I don’t know about you, but I think its been too long since Balkhis gave something away. Who up for a contest? Thanks to the wonderful people at Market Leverage, Balkhis will be giving away not one, but two awesome prizes.

The first of our two prizes will is a brand new white ASUS PC, much like the one you see below, and the second of our two prizes is a brand new blue iPod Nano.

So what do you need to do you may ask? Well the winners of this contest will be chosen by random draw. Now, to better your chances of winning it is in your best interest to accumulate as many entries into the contest as possible, and you can gain entries by doing the following:

Subscribing to Balkhis’ RSS Feed you can gain 15 entries. This is the mandatory part of the contest, so if you want that ASUS, make sure you subscribe!

This step below is mandatory.

Signing up for Market Leverage will give you 15 entries into the contest. This is one of the simplest ways to earn lots of entries, so if you have yet to sign up, make sure you join Market Leverage.

Now, if you generate $1 with Market leverage, you will get one additional entry. Now this can only be used one, but, if you generate $100 with Market Leverage, you will get an additional 15 entries into the contest. So go out there and make some money!

Another easy way to get entries into the contest is to simply blog about this about this contest with a link back to this post. You can get 10 additional entries for your post.

Now if you have heard of this little thing called Twitter, you can make a killing with Twitter Entries.

A twitter post about Market Leverage (for those with 100 or more followers) will net you two entries, and this can be done daily for the twenty-four days the contest will run for a total of 48 entries!

If you follow @MLTV on Twitter, you can get one entry, and following @MarketLeverage will give you yet another entry to the contest.

And finally, you can gain 5 points for EACH PERSON you refer to participating in the contest. This can be done as many times as you like, just make sure that the people you refer comment that you referred them.

Well there you have it, it is as easy as that! The contest will run from now until March 22nd.

Now this contest is only open to new and current Market Leverage publishers who were referred to Market Leverage by Balkhis, and if you won a previous contest, than please sit this one out.

This contest will be operated in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations, and the contest will be run fairly with the winner chosen by random drawing.

This contest is not associated with, either directly or indirectly to: (i) alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, or any illegal substance; (ii) pornography, adult content or sexually suggestive or explicit content; (iii) expletives or inappropriate language; (iv) racism or racial hate; (v) gambling or lotteries; (vi) firearms or fireworks; (vii) any product or service that is illegal for a minor to purchase, obtain or possess; (viii) any group, political party issue, public policy position, organization or individual. So keep this in mind when you blog about the contest.

We all know that bad things happen. The recent passing of Syed’s grandfather has highlighted how quickly a situation can change without warning. Blogging is safe. It is contained in the computer, you can take it or leave it, and you control what happens on your website. The thing about blogging is though, when something happens, whether it be tragic like a death or beautiful like a birth, as our situations change, so does our blogging commitment. So the question becomes, how do you keep blogging when life throws you a curve ball?

Remember why you started blogging
We all started blogging for a reason. When something unexpected arises, it is especially important to remember why you started blogging. Whether you started as a release, to meet new people or to share your passion, chances are you still have that reason waiting in your heart to get you to blog again. If you remember these passions that led you to blog, you will stay motivated to blog, even through the hard times.

Reach out to the bloggers who have helped you
Bloggers are a family. Each blog has its group of core followers. These are the people who have been around since the begining and who will be there until the end. It is during these times that bloggers have to rely on their support system to get by.

Count your blessings
Remember that through thick and thin there is always something to be thankful for.

Seek your muse
Hard times can bring out all types of strong emotions. Try to channel these emotions into your blog, or your art, or your photography, and use that to your advantage. it is not often that we get to be struck so strongly with a muse, so use it to your advantage.

Here is to hoping that what life may surprise you with, you can use to your advantage.

Have you ever seen one of those cool little buttons in some blogs that says Email This. It is not just on blogs, it is on a lot of other sites like Yahoo, and others. Well what is the point of those, and how do they do it?

This actually is a great way of word of mouth advertising. Your users can suggest a great article to their friends, and you get new readers. That is why a lot of sites use this sort of feature.

In this post I will show you how you can put one on your blog. It is quite easy actually because you are using a javascript. This javascript lets the user click on the link, and it will open up their default email program with the link to your post. It does not jeopardizes anyone’s email, so it is secure.

<script type="text/javascript">
<!– Begin
function isPPC() {
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("PPC") != -1) return true;
else return false;
}
if(isPPC()) {
document.write(‘<a class="contact" HREF=\"mailto:\?subject\=Check out this page I found, ‘ + document.title + ‘?body=You can view this page by following this url: ‘ + window.location + ‘\” onMouseOver=”window.status=\’Send your friends e-mail about this page\’; return true” TITLE=”Send your friends e-mail about this page”>Email to a Friend<\/a>’);
}
else { document.write(’<a class=”contact” HREF=\”mailto:\?body\=Check out this page I found ‘ + document.title + ‘. You can view this page by following this url: ‘ + window.location + ‘\” onMouseOver=”window.status=\’Send your friends e-mail about this page\’; return true” TITLE=”Send your friends e-mail about this page” rel=”nofollow”>Email This!<\/a>’);
}
// End –>
</script>

I don’t have this on Balkhis but hopefully whenever I redesign, I will add this feature in. This is a great way of making connections with your reader’s friends. So implement it when you can.

Are you an entrepreneur? Well I consider myself as one. I am trying to come up with new ideas and products to make money. In this I use my mind, and I don’t necessarily work the hardest. If you are having hard time classifying yourself as an entrepreneur, then consider the definition of dictionary.com

Entrepreneur is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.

So now there are successful ones and there are not so successful ones. And there are ultimate failures… I will tell you a few reasons that will show you why you are not a successful entrepreneur.

You Don’t Learn from your Mistakes

Humans make mistakes. That is the bottom line. But good entrepreneurs make only few mistakes, and when they do make those mistakes, they learn from it and never make the same one again. A mistake I made was joined digg and respected them for a while, but after I got banned, I will not make the same mistake of wasting my time and joining that network again.

You are full of yourself

You think you know everything. And you can do everything by yourself. A good and productive company can never be found on one man. You have to help from others. There is nothing wrong with hiring help. I know I can code everything and design. But if I do that, I will only take one order a week or maybe one order every two weeks. Now that I have my fellow developers at Uzzz helping me, I can take more than 3 orders a week and just share profit. In the end, I am making more money I would make from just doing one theme a week by myself and technically putting in less amount of work as well.

You are not Passionate

It is not always about the money. You got to love what you do, otherwise it will fail. Love what you do and do it with a passion. Be motivated and dedicated and you will do well. But since you don’t love what you do, you will always try to rush things and get things over with, so you can do other things… Not the best example of a successful entrepreneur.

You are not aggressive

Life is not easy. Business is not like childhood where mommy just gives you a cookie in your hand. You have to work your ass for it. Things won’t come easy to you. Try multiple ways to get to the same point. Be agressive, learn how to be risky because sometimes aggression and risky go side by side. But risky is another name for business

You put all your eggs in one basket

You need multiple game plans because otherwise you are screwed if that one basket breaks. All your eggs are gone. Always have more than one way to achieve success. I rely on Search Engines to send me traffic, but I also have Social Media, and direct links from my users.

You can’t adapt quickly

Market changes left and right, so business is all about agility. You need to find what is the new change, and how to deal with it. That is the only way you will retain a competitive edge. If you don’t do this, then someone else will.

You suck at managing money

Have priorities. Look is not always the best thing. If I have a small office then that is good. There is no need to furnish it with leather chair, and cute cubicles. So don’t go big balling after you make a few bucks. Save them for later. Invest on what is needed the most. Don’t go ahead and buy a leather chair for your employees, instead get your designer a new version of Photoshop.

I think above are the reasons that stops an entrepreneur from being successful. Obviously there are a lot more, but these are the general ones.

Hello Balkhis Users,

Time has challenged me with yet another obstacle. This time my grandfather is extremely ill in an ICU in Karachi, Pakistan. I will face this obstacle just like any others, but this one is not just any ordinary one. It is very emotional and stressful. I will try to keep up with school online, and with Balkhis as well. I am sorry that I have to let you down like this by not being as active as I am on Balkhis. I will still try to get articles up as time permits.

If you are in Karachi, Pakistan and wish to meet me, then feel free to send me an email. I will be spending most of my time in the hospital, but in the free time, I would like all the support that I can get.

Please pray for my grandfather to get better hopefully.

Thanks fellas, You will be reading this post as I am getting on the plane.

Update: from the plane, I found out that my grandfather has passed away. May god bless his soul. Hoping to get to PK soon.

Yours Truly,
Syed Balkhi