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Wulfen · 12-03-2007, 01:00 PM

Hey Natsu, how goes?

I'm at a slightest more advanced point in the development of my choice career, so I thought I could share my perspective here.

I've been working at my desired career on my free time for around a year or so. It's been a hell of a ride, and so far it doesn't make too much money. However, now I can see that one could potentially earn a living from it. But one has to pay the rent in the meantime.

It's a cruel dilemma. The fears here are actually grounded in reality. What if I am deluded? What if my company flops and I burn through all my savings and I'm back to square one, but also burnt out by the failure?

Motivation helps, but unfortunately it doesn't pay the bills. It's still important, but the article "The Courage of Living Consciously" by Steve already saus everything that needs to be done.

So, on the practical side, what can we do?

On quality. You need to produce something of value, something that people will actually be interested in. Scott Addams - the creator of Dilbert - said that when he was beginning, to judge the quality of his comic strips, he didn't use the reviews from colleagues, or how much did they laugh. He said that the way to set apart a really good strip for a normal one was if the people who read them wanted to show them to their friends. Think "Order of the Stick", people read the strip for free in the website, and they buy the book, with the same strips, since it's so damn good.

So quality is a must. If you want a more scientific explanation you can check this article by Jakob Nielsen: Write Articles, not Blog Postings.

A good test of quality is whether people start linking to you spontaneously - without you asking for it - or, better off, start plagiarizing your content. We've had articles copied verbatim from our website (you can leverage this by contacting the offending site and asking for a link, usually they have no problems linking back). The topmost would be to appear on a social news site (we've appeared just once in the top social news site from Spain and it gave us a load of visits).

This serves, first, to demonstrate to yourself that your stuff is worthy. If some people want to copy it, and vote for it on a social news site, then most possibly some other people would buy a book on the same style of that material.

It also gives you a guideline on which to base future materials. Do more of what people copy and less of what people don't

Second, you need a way to monetize the products of your passions and desires. Ok, people like it, it has value, but what's in it for you? You still need to pay the bills.

There are many ways to monetize your content or services, and it depends mainly on the type of product or service you're offering. Our main product now is a live workshop, the main advantage is that it being offline people can't download it from emule

But you can also create ebooks, get into affiliate programs, and so on. I am not very fond of advertising venues like adsense since they don't seem to yield much money, and as Brian Clark of copyplogger points out, earning money through google adsense actually means working for google.

Ok, so you've got the website, you've got the attention and you've got the traffic. Now what?

On making money: so far I'm making around 100 € / month on average. That's not enough by any means to live. Heck, it's not enough to pay for drinks. But it's the first step. Now I'm at the crossroads where the income from my side project is not enough to quit my day job. And my day job is ugly but pays well. What I'm doing now is trying to create more streams of income to multiply the money that comes in, and have decided on a fixed minimum amount to quit my daily job (300 €, the cost of renting the room where I live).

The thing here is that I have tried to balance an optimistic view of my desires and abilities with a realistic view of, hey man, bills don't get paid on their own. My main problem is that I stand alone and have to pay a rent. I have my savings, of course, but I'd rather not burn through them, or just the bare minimum, just in case.

You fare better in this regard since you live in your own home and your husband can support you. You have a great opportunity there. But of course from the outside it might look as if you were lazy and wanted to stay at home and do nothing. That's why you should start monetizing your career of choice in any way, no matter how small, so you can say "see, this is making money, of course it's small, but it'll keep growing and growing".

Oh, and I was forgetting. I had three car problems last year. One time I burnt the engine. Twice I got hit by another car so I had to fix it. I can go to my office in subway but it's a long long ride. What did I do? I reframed it positively and I used the idle time to read some books that I had pending and some other stuff.

You can read some meaning in the actions of the universe. You can read negative meanings like "the universe is placing bumps on the road so that I am screwed". Or you can read it positively like "the universe is testing me, if I overcome these obstacles the universe will stop testing", or better "the universe does not want me to ride my car, perhaps it's because it wants me to stay at home working at my career of choice".

What I tend to think these days is that, sometimes, **** happens, and that I have to deal with them whether I have glorious plans to live my dream life or whether I'm happy just being a drone. I prefer to look on the positive side of things but sometimes there are things that are roadblocks no matter how rosy you want to see them.

But inertia is real. If you have enough push, enough motivation and can manage to put massive action into a well-thought plan, you can overcome the majority of roadblocks. And once you pass one, make a contingency plan so that if it happens again it does not affect you so much (actually, I was almost going to buy another 2nd hand car to have redundancy, to not lose so much time each time I have to take my car to the mechanic so I did not lose that time for working on my side business).

So, summing up, what I would do in your case would be:

* determine what product(s) or service(s) I would offer with my career of choice.

* start creating some content, check if people actually love it. If not, back to the drawing board. Rinse, repeat. Until people absolutely *love* your content.

* determine several ways to monetize your content. Not only one, since it might flop or not be enough. Brainstorm with someone at least 5 ways of earning money through easily selling your products and services. By "easily" I mean with no steps in the middle that don't depend on you like "an editor likes my book and agrees to publish it nationwide".

* calculate the income you get each month, even if it's pennies. Make a graphic and enjoy seeing it going upwards every month. It gives you more motivation than "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "Think And Grow Rich" mixed with Red Bull.

* note down each contingency that might happen and a possible solution in case it actually happens. For instance I got aphony last workshop and I couldn't talk, but we got through it with the help of the other two instructors.

Best regards and keep us informed on the progresses !!!

12-03-2007, 01:00 PM	#29 (permalink)
Wulfen Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 91	Hey Natsu, how goes? I'm at a slightest more advanced point in the development of my choice career, so I thought I could share my perspective here. I've been working at my desired career on my free time for around a year or so. It's been a hell of a ride, and so far it doesn't make too much money. However, now I can see that one could potentially earn a living from it. But one has to pay the rent in the meantime. It's a cruel dilemma. The fears here are actually grounded in reality. What if I am deluded? What if my company flops and I burn through all my savings and I'm back to square one, but also burnt out by the failure? Motivation helps, but unfortunately it doesn't pay the bills. It's still important, but the article "The Courage of Living Consciously" by Steve already saus everything that needs to be done. So, on the practical side, what can we do? On quality. You need to produce something of value, something that people will actually be interested in. Scott Addams - the creator of Dilbert - said that when he was beginning, to judge the quality of his comic strips, he didn't use the reviews from colleagues, or how much did they laugh. He said that the way to set apart a really good strip for a normal one was if the people who read them wanted to show them to their friends. Think "Order of the Stick", people read the strip for free in the website, and they buy the book, with the same strips, since it's so damn good. So quality is a must. If you want a more scientific explanation you can check this article by Jakob Nielsen: Write Articles, not Blog Postings. A good test of quality is whether people start linking to you spontaneously - without you asking for it - or, better off, start plagiarizing your content. We've had articles copied verbatim from our website (you can leverage this by contacting the offending site and asking for a link, usually they have no problems linking back). The topmost would be to appear on a social news site (we've appeared just once in the top social news site from Spain and it gave us a load of visits). This serves, first, to demonstrate to yourself that your stuff is worthy. If some people want to copy it, and vote for it on a social news site, then most possibly some other people would buy a book on the same style of that material. It also gives you a guideline on which to base future materials. Do more of what people copy and less of what people don't Second, you need a way to monetize the products of your passions and desires. Ok, people like it, it has value, but what's in it for you? You still need to pay the bills. There are many ways to monetize your content or services, and it depends mainly on the type of product or service you're offering. Our main product now is a live workshop, the main advantage is that it being offline people can't download it from emule But you can also create ebooks, get into affiliate programs, and so on. I am not very fond of advertising venues like adsense since they don't seem to yield much money, and as Brian Clark of copyplogger points out, earning money through google adsense actually means working for google. Ok, so you've got the website, you've got the attention and you've got the traffic. Now what? On making money: so far I'm making around 100 € / month on average. That's not enough by any means to live. Heck, it's not enough to pay for drinks. But it's the first step. Now I'm at the crossroads where the income from my side project is not enough to quit my day job. And my day job is ugly but pays well. What I'm doing now is trying to create more streams of income to multiply the money that comes in, and have decided on a fixed minimum amount to quit my daily job (300 €, the cost of renting the room where I live). The thing here is that I have tried to balance an optimistic view of my desires and abilities with a realistic view of, hey man, bills don't get paid on their own. My main problem is that I stand alone and have to pay a rent. I have my savings, of course, but I'd rather not burn through them, or just the bare minimum, just in case. You fare better in this regard since you live in your own home and your husband can support you. You have a great opportunity there. But of course from the outside it might look as if you were lazy and wanted to stay at home and do nothing. That's why you should start monetizing your career of choice in any way, no matter how small, so you can say "see, this is making money, of course it's small, but it'll keep growing and growing". Oh, and I was forgetting. I had three car problems last year. One time I burnt the engine. Twice I got hit by another car so I had to fix it. I can go to my office in subway but it's a long long ride. What did I do? I reframed it positively and I used the idle time to read some books that I had pending and some other stuff. You can read some meaning in the actions of the universe. You can read negative meanings like "the universe is placing bumps on the road so that I am screwed". Or you can read it positively like "the universe is testing me, if I overcome these obstacles the universe will stop testing", or better "the universe does not want me to ride my car, perhaps it's because it wants me to stay at home working at my career of choice". What I tend to think these days is that, sometimes, ** happens, and that I have to deal with them whether I have glorious plans to live my dream life or whether I'm happy just being a drone. I prefer to look on the positive side of things but sometimes there are things that are roadblocks no matter how rosy you want to see them. But inertia** is real. If you have enough push, enough motivation and can manage to put massive action into a well-thought plan, you can overcome the majority of roadblocks. And once you pass one, make a contingency plan so that if it happens again it does not affect you so much (actually, I was almost going to buy another 2nd hand car to have redundancy, to not lose so much time each time I have to take my car to the mechanic so I did not lose that time for working on my side business). So, summing up, what I would do in your case would be: * determine what product(s) or service(s) I would offer with my career of choice. * start creating some content, check if people actually love it. If not, back to the drawing board. Rinse, repeat. Until people absolutely love your content. * determine several ways to monetize your content. Not only one, since it might flop or not be enough. Brainstorm with someone at least 5 ways of earning money through easily selling your products and services. By "easily" I mean with no steps in the middle that don't depend on you like "an editor likes my book and agrees to publish it nationwide". * calculate the income you get each month, even if it's pennies. Make a graphic and enjoy seeing it going upwards every month. It gives you more motivation than "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "Think And Grow Rich" mixed with Red Bull. * note down each contingency that might happen and a possible solution in case it actually happens. For instance I got aphony last workshop and I couldn't talk, but we got through it with the help of the other two instructors. Best regards and keep us informed on the progresses !!!