I expect most of you have read my thesis on how I plan to make $1 million a year on the Internet. Having read that (and perhaps observed my Twitters about how motivated I finally was!) you might expect I’d dive headfirst into creating the site, sales letter, and promotions for Hardworking Millionaire.

You would be wrong. 🙂 (more…)

I get a lot of questions about this blog, but by far, one of the most interesting questions I consistently receive is from those who have read my Goals page. One of the goals is stated in a straightforward manner: “Have at least $1 million/year in passive income by the time I am 30.” The question I get is “How do you plan to do that?”

This is something I haven’t clearly addressed on this blog, because although I knew what I wanted to do with my life, I was not sure how I wanted to do it. I knew that I wanted to set up two content websites, HardworkingMillionaire.com and InspiringInnovators.com. I also want to write a book and do public speaking. But what I was missing, until this week, was the link between “Step 1: Set up a bunch of websites” and “Step 2,346: Profit!” (more…)

I recently joined The Warrior Forum as part of my quest to learn a lot more about Internet marketing. On it, I found a post from Robert Plank asking how to contact a web host. An unscrupulous scammer had copied some of his paid content and posted it for free.

Copyright infringement is commonplace on the Web, since it’s so easy to copy and paste content and post it on a website. Unfortunately, many web hosts do not respond in a timely manner to copyright infringement complaints, making enforcement more difficult. Since I ran a web host for several years, I know exactly what you need to do to craft a takedown notice, and better yet, how to figure out where to send it. (more…)

I have spent the past month reading basically every Internet marketing idea and writing idea I could find. I subscribed to ProBlogger and started reading sites of those who make a lot of money online, such as Steve Pavlina and Jeremy Schoemaker.

The reality is that most bloggers and writers don’t make a lot of money online. Most make only a few cents a day. I know the same is true with web hosting companies — most hosting companies don’t make enough to even justify that the owner quit his or her day job. From being in the web hosting industry so long, I knew what most web hosting company owners didn’t do right. That probably should be a blog post of its own, but here is the top “no-no”: (more…)

I bought a new car on Saturday. Even though I have railed against buying new cars in the past because of depreciation, and even though that money would have been better spent in an investment… I bought the car instead.

I know the financial facts that most people don’t – that less money spent on a new car can add up to millions over a lifetime. (That blog entry was how I talked myself out of buying a Mercedes SLK 350. Instead, I bought a Miata.)

Let’s get real, though. The $33,000 I spent on the Miata (after sales tax) could be invested. At 10%, it would return $275/month, every month for the rest of my life. Instead, I own a depreciating asset that will last me probably about 8 years before it will need be replaced.

I also bought a lot of art recently. I went for high-quality art from known artists, and bought at auction, so my costs were significantly reduced over paying retail at a gallery. Still, I spent $12,000 on art. Assuming it appreciates at 1% per year (art, thankfully, unlike cars, does appreciate a bit), I’m “only” passing up $90/month, every month, for the rest of my life.

Doing the math, I could have had $365/month, every month, for the rest of my life, but I gave it all up. Why? (more…)