips 24 $23 Million
17 Ryan Block Engadget 25 $20 Million
18 Matt Mickiewicz Sitepoint 24 $18 Million
19 Tom Fulp Newgrounds 29 $15 Million
20 Rishi Kacker and Matt Pauker Voltage 24 $12 Million
21 Catherine and David Cook My Year Book 17&19 $10 Million
22 Fredrik Neij The Pirate Bay 28 $10 Million
23 DAVID LEVICH Iced Out Gear 25 $10 Million
24 Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons Yelp 30 & 29 $10 Million
25 David Hauser & Siamak Taghaddos GotvMail 24 $8 Million
26 Rand Fishkin SEOmoz 29 $6.5 Million
27 Jermaine Griggs Hear and Play 23 $5 Million
28 Jay Westerdal Domain Tools 29 $5 Million
29 Ashley Qualls What Ever Life 17 $4 Million
30 Ben Way Rain Makers 27 $4 Million
31 Pete Cashmore Mashable 30 $3.8 Million
32 Seth Sternberg, Sandy Jen, and Elaine Wherry Meebo 30,29 and 27 $3.5 Million
33 Cameron Johnson Millionaires Secrets 22 $3.2 Million
34 Rob Benwell Blogging to the Bank 23 $3 Million
35 Alex Tew Million Dollar Homepage 22 $3 Million
36 Mario Lavandeira Perez Hilton 29 $3 Million
37 Lauris Liberts Frype 25 $2 Million
38 Neil Patel ACS 22 $1.8 Million
39 Zhang Rui Mosh 28 $1.1 Million
40 Matt Wegrzyn Bodis 19 $1 Million

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Choosing the Best Keywords for AdSense

Category: Best Articles    |    958 views    |    8 Comments  |   

CPC - Advantages and Drawbacks

What does CPC indicate?

When we think of high paying keywords, the first thing that pops up in our mind is CPC. CPC (Cost Per Click) is the maximum amount of money an advertiser is willing to pay for a click. Higher the CPC of a particular keyword, more will be the payouts you can expect by targeting that keyword in your AdSense websites. You can get the most accurate CPC from the source itself - Google.

However, CPC is not the only factor that tells the profitability of a keyword. There are many other factors that you should consider.

Drawbacks of CPC

- What if there are no advertisers bidding on a keyword having high CPC? Obviously, it means no one is going to pay you that high for a click.
- What if the traffic on the keyword is technical enough and does not click on ads (banner blindness)?
- What if Google gets loads of traffic on that keyword, enough to fulfill the desires of high paying advertisers? In this case, Google will only throw remaining peanuts towards you.

Obviously, Google will like to keep all the high paying ads within its own pages. So you see, CPC just shows you a small part of the entire picture. We shall explore the rest part of the picture…

Number of Sponsors - The Most Important Figure

Keywords with high CPC do not always come with high number of advertisers. There are many keywords in Google’s Adwords system that have a high price, but almost no or very less number of advertisers. Now, if you build a web page or website around a keyword on which no one is bidding, Google will try to fill the ad blocks with ads of the related keywords rather than the high paying keyword you were initially targeting. There is no guarantee that ads of the related keywords will be good converters. Therefore, there is every likelihood that your clicks will be passed through SmartPricing Filter, eventually resulting in lesser payouts.

Hence, it is important to see the number of sponsors bidding on the keyword in question. If there are more the advertisers, there will be more competition among them to get the top position. This means that there will be more revenue per click that they are willing to share with you. In other words, more sponsors mean more people fighting against one another other to pay you more Adsense money. Read more…

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