Success Manifesto

Key word: internships
Doorway page: http://www.successmanifesto.com/internships.html
Number of links to doorway page: N/A
Rank on Google for keyword: N/A

Implementer: Patricia Hudak, Intern
Online Marketing Mentor: Ryan Allis
Software: Arelis

Strategy

1. Keyword-Rich doorway page.
   
2. Create thousands of link partners (web pages who link to doorway page).
   
3. Work with popular link partners who rank highly on Google for "internships" keyword.
   
4. Have incoming links be large,bold and high on the page (ideally).
   
5. Work with link partners who have relevant content to "internships".

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Total Number of Subscribers: 411 (9/28)
Total Number of Subscribers: 768 (11/14)
Total Number of Subscribers: 1187 (5/11)

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:31 AM | Permalink

Lately, I've not been able to keep up with email. This is particularly difficult for me because I've always prided myself on responding to emails quickly. Some ideas I have to solve the problem are:

1. Making my responses shorter.
   
2. Have some sort of autoresponse that tells people that I'm busy and that I will eventually respond.
   
3. Respond to questions in the FAQ portion of my blog so that I don't answer the same questions multiple times.
   
4. Make a new systems of folders in Outlook.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It has just come to my attention that the notifications form on the left bar was not working (no wonder nobody was subscribing!). It is now fixed. So feel free to enter your email if you would like to be notified when I make new blog entries.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 03:09 AM | Permalink

Later this week, Sheena is going to start her own blog and eliminate the unavoidably biased view of the company that I provide. Should be interesting.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:56 AM | Permalink

Earlier in the day, Sheena and I had the first meeting with Patricia, the intern, to get the ball rolling. Learning from past mistakes, I spent many hours preparing a document that would help her hit the ground running and explicitly state what we wanted. The meeting went extremely well and set a great foundation for moving forward. Even though Patricia still knows fairly little about our business, she had some surprisingly good ideas.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:51 AM | Permalink

"Let hindsight's keen eyes make "mistakes" into successes, not fears.
To fear dreams is to throw away belief in yourself.
To welcome them is to make the impossible, possible."

- Michael Simmons, author, The Student Success Manifesto

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:43 AM | Permalink

Starting this week, Sheena and I are going to be begin working with an intern who will be working for free. She is a sophomore at the NYU Stern School of Business and is a perfect match. She has worked at Merill Lynch for the past two years and a lot of her family is involved in the education field. Although we met her at the NYU Career Fair, she had purchased the book before hand, which was a very good sign!

Although, we had received over 30 resumes at the career fair of people who were interested in an internship, she was the only one we decided to interview. Looking at resumes from an employer perspective, differentiation is key! Since most people had a good GPA and some work experience, these didn't differentiate applicants. We were looking for people who stood out and it felt like all the resumes just blended together. Going through hundreds of resumes and picking the ones to follow up with must be difficult.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 08:52 PM | Permalink

Today I had the great opportunity to sit in on the first day of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) "Making a Difference" Seminar and deliver a few comments as an alumni of the NFTE program. The requirements to be a YPO member are having a corporation with 50+ employees or a value of $10,000,000+. Needless to say, it was a great opportunity. I made two contacts that I will stay in touch with.

In addition, Christopher Reeve was a speaker. Some ruminations on his speech are:

• A lot of people give to charities as a reaction to a life-threatening experience. For example, if somebody close to you died of cancer, you would be much more likely to donate to the American Cancer Society.

  One of Christopher Reeve's main points is that we shouldn't be reactive and wait for something bad to happen and then choose a charity. We should be proactive and take time to imagine what it is to be like in other people's shoes. With over 1/3 of the world population living on less than $1/day (1985 purchasing power), I think that this is an extremely important message.
  
  

• Since his accident over 8 years ago, he has made a really large difference in paralysis research that has affected millions of people. One audience member asked him whether he would choose the same fate or make the jump on his horse like he did every other time. His answer, which reflects his honesty, was that he would not choose the same fate and that he isn't O.K. in the wheel chair. He said that he has learned to adapt, but that he isn't in some exalted place where being in a wheel chair was great. I appreciate this answer because of its hope. Whether we are in a wheel chair or not, it is so much easier to compromise for the status quo and settle for less than is possible than it is to reach for a vision that nobody else sees or believes in. Although it must be difficult, he believes that he will walk again and he is acting on that belief.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:31 AM | Permalink

998 books sold so far. Who will take away the pain?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:18 PM | Permalink

Since moving away to college, I haven't had a T.V. While this was hard at first, it has become progressively easier (except during the US Open). I still love watching DVD movies on my laptop, but I think most TV is useless.

From an educational perspective, think about the war in Iraq. After all the news on Iraq, how much does the average American know about Iraq, Saddam Hussein, and the people that live there? Most people don't know much beyond that Saddam is a crazy, evil dictator of a country in the Middle East and that he may have been somehow how connected to 9/11 and therefore needed to be overthrown. Use yourself as an example. In the end, What do you actually know about Iraq? Do you have enough information to make an informed decision about whether what our country did was right? Let's say you've seen 50 hours of T.V. coverage. In that amount of time, you could have read 10 books on the subject and been an expert.

From an entertainment/relaxing perspective, I think the TV is pretty good. It is easy, passive, and there is usually something on that is at least somewhat interesting. At the same time, why not find ways to be entertained AND grow as an individual?

A great book I would recommend on the topic is Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, a NYU professor.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

There are certain things I do every time I'm on the computer.

1. I check my hotmail and successmanifesto.com email accounts.
   
2. I catch up on blogs that interest me (e.g., Joshua Newman , Chris and Luke, Michael Furdyk, Ryan Allis.
   
3. Now, I look at web site and accounting statistics for The Student Success Manifesto.

Some examples of exciting news for me include:

• While checking the web site statistics yesterday, I noticed that somebody from Random House's servers visited the web site.
  
• An email I received from NYU saying they might potentially want to make a 600-book order.
  
• The number web site visitors steadily growing.
  
• People I don't know signing up for the newsletter.
  
• Emails from people I really admire agreeing to my request to meet with them.
  
• Emails from readers who enjoyed the book.
  

Posted by Michael Simmons at 04:29 PM | Permalink

The book can now be found on Amazon.com, which is very exciting! Some information still needs to be updated. Surprisingly, the Advantage program is not very user friendly, which is different than the rest of their site. Contrary to what most people think, it is actually very easy to get listed on Amazon.com. Their Advantage program only costs $29/year.

If you've read the book, it would be highly appreciated if you could be one of the first to review it on Amazon.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"All I have done is to try experiments...on as vast a scale as I could." - Gandhi

In the past, I've had many role models that I learned about through books, word-of-mouth, and other forms of media. Upon meeting and getting to know more about them, I was invariably disappointed in some way. Because of their brands, I created unrealistic, idealistic images of them and didn't really see them as having normal human flaws. While "super-human" brands may motivate some, it seems to turn off most people who end up disassociating themselves from very successful people.

I hope that any success I achieve will be a reminder to others of how doable pursuing and achieving one's dreams are. I believe that people who go for their dreams are scientists performing experiments on human potential. These people offer a great service to society by honestly talking about their journey so other people can copy their lessons learned and avoid their mistakes.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:26 PM | Permalink

Earlier this week I had lunch with Joshua Newman who is a fellow young entrepreneur and successful blogger. One of the topics we talked about was how blogs were an interesting medium and how they were limited with respect to honesty. A few things I've realized are:

1. Many of the events that happen in my life involve other people. Because I respect them and my relationship with them, I can't blog about many details. For example, Josh mentioned a few instances when he had received backlash from people he mentioned in blog entries.
   
2. The content of blogs are half-truths. Blogging about everything in my life would be boring and tedious for readers to go through and a drag on my time. So I must be selective based on my limited time and my interest in grabbing reader attention. As a result, readers form a "limited" picture of me, but I guess we all have to deal with this in our interactions with others.
   
3. At one point, Josh asked me if I felt limited in what I could blog about as a self-development author. Sometimes I definitely have hesitations about being completely honest about my limitations, but I still go forward anyway. Obviously, I have an interest in getting readers back to the site and eventually purchasing the book. At the same time, I want to build a brand based on honesty. If I build a brand based on perfection, people will create a false picture of me that I will constantly be having to live up to. If I'm honest in my blog, I don't push myself into a corner and I can always just be myself. Hopefully this will be appreciated.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:07 PM | Permalink

What
Sheena and I set up a table with flyers, a newsletter sign up form, a poster, and books. We had planned to table during orientation week, but the date was pushed back due to complications communicating with residence hall managers.

Goals

1. Sell books
   
2. Get newsletter sign ups

Where
Third Avenue North dormitory outside front entrance

Statistics

• 600+ people walked by
  
• 12 people stopped by and asked questions
  
• 0 people bought the book
  
• 1 person signed up for the newsletter

Ruminations/Lessons Learned

• Many NYU students don't like business. When I mentioned "business" or "entrepreneur" many students showed mild to strong dislike. Their faces looked like they had just eaten something bad when they heard the words. With one student, I just mentioned the word "entrepreneur" and he literally gave me the hand and walked away. Do people not realize that they will probably either create or work in an organization in the future?
  
• While I was walking to set up the table, my bag broke and 20 books fell on to the street. The student right next to me kept on walking and pretended like it didn't happen. Then a gentlemen crouched down and helped me pick them up saying, "Don't worry son, things could be worse." After he helped me, he asked if I wanted a free copy of the new testament. I politely declined.
  
• Almost everybody avoided eye contact with me and Sheena when walking by. However, almost everybody did look at the table and poster. I wonder what they thought when they looked at it and kept on walking. What would have made them check it out more? I'm going to look for articles about how to succeed with tabling.
  
• Spreading your message to a targeted audience when they are ready for it is crucial. Speaking may be a much better way to spread the message for the book because the event planners have already marketed the event and the people in attendance are already interested in hearing the message.
  
• Selling definitely isn't a strength. Sheena and I should shadow somebody who's really good at selling to learn how to do it better.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My mom snet me the floloiwng eamil...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Amzanig huh?

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:24 PM | Permalink

"Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being." - Gandhi

The business and personal relationship between Sheena and I has been blossoming. I think this is happening because:

1. We've been taking a 1+ hour walk every day for the past month.
   
2. Working in teams is a strength for Sheena.
   
3. Although working in teams has been a major weakness for me in the past, I've been working really hard on making it my greatest strength.
   
4. We are extremely interdependent. Living and working together truly means that if one person has a bad day, then both of us have one. While this is difficult, it can also create an incredible momentum where both partners are continually inspiring and supporting each other.

At one point in American history, most people were entrepreneurs, either owning shops or farms. Families worked together to achieve success in commerce and in life. Sometimes I wonder if the following trends will return us to a similar state of affairs:

1. Small business growing explosively.
   
2. Woman being treated more equally in society.
   
3. Growth in home-based businesses.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 07:30 PM | Permalink

You can now access detailed site statistics of successmanifesto.com. You will always be able access the link from the "book updates" table at http://successmanifesto.com/michael/. Examples of the information you will now be able to access includes:

• # of visits
  
• # of page views
  
• length of visits
  
• referrers
  
• entry pages
  
• exit pages
  
• etc.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 04:14 PM | Permalink

After reading the columns of Aaron Karo, which are both funny and insightful, I've decided to make my blog a little bit more light-hearted, but still insightful.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:44 PM | Permalink

Sorry I skipped posting to the blog a few days this week. I was really busy.

Speaking of which, everybody (including myself) uses the "I've been really swamped" or "I've been really busy" excuse way too much. Either we need to come up with a new excuse; manage our time better; or find a new, indirect way of saying, "I had more important things to do with my time."

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:31 PM | Permalink

For me to actually get through to decision makers often takes one email and one phone follow up. I think people get so overloaded with emails and phone calls, that they use the number of follow ups as a filter to determine how serious the person is.

I probably shouldn't be blogging about this because if everybody starts doing two follow ups, then I will have to do three, but I thought you should know.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:19 PM | Permalink

Living in the big city, I'm asked for money about 10 times a day. I probably give money about 2 out of the 10 times depending on how much money I have, how bad I feel, and how convinced I am. When I don't give money, I always feel a little bit bad.

About a week ago, I was running to catch a subway train. Right behind me was a guy with a cane leaping up the stairs. As we got close to the train, he used the cane to find his way to the subway door. During the ride, he began soliciting money as a blind person.

When I saw him, my mind started racing with questions. Was he actually blind and able to run up stairs very nimbly because he had developed his other senses extremly well? Or was he making a career out of pretending to be blind? Although it was a hard decision, I decided to not give money.

I thought I would never find out the answer, but I saw him on my way home talking with some people at the subway station with his eyes open. Clearly, he was not blind and I had made the right decision.

I've now decided to move the giving ratio to .5/10 and focus on giving in other ways.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 02:04 PM | Permalink

During the past week, I've been overwhelmed by all the directions my life could take. While going to NYU and living in NYC, I've been exposed to so many interesting and convincing belief systems. The only problem is that many of them completely disagree with each other, and it's hard to be open to all of them at once. For example, one professor has spent his whole career in entertainment and makes it sound very attractive. Another professor thinks it's destroying our culture. At the same time, my health and nutrition professor has differing health perspectives than people in the raw food movement. As a result of these and other conflicting view points, many of my core beliefs are being challenged.

I find myself wanting to just follow one school of thought and avoid the cognitive dissonance from second-guessing all of my actions and thoughts, but I think it's probably good for me to seriously try everything out. In the end, it is both scary and empowering that there is no right answer beyond what I decide is right for me.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today we went over 900 in total books sold. We're definitely learning how important cash flow is. To give an idea, we have over $7,000 we're expecting in (accounts receivable) during the next few weeks. Because we weren't expecting to buy so many books so quickly, finding money to buy books has been difficult.

Sheena spent about 3 hours converting everything to QuickBooks today. This will help us manage our finances better moving forward.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 11:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week, my patterns of entrepreneurship professor mentioned that she thought one of the most important traits of a successful entrepreneur is selling yourself on your own idea everyday. This idea stuck in my mind and today I came up with what I think is an interesting idea...

Everyday, we are barraged with messages from the media influencing us to make decisions that aren't in our best interest. As a result, actions like eating healthy food and not wasting one's time with TV have become very difficult. Imagine, if it were the other way around and it was easier to eat healthy food than bad food. Imagine, if it actually took will-power to make bad decisions, not just good ones.

I propose that this vision could become a reality if we create and implement marketing campaigns to influence ourselves to be the way we want to be whenever we want to be that way. This could be done by planting personalized, empowering messages/quotes (ie - Michael, Be the Change You Want See Today) in places that advertisers dream about, such as:

1. posters through out your apartment/house/dorm
   
2. desktop background
   
3. screen saver
   
4. t-shirts
   
5. stickers on your bags, notebooks, and other places that you look a lot.
   
6. custom pens

Posted by Michael Simmons at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I came across a site called Chat the Planet yesterday. The initiative brings TV to the web and addresses issues such as youth culture, activism, and materialism.

In my opinion, Chat the Planet and other sites like it highlight two major trends that will change the world of television in the Internet:

1. Increased penetration of broadband worldwide.
   
2. Lower time and monetary costs of individuals creating and distributing digital video.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:21 PM | Permalink

I've been noticing a lot more paradoxes (A seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true) in my life lately. Being aware of them is extremely important for making the most of them:

1. Your greatest strengths can be your greatest weaknesses and vice-versa. Writing was my worst subject in high school and I was petrified the few times that I did speak, yet I'm now the author of a book and speak fairly regularly. "All the great speakers were bad speakers at first (Ralph Waldo Emerson)."

2. What you resist, persists. One day while I was still in grade school, I remember trying to clear as many dishes as I could in one run after having dinner at a family friend's house. When my mom saw this the first thing she said was, "Don't drop those!". The next thing I knew, I lost control and dropped all the expensive dishes on the ground.

   The only way I could understand what my mom said was by putting a picture of myself dropping the dishes in my head and trying to resist it. I believe that our mind has a weird way of making these pictures come true. If only my mom had said, "Michael, I admire your creativity. I believe that you can easily carry all those dishes to the sink. Keep up the good work."

3. The more you give, the more you get. For one of the best essays ever written on this subject read Emerson's Laws of Compensation essay for free online. Each time you read it, I promise you that you'll get new insights.

4. The most successful people fail the most. The average millionaire entrepreneur has gone bankrupt 3.75 according to Robert Kriegal, the author of If It Ain't Broke...Break It. "Those who give up liberty for the sake of security deserve neither liberty nor security (Ben Franklin)."

5. The more you get, the more you want. In a weird way, when we get what we want, we want something bigger. And when we lose what we want, we appreciate what we had. If we can focus our attention on appreciating every moment, then we can achieve success from fullness and not from striving.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:36 PM | Permalink

If I had only known how important choosing the right professors is. Those who know me, know that I was thinking of transferring or dropping out of NYU after the first semester of my sophomore year because I didn't like my classes. Now, about a year and a half later, I love NYU. One of my professors raised $70 million for her last startup while another was a former senior vice-president at Simon & Schuster while another is doing work with the BBC and revolutionizing the TV industry.

I found great professors by:

• Seeing what professors were featured in the media or who had won awards.
  
• Going to the NYU bookstore and looking through books by NYU professors.
  
• Asking friends who their favorite professors were.
  
• Looking through professor web sites and bios.
  
• Researching mentions of professors on the Internet.
  
• Looking through student rankings of professors.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 07:42 PM | Permalink

One major benefit of blogs is that they can be easily subscribed to and read from your desktop or email program. If you are subscribed to a blog feed, every time an update is made to that blog you receive a headline, excerpt, and link to the full entry. This is beneficial to you because:

• All your news in one place. You no longer have to go from one news site or blog to another to see if new updates have been made. You will now know whenever there is an update to a blog you are subscribed to.
  
• No more junk mail. You do not run the risk of having your email sold when you subscribe to blog feeds. Also, legitimate blog updates are not lost in a sea of your junk mail.
  
• Major news sites use blogs. In addition to personal blogs, you can subscribe to major news blogs from organizations like the New York Times and BBC.

• Headline Viewer Windows
  
• NetNewsWire
  
• Amphetadesk
  
• Radio Userland

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:34 AM | Permalink

Today, the Stern School of Business at NYU purchased 600 copies of my book for the alumni connections program , a program where recent alumni mentor students. The book will serve as a gift for mentees and mentors. I went through this program last year and loved it! Chances are that nobody from the NYU administration reads my blog (not yet at least), but thank you!

I really hope that the book is able to infiltrate the Stern culture and influence students to take more risks and follow their passion.

Posted by Michael Simmons at 12:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"Too often we disassociate ourselves from people who achieve greatness. We forget that everything that lies within them lies within us."

- Michael Simmons, author, The Student Success Manifesto

Posted by Michael Simmons at 01:33 PM | Permalink