The last five days has been one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life with some of the most ambitious young people I’ve ever met.

I’ve learned more about how to sell things (anything from ebooks to jigsaw puzzles) on the internet in the last five days than the rest of my life. There were tons of famous internet people and a few lucky young entrepreneurs won scholarships to this event (including yours truly).

It was a blast and you will see plenty of changes to my site over the coming months. Here are some of the pictures with people I met:

Andrew Fashion showing everyone his site on the first night.

Me and Jaime Jones, co-founder of BeModel.com

I got a sneak-peek inside the hotel room of the BeModel.com founders because they let me sleep on their floor... shh.

Andrew and Jaime eating $16 pints of ice cream. I'm standing about where I slept for three nights.

Young Entrepreneurs and Scholarship Winners

Taylor Allan sells a basketball training program for young people.

Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBegginer.com and has one of the most brilliant, internet minds I've ever come across.

Michal Birecki is from Montreal and owns the world's largest gaming site at PS3Center.net.

Marshall Haas was one of the young entrepreneurs last year. He has an awesome contest running at BizBreakApp.com.

Luke Kimmel is one of those internet entrepreneurs/students who specializes in CPA.

Lindsay Manseau is a professional photographer and is creating an online platform to manage weddings at MyMarriageMarket.com.

David Orr was the youngest of the young entrepreneurs and sells 500,000 products at Fruper.com.

Adam Horwitz is 18 and making six-figures online. Check him out at AdamHorwitz.tv. You'll be seeing more of him soon .

Chase Brumfield has a dream to create a socially responsible network and he gave the best elevator pitch I've ever seen.

Michael is the only reason I was able to attend this event. If you want to learn how to make money online, give him your email at IncomeDiary.com

Young entrepreneurs with the event photographer, Jared Polin. Sweetly branded afro.

The Event, Speakers and Other Super Successful People

Most of the Speakers on the Underground Stage with Yanik Silver.

If you haven't heard of him yet, you will. Gary Vaynerchuk is taking over the internet and will be a household name in a few years.

Jessica Jackley is the founder of Kiva.org, a micro-loaning website for entrepreneurs in poverty-stricken situations. She also revealed that she's about to launch Profounder.com.

I didn't know who this guy was, but apparently he's one of the most successful young entrepreneurs on the planet. His name is Anik Singal and I'll never forget it.

Matt Mickiewicz has a hard name to type. And he's one of the first people to ever be successful on the internet. You'll probably use 99Designs.com or Flippa.com if you want to start a business.

Susan Hill is the founder of FitnessForGolf.com and has created an online empire in her micro-niche.

Vishen Lakhiani gave the greatest speech I've ever seen. It was incredible! This guy's mission is to compete with Google for the best company to work for at MindValley.com.

As part of the scholarship, we all got paired up with a mentor. Tim Houston is mine. He sells more things on the internet than anyone you know.

Yanik Silver is the whole reason any of these pictures exist. He's the founder of the event and I'm so thankful that he put this all together. It has changed my life.

Yanik Silver’s Underground Seminar has completely changed my outlook on how to run an internet business. I’ve never met so many interesting, successful people who were so willing to help. Thank you to everyone who I met and watch carefully as I start to implement the things I learned.

By the way, please go to VoteEmil.com and vote for Emil Motycka to win a lawn mowing franchise from Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year. It’ll only take a few seconds to vote for a successful young entrepreneur.

Keith J. Davis Jr. grew up watching his father sell watches, clothing and anything else he could get his hands on.

Following his dad’s footsteps, ten-year-old Keith ventured to a wholesale market, where he bought a dozen hats at a few bucks a pop. He sold them all back for about $10 in profit each. Instead of being satisfied with his success, Keith kept selling: at school, he sold everything from Yu-Gi-Oh cards to magnetic earrings to bubble gum.

Today, Keith is 19 and he’s gone from his middle school’s ‘bubble gum man’ to a college freshman at the University of Houston and an entrepreneur of all trades. He somehow finds time to be a nationally known public speaker, actor, model, newspaper publisher, and author. His newspaper, Fyt Ya (renaming to Idealist Magazine), and his book, Young? So What!, are both aimed towards empowering young people to become successful entrepreneurs.

Q: What challenges did you face specifically because of your age? Conversely, how do you think that your age has helped you to succeed?

A: Being young is a challenge in and of itself. Especially at 15 or 16, you’re going to be going through some of those awkward phases. Sometimes being young, being ambitious, and trying to do everything can hurt you.

I remember at one point I was trying to do too much and spreading myself too thin. I was thinking about getting involved in real estate, trying to re-establish Fyt Ya, promoting my book, speaking, and going to school. All of that was just too much. As young people, that’s what we do: we think that we’re all superheroes and we can do everything. But you still have to have structure and focus on [what’s important].

My father taught me at a young age that it’s not what you know, but who you know. I get a lot of support because of my age. Especially as a young African American. People see that I’m trying to do something positive and help a generation. So professionals are willing to lend a hand and lend their advice. If I was 20 or 30 years old, they would be trying to charge me for that advice.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: I want to be a philanthropist. When people talk about Keith J. Davis Jr., I want them to say that he was a great businessman, but that he also did a lot for the community and for his generation. I want to be able to make a difference by informing, encouraging, and inspiring others. I want to leave a legacy.

At some point I’m going to be working to get my real estate license. You build wealth through property, real estate, investments, and things of that nature. So I want to get into commercial real estate. We own a marketing research firm. I can continue to learn the business and, one day, take it over.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: You know what they say: if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I’m in love with entrepreneurship and everything that comes with it. Entrepreneurship is where it’s at right now, especially with this economy. The unemployment rate is at 10%.

As college students, we can’t depend on finding a job right out of college. So, you have to be able to create opportunities where there are none. There is going to be an increase in individuals owning and operating their own businesses. Entrepreneurship is the key.

Any time young people are doing something positive and spreading the word of entrepreneurship in our generation, I feel it’s my duty to help out. I’m just honored to be able to be a part of this program.

This is an abridged version from Keith’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. The first words Keith ever spoke to me were “Mr. Nick”. This professional but personable approach epitomizes how Mr. Keith conducts himself as an entrepreneur. I don’t know how Keith finds time for all of the things he’s doing, but this interview will give you a glimpse of what it’s like to be an entrepreneur of all trades.

Your comments are going in the book! Yep, we’re going to chose the most insightful comments from this post and put it straight into the book. The book will be published in April 2010 and you could be part of it. Simply leave a comment below.

Every kid has started a lemonade stand. Usually it’s not front page news. But, at the age of four, Ben Weissenstein was featured on the cover of The Houston Chronicle, touting lemonade for 25 cents a cup. Ben only earned a few dollars that day, but he came away with a thirst for entrepreneurship that motivates him to this day.

When Ben was 14, he helped his mom with a garage sale. She suggested that he could help friends and neighbors sell and organize their extra junk. So Ben and his friend started a business. In a few years, Grand Slam Garage Sales had expanded to offer more services and employ over thirty part-time workers.

Now 19, Ben and his booming business have been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and on the Dr. Phil Show. He has started The Entitled Group, a company that helps musical artists like Mike Jones, Little Flip, Young Hash and Cory Gunz book concerts and other events. Ben has moved from Houston, TX to Tucson, AZ, where he is helping launch the first of many Grand Slam Garage Sales franchises.

Q:  How did you plan and organize your business?

A: Everything started as nothing, with just the principles of wanting to be professional, keep records, and keep our customers and workers happy. We just figured it out as we went. When I started Grand Slam Garage Sales with my friend Matt, we went to Walmart and bought two red polo shirts for about eight dollars apiece [as uniforms]. We thought we looked professional, at least. The red polo shirts turned into to blue uniforms with Grand Slam Garage Sales logos.

We knew we had to keep records to an extent, so we started by opening a Word document and writing, “We took in x amount of dollars, we had x amount of expenses.” Eventually that turned into a nice excel spreadsheet, which turned into software that we had developed so we could put in [financial] information.

Our first website was all right, but it was nothing special at all. We had a friend do it. Then we had another web guy do it, who did a better job. Then we had another web guy do it who did an even better job. Basically, I started not knowing much and I just kept learning as I went along. That’s the biggest thing: always learn, change, and grow with your business.

Q: You’ve been in Entrepreneur Magazine as well as on Dr. Phil. Walk us through how that happened.

A: A lot of the press we’ve gotten has just been random press that’s come to us. It wasn’t from us sending out a press release. For example, I was just at my high school reading an email that said, “We want to do a story on you and blah, blah, blah.” Then I saw ‘Entrepreneur Magazine’ at the bottom. I was so excited that I told all of my friends. That definitely brought more credibility to the table and got the word out about Grand Slam Garage Sales.

Dr. Phil was completely random. I think they found out about us when they were searching the internet and saw the interviews we did when we were on FOX News in Houston. They did a story on us that was a lot of fun and got us a lot more prospective franchisees.

But before we really start franchising here, we’re going to be calling all sorts of press and getting our company’s name out there. The more press we get, the more credibility we have. Good publicity is good. I don’t believe that bad publicity is good.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: Anyone can go check out my personal website and the official website of Ben the CEO Ventures. You can also check out Grand Slam Garage Sales, Entitled Group, and follow me at Twitter.com/bentheceo.

This is an abridged version from Ben’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. There’s nothing revolutionary about garage sales, but Ben is creating and revolutionizing a garage sale industry. What makes him different is his drive. Ben has a bonfire burning in his belly and Grand Slam Garage Sales is about to blow-up! By the way, Ben is putting on a concert at Texas A&M on March 27th and is looking for sponsors. Contact him if you’re interested in sponsoring the event.

Your comments are going in the book! Yep, we’re going to chose the most insightful comments from this post and put it straight into the book. The book will be published in April 2010 and you could be part of it. Simply leave a comment below.

Mark Bao had his first encounter with entrepreneurship in the fifth grade. He used Visual Basic 6.0 to write a simple computer application that managed his homework assignments and helped him write school papers. Then he copied the program onto floppy discs and sold them to his friends.

His first start-up came in his first year of high school. Debateware.com was an event management system for debate organizations. Eventually, Mark and his business partner sold it to the largest debate organization in the United States.

Today Mark is a 17-year-old high school senior and he has already launched 11 web-based companies (and sold three of them) along with three non-profit foundations. Some of his projects include TickrTalk, the Ramamia Foundation, Classleaf, and Avecora – a technology network launching sometime in 2013.

Q: I noticed that you’ve created 11 web-based businesses and you’ve sold three of them. How do you go about finding people to buy your businesses?

A: The buyers mostly just come to us. They recognize our company, make an offer and, in some cases, we go ahead with it. The problem with a lot of start-ups is that they try to go for an acquisition [from the onset] and they don’t focus as much on the money-making part of it. That’s why most of my companies focus on making money, not hoping for an acquisition.

Part of my struggle is that I want to see where they’re going with the business and, in most cases, I don’t have control over that. Like with a baby, I just want to make sure that it’s going to have a good future that will promote the ideas I started the company with.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?

A: I still want to do entrepreneurship. Avecora is helping people communicate better and experience technology in a new way. That’s the company that I want to build an empire out of.

We’re always working on the non-profits as well. My preliminary life goal right now is to donate 80% to humanitarian aid and research. Since my life goal for my career is to earn $10 billion, that would be $8 billion. Another 10% will go to The Mark Bao Foundation, where we manage research grants and lobby for better funding for NASA and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Another 5% will go to funding start-ups, helping them grow.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: I just want people to create companies that are awesome, create value, and give back to the community as a whole. I really hope they do.

This is an abridged version from Mark’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. Mark was absolutely delightful to talk to! I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started my conversation with the entrepreneur who specializes in computer programming. (Another one of Mark’s life goals is to make people smile more often.) I smiled through the entire interview .

Your comments are going in the book! Yep, we’re going to chose the most insightful comments from this post and put it straight into the book. The book will be published in April 2010 and you could be part of it.

Photo by: DemoCamp Boston

Today, I am thrilled to present this guest post by Carol Topp, owner of Teens and Taxes. I always get asked the question, ‘how much do I need to pay in taxes?’ and I’ve never known the answer… Until now.

Did you earn money last year by running a business, babysitting, mowing grass or buying and selling on eBay? If so, you are probably going to have to pay taxes. Unfortunately the U.S. tax system doesn’t give tax breaks to young entrepreneurs.

Here you will find everything you need to know about taxes for a new business.

Every business owner in America pays at least two types of taxes: federal income tax and self- employment tax.  There are several other types of taxes including sales tax and state income tax, but federal income tax and self-employment tax are the two largest.

Federal Income Tax

If you made $5,700 or more in 2009, you will need to pay federal income tax. This income can come from being an employee or from owning a business. $5,700 is the typical amount of a deduction for a single person. It is adjusted by a few hundred dollars every year.

Americans report their income and tax due on a Form 1040. Be aware that business owners report their profit on a form called Schedule C Profit or Loss from Business and attach it to the Form 1040.  Go to the IRS website to see what it looks like: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.pdf.

Schedule C is for sole proprietors (meaning only one owner); different forms are used if you are a partnership or a corporation. On the Schedule C, a business owner lists all his income and expenses by certain categories that the IRS picked out. You may notice that these categories may not fit your business. For example, there is no category for internet fees.

A CPA (Certified Public Accountant) can be very helpful in sorting out your records and filling out the Schedule C correctly. I put an example of a teenager’s Schedule C in my book Teens and Taxes: A Guide for Parents and Teenagers.

Your “bottom line” on the Schedule C is your profit, or what the IRS calls net income. That amount is what gets taxed.

The American tax system is graduated, sort of like a wedding cake in layers, called brackets.  The bottom layer is income under $5,700 and that is not taxed at all, the next layer up to $8,375 in income is taxed at 10% and the the next layer up to $34,000 is taxed at 15% (these thresholds are for single people in 2009).  Most American families fall in the 15% tax layer (or bracket).  Most teenagers are in the 0% or 10% brackets.

Self-Employment – The Hidden Tax

You probably know about federal income tax, but you may not be aware of another tax on the Form 1040, called the self-employment tax (or SE tax). SE tax is Social Security and Medicare taxes for self-employed people and business owners.

The SE tax rate is approximately 15.3% of your profit. If a teenage business owner has a profit of $400 or more, he will owe self-employment tax. The $400 threshold has not been adjusted in decades. Many teens who have a business may not owe federal income tax, but they do owe self-employment tax (at 15.3% of their profits).

For example, Tom is a teenager with a nice-sized profit of $7,000 in 2009 from his business. Tom will owe $81 in federal income tax. Not too bad. But, Tom also will owe $989 in self-employment tax. He owes more in self-employment tax than in federal income tax!

I call the self-employment tax a hidden tax because a lot of new business owners don’t know about it.  And it is buried in the middle of the back page on the Form 1040 and is pretty easy to miss.

How to Prepare for April 15

Taxes are due on April 15 and unfortunately the IRS wants their money.  Make sure you plan ahead for the fact that you will owe federal income tax and self-employment tax on your profit.

How much will you owe?  That’s a difficult question to answer because it depends on your expenses and other income you might have.  The best thing to do is visit a CPA who can help you estimate your taxes. But as a rough rule of thumb, save 25-30% of your profit to pay your federal income tax and your self-employment tax. You may need to pay your state and city income tax as well.

Does it sound like a lot of your hard-earned money is going to taxes? The best way to keep taxes low is to keep good records of all your expenses, plan ahead and work closely with a CPA who can advise you.

P.S. If you earned money babysitting or mowing grass, there might be special tax breaks for you. You may be what the IRS calls a ‘household employee’ and do not have to pay self-employment tax.  Visit TeensAndTaxes.com for details.

I recently had the pleasure of conducting an interview with a #1 Best-selling author, Robert Pagliarini (pal-yuh-ree-nee). This guy is awesome. He’s old (37), but he’s awesome!

Robert has been all over the major news organizations (i.e. Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, 20/20, etc.). And there’s no reason I should’ve been able to talk to him other than the fact that he is passionate about sharing his advice with young entrepreneurs.

On January 5th, Robert published his latest book, The Other 8 Hours, and this interview is focused on how you can use your other eight hours to live a richer life.

The Podcast

Download audio file (Interview-with-Robert-Pagliarini-2.mp3)
(28:45)
Yes, the static is me heaving into my microphone because I lost the squishy thing on the end. Also, my voice is quiet because I conducted this interview in a public area and I was self-conscious about looking like an idiot who talks to his computer !

The Questions and Highlights

I’ve listened to this interview a few times now and here are a few of Robert’s highlights.

As a heads-up, you sleep eight, you work eight, and the other eight hours is what we’re talking about

Walk me through your other 8 hours on an average day?

I’m a huge proponent of starting the day in a unique and special way. I always have this power shake [in the morning] which is a crazy concoction of about 12 ingredients. It’s totally insane! I have a four-year-old daughter and I gave her a sip once and she spit it out all over the place. It doesn’t taste good but it’s really full of these crazy things that are good for your body.

Then there’s a huge block between 7:30 and midnight and that’s when I do an incredible amount of creating. If I wasted that time, if I watched TV or just didn’t do much with it, there’s no way you would be holding my book in your hands. It just would not have happened.

The flexibility of being an entrepreneur is great but it definitely blurs things so you have to schedule things as much as you can. Then dedicate that time to the things that move your life forward.

My whole thing is that you lose eight hours to sleep and you sell eight hours to your job. So it’s really the other eight hours that you have to move to the next level. Because it’s certainly not going to be when you’re sleeping. It’s not going to be when you’re working. It’s that other magic amount of time where you can advance in your career, start a business, read, do your hobbies, etc. That’s where the real magic occurs.

“I’m all about maximizing my time and being really efficient with it.”

How can the “Other 8 Hours” principle be applied to the life of a young entrepreneur?

We can be single track focused – where all we’re doing 100% of our waking hours is working on our business. What happens is that other areas of our life fall off. The other areas might be our relationships, our health, our spirituality. So it’s important that we take a step back and try to schedule things. Because if it’s not scheduled, it just ain’t gonna get done.

“Spend the other eight hours doing the things that are important to you. Above and beyond just focusing on your business.”

What advice would you give young entrepreneurs?

Being young and being an entrepreneur are two gifts. If you think about it, companies spend billions of dollars a year trying to figure out what young people want. You already know. That’s a huge, HUGE advantage that young entrepreneurs should tap into. You are light years ahead of where other businesses are because you are part of the community already.

Just keep swinging. Don’t be afraid to make a ton of mistakes. Get out there. Start a business. It’s probably going to fail. But that’s fine because you get a tremendous amount of experience. And that third or fourth business that you create that actually goes somewhere would not have happened unless you have learned, and failed a few times before.

Publicity is huge, especially if you don’t have a lot of money. Focus on and really believe the power of the media. Young entrepreneurs have stories. One story that they have, regardless, is that they’re young. Immediately you have a built-in hook. Then tie it into a story. Email your local newspapers, your local radio, or even your local TV and try to sell them on a particular angle or a particular story. Then they’ll take it from there.

“Just getting out there and doing it means so much. Don’t focus on the results, just focus on getting it started.”

If you could go back as a teenager now, how would you spend your other 8 hours differently?

As a teenager I read and I consumed a lot of information – from books, from courses and obviously from my education. When you’re young, you’re consuming 100% of the time. Rather than being a sponge 100% of the time, I would use some of the other eight hours every day and create something. That’s the difference between successful entrepreneurs and everybody else.

I felt like, ‘You know, I’m young. I don’t know what I’m doing so I have to learn more. I have to take more in because I’m just young. I don’t know any better, right?’ Wrong! Take stuff in, but then for part of the time, create. I don’t care what it is. Invent something. Write a book. Write a screenplay. Create something! That will take you to the next level.

“Just create something.”

What’s next for you?

Whelp, I’m going to keep using my other eight hours. That’s for sure. I have a lot of things I would still like to do. One, I would like to make The Other 8 Hours a #1 New York Times Bestseller. That’s a personal goal of mine. And I’m going to do everything I can to make that happen.

Also, I’m working on creating a television show about the other eight hours. I will go into a couple’s house and I’ll figure out what they want to do. Maybe they have some lifetime goals. Then I’ll sit down with them and peel back to uncover what they really want to do then plot out and help them reach their goals and their dreams. My job is to help them go from an idea to an actual, tangible result. That’s the beauty of an entrepreneur.

“What makes an entrepreneur an entrepreneur is that they have an idea and then they do something about it. Those are the people I love to be around. They take action.”

I talked to this guy!

Robert Pagliarini Media Reel from Robert Pagliarini on Vimeo.

Note: Robert has some free resources on other8hours.com that you should check out. They will give you more insight on how you can use your other eight hours to better your life.

Feeling down a bit? When your friends talk about their latest victory on Command of Conquers, does it make you eager to play video games?

Sometimes motivation can be hard, especially for young entrepreneurs. You probably don’t have many friends with the same mindset, who are in the same kind of business you are in. That moment is hard, it is hard to keep motivated, every time. To never give in.

This post will walk you through four things you can do to keep yourself perpetually motivated.

1. Think of the future.

Dedicating your weekend to the new Need for Speed sounds tempting, but having a solid income from your business is better. The more time you invest now, the further ahead you will be for the rest of your life.

You’ve already started your career as a young entrepreneur. You’re in the position now to continue what you’re doing and you’re in the position to accomplish a lot more, at an age that will amaze people.

2. Follow a mantra.

‘I will have a solid income before I turn 24′. And say it over and over again. Hang it on your door, make sure it is the first thing you see every morning. Act like it. That mantra is what will support you through all the hard times.

3. Get closer to your goal instead of falling further away.

Every decision you are going to make will either bring you closer  to your goal (write a post at 11pm), or take you further away (watching Friends at 11pm). Once you realize this, you’ll think twice before you act, before you make a decision. Think twice, realize what kind of impact this decision will have on your life.

4. Give in every once in a while.

This sounds contradictory, but giving in every now and then isn’t bad. Go ahead, play a couple of games of Fifa with your friends. It’ll bring you closer together, it takes your mind off of your business for awhile. Being busy with your business all the time isn’t good. But make sure you know your limits. Don’t lose yourself in a stupid game like World of Warcraft.

Take these four tips, and you will be one step closer to keeping yourself motivated to do awesome things, over and over again.

Have the mantra. Mine is: ‘You are here to do more’, and I will keep it in mind. Think twice about every decision, but don’t lose yourself in being focussed on your business all the time. And especially don’t lose yourself in stupid distractions!

Good luck.

In November 2002, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Federal Wire Act prohibited the electronic transmission of information for sports betting across telecommunications lines.

Thus, gambling laws in the States were tightened, which not only spelt bad news for the many millions of casino-loving people that were unlucky enough to live nowhere near Las Vegas, but credit card companies lost a lot of revenue too – while online casinos had to shut up shop…or start looking elsewhere to generate income, given that almost 50% of their profits were from American gamblers.

Of course, where there are losers, there are normally winners too – the translation industry did exceptionally well in this case, as online casinos started looking to non-English speaking countries to make up the shortfall the US ruling had created.

And a similar situation has arisen with the credit crunch too. With a number of economies entering into recession, businesses from across many industry-sectors have been forced to look for opportunities elsewhere, where things perhaps aren’t quite so bad. Or, even, where thing are actually going rather well.

Indeed, the fact that the global economy has reached a somewhat stagnant state of late doesn’t mean that businesses’ growth initiatives have stuttered to a standstill too. And this is why many companies have been investing in translation services as they seek to build business relationships in new and emerging markets.

Language barriers

German is the most commonly spoken language in the European Union (EU) with 18% of people speaking it as a mother tongue, followed by English and Italian with 13% speaking it natively. But if we take second languages into account, then English is spoken to some degree by over half the EU.

English is currently the dominant language of the internet in terms of content, but over fifty percent of all Google searches are in languages other than English. This figure is likely to rise as online populations grow far quicker in foreign language-speaking emerging markets such as China and Russia, than in the west.

Furthermore, over 70% of the world’s population don’t speak English to any degree. In the open-all-hours age of the internet, language is one of the last remaining barriers left in creating a true global village. As such, translation is certainly one of the safer professions to be in.

How much to charge as a translator

What a translator earns depends on many factors. As with any profession, their experience will dictate how much they can charge. But their subject-specific experience will also dictate how much they will earn.

For highly technical texts such as pharmaceutical or medical documents, a translator must have in-depth knowledge of this field. Indeed, often a translator will have an additional qualification in a particular subject area, meaning they are fully in tune with the relevant terminology.

Furthermore, the language they are translating from will dictate their fees. If it’s a rare language combination, such as Swahili to German, then this will command a lot more than English to German, simply because there are far fewer translators with this skill-set.

Most translators charge per 1,000 words and the fee they command can differ greatly depending on the above factors. A rough ballpark figure would be anywhere between $60 and $90 per 1,000 words, though it can be more or less than this.

Subsequently, how much a translator earns in a year will vary greatly. Many linguists work part-time, flexible hours; some work twelve hours a day. For dedicated linguists at the top of their game, it may be possible to earn well in excess of $70,000 per year, whilst those who are simply looking for some extra spending money will be happy with a fraction of that.

How to become a translator

So how does one become a professional translator? Well, assuming you’ve studied another language and are ‘fluent’ in a foreign tongue, you are in a fairly strong starting position.

But contrary to what many people think this – in itself – isn’t enough.  To provide convincing translations, you need in-depth, first-hand knowledge of the culture of the source language which is why any translator, English or otherwise, should only ever translate INTO their native language from a language in which they are fluent.

Language fluency is a necessary but not sufficient condition for successful employment as a translator.  There are a number of courses available for those who wish to become qualified translators and most countries will have their own professional bodies offering a similar level of certification. It’s worth contacting the ATA in the US for further information, which is the American Translators Association.

The life of a translator

Having done all the hard work, and passed your exams, you need to know what to expect from a career as a professional translator.

Given the fluctuating demands for language combinations, most translation companies only have a handful of in-house translators covering the most common language combinations, which means that the vast majority of translators work on a freelance basis.

From a lifestyle point of view, this is great as you have the freedom to work where you want, when you want and for whom you want. All you really need is a networked computer, email address and you’re good to go.

More than half of Lingo24’s translators earn income from sources other than translation – some are teachers, writers or accountants, others are secretaries, IT consultants or lawyers. Many are full-time parents too, and translation offers the perfect, flexible part-time position to fit in with their other commitments.

So if you like being your own boss and having the freedom to pick and choose who you work for, how much work you do and how often, then freelance translation is the way to go. And as far as job security is concerned, there are few safer professions.

Growing up with dyslexia in the United Kingdom, Michael Dunlop never much liked school. That didn’t stop him using it to earn him big money.

As an eight-year-old, Michael sold Pokémon trading cards to his schoolmates – often for ten times the price he paid for them. It was the beginning of a passion for business that earned him a handful of young business awards and his class’s vote for the student ‘Most Likely to be a Millionaire’.

At 16, Michael dropped out of school and began to develop websites, including RetireAt21.com. Today, Michael is 21 years old and, though he isn’t retired, he is netting six figures a year with his websites. His latest, IncomeDiary.com, has attracted over 10,000 subscribers – all eager to hear Michael’s hard-earned advice on how to turn everyday blogs into to profit powerhouses.

You’ve personally met some of the biggest names on the Internet like Gary Vaynerchuk, Yanik Silver, Carrie Wilkerson, and Bob Parsons. How have these relationships helped you?

A: Some of it is confidence. You feel like if you’re friends with these guys, there’s nothing really to be afraid of talking to anyone else. A lot of it is power by association. If you’re friends with one person, you’re friends with the others.

We [internet entrepreneurs] all have the same interests. We all want to work hard, make lots of money, and then enjoy it. So a lot of us click really well. They’ve also taught me plenty, recommended me to people, and opened doors for me. But I’m not friends with anyone just because of what they can do for me.

You can’t always get a real connection over the internet. I have some good friends online, but it’s different. Putting a face to someone really helps. It makes networking a lot easier. I don’t sell myself too well on the internet, because I’m really laid-back and I don’t really want to hype myself up. But at events, I get to meet loads of great people really quickly and I can call them friends because I’ve met them face to face.

When I got into the business, a lot of people gave me a lot of their time and they helped me out. Now, I like to do the same for other people. It’s a trait that you see in a lot of entrepreneurs. So you don’t usually have to have any traffic to interview someone. Then, once you’ve got that first connection with an interview, it’s really easy to keep that relationship going. I would call most of my interviewees friends.

Q: If you had to battle a giant, what weapon would you use?

A: I’m not someone who would want to kill him, so I couldn’t use a gun or an axe. I would set a trap with some rope and sort of use my knowledge. A lot of times winning is just about having more common sense than the competition.

I think that’s something I apply to business. The choice with IncomeDiary.com is that you can subscribe or you can click on an affiliate link and make me money. I give you two options. I don’t give you options to go to a friend’s site or to some advertiser. It’s called the no-leakage rule. Then, if I get you in my funnel system, I will give you great knowledge, lots of great tips, and updates. I give you a lot more than anyone else would. I sort of make you my friend.

Perhaps I would do that with the giant. After a while, I could use him to do something for me. I could sell him something.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: Especially with blogging, there is practically no risk. It’s about eight bucks for a domain and you get your first month of hosting for about a cent. So, give it a few months. If you fail, you’re down 25 bucks, maximum. There’s no better feeling than knowing that you don’t have to rely on anyone for money.

Everyone out there, if you are starting off and you need a hand or just want a question answered, you can contact me or just check out my entrepreneurship forums. Get in there and start.

This is an abridged version from Michael’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. When I was picking my way through Michael’s interview, I wanted to post the whole darn thing . In my opinion, Michael is the iconic young entrepreneur and his advice only solidified that opinion. I can’t wait to publish the book so people can read the rest of his interview.

Your comments are going in the book! Yep, we’re going to chose the most insightful comments from this post and put it straight into the book. The book will be published in April 2010 and you could be part of it.

Savannah Britt was a published poet by the age of eight. By nine, she was hired as a paid reviewer of children’s books for The Kitchen Table News – a New Jersey newspaper with a readership of 70,000. But when that newspaper went under, Savannah was left unemployed at the tender age of 11.

Like any great entrepreneur, Savannah pulled herself up by her bootstraps. She started her own publication – a magazine called Girlpez – making her the youngest magazine publisher in the world. The magazine features coverage of events, like concerts and fashion shows, along with interviews from the likes of Shwayze, Kevin Rudolf, and Dawn from Dannity Kane.

Now 15, Savannah has guided her magazine as it has transitioned to an online-only format at Girlpez.com. She hopes to use her influence to strengthen girls and their communities.

Q: For most teenagers, getting a summer job counts as being ambitious. What do you think drove you above and beyond, towards entrepreneurship?

A: I like a challenge. I think what drove me to start my magazine was the fact that I was so young and I was doing something that nobody around me was doing. That pushed me, honestly, to start my magazine. I can be a competitive person.

My mom and dad definitely pushed me as well. My dad has published three books and he’s a very determined person. If he says something, he’s going to do it. He’s also optimistic and he does not procrastinate at all. I think he inspired me.

Q: How did you balance other priorities (in particular: school, friends, and family) with your business?

A: It’s really hard. I’m in all honors courses, so I have to balance the studies with the magazine. I go to school six hours a day and I have basketball practice afterwards. Then I go straight home and [conduct an] interview if I can. Even some Saturday mornings I’ll do interviews, because it’s the only time I can squeeze them in. On top of that, I’m currently working on a music project that I’m trying to get attention for from labels.

Somehow I do it all. I don’t know how, but it gets done. I’ve got a calendar in front of me. It’s hard, but I make it work. When I was about 14, in eighth grade, I thought that [Girlpez] was putting a strain on me and that I wouldn’t be able to focus on grades. But I was able to bounce back. I have always been a very independent person, but I finally sought help from my parents.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: I would like to raise money for Haiti [following the earthquake of January, 2010]. It’s a sad experience that’s going on there, but it’s definitely something that I want to address. It’s a wake-up call for the world that there a lot of people who are stricken by poverty.

Also, I’m working with another young entrepreneur who runs a blog, Jayswag.com. We want to put together a conference that will feature people in the industry who are well-versed in hip-hop. We want to have a panel of them and have teens be able to come ask questions and have a discussion.

There are some things in the hip-hop industry that go under the rug and they need to be addressed – like the way they portray women in the music videos, the people they put in the ads, and whether or not their skin color matters. It’s something that needs to be discussed.

This is an abridged version from Savannah’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. Savannah left me speechless a few times in this interview. It’s remarkable to talk to a young girl who has so much direction and determination in her life. You will be seeing more of her down the road.

Your comments are going in the book! Yep, we’re going to chose the most insightful comments from this post and put it straight into the book. The book will be published in April 2010 and you could be part of it.

Let’s say you just built your first webpage. You’re ready for business: be it advertising, e-tailing, affiliates or any other monetization strategy. Before you see any conversion, however, you need traffic – lots of traffic.

Welcome to the glorious world of search engine optimization (SEO for those of us in the business). My name is Rob Stretch, student entrepreneur from the University of Missouri, and I’ve been invited to walk you through some basics of SEO practice.

What is Search Engine Optimization exactly?

If you break apart the phrase, you see that search engine optimization is merely “optimizing” your page for the engines. In a nutshell, this means getting your page to rank higher on the SERPS (search engine result pages) for Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and the other search engines of the world.

The higher your page ranks in Google for different key words, the more traffic your site will see. Get your page to rank #1 (be at the top of the SERPS) and you should be getting hits from everybody searching for your keywords online.

What makes for good Search Engine Optimization?

Folks in the SEO camp usually break down the practice into two parts: Internal SEO and External SEO. Internal SEO is what you as a publisher can control. This includes keyword research, picking a domain, editing meta tags, sitemapping, page layout, and internal linking. Internal SEO is a great place to start and it is essential for optimizing your site to its full potential.

But External SEO is where you will really start seeing results. External SEO is often referred to as “link building”. The more blogs and websites linking back to your site across the web, the higher your page ranks on the SERPs. Search engines run on algorhythms, and links back to your site are a major way to score more points. The link building process involves reaching out to other bloggers and webmasters and offering free content, link exchanges, widgets, basically anyway to get them to link to your site.

How do I start the process of optimizing my site?

There are seven things that you need to do. And they’re all critical to building your SEO.

1. Research your Keywords

If you haven’t registered a domain already, do some research first. I recommend Google’s Keywords Tool. This will let you pick keywords and see the global monthly search volume for each set.

2. Pick a Domain

Simple enough. Pick a domain based on high-volume keywords. I would recommend using only two or three.

3. Construct a Clean Site

Make sure your webpage is visually appealing and easy to navigate. Every page should be linked back to the home page and other appropriate pages without ever hitting the “back” arrow. Make a sitemap and submit it to the major engines.

4. Get some Tools

For monitoring your sites traffic, I use Google Analytics.

For monitoring SEO statistics, download the SEO Toolbar. This will tell you Google Page Rank, number of backlinks, competitor statistics, and a variety of other vital information.

5. Start Making Friends

Reach out to other bloggers in related fields. Search their sites for email addresses or phone numbers. Offer them posts with free useful content in exchange for a few of your links. As soon as you get your name out there and start offering useful content, other posts will follow. Remember: content is king.

6. Think of Creative Ways to Link

Make a widget and offer it to bloggers in a related field. Do you run a mortgage blog? Make a mortgage calculator that links to your site and send it out to people. The more useful it is to them, the more likely they will post it giving you a free link. Get creative!

7. Get some Help

SEO might seem easy but it is a science. Plenty of people know a lot more about SEO than you (and me) and plenty make a living off just optimizing. You could get help by reading popular SEO blogs or outsourcing your marketing efforts completely.

Hope this short tutorial on SEO helps you out! Good luck to all young entrepreneurs. Remember: you can’t succeed in anything unless you try. Thanks.

Nick Tart: Since I relaunched my site on January 1st, 37% of my traffic has come from search engines. (Which is fairly low because I had a StumbleUpon rush that sent 600 visitors.) But this is traffic that I didn’t have to work for except for optimizing my pages from the outset. In other words, this stuff is critical to the success of your site. Thanks for the post, Rob! I agree with everything you’ve said.