Howdy Reader! Starting a side hustle is exciting. Especially for someone who is drawn to bright shiny things like me, haha! I'd plan a little bit, but I'd often go overboard on the supplies I'd need. For example, I still have a ton of padded envelopes left over when I got a bunch of CDs to resell. I'd justify the large quantity by pointing to the lower per-unit cost. But this is of no use if they just sit there! The last few times, though, I've restrained myself a bit better: I got a thermal...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I grew up in Corning, NY. You may have heard of Corning Ware or Corning Glass. That's the place. It's also the place where Steuben Glass was made. My grandfather and father were both avid collectors of art glass. They kept many of their Steuben Glass catalogs. These sell on eBay for more than you might guess. This is part of my end-of-year push to profitability. So today I organized the catalogs I have by size so that I could purchase shipping supplies. That, and I got my first...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I was all gung-ho about starting the 12-Week Year to get to profitability by the end of 2025. It mostly didn't happen. I was supposed to set up a plan, and I didn't even manage to do that. This is what's called a "growth opportunity." Or simply a baseline. Something to measure against. But I own the results. That's part of it. Let's start every day fresh and be productive together! ~ John When you're up for it, here are some other ways I can help you: Follow me on Threads and...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! My wife made someone's day on Threads yesterday. Remember the Disney movie Tangled? Someone was putting together an outfit for her daughter's homecoming dance that had Tangled as the theme. A key prop in that movie was Rapunzel's frying pan. The woman wanted a frying pan necklace for her daughter, but didn't have time to order one on Etsy because it was getting close to the dance. My wife had the solution: Go to a craft shop that sells dollhouse miniatures and find a small...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I have a couple of freelancing clients. One is a website client. I manage his website and occasionally write an article for him there. The other is a newsletter client. I've begun to help him with his weekly newsletter to his list. Both of them coming on as clients were a bit of a surprise. I wasn't seeking them out as clients. They reached out to me and asked for help. The common thread, as far as I can tell, was that they trust me. That came after building a good relationship...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I spend some time replying to posts on various money-making subreddits. A lot of people are in rough spots and need to make extra money for various reasons. They're not asking from a position of strength. They need extra cash for car repairs, or because they're going through a divorce. They're often not in a comfy job that affords them regular time to build something up. Even if they were, building these platforms takes time (as I very well know!) That's why when I hear "I need...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Two kinds of income: direct and residual. Direct income means you do a job and get paid. Residual income means you build something once and get paid many times. I've been working to build residual income for a long time. The thing with that kind of income is that it's less of a sure thing. Ad revenue is great, but if the source of the traffic dries up, it goes down. Royalties are great, but if the publisher changes the rules, it's gone. Direct income, though, has advantages....
9 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Everyone gets 1,440 minutes each day. Let's say you have a 9-to-5 with a half-hour lunch and half-hour commute each way. That's 570 minutes. Sleep for eight, and that's another 480 minutes. That leaves 390 minutes for everything else. That's six and one-half hours. Some, or even most, of that time may be for others. That happens. But for the part that's not, how are you spending it? Open question to you. Let's grow and be productive together! ~ John When you're up for it, here...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! So here's an experiment I'm running. Sometimes -- ok, regularly -- my energy flags. Rather than doomscroll or surf aimlessly when this happens, I wanted to be at least a bit productive. So I got myself an inexpensive bingo game with a ball cage. I'm treating it like a little vending machine for a straightforward task. It's fun to crank the lever and receive the balls. I rotate the cage to dispense a ball (or five). B means I fix a post on my blog that has BROKEN links I means I...
12 days ago • 1 min read