Baseball, Beer, Travel, and Running

As most of the people who know me already know, I haven't had a "real job" in years. Instead I've been happily helping people solve frustrating computer problems through my blog and email newsletter. This provides a great living, I get to set my own hours, and while there's a temptation to work more than I should, I also have the advantage of taking a few weeks off when I need to, without significantly impacting my income. In addition to knowing that I'm helping people everyday, I have the added bonus of not being stuck doing the same thing day in and day out. I can

There's plenty of room for you to do the same thing if you want to. I'm more than happy to provide whatever guidance I can to people who want to strike out on their own. I ran across Rat Race Rebellion this morning, thanks to this Today Show interview with Dr. Danielle Babb, author of Making Money Teaching Online.

Rat Race Rebellion appears to be a great resource for people who are looking for legitimate online work (as in not the get rich quick kind). The spirit of Rat Race Rebellion is in line with 4 Hour Work Week, in that you're leaving behind the corporate world to pursue something you enjoy on a schedule more fitting with your personal lifestyle. While I think the interview is a little basic in it's coverage of what you need to do to work from home successfully, Dr. Babb is targeting a specific type of working from home.

If you're willing to take the get rich slow approach to making money online, here's a very simplistic formula to join the Rat Race Rebellion:

1) Keep you day job

2) Find a topic you're passionate about (if you aren't passionate about the topic don't bother, you'll quit).

3) Register a Domain name and find a cheap hosting provider (don't use hosted services like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com)

4) Post 2-3 things about your topic on the blog every day. Be sure to link to interesting articles and videos you find related to your topic.

5) Post at least 1 video a week showing people how to do something related to your topic.

6) Provide easy ways for people to subscribe to your blog via RSS and email. Feedburner provides some great free tools to get you started.

7) Read other people who are active in niches similar to yours, comment when appropriate on their blogs. You can track them easily using FeedDemon.

8) Study online tips on how to get more traffic to your blog and videos. Implement these tips in a way that fits with your personal goals.

9) Sign up for advertising solutions like Adsense, Commission Junction, Shareasale.com, etc. Implement the advertising on your site.

10) When the advertising revenue from your blog is more than your current job and enough to cover things like health insurance and other perks you currently get from your employer, consider leaving your job and blogging full time. This last step will likely take 2 years to achieve, maybe longer depending on many variables.

Notice I placed advertising at the bottom of this list. While the ad revenue is how you will make money with this approach, it's far more important to have a solid foundation before you worry about how that foundation will make you money.