How To Focus On Your Passion Brenda Tan
How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Brenda Tan -1- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Terms and Conditions LEGAL NOTICE The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this report, notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, the Publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional. In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made. Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their individual circumstances to act accordingly. This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent professionals in legal, business, accounting and finance fields. You are encouraged to print this book for easy reading. -2- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It COPYRIGHT, DISCLAIMER,TRADEMARKS ======================================================= I'm sure you wouldn't dream of stealing my work and trying to pass it off as your own or trying to blame me if you don't get rich after reading this book. You are welcome to give this book away free of charge, provided it is kept complete in its present form with all hyperlinks intact and without any amendment whatsoever to the content herein. Let's get the legal stuff out of the way, and then we can get on with the more life enriching stuff. Copyright © 2012 www.holistichealingmind.com. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Limit of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty: The contents of this report are presented for informational purposes only. The Contributor has expressed her own personal opinions, and these opinions are neither intended nor offered as legal, financial or psychological advice. They are offered in good faith as the personal experiences of people who have found techniques and approaches that apparently work well for them. Please carry out due diligence and consult with your own trusted professional consultants (of whatever type) before putting into practice any of the suggestions presented here. This paragraph is to be taken as a standard disclaimer of responsibility in the event that you do fail to exercise due care and judgment in running your affairs and your life. =================================================== -3- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Table Of Contents Chapter 1 Everyone has a Passion - “I am not Passionate about Anything!” - Why does the Passion work? Chapter 2 Five People who found Their Passion and played on it - Five People who found Their Passion and played on it Chapter 3 Starting Out with Your Moneymaking Passion - Identifying the Market - Blending with Likeminded People Chapter 4 Your Passion and the Internet - Marketing Your Passion - Monetizing Your Passion Chapter 5 Direct Your Passion into Selling EBooks - Creating Your EBook - Outsourcing Work Chapter 6 -4- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Blogging with Passion - Why Blogging works? - Methods of Monetizing Your Blog Chapter 7 The Power of Social Networking - Creating Your Online Community - Setting Up a Community on Facebook Chapter 8 Other Ways of Monetizing Your Passion - Other Ways of Monetizing Your Passion - Some More Methods Chapter 9 Passion and Business – Striking the Balance - Common Pitfalls that can stop You from Monetizing Your Passion - How Much Business and How Much Passion? -5- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Introduction Are you passionate about something? Anything? Now how if you knew that your passion – never mind what it is – could be converted into a moneymaking enterprise? This eBook tells you exactly how to so that. So sit back for a while, relax and read this eBook. It could be the device to give a better lease to your life. -6- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 1: Everyone has a Passion -7- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary Passion cannot be defined; it’s a feeling you have about something. But the fact is, everyone has a passion. -8- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It “I am not Passionate about Anything!” We find people saying that a lot. Well, there are people who constantly go about gibing that nothing ever affects them much, nothing interests them and so they infer that they don’t have any passion in their lives. How many times have we heard people speaking in that tongue and simply taken it for granted? Probably you are feeling the same way too. It is quite possible when you saw the title of this eBook, you first went, “Ah, here’s something I can make money out of!” and then next instant you thought, “But how can I? I am not passionate about anything!” If you did think that way, don’t be too sorry about it. More than 75% of the people who will see this eBook’s title will think that way. After all, that’s human psychology. If someone has repeatedly hammered into you that you are talentless, skill-less, have no passion or are just plain lazy, it is quite evident why you are feeling so depressed about yourself. We always tend to judge ourselves by the impressions others have of us. Human beings are the most rational thinkers on this planet, but it is quite pitiable how only a very few humans actually use that characteristic. So what are we speaking about? Before plunging headlong into this eBook, we have to no one fundamental fact… There is no one in the world that does not have a passion. Yes, everyone is passionate about something or the other. You included! Despite all covers you have put up on your mind, you have a passion within you. -9- How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It But then why can’t you see it? It’s because you are not motivated enough. That’s the keyword here – motivation. Consider the case of Samuel, a boy I knew when growing up. Samuel had a talent – he could play the piano. Now how many boys you know have that talent? He could play it like a whiz; I know, I have heard him play sonatas when he was 12. But he did not chase that talent. Quite surprisingly, when he grew up, he joined a law firm he had no interest in but because his folks said he would do well there. That’s it; he has stayed a dispassionate lawyer till date and his piano talent is just swept under the carpet. Apart from the potential loss to the society which was deprived of a possible piano wizard, it’s his own life that has been wrecked. He is doing something he is not interested in, and so he is not earning any money out of it too. Money comes when you have a passion in your job. Only then do you put your whole soul into it. All of us have some passion within us. If we can discover it and bring it out, we could be the much more successful than we are now. - 10 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Why does the Passion work? Reading Samuel’s example from the last chapter, we see how a passionless existence can be meaningless also. It is not that law firms don’t make money; they are probably the richest industry in our world, but is Samuel making money there? No. His heart is not into what he is doing. He is not giving it his 100%. What will happen a few years down the line? Either he will quit or he will be fired from his position. Instead consider someone who makes hotdogs and sells them on the street. Let us consider this person is passionate about making hotdogs. It would seem that you don’t need any kind of talent to make hotdogs, but this man goes the whole hog, literally. He is so passionate about his hotdogs that he experiments with different sauces, makes the breads and the franks himself, does the whole deal. He even does his marketing himself. And because he is passionate about what he is doing, his passion reflects in his marketing. His dozen posters stuck on a dozen walls of the town are infectious with his energy for his work. It is certain that Mr. Hotdog Seller will make a success with his job. That’s because he loves his work. He gives his all to making hotdogs. People will flock to him. Not just because they get a good snack, but also because they get a positive vibe from him. And, to say the truth, when we buy anything – a product or a service – we want this positive vibe. Is Sam giving out this positive vibe to his legal clients? No, because he himself has no passion in his work. Ultimately the people who come to him will understand that and he will lose his business. On the other hand, if Sam had continued his passion for his piano, his raw energy and zest would have been felt by all. There would have been no limit to how far he could go! This is the important lesson we have to learn from these examples – - 11 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It When we love doing something, we can be good at it and also make money in the process. The job does not become stressful for us, because we enjoy what we are doing. Because we have a passion for it, we give it our best shot! But the most valuable thing is – When we do something we are passionate about, we are playing on our strengths and not our weaknesses. And that is what brings in the money. - 12 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 2: Five People who found Their Passion and played on it - 13 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary These are the people whose successes no one will debate about. They have defied our conventional approaches about making money and become the richest people on earth. What did they do? Yes, you guessed it right – they found their passion and played on it. - 14 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Five People who found Their Passion and played on it History has time and again been witness of how people have achieved amazing successes in their lives – whether money was involved in it or not. Whether we speak about Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and an astute businessman too, or Larry Page, the founder of Google, there is one common strand running between them – they stuck to their guns about their passion. Bill Gates & His Passion – Microsoft Windows More than 80% of the computer users of the world use what was once just a germ of idea in the mind of this man. This man, who told his teachers at school that he would become a millionaire before he reached 30, became a billionaire at 31. His passion for making programs was so vast that he developed his first fullyfunctional program when he was just 17 years old. It was a program that enabled his school to schedule their timetables. The school liked the program so much that they bought it from him for $4,800! That was the first program Bill Gates sold. And why did he succeed? Why does this man make $250 a second now? It’s only because he followed his passion for programming. He did not let anyone or anything talk him out of it. His Airness Michael Jordan & His Passion – Shooting Baskets Today it would be impossible for someone to believe that Michael Jordan was not allowed to be part of the basketball team in his sophomore year at college, because they considered him to be too short! At 5’11”, he was shorter than the other players at that time. But, Michael was so passionate about basketball that he did not give up. His passion made him try harder. During that summer he grew 4 inches and made the team! Clichéd though this will sound, after that there was no looking back for him! - 15 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Michael Jordan is now among the richest basketball players of the world. He did not follow mainstream career trends and put his entire dedication in realizing his passion. Despite the rejection he received early on, he put in vigorous efforts in what he believed and succeeded. Isn’t there a lesson there for all of us? Donald Trump & His Passion – Real Estate This is a man of many talents. But what you could pinpoint as his earliest passion would be real estate. Did you know that Donald used to just read foreclosure listings in the papers when he was at school and get entertained by them? Weird passion, someone might say, but we have started this eBook by stating that passion has no definition. Well, Donald Trump’s passion about reading foreclosure listings was so intense that he actually bought his first housing project even before he graduated. How’s that for passion now? Donald Trump is the owner of the Trump Corporation today, an organization that owns more than a 100 companies! This is apart from his other passion, which is of entertainment. For his appearances in The Apprentice, he earns $375,000 an episode. Surely, if you chase your passions, however much unconventional you feel them to be, you are going to reach astounding limits in life. Oprah Winfrey & Her Passion – Other People’s Business! Who would have thought getting fascinated about other people’s life stories could bring in such untold wealth? But the chat queen Oprah Winfrey has consistently proved it with the tale of her life. Her story is no less captivating than the stories of the people that are featured on her show. Oprah had a very disturbing childhood, with sexual abuse meted out on her by no less than two members of her family. But even with that turmoil in her life, she harbored a passion – she could talk. She could be commanding on a stage. She never compromised on her education, which definitely took her places, and on her passion for performing on the stage. With her zeal and effort, she has become the diva she is today. J. K. Rowling & Her Passion – Telling Stories - 16 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It There is no part of the world that does not know Harry Potter today. It is difficult to believe that the entire make-believe realm of Harry Potter was the brainchild of a single woman who was living with a divorce and as a single mother of two children. But Rowling had a passion since her early childhood. When she was a little girl (of 5, to be precise), she wrote her first story about a rabbit that contracted measles. Despite the big upheavals in her life, she never kept the pen down. She literally had her arms full with her kids, but whenever they slept, she wrote. And Harry Potter was born. A perfect example of how a motivated person does not see any impediments! The common thing in all these five people is that they had the passion for the one thing they believed in, which made them the great successes they are today. You need to find the passion and then find the motivation to keep it alive. Put these two things together and there will be no looking back to earn untold wealth and glory. - 17 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 3: Starting Out with Your Moneymaking Passion - 18 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary So now that you know you have a passion and would like to play on it, how do you actually begin? How do you bring the money in? Read on. - 19 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Identifying the Market Your passion can be anything – however much bizarre and unconventional. The crux is that you can make money out of it. But the main point is – how? This is where the Internet plays a very important role. We must really doff our hats to people like Einstein or Mahatma Gandhi or even Bill Gates for that matter because they achieved their immense successes when the Internet was not around. However, today we have the Internet at our disposal. Whatever our passion is, we can find more about it on the Internet. We can hone our talents and even get in touch with other people who share the interest that we have. What’s most important is that we can find our market out there on the Internet. Think that your passion is painting with your fingertips. This is a very rare passion. Not many people have it. In fact, there may be many detractors of this fascination of yours even right now. Any ordinary person would just bow down to the pressure and give up. Any ordinary person would. But you shouldn’t. You have the Internet to help you now. Just go over to Google and search for finger painting. Look for people who are interested in this art. Visit forums to find out what people speak about it. You will find many enthusiasts of the art speaking about their own personal experiences with finger painting. You will find how they are carrying on with their passion. Go to the bookstore and look for books dealing with the subject of your passion. Watch television. There are many educational channels out there and you will find programs about your passion too. More than anything else, this gives you motivation. It tells you that you are not alone. Possibly you will read about some people who have already made their successes with finger painting and that will help you carry on. - 20 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Blending with Likeminded People When you research about the subject of your passion, you are certainly going to find a lot of people who share the same verve and excitement as you do. After all, who would actively want to make posts on blogs and forums about a particular subject? Only people who are really interested in the topic will do so. So, that is where you find your likeminded coterie of people. You share a common strand with them – the passion for the one thing that you really love. The Internet is full of forums where you can find people discussing about different topics – well, you can practically find a forum about any topic under the sun through the Internet. Check this forum out for an example:http://www.zealot.com/forum/ This is how a typical fishing forum would look like:http://www.fishing-forum.info/ Take your time. Go through these forums and follow the different threads. See what people are talking about. You will see that they are talking about different subjects, and you are sure to find people taking about things you never thought interested anyone. So, if you have a passion and think that there is no one else in the world who shares the same kind of interest that you do, you know where to look. You know that you will find likeminded people on the Internet. How does that help? 1. The first benefit is certainly the motivation that you get. You get all energized knowing that there are other people out there with the same interests as you do. 2. Secondly, you come to know what you can do with your passion. You understand how people are going ahead with it, what developments they are making, what difficulties they face and how they are overcoming them, - 21 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It etc. This is a great deal of education if you are serious about continuing with your passion. - 22 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 4: Your Passion and the Internet - 23 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary With the reach of the Internet, you are sure to find the market for your passion right here. You only must know how to start making money out of it. - 24 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Marketing Your Passion You are now at a place where you can start marketing your passion. You have found out that your niche really does exist in the world and that you are not the only enthusiast. Probably, you have also found your market. Marketing your passion on the Internet makes a great deal of sense because of the following reasons: You can directly reach out to people who are interested in what you are selling. You can reach out to the people who constitute your market, so to speak. You have various free devices by which you can do this. Yes, the blogs and forums are all free. Also, whatever searches you make on the search engines are completely free too! You get a mine of information. There is no limit to what you can find and discover here, including other people’s experiences in dealing with your passion. You can even communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world who is interested in the same thing as you are. So what are the different ways in which you can market your passion on the Internet and make money out of it? There are various ways, which we shall begin dealing with one at a time now. 1. Blogging. Set up a blog and let people who are interested in your product come to you. 2. Creating a forum. You learned more about your passion by visiting a forum yourself, didn’t you? Well, you can also start a forum of your own and have likeminded people come to you instead. 3. Writing an eBook. There is no dearth of people who are looking for quality information on the Internet. Compile everything into an eBook and you will see interested people wanting to purchase them from you. 4. Selling a product. If you can create a product relating to the subject of your interest, you can make some considerable amount of money. That’s because you love what you sell! - 25 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Monetizing Your Passion Here we shall take a look at two of the easiest ways to monetize your passion. Are you ready to begin? Blogging Blogs are personal diaries that you can maintain online. These are great instruments for you to not only speak about your passion but also to make some money out of it if you like. The first important thing you should know is that search engines love blogs. Blogs are constantly updated, which means they have good content. Blogs are generally not full of sales pitch like websites are. Blogs are devices where people can communicate with you so you know exactly what they want. You can sell through a blog if you wanted. All these reasons make blogs great instruments for your moneymaking dreams. Just go to http://www.wordpress.com/ or http://www.blogger.com/ right away and set up a blog. It is darned easy to set one up and everyone must have a blog! The idea is to just start your blog about your passionate subject and worry about the moneymaking aspect later. You will be happy that you could give vent to your passion in this manner. eBooks Writing and selling eBooks is the other fast way you can make money out of your passion. You will find that you do not require to do a lot of work in writing the eBook too. You could marry your eBook and your blog. Use the content of the blog in making the eBook and promote the eBook on the blog. Now, if you are really into - 26 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It business, you could use your eBook for getting further business potential. You can do that in this manner. Promote your eBook for a free download on your blog. When people click on the link where they can download the eBook for free, ask them to give you their email addresses for receiving more content. Since they are getting the eBook for free, they will do that. These become your leads, which you can further pursue through methods such as email marketing. - 27 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 5: Direct Your Passion into Selling EBooks - 28 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary EBooks are the best ways in which you can market your passion over the Internet. There are more ways you can make money out of them than you think. Here are some tips. - 29 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Creating Your EBook An eBook is an electronic book. It is a book that is created using a computer and is made available through online downloads. It is a very easy way of acquiring information for people who want it. If anyone wants them, they just have to click a download button. That’s the reason most of the eBook sales on the Internet happen just on an impulse. People don’t make any active decision to purchase an eBook – they just stumble upon it, like it and download it. And since you are going to make an eBook about a subject that interests you, there is all the more chance of people buying it from your website or blog. So how do you go about writing your eBook? The first thing is to zero in upon the subject you wish to talk about. Of course, you will be writing about the topic of your interest, but you can center on one aspect that would be good for an eBook. Like, if cooking is your passion, you could focus on just one aspect at a time. You could write an eBook on egg recipes, for example. This gives you better focus and leaves the field open for many more eBooks to come. With the subject in your mind, think of the topics. Remember that these topics should be what people like to read. You will have to make a contents page. When the contents page is ready, you know you will have covered everything you need to say when the eBook is finished. Laying out the contents page is a very important first step of building an eBook. It gives the writer focus and direction. Now, for every subject, you have to make sure you have some good information to give. The following kind of information does well in eBooks: Tips and pointers Do-it-yourself methods Personal anecdotes and experiences Motivational writing Interesting and lesser-known facts Website links for getting more information - 30 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It You get the picture. You have to add value to your eBook. Give as much resourceful information as you can. Now, sit down to writing. You are definitely going to put your heart and soul into it because this is a subject that interests you. Remember also to make your eBook presentable. The following are some practical tips you will need to use along the way: Use a good font Use subtitles and headings Use simple language Let your ideas flow systematically. - 31 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Outsourcing Work Now, there are a whole lot of people who have undying love for a subject but do not really care for the actual writing part. You may love repairing bikes, for example, but draw a complete blank when it comes to writing about it! Or maybe you can write but do not have the time or the inclination to do it. What do you do in such cases? The solution is simple, really. You can outsource your work. You will find that there are a lot of people out there who are just looking for such jobs. Once again, the best place to find such people is through the Internet. However, you have to keep some points in mind when you are selecting someone to outsource your work. The person must have a dedication for writing. It is an added bonus if they have a dedication for the subject you are passionate about too. They must have good reviews from their past clients. They must be conscious about timeliness. Their work must be good. They must be willing to communicate with you at length and understand your directions well. The following are some places where you can find people you could outsource your work to:http://www.getafreelancer.com/ http://www.elance.com/ http://www.scriptlance.com/ http://www.guru.com/ http://www.eufreelance.com/ Just become a member here and post your project. You can even mention how many days you want the work in and a ballpark figure indicating what you intend to pay for the job. People who are interested in working for you will make their bids accordingly. - 32 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Once the bids start coming in, you can sift through them, check their samples and decide upon who you want to work with. Of course, the overall directions have to be given by you. Even if you are outsourcing the work, this is a subject that you are passionate about. So make sure you oversee the work and give precise directions so that you get what you want. - 33 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 6: Blogging with Passion - 34 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary When it comes to any method of making money over the Internet, blogging can never be ignored. Here is how you can use a blog to make money out of the act that you so passionately love. - 35 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Why Blogging Works We have already fleetingly seen how the power of blogging can be used to make vast deals of money over the Internet. Let us now see those aspects in detail. First and foremost, why is blogging so very popular? Blogs are very easy to set up and you do not have to look far to set up your own blog. All the resources that you need are available on the Internet itself. If you have a Google account, you could very easily make a blog with http://blogger.com and even if you don’t have a Google account, you could make one in a jiffy. Once you are there, everything that you need to do in order to start your blog is well laid out in front of you. You have to merely follow a few instructions and your blog is up and running. So it is very simple to begin. Blogger is definitely cool, and if you are looking for some variety, you could use http://wordpress.com. WordPress blogs are slightly more difficult to set up and manage than Blogger blogs, but it is definitely not something that you won’t be able to do. In order to monetize this passion blog that you create, here are five tips that you must absolutely follow:1. Follow your gut instinct about what to blog. Do not use clichés. Write about topics that you feel strongly about and you will meet with a favorable response. 2. Always choose topics that are slightly debatable or even controversial. This helps more people to comment on what you are speaking about. This will increase the number of clicks your blog gets and it will be updated better, so you can be sure you get good search engine rankings too. 3. Keep your blog updated. You must make at least 2-3 blog posts a week. 4. Use methods such as RSS feeds so that people know whenever there is something new posted on your blog and they will come automatically. - 36 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It 5. Always make it a habit to visit other blogs of similar subjects, make posts on them and give your link there. This brings in more people to your blog and its prospects increase. - 37 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Methods of Monetizing Your Blog A great blog can be monetized in great measure. If you write passionately about something, the Internet will always find readers for you. You must not let these visitors go waste. If you put your efforts in the right manner, you can make considerable amount of money from tapping on your blog. The following are some ways in which your blog can help you make money. There are various ways to make money through blogs, which you can pursue when you are happy your blog is getting good traffic. 1. Use affiliate marketing ads on your blog. You might become a member of Google AdSense (http://adsense.google.com/). For each click that a visitor makes on these ads, you get money. As your blog is going to be popular, there are going to be a lot of clicks too, which means good money! To make your blog pay you through affiliate marketing, you will need to make your blog popular. For that, you will need to use the trick of search engine optimization. This is not a trick actually, but a technique which everyone uses to make their blogs or websites popular over the Internet. There are actually many things you can do for SEO, but one of the easiest things to do is to find keywords which people are popularly searching for over the Internet. You could use resources like Overture, Wordtracker and Google Suggest to find out which these keywords are. Once you find them, use them copiously in your blog. You will find the rankings of your blog improving. 2. Directly sell products through your blog, or direct people to a website where you sell your products. Blogs can also bring good traffic to your website. It is best if you sell a product that pertains to the subject matter of the blog. The blog itself could act as a review site. This can arouse a good deal - 38 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It of user interest, because they will begin looking upon your blog as a kind of authority site. 3. Sell an eBook through your blog. You could capture leads through this, which could eventually increase your online business profits. - 39 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 7: The Power of Social Networking - 40 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary Social networking is the way to go for the present-day users of the Internet. You could unleash its power to popularize your passion on the Internet and make good money from it too. - 41 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Create Your Online Community One of the best ways you can promote your passion over the Internet is by starting an online community about it. Online communities work in the same way clubs work in the offline world. You have people of similar interests becoming part of such communities and discussing their topics of interest. They may post: Their general experiences The tips and pointers that they have to give Their way of doing things relating to the subject Asking others for guidance Buying and selling stuff Asking opinions of others before buying the products General banter about the particular subject So it can be seen that an online community is the best place to be in whether you want to generally discuss about the subject or get some useful guidance about it. It is no wonder that almost every Internet user is part of some or the other community in today’s times. The following are some of the most interesting social networking websites present on the Internet. They are the best because they have a large number of members. Now, how does that help? Quite simply, a large number of members mean a greater scope to have people of a particular interest. Also, because there are such a large number of people here, some or the other activity is always going on, which makes the whole state of affairs quite lively. http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.myspace.com/ - 42 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It On both these websites, you can post your complete profile, with picture and website link if you have one. You can mention your interests, which will certainly include your passion. When you are present on the community, you can look for groups that are discussing your subject of interest within the community. In any case, if you have defined tags about your interest, it is quite likely that people with similar interests will find you. Sooner than you think, you will be discussing all things possible about your favorite topic. And, knowingly or unknowingly, you will be building a big and targeted market for yourself within the community. - 43 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Setting Up a Community on Facebook Facebook is repeatedly heralded as the initiator of Business 2.0. What it means is that Facebook has effectively hurled the old style of doing business out of the window and ushered in a new method of doing it. What’s best is that you can earn doing exactly what you like. That’s the world of Facebook for you. You begin by registering your account. Go to http://www.facebook.com/ and register your account. There are simple instructions to follow. They will send you a confirmation email, the normal jazz, and you have to confirm it and then sign in. Now, you can make your profile. This is the most important step, because this is going to be your virtual office. You will have to fill in the basic riffraff such as name, sex, sexual preference, status of relationship and, one important input, the reason why you have signed in on Facebook. This is the place where you have to be upright professional. Mention that you are here for networking. This underlines the fact that you are on Facebook for business. Facebook allows you to promote yourself as much as you want. Give the contact details so that people can network with you if you want to. You can also give the link to your Twitter profile if you have one. You can check out Twitter, another social networking website at http://www.twitter.com/. You can keep enhancing your profile as much as you want. You can go on and on about yourself. You can speak about your education, your place of work, your country, your ethnicity, your hobbies and preferences, etc. You must not neglect the power of any of these in your marketing dreams. For example, if you mention the name of your college, someone else from the same college who is on Facebook may want to network with you. - 44 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It You can also upload your photo. This is an important step too because it gives a face to your online existence. People find your business to be more credible when they can see your face. Once you are on Facebook, you can find other people who have the same interests as you do and network with them. Also, people will find you. So be ready for a barrage of networking members. And good business to you! - 45 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 8: Other Ways of Monetizing Your Passion - 46 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary Here are some other methods in which you can make money out of what you like doing the most. - 47 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Other Methods of Monetizing Your Passion We have touched upon the chief methods of promoting your passion over the Internet and making money out of it, but in no way have we spoken of all the methods that prevail. Here we discuss some of the other methods you have to monetize your passion. Video Marketing A lot of people log in on the Internet to watch videos nowadays. With the advent of the broadband, everyone gets a good speed for the videos and also with unlimited access packages, they do not pay as much either. Indulging in video marketing is a great idea for you, since you can actually go all out and promote the subject of your passion. Log in on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) and promote your videos there. YouTube is also a social marketing site, so you are going to find a lot of enthusiasts there. YouTube has everything going for it in a business sense, actually. You can find the largest number of people on YouTube in comparison to anywhere else on the Internet; you can put your website link directly in the video; there are thousands of people checking in each video, commenting on it and visiting the business links, and so on. The potential of doing business with YouTube is immense. If you have a digital camera with a video recording function, you have all it takes to indulge yourself in some video marketing. Audio Marketing This is similar to video marketing, with the difference that you make audio clips instead of video clips. Most social networking sites allow you to put audio clips on them. You can check out Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Orkut, hi5 and so many others for this facility. You will have the satisfaction of letting your voice reach out to millions of enthusiasts while you speak about the subject that you love the most. Article Marketing - 48 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It This is the age-old method of Internet marketing, and probably one of the oldest. Write an informative article about your subject of interest and put it up on an article directory. You can furnish a link to your website below the article and describe you are about in a bio box. Some of the places where you can submit your articles include:http://www.ezinearticles.com/ http://www.buzzle.com/ http://www.articlesbase.com/ http://www.articlecity.com/ http://www.eHow.com/ http://www.goarticles.com/ eHow.com is a wonderful place where you can write about how to do things. If you have a passion about anything, repairing electrical stuff for instance, you can write several articles on eHow.com relating to them. - 49 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Some More Methods Uploading Photographs Where’s your digital camera? Get it out! There are innumerable ways in which you can unleash your passion with it. Like clay modeling? Take a picture of what you have done. Like making stuffed toys? Capture your work in a photograph. You get the point. And then upload these photographs on special websites. There are several places where you can do that. http://www.picasa.com/ http://www.photobucket.com/ http://www.flickr.com/ These are places where people come hunting for photos. But what’s best is that they can network also. People who like your photos will communicate with you. On places like Photobucket.com and Flickr.com, they will have to ask you for permission before they can use these photos. There lies your method of expanding your business network then! Make Videos about the Games You play Is gaming your passion? There are countless people who harbor this passion anyway. Now, you could monetize this passion in several ways. Applying for a game tester job is one, but what we are going to speak about is something radically different. Make videos of the games that you play. These should be videos captured from the original game play, as you have played it. Now, if you are an avid gamer, you will realize that these videos are priceless. Imagine you make a video of Far Cry 2 showing people how to cross the difficult regions. You will be surprised at the large number of people who search for cheats and walkthroughs for games on the Internet. If you upload your video on YouTube or somewhere similar, people will definitely find that interesting. With your video, they will actually be able to see how to make Gordon Freeman of Half - 50 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Life devastate all those critters with rotating fan blades instead of merely reading about it. Fun, eh? Post Your Songs Do you fancy yourself a singer? Well, don’t sing in the bathroom anymore. Record yourself singing and post it on the Internet. YouTube is flush with such song video clips. What do you know, some recorder may be watching YouTube, stumble upon you and make you that all-important call. Don’t scoff at it, this has happened several times in the past. A few of our American Idol contenders already had their videos on YouTube before they auditioned. Remember the poor fellow Michael Johns who was voted out early last year, quite undeservingly? He already had a legion of fans in the online world by virtue of his uploaded songs on YouTube. - 51 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Chapter 9: Passion and Business – Striking the Balance - 52 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Summary It is your passion and you would not compromise on it. However, you are also planning to make money out of it. As such, there are some things you need to remember. - 53 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Common Pitfalls that can stop You from Monetizing Your Passion Being passionate about something is different; making money from it is different. You have to take care that you avoid the common pitfalls that most zealous marketers do. Here is how you strike that all-important balance between your passion and your business aspirations. Market Your Passion Most people get so worked up that they are dealing with their favorite topic that they forget to market it. You simply must use all the methods mentioned in this eBook if you want to make those bagfuls of money from your passion. If your passion does not reach out to other people who are also passionate about it, you are very unlikely to find your market. And the fundamental rule of business is “No market = no business”. Do not fall into that trap. Remember to keep utilizing all the marketing tools you can. Outsource! You cannot hope to handle all aspects of the affair from a business point of view. You might love the subject, but what about building the website, keeping the blogs updated, writing and submitting articles, search engine optimizing, etc.? There is no way you will be talented enough or inclined enough to do all of these things. This is why outsourcing is important. If there is something you cannot do, you should not let that hold you back from realizing your monetary aspirations. You can always outsource work from the sources mentioned earlier in this eBook and find someone who can do the job better and more efficiently than you can. Keep Evolving Even though you have a penchant for the subject you are converting into a business, you must know that business is serious business. You have to give quality and maintain that. Take an example. Imagine you like repairing cars and you are making a business out of giving information on how to do that. Now, once - 54 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It you are in the business, it is your responsibility to learn everything about cars and keep learning the new things that keep getting developed. If you do not evolve, you will be booted out in no time, even if the subject is up to your keenest interests. - 55 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It How Much Business and How Much Passion? You are going to ask yourself this question sooner or later. You start it as a passionate business, but you will begin feeling that the business aspect of it begins taking over, probably even driving your interest in the subject away. This is where you need to set your priorities right. When you are dealing with something as a business, even if it is your most intimate topic, you have to be serious about it. Yes, once you have taken something up as a business, you cannot afford to fool with it. Take the example of computer gaming. That could be your # 1 passion. But can you monetize it if you just keep playing all day? Of course not! You have to play your game, learn how it is, write a walkthrough or a guide about it or make a video, market it, etc. Only then can you hope to make any money. Sounds tough, right? But then that is life. We were meant to keep struggling all our days. But here the best point is that you are struggling with something that’s your passion also. But think about it – there’s no provision in life to keep pursuing a favorite hobby and not working anymore. We have to work, come what may. However, you can hone your existence in such a way that you earn from something you like doing. Strike the balance carefully, and your life will become the proverbial bed of roses. All the best! So, be passionate about the thing that interests you. You can make money out of it too. But you have to know that you will have to keep putting in your efforts too. This eBook tells you the right way to go about it. Use it and you will find that you can keep your passion as well as your business alive. - 56 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It Conclusion So here is how you can pursue your life’s most cherished dream and make a whirlwind amount of money from it too. So that no one can stop you from pursuing your hobby anymore! In fact, people will tell you to pursue it because you are minting money out of it! The life’s best to you! -------------------------------- About The Author Brenda Tan is a certified Business Coach, and life path strategist. Marrying her passion for achieving personal and professional success, she is passionate about helping individuals master their highest potential and release self-imposed limitations, in cooperating tools like numerology and tarot cards. Her clients span across countries such as Asia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Dubai and UK to name a few. Based in Singapore, Brenda also conduct talks on numerology, stress management, self mastery and business topics for many organisations such as Aviva, Agilent Technologies, PropertyGuru, Singtel, and National University of Singapore. Her most recent achievement was breaking a record in Singapore Book Of Records, having organized Singapore’s largest Gokon Gathering for Singles. She - 57 - How To Focus On Your Passion And Make Money Out Of It provided insights to singles on what they must do if they want to have a successful relationship. As testimony to Brenda’s career achievements, she was cited by the Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally Speech in 2008 as an exemplary role model of excellence. For more information on how Brenda can help you achieve more love, harmony and success into our lives, visit www.HolisticHealingMind.com . Life takes flight with you! - 58 -
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