Niall Doherty's Blog, page 193

eBiz Weekly #4

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Hey there,

Starting off on a sad note.

My friend and fellow digital nomad James Schipper passed away here in Chiang Mai last week. Not sure how he died exactly, but it came as a shock to everyone who knew him.

He was such a good, genuine guy, always had a smile and a silly joke to share. Loved his tech and Star Wars, traveling and meeting people. He’d been a digital nomad since 2007, and had made Chiang Mai his home in recent years, becoming a well known and well liked member of the community here.

His passing is a good reminder for me not to take life for granted. His Facebook timeline shows that he was attending meetups and art exhibitions in recent weeks, living his life.

And now he’s gone.

On a positive note, for the last 10+ years, James seems to have been living life very much on his own terms. I doubt he died with many regrets, and he certainly made a positive impact on the lives of many people.

So thank you, James.

Thank you for the good vibes and inspiration.

The world is a better place for you having been here.

Meeting James for the first time. Chiang Mai, 2013.

Let me now attempt to be all business-as-usual and share a few things related to making money online…

Review: Earn More Writing

This is the first “deep review” we’re posting on eBiz Facts. We spent $199 on a course for freelance writers and went through it thoroughly to see if it’s worth the money.

10 Best Freelance Gigs and Side Hustles

This Fundera study pulled data from the biggest online job sites (Upwork, Guru, etc.) and figured out the “best” service to offer as a freelancer in 2019 (best = high demand + high pay). The results:

Web and Software Development
Design and Creative
Writing and Translation
Administrative Support
IT and Networking
Customer Service
Sales and Marketing
Accounting and Finance
Engineering and Architecture
Data Science

How Much Do Writers Get Paid?

The lady who created the aforementioned Earn More Writing course (Holly Johnson) gets paid up to $1500 for writing a single article, which is at the very high end of the spectrum. This recent survey of 1400+ freelance writers provides a birds-eye view of writing rates:

No way to sugarcoat it: nearly one-third of writers report they earn under $20 an hour for their work. NOT a living wage.

But nearly as many earn quite well: 10% report they earn north of $76/hr., and another 17% earn a respectable $50-$75/hr.

But here’s the surprise: Even in year one, many writers earn pro rates. Some 22% earn $100 and up, including 4% who earn north of $300 for short posts. In year one. Nice!

Reply Fast

Does it matter how fast you reply to prospective clients? According to this HBR article, absolutely. A study of 1.25 million sales leads showed that:

Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.

The 90+ Best Affiliate Programs for Recurring Commissions

Email marketing company Aweber sends me an affiliate commission of about $250 three times a year, even though I haven’t actively promoted or used their service since 2015. Turns out some of the people I referred to Aweber back then are still customers, and since Aweber does recurring commissions, I’m still getting paid. If you’re wondering which other affiliate programs offer recurring commissions, here’s a big list.

Need Some Motivation?

Check this 5-minute video showing how some dude went from morbidly obese to losing 198lbs in a year.

I had to get my fat ass off the couch and hit the elliptical after watching that.

That’s all for now.

Keep at it.

I believe in you.

—

Niall Doherty

eBiz Facts

Earn More Writing Review

Earn More Writing – Key Points

Earn More Writing is a course for freelance writers looking to boost their income.

Three packages to choose from: $149, $199 and $349.

Excellent credentials, realistic approach, clear and concise info.

A little dated in places, no text version of video lessons.

We recommend Earn More Writing for people who are serious about building a freelance writing career.

Visit Earn More Writing














Table Of ContentsBackground Info5 Pros of Earn More Writing3 Cons of Earn More Writing4 More Things You Should KnowDo We Recommend Earn More Writing?Who Should Buy ItWho Shouldn’tThe Different Packages (And Which Is Best)4 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of The CourseEarn More Writing – Background Information

Earn More Writing is an online course that teaches the business side of online freelance writing.

Professional blogger and columnist Holly Johnson created the course in 2016.

It features 8 modules of mostly video-based content (~3.5 hours watch time), plus bonus materials and access to a private Facebook group (700+ members).

This Earn More Writing review aims to help you decide if the course is a good fit for you.

This review is a joint effort between Niall Doherty (founder of eBiz Facts) and Leanne Gorman (travel blogger at Countries To Go).

Our process:

We paid $199 for access to the course (the “Standard Package”).We both went through all the course materials and took notes.Leanne joined the private Facebook group for members and had a look around.We jumped on a call and discussed our impressions of the course, what we liked, what we didn’t like, etc.We agreed we were happy with the course overall and would not be requesting a refund.We searched online for other reviews of the course to see if there were any key points we missed.We wrote a first draft of this review.We sent the draft to our Freedom Business Builder community and asked for feedback.We sent the draft to the Earn More Writing team and asked if they had any comments or corrections.We made our final edits and published the review.

Note: We earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase through referral links in this review. Read our full disclosure here.

Pros Of Earn More Writing1. Created By A Highly Successful Freelance Writer

By all accounts, Holly Johnson seems to have done very well for herself as a freelance writer.

Holly Johnson

Her journey looks like this:

Back in 2010 she was working a regular nine-to-five job (unclear if the job was related to writing) and earning $35-40k per year.She started her freelance writing business on the side, in her free time. She built up her own blog and portfolio and wrote some articles for free. Her first paid gigs were $50 per article.In October 2011 she earned $11,660 from freelance writing and has consistently been earning $10,000+ per month as a freelancer since then. Nowadays she earns up to $1500 per article.In 2015, Holly invoiced her freelance clients for $180,000. In 2016, when she released her course, she was on track to invoice for $225,000 in paid writing work.

Holly has achieved this success working from home and raising a family – she and her husband have two young daughters – and apparently take up to ten vacations a year (!!).

She has written for well established publications such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The Simple Dollar, and U.S. News and World Report Travel.

Some samples of her writing we found online:

The Simple Dollar: Financial Advice That Needs to DieThe Wall Street Journal: Should Couples Keep Their Financial Assets Separate?U.S. News and World Report: 10 Top Historic Hotels Across the U.S.

Together with her husband Greg, Holly also runs a popular blog at ClubThrifty.com. The blog has amassed a large following on social media (100,000+ combined on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter).

Within the Earn More Writing course, Holly also shows several screenshots of invoices she sent to one client:

All that to say, Holly certainly seems to have the credentials to teach others how to build a profitable online writing business.

2. Solid Course Structure And Format

The course consists of 8 modules (+1 if you buy the Standard or Pro packages) that are well organized and structured to guide you through building your freelance writing business.

Here’s how everything is laid out:

Module 1: How to Establish a Blog and BrandModule 2: How to Build Your Portfolio and Pitch ClientsModule 3: Defending Your WorkdayModule 4: Making the Transition from Broke Writing to Rich WritingModule 5: Finding (and Keeping) Your Dream ClientsModule 6: Getting PaidModule 7: Get More Work by Making Editors HappyModule 8: Taking Your Income into the StratosphereBonus Module: Get Rich Ghostwriting for CEOs (Standard and Pro packages only)

Here’s how it looks inside the course:

The videos are all slideshow format, with Holly talking over the slides. Simple but engaging.

There are ~3.5 hours of video in the first 8 modules, plus a 26-minute video on Ghostwriting in the bonus module for Standard and Pro members.

Here’s a 15-second snippet of audio from the Module 1 video to give you a feel for it:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/ebiz-facts-reviews/earn-more-writing-module-1-video-intro.m4a

At the end of each video, Holly does a quick recap of the material and specifies action items, making everything very clear.

There are also worksheets provided for each module, which are essentially short PDFs you can download and print out. We didn’t find much value in these personally, but it doesn’t hurt to have them.

3. Real World Examples

Throughout the course, Holly draws from her extensive experience in the freelance writing business.

That means:

Lots of examples of challenges Holly faced and overcame while building her business.Scripts and email templates you can use for pitching and communicating effectively with clients.Screenshots of pitches and emails Holly has used effectively herself.

We also appreciated that every recommended action was backed by sound reasoning. Holly not only gives you advice in the course, but also explains her reasoning for that advice. So you’re never left wondering why you should do A, B or C.

4. No-Hype Sales Page

One thing we like to do after going through all the materials in a course is refer back to the sales page and see if it’s an accurate representation of what we bought.

You can see the Earn More Writing sales page here.

We’re glad to say that this sales page is solid. It’s not very long and there are no outrageous claims on there. The testimonials seem legit and we checked that the URLs listed alongside them were from real websites.

The sales page and checkout are hosted securely on the Teachable platform, and there are working links to a privacy policy and terms of service.

If anything, the Earn More Writing sales page undersells the course. But we like that, and were glad to see the following in their FAQ section:

What if I am unhappy with the course?
We think you’re going to love this course and get a ton of value from it. Of course, we can’t guarantee your results. No matter how much knowledge we give you, it’s still up to you to make it happen. However, if you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we’ll give you a full refund.

5. Sets Realistic Expectations

In addition to the no-hype sales page, the course itself does a great job of letting aspiring freelance writers know what it takes to succeed.

There’s no sugarcoating the fact that lots of hard work is required.

Holly repeatedly emphasizes the importance of delivering exceptional value as a freelancer, and shows how that often comes down to things like:

Going the extra mile for clientsResponding quickly to emailsTurning in work ahead of scheduleOccasionally taking on very tough or “boring”assignments

As she says in Module 7:

“In my career, I’m the person to go to if you have something really shitty that you need written tomorrow, because 99% of the time I will do it regardless because being that kind of worker makes you the worker they’re going to hire for other things.”

But Holly is also quick to note the importance of setting strong boundaries and not being a pushover. She seems to have mastered the art of being assertive without being rude or pushy, and provides plenty of examples for how to deal with “nightmare” clients (and avoid them in the first place), how to ask for a raise, etc.

Cons Of Earn More Writing1. Material A Little Dated In Places

Best we can tell, the course was created and launched in 2016, and it looks like it’s been updated very little (if at all) since.

This isn’t a huge problem, because most of the material has aged well and is still applicable.

However, here are three updates we’d love to see:

Using social media to build your freelance writing career
Instagram would likely be useful in that regard nowadays, but there’s no mention of it in the course. Nor is there mention of Facebook Live, while the not-so-popular Periscope gets a nod. (Related: organic reach on social media has declined greatly since 2016, so it may not be such an effective tool for freelancers anymore.)Best job sites for freelance writers
There are a handful mentioned in the course, all of which still seem to be going strong. But it would be nice to hear about sites that have come along since 2016 that are worth checking.List of businesses with blogs
This list is included with the Starter and Pro packages and has links to 300+ business blogs that you can pitch your writing services to. We didn’t go through the full list but we suspect there are at least a few in there that are outdated by now.

Of course, when you join Earn More Writing you also get access to the private Facebook group with 700+ members. You’ll surely hear about things like the latest social media best practices and new job sites there.

We ran this review by Holly and she noted that Earn More Writing will be updated and refreshed at some point in 2019.2. Minimal Text With Each Video

It would be nice to have a written version of the material covered in each video, or even a simple transcript. Instead you get only a few short paragraphs and bullet points.

So if you much prefer text to video, this probably isn’t the course for you.

Also, we found that whenever external websites and resources were mentioned in the videos, there were never links to them there on the same page for easy access.

There is a big list of external resources and links right at the beginning of the course, but it would be more convenient to have them linked below the videos that refer to them so you don’t have to go searching or typing in the URLs.

3. No Mention Of Keyword Research

We (reviewers Leanne and Niall) were both surprised to find no mention of keyword research in the course.

This is understandable in one sense, as freelance writers are usually assigned topics to write about by their clients, with target keywords already specified.

However, a big recommendation in the course is to start and build your own blog, and Holly also advises pitching prospective clients a few article ideas, two things which a bit of keyword research knowledge would help considerably.

Imagine pitching two articles to a prospective client:

The first article is based on an idea you had in the shower and which you think would be a hit with that client’s audience.The second article is based on some quick keyword research which helped you identify a low competition target keyword that Competitor A is ranking #1 for, bringing 500 visitors per month to their website. “Would you like me to write a better article than Competitor A and help you steal their traffic, Mr. Prospective Client?”

As you can see from that simple example, keyword research is a powerful weapon in a freelance writer’s arsenal.

But again, no mention of it in Earn More Writing.

Fortunately, you can find inexpensive and highly-rated keyword research courses on Udemy and Skillshare.

(Related: not as glaring an omission as keyword research, but there was also no mention in the course of building an email list. Which seemed a little odd, given that Holly strongly advocates building your own personal brand.)

4 More Things You Should Know About Earn More WritingThere is a 30-day full money back guarantee. As per the sales page: “if you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we’ll give you a full refund.”The Facebook group seems to be active and valuable. Here is what Zoë Biehl, a long-time member had to say about it:

“Holly posts daily what she is working on that day and how much money she is making. Everyone is encouraged to do the same. She explains in the course that the best way to hit your income goals is to break down how much you need to make each day you work, and do everything you gotta do to hit that goal each day.

If you have any kind of question or need guidance on anything, people are super responsive, including Holly. She responds to pretty much everyone. And I really appreciate her no-nonsense responses of how she handles her clients.”

You DO NOT get lifetime access to the course when you join. All three packages only give you 1 year of access to the course materials (though we’ve heard from another buyer that you can extend access for a “nominal fee”). Access to the Facebook group is indefinite.Holly does offer a free workshop / webinar from the sales page, where you can apparently learn the “6 Keys To Online Freelance Success.” We didn’t sign up for this so not sure how good it is, but it should give you a feel for Holly’s teaching style and if her full course is right for you. Expect a sales pitch at the end.

Do We Recommend Earn More Writing?

Yes.

Holly walks her talk and the course delivers as promised.

Everything is laid out clearly and concisely, you get access to a private community of freelance writers, and there’s a 30-day money back guarantee.

Hard to go wrong with all that.

Who Should Buy Earn More WritingPeople who already know how to write but need help with the business side of things
This course is about the BUSINESS of freelance writing. By design, there’s not much in there to help you become a better writer. It’s designed to help you become a more profitable writer.People who are serious about building a freelance writing career
If you’re already committed to your craft, this course should help you make a good living doing it.










Visit Earn More Writing







Who Should NOT Buy Earn More WritingPeople who don’t have much time to spare
20 hours per week is probably the minimum you’d want to put into this. Holly got started in her spare time while still working a day job, but she’s a self-described workaholic. The approach she advocates definitely requires hard work and sacrifice.People who want a flexible schedule
You can be somewhat flexible but the more you treat freelance writing like a job, the more you stick to a schedule, and the more available you are to respond quickly to emails, the better.People who don’t want to build their own brand or be active on social media
Social media has played a big part in Holly’s success, and she strongly advocates building your own following and brand and leveraging that to boost your writing career.

If you’re any of those people, Earn More Writing wouldn’t be a good fit for you. See our alternative recommendations at the bottom of this article.

3 Different Packages – Which Is Best For you?

There are three different “packages” to choose from when joining Earn More Writing:

Basic – $149Standard – $199Pro – $349

Full details:

We bought the $199 Starter Package and found that to be good value, mainly on account of the Ghostwriting module.

If you’re not interested in ghostwriting, your best bet would be to go with the Basic package.

We can’t comment on the 30-minute coaching sessions with Holly in the Pro package, but according to another review you can upgrade from the lower packages later to get those.

With that in mind, we recommend signing up for either Basic or Standard package first, and see how you get on. You can always upgrade to Pro later if you’d like that one-on-one help from Holly.

Visit Earn More Writing







4 Tips For Getting The Most Out Of The CourseTake notes as you go through all the materials. This will force you to pay more attention, you can jot down tasks and ideas as they occur to you, and it makes it easy to find and refer back to parts of the course later.There are more than 3.5 hours of video in the course. You can get through them much faster without losing comprehension using this free plugin for Chrome. (We watched many of the videos at 2.5x speed.)Before following the recommendations in the course related to social media and job sites, ask in the Facebook group if the same advice still applies today.Most important: ACTUALLY TAKE ACTION ON WHAT YOU LEARN IN THE COURSE! It takes more than watching a few videos to build a freelance writing career.Do You Like The Sound Of Earn More Writing?

If so, click here to join the course or learn more about it.

If not, here are some other resources you might find helpful for building your freelance writing career:

Top rated freelance writing courses on UdemyTop rated freelance writing courses on SkillshareThe Freelance Blogger’s Money-Making Toolkit

P.S. Have you bought this course before? Please consider leaving a review below  – good or bad – doesn’t matter so long as it’s helpful to our visitors. Thanks for your support!

eBiz Weekly #3

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

Hey there,

Writing to you on a sunny morning in Chiang Mai, Thailand with a rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing outside the window.

I’m attending Nomad Summit here this weekend. My first time, so not sure what to expect, but if you’re planning to be there as well let me know and we’ll try meet up

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.

Full archive here

1

Every year on this day I watch Benjamin Button, have done since 2009. But not this year. Didn’t feel the urge. Went ice skating instead. Hard to know sometimes if it’s best to do something even when you don’t feel like doing it, or if you should yield to the resistance.

2

You ever get that feeling like you’ve done a load of work but have little to show for it? I tend to feel like that whenever I’m about to launch something new, always thinking more about what more should be done instead of how much has already been accomplished. Launching an update of my site tomorrow and mostly I’m seeing all the holes still in it.

3

Last call with my coaching group. This was a 5-call trial run for a bigger coaching program I was planning this year, but decided not to go ahead with it. I like coaching in many ways, but turns out I’d much rather be working on my own site, or even doing freelance work. Scheduling is perhaps the biggest downside to the coaching, having to be on calls at certain times.

4

Pro tip: when you switch to a new email marketing tool and message your list of 3,438 people boasting about how smart you are because the move saved you $700/year… best make sure you didn’t get all the names jumbled up in the transfer. Been getting replies all evening along the lines of, “My name is Paul. Why did you call me Muhammed?”

5

Long coffee with a couple who make a living via their Instagram. Very cool people, open and honest. Tough game though. See a nice Instagram photo and mostly I’m thinking about all the work that went into it. The organization, the shoot, the editing, networking and responding to comments. And you have to keep doing it. Take a break for a few days and you fall out of favor with the Instagram gods.

6

Flying to Vietnam today. Savvy travel pro that I am, only realized yesterday that I need a visa. Mad scramble to get it organized, brain fart cost me almost $200. Now I’m sitting at Ho Chi Minh airport, waiting an hour for my name to be called. Tomorrow I’ll be on a tropical island but rather than looking forward to that I’m wishing I didn’t have to travel at all. Problems of privilege.

7

Getting here was a pain in the ass. More stress at the airport this morning. Now it’s evening and we’re walking along a quiet beach after a soft sunset, playing on a big swing and finding tiny stars in the sand. This is Vietnam’s biggest island, and it’s experiencing a bit of a tourist boom. There are plenty of beautiful beaches, resorts, wildlife… mixed with mad roads lined with rubbish.

8

Making our way through a crowded market, on a scooter. Raw meat hanging from hooks. Little old ladies selling seafood. Beeps and smells and chatter. The whole place is chaos. We have to double back to find an escape route, end up twisting our way through several alleys, past run-down shacks and sleeping dogs, piles of garbage and live chickens, brushing by entire families on two wheels.

9

Bats don’t rely on eyesight to navigate. Instead they emit high-pitched sounds and listen for an echo to determine if anything’s close by. This is very similar to how people drive in Vietnam. They rarely keep an eye out for other vehicles on the road. Instead they emit a series of high-pitched beeps and listen for anyone beeping back at them. Doesn’t work great though. Their rate of road fatalities is 6x that of Ireland.

10

Finally, I can swim. Never learned as a kid. Started teaching myself in spurts 11 years ago, but only recently has it felt like I’m actually swimming comfortably. We’re staying at a resort on the beach here. I’m in the sea 2-3 times per day. I can be out there front-crawling for half an hour without a break, without losing my breath.  Like going for a nice stroll. Total Immersion has helped a lot, but it’s taken a good bit of practice.

11

Been reading The Millionaire Fastlane and getting a lot out of it. I especially like his CENTS framework. If you want your business to make you rich, the more of these the better:

You should control the system (no one person/company should be able to disrupt your income)
There should be barriers to entry (to discourage competition)
The business should fill a need in the economy
Income should be detached from your time
The business should be scaleable 

12

In a little roadside shop. Most of these places seem to double as living quarters. There’s an elderly lady and three young kids sitting down to a meal at the end of an aisle. I ask them for tissues. No English. I mime a sneeze. They hand me baby wipes. I take a tissue out of my pocket and show them. They look at it curiously. I consider miming something else but think better of it and Google Translate “toilet paper” on my phone instead.

13

Airports are so broken, man. Getting to and from Pho Quoc has been a gigantic pain in the ass. Horrible customer service, convoluted procedures, booking a refundable flight you’ll never take just so they can tick a box, taking your shoes off because some dude fifteen years ago had a bomb in his, rushing to stand in line after line after line… really puts a dampener on travel. Got in a foul mood today wading through all that shit, felt like kicking kittens and punching old ladies.

14

Okay, gotta shake out of this grumpy mood. Back in Chiang Mai now and everything is easy again but still suffering from some lingering crankiness. Feeling unsocial and uncooperative. Really hard to like myself when I’m behaving this way. Let me go do something nice for someone. That might help.

15

Spent about 7 hours programming a feature on my own site these past two days. Not my strong suit, and it’d be more cost effective to outsource it and spend the time doing client work. But hey, I was enjoying myself. There’s a craftsmanship to coding, feels good when you weed out all the bugs and get that thing working nice and smooth. I believe Derek Sivers still does much of his own coding despite being a multi-millionaire. Something I can appreciate.

The post Momentos appeared first on eBiz Facts.

eBiz Weekly #2

Once per week, we email 3,000+ 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

Hey there,

First, an apology.

In last week’s email I was so busy boasting about how I saved $700 on my new email marketing software, that I didn’t realize I botched the transfer of the mailing list and mixed up everyone’s names.

Thus, last week I probably called you Gretchen or Phileas or some other mad name.

Sorry about that!

I believe I’ve unjumbled everything now, and we’re (hopefully) back on track.

Let’s get to the good stuff…

How Much I Earned And Spent In 2018

You can see my finance report for December here. It was my lowest income month of the year ($3,278), but capped off my best ever year income-wise. I earned approximately €59,800 in 2018. Unfortunately, I also spent about €58,600.

Excellent Podcast For Online Business Builders

It’s called Side Hustle School, there’s a new short episode every day profiling an interesting “side hustle,” and it’s presented by a guy who has visited every country in the world. I’ve scanned ~40 episodes so far, on the lookout for “pure” online businesses: those that could be built and run from pretty much anywhere with a laptop and wifi. To me, such businesses offer the utmost freedom.

A few that fit the bill:

#721 – online memorial service website earning $250k/year
#718 – dad blogger earning $2k/month
#706 – $5k/month running a website about diamonds (launched July 2018)
#691 – dropshipping dog Christmas stockings, almost $20k in sales Christmas 2017.
#690 – blog about home decor started in August, earned $1200 in October.

(Come to think of it, most of those examples are what the Authority Hacker guys call “Stage 1 Authority Sites,” and similar to what I’m aiming to build at eBiz Facts.)

Very Nomad Problems

Love this new digital nomad-themed comic strip. You’ll get a kick out of it if you work online, move around a lot, and live out of a backpack. You can keep up with it on Facebook and Twitter, too.

Quick Productivity Tip

I heard this tip years ago from Noah Kagan (I think): increase your mouse speed to maximum. It will feel weird at first, but you quickly get used to it. And all those microseconds you save add up. As a bonus, anyone else who tries to use your computer will think you’re some kind of ninja.

Book Recommendation

We run a monthly book club for my Freedom Business Builder group. One of the books we’re reading in January is The Millionaire Fastlane. Bit of a sleazy title, I know, but I’m very impressed with it so far. More about high-level strategy than specific tactics, it’s a bit like The 4-Hour Workweek except the author doesn’t make it sound easier than it actually is.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading.

—

Niall Doherty

eBiz Facts

P.S. Writing to you this week from Phu Quoc, an island in the south of Vietnam. Not a bad spot to visit, some very nice beaches and fairly inexpensive. Here’s a 3-minute vlog I found that’ll give you a feel for the place.

The post eBiz Weekly #2 appeared first on eBiz Facts.

eBiz Weekly #1

Once per week, we email 3,000+ 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

Hey there,

I hope you enjoyed the holidays and your 2019 is off to a good start.

A few things related to online business you might be interested in…

eBiz Facts

I’ve redesigned and rebranded my website as eBiz Facts. The mission of the site is to research, investigate, rate and review all the ways to make money online, so it’s easier for you to decide where to invest your time and energy. To start, I’ve updated my free Start Earning Online video series.

Remote Jobs For Every Industry

Here’s a solid listing of remote job boards for industries like education, customer support, marketing, tech, writing/editing, design, and more.

Notice Anything Different About This Email?

This is the first one I’m sending out using Sendy, my new email marketing tool. I was using ActiveCampaign previously, which was great for complex automations and marketing funnels. But that cost me $721 per year while Sendy costs $59 to set up and probably less than $10/year going forward. Good deal.

Private Community

If you’d like to join a community of 300+ online business builders, you can now access the private Freedom Business Builder group on Facebook for $5/month via my Patreon. More info here.

Profitable Writing Niche

Speaking of the FBB group, a high-level freelance writer posted the following in there last week:

I have a friend that works in a high position at Deloitte, and she told me last week that crypto is out and cannabis is the new hot industry now…and boy is she right! I’ve been getting bombarded with job offers / freelance work offers related especially to CBD-specific companies. If you’re looking for a profitable writing niche, the cannabis industry is highly in demand right now!

20 Fastest-Growing Skills On Upwork

This list is a couple of months old but still worth a look if you’re on the hunt for new skills to learn. Some examples: Dropbox API, iPhone UI design, social customer service, proposal writing, lesson plan writing. At the bottom of the same page you’ll find links to online courses where you can quickly develop those skills.

The Authority Site System

If you’re looking to build an online business beyond remote work and freelancing, I highly recommend checking out The Authority Site System by Authority Hacker. It’s not cheap and it’s not easy, but it’s the best online training program I’ve found to date, and it’s on sale for the next 5 days. (You can see a video review I did of a more advanced Authority Hacker program here.)

Thanks for reading.

—

Niall Doherty

eBiz Facts

P.S. For those of you who enjoy my Momentos series, the last two editions are here and here.

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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.

Full archive here

16

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was a celebrated United States Supreme Court Justice in the early part of the 20th century. As a young man, while fighting in the American Civil War, he was shot in the neck and chest. He also sported an incredible mustache. But I really only knew about the man through these wise words:

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”

17

Keyword research today. Never took it all that seriously before, but now skipping it seems insane to me. Say you have two blog articles in mind to write. Wouldn’t you want to know if one was likely to attract ten times as much traffic as the other? Of course you would. You want your stuff to reach and help as many people as possible. Keyword research is essential to achieve that.

18

Might have pushed my luck a bit too much, on the verge of getting sick now, can feel it in my throat. I remember a decade ago having this same feeling after a week of drunken Mardi Gras revelry. Back then it was the partying and alcohol that did the damage. Now it’s the work that does it. Which may sound sad, but I’d much rather be here than there.

19

Forced day off to get healthy. Binge watching The Wire, on season three. Some say it’s the best TV show ever made. They might be right. Humans are messy and complex. So is the world we live in. The Wire does a good job of depicting that. Lots of nuance, shades of grey. Shows how people can do bad shit for good reasons. And how rare it is to have complete closure.

20

Feeling good about my plan for 2019, reckon it’s going to be a big year. But then, I remember thinking the same thing a year ago. And the year before that. I wonder if it’s foolishness, getting my hopes up every twelve months, getting myself all excited. Or maybe it’s a good thing, that thing Churchill described: “the ability to move from one failure to another without loss of enthusiasm.”

21

When do you lose all sense of time? Is there any activity you engage in where you experience that? Writing is definitely one of those things for me. So is web design. Got lost redesigning my site today, the minutes and hours melting away. Seem to remember doing the same thing in this same town several years ago.

22

Gotta admit, I’ve been very one dimensional lately, obsessed as I am with this thing. Haven’t done any intentional exercise or stretching in weeks. No meditation. Reading fewer books. Haven’t checked Facebook notifications since November. In many ways, my life has been falling apart. And yet I haven’t felt this focused or engaged with my work in years.

23

He makes a distinction between people who are like-minded, and people who are on your level. Back in the US, where everyone was working 9-to-5, he wasn’t meeting like-minded people. Here in Chiang Mai he meets plenty, but most of them are only getting started building a business. He’s been doing it for years. He’s on another level.

24

Lots of tedious work to be done for my site redesign, so I jumped on Upwork to hire some help. Received almost 50 proposals in a few hours, most of them crap, as usual. I sort by lowest rate and scan through until I find someone good, can usually tell by the first two lines of their cover letter. Guy I ended up hiring charges $5/hour.

25

I’d probably hate working Christmas Day at a regular job, even if it was double pay. But here I am working for myself all day on the 25th. No double pay. Just doing exactly what I want to be doing at a nice quiet coworking space. Helps of course that I’m in Thailand, where it’s business as usual today. If I was back in Ireland things would be different.

26

Spent less than $3 on lunch and dinner combined. Lunch was a nice fried rice dish at a local restaurant near the coworking. Dinner was fresh-made sushi from a food stall at the mall. Eating out here gives you a taste of what it’s like to be a millionaire. No need to look at the prices on any menu. Just order whatever you want.

27

Heard this on a podcast yesterday: the role you play growing up in your family – eldest, youngest, whatever – is the role you tend to default to when you’re out in the wider world. I’m the youngest of three boys. When I walk into a room, I tend to scope out the situation, see how everyone else is behaving, look for a lead to follow.

28

Wasn’t going to review work online opportunities that pay less than $10/hour. Changed my mind for two reasons. First, $10/hour is damn good money in many parts of the world. Here in Thailand, for example, the average salary is less than $500/month. Second, there are easy affiliate opportunities in such reviews. And for me to make this thing sustainable, I gotta grab those.

29

At a cafe built for Instagram. Having coffee and cheesecake while multiple photoshoots happen around us. It’s all a bit surreal. Nobody’s here for the food and beverage. They’re here to capture themselves looking happier, healthier, wealthier than they actually are. I get it. I do the same sometimes. But it’s getting a little out of hand, no?

30

I used to rail against television, but now I watch YouTube pretty much the same way. Been reading less, replacing books with mindless screen time. Need to make an adjustment there. My attention span is shrinking, finding it harder to concentrate on one thing for a stretch.

31

Our apartment building has security everywhere. This building doesn’t. We walk through the lobby, take the elevator to the 15th floor, climb a flight of stairs, and find ourselves alone by a rooftop swimming pool. We’ll spend an hour here, watching lanterns floating in the breeze and fireworks lighting up the sky, thinking about the year gone by and the one to come.

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Cold Email

This is one of many ways to get clients for your freelance business. See the full list here.

Carlo Cretaro used cold email to find the first clients for his $10,000/month content business.

He began emailing digital marketing and SEO companies in his local area (Ireland) and nearby (the UK), asking if they had any writing work available. He included a few sample articles to show what he was capable of.

See below for screenshots of one of Carlo’s first email pitches to a client, and the response he received. (Click the image for the full-size version.)

This is one of many ways to get clients for your freelance business. See the full list here.

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The Classified Method

This is one of many ways to get clients for your freelance business. See the full list here.

I call this the Classified Method because it involves finding clients via the modern-day equivalent of newspaper classified ads.

That is: online job boards.

The biggest and most popular online job board for freelancers is Upwork.com.

Here’s what I recommend you do on Upwork.com to find your first clients:

Create a profile and get it approved
Search for high-quality jobs that interest you
Apply for those jobs (aim for at least 20)

Yes, that is really simplifying things, but it’s all you really need to get started.

And to help speed up this process I recommend you check out two guides I wrote about Upwork:

How To Find The Best Jobs On Upwork (5 Flags Method)

That guide will help you ensure you’re not wasting your time applying for crappy jobs, because there are a lot of crappy jobs posted on Upwork and you have to filter heavily to get to the good stuff.

4 Proven Upwork Proposal Templates To Save You Time And Win More Jobs

That one will help you craft really good proposals really fast, so you can apply for more jobs on Upwork and thereby have a better chance of getting hired.

Upwork Tip

One additional tip I’ll give you for Upwork before we wrap up.

When you’re creating and sending pitches, as much as possible, include a relevant sample of your work.

If you put yourself in a client’s shoes for a minute, and imagine you’re hiring a freelancer off Upwork, what would be your biggest concern, your biggest fear?

Your biggest fear would be that you’ll hire someone who proves to be incompetent and fails to deliver the work.

As a freelancer, you can TELL clients that you can do great work for them, but it’s much more powerful to actually SHOW them.

And you do that with samples of your work.

So:

If you’re applying for a writing job on Upwork, include a relevant writing sample in your pitch.
If you’re applying for a graphic design job, include a relevant piece of graphic design work you’ve done.
If you’re applying for a web design job, include a link to a website you’ve built.

Now of course, if you don’t already have those samples created, you’re probably not going to be able to create them along with doing everything else we’ve talked about this weekend, but that’s something you should be creating and adding to your arsenal going forward.

So that’s the third method in our step-by-step plan to find your first clients: Set up a profile on Upwork.com and apply for at least 20 jobs on there.

That is the Classified Method.

This is one of many ways to get clients for your freelance business. See the full list here.

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The Door-To-Door Method

This is one of many ways to get clients for your freelance business. See the full list here.

To show you how this method works, let me tell you about Karl.

Karl is a freelance writer. He spent a few hours doing the Door-To-Door Method and shared his results with me:

As you can see there, after just a few hours of using this method, Karl had landed two paying gigs and had a lead on several more.

You can do the same thing this weekend.

Here’s how you do it.

First, sit down and make a list of at least 50 people you know and who know you.

You’re going to make that list, and then you’re going to spend a couple of hours reaching out to those people individually. You’re going to tell them what service you’re offering and ask if they have a need for that service or can put you in touch with someone who does.

I call this the Door-To-Door Method because you’re doing the technological equivalent of going around your neighborhood and knocking on doors to try drum up business.

Kinda like Jack Nicholson in The Shining…

But, you know, without trying to murder anyone.

So again, there are two key parts to this method:

Making the list
Reaching out

There are some very important nuances to both of those, so let’s run through them quickly.

Making The List

Ideally, the people on your list should:

Like and trust you.

Because it’s much easier to sell your services to, or recruit help from, people who already like and trust you. So only reach out to people who you’re already on good terms with.

Be people you are in frequent contact with.

You don’t want to be reaching out to people you haven’t been in contact with for several months or even years. If you do that, they’re likely to think to themselves, “Oh, I see how it is. You only contact me when you need a favor.”

If you’re not very good at keeping in touch with people, then I recommend you get good at it. Because as a friend of mine likes to say, business is a game of relationships. The person with the best relationships, with the most high-quality relationships, has a massive advantage.

Be business owners (or be able to connect you with business owners).

Your ideal clients will usually be business owners, for the simple reason that they are going to be much more professional, and they’re going to understand the concept of Return On Investment, which means they’ll usually be willing to pay a fair rate for your services.

The alternative is to work for a hobbyist, and hobbyists usually don’t have much skin in the game, they usually don’t have much of a budget, and they’re usually very disorganized.

So aim to connect with business owners as much as possible. You’re a professional, and you want to work with other professionals.

Reaching Out

Once you’ve made a list of 50+ people who fit those criteria, it’s time to start reaching out.

Mostly you’ll want to do this by email (or something like Facebook messenger) so you can get through the entire list in a few hours.

Here’s an email template that you can use to help ensure you get the best response.

Subject: Quick question

…

Hello Phileas,

I hope all’s well with you.

Any chance you could do me a small favor?

The past few months I’ve been working and studying hard to become a web designer. I’m at the point now where I feel confident in taking on some clients and providing a great service.

Here’s where you come in:

Can you think of anyone who might require help building a website? And if so, would you be willing to connect me with them?

Of course, if you ever need help with that kind of thing yourself, I’d be happy to lend a hand