Put Your Time Zone and Hours On Your Contact Page

I got a call at 5:30am today. I was in bed when the phone rang. Actually, I wasn't asleep, but I was trying to fall back asleep.

The guy on the phone asked if I manufactured beef jerky. "No", I said.

He saw my beef jerky review blog and thought that it was some kind of manufacturer. I explained I'm just a guy who likes beef jerky, and I decided to start a blog of my reviews.

"Oh", he said. "Well you must know all about beef jerky then. Do you know of a good supplier?"

What's in a Job Title Anyways?

I had a conversation with an IT guy at a tavern this late afternoon. The two of us were drinking some craftbeers and comparing notes on the stouts, porters, and red ales.

Turns out, he's an IT guy working for a company in San Diego. He commutes about 50 miles each way to work and back. He says the money is good, but the commute sucks.

I know all about it. I used to commute 60 miles to Orange County each way, for a software company. And I agree, the commute is what really kills you.

He asked me what I did for a living. I just said, "I do websites". And that's putting it very broadly. He assumed I designed websites for a living. But actually I don't. I'm an affiliate marketer, or more appropriately, an Internet Marketer, because I don't just rely on affiliate income.

So I went into the process of describing what I do specifically. And this guy seemed to understand. Yet, he seemed to understand that I'm not really a programmer, or designer, or an IT guy. I'm a marketer & publisher, which doesn't really have anything to do with IT.

And from his expression, I could tell he had summed me up and determined that I wasn't on his level of IT knowledge. And the truth is, I'm not.

But yet, I told him that I work for myself, I work from home, and I can do all my work at night if I need to. That leaves me free to do whatever I want during the day. And in my line of business, I don't have clients calling me at all hours of the day.

And what about his IT expertise that he has over me? Well, he has a boss breathing down his neck, he has to commute 50 miles each way, and all his hard work is going to benefit some other business owner.

So who's really in a better position?

Last summer, I wrote an article entitled, "The True Promise of Internet Marketing", where I summed up that I left my "real job" at the age of 38, and pursued this life as an Internet marketer. It's doesn't have the glamorous title that an "IT Director" has, but it gives me a quality of life that I wouldn't trade in for any other career.  ✓

Will Smartphones Make Laptops Obsolete?

I spent some time thinking about desktop computers (and laptops), versus handheld smartphones (iPhone, BlackBerry, Droid, et al).

Will these smartphones one day make desktops and laptops obsolete?

I don't really think so.

The reason is because most people tend to stay home.

When you leave work, your destination is home. And at home, you have a large monitor to view the Internet with.

And the reason you tend to stay home is because you have a spouse, or you have kids, or you have pets to feed. You have to collect your mail, change your clothes, take a shower. There are still things you must be at home to do.

It's only when you're out and about that you rely on that smartphone. And when you're out and about, you're probably not spending that much time browsing the Internet anyways.

If there's a way to plug your smartphone into a large 24 inch monitor at home, along with a full size keyboard, then perhaps smartphones might replace the PC and laptop.

But smartphones still have a long ways to go to replace the computing power of a PC or laptop.

AND, as smartphones become more powerful, PCs and laptops also become more powerful. So, smartphones will never ever catch up.

Certainly they'll become more popular and more a part of our lives.  ✓

Weight Loss Blogger Looking Good

It's only been a couple weeks since I launched my newest blog, "Weight Loss Blogger". But already, I'm seeing some promising traffic results coming in from Google.

That has me feeling good about the prospects of getting into weight loss publishing. So far, I'm still heavily reliant on income generated by my genealogy websites. I hope the subject of weight loss will become a significant niche for me.  ✓

I Hate #FollowFridays

On Twitter, you see it every Friday, people cramming other peoples names into a tweet. The tweet doesn't say anything other than a list of names and a hashtag (#FF or #FollowFriday)...


#FollowFriday used to be a way for people to recommend other people that you should follow, largely because they have good things to tweet, either useful, funny, intelligent.

But now it's not like that anymore. Now, it's just gratuitous link love.

Today, if someone has some valuable followers, they tweet them in a #FollowFriday just as a way of pointing their finger at them in approval. And why do I really care who your buddies are? Why do I want to know?

In the past it was kinda cool to see someone send out a tweet saying, "Hey everyone, check out this guy and follow him, he tweets some really good stuff". But today, #FollowFriday is just buddies high-fiving each other.

And then, they high-five the same buddies every single Friday, and often do it several times in that day.

People say that #FollowFriday is a great way to strengthen relationships with your most valuable followers. But that's just a way a nice way to justify spamming. And I think that's what #FollowFriday has become, spam.

High-fiving each other wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to see it, but as it is this stuff shows up on everyone else's wall. And if you want to unfollow me for saying that, well I don't make a business practice of needing Twitter so it doesn't matter.

If #FollowFriday was still what it used to be, I wouldn't write this post. But come on and admit it, seeing tweets like that?  ✓

More Evaluation Jerky Received

Today I received this package of beef jerky.

People who are interested in starting up a beef jerky manufacturing business send me samples of their jerky to get my opinion on whether or not it is good enough to go commercial.

They find my beef jerky review blog, and realize that I've eaten so many brands of jerky, that they want my opinion. I guess that's an interesting benefit I never anticipated when I launched that blog.

Some folks in the beef jerky business told me I should charge a fee for my consultation. That's still in the back of my mind if this sort of thing increases.

So far, all of the evaluation jerky I've received over the last year has been pretty good. Today's sample was probably the 8th, 9th, or 10th prospective business that sent me jerky. It's always homemade jerky they send me, so you know it's pretty good. It's after they hire a USDA inspected meat processing facility to mass produce their jerky that the jerky loses that awesome homemade flavor.

There are a few beef jerky manufacturers that make all of their jerky from home, and don't get USDA inspection. They can't sell their jerky in stores, only directly to consumers, and I've found they usually produce some awesome jerky.

I write them back and tell them what I think, which is usually that their jerky tastes great. But considering that brands like Jack Link's and Oberto have done so well commercially with average or worse jerky, there's obviously more to running a successful beef jerky business than just taste.

A Lot of People Don't Like to Blog

I have some friends and family members who have launched blogs only to abandon them and seemingly give up, often having only written one post.

All my friends and family members are familiar with my line of work, in that they know I make money from blogging. They understand the part that I own these websites, and that I attract visitors, and earn income from the ads.

They're attracted by the fact that I can be my own boss, not have to commute, not have clients that I have to wait on, and yet earn enough income to support my wife, my house, all of our bills, and still have money to play with.

And when I tell them that my office is contained in my laptop, and that I can drive off to Las Vegas and still be able to work from there, they say "Sign me up I want to blog too!"

But they don't get past one or two blog posts before losing all inspiration.

I've actually built blogs for some friends. I built one for this guy who said he spends so much time online, that he'll easily write new blog posts everyday. So I set it up, and he never posted a single thing.

I've had other people hire me to set up blogs for them. These were not friends of mine, but people who found me, either by word of mouth or from my corporate site. So I set up blogs for them, and after a couple of posts they seemingly quit.

Other folks launched blogs of their own, usually through a free service like Blogspot, and posted an article telling all of their friends and family that they'll be publishing their thoughts and ideas, and that they should all check back frequently. But yet, never posted anything beyond that.

So far, of all the friends and family members I know of that launched blogs, only one guy actually kept it up. I set up the blog for him, and showed him how to do it. I even set up the blog so that he can compose the articles on his iPhone, e-mail them to the blog, and have it automatically publish. He's seven months into blogging, and still posting stuff regularly.

He's managed to attract a loyal following of readers. In fact, he had one guy in Canada call him up to say that he'd be in town, and would like to meet him in person. And he's getting other blogs linking to him. Just by doing the fundamentals, he's well on his way to becoming a successful blogger.

And so it's because he kept it up and is doing so well, I've offered to help him customize it as he saw fit, but so far he seems happy the way it is. I've even offered to help him put some ads on the blog, but he doesn't want any. He just wants to write.

And maybe that's all it is. Some people like to write, but most people don't. And as for the idea of making money from blogging, being your own boss, and working from home? Well, I think most people are still quite comfortable with the jobs they have now, otherwise necessity would be the mother of invention.  ✓

Weight Loss Blogger Launched!

If any of you have followed my beef jerky diet blog, you'll know that I lost 70 pounds over 18 months. I went from 220 pounds, down to 150 pounds.

As a result, I'm cold all the time.

I'm guessing I have a lot less fat to insulate my core, and therefore the blood cools down a lot faster.

My wife loves cooler temperatures. We fight over the thermostat. Here in the Winter, I'm turning on the heater, and she's turning it off.

The only thing we can agree on is that I hog up the blankets in bed, and she wants to kick them off.

The problem is that I'm used to being warm. When I was fat, I was never cold. So, I always wore t-shirts and shorts. So today, at my skinny weight of 150 pounds, I still wear t-shirts and shorts. My wife wants me to wear sweats, but I don't like to wear sweats. I like my t-shirts and shorts.

Well, I wanted to use that to segue into my latest announcement.

I launched a new blog, "Weight Loss Blogger". I'll be posting little tips on dieting and weight loss, based on what I learned from experience. Check it out.  ✓