Author: Elijah

The Work At Home Curse

Here’s a story…

2 years ago I quit my career in the customer service industry to pursue my dreams of making money, from home, on my own terms.

I learned everything I could about building great websites and blogs and started flipping them online for cash, which at it’s peak was generating more than 3k per month in profit.  I know this doesn’t sound like a lot, but for a kid who’s spent the majority of his life broke, 3k per month was bling bling!

After my days as a rock star site flipper sizzled down, I got into the offline market and started pitching my services and expertise to local businesses – which was in the later part of 2009.  I knew that I was the best at what I did (WordPress and social media) and had this innocent idea that I would make way more money building a 5 page website for a business than I would flipping it online.

Work the same (8-10 hours a day) and make more money – it was a no brainer.

12 months later…

I have been grinding full time as a guerrilla web designer, copy writer and social media guy, helping businesses all over Canada get more leads, clicks and phone calls from their websites – and things have been good, but there’s just one thing…

I’m still trading hours and tasks for dollars, while working on the client’s clock.  Sure, I make about $300 per month passively through Google Adsense and a bunch of niche blogs I own, but at the end of the day if I stop working, the money stops coming in.

Here is where the problem lies.

When I quit my job, it was because I wanted to work less and make more.  I wanted to make money while I sleep and remove myself from my businesses with no fluctuation in my bank account.  After two years of being able to say I “work at home” I’m not sure I’m on the right path…

It is the work at home curse.

When someone first discovers how to “make money online” and the glorious lifestyle it can bring you, everything is covered in sparkles and ribbons.  The grass smells so sweet and the possibilities are endless.  All you need to do is to build a bunch of websites that make money when people click on them, quit your job and travel the world while you become a millionaire.

Sound familiar?

I know for a fact that there are thousands of people all over the world that are “working from home” and are their own “boss”, and so many of them are just as tired now as when they were working for the suits.  The question I’m really trying to confront is this:

At what point should I stop romanticizing the fact that I’m self employed and actually start making money doing something I love?

Don’t get me wrong, the Internet has been a passion and fascination of mine for 15 years, since my very first encounter with America On Line (remember the free CDs?)

Anyways, I guess what I’m trying to say is all any one can do is dig deeper and wider in hopes of striking “the force” when everything finally aligns…  Consider this day 1 of my personal revolution.

Cheers,

Elijah

P.S.  You can obviously see that I’ve gotten extremely bored with current design of the blog and decided to start experimenting in real time.  Bare with me!

How To Get 1100 YouTube Views in 24 Hours

Watch This Music Video!

I’m fortunate to be great friends with hip hop squadron, Homegrown Monsters, who just premiered their first video for the track Day In The Life.  Here’s the beautiful thing about  them, none of these guys are social media strategists or internet marketing guru’s.  They are all hard working 30-something’s who love hip hop, performing and being creative.

So how did they get 1100 views on YouTube in the first day or two?

Ready for this…  Here it comes…

THEY ACTUALLY GIVE A SHIT.

They care so much about their music that they tell EVERYONE about it.  Prior to the video being released, the gave away tons of free music, behind the scene videos and all kinds of other goodies on Facebook.  This isn’t rocket science – this is the reality of marketing yourself on the SOCIAL WEB.

It’s not like you can set up a Facebook account and just spam it with automated posts fed from a WordPress blog, because I’ve tried this.

In order to connect with people on sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, you need to GIVE A SHIT ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE DOING.  Once people sense that you care and you are invested emotionally into what you talk about, they will latch on and help spread the word.

You wanna know the greatest thing ever???? I’ve obviously been keeping an eye on their video and when I saw the view count this morning, I called iNA (first verse) and told him the great news…. And he didn’t even know.

He’s not sitting their fixating on how many views his video got, he’s doing things that will bring MORE views to the video – like chatting it up on Facebook and spreading the love.

Anyways, I just wanted to rant about that.  These guys aren’t even pros and they’re canning more views on YouTube then I am LOL.

Can you find me in the video????

(HINT: The first verse of the song was recorded at our apartment – back of my head makes a cameo in the kitchen!)

I’m fortunate to be mixing their album, and I’m just finishing up the mix on the second last song.  If you want to hear more – the LP is coming VERY SOON!

Keep an ear out for that one!

Cheers,

Elijah

Top 10 Halloween Costumes For People Who Care Too Much About Halloween

Halloween is a time for tricks, treats, tracheotomy’s and trajectory vomiting.  It’s also a time for people who care way too much about costumes to truly display their passion and talent (or lack of) to the world.

In the tradition of top ten lists all around the web, I’ve decided to compile my own galleria of glorious Halloween costumes to honor, in remembrance of those who try really hard, especially on the 31st of October. Ahem… In no particular order:

Terrorist “Timmy”

Terrorist Costume for Kids

Here’s a guess… This kid is from Provo, Utah, and rather than get scolded for what appears to be an insensitive political gesture by his parents, he won “best costume” at his school Halloween party.

Free Mammogram

Times are hard and millions of people all over the world are not covered by a health care benefits plan.  This clever gent decided to take action into his own hands, and face.  Talk about being pro-active.

Human Lunch Meat

Again, times are tough, so why not promote a more economical form of what we’re told is a “healthy lunch”? I think a cowboy hat made of bread would really finish this costume off nicely.

Giant Alien Hooker

Scientific studies have proven that women love dressing slutty on Halloween.  If you’re dressing as an Avatar hottie, considering hiring midgets to follow you around for the night so you can really get into the role.

Naked Old Spiderman

Do you think there was a point, during the skillful execution of this costume, that this guy sat in deep thought trying to decide on whether or not his balls should be blue or red?

That Time of The Month

Support your wife or girlfriend in a whole different way! Let her know that her period doesn’t scare you, and you’ll dress as a box of tampons to prove it… because you’re a douche bag.

The Yip Yip Martians

Yip yip yip yip yip… uh huh… uh huh… Not Mars… Nope.

Sexy Storm Trooper

At this very moment I am ordering one of these suits for Veronica. What I absolutely love about this picture is the dudes in the back getting their shoes shined?!?  This could be anywhere in the world.

Bert and Ernie

I think everyone knows that Bert and Ernie came out of the closet years ago, so why not show those younger than you that it’s okay if gay puppets take baths together, as long as rubber ducky is around!

Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli

He-ey!  Guys who wear leather and ride motorcycles end up getting a bronze statue of themselves erected in a city like Milwaukee. Not a bad deal for a dude with the last name Winkler.

I don’t own, or claim to own any of these pictures lol.

Cheers,

Elijah

CBC Archives: The Internet (1993)

It’s amazing when I look back at the beginning of this all. We’ll, not the beginning of communicating through phone lines, but the beginning of the internet as we know it. Sharing interests with like minded people. Don’t ever forget how powerful that is! The web has been used as a social tool before “social media” became a coined term, and if you’re not learning everything you can about the social web, you’re falling behind fast!!!

Cool little video clip.

Cheers,

Elijah

This Domain Name Has Been Seized

DontStealStuffThatsNotYours

First time this has ever happened to me online (first time online was 1996).  I was surfing around aimlessly while Reality Bites was playing in the background (VHS, recorded off the Superstation) and I clicked on a banner curious to see the advertiser on the other end.  I was expecting to enter Netflix rip off site to check out their download selection, but instead got the landing page you see above.

ZML.com is the domain that is apparently seized and currently controlled by the State of New York.

It’s very frightening, ain’t it?

Nope.

I just answered my own question.  By the way, if you haven’t checked out Netflix yet, there’s a 30 day free trial and I highly recommend you get in now (before prices go up and perks go down).

$8 a month and I can access a continually growing catalog of movies, tv and other motion picture goodies from any device I own.  I love movies, I’m sold.

Watched Coneheads yesterday and remembered why I loved it in the first place.  Connie is hot.

Later,

Elijah