I Quit My Day Job Back In 2004
I have been making my living off the Internet ever since.
I spend half the year at home, and the other half of the year slowly sailing my boat around the world with my family. I work from my boat while I am offshore.
How have I been able to do this?
I took something I already new a bit about – how to build websites – and turned it into an online business.
What do you know how to do?
I am asked how I make my living quite often. The conversation usually goes like this:
“What do you do for a living”? When I say “I make my living working from my laptop; I work from wherever I want”, I usually get the same response: “I wish I could do that”.
I then ask what they do for a living. I hear about how they like their job, but the wish they were not tied to it. They wish they had the freedom to ‘sail around the world’, work from a café, be home when the kids are there, not to have to report to the boss, not have to sit in traffic.
They wish they had the means to work for themselves
Then I ask “why don’t you monetize what you know on the Internet?” I then get the blank stare like I was either speaking a different language or that I clearly did not understand something.
Whenever I am asked how to take a career, a job, or even an interest and monetize it online, I can see how it can be developed into a way to make a living.
Let’s look at three examples from people who asked me this exact question in just the last couple of weeks.
Case 1
I was at a café where I sometimes take my laptop to work from during the day. As the young lady behind the counter was getting my coffee we struck up a conversation.
She had seen me there before and was curious what I did. I told her, and she said ‘oh, I wish I could do that’.
She went on to tell me that she was getting married in London in a couple of weeks, and that she wished that her and her partner could travel around indefinitely and make money as they went.
I went and sat down to do my work and thought about this.
Without knowing anything else about her, I knew that:
- She is a barista – she could make any kind of coffee that you might ask for
- She could run the place by herself
- She was good with people, and
- She had a desire to travel
What I would do in her case would be to create a personalized website that brands this young woman as a traveling barista. Maybe she could brand herself as: www.TravelingBarristaSista.com.
The site should have lots of smiling pictures of her in action, talk about how good she is with customers. Perhaps have some useful tips on how to make coffee, and of course a blog about her adventures.
Goal:
- To get barista jobs in other countries while she is traveling around
- To work from wherever, and whenever she wants
She would brand herself as the go-to person for people who wanted to work their way around the world.
How to Monetize: There are a number of ways she could monetize this: creating webinars to sell detailed information on getting jobs while traveling. Sell ebooks, hold conferences.
Check out what Natalie Sission has done with her Suitcase Entrepreneur website – www.suitecaseentrepreneur.com. She travels around the world and works from her laptop, and supports herself by teaching others how to do the same.
Case 2
A close friend of mine is a Financial Planner. She works for large bank and is highly regarded for what she does. She has been doing it for years, and makes a pretty good living.
However, she is looking forward to the day when she can pull the plug on the full-time job and head off to a beach: “Perhaps Costa Rica, where I can grow old, drink margaritas, and sit on the porch yelling at people passing by…”
On a very simple level she could set up a website and offer financial advice. The trick would be to target her specific niche – what is her financial planning expertise, or what is her main interest? Or who does she get the most satisfaction from helping? Maybe www.FinancialEscape.com would be her website.
Goal:
- To leverage her extensive knowledge of Financial Planning
- To work from her island destination
A great example is Bob Lotich. Bob started a personal finance site specifically, but not exclusively for Christians – www.christianpf.com – Along with his website he started a blog. Today, Bob has four best-sellers on Amazon teaching others about finance, and teaching how to make a living from blogging.
Case 3
A good friend of mine has been doing development work for years (as in traveling to under-developed countries).
She has extensive, on the ground knowledge and direct experience helping developmental organizations in third world countries get off the ground and get organized.
However, funding has been cut for the organization she is with. After decades of working with the same organization, she is now in the position of having to dust off her resume.
Unfortunately the job market being what it is, crafting a good resume, no matter what your experience is, does not cut it these days.
I suggested she start up her blog. Write about what she knows about, and what she is interested in. Then find out who in the media is covering the countries and topics she is writing about. Find out who the media contacts are, read their blogs and comment on them.
Take one of those blog pieces and expand on it or go into more detail on a certain aspect of it. Let the blog writer know, then let the media contact know. Rinse, repeat.
When someone in the media needs information on this topic then my friend will be contacted.
Goal:
- To become known for her work
- To be able to support herself and her family
Over time she will have people seeking her out. She will not need a resume. Her work and the fact that the media and thought leaders are seeking her out will open up opportunities for her, and she will have developed valuable contacts along the way.
Dr. Samantha Nutt co-founded War Child, a developmental organization for children in war ravaged countries. However, Samantha is known for her writing through her website: www.samanthanutt.com
How to make it happen
In each of the cases above, and in all similar cases, the prime tasks are:
- Branding yourself – define who you are, what you stand for and are known for.
- Development – build your platform.
- Marketing – online marketing, making connections.
Conclusion
Just as the industrial revolution changed the world in no small way, so the Internet has been doing so over the past few years. But all changes bring opportunities. With the Internet we now have the ability to define our own paths and support ourselves.
Each of the examples I listed above were from people I casually spoke with. The opportunities, however, are endless.
What do you do?
