Entries from March 2008 ↓

Your view on the falling US dollar (USD) probably depends a great deal on where you live. If you live in the United States you probably haven’t noticed it as much as if you live outside it. To illustrate this point I will tell you about my own personal experiences operating an Internet business outside the US, yet still getting paid in US dollars.

For those that don’t already know (I can’t actually remember if I’ve mentioned it or not), I live in Canada. And, I can tell you that falling US dollar has had a huge impact on my online income. For example, take my February income report where I earned just over $2,000 US. Currently the Canadian dollar is very close to parity (+/- a few cents) so I earned roughly $2,000 CDN.

However, just three or four years ago $1 USD was worth about $1.50 CDN. This means that if the exchange rate today was still the same as it was then, I would have earned $3,000 CDN rather than $2,000 CDN, a pretty big difference.

Still, there is no point complaining and wondering about what ifs. You or I can’t control the international currency markets, so we have to live with it. The fact is the US dollar has been declining for several years now and, in my opinion, will probably continue to fall for several more. So, the problem now, is figuring out how to profit or at least manage the damage from its decline. Continue reading →

I am a huge fan of running as a form of exercise. I am sure many entrepreneurs are as well, because there are some similarities between running for exercise and running a profitable business. If you’ll hear me out I’ll explain what I mean.

Most runners either want to improve their running times or increase the distance they are able to run. However, it is (almost) impossible to do this overnight. You can’t go from running 2km a week to running 100km a week right away.

You have to gradually work your way up. Each week you want to slowly improve how far you are able to go. This is the same as running an Internet business, you are not going to be the next Google overnight. However, if you work on your business each day pretty soon you will start to see real improvements and results.

At any given point your results may seem small, but when you add them together you start seeing real progress. If you want to improve in both running and business you need to set goals AND ways to go about achieving them.

It is important to plan but it is even more important to put your plan into action. For example, say you want to have a site that generates a full time income for you. In this example we will assume that you earn $50,000 a year and you want 100% of that income replaced.

Now, $50,000 a year seems like a big number so I find it easier to break it down into how much money you have to earn each day. So, I would divide $50,000/365 days, which equals $136.99/per day. Now I divided by 365 days because your Internet business should be able to earn you money 24/7. If it can’t earn money in this way, you have not created a business but just created another job. Continue reading →

Well it looks as though my outsourced work still isn’t finished yet. It is not the end of the world, since I don’t have to pay until the project is complete, but it is annoying since it delays the other things I want to do. So, today I thought I would bring you another simple Internet business idea.

It can take a long time to build up both traffic and content of a new website or blog to a respectable amount. Depending on your niche area of focus it could take from 3 months to 2+ years before you really start seeing any return on your results. For some people this is just too long.

The good news is that an alternative does exist. You can always buy an existing Internet business and then expand it on your own. This can save you precious time. Plus, if you buy a site that is already generating money you will also have some instant cash flow.

The most popular places to find fully developed websites for sale are Sitepoint, Website Broker, buysellwebsite.com and the Digital Point forum. Continue reading →

OK, I thought I would have a little fun today. One of the more popular Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics recently has been to try and get a blog or website onto the front page of social media site Digg.

I have attempted to do this in the past but have had had no success. I have no reason to think that this post will be any different, so today I give you: The Top 10 Reasons Why This Post Will Never Make It To The Front Page Of Digg:

10. I am submitting the post myself.

9. I am not a popular Digg user.

8. I am posting it at around 10am EST when the more popular Digg users are also submitting things.

7. This blog is a business themed blog but this post has been submitted to humour.

6. This post/blog does not have anything to do with technology, funny pictures, 9/11 conspiracies, how to get laid or any other topic the typical Digg user is interested in.

5. This post/blog does not mention Iraq, Obama, Ron Paul, the possibility of recession or any other current events.

4. This post is not very funny.

3. This post is a blatant example of an attempt at contrarian linkbaiting aimed solely at getting Diggs.

2. This post’s title is inaccurate since there are actually only 9 reasons on the list.

I was going to write a post today about my experience with outsourcing work. However, the work I have outsourced is not finished yet, so that post will have to wait for a later date. Instead, I thought I would explain a simple yet incredibly important topic of passive income.

In theory passive income is money that you earn without having to expend additional effort. And I don’t mean something like winning the lottery. Common offline examples include dividends from stocks, rental income or bulk candy vending.

In practice most passive income strategies involve a fair bit of work at the start but should only require minimal work in the long run. To better illustrate this, let me use the real estate market as an example since you are probably already somewhat familiar with it (you do live somewhere right?)

Now, I am going to use simple numbers here for simplicity sake. Obviously, real world examples will be different depending on where you live but I hope it will serve to clarify the difference between earned income and passive income.

Say you buy a slightly run down house for $10,000. You now have a choice, you can either rent out the house for $100 a month, or make some cosmetic improvements to the house and try to resell it for more.

Let’s assume that you opt for the latter option because you heard you could make killing flipping houses. You do some work to the house and a month later you are able to sell it for $15,000. You just made $5,000 right? WRONG! Continue reading →