Kimanzi Constable's Blog, page 50

My Interview With Attorney and New Author John Dries

I started my first business in late 2,000. After a few years I realized that as things grew, I was going to need a good attorney. Through another business owner I met my attorney, .

Since then he has become more than my attorney, he’s a friend and someone I really look up to.

All these years though, I never knew of a secret passion that he had and that’s a passion for writing.

When I got a contract from my publisher, he of course reviewed it and that’s when I found out he had written several children’s books. I started reading through the first one and was blown away with not only how well written it was but the amazing message in the book.

Naturally I wanted to help him get these great books out to the world. I was honored to sit down with him at his office and hear about is journey and what he sees for his future. There are some great tidbits in here that I know you’ll get value from.

I want to thank John for his time and being so open and honest, this was a real treat! As I said in the interview, if you get one of his books, forward a copy of the receipt to kconstable29@me.com and I’ll send you my first book for free!

What is your passion and how are you making that passion a reality? 

P.S. I’ve been busy this year already and have had the honor of guest posting and interviewing in a few different places. I would be honored if you checked them out and shared them on social media

Guest post

“Don’t Settle” on Myrkothum.com

“2 Secrets To Making Love Last” on Intentionaltoday.com

“Dealing and Overcoming Fear” on TheIronJen.com 

Interview

The Iron Jen Radio Show

The Struggle To Stay On Track

I was flying through the air, I couldn’t believe it was happening but flying is cool. As I’m flying, I hear a siren in the background, were there police in the sky? The siren is getting louder, it’s really hard to ignore now.

Then it hits me, I can’t fly and that “siren” is my alarm clock, is it 5 am already? I get up and sit on the edge of the bed, wiping the sleep out of my eyes. Man, I’m still tired. I slept eight hours last night, a vast improvement over the three to four hours a night I used to get when I delivered bread but I’m still groggy.

Despite the eight hours of sleep, I wanted to get back in bed and snuggle under those covers next to my wife but I knew couldn’t. I’ve got work to do and a goal to hit before our family moves to Hawaii in April.

I set my alarm clock at 5 am so I could run five miles but everyday that alarm goes off, I want to cringe. I sit there in bed, trying to talk myself out of the run, telling myself that I’ve lost 135 pounds and I can take a day off here and there.

It’s super hard and those excuses seem pretty reasonable at 5 am, every morning the struggle returns. Every morning I have to remind myself why I do this, why this is important and so will you.

You may have set some big goals for yourself and your dream this year, if you did, get ready for that struggle. You may have experienced it before and let the struggle keep you from moving forward, that’s ok, this is a new year and a new opportunity to succeed.

Today I’d like to give you a few tips to prepare you for dealing with and beating the struggle to say on track:

Don’t take on too much

I’ve said it a few times already this year but less can be more. Too often in our society we wear being super busy as a badge of honor and we take on way too much thinking it makes us accomplish more.

Most of the time we hit that point when it all overwhelms us and we want to scream from all the pressure, I’ve been there. In addition to all of this, we hit that point when the struggle threatens to put all of this on hold.

Don’t wear society’s badge of honor by taking on way too much. Chasing that dream is going to be hard enough, don’t complicate things by taking on too much.

Breath through those frustrating moments

When the struggle gets hard and it seems like everything is going wrong, slow down and take a deep breath. Our family has been taking Tae Kwon Do and one technique we’re learning is how to use breathing.

In that moment we tend to react when we should be stepping back. Your brain will tell you to do this or that, instead step back, take a deep breath and center your mind and body. If it takes ten minutes, use them to clam down and realize it’s going to be ok.

Focus on your why

Why are you facing this struggle? It’s because you’ve refused to settle for good enough and decided to make your dream your reality. Remember your why, that big dream, that big change, that incredible life that’s at the end of that finish line.

When you’re dealing with the struggle, you have to take your eyes off the struggle and focus on your why. It can be the difference between success and failure.

Work on one thing at a time

This takes us back to point #1 but multi-tasking rarely works. I don’t know about you but to often I try too many things at once and end up having many unfinished tasks. I’ve beat you’ve experienced a little of this.

We want to live our dream right now and to get there we think that doing a bunch of things at once will speed up that process. The best way to move forward is by focusing on what’s important right now.

What tasks do you need to do right now that will help you make the most progress? Figure that out and complete that task. After that, what’s the next most important task? Do that and move forward.

There are bound to be a few things that you’ll work on at the same time, like things on your website but in general, work on one thing at a time.

If you face the struggle or are going through it right now, don’t worry, you’ll get through it. Just don’t let the struggle keep you from taking those actions that will get you to your ultimate goal.

What struggles are you facing right now?

Build Your Email List (Part 2)

Having an email list is like having a secret line to communicate to your biggest fans.

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People sign up to stay informed about everything that’s going on with your website and your latest blog posts. You give them useable content, and if you want to go one step further, exclusive content that helps them with your topic.

Your email list is an important part of the foundation for a solid online business. You can’t depend exclusively on social media, especially since social media is moving to a pay-to-promote model. Email is still the best, free way to reach people.

Last post we talked about auto-responders as a good way to automate promotions and the fact that making money isn’t always sleazy. Today let’s take it one step further.

A free gift to sign up

You’ve seen it on many websites but offering a free gift as a thank you for signing up is a good way to build your list. Check out my how my friend Joe does it, pretty sharp.

The key with the free gift is to make it something valuable and relevant. You want your free stuff to be better than most people’s paid stuff. People come to this website to learn how to create a freedom based online business on the side, one of my free gifts is a 6 part series on creating an online business. I’ve gotten a good response from that PDF and it’s helped many get started.

What can you offer as your giveaway? You can make videos, you can create an information PDF, you can give away songs, whatever would be best for your specific audience. With the email services, it’s not too complicated to add your free thing to an auto-responder after sign up.

Just remember to tell people they’re signing up to get content that’s relevant to them. The freebie is just a thank you and something that can help further their journey.

Here are some articles that explain this well:

Start building your email list now by Jeff Goins

Why you should build your email list and how to get started by Derek Halpern

4 ways to build your email list today by the guys at The Sparkline

How to build a first-class email in 30 days from scratch by Copyblogger

Setting up an Auto-responder 

I want to keep this simple for you:

On your dashboard, look for the auto-responder tab, click it. 
Click the “create auto-responder” tab.
You will then be taken to a page that has all your email lists, choose the one (if there’s more than one) you want to set up an auto-responder series for.
You will be taken to a screen that shows when and what days you want your series to be sent out.
Next is the set up, what email subject line and where the responses should go.
You would then design how you want the email to look like, I choose the pre designed templates, I’m not a designer
Create a plain-text version for email boxes that do not read certain HTML.
And confirm it, that’s it!

Now, this is how you create the first email in the series, if you want to create multiple emails, on the third step you would choose to send out the second email once the first one is opened.  The same would apply to a third and forth one. If you have specific questions, please email me at kconstable29@me.com.

If you want to learn a little more about this, my friend Josh Hinds and I did a webinar where we talk about building your email list. You can see that here.

If you want your online dream to support you this year, start building that list today. Even if you just want to share your content, email is better than social media. If you keep sharing your stuff on social media, people will feel like you’re spamming them. Trust me, I’ve been there

How are you building your email list and how’s it going? 

P.S. The winner of the free one hour coaching session is Jenny Hester! 

Homeless to An Entrepreneur: An Interview With Sutton Parks

I’ve spent the last three years writing about chasing your dreams and showing you that your dream really is possible. This year my goal is to kick it up a notch, in hopes of seeing many who read this blog completely supported by their online dream by the end of this year.

Another way to do that is to talk to people who are on this journey and winning. I want to bring you interviews with inspiring entrepreneurs who struggled but got back up and are moving forward. Today I’m honored to bring you Sutton Parks.

All I can say is that his story is as inspiring as it gets. It’s an incredible story about struggle and triumph. He was homeless, living in his car, even attempted suicide, life was rough. Watch this interview to hear about it and how he came out of that dark place to victory. At the 31 minute mark, I ask Sutton to play and sing for us, he REALLY rocked it!

I want to thank Sutton again for the interview and playing for us. I had a fabulous time and I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you got a lot from Sutton and do realize that no matter how bad things seem, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.

We have the power to choose whether or not we let circumstance keep us from something extraordinary, I hope you choose to push forward, Sutton did. Don’t let your doubts and fears or the negative voices of others keep you from those HUGE dreams you want to make your reality.

Was there ever a time you overcame a difficult situation?

P.S. How did you with checking your numbers last week? If you checked them less, be honest in the comments with how much you checked them. I’ll be selecting one winner for a free one hour coaching session.

Build Your Email List (Part 1)

Let me just tell you right off the bat, not building my email list from the start was one of my bigger mistakes. Back then, all I cared about was getting more than ten people even looking at my website, an email list was the last thing on my mind.

In today’s post I want to show you why building an email list is vital, if you want your thing to support your family and give you a few tips. If you can can start early or right now, you’ll be building on a solid foundation.

Why is an email list important?

How may emails do you get a day? If you get a lot, you know how annoying emails can be. So when someone can look past their irritation with email and sign up for your email list, they’re really interested in what you’re talking about.

If your goal is to generate income, then they might turn out to be a “lead” later. By them signing up, they’ve given you permission to talk to them about your thing. When you post a link to your post on social media, people decide whether or not it’s worth their time. When they’re on your email list, they’ve already decided.

Building an email list is important because if for some reason all social media was shut down or you lose a bunch of friends/followers, if they’re signed up for your email list, they’ll still see your content.

Email is also important for automation. You may have heard about auto-responders? As you grow your online business and create premium offerings, auto-responders can be a great way to let new or existing people know about those offerings.

Taking time and setting this up will save you countless hours of marketing later. Every time someone signs up, they get put in a sequence, generally two to three emails, the last one being a “sales” email. So no matter what’s going on or where people sign up in the world, they’ll see what you have to offer.

Setting up your auto-responder

How many emails should be in your series? What should they say? How far apart should they be? A few questions to think about but the best answers will come from really knowing and listening to your audience. To start, I’ll give you a general format. Use it but tweak it as you hear and learn from your audience.

I would start with four emails in your auto-responder series. After someone signs up for your email list, the next email’s should generally send every 2 to 3 days. This is generally what they can say:

First email is a thank you/ what to expect from my website email. Let them know exactly what they’ll get from your website and content. Second email is your story/ this is possible email. Let people know how you got to this point and why you started this thing. Also let them know that their dream (related to what you talk about) is entirely possible because it is!

Third email is a case study email: this person did this, I did that, these 10 people did it. This email is designed to show people what’s possible and here’s the proof. There’s a wealth of information online that you can link to or if you can prove it from your own experience, that’s even better.

Fourth email is the sales email: have you enjoyed the free training? Have you been enjoying my blog post? Well, if you’ve enjoyed the free stuff, check out this premium thing that takes things to the next level. And if you buy now, get this cool thing for free, offer an incentive to buy.

To set up an auto-responder series, you must have a paid account through an email service provider from services like MailChimp, Aweber, Infusionsoft and many others. I use MailChimp and setting up this series isn’t too complicated. I’ll do a demo in part two.

You’re not sleazy if you’re adding value

When it comes to sales and money, there’s always an uneasy feeling. Your goal is to help people and when money is talked about in that context, you may feeling like you’re not helping as much.

Here’s the thing, you can still help people and make money. I would go farther than that and say that as you make a little bit more money, you’ll have more freedom to go deeper and have more time to help.

Just because there’s money involved doesn’t mean you’re sleazy or not adding value, you can do both. At the end of the day you want to help but you have to eat and put food on the table for your family. If you’re content is top-notch and actually helps people, then charging a reasonable fee is reasonable

I’ve taken up enough of your time, in part two we’ll talk about how to get people to sign up for your list and I’ll give you a demo of setting up an auto-responder series.

I have some homework for you, if you don’t have an auto-responder series set up, let’s get started. Think about and start writing some words for your auto-responder series. If you get some words written, come back here and put a few lines in the comments.

I will select a few people and send them a copy of Linchpin by Seth Godin and Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Get started on building your business and possible get a book!

Are you building an email list? What have you seen?

Stop Focusing On The Numbers

When I started my blog, I started out checking the stats every few hours. It was pretty easy back then because there was only a handful of people who even looked at the blog. As the blog grew, my excitement grew and so did the number of times I checked the stats.

I can clearly remember the first time my little blog got a thousand views, 1,000! After that point my obsessing over the numbers spiraled out of control. When there was a day that the blog didn’t get many views, I was depressed.

If you have a blog, can you relate?

It took me a long time and it’s still a lesson I’m learning but at the end of the day, the numbers aren’t where our focus should be. I realize and hope that many that read my blog have set a goal of being completely supported by their online pursuits this year.

This will mean a number of things and some numbers do matter, like how much income you’re generating. However, when you’re starting out and building your thing, what really matters?

Focus on building your foundation

I’ve written about this a lot but if your dream is to build an online business from something you’re passionate about, your foundation is what’s called your platform: website, social media and overall online presence.

Building your foundation starts with just one. One reader, one social media follower, you get that one and then you help them get through the situation you’re passionate about. If you add value to their lives, they tell a friend and then you have two.

From that point on you build your foundation and get things exactly how you want them. Focus on what works for you and what works for those you want to serve. Despite all the good information you’ll see online, build YOUR foundation, not what others are doing, make it uniquely yours.

Focus on engagement

If what you’re doing hits the mark, people will respond. You bust your butt to put out amazing content, so when the engagement comes, you welcome it. Engagement starts and furthers the conversation, it also draws in new people to your thing.

Engagement is great and something you should focus on to make sure you’re on the right track but again, don’t get caught up on the numbers. If you only get two comments on a blog post, don’t freak out! If you only get four tweets on your latest post, life will go on.

At this point I know I’m on the right track when I see this:

Focus on adding value

At the end of the day, this is all about adding value to your audience and helping them. When you take the focus off yourself and focus on who you’re serving, magic happens. People actually get helped and they scream your thing from the rooftops.

They get through those difficult situations and they move forward in their life and you’re a HUGE part of that. This is why you really do what you do, this is really where your focus should be at. When you start with others first, you’re building the best foundation you can possible build.

The numbers give you an indication of what’s working and how you can improve but don’t let them make or break your progress. Focus on what’s important, focus on who you’re serving and serve them.

This week, let’s try something out, lets see if you can go all week without obsessing over the numbers. However much you check them, see if you can decrease that time by 20%. If you do, come back to this post and let us know.

For those that have success in the next week, I’ll put your name in the drawing to receive a free one hour coaching session with me. We’ll get together and talk about your online dream and ways to build it! Are you in?

How often do you check your numbers and what numbers do you focus on?

Making A Living Online Since 1996: An Interview With Josh Hinds

In 2014 I want to take things to the next level in what I write on this blog. I felt like I got some clarity last year, I felt like I found my voice, now I want to build upon that foundation.

In 2014 I will get even more specific

I want to give you content that will help you make your online dreams a reality. To do that I’ll let you see all the behind the scenes stuff, I won’t hold anything back. I’ll also bring you some of my friends that are making a living online and you’ll hear how they did it and are growing.

Today I’m happy to bring you one of those friends, Josh Hinds. He’s an author, speaker and been an Internet entrepreneur since 1996. In this video you’ll hear how he started and how different things were in 1996. Be sure to check out one of Josh’s six websites!

You’ll hear how one move got him millions of views and how he was able to be fully supported by his online business from the start. You’ll also hear how he makes money online. So here’s the interview:

Thank you Josh for sharing such great information! I know you got some value from Josh and hope you see this is possible. One of the biggest things I hope you got from this is changing your mindset. If you don’t believe it or can’t see it, you’ll never get there.

FREE WEBINAR! 

Josh knows so much about online business that it’s not funny. I thought I’d be crazy not to team up with him for some more in-depth training, so I’m doing just that. Josh and I are doing a FREE webinar this Wednesday night at 6 pm CDT about how to build a profitable online business.

We’ll be sharing some real practical tips and tricks and even some deeper content. All that’s required is your time and there will be a replay. Sign up for the replay (if you can’t make it live), space is limited. Learn all about it here.

What are your goals for your online business in 2014?

My Year End Review (Part 2)

This was a good year, I had some failures but some definite successes. I learned a lot this year and hopefully taught a lot. My dream was fully realized this year and I’ll be building upon it in a big way in 2014.

So last post I told you about the goals I made at the beginning of 2013 and how I did with my five main goals, I even showed you a picture of myself with my shirt off (weird I know). This post I want to talk about failures and successes, what I learned and how I will be moving forward in 2014.

Lessons learned

There will be haters: This year I picked up a few haters and one really dedicated hater. I know not everyone will agree with your message but there are those that go beyond. They’re not happy just to disagree, they have to go out of their way to make you look bad, to show you how wrong you are and how smart they are.

Ar first, I just ignored it but to be honest it bothered me. Then the hater started following me everywhere online, even the guest post I was doing (Dan Black can vouch for that). After thinking about it, I realized this is my blog and I don’t write it for the haters.

I write this for those of you who want that freedom and help doing this on the side, building it to support you and your family. So I stopped entertaining the haters and blocked them from this website. From time to time they still try to comment under different names but I don’t have time, I’ve got important work to do. If you’re doing something positive, get ready for the haters, they will come!

Less is more: This year I wanted to make enough money to support my family so I did everything I heard and read would generate income. I did a lot of stuff but honestly a lot of it was a waste of time.

You’ve read that one of my main goals is to do less next year so I can focus more on the important things. Alone those lines I want to keep things very simple, take what works and build upon that slowly. When you’re on this online dream chasing journey, you’ll be tempted to get into a bunch of different stuff that you think will work. Before you do, really make sure it’s something that will help you, not distract you.

Know who you’re talking to: Figuring out who my target audience is has made all the difference, it’s helped me “crack the code.” I was way too general and it confused those visiting my site, once I got clear, the audience responded.

I lost a bunch of email subscribers but gained over $4,000 a month in income. I can finally talk to a specific audience about specific things that affect them. I can also figure out where this audience is online and how I can get involved in those communities. If you’re too general, you won’t be as effective as you want to. Get real clear about who you’re talking to and get even more specific.

Successes and failures

Boy, where do I start? This was the first full year that my dream supported my family, so I guess you can say that was my biggest success

My failures: I took on way too much this year. I took on every project that I thought would work, I joined a bunch of Facebook groups and other groups. I took on too much with family and friends. It lead to a break down in the middle of the year, I had to take a step back! It also lead to a lot of unfinished projects and crazy ideas.

I wasn’t specific enough: I started this year talking about chasing your dreams in general which wasn’t too much of a help for anyone. If you got value from that content, I’m glad but by getting super specific has really helped me zone in and help people accomplish things. Now that I’ve gotten specific, there has actually been measurable results, check out my services page to see people who’ve been specifically helped.

I didn’t save enough money: I had a good year financially and despite the knowledge I have about money, I should have saved a lot more money this year. There was some frivolous spending on my part, I should have a lot more in the bank. That will be one of my goals for 2014.

Successes: You’ve read about my successes in the last post so I won’t get into them but it was a good year. One thing I’m really proud of was helping people. For a long time I didn’t believe in myself or my dream until 2011. Since then I’ve believed and took action, the results have been life-changing.

To help people believe and then see them take action is one of the greatest things I’ve done. Going forward I want to help more people, I want to see anyone who regularly reads this blog accomplish their dream by the end of 2014 and I mean that. It’s only going to get better and I hope you’ll stick around to see what incredible things I have in store for you this year!

What did you learn in 2013? What were some of your successes and failures in 2013?

My Year End Review (Part 1)

Hello everyone, thank you so much for reading my ramblings in 2013, I’m truly honored that you would take the time to hang out with me for a little bit each week. 2013 was the first year that I was completely supported by my dream and it was an interesting year.

I want to take a look back at my goals at the beginning of this year and how I did. I also want to talk about lessons learned, the wins and the failures. I want to be brutally honest in hopes of helping those that are or will be in the same position. I had five main goals at the beginning of 2013, I’ll start by going through them:

Weight loss: I will lose 140 pounds

To be perfectly honest, I neglected this goal for the first part of the year. I would start my diet and stop, I would start working out and stop. I made so many excuses, telling myself I would start on this date or that.

I got a wake up call at my best friends wedding on June 15 of this year. I was his best man and when I saw myself in the photos I was horrified. I was the heaviest I had ever been, weighing in at 370 pounds.

The wedding was on a Saturday, that Monday June 17 was when I got serious about my weight loss. I started a portioned controlled diet, I cut out all soda, sweets and junk food. I rediscovered a long-lost love: running.

I started running five miles a day. That first run was rough, I couldn’t even run for one minute straight. Since then I’ve built up my endurance and have run 648.3 miles. As far as weight loss, I have lost 133 pounds and counting.

I posted a picture on Facebook but since I want to be brutally honest, I’m posting a picture a little bit outside of my comfort zone.

I continue to eat right and run, I’ve added some strength training now. My goal is to be at 190 pounds by the time we leave for Hawaii on April 8, 2014 (more on that later). At the time of this writing, I weigh 237, I’ve still got some work to do.

Speaking: I will speak at 4 events that pay more than what I made this year

This year was another great year of speaking literally all over the world. I won’t spend too much time here but I can honestly say that I hit this goal.

My speaking income increased 26% this year, out of my gross income, speaking brought in around $22,000. It’s so cool to see the world and get paid for it. I spoke in Israel, Atlanta, Kentucky, Washington D.C, Milwaukee, Arkansas, Kenya, London and Paris. A very solid year in speaking.

Travel: I will take my family to Kenya, and Hawaii. I will take my wife on a trip to London and Paris

Well, in September I did take my wife with me on a three-week speaking tour in Kenya, London and Paris. It was her first time to travel internationally and she said it was amazing.

We saw so many cool sites and enjoyed a little alone time (away from the kids). The speaking events went well and I was invited back! The kids did not go to any of these countries.

Hawaii Update: So my goal was to take the family to Hawaii, that didn’t happen. I can however report that the Hawaii is finally real!! I told you several weeks ago that I bought my ticket for February 18 to go and set up a place for the family.

I’m now happy to report that our family booked one-way tickets to Maui, Hawaii for April 8, 2014. We’re selling everything and in 107 days (from the time I’m writing this) our dream is becoming a reality.

Business: I will create at least two killer products that truly help people.

I created one killer product this year that I’m extremely proud of: The Little Guide to Figuring Out Your Dream. The guide has been purchased 122 times and I’ve gotten several email saying it had really helped.

The second thing is not really a product but was killer: The Dream Chasers Coaching Program. This year I coached more than ever before. I had worked with people in the past but this year I worked with 26 different people at different points in the year.

It’s such an amazing feeling to help someone see that their dream is possible, I’ve been blown away with the hustle my clients are doing. I’ve asked two of them if I can show case their work.

Income: I will make at least $2,800 a month

My goal was to make at least $2,800 a month because this will pay our bills and give us a little bit of savings. At the time of this writing my business has brought in $65,601.13 which gives me a monthly average of $5,466.76. Do keep in mind this is a gross number before expenses.

To make a along story short. I hit my income goal. To be paid to do what I love to do is incredible, I have to pinch myself everyday. This is my dream and I’m living it! It has been a struggle to get here and there are still things popping up everyday.

My number one goal is to help you get here. I know where you are, what you’ll experience and how to do this, so I’m here to be with you every step of this journey. In the next post I’ll talk about lessons, struggles victories and tips. Come back Friday!

Thank you to Thai Win, Jenny Hester and Sutton Parks for letting me feature our work together. I have loved working with them and so many others this year, it has brought tears to my eyes!

How did your dream chasing journey go in 2013?

Keep Your Dream Simple (Part 5)

Where do I even start? This online business stuff is so frustrating, there’s so much information, what do I do first? When I started my online business in 2011, I did about 100 different things that I thought would make me money but most didn’t.

Things really didn’t happen for me until the middle of 2012, that’s when I simplified things. I stopped trying to do everything I heard or read and just stuck to the basics: create an amazing home base, get people to that home base and give them value and useful/useable content, sell a few premium offerings that will give them specific results.

Since then, the business has been building, sometimes I feel like one person at a time. If you’re just starting out or have been trying your hand at this online thing for a while, it might be time to simplify and make sure your basics are tiptop.

A little review

We started this series talking about one of the most important things online: finding your target audience. If you’re going to be successful, you have to figure out who you’re talking to and what you’re talking about. Once you get specific, you can figure out where they’re at online and how you can help them.

Then we talked about the basics of a good website. One of the most important aspects being building your email list and having it front and center.

We moved on to talk about building an audience through things like guest post, interviews. SEO and other strategies work but those are more longer term strategies, guest posting gets you exposed to a larger audience quicker.

In this series I’ve hit most of the basics, the goal being to give you the tools you need to make your online dreams a reality. More specifically, if you’re a family person that has a day job and is doing this on the side, my passion is to help make your thing support your family.

Making money

So we’ve covered the basics, once you have those set and solid, it’s time to think about making a little money and building upon that. Where to start??

If you took time in the beginning, you’ll know your target audience. When figuring out what to create to sell, that information should come from the pain points of your target audience.

Knowing your target audience means helping them get through something. If you talk to newlyweds, you could create “The guide to your first week of marriage” where you tell newlyweds everything they need to know and some things they didn’t think about during that first week.

If you’re talking about exercise, you could create an online course on how to develop the ultimate lifting routine. You get it. If you don’t know what the pain points are of your target audience, ask them.

When you’re thinking about creating your premium stuff, your products and services, the normal tendency is to create things you think your audience wants. Instead of guessing (those guesses are wrong more often than not) send out an email to your email list, ask any social media groups you’re a part of.

Get the info and create from that, you’ll then be creating things your target audience can actually use and will actually help them, of course they’ll buy!

Ways to monetize

I’ll be doing whole posts on all of these topics but there are a bunch of ways to monetize. Again, knowing what your target audience likes will help you figure out what to create first.

Most of the time the first thing you can create to start seeing income right away is a guide. Maybe a series of blog posts combined with some fresh research and information turned into a guide. A guide being a PDF with a nice cover but incredible content, usually 15 to 20 pages.

You upload that to a site like E-Junkie and bam, you’ve got your first premium offering. Again, please don’t throw something together, create something useful that gets a specific result for your target audience.

There are some great books that can really help you when it comes to thinking about business and monetizing. If you’re going to offer Services, then you should read “Book Yourself Solid” by Michael Port. For your business in general, you should read “Business in Blue Jeans” by Susan Baroncini-Moe. For creating premium products and different ways to monetize your online business, “The Millionaire Messenger” by Brendon Burchard. These books are must reads for really making this thing support you.

You can do this

I just scratched the surface with this series, as the year goes on I’ll get super specific, with details and numbers from my business, the successes and the failures. My hope is that you see you can do this and have it eventually support you.

I’m devoting this year to helping you the family person, start this on the side, build it to support your family without ruining what you have and of course I’ll be with you every step of the way

What is your online and what is your goal for 2014?