Nathan Hangen

You Can Trust “Trust Agents”

I’m going to interrupt today’s normal broadcast for a quick pitch for a book that I can’t wait to get my hands on.

I don’t do this often, but considering the author, I couldn’t help but to rush out and give a huge thumbs up and a strong recommendation to buy this book.

If you’ve never heard of Chris Brogan before (what??? Head to ChrisBrogan.com right now!), allow me to give you a quick run down on his importance to the blogging and social media industries…

Create a Big Money Project

Do you have what it takes?

One of the first steps to building up the confidence to step out on your own as a webrepreneur, is to create a big money project so you can see what it feels like to watch your income grow on its own…outside of your job. The problem with this theory is that creating a big money project is not as easy as it sounds. Realistically, you cannot predict which of your products or services will be a success, nor can you predict which ones will be a failure. Sure, a PLF style launch can help you build enough buzz to sell a few copies of aneBook, but if people think your book is crap, it will stop selling.

The trick then, is to not only try to create a quality product and build buzz around it, but to create a product or service that sticks. The only way that you can do this is to start creating products. Don’t wait for the perfect idea to take you by storm, just get out there and do it.

15 August Project Update

In today’s project update I want to share my experience with a recently delayed launch and explain a bit more about what happened and how I decided to remedy it. A few months back, I mentioned that I was working on an eBook called “How I Lost 10 LBS and STILL Drank Beer.” This book was designed to be a short but sweet guide to losing weight without having to diet or spend hours in the gym every day. The goal was to simply share my love of running and teach people how to get off the couch and start losing weight.

I actually finished this book months ago and had already paid for a nice website design. I had even written the copy for the sales page and was all ready to launch…but something just didn’t feel right. The book was shorter than I wanted it to be, so I created a few extra bonuses to be included with the product and fleshed out the main eBook by adding some more pictures and content. Still, I didn’t feel ready to launch this product…so I let it sit for a while so I could ponder a few things.

Getting Over the Mountain

Running a business on your own is tiring and I know exactly how you feel. You wake up every day hoping to tackle the world, but by the time you go to bed you are worn out, exhausted, and frustrated at trying to tackle a to-do list that never ends. No matter how much you get done, you always feel like you could have done more. You’ve got a deadline of when you plan on quitting your job and you know exactly how much money you need to make to pull it off. If you just had more time, more energy, less distraction, or more help, you might be able to do it, but as it stands now, you are running out of hope.

The Consulting Conundrum

As I mentioned in my Saturday Project Update, I do some consulting for a variety of artists and other bloggers. However, since the needs of my clients are rarely the same, I most often find myself custom tailoring a consulting package for every new client. This means that I don’t really have any standard packages and that my prices are all over the map.

What I like about this is that in any single day I can work all of my given strengths and spend time doing many of the things that I enjoy. I’m not stuck on a particular model or activity long enough to get bored, and I’ve got the freedom to plan my days how I want.

However, as much as I love consulting and as great of an income builder it can be, there are some potential pitfalls that have had me questioning my desire to continue.