Pre-WordPress, JuniorBiz was hacked three times. After it was hacked, the number one keyword associated with my site was ‘Viagra’.

Since I transitioned to WordPress and started using some of these other tools, my site hasn’t been hacked once.

Today, Matthew Denos from Weight Loss Triumph is going to share the tools that he uses as a budding blogger. They will make your blogging life easier, more effective and reduce those painful “why won’t this work right” headaches.

1. WordPress

Of all the blogging platforms out there, many of which are really nice, I adore WordPress. You have to spend a few dollars a month to host it. But if you want a monetized blog, the options available are staggering. Nothing compares to the flexibility of the WordPress blog, and the platform itself is FREE. How can you beat that?

Next: How to Properly Publish a WordPress Blog Post

2. HTML Code Editor

Unless you are a geek in every sense of the word, and can write strings of code in your sleep, get yourself an HTML code editor. It will save you hours of hair pulling frustration as you try to find that one little missing < or /. HTML is the invention of the 20th century. It revolutionized how we communicate, and as "old school" as it is, it remains the key to the kingdom…but it also severs a lot of heads along the way.

3. Google Analytics

The big “G” can be a big pain sometimes, but when it comes right down to it, they offer so much to the blogging entrepreneur. Analytics lets you accurately track your blog’s performance—or even several blogs at a time, and gives you access to track everything from hits to clickthroughs. Analytics will tell you how long a visitor stayed on your page, where they came from, and what sales techniques are working for you.

4. Google

Yeah, okay, the main “G” in the big “G” network, but try as others may, they can’t compete with the incredible research function that the Google search engine provides.

5. YouTube

If ever an invention spoke to the minds of the “X” generation, it is YouTube. One of the most important elements in creating blog diversity and interest is pictures, and “moving pictures” are even better. Not only can you incorporate other peoples concepts into your blog topics, but you can create videos for your subject matter.

A great additional perk to the embedding YouTube videos on your blog, is that those videos can also gain traffic through the YouTube site itself. You can link back to yourself, or add your affiliate link to your video description right on the YouTube page for even more hits.

6. Discussion Forums

Not a blog, but a great way to promote your blog. When I sign up for a forum that is related to my topic (weight loss), I almost always feature links to my blog, and to my pages on Medifast coupons and Diet To Go discounts. It’s a great way to kill two birds with one stone.

7. PaintNET

It’s not Photoshop, but it’s a really good picture editor and paint program that is FREE. There are a few things that Photoshop does better, and a few others that Photoshop does that PaintNet doesn’t do at all, but considering that Photoshop costs about $700.00, PaintNET is a great deal.

By the way, for anyone using either Window’s OS Vista or 7, for minor picture adjustments such as cropping, resizing color adjustment and such, the Microsoft Picture Manager is fast, easy and comes with the program.

8. Downloads.cnet.com

I don’t think I could live without this delightful platform. When I need a program for ANYTHING, that’s where I go. Some are free, some are cheap, and some are the most expensive out there. You’ll find reviews from the Downloads site itself, as well as others who have downloaded and used the software.

9. Twitter and Facebook

Two birds of the same feather that are great ways to get the word out about your blog. Not only can you share recent posts by linking to them in your status’ on both platforms, but you can encourage readers of your posts to click on a Twitter or Facebook icon and share your links with their friends as well!

And finally the big number 10 is… WordPress’s (did I mention I love WordPress?)

10. AllinoneSEOpack

The plug in that lets you control every option for how your site is indexed in search engines. It’s an Internet marketer’s must have.

Editor’s note: If you use Thesis, the ability to control SEO details is built-in.

Those are my top ten must have blogging tools. What business tools do you find useful, and what tools can you not live without?

Need more convincing that blogging is a good way to get traffic? Every Blog Post Earns an Extra 1,320 Visits Per Year

Magicians make rabbits disappear. The following letter reveals how to make rejection disappear – whether in business or in love.

This is the only place on the web where you can get business advice from the pros right alongside advice that will help you win the affections of that certain someone (you know who we’re talking about ).

Read it, absorb its secrets, and you’ll never feel that icky rejected feeling ever again.

Dear glistening JuniorBiz reader,

My name is Casanova Joe and I am the world’s most successful Casanova. As I write this, I lay on the white sand beaches of Punta Leona, Costa Rica, completely surrounded by beautiful people in swimwear.

It’s hard to believe, but even Casanova Joe has tasted the bitter pomegranate of romantic failure. Actually, I don’t remember a specific instance, but I am pretty sure that it has happened to me at least once.

The Hardest Part of Being an Entrepreneur…

But as an aspiring entrepreneur myself, I have often failed. Adam Horwitz, the 18-year-old internet guru, once said, “The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is that you’ll fail ten times for every success. So, I’ve failed at least 30 times… but, they were not failures to me.”

Adam went on to explain that those ‘failures’ were pivotal pit-stops on his ultimate road to big business success (he’s 18 and his latest product ‘Mobile Monopoly’ just earned $1.5 million during a three-day launch).

For Adam, when one of his online ventures went awry, that merely meant that he could rule out that road to success and start blazing a new trail.

The Hardest Part of Being in Love…

In your love life, the same principal applies. Maybe that guy or gal of your dreams isn’t giving you the time of day because they’re playing hard to get. Maybe not (tell-tale signs of ‘not’ include throwing a drink in your face and/or giving you a wedgie).

But you would never know for sure if you didn’t first try. Each rejection gets you one step closer to ‘the one’. The road to the right person (or the right business) is always going to be paved with rejection – just like Adam and his cornucopia of failed blogs.

So What’s the Trick?

The trick to never feeling rejection again isn’t just in realizing that you are never going to find the right route without wandering down a few dead ends, but in realizing that those dead ends are actually a crucial part of the journey to your ultimate success.

Next time you are met with rejection in business or in love, cross that road off of your map and move on. Have you ever looked at a map? There are a lot of roads.

Love Always,
Casanova Joe

P.S. That quote of Adam’s is from ‘What it Takes to Make More Money than Your Parents’ – a book of interviews with young entrepreneurs freshly compiled by the dynamic duo behind JuniorBiz. In it, Adam reveals how he makes $100,000’s as a teenager who still lives with his parents. You can grab a free chapter and watch Adam’s entire interview for free, right here. Just enter you email in the blue box.

As a young person, clients and customers are naturally going think your business is wanksta’ and you have to convince them that it’s gangsta’.

It’s not fair, but you have to give them a reason to trust and hire you. It’s one of the biggest problems that young entrepreneurs encounter and you need to know how to deal wit’ it if you want to have a successful business.

In this post I’ll explain exactly how you can build your street credz (a.k.a “credibility”) as a young business owner and how you can use their lack of trust to make yourself more impressive. I’ve broken ‘em down into offline and online techniqz.

Aight, let’s stop kickin’ it and keep it 100 by getting down to the nitty gritty of how you can get mo’ scratch for yo’ biznezz.

Offline Street Credz

If your customers are actually out on the streets (i.e. in your neighborhood), then there are four things you can do to attract them to your business.

1. Fitted wit’ Threads

When you approach a potential customer for the first time, they’re going to judge your appearance. So you need to look as professional as possible. You need to be reppin’ your nicest shirt, some professional slacks and nice shoes. The more professional you look, the more seriously they will take you.

2. Biznezz Cards

No matter your age or your business, every young entrepreneur needs to have business cards. If someone asks for your card and you don’t have one, you’ll lose credibility. But more importantly, you’re going to be coming across tons of potential customers in your daily life. Make sure you can give them an easy way to contact you.

3. Sick Flyers

In addition to sweet-lookin’ business cards, you need to have fly-lookin’ flyers. If your primary way of marketing your business is with a flyer, poster or door-hanger, that flyer needs to look professional. They will base the quality of your work on the quality of your flyer.

4. Swagtastic Pitch

Your sales pitch needs to be rock solid. You need to walk up to that potential client with confidence knowing that what you’re about to say is going to convince them to give you their business. You need to have a response prepared for every possible objection. The only way to perfect your pitch is to practice it whenever you can.

However, this doesn’t mean you should approach people wit’ yo’ hat turned sideways and yo’ pants on the ground (a.k.a. “arrogantly”). Just know exactly what you’re going to say, how you’ll respond to their questions, and be courteous about it. The same applies for every situation in which you talk to your customers.

Online Street Credz

If you want your customers to find you on the internet, then you have to have a sick online presence. They need to be able to find you and when they do, they need to be impressed. Yo’ skillz need to be drippin’ like a hot, freshly painted e-class that looks like candy.

5. Prada Yo’ Blog

A blog is the most powerful tool a freelancer could ever have, period. As a freelance (whatever), your blog is your storefront. Write about the services you provide, how you provide them and examples of your work. People who are interested in the work you provide will find your site, be impressed, and beg you for your services. If you want to attract customers online, your blog (not just a standard website) needs to be snug.

6. Flossin’ It Wit’ Social Media

Social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is the best way to connect with people in the world. You need to use it to seek out your clients. If someone tweets, “I’m looking for a freelance logo designer”, you need to be the first to respond with, “I’m a designer. Check out my site, my portfolio and let me know what you think.” They’ll check you out, find a sick lookin’ blog, and ultimately hire you. That’s some of the cheapest marketing in the world.

7. Display Yo’ Kool-aid (Portfolio/Previous Work)

You know what? I’m going to eat my words. A strong portfolio is the most powerful tool a service-provider can have. It’s proof that people have hired you before, that you’ve done a good job and that you want to continue to do a good job.

8. Word Up Wit’ Testimonials

Testimonials validate your work through other people’s opinions. You can say that you provide a quality service, but when other people say it, their word carries a lot more weight. The standard structure for a good testimonial is:

1. This is where I was before.
2. This is what happened when I hired (your name).
3. This is where I am now and “I couldn’t be happier.”

The more testimonials you have, the better.

Use Their Lack of Trust to Make Yourself More Impressive

There’s an old-skool marketing concept that explains that a customer is satisfied when their perceptions are greater than their expectations. How does this apply to you?

Well, when you first approach a customer as a young person, they’re going to have low expectations. This is good for you. When you establish your high-rollin’ street credz, it’s going to blow their expectations out of the water. They’re going to be super impressed because they weren’t expecting much.

Despite the colloquialisms, I hope you take this advice seriously. In most cases you’re at a huge disadvantage simply because of your age. Let’s prove ‘em wrong!

You feelin’ me?

Fo’ shiggidy mah weeble,
G. Money Mikey

Want more G. Money Mikey?

Find out how to sell you idea to everyone, everywhere:
Elevator Pitch: 7 Salty Secretz to the 60-Second Sell >>

Photo by: Auré From Paris

When Stanley Tang was an 11-year-old growing up in Hong Kong, his school banned snack foods. Instead of taking his empty stomach in stride, Stanley bought snacks at the local convenient store and sold them to his classmates for three times the price.

A few years later, he was introduced to Google Adsense and the ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ series of books by Robert Kiyosaki. They inspired him to get online with his business and to develop a book called ‘eMillions: Behind-The-Scenes Stories of 14 Successful Internet Millionaires’. When ‘eMillions’ was published in December of 2008, it rocketed straight to the top of the Amazon Best-Seller lists. At just 14 years old, Stanley was the world’s youngest best-selling author.

Since, he has been making six figures with his blogs, StanleyTang.com and TheUniversityKid.com, which he eventually sold to another young entrepreneur. Stanley also just graduated high school in May of 2010 and he will be attending Stanford University in the fall, where he plans to study computer science.

The following is a short excerpt from 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Volume 1).

Q: What is the single most important reason for your success?

A: It comes down to hard work. There is no magic pill to get overnight success. Overnight success doesn’t exist. ‘eMillions’ took 15 months. But, then it seemed like it came out of nowhere when the book launched.

Success comes down to hard work plus passion, over time. If you work really, really hard over a long period of time, it will pay off. It’s not about working super-hard for a week and then expecting a huge payload. For example, when you tried to arrange this interview for me, you were really persistent. That is what I admired about you.

Q: How did you manage to make eMillions an instant #1 best-seller?

A: Basically, you have to coordinate a successful product launch. I sent out a blog post, wrote tweets, and all of that stuff. But, you also have to have a great sales letter that converts and an irresistible offer. When ‘eMillions’ came out, I said, “Buy this book – and I’ll give you all of these great bonuses.”

The bonuses came from my affiliate and joint venture partners, who also promoted the book on the same day and sent out an email to their list. Obviously, you first have to gather and contact all of those partners. For ‘eMillions’, naturally, the joint venture partners were the 14 internet entrepreneurs who I interviewed. Since they were part of the book, they wanted to promote the book – a win-win situation.

I think the press was a huge factor as well. I got featured on the front page of the second largest newspaper in Hong Kong. That attracted a huge buzz. I think I got something like 15,000 unique visitors in 24 hours to my website, StanleyTang.com. It actually crashed on the day I was featured.

Writing a book is not for the money. You could make way more money if you simply repurposed that content as a video course or anything like that. You could sell it for $99 or $199, rather than just $20. But writing a book is not just about the money; it’s about all of the benefits that come with the book, like credibility. So, even though Amazon takes a huge chunk and my publisher takes a huge chunk, I think that it is a great platform to distribute your book. It’s more about getting to a wider audience, as opposed to just making money.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: To all of the young entrepreneurs out there, just go out there and take action. Take a risk. Follow your passion. The best time to take action is when you’re a teenager. You’ve got nothing to lose. If your business fails, so what? You’ve always got your parents and your school to fall back on. Later in life, it’s going to be harder because you will have responsibilities, like a family. Now is the best time to take action.

This is an abridged version from Stanley’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. StanleyTang.com is the first blog I ever found. One night over two years ago I spent hours reading his content and interacting with his community. This was one of the key steps along my personal, entrepreneurial journey. I had a blast talking to Stanley and I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of him over the next few years.

Stanley Tang’s Top Quote

“Success comes down to hard work plus passion, over time. If you work really, really hard over a long period of time, it will pay off.”

Want even more inspiration?

Find out how Stanley’s friend from the UK makes 6-figures with a blog:
Michael Dunlop Interview: Voted ‘Most Likely to be a Millionaire’ >>

As an 11-year-old growing up in a backward sector Northern India, King Sidharth and a few friends began organizing events and competitions for other children. They would make tickets and charge an entry fee, then award little prizes to whoever won. In an area where there wasn’t much else to do, Sidharth’s first business was a big success.

Seven years later, King Sidharth has just graduated from high school and he has already made a name for himself as one of India’s top young entrepreneurs. His primary work is in website development and design (see websites like MeditationRocks.us), but – like many young entrepreneurs – he’s never content working on just one thing.

King is also a speaker on topics of entrepreneurship and spirituality. He’s currently writing an e-magazine for teens (Friendz) and a book about the intersection of spirituality and science (Bhagvad Gita & the Law of Attraction). He’s also developing a movie that peeks into the lives of ten young entrepreneurs (“Friendz: The Movie”). Lastly, King is organizing a conference for teenagers called Createens. It will give young people an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship, blogging, and more from world-wide experts.

The following is a short excerpt from 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Volume 1).

Q: What is the single most important reason for your success?

A: I keep everybody out of the equation and follow my own inner calling. A lot of people get caught up asking, “What do you think, mother of mine? What do you think, father of mine?” But there are a thousand different people and you’re going to get a thousand different responses: somebody pointing you South, ten people pointing you North, even more pointing East. Where are you going to go? Go with yourself. Your point of view is unique in the world.

When you’re done with your vision, then you might ask for advice on minor things. You have to strike a balance. But even after asking people, follow what you think out of it, not what they think.

Take Google and Yahoo. These two are different perspectives of solving the same problem: finding content on the internet. Yahoo keeps on listening to people. Google doesn’t give a darn. They never ask you how their home page should look like. They never ask you anything – and that is really behind their success. They do it themselves. Then later, they might ask you how they could improve it.

Q: Why do you call yourself an outlaw in India?

A: I consider myself an outlaw because I refuse to follow a given pattern. I’m going to reinvent the wheel. My vision of the wheel is unique.

The majority of India thinks, “I’m here. I better play this safe because this is the only life I’ve got. I better get in the rat race that everyone has tried and tested.” How many students in your own class are really interested in enterprising? Are 90% of them just there for the degree? They want to get a good job so that they can get a good life, good money, and be happy. I ask them, “Why don’t you be happy in the first place?” Then you don’t need the degree and you don’t need the job. You can be happy now and then you can do anything you want.

That’s the reason I started Friendz in the first place. I saw talented people wasting their time with work and trying to score marks in exams when they could do so much more. The magazine is a place where teenagers can be themselves. I want to make it a platform for teenagers to know that there is nothing better than following their own passion.

You’re not going to find the real entrepreneurs in universities or online courses. Either you will find them as drop-outs or you will find them in the places least expected. Come to India. Go to the streets. They are street-smart people. They know how to sell. They can sell you your own shoes in two minutes.

Q: Anything else you would like to add?

A: When you start out, whatever project you’re working on, realize that you don’t have to figure everything out about it in the first place. You can’t. You can’t sit on a breakfast table one morning and write out your life plan.

As you move on with your life, it will keep on changing. Creation is never complete. Keep on fine-tuning. If you’re a designer, you will realize that design is never complete. If you are writing a blog post, you will realize that a blog post is never perfect. Google is the best company in the world. But, it is still evolving and it always will be evolving. So, you don’t have to figure out all of the answers before you get started. All you have to figure out to begin with is what you want to do and just get started with it. The rest will come.

Meditation Rocks by King Sidharth

If this universe inspired an idea in you, then it has every means to fulfill it. Trust in that. The more you improve, the faster you grow. So, the secret to a bigger business is not finding the perfect plan and sticking to it. If you do that, your business is going to be dead. The secret is to keep on changing, keep on fine-tuning. The best scooter in India was Bajaj LML. For years, that was the only scooter you could get. But they didn’t do any research and they didn’t fine-tune their product. Every other company in India was doing just that. Today, LML has vanished from the market.

Entrepreneurship is never about playing it safe. If you want to play it safe, please close this book and go to sleep. It’s not for you. Life is not for you. Life is never about playing it safe. Life is about playing it fun. That’s behind every entrepreneur. If you go and ask, “What makes you so passionate about your blog, your product, or your business?” It’s because they love changing it and they love how it all comes to form.

Be yourself, nothing else will do.

This is an abridged version from King’s interview in our latest project, 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs. King is the most enthusiastic entrepreneur I have ever come across. He absolutely loves what he’s doing. The main takeaway from his interview is just that, do what you love and love what you do. Awesome, right?!

King Sidharth’s Top Quotes

“If you’re not doing the things that you love, then your life is not worth living. What are you here for?”

“I’m going to reinvent the wheel. My vision of the wheel is unique.”

“It was just one year ago that I realized that what I was doing was entrepreneurship. Just two weeks ago, I learned how to spell it [laughs].”

Want even more inspiration?

Find out how a 16-year-old college student from Mumbai manages a worldwide team:
Farrhad Acidwalla Interview: Rockstah Entrepreneur Out of India at 12 >>