I was recently asked by The Brian Shaler to write about how I use the same dashboard app to post to multiple accounts at the same time.

Building a brand is something I have blogged about before while networking, but after my vacation in September (which was awesome) I attended a meetup group and it hit me even more.

You need to create a brand around yourself, me, I, (in this case John Murch), everyone needs to brand themselves (all the cool, kids are doing it). By your domain (if you can still get it!), build a website/blog/tumblr/whatever, get business cards, and establish yourself within your industry. Just think of your website as a big resume, the more you put up there the more you are out there spreading the word of yourself 24/7 online. Set yourself apart from others within your field and create your own business cards with overnight prints it’s easy and simple. You can get 100 Business Cards ONLY $9.95. FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $75 1000’s of Free Templates, Design Today, Ready Tomorrow!

Personally I have started to establish my own brand and recently started to set myself apart with new initiatives. I have highlighted this before for college students, but you need to as a business man (or Geek in my case!) pickup some business cards and get started today!

Remember you need to Sell yourself. No matter what you do in life, as an employee or employer, you meet people and build your network. If you are in sales you meet a lot of people, and even if your a secretary, you meet other peoples via clients. Get out there and sell yourself. In the game of business you are always selling something. Remember in sales you are either making a sale of your product, or having someone sell you on a reason they can’t buy the product.

Okay, back to the point, back in September at the New York Internet Marketing Meetup Group I got to see first hand the reactions to my new business card.

I made these cards since I was getting a lot of slack about my “print your own”. I was a networking whore in Arizona and learned that while networking the first impression is key. You need to be confident and present yourself well, especially if you Want clients. Your business card is you, so put your name up front and make the user focuses on one key factor. I have seen this work time and time again with my friend Brian Shaler. His Business Card is just his name, that’s it. It’s double-side with his name, Brian Shaler. Now some networking whores may say - but how do they contact me, well if you hear of this small company called Google, I am sure you can find all the information you need. Branding is key in this industry, you need to set yourself apart.

The idea of branding should be focused around how many people know your name. The ones who know your name, but have not met you in real life.  Online everyone has a “following” no mater the size of your blogs RSS subscribers, Twitters, Facebook stalkers… everything. I remember when Facebook was just for college kids, and the way to show your coolness was how many friends you had. Connections are key to business as well as personal growth and employee options. It’s all about the who you know who know you. So go build your brand today and hit me up on Twitter (@jmurch).

The basic article discuss how ideas have little to no value, it is all about the execution of an idea that determine how much the idea can be worth. The idea of a execution multiplier.

Derek Sivers explains with the following concept:

AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20

NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000

“The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.
The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.
That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas.
I’m not interested until I see their execution.” via oreilly.com

This is the most brilliant concept I have seen in a while and hit me like a slap in the face. I have millions of ideas day in and day out, but executing them, well I have been slacking in the department in the past, but trying to change.

Ideas are just thoughts, they need to be ironed out and eventually executed. Recently I had an idea about some SEO tool and wanted to executing them. Myself and another partner have been working on building these SEO Tools, that I am sure my readers would want to use. These SEO Tools have mainly been developed based on a idea of automating SEO optimization. I had this idea, but can’t be worth that much, but if executed, it can be vary valuable. So I want to improve on Derek Sivers post by discussion automation as in an Idea is worth little to nothing, executing an idea has a multiply and automation well, that can raise the number to a high power. The automation of a product can also be the repackaging of a product, just checkout 37 Signal’s post on Making Money Twice. You want to automate processes so you can leverage the idea/execution as another stream of passive income. As for my SEO Tools I am hoping to demo the product by end of month, but always looking for beta tests, so contact me if your interested and/or do some SEO work of your own.

A couple of weeks ago, my SEO idea was just that, and idea, but with some help, this idea can be executed and later automated to bring in a steady stream of passive income. While working on executing my own idea (or any idea) you need to surround yourself with like minded people who ask tough questions, give advice, and can help put you in contact with people who can help. Well, early this week I received an email about Ultra Light Startups and was blown away after I saw what Ultra Light Startups promote (Low permanent headcount, low overhead, low budget, and outsourcing) and how they can help (network,share ideas, work together). I have been looking for a group of entrepreneurs who help each other take ideas and get them executed and out the world, hopefully this is it! For myself I do not want to just see myself succeed in a business, I want to help everyone I can and make it a win/win. Much like cashflow, the goal is not to get yourself out of the “rat race”, you want to get everyone out of the “rat race”.

I will be sure to write up a whole blog post about the event. Ultra Light Startups is focused on ‘100% participatory’ and even offer a discount for those who “demo” a idea, how awesome is that. I will be attending their next meeting Thursday October 2nd 2008. So if you are in the NYC area and want to meet some entrepreneurs, register now.

I really am looking forward to this event and hope to meet other entrepreneurs who have taken ideas and executed them by building a low overhead business via outsourcing and working with one another. I am a big fan of multiple streams of passive income. By offering a group that encourages you to take an idea and act on it that requires small amounts of money, well.. I am just really excited. As I said, I will be posting the full story and review in my next post. I hope to see you there or at another meetup/networking event in NYC.

Anyway, Hopefully these 10 tips will help those Geeks, like myself who are moving into a startup or entrepreneur role, understand that technology is second and business if first.

10. In Business Coding is 1% of your Company

I can tell you first hand when talking to a VC or Angle Investor the actually code, methodologies, and/or programming language is almost as important as the color sock you wear that day. The Geek inside you needs to get out and think more like that suit, think like a business man and NOT like a coder! Knowing from experience I spent hours, days, maybe even a week perfecting some of my code and making sure it looked perfect with all the proper indentations and 80 character limits. Although with all this work, if no one knows you and/or your product, will anyone care? Better yet, imagine if you have this amazing code, but never release it. You get so sucked into perfection that you wait 2 years or more until someone else out there releases a free barley functional copy that does only 5% of what your software does, but you can ACTUALLY download it. To me, perfect code is like brain crack, you will get sucked into the details that no one cares about when you should be posting it up on a website and saying next version out in 2 weeks. Think iteratively, and understand that users realize everything is a beta, bugs happen in the computer world, just look at Microsoft.

9. 1 year is not long term

I know Financial gurus think in quarters and geek normally think in days, maybe weeks, depending on the various methodologies. In the real business world getting the right PR person to promote your product and get traffic can take 6 months. Even with a digg and techcrunch post that only covers the tech world, what about all those other people that probably could use your product. I know myself I get sucked into the RSS tech world and do not realize how many other people are surfing the web who have no idea what twitter is, right? Getting a product out the door and fixing buggy code is a daily task, but putting systems in place to either automate your marketing system and/or download/purcahse process can take more then your daily 1 week iteration.

8. Show me the money

I was recently talking to a VC about how they are betting on 1 of the 30 investments to hit it rich and pay off all the others. Think about it, 1/30 is a 0.03 or 3%. So if they plan to invest in you, they are hoping for a 30x payoff (if not more) and realize it could be a total flop. On the other side, they are looking at things that actually have a “monetized” approach. Being sites to save the world is great (I know I have tried with Hippy Green) but with VCs its about the bottom line. How are you planning on making that 30x back within 5 or 10 years, donations? You can hire all the best programmers in the world to build your revolutionary product, but if you can’t monetized it, no one will invest in it. In the business world and real world, the money talks and the website walks.

7. Be the first to admit you don’t know your Mom

People think they know something, when most of the time, they have a concept or idea in their head. Your target market, such as our Mom, might be the perfect person to pitch, but audiances make strange decisions. I will be the first to admit I need to find out more about my own audiance (here on my blog!). Knowing your marketing and “thinking” you know your market are 2 totally different things. Sometimes people do the total opposite of what would make perfect sense. For example, say you built a revolutionary diet website, and since everyone in America is fat (at least thats what I hear), you think 1% of market, gold mine! Well thats great and all, and yes diet and fitness are big markets especially during new years, but do you realize why? There is this little word called retention. Everyone wants to look like a super model and fit into those smaller sizes, but for most this is just a thought/dream that takes a fast turn to nowhere. Retention is needed in order to have a successful product. You either need to be retaining your current customers, or making sure you get enough new customers to make up for the ones who are dropping out. Talk to your actually customer, invite some of out for drinks and/or food. If you think you know your audiance, then get them to be the fist to signup and see how difficult it is.

6. Give Customers some Lovy Love

I have to give a shout out on this one, Gary Vaynerchuk at Wine library tv who has more love for his audiance and customers then I have ever seen. You need to be passion about what you are doing and support all of those people who are supporting you.

5. Remove features BEFORE the deadline approaches

Feature rich applications and programs do not mean better product. Think of simple elegant products, like a simple search box where you type in a search and get web results, better known as Google. They have an advance search, but keep it simple stupid with their main search. Building products/concepts can take time and adding more and more features that only 0.001% of your market require, may not be the best idea, especially right out of the gate. I know when building products, feature creap is a problem, just add this and that… before you know it, your product sucks because you have too many features! Take them out especailly if their hold you back. One of the best advice I recieved was if you can’t build the feature in a week, its too big of a feature. Break down the cycle and move towards a iterative apporach. Think of 37 Signals, their products are lean and mean.

4. Tell a friend about your idea

FEEDBACK! Seriouly their is nothing like taking an idea to the next level then getting others to become FANs of your products. You need a “cult” enviornment or following of “groupies” (Yes, Twitter followers count), but you need to tell others about your product. Why? Well, to start its a great way to get people mentioning your product to frineds. Telling your friends is another way to “get things done” because they will tend to ask you about it each time you see/speak to them. BUILD A FOLLOWING

3. Design before Function

Just look at the ipod and how this small device has changed the music industry and all the people who listen to music. Every time I am walking around New York City I am thrown back by how many people have those white headphones and cords. Almost all headphones that you would buy at a store from the 80’s until the release of the iPod, were black headphones. Since Apple is always killing the design they decided to give the iPod white headphones, which has created fashion statement in some case. Apple put design before function and made a killing! My iPhone has always looked the same, yet their are software updates that are fixing some of the functional/bugs that I have been dying for, such as deleting multiple emails at a time. So if you get 100+ emails a day, clicking 1 by 1 delete, ugh!

2. READ, READ, READ

Reading is a great way to not only LEARN from others, but stop you from making the same mistakes. Yes, mistakes happen and as an entreprner you will make them, but you can help your chances of “making it” but reading about how others did it. Get ideas and see what has worked (or hasn’t) and follow the great leaders. If you need some help, check out the Geek Guru Book Club.

1. Mentors Find Them, Leverage Them, Treat Them like Gods

Mentors are everywhere in your life and as a inspiring entrepreneur you should not only lean on mentors to help you, but in the process you will find others that could use your help and have them lean on you. I know I have been building my business network one person at a time. You need mentors to push you and ask questions as well as to follow up with you on your passion/ideas/business. Entrepreneurs tend to be all over the board with ideas, but with mentors to help push and guide you in a direction, you can reach your goals faster. Even if your in college or high school, a teacher might be your mentor. Even celebrities such as Richard Branson can be a mentor, just pickup a book they wrote and learn. Also don’t forget to give back, be sure to treat your mentors and take them out (dinner, coffee, golf?).

These 10 tips for moving from a geek to a startup entrepreneur should help give you a boost in the right direction. I know I person have been working on improving and bettering my best with these tips above.

What tips/ideas do you have for geeks who want to be entrepreneurs?

Continuing my teachings to my visitors, I wanted to provide a very basic SEO glossary. This should cover just the basic (Don’t worry, I got more cool SEO stuff to show for those SEO Experts), I will be adding more as well as creating the ultimate SEO ebooks and videos soon.

301 or 301 Redirect - This is a permanent server redirect - The t (Uniform Resource Locator ) of the webpage/website has been change. These are used to address duplicate content (canonical issues) and can be done with a .htaccess file located on the apache server.

Alt text - This is HTML attributes on images, links, forms, and other HTML tags. These are used to increase SEO by adding a description to various images, links, etc. The alt text is important to search engines because their “bots”/”spiders” can view this text and derive keywords based on the context. Filling out the alt text is a MUST for any SEO wannabe

Anchor text - These are the computer jargon words for visible text links. These links or anchor text are used by search engines to indicate relevancy of the referring site and create a relationship between sites. The anchor text is also important by using descriptive words and keywords when describing a URL. For example a link to Amazon can be coded as the following <a href=”http://www.amazon.com” title=”Amazon has amazing deals everyday!”>Great Deals</a> rather then <a href=”http://www.amazon.com” title=”amazon”>Amazon</a>, the description and title gives more relevancy and context to the link.

Black Hat - This is a term used to describe SEO tactics that are counter or opposed to best practices. The best practices are summarized in the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

Robots, Bots, Spider and Crawler - These terms are used to describe the programs that performs automated tasks, such as a search engine finding and adding websites to their search engine indexes.

Canonical - (duplicate content) - This is the term used to describe duplicate content. Duplicate content has a lower rating by most search engines.

Content - (text, copy, body) - The words and/or part of a web page that offers value to the user.

In-Bound Link - (inlink, incoming link) - Inbound links such as anchor text/tags from another website.

Keyword - (key phrases) - The word or phrase that a user enters into a search engine. It can also be used in terms of content, the keywords that the content is focused on.

Keyword Cannibalization - Excessive use of the identical keyword or phrase on too many web pages and/or within the same web site. Focus on the keywords, but do not go overboard.

Keyword Density - The percentage of word(s) on a specific web page which are keywords. If this value is high, it can have a negative impact on SEO.

META Tags - This is html attributes that are located in the HEAD section of the HTML page. META information is used for displaying the description of the link in a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The use of distinct or unique meta titles and descriptions is important for better SEO.

No follow - This is an attribute and/or a meta tag that is used to instruct robots to not follow the link and/or view the page. The no follow meta tag is used for content that a webmaster does not want a user to view via a search engine. The no follow attribute on links is used to NOT give link backs. (IE. for sites like del.icio.us, a social bookmarking site, no follow’s are used so a webmaster can not easily create thousands of links to their web page from such a popular site like del.icio.us.)

SEM - (Search Engine Marketing) - This normally is used to describe the act of researching, positioning, and submitting of a web site to a search engine to provided for the most optimal exposer.

SEO - (Serach Engine Optimization) - The process of increasing the total number of visitors to a web site by reaching a higher page rank (SERP - Search Engine Results Page) in a search engine.

SERP - Search Engine Results Page

Site Map - A page or organized listing of links which every users is accessible to access on a web site. Most websites contain 2 site maps, one used by the user/visitor and one (XML based) used by a search engine bot/spider/crawler. The XML based sitemap is normally located at the root direction of a web site with the filename of sitemap.xml.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator - AKA Web Address

White Hat - This is a term used to describe SEO techniques that conform t the best practice guidelines and do not try and purposefully manipulate SERPs.

Please feel free to add more in the comments, Enjoy!

Basic Advertisement Glossary

Google Adwords - A Pay Per Click contextual advertisement program which is used as the majority way to advertise online

Bounce Rate - This is the percentage and/or rate of a user who enters a web site and then leaves without viewing other pages

Conversion - This is the quantifiable goal of a website, such as clicks, sign ups, and sales.

CPA (Cost per Action) - The advertiser is paid based on a users action, such as a when a user completes a form submission.

CPC (Cost Per Click) - This is the cost (amount) of a user to click on an ad, normally used with a Pay Per Click Advertiser.

CPM (Cost Per Thousand impressions) - This is a statistical measurement used to form an average estimated value of 1000 page views. The mathematical formula is average value / cost of pay per click. The M in thousands come from the Roman numeral for one thousand.

Impression (page view) - This is when a user visits and/or views a webpage. Note: The measurement of uniques is also related to Impressions, to find the average number of page views a user visits, the mathematical formula is total impressions/uniques which gives you average impressions (page views) per users.

PPA (Pay Per Action ) - This is almost identical to a PPC (Pay Per Click) except payment is only made to the publisher if the click through results in a conversion. (See CPA)

PPC (Pay Per Click) - This is a contextual advertisement plan where advertisers pay ad agencies whenever a user clicks on their advertisement. Google Adwords is an example of PPC advertising.