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It’s Really Time to Go Home I’ve decided to move back home to Canada after teaching abroad for 10 years in South Korea. It’s not without some trepidation, as I do certainly know that things in Canada are ridiculously expensive and that employment is not that easy to come by. However, it really, really is time to go and the thought of signing another 2-year contract at my university was making me feel sick to…
The Win-Win-Win Cycle of Awesome I’ve become a little bit obsessed lately with content marketing. It’s kind of a win-win-win cycle of awesome for everybody. People search for something, they find your site and get the answer they’re looking for, Google send more traffic your way, you give people more useful information and so it continues. Long Tail Keywords: The New Plan I’ve gotten deep into the world of using keyword research tools and then…
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:…
Jackie’s Big Life Question, Answered If you follow this blog, you’ll know that I’m moving to Canada in a few months (Feb. 2016) and the big, big question was what I was going to do for work. I wavered, here and there and there and back again but eventually I decided to just go all-in on the digital entrepreneur and write more books and get a whole lot more content out there into the world…
Ready to Start an Online Business? Maybe you’ve been reading this blog for a while, feel inspired and think that you want to begin building some passive income streams by starting an online business. If I were with you in person, I’d most certainly give you a high-five and be super-excited about the big step you’re going to be taking towards securing your financial future. In reality, the biggest hurdle to overcome is just getting…
So you think you want to write a book and self publish it. I have some good news for you: it’s easier than ever to self-publish with Amazon’s self-publishing platforms, KDP and CreateSpace. I have some bad news for you too: although I’m not inside your head, I have a feeling that in order to actually make any money off of it will be far harder than you actually think it is. It’s not impossible,…
Internet Marketing: A Vision! The other day, I had a vision of sorts. I was out on a bike ride, contemplating my Internet empire and trying to figure out what the pest plan for me is in these next few months before I return to Canada and go all-in on the digital entrepreneur. And it hit me. Facebook = Fickle. SEO focused on longtail keywords = Here for the long-term. Traffic from Facebook I get…
An Overview: What is Passive Income? Passive income is earnings received on a consistent basis without investing effort for each and every dollar earned. Most people think that passive income is ‘easy money’ but this isn’t really the case. In reality, it demands a lot of hard work. Things in life don’t happen magically overnight and passive income is not an exception to this. Once you understand the fundamentals of generating passive income, you can be on track…
How to Make Money Blogging. Hint: It’s not Easy You’ve probably heard of someone who knows someone who made it big in the blogging world. They struck it rich with a fabulous idea, were in the right place at the right time and made a ton of money. I’m here to tell you that that’s not the reality of most (almost all?) bloggers. If you want to make money blogging not only do you need…
It’s All About the Email List If you listen to any of the Internet marketing podcasts like Smart Passive Income, or read any of the stuff from people like Tim Ferris at the 4-Hour Workweek, you’ll know it’s all about the email list. Social media is great at maintaining contact and connecting with your audience but like Pat Flynn says, “Selling to people through social media is like going to a party, meeting somebody for…
How Working in Korea for 10 years Set Me Up For Life I think working abroad is great as I talk about over on my other site about teaching in a Korean university: Top 5 Reasons Working Abroad is Awesome. In that post, I didn’t talk about the money, but working in a Korean university has given me a solid, solid foundation for my financial future. Part of it was luck in that I happened to…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Stock Market Crashes-Time to Get Greedy Investing is all about fear and greed. When the stock market crashes, people get fearful and start selling. This leads to even lower stock prices because there is less demand, which leads to more selling, and then the stock prices drop even further. When the stock market is going up, people get greedy. They keep buying and buying, even when it’s apparent that the top is near which forces…
The AirBnB Hosting Experiment: Complete! I previously talked about my AirBnB experiment in this post when I was just getting started with it a few months ago. Here are the updated results: 3 months total (May 21st-August 21st) People staying at my place: 63 nights, 8 different singles/couples Number of people I didn’t like: 1/8 Total money in the bank: $1274 (just over $20/night) Overall: Success! $1274 is kind of an astounding amount of money for…
A lot of people that I meet think it’s amazing that I have 5 books up on Amazon (see them all here) which I wrote all within the last 1.5 years. Then, many of them will say something like: “I want to write a book too!” “I have this idea for a website.” “I want to start a business when I go home.” “I want to build some passive income streams too.” My…
Leveling up my Internet Operations: Inspiration Lately I’ve been leveling up my Internet based businesses, with inspiration coming from 2 places: 1. Moving to Canada in March 2016 and trying to make a living off of writing books and building websites. 2. A mastermind group with a couple of expat Internet gurus here in Korea. Accountability and feedback is really helpful. Pat Flynn is all about the mastermind groups, so I’ve been wanting to be…
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…
Turning Bad into Good-Work Style What Happened I’ve been working at South Korean universities for the past decade or so and during that time, I’ve always taught extra classes for more money. My contract currently is only for 9 teaching hours/week, so I’ve usually added on another 10-15 to substantially raise my pay. However, this past semester all the extra work seemed to dry up and I was left with almost nothing in terms of…
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…
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…
