How LiveProfile Netted a Million Users in Five Days

Cross-platform messaging app LiveProfile recently shot to the top of the App Store charts, adding 1 million users in just five days, doubling its total user pool and taking down its servers. So how did an app that's been around since October for Android (GOOG), and since January for iPhone (AAPL), suddenly achieve such massive success?

The answer might surprise you, especially if you're following the falling star of RIM (RIMM), at least as it's generally depicted in the press. The surge in users is because LiveProfile just introduced a BlackBerry version of its messaging client on Mar. 25. The client offers instant messaging with status updates, message delivery confirmation, and photo/video messaging. LiveProfile's chief executive, Phil Karl, said in an e-mail interview that he thinks LiveProfile's success has a lot to do with the product's advantages over SMS and its "unique feature set and beautiful interface," along with the fact that LiveProfile "is much more than just a messenger," with planned additions to social network features in the pipeline. But Karl also acknowledges that the recent addition of BlackBerry no doubt prompted "rapid growth on all platforms." BlackBerry and Android are currently the fastest-growing platforms for LiveProfile, though the iPhone is "not far behind."

Kik was the last service to offer BBM-style messaging across Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry devices, until RIM pulled the app and began legal proceedings against the company. Kik, too, experienced massive early success before it first ran afoul of users with a spam e-mail campaign, and then the BlackBerry client was pulled, after which it fell out of the App Store rankings. Karl is confident his app won't suffer the same fate. He believes RIM's primary reason for going after Kik was the possibility that a former RIM employee, now Kik's chief executive, brought over and used trade secrets at his new company.

Karl also maintains that LiveProfile is a different type of product. Clearly, though, LiveProfile hopes to capitalize on its similarity to BBM, or it wouldn't have used a typeface for its logo that looks remarkably similar to the one used for BlackBerry's branding. It even provides a PIN number that allows others to add you to their networks.
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7 Great Reasons To Start An Office Cleaning Business

The fear of not earning enough money keeps many people from starting their own office cleaning business. Another common fear is that unless they work for someone else, they will have no real security.

But natural entrepreneurs know that money flows when they, not anyone else, are in charge of their own destinies. My partner Ev and I discovered that we actually earned more money and gained genuine security when we started an office cleaning business.

Instead of giving in to fear, we got motivated and put our efforts into        

designing our lives the way we wanted. Instead of allowing somebody else's dream guide us in a so-called "secure" professional direction, we let our own dreams guide us. We started to make some key business decisions that made sense for our lives. Now we earn great money and we're achieving real security, all because we started a cleaning business of our own.

We started our office cleaning business over nine years ago. Although our schedules are now full of other more creative commitments, we continue to clean offices because the flexible schedule gives us the free time we need to pursue our personal goals, and we like getting paid real well, real often, for real easy work.

When I first joined Ev as he started an office cleaning business I had no idea what I was getting into. I loved the idea of being my own boss, but cleaning had always seemed like drudgery. Ev guaranteed that cleaning would give me time to spend the way I wanted. Since I was ready to take charge of my life, I decided to try it.

I discovered that cleaning is not drudgery when you're getting paid well to do it. I also discovered that working in office environments is a pleasant way to make quick cash. We also clean houses where you have to deal with people. An office is more neutral territory. No one to have to talk to when you really just feel like focusing.

Best of all, I realized that through our diligence and excellent service, Ev and I have provided genuine job security for ourselves all along.

Why do we think starting an office cleaning business is a great idea? Here are 7 reasons why:

1. Unlimited income potential

You can grow your office cleaning business as big as you want. Many recent entrepreneurs have built up their office cleaning businesses up to 100k a year within one year. Try that with a JOB (just over broke). Cleaning franchises are booming nationwide, but franchises are a bad deal for the want-to-be professional cleaner. You go massively into debt before you even get started. Franchises are highly appropriate for oil lube shops and Internet cafes because those are expensive and complicated businesses, office cleaning is not.......
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