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Dealing with Negative Criticism from the Netizens

  A Controversial Blog Post A few days ago, I wrote a blog entry over on My Life! Teaching in a Korean University called, Korean University Jobs: The Golden Handcuffs. Basically, I said that while university jobs in Korea are quite lucrative, they’re also not a great long-term choice for quite a few reasons. I posted the blog to a few of the English teacher in Korea Facebook groups and the reaction was strong to say…

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Going Home After Living Abroad

These days, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it takes to be successful in the transition back home after living abroad for so many years (10 in my case!). I don’t hate Korea, but I don’t love it either and sticking in a place for 10 more years just because I work 3 or 4 days a week and get 5 months of vacation in not a good way to live. It’s onwards and…

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Hubpages Marketing through Pinterest

Driving Traffic to my Websites In my effort to focus more on quality over quantity, I’ve decided to focus on getting more traffic to the sites that I already have, such as this one, my new one (Jackie Bolen), My Life! Teaching in a Korean University and my various HubPages instead of building new sites. I think these sites have some quality content on them, but just don’t have enough traffic for me to make…

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Indecision

I waver back and forth when it comes to moving back to Canada, quite possibly forever and making a life there, or living the expat life which is kind of amazing in a lot of ways. I mean, who wouldn’t be happy working at a university in Korea where you get paid an astounding amount of money for a very little amount of work. I go on exotic vacations a couple times a year, cruise…

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Another Ebook: Financial Freedom for English Teachers

I’ve been encouraged by the sales of my first book, How to Get a University Job in South Korea: The English Teaching Job of Your Dreams which was an experiment of sorts and am feeling inspired to write another one during my winter vacation. Although I’ll be traveling to Canada and Vietnam, I’m not actually doing any teaching and I will have significant chunks of time to devote to it. The first book was a…

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Ebook Marketing: Guest Posts on other sites

Ebook

Sales of my new Ebook, How to Get a University Job in South Korea: The English Teaching Job of Your Dreams are maintaining steady at about 1/day since the initial rush in the first couple days, which I’m pretty happy about. My marketing strategy thus far has consisted of the following things: 1. Using my Amazon Associates account to promote the book on my existing blog, My Life! Teaching in a Korean University, both on…

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Know What You’re Good At, and What You’re Not

The other day while wasting time perusing Facebook, I ran across this article: 35 things to do for your career by the time you’re 35 It has plenty of good stuff but I particularly liked #2: Know your Superpower and #3: Know Your Weakness. I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately as I consider options for what to do with my life post-Korea (it’s not 100% certain that it will involve teaching, but it’s…

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How much money do you need to be happy?

I was listening to a recent podcast from The Best of the Left (Capitalism Will Not Set You Free) and they were talking about how the law of diminishing returns can apply to your salary and happiness level. Up to around 75 000 US, people’s happiness increases as their salary does. But, after that level, it kind of has no effect and there are even some examples of happiness decreasing such as when someone wins…

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Where my Traffic Comes From

I’m totally convinced that the way to make money online and drive traffic to your sites is by having an empire of sorts. Like I mentioned a few days ago, simply having a single Ebook on Amazon but without any social media or blog following of any kind will make it pretty hard to be successful and make a lot of sales. I was just recently looking at the referral stats for this blog and…

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Ebook Marketing…the importance of having a following/reputation

Something that I’ve seen as I’ve ventured into the world of self publishing is the need to already have a positive reputation and a following of people in whatever community you can find your target audience in. While I’m sure it is possible to self-publish a book that is a one-hit wonder, I don’t think it would be that easy unless it somehow went viral. I think followers of my blog (My Life! Teaching in…

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Ebook into Physical Book: easier than you might think

I originally had the idea to make exclusively an Ebook(How to Get a University Job in South Korea), but that was before I realized how easy it is on Amazon to make your Ebook into a physical book. It takes a couple hours, at most to get everything set up and the price I will earn on commission is about the same as the Ebook, so it seemed like there was really nothing to lose.…

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Frugal Living: A Short Commute

In Korea, English teachers are often giving housing as part of their employment package. Except at my university, everyone just gets a housing allowance and you’re responsible for finding your own, which means that you can basically live anywhere that you want. Although the neighborhood I live in isn’t the most luxurious (far from the beach, no expat bars and few restaurant/shopping choices), my house is only a 20 minute walk from work, and it’s…

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How to Write an Ebook: Facebook Advertising

Ebook Facebook Advertising

These past few days, I’ve been talking about how to write an Ebook as I go through the process myself. My first book should be up on Amazon in a week or two. I’m definitely a beginner in this world of “Ebook” but my hope is that my readers can learn along with me. I’ve already discussed: How to Choose a Topic Editing Formatting Cover Design Marketing via the Email List Today, let’s talk about…

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How to Write an Ebook: Marketing via the “email” list

When I listen to Podcasts related to anything Passive Income and marketing, it’s all about the email list. People use this list to promote new products that they’re selling and to stay in touch with their customers. One of my deep, deep regrets is not keeping track of all the emails I received through my blog: My Life! Teaching in a Korean University. I’ve had that blog for about 7 years and it’s no exaggeration…

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Writing Kindle Books…a thought

While I was out hiking today, I was listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast by Pat Flynn, episode #124, where he interviews Steve Scott, who is making a lot of money by writing Ebooks. It kind of inspired me and got me thinking about what is a topic that people want to know a lot about, but that there just isn’t much information, but which I’m an expert. I have an idea that I…

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Advice to my 30 year old self

5 years ago, I was just finishing up my third decade on the Earth, and had been working for a couple years at my first “real” job at a Korean university. I lived in the beautiful Korean countryside and life was good. Here’s some advice for my 30 year old self: 1. Your student loans should be paid off by now. If not, get on that. And unless you have a house mortgage, all your…

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