Joshua

If you are at all like me, then you know some of the pains that are possible when trying to start your own small business.  Everything, I mean EVERYTHING seems to stand in the way of your success at one time or another.

There is one thing that all successful infopreneurs and small business owners have in common. It’s one thing that you MUST master before you can get from where you are now to where you want to be.

…but we will get to that in a minute.

Here are some things that keep entrepreneurs from reaching their goals:

• Relatives or loved 0nes that think you are chasing a pipe dream.
• Lack of sales or lack of customers.
• Naysayers in your product or industry niche that think what you are trying to accomplish can’t be done.
• Not being able to get started.
• Your goal will be HARD to accomplish.
• Not willing to make certain sacrifices to achieve what you really want.
• Getting STUCK on a certain part of your business development.

The list goes on and on.  However, there is one thing that will keep  you going during these really hard times and one thing that will allow you to get anything that you really want.

That thing is PERSISTENCE.

Persistence is the almost-magical trait that all successful entrepreneurs and small business owners have in common. It is the one thing that keeps pushing you forward when it looks like your idea won’t work in the short-while.

Failure and roadblocks can’t hold a candle to persistence, once the user has mastered it.

Sure, you might have a whole bunch of ideas that turn out to be complete failures, but persistence keeps you going to find the ONE idea that brings you success.

Sure, your original business plan may have NOTHING do with the route that you end up taking, but it’s persistence that grabs you by the hand and keeps pulling until you find the route that you were meant to follow.

You see, money and ideas like speed. Money and ideas only seem to stick with people that are willing to go to great lengths to deserve the outcome that these things can bring. It’s like a rite of passage that each entrepreneur needs to go through, a real test of willpower.

Here are a few tips that can help you develop your persistence:

1. When you hit a roadblock or huge setback, welcome it. This might sound a little crazy but think of it as the price of admission for success. If you have not yet hit your roadblock, then you are not pushing yourself enough.

2. When you feel like giving up, know that this has happened to EVERY successful person in history. This is the time when you are being tested for how serious you are about your idea. If you can slowly push through the setback then your persistence is showing through.

3. If you feel like your idea just won’t work and you want to give up, look inside. Is this inforpreneurial idea something that you are REALLY passionate about, or something that just seemed like a cool idea. You have to eat, sleep, and breathe this thing is you really want to be a rock star with your idea. Maybe it’s a sign that you need to take a different direction instead of giving up.

4. Fight no matter what. When a person that is close to you does not believe in you it can be very hard. This is the time to keep going. This is the time to fight for your success. When your product or service seems to be a dismal failure, even though you KNOW deep inside that it will work, this is the time to fight.

5. Develop a sense of humor about the whole thing. Remember that you are not going to die if you have a few setbacks. Remember that you MUST go through this to get to the other side. Remember that if you can see the humor in the situation, no matter how dark it can get, you can help pull yourself out of the hole.

6. Remember that you don’t have to do it alone. Network with other like-minded people. Swap ideas. Swap failure stories and explain how you coped with each situation. We are ALL going through it, so you might as well band together and punch through to the other side.

Persistence is the key. It is the one thing that you can do to make sure that you will succeed no matter what the universe decides to throw at your small business.

What are some things that you have encountered when trying to develop your own infopreneurial business? What did you encounter that was a true test of your persistence, between making it and throwing in the towel?

I’d love to hear about it.

-Joshua Black

Joshua Black is the creator of the Underdog Millionaire Blog. Having started over a dozen small businesses of his own in the last 15 years, he is small business consultant, copywriter, information marketer and permanent student of small business.  He is also the creator of the Ultimate Information Product Report.  You can also sign up for the daily Underdog Millionaire small business Tip Sheet and not only will you get a wealth of small business, marketing, and sales information, but you will also receive 5 FREE success books (including Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich). Click here to sign up.

Ok as most of you will know, I have done my top 5 most influential blogs, and a top 5 most influential women which were a big success recieving a lot of interest and great comments both on here and Twitter, But don’t be fooled into thinking that this will be both post’s adding together in the same order with 10 more, I’ve thrown in some surprises here, so from 20 down to 1 TheInfoPreneur’s most influential blogs are;

20; Micheal Dunlop – Launched his first profitable website when he was just 16, and now at 20 years old, he has become a hot ticket and one to watch in the world of blogging and social marketing. Running several websites, His IncomeDiary.com is how I came to know Micheal, fantastic relevant information and a huge inspiration for young adults in a world where opportunities don’t always reach the ones that need it the most. I fully recommend a visit to his sites.

Alexa Ranking; 17,549

19; Hugh Macleod -  A cartoonist from Texas, his site GapingVoid.com is one of those sites, that I visit when I want to relax and feel like a kid again. I remember doing doodles in Maths and English (probably why I left school with no qualifications) but its a way of escaping, and Hugh does this for a living and is more than willing to talk about his art, having a top selling book in Amazon about how to be creative, Hugh is one guy that I would to spend a day in his shoes, to see how he views the world, fantastic blog, massive personality;

Alexa Ranking; 38,010

19; Arianna Huffington – For those who missed the Top 5 Most Influential Women InfoPreneurs Here’s the write up; Co-Founder of HuffingtonPost.com Arianna is a house hold name. Her site focuses on politics, but has a breaking news part to it, which makes it an all in one really. Earnings have not been disclosed but are thought to be comfortably into 7 figures a year. Made number 12 in the Forbes list of most influential women in media.

Alexa Ranking; 248

18; Robb Sutton – An incredible nice guy and serious blogger, making 6 figures from his various sites. RobbSutton.com is a great site and to quote is ‘laid back blogging for serious entrepreneurs‘. A stack of information including a 118 page eBook, and Robb has a great following and prides himself as the king of reviewing products. A very well deserved position in this list.

Alexa Ranking; 73,864

17; Chris Garrett – A blogging authority, I’m virtually camped out at his site ChrisG.com to learn new ways of building reader loyalty and improving the value of my site. Probably most famous for co-writing the ProBlogger book with Darren Rowse (also in this list) A keen photographer, and free lance writer, this guy is golden!

Alexa Ranking; 39,890

16; Lorelle VanFossen – For those who missed the Top 5 Most Influential Women InfoPreneurs Public speaker (WordCamp), InfoPreneur, and keen genealogist, She talks about wordpress, Social media and has also written a book called Blogging Tips; What bloggers wont tell you. Her site still running of the free service from wordpress.com is a hub for anyone who is new to being an InfoPreneur/blogging or if you simply have writers block! A fantastic site, which has clearly given her the life she loves.

Alexa Ranking; 13,449

15; Pete Cashmore – For those who missed TheInfoPreneurs top 5 Most Influential Blogs Pete started the site Mashable.com in July 2005, Working flat out on it for a year, he then got his first advertising deal for the site. And it never slowed down, top 25 forbes web celebs, top 10 with technorati and at the time of writing has 1.6 million followers on Twitter. What I love about his story, is he had a passion for the internet, a desire to tell people about social media, and he worked tirelessly and it paid off BIG TIME, no official figures, but he is rumoured to be worth millions with a 7 figure turnover.

Alexa Ranking; 452

14; John Chow – In April 1999 he started a technology site called The TechZone which became a huge success with over 200,000 page views a day, he now shares his experiences and helps you reach the same success with JohnChow.com ‘Ramblings of a dot com mogul’ An absolute must, get to this site and start reading!
Alexa Ranking; 5,985

13; Darren Rowse -  For those who missed TheInfoPreneurs top 5 Most Influential Blogs , Darren Rowse – These days a top list can’t be published without including the original Problogger. Problogger was the first blog about making money from blogging I read, and it opened up a can of worms in my head, I couldn’t stop reading it and the more I read the more I realised how much of a success he has made and the most interesting thing for me is its not his top performing site in terms of revenue! He has several other sites, and has just launched Problogger.com A paid membership forum with over 3,000 members. This guy is an amazingly nice person with a perfect attitude to everything. Its a shame he lives in Australia otherwise I would be camped out on his doorstep with my laptop and a notepad and pen!

Alexa Ranking; 2,449

12; Daniel Scocco – His site DailyBlogTips.com was nominated in 2007 for ‘Best Web Development Blog’  publishing a lot of  ‘how to’ articles his site is so useful when you get stuck or don’t know how to take it to the next level offering a free eBook on making money from your blog, is another great addition to the site. Great advice from an honest site.

Alexa Ranking; 6,445

11; Michelle Malkin – Top 5 Most Influential Women InfoPreneurs Another political InfoPreneur turned author. HotAir.com Focusing on breaking news within the American political society, she has turned a simple passion into an unbelievable career, in which she has 4 books, Contributes to the Fox news channel, and has several columns. Michelle’s site has brought Vlogging (Video Blogging) to the fore front of media. Earnings thought to be high six figures to low seven figures annually.

Alexa Ranking; 4,670

10; Tim Ferriss – Probably the blogger I connect with the most, his site FourHourWorkWeek.com is an off the wall character who sole purpose is to live life. Offering advice on how to break the mould, and author of the book, named after the site, Tim really is an inspiration, if he can do it, so can we!

Alexa Ranking; 7,765

9; Yaro Starak – For those who missed TheInfoPreneurs top 5 Most Influential Blogs So whats he about? Entrepreneurs-Journey.com Ultra laid back approach to it all, but that will be down to the fact he is the king of monetizing. He runs BlogMastermind and a host of other money spinners, but unlike most, he actually gives fantastic information and a hell of a lot of free information, which is why he makes so much money, because, and rightly so, readers then want more to enhance their sites. Great bloke, great site, and massively motivational. I want to be like him…. Except without the curly hair, No offense Yaro!

Alexa Ranking; 9,347

8; Lisa Irby – Top 5 Most Influential Women InfoPreneurs Started 2CreateAWebsite.com in February 2002 with the sole purpose to help people set up websites and blogs. What I love about Lisa is she openly admits she’s not a HTML coder, she is honest about being happy with a clean simple design for her website,  which is something I connected with straight away. This site is a must whether your a newbie or not, some excellent advice on making money, real money from your site. Top work Lisa

Alexa Ranking; 11,267

7; Seth Godin – Seth’s site is a great read and talk’s about a lot of different subjects on a clean no fuss template. Author of 12 books focusing on making you a better marketer, he really is an Authority in this market place. Be ready to sit down and read though, its not one of those sites you can skim and get the general point, but it is 100% worth the read!

Alexa Ranking; 6,164

6; Leo Babauta – ZenHabits.net Is a site you need everynow and again to clear your head and return to your roots. Simplicity and focus is what Leo delivers to make sure your productivity goes through the roof. A real family guy who clearly loves life and that comes across in the way he writes. You could almost have angels stroking your neck as your reading through his posts. Great work Leo

Alexa Ranking; 9,426

5; Darren  Scott  Monroe – This guy showed me the importance of Twitter. With over 58,000 followers, and over 21,000 tweets he is a shining example of how social media should be used  to drive traffic and followers to his site DarrenMonroe.com. His site is all about social media, the net, and loads of advice on just about anything you need. Seriously motivating, and one hell of a nice guy!

Alexa Ranking; 97,537

4; Heather B Armstrong – Top 5 Most Influential Women InfoPreneurs Started Dooce.com back in February 2001 with a post about carnation milk, now 5,100 post later, it has become a force to reckon with. I could spend all day reading her site, You could just imagine sitting on a really deep couch in her house listening to her go off at tangents then seamlessly drift back on topic. Heather writes about everything, I mean everything, from a post about being in bed with a guy who sounded like Elmo to family which includes a Husband, 2 daughters and 2 dogs, the revenue earned from ads means they can all enjoy the chaos together! Heather is the most Influential Woman InfoPreneur because she took everything what had happened to her and wrote about it, with no other goal in mind except to tell the world what she was thinking! Fantastic.

Alexa Ranking; 12,307

3; Heidi Swanson – Heidi’s site 101CookBooks.com is the perfect example of passion. Heidi talks about the food that intersects her life, food she stumbles across, recipes passed to her by friends or ones she somes up with. Based in San Francisco, Heidi is also a designer, photographer and author, and she has featured in many newspapers and magazines. Over 350,000 subscribers, Heidi has turned a passion into pure success.

Alexa Ranking; 22,298

2; Marko Saric – For those who missed TheInfoPreneurs top 5 Most Influential Blogs His site HowToMakeMyBlog.com was the first site I found (and stuck with) that detailed how and what to do when starting out, He writes making no assumptions about his readers, detailing everything in a really easy to read format. I can’t emphasise enough what a difference this guy has made on my life, a great writer, a fantastic honest person, and best of all… He lives in the UK! He only started his site in the back end of 2008, and a year later has already had well over 200,000 unique visitors. Great site, great content, great InfoPreneur! This guy has continued to top my most influential blogs. Crazy dedicated and a role model for me, If he can make it, then so will I!

Alexa Ranking; 29,699

And number 1….

1; David Risley – For those who missed TheInfoPreneurs top 5 Most Influential Blogs Confessions of a 6 figure blogger DavidRisley.com is a site, that I use for motivation. I can relate to him because he is clearly a family guy, and quite clearly making an excellent living through his site and is loving the opportunity to help others. Hugely inspirational character and a household name in the Blogging/InfoPreneur world. A massive success and has no objections about telling you how much he made last year (Over $140,000) which is done in such a nice way it motivates rather than alienates! Staying number 1 for me, David does videos, podcasts, blogs, pdf’s turning every piece of advice into every available format for you to learn, and stay motivated, an amazing  guy, and one hell of an inspiration.

Alexa Ranking; 37,627

You will notice that some of the top 5′s from my previous post’s have not even made it into the top 10 of this one, why?…. Simple, why not? This is my personal choice of most influential blogs right now, it could change tomorrow, but for now please show your appreciation and re-tweet and comment.

PLEASE RE-TWEET AND DIGG

I have published my top 5 most influential InfoPreneurs/Bloggers and I realised that there were no women in that list… So from 5 down to 1, here’s my top 5 most influential InfoPreneurs;

5, Arianna Huffington – Co-Founder of HuffingtonPost.com Arianna is a house hold name. Her site focuses on politics, but has a breaking news part to it, which makes it an all in one really. Earnings have not been disclosed but are thought to be comfortably into 7 figures a year. Made number 12 in the Forbes list of most influential women in media. After a career in politics, which included running for governor of California against big Arnie, She has become one of the strongest voices in the US, get her on your side and your golden!

Alexa Ranking; 265

4, Michelle Malkin – Another political InfoPreneur turned author. HotAir.com Focusing on breaking news within the American political society, she has turned a simple passion into an unbelievable career, in which she has 4 books, Contributes to the Fox news channel, and has several columns. Michelle’s site has brought Vlogging (Video Blogging) to the fore front of media. Earnings thought to be high six figures to low seven figures annually.

Alexa Ranking; 4,802

3, Lorelle VanFossen – Public speaker (WordCamp), InfoPreneur, and keen genealogist, She talks about wordpress, Social media and has also written a book called Blogging Tips; What bloggers wont tell you. Her site still running of the free service from wordpress.com is a hub for anyone who is new to being an InfoPreneur/blogging or if you simply have writers block! A fantastic site, which has clearly given her the life she loves.

Alexa Ranking; 13,600

2, Lisa Irby – Started 2CreateAWebsite.com in February 2002 with the sole purpose to help people set up websites and blogs. What I love about Lisa is she openly admits she’s not a HTML coder, she is honest about being happy with a clean simple design for her website,  which is something I connected with straight away. This site is a must whether your a newbie or not, some excellent advice on making money, real money from your site. Top work Lisa

Alexa Ranking; 11,277

1, Heather B Armstrong – Started Dooce.com back in February 2001 with a post about carnation milk, now 5,100 post later, it has become a force to reckon with. I could spend all day reading her site, You could just imagine sitting on a really deep couch in her house listening to her go off at tangents then seamlessly drift back on topic. Heather writes about everything, I mean everything, from a post about being in bed with a guy who sounded like Elmo to family which includes a Husband, 2 daughters and 2 dogs, the revenue earned from ads means they can all enjoy the chaos together! Heather is the most Influential Woman InfoPreneur because she took everything what had happened to her and wrote about it, with no other goal in mind except to tell the world what she was thinking! Fantastic

Alexa Ranking; 12,862

I would also like to mention Karen Clark who runs MyBusinessPresence.com for the polite encouragement to do a article about women InfoPreneurs, and Corey Freeman from WriterSeven.com who at 17 is surging up the rankings with her site.

So what do you think?

Women, please show your appreciation and re-tweet

It occurred to me about a minute ago, Their are 5 people who made me decided to set up TheInfoPreneur site. These people have ‘made it’ in my eyes, but from what I can see they never set out to make millions, it just came as a by product. These InfoPreneur’s (Although they will still call themselves bloggers, I like to use the modern term, because that’s what they are true and real InfoPreneurs) inspired me in different ways and all share different levels of success but success they have in bucket loads!

So from 5 down to 1;

5, Pete Cashmore – Started the site Mashable.com in July 2005, Working flat out on it for a year, he then got his first advertising deal for the site. And it never slowed down, top 25 forbes web celebs, top 10 with technorati and at the time of writing has 1.6 million followers on Twitter. What I love about his story, is he had a passion for the internet, a desire to tell people about social media, and he worked tirelessly and it paid off BIG TIME, no official figures, but he is rumoured to be worth millions with a 7 figure turnover.

Alexa Ranking; 475

4, Darren Rowse – These days a top list can’t be published without including the original Problogger. Problogger was the first blog about making money from blogging I read, and it opened up a can of worms in my head, I couldn’t stop reading it and the more I read the more I realised how much of a success he has made and the most interesting thing for me is its not his top performing site in terms of revenue! He has several other sites, and has just launched Problogger.com A paid membership forum with over 3,000 members. This guy is an amazingly nice person with a perfect attitude to everything. Its a shame he lives in Australia otherwise I would be camped out on his doorstep with my laptop and a notepad and pen!

Alexa ranking; 2,456

3, Marko Saric – His site HowToMakeMyBlog.com was the first site I found (and stuck with) that detailed how and what to do when starting out, He writes making no assumptions about his readers, detailing everything in a really easy to read format. I can’t emphasise enough what a difference this guy has made on my life, a great writer, a fantastic honest person, and best of all… He lives in the UK! He only started his site in the back end of 2008, and a year later has already had well over 200,000 unique visitors. Great site, great content, great InfoPreneur!

Alexa Ranking; 30,787

2,David Risley – Confessions of a 6 figure blogger DavidRisley.com is a site, that I use for motivation. I can relate to him because he is clearly a family guy, and quite clearly making an excellent living through his site and is loving the opportunity to help others. Hugely inspirational character and a household name in the Blogging/InfoPreneur world. A massive success and has no objections about telling you how much he made last year (Over $140,000) which is done in such a nice way it motivates rather than alienates!

Alexa Ranking; 37,371

1, Yaro Starak – The most influential site/blog for me at the moment has got to be Entrepreneurs-Journey.com . So whats he about? Ultra laid back approach to it all, but that will be down to the fact he is the king of monetizing. He runs BlogMastermind and a host of other money spinners, but unlike most, he actually gives fantastic information and a hell of a lot of free information, which is why he makes so much money, because, and rightly so, readers then want more to enhance their sites. Great bloke, great site, and massively motivational. I want to be like him…. Except without the curly hair, No offense Yaro!

Alexa Ranking; 9,328

So there you have it my top 5, all amazing people who run fantastic sites.

Who’s your top 5?

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