chrisg.com

Yesterday we moved house and today I am still without a broadband connection or even telephone line. Luckily I have my trusty PDA and 3G otherwise you wouldn’t be hearing from me today.

This whole week has shown me I need to be more prepared for off-days but another thought struck me related to bloggers income. People often say that blogging is a passive form of income, but is it really?

If you are not familiar with the term, “passive income” refers to earning streams that do not require you to “work”. While strict definitions differ, in most cases people would agree if you can take a month off and still earn then you have passive income.

Examples of passive income would include book and music royalties, while your standard 9-5 job or freelancing would be examples of an active income.

The reason blogging is often put into the passive category is because if you use direct monetization through Adsense, banners, etc, you earn while you sleep.

So not all blogging provides passive income, some of us earn in other ways. If you are paid to blog then obviously you have to keep blogging to get paid.

I’m guessing even a popular blog that is monetized with ads will have to keep posting to maintain the income level it enjoys. A good spread of monetization strategies is a good idea for all of us anyway, but in theory the more sources of non-work income we have the more passive and stable we can make it.

The only truly passive blogging I can think of would be a group blog that is wholly maintained by paid writers, lead by a paid editor.  They would have to be paid because volunteers would have little to force them to keep writing. The only work for the owner would be paying up and the occasional interaction with the editor.

Do you think blogging is good for passive income? How do you arrange it so regardless of what life throws at you there is always money coming in? Please share your tips in the comments …

As I write this I have my family falling ill with a sickness bug all around me. This week we move house. I have work to deliver for a project today and another ongoing project kick-off happening in parallel. On top of all that I have my usual day to day tasks.

It’s not going to take much for this house of cards to fall is it?

Now I am going to have to get that project work delivered and rapidly put a lot of posts into draft because there is a good chance that I am going to catch that bug and the move is going to take a good amount of my time.

Usually I write my posts when they are needed. I’m going to start taking my own advice and put some articles in reserve.

While I scramble to get this work finished off, please let me know in the comments what you do to prepare for unexpected delays, mishaps and distractions?

The other day I wrote about how you can swap services to get help rather than think you have to pay people all the time. This morning I read Jacks My worst nightmare post and it made me realize how they are very related. Rather than write the post I was going to I had to address this point.

First let’s take a look at his post …

Every IT person I’ve ever met has at least one nightmare story about being roped into fixing somebody’s home PC/network/broadband and everything going wrong.

You can read my comments so I won’t repeat them, suffice to say I have had the experience and it has left me a little defensive over the whole “can you help me with my PC” thing. In fact one of the nice side benefits of now being a Mac owner is I can say “Vista? Oh, bad luck, never used it”.

My problem with people doing this were not so much that they asked, it was that they would call at random and irritating times (1am not uncommon, especially when these people were from overseas) and would assume I would help and get annoyed if I was less than enthusiastic. Demanding help from a complete stranger (even one who is a friend of a friend of a distant relative) is not my first choice of persuasion technique.

To make matters worse, on questioning it turned out many of these people had skills I could have benefitted from, accountants, plumbers, builders … did any of them offer to return the favour? No. Not once.

It might surprise you to hear that I still advocate helping people out. I do it all the time.

Even for the ungrateful, miserly folks, it still feels good to help someone out.

You see I believe you must not change your personality because a bunch of freeloaders have taken advantage of you.

My approach is to be clear with myself what is a charged service and what I am willing to give for free and who for. As an example, I am much happier to bend my personal rules for a charity.

What personal giving rules can you decide?

Also you can not really blame people for not knowing your rates if you do not publish them. While you are not exactly saying “please take one” it doesn’t help if there is no indication that you charge money for what they are about to ask of you. Make it obvious that you charge for your services.

People wonder why I give so much away, a free ebook, free advice, etc. Of course I am naturally a helpful guy It also works for me.

Giving stuff away is my main marketing technique.

I am not going to stop being helpful, it would be against my character and actually reduce my effectiveness. Had I not given stuff away you might not be reading this now!

So to sum up, keep being open, helpful and friendly, just know where you draw the line.

People don’t take advantage of you, you allow yourself to be taken advantage of. You are in control

I just looked through my domain name accounts.

There are over 30 unused domains in there.

What on earth was I thinking?

The problem is I know I will have yet another “brilliant” idea soon and do the self same thing. Get inspired, find a perfect domain name (or maybe not perfect), then sit on it for when I have time to develop it.

Do you find yourself doing the same thing?

What do you do to make sure you follow through on ideas? Share in the comments …

Are you a “Jack of all trades?”. Very few of us are. It’s rare indeed to find someone with all the skills required to do well in this game.

Just check out the jobs and roles I listed in my blogging hats post.

There are a lot of things involved in blogging, online marketing, and business in general where it is just better to get help than to struggle on your own. It’s easy if you have a big bag of cash lying around. You can just hire the best in each skill and supervise.

What if you have no funds to pay for help but still need the advice, missing skills or work performing?

We all have something to offer. See if you can trade:

• Time - You might be cash poor but time rich, find someone who is the other way round There are loads of little jobs that clutter up a busy persons day. Taking those nagging chores off a persons plate could give them more free time to make even more profit.
• Knowledge - The right knowledge implemented well is half the battle. Imagine you could ask the top expert any question and get a perfect answer, how would that help your work? Now think of what you need help with and your own knowledge. Are you good with SEO, writing, design …? Find someone with the knowledge you need and offer your services as a trade!
• Experience - Specific knowledge is brilliant and very valuable but experience is also crucial. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. What have you worked on that could help someone else, what has worked or gone wrong in the past?
• Talents - There are so many talents that can be useful, from a clear speaking voice through to an eye for detail. People you might look up to and think are super successful all rely on others talents. What talents do you have? How can they be used to benefit someone else?
• Reputation - If you have a lot of friends who respect you then that in itself is an excellent resource, carefully cultivated. Just look at what it takes to be successful with Digg, Facebook and such like.
• Audience - Once you have a significant audience people will come to you looking for favours because they want to use yours to grow their own.
• Links - If you have a website then you can link to someone else. You might think this is an overlap with “audience”, and it is, but remember a link has its own worth where search engines are concerned.

You might not be able to see the resources you have, perhaps you are too close and do not like bigging yourself up. Ask your friends, ask your enemies. Sometimes it takes an independent eye to see where you really do have value to offer.

What other resources can you think of that we can trade for help?

Well? What do you want?

Sometimes when I work with my coaching clients, one of the things we have to do is really discuss what their actual goals are. Not what they think their goals are, what they really are.

It’s important because once you get going on a project you don’t want to be distracted, or worse taken off on tangents, because what you are working towards is at odds with your actual goals.

Here is one example. A business is there to make money, right? Seems obvious. Have you noticed how some CEOs crave publicity and fame? Daredevil stunts or dressing up in costumes for publicity. Constant interviews and media appearances. Could it be the stated goal is money but the activities are more in line with using the business as a vehicle to achieve fame?

On a smaller level this is the equivalent of saying you want to maintain a close relationship with your clients but then fixate about winning trade awards. Or perhaps you launch a blog for your own interest then obsess about getting linked by the A-List.

You can tell if your conscious and subconscious goals are out of whack by sitting down quietly and think about your actions and where they are leading.  Where is your focus? Are you always looking to your peers or do you listen to your customers and audience? Is it your own drives and ideas in charge or are you crowd-pleasing? Do your priorities reflect what you think is right or what you are told?

It could be the one greatest change you can make towards achieving your goals is to work out what they really are and start working towards them!

What would you do if you knew you could not fail? What goes through your mind, what are the words you tell yourself? How do you feel about yourself?

Quietly think that over to yourself right now.

Many people I speak to are constantly limiting their own performance through self doubt, lack of self respect and by choosing to believe the worst from others.

See if any of these thoughts are familiar:

• I will try but I will likely fail
• I am clumsy
• I am bad at ______. I can’t do ________. They are so much better than me.
• Just my luck. Knowing my luck ….
• I’ll give it a shot and if I am not good right away I will try something else.
• There are others so much more deserving.
• Money is bad.
• It’s greedy to want things for myself.
• I’m unattractive.
• People say bad things behind my back.
• They don’t really like me.
• They are laughing at me not with me.
• If I speak up I will look foolish, better to keep quiet.
• Oh no, don’t look this way, I will blush.
• I’m so dumb, any fool would know this stuff better than me.

I am happy to tell you that I have been there. Most of us will think badly of ourselves at some point. This is fine, providing we don’t make a habit of it.

The key is to manage your own thoughts the best you can.

Picture your subconscious mind as a super computer. It is extremely powerful, but programming it is simplistic. There are no error-correcting routines, what you put into it gets processed exactly as you command.

Think about it. Go over the programming you are feeding your brain.

What instructions have you been giving your super computer?

• Can’t?
• Dumb?
• Unattractive?
• Bad luck?
• No point?

Consider each negative as a hand-brake, or at worse as sabotage.

“I am going to consciously try to jump this chasm but here is a program I want you to run so that you will make me fall half way across thus confirming my worst self-assessment.”

Don’t think about elephants. Don’t think about the elephants big floppy ears and long trunk. Try very hard to not think about the elephant. Are you not thinking about the elephant? What about now, can you not imagine the elephant?

Our minds have trouble not thinking about a subject. The only way to defeat these self-limiting thoughts is to insert new programming. Positive, constructive thoughts.

• I can, I will, it is possible for me, I am lucky
• People say nice things about me, I am popular
• I’m worthy, I deserve good things, because I am a good person
• Anything is possible for me

While thinking about good things for yourself, consider the words you use when dealing with others. What do you say to your friends? Your children?

Are you offering support, encouragement, constructive and nurturing thoughts, or do you condemn, diminish and mock?

We are responsible for our words. By managing what we think and say we can achieve more for ourselves and cause less harm to others. Make it your mission just for today to think, say and write only constructively. See what positive difference you can make.

One thing I like to collect in my swipe file is quotes. Quotes make you look more intelligent than you really are because you can borrow someone elses smarts and make it look like they are agreeing with you

I saw these positive quotes in a comment over at the Dilbert Blog last year and just dug them out again.

“Whether you think you can or can’t, either way you are right.”
- Henry Ford

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
- Albert Einstein

“You create your own universe as you go along.”
- Winston Churchill

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought”
- Buddha

Do you have any favourite quotes we can all steal enjoy?

Liz and I just had a conversation that I had to write about. We were commenting how people sometimes sabotage their own efforts running after short term gains.

There are obviously unethical things people do to get ahead. Things like spamming. Shady black hat tactics. Affiliate cookie stuffing. Tricks. Attacks.

Then there are the less obvious things. Running after awards. Jumping on popularity contests and ranking lists. Begging for links. Digg baiting.

Why do all these things not only fail but actually cause your efforts harm?

Because when you focus on these things, you are not focusing on what really matters.

We have two eyes but only one focus. While you are focusing on instant gratification, you are not focusing on your audience. When your aim is anything other than providing value then your aim is off and you shoot your own feet. Rather than growing loyalty, credibility and trust you end up damaging your reputation.

Your first thought should always be “who is this going to help?”. Get the answer right and your long term growth is assured.

Three times yesterday I gave the same advice. Two of those times were to consulting clients with absolutely brilliant ideas for blogs. I wish I could tell you what those ideas are, I just know a ton of you would sign up right away.

What was the problem? What was my advice?

The problem is the same for both, their ideas are so good they want their designs or content to be absolutely perfect at launch.

I can understand the need to get things “just so”. But all three people I spoke to were holding back because of things that can be fixed later.

Sometimes we are better going ahead with “good enough”.

• Keep your momentum - Who knows if you will still have the enthusiasm down the line?
• Benefits now versus later - Get the benefits of launching earlier rather than later. When you see some early results you will be motivated to go the extra mile
• Strike while you are original - Head off a competitor entering the market first. It might be a brilliant idea (and they were, believe me), but that doesn’t mean someone else can’t have the same idea and get in there first
• Reduce opportunity cost - While you are fussing and tweaking you are not earning plus are spending time on something that is taking you away from something else

There will always be something that you can tweak or polish, that is the nature of things, as Sean D’Souza says,

“If you must do a job, do it 70% right. Then fix the 20% later.”

Tags: productivity, perfectionism, advice, tips, blogging