If you could only tell your future son ten things, what would they be? μ

These hundreds of links are the culmination of years spent on the web researching, reading, and saving the absolute best of the best resources for anyone looking to start or grow a business, whether that’s freelancing, building an app, or selling a product/service.

The topics covered are as follows: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Web Design, SEO, Social Media, Advertising, Analytics, WordPress, Data Visualization, Videos, Negotiation, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pitching, iPhone Development, PR, Blogging, Photoshop, Pricing, Icons, Usability, Email Campaign, Textures, Landing Page, User Interfaces, Web App Building, A/B Testing, Logo, and Internet Marketing.

One of my good friends (www.aseriousjeff.com) replied with a pretty insightful answer:

Here we are again. Another tired post claiming to unlock the secret behind calculating ROI (return on investment) for Social Media. μ

I haven’t written a blog post in awhile and its because we’ve been furiously working on launching our latest startup. μ

You may not have heard of SEO but you darn sure have experienced it. Let Evolyte show you the light. μ

We’re continually running into people who are looking for very specific expertise (e.g., Rails development, Adobe Aftereffects, VC/funding sources), but either have no clue where to start looking or are overwhelmed by options. μ

This post is meant to give people a little more transparency into my past, what I’m up to now, and where I’m headed in the future. μ

This is our culture, how we work, and what we believe in. μ

The eleventh week, twitter times keep on rollin’.

As part of my ongoing interest in behavioral science (see my previous post on Behavioral Decision Making), I’m doing a brief research study to understand the attitudes towards Tiger Woods & Nike. μ

After analyzing the very specific individual actions of a group of people over the last two weeks from a variety of perspectives, I’ve come to realize a few things about myself, about others, and about emotional interactions. μ

I’ve been thinking about the human decision making process lately, especially as it relates to influencing actions in sales situations.

Your time is often more valuable than your money, and supporting those less fortunate with fundraisers isn’t drudgery, we have a blast doing it. We’d love you see you all there (introduce yourself, twitter or otherwise, and I’ll buy you a drink!)

And on the 7th day He said, “There shall be TEN tweets of the week.” And there was. And it was good.

Two great resources for startups looking to get venture capital (VC) funding, both a pitch deck and financial model.

I’m what some call an “early adopter”, and true to form I’m thinking of selling my brand-spanking new iPad in exchange for the new 3G version. It’s a pristine 64GB Wi-Fi iPad, only 28 days old. μ

Niiiiine tiiiiimes. Bueller…Bueller…

On to the next one!

How to pitch an investor in 90 seconds.

How to install the new Facebook “like” button

It’s not a hobby, it’s a lifestyle.

There’s no such thing as overnight success. μ

Have you looked at your business model from EVERY possible angle? What have you left on the table? Because whatever it is you slacked on is the exact same thing that’s going to kill your business. μ

Was Gekko right? Is business war? And if so, is Sun Tsu’s Art of War still the answer? μ

The sixth installment, more connecting with the community…

April 16th is the big day, so hurry you’ve got less than two weeks!

Man, I tweet alot, I had to delete a bunch of irrelevant dribble. There’s probably a few gems in here for you though.

For $20 to $90, Rx Savings will tell you exactly where to find and purchase your prescriptions at a huge discount. Their clients have saved anywhere from $200 to $4,000 in one year. And for the price, that return on investment is sick!!!

Can one hour change the world? μ

The saga continues… μ

Status of every startup incubated by Y Combinator and other seed accelerators. μ

Arguably THE most important aspect of any startup. μ

What is an influencer, and how do you measure the level of influence? μ

“Immersion” Merriam-Webster Definition: instruction based on extensive exposure to surroundings or conditions that are native or pertinent to the object of study. μ

I came across this great post today about how many businesses blow the prose written for their website by targeting the wrong reader, especially startups. μ

The third installment.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a way to increase exposure for your website. μ

Your marketing strategy should incorporate at least one of the seven deadly sins. μ

It all starts with the problem. If you don’t know what problem you’re addressing, then you can’t hope to know how to solve it. μ

If you’re not operating at least 10% outside your comfort zone, you’re not living, you’re already dying. μ

There are 9 main business models you can choose from as an entrepreneur. This guide gives you a succinct definition, example, success factors, and monetization tactic for each.

If you don’t know your business model’s strategy, then you don’t know what it takes to win.

The second installment of Tweets of the Week. Enjoy.

So you want to become an entrepreneur and are intrigued by the supposed “freedom” it allows you. First, read my other post, Dreams, and if you’re still convinced, then keep reading. Now, you just need to figure out an appropriate idea that you can exploit profitably. The few steps below will show you how to do just that.

Selling isn’t about telling.

The timeliness question: do you give up equity in your startup in exchange for some cash? Well, the facts show that the number one reason new businesses fail is due to a lack of cash flow so that points to yes if you can’t fund it yourself. I take a contrarian approach.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I feel like I’m beating a dead horse to death, but there’s so much complexity still out there I feel it’s my mission to keep breakin’ it down like a fraction.

If you do decide to go the VC roadshow route (and that’s a post for another time), they do NOT want yet another 80-page plan to slog through. Try boiling everything down to 10 slides, and better yet, into one page. Below is a great example, in web app form, called plancruncher and created by a division of Lunatech Ventures.

My problem with the various to-do and project management apps out there (read: Basecamp), is that they don’t move as fast as your brain or the real world. They quickly become an administrative burden constantly going to the app (whether web or mobile), updating, crossing things off, etc. So how do you fix this? I think I may have a solution…and it has to do with integration.

Take a look at the chart below for a high-level overview of that often used, yet often misunderstood term, Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Selling products or services online is difficult. There’s a LOT of competition. However, here’s a few best practices from the master Frank Kern himself (you may have never heard of him, but he’s made a killing and focuses on building customer email lists, then how to exploit them into sales).

Sometimes you just need a break and need to get a little creative. I made the picture below using the latest web markup language in about 2 minutes so don’t judge me, I’m no artist (I just like to play with my etch-a-sketch from time-to-time).

It was built with an HTML5 drawing tool called Harmony. Check it out, it’s completely user friendly.

From the bottom of my heart. Thank you. It’s you that make the 18 hour days fly by.

In one month, you visited my brand new site over 1,600 times and stayed almost a minute. I added a blog only 6 days ago, representing 20% of visits, and already 8 of you have subscribed to my RSS feed.

You stumble upon a dark cave lit only by faint, flickering torch light. As your eyes start to adjust, you notice a group of people shackled to the wall, and discover they’ve been here their entire lives, never experiencing natural sunlight.

You feel it’s your duty to unshackle these men and women so they can escape the confines of the darkness. You move towards the man closest to you and furiously try to unshackle him from the wall while excitedly telling the group about the “outside”. He, as well as the group, is a bit startled by your strange dress and confusing descriptions.

You’re just going to want to click through and view the picture. An excerpt simply doesn’t do it justice.

PowerPoint often adds complexity rather than taking it away. Similarly, the charts and graphs most “practitioners” produce require a PhD to decipher.

Why not make it easy on the reader and add a “call out” box detailing exactly what you want him or her to take away from the chart. A few examples are shown below for inspiration.

Inches: “The margin for error is so small…”

I spend too much time on twitter. In case you missed it, here are the Tweets of the Week: March 1, 2010 to March 7, 2010

Dream big. Dream bigger than big. Nothing great ever came from mediocre ideas. The gap between dreams and achievement, however, can only be bridged with two things: surrounding yourself in the idea and doing.

If you’re on a team, whether business, social, or athletic, the only time “I” should ever be used instead of “we” is when expressing your personal opinion or accepting fault:

After years of strategizing, doing, failing, iterating, and finally succeeding, this is the most concise yet accurate way to approach any startup I’ve found to date.

Evolyte Analytics identifies which networks, advertisements, and people generate the highest word-of-mouth traffic to your website. Watch the teaser video for a bit more information.

How do you measure performance of people, debt, efficiency, athletics, and life?

The most popular tweets measured by the number of clicks. You should follow me on Twitter here: @seanMeverett