Niall Doherty's Blog, page 186

Momentos

These are my Momentos, vignettes I write daily and publish twice a month. They’re incredibly self-indulgent and I’m surprised anyone reads them. There’s one for every day since February 27, 2013.

Patrons get to read each new batch before anyone else.

Full archive here




1

Published my best survey sites article ten weeks ago. Looks like it finally hit the first page of Google today. That’s the tricky thing with SEO – takes a while to find out if what you’re doing is working. I was ready to write off the survey site stuff as a waste of time. But now, perhaps not.

2

I get a little obsessed with analytics sometimes. Especially when I’m tired. That’s when I end up checking how much traffic’s coming in, how many clicks I’m getting on what links, how much I’m earning from different affiliate programs. Very little of that info is any way actionable.

3

In Canggu, wake up to the sound of sweeping. They sweep a lot here in Bali. Head outside, kites in the sky, incense in the air. Short walk down the street to the early cafe. I’m their first customer today. Upstairs with a latte, emails back home, remembering my grandfather and the stars he made shine.

4

There’s a primal itch in guys that can only be scratched by spending time with a group of other guys. Hanging out with two good dudes here in Canggu, talking business, taking the piss, playing video games. I’d been missing that. 

5

You can get used to anything eventually. Driving in Bali was intense and exhausting at first. Now, more than three months later, I can drive an hour from Canggu to Ubud easy enough, chatting with my lady on the back much of the way. Gotta be careful what you get used to though.

6

Reviewing a bunch of affiliate marketing courses now. Started into perhaps the most popular one today – Wealthy Affiliate. Impressed with some of it, but annoyed by their greatly exaggerated claims. For example: 

“It is going to take less than 30 seconds to get a fully operational, profit ready WordPress website up and running online.”

7

Spent about 4 hours today going through that course and keeping notes. May sound tedious, but I love this work. It’s basically my job to learn new things. But that’s only the half of it. I also love the noticing, figuring out what makes sense and what doesn’t, examining claims, sniffing out bullshit.

8

Only five hours sleep but it’s one of those magic mornings. Getting to the gym right as it opens, scooting along that road, hint of orange in the sky, neighbors smiling, kids in uniform, baby in a father’s arms, old man jogging, puppies playing, and the constant sweep-sweep-sweeping, everyone keeping their corner of the world clean.

9

Listening to Bernie Sanders on Joe Rogan. I like the guy. Smart, reasonable, coherent, respectful. Doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. I hope America gives him a shot. Not sure how anyone could listen to Trump talk about the same issues for an hour and come away convinced that he’s the best man for the job.

10

Loads of energy the past few weeks, not sure where it’s coming from. Hitting the gym every morning has surely helped, haven’t been this consistent with it since 2016. Going all-in on my own thing must be a factor, too. This work and the crazy potential of it has me buzzing.

11

The stories that are out there, man. Three of them came my way today. A newsletter that pulls in $2 million a month. The guy who built and sold a website for $9 million, despite having no interest or expertize in his niche. And two friends who built a $1 million Amazon business from scratch in only three years.

12

~22 hours now combing through Wealthy Affliate, and I’m left disappointed. Mostly, it’s just very outdated. Much of the material hasn’t been updated since 2014 – an eternity online. It’s a damn shame because they have a really good affiliate program and I was hoping to write a glowing review. Oh well.

13

Scooting around Ubud trying to buy a SIM card for this 14-year-old. Booth is closed at the usual place. When will it open? Maybe in an hour. Maybe? Yes, maybe. Fine, on to the next. No English, the man says. Fine, further on again. Third time lucky, but they say to wait an hour for the card to activate. 4 hours later, it activates.

14

Several more hours reviewing WA today. I’m starting to get angry about it now. This course sucks yet it earns millions every month. I had a course that was far more likely to get students earning online, yet I struggled to earn more than $2,000 a month from it. Life ain’t fair.

15

Hefty bald white dude cuts me off dangerously on the scooter. He’s in a rush going nowhere, has to stop for traffic up ahead. I pull up alongside with the horn blaring, making sure he knows that’s not cool. His tough mug roars at me in a language I don’t understand, and I let him go.

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eBiz Weekly #31

eBiz Weekly is a free newsletter packed with tips, insights and opportunities to grow your online business. We send it out every Friday to 3,512 legendary subscribers. We also post the content of each email here on the website.

Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Weekly delivered to your inboxView the archive

This week:

My July Finance Report
This is a must-read if you want to get paid to write
Success is inevitable if…
An impressive free course for freelancers
18 startups hiring for high paying remote jobs ($100,000+)
Reminder: most of your competition sucks!
Systems Thinking
Big Money Gamers
The Kanye Story
Long Tail Dating Websites

My July Finance Report

Here’s everything I earned and spent in July.

In short:

Income: $2,131
Expenses: $2,081

So I just about broke even.

Below is a graph from the report showing my progress with affiliate income since starting eBiz Facts last December.

Nice to see it trending upwards.

If the expected payments come through in August I should crack $2000 for the first time

eBiz Weekly #30

Every Friday we email 3,493 legendary subscribers with tips and insights to help build and grow their online businesses. We also post the content of each email here on the website.

Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Weekly delivered to your inboxView the archive

This week:

SMMA Price Drop
Lifetime deal on a great SMM tool
(Not Even) 1000 True Fans
A $1 billion business where all 700 employees work remotely
YouTuber earning $3000/month playing a game you never heard of
Are you charging too much for your services?
Please stop trying to follow your passion
“If you’re considering the digital nomad life… definitely read this book”
Earn up to $22/hour teaching English from your phone
You don’t need a portfolio

SMMA Price Drop

You might recall that we reviewed a course called Social Media Marketing Agency earlier this year.

And rated it 4 out of 5 stars

Momentos

These are my Momentos, vignettes I write daily and publish twice a month. They’re incredibly self-indulgent and I’m surprised anyone reads them. There’s one for every day since February 27, 2013.

Patrons get to read each new batch before anyone else.

Full archive here




16

I’m 37 years old and have visited 53 countries to date, but today was the first time I ever felt an earthquake. The center was some 120km southwest in the Indian ocean. 6.2 magnitude apparently. No damage here, no injuries. But a good reminder that we’re all just fleas on the back of this big dog.

17

Came across a certain website a few months back, saw that we’re competing for some of the same keywords. It’s a decent site, content okay but nothing unbeatable. Found out today that they’re crushing it with ad revenue. Probably six figures each month. I love hearing that. Shows the potential.

18

Loving the gym these days, go pretty much every morning now. I keep the workouts short, ~45 minutes. Run and stretch and lift while listening to a good podcast. The body’s looking better, feeling better, and I seem to have more energy. I’ll have to prioritize joining a gym whenever I move some place new.

19

Childhood was a blur for me. Fond memories, but fuzzy. My adolescent years are much clearer. Perhaps that’s true for everyone. You don’t start getting to know yourself properly until puberty hits. I’m 37 years old now, so it’s a quarter century since I crossed that threshold. Long time.

20

Running a small business is never boring, such a variety of tasks and roles. Today I’ve been coding, designing, doing strategy, content, customer service, social media management, finances, admin… Not ideal to be so scattered, but the occasional day like this makes me feel like a digital Renaissance man.

21

Sunday evening, quick check of my RescueTime dasboard. More than sixty hours clocked on the laptop this week, and that’s after subtracting time spent on entertainment (YouTube, etc). My work/life balance is terrible right now, but I don’t care. Really feel like I’m building something special.

22

I quit my job and started my own business nine years ago. If I could go back and start again, I’d find a successful online entrepreneur and offer to work for $1,000/month, do whatever needs doing, learn as much as possible from them. Because I realize now that I wasted a lot of time figuring shit out on my own.

23

Right now the streets of Ubud are lined with bamboo poles, one outside every compound. They stand taller than any rooftop, decorated with colored ribbons and coconut leaves. Galungan has begun, one of the most important festivals on the Balinese calendar, celebrating the triumph of good over evil. 

24

Can’t sleep, termites are swarming downstairs, so I head out to meet the sunrise. Ubud is at its most beautiful right now, especially at this hour. I wander down little side streets and alleyways, wafting incense, towering penjor, thatch-roofed temples, bright fabrics, elegant shrines, beautiful people.

25

Scott Young writes:

“Seeing peers eclipse you professionally can be tough, especially when you’re grinding away every day.”

Yup. I’m still grinding, have been eclipsed by many peers. eBiz Facts feels like a winner though. Gotta stay focused and make that what I know it can be.

26

Been enjoying putting together the eBiz Weekly newsletter. Takes several hours each week, but that’s several hours learning evermore about online business and sharing the best stuff with subscribers. Kinda like what I used to do ten years ago, but with basketball content back then. Maybe curation’s my thing.

27

There are some sharks out there in the business world. Sometimes I wish I was more like them, honestly. But it takes a toll on me to be a dick, to screw someone over, even someone I don’t know. Not that I’m morally superior to the sharks. I’m just not wired that way. For better and for worse.

28

Heard Zuckerberg say on a podcast today that you should look to hire people who, if the roles were reversed, you’d be happy to work for them. That’s how you end up with a team of superstars. 

29

Easy get overwhelmed by all the opportunities out there. Read an article today that gave me another flood of ideas for great content I could create on eBiz Facts. No shortage of ideas, only a shortage of time/resources to execute. Then again, as Tim Ferriss once said, “a lack of time is a lack of priorities.”

30

You read a book like All Quiet – a book written almost 100 years ago – and you wonder how the hell war is still a thing. 

I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.

31

Putting a lot of time into these case studies. Hired a VA to help, been training her, putting processes in place. Case studies are unlikely to reward us much financially, but I really want them to exist, haven’t seen them done the way we’re doing them. Must get back to writing reviews next month though.

Don't miss my next batch of Momentos

Join 3,493 subscribers of my newsletter and you'll be the first to know when the next batch gets published. I'll also send you weekly tips and insights to grow your online business.

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Prof Hoff

Shane Hoffman once had 100 subscribers on a YouTube channel reviewing pizza and Oreos.

A suggestion from his twin brother prompted him to shake things up a bit.

Now, two years later, Shane’s revamped YouTube channel – Prof Hoff – has grown to more than 14 million views and 34,000 subscribers, and provides a nice side income.

Everything we do here at eBiz Facts is geared towards helping you make smart decisions, so you don’t waste loads of time and money while building your online business.

Our case studies are no exception.

We take a scientific approach to examining every business we feature as a case study, rating and dissecting each one using the same criteria.

The end result – we hope – is that you quickly gain a high-level understanding of each business, and learn what it takes to achieve similar success.

Learn more about our case studies and how to read themSee our full listing of case studies















Business Breakdown










Average Revenue 1

$3000/month





Average Profit 2

$2500/month





Time In Business 3


22 months





$0 → $1k/month 4


5 months





Starting Capital 5


$1500





Workload 6


38 hours/week





eBiz Purity 7


5/5






















Passivity 8

1/5





CENTS Score 9

1/5





Business Model 10

authority

Lead Generation 11

youtube organic

Monetization 12

advertising, crowdfunding, affiliate marketing

Niche 13

gaming

Platform 14

youtube

Skills 15

video production, public speaking, 2 more…

Tools 16

canva, final cut pro x, OBS

All info self-reported by Prof Hoff.

Case study published July 31, 2019.

eBiz Weekly #29

Every Friday we email 3,479 legendary subscribers with tips and insights to help build and grow their online businesses. We also post the content of each email here on the website.

Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Weekly delivered to your inboxView the archive

This week:

The email marketing guide that 2.5xed my conversion rate
How much money can you make on Amazon Mechanical Turk?
“Influencers are bullshit”
10 ideas to strengthen your business network
Two bloggers who earned $50,000+ last month
First digital, then nomadic
When to publish content on Medium (and when not to)
JobRack: an Upwork alternative with a twist
$15-20k/month teaching people how to use software
Weird ways to make money online: Puppets and Ultimate Frisbee

The email marketing guide that 2.5xed my conversion rate

Backlinko calls it “the definitive guide” to email marketing, and they might be right.

I recently implemented some of the advice in chapter 2 and have seen a 2.5x increase in conversions of website visitors to email subscribers.

(7 day period before changes = 0.21% conversion rate. 7 day period after changes = 0.54% conversion rate.)

Here’s what I did:

Added a newsletter link to my main navigation.
Embedded email captures within the content of popular posts.
Added a big opt-in to the top of my homepage and removed the navigation.
Removed the slide-in email capture that would show on 25% scroll down the page.
Added an exit-intent pop-up to all pages. (I use Thrive Leads for this.)

All pretty simple stuff I should have been doing anyway, but Backlinko has a knack for explaining clearly what works best and why.

The full guide is a must-read if you do any email marketing.

How much money can you make on Amazon Mechanical Turk?

Mechanical Turk is a “microjobs” site from Amazon where you can get paid to perform small tasks.

Apparently there are more than 500,000 workers on there.

The Hustle reports:

A 2018 academic study analyzed 3.8m tasks completed by 2,676 workers on MTurk and found that average earnings through the platform amounted to $2 per hour. Only 4% of all workers earned more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour.

As I scour the internet looking for legit ways to earn money online – so I can share them with you – it boggles my mind to see so many people spending serious time on sites like MTurk for very little reward.

Please don’t be one of those people.

If your most marketable “skill” is an ability to mindlessly click on stuff, you’re never going to earn very much.

Go learn some real skills that the market values and you’ll fare much better.

Related:

How to choose which skill to learn
How to rapidly build your skill (and start getting paid)

“Influencers are bullshit”

So says Nomadic Matt, a writer who has been traveling the world for 10 years now and earned millions of dollars along the way.

An excerpt:

calling yourself an influencer is all about you. That means all you’re doing is talking about yourself and trying to show your best life on social media — while then often complaining about how many hours you work and how hard it is.

You know why it’s hard? Because, since you don’t really create anything of value to others, you have to hustle for every dollar. Because if your goal is to get free travel and do cool stuff for yourself, the internet will quickly tire of you. No one wants to read endless stories of someone doing things they can never do.

Matt also published a piece on Entrepreneur.com this week that gives more insights into his business: How to Start (and Run) a 7-Figure Business While Traveling the World

10 ideas to strengthen your business network

Some wise head once said, “Your network is your net worth.”

Given that, it’s smart to regularly build and strengthen your relationships with other good folks online.

These tips from Caroline Leon are deceptively simple, but do even one or two of them regularly and you’ll be the most popular kid at the pajama party.

Take this one, for example:

8. Reach out to your biggest fans, those people who like and comment on all of your posts. Send them a direct and personal message to thank them and to find out how they are. If after you’ve made the initial connection there’s an obvious way you could support them, offer your help generously.

What do you think would happen if you did that just once per day consistently?

Two bloggers who earned $50,000+ last month

First is Ryan Robinson, who earned $54,923.08.

Second is Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, who doesn’t reveal exact numbers but most likely earned more than $100,000 (she’s been earning at least that every month for several years).

Interesting that both of them earn so much as affiliates for Bluehost.

75% of Ryan’s June income came from Bluehost.
Michelle’s income report from last November shows that she earned $30,240 from Bluehost alone.

Now you know why every second blog you come across has a free “how to start a blog” course with a Bluehost affiliate link

eBiz Weekly #28

Every Friday we email 3,459 legendary subscribers with tips and insights to help build and grow their online businesses. We also post the content of each email here on the website.

Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Weekly delivered to your inboxView the archive

This week:

How a physical therapist earns $4098/month online
How to charge more for your services (best sales method I’ve seen)
Momentos
10 big companies you can work for remotely
If you offer freelance services, you need to read this.
Should you quit your job to start your own business?
Some honest thoughts on the digital nomad lifestyle (from a dreamy 21-year-old who actually did it)
Trend to keep an eye on = long tail social media
3 things to improve your writing
For beginners looking to start earning online right away…

How a physical therapist earns $4098/month online

Our newest case study is live, profiling a business that started off as a hobby Instagram account.

I love this case study because the business is in a niche – physical therapy – that you wouldn’t usually associate with earning money online.

Check it out and let me know what you think of the case study format. I’m still experimenting with it, gearing up to do a lot more case studies in future.

How to charge more for your services (best sales method I’ve seen)

There’s a book called SPIN Selling that details a really powerful method for selling high-priced services.

I first read it years ago and I highly recommend it.

But you probably don’t have time to read another book, so here’s a video summarizing the key points.

The video comes from a fellow Irishman –

Momentos

These are my Momentos, vignettes I write daily and publish twice a month. They’re incredibly self-indulgent and I’m surprised anyone reads them. There’s one for every day since February 27, 2013.

Patrons get to read each new batch before anyone else.

Full archive here




1

Mentioned before how you get used to living with all kinds of bugs and lizards in Bali, hard to keep them out. Up before sunrise this morning, turned on the light in the kitchen, and got hit with a massive swarm of termites. Our house geckos were loving it. Me, not so much.

2

Putting together my finance report for June. I earned just over a grand, but spent 3x that. It was my lowest earning month in 3.5 years. I knew I’d have a few such months this year with the transition and all, but it gets me a bit anxious nonetheless. Will try use it as motivation to keep pushing.

3

Chet Holmes used to tell the audience at the beginning of his seminars:

“You’re going to understand all the principles I share with you here today, as there’s nothing but logical information here. You’re going to agree with them. You’re going to know that I am right and that these principles will work in your business…. And then you will still not do them.”

The most important thing, he’d go on to tell everyone, is not the principles themselves, but a “pigheaded discipline and determination” in applying them.

4

Holmes’ book has inspired me to step up my productivity game. I’m now listing out my most important tasks for each day, and estimating how much time each will take. Estimated four hours today to run through a certain batch of tasks. Almost six hours deep and I’m still not finished. Oops.

5

Things I saw today riding 2 hours on a scooter along busy roads in Bali:

A completely naked 5-year-old on the back of another scooter.
A one-street town where everyone apparently makes statues for a living.
A mall with a rollercoaster coming out the roof.
A horse and cart.
One fender bender.
Constant disregard for red lights.
A herd of cows.

6

Bali reminds me a bit of India. Travelers come back all starry-eyed from both places, talking about the food and the beauty and it’s oh-so-spiritual! Sure, there’s that, but there’s also mad pollution, crazy roads, and enough poverty to make you feel like a heartless asshole sitting there with your fancy latte and your MacBook Pro.

7

We’re at this plush club hanging off a cliff, all open air. There are infinity pools and private beds and small bottles of water that’ll cost you $5 a pop. The DJ is a dude from San Francisco with a quirky mustache. He plays us nicely into the night, beneath clear stars and a yellow-bellied moon.

8

I love the idea of self-driving cars. They’d eliminate parking problems and free up tons of space in cities. Less accidents, more leisure time, just all around better for everyone. But spend an hour driving in Bali and it’s hard to imagine an AI smart enough to handle the swarms of scooters buzzing everywhere.

9

On a call with an old friend. He’s starting a coaching biz, wanted to hear my experience investing $17,000 in coaching last year. Did I get my money’s worth? I still don’t know. I’d consider hiring a coach again some time, but no way would I spend such a big % of my savings on it. 

10

Training a new assistant, she’ll be helping me out with case studies, aiming to publish one per week before too long. Creating SOPs to go with the training, which makes it clear how messy much of my business is. Hard to build an effective team when you haven’t got your shop in order.

11

Erich Remarque was a German novelist who fought until wounded in WWI. He became famous in 1929 with the publication of All Quiet On The Western Front, a novel the Nazis later declared unpatriotic. They burned the book, revoked his citizenship, and beheaded his sister. In 1936, Remarque wrote:

“To forget is the secret of eternal youth. One grows old only through memory. There’s much too little forgetting.”

12

Sad day. Heard that Brendan Grace passed. Saw the old woman who lives next door, sitting on the step with tears in her eyes. Found a little crippled bird on the balcony. Passed a mother breastfeeding on the street as she begged for change. Listened to a man on YouTube who still thinks the earth is flat.

13

Problems with my newsletter recently, have more than a 0.5% complaint rate, which gets me flagged by my mailing list provider. Saw one subscriber mark me as spam today. They’ve been on my list since 2011. We’ve exchanged niceties. Messaged them asking for feedback, see if I can figure out what’s going on.

14

Twice now I’ve seen cops in Ubud leaving the air out of the tyres of illegally parked cars. Maybe they don’t have a ticketing system, so that’s the best they can do. I remember in Kathmandu they would punish jaywalkers at a busy intersection by making them stand on a traffic island for a stretch.

15

Been reading a book a week for several years now. Thinking I should slow down. Too focused on keeping the pace, rather than truly absorbing and enjoying. At the point with business books where I’d probably be better off reading 3-5 classics over and over again rather than constantly consuming the new.

Physio Memes

Three years ago, Andrew Tran searched online for memes pages related to physical therapy. Finding none, he decided to “scratch his own itch” and create his own page.

He called it Physio Memes.

Fast forward to the present day: Andrew has grown his fun hobby project into a successful online business, boasting multiple income streams and tens of thousands of followers on social media.

How does a dropshipping business compare to freelance web design?

How does an ecommerce store compare to a remote job?

How does an authority site compare to a content agency?

Our case studies break down each online business in a structured way, so you can easily compare, contrast, and identify strengths and weaknesses.

See our full listing of case studies here »

Business Breakdown










Average Revenue 1

$4098/month





Average Profit 2

$2512/month





$0 → $1k/month 3


10 months





Time In Business 4


30 months





Starting Capital 5


$70.95





Workload 6


30 hours/week





eBiz Purity 7


4/5






















CENTS Score 8

3/5





Passivity 9

3/5





Business Model 10

ecommerce, freelance

Lead Generation 11

paid ads, SEO, social media

Monetization 12

affiliate marketing, hourly rate, one-time sale

Niche 13

health → physical therapy

Skills 14

web development, 10 more…

Tools 15

canva, shopify, slack, 7 more…

Resources 16

smart success PT, 1 more…

eBiz Weekly #27

Once per week, we email 3,400+ legendary subscribers with some good stuff related to online business. We also post the content of each email here on the website.

Sign up to get the next edition of eBiz Weekly delivered to your inboxView the archive

This week:

Earn $15 to $40 per hour proofreading and editing
Which social media platform is best for your business?
435 Сompanies Hiring Remotely Right Now
Udemy Sale
“In the future, everyone will be self-employed.”
Netflix Hangouts
Can’t work full-time on your business?
Learning to code is easy
Here’s how much you can earn from ads on your website
Save time on email

Earn $15 to $40 per hour proofreading and editing

This post on Reddit lists 8 companies/websites that hire professional editors and proofreaders.

Related:

If you want to learn editing and proofreading, this course on LinkedIn Learning looks good. Costs $15 but you should be able to get a free month with that link.
An interview with a freelance editor and proofreader who earned $1,375 in her first full month working online, despite spending just 11 hours per week on her business.

Which social media platform is best for your business?

Neil Patel polled 483 companies to figure out the value of 100 followers on each social media platform.

Among the findings:

Pinterest drives the most traffic (almost 5 visits per 100 followers), while Instagram drives the least (almost 0 visits per 100 followers).
LinkedIn scored the best on engagements per post, while Twitter scored the worst.
Instagram dominates in terms of video views per 100 followers (no doubt helped by their loose definition of a “view”).
LinkedIn dominates for turning followers into email subscribers.
Companies were generating more than 7% of revenue from social media traffic in 2015. Today, less than 2%.

Overall, I come away from that article with a much better impression of LinkedIn – it ranks #1 or #2 in every category!

Is your business active on LinkedIn?

If so, how is it working for you?

435 Сompanies Hiring Remotely Right Now

A big list from Periodix.

147 of the companies are apparently hiring “anywhere,” so open to folks outside the USA.

Loads of different positions listed there. To name a few: accounts coordinator, appointment setter, community support, finance manager, product designer, project manager, travel service expert, web developer.

Udemy Sale

No surprise that Udemy has another sale going on. (They seem to do one every few weeks.)

Here are two courses on sale for $10.99 that look especially juicy:

The Complete Video Production Bootcamp – 52,730 students, average rating of 4.5 stars
The Complete Digital Marketing Guide – 17 Courses in 1 – 8,390 students, average rating of 4.5 stars

“In the future, everyone will be self-employed.”

Not sure who that quote should be attributed to, but a new study of the US workforce seems to confirm that such a future is rapidly approaching.

The study reports that 35% of American workers freelanced in 2018, with 3.7 million more people jumping on the freelance train since 2014.

Other items of note from the study:

“Both freelancers and non-freelancers prioritize achieving the lifestyle that they want, but freelancers are more likely to get it.”

“Freelancers feel anxious about all they have to manage, but they also have a better work/life balance with more control over one’s own destiny and schedule, resulting in less stress and better health.”

“51% of freelancers say no amount of money would get them to take a traditional job.”

31% of freelancers earn $75,000 or more per year.

“Full-time freelancers see much greater flexibility in their day-to-day work than full-time non-freelancers”

When asked where they typically find work, the most common answer from freelancers was, “friends and family.” (Related: here’s an easy way to let friends and family know about your freelance services.)

“The majority of those who left a job in order to freelance say they make more now than they did with an employer…and it didn’t take them long to get there.”

Worth noting that the study was commissioned by Upwork and Freelancers Union, both of which are obviously pro-freelancing.

So while all the above paints a rosy picture of self-employment, best take it with a pinch of salt.

Netflix Hangouts

For those of you stuck in boring 9-to-5 jobs, here’s a free Chrome extension that lets you watch Netflix while making it look like you’re on a conference call