Relationships Archives - The At Home Couple

Sweet Valentine’s

Hi all. I hope you are having a fantastic weekend. I’m super excited because I’m on my way to the Interior Design Show. The trade show always inspires me and gets my juices flowing . . . creatively. Considering all the things I have on the go right now, I need some inspiration!

Anyway, I have been doing my usual Internet crawl this morning and realized two things; 1) Time flies! I cannot believe it is the end of January already, and 2) Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching.

I’m going to share a little secret with you.

I don’t believe in Valentine’s Day. (Did a cupid somewhere die just now?)

Truthfully, I don’t “celebrate” Valentine’s day. Don’t get me wrong, as a child I loved giving and receiving cheesy valentine cards, the abundance of chocolate and even the little gifts my parents would give us. For me it was always an added bonus because my birthday is a couple days away, so it was a pre-cursor to the “big” event.

As I matured, however, Valentine’s day became less and less about showing love and affection and more about guilt, sadness and anger. Feeling hurt when you’re significant other didn’t do something memorable or angry if the gift was late or forgotten. Valentine’s Day became more about disappointment then happiness. As well, as I got older, my Valentine’s gift got looped into my birthday! People who have birthdays near Christmas can feel my pain . . .

Eventually it got me thinking, and I realized that I no longer wanted gifts or chocolates or cheesy valentine cards. Because if someone really loved me, they had 364 other days of the year to show it. A random bouquet of flowers from Elijah, on a random day, for no other reason then because he wanted to means so much more to me then a little teddy bear holding a heart on February 14th. Knowing that he bought it because he felt he had to takes all the romance out of receiving it. I don’t think that love should be isolated to one day. I understand the celebration part, but for me, everyday is a celebration.

I also understand that being in the internet marketing business means that I have to take advantage of Valentine’s Day and monetize it to bring in money. The internal conflict is raging! However, I know that there are men and women out there who look forward to it and who are very good at making the day special, and I am here to help them make that possible. I guess I’ve just been jaded.

Just food for thought. You know what would be really specially, springing your gift or surprise on your loved one a day or two before Valentine’s Day. Not only will it catch them off guard, and seeing that look of surprise on their face will be worth it.

Back on the Ball

It has now been 4 official days of internet service with no interruptions or crashes. This is monumental! It seems that that box of connections at the back of our building was in complete dis-repair; with no cover or protection. There may even have been a family birds living, what seems like, on our line. It would definitely explain the random signal dropping. My condolences go out to the family that we displaced, but there are plenty of actual trees in this neighbourhood. To think that all this time we’ve been calling customer service, all someone needed to do was physically walk to the back of our building. Sometimes I cannot believe that it took 2 months for major internet providers to provide us with the connection we need, especially since we live in the heart of a metropolitan city. We unfortunately took this service for granted. Non the less, it feels so good to know that we’re back on track. I feel like I barely got a taste of working from home and everything went in the shitter.

In hindsight, it may have been a good thing. Sometimes the only way to look at these experiences is as positively as possible. We have DEFINITELY learned some important lessons and are better for it now. But in that time, I can’t even begin to describe the frustration we were feeling. It makes me think back to the post I wrote about Copreneurs and how this was one of those times that could make or break us. Thankfully, we kept our heads on and dealt with it, with minimal tension.

It’s such a different type of stress. At a workplace, the conflict would have been a big mess during the day, but eventually you go home and forget about it for the night, until you have to go back in the morning. But for all of you that work from home and run your own business, you understand the black pit in the stomach and never ending swimming in your head. The stress in 24/7 and there’s nothing you can do but move forward. This is all still so new to me, and I’m not going to lie, we talked about me going out and getting another job.

I’m still holding out.

Things are back on the way up. Elijah’s got tons of work coming in and I’ve even got some design jobs rolling my way. It’s funny how life sometimes make things suck as much as possible and then flips it instantaneously, in my opinion to make us appreciate what we have in our lives. If anything, this past downturn is just the “rock-bottom” chapter in our success story. Look for it on shelves at your favourite bookstore in 2015.

The other silver lining, albeit small, is that I’ve uncovered my love for crafts! It may sound lame to some people, but I bet those people wouldn’t be saying so if they were curled up in a hand knitted blanket of awesomeness!

Here’s my latest project.

I’m definitely not a pro, but these are what my family and friends can expect for Christmas. Not only is it going to save us money, but it has kept me sane during these past few months.

Now that Elijah and I are slowly starting to get back into the routine, I look forward to sharing more of my musings with you. We have a ton of projects on the go, and I can’t wait to share them. Keep you’re eyes peeled, ’cause we’re back and with a whole lot of wind in our sails!

Stay classy,

Veronica

Crazy Super Flip-tastic Follow Up

For those of you who can recall April started off with me setting an obscene goal for myself: to flip 20 websites in 30 days. Almost all of you crazy people responded with genuine encouragement and rooted me on via emails and comments on my Sitepoint auctions – and it was much appreciated! All in all, April proved to be many things, and a overall success is definitely one of them!

So without further delay, let’s get right into the stats, the screen shots and the challenges I faced throughout the month – as well as the many lessons I learned. You guys and gals know I’m not a fan of bullshit people with bullshit screen shots and claims, so be assured that all earnings and screen shots are legit and no figures have been tampered with in any way shape or form.

Total Earnings Minus Paypal Fees

As you can see in the screen shot to the left, I had a total of $3566.79 in earnings, minus the Paypal fees. Note**this total does not include a few Hostgator sign ups I had via my site flips. This total is also in US dollars, which is irrelevant to me.

Total Expenses

After subtracting my expenses from my earnings above, my new total of net earnings for April comes in at $2990.15 USD. That equates to a total of $576.54 in expenses. This includes domain name purchases, content outsourcing, listing fees etc…

Total Subscribers Gained

Another contributing factor to my massive success was due to a list building element I’ve incorporated into my niche website business. I gained 26 new subscribers in April, all of which signed up via a link at the end of my auction copy – this brought repeat business. This was pretty sweet!

Here’s a little tidbit of information I thought you guys might like to know: At the beginning of each month, and April in particular, I absolutely freak-the-fuck-out thinking to myself, “what the hell am I doing?” “what if this doesn’t work” “what if people don’t want my websites or services?” “what if it all ends today?” and at the ending of each month I come to realize that I earned more than I did the previously.

I’m sure I can compile several logical reasons as to why I go through this each month, but the reality of it is that I actually do know what I’m doing, and that there is a demand and huge market of webmasters, both experienced and flowering, who find my website packages and services very useful and economical. Will realizing this prevent me from freaking out in the first week of May? Probably not, lol.

Anyways – Here are the totals for the month regarding the actual amount of websites I built and sold:

15 sites developed/sold
5 sites developed privately
10 sites sold on Sitepoint
2 sites re-listed which didn’t sell initially
5 more private site builds for May (sweet!)
$3546.02 in profit (Canadian Dollars)

So all in all, it looks like my site flip madness was a success! Truthfully, I can only see this business model becoming more efficient and cost-effective. Think about it… I sold my first website back in September, when I was broke and we had no money for groceries. Now, 8 months later, I am making more money monthly then I did as an insurance broker, I am working from the comfort of my home – and I have more time for myself and my relationship with Veronica, my friends and family.

So I ask you this: What is holding you back? Is it time? Is it money? Is it your own apprehension?

Whatever it is, I encourage you to sit back and evaluate your situation. I encourage you to really shoot for the stars, stick with one business model and work it until it is a fine-tuned machine. Will I be flipping websites forever? Probably not. Will I continue to kick ass online and take names? Fuck yeah.

Whatever is holding you back, you need to identify it and come up with a sound plan to work around it and start to take the necessary leaps required to work from home and make money online.

Cheers,

Elijah

Karma, Good Deeds, And Free PLR

Here’s a great story for all you crazy mofos in the blogosphere. About a week ago I was domain searching for an upcoming site flip I’m working on, and after about 30 minutes of being denied I finally found a gem – www.TheStressFactor.com. Pretty sweet right? Immediately I determined that this was too good to be true (as most things in life are) and I was also suspicious because the .org and .net were registered, and when typing them into Firefox I noticed that they both redirected to the same site.

Do I grab the domain and hope that I get a sexy offer for it down the road? Or do I try and get a hold of the owner letting him know that I was interested, just in case he was waiting for the .com to become available?

Here’s where my good deed steps in…

Being the half decent guy that I am, I chose to contact the owner of the site and advise him that I was interested in purchasing TheStressFactor.com, and if he was waiting for it to become available and I didn’t hear back from him in 48 hours, I was going to go ahead with the purchase. This seemed fair to me.

Well, sure enough the next day I received a response from a guy named Ronnie Nijmeh who thanked me for contacting him, and said he was so glad to receive my email because he had been waiting for the .com to become free for quite some time! Ronnie proceeded to let me know that he owned a PLR membership site, www.PLR.me, which specializes in the self help/personal development niche, and to show his gratitude he would love to give me free access for the rest of the month to download all the December content – fuck yeah!

Karma is king…

Feeling so good about my decision, I checked up on Ronnie’s Flagship site www.ACQYR.com to see what this guy is all about, and to my surprise I discovered that not only is Ronnie the founder of a personal skill and development firm in Toronto, but he’s also nationally recognized with national broadcast appearances, live’s in Toronto currently and is from the same neck of the woods as myself – Scarborough. Talk about a small world!

I guess my whole point to this ramble is pretty simple – even though it may seem at times that the Internet business and making money online is a dog-eat-dog world, where you have to step on shoes to get to the top, the true success lies in recognizing opportunities. Whether that opportunity is to follow your intuition and reach your hand out to a complete stranger while disregarding personal gain, or a chance to sacrifice your own gain to better the situation of someone who you feel deserves the opportunity more.

One tiny good deed put me in the path to connect with an awesome, super inspirational and resourceful contact. In return that good deed got me a shit-load of free high quality PLR content in a niche that I frequent, and at the end of the day I have a kick ass post to share with you guys, to fill some silence during my dry spell. It’s win-win baby! Don’t be greedy, and you will be rewarded – I promise.

Cheers,

Elijah

Should We Sell This Blog?

Veronica and I are at a point in our life together where things aren’t all peaches and cream – not pertaining to our relationship, which is the strength that drives me, but in terms of financial stability. Since I lost my job back in May and made the decision that I would do whatever it takes to be making enough income online to not have to visit my old friend, the cubicle, ever again – it’s been an interesting road. On a personal level, I haven’t paid my student loan or credit card bill in over 3 months, by choice, and that’s not what bothers me because I’m only 27 and credit can be repaired. On the flip side, Veronica has been working away doing her 40 hour work week and developing an increased sense of frustration towards the gutless operations of a major corporation – especially one that’s preparing for the Christmas rush.

Not only does her discontent break my heart because she has to put up with this shit, but it also keeps a constant flame under my white ass because I want to be THE man that can provide for her – and hopefully make enough money so she can leave her job by the end of the year, which is a goal of ours.

Where’s your head at?

Over the last month or so I’ve been feeling a strange combination of depression and desperation, fueled by an abnormal, almost mutated drive to succeed online. The desperation causes me to not sleep and spend 12-16 hours a day sitting on this lap top. The depression hinders my focus and ability to stay motivated when things don’t work as planned – like my latest site flip. The drive is something that I’m used to, especially when I have my back against the wall with nowhere to run.

Am I afraid of failure? Absolutely terrified. Am I dreading the thought of having to get another pointless job, and not being able to work for myself? Every single day. Would an immediate financial boost improve my current situation? Probably. This is where the thought of selling TheAtHomeCouple.com makes it’s entrance.

I was unable to sleep last night, and stayed awake until Veronica left for work at 7 am this morning. The thought of cashing out on all my hard work for a quick money fix was haunting me beyond belief. I began to think about how much this site would be worth on the market, and what I could allocate that extra money towards. I began to think of how much weight it would take off Veronica’s shoulders, and enable her to put some money aside for herself – which she hasn’t done in months, as well as my responsibilities being the man in our relationship, and the deeply rooted pride that is commonly associated with that role. I then asked myself a simple question that really helped open up my tired eyes:

Would selling this blog solve our current financial needs and increase the chances of us accomplishing our long term goals in life, and online?

Fuck no. Cashing out on this blog would be the biggest sell out move I’ve ever pulled in my 27 years. This blog is a symbol of the very goal we are trying to achieve, and not only would I loose the respect of my peers, which is everything to me, but I can almost guarantee that the new owner(s) would not have an easy time filling my blood soaked shoes. I woke up today around 5 pm, ashamed at the thoughts that were racing through my brain. I immediately felt a need to email every single subscriber we have and tell you how much we love you, and want you to succeed. How much your struggles and triumphs keep us going, and knowing that we’re not alone in this vast, cold world online makes all the difference. I realized how many amazing people I’ve met, and great friends I’ve made – and I could NEVER put a price tag on that.

Note: I just received an email from an Affiliate Manager at affnet.com, saying he’s been researching our site, loves what we’re doing and would like to talk about advertising on our site and other business opportunities. Ironic, considering what I was just finished writing about.

Cheers,

Elijah

Building Your Team Of Criminal Masterminds

There are two types of people in any work industry, whether it be online or in a cubicle: Those who work better alone, and those who work better as part of a team, and when it comes to blogging there’s really no choice for the earlier option – providing you want to be successful. Building a team of collaborators and joint venture partners is vital to the systematic survival of your brand and motion within the blogosphere. You need people to bounce ideas off of. You need a people to fill your weak spots and promote growth. You need to become part of something much bigger that your little blog.

Little blog?

Yes, little blog. I don’t care if you’re John Chow or Shoe-frickin-money, on the greater scale of all things Internet, we’re the equivalent to a gnat on a donkey’s ass. Pay very close attention to what I’m about to say: You cannot be alone in this vast domain.

I’ve read countless ebooks, hard and soft covers, journals, reports and manifestos in my year or so pursuing business online, and teamwork is the one element that 99% of them forget to include in their “Top 37 ways to make money online” or “secret formulas” and frankly I think it’s all a load of bullshit. If you remember my post on how the rich stay rich and why there will always be that divider between the top dogs and everyone else, it is their network that keeps them all on top. Everyone has a role to play in order to keep that network tightly knit and circulating. The bigger the network is, the stronger it becomes and the more influence it will have.

Let’s go back to the donkey’s ass for a second…

Imagine that across the donkey’s entire body there are one million gnats spread out individually, and in small groups. You could stand two feet from that donkey and not see a single one of them. You might even go right up to this ass with a magnifying glass and be lucky if you notice one or two of these little buggers minding their business. Now let’s imagine that a movement was spawned, and the gnats realized that the only way for them to be noticed was if they huddled closely together in large groups while screaming as loud as possible. What do you think would happen? I can imagine three possible reactions:

You would begin to think “what are those screaming dark spots on my donkey?”
Word would spread and the gnats would join forces to form even bigger groups.
Gnats on other donkey’s would notice as they pass, and incorporate this concept to continue the cycle.

I don’t know what just happened, but it made sense five minutes ago.

Even though Veronica doesn’t post on here, or isn’t as visible as I am online, she is part of my team. Every post I publish and idea I stumble upon is filtered through her first. I also have been building a team of other ninja marketers whom I communicate with on a daily basis. We have a brainstorm forum that provides a common place for support, resources and creative development. All of these factors will greatly affect my success as an online businessman, and in turn the people around me because this cycle is self sustaining.

Take a moment to think of the people around you whom you admire and the blogs you are inspired by, as these are usually the prime candidates for future joint ventures and diving partners off the coast of Costa Rica. Find people who share a similar status and take that chance because you never know who else was thinking the same thing that you were.

The number one way to make money online is by building a team. Period.

Cheers,

Elijah