Thursday, June 29 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | 1 Comment
Entrepreneurs must be driven towards what they want out of life. They must never take no for an answer and continue to strive to become successful no matter what obstacles come in-between you and your ambitions. The driven entrepreneur is a hungry entrepreneur – period. Mind Petals is glad to accept “Driven Entrepreneur” as the latest entrepreneur member.
The definition of this blog is in the name: Driven. Mari — our first female member — speaks to entrepreneurs through motivating, encouraging, and empowering content that is sure to keep any entrepreneur on track with their goals. Welcome, Mari.
Wednesday, June 28 by Dan Marques in Featured Articles | 2 Comments
Why am I writing this article? Because a long time ago I read an article on how to best read the Wall Street Journal and I was amazed at how useful it was. Well, I have been a subscriber to Entrepreneur Magazine for about eight years and I have picked up some useful methods to get the most value out of the magazine.
Why is Entrepreneur Magazine great? It is filled with countless useful tips, motivational stories, facts, and relevant advertisers. Every issue I find at least a handful of things that either help my business, make me a better entrepreneur, or help someone I know with their venture.
Here’s how I read Entrepreneur Mag:
- Set aside 1-3 hours to read it from cover to cover (ideally, doesn’t always happen this way)
- Start from the back: The best articles are always in the later pages of the magazine and the classified ads are generally more valuable to take a look at then all the full page ads that are front loaded.
- Fold the pages that have something you want to check out further (either a website url, interesting fact, article you want to send to someone, etc.)
- Use a pen to identify the section on the folded page that was useful and leave a quick note to yourself as to why it was important (i.e. “send this to fred”, “check out this website for the blog”, “new business idea”, etc.)
- Read the heading and subheading of the articles, then the bold subtitles…if that article is interesting read more, if not then keep going.
- Make note of the authors and companies mentioned that peak your interest, do not be afraid to send either an email mentioning the article and why you found it worthwhile, it could spark a valuable future relationship.
- After you have gone through the whole magazine, now go back to the folded pages when you have time and check out the valuable websites, email the article to a friend, add a fact to your business plan, etc.
This may not be the perfect way for everybody but it has worked great for me so far. Also, be sure to check out their website for even more valuable resources in addition to the print magazine.
Monday, June 26 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | Leave a Comment
So many blogs…so much bullshit. Many of us entrepreneurs keep it real by posting articles that can be backed-up with their entrepreneurial endeavors and the things that they really do in life. That’s what I really love about the Mind Petals’ membership — we keep it real. But on the other had, many entrepreneur bloggers continue to spit out loads of bullshit and crap that has nothing to do with their lives and the lives of real entrepreneurs making real things happen.
That is why it’s so refreshing when you come across a blog such as trizoko. trizoko is run by entrepreneurs who never miss any opportunity to back up their articles with loads of corroborating material and personal insight which helps enforce their message to entrepreneurs around the world. Many props to them! Welcome, Andrew, Vu and Nick!
Thursday, June 22 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | 2 Comments
I have a blog. You have a blog. We all have blogs. Now what about making money through your blog? That’s where Blogtrepreneur comes in. Blogtrepreneur is a much needed blog that serves to educate entrepreneurs on various net-related sources of income – and there are many!
Adnan is on the “road to internet success,” so let’s all follow him there and learn as much as we can from his awesome blog. Welcome, Adnan!
Tuesday, June 20 by David Askaripour in Featured Articles | 2 Comments
This is part 3 of “A Tale of Mind Petals.” Jump to part 1 then part 2 to catch up on all the goodness.
So now it’s June 4, 2006 (the day before the launch) and I am sitting my room (Mind Petals headquarters) and I’m running through lines of code for the site, checking out functionality, design elements, and content. And what do you know? Just like that I accidentally erase a very important file containing about 16 pages of the entire site!
Shit! Fuck! Damn! Yup, that’s all I did for a good solid hour – curse up a storm. But actually I handled the situation quite well. I didn’t punch any holes in the wall, punch any faces, or punch anything! I just sat there thinking how I could correct this stupid mistake.
Luckily with the help of my developer I had the site back up and running within a few hours and the code was back and better than ever! Well at least I made such as mistake before the site was live, right?
That night around 12 AM I launched the site and Mind Petals officially became live. I was so happy to see what I have created in my head become something real, alive, and simply amazing.
Now it’s June 20th, roughly 2 weeks since Mind Petals has opened its doors and we are 14 members strong. Over these past 2 weeks, we have attracted some of the most powerful entrepreneurial bloggers on the net and we’re not stopping here!
Entrepreneurs from all over the world have been requesting to join the network, some have made it in and some haven’t. The ones who did were the most passionate about what they are doing and how the represent themselves through their blogs.
In a perfect world, every entrepreneur blogger who be allowed into Mind Petals, but what fun would that be? In doing that, we’d just be diluting the hell out of our focus to help entrepreneurs with quality, passionate, and powerful content – nothing more and nothing less.
The feedback we have received up to this point has been amazing and we are looking forward to rolling out a Phase II of the network in the next couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for some good stuff to come.
I’m just a young, motivated, hungry, and passionate 22 year-old entrepreneur living in NYC trying to change the world. Mind Petals was once just a thought and now it’s a reality. The power of the mind, amazing!
This is just the beginning of my vision for this network. I am working on a masterpiece. And with the help and contribution from our members, readers, and supporters, we can not fail.
I’ll leave you all with some pics of the official Mind Petals Headquarters – my room!
Tuesday, June 20 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | Leave a Comment
For all you entrepreneurs thinking about getting an MBA or are in the process of getting one, you’re in luck! We just added a blog that is 100% dedicated to the entrepreneur wanting to enroll in an MBA program. The blog also couples as a guide for students who want insight into the life of a real entrepreneur who will be attending an MBA program – Emmanuel Oluwatosin.
Swing by MBA Xploit and start learning the ins-and-outs of an MBA program. Who knows, maybe going back to school or continuing your education may be the best thing for you and your company – that little nudge that helps your business blow up.
Welcome, Emmanuel !
Sunday, June 18 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | Leave a Comment
I started my first business in my dorm room at college. And I bet a lot of you young entrepreneurs did as well. Heck, I think that rocks! Starting a biz from the dorms is probably one of the smartest things that you can do. It’s likely that your target market is your entire building.
It would’ve been hot if Chris Pund’s Dorm Room Biz blog was around during that time… I definitely would have been all over it. Oh well… I’m all over his awesome blog now so it doesn’t really matter. Welcome to Mind Petals, Chris. Keep on helping those student entrepreneurs get started! Power to the dorm room business starters!
Sunday, June 18 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | Leave a Comment
I’m an engineer! Well not exactly… but Adam McFarland is and he recently quit his job to become a full time entrepreneur. You gotta love it! Adam is now part of our entrepreneurial family and we’re happy to have him. Yup, that’s right, this is a family and that’s how we like to think of our blog members over here at Mind Petals.
Adam’s blog is filled with tons of great articles for the budding entrepreneur. Head on over to Adam McFarland Blog get some for yourself.
Tuesday, June 13 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | 2 Comments
Straight from Australia, Scott Taylor joins the network today. This young entrepreneur is definitely on the right track. Only 17 years-old and already eager to take over the world. Watch out guys, this ambitious teen is planning to move to the states to get a business degree.
Ambitious, savvy, and motivated teen + MBA degree = deadly! Welcome to Mind Petals, Scott.
Phewww… Mind Petals is growing quite nicely. Guess we’re just using some great fertilizer!
Tuesday, June 13 by David Askaripour in Featured Articles | 1 Comment
This is part 2 of “A Tale of Mind Petals.” Jump to part 1 to catch up if you haven’t already.
So after doing some pretty intense research and brainstorming for quite some time, I then began to talk with various young entrepreneurs – you know, just shooting around ideas and such.
I wanted to know if this was something that entrepreneurs such as myself would want to be a part of. So I started asking around and received some great positive feedback. But to tell you the truth, I was (and still am) so passionate about creating the network, that I would have went ahead and done it regardless of the encouragement.
That’s just how I am. If I have a gut feeling about something, at the end of the day I’m always, always going to trust myself first and just do it. If I am wrong, then I am wrong and I just keep at it. Simple as that.
After some time of talking with some sharp minds, I started to write. I just began unloading all of my ideas for the network on paper. For a few weeks, I simply just wrote ideas, content, whatever and sketched design ideas. I wanted the design to be crazy!
Things started coming together and history was being made. Started scoping out blogs that I thought would make great fits for the network and made sure that they were a part of the founding members when the network launched.
Around this time, I contacted my good friend Dan who offered a tremendous amount of support when I was deep into the project. Dan brought good ideas to the table and eventually came on the Advisory Board along with Matt and Jason. Great bunch of smart guys!
Now it’s around late May and the network is well into production. Matt’s banging out some sick designs and we’re working on painting a masterpiece. My concept was all about growth and prosperity, so the flowers, grass, and bright colors was just what I had in mind to really project this vision. It’s Spring time on the network, 24/7. The growing never stops!
Stay tuned for part 3………
Monday, June 12 by David Askaripour in News | 5 Comments
Today, I along with the Mind Petals’ Board of Advisors have decided to keep the network focused on the youth. It wasn’t an easy decision and it’s been something that we’ve been scratching our heads about for some time, but we feel that it’s the right thing to do. We will only be adding bloggers under the age of 30.
Yup, this update goes counter to my last post about membership, but in order for this network to be official, it MUST be fueled by the youth! We are the ones, more than any other entrepreneur, that need to stick together and help one another.
Sure, yes, and of course we can learn things from entrepreneurs of all ages, and we will all continue to do so, but the network must be a haven for the budding entrepreneurs putting everything on the line, the young entrepreneurs bootstrapping a business, and the young entrepreneurs that are sitting at home creating a masterpiece to change the world.
We are the future.
Our youth is our biggest advantage and the message MUST be reflected in our membership. Power to the young entrepreneurs!
Saturday, June 10 by David Askaripour in Featured Articles | 3 Comments
Figured I’d do a mini 3 Part series focused on the last few months from the day I thought of starting an entrepreneur blog network up to now.
Here we go….
Ok, so I graduated from college a semester early in Jan. 2006. I moved back home to Long Island with my parents and brothers. There I was, back at home just after completing 3 ½ years of college. What a fun 3 years!
Around the time of early January I started really exploring this “blog” movement that seemed to be all over the internet. I knew that I needed to jump on this new way of expressing yourself over the net, so I created a blog called “Flush the Toilet” to speak about something I really felt passionate about: entrepreneurism!
For days and days I was just be blogging the hell out of the internet. Interviewing other successful entrepreneurs, networking like a storm, writing tutorials, just about anything that came into my head. I was a beast.
After about a month of blogging on FTT and realizing that it’s been almost a year since closing the book on my last project, I knew that it was time to get back to the drawing table and create something new.
I started thinking about all of the great entrepreneurs that I have been meeting over the last few weeks and how I enjoyed networking with all of them so much. I wanted there to be some type of unification of all these savvy guys that I’ve been chatting with.
So what do you know…. I said to myself… “I should create some type of network.” I wasn’t exactly sure how it would work or anything. At that point, it was more of a fundamental concept in my head. I just knew that there was something there and I needed to get into it right away.
BUT…before doing ANYTHING…. I had to do some studying up and research. As you can see from my garage back at home, my wall was packed with all types of information: ideas, connections, articles, emails, stats, whatever…
For a few weeks straight I was basically just brainstorming, researching, innovating, and thinking about the future of what’s to come next in the Blogosphere. Just letting my mind run wild. On the train, after taking a shower, while on the phone, basically everywhere, I carried my handy notebook with me to jot down ideas and improving, improving, improving on former ideas and concepts.
I was in the zone and I knew that creating a network was a promising idea as my vision began to unfold and grow.
Stay tuned for part 2 …..
Until then, here are some shots of my new place in NYC.
Saturday, June 10 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | 2 Comments
Rohail Rizvi is the latest mastermind to join the network. Rohail does an amazing job of presenting his life experiences as an entrepreneur and his plans to get where he wants to be in life. He’s on a mission and nothing’s going to get in his way!
Welcome to the network, Rohail. Never stop creating!
Friday, June 9 by Dan Marques in Featured Articles | 8 Comments
I finished a course in search engine marketing from Web CEO University today. It was a great course; you can see my certification certificate here.
I figured I would share some of the core things you should keep in mind for your website in terms of search engine optimization:
Analyze related keyword traffic, use a tool such as the one at inventory.overture.com to see what individuals are searching for, then search that keyword to see how popular the top 10 results are. Find 1-3 keywords that are highly relevant, have a decent amount of daily traffic, and the competition is not all incredibly big sites.
You then want to optimize your main page for these 1-3 keywords. The key is to not be a spammer and just stuff the site with keywords, do it in an authentic way that brings value. Have the keyword(s) in the beginning of your title, in your meta tags, in your content, your site links, and at the bottom of the site.
Then try to build authentic links pointed towards your page from other websites (the more popular they are, the better). If you have to do reciprocal links try to put the reciprocal link on another page so it is not viewed negatively by the search engines. You want the link to have a keyword in it, as well as have some anchor text related to your keyword. Ideally, you want one way links pointed to your site on related sites that are popular.
Start with this simple strategy, work hard, deliver worthwhile and fresh content, and you are well on your way…who needs an SEO consultant 
In all seriousness, SEO is a mix of art & science, I thought I knew a great deal before the course but now I have a much greater understanding and now understand the value a professional search engine marketer can provide.
Wednesday, June 7 by David Askaripour in Member's Stuff | 1 Comment
We are proud to announce that Dennis Ngin from Young Money Blog as the latest addition to the Mind Petals Network. Dennis has a keen interest for personal finance and e-commerce, so make sure to keep up-to-date with his great posts. Keep up the awesome work, Dennis!
Tuesday, June 6 by David Askaripour in Network Stuff | 2 Comments
So the million dollar question for all blog network owners must be: “what type of traffic are you getting?” I won’t lie and say that I don’t give a damn about traffic because I do. I do care to know how many people are coming to check out the articles on the site. But for now, I’m not going to kill myself over how many people are hitting up the network.
My goal now is to find the best of the best entrepreneur bloggers on the net. And let me tell you, it isn’t easy. But what is easy? I’ve been searching around technorati and del.icio.us for some quality bloggers. I came across a few, so that was cool.
If you were wondering if Mind Petals was network for only young entrepreneurs, then think again. Yup, you’d be correct if you said that all of the founding members were young entrepreneurs such as myself (twentysomething), but age really plays no part. It’s all about the content and actions, everything else is just fluff to me.
Oh did I ever tell you about the traffic? Well I can sit here and lie to you and say that we have experienced tons of hits and impressions, but I’ll leave that for the boasters and bullshitters. The traffic hasn’t been what I expected, but what can I really expect after only a day of being live?
Right now, I’m on a mission to find those awesome entrepreneur bloggers. Once I do that, everything will fall into place. I’m just going to keep on having fun, running my business, and making the most out of life.
Everyday is filled with new experiences and I look forward to watching my baby grow. And if it doesn’t, I always have more seeds.
Monday, June 5 by David Askaripour in Network Stuff | 1 Comment
What a great start to the network! Today my inbox flooded with praise and support for Mind Petals. I’m excited and confident about the future of the network.
Many people expressed their interest in the network’s super-unique design. I wanted a design that would be representative of growth and expansion; so the flowers, sky, and plant elements seemed to do the trick. Matt Brett is a talented designer and he was truly successful in making my design vision a reality. Thanks, Matt.
People really liked how we used the petals in the outer right column to house the sponsor ads — it really fits well with the site and not too intrusive (at least I hope not…)
Additionally, many entrepreneur bloggers have written in request to join (thank you all!). I’ve made a list of all the interested bloggers and will contact each person individually with responses. And hey, if your blog isn’t what we are looking for, no worries.
Mind Petals will actually work with you to make it so your blog is granted membership. We are really looking for entrepreneur bloggers who write consistently, not every few months. In order for this network to work, it will need a constant flow of entrepreneurial content to continue sparking those minds! We can’t accept bloggers who pose a threat to putting that spark out.
But let’s be realistic, we know and expect entrepreneur bloggers not to write a gazillion articles per day simply because we are super busy changing the world! But the ones who can make an effort to post every few days will have the best chances of membership.
Thank you all for your comments, feedback, and support!
Monday, June 5 by Dan Marques in Featured Articles | Leave a Comment
There are many reasons why I became an entrepreneur, perhaps I may have been born an entrepreneur and it just took a few years to figure that out. Regardless, an event happened last year that provided additional reasoning and inspiration for being an entrepreneur. Except this was a bad experience, it was my first (and only) traditional “internship”.
I took a job in the fall of 2005 as an Analyst/Research intern at a market research firm. The job sounded interesting enough, the company sounded really interesting. They were involved in technology, marketing, research, cutting edge trends, etc…or at least that is what they told me.
They put me in a cubicle, my first time ever in the gray box as an employee. I was given an organization chart and that is when I noticed something strange…the entire company consisted of only VP of X and interns…that’s it! There were no employees? Odd. There was also about 3-5 interns for every VP. I thought this was strange.
They gave me some tasks that for the most part consisted of a lot of cold calling…not fun at all but it did discipline me because before I was afraid of cold calling.
They had me build an entire project from start to finish for a client. I did pretty much everything, all they did was tell me what to do and when. I noticed a document that was from the client that noted the tasks they requested (of which I was doing 95% of them) and the payment the company was receiving was $XX,000, I received $500 to do 95% of the project!!! I left a few days later and never looked back…
Moral of the story? You can create value as an employee or as an entrepreneur, the question is: Who is receiving the benefits of that value creation?
Sunday, June 4 by David Askaripour in News | 3 Comments
Mind Petals, the entrepreneur’s official blog network is finally here. It’s been a fun, rough, and exciting few months in the making, but my vision is now a reality.
I created Mind Petals as a way to connect entrepreneur bloggers across the internet – aggregating the best content under a network where people from all over the world can come and learn about the world of entrepreneurism, directly from the entrepreneurs making things happen with their lives.
So where do we go from here? That’s easy. We can only go up. My passion for entrepreneurism, innovation, and desire to change the world is shared with all of the Mind Petals’ members. Changing the world and writing about how we are doing it, is the true engine that runs this network.
Gaining feedback from readers and commenting on how you would like to see this network grow, will only help Mind Petals to reach more entrepreneurs and spark more minds throughout the world. Please share your thoughts.
This network is yours! Through the content shared throughout this network, lives will be changed, companies will be founded, partnerships will form, solutions will emerge, and the world will be improved.
There are infinite possibilities in this universe – “Infinite Ideas to Bloom.”
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