Are Side-Entrepreneurs The Weakest Link in the Company?

I was listening to my new favorite podcast last week - Nick Loper's Side Hustle Nation - and there was an awesome guest on, Chris Guthrie from Entrepreneur Boost.  In the intro, he said something that really struck me - my boss fired me because he found out about my side job and figured that my heart wasn't all into the company.  That sucks...but it got me wondering - are side hustlers and side entrepreneurs a weak link the company?   Where Side Hustling Employees Add Value I think, in many cases, side hustling employees are some of the most valuable ones in the company.  To be able to work full time and maintain a side hustle requires a level of execution that most employees simply don't have.  I would venture a guess that … [Read more...]

How To Craft a Blog Post Marketing Plan

You've probably heard the saying, "You should focus 20% of your effort on creating content, and 80% of your effort on promoting and marketing it."  It's one of the sayings that many of the top bloggers subscribe to - and I know I just recently read it on Derek Halpern's Social Triggers site.  But you know what?  I've been blogging for 4 years, and I never really understood what that meant until the beginning of this year. I want to share with you what I have learned about building a blog post marketing plan, and I'm going to walk you step by step through what I do - from the beginning of post generation, all the way through publishing and promoting.  And you know what I've learned along the way - if you do it right, you really do spend … [Read more...]

Affiliate Marketers and Brands Beware of Outsourced Affiliate Programs

Last week I was supposed to be enjoying a wonderful baby moon ahead of the baby boy being born.  Instead, I awoke one morning to find an email in my inbox that said Commission Junction Removal: Non-Bona Fide Transactions: This letter shall serve as notice that your publisher account has been terminated and removed from the Commission Junction Network and transactions may be reversed ("charged-back"). This termination and removal is the result of non-bona fide transactions performed on your account in violation of the Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement you agreed to follow. Non-bona fide transactions include, but are not limited to, false, self-inflated, and/or duplicate leads or transactions. You are not eligible to rejoin … [Read more...]

The Truth About Making Your Job Pay

For most people, having a primary job is their main income stream.  But the sad truth is, many people don't do what they really need to do to make their job pay.  There is so much money that people leave on the table when it comes to their jobs, and if you're looking to maximize your income, that needs to stop. Here are some simple tactics that you can look into today to make your job pay more.   Vacation and Sick Leave Most people get vacation and sick leave at their workplace.  However, it is estimated that only 57% of employees use all of their paid vacation each year.  That's sad, and it also amounts to taking a pay cut. If your employer offers you 2 weeks of paid vacation per year, that means that your salary is based … [Read more...]

How a Bad Boss, Boredom, and a School Crush Led Me To Entrepreneurship

I'm always fascinated by stories about how people decided they wanted to become entrepreneurs.  We always hear about the inspiring story, or the life changing event.  But, in most cases, it was a series of events and circumstances that all connected together to put the right pieces in place. That's my story, and I thought it would be fun to share it with you.  This starts back in 2009 when I started my first site, The College Investor, and hopefully it will give you some encouragement to start your own journey based on your own circumstances.   The Bad Boss Looking back, I really think that it all started with a bad boss that I had but really didn't even know it until looking back in hindsight.  This boss was terrible, but I … [Read more...]

The Biggest Problem with the Ease of Internet Business

I'm building an Internet business, and I also know a lot of others who are doing the same.  I think the Internet is by far the greatest invention of all time, and it opens up so many opportunities that never existed before.  But there is a big problem with how easy the Internet makes things, and not a lot of people discuss it. Like Yin and Yang, with ease comes complacency.  Steve Jobs said it best: The problem with the Internet startup craze isn't that too many people are starting companies; it's that too many people aren't sticking with it.  That's somewhat understandable, because there are so many moments that are filled with dispair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. … [Read more...]