As many of you know, I’m a podcast fanatic. I was listening to podcasts years before I ever started recording my own shows (you can read about my podcasts at this link).

If you are just getting started, don’t feel like you missed the dance. When I started a podcast in 2009, a lot of people were saying that “podcasting was dead.”  ಠ_ಠ

By the end of this article I want to:

1. Help you make all the basic technology decisions in less than an hour so you can get started creating a great show as soon as possible.
2. Share with you the most important podcasting strategies and tips I’ve learned in the past few years.

With any luck, a little bit of my irrational enthusiasm for the medium will wear off on you. I’m a firm believer that podcasting can get you money, friends, lovers, ideas, advice, quality karma, and good times. Sound good? If you are at a sticking point in getting your podcast off of the ground, let me know in the comments, and I’ll do my best to help you.

Let’s get started…

“There’s all the difference in the world between having something to say, and having to say something.” ― John Dewey

Before you hit record, make sure you have something to say.

Even if you have a crappy microphone and a mediocre blog design, you can create a meaningful podcast and change people’s lives for the better.

Most people who start a podcast will focus on their design, their sound mapping, what kinds of guests they are going to have, and the promotion. How am I gonna tweet the crap out of this podcast?! 

You shouldn’t be worrying about that stuff. You don’t need that crap. You need something to say. You can’t phone it in like a lot of the big guys. Nobody wants to hear the next interview unless you are somebody. The way to being a somebody is having something to say.

Here’s some strategies for developing a voice:

• Don’t like something that’s popular? Fix it. Does the Lifestyle Business Podcast grind your gears? Good. Start a podcast that’s better. You’ve got the format, the basic topics, subject, and even the basic content structure. All you need to do is improve it. Focus it on bloggers? Cool. Have a live call format? Awesome. Sick of those douchey hosts? You can solve that. Rip, Pivot, and Jam!
• Focus on solving specific problems. A great hack to having something to say is focusing your energy on specific problems. Even if you are boring at the beginning (it’s tough not to be!), we’ll still listen because we want to hear the goods. Worried you won’t be able to come up with something to talk about every week? Join the club. Sure it’s hard– just because your podcast is about “link building” doesn’t mean you can’t talk about the things that matter most to you. Really. I’m serious.
• Talk about a scene. There aren’t enough podcasts that focus on ‘scenes’ on the internet. Everybody still thinks we should be focused on creating evergreen or cornerstone content. That’s fine and good. Let everyone else do that. By focusing on stuff that’s topical, you can hack your way to something to say.
• Be a thoughtful filter. This is an idea that Jay and Sterling focused on in this episode of IBM. They give an interesting example of “Latest in Paleo” as a great podcast that acts as a filter for all kinds of paleo information, even though the host isn’t a world-recognized expert.

Speaking of strategy…

After 4 months of podcasting and hard work, only 30 listeners subscribed to my show.

I started the Lifestyle Business Podcast at the end of July in 2009. I just checked my Feedburner stats: by the end of December 2009 it looks like I had about 30 people listening to the show via an iTunes subscription.

After 4 months of work and 18 episodes of content… 30 subscribers. 

How did I feel about that? To be honest, I think I was pretty pumped. That’s 30 more people than had ever listened to me before.

And you know what’s what? I recently learned that two of those 30 listeners were Rob Walling (the entrepreneur) and David Hehenberger (the guy who’s helping me grow my business). Isn’t that something?

*  *  *

The benefits of podcasting over written text.

I wonder about our recent hyper-fast launch of the TMBA start-up sessions (I didn’t even get to put up a public sales offering at the blog) as an example of the power of audio as a selling tool. The product was complex. It also asked that customers put a great deal of trust in us. If I were to put out another product like that, and I could only create a sales letter or an audio podcast, there’s no question I’d chose podcast.

Here’s some more benefits of audio I’ve noticed over the years:

• It’s easier to build trust with your audience. I feel more affinity towards podcasters than video publishers and blog writers. It might have something to do with the total amount of time I’ve spent with them. Written and video content competes with everything else on my computer. Also, I’m looking at video publishers, whereas I’m living with podcasters. They are accompanying me on my drives, my walks, eating lunch with them discussing topics that are important to me. My engagement level is much higher.
• It’s easier to display your chops. There’s a lot popular business bloggers who’ve never laid eyes on a balance sheet. Once you fire up the mic, it’s tough to fake it. Separate yourself from the poseurs by talking through your listener’s problems live.
• When it counts, listeners are more likely to convert. When it comes to high value conversions, like meeting up in person, attending live events, or buying high ticket products, I’d take a much smaller podcast audience over a broader written blog audience. Again, no science here, just food for thought.

How do I get rankings in iTunes? 

I don’t know. But here’s some things that I think I’ve learned.

1. If you can get a great podcast badge to associate with your mp3 files and audio feed, do so. When you launch your podcast, design a great 300 x 300 graphic (it’s possible Apple employees review them) and try to get people to mail for it. Total downloads, velocity of subscriber increases, and quality of graphic seem to be factors. If you have any information on this, I’d love to know.
2. Diversify your ID3 tags on your mp3 file. Don’t just call every episode “The Me Show 01.” People will go onto iTunes and search for terms they are interested in, and if your show has those keyterms in it’s title, it’s likely to pop up. If a particular episode is addressing something useful, be sure to mention it in the title.
3. Ask your listeners to review your podcast. Again, I just think this has something to do with it. Ian and I read our 5 star reviews on our show and I believe this has inspired a lot of our listeners to take the time to head over to iTunes and support our program.

There’s more– iTunes isn’t a great traffic diver.

I just took this screenshot 5 minutes ago. Not bad placement at all. This is the screen users see when they go to iTunes and click the “business podcasts” menu. Hello, Dave Ramsey.

We aren’t on the top page every day, but I’d say we’ve been showing up consistently for the last 6 months or so. I suppose a lot of our listeners find us through iTunes, but we aren’t getting hundreds of new subscribers every week or anything close. From my experience the best ways to get new listeners is to create a great show and get your listeners talking about it to their friends. The next best way is to go onto other shows.

A featured placement on iTunes is nice, but it likely won’t make or break your brand.

5 elements of a great podcast performance.

1. Switch topics fast. Don’t close every thread. Leave stuff and “call it back” like a comedian. Consider the way Howard Stern never lets a conversation linger. Howard’s greatest skill isn’t being interesting (that’s Adam Carolla’s talent), it’s guiding each conversation to where it’s most interesting. If your point loses steam, drop the thread and leave it open. It’s tough at the beginning– just dropping uninteresting stuff and moving on– it gets fun once you get used to it.
2. Give your listeners hooks to hang their hats on. This is a concept pulled from Adam Carolla, one of my favorite podcasters. Your show can easily become an indistinguishable chunk of sound to the listeners. Your job is to segment that wall of sound. We do this through creating sections: intro, news, shouts, meat and potatoes, and quick tips. We also make sure to segment our meat and potatoes segment by providing lists, or by hinging on a few key points or definitions.
3. Balance personal updates with useful with useful and inspiring content. As you progress, people will likely want to hear more about your life and projects. When you are trying to get momentum at the beginning of your show, don’t bother asking what your co-host is up to unless they are doing a bong rip.
4. Consider the role of narrative in your show.  Narrative is an undervalued part of great podcasts. Having narrative keeps listeners engaged over the long haul, and keeps your content from feeling random or non sequitur. An example of how you could do this on an interview show (where it is often thought to be difficult to inject narrative), is to ask every guest a set of similar questions, a la Inside the Actor’s Studio. You could play guests off each other by creating a debate, or you could invite people to pre-arranged discussions that fit into a series you are producing. Most great radio shows don’t hand over their show to their guests, they have their guests on their show. There’s an important distinction that many podcasters miss. The great interview podcasts, Fresh Air for example, spend hours of collective research before each guest comes on the show. Also notice that at the beginning of Fresh Air, Terry rarely gives the guests a chance to say “Thanks for having me” after she says “Welcome to Fresh Air.” Nice touch.
5. If you fee like an idiot, join the club. I remember feeling lame after recording the “Tao of the Hustle“– to date one of our most popular shows ever. That said, Ian and I have thrown away at least 10 episodes that we didn’t feel were up to par. I have no idea how to tell the difference between throwaways and sleeper hits. I still feel like an idiot. Again, join the club.

The 80/20 approach to great sounding audio.

I’m the first to admit my sound quality isn’t always the best. I travel way to much to keep conditions consistent. That said, I’ve learned a lot about audio production over the past few years.

• Never record audio from your sound card. The circular hole on the side of your computer goes directly to your sound card. You don’t want to record on microphones that go there. You want a mic that plugs in with USB. If you are alone, or recording conversations on Skype (use Pamela for PC, Call Recorder for Mac) use this Logitech USB mic. You can sound like a pro on this thing, just make sure you put the mic just above your nose. That’ll remove the “pops.” If you want to record people in a room, I recommend the Blue Yetti. If you are going to be traveling, the Yetti won’t work. I use a little Sony recorder like this one, which works really well. Cliff Ravenscraft has some suggestions on this front. Don’t get caught up with the gear. As long as you aren’t going through your sound card, and are using a ‘real’ mic (not you computer mic) you’ll sound good. If you have to record directly from your Macbook, the quality of the mics is getting pretty good, so it’s not a dealbreaker. Don’t let the issue of mics stop you from creating a show.
  

  You can rock your podcast from these bad boys.

• Ambient noise is a lesser sin than wind and echo. Especially with good quality mics, having a little bit of noise in the background can be fine. Almost all of our Tropical Talk Radio podcasts have ambient noise and they are fine. What kills your audio tracks is echo and wind. Avoid them at all costs. Quick tip: NPR reporters often do interviews in their cars in order to get a great sound environment.
• Keep your files in WAV format until the last export. This one is tough for us to follow since we travel a lot and .wav files are tough to transfer to our editor. Podcast files are .mp3 format, which reduces the quality quite a bit. Using mp3s in the editing stages often creates funky sounds when you process the sound, so if you are having your interviewee send you their side of the audio, make sure they send you .wav not .mp3.
• If you have more than one person on your podcast, apply the levelator. This is a problem we’ve often had in our show, one of our voices is much louder than the other’s. More than being annoying, this can actually hurt your listeners ears. Send your audio file through the levelator algo and all should be right in the world.
• ***MOST IMPORTANT TIP FOR PRO SOUND: Apply “lead vocal EQ” and “multi-band compression” to your podcast audio. If you are using Adobe Audition, apply “multiband compression” and “lead vocal EQ” to your podcast. That’s the magic bullet– the difference between mousey podcasters and professional radio jocks. Compression. Most drive time DJs absolutely compress the crap out of their audio (as well as increase the bass for a deep tone). Do the same to your WAV recordings and you’ll instantly start to sound like a radio DJ yourself. More importantly, your listeners will be able to listen to your show and a high volume without hurting their ears. Compression takes away audio “spikes” that hurt listener’s ears. Our first 50 episodes didn’t have compression. They suck to listen to in cars and on airplanes (where the ambient noise is high and listeners need to jack up the sound). Adobe Audition is great at this, but the FREE Audacity works as well, you’ll just need to spin the knobs a bit on the EQ and compression effects in order to get something that sounds pro. The basic effects of “bass boost” and “compression” will work fine if you are trying to get something listenable out the door.

The nuts and bolts stuff we use.

Use iTunes to attach your podcast badge and description tags

• Ideally, you’d use Adobe Audition ($300+ USD) which has some awesome features. If you aren’t balling though, there is no reason to not just use…
• Audacity with LAME plugin so you can export your show as an .mp3.
• Logitech headsets (most of the time), the Blue Yetti (for when a 2 or more people are in the room), and the Sony ICD recorder for travel interviews. Note the Blue Yetti mic is cool, but is huge and weights a million pounds. Not for travelers.
• Podcasting plugin. For publishing audio content to your WordPress blog and making sure the show gets to iTunes.
• Feedburner to syndicate the show to iTunes.
• Use iTunes to add ID3 description tags (like Title, Genre, Artist) to your .mp3 files. Be sure to add a picture!!!
• Kall8 for a cheap and simple way for listeners to leave you voicemails.

Two final thoughts on podcast production.

• Mp3 Badges (the image associated with your show) are often undervalued: Your 300 x 300 podcast badge. It looks badass on an iPhone (make sure you associate the image with the mp3 file during final export!) and I’ve heard rumors that Apple employes personally review them for quality and inclusion on notable lists.
• Sound mapping is often overvalued: Intro music, sound mapping, and transition clips aren’t important. They are nice and all, but I’ve actually seen a handful of new podcasters get hung up on this issue for weeks. Please don’t do that. All the intro music in the world isn’t going to change how good your content is. I’m going to be able to tell right away whether or not I trust you. Whether or not you know what you are talking about. Focus there. Put great content up with limited production and get the ball rolling. Work in music when you have the time, resources, and assurance that you are going to keep going forward. If you want some music bedding for your first show, I recommend you can export some really nice pre-made stuff directly from Garagband and use it until you want to go pro. Some of the biggest shows in the world are just the jock introducing the show over a basic music bed.

Not interested in creating your own podcast but want to listen to some great ones? 

Here are some shows that I love listening to (NOTE: all links will launch iTunes). I’ll focus on business shows today. The full list is pretty overwhelming. If you already listen to any of these shows, consider clicking through to give the publisher a 5-star review. I’m sure it would mean a lot to them.

• My shows: Lifestyle Business Podcast, Tropical Talk Radio.
• Startups for the Rest of Us (Bootstrapped start-ups).
• Foolish Adventure (Content marketing).
• Mixergy (In-depth interviews with entrepreneurs, mostly in the internet space).
• Internet Business Mastery (Content marketing and audience based businesses + mindset).
• Smart Passive Income Podcast (Transparent online marketing practices and tools).
• Adsense Flippers Podcast (Niche sites, Adsense, outsourcing, living in the Philippines, being a boss).
• Podcast Answer Man (Podcasting, mindset, online marketing).
• This Week in Startups with Jason Calicanis (Venture backed startups, angel investing, news, interviews).
• Web Domination Podcast (TBD, first episode was awesome).
• This is Your Life Podcast (Mindset)
• BlogcastFM (Interviews from around the blogosphere).

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for me!

Not done yet? Here’s some further reading:

• “How to Launch a Podcast in One Day” by Dan Norris
• “How I Reached #1 on iTunes : A Guide to Launching a Podcast” by Glen Allsopp
• Anything on Podcast Answer Man.com (I haven’t yet talked to Cliff about it, but I know he has a private podcasting mastermind. I’m sure it’s great).

That’s it! If you’ve got any questions or hangups, let me know in the comments.

Cheers,

Dan

@TropicalMBA

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There was a nice post about being happy that was everywhere on Facebook last week. One of my favorite bloggers, Rob Walling, did a great job of adapting it for entrepreneurs on his podcast. It got me thinking of some of the things I’ve given up in order to build a business. Here they are:

1. “Success.” I wasn’t able to quit my job until I gave up on the vague ideas I had about success. Stuff like having a good job and making a good salary. I remember saying to myself: it’s possible that nobody will ever think you are successful.

When my answer was finally “screw it,” I quit. At the time I did not realize how fulfilling it would be to work directly with customers and products I was passionate about.

2. Over-worrying about screwing up people’s lives (or being perfect for your customers). If you try to make meaningful change with your business, you will create collateral damage. Period. Even relatively benign assertions like: “if you want to make some extra money on the side, try building some niche sites” can waste a year of somebody’s spare time. I’ve seen it happen. Seems harmless, eh?

3. Reliance on cultural scripts for decision making.  I’ll share something embarrassing: one of my biggest concerns with following the entrepreneurial “weird expat” path was that I wouldn’t be able to find a wife. The cultural script I was working off of said something like: position yourself in a nice secondary US city, have a high-quality job, and watch the wife candidates flow in.

To hardcore entrepreneurs, this might sound like a petty concern, but to me it was a meaningful fear I had to overcome. I know more than one guy who never followed his dreams of being a musician or of traveling abroad or of starting a small business because they thought it would hurt their chances of meeting ‘The One.’

4. Your desire to make money. This might be different for other professions, but for entrepreneurs, money focus can destroy businesses. Money forces you to compromise your values, which should be at the core of great products and company cultures.

A money focus inspires short-sightedness. If you could just do something and ::: BOOM! ::: make money from it, it wouldn’t be that valuable. Entrepreneurs focus on value. Specific, elusive, unseen– it can’t be bought and sold on the open market.

Have you ever spoken to full time investors in financial markets? These are generally people 100% motivated by money. Ask them “if you had a great year, what percentage would you make on your money?” You’ll hear answers ranging from 11 to 20 percent, generally. Now ask the same question to an entrepreneur. 20% would very much be on the low end.

5. Your desire to avoid feeling like an idiot. A month ago I set up a writer’s mastermind group (which has been hugely useful to me). We’ve all tried to address this issue of “feeling stupid” head on. It’s been liberating to post half-baked, ambitious projects in our group chat.

I put a lot of stuff out there, and I suspect most of it doesn’t work. I’m dumb and dangerous, and that’s probably the way it goes for many entrepreneurs. The punchline is that the small percentage of good stuff that sticks around and gets refined, re-worked, and cultivated. One day you wake up with something great. Speaking of dumb, go ahead and download my first 50 podcasts if you want a confidence boost!

6. Your fear of change. I was listening to (a must-listen) Mixergy episode today and Robert made a point. Let’s call it the “paleo theory of fear.” His point: we are wired to fear change. I suppose that’s because back in the good old days, when things changed, you died. Now, not so much. Learning how to both enjoy and engineer change is the foundation of business success. I’ve found that over the years the idea of re-working everything becomes more thrilling and I seek change out.

7. What you are doing right now. Something popped out of my mouth the other day as my good friend (and US expat tax guy) David McKeegan was interviewing me for his podcast. He was asking me about hiring and said “why do business owners find it so difficult to relinquish control and let other people run their business?”

My response got us laughing: “they aren’t having a hard time relinquishing control, they are having a hard time finding something better to do.”

9 times out of 10 that’s true. It’s one of the things I love about creative pursuits in general– you are always at square one. You are always in danger of utter failure. Where you play, there isn’t any sure thing. Read this book and watch a software legend bomb. Listen to John Mayer talk about how songwriting is a great equalizer.

It’s the same with writing and entrepreneurship. Falling back on your cash flows is the same thing as falling back on a job. Often I’ll fail, but I’m always looking for ways to move on and find something more important to do. Hopefully I can backfill the space I create with processes and team members.

8. Your self-focus. Or: putting your immediate needs in front of the principle or the project.  This is the part of the post where I diverge from the hoards of broke-ass personal development bloggers telling you to express yourself more fully or follow passion and stuff like that. Yes, I’m all about that. But we are talking about being Samurai’s here– it’s tough to stay focused on meaningful projects when our passion for Youtube lurks! Entrepreneurship is a strange mix of personal drive and egoless ear-to-the-ground care. It’s a dichotomy I’m fascinated by.

9. Following the advice of others. Have I ever ever mentioned the sharks or the dolphins thing on this blog? Sharks and dolphins are two different types of entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of things that distinguish them. Here’s one: dolphins listen to advice, sharks watch it. Be a shark. Or rather, watch me to tell you to be a shark.

10. Your desire to avoid conflict. For all the kumbaya talk in the blogosphere, you’ll notice that when you meet-up with some of your favorite peace, love, and change bloggers that they’ve got some teeth. I’ve met some of the kindest online personas (and most popular) on the planet, and despite what you see online, they are very often the object of controversy, conflict, extortion attempts, petty attacks, and outright jealousy.

Get in line. It’s par for the course. Asserting yourself in the world means you’ll have detractors. Some of them might even be those closest to you. It’s okay. I try to be thankful for the attention in the first place, pick the places I ought to improve, and try to understand precisely which elements of the feedback are about my projects and which are really a reflection of their own ideas about themselves.

That’s it. I’d be grateful to hear yours.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, if you liked this article you can follow my nacent comedy career on Twitter, or do the Facebook thing (this will be good for photos from our TMBA summer session).

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about resistance and how it manifests in our lives.

Resistance is more than mere procrastination– it’s our deep inner fear of expression often masquerading as productive tasks or “stuff we have to do.”

It’s the VA you hired to write your copy. It’s the Indian development firm working on your web app. The resistance is the birthday party you needed to attend. Resistance is having an emotional obsession with the President’s job performance.

I know– I’m going a little McCarthy on the resistance. It’s probably overkill. Today, an extreme idea popped into my head: is our obsession with niche selection a symptom of the resistance?

Uh oh.

*  *  *

There’s a bunch of well-documented problems with niche selection. Here’s some:

• Selecting one is seems to be the #1 sticking point for people hoping to be an entrepreneur.
• It’s hard to fail with a niche. You might hang around the thing (failing) for years.
• Selecting a niche feels too permanent. It’s difficult to emotionally commit.

It’s no wonder so many people can’t get past niche selection.

Now I know that might not sound all that revolutionary, but I’m not kidding around here– instead of thinking about a niche, you should be thinking about a specific product or service.

You’ll likely be in a bunch of niches over the years. The equity you build up over the years can follow you from niche to niche. Over the past 4 years I’ve sold everything from portable bars to cat furniture to SEO services to website development to make money online to outsourcing consulting — YOU NAME IT I’LL SELL IT! !!!

Thank god I didn’t select a niche! I selected products. Here’s two techniques I use to do that:

1. Rip, pivot, and jam – Identify products in a space you are interested in. Figure out if they make money. If they do, figure out what they don’t do. Or how you could do something similar but different. Better. More expensive. Different color. Different market. Different channel. Then GO! (That’s the jam part).
2. Brainstorm a nexus benefits / price / and rhythm – Instead of putting yourself through long walks week after week trying to decide if you really want to go after your passion of personal development, or entrepreneurship training, or personal fitness, just start pulling together a benefit cluster of a product or service you think should exist. Example: BENEFITS:  -1 hr on the phone, 30 page ebook, 3 email follow-ups, forum access with 24 hr answer service. PRICE: $17 dollars RHYTHM: monthly recurring.

Then walk around for a few days asking everyone you come in contact with (call them if you must): will you buy this from me?

A few years later, when you are cash flowing and hiring people to keep up with the demand, you can take a long weekend and figure out what niche you are going to get into.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, last week I bought Twitter. It’s pretty cool. The fish photo is form my buddy Tommy Schultz. I think he wants to rank for Bali Surf Photography, or something.

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I was so surprised by the cool introduction that Elisa helped to make for our 100th podcast episode. She combined a bunch of funny outtakes from our past episodes. Listening to the intro made me realize we’ve developed our own lingo over the last few years.

In this post I’ll outline some terms that are often used in our business and immediate group of entrepreneurial contacts, including members of the DC, listeners to the podcast, and folks we hang with here in Asia.

I enjoy finding fresh ways to say stuff, even when they often don’t work out as planned. I’m sure I stole most of these terms from other people. If you like any of these, I invite you to do the same. Some are unique, some, not so much.

If you have any cool words or phrases that you love to use in your business, I’d love to hear them.

• Bench pressing - building every single functional area of a a new revenue stream in a short amount of time– by yourself.
• Cambodia cash – a more precise definition of “passive income,” residual income from web properties that doesn’t require phone support or synchronous customer service.
• “There’s no margin in it” - Used more broadly in personal situations, means “it’s not worth it.”
• “GTDin it” - A reference to Getting Things Done, the most important productivity book I’ve read so far.
• Delegate or delete - an aggressive approach to GTD principles where a creative entrepreneur either forwards inbox tasks onto a team member, or deletes the email altogether.
• Exit velocity - The collective sum of resources, cash, experience, and traction that an entrepreneur has when they quit their job. A single guy who has never had a job who moves to Thailand to build Adsense sites has a low exit velocity, whereas former executives with industry experience bootstrapping a software business would have a high exit velocity.
• Legal drug money - profits created from mundane high-margin products that are relatively easy to source, produce, or create. Software tools, ebooks, financial products, etc.
• Balla - n. one who displays extraordinary entrepreneurial prowess. adj. Very cool, admirable.
• “Entrepreneur” - anyone with a website.
• Boss socks – awesome or great.
• Baselining – Reducing your expenses as low as possible to increase your runway.
• Runway – How long you can afford to live without having to get a job.
• Entrepreneurial Michael Jordan – Matt Bellemare.
• Chops index – how talented of an entrepreneur others perceive you to be.
• Kids – employees who are younger than you.
• The silent majority – The 99% of the consumers of your content or products who never present themselves to you via Facebook, Twitter, email, telephone, or the comments section of your blog.
• Biznass - business. 
• Gas (also: “gasin’ it) - “give a shit.” To “gas it” is apply yourself with extreme focus on a task. (Also: grind, jam, bang).
• DCer – An active member of the Dynamite Circle forum.
• “Noted with thanks!” - A uniquely Chinese (and often parodied) way to express that you’ve received an email.
• Bustin’ a shin – Not fully committing to an action or a decision. “I busted a shin on that last sales letter, I should have made it longer.”
• Yeah buddy – A way to agree with gusto.
• Half stack – A mediocre employee with no vision or proactive attitude.
• The 1000 day principle – The business theory that suggests it will take 1000 days from when you issue your first invoice to when your bootstrapped start-up will replace a professional level salary.
• Geeks on the beach – codename for any entrepreneurial meet-up in Puerto Galera, Philippines.
• A retail blog vs. a wholesale blog – This distinction can apply to podcasts, bands, authors, and a lot more. “Wholesale” indicates that advanced level consumers, industry insiders, or other serious practitioners follow the content/personality etc. “Retail” content generally has more mass appeal. The Lifestyle Business Podcast, as an example, was always intended to be a “wholesale” blog. We wanted to speak to our peers, not “teach people the way!” The Pixies are a famous wholesale band (other band leaders listened to them for ideas), whereas Nirvana was a more retail effort.
• Derps – hapless entrepreneurs, contractors, or employees.
• Flips – Filipinos.
• The Internet marketing vortex – the trap many marketers get into, making money by teaching people how to make money. Few survive.
• EOM – end of message. Used in the subject line of emails that have no body text.
• “Thanks in advance” – a universally douchey and presumptuous tactic used in email by people with boring corporate jobs.

Got any other fun ones?

Happy hustlin’,

Dan

PS, I’m currently winning at Twitter.

PPS, thanks in advance for signing up for my mailing list:

There’s been a lot of excitement around the interwebs about the latest Only72 sale. There’s also been a lot of groaning. I saw somebody on Facebook say “these types of launches are so two years ago.”

I’ve got nothing but love for the guys behind this product and think the thing is brilliant. Hearing about the sale got me digging through my drafts folder. I’ve written some half-baked thoughts on adding affiliate margin to your information products. I figured now is as good a time as any to share them.

Ever hear the old copywriting tip about exclamation points? It says that exclamation points are often an indication that words preceding the exclamation are not strong enough. For example:

• This new book is really amazing! vs…
• This is the best book I’ve read in 2012.

I think you can say something similar about adding a wide margin to your information product for affiliates. Doing so often indicates that your product isn’t strong enough to sell itself. It’s not compelling enough for people to distribute it without payment.

I don’t think enough people question the dogma that you need to have an affiliate program. Many people have told me I’m nuts for not having an affiliate program for the Dynamite Circle.

My response has always been: if I added a margin in for affiliates, first off it would be way more expensive, but perhaps even more importantly, people would just recommend it to anyone. The people being told about it wouldn’t know if they were being told because of the money or because it was actually a good product for them. 

This to me seems as obvious as the internet marketing orthodoxy of “you must have an affiliate program!”

I suppose if I were asked for advice on the matter I’d say: if your information product sales depend on your relationship with your audience, you shouldn’t have affiliates. 

Yes, you’ll make more on launch day, but I believe you are turning off more people than you think.

The reason is twofold: 1) you aren’t giving them a good deal and 2) you are compromising your integrity by mentioning stuff just for the money (and inspiring your colleagues to do the same).

If you double your info product price for affiliates, you are asking your audience to fund your inefficient distribution. That works for you. Not them. We all know you could take a little more time to figure this out for your customers (instead of forwarding the costs on to them) and give them the same great product at a great price.

If you did, maybe you wouldn’t have to launch so much.

*  *  *

I’m not trying to be a business moralist here-- I think it hurts businesses to launch relationship-oriented information products that require affiliate participation in order to be a success. You’ve gotta keep launch launch launching! Meanwhile you are probably burning out your affiliates and readers. Why not just build something that has enough value that people might mention it to each other?

It’s almost a patronizing thing to say, but there are so many internet marketing dogmas that few seem to question. Not have an affiliate program? Offensive! Stupid!

What I find offensive is paying double just for the privilege of having heard about it.

*  *  *

When to use affiliate approaches?  I believe affiliate commissions are a great way to move your product, and part of the reason I’m thinking about this stuff is that we’ve been talking about increasing our use of affiliate links here at the blog.

In the case of Only72, Baker and Karol used their stature in the blogosphere to cut a deal that customers could not have cut for themselves. That’s a great value for people who wanted those products. I’m not 100% clear where I draw the strategic line here: do I feel great about paying a small portion of the ticket price to help fund the distribution for Bluehost or Virtual Staff Finder? Sure.

How about ponying up a couple hundred bucks for the next big mega-launch? Not so much.

What’s the distinction I’m looking for here?

Cheers,

Dan

PS, I’m the mayor of Twitter.

People often say to others who are making big changes to ”be careful.” Sometimes they’ll follow up with something casual like: “you might mess up your career.”

Thanks.

Last week, when I was being told again to “be careful” in a situation in which it seemed completely irrelevant, I got to thinking: What would being careful even mean right now? Probably shutting up and doing nothing.

What is she really trying to say to me? 

Unless the person urging you to be careful is being precise (e.g., when you install Windows 7, be careful to backup your old files) 9 times out of 10 “be careful” just looks like advice.

It’s a buzzkill, a downer– a show of no-confidence. In some situations, it’s a dream-zapper.

(Them) “55 in the fast lane”: “What are you gonna do about that new company you’ve been talking about?” 

(You) “Action Jackson”: “I’m going to quit my job next week and finally focus full time on my start-up. I can’t freakin’ wait!” 

(Them): “You should be careful…” 

(You):

9 times out of 10 translation: “I’m not really entirely clear on what you are up to, so I think you should weight your options before you do anything rash. In the meantime,  I’ll continue to be worried and or skeptical.”

By the way– the “meantime” ends when you start making money. Or get on Oprah. Both are pretty tough.

*  *  *

As I try to think back at the times people have told me to be careful with no precision, it’s almost 100% from the good of their hearts. They really care. They don’t want me to get into trouble, to sound like an idiot, or to do something I’ll regret. (By the way– too late, too late, and too late.)

When I explained my big plans to quit my job and start my own business, the #1 piece of advice I got was: be careful about that, you shouldn’t do it yet. 

Be careful not to screw up everything you’ve worked for.

Be careful not to go down a path that would ruin your retirement.

Be careful not to anger your current employer.

*  *  *

It’s our most fragile ambitions and dreams that are attacked by “be careful.” Most of the time we bring it on to ourselves.

I’ve noticed the amount of “be carefuls” I receive are directly related to the amount of permission seeking I’m doing. If you know that people will be threatended or unsettled by your projects, don’t talk about them. Pros don’t ask for permission.

Of course, I’m not a pro yet. I’m a blabber mouth.

So I say to myself: stop talking about your start-up. Your book. Your big ideas about the future of that one thing. Your friends are just saying “I care about you.” And you’ve given them a chance to show it.

You want to build businesses? Write books? Tour the US playing rock music?

Go ahead.

Nobody is waiting.

It’s just you.

For a while.

My be careful list:

You need to be careful that…

• you try to create your best work.
• you go deep on your most important projects.
• you don’t miss the opportunity.
• you don’t shy away from difficult decisions.
• you don’t waste your life.
• you appreciate things.
• you don’t let your immediate emotions highjack your life and work.
• you have fun and play.
• you have the confidence to do what you want, not what others think you should do.
• you don’t self-destruct. That you don’t become your own impediment to success.
• you don’t offload responsibility for your opinions and actions to others.
• you don’t cultivate blind spots about your personality and capabilities.
• you never become jealous or hateful of others around you.
• you never keep tabs for the gifts you give.
• you don’t complain too much.
• you don’t talk to much.

Full of care.

My grandma used to have to the serenity prayer posted in her garage. I always thought it was cool. Here it is re-written for entrepreneurs:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the misgivings of those with inappropriate experience or perspective

The courage and sensitivity to identify the useful concerns (that are morally compelling)

And the wisdom to know the difference 

(Also, while you’re at it please consider delivering on to me the undying stamina to make it happen). 

Amen!

Dan

PS, would have preferred a better blog post? No problem! Here ya go:

• Go Deep Young Man <– I think about blogging much like this blog describes. My work isn’t as good, though.
• The Future of Blogging <– Ideas on how one might go deep.
• The Story of My First Online Business <– The in-depth story of somebody who embodies it.

PPS, If you follow me on Twitter, I’ll try to make you laugh once a week. I’ll fail, mostly. But it’ll be fun.

You can get on my private mailing list by putting your email address into the form below:

This week we’ll be recording the 100th episode of the Lifestyle Business Podcast (iTunes link). If you’ve been a long time listener, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the next 100 (plus a shout). Here’s our number : 888-554-8428. Record your message after the beep.

*  *  *

“Information products” are the bread and butter of 1st and 2nd wave internet marketers. Need a quick refresher?

You know– ebooks, video series’, pamphlets, newsletters, high pressure sales pages, step-by-step membership sites, all that.

For all the talk of how great info-only business models are, I don’t see a lot of success in-person. I know my sample size is limited, but it got me thinking– maybe making the entrepreneurial leap with an info product is harder than we think.

I get it– info-ambitions are sexy. Did you hear the one about that guy who sells a hundred $97 ebooks a month? Wouldn’t you love to have a business like that? All you gotta do is record a few interviews and put up a sales letter and…

We’ll yeah, and I would love to have this car:

The problem? They’re difficult to get. I’ve done the research.

Same thing with a $100,000 ebook business. Good luck with that.

And I know what you are thinking: what about all those folks with $100,000 ebook businesses? Well, that’s true, there are a bunch of people doing that stuff. But I’m most concerned with identifying strategic approaches to success for bootstrapping entrepreneurs.

If you came to me and told me you were going to quit your job and start selling ebooks, I’d say, sure, you can. But my guess is that you are making it hard on yourself.

Having a successful information product is like dunking an alley-oop. 

It’s an easy shot– if you can jump high enough. It’s not just that info products are the first thing to roll off of the tongue of anyone fresh off the Four Hour Work Week, it’s that they are structurally difficult to sell– and that’s not only because information wants to be free, man (although that’s a huge issue worth of a post itself… it’s reasonable to believe the value of your ebook or DVD series could dramatically drop from year to year).

Here’s two structural problems I’ve seen with bootstrappers starting with information products:

1. Spitballing with results oriented language.

Don’t use “results” language when you should be using “process” language. I often say it in conversation, “you’re confusing the result with the process.” By focusing on the process, you’ll get a better feel for the real costs involved.

Here are some examples:

• Results (not always useful): Information products are a great way to monetize an audience.
• Process (more likely to be useful): If you build a huge audience that trusts you over many years of work, they’ll want to buy a broad range of products and solutions from you.

• Results: Ranking #1 for x key term with a hypothetical 2% opt-in rate will lead to a business with x in sales.
• Process: Based on our research, SEO seems to be a viable distribution channel for our product line.

• Results: I’ll build up a group of people who follow me then survey them to see what they want to buy, the product will build itself.
• Process: If you solve important problems for people over the course of a few years, they’ll eventually start to pay you.

• Results: I’ll build expert status in this niche buy interviewing other experts and then sell and info product that’ll be gangbusters.
• Process: Become an expert.

2. Underestimating the effort required : The Cambodia Cash Principle (and Paradox)

• PRINCIPLE : “Generally, the more appealing the source of income, the more resources you need to expend to get it.”
• PARADOX: We are attracted to business models with highly leveraged income because we want to free up our time, but we have to spend an extraordinary amont of time (relative to other approaches) in order to develop the type of income that we see as “freeing.” Hopefuls often end up under-estimating the cash runway required to create those cash flows, and fail to make the entrepreneurial switch.

CORRELATE  #1: The more appealing and scalable your product, the more resources it takes to create. 

As a worker, the product you are creating is yourself as an employable person. That might start as you as a cubicle cowboy. That doesn’t take a lot of resources. You’ll probably make a resume, dress up nice, and show up.

As you move up the value chain, your evolution could like like this:–> freelancer –> consultant –> service provider –> creates products –> creates tools –> creates platforms.

The type of of income you create would evolve accordingly:  salary –> contracts –> products –> recurring contracts –> Cambodia cash –> equity or shareholder value –> passive income.

CORRELATE #2: The more hands off your sales process, the more difficult it is to convert leads into sales.

This is a dead horse I love returning to. Most of the conversation in our circles revolves around stuff like SEO, PPC, and creating expert resources. That’s because those are the domain of our beloved passive income businesses. They are, however, not as effective at converting leads into paying customers.

What’s the best way to convert a lead into a sale? Having a personal relationship with them. It evolves from there: personal relationships –> sales meetings –> phone –> Skype –> email –> interviews –> social media –> SEO –> ads –> expert resources.

Ultimately blogging is a better way to reach your target market. What most of us don’t realize at the outset is how resource intensive scalable marketing practices are.

Implications of the Cambodia Cash principle:

• If you never want to have a job again, you potentially hurt your chances by focusing on “passive income” style businesses at the start.
• If you aren’t making a living from your website, the most explosive thing you can do is to start talking directly with your visitors.
• The biggest barrier to developing more appealing types of income from products with scalable marketing is your immediate cash needs. The more time you spend putting food on the table, the less time you spend planting seeds that will take years to come up.
• If you don’t have a huge and trusting audience of fans or affiliates, give away all your information, including whatever you were planning on hiding behind an opt-in.
• An info product that provides the majority of the income for a business is much more likely to happen in businesses with developed cash flows, not a bootstrapped start-up situation.

It’s not unlike real life– Cambodia is the last stop on the train. And even when you get there, you’ll probably only want to stay a few weeks.

Cheers,
Dan

@TropicalMBA

PS, you can get on my private mailing list by putting your email address in the form below:

NOTE: Both of our TMBA summer start-up dates have sold out. Thank you for your support. I didn’t expect to see that. I thought I’d we’d be rocking a huge sales letter by now.

Click to Subscribe

This week I decided to get back to my roots, fire up my dorky headset, and do another Tropical Talk Radio (iTunes link).

Today we ask the question: do you think it’s likely that you’ll have $1,000,000 in your personal bank account in 5 years? You might be surprised by the way some young entrepreneurs answer the question.

I was first introduced to my guests Tim and Nick by my friend Sean Ogle, and since that time I’ve enjoyed following what they are up to in China (I’m also proud to call them DCers!).

These guys talk about doing business in China, and accelerating your entrepreneurial career by making the jump to Asia. I like the metaphor Tim and Nick use: “lose the [corporate] ladder, take the elevator.”

Tim and Nick from the Elevator Life

One of the most useful pieces of small business advice I’ve ever heard is: “9 out of 10 small businesses track with market.”

I believe the same principle can apply to your life and career. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Listen to this podcast and learn:

• Why Tim and nick think it’s easy to just up and move to the world’s fastest growing economy, despite what outsiders might think.
• Why you might not even need an business or working visa to get your start in China.
• The monthly expenses of somebody living and working in China.
• Some concrete tactics and approaches to moving to China yourself.

People on this show:

• Tim and Nick (@TheElevatorLife)
• Dan (@TropicalMBA)



Episode length: 15:39

Subscribe to Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link.

If you don’t like iTunes, here’s the MP3 file–> [DOWNLOAD MP3]

Cheers,
Dan

PS, you can sign up for our mailing list and receive our first 50 podcast episodes by putting your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/1mil-in-5-years/feed/ 20 yesNOTE: Both of our TMBA summer start-up dates have sold out. Thank you for your support. I didn&#8217;t expect to see that. I thought I&#8217;d we&#8217;d be rocking a huge sales letter by now. This week I decided to get back to my roots, fire up my dorky Dan AndrewsNOTE: Both of our TMBA summer start-up dates have sold out. Thank you for your support. I didn&#8217;t expect to see that. I thought I&#8217;d we&#8217;d be rocking a huge sales letter by now. This week I decided to get back to my roots, fire up my dorky headset, and do another Tropical Talk Radio [...]Business,Entrepreneurship,Start,ups,Travel,Lifestyle,Design,Internet,Marketing,SEO,Affiliatehttp://www.tropicalmba.com/1mil-in-5-years/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/duHFsuj96PA/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/this-will-be-fun/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:35:39 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7582

A few weeks ago Ian and I recorded a podcast where we asked the question– what if we invited a small group of entrepreneurs to a tropical island this summer and help them launch their startups?

The response was great– 50 people contacted us regarding the program in one way or another. One of the biggest pieces of feedback we heard was why wait?

Fair enough! Let’s get started!

What will the first Tropical MBA be?

You can hear more of the thinking, attitude, and approach in our podcast. But here’s the broad strokes:

• An intensive 8-week program with your peers, my team, and expert mentors from our network. Great for new start-ups or existant businesses looking to get to the next level.
• 2-4 weeks in person instruction in the Philippines (2 weeks required, you can stay at the resort for a total of 4 weeks rent free, we’ll include that in the price).
• 1 on 1 coaching with Ian and myself. We’ll help you determine your minimum viable products or next level business strategy. We’ll be comprehensive and pry for all the details of your particular situation. We’ll be 100% honest with you and demand that the whole group operate the same. No ego padding allowed– successful businesses depend on great information, not flattery.
• 2 weeks of detailed instruction, masterminds, and planning before you venture to our quiet resort in the Philippines.
• 4 weeks of post-trip follow-up sessions, including a private sub-forum in the Dynamite Circle (including 6 months of free membership).
• 100% support and guidance from our technical and design team (some of whom will be on location). Nobody is going to get snagged up with basic technology issues.
• Ballpark price for this event will be 2K. We’ll be including 4 weeks of lodging and 2 weeks of healthy food.
• Not only tons of fun, but my personal goal is that attendees would feel that their time spent with us this summer was some of the most productive of their life.

Why is the price so low?



View from resort balcony.

I know it probably sounds like I’m full of crap, but the biggest piece of feedback I received from people is “raise the price!” A lot of people have asked us how we can make money at this price point.

The truth is, we won’t make money on this project. We are truly lucky to have a growing business on our hands (our Q1 annualized run rate is 1.5+ mil), so we don’t have build a ton of margin in to our fun projects.

This is what I’d want to do with my time anyway! I just want to make sure we cover our costs and have a little left over to make it worth our energy and team’s time.

I want to keep this fun, inexpensive, and effective. We hope that your 2 or 4 weeks spent in the Philippines will be cheaper than what you’d spend back home. The price of the event will include coffee, tea, snacks, and 3 awesome meals a day. You don’t need to spend a dime beyond that if you don’t want to.

I need your help now if you’d are thinking of attending (You’ll get an email notification with the detailed offer before the offer goes public):

Based on the feedback I’ve received so far, we are making arrangements for 10 start-ups to join us in the Philippines this summer. If you have any real interest in being one of those 10 start-ups (and paying 2K for 8 weeks of instruction, guidance, and room / board in the Philippines) I’d like you to send me an email within 48 hours. I need you your advice on the following:

*  *  *

Fill out my online form.

If the form above doesn’t load in your browser, you can follow this link.

*  *  *

We’ll email anyone who filled out the form this weekend and give them a chance to reserve a spot before we publish the offer publicly next week.

On Friday night I’ll send an email out to members of our Dynamite Circle. They’ll have first dibs to reserve spots. On Saturday or Sunday I’ll emailing the readers who filled out the form.

Cheers and thanks for reading!

Dan

PS, if you want to price check flights, you’ll be flying to Manila, Philippines. (MNL)



The view you'll see right before we'll start our evening brainstorming sessions...

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/this-will-be-fun/feed/ 19 http://www.tropicalmba.com/this-will-be-fun/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/w4XgwIzY60o/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/nologo/#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:12:19 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7635

Hi! If it’s your frist time here, thanks for dropping by. I hope you’ll join the 2000+ readers on our RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter. On this blog I write about starting honest-to-goodness businesses from your laptop. I try to write from my experience, but sometimes I get bullshitty.

Speaking of Twitter, I was already thinking of getting customers when I saw this:

“When you first started your podcast, or any other product, how did you get your first 5 customers. I know you talk a lot about cold calls, any other broad tips? Adwords seems to be getting expensive.” via @Ryan Gough

First off, I’m pretty sure our first 20 podcasts were listened to a grand total of 20 people.

Starting a brand like the TMBA or the Lifestyle Business Podcast is a bad idea if you are just getting started with online marketing. A lot of people write me saying they want to do similar stuff, and that’s fine, but helping people build businesses, secure clients, design lifestyles, or build wealth isn’t a winning strategy.

The handfull of people online who started meaningful careers this way have an excess of either grit, gall, or personal debt.

Here’s a quick 3 step process to shaking down your approach to content marketing. Once you’ve got these three steps completed on a basic website, it should be relatively easy to contact publishers, bloggers, and prospective clients in your niche. It’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel! Live your passion baby!!!

STEP 1: Dedicate your site content and tagline to solving task flow problems in your market. 

This is where most people fail. The fewer resources you have, the more “angle” your content needs.

You can be an exception to this if you have a ton of money, experience, or friends. If you don’t, try making the key marketing tagline of your business the answer to a specific task flow problem.

TASK FLOW PROBLEMS  —> CLIENT PROBLEMS  —>  MARKET PROBLEMS

“Beautiful WordPress headers”    —>   ”WP site management ” —> ”WP themes that convert”

“HK corporations cheap”    —> ”HK virtual services” —> ”Asset protection for internet age”

“Easy expat tax returns” —>  “Biz and personal tax plans” —>  “A better way for expats to file”

“Increase ebook sales” —>  “easy self pub production” —> ”lifestyle design biz strategy”

Ok, it’s not science, but I want to drive the point home. You don’t “design stuff.” You make $200 WordPress headers. You don’t help people “manage their assets.” You set up Delaware C corporations. You don’t “help people live the life they’ve always wanted” you help them “lose 10 pounds with a juice fast.”

Having an angle gives people a reason to stick around. Once you get customers in the door, you can broaden your offering and brand message. Solve a few 1000 task flow problems over the course of a few years, and you might find youself owning a company that solves market problems.

It’s a great case study so I’ll say it again– it should not surprise us that the AdsenseFlippers have 100′s of people lining up to join them on webinars, 4000+ subscribers in just over a year, and 10′s of thousands of podcast downloads. If you follow their blog, over the past few months you’ve read articles about travel, niche sites, link building, productivity, internships, life in the Philippines, and the internet marketing industry.

That’s a broader range of topics that you can expect from your neighborhood personal development blogger– and they did it under a brand that focuses on Adsense.

STEP 2: Clearly articulate a product. 

Since we started with physical products, we got used to creating well-defined products that were positioned strategically against the competition. Many content marketers operate as if they weren’t competing against anyone else. Not so hombres.

Start with the product (not 15 blog posts). Write at least 5,000 words about every single benefit, feature, anxiety, and question that your traget customer might have. Don’t let up until you are done. At the end of you 5,000 words, you’ll need to put a price and a Paypal web standard buy-now button. Don’t bother blogging until you’ve done it.

STEP 3: Focus on building a legible body of work. 

One you put up a simple product that solves task flow problems (even if it’s a simple consulting phone call or webinar), people will refer others to the resources you’ve created.

When you help out people who are influential for free (nice marketing!), they’ll click over to your site. If you’ve got 20 articles about the particulars of website header design theory, I’m impressed.

These types of sites are exactly the type that big publishers like to highlight as experts. Who would you rather hear on Pat Flynn’s podcast? The guy who tested 1000′s of different email opt-in variants and has developed unique insights into what converts, or a story of a guy who travels the world making adsense niche sites?

Cheers,

 

Dan

PS, consider skipping opt-ins on a new site. You don’t have any trust yet and you can’t afford to put your best content behind a wall. Put it out there and build a relationship through supplying great content. Pop up an opt-in when you have a big guest post or JV.

PPS, here’s a how-to guide to 15 minute logos via Clay. 

PPS, speaking of opt-ins, here’s my private mailing list. Got a lot of stuff coming up this week about our first Tropical MBA start-up mastermind, so if you are interested, worth hopping on.

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/nologo/feed/ 24 http://www.tropicalmba.com/nologo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/xnfyATDldFo/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/college-wasted-my-time/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:00:23 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7569

Although I had a great time in college, I wish I would have been smart enough to skip it. In the end, I feel it unnecessarily disciplined me into believing that I wouldn’t be capable of making any real contributions or decisions for another 4 to 6 years.

If you aren’t going to school for something that specifically requires a credential– like practicing law in the state of California– those timeframes are pointless and extraordinarily expensive to follow.

I can’t help but thinking about where I’d be today if somebody told my 18 year old self that there is not such thing as “being ready” to be a real person.

Today, a young blog reader who is currently enrolled in university sent me an email asking me “how do I get out of this mess.”

Hi Dan,

I’m studying computer science in Europe, living at my parents house, have a girlfriend that I love, building iPhone apps for business (but not making a living yet). I obviously have too much on my plate. I also hate university. It’s not the topic, I just hate the way they teach stuff. I’m a really good developer and make iPhone apps with a friend / business partner.

How do I get out of this mess? I know quite a lot about internet marketing and I even know exactly what I want to do for business. The problem is that I can’t figure out how to liberate myself from the university and other responsibilities because I depend on my parents for a living. What do you suggest?

1. Re-set your expectations about the interpersonal difficulties of being an entrepreneur.

I know parents– especially good ones– can be tough to cross. They’ve done everything for you.

Here’s the thing– if you think disagreeing with your parents is tough, try firing a good employee who has kids. If you are good at this entrepreneurship stuff, someday you’ll probably have to do it. That’s just the beginning.

Since we’ve started our business, we’ve been subjected to physical threats, awkward office yelling matches, public humiliations, a pathetic extortion attempt, and plenty of other interpersonal crap.

Making tough personal decisions is a huge edge for an entrepreneur. It’s a rare and valuable ability, and it starts at home.

You’ll be one hell of a lucky guy if your competition turns out to be less ruthless than your parents.

2. The conversation is over once you’ve got cash flow.

I often think of Derek’s article zipit because I’m a big talker. It was common for me to read some stuff, take a little action, and then sit around the dinner table and run my mouth about all the things I was so excited about. “And then in October I’m gonna…”

I wish I would have shut up and worked.

I could have come to the dinner table 2 months later and said: “So I made $1,500 last month working 10 hours a week on my apps. I calculate that if I spend 60 hours a week on it I’ll be making $5,000 a month by the end of the summer. It’s a calculated risk, but I’m going for it.”

3. University is a speed limit that you don’t need.

Parents generally default to cultural scripts to have confidence that what they are suggesting and supporting for their children is good.

Did you ever hear that story about Steve Jobs? He hung around his college campus and attended classes that he thought would be interesting. He did not enroll!

To your parents, that might sound ridiculous, but to me it sounds like a brilliant plan. When I think back, that move would have saved me time and an embarrassing sum of money. All of the meaningful relationships I built in university could have been built without officially enrolling.

If you want to develop apps for the next few years, you need a credential from the app store, not a university.

4. “Don’t look the gift horse in the mouth.” Finding a profitable cash flow is a unique, fleeting, and special moment.

Figuring out how to make a buck on the internet isn’t the toughest thing on the planet, but it’s easy for smart people to bang their heads against the problem for years and not find a reliable source of cash flow.

Part of the reason I started the Dynamite Circle was that a small group of friends on my mastermind call basically told me “you need to start this. We want a place like this, and you are the guy to do it. Don’t mess it up because you’ve got some emotional issues about online marketing products.”

And it was true. I was shy to start a private forum. But when you find people who are willing to pay you for something you can do, it’s a rare, special, and magical thing. Take a hint!

I can guarantee you this: universities who are looking to fill up their class rosters and commit cash to their bottom line aren’t so special. They aren’t going anywhere and you can always go back.

5. Do not suspend or outsource judgments about your life. Responsibility for your career trajectory lies 100% with you. 

Let’s say you think you want to develop iPhone apps for a living. You have a belief that the best way to create that outcome is to spend up to 60 hours a week writing Objective C. Your parents understand your desire, but suggest that your outcome could be reached if you spend 10 hours a week coding and 50 hours a week on your university coursework.

It’s a common situation to find oneself in. It’s common for people, in all walks in life, to suspend judgment, assuming my parents must know something and continue on with your path and wait for more information to emerge.

Don’t do that.

Entrepreneurs see extraordinary rewards for pursuing paths before society has made it legible in a “script” that can be passed around.

Some would say it’s dangerous advice to give. So here’s my qualification:

Let’s assume you are committed to reality (you aren’t a dream thinker) and are good at being honest with yourself (and not feeding yourself short term ego-junk food): if you see a path to what you want that nobody else sees– you are experiencing the entrepreneurial moment.

You’re right where you need to be.

Go. Go. Go.

 

Cheers,

 

Dan

PS, last week I took over twitter.
PPS, you can get on my private mailing list by putting your email right here:


]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/college-wasted-my-time/feed/ 24 http://www.tropicalmba.com/college-wasted-my-time/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/F53N33l-sC8/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/counting-on-a-change-of-heart-consider-a-change-of-venue/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 08:05:08 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7513

Since the beginning of my career I’ve been interested in how lifestyle benefits effect employee recruiting and retention. I’m still passionate about these issues, that’s why we started our job board.

I always wanted to be able to change the companies I worked for. Not enough companies offer that opportunity. Of all my intelligent, college-educated friends in San Diego, none seemed to have any real power to change the direction of their organizations.

Why not offer that power to young smart people? It attracts the right crowd and gives them a huge opportunity in return.

One of my first business mentors, who I admired very much, offered me such a chance. Eventually we parted ways, and although a “lifestyle” focus wasn’t our key disagreement, the issue played a role in our separation.

One day, way back in 2007, while I was trying to figure out a new direction to take my work and small business, I fired off a long, rambly email outlining the key things I’d like to focus on. I must have mentioned a few blowhardy things about the future of employment– lifestyle focus, equity, and vision. Ya know, stuff from a snot-nosed kid. It wasn’t the best email.

Here was his response:

“Who wouldn’t want a job where you can just strategize about stuff, have equity ownership, make lifestyle a priority, work with people who share your values…? Maybe you are a smart enough guy to pull it off, but I’ve really not seen that kind of thing too often in my career. And I don’t think I have ever seen it in a case where someone is building something of real value.

One of the things I have not really seen you demonstrate is the ability to stick with something for a significant period of time. Maybe that is how you want it, but ultimately in your career I think it could become a liability.”

It was true that I didn’t stick to stuff for so long. I still don’t. That, apparently, was a big problem for him and his organization.

It’s common to overestimate our ability to change the situation we’ve found ourselves in. I’ve met people who are gearing up for a lifetime focused on “getting people to take our democracy seriously.” We all know entrepreneurs who sit down every night at the dinner table and try to convince their family that their start-up is a great idea. How about our friends who are struggling to complete degrees in subjects they hate and don’t excel in?

And there are things that people say, that governments do, that companies perpetrate, that are built in to their DNA. That won’t be undone or overturned.

When my mentor told me that the things I was most passionate about– lifestyle, freedom, equity, strategy, working with amazing people– were a liability to my career, I had two options.

A change of heart, or a change of venue.

Cheers,

 

Dan

PS,  I’m the mayor or twitter.

PPS, you can get on my private mailing list by putting your email address in the form below:

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This episode of This American Life is fascinating. It’s a story about the fundraising requirements for senators and congresspeople. What surprised me is that members are congress are hustling lobbyists for funding– not the other way around.

It was reported that congresspeople in the US spend up to 2-3 hours a day raising funds. As an example, Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi attended 400 fundraising events last year.

A few things seem, on the surface, to be obvious:

1. This is a bad way for legislators to be spending any of their time, let alone 2-3 hours a day.
2. If a company operated like this it would likely serve it’s customers poorly, create bad products, and go out of business.

At the end of the episode, there’s a moment when John McCain laments the fact that he had to attend a fundraiser rather than watch a basketball game. It was a moment of levity, but I was thinking here’s a guy that was almost the president of the US wasting his time.

Smarter, more focused, and better utilized people at companies like Facebook and Google aren’t having the same conflicts of interest.

Is it likely that many of the problems governments have failed to address effectively will probably never be solved by governments? Small business entrepreneurs stay away from these (potentially profitable) problems because they believe governments have providence over them. Hopefully, in the coming decades, we’ll see increasing numbers of small groups of focused, passionate entrepreneurial teams working on”schlepy“ stuff like education and utilities.

What types of organizations are going to be effective in the future? What kind of roles are we going to play in them?

The rise of the micro-multinational.

One set of growing pains I’m seeing first hand is the rise of the micro-multinationals. Small, hyper-agile businesses doing business globally. Micro-multinationals seek out advantages in a range of jurisdictions with minimal investment.

Traditionally, there’s been wealthy trust-level individuals and larger corporations who have internationally diversified. You’ll hear the media go on about Mitt Romney’s overseas trusts, or large corporations who are getting tax breaks and special treatment by going offshores and seeking greener pastures. Doesn’t it make sense, though, that smaller, more agile organizations could achieve these types of benefits as well?

I can assure you they are seeking them out.

The legal implications of the rush of small business entrepreneurs diversifying globally is staggering. Questions are everywhere. Business services focused on this market is a great space to focus a business if you are looking for opportunities (and if you’ve got the cojones).

If your first response is “but I don’t know anything about that stuff” don’t sweat it. Neither does anybody else. Get in while the getting is good.

…one of the social inventions of savvy communities will be the simplification of what is required to form a multinational corporation… The 4th Economy, Ron Davidson

See any opportunities here?

Cheers,

Dan

PS, here are some better articles that are related in some way:

• This week’s episode of this American Life
• The Evolution of the American Dream by Venkat Rao
• Making Money by Making Companies (thanks @msortijas)
• The 4th Economy by Ron Davidson
• Schlep Business by Paul Graham
]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-decade-of-the-mirco-multinational-entrepreneurship-in-2010-2020/feed/ 22 http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-decade-of-the-mirco-multinational-entrepreneurship-in-2010-2020/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/-FEkfzjfcsQ/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/institutional-thinking-vs-self-thinking/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:48:33 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7417

View our newest internship. April 9th deadline. 

Today I was going back through some highlighted passages from The 4th Economy by Ron Davison. What follows isn’t particularly outstanding, but I highlighted it because it applies directly to our new project, Start-up August.

“Imagine [a school] perfectly adapted to you: your learning style, your goals … Imagine it gave you a mix of physical, social – emotional, spiritual, and intellectual experiences … Imagine inventing such a school and then discovering that there are others who would thrive in the same place.

You’ve just imagined what the 4th economy might mean for you.”

And that’s exactly what we are going to do. I suppose that’s what we’ve done since day one with our internships. There isn’t any institutional body that provides young entrepreneurs with entrepreneurial mentors, so we had to build one.

I didn’t always think it was possible to just “build stuff.” My brain wasn’t prepared to work that way.

Time, cash, and mobility via institutions.

When it came to careers and money– something I understood poorly– I thought in the context of institutions.

When I considered opportunities for travel, I thought of Korean Schools or the US Navy. When I thought about opportunities to make money, I thought about successful corporations, or clever stock-market investing schemes. When I thought of ways to spend my time well, I thought of becoming a university professor or a musician.

Then Tim Ferriss wrote a book that changed the context in which I thought about things.

Instead of looking for scripts offered by institutions, readers of the 4HWW were shown how they could use powerful tools (including institutions) to write their own scripts.

Sure, there have long been books that talked about entrepreneurial success, wealth, attraction, and all that– but Tim laid out a set of tools that appeared to be just as credible as the institutional beliefs I was relying on.

Instead of following career paths we wagered would lead to success, Tim suggested we learn and employ the tools of entrepreneurship.

And don’t let anybody belittle it by saying “there’s always been this stuff…”  Sure. But entrepreneurial opportunities aren’t unlike many of the trends this new century has presented us with– computer processing is more powerful today than ever before, the internet today is larger than ever before, there is more written information today than ever before, you’ve got Wikipedia in your pocket– we should recognize the trend with entrepreneurship as well.

Averaged over all humans, there’s never been a better day to start a business than today.

Ron touches on that

*  *  *

The half-truths I operated under.

Before I read the 4 Hour Work Week, I remember having conversations with friends where I’d talk about all of my core desires in the context of my career. At the time, I was suffering from a conflict that didn’t seem to have many quality resolutions. On the one hand, I wanted to travel the world, be an expat, own my time, and have adventures. On the other hand, I wanted to be “successful.” I had ambition. I wanted money, power, and freedom. I found it difficult to reconcile these two attitudes. There weren’t many life game plans that seemed to offer solutions to both desires.

The plans I generated existed entirely in institutional context.

One story I often told myself and others was that I’d eventually reach a point in my career where I would have a great deal of personal freedom because I’d be a the top of some important medium sized companies. Not only would I travel a lot for work, but I’d probably have 6 weeks of vacation a year. Although it’s not a super long time, the big money I’d have in the bank would ensure I’d have a great time.

Regarding my ambition for long term international travel, I’d explore ideas like teaching English in Korea, Thailand, or similar. Maybe being a Scuba dive instructor, or saving a bunch of money and trying to make it last as long as possible, and so on.

All of those options, to me, seemed hopelessly unambitious and unsustainable.

So I stuck with the business.

Your qualifications are a tool. If you care too much about them, you’ll be one too.

And sure, for many of you, you’ve been living the location independent jet-set entrepreneur lifestyle for decades. But for me, a middle class worker bee, it took the book to show me that I didn’t need to think of my life in the context of institutions.

Your degree is just a tool. Same with your credit score. Same with your resume. Same with your “work experience.” They help define what’s possible for your work to the extent to which you let them.

And it’s not all roses. Telling a whole generation that they can have any life they want can create a lot of failures, wannabes, broken hearts, and silly online enterprises.

But what Tim and Ron have shown through their work isn’t that the context is infinite. They aren’t saying we can just follow our passions and have everything we want.

Instead, they’ve clarified that if you focus on the tools of entrepreneurship, rather than the rules of institutions, the possibilities of what your life could be are staggering.

Gawking at a new world with an old mindset.

And all that brings me to the legacy of institutional thinking in our nascent world of internet marketing. When we look to guys like Pat or Joe and Justin to give us tools to do our own thing, we are thinking like entrepreneurs. When we look to them as people who define the rules of the game, who hand us “systems,” we miss the point.

How you like them apples?



Good Will Hunting

The pettiest part of myself wants to go back and flaunt minor financial wins to everyone who doubted me when I quit my job.

The cash results aren’t meaningless– they represents something. Even though there isn’t a legible institution– like a job or a university– that has said “yeah Dan, you are doing great” our customers have said as much with their wallets.

But that will never be the whole story, and in this next century, where we have such an incredible opportunity to change lives and markets, money will ever become a more obtuse marker of success and credibility.

And chasing the money in entrepreneurship can often be just as silly as it was back when we were climbing the corporate ladder.

You could even think of cash as just another sort of institution. So put your degrees and bank accounts away. We can officially forget about getting any kind of knowing nods at the Thanksgiving table for a while. How you fund your lifestyle will likely be radically different from the generation before you.

Sharpening our entrepreneurial minds is (often) about being alone and asking ourselves if the work we are doing is meaningful to a small group of people . Our customers. Or readers. Or tweeters.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, you can hop on my private mailing list here:

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Looking to live and work in South East Asia? Check out our best internship ever.

It’s a common set-up. I’m grabbing a coffee in Singapore. Sitting on my patio in Bali. At a food stall in Bangkok. A first time traveler to South East Asia sits next to me. The conversation gets to:

“How long are you here for?”

“I’m here for 4 weeks.” 

“Amazing! What are you going to do?”

“Well I’m gonna spend 3 weeks in the south of Thailand, probably see the most of the beaches… we might be able to make it up to Angkor Wat or maybe Vang Vieng… but we’ll see.” 



 

Ugh. Southern Thailand strikes again! Today I Googled “first time travel tips to South East Asia” and I didn’t like what I saw. When I search for travel information, I want perspective. Not generic crap. So I’ll take it upon myself to put on my lawyer cap and let the blogosphere dialectic work out the truth. Or something.

Dear Google, this article is herby optimized for “TRAVEL TIPS FOR YOUR FIRST TIME IN SOUTH EAST ASIA.” It even has a few sensible qualifications, so your discerning users know this is responsible content:

1. South East Asia is huge, and I’ve only been to parts of Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, and Indonesia. I haven’t stepped foot in Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor, Laos, or Burma.
2. These are just my feelings. This is just a blog of some dude.

Don’t go to southern Thailand if it’s your first time to South East Asia.

Everybody goes to Thailand first. Many people even go there for their first 3 or 4 trips to Asia. I’ve never been to the north of Thailand, one of the most heralded spots in the region, and I’m sure it’s worth a visit (I’ll finally visit in October during our DC world summit), but most folks who go to Thailand can’t resist the urge to do the southern route.

I first visited Thailand in 2001. Some friends and I were planning our first big trip to Asia. I remember sitting back in Pennsylvania carefully planning our itinerary. One of my well traveled friends insisted that we visit Vietnam. To be honest, I didn’t want to go to Vietnam at all. It sounded too out there. Plus, I thought that if we didn’t go to Thailand, the full moon party, and do the whole backpacker scene we’d be missing out.

The majority of us insisted: we’d spend most  of our time in Thailand, and we’d do a quick 2 weeks in Vietnam. Remember, this was 10 years ago!

The Vietnam leg of our trip ended up overshadowing our Thailand experience. I can still remember those days we spent in Vietnam, and the crazy experiences we had. I have a difficult time remembering our time in Thailand. Some nice beaches. Some bars. Lots of backpackers that I didn’t seem to have much in common with.

Vietnam lingered in my memory for years after– I returned 9 years later to live there. It was just as good as I remembered it.

I sent this to David saying, asking if I’m off base here. He’s got more experience in Thailand than me (and he loves it)…

“My 2 weeks on the Thailand backpacker trail (Krabi, Phi Phi) are a lot less memorable then my 3 weeks in the Philippines before I met you.

It was such an awesome experience to rent a bike in Bohol and drive through remote villages, having cute girls invite me into their families’ house and giving me drinks and rice cakes, checking out the crazy nightlife and exploring Siquijor with local friends I met…

The best bit of advice I have for people going to Thailand is to hang out with expats (and perhaps locals) instead of backpackers, no matter where you go. You can go to Chiang Mai and hang out in the university area, having awesome experiences with locals and expats.

Same in Bangkok. Don’t stay in Khao San Road, stay somewhere near the BTS (e.g. Thong Lo) if you can…”

That brings me to…

Don’t fall for “getting off the beaten track” fallacy.

There’s a fallacy in backpacker thinking, it goes something like “I’ll go to x touristed place so I have amenities, so I don’t miss the ‘scene’ so it’s not too crazy, and then I’ll meet some people there and get off the beaten track.’ There’s a couple problems with this approach. First, there’s a reason why places attract people– they’re magnetic. You don’t want to avoid the beaten tracks, you want to find the good ones.

Koh Samui would be an example of a beaten track that I’d avoid. It’s a beautiful place, but the center of gravity is backpackers and gap-year partiers. Sure you can hop on a bike and find quiet villages on secluded beaches, but you won’t stay there for more than an afternoon. Eventually, you’ll get bored and head back to the action.

Bring a simple phone and use it.

Some cool guy that swung by my house the other day didn’t bother to get a cheap ass local phone and put a sim card in it. It prevented me from connecting with him during a Saturday night outing. It would have been great to invite him. For some reason I still see travelers neglecting to get telephones. It should be the first thing you do when you get off the plane, even if you are only here for 2 weeks.

When you meet somebody cool, useful, or cute, your first move is to smile and put your phone in their hand. “Can I get your number?” Barrier to entry for this kind of behavior is much lower in Asia. When they hand your phone back, fill in the “last name” field with the name of the place where met them, or what they do. FIRST NAME: “Wayan” LAST NAME: “Motorbike, Kuta.” Simple stuff, but it took me a few years to figure out the location trick.

Our of the places I’ve been so far, Vietnam has been the best all around travel experience.

Matt had a bad time, all the more reason for me to try and offer an alterative view point. Of all the places I’ve been in South East Asia so far, Vietnam was the most fun travel experience. I immensely enjoy Vietnamese food and believe it has the best cafe culture I’ve experienced to date (and I’ve been to Paris!). Vietnam has an amazing depth of culture, combined with a stunning variety of landscapes. Although there are many tourists there, it’s nothing like the packaged mega-holiday destination that much of much of Thailand has become.

Some might argue (and will!) that if you combine the southern beach craziness of the South of Thailand with the “realness” of the north you’ve got a winning combination that Vietnam can’t compete with. It’s true that Thailand’s beaches are more beautiful for the most part, but Phu Quoc can deliver on all your Robinson Curusoe fantasies and then some (plus has the best fish sauce in the world!), and Mui Nei and Nha Trang are charming, under-touristed, and a short drive to some amazing mountain resort towns and highland getaways like Dalat.

The magic numbers for slow travel are 3 and 1000.

“Slow travel” is the best way to be on the road. I find it takes about 3 months to start making real friends. It’s tough to for locals to get serious about you if you aren’t going to stick around for a little bit. I even notice it in myself, when people are ‘just passing through’ I’m much less likely to want to engage them. If you do find a place you love, consider trying to double down with an investment. An employee, a project, a relationships, a hobby or athletic goal. Anything works, just don’t buy a bar!

$1000 bucks in monthly income to either break even or at least not be a total stress on your savings. Who wants to travel while the clock is ticking? 

There’s only a few preparations that matter.



FYI! ... there are hotels and bottled water in Asia. This girl brought a de-salinization plant.

1. Connecting with people who can help you while on the road. Most of the preparations you are making right now won’t matter. There are few exceptions. One is scheduling meetings with people. I do that with people in the DC before I travel, for example. I’ve found Couchsurfing to work great as well, although I tend to stick to meeting with entrepreneurs.
2. Not bringing a bunch of stuff. Bring two very small bags maximum. This simple idea has saved me a day of my life standing at luggage carousels, among tons of other benefits. If you arrive in South East Asia and decide you’d like to have a big stupid pack like other backpackers, you can get those things in Vietnam for 20% of the price they sell for in your home country. You know where they are made, right? If you don’t follow this advice, you are likely to become attached to your expensive gear and unwilling to part with it. You’ll feel like a turtle for months!

What you dream and what’s real.

If you do head to southern Thailand, don’t worry about it. You’ll have a blast. It’s hard to mess up. But if your imagination is like mine, when you are conjuring up visions of adventure in South East Asia, you probably aren’t dreaming of the southern Thailand of today. Things are pretty built up. The adventure you crave might be found, however, in places like Phu Quoc, Southwest Cambodia, Nha Trang, Bohoh, and further afield.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, thanks to David and Lewis for your thoughts on this. I didn’t get a chance to incorporate them all yet. It would be cool to pull in a bunch of perspectives from DCers on this topic.

PPS, if you’d like to get on my private mailing list, you can sign up here:

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In this week’s episode of the Lifestyle Business Podcast, Ian I discuss in some detail the broad outline of a product we’ll present in a few weeks. It’s basically a “start a business this summer” mentorship product, with a full 2 weeks of in-person work and mastermind sessions in the Philippines (and 4 weeks of free rent). I’d love to hear your feedback on that idea.

People have often told us we should try to offer alternatives to traditional MBA’s, but it never clicked for me how we could do something like that. I’m not sure when the lightbulb went off, but it might have been where I listened to a great interview with the founders of Code Academy on Twist.

Three things that I loved about their model:

1. It’s sounds like tons of fun.
2. It’s obvious that students who were clear about their end goals (getting a job as a computer programmer) would see much better ROI with their program than if they pursued traditional CS degrees.
3. It’s profitable for the founders, and could potentially be scaled to help a lot more people.

It occurred to me that we should do something similar, except focused on our particular brand of location independent businesses.

Here’s the basic idea:

Tropical MBA Inaugural Class : Get Your Location Independent Start-up Producing an Income in 3 Months.

Proposed schedule: 

• May 1st- May 15th. Open up sales offer to DCers (first call) and TMBA readers. Try to sell 10 spots.
• June 1st: Welcome phone call and in-depth interview session with Ian and myself. Focus on articulated MVP, clear problem you are working to solve, and the unique way in which your solving them. Establish clear revenue and profit goals.
• June 15th : Introduce 10 start-ups to each other, talk about next actions, identify ways to help each other. Private forum in DC gets moving and periodic phone calls prepping for August.
• August 1st: Everyone arrives in the Philippines for 2 weeks (or a month if you’d like) of intensive work on our start-ups. I want everyone to walk away from August saying “that was the most productive month of my entire life.”

You can check out the broad outline on this week’s LBP. I’ll post more details about it here at the TMBA in May.

*  *  *

A book.



Click to see Amazon listing.

A few days ago I finished Ron Davidson’s “The Fourth Economy.” Here’s his blog, here’s his twitter.

If you are like me, and enjoy reading Greg and Venkat’s blogs, you’ll love Ron’s book. I really had an enjoyable time reading settling in to it. At first, I was expecting a quick payoff– I was a little impatient for Ron to dish the goods on the 4th economy! What should I be doing to take advantage of new trends man?!

Eventually I settled in and found myself enjoying the detailed histories. I found myself starting to draw connections in my own life and business. I was jotting down implications for our 5 year plan like crazy.

I’d like to share some of those thoughts on the blog, but they’ll take me a while to distill. In the meantime, it would be great for you to pick up the book and let me know your thoughts!

Here’s a cool teaser of some of the concepts in the book:



I generally enjoy this kind of stuff...

 

A link.



Mithun's blog is full of amazing photos....

I’ve said a bunch of times, I’m a blog reader first. I love a lazy afternoon snooping around some of the wonderful blogs out there. A few days ago I stumbled onto an amazing personal travel blog written by a guy named Mithum. He’s the rare brand of blogger who documents nearly every moment of his trips. I absolutely love that format. I spent hours reading through his Philippines travelogue, and clicked over to his others as well. They are chock-o-block full of wonderful photos. Check out his Philippines travelogue.

Hope you enjoy the links, thanks for stopping by!

Dan

PS, even if you don’t regularly listen to podcasts, I’d love to hear your feedback on this week’s LBP.

PPS, you can get on our mailing list by putting your email address into the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/2400000/feed/ 7 http://www.tropicalmba.com/2400000/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/neajA1YByQc/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/niche-selection-is-easy-sorta/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:33:32 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6675

The other week I received an email from a reader of the blog:

As an aspiring online entrepreneur, how can I start to identify solutions and niches that are worth pursuing? Your rip, pivot, jam post helped a lot. Do you have any more to say on that? I’m not looking for 101 winner blogs, which was useful, don’t get me wrong, but I want to BUILD something, not make a business out of a blog.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, there’s no question that niche selection is the biggest sticking point. It’s odd then that for more established entrepreneurs it evolves into one of the easiest elements of starting a business. How many times have you heard an entrepreneur complain they have “too many opportunities!”

One might say that niche selection is the first thing you do when you start a new business. It makes sense then that resistance would show it itself at the beginning.

Often when business coaches talk about strategies for identifying niches, they’ll bring up these types of questions:

• What are my passions and interests? (personal will)
• Are people willing to pay money for the things I am interested in? (commerciality)
• Which of these niches has small to medium SEO competition? (market conditions)

When I looked at this standard approach to niche selection it occurred to me: these questions are easy to answer. Even for relatively complicated products and markets, we can spitball answers to the above questions pretty quick. So why are people getting stuck?

Here’s a guess: these aren’t the actual questions that entrepreneurs are asking. Instead, these are the types of questions that get answered 2 years after a business has launched, by a blogger or reporter or something.

Entrepreneurs are asking more fundamental questions. Here’s what they look like:

1. What sorts of entrepreneurial relationships and resources do I have? (What is the quality of the information, feedback, and support I am receiving?)
2. What marketable skills and know-how do I possess? (Is my knowledge useful to others?)
3. Where am I currently weak that is preventing me from owning valuable assets? What strengths do I have that I could build on? (Do I understand the reasons that I am struggling?)
4. Am I spending a majority of my most productive hours working on key relationships and skills? (Have I made the necessary sacrifices or connections?)
5. Have I given myself appropriate time to let the results materialize? (Am I being realistic about the timeframes involved?)
6. Do I want to be somebody who spends the lionshare of their energy growing enterprises?

If you’ve sought honest answers to these sorts of questions, selecting niches will be easier.

It’s less about niches and more about you, the company you keep, and what the company thinks of your and your ability to generate results.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, people all around the internet agree, I tweet.

PPS, if you get on my mailing list, I’ll let you know about the products I’m creating for entrepreneurs:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/niche-selection-is-easy-sorta/feed/ 11 http://www.tropicalmba.com/niche-selection-is-easy-sorta/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/fiou-dEC43A/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/new-internship-with-chris-ducker/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:02:46 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7251

TropicalWorkForce.com UPDATE: Chris Ducker is offering an extraordinary gig for someone to work directly with him in Cebu City, Philippines. Applications are due April 9th, 2012. 

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I used to dream about opportunities like this when I was in my early 20′s. At the time I was sharing a bedroom with a friend to cut costs. I worked for 11 bucks an hour at a job I landed through a staffing agency. I lived paycheck to paycheck for years.

I knew I could kick ass if somebody gave me an opportunity– I just didn’t know how to get my hands on one.

I suspected that entrepreneurs had the information that could lead me to wealth, freedom, travel, and excitement. I just didn’t know who those people were. Where do they hang out? (FYI, it wasn’t at the local post-college bar, I checked there).

When I’d sit in front of our computer at night, I’d scour the job sites and wonder “why on earth aren’t these guys offering internships?”

That’s similar to what I said to my good friend Chris Ducker a few weeks ago when I was visiting him in Cebu City. Why the heck aren’t you doing an internship?

And ya know what he said?

“I’m gonna do it….”

*  *  *

An opportunity to work directly with a successful entrepreneur…



A few key relationships in your life have the potential to change your trajectory forever. For me, there’s only a handful of people who have helped shape my entrepreneurial path. With all of those people, I’ve paid my dues. I’ve spent tons of my time and energy working directly with them, earning their trust, and proving my worth.

That’s part of the reason I believe in the potential of this internship model so much. You’ll learn a ton and build trust by consistently doing great work together.

I look up to Chris as an entrepreneur. He built a successful organization– from scratch– that employs hundreds of people in the Philippines.

Why do you think I dropped by Cebu a few weeks ago? To convince Chris to run an internship? Hell no! I was there to take notes.

If after you read Chris’ blog, watch his videos, and read the details of this particular job opportunity, you find that Chris is somebody you respect and look up to, I hope that you’ll apply.

Reasons I love this opportunity.

• It’s manifest destiny. Chris has more opportunities that he can shake a stick at. He’s got tons of resources at his disposal. How far you take this will only be limited by your vision and work ethic.
• You won’t be pouring coffee. You’ll regularly be in conversations that could determine the future for an organization that employes 100′s of people.
• This is about building something bigger than you. This isn’t a quickie. Serious businesses require serious team members. You’ll be expected to be dedicated and stick around to do the heavy lifting that is required to build businesses.
• Your exit velocity will be insane. ”Exit velocity” is a term I use to describe the momentum somebody has when they eventually set out to start their own empire. A lot of the readers of this blog started from absolute scratch and they can attest to how difficult that is. If you stick around and work with Chris for 3-4 years, when you do decide to set out on your own, you’ll be picking and choosing from world-class opportunities rather than wondering if you’ll ever make it.
• Chris has some amazing opportunities to pursue this year. If he’s equipped with a super sharp, hard working, egoless “right hand” in the coming years, he’ll be able to hit it harder. This candidate has the potential to have a huge impact on the future of his business.

Some quick tips on successful applications.

I haven’t gone over this stuff with Chris, these are just some quick tips I’ve got from great applications I’ve seen in the past.

1. Avoid BS, keep it brief and to the point (and keep your video short too).
2. Don’t say you are the perfect candidate. There isn’t such a thing.
3. Focus on the job and why you are a good fit. When hiring, entrepreneurs are looking for fit. Remember that Chris is running a successful business with 100′s of employees. He’s one of the busiest guys I know. He’s got a lot on his mind. It’s nice that this is a great opportunity for you, but try to take clues from the ad on what Chris is trying to accomplish with his business, and let him know plainly how you could play a role in his plans.

Click over and check out the opportunity now. Application deadline is April 9th, 2012.

We’ll continue to do our best to bring high quality internships to TropicalWorkForce.com. Consider grabbing the RSS feed, getting on the mailing list, or following us on twitter.

If you end up in Cebu in a few months, I’ll swing by to have some Sisig and San Mig Light.

Cheers,

 

Dan

@TropicalMBA

PS, want to be the first to hear about opportunities like this? Hop on my mailing list:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/new-internship-with-chris-ducker/feed/ 16 http://www.tropicalmba.com/new-internship-with-chris-ducker/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/NEaLGoh6A7Q/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/a-case-for-singapore-where-in-the-world-is-happening-right-now/#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:37:01 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7175

My friend, DCer, and all around super nice guy Tom planted the idea of home exchanges in my brain a few months back.

It’s exactly what it sounds like. You put your house up on the website for a small fee, and find other home owners who would like to trade with you for an agreed amount of time.

Because of it’s recognizable brand, homes in Bali have a lot of pull on home exchange sites. Even though our house only costs us $18,000 annually, it shouldn’t be a problem exchanging it with a European family who has a beautiful home in, say, the middle of Paris. Home exchange arbitrage!

It got us thinking– if you could exchange your house and go live somewhere new for a few months (and potentially somewhere expensive), where would you choose? 

Initially visions of the south of France, the Alps in the summertime, Paris, Los Angeles, Florence, and Tokyo all started dancing in my imagination.

But this week I’ve been thinking about two new ideas: 1) what would be best for our future business? and 2) what’s happening right now?

By happening I mean something like, what’s an interesting and relevant emerging scene that we could see first hand. You know your writer friend who went to Paris for the summer and was disappointed that young writers don’t hang out there anymore? When Ian and I spent a week in Hong Kong last year we kinda said to ourselves “if only we had millions or were here in the 90′s.”



Where’s in the world is “happening” right now? 

• Cebu City - for moving your tax base abroad into a PEZA zone and hiring English speaking college graduates to help you build your internet start-up. Cebu and Manila are still the only two major forces of gravity for top talent in the Philippines.
• Davao City - For the lowest cost scalable English speaking workforce you can find, and a small but growing group of entrepreneurs.
• Chiang Mai - (haven’t been here yet) for bloggers and internet business people living a good lifestyle at a great price.
• Shenzhen - if you want to hustle up a fortune trading goods from the world’s largest manufacturing base. From a rice paddy to a major global player in 15 years. The prototypical “go east young man” location.

Singapore will likely have growing importance for web based entrepreneurs in the coming decade.

Last week it occurred to me: Singapore is happening. For getting financing and investments in Asia. For incorporation and wealth management services for entrepreneurs. For networking with like minds in Asia. For one of the best alterative passports in the world.



I got a ton of positive praise, both publicly and in private, for my article about internet entrepreneurs setting up in Hong Kong. The runner-up to our Hong Kong decision was Singapore, which was ultimately judged by Ian and myself and a handful of DCers as “slightly more favorable than Hong Kong but more expensive.”

We opted for Hong Kong at the time because we are cheap and we go to China often. You don’t have to twist my arm to hang out in Hong Kong!

Here are some reasons that Signapore is has a ton to offer internet entrepreneurs:

• Potentially the best all-around first offshore incorporation zone for internet start-ups (a little more expensive than HK, but more agreeable terms).
• Vibrant start-up and university scene pulling students and talent from all over Asia.
• Singapore is actively seeking out entrepreneurial talent form other parts of the world. 
• Cheap flights to anywhere in Asia.
• Friendly, easy, cheap visa.
• Best airport in the world.
• Great food everywhere! Relatively affordable entertainment costs.
• We probably wouldn’t want to pay the rent if we weren’t doing a home exchange!
• Laid back city vibe, not so oppressive and large like Bangkok, Hong Kong, NYC.
• Fast WIFI.
• Lots of money, entrepreneurs, and opportunity. Entrepreneurial talent from the West is in demand.
• A crossroads of Asia. Lots of people coming through.
• Melting pot culture, relatively easy to accept outsiders.
• If we go there, something relevant might happen for our business. I’m not sure what…

Plenty of downsides too! It’s sorta boring. If you’ve been to both– it’s sort of a mega-rich aspirational Makati with some Las Vegas sprinkled in. It’s expensive, and probably not nearly as much fun as other locations.

If you all were going to relocate for the summer, where would you go? We might just take your advice.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, only Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber have more followers than me on Twitter. 

PPS, you can learn about the products we are creating for entrepreneurs by getting on my mailing list:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/a-case-for-singapore-where-in-the-world-is-happening-right-now/feed/ 27 http://www.tropicalmba.com/a-case-for-singapore-where-in-the-world-is-happening-right-now/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/edPx5ie_cuA/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/seo-the-lazy-way-rank-this-page-please/#comments Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:20:31 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7099

This post was written with the help of David Hehenberger, who is in charge of SEO for our fleet of websites. Follow him on twitter if you want to hear about SEO, Asia travel, or meet-ups in South East Asia.

*  *  *

When I get all pumped up about more “automated” or grey hat approaches to SEO people can get frustrated with me. They say: “just create awesome content and optimize it and you’ll win in the long run!! Jeeeze Dan….”

David and I 100% agree that generating amazing content for your website is the best way to win the long haul in SEO, but creating world-dominating content is expensive, and isn’t a great startegy in the following circumstances:

• When you aren’t sure that SEO is your primary customer acquisition strategy.
• If you or your team is bored by your niche.
• When you don’t believe you’ll see ROI on “amazing content.”
• When you are running an experiment.
• When you have a bunch of websites.

What follows we look at as basic foundational SEO. Simple, cheap, and fast. It’s designed to keep your site’s rankings improving and “poised” for success in case you do ever want to double down on your SEO efforts. In medium competition niches, the following protocol actually works like gangbusters. This is the bare minimum SEO we do for our sites. In our bigger niches, we are doing way more to compete.

As the coordinator of this strategy, David monitors all of our ranks via SerpFox and “turn the knobs” on the spreadsheet depending on what’s working. We update our basic strategy based on data we are getting from our own sites and information we get from people we trust.

Finally, making decisions about SEO is tough because there is so many options. By sticking to a baseline “lazy man’s” process we are at least building a basic rankings for our sites until we figure out something smarter to do.

We are curious to hear how you would tweak this process.

*  *  *

“SEO the Lazy Way.” Instruct your virtual assistant to complete the following 6 steps on a monthly basis for each site.

*  *  *

STEP 1 : Build 1 web 2.0 property linking back to your site with at least 500 words of original content.

We rotate in order starting the first month with Squidoo, then we move on to Weebly, WordPress.com. We change these up a lot depending on the flavor of the week. These continue to get less effective, but again, we are being lazy here. Approximate cost of the content from Fiverr, Odesk is 5 bucks. Try to get yourself organized and order in bulk!

STEP 2 : Make one article submission to a popular article directory or press release directory. 

Same exact deal with the content here, except we are rotating our Ezineartcles.com, Goarticles.com, or Free Press Release.com.

STEP 3 : Write 2 handwritten dofollow comments, and 1 nofollow blog comment on niche-related blog.

Do a Google search for “do follow commentluv blogs” or “list of do follow blogs” or similar. “Do follow” means that the link in your comment will send “juice” back to your site. Commentluv enabled blogs also send link juice back to your domains.

Our goal is to have our VA find a few blogs that have content related to our niches and make relevant comments there. Best practice is to make the internet a better place, so if you can find some quality blogs to follow go ahead and do so, request future topics for posts, and so on. Once you make your comments, earmark them to return in a few days and make sure they go approved by the publisher (there’s a date on the spreadsheet for that as well).

STEP 4 : Buy a membership to a high PR blog network or two.

Here’s a list of popular blog networks I stole from “Are Private Link Networks Dead?” (a great read) via Spencer at NichePursuits.com:

• Unique Article Wizard (used before, but stopped)
• MyArticleNetwork (never used)
• BuildMyRank (de-indexed!!!)
• BlogBlueprint (used before)
• LinkVana (never used)
• Article Marketing Automation (never used)
• ArticleRanks (never used)
• SEOLinkMonster (never used it and Spencer says it might have been de-indexed from Google)
• RankJumpers (never used)

The landscape moves fast with these servies. If you want to utilize them, you’ll need to put in a little due diligence to figure out which service you’d like to test out. We’ve found these services to be really helpful for our sites. Places to do research on the best one for your sites are Dynamite Circle, Warrior Forum, Wickedfire, and similar. Prices here range from $50 a month on the low end to over $200 bucks a month for the higher end services.

These services can be very powerful as we’ve found, but Google is also out to identify and de-index them, so they’ll likely not work so well in the future.

The people who run services like this and friends who have referred us to their providers ask that you don’t share their names publicly, and I’m going to honor that. You are only a few hours of reading away on the forums to figure out something you can test out for yourself. You could also just become a client of Travis over at Supremacy SEO. He’s the guy who put a lot of this stuff on my radar.

STEP 4 : Buy social likes for your site. 

Turns out that having a few people liking your site isn’t so bad for search engine exposure. Likes, Tweets, +1′s, Stumbles, and Diggs are remarkably easy to purchase on Fiverr. Just search away, it’s a couple bucks and takes only a few minutes. If you are on WordPress, we’ve found the best way to incorporate social indicators on your site is the Sharebar plugin.

• 30 Tweets – Cost ~ $2  + 5 minutes to order
• 30 Google +1′s – Cost ~ $2 + 5 minutes to order
• 30 FB likes – Cost ~ $2 + 5 minutes to order

STEP 5 : Double check your onsite SEO and consider putting extra effort 

• Am I creating new and quality landing pages or blog posts for important key terms?
• Keyword in Meta Title?
• Keyword in Meta Description?
• Keyword in H1, H2 & H3 Tags?
• Keyword in Strong or Bold Tag?
• Are there Images on your site?
• Keyword in Image-filename?
• Keyword in Image Alt Tag?
• Keyword in Page URL?
• Keyword Density? – Aim for 0.5-1.5%
• Are there outbound links to authority sites like Wikipedia?
• Is your word count high? We recommend over 2,000.
• Have I added new content to the site this month? (The more important your site is, the more often you should add content. Daily if you are shooting for the big time). In our view it’s better to update your site with mediocre content than let it remain static for months.
• By the way, an easy way to check your onsite SEO is to sign up for the free serpIQ trial

We don’t do any of this checklist ourselves, we have a VA do the whole thing. Here’s a spreadsheet where they record the status of the domains. David basically sits back, monitors our ranks via SerpFox, and turns the dials to taste and based on what’s working and what’s not.

Our back of the napkin math says it costs us about $40 bucks per domain per month to deploy this strategy.

Given all that’s going on in the SEO world right now, how would you guys tweak this process? (keep in mind we are trying to keep cost/time at a minimum… ya know, let’s keep it lazy).

Cheers and thanks for stopping by,

 

Dan

PS, here’s an outline of a spreadsheet you can use to help your VA track this stuff. If you improve it let me know!

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/seo-the-lazy-way-rank-this-page-please/feed/ 24 http://www.tropicalmba.com/seo-the-lazy-way-rank-this-page-please/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/KeFAiOOIcJI/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/cambodia-is-a-great-place-to-visit-fyi/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:16:54 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=7039

Many of us are seeking to grow what we often call “a passive income” businesses– in large part thanks to Pat Flynn popularizing the term for online marketers. Internally, we’ve been using all sorts of terms in the same ballpark as “passive income”: location independent, leveraged, automated, online, recurring, scalable, residual, info-income, etc. 

The problem with all these terms is that they haven’t precisely captured the type of income I care about most. “Location independent” income can be earned by a consultant (I’d prefer not to primarily be a consultant), and passive income implies you are no longer working within your business.

It’s a great name for Pat’s site, but it can be an awkward way to describe the sort of income we are working to generate from our current online projects.

So I’m kicking around all these random terms and then one day I said something like, “what I love about this product is that it’s creating us Cambodia cash.” And I’m sure many of you can guess what I meant.

“Cambodia cash” - n. – any profits generated from a business that have all of the following attributes: 

1. does not require synchronous customer support.
2. 99% of customer issues can be resolved via email. 
3. has no critical business processes that requires a high amount of internet bandwidth or stability.
4. all products and services are ‘bits’ not ‘atoms,’ e.g. software, online support services, information, etc. 
5. services, products, and experiences are very similar from client to client (only minor modifications to product or protocol required).
6. highly skilled labor is not required for the weekly maintenance of the business. 
7. has no physical location or time zone requirements.
8. does not require phone support.

Want to spend a few weeks strolling by the river in Kampot, Cambodia eating fresh peppercorns and riding your XLR 200 through the hills? No problem. Your business won’t suffer for it. As long as you can find 4-5 hours a day to rock out emails, write, create code, and provide customer support, your business will continue to move along.

Sure… we could all go for a little more Cambodia cash.

Of course many of us who are obsessed this online dream can hurt our chances at growing a sustainable business. Long term travel costs time and energy, and generally hamstrings a start-up.

But ya know what? I sure as hell is easier than it’s ever been. Here’s some steps I’d take (plus a business idea to try it out on!):

1) Make sure you’ve found a real problem.

It sucks for expats in Asia to make travel arrangements. Local carrier sites are temperamental. It can take 1-2 hours to make a simple booking between searching for the best price and fudging around with their interfaces. Booking long-haul flights isn’t much better, especially when you have to coordinate your rewards programs.

I don’t want to have this problem anymore. Imagine a virtual travel agency, focused on saving you time and money, securing it’s clients the best deals in Asia and in long haul flights to the West.



2) Make sure you get a URL that isn’t confusing and that is easy to spell and easy to tell others.



I found this one in 30 seconds. Spend a few more minutes on it. Keep it simple, easy to pronounce, and focused.

A lot of people just getting started in online marketing circles will say stuff like “Dan what happens if you want to expand this to places outside of Asia?… that URL won’t work. What if your customers aren’t expats? Why don’t you get a domain like easytravel.ly??”

Having a narrow domain scope is exactly the kind of problem you want to have. If you are ballin’, by all means! Target anyone. Go broad. If you are just getting started, niche until you feel uncomfortable. If you have 350 paying customers, you can present your proof of contempt to an investor, or change your name. No biggie.



My feeling when first time entrepreneurs express worry that a market that is too focused.

3) Solve the market problem in a unique way.

Instead of dealing with preferred suppliers like most travel agents and relying on kickbacks, you provide a concierge type experience for a monthly fee. When I sign up for your service, you take a detailed survey from me. My preferences, credit card #’s, favorite airports, and whether or not I prefer aisle or row. Make it clear that I can update my personal preferences by emailing your team anytime. I can train your team to my preferences– you add my requests to my customer profile so that every agent I work with in the future understands my tastes. Instead of signing me up for your airlines, you sign me up for the best for me. Awesome!

4) Identify the simplest workflow and technology solution possible. Use something 100% out of the box.

Software developers have long been chasing the Cambodia cash– it’s only recently that marketers had such robust tools at their disposal that require little or no developer support.

Define a workflow that can utilize 100% out of the box tools like WordPress or Ning (if you haven’t signed up for a free Ning account just to play around with it, check it out!) Say I send you an email that says “I want to go to the Philippines next Saturday. I want to go in the morning if possible.” Your team sends me itineraries until I approve something.

With the expert protocol that you develop, you can get me good deals faster than I could have gotten on my own. I’d no longer procrastinate on my travel bookings so I’m saving tons of money by getting your team involved the moment when I know I want to make a trip. When I approve something, you team purchases the tickets and emails them to me. They might even remind me that I need an outbound ticket!

5) Don’t automate your idea.

Don’t automate your ideas– automate businesses with cash flow. One of the main ways resistance manifests itself for online entrepreneurs is through premature optimization of their businesses.

Listen to this podcast and try not to blush. I loved the story of Rob taking over a business with many established customers and running the all customer service himself. That’s how it gets done. How many times has somebody fiddled around with developers and various plugins for months trying to automate a process that could be solved with a few emails and Boomerang for Gmail?

6) Sketch out a quick business plan and product articulation.

Full plane ticket concierge service (members + 1 guest per flight) for $27 a month? How many benefits do you need to offer to get that price? Is it too low? Bounce it off a few friends. How many price levels? Can you keep it less than three? What about full hotel and AirBnB booking service for $47 a month?

If your average customer value is $35 bucks a month, and your average customer is taking up 3 hours a month(<– a key figure to determine with the first small group of customers, probably with this business customers will use the service more in the first month than in the second and third, since they’ll likely purchase it when they need it if you aren’t offering out of the gate immediate benefits). At 100 members you are brining in $3500 a month. Do the economics work for you? Fire up the Google docs!

7) Sell (or figure out an articulation that does).

I’m serious when I say you could be selling something here in 12 hours. Why not give me my first 3 months on your service for free? What about a small group of charter customers that pay a reduced rate? Get some cash greesing the wheels and then see where it takes you. Could this idea get funding in a year? Sure. Could you develop custom software? An automated website? Group discounts? Travel hacking seminars? Of course. This is how it starts.

If somebody provided you with personalized concerierge travel services, would you pay them a monthly fee? I know I would.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, I read all guides on how to dominate social meda webz and you can watch me do it on my twitter acount.

PPS, you can hear about the products I create for entrepreneurs by putting your email address into the form below (I’ll also send you our first 50 podcast episodes):

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/cambodia-is-a-great-place-to-visit-fyi/feed/ 31 http://www.tropicalmba.com/cambodia-is-a-great-place-to-visit-fyi/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/W1tmnsH1Y1I/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/friday-night-used-to-suck/#comments Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:45:52 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6971

Friday night isn’t a particularly great time to post a blog. A bunch of you are probably already off and into your weekends. But there might be a small handful of you still sitting at your desks, wondering what the hell you are doing there. I used to do that.

For anyone working regularly with suppliers in Asia you’ll know that Friday nights are a critical time to get work done. If you don’t get your requests sent off to your Asian colleagues by the time you leave the office, you won’t have any return answers on Monday morning since they’ll still be on break when you return to the office.

So I’d wait for my second wind around 5PM, buy a red bull or something, and jam out more emails until about 7 or 8. And it’s about then that I’d really start to feel like crap.

Everyone in the office is gone– maybe they went to some happy hour. Your phone has a few messages: Johnny’s club tonite?

Sitting there, all done with the work, and looking at those text messages was often the emptiest moment of my week.

I’m not sure what I was thinking. Something like “this is it?”

The chorus in our society sings something like: “take your time on the weekends, have some fun and disconnect, go party, and make sure you don’t check your email for heavens sake!”

That’s just not me. I should never have listened.

“Isn’t it sad that we have a job where we spend two weeks avoiding the stuff we have to do fifty weeks a year?  Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” – Seth Godin

I thought I was supposed to get something on the weekend. Like, ya know, that’s what I’m working for. Here’s my payoff! Vacation! Shopping! Whatever.

But there I was working well past 7PM. I was doing it because I loved doing my work, and I should have just trusted my gut.

The more and more successful people I run into you’ll hear the same thing thing.

Steven Pressfield is waking up tomorrow and working. So is Stephen King. I’m sure Mark Cuban is. Adam Carolla never rests. Ian will be working on content for our new business. My entrepreneur friends here in the Philippines will be back at the laptop tomorrow at 7AM for sure. Speaking of success, I heard this gem of a first world problem dropped in conversation today:



First world problems. Barf! "Work, Smart, Work Hard, Don't Spend Your Money"

If you are wondering what you should be doing on Friday nights you can let yourself off the hook. Call a friend, hang with your boyfriend, watch a weird French movie that will either stimulate your brain or send you to bed early.

Go home. Relax. Recharge. Then wake up on Saturday morning and go back to work.

You’ll be in great company.

Cheers,

Dan

Here’s some stuff to do on Friday night if you don’t make it out to see some friends:

Read: Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants, Sex at Dawn, The Story of B, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,     ::: Watch: Pirates of Silicon Alley ::: Listen: Steve Kamb on The Rise to the Top ::: Music you can rock to: Best of Bootie Mash-ups 2011 (free), Best of Bootie Mash-ups 2010 (free), Best of Bootie Mash-ups 2009 (free)

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/friday-night-used-to-suck/feed/ 23 http://www.tropicalmba.com/friday-night-used-to-suck/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/J2I6cqzM1HM/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/ill-miss-you-philippines/#comments Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:46:52 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6803

Some people have asked me if I’m getting sick of Bali– I’m not.

What I had been craving, after months of relatively little travel, is the rhythm of life on the road. I like always knowing how many pairs of underwear I have available (2 dirty, 4 clean, 1 wet from pool), moving to a new place everyday, and logging into a budget airline’s website and letting their dodgy UI determine where I’ll go next.

I’m a toe-tapping, impulsive, restless guy. Getting back on the road feels like home.

Aside from my primary attraction to the Philippines– an amazing group of ambitious and like-minded friends (and a swarm of DCers!)– here’s a short list of the things I’ll miss until I return.

Floating bars.

I admit I’m not that sophisticated. I’m hugely impressed by bars that float on the water. You can take a swim, dive off the roof, and tether your boat right up to the side of the damn thing. Could floating bars be a sensible solution to the DUI problems we have in America? Keep those drunks out in the ocean!

***Related business opportunities: A pirate themed floating bar complete with water pumps and hoses to gun down civilians getting too close to the bounty. Arrrr!



The view from Badladz's new beach resort. Awesome!

Pork sisig.

I read that the dish Filipinos miss the most when abroad is pork sisig. I can understand why. Crunchy and fatty pieces of pig face chopped and served on a sizzling plate with onions, chilies, raw egg– and if you are lucky– a little chicken liver. Masarap! Oh my gulay what a perfect dish to accompany a few beers.

Sisig was invented in 1974 when a local restauranteur noticed the kitchens from the American military bases using every part of the pig but the head. They decided to turn the wasted head o’pig into an unforgettable culinary experience.

***Related business opportunities: Take note of the Vietnamese sandwich phenomenon sweeping America– another niche food item composed of funky meats. I’d start serving this stuff in hipster neighborhoods ASAP.



Nom nom nom nom nom nom....

No tourists, few touts, fewer scams.

In 2011, almost 20 million people visited Thailand. By contrast, only 3.9 million people visited the Philippines, and many believe those numbers are inflated by Filipinos returning home to visit relatives.

***Related business opportunities: Scams would go over well here in the Philippines as most tourists drop their guard after just a few short hours on the ground. When I got my first flat tire in the Philippines (a common time to run a scam in other countries) I hurriedly called my Filipino friend to ask him for the fair market price. Once I was confident I had the right figures, I walked back to the garage where the smiling mechanic asked 10 pesos less than the “market rate.” Provincial price break!

90 million friendly English speakers.

An almost universal opinion when tourists visit the Philippines– Filipinos are damn friendly people and they like to have a good time. Many of them speak better English that us westerners. That’ll come in handy when your bonka boat breaks down while island hopping, or when you want to make some friends in a remote province of the country.

***Related business opportunities: Teaching English has traditionally been one of the most viable ways for travelers to make money while in Asia, and…. well… not happening here in the Philippines. This morning I went to the ATM and my language options where “Taglish” (Taglog and English mixed) and “English.”



Crowds in Cebu City... this gathering was put on my a powerful local church.

One of the best places in the world to hire for your business.

I used to write a whole blog about it! I’ve met successful people everywhere I’ve gone in Asia, but the Philippines is full of stories of folks who moved here with very little, or just doing okay, and massively improved their stake by providing jobs, products, and services to an economy that sorely needs them.

***Related business opportunities. Any business that needs heavy manual data processing or has developed, scalable, repeating processes that are labor intensive. Link building, phone support, data analysis, developing custom software widgets, building out websites, you name it…



Taking in the view from DCer Jonathan Kennedy's office (ClickingLabs.com)

The most luxurious visa in South East Asia.

It’s nice to know that you can come to the Philippines, relax, and not worry about your visa. You also won’t be subjected to inconsistent visa policies (hey Thailand!) or draconian overstay fees (I’m looking at you, Indonesia). Come hang out and stay for two years if you like. Just don’t forget your outbound ticket!

***Related business opportunities: After 2 years you are bound to come up with something!



Grabbing a taxi near the entrance to Chris Ducker's office (VirtualStaffFinder.com). Check out those DUBS!!

I can’t imagine a better place to bum around for a couple weeks. My time here in the Philippines has been incredibly memorable. In particular, I enjoyed getting the chance to meet many of the readers of this blog.

To all my friends in the Philippines, I’m already looking forward to returning. Thanks for being great hosts.

Cheers,

Dan
PS, you can follow the articles I read on twitter.

–> you can put your email address in the form below if you’d like to hear about the products I’m creating for entrepreneurs.

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/ill-miss-you-philippines/feed/ 26 http://www.tropicalmba.com/ill-miss-you-philippines/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/Hcz3TYNKMx0/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/market-intelligence-is-picking-a-good-spot-books-wont-find-it/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:31:36 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6621

In his excellent book on the birth of the modern prison, Foucault describes a blueprint for a new type of prison– the panopticon.

The design calls for a circular prison built around a guard tower. The prisoner’s cells are arranged in such a way that the guard, positioned in the tower, can see into any of the prisoner’s cells. The guard tower is equipped with 1-way glass so the prisoners have no idea if they are being monitored at any given moment.

We imagine that prisoners must assume their every move is being watched.



Panopticon - Guard stands in a tower in the middle with 1-way glass. Cells are against the wall.

Foucault uses the panopticon in part to develop a metaphor for the modern soul (I’m not sure he was familiar with the IRS). If you are interested in more you can pick up the book here or listen to a podcast on it here.

*  *  *

This image of the panopticon pops up in my head when I think about starting online businesses (and sometimes in my nightmares!). One of the key elements to entrepreneurial success seems to be understanding valuable information. Great entrepreneurs find themselves in the panopticon of their marketplaces– positioning themselves to consistently be exposed to the best information from their industry. (Of course the metaphor breaks down quick, but it’s so f-ed up I had to share it with you!)

Many people underestimate the pleasure and intrigue of positioning yourself in the center of an industry or a market problem.

9 times out of 10, when I suggest what I see as winning niches to people with the potential to build something meaningful to a hungry marketplace, I’ll get one of the two answers:

“I can’t imagine being passionate about that for more than a few months.”

Somewhere along the line, sell a product you use yourself (good advice) became sell a product you are passionate about (misleading advice). It’s misleading because it often cashes out for people as “do something you want to do.” 

An attitude more likely to create a winner: “What you want to do” is build a business that solves lucrative problems in a responsible way. “What you are passionate about” is building great businesses. Injecting a host of other concerns, in an already difficult situation, hurts your chances of success.

It’s an attitude I have a difficult time relating to. You’re talking with a guy who sells cat furniture! I always saw stuff like writing this “follow my journey” blog as an extreme luxury– one created from doing work elsewhere that people cared about more.

When I got started with my own business it seemed natural to me that building an income for myself meant shouldering burdens for others, doing difficult work, taking hell from your customers, and making the types of decisions others refuse to.

Another response I hear a lot is:

“That sounds like a lot of work to get that moving, I’m not sure how to do it.”

People are looking for answers on blogs, books, and programs. And hey, they are useful for optimizations. But the fundamental answer of how businesses get off the ground are boring. They come from being on the phone with 50 customers, 10 suppliers, and 5 potential partners. From talking about a product they can buy. They emerge after 100 conversations of consequence and years of work thereafter.

Aspiring online entrepreneurs, in particular, can find themselves in situations where they aren’t talking to customers for months– even years. That’s not good enough. If the information you are tracking down is hidden behind a few clicks, or a couple paywals, it’s probably not good enough to get a business off the ground.

Unless of course, that information said something like: “Put a buy now button and a phone number on a website and start talking with real customers.”

So what does all that have to do with the panopticon? Nothing much. It’s just badass, and I wanted to share it.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, I’ve delayed the sales message I talked about earlier this week, we’ll still be sending it out shortly. It’s just not ready due to some other stuff that came up.

PPS, you can get on the TMBA mailing list by putting your email address into the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/market-intelligence-is-picking-a-good-spot-books-wont-find-it/feed/ 14 http://www.tropicalmba.com/market-intelligence-is-picking-a-good-spot-books-wont-find-it/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/EQVGkY73O_Q/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/digital-nomads-bali-yo/#comments Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:01:02 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6526

Almost 2000 readers have decided to pick up the TMBA blog feed. Sweet! If you don’t yet use Google Reader to read blogs, here’s a quick explanation of how it works. It takes about 2 minutes to set up.

I just checked our mailing list account (we use Aweber). It says there are 2,506 people who have signed up to receive emails from us. I mention it because tomorrow I’ll be sending a product offer with in-depth information about our private membership community and an overview of our new SEO service.

If you are an internet entrepreprenuer, I recommend you hop on the list and check our offers out. No hard feelings if you unsubscribe immediately after we send them. At minimum, you can check out how we write sales letters (and rip them off for your own use if you think they are good). You can get on the list in the sidebar or at the end of this post. It takes 15 seconds or so to confirm.

*  *  *

I’ve written a lot about the reasons I love Bali: Bali vs. Thai vs. Phils; Cost of Living in Bali; Thai Islands vs. Bali; Why I am Living in Bali. Today I thought I’d mix it up a bit.

This evening I’ll be booking tickets for a trip to some digital nomad hotspots. Ian and I will be visiting Manila, Cebu, Davao, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and possibly Hong Kong. Many of you who follow the South East Asian scene will have surely noticed the blogosphere lighting up with glowing reviews of Chiang Mai. Aside from Bangkok, which I think is badass, I’ve never been captivated by Thailand as much as it’s neighbors. That said- I’ve never even visited the North. I’m looking forward to it.

David is hanging out there for a month along with a huge crew of DCers and other bloggers. We did some comparing and contrasting on the phone today and it got me thinking about some of the downsides of Bali for digital nomads. I’m still a huge advocate for Bali, but I’d like to highlight some of the potential downsides of Bali if you are evaluating places to hang out for a few months or years!

1) You can’t run webinars or schedule important phone meetings from your internet connection.

My biggest problem with living in Bali is the cost of assuring a solid internet connection. If you wanted to drop some serious loot solving this problem, you could probably do it. Off the top of my head, I’d say it would cost you $500 to $1000 a month. It would involve getting a dedicated line with an ISP (like a call center would have) and securing a backup internet connection in case your dedicated line goes offline. A set up like that would probably work, but it would be a lot of contracts, set-up time, and other BS that nobody really wants to deal with unless they are digging in for the long haul.

I’ve got service through Biznet, which is one of Bali’s best ISPs. That cost me just over $100 a month. My average speeds are 2MEG up and 2MEG down. So why can’t I run webinars? Good question. I’m not tech geek, but I think it has something to do with packet speed or lag or similar. Either way, it’s unavoidable (so far) and unpredictable. I’d say about 10% to 15% of my Skype sessions suffer from some kind of internet lag. I cannot predict when this will happen.

For $100 bucks a month, the stuff I can do with confidence:

• Make outbound sales calls. Since service only lags 10-15% of the time, I can ensure my service is going fast, and dial away.
• Watch videos online and download music and podcasts.
• Do any and all online marketing tasks.
• Work with heavy online software (although you will experience some productivity problems if you move really fast).
• Schedule a phone call with a person or company with which I have some degree of familiarity (i.e., they’ll forgive me if my connection happens to suck).

The stuff I can’t do with confidence:

• Schedule and host large web events.
• Schedule phone calls with VIPs.
• Anything that would rely on high quality video feeds or conferences.

If you talk to long term expats in Bali, they are bullish about prospects for improvement. Internet service has been improving radically over the past few years. The Indonesian government has high profile projects in the works to improve the service level in Bali, as well as connect the country to a second major pipeline through Australia as well. Currently, Indonesia only receives service through pipelines to Singapore.

It’s unclear what this development mean for ISPs in Bali, but if you need to do anything on the latter list you’ll need to fly to a city or risk it with the best connection you can find.

2) The scene is more suited to those in their late 20′s and upward.

For those of you who haven’t yet visited South East Asia, you might not be familiar with the huge scene here for travelers. It’s a pretty magical place to be wondering around for a few years. If you’ve got a backpack, and a desire to see some of the world’s most interesting cultures and beautiful sights, you’ll find plenty of like-minded people to join you.

You won’t find much of that scene in Bali though. Similar to the Philippines, Bali didn’t make it to the standard backpacker trail. The currents of tourism are different here– Aussies dropping in for a quick vacation or spring break blowout (similar to how Americans would go to Acapulco or Cabo), Asian tourists, high-end tourists from Europe, and surfers from all around the world.

My friends who’ve stayed in Bali for a while skew very heavily towards the 30′s crowd. My best friend describes Bali as: “South East Asia for grown ups.” It does seem that most of the 20-something interns who come to visit ultimately preferred somewhere else.

3) The visa situation.

If you travel often, you’ll find that visas to Bali can be expensive and a hassle relative to many other countries in South East Asia. I overlooked this issue until I started hanging out with interns here in Bali who were required to visit the immigration office 3 times to extend their visa on arrival. The alternative is to pay a 50 dollar consulting fee. Even after all that expense in either time or cash, after 59 days you’ll have to spend a whole day flying to Singapore and back.

If you want to avoid all of this, you can get a social visa, which is cheaper, but requires visiting (or mailing) a foreign consulate. The visa you’ll get after all that only allows for one entry. It’s is a good option if you laying low in Bali, but it can be a serious pain in the ass if you want to do any international travel.

4) It can be hard to find a place to live, especially for short terms.

It can take a few days to a week of work to find a place that decent in a reasonable budget, never mind the challenge of ensuring a reliable WIFI connection. Whereas in Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam, you’d probably just post up in a hotel for a few weeks, Bali hotel rates would prevent many from doing that. Nice apartments and studio rooms in resorts with WIFI can range from $300 to $1200 a month, and are primarily found by calling classified listings (in real newspapers!) and by pounding the pavement.

If you want to solve these problems, you have to put up 12 months cash up front for rent on a house. You can get some amazing houses in Bali for 10-15K annually, but you’ll be out the cash up front. To further complicate it, once we rented our house, it took us 3-4 weeks to sort out a quality internet connection (the one our house came with wasn’t good enough).

Quick tip from my friend Tom– places in Bali carry a lot of weight on house exchange websites. You can swap your Bali house with home owners in other parts of the world who badly want to come stay in the one of the world’s premier island destinations. Never mind the fact that their place could easily cost 5X as much!

5) Although you can live in Bali for $1,000, the scene is geared for people spending more.

This one is a total judgement call, and obviously there are hundreds of “scenes” you could find yourself in here in Bali. I wrote a post a while back called “the real cost of living in Bali” where I laid out a budget to live in Bali for less than $1,200 USD. Although I believe that is relatively easy to do here, the feedback I’ve received from many of our interns is that they’ve struggled with this budget level. I realized I was the primary culprit here. The crowd I’m often around is living off a larger budget.

In Bali, the super cheap places are right next to the super high value amazing places. Today, for example, instead of eating local rice and chicken for 2 bucks, Ian and I ate at a gourmet salad joint right next door for 8 bucks USD (worth every penny). That kind of thing happens often. Temptation is everywhere and the value of Bali truly shines in the mid-range.

There are tons of other scenes to get involved in. Guys that hang primarily with locals or surfers will spend a lot less.

6) Drinking is expensive, ‘subdued’ partying, and dating.

Don’t get me wrong– Bali has a really solid nightlife. I never feel like I’m running thin on options here. If you are a party animal (as, ahem, many of us are) Bali doesn’t can’t really compete with Thailand and the Philippines. Spirits are also are taxed heavily. Prices range from $5-12USD for a cocktail, and 2-3 USD for a beer. The dating scene in Bali is good (talk about a high quality problem), but it probably doesn’t compete with many other spots in South East Asia. Depends a lot on your taste and demographic.

7) Traffic and transport.

If you like the action of Kuta, Legian, and Seminyak, you pretty much need a motorbike to get around. That means you’ll be sitting in some sweltering traffic jams and risking your life on a daily basis. It’s flat out dangerous to drive a motorbike in Bali, and it worries me bringing others into our house here knowing that they’ll be encountering that risk. If you are laid back and dig Sanur or Ubud, no motorbike required. But if you are living in the central areas and don’t have a bike, you’ll be missing out.

I still have nothing but love for Bali! Just thought I’d share with you some of the downsides. I love evaluating locations for business and lifestyle. Would love to hear your thoughts, as always.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, Follow me on Twitter and be amazed how so much self-promotion fits into 140 characters.

PPS, tomorrow I’ll be sending out some pretty killer information about our private online community for entrepreneurs and a new SEO service I’m launching. You can get the details by putting your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/digital-nomads-bali-yo/feed/ 44 http://www.tropicalmba.com/digital-nomads-bali-yo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/_hjFUs0hdFE/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/internet-marketing-and-other-stuff/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:28:15 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6476

Internet marketing is a term often used for the industry that teaches people how to make money online. I was thinking about internet marketing today as I was putting the polish on a private blog network for DCers. A lot of my friends have been encouraging me to sell the networks outright. The value proposition is clear: not only could our customers use the network’s immediate value to build up their own site portfolio, but they’d be buying an out of the box cash flow positive business. That’s pretty cool!

That’s when it occurred to me why I’ve been raving so much lately about the AdsenseFlippers. What they are building could be a “next wave” internet marketing company (so far there have been 3 waves). This new wave is one in which there is a ton of opportunity, and relatively low barrier to entry.

If you buy a site from Joe and Justin, you not only get comprehensive training about how to run a successful business, but you get the business too. Where’s the kitchen sink!?

Is this the make money online equivalent of a Y-Combinator style incubator?

Today I laid out what I see to be the 4 “waves” of make money online sites and programs. I think there is a huge opportunity in the 4th wave right now, and the guys at AdsenseFlippers are showing us what it might look like.

A few caveats about my categorization of internet marketing businesses:

• Most marketers use elements of all categories in their materials.
• The categories are all amoral– the distinctions I’m making refer to the form of the content in each wave. No one category is more “valuable” or better than the rest.

First wave: “Business Opportunity Gurus”

• Examples: Frank Kern, Jeff Walker.
• Characteristics: Highly tuned sales pitches, majority of product cost in marketing, very little useful information outside their paywalls. Focus on list building, sharing, and promotion.
• Teach: Core transformation and broad persuasion techniques.
• Sell: The dream.
• Braggable: “Last month I had a million dollar launch.”

Second wave: “Social Media Salesmasters”

• Influential marketers: Internet Business Mastery, Clay Collins.
• Characteristics: Lot’s of useful tips, motivational information, and broad strategic concepts. The majority of nuts and bolts information and case studies are behind paywalls.
• Teach: How to implement high level marketing and sales techniques in any business.
• Sell: Direct access to seminars, training, feedback, and coaching.
• Braggable: “Got an email from one of our previous customers that said they built a six-figure business after buying our products.” 

Third wave: “Transparent Business”

• Influential marketers: Pat Flynn, Spencer Haws.
• Characteristics: 3rd wave marketers share a wide range of specific personal experience, screenshots, data, income reports, and case studies of actions they took. They name URLs, and regularly share wins and losses.
• Teach: Case studies of precise actions taken online. “I did x, and y happened.”
• Sell: The tools required to duplicate the effort.
• Braggable: “I’m not trying to brag here people, I show you how much money I made and let you judge for yourself.” 

Fourth wave: “Purchase a Cash Flowing Business” (?)

• Influential marketers: Adsenseflippers, ???
• Characteristics: Selling simple cash flowing businesses to investors, business owners, and aspiring entrepreneurs, while providing a wealth of information and a robust community to help improve the profitability and scale of the acquired properties.
• Teach: The precise actions required to build a cash flow business.
• Sell: Examples of that cash flow business, or could potentially take equity stake in start-up if they took broader lessons from incubators.
• Braggable: “I can’t create the inventory fast enough.” 

Trends from wave one to wave four.

• General—> specialized.
• High customer acquisition costs —> lower customer acquisition costs.
• Larger overall market scope (i.e., anyone is your customer) —> smaller market scope.
• Mystery —> Transparency
• Difficult to get followers —> easier to get followers.
• Most content behind paywall –> most content free.
• Marketing is primary focus of investment —> product is primary focus of investment.
• Content about ‘why’ —> content about ‘how’.
• High barrier to entry —> low barrier to entry.
• Product = experience —> product = asset.
• Value is intangible –> value is measurable.

If you want to help people make money on the internet, why not set up small internet businesses and sell them at a great price? Sounds like a good deal to me. Can you think of any opportunities here?

Cheers,

Dan

PS, you can get on my mailing list by putting your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/internet-marketing-and-other-stuff/feed/ 26 http://www.tropicalmba.com/internet-marketing-and-other-stuff/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/ywrZOggr0xE/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/101-monetizable-blog-topics/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:22:52 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6355

This post continues a series of posts on blog based businesses:  Don’t blog, 100 shelved posts, sold a blog, find 100 customers, don’t teach beginners, making a living blogging, dead on arrival.

*   *   *

Most blogs are going to fail. The blog you are writing right now is probably going to fail. Lord knows, most of the blogs that I have started have failed.

You’ve probably seen it. Watch me make money online; watch me travel the world; listen to my thoughts about how to be a better human being; look at my photos from my travels; watch me interview smart people… 

It’s not because blogging is a bad way to start a business. If I were to start from scratch today, I’d start with a blog. I’d try to get my foothold in business by being a connector and publisher in a niche with a lot of demonstrated commercial potential.

The vast majority of information on the web has no relevant and trustworthy point of view for the reader. This is especially true in commercial niches. Users have to make their own conclusions. What does this information mean to me? How can I make a buying decision here? Readers are seeking taste-makers with bold points of view. Successful bloggers who take this approach to blogging will be part journalist, practitioner, researcher, author, and entrepreneur.

Winning approaches to online publishing:

• Are focused on connecting people, products, and information in order to help solve a problem people care about.
• Prioritize solving the problems of the marketplace over advancing his or her immediate personal interests.

Bloggers have some huge advantages over established businesses and larger publishing outlets. They aren’t tied to any particular point of view, product, or service. When they identify a better way to serve your audience’s problems, they can pivot immediately.

To contrast, here are some other popular blogging models (that can be successful as well):

• The affiliate blogger. “I’ll build up a lot of traffic and around an authority site and promote products the convert well.”
• The cult of personality blogger. “I’ll share my model with people so they can solve things the same way.”
• The my place on the web blogger. “Any topic that comes to my brain, I blog. I’ll eventually get enought traffic that’ll make me some money.”
• The content blogger. “This content market needs served, I’m raising money and paying writers.”
• The professional blogger. “I have an accounting firm, I need to write about accounting to generate leads.”

The web is short on quality perspective content in commercial niches.

Cultivating a dedicated and trusting audience is either exorbitantly expensive or impossible for companies to create for themselves. They aren’t good at reporting with integrity, pointing out items of interest with no commercial value, being quirky and interesting, and coming up with impassioned points of view on topics that mater.

“But I dont know anything about commercial problems.” I didn’t know anything about the Philippines when I started my outsourcing blog. I stepped off the plane in September 2009 and started an authority site on the topic in December 2009. I made like a journalist and asked people for the best information. When I didn’t have it, I focused on sharing my unique point of view and experiences. Joe and Justin put up their first Adsense site on the internet in early 2011. In February 2012, they are considered one of the web’s leading experts on the topic.

If I would have told you on year ago there was an opportunity to build a famous authority website on Adsense, would you have believed me?

Being an expert is about publishing the best content. That doesn’t come from 10 years of experience. That comes from getting on the phone, reaching out, driving at the hard problems in your industry, and caring relentlessly about the solving problems in your marketplace. I’d be willing to be that the majority of the people who write the content for INC magazine aren’t entrepreneurs. Do you trust them as experts? Could you do better?

Obviously there are 1000′s of winning blog topics. Those below are just a representation of the approach I’d take with brainstorming if we were in the room together. I did zero research here, this is just for kicks. Hope you enjoy!

101 commercial blog topics:

1. How do I utilize aggressive tax strategies in my small business?
2. What is the best way to set-up an offshore business for my internet business?
3. What are the best ways to buy backlinks or build my own private link networks?
4. What’s the best way to create linkbait campaigns?
5. What are the best places to bank and do business in Hong Kong?
6. How do I get access to high-end airline lounges for cheap?
7. How do I throw a wedding in Bali?
8. How can I buy and sell real estate in Bali?
9. How can I set up an offshore partner company in the Philippines?
10. How can I execute a linkbait campaign by developing small pieces of software?
11. How can I set up an amazing auto-responder series so my list converts like crazy?
12. What are the cutting edge ways I can get people to opt-in to mailing lists?
13. How do I hire mid to high range software developers in developing countries?
14. What are the best jobs in developing countries in the tech space?
15. How do I write the ultimate sales letter for my information products?
16. What’s going on for expats in Bali right now?
17. How do people utilize airline miles and other hacks to fly for free?
18. How do I protect my assets by investing in precious metals?
19. How do I know if my particular offshore tax strategy is legal?
20. How do I find a good factory in China to manufacture my apparel?
21. How can I use smart drugs or improve my performance at work or school?
22. How can I figure out which supplements I need to be taking?
23. How can I make my children brilliant if I homeschool them?
24. What’s the world’s best diet for longevity?
25. How do I treat my chronic disease naturally?
26. How can I live forever?
27. How can I meet important people in the Singapore business community?
28. What are the cheapest ways to build links?
29. How do I develop great e-commerce stores on Drupal?
30. How do I invest in real estate in South America?
31. How do I get my legal affairs (including insurance) in order while I travel?
32. How do I get citizenship to the United States?
33. How do I get a work visa to the United States?
34. How can I save the maximum amount of money?
35. What are the best passive investments to make?
36. How can I flip homes for a profit?
37. How can I flip e-commerce stores for a profit?
38. How can I get a valuation for my rare racing motorcycle?
39. How can I get a job in the luxury yacht industry?
40. How can I find high quality website to buy?
41. How can I find high quality online passive income investments?
42. How can I save money on taxes for my online business?
43. What’s the best way to get into law school?
44. How can I best diagnose and treat chronic lower back pain?
45. How can I know if my product idea has been previously patented?
46. What is the best way to improve my total time in a triathlon?
47. What are the best ways to naturally address my chronic skin condition?
48. How can I use smart drugs to enhance my performance?
49. What are some innovative ways I can try to save my marriage?
50. How can I start an e-commerce store?
51. How can I effectively reverse the damage I’ve done to my posture by working at a computer?
52. How can I affordably buy high quality content for my sites?
53. How can I make a living as an online writer?
54. How can I make a living as a link builder?
55. What’s the news and top after market parts for my Chevy Avalanche?
56. How do I care for this pet monkey!?
57. How can I follow Dan Andrews on Twitter?
58. How can I make great videos in Final Cut Pro?
59. How can I make money from a online TV show?
60. How can I find drop-shippers for my e-commerce store?
61. How can I open a personal bank account in Hong Kong?
62. How can I open a personal bank account in Singapore?
63. How can I get started sourcing in China?
64. What are the best opening emails to send on online dating sites?
65. How can I obtain a second passport or citizenship?
66. How can I make money by producing Youtube videos?
67. How do I make great homebrew?
68. How do I get dates in Brazil?
69. How can I make sure my boyfriend doesn’t leave me?
70. How can I solve my addiction to pain killers?
71. Where is the best place to hire software developers in Indonesia?
72. What kinds of capital investment opportunities are there in Vietnam?
73. Where is the party for expats in Hanoi?
74. How can I produce excellent podcast sound and music?
75. How can I get a job as a nurse in America?
76. How can I spend less time on my e-commerce Adwords campaigns?
77. How can I find a clever alternative to 401K saving?
78. What’s are the most progressive ways to treat acne and similar issues?
79. How can I find real estate investments in the Philippines?
80. How can I figure out which online gurus are legit and which ones are full of crap?
81. What are the best ways to invest in China and it’s currency?
82. How can I organize an excellent factory tour and sourcing experience in China?
83. How can I set-up a software development shop in South East Asia?
84. How can I learn self-massage techniques to promote healing and re-activate muscles?
85. How can I improve my IQ?
86. How can I do something about my embarrassing disease or problem?
87. What are the best beverages for increased energy and health?
88. What are the best ski slopes in Colorado?
89. What are the best techniques to become a better putter?
90. How can I find clever ways to pay for my college education?
91. How can I score perfect on my placement exam?
92. What are the best whole food supplements?
93. How can I find expensive wine that will impress my friends?
94. What are the best overseas termed deposit savings accounts?
95. How can I get jobs on high end yachts?
96. How can I get a service job in some killer location?
97. How can I find a technical co-founder?
98. How can I follow Dan Andrews on Twitter? (kidding!)
99. How can I be sure Elvis is dead?
100. How can I be sure any of these topics will actually make money?
101. What are the most cutting edge strategies for securing my wealth and growing it steadily?

I know some of these are donkeys. I also know there are a few sure bets on this list. All you gotta do is swing. Got a good one I should add?

Cheers,

Dan

PS, if you’d like to get on my private mailing list you can put your email address in the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/101-monetizable-blog-topics/feed/ 32 http://www.tropicalmba.com/101-monetizable-blog-topics/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/pW4KiYKVHus/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/buy-now-blogging-yo/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:39:19 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6276

Recently, a reader commented on a post I wrote called “How I Built and Sold a Blog Valued at Over $200 a Post.”

I read this post when it came out 5 months ago, but reading it now I realize that I’m in a different place mentally and feel as though I had never read it to begin with.

For example, I was totally floored by your plan of write out 10-20 headlines, record a shit-ton of audio, schedule it out for 3 months. HOLY CRAP! I’m doing this.

I couldn’t help but think of NerdFitness.com when reading the tips on this. Main question: how to get fit. Steve’s approach: every nerdy thing he can write about to drive that point home.

I know the stuff I’m passionate about but trying to figure out what the commercial problem is seems to be my weakness.

What tips do you have (or where can you point me) regarding how to clearly identify the topic that you apply the “should I start a blog” questions to?

How does one get a good sense for what is commercial? It’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot this week. Recently, I put out an open call to review blog concepts in the following format:

What problem do you solve? / From what fresh angle do you solve it from?

I would write back “win” or “lose” depending on what I thought were their chances of basic commercial success. By “basic commercial success” I’d say a blog concept capable of generating 40K+ of personal income for the owner within the first 2-3 years.

I’ve received well over 50 email inquires, probably close to 100. There were a few winners, but the vast majority of the concepts I received were dead on arrival. People who are passionate about writing, blogging, creativity, and personal freedom aren’t necessarily interested in being business hustlers. The good news: this business stuff doesn’t need to be that tough.

I’m incredibly bullish on the opportunity for online publishers. There has never been a better time to start a blog or a micro-publishing business. Don’t take my word for it, Rob Walling said it himself.

From the 50+ emails that I reviewed, there were a few common problems.

Problem: not sure who is making money and how.

It was common that the prospective blogger would suggest a concept similar to a mildly popular blog. If for modesty or lack of confidence, they’d suggest that they’d take a similar approach with less ambitious content, at least to start. People thought they couldn’t produce certain types of expert content without having an audience. Unless you are going to write about building audiences (please don’t), or making money online (please don’t), this shouldn’t be a problem.

I would suggest to all aspiring bloggers to take precedent case analysis seriously. Ask online publishers: how much money do you make? I’m serious. Before I get in to any market, my first step is to figure out how much the players are pulling down. If they won’t tell you, do your best to reverse engineer it. If some blogger is pulling in 15K off a huge audience built up over 3 years of relentless publishing, I would focus on learning from their example rather than copying it.

Problem: relying heavily on “cult of personality” business models. 

For years social web marketers have been preaching this idea of “you need to become the trusted expert” and that seems to have been translated into “get tons of attention by any means possible.” Bloggers are better off writing as if they would never be recognized. Let your content speak for itself. Focus on building products, services, and posts that are truly useful to people. Any fame status you get on top of that will be gravy. Fame built on the delivery of successful products that people love is more sustainable than endless ‘look at me’ hype-cycles.

If you already have a ton of credibility because of previous accomplishments, this sort of thinking might not apply to you.

Having a commercial conversation isn’t any harder than having the “audience/authority” conversation– it’s just a different type. Here’s an example of how to have a more commercial type of conversation:

4 basics elements of a “buy now” blog.

The way to get good at identifying commercial opportunities is to start framing them up on a regular basis. It’s been well established that blogs aren’t products in and of themselves, but excellent marketing channels to products. Forget about ads and affiliate links, that stuff isn’t going get you there. You’ll want to start doing the product math on day one. Anytime a potential blog topic comes across your desk, immediately start breaking down the potential products you could sell on such a blog.

1. Have a clear value proposition.

This is the part we’ve already discussed– focus in on exactly what problem do you solve and from what fresh perspective you solve it. For these points I’ll use my old Outsourcing to the Philippines blog as an example, as well as our new site Tropical Work Force, which I believe could easily make a dedicated individual a full time living if they wanted to.

What problem do you solve? / What fresh angle do you solve it from?

• OutsourcetothePhilippines.com – How do I find low cost virtual employees for my business? / By moving your business to the Philippines or hiring VAs from there.
• TropicalWorkForce.com – How do I learn how to be a location independent entrepreneur? and How do I get passionate, dedicated team members and interns affordably? / By connecting with other entrepreneurial types who believe in the mentorship/apprentice model of learning. 

2. Identify an expensive product you can sell from day one.

I’ve noticed this is the hardest part, and I’m not sure why (I’d love your perspective so I can help more). This is also the most fun part of the process for me. Your goal here is to conceptualize a hypothetical product. You’ll want to be super specific, down to the price. “Do you think people would be willing to pay $300 bucks for x?” If it sounds good, start asking yourself the cost of delivering such a product. If it sounds feasible, start emailing the idea to smart people you know. Would you buy this? 

In the case of my Outsourcing to the Philippines blog, that product was a 40,000 word ebook written about basic information in the Philippines plus a 1-hour phone call with me. If you have a niche expertise like that, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that you could launch that service in a few weeks. Pump out the ebook, maybe even contracting some of the research or writing, put up the sales letter, add as much extra value as you can– maybe you’ll provide a personal rolodex, some helpful worksheets or spreadsheets (Virtual Assistant review sheet!), some and some follow-up emails after your phone call.

People roll their eyes and say it’s not a huge value proposition, or it’s not scalable, but you know what? You’re 5 phone calls away from 1,000 in profit. 

In the case of Tropical Work Force– go ahead and brainstorm some potential products. I can think of a bunch. Out of the gate you could charge $47 bucks for a successful internship placement (money back guarantee!). Your $200 product could be an in-house like bulk article writing. You could do the service yourself, or work closely with a provider and take a big cut.

3. Don’t start until you’ve published a sales letter for the product (and start small).

There is no such thing as a blog that doesn’t have some kind of product that could be sold from day one. Start selling it now.Forget about building audience, getting authority, and all that junk. If you can’t frame up something that’s worth a few bills, you’re probably wasting everyone’s time (caveat: I’m not talking about the wonderfulness of personal sharing and blogging on the webs, I’m talking about making a living through useful websites).

A big money product on your blog will keep you focused on providing real value to your readers.

Let’s say you make $150 bucks every time somebody buys your product. Let’s say .5% of your blog visitors buy your product. By the time you are receiving 1000 monthly uniques, you’d be making $750 bucks a month. That’s achievable in a just a few short weeks. What about having that explosive $200 product funnel people in to a much more affordable community? $37 bucks a month sound okay? If every month you add 5 community members you’ll add $185 to your recurring monthly cash flow (You’ll want to adjust that for your projected retention rate).

Take example Ava’s $300 videos as an example. When people in my demographic see that value proposition they are all like “hell yeah that’s worth it!” Then you work backwards– is it worth it to you to deliver that based on your costs of production? Don’t bother with products that couldn’t conceivably get you ramen profitable fast.

(I meet Ava last summer during the Puerto Galera meet-upa DCer who makes these amazing video introductions. Just wanted to point you her way if you ever needed to develop something like this for your business. Also note that every service on our Tropical Work Force site is personally reviewed by our team, so these aren’t just random service providers who found the site, but people in our network.)

If Ava wanted, she could start a whole blog around the concept of her intro videos. She could connect with other people making videos, teach people how to make them, affilate for video software (and review it), but of course the whole time she’s building trust for that big ass buy now button!

4. When you do start writing posts, forget about traffic and attention. Focus on making connections and conversions in your marketplace.

Attention, at the scale 99% of blogs can expect, isn’t enough to capitalize on with affiliate links and the occasional “launch.” This doesn’t prevent legions of bloggers to continue to promote, promote, promote, often causing me to wonder what is it that you are trying to do again? Please don’t let the answer be “make some money from my blog someday.”

If you decide to focus on truly useful content, you probably won’t have the most definitive expert content at the beginning. That’s fine. Link to those who do. Offer your commentary. Clarify their offerings. Hell, call the people who wrote the expert stuff. Find a way to get yourself into the center of the conversation.

My offer for blog proposals remains, but will be slightly updated. I want to continue to help people grow successful micro-publishing businesses. If you want to email me with your value proposition, I’m cool with that. This go around please include the basic outline of your $200 product or service. dan at tropical mba dot com baby!

Cheers,

Dan

PS, see also Making a Living Writing Blogs
PPS, you can get on my private mailing list by putting your email address into the form below:


]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/buy-now-blogging-yo/feed/ 10 http://www.tropicalmba.com/buy-now-blogging-yo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/6BkuzKbDh3k/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-script/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:18:59 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5883

If I quit my job, will I be able to make enough money from my internet business? If I go to a good law school, will I make a lot of money? If I relocate to Thailand to set up niche sites, will I ever be successful?

The way I answer these questions is by seeking out scripts. What have I heard about people who move to Thailand? What about those folks who go to law school?

Most of my life, I relied on hand-me-down scripts from TV, reference books, and friends and family– ya know, they saw a TV show, or heard the newscaster, or talked to so and so at the party.

Life scripts that had predictable, good outcomes seemed miserable. “Work this job for 20 years.” “Go to law school and be a lawyer.” The life scripts that seemed more tolerable had dismal outcomes. “Write music and hustle for a record deal.” “Write your book but don’t think you’ll make money from it.” “Be a teacher but never get paid.” And so on.

I was struck by this thought as I was reading Megan’s wonderful blog. She spent a year meeting with 52 strangers (52 cups of coffee) who she identified as successful:

“I realized… nobody’s life went according to plan… [that understanding] leaves you with two choices: let the fear of the unknown overwhelm you or embrace the uncertainty…” [source]

And it’s difficult to imagine that Megan could have gone on such a journey without the blogosphere. It’s the same quest each of us can go on right now. We are a few clicks away from a story that that could change the way we live.

*  *  *

I can still remember one script, offerred to me by a blogger, that changed the direction of my life. To understand how their message effected me, I need to warp you back to 2008.

I spent a big part of that year in Vietnam. It was the first time I was an expat, and it was one of the best years of my life. I helped set up an office and official company. I visited remote tin mines. I hired two software developers. I participated in one of the world’s great eating cultures. I rode my motorbike through the Mekong delta and into Cambodia. I lived out of hotels for weeks at a time.

I had no job or alarm clock– and neither did any of my friends. We spent our days building opportunities and relationships. I had found my ideal lifestyle. 



View from my apartment in Saigon.

Then in late 2008, the American economy took a huge hit, and along with it, the small stipend from investors that justified our little offshore operation. With no real opportunities in hand that didn’t require a wheelbarrow of cash, I headed back to San Diego to talk things over with Ian.

Things were tight. We had just enough cash at the end of the month to pay Ian, and our newly hired sales representative. We had every penny invested in growing the company. Under these conditions, there was no way I could justify my nascent travel habit.

And so I settled in to what would be the most miserable and frustrating few months of my (short!) entrepreneurial career. 2009 was probably the most emotionally challenging year in my career. Everything was moving slower than my expectations. I was having difficulty imagining making any significant money from our business. I was having second thoughts on how I was spending my time. If our company wasn’t growing, why spend my time on it?

*  *  *



Riding my motorbike in the central highlands of Vietnam.

In the evenings, my routine was to load up my iPhone with a bunch of podcasts and take a long walk. On April 5th, 2009 one of my favorite podcasts off all time, Internet Business Mastery (which I listened to obsessively– thanks Sterling and Jay!), featured a guy named John Jonas.

John had a message, and he sold it hard. He said: “Everything you know about outsourcing is dead wrong.”

What he said hit me. I’m sure Mr. Jonas didn’t know this, but I had just gotten ripped off by some jerk developer on Craiglist, had been paying too much for a few mediocre developers in Vietnam (who could barely speak English!), and to top it all off, I had recently pulled the plug on a disastrous 20K software debacle I contracted on Elance to an Indian development firm.

I knew we needed a great group of people to join us in order to grow, but the cash wasn’t there.

“The Philippines is the best place in the world to hire full time English speaking staff to grow your business.” 

You probably know the key reasons John would have cited. The great English. The enthusiasm Filipinos had for remote work positions. And all sorts of other things that can be true about Filipinos.

And then he said something like:

“In the Philippines you can hire a full time, college educated, English speaking employee for $300 a month.” 

And that’s about when it clicked. I could do that.

When I got home, I turned on my computer and started looking for our first English speaking employee for $300 a month. A few months later, I booked a ticket to the Philippines, a country I knew nothing about.

*  *  *

Here’s an email I found on my computer, dated two months after I heard the podcast:

To: Rob [omitted] ::: From: Dan Andrews ::: Date: Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 1:12 PM

Rob– Wanted to check in and see what’s new… I’m still plugging away at a bunch of websites. I’m going to start recording a podcast starting tomorrow. I’m really excited about that– just a way to get thoughts out and reflect in a positive way without surfing the net or something dumb. Also, I hired a full time virtual assistant and an employee here in California. I’m not sure how its going to work out…

Turns out the Philippines is the true hotspot now for tech outsourcing… I’ve got three guys there testing on a variety of projects and I’m going to be pulling together an office to launch a shit ton of websites. How’s Cebu City sound to you?

September.

xoDan

*  *  *



A Map of DCers in South East Asia. All the Bali Pegs are Stacked on Top of Each Other! Thailand and the Philippines are Busy

A few months after moving to the Philippines, I bought OutsourcetothePhilippines. The blog was simple. My goal was to share what I was learning about the opportunities for business and adventure in the Philippines.

Thanks to the blog, every month I met more and more of you stepping off the plane.

I couldn’t find anyone else like me in the country, save for Chris Ducker and a few others. At the time, I would have sworn to you that I was the only western internet marketer in the Philippines under 30 years old (I would have been wrong!).

I’m sure Chris Ducker, myself, and a handful of other bloggers have helped bring a bunch of high quality entrepreneurial jobs to the Philippines. No question we’ve seen seen an influx of talented Western entrepreneurs. I couldn’t take a guess at the number, but I’m proud of what’s going on, and I think we’ve made a positive impact.

*  *  *

I’ve always believed many of the most action-oriented among you found us first through the outsourcing blog. That makes sense. Busy entrepreneurs are looking for real answers.

Simple blogs, written from experience, can inspire people to move their families, hire 100′s of people, and change their life script forever.

In this case, some guy said “everything you know about outsourcing is wrong… and I know what you can do about it.”

And he was right.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, I own Twitter.
PPS, if you’d like to sign up for my private mailing list, just put your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-script/feed/ 20 http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-script/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/_WATysLWCyQ/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/please-find-this-site-mr-google/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:59:56 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=6068

Today I received an email from reader Chad:

I read your Q&A post. Thanks for taking the time to really think about our questions and giving us your honest answers. If you’re taking in suggestions for your next blog post, I have one for you. There are so many SEO tips from so-called “experts” and pretty much all of them talk like theirs is the most effective way. I don’t know who to believe anymore! Since I trust you, what are some SEO techniques you used that worked? Thanks and great job Dan! Your content means a lot to aspiring entrepreneurs like myself. - Chad - TuringanDesigns.com

Thanks Chad. Although nobody really thinks I know what I’m talking about when it comes to SEO (for good reason!), it has played a central role in my business for the last 4 years. I currently have 2 smart guys who work for us full time doing SEO and SEM. That’s the best qualification I’ve got. Even if my approaches are sub-par, they are creating a return on investment.

There are a bunch of reasons why SEO talk is confusing. It’s tough to isolate variables and duplicate conditions on the web. I often find legit experts having to speculate about the cause of ranking changes. Even at the top level there is no shortage of shoulder shrugging.

I don’t read much about SEO anymore so I can’t suggest many good resources. The best way to learn is to have a live site that you are trying to rank. If you don’t have a site you are trying to rank, don’t bother learning SEO. Once you get a site and identify a product, make sure they are worth ranking for (love the product and make sure it’s expensive!), because it’s probably going to take you a while.

You should know that I don’t play in any premium niches. I’ve never attempted to rank for weight loss, make money online, gambling, or similar. My knowledge is ranking for middle-competition industrial and consumer niches.

In the list below, I was careful to only discuss approaches that have actually made us money. My tactics might not be cutting edge, “correct,” or even applicable to your business. They just worked, and hopefully you can learn something from that.

1) Not starting niche businesses on SEO opportunities.

I hear a surprising amont of people, both in blogs and in person, talk about starting a business based on keyword research alone. I have no doubt it works on occasion, but I wouldn’t adopt this strategy. Take the opposite approach– identify a compelling product or service that you feel you can sell, and then search for clever ways to get exposure for it in the search engines. This way is more likely to succeed in my experience. Product conception first, keyword research second.

If you find yourself drawn to identifying profitable, undervalued, or underserved key term markets, you should consider building a business that does that alone (see: AdsenseFlippers.com). SEO is a long term battle fought on many fronts. You’ll want a compelling reason to keep at it.

I have never selected to get in to a business solely because it was an attractive key term market. We’ve always had some other reason to be in the marketplace. Generally, we’ve thought that we could provide better products or services. We have, however, disqualified many business opportunities due to intense search competition.

2) Knowing the basics well and working hard.

I often point people to SEOMoz’s guide for beginners. There’s a bunch of basic concepts you need to have a handle on. You don’t want to be lost when people are tossing around “PR,” “SEPRs,” “301s,” “SEM,” “anchor text,” and “orphan pages.” If you know the fundamentals, and you work a lot, you’ll find winners.

Try focusing on the aspects of SEO work that you excel at. Dave Huss is great at analytics, so he focuses a lot of energy on buying traffic to test potential key term markets. David Hehenberger excels at site technology and infrastructure. He builds sites fast and can scale whole networks in a few weeks. I was always good at generating content, so I would focus on viral startegies and long-tail spreadfire approaches. No need to do it all, there’s plenty of opportunities where your talents are.

3) Buying links.

Buying links works really well. It’s also dangerous. All the more reason to love it! People have been telling me this for years and we never got in to it. It’s tough to get up to speed because people don’t want to talk about it much. I don’t blame them. There is a lot of risk here.

In the past we only bought links in benign ways– like paying people to write a bunch of articles and then posting them to useless directories.

The hard part of buying links is figuring out how and where to buy them from, and managing your risk when you do so. You probably don’t want to take one of your more established sites and start pumping a bunch of paid links towards it. I’m just learning about buying links and I don’t want to get in too much hot water by saying stuff that could hurt others. If you want to know more or you do this stuff, best to join us in the private forums or email me.

4) Creating sticky content for big sites.

Back in the day, Ian and I made a PDF guide with some really cool photos, lots of jokes, and useful information for a huge blog in the auto industry. When they published our PDF guide, it ended up getting re-blogged over 40 times. Those links from years ago continue to prop up some of our money generating sites.

5) Create tons of content and a huge site footprint.

A few years ago I took a site that was getting 400 unique visitors a month, and scaled it up to 10,000 monthly uniques in about a year. It wasn’t an interesting topic either. I took a look at my business partner’s assets. They had a great portfolio of proprietary photography. I think they had about 1000+ unique images.

I decided we’d take a spreadfire approach. Our site would have a huge footprint and pick up traffic from a broad range of searches. I made sure we used a site platform that scaled well– in this case Drupal. I was looking to diversify the photos and text descriptions to as many 3-4 word key phrases as possible. I didn’t bother to do research, there were too many. I just came up with phrases off the top of my head.

I often used the same photo 3-4 times, sometimes slightly alter it (crop, etc), and change the header tags, IMG tags, and body text. Within a few months a site that had 25 pages had 1500. The resulting traffic was easily worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the company. I also made sure I put up new content on our sites weekly going forward, something Google continues to reward.

Another thing– on your money pages, all things being equal, the more content the merrier. Put 2,000+ word articles on the pages you want to rank. Make them awesome. Link to the best stuff. Have great pictures, research, and clear copy. It works!

6) Avoiding SEO guys and building in-house competence.

Those are the guys who are confusing you. I’m all about hiring SEO services. Supremacy SEO, Build my Rank, SEOMoz premium, and many others– I’ve probably bought, used, and benefitted from over 40 premium SEO services and tools (a post for another day!).

It’s important that the understanding of how your products get noticed by the market is knowledge that is baked into the fabric of your company. It’s even more important because the knowledge you pick up via your SEO efforts should define your product roadmap. If you let it to the consultants, they are less likely to make those kinds of critical connections.

7) Focusing on the non-organic parts of the search results.

If you take a look above the fold at many SERPs these days, you’ll see images, videos, Adwords, maps, products, and pretty much anything but organic rankings. We spend a ton of our energy trying to show up there. Going for #1 is great, but when you are getting started, go for everything. Get aggressive about Youtube videos, Google product feeds, Adwords (be careful!), Google Maps, Places, and anything else you can get your hands on.

We have a handful of sites that make good money that don’t show up anywhere on the first page of Google. They make money because we’ve got good products, good on-site content, and a ton of hustle. Someday we’ll get to the first page (maybe with the help of some experts!), and when we do, it’ll all be gravy.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, if you’d like to get on my private mailing list, just put your email address in the form below.

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/please-find-this-site-mr-google/feed/ 13 http://www.tropicalmba.com/please-find-this-site-mr-google/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/bf4BJ7Xi53g/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/questions-entrepreneurs-ask/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:56:58 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5790

We are accepting applications for an internship at our house in Bali until January 30th.

This weekend I asked the readers on the TMBA mailing list if I could help them out with any business questions. To those of you who asked the questions below, I’m happy to continue the discussion with further resources, links, and perspectives in the public comments. The answers provided are my preliminary thoughts on each issue. Since there were so many questions, I had to work fast. I would love to go more in-depth with those of you who are interested.

For those of you curious about the mailing list, I send out 1 or 2 emails a week. They are generally short. If you’d like to join us you can put your email address in the sidebar. As a bonus for signing up, you’ll get a download link for our first 50 podcasts.

To all the new readers: our best business advice is in the Lifestyle Business Podcast. So far we’ve recorded 87 shows. 108 people have said “5 stars!” on our iTunes reviews page. We release new episodes Thursday mornings, 8AM, EST.

Since this post is long, I’ve started with a word cluster that highlights some of the topics. I answered all of the questions like I know what I’m talking about, even though sometimes I just don’t. Take it or leave it! My only internationally recognized certification is a California state driver’s license.

Hong Kong incorporations ::: cheap ways to buy backlinks ::: how to beat analysis paralysis ::: why you should fire your SEO guy ::: how to start paid-for communities ::: what to do about extreme school debt ::: how to chose products for your e-commerce store ::: our favorite competitive research tools ::: outsourcing in the Philippines ::: how to be a freelancer like a boss ::: my sex life ::: the future of humanity ::: and more…

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Getting lost in Luzon, Philippines.

How easy will it be to find people who read, write, and speak English fluently in the Philippines? I’m looking for people to help me write content for my sites. – Elle

The Philippines is the second largest English speaking country in the world– around 100 million English speakers. The Philippines is also a poor place. There aren’t a lot of great opportunities for the constant flow of new graduates. If you are looking for content writers, the Philippines is a good place to start. As your quality needs go up, so will the costs. Finding high quality, researched content in the Philippines is harder than getting it from expats or travelers who want to sustain their living overseas. I order all of my content (about $800 dollars a month) through expats I’ve found on the TropicalWorkForce.com board under “services.”

Filipino workers, in general, have quality problems that can be difficult to deal with if you aren’t in-country, or if your protocols aren’t extremely detailed. There are tons of exceptions to this– I have 2 full-time Filipinos on my staff and they are amazing (hey guys!). I’m sure even my Filipino team members would agree that finding workers who consistently take initiative can be difficult. I know a lot of entrepreneurs who moved to the Philippines to hire content writers and ended up hiring contractors instead. Forget about the Philippines– anywhere in the world it’s difficult to put somebody in a chair and ask them to write SEO content for 8 hours everyday. Consider buying content in bulk from contractors or Odesk, Fiverr, or TropicalWorkForce. If you want to set up a shop with a bunch of agents at a low price, the Philippines is still probably the best place int the world to do it.

Recently I have finished college and started my own business (I have an Online Marketing Agency). But, I’m not living the four hour work week. I’m working 10+ hours a day and I’m not satisfied with my income for that much work at all. I’m still trying to figure out what to do and how to live FHWW in Bali – J.

It sounds like you are living the 4 hour work week lifestyle exactly! It often goes unnoticed that the book starts with our hero, Mr. Ferriss, stressed out to the point of breakdown.

At the time, Tim was reportedly running a business that generated 40K a month. How would one duplicate such a feat? Working 12 hours a day might not be a bad strategy. Serve your clients for 10 hours, and then with the extra two start “productizing” the most valuable part of your service. Do your clients love your SEO protocol? Make it a product. When you start making 2K a month, take 1K of it and hire somebody. Live with them in a cheap house in Bali or Northern Thailand and make it happen. That’s my 4HWW dream.

If you are interested in many things in life for example, entrepreneurship, online marketing, sport, personal development, communication, meditation, health, and you are passionate about all these topics, should you blog about all of them, or would it be smarter to write specific content for specific audience? What is the most valuable knowledge to have these days? - Marko Kvesic

The most valuable skill set is being able to create results– you could also say “affecting change.” Popular approaches to creating results are writing code, making investments, building companies, writing, and speaking well. I see big opportunities in the coming decade in software development skills (especially for mobile platforms), expatriate services, offshore incorporations, wealth management, human longevity, health by data, and genetics. In the next 10 years a lot of the mysticism that surrounds ‘whats good for you’ will be replaced by data. See QuantifiedSelf.com as an example.

Most important of all– you need to chose something to do. Last year I was recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on outsourcing to the Philippines. There were 100′s of people who knew more than me, but I was telling the story and so I got the recognition. I didn’t do anything special but invest my time in something I thought was going to be big. If you are just starting and writing about “stuff in my brain” you are diluting your message, and hurting your chances of making a substantial difference for people.

I’m having trouble coming up with a niche market and how to structure my business. I think the endless possibilities has me stymied.  Do you have any suggestions on how to narrow things down? I would like for someone to just tell me what business would be good and how I should structure it. - Scott

Do you currently have a job? If so, your employer has already identified some role in which you provide a ton of value to a marketplace. Is there something better or complimentary you could provide to your marketplace?

If your response is “but I hate my job!” quit it and find a better one. If you can’t get a job you enjoy, with somebody you respect, you probably can’t start a successful business. The former is way easier than the latter.

I have a vague ambition of setting out on my own but am having some trouble distilling all of the available advice and information into a comprehensive plan of action.  My question is, what specific skills do you consider absolutely invaluable to the fledgling online entrepreneur?  If you were me (rudderless 26 year-old, but thinks he can hack it), what are the first things you would teach yourself? - John

“Vague ambition” is where I’d start. That won’t work. You can’t lead people, build businesses, and compel customers if you don’t even know why you care yourself. If you don’t care, they won’t care. Guaranteed.

You need the eye of the tiger. The eye of the tiger is the feeling you get on mile 7 of a 10 mile run– when you are running faster than you were on mile 2. The eye of the tiger is desire strong enough to overcome petty, niggling fears.

Get good at moving around the web– really fast– for 10 hours a day. Develop a huge tolerance for long work days. Get good at making decisions on limited information. Do immense amounts of stuff. Once you’ve got something up on the web, you’ll have specific problems you’ll need to solve. You just need one website that has a “buy-now” button on it. Once you have that you’ll stop asking “what skills do I need” and start asking “how do I get more people to click on this damn button.” That’s a much better question to ask. People will start giving you concrete feedback rather than a line off self help stuff about the eye of the tiger!

I have the opportunity in April to 1) Take 9-weeks out in Asia & work on info products (like this one I’m working on), 2) Take 9-weeks out in Asia & work on specs / designs for an AirPlay stereo system project I’d like to launch (potentially go to Shenzen to work with manufacturers, source parts), 3) Open an office for my Dad’s company (based in the UK) in Atlanta (where I now live) – this would essentially be a franchise reporting to the UK office. Which one would you choose? - Liam

For me it would be A. Easy call. Live in Asia and work on info products? Super fun. I’d be careful though. Your chances of success and excitement are hugely important to your analysis. Option A, for example, could be the most difficult to succeed with. People seem to suck at doing information products well. On the surface option C seems to be a surer bet because you’d be leveraging a successful model. It sounds like a drag, but I don’t know. I’d chose A because I like to write, read, and live in Asia. I also don’t care about making money, or being a poor loser who can’t even afford a plane ticket home. Who would want one!?

I noticed in your “14 things” post a few days back that Ian is “cold calling customers” for your ventures. Is there a process for that? I know: pick up the damn phone and call! I can do that. What I don’t know is who / what / where / how. Other than just picking up the phone and babbling. - Todd (& Chad)

Pick up a copy of Chet Holme’s Ultimate Sales Machine– it’s universality adored by entrepreneurs. There’s a lot of strategies we’ve used to pull together target lists in the past, but most of them boil down to this: go out and find an ideal traget by surfing the web or identifying a call sequence. How do you do it? Do you find the email convention at a company? Are you searching for PDFs on their public servers? (you can do this by doing a SITE:theirdomain.com search) of their website?  Are you just scraping the contact email address at the bottom of certain kinds of websites?

Once you’ve proven a process for identifying a lead, document it in detail. Then run off to Elance.com with your process, and hire somebody at a base rate to bring you a set # of leads. Try to negotiate the price per lead, not a per-hour rate.

The best way to get information about your market is to start calling up anyone involved in the industry. Your competition, your targets, people who you think might be interested–  anybody. When you get them on the horn, ask for their advice. Tell them you are new and just learning the basics of the industry. What would they suggest? What problems do they need solved? Take a genuine interest in their ideas and you’ll be blown away at how nobody else is. If you aren’t yet sure what your competitive advantage is going to be in your marketplace, start out with “listening” and “caring.”



Although the premier destination in the world for English speaking call center agents, the best stuff in the Philippines doesn't have anything to do with outsourcing.

I’m having some difficulty finding a good company to outsource the design portion of website construction to. That is a company that could do all the photoshop/css portion of my business for me. How do you go about finding good companies to cheaply do this kind of work? – Ben

Design is overrated for small bootstrapped start-ups. Don’t worry about rocking some really basic stuff like a premium WordPress theme, or a text logo generated in a word processor. Once you get some cash flowing you can invest it in design.

If you want one-off type of design work, find some great websites you adore and check the footer for a design studio or email the owner for the contact information of the designer.

Unless you are consistently pumping out new designs, it’s tough to lower your costs when working with a quality designer. You are better off checking out services like 99Designs.com or Elogocontest.com where you can crowdsource your design projects to a large group of designers for a few hundred bucks.

I have a product called my Dog Stinks Odor Eliminator spray. My store is hosted at Volusion.com, but I am thinking of moving it over to Amazon so that I can put the products on Amazon.com and possibly use their fulfillment services down the road. My challenge is that Amazon says that I need UPC codes for my products and it looks like about a $2,400 investment for 4 UPC codes for my 2 products in 2 different sizes. Do you think the move to Amazon is a wise one? I am doing it in hopes of more traffic. Is there a work around on this UPC code issue or am I relegated to buying a code from the one provider on the planet lucky enough to get the monopoly gig for providing UPC codes ( how do I get that gig?) - Chris

I wouldn’t move your entire business on to the Amazon platform. My experience is purely anecdotal. Everyone I know who joined Amazon (2 people) didn’t succeed, and the people I know trying to out-maneuver them (me and many others) seem to still be in the game. That’s terribly unscientific, but why not just test a new store out there rather than moving your whole operation to their platform?

Regarding UPC codes, I’m not sure where you are getting that cost figure. We’ve bought them as low as $10 bucks a pop. A little Googling should find a decent re-seller of UPC codes.

I don’t know anything about Volusion.com, but if you are having some issues there check out Shopify.com. I use it and it’s great.

You might also think about your product choice. If you need huge traffic to make money, it could be a bad product choice altogether. It might make sense to start sourcing more expensive products in the same category. If you need huge distribution to make your business feasible, it’s probably better to talk to online re-sellers of pet products than to Amazon. If you can’t get traction from them, a move to Amazon isn’t likely to have a bigger impact.

Generalize or specialize? Should I go very deep in one tiny niche, or should I try to do a little of everything and keep my options open? - Peter

First off, these aren’t mutually exclusive options. The #1 problem people face in niche selection is not specializing enough. People flinch when they are about to commit to being an “Adwords consultant for e-commerce store owners” and instead become an “online marketing consultant.” Sure, there are technically more opportunities for an “online marketing consultant” but they are more expensive to find and convert.

That’s why broad branding only works for people with huge bankrolls, credibility, or audiences. If you made a million by the time you were 25, go ahead and teach people how to do the same and ‘escape the 9 to 5!’ But if you haven’t, go ahead and make that million by helping Russian e-commerce store owners who have budgets of over 10K a month make more money by optimizing their Adwords accounts.

I stumbled on this this knowledge. Developing hard goods products for focused industrial niches forced me to be go niche. I learned how much easier it was to sell to people when I was working in a super focused niche relative to our consumer products that were designed to appeal to everyone.

I know you advocate creating a community and creating insane value via products, membership site, etc for that community. How do you pick the community that you would get in? Passion? Keywords and untapped niche? How do you progress without knowing it’s going to 95% succeed? (I’m often in analysis paralysis). -Matt

The key is to invert your ratio: do something that you’d do if I told you the chances were 95% that you’d fail.

A mix passion and market opportunity is best, but sometimes taking an advanced skill set to places where there aren’t a lot of other marketers is huge. Passion for starting and growing a great businesses is usually the best one to cultivate.

So far, I’ve chosen communities based on what I want to learn about. Scalable location independent businesses, outsourcing in the Philippines, and offshore corporations.



Talking shop with other internet entrepreneurs in Bali.

I am coming to Bali next month, I would like to say hello to you and your friends, are you guys there? - Zorika

Sweet! Be sure to email me when you get here. I’m planning on visiting Vietnam and the Philippines in February, but I’ll be in Bali a bit too. I’m sure there will be many others here too. It’s a fun scene!

I’m in Law school right now, and will be graduating with some pretty serious debt. Let’s say I wanted to build a business, law practice, or consulting firm that allows me to live a lifestyle like yours. Is it possible for me to do so without having a rich family or whatnot to pay off my loans and allow me to start fresh and unencumbered by student loan debt, or will I have to wait until it’s all paid off? Let’s say for argument’s sake that my loan payments will be $2K a month for 10 years. - James 

Not having rich parents is probably a blessing. In my case, it’s provided me with an extraordinary amount of motivation to succeed. You are in a much tougher spot than many people, but it’ll just force you to play smarter. Any way you can differ those loans go for it. If you must take a job, don’t spend any money. Think seriously about your net income and not your top line salary. I’m sure there are plenty of highly paid lawyers in NYC who net less than 5K a year. That’s not going to work for you. The first step to living this lifestyle is to start thinking about net income.

You’ve got an amazing skill set. I’ve long thought that professionally focused membership communities have a lot of potential. Let’s say you start a membership website around the idea of US patents and trademark law. Finding quality information on legalities is a huge pain point for business owners. Getting a “real” lawyer on the phone can cost my company thousands. What if you had a private community for entrepreneurs who could get answers from you or your team within 72 hours?

If they need to call you, they send $100 bucks and get 45 minutes on the phone with you. Charge $50 bucks a month per member. To cover your school loan bills, plus give you 2K to live, you only need to find 80 people who are interested in such a community. For this type of product, you might find that annual memberships work better. You could say that for $397 you get annual access to the community. Once customers join you can provide them with up-sells and premium services that could increase you profit per customer.

Maybe you’ll offer researched reports at a decent price insider your group. You could run affiliate deals with other partners who provide services– for example doing prior art research reports. You’d probably want to publish 2-3 awesome articles, podcasts, or videos a week that help to solve entrepreneur’s patent issues.

That’s just one idea. I’ve got 100′s, and if you become an entrepreneur you’ll have them too.

Can you do it? Of course you can. I’ve known enough people who got through law school to know that running an internet-based business is probably easier by comparison. But they are different skill sets. One is about following rules, and the other is about breaking them. The last time you listened to people who told you the way things were supposed to go, you ended up with 100K in debt. I know the next piece of advice from them is: work for the next 20 years paying that off, save well, and you’ll be able to afford something better. It’s not crazy-talk, but it’s a radically different script.

Talk to a bunch of 50 year old lawyers, and then a bunch of entrepreneurs who have been running their own business for the last 20. Decide which crowd you vibe with more, and jump right in. Don’t be intimidated by the business world. If you can get out of law school alive, you can probably figure out how to make a couple bucks from a small business.

How did you finally get disciplined to start working all day at this stuff. What is the mental process you work through to make yourself kill it everyday. For whatever reason it’s my biggest hang up. - Nate

Most of the people in my age group might be watching TV right now, or maybe checking out a movie at the theater. Why not ask yourself what’s something cool you could do that would help people out? Instead of going to the movies tonight, I sent out an email to you and now I’m trying to do something positive.

When you see your actions making a real difference you get inspired to do more.

The best way to get the feedback loop going is to start small. Many people feel powerless because they’ve got jobs at a big company and it seems like all their good work just gets tossed into oblivion. Start working for somebody to whom your work would matter. You can find people like that at places like TropicalWorkForce.com.

Find an accountability partner. You should call them for 1 hour on Friday afternoons. Tell then what you did and didn’t accomplish, and what you are going to do in the next week.

Overbook yourself. Even though I should be analyzing spreadsheets right now, I’m writing to you. And I hope it helps a little. You can do the same, and that’s basically what businesses do– gather a bunch of resources together in the hopes of helping people get the things they want.

We have several niche sites (to capture e-mails through giving away free information and later selling affiliate products). 1) What are the most up to date tools that you can use to accurately track what back links have been found by the google crawlers? 2) Where do you get the most bang for your buck in back link purchases? (quickest increase in google rank with the least cost?) - Stokely - It would be great if you could give a back link to use house flip. [<-- great hustle!]

SERPFox is our favorite tool to track search engine rankings. We’re currently using Raven Tools for backlink analysis. Raven tools combines backlink data from the two best data sources: SEOmoz and Majestic SEO. Everything has been a little messed up lately due to Yahoo getting rid of Yahoo Site Explorer.

The biggest bang for your buck with with link purchases will come from private link networks (email me for more details if you read this). I bring it up to the broader blog audience to say that these types of arrangements do exist, they are highly effective, and it’s important to keep them somewhat private. That’s obvious in terms of discretion, but it’s also important in terms of volume. If I were to publish where I was getting my most effective links, they would become less valuable. If you want to do your own research, one of the best public places to start is on WickedFire forums. Our own private forum is particularly strong in this area. If you are interested in this kind of stuff, you’ll probably make your money back there in 1 hour or less.



I visited Singapore for the first time last month. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would, especially the food.

You mentioned the possibility to set up a business in Hong Kong or Singapore. Could you describe the process behind and some resources? - Patrick

Why Hong Kong? (a few readers asked this question…. you can also check out this post.) No corporate taxes, you can be very aggressive about what you expense, and there is a world-class banking system in place.

I have some experience with Hong Kong and it couldn’t be easier to get started. Call Jumpstart to get things rolling. You’ll need to travel to HK to get things set up. I’d recommend finding a place to stay on Airbnb.com, you can find a good place in a central location for $50 a night.

Once you have the company documents in hand, bring them to a bank of your choice (make an appointment beforehand) to get a business account set up.

Keep a few things in mind: getting a credit card in HK isn’t like in the US, you’ll need to put up collateral funds in order to qualify. You’ll also need to identify an accountant to help you process your annual audit. You’ll want to make sure that you apply as a business who “doesn’t do business in Hong Kong” in order to qualify for the 0% corporate tax rate. Obviously it won’t be possible to do this if you plan on doing business in HK, but it is possible to split up transactions on your audit papers, e.g. 80% of business outside of HK, 20% of business inside of HK and so on. Finally, if you are an American citizen, you’ll need to make sure the IRS knows about all of this, and that you are paying income taxes on the income you earn from your Hong Kong operation.

I’m looking to set up an e-commerce store using Shopify. I’m still looking for ‘that product’ to get me going. I’ve been doing a lot of brainstorming about my passions in life (mostly sport) and how I can combine them with a product that I’d order from AliBaba. Any other good brainstorming tips you and your crew could suggest? - Mustafa

I wouldn’t over-value your passion for the product, especially if you don’t plan to develop your own. You’ll need to be passionate about marketing, SEO, and the process of building a business– not necessarily rawhide baseball mitts. Passion for the product is generally more important in information type businesses. It’s true that e-commerce models are blending with content type businesses for marketing purposes (both Google and customers want content!) so it couldn’t hurt.

Here’s some physical product selection rules of thumb:

• Choose an expensive product, ideally over $100 bucks.
• Go super niche. New stores are cheap to build. When you hit something that works you can throw all your juice behind it.
• Make sure other people in your niche are making money before you get involved.
• Try to compete with people or industries that aren’t forward thinking.
• Compete with specific companies, people, or products. This will help focus your efforts and value proposition.
• Call competitors and pose as a customer. Get a quote. See how good they are. Ask yourself if you think you can beat them.
• Don’t limit yourself to Alibaba searches, look around the broader web as well. Think about products that would work well as compliments to a blog type business as well. If your content gets traction, surely your products will.

I own a  business called Jarkarta Airport Transfer. As you can see, we provide car rental & transportation services in Jakarta. Our vision for the business is an e-commerce platform at our book now page for visitors arriving at Jakarta to have a fuss free and easy process of booking transportation. I have hired SEO help for about 6 months so far. However, I find that my traffic has pretty much been stagnant. Can you advice on how I can grow my business in working towards the vision of an e-commerce platform? -Yvonne

First off, go ahead and fire your SEO guy. 95% of SEO guys deserve to be fired. If you are relying on more traffic to grow your business, it’s important that you understand the fundamental character of your web visitors. If any SEO really understood that, they’d just take your business. That’s the fundamental knowledge that you’ll build your business on.

Second, your “book now” page is much better than your primary landing page. From your front page, it’s unclear what you do. I’m assuming your conversion rates are low. (Make sure you know them for each source of traffic!). Frame up the problem more clearly on your landing page. Sick of waiting in the taxi line at CGK? We’ll pick you up and get you and your family to your final destination safely– starting at $25 USD. 

There are too many options on the website. Put the blog link at the bottom of your site just for SEO purposes. Nobody looking to solve the problems you solve wants to read a blog. They want a menu bar that solves specific problems. I’d probably focus on a few tabs that focus on your most important key terms and products. Some examples could be: “vans to any destination in Java,” “personal limo in Jakarta”, or “private tours of Jakarta.”

Once you get the sales funnel improved on the website (try watching people use your wesbite who have never used it before) then I’d start seeking affiliates. Both online and off. Are there people who would benefit from providing your care service as an add on?

I’ve been working as a freelance developer for about 8 months now, and as you know it takes lot of time to make some active income through that (I’m a webdeveloper/flashdeveloper). In addition to the time I put into those active freelance projects I also want to start building on something that could lead to a more automated passive workflow. Do you have any experience on automating (if it’s possible) freelance webdevelopment work in some way, or is it better to aim for building some other kind of online service to accomplish this? - André 

If you have a website that advertises your freelance services with any less than 3 “buy-now” buttons you are leaving it on the table. I’d identify the types of services your customers ask for the most and put an instant price on them. That’s cash flow baby! Look at Ava who used to provide custom quotes for each video intro she built. Forget that! $300 bucks buy now! If your prospects want extras, they can hit the contact button right below that button.

I’ve seen two recent examples of this working amazingly on our job board TropialWorkForce. One was a copywriter who, instead of saying “I do copywriting,” said “I’ll write 100 BMR articles for 2 bucks an article.” Orders starting flowing. Same with Ava’s video intro example. Check this out….

If you are reading this post in a reader, click here to see the video. Here’s more info on how to get your own video introduction here. I didn’t even have to send my logo to Ava to get this done!

One thing I’ve worked with flash freelancers on is turning PDF catalogs into interractive online experiences. 30 pages starting at $500 to $1K, or similar depending on your target market. You could write a blog post called “how to turn your PDFs onto awesome interractive online content” and put a buy-now button on there!

The biggest mental hurdle here is understanding that your productized versions aren’t going to work for everyone. I’ve noticed that some freelancers are so used to discussing projects at length that they forget people want simple solutions to their problems. The whole point of hiring a freelancers is not having to do any work. Any and all discussion is interpreted as wasted time and money.

Better to solve problems without talk to a smaller group of people than be able to solve anyone’s problem after a 1-hour consultation. It’s the differnece between a highly hands-on sales process vs. a magnetic and hands-off approaches to finding clients.

I run several businesses from SEO, marketing, website sales, hockey jerseys, electronic hardware, and a porn site. Which business are you running that seems to have the best forecast of income? - Colin

That’s like answering “how many people did you sleep with last year.” No doubt interesting, but irrelevant to you, the audience, and it can only get me in hot water. No hard feelings! If we ever meet I’ll happily share with you, but I’d prefer not to commit it to writing.

The character of the stuff that has the most potential is digital, residual, highly-focused, serves a huge market, provides highly legible results, and can be delivered instantly. My first product like this will be related to SEO and will be launched inside our membership group in a month. I’ll bring it up on the blog this year sometime.



Building great lifestyle businesses and 'being happy' are often unrelated pursuits. I'm lucky because I love to work.

Marketing and industry seem largely driven by insecurity. Most of the shit we buy, we don’t need. But we buy because it makes us feel good. If we already felt good, we wouldn’t feel the need to buy it. How do you see business and entrepreneurship changing? If the human race was to collectively give up the need for “ego food” (sports cars, shiny shoes, ostentatious clothes, etc) and focus on only those things we needed, what would happen to business? Would it disappear overnight? Or is this a utopian ideal that will never be realized? The idea is that as people become more “enlightened”, the less they need most of what people sell. We need good food, clean water, shelter, and good friends. Beyond that, not much. – John

Most of my favorite things in life the world did not need, and neither did I. Wikipedia. Coffee shops. Porsche 911′s (933 model). Hemingway novels. iPhones. Go carts. Green tea. Chocolate eclairs. Fried duck. Sierra Nevada pale ale. WordPress.

You’ll probably enjoy reading What Technology Wants way more than anything I could say here. It’s one of my favorite books. If you read it, let’s get on Skype to discuss it.

Why not make what you’d like to see more of it in the world? If that’s iPhones, god bless you. Same if that’s novels. Or creating better ideas about religion. Who is it that said ‘be the change you’d like to see?’ I like that. But don’t just recycle, for example. If you are really passionate about it, go ahead and make it easy and exciting for others to do so as well.

I’m curious to know your thoughts on incubators? - Brendan

You might be interested in a post I wrote called “Why We Haven’t Started a Lifestyle Business Incubator.” There were also a lot of smart comments on that one. I don’t know anyone in the start-up scene so I can’t comment, but they sound wonderful to me. I’m all about fostering community, mentorship, and better investment opportunities. I’m excited about stuff like Microconf, accountability partners, our private forum, being an intern, or anything that get’s you in contact with other people doing the types of things you care about and want to do more of.

I’m now in the process of thinking about legals (my business will involve photography. There’s a lot in the detail there it seems– logos, website design, etc. How much polish and effort should you put in before you launch? Should you spend months nutting out the legal contracts, perfecting the website design or just get it out there rough and ready and then make incremental improvements? I think the answer will lie in the middle there but do you lean one way more than the other? - Matt

For legal stuff I’ll generally do a couple of Google searches to make sure nobody is using similar stuff. Then I’ll do a quick search of registered trademarks in the US at USPTO.gov. That’s worth checking out for anyone who wants to market their product to the US market. If it looks like you are in the clear, I’d just go. You can even start putting a little “TM” next to your product names if you want.

I lean heavily towards rough and ready. Start hustling. Start making sales. Cash flow will start to justify it’s own protection. As you scale, you can start looking at ways to protect yourself more. Why protect something that doesn’t exist? Sure there are other approaches, especially for people who “know” it’s going to be big. If you know, you know. If you don’t, get rolling. It’s often the case that the disaster scenarios that upstarts are trying to prevent– like somebody completely stealing their idea–are some of the best things that could happen to them.

All that said– do not build a business around somebody else’s trademark unless you know what you are doing. “Knowing what you are doing” could be a short term SEO or affiliate scheme. I’ve got a handful of sad business stories I could share off the top of my head. Example: “4 Hour Work Week Training Sessions” is an obvious no go.

My graphic and web design business is only about 18 months old and has been doing really well. About 80% of my work comes from one client, 15% comes from a second, and the remaining 5% comes from people contacting me through my contact form. The problem is that I am traveling the world currently and have to balance my time between work and fun/sightseeing/transport time without internet. My goal is to build this into a full-time job by the time I return to States in about 9 months, but am struggling with keeping up with all the work and not missing out on some once in a lifetime opportunities. Do you have any advice for how to balance the two? - Griffin Stewart - Web Design and Custom eBook Templates

I followed some of your links and I’m really impressed by your work. It’s a small thing, but I’d change the words you use. Instead of saying you are looking to build a ”full time job” I’d say “small business.” If I were you, I probably wouldn’t see hanging out in Korea for the next 9 months as the biggest opportunity. Imagine being able to sightsee anytime, anywhere, forever. It could be wrong to say these are “once in a lifetime experiences.” If you are successful in creating a business, you could sustain the lifestyle for the rest of your life.

I’m doing the quick math on that first relationship. If 80% of your work comes from one company, and it’s not quite a living, and it’s preventing you from having personal time (i.e., it’s a lot of work), then you aren’t getting compensated enough. That’s not to say it’s a bad gig, you just need to re-frame that relationship.

You have a great skill set, one that is probably better used to earn you a meaningful equity partnership than freelancing. At some point you’ve got to put in the time to get that kind of thing off the ground. Similar to my advice to the freelancer above, you need to start poaching parts of your process and services and productizing them.

In my ever evolving world as a serial entrepreneur I’m always looking for new ventures. I’m wondering what you believe the best trends/fields/verticals are for sustainable or automatic income are over the next decade? – Justin

Real estate. Genetics. Longevity. Expatriates and globalization. Cosmetic neurology. Semantic web. Micro-communities and publishing. I think micro-publishing is just getting started. Think about how poorly publications like Forbes and INC– some of the most respected in the world– serve many sub-niches in their target audience.

The only sustainable thing I know about is your ability to work hard and work smart. That’s poached advice from some guy I know who has a giant pile of money. When I asked him what his most important piece of advice was, he said: “when you make your first chunk of money, don’t spend it!”



Former Tropical Work Force interns hanging in the Philippines.

I was listening to LBP #87 today and I’m ready to start trying to use some of the marketing tactics that you and Ian discuss. We are ready to start making a concerted effort to market our services and I am excited about hiring someone to work on that in a location independent capacity. We are ready to throw $1,000 a month at this and wee what happens. I’m not much of a web guy, I still see my value as the guy on the phone hustling up deals. What should I be looking for in a webmaster? – Matthew K.

It’s really tough to hire for things you don’t understand, especially at $1000 bucks a month. You are going to find a lot of people on the TWF boards that have a demonstrated track record at creating compelling content for audiences, but don’t expect them to be the creative engine.

Ask yourself what is compelling about what you do? What kinds of problems is your target market looking to solve? Can you solve them in a unique and fresh way? If you don’t answer these questions before you invest in a team member, you probably won’t see dramatic progress. You don’t need to be web savvy, but you will need to be content savvy. You’ll need to have ideas about guides, podcasts, articles, checklists, infographics, videos, walk-throughs, interviews, or similar that are utterly compelling to your market. I know you have these ideas. Start listing them out, creating them, and getting them to your people. Combine that with your hustle muscle and it’s dynamite baby.

How much time do you invest in an idea before you pivot or go to a new idea? – David

I rarely hear this question from entrepreneurs who have products. Once you’ve got stuff in the marketplace, it’s a lot easier to make judgements about what to double down on and what to drop. Get a buy now button on your product site as soon as possible. If it’s your first venture, get a buy now button on your site no longer than 8 weeks after conception. 4 weeks if you can. Get that button up there and start testing. You’ll know pretty quick whether or not your product is going to fly. Also, at that point it becomes a much more productive conversation. The questions become: can I find enough traffic to make a living at these conversion rates? Can I improve my conversion rates? Is there something about my value proposition that isn’t clear to my audience? And so on.

Another way to approach this: don’t take huge time risks at the beginning of your business. This idea reminds me of a beautiful book about the software industry: Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software. Wonderful book. I’m not sure that addresses your question too well, but man that book is awesome!

I’ve been running a web design company for 5 and a half years and have made an effort to focus on new sites as the main service. Given cheap overseas labour, increasingly sophisticated DIY tools and a general move to mobile is the ‘web dead?’ and as such and should we focus on other services like SEO / perhaps mobile development as well / instead of continuing to pursue new websites? - Dan – check out Dan’s web design studio. 

Haha, I know you know more about this than me. You know web development is only going to get more important. I do think you’ll need to evolve your hands-on services from basic web design to more advanced stuff. The key will be to productize your web development offerings. Finding sweet niches in your client base, say, bloggers, and then delivering them with premium service bundles and products. Reserve your time for mobile development, high-end conversion analysis and design, or similar.

The best way to ship heavy products when drop-shipping or using fulfillment houses. Obviously lighter products are better, but for heavier products, any tips on keeping costs down? - Tristan

You got two options: 1) aggressively seek knock-down solutions to improve the density of your shipments. For many of our products, we send very detail assembly instructions to help ease the pain of assembly. 2) Send them on a pallet. Freight shipments are often cheaper than people think, and there is a hidden benefit. If you are sending a big item on a pallet, you can toss an bunch of extra stuff on there for free! Offer that in the backend of your site and your average invoice will increase.



Hong Kong is a beautiful and safe place to hang out and have fun, a gateway to China, and a great place to do business.

I’d love your insight on when it’s necessary/smart to incorporate? I’ve been running AccentHelp.com as a sole proprietor since 2006. I have no employees, but I do contract out a lot of work (mainly through Elance) and pay royalties to co-creators. What do you see as the determining factor(s) to changing my status. -Jim Johnson - AccentHelp.com

That’s a challenging question for me, I’m still confused by a lot of this stuff (who isn’t!). From what I know, if you are running a simple business, you might not see too many tax advantages to setting up a S or C corp unless you started to invest a lot of your energy in learning about smart corporate finance. Might not be a good investment for a solely owned lifestyle business. My understanding is that LLCs can provide you with some degree of legal protection from people seeking damages from either your business or you.

Given how easy and cheap LLCs are in most states, it’s something I’d do relatively early in the process. Wealth diversification and protection is fundamental practice of the wealthy, so it make sense to start having these types of conversations as soon as possible, even if it were the case that your business is just getting started. I’d see if you can get some free consulations from local accountants to test if they are the type of people who can help clarify your finances and protect your assets. Our accountant is relatively inexpensive and awesome.

LLC or not, any excuse to sit down with somebody who knows a lot about business finance for 5-10 hours a year is a great way to spend your time.

I am starting a new business and it’s in a very popular niche, I am trying to put my own twist on that niche. I need some advice on finding a manufacturer that will be able to make my product for as low cost as possible. How do you recommend that I go about finding an overseas wholesaler that could help me with my product launch? Thank you for your help and I look forward to your response. – George 

That’s a really tough question to answer, but let me take a stab at an implied issue here. If you are getting in to a busy space, you shouldn’t be competing on price. It’s a race to the bottom, and especially in a cash flow inventory business, it’s the quickest way to end up in the red. Try brainstorming the ways you could be successful if you had a significantly more expensive product that your competition.

With regards to finding quality manufacturers, there aren’t any shortcuts there that I know of. All the more reason to go ahead and do it if you see an opportunity. Lazy internet marketers won’t bother competing with you!

I run a local SEO biz and I’m getting great results for high paying clients, but these clients are also super busy. Every time I’ve asked for referrals, they are like “absolutely! no problem, we’ll put together a list for you!” This has happened like 3 times and they just never take the time to give me contact info or send an email of my behalf because they are so busy. Any tips on how I can expedite this and actually get these referrals rolling? - San Antonio SEO - Ryan

What a great question, I’ve faced this challenge in a few of my companies. I think making a process for absolutely delighting your customers is the most sustainable approach. In general, I don’t think it works well to offer little incentives for referrals, but of course there are plenty of exceptions.

I can understand why your clients aren’t getting back to you. It kinda sucks to get emails from people who you pay money to that are asking for stuff.

In the case of a local SEO business, I’d institute a policy that you get on the horn with each client once a month to go over a really simple, results focused report. Brendan Tully, a small business SEO consultant, once reported in our forum that when he started doing this, sales and customer retention shot up. Brenden developed deeper relationships with his clients– and I’m sure they started to look to him as a trusted partner in the future of what they were doing. In that frame, it’s a lot easier to make requests.

How do you go about creating high ticket (ie. $400 – $600) info products? And how do you evaluate what the price should be? – Naomi

Two ways, give tons of your time, and help to solve ambitious problems. Knowing your stuff and having credibility is absolutely critical with information products. It’s not hard to demonstrate your track record online. If you don’t, it’ll be much harder to charge a premium. If you don’t have a strong track record, you’ll need to have a huge reach, and even in that case, you’ll be hurting the long term sustainability of your audience. They’ll start to suffer fatigue at your vague product offerings that are really expensive. Sometimes it works, but I don’t think that’s a sustainable business model.

I don’t have any clear ideas about a pricing forumla. You can start to work out forumlas on a napkin, and then start running it by people you trust (feel free to email me!). If I wanted to meet your range with this very blog, I’d say I could charge $497 for a micro-publishing business class. We’d focus on delivering a full time income vis-a-vis micro-publishing within 24 months. I wouldn’t let people start the program unless they had an approved concept. It would a 4 week intensive starter course (almost full time work for me), with a private community (I’d use Ning for sure!!!), constant support, and then touch up phone calls of the next 3-4 months. We’d offer logos, blog designs, and supply the basic technology so students could focus 100% on content, relationships, and strategy. I’d limit it to 10 people so we could all work together. Yeah, that sounds worth it to me.

The next step for me would be to toss up a basic sales page for the concept and send the smartest people I know to it and ask them what they think. That’s what I love about information products. I think I just made one! If we don’t like that idea, okay, we could pull together 5 more in the next hour. That’s cool. If you’ve got one in mind, don’t hesitate to send me the concept and I’ll let you know what I think.

*  *  *

To anyone who asked the questions above, I’m happy to continue the discussions with further resources, links, and perspectives in the public comments (if I haven’t exhausted you already!).

Finally, I didn’t consciously try this, but in retrospect this post looks a lot in form like a recent great one from one of my favorite bloggers, Karol Gajda. That one is probably better and more focused that this one, I highly recommend it: “Extraordinary Insights Volume 2.” Be sure to re-set your feed settings for Karol since he switched his URL.

Talk soon!

Dan

PS, you can get on my mailing list by putting your email address into the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/questions-entrepreneurs-ask/feed/ 41 http://www.tropicalmba.com/questions-entrepreneurs-ask/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/8m4mnjtiUvE/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/tmbax/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:54:23 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5766

Summary: I’ve got a spare room at my house in Bali. You can stay with us for free in return for some SEO work we need done. It’s the easiest TMBA internship to apply for ever. It’ll take less than 10 minutes of your time.  It’s a smaller opportunity than we’ve offered in the past, but could still be great for the right person. Email applications are due January 30th.

If internship opportunities with travel-minded entrepreneurs interest you, you should subscribe to the TropicalWorkForce’s RSS feed, mailing list, and twitter account. This year we’ll be sponsoring a bunch of internships there, many of which are more appealing than the opportunities I provide. For example: “Community Manager Needed For a Travel Start-up” was posted less than 48 hours ago by one of the most talented entrepreneurs I’ve ever spoken with. Don’t tell him I said that. His gig is probably more appropriate for most people looking for an internship, so be sure to check it out.

For the entrepreneurs who read this blog, note there are many services posted on the TWF boards. I buy content in bulk from service providers on the TWF boards at prices and quality much better than I can find from normal outsourcers.

*  *  *

It’s been a great week. Elisa Doucette just got here and she’s one of the gang already. She’s pushing things forward at TropicalWorkForce and DynamiteCircle. Of course, my main man David Hehenberger is here as well. This year he’s focusing on private products for DCers and SEO initiatives for our e-commerce stores.

My back of the napkin math says David is the point man on close to half a million dollars in expected growth. Our plan is to do that through SEO, distribution partners, and on-site optimizations. It’s pretty clear– he’s going to need some more help him achieve these goals.

*  *  *

I receive at least 1 offer for free work every week– sometimes more. People email me and say stuff like “hey! I’ll work for you for free…give me a chance!” That’s flattering, but so far I’ve turned them all down. I’m looking to build a team for the long term. My working assumption so far has been that non-paid interns (especially ones not receiving college credit) would burn out pretty quick.

But I got to thinking… there is this spare bedroom just sitting there in my house– in Bali! I thought, what the hell. Why don’t we invite somebody else to the house?

Here’s the rub: I can’t afford to bring another person on to my team. The CEOh-yeah has a number of complex spreadsheets which all say the same thing– don’t spend any more money.  I want to make sure the opportunities that come down the pike this year get distributed to the people who have helped us to get to where we are today. For those reasons, this internship is unpaid and temporary.

The offer:

I have a small bedroom available in our house. You can come live with us rent free. In return for the room, you’ll work for us 2-4 hours on 4 days of the week. We expect that you will move one major task or initiative forward each of those 4 days. The deal is for 90 days. You work 4 mornings a week, you get free rent at the house. Simple as that.

I estimate the rent is about a $500 monthly value. We live in a sweet place in the most happening neighborhood in Bali. You’ll have the opportunity to hang with all of us, see a bunch of other location independent businesses operate, get feedback on your ventures, and all that other good stuff. If you feel you can sustain working for rent only, you can extend the gig for an extra 90 days, or we can help you take your next step in location independent entrepreneurship.

What will you do?

• You’ll work 4 days a week, for 2-4 hours each day. Emphasis on results and helping us move something forward each day.
• You’ll execute the nuts and bolts of cutting edge SEO strategies. I can’t even write about them publically.
• You’ll help generate and edit tons of content for our entire network of sites.
• You’ll see the inner workings of a 7-figure business (hint: it ain’t pretty).
• You’ll assist David with achieving his key objectives.
• You’ll purchase and quality check content from a variety of 3rd party sources.
• You’ll optimize landing pages and improve the content on some of our top earning sites.

What will you get?

• 90 days at the TMBA house here in Seminyak, Bali. We’ve got a huge pool, maid, gardener, and decent WIFI (2 down / 2 up).
• An opportunity to extend for another 90 days if you are doing good work.
• 1 year paid membership to our private online community.
• First dibs on the nice rooms when we travel.
• An opportunity to learn about SEO and biznass.

Before you apply, consider these downsides:

• You are being offered the small room, which is small-ish and has no A/C (but does have fan). You will have no private bathroom, and no personal shower.
• You will have to shower outside, in a cold shower! That will suck! Don’t even try to use David’s shower!
• You will have limited private space in our house.
• You will have to spend you own money to do this. Living in Bali can be expensive if you blow it out at Skygarden every weekend.
• Visa runs can get expensive. If you come on a budget, apply in advance for a social visa.
• SEO work isn’t fun. Tim Conley once remarked “it’s the online equivalent of ditch digging.”
• Some people are probably curious about Bali expenses since this isn’t paid. Off the top of my head, entry level: $400 ; very comfortable: $700 ; ballin’: $1200.

Some stuff about you:

• With limited private space, and showering out in the backyard, it’s not a situation for people who need a lot of creature comforts or private space (I’ll send more detailed information about the living space to finalists).
• You might be a somewhat established entrepreneur or SEO. You might be able to create big results for our web properties in less time than it would take for a beginner. We are willing to adjust the amount of time we are requiring if you can kick start the results we are looking for.
• You might already be in Asia and committed to the lifestyle. Most of us have that “never going home” attitude. This is a great way to keep your travels alive for another 3 months or even longer.

How to apply (only 10-15 minutes of your time):

• EMAILS ARE DUE JAN 30TH, 2012 11AM EST.
• Write 250 to 500 words saying what you are currently up to and why this position is a great fit for you.
• Let us know when you’d like to start, and if you have any questions or caveats about the terms.
• Please suggest one book that you think I should read (thanks!).
• Feel free to link to the stuff you are working on.
• Email your answers to David *at* TropicalWorkForce dot com. Please CC Dan *at* TropicalMBA dot com.
• If we think you’d be a good fit, we’ll give you a ring on Skype.

References:

• House info, house info.

A note from David:

Dear Future TMBAer,

I’m pumped up about you coming out here to work on our SEO and online marketing campaigns with me. We’re in a position to have a huge positive impact on Dan and Ian’s business in 2012.

Without a doubt, some things about this internship are not ‘baller’ (cold showers, some of your work will be boring) but this is a great opportunity for the right person.

If you join us you’ll learn a ton about SEO, e-commerce, and online businesses. You’ll also meet lots of smart online entrepreneurs who stay here in Bali. Meeting and hanging out with successful people is the biggest benefit that I got from my TMBA internship.

Two years ago, getting this internship would have been a game changer for me. I’d encourage you to apply if staying for free in Bali’s best neighborhood, while learning essential online business skills, sounds good to you.

Hope to see you in Bali,
David

PS, I’ll show you a bit around the island if you make it here

If you know anybody who would be interested in this type of thing, I’d appreciate it if you’d email this post to them. Thanks!

Talk soon,

Dan

PS, you can hop on my private mailing list by putting your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/tmbax/feed/ 13 http://www.tropicalmba.com/tmbax/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/kj6ozkjj62s/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/shaz-about-biznass-peeps-didnt-say/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:41:36 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5699

1851 people have decided to receive the Tropical MBA blog feed. If you don’t yet use RSS feeds, here’s an explanation of how they work. It takes about 2 minutes to set up. If you are a twitter user, I tweet like it’s my job!

What you’ll find below is a bunch of stuff I learned after I started my own business. Had I know this stuff before I started, I’d be in better shape. Your results may vary. A lot of the tone below is like “YOU SHOULD!” Go ahead and give yourself a pass to do the exact opposite. I’m just getting started…

Test the effect of responsiveness in key areas of your business.

I’ve found that the need to respond to an email inquiry reduces by about 25% for every day that I let it sit in my inbox. If I let my email account go for 5 days, I can delete almost everything in it.

In the case of custom quotes, I’ve found that the chances I score deals behaves similarly. If you have a business that relies on quotes, try turning them around in less than 30 minutes and measure the effects. In some cases, I’ve found the effects to be so profound that I began working in extra margin to cover for the mistakes I’d make. Even though I was less competitive on price, I increased my close rate and overall profitability.

I’ve also found a similar effect when people owe me money and with our accounts receivables ledger. I’d say the chances of somebody paying their bills probably decreases by 25% after every 4 week period.

I’m pulling these numbers out of the air. They’ll be different for every business. I’d recommend you play around with this and develop your own rules of thumb.

People are going to be annoyed with you.

I know I piss a lot of you off. I’m sure I occasionally leave conversations and people are like “that guy was a douche.”

If you’ve made a difference in your community, or just made a stack of cash, you are probably pissing a lot of people off. That’s because you’re in the game. You can’t build a road without paving some meadow. You can’t build a team without firing some people. You can’t write a blog without driving people nuts, and you can’t have a point of view without miffing those with the opposite.

Your business, if it’s gonna pay you, will effect a lot of people’s lives– hopefully for the better. In the process of making the world a better place, you are gonna piss people off.

Get used to it.

Once you’ve got your bills covered, start risking your time (not your cash).

When I get my bases covered with a new stream of revenue, I put people or a process in place, and then I start exploring new ideas. At first it was SEO. Then it was traveling and meeting people. Then it became writing and podcasting.

Business owners often feel they need to stick around to hold down the fort. Instead of risking their time, they risk their cash. That often ends badly. Proof of concept is all on you, dear entrepreneur. That’s why Ian is cold calling customers for our new product lines. That’s why I’m starting new blogs. You can’t buy passion and insight.

The #1 example of this muck-up I see? Hiring big money sales “ringers.” Don’t do it.

Employees help you work less.

The promise of employees has always been that you’d have more hassles. More headaches. More to manage. My experience has been the opposite.

The first 24 months after your first invoice will be tough.

Your business doesn’t start when you put up a website, a blog post, or an advertisement against your content. Your business starts when you issue an invoice. Get there as fast as possible. From the moment you issue that first invoice, it’s very possible you’ll feel like it’ll be impossible to make a living from your shitty little product line or fleet of websites.

For months during our first 2 years I was scouting out other opportunities. No way, I thought, were we ever going to make any money. In business, 24 months isn’t a lot of time. But in my mind, when I was working all day long and stressing out about bills, it was tough to keep that in perspective.

I think the best defense against burning out in this case is not minding being broke and sticking to your mission. (In my case that was to run my own company). Minding being broke is probably #1 reason people pack up the tent and get a job.

Networking is a multiplier.

If you’ve got nothing (0), there is no multiplier that helps. Even meeting Donald Trump won’t lead to anything if you don’t have a business under your belt. We often talk about the concept of ‘getting to the table.’ The path to the table is paved with the work, and the way to consistently get invited there is through the work. The most surefire way to have a great network is to do great work. So ditch the networking events, and stay in and build something people want to hear about over a few cocktails.

It’s not an interesting source of income or until you can hire somebody to develop it.

I love the metaphor of ‘conversations’ for business. If your ebook business, or other ‘passive income’ generating site/application, etc doesn’t have somebody interacting with market forces, making adjustments, launching tweaks, putting out new content etc, your income will slowly die. Yeah that sounds right. I think I can say that again. Your income will die. That’s why the ‘passive’ income holy grail for me is finding online businesses that make enough cash flow to put somebody in charge of them. The good news is that somebody smart, flexible, and passionate about online business might only cost you $1000 bucks a month.

Don’t start a software company if you don’t develop software.

Make an exception at your own risk.

Way back in 2007, I read “Getting Real” by the guys at 37 Signals and thought I’ve got a great software idea. 20K+ later I had a huge bundle of shit software and a not-so-happy investor. I was a competent manufacturer trying to start a software company. Worse, I didn’t even have the basic sense to start learning the software language my entire company would be founded on. I was smart enough to not throw any more good money after bad. After the 20K debacle, I closed up shop and started a manufacturing business.

Your accountant does not know about offshore entities.

If you haven’t talked to an accountant lately, you should. It’s cheaper than you think (couple hundred bucks a month) and it’s a wonderful exercise to talk to a third party about your finances.

Unfortunately for us traveling types, your local accountant probably won’t know anything about opportunities to start offshore companies or trusts. They’ll probably even dissuade you from seeking international diversification. My accountant is a really smart guy, but basically clams up when I ask a simple question like “should I be working to develop some of these business entities in other countries?”

A few reasons seem clear: 1) they’d lose any business clients take offshore and 2) they could get themselves in hot water by suggesting stuff that violates rules. One of the key roles of your accountant is to ensure your financial reporting complies with the law. Since there is still a lot of legal overlap and grey area when you start to consider overseas incoproations, international diversification is more about interpretation and creativity than reporting and compliance.

If your local accountant knows nothing about offshore stuff, who does? In my experience, pretty much only people who have offshore stuff going on themselves. That’s a relatively small group of people who aren’t exactly available regularly for free consulting. My advice is to experiment with this stuff and have some fun with it. It’s a lot of fun and as long as you never hide a source of income from the IRS (which is a crime), you aren’t putting your business at risk.

Your logo does not matter.

Back in the day Ian and I used to run off and get a logo developed the moment we had a new business concept. Now we even have a full time designer to indulge our logo dalliances. Having sweet logos is cool, but I can assure you, it doesn’t fucking matter. Also, you can change your logo anytime. Nobody cares.

Money is a bad for motivation, but great for measuring and setting perspectives.

You might have heard that when you offer cash as a reward for intellectual tasks, performance decreases. It’s also good taste for entrepreneurs to say “I don’t care about the money.” I think that’s the right instinct. Although Ian and I are aggressive and consistent about setting clear revenue goals, it isn’t really the money that drives us day to day. Charging for stuff is probably the best way to figure out if people care about what you are doing, but it’s no reason to wake up in the morning.

This week we set a revenue goal for 2012. The number helps our organization measure overall health, impact, and growth– but the primary impact is in expanding our perpectives. If last year I wrote as a person who runs a million dollar business, what would it look like to write as somebody who is doubling that? How does such a person think differently? If I’m the sales manager in such an organization, what do my responsibilities look like this year if the total volume of orders doubles?

I’m not really sure what the lesson is here. There’s something…

Cash behaves like water.

The reason they call cash “liquid” is that it’ll seep out the cracks. Business money doesn’t work like the money in your wallet. It flows around from customers, employees, services– you name it. If you want to keep cash in your business, you’ll need to define exactly how it’s going to be earned. I still don’t really understand this stuff. I know this though– if you don’t define how much cash you plan to have at the end of the month, chances are, it’ll find it’s way into some crack (or “investment”) you didn’t know about.

Buy an Apple computer. It won’t take you long to learn the software.

Unless you are neck deep in HUGE excel spreadsheets or playing some massive online multi-player game thing (you aren’t), you should get a Mac. Try one of those slick Macbook airs. Both the OS and hardware are significantly better than the PC experience. You spent a huge percentage of your waking hours on a computer, and you should stop messing around with subpar stuff. You’ll learn mac software in less than an hour.

Your niche isn’t a niche. It’s a freakin’ industry.

That thing you are calling a niche? It’s not a niche. It’s too big. It’s vague. It’s general. It won’t work.

Here’s the format:

[The specific problem I solve.] [The unique point of view I solve it from.]

That’s it. That last one is important. I think.

Talk soon,

Dan

PS, if you’d like to get on my private mailing list just put your email address in to the form:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/shaz-about-biznass-peeps-didnt-say/feed/ 46 http://www.tropicalmba.com/shaz-about-biznass-peeps-didnt-say/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/PCSA93-DHpU/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/make-a-living-writing-blogs-yo/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:50:31 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5598

1807 souls have decided to receive the Tropical MBA blog feed. Thanks! That’s how I read stuff too. If you don’t yet use Google Reader to read blogs, here’s an explanation of how it works. It takes about 2 minutes to set up. If you are a twitter user, I almost always tweet about new posts a few times.

In 2011 I helped generate over $30,000 in profits for our company by writing blog posts. If you think of my blogging efforts as an independent business, I’m tracking nicely with the 1000 day rule. Our blogging income came from:

• Subscriptions to our private forum.
• A consulting product that included a phone call, an ebook, and follow-up emails.
• Affiliate commissions for products that I recommended to readers.
• The sale of one of our blogs.

I’m not mentioning our profits to gloat (or to get made fun of by the ballers), but with the hope that you can get a good idea of how my ideas may or may not apply to you. Also, I want to assure you that I’m not full of shit.

When I was growing up, I knew I wanted a job that allowed me to read and write a lot, but all the career scripts were like: “trying to be a writer is about the most risky thing you can try to be. There are like 400 people who make a living writing books in the US. The rest are poor, desolate, and estranged from their families.”

A popular alterative was to be a professor. They said: “you can be a college professor. You’ll get the freedom to read and write with a lot of your time, and you’ll get paid okay. Since it’s such an awesome job, you’ll compete with 1000′s for every available position. If you are lucky enough to be hired by Eastern Iowa University, you’d better hang around for 10-15 years and earn tenure before you do anything crazy.”

Really? Jeeze. Sounds awful.

For anyone who wants to make a living from reading and writing, I’d like to offer a new script. It’s never been easier to make a living from your writing.

Trying to do it isn’t particularly risky, either. It’s a career choice. You can make the decision to do it if you want.  Here’s how…

*  *  *

It’s okay to make money from your writing.

If you want the opportunity to write and read for the rest of your life, your first priority needs to be making a living from it. If you refuse to prioritize money making, you’ll cripple your chances of a lifetime of doing the type of work you love. Simple enough, but writers often refuse to do it.

When people say they want to be a “writer,” they often mean something like:

Wri ter    [rahy-ter]   noun.     1) a person who wakes up every morning and does whatever the hell they want. 2) a person who follows the rules of no man. 

If you can wake up every morning and do whatever the hell you want, by all means, go for it. It rarely works.

Until you’ve got some cash flowing, you ought to be addressing other people’s concerns. Be a servant.

Why most blogs are dead on arrival.

Topic selection is the single most important move a blogger will make. In my experience, it’s hard to salvage a bad blog concept. Go ahead and try to optimize your mailing list, or build up your Facebook community, but the fate of most blogs is decided from day one.

Here are some blog topics that are dead on arrival:

• Follow my make money online journey.
• My self-help insights.
• My thoughts!
• Follow me as I travel the world.
• Watch me lose weight and tell you what I learn.
• Anything general.
The above types of blogs are generally over-represented by online marketers and blog coaches. New bloggers, seeking freedom from the 9-5, tend to emulate the people who are teaching them. And so you’ve got yet another freedom from the 9 to 5 blog.

How to identify topics that work.

Topics that work do two things. 1) They solve a specific problem that people are willing to pay money for and 2) They solve the problem with a fresh point of view.

Here’s a list of micro-publishing businesses that I know to be making solid profits. In the parenthetical I’ve listed the specific problems they solve, and the specific point of view they have.

• AdsenseFlippers.com (how do I make money online? by building and buying Adsense sites).
• Sovereignman.com (how do I protect my wealth? by incorporating and investing overseas).
• SmartPassiveIncome.com (how do I make money online? by watching the inner workings of a successful online business).
• OutsourcetothePhilippines.com (how to start an outsourcing business or hire employees cost effectively? by going to/hiring from the Philippines).
• TropicalMBA.com (how do I travel the world while I work? by applying to paid internships).

Examples of how dead on arrival topics can be resuscitated.

• My make money online journey.
• Try: How to find a great online niche? By running concrete experiments with the top software tools (why not give away free niche ideas too?!). 
• My self-help insights.
• Try: How can I get more work done? By experimenting with Nootropics and natural foods with similar properties. 
• My thoughts!
• Try: Your questions! Write me an email on a specific topic I know about and I’ll get back to you in less than 24 hours. 
• Follow me as I travel the world.
• Try: How can I live comfortably overseas for a long term? By investing in beach front property in South America.
• Watch me lose weight and tell you what I learn.
• Try: How can I improve my skin complexion? By experimenting with a plant based diet.

Don’t these types of topics compromise my potential to be creative?

The most common objection to this approach is that people can’t imagine writing about expat real estate or some other boring topic every day. In the case of blogging or micro-publishing, some fear of commitment is probably a good sign. Try it out anyway. Some structure and constraint can do wonders for your creativity.

When Chris Ducker bought OutsourcetothePhilippines.com from me, he commented: “about 75% of these posts could have been on your personal blog.” And he was right. But those general posts that could have been on my personal blog had a market value of over $200 bucks a pop because they supported a brand that solved problems people were willing to spend money on.

Those topics are great for people with businesses, but what about writers with no business experience?

The days of writing until your are blue in the face and waiting for a publisher to come along are over. That means your blog will need to turn in to a business at some point. If your goal is to replace your primary income, you’d be better off starting a business, but writers are a stubborn group! Even if you start with just the writing, you’ll eventually need to build a product, offer phone calls, start a membership site, publish an ebook, or put ads against your posts. That’s cool. It’ll be a nice break from all the reading, writing, and research. If you chose your niche wisely, you don’t necessarily need to have an end game in mind.

As an example, I’m starting a new blog this month about offshore incorporations for entrepreneurs. Somebody asked me today “what’s your first product going to be?” My answer was that I have no idea. I’m not worried about that at all. The topic is a winner and monetization will be a no-brainer. A product will emerge pretty quickly when I start interacting with the first batch of dedicated readers.

Spice up your nuts and bolts approach with a mission.

The guys from AdsenseFlippers.com are always super modest most about what they do. “We aren’t really passionate about building niche sites” they often say. I feel ya guys– you’ll hear the same thing from tax guys and cat furniture guys. But Joe and Justin are selling their mission short. The sites they build give people a chance to buy into the internet lifestyle by getting control of legitimate, profit-generating websites. That’s amazing! For all the shitbag shiesters and bullshit six-figure training courses, the guys at AdsenseFlippers.com offer people the opportunity to purchase 100% legit, passive income generating websites. The customers can leverage all of Joe and Justin’s hard work and expertise, and get started with their own internet business today. How many online coaches can compete with that?

By focusing on specific solutions to people’s problems, look what is coming down the pike for them. 3000 + subscribers since March? Heck yeah. Offering life-changing opportunities to young entrepreneurs? You bet. World travel and the drop of a hat? Sure. I’m sure they can barely handle the opportunities coming their way.

A solution based approach like “how can we maximize adsense site generation next year?” evolves in to a mission: “how can we empower more people to begin their own internet businesses by taking over quality, vetted online assets?” 

The same approach can apply to all of the “boring” examples above.

Rules of thumb.

• Commit to writing 1000 words a day.
• Research, interview, and hustle up the best content. Refuse to post stuff that isn’t unique. If it’s been said before, link to it.
• Consider investing money in your experiences. Writers, after all, need something to write about. If that means traveling to a country to cover events or individuals, consider it start-up cash.
• Don’t read how to blog blogs. Connect with the people who care about your content and ask them what they need (try to intuit what they need as well). Get it to them via your writing or contacts.

I love blogging. If you think I can help you, I’m happy to.

Just email me and ask if you’ve got a winner or loser on your hands. Please limit inquiries to new concepts or pivots for existing blogs. It’s tougher to discuss blogs with a lot of history. Go ahead and comment or shoot me an email. I’ll let you know if I would invest in your concept. I’m not an expert, but it’s good to get a second set of eyes on stuff, especially if you relate to my approach.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, I recently read a few books about writing that I enjoyed. Here’s the links: King, Hemmingway, Strunk & White. Also see: Advanced Tips for Writers, and “Seeking Density”

PPS, if you’d like to get on my private mailing list, just put your email address in to the form below. As a thank you, you’ll get access to our first 50 podcast episodes.

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/make-a-living-writing-blogs-yo/feed/ 25 http://www.tropicalmba.com/make-a-living-writing-blogs-yo/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/Ky0kKAPKF14/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/i-wish-i-would-have-worked-more/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:30:35 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5528

“Then there is the most dangerous risk of all– the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” — Randy Komisar, The Monk and the Riddle

Vague social pressure– social inertia– was a problem for me in my 20′s. I found it difficult to identify the things I wanted to spend my time on. Instead, I’d often go with the flow and be disappointed that me and my group of friends weren’t ‘doing more.’ Not cool!

I’m mostly over this now. I have clearer ideas on how I want to spend my time, and I don’t mind expressing my priorities to others.

Although pretty rare in the normal population, protecting time is common amongst people committed to their work and art. It’s rare to meet people like this, and I treasure every time I meet or read about somebody who gets energy from their work.

Stephen King, who has managed to write a lot of books, wrote that he wakes up everyday and works until he puts 2,000 words to paper. With very few exceptions, he’s done this every single day. He’s set up his environment and relationships to support his routine.

Ernest Hemingway, who also wrote a lot of books, hired a large man to stand outside the gate of his Key West home. The man used to say to visitors, who were hoping to meet the famous writer, “I’m mista Hemingway!” 

Steve Jobs, who is known for putting the sum total of human knowledge into your pocket, is famous for calling vendors, co-workers, and journalists at any hour of any day. Anytime, it seems, was a good time to be changing the world.

99% of people aren’t entrepreneurs. 99% of people don’t write novels. 99% of people don’t have a mission. 99% of people have different ideas on how time ought to be spent.

The cliche goes that nobody has ever been on their deathbed saying: “I wish I would have worked more.” And I’m sure that’s true if they were doing something just for the money.

But imagine if somebody’s work was their passion, their energy, their life and mission. But instead they sat around at bars. Or they got a job they hated. Or they went back to school to get a degree they didn’t need. Or they got guilt-tripped into an overbearing community group. Or they picked up the phone every time and said “yes.”

“I wish I would have worked more” might be exactly what they’d say.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, check out Stephen Fry: “the work is more fun than the fun.”

PPS, if you’d like to get on my private mailing list, just put your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/i-wish-i-would-have-worked-more/feed/ 29 http://www.tropicalmba.com/i-wish-i-would-have-worked-more/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/yKdUf_lsTCI/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/bat-vs-knife/#comments Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:49:16 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5475

Happy new year! Tomorrow I’m heading to Singapore to explore the city for a week. If you are there, I’d love to meet you for lunch.

When meeting new people, I’ve found it’s useful and fun to have a small inventory of conversation topics that are fun for everyone to participate in. This week, I’ve stumbled on to an oddly captivating topic with my old friends and new acquaintances. It’s led to hour-long arguments, Youtube research, silly business ideas, and grown men pantomiming deadly fights on the streets of New York.

We are trying to answer the question: in a fight to the death with an equally matched opponent, would you choose a bat or a knife?

Your decision might say something about who you are. Or not. Either way, all of my friends will be reading your replies.

Here are the rules:

• Your opponent will be randomly selected from your peer group (age, gender, weight, basic background) etc.
• The bat is a wood standard Louisville Slugger.
• The knife is 12-14″ bowie knife. The blade length is roughly 60% of that.
• You will start 14 ft. away from each other.
• The fight will take place on a dry, grassy field.
• The fight is to the death.



vs.

Bat or knife? One word comments are cool! I’m looking for a tally. I’ve got a bunch of ideas on this, but I don’t want to influence the count.

Try this one out with your friends and let me know where it goes. Make sure you’ve got some time, and perhaps a wiffle ball bat and a paper towel roll, if you are the scientific type

Cheers from the USA,

Dan

PS, you can download that Bruce Lee wallpaper here. 

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/bat-vs-knife/feed/ 71 http://www.tropicalmba.com/bat-vs-knife/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/rr2JWmJDFi0/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/happy-hour-friday/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:53:44 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5405

Shitbags, I forgot to do a 2011 wrap-up. Ah well, here it is: nearly 8,000 unique souls come to this website monthly via our mailing list (2,000+ people), my twitter account (8376 followers), and by subscribing to our RSS feed (1697 subscribers… check out what is RSS and how does it work?). 240 established location independent entrepreneurs have joined us in our private forums. Also, 1,000′s of entrepreneurs download our podcast every week.

Vistors to the Tropical MBA website are generally people who are building businesses capable of transforming their lives and those of their families, employees, and communities. I know for sure because I’ve met well over 100 of you in person (3 today!), and I’m not shy on Skype. For me, that’s the best part of all of this.

In 2012, I’d like to improve the quality of our writing and podcasts. I believe that’s the best way for us to be involved in higher quality projects. I often say “I want to be at the table when interesting projects go down.” I’m pretty sure the path to the “table” is paved with the work. So that’s what 2012 is going to be about for me.

As always, if you have ideas for how we could improve our blogs, I’d love to hear from you. Speaking of blogs…

People often ask me for advice on how to build an effective social media brand, which is funny given how all this started. Some folks, who have listened to our first year of podcasts, have said: “man, it’s inspiring to hear you sound like shit…” 

Yes, we all start out sounding like shit. That’s good to keep in mind. Here’s some other stuff I mention:

1. Sound like shit for a while.
2. Know what the hell you are talking about.
3. Have and demonstrate a track record.
4. Love it.

I say man, if you don’t like writing, don’t bother.

Also, here’s a new one: don’t focus on helping beginners.

A lot of internet marketers think it’s a great idea to teach beginners how to do stuff. This idea always gets a lot of steam because anyone can teach a beginner. Sweet! Anyone can make money on the webs by teaching beginners basic stuff.



better than 98% of how to blog blogs

To understand why marketing to beginners sucks, first let me share with you what I mean when I say “market.” As in, that’s a good market.

Market = a quantifiable cash flow.

• “Cat owners”  = not a market.
• “Cat furniture”= quantifiable cash flow. 
• “Beginner internet marketers” = not a market.
• “Premium email marketing services” & “blog set up training programs,” = quantifiable cash flows.

It’s a useful distinction.

Especially if you are just getting started, it doesn’t make sense to convince people to start a website. Instead, you want to offer optimization and add-on services to people who’ve already made the decision to have one. You want to tap in to established cash flows, not create them.

This kind of thinking is important when you are identifying how to approach new niches.

3 Niche identification rules I learned the hard way.

1. The broader your market the more difficult and expensive it is to find customers. “Cat furniture” is an awful market because it’s so difficult to identify customers. At the beginning I was thinking, anybody could buy my product!!! Awesome-sauce. No. Not awesome. What I didn’t understand at the time is that there is a real cost associated with every eyeball you get on your stuff. If everyone could potentially buy your product, your acquisition (or conversion) costs will be through the roof.
2. Only go after markets that have demonstrated cash flows. Your goal shouldn’t be to convince people that they need to do something they don’t already do. You can do that when you are rich. You want to find an established, legible cash flow, and improve it. That’s it.
3. Get good at precedent case analysis.  Get super honest with yourself and capabilities. When you are considering tapping in to a cash flow, ask yourself if you can duplicate, dispense with, or improve all the key resources that the curent players are bringing to the market. You aren’t free from this if you are a blogger or information marketer.

In order to have a business that caters to beginners, you’d need the following:

• A sustainable funnel of new prospects (because beginners will be harder to retain).
• Incredible scale (because beginners will spend less money, and won’t go for higher value services).

And the punchline is, of course, that they are both generally expensive to create.

I’m not saying that you can’t make money teaching beginners stuff. I’m saying that that success script is over represented in the blogosphere for obvious reasons. All things being equal you’d be better to focus on non-beginners in any market, because they have already established legible, quantifiable cash flows.

Speaking of being over-represented in the blogosphere, I think there’s a lot of internet marketing dogmas that aren’t always as effective as advertised:

“You need an affiliate program.”

The best affiliates are happy customers. The best referrals go to people who would be great additions to the community.

One prominent internet marketer told me I was “just being silly” for not having an affiliate program on one of our products. “You are just leaving money on the table.” My thought was simply this: “If I had an affiliate program, how could prospective members know if somebody was suggesting they join the community for money or because they really thought it would be a good fit for me?”

Simple shit eh?

Also: having an affiliate program would lower the quality of people that become customers. It would encourage those with affiliate accounts to suggest your product to anyone, and not people who would really benefit from it. If you are building a platform instead of a product, this could hurt the quality of your offering, thus hurting your “best” affiliates– happy customers.

“Traffic is king…”

I’ve seen blogs with large communities fail to get paid products off the ground (I’m sure you’ve seen the same). Chops are more important than reach. Your readers will have an opinion about you and your content that they aren’t telling you about. That’s what I call ‘chops.’ Some blogs become like water cooler blogs– sorta like getting in the friend zone in dating.

How to develop chops and trusting readers that will buy stuff from you? Develop a relentless focus on achieving and demonstrating results, no matter how small.

“Launch, launch, launch.”

Internet marketing “launch” mindset can often keep bloggers and marketers focused on the first 4-8 weeks of their new business. There is no question that launch mindset is effective, but you need to couple it with long term thinking. I encourage you to step back and ask yourself what your 2-3 year vision is going to be.

Where do you hope your community will be in 2-3 years?

Launch mindset can convince you that “all the money is to be made in the launch.” Constantly creating resource-sucking events is a tough way to sustain a business. By building something more focused on cash flows (like a membership platform or subscription service) you are more likely to have a solid cash foundation to build something bigger.

Hope you have a great weekend and holiday! Would love to hear from you if I can help in any way.

Cheers,

Dan

PS, if you’d like to read some related articles, check out these:

• Ancient Rivers of Money
• Penelope Trunk Calls Bullshit
PPS, you can hop on my private mailing list by entering your email in the list below:
]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/happy-hour-friday/feed/ 21 http://www.tropicalmba.com/happy-hour-friday/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/2808OiMGStY/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/100-true-customers/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:40:14 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5376

Kevin Kelly, who wrote one of the best books I have ever read, also wrote an influential article for bloggers and artists called “1000 True Fans.” It said a lot of things, but the one that resonated most for me: if you can cultivate 1000 true fans, they’ll spend $100 dollars on your art every year, grossing you 100K in personal income. You’ll be able to spend your time creating your art. “You make a living instead of a fortune.” 

That’s what I call a damn good start.

Even if you don’t think of yourself as an artist, being a small business entrepreneur is often about being creative. You need to produce stuff that others find valuable.

There is a passage that Kevin doesn’t linger on, but is important for entrepreneurs and freelancers who want to think about their businesses this way:

“As your True Fans connect with each other, they will more readily increase their average spending on your works…”

This is especially true for customers who are buying your stuff to solve problems. A group of customers focused on solving the same sorts of problems could be helping each other save time, make more money, and build better businesses.

A community of people focused on solving the same sorts of problems is a product in itself.

True customer = someone who pays $1 a day for your products and services. 100 true customers = $3,000 monthly income.

When you find 100 people to sign up, you’ll make around $36,500 annually.

Since your true customers are subscribers, you’ll deal with less turnover. The pressure to produce new works of art, or intensive programatic products will drop dramatically. Instead, you’ll continually serve your community members. That type of work will naturally lead to higher value product offerings.

Instead of developing an ebook on copywriting, or doing an 8 week course on ‘how to improve your sales pages,” you’ll want to use ‘static’ products as incentives to join a private community. In some cases, this will mean taking less money up front in order to get subscribers.

A reliable cash flow and interaction with customers is exactly the type of foundation– cash, market insight, and relationships– that builds great businesses. You’ll be in a great position to launch higher value products and services. You’ll be free of the “launch” mentality that a lot of information marketers find themselves in.

If you want to find 100 true customers and make a living from them, you won’t just be building products, delivering services, or doing freelancing. Instead, you’ll be building a platform that delivers all three. Instead of saying you are “writing ebooks,” or “doing copywriting consulting,” or “doing freelance writing,” you are “building a platform that helps entrepreneurs skyrocket conversions on their money pages.”

Here’s some a basic framework for thinking about your products and services as a subscription, capable of developing “100 true customers”:

1. Start a community focused on the core problems that your products and services solve. For the example of the copywriter… what is the most compelling reason people need your services? Do they need content for SEO? Do they need to improve their conversation rates on their sales pages? Let’s say that’s the case… you are going to start a community around the idea of creating super high converting sales pages.
2. It costs $1 a day to join your community. Pay to play. No big deal though, because you are an amazing copywriter, and the free tips that people will pick up inside of your community will more than pay for the $1 a day thing. Plus, your sales page will be awesome.
3. Give your “static” products to your members for free. Classic info products like eBooks should be given 100% free to your members, and used as a sales funnel in to your group. Essentially, your private group services as the operational backend– customer support, service, etc.
4. Ning is $30 bucks a month. Launch your products from inside of a community, either something you pull together on a WordPress platform, or within Ning’s wonderful social networking environment. Don’t waste your time on features until you get 100 customers.
5. Seed the community with former and current customers. If people have supported you so far, perhaps they are willing to be charter members of your new group. I’m sure they’ll show up just to see the resource lists you are pulling together.
6. Offer up-front incentives for joining the community. For example, access to all of your sales page templates. This doesn’t need to be a big thing, we are only talking about a dollar a day here. Perhaps you can start with 1 or 2 that work for you, and offer them up front. Totally worth it! If you can, get on the phone with every new member or prospect. This is the best way to figure out what your higher dollar ad ons will be.
7. Build out high-dollar premium products for the group. Need somebody to create video intros for your sales videos? I’ve vetted somebody and got you a discount. Need a WordPress framework? Here’s our recommended plus a tutorial with support. Need to hire somebody to write one outright for you? I’ve got my flat rate posted right here. And so on. People who make money off of a fleet of sales pages would likely be willing to pay just to have the best paid services reviewed and clearly presented by people who’ve taken the time to ensure they are the best products and services on the market.
8. Focus on passive value and saving people time. If I sign up for your sales letter community, I probably want to spend less time on my sales letters. It’s important to keep that in mind because platforms like Ning and Forums encourage interaction, which can be time consuming. Ways to cultivate passive value would be to send out weekly newsletters that say stuff like, hey I’ve got phone time all next Friday, just Tungle me and I’ll shake down your website. Or perhaps you host monthly Webinars. Maybe you offer free tutorials on the best new software offerings every 3 weeks. Maybe you’ve developed a new buy-now button and you send that out to everyone to put up on their sites.
9. Have a mission. Why is it that your community exists? What are you trying to improve? What am I buying in to when I join?

Whatchu think? Got any questions about how this sort of thing could get done? I think this approach to online business has tons of potential.

Cheers,

 

Dan

PS, if you want to get on my private mailing list just put your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/100-true-customers/feed/ 16 http://www.tropicalmba.com/100-true-customers/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/E2TTUZWVBOg/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/biznass-rules/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:30:05 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5345

Chris from Coconut TV (I am on the mailing list after that link, and I suggest that you get on it too… food TV is South East Asia!? That’s my bag, baby!!!…) emailed me this morning with 50 rules for building a business from anywhere, a continuation of my list of rules. Chris has been building businesses and traveling in Asia for 7 years now. He still holds the world record for being the first blogger I ever wrote a fan email to. I can’t find the proof in my inbox, but it happened!

The reason I love reading Chris’s stuff so much is that he’s got chops. I enjoyed reading his 50 rules so much that I couldn’t help but to share them with you. Further, Chris sent them to me in formatted HTML with a note that said “just did this for fun, no need to publish.” Here’s a guy who runs a business or two and is getting married in a month. There’s a lesson there somewhere… take it away Chris…

*  *  *

While the missus gets my eggs ready, I thought I’d be cheeky (#63) and complete the list based on my own opinions and observations of building businesses while traveling for 7 years now. And as Dan said on his list, these are rules… so simply take them or leave them!

52. Run. Just fucking run. If you don’t feel great after a good run, you’re not human. Trust me, you’ll feel like you can tackle the world (at least for a few hours after the run).

53. Find out what your best working times are. Personally, I perform much better in the mornings, so I plan my day accordingly. You should too.

54. Get on Fiverr… lot’s of good buys on there that could improve your business (new logo etc.) for only $5 a pop!

55. Think about what you eat. Lower the carbs. Increase the protein. You’ll be sharper for it.

56. Buy a cheap pad and pen. Richard Branson, my fav entrepreneur, swears by them, as do I. Scribble notes on them. Make to-do lists. When the pads are full, review them every once in a while – it’ll spark creativity.

57. Take design seriously. Ron Conway, the most prominent start-up investor recently said we now transiting away from algorithmic based visions to design and user experience based visions. Good design translates to happy (and supporting) users.

58. Read blogs outside of your niche. I recently discovered Swiss Miss and whenever I read it, it always gets my creative juices flowing.

59. Understand it’s all about the story. People are becoming more aware of what they buy, and products with interesting stories behind them will out sell those that don’t.

60. Content is queen, not king. Residual income is king. Residual income paid for my 8 month break I’ve just had.

61. Do what makes you happy. Everyone’s life can be turned up-side-down within a 1 minute phone call (as did mine when my father passed away). If your life is pretty good right now, concentrate on making the most out of it.

62. Good domains are worth the investment. If you can get a perfect fitting domain for $8, then great. If not, understand there are heaps of great domains out there to be hand for under $500 – and while it may be a lot for some of you, the branding benefits will pay dividends in the long term. Good places to start include Sedo, NameCheap Auctions, Domainr and the Dynadot marketplace.

63. Be cheeky – But keep it classy.

64. Don’t buy into personal development programs. Like slot machines, they are designed to make the guy making the program richer, not you.

65. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. I see this mistake often, and it makes me sad. If you don’t ask, you don’t get… right?

66. Get into Dynamite Circle. Even if you have to track Dan down in Brooklyn somewhere to get a password, it’ll be worth it. It’s a great resource and network to have, and is the perfect platform to practice #65

67. Simplify and focus. Wise words from @undolifestyle

68. Do it your way. Dan likes to travel as light as possible, yet I carry a fuck-off 4 wheeled bag around when I travel. Do it your way.

69. Travel. If you plan to move to South East Asia like many of us who can run a business from anywhere, or are happy working at home with your mum, make sure you travel. Travel, cultures, languages and meeting people from different backgrounds is one of the most fulfilling ways to learn about life and business.

70. Use envelopes if you’re shit at budgeting. After checking I don’t have holes in my pockets, I’ve started putting a daily budget in daily numbered envelopes. I’ve noticed my spending has decreased dramatically vs. having a big wedge of notes in my pocket.

71. Buy an iPhone. Communication on the move? Worth every penny.

72. Checkout Tiny Letter. It’s a great light-weight free email newsletter service I’ve just come across.

73. Do everything yourself, at least once. If you can. You’ll find out the true value of something if you’ve done it at least once before.

74. Don’t quit blogging. Like I did. You’ll regret it. As I sometimes do.

75. Invest in good shades, head-phones and a DLSR camera. I’ve only recently got myself a proper DLSR camera and I’m kicking myself for not getting one earlier. I now realise I’ve missed out on so many amazing shots since I’ve been on the road.

76. You only learn when you listen. Everybody loves talking about their backgrounds and businesses, yet when your with smart people, try to cut the focus back from yourself and listen to what the others have to say. You only learn when you listen

77. Don’t only look to hire in the Philippines. Personally, I’ve never worked with anyone long term from the Philippines. I don’t know why, it’s just never worked out. Yet I have built many successful working relationships with guys and gals from India and Pakistan.

78. Understand finding good freelancers is a numbers game. This is a common theme and is often over-looked. Finding grade A freelancers from developing countries requires you to sift through many B, C and T grade individuals. But it’s worth it in the long run.

79. Remove distractions. Whether your in working-mode or have a user on your sales page, remove distractions to improve out-put.

80. Be selective on what arguments you want to win. This goes for both business and personal relationships. It’s better to let others win most of the time, as that will give you leverage to win the arguments that are most important to you and will have the biggest impact.

81. Be good at organising. Good organisation skills translates to a well running machine (aka business).

82. Don’t skimp on web hosting. The beauty of selling online is that your business is open 24 hours per day. That’s not necessarily true if you chose a cheap web host. Invest in good web hosting with great support, and enjoy the piece of mind your business will always be open (I’m a huge fan of Media Temple by the way).

83. Be selective on who you follow on Twitter. Twitter to me is all about sharing quality content (although I’m pretty shit at doing it myself). By being selective on who you follow, you’ll save yourself heaps of time reading through the crap.

84. Set-up separate Facebook pages for personal and business use. I personally delete so called “friends” who push their business offers on their personal accounts on a regular basis. People be-friend you on Facebook for friendship, not customer-ship.

85. Ignore the Facebook haters. It really winds me up when people compare Facebook to Twitter (or any other social network). If you travel a lot, Facebook is the best platform to stay in touch with the people you meet along your travels. Period.

87. Understand marketing to the US vs. Europe are two different kettle’s of fish. You just need to watch traditional TV commercials to understand this. Understand your user demographic and design your marketing material accordingly.

88. Help others without asking for anything in return. This is the single biggest action that has helped me in business.

89. “What have I accomplished today?” should be your daily question.

90. Checkout iconfinder.com It’s a great resource to find graphic icons that can really pull a web design together.

91. Be vigilant. Did you notice number eighty six was missing? You and your business will miss out if your not vigilant.

92. Wing it. As long as you’re not stealing or hurting anyone, I think it’s fine to wing it until you’ve got your feet off the ground. That includes not paying taxes until you’re able too.

93. Be respectful – Either as a businessman or a traveler, respect others. Respect traditions. Basically, don’t be a dick.

94. Quickly let go of clients who are a pain in the arse. In most situations, it’s far more cost effective to let go of clients who are a pain in the arse rather than bend over backwards trying to keep them.

95. Watch the drink – I think most expats would agree, those who travel and work at the same time drink far more than they would at home. Trust me, I’m a sucker for this one. Yet it’s worth remembering there are few successful entrepreneurs out there that are also alcoholics (I’m going to print this rule out for myself lol).

96. Thank you’s are free. Use them. If someone helps you out, thank them. Buy them a beer. Send them a gift. It goes a long way.

97. Don’t over obsess with Google Analytics. A common newbie problem is checking Google Analytics 4 times per day. Unless you’re paying for traffic and monitoring a campaign, understand visitor tracking software does not equal customers and pay cheques.

98. Stay hungry. My favourite quote, from Sir Winston churchill, goes something like “success consists of going from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm”. So true.

99. Don’t buy e-books. If it’s not good enough to go to print, it’s not worth your $9 (or whatever the cost is). In 8 years of working online and 7 years traveling around Asia on a comfortable salary, I’ve only ever bought ONE e-book (and regret doing so). I’ve done just fine without them, and you’ll be fine without them too.

100. Understand there are no rules. Entrepreneurs don’t have rules, they have vision.

Any feedback on the rules above or any others you want to share?

*  *  *

Chris is the founder of Coconut TV – he’s new project that will discover amazing independent food producers based in Asia. You can sign up for previews and other benefits here.

I LOVED reading that list, and will take action on some of the points (for example, I’m pretty sure this blog will move to Media Temple). Thanks Chris! I’m pretty sure I speak for a few thousand others when I say, can’t wait to have you back as a blogger!!!  :D If you haven’t yet, check out the first 50 rules.

Talk soon!
Dan

PS, hear when Chris’s food show starts by checking out this page. 

PPS, if you guys wanna get on my private mailing list, you can put your email in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/biznass-rules/feed/ 40 http://www.tropicalmba.com/biznass-rules/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/Zz3rfndoWf0/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/100-rules/#comments Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:38:34 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5311

I read this post the other day. What a great blog! A few weeks ago, when I wrote about the blogs that I read, everyone said: go read James Altucher! That’s what I did.

I like reading fun articles, and I like writing them. What you’ll find below are rules, so I won’t try justifying them. Take it or leave it!

1. Stop trying to figure out what you love. You can figure that out when you are cash flowing like a mo-fo. Trust me, trying to figure out what you love while people are chucking cash at you is a much better spot to be in than doing what you love and figuring out how to make a buck. Start thinking about what other people love, and get it for them. This isn’t about you, anyway.
2. What are you passionate about? Making money. Delighting customers. That’s pretty much it. Okay?
3. If the idea of being on your laptop 10 hours a day turns you off… I say man don’t bother.
4. Hire somebody amazing as soon as possible. There are a lot of strategies for doing this cheaper than you think it’s going to be. If your plan is to leave the fort, you need somebody to hold it down.
5. The fundamental structure of location independence is mindset and cash. It’s often assumed that affiliate marketers will have more location freedom than somebody who owns an auto-body shop. That’s not an assumption I’d make without looking at the balance sheet.
6. Follow me on twitter.  My tweets will make you laugh, cry, learn, and puke in your mouth a little.
7. Hire travelers offering freelance services. Especially for stuff like customers service, copywriting, and other tasks that require high-end thinking. You’ll get amazing deals by supporting people’s passion to extend their world travels.
8. Pick up the phone. If I wouldn’t have when I started my business, I might have a job right now.
9. When you record audio for anything, make sure your mic plugs in with a USB. Anything else sounds bad. Toss in a little EQ and compression in FREE audacity and boom, you’ll sound like a pro.
10. Don’t contract complicated software in developing countries.  Don’t even do it in your own country if you can help it. If you don’t know how to write software, you probably shouldn’t be starting a software company.
11. Don’t borrow money from people. You don’t need investors, or even credit cards really. Stop taking money from lenders and start taking money from customers.
12. Hire people in the Philippines. Design, links, back office support, bookkeeping, inbound phone support, etc, all starting at $300 bucks a month.
13. When you start a blog, ask yourself  ”is anyone else doing this?” If they are, how can you angle in and offer a significantly different value proposition? If not, why not? Is there no interest or no money? What are the chances that you’re you a visionary genius!?
14. Visit your employees in the Philippines. You’ll have a blast.
15. If you catch yourself writing general advice posts about entrepreneurship or personal development, STOP! It’s hurting your cash flow.
16. Don’t sub-contract search visibility (SEO, SEM, distributor relationships). Build that knowledge in to the fundamental DNA of your business.
17. Set up shop in Hong Kong. Great banking infrastructure, no corporate taxes, lots of flexibility, tons of fun.
18. Don’t be a greedy bitch. Make a lot of money and then make sure everyone gets paid. Your few little greedy bitch moves will define you way more than you expect.
19. You don’t need to reply to your email. It’s true. You can delete it. Some people might be annoyed, but that’s okay. Just make sure some people aren’t your customers.
20. Don’t fuck with Google Adwords unless you know what you are doing. This is a good place to get a consultant (email me if you need names). I know, you just want a quick way to check out your conversion rates. Well, I’ll cut the suspense for you. Your conversion rates are “I just lost $500 bucks.”
21. Quickbooks. Get a copy and use it. If you don’t act now, BOOM you’ve just lost yourself 1000′s of dollars. That’s true.
22. Buy a Kindle and read the good shit. Like this and this and this and this and this, and so on.
23. Follow me on twitter.  My tweets will make you laugh, cry, learn, and puke in your mouth a little.
24. You don’t need to read Copyblogger… anything similar if you understand that your writing needs to help people achieve concrete goals.
25. Stop developing custom software. Use what exists, and patch it together with emails, phone calls, hustle, and anything else you can dig up.
26. STOP DEVELOPING CUSTOM SOFTWARE. WordPress. Plugins. Ning. ANYTHING to avoid becoming a software company instead of a company that solves problems for your clients.
27. A HUGE percentage of medium sized US businesses would see amazing benefits from setting up a relationship with an outsourcing firm in the Philippines. If you want a path to location independence that’s paved with cash, I can’t lay it out for you any clearer. This market is not saturated or even close. Tons of opportunity to get started by setting up operations in South East Asia for US and European firms.
28. You aren’t a freelancer. Freelancer is just another word for stamping bumpers in my books. I’ll give you a pass if you make iPhone apps or something. You are always mining for cash flows and defining the practices that bring them about. You are doing freelance work for 6 months max. At that point you should have figured whether or not the cash flow you’ve identified is worth building a process and a team around.
29. You don’t need to love sales if you don’t want to. There are a bunch of other ways to be compelling outside of high pressure blow hardy sales. You might check out this book to learn about them.
30. Trada is a cool concept. But you can’t afford it, and if you can you should be doing it in-house or with a dedicated consultant.
31. Don’t borrow money. This is a good one so I listed it twice. Speaking of good ones…
32. Follow me on twitter. I really love twitter. I’m not just out there to market shit. I’m living and breathing the platform in a passionate way. (?!)
33. The silent part of your audience is the biggest and most important. They are taking notes when you are doing stuff that’s wack. They are making buying decisions while commenters are pumping you up. 99% of your peeps will never say hello to you. Those are the people that will make all the difference when you put a buy now button up on your site. Do anything you can to figure out what they might be thinking and to speak to them with your products and content.
34. Move to Thailand. It’s about as good as everyone says it is.
35. Make your sales pages long. People making buying decisions want a ton of content to learn about what they are spending so much money on. Give them a 10 minute experience, at least.
36. Make your sign-up pages short. Don’t make it hard on me to get involved.
37. The most important part of your website’s design is the words on it. Make them good.
38. You have 4 friends who do the almost the same thing. If you don’t, get them now. Or like, next week sometime.
39. All the tech tools in the world won’t do what one solid employee can bring to your business. Start looking for them now.
40. You don’t need to buy stuff to make money. You can make money right away. Give me any business idea and I can find a version of it, that embodies the same basic value or principle, that costs less than $500 bucks to launch. Sure, it’ll be so much more awesome if you’ve got legit software that costs 45K or something. You can go do that when you’ve got 45K!
41. Buy noise canceling headphones. I’m not about buying stuff, but man I say don’t skimp on the headphones. I thought I was a tough guy and I didn’t need stuff, but I wish somebody would have been like “hey Dan, you are so tough and frugal but just buy these anyway!”
42. Use the simplest software you can. People spend too much time trying to own their own software or get the features just right. Fair enough if you are a software company. If you are a barbarian hustler like me, just pick something like Shopify, or WordPress, or Ning. Make sure it’s got an export option in case of disaster, and get hustling. Once the money is flowing you can decide to “do it right.”
43. “Doing it right” at the beginning… is issuing invoices and getting ‘you’ve got cash!” emails from Paypal. Anything else is you pretending to be an entrepreneur and looking silly. Stop doing that.
44. Get an accountant. NOW. It’s fun, it can be cheap, and it will save you a ton of heartache. Understand this: your accountant won’t know jack shit about your offshore stuff. That’s 100% up to you.
45. Inbox zero. If you don’t know what that means, I feel a little bit sorry for you. Not in a condescending way, but in an “aw that sucks!” kind of way.
46. All things being equal, the harder something is to do, the more likely it is to make you money. If you need me to explain this to you, you can’t be helped.
47. Call and meet everybody. Especially meet them. Especially. They’ll want to work with you, be friends, and will likely send you nice emails on holidays.
48. Have a list of 5 people that can give you gigs if you fail. You’ll take more risks.
49. Work your travel in as a benefit to your business, not a distraction. Hire locally, set up business and banking relationships, throw parties, figure out something you can do that is relevant to your business. Your passion to travel can contribute to your business– figure out how.
50. You’ll get what you want if you help enough other people get what they want. Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me. That’s what I hear from most everybody. Knock it off. Stop blabbing to me about what you want. Your business isn’t about you. It’s about your customers. This point is not obvious to most people.
51. (51-100) Don’t wait until it’s buttoned up.  People just getting curious about entrepreneurship often are amazed or offended at how much of an unorganized shit-storm a start-up can be. Here’s the thing– nobody is watching you, nobody is following you around taking notes. If you mess up, it’s not that big of a deal. Ditto if you do or say something stupid. Feel free to act accordingly. You can just say stuff like “100 rules…” and like, big deal that it’s not 100. If you wanna have a business, you’ve just gotta put it out there.
Hope you are having a great holiday! Got a rule I skipped?
Dan
PS, STOP DEVELOPING CUSTOM SOFTWARE!!!!
PPS, you can get on my private mailing list by putting your email address in to the form below:
]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/100-rules/feed/ 48 http://www.tropicalmba.com/100-rules/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/8z5SE2HkKE8/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/happy-holidays/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2011 23:12:39 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5249

I was looking at this site’s RSS stats today. It says that 1575 souls have decided to receive the feed. Thanks! That’s how I read stuff too. If you don’t yet use Google Reader to read blogs, here’s a quick explanation of how it works. It takes about 2 minutes to set up, and it’s worth it.

A lot of those 1575 people send me emails, which is a good thing. Here’s one I received a few days ago:

… people have mentioned picking one method and sticking with just that method until success or failure… they were talking about going on an information diet at some point…. unsubscribing to emails and such… [can you write] a post titled, “Read This Post; Then Unsubscribe” …

I suffer from the same problem most people looking to get started are suffering from: we are having a hard time making decisions. Well, this fine emailer made a decision for me. I like him for it. The idea here is that you can read this post on Friday afternoon, ditch my RSS feed, and hopefully be off and running on your own business by Monday morning.

This question mirrors some common blog-o-wisdom: “stop reading blogs and start implementing stuff.”

Stephen King, who is famous for getting a lot done (among other things), suggests that writers read more. Mark Cuban, who is famous for making a billion bucks, said the same for entrepreneurs. I’m with these guys.

We don’t need to stop consuming information. We need to compliment it with a robust set of entrepreneurial practices.

You could start by cutting the shit. A lot of bloggers are bullshit artists. Sometimes I’ll write a post and then somebody will write me “hey Dan I saw right through that bullshit you were weaving!” I’ll generally be laughing too: “we’ve got an entrepreneur on our hands!”

If you are gonna go on an information diet, you are probably better off reading some really healthy stuff rather stopping reading entirely.

If you are on a bunch of newsletters that are like “my shit is launching in like 3 weeks and I’m so pumped!” Ok, well, it’s up to you. Why not get a Kindle and buy a bunch of books? You might start with this one. It’s the story of how somebody produced a great number of books. Successful entrepreneurs will need to create a lot of stuff. Emails, deals, phone calls, blog posts– you name it.

You know who feeds us more shit than bloggers? Our own damn selves.

Business is an ego killer. Your customers, vendors, competitors, et al., are busy telling you whats wrong, complaining, and generally wanting more. To survive, you’ve gotta sit through daily “why you suck” sessions. If you don’t get good at hearing about how you suck, your business won’t improve.

Whenever people get offended at feedback regarding their business, I always think the same thing: rookie! 

Having a business puts you in a position where hearing what’s wrong is better than the alterative– failing.

Don’t do anything that takes longer than 24 hours to do. 

Don’t waste your time defining all this bullshit (ahem) that you won’t do. That’s what bloggers do! Instead, define something that you can go do. That’s ballin.

Take walks everyday. Walks are what thinking people do. Nietzsche did it. Steve Jobs did it. I’m sure you can find examples of more sociable people who did it.

While you are on that walk, think about the “eye of the tiger.”

Somebody has the eye of the tiger when their ambition is like a force of nature. They cannot be stopped. Nobody is snickering when they talk about what’s next. That’s because they’ve got the eye of the tiger. It’s a good thing to get.

If you take my advice and only do stuff that takes 24 hours to do, you should be able to show 7 discrete deliverables every week.

That will really start to add up.

Having it all add up is important since that’s when business ideas happen. They don’t come from sitting around and dreaming up what the market could really use. We are building something like Facebook for stock brokers… our Indian dev team will be done with it in 2 weeks.” Not happening!

Business ideas happen when you re-purpose assets that you’ve already built.

That’s what happened with the Dynamite Circle. Everybody who gathered around the ideas we were talking about at the podcast wanted to talk to each other. The asset already existed. I just needed to re-define that asset it in a way that both clear and valuable to others. It wasn’t some grand idea. I just needed to connect the dots on assets I already built.

If you haven’t already, make sure you get yourself a group of entrepreneurial friends. The small deliverables that you are doing 7 days a week will earn you a spot at the table. Doing stuff is sexy, and earns the respect of others. If you don’t have entrepreneurial friends, you’ll often be seduced in to doing non-entrepreneurial stuff, like following methods.

Don’t hang out with people just because they are rich. Hanging out with rich douchebags will get you nowhere. They won’t like you enough to give you opportunities, and you won’t like them enough to tolerate them.

If you are still like, ‘hey man I’ll take the method! I just need to know where to get started!!” I will oblige you.

1. Sell what you know how to do on a freelance basis.
2. Go get a job with an entrepreneur.
3. Do something amazing for a company that is making money. Help them make a lot more. Don’t ask much in return.

All crappy options if you’ve got a sweet job eh? Many people agree, including this guy.

Anyway… keep crankin’ out the work and eventually you’ll build up enough assets that the question of where to start will fade away. Your entrepreneurial friends will even help you out if you get stuck.

Oh yeah, it’ll take 1000 days. You might want to stay on a few mailing lists, just to keep you company.

Have a great holiday,

Dan

PS, speak of the devil!…

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/happy-holidays/feed/ 23 http://www.tropicalmba.com/happy-holidays/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/Vaseu10vaFs/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/listen-to-girl-talk-records/#comments Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:18:30 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5209

In my last post, I said that if making a living from your work is your top priority, you are in a better position to do work you love for the rest of your a career. The six questions in this post are a follow-up to that point.

In the business world, the art of defining is called marketing. Marketing is the most important skill set for anyone bootstrapping a small business. I don’t care if you are a developer, a sales hawk, yoga expert, or whatever– if you want to make successful businesses, start thinking of yourself as a marketer.

Marketing is:

1. Defining the value proposition of a product or service.
2. Defining who it’s appealing to (and how).
3. Defining the terms on which you can bring them together.

If you get good at defining actionable steps, and how they lead to the outcomes you desire, it makes it possible for you to move forward. Defining stuff in this manner is like putting extra rungs on a ladder.

It’s a simple point, but it’s lost on so many people. I’m not sure why. Maybe people are ashamed of the things they want, or are unwilling to settle on something simple because it doesn’t feel good enough to them. Hey, we all know you are a great person who wants to change the world. How about we just start with that extra 10K you want to make next year?

Here’s 6 definitions that were critical for me:

How much money do I need to make?

Make it an easy to remember, simple number. The lower, the better.

WHAT I DEFINED: “Zero.” Talk about lowering the barrier to entry. I wanted the opportunity to work full time on my own projects so badly that I remember thinking “I don’t need to make anything.” In the worst case, I thought I could move in with a friend for a few months. That never needed to happen, but in my mind, having the opportunity to grow a business was worth such a radical move. I understand most people aren’t in a position like this. In general, the lower the number is, the better. RESULT: Ended up making more money than I would have had I stayed employed in good job. I was not sure at all that this would be the case.

How much more valuable is location independent income to me?

If you can generate your income from any location, how much more valuable is that to you than location dependent income sources? This was important for me because it put hard figures to vague desires I had in my head.

WHAT I DEFINED: 5x. For me that means making 100K at a job is just as valuable as making 20K from anywhere. The multiple will be different for everyone. Mine is pretty extreme because I value travel, meeting with entrepreneurs, and exposing myself to new opportunities and experiences so much. THE RESULT: I made a lot less money, hoped on a long-haul flight to Vietnam, and never looked back.

What does success look like for me?

This one is deceptively simple, and was one of my biggest personal hurdles when making the decision to go for my own thing. There are very powerful scripts in place that say stuff like “you are generally successful and cool person if you have a job and make six figures.” Everybody gets that. Your relatives nod their heads when you name comes up. “He’s doing well…”

It goes without saying that those people will think you are nuts to go out on your own. My parents were like “are you f*$%ing nuts!?” 

WHAT I DEFINED: Success to me is waking up every morning, anywhere in the world, and spending my time on projects that I find captivating. Identifying a small group of people who have a high level of respect and investment in similar practices– and working directly with them– is a high priority as well (thank you, podcast!!!). I realized that random vague status judgments like “that guy is doing well” or “he went to a good school” were driving my decision making because I really didn’t give myself the permission to define clear alternatives. RESULT: An insanely wonderful group of people to work and interact with, and no more alarm clocks.

What is the price of my product or service, and how many units make me a living?

Define exactly how much you need to ship and support in order to support your idea of success. Let’s get there first!  I love thinking about recurring revenue models. If I were to start over today, I’d start with a small community bundled around an interest that I can help people with. I’d open up a Ning site and build out a metric crap ton of products and services in there that help my members reach their goals. I’d probably talk with everyone who signs up on the phone.

Here’s the kind of math I love to do:

• $17 monthly x 200 customers = $3400 monthly income
• $17 monthly x 300 customers = $5100 monthly income
• $27 monthly x 200 customers = $5400 monthly income
• $27 monthly x 300 customers = $8199 monthly income
WHAT I DEFINED: If I can get 20 pieces of cat furniture on the shelves of every Petco store nationwide, I’ll buy one of these. RESULT: Fail.

What is my product, and why is it valuable?

Write a sales letter for your product, weather you intend to use it or not. If you have never written a 3,000 word sales letter, you should do so, immediately. It’s a fantastic exercise, especially if your product or service doesn’t exist yet (writing the letter is the easiest way to bring it to life!).

Go head and find a sales letter out there that you like. I love Sean Ogle’s Location Rebel sales letter. It’s fun to read and extremely clear. Don’t make it too hard on yourself– I would literally just copy somebody’s existing text into a document file and start to replace the value propositions, features, and social proof elements with the stuff related to my product. You can get the same kind of value from super specific blog posts. For example, this blog post set off a chain of events that will conservatively generate over 100K in profits in 2012. 

WHAT I DEFINED: Conceptualized a bunch of bombs, but only spent 3,000 words on them. RESULT: A few big wins.

Do I feel like my brand is going to pigeonhole me?

Ok, this is a cheat, I didn’t actually ask myself this question. I had to learn this one by trial and error.

Your answer should be YES!!!! YES! I feel restricted by my branding. YES! I feel like I won’t be able to express my broad range of interests via my narrow, and focused approach. YES! I’m almost certain I’ll get tired of talking about such a narrow topic!! YES!!! The branding that lowers my customer acquisition costs and makes my value proposition clear to my clients makes me feel weird! YES! Dan, I get your point…

This one is especially difficult for really smart ambitious people. It’s why slightly-dumb guys like me find it easy to get in to the game. Smart people love to be involved with broad and ambitious ideas– philosophy, politics, gender issues– and the institutions that are players there.

Where the rubber hits the road on this stuff is always at the most basic level. Do the work. Write the article. Call the client. Help your client. Define, in a sentence, what you are doing, and why.

Easy, right?

Cheers,

Dan

PS, you can get on my private mailing list by putting your email into the form below.

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/listen-to-girl-talk-records/feed/ 15 http://www.tropicalmba.com/listen-to-girl-talk-records/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/4Hs4ojFBOic/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-entrepreneurial-frame/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:30:59 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5140

I’m sure you’ve heard an entrepreneur say: “if you took away my business, I could build another one from scratch.” 

More than anything, the statement refers to a way of looking at the world: the entrepreneurial frame.

One you have it, finding some kind of success with your projects becomes profoundly easier.

The good news? It’s not so hard to get it for yourself.

The entrepreneurial frame helps you to balance distant goals and big dreams with the simple and routine actions that lead to them.

If you’ve got a project or business idea that you care about, I encourage you to run it through the following checklist. If you can mange to say “yes” to most of the questions, you’ve got the entrepreneurial frame (there’s a scorecard at the end!).

In my experience, the entrepreneurial frame is also extremely effective in areas like art and non-profits.

*  *  *

(Y/N) – “Making a living by doing the type of work I want to do is my top priority.”

If you are over-focused on your end product, what you want to see in the world, or are unwilling to draw clear lines to when and how your project could make you a living then you are hurting your chances of sustaining that kind of work.

A common example of this is writers and bloggers who insist on writing whatever comes to their mind and meets their tastes, rather than looking to do a useful service to others via their writing. Bloggers will, for example, avoid choosing a focused niche for their writing because they “don’t want to be pigeonholed.” Ask yourself: what marketplaces (or groups of people) cares about your pigeonholedom?

I appreciate the idea of visionary entrepreneurs being passionate about a particular product and making a million bucks off of it, but noobs too often see guys like Kevin Rose, Steve Jobs, or some mega-blogger and confuse the result with the process. If you are obsessed with some lofty product ideal to start, you are in a dangerous position of ‘knowing what the world needs’ without knowing anything.

When you are getting started, you need to be a servant, not a visionary.

Another way to put this: find the processes (work) that you love, not the products (particular instances of product or art). 

(Y/N) – “I don’t need that much to live.”

You only need the opportunity to do the work and enough money to pay the basic bills. If you need more than that, you are putting your work at risk. If somebody asked me what’s an easy way to get tons more personal freedom, I’d say: “spend much less money than you currently do.”

(Y/N) – “I have defined in hard terms what it means to fail.”

A project is already dead in the water if it doesn’t have a fail point. One of the reasons personal blogs consistently fail is there is no particular reason they exist, no way they can fail, nobody they serve, and so eventually they just get forgotten about.

(Y/N) – “My work is focused on a particular problem that people (or organizations) have.”

And you solve it in a unique way. Most amateur projects are based on a ‘great’ idea or the artists’ immediate need for expression (or income!). I’ve noticed many personal projects cash out into having nothing more that ‘entertainment’ ‘participatory’ or ‘inspirational’ value. If that is the case, they’ll probably fail. It’s just not compelling enough, in general, to get people’s money at a small scale. You’ll need a huge audience if you want to sell ‘inspiration’ or some other product with a soft value.

(Y/N) – “My best 20 hours of weekly work are aligned with my desired trajectory.”

Most normal humans have 20 super productive hours a week. How you spend those 20 hours will be the single most important factor determining how you make a living in the future. Many people have a central career while cultivating side projects that utilize very different skill-sets. This is a poor startegic decision. If you have a career, best to start side projects that leverage the strides forward you are making in your best 20 hours. If your job is taking you in a direction you don’t want to go, re-claim those 20 hours immediately by finding work that builds the skill sets you need to do the work you want to do.

(Y/N) – “Although I enjoy encouragement, I’m looking for ways to get better critical feedback.”

Again the idea of doing something bigger than yourself, getting out of your own head, and building something with its own identify. Refuse to get all pissy when somebody says something offensive about your work. Try to evaluate what they are getting at, and decide if it’s worth working to address. Your project deserves it.

(Y/N) – “I can explain my project in clearly with the format: I help x do y.”

It’s easy for people to join up, subscribe, buy, follow, and share. Don’t listen to your friends’ opinions about this stuff. Look at the numbers, and know why they matter.

(Y/N)- “I’m willing to suck it up for a few years to make this shit happen.”

A few weeks ago I was blabbing similar advice across the dinner table and somebody jumped in saying“that could take a few years to implement!”

No shit?!

Think about it this way: in a previous life you probably would be willing to spend 4 years in college paying a bunch of money to sew the seeds of long term employement.

It only takes 1000 days to sew the seeds of having an unprecentended (in human history) amount of control over how you spend your time, where you are a located, how often you move, and how much money you make.

It’s probably worth a few years.

So how did you do?

Scorecard (# of yes’s)

• 8+  - “Entrepreneur.” Add your own? You’ll spend your life doing the kind of work you enjoy.
• 6-7 – “Craftsman.” Do you really like your job that much?
• 4-5 – “Middle manager.” Martyr to your ideas, and those of your boss.
• 2-3 – “Guitarist in band.” Hey did that A&R guy show up to your last show?
• 0-1 – “Sandwich artist.” Smoke breaks rule and you make a mean espresso.

Cheers!

Dan

PS, you can get on my private mailing list by putting your email address in the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-entrepreneurial-frame/feed/ 29 http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-entrepreneurial-frame/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/Wf1z4eNCntM/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/in-transit/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:06:34 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=5108

I’d like to point you to TropicalWorkForce.com. If you love to travel, and are looking for a way to get out on the road (or want to hire people who are on the road for world class rates) grab the RSS feed of our new job board site. You’ll find entrepreneurs posting life-changing location independent internships there.

Another great way to follow the opportunities is to follow the twitter account (which is automatically linked to the RSS feed).

Last week the job board received 1900 visitors. I’m certain, from talking with many of the posters, that there is a lot of action going on there!



Scary Statue Dude Representin' Tropical Work Force


Here in Singapore I’ve got a couple minutes before I head off to China and onward to JFK. I’ve got so much on my mind as 2011 winds down, and I can’t think of a better time to reflect than while in-transit. Many people dread it, but I always look forward to the time to think. I also love:

• Catching up on reading… My favorite hobby shines in-transit. Browse the bookstore for popcorn reads, and dig in to that reading list on the kindle. I already read two books today. Both winners… I recommend them both!
• The slow walk. How fast do you walk when you need to cover half a mile in 4 hours? Very slowly. Some people don’t know how to take a walk. For some reason, I’m was born with walking chops.
• The intense nostalgia that sets in 5 hours before departure. It’s not just leaving Bali that hurts. My heart drops when I’m about to depart anywhere I’ve been for a week or more. I stare at the bed. I double check everything. I take mental pictures. There’s something unnatural about leaving a place that was once your home.
• Placing everything I own on my bed, and packing it precisely. (+ throwing stuff away). Call it a lifestyle blogger cliche– nothing makes me feel better than grilling every item I own. “Why are you still here nail clipper!?” Ok… you can stay… this trip.
• Reset and re-consider what you need to be doing to grow your business… if I didn’t get back to your email, it’s because I’m in-transit. Of course I’d stress out about the lag back on the ground, but I’ll write myself a hall pass today. Do I really need to be so on this stuff I was worried about yesterday? Oh yeah… I forgot to put up an auto-responder. I’m sure you’ll forgive me

When I get home, friends will undoubtably commiserate. jeeze… how do you handle 20 hours on a plane!?

Of course I know they are just trying to make conversation, but there is a part of my brain that’s thinking: 30 hours ago I was sweating through my clothes, buying chewing gum in the middle of a slum village in some random, unique, and amazing tropical country. Now I’m standing here– on the other side of the planet!

Not bad for 30 hours.

I’d probably row a boat if I had to.

Anyway, I need to go buy some long pants. Apparently it’s cold in New York.

Talk soon,

Dan

PS, you can sign up for my email list by putting your name in the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/in-transit/feed/ 14 http://www.tropicalmba.com/in-transit/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/bMGDzVWMttc/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-cat-is-out-of-the-bag/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:06:35 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=4974

A few days ago, our business clicked past the $1,000,000 mark in annual revenue. That was a huge mental milestone for us. We’re thrilled.

Despite that, I’m getting more frustrated about presenting the numbers that way. What if I could say: “we grossed 10K from our cat furniture brand last month and here’s how we did it…”

Writing about business without exposing the details of how you make money, or at least the details of your products and brands sucks. And so far we haven’t done it (except in the DC) for one reason.

We are scared.

I admire writers like Patrick McKenzie. He shares his business tactics with clarity and detail. The resulting information is insanely useful to entrepreneurs. Speaking of insanely useful, if you don’t yet know about Joe and Justin, Pat, and Spencer, getting to know them will likely help you grow the internet marketing side of your business. These guys have all inspired me.



We want to show how you can take a product like this to market for $3000 dollars. (Give us a few weeks!)

In part because of the influence of these blogs and inspiration from companies like 37 Signals, starting next week (or whenever Ian finishes his first product case study post with photos!), I’d like to start revealing one of our e-commerce and product businesses in detail. We’ll start with one of our smaller and simple product lines (our cat furniture brand), and work from there.

In some ways, this is a terrifying decision for us to make. It has the potential to create serious change, both good and bad. In our industry (e-commerce, manufacturing) you just don’t do it. Our industry peers, without a doubt, would think we are crazy.

Decision making via worst case scenario analysis.

If taking this risk were to have a catastrophic impact on our exposed business, could we replace the lost revenue with the new opportunities that would come along from making the change?

In the past 4 years, worst case scenario type thinking has lead us to make 4 critical game-changing decisions that turned out to be more difficult emotionally than financially:

1. Deciding to start the business and take on an investment partner. (Emotional challenge: giving ourselves permission to be entrepreneurs, marching into the office of an investor and asking for big money).
2. Hiring our first full-time employee very early. (Emotional challenge : parting with a huge percentage of our personal income to build something bigger than income for ourselves).
3. Starting to share our business via blogs and podcasts. (Emotional challenge: exposing ourselves to judgment by others, and making ourselves available to the broader community of entrepreneurs).
4. Buying out our 3rd partner and merging the blogs with the manufacturing business officially. (Emotional challenge: reconsidering the fundamental relationships in our lives and re-setting the concerete on which our business rested).
5. (Pending) Share our business online with others. (Emotional challenge: re-considering the traditional manufacturing / e-commerce wisdom that secrecy is an advantage to businesses).

*  *  *

My hope is that by making this decision, we’ll be exposed to some of the following opportunities:

It will force us to be better.

Operating in public has the potential to be a huge kick in the ass.

Our first reaction when discussing this with our team was “maybe we should wait until we get this business a little ‘tighter’.”

We don’t consider getting this business tight until I mention sharing it with the world?!?! 

We don’t have enough eyes in our own organization to effectively monitor everything we are doing. Sure, we are opening ourselves up to competition, but we’ll also open ourselves up to a lot of people who can help us. I get 2-3 emails a week from talented people asking to help us for free. “What can I do?” they say. I’d prefer them to come to me and say “I want to do x for you.”

Of course they can’t do that now, because they don’t know what we do.

The chances that we could sell portions of our business for great multiples and on positive terms could shoot through the roof.

Oddly enough, the single best thing we could do to sell one of our businesses would be reveal them on our blogs. Instantly, 100’s of people would be discussing our business around the world.

Anytime you reveal the inner workings of your business to a potential buyer, NDA or not, you run the risk of them copying what you’ve built. In the case of more traditional business brokers, you are sharing your information with targeted business buyers, probably with similar business operations looking to take on complimentary operations. It’s reasonable to assume that a person who requests information from a business broker is more likely to copy us than a randomly selected blog reader.

Who would be more willing to make us an offer on the site? Both audiences have stated and acted on their interest in buying and building businesses. The blog audience has an immediate affinity with the business in ways that would take weeks to engender from business broker leads. They’ve seen it working, they know how it was built, and they know it gets them the lifestyle and profits they want.

The chances that people both try to copy and buy our business is inevitable. If we continue to our current course, my assumption is that we’ll receive a copy attempt before an offer.

Revealing our businesses could be the fastest way to accelerate both eventual outcomes and to flip this likely outcome in our favor. Imagine receiving offers on our business with no resources spent marketing it (businesses like ours aren’t super easy to sell), while simultaneously creating assets by documenting sales processes for our audience of entrepreneurs. Balla!

We’ll get world-class advice from experts and vendors.

I’m sure about this one. We’ve said on our podcast that the advice we receive from our listeners alone would make doing the show a good investment. If that is the case, this is the chance to double down on that suggestion. We are hampering our ability to get quality feedback from service providers, software vendors, and expert entrepreneurs because they don’t know exactly what we do.

Our ability to recruit world class talent could skyrocket.

The next level of our recruiting efforts is to get star performers who fit very well with our company. A move like this is the way to attract them. it’s no wonder that 90% of TMBA applicants are primarily applying for the travel and the lifestyle– that’s all we really talk about. I’d prefer candidates to apply in the future with messages like this: I’ve seen what you are doing on x and y domain and I can create 200% growth there in the next year by doing z. I’d like the opportunity to work with you on it.

In addition to the lifestyle perks, the fun, and the network opportunities, first rate talent would receive a kind of exposure and recognition for their work that few companies could (or would be willing) to provide. This is firmly in line with our core mission of offering our employees opportunities to achieve their personal goals via our business.

Sharing our income reports with the world could be the single biggest way to increase the reach of our blogs.

Everyone I’ve spoken to who has published their income reports on their blogs has said the same thing: “Income reports are our most popular posts.”

Trying to inspire entrepreneurs and other business owners without being able to reveal your brands (at minimum) is operating with your hands tied behind your back.

Our mission is to help other entrepreneurs grow great businesses. I hope this will help others…

I don’t think we can have it both ways, if part of our mission is to help other entrepreneurs start, grow, and improve their businesses, we need to take a little risk and share more useful information.

What do you think. Are we nuts?

Cheers,

Dan

PS, if you’d like to hear 50 podcast episodes that outline our journey build a million dollar business, just put your email in the form below.

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-cat-is-out-of-the-bag/feed/ 45 http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-cat-is-out-of-the-bag/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/95sJ8C0TdJw/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-blogs-and-podcasts-that-i-currently-subscribe-to-and-why/#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:00:48 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=4653

Chris from MyEggNoodles.com (one of my favorite blogs of all time, and a huge inspiration for this website) recently requested that I write a blog post outlining what I’m currently reading and listening to. Sounds good to me!

I hope this list will help you find some new blogs and podcasts to follow. If you’ve got the time, I’d love to see a post like this on your blog. Not bullshit shout outs, or niche appropriate recommendations, but an actual look inside your Google reader. I’d also love to receive any personal recommendations you have for me.

I omitted a lot of blogs from this list. Here are the reasons I left blogs out.

• Your blog hasn’t been updated in 4 weeks. Sorry to Alan Perlman, David Crandall, Adam Baker, Cody McKibben, et all! What are you guys up to?!
• I follow you because you are my friend and you write about personal stuff or things unrelated to travel and business.
• You write about awesome stuff like sex, gender politics, pure philosophy, smart drugs, or anything remotely naughty. I don’t want to bother offending people. I’ll save that stuff for the DC.
• I follow your blog purely because you are a DCer or are in one of my niches.
• You tweet so effectively that I haven’t bothered to pick up your RSS feed yet.
• I’m on your email list and you aren’t in my reader (hey Laura Roeder and Corbett!)
• You write an SEO or tech news blog. I’ve got a folder full of these that rarely get checked anymore.

The order of these blogs is the same order they show up in my Google reader. There isn’t any methodology here as far as I can see.

*  *  *

 

Steve Pavlina – Personal Development for Smart People

• WHY: The definitive personal development blog on the internet.
• READ: “10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job“

Paul Graham – Essays

• WHY: Y-Combinator founder is the total package. Paul has few peers as an entrepreneur, investor, and essayist.
• READ: “How to Make Wealth”

Ribbonfarm.com – Experiments in Refractored Perception

• WHY: Venkat equips you with powerful metaphors for life and business. I often refer to his concepts in business brainstorming sessions. Ribbonfarm was my favorite blog of 2011.
• READ: “The Gervais Principle: The Office According to the Office.”

The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss – 4 Hour Work Week Blog

• WHY: Keepin’ tabs on the Godfather. Among entrepreneurial types, 4HWW is one of the most underrated books in talk (not in action). 4HWW changed the game forever. Take all the hype and blogsphere BS away, and it stands as one of the top 3 business books of the last 10 years.
• READ: “The Not To-Do List: 9 Habits to Stop Now”

Tynan – Life Outside the Box

• WHY: Some of the best personal development achives on the web. I’ve been following Tynan’s blog for years.
• READ: “Living in a Small RV – Introduction”

Corbett Barr

• WHY: A thoughtful writer posting about self-improvement and entrepreneurship.
• READ: “Startup vs. Lifestyle Business”

Garaphernalia 6.0 – Gary Arnt’s Personal Blog

• WHY: Gary is one of the world’s top travel bloggers. His reflections on blogging are great to read.
• READ: “In Blogging, Our Strength is Our Weakness”

Jet Set Citizen – John Bardos

• WHY: Interviews with regular people living their dream of world travel and location independence.
• READ: “16 Months to Location Independence”

Chris Guillebeau – The Art of Non-Conformity

• WHY: Chris is traveling to every single country in the world. He can write, too.
• READ: “Things They Have No Right to Tell You”

Pat Flynn – Smart Passive Income Blog

• WHY: Pat is setting the web 2.0 marketing standards, and our company uses a lot of his advice. Hell of a guy, too.
• READ: “The Backlinking Strategy that Works”

Seth’s Blog

• WHY: You have to read it, plus it’s really good.
• READ: “Self truth (and the best violinist in the world)”

Fluent in 3 Months – Benny Lewis

• WHY: This is exactly why I love blogs. Travel around, learn languages, write about it in interesting ways.
• READ: “17 Cultural Reasons Why This European Never Wants to Live in America”

Location180 – Sean Ogle

• WHY: Sean is a good friend of mine, world traveler, and a great storyteller. (We’ve got some history together…)
• READ: “Why You Shouldn’t Go to College”

Chris Ducker – Virtual Business Lifestyle

• WHY: Chris is a great friend, a LEGIT entrepreneur, and knows more about outsourcing in the Philippines than any other human being I’ve met (I lived in the Philippines for 1.5 years).
• READ: “Taking a Break, Re-Focusing, and Giving Thanks”

Salty Droid – “You Can’t Make Money Online”

• WHY: Watch an online vigilante take down shady internet marketers and their “frauducts.”
• READ: “Naomi Dunford: Spider Intercession” 

Deano’s Travels

• WHY: I’ve met him a couple of times on the road. Great guy and DCer.
• READ: “Fighting Pandas – Trying to Get a Site Out of the Grasp of Google’s Panda”

Karol Gajda – Ridiculously Extraordinary

• WHY: No BS, guy has chops. I love his auto-responder series. Sign up for it.
• READ: “Free is Not a Fucking Business Model”

Ryan Holiday

• WHY: Smart guy, unique perspective, great books.
• READ: “Pain”

Viper Chill – Viral Marketing with Glen Allsopp

• WHY: One of the leading internet marketing blogs on the webs.
• READ: “How to Become a Niche Rockstar: The Guide“

Sebastian Marshall – Strategy, Philosophy, Self-Discipline, Science, Victory.

• WHY: My generation’s Steve Pavlina, just fucking crazier (in a good way).
• READ: “The Million Dollar Question”

Software By Rob – Rob Walling’s Blog

• WHY: Chops galore. Software, entrepreneurship, bootstrapping.
• READ: “You Can’t Make Money Charing $1 a Month”

Sovereign Man – Simon Black’s Blog

• WHY: Nothing else like it. Internationalization, wealth protection, expat lifestyle, and investing.
• READ: “They Treat me Better Than Bono Here”

Wandering Earl

• WHY: One of the web’s best personal travel blogs.
• READ: “The Day US Customs Found a Bullet in My Pocket”

Both Sides of the Table – Mark Suster

• WHY: Super sharp entrepreneurial writing from a successful venture capitalist.
• READ: “Never Ask a Busy Person to Lunch, Here’s Why:”

Derek Sivers

• WHY: Philoso-preneur.
• READ: “A Real Person, a Lot Like You”

MicoISV on a Shoestring – Kalzemues (Patio11′s Blog)

• WHY: One of the best bootstrapping small biz entrepreneur blogs on the web. TONS of great detail.
• READ: “Don’t Call Yourself a Programmer, and Other Career Advice”

Nerdy Nomad – Kristi Henderson

• WHY: Income reports. Travel. Block and tackle make it happen via online marketing, and years of acrhives. GREAT blog.
•  READ: “September Earnings and Spending Report“

Riding the Waves of Personal Development – Srini Rao

• WHY: The host of blogger favorite BlogcastFM has his finger on the pulse of the blogosphere.
• READ: “5 Ways to Give Yourself an Education that Kicks the Crap Out of the One You Got in School”

ZenHabits – Leo Babauta

• WHY: The quintessential blog. I think it’s this blog that taught me how to use Google reader.
• READ: “How to Read More: A Lover’s Guide”

Adsense Flippers – Joe and Justin

• WHY: One of the most useful internet marketing “make money online” blogs on the internet. AWESOME guys.
• READ: “Most Popular Blogs, Do They Deliver the Goods?”

Joel Runyon – Blog of Impossible Things

• WHY: Joel is my roll dog, or, he would be if we were in the same town.
• READ: “Nice People Don’t Change the World.”

Ben Casnocha – Entrepreneurship, Books, Current Events, Intellectual Life

• WHY: Super smart entrepreneur. Sounds good eh?
• READ: “The Effects of Going off the Grid and Exploring Nature”

Happiness in Pursuit – Michael Michelini’s Personal Blog

• WHY: Super cool DCer, get an inside look into the southern China co-working, ecommerce, and manufacturing scenes.
• READ: “More Expat Friends Leaving China, It’s Getting Harder to Stay!”

Legal Nomads – Jodi Ettenberg

• WHY: Amazing travelogue, great pics, what’s not to love?
• READ: On Taking Risks, Long Term Travel and Finding Your Path in Life

Sam Harris

• WHY: Smart, smart, smart.
• READ: “The Truth About Violence”

Lifestyle Business Design – John Paul Grant and Matt Canty

• WHY: Get a front row seat while two DCers try to build a business empire in Davao, Philippines.
• READ: “7 Rookie Business Mistakes We Made”

LewisQ.com – Lewis Quartey, TMBA Alum and Ecommerce Consultant

• WHY: Lewis writes great articles about life as a freelancer on the road.
• READ: “Life’s a Circus”

Live Uncomforably.com – Derek Johanson

• WHY: I like this guy. Wish he would write more.
• READ: Why You Need to Dress Sharp

Ryan Goes Abroad 

• WHY: Word travel, baselining, interwebs. Love it.
• READ: “My Medellin Apartment: What You Can Get for $300 a Month”

Study Hacks – Cal Newport 

• WHY: Talent is overrated, success principles, identifying the keys to hacking academia, art, and the workplace.
• READ: “Interested in Lifestyle Design? Get a Ph.D”

Finch Blogs – “Lifestyle Design for Online Entrepreneurs”

• WHY: A legit traveling affiliate marketer.
• READ: “Monetizing a Blog with Premium Posts : Does it Work?”

Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site

• WHY:  The original gangsta travel blog.
• READ: “Everyone Says I’m Running Away” 

Ophelia’s Web – Elisa Doucettte

• WHY: Copywriting, lifestyle design, TMBAer. We’ll be working on some big projects together in 2012.
• READ: “Nothing That’s Worthwhile is Ever Easy”

On the Spiral – “Exploring the Adjacent Possible”

• WHY: A unique take on technology, economics, and behavior.
• READ: “Reconsidering Gift Economies”

Niche Pursuits – Specer Haws

• WHY: Highly respected make money online guys with detailed information on his site. Chops!
• READ: 5 Simple Adsense Layouts That Increase Your Click-Through Rate

Nerd Fitness – Steve Kamb

• WHY: Funny, useful, inspiring.
• READ: “How to Live Like James Bond for a Weekend”

The Bulletproof Executive – Dave Asprey

• WHY: Bleeding edge health and brain optimization advice.
• READ: “Why You are Suffering from a Modafinil Deficiency.”

Nate Damm

• WHY: He walked across America. It’s not quite water, but it’s close.
• READ: “The 1990 Version of the 4HWW”

Mr. Money Mustache

• WHY: Extreme frugality and financial definition as a means to wealth. Balla!
• READ: “The True Cost of Commuting”

Minimum WIFI

• WHY: At the top of the page, there is a photo of a laptop, and a palm tree. “Minimum WIFI.” Not much content but I love the idea.
• READ: “November 2011 Earnings Report”

New Rules – Kevin Kelly

• WHY: Kevin Kelly wrote my favorite book of the past 2 years, What Technology Wants. This blog drips out one of his older works.
• READ: “All Things Being Equal, Chose Technology”

*  *  *

Podcasts

 

The Adam Carolla Show

• WHY: Funny and insightful, Adam master of improvisation and is taking on Howard Stern’s torch as the world’s best radio host.
• LISTEN: “Dr. Bruce“

Start-ups For the Rest of Us

• WHY: This show is so hot right now! I love listening to Rob and Mike talk shop. Bootstrapping entrepreneurial goodness.
• LISTEN: “TechZing for the Rest of Us”

Foolish Adventure

• WHY: Tim Conley has some serious chops in regards to content biznass, social media marketing, and membeship sites. I trust what this guys says. (Oh yeah, and he’s really cool)
• LISTEN: “Successfully Using the 5 Types of Membership Site Content.” 

Internet Business Mastery

• WHY: Internet business original gansger podcasters, 6 years and still going strong.
• LISTEN: “The Biggest Mistake Every Internet Marketer Makes and How to Avoid It”

This Week in Start-ups

• WHY: Chops galore. I love Jason C’s no-bullshit approach and business sensibility.
• LISTEN: “Eric Ries of the Lean Start-up”

The Partially Examined Life

• WHY: Wow, philosophy presented in a fun and super interesting way.
• LISTEN: “Heidegger: What is Being?” 

Philosophy Bites

• WHY: Philosophy in bite sized chunks.
• LISTEN: “Martha Nussbaum on the Value of the Humanities”

The Joe Rogan Experience

• WHY: Irreverent, hyper honest and open show with great guests.
• LISTEN: “Anthony Bourdain on the Joe Rogan Experience”

NPR: Fresh Air

• WHY: Fascinating insightful interviews with interesting people.
• LISTEN: “The Physics of the Future: How Will We Live in 2100?”

Jet Set Money Show

• WHY: Interviews with digital nomad types.
• LISTEN: Jet Set Money iTunes Feed…

BlogcastFM

• WHY: Bloggers tell their stories.
• LISTEN: “Using Virtual Assistants to Help Grow and Monetize Your Blog with Chris Ducker”

Freakanomics Radio

• WHY: Counterintuitive takes on our society and the forces underlying it.
• LISTEN: “The Academic Origins of China’s One Child Policy”

This American Life

• WHY: Radio at it’s best. Hear fascinating stories from everyday Americans.
• LISTEN: “Middle School”

Mixergy

• WHY: Interviews with the web’s most successful entrepreneurs.
• LISTEN: “How Questioning Basic Assumptions Made StubHub and $310 Million Dollar Company”

What am I missing? Do you have some suggestions for me? I’m looking forward to checking them out.




Cheers,

Dan

PS, if you’d like to get on my private email list, I’ll send you 50 free podcast episodes that outline the story of how I built a million dollar business:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-blogs-and-podcasts-that-i-currently-subscribe-to-and-why/feed/ 59 http://www.tropicalmba.com/the-blogs-and-podcasts-that-i-currently-subscribe-to-and-why/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/ZJMi5WNeCYI/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/use-smart-drugs-to-get-more-work-done/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:25:54 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=4853

Join those who’ve subscribed to or reviewed Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link.

DISCLAIMER: We do not have appropriate qualifications to be handing out medical advice. Consult with your doctor before you take any supplements or drugs. Please don’t take our advice as anything more than a random person’s opinion. It is intended for your entertainment purposes only. Hopefully this sort of content will inspire you to explore ways to improve your health.

Today Ian and I sat down with the SEO expert and body hacker Travis Jamison of SupremacySEO to discuss smart drugs and supplement stacks for brain and body optimization.

Travis owns a supplement company and has experimented extensively with a broad range of vitamins, minerals, and other drugs.

We’ve long been interested in smart drugs and dietary supplements, but have found that taking the first steps to be extraordinarily confusing. In this episode, Ian and I try to get the best “first steps” for people interested in body and brain optimization through the use of supplements, nootropics, and drugs.



Click to Subscribe

Listen to this podcast and learn:

• The oldest, safest, and most proven smart drug available.
• Why eating a slice of pizza could be more dangerous than taking smart drugs.
• What the hottest new smart drug is, what it feels like, and why it’s being used by Silicon Valley CEOs and other top performers.
• What kinds of productivity results you can expect by using Travis’ recommended stacks.

Travis’ Health and Longevity Stack:

• High quality multi-vitamin (not Centrum).
• Omegas (High quality Fish/Krill Oil).
• Super green foods.
• Probiotics.
• Digestive Enzymes.
• Quercetin.

Travis’ Basic Brain Health and Function Stack:

• Piracetam.
• Choline.
• Sulbutiamine.
• Stiff brewed green team, preferably lose leaf.

Travis’ Aggressive Brain Hacking Stack (Potentially dangerous):

• Geranium Oil.
• Ephedrine + Caffeine.
• Adderral / Ritalin.
• Modafinil.

People on this show:

• Ian (@AnythingIan)
• Dan (@TropicalMBA)
• Travis

Episode length: 31:15

Subscribe to Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link.

If you don’t like iTunes, here’s the MP3 file–> [DOWNLOAD MP3]

Cheers,
Dan

PS, this is the kind of stuff we talk about all day long in our private forum. If this is your style, and you are an entrepreneur, consider joining us.
PPS, you can sign up for our mailing list and receive our first 50 podcast episodes by putting your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/use-smart-drugs-to-get-more-work-done/feed/ 41 yesJoin those who&#8217;ve subscribed to or reviewed Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link. DISCLAIMER: We do not have appropriate qualifications to be handing out medical advice. Consult with your doctor before you take any supplements or drugs. Please Dan AndrewsJoin those who&#8217;ve subscribed to or reviewed Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link. DISCLAIMER: We do not have appropriate qualifications to be handing out medical advice. Consult with your doctor before you take any supplements or drugs. Please don&#8217;t take our advice as anything more than a random person&#8217;s opinion. It is intended for [...]Business,Entrepreneurship,Start,ups,Travel,Lifestyle,Design,Internet,Marketing,SEO,Affiliatehttp://www.tropicalmba.com/use-smart-drugs-to-get-more-work-done/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/iCReASYxhl8/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/how-to-make-money-from-anywhere/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 02:51:10 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=4776

An old friend visited Bali a few weeks back and we had a great time catching up on life. A few days ago I received this email.

“…. might be a good topic for a blog post… what can I be doing now to better prepare myself for moving towards the location independent lifestyle? The hard part is where to begin. In your opinion, what are the top 5 things one can do to prepare themselves? I figure while I am stuck in this non-fulfilling but well-paid job I can be learning about new things and skills that will get me ready to be successful. I just need some direction on that. If you have some advice, or want to write a blog to the other half of us who haven’t yet grown the pair to make the transition to help us find our way that would be pretty sweet…”

My friend is a really smart guy with a lot of varied talents and passions. He’s got his MBA. He’s got a high paying consulting job that isn’t very intense or stressful. He’s got the power to make whatever he wants with his life.

Let’ me be clear: we are talking about entrepreneurship here. Not affiliate marketing. Not passion. Not niche sites. Not outsourcing. Not automation. Not social media community building.

We are talking about owning valuable shit– preferably businesses. That’s the name of the game. Owning businesses is the surest and most sustainable way to location and time independence.

Philosophically, the space to begin is with your mindset and habits. It’s not going to be about where or when you start. You start now. Your business and future will come from the types of actions you do everyday. You’ll skip around a lot until you hit something that works. Here are 5 things to consider, as requested:

1) Be ruthless with your personal finances.

Developing a smart personal finance plan is the first entrepreneurial act. It should roughly look like this: “we spend WAY less than we make.” My transition from worker to entrepreneur coincided with an aggressive debt reduction plan and bold new spending habits (including a cash based spending plan). I found Dave Ramsey’s resources to be extraordinarily useful. Ian likes this blog.

Your basic goal is to stop spending money. For every hundred dollars you spend on bullshit or retail therapy, the business gods shed a tear. Read Felix Denis and Mark Cuban on the topic. Take your money out of the market and put it in a savings account. Don’t listen to your friends who say otherwise. Get rid of your credit cards. I don’t care how many points they earn you.

Stop taking loans. Get rid of the ones you do have.

Finally, write down exactly how much money you want to be making (after expenses). Start thinking about how many units you need to sell to get there.

Congratulations, you are an entrepreneur now.

2) Quit your job.

This is the part of the article, where my father, if reading, does a face palm. “Dan… tone it down a notch…”

What I’m about to say will be derided by all others in your life. You’ll likely only hear it from me. All the more reason to give it a think.

Your job is the single biggest time investment in your life. When you don’t have big money working for you, you only have your time. You need to invest it better.

You have two options. First, you can super-hack the job to provide you with cash runway while you start small businesses on the side. Hustle during your lunch break, leave early, sneak work in to your desk, use company resources for your start-up (be wary, wary careful here… this could be illegal, immoral, or other….) get home and keep crankin’. If you don’t have the energy to sustain this (it’s hard), or vision to start executing (you need to know what to do), the single best thing you can do is quit and find a better job.

You often say your job is ‘boring’ and ‘unfulfilling.’ Entrepreneurship and location independence aside, that fundamentally isn’t good enough. Don’t make me launch into a carpe diem speech!

A lot of successful entrepreneurs parlay their professional skills into small businesses or freelance consulting work. If you don’t see a straight path from your professional career into a solo gig or small business, get the hell out of there. Find an industry that is training entrepreneurs. One that challenges you and forces you to learn. Start working out that hustle muscle.

In my limited experience, the best way to train to be a small business entrepreneur or start-up founder is to be the right hand man of an established one. Find a gig like that. Take less money to do it if you have to.

3) Get used to saying no.

Recognize the pressures that exist around you. If you don’t protect your time and your money, other people will spend them for you.

Your friends are throwing weddings in different countries. Can you attend? No. Your family throwing lavish reunions at 3rd party sites. Can you attend? No. Friends throwing 6 hour Sunday afternoon party. Coming? No. Beach vacation on the east coast! NO. Saturday morning shopping to ‘invest’ in a new mattress for your house? NO. NO. NO. I think you get the point here. There’s a lot of pressure to spend up to your beltline, you’ll need to swim upstream.

Dave Ramsey puts it best: “live like no one else, so you can live like no one else.”

4) Frame of the consequences of your actions in 3-5 year windows.

If all this stuff sounds intimidating, I understand. Don’t curl up in a snuggy yet. Here’s the thing: short term thinking fertilizes failure. Period. You’ll need to cultivate short term motivation, and long term thinking.

If you think about your life in 3-6 month timeframes, quitting your job seems dumb, irresponsible, crazy. If you think in terms of 3-5 year windows, it’s probably the single most profound thing you could change to improve your chances of succeeding as an entrepreneur. See also: businesses take 3 years to start.

Same for my decision to blog and podcast. If I’m thinking in 6 month timeframes, it looks like a waste of time. If we are talking 3-5 year windows the move makes more sense. On the surface long term thinking looks intimidating, but in action we’ve found it has freed us up to take greater short term risks and cop to bigger challenges.

5) Consume insane amounts of content and act on it.

Podcasts, audio books, books, blogs, websites, magazines, seminars. Cut the shit. Consider speed reading. Figure out quick what is good and what’s crap. Implement the ideas you learn. Don’t just read Adsense Flippers and catch yourself thinking “their model is interesting.” Buy a site and toy around with the thing. Talk to others who are doing the same. Are they making money? What can you learn?

By the way, a good rule of thumb with starting new businesses: stop thinking of doing new stuff. Find businesses that are making a lot of money, and find small ways you can improve their services or products and launch. Take some of that money for yourself and grow it.

Another way to look at businesses is as entities that gather intelligence on markets. By participating in markets– say by launching your own niche site– you’ll have more and better information on that market (or cash flow) than any bullshit business magazine ‘market prospectus’ is going to give you (oh yeah, don’t listen to business magazines).

Information overload is a term used by people who aren’t doing anything. Don’t let that be you. Set up a site with a buy-now button and start trying to convince people to click it. Immediately. Can’t find a niche? Just buy a site. You’ve got the money.

I can’t imagine Ian saying he’s “got too much information on this marketplace we are participating in!” Nonesense. As an aside, I often find this amusing, for a handful of the products that Ian designs for our company, there is no other human being in the world who knows more about them. No wonder it makes him a full time living.

Bonus : Nobody is going to give you the good shit… that includes money, power, and the answers.

It ain’t easy, but you’ll get used to it. Having a job is all about finding scripts that look good and falling in to the bit parts. Being an entrepreneur– and doing crazy stuff like making money from anywhere– or even just building successful businesses, is about writing your own scripts.

Fuck everyone in your life who thinks they know what they are talking about and doesn’t have exactly what you want.

The world is a big place and you don’t need to limit yourself to the people you found yourself with.

Identify exactly what you want in this world, and start to connect with people who have it. Learn from them, get honest feedback from them, and improve.

Stay in on Friday night. Hustle. Build a new life for yourself. The party gets better.

You might ask yourself: is this really all worth it? 

Only you can answer that for yourself.

You know my answer.

xo,

Dan

PS, enter your email address below to get my private emails and instant access to 50 podcast episodes that outline how I grew a million dollar business:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/how-to-make-money-from-anywhere/feed/ 48 http://www.tropicalmba.com/how-to-make-money-from-anywhere/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/SiJdsNlKzps/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/lifestyle-business-incubator/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:59:12 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=4736

Dig Tropical MBA internships? You’ll love these new paid internships in the Philippines and Bali…

For a while now, I’ve chewed on the idea of starting an incubator. All the cool kids are doing it. I thought about it again today because Chris brought it to me last night. We could get a second house here in Bali, or somewhere in the Philippines, staff it, fund entrepreneurs, and give them a great environment to get their businesses off the ground. I’m sure we’d have a world class cost structure and experience.

Incubators seem to work well for start-ups– companies that have the potential to offer a huge return for investors. Unfortunately for my incubator dreams, I don’t know anything about start-ups.

I’m good at building small lifestyle businesses. “Small” meaning less than 5 million in revenues, and “lifestyle” meaning the first question I ask to business owners isn’t generally:  How can you maximize profit? But rather: What do you want to do, and how can your business help your get there? Is there overlap between normal businesses and lifestyle businesses? Sure, lots.

I’m sure Ian and I could help entrepreneurs grow their businesses much faster. We’ve already done a lot of the heavy lifting, especially if they are looking to start an internet marketing or e-commerce related business.

We are even at the point where we are actively seeking investments. So why no incubator?

The hypothetical scenario I can’t get past…

Let’s say Ian and I front the house, food, cash, and basic expense for first 6-12 months.

Ballpark cost for 12 months solo founder: 24K

Since I’ve seen the 1000 day principle work out over and over again, let’s say we can even accelerate that, and 12 months in to it, Ian and I are no longer burning cash.

• Months 12-24: Solo founder is socking cash and taking a small salary.
• Months 24-36: Things take off!!! Business pulls in 100K in earnings during this period. Ian, myself, and solo founder see potential in the business, so instead of taking 10K distributions each, we decide to keep the cash in the company and grow it, hire employees, etc.
• Months 36-48: The company is going gangbusters! We have all gained 30 lbs around the waist and live on different continents. A couple kids have come along. The business has been wonderfully successful and generated 200K in pure profit. Ian and I really didn’t have much contact with the business because we’ve been incubating businesses and running our own.

Solo founder is crushing it. However, since Ian and I requested 35% equity for our investment and mentorship, solo founder must write us a HUGE check– $70K for stuff we did 24 months ago (man that’s a long time). That’s a emotionally paralyzing thing to do when you’ve been slogging out every friggin dollar, every friggin day.

Solo founder owes the IRS 35%, and ME 35% of her annual income because of a nice place I provided years ago…

Solo founder could probably buy us out, but that would both cripple the company and she wouldn’t have any money to feed those kids that came along.

Now some might say, you guys are incubators! Angels! Take less equity! If we were to come in at 5% or 10% equity it’s a dismal affair for us, and we’d lose a bunch of money and waste a lot of time for sure. You gotta make it count.

I suppose we could flip the script and bring in “founders”– or founding employees– on a full salary and a low level of equity 15% equity and have them gradually vest in to the company. Perhaps we could give them opportunities to buy equity from us at certain points.

Part of it is that I just don’t roll in the start-up crowd. It’s a little late at night– but off the top of my head, I don’t know a single person who’s run a successful venture backed start-up.

Entrepreneurs out there…. I’m game. Email, comment, tweet me your ideas. I’m looking to expand. I just don’t have the imagination.

Cheers,

Dan

If you’d like to hear directly from me, plus listen to 50 free podcasts outlining how I grew a million dollar business while I traveled the globe, just toss your email address in the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/lifestyle-business-incubator/feed/ 17 http://www.tropicalmba.com/lifestyle-business-incubator/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetPaidToTravelTheWorld-TheTropicalMba/~3/cg3IXSFefgo/ http://www.tropicalmba.com/travel-the-world-internships/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:00:11 +0000 Dan@TropicalMBA.com (Dan Andrews) http://www.tropicalmba.com/?p=4701

Join those who’ve subscribed to or reviewed Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link.

So Ian (the CEOh-yeah!) and I sat down tonight to talk about a bunch of stuff, but ended up instead telling the story of the Tropcial MBA internships and how we plan to scale it through our new job site, TropicalWorkForce.com. You can check it out by clicking the logo:



Check out Joe and Justin’s amazing internship opportunity to live and work in the Philippines. Wow shit, I almost want to do this. I know these guys personally (they are visiting here in Bali in a few days!) and they are LEGIT!!! If you are interested in TMBA internships, you need to take a look at this post. Feel free to email me if you have questions.

The purpose of the TWF is to connect location independent entrepreneurs with freelancers providing services or aspiring digital nomades. Right now there are a lot of services posted on there– all services are pre-qualified by yours truly. I know these people, so we aren’t dealing with complete strangers here. If you are one of the many readers looking to make the jump in to location independence, I recommend hopping on the RSS feed of the TropicalWorkForce.com.



Click to Subscribe

Our hope is to inspire our fellow location independent entrepreneurs to post about 1 internship opportunity a week– that would be about 50 next year. If we can’t meet that goal, I think Ian and I can help pad that stats by offering our own internship opportunities! We’ll also be posting our internships at TWF going forward. If you have any questions about the site, or suggestions as to how we can make it better, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Speaking of awesome– Tropical Talk Radio has been featured on iTunes and has already received 10 5-star reviews. I really appreciate you taking the time to review the show and help us grow our listenership! Ian and I love doing the show, and getting great reviews from you guys (plus critical suggestions via email!) keeps us motivated and pumped up to do the show.



Hmm... who let these guys in to this classy establishment?



Thanks for your support! That's balla!!!

Listen to this podcast and learn:

• The #1 asset that Ian and I see entrepreneurs consistently undervaluing in their businesses.
• Why you are leaving it on the table if you aren’t getting interns on your side.
• How the Tropical MBA concept got started, and why no creativity or genius was required.
• Why hiring service providers on Odesk and Elance still sucks and what you can do about it.
• The details on a job opportunity that will change somebody’s life.

People on this show:

• Ian (@AnythingIan)
• Dan (@TropicalMBA)
• TropicalJobs RSS Feed on Twitter (@TropicalJobs)

Episode length: 19:42

Subscribe to Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link.

If you don’t like iTunes, here’s the MP3 file–> [DOWNLOAD MP3]

Cheers,
Dan

PS, you can sign up for our mailing list and receive our first 50 podcast episodes by putting your email address in to the form below:

]]> http://www.tropicalmba.com/travel-the-world-internships/feed/ 4 yesJoin those who&#8217;ve subscribed to or reviewed Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link. So Ian (the CEOh-yeah!) and I sat down tonight to talk about a bunch of stuff, but ended up instead telling the story of the Tropcial MBA internships and how we pDan AndrewsJoin those who&#8217;ve subscribed to or reviewed Tropical Talk Radio by clicking this link. So Ian (the CEOh-yeah!) and I sat down tonight to talk about a bunch of stuff, but ended up instead telling the story of the Tropcial MBA internships and how we plan to scale it through our new job site, TropicalWorkForce.com. [...]Business,Entrepreneurship,Start,ups,Travel,Lifestyle,Design,Internet,Marketing,SEO,Affiliatehttp://www.tropicalmba.com/travel-the-world-internships/ All rights reserved. Dan AndrewsadultA talk show about Entrepreneurship, Travel, and Lifestyle