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How to make the switch to working online is going to be a short series on how to move from your 9-5 job to a life of freedom and flexibility of working online. This is how I made my move and how you can too, no BS involved.

First, it isn’t working online but rather playing online and earning money. If I did not love getting up in the morning doing what I am doing, I wouldn’t last a month. The biggest hurdle you have to overcome while pondering the thought of working online is to ignore what others have done to make money online and to do what you love instead.

When people first start out online, they look at the likes of John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker and think, “I can do this.” What most people realize after about a month of trying is it doesn’t work out that way. Earning money online can be a lot harder than it appears.

First Step:

Start! I know that seems basic, but it is amazing that most people only think and talk about making a life change for the better. So get going and do it! Learn about the different ways you can make money online and what you are capable of doing.

Second Step:

Find what you love to do. Motivation is a huge factor in success. When you love your work, you aren’t working. Having fun is probably the most important aspect of doing what you love. Besides loving what you do, you will often know a lot about that particular niche, adding even more to your credibility and knowledge to the trends in that market. Knowing as much as you can about your niche market gives you the edge on top of the passion to pursuit it. It amazes me that even after blogging for a short period of time you will see so many other bloggers come and go as they slowly give up on their pursuit of money. It’s a pursuit of a dream that will carry you through.

Third Step:

Phase into your online work. I didn’t just wake up one day and start working online. I started by reading blogs. Then I started subscribing to blogs that I liked. I opened up a free blogging account on Blogger.com and other sites, learning the skills of creating a fluid site online. I learned how to and how not to make money online (selling ebooks is not going to get you anywhere unless you know how to market online well). Make the shift from part-time Internet entrepreneur to full-time self employed Internet marketer. Start small and allow yourself to have a life outside of the Internet and your work. As you grow and expand online, you will have to be the judge of when to quit your day job and pursuit your online business. I did this after roughly 4-5 months. I timed vacation and paychecks to give me the most coverage and financial buffer I could. This process wasn’t easy and I had to live on next to nothing for a few months in order to accomplish the transaction. I recommend saving as much money as you can before this part or already be generating a steady income stream from your part-time online ventures. Both are good ideas.

Fourth Step:

Find a balance in your life and establish a routine. It is a whole new world to work for yourself. There is no longer someone making sure you are accomplishing your work. You have to be your own boss. Treat your time as a commodity that you can no longer take back. Time is no longer worth a fixed dollar amount. It is equated in the terms of value added. You now get paid on performance and the value that you provide. It no longer matters how long it takes you to accomplish tasks in order to get paid but rather how much value you provide your customers. Never cheat your customers on value. You may find that in order to generate the income you want, you only spend 4 hours a day working for it. It is important to find that balance and treat that time like it is pure gold, because it is.

Fifth Step:

Diversify. The days where you set up a store front and sold hardware supplies to local people are fading fast. In a world that changes in a matter of minutes online, you cannot afford to be stagnate. As soon as you start generating a decent income from your flagship blog or virtual business, you should be creating the next. When you have 4-5 different but related businesses online, you protect yourself from failure due to lose of income. If one of those businesses or income streams disappears, you still have others to carry your through until your next idea is put into place. The winds of business change so quickly online that no one knows for sure what the next year will bring. If people claim to know, they are lying.

Sixth Step:

Give back. Giving back is a crucial part of business and branding. Giving back doesn’t always have to involve money, it can be in time to help charitable causes, giving advice to others, talking with and answering questions from customers, sending thank you cards and notes and just about anything else. Never forget where you were at one point, and remember to give credit to those who helped get you there.

Popularity: 15% [?]

As the sun sets here in the Midwest on the longest day of the year I would like to wish you a happy summer solstice. Just remember, from here until December the days will be getting shorter. Believe it or not I celebrate December 21st as if it were a holiday and being right next to Christmas this makes that week all the better. So soak up the rays and enjoy the heat because if you are in the northern hemisphere the days are only going to get shorter. (image curtasy of Joe Orman)

Popularity: 13% [?]

Just a little bit ago all HELL broke lose in Fargo, ND. When I say all hell broke lose, I mean it. At least in my opinion. I am not a big fan of tornadoes due to the fact there is nothing you can do other than sit your ass down somewhere and hope it doesn’t get blown away.

As the tornado sirens were blaring, radio / television announcing warnings, lightning, thunder, pounding rain and the lights flickering I am thinking to myself, “what the %$&* am I doing here and more importantly where do I go?” So I grabbed our dog Ace (That Mutt - a dog blog) and headed downstairs to our neighbor’s since he was on the first floor. As far as I know, the closer you are to the center of the earth, the better, only if I had a shovel handy.

For a few more minutes, the sirens cycled off and on as the storm system passed right over us. Everything is okay now and mostly back to normal, minus some intermittent power outages around town, as I am sure some trees were knocked down. I have never seen a tornado before and never want to. I think to myself if this were an earthquake, I would jump under a desk, door frame or better yet, outside. Hurricane, leave town. Flooding, go upstairs. But what do you do when you live in a two-story apartment building without a basement and a tornado is about to knock the building down like a Lincoln Log house? Well thankfully all is well now…but still…

Popularity: 16% [?]

What a great week. The sun has been shining for at least half the week and we haven’t received any snow. Yes, believe it or not, last night it snowed an hour from here. I swear this winter lasted about 7 months. I just wonder how the rest of the seasons fit into the year.

Happy Mothers Day
Face it, without mothers, none of us would be here. I would like to say and give a special thanks to my mother for surviving the Las Vegas heat in summer to put up with me. Thanks, Mom. I hope that I do not have to remind anyone to call or do something special, but just in case. What are you waiting for? Go now and do it.

Traveling
On Monday I will be traveling to the great state of California for a couple weeks where I am going to be helping out some family members. Before you start dreaming of the ocean and sand, I will remind you that I will be in the far north area of California near Mt. Shasta. I have been looking forward to my trip and visiting family. Hopefully I can post some nice pictures next week.

Tools
I finally caved and bought an MP3 player last week. In particular, a Sansa View. I recently did an interview and had the chance to record some of the conversation with a Sansa I borrowed. I was completely blown away by how well it recorded and sounded, not to mention all the other features included. I really wanted to get a decent digital voice recorder. I quickly realized they were about $100 and for a little more I could get a device that sounds just as good recording but also plays music and movies. It seemed like a no brainer.
Alexa
I shaved off 25k from my Alexa stats for this blog. That is a good thing. I really don’t know how much weight I give Alexa anymore. Alexa even admitted that in the last two years it was completely wrong in how it valued websites and now somehow magically it is better. In the end, is your blog expanding or contracting? Do you have more readers this month than last? Do you have more comments and linkbacks? That is what really matters.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Blowing away monthly stats.

What a quick week it has been. Things continue to go really well, including stats for this page. I have reached my goal of 30,000 unique visitors for the month of March, with 9 days to spare. That is an average of 1,400 unique visitors a day. When I posted those stats on my site and told everyone of my goal, I had no idea if I was going to make it or not. I did know that I was going to try and do what I could to reach my goal. It is very important to have goals. Making them public is always a great motivation factor as well.

Here is the link to my stats. February’s traffic was pretty small compared to this month. I officially started this blog on Feb. 19, meaning I only had a couple of days to market it that month. In March, I have spent a total of $30 towards advertising on my site. I have more time than money at this point, so most of the advertising was accomplished with a lot of time invested. I am aiming to flip this around ;). Now only a couple more people to go for my goal of 100 RSS subscribers. Not bad for one month.

Going backpacking.

Lindsay, Ace (our mutt) and I are taking a trip to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. By the time you are reading this we should be on the road. We have made it a tradition to go backpacking over Easter weekend to a different park. Each year it is an adventure. Last year we lasted one night in 1-degree weather. Brrr. The year before we ran out of water and borrowed some from somebody’s hose faucet (they were not home). Who knows what adventures lay ahead for us this weekend. I will be sure to share photos and memories when I get back.

Podcast and Video Logs.

I am still working on and planning to share podcast and video logs for the readers of The Unconventional Marketing Blog. I have the process all figured out and will probably get some out by this week. Maybe there will be a backpacking special. I don’t know, we’ll have to see.

Contests.

It seems like a lot of contests are showing up all over, and I can’t blame people. I love winning free things and like participating in different contests. Tyblog.com is starting a new contest and it is shaping up to be a whopper of one at that. If you are interested in contributing to the contest or want more information about what he needs, go here.

Popularity: 11% [?]