Another big issue I’m having is that my freelance and performance gigs aren’t coming in as I had hoped (or have in the past). I have one good size client interested, but he is waiting for someone else to be able to book me as a video producer. Normally I get a minimum of one performance gig a week during Halloween, but I have the feeling a few new performers have entered the market and they are undercharging those of us who have been around for a long time.

My goal is to get out of performing magic as my main source of income, but at the moment the wallet is going to be getting pretty tight for the rest of the year.

Accomplished Last Week:

• Worked out a way to keep my contracted gig.
  I have been contracted to teach video production at a local high school afterschool program. I did it last year as well and this year I just can’t seem to find anyone students interested. I marketed with posters, announcements over the PA, and going into a few classrooms to promote it. I have about 11 kids on the text message list who say they are interested, but they don’t show up to the meetings.
  Good news is I am connecting with the theater teacher (who helped me get this gig) to have some of her students join as part of the theater. We still need to work out the details.
• Setup website first draft
  I have a WordPress site up, but I still need to write copy, create a few articles, add images, choose a theme, and basically everything else needed for a website. I was hoping to be further along, but I was struggling with getting the theme to look how I wanted it to.
• Started the Opt-in E-book
  I have the themed picked out, but writing is taking a lot longer than I expected it would take.

This Weeks’ Goals:

• Get contract gig figured out with the theater.
  I’m trying to solidify the details to keep my after-school video production program going (mentioned above). We are also shooting a Star Wars video with a 360 camera. That is going to be a lot of fun.
• First Draft of the ebook completed.
  I need to get the first draft of the ebook completed. The focus is just on the text. If I can get that done, I will be very happy and still on target to finish the ebook on time.

Key Performance Indicators:

Jason Loves Life YouTube:

This week’s Watch Time: 36,085
Last week’s Watch Time: 29,179 minutes
This week’s Views: 10,685
Last week’s Watch Views: 8,902

Total Subscribers: 3,517
This week’s Subscribers: 32

Autism A La Mode:

This week’s Watch Time: 352 minutes
Last week’s Watch Time: 306 minutes
This week’s Views: 101 views
Last week’s Watch Views: 78 views

Total Subscribers: 62
This week’s Subscribers: 0

Email Newsletter Subscribers Total: 406
This week’s subscriber: 2

I am noticing a trend of missing the goals that I set for myself. I need to start putting out post-its all over the house with what needs to get done next. That might help me focus or just drive me crazy when the kids start moving my post-its around the house.

Accomplished Last Two Week:

• Connected with Public Access Channel
  Met with a local public access channel to use their equipment. They have high tech equipment, studio space, and access to fellow content creators. I have to wait till January to join.
• Create a Plan for the rest of October
  I created a schedule for finishing the Website and the Opt-in book. It is all time blocked on my Google Calendar.

The next Weeks’ Goals:

• Go through opt-in experiences.
  Check to make sure all my opt-ins are working and improve the experience of those that sign-up. Such as having a proper Thank You Page, check that they receive the confirmation email, and other things like that.
• Finish a side project that I’m doing for free.
  I volunteered to create a video for a non-profit that hires me every year to put on STEM events. My goal is to prove my worth in video production to get them to bring me on to do more videos. It was a bit of a gamble, but I’ve been working with them for so long, and I appreciate what they do, so I’m okay with giving up a few weekends to make them a video.
• Finish most of the new website.
  The big goal is to have a website up for Autism A La Mode. Right now it is just a landing page, but by next week there needs to have the blog all set.

Struggles:

I always question what niche I should be in and what I should be doing… This is a constant struggle.

Key Performance Indicators:

Jason Loves Life YouTube:

This week’s Watch Time: 29,179 minutes
This week’s Views: 8,902

Total Subscribers: 3,485
This week’s Subscribers: 18

Autism A La Mode:

This week’s Watch Time: 306 minutes
This week’s Views: 78 views

Total Subscribers: 62
This week’s Subscribers: 1

Email Newsletter Subscribers Total: 404
This week subscribers: 3

I’m thinking of ways to incorporate this into my life. Similar to a farmer working extremely hard for harvest, then winter…

Accomplished Over the Last Few Weeks:

• Have a potential client for some video work.
• Sent the first email to my Autism A La Mode list after a year of holding off.
• Made a video to compete in a Scientific American video competition
  (I’ll be posting more on this soon)

This Weeks’ Goals:

-Connect with local TV production facility to get access to equipment
(meeting scheduled for Friday).

-Plan production schedule for the free giveaway (email opt-in).

-Plan production schedule for the website.

Struggles:

As always, staying focus is a crucial issue. To combat this, I am finishing up several side projects and refusing to talk on an extra. I also have a few clients who allow me to be paid to come up with whatever I want, so that is going to help a lot to keep my distracting projects limited to specific time frames.

The month we are working on a Star Wars Battle scene video in VR footage… It is going to be so much fun.

Key Performance Indicators:

I need to work on a better list of KPI’s, but for now, I’m going to continue with the ones I had last time.

Jason Loves Life YouTube:

This week’s Watch Time: 32,389 minutes [Last week’s watch time: 30,839 minutes]
This week’s Views: 10,344 views [Last week’s views: 10,462]

Total Subscribers: 3,436
This week’s new Subscribers: 30 [Last week’s new subscribers: 42]

Autism A La Mode:

This week’s Watch Time: 222 minutes [Last week’s watch time: 162]
This week’s Views: 66 views [Last week’s views: 64]

Total Subscribers: 60
This week’s Subscribers: 1

Email Newsletter Subscribers Total: 394
This week subscribers: 4

I missed a lot of my goals from last week and the next two weeks are going to be crazy. Next week we are remodeling our bathroom, and this week we are throwing a birthday party and preparing everything for the remodeling DIY project. Since I’m going to be up to my eyeballs in this construction, plumbing, & painting project, I am not going to be able to do a check-in next week.

It has been a struggle for me to have close to 1,000 people on all my mailing list and yet haven’t emailed them. Some I haven’t emailed in over a year. So, even though this is the week I need to get things together to renovate my bathroom, I’m also going to try to email everyone on my list.

Accomplished Last Week:

• Received a small grant to teach kids filmmaking at the local school during the 2018-2019 school year
• Attended an event for a potential grant for “Behind-the-Autism” Season 2
• Wrote the first draft for Autism newsletter (still needs to be edited & sent)

The next 2 Weeks’ Goals:

The goals I didn’t accomplish are going to have to stay on this list.

-Fix/set-up opt-in pages & boxes

-Send an email to Autism Mailing List.

-Create financial projections for the next 2 years

Struggles:

With two kids under that aren’t in school yet, it is a struggle to figure out how many hours I should work. Sometimes I am thinking about work too much and feel like I’m ignoring them. Other times it feels unfair that allow my kids (or wife) interrupt me while working in my office.

I need to do a better job of having strict boundaries, but I also like the flexibility… so it is a hard balance act to perform.

Key Performance Indicators:

I will be trying to figure out how often I should be looking at these KPIs. I will probably switch to once a month, but figure I would get the ball rolling with this week’s data from YouTube & my mailing list.

Jason Loves Life YouTube:

This week’s Watch Time: 30,839 minutes
This week’s Views: 9,775

Total Subscribers: 3,286
This week’s Subscribers: 26

Autism A La Mode:

This week’s Watch Time: 187 minutes
This week’s Views: 36 views

Total Subscribers: 58
This week’s Subscribers: 1

Email Newsletter Subscribers Total: 394
This week subscribers: 1

Note: YouTube has been pulling back a lot of my views for the video that brings in all the traffic for my newsletter. My Subscription rate is down from 7 a week to 1 a week.

Accomplished Last Week:

• Started a FIZZLE progress log in their forums for feedback.
• Refinanced personal loans.
  I went through all the personal loans has (car, student, & mortgage) and planned out how long it will take to pay them off & how much each loan is costing us in interest per month. It is a good motivator to make better decisions in spending.
• Organized my lists.
  I assembled all the email subscribers I have so I can make a better decision on what to work on and where to put my time.

Subscriber Numbers:

• 555 Subscribers on Jason Loves Life
• 393 Subscribers for the Autism A La Mode
  
• 110 Subscribers for Mafia Documentary Screening
• 168 Subscribers for Local Science Events

I need to make this better looking.

SUBSCRIBER NUMBERS NOTES:

Jason Loves Life: The problem with this one is they are from different things I’ve worked on over the past ten years. About half purchased my animation course, 40 or so signed up for a site I had called Niche Site Journal and other places random website experiments I tried.

I do have them all tagged and organized, but I am going to need to go through all the forms I have on these sites to keep the system working. I’m not sure it is worth it because I only get a subscriber or two now and then.

Autism A La Mode: Vast majority of these come from a “when to get your child evaluated book” opt-in. The book isn’t created yet, but the opt-in offer to email it to the person when it is completed. This one is more popular; I get about one signup a day.

Mafia Documentary Screening: I was hired last year to create a documentary on the mafia in Milwaukee (I posted on this in the past). There was a substantial local interest (we had 1.5k people say they were interested on Facebook). From that group, 110 sign-up for the mailing list. I’m not sure exactly what I want to do with this list, but my wife and I are thinking of doing a YouTube channel and/or podcast on true crime (or a related topic) as a fun project.

Local Science Events: I use to work for the University of Wisconsin Extension. Because of budget cuts and the loss of local grants I was let go four years ago, but they occasionally hire me on as a contractor. I’ve been doing some STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) programming for local youth. I started a mailing list for them currently at 168 families.

I could include them with my videos related to science experiments at home. I’m not sure if the label autism will scare them away or not, so might just do something under Jason Loves Life as well… Not sure yet.

This Week’s Goals:

-Fix/set-up opt-in pages & boxes

-Send an email to Autism Mailing List

I’ve been neglecting this list for a year, so I need to do it in a way that doesn’t get me flagged as spam.

-Create financial projections for the next 2 years 

Plan to use income report from another bloggers website.
Let me know in the comments if you would be interested in checking those out.

Long Term to Do:

-Calculate if it is worth my time to update my marketing materials with Agencies

I make most of my income from performing as a magician and balloon twister. I get consistent gigs but could get more (& ones for a higher price) if I updated all my promotional material.

-Start emailing people on my autism Mailing list

I’ve been neglecting this list for a year, so I need to do it in a way that doesn’t get me flagged as spam.

Struggles:

To be honest, I feel like I am stuck in a rut & need to pull myself out. I can’t say what the issue is, but it feels like I am helping out too many people without asking for anything in return. I need to think about this more.

Maybe creating a plan to stick to for the rest of 2018 would help… I don’t know. But the financial projection is a start to that.

My message to them:

madman_of_magic, Feb 24 08:44 am (PST): Regarding: Suspended account Subject: Suspended account Description of problem: I assume my twitter account was suspended for aggressive following. I will stop following, but was under the impression that twitter preferred me adding more to my following list. I read over our Help section and realize that is not the case. Again I apologize and hope to get my twitter account un-suspended. Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do. Thanks, Full name: Jason Love Twitter username: @madman_of_magic Email address: madmanofmagic@gmail.com Phone number(optional): n/a

Their response:

Hello, We understand that you’re contesting an account suspension. Please be sure to read this entire email; you will need to take further action in order to reopen your ticket and trigger a review of your account. Twitter suspends accounts for a variety of reasons: • If your account was suspended for aggressive following behavior, you should have received an email notification to the address associated with your Twitter account. You’ll need to confirm that you’ve removed all prohibited following automation from your account, and will stop any manual aggressive following behavior. To expedite your appeal process, please review our Best Practices page if you haven’t already, and then reply to this ticket with a confirmation that you understand our policies and will not engage in any prohibited following behavior. • Please take a minute to review the Twitter Rules. • If you received an email from admin@twitter.com saying ‘you’re being suspended’ or that we’re going delete your account, you’re safe; the email is fake. More information here https://support.twitter.com/articles/204820-safety-fake-twitter-emails • While we strive to avoid mistakes, it’s also possible that your account was suspended in error. If after reviewing the Rules, you have no idea why your account was suspended, just reply to this email indicating as much, and we’ll take another look at your case. Our apologies if the error turns out to be ours. Thanks, Twitter Support

My response:

I confirm that I have removed all prohibited following automation from my account, and will stop any manual aggressive following behavior.

It is a Business Breakdown poster for your work space. It gives you a look at your market, what makes you different in that market, how you are niched down, and a look at your ideal customer all on one sheet.

Once you fill out the poster, you might want to print it out and post on the wall or save it as your wallpaper on your computer’s desktop.

If you want to jump into downloading the large format image, the link is at the bottom of the post, but I suggest reading through the explanation of how to use and the example below before getting started.

How to use the Business Breakdown Tool

Step 1: Business Name

Fill in the name of your business or your website name at the top.

Step 2: Determine Your Market

This is the broadest version of your category of business. It can also be referred to as industry. Some examples are gaming, creativity, business, online marketing, etc.

Fill this in the “Market” section of your poster.

Step 3: Choose a Differentiator

How is your niche site or business different than the rest of those in your market?

It can not be “I will do it better”. Everyone is trying to be the best and becoming the best is determined by individual opinion. Instead think of it as a the specifics of what your business does.

This involves finding categories in your market. A few examples might be helpful:

• Business (Market) -> Online Business (Differentiator)
• Health (Market) -> Paleo diet with quick cardio exercises (Differentiator)
• Creativity (Market) -> Quick and inexpensive (Differentiator)

Step 4: Niche Down

Niching down is how you are different than your competition. This is often around the person you want your business to serve, but can also be taking your differentiator a step or two more specific.

Niching down using your audience you can just be descriptive of your ideal customer. Having your customers just be woman, men, a specific rate, nationality, or personality type are all great ways.

Niching down using a more specific version of your differentiator is another good option. Niche site Journal (this site) is a good example. Business (market) -> Online Business (Differentiator) -> Niche Site (Niche) and Data Driven Content (Niche)

Step 5: Find Your Ideal Customer

Now is my favorite part!

Find a friend, someone you know, or even a celebrity to portray your ideal customer. It needs to be someone who you can image their habits, choices, and personality.

For example, if I choose Woody Allen as my “Ideal Customer”. I  know that he has high anxiety, doesn’t like to take risks, is rarely on the internet, hates the outdoors, etc.

By having this person (or you can choose a few) on your poster you can think about where would be the best place to market to them, where should you guest post, what are they struggling with, and similar questions.

Step 6: Hang Near Your Workstation

Now take you poster and hang it close to your workstation. This way when you are creating content, planing your social media campaign, or making any business decision you have a complete view of you business and your customers.

Example

The ideal customer I chose was my friend Jeff.

Sometimes it helps to write important information about Jeff on the poster next to him, but I know him so well I just need his photo.

Download The Business Breakdown Tool

Business Breakdown Poster (.jpg at 1.15 MB)

If you don’t have software to add your text to the poster, you can use the free online photo editing tool at pixlr.com.

Please let me know if you found this poster useful.

Thanks!

If you want updates when I release new tools or emails with a peek at some of the numbers I use for choosing my keywords, my analytic’s traffic numbers, and other important data related to me making money with my Niche Sites, you can get all that as a member of the newsletter.

It is completely free, simply sign up below:

The Niche Site Journal Podcast documents the experience of three guys taking brand new niche sites from idea to profitable businesses. Join Jason, Lior, and Dennis as they share their unique processes and insights into the incredible opportunity of building niche websites.

If you have any questions about the things we mention in this episode, feel free to post it in the comment section below. We read them all and will answer your question in the comment section or on the next podcast episode.

Those in the Master Mind Group:

Lior at musevsmuse.com

Dennis at castleforgemedia.com

Jason at jasonloveslife.com

Things Mentioned in the Show:

• Businessmanagementdegreehq.com – Jason’s most recent Niche Site experiment.
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki – Anyone stuck in the rat-race of living paycheck to paycheck, enslaved by the house mortgage and bills, will appreciate this breath of fresh air. Learn about the methods that have created more than a few millionaires.
• Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin – There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there’s a third team, the linchpins. These people figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.
• Pocket Google App – When you find something on the web that you want to view later, put it in Pocket. It automatically syncs to your phone, tablet or computer so you can view it at any time, even without an internet connection.
• Dunkin Donut’s Coffee – Dennis’ coffee of choice.
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg – Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
• Interview with Jason Van Orden – Our chat with Jason from Internet Business Mastery.
• Brian Brushwood – An American magician, podcaster, author and comedian. The host of Scam School.
• Fizzle.co: Podcast and blog on Online Business.
• The Art of Non-conformity: Based on Chris Guillebeau’s popular online manifesto “A Brief Guide to World Domination,” The Art of Non-Conformity defies common assumptions about life and work while arming you with the tools to live differently.
• John Saddington – educator, writer, entrepreneur, engineer, and more.
• 1,000 true fans article –  Art discussing how creators, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
• Video Production on the Cheap – Dennis’ free ebook on how to produce great video when you are on a budget.
• bluesharmonica.com – David Barrett’s blues harmonica tutorial site.

Resource Recommendation

pixlr.com – Website where you edit photos online.

Dennis video mentioned in the podcast:

The Niche Site Journal Podcast documents the experience of three guys taking brand new niche sites from idea to profitable businesses. Join Jason, Lior, and Dennis as they share their unique processes and insights into the incredible opportunity of building niche websites.

In this episode we talk about User Experience

If you have any questions about the things we mention in this episode, feel free to post it in the comment section below. We read them all and will answer your question in the comment section or on the next podcast episode.

Those in the Master Mind Group:

Lior at musevsmuse.com

Dennis at castleforgemedia.com

Jason at jasonloveslife.com

Need SEO?

If you are looking to improve your SEO guaranteed, contact Lior at lior@liorohayon.com

Things Mentioned in the Show:

• Textbroker.com: A place to hire short term ghost writers.
• Buffer: Allows you to schedule Social Media posts in a super easy way.
• Waukesha 4-H: Where Jason is working temporarily
  Like the facebook page and make Jason look good for his bosses.
• helpareporter.com: Connect with Journalist and get sweet backlinks to your site.
• Fiverr: The place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5.
•  Entrepreneurs-journey.com with Yaro interviewing Pat Flynn
• Pat Flynn’s Auto Responder Strategy Post

E-Cards from Facebook

The Niche Site Journal Podcast documents the experience of three guys taking brand new niche sites from idea to profitable businesses. Join Jason, Lior, and Dennis as they share their unique processes and insights into the incredible opportunity of building niche websites.

In this episode we have special guest Jason Van Orden of Internet Business Mastery joining in the discussion.

In this episode we cover scheduling content, branding, productivity, business models for online businesses, and more.

Those in this Week’s Master Mind:

Lior at musevsmuse.com

Dennis at castleforgemedia.com

Jason Love at jasonloveslife.com
(JJ the Love Plane)

Jason Van Orden at internetbusinessmastery.com
(Guest Member)

Things Mentioned in the Show:

Seth Godin
Author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker.

Quora
A question and answer website.

Tim Ferris
Author, entrepreneur, and public speaker.

Internet Business Mastery Academy
Courses by Jason and Jeremy of Internet Business Mastery.

Entrepreneur on fire
A daily podcast, hosted by John Lee Dumas, interviewing entrepreneurs.

Quick Sprout
A  website on SEO, content marketing, copywriting, etc.

Interview with Ryan Oakley
Ryan Oakley just hit a record five-figure income in one month. He doesn’t have a product. He’s only published around 20 posts to his blog.

Oakley’s site
How to Create a Gorgeous Photography Website with SmugMug in 90 Minutes – A Complete Step-By-Step Tutorial

Strengths Finders 2.0
A test you take to find your strenghts and your personality type.

The kolbe Assesment
Similar to Strengths Finder, this is a test you take to determine your strongest skills.

Tim Ferris Ketchup:

Would you buy 4 Hour Ketchup?