#not to mention poor people often dont have the time money etc to invest in hobbies like that

[boag]

Literally…. See: the way resellers take all the nice stuff from thrift stores for cheap and then jack up prices as if that’s not still screwing over poor people

[bonecorn]

I love your anatomy/references posts & I love skulls and skeletons & I would love to know how you convince people to give you their animal heads to clean. Also any bone cleaning tips for suburban areas?? When I was living on a farm it was easy to leave stuff out and let the bugs take care of it but my parents said hard no to dead things bleaching on the porch

Oh this is very easy!

Find a friend or acquaintance with land and leave your stuff there. Bug cleaning and tub maceration don't need a lot of hands-on attendance so you can check in however often you like.

There's also "hot water maceration" where you simmer (dont boil!) fresh heads in hot water and remove the cooked meat by hand. Make sure you scramble the brains first and then cook away inside or with a camping stove on the porch. And "bleaching" which is done with hydrogen peroxide can be done inside since the skulls are already clean by then anyway.

I don't actually convince people to give me their pets. For livestock, I ask because most people aren't emotionally attached to their livestock.

For pets, I wait to be offered the remains. More on that under the cut.

TLDR: Know the pet owner, wait to be offered bodies rather than asking. Make sure they are always in control. Ask for livestock no problem. Don't let scavengers eat euthanized meat.

holy crap lol

I don't ask for pet bodies. The trick is to be very open and excited about what you do so that people who know you know about bones and know that you are respectful of animal remains. Then, when a beloved pet dies, they might think about you.

Open up the conversation on death before it's relevant

You can also plant the seed ahead of time during a conversation about bones while the pet in question is alive and healthy. "Sometimes I do pets if their owner is ok with it, though most want to bury. Have you ever thought about that for Baxter?" It's in SUPER poor taste to do this while an animal is dying, when you'll need to be way more tactful.

Know your friend well enough to guess their feelings on it

It SUPER depends on the person and how they view bodies and death. My ex's dog passed away and he was always queasy about corpses. I comforted him and cried with him while his beloved 15 year old dog declined and passed. I didn't ask or even mention it because I knew him enough to know that he would say no, and that asking would be painful and upsetting for him to think about. Same with my dear friend and her 20 year old cat. She had a beautiful pet graveyard with headstones and everything. You just know not to ask some people because traditionally laying bodies to rest is important to them.

Other pet owners are chill about it, ESPECIALLY if they come from a livestock background. Livestock people are used to sending their animals to be recycled into glue and wax when they die, because it's generally not feasible to bury or cremate a horse. If someone does plan to take that on, you know they are absolutely dedicated to traditional burial and won't give you anything.

Make it their choice to offer, rather than it being your request

Anyway. If you know the person, and you know they might be ok with giving up their pet's body due to how they view bodies and death, then you work on making them think about you. First, you comfort and do everything you can to help the person through their grief. If you weren't already planning on doing that, then you have no business asking for their pet. Do not comfort someone in order to get something out of them. That's disgusting. Just straight up ask them for their pet and know that they will view you as tactless and rude, but its better than manipulating them.

What I do is not manipulation, it's reminding people what you do and then letting them make their own decisions. When your friend is feeling a little better and is not crying, you can ask about logistics. I ask "What do you plan to do for burial/with the body?" and that usually makes them think about me and what I do with bodies. If they already have a meaningful spot picked out to bury or scatter/keep ashes, then that means the body is important to them and I shouldn't ask further.

At this point, they should realize what you could use the body for and think about how they feel about that. This is when my sister (who has a livestock background) offered her dog to me. We talked about how she thought of bodies, and she thought that the soul is the only thing that matters and once her dog passes there's nothing important left. I did not say anything to convince her, these were all her own thoughts.

It's very VERY important to respect and love the pet owner because they're extremely vulnerable and emotionally raw. That's why I don't straight up ask, because when you're losing a pet, you don't want to feel like someone is trying to gain something from you.

If your friend says they don't know or haven't decided what to do for the body, you can gently say "Let me know if you want me to help bury it, to take it with me, or to just be there for you." This is a close-ended statement and not a question. A question means that your friend has to come up with an answer right there and then, while an offer is actionable. This puts the power and autonomy in your friend's hands, so that when they make a decision it comes fully from their wants and needs and is not about you and what you want.

Be there for them even if you get nothing out of it

If they don't offer at this point, they're not going to. Now hold up your end of the bargain and continue to comfort and help through the grieving process. Again, if you aren't already invested in this person enough to want to soothe and comfort and be there for the human person in the equation, then you have no business asking for their pet. When a pet dies, your first concern should be to the person. If it's not, then you aren't close enough to ask for goodies.

Helping someone grieve is not payment for their pet's body. If you realize they aren't going to give you something in return for your comfort and so you abandon them, you're a terrible person using their grief to manipulate them for your own gain. Comfort is not payment. Closeness in grief is a metric by which you measure "Do I have any business to ask?"

The pet owner runs the show, not you

Throughout this process, stress that the owner can change their mind at any time. You don't want the owner to think "I hate this but I can't back out now because I promised..." Even when they animal is all wrapped up an in your vehicle and ready to go, quietly tell the owner that they can still choose what happens and if they have second thoughts, that's ok and you won't be mad.

My sister let me be there for putting her dog down and it was all about her and her love for her dog. She carried him out and laid him in my trunk and we stood in the rain and talked and hugged. She then told me she was happy that he could bring happiness to someone in life and now still in death, but that she didn't want to know anything. I agreed not to tell her or post anything about processing her dog, so for her it would be like burial. The same thing happened with my other friend's horse. She spent some time with him and then as soon as he passed she drove away and let me do what I wanted. She didn't want to hear Any of it. Again, I didn't ask or even offer, she came up with the idea of giving me the body all on her own even before I knew he was dying.

Horse people are much closer to pet owners than livestock owners, but they are used to sending their friend's bodies off to a different kind of processing (at Tallow factories, livestock remains are ground up, cut apart, cooked, and spun around to extract various substances that become soap, glue, candles, etc) so they know not to think about what happens after death. It still depends on how well you know the owner and know how they think about death, but if you offer to handle logistics like dealing with the tallow guy, they can actually save money by letting you have it.

You're actually doing livestock a favor

Livestock people are generally chill and have a much more utility/asset view of their animals. If the animal doesn't even have a name they probably don't care what happens when it's dead. In fact, most farmers will jump at the chance to give you their animal for free because calling the tallow company to haul it away costs them money. This is also why in areas with lots of livestock, you sometimes find bodies dumped in ditches or left on the side of the road, because the farmer didn't want to pay to get rid of it so they made it everyone else's problem. Even pet animals like dogs and cats are more Utility than pure companions on a farm, so you might have a better chance of getting remains from a farmer than a neighbor.

One more thing about pets and livestock.

When I find a dead deer, I flay it open and let the vultures eat it. For domestic animals, they are often put to sleep via chemical/drug.

THIS IS POISONOUS TO SCAVENGERS.

DO NOT LET SCAVENGERS EAT EUTHANIZED ANIMALS

Seriously. If you like nature, you need to protect it. Deflesh it yourself, throw all the meat/blood/offal away or bury it 6 feet down. Idk what it does to the environment so I always freeze it and then throw it away on garbage day.

Rot bacteria and beetle larvae dermestids don't mind. In fact, dermestid droppings and pupa shells can be analyzed for toxins by forensic scientists to determine cause of death. Neat! Just make sure that if you process outdoors, the remains are EXTREMELY SECURE and cannot be opened by vultures, coyotes, or wild pigs.

Remember the living, human person

I know I look very clinical by picking apart human emotions, but I respond, feel, love, and grieve just like everyone else. I didn't plan how to get any of the animals in the above stories, I just acted on instinct and these are the ones where that paid off well.

Most of the time if I go "huh. I feel that may not go over well" I can then take that feeling apart and figure out why. So hopefully explaining how my feelings work it can help you listen to your most useful and most compassionate ones.

The living person is always more important than a dead pet. Sometimes you can get the dead pet without distressing your friend, sometimes you shouldn't even try.

Respecting the dead

A final note on working with pets vs wild animals. This is someone's family member, so don't play puppet with it like you might with a skunk skin. Don't take pictures of any part of the process until they are rendered to bones. Pictures of dead pet species are even more distressing to the general public than wild animals, and sick freaks might take your photos and send them to people for kicks or attention. Better to just not have photos than for that to happen.

What processing a pet feels like

Working on a pet is always going to be different for you, the vulture, than a wild animal. Everything you see is touched by human hands. My sister's dog was... beautiful. You don't really realize how moved you're going to be by seeing the perfect amount of healthy fat covering, or beautiful muscles that speak of exercise and attention. She rescued this starving pup and turned him into the healthiest animal I have ever seen. She's a vet assistant and the care and love she put into this dog had me sitting there crying while I held his paws; with their perfectly maintained clipped and sanded nails. I'd only met the dog once for a few minutes when he was alive, but his body was a canvas and every inch was painted with layers and layers of love. It made me so, so sad that his neurological issues couldn't be helped because his body was proof of someone who would stop at nothing to cure what could be cured, and that the last months of his life were happier than he ever imagined.

On the flip side, pets whose bodies show signs of neglect and abuse are going to hit you harder than any deer could. The dog I found discarded in a garbage bag on the side of the road had rotten teeth and nails so long they curled over themselves into hoops. An overgrown and suffering deer is just the sign of nature taking its course. An overgrown and suffering dog is the sign of human cruelty, of shirked responsibility.

Most pets you get will between these two dogs. No owner is perfect. Most old dogs have lost teeth to rot, sick cats too weak to scratch properly may have overgrown nails.

Death as beauty

A pet's body usually a beautiful story full of ups and downs; of owners doing things wrong and then doing things right. A vulture or an artist can read a body like rings on a tree and feel the heart beat in their chest that tells them how strong and full of love this life had been. You need to be ready for this part. Every detail is a message from your fellow human and even though we are all animals and we decompose into the same dirt, we're meant to connect to each other here and now.

Keep your emotions open when working with remains.

Listen to what they have to teach you.

[savefrog]

There are definitely kickstarter scams out there.

But a lot of those failed video game kickstarters are definitely more complicated than scams

Its the result of poor management, technical issues, experience levels, poor design choices and so many different things.

A lot of time and money goes into games and most kickstarter budgets dont even approach the normal amount needed to feed a team for the months planned...and if that game is delayed at all to fix issues? More money is needed for that team.

A "scam" implies some sort of intention to trick people out of their money. And i understand how people can feel that way if they spent money on something that doesn't meet their expectations or turns out bad. But i dont think it was the developers intentions to fool people and run off with the money.

Yooka Laylee, for example, seemed promising. But they made really bad choices. They thought huge worlds would be a selling point...instead, they turned out feeling empty. Things that are good on paper can turn out awful when put into place, but you may have no idea until all the assets are made, maps designed, months have passed and things are only just coming together. This is a result of not playtesting soon enough; a time management issue, and it happens all the time.

And as I mentioned before; fixing issues requires more time, which may cause delays, which in turn costs more money.

And struggling kickstarters may end up cutting out staff because games are expensive. Which just makes it harder to complete.

The AAA industry funds games based on how successful/safe they predict they will be. Kickstarters fund games primarily through hype.

Games the AAA industry wouldve tossed aside as being "too risky" have found success on Kickstarter and that's amazing! But...there's a reason it's risky.

Unlike call of duty or fifa or whatever, there's no formula for what works and what doesnt work.

Industry professionals trying to make a game through kickstarter are entirely responsible for their checkpoints, whereas before a higher up wouldve been like "we want to see a prototype on ______ date." They suddenly have more freedom.

It makes sense how games like Broken Age and Yooka Laylee could fall apart despite having industry professionals on board.

As for games with inexperienced game designers? Thats a whole other kettle of fish.

AAA games in general never have everything the developers planned to put in. There's never enough time. Stuff is always cut down and then cut down again.

Kickstarter games are held to the standards set when they wrote the game features on the page. This is understandable; as the consumers paid for what the kickstarter said it would deliver.

Yet if they cut those features: they face criticism. If they dont cut those features....they lose time to work on making the game as a whole better, less resources, badly Implemented features, etc.

Im not saying this to excuse bad design. When making Yooka Laylee they shouldve tested the levels as early as possible. They should've looked even harder at how Banjo worked. And with the money they raised from the kickstarter...!?

But at the same time I can see how they didnt have time to make a revised version. And they probably will never make a Yooka Laylee 2 to fix that. And the kickstarter money was crumbs compared to AAA budgets. And AAA games fall flat VERY OFTEN.

Its just a bad game. Not a scam. Not some evil trick to fool consumers.

It's always a risk to back these projects; just as its a risk when a company invests millions into a new game. Be careful because you really dont know what to expect.

Its just a lot more...skeevy, I suppose, when the funding comes directly from excited consumers rather then industry investors. Kickstarters in general are probably a whole other discussion that Im nowhere near qualified to talk about.

[alanajacksontx]

How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 2019: 20X Faster Method

What if I told you there’s a new strategy for how to start a blog and make money, that’s 20X faster, requires no software or technical expertise, and costs absolutely nothing up front?

You’d think there must be some hidden catch, right?

But there’s not. It’s totally real.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through the newest method for how to start a blog, step-by-step, with screenshots and links to all the resources you need. Let’s jump in…

Table of Contents

Should You Even Start a Blog in 2019?

The Old Way to Create a Blog (And Why It Doesn’t Work)

How to Start a Blog and Make Money (the New Method)

Make Sure Your Blog Is Actually Viable (Not All Are)

Spy on Popular Blogs to See What’s Working

Test Your Ideas on Medium (Not WordPress!)

Get a Clear (Not Clever!) Domain Name

Switch over to WordPress

Set Up WordPress the Right Way

Grow to $1,000 per Month (and Beyond)

Frequently Asked Questions

Should You Even Start a Blog in 2019?

With the dominance of video content on platforms like YouTube and Facebook, you might think the whole idea of blogging is a little… out of date. Research tells a different story, though:

Source: https://expresswriters.com/the-big-2017-content-marketing-spend-infographic/

And it’s not just companies who are getting great results from blogging. It also works well for…

Nonfiction authors: Before giving you a book deal, publishers want to know you have a “platform” — an audience who will be happy to buy and promote your book. Blogging is one of the best ways to build that platform, and so it’s no coincidence many popular bloggers also become bestselling authors.A blog is also helpful when you’re self-publishing. By leveraging your existing audience, you can drive your book up the Amazon bestseller list, giving you the chance to grab the attention of readers who would’ve never heard of you otherwise.

Lifestyle entrepreneurs: If you enjoy writing, and you’re willing to be patient, you can use your blogging platform to produce a passive income that gives you the lifestyle many people only dream of having. Top bloggers often travel the world, buy dream homes in the mountains or next to the ocean, and have nearly unlimited free time to spend with their family or doing whatever they choose.Where does the money come from? You can read this comprehensive post for a step-by-step walk-through of the process, but here’s the short version:

In the past, bloggers were limited to selling advertisements and sponsorships, but today you can make even more money from affiliate marketing, creating your own course, or charging ultra-high rates for coaching/consulting. For example, I once charged $1000 per hour for advice over the phone, only worked five hours a week, and had a six-month waiting list.That being said, it’s hard to do. You need the skill, persistence, and talent to attract hundreds of thousands or even millions of readers. If you can pull it off though, you may never have to worry about money again.

Mature businesses with millions of potential customers: This might be surprising, but not all businesses should start a blog. If you’re running a tech startup, small retail store, or manufacturing plant, for example, it’s probably not the best use of your time. On the other hand, it’s a great fit for mature businesses in markets with millions of potential customers.By “mature,” I’m referring to companies with a refined and effective product or service, existing revenue (at least six figures), and a deep understanding of their marketing metrics. In other words, you’re not really guessing about whether your company will succeed. You’re just looking for a way to grow.And ideally, you’re in a market with millions of potential customers. This one can be tricky because it’s not the size of the market that matters. Space rocket manufacturing is a multibillion-dollar industry, but I would guess there are a few hundred customers out there buying rockets. On the other hand, there are millions of small businesses, clothes shoppers, productivity geeks, and so on. For a blog to be effective, that’s the kind of market you want.

So, let’s say you fall into one of these categories. Should you just install WordPress and get cracking?

Actually— no.

The Old Way to Create a Blog (And Why It Doesn’t Work)

A few years ago, I would’ve said WordPress was the only game in town. It’s faster, more powerful, and more customizable than anything out there. That’s why they power 27% of the sites in the world.

The problem?

WordPress is also extremely complicated. Here’s a typical list of tasks for setting up a new site:

Purchase web hosting

Set up a new site through cPanel

Create a new WordPress installation through Fantastico or one of their competitors

Pick out and install your WordPress theme

Customize your theme until it looks the way you want

Install and configure caching plugins

Install and configure backup plugins

Add any extra functionality you need, such as social sharing, e-commerce, etc., by installing additional plug-ins

If you’re a techie, and you’ve done it all before, it’s not a big deal. You can do it all in a few hours.

But if you’re a beginner learning how to start a blog for the first time?

It’s overwhelming, and once you see how much there is to learn, you’ll probably feel like quitting. If you do push forward, you can spend months or even years stuck in a technical quagmire, just learning how to do everything the right way.

Of course, you can always outsource it, but you don’t really know what you are doing, your chances of picking the wrong service provider is pretty high. You might get scammed, hacked, or overcharged.

And here’s the really disturbing question:

Even if you get your WordPress site set up the right way, what if you discover you chose the wrong market or nobody likes the content you are publishing?

It happens all the time. When I was a beginner, I went through three failed blogs before I created one that succeeded. Each time, I spent dozens of hours setting up WordPress, only to discover the blog was never going to work, and I had to start over. If you push forward and set up WordPress without testing your idea first, I pretty much guarantee the same thing will happen to you too.

The bottom line:

Putting it all together, I think setting up a WordPress site is the worst possible approach for a beginner. You’re just setting yourself up for failure.

Fortunately, after working with thousands of students, I’ve discovered a new method that is much, much easier, not to mention faster, and I’m going to outline the entire process for you here.

How to Start a Blog and Make Money (the New Method)

The driving principle behind this new method for how to start a blog is simple:

Waste as little effort as possible.

If you’re familiar with the thinking behind The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, everything outlined here will intuitively make sense to you. If not, here’s the idea:

Innovation is messy. Anytime you create something new — regardless of whether it’s an app or book or blog — there’s a huge chance of getting it wrong and having to start over.

The problem with blogging?

Most people don’t know there’s a huge chance of failure, so they spend months or even years creating a blog that has zero chance of succeeding. Eventually, they realize where they went wrong, and they start over, but again, they invest months or even years into creating a second (or third or fourth) blog that doesn’t work.

And here’s the part that’s tough to swallow:

This kind of failure is inevitable. Whenever you’re doing anything new, you will make mistakes and have to start over. It doesn’t matter if you are smart, rich, or successful at many other things. The first time you launch a blog, you will fail. It’s pretty much guaranteed to happen.

The good news is, you can dramatically speed up the process. Instead of wasting months or years chasing a bad idea, you can find out if it’s going to work in weeks or even days. In fact, the process I’m outlining here often destroys a bad idea within minutes.

The result?

You waste WAY less time. Instead of banging your head against the wall for months or even years before you finally figure everything out, you can adapt quickly and get to the right idea within a matter of weeks or months. It’s at least 20X faster. Probably more like 100X.

So, let’s dive in:

#1. Make Sure Your Blog Is Actually Viable (Not All Are)

Important: The ideas in this section are subtle and hard to grasp. Reread it several times, and think about it carefully. We have tested it on thousands of students starting their blogs, and there’s no question it’s correct, but it’s easy to misinterpret these rules. When in doubt, consult an expert (like us).

It’s not fun to think about, but if there’s no chance in hell of your blog succeeding, wouldn’t you rather find out right now?

Well, sometimes you can.

One of the most damaging myths about blogging is the belief that you can start a successful blog targeting anyone, almost as if it’s a one-size-fits-all technology for getting “free traffic.” But it’s not true. The fact is, blogs are good at getting traffic when targeting specific kinds of audiences, and they are absolutely terrible when targeting others.

It’s also shockingly common to target the wrong audience. Of the thousands of students who come into our courses, more than 95% begin by targeting a poor or nonexistent audience that will never be able to support a successful blog, no matter how much time they put into it, and we have to use this checklist to push them in the right direction.

Surprising, right? You probably had no idea there was such a thing as a ��bad audience,” but it’s true.

Here are some examples:

Men suffering from erectile dysfunction

Business executives

Parents

People struggling with depression

Women who are planning their wedding

Guys struggling to understand masculinity

Freelancers

Breeders of Dobermans

To be clear, I’m not saying you can’t target these audiences. I’m saying blogging is an inefficient way of attracting them. You’re better off using advertising, public relations, attending conferences, etc.

Of course, the obvious question is, “Why?” Why is it that some audiences are well-suited to blogs and others aren’t?

Let’s step through the criteria, and I believe it will become more clear. A good audience…

Self-identifies (“That’s me!”). Recent scientific research suggests that some boys who are raised by single mothers struggle to understand their own masculinity. The problem is, they don’t think of themselves that way. If you were to ask a group of men, “How many of you have trouble understanding your masculinity?” no one would raise their hands.The solution: target the symptom. Ask, “How many of you get friend-zoned by girls, and you can’t figure out why?” A bunch of hands would go up on that one. In other words, you must describe your audience using the words they use to describe themselves. In almost all cases, you’ll describe the symptoms, not the actual cause.

Is happy to be grouped together. You would think freelancers would be a viable audience, right? After all, there are so many successful sites that seem to target them! Again though, it’s misleading, because there are many types of freelancers: photographers, copywriters, designers, and so on. They all share similar perspectives (getting and managing clients, etc.), but if you put them in a room together, they would naturally sort themselves by field. For this reason, blogs about a particular type of freelancing are always more successful than blogs targeting freelancers in general.

Includes a wide continuum of experience. In every market, the most successful blogs are the ones with a lot of beginners and relatively few experts. For example, there are millions of people thinking about starting a software company, but there are relatively few billionaire founders. However, if you target an audience like “business executives,” you are narrowing the continuum of experience to new executives and experienced ones, or perhaps middle managers and CEOs. In either case, it’s fatal to the blog, because the most rabid audience for blog content is always the beginner (in this case, someone who wants to become an executive someday).

Shares the same perspective. For example, both mothers and fathers fall under the category of “parents,” but they generally have different perspectives on what being a parent means. For that matter, a parent of a toddler and the parent of a teenager will also have different perspectives. Therefore, the audience of “parents” should be subdivided before it can become viable. For instance, “middle-class mothers of toddlers” might be a good audience to target, because their perspectives are relatively similar.

Talks with each other on social media. Erectile dysfunction is a multibillion-dollar market with millions of men who are desperate for help, and yet you’ll never see a popular blog about it. Why? Because men don’t talk with other men on social media about erectile dysfunction. If you started a blog on the topic, you wouldn’t get any traffic from Facebook, for example, and that would make it very difficult for it to survive.

Wants to learn. With millions of people suffering from depression, you would think a blog about it would be wildly popular, but there’s not one, and here’s why: for the most part, people with depression have no desire to read about depression on a regular basis, probably because it makes them depressed! On the other hand, a blog for families of people suffering from depression would probably be quite popular, because they have a deep and ongoing desire to help their family member.

Has an ongoing interest. At any given time, there are millions of women who recently got engaged and are planning their wedding, and yet there are no big blogs for them. Why? Because they are only interested in planning their wedding until they actually have the wedding! As a result, this particular market has a lot of “churn” — people going out and new people coming in — and the limited window of opportunity makes it unsuitable for blogging.

Consists of millions of people. Occasionally, you’ll find an audience that passes all the other tests, but it’s so small in number it can’t support a blog. A good example is breeders of Dobermans. You could easily start a blog for them, and you would probably have a small following of loyal readers, but it’s unlikely the audience would ever grow large enough to make running the blog worthwhile. For a truly effective blog, you need a potential audience consisting of millions of people. Otherwise, it’s not worth the effort.

Interesting, right? And perhaps a bit unsettling?

The good news is, a rule disqualifying a bad audience usually suggests the adjustment you need to make. For example, the audience of “parents” was disqualified by the rule that a good audience must “share the same perspective,” but by subdividing the audience down to “middle-class mothers of toddlers,” we were able to find a viable audience.

Sometimes though, you can’t make a topic workable, no matter what you do. In those cases, look at the bright side: you just saved a lot of effort by finding out now rather than after years of trying.

But what if your idea for a blog is indeed viable? Well then, it’s time to do a little good old-fashioned espionage!

#2. Spy on Popular Blogs to See What’s Working

Thankfully, this next step is a lot less painful than the first one. It’s also much easier to explain.

Once you’ve verified your blog has potential, you need to study the blogs your audience already reads.

For instance, let’s say you want to start a blog for new homeowners. You’ll teach them how to make simple repairs themselves, maximize the value of their home, save money on their mortgage, and so on.

After going through the checklist above, you discover it meets all the criteria, and — alakazam, alakazoo — you have a workable blog topic. What’s next?

Well, the average new homeowner is in their 30s. Many are also parents. Chances are, a lot of them also have at least a passing interest in personal finance. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to afford a home.

So, here’s what you do: study the top personal finance and parenting blogs. In particular, you need to uncover their most popular content and learn from the patterns you see.

Here’s how:

Use Alltop to identify the most popular blogs in your space. I recommend sorting through several of the subcategories, collecting a list of 20-50 popular blogs you think your audience might be reading. Here’s what I mean…

Plug the domain names for those blogs into Buzzsumo to find their most shared content. In particular, pay attention to Facebook shares, because it’s driving the most traffic in almost every space right now.

Look for patterns that might give you a clue into what kind of content your audience might like. Focus on the headlines, but also click through on any posts that grab your attention and read the whole post. You might even want to read the comments because they can give you insights as well.

Use a tool like Evernote or Google Drive to keep a list of headline ideas. Write down any headlines that occur to you while doing your research.

When you finish, you’ll have a list of ideas for blog posts backed by evidence of popularity. While nothing is guaranteed in life, the success of these posts will be far better than anything you might dream up in the shower and decide to write about. As a result, you should have a much easier time outpacing your competitors.

But it’s still worth testing a few of them, just to make sure…

Test Your Ideas for Free on Medium (Not WordPress!)

At this point, you might be tempted to grab a hosting account, install WordPress, and start blogging your heart out, but don’t.

Yes, you’ve done some cool research. Yes, your ideas for blog posts are far more likely to succeed. Yes, you’re way ahead of most beginning bloggers.

But I hate to break it to ya…

There’s an excellent chance you analyzed all those popular posts from other blogs your audience reads and came to all the wrong conclusions. Before going through all the effort of creating a new blog, I recommend testing your ideas on perhaps the coolest blogging platform out there right now:

Medium.

If you’ve never heard of it, Medium is the brainchild of Ev Williams, the geeky and brilliant co-founder of Twitter. He created it to become the largest, easiest to use blogging platform in the world, and he’s managed to attract over 30 million monthly readers, as well as celebrity writers like Matthew McConnaughhay and James Altucher.

And here’s the really cool part: you can write on Medium and get the chance to have your writing exposed to its 30 million readers, free of charge. Here’s how:

Register for a free account. When you visit the site, you might notice banners inviting you to become a premium member. There’s no doubt it gives you access to some excellent content as a reader, but as a writer, it’s by no means necessary to test your ideas. The free account gives you access to all the writing tools, so register for that.

Write a post based on one of the headlines gleaned from your research. Using Medium’s excellent editor, you can have a stylish post put together within a few hours.

Make sure you choose the appropriate interests. Anyone who subscribes to that interest will have a much higher chance of noticing the post.

Conduct a miniature outreach campaign to the blogs you studied in the previous step. By emailing them and asking them to share your post, not only do you have a chance to start building your audience, but it’s an excellent way to validate your approach. If influencers are willing to share your content, there’s a good chance you’re on the right track. I’d recommend emailing 10-20 of them.Click here to read our extensive post on outreach.

Now, here’s the big question:

How do you know you’re ready to switch over to WordPress?

Should you target a certain number of claps? Shares? Comments?

Actually, none of the above. In my opinion, none of those really mean much.

You’re much better off paying attention to your outreach success rate. You see, influencers are an excellent judge of content. If you can convince 20% of the blogs you email to share your post, and you can hit at least 20% on three different posts, I believe you’re ready to start your own blog.

If your outreach success rate hits 20%, there’s also an excellent chance at least one of your posts will end up featured on Medium, either on one of the interests or maybe even the front page, driving thousands upon thousands of new readers to your post. Again, not only will that help you build your audience, but it’s an excellent indication you’re on the right track, and it’s time to branch off on your own.

Note: If you’re familiar with the Lean Startup, the approach we’re following here is similar to the idea of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Instead of creating a product though, you are creating the minimum amount of content necessary to test your post ideas.

Get a Clear (Not Clever!) Domain Name

So, lots of influencers are sharing your post on Medium, and you’re itching to crank up your own site and snag some of that traffic?

Cool. Let’s just take it one step at a time, and the first step is getting a clear domain name.

Put yourselves in the shoes of the visitor. You’re browsing the web, and you see a headline for a blog post that catches your attention. Maybe a friend on Facebook shared it with you, maybe it came up on a Google search, or maybe it’s just a link in another article you’re reading. Regardless, you click the link, and consciously or not, you’re asking yourself a single question as you browse through it…

“Is this for me?“

Within a few seconds, you have to decide whether to keep reading the post or move on to something else, and the only way you’ll stay is if it’s relevant to you. Not just the post, either. When you’re deciding, you’ll take in the design of the page, other post headlines, and, yes, the domain name.

For example, consider Entrepreneur.com. Is there any doubt who the site is for? Entrepreneurs, of course!

How about MakeaLivingWriting.com? Obviously, it’s for people who want to make a living as a writer.

Neither names are clever, but they help you decide to stay or go by clearly articulating who they are helping. That’s what a good domain name does.

Of course, all the great domain names are taken, right?

Not necessarily. Here are three different methods for finding the perfect domain name for your site:

Name the audience. The simplest way to get a clear domain name is to call out the audience in the domain itself. Examples: SmartBlogger.com, CouchPotato.com, AFineParent.com

Name the topic. If your blog focuses on a specific topic, try finding a domain name that describes it in clear, concise language. Examples: The ArtofManliness.com, BudgetsAreSexy.com, PaleoHacks.com

Name the benefit. Why should people stick around? If you have a good answer, sometimes you can turn it into a domain name that really stands out. Examples: MakeALivingWriting.com, BiggerPockets.com, BeABetterBlogger.com

My suggestion:

Use these three strategies to make a list of 10-20 domain names you’d be happy having. You can write them out in a word processor, or if you want to get fancy, you can use a tool like NameStation to generate a lot of ideas at once.

Once you’re finished brainstorming, head over to a site like NameCheap to see if they are available. Click “Bulk Search” in the search box and paste in your domain names to check them all at once.

Sometimes you get lucky, and one of your favorites is available. If not, you either have to head back to the drawing board for another brainstorming session, or you can go to a premium domain name marketplace like Sedo.

Either way, one word of advice:

Don’t get hung up on your domain name. While it’s certainly helpful to have a good one, there are thousands of hugely popular sites with terrible domain names no one understands.

In other words, it’s not really a “make or break” factor for your site. Give yourself a few days or maybe a week to brainstorm ideas, and then make a decision, because once you have your domain name, you are ready to…

Switch Over to WordPress

You knew we had to run into some technical stuff sooner or later, right?

Well, here it is. There’s no code, complicated software to install or anything like that, but there are a lot of little steps you need to follow in exactly the right order.

It’s not too bad, though, I promise. You can do everything here in about an hour, and I have step-by-step guides to walk you through every little detail.

Let’s get started…

Choose a web host. If you’re not familiar with the term, a “web host” is kind of like a warehouse for websites on the Internet. You pay one a small fee to keep your website on the Internet, handle all your visitors, back up your website, and so on. There are a gazillion different hosts out there, but the one we recommend and use ourselves is SiteGround. Click here to get a 60% off discount (affiliate link).

Install WordPress. Once you have your account set up, you can use their built-in tools to install WordPress for you. It’s super easy. Here’s a video that walks you through all the steps:

Migrate your posts from Medium to WordPress. Thankfully, Medium makes it relatively easy to export your posts, but you do have to jump through a few hoops importing them into WordPress. Click here to learn how.When you finish, all the content will have switched over, and you’ll see all the posts on your own site, but that doesn’t mean you’ve finished. While WordPress works exceptionally well out-of-the-box, it still needs a little tweaking. Let’s talk about how to do that next.

Set Up WordPress the Right Way

The great thing about having a self-hosted WordPress site is you’re in total control. You can change how it looks, what functionality it has, improve its performance, and almost anything else you can imagine.

The problem?

Complete control also comes at a cost: complexity. There are thousands upon thousands of themes and hundreds of thousands of plug-ins to choose from, and you can easily lose weeks or even months of your life wading through them all and trying to figure out what’s best for you.

So, I’m going to take a minimalist approach here. Rather than giving you a huge list of things to do, I’m reducing it down to the absolute minimum, and I’ll even recommend some specific themes and plug-ins. Before we begin though, let me be clear about one thing:

Your content matters more than anything else.

You can have a site that’s ugly, clunky, and slow, but if you have great content, you’ll still get a lot of traffic. Not the opposite, though. You can have the most beautiful, user-friendly website online, but if the content sucks, nobody will give a damn about you.

So, don’t allow yourself to get lost in these details. Focus on making your website functional, and then you can always come back and make it unique or beautiful later.

That said, here are some different options to consider:

The Simplest Option: Elegant Themes

Cost: $89 per Year

You might wince a little at the annual price, but the advantage of Elegant Themes is they give you everything you need in one package:

Divi, the most popular WordPress theme on the market

A built-in page builder that can design anything you can imagine

Monarch, a social sharing plug-in that’s customizable and looks great

Bloom, a simple but functional app for building your email list

Regular updates and support, making it easy to stay current

Now, is every piece of it the best?

No. In fact, I don’t think they are the best in any single category.

But the combination of everything put together makes it far easier to get started. The design is also top-notch. That’s why they’ve become the most popular theme company on the market with over 400,000 paying customers.

The bottom line:

If you’re looking for a simple, stable solution that will last you for years and doesn’t require a “tech guy” to get up and running, Elegant Themes is the way to go.

The Free Option: A Hodgepodge of Stuff

Cost: Zero

So… what if you can’t really afford to spend any money on your blog? What should you do then?

The answer:

Cobble together a hodgepodge of free stuff into a workable site.

Here’s what I would do:

For your WordPress theme, install the free version of Astra

For your page builder, check out the free version of Elementor

For social sharing, go with the free version of Sumo

For building your email list, also go with the free version of Sumo

The downside?

Sumo will only last until you hit 500 subscribers, and then you have to either switch to something else or start paying a rather high monthly fee to stay with them. You also have to update everything separately, and you’ll have far less support if anything breaks.

To me, those are some pretty big downsides, and I really wouldn’t recommend it, but sometimes you don’t have any other choice. If that’s the case, give it a try.

A Quick Word about Caching

Regardless of which option you choose, you’ll want to install a caching plug-in before you start getting too much traffic (100+ visitors per day). The two most popular options are plug-ins called WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache.

If you’re looking for simplicity, I recommend WP Super Cache. You can install it, and you’re done. Here’s a video where a guy gets everything set up in three minutes:

Later, when you’re getting 10,000+ visitors per month, you might think about getting a tech guy who really knows the ins and outs of either plug-in to configure it for you. It really helps, but it’s not worth the trouble or expense for a new blog.

Important: If you end up going with Siteground (affiliate link), as I recommended above, they have their own caching plug-in, and it only takes about a minute to set up. Here’s a tutorial that walks you through it.

Grow to $1,000 per Month (And Beyond)

In the immortal words of Harry Connick Junior…

Up to this point, you’ve published posts on Medium until it’s clear people love what you write, you switched over to your self-hosted WordPress site, and now you are up and ready for the world. So, here’s the big question:

When does the money start rolling in? After all, that’s the point of all this, right?

Well… good news and bad news.

The good news is you’ve done the hard part. By far, the hardest part of building a popular blog is writing posts other people enjoy reading. Nothing else even comes close.

The bad news?

That’s just the beginning.

Now that your blog is up and running, you have to learn the ins and outs of getting traffic, building your email list, and monetizing your site. Even if you have top-notch writing skills, it’ll still take you at least 3-6 months to figure all that out.

But think about it this way…

Nothing worth doing is quick or easy.

Personally, I was a slow learner, and it took me three years to reach $1,000 a month. That’s a long time, right? Well, two years after that, we crossed $100,000 per month, and we’ve never looked back.

So yeah, it’s hard work, but I’d say it’s worth it.

Let’s go through some other common questions—

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start a blog for free?

WordPress.com and Medium.com both have free options. Of the two, we recommend Medium, because they feature the best content from writers, and if you get featured, it can send you a ton of traffic.

But the truth?

Starting a blog is never free. Even if you don’t spend any money, you’ll be investing lots and lots of your time, and that’s worth something. Don’t forget about that.

How do you start a blog to make money?

Your best bet is to blog in a niche where lots of other bloggers are already making money. For example, the marketing, personal finance, and self-improvement niches can all be very profitable. If your goal is to start a blog to make money, those are the least risky options.

But what if you don’t want to blog about those topics?

You don’t have to. You can theoretically make money blogging about anything, assuming the audience a) trusts you and 2) frequently spends money on products and services related to your blog topic. You can either make money blogging as an affiliate or selling your own products and services.

What should I make a blog about?

It depends on your motivations.

If you want to make money, you should probably start blogging in a well-known space with lots of traffic and buyers, and then stand out by offering exceptionally good content for free.

For more on what it takes to choose a popular blog topic, read this post on what to blog about.

How do I get my blog noticed?

Getting noticed is about three things:

Choosing a topic lots of other people care about

Creating better content than your competitors

Getting influential people to link to that content

Lots of people obsess over getting the links from influential people, but the truth is, that’s relatively easy if your content is really the best. Focus on that, and then tactics like these will help it rise to the top.

How much does a beginning blogger make?

If you’re working for another company, you can make as much as $50,000 per year. Professional content marketers get paid very well.

On the other hand, most beginning bloggers are hobbyists. They tinker around in their spare time and seldom make much.

If you do commit to blogging over the long-term, and you start a truly popular blog, you can make millions. It’s a long road, and most people fail, but it’s worked out well for me.

The Bottom Line on How to Start a Blog

Just getting your blog off the ground is the hardest part.

It might take you a few months or even a few years to build up momentum. And you might feel a little dumb for investing so much time to it, but then that momentum builds and builds and builds, and you wake up one morning to the stupefying yet delicious realization that you’ll never have to worry about money again.

That’s what happened to me. Might happen to you too, now that you’ve learned how to start a blog.

At the end of the day though, there’s only one way to find out:

Get started and see what happens.

About the Author: Jon Morrow is the CEO of Smart Blogger. Check out his new blog Unstoppable and read the launch post that went viral: 7 Life Lessons from a Guy Who Can’t Move Anything but His Face.

The post How to Start a Blog (and Make Money) in 2019: 20X Faster Method appeared first on Smart Blogger.

from Internet Marketing Tips https://smartblogger.com/how-to-start-a-blog/

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Stop Building Garages: How Driverless Cars Will Affect Real Estate

Driver-less cars are going to change alot, and if you havent been actively reading about this, then its most likely going to happen much faster than youre expecting. At first glance, there may not seem to be much overlap between the auto industry and the real estate industry, but the impacts and infrastructure changes from this technology will be felt by everyone. As investors, its our responsibility to understand changes as far out in advance as possible so we can adapt to progress and mitigate new risks. Just about everything in this article takes place across the next 1530+ years, which may seem useless to some. However, if youre currently buying 30-year mortgages then youve got commitments that fall well within this transition period, and these changes will affect you. Having a better understanding of the future can be massive risk-mitigation tool against getting caught off guard when changes negatively affect you. Driving Will Change Where People Want to Live Because Cars Will Commute for Us Imagine you could wake up at 6 a.m. and crawl into your car and tell it to head to work while you got back to sleep. In two hours, youre there, youre safe, fully rested, and you arrive at work on time without having to deal with traffic or the monotonous task of driving. This is not science fiction. In fact, based on todays technology, this isnt even far fetched. This is science inevitability. So how does this affect real estate? Well, think of all the people who dont want to live in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, or New York City. What if they could live an hour or two outside the city and commute to work without losing any real time out of their day? How might this affect home values in a city when people can commute there easily without having to live there and without making any sacrifice to do so? It doesnt even have to be this extreme, either. Lots of people would be willing to commute for one hour each way if they didnt have to drive. This creates a lot of space between a city hub and the places people can live without taking on the financial burden of city costs. Might home values in a city go down when the necessity to live close by is reduced? Maybe cities will create an even larger price premium for those who can afford to live there while the masses are forced to commute an hour or two each day from poorer suburbs. Cars Will Be the Next Rental Real EstateOwning a Car Will Be a Luxury Car ownership is going to be a thing of the past before you know it. Sound crazy? Its not even a secret in the auto industry. Did you know that Ford, the oldest car company in America, has announced its going to stop selling cars and just sell trucks and SUVs? How can they do this? Thats a lot of cars to give up on selling unless they dont expect to lose that many sales. Companies who host ride sharing like Uber, Waymo, and Lyft are developing fully autonomous vehicles and are building fleets to replace personal car as we speak. General Motors is building a mass-market, fully autonomous car right now that will not be sold to the public. It will be only be used as part of a ride-sharing platform and available (supposedly) in 2019. That means two of the biggest auto manufacturers are starting to just flat-out not sell their products to the public. This is a signal of really big change. Owning a car isnt really that expensive, but there is zero return on investment. Its only an expense. However, once cars can finally drive themselves 24-hours a day, all while producing income, the value of ownership will go through the roof. The most likely scenario is that Uber will sell unlimited-use passes by the month, and we will all happily give up car ownership in trade. Itll be on-demand, easy, fast, and awesome. It may sound far fetched, but people will happily give up car ownership in the not-so-distant future when the cost savings become obvious. The value of any business is based on its income production. If you think cars are expensive now, imagine how much more they might cost when its a guaranteed profitable purchase. Related:Your Car is an Expensive, Health-Sucking, Time-Wasting Machine. So, Ditch It! Those with means to own their personal cars will create a moat between social classes. These days we might see a Ferrari and say, Oooooh, that person has money! Look at their fancy car! In the future, someone driving a Camry might get similar treatment: Ooooooh, that person has money, they can afford to have a personal car!!! Lots of people in America buy their own homes, and some own an extra house as a rental. The volume of landlords is relatively small because owning a house requires capital, resources, knowledge, risk mitigation, etc. In the future, cars will be the new rental real estate; people with means will still own their cars, and a few will own an extra car. The second car will drive itself around as part of a ride-sharing platform and produce income, just like a taxi, but passive.

Remember That Extra 900 Square Feet Everyone Had to Add to Our Houses to House a Car? What Were They Called? Oh Right, Garages! Why would you need a garage if you dont own a car? What value does a garage provide? Storage, for sure: We get to put our unsightly water heater there, the Christmas decorations, and the treadmill that my wife just had to own. Is that all worth the space and cost that a garage requires? Not likely. So will garages be a premium in the future, or a nuisance? More likely itll fade from importance in middle-to-low-end housing and continue in luxury homes. This problem is already being tackled with large parking garages. It might be a bold claim to say you wont need your garage in 20 years, but the world really wont need massive multi-level parking garages. Efforts are already being made to find out how to convert these spaces into light retail, office, storage and other amenities. Its not going to be feasible to tear down all that concrete, but it will be imperative to find something useful to do with all that space. Currently we pay a premium for garages because they are a highly sought after convenience. However, when the majority of people dont own cars, will that garage command a premium? Or will it be a detriment? Whats the Land Underneath a Gas Station Worth? Some of the most valuable land you can find is sitting underneath a gas station, and for good reason. Corner lots with good road access on busy cross streets serve a lot of cars and provide tons of ancillary needs. (Where else are we supposed to buy Slim Jims?). This infrastructure has been built up over decades and billions of drivers, but at its core it really relies on one thing: the internal combustion engine. Electric cars, however, dont need gasoline (surprise!). Youll charge at your home and probably at work. So how often are we going to need a gas station then? Hard to say, but the fact is, people will use a lot less gasoline, and my assumption is they will use gas stations much less. Now, obviously, some operators will find competitive advantages to survive, but many will not. And in rural areas, we should expect this problem to be much worse. A complete halt on gasoline sales is unlikely, because there are still uses for the product: small engines, generators, non-EV-conformers, etc. Thats a pretty weak position to hold onto though. Lots of industries are long gone, but still have niche support. Walmart will still sell you a CD Walkman (I saw one recently for $30!), but you wouldnt use that example to highlight the value of compact discs. Related:7 Sharing Economy Side Hustles Real Estate Investors Can Use to Earn Extra Cash When gasoline sales do slow, what will gas station owners do? I personally think most will go away, but not before suffering increasingly diminished profits as they experience the decline. Many will sell their businesses because of this, and what will their assets be worth? No one wants to look at a declining income statement trend and then pay top dollar. What about all the stores attached or adjacent to gas stations that capitalize on the heavy traffic? Ive heard of no great solutions to these questions, but that wont stop the impending takeover of autonomous and electric cars. How Long Will All My Daydreaming Take to Come to Fruition? If you dont read often about this topic, then its likely that this transition will happen much sooner than you would guess. People hear about autonomous cars and say, Itll never happen. Well, never will begin in 2020 when both General Motors, Ford, and others start to produce mass-market autonomous cars. What happens when every cab and Uber driver across the country goes jobless in a few short years? Ride sharing platforms will replace car ownership, as I mentioned earlier, and it will start next year. GM has publicly announced plans to build cars not sold to the public. They will only be part of their ride sharing platform.next year.How will home values be affected when waves of mass unemployment start? Take everything Ive mentioned so far and apply it to truck drivers as well. In fact, they will be unemployed first, as autonomous 18-wheelers are already being used in the UK. Unfortunately, I have no good advice for how to adapt to this, but anticipation and being proactive about change should help. For the Itll never happen camp, they will not take any measures to protect themselves and it will cost them dearly. What I dont want to convey here is not to buy a house with a garage because you might not need one in 30 years. Thats silly, but maybe get used to the idea of not needing one in the future. Sleeping in our cars is what poor college kids do when they are really stretching, but in 10 years it might be a feasible temporary option instead of stretching to rent an apartment. Twenty years ago smartphones didnt exist, now I cant go three minutes without touching mine. Its important not to get too confident of what is normal, as you may get caught stuck in the past. You dont need to have an MBA to know that businesses who refuse to participate in new technology go under. The board members at Blockbuster obviously had a strict head-in-the-sand policy. Dont be like Blockbuster. Embrace and adapt to changing technology.

What do you think? Am I on to something? Where do you see the future of garages and personal vehicles? Share below! https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/stop-building-garages/