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Business Around a Lifestyle

business around a lifestylePeople talk about “lifestyle businesses,” I prefer to call it business around a lifestyle. For me, my online business endeavors have always been more about the lifestyle than the money. I have friends who work in their own businesses or have regular jobs who may make a lot of money, but they don’t have a good lifestyle. I do.

Back in 2012, right before I started Shark Tank Blog, I was interviewed for a book called Business Around a Lifestyle. It was written by a friend and early mentor of mine called Jim Kukral. A few weeks after the interview, I got involved with The Shark Tank Blog – something that changed my life forever. You can read the book for free HERE.

I realize, looking back at those times, is that I have been blessed to discover and learn the world of Affiliate Marketing. It allowed me to coach my kids’ teams, to go to their games and concerts and all the things kids do. I was able to have a front row seat to their childhood – a thing not many parents, especially dads, get to do. I always say “time is the most precious commodity,” and it’s true. All the millions of dollars in the world can’t buy that time I spent with my kids. Once they’re grown and gone (4 of my 5 are), those days are gone forever.

Building a Business Around a Lifestyle

I believe Affiliate Marketing is the quickest and easiest way to create life changing income from home. For me, it was always more about the lifestyle than the money. My vision of what my lifestyle looks like has changed. It used to be focusing on my children, now it’s more about my wife and I. When you learn affiliate marketing, you most likely won’t get rich overnight – I didn’t. But if you stick with it, work a plan and get down to doing the actual work (yes there is work involved) you can and will. I did.

What I do

Like I said, my lifestyle has changed. Here’s what a typical weekday looks like for me: up at 5 am to go fishing at the pier, back home by 9 am to work on my business. At 12 noon, I have lunch and walk the dog. Work again until 3:30 or so, then deal with emails, social media etc. until 4:45. At 5 pm I pour myself a drink and watch the news until my wife gets home at 6. We chat and have another drink then go out to dinner. On any given day, with a little bit of planning, I can NOT work if there’s something cool to do.

On weekends, my wife and I hang out with friends and family. We go boating, snorkeling, skeet shooting and tons of other fun stuff. While I touch the business on weekends – usually just checking emails – weekends are a no work deal. When we want to take a vacation, we go. Both my wife and I can work virtually, so we can really extend a vacation if we want to.  THAT is a business around a lifestyle.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing some of the things that got me to this point. I never recommend or endorse programs or products I haven’t used personally. If you want to live the awesome life, come on this journey with me and you too can have a business around a lifestyle. Would you take two years to make a million dollars? I did. Click HERE for more information.

Make Someone’s Day Every Day

make someone's dayMake someone’s day, every day. What do I mean by that? When I say that, I mean it. I try to make anyone I come in contact with laugh, smile or be uplifted in some way. It can be a very real part of your personal excellence if you try it.

I get that from my wife. She works in corporate real estate and talks to  brokers all over the country. When we were locked down for the Covid-19 pandemic, she was working at home. She does a lot of phone time and I commented one day that she’s “so damn perky” on the phone. She told me she wanted to make someone’s day, every day.

I thought about that and decided I’d try it.  You know what I found out, it made my day too. I realized that by making that person’s day, I felt better about myself.

Last Week at Dinner

My wife and I were out to dinner in an unfamiliar town on a little mini vacation last week. Seated in the booth adjacent to ours was a young couple with a small child – about 18 months old. The kid was teething and very loud and fussy. I tried to amuse him by making funny faces and playing peek a boo, but it only worked for so long. Just as their food arrived, the kid went off the deep end and dad had to take him outside.

Mom was clearly upset and said aloud to herself “I didn’t think it was gonna be this hard and I’m having another one?” I chimed in and said “my mother said to me when my kids were little: ‘small kids, small problems.'” We got to talking with her and my wife shared some of her parenting stories and assured her everything would work out if you gave your kids “love and wings.” After they finally finished dinner, the young mom gave my wife a hug and said thank you. When they left the restaurant, my wife winked at me and, “we made her night!” We were very happy.

Make Someone’s Day: Thank a Veteran

We live in Florida, so there are a fair amount of retirees, including retired military, in our community. Whenever I see a Veteran, I thank them for their service. They light up, smile and thank me for thanking them. I’ve been told by many vets when people do that, it makes their day. I do the same for first responders.

What does all this mean for your own personal growth? The best explanation I can give is Charles Dickens’ a Christmas Carol, when Scrooge transforms from the old mizer to the giddy old man who is as “happy as a schoolboy.” He realizes he can only find true happiness by helping others. Do you think he made Bob Cratchit’s day with the prize turkey or his nephew’s day by coming to dinner and making him a partner in his firm? In the original text, Dickens explains the transformation in the second to last paragraph:

“Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”

Scrooged

In the 1988 reimagining of A Christmas Carol, Scrooged, Bill Murray puts it in a little more contemporary language:

“[Christmas Eve means} for a few hours a year, we really are who we hoped we would be…and you’ll want that feeling every day.”

I edited the quote a bit, but he said those words. Think about that for a minute. “We really are who we hoped we would be.” What if you could be who you hoped you’d be every day? The easiest and most fulfilling way to do that is to make someone’s day every day. Whether it’s a total stranger, a co-worker, a friend or a family member, it doesn’t matter. Do it. You’ll be surprised about how good you’ll feel.

Zoey the Awesome Dog

awesome dogIf you like dogs, you want to have an awesome dog. Of course if you have a dog, you already think it’s awesome. They all are in their own way. I’ve had three dogs in my lifetime and my current dog, Zoey, is the most awesome dog I’ve ever had.

She’s a 70 pound American Bulldog. Some people are intimidated by her appearance, but she’s the biggest creampuff you’ll ever meet. She loves riding in the car, going to the beach or dog park, destroying stuffed animals and cuddling.

Most Awesome Dog Ever

What makes Zoey awesome is she has a great personality. She’s a big goofball, but she’s smart. She loves all people and dogs, but if anyone ever tried to mess with someone in our family, she’d take them down.

Dog people stop on the street to pet her. We took her to Saint Augustine at Christmastime a couple of years ago. We couldn’t go ten feet without someone asking to pet her and fawning over her. She takes it in stride and just soaks up the love.

I am going to get a stuffed animal of her. While doing updates to my Shark Tank Blog, I came across a company called Budsies. They make custom plush toys from any drawing or photo. Back in 2018, they started Petsies which will make a custom stuffed animal from a pet photo! It’s going to be a present for my wife’s birthday in June.

New Instagram

My daughter is so excited about Petsies, she started an Instagram page about our awesome dog. It’s @CRAZoeydog on Instagram. I also made her a website: www.CRAZoeydog.com. We’re going to post pictures and videos of Zoey being Zoey and use it to help sell pet products. We plan on doing a regular segment called “Can Zoey Destroy It?” In those segments, we’ll give her an item and see how long it takes her to destroy it. We’ve only found two things she can’t (stay tuned).

It’s going to take some time to build the Instagram page, but we’ll get there. If you want to follow our goofy dog, head on over and click follow. Have an awesome day.

Getting Traffic to Your Blog

trafficTRAFFIC. When you’re stuck in it on the highway, it sucks. When you have a blog, traffic is EVERYTHING. So how do you go about getting traffic to your blog? There’s not a simple answer.

There is nothing more frustrating than putting a lot of time and energy into creating a blog and having NO ONE even LOOK at it. The blogging “gurus” out there who are making six or seven figures a year with their blogs are more than eager to tell you how to do it (and probably charge you for it), just don’t expect to get to their level overnight. The folks who are making that kind of dough have been doing it for years and they do it full time. Can YOU get there? The answer is probably, eventually. I did.

The real question is HOW to go about Getting Traffic to Your Blog?

In this and subsequent posts, I will outline ways I have driven traffic to my blogs. I have been at it for fourteen years and I am still ALWAYS looking at getting traffic to my blog. Every day I Google “how to increase blog traffic” and try to find a new tip. There are so many different ways, it’s impossible to try them all.

When you first start out, ask your friends and family to take a look at your site. Give them something interesting/entertaining/informative to read! Announce your blog on your Facebook page (if you don’t have one, get one). Send a link to your email list and include your blog address in your email signature. These seem like simple steps, but every little bit helps.

Spam Does Not Equal Traffic

Comment on other blogs that you read-MAKE INTERESTING COMMENTS, NOT SPAMMY ONES. I don’t publish spammy comments on any of my sites and many others don’t either.

Read these articles:

How To Increase Traffic to Your Blog

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

How to Increase Your Blog Traffic – The Easy Way (27 Proven Tips)

44 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Blog

and there are many, many more!

One site I found very helpful when I was starting out is Problogger. Go there, read everything you can and implement as much of Darren’s advice as humanly possible! For the beginning blogger, Problogger is the single most informative free resource out there-think of it as your bible.

Remember, you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. I always try to do my best to do what the best are doing-you should too!

Monetize Your Blog With EZOIC

Most people who know even a little bit about blogging know about Google Adsense, but most do not know about a company called Ezoic. They are A Google Certified Publishing Partner. What that means is Google has reviewed the company for competency, technology and ethics. A Google Partner can manage your Adsense account for you. They do lots of other things, too.

Ezoic Uses Other Ad Networks

In addition to Google, Ezoic uses multiple other ad networks. This lets you serve more ads on your site, thus making you more money. You’re only allowed three Adsense ads per page anyway, so if you’re monetizing a blog with ads, more is better. Not only do they monetize, they optimize too.

When you sign up for Ezoic, you basically agree to let them arrange the layout on your site. They test different formats to see which layout creates the most revenue. You decide how “aggressive” ad placements should be, too. If you want a better reader experience or you want to maximize revenue, let them know in the “settings” area. Nothing changes in your blog’s dashboard or anywhere else. It’s seamless integration.

Optimize for Mobile and Tablet Too

Another cool feature is they optimize for mobile and tablets. Ever go to a website on you laptop and it looks fine but when you view the same site on an iPad or phone, it’s a jumbled mess? Ezoic fixes that. They’ll make your blog look good on your phone, tablet or desk top. You can toggle these on and off too. On my Shark Tank Blog, I’ve been using them for a little over eight years.

Count That Money!

When I first switched to Ezoic, my ad revenue quadrupled – and I only had the mobile and tablet options enabled. Since then, I usually get bigger monthly checks from them than I do from Google. They pay out the previous month’s earnings at the end of the current month, just like Google.

If all this sounds complicated, it really isn’t. They have free tutorials and great, responsive support. I would never recommend something I don’t use myself. So if you have a blog, go check these guys out.

 

Paper Route Entrepreneurs

paper routeMy paper route I had as a kid taught me a lot. I have been an entrepreneur most of my life. I started my first business when I was 13 years old. My little brother and I grew nursery stock in our back yard and wholesaled it to garden centers and landscapers. It was our first introduction to the world of business. We did all the sales, bookkeeping, purchasing, and planting. The only thing we “sub contracted” was deliveries: my mom drove us! That little business morphed into a full-fledged landscaping company which I ran through my high school and college years. I made more money in the summertime than some of my friends’ parents made all year!

Entrepreneurial Examples

Being an entrepreneur was always in my blood, my dad owned his own business, so my brother and I had a good role model. Even before our first business venture, when we were 8 and 10, my brother and I had another entrepreneurial venture: a paper route. We divided our route in half. Each of us was responsible for deliveries and collections for our share.

Every other Saturday, one of us would get a day off when the other took the whole route. We had to go downtown to the newspaper office each Saturday morning to hand in our collections. The office wanted a bank check, so we waited in line at our local bank  and got a cashier’s check for the price of 25 cents. The office would reimburse our quarter, but the route dispatcher guy would always flip us for the quarter, “double or nothing.” Some days we each had a quarter for the candy store and some days we got nothing.

A Paper Route Teaches Business Skills

Having a paper route is the first step to being an entrepreneur for many people, at least those of a certain age. I am always surprised at how many business owners got their start with a paper route. At the young age of ten, I was learning skills that are important in any business. I had to handle complaints, collect money, budget my time, provide customer service, and do some actual physical work. In the case of our gambling route dispatcher, we learned about risk! I never had an allowance, I had a paper route.

Warren Buffett is a notable paper route veteran. He got his first route when he was 13 and even filed taxes and deducted his bike for a business expense! Having a paper route is a good first lesson in entrepreneurship; it teaches responsibility and gives a young person an opportunity to earn some money through good, old-fashioned WORK.

A Thing of the Past

Younger generations will never know the benefits of having a paper route. Newspapers are now mostly electronic, and the few paper routes that are left are largely handled by adults with cars. This vanishing occupation is a lost opportunity for kids to learn the value of work, time, and money. I know there are lessons I learned from my paper route that helped me as an entrepreneur over the years. I still remember “Mr. U” teaching me how to stack money into a roll instead of jamming crumpled bills into my pockets, and “Mrs. H” who always made a point of gauging her tip each week according to how well I placed her paper according to her specifications.

Anyone who ever had a paper route will surely understand the points I have made. I wonder how many entrepreneurs had a paper route? I think kids today are missing out on a valuable business education by not having the option of a paper route.

What do you think?