Today, Naomi Dunford is releasing Online Business School at 3 PM Eastern. I’ve mentioned this before; it’s her home study course that explains how she’s making over $200,000 this year from six income streams:

• consulting
• services
• selling physical stuff
• ebooks
• niche sites
• affiliate marketing

This includes audio, video, transcripts, bonuses, and “all that other stuff that I think is required by law in the info product industry,” as she says. I don’t know what all the bonuses are, but I just learned that one of them is Michael Martine’s home study course on WordPress search engine optimization.

I’ve really been looking forward to Online Business School. A couple of months ago, I asked Naomi to put together something like this, a practical guide to learning about the best ways to make money online, and then how to actually implement them. I was pleased to hear that she was already working on it!

But why do we need this from Naomi instead of any of the other gurus? Isn’t there already a whole bunch of information out there? Yes, but (1) unlike some people, we know that Naomi is actually doing these things, so she knows what she’s talking about, and (2) she’s very direct, easy to understand, and even entertaining.

Now, let’s get to the downside. I know it’s not fair for me to talk about the downside of a product that I haven’t even seen yet. However, it’s going to take me a while to get through everything, and this is a time sensitive offer, so I think I have to make a guess about what the imperfection in this product will be.

I say imperfection because I know that nothing is going to be “wrong” with it. Everything Naomi does is good. But still, I don’t think making a living online is easy, no matter what information you have. So I don’t think this will be a magic cure-all. It will still take brains and effort to put this stuff into practice. But you already knew that, right?

I like how she’s covering six diverse income streams instead of just one. You might not like all of them, but you can see what the possibilities are before choosing the ones you want to pursue. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of niche sites, and I don’t really see myself selling physical products. But I couldn’t stop doing ebooks and affiliate marketing, and I guess I’m already providing services to some extent, and consulting is something I’ve always had in mind. So you have a lot of flexibility here.

Now, what does all this cost? As you might have guessed, it’s not cheap: $397. But wait–here’s the good news. The first 2,000 copies will be discounted to $197. And yeah, that’s still a lot, but it’s a small price if it stops you from spinning your wheels or making mistakes that cost you money. And if for some reason you don’t like it, Naomi will either refund your money or personally coach you–your choice! This isn’t something you want to wait on, because she thinks she could possibly sell the first 2,000 copies today.

It must be nice to possibly make $394,000 in one day. ($197 * 2000, although that assumes no affiliate commissions. It also took months of work beforehand, so it’s not really one day.) That’s how you know Naomi knows her stuff! Want to learn how to do that? Well, that’s what Online Business School is about!

Update 3:30 PM: It looks like you have a little more time, because Naomi is suddenly having bandwidth issues. (Gee, I wonder why?) She hopes to have it up sometime later today.

This post is 2,200 words. If you don’t have time, just read the last paragraph.

Naomi Dunford at IttyBiz is releasing her Online Business School tomorrow (Wednesday), and I’ll probably write a separate post about that. But since I was planning to write this post anyway, I figured now was a good time, since it ties into Naomi’s stuff.

You have bills to pay, and they require money to pay them. In the U.S., the “normal” way to make money is through a job. But sometimes we forget that’s not the only way. Another way is to have your own business.

What exactly is a business? Well, it depends on who you ask. Some people say there are “businesses” and then there are “real businesses,” but the definitions vary. And some “businesses” are really no different from jobs, like if someone performs exactly the same tasks as the employees they work with but they think they’re so cool because they receive a 1099 instead of a W-2.

There are many reasons not to have a job, but the best one is freedom from a boss, being able to work on what you want, when you want. Of course, there are also several drawbacks, or everyone would do it. In a traditional business, you have to deal with things such as coming up with a product or service to sell, getting financing, managing employees, and dealing with tremendous stress.

Let’s say you wanted to open a Taco Bell franchise. Some people will say a franchise isn’t a real business, but anyway, it should be easy, right? I mean, someone else has already figured out a formula that works, so you just need to connect the dots and color, right?

Well, first of all, there’s a money problem. You’ll need a minimum net worth of $1 million and minimum liquid capital of $360,000, with the ability to secure additional financing to cover the rest of the initial investment, which is estimated to be $1,290,000 – $3,088,000 (source). That’s not feasible for most people. You’d also be working around the clock, and who knows if you’d be any good at it, or even like it? That seems to be considerably less freedom than you’d have with a job.

But traditional businesses involve issues like this. In this example, the main problem was the money. In another business, the main problem could be inventing products that are needed but don’t exist yet. Or the main problem could be convincing companies to dump their professional service providers and take a chance on you instead. People do these kinds of things all the time, but they’re beyond most people, and even if you have what it takes, it’s never a sure thing. And even if it all works out, you may find that because it consumes your life, you don’t own the business, the business owns you.

So a lot of people look to options other than traditional businesses. The idea is that maybe you don’t need to have a building and employees and inventory and such, but you just want something that’s a little easier to manage. Something that a normal person could realistically do and which would actually improve their life. The two business models I’ll talk about here are blogging and network marketing. Which is better?

Network marketing

When people hear about network marketing, they often say, “Wait, that’s a pyramid scheme!” Sorry, but that’s just ignorant. Pyramid schemes are illegal, so they couldn’t operate in plain sight for decades, even trading on the New York Stock Exchange, without anyone noticing and shutting them down.

A pyramid scheme is something like a chain letter, which is basically a game to pass money around. People get a letter in the mail from someone, send money to them, then send the letter to five other people and ask them to repeat the process. Does this sound like a legitimate business? It’s not–there’s no product or service being sold!

In network marketing, as in a traditional business, you make money by selling a product or service. The only difference with network marketing is that you can also sponsor people and get a percentage of their sales as well. For some reason, no one considers an affiliate program to be a pyramid scheme, even though it’s the same thing.

The fact that there’s a pyramid structure is no different from any company that has a president, vice presidents, directors, managers, and peons. What’s the alternative? Having every employee be an equal partner?

The reason network marketing has a bad reputation is because of questionable practices of some people and companies. For example, some companies required people to buy thousands of dollars worth of products in order to join. I agree that lots of bad things happened and still continue to happen, but that reflects on the parties responsible, not the business model itself. In 1979, the FTC ruled that network marketing was a legal business model. In Europe, network marketing is still called multi-level marketing, so I guess that term was never tarnished over there.

It’s kind of a shame that we have to spend that much time just establishing that network marketing is legit, but anyway…

The point of network marketing is that a system is in place, and you just have to run with it. You don’t have to go into the lab and invent a product, you don’t have to worry about payroll for your employees, etc. You just need to market the product. The idea is that as a human being, you can establish better relationships with potential customers one-on-one than the company could do by running ads on TV. And if you bring enough people on board, you can build up a residual income, living off your commissions from the people you sponsored.

There are a few problems here though. One is that there are a lot of dumb products being sold by network marketing companies, like overpriced miracle juice. And if the product is crap, so is the business. A lot of people like that stuff, but I never wanted to be a juice salesman. But there are lots of options. I used to sell financial products (and give away free financial education).

Another problem is all the rah-rah hype that companies love to promote, when they really need to be spending a lot more time on training about, oh I don’t know, maybe HOW TO MARKET THE PRODUCT? But this turned out to be a good thing for me.

I didn’t really go anywhere in network marketing until I stumbled onto Leaders Club. They’re a meta network marketing company, where the customers are themselves network marketers, looking for practical information on how to market their respective businesses. I signed up just because I wanted to try out their leads, but I was really impressed and decided to promote them when I found out they had their own affiliate program.

Once I made that switch, I started doing much better. Because my prospects had already joined a business they liked and just wanted some help with it, they needed a whole lot less convincing. I won the top sponsor award several times (sponsoring 5+ people in a month), and I was probably in the top 2% of all network marketers.

But, as in many fields (blogging for example), the top 2% doesn’t mean very much. I was never remotely close to making a living from it. And you have to deal with a lot of really apathetic people.

People would go to my site, put in their info, say they desperately needed help with [advertising/getting web traffic/finding prospects/whatever] so they could [get out of debt/quit their job/spend more time with their family/whatever]. But then they wouldn’t return my calls or my emails, or if they did they’d usually only be interested in solutions that were really easy and wouldn’t cost anything. Yeah, good luck with that.

I just don’t have a lot of patience for people who have no ambition at all. It’s like, “Dude, this is YOUR business that YOU asked for help with. Do you want to stop wasting money with ineffective advertising, or do you want to go back to watching ‘Prison Break?’”

And the whole residual income thing is nice, but it depends on what other people do. I sponsored 40 people before one of them sponsored a single person.

The verdict:

I wouldn’t recommend joining a traditional network marketing company unless you really like sales. Liking the product isn’t nearly enough, because most of your efforts will have nothing to do with the product. You’ll either be buying leads or generating them on your own, contacting them, finding out what they’re looking for and what motivates them, finding out if they have enough time and money for a business, and convincing them that they want to join with you instead of anyone else. Nobody will ever be serious, and many people won’t even be polite, so you have to be very patient and persuasive, and have a very thick skin. You really need to have superhuman unconditional compassion for all people. How do you know if you have it? If you have to ask, you don’t. Most people don’t. I sure don’t.

On the other hand, meta network marketing companies are entirely different, because your prospects have already been sold on the concept of network marketing, they’re already in a business they like, and they just want it to work better. It’s 1,000 times easier to work with these people, but it will still be frustrating. People will still drag their feet and forget that they’re the ones who need you. But it’s not that hard to make some money, as far as businesses go.

Blogging

Well, that doesn’t sound too encouraging, does it? What about blogging, how does that compare?

When I say blogging, I don’t necessarily mean running a blog that’s monetized by Google AdSense. That’s one possibility, but I’m taking a much broader view here. For our purposes, blogging will mean any venture where a blog is the driving force. It can be monetized by third party advertising, affiliate products, ebooks, coaching, services, whatever. You’re free to swap income streams in and out at any time, because they don’t define the business. It’s not like you have to shut down your “AdSense business” to start your “coaching business” on the same blog.

At some point, a blog that’s a business could shift to being a business that happens to have a blog. There’s no clear-cut place to draw the line, so I won’t be too precise in defining blogging. “Blogging” here will just mean getting paid in one way or another for writing stuff on your site. For that matter, that site doesn’t technically need to be a blog. (Oh, and in case you didn’t know, blogging is legal.)

The thing people like about blogging is that it really lets them be themselves. It’s fun to pick any topic you want, write about it, and discuss it with other people who stop by to comment. And then you get to promote it by finding other people like you with blogs, and commenting on what they have to say. What could be better?

Well, yes, it’s very fun. Maybe that’s why 1.4 new blogs are created every second. But that fun comes at a price. Making money from blogging is much harder than most newcomers expect.

You can’t just write posts on your blog, put up some form of monetization, and wait for the checks to roll in. You need to get readers, and that means you need to spend a lot of time promoting your blog. Commenting on other blogs, writing guest posts, using Twitter, and stuff like that has to be a priority. It’s fun doing that, but it’s also very time consuming, and it could easily be a full time job by itself. And even full time, it would still take a long time to get readers.

How many readers do you need? Lots. Millions. Well, not millions, but it seems like that. And many bloggers will just keep writing posts and wonder where the money is. Unfortunately, it will never be there without lots of readers, and that’s why so few people are making a living from it.

The verdict:

Making a living from blogging is much harder than making a living from network marketing. However, for me, blogging is way more fun. To make up some numbers here, blogging is 10 times harder but 1,000 times more fun, which makes it worth it to me. And so that’s the direction I’m heading in, taking the financial hit in order to do something that I like a lot better.

But how do you actually make a living online? Naomi Dunford is answering that question tomorrow (Wednesday) with the release of Online Business School. That’s her home study course that explains how she’s making over $200,000 this year from six income streams: consulting, services, selling physical stuff, ebooks, niche sites, and affiliate marketing. She’s released some free content over the last few days, and the real deal goes up for sale tomorrow. Am I buying it? Of course. I didn’t even have to wait for the sales page.

Cast of 24, season 6

Fans of FOX’s hit show 24 have been feeling antsy lately. The season that was supposed to begin in January 2008 was postponed by a full year because of the writers strike. And in this time of economic crisis, a few people have considered working at the (fictional) Counter Terrorist Unit, to bring in an income and get their 24 fix at the same time.

But before you run off to a new life of defending America from the steadily growing list of countries we’ve angered, consider these 8 reasons why working at CTU isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

1. Disaster will find you.

The CTU branch we always see is in Los Angeles. I’m not sure what’s cursed: the city itself, or Jack Bauer, who happens to be there. But in 24 world, L.A. is a disaster magnet.

If a nuclear missile is launched in Iowa and no one knows what direction it’s going in, its target will invariably be Los Angeles. If eleven vials of a deadly virus are to be released across the country, exactly one of them will be untraceable due to a broken tracking device, and it will be in Los Angeles.

I don’t know why they even bother trying to track down bad guys, when clearly they must be in Los Angeles. It’s an inescapable law of the universe.

2. Status reports every 15 minutes.

Department heads need to give status reports to the director every 15 minutes. So maybe they do 5 minutes of work, then spend 5 minutes gathering updates from their subordinates, then spend 5 minutes briefing the director.

Then the director can update the President, who also wants a status report every 15 minutes. When does anyone have time to get their work done?

3. Serious job pressure.

All CTU employees must be ready to perform superhuman feats at any moment. When Jack calls and says he needs you to shut down the power supply to the entire state of California, you have about eight seconds to get it done before you’re fired.

Don’t even think about saying that it’s your first day and you don’t know the password to the central server. If you can’t do it, they’ll find someone who can.

4. You can’t trust anyone.

On a pretty regular basis, Division will send over a new person you’ve never met. This person will be highly skilled but rude and arrogant, and you won’t like them. You’ll notice them frequently breaking protocol, for example, by making suspicious calls on a personal cell phone that can’t be monitored. If you inquire about this, they’ll threaten to report you to the director for something that wasn’t your fault.

At some point, someone will announce that security has been compromised by a mole working inside CTU, and everyone will wonder who it is. Then you’ll learn that all along, the mole was your friend who had worked with you for five years. Either that, or it was a friend or family member you hadn’t seen in a long time.

5. If you don’t die, your friends will.

While the risk to your own life is considerable, it’s an absolute certainty that you’ll lose some friends. The moles are most likely to be either the people you most suspect or the people you least suspect, so it’s best not to get too attached to these people.

Instead, try to befriend people who are well known but not interesting, as they’re usually innocent. However, these people are likely to die when CTU is attacked. Try to think of them more as goldfish than people.

6. If people come back to life, they turn evil.

The upside to your friends dying is that they might not stay dead. The downside is that if they come back, they’ll want revenge on the country that betrayed them.

Stephen Saunders, the MI6 operative who was killed in the strike against Victor Drazen, returned as a criminal mastermind for reasons he claimed we could never understand.

Former CTU director Tony Almeida was killed twice, once by a car bomb and once by lethal injection. He will return in January as one of the main terrorists, undoubtedly for reasons we could never understand.

7. CTU is chronically short on resources.

CTU is the most underfunded government agency in history. Every year or two, the fate of the world (or at least a significant part of it) all comes down to CTU, and yet they complain about being short on resources every time.

When there’s some code that needs to be broken to determine the location of the nuclear bomb about to go off, there will be at most two analysts on staff who are capable of doing such a thing. Both of them will have been working for 24 hours straight, and only one of them will really know what they’re doing. But neither of them will have time to break the code because they’ll both be busy trying to reposition satellites before they lose their only lead.

Division, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense all seem to have an endless supply of world class consultants they can send over at a moment’s notice, but the director of CTU usually doesn’t feel like asking for help. Instead, they’d prefer to squeeze the maximum possible use out of each person and hope they last until the end of the crisis.

Nor does the director feel the need to request more funding for this agency that appears to really need it. CTU gets called in when the FBI, CIA, and Armed Forces can’t get the job done, yet they can’t even afford a receptionist. Every time Jack calls, he gets a completely random person. (The number is (310) 597-3781, a working number that usually goes to voicemail but occasionally goes through to a writer, producer, or actor.)

8. No bathroom.

CTU has a bathroom, but it has only been used three times in the entire history of the agency. This might result from the critical staff shortage, as people don’t always have time to hack into nuclear reactors to prevent meltdowns, let alone go to the bathroom.

Once, Chloe went into the men’s room and startled someone. It’s not clear whether he was startled because there was a woman in the men’s room, or because of the astronomical odds that any two people at CTU would use the bathroom at the same time.

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So before you decide that a job at CTU is full of glory, consider the consequences. Anyway, word has it that CTU has been disbanded in the new season (possibly due to lack of resources). If you want to earn an income online instead, read Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It.

Interesting tidbits relevant to today’s election: In season 2, 24 became the first TV show to portray a black U.S. president.^{[citation needed]} In season 5, John McCain made a cameo appearance as an unidentified, non-speaking bureaucrat.

Naomi Dunford at IttyBiz just posted Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It. It’s about the history of how we went from being Jacks of all trades to being helplessly dependent on so many people for our survival.

At the end, she drops the fact that IttyBiz has made over $176,000 so far this year from six different types of income streams (and if you didn’t know, she used to be homeless). And she’s going to turn this thing into a series. Part 2: how she did it; part 3: how she helped a client make $500 an hour for consulting; part 4: answering our specific questions about creating a “a safe, non-scuzzy portfolio of online income streams.”

It’s free, but you have to sign up to receive the free updates. Naomi uses AWeber, so you know she couldn’t spam you even if she wanted to.

However, Naomi has turned off comments. But you can leave comments here. Go check out her post, then come back and let’s talk.

*** INTERMISSION – Go read Why We’re Broke and How To Fix It, then come back to comment ***

Here’s what I’m thinking. Back in the 1950s, it was OK to be specialized because jobs were safe in the U.S. If your job was to optimize the performance of widget A for company X, you could count on having that same job at the same company for 35 years.

But today, jobs aren’t safe, and you can lose any job through no fault of your own. What happens when company X has layoffs, or shuts down, or moves overseas? You now have to try finding a job with company Y. Only company Y doesn’t make widget A, they make widget B. So what happens to all your years of experience in optimizing widget A? It’s all wasted.

Think that’s a stretch? The last time I went looking for a job as a .NET developer, every recruiter asked if I used C# or VB. Their clients wanted them to ask, but I had to explain to the recruiters that these languages are functionally equivalent, they have only minor syntax differences between them, and anyone can switch between the two. So whatever the client wanted, that’s what I had.

Somehow we’ve been reduced to a skill set that keeps getting narrower. Shouldn’t things like performance and drive matter a lot more than what model of widget you worked with?

OK, I had a hard time coming up with a title. Anyway, Jamie Harrop has interviewed me as part of his Blogger Interview Series. Cue SEO anchor text: blog tips make money blogging.

Swing by and learn about my favorite blog promotion methods, who I’d like to write a guest post for, my favorite blog post, and a random blogging tip you don’t want to miss.

I’m not sure if this happened because of my Akashic record reading, but Havi Brooks (the one with the duck) and Naomi Dunford (pictured duckless) have created a course called “Self Promotion for Wimps: How to promote the hell out of that cool thing you do without being gross and/or getting tangled in scary, overwhelming horribleness.”

It’s a 6 week power course for creative types, small business owners, and people who are too busy freaking out to properly live their dreams. Yeah, that sounds like me.

They met each other through Twitter, and eventually had a conversation that went something like this:

Havi: Gee, Naomi. You know, every time I’ve put one of your marketing ideas into practice, I’ve made money. That’s so awesome.

Naomi: You rule. Every time I’ve put one of your stop-freaking-out ideas into practice I’ve made money. That IS awesome.

What’s interesting here is that they’re merging their two completely different areas of expertise (home business marketing and “not freaking out”) and making a course for “people who are ready to clear out the crap that’s standing in the way of their awesome life and start having more fun and making some money doing it.”

Starting this Wednesday, September 10th, they’ll be doing 6 weeks of group calls where they say what they’ve got to say, take questions live, and record the call for you. The call topics are explained on their landing page, but basically they’re going to help people get past their personal issues that are preventing them from actually making money from their business ideas. Here’s one example they give that I can definitely relate to:

“I’m NOT good enough, I’m NOT smart enough, and gosh darn it, people HATE me. There’s no way on God’s good earth that anyone will ever pay me for this. I totally suck. This was a stupid idea. Forget it, I’ll go back to my cubicle and/or bed and die.”

What you need is a phone, a thing you want to make big crazy progress on, and willingness to do a little homework. I’ve signed up and I don’t even have the “thing” nailed down yet. I figure that this course will address a major issue I’m having with making money from home (psychological blocks and limiting beliefs), be generic enough to apply to any business idea, and no matter what, it’s bound to be highly entertaining.

The only drawback is that it’s not cheap, but what did you expect for exclusive access to two superstars? The regular program (which I’m doing) includes 6 weeks of group calls, homework, recordings, notes, and “surprises,” for $205. The VIP option (limited to 8 people) includes all that plus one hour of private consulting with Havi, and one hour with the duckless wonder, for $365. But, use the coupon code “sale” to get $30 off either program. There’s also an affiliate program, so you can subsidize the cost that way.

For more details, read Self Promotion for Wimps. Hope to hear some of you on the calls!

Here we go with the first edition of Hunter’s Heroes: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Souls.

You may know Shilpan Patel from his Digg-decimating blog Success Soul: Abundance and Simplicity for Mind, Body, and Soul. (Update 12/28/2011: his new blog is Street Smart Finance.) But did you know that he came to the U.S. with only $20 in his pocket, and worked his way up to owning 3 hotels? I asked Shilpan to share his story with us, and he was kind enough to oblige.

Hunter: Shilpan, why don’t you start off with what made you decide to come to the U.S.? I think that with your engineering background, you could have done pretty well in your native India. What caused you to choose a life over here, and how old were you when you decided this?

Shilpan: My father is a successful businessman. I have seen him working hard everyday to build a respectable business on his own. I could have just stayed in India after earning an engineering degree but I wanted to chart my own course. America is a land of endless opportunities. It was an easy choice when I realized that to chart my own destiny I have to leave home and do what life demands. I was 25 years old when I came to US about 17 years ago.

Hunter: Whenever I hear about someone coming to the U.S. with a tiny amount of money, I always wonder about the practical matters. I mean, you need food and shelter, and $20 doesn’t buy a whole lot. How did you get a foothold? Did you have family and friends over here to help you get started?

Shilpan: Well, I had a close friend who was kind enough to let me stay with him for the first several months. It was still difficult as I’m a vegetarian. I have never had to worry about the veggie food back in India but it was rather difficult in America at least for the first several months. It’s funny. I walked one day to a local pizza shop and ordered a pepperoni pizza with the false assumption that what I saw in the picture was a slice of a tomato. Later when I learned what it was – I laughed at myself for the stupidity.

Hunter: That’s not stupidity, it’s just part of getting adjusted to a strange land. I would have assumed it was a pepperoni pizza, but that’s because I’m so used to it. By the way, everyone, keep in mind that while there are plenty of vegetarian options available in the U.S. today, that was not the case 17 years ago.

Moving on, I’ve never known anyone in the hotel business before. How did you decide that’s what you wanted to do? Was it a family tradition, did it come from a love of real estate, did it come from a love of providing service, or for some other reason?

Shilpan: I always wanted to go into a business, as my father was a businessman. He still is my role model. I found out that lots of Indians owned hotels and for good reasons – it builds equity, it provides tax write-off and for some it also provides a primary residence.

Ten years ago, my oldest daughter got into kindergarten. My wife insisted that both of my daughters have to attend a private school. See, I went to the finest school in my town back in India. Most Indians make sure that their children get a good education. I was working for Johnson & Johnson at the time but my salary was not enough to pay for private schooling. Need is the mother of motivation. We sold our house and purchased a brand new hotel that had a nice living apartment. That was ten years ago.

I used to drive 45 miles to drop our kids off at the private school and then drive another 60 miles to work everyday for almost seven years. My wife would pick them up and make sure that they did their homework on time, etc. We worked hard, very hard for the first seven years of owning our first hotel. I never had any breaks or any vacations. My vacation would be to take friends to Atlanta or Stone Mountain Park if they visit us.

When I look back in retrospect, as crazy as it seems, I’m proud that every bit of effort was worth it. My daughters are very bright and I’m sure that when they chart their own course, they will have gratitude for me and my wife for the sacrifices that we have made along the way.

Hunter: I’m sorry, I’m going to need a minute to process this…

OK, for anyone who missed it, his morning commute was 105 miles for seven years! And when he says they worked “hard, very hard,” I’m sure that’s a euphemism for “way harder than most people could possibly put up with.” I have no doubt that your daughters will appreciate all the sacrifices when they’re old enough to understand.

So, from the time you decided you wanted to own hotels, how did the timeline play out? What year did you start, and when did you buy each hotel? How much time did you have to invest in learning the ropes, as well as actually running the business?

Shilpan: I actually had given hope to buy the first hotel. It’s an interesting story. Ira was the owner and builder of my first hotel. I made a very attractive offer to him as I was determined to buy the hotel but he did not respond. I was disappointed and angry for his lack of response. I had depicted a rather rude image of him in my mind.

Boy, I was absolutely wrong. Several months later, he called me and informed me that if I’m still interested, he is ready to close the deal. I was amused and confused. When I met him, he discussed all the private issues he went through during the time I made him an offer. As he was speaking, I was cursing myself for such a poor judgment of a man who was as nice as anyone I met in this great nation. This experience changed my entire way of thinking about life. He not only helped me establish a relationship with the local bank but also lent some funds to close the deal. It was an incredible experience.

When we took over the hotel, we did not know much about the business. My wife and I were determined to learn and deal with whatever challenges we had to face to learn the ropes. It was a struggle for a while as I was also working at the time. I strongly believe that if you decide to change your life, you can definitely do that. All you have to do is to free up your mind – do not restrict it with the stereotypes. Nothing is impossible if you do not program your mind with restrictions.

Hunter: I really like how your initial perception of Ira turned out to be wrong, and you got to see how he really is. A lot of the time, we judge somebody by a first impression that could be influenced by things going on in their life that we don’t know about. It reminds me of when Randy Pausch said: “Find the best in everybody. You might have to wait a long time, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting, it will come out. And be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.” And this certainly became an opportunity for you, Shilpan.

Now let’s get into some nitty-gritty details. How does someone actually buy a hotel? Do you have to be rich to do it? How much does a hotel cost, and what kind of down payment do you need? How do you locate hotels for purchase and evaluate profitability? And how the heck do you learn how to run them?

Shilpan: No one has to be rich to buy a hotel. There is a prevailing myth that hotels are purchased by rich people. It is true that hotels do require huge capital investment but if you are keen to work hard, you can find partners. In my case, I had 28K when I made the offer. I knew that I did not have enough money as I had lost all of my assets in the stock mania of the mid 90′s. I borrowed some from friends with a promissory note to pay 10% return on their investment. As I said, Ira also surprised me by lending 100K of his own money. I’m still in disbelief.

It’s all due to my strict adherence to honesty and integrity that I learned from my father as a businessman. If you are honest, transparent to your partner, your friends and everyone else – the universe makes a way for your success. I have no doubt about the power of the universe and its positive influence in my life. It takes 20% down similar to a home purchase deal, but as I said with the help from friends and the owner himself, I was able to buy it.

I still remember that day. I was very nervous going to the bank as I had serious doubts about my ability to close the deal. I kept my eyes closed while the attorney was going through the paperwork, occasionally nodding to whatever he asked me without paying attention one iota to what he was saying. I was expecting the deal to go sour. All of sudden I heard the attorney’s somber voice – Mr. Patel, congratulations, you are the owner of this beautiful hotel. Success meets us on the cross roads when we are looking hard for a failure to show up. It’s amazing.

Hunter: I think you just shattered the stereotype many of us had in our minds about all hotel owners being like Donald Trump. How good it must have felt to hear the attorney say those words!

Tell us about a day in the life of a hotel owner. Do you actively manage the hotels yourself? How many employees do you have? What kinds of tasks do you perform, what are the hours like, and how stressful is it?

Shilpan: Gosh, life of a hotel manager. I have done everything Hunter – from managing the front desk to cleaning toilets. My wife has silently supported my efforts so I’m immensely grateful to her, but we both are thankful to this great nation for the opportunity. We both actively manage our properties. As a hotel manager, we have to schedule employees, take care of daily purchasing, deal with any issues and most importantly, make sure that we keep the property up to or exceed the franchise standards in terms of cleanliness and curb appeal.

Hunter: I guess in a business like that, you have to wear all kinds of hats. Have you ever experienced any major setbacks? Have you ever thought about throwing in the towel, or questioned whether you had chosen the right business?

Shilpan: Fortunately, we have not had major setbacks. It’s been relentless hard work though. As I said, we both have worked tirelessly for the first seven years. Now, we don’t work as hard but we still put in more than 60 hours per week. I’m not a quitter by nature. I’m not the smartest guy out there but I have an iron will. So does my wife. She is very focused and dedicated to our family. I guess you can call me lucky in this regard. Hunter, if you keep working hard, you can get luckier. I’m a staunch believer in doing your best without allowing thoughts of negativity to hijack your dreams.

Hunter: It was Samuel Goldwyn who said “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” But I think you’re a good example of that as well.

How does someone know if they’re cut out for the hotel business? And how can someone learn more about how to get started?

Shilpan: As I said, if I can do it, anyone can succeed. I’m not the one with IQ of 180 but I have succeeded with the relentless work. That’s all it takes to keep digging when there is no hope for the gold by general consensus. Always follow your heart and do what makes you happy. If the hotel business excites you but you don’t want to work beyond your regular 40 hours, it may not be your best suit. I’d suggest managing someone’s business for a year or so to get the feeling. I wasn’t fortunate to do so. I have learned the hard way but in the end what matters is the sheer determination and deep faith in your pursuit. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else has any interest in doing so either.

Hunter: And finally, where are your hotels located, for the next time we’re in town? Can you offer our readers any special discount, say 10% off and an extra chocolate on their pillow when they subscribe to your blog and subscribe to my blog?

Shilpan: For my blogger friends, I live about 60 miles north of Atlanta. I currently own a Ramada and a Quality Inn and I’m building a brand new Country Inn and Suites with an upscale shopping plaza right off I-85 near Atlanta. I’m very generous as a friend. It may be more than just 10% if you call me and introduce yourself. I will give you a box of chocolates and a hug if you subscribe to my blog. That’s the promise I will make and keep for all of you.

I am a passionate writer and thinker about life, bliss and goodness. I’m not a trained writer but I promise to write from my heart and with utmost honesty. You can see what I’m up to at my blog.

Hunter, thank you for this opportunity to share my life story. I’m both humbled and honored to do so. I hope that it will inspire those who still have self-doubt about their ability to make a profound change in their lives.

Hunter: And thank you, Shilpan, for this incredible interview. Even for those of us who already knew you, I think it helps us see you in a different light. I’ll try to refrain from making a Forrest Gump response to your “box of chocolates” comment, but guys – definitely go check out his blog for all kinds of great life advice. You never know what you’re gonna get.

Photo by SqueakyMarmot

Well, it’s that time–the end of the 365-day period ending June 30, 2008. Why am I writing a year-end review in July? One, because everyone else does it in December, and for me it gets a little tiring to read a bunch of posts like this at the same time. Two, because I’ve never seen the need to wait until New Year’s to reassess your situation.

When I say “the year in review,” I mean regarding this blog and my life. A bit self-centered, yes, but this post will definitely apply to you if you’re trying to escape the rat race or you’re interested in making money online.

When I look at my life, the only major challenge I care about is escaping the rat race. What I mean by that is making a living (and preferably a good living) from an occupation I enjoy and have control over. This means everything to me. If I have any other problems, they’re so small that I’m not even noticing them.

I recently worked with a career coach who had the insight and the guts to say that I’ll never be happy in any job. Of course, I already knew that, but it’s good to have professional confirmation so I know for sure what I’m looking at. So what will I do about that? Well first, here’s my situation:

- I make a moderate salary as a software developer. It pays the bills and lets me save some money, but it’s certainly not going to let me retire tomorrow. Most importantly, I really don’t enjoy it. It’s the best job I’ve ever had, but employment just isn’t for me.

- Thanks to years of somewhat extreme frugality and compound interest, I make decent passive income from stock mutual funds. In the long run, this will be by far my favorite income stream, because given enough time it will result in a lot of income with basically no work. But for now, it’s not really that much. Furthermore, it comes mostly in the form of unrealized capital gains, so I can’t get the money out without selling and paying taxes (and I don’t like paying taxes).

- My next biggest income stream is from being a part-time network marketing consultant. This was doing well and growing for a while, but lately I’ve been struggling as new competitors have flooded the pay-per-click market, eager to set money on fire. I won’t bid more than 35 cents max for a click, but top bids for one important keyword are over $11! That can’t be profitable for them unless they’re really ripping off their customers, but it’s shutting out those of us who won’t play that game. I’ll have to see how this plays out. I have a more or less neutral feeling about the work; it’s way better than a job, but I can’t say that I actually like it for reasons other than generating income without having a boss.

- One income stream that I started 7 months ago is this blog. The income is extremely low, so don’t fall into the trap of thinking that blogging is an easy way to make 6 figures. But though the income is low, it’s growing steadily so far (with the exception that my blog income was down in June after being way up in May because of the 28,000 visitors to 10 Reasons Japan Is Better Than America). And it’s so much fun. I’d be incredibly happy if I could do it full time.

So back to what to do about the rat race. Here are some possibilities:

1. Do nothing.

Just do what “everyone” does and stay in the rat race. I believe that some people honestly like their jobs, but that’s sure not me. For me, taking the normal route isn’t an option. Even if I don’t succeed in any of the alternatives, I couldn’t forgive myself for not trying.

2. Find a higher paying job.

The idea with this strategy is that if more money is coming in, I can save more and retire earlier. Better than option 1, but far from ideal. I’d like to do a little more work for a little more money, or a lot more work for a lot more money, but in my experience, climbing the ladder means doing a lot more work for a little more money. And I want to enjoy the journey, not just the destination.

3. Find a part time job.

This is similar to #2. More money for more work, only the extra work is with a different company. But I haven’t been able to find any part time jobs in software development. I’m not necessarily restricting myself to that, but I sure don’t want a minimum wage job.

I did come close to getting this to work when a company I worked at went out of business. Someone started a company to service the clients that were left behind, and they wanted to pay developers $70 – $90 an hour for working nights and weekends. It would have been great, except they didn’t get as many clients as they wanted, and they ended up needing only one developer (who wasn’t me).

4. Make a decent income outside of a job.

Now things start getting interesting. I think making a modest income without a job is way better than making a high income with a job. This blog is a perfect example of a way to make money without a job, but I’m a long way from making any real money, let alone something to live on.

So far, I haven’t done much monetization. I put some AdSense ads up, but AdSense doesn’t pay much, and I’m making even less than other blogs with the same amount of traffic. I think this is for three reasons:

- I got most of my subscribers when ProBlogger linked to The Zen of Blogging. They’re likely to be bloggers themselves, and bloggers tend to show ad blindness.

- Search engine visitors like to click ads, but I’ve only recently emerged from the Google sandbox, so my search traffic has been essentially nil so far. And I still seem to be sandboxed for some keywords that I know I should rank well for (and in fact, I do rank well for them on Yahoo).

- I’ve refrained from putting ads in the best hotspot: the upper left corner of the content. Many successful AdSense publishers do that because it gets the most clicks, but I figured that since I don’t have search traffic yet, there’s no need for it. Besides, when I use an image, I want that to appear at the top, not an ad.

But to have a good chance of making money from a blog, you need to look beyond AdSense.

Consulting

In Skellie’s post A Practical Guide to Earning Six Figures: Re-inventing What You Have, she presents an idea that I found interesting:

“Consulting carries a high per-hour rate and is highly customizable. Aside from traditional types of consulting (SEO consulting, branding consultations, etc.), there’s nothing to stop a talented World of Warcraft player offering consulting to players who want to increase their skills…”

This caught my eye because my research project for my master’s degree in computer science was on Warcraft! I guess I have a master’s degree in Warcraft, if you will. So, does anyone out there need a Warcraft consultant? However, I’d need to update my knowledge, since my project was on Warcraft and Warcraft II, and I know nothing about the latest release.

This particular angle might not work, but the whole coaching/consulting/freelancing deal is certainly worth considering when you realize that a small blogger can make more money from one hour of consulting than they could from a year of AdSense.

Paul Piotrowski is a newcomer to making money online, making only $7 in March. But he made a whopping $1,528 in June! What I found most interesting about his June 2008 blog income report is that he made $600 from blog coaching. This shows that you can make money from consulting even before you’ve built up a reputation. Because of his posts, I believed that Paul was knowledgeable about making money online even before he had actually done it himself (just like I think I’m knowledgeable even though I haven’t done it yet). And because other people believed he could help them, he got some clients. Because of those clients, he has made what I would consider the start of good money online. And now that he’s done it, he has a reputation that will bring him more clients with less effort.

Ebooks

I’ve written two ebooks so far: The Zen of Blogging and Memoirs of a Gaijin. Both of these were free, and while I think I could have charged something for Memoirs, I felt better about doing it for free, even though it was a lot of work. But now I think it’s time to move on to paid ebooks. They take a lot of effort to write, but I think that when shared with the right person, they can be far more valuable than free posts or even real books. And in return for providing that value, you can be paid. Furthermore, by offering an affiliate program, you give your readers a chance to make money from recommending your ebooks. This is definitely something I want to pursue.

Freelancing

Freelancing is not really something I’ve considered. People call it a business, but I’m not sure how it’s that different from a job. You can work from home on your own schedule, but you still have a boss (or many bosses), and you might have limited control over what you do. It can also be hard to find work.

Let’s use freelance blogging as an example. When Skellie said in Freelance Blogging for Side Income: My Top 10 Tips that even a newbie freelance blogger should never write for less than $50 for a 500 word post, some people thought that rate was much too high to be realistic. Professional freelance writer Monika Mundell said “Prospective clients get shifty at the thought of paying $15 for 200 words and I’m only dreaming of being paid these rates.” (However, it wasn’t long before Monika reported being paid $50 for a post.)

Let’s say that you manage to snag what some people consider a fantastic rate of $50 for a 500 word post (which is supposed to take 2 hours to write). Even if you get that rate, that’s only $25 per hour, or $50,000 a year. And that’s only if you’re able to find enough work (4 posts a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year), and you’re able to write enough on whatever topics you’re given, and you’re able to write these posts in 2 hours. This post I’m writing now is going to take way longer than 2 hours. Of course, it’s way longer than 500 words, and I’m watching Jurassic Park in the background, but still…

In spite of these potential problems, I was considering doing some freelance blogging. But I couldn’t commit to any kind of schedule, like 5 posts per week. At this point, it would have to be a “write whenever you like” kind of deal. As I was wondering how to find someone who would pay $50 per post whenever I could come up with something, I noticed that one of the Anywired commenters gave the name “Michael Martin.” I clicked through for no other reason than because I thought maybe it was Michael Martine and he had just misspelled his name. Well, it was actually a guy named Michael Martin, and you wouldn’t believe what post came up: Hiring Blog Design Writers, $50 per post! I’m not sure how many posts I can write about blog design, but it’s certainly worth a try.

Being a programmer, I’ve looked into freelance programming, but I haven’t found anything. On RentACoder, I saw a lot of people with tons of skills trying to underbid each other for tiny jobs. I sure don’t want to spend hours searching for a 30-minute job at a low rate. If I were going to do this, I’d want something more permanent, like a long-term contract or a part-time job, and I haven’t been able to find one.

In A Practical Guide to Earning Six Figures: Reboot Your Career, Skellie said a friend of a friend earns over $200,000 by working 3 months a year in a difficult and obscure programming language with little competition. Sounds like an amazing deal, but I don’t suppose you happen to know what that language might be, do you?

Here’s to 2009!

As we begin the 365-day period ending June 30, 2009, I’m renewing my efforts to make a living online. Are you trying to do this too, or are you already doing it? Leave a comment and let us know how things are going for you!

Many of the people who read this blog are bloggers themselves. Some of them are running blogs that are much more successful than mine, but many of them are struggling to get off the ground. This is not unusual. In fact, less than 1 blog in 1,000 earns more than $20 a month.

If you want some guidance on how to create a successful blog, I highly recommend the free ebook Blog Profits Blueprint by Yaro Starak. If you haven’t heard of Yaro before, he’s an Australian entrepreneur and internet marketer who has gone from being a complete unknown on the internet to making over $15,000 per month as a result of his blog, all while working as little as two hours per day.

I read Yaro’s blog regularly, and there’s no denying that he knows his stuff. I admire his high level of practical knowledge as well as his refreshing transparency and integrity. He’s really hard core on the marketing side, and since what I love is content creation and not so much the marketing, some of his stuff is a bit beyond my level of understanding and interest. But his ebook is very accessible to people who are not internet marketing experts.

By the way, if you’re looking into starting a blog but you’re confused by the technical complexity of getting set up, Yaro has put together some wonderful instructional videos with his friend Gideon Shalwick at BecomeABlogger.com. These videos will be too basic for established bloggers, but they’re terrific for beginners.

Anyway, back to Yaro’s ebook. It covers his personal story, how blogs make money, choosing a topic, attracting attention, what kind of content to write, how to market, different kinds of traffic channels, networking, monetization methods, and so on. It’s by far the best ebook on blogging that I know of. Well, OK, I’m still partial to my own ebook The Zen of Blogging, but the Blog Profits Blueprint is far more practical!

Downloading Yaro’s ebook requires opting in to his newsletter. He runs his newsletter using AWeber, so you know you can safely unsubscribe if you don’t like it, but I’m still on his newsletter after reading his ebook months ago. If you want to get a better idea of what Yaro is about before downloading his ebook, I’ll give you some details here.

What follows is an article that Yaro wrote and gave me permission to repost (though I’ve made some cosmetic edits – sorry, can’t help myself!). If you like what he has to say, then you’ll probably like the Blog Profits Blueprint. I’ve included my own comments in his article, so you can see my take on things. Apologies for the 4,000-word post, but since not all of my readers are looking for blogging information, I thought it was best to put a lot of stuff in one post that can simply be skipped by those not interested.

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(The following is by Yaro Starak, with my comments interjected. The “me vs. Yaro” in the title is in good humor, as I do respect and often agree with Yaro’s opinions. But also I’m going to challenge some of his thoughts.)

In every blogger’s life comes a special day – the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog, chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader – you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog, but that’s about as far as you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next to no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually, once you establish enough momentum, you gain what is called “traction,” which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

[Hunter's comments: This may be less true than we'd like it to be. Skellie said the same thing in The Butterfly Growth Model, that once you get to 500 subscribers, your readers will do most of the promotional work for you. Later, she said she found that it wasn't working as well as she'd hoped, and she wasn't getting many new readers without doing her own promotion. I think there's certainly some truth to the butterfly growth model, but it may work better for some blogs than for others.]

Top 10 Tips

10. Write at least five major “pillar” articles. A pillar article is a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice. This article you are currently reading could be considered a pillar article since it is very practical and a good “how-to” lesson. This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight. The more pillars you have on your blog, the better.

[Hunter's comments: While Yaro is the one who coined the term "pillar article," it has a slightly different meaning for me. I think a pillar article need not be a "how-to" lesson. To me it's any post of exceptional value, original insight, or essential to understanding your blog's core message. It might not have "lots of very practical tips or advice;" for example, it might serve to instill a powerful mindset, and not offer any practical tips at all. My pillar articles tend to be 1,000 - 1,500 words, and my Boot Camp consists of my most important pillar articles (and by the way, I still have quite a few more to add...someday).

I agree with Yaro that pillar articles are essential. Of course I write plenty of lighter posts too, but without pillar articles, it's very hard to stand out in a competitive niche. And while we're on this topic, I don't use the term "article" when referring to my own writings. I call them posts, whether they're 200 words or 2,000. To me, an article is something you could submit to a magazine, something that adheres to strict rules of style and content. I write with my own style, not like a journalist--and I mean no disrespect to journalists! Some people use the terms "post" and "article" to refer to different quality standards in the blogosphere, but I don't. They're all posts to me.]

9. Write one new blog post per day minimum. Not every post has to be a pillar, but you should work on getting those five pillars done at the same time as you keep your blog fresh with a daily news or short article style post. The important thing here is to demonstrate to first time visitors that your blog is updated all the time so they feel that if they come back tomorrow they will likely find something new. This causes them to bookmark your site or subscribe to your blog feed.

You don’t have to produce one post per day all the time, but it is important you do when your blog is brand new. Once you get traction you still need to keep the fresh content coming, but your loyal audience will be more forgiving if you slow down to a few per week instead. The first few months are critical, so the more content you can produce at this time, the better.

[Hunter's comments: With all due respect to Yaro, this is ridiculous. And I know that many successful bloggers will disagree with me, but I think feeling the need to post every day puts undue stress on a blogger, and is a major reason why most blogs suck. At least Yaro says it's not necessary after the first few months, but he's clearly showing his preference for super-frequent posts. If you're a full-time blogger, maybe you can come up with a good post every day. If you're blogging part time, and perhaps not even as your main part time activity, it's very unlikely that you're capable of cranking out that many thoughtful, original, and entertaining posts. That's why we see all these rehashed posts (e.g., "Top 10 Ways To Be Happy," pic of someone jumping, #1 Drink more water, #2 Exercise, #3 Be a vegetarian, etc). Even if a post isn't a pillar, I want every post I read or write to be good.

What if you get hit by a bus and end up in the hospital? Are you going to hop in your wheelchair and rush over to the internet cafe, where you frantically try to scramble some guest posters? Or are you going to take your time to recover, trusting that your readers are smart enough to realize that unsubscribing will not result in them getting more posts from you?

Even if you have time to write a great post every day, your audience doesn't have time to read it. They only have so much time available for reading blogs each day, and yours is not the only one they read. Your loyal readers don't want to miss anything you write, but they also want you to be respectful of their time. Regular content keeps you fresh in their mind, but at some point it becomes annoying. There are a couple of blogs that I'm reluctantly subscribed to even though they post more than once per day, but I just scan the titles and usually mark them all as read. I would read more of their posts, comment more, and link more, if only they posted less often. So where is their return on investment?

I realize the importance of putting significant time into your blogging, but a good chunk of that time can be spent on responding to comments, commenting on other blogs and forums, doing research, writing ebooks, etc. And some of my posts have taken well over 10 hours to write and edit. When writing on your own blog, you don't get paid per post.]

8. Use a proper domain name. If you are serious about blogging, be serious about what you call your blog. In order for people to easily spread the word about your blog, you need an easily rememberable domain name. People often talk about blogs they like when they are speaking to friends in the real world (that’s the offline world, you remember that place, right?) so you need to make it easy for them to spread the word and pass on your URL. Try and get a .com if you can, and focus on small, easy to remember domains rather than worrying about having the correct keywords (of course if you can get great keywords and an easy to remember name, then you’ve done a good job!).

[Hunter's comments: I agree about the .com name. It's generally better than .net or .org, and definitely way better than something like blogspot. If you want to make money from your blog, you need to treat it like a business, and that includes giving it a real name.

I'm not sure how often blog referrals happen offline, but a memorable domain name always helps. His point about keywords is that having them in the domain helps with SEO by giving you better rankings and bolding the keyword in the search results to grab more attention. But as he says, it's more important to have a domain that sounds good to people. If you can do both, that's great.

Some people (like myself) use their own name as their domain. While not appropriate in all cases, it can sometimes be a good choice. For me, I have a very broad "niche," if you want to call it that, and it would be hard to think of a name that fits my blog well. Besides, what if I want to change my topics 10 years from now?]

7. Start commenting on other blogs. Once you have your pillar articles and your daily fresh smaller articles, your blog is ready to be exposed to the world. One of the best ways to find the right type of reader for your blog is to comment on other people’s blogs. You should aim to comment on blogs focused on a similar niche topic to yours, since the readers there will be more likely to be interested in your blog.

Most blog commenting systems allow you to have your name/title linked to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people find your blog. If you are a prolific commentor and always have something valuable to say, then people will be interested to read more of your work and hence click through to visit your blog.

[Hunter's comments: This is a very easy way to get exposure in the beginning. It takes time, but it's not hard. Try to be one of the first commenters so more people will read your comment. And try to avoid saying "great post!" That phrase has been ruined by all the people who have left comments saying only that, so I try not to use it even as part of a substantial comment. Be a regular commenter on some blogs to build a reputation, but also try to branch out and comment on new blogs to reach new people.]

6. Trackback and link to other blogs in your blog posts. A trackback is sort of like a blog conversation. When you write a new article to your blog and it links or references another blogger’s article, you can do a trackback to their entry. What this does is leave a truncated summary of your blog post on their blog entry – it’s sort of like your blog telling someone else’s blog that you wrote an article mentioning them. Trackbacks often appear like comments.

This is a good technique because like leaving comments, a trackback leaves a link from another blog back to yours for readers to follow, but it also does something very important – it gets the attention of another blogger. The other blogger will likely come and read your post, eager to see what you wrote about them. They may then become a loyal reader of yours, or at least monitor you, and if you are lucky some time down the road, they may do a post linking to your blog, bringing in more new readers.

[Hunter's comments: I don't think this is particularly effective at getting traffic from the other blog. I rarely click on trackback links, definitely less than I click on comment links. However, it's extremely effective at getting the other blogger to notice you. Bloggers always appreciate links because it helps their traffic, especially when you have good things to say about them. I wouldn't do it in expectation of a return link down the road, but that may very well happen. Another benefit is that your readers will appreciate you for pointing them to a good post.]

5. Encourage comments on your own blog. One of the most powerful ways to convince someone to become a loyal reader is to show there are other loyal readers already following your work. If they see people commenting on your blog, then they infer that your content must be good since you have readers, so they should stick around and see what all the fuss is about. To encourage comments you can simply pose a question in a blog post. Be sure to always respond to comments as well so you can keep the conversation going.

[Hunter's comments: Asking a question shows that you welcome input from other people, and it makes it easier for them to figure out what to say. In sales and marketing, this is known as a "call to action." If you tell people what you want them to do, they're much more likely to do it.

Responding to comments makes the commenters feel appreciated, and it can generate a good discussion in your comments section. Sometimes the comments can be more interesting than the post itself! The downside here is that it can be very time consuming. If you get very few comments, you have time to give a thoughtful reply to each one. If you get lots of comments, people will understand that you don't have time to respond to many. I'm at that awkward stage in the middle, where I can reply to each comment but it can sometimes take a lot of time. I'm looking forward to the point where I can say I just have too many comments to reply to each one, so some of the pressure will be lifted and I can reply only when I can easily think of something useful to say.]

4. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival. A blog carnival is a post in a blog that summarizes a collection of articles from many different blogs on a specific topic. The idea is to collect some of the best content on a topic in a given week. Often many other blogs link back to a carnival host and as such the people that have articles featured in the carnival often enjoy a spike in new readers.

To find the right blog carnival for your blog, do a search at blogcarnival.com.

[Hunter's comments: I've submitted posts to blog carnivals a couple of times, but I certainly haven't done it consistently. Since I write about a wide range of topics, it would be annoying to look for the right carnival each time. And I'm not sure how effective they are. If one edition of a carnival features 30 posts, would you read them all? However, you'll definitely get some traffic, as well as a link, so it can be a good idea, especially if you have a tightly focused niche and you know of some carnivals you can submit to each time.

I've seen a number of people recommending carnivals, but so far they haven't interested me enough to really look into them. I think I'll do better with guest posts, which I'm surprised not to see on this list. You can choose the audience you want, steal the spotlight and have all eyes on you, and write slightly outside of your niche if you want.]

3. Submit your blog to blogtopsites.com. To be honest, this tip is not going to bring in a flood of new readers, but it’s so easy to do and only takes five minutes so it’s worth the effort. Go to Blog Top Sites, find the appropriate category for your blog, and submit it. You have to copy and paste a couple of lines of code on your blog so you can rank, and then sit back and watch the traffic come in. You will probably only get 1-10 incoming readers per day with this technique, but over time it can build up as you climb the rankings. It all helps!

[Hunter's comments: I hadn't heard of this site before. As I was reading this tip it didn't sound very worthwhile, and I didn't like how it requires registration and putting code on your blog, as well as picking a category (since I tend not to fit into any). But 1-10 readers per day? That's huge for a new blogger! I'm not sure what kind of traffic this is though. If it's the same quality traffic as you get from StumbleUpon, I don't think it's worth it. Has anyone tried this before? And Yaro, really? This makes your top 10?]

2. Submit your articles to EzineArticles.com. This is another tip that doesn’t bring in hundreds of new visitors immediately (although it can if you keep doing it) but it’s worthwhile because you simply leverage what you already have – your pillar articles. Once a week or so, take one of your pillar articles and submit it to Ezine Articles. Your article then becomes available to other people who can republish your article on their website or in their newsletter.

How you benefit is through what is called your “Resource Box.” You create your own resource box, which is like a signature file where you include one to two sentences and link back to your website (or blog in this case). Anyone who publishes your article has to include your resource box so you get incoming links. If someone with a large newsletter publishes your article, you can get a lot of new readers at once.

[Hunter's comments: I haven't done this yet, but I've heard good things about this method. I've also heard about Article Marketer, which, for a fee, lets you submit your content to many sites at once. I'd be interested in hearing what others have experienced with these services. What's the best way to do it, how much traffic did you get, and did you notice a duplicate content penalty?]

1. Write more pillar articles. Everything you do above will help you to find blog readers, however, all of the techniques I’ve listed only work when you have strong pillars in place. Without them, if you do everything above you may bring in readers, but they won’t stay or bother to come back. Aim for one solid pillar article per week, and by the end of the year you will have a database of over 50 fantastic feature articles that will work hard for you to bring in more and more readers.

[Hunter's comments: Absolutely. I think that the single best thing any blogger can do is focus their attention on writing great content.]

I hope you enjoyed my list of traffic tips. Everything listed above are techniques I’ve put into place myself for my blogs and have worked for me, however it’s certainly not a comprehensive list. There are many more things you can do. Finding readers is all about testing to see what works best for you and your audience, and I have no doubt if you put your mind to it you will find a balance that works for you.

[Hunter's comments: These are some very good tips for new bloggers to consider. Don't take my comments above to mean that I don't respect Yaro's advice. On the contrary, I think he has rightfully earned his reputation as a blogging and internet marketing guru. I just have my own strong opinions about blogging, and I think a little constructive debate is always in order. Like I said before, his Blog Profits Blueprint is easily the best ebook I know of about blogging.]

This article was by Yaro Starak, a professional blogger and one of my most trusted sources for blogging advice. He is the leader of the Blog Mastermind mentoring program designed to teach bloggers how to earn a full time income blogging part time.

To get more information about Blog Mastermind, click this link:

www.BlogMastermind.com

Check out my guest post on Anywired, 14 Defenses Against The Anti-Entrepreneurial. It’s about how to deal with the challenges we face when our friends and family don’t support us in our entrepreneurial ventures. If you know another way to handle the situation, be sure to share your thoughts!

Anywired is Skellie’s blog for people who want to work online, work anywhere, and live free. In her words, “Whether you’re chained to a desk and dreaming of freedom or enjoying a 4-Hour work week in Rio, this blog will provide the knowledge you need to be more flexible, more mobile and more productive.”