JetSetCitizen.com » Entrepreneurship

What is the Best Way to Fund a Travel Lifestyle?

John — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:59:21 +0000

Breakfast in Hungary

Many travelers hope a travel blog is going to provide enough income to have a location independent lifestyle. What could be better than getting paid to write about your travel experiences? The problem is that blogging is one of the most difficult ways to earn an income online. It takes a phenomenal ongoing effort to write and promote posts and even then you have to steer topics towards selling something; you don’t make money by writing an online travel diary. There are much more effective, faster and reliable ways to earn money while traveling.

Want to be a Millionaire?

Imagine if you had one hundred thousand dollars in the bank. In today’s financial climate, you would be pretty lucky to earn a safe 3% per year or $3,000 ($250 per month). That means if you could make $250 per month in regular passive income, it would be the equivalent of having $100,000 in savings. If you could ratchet that up to $2500 per month you would in fact have the income of a millionaire. ($1,000,000 X 3% = $30,000 per year. $30,000 / 12 = $2,500 per month)

Elusive Passive Income

The hard part, of course, is earning the passive income. After all, if it were so easy everyone would be doing it. Many of the travelers I have interviewed are proving that consistent online income is definitely possible. (Check out some of my interviews with Pat Flynn, Kirsty Henderson, Karol Gajda, Nomadic Matt-Mathew Kepnes, etc.) One thing I can attest to, and I know all the people I have interviewed would agree, is that passive income is NOT easy. It takes a lot of upfront work and knowledge of internet marketing. You have to spend hundreds or probably thousands of hours learning until you can consistently deliver profitable results.

If Blogging Doesn’t Work, What Does?

There are people making money blogging, so I know it is not impossible. It is just really, really hard. There are rock stars making millions traveling the world, but there are also countless musicians that play only as a hobby. Becoming a successful A-list blogger is a lot like becoming a rock star. It takes years of dedicated, focused effort and some good luck helps a lot too.

A better alternative to blogging is creating mini-sites to market other people’s products or services. This is often referred to as affiliate marketing. It basically means building a small website to get targeted traffic to sell things. You don’t have to create the products because there are thousands made by others to sell already. You just have to get traffic to a site. If a sale is made through your web site you earn a commission, often around 50%. So for a $100 product, you would earn $50 per sale. Five sales per month would earn you $250, the equivalent of $100,000 in the bank as I mentioned above.

Get Rich Quick (Earn a Decent Income Slowly)

There is a science to getting traffic and finding out what works and doesn’t. It can take years to get that level of marketing and technical sophistication. There are some good training programs to walk newbies through all the steps of creating niche affiliate marketing sites. Some programs can cost thousands dollars, especially if there is a real life seminar, and others are membership programs for $97 per month or more. While I am sure those programs have value, they are a far too pricey for most people starting out.

I have just completed Corbett Barr’s Affiliate Marketing for Beginners course and found it to be a great inexpensive course to get started in affiliate marketing. Corbett walks you through all the steps in choosing topics, researching market potential, finding products to sell, creating mini-sites, search engine optimization and more with a real affiliate marketing example. The best part is that all the modules have comments so that you can ask questions that Corbett will answer. The modules explain everything clearly and concisely without all the hype and pushy sales tactics. Affiliate Marketing for Beginners is relaunching today (August 10th) with a two day discount. The price increases on Thursday.

To be clear, this is not a quick and easy way to riches. It takes time to research niches, find products and start earning commissions. Some of your sites might be successful, some not. Like anything in life, consistent effort and regular improvements are required to find out what works best. My niche sites make almost no money at all. When I got started I didn’t know how to research key words and optimize sites effectively. Actually, I didn’t even bother to find products to sell. I hoped to earn enough from Google Adsense. Well, I know that ads alone don’t earn much income. Now I need to put in the work to implement Corbett’s techniques.

Again, if you don’t have the motivation to implement what you learn in the course then save your money. Corbett makes it clear that his program is about ethical marketing of good products that people want to buy. Creating a sustainable income honestly, takes work and time. If you want to get a good, easy to understand, comprehensive introduction into building mini-sites and Internet market, then Affiliate Marketing for Beginners is good value for the price.

You have probably guessed that I get a commission for selling Corbett’s program (affiliate marketing) . For anyone who buys through the links on this page, I would like to offer an extra mastermind group where we can regularly share our experiences, problems and lessons learned. If you are interested in working through Affiliate Marketing for Beginners with me please email after you go through the course. It would be great to bounce ideas off of others doing similar things. I can show you some of the sites I have and mistakes I have made to hopefully save you some time when you do it for yourself.

How to Learn about Making Money Online

John — Sat, 29 May 2010 02:53:56 +0000

It is difficult to make money online. It is even harder if you avoid all the cheesy sales pitches and fake scarcity building tactics and offer a legitimate product for sale. The problem is that there is so much to learn and so much crap online that it is hard to find real, valuable information and advice.

I believe ThirdTribeMarketing is a great way to learn and be part of a community with some of the top names in blogging. I hate to include sales pitches and affiliate programs on my blogs and so I debated for the last month or so whether or not I should recommend Third Tribe. The only reason I am mentioning it now is because prices are going to more than double from $47 to $97 on June 1st. If you are looking to invest time into learning more about making money online then ThirdTribeMarketing is a great way to go. (And yes, I will make an affiliate commission if you buy through these links.)

While $47 is a lot of money every month, it will be even more expensive next month. They are raising the prices because the forums are popular, they have built up some great content and because they are successful so they can.

The primary reason for joining is to gain access to the forums where you can network with other internet marketing professionals. I personally haven’t gotten too involved in the forums yet but I love the comprehensive case studies with all the successful online marketers. The in-depth interviews are something I can appreciate after doing all the interviews on JetSetCitizen.

Some of the people involved in ThirdTribeMarketing are; Brian Clark and Sonia Simone of CopyBlogger, Darren Rowse of Problogger and Social media superstar, Chris Brogan. Other members and interviewees include John Jantsch of DuctTapeMarketing, Leo Babauta of ZenHabits, Pam Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation, Johnny B. Truant, Chris Garrett, and Dave Navarro.

If you are not going to invest the time to implement the ideas and network in the forums then there is not much point in joining. They are not promising any get rich quick schemes. Success takes hard work and this is no magic solution. It is all about learning from the mistakes and successes of our peers. If you want a safe place to network, ask questions and learn about online marketing and businesses then you will be hard-pressed to do better than ThirdTribeMarketing.

Interview with Entrepreneur and Digital Nomad Corbett Barr

John — Tue, 11 May 2010 06:04:07 +0000

Lifestyle Design Entrepreneur, Corbett Barr

I love watching people succeed through hard work and talent. I often say that we live in amazing times, because anyone with focus and dedication and rise to the top. Corbett Barr is one of those people that I have admired since his blogging beginnings just over a year ago. He has managed to build two popular blogs, start several other business ventures and live location independent in Mexico for a good portion of the year. Corbett has the talent and dedication to accomplish big things. If you want to track the progress of a rising Internet celebrity, than I recommend watching and learning from everything he does.

Please tell us a little about your background

I’m a 30-something former careerist who traded salary and perks for doing what I love and living anywhere.

After growing up in typical American suburbia, I jumped on the career hamster wheel and ended up as a management consultant working for Fortune 500 clients. I traveled across the country and worked on projects that helped giant corporations make more money or become more efficient. It paid well and everyone I worked with was whip-smart, but I never felt fulfilled or completely satisfied doing it.

Eventually, I gave in to that little voice that said, “you’ll never really enjoy a ‘normal career,’ why don’t you start working for yourself so you can live how you really want to?” I started a venture-capital backed startup in Silicon Valley, learned a lot but didn’t succeed wildly, took a sabbatical and realized what I really want is a lifestyle business built around things I love to do. It’s been a long journey, but I’m far more satisfied and happy now, even though I’m earning less and have less traditional “status.”

What type of work does your wife do?

My wife is an artist. She paints big expressive landscape paintings and shows them in galleries in San Francisco, L.A. and other cities. She and I both really love traveling and have pretty similar thoughts about what makes a fulfilling life. We’re both also big on having a central “home base” for 6-9 months a year, as opposed to traveling indefinitely.

Where do you live?

We live in San Francisco for most of the year, although we’ve spent about 11 of the past 16 months traveling throughout Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. We just returned from a 3-month stint in Mexico for the winter.

San Francisco has been home for the past 5 years, and we love it here. It has great weather, progressive people, a small but close-knit fine art community and lots of fun things to do. It is an expensive city, mostly when it comes to housing, but if you really want to be here, you can find a way. We have offset the cost of living over the past year and a half (while I’m getting new businesses off the ground) partly by living in Mexico.

You seem to be constantly experimenting with new business ideas can you please talk about your successes and failures

You’ve noticed I have a lot of projects going on? That’s partly by design, and partly because I change my mind a little too often. I started blogging about a year ago (at FreePursuits) while we were on sabbatical. I didn’t really have any goals for the blog, but found that I really enjoy it and have been able to connect with a lot of awesome people.

Once I started blogging, I saw potential for it as the foundation of a business, but wasn’t really sure how to make it happen. The past year has been an intense learning experience, and I’ve experimented with quite a few different online ventures and business models (blogging, affiliate marketing, email-based Spanish lessons, a Q&A site, etc.). I’ve taken the approach up ’till now of throwing a lot at the wall to see what sticks.

What I kept coming back to is that I really enjoy the process of starting something new and building an audience. Finding customers/readers/visitors once you’ve started something online is what would-be Internet entrepreneurs struggle with most. That’s what ThinkTraffic grew out of. It’s a business focused on helping people build high-traffic websites and blogs. I’m pouring my soul and everything I have learned over the years about building audiences into it. The response has been fantastic so far.

My primary business goal at this point is to do something I love in a way that allows me to live a great lifestyle. It has been just over a year since I made that realization, and I’m finally getting close to where I want to be. I think anyone who decides to make such a radical shift in business/life goals will go through a long period of experimentation and learning. Luckily I already had a foundation in online entrepreneurship (through more “traditional” startups), but someone just starting from scratch might have 3-5 years of learning to do.

Your sites all have a great design and layout, are you doing the design work?

I’m a big believer in attractive and functional design. I don’t have a background in design, but it’s definitely one of my interests. For FreePursuits, I hired a designer named Andrew Lindstrom to develop the design, and I implemented it on top of Thesis. For ThinkTraffic, I created the design from the ground-up myself and built it on top of Thesis as well. Design is one of those things that you can learn on your own (especially given all the fantastic free information on the web) but that takes a long time to get good at. I’m finally starting to like my own designs.

In one of your posts you alluded that lifestyle design is not a good niche to make money can you please explain?

I think a lot of people come to blogging about lifestyle design in the same way that I did. You have a realization that you want to live your life outside of the conventional house/career/kids/suburbs definition, and the concept of lifestyle design appeals to you. So you start blogging about it, without really connecting the dots about how blogging about lifestyle design will help you achieve your own lifestyle design.

There’s a chicken-and-egg problem there. If you’re giving people advice about how to achieve their own ideal lifestyle design, should you have achieved yours first? So, most lifestyle design bloggers have to find a way to attract and retain an audience by talking about lifestyle design without having much expertise.

The success stories in the lifestyle design blogging world are usually people who had prior experience to share, or who went at it in a different way. Chris Guillebeau is probably the biggest success story (aside from Tim Ferriss), and he has been self-employed for life, lived in Africa for years, etc. Not too many others are making a real living from blogging about lifestyle design that I know of. Karol Gadja is starting to have some success, and he has never worked a “traditional” job in his life. He has 10 years of supporting himself online to draw from. Adam Baker is also doing well, but he decided to come at “lifestyle design” from a different angle entirely (personal finance).

The other issue with earning money by focusing on lifestyle design is that it (LD) can have very different definitions from person-to-person. At it’s core, LD is about living how you want to, instead of by society’s traditional rules. It’s a very broad topic. If you wanted to create products or services around the topic as a whole, it would be hard to come up with something appealing and different enough.

How many months do you spend in Mexico every year?

We spent 3 months in Mexico this year, and about 6 last year. I have a feeling we’ll be returning to Mexico again next year, at least for a month or two.

What is it like to stay in Mexico?

Mexico is a fantastic place to live. People are friendly, the food is good, it’s inexpensive and there are some gorgeous beaches. It’s also super easy to get to from the U.S.

We like to live at the beach (I took up surfing last year). Typically, we rent a small apartment or house (with Internet access, of course) and like to move around as little as possible.

What is your cost of living Mexico?

Rent in Mexico can vary widely, depending on where you are, and who you’re renting from. A basic apartment in a small beach town might run $300 to $800 per month, although we have friends who have paid as little as $150 per month. Meals are typically around $20 U.S. equivalent for two, including a beer or cocktail. On the whole, Mexico costs 1/3 to 1/2 of what it costs us to live in S.F.

How do you earn an income?

I mentioned earlier that I’ve experimented with quite a few different projects over the last year. My income sources have changed quite a bit as well as I’ve sold or moved on from project-to-project. Over the past few months, my income has been about half through affiliate marketing (both through Free Pursuits and other standalone affiliate “minisites”), and half through consulting. I’m about to take on a bigger client through Think Traffic and launch a new product, so that mix will change again.

Do you make much income online?

Honestly, I’m not making enough to fully support our lifestyle yet. San Francisco is expensive, as I mentioned, and we haven’t cut back much in how we live. We’re fortunate to be in a position where we can supplement our income with savings and investment for a while. That has shaped my decisions considerably. If we couldn’t support ourselves in this way, I would probably have taken on far more consulting gigs right away and focused more on affiliate marketing.

As for the possibilities of affiliate marketing and blogging, they’re almost unlimited. Darren Rowse mentioned this month that he’s making nearly 7 figures from blogging. I heard Brian Clark of Copyblogger mention that his online businesses gross something like 2.7 million a year. There are countless affiliate marketers making a full-time living. Anything is possible.

Knowing that you can make a full-time living or better as a blogger or affiliate marketer, a better question might be at what cost can you earn such a living. How long does it take to start earning a full-time living? How much effort do you have to put into it? What kind of lifestyle does it lead to? The most insidious part of the whole lifestyle design topic is the belief that someone can create a “passive income” business in a few months, and spend 4 hours or whatever working per week from a beach in Thailand. It takes much more effort than that, and most people want to enjoy what they do for a living as well. Don’t get me started.

My advice? Figure out what you’re passionate about, what you wouldn’t mind putting 2-3 years into, and build something you’re proud of that supports you financially. Then, you can start looking into ways to run parts of the business passively. Trying to build something with the sole goal of working only 4-hours per week is undoubtedly going to lead to failure.

How easy do you think it is to make a living blogging?

I read a piece at Daily Blog Tips this week where Daniel asked some of the most successful bloggers about their work habits. The average blogger on the list worked something like 60-70 hours per week. Some worked up to 100 hours per week. I’m not saying it can’t be done in less, but that’s your competition. You’ll have to put in some serious effort, at least up front.

You are not selling ebooks or membership programs, are they coming in the future?

I have a new product in the works now. It’s a complete beginner’s course in affiliate marketing. The goal of the course is to walk newbies through the entire process of building a profit-earning affiliate marketing minisite from the ground-up. Affiliate marketing is probably the easiest way to get started working online, and everything you learn about creating an affiliate marketing site will help you in any other type of online venture.

There’s no question, if you’re trying to monetize a blog, creating your own product is an absolute must. Advertising is the worst way to monetize a small blog, and creating your own product (ebook, membership site, etc.) is the best. I’m behind my original goals for creating my first information product by a few months. Procrastination and getting distracted by other projects is to blame. That and the warm surf of Mexico.

Do you have any plans to move to another country?

We currently travel with our dog (an 11-year-old Vizsla named Kinsey), and Mexico is an easy destination to bring him along to. We definitely have plans to travel elsewhere for short stints (3 months or less each), but don’t plan to move to another country anytime soon.

What can we expect from Corbett Barr in the future?

Watch for my affiliate marketing for beginners course to launch soon. Beyond that, I’m building ThinkTraffic into the go-to resource for learning how to attract an audience and create raving fans for your website or blog.

Links
ThinkTraffic Helps its clients and readers build high-traffic websites and blogs
FreePursuits Corbett Barr’s blog about life as a digital nomad and what it’s like to live part-time in Mexico
Follow Corbett Barr on Twitter

Why I am so Successful (Hint: It is not because of my over-sized ego)

John — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:38:49 +0000

The Secret of My Success

In a recent email, a reader of this blog asked me how I became so successful. He read in one of my posts about how I moved to Japan on one week’s notice with no job, no work visa and only $1000 to my name and later became a jet-setting global rock star celebrity. (Okay, I added the ‘jet-setting global rock star celebrity part ‘ for added effect. )

Here is the Secret to my Success

The short answer is … I am not successful. Most people, myself included, tend to glamorize or even exaggerate successes and hide set backs or negative aspects of their lives. Don’t believe everything you read or hear because you are only getting the positive side of the story.

I am not rich. I am not famous. I am not particularly smart or talented either. I am just an ordinary person that is not afraid of hard work. When I arrived in Japan more than 13 years I worked a lot to save money and pay down debt. I worked two English teaching jobs and a bar job.

A couple of years later I started teaching private students in my apartment. A year after that, I took those students and opened up my own English school. My wife and I worked 50 to 60 hour weeks for close to 10 years. For several of those years we lived in the same building as our school. We were able to save 50 to 80 percent of our gross income. Our secret was work lots of hours and don’t spend much money.

After several years of frugality, we started to grow tired of working so many hours and started working less. We hired other employees, bought a new car and house. Spent lots of money on furniture and started traveling several times a year. We were just burnt out from working so many hours for so long and we thought buying all the things we wanted would make us happy. Well it didn’t. The happiest times of my life have always been when I had no money and was working insane hours to build a business or work on a project of my choosing. The struggle to achieve is far more rewarding than the actual achievement. More money and more things are nice when you have nothing, but after a certain point they become a burden.

Get Out When the Getting is Good

As you can probably tell, my wife and I should have sold our school several years ago when sales peaked and our expenses were minimal. If we did sell at that time, we would definitely have had a lot of extra money in the bank. We both knew about 4 years ago that it was time to move on to something else but we kept procrastinating and making excuses.. We told ourselves that we had a great lifestyle with a good income and lots of vacation time. Why change when everything was so comfortable?

Finally, enough was enough and last spring I made a public declaration on this blog that we were going to leave Japan and change our careers within one year. It was that deadline and announcement that gave me the fortitude to actually follow through on the plans. I can honestly say that blogging has changed my life.

Three years ago we were spending about $5000 per month on living expenses, now we can get by anywhere on about $2000 and much less in cheaper countries. We are getting back in shape and starting to eat healthy again. I am running regularly and playing a lot more guitar. We are also just starting to get back to work on our other business projects. We aren’t making much money and we don’t expect to for a while yet, but it is nice to see new projects slowly come to fruition.

The Future is Bright but a little Scary Too

We have our fears and worries as well. We have enough savings to last for many years, but we don’t want to blow all of our cash either. We will need to work again, but we want to do it on projects that we are excited about.

We don’t have fat corporate pensions so we are thinking about our retirement and also worried about what will happen if one or both of us has a major accident or illness. Our biggest fears are not finding rewarding ways to spend the rest of our lives. We want to do interesting things but we are afraid that we are getting too old or we don’t have the right experience. (We are 40 and 41 years old.)

Overall, we are extremely happy about where we are in our lives but we also have a lot of regrets about all the things we could have and should have done. We can’t change the past so all we can do is make sure that we are putting in 100% effort everyday into everything we find important in life. I just want to end each day knowing that I lived as much as I could have.

Am I successful?

I don’t have a house in the suburbs with two SUVs parked in the garage. My essential possessions can fit in two bags on an airplane. I don’t have a prestigious career or major accomplishments behind me. I am not successful by any of the popular metrics of society. However, I am happy. I now know that material possessions will never satisfy me so I don’t want them anymore. My wife and I are both healthy and we were fortunate enough to be born in rich countries with good parents. Everything else has been a fantastic bonus. I want to be fully alive each and every day and I am doing that now. Life is good. We live in amazing times.

Are you successful? Please share some of your accomplishments in the comments.

Interview with Superstar Marketer Nathan Hangen of Beyond Blogging

John — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 21:56:44 +0000

Interview with Nathan Hangen of Beyond Blogging

Nathan Hangen is half of the superstar marketing team that published the hugely popular ebook Beyond Blogging recently. Nathan also happens to be in the US military and was stationed in Afghanistan. He shares some of his experiences and advice in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

Well, I’ll start by saying I’m 31 going on 19…feel like I’ve gone back in time over the past few years…much of which has to do with finding myself through my entrepreneurial ventures.

I have a wife, Heather, and 2 kids (a 3rd due any minute).

I’ve worked in every industry you can imagine…fast food, service, retail, manufacturing…etc.When I was 18, I worked for a very big company called Lexis Nexis…and having a job there was like a ticket to retirement. You just didn’t question a job like that. But then suddenly, they started laying off people that had worked there for their entire lives…it was really tough to watch…so I quit and went back to school. I just couldn’t take it being in an environment like that. The magic was gone.

I graduated from school 5 years later (had a family and worked my way through, so it took a while) with a B.S in Psychology and a minor in religion. From there, I worked two “management” jobs until I was laid off a week before Christmas without any warning, severance package, or pat on the ass.

From there, I joined the Army, which gave me a great place to both find myself and appreciate the opportunity we have in this country. As I write this, I have four months left and have been home from Afghanistan for nearly a year.

What is it like to be in the US Army?

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but I’ll say that it’s much less exciting than you’d think. We spend a lot of time in meetings…cleaning…and doing basic soldier training. Every once in a while we get to do the fun stuff, like go to weapons ranges and/or practice real life scenarios, but because of my job, we spend most of our time in an office studying culture and talking about the Middle East.

It’s both boring and challenging because you can’t really vent to anyone but your peers, and there aren’t many of them. The rank structure is a unique challenge…you don’t talk to a superior unless you are “at ease” and speak with respect.

New soldiers look up to you, so you can’t really screw around. It’s a different world behind those gates.

What is it like to be stationed in Afghanistan?

It’s like the dirtiest place you’ve ever been. It’s just like what you see on TV, except that’s the nice part…the rest is just a wasteland. It’s sad really, because the people don’t know any better, but being over there gave me a different perspective on what it’s like to be as fortunate as we are in the US or Europe.

They don’t have running water or 24 hour electricity. In fact, many of the houses there run on generators and that’s in the capital. The rest of the country still builds walls of mud and lives in a stone age type of environment. They have things like cell phones and TV’s, but not many of them. It’s really strange.

The people there are great, and there are a lot of kids without families. Kids start working at around 5 years old doing things like filling potholes and selling phone cards. I made a lot of friends there, many of which I’d trust with my life.

The food is decent…but honestly most of what we had was American style food made for us.

Dangerous? Yeah, but no more than any other war torn country. There were some bombings nearby and a few rocket attacks, but you get used to it. I wasn’t in the “mess” like some guys were, but we did see some crazy stuff.

Is the Army a good way to see the world?

I guess it depends on what parts of the world you want to see

If you love the Middle East…then absolutely

Sure, you can request to be stationed in Europe or Asia, but those assignments are few and far between. However, it is a great way to get out of a place you can’t stand (like me with Ohio). I’ve lived in Missouri, Georgia, and North Carolina since I joined. I spent 8 months in Afghanistan. But aside from that, I haven’t really had a chance to see the world.

How long do you plan on staying in the Army?

I’m over 4 years now and by the time I leave I’ll be at around 4.5. I don’t regret joining, but for me, it’s not something I could make a career out of. I took the best parts of it and used that to improve my life for the next part of my journey, which starts very soon.

How do you earn money online?

Wow, hard to answer this one. How much time do we have?

I started off by selling e-courses, such as Twitter Rockstar. From there, I started selling ebooks and consulting services. I also spent some time freelancing as a content provider (fancy name for writer).

That got me started and helped me bootstrap my business, but now I’ve focused heavily on building assets that I can use to move me to the next level of the game.

I make about 25% of my income selling my own ebooks and courses (Facebook Rockstar, Twitter Rockstar, Claiming Your Destiny, etc), 50% via JV deals (Beyond Blogging, Roark Media, etc), and the rest from affiliate sales and consulting.

I view affiliate income as play money because it isn’t really consistent and it’s not expected. I’ve made anywhere from 10 bucks/month to 3k/month doing that. Most of that money goes into a business savings account or straight into my business to pay for expenses.

Beyond Blogging does really well for Mike and I, both the ebook and the print version. We also just launched a low-key consulting project called the Beyond Blogging Project, which is open to only 50 bloggers and is a way that Mike and I can really dig in and help people succeed. That is my primary focus now, and it’s been very successful.

Please tell us about your recent book, Beyond Blogging?

The concept was to create a modern Think and Grow Rich for bloggers. I wanted to create a volume that was timeless, but still provided specific things that people could use for their own blogging business. As it developed, Mike and I focused heavily on the business side of blogging, rather than the stuff that people get hung up on, like finding a niche, where to put ads, how to create email lists, etc.

We interviewed 6 bloggers as our main effort (Chris Brogan, Chris Garrett, David Risley, Penelope Trunk, Chris Guillebeau, and Gary Vaynerchuk) and did a detailed case study on 9 others (iJustine, Steve Pavlina, Darren Rowse, Brian Clark, Shama Kabani, Michael Dunlop, Pete Cashmore, Jonathan Fields, and John Chow).

All in all, the book is over 200 pages and is jam packed with both entertaining stories and information that you can use to change your business for the better…today. We topped it off with a 5 step blueprint for success based on what we learned from the 15 bloggers we studied.

As for the success of the book itself, we reached 5 figures in the first 24 hours, largely thanks to guys like Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, David Risley, Chris Garret, and others helping with the promotion.

The book still sells regularly on both our site and on Amazon.com. Just recently, we opened up an invite only mastermind group called the Beyond Blogging Project, which we’re using to work hands on with people that want to take their business to the next level. We just started last Friday, and so far, it’s been awesome.

How did you approach all the big name bloggers in Beyond Blogging?

Some were easier than others. Most replied with a yes or no, but there were some that wouldn’t return a single email (John Chow, I’m talking to you).

I met most of them in Las Vegas during Blogworld Expo and I think that really helped them remember who they were helping and why. Mike knew some of these guys very well, and leveraged his network to get guys like Chris Brogan and Chris Garrett.

Guys like Chris Guillebeau were mentors for me early on, so I’d been in touch with him since his blog started.

The key to getting guys like this on your side is not to wait until you need something to contact them. I’d emailed most of them back and forth for months before we even approached them on the issue. I’d guest posted for many of them as well, so the relationship was there already. That was the difference and why it was so successful.

As for getting help with the promotion, all of these guys operate with a high level of integrity, and we knew that they wouldn’t promote the book unless it was good. So our first goal was to make it so.

We sent review copies and stayed in touch throughout the writing process. In the end, they felt like they were part of the project, not just being used so we could namedrop.

Sure, offering a commission helps, but I think the relationships made the difference. We had a lot of offers from people that didn’t want a commission, but just wanted to help out. That was really cool.

In a recent post you said that blogging and ebooks are not a very good way to make money online, can you please elaborate.

Well, let me clarify what I meant there…sure, you can make a few grand selling ebooks, but for most bloggers, that’s not enough to live on. We’ve only got so much great work within us, and selling that work for nickels and dimes, or even for $47 isn’t going to do the job.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great place to start, but unless you want to write an ebook every 4 months for the rest of your life, then you’re going to have to build a real business…which means having something useful to sell. The blog is just a tool. The ebooks are a way to build customer lists and to get your feet wet, but beyond that, you need something bigger.

For example, we turned the Beyond Blogging ebook into a print version on Amazon and a mentorship program. I’m working with another partner to develop solutions for brick and mortar small businesses. I’m creating a monetized podcast with a friend that makes great original music.

I’m trying to think big, and it’s something I encourage everyone to do.

(Here is Nathan’s blog post on this subject.)

What are your future business plans?

Well, I just hinted at a few of them, but aside from that I’m using my blog as a platform to develop JV deals and meet new people. I’m planning a year or two out (at a minimum) and am always working on future partnerships.

Eventually, I hope to build a portfolio of businesses that I can use to launch me into something bigger…such as the tech scene. I’m really interested in virtual environments, 3D, and holograms. That’s where I’m heading.

Of course, in the short-term, I’m still working for that book deal with Wiley

Links
NathenHangen’s Webrepreneur Blog
Follow Nathan on Twitter
Beyond Blogging

Interview with David Horn, Costa Rica Restaurateur

John — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:58:50 +0000

Entrepreneur in Costa Rica, David Horn

Most of us are interested in starting a business but we also want to travel. Why not do both? Entrepreneur and restaurateur David Horn shares his experiences living, working and opening a restaurant in Costa Rica.

How did you end up in Costa Rica?

I was living in New York City after I graduated college, working anywhere between 10 and 18 hour days in the special events and catering business. I hated it and didn’t see any end in sight. I’ve always felt there is more to life than work, work, work so I started looking for opportunities outside of the U.S. I ended up getting hired by a travel agency in San Jose, Costa Rica and, within a few weeks, I packed up my stuff, subleased my apartment and took off to Costa Rica. I figured if things didn’t work out that the worst case scenario would be I’d have a mini-vacation before having to find another job in the U.S.

How did you find that travel agent job?

I posted my resume on a website called TicoJobs and they contacted me.

Is it easy for foreigners to find employment and get work visas in Costa Rica?

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to get a work visa in Costa Rica because you have to prove that a local employee cannot do what you do. However, you can be contracted for your services, so I technically wasn’t an employee. There are a fair amount of jobs for foreigners in Costa Rica but they’re mainly only in 3 areas (tourism, teaching English, and sports gambling). I took a few years of Spanish in high school so I sort of knew the basics but I still felt very awkward getting around. You don’t really NEED to know Spanish there at first, because a lot of Costa Ricans do speak English, however, you’ll be much more unhappy and feel out of place. When you can just throw caution to the wind, go out and talk to people in Spanish, not care if you are right or wrong, that’s when you’ll learn how to speak it and really be able to enjoy living in a foreign country.

What was your salary like compared to living expenses?

It gets tricky comparing cost of living in Costa Rica to the US because it all depends on what you’re talking about. Rent is usually cheaper. You can get a 2-bedroom apartment for about $500 and split it with a roommate. However, people should realize it’s a different country so you can’t expect the apartments to be the same there as they are in the U.S. Transportation is easy because they have a plethora of buses that go just about anywhere and cost less than $1 to ride, however, it does take a while. Taxis are everywhere and cost between $5 and $10 to go most places in and around the city. Internet is about the same as it is in the U.S. Nightlife is way cheaper than in the U.S. Some of the night clubs I went to cost between $15 and $20 for an open bar between 9am – 1pm. Groceries are more expensive, especially if you want to buy anything that is imported. Electronics and cars are super expensive, twice as much as they are in the U.S., again, because they have to be imported and the government taxes them a lot. In order to save in Costa Rica, you have to change your lifestyle. You can’t live like you do in the U.S., buying a lot of products. You should look to the locals to see what they do and try to implement some of their habits into how you live. That will help you save money.

What is the quality of life like in Costa Rica?

The average salary of a Costa Rican is about $400 per month. For someone that is college educated, I believe it’s about $600 per month. When you first get there, it just baffles your mind. However, you come to understand and accept it and see that they are very happy. Costa Rica consistently ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. As an American, you can expect to make more, around $1000 per month I would say is normal. If you can find a job that pays more, then you will be able to save some money. I didn’t go there to save money but I actually was able to, although I worked very hard to do so. I was in sales so I was paid solely on commission and was able to make, on average, about $1,500 – $2,000 per month. Regarding crime, I’m sad to say that it seems to be getting worse there. The first two years that I lived there, I didn’t hear about that much crime. However, in the last two years that I was there, I knew of a lot of people that were robbed or mugged. The majority of crime there is not violent, mostly petty theft, however I feel that the government really needs to step it up and cut back on crime.

Why did you open a restaurant and why Costa Rica?

I’ve always wanted to own a restaurant because I love food and cooking. One day at dinner, one of my best friends, who worked at the travel agency with me, said, “Dave, why don’t we open a restaurant?”. We were both ready for something new and just went for it. It took about a year to open from the time we had that conversation because it took us months to find a location for rent that we could afford and we felt would work. Starting a business in Costa Rica is a lot cheaper because labor is so cheap. Also, laws are not as strict there so you don’t get as bogged down in permits, regulations, etc.

Please tell us about your restaurant.

It’s called Picante Grill. Picante means spicy in Spanish. Costa Ricans love fast food so we wanted to do fast food but using fresh ingredients made to order in a clean, modern atmosphere. We believe that eating fast food doesn’t mean you have to eat crappy tasting food in a cheesy environment. The cuisine is Mexican inspired American food including tacos, burritos, quesadillas, salads and soups. You can find our menu online at PicanteGrillCR.

Is your partner a Costa Rican?

My business partner is American as well. However, we do have two Costa Ricans involved in our business because it’s very helpful to do so. You’ll have a greater struggle if you try to do it on your own. Costa Ricans are a tight knit bunch so you’ll do yourself a favor by integrating yourself.

Can small businesses like restaurants or bed and breakfasts make a decent income?

With any restaurant, don’t expect to make an income before two years of being in business. Make sure you have savings. It’s a tough industry. We opened right around the time of the financial meltdown. Fortunately, we’re still open today. In my honest opinion, making a living online is going to become more and more popular because of how difficult running brick-and-mortar businesses is becoming.

Is it easy to get long-term visas to open up a business in Costa Rica?

As far as I know, there are only a few ways to be able to live in Costa Rica legally. You can retire, marry a Costa Rican, or open a business that employs Costa Rican staff. The biggest difficulty in Costa Rica is the amount of time it takes to do things. It’s very bureaucratic and SLOW.

Do have regrets about opening the restaurant?

Opening the restaurant was a great experience for me as it was my first business venture. I don’t regret it as it helped me further redefine what I like and don’t like professionally. Personally, I liked my staff as people but dealing with employee matters ate up so much of my day. Like I eluded to earlier, I think more and more people are going to move away from brick-and-mortar businesses. You realize that it’s so much work for a limited number of potential customers. You can do the same amount of work with an online business but your potential customer base expands astronomically. My next venture is an Internet business selling t-shirts and underwear, BareYourTaboo . I hope to have the site fully operational by January 30th.

What do you like and don’t like about your life now?

I’m back in the U.S. now. I love that I can see my family all the time. That was the hardest thing for me living in another country, only being able to see them once or twice a year. I think that, as Americans, we don’t always put a big emphasis on family. Living in Costa Rica helped me realize that. In Costa Rica, most kids live at home until they are married. They eat together as a family, go on vacations as a family, spend weekends together. I also love being back in the U.S. because, food-wise, it’s much more diverse. I love being able to go eat Thai, Spanish, Indian, Vietnamese, etc. There aren’t as many options in Costa Rica but I learned to get by and be resourceful. As far as things I don’t like, although I’m not really involved in the rat-race, I don’t like hearing about it. When I hear people gloating about some new car or TV they bought, it makes me sick, honestly. I’m not against buying nice things but they should be to make yourself feel better, not to brag to others about. The thing I don’t like the most about living here is the cold weather. In San Jose, where I lived, it’s 80 degrees every day, year-round!

What advice would you offer for others thinking of moving abroad and starting a business?

As for making the move and starting a business, I’d say, “go for it!”. Life is too short to sit on your ass and keep thinking about it. The only way you’ll ever know if you’ll like it or be successful is if you do it. Remember that there is a good chance you may not like it and/or fail and that it’s OK! Most people are so afraid to fail that it prevents them from ever truly experiencing life. As for living in Costa Rica or any foreign country, be humble and remember that you are living in THEIR country. Look at is a learning experience, not as a way for you to implement your lifestyle on them. Nothing would make me angrier than hearing my fellow countrymen in a bank or restaurant and shouting at the employees, “This wouldn’t happen in America!”. If you’re not ready to truly be open-minded and willing to change, moving to another country is probably not for you.

If anyone has any questions they can contact me at: davidhorn@picantegrillcr.com

Links
Picante Grill David Horn’s restaurant in Costa Rica
Bare Your Taboo David’s next project selling t-shirts and underwear
David’s Interview with Greg Rollett on RockStarLifestyleDesign.com

Interview with Pat Flynn, $200,000 per year in 15 minutes a day!

John — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:54:06 +0000

Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com

Regular readers of this blog will know that I am a little skeptical about making easy money online. The people who say it is easy are generally trying to sell you something. I have found someone that is proving me wrong. Pat Flynn created a $200,000 a year passive income stream in a few short months. It now takes less than 15 minutes a day to maintain. Pat offers extensive details into his business and his advice for online entrepreneurs in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

Before we start, I just wanted to say thanks for the opportunity to share my story with you and your readers. Looking back, I never would of fathomed the idea of anyone interviewing me about anything, unless it was for a job interview or something like that. I am deeply humbled, and I hope I can provide you with some inspiring and useful answers.

My background is actually in the field of architecture. I went to school at the University of California at Berkeley and graduated with a B.A. in Architecture in 2005. I immediately began working for an amazing architecture firm in Northern California, doing a lot of CAD design and planning for multi-million dollar projects. I soon moved to Southern California, and worked in a branch office of the same company. Work was great, life was good, no complaints.

My plan at this time was to become as educated as possible in the field so I could eventually become a project manager and possibly start my own firm. It had been a life long dream of mine to start my own business, so I was really into getting ahead in my career so I could reach this goal as soon as humanly possible. Part of this plan included passing the LEED exam, which is an exam that is administered by the United States Green Building Council, who created LEED to steer people in the architecture and building industry toward designing green, sustainable and environmentally friendly buildings. My guess is that you’ve never heard of this program before, but they are doing wonderful things to make our world a better place.

So, without any intention of making money online or sharing my information with people, I used a blog to electronically write my study notes for this exam. Day after day, I’d organize my thoughts into blog posts, with certain categories and tags to keep track of everything for me. I’m really into being efficient with my time, so I would study from my online notes during my lunch hour, or during my breaks at my job. Needless to say, this helped me tremendously, and I ended up passing the exam. I was super stoked to hopefully work on some sustainable buildings in the near future.

And this is where my story really begins…

How did you get started with your online marketing ventures?

Life is funny.

Right when you believe things are going well, life can throw you a curve ball and things can go down the tube rather quickly. Like a head on collision at the peak of a hill, I was laid off from a job that I really did love.

It just didn’t feel right.

I put in so much hard work just to be let go. I don’t blame myself, or even my company, because soon after I was let go, the branch office folded and everyone was let go too. There are just times like this when you cannot control these kinds of things, and this was one of them.

I was devastated, but I soon realized that crying about it wasn’t going to get me anywhere. It wasn’t going to get my job back, it wasn’t going to pay me a salary, and it wasn’t going to help pay for my wedding that was less than 6 months away. I had to figure something out.

I went back to my blog that I created for my exam notes, and after some investigation, I noticed that a few hundred people a day from all around the world were visiting my blog. I didn’t even know it, but Google had picked up my notes, and when people searched for tips to help them study for the exam, they found my site. I had learned through some podcasts I listened to (on my commute to work), that doing business on the internet could be very fulfilling, and it was indeed possible to make a living online. So, I decided to go full force with my “notes site”, and turn it into a full-fledged LEED exam prep business: GreenExamAcademy.com. I made it my goal to provide people with an easy, organized, and helpful website to make passing the LEED exam much easier, and less of a headache for people.

When I look back and think about my lay off, it was actually one of the best things that could ever happen. A blessing in disguise.

You made more than $200,000 last year, please tell us how.

Most of my income came directly from my exam website. I had started off monetizing it using Adsense, then I moved into selling advertising space, and eventually I created my own information products, such as eBooks and Audio Guides, which skyrocketed my income. There are a few reasons why I think my business performed as well as it did:

1) First, because I had published my notes online, Google picked them up and I ranked really high for keywords relative to this niche. I spent zero dollars in advertising, since most of my traffic came from organic searches in Google and by word of mouth. Lesson: post keyword rich articles and blog posts related to your niche, and people will eventually find you and what you have to offer.

2) Secondly, because I had really good free content that was published frequently, I became an “authority” in this niche, meaning – I had become the “go-to” person for any exam help people needed. Because I was an authority, when I came out with my eBook and Audio Guides, they weren’t hard to sell. As you can see, it’s not that difficult to become an authority. I wasn’t an expert, but because I had published great content about a particular subject, I became the expert. It takes time and dedication, but those are two things I had with this website because it was something I was very passionate about.

3) Lastly, I believe that the more you can help others, the more successful and profitable you will be. My primary intention for this website was not to make as much money as possible, but rather to help as many people as possible. I knew that if I could do that, good karma would come my way, and I would be able to make a living as a result. Helping people is what I love to do.

You say that it only takes you about 15 minutes a day to earn that income, is that correct?

Because of how my business is structured, I now only need to work up to 15 minutes a day on this site, mainly answering comments and emails that I get from time to time. Let me explain a little more in depth. The way my business works is this:

People visit my site, either by finding me in the search engines, a link on another website, or by word of mouth. If they are interested in the information products I have to offer, they click an “add to cart” button, and checkout. After they enter their billing information, and press “ok”, an email is automatically sent to them along with a link to download their electronic product. At the same time, money goes into my account.

I am not needed at all to complete a transaction, as you can see. There is no need for me to be on the phone to collect orders, or stand behind a cash register. There’s no need for me to take a physical product, package it, and stand in line at the post office to ship. My business is totally location independent, and I can literally make money in my sleep. That’s the beauty of doing business online. Your online “store” is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year (even on holidays), to anyone in the world who has access to the internet.

There are many services that you can use to build this type of passive income business online. In particular, I use e-Junkie.com to make this all happen.

How many hours in total did it take you to set it up originally?

I’m glad you asked this question, because setting up a business like this does take a lot of time.

Remember, I had my blog up with my notes for a few months before traffic started coming in, and before I even began monetizing it. I setup the blog entirely on my own, which took a good 2 weeks because I really had no idea where to start (and this was before I began writing any of my notes!). I wish I knew that I could outsource this kind of work, because it probably would have been done in a day. To be honest, it was just a WordPress blog with a free theme, that was on a self-hosted site. In total, it cost less than 100 bucks for a year’s worth of hosting.

After I decided to turn my blog into a business, it took about 3 weeks to really optimize it for everyone who was visiting the site. I created more charts and helpful tips for the exam, and laid out a very clear study plan for people who were absolutely lost on where to begin.

When I finally decided to write my own study guide (I really wish I had done it earlier!), it took about 1.5 months to complete the entire thing and get it from my head onto the site for sale. I can’t really say how many hours that is in total, but I hope you can see that this was definitely not a “get rich quick” type of deal.

Once I had some money coming in, I began to reinvest in my business. I hired a Search Engine Optimization specialist (via elance.com) to optimize my site for certain keywords, as well as a graphic designer to design a custom WordPress theme.

That being said, $200k after one year is a great payoff for all of that initial hard work. That is what earning a passive income online is all about. It’s about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later.

How long do you think you can keep making money from GreenExamAcademy?

I believe I can continue to generate an income from this site because, as I said before, I have established myself as one of the authorities and leaders in this particular niche, and I don’t see it going away anytime soon. When you get to a point where you know people are telling others about your site via word of mouth, which by definition for some people is actually considered “going viral”, you’ve got great potential for a long term stream of income on your hands. In addition, I’m always looking to improve the site and add new things and adapt as times change, because I really do care about providing the best and most helpful information to people.

I do, however, anticipate a slight drop of sales in the future, mainly because the USGBC is coming out with their own study material. Although this will obviously take some customers away, I actually see it as a good thing, because it gives people more options to help them study for their exams, and I’m pretty sure that because I’m a one-person team, my price point will be much lower, so I will still have that advantage in comparison. Additionally, some people just naturally like to help “the little guy” like me out and since I have a trusted and proven brand, I’m sure I’ll continue to see an income.

Now that you have done it once, can you duplicate this success, or was it a lucky break?

I do consider myself a lucky person, however I don’t consider my success entirely lucky. I was shown an opportunity and I acted on it, and I definitely wouldn’t be where I’m at today without the hard work and determination I put in up front. Maybe it’s because I had no choice but to succeed, because of my lay off, but as I mentioned before, my lay off was a blessing in disguise. It actually unveiled what opportunities I actually had in front of me.

As far as duplicating my success, I’ve actually begun to do quite successful in a niche that is over-saturated, that many people say to stay away from: the “making money online”, or “internet business” industry. Just like I did before, I started the Smart Passive Income Blog with the primary purpose of teaching myself and others about internet business, using my other blog as a model. For over a year now, I’ve consistently provided people with great content, tools, tips and tricks to help them succeed online. Just as I saw on my other site, my traffic is growing more and more each week, and I’m actually at a point where I feel I do have a bit of authority in this niche, where I could possibly introduce some kind of product. That being said, I don’t believe I’ll be coming out with any products to sell anytime soon. Why? Because I don’t need to. I am happy with the money and lifestyle I have now. I get to work 15 minutes a day on my exam website, and a couple hours writing blog posts and making videos every other day for the other, and I spend the rest of my time with my family at home, or going to the gym, and doing many of the things I wouldn’t be able to do if I was still working a 9 to 5 job.

Do you have any advice or secrets for people looking to make big passive income?

There aren’t really any secrets to success anymore. I think we live in a time where many of us do know what it takes to succeed, we’re just too scared, or too lazy to actually do it. If you really, and I mean REALLY want to succeed, you’ll naturally find out exactly what you have to do and you’ll crush it.

My main piece of advice would be to get something started now. Like I always say, every day you don’t have something online for sale is a day of potential profits lost. It takes time to become successful online in the way that I did, and the hardest part is knowing just that. I’ve seen so many people with so many great ideas fail because they just don’t see results right away. If you’re selecting a niche or market to get into, look into the future. Do you see yourself still being passionate and excited about what you want to do 6 months from now, 1 year from now, 5 years from now? If not, then you’d better try something else that you know you’ll stick with. Why wouldn’t you?

Lastly, don’t worry about being perfect. Nobody is perfect, but for some reason we all think everything has to be perfect in order launch a blog, sell a product, or become successful online. You don’t have to be perfect. So many people will work so hard trying to get every part of the puzzle in place, and what usually happens is that because of this, so much time has passed that they missed their window of opportunity. Get something started now and put content online, and worry about perfection later.

If anyone has any additional questions, or you just want to say hello, feel free to come by my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/smartpassiveincome. Thank you again, John, for the wonderful interview questions! It was a pleasure!

Cheers!

Links
Smart Passive Income Blog
SmartPassiveIncome on Facebook
Follow Pat Flynn on Twitter
GreenExamAcademy.com Pat Flynn’s $200,000 passive income site.

Interview with IttyBiz founder and Small Business Guru, Naomi Dunford

John — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:33:15 +0000

Interview with Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz.com

Whether you are interested in travel, lifestyle design, or competitive basket weaving, we all need to earn a living. There is no better source than Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz.com for making money from a small business. Naomi has managed to build a $200,000 a year business in just a couple of years. Part of her success stems from her ability to make great business content humorous and entertaining. Her blog posts always manage to get a few chuckles out of me. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

Please tell us a little about your history and how you started IttyBiz.com.

I started IttyBiz in late 2007 after realizing I was completely unemployable. My son had just turned one and I didn’t want to send him to daycare. Plus, my earnings capacity at that time was basically zilcho. I knew if I was going to make any money, it was on my head.

The reason I started IttyBiz.com instead of HowToKickAssAtMacrame.com or TheProblemWithCannibalism.com because there was a massive hole in the market when it came to marketing. People were giving big biz advice — advice to marketing executives at companies like Coke — and “small biz” advice — keeping in mind that the government definition of small business is one with fewer than 500 employees. 500 employees is “small”? You’ve got to be kidding me. Nobody in the online sphere was really helping the little guy. When you consider that 80% of the companies in the US are sole proprietorships, that’s ridiculous.

You have said that you made more than $200,000 this year, How exactly do you make money?

Magic. Duh. Oh, you mean seriously? I have several revenue streams, all of which come via IttyBiz. I have several products people can buy so they don’t have to hire a marketing consultant… audio courses, home studies, ebooks, classes, that sort of thing. I have a monthly membership program called the SpeakEasy where people get a class every week. I’m an affiliate for some products. And I offer small business marketing consulting.

Can you please give a rough breakdown on what percentage of your income comes from each source?

Products and downloads – 40%
Teaching classes – 40% (I’m assuming you’re including the SpeakEasy here.)
Consulting and coaching – 10%
Affiliate marketing – 10%
Niche sites – 0%. (At this point, the income that I make from other sources makes the maintenance too expensive. I’d have to pay an assistant to deal with them, and they don’t make me any money if I have to outsource the administration.)

Why did you stop doing writing services like copy writing and sales pages?

Because I hated them. That and I was doing so much writing of my own that I didn’t have any brain left to write for anybody else. When you write people’s copy, you have to become that person (or their product) for a while, and to do it well, you have to be very immersed in it. I didn’t have the time or the brain space and it was just stressing me out.

Would you recommend niche sites to others starting out online?

Only as a last resort or backup method for people who want to diversify. The effort to reward ratio is really, really low. If you don’t have any other immediately marketable skills and just want to get some equity, they’re not bad. But if there’s anything else you COULD be doing to make money online, do that instead. Take the time you would take making niche sites and use it to brand build your other thing.

How did you initially get traffic and subscribers to IttyBiz.com?

I launched IttyBiz by donating a prize to Darren Rowse’s Problogger Third Birthday Bash. I also created a concurrent contest on my own site. I emailed everybody who entered Darren’s contest (I didn’t have their email addresses — I had to find them based on the sites they linked to in their Problogger comments) and invited them to IttyBiz. Then I emailed all the other prize donors, doing the same thing. I think I sent about 400 personalized emails in about two days. Then, to enter the contest on IttyBiz, you had to leave a comment saying what your biggest questions were regarding starting or running your own business. That gave me a month’s worth of blog post ideas and several hundred subscribers right off the bat. It pretty much grew from there.

What did you do to launch your first IttyBitty package?

Not much. I didn’t have an email list yet, so I pretty much just announced on the blog. It was discounted a bit — down to $99 from $129 — but we just kinda told them they had to buy by Day X to get the cheap price. And, nice people that they are, they did.

How important have joint ventures or collaborative efforts been to your success?

Incredibly. Financially, of course, it’s great to make money off somebody else’s list. But more importantly, it’s given me the chance to hold the attention of people I never would have otherwise had access to.

You have a very direct writing style, using many colorful (read that as vulgar ) words, do you feel that has helped to fuel your success?

Definitely, for two reasons. One, and this has nothing to do with the swearing itself, I differentiate myself from my competitors. Let’s face it… most business blogs are pretty dry. Mine is a lot of things, but dry it ain’t. Two, we’ve provided a safe place for the people who would never read a normal business blog. We’ve created a whole new market. Freaky, scrappy people who would never be caught dead in a suit or at a Toastmasters meeting can hang out and feel welcome and not want to throw up at all the damn buzzwords. And any time you can create a new market, you’re golden.

You have mentioned that the biggest mistake many small online businesses make is releasing a product too soon. Can you please explain that?

If you release a product too soon, a couple of things happen. One, you don’t get paid well for your time. SEO School took a LONG time to write. Marketing School took about four times that. If I had done all that work and gotten 20 sales, I would’ve been seriously disappointed and disillusioned, not to mention broke because I would’ve had to place my efforts in the product to the exclusion of other money making ventures.

The other problem is social proof. If you release a product and you don’t have a critical mass of people to buy it, nobody talks about it. There’s no chance for buzz or anticipation or people talking about how much they’re looking forward to it on Twitter. That hurts your sales, both of this product and subsequent ones. Because if people think you weren’t worth talking about the first time around, you’re not worth talking about now.

Many people seem to be trying for easy passive income and low hour work weeks, is that realistic?

Not at the beginning, no. At the beginning, you work your fucking ass off and get nothing in return. (Read this post for a primer: How to become Rich and Famous on the Internet.)

But if you work your ass off strategically, if you pay attention to your personal networks and your brand, if you basically pull a Gary Vaynerchuk, then yeah. You can do it. If I quit right now and never did another lick of work again, never wrote another email or blog post, I could have money for a long time. Not a lot of money, but enough to live off. I’d probably have to kick the pumpkin latte habit, though.

If you could go back to the beginning of IttyBiz, what would you do different?

I would have created more concrete goals. When I started, I was so desperate to just make some goddamn money already, I didn’t care what I did to get it. As a result, some of my efforts were pretty scattershot. Had I been more focused, I think I could’ve accomplished the things I wanted to do a lot sooner.

Links
IttyBiz.com
Follow Naomi Dunford on Twitter

Review of the fantastic book, Juggle: Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life

John — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:55:13 +0000

Juggle: Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life by Ian Sanders

I have recently had the opportunity to read an inspiring book on lifestyle design and the future of work called, Juggle: Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life. Author Ian Sanders has some great ideas about the some of the biggest career and lifestyle design issues we are all facing. The book is loaded practical examples about how to live a “portfolio lifestyle” including quotes and interviews with Gary Vaynerchuk and Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, Kevin Roberts.

“You can choose to become a Juggler, to throw the rules out of the window, to create a life where you mix stuff you do for love and stuff you do for money. A life where you re-define success not by a salary package alone buy by freedom, enjoyment, flexibility and lifestyle. Where work is an extension of You, reflecting your personality, your talents and desires; where you juggle different projects to be stimulated as well as to earn a living.”

Think PassionS NOT Passion

Many of us are looking for our true calling in life. If only we could find that one thing that we are so excited about, work would be become joy. With endless career options available, it is hard to narrow it down to one single choice. Ian Sanders has a better way to look at it. We all have a plurality of interests and goals, rather than shutting off different parts of our lives we can really have it all. Ian provides many examples, including his own, of people with multiple callings. Not only is it possible to pursue several interests simultaneously, it may also make financial sense:

“That plurality is not just driven by our tastes and passions. There are also good economic reasons to have broad talents. A business with multiple products generating multiple revenue streams or an executive with strengths in more than one area have the potential to be more recession proof.”

“Forget Work/Life Balance, it’s more Work/Play Integration”

We are all seeking some type of balance in our lives. Family is everything but we also need to earn a living and our careers can be a great outlet for personal development and growth if we choose wisely. Ian Sanders argues that balance is not the answer; a more effective approach is work/life integration.

“There’s no neat divide between home and work. When you’re working, you still think of personal stuff, and when you’re not at work – in the shower, in the car, doing the shopping – that’s when you’ll have clarity for problem solving or thoughts for topping up your to-do list.”

“Whether it’s the shower, the run or having a coffee- that’s when we have ideas, sparks of inspiration, consistently and effectively. And that’s how -for me – work and play are interlinked, not neatly separated.”

“Work is not a place you go, it’s what you do, it’s part of your DNA.”

A lot of us seem to be hung up defining work by where it is done; you can work in a cubicle, work at home, work as a nomad, work from abroad. Why should work be defined by place? Here are some great quotes:

“Work is no longer somewhere we clock in and out of; it’s a mindset that we dip in and out of.”

“It’s not where you did it, or what hours you worked. It’s just about results.”

“We are nomadic, working from airplanes, trains, wherever. There are no rules and no walls to where and how we work.”

Are you Real?

Another key point in Juggling is about celebrating who we really are. Authenticity is everything. It is okay to be an accountant by day and play in a punk rock band at night. If those are your passions, than why not do both? When anyone can go a quick Google search and find out everything about us, it is no longer possible to segment or hide the different parts of our lives. We are everything we do.

“Juggling is having the confidence to carve out your own areas and proclaim ‘this is who I am’ regardless of perception and conforming to convention.”

The Juggler’s Manifesto

(From the end of the book. Included with permission.)

1. FORGET SPECIALISM, discover the value of being across more than one discipline. Sticking to just one thing limits your potential; place no limits on what you do and become more fulfilled.
2. BE PASSIONATE about all you do; let your passions and desires inform and shape your work life.
3. BE ADEPT AT GEAR-SHIFTING, from segueing from the huge to the tiny, from work to play.
4. MAKE TIME FOR PLAY. Being a successful Juggler is about working hard but also mixing up work and play, and using playtime as your inspiration and stimulation.
5. BE A CHAMELEON, FLEXIBLE AND ADAPTABLE. Rethink all you do, be happy to change the rules again and again. Don’t stay entrenched in rigid ideas of how things should be done.
6. THE BEST PLAN IS A NON-PLAN. Success in the knowledge economy is about making it up as you go along.
7. USE YOUR INSTINCT (every time) in making decisions, in deciding what to do and what not to do.
8. RE-DEFINE PERSONAL SUCCESS not by a salary package alone but by more important currency such as, did you get to see your kids’s sports day, do you work with a decent bunch of people, did you take enough holiday this year?
9. GO BEYOND A JOB TITLE and carve out a unique You-role. Do it your way, be authentic. Take control.
10. DEVELOP A PERSONAL BRAND to unite and communicate your strengths.
11. WORK HARD BUT WORK SMART. Whilst success relies on you working hard it’s also about doing what you love; and when you do what you love, it doesn’t feel so much like work.
12. HAVE LOTS OF SELF-BELIEVE AND SELF-CONFIDENCE. Have a positive outlook, be an optimist. Don’t whinge!
13. BE A PIONEER, with no fear of the unknown. Be happy to learn new stuff, embrace new ideas.
14. HAVE PURPOSE IN ALL YOU DO. Focus on making a difference and leaving a legacy.

I highly recommend this book to anyone struggling to find meaning in their work and seeking a more fulfilling life. Ian Sanders shows how we can have a plurality of rewarding careers AND a great family life at the same time.

Links
Juggle Summary on ChangeThis.com
Ian Sanders’ Books
Ian Sanders Blog
Follow Ian on Twitter

How to Make Any Work More Enjoyable

John — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:28:08 +0000

You think your job is bad? These guys were laying asphalt in 35 degrees Celsius!

Most of us hate our jobs. We hate dealing with irate customers, inept bosses, lazy co-workers and work that is mind-numbingly tedious. Work sucks so we fantasize about magical places where we can do whatever we want and make wheel-barrel loads of money, maybe even get our picture on the cover of a magazine somewhere. That is the life the life of the entrepreneur. Digital nomads or location independent professionals have it even better. They get to travel to exotic locations around the world while earning a great income from anywhere with an Internet connection. Ah… the good life indeed!

Is the Grass Really that Green?

The problem is that starting your own business or working from another country still involve the very thing you are trying to escape: WORK. In fact, working for yourself generally has more responsibilities and requires more hours and effort than working for others.

I have been running my own businesses and living abroad for more than a decade, so I can definitely recommend both choices to anyone. However, I feel it is healthier to approach big lifestyle changes like entrepreneurship and a nomadic lifestyle from a personal growth perspective, rather than just escaping your job routine.

If you are unable to find good in the work you are currently doing, it is unlikely that you will find it in starting your own business or trying to work from exotic locations around the world. Work is work, no matter if you are your own boss or you are doing it while traveling. If you had difficultly motivating yourself in the past, those same problems will likely continue to exist in your own ventures

I believe that people who can justify mediocre effort to themselves in one area of their life find it easier to make excuses for all areas of their life. Musicians and athletes in particular understand the necessity of endless hours of practice so they typically put that same effort into their work and businesses. People willing to put in a minimum level of effort in their work, are also probably quick to give up learning foreign languages, practicing musical instruments or exercise. Work can be a chance to showcase your quality as an individual if you rise up to the opportunity. Here are some ways to make any job more personally rewarding.

Dealing with Boring Work

When your work is repetitive and dull, look inward to focus your thoughts. Concentrate on exactly what it is you are doing. Really feel and appreciate every breath, every moment. This is the essence of mediation. You do not need to burn incense and travel to Tibet to get in touch with your spiritual side. Buddhism is about being present in everything you do, eating, cleaning, breathing and yes, even work. Monks do endless hours of tedious chores because of the meditative value. Be thankful that someone is paying you to do that at work.

Enjoying Physical Work

I love physical work. I worked construction for a couple of summers in university and there is just such a feeling of accomplishment when you finish a task or project and your body is physically tired. You don’t get that feeling from working behind a computer. Embrace the physicality and feel it in your muscles. Be thankful that you don’t need to go to a gym to stay in shape.

Placating a Domineering Boss

Some managers can be jerks. They may be on a huge ego trip. They may be incompetent. They may hate you. Sure you could humiliate your boss. You could put in substandard work or slack off. You can denigrate your boss every opportunity you have. That just brings you down to the level of your superior. Rise above difficult situations by delivering more than is expected and giving your boss all the credit. Ignore negativity and criticism and just strive to deliver your best. Nothing is gained by fighting and creating more animosity. It is very hard for anyone to continue being a jerk when they always get kindness in return. Kindness works! Try it for a month and see for yourself.

Pursue Excellence

Work and life require effort. The more you put in, the more you get out. When people say a job is boring, it usually means they are not striving to learn new things and improve the quality of what they are doing. Study more about your company and your work. Learn new skills. Try to become great at what you do. Mastery has a way to turn most work into a personal journey of self-improvement.

Cultivate Relationships

Use your time in a company to connect with as many people as you can. Become genuinely interested in other people around you. Remember their names. Help whenever you can. Give for the sake of giving. Humanity is all about relationships. Be friendly and supportive to those around you and see what a difference it will make in your life.

Serve Customers

People often forget that the purpose of every company is to create value for customers. We all have little difficulty complaining when we get lousy service and low quality goods from a business; Flip that around and consider your own attitude towards work. When you buy from a company, do you expect courteous and conscientious service? Are you delivering that same level of service in your job or business?

Future job and business opportunities often arise from previous employment. Great effort and talent gets noticed sooner or later. What kind of personality traits and work ethic would you want if you were looking to hire, invest in or partner with someone? Start demonstrating those qualities now and your future opportunities will explode. These skills and personality traits will serve you even better if you choose to venture out into your own business.