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Side Gigs for Teachers: Ways to Actually Make Money

Side-gigs-teachers

Are you Ready to Change your Life? Get your Side Gigs On! It’s a fact that teachers around the world are underpaid. Maybe you’re one of them, and feel like you just can’t get ahead financially. You have bills to pay and you’re not sure where the money is coming from. Or, you just can’t seem to save for retirement, or your children’s education. It’s time to get your side hustle going on. You can…

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Top 10 Passive Income Ideas

Check out this SlideShare presentation for my Top 10 Passive Income Ideas. Please comment below and let us know what your favourite passive income earner! Top 10 passive income ideas from Jackie Bolen

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It’s Crunch Time: No More Day-Job

After an entire year and a half of back and forth and then back again, I finally made a decision about what I’d do when I moved to Canada. Despite being a little bit crazy, perhaps, I decided to go all-in on the digital entrepreneur and make my living off of Amazon Affiliate niche sites and self-publishing books. I got my last paycheque from my university in South Korea about a week ago and now…

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October 2015 Passive Income Report: Holding Steady

Passive income for 2015 could best be characterized as “holding steady.” I earned $1713, a little bit less than the month before of $1752. It’s mostly because September is traditionally a much better month than October for dividends as it’s the end of the quarter. For the second month in a row, I earned more than $400 on my ebooks on Amazon, and I also saw some early sales from a few new affiliates that I added:…

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Unsolicited Advice and Why I Don’t Give a S*&# About It

Thanks, I Guess? Being out in the world of the Internet leaves you open and available for unsolicited advice of all kinds. I get an email or a message at least a couple times a week from people, both friends and random Internet netizens offering me advice that I didn’t ask for, on a whole range of topics. Now, I’m not hating on these people because at some level, they really do just want to…

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Going Home After Teaching Abroad, My Plan-Updated

Korea: I’m Kinda Over You These days, I am totally and completely burnt out on the teaching in Korean universities, as perhaps demonstrated by some recent posts over on my other blog, My Life! Teaching in a Korean University: Korean University Jobs: The Golden Handcuffs Some Less than Exciting Work Options Anyway, not to worry since it is my last semester and I’ll be leaving the land of the kimchi in February or March of…

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The English Teaching Empire Grows: A New Book is Out

  Maybe I’ll Live in a Station-Wagon? Maybe you’ve seen some of my posts from a while back about how I’m moving to Canada, after living for 10 years in Korea, in a few months from now (March 2016)? The plan for how I’m going to avoid living out of the back of a station-wagon and going surfing in Tofino every day is kind of up in the air for now. Wait, that plans doesn’t…

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How to thrive in South Korea- The Empire Grows

It’s all Coming Together! Another book is up on Amazon, bringing the total to 4. One more is in the editing stages and I have lots of ideas, but this summer is going to be all about getting my websites up to speed and focusing on promoting the content that I already have, instead of creating more stuff. The empire is building, not so slowly at this point and I kind of feel like everything…

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The Empire Grows…a New ESL Speaking Book

In less than a year, I plan to return to Canada and try to make a living off of my online ventures. With that in mind, I’ve stopped wasting my time with less than useful things and have become really focused on expanding my Internet empire so that it won’t be such a big leap to start doing it full-time. A small, but growing way that I’m making money online is through self-published books. I…

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My Ideal Retirement Plan at 65

A Reader Question: Ideal Retirement Plan at 65 A reader  asked me what my ideal retirement plan at 65 would be. Let me start off by saying that my thinking is perhaps a little different than the normal person. I in no way envision myself working a 9-5 job for the next 30 years and then “retiring.” An Alternative Plan Instead, I hope to live a life that is characterized by non-traditional work opportunities. Perhaps…

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Self Publishing Answers Podcast- I’m on it!

Thanks to the Self Publishing Answers podcast (episode #34) for answering my question so helpfully. It was basically about whether or not I should focus on a bigger niche or continue with the one that I’m currently in (ESL teachers). They had a ton of ideas for me but the biggest takeaway was that my major problem is that I only have 2 things to sell (The Wealthy English Teacher and How to Get a…

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3 Key Things to Know about Ebook Marketing

book marketing

I’ve been listening to lots of self-publishing podcasts lately including Self Publishing Questions, Self Publishing Answers and the Self Publishing Round table. I’ve been particularly focusing on marketing, after getting some advice from Pat Flynn on the Ask Pat Podcast where he answered my question about staying in the small niche I’m in or going bigger. His advice was to hit the marketing hard, since my concept is already proved with the 1 or 2…

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Marketing Strategies—>Expanding Empire

marketing

Thanks for the Advice Pat Flynn Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income answered my question on his podcast, Ask Pat episode #324 about whether or not I should change niches since the one I’m in is so small with regards to my ebook about getting a university job in South Korea. However, on the plus side, there isn’t much competition so that’s a huge bonus. He was positive on the fact that I had…

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Responding to Negative Criticism

negative criticism

Just as I was thinking about how haters are gonna hate and how to deal with negative YouTube comments over on my playlist about getting a university job in South Korea and also negative reviews on Amazon, I heard this most helpful episode on Ask Pat (episode 325: Should I Respond to Negative Comments?). You really need to just listen to it yourself because Pat Flynn is pretty much the man, but my takeaway was…

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Haters Gonna Hate

haters gonna hate

“I’m Worried About the Haters” I was a friend’s birthday party the other day and he was talking about how he has lots of interesting stuff to share with the world, and that he would like to start a website or blog but that he was worried about haters because haters gonna hate, always. There are mean, sad, and unhappy people out there who hide behind the anonymity of the Internet and leave comments that…

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Ask Pat Podcast: I’m on it!

AskPat

I’m Really Into Pat Flynn So, I’m just going to nerd out for a quick minute here and I hope you don’t mind. I’m really into Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income and that’s probably kind of an understatement. I think he’s a genius in the Internet marketing world and also just an all-around nice guy who really wants to help people. I’m on Ask Pat! He started up this new podcast called Ask…

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Writing Ebooks Full Time

ebooks

You know that I’ve been considering going full-time with the online thing when I move to Canada in about a year from now, so I’ve been super-focused on drinking less and building my online empire more. And, I’ve been listening to these two podcasts (search on iTunes): Self-Publishing Questions, and Self-Publishing Answers. The both talk about what it takes to be a successful self-publisher and here are some things they mention: A Platform Having a…

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Writing an Ebook, #3!

Amazon Affiliate One way that I make passive income is through the Amazon affiliate program, where I link to products that I think my readers might like and if they buy something after clicking that link, I get a commission of around 5-8%. It’s a pretty simple thing to do and I earn $10-30/month on this for essentially very little work. Speaking Activities that Don’t Suck The one single product that I sell the most…

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Reviews of The Wealthy English Teacher

wealthy English teacher

So far, people seem to like my second book which I published a couple of months ago: The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure Your Financial Future. Here’s what people are saying from a post over on my other blog: Reviews of the Wealthy English Teacher. Check ’em out and for even more good stuff for ESL teachers trying to figure out their finances, go to the website: The Wealthy English Teacher.

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The Wealthy English Teacher

wealthy English teacher

The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure Your Financial Future is available on Amazon in both digital and print formats. You DON’T need to have a Kindle to get the digital version, but you can get the app from Amazon and read it on any smartphone, tablet, Mac or PC. If you’re living abroad, teaching English as a Foreign language and want to learn how to pay off debt, get started with investing and…

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February 2015 Passive Income Report

February 2015 came in with a total passive income of $471.03. Check out the February 2015 Passive Income Report for all the details. Everything was pretty much normal except for a $150 sponsored blog post that I did over on my other site, My Life! Teaching in a Korean University for a car insurance company offering English service to foreigners. Sales of my eBooks which came in at an impressive $85.38. February is a slow…

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The Wealthy English Teacher: Samples from the Book

My second book, The Wealthy English Teacher is hot off the press and now available on Amazon in both digital and print formats. Initial sales have been promising with more than 20 copies sold in just a couple of days with no paid advertising. I’m hoping that people will really like it and tell their friends-there really is no other financial book (or even resource on the Internet) that is specifically for ESL teachers. If…

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The Wealthy English Teacher- Available on Amazon

 The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure your Financial Future is now available on Amazon. It has a much bigger potential audience than my most nichiest of niche first book about how to get a university job in South Korea. I’m hoping that it’s the type of book that people really like, and tell their friends about, who in turn tell a few other people. So far, I’ve sold a decent amount of copies in…

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