Attend IZEAFest Virtually—Video Streaming

You, too, can watch my talk “Improving Your Content” at IZEAFest (Oh, and everyone else’s talk, too!)

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Learn and Earn: The IZEAFest Mantra

Keynote Jeremy Schoemaker (www.shoemoney.com) is kicking off the conference with a keynote about his rollarcoaster ride from employment to millions.

Four years ago, he was $50K in credit card job, weighed 420 lbs, a heavy smoker, and generally not doing great—not holding down jobs, sleeping in, playing a lot of MMORPGs. He did have some mad programming skills (which he used to mass mail through dating sites) until he called on the carpet for spamming by what he calls a “live one.” Two years later, they married. Jeremy credits her with giving him a work ethic.

What he’s learned? The key to success is: Hard Work.

There are some other important things to learn, but what it really boils down to is working hard, and managing your time.

Other key skills:

• Developing work habits
• Making progress every day
• Do the stuff that makes money first
• Do what other people won’t (That might mean spending money!)
• Don’t give in to fear; don’t make excuses

And then Jeremy has some tips for people starting Web businesses:

• Build sites for people, not search engines.
• Build a brand.
• Survive without Google. (“What would happen if Google stopped indexing me tomorrow?”)

At this point, Jeremy makes a pitch for great content; that having good content will allow you to survive technological mishap. A good design doesn’t hurt either. (Totally setting things up for my talk, which is next!)

• Don’t settle.

I really loved his tips for hiring people. He gives a basic Internet skills test (show me your Digg profile, find 10 things I’ve sold on eBay, etc.) but he also gives them what he calls a 50/50 test. He asks them to create an Excel spreadsheet and record the results of flipping a coin 100 times, and to predict what the next result would be. Most of the time, Jeremy says, the job applicant doesn’t do the task, but gives a logic answer. But that’s not the point—the point is to DO WHAT IS ASKED. Love that—any job involves doing things you don’t necessarily get the point of doing, but you still have to do it. Remember his first point? Work Hard.

Awesome talk!