50 More of the Most Useful Websites on the Internet by Johnny Webber

1. MapC.am – Call and connect with a random person somewhere in the world.
2. Pective.com – Find out the actual size of things.
3. ShareOnFB.com – Share fake news stories, and prank your friends.
4. WhichDateWorks.com – Find out which date works best with your friends.
5. imo.im – Free voice, messaging, and video calls.
6. LiveShare.com – Beautiful messaging for your groups.
7. Rappad.co – Write a song about whatever you want.
8. MySlideRule.com – Find online courses on any topic.
9. KeyboardTester.com – Test your keyboard’s functionality.
10. SndTst.com – A sound test for various games.
11. InternetDirectory.info – The Yellow Pages but for the Internet.
12. ABetterQueue.com – Use Rotten Tomatoes standards to create a better Netflix queue.
13. LucyPhone.com – Never wait on hold for a company ever again.
14. ZeroDollarMovies.com – Find free movies online.
15. Alertful.com – Get reminded of important appointments via email.
16. CommercialTunage.com – Find out which song was used in that one commercial.
17. JazzAndRain.com – Listen to the soothing sounds of jazz and rainfall.
18. OffTheRoost.com – Find a place to eat.
19. Studio.StupeFlix.com – Make amazing videos in seconds.
20. TypingWeb.com – Learn to touch type.
21. Bonanza.com – Remove backgrounds from images.
22. CloudConvert.org – Convert a file to anything.
23. 7CupsOfTea.com – Connect with someone who will listen to your troubles.
24. Boostgr.am – Promote your Instagram photos.
25. Chordify.net – Extract high quality guitar chords from any song.
26. Archive.today – Take a snapshot of a webpage so it will always be online.
27. TuneIn.com – Listen to over 100,000 real radio stations.
28. TakeLessons.com – Search thousands of teachers for local and online lessons.
29. Forget.me – Remove yourself from Google search results.
30. PizzaCodes.com – Get coupons for your pizzas.
31. AlternativeTo.net – Find alternative software.
32. Gixen.com – Automatically place eBay bids.
33. MapMyRun.com – Plan out every stride of your jog.
34. XKCDGraphs.com – Create your own XKCD style graphs.
35. WarrantyGenius.com – Organize and track all of your product warranties.
36. TheSquatrack.com – Track your workouts.
37. GodChecker.com – An encyclopedia of over 3,700 gods, demons, spirits, and beasts.
38. EasyASCII.com – Quickly copy ASCII characters.
39. PrintablePaper.net – Printable lined, graph, and music paper with more.
40. IP-Grabber.com – Grab an IP address from a link.
41. GifCtrl.com – Reverse gifs.
42. YourLogicalFallacyIs.com – Learn your logical fallacies.
43. HabitRPG.com – Create habits and earn rewards.
44. Jog.fm – Find the perfect music for your run.
45. HaveIBeenPwned.com – Check if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breech.
46. TeachMeAnatomy.info – Learn about human anatomy.
47. WobZip.org – Uncompress zip files online.
48. PDF.yt – Imgur for PDF documents.
49. UnplugTheTV.com – Watch educational YouTube videos at random.
50. 50WaysToGetAJob.com – Find out what you should do next to get a job.

Copywriting based on the science of persuasion

If you’re ever going to sell anything online, copywriting is a much needed skill.The conventional copywriting wisdom says that you should more or less try stick to the following formula:

1. Tell the reader you understand their need,
2. Tell your prospect why your product is the best solution they can buy,
3. Offer all kinds of proof like testimonials, charts and so on,
4. Explain all the ways the product will benefit the customer,
5. Present the price in a way that makes it sound like a great deal,
6. Give a (better than) money-back guarantee,
7. Add bonus products to really motivate the customer to buy,
8. Make it a limited time or quantity offer,
9. Ask for the sale and tell them exactly what steps to take.

Is the exact sequence that persuades people or why should this work? What scientific data is available to use about persuasion? Which research can we rely on to make our writing more persuasive?

Here’s a summary of the most prominent books and publications on the matter.

The work of Robert Cialdini

Mr. Cialdini is undoubtedly the biggest authority on the field. His books are bestsellers and have been in the “must-read” list for marketers and copywriters for years.

Cialdini came up with six scientific principles of persuasion that will help guide you to become more effective at getting people do what you want. In case you have no idea what those principles are, then here’s the summary:

Principle 1: ReciprocityPeople feel obligated to give back to others who have given to them.
How to use it: teach your prospect something useful in your copy, give away free stuff and better yet – add value to your prospects long before you even start to sell them something.

Principle 2: LikingWe prefer to say “yes” to those we know and like.
How to use it: talk/write like a human, connect with the reader, share details about yourself. Blog. Be friendly and cool (like Richard Branson).

Principle 3: Social proofPeople decide what’s appropriate for them to do in a situation by examining and following what others are doing.
How to use it: show how many others are already using your product. Show off your numbers. Use testimonials. Link to 3rd-party articles.

Principle 4: AuthorityPeople rely on those with superior knowledge or perspective for guidance on how to respond AND what decision to make.
How to use it: Demonstrate your expertise. Show off your resume and results. Get celebrity (in your niche) endorsements.

Principle 5: ConsistencyOnce we make a choice/take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressure to behave consistently with that commitment.
How to use it: Start small and move up from there. Sell something small first (a no-brainer deal), even if you make no money on it. They now see themselves as your customer, and will be much more likely to return to make a larger purchase.

Principle 6: ScarcityOpportunities appear more valuable when they are less available.
How to use it: Use time or quantity limited bonuses. Limit access to your product. Promote exclusivity.

SEOmoz has a great illustrated article on all of these principles. Naturally you can get the full picture of these principles from his book Influence. His other book – Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive – builds on that and adds some practical ideas. See the list of these 50 ways here.

Robert Gifford and five elements of an effective message

Mr. Gifford is a professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. He is co-author of a relatively recent American Psychological Association report that examined the interface between psychology and climate change.

He explains what makes people receptive and how to get messages across effectively:

• It has to have some urgency.
• It has to have as much certainty as can be mustered with integrity.
• There can’t be just one message: there must be messages targeted to different groups.
• Messages should be framed in positive terms. People are less willing to change their behaviour if you tell them they have to make sacrifices. If you tell them they can be in the vanguard, be a hero, be the one that helps — that works.
• You have to give people the sense that their vote counts and that their effort won’t be in vain.

While his work focused on the message of climate change, it will work in your sales copy too.

The art of persuasion by Angela Lee and Brian Sternthal

Research by Kellogg professors Angela Lee and Brian Sternthal offers insight into effective messaging. In a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, Kellogg professors say the key to an effective message is finding the fit between the consumers’ goals and the level of abstraction.

The researchers found that when consumers aimed to fulfill aspirations and satisfy achievement goals, more abstract messages — for example, those highlighting the freedom TiVo provides — stimulated favorable brand evaluations. On the other hand, consumers who sought to fulfill their responsibilities and satisfy their security goals were more persuaded by concrete messages, such as those emphasizing TiVo’s replay and slow-motion features.

So this means that first you have to figure out the emotional vibe of your prospect – or figure out what kind of motivations you’re targeting with your product. If you get it right and the level of abstraction fits the goal, people understand messages better and are more easily persuaded.

Messages that stick

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.”

Isn’t that true? Some stories – especially urban legends, conspiracy theories, and scandals circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people who really try to spread their ideas – businesspeople, scientists, politicians, journalists, and others – struggle to get anyone to remember what they said.

Two brothers, Chip Heath (a Stanford Business school professor) and Dan Heath (a corporate education consultant at Duke) found after extensive research that the ideas that ‘stick’ all share the following six principles:

1. Simplicity – Your message has to be simple – stripped down to it’s core intent. You must come up with a profound compact phrase that would summarize your whole premise.
2. Unexpected – In order to capture someone’s attention, you need to break a pattern – in other words to present the unexpected. You need to understand and play with two essential emotions – surprise and interest. Surprise gets our attention and interest keeps our attention. Got a conventional product? Get a new one.
3. Concrete – People won’t remember vague stuff. What helps people understand new concepts is concrete language. Concreteness is an indispensable component of sticky ideas. Don’t say ‘fast acceleration’, say 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds.
4. Credible – You need somebody who people trust to confirm your case. The trustworthiness of your source makes all the difference. People need something / someone credible in order to believe you.
5. Emotional – Feelings inspire people to act. If you story does not invoke any emotions, you’ve lost.
6. Stories – How do you get people to act on your idea? A credible idea make speople believe. An emotional idea makes people care. Put both of them together into an idea as stories have the amazing dual power to stimulate and to inspire.

Remember to read their excellent book ‘Made to Stick‘.

Buy buttons in the brain

Research in neuromarketing (put together in this book) reveals interesting things about our brains. As it turns out, we have 3 brains. Well, not really, but the brain does have 3 layers. Each layer has it’s own functions: the “New Brain” thinks, the “Middle Brain” feels and the “Old Brain” decides – it reviews input from the other two brains and controls the decision making process.

The ‘Old Brain’ is the part that humans (and it’s predecessors) have had the longest – like 160 million years or so. So the part of the brain that controls decisions is pretty primitive and mostly concerned with survival.

We’re usually trying to talk to the ‘New Brain’ – the sophisticated one – but it’s the brute that makes all the decisions, so we need to dumb it down. Here’s the formula:

Selling probability = Pain x Claim x Gain x (Old Brain)³

First you need to identify the prospect’s pain (the greater the pain, the higher the chance of sale) and make sure they acknowledge the pain before you start to sell them anything. Second, you’ve got to differentiate your claims from your competitors. The strongest claim is the one that eliminates the strongest pain.

Next you have to show convincing proof of these claims. The ‘Old Brain’ is resistant to new ideas and concepts, so your proof must be very convincing. Show tangible evidence, data, testimonials, case studies.

And finally – deliver to the ‘Old brain’. You need to start with a ‘grabber’ – something that really gets the  attention (‘if you’re selling fire extinguishers, start with fire’, like Ogilvy said). Second – the ‘Old brain’ is visual, hence start with a big picture.

Remember – the ‘Old brain’ is concerned with survival. So it only cares about itself and not anyone else. Your message needs to be entirely about the prospect.

Get the book to find out about all the other ways to push the right buttons in the brain.

Last but not least

You can find lots of good stuff from a book that is now freely available (as it was written in 1923) – Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins. Here’s the link to the free pdf download.

Young Entrepreneur Scholarship Winners For Yanik’s Underground Written by Michael | Posted in Young Entrepreneurs

This is the third year Yanik Silver has offered young entrepreneurs around the world a chance to come to his seminar for free. For the past two years, I have hosted the competition on Retireat21! Every year we say we will accept 10 winners, but it’s more like 12 because we have so many great applications, this year we accepted even more because of that same reason. Check these guys out, expect to see great things from them in the future.

If your heading to Underground this year, let us know! Will be great to see everyone.

Top Young Entrepreneurs In The Making

Benjamin Jacques

My name is Benjamin Jacques and I’m the founder of MeltingWaves.com. I’m a graphic design student at the Savannah College of Art and Design and I live and breathe art. I created Melting Waves with the intentions of helping artists in college share their artwork and make a name for themselves so that they can be set when they graduate from school. If you look at any marketer that has products to promote and services to sell, you’ll see that there’s a talented designer behind them making everything look nice and marketable. Well what if designers themselves learned how to create their own products and services to sell and really jumped into the “make money online” business? They wouldn’t have to hire anyone else to design for them because they already have that knowledge! I created Melting Waves to show designers that they have a tremendous advantage in this industry and that they can get started a lot faster than anyone who doesn’t have design knowledge. I really just want to see artists do well because they bring so much creativity to the world and they would have such an advantage over the crowds trying to make money online if they just knew where to begin. That’s where Melting Waves takes them by the hand and shows them how to use their skills to their advantage, to make a name for themselves, increase their incomes, and dive into online marketing industries that they have probably never considered before. I want to bring more creativity into an already beautiful world, and I know I can do that by giving aspiring artists a helping hand when it comes to creating success.

Eddys Velasquez

Eddys Velasquez always knew that the 9 to 5 job was not for him and because of this he decided to take massive action and become his own boss going from $0 to $60 per hour within 1 year, at the age of 15.  He then stumbled on a twitter post that introduced him to online marketing where within a few short weeks he made his 1st $1,500 online in a span of 3 days.  Soon after that he discovered that his passion was to help his friends achieve the same success doing what they love to do and that’s why he decided to start IncomeBoss.com

David King

I started off in myspace marketing when myspace was still cool and built a business using myspace and myspace groups.  As myspace faded away I evolved as the web did and started using facebook, twitter and youtube and blogging.  I began affiliate and info-marketing through search engine optimization and social marketing and haven’t looked back since.  I have been working full time from home online for 2 years now and love every minute of it.  I have info-products in the health markets and in the internet marketing/biz markets and will continue to create more. Consistency and persistency really pays off!

Kirsty Price

My name is Kirsty Price and I am 20 years old, from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. I am in my final year of studying Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen. I started my first business at the age of 19 and I jumped head-first into entrepreneurship to help me pay my rent! At that time, I set up my first ecommerce site and I also dabbled in ebay for a while. This first site was a failure because I really had no idea what I was doing, so I went back to the drawing board and learned from my mistakes. A few months later I started my second business. This time I was determined to succeed. This was another ecommerce site called Mademoiselle Boutique which sold luxury adult products primarily to females. This business did much better because I went away and studied everything I could find about online business in my spare time. I loved running it, but I still wanted something more that my ecommerce site wouldn’t allow for. Before I became interested in online business and entrepreneurship, I wanted to be a teacher. I realised that I still wanted to teach and inspire, but not in a classroom. Thanks to the internet, I could! So in late 2010, I moved on from my ecommerce business and I decided to combine my passion for teaching and online business to create my current business, Laptop Rebels! Laptop Rebels is still very new, but it will soon sell information products and online courses for other young (primarily twenty-something females) people looking to learn the basics about starting an online business so they can avoid working a 9 to 5 job they have no passion for.

Brian Moran

Created Get10000Fans.com after making it big on Facebook in the baseball industry. Using Get 10,000 Fans to teach other small business how to use Facebook to actually grow their business, increase sales, and build a huge following of loyal fans.

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Dusty Reron

My name is Dusty Reron and I am from Lethbridge, Alberta (Canada). I’m the founder of iJailbreak.com, a leading web blog covering everything latest about jailbreaking/unlocking Apple’s iDevices, Sony and any other revolutionary device that can jailbroken. We provide in depth tutorials, app and product reviews, and have been featured on many popular sites. It’s a blog that stands out from the crowd with our focus on building a community that you need to see to understand.

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Jaden Easton-Ellett

My name is Jaden Easton-Ellett and I am from Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada). I am currently 16 years old and I am the Co-Founder of a technology blog called iJailbreak.com. Where we focus writing in-depth news, how-to’s and reviews on electronic devices such as the iPhone. Our blog is also a leading promoter of jailbreaking (opening up electronic devices to user driven modifications), where we share our knowledge and help other users jailbreak their devices. Ever since we started iJailbreak.com we have been big believers in running a culture based blog that cares about our readers; not just our profits. This has lead to the success of our blog and has brought us phenomenal results in only 3 months that you need to see to believe!

Molly Dunkle & Katie Barstow

Katie and I started our company together in 2006. We began with a hobby for making lip balm and turned it into a full business. We are just revamping our company website (www.sweetscosmetics.com) this month, and we are hoping to have it finished by March! Our goal for this conference is to learn some techniques and tips for selling online. Looking forward to meeting everyone and networking! Thank you again for a wonderful opportunity, it is going to be a great trip!

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Jack Cascio

I am Jack Cascio and I run an online business “Jump Out The Gym”.  I started this business with the former strength coach/physical therapist of the New York Mets (Jeff Cavaliere).  My business is dedicated to increasing an athletes vertical jump.  I have seen continuous growth with this business and am looking to get into other niches (speed, quickness, etc) as well as releasing my own workout supplement line.

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James Sun

My name is James Sun and I am a Grade 10 high school student at Earl Haig Secondary School who has a passion for business and entrepreneurship. I also am very involved with sports,public speaking, DECA and I also chair a Student Advisory Board for a new non-profit organization called One Prosper International. I first started doing business last year as the President of a Junior Achievement company called RAWR which sold gift baskets and candy kebabs. We had our ups and downs and I learned a lot from the mistakes. This learning experience got me excited to do even more business!

As a result, after our company liquidated, this year, I became the President of another Junior Achievement company named Top-Out. This company has twenty student employees from over the Toronto area. Our slogan is “A Story Behind Each and Every T-Shirt” because we sell unique hand-made customized t-shirts. What really distinguishes us from our competitors is that our products are considered affordable artwork created by students.

Freeman LaFleur

I am the twenty three year old cofounder of LoDo Magazine, Denver’s alternative lifestyle and entertainment source. I’ve been involved in a variety of different startups since the  age of seventeen, including a clothing line, a non profit, and multiple websites. I am a strong advocate of entrepreneurship and personal branding because I know how life changing your first sale or client can be. My eventual goal is to coach others through DIYPersonalBranding.com on how to take their business or service to the next level by getting it online, promoting it effectively, and automating it. I truly believe that we are about to see a massive jump in the number of entrepreneurs over the next few years, as people begin to realize that it has never been easier to start a business and that digital marketing is the biggest game changer in history.

Mattis Weiler

My name is Mattis Weiler, I’m 20 years old and a starting internet entrepreneur based in Munich, Germany, I had the pleasure to meet Michael at the Awesomenessfest in Costa Rica before Christmas. Since I had always been madly into 3D graphics and animation, but was not keen on working 60h+/week on a feature film production as an average paid specialist only following orders and fulfilling somebody else’s dream, I was looking for alternative ways to get make some money with my passion. So I started freelancing and did some minor project work, but it still didn’t fit for me. When I got to meet Michael in December, I was highly impressed of his techniques and the lifestyle he had, and decided to work out a plan of combining my two passions, 3d animation and the internet, and my desire to work where I want, whenever I want.

My website ww.cgiant.com is going to provide a free video tutorial search engine and recommendations covering (3d animation, video, web and photo as categorys)to allow users on specific skill levels to gain quick refferal to the most suitable instructions on their needs. I also plan on providing interviews and reviews to various products like training, software and other goodies related to the making of computer graphics.

Daniel McClure

Daniel McClure is a young entrepreneur that is working towards his dream of running a digital empire that can be run from anywhere. Currently based in the UK, he serves clients from around the globe developing membership websites and blogs that enable business owners to share thier vision with the world. Whilst initially only offering one-to-one web development and marketing services you can now find everything from; review sites based upon real experience, through to marketing focused WordPress skins amongst his digital portfolio.

About Michael

Michael created this website back in 2007. Since then, it has gone on to receive millions of visitors, featured in newspapers, magazines and some of the worlds top websites. If you want to do something similar, keep reading.

6 Ways to Make Your Own Luck BY NICOLE CARTER

While luck isn't an exact science, there are certainly ways to make yourself more open to opportunity. Here are six easy ways.

Many entrepreneurs believe their success is in part due to a little bit of luck-- that chance meeting with a potential investor or that dinner conversation that sparks a new idea. In fact, a new study by networking site LinkedIn found that 84 percent of 7,000 professionals they surveyed say they believe in career luck.

But let's face it: There isn't an exact science to luck. You can't predict it. However, there have been plenty of successful entrepreneurs, authors, and even researchers who've tried to map out just what makes someone lucky.

Here are a few of the top tips for cultivating your own luck. 

1. Be humble. Part of cultivating luck, writes author and venture capitalist Athony Tjan for Harvard Business Review, is increasing your influence. And the best way to do that is through cultivating something counterintuitive: humility. He added: "People can mistake humility for weakness and avoid it so as not to lose perceived power...You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

2. Roll up your sleeves. This seems pretty obvious to those who consider themselves lucky. According to the LinkedIn survey, a whopping 70 percent of those surveyed said a strong work ethic was the number one thing that makes someone lucky. But to work hard, you also have to be skilled. Nearly half of the respondents in the same survey said that skills were another contributor to career luck.

3. Be generous. Tjan also writes, "Never lose the spirit of generosity; instead, allocate it appropriately. Remaining a mentor to others, connecting with community activities, simply saying more 'thank-yous,' and doing more things without over-thinking the potential 'value-exchange' equation, is a pay-it-forward attitude that in the long-run usually pays off in spades. Plus, it just feels good to be generous."

4. Be ready. Good to Great author Jim Collins has said that if one cannot predict luck, the question to then ask is: "Do you have a high return on luck?" In a New York Times essay he revealed this concept using Bill Gates as an example. He wrote: "Thousands of people could have done the same thing that Mr. Gates did, at the same time. But they didn't...How many of them changed their life plans--and cut their sleep to near zero, essentially inhaling food so as not to let eating interfere with work--to throw themselves into writing Basic for the Altair? How many defied their parents, dropped out of college and moved to Albuquerque to work with the Altair? That’s not luck--that's return on luck."

5. Go with your gut. Who better than the late Steve Jobs to describe why trusting in your gut instincts may be the best way to ensure your luck in the future? In his famous speech to a graduating class at Stanford he said, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life." Add to that, according to the LinkedIn survey, nearly half of the respondents said that "using your intuition" has been an important factor in their career luck.

6. Simply believe that you are lucky. A recent study from psychologist and University of Hertfordshire Professor Richard Wiseman found that simply believing you are lucky can create positive outcomes. He took two groups of people: one that considered themselves "lucky," and another that considered themselves "unlucky." He gave both groups newspapers and asked everyone to report back how many photos were in the issue as quickly as possible. The lucky people came back with the answer in seconds, much faster than the unlucky group. Why? Because on page two of the paper, there was an ad that read "Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this newspaper."

Wiseman concluded: "Unlucky people miss chance opportunities because they are too focused on looking for something else. They go to parties intent on finding their perfect partner, and so miss opportunities to make good friends. They look through the newspaper determined to find certain job advertisements and, as a result, miss other types of jobs. Lucky people are more relaxed and open, and therefore see what is there, rather than just what they are looking for."