My Plan to Escape Rat Race Hell in 2009

A few days before New Year’s Eve, I wrote about two goals I wanted to achieve in the new year. One of those goals was to end 2009 working from home and bringing in a steady income of $577 per week (about $30,000 per year). I plan to do this by generating income from two websites that I own.

The first site is called BloggingShed. This site is going to be the one that brings in the majority of my income. BloggingShed is a blogger’s help site where I post tutorials for the various blogging software out there, talk about how to make money from blogging, how to market and promote your blog, discuss design and coding and make snarky comments about stuff I find on the internet.

I realize that there are tons of blogs about blogging already on the internet and that I’m pretty much trying to shout to the world at the bottom of the mountain but blogging is something that I feel I can make an honest go at. I already have a fair amount of knowledge about it and I am comfortable learning and writing about the topic. The challenge with this site is going to be in differentiating it from all the other blogging sites out there. I have a few ideas that I’m still toying around with.

The second site I will be working on is The Plot Café. This is a site for fiction writers that I have been working on for the past year. It started out as Openlore Fiction Writer’s Magazine but I changed the name because I had a completely different idea for Openlore that I will be developing at a later time.

The Plot Cafe is a website that caters to readers and writers of fiction. The site has book reviews, author interviews, writing prompts, videos and articles about writing and publishing. There is a ton of other stuff that I want to add to the site but as time is an issue at the moment (at least until I quit my day job), I have to keep the site at a sustainable level of management.

My plan with these two sites is to generate multiple streams of income through them both. The first stream is the obvious ad revenue. Right now I have Google Adsense running on both sites but as soon as I hit the $100 mark I’m going to take them off. I feel like they make the sites look amateurish. However I’ve already invested some time and effort with the program so I want to at least earn my first check before I shut it down. I plan to trade the Google Ads for Banner and Block ads where I’m able to exercise a little discretion as to who advertises on my website. I’ve also got a few affiliate links (Barnes and Noble, Gevalia Coffee) and will be adding a couple more.

The second stream of income I want to build is the sales of web and blog templates. I have two templates on sale already and am working on a third. I’m not really interested in getting into the custom design arena although I’m pretty sure I would be able to make a good amount of money in it. I’m really looking to build a business that will generate income whether I’m actively working on it or not and I can’t see that happening with me offering a custom design option.

My third income stream will come from ebooks that I will write and sell. Writing is my passion and this is where I want to spend the bulk of my time. I have a file folder of ideas for ebooks, so I imagine that this is going to be the biggest stream of income that I develop.

And last but not least, I want to offer online classes in both blogging and writing. I got this idea from a copywriting blog I read on a regular basis. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. The hardest part will be coming up with the curriculum and making sure students get what they paid for out of the class.

I have a lot of work to do, an overwhelming amount of work, which is why I’ve decided to move forward slowly. My Achilles Heel is that I have this tendency to try and rush things because I haven’t quite weaned myself off the teat of instant gratification. Even though it feels counterintuitive, I’ve given myself permission to go slow because in the end I’m pretty sure I’ll actually get a lot farther ahead.

I’m dividing the year up into quarterly goals. For the first quarter (Jan – Mar 2009) I’ll be focusing on generating content and drumming up traffic to the websites. I’m not really concerned about making money right now, although I won’t refuse it if I start earning some. Mostly I want to concentrate on building the sites’ reputations with good and useful content and generating buzz about them.

I realize this means that I’ll be working a job for at least another year but it will be well worth it when I can finally hand in my resignation and know that I will be just fine.

What about you? Are you working on building an online business? How are you planning on reaching the goals you have set for yourself for 2009?

Thank the editor. Contribute to my Audi fund!

2 Responses to “My Plan to Escape Rat Race Hell in 2009”

1. Kathy Chavez says:

   January 11, 2009 at 11:51 pm

   I was really excited by the title, and still pretty gung ho about the idea through to the end, although it was fading. Not because it wasn’t a good idea – it is. i have the same idea. And that’s part of the reason the excitement faded. Everyone has the same idea.

   Now, I’m a web designer, developer, budding Social Media expert. I know what industry saturation is. So I’m not totally put off by the idea that everyone has the same idea. I guess I was just looking for new ideas about the same old idea.

   So, anyway, I was still excited and hopeful until that almost last sentence: “I realize this means that I’ll be working a job for at least another year …” I don’t want to be working my job for another year. Not even another DAY!

   I’m still on the teat, as you call it, of instant gratification. I need to be able to stay home with my dog. My one solace is that I think I can move to at least part time on the Jay-Oh-Bee.

   We want to do the same thing. Only in different ways. Here’s to us!

   K
2. ArwenTaylor says:

   January 14, 2009 at 8:16 am

   Hi Kathy,

   If there was some way that I could quit working for the man right now, I would do it in a heartbeat. But realistically, that’s not going to happen.

   The instant gratification thing is a hard one to overcome. I struggle with it on a daily basis and nothing I do seems to make this challenge easier. Even though I know in my mind that eventually I get what I want if I keep plugging away at it, I still just want it now!

   Anyway, I’m happy that you will be able to cut back to part time. That means more time for you to work on your biz so that you can eventually quit altogether. We’ll get there. We just have to take it one day at a time.