Howdy Reader! In my last email, I talk about how I helped my wife back up her Threads posts. She had good reason for typing them directly into the Threads interface. She wanted to format the posts for length and the like. My suggestion of typing them in a Word document first wouldn't really work for that. But she did agree to save them off in a document going forward, so I count that as a win. 😁 I do things a bit differently. When I write a post, it goes into Obsidian first. It goes there...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I helped my wife back up her Threads posts. For a few weeks, she's posted very nice information about historical books. Lots of likes and interactions, and she also broke 100 followers. But all of the work was put directly on Threads. This makes them vulnerable. If they suspend her account, they're gone. (Not that we have any reason to think they would, but who knows?) So I tried to use the data export tool. It was less than helpful. Every individual post and comment was lumped...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I puttered a bit today. It's a way to get things done. It's not the most efficient way, perhaps, but it's far better than nothing. I started by getting a load of laundry going. I went through a very old folder of business documents. I found the document I was looking for earlier in the week (yay!) I uploaded that document to Wise, hopefully this will fix things. I opened a bunch of mail that had been sitting on the buffet for a week. I put our van's registration stickers on. I...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Getting a side hustle going is a great way to sleep better at night. You're building something for yourself, regardless of what happens with your job. But since there are so many options for side hustles out there, it can be overwhelming as to where to start. My friend Colin has developed this 12-question quiz that can help to narrow down a good fit. It's free to take the quiz. Check it out! Let's grow together! ~ John When you're up for it, here are some other ways I can help...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! A lot of people make money directly on Amazon by posting videos. This requires account approval. A social media presence is needed, something like 1,000 followers on a video channel. I'm not quite there yet, so my account request was rejected. But it's still possible to make money with videos with Amazon without this approval. Sign up for the Amazon Associates program. Record videos (shorts) of a product. Include your associates link in the video description. Post on TikTok,...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Over 20 years ago I bought this book by Robert G. Allen called Multiple Streams of Income. It covered a broad array of ways to make money: Real estate Digital marketing Covered call options Affiliate programs More These streams are all over the place, but they all can make a lot of money. Where I'm going, though, is that one source of income is risky, especially if it's unreliable income. I have a web client who is a decent poker player. He runs well, and sometimes,...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Tonight I listed ten catalogs on eBay from start to finish. Earlier in the day I wrote the task in my notebook. Almost as an afterthought, I said that it would take about an hour to do this. I honestly had no idea. I got the work done -- taking the pictures, editing the pictures, and putting everything in listings -- in a little over an hour. This is something I haven't done in a while: Estimate how long a task will take. As I was doing it, I was looking at the clock to see how...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! My newsletter client sent me a link to sign up for a Wise account. It's a payment processor that he uses in his business, and he loves it. Here's the link if you want to check it out. I had a lot of things to get together to sign up for it. It took the better part of an hour because I hadn't organized things well. I still may not have everything I need, and will need to call the IRS to get a document. Disorganization costs time, and money. (I wrote about this quite a while ago...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I had a choice of activities today. One was a picnic with my colleagues. The other was a once-a-year art and wine festival that my wife and I have attended several years in a row. It was unfortunate scheduling, but I had to choose. What won out was who I'd see there. I spend a quarter of my week with my colleagues. Most of the interactions aren't friendship, really. I'm showing professional tolerance. I'm polite, they're polite, but they're mostly in it for themselves. It wasn't...
11 days ago • 1 min read