Be Your Own Boss

Last week was an interesting week for me because I started to look at it from a different perspective. Rather than just live another week as 7 days of habit, I looked at each and every transaction I made with another human being from two perspectives: how is this transaction making my life better, and how might it be making their lives better?

I was shocked at how many people I need to make my life more efficient. In each and every transaction, I saw people doing something better than I can do the given task — by doing it faster or cheaper or just better, I am able to increase my own time spent on doing what I do best. In 8 situations I was definitely using others for my own gains, and they were using me for their gains. That is the best business relationship to have. In one situation, I realized I was giving up more than I was getting in the long run — and I made it a point to discuss with the person what we can do to make the relationship more amicable.

I’m a messy person — disorganized, a minimalist packrat and a paperwork pile addict. You’d be amazed at how many piles of junk I can accumulate in just 30 days. I used to have a gorgeous huge office in Chicago (at the corner of Erie and Franklin, a street corner known best for its mention in The Matrix I). 3000 square feet, beautiful skyline, 2 parking spaces, and a pile of papers from here to China if laid out side by side. The office was a detriment to my state of mind — I avoided it because of the mess. After 6 years of occupying that space, I made the choice to downsize. I cut it out. My employees worked out of their homes, which gave them more reason to be at a customer’s office and billing for their time rather than sitting in a messy office trying to cope with the overhead.

Yet now at home I found myself burdened again. I hired a local young gent with an admitted OCD — he hated clutter and mess. I found him through my failed retail store — he offered to clean up my files there and did so with great attention to detail. I hired him immediately to clean up my mess at home. Now, once a month, he comes and fixes what I break. He doesn’t even have to ask me what is important and what isn’t — he knows me and my needs. Every time he leaves, a huge burden is reduced from my life. The US$50 I pay him for the 1-2 hours of work is worth hundreds each month in time saved and hassles gone. I’m amazed that more people with OCD can’t turn it into a productive and profitable business. My number one customer has 50 offices of messes that they’d love to organize — if you find yourself meticulous in organization, consider a part time job in organizing the lives of others. I bet I could find hundreds of customers who need assistance here.

On Tuesday, the local lawnmowing kid came by the house. Even though our lawn is supposed to be taken care of, this young 14 year old really busts his rear to make it look better — hedging, trimming, even watering and seeding the lawn for under US$20 per visit. Our lawn looks ten times better than almost any other in the neighborhood, and for me it is a weight lifted off my chest. I love sitting on the lawn and reading, or having friends and family over to BBQ. A good lawn is more than just being egotistical about one’s life, it is a useful product if you entertain. I should pay the kid more since he also takes the responsibility of reminding me when I forget to call him.

Later on Tuesday I visited my favorite gas stations — one of the last of its kind. For 7 cents more per gallon, they do the full service job correctly — check the oil, wash the windows, dry the windows, empty the garbage pockets and check the tires for proper pressure. I am positive that I have saved the 7 cents per gallon over the lifetime of the car in better fuel efficiency and a safer car to drive. Last week they noticed my windshield wipers were almost gone, and instead of selling me their overpriced wipers, they told me to just pick them up at the local auto parts store and they’d install them next fill up. Here is a place where thrift doesn’t make sense — especially for a busy entrepreneur. I wish more gas stations offered this service, I’d gladly pay 15 cents a gallon more for the service.

On Thursday my home entertainment PC had a power supply failure — the first one in a year. I go through power supplies quicker than most (cat hair, too many hard drives and shoving the PC under the TV rack with no air supply). My local PC hardware store is a hilarious little shop with decent deals and employees who remember me. We purchase a lot from them for my IT shop, but one reason I make the added 15 minute drive each way is for their service. They installed my power supply free of charge. Even though I could do it myself, I prefer to have them do it as they do it with care, and it saves me from the common cuts and nicks I get doing it myself. They also blow out the case, clear up the fans, and do an overview of everything internally to make sure it is all looking good. I’m an IT consulting company owner, yet I think even geeks should look to the advice of others to discover where we’re careless or maybe not even knowledgeable. The typical geek believes he is right in everything IT — yet I always learn something new when visiting this store, especially since most of their employees are a decade younger than me and have more time to sit online and find new ways to do their job better. While I was there getting the power supply replaced, the tech gave me a few pointers on things I should look into to make my life easier. That is a major bonus for me — they weren’t selling me something, they were helping me make a sale for something I needed.

That is just a few companies that I hired and continue to hire — companies that make my life better for the money and time I invest in them. I’ll cover a few more tomororw, as well as the one company that I had to re-negotiate with. If you’re looking to start your own business, think about what these companies did for me, and think about what you can do for others. Running your own business is not difficult if you look past the common fears of new entrepreneurs. The most basic philosophy a successful businessman has is “What can I do for others, and how will doing it help me?”

Don’t be afraid to ask that question over and over again, especially once you’re a successful businessman yourself.

Discuss this article at the Be Your Boss forum.

Darren Rowse, the Pro-Blogger has an article titled 3 Factors to Consider Before Starting a Blog - Maintaining Blogging Momentum. One of the comments asks about the future of blogging, and that is something that I have thought about for about a year before I converted my e-mail and paper newsletters to blog format: what is the future?

A paper newsletter is great because it often gets read — there’s no need for a computer, a monitor or any labor. Sometimes it gets tossed on a pile and read a few weeks later, but it always seems to get read. My comment to reader ratio was VERY high when I was in paper form. People took the time to log on and send me an e-mail. With my blogs, that isn’t the same case, and my return readership has dropped. A print newsletter was good for me since I could write 5-10 articles a month, and people felt like it was a lot. Now, 30 articles a month doesn’t seem enough, and the paltry 15 that some of my sites receive is even worse.

I feel fairly certain that the blogosphere will have an imminent collapse as a newer creation/aggregating/distribution media format comes out — the biggest problem for most bloggers is the lack of quality and interested return traffic. Getting 2000 uniques a day is great, but if they’re not returning and becoming active readers, many bloggers feel they’re just spinning their wheels. If you’re getting 2000 readers visiting a day and only 3 comments (or worse, none), you’re really not getting much for your time, even if the ad revenue is decent.

The blog network is a start but even the networks run into distribution problems. As more blog networks pop up, the ones already out there battle for the readers. Eve as new readers enter the blogosphere, they seem to get lost in the madness. The distribution of blogs is currently the worst media distribution format I’ve ever researched. I’ve thought the best blog distribution structure would be the aggregator — companies that go out and actually read blogs daily to throw them into a news-clip like website. Yet many professional bloggers hate the aggregator because they feel like they’re being stolen from (I, on the other hand, openly allow people to take my writings and use them as their own). The number one problem with distributing something that others are displaying for free is that they don’t want others giving them out for free either. It is a real problem.

Do you close your blog to subscribers only, giving out free articles here and there? A few successful bloggers do that, but it can take years to build a profitable subscriber base. My print newsletters took years to break 3 figures in subscribers, but quickly grew from that point. Do you run a blog with article snippets and then charge for the remainder? I don’t think that is a good promotional tool, either.

Over time, the bloggers with the most time and the least need for income will be the ones to overtake those who need the income (and can’t afford the time) — if both have something similar to say. I don’t believe blogging for money is a casual business venture, and I do believe that the costs of entering the business are so low that we’ll see a ton of competition, even if it is short-lived.

The downside of “easy” competition in any market is that it can saturate the market and actually destroy it. Imagine if it was cheap to make diamonds (just dig them out of your backyard) and 500 people opened diamond stores in your city. Who’d want a diamond? Imagine if it was cheap to build a Ferrari (pull car parts off of a tree) and they could be sold for US$500. Who’d be driving Ferraris? Look at the number of failed cheaper BMW, Audi, Cadillac and Mercedes models.

Blogs are no different — the authors have to have more than just information and something to share, they have to have a drive for getting readers to return. For some, they just want you to visit one site, click some revenue generating link, and never come back. These bloggers will be the quickest ones to leave as the income (initially) is very low. They spend more time trying to spam forums and other blogs in order to get thousands of one-time visitors to come and leave. That isn’t a good business plan. Some bloggers put a site together and abandon it after 30 days, but the site might still exist for years. Visitors to these blogs tend to see how unprofessional blogging is.

What is the right way to attack this new media industry? For me, I believe you should look at your first professional/amateur blog as an education. Some people go to college for 4+ years. Some people go to trade school for 2+ years. Why shouldn’t a new business be similar? The first few years of any business is an education for the entrepreneur — an education you pay for by reducing your income. Rather than dropping US$50,000 on a 4 year school program, how about reducing your income by US$50,000 over those 4 years and putting your whole self into the business?

Some who go to college hold a part time job to pay the bills. If you’re wanting to be dedicated to a new business, make a 4-year plan and pretend you’re going to college. Get that part-time job to cover the bills, and spend the time you’d spend in school focusing on learning your market, learning what skills you have, learning how you can sell it and what customers are willing to pay or exchange with you for your time and information.

Being a professional blogger is not an overnight change, it might not even happen in 1-year. Some professional bloggers have been going strong for 2-3 years and are only now starting to see incomes worthy of quitting their day job. The same is true of restaurant owners, realtors and hotdog kiosk owners: there is a long term educating period where you learn the ropes.

Today is the best day to start a blog or a business. You don’t need to dive in with your whole body, though, you can just stick your toe in the pool and get acclimated. There will come a time when a big leap of faith will need to occur, but up until then, you can try to see how well you can dedicate yourself to your business, whether it is an online journalism career (blogging) or something more physical.

Building momentum in any business comes from previous successes. But if you ignore the initial period as a learning time frame, you’ll surely fall away from the business, no matter what it is. There comes a time when the biggest investment is your time, but how do you pay the bills when all you’re gaining is knowledge, not income?

Building blogging momentum is no different than building momentum in any business — you have to get over the learning bump, which can take years. Don’t just write and promote, though. Write and ask your friends and family for criticisms. Write and talk to successful bloggers on what they’d recommend you do to make things better. Join some writing forums and review other writers who then review yours. The initial cost of business is time, not money. The time to learn and hone your skills is the best investment you can make, no matter what market you want to get in. Once you are happy with your work, only then will you be able to focus on momentum and building return customers.

Discuss this article at the be your own boss forum.

This website will be changing hosts soon, so watch for updates!

Darren the ProBlogger gave a link today to an article from Chris Garrett titled Can Anyone Make Money From Blogging?

The comments at both blogs are insightful, but I think some people forget some of the realities of any business model — time * time.

There are two completely separate aspects of time when it comes to getting into business for yourself: the time barrier to entering a market, and the time needed to cultivate and build your customer base. Blogging is no different, but blogging also has a success ratio that doesn’t break my time versus time rule.

The easier it is to enter a market (barrier to entry), the more people will try to get in that market. Blogging is so simple to enter (5 minutes at any blog network), but my time * time equation still holds truth. You can start writing in minutes, but so can anyone else. Just like being in a band only brings success to a rare few, the same is true of blogging.

Blogging for dollars is no different than any other business — you need long term time to succeed. I really get frustrated by anyone that says you can make easy money at anything — you can’t. Every business of mine that has succeeded took 18-36 months of very hard work to get to the level of success that I deemed worthwhile for the time I invested. Becoming successful means continuing this hard level of work to stay successful. Blogging is no different, and I think the 18-36 month level holds true here. Sure, there are some lucky few who become overnight successes, but the percentage of overnight successes is so small that I would consider it near impossible to try to be that person.

If you start writing online today, don’t expect to see a steady stream even in the first year. Journalism of any sort is a job that can take a lifetime to become successful, and the entire time that you are writing, you will see more and more people dive in and cover the same topics you’re covering. While this makes the market more adaptive to social change, it also means that added competition will put downward pressure on your income, and it will happen often.

That is when determination will win in the long run — a market is governed by the laws of supply and demand. When a topic has only a few people covering it and only a few people interested in it (low supply of writers, low demand of readers), the income won’t be very good. Yet over time, the demand of readers can pick up (low supply of writers, high demand of readers) which can give you a great income. The big problem with this supply/demand ratio is that it quickly turns into a high supply of writers and a high demand of readers, which pushes your income down again, even if you’re accomplished and popular.

Over time, the high quantity of writers will wither away because of the drop in income. Those who stick around though might find themselves back to the low supply of writers/high demand of readers ratio again (good income), which will cause the market to provide another burst of new writers covering the same topic.

This situation is no different than any other business model. If a grocery store is succeeding in your area, expect another to open. This temporarily affects the income of the first grocer, but over time they either both survive or one will fail — rarely do we see everyone in a market give up. You’ll see it with gas stations, fast food chains, plumbers and insurance brokers — the market is very adaptive to what the consumer wants, but it can change very quickly.

If you’re sitting and waiting for the right time, it will never come. If you’re hoping to see a quick income and you can’t commit years to your business, you will likely fail and be frustrated enough to never try entrepreneurship again.

The article linked above talks about the changes that can happen in your life (emergencies, family, paying job commitments, etc) that can put a damper on your desire to write. This is where I believe it is important to write as much as possible during the times you’re not busy, but don’t publish everything right away. Just as it is wise to save 10-20% of your income for the future, you should save that much or more of your written word for the days when you can’t “pay the bills” of blogging, which is paid in articles.

Those busy points of our lives is also why it is wise to join a network of bloggers — you’ll be giving up some income bursts for a more stable rate of returning readers. I’m in the process of bringing on a few extra writers to start covering some of my topics for just that reason, plus it helps to have some differing opinions from time to time. Most people can’t spend 1 hour a week writing, and that is ok — if you have 10 such people, you can have a successful site (but you might only earn 10% of what you’d make if you could spend 10 hours a week or more on a consistent basis). I’m blessed that I have more time than most to try to stay on top of my topics, but even I find those days when I’m sitting in a cafe in the middle of a foreign country with no Internet, no cell and no way to update my sites. My “blackout of February 2006″ was 3 weeks of being in Europe and Asia with absolutely zero access to the web, and it drastically affected my traffic for months after.

If you’re thinking of blogging-for-dollars, start today. Don’t worry about advertising, income or traffic, worry about building a history of articles and a savings account of articles to publish on the days that you’re not able to. Over time, months and years, a focused writer should have no problem gaining a readership base, even a marginal one, that can help pay a few bills every month. The worst thing you can do is try to mimic the success of others — focus on your own abilities and opportunities, and ignore the winners and losers out there. You don’t know what they’re investing time-wise, and you have no idea what they’ve really done to build that success.

To succeed at any business requires time * times (time to enter the market and time to build a relationship with your readers). If either of those numbers is zero, your income will be zero, too.

Discuss this article at our be your own boss forum. This site is part of the Global Unanimocracy Network.

I’ve spoken a few times about how writing online can be a reasonable way to drive towards being your own boss, but it is also one of those businesses with a very high failure rate. How many bands do you know of that play for years and never make a dime, but have the dreams of it? Writing for web content can be just as competitive, if not more so.

While the key to being a successful online writer ends up being traffic and more traffic coming to your site(s), getting that traffic comes out of quality, quantity and real knowledge on the subject. Yet even if you’re the most knowledgeable person on a given subject, attracting the attention of the millions out there is not easy, especially if there are millions of people trying to write about your very subject.

I recently found, and was added to, an interesting venture that I think might help those involved with it — BlogBurst. BlogBurst is a company that is taking blogs (that they’ve accepted) and distributing them to large and well known media companies online. You write, they publish your writing on some very large companies:

SF Gate
Washington Post
Houston Chronicle
San Antonio Express-News
Austin American-Statements
Gannett

These are not tiny little papers with a few dozen readers, these are papers that carry quite a bit of traffic. While it isn’t necessarily financially profitable for you to be carried by these papers (they take your words, use their ads around them, and you don’t get a share yet), it is a great way to drive traffic in the long run to your site.

Remember, building a reputation as a consistent and knowledgeable writer doesn’t happen overnight. It may not even happy over a period of time: it just happens one day. As your readers tell others about your site, you gain a little bit of respect and establish yourself a little bit more as someone to be trusted. Gaining the distribution into a major newspaper might not bring you a lot of attention right away, but it is something worth trading some ad income for. The newspaper gains a unique opinion, you gain some credibility, and in the long run you’ll gain more from it than they will. Keep writing, keep getting picked up, and the writing opportunities are endless.

The newspapers who are part of the BlogBurst program are doing a very smart thing — many papers are having problems attracting the younger crowd. What better way to gain visitors than an amateur writer telling friends and family about the paper that is publishing their article? This two-way street should work very well for the mainstream media, and by accepting the sidestream media, we should see some very good traffic sharing.

If you aren’t writing yet, jump on it. Grab an account at any of the free hosting companies, and start writing. If you feel like you can stick to it for 6 months, go ahead and register a domain name at a cheap host, download Wordpress, and get to work!

BlogBurst, like most blog distribution networks, requires that you’ve been writing a while, and consistently. I believe they’re looking for 3-6 months of history with high quality grammar and spelling and a unique opinion. There is no time like the present to dig in, build yourself a history of articles (even if no one is reading them yet), and see where journalism can take you.

Discuss this article at the be your own boss forum.

On the entrepreneurship forum, a new reader has asked some interesting questions that deserve an article of its own. Even if you’re not interesting in the custom T-shirt or silk-screening business, the questions can be important to any new entrepreneurship.

The reader, Mahyar, asks about a book he found on Amazon: How to Print T-Shirts for Fun and Profit!

I checked the book out with some of my local silk-screen business friends, and was surprised to find that almost all of them have the book. It seems that it covers many of the important questions regarding the T-shirt market. I am usually not a fan of most “how-to” business books (they don’t get deep enough) but this one seems like a winner. I’ll be getting a copy today to read and review.

Mahyar also asks about the fine line of copyright protection. In the past, I’ve “acquired” headlines from major newspapers to make fun of society — the Janet Jackson boob garbage was a big seller. Yet one has to be very careful what one borrows from the works of others before printing. Copyright is a very complicated set of laws that makes it very hard to use ideas that others have created. It is sometimes OK to make a parody, but it is definitely not OK to lift logos, photos or anything considered artistic. When I made funny knock-offs, they were always parodized enough to be free from copyright protection, but I was always careful. Don’t make bootlegs, make fun of common items.

Mahyar asked about how to promote or sell your creations — when I started printing T-Shirts, I didn’t have access to eBay or the web, I had to go out and do it. I still think this is the best way to sell your work, especially if you have a decent group of friends (”real” social networking). I was able to sell shirts in so many groups that it was almost always profitable for me. I sold shirts at small local concerts (at some you can rent a table for under US$50 per night). I sold shirts at little league baseball games (slogans for parents, slogans for friends of players). I sold shirts at community fairs and carnivals, and I sold shirts even out of the trunk of my car at the local car club meets. If you get out enough, you’ll find a market wherever people get together.

For many new T-shirt makers, they can also use the internet to create a market, but it is a very competitive market. Differentiating yourself from the millions of other sites and sellers is very hard, and I’m not sure if I personally would get involved there until I had experience and success in the local market. How a slogan or company gets popular is very difficult to understand and track — sometimes you just get lucky. That luck can come from working hard at learning the basics of graphic design and social trends. Both come from trial and error.

If you’re not good a graphics design, this is one place where you can learn a lot by mimicing and even directly copying a famous logo or ten. Pick up a simple vector graphics program (Corel Draw is very commonly used) and learn to make an exact duplicate of any logo you like. Don’t use it for anything other than learning, but during the process you’ll find the harmony of a good logo or design. Even the best selling plain slogan T-shirts at Target have a unique look and feel — size of fonts, colors of cloth and inks, drop shadows, etc.

Even better, look into hiring a friend to do graphics for you. For most student graphic designers, you can help them get their portfolio built while not spending a huge portion of your budget. The idea of teaming up to design and sell together sounds tempting, but I’m not a fan of partnerships — they can quickly fall apart. I also find that graphic designers have their own style that is quite visible, and it makes sense to change it up once in a while, especially if you build a following.

In the short run, just learning to silk screen is the best first step — even before you have a business plan. See if it is something you like to do. Make a few dozen shirts, sell them or give them away to friends, and see how it works out. Some people have the talent (and patience), some don’t. For every 1 success I know 10 failures because they didn’t want to invest the time and patience to building a market. Over time, a popular local market can turn into a very lucrative national one. A look at any punk or trendy T-shirt seller online will find you dozens of companies and logos that started in the basement (or living room) just a few years ago.

Discuss this article at the entrepreneurship forum.

There are 4 “R”s to the equation of a successful entrepreneur, the 4 I listed in the title. They’re fairly simple to define:

Risk - Doing something that might have a chance at failure
Responsibility - Following through with what you’ve committed to do.
Reinvestment - Taking some new assets and using them to produce more
Reward - A gain. usually called profit but could be more than a financial gain

The first half of the equation requires more of both to get the latter half of the equation. The less you expect of the latter half, the easier your business will be to maintain. It is nothing like a see-saw: as you put in more of the first, you’ll get more of the latter. If you skip on any one part of the equation, though, it all falls apart. Ignoring your reinvestment and never getting a reward will quickly lead you to not focus on the first part.

The Reward part I’ve focused on before — I like to call it profit. Profit does not mean financial gain, necessarily. Profit can mean an increase in knowledge or an increase in free time to spend with friends, family or hobbies. Profit can also mean a gain in assets other than money; I call these incentives. They’re all profit, in the end. If you end up with more of something (time, money, knowledge) than you previously had, you’ve profited.

The Reinvestment part is very important, and this is one place where many entrepreneurs fail. When I start a business, I don’t focus on the reward at first, I focus on the reinvestment. How much of my gain do I put back into the business for more gain in the future? If you gain some money, you should put a little extra in every month towards both long-term savings (which can help you through cash flow shortages), marketing or even branching out a little. Forgetting to save a bit of your income for reinvestment will leave you without growth and could even cause you to lose a little of your profit every month. My belief is that businesses either grow or they shrink: there is no status quo where you can stay the same forever.

Risk is the biggest deterrent for most people from starting their own business: they’re afraid to move forward since the risks far outweigh the rewards. The biggest reason you might be afraid to take a risk is because your life has too many negatives that keep you in the same job, the same lifestyle, the same town. My recommendation to knock these negatives out by working quite a bit harder for a year should be taken now — in a few years your energy won’t be what it is today, and you might be even deeper in the negatives that prevent you from taking a risk. My new businesses today are almost no risk — the money I had available isn’t huge by any means, but I don’t depend on it to pay the mortgage or the bills.

The Responsibility part is a killer for me — the follow through. I can step into any risk and make it work, but following up in the long haul can be a real bore and a real concern. Looking around your life today you have to take note of the places you’re irresponsible and fix those before bringing a new one on. If you don’t think you’re irresponsible in any areas, ask your friends and family first. If all is green-lighted, you’re ready for that risk — take the jump tomorrow. If you do have responsibility problems, focus on what you can do to clear those out, the headaches you cure today will be even more important tomorrow when you’re running against the random problems that come up when you are your own boss.

Discuss this article at the entrepreneurship forum.

The Wall Street Journal today had a nice back-and-forth debate about the possibility of making money online. The article focuses on blogging, but it ignores a few basics in the profitability of generating articles for income.

Making money with your own weblog site is more akin to writing an article for publication in the print media. Some of my more favorite articles I publish online I also submit to the local papers and magazines — when and if they’re picked up, I usually generate a nice dime or two. That is the focus of my sites, as well. I’m not writing for an emotional outlet, I’m writing to create a market for information I am interested in writing in.

If you’re looking to write about a topic, you will not gain a reader base within a few basic necessities in your writing:

1. Be interested.
2. Be unique.
3. Be dependable.
4. Be outrageous.
5. Be grammatically correct.

Going from a newbie writer to an amateur writing is a huge step — you’ll succeed, you’ll fail, you’ll learn. I highly recommend promoting your first site in order to gain the criticism you need to perfect your writing skills. Openly request criticisms from your readers — even one time readers — and learn from their comments.

The Wall Street Journal debate is a good one, a short read, too. They bring out a fact that most web readers don’t realize — there is a very low supply for good information, but a very high demand. In a free market economy, this creates a better income for those looking to excel, which drives more people to writing. Yet 99.9% of writers will not try to be interested or unique, they won’t be dependable or outrageous, and their grammar could be a bigger failure in attracting a regular audience.

Don’t enter the world of writing online for profit, not right away. Get in on writing to see if you can be dedicated for the long run. Just like any business I promote, there should be a dedicated of at least 18-24 months before you can realize a good income. I believe that there is a huge amount of cash out there waiting to be paid to people who are ready to dig in and learn and excel at writing. I’m not the one who is looking to take advantage of it, but I know there are dozens of regular readers I speak to through e-mail who want to give it a try.

Don’t look for quick and easy money, look for creating a career for yourself as a journalist. Starting as a common blogger is nothing to be ashamed of, but as you gain notoriety and fame, you’ll soon find other avenues of income (republishing in papers and magazines, working for dedicated media network, providing resources for other writers, etc). Starting today will set you ahead of the rest of the world who is still learning the basics of reading the new media format. Get in now so you’ll be ahead of the pack when they all race to make a dime online.

Discuss this article at the entrepreneurship forum.

Thanks for the e-mails asking me about the previous post in this short series. For those with similar questions:

1. I don’t write my blogs to make money, but I do see the value in those who try.
2. I don’t make enough to pay more than the cost of hosting and access to certain subscriber-paid newsletters.
3. I use my blogs specifically to raise my billable rate in my regular career.

Yet I have numerous friends who have been asking me what the options are for making a real income, and I do believe the opportunities are there if you go about it responsibly.

There are literally thousands of “Make money blogging” sites out there, but most have something to sell. I don’t. Most of these sites repeat the same facts over and over again, each one just trying to be the first site that a wanna-be blogger goes to to buy whatever e-book or secrets the website owner has to sell. I don’t see value in any of these as most of the information is available free of charge if you know where to look.

For those I know who actually earn their living writing online, I’ve seen 5 things in common:

1. They love their topic, and they love researching their topic.
2. They commit to writing as a full time job, even if they’re still working. NO business will succeed unless you treat it as your full time job. They commit to writing for a certain period of time (18-24 months).
3. They commit to writing on a scheduled basis, so their readers know when to expect a new article.
4. They give their readers access to their previous articles by tying them in to new ones through links and references.
5. They build a community with their “competitor” bloggers, which helps them all reach better positioning in the search engines.

Today I’ll focus on the third common feature of a successful blogger: the schedule. Because I don’t consider myself a successful blogger, I also don’t consider myself a full-time blogger. If I would get on a more regular schedule, I know I could build my readership base, but the RSS feeds I provide seem to do a good job of things. I don’t necessarily want any of my sites to be the site you visit daily, but I also appreciate those who read one or more of my sites on a daily basis. It feeds me more information in what I should share with others, and it helps me rethink mistakes in my life that lead to successes.

Once you’ve discovered a topic, the best thing to do is research the competition. Find out how often they made new posts — did they write multiple articles every day, one article a day, one a week, or are they all over the place? Look at their archive history and see how well they stuck to a consistent schedule.

If someone is writing exactly what you want to write, and they’re doing it on a very consistent basis, you may not find success in writing. In most topics there are hundreds of blogs, sometimes thousands. Most of these blogs are completely unscheduled and inconsistent — the authors had high hopes of replacing their real jobs, but never committed themselves to a schedule.

My number one recommendation for all new bloggers (professional, amateur or hobbyist) is to get a nice calendar and write down when they’re going to publish an article. Getting a nice sized calendar helps — not only can you write that you will update a blog, but you can also write future topics you’d like to write about. Fill in the calendar at least 3-6 months in advance, and keep expanding the calendar as you find success (readers, not income). When you hit a day to write, highlight the day to signify that you did write. When you write a new article, look back over the past few months in your calendar and see if you can reference a previous article to the new one (item 4 in the list above). This is a great way to stay on top of updating, keep your readers interested, and give your new readers a way to dig deep into your past articles.

Give yourself a deadline to write — no later than 1 day, or 2 hours, or whatever fits your lifestyle. Also give yourself 3 strikes: if you miss 3 deadlines, delete the blog and move on to some other business. A “real” writer can’t miss deadlines or their publisher will cut them. Your publisher is yourself, but your advertisers are the ones who pay you. Inconsistent blogs are quickly become worthless to the advertisers and the search engines.

If you’re serious about writing, don’t write for an income right away, write for content, write to build a history, and write to build a following of people interested and intrigued with what you have to say. This year (2006) will be the year of the blogger — everyone will have one. Next year will be the year that many authors go back to reading others, because they could not commit to all (or any) of the items in the list above.

Discuss this article at the entrepreneurship forum.

I get the occasional daily e-mail asking me questions about making money online — is there a decent and quick way to make money with a blog or a website. Since I run 15 websites myself (most public, a few private), I’ve decided to offset the costs of hosting with monetizing the website through various programs such as AdSense and affiliate links. I try not to clutter the site with too many ads, and I always take ads down if they’re not relevant to my topic.

I firmly believe that there is a ton of money to be made online — whether it is with a blog or with an informational website. The downside, though, is that there is no easy money to be made anywhere. In my experience, there are a million ads about how to make thousands overnight with your website — none of these offer information that can’t be had for free on numerous forums and in free e-books.

Because I do receive an e-mail or two a day about making money with blogs, I planned 2-3 articles regarding the right way to do it, and a comparison as to why I don’t work that way. I don’t want to make thousands a day off of my blogs, I just like to cover the cost of hosting (which I do). Whatever is left I give back to my readers in promotions and giveaways. My blogs bring me enough real life business that I don’t need to charge for them directly, and over time I hope to be more consistent in updating them all every morning as time allows.

Here is the simple breakdown of how to make money online. It is not different than running a real life business:

1. Spend 18-24 months working 30-40 hours a week on your website(s).
2. Invest every dollar of profit back into promoting your site through paid advertisements on competitors sites and other sites.
3. Sell what you know: don’t try to scam your readers and visitors. If you’re not really familiar with a topic, any profits you make will be very short term.
4. The only way to make good money for a long time is slowly but surely.

There are numerous get-rich-quick schemes out there: they all make their authors rich but the readers end up doing nothing. There is money to be made early on with a website, but even at US$5 per day, I recommend putting it all back into promoting your site by buying advertising elsewhere. You will gain a better readership base and this means you’ll likely make more money in the long run. If you’re picking a topic to write about just because you heard it is a money earner, you’ll lose out. The best paying ads are affected by supply and demand: when no one is writing about a topic, the ads tend to pay more. When tens of thousands of people start writing about a topic, the best paying ads are taken, leaving you with low paying ones instead. Topics come and go in terms of profitability, it is the one who sticks with it in the long run that makes a steady income. This is also true of running a store or a consulting business: stores come and go, it is the ones that stick around that have the best return business.

If you’re interested in starting a small site in order to try to earn a living, I have a lot of experience in the information communications field: I’ve been in the business of writing since I was 13 when I ran my first text file BBS. For 19 years I’ve been writing and getting paid for it — it has never been easy money, and the time I spend writing would be better spent doing my regular gig. It is only because I like to pass on my experiences (good and bad) that I do it. But I know if I wanted to write for a major profit, the opportunities are out there, they are just not for me.

Discuss this article here.

One of my regular readers is preparing to open their first store in his small town — with a rent of US$400 per month, about 600 square feet on a nice road — I’ve been helping him design the right business plan and preparations so that he’ll have a much better chance of survival. Most new businesses fail because the owners get too aggressive in spending money but not time. The most successful businesses are those that open earlier than the door says and close later, with the business owners spending a significant period of time at the store after-hours taking inventory, cleaning up, and making the place look comfortable.

The only process I haven’t been able to help him with has been his local regulations regarding how to open a business. The lease is fairly simple (I always recommend getting a realtor and a lawyer before approaching a landlord for a lease), and getting his accounts open should be pretty quick once he has everything ready. Now he’s at a stopping point because of the paperwork he has to deal with on the government level.

The first thing to do to start a business legally is to get a FEIN — a Federal Employer Identification Number. This is similar to a social security number — it gives a business an identifier in paying taxes and filing paperwork. You can apply for an get your FEIN fairly quickly. The form is the IRS SS-4 form, available online here.

Once you receive your FEIN, you’ll want to contact your local State taxing body or department of revenue to acquire a business license — usually a sales tax ID number or other identification number for filing sales tax and other fees. Your state’s revenue department website can be found at this site. I highly recommend actually going to your local state revenue location to discuss the particulars in person — expect it to take more than a day as the bureaucracy can be intimidating. Be nice, be friendly, and get everyone’s name and ID number.

Once these two important pieces of paper are in your hands, you have to go to your county office. Some counties have power over the villages in regulating businesses, especially on county highways or roads. A quick call to the county will generally get you the information you need to apply for any licenses.

Once the 3 licenses are out of the way, go open a bank account for your business. All you need is the licensing from the government bodies and you’re set — maybe an hour total at the bank.

You can now apply for your reseller accounts with your wholesalers and distributors. This takes time, sometimes weeks, so it is best to get them started immediately after receiving your licenses above. After you apply for these accounts, I’d recommend researching a merchant account company — they process credit cards. I prefer buying a used credit card terminal on eBay, and some of these higher feedback-rated companies can get you great deals on merchant accounts. I must have paid almost US$3000 more over 3 years because I let my bank handle the account. Ouch!

Now that you’ve got the licensing and the accounts started, and know how you will collect your income and where you’ll place it, the worst part is ahead: the city or village. Sometimes a city or village won’t talk to you until you have a lease and a property, but then you can’t get a lease or property (a big risk) if you don’t know if the village or city will give you a permit to sell your products! It is a chicken-and-egg situation, and I highly recommend finding a podunk lawyer firm located close to your city hall. This is generally where the cronies work — the sons or cousins or friends of those in office.

Give them a call, sit down with your one free consultation, and ask them how you can get your business open in the least amount of time possible. The costs will be higher than doing it yourself, but you can shave 3-6 months off the process. I once opened a retail store in less than 5 days, and the retail store next door to me took 6 months. I made more than 5 times over what I paid the lawyer to “file my paperwork.”

Once that’s out of the way, get insurance. I lost almost US$50,000 in a theft when we were underinsured — almost closing my business for good. I’m still paying off that debt over 2 years later.

After that’s done, the next step is getting your occupancy, again another local village monstrosity. I’ll get more into this detailed step, as well as deeper detail on all the previous steps, throughout the coming days and weeks.

Discuss this article here.