I’m back.

Last week I shared the disastrous results from my eBook launch and I gave you guys a reality check on full-time blogging. I ended off the post by talking about how much I love to help people. The post then went on to receive an insane amount of helpful comments. I even found out how to get my eBook published on Amazon for Kindle. I’m excited about that.

On to part two the reality check for those that want to be full-time bloggers…

I love to help people.

Why can’t I just help people? I want to give real advice. I have a real education. I don’t want to write about blindly following your passions.

It kind of frustrates me that these same people that I respond to all of their emails and help them for free couldn’t fork over a few dollars. I’m not trying to get rich off my premium guide. I just wanted to see if my readers understood the idea of paying for value. I guess not.

[Here's a tip cheapass, if you want to save money and are to cheap to pay $17 for it: stop buying girls drinks at bars. It's not going to help you get laid. She's going to use you for your free drinks and go home with someone that has more game.]

A few more lessons learned through blogging…

I learned so much from this experience and from blogging. I feel that it’s my obligation to share it with you.

I love blogging and helping others.

I guess I already mentioned it above. For any of you that have ever emailed me you know that I will respond within minutes. If you ever asked me a question you know that I did my best to answer it. If not I helped you get the answer. Why isn’t there any compensation model on the internet that pays you for all the people that you help make real progress instead of promoted credit cards to?

Success in the blogging world should NOT be a slow process.

I officially started blogging about 3 years ago. The exact date is November 7th, 2008.

To put things into perspective. Pat Flynn was just getting started. Adam Baker still didn’t have a blog. Crystal of BITFS was over a year away from starting a blog. That’s when I started. Now Pat earns more in a month than I do in a year from blogging.

Where am I going with this? If you’re going to fail, you better fail fast. Don’t wait around thinking that success is a slow progress. It’s not.

Did I mention that I hate to lose?

Are these people smarter than me? Possibly. Do they work harder than me? I’m not sure. Pat once mentioned in a podcast that he works four hours a day. I work four hours everyday before lunch. If I counted how much time I work online vs income generated I would have J. Money and the Love Drop team showing up at my door steps.

I hate bothering people.

I don’t like to ask people for links or for help constantly. I don’t like to bother people at all. I feel bad for bothering my affiliates. They signed up and they get their payout of ZERO from me.

I’m sorry to Frugal Dad, Bible Money Matters, Daily Money Shot, PT Money, Good Financial Cents, Lazy Man and Money, Budgeting In The Fun Stuff for wasting your time.

I do my best to help others. I just hate to ask for help. Do you know what I mean?

I spend all of my time online.

I seriously love this work. I spent all of my available time online. I’m glued to my Blackberry/MacBook. My friends usually figure I’m texting girls to come by to the party so they don’t mind. Others know that I’m responding to reader emails or chatting on Twitter.

What can You take away from this?

At the end of the day you can follow your passions to the unemployment line or you can get a life. There are many more ways to make money and help people. Stop signing up for programs.

What can you as a reader of this article take away from my experience?

You readers don’t care about you.

This is really tough to accept. Personal finance blog readers will come by, check out your free content, and move on.

You can’t always write epic content.

Uh-oh I’m going against blogging gospel now. Writing epic content is cool, but you need to throw in some SEO-heavy posts and promote some credit cards if you want to make real money. I’ve spent over 10 hours and went to bed at 7am many times while writing “epic content.” What will getting epic content get you? How do these articles make any money?

You can start a consulting business. The best way to make money online is to tell other people how to do it.

I’ll help you out by giving you the framework for your new consulting business.

1. Tell them to be more epic.

2. Tell them to follow their passions.

3. When they fail tell them that they weren’t epic or passionate enough.

4. Promote your eBook on the topic.

There you have it. The winning formula. I might have missed a step, but you get the point.

You need to get a life and do something real.

I just want you to open your eyes. Close this window and go do something real.

What are some examples of bloggers doing something real and making real money?

Crystal of BITFS makes a killing from her advertising business.

Mike of this site works a full-time job where he makes amazing money, outsources his online work, and collects money.

Pete of Bible Money Matters creates amazing logos.

Khaleef of KNS Financial helps others figure out their finances and he does taxes.

What if you want to make a difference?

If you want to make a difference you need to do something real. Get a full-time job that helps people.

If you hate your job then you have nobody to blame but yourself. Nobody told you to drop out of college to “find yourself” or to get a History degree.

If you want to do good in this world, why not volunteer your time? Go volunteer at a soup kitchen or become a Big Brother. Don’t start a blog. You won’t make a difference. People will come to your blog, consume your free content, send you emails, and then get offended when you want to make a dollar.

What’s next for me?

I hope you don’t think I’m going anywhere. I’m in too deep. I’m addicted to all of this. I love my art. I just wish it loved me back.

I really do need to get a life. It’s impossible to justify spending every single moment thinking about my blog. I probably need to polish up my resume. I’m pretty sure I have a resume somewhere on my blog.

The good news is that when I finished college in December 0f 2010 I gave myself a year to work on my own projects. I still have about two months left to make shit happen.

I need to thank Mike for letting me be on his team. M-35 has done amazing things and the company is only going to expand further. I do my best to provide quality work on a constant basis.

Blogging is a good part-time income. It allows you to travel while not going broke. I love to travel. I have many more trips lined up. Through blogging, I’m able to party all night and write all day while I travel (sight seeing is for old people).

Don’t expect to be “making money while you sleep.” Get a job and blog in your spare time. Stop being delusional.

That’s it for today. Bookmark this article. Read it over a few times. Stop lying to yourself. Don’t attack me. I’m just telling you what nobody else wants to tell you.

Good luck!

P.S I plan on joining in on the action. I now offer coaching and plan on releasing an eBook that touches on following your passions. Hey, I might as well.

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After reading Martin’s amazing post about his reality check on the fact that he might not make enough money online to make a living, I’ve given it some thought. A few weeks ago, I was all excited for him as he was about to launch his first eBook. I wished him good luck and wanted to support his book. I have to raise my hand as guilty because I did almost nothing for him the week he launched his product. I really wanted to support him but I didn’t. Not the way I wanted to anyways…

And this is what I want to talk about today.

There is a reason why he failed with his eBook launch and I made the very same mistake with my own eBook 2 months ago.

This is funny (bizarre) as I was discussing the very same topic with my mother who is about to launch her business too. Hey Mom! (she reads my blog ). We debated this point for a good half hour and yet didn’t come to an agreement. She didn’t agree as you probably won’t either. So I’m either a lunatic or cynic .

I guess that you are really wondering what I’m talking about right now. So what did Martin and I do wrong with our eBooks?

We are passionate (check)

We are motivated (check)

We know what we are talking about (check)

We have an audience and connections with other bloggers (check)

We have a website to launch our product + mailing lists (check)

We researched before launching our product (check)

We thought about it for several hours, wrote a launch plan and setup affiliates (check)

We are offering a great product (check)

At first glance, we have everything on our side to become successful writers. EVERYTHING is checked to become the next online mogul…

So What the F&*/ Went Wrong????

“Vision without execution is hallucination” – Thomas Edison

I know where I failed and when I look at Martin’s product, I know he made the same mistake. I took several hours crafting a great product, several hours reading about how to set it up and more to launch the product. I had a great vision…

But my execution SUCKED!!!

I know all these concepts, I can teach numerous techniques but I am just as lazy as anybody else when it comes down to do it. I just suck! I suck at it because it wasn’t my idea, my technique. Since launching a product is not naturally encoded in my veins (as being overly productive is definitely part of my DNA code), I had to read and assimilate theory before doing it. So I know everything that needs to be known but I’m just too f*%&ing lazy to do it properly.

Instead I dreamed about the day that I opened my laptop and generated 200 sales in the last hour. I would rather dream of the result of my calculations and think of all the money I’ll make if I only convert 3% of my readers.  I dreamed about the life I will have once I can quit my job and become rich by working 4 hours a day on my online company. I would rather dream that I traveled the world with my family and laptop in my backpack while others are creeping around in their 9 to 5 job. I dreamed about all of this with a nice bottle of wine instead of getting back down to basics, putting my dreams in the garbage can and hustling.

You can’t go anywhere without a vision, but if you don’t have a clear and defined process for your execution, you will suck and so did I!

So I would rather buy a dream

The problem is deeper than having people selling the dream and you ending-up wasting money on them. And I’m not going to defend these “Pro-bloggers” as some of them are great wizards of making money online while others are just as creepy as an old alcoholic car salesman. However, there is one thing so true about them; they are selling a dream because this is what you want to buy!

People are lazy.

You are lazy.

I am lazy.

How many times have you started a project and cut corners?

I do it all the time.

It’s too complicated. It’s too long. It is just too boring. This is why I just cut and to get to the final results right away. Because I’m more interested in dreaming than working.

So am I going to buy something that will ask me to work meticulously and be incredibly patient? Man, I would rather buy something that will have me live the good life. But I didn’t read the fine print: The 2 products are probably identical but sold differently. Both require crazy amounts of work before succeeding. And this is why you quit thinking you’ve been sold an impossible dream. Well this is what you wanted, dumbass! I know it because this is what I wanted too!

And some of you may think “that might be true for you Mike, but I know I’m hustling like a dog and I will succeed”.

Reality check: you ain’t working enough… you read it right: YOU AIN’T WORKING ENOUGH!

Or working the right way

Or both of them!

And then you are going to tell me that you are. And we can go on and on about it but I’ll tell you one thing that will shut down any argument you can bring to the table:

Reality check: If you are so good, working so hard and doing everything so right: WHERE IS THE MONEY?

Don’t tell me it’s coming.

Don’t tell me you’re close.

You are darn far away.

If you are not making it NOW, how can you have the guts that you will be making it one day??? Stop drinking your own Koolaid. It’s time to get back to work. The real one.

I’ve failed because I didn’t work properly and I didn’t work enough

I’m not making a living from my online company yet for the VERY SAME REASON

And this will be the case for most of us.

One Last Thing About This Incredible Dream of Living From Your Online Work

Last week, MD made it sound like living from your blog was mission impossible. That only a few gurus can do it and they do it because they tell you how to make money online. We all know that great question about what came first between the chicken and the egg. In my opinion, you should make a difference between your dream and reality. However, reality can become your dream.

If you have read my latest income report, you will notice that I had another month with over $11,000 in income. If I consider all my expenses look at the hours I work on my online business; I made $218/hour. I think this is definitely better than most jobs, right? The funniest part is that I didn’t make a penny from telling someone how to make money online! So the dream is achievable but you need to stop dreaming to make it happen!

Now, it’s not the time to jump up and yell that you will make it. Come on! You know you won’t! I know I won’t… unless I shut my mouth, start thinking and working seriously. I always tell my son that words don’t count… only one’s actions matter.

I bet you were at the FINCON11 or attended another great conference in your life. You might have taken a few notes and went back home smiling because you had a good time. You probably spent a lot of time thinking about the crazy things you will do and how great your life will be in a few months.

I’ll ask you the same question Martin did: what have you done since then? Don’t you think it’s time to take some real action?

 image credit

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Yesterday, I told you that you are able to crush it while watching f*&%ing Lost. But that is obviously easier said than done (anybody remember this fantastic piece Martin wrote last week about a blogging reality check?).

You want more money?

But don’t want to work more hours or get a second job?

I’m totally up with you.

So, how can you make more money by working less? Man… this has been my main obsession for the past 8 years. And I only found the solution 3 years ago! Darn! The trick is quite easy in theory: simply work less . If you have read The 4 Hour Workweek, you know what I am talking about. However, working 4 hours per week is not accessible for most people. It’s more like selling the dream than finding a way that you can actually take some real action to achieve this.

Let’s Start Smaller: How About Working 4 Days a Week?

I seriously think that you and I can get out of the Rat Race and live the life without working much. But let’s be realistic for a moment; this won’t happen this year, next year either… and probably not before the next 5 to 10 years (and this is only if you hustle like an animal!). However, you can improve your position today. How about working 4 days a week and keep your pay check? But be careful, you need to do this slowly, step by step if you want to achieve this.

Step #1 Find an excuse

If you want to start working fewer days in the corporate world, you better have a solid reason to do so. If not, the dream crashers will tell you that it is not possible or that you may want to pursue “other career opportunities” as you don’t fit in here. So you need to find an acceptable excuse to work 4 days a week. With a softer boss, you can try the family/work argument. However, I would only use it if you are 100% certain that you are working in a company where they facilitate and encourage family/work flexibility. Most don’t… yet (sad!).

There are a few other options that are more easily accepted. You can find yourself another sideline project from your current tasks that will improve your department’s productivity or profitability. If you present a clever idea to your boss that will make him look good, there are not many reasons why he would not give you a day/week to work on the project. You can work on cost reduction, productivity, profitability or marketing (making presentations). These are buzz words managers love to hear.

If you are out of ideas, you can also go back to school (that was my excuse). I picked a program where I had to go to class on Fridays so they had to let me go 1 day a week to do something else.

If you don’t want to go back to school and there are no ways you can improve where you work (that’s impossible, by the way), there is another way that will hurt: simply use 1 day of your own vacation to take off each week for 6 weeks or so. This will be enough to build your case study, which is step #2.

Step #2 Build a case study

There are 2 things you must do once your excuse is accepted:

#1 Do all your regular work in a 4 day schedule

#2 Build your case study with facts that show you can work 4 days a week and do the very same job

During a 6 to 8 week period, you will have the amazing opportunity to show that you can work 4 days a week and get all your things done during that time. It is very important that these 6 to 8 weeks are among the best weeks of work you have ever done. You want to show them that your motivation and productivity have increased. In fact, if you are not more motivated and more productive, you won’t make it anyways .

The key here is to force you to think differently. The point is not to work more hours during these 4 days. The point is to optimize your day so you can do your job and still finish at 5pm to head back home.

While you are finding ways to become more productive, keep track of your results and your success. It is important to build a solid business case. If not, your employer won’t listen to you.

Step #3 Don’t be shy to ask

2 months after you made the decision you want to work 4 days a week, you are now ready to make the big jump. Don’t be afraid to ask for a meeting with your boss, to ask for 1 hour of his time. This is when you will show him what you have accomplished over the past 6 to 8 weeks and that you now want to keep that 4 day/week work schedule.

You may think that he will ask you to work on special projects on the 5^th day since you became more productive. This would be the trickiest part. If it happens, you can simply tell him that in order to be fair to your productivity and commitment towards the company, you would ask for a 20% income raise as your colleagues do 80% of what you do. He will obviously refuse, so you tell him that the fair thing to do is to leave you at 4 days a week under the one condition that you will always do the work required in 4 days without complaining, making mistakes or being late.

Step #4 what do you do with that extra day now?

How great is that, you just found a way to reduce your number of hours while keeping the same pay check! What’s next? I’ll tell you in my next article .

In the meantime, I want to know what prevent you from doing this? What is the biggest challenge you are facing to change to a 4 day work week? Are there any? If yes, tell me. If not, take action!

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Man…. I remember this like it was just yesterday. Back in my apartment in Montreal, I was just starting my career. At that time, not long after I quit my first job without notice and found my way to another department at the same bank after a few weeks. A year later, I was sitting on my couch on a lazy evening, not doing much. My wife was out for a work meeting and I had nothing to do besides watch the boring premiere of a cheap version of Gilligan’s Island but with a plane instead of a boat… Oh yeah… I’m talking about Lost . At first, I was definitely not sure about this series… and then I got hooked!

Dude! What’s the point of talking about Lost on this blog? Keep reading… you’ll find out

6 awesome seasons later, one per year, Lost ended-up with the best series finale ever in my opinion. That was back in May 2010. During the same 6 years (from September 2004 to May 2010), I did a lot of things:

- I got 4 promotions and went from a 30K annually to a 135K salary in 2010.

- I got married with the most amazing woman in the world.

- I started a 6 figure online business with my best friend.

- I had 2 marvelous kids.

- I got my securities license, Certified Financial Planner degree and my MBA.

- I’ve been able to gather all my friends from different paths (high school, in-laws, university, neighborhood) together each Xmas and now rent vacation properties all together.

- I’ve managed my way to obtain a 4 day/week schedule at my day job and work on my blog one full day a week.

- I’ve made more friends during the MBA program and we still see each other from time to time.

- I’ve gone from a negative net worth to almost $200,000 net worth.

- I’ve learned how to play golf, started a steady workout schedule at the gym and played softball in a garage league.

- I’ve done all this and never missed 1 episode of Lost. In fact, I also got hooked on many other series such as Prison Break, House, Dexter,  etc.

So What’s the Point?

The point is that I did a lot of things that contributed to my financial situation during these past 6 years and still have a life. I am able to be there for my family and friends, all the time.

The point is that I am not better than you, not smarter than you. I just did a few things differently.

And I think you can do the same.

And I’m about to tell you how…. This week

How to Crush it and still have a life

When I was a kid, my financial goal was simple: make $100K per year. I have upped that, added a small modification to that goal:

Make 100K per year while working less than 30 hours a week

I’ve discovered that making 6 figures was not that complicated in the financial world. However, reducing your work hours below 35 hours is almost mission impossible. Why? Because of the Dream Crashers! In the upcoming weeks, I’ll share with you my tricks on how to:

- Reduce your work hours without affecting your salary

- Find time to build a sideline business without ditching your friends and family

- Create activities that will generate money

So tell me what you have a problem with

I already have a pretty good idea of how I will build this series and what will be included in it. But I need to know what your issues are to make sure that I hit the right nails and close the coffin on fears that prevent you from living a better life.

So tell me, what is holding you back? Is it time? Resources? Money? Ideas?

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The most epic article from the last little while is If You’re Not Doing This, You’re Leaving Money on The Table over at The Middle Finger Project.

What’s so epic about this article?

Long story short is that the author tells us that by not offering a complementary product or an upsell to our current offering we’re leaving money on the table. That’s all that needs to be said.

What’s my favorite part?

I love this line when the author promotes the idea of the upsell:

I want you to kick ass in 2012, and upsells are something you need to know about. And not only do you need to know about them, but you need to know how to implement them.

I’m pretty hooked on this blog after this post.

What do you guys think?

What do you think about upsells? How do you feel about selling stuff? I’ve always debated the idea of selling something. I finally went ahead with it and you know how that worked. What do you think about selling stuff and the upsell?

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