Howdy Reader! It's fairly common to hear this: "If you're not inciting people, you're doing it wrong." Controversial opinions, or at least strong ones, are memorable. Being memorable helps you to be heard above the noise. It attracts people of similar mind, and they'll rally with you. It also ruffles the feathers of those who disagree with you. It's better to have controversial opinions about ideas rather than people, though. The times I've gone after a person rather than an idea, it didn't...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! File this in the for-what-it's-worth department. I have probably too many apps installed on my phone. It got unwieldy at some point, so I put them into folders. I eventually organized them by function, with verbs as the folder names: Bank (PayPal, Credit union, etc.) Connect (social media mainly) Earn (semi-passive income earners) Eat (Chipotle, Mickey D's, etc.) GPT (Get Paid To) Grow (communities, health apps) Invest (brokerages) Listen (Spotify, Shazam) Play (games) Read...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! With my Obsidian Starter Kit for Content Creators, I promised lifetime updates. This affords me at least three things: 1) I can let current purchasers know when upgrades happen. It's a good time to keep in touch. 2) I can use it as an opportunity to ask for feedback from current purchasers. 3) I have the option to let my community know when another upgrade is going to happen, and that the price will go up to reflect the new information. So yeah, I'm working on some updates....
3 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Ran across this subreddit last night: r/HowEarnMoneyOnline Over 500 weekly contributions and over 5k weekly visitors. Every post drives traffic to an external website two ways: 1) A bot posts a template with several links to the website on every post. 2) Links to several pages on the website are in the sidebar as bookmarks. Reddit is free, and one of the biggest sites on the web. The moderators contribute a lot of comments to keep the subreddit active. But even if they don't,...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! One of my former colleagues is caring for his wife through an injury. She slipped and broke both the tibia and fibula on one ankle. A pretty nasty break, especially in the cold of winter. I sent a message to him wishing her a good recovery. He responded: "I always regarded you as one of the kindest people I know. Thanks for being you." How often do we get thanked for just being ourselves? That's really all we should be, right? It's what people connect with. Let's grow together!...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I find new uses for ChatGPT regularly. We got a few lots of items yesterday. I wanted to understand what they were and how much they typically cost. All it took was a couple of pictures and ChatGPT nailed it: Apple Watch 1, 2, and 3 screen protectors 1-to-3 fan splitters for desktop assembly Acrylic blanks for keychains or ornaments It's a big time-saver when researching product details. Listing faster means selling more. Bring it on! Let's grow together! ~ John P.S. Check out...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I sell a bit on eBay. For this year, all of my sales center around one thing: Currency with special serial numbers. My knowledge has led me to 1) buy dollar bills for under two dollars apiece, and 2) sell them for nearly $12 each. Eleven dollar bills have sold this year for a total of $130. Not bad! They just kind of sat there until buyers found them. Thing is, I didn't learn about these overnight. I've spent many hours over the past year looking at auctions, and curating my...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! There's passive income, like dividends and interest. Then there's residual income, like royalties, commissions, and product sales. This week I sold a couple more copies of my Obsidian Starter Kit for Content Creators. Three dollars and sixty-two cents, after fees. It's proof of concept income, but not "I can quit now" income. The main driver, all other things being equal, is traffic. More people visiting the sales page means more sales, other things being equal. By doing more of...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Dick Van Dyke turns 100 today. He's in a class all his own, of course. But even just considering his age, he's still in an elite group: Only 1 in about 5,000 people in the US live to 100. A hundred years, as long as that is, is only 5,217 weeks. For us "mere mortals," we might get around 4,000. Every TGIF ticks one of those weeks off the calendar. Make sure they count! Let's grow together! ~ John P.S. Check out my writing on Medium Note: Some links in this email may be affiliate...
11 days ago • 1 min read