My 4 Hour Workweek

This is part three of The Social Networking Experiment series, where I’m going to examining wide variety of social networking sites, evaluate their ability to help you succeed with your muse or business, and show you how to use them effectively.  Click here to read the introduction post for The Social Networking Experiment and click here to see all posts related to The Social Networking Experiment.

When you think of social media and social networking as a means of gaining exposure for your website or business, you think of Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, etc.  How many of you think of Yahoo! Answers?  Not many, I would guess.  Part of this “social networking experiment” isn’t to just say “hey, use Facebook and Twitter,” but to also uncover and profile the websites that generally don’t come to mind.

If you’ve ever done a Google search for a question, you’ve probably seen a result linking to a Yahoo! Answers page.  If you’ve briefly looked through Yahoo! Answers, you may have thought, “wow, why are there so many people so anxious to answer questions for free?”  Little did you know, Yahoo! Answers is an excellent way to drive traffic, gain exposure, and build your brand.

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With July nearly all wrapped up, it’s time to see what kind of literary wonders await on deck.  If you didn’t seen my reading list for July, you can check it out here.  In case you haven’t been following these lists, I started creating monthly reading lists due to a few e-mails I received from readers asking me about other books I recommend or am considering reading.

In July, I focused a lot on marketing and sales, but now I think I want to get back to the basics of entrepreneurship.  I’m going to try something a bit different this month, and open the list up to your ideas. In other words, between now and the end of July, I’ll leave this post “open.”  If you have any good suggestions, leave them in the comments between now and July 31st, and if I think I want to read them, I’ll edit this post and add it to the list (and give you props, of course!).

Below are a few books I will aim to read this month, time permitting (as always):

1) The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur by Mike Michalowicz

2) The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber

3) The Art of Innovation by Thomas Kelley

If you’ve read or are currently reading any of the books listed here, please share your comments.  I’d love to see what everyone else thinks about these books, especially before I read them.  If you have suggestions for next month’s reading list, please share those too!

I’m always looking to take this blog to greater heights – after all, it benefits both of us.  I’m a very strong believer in the notion that the more value you provide, the more you get in return.  With that said, I have yet to compile any type of “official” written material (aside from blog posts of course).  I have a couple ideas in mind that I think people would find useful, but I need your help in determining which one I should focus on.

Below are brief descriptions of two eBooks I plan to write, and I’d like you to tell me (via the poll on the sidebar to your right and in the comments if you have more to say) which one you’d be most interested in. Keep in mind, whatever I create will be completely free.

1) Unique Blog Monetization – This eBook would examine a few unique or creative ways to monetize a blog, beyond your usual AdSense ads (or whatever type of pay-per-click ads you prefer).  There would be concrete instructions and examples of how to implement them.

2) My First Online Muse: The Road to Passive Income - This eBook would take you through, step-by-step, how I created one of my “niche” websites, how I earn income through it, and how you can replicate the process.  This isn’t a unique process by any means, but it’s information that the “gurus” usually charge money for in an eBook.

Which one sounds more interesting to you?  At some point, I plan to write both of them, but I’d like to know which one I should focus on first.  Once I have it ready (I have no idea when that will be), you’ll need to subscribe to my muse creation newsletter to gain access to the download link.  If you’re possibly interested in the eBook, I’d recommend subscribing now because my current subscribers will have access to the eBook before I open it up publicly on this blog.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback! [Leave a comment.]

UPDATE: Option #2 won in a landslide!  I don’t have any idea when this eBook will be done, but stick around and I’ll announce it eventually!

If you’re someone who is close to me or otherwise knows me personally, you know that I was very close to quitting my 9 to 5 job up until a few weeks ago.  I’ve expressed my desire to take the full entrepreneurial plunge multiple times on this blog, but had yet to take any action.  The idea factory (inside my head) was constantly in motion, churning out idea after idea, some good, most probably bad or unrealistic.

The idea of quitting your job to make it “on your own” is extremely appealing.  You’re your own boss, you set your own goals, and you are the only person ultimately responsible for your wild success or your epic demise.  It’s all in your hands.  This power and excitement of uncertainty began to cloud my judgment and I think I was missing the big the picture.

My goals and overall plan have not changed, but my timeline and approach have been modified.  If you are planning to quit your job or have only thought for a few minutes about what it would be like to start your own business, you’ll want to keep reading.  Even if you’re perfectly content working for someone else for the rest of your life, consider this food for thought.

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Last week, I introduced my InfoBarrel earnings challenge in a post about how to make $2,000 per month writing articles for InfoBarrel.  The most daunting part of the challenge is having to write three articles per day.  Assuming you have the time to do it each day, how can you be sure you won’t run out of ideas?  Each article represents future residual income, so it’s important that you have a strong base of ideas to keep your writing going on a continuous basis.

In this article, I’m going to discuss exactly how to find unlimited ideas for articles, so that you can successfully build your InfoBarrel passive income stream.

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You know how TV shows play reruns during the summer?  Or how radio shows run “best of” segments while the radio show hosts are on vacation?  That’s what I thought I’d do today, while I’m fishing up in Canada for the week without internet access (at least, I don’t think I’ll have internet access).

When I first started this blog back in January (wow, these 6+ months have gone by quickly) I wrote a lot about work and productivity.  While I will still write about those topics from time to time, I’ve changed my focus more toward passive income, focusing on my own case studies and experiments, as well as interviews of others who have been successful.

A lot of the posts I wrote early in this blog’s life weren’t viewed by many, due to what little traffic I had back then.  So, this is my opportunity to share with you some content I’ve previously written, that you may have not had the chance to read.  For those of you in a “9 to 5″ job like me, you’ll want to read some of the tips I wrote about.

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Well, I lied when I said I wouldn’t be writing a passive income update until the end of July.  I decided that even though I don’t have meaningful results yet for my recently-started InfoBarrel Earnings Challenge, you might still be interested in reading about how my other projects are doing.

In case you didn’t get a chance to read it, I started publishing the results of my passive income experiments last month.  While I’m certainly not making enough money to quit my day job, I think people generally enjoy reading about others’ success and failure, so I’ve decided to share this information.

Let’s dig into how everything went in June…

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Hey guys!  This is a guest video post from Chris Ducker over at Virtual Business Lifestyle.  Chris is what I would consider a virtual assistance guru.

He’s the CEO of Live2Sell Group, a total business outsourcing provider based in Cebu City, Philippines, with over 200 full-time staff who work for him currently.  The Live2Sell Group includes his virtual assistant company, Live2Care.  If there’s anyone who knows about outsourcing and virtual assistance, it’s Chris.

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