Andrew

Cheers!

Jim

And yes, I always thought that only “the lucky ones” achieved success on their own. But it can’t hurt to at least try, right?

Just out of curiosity, what has been the number 1 means to your financial success as a writer. Is it content, SEO, networking, accumulation of multiple sources at once, or something else? I don’t consider myself an “expert” though I work everyday on improving those skills.
Mathieu´s last [type] ..Lord of the Vacation

Responding to both Pete and Thomas, remember “the harder I work, the luckier I get”. Luck comes from being in the game and plodding through the mud, it doesn’t come from being an outsider.

Also, I think putting myself in the middle of successful people and working on my communications skills has dramatically improved my life.

Being someone who always wants to be busy, I have both a regular job and a blog that I am working on to provide a second income. I couldn’t imagine just blogging and doing SEO research, although this might change as I become more successful, but honestly the real job I have is a love/ hate one where one minute is absolutely dead boring and the other is almost too much adrenaline – I’ll leave your imaginations to do the work :)

But right now what I am doing is really designing my universe. Really just pulling in everything I enjoy just for the sake that I enjoy it, and low and behold a blog with growing support from artists is starting to grow. And I’m having a really good time.

Anyways, thanks for the post. What is your writing experience??? Naturally creative?

View Futhark Lifehack and my latest entries

You don’t know me, but I had to comment on this.

This article is absolutely fantastic. You’re dead on about fear, and you’re dead on about creating your own opportunities.

Because the truth is that you don’t retire at 25 working a job. The world is not set up to work like that.

You have to find something valuable that you’re passionate about and provide it; give people more than what they’re paying you, and your wealth will come.

To be honest, I think luck has very little to do with it. I think that taking risks, being smart, being persistent and providing more value than what you get in return is far and away the determining factor here.

This was incredibly encouraging to read as I’m at a point in my life that mirrors yours when you were laid off.

It probably sounds strange, but I’m very happy that you have the means to retire at 25. I think everyone deserves that kind of freedom and that the potential is there. It’s nice to see someone achieve it.
Thomas´s last [type] ..For the ladies- Why you should never settle in a relationship

I go into more detail about my business model in my recent interview:

Techzing Interview (Audio)

Techzing Interview (Transcript)

Let me know what you think.

What is your business model? Do you mainly sell eBooks, ad-space on your blog(s), through affiliate links? Can you be a little more specific?

Thanks,
Mark

I’m especially interested in more details about how you set up the books/sites, as I have been considering something similar and am trying to figure out where to start (which is actually why my husband told me to check out your site. He’s the developer; I’m the researcher-writer.).
.-= Laura C´s last blog ..How To Write a Good Plot =-.

The answer is of course we’d have done roughly the same thing with books and blogs. We set out to write, then decided what to write about. My wife’s illness gave us the idea for the first of many niche sites we created. That one is one of our lowest earners because it’s difficult to monetize. She was well positioned to write about it because it wasn’t documented well online yet, and she as an academic has access through her employer (university) to the academic databases with the primary research. That wasn’t luck, that was years of hard work on her part–years of training to get the degrees, years of writing, years of teaching.

It was possible to market her writing like we did because of all the years of hard work I had put in in software development (specializing in the web) and design.

What I’m saying here is that people create their own luck. You’re right that some people really do just hit the jackpot. But that’s not usually the case–usually the lucky, “overnight” success stories are actually stories about working really hard for years, and failing repeatedly, until finally something clicks.

This reminds me of a post by Mark Cuban, who wrote about working his dick off in the valley for years in order to be in the right place at the right time with the right people. He’ll be the first to admit it was partially luck, just like I am (and did in this post), but it was luck that he was ready to grab, not luck that just fell in his lap.

Let me ask you, Justin, what luck are you ready to capitalize on if falls into your lap?

Trying to get rich WITHOUT luck is possible, but very difficult. Believe it or not, there are plenty of talented, smart, hard working people out there that are not rich, but want to be.

Stop acting like you got rich because you chose to. Luck/timing and your other attributes are what got you where you are.

What is the biggest evidence for my opinion? There are lots of people that got rich without any plans of doing so. There’s nothing luckier than that.

1) If I were the type to retire, yes, I could pack up, go to the beach, and stay ensconced in a recliner, margarita in hand, indefinitely. I’m not that type.
2) Both sites and the books associated with them are part of the larger line of books and sites our company has produced. They were just examples.
3) It’s real. I earned the shit out of this schtick.

To be candid, your articles (this one in particular) seem to jump around all over the place and not have a cohesive flow or direction. (Not a personal attack, just a constructive [hopefully] observation.)

Some of the basic things I couldn’t tell from this article were:

– Are you literally retiring or are you just making a point?
– Is the money from your wife’s book or from your statistics site? I couldn’t tell.

Also (in all seriousness) is the eye patch real or are you just wearing it in the photo as part of a schtick?

Regards

8)

I envy people who have the energy to work a job they hate and come home to work on a project they love. I certainly don’t.

Your story is very similar to mine, but I have not reached the retiring point yet. I’ve been working on my website for a little over a year, and it’s so much fun to see my sales go up each month.

I really liked your line:

“That which exists is better than that which does not exist.”

It’s so true! Most people have this problem. I call it “Perfection Paralysis,” and as soon as you conquer it and start producing stuff, you’ll be ahead of 90% of the world.

Thanks again,
Elizabeth
.-= Elizabeth´s last blog ..Mar 12, Grammar Course =-.

Pete > I would love to read a breakdown of how you find a niche market, how you create content for it, and how you market it.

Thank you and congratulations!
.-= Aymeric´s last blog ..Free online finance classes for entrepreneurs =-.

I love your story. I’m 24 and have been on the job for a couple of months, though I enjoy what I do, I want to have the freedom of not worrying about money ever. I wanted to ask, how did you pick your niche topic? I was thinking of picking up the book of Tim Ferris and FINALLY focus on creating my muse.
.-= Caleb´s last blog ..On the Commonness of Writing and Why Facts Are Cheap =-.

Ask yourself: If you lost your job today, what would you do?

Then do that.

“Being laid off simulated the courage I should have had to begin with.”

I’ve heard similar things from friends – that getting laid off was the best thing that ever happened to them, that with the severance, cheap health insurance and time off they were finally able to take a chance on what they really wanted all along.

They would never have done it on their own, they would have stayed comfortable, “secure” and rode their job out as long as they could – but being presented with the opportunity (and well, *requirement*) to make something happen, they suddenly found themselves able to do what they had feared all along
.-= Sid Savara´s last blog ..Conversation Hacking – How To Make Small Talk Work For You =-.