Coach Kip

While trying to develop my other sites I have been looking for opportunities to monetize my site. Of course I do have some banner ads, I have some text ads. I have tried a few other programs but I don’t seem to be able to earn more than a few cents a day. It has been a slow go. Clearly not enough to get to my goal. In the mean time I have been doing a lot of other work to earn an income that will sustain me for a long time. I guess my biggest lesson that I have learned is that, just like anything else, a true income is slow going. There does exist get rich quick schemes, but for the most part it is a long sustained effort that will make a true income.

I have found a few good steady sources of income that will get you through a few days or a few weeks until you can get a true steady income source.

PayPerPost is always a great place to go to get some income. There are many opportunities there that have income possibilities that range in income from a few bucks to several hundred dollars. You get to pick and chose what to blog about and accept only those that you feel are appropriate for you. Simply find a site or a product that fits your personality and your blog and then write about it. As long as you meet a few simple criteria you will get paid.
It is a simple and fair system. One that works really well. I certainly prefer this to trying to do affiliate marketing. I think that some will see it as the same, and to some maybe that is true. To me it is more like seeing a good movie. You go tell your friends about that movie right? You say “Hey you really got to see this movie, it is great” then you go on to tell them all the good things about the movie without giving anything away. It is the same with PayPerPost. Find something you like. Tell people about it, and you get a little kickback. I wish the movie theaters would give me a kickback every time I told someone about a movie I liked. I would be a thousandaire by now.
Of course when your blog reaches certain levels you can begin to set your own price. At this level you can make a nearly unlimited amount of income. Now instead of you having to sift through all the different opportunities you can sit back and wait for them to come to you. Ahhh the joy of a steady income and the ability to hold the power.

There are a lot of income possibilities out there. I think that one of the problems that a lot of bloggers have, including me, is that they try to hard to make their site profitable. It is my belief and experience that if you simply write about what you enjoy and what you like then the monetization will come. Simply be you. People like it when you are not fake or transparent. They like real. They like you. The money will come from you being you.

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Yeah I am making money now! Well not really. It is not a good indication of what my site is worth but it is fun to see. Hey maybe I can count this toward my Challenge, then I am only $7000 from reaching my goal. That is pretty sweet.

Have fun

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What an interesting experiment. I had a great time doing so and it has been a complete eye opener to me. Here is what has happened.

After reading all the get rich quick, and make money now posts on the Internet I decided to see if it was real or not. I decided to see if it really was possible to make money quickly on line. So I set a goal. A big goal (at least to me). I decided to see if I could make $10,000 in about 4 months. This seems very possible if you read the Internet gurus, and the blogs about people who have done so.

I would not get rich, but it would prove that it could be done. I like money, and I thought that money would help us out a lot. But things change.

I was trying to do this while I was working two full time jobs. I am currently an Algebra I teacher in a Metro School in Nashville, TN. I was an Assistant Varsity Football coach who coached the Receivers in a Spread Offense, and the Outside Linebackers in a 3-3 Stack Defense. I also played a very significant role on Saturdays in planning for our opponent for the next week. For those of you in the know Receivers in a Spread Offense are a very key component. We threw for over 2,000 yards this season. Outside Linebackers (Bandits, Rovers, each defense has a different term) are a very important position on the defense.

I worked from 6:30am to 2:00 pm on academic related issues and from 2:30 to 6:30 on football issues. I woke up in the morning at 5:30am and went to bed at 9:30 pm.

So here is my time breakdown:

• 8 hours of sleep
• 7 ½ hours of academic time
• 4 hours of football time (7 hours on Saturday morning)
• 19 ½ hours dedicated to time that I could not work on the business. I really thought I could do some things while I was at school and my students were working on things. I forgot that I cared about my students and most of that time is taken up answering questions and solving 9th grade crisis’s.
• 4 ½ hours is all I had left to work on the business, eat dinner, try to stay fit (not working out too well), spend time with my wife, and be social.

So things change.

I recently spoke with the rest of the coaching staff and informed them that I will not be coming back next year. That alone frees up 4 hours a day and 7 hours on Saturday.

One of the best changes that happened is that I have a completely different view on what I want to accomplish. I no longer am tied to money. I no longer pray to the money god for guidance, a new house, and a brand new car. Those things were not the motivating factor in me becoming an independent business owner, and working from home. TIME! Time was the factor. In trying to do what I was doing the biggest thing I found was that I had no time.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved coaching. And I will coach again. I just plan on taking a year off to set up some income streams. I like teaching. But I do not see me going back in the classroom for a while. I am going to do some personal coaching and that will keep me connected with students, and able to still teach. I love getting on the Internet and developing businesses and business ideas. What I had a hard time doing was following through with those plans. I had a very difficult time staying focused on things. To me coming up with a plan is the easy part. Executing is not hard either. What I have a difficult time with is finishing.

Let me relate it to coaching. I love coming up with the game plan. I love coaching during the week. I love Friday nights under the lights. There is nothing better on earth. For those of you who have not been to a high school football game lately you should go next year. Just sit and enjoy it. They are great. The best part of Americana. Ok back on track.

Games are not the end point to me. The Championship is. The championship is the end of the season. Games individually are great but they are just one step closer to the end. The championship. In all my high school career, playing and coaching, I have always made the playoffs. It is great, and I am very greatfull for that. But we always got beat. Actually in all my high school career I have always lost to a team that made it to the finals.

I never got to finish a season. I never got to the end. I always was stopped. I don’t think that I am sabbatogeing myself toward my goal. I think that I desperately want to find the end. I desperately want to get to the end.

What is the end? The end for me is having a steady income stream that is passive. Something that I do not have to put a lot of time into to keep going. Something that will give me time. TIME TIME TIME! I like doing things. I do not like working. So I need to have something that will give me time.

Step back for just a minute.

My stats up until now are as follows:

9/9/2007 Begin $0.00
11/16/2007 Previous $345.17
12/7/2007 Gross $105.66
12/7/2007 Expenses ($49.92)
12/7/2007 Net $400.91

Which is pretty good considering I have done virtually no marketing other than social marketing.

If you look back at the stats, when I was primarily doing marketing I was making about $100 a week with just two products. I think that it is very plausible to make $1000 a week on ten products. But I decided that is not the direction that I wanted to go. Expenses were about ½ to ¾ of the profits. This still leaves you with a good income. But it takes a lot of time to keep up with them. It takes time to write the ads, and make sure that the keywords are still active. Google and Yahoo frequently change the price of keywords so it is a constant battle of changing keywords and bids to keep profits as high as possible. So I stopped doing that. It was too much work for to little profit.

What I have done is this:

• I have collaborated on two ebooks.
  I have updated and revised the 3-3 Stack Defense on EZ Playbook.
  I have written a book for Professor Moolah that is awaiting approval from Clickbank for marketing and sales.
• I have done a lot of back end work on Professor Moolah to get it set up for a complete learning and teaching site.
• I have in the works a complete redesign of EZ Playbook that will launch in February of 2008. This will add many interactive functions to the site and develop it into a social site for coaches, players, and fans. There is a lot of back end work being done so that the site can develop and grow in the future.
• I have done a complete custom WordPress design for http://www.trekkingaround.com and have begun the launch of the site. To do these things right it takes a lot of time.

So what is Trekking Around? It is me and my wife’s site about traveling. More specifically it is about us taking a year off and getting a boat to travel the Great Loop. A tour that will start in Nashville, TN this spring. We will travel up the Mississippi and cross over into Lake Michigan. We will go around the Great Lakes and end up in the Atlantic on the Easter Seaboard. From there we will travel down to the Bahamas or the Caribbean for Christmas and then we will either end up traveling back up to New York, or we will travel back to Nashville. That all depends on the next adventure.

As we travel we will promote Green living and run our Diesel engines on Biofuel. We are currently contacting boat manufacturers to find a live aboard that we can use in promotion and travel. We will use the boat to test the viability of Biofuel in a pleasure cruiser, and we will promote the manufacturer along our route by hosting open boat tours for people who are interested in boating, and doing so with low environmental impact.

We are far from hippies, and we are not into Greenpeace. We simply live in the environment and like it. So why not find ways that are inexpensive and low impact? We will be answering that question.

Plug plug – if you are interested in helping or sponsorship you can contact us directly at sponsor@trekkingaround.com until the site is fully up and running. Until then we hope to hear from you soon – end plug

Whew! I have done a lot. Nothing that will get me $10,000 by December 31st, but I have done a lot that will get me an income stream that will allow me to take a year to study environmentally low impact boat travel, and put my life on track for independent living in the future.

And I am Happy!

Conceive It, Believe It, Achieve It.

Coach Kip

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When I began the challenge I really didn’t think that it would be that hard. I had learned a lot and it was just time to put some things into action. Now I feel like I have learned even more. I think that I will be giving that information in separate posts. It is quite long and extensive, but I think that it will be very interesting for you.

Here are the stats as they are now. Not too good. I felt like I got out of the gates really quickly and looked good, but the affiliate marketing has dried up a little bit. I was doing well with golf related stuff, but now it is not really golf season so I am a little down now.

I have been working really hard on my sites and have narrowed it down to just a few. EZ Playbook is in a huge redesign, so we apologizes for no real good content. Professor Moolah has been in the editing mode for ever. It has taken a lot longer than expected. We also have a redesign for this site and the blog is now at http://www.profmoolah.com/blog. We have to work on the colors a little bit but it is getting there. I am reformulating Good Putting and trying to get that off the ground again. I will be working a lot on that over Christmas break and be picking it up quickly after New Years.

Here are the stats for now.

9/9/2007 Begin $0.00
10/19/2007 Previous $360.02
11/16/2007 Gross $124.35
11/16/2007 Expenses ($139.20)
11/16/2007 Net $345.17

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Well I have not been making much money, but I have been making a lot of connections. I know that is an important part in trying to build and grow a business. So income has been down, but the future looks up. It is just a short two months and a week until the deadline for the challenge to be over. There is a few things coming up that will boost our sales, and hopefully boost them quickly.

Professor Moolah - My associates and I are about to release an ebook. It has turned out to be a really great book in which Professionals can learn how to market their company and services using a blog. It is very simple and easy to use. We really think that it will be a great book for anyone wanting to take their company online and expand it rapidly.

EZ Playbook - We are just about ready to publish our new site design. It will be very expansive and comprehensive in its scope and what we want to accomplish with it. Am I being vague? Absolutely. You will see it soon, and I will let you know when it happens.

So there is some good things happening and I will keep you updated.

As far as the journey is concerned: my wife and I are busy researching options and opportunities to support our journey. We are very interested in writing for a travel company, either online or in magazine form. We are planning on using a lot of different media to accomplish this. Another update that you will have to wait for. We will create an opportunity page soon.

Here are the stats

9/9/2007 Begin $0.00
10/13/2007 Previous $360.02
10/19/2007 Gross $49.30
10/19/2007 Expenses ($95.93)
10/19/2007 Net $313.39

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The Challenge update will be very short this week.  The previous post is what I have been working at this week.  Again most of my income has been made from affiliate marketing.  I am still gathering information for two products.

It gets more and more obvious to me that it will take my own product to make the money that I want.

Here are the stats.

9/9/2007    Begin    $0.00
10/13/2007    Previous    $316.71
10/19/2007    Gross    $134.67
10/19/2007    Expenses    ($91.36)
10/19/2007    Net    $360.02

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It has been a very busy week outside of  CoachKip.net so the bottom line is there was not much done on the money making side.  So of course I made more money than I had in a few weeks.

It is now the end of week 5 and I am moving up the charts like a snail.  There is a lot in getting ready so I am not sweating it too much, it will come with time.

Here are the stats

9/9/2007    Begin    $0.00
10/6/2007    Previous    $114.39
10/13/2007    Gross    $284.95
10/13/2007    Expenses    ($82.63)
10/13/2007    Net    $316.71

Well back to earning money

Conceive It, Achieve It, Believe It

Coach Kip

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I have been busily working on taking bids for the redesign of EZ Playbook.  It is a long process.  I guess I thought that with all the web design firms out there it would be a snap.  They all seem very busy to me.  If you are a web designer and have some programming ability this is the job to get into.

 I did not make much this week.  I am finalizing the last few pages of Professor Moolah’s book.  Thanks to all of those who have contributed and helped.  For those who want an advanced copy send me an email and I will get you on the list.

I know I need an opt-in email list.  I will be working on that too.  Just so much to do to get set up.  But I am still happy with the way things are going.

So here we go. The stats to now

I did well but I spent too much.  Well you have to spend money to make money right?  I just need to make a little more.

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I love the water, and I love travel. We plan on traveling abroad but we are ready to start a family. So there are all kinds of conflicts.

This weekend we were walking along a harbor on the Cumberland River and we found some houseboats. On a whim I said to Mrs. Kip “Why don’t we get one of these and live on it”. Well I have always wanted an RV and just travel the country, not caring where we stop. Since I love the water then living on a boat would be just as good, probably better.

Well guess what. Not only did she say yes, she is excited, and she wants to do it today! Well it won’t happen today, but we will be doing it soon. There are a few things that I need to take care of with the business, I need to establish a few income streams, but living on a boat will be the perfect solution to what we want to do. Now what kind of boat do we want to get.

Houseboats

These are the obvious, and the easiest to do. The offer the most affordable solution with the largest living area. Now I do not know everything about boating, heck I hardly know anything about boating. But I do know that a houseboat will only work on very calm water. You simply can’t take it out on a body of water with waves more than 1-2 feet.

Cruisers

I would rather have a sailboat, but to travel the rivers of the US a sailboat is out, so we need power. A cruiser will give us the space we need to live, and the ability to take it anywhere. Whether it is the Inter-Coastal Waterway, the US river system, or the Great Lakes, these are the best solution. So this is what we will probably decide on, but they are quite a bit smaller than a houseboat, and more expensive.

So what are we to do? Well we have a long way to go before we decide. There will be some interesting conversations in Coaches house, and nothing will be decided until the end of the football season, but we are going to do this, it will be great!

Coach Kip

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I have been working on driving traffic to my sites, and I have found a great tool for doing so. StumbleUpon. I know that it is not new and probably most of you have used it in the past, but so far Stumble has so far exceeded anything else I have tried that it is clearly the best.

Every time I submit an article I get a jump of at least 100 hits. When you are only talking 5-20 hits a day depending on my sites that is a significant jump.

I have started taking bids for the redesign of EZ Playbook. We have decided to hire someone to do what we really want to do. If you happen to come across this and are an internet programmer and designer feel free to send us an email at coachkip@ezplaybook.com

It has been another long week, but I am taking Friday off (this will post Saturday like usual but I am actually writing it on Friday). Taking the day off because we don’t have a game is really nice. It is kind of like a preview to how my life will be soon. It makes me energetic, alive, happy, and excited. I love doing what I want to do, waking when I want to wake, being who I want to be.

So here we go. The stats to now

9/9/2007 Begin $0.00
9/22/2007 Previous $62.61
9/29/2007 Gross $193.83
9/29/2007 Expenses ($112.96)
9/29/2007 Net $143.48

Another profit. Great! Can’t have those days that I lose money. It is going slow, but I feel the momentum building. It will take a while but it will come.

Most of the money this week has been earned through affiliate marketing. I am going to take a lot of time today and tomorrow to find some good affiliates. It will help my income tremendously. I surely have not found the answer yet but I am getting there.

I am also working on a few ebooks and email newsletters. This will help with the income too.

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