Why I Choose To Pay

I'm 10 weeks into my passive income project. By now I have bought several eBooks, joined Getting Rich With eBooks 3.0 course and become a member of SiteBuildIt! My former self would be asking me now:

She is a smart person. Why on earth is she buying that stuff when there is so much material and tools available for free? 

Well, dear former self, I have several compelling reasons.


I want to attract nice and happy customers

If you act like a poor customer, you'll attract poor customers. No matter what your affirmations say.

Yes, that is about mindset issues. Soon after I started this project, I was getting feelings that I should change my shopping habits. At first I did not realize why I was so compelled to do that. Then I read this wonderful article series by IttyBiz: Your 5 Customers, or How To Sell To Damn Near Anybody. That is a bit long read, but you will not regret it.

While I was reading, I was trying to find out which customer I am myself. I did not perfectly match to any of the categories, but I did find myself somewhere between Bob and Daniel. When I read the personality description for those customers I was shocked:

Bob - He is anxious, concerned, and risk-averse.

Daniel - He’s pessimistic and has a low tolerance for risk. At any given time, he’s pretty sure things are not going to work out in his favor.

I realized that even though I had worked on changing my limiting beliefs, I had not changed my behavior accordingly. I was still acting like a whiny poor customer. Doing that, I would come up with business ideas that appeal and attract people like that. People who don't buy so much and tend to need extra customer support.

Since that day I've made some extra effort trying to think and behave like Amy:

Amy is a basically happy and logical human being. She’s reasonably confident, mostly optimistic, and her purchase is a fairly logical act. She has a high risk tolerance.

Who does that describe too? Well, to me it describes a successful person.

This approach has already paid me off. I have recognized several product possibilities that would appeal mostly to Daniel and Bob. I have thrown those ideas away. I have plenty of better ones now that target to happy Amy.


I want to feel the abundance - I want to be generous 

You need to live according to your beliefs. Telling yourself that you live in abundance has little effect if in everyday life you feel that you cannot afford the things you want and need. Successful people let other people help them. When someone offers them a helping hand, they accept it smiling.

The loser instead, he thinks that he gets cheated by everyone.

My current affirmations include (but don't limit to) these:

World is a wonderful place full of opportunities. People are always friendly and everyone wants to help me. I accept help and I am glad to help others. I live in abundance. I have a beautiful home and a lovely husband. I have plenty of money to buy what I need and what I want. I can select where I live. I can select which projects I take part in. I achieve my goals easily and I enjoy life.

With a worldview like that, why wouldn't I buy products that sound interesting? I especially enjoy buying from little bootstrapped businesses and people like you and me. I prefer those over large companies. And what my affirmations say is true - I really can afford it.


I need to benchmark level of service and delivery methods

How can I offer good service to my future customers, if I have not experienced it firsthand online?

I am to produce services and product that are either used online or downloaded. That means I definitely need to know how that works from the customer point of view. Buying books from Amazon is not enough. I need to get some idea what good buying experience is about. I need to know the differences between the service providers.

I already know I'm not going to handle the charging of people's credit cards myself, nor am I going to implement secured product delivery myself. It is just not worth the trouble, and those parts are critical. If something goes wrong there, I want to be able to just switch the provider instead of crashing and burning myself. That means I need to find a service provider for those services.

So every time I buy something, I check who does the actual delivery. Did I enjoy buying through them? Could I use this service provider myself?

While I go, I evaluate my buying and usage experience. I carefully check what kind of support options I have. I give feedback and see how the seller reacts. If I have the slightest reason to get support, I do that - just to get the feel of how they provide it.


I don't want to waste my time

I want to learn from an expert who already lives on money earned online. Nothing beats the experience.

Put your ego aside and you'll succeed faster! For long I had this stubborn idea that I want to succeed on my own - but not anymore.

Let me tell you an example. Some years ago I learned silver jewelry-making. I learned that online, using only free resources. I read forums and blogs and browsed through web pages that had free courses. I had great fun and the jewelry looked great. But eventually I wanted to meet other people doing jewelry too and I signed to a silver jewelry course.

In the very first lesson we did a trivial but a time consuming preparation task while the teacher approached me. She gave me little tips and tricks that more than doubled my speed on that task. I did a mental head-desk when I realized how much time I could have saved by taking the course earlier. Plus that change in technique fixed a little quality problem that I had long struggled with.

I have also learned that the same lesson applies on computing world - except the effect is much greater. An experienced programmer can be tenfold faster than a beginner and still produce better code.

The same applies to the process of making good money online. Unlike in real life tasks, just getting something done is often not good enough. There are others who already know the tips and tricks - they'll run right past you. In the web "not good enough" is spelled "failure".


I need to know that I know enough

As a newbie to passive income, my biggest problem is: "How do I know that I have not missed anything critical"?

You might have thought that the biggest problem would be how to get information. It is not. World wide web is here. There are plenty of free tools, courses and material. Don't be disillusioned and think that good stuff is not available for free. There is plenty of free good stuff. More than we can digest.

You can learn all the bits and pieces for free. But bits and pieces are worth nothing if I don't see the big picture (or process) and be able to apply them in practice. As a beginner, I don't have that big picture - I don't know the process.

For example, look at this demographics report from Quantcast:

The report shows the site visitor demographics for my competitor site. I had no idea that these kind of reports are available for free on this detail. I might have stumbled on this by accident though - or then not. Even if I had, I may not have known that this is critical information for me.

I know I'm not missing any critical steps, when I learn the process from someone who already earns his/her living online. Just to gain that confidence is worth the course. When she/he tells me the things I need to know, I don't have to wonder around the net reading "just a little more" to make sure I know enough on some subject. I accept help and let other people solve that critical problem for me.

That is also the reason I joined two courses instead of one. As a newbie I cannot objectively evaluate the information given to me on a foreign subject. When I was younger I thought I could do that. But I've grown wiser. So while I follow the courses I pay attention to the differences in them and the emphasis each puts on different steps of the process.


Final Thoughts - Let other people help you!

The prerequisite to make this approach work is that I have chosen good courses. And that's where Steve comes in. I have decided to let him help me.

I am well aware that the products Steve recommends are his affiliates. But I have chosen to trust Steve. Of course he has different opinions and worldview than I have, but he recommends quality stuff. I may not like all of what he recommends, like Sedona Method and Marty Lefkoe's method. But me not liking them does not mean there is no value in them. There is just no value for me, at this point of time.

There are thousands of products with affiliate programs and Steve is in a position where he can pick the ones that are really good. I believe I need to let people help me in order to succeed. I am letting Steve, Vic, Allan, Amy, Ken and everybody else with the right knowledge and attitude to help me. Including you. Thank you so much!

Sedona Method Sucks! Is It Just Me?

I just listened the Sedona Method Audio from Steve's blog. It made me feel downright lousy. Angry too. Note that I just  wrote "made me feel" even though I know I am the one to react - no-one should be able to make me feel anything! That tells me something in itself.

When the audio told me to "switch polarity" of my thoughts from negative to positive, there was not enough time for me to raise the positive feeling that would have had any relation to the negative one,  and then he was already asking me to feel the negative side again! And that happened even though it took me quite a lot of digging to find the negative in the first place.

Fortunately I have learned a procedure to deal and release negative feelings from Louise Hay's lovely book You Can Heal Your Life so I was able to process and let go of my negative feelings. But had I not have that, Sedona Method would probably have ruined my day.

However, this was a healthy notification that it does one good to process the negative feelings too, instead of just pushing them under the positive. However, Sedona Method would not be my choice of doing that.

How did you feel about this audio? Does it work for you?

Passive Income Project Manager Speaks Out

Even though I am on vacation, I still think a lot about my passive income project. Lately, I have been searching for ideas to implement, but somehow I've still felt that I don't that perfect idea yet. And somewhere deep inside I know I'm losing my focus because of that. Project management to the rescue! I want to share you this discussion that I had with my husband last week.

Me: Honey, I need some help with my passive income project.

Husband: What kind of help?

Me: Well, I know you are excellent at organizing things and I recall you telling me how you did your homework superfast as a kid.

Husband: Yes, I did everything during the school day. I rarely took the books at home. Well, not until I was older.

Me: That is just what I mean. When you were ten you were already good at seeing what is important and what is not. I mean, some other kid could not have pulled that off. He would have missed something during the class and not end up being an A-grade student.

Husband: Yes, I am good at that. I would make a superb IT project manager if I wanted to.

Me: Yeah, I know you don't want to be a project manager, but I need you to do just that for me. I need to know what I should concentrate now. I need to know what is important.

Project Manager: Ok, can you tell me your goal again?

Me: You know my goal already, right?

Project Manager: Well, lately you have been talking about a lot of things, like building a SaaS application and expressing your talents more. So what do you really want, right now? Just pick one thing.

Me: I want what I state in my goal, I want to prove myself that I can earn us a living on internet. I want to start by creating something that brings us 1000 euros per month.

Project Manager: Ok, so essentially you want to learn the process of making money on internet?

Me: Yes.

Project Manager: I'd say that right now the most important thing would be to pick one of your ideas and concentrate on that, get started with it already.

Me: But I don't have the perfect idea yet! I feel I should now do my best to find an idea worth implementing.

Project Manager: I disagree. You have plenty of ideas. I've seen your notebook with full page of ideas.

Me: But those are just random ideas. What if I pick an idea that is not unique enough?

Project Manager: While we were driving today, how many bakeries did you see?

Me: A lot! They seem to have them in every corner, just like we have barber shops in Finland.

Project Manager: See? Those ideas are not unique snowflakes either. You just need to provide something that someone needs and then make sure that someone finds your product.

Me: Ok, I agree. Most of the ideas that earn people their living are not so unique. But what if my idea is not good enough, what if people won't buy my product?

Project Manager: Well, you cannot know that beforehand anyway. You have never done this so you don't have any experience on picking ideas that sell. I'd suggest you use the courses to help you with that. Follow them and do the marketing research on the ideas you have already.

Me: What if the most boring idea wins there? I will lose interest on it as time goes by!

Project Manager: Actually, I'd suggest that you won't pick your favorite idea now. It will be easier for you to learn the process if you don't have extra emotional stuff going on. Remember what Amy said, don't be a bitch to your idea.

Me: Ok, you are probably right there.

Project Manager: Just take it easy, don't stress. You are just picking an idea here. If you end up bored or it does not earn good money, you can just stop and pick a new one. There is no risk, no obligations, you'll lose nothing but time. Just start with something little and learn how it is done. Then just rinse and repeat.

Me: Ok, so I will not use time trying to find more ideas. I'll just pick one and start working on it as soon as possible.

Project Manager: Right. You will learn as you go and get better with time. Don't be overly critical now.

Self-Sabotage by Proxy

I was not planning to have to write this post this soon. Actually, I was expecting very little self-sabotage on this project. But I was not prepared for self-sabotage by proxy.

This is how I wrote in my Getting Rich With eBooks 3.0 Review post:

So I have now watched $100 worth of videos, and maybe one hour of it was really good stuff. So would I pay $100 for an expert like Vic to sit with me and tell me how to use the tools to find ideas and how to evaluate the potential of my ideas? YES, yes I would. And I would not even blink.

But later on I wrote:

Comment at 5th of June - I decided to cancel my trial after reading a comment telling me that this "one-time offer" has been online for over a year now. That is a marketing tactic that I don't really like and do not wish to learn myself.

Oh Cheese! Get a grip, Jaana. Are you really claiming that Vic will inject you with EVIL, if you continue?!!! That is the lamest excuse ever for quitting a perfectly fine course, honey.


So what happened - really?

Well, I was fine when I read my blog comments and replied them. I am a big believer of "personal reality" or "personal truth" concept so even though I felt for you the comments did not affect the decision I had made. I had already established that the course content would fit my needs.

But later on I was having dinner with my husband and I asked him if he had read the comments. He had and suddenly he looked me in the eyes and asked: "What do you think, should you cancel"?

I actually left the dinner table, started up the pc I had already shut down for the evening and canceled my course account immediately. When I was ready my husband came into the room and said: "I'm glad you did that. You know, that Vic guy was a little... you know..." and he showed me the Italian gesture for furbo. Furbo is a "smart individual with vicious and tricky intent". We both laughed and I felt what he was feeling - I was relieved too. But I did ask him how I was going to learn that stuff now. He said I will surely get that information from somewhere else too, delivered by someone I'll feel more connected to.

But the next day I did not feel good. I had some major self-doubts about my project and I felt insecure. I was rolling around thoughts that everybody is trying to trick me and no-one will definitely want my product and etc. But in the afternoon I logged into my Twitter and found this:

My jaw dropped when I looked at the time stamp. Steve had tweeted before I canceled. And he was answering the only question that was relevant - is the content of Vic's course going to be of the same quality than the first 2 modules.

So I stepped back and evaluated the situation. Where did my negative thoughts came from? Why was I having a strong flashback of feelings that I thought I had dealt with already. You see, I have worked on my limiting beliefs using Louise Hay's wonderful, happy and flowery book You Can Heal Your Life. So I thought I had the most important of them swapped already. Then I realized - maybe these are not mine... When I found the book my husband was abroad and when he came back he started reading the book, but stopped after couple of chapters.

As my husband came home from work I asked him why did he think it was a good idea to cancel the course. He replied with a saying: "Don't buy a pig in a poke". I told about Steve's comment. He asked if I should trust Steve. Then I told him that I think he is having a limiting belief about this issue. Something along the lines "People are always trying to take advantage on you". That is one I had too!

After some thought he saw it himself and he was ashamed. He never meant to sabotage me. But I told him not to feel bad since he did not do anything. I am the one who decided to react and pick up the old negative belief that he offered to me. I just did not realize I did.

Diagnosis: Self-sabotage by proxy
Treatment: Account reactivation, affirmations (for DH too)

So, I'm happily back on the course!

The Social Component - Who Cares For Me?

Steve's latest article Self-Discipline and Social Pressure got me thinking. So here I sit, wondering who cares if my fancy new income stream will succeed or not.

For me, the social component is not really about self-discipline. I have plenty of that. And I'm well capable of putting pressure on myself - sometimes I'm too good at that. Besides, Steve's article talks to me about something else that just self-discipline and social pressure. It talks about connections, networking. And that is what got me thinking.

Here is what Steve wrote today:

Suppose you want to earn more passive income. Why should anyone care? Why should anyone want you to succeed?

hmm...

My dear husband would probably be the first to care. I really want to pull this off so that he can also resign from his job. Then we both will be free. I know resigning is going to be hard for him and it would really help him if he could say that he is going to be entrepreneur. Having to say "I have no idea what I am going to do" like I did would be much harder for him than it was for me.

The next one to care would be the WebServerGuru. He is creating his own passive (or semi-passive) income stream in his start-up company. And I'm helping him as an exchange for his expertise. They could not afford me otherwise and I would not want to work for money anyway. He would not probably be happy if I decided to stop. Of course I could not do that to him, even if something would happen to this project. He just does not know that, I guess, so he cares.

The next ones would be my parents and my sister and brother. They would like to see me succeed. My sister is actually working on a similar project herself. I do care for her and I hope that she succeeds too.

But beyond that. Who cares? The people who will love my products don't know I exist. I don't even know what I will be creating! That made me a bit sad but then I realized that this project has a social component bigger than just bringing value for someone.

For a some time now I've felt that I don't belong. People who I have spent time and worked with are interested in things that no longer interest me. I have changed, and others have too, but to another direction. Wondering who cares made me realize that whatever I am doing here is going to get me the social connections that I need so much. I want to spend time with people who think like I do. I want to work on inspiring project with people who really care and are enthusiastic about what they do.

I can honestly admit that I am on a journey now. I don't have a "life purpose", I have not defined goals for myself as a person. I just know I love to create things. I enjoy when people get happy. I love it when I publish something and get comments like this one:

You have no idea how awesome this is! Maybe you do but just in case let me tell you again, THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME! Thank you :D

Yeah, I love that! It just makes me smile. Thank YOU! I will continue creating stuff for you even though you never click my adds, honeys!

How I Set My Passive Income Goal

This is my working room. I printed out my goal, put it in a frame and placed it where I can see it often. Not to the fridge door where I would see it only a few of times per day, but to the place where I spend a lot of time and where am when I might get distracted from my goal. I wrote and undersigned my committed passive income goal in both English, my working language and in Finnish, which is my native language. I feel it is important to pay attention to how the goal is phrased. You may want to skip all this, but I assure you this is important to success. I have used similar motivational and focusing techniques for many projects and they really work. So let's analyze my goal a little more.

"I am successfully creating a new stream of passive income by December 31st, 2012, that generates at least 1000€ per month on average and endures for a minimum of 5 years. I'm doing this in a way that delivers value to others and I'm having fun. I'm healthy and have plenty of time to relax".

If you look at my goal you will see that it follows quite closely the phrasing Steve has in his goal. That is no coincidence. Steve is an expert in phrasing his goals. Why should I invent the wheel again?

It is important to include the word "successfully". It does not matter what the goal is if I don't believe I will succeed in achieving it. When I have that word in I will increase my chances in succeeding. The tense is important too. If I would be using future tense, it would not motivate me to act and succeed now, but somewhere in the future. These are little things, but they can make a huge difference on how the goal makes you feel and act.

You may have already noticed that my schedule is different than Steve's, who is planning to have his $2000 per month stream up and running at the end of the September. I wanted to give myself a bit more time because I am prepared to create at least two income sources. I also want to have a long nice summer vacation. I have much to learn in quite a short time even with this schedule. I'm planning to follow along at Steve's speed until my vacation and then catch up afterwards. And when the first stream is up and running I'll rinse and repeat - but with my new skill set.

I picked 1000€ ($1300) as my goal. When I have received it for 5 years I have earned a total of 60000€. If I split that over the 6 months I have ahead, it is 10000€ per month. I was tempted to set the goal to 500€ per month for 5 years, but I had a belief that I now think is wrong. I used to think that I need to work really hard to earn big bucks. And it just happens that 5000€ is about my worth per month if I would go freelance and earn active income. I feel 1000€ per month is a challenging goal for me, but I want to prove myself that it is possible.

What I am after is not the money itself, but the lifestyle that passive income enables. I am not interested in leeching income. I want to do things that I am comfortable with. Not comfortable like staying in my comfort zone all the time, but comfortable like doing things that are aligned with who I am. I would not feel good about myself if I would be lying to someone or ripping someone off. I'm not looking for and early retirement either. Instead I want to find a way of working that I will enjoy continuing until the end. I love to create new things and I enjoy programming and learning new things. But I want to work on projects I love. And I want to have fun while I am doing it.

I want to feel that I have earned the money that I get and that the work I do brings joy and happiness to someone.

My last passive income stream creation process was an emotional and physical rollercoaster and I realised that I am a work addict. That is why I added the last clause. This time I will only work on this 4-5 days per week, about 8 hours a day. I will buy a good alarm clock to notice me when I have to eat and I will make sure I am living a life that is sustainable in the long run. It will not do my any good to waste myself, when I can choose to have the same results with different attitude.

The last clause also works on some of my fears. I was afraid that my husband would not love me anymore if I would work so much that I would end up looking like the hunchback of Notre Dame. I was afraid that we would get deranged, since I am going through different experiences than he is. But the last clause tackles those fears. I will use my extra time to be with him and share my experiences with him so that he stays in contact of what I am going through.

I used quite a lot of time in creating my goal and I did it together with my husband. However, the goal is mine to reach. I am happy how it looks now and I think it covers what is needed. When I look at it, it makes me smile and think of all the things I can achieve.