Continue reading »]]> Having a strong outreach strategy for blogs can represent an excellent way to boost your SEO, and can help to build strong relationships with high profile sites; a consistent outreach approach can, then, lead to guest posts and blogger promotions that can generate significant leads and inbound links for clients, and can also create new opportunities for collaboration with other bloggers. However, there are some warning signs that should be looked out for when deciding whether or not a site is worth contacting and developing a relationship with.

1 – No Social Toolbar or Social Optimisation

You want a site to be able to generate discussion and social links – the more times that a guest post or article is shared, the more chance there’ll be of you receiving click throughs and links. Sites that have an inconsistent social media policy, and that don’t include a social toolbar for consolidating different networks should be viewed with some caution; moreover, do comment sections on a blog regularly produce useful comments and discussion that can lead to shares, or does the site mostly attract spam responses?

2 – Lack of Post Frequency

This is crucial to look out for on sites – while there may be some good posts on a blog, and it may be in the niche that you’re trying to hit, you might see that posts aren’t appearing that regularly; there may be a lot of posts at a certain time of the year, but these might then drop off. Look at what other content is on a page, and see whether or not the webmaster is producing their own, high quality posts, or whether they’re soliciting a lot of low quality guest posts.

3 – Not Indexed on Google

Any page that’s not indexed by Google should be viewed with some suspicion – this may be due to it being a relatively new blog, or to URLs changing; however, a webmaster that hasn’t taken the necessary steps to get their site indexed may not be updating it very often, or might not be able to provide the crawlability and site optimisation that can deliver a larger audience. Pages with poor HTML headers and no sitemaps should also be approached with caution if possible. If the homepage or worse the entire site is not index, this can be sign of a Google penalty caused by black hat linking practices.

4 – Overly Complex Guest Posting Rules

You may have found a great site, but it may have overly complicated guest posting rules that will drain a lot of time from the writing and editing process; in this context, it’s worth weighing up the amount of time and value that a site deserves. Quantity versus quality is always going to be a key challenge for outreach, and unless the site or blog has a large readership and social value, it may not be worth spending a lot of time trying to please the rules of a webmaster.

5 – Weak Content on a Site

A site that has a lot of ‘thin’ posts and guest posts should be fairly easy to spot; check for repurposed or spun content, as well as posts that seem to be have been copied and pasted from elsewhere; pages that deal in this kind of content are gradually being phased out from PageRank by Google, and should be avoided if you don’t want to create a negative association with your link, even if the webmaster is happy to post or accept guest posts.

Rob James is a outreach specialist, currently working to increase awareness of creative digital agency boxmodel. Rob can be found online blogging about various SEO related topics from a healthy backlink profile to avoiding onsite duplication.

Continue reading »]]>
Someone gives you a million dollars. You are now happier than you have ever been before in your life. True or false?

You have a friend who essentially lives on welfare. They complain about being poor and they spend their money on lottery tickets, cigarettes, and unhealthy fast food. You decide that living on that much money would make for a miserable life, no matter who you were or what your situation was. True or false?

Having money is nice. Having more money is always nicer though, and would make you happier. True or false?

The more money you spend on yourself, the happier you will be. True or false?

Owning a house or a new car will make you happier. True or false?

Getting a college education and a better job will result in increased happiness. True or false?

#######

Every time you said “true” in this little quiz (or even wanted to say true) then that is a red flag that you are being manipulated by the powers that be.

The problem with our own happiness is that we are too close to it most times to accurately measure it.

Rarely do we take a step back and examine our lives to really see if we have been effective. We may be working hard and spending plenty of money, but is this translating into happiness for us?

Frivolous spending is seductive because it actually works in the short run. We do get a temporary boost of happiness when we splurge. But the sugar high of a new car purchase is gone in less than a month typically. Smaller purchases than a new car are gone even faster. True happiness remains elusive if you are trying to get it through your spending.

A brand new car (with average purchase price of over 20K) is just money down the drain. You may need transportation, but you do not need a 20K+ vehicle that smells brand new.

I am single and live in a one bedroom apartment. My car is ten years old.

I am happy.

Now I could easily go take out a mortgage and buy a nice house. Then I could go to the car dealer and buy a brand new Nissan Juke.

And what would I get for this $50,000? A used house and a very shiny car. Property taxes for the rest of my life that cost nearly what I pay in apartment rent right now. Plus the added headaches of maintenance and upkeep on the home. Oh, and I would have to go get full coverage insurance on the new car.

The sugar high of these two purchases (new car, new house) would last for a little while. But for how long? How long before hedonic adaptation would kick in and bring me back to my regular level of happiness? That “regular level of happiness” being defined as “just happy” and not “ecstatic from the sugar high of a major purchase.”

No one is immune to hedonic adaptation. You may need a new car. And you may need a new house. I don’t know, I’m not you. But I can tell you that I don’t really need to own a home today. I am quite happy to be renting a nice little apartment for dirt cheap. And I definitely know today that I don’t NEED a shiny new car for 20K+ dollars. At some point my existing car may have some problems, and I will need new transportation. But at that time (which is definitely not here yet) I will not NEED to run out and buy a 20K+ vehicle. That is just extravagant.

Most people in our modern world have pressure on them to go produce a living, to earn income, to punch a time clock. That pressure is like a disease to me. I hate it.

Gratefully, I have freedom today. I don’t have to work if I choose not to. There is no pressure on me to accomplish something or to go punch a time clock. I have removed that pressure through a combination of:

1) Practical frugality.
2) Alternative income.

I am not really retired in the strictest sense of the word. Instead I am self employed. I write freelance. Even without my investment income, I would still be living quite well on only a few hours of work per week. As it is now I have multiple streams of income, but could get by with just one.

The reason I can get by with just a few hours of work each week is due to frugality. I am not depriving myself and living a life of misery or anything. I am happy and excited to be doing the things that I get to do. Each day is a gift, and an adventure. You don’t have to spend lots of money for that opportunity.

Some people are perfectly happy being trapped in the work-spend cycle. They like having to work 40+ hours each week just to make ends meet. Maybe that describes you. If so then I can assure you that you are reading the wrong website!

Let me leave you with a quote from one of our founding fathers. I think it speaks of ambition as well as frugality:

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. – Benjamin Franklin

Continue reading »]]> Mark this day in history, April 15th of 2013 and suddenly the price of gold drops almost 10 percent in one day and the stock market takes a dive. Whoopy dink.

From an historic perspective this is probably just business as usual but it certainly makes me think, because so many people have been shouting about how the bull run has to end at some point for a long time now. Eventually, of course, all things do come to end. But no one knows if this is just a speed bump or if it is the start of a nasty decline.

Anyway it makes me think about life, security, entrepreneurship, etc.

There is a continuum of people who are basically optimistic about our economy and investing all the way down to people who believe it is all going to crash and burn at any moment. And of course everything in between.

There are some scenarios that are very difficult (or nearly impossible) to defend against. It doesn’t matter what your asset allocation is on paper if hyperinflation hits, for example. Nor does it matter if you own property if complete anarchy arrives and there are looters pillaging the countryside. At some point you have to ask yourself how bad you think it might get in a worst case scenario, and if that is even worth planning for or not.

To some extent I believe the only real diversification is resilience and skill building.

If you can live an extremely frugal life and you also have lots of different skills that lend themselves to self sufficiency then you are about as diversified and well-prepared as you can get.

So one question is: “How do you practice a lifestyle of frugality, while also building up various skill sets?”

I have made some efforts in this area over the last few years and I am happy with my results so far. My two biggest examples in the frugality arena are my home and my car. Currently I:

1) Live and work out of an apartment for $425/month. A home office tax deduction drops this even lower.
2) Drive a ten year old car with an operating cost that is under $200/month. If I buy a new (used) car I will do so in that same price range of around $200/month operating cost. (Of course I would pay cash up front for a used car and never finance it).

I could almost say that my distance running is part of frugality and resilience as well. I have a strict schedule of running 6 miles every other day and the cost of doing this is close to zero. I do buy running shoes occasionally but these become my everyday footwear once they are “retired.” I generally buy last years shoes on closeout rather than the latest and greatest shoes.

There was a day several years ago when I woke up here in Michigan to go to work and there was so much snow that the regular plow trucks were getting stuck (not the big ones of course). The snow was piled up higher than my car tires and no one had made it out of my parking lot yet. I think most people would have just walked back inside, called in sick to work, and curled up on the couch.

Instead, I simply locked my door, put my head down, and started running. I ran right down the main road because almost no one was out driving. It turned out that I made it to work only 7 minutes late and the employees were shocked to see me even show up. This is resilience through exercise. Because I was a distance runner it was no big deal to just leave the car behind and take off for work during inclement weather conditions.

So I ask you:

Who is more ready for an economic crash? The wealthy individual or the extremely frugal person?

Just go ask someone who is living homeless in any city today: how badly were they affected by the market downturn today? They will give you a blank stare or cuss at you for being so arrogant to suggest that they might have investments. The markets (and money in general) does not affect them much because they are used to operating with so little of it. If anarchy hits and the world markets completely melt down, the homeless population may be the best group of people to handle it and adapt.

If you can be happy with less then it empowers you to be more flexible and live a happier life in general.

If the whole world crumbles then we are left to rebuild with what we can salvage. Those who have a diverse skill set will fare better than others if things get worse (or really bad).

But I am not necessarily betting on total anarchy. I think that the government will do everything it can to preserve the wealth of the older generation and of their voters. Most of the reasonable people that I listen to think that it will take several years or even decades for the full effects of this to unwind. A long slow decline rather than a sudden crash. The end results may be the same, not sure. I am certainly no expert.

But I think it is smart to stay sharp, and keep developing skills, and practicing frugality. Lean and mean, baby!

What are you doing to future-proof your security? Buying guns and land? Investing in bitcoins? Hording gold?

Is it even a concern? Or do you feel content and worry-free with current economic conditions?

Continue reading »]]> This article may seem like a bit of a contradiction compared to what I am usually promoting and talking about around here.

As you all know I quit my day job.

I also had built a successful business that created passive income. Then I sold that business and I use that money to invest and create more passive income.

But ultimately I got something else from all of these experiences that I have had.

I got a job.

I got a job that I really, really like.

You might call this new job of mine “alternative income.”

It is not like a typical day job.

I don’t have a boss to deal with or office politics.

I don’t have to set my alarm clock if I don’t want to.

I don’t have to deal with performance reviews or annual employee evaluations.

I still technically have a “boss” but I never see him and I never talk to him either. He expects certain work done and I do it for him. He pays me for it. We email once per month and that is it. I have spoke to him on the phone maybe twice in the last 18 months.

This is freelance income. I work freelance on a per word basis.

Instead of building a new business for myself I have found it more desirable to build someone else’s business for them. That way it shifts the risks over to them and I get a steady income.

There are many advantages to a steady income. This is doubly true if you have already had one “payday” and you now have a pile of money invested.

But I want to point something else out to all of the aspiring entrepreneurs out there:

It’s easier to build wealth with a job than it is with a business.

Sure, it sounds sexy and appealing to start a business and then grow it so that you create freedom. But this is actually the more difficult path.

I always tell people that I got lucky with my business. But the truth is that I have published over 2 million words of original content online.

I want you to do me a favor. Sit down and start typing up articles about your favorite subject. Count the words. Let me know when you get to 2 million.

Because that is how much EXTRA WORK that I did before I hit my big payday.

And to be honest, before I even had any steady income from the site I was pushing up close to 1 million words of published content.

So maybe I should not be telling people that I got lucky. Because really this is giving them a false hope that they might get lucky too. The truth is that I write incredibly fast and I am a monster when it comes to creating new content and I have put in days where I created 25 articles and clocked over 20,000 words of new published content.

This is not typical.

If you want results similar to mine then you need to take similar actions. Don’t just write 100 articles and build a few links and expect money to rain down on you from out of nowhere. That is not how I “got lucky.” No, I got lucky by writing and writing and writing some more. If you love to write and you typically write several thousand new words of content each day then by all means, start yourself a new business.

But I have a more realistic suggestion for everyone that is much more in line with my own experience, and is much more in line with how I actually created success for myself:

Go put in the work. Do the work first, learn how to hustle up the income from your skills before you try to turn it into a business.

That means if you want to make money online you should master freelance writing first. Learn how to earn $1,000/month from freelance before you try to create a website that can produce $100/month in passive income. Learn to crawl before you try to walk.

Go to Textbroker dot com or head over to Guru.com or go to Elance or find some job boards. There are all of these Internet marketing people out there right now who will pay you good money to write them a new book for Kindle.

If you want to run your own business online and earn passive income then I suggest you master the tools that will allow you to build that empire FIRST and foremost. Put in the work and actually go build something, go hustle up a paycheck, go do some freelance work for someone and master the skills.

If you want to earn passive income some day then you need to learn how to create real value first.

Or maybe you just want to run a real world business and expect that the Internet is going to bring you free leads or free traffic so that you can gain new customers.

This is a case of “inside out” thinking. It is backwards. Instead, go start your “real world business” and start doing whatever you are going to do for real customers, and then later once you are turning a profit you should add on the website and order your business cards that have your URL on them. Having a website is not going to generate business or leads. The website doesn’t do anything on its own. It just sits there. If you want traffic to that website then you have to go hustle it up for yourself, or put in a few years of work in order to get the search engines to send you free traffic.

Folks, none of this is easy. Owning a running even a part time business is very competitive, and quite honestly it is easier to just have a regular job.

Take me, for example. I was lucky enough to build a stream of passive income once and here I am, still working a regular (freelance) job for regular income. I have some projects on the side to try to build a business down the road but I am not expecting an instant miracle. I am realistic enough to pay my bills first by putting in honest work and creating real value for someone, and then later in my free time I work on my “legacy project” that will hopefully turn a profit in the future.

Call me risk-averse if you like. Call me a chicken or a sell out. But today I realize that the easiest way to build wealth is to get a steady paycheck and then cut your expenses down to the bone. I know exactly how hard it is to build a profitable business and I have a good idea of what my true dollar-per hour is when I am trying to create a future income stream.

I inspire a lot of people to create websites. The problem is that most of these people should be inspired to roll up their sleeves and earn active income first so that they can learn the ropes of business building from the ground up.

There are lots of people out there who will pay any freelancer to give them value and build them a website. They are taking the risk and giving you an instant paycheck. You have a choice to make: will you take the instant paycheck, or will you turn your nose up at that income and try to risk it all on the idea that you can build your own business and become profitable some day?

Me, I am trying to convince people to take the instant paycheck first, learn the skills, and then expand into their own business later on.

This is a more accurate description of how I built my own empire. I did not just quit my day job and then start this ultra successful business that went viral for me. No, I worked hard the whole time and in fact I worked a full time job while I was building my business. Therefore I cannot really advise someone who wants to start from scratch and somehow earn money online without being willing to work freelance in any way. Most people want to take a risk and get this dream job for themselves (business ownership) when in fact they just need to hustle for income right now. They need to take action and get results but they don’t want to do it. In many ways it would easier for them to just go get a day job. Which is not always a bad idea, even though jobs suck.

If I had to start over from scratch right now I would probably use a 5 year plan to build my independence:

1) Go get a day job. Any job. Put in 40 hours/week.
2) Start freelancing on the side, in addition to the 40 hour/week day job.
3) Take on roommates and ditch my car for 5 years. Lower expenses below $1,000/month and possibly get them as low as $700/month or so.
4) Bank at least $2,000/month for the next 5 years straight.
5) Invest money after 5 years and then continue to live frugal. Quit the day job and continue to freelance for an hour or so per day. Reach the crossover point shortly thereafter.

Working freelance is like a compromise between being super wealthy and rich versus still working a 40 hour/week day job.

If you start doing freelance work from home then you might only earn like 10 bucks in two hours. But if you keep at it and continue to improve and find your niche then eventually you may earn more like $50 to $100 per hour or even more. At that point you are truly free because you can earn a living from a laptop from anywhere in the world. This is the position I am in now with my freelance work.

My current “job” of doing about 1 hour of freelance per day is worth more than all of the money that I have banked.

Think about that carefully because it is not a lesson that I learned easily. In fact I had to build a successful business, experience passive income on many different levels, and work many different jobs before I fully understood this concept. I really treasure my current “job” more than my wealth. Shoot, my current “job” exceeds my wealth in only 7 short years! Combined with frugality this is a lot of power. This is the foundation of wealth.

Alternative income is more valuable than a day job, and is the real goal. Don’t try to figure out how to create passive income (it is a myth/dream anyway). Instead, try to figure out how you can create alternative income in your life on a consistent basis while also cutting your expenses. This is the real path to wealth, in my experience.

Continue reading »]]> When do you have enough of something?

What is “enough” really?

We tend to define “enough” in terms of money, because we know that we can exchange money for just about anything that we want, except for more time (more on that in a moment).

We want to live in a nice home or drive a decent car and we need money to do those things. Plus we want to have money bank so that are future is secure.

Tim Ferriss makes a good point in “the four hour workweek” when he talks about the process of dreamlining. He makes the point that we all want more money and more free time, but we never necessarily define those alternative activities that we would rather be doing. You hate sitting at your desk at the day job all day long, but what are you really dreaming about? What would you rather be doing, seriously? Have you taken the time define that alternative?

Or do you just use the excuse that our consumerist society has the deck stacked against you and that could never enjoy that level of freedom anyway, so why bother to really define your dreams?

Tim points out that most of us are doing exactly that: we have repressed our dreams because we do not believe that they are realistic. We have accepted our fate as a wage slave, knowing that we have to keep turning the crank of full-time employment in order to keep maintaining our current lifestyle.

Tim is a smart guy and a bit of an over achiever. His method is to expand your income generating ability while ignoring frugality. There are others who have flip this equation to reflect the opposite approach. For example, Jacob Fiskar advocates focusing on frugality rather than increasing income. He cites that it is very difficult for most people to increase their income anyway, but it is very possible for most people dramatically reduce their living expenses. Either path can lead to freedom.

But interestingly, both paths (higher income or lower living expenses) require you to define how much is enough.

Also interesting to me is that both of those philosophies take special care to try to lead the reader to define for themselves how much is really enough. Without knowing this piece of data, one can never really be happy, because they will always believe that they would be happier if they just had a little bit more.

Another friend of mine online, Todd Tressidder, points out that even after achieving financial independence, he did not necessarily get a huge shift in his level of happiness. He realized that he was using his day job as an excuse for why he was unhappy. He knew he had enough money while he was working full time, but he wanted his time freedom back, and believed that this would lead to blissful happiness. He learned that this was not necessarily the case, and that achieving financial freedom and early retirement did not lead to a state of pure bliss, as he once believed that it would.

Again, it is a case of defining how much is truly enough. Bill Gates has a quote that I truly love where he says something to the effect of:

“Don’t get me wrong, it is nice having billions of dollars and all that. But I have to tell you, it is still the same hamburger.”

What a brilliant piece of insight that is! Here I am believing that if I had $1 million that all of my hamburgers that I ate would somehow be fantastic and everything would taste so good. Obviously this is a fantasy. Having unlimited amounts of money does not translate into pure bliss, especially when it comes to eating hamburgers. Now ask yourself a critical question: how much of your life would be unaffected if you had unlimited money? Probably more than you are willing to admit to yourself at this time. Even people who are smarter than you and I fall into this trap all the time. We project our unhappiness on our lack of riches or on a day job that consumes our time. The real problem is much deeper than either of those things, and cannot be solved simply by having more money or more free time.

There is a balancing act between what is reasonable and what is too extreme when it comes to frugality. For example, I am not willing to live in a tent just to save money on rent. On the other hand, I am happy to live in a small apartment that only costs very little ($425/month). I could easily go purchase a house and pay property taxes and spend extra money maintaining the home and spend extra time keeping the home in good shape, but I am not willing to make that investment. It would likely cost me more than renting in a number of different ways that most people never consider.

Today I believe that I have enough. I cannot create additional happiness in my life simply by having more discretionary income. That is a myth that I no longer have to believe. I am happy to do a certain amount of work in order to maintain my lifestyle. Am I willing to do more work than this? No. Am I willing to put in 50 or 60 hours each week in a more stressful full-time position, just so that I can upgrade my housing, my vehicle, my entertainment expenses? No I am not.

In fact, I have already experienced what it is like to work full time, have some additional passive income from a business, and be earning roughly double the income that I have right now. I know what it is like to work twice as many hours and have twice as much discretionary income. I have already experienced that reality. When I was doing that, I yearned to have more free time, and I realized that I could not spend my way to happiness. I had extra money and I was not afraid to spend it on myself, but I realized that doing so was not making me happy.

The next lesson that I learned is that having my free time back after quitting my day job was not necessarily the ticket to eternal bliss either. We all believe that if we have unlimited money and unlimited free time that our happiness will be at its peak. I know today that just having enough money, or free time, or both– is not the solution. Happiness stands outside of this equation. It has nothing to do with our amount of free time or discretionary income. You cannot buy your way to happiness, nor can you “leisure” your way to happiness through excessive free time.

I am grateful that I have had the opportunity in my life to have enough. I have had enough money, and I have had enough free time, and now I know that the real journey does not depend on either of those. Today, I can seek happiness through the projects that I take on and the challenges that I accept. I no longer have to live under the illusion that I would be happy if I just had a little more money, or free time, or both. That is a fantasy that no longer fools me.

What about you? Do you have enough money? Do you have enough free time? Do you think that you would be happier if you had more? Is it possible that you are projecting your unhappiness on to something that is not the true root of the problem?

Have you defined what enough is? Are you waiting until you have enough before you give yourself permission to be happy?

If so, do you realize the insanity of that?

Continue reading »]]> A couple of days ago I was at a friends house and he was using a dictation program in order to write on his computer. The program was Dragon naturally speaking 12 and he was using a cheap $19 headset.

My friend is admittedly a bit of a hillbilly. And as I sat there watching him, I was amazed at the incredible accuracy that this software was producing for him. He quickly generated a new user profile and then had me start using the device myself. I quickly rambled off a five minute test and was very near 100 words per minute.

Normally I type and compose new content extremely quickly. Each morning I wake up and I type, with my fingers, a 3000 word article in 50 minutes flat. I push the publish button and then I move on with my day. If you do the math on that this is exactly 60 words per minute. Note that I am actually writing, composing, and planning the content in my mind as I create a new article at this speed. I think quickly while I am typing.

I had assumed in the past that this rate of typing was fast enough for my purposes. But lately I have taken on a few additional projects, and I have to admit that it sounds appealing to nearly double my rate of content creation.

So I took the plunge and I am currently dictating this article into a cheap $20 headset that I got from Walmart, and I am likely averaging about 70 words per minute. I actually set this up about 48 hours ago and so I have not been using it for very long.

There is a learning curve here, but it is a very interesting curve. This is really about becoming a more polished speaker. Not in terms of articulating words, but in being able to think while you are listening to your own voice. I have never been a great public speaker. But I can think very quickly while I am typing on a keyboard. So for me, the learning curve is in learning how to compose my next sentence while I am speaking the current sentence out loud. If I pause while I am dictating then my words per minute does not rise very much above 60. But when I talk freely and quickly without pausing I can get up to 100 words per minute.

It kind of depends on the content that I am creating, and who I am creating it for. For example, I have a new website that I am working on that is not of critical importance to me. So I wanted to push myself to go a little bit quicker on this particular article, and I was able to do 104 words per minute while composing a simple 800 word article. This was complete with separate paragraphs, proper sentence structure, and no spelling errors. However, while this may sound really good, it is definitely not the norm for me. Let me explain.

While I am doing my freelance work (that I actually get paid for), I cannot seem to achieve that same level of speed. Normally I am getting between 65 and 70 words per minute when composing this more important content. And although this sounds better than my typing speed, I am still not sure if it is worth it because of the difference in how you must mentally compose the article as you are writing or dictating it.

What I would like to see in the future is an increase in my speed when I’m creating important, high-level content using dictation. I know for a fact that my typing speed is not going to increase any further than the level it is that now, unless I do significant training or practice exercises. For the last few years I have been typing over 1 million words per year, and my speed is pretty well fixed at 60 words per minute.

What is exciting about Dragon is that I am hitting 65 to 70 words per minute after only using it for two days. So my hope is that I can increase this significantly in the future, and leave the keyboard behind forever.

Another interesting thing to note is that I am more willing to write extra content during the day if I am dictating. In that sense, it seems a little easier than actually typing new articles. I am more willing to do extra work. Although I wonder if this is simply related to having a new gadget and a new method of creating content.

Another interesting thing to note is the difference between creating shorter content versus longer content. I have a bit of burn out when I am dictating and speaking out loud. This is evidenced by the fact that I can easily hit 70 to 100 words per minute on articles that are shorter than 1000 words. But each day I write an article that is a minimum of 3000 words. And I have found so far that on this longer article, the best I can do is 69 words per minute. Again, this is after only two days of using voice dictation.

One other thing to note is that my computer is about five years old. I know that this software loves a fast processor, and will perform even better if you throw additional speed at it. Having dual core or quad core processors, or additional RAM, is not really as important as simply having a really fast CPU. That is my understanding at least. So I am wondering if my speed might increase a little more if I got a faster processor.

So I know you have probably heard all of this before, and read about people who are doing 100 words per minute using voice dictation. So I am just throwing this out there to show you what is realistic to expect if you try to jump on this bandwagon yourself. Even though I type fairly fast to begin with, I can see that using voice dictation might be a quantum leap ahead for me if my speed increases further. Already I can see that my words per minute is slightly faster than typing, but more importantly, I seem to be more willing to produce additional content each day. And perhaps that is the more important breakthrough, even if I do (or do not) eventually reach 100+ words per minute.

What about everyone else here? What is your typing speed, and have you ever considered voice dictation? Or are you using it already, and I am just late to the party?

P.S. As an additional note, I only had to fix about three errors on this article that you are reading now. I only used the training part of the software for a single session, and then I started using it for content creation after that. My understanding is that it continues to learn as you use it. Pretty impressive, really.

Continue reading »]]> I have a new friend in the world and his name is Tayo.

This guy is amazing and I think he is going to produce some impressive results online.

Unbelievably, he transcribed, by hand, my entire 1 hour interview with Yaro!

You can see his “10 lessons learned” post if you follow the link. You can also get the PDF of the interview if you want to read it on his site.

I am proud to call this guy my friend and business associate. He is destined for great things online, and I am excited for him!

Continue reading »]]> Google effectively killed this website so it is really just my sounding board now, a place to throw ideas out into the interwebs. This is a very “stream of consciousness” sort of article so bear with me.

I have already achieved the 8 hour work week. What now?

I recently figured out that I have basically achieved something close to the four hour work week, though it is not in the way that I envisioned it. But nevertheless I have achieved the same basic goal: I write for about an hour a day and therefore my work week is actually less than 8 hours. This is not quite as good as a 4 hour work week but it is pretty darn close, PLUS recognize that I can do my freelance writing from any laptop from any location in the world (that has Internet access).

So I have achieved mobility. I have achieved a minimalist work week. And the amazing thing is that the writing that I am doing is still quite meaningful. It is not as though I am scraping my fingernails on a chalkboard here. I actually enjoy the writing, the reader interaction, the new ideas, etc. The work remains satisfying in a way that my old day job was somewhat satisfying (and served a need to connect with people and help them).

So I now have a much better work-life balance. It is not a 4 hour week but it is close, and reducing it from 8 hours per week down to 4 hours is probably not the path to fulfillment.

I have a few ideas in regards to my writing and one of them is to possible write and pitch a traditional book to publishers (actually through my employer, it would be their book but I would write it).

I am content to keep writing with my 8 hour work week for now and also having passive investment income to supplement that. I do not necessarily feel like I need a new project or a new career path but perhaps I am fooling myself? Writing a book might be part of that path or perhaps not. (Update: I have wrote a few books and that is no real solution, nor do I feel that is the right path for me. Not to say I will never write any more of course).

What is the one big goal in your life that, if achieved, would change everything?

This question deserves thorough exploration because without a good answer to it I will tend to drift somewhat aimlessly. I do not believe that “more money” or “less work” is necessarily a worthy goal at this point. The problem with achieving those goals is that they do not define the positive, they only eliminate negatives (not enough money, not enough free time). I have already met time/money goals once or twice in my life and I feel like I am in a decent position in terms of work/life balance. Writing for an hour per day from my laptop is great, very flexible, very mobile, etc. Writing less or working less is not a worthy goal in my opinion.

Creating more money would likely be a hollow victory as well. So what if I were to double my net worth and thus my investments? So what? This would not really buy me much more freedom and or happiness (unless I give myself permission to spend it, or go crazy, or travel with the money, etc….and that may be a fleeting experience as well!)

So that last bit is sort of the key here…..I already have mobility, I already have an eight hour work week, so the question is coming down to: “What do I really want to do with my life, with my time, with my work?”

What should I create?

* More money is not the answer. It is very tough not to believe this is the answer. Very, very tough! My brain sort of believes in this fantasy that if I suddenly had more money or higher income that I would automatically spend that and create more leisure, more travel, more fun, more…..what? We need to define the “what” so that we know what we are working towards. Tim Ferriss attempts to do this with a process called “dreamlining.”

* I still have an ongoing internal debate about “rent or buy.” I currently rent for $425/month. I may buy a small, cheap house in an area with really low property taxes. Pay cash for the house and then start living even cheaper than I do now ($425/month in rent is darn cheap, but I think I could halve this with a cheap house in the right township). Houses in my target township are currently going for 35K. Property taxes are roughly $800/year or so. But the biggest variables are: 1) I am not sure I would enjoy home ownership and the work involved and constant maintenance. 2) I get a return on the money that would be invested in the home, so there is opportunity cost to buying.

Using the excellent rent vs. buy calculator at Patrick.net shows that it is basically a wash for me in this situation. This of course assumes a TON of variables, and there is no way that you can make a rent vs. buy analysis without making all sorts of assumptions. For example, like what rate of return you will get on your 35K if you invest it instead of tie it up in a house. The other major variable is how long you will live in the house. If you live there for 90 years then that slants things in favor of buying. But the average length of home occupancy is 7 years and falling right now.

* I recently took a long vacation in FL and was gone from my apt for several weeks. I purchased a cheap laptop for the trip ($200) and it looks like I will be keeping the thing. At first I was disappointed in how cheap the used laptop was (got it from Cowboom.com) but it turned out to do its job really well: I found that I could easily crank out several thousand words an hour during my vacation days with no problem. Thus the machine paid for itself and if I had went and got a MacBook Air for $1,000 I would have wasted at least $800. My plan now is to keep this cheap laptop for several years and continue to use it to earn money while traveling. Why not?

* I have a side project now that is really what this website should have been to begin with. I am now building the website that I should have created a year ago. This will become my legacy project, and the brand that I put on my business cards. It’s a great brand name and is much better than “make money with no work” which is admittedly awful. I am looking to launch the site within a week or so. Stay tuned, etc.

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Making money without any active effort is easier said than done, but thanks to the various investment opportunities online, it can be done. Investing requires some knowledge and strategy, but so long as it remains a side project meant for supplemental income, it can be done without a great deal of work or time commitment. Specifically, one popular source of additional, passive income through investment is the precious metals market. Precious metals such as gold and silver tend to be simpler to invest in than your average stock, and can also offer you the potential for supplemental income without a large degree of risk. Here are a few words on how such an investment works.

How To Invest
Because they are not available to be traded in ordinary stock markets (other than through ETFs or investments in mining companies), precious metals are bought and sold on their own websites. For example, at a site like BullionVault.com, you can purchase any amount of physical gold bullion you choose, at any time and with any currency. You can then withdraw your gold or have it stored at a secure vault until you decide to sell it back for currency. Ultimately, this makes for a very efficient and reliable method of investment that is particularly convenient as a passive side project.

Why To Invest
Generally speaking, precious metal is a low-risk, modest reward investment. Because the prices of precious metals change on an international basis, without reliance on any single industry, company, country or currency, those prices tend to remain more stable than those of many other stocks and resources. This means that – generally speaking – your investment in precious metal will not be likely to plummet due to a sudden shift in price. Similarly, the gains are often slow and modest. But if you are specifically looking for a side source of gradual income, precious metal investment may be ideal.

When To Invest
Method and motive are easy – but figuring out strategically when to put your money behind precious metals can be the tricky part. As is true of any investment, it is necessary to read and analyze the market in order to determine whether or not you think prices are likely to go up in the coming weeks, month, or even year. Often, the best way to read the gold and silver industries is to look at major world currencies. This is because, if these major currencies (such as the dollar and euro) struggle, many investors turn to precious metals to protect their finances from deflating value. This in turn drives the prices of those metals up. The same trend can occur in reverse, with thriving currencies driving the prices of precious metals. World currencies are only some of the factors involved, but they are often the most direct indicators of the precious metal market.

This is a guest post on behalf of BullionVault, written by freelancer Brian Sherman.