1. How long will it take for my blog to be successful?

    March 28, 2012 by Bojan

    Take this advice with a grain of salt because I have never launched a successful blog although I am trying my best on here. The question is how long will it take for my blog to be successful?

    I guess that depends on your standards for success as for me I find my blog to be already successful.

    So I guess the first question is how do you define success?

    • 10 visitors a day
    • 100 visitors a day
    • 1,000 visitors a day
    • A certain amount of revenue every day
    • Certain doors opening as a result of your blogging/writing

     

    Now there are a certain amount of factors that will depend on how long it will take for you to be successful. Meaning there are certain factors that will speed up or slow down the process.

    These are:

    • The content on the site
    • Your domain name
    • Your knowledge of SEO and marketing
    • Your relationship with other bloggers
    • Your network

     

    Anyway what if I tried to make a point and said that you didn’t have to follow that track and all you had to do was reach a certain target. That sounds great right? What if I gave you a clear and quantifiable goal for you to be successful.

    Now like I said take this advice with a grain of salt but I have read by several sources that your blog will be successful or very successful when you get to 500,000 words total on your website. Yes unfortunately you read that right 500,000 words. 

    Obviously the reason most bloggers fall short is that they fail to reach this goal. Don’t get me wrong it’s a very lofty goal. If you take a look at the most successful and most well known sites you will see one pattern. All of the sites have a huge amount of content on the site that constantly gets updated. Obviously this number is a lot easier to acheive if you have a staff of writers on your team.

    There are exceptions to this rule such as the great Seth Godin. He has been writing on his blog almost everyday since 2002.  Anyway let’s take a look at some of the numbers.

    If you were to write everyday to reach your goal of 500,000 words you would have to:

    • Write 456 words for three years
    • Write 685 words for two years
    • Write 1,370 words for a year

     

    What is one of the main take a way points for this? Great things take time and persistence is key. I know I say this a lot and probably sound like a broken record but it’s true!

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  2. Focus on the Important

    March 25, 2012 by Bojan

    Everyone that reads this either works, goes to school or works on their own independent projects of some sort. Now there are things that you do throughout the day which are useless and have no importance for the success of what you are trying to accomplish. I know that was very wordy but think about it. Actually better yet let me give you a personal example you can relate to.

    I am working on this blog/website for a bunch of reasons which include:

    • Getting better at writing
    • Getting my name out there
    • Helping people
    • Getting freelance/consulting work

    Now these are the value producing activities I can do to get more people to the blog:

    • Writing quality content that will help people
    • Networking with other bloggers
    • Guest writing on other blogs
    • Answering questions that readers have

     

    The tasks I just listed above are some that I would consider to be important. The thing I see a lot though is people focusing on the unimportant tasks. One example for me is checking my Google analytics account several times a day trying to see where different users are coming from, how long they spent on the site, how many pages they viewed etc. Unfortunately this is something that will have no affect on increasing viewers. It’s the important tasks which make the biggest difference.

    This applies to working in the corporate world as well. People always make sure to check their email fifty times a day and to reply to each one even if it has no effect on their job. Try to focus on the most important tasks in your job that would produce the biggest change. If nothing else at least you get a chance to learn something new!

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  3. The best way to make it is to be in it

    March 23, 2012 by Bojan

    The best way to make it is to be in it!

    The readers first question is what does this even mean? What I mean is that the best way to make it is to involve yourself in what you want to succeed in and get your hands dirty.

    You want to make it in business?

    First you have to get into business and learn how to do stuff. Get your hands dirty and unfortunately you will probably fail in your first few ventures(that’s the way the world works unfortunately). Some time will go by and you will begin to develop your new skills and after a while you will be able to identify new opportunities for yourself. You would have never developed the skills and identified if you were not in it already.

    You want to get better at sports?

    It’s funny that I reference all these cliches that were present growing up in school. One cliche one that stands out to me now is “Sports are not a spectator sport”. When I was younger I thought this quote was so stupid and obvious but I guess common sense isn’t all that common. How do you get better at sports? You start playing all the time (And playing with people who are better than you). The one thing people lack when starting new things is patience. They don’t have the patience to go through that rough period when you are learning and where everything is frustrating. Essentially once you get past that frustration stage it’s smooth sailing.

    Hopefully the same is true about writing. I started this blog to get better at writing and become more persuasive etc. I’m not sure if my writing has gotten any better but one thing can be said is that writing has further crystallized my views and made them stronger.

    At the end of the day I think the quote does hold true. The best way to make it is to be in it! You’re never going to get better at anything if the majority of your time is spent watching T.V and playing video games (That’s actually a false statement because your movie knowledge and video game skills will be better!). No but in all seriousness you have to go out and try new things that you want to get better at. Look at it as a challenge. And at the end of the day if this quote does hold true than showing up is half the battle. That’s either inspiring or scary depending on which way you look at it but I don’t think anything is out of reach with a certain amount of ambition and hard work!

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  4. A cost/benefit analysis of going out to eat every day

    March 21, 2012 by Bojan

    I currently work in Center City Philadelphia and there is a plethora of places to go out and eat. Needless to say I never pack my lunch and I go out to restaurants every day. This may sound strange considering the fact that I say that I am very good with money and managing it.

    Let’s assume a few things. I go out to eat lunch everyday and spend anywhere between $8 and $14 for lunch(Very rarely do I spend $14 for lunch unless I’m going to a nicer restaurant but I just wanted to show you the range). Let’s keep the math simple and assume that I work 49 weeks out of the year so (49 weeks *5 days a week= 245 days that I go out to eat).

    This means I spend anywhere from $1,960 (245 days * $8) to $3,430(245 days * $14) a year on just going out to eat. Once again note that this is a range but I probably usually average around $10 or $11 for lunch everyday.

    Someone reading this would say man you can save so much money per year by not going out to eat everyday and packing your lunch instead. The purpose of this exercise is to show a typical cost/benefit analysis of the situation. You can’t just look at the financial side of a decision.

    Yes I do spend a lot of money on going out to eat everyday but there is also the question of deciding what is important to the person making the decision.

    The benefits of going out to eat are:

    • I get to step away from the desk
    • I get to go outside, see people and breathe some fresh air
    • I get a chance to go out with my coworkers and joke a little bit
    • I get a chance to step away from work and return to the office with a clear head

     

    As you can see for me the benefits far outweigh the costs of going out to eat and a result I am a far more productive and happy worker that I get that opportunity. That doesn’t mean that at some point I will try to curb the costs of going out to eat and find a more happy medium. Maybe I could start bringing lunch in a few days and take it to places with my coworkers.

    Moral of the story is that you can’t just look at the financial aspect of a decision. You have to also weigh in what is important to you and the benefits of the situation. Another example is you have the obligation to take care of a family member that is struggling with money or is sick. Yes from a financial perspective the decision is not good but also I think it is your duty as a human being and person to take care of that person. But at the end of the day you are the one making all the decisions so they’re yours to make :) .

     

    Category Business/Financial Analysis, Personal Finance | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Ingenious marketing trick- The tip jar

    March 18, 2012 by Bojan

    I go out to eat for lunch almost every day during work (shame on me!). Anyway most restaurants usually have the standard tip jar by the cashier when you are ready to pay saying something like “Tips- Thank you!”. I got to thinking what would be a more creative way to incite people to tip. I then found a jewel of a picture on the Internet.

    See picture above. The simple premise is to let people vote for something and that represents the tip jar. In the picture customers got a chance to vote either for Notorious B.I.G or Tupac. I really love things like this for a few reasons. One it is free marketing it literally cost the owner nothing to set this up. The other reason I love it is because it is fun and gets the customers engaged. They get a chance to let their voice be heard and they also have a reason to come back again to see who won. Anyway moral of the story. Marketing or creating buzz for your restaurant doesn’t have to cost you any money at all the key is to think of creative ways to engage your customers and have fun!

     

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  6. A guide to hobbies and personal finance

    March 16, 2012 by Bojan

    I think hobbies are a great way to spend your free time and I don’t discriminate against whatever hobby you choose to pursue. If you enjoy knitting, go for it because the most important thing is to enjoy whatever you do regardless of what people say or think.

    For me I have a few hobbies or things I am interested in. These include: Soccer, reading, this blog and guitar. I think it’s great to have a mix of mental and physical things that keep you interested. Anyway I’m not going to really delve anymore into this topic. I wanted to focus more on the issue of hobbies and personal finance. For sake of keeping it simple there are three categories that I want to place hobbies in.

    There are hobbies that:

    • Cost you money 
    • Don’t cost you money 
    • Can make you money 

     

    Let’s take a look quick look at each of these.

    Hobbies that cost you money

    These are hobbies that cost you money to participate in and represent a negative cash flow. One hobby that I participate in that costs me money is soccer.  Expenses involved include new cleats, driving to games, paying for a field, jerseys etc. From a financial perspective this represents a negative cash flow. Not that it really means anything to me since the benefits outweigh the costs (physical well being, hanging out with my friends, competition). I’m just looking at it through a financial lens.

    Hobbies that don’t cost you money 

    These are things that neither cost money or make money. Something that would fall into this category would be something like walking or running. Yea you’ll need shoes and clothes but hopefully you have those things already and won’t need to invest any more money into it.

    Hobbies that make you money

    I saved the best for last, how about if you could find a hobby that not only is fun and makes you better at something but you can actually make money off of it too. How cool does that sound? Actually one hobby I just recently started to pick up that has the potential to make money is blogging. Yes I am still able to get the benefits (I’m getting better at writing, promoting myself, meeting interesting people, learning about web development and SEO) but down the line I would try to make some money off of this. I’m not expecting huge sums of money to magically appear but at the same time I’m not losing anything either (The benefits are still there).

    Anyway that was my little spiel on hobbies and personal finance. 

    I think the potential for side or passive income is very interesting. So many of the things that we do on a daily basis require money. Go the mall, watch a movie, play video games. I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with that but at the same time I’m trying to shift my mindset to become more a producer. To be able to create and produce something that brings some value to people. At the end of the day that is more interesting to me.

     

    Category Personal Finance | Tags: | No Comments

  7. A step by step plan to growing your entity

    March 14, 2012 by Bojan

    This post is going to apply to growing your entity. This can be applied to growing your business, brand, network or blog.

    I think one of the mistakes people make when trying to grow their entity is that they make too big of a leap in progression.

    Say a person has a t-shirt company. They are currently selling 50 shirts a month and their next goal is selling 1,000 shirts a month. Now I’m not going to say that their goal is unrealistic but it’s hard to put tangible metrics on such a big leap. So much of your existing business would have to change in order to accommodate this huge leap. 

    I think a better approach would be to make a gradual progression and work from there.

    O.K I currently sell 50 shirts a month. How can I sell 75 shirts next month. That would mean I sell an extra shirt every day more or less. I can do this several ways such as:

    • Selling existing customers an extra shirt
    • Doing a buy one get one half off promo (would cut margins)

     

    This is better because it’s much easier to apply these principles because your goal is easy to visualize and comprehend.

    The beauty is that it doesn’t have to apply to a business. I can apply this to my blog as well. All I have to do is choose a metric and how to achieve it. In the case of the metric it’s the visitors per day. Say I currently have 10 visitors per day how can I increase that to 20 visitors per day. 

    I can:

    • Post more frequently to my social networks
    • Guest post on a more popular blog
    • Comment of blogs I follow
    • Purchase adwords

     

    Anyway you get the general concept. Choose a  metric (what you want to measure), set a gradual goal  and figure out how to achieve that. Once you reach that goal rinse, wash and repeat and set a higher gradual goal.

    Category Business/Financial Analysis | Tags: | No Comments

  8. Are you financially independent?

    March 11, 2012 by Bojan

    Are you financially independent? Chances are you probably are not. I know I am not but my goal is to one day become financially independent.

    To become financially independent one must first know what that means. Financial independence is the state of having enough personal wealth to live indefinitely without having to work again. Sounds great right? Well unfortunately like most great things it’s very hard to acheive.

    You either have to increase your income substantially or decrease your expenses dramatically.

    I am just here to guide you and to find out how much money you will need to become financially independent.

    First let’s assume the withdrawal rate we will be using. The withdrawal rate is the rate at which we will be drawing from our principal. We can assume a relatively conservative rate of 4%or  if you are feeling more conservative use a withdrawal rate of 3%.

    So to get the financial independence number we have to divide 1 (100% of our principal)/ .04 (our withdrawal rate) to get 25 years. 25 years is the amount that are withdrawal rate will last. The reason it will last longer is because we will have this money invested where the principal will continue to grow while we add on to it. We then multiply 25 * 12 (12 months in a year) to get to 300. 

    Now lets assume 3 scenarios to calculate our financial independence number.

    Let’s assume:

    $30,000 annual expenses which would be a $2,500 monthly expense which multiplied by 300 would be $750,000

    $20,000 annual expenses which would be a $1,666 monthly expense which multiplied by 300 would be $500,000

    $10,000 annual expenses which would be a $833 monthly expense which multiplied by 300 would be $250,000

    The numbers at the end represent what amount you would need to accumulate to become financially independent. There is a trend and it’s the lower your annual expenses are the lower your amount for financial independence is.

    Financial independence can be achieved faster by either reducing your expenses or increasing your income. For most people unless they run their own business increasing your income is harder than reducing your expenses. I just wanted to show you what the math was behind these numbers.

    Writing out equations like this makes it a little complicated. Let me know if I can clear anything up!

    Category Personal Finance | Tags: | No Comments

  9. The accountability in Blogging

    March 9, 2012 by Bojan

    Like I’ve said a thousand times before the reason I started blogging was to become better at writing and to also get my name out there. There is also another added benefit to blogging which is the accountability associated with it. Whatever I happen to write out here and publish is out for the public to see and I think that is great if you are trying to make positive changes in your life.

    A perfect example is the post I had about how I can give you an extra four hours a day by not watching t.v . When I wrote my post my beliefs about t.v were made clear. Yes t.v is more or less a waste of time. Now when I write something and make it public I want to stick by my guns or else I would seem like a phony or inauthentic.

    That is where the accountability of blogging came through. I noticed that I have watched a lot less t.v then I usually do. To begin with I was never a big t.v watcher anyway because I have a problem with sitting still for extended amounts of time but I cut my time even more after I made the post.

    Anyway moral of the story. Just like putting your goals on paper makes them more actionable I think blogging has the same power to make you accountable. My example related to my views on t.v and my actions changed even further as a result (by watching even less t.v than I was before). Pretty cool eh?

    Category Productivity | Tags: | No Comments

  10. The Problem with Starting something on your Own

    March 7, 2012 by Bojan

    Starting something on your own is fun but it’s extremely hard and difficult to stick with. This includes any habit that you want to form from working out, starting a business or starting a blog (like me!).

    There’s a very real and psychological reason behind this and it’s because its the opposite of everything that we are accustomed to. Think about it so much of our life has been structured since an early age.

    We start going to school and we have our required classes that we take. We go to class, take notes and are given an assignment that we must complete. Then we go to college and yes we have less time in the classroom but it follows the same principle. We are still told what to do more or less. We still have homework, essays and group projects.

    Work more or less follows the same recipe as school . We have our job title and our assigned duties. We are encouraged to take on more responsibility (which I think you should) but the structure is still there. You have a boss who holds you accountable and you have deadlines etc.

    I think the reason a lot of people don’t venture and start something on there own is because it is the complete opposite of what they have been doing their entire life.

    No one is holding me accountable to write every week but the reason I do is because I enjoy it and because it’s a skill that I think is valuable.

    I guess my message is to not shy away from what you want to do. Yes no one will be holding your hand during the process but I think that’s the beauty of it. Whatever you set out to do is a learning process where you will get a chance to develop and become better.

    Category Productivity | Tags: | No Comments

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