My blog followers have been noticing one focus lately.
I’m travelling.
It’s been months since I’ve invested any reasonable time into “work” anything.
The Four Hour Work Week is possible — with my strategies, it’s even likely.
What have I been up to?
In the last nine months, me and Caitlyn have been to:
- The Okanagan
- Las Vegas
- Vancouver
- San Andres Island
- Medellin
- Panama City
I don’t say this to brag (okay, maybe just a little). My main purpose is to inspire you to change your life.
It’s not difficult to build a full time online income.
What is challenging, is knowing how to do it.
Wanna Know the Secret?
Passive income.
Not sure we can even call this a “secret.”
I think deep down you always knew this was the truth.
If you have to keep working to make money online, then you will never be truly free.
The only way to unshackle the chains is to create an income stream that works for you.
The old fashioned way to do this is to invest in assets that pay you recurring income (more on this later…)
The New Age way to do this is to build a hungry crowd.
Sure, it takes me time to feed my hungry audience. I don’t consider this work, because it’s what I love to do. But what you’re going to see in a minute is that it’s not time consuming to engorge your followers.
You can fill up their intellectual bellies with a few hours per week.
Hence, the four hour work week.
How do I create the Four Hour Work Week for myself?
You have loads of possibilities.
The internet is a choose-your-own-adventure of opportunities.
While I can’t speak for all of them, here’s the ones that I use to make $7,000+ last month.
- A Blog
- YouTube Channel
- An Email List
All of these assets are on platforms that you could join today.
Seriously.
There’s nothing I’m doing, that you couldn’t replicate (with your own style, of course).
Let’s start with #1 — Build a blog.
Anyone reading this post with just 5 bucks in their pocket, could start a blog today.
I have a very detailed guide that shows you how to set it up.
The principle is simple.
Build quality content and grow regular blog readers.
If you want to ramp it up with some PRO action, turn some of these readers into email followers. I’ll be talking about this later, though. So for now, let’s focus on the blog stuff.
Is building it enough?
You’ve heard the motto “build it and they will come”
Some of us even have the image of Field of Dreams in their head, and expect it to be that easy.
It’s not.
The reality is that you need to have a traffic strategy in place to get regular eyeballs on your posts.
Sure, Google organic traffic is great and free.
But in order for Google to serve you delicious visitors, they need to know your site is a good user experience.
How the heck does Google rank you?
It used to be an old-style pissing contest.
The sites with the most backlinks won. And to get those backlinks, you either needed a fancy piece of software, or you purchased a service from an SEO provider.
That’s old news.
Too many people are still following that route — get out before the train wreck.
Google doesn’t reward that anymore. In fact, they’re far more likely to act punitively towards such a strategy.
The more powerful way to rank sites these days, is to PROVE that visitors like your stuff.
How the heck do you do that?
Well, you need you visitors to:
- stay on your site for longer
- look at more pages
- share with their friends
There are many more factors in the Google algorithm.
But hopefully you get the point.
Google wants to know that visitors like your page.
In my opinion, this is a much better way to determine search engine results.
It may have sucked for SEO providers, who mostly lost their businesses overnight. But for the search engine user, it’s certainly a better way to find the most wanted pages.
It’s hard to fake user metrics. Maybe not impossible. But it’s about time people stopped trying to trick Google, and just accepted that they’re better off building what Google (and users) want.
You will not impress Google until you get eyeballs
So this brings up the whole chicken before the egg problem.
We expect Google to rank our site based on how visitors are interacting with it.
How can we impress Google, if we don’t get the rankings, which brings the visitors.
This is why you need an alternative to Google traffic strategy.
That means — get your traffic elsewhere.
Especially in the beginning. I always like to consider search engine traffic a bonus. Find a way to get traffic for yourself. That’s a lot more sustainable.
Then, if Google’s feeling particularly sexy, they’ll toss you some good ol’ SEO love.
Which is free, and warmly welcomed.
How do I get traffic?
I created a Top 10 Ways to Get Traffic.
It’s worth watching — let’s check it out.
Lots of free and paid traffic ideas.
Pay particular attention to traffic tip #4.
That’s a traffic source that’s amazingly suited to blogging.
Moving to #2 — Growing a YouTube Channel
YouTube dishes me $2,000 every month.
No, I don’t have to lift a finger to get this money. It’s 100% passive. If I want it to be.
Your numbers stay relatively consistent if you don’t make any changes on YouTube.
I’ve gone weeks (sometimes months) without doing anything.
During those periods, I don’t lose any income whatsoever.
You’ll stop growing your income with them, however, so being active is still recommended.
The point is that YouTube can be mostly hands off, after you grow it.
How to Grow a Channel
I will be releasing a video shortly on exactly this topic.
There are two BIG things. And then a handful of sorta big things.
The first big thing is that you do your research.
If you pick a topic that only interests a dozen people, you won’t get thousands of views.
It’s that simple.
Fortunately, there are lots of keyword tools that can help you with this step.
EXPERT TIP: Searches for experts in your field, and then see what videos are getting them views.
Here’s a good example…
The Project Life Mastery channel has many videos on “make money.”
By clicking on the sort by “most popular” button.
What you’ll want to notice is “what video topics are getting views”
In this case, we notice two great topics with make money.
- Passive Income
- Selling on Amazon
See here:
Both these topics have videos with thousands of views.
Sounds good to me.
Only thousands, how’m I gonna be the next PewDiePie
PewDiePie has over 40 million subscribers.
Which means he makes millions of dollars.
That being said, there’s a difference in $’s/view for different topics.
A view in “make money online” is worth WAY more than a comedy view.
That’s not to say that 16,000 subscribers in make money online is as profitable as 40,000,000 subs in comedy — It’s not. There’s merit to both approaches.
There are two different strategies here. One is to get as much viewership as possible. The other is to get the kind of viewership that likes to spend money. It’s challenging (but not impossible) to do both.
That being said, you’re better off starting with one or the other.
My focus is on attracting people that are willing to invest their money.
That means I sacrifice BIG views, for BIGGER profits per visitor.
Pick a strategy that works for you!
Big thing #2 is to create quality views.
There’s all kinds of so called “secrets” to getting monster views. The reality is that most of them are completely unsustainable.
Remember our earlier convo about Google transitioning to a focus on user engagement.
Guess who owns YouTube?
Yep, that would be Google.
That means you can expect the algorithms to focus on the same things.
Impressing viewers.
Keep eyeballs engaged longer, and more likely to share with their friends.
That’s how you get the big results.
Okay, let’s talk about the tricks now.
Even though quality is important, blabbing about it is not gonna to add value.
So let’s move to the small things to make big impacts.
The first small thing is your YouTube thumbnail
A thumbnail is the difference between a view and a skip for many.
You won’t even get viewers in the first place, unless you persuade them to click on your vid image.
By default, YouTube will capture a specific moment in-video, and use that as the thumbnail.
An unprepared, and often unflattering image of yourself is not going to do the trick.
You should, instead, upload a professional YouTube thumbnail.
There’s many sellers on Fiverr that will create an awesome image for $5.
If you want to create it yourself, check out https://pixlr.com
Here’s a free YouTube thumbnail I created with Pixlar:
Cool right?
It took me all of 5 minutes to create that.
I just used a personal photo, and then added an effect + text.
Why is the Thumbnail Important?
This matters for two main reasons.
- It looks more professional.
- It gets more clicks.
A big part of the YouTube algorithm is how people are engaging with your videos.
That all starts with the click.
A BIG-small Thing — The 2 Minute Hack to Way More Views
We get it Brendan, user engagement is crucial.
That’s true. Let’s talk about the best way to get the interactions we need.
ASK FOR IT!
Crazy concept — I know.
Here’s the deal…
YouTube is going to rank the videos that get the most shares, likes, comments, etc.
To get more views, you need to boost your numbers.
There’s no more easy or more effective way to do this than to just ask for it.
I add a 30 second bit to the end of my videos, asking subscribers to do at least two engagement actives.
That could mean:
- subscribing
- liking
- commenting
- sharing
Any of those actions will boost your engagement with YouTube.
That means MORE VIEWS.
The Email List — Where you strike it rich
Do you like to have control?
There’s nothing mentioned in this post more predictable than an email list.
It’s all about numbers.
And two really in particular.
- How much does it cost to get a new subscriber?
- How much do you make from each subscriber?
Is that simple, or what?
The idea here is that you just have to make more than you spend on traffic.
That traffic video from earlier will help you with this.
My favourite paid traffic source is solo ads.
A typical solo ad will cost you 30-40 cents per click.
Unlike Google Adwords or FB Ads, a visitor will cost you the same amount every, single, time.
So let’s pretend that we have the negotiating skills of a Jordan Belfort (Wolf of Wall Street), and we can get 30 cent solo ads all day long.
You actually don’t need to be the wolf to get those prices. I could get solos for 30 cents per visitor any day of the week.
So how much does it cost you to get a new subscriber?
You can’t know that yet.
But I have a simple formula to work it out.
Cost of Solo Ad + Squeeze Page Conversion = Cost of Each New Subscriber
It’s not actually addition that we’re doing here. I just didn’t want to confuse anyone (myself included) with the real math. Let me explain in plain English instead.
Let’s say that we have a squeeze page conversion of 50%
That’s really doable. My squeeze page here is a 56% converter.
A new subscriber, in that case, is going to cost us double the price of the solo ad.
Get it?
A solo ad costs roughly 30 cents per visitor.
But only half of those visitors will turn into a subscriber. Based on the quality of your squeeze page.
That means, each subscriber is going to cost you 60 cents.
For every 10 visitors, only about 5 will subscribe. But you still have to pay the 30 cents for each individual visitor. Which means a subscriber is 60 cents.
Did I just confuse you?
I hope not.
Let me know in the comment section below if you could follow my messy mathwork.
How much do we need to make a profit?
If it’s costing us 60 cents to gain a subscriber, we just need to make that much to become profitable.
Trust me, if you know what you’re doing, getting 60 cents per subscriber is as easy as Paris Hilton.
Reaching that point is life changing.
Let me ask you a question.
“If you made $2 for every $1 you spend, how much money could you make?”
The world is yours!
Join the team — Level Up Your Business — Step-By-Step
You can skip the struggle, by becoming a student of my master program.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to teach everyone.
Apply to become a student here
I will personally contact you within 48 hours to let you know whether you’re in the program.
In a perfect world, I’d teach every single one of you.
My time only allows about four per week.
Apply now, and become one of the four.
Wrapping it Up — Bye For Now
Caitlyn just left to have some fun with her friend.
I’ve got the house to myself for the first time in months.
WOO HOO!!
Going to make some pita pizzas and watch the game.
Which game?
I’m a huge fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
That means basketball.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Please connect, and let me know in the comment section below.
