What if I told you the lunatic on the other end of that email could actually be right.  What if I told you that you could actually make money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and with almost no effort.  You would probably call me crazy too!

At first this idea sounds impossible, a bold faced lie more likely, however in practice it’s actually quite common.  I want you to close your eyes for a minute and imagine that you have all of the money you could ever need and you no longer are required to get up and go to work every morning.

What would you do?

Would you get up and go fly fishing? Maybe take your bike out and go for a long ride?  Perhaps you would go to the museum and study the contemporary sculpture exhibit and ask yourself over and over, How can they honestly pass this as art? Maybe you’d gather your friends in front of the TV:  beercan, chipbag, and remote.

Imagine if you could get paid to do whatever it is you do in your free time when there are no other responsibilities. Imagine you could get paid to simply live your life.

Think about your favorite celebrity…

1. Shaun White is an incredible snowboarder and gets paid to travel the world in search of the best spots to ride
2. Martha Stewart has managed to turn her love for cooking, entertaining, and decorating into a multi-million dollar enterprise
3. Donald Trump was fascinated with real estate as a young man and has literally built an empire
4. Oprah thrives on enriching peoples lives through sharing touching stories and information
5. Paris Hilton is famous for being…. well, famous.

…they all have one thing in common:

Their life is their business.

We may not all be superstars at something, like Shaun White there are boundless opportunities in our everyday lives to take advantage of.

I recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica which was part vacation, part volunteer work.  I entered the country with an excitement to explore a new culture and a new language; I left the country primed with two potential business startups and a new business partner.

Last week while picking up some milk and eggs at our local food market I ran into the owner we started chatting about his business.  He brought up the idea of a new website, I brought up the idea of re-useable shopping bags, I left with a gallon of mik, a handshake and a promise to deliver both the reusable bags and the website.

So while that email spammer is probably still peddling empty promises of easy money, making  your life your business could be your real cash cow.  Unique opportunities are presented to us every single day.  To begin, all you need to do is open your eyes to the possibilities. Make your business your life.

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Ashley runs Upstart Blogger a blog whose tag line reads “Successful Blogging Made Simple”, pretty much sums it up.  I have been following his site pretty closely for the last few months and have been continuously impressed by the quantity and quality of its content.  I have managed to read just about every article available and feel I have soaked up some very valuable information and lessons as a result.  So I felt his was an opinion I could trust.

From my reading I knew that a significant portion of Ashley’s income at Upstart Blogger is attributed to an affiliate marketing campaign with his hosting provider, ANHosting.  They happen to offer a two tier marketing program which means in theory he not only earns money from his refferrals, but could potentially earn money on their referrals as well.

What I wanted to know was how important this second tier was to his overall blogging strategy, and if the income from this second tier was worth finding a reputable company I was willing to promote that offers such a program.

So I shot him an email to ask him exactly this.  He replied with some great advice that answered a lot of questions for me, and I think it is really worth sharing…

Hi Kirk,

Thanks for your kind words. Second, and subsequent, tier marketing is a market that makes me exactly zero! In fairness, however, that is probably because I don’t actively say good things about that side of my partnership with AN hosting.

Not that they aren’t good. It’s just that I don’t like the idea of trying to persuade someone to push the same product that I push.

The only people who are good at making second tier incomes tend to be those who make nothing from the first tier. That is why programs like text link ads are promoted so aggressively by some less scrupulous pro bloggers.

I suppose it is possible for there to be a middle ground – where someone makes a good income from every tier – but I’m pretty sure it’s an either-or situation.

If you are able to promote a product successfully – a product that is complimentary to your blog – your income is much more stable than if you rely on the little and often approach of the second tier.

I thoroughly recommend AN Hosting as a host. I’m a customer of theirs and they look after me. Promoting them is pretty easy since I use them transparently – everyone knows I’m a customer so it’s not a hard sell.

To sum up – find a complementary product or service and go for the first tier sales – that’s where 100% of my blogging income comes from and that’s what I would recommend anyone else to do unless there was a better reason not to.

Cheers,

Ashley

Ashley, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions you have shed light on a question I have been struggling to find answers to.  I am always looking forward to reading your updates over at  Upstart Blogger.  Keep up the good work!

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1. Make meaning. The people who wake up in the morning wanting to make meaning usually succeed. The people who want to make money usually fail. Those who perpetuate good things, cause good things, or end bad things – those are the innovators.
2. Make a mantra. “Most organizations make mission statements and most mission statements suck.” A mantra is no more than two or three words. For example, Wendy’s should be “healthy fast food;” Nike stands for “authentic athletic performance;” eBay represents “democratization of commerce;” and Target could be “democratize design.”
3. Jump to the next curve. Don’t be satisfied battling it out on the same curve. Macintosh created a whole new curve, not a slightly better DOS computer. The telephone was not a slightly better telegraph, it was a whole new curve. Most organizations define their business on the curve they’re on. If you truly want to be innovative, it’s not about doing things 10 percent better – jump the curve to do something 10 times better!
4. Roll the DICEE. All innovations share the following elements.
   Depth: Create great products and services that are revolutionary (i.e., Reef makes a fanning sandal to protect feet and has a metal clip to open a beer bottle).
   Intelligent: Someone has anticipated what’s necessary (i.e., Panasonic developed a flashlight that takes three sizes of batteries so you’re sure to have one on hand).
   Complete: Not just the leather and steel and glass of the car – it’s the totality of the experience, it’s the Lexus experience.
   Elegance: The beauty of the industrial design.
   Emotive: Generate strong emotions – people love what you do or hate what you do, but they are certainly not indifferent. The worst case is that people don’t care about what you do.
5. Don’t worry, be crappy If you wait for perfection, you’ll never be ready.
6. Polarize people (emotiveness). Many organizations try to be all things to all people, which inevitably produces mediocrity. Don’t try to anger people, but do not hesitate to alienate a group.
7. Let 100 flowers blossom For example, Apple’s original goal wasn’t to spark a new desktop publishing industry, but it did encourage many software companies to write programs for the Mac. Apple Computer would have died if the Aldus Corporation hadn’t developed PageMaker for the Mac in 1985 – thus expanding the Mac beyond a simple word processor or spreadsheet tool.
8. Churn, baby, churn Take version 1 of your product, and make it 1.1 and 1.2 and 1.3. To be an innovator, you need to be in denial. Ignore the bozos who keep telling you it cannot be done. Then listen to customers to see how to fix your product.
9. Niche thyself. You want high uniqueness and high value. If you’re a great value but not unique, then you always have to compete on price (i.e., Dell Computer). If you’re only unique without value, you’re just a clown – you own a market that doesn’t exist. If your product/service is neither unique nor valuable, fahgeddaboutit! You want to produce something that is unique and of great value to the customer, like the Smart car, which can park perpendicular to the curb, among other things.
10. Follow the 10-20-30 rule. Create a maximum of 10 slides in a PowerPoint presentation; deliver it in 20 minutes; the optimal size font is 30 points.
11. Don’t let the bozos grind you down. Rich and famous parses to “lucky” not necessarily smart. “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at who he gives it to.” So watch for Bozosity. Take a shot of Bozosity to inoculate yourself against it

His message also included “The top 10 things he wishes teachers would teach students.” It struck a chord with me and I think applies to anyone interested in business as well.

What our schools do should prepare people for living. Part of living is working. But generally speaking, we’re preparing people for life, not work.

1. Teach students how to figure out anything by themselves.
2. How to explain anything in 30 seconds.
3. How to do a one-page report.
4. 10-20-30 rule of PowerPoint (see above).
5. Optimal length of an e-mail is five sentences, without an attachment.
6. How to survive a meeting (basically you get what you want out of the meeting and then you park your brain).
7. How to run a meeting (start on time, end on time, involve as few people as possible).
8. How to work as a group (the solo brilliant person doesn’t work in business).
9. How to negotiate win-wins.
10. Learning is a process not an event. It’s a lifelong process that is not limited to school.

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Replace your homepage with a twitter search.

In an interesting move along the social media scene, Skittles, the candy company replaces its homepage with a search for Skittles on twitter.

Check it out.

www.skittles.com
(May be loading slowly)

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The documentary argues that there are a number of outside forces and pressures on students to choose a specific career, or to follow a pre-determined path that is deemed conventional or culturally acceptable.

The film goes on to say that students in larger and larger numbers are succumbing to external societal and cultural pressures to take high paying jobs instead of following their dreams and doing something that will make them truly happy. More and more graduates are giving into American culture, family expectations and the love of money forcing them to make those decisions and follow careers paths they wouldn’t otherwise follow if those pressures were not present.

Kirkhateswork.com was featured as an example of this rebellion against the traditional mold.

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Every time I see those things lurking in the dark corners of a margin, basking in the un-occupied space of a footer, or placed precariously close to a functional feature ready to distract and collect stray clicks from un-assuming visitors, I lose any and all interest I had in that website. Usually resulting in a drop of 3-4 notches in my book, and an immediate  refusal to click an ad or even continue surfing that site.

However the reason these little blemishes on your favorite website are seen in such enormous numbers is that these advertisements are so incredibly easy to use. Any Joe-schmoe can set up a page with a number of strategically selected keywords to attract some high margin ads and start making a little money in no time. They also provide a great transition for budding young websites to gain a small amount of revenue, allowing them to bridge the gap until that website has enough traffic to start a direct advertising campaign of its own.

Although the other day after installing Adsense on KirkHatesWork.com I was clicking around making sure things were working properly and in doing so had an ad served for me that was actually something I was interested in. “Eureka!” Seeing as though I am the target audience of KirkHatesWork.com, that is: Someone who is not satisfied working a 9-5 job for the man, and lining the pockets of someone else. I though  ”How perfect: After only two posts and a few keywords Adsense is already serving targeted ads catered directly to my intended audience, and BONUS! They are actually appearing to be useful!

The website that I ended up visiting is an entrepreneurial Think Tank, or Idea Incubator, www.Davison.com. I did a bit of perusing on their site, and decided to request an informational packet, but the basic idea is that you provide the big idea, and they provide the rest.  Seeing as though a bunch of ideas is about the extent of my assets at this point, I figured it couldn’t hurt.  What’s the worst that could happen?  I submit an idea and it gets rejected.  Best case scenario: They like one of my ideas, it becomes a product, and they take an incredibly large percentage of the profits.  Either way, I am no worse off then where I am today.  It is only greed that would stop me from moving forward.  Its as the old saying goes.

100% of zero is zero. But even 10% of something is better than zero.

Update: This evening I saw another company, Lucky Napkin with a very similar idea on The Big Idea that I requested some material from as well. Again it can’t hurt!  I will do another post on these companies and my experiences moving forward in the near future.

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I had a phone conversation with my old boss last night (we are working on a project together) and I almost told him about my idea. But I bit my lip, held my breath and told him only that I would be sending him a website in a few weeks to take a look and give me some feedback. At first I was happy that I contained myself and kept my ideas under wraps, so as not to cry wolf, but in the long run who the hell cares!

The only way you are going to get your ideas out there and accepted by others is to tell people about them.  Be so overly excited and enthusiastic about your ideas that it rubs off on everyone you meet… you have nothing to loose. The worst that can happen is that you fall flat on your face, and you’re right back where you started with a slightly better set of experience in your quiver.  Best case scenario; you infect someone with your enthusiasm who goes on to tell someone else and they tell someone who tells someone and they…

So go out there and cry wolf!  Sell your idea to anyone who listens and take that first step to becoming financially and personally free.

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