So you want to be a writer huh? Cool, here’s what you do…
Study how the Website for Winners crafts each masterpiece. Take note of the way we write. Study how we craft paragraphs, short and full of intrigue. Long paragraphs are for dodo birds but short paragraphs are intriguing.
See how we build to a thesis in an article. Rather that coming to you upfront, we build to it. We never start an article with something dry and dull. We always start with something intriguing.
It’s not an article, it’s an experience.
First we make you feel. We arouse your curiosity before we get to the meat of the article. Only then, when we know you’re interested, do we give you the meat.
We build to it. We play with you before we give you your reward and we always leave you wanting more. Start with intrigue and build from there.
Write the experience, not the information. The information will reveal itself, that part is easy. Say this 100 times out loud — WRITE THE EXPERIENCE. After you say it 100 times write it down and tape it to your laptop so you always see it. Write the experience.
You’re not writing an article or a book, you’re seducing the reader and giving them an experience. Great writers don’t write, they seduce. So that’s what you do – you seduce them and give them an experience. Seduce them so good that they don’t want the experience to end.
If you do it right they’ll be begging for the next step – so always give them the next step. Never let them go away wanting more but not having more. They always need a next step.
What exactly do I mean by give them the next step? I’ll tell you later. First, let’s do some learnin’………
Professional Writing 101 with Professor Victor
19 Tools and Rules for the Aspiring Professional Writer
This piece is about how to write non-fiction.
If you want to write fiction I would suggest you read On Writing by the greatest and most prolific fiction storyteller who ever lived, Stephen King.
If you want to transcend as a writer of non-fiction, well, please continue reading…..
#1 – Forget about being a great writer (for now) and focus on having something worth saying (Your message is the most important)
The message is more important than the medium. You can’t be a great writer of you don’t have anything to say. Great writing doesn’t exist without a message.
Did you ever hear the phrase “You can’t polish a turd”?
Words without meaning do not equal great writing. Without a message you don’t have anything. So that’s what you need – a message.
A great message transcends writing ability. But how do you develop your message?
#2 – Experience life and then share that experience
When you think of “struggling writers” you think of lazy jerks with ponytails who refuse to do any real work and live in a fairy-tale world. They’re “struggling” because they cannot relate to people. That’s an easy fix.
There’s a lot more to writing great than just writing. Writing in and of itself is nothing. Just words. If those words don’t have meaning then they aren’t anything at all.
Until the words come alive in the reader’s mind, they’re nothing. So you need to make the words come alive. You make the words come alive through experience and understanding. You write words that your reader intimately relates to and understands.
You need to understand certain things about life so you can write about them and illuminate your readers. The way you get that understanding is by experiencing it firsthand. The only way you’ll ever have something to say is if you experience life.
(Note: You can be a watcher and an outsider and be a great writer. You just have to view life situations and turn those situations into stories.)
What if you don’t have life experience but you love to write?
That’s great. I’m not saying don’t write (you should always write) – I’m saying focus on life. Living life is the one thing that will help your writing. A guy who has a lifetime of experience has an endless creative well to draw upon.
Great writing is like Becky. If you chase her, she’ll run away. If you do your own thing and don’t focus on her, she’ll come running back to you. After you’ve attracted her, that’s when you can give her attention.
When you have something to say, that’s when you can focus on the craft of writing.
#3 – Start writing more and keep a journal
Writing is a craft. You have to practice it. You can’t be a writer if you never write. You can have all the writing talent in the world but it means nothing if you don’t maximize it.
The only way to maximize your writing talent is by writing more frequently. Practice makes perfect.
Writing is free. The only barrier to entry is your willingness to actually do the work. You have the time to write if you make the time to write.
Keep a journal
A journal is an easy way to write every day. Just write your thoughts and feelings for the day. Easy peasy.
I always say everyone should have a blog. And everyone SHOULD have a blog…
But not every blog should be a copycat of B&D.; If you don’t yet have a message you should instead keep a journal.
Your blog should be your journal UNTIL you have something original to say. Until then, write about your day and get writing practice.
#4 – Write the way you speak (sort of)
The best writing reads like a conversation, not like a 1st century epic. A lot of would-be writers try to sound smart by using uncommon words (doesn’t work).
To be authentic you need to write the way you speak….with a little twist.
When you speak you cannot go back and edit your words and re-say what you just said. When you speak out loud it’s one and done. You don’t get a second chance to say it right. You only get one chance to say it right.
BUT!
You can always say it the right way when you write it down. That’s because you can edit your writing a thousand times until you’ve got it perfect.
You can make your writing better than your speaking. You can trim the “uhs” and “ums” and get rid of all the filler language.
So don’t write the way you speak – instead, write the way you wish you spoke.
What Pop Songs Know About Writing That You Don’t
(The Craft of Writing)
#5 – Find the rhythm and the flow
Your words should have rhyme, rhythm and reason. Your writing should flow. It should be rhythmic.
The structure of your writing is the most overlooked aspect of writing. Each sentence should flow to the next. Each word should be easy to read and each pair of words should fit.
No rhythm + no flow = no melody = no one remembers
Here’s an example of a sentence that has no flow:
Self-righteous and blind, these profligates propagate barbarism in the heart of Rome.
Try to read these words: profligates propagate barbarism. Those words are impossible to say. They don’t fit. There are too many Ps and Gs. There is no rhythm, rhyme or reason to that sentence. It’s awful.
Now read this dialogue from a Glengarry Glen Ross movie scene and tell me if it has rhythm:
Put that coffee down! Coffee’s for closers only. Do you think I’m fucking with you? I am not fucking with you. I’m here from downtown. I’m here from Mitch and Murray. And I’m here on a mission of mercy.
Those words flow like water. There are no extra words. The words are all on beat. They fit, they flow, they have rhyme and reason.
Read these words: mission of mercy. Those are the easiest words to say. They fit and they flow. They’re a perfect match for each other.
That’s why it’s one of the most famous scenes in movie history. The man who wrote those words, the great David Mamet, writes to a metronome.
Mamet is a genius who knows the importance of rhythm and flow and that’s why he writes to a beat.
(I write to a one-song playlist, more on that later.)
#6 – Copy the right way (Study quotes and songs)
I’m probably the most copied blog artist who ever lived. Every blog I go to I see direct or indirect influence from the great B&D.;
They say imitation is flattery and I’m flattered. But I can’t begin to tell you how dumb it is to copy a blog and write…..another blog!
But here’s a secret: I’m not that original, I just copied from better sources. I didn’t copy a blog and write another blog.
What I did, instead, was copy the memorable structure of songs, quotes and movie dialogue. I used the rhythm, flow and word choice of great songs, quotes and movies…
Then I brought that feeling to B&D.; I transpose the feeling of great music and I turn my words into that experience.
Nothing gives you a better feeling or experience than music. In the history of the spoken word, the best writing can always be found in music.
Not everybody reads books or blogs but everybody has had a song stuck in their head. Singers know how to connect with their audience (and it isn’t by using big words and long sentences).
#7 – Make your words quotable so people get turned on by your writing
If you can write a great sentence with 10 or fewer words you can be a great writer. Your readers’ may not feel your writing…until they stumble upon a great quote.
A great quote will turn everything around for an unsure reader. If they feel your words they’re yours. Great quotes are the spark that starts the fire in the reader’s mind.
Quotes are like music in written word. Quotes are what makes us feel good, or bad, or feel anything. The lines you remember and repeat are the quotes. Great quotes tell the whole story.
“If you aren’t quotable then you aren’t notable.” -Victor Pride
Put as much meaning into as few words as possible. Make sure those words have rhyme, rhythm and reason.
Be memorable like a song. When people are walking down the street what gets stuck in their heads? Songs.
Quotes are an author’s catchy pop chorus. Write in quotes and be memorable. No great quotes = no great author.
This is the recipe for a great quote: The most amount of meaning in the least amount of words.
Great quotes are rarely specific. We love quotes because we can give them our own meaning (just like great songs).
Study great quotes to learn how to write persuasively and effectively. Quotes should be short, sweet, musical and to-the-point.
#8 – Have courage in your blood and fire in your stare
The message should be inside you burning to get out. You need to have the courage to let it out. If you needed the message, other people need the message.
When you have something to say, say it. Say it with confidence and your readers will believe you.
You need that fire ? that drives you to put your message into words. You should feel as if the fire will burn you up if you don’t get your message out.
You should be burning to say what you have to say. “I am BURNING to tell you this. I am BURNING to help you.”
Fire, true fire, true passion always comes across in your writing. It’s not something that can be faked. Passionate people are influential people. Passion is contagious.
When I write from deep personal experience, when I have something I want or need to say, my writing is excellent. When I’m not writing from experience, or when I don’t REALLY have something to say, my writing isn’t great.
You could be the most talented writer who ever lived, but unless you have something to say your writing talent is meaningless.
Unless you say it passionately and convincingly no one will listen and no one will care. You cannot 2nd guess your own message. Have the fire inside you and have the courage to burn for it.
How to have the fire? Life experience. Plain and simple. How to get the courage to burn? Eliminate shame.
#9 – Always be honest, even when you lie (know your subject well)
It should go without saying but it doesn’t – you should know what you’re talking about.
You have to find your place in life before you can write about it. You should know so much that the words just pour out of your heart and soul from your fingertips.
Everyone is qualified to write about what they know, no one is qualified to write about what they don’t know. Any idiot can teach you how to put words on paper…
(Writing teachers in college? Those dodo birds don’t even know that the best writing is in pop songs.)
…But no one can teach you experience.
I already told you everyone should have a blog. When I say “Everyone should have a blog” what a lot of my readers hear is “Everyone should have a B&D; copycat blog”.
NO NO NO! Everyone needs a blog to practice writing. Not everyone is qualified or mature enough to give life advice.
You need life experience to draw upon (see points #1 and #2). It’s phoney baloney for an 18 year old to talk about the key to happiness. 18 year olds don’t know shit about shit. No one wants to hear an 18 year old’s life advice.
I can take an encounter at the grocery store and make the readers laugh or cry or angry or happy. I can turn daily encounters into magnum opuses.
But only because I have many years of wild experience to draw upon. I done lived it all and I done done it all.
I couldn’t have written anything of meaning when I was 18 years old. I just wasn’t able. I was not mature enough. You need that life experience to draw upon.
You don’t have to be of a certain age to be a great writer. Some men mature faster than other men. You can be any age and be a great writer if you have the passion. ? Fire knows no age.
You can’t fake the fire. If you’re writing is phoney baloney all of your readers will be able to sense it. Passion Fire is the most important thing to possess if you want to write persuasively aka make a living from your writing.
“If you can persuade – you can get paid.” -Victor Pride
If you have the fire you can influence others even if your writing skills are subpar. Fire beats writing skills.
You can always learn writing skills – you cannot learn fire. Fire will come with experience. If you don’t have it right now, don’t sweat it because one day you will have it.
#10 – WRITER’S HIGH (and how to get it with a one-song playlist)
You might write in your office, or the coffee shop or the park – but you shouldn’t really be there. Not mentally.
Great writing will take you someplace else. Your surroundings won’t matter at all. They should be invisible to you.
Turn off your phone, close your email, close your web browser. Be in the zone, in the moment, and nothing else will matter. You won’t see or hear anything.
It will just be you and your words. If you’re not transported to another world during your writing, the writing isn’t good.
The one-song playlist
Find a song that moves you. The song should have a continual beat. The beat needs to be constant., hypnotizing.
Put one song on repeat – listen to it over and over. Listen to the song on repeat and hypnotize yourself.
Let the emotion of the song into your bones. Have an eye-opening, mouth wide revelation while you write. Go into the world of the music.
Let the song penetrate your psyche….and then tune it out. Eventually the song will become background noise. You won’t even hear it, but you’ll still have that beat (remember the importance of a beat?).
Every song has a feeling – put that feeling into your work. Transcribe the feeling of the song to words. Give your readers the same feeling that that song gave you.
Music is the #1 communication tool for a reason, so copy it.
#11 – Start with an idea and add coffee (get high, man)
The great Stephen King was addicted to cocaine and alcohol. I don’t recommend that! But it’s all about getting out of your head and getting into the words on the page. You have to find what works for you.
I recommend coffee. Coffee is great for writers and is a cornerstone in every great writer’s arsenal. I tend to drink a lot of it when I’m deep in a writing session (sometimes with Modafinil).
The most prolific author I know drinks more coffee than anyone I have ever seen. Coffee may be the real secret to a prolific author’s output.
The best copywriter you don’t know about, Chris Deoudes, uses Kratom to write masterpiece after masterpiece (I edit great on Kratom).
Find what works for you. I recommend Red Coffee. Yes, it’s my brand and it’s fantastic.
How to Actually Write Well: Editing Tips from the Mad Professor
#12 – Editing is the secret ingredient for writing well. You have to edit
Editing is a big part of writing professionally. Writing is only half of the project. You have to edit to be great. Editing is a must. The structure always needs work.
Writing IS NOT PERFECT the first time you write. Nobody writes a masterpiece on the first draft. Pros know this. Pothead amateurs are too lazy to care, man.
The first draft is always called the rough draft – because it’s always a little rough until you fix it. You fix the rough draft with editing. That’s called your polished draft.
Professional writing is a 2-step process:
STEP #1 – You have to get the words down on paper. STEP #2 – You have to arrange those words in the right way.
When you first write you are just writing to get the information out. You aren’t paying attention to structure, timing, flow etc. You write the gist of your piece first. Then you have to mold it into a masterpiece.
“If you don’t edit you don’t get it” – Victor Pride
I spend as much time (or more) editing as I spend writing. My beginning articles and my finished articles look nothing alike.
My articles start out as a series of notes and thoughts and journal entries. They’re then edited for HOURS to craft a masterpiece.
The structure of your finished piece only reveals itself to you after you have written the information down. The arrangement of words has to flow. Flow will only happen when you take the time to arrange your words properly.
Writing is a 2-step process not a one step process! This is your 2-step writing process: Write the words – arrange the words so that they flow.
#13 – Cut cut cut excess! (Cut and paste for maximum effect)
During your editing process you need to ruthlessly trim any words that don’t belong. Not every single word you write needs to be published in the final draft.
A lot of words can (and should) go bye-bye. Whatever you do don’t interrupt the flow with a word or phrase that doesn’t fit.
Too many words + Long, specific sentences = CLOSED / BYE BYE / GOODNIGHT AND GOODBYE / ZZZZZZZZ
You also need to edit the structure of your piece (using cut and paste). The way you write information down is not the always the same way that information needs to be read.
You are writing as a business now so make it easy and clean for the reader. You cannot be lazy with editing unless you’re an amateur.
#14 – Use the fewest words to get the biggest benefit
We’re giving the readers a feeling. We’re not boring them to death with dry and dull writing. We’re not dragging our readers down with specificity.
Say what you need to say in as few words as possible. We’re leaving our writing open to our readers experiences.
You’ll never find an impossible-to-say sentence in a hit pop song. You’ll only find catchy writing that everyone can relate to. That’s the beauty of a great song – the words only have the meaning that the listener gives to them.
What’s the meaning behind Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin? I have no idea (no one does). But I know the meaning and the feeling it gives me (and millions of other people).
That’s because the words in a great song are OPEN, they are not closed. They are open to interpretation. The words in a pop song allow the listener to input his own meaning. Great writing should be musical like Mamet.
Note: If you’re writing about a specific product you obviously want to be specific about the product. Never call the product “it”. Call the product by it’s name so people don’t have to read your mind and guess what you’re talking about.
#15 – Make it easy to read (No big paragraphs and no rambling!)
You have to make it as easy for your readers as possible. It is YOUR JOB to make your work easy to read.
A hard-to-read sentence or paragraph is a BIG PROBLEM. Pros fix problems – amateurs say whatever, man.
The less they read – the less money you make – the less influence you have. Get it? Good!
Get rid of big paragraphs. We have no attention span. You’re dumb if you think we do. Big paragraphs are like a dirty kitchen – we’ll never start!
Don’t ramble. Rambling sentences are too confusing for your readers. And if you do ramble, no problem, you can fix it with editing. Here’s an example of a rambling sentence:
As I want to give you guys an example of a full blown solid cutting diet in this article detailing everything from the scale measurements to the exact calorie totals of each food item, I will take the most universally applicable diet that will help EVERY SINGLE PERSON who uses it get ripped if they follow it correctly.
That sentence hurts my brain, eyes and heart. Here’s how I would fix it:
Below is a full blown solid cutting diet. Everything is detailed, from scale measurements to exact calorie totals of each food.
This is the most universally applicable diet that will help EVERY SINGLE PERSON who uses it get ripped (if they follow it correctly).
It went from impossible to read to completely easy to read with a few quick edits. Long sentences and paragraphs are a grind. Get rid of them. This is your #1 reason for editing: MAKE IT EASY TO READ.
#16 – Use words that people understand (Don’t use big words)
Ever read a paragraph full of big words and at the very end you have no idea what the author was trying to say? Don’t worry, the author wouldn’t know either.
I used to study the dictionary as a kid. No joke. I learned all kinds of words. But I learned even more about the people who use uncommonly large or complicated words…
I learned that people who have nothing to say hide their incompetence under a mess of big words. It’s an ego thing but we’re not in the ego business, we’re in the making money business.
Remember this sentence?
Self-righteous and blind, these profligates propagate barbarism in the heart of Rome.
This person was trying to sound smart. It didn’t work, they sound stupid. It’s not hard to understand big words but it is hard to understand a complete mess of words.
You do not sound smart if people cannot understand what you’re trying to say. If you cannot take a big idea and use small words to describe it then you do not understand the idea.
People who have something to say speak clearly. If you can’t explain it to a child – you can’t explain it to anyone.
Understand your message and simplify it so that everyone can understand it. It’s more important to be understood than it is to sound smart.
Think Donald Trump’s plain speak vs any other politician’s weasel speak. Donald Trump said Make America Great Again. Victor Pride said Make it EASY to Read.
The Business of Writing
#17 – Writing as a business not a hobby
It takes a lot more than just being a “good writer” to turn writing into a career. You could be talented with words but it means nothing if a) No one reads you b) Your subject is boring c) You don’t have a professional plan to make money.
Remember the title of this article? You should remember it, every word I use has a meaning! The title is So You Want To Be a PROFESSIONAL Writer.
Professional: (of a person) engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.
To be a professional you need to get paid. When it comes to the business of writing you need to remember 3 things.
Your writing has to be easy to read
Your writing has to be influential & persuasive
Your writing has to have a next step (the money step)
You don’t write just to write. People who do nothing but write are lazy bums. Your writing has to have a purpose. You need to lead your readers to the next step. Words don’t pay you without a next step.
#18 – Think bigger than writing (small details vs the big picture)
So you’re a great writer but “can’t catch a break”? No, you’re just a lazy pothead who isn’t willing to do the necessary work.
Writing in and of itself will get you nothing so don’t have dreams of being a “writer”. Writing is a means to an end – it isn’t everything. Writing as a business requires more than just writing.
In addition to being a writer you also have to be a mad professor businessman. Writing is only a portion of what you do. Your writing business STARTS with writing but it doesn’t end there.
You didn’t think you were gonna make money just by writing words did you? Don’t be an idiot. Writing is just the beginning.
You have to be a salesman as well as a writer. You have to sell your writing. It’s easy. If you followed my writer’s blueprint to success you will already be influential and persuasive.
The hard part is thinking bigger than writing. You need impractically big dreams to be a big success as a writer.
You gotta think big to win big. I don’t know who first said that but he was a genius with words.
#19 – Always be in control of your destiny (Own your work instead of selling it)
You need to own your words. Where can I find work as a writer? Who will hire me? That’s the small picture. You gotta think big, remember? As long as you’re thinking you might as well think big.
Getting hired as a writer is small. Freelance writers give away ownership of their work for a few bucks. You only get paid ONE TIME if you sell your writing. If you do it right, like me, you get paid every damn day for your writing.
Selling your work to a publishing company is small. A publisher is a middle-man, getting in between you and your customers. That’s a dying business model filled with dinosaurs. Here’s 5 words that flow: Dying business model for dinosaurs.
Creating your own media outlet that pays you directly is the big picture. Self-Publishing is the future because we have the internet. You can go directly to your customers without giving a big percentage to a large publishing company.
More money is available to you on your own than by selling your soul to a publisher. You literally do not need anybody (other than customers) to make a great living as a writer. You can publish your own book and make more money than “best selling” authors make.
My man Cernovich makes an easy 6 figures yearly from his great book Gorilla Mindset. That book was written while we were in Vietnam livin’ free. How much money did he make? A lot. His book publisher? Don’t make me laugh. He self-published and all he got was a lot of money and influence.
It’s a new world and destiny is in your hands. In this new world you are the master and commander. You already know more about professional writing than any writing professor.
You could turn that knowledge into a You, Inc. business or you could do nothing. Up to you. But remember…
PS – You thought I forgot about your next step didn’t you? Silly goose, I never forget.
Your next step — write 500 words seducing and teasing me (the reader). This is just an intro not a full article. Write this in the comments section below (feel free to critique others’ writing).
You have already learned the technique, all you need now is the intrigue. Write 500 words that make me want to click. Your goal —seduce me into wanting more.
Remember…….
If you bore me, I’m gone. But if you’re intriguing – well – how could I ever refuse?
I used to be a bit of an “easy-going, go with the flow” kind of guy. Do you know what happened when I started making money? I started getting things my way and I started saying no a lot more. I became much more demanding. Money is power.
In my last gig I was tied to a metropolitan area. I made better money than I do now, and would have become wealthy had I stuck with it, but I was tied to a certain city and I wanted freedom more than I wanted a million bucks.
Now when I look around I am truly amazed at what I have and where it came from. A religious man would say I am blessed. A lazy man would say I am lucky.
I would say I am creative. Not in the sense that I am a great artist or that I’m super talented at computering or that I’m too cool for school. I am creative only because I created what I wanted. If I can do it then certainly a percentage of other men can do it as well. What is that quote?
“What one man can do, another can do” – The Edge
OK, friends. Let’s not beat around the bush anymore, let’s talk about money and how to acquire some of it from your blog. There are 3 basic ways to make money from your blog.
Selling advertising
Affiliate marketing
Creating and selling your own product
Before we review each step, let me ask you two questions:
1) What is the most important day of the week? Monday, of course.
2) How do you wake up on Monday feeling refreshed and energized? You check your email accounts and see how much money you made while you were farting around over the weekend.
The greatest feeling in the world is seeing a bunch of dollar signs waiting for you. And if you don’t have any dollar signs waiting for you when you wake up, it’s time to create some.
ADVERTISING FOR YOUR BLOG
You get traffic, you place ads on your websites, people click those ads, you make a percentage.
I don’t rely on this model, I hate advertising for other people’s products and you will not see many ads on Bold and Determined except for products available exclusively through Bold and Determined. There are 3 types of advertising you can place on your website.
You can sell adspace for a set monthly price
You can place ads where you get an amount of money each time someone clicks on the ad
You can place ads where you receive a commission from any sale that came from the advertisement
Many people choose to run Google AdSense, which I believe is a truly stupid waste of time and resources. With Google AdSense you can only make pennies and you need HUGE traffic to make a living AND you are sending your readers AWAY FROM YOUR BLOG TO A POSSIBLE COMPETITOR.
You want your readers to stay on your website, not to be so damn bored they click on an obvious ad to try and find something better. Google AdSense also looks extremely ugly and your blog needs to look good. Google AdSense is pointless for bloggers.
There’s a blog called Expat-Chronicles which is a perfect example of what not to do. The guy is a VERY entertaining writer but he isn’t doing many things right to make a nice living. For example he had this to say about Google ads:
I have Google ads on this site, and they pay about $100 every three months. That’s $400 / year, MAX. And that’s five years after starting.
He makes a piddly $400 per year on Google AdWords but, get this, he has Google AdWords in 3 (THREE!) prominent locations on his blog, cluttering up the layout and making it look like poop. All for a dirty, tiny $33 per month. I make much more than $33 per day and I don’t have any Google ads, or even any ads at all.
Google ads can and should be REPLACED. Everyone on planet earth knows what a Google ad looks like and they aren’t being clicked anymore. If I were the writer of Expat-Chronicles I would yank all the Google ads and replace them with ads for my own product. $33 per month is pointless and to have 3 spots for pointless ads is, well, also pointless.
Advertising Tips to Remember
It is best to LIMIT your number of ads, rather than plaster ads everywhere. If you have a choice between chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream that’s a very easy choice to make, and I will have vanilla 10 times out of 10. If you have a choice between 37 flavors of ice cream your brain is overloaded with choices and options. If you see 500 different ads flashing in your face you don’t want to click any, but if you only see one or two it’s an easy choice to click and see what the fuss is about.
Simplicity. There isn’t a need for complication. Make things easy, don’t give too many options. When you go to McDonald’s you know you’re getting a cheeseburger and fries, when you go to a Chinese restaurant you have no idea what you’re getting, they all have 100 options on the menu. Too many choices = no choice made. Make the choice for your readers, they are relying on you.
If you want to get jacked like ol’ Big Bear then pick up Body of a Spartan. If you are feeling like poop and not accomplishing anything then pick up 30 Days of Discipline and start kicking ass. Those are your two options. It’s not worth those few pennies that Google will pay me to take you away from my site.
AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is terrific. You refer a product to someone and you get a percentage when they purchase. This model has worked since the dawn of money. You bring someone to me, they buy what I have, I give you a cut. If you like a product, surely a percentage of your readers will like the same product, so if you promote it and some of your readers purchase then you make a percentage of the sale. This is win-win for everybody.
The world’s biggest and best affiliate marketing product website is clickbank.com. I have been using ClickBank for a long time and they have never done me dirty and have always paid me on time. This is BIG in the internet affiliate marketing world, making sure you get paid. With many fly by night operations and horror stories of shady operations that never pay you you have got to make sure you deal with reputable companies. If you want a product to promote, you can be sure you will be paid your earnings with ClickBank. Some other reputable operations include Commission Junction and ShareASale.
How do you find a product to promote?
Simple. Only promote what you use yourself. Go to the website of the product that you endorse and search near the bottom for an “affiliate” link. If there is no option to sign up as an affiliate put your game face on and send them an email asking if they have an affiliate program.
In the past I promoted a product called Superdrol. It’s a product that I believe in for one reason: It’s the most potent muscle building hormone on the face of the earth. It is now illegal and if I could go back in time I would buy 50 bottles of it. I feel comfortable promoting it because I used it myself and it worked unbelievably well.
Promote products you use and believe in and you can sleep well at night. I believe in killing with a conscience. When you do anything and everything for a buck you are always going to be struggling, but when you are genuine and believe what you say it will be obvious to everyone else. I’m even swayed by this. When someone who’s opinion I respect speaks favorably about a product I run out and buy it.
CREATING YOUR OWN PRODUCT
This is the best choice for bloggers and the method that I believe in the most. You can create as many products as you want, of course, but it seems to me the fewer options the better. One or two flagship products works well for me. Your own product is the representative and embodiment of your website and your philosophy and you should go above and beyond what is available for free.
Creating E-Books
The cool thing amongst the cool bloggers is to say “Don’t sell e-books! That’s so gauche!“. I have seen many of those too cool for school bloggers up close and personal and they are all skinny hippies with dirty hair and their too cool for school nonsense is irrelevant. E-books are books, simple as that, and books are great. Reading and learning is for winners, being too cool for school is for nerds.
The only rule for creating an E-book is that you should know what you are talking about. Walk the walk before you talk the talk.
You can create other things like “apps” or themes, but I can’t tell you how to do that. I’m not up to date and hip on all the new technology. Just last week I purchased a smart phone for the first time in over two years, after my dumb phone stopped working.
I used my new piece of technology today to take a picture of myself at the gym and was a little startled to realize the feminist harpies were right, I do look like a caveman, and cavemen don’t give advice about technology.
Check out Brian Gardner for an example of a blogger who also creates and sells technical products. The guy creates the best WordPress themes I have seen, see StudioPress, and has a great blog as well.
There are unlimited products you can create and monetize, you are limited only by your creativity. All you’ve got to do is get to creating.
Make your blog exciting. Make the titles exciting. Make people want to read. Give away valuable information. Do your creating, and you will have your own little ATM machine.
Start your blog at BADNET and you’ll know you’re starting your blog the right way.
We show you step-by-step how to start a money making blog (and we even do the work of starting it for you).
Subj: Technical tools needed for an exciting pro blogging career
See also: So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger Part 1 and Part 3. ————————————–
In the first installment of this series we looked at the mindset necessary to unlock the corporate shackles loosely placed around your hands and feet.
Just like the Elephants who believe they aren’t strong enough to break through some rinkity third world shackles, most people believe there’s no way they can break free of the 9-5 jive and make money doing something out of the ordinary. Sour news friends: That’s absolutely true for most people. The majority won’t ever accomplish anything.
BUT! since the readership of B&D is filled with risk takers there is a good chance a certain percentage of readers, the ones with an interest in blogging, will be able to accomplish something.
But why the heck would you want to become a pro blogger? The obvious reason anyone would want to become a pro blogger is the amount of freedom it gives you.
Say goodbye to sitting in traffic at 8am, yelling at all the morons who can’t drive while sipping your McDonald’s orange juice and munching on a sausage biscuit with cheese, cursing God.
I can’t even remember the last time I was stuck in traffic at 8am or 5pm. At 8am every morning I’m at my desk sipping coffee, at 5pm, well, no matter what I’m doing it isn’t sitting in traffic waiting to get home after a hard day of office gossiping.
Technical Tools and Rules You Will Need To Start Blogging
(like a pro)
Rule #1 – NO FREE DOMAINS AND NO FREE HOSTING!!!!
Absolutely, positively without question – YOU NEED YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME AND HOSTING.
Save yourself time and money and just use BADNET right now to get your domain name (free), your hosting and BADNET will set up your blog for you (no cost to you). –> BADNET
There are websites like wordpress.com (not to be confused with wordpress.org) and blogspot.com that will give you a free domain and free hosting. For example, if I did that my domain would be boldanddetermined.wordpress.com. This is what amateurs use.
If you want to be a pro you need your own domain name and your own, NON-FREE hosting. When you use free hosting services this is what you are saying to the world: “I do not believe in my vision enough to invest $7 in a domain name and $7 a month to host it. Therefore, you should not believe in me either“.
Anyone who cannot afford a $7 per month hosting plan does not have anything valuable to offer, and that’s the truth. Those free hosting sites will limit the advertising you can place or in some cases they do not allow you to place any advertising at all, and they go ahead and place their own advertising and make money off of your stupidity for using their “free” service.
Free sites are LIMITED in what you can do and you are at the mercy of their terms of service. Just say no to free hosting and take control of your website. Limits are for people who want them. When you have your own domain and your own private hosting you control everything and your options are limited only by your imagination.
A dot com domain can be purchased for $10 or less (free with BADNET service) and a standard hosting plan costs $4-$7 per month and you can host unlimited sites. To want to be in the online world but not have your own hosting is sheer stupidity.
Stay in the bush leagues if you want to write about nonsense but if you’re a serious man you just need to get a hosting plan, put it on auto pay and forget about it.
NOTE: Bold and Determined now offers a free WordPress installation service and many other blogging goodies. It’s called BADNET.
Start your blog at BADNET and you’ll know you’re starting your blog the right way.
We show you step-by-step how to start a money making blog (and we even do the work of starting it for you).
Make the right domain name choice
Picking the right domain name is highly important. Your domain name is numero uno about your website. It has to be memorable if someone is going to remember to type it into their address bar and visit you again.
A poor domain choice is the most easily fixed and the most widely made mistake new bloggers make. Your readers need to find you easily by typing your domain name into their address bar. If you pick the wrong domain they won’t find you.
If you pick some silly name that is hard to spell or remember they will not find you. They’ll type the address in a few times, if they can’t find it they’ll Google it a few times. If they can’t find it that way they’ll never find you AND they’ll be mad at you for picking such a stupid domain name.
Make it EASY for your readers to find you!
Bold and determined dot com is an easy domain to remember, easy to read and easy to type. Even the dimwits who failed English class and Google “bold and determine” are still able to find the website.
The 5 rules of picking a proper domain name:
It must be a dot com – a dot com is the default, everyone knows dot com and when you say website the first thing people will think is “.com”. No one defaults to dot org, dot net, or something cutesy like a dot me.
It must be easy to read and easy to remember – if they can’t read it or remember it they won’t be able to come back.
It must not be a free site like boldanddetermined.wordpress.com or boldanddetermined.blogspot.com – picking a free site says you do not value your own website enough to spend 7 dollars on a domain and 3 dollars per month on hosting.
It must be easily spoken and it MUST make grammatical sense – for example no one would say determinedlybold.com, that would be a stupid domain name.
It must not have any numbers (1,2,3, one, two, three) or dashes (-) – no one can remember that nonsense. No one can remember if the number is spelled or typed as a number, no one can remember where the damn dash is and no one is going to type that nonsense into their address bar. bold-and-determined.com would be one of the worst domains in history. Make it EASY! Several weeks back a snake oil salesman came to leave me a spam comment to try and get some traffic to his site. I followed his link and what I saw shocked me. He had the worst domain name I have ever seen and for a month I have remembered how stupid it was. It was called el3mentsofwellness.com. He stupidly replaced an “E” with a 3 and now it looks like gibberish unless you concentrate. If one were going to try and return to his site they would be lost trying to type in that nonsense.
Use WordPress
WordPress is the greatest and best blogging platform in existence and it’s free. BADNET will set up WordPress for you free of charge.
Anyone who has ever worked in sales knows you need one very important thing to make money – leads. The blogging for profit model is similar to a sales job. If you don’t capture leads and if you don’t turn those leads into sales you don’t eat. In the online world email address’s are your leads and they are very important to your business.
You need to capture the email’s of your readers right from the start so you can inform them of any news, products available, etc. You can also send them new posts via email so they don’t have to keep checking your site for updates or, even worse, forgetting about your site altogether. RSS is dead and email is the way you need to communicate with your readers.
I use Mailchimp, which is free for up to 500 subscribers and will allow you time to build your email list and not spend any dough. They will database all of your subscribers and you can easily set up an automatic new post to email feature.
Make your blog look good
Got to look good. Looking good makes everything better and easier. Good looking people have an easier life than ugly people. Good looking blogs have better traffic than ugly blogs, even if the “insides” aren’t great.
I’m white, tall, handsome and muscular and I can say without hesitation that on the inside I simply don’t care about most people. It doesn’t matter how great my “insides” are. Everyone can see me and they treat me well. Walking around Vietnam they treat me like I’m the second coming of Superman, like I’m on holiday away from the hustle and bustle of Krypton. If I were a fat, black midget with a heart of gold they would probably spit on me.
Appearance makes all the difference in the world.
For my blogs I have been using the Genesis framework and I buy “child themes” from Studiopress and I have been extremely pleased with my purchases. They look phenomenal and there is no extra backend coding required.
Currently I am using metro theme and it’s the first time I have never had to do any additional backend coding work on a theme I didn’t design, usually I spend hours tinkering with the code trying to get everything perfect.
Keep an eye on the numbers
You will want to know how many visitors are coming to your site and how they are getting to you. The easiest, simplest and free way to find out is to use Google Analytics.
One look at analytics and I can see how many visitors have stopped by in any given day, week, month or year. I can see that I get over 5,000 unique visitors every day and on my busiest day I received over 36,000 unique visitors.
The cost of pro blogging
The cost of pro blogging, when you are just starting out, is minimal. It can be done for under $10 per month. Currently I pay over $300 per month but it took a couple of years before that cost was necessary.
The real cost is time. If you are going to blog anyway, and spend all your time doing it, you may as well make some dough.
Cliff’s notes for the impatient
Use BADNET to set up your domain and hosting plan.
If I were a smart man I would sell you this information, but I’m stupid and I’m going to give it to you for free.
What is location independence, anyway?
Location independence is a cool buzzword that means you make money from the internet and you do some travelling.
So what’s the secret to becoming location independent? It must be really hard to make all that money to afford traveling all the time, huh?
Before I tell you the secret, let me go over a few things with you….
Location independence doesn’t really mean you can work from anywhere in the world, any time. What location independence really means is that you can work from a 3rd world country or countries.
The vast majority of location independent bloggers do not make very much money by western standards. They are not flying back and forth from New York City to London to Paris to Sydney.
Location independent entrepreneurs spend most of their time in Southeast Asia or South America.
Why do they spend their time in Southeast Asia and South America?
Because it’s very, very cheap to live and spend time in those countries, those countries are fun, and location independent entrepreneurs can’t afford to live in high priced countries.
How much does it cost to live in Southeast Asia or South America?
A whole lot less than you probably make every two weeks.
You can live in and travel around Southeast Asia and South America for between $500-$1,000 USD per month. And you can live very well on that money, way better than the locals.
Which is great because most location independent entrepreneurs make between $500-$1,000 USD per month.
That’s the secret.
You don’t have to make very much money to live very well in those countries.
How do location independent entrepreneurs make their money?
That’s easy. They have blogs and ebooks, just like this article, that they sell to you so you can learn how to become location independent just like them. For only $39.95 per month you can learn how to become location independent just like them!
Being “Location Independent” is their job. That’s how they make their money.
Do you want to become location independent?
Great! All you have to do is make the decision, and then sell yourself, your articles, your e-books, your forum, your whatever to other people who also want to become location independent.
How can I do that?
First, you start by learning the ins and outs of blogging. Check out the No Bullshit Guide to Making Money Onlineand use the resources to start your first blog(s).
If you are new to internet work then you will need some time to learn before you jump on a plane to the Philippines.
But it can be done, and it can be done quite quickly if you put in the time and effort.
Making $500-$1,000 per month is chump change and any person reading this article can do it. The question is do you want to?
There are much better ways to make money than by becoming a location independent entrepreneur.
But there are no other ways, that I know of, to go and travel the world and have it paid for.
How can you get started?
Think of it like this: People want information. What information can you provide?
Everyone is an expert in something. Everyone has a particular hobby they are knowledegable about.
If not, then you can learn about something and write about your findings.
A lot of people make money just by being themselves.
The way that they make money is very simple:
They create content and upload it online.
Their audience consumes that content.
The content producers make money from advertisements, selling their books or products.
It’s as easy as that and the startup costs are lower than any other businesses startup costs in the entire world.
I know because I’m one of those people and I know that anyone can do a version of what I do (make money by being you).
Why doesn’t everyone do that, now that the technology is freely available?
Most people think they cannot do it. They think you have to be someone special or do something special.
Which is incorrect, you do not have to be special. You simply have to be someone people like or hate or you have to be informative.
It isn’t 1965. Old rules don’t apply.
The world is making money online and if you aren’t, you’re way behind.
Because the world is online, so is the money. Where people go, money follows.
Average Joe spends his time consuming content (YouTube videos, blog articles, podcasts, social media etc).
Above average Joe sees this and takes advantage of the opportunity by producing the very content that average Joe consumes.
That’s the get rich open secret that no one knows – you are the content producer, you are the new media, there are no barriers to entry now.
By making the online content that average Joe consumes, Above-Average Joe can get wealthy.
All Average-Joe needs to do is flip a switch in his brain and say “from now on I will be a content producer, not just a content consumer”.
If you don’t believe me, here’s a video of a kid in Sweden called PewDiePie.
PewDiePie makes 7+ million USD per year by posting videos on YouTube, being himself and talking about video games.
I know what you’re thinking…
“Boo hoo. That guy is dumb and I’m better than him! Why am I making 40k per year and he’s making 7+ million? It’s not fair! I worked so hard to go to college and get this job and he’s just slacking off!”
Let’s all stop crying about fair and learn how to take action.
Anyone with a personality and a message can do what PewDiePie does. Here’s how…
The 7 Steps to Making Money by Being Yourself
1) Know who you are, know what you want to say, have a message or have a personality.
It should go without saying, but it won’t – you need something to say.
I cannot tell you what your message is, that’s up to you.
If you don’t have a message, you will not make money by being yourself.
2) Know that jobs are the worst way to make money
You must know that jobs are a waste of time to make big money LONG TERM.
We have all been conditioned to believe that jobs are the way to make money.
That was true even 15 years ago, but it isn’t true today.
Internet is life.
You are on the internet right now reading this article.
Walk outside and look at what each person is doing. They are all glued to their smart phones. They are all addicted to someone’s content.
Why can’t it be your content that people are reading/watching/listening to?
You could be working instead of reading, but because you are reading instead of working I am making money and you aren’t.
Work a job to survive – do not work a job to thrive.
You take a job if you need money now, you don’t take a job to live your life.
Life should be free, and thanks to the internet you can be free.
Getting a job today is a stupid idea when there is so much money and freedom to be had just by being yourself.
A job limits you to X amount per year. Working for yourself doesn’t limit you at all.
You can make as much money online as you want.
3) Online is the answer. There’s so much money online
It must be said repeatedly – internet is where the money is.
Even if you need to work a job to support yourself until you make internet money.
In this post we will review how to create a fast and easy additional stream of income that is completely automated. To do this you must create an e-book, video or audio series, or something else of value that you can sell. For this article we will assume you are creating an e-book. Relax, it will not be as hard as it sounds.
To create an additional stream of income this way will require an investment of $130 and a monthly investment of about $15. If you don’t have the dough for this you can get back to daydreaming. The only thing else required for building an additional income stream is the ability to follow directions, a little creativity, and a little gumption.
The goal of this is to not create the greatest quality product the world has ever seen, the goal is to get you started making some additional dough. We want this to move fast, fast, fast not slow like a turtle. You should be able to have all of this DONE in 30 days.
Remember your goal is to follow the directions and get this done FAST. As much as it is a way for you to earn some extra income it is also a learning experience for those who have never done internet work and want to start.
Pay attention, because we’re going to do this fast and furious like the movie.
Note: If you are unfamiliar with terms like WordPress, google keyword, domains, and hosting then you may want to read The No Bullshit Guide To Making Money Online before you read the rest of this article.
Here are the 10 steps to creating an additional income stream online and fully automated.
Step 1 – Fix a problem.
To make some money online you’re going to have to write an e-book. This is the hard part. Everything else on this list is easy, peasy Japaneasy. Simply follow instructions.
Step 1 is the deal-maker or deal-breaker. You’ve got to fix a problem, and you’ve got to fix it via the written word. This is where you write an e-book or something similar. Think of all the problems you know how to fix, think of all the knowledge you have and get yourself a notebook and a pen and write all your ideas down. Think long and hard (but not too long) and pick the perfect one for you.
Check the google keyword tool to see how many people are searching for your keyword each month. Let’s assume you want to create a product about different types of cheese. We will use the google keyword tool to see how many people are searching for the different types of cheeses.
Here we see that over 12,000 local people have searched for types of cheese and over 2,000 local people have searched for different types of cheese this month. That’s a good amount of people and we can feel good about creating a product or website for it.
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Note: If you are a terrible writer then you can hire someone from e-lance.com to write the e-book for you. It will cost you more dough, but if you simply cannot write then you have no other options.
The very fast method to creating an ebook:
1) Develop a title and theme of the e-book
2) Create an outline of the e-book
3) Write the e-book following the outline
4) Review and re-write the e-book until perfect
5) Convert the e-book to a PDF file when finished (your word processor will be able to do this for you)
You can use Microsoft Word or a free word processor called Open Office (what I currently use) to create your e-book.
Once you have your idea you can continue to step 2.
Step 2 – Register a domain name.
You will need a domain, or website, name for your product. You will want a .com domain name if at all possible, the next solution is a .net or a .org.
Use BADNET to grab your domain name (and some other goodies).
How to pick your domain name:
Ideally you will want to get a domain name that is a perfect match for your product and a perfect match for what people are searching. For example if you were selling a book about the different types of cheeses you would want to look at the google keyword tool to see if people were searching for the different types of cheese. We did that in step 1 and already know people are searching for it.
Next, we want to see if we can get an exact, matching domain name. If we can get an exact domain we have a very excellent chance of showing up well in a google search for “different types of cheese”.
Boom, now we’re in business. The exact domain name with a .com is available for the taking.
Obviously, you probably will not want to write an e-book about the different types of cheeses but hopefully you get the idea.
Now we’re ready for step 3.
Step 3 – Set up a hosting plan.
Hosting is where your website is housed on the internet. Free website platforms like blogspot are for people who want to talk politics and religion, not for people who want to make dough.
After you get your hosting provider set up it’s time for step 4.
Step 4 – Install WordPress.
Note: If you’ve taken advantage of the BADNET offer you can skip this step, BADNET will install your WordPress site for you.
WordPress is the free, go-to platform to run a blog and to run a simple sales page. WordPress simply could not be easier to install, learn and use.
Follow the instructions and you’re set. It really doesn’t take more than a minute to install WordPress.
Let’s move on to step 5.
Step 5 – Set up your payment processor.
The best solution I know of for processing payment and sending your product to your customer is E-Junkie. For $5 a month E-junkie is a STEAL. E-Junkie will process your payments and send out your product to your customers, all for $5 a month. You can be on a beach or in Timbuktu and still make money letting E-junkie do all the work for you.
E-Junkie is stupidly easy to use, simply follow their instructions and read their getting started guide. You can even use it free for a week before you spend a dime (even though it’s only $5 a month and worth every penny).
To get started you can simply click on the link that says “Sign up for FREE 1 week trial now“. You won’t have to enter a credit card or anything. You will want to upload your PDF e-book to your products list. Very easy to do.
On to step 6.
Step 6 – Set up a Sales page.
To make money off of your product you will have to sell it. To sell your product you must create a sales page.
A sales page will have several sections:
Testimonials
‘About’ your product
Guarantees
and most importantly a sales page will have “BUY NOW” or “DOWNLOAD NOW” or “ADD TO CART” call to action buttons.
You have two options when it comes to creating a sales page. You can develop, code and design it yourself or you can use a ready-to-go program that will do the work for you.
To create fast, simple and effective sales pages without doing endless programming I use a ready-to-go program called OptimizePress. OptimizePress is phenomenal. It makes creating sales pages so painfully easy I feel like an idiot for waiting so long to purchase it. Currently OptimizePress runs for $97 and it’s worth every red cent. You can purchase once and create as many sales pages for as many products as you want. I wish I would have started using it forever ago. It would have saved me a lot of anguish.
If you want to make money on the internet but you aren’t a computer whiz, or even if you are, you should use OptimizePress. It just makes things so damn easy and fast. They have “How-To” Videos for everything, so when you don’t know or don’t understand something you just watch the video and fix the problem. Even computer illiterates can follow the extremely simple and easy instructions.
You can take a look at the 30 Days of Discipline page to see a very simple, and very quickly made, OptimizePress Sales page. (Note: This is not a great sales page to mimic.) Your sales page will need to have a lot of quality information about your product to make your customers comfortable with purchasing.
Note: Don’t forget to link your E-Junkie “Buy Now” link in the sales page. There is a video showing you how to do this in the OptimizePress members section. In fact, there is video showing you how to do everything in OptimizePress.
You will want to take a little while to learn and play around with OptimizePress. You may even want to take a whole weekend (or more) to perfect it. Or you can get it done fast just to get your product out there.
After you have set up your sales page it’s time to move on to step 7.
Step 7 – Finish and finalize your product.
Make sure your product is polished, shiny and free of typos. After you type it and finish it up you will want to save it as a PDF and upload it to your E-Junkie account. Easy, peasy Japaneasy.
It’s probably best if you create a cover for your e-book. If you’re a PhotoShop whiz you can do it in a few minutes. If not, you may have to outsource and hire someone to do it. Never fear, there is a website called fiverr.com where people will do work for you for $5. You can get someone there to design your e-book cover for you and good quality too.
You can also get someone from Fiverr to create a website header for your sales page, if you so desire. A website header, and even an e-book cover, is not imperative but it helps.
On to step 8.
Step 8 – Publish your website.
You have created your product.
You have purchased a domain name.
You have hosting.
You have installed WordPress.
You have set up your E-Junkie account and linked your e-book PDF file to your e-junkie account.
You have created your sales page and linked your e-junkie “Buy Now” button to it.
You have looked over your product and your sales page and you are ready to finalize everything.
Hit the publish button and now you have a live, money making site on the internet.
Note: The big dogs will do a pre-launch of their product before their site is live. They will do a pre-launch to build up anticipation and advertising for the product. Since this is your first, I’m assuming, internet product we will skip that step and just get the site live and ready for action.
Let’s go to step 9.
Step 9 – Drive traffic to your website.
This is another hard part.
The absolute best way to get traffic is to create an insanely valuable product that remedies a need your customers have and are currently and actively searching for a solution for.
Another way to get traffic is to leave comments on similar blogs and articles that discuss the same issue.
Another way to get traffic is to create a blog, which you can easily do with OptimizePress, and write targeted articles towards your audience. When they search the google machine for an answer to their problem your website will come up with a solution. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Another way to drive traffic to your website is to write articles for free article websites and leave a link back to your website.
Another way to get traffic is to pay someone, or a company (or someone from Fiverr), to generate traffic for you.
On to step 10.
Step 10 – Count your money, celebrate, and then re-invest.
Do it all over again with another website and another product. Keep doing it until you have MULTIPLE streams of automated income generated for while you are doing other things. Keep learning, keep improving, and keep taking action.
Fin.
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Boom. That’s the gist of it. You are ready to create an e-book (or any product, really), get that sucker online and start making some good old cash money.
If this is your first online money making venture then it hardly matters if it succeeds wildly or fails miserably. What matters is that you LEARN. After you do it once, and learn from your mistakes, you can do it over and over and over and over. Except for writing your e-book, or creating your product, all of this can be finished in a single weekend. The e-book first draft could even be finished in a weekend if you buckle down and get to work. Sylvester Stallone wrote the first draft of Rocky in a single weekend.
There are tons of little tips, tricks and hacks that you will learn as you go along. The only goal of this post is to get you started making some of that sweet, green money and to light a fire under you to get started and to take action. Yesterday was the best day to get started, today is the second best day.
Google Analytics is a way to track all your traffic (visitors). You will want to use google analytics on your website to view how much traffic you receive, where the traffic is coming from, and how much traffic converts. Google Analytics is free and easy to use. OptimizePress makes it stupid easy to install analytics on your website, just watch the video on the OptimizePress members page.
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Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links and some are not. I vouch for all links 150%, affiliate or not.
You’re in luck, boys, because there’s one thing I know how to do very well – write a badass blog that pays.
In this article I’m going to share with you some of my secrets about blogging and I’m going to give you a step by step guide to making money from nothing.
I’m going to show you how to be a professional blog artist.
Let me explain how I started…
I lived life, I succeeded, I wrote about success. That was my beginners formula.
As Bold and Determined has evolved the formula is still completely un-complicated – live life, succeed, write about it.
I’m not a “numbers” guy and I’m not a copycat.
I’m a gut instinct guy, I have never followed any marketing guru advice (scoundrels and liars, all of them).
I always just did what felt right. It worked out and everything I’m going to share with you is what I’ve learned from blogging successfully for four years.
Before you ask why you should listen to me, I’ll answer: I’m an expert and I comfortably make 6 figures as a blog artist. My word is as good as gold, and you can take that to the bank.
Follow my tips (tips, not rules. There are no rules) and you can do the same thing.
And remember one thing:
The how is nothing. The mindset and the will is everything.
Proof is required to be an authority. Being an authority is how you make money.
Help your readers trust you and show who you really are.
No one will believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself enough to put your face, thoughts and ideas out there for public scrutiny or praise.
Do you start one blog or several niche blogs?
A niche blog is a small blog that focuses on a very specific topic and attracts a smaller, highly targeted audience. Generally a niche blog will not have more than 5-10 articles, each of those articles are thinly veiled attempts to get you to buy some product or to click on some ad.
Niche blogs are all the rage and the “experts” will tell you to start 10 niche blogs so you can diversify your income. Just one problem, the experts are liars and niche blogs are shit.
Let me explain…
A niche blog is not an authority, it’s just a bunch of articles about the same subject. A niche blog is a piece of bullshit that someone stumbles on when they want an answer to something. After they get their answer they leave and don’t come back.
On the other hand when they stumble onto an article on your blog and get their answer they can then check out all your other material and, if they like it, they’ll stay. They’ll stay because you’re clearly an authority.
Ten niche blogs are worth less than one authority blog.
Is there a way to diversify your income if you only have one authority blog?
Yes.
Here’s the secret that no one knows:
Each great article you write is it’s own niche site.
But instead of having those articles floating around in cyber-space on a separate niche site they are connected to your main site and they’re building your authority, reputation and bank account.
If you want to make money from a blog, not just once but forever, you have to make great content that stands the test of time.
Each day, articles that I’ve written as long as three years ago still make me money.
Care should be given to each and every article. Each article should be the absolute best it can be. You want your reader to stumble on killer article after killer article.
If they find the answer to their question on a niche site where do they go from there? Away from your site.
If they find the answer to their question on your blog where do they go from there? If you’ve done a good job of internally linking all your articles and products in every article your new readers will stay on your site reading all your great material.
Don’t start niche blogs, start one blog. You can diversify your income through one blog and you don’t have to waste your time and energy running ten blogs.
Your focus should always be on one thing only.
So how do you make multiple streams of income through one blog?
Two ways:
Affiliate marketing
Satellite sites
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you indirectly sell another company’s products and they give a commission per each sale you generate. In layman’s terms, you get paid for referrals who buy.
Affiliate marketing will give you multiple sources of income (for each product that you endorse) and it can truly be passive income after you have put in the work.
Some of my older articles (3+ years) still make me 1k+ each month. Put even just a few great articles together and you’re talking real money.
Satellite sites
Satellite sites are the problem solvers answer to niche sites. Satellite sites are your own projects (ebooks, podcasts, courses, video etc.) but they are on new domains.
Satellite sites revolve around your main site, so they carry the authority of your main site but they give you the freedom to design them in other ways.
You don’t want all your projects to be stuck with one design. On the other hand you don’t want all your work disconnected and discombobulated.
You want everything connected, even if they have different domain names they should still be branded under your reputation and authority.
I call my business world BADWORLD. Everything I do revolves around Bold and Determined like Phobos and Deimos revolve around Mars (the God of War) – connected but still separate.
Pictured: BADWORLD. Not drawn by Victor Pride.
You want multiple sources of income but not multiple sources of focus.
Diversify the income stream, keep the focus on one thing.
Don’t throw away your energy on building multiple projects because you’ll spread yourself thin.
Build one, finish it completely, then move on to the next one. But make sure to keep your focus on one thing – your authority blog.
How to write articles that pay every day
They say the money is in the list but that’s absolute bullshit. The money is in the reputation. The list just facilitates your business needs.
Email marketing is not the best strategy for making money from a blog.
The best strategy to make money from a blog is:
Writing timeless content that can live on for eternity on your blog.
Each article you write is it’s own little niche site. But those articles are connected to something much larger – your blog.
Blogging vs email marketing
When I write a blog article it’s online forever. When I write an email it has a timeline of realistically one hour. After one hour the clicks drop rapidly.
Good blog articles will make you money daily without any further involvement from you. Emails, on the other hand, will make you money in the hour after you send them and then nothing else.
So if you rely on email marketing to make money what do you have to do to keep sales up? You have to keep sending emails.
Articles, on the other hand, receive traffic day in and day out and you only publish articles one time.
Here are two examples of niche articles on Bold and Determined:
I could send those two articles out as emails and they’d be forgotten in 24 hours. As blog articles they’ve been read by millions of people and they’re still read by thousands every day.
Internet marketing vs content creation
I have zero respect for internet marketers because they’re lazy and stupid.
Their goal is to have a successful product launch and make a lot of money once and then move on to the next product launch. That’s literally what they do.
They’re take the money and run hucksters. When the money runs out they come crawling back with another launch.
Their products don’t last because they don’t make timeless content, they only put effort into the launch.
The launch makes them money for a limited period of time, then the money runs out and they have to do the same thing over and over.
The launch model is a dumb business model. Instead of making money every day of the week they make money over the course of the launch and then they basically make nothing until they launch another product. They may as well rely on a paycheck.
On the other hand I make money every day from books I wrote 3-4 years ago because the content is timeless. I never pushed a big launch, I never cared about a launch.
Marketing for the pros 101
What’s the secret to making money from seemingly nothing?
Non-invasive marketing
The non-invasive marketing strategy is simple: place links to your products in your articles. Don’t sell them in the articles, just say “these are available“.
It’s the simplest strategy in the world but it works wonders.
Don’t harass your readers with constant emails or nasty pop-ups offering them a free guide to learn how to breathe better just so you can add another email address to your list of prospects.
Offer value and they’ll buy, it’s really that simple.
Hidden-in-plain-sight promotion
Nearly all of my articles promote one of my books or one of my associates.
But they are subtle. They aren’t “hard sales”.
They aren’t thrown in your face but they are a call to action.
Soft sales
The non-invasive marketing strategy can also be called the “soft sale”.
Save the hard sale for the sales page. When you mention your products in an article the soft sell will convert better than the hard sale.
People don’t want to be sold, they want a solution to their problem.
Try to push sales on people and they’re just going to run from you. Offer them a solution and they’ll come running to you with handfuls of money.
Make it rain
Your business is like a tree, keep feeding it water and it will grow big and strong. When your tree grows big and strong it will bear fruit for you (money and freedom). Stop feeding your tree and it will wither and die.
Plan for growth. Your blog starts out as a little root, you need to water it to make it grow into a big tree.
That means, yes, you have to work.
You work now so that in the future you can work less.
BADNET is my satellite site that sets up WordPress blogs for those who don’t know how or don’t want to. Doesn’t matter if you’re a tech guy or not, it’ll be taken care of for you for free and it isn’t outsourced to India or the Philippines.
My right hand admin does it all and does it with perfection. We take care to do it right. We also go above and beyond and set up the must use plugins and give you four extra reports about how to make money blogging. If you want to start a blog it’s a no-brainer.
Start writing
BADNET will plant your tree but you actually have to write the articles. Just write about what you know. You need an audience and you need quality articles. Put those two things together and you can make money. Quality articles are the rain that grows your tree of wealth and freedom.
Sell something
You don’t make money without selling something. You can sell ad space, you can affiliate market products or you can make your own products. It’s easier to put in affiliate links to products you currently use and enjoy but it’s best to make your own products and stay in complete control of your money.
Don’t quit
Don’t stop building. Don’t stop feeding your tree of wealth or it will die. Like Tom Waits once said, “you got to make it rain“.
Sitting in traffic, waiting to get to the job we hate, sitting in the office waiting for 5 o’clock, counting down the minutes to the weekend, which is never long enough.
All the while dreaming we could have our own business, maybe our own internet based business, so we could leave this rat race behind and get to livin’.
The good news is you can leave the rat race, you can start your own business, and you can become free and happy.
13 Reasons to Start an Internet Business
Today, with the internet, it is extremely easy to start your own business.
I have done it and thousands of others have done it. It is only as hard or as easy as you want it to be.
But why should you start an internet based business?
1) By running an internet business you will have more free time to do the things that matter in life
Being stuck in traffic everyday, taking orders from the boss, waiting on your paycheck (with taxes conveniently removed for you), asking permission to take your holiday is no way to go through life.
Running an internet based business will give you the time to do the things that matter and let you not do the things that don’t matter. Spend more time with family, spend less time with family, spend more time travelling, spend more time doing anything you please.
Without a 9-5 noose around your neck you’re free to come and go and do as you please. I just spent a week at a tiny, little known beach in Cambodia called Otres Beach, riding jet ski’s and getting tan. That would have been completely and utterly impossible if I had a boss and an office to report to.
2) With an internet based business you can control your income
When you have a job you make a set amount of money, no matter how hard you work or how well you do your job. The opposite is true when you run an internet based business. Your income is directly tied to how hard and how well you do your job.
The sky is the limit when it comes to making internet money. The choice is yours when it comes time to decide how much you want, or need, to earn. Make the decision to earn more and you can, as long as you do the work.
3) With an internet based business you can work from anywhere
Again, no more getting up at the crack of dawn just to go sit in traffic and wait and wait. When you run an internet based business you can work from home, the local coffee shop, the library, or abroad. Anywhere you have an internet connection is where you can work from.
Say hello to sunny skies and goodbye to drab and lifeless grey offices.
4) You can feed your entrepreneurial spirit without breaking the bank
Not everyone was meant to live life as a corporate cog in the machine. Many of us are entrepreneurial minded but are just too afraid to take the leap and go for it. With an internet based business you have tiny start-up costs and low to no overhead.
It isn’t as risky as starting a local brick and mortar shop where you have to pay rent, pay for product, and pay your employee’s salaries. To start an internet business is almost free. You simply need a domain and a website, that will run you about $20 to start.
5) People spend money on the internet, your business can get a piece of that
Internet spending is predicted to account for 40% of all retail sales by 2020 and 84% of the world’s internet users now shop online. That is a huge amount of money online just waiting for you.
I spend a great deal of my own money online, I don’t like leaving to go shopping if I don’t have to. Most people are the same, they want to buy from the comfort of their own home.
6) Your internet business is open 24/7
Rather than be open for a limited time, like most brick and mortar shops, your online business is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year.
That means you can make money while you sleep. Imagine waking up to see page after page of sales your website made while you were counting Sheep.
7) There are no geographical limitations when you run an internet business
You can be based in Nowhere, Iowa and sell your products to India, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. The only limitations online are the limitations we place. With such a huge client base, the whole world, you can access a much wider base of clients and customers.
Bold and Determined has readership and clientele from USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Singapore, South Africa, India, Nigeria and many other places I didn’t even know had internet.
8) With an internet based business you have more job security
There is no such thing as job security unless you create it. Your employers want money, rightfully so, and they don’t particularly care how loyal you are and they will do what is necessary for profit not what is necessary to keep their cogs happy.
You cannot rely on anyone or any company to employ you forever. You can only ever rely on yourself and one thing is for certain: The internet isn’t going anywhere.
I hear a bunch of silly conspiracy theorists worrying about the day the internet gets “shut off”. Friends, there is no on/off switch for the internet. It’s here, it’s here to stay and every damn person you know is addicted to it.
I’m addicted to it as much as anyone. The obvious solution here is to make money from your addiction, you will be online anyway so you may as well be making dollars while you do it.
9) When you run an internet business you can better control your companies image and reputation
With bad press and a bad image a company can go under in no time. When you run an internet business, and are internet savvy, you can much better control your company image and reputation.
Provide a good product or service and your reputation will be stellar. Be a killer, sure, but be an honest killer.
10) With an internet based business your customers have access to more information and product
With an internet business the sky is the limit in regards to the information and products you can carry.
All this means better information and access for your customers. You can have as many or as few products as you want, you can have as many or as few websites as you want.
11) It’s easy to automate your internet business
There are almost an endless amount of products available to help automate your business and make you money while you sleep, eat or travel.
Four websites, each making $500 per month automatically is a real nice piece of side money. Double that money and it’s a real income. Triple it and you’re doing quite well.
12) Anyone can start an internet business, from teenager to senior citizen
The beauty of running an internet based business is that anyone with a computer and internet connection can do it.
From teenager to senior citizen, white or black, disabled or able-bodied, the internet has no bias. All are welcome and all can make money if they are willing to put in the effort and take action and, most importantly, do it consistently.
13) Running an internet business is more fulfilling than working for someone else
Running your own business is infinitely more fulfilling than being a corporate cog and taking orders from others.
As you can see, starting an internet based business makes sense.
Friends, we have all wanted to leave the rat race and get a bigger piece of the pie while not wasting our lives away behind a cubicle. The one way that everyone in the world can make their own money and make their own schedule is by starting an internet based business.
Remember, there is no better time than RIGHT NOW. The first step is simply to take action.
Actions, not words.
-Victor Pride
PS – Starting a website is very cheap. You only need a domain name and a web host. Hosting is about $3-4 per month and when you use BADNET your domain name is free.
Badnet will install your blog for free plus you get a ton of other benefits like being able to meet like-minded friends and fans. It’s a total no-brainer.
Being an Ass-kicker means you have to cut out all nonsense, that includes friends and relationships that are not beneficial to you. To live like an Ass-kicking Spartan is to live a bare bones, necessity filled life.
There comes a time when you’ve got to re-assess friendships. In the life of an Ass-kicker there just isn’t any room for low-yield relationships. If your friends don’t serve a definite dual purpose then it’s time to let them go.
Dual purpose friendships: you enjoy spending time with the person and you accomplish an activity.
A low-yield friend is a friend that does not serve a purpose. A friend that just wants to ‘hang out’, gossip, use narcotics, whine or talk about themselves or other nonsense. A low-yield friend is an “energy vampire”, someone who drains you of energy by just spending time with you.
A high-yield friend is a friend you can hit the gym with, train MMA or other activity with, learn something from, or accomplish something with. A high-yield friend energizes you.
An easy test to tell a high-yield friend from a low-yield friend is how often you answer the phone when they call. If you continually don’t answer the phone when they call that’s a sign that they need to be given their walking papers. If you typically answer the phone when they call then they can stay.
Who to give the boot to:
Gossips, Loudmouths, Whiners and Negative Nancy’s.
In the life of an Ass-kicker these types are invisible and speak an alien language that only other idiots can understand. Gossips want to chatter about nonsense. They love to work in an office because they have a captive audience for their baloney and can easily infect you with their disease. This is one great reason to leave the corporate life.
Negative Nancy’s just want to be negative and nasty about everything.
If you’ve got some friends like that it’s time to give those chatter-boxes the boot.
How to Deal with Drama:
Drama does not exist in the life of a Spartan. Drama must be invited in, like a Vampire, or it cannot exist in your world. If you have “dramatic” friends give those narcissists the boot. There’s no time for nonsense. If you wanted to hear about drama you could go searching for the latest celebrity gossip.
This is what you tell your chatter-box friends when they call you about nonsense:
“Don’t ever call me about that BS again.”
Click.
Spending time with friends should serve a purpose. You should get activities done. “Hanging out” is usually a big waste of time. Every second you “hang out” is a second you have wasted. “Hanging out” is keeping you from your goals. When your friends call it should be for a specific purpose. They should call only to give you some pertinent information or invite you to an activity such as weightlifting or social activities on a Saturday night after a week of killing.
If you’ve got free time to spare then go and “hang out” for a little while, but it shouldn’t be routine.
Tell your friends if they have non-pertinent information then they have to e-mail you. E-mails are easier to ignore than a ringing phone. A ringing phone should mean business. A phone call is an intrusion and should have a specific goal and purpose.
Dealing with girlfriends and girl friends.
A girlfriend is a girl you are romantically and physically involved with. Don’t get caught up in silly phone conversations with girlfriends. Limit conversations to 5 or 10 minutes. Don’t waste time with back-and-forth text messaging. They can talk to you at night, in person, when business is taken care of.
A girl friend is a friend who is a girl. There is no reason to have girl friends. Girl friends serve absolutely no purpose. There are only two reasons males have girl friends 1) They’re gay 2) They’re trying to have sex with the girl and they’re stuck in the friend zone – and that’s just a big old waste of time on a massive scale.
Kick the low yield friends out of your life for good.
Winner Wolf is the embodiment of masculine style. Picture by Peter Stultz.
When you dress like a winner it’s impossible not to get ahead. When you dress like a winner people will always notice you and they will always hold you in high regard which, if you dress like a winner daily, is where you deserve to be held.
Whether you are trying to get a job, trying to get clients, trying to get a date, getting lunch, or going about your daily errands it is always best to dress for success.
If the lazy, dirty occupy Wall Street hipsters would get a shave, get a haircut, put on a fresh, clean, modern, and fitting suit their opportunities would sky rocket. Everyone wants to do business with a winner.
No one wants to business with a dirty bum. Those in positions of power and authority take note of these things. They correctly observe that laziness in dress is a direct embodiment of laziness and apathy in life.
The other day I was in a local coffee shop doing some light reading and computer work. A very lazy and disgusting looking young woman entered the establishment. She had a fat caboose, she had dirty, ill-fitting clothing, old and decrepit shoes, dirty hair, she clearly did not wash her face.
Worst of all she was wearing a wool ski-cap on a day that was blazing hot. She sat down right next to me and I could no longer concentrate on my work and I had to leave. With only a little effort and change of attitude that beast could have turned into a pleasant young lady.
Later in the day I went to a local sporting goods shop to purchase some supplies. The young lady who worked there was a beautiful blonde who took great care of her skin, her hair and her nails, she watched her weight and figure, she was wearing appropriate form-fitting clothing, and she advertised her feminine confidence and charms with a big, bright shining smile.
She was a clean angel compared to the dirty devil I saw in the coffee shop. Since that day I have been thinking about both young women each day, for obviously different reasons, and I hold the beautiful blonde in high regard and I have no regard for the disgusting beast with the ski cap.
I see legions of men daily who wear ill-fitting garments and take no regard for style and showmanship. Rather than take much note of these men they are invisible to me, and surely to all other men who hold a high regard for appearance.
I will take no note of these men, other than a cursory glance, for they are screaming to the world that they are worth nothing. On the other hand I will always take notice in admiration of a man with kempt hair, upright posture and wearing handsome attire.
For all good positions in life you must be a salesman. You must advertise yourself. Whether you know it or not you are already advertising yourself. If you are dressed like a sloth you are advertising yourself as a sloth. It hardly matters what your abilities truly are, if you are dressed the part you are automatically assumed to be the part.
When you see a man in a fireman’s outfit you correctly assume that man to be a fireman. When you see a man in a tailored suit, cleanliness of face, hair and hands you correctly assume that man to be of some importance. When you see a man wearing an oversized, baggy t-shirt, baggy jeans, sandals, sporadic facial hair and a baseball cap you correctly assume that man to be no one of consequence.
It is one thing to go on vacation and wear shorts and a tank top. It’s one thing to make a run to the market or to the post office in lazy clothes. It is another thing altogether to go each and every day wearing garbage in place of fitting and proper clothing.
Good friends, take some pride in your appearance. Leave that “It’s what’s on the inside that counts” business to the dirty and unemployable.
Your outward appearance is a complete and total manifestation of your inward mindset, attitude and pride.
If you wish to be perceived as a man of value, start advertising yourself as a man of value.
