Deciding on Content

Finding out what you want to do is simple, often this is referred to as a muse so we'll stick with that. So how do you find your "muse"? I've done quite a bit of research into this at first I really didn't know what I wanted to do I spend so much thinking about what to do I never got to the point of just doing it. The best advise I came across was as I said, simple. Think of what you're already good at, (working out, electronics, gardening) whatever this is you know you're good at you're part of the way to finding your muse. Next, what is a problem that you could fix there's a industry out there that has a flaw and you're going to capitalize on this. If you're opening up a shop what can you offer (free shipping, better warranties). If you're starting an affiliate program what content can you provide that will captivate your audiences?

The biggest thing about starting any site is finding contend that you are interested in, starting sites about stuff that's mainstream you'll more than likely get burned out sooner than later and not continue to update this site. I've already started a couple sites that I've lost interest in within a few days of because I wasn't totally invested in the project.  Eventually you'll see this blog on a website since it's something I'm spending more and more time with.

That brings me to another point, if you're planning on spending a lot of time with your site instead of just going with the free domain and hosting that a lot of sites give you like Shopify. For Cheap domains I have been using Godaddy and as for web hosting I've used Bluehost. I'll go further into these later in a different post.

My biggest tip for finding your muse is to let it come to you trying to force a muse will ultimately fail but when it comes to you don't wait around or it will never happen.

Change your life, One book at a time.

So you want to live your life remotely, with less labor intensive work and in the long run live life like the so called "New Rich"?

If you answered yes to any of these questions here's a great list of books you have to read to get your life on the right track.

The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated

Amazon Price: $13.51 (Reg. $22.00)

This book started everything for me, it made me realize that not only could my online time could be better spent, but that ultimately working for someone else is not an option for me. This book gives you the tips to take control of your life and become a successful part of the "New Rich"

Extra Money Answer: How to Create, Promote, and Monetize an Affiliate Site

Amazon Price: $2.99 (Kindle) (Reg. $27.99 Paperback)

Anyone who is interested in creating an affiliate site needs to read this, it goes through tips and tricks on how to create a successful site I'm still currently working on this one. Shawn Collins has been doing this since the late nineties and has even co-created the renowned conference "Affiliate Summit"

School for Startups

Amazon Price: $11.01 (Reg. $17.00)

Finally, (for now) School for Startups is a great read for anyone looking to start a successful business right out of the gate. This book goes into a lot of specifics that the others don't in how to make the best decisions for your starting business.

Doing Business Online - From Selling Products to Monetization

Doing Business Online

I'm going to walk you through something that's not new but still is very miss understood, online business AKA E-Commerce. There's a couple of ways that a person could make money offline and I'll do a quick walk through of this I'm planning on doing a video series on how to set up a website for selling product and I may do more on the other three ways to get you guys all started up.

 

1. Selling Product

2. Affiliate programs

3. Commission

4. Ad placement

All of these methods have their perks and fallbacks and it mainly is equal to how much work you have to put into the source and how much money you put into it. Naturally the more money you have to put down the higher the risk that it can ultimately fail in a way that could leave you worse off than before. Here's what I've learned about these forms of work I'll go from riskiest to least risky and how you could use them to your advantage done correctly.

Selling Products Online

This form definitely has the biggest risk of backfiring this is really the only one you have to be careful on what you do. First, your putting your own money down on the table (if done correctly not for a month) and it takes by far the most time to set up. With this you really have to find out what your "Muse" is because you'll be spending hours setting up your site, finding product and distributers. For setting up a store I recommend Shopify It has very easy tools for setting up a great website and I set my first site up completely in less than a day. If you don't want to hold a ton of product in your garage there's a couple dropship companies I recommend either Doba or Worldwide Brands they both have their perks so you'll have to find which one you like yourself. To do your domain I'd highly recommend doing GoDaddy it's the easiest domain registrar to link up to both Shopify and Google apps for business (You'll use Google apps for business for your shop email).

 Affiliate Programs

Doing Affiliate Programs requires you to set up a site, partner with another company and then advertise for them. When it comes to affiliate programs there's a lot of leg work but ultimate there's no cost to you out of pocket (unless you advertise your site). There's sites like Commission junction which link you to businesses that need advertising, or you can just find your own businesses to advertise for. Depending on how many people sign up for the site you advertised for you can get performance incentives and lead percentages.

Commission

Commission is similar to affiliate programs where if you refer people to a site or product and they buy you get a certain percentage of the profit the company made. It all depends on what you negotiate at the beginning of the relationship, sites like Amazon actually use this program a lot. This one requires about the same amount of effort as Affiliate programs. Plus it's about as safe the only thing you really have to worry about with this is finding trustable sites to sign up with since most require your tax information.

Ad Placement

I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with advertisements if not, welcome to the 21st century. The kicker here is you can use those advertisements to your advantage. Sites like Google's Adsense will pay you to host their advertisements that's why you see people becoming partners with Youtube and posting videos as well as on their blogs receive money from these advertisement sites. This is one of the slowest methods of gaining money though because it all goes off clicks for the "big money" and if people only look at the ad without clicking on it you only will receive pennies on the dollar.


Realistically all these if done properly can be used to supplement income or if you want to be a part of the movement called the "New Rich" these could be very good ways to live a life without having to work more than four hours per week. I'm looking into creating videos on how to quickly start a new website for beginners. If your interested leave me a comment on your experiences or questions and I'll look further into it. also links to the websites are at the bottom.



Sites gone over in this blog include:
Shopify
Doba
worldwide brands
GoDaddy
Google Apps for Business
Commission Junction
Amazon
Google Adsense

Outsourcing your life.

Hey everyone,

I recently came across a concierge service named Your man in India (YMII) basically they do anything that doesn't require a physical presence. Anything from planning your daughters next birthday party to setting a website to even waking you up in the mornings this is a great way to free up some extra time since while you sleep they do what ever job you assign them. Services like this in the U.S. would cost 15 bucks on up depending on the task per hour while YMII will do it for as little as four. For you guys who have a lot of little jobs you just can't seem to get done this maybe the perfect opportunity for you to try it while the rest of you can easily find other uses for it on a monthly basis. Why try to find the best dentist in town while you can have someone else do it while you enjoy the sunny day outside, or if you need a business proposal written up watch your favorite NASCAR race while you let someone else do the work for you. That's part of being an Entrepreneur and boss is to have someone else work for you right? Anyway I just thought that was a cool thing to share.

Enjoy!

Becoming more social, one step at a time.

As I  mention in my "About Me" section I've always been a fairly unsocial person, playing video games after High School instead of hanging out with people and doing new things to make my life seem more exciting to other people. I would have a small click of friends at a time and not hang out with other people but I did go BMXing with friends in senior more and more often becoming a bit more sociable.

My biggest problems were confidence in social situations and not being able to read people. I've even had dates that went terrible because I couldn't look the other person in the eye and I'd ask questions instead of taking control of the situation. The part that is really weird is I keep getting myself into sales jobs which I always found strange since the biggest factors of selling are confidence and being able to read people. My lack of these two traits ultimately led me to getting fired for the first time from a car dealership about a month before my "trial" period was over. So after that happened I decided my social skills had to change and here were my big objectives to work on.

1. Become more confident in everything I do regardless of if I know what the heck I'm doing or not.

2. Learn how to converse with people better so I actually have something to say during extended conversations.

3. Learn how to read people, read the conversation to understand the person better and learn body language so I can keep their interest an hour into a conversation.

I've been working on these parts of social interaction a lot watching Youtube videos, reading articles, and lots and lots of social interactions in and out of work. After doing cold approaches on the opposite sex and trying to start and hold extended conversations over and over it's changed my over all confidence level tremendously.

I've been doing several things to help me in the social experiment to help myself and if you have similar traits as me you can work on them as well the same way.

1. As you pass people look them directly in the eye until they look away (you'll be surprised how quickly most people look away) If someone confronts you about it just say they reminded you of someone you used to know.

2. Cold approach people as much as possible start out with something simple like what time is it and when you see any girl you think is remotely attractive go up to her and tell her she's (cute/hot/attractive) but make it clear right up front you're attracted to her.

3. Don't fear rejection from anyone what's the worst that can happen? They'll say no and both of you walk away to live your lives as separate people and possibly never meet again. Make it into a game! If you're having fun with the conversation they will as well.

There's tons of tricks but start with those learning stuff like this can only improve the quality of your life in the long run. As always questions or comments are welcome tell me your tricks and next time I make a post about social experiments I may bring up your idea.

Fitness & Health the beginning

One of my jobs currently is a Quality of Life Enhancement Specialist at Bose (aka Sales just don't tell anyone the first title sounds better). The company has created a challenge for their employees that the person who has the most points gets a small prize. Ever since I started this challenge I've been eating more, exercising more and using a few apps on my iPhone. One is a Nike app called Nike+ Running Essentially it Uses GPS to follow your running and tracks it along with time, distance and compares it with other runs you've done. The next one is Myfitnesspal this one is really cool it asks you a couple of preliminary questions like what you weigh, what kind of job you have and what your fitness goals are. After plugging in my info it told me I need to eat 3,000 calories a day (to gain five pounds in the next few weeks). Totally killer on me since I'm not used to eating that much but I've felt more energy along with a few other good effects of eating healthier food and exercising.

Anyway I thought the contest was a cool way to kick start your way to better health so I'll put up the way to count points per day to kick start your goals. (I've changed some things I thought should be added.

Participate in an activity for more than 20 mins (running, walking, gardening, surfing etc.): 2 Points
Have a friend or family member participate with you (add points per person): 1 Point
Sign up for a run or exercise class (martial arts, yoga, 5k) : 3 Points
Log your activity in MyFitnessPal for three consecutive days.: 2 Points
Any choice you actively make a Healthier decision (stairs instead of elevator, water instead of coffee, fruit instead of fries) 1 Point

Nutrition

Pack a Healthy meal for work.: 2 Points
Drink the recommended amount of water for yourself (use this Hydration Calculator) 1 Point


I've been doing this since about two weeks ago and I have 40 points so far try it and see what you get it can only help.



I've also purchased one of those Abmats and a Yoga mat I'll show you those when I receive them.

prologue

Here's to post number one of my new blog in this blog I hope to go over anything from life hacks to following your goals as well as life learning and anything that comes in between. The title is "Changing our lives one step at a time" this isn't just about how you can change your life, but as I include myself in the title I will be or already am working on the information that I post it will also be about how I'm spending my time to either make it the most efficient or remember able. I welcome anyone's input and when I post about thoughts or ideas to change myself I will love anything you guys have to say about what you have tried in the past, or your experiences using the idea in your life.

Anyway welcome to the project, enjoy your stay.