When I started this blog back in October of 2008, I had made the newbie mistake of not including a way to accumulate email addresses. No newsletter, no opt-in form – nothing.
Over a year later, I finally got my head on straight and made the decision to invest in an Aweber account and start building my list. (For details about why one should build an email list, I recommend you read this post.)
I went live with my newsletter on January 2nd, 2010.
1 year, 1 month and 14 days later (yesterday), I surpassed 10,000 subscribers – a mark that I never thought I’d reach, at least not this fast.
Please realize, however, that 10k is just an arbitrary number. The only difference between 9,999 and 10,000 is the extra digit. But, in the same way a lot of people strive to become a millionaire (are you less accomplished if you have only $999,999?) – it does feel pretty awesome to reach the 10k milestone. A lot of people have way more, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished in such a short period of time.
As always, I’m not here to boast. In fact, I try really hard (especially in my monthly income reports) not to come off as cocky or better than anyone else, because I’m not. This site is all about the methods and lessons I’ve learned from my accomplishments (and my failures), so in true SPI fashion, here are some of the unique strategies I’ve used to build my list. Click to continue…
Establishing yourself as an THE expert in an industry and mastering the ability to sell YOU is not an easy task, nor is it one that can happen overnight. However, with some hard work and smart strategies put into place you can begin to create a personal brand that can pretty much take you anywhere you want to go.
I’ve been lucky enough to experience building a personal brand first hand, and although it wasn’t intentional from the start, I’ve learned a lot about what kinds of things need to happen before reaching that tipping point where people begin to mention your name when your niche or topic of choice comes up in conversation. Click to continue…
It’s happening again – Facebook has made changes to its business/fan pages and now all of the videos I have about creating a page and landing pages are out to date, including the one I published just a couple of week ago.
There are already a number of articles that do a great job of explaining the Facebook page redesign, but for your amusement I’ve created this little 3 minute video for you using the software from XtraNormal, which was used to create a lot of extremely viral videos you may have already seen, including this one.
More “real” content coming Monday, but until then, enjoy!
Update: After creating this video, I found out that Facebook had made a glitch when they first rolled out the new pages, accidentally shrinking the middle portion of pages from 520px to 493px, which I address in the video. Facebook has since reverted back to the original 520 pixel page.
You can read all you want, but nothing will happen until you execute.
That is why today, I’m cutting this post short. Instead of reading my content, I want you to do something instead – right now. Do something for your blog, business or life that will get you moving forward and help you reach your goals.
All I ask is that you leave a comment of what you’re about to do (sort of like a pledge), and let’s see how much we can all get done today.
I’m taking a mini-vacation this weekend so I’m going to keep this kind of short, but I wanted to do a follow up post to Wednesday’s Blog Redesign Exercise.
In that post, I shared 3 different blog designs iterations that a fellow blogger, Vik Tantry, had done for a design overhaul he’s doing for his blog. The SPI community didn’t hesitate to share their opinions (yay for comments!) and I’m sure Vik and everyone else following along has learned a lot about what works, and what doesn’t.
Here are my top 10 takeaways from reading the comments. These are things to consider when designing or redesigning your own blog in the future: Click to continue…
Designing a blog from scratch is very difficult, which is why we have things like WordPress’s theme library and WooThemes to help us start blogging right away.
Re-designing a blog, however, can be even more difficult – and scary too. Especially if you’ve been stuck with the same design since the beginning and have grown any kind of audience. More than likely, if you’re at this point with your blog you know that you need to change things to grow, but what exactly those things are can be sort of a mystery. Change the wrong thingsor take away a feature that a lot of people use, and you’re bound to fly with some turbulence. Click to continue…
I’m not even going to beat around the bush with this one. One skill that all bloggers should possess is Graphic Creation and Manipulation – or as some like to call it, “Photoshop skills” (although the term “Photoshop” is actually just the name of one piece of software where graphic creation and manipulation can be done).
It’s a very underrated skill in the blogging world and one that I’m lucky enough to have because I used to use Photoshop every single day when I was working my 9 to 5 job at an architecture firm. It’s probably the most important thing I learned while working 9 to 5 that I apply in almost all of my online businesses today. That and, of course, living the 9 to 5 lifestyle and understanding that I enjoy the lifestyle I live now much better. Click to continue…
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In this session of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, I talk more about my iPhone app business. I’ve written a couple of posts about iPhone apps before (here and here) and have always been asked for more, so I thought what better way to talk about the business than on an podcast session!
During this episode, I cover:
Why I’m super stoked for February 10th, 2011.
How I got into the iPhone App business.
A detailed story of our first iPhone application and the 3 things that went terribly wrong with the whole process.
How much our business makes with iPhone apps, and details about 1 of our free applications that generates between $50 and $100 a day.
A few marketing tips I’ve learned during my 2 years in this business that will help you increase your chances of a successful app business.
How much it costs to develop an iPhone app.
How to protect your idea when searching for developers.
My thoughts on the app market and if there’s room for more success stories.
No guests – just me, so I hope you enjoy this session!
My security guard training niche site from the Niche Site Duel has been sitting at number one in Google for a little over 2 months now. As January comes to an end, I’ve already passed the $400 mark in revenue for the month (from Google Adsense) – a 275% increase from December, and there are still 5 days left to go.
This drastic increase in earnings actually caught me by surprise – so I decided to do a little investigating to see where this extra income was coming from.
No, I'm not a millionaire, but I am living off of passive income made online. I'm here to show you what I've learned...
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1 year, 1 month and 14 days later (yesterday), I surpassed 10,000 subscribers – a mark that I never thought I’d reach, at least not this fast.
Please realize, however, that 10k is just an arbitrary number. The only difference between 9,999 and 10,000 is the extra digit. But, in the same way a lot of people strive to become a millionaire (are you less accomplished if you have only $999,999?) – it does feel pretty awesome to reach the 10k milestone. A lot of people have way more, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished in such a short period of time.
Establishing yourself as 
I’m not even going to beat around the bush with this one. One skill that all bloggers should possess is Graphic Creation and Manipulation – or as some like to call it, “Photoshop skills” (although the term “Photoshop” is actually just the name of one piece of software where graphic creation and manipulation can be done).
No, I'm not a millionaire, but I am living off of passive income made online. I'm here to show 
Enter your name and email below to get Free Instant Access to the most comprehensive guide available on how to Publish, Market, and automate your own killer eBook.
