How to Generate Traffic on your Blogs

 SEO means Search Engine Optimization; which focuses mainly on creating traffic on a website.
SEO is at the top of every bloggers mind and it’s a word that gets tossed around a lot, but not many people actually know what to do with SEO when it comes to making their sites rank higher. WordPress helps us out with a lot of the major problems that non-Wordpress users might have, when it comes to SEO.
The Yoast SEO Plugin (we have a full video series on this plugin within Blogging.org members area) covers most of the basics and allows you to create focus keywords, an SEO title and meta description for each blog post you go live with, and it also allows you to see exactly what your search listing will look like when it’s indexed and found by a search users.

Simple SEO Tips for Bloggers

This tool in itself is one of your best resources when it comes to creating a powerful SEO foundation for your site… however, there are still many others that you can improve upon as well! Here are a few of them.

#1 – Write Headings & Content for People, Not the Search Engines

Gone are the days when you can rank at the top of the search results by stuffing keywords throughout your content and use the exact match domain name, website name and post names. Instead you need to write content and headlines that cater to your audience, while also reading well and including your target keywords as well.
Finding the middle ground between just putting you target keyword as the title and coming up with something too complex is the most complicating part.
I’ve italicized the keyword that you might be trying to rank for, while also adding in a twist or area of focus. The next time you are writing a title for your blog, be sure to read it out loud and ask yourself if it sounds right, draws interest and also includes your target keyword.

#2 – Link Building is Still Very Important

Even with Google slapping sites in and out of the search results for their “unnatural” link building efforts, the success of many of the top ranking sites in the search results does ultimately come down to the link they have going back to their site. So with all of this confusion going on with link building, how can you know which are right?
Here are a few methods that are still working well for sites and blogs of all sizes.

• Guest Blogging – Yes, guest blogging does still work well, when done right . If you are going to focus your efforts on guest blogging, make sure you are writing quality 1,000+ word articles that provide real value. The goal here is to not online create great content, but also get accepted by only the best sites out there. Also focus your efforts on blogs that are within your own niche — guest blogging on relevant blogs in your niche is key.
• Internal Link Building – Your blog probably already has a bunch of content and going live with new articles daily. Within each of these posts you should be building internal links that send users to other pages within your site as well. This also helps Google crawl through your site and see anchor text as well.
• Infographics – Another great way to build links back to your site is through the use of infographics. When creating and distributing infographic for your site, make sure the content is high quality and original. To get more promotion and high quality links back to  your site, try contacting other authority blogs in your space to see if they would like to share the infographic with their audience. One of the site is an infographic created on the top free web hosting companies. Try something similar in your niche!
  
   

#3 – Focus on Your Keywords Before Writing Content

This one seems obvious enough, but for many bloggers and site owners it’s a good reminder of the importance of “keyword focus”. Before writing your next article, it’s important for you to do some research on that keyword first. Here are some things you should be looking for.

• How many people are searching for this keyword per month?
• What quality of sites are ranking on the first page for this keyword?
• Can I create a quality 1000+ article focused around this keyword?

It’s not just the main keyword that you are trying to rank for that will be important, as the article will likely rank for multiple long tail keywords as well. Spend an extra 10-15 mins before writing your blog post to look at your desired keywords and seeing what the search competition and landscape for this keyword already looks like.

#4 – Faster Site Speed Equals Higher Rankings

In addition to all of the new algorithms and penalties that Google has in place for site rankings, they also consider site speed to be another major factor in the ranking process? It’s true, and it could be affecting your site right now!

Even if you have the best site content and the best focus on your keywords and titles, a slow loading page for your site could be keeping you from achieving higher rankings.
A great way to increase the loading times of your site is to make sure that offers minimal downtime. You should also make sure that you are using a high quality and trusted WordPress theme and not clogging up your site with a lot of unused WordPress plugins.
Lastly, if you have any decent traffic flowing through your site or a graphics heavy site, you should also consider using a CDN (content delivery network). We currently use MaxCDN to host all of the images on this blog, which allows for them to load faster, as they are hosted separately on servers throughout the word and are also cached to offer optimum speed and performance issues.

SEO Tips to Help Your Blog Rank Higher

As you can see, we’ve only scratched the surface for SEO (on-site and off-site), while also mentioning a bit about link building as well.
First and foremost… don’t build spammy links to your site. This will only kill your chances of staying clean with Google and if you get a penalty, this could result in thousands of dollars in lost traffic and damage control after words.
In addition to staying clean with your link building, make sure that your content quality is also very high. Yes, Google is penalizing sites for low quality content as well. Blogs used to look for 500+ word articles, now they are focusing on 1000-1500+ minimums — you should do the same.
Follow these tips and take the time to perform the necessary keyword research to create amazing content for your audience and there is no doubt you will see your sites rank higher in the search results in no time! 
More SEO helps you earn more through Monetisation .

 

How to Make Money Blogging

The goal of making money with a blog is something that many bloggers throughout the world struggle with. However, it’s also one of the most common reasons why people want to start a blog in the first place. The good news is that we are going to help you better understand the why some blogs make money, while others best. After reading through our detailed guide and infographic below, you will be on your way to generating revenue through your blog, while also building a powerful brand and business at the same time.

How to Make Money Blogging – From Zero to Profit

To make it in the world of blogging, you need to create value and have a loyal following in the following in the process. This is why it’s so important to build out your blog business concept before getting started. It’s not just about building another blog, it’s about building a blog that can be a business.
If you follow the directions below, there is no reason why you can’t be up and running with a profitable blog, brand and business in no time.

Researching a Topic

Everyone has an idea for a web site, blog, business or even how to make millions of dollars online. The difference between those who succeed and those who fail… is simply those who TAKE ACTION!
Before starting with a blog, you first need to know what you are going to be blogging about. Many blogging will create a blog around something they are passionate about… but passion will only get you so far — you also need a way to make money and create a business around it in the process.

When deciding on what you are going to create your blog on, think about the different ways you might be able to monetize your site and traffic down the road. Below you will find a few questions to ask yourself when choosing a niche.

• Is this a topic I can write about for 6-12 months without running out of content?
• Do I enjoy writing this type of content or will it need to be outsourced?
• How can I monetize this topic down the road? (product creation, affiliate marketing, adsense)
• Are there currently advertisers in Google search for related keywords to this topic?
• What can I learn from other competing blogs and sites in this niche right now?

Before going live with your blog, go through each of these questions and really think about where you want your blog to be 6-12 months from now.

Niching Down

Now that you’ve found a good topic for your site, it’s time to niche down.
The reason why niching down is important, is that you want your brand or blog to eventually become the authority in that space. If you pick a topic that is way too generic (like weight loss or basketball), you aren’t going to have a good idea of what your audience is looking for or how you can cater all of your content to them.
By choosing a niche that is too wide range, it also gives you a much bigger chance to get lost in the mix and not have much of a chance to compete against the much larger and established players within your niches.
Niching Down Example:

Let’s say for example you wanted to create a blog on basketball and your end goal was to try and sell basketball merchandise and game tickets. While this might seem like a good idea because a lot of people are interested in basketball — it’s actually not. Think about it… no one goes to ESPN or other major sports sites to buy anything — they only want news, scores and highlights. The only reason why a site like ESPN can make money is because they are serving billions of visitors every month, which means they can sell a ton of advertising.

Instead you should take a different approach like this. You can still focus on “basketball”, but you need to niche down and pick a focus. Let’s go with “basketball skills training”. This is niche, but still not niche enough. You can go one level deeper and pick “basketball jump training”. This is very specific and it will allow you to figure out exactly what your audience wants, and you can give it to them and monetize it every time.

Creating an Editorial Calendar

You found your topic and broke it down into a niche that’s not only very specific, but it’s also profitable. Everything you write on your blog around this topic is going to provide real value to your audience and might even make you money in the process.
Before going live with your blog, the last thing you should do is make an editorial calendar to figure out if you have enough high quality content to write about. There are many different ways to find what people are searching for in Google, which you can then turn into articles of your own.
An easy way to do this is to simply search for your main keyword topic and see what other keywords Google suggests.
From this alone we can come up with some great articles, such as:

• Best resistance bands for jump training
• How to increase your vertical jump in 4 weeks
• 12 must see exercises to excel you basketball jump training

The idea here is to write out as many potential article headlines for your blog before getting started. If you find that you are having trouble coming up with 20+ different headlines, this might not be the best niche focus for you to start a blog on.

Choosing a Domain Name & Web Host

With all of the prep work now behind us, it’s now time to setup your domain name and web hosting.
Picking the Best Domain Name
When choosing your domain name, still with a .com, .net or .org TLD. Also don’t use hyphens, numbers or try to get too creative.

Your domain name should be somewhat short and give people a good idea of what your site is about, without need any additional description.
Once choosing a domain name, it’s time to setup your web hosting.
Setting Up Your Web Hosting
Ordering and setting up your first hosting account might seem like a big deal, but it’s actually pretty easy. Once you are setup, you will rarely ever need to login to your account again.
We highly recommend that you go with Blogger for the hosting of your site, as it’s extremely easy to setup and its 100% free of cost as well.

Creating Quality Content

One of the most important aspects of any successful blog is the content that is posted to the site.
When it comes to creating content for your audience, you should be thinking about how you can provide value to them, why they are at your site in the first place and how to make your content better than what your competition has to offer.
Going back to the previous example of “basketball jump training” — if you were going to create a blog for this audience, you should be focusing your content on “How to” posts and resources for people to learn from. The reason behind this is simple… anyone searching for “jump training” related terms, most likely wants to know how to jump higher.
Another important focus when creating your content is to make sure they are in-depth, provide value and give the user what they want. All of your blog content should include the following:

• Minimum of 800-1200 words per article
• Quality images that relate to the article content
• Headers, paragraphs, and subtitles to break apart the content
• An end “call to action” — where you can tell the visitor what to do next

These are the major components to create quality content that all comes back to building a success blog, brand and business online — and NOT JUST A BLOG.
Once you’ve built up a decent amount of high-quality content on your site, now it’s time for you to start doing some content promotion, such asguest blogging. By guest blogging on other established sites in your niche, not only will you gain powerful backlinks to your site, you’ll also increase your exposure and brand reach in the process.

Social Network Coverage

With over 1.3 billion users on Facebook and another few hundred million on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest — you simply can’t ignore what social media has to offer and how you can funnel it’s traffic back to your site 24/7.
The biggest blogs in the world today are all using social media to bring new traffic to their site, establish a brand and have their audience share their content in the process.
The easiest way to set this up is by adding social sharing buttons to your site. One of the best free plugins out there for setting this up is  floating social bar plugin. Once setup you will see Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other buttons that will appear at the top or bottom of each blog post. Visitors to your site can easily click any of these social buttons to then share your content with their audience.

It’s also important to note that you should create individual social profiles and Fan Pages for each of your sites. This way you can build a unique following around each of your sites that can grow over time, while also keeping your followers updated on new content being posted to your site.

Setting Up a Mailing List

The content of your site is extremely important, but the real money behind any successful website or blog is in the mailing list.
The sad truth is that 70% of the people that come to your site will never come back. It doesn’t have so much to do with your site or content, but just that there is already so much out there already and people get distracted and easily forget about sites they’ve been to before.
However, with a mailing list you can get people to keep coming back to your site time and time again.
Just like web hosting, setting up a mailing list is also quick and easy.

Once you have an active Aweber account, you can walk through the newsletter setup wizard and then add a subscribe form to your site.
To see how some of the top bloggers in the world are growing their mailing list through popup windows, free giveaways and great call to actions.

Product & Service Creation

Last but not least, we have product and service creation.
The monetization methods of your site are going to play a huge part in how you make money from your audience. We’ve listed a few methods for you below.

• Google Adsense – On-site advertising is one of the most common methods for monetizing a site. The easiest way to do this is by joining the Google Adsense program. All you need to do is place a line of code on your site and Google serves the banner ads. Your site then earns money everyone a visitor clicks on one of Google’s ads.
• Direct Ad Placements – If you have a popular site with target audience, you can start selling your own advertising at a high premium rate. Advertising is usually sold on a monthly or CPM (cost per thousand) basis to advertisers directly.
• Affiliate Marketing – Informational and review sites do extremely well with affiliate marketing, which is the concept of getting paid a commission for referring a lead or sale to another site. With affiliate marketing, you don’t need to create any products, hold inventory, process sales or even talk directly with customers.
• Product Creation – Many blogs start out as sources for information, but as they grow a following and brand loyalty, they also tend to create their own ebooks, courses and products to generate business.
• Services – If you are an expert in your niche and offer consulting and online teaching, services would be a great monetization method for your site.

No matter which method you choose, each is scalable and can be applied to nearly any niche.
Find your niche market, cater to your audience, gain traffic for more views and monetize in the process.

How to Start Writing Blogs within 10 minutes

  How to Start a Blog in 3 Simple Steps

I wanted to make this process as simple and fast for you as possible, so I’ve broken it all down in three simple steps. Here’s what you will need to know before getting started.

1. Select the Right Blogging Platform – This is how you will create a blog and new content for your site.
2. Set up Your Domain Name and Hosting – These are required to make your site content accessible around the world.
3. Creating a Blog with Purpose – Once your blog is live, I’ll show you how to make it look amazing and professional.

If some of these don’t make sense to you right now, don’t worry about it. I’m going to show you how simple it is to go live with a blog in just minutes, while also requiring no technical or programming skills.

Step 1 – Choosing the Right Blogging Platform

Starting a blog or a website today is much easier, faster and cheaper today than it was in previous years. This is mainly due to free software solutions becoming available that allow site owners to create content and go live with a site without the need to know any programming or have any design skills. In short, if you know how to type or send an email, you are more than well-equipped to start a blog of your own.I do use Blogger and will suggest you to use it.

Here are a few reasons why you will love using Blogger:

• It’s 100% Free – Amazingly enough, one of the most powerful software solutions in the world today is 100% free! No gimmicks, no up-sells… just free.
• Extremely Easy for Beginners – Bloggers has become one of the most popular platforms in the world today not only because it’s free, but also because it’s so easy to use. Instead of requiring site owners to use custom designs or programming, there are thousands of free Blogger themes and Plugins that you can use to customize all aspects of your blog. 
• Blogger Looks Great on Mobile – With more people using their mobile devices to access the internet than ever before, it’s important to make sure your blog looks great on all devices as well. This is another area that WordPress has you taken care of. Create a blog in minutes and your site and content will look great on desktops, tablets, mobile devices and more.

Now that you’ve seen why and how Blogger is being used to make blogging and site creation so easy, let’s move along in the process and get you started with a site of your own. The next step in the process is to select a hosting provider and pick a great domain name for your site. This is one of my favorite parts when launching a new site or blog!

Step 2 –  Selecting Your Domain Name and Blog Hosting

With Blogger being selected as our blogging platform, it’s now time to set up the other two most important factors to getting your blog live:

• A Domain Name – This is the address you type in whenever you want to visit a site. (www.name.com)
• A Hosting Provider – This is the service that places your site content on the internet for others to see.

Again, even if you never created a website or blog before, don’t worry! The process of setting these up is extremely simple and once it’s done, you won’t need to mess around with any of these settings again.

How to Get a Free Domain Name

Anyone can register a domain name. The toughest part is simply coming up with an original name that isn’t already registered yet. On average, domain names will cost around $15 per year to register. However, Blogger gives you a free platform to create your own domain free of cost.

• Keep it short and simple
• Stay away from numbers and dashes
• Pick a name that is easy to spell and memorable
• Don’t use any copyright or trademarked names
• Use keywords that are relevant to your topic
• Stick with a .com, .net or .org domain extension
• If it’s available, always try to register YourName.com

Thousands of domain names are registered every day, so if you keep finding that your requested domain name is already taken, don’t get discouraged. If you can’t think of anything unique, I always recommend seeing if your personal name is available as a domain. This is always good to try and register, as it likely won’t be available forever!
Which extension should you pick for your domain name?
Also, when choosing a domain name, you will have a few different options as for the type of domain extension you want to use. The ‘.com’ is always going to be the most popular, followed by ‘.net’ and then ‘.org’. However, there are many other extensions to choose from — though I recommend you stick with any of the three mentioned here. They are the most professional and well-known around the world.
Very exciting! We decided on using WordPress as our blogging platform and also know how to setup hosting and selecting a domain name for your site. Now it’s time to bring it all together and put it in motion.

Wait! Make sure you do the next steps correctly!

Step 1 – Setup Your Blog with Blogger

Step 2 – Follow the step-by-step instructions below on how to setup your blog with Blogger.

My Step-By-Step Guide to Going Live with Your Blog

As mentioned at the beginning of this guide, I want to make this is as easy for you to set up as possible, so I went through the process myself and explains along the way. Now you can follow along here as a reference when you are setting up your Blogger account and blog.

First, click this link www.Blogger.com to open a new browser tab.

After clicking the link, you should see the Blogger site.
On this page, you will notice an icon "Create Your Blog".You can install Blogger;its has 24/7 support.
Next, click on the big button that says "Create Your Blog".
Now you can see 3 icons(Title,Address & Theme simultaneously).
Choose a title of your own but it should be eye catching.
Your address need to be unique but easy.
Choose theme of your own choice(you can also change it later).
Now press "Create Blog" and your blog website is all ready for your use.
Congratulations! Your process for free blog is now complete and we can move forward with going live with your blog.
After clicking the ‘create blog’ button, you will then see your blog website which confirms that your account is now live and that a message has been sent to your email account. This email will contain information about your account.

Step 3 – How to Create a Blog with Purpose

Now it’s time to start having some fun! There is nothing more excited than finally getting to work on your blog once it’s live. Best of all, it’s your blog… so you get to write about whatever you want!
Before you start writing about what you ate last night for dinner or saw on your way to work… you should first think about where you want your blog to be a few months down the road from now.
In short, your blog is one in a few hundred million — so if you want to it be read by lots of people and stand out from the crowd, you are going to need to create content that provides value and has a purpose.

Click here for how to write your first blog post and change your Blogger theme of you choice which looks better and seems related to your posts.Just check left of your blog home menu,you will see a theme icon,just click on that and change theme of your own by picking one from option and apply it.

This section is a quick walk through of how to write your first blog post.

With your domain name and Blogger;all setup, you can dive right into Blogger and start creating content for your site.you should have also received your login details for Blogger through your E-mail.
Once logged in you will see a screen area. You can then click on the “Posts” tab on the left side menu and select “New Post”.

You will then be sent to a new screen where you can start writing your blog content. If you know how to use Microsoft Word, then you will master Blogger in a matter of minutes.
The main areas are your Title and the actual Blog Post Content. Once you are happy with your content and title and ready to go live, all you have to do is click the “Publish” button on the right side of the page.But choose your title as eye catching & content useful to accumulate crowd.

You can also easily change the look and feel of your blog through the use of WordPress Themes. To change your theme, simply click on “Appearance” on the left side menu and then click on “THEMES”.
When you are on the Themes page you will see your existing themes and also add a new theme by clicking on the “Add New” button on the top of the page. This will send you to the WordPress Themes gallery and allow you to upload any other themes you might have.Themes make it look better such that people can enjoy it.

BONUS: Frequently Asked Questions When Blogging

When it comes to doing anything for the first time, we all have questions. To help with this process, I wanted to provide you with some of the most frequent questions I get asked on a daily basis.
How can I get more visitors to my blog?
Did you know that there are currently over a billion active websites and blogs on the internet today? It’s true… and while there are plenty of people already on the internet, that is still a lot of websites and content to compete against. When launching a new website or blog, traffic and visitors to your site might be a bit slow. However, as you continue to come out with new content on your site, rank in the search results and share content with your friends, traffic to your site will continue to grow over time. If you want to implement some actionable methods to start increasing traffic to your site today just read my next post.
When will my site start showing in Google?
Google will automatically find your website or blog once it’s been around for a few days and has some content published and people visiting your site. A great way to speed up this process is to link to your blog from your social profile or anywhere else that might be relevant. Keep in mind, just because your site has been indexed by Google, that doesn’t mean it will necessarily start ranking high in the search results or for generic keywords that you think it should. The process of ranking a site in Google is quite complex.
How can I make money with my blog?
The ultimate goal for many bloggers is to eventually make money with their site and content. I actually wrote a complete guide on how to make money Blogging,read it in my next post. Not only does it break down the process of how to choose a niche market or different monetization methods to use, I also show you real examples of how this is being done today. If you want to find financial success with blogging, it’s all about providing value to your audience. Billions of people are using Google and visiting sites on a daily basis to find solutions to their problems. If your website or blog can help solve those problems, there is a good chance you can start making some money in the process.

Can I get famous from starting a blog?

Often times we will see everyday people become overnight success stories through the use of websites, social media, YouTube and even blogs. The first thing to note is that most of these ‘overnight’ success stories aren’t really overnight and have a lot of blood, sweat, and tears behind them. You can definitely can get famous or become and industry leader within your market through the use of a blog. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish with your site, a lot of things can happen. With a blog, if you put in the time and effort to make it great, you can definitely become famous, successful and even wealthy in the process.

 

BILL GATES:The Richest Guy by Brain

Quick Facts

Name

Bill Gates

Occupation

Business Leader, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

Birth Date

October 28, 1955 (age 61)

Education

Harvard College, Lakeside School

Place of Birth

Seattle, Washington

Full Name

William Henry Gates III

Entrepreneur Bill Gates founded the world's largest software business, Microsoft, with Paul Allen, and subsequently became one of the richest men in the world.

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.”

—Bill Gates.

Brief

Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1955, famed entrepreneur Bill Gates began to show an interest in computer programming at age 13. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics, he and partner Paul Allen built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. In the process, Gates became one of the richest men in the world. In February 2014, Gates announced that he was stepping down as Microsoft's chairman.

Early Life

Bill Gates was born William Henry Gates III on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington. Gates began to show an interest in computer programming at the age of 13 at the Lakeside School. He pursued his passion through college. Striking out on his own with his friend and business partner Paul Allen, Gates found himself at the right place at the right time. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics, he built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. In the process, Gates became one of the richest men in the world.
Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family with two sisters: Kristianne, who is older, and Libby, who is younger. Their father, William H. Gates Sr., was a promising, if somewhat shy, law student when he met his future wife, Mary Maxwell. She was an athletic, outgoing student at the University of Washington, actively involved in student affairs and leadership. The Gates family atmosphere was warm and close, and all three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget Sound. He also relished in playing board games (Risk was his favorite) and excelled at Monopoly.
Bill had a very close relationship with his mother, Mary, who after a brief career as a teacher devoted her time to helping raise the children and working on civic affairs and with charities. She also served on several corporate boards, including those of the First Interstate Bank in Seattle (founded by her grandfather), the United Way and International Business Machines (IBM). She would often take Bill along when she volunteered in schools and at community organizations.

Bill was a voracious reader as a child, spending many hours poring over reference books such as the encyclopedia. Around the age of 11 or 12, Bill's parents began to have concerns about his behavior. He was doing well in school, but he seemed bored and withdrawn at times, and his parents worried he might become a loner. Though they were strong believers in public education, when Bill turned 13, they enrolled him at Seattle's exclusive preparatory Lakeside School. He blossomed in nearly all his subjects, excelling in math and science, but also doing very well in drama and English.
While at Lakeside School, a Seattle computer company offered to provide computer time for the students. The Mother's Club used proceeds from the school's rummage sale to purchase a teletype terminal for students to use. Bill Gates became entranced with what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working on the terminal. He wrote a tic-tac-toe program in BASIC computer language that allowed users to play against the computer.
It was at Lakeside School that Bill met Paul Allen, who was two years his senior. The two became fast friends, bonding over their common enthusiasm for computers, even though they were very different people.

Allen was more reserved and shy. Bill was feisty and at times combative. Regardless of their differences, they both spent much of their free time together working on programs. Occasionally, they disagreed and would clash over who was right or who should run the computer lab. On one occasion, their argument escalated to the point where Allen banned Gates from the computer lab. On another occasion, Gates and Allen had their school computer privileges revoked for taking advantage of software glitches to obtain free computer time from the company that provided the computers. After their probation, they were allowed back in the computer lab when they offered to debug the program. During this time, Gates developed a payroll program for the computer company the boys hacked into and a scheduling program for the school.
In 1970, at the age of 15, Bill Gates went into business with his pal, Paul Allen. They developed "Traf-o-Data," a computer program that monitored traffic patterns in Seattle, and netted $20,000 for their efforts. Gates and Allen wanted to start their own company, but Gates's parents wanted him to finish school and go on to college where they hoped he would work to become a lawyer.
Bill Gates graduated from Lakeside in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the college SAT test, a feat of intellectual achievement that for several years he boasted about when introducing himself to new people.

Initiating Career

Gates enrolled at Harvard University in the fall, originally thinking of a career in law. But his freshman year saw him spend more of his time in the computer lab than in class. Gates did not really have a study regimen. Instead, he could get by on a few hours of sleep, cram for a test, and pass with a reasonable grade.

Gates remained in contact with Paul Allen, who, after attending Washington State University for two years, dropped out and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to work for Honeywell. Around this time, Allen showed Gates an edition of Popular Electronics magazine featuring an article on the Altair 8800 mini-computer kit. Both boys were fascinated with the possibilities that this computer could create in the world of personal computing. The Altair was made by a small company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, called Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). Gates and Allen contacted the company, proclaiming that they were working on a BASIC software program that would run the Altair computer. In reality, they didn't have an Altair to work with or the code to run it, but they wanted to know if MITS was interested in someone developing such software. MITS was, and its president, Ed Roberts, asked the boys for a demonstration. Gates and Allen scrambled, spending the next two months writing the software at Harvard's computer lab. Allen traveled to Albuquerque for a test run at MITS, never having tried it out on an Altair computer. It worked perfectly. Allen was hired at MITS, and Gates soon left Harvard to work with him, much to his parents' dismay. In 1975, Gates and Allen formed a partnership they called Micro-Soft, a blend of "micro-computer" and "software."

Microsoft (Gates and Allen dropped the hyphen in less than a year) started off on shaky footing. Though their BASIC software program for the Altair computer netted the company a fee and royalties, it wasn't meeting their overhead. Microsoft's BASIC software was popular with computer hobbyists, who obtained pre-market copies and were reproducing and distributing them for free. According to Gates's later account, only about 10 percent of the people using BASIC in the Altair computer had actually paid for it. At this time, much of the personal computer enthusiasts were people not in it for the money. They felt the ease of reproduction and distribution allowed them to share software with friends and fellow computer enthusiasts. Bill Gates thought differently. He saw the free distribution of software as stealing, especially when it involved software that was created to be sold.
In February 1976, Gates wrote an open letter to computer hobbyists, saying that continued distribution and use of software without paying for it would "prevent good software from being written." In essence, pirating software would discourage developers from investing time and money into creating quality software. The letter was unpopular with computer enthusiasts, but Gates stuck to his beliefs and would use the threat of innovation as a defense when faced with charges of unfair business practices.

Gates had a more acrimonious relationship with MITS president Ed Roberts, often resulting in shouting matches. The combative Gates clashed with Roberts on software development and the direction of the business. Roberts considered Gates spoiled and obnoxious. In 1977, Roberts sold MITS to another computer company and went back to Georgia to enter medical school and become a country doctor. Gates and Allen were on their own. The pair had to sue the new owner of MITS to retain the software rights they had developed for Altair.
Microsoft wrote software in different formats for other computer companies, and, at the beginning of 1979, Gates moved the company's operations to Bellevue, Washington, just east of Seattle. Gates was glad to be home again in the Pacific Northwest, and threw himself into his work. All 25 employees of the young company had broad responsibilities for all aspects of the operation, product development, business development and marketing. With his acumen for software development and a keen business sense, Gates placed himself as the head of Microsoft, which grossed approximately $2.5 million in 1979. Gates was only 23.

 Microsoft Era Begins

Gates's acumen for not only software development but also business operations put him in the position of leading the company and working as its spokesperson. He personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, often rewriting code himself when he saw it necessary. As the computer industry began to grow with companies like Apple, Intel and IBM developing hardware and components, Bill was continuously out on the road touting the merits of Microsoft software applications. He often took his mother with him. Mary was highly respected and well connected with her membership on several corporate boards, including IBM's. It was through Mary that Bill Gates met the CEO of IBM.

In November 1980, IBM was looking for software that would operate their upcoming personal computer (PC) and approached Microsoft. Legend has it that at the first meeting with Bill Gates someone at IBM mistook him for an office assistant and asked him to serve coffee. Gates did look very young, but he quickly impressed IBM, convincing them that he and his company could meet their needs. The only problem was that Microsoft had not developed the basic operating system that would run IBM's new computers. Not to be stopped, Gates bought an operating system that was developed to run on computers similar to IBM's PC. He made a deal with the software's developer, making Microsoft the exclusive licensing agent and later full owner of the software but not telling them of the IBM deal. The company later sued Microsoft and Gates for withholding important information. Microsoft settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, but neither Gates nor Microsoft admitted to any wrongdoing.

Gates had to adapt the newly purchased software to work for the IBM PC. He delivered it for a $50,000 fee, the same price he had paid for the software in its original form. IBM wanted to buy the source code, which would have given them the information to the operating system. Gates refused, instead proposing that IBM pay a licensing fee for copies of the software sold with their computers. Doing this allowed Microsoft to license the software they called MS-DOS to any other PC manufacturer, should other computer companies clone the IBM PC, which they soon did. Microsoft also released software called Softcard, which allowed Microsoft BASIC to operate on Apple II machines.
Between 1979 and 1981, Microsoft's growth exploded, and staff increased from 25 to 128. Revenue also shot up from $2.5 million to $16 million. In mid-1981 Gates and Allen incorporated Microsoft, and Gates was appointed president and chairman of the board. Allen was named executive vice president.
By 1983, Microsoft was going global with offices in Great Britain and Japan, and with 30 percent of the world's computers running on its software. But 1983 also brought news that rocked Microsoft to its very foundation. Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Though his cancer went into remission a year later with intensive treatment, Allen resigned from company that same year. Rumors abound as to why Allen left Microsoft. Some say Bill Gates pushed him out, but many say it was a life-changing experience for Allen and he saw there were other opportunities that he could invest his time in.

The Invention of Microsoft Windows

Though their rivalry is legend, Microsoft and Apple shared many of their early innovations. In 1981 Apple invited Microsoft to help develop software for Macintosh computers. Some developers were involved in both Microsoft development and the development of Microsoft applications for Macintosh. The collaboration could be seen in some shared names between the Microsoft and Macintosh systems.

It was through this knowledge sharing that Microsoft was to develop Windows, a system that used a mouse to drive a graphic interface, displaying text and images on the screen. This differed greatly from the text-and-keyboard driven MS-DOS system where all text formatting showed on the screen as code and not what actually would be printed. Bill Gates quickly recognized the threat this kind of software might pose for MS-DOS and Microsoft overall. For the unsophisticated user—which was most of the buying public—the graphic imagery of the competing VisiCorp software used in a Macintosh system would be so much easier to use. Gates announced in an advertising campaign that a new Microsoft operating system was about to be developed that would use a graphic interface. It was to be called "Windows," and would be compatible with all PC software products developed on the MS-DOS system. The announcement was a bluff, in that Microsoft had no such program under development. But as a marketing tactic it was sheer genius as nearly 30 percent of the computer market was using the MS-DOS system and would wait for Windows software rather than change to a new system. Without people willing to change formats, software developers were unwilling to write programs for the VisiCorp system and it lost momentum by early 1985.
In November 1985, Bill Gates and Microsoft launched Windows; nearly two years after his announcement. Visually the Windows system looked very similar to the Macintosh system Apple Computer Corporation had introduced nearly two years earlier. Apple had earlier given Microsoft full access to their technology while it was working on making Microsoft products compatible for Apple computers. Gates had advised Apple to license their software but they ignored the advice, being more interested in selling computers. Once again, Gates took full advantage of the situation and created a software format that was strikingly similar to the Macintosh. Apple threatened to sue, and Microsoft retaliated, saying it would delay shipment of its Microsoft-compatible software for Macintosh users. In the end, Microsoft prevailed in the courts because it could prove that while there were similarities in how the two software systems operated, each individual function was distinctly different.

In March 1986, Bill Gates took Microsoft public with an initial public offering (IPO) of $21 per share. Gates held 45 percent of the company's 24.7 million shares and became an instant millionaire at age 31. Gates's stake at that time was $234 million of Microsoft's $520 million. Over time, the company's stock increased in value and split numerous times. In 1987, Bill Gates became a billionaire when the stock raised to $90.75 a share. Since then, Gates has been at the top, or at least near the top, of Forbes's annual list of the top 400 wealthiest people in America. In 1999, with stock prices at an all time high and the stock splitting eight-fold since its IPO, Gates's wealth briefly topped $101 billion.

Yet, Bill Gates never felt totally secure about the status of his company. Always having to look over his shoulder to see where the competition was, he developed a white-hot drive and competitive spirit. Gates expected everyone in the company to have the same dedication. One story of Gates's assistant coming to work early to find someone sleeping under a desk. She considered calling security or the police, until she discovered it was Gates.

Bill Gates's intelligence allowed him to be able to see all sides of the software industry—product development and corporate strategy. When analyzing any corporate move, he would develop a profile of all the possible cases and run through them, asking questions about anything that could possibly happen. His confrontational management style became legend as he would challenge employees and their ideas to keep the creative process going. An unprepared presenter could hear, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" from Gates. But this was as much a test of the rigor of the employee as it was Gates's passion for his company. He was constantly checking the people around him to see if they were really convinced of their ideas.
Outside the company, Bill Gates was gaining a reputation as a ruthless competitor. Several tech companies, led by IBM, began to develop their own operating system, called OS/2, to replace MS-DOS. Rather than give in to the pressure, Gates pushed ahead with the Windows software, improving its operation and expanding its uses. In 1989, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office, which bundled office productivity applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel into one system that was compatible with all Microsoft products. The applications were not as easily compatible with OS/2. Microsoft's new version of Windows sold 100,000 copies in just two weeks, and OS/2 soon faded away. This left Microsoft with a virtual monopoly on operating systems for PCs. Soon the Federal Trade Commission began to investigate Microsoft for unfair marketing practices.
Throughout the 1990s, Microsoft faced a string of Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigations. Some related allegations that Microsoft made unfair deals with computer manufactures who installed the Windows operating system on their computers. Other charges involved Microsoft forcing computer manufactures to sell Microsoft's Internet Explorer as a condition for selling the Windows operating system with their computers.
At one point, Microsoft faced a possible break up of its two divisions—operating systems and software development. Microsoft defended itself, harking back to Bill Gates's earlier battles with software piracy and proclaiming that such restrictions were a threat to innovation. Eventually, Microsoft was able to find a settlement with the federal government to avoid a breakup. Through it all, Gates found some inventive ways to deflect the pressure with lighthearted commercials and public appearances at computer trade shows during which he posed as Star Trek's Mr. Spock. Gates continued to run the company and weather the federal investigations through the 1990s.

Personal Life

In 1987, a 23-year-old Microsoft product manager named Melinda French caught the eye of Bill Gates, then 32. The very bright and organized Melinda was a perfect match for Gates. In time, their relationship grew as they discovered an intimate and intellectual connection. On January 1, 1994, Melinda and Bill were married in Hawaii. But only a few months later heartbreak struck Bill Gates as his mother succumbed to breast cancer, passing away that June. Gates was devastated.
Bill and Melinda took some time off in 1995 to travel to several countries and get a new perspective on life and the world.

In 1996, their first daughter, Jennifer, was born. A year later, Gates moved his family into a 55,000-square-foot, $54-million house on the shore of Lake Washington. Though the house serves as a business center, it is said to be a very cozy home for the couple and their three children. (Their son, Rory, was born in 1999, and a second daughter, Phoebe, arrived in 2002.)

Welfare Efforts

With Melinda's influence, Gates took an interest in filling his mother's role as a civic leader. He began to realize that he had an obligation to give more of his wealth to charity. Being the consummate student he was, Gates studied the philanthropic work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, titans of the American industrial revolution. In 1994, Gates and his wife established the William H. Gates Foundation, which was dedicated to supporting education, world health and investment in low-income communities. In 2000, the couple combined several family foundations to form the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. They started out by making a $28 billion contribution to set up the foundation.
Bill Gates stepped down from the day-to-day operations of Microsoft in 2000, turning over the job of CEO to college friend Steve Ballmer, who had been with Microsoft since 1980. He positioned himself as chief software architect so he could concentrate on what was for him the more passionate side of the business, though he remained chairman of the board.
Over the next few years, his involvement with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation occupied much of his time and even more of his interest. In 2006, Gates announced he was transitioning himself from full-time work at Microsoft to devote more quality time to the foundation. His last full day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008.
In addition to all the accolades of being one of the richest and most successful businessmen in the history of the world, Bill Gates has also received numerous awards for philanthropic work. Time magazine named Gates one of the most influential people of the 20th century. The magazine also named Gates, his wife Melinda and rock band U2's lead singer, Bono, as the 2005 Persons of the Year.

Gates holds several honorary doctorates from universities throughout the world and an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005. In 2006, Gates and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government for their philanthropic work throughout the world in the areas of health and education.
In February 2014, Gates announced that he would be stepping down as chairman of Microsoft in order to move into a new position as technology adviser. In addition to Gates's transition, it was reported that longtime Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer would be replaced by 46-year-old Satya Nadella.
Gates continues to devote much of his time and energy to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The organization tackles international and domestic issues, such as health and education. One aspect of its work in the United States is helping students become college ready. In 2015, Gates spoke out in favor of national Common Core standards in grades K through 12 and charter schools.

Gates also proved to be a groundbreaking employer around this time: The foundation announced that it would give its employees a year's paid leave after the birth of a child or the adoption of a child.
In 2016, Gates and his wife Melinda were recognized for their philanthropic work when they were named recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented by Barack Obama.

 Quotes

1.  “Patience is a key element of success.”
2.  “Success is a lousyteacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
3.  “It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
4.  “If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.”
5.  “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”
6.  “To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks.”
7.  “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
8.  “Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.”
9.  “Life is not fair – get used to it!”
10.  “If geek means you’re willing to study things, and if you think science and engineering matter, I plead guilty. If your culture doesn’t like geeks, you are in real trouble.”
11.  “Don’t compare yourself with anyone in this world. If you do so, you are insulting yourself."
12.  “I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.”
13.  “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
14.  “Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping – they called it opportunity.”
15.  “The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.”
16.  “If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.”
17.  “Expectations are a form of first-class truth: If people believe it, it’s true.”

i STEVE JOBS

Quick Facts

Name

Steve Jobs

Occupation

Inventor

Birth Date

February 24, 1955

Death Date

October 5, 2011

Education

Homestead High School, Reed College

Place of Birth

San Francisco, California

Place of Death

Palo Alto, California

AKA

Steven Jobs

Full Name

Steven Paul Jobs

Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computers with Steve Wozniak. Under Jobs' guidance, the company pioneered a series of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone and iPad.
 “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world? [Jobs inviting an executive to join Apple]”

—Steve Jobs

Brief

Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955, to two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave him up for adoption. Smart but directionless, Jobs experimented with different pursuits before starting Apple Computer with Steve Wozniak in 1976. Apple's revolutionary products, which include the iPod, iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the evolution of modern technology, with Jobs having left the company in 1985 and returning more than a decade later. He died in 2011, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Early Life

Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco, California, to Joanne Schieble (later Joanne Simpson) and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption. His father, Jandali, was a Syrian political science professor, and his mother, Schieble, worked as a speech therapist. Shortly after Steve was placed for adoption, his biological parents married and had another child, Mona Simpson. It was not until Jobs was 27 that he was able to uncover information on his biological parents.
The infant was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked as an accountant and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist. The family lived in Mountain View, California, within the area that would later become known as Silicon Valley. As a boy, Jobs and his father worked on electronics in the family garage. Paul showed his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby that instilled confidence, tenacity and mechanical prowess in young Jobs.

While Jobs was always an intelligent and innovative thinker, his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. Jobs was a prankster in elementary school due to boredom, and his fourth-grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school—a proposal that his parents declined.
A few years later, while Jobs was enrolled at Homestead High School, he was introduced to his future partner Steve Wozniak, who was attending the University of California, Berkeley. In a 2007 interview with PC World, Wozniak spoke about why he and Jobs clicked so well: "We both loved electronics and the way we used to hook up digital chips," Wozniak said. "Very few people, especially back then, had any idea what chips were, how they worked and what they could do. I had designed many computers, so I was way ahead of him in electronics and computer design, but we still had common interests. We both had pretty much sort of an independent attitude about things in the world. ..."

 Apple Computer

 After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes at the school. Jobs later recounted how one course in calligraphy developed his love of typography.
In 1974, Jobs took a position as a video game designer with Atari. Several months later he left the company to find spiritual enlightenment in India, traveling further and experimenting with psychedelic drugs. In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Wozniak started Apple Computer. The duo started in the Jobs family garage, funding their entrepreneurial venture by Jobs selling his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak selling his beloved scientific calculator.

Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by democratizing the technology and making machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive and accessible to everyday consumers. Wozniak conceived of a series of user-friendly personal computers, and—with Jobs in charge of marketing—Apple initially marketed the computers for $666.66 each. The Apple I earned the corporation around $774,000. Three years after the release of Apple's second model, the Apple II, the company's sales increased by 700 percent to $139 million. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publicly traded company, with a market value of $1.2 billion by the end of its very first day of trading. Jobs looked to marketing expert John Sculley of Pepsi-Cola to take over the role of CEO for Apple.

Departure from Company

However, the next several products from Apple suffered significant design flaws, resulting in recalls and consumer disappointment. IBM suddenly surpassed Apple in sales, and Apple had to compete with an IBM/PC-dominated business world. In 1984, Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of a counterculture lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative. But despite positive sales and performance superior to IBM's PCs, the Macintosh was still not IBM-compatible. Sculley believed Jobs was hurting Apple, and the company's executives began to phase him out.
Not actually having had an official title with the company he co-founded, Jobs was pushed into a more marginalized position and thus left Apple in 1985 to begin a new hardware and software enterprise called NeXT, Inc. The following year Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas, which later became Pixar Animation Studios. Believing in Pixar's potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money in the company. The studio went on to produce wildly popular movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles; Pixar's films have collectively netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder.

Reinventing apple

Despite Pixar's success, NeXT, Inc. floundered in its attempts to sell its specialized operating system to mainstream America. Apple eventually bought the company in 1996 for $429 million. The following year, Jobs returned to his post as Apple's CEO.
Just as Steve Jobs instigated Apple's success in the 1970s, he is credited with revitalizing the company in the 1990s. With a new management team, altered stock options and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. His ingenious products (like the iMac), effective branding campaigns and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again.

Pancreatic Cancer

In 2003, Jobs discovered that he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of immediately opting for surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pesco-vegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment options. For nine months, Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple's board of directors nervous. Executives feared that shareholders would pull their stock if word got out that their CEO was ill. But in the end, Jobs' confidentiality took precedence over shareholder disclosure. In 2004, he had a successful surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor. True to form, in subsequent years Jobs disclosed little about his health.

Later Innovations

Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod and iPhone, all of which have dictated the evolution of modern technology. Almost immediately after Apple releases a new product, competitors scramble to produce comparable technologies. Apple's quarterly reports improved significantly in 2007: Stocks were worth $199.99 a share—a record-breaking number at that time—and the company boasted a staggering $1.58 billion profit, an $18 billion surplus in the bank and zero debt.
In 2008, iTunes became the second-biggest music retailer in America—second only to Walmart, fueled by iTunes and iPod sales. Apple has also been ranked No. 1 on Fortune magazine's list of "America's Most Admired Companies," as well as No. 1 among Fortune 500 companies for returns to shareholders.

Personal Life

Early in 2009, reports circulated about Jobs' weight loss, some predicting his health issues had returned, which included a liver transplant. Jobs had responded to these concerns by stating he was dealing with a hormone imbalance. After nearly a year out of the spotlight, Steve Jobs delivered a keynote address at an invite-only Apple event September 9, 2009.
In respect to his personal life, Steve Jobs remained a private man who rarely disclosed information about his family. What is known is Jobs fathered a daughter with girlfriend Chrisann Brennan when he was 23. Jobs denied paternity of his daughter Lisa in court documents, claiming he was sterile. With Chrisann struggling financially for much of her life, Jobs did not initiate a relationship with his daughter until she was 7, but when she was a teenager she came to live with her father.
In the early 1990s, Jobs met Laurene Powell at Stanford business school, where Powell was an MBA student. They married on March 18, 1991, and lived together in Palo Alto, California, with their three children.

Death

On October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that its co-founder had passed away. After battling pancreatic cancer for nearly a decade, Steve Jobs died in Palo Alto. He was 56 years old.

Books and Biopics

A number of books have been written on Jobs' life and career, including an authorized 2011 general biography by Walter Isaacson, a 2012 young adult biography by Karen Blumenthal, and yet another title, 2015's Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli. The Isaacson work was critiqued for the depiction of its main subject by Apple's chief executive Tim Cook, who succeeded Jobs.

Biopics inspired by the computer icon's life have been released as well—namely the critically panned Jobs (2013), starring Ashton Kutcher, and Steve Jobs (2015), starring Michael Fassbender and directed by Danny Boyle.

 Quotes

1.   Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've    done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.

2.  Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

3.  Stay hungry,stay foolish.

4.  Sometimes life hits you in  the head with a brick,don't lose faith & get going.

5.   Think,if today is the last day of your life & do what is your passion & for what you will live for rest hours enjoying doing that.