Sean Aiken's One Week Job

Sean Aiken of OneWeekJob.com, uncertain about what career choice to make after graduating university, decided to take job hopping to the extreme by trying 52 one week jobs. He has since managed to parlay the first website outlining his intentions into a book deal, speaking engagements, a documentary and an on-going project helping recent graduates try different jobs. Those of you reading my IdeaEconomy.net blog will likely know that I love a great idea; by that measure Sean Aiken is pure brilliance! He has proved that a good idea, talent and hard work can accomplish amazing things. Sean offers some background details about his success with the project in this interview.

How did ‘One Week Job’ get started?

When I was looking for a job, I saw all of these important sounding job titles but I had no idea what the job would actually be like. I was scared at the thought of committing to one, not liking it, and then feeling trapped in the position. In my last year at Capilano University, my dad gave me some advice on finding a career, he said, “Sean, it doesn’t matter what you do, just make sure it is something you are passionate about. I’ve been alive nearly 60 years and I’ve yet to find something I’m passionate about besides your mother.” It made me realize how many people are in similar situations – doing the same job for the past 20-30 years and not necessarily enjoying what they are doing. I promised myself that I would take the time to find something that I was passionate about and that would make me happy. I thought the One Week Job project would be a great way of testing out different careers. I think a mistake that many people make when deciding on a career is to focus on the title and ignore the characteristics of the particular career and it’s associated lifestyle. We may spend a bunch of time and money on school or required designations only to show up at the workplace and find out it’s not for us. My thinking was that if I could somehow try out different jobs then I’d be able to learn about the characteristics I wanted in a career, and the type of workplace situation I’d need to be happy before making the full commitment.

How did you find the first companies to work at?

I created the website with the help of my best friend and web developer Ian MacKenzie. On the website I wrote that anyone, anywhere in the world could offer me a job for one week. I explained my motivations behind the project, my background information, how to offer me a job, and then I sent an email out to all my friends and family and asked for help to pass it along. It slowly picked up momentum and the offers began to come in; however I rarely knew where I was working a week in advance – it was always last minute!

How did you get so many companies interested in hiring you for a week?

I think the idea resonated with many people because it’s something that everyone can relate to, whether you recently graduated looking for your first job, or in an older generation looking for a career change, at some point in our lives we all must ask ourselves, “What do I want to do with my life?” I think many employers wanted to help out as they related to my circumstances, thought it was a unique idea, expected to receive exposure from the website, or some liked the aspect that all my wages were going to charity.

Was one week enough to really gain an understanding of what the jobs are like?

I think it’s a misconception that it takes several years to learn whether a job is right for you. A lot of information can be gathered quite quickly. Granted, yes, a job might become more rewarding with time — once you really learn the ins and outs and how you can contribute and be successful at it. But It wasn’t my goal to find the perfect job in one week. It would have been awesome if I had, but it was more about learning from other people and putting the pieces together — well, figuring out what the pieces were.

What were your most and least favorite jobs?

My most enjoyable jobs were the weeks where I was working with some great people. It was not necessarily the job I was doing but my coworkers that made the experience memorable. The ones that stand out are: Cancer Fundraiser (Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation), Pizza Maker, Fashion Buyer, Advertising Executive, Steam Whistle Brewery. The least enjoyable week was working in a swamp picking cat tails. It was plus 35, tonnes of bugs, smelled bad, and really long 12-hour days. All in all not too pleasant.

You finished the jobs in March of 2008, what have you been doing for the last two years?

Writing the book which was recently published, working on the documentary which will be out this spring (view the trailer at oneweekjob.com), and speaking to students/companies about my experiences and what I learned. We also just started the One Week Job program which grants others the opportunity to have a similar to experience to mine.

‘One Week Job’ really is a marketing phenomenon, how did you accomplish so much?

• First step was creating the website and outlining my goals, and why I was doing what I was doing.
• Second, I landed a sponsor at Week 5 to help pay with travel expenses as my wages were donated to charity.
• Third, Week 6, the first major media outlet covered the story.
• Fourth, the book deal happened around Week 37.
• Fifth, all of the small milestones in between with trying to find a new job, a new place to stay, and organize travel plans each week for an entire year.

Sean Aiken's book The One Week Job Project

How did the book come about?

I was extremely lucky in that when the New York Times picked up the story, I heard from several publishers directly asking if I’d thought about writing a book.

How did you get the great support for the book from all the famous authors?

I emailed them and asked real nice.

Please tell us about the people working on One Week Job?

Ian MacKenzie is my best friend, filmmaker, web editor, new media producer guy. He directed the upcoming documentary (view trailer on website). There were a few companies we worked with for the documentary.

How are you making money now?

The publishers provide an advance against royalties so that an author can live while they are writing the book. I make money by doing talks at conferences or schools.

Is the book going to make you rich?

Time will tell. Although I remember reading a quote from bestselling author Seth Godin – it was something to the effect of “those who write books to get rich are fooling themselves.”

Is One Week Job making you rich?

Nope.

What comes next? What is the future for Sean Aiken?

The book about my experience is called The One-Week Job Project. Published by Penguin Books in Canada and Random House in the US. The book is a memoir of my year. It begins from graduation, and me struggling to find an answer to the question “what should I do with my life?” How this developed into the idea to start the One Week Job Project, the different jobs I had, all the advice I received from my employers on finding a career, and the story of my personal journey making the transition from school into the working world. We recently finished post-production on the documentary that will be available this spring. We just started the One Week Job Program that provides others the opportunity to have a similar experience to my original journey. We’re giving three individuals $3000 each over the course of two months this summer. They’ll perform eight different one-week jobs and blog from the website. Anyone interested can apply at oneweekjob.com. I’d like to help other people interested in starting the One Week Job project in their country. Currently there is interest in the UK and potentially in China. Also, I’m planning an extensive college campus tour around the country next fall to share my story and all that I learned in making the transition from school into the working world.

Links
One Week Job
Follow Sean Aiken on Twitter

Interview with Brandon Pearce

Making the decision to move to another country is difficult and scary. It is even harder if you have a family to support and educate. Brandon Pearce, his wife and two daughters made that choice and moved to Costa Rica at the start of the year and are loving their new life outside of the US. Brandon is also proving that the idea of the low hour work week (he works 5 hours per week) is definitely possible if you put in the effort. Brandon offers some great details into his business and his lifestyle in Costa Rica in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

I just turned 30 years old, and was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. As a child, I fell in love with both music and computers. I learned to play the piano and sing – a passion probably inherited from my parents who are both musicians – and when I was 12, I began teaching myself to program in QBasic. I always dreamed that one day I would either be a music teacher like my dad, or have my own computer game on the shelf.

As it turns out, I ended up both teaching music and writing computer programs as a profession for a season, and then quickly decided that neither profession was what I wanted to do forever. Now I enjoy working less than 5 hours per week, living wherever I want (currently Costa Rica), and enjoying life to the fullest every day.

My first experience living internationally was when I served a volunteer mission for the LDS church at age 19 (I am from Utah, after all). I was called to serve and teach the people of Japan for two years. I loved my mission, and I loved Japan. Everything was so different. The language was interesting, the people were so polite, and the food was delicious (well, some of it – I still can’t down natto). At that time, I don’t think I considered the possibility of living outside the U.S. permanently, but it opened my eyes to what else was out there.

After my mission, I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science (although I found learning on my own to be much more useful). I also met my wife, Jennifer, who had served a mission in the Canary Islands (by Spain). We now have two little girls, ages 6 and 4, whom we absolutely adore!

Where do you live now?

We have been living in Costa Rica since January, 2010, and are renting a beautiful house here that overlooks the central valley for $900/month. We found it on Craigslist. We wanted a furnished place because we sold nearly all our furniture before we made the move abroad, and didn’t want the burden that comes with large possessions. We chose to rent for a year because we could get a lot better deal than the 1-3 month vacation rentals we were looking at previously, and we wanted to stay long enough to become fluent in the language, make some good friends, and understand the culture.

We chose Costa Rica for a few reasons:

• Climate. We got really tired of snow and cold in Utah. We wanted some place green and warm all year around.
• Language. I wanted to learn Spanish, we wanted our kids to learn it, and since Jen already speaks it, we figured it would be a less difficult transition than a new language for all of us.
• Culture. Coming from the U.S., we knew our lives were too full of stress, too focused on material possessions, and too busy to really enjoy what’s important in life. Costa Rica has a reputation of being relaxed and easy-going. “Pura vida” (pure life) is the phrase they often use. We hoped some of that could rub off on us. Fortunately, it has.
• Cost. We thought we could live cheaper in Costa Rica than in the states, and for the most part, we have found this to be true. Electronics and cars are actually more expensive here than in the U.S., but housing and food is cheaper. We’re spending less and living better. For example, we have a maid that comes 5 days a week, a gardener, and a private Spanish tutor twice a week.
• Activities. There is so much to do and see in Costa Rica, from volcanoes to beaches, rainforests and the animals that are in them. Our kids are big animal lovers, and Costa Rica is an ideal place to get up close and personal with all kinds of unique animals.
• Buddy Passes. We’re lucky to have a family member who works at Jet Blue, so we were able to fly here for almost free on buddy passes. Costa Rica is one of the few international locations that Jet Blue flies to. We knew this would also make it easier (cheaper) for family to come visit us if they wanted.

For a more complete explanation about our decision to move abroad, check out this post on my blog.

We have been so happy here in Costa Rica! We love the people, the weather, and feel much more relaxed and at ease. We feel like we have time to enjoy being a family, learning together, and pursuing our interests. I also just love to sit out on our balcony, listen to the birds, and enjoy the view.

What made you decide to make the move abroad?

We would never have dreamed of making this move a few years ago, but I was seeing people get laid off from their “secure” jobs and realized that there is no such thing as job security when you work for someone else. So I focused on building my Internet business in order to be more in control of our livelihood. Once it started taking off, I quit my job to work on building it full-time.

And then it finally dawned on me, thanks to books like The 4-Hour Work Week, that I was now able to live anywhere in the world since my business was all on-line. In January of 2009, we took a 6 week trip to Panama as a family to test the waters, and it was an amazing life changing experience for all of us. It was there we realized we wanted to homeschool (a thought we had considered before, but didn’t really see the benefits of), and that we really could stand to be together as a family 24 hours a day, seven days a week without going crazy. We knew we wanted to spend more time abroad as a family.

What is it like in Costa Rica?

We live in Grecia, which is a fairly small town (Wikipedia says 15,000 people) about 45 minutes west of the big city. We live up in the hills, away from the town center, where it’s a little cooler (perfect temperature for us). We decided we like smaller towns, because we’re not much for crowds, concrete, or pollution. It takes us about 15 minutes by car to drive to town (or 25 minutes by bus), and we enjoy the ride every time. Initially, we thought we’d go carless, but after two months, we really missed the convenience of being able to explore hidden streets, take excursions to further away places when we felt like it, or visit friends without making the girls walk for two miles. The bus access is good here, but we determined a car would work better for us living so far from things. So we bought an old 99 Rav4 (an adventure in itself) , which has been getting us around great. We’ll probably just sell it when we leave.

Internet access is excellent here. It hasn’t gone down yet (although the power has). However, I’ve been trying to upgrade from a 1MB to a 2MB connection for over a month now. Apparently, it’s not as simple as calling the Internet company and asking for an upgrade. One thing I’ve had to learn more of in Costa Rica is patience. Things get done when they get done, not when someone says they will get done. That’s just how it is here, and you can’t really rush things. Whether it’s your water or electricity going out, or someone scheduled to come to an appointment, we’ve learned not to expect things to happen on time, but just be glad when they happen at all, and try to be content in the mean time.

My iPhone works great here at 3G speeds with Internet. It was a little difficult getting a line, since you either need a Costa Rican corporation, or a local friend who can get you the line. I had the latter.

We feel very safe here in Grecia, and are completely comfortable walking the streets at night with our kids. People are friendly, and we’re always hearing people comment to each other about how cute our girls are. (Their blonde hair is quite a rarity here). Shopkeepers chat with you, and there are smiles everywhere you go. We’re making friends and having a great time.

What is your cost of living Costa Rica?

Here’s a rough breakdown of our monthly expenses (in USD):

Rent: $900 (Remember, it’s this house)

Maid: $240 ($12/day – 5 days a week, 4 hours a day).

Gardner: $140 (comes a few times a week, and helps with a lot of side jobs, too)

Spanish Tutor: $200 (comes twice a week, for a couple hours)

Internet: $25 for 1MB/second, $38 for 2MB/second

House Phone: $7

Cell phone (iPhone w/3G Internet): $34

Satellite TV: $33 (so the kids can watch cartoons in Spanish)

Other Utilities: $40-70 (including water, gas, electricity, garbage – cheap, huh?)

Food: $400-600 (we eat really well, and eat out probably 3-4 times per week)

Gasoline: $50-100/month

Activities: $200-300 (really depends on what we feel like that month)

Those are the basic monthly expenses. Obviously, we’re splurging in some areas, but my family of four is living very well for under $2,500/month. You could live here for a lot less, though, if you wanted. You can find decent 3bdrm houses that rent for under $150/month, for example. They may not be furnished or have a breathtaking view, but there are lots of options if you want to live on the cheap.

For activities, we love taking family trips to different parts of the country. There is so much to see and do in Costa Rica. Some of the activities are made for tourists and have tourist prices ($30-60/person), but others are very reasonable. We’ve done everything from feeding toucans and cleaning raccoon cages, to swimming at waterfalls and zip-lining through the rainforest. I’ve been writing about our adventures on my blog, Fulness Of Life.

I should also mention that we recently cancelled our health insurance in the U.S. because we realized it just isn’t necessary, so we don’t have that expense either. The healthcare here is good and cheap (and universal). You can get insurance for your whole family here for $60 if you want it, but we rarely visit the doctor. If we had an emergency, nothing is so pricey we couldn’t afford it.

Do you need special visas to live there?

We’re just on tourist visas, which are free, but which require us to leave the country every 90 days, for 72 hours. In some ways it’s a burden. In other ways, it’s a good excuse to take a vacation every few months. At our first 90-day mark we drove to Nicaragua and spent a few days in a hotel there. We’re not sure where we’ll go next. You can apply for residency, but I hear that it’s a fairly expensive process that can take years to complete (remember, everything moves slowly in Costa Rica). We don’t plan on being here for more than a couple years, so we didn’t think it would be worth it to apply for residency at this point.

How long do you expect to stay in Costa Rica?

We don’t really know exactly how long we’ll stay in Costa Rica, but we’ll be here at least until our lease is up, and then at that point decide if we want to find another place here to rent, or if we want to explore the world some more. I think we would like to stay long enough for us all to become comfortably fluent in Spanish.

How are you schooling your two daughters?

We’re following more of an “unschooling” approach, where the kids direct their own education. We don’t follow any specific curriculum. I believe that learning is a lifelong process, and that we’re learning in every moment whether we think we are or not. People learn best when what they’re learning is immediately applicable and interesting to them, and they learn even better when they are the ones seeking the information and getting their own answers. Experience is the best teacher. I think most curricula (including school) kind of squashes that by forcing you to learn things that are largely irrelevant to you at the time (or not even useful in the real world), causing you to quickly forget what you’ve learned, and in some cases, to hate the process of learning itself.

Kids learn best when they’re having fun. And they have the most fun when they’re playing, so we play a lot. They like to create make-believe adventures, put on plays, create art, play computer games, and ask a lot of questions. If they ever ask something we don’t know, we immediately pull up Google and find the answer with them. We’ll watch videos on YouTube, which they love, and go as deep into their question as they want. We also use IKnowThat and Tumblebooks on occasion..

We read to our kids a lot as well. Lately, I’ve been reading them the Narnia series on my iPad. Emily, our six-year-old, never wants me to put it down. She is also reading very well on her own, and loves to read the scriptures at night during our devotional. (We sing a hymn, read the scriptures and pray together before bed each night). We’re happy that she loves to read, and can sound out big words surprisingly well, even in Spanish. Marie, our four-year-old knows the letters and is starting to put sounds together.

The girls each have their own blog, which they update periodically. Emily types it all herself, and Marie mostly dictates to us. We thought a blog would be a good way for them to journal their experiences abroad and also get good reading and writing practice. Their blogs are emilyinthejungle and ridingabutterfly.

We do have a Spanish tutor named Nela, who comes to our house twice a week for a couple hours to teach the girls and me. We didn’t start this until a few weeks ago, but I wish we would have started it as soon as we got here, especially for the girls. She brings games for the girls and quizzes them on vocabulary. They’re learning well. It’s been great for me, too, as I’ve had someone to ask questions to about the intricacies of Spanish grammar. But outside of tutoring, we get a lot of Spanish practice from being with friends, going to church, and talking to people wherever we go. I’ve been amazed at how quickly I’ve been able to learn Spanish. It’s only been four months, but I can understand about 85% of what people are saying, and can get my point across quite clearly most of the time.

Finally, I think traveling is an education in itself. Seeing different cultures, learning new languages, and interacting with different people opens your mind to new ways of thinking and living.

Have your daughters adjusted well to life in Costa Rica?

Adjusting seems like it’s been no problem at all for any of us. Even though we spent the first three weeks in a hotel while looking for a place to live, it’s all been a great adventure and we’ve enjoyed it from day one. The girls have made some good friends, and we have play dates usually once or twice a week with friends they’ve met at church or in the neighborhood. Despite the language barrier, they still have a lot of fun playing together, and our girls are picking up Spanish little by little. (Although sometimes they seem more intent on teaching English to their friends than practicing Spanish).

Marie does sometimes talk about wanting to go back to our “old house” in Utah (which we sold), but none of us really want to return to the U.S. culture and lifestyle. We do miss our family and friends there, though. If you read Marie’s blog, in almost every post she asks for people to come visit us. My family is planning to visit us down here in June, and we’re excited for that.

How do you earn an income?

My main source of income is from a business I created called Music Teacher’s Helper. It’s a web application that helps private music teachers manage the business side of teaching, such as scheduling and billing. I also created Studio Helper, which is the same idea, but for larger studios with multiple teachers, and not just for music. Teachers pay a monthly subscription to use the sites (between $10-25/month for Music Teacher’s Helper, or $50-200+/month for Studio Helper). MTH also has a Free plan with lets you use it with up to 3 students, and includes a free website. Lots of teachers join that one just for the free website.

Both of these sites combined bring in over $20,000/month, currently, and are growing more every month. I don’t get to keep all of that, though, since I’ve hired two full-time programmers, a full-time SEO guy, and a fantastic customer support team that answers e-mails 24/7. I also have a team of bloggers who write many useful articles for music teachers each month. Then there’s marketing and server expenses, etc. But I make plenty for my needs, and am able to save a lot of money each month (way more than I’m spending).

I used to do a lot of freelance web programming, but I kind of got burned out on it. Sure, I could outsource it, but I don’t really need the extra money and I don’t want the stress of managing extra projects right now. There are other things I’d rather do with my time, like be with my family, read, write, and compose music.

How did you come up with the idea for MusicTeachersHelper.com?

When I was teaching private piano lessons, I used to get frustrated trying to keep track of when all my students’ lessons were and how much they owed me. So I wrote a little program to keep track of their schedules and payments. Students could login to see when their next lesson was and how much they owed. It saved me lots of time and headache.

Soon, other teachers saw what I was doing and wanted it for themselves, so I decided to make it available to others. I listened carefully to feedback from my customers and improved the program a LOT over the next few years, adding everything from automatic invoicing, to on-line payments. Now it does pretty much everything except teach the student, and teachers love it!

How do you market the site?

I didn’t know much about marketing when I started this business. I made some paper fliers to display at local music stores. Then I tried Google Adwords. Eventually, I started going to music teacher conferences and demonstrating the product to teachers. I wasn’t very confident in the program at first, though, since it was pretty buggy (it was the first real web app I’d ever made) and I was afraid to do much marketing, thinking that if I got too many teachers upfront, word would get around that it wasn’t a good program, and then no one would want it.

Actually, the opposite happened. Almost every teacher who tried it out absolutely loved it! Sure, they had some suggestions for improvement, but they were happy to pay for it. Eventually, it got to the point where it was doing way more than I originally intended, and I decided to rewrite the whole thing from scratch, with cleaner, faster code (I’d learned a ton since I started).

It wasn’t making much money at first, because I wasn’t doing much marketing. But teachers were telling other teachers about it, and Adwords was bringing in a slow but steady flow of customers. Also, I never put any of my own money into this business. It has always been funded entirely from its own profits (and my initial efforts, of course).

Now, 6 years later, our marketing looks quite a bit different. The blog itself has been a great marketing tool, and brings in lots of traffic. We still go to music teacher conferences, although I now usually have an affiliate go in my place. We’re at the top of search results for our desired keywords, and teachers are constantly telling each other about us. Interestingly, word of mouth is still our largest source of referrals.

Your site says that you are working less than 5 hours per week, is that correct?

Yes, 5 hours is correct, and it’s often even less, but let me define what that means. I count “work” as any activity that’s related to making money. My daily “work” usually involves looking over the tasks my programmers have completed, deciding what new features we’ll add or bugs we’ll fix, advising the support team members with any questions they’ve had, and answering any other e-mails that have come in. Some days, I can get this done in under 10 minutes. Other days, I may want to spend an hour or two to really think things through. I don’t count blogging as work, since I’m not trying to make any money on my personal blog.

I keep track of my time using SlimTimer.com, so I can measure how effective my time is at producing results. I wrote a blog post a while back that goes into detail about exactly how I spend my time in a given week. It’s a little outdated – back from when I was still doing some freelance programming, but it will give you a good idea. You can read it here: How I Spend My Time.

It hasn’t always been this way, of course. I used to be a “one-man show”, doing everything from the design, programming, planning, customer support, marketing, and bookkeeping all on my own. This was time consuming. When I was an employee, I’d get up early in the morning to work on my business before work. Then, I’d spend my lunch breaks working on it as well. And at night, when my wife would let me, I’d work on it some more. It was an obsession and it was exciting because I could start to see where it would lead – to eventual freedom of my time and enough money to do whatever I wanted. And it has been worth every effort.

The time eventually came when it was taking so much time outside of work, that I wasn’t being very effective at my job. I’d find myself answering business e-mails or doing other tasks when I was supposed to be working. I knew this wasn’t right, and I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to grow my business how I wanted to while working at a 40-hour a week job. So, even though my business was only making about $1,500/month at the time, and I probably had less than $10,000 in savings, I decided to take the leap and quit my job. I was confident that we could make do until the business got larger, especially since I could also supplement my business income with freelance projects.

Everything worked out great, and the business took off quickly. I automated as much of the busywork as I could, and hired people to help with the rest. Now here we are living the dream!

Do you have any advice for others wanting to build a similar low hour business?

Yes, lots. In fact, I just started writing a book about creating an on-line business. It probably won’t be ready for several months, but I want to share what I’ve learned with others and show people that it’s totally possible to create this kind of lifestyle. I see too many people who hate their jobs and don’t see any way out. I’ve also written several blog posts about creating a business on my blog in the Entrepreneurship category.

My biggest piece of advice is to just get started. You may feel like you don’t know enough, but you can learn as you go. You’ll make mistakes along the way, but that’s okay. What’s important is that you’re making progress toward your goal. And the more progress you’ll make, the more you’ll be inspired to keep working at it. So just get started. If you can set aside an hour a day to work on your business, you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll be able to get done.

Do you plan on permanently living outside of the US?

Yes. We don’t have any plans to return to the U.S. at this point, except maybe for a vacation or to visit family now and then. It’s hard to know what life will be like for us in 10 or 20 years, and we may eventually want to return to the U.S. But who knows? We’ll just take life as it comes.

Are there any other countries that you hope to move to in the future?

Oh! So many! I’d like my kids to experience Japan like I did on my mission and brush up on my Japanese. I’d like to see what it’s like in India and China. Emily really wants to go to Venice, Italy. Jen would like to live in the French countryside. I have no idea where we’ll end up, but we definitely want to live in other parts of the world.

One of the things we learned is that short 1-2 week vacations just don’t cut it if you want to experience what it’s really like in another country, especially if you just stick to tourist activities and sites, and don’t meet any people. Our church has been a real advantage to us this way because there is a built-in community of friends everywhere we go, as well as opportunities to serve and help. It does make it a little harder to leave a place once you’ve made good friends, but the Internet makes it easy to keep in touch. And we can also come back to a place to visit.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my story on JetSetCitizen!

Links
Fulness Of Life Brandon Pearce’s blog.
Follow Brandon Pearce on Twitter

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

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

Nomadic Artist, Colin Wright

We live in amazing times. There are opportunities to do anything you want, where ever you want provided you have a little talent and the desire. I have been following location independent lifestyle design blogger, designer and entrepreneur Colin Wright for about a year now. Colin epitomizes the future of work and the excitement of the economic and lifestyle revolution we have the privilege to be experiencing. Colin provides some background information about how he created his amazing lifestyle in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

I went to college at Missouri State University, right on the buckle of the Bible Belt, and originally intended to stay there for a year to save money before going to the Art Institute in Chicago (as a painting major!). While I was at MSU, however, I discovered design (along with an amazing and unique design program) and ended up staying the full 4 years, dual-majoring in Graphic Design and Illustration.

While in school I worked and worked and worked, at one point working 5 jobs (3 graphic design positions, a columnist gig and a job at a print shop). I’m pretty sure I learned just as much or more from the work world as I did from my academic career, though experiencing them in parallel allowed me to benefit from the best of both worlds.

I started up my first company at 19 (a culture magazine) and my second came a few days later (a design studio). I made a LOT of mistakes and experimented constantly.

I took a job at a boutique design and production studio in Los Angeles after college, quit after a year, then started up a new studio of my own (ColinIsMyName), focusing on sustainability, branding and new media practices.

About a year and a half later, my client base grew large and prolific enough that I was able to sell everything except what would fit in a single carry-on bag and run my business from the road, moving to a new country every 4 months. This is part of my most recent business endeavor and blog, Exile Lifestyle.

Please tell us where you are now?

At the moment I’m living in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I moved here on the 15th of September and will be leaving at the beginning of December so that I can spend about a month and a half traveling around the rest of Argentina.

Halfway through January I’ll be moving up through South America to Bogota, Colombia to hop a flight up to Miami, then Los Angeles, then Sydney.

Why did you choose Buenos Aires?

I didn’t, actually; my brilliant readers did! I ask the people who read Exile Lifestyle to suggest 8 countries and then vote on them. I move to the country that receives the most votes and live there for 4 months.

Please tell us about your lifestyle in Argentina?

I found a nice little studio apartment in the most expensive district in BA for about 1/3 of what a similar place would have cost in Los Angeles. The food here is delicious (almost without exception) and cheap (empanadas can be had for about $0.25 – 0.50 USD apiece, and two can make a meal, for example).

Speaking of the food, they LOVE sweets here, and panaderías (bakeries) are absolutely everywhere. Dulce de leche, a kind of caramel cream, is spread on everything from toast to cookies to cakes…it even serves as a replacement for peanut butter in sandwiches (they don’t have peanut butter here…boo!).

There are some really incredible restaurants in BA, and fusion definitely seems to be the name of the game. You’ll be very disappointed if you’re looking for spicy foods, but if you want modern settings and complex tastes, look no further.

A big part of my project has been to continue cutting my work hours down without diminishing the amount of value I provide to my clients. On that front, in the past 6 months I’ve been able to reduce my weekly work hours from about 80 to the current rate of 6-8. This is good, because otherwise there’s no way in hell I would have time to go out and explore BA as thoroughly as it deserves!

The parties in Buenos Aires get pretty crazy. The people here are ga-ga for eletronica, disco funk and reggaetone, so the music played in the clubs is distinctly different from in the States. Also, on Friday and Saturday nights people seldom go home before 7 or 8 the next morning. I’ve gotten very accustomed to leaving a club and getting breakfast before heading home to sleep a few hours (and then doing it all again the next night).

Buenos Aires is an interesting creature in that it has most of the trappings of a major First World city, but just underneath the surface are obvious signs that this is definitely not the First World.

For example, the sidewalks can be very dangerous to walk on, broken and riddled with pot holes as they are. And even if you don’t stub your toe or trip and fall, there’s a good chance you’ll step in one of the many piles of dog droppings that decorate the landscape. Those dogs (and their owners) are absolutely shameless here.

Crime is also a big problem in BA. I personally was almost mugged, and I’ve seen other people get mugged a few blocks from my apartment (keep in mind, this is the SAFEST district in the city). I also saw a kid break into and start to hotwire a car in broad daylight on a street full of people the other day. Ballsy.

I’m told the level of unemployment is an astounding 30-40% (depending on who you talk to), which is the official reason given for all the crime, though I’m sure the level of corruption in the government (very high) doesn’t help!

What are your living costs there?

My costs are really tame compared to what I was paying to live in Los Angeles. One US Dollar is worth about 3.88 Argentine Pesos, so the conversion rate is very favorable to people from the States (or other countries with comparable currencies).

My apartment runs about $750 USD (though that’s a lot higher than a local would pay…they would probably get the same place for $500 or less) all utilities paid (plus Internet, Cable and furnishings).

A sack of groceries usually costs about 60 pesos (about $15 USD) and will last me 3 or 4 days. A beer at a nice bar generally costs about 12 pesos ($3.15 USD) for a local brew (Quilmes, for example) or 18 pesos ($4.72 USD) for an import (Heineken, Grolsch, etc).

Services are SUPER cheap in BA, with a cab-ride all the way across town seldom costing more than $5 USD, and most trips running closer to $2.50. I can get a whole sack of laundry done (fluff-and-fold style, with ironing for your nicer shirts and stain removal, in case you somehow attract red wine stains like I do) for 16 pesos (about $4 USD). An hour-long massage can be had for $15-40 USD.

You’ll probably want to think twice before buying electronics here, however. As I understand it, the prices are double to triple what they cost in the US because of heavy import fees and a kind of ‘luxury tax’ that assumes only rich people will buy electronics (therefore these items must be taxed much higher than everything else).

Clothing from outside countries also tends to be pricier than you would think, though as far as I can tell it’s about equivalent to what you would pay in New York or San Francisco.

I’ve found most forms of entertainment to be reasonably priced; a tango lesson cost me 15 pesos ($3.94 USD), and a good bottle of wine costs between 20-40 pesos ($5.25 – $10.50 USD)(though a really decent bottle can be had for much less). A good wedge of cheese will set you back 10-12 pesos ($2.62 – $3.15 USD), and a package of way-too-many crackers costs less than $1 USD. Sounds like a good date to me, and for two people it’s still less than $20 USD.

How easy is it to get set up and stay long term in Buenos Aires?

I had this idea that most people around the world spoke at least a little English, and I think this misinformation stemmed from the fact that most people from other countries that I had met spoke a modicum of English at the very least. Then again, of course they would because I met them in the States…I speak a bit of Spanish because I moved here, and visitors to the US do the same.

The truth is that very few people speak English here, and fewer still speak it well enough to get past basic (and slightly awkward) hellos. If you really put yourself out there, are willing to make mistakes and take every opportunity to go out with native speakers, you can do what I’ve done and pick it up as you go along. This works fairly well, and I can operate like a normal human being in BA at this point, 2 months in (though I won’t be giving any lectures on quantum mechanics in Spanish in the near future).

From what I’ve been told, renewing your visa is quite the easy process if you live in BA. All you do is hop a ferry over to Colonia, Uruguay and then come back. As far as I can tell, the little town of Colonia exists more or less to give people a place to rest for half a day before returning to the comparable bustle and noise of Buenos Aires.

I believe the cost to leave the country is about $20, mas o menos (more or less).

How do you earn an income?

Most of my income at the moment comes from my studio, Colin Is My Name. Through this studio I do design, illustration, branding, motion graphics, production, web development, consulting and copy writing work, though most of what I’ve been doing lately has revolved around branding, consulting and web design.

If you can, network in places where a higher-value currency is earned. This isn’t a new trick by any means (it even has a name: geo-arbitrage), but believe me when I say that doing it right can open up the whole world to you (quite literally). Thankfully these days you can appeal to audiences with more valuable currency even if you live far from them without much trouble. Go to events where there will be folks visiting from elsewhere, take part in online projects and discussions, and really make an effort to get your name on peoples’ tongues (start a blog, for example!).

I’ve also been experimenting over the past 4 months or so with alternate means of making money that would make use of Exile Lifestyle’s readership – including affiliate programs, advertising, sponsorships, developing products and the like – but so far none have really struck me as the right fit. I really don’t want to sell out my audience, so at this point I’m keeping it clean and continuing to do the best work I can. At the moment the biggest benefit has been increased awareness of my brand, a lot of new connections with people around the world, and the opportunity to write (which I love).

Someday I’d like to publish a book (to go with the ebooks I’ve already published), so if nothing else running the blog helps me gain legitimacy for that magical day.

How do you find new clients?

Honestly, these days most of my clients come as recommendations from past clients who liked the work I did for them.

To get whole new sub-sets of clients going, though, I have a different method. People either laugh or cringe when they hear this, but I’ve found the best way to meet new people (and therefore new business associates) is to get out and party. Networking events, clubs, parties, gallery openings, special events – they’re all fair game, and just as likely to serve as a gathering point for the kinds of people you want to meet as any convention.

Figure out WHO your ideal client is and then go where they go for fun. If you approach them in business settings their guard will be up. If you meet them as people first and develop up a casual relationship, then you’ll stand a much better chance of being the person they turn to when they need whatever service you provide.

Do not approach any relationship one-sidedly. If you go in with the intent of using someone for his or her connections, you will most likely fail. Build relationships with the intent of making friends first and the business connections will come without any extra effort on your part.

Also: help others and they’ll help you.

How do you collect money while abroad?

I actually have 3 banks, and each serves a different function.

Bank of America houses my business account out of Los Angeles and gives me access to a brick-and-mortar establishment should I need one (plus, I like their WorldPoints credit card).

My Charles Schwab High-Yield Investor Checking account pays me well to keep my money with them (not common for a checking account) and allows me to take money out of any ATM anywhere in the world for free (they pay the charges associated with the withdrawal). This has already come in incredibly handy here in Buenos Aires, since it charges over $11 each time I take money out (but I get it all back at the end of the month).

My Schwab account then transfers a chunk of money every month into my investments and my ING High-Yield Savings Account, which has one of the highest interest rates in the industry, and is very user-friendly (like Schwab, it’s all online – no brick-and-mortars – so their online services work quite well and they can afford to pay you more).

My PayPal account is plugged in to my Schwab account, so if I get paid online I can funnel it right into my checking. If a client wants to send me a check, I have them send it to my wonderful family in Missouri, who take the check, slip it into a prepaid envelope, and ship it off to Schwab to be deposited. Easy breezy.

I still manage all my bills (online) and taxes (using free software). It’s the easiest and most cost-effective way to do it right now, though I may hire an accountant sometime in the future as I begin to do more business internationally.

What is your next destination?

I’ll be heading to New Zealand next (again, because my readers voted for me to do so). I’ll be there for 4 months and will be moving between cities (just like in Argentina).

In between Argentina and New Zealand, I’ll be visiting several other South American countries, visiting both Miami and Los Angeles, and spending a week or two in Australia.

What are your future business plans in the short and long term?

Short-term I’m continuing to run my studio and grow my blog, taking the time to investigate opportunities as they spring up and learn more about related industries.

Long-term I’m planning on writing more ebooks and a professionally published tangible book, to expand the Exile Lifestyle brand into other media and to continue refining my lifestyle so that it becomes even more flexible, prolific and ridiculously fun.

Links
Colin Is My Name Colin Wright’s Design Studio
Exile Lifestyle Colin’s Lifestyle Design Blog
Follow Colin on Twitter
How to Be Remarkable Colin’s Amazing Free eBook

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

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 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

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

Interview with Internet Marketing Expert, Samantha Milner

We all are looking for ways to make money online, but with all the competition and options available it can be difficult to capitalize on opportunities. I turned to Internet marketing expert, Samantha Milner to give some insight into her decade long experiences with all aspects of Internet marketing. Samantha has created a countless supply of successful products to cater to a wide variety of niches. If you want to learn how to make money online, this interview is the place to start. Thanks Samantha!

Please tell us about your background and why you got started in Internet marketing?

My name is Samantha Milner and along with my husband Dominic we own DSM Publishing limited which is a family owned Internet marketing company. We live in southern Portugal in The Algarve with our eight year old son, Kyle.

Like many other people we ventured into starting our own business as we realised that the rat race was simply not for us. Even though we didn’t have high debts it always felt like the little money that we made from our employers wasn’t going very far after paying the endless bills that we had to cover first.

We spent a year doing Kleeneze (door to door catalogues) and at this point realised how much we wanted our very own business. We grabbed a copy of a business opportunities magazine and decided to see what we could achieve.

You made £30,000 from your first Internet marketing product, back in 2000, please tell us about that.

We had put together a simple course on how to start your own business on eBay and at the time it was much appreciated as all that was on offer at the time was envelope stuffing or Kleeneze. Now it has been done right to the death but nine years ago it was this amazing special thing and there was absolutely no competition.

We placed advertisements in a range of offline publications. Compared with today’s standards the advert was very ugly and small but still did the trick! From memory, the costs for the adverts were around £3,000 plus for our additions in The Sun and News Of The World we had to stump up a deposit just in case we were fraudsters.

We also needed to create a website as the advert was so small there was a need to re-direct the customers in order for us to pitch our offer to them. The website looked pretty bad, actually it looked plain awful. It featured about 15 different font sizes, 10 different font colours and awful bleary clipart images. We should have got sued all the way to the bank as I bet we didn’t have permission to use the images in the first place. But this really didn’t matter as at the time they all looked like this so it was no surprise really. The venture brought us in around £30,000 after costs which was wonderful.

However our wide smiles from all the sales soon dried up when it dawned on us that we had nowhere near enough products to fulfill our orders. Even though we expected to make a really good profit we never expected it to be this high. All we had was an old PC, an even older printer, the spiral binder for creating the booklets, plus an even higher amount of printer paper. Then using a vast amount of speed we managed, god knows how, to package up ten orders an hour and it took us a good fifty hours to sort out.

After a day we had really worked our socks off, through the night, the next day and beyond. To top it all, at the time I was working as a waitress at the time in a hotel and split shifts was a tiring combination even for a fit 18 year old. As you can imagine I soon handed in my notice and became part of the full time direct mail marketing breed.

Previous to this we had tried a lot of different methods via direct mail but none where we had used our own website. It had always involved sending out letters with information about a product with the specifications and then an address to send a cheque to. Plus as there was no website, the letter sending was often a mounting outlay so our postage costs were pretty high.

This is one of the reasons why so many failed in direct mail because they couldn’t cover the initial outlays that were involved. They may have created a bad advert but would still have to some how cover those advertisement costs. Plus very few would send stamped addressed envelopes in those days and those first class stamps soon added up.

We carried on with this method for a good two years until we had totally saturated the market with our information. Our product even went further than the UK and the world had now been hit with our amazing offer. In the end though others had copied our ideas and of course the sales had dried up just like it does anytime that you no longer have the biggest chunk of a niche.

The biggest mistake we made was that we should have paid for a decent website and created an affiliate program, but by the time we realised it the opportunity had passed by us.

That’s exactly what you have to learn about this business, if your sales drop do something about it or move onto something new. So at this point we started doing the same product but as an instant download. There was hardly anyone doing this at the time so people loved us for it and once this dried up we looked for our next opportunity.

How closely related is direct mail to online marketing?

I find that direct mail and online marketing are very close in many ways. Direct mail is a lot harder to get into at first and make a profit from due to the high outgoings.

For example to start a campaign with a brand new product will cost us a minimum of £1,000 through direct mail and you are not guaranteed success in any shape or form. You have this highly competitive marketplace available to you and finding a niche in it that you will make money from straight away is tough. Many people when they first start a business will quit if they don’t make a profit instantly and through direct mail this can mean that your venture will leave you in debt.

If you can break into the direct mail niche and sell yourself or your product you will be armed with amazing qualities that you can take into online marketing and people will respect you more for having a harder start than others.

Another great example is the sales copy – this is one talent that any online marketer dreams of possessing over anything else. If you can write good sales copy you can sell whatever you want. With direct mail you have to learn how to write very short adverts to get those customers through the door.

Take the Exchange And Mart as an example of this – your advert will be on a page with 100 other small sized adverts and you need to get the readers to visit your web page or send a request for information to you.

By going down the direct mail route you will then be ready to make money online. If I hadn’t done direct mail I doubt I would have been successful as quickly online.

Please tell us how you make money?

I make money online by having multiple streams of income that each contribute to my wage. They are small, medium and large with my main website, DSM-Publishing being one of my larger income streams. I never have a problem with really small ones either as when you add them all up they contribute to become a major part of my online salary.

I have several income streams that provide me with just $50 a month and this is fine with me. They are mainly from products that I set up a long time ago and are marketed just from articles. They have been left alone and haven’t had any attention for some time but because they are still ranked on Google through ezinearticles.com they are still paying their way.

My smaller income streams also concentrate on the affiliate marketing sector which should never be ignored. I have a range of tutorials that I have created over the past year or so. They cover everything from WordPress through to Aweber (an autoresponder program). I provide them free of charge with personal rights or for a small fee with master resale rights ($9-$19). But it’s the download page that provides me with the income as they are reminded when they download the free copy of WordPress Expert, that they need hosting for their WordPress Blog and this is when the Hostgator sales come through to me. Because this is not a new product I don’t get that many sales but will get at least 10 Hostgator commissions a month.

I also have other large income streams in all kinds of niches and often have business partners with these. Some websites require a lot of maintenance so I will make sure that there are three of us involved and then I won’t feel like I am suffering from work overload.

I am in the dieting niche for example and even though I organised it from the start I only have a 45% share. Someone else that co-owns the business with me will have another 45% share and the final 10% will go to a web designer. Instead of paying a web designer in advance he will get a share of the profits and will look after any technical issues or design issues for the lifetime of the business.

This suits me down to the ground as it means I always have someone to turn to whenever something goes wrong and there are no long term costs with the business venture.

These ventures are great as we all have something to offer – I sort out all the marketing and make sure that the product sells, someone else will provide the idea and have extensive knowledge in the niche in question.

I have many of these partnerships and they all come about when someone contacts me with their business idea and no knowledge of Internet marketing. I can train them through my methods so that they can be the best online. Each one of them that I have trained up has got into other niches because they have used me for the experience they desperately craved.

If I was to start out again tomorrow i.e. if someone stole my whole business I would simply build income streams again starting with the small ones. It is always better to have a certain amount of smaller ones as if you lose one it won’t matter. However if you just had two large ones and one went wrong that would be half your income gone. In other words we could all cope if we lost $50 off our monthly income but if we lost $5,000 would we still feel the same?

From your newsletter, it sounds like you are constantly trying out new business ideas, is that correct?

Yes that is correct – I am always adding new products whether it is something new to build up my mailing list or a paid product to add to my make money online range. It completely differs from time to time but on average it is 1-3 products a month. I don’t bring out new products during July – August as I have these months off.

The amount of work involved can vary with the potential size of the opportunity. When, I added Hostgator to my download pages it took just five minutes and some income streams can take me much longer.

I am currently involved in the health and beauty niche and started this business venture in September. However due to the size of the project this will not be live until the beginning of December.

In general though for a small project I can have it all done in under a week and a large project will take up 3-4 months of my time. But my time is often taken up with lots of different ventures at once so if I was starting out and dedicating my time to just one large venture I could have it completed in 60 days.

If I was creating a new make money online ebook. I could do one every weekend but if I went down this road I would burn out very quickly.

Many of your eBooks come with master resale rights, can you please explain what that means and why you do it?

Master resale rights means that the person that purchases it has the right to sell it on to others or give it away for free.

This is part of what I talk about in The Viral Profit Plan. Basically by getting others to distribute your products either by selling them or giving them away you are creating a trail. Inside your product you will have lots of links back to you and the more people that see this the more traffic that will come back to you.

There is no need to over sell yourself, some simple information on the homepage of a product will have the desired effect. Many people go down this road as a way of advertising their products and getting them out there.

For example – If you were creating a product about how to blog, a free ebook called “The 5 Steps To Successful Blogging” would be the perfect viral product with master resale rights. At the bottom of the product you would have something like this:

Thanks for reading “The 5 Steps To Successful Blogging” this is our beginners guide if you are ready to take the next step in your Blogging career you will love the following: http://www.bloggingwithpride.com

These little links that you have add up and as soon as you have just a couple of e-books that go viral you will have a huge stream of traffic waiting for you to make money from.

What has been your most successful product so far?

It is hard to pin point it to one product. What I will say is that I have had six products in the last 18 months that have each earned me a six figure sum. These have all been products that I have written myself and have marketed them for free, through my varied online marketing methods.

Out of these products though my favourite has been The Successful Marketers Bible as this shows newbies entering Internet marketing how to make money online by following a set of principles that are the blueprint of our own successful online business.

We have basically put together all the good bits of our business while leaving out all our mistakes so that you can have the fast track solution. It is then there for you to refer back to at any time in the future.

Success can also be measured on what you are most well known for which in my case this must be 24 Hour Twitter Expert. I never set out to go into the Twitter niche and write a Twitter e-book but after everyone saw my success on Twitter, gaining lots of followers in a short time and making money from it, they wanted to know more.

That is what you have to do with Internet marketing – when something presents itself you have to act on it straight away otherwise someone else will and you will miss out on the opportunity.

How do you choose a new product or niche to enter?

I don’t go out there looking for products or niches anymore they just seem to come to me. I will be walking to school with my son and something will just hit me and I will think why don’t I try this out?

I have several ideas folders on my laptop and when I am researching a new niche I will add lots of information to the folder. Then if I don’t have the time to go into the niche straightaway I will have something to refer back to later.

Do you feel that online niches are becoming more saturated so that it is harder to make money?

I don’t believe any niche is over saturated at all – it just depends how good you are when you are competing with others and what type of advertising you are using.

For example the make money online niche has a lot of competition and you are going to pay a lot more money for the keywords. Go into the food niche and there is very little. However when you compare the two side by side, the make money online niche has a lot more customers to choose from.

There are always lots of new niches to choose from and current niches are always the best to get involved in. For example we are in a recession in many parts of the world right now and creating products showing people how to save money or reduce their debts is going to sell like crazy.

On the other hand lots of people are talking about social media so if you are in the make money online niche, showing people how to do social bookmarking will be just as popular.

Here are some great niches that are hot right now:

• Gamblers in debt
• People whose house is going to be repossessed
• People whose business is going bust
• Students who need money
• People who want to get rich quick
• Parents that need help with their children
• Students who have failed or are frightened they will fail their exams
• Women that can’t get pregnant
• Women scared of husbands
• Men that can’t get a woman
• Common illnesses including headaches, back pain, depression, stress etc.
• Extra marital affairs
• Job hunting/career changes
• Selling your home
• Renovating your home
• Stress management
• Online business people
• Divorce/separation
• Dieting and obesity
• Men with breasts
• Top ten lists
• Pet related illnesses
• Ebooks in different languages
• Save your relationship
• A good nights sleep
• Self help ebooks
• Holiday help – slimming down etc
• Last minute gift ideas
• Creating gifts at home (great in the recession)
• How to guides

You have products for eBay, Twitter, email lists, Yahoo, blogging, etc. If someone could only choose one, which would you recommend?

I would recommend my Mini Launch Profits because it allows people to start their very own business from scratch with absolutely no experience whatsoever. It can even be done without it costing you a single penny and very little effort is required even if you were a single mum with six kids. An hour a day and you will have your own business.

When you start an Internet marketing business you want to start out slowly with something incredibly easy before going into harder tasks and this is why I love this product the most above all of my others.

Do you outsource a lot of your work?

I must admit I’m rather afraid of the outsourcing world as like many other people I too have had my fingers burnt. I have bought graphics for a minisite from a webdesigner and I found out later that they had re-used them from another order when I believed my work was unique.

There have been a few other occasions where I have outsourced work and had great success but I do whatever I can myself as I don’t like the idea of someone else doing it.

I now have a team of outsourcers that I will call when I need work done which is great as I have worked with them before and can trust them. These are mainly article writers and webdesigners. Everything else is done by me or my husband.

I am sure soon I will have outsourced much more but I will never outsource it all, I enjoy my work too much to pass it all on to others.

What advice can you offer for someone looking to make money online?

I would always say to others to have lots of little notebooks to jot down all your ideas. Don’t spend money until you have a way of making the money back – if you are paying for an email autoresponder have a great one time offer to fund it.

Best of all don’t listen to everything that you read especially on forums. For example, people will tell you not to get involved in niches as they will believe that you will steal their traffic not because they are thinking of you.

If making money online is so easy why isn’t everyone doing it?

People are either frightened of what they want to do online whilst the others worry way too much about the competition that they are facing. I have seen it many times and it is quite upsetting that with a little more effort they really could make an absolute killing on the internet.

I sell a lot of automated products on the Internet and to make sure that there is no one hacking into the download pages I will keep an eye on how many times my products have been downloaded over a set period of time.

What shocks me though is how many people buy my product and then don’t even bother downloading the item after their payment has gone through. I probably am slightly tighter than most but it horrifies me that others would waste their very own money so easily without a little caution.

Secondly I recall exchanging lots of emails with a lovely couple from Vermont in the United States. They had written an e-book about affiliate marketing and if I am honest it was just the same as every other one that was already available to download on the Internet for free and they wanted to charge a premium for it.

I explained to them about a niche in their local area that needed tapping into and showed them that there were only a couple of people to compete with rather than the several thousand that they had been used to.

Not to mention the fact that the set up costs were so incredibly low all they would have to cough up for would be the hosting and a couple of graphics. As this was a niche that they were experts in, the creation of the products really would be a piece of cake.

However they got back to me and told me that as there was competition it was too risky for them and returned to their day job.

I would never consider touching a niche without competition as it is healthy to have it around you plus if someone else is already doing the rounds you already know that there is profit to be made from it. All you have to do is to make sure your product is the best and that you are the one that stands out.

When I wrote Internet Marketing Trio people thought I was nuts because it included elements of Internet marketing that had been done a million times before but I did it with my usual passion and real life examples.

It then brought in a five figure sum for me just by doing it with my own slant. So next time you approach a popular niche think about how your product will be bigger and better than the guy selling it across the pond. If you put the effort in and make your product the best there is no reason at all why you should possibly fail.

Links
DSM-Publishing
Bloggingwithpride
The Successful Marketers Bible
24 Hour Twitter Expert
Mini Launch Profits
Internet Marketing Trio