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So this morning I lost my sense of smell, then by the afternoon I lost my sense of smell. As of right now, of these symptoms being lost, I have a slight headache and my nose is super congested.

I am taking my covid test tomorrow, but I’m pretty confident that I have Covid. I have never had symptoms like this before in my thirty years of existence, so I’m pretty sure.

But when everyone talks about losing taste and smell, it always seems like it was sudden, or that other symptoms never appeared before hand. I will try to go into detail about my case of Covid.

Today is Wednesday, I’m taking a wild guess and think I got it either Sunday or last Friday. That was when I was last in a public setting. Monday my shins started to feel soar, and I was starting to get light sniffles. Then by Tuesday I will getting light chills. but not actual chills. It did feel like my body did want to take a fever on, but it never ended up happening. Then this morning at breakfast I could tell something was really off, because I barely could taste my food. It wasn’t a complete 100% loss, but around 95% loss. That was at 7 am this morning, but at the time I could still smell.

But by 2 pm this afternoon, I couldn’t smell much. I grabbed some intense smelling hand sanitizer and I got a very faint whiff of it, but not like the extreme potency it always has. Then I sprayed my deodorant on my hand around 4 pm, and I could very faintly smell that as well. So not 100% loss, but definitely 98%-99% loss of smell.

I still have no fever. I have a headache, but found this physical therapist on Youtube that suggested on how to handle a mild case of Covid.

I will try to write tomorrow on other symptoms. I am quarantining and calling off work until the weekend. Hopefully over the weekend I will get my results and take next week at a time.

Hope this helps.

MJ DeMarco is doing an amazing job at painting a financial picture. It’s very simple, yet mind blowing. He breaks wealth down into three different paths, or “lanes”. He talks about the sidewalk lane, which consists of those working minimum wage jobs and below. Then, he talks about the slow lane to wealth, which would be those who are college educated, make a decent wage, and hope their 401ks and Index Funds will be enough.

Then he talks about the fast lane. The fast lane are those who create an awesome business, and then sell that business, and make millions from the sale(or billions). He says that this is the quickest way to true wealth.

He also talks about the three F’s. Family, Fitness, and Freedom. For me personally, it’s Jesus, Family, and then work. But also fitness would be part of mine as well, and freedom is what I am striving for.

It’s a big wake up call for me, reading this book. I like my game plan of working harder and smarter, paying off my debt, and investing in an index fund, a roth IRA, and having my state pension. But MJ talks about how that is a super slow lane. I would like to be free of a job, but I know I would still have to contribute to this world. I would like that contribution to be impactful and valuable.

I have to start my new teaching gig in a month and a half. But honestly, I would like to start working for myself, offering huge value and impacting millions. I have a side business right now that helps with bills, but the full-time paycheck is hard to replace right now. Also the benefits of health insurance and vacation time. I might be able to teach for one year, and try to build this idea I have on the side. Then from there, if it takes off, then pivot to that full-time.

I am a calculated risk taker. I’ll take a big risk, only if I know I have a good hand to play.

Just sharing the info to help others.

Cheers!

-E

So, as of right now, I owe $22,899 of my students loans. I was in forbearance last year and the year before. But I filled out an income based re-payment application. My credit was low, and this was the biggest thing hurting my credit score overall.

I am now finally in good standing, and my loans are currently with Great Lakes. During Covid and with all the money Uncle Sam was handing out, and also with the help of my side hustle, I was able to payoff my car loan. I think it was just over $6,000 pre-covid. Now that I do not have a car loan to pay any longer, I am going into the mindset that I have recently purchased a brand new car for $22,899. But I would like to payoff this car in two years. So without interest, my payments would be a little under $1,000 a month.

I was paying $270 a month for my car loan, my side hustle brings in $1,800 a month on average, and I would to eventually find a third source of income to help me pay the loans down sooner. I also work full-time as a teacher, so I think $1,000 a month is possible, I just have to manage my expenses well through the month.

So my target goal date is 6/2023. Two years seems like a long time, but with the car mindset, it helps. Because I had a 5 year loan out on my car, but paid it off in 4. Also, I can afford to pay it down, for now. And I’m using another mindset of, do I really want to worry about this the rest of my life, or into retirement. Or will I look back and thank myself for sacrificing two years to get it off our books.

Because you can’t get rid of student loans, ever. You can’t file bankruptcy to get rid of them. If you die, I believe they can come after any ingeritence you leave your kids. It’s almost like they follow you even after death. So ya, two years should be worth it, hopefully.

I’m also not waiting for the loans to be forgiven. I have a lot of friends who are just hoping that Biden cancels our student loans. I highly doubt he will, and frankly, I don’t have control over what the government does with the loans. So I would rather just sacrifice a short time, get it off my books, and not worry about it.

Please leave any comments you may have down below.

Best of luck!

-E

This is a question I get asked a lot by potential clients, and I personally feel where they’re coming from. I have two daughters myself, and love being able to drop everything and spend time with them while they’re young.

I will get straight to the point with this question, in my opinion, the best way to make money online, is through having a blog. My first blog started making money, after six months from when I started to solve a problem. I was able to sell my own digital product for $20. Since then I have added more value, I have increased my prices, and now my blog brings in over $2,000 a month in profit. If I was single and had no children, I would be traveling the world right now, lol. But I love my family and wouldn’t be where I am today without them.

I also love teaching, so I am in no rush to leave my career.

But the most affordable and organic ways to make money online is through a blog, and it’s not that hard to get started.

You could start a blog for free and in less than 20-30 minutes. Step 1: Go to WordPress.com and create a free account. Just use the free domain name for now. Step 2: Decide on who you really want to help with your blog. Is it moms with diabteic children? Is it middle aged men with diabetes and heart disease? Is it teachers with stress? Decide your niche, and who you want to help. Step 3: Start writing helpful posts to help those you’ve decided to help. Write at least 100 posts. Step 4: If you’re still really excited about your blog, buy a specific domain name that encapsulate who your audience is. Like for the moms of diabetic children; “mothersofdiabeticchildren.com”. You want to make sure your domain matches your niche. This will only cost you $18. Step 5: Build communication with your audience. Create a Google Form for you audience to stay in touch with you, and so they can leave their email address for more help. Then start emailing with your audience, and find their deep pain points you can solve for them. From there is should be no problem helping your audience and them in turn being able to help you.

Please feel free to leave any questions you may have in the comments below.

Cheers!

-E

There is a lot of noise on how to start a new blog, but if you’re like me and you don’t want to setup all these WordPress themes, and pay a lot for hosting, then this article is for you.

Whenever I want to start something new, I want the quickest and easiest route. Because it is not, that I get side tracked by some sort of problem, and never get started. When I first came onto the blogging scene, there was so much information out there online. One site said I needed a professional to do it, another one said I needed Blue Host, a theme, and that I needed to set it all up myself. I knew there had to be an easy and affordable route, just to get my blog going.

That’s when I came across WordPress.com, NOT “.ORG”. Signing up was painless and easy. I had a free website up and running in less than 30 minutes. I played around with it for a couple of months, and then decided that I wanted to help teachers like myself in the state of Texas. So I bought a specific domain name for $18, which was for the year.

After a couple of months, after the name was registered, Google started to send me traffic organically. I wrote about problems that new teachers were having, and how to solve those problems. If I didn’t register my domain name for my blog, I don’t think I would have gotten traffic at all to my site.

The point of all this is, yes there is an easy and affordable way to start a blog, use WordPress.com, not .org. Don’t worry about your free domain name when you start, you can always change this when you decide which domain to purchase. The biggest thing is just getting started. Once you have your site up, don’t worry about logos, or pictures. The biggest thing about a blog, is writing to help people, that should be your main focus with your blog. Decide on who you want to help, then write helpful articles that help them with a specific problem.

My main point is to write, after you finally setup your blog, even if you don’t have a purchased domain. Writing will help you focus on who you want to help, then by a domain specific to your audience. Without writing helpful articles/posts, you will never see any real traffic, and if you’re not receiving organic traffic, then you will never be able to monetize from it.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments below.

Cheers!

-E

Short answer: it’s possible. There are a lot of things you can do, to reach a level where your blog brings in a full-time income. But, there are a few important things that really matter, which I’ll go over.

Start

I have worked with multiple clients, that dream of leaving teaching one day. They want to stay at home with their children, they want to travel, and some just need extra money to get by. Those are all worthy reasons to quit and blog full-time.

But the most important thing to do when starting out it, start. I have one client who is just fixated on logos and graphic design. I keep asking her to just finish setting up her site, and get her first blog post posted. But she still hasn’t. There are others our there that keep talking about starting a blog, but never even get one setup.

For me, it was super easy. I knew I wanted to start a blog to make extra income, but didn’t want to pay for a hosting site, because it was so expensive. That’s when I started to Google free blog websites, and created my first one at WordPress.com. It was totally free to start and it only cost $18 for a year for the domain name.

So don’t let a limited budget get in your way. You can start a blog in less than 20 minutes, and have a .com address for $18. So for those that are still thinking about, just start it already.

Be Helpful

Another barrier that most new bloggers hit, is that they don’t know what write about, or what website domain they should use. Here is my biggest piece of advice; create a website they will truly help people with problems you are personally facing or have been through. The goal is to be as super helpful with your blog. I know this is going to be hard to hear, but no one cares about your daily journal. And even if they did, you would be attracting the wrong crowd, if you know what I mean.

But seriously, you need to setup your blog to where it helps someone out there. And your posts need to be as in depth and detailed as possible. Google is not going to send your blog traffic about how you enjoyed a picnic over the weekend. Google will send you traffic if you can solve my 2012 Honda Odyssey’s starting problem pretty quickly and thoroughly.

Your main foundation of your blog should be to help people with a specific problem, or don’t expect much traffic.

Build Communication

Allow comments on your posts, and offer a free newsletter to stay in touch with your audience. I wouldn’t worry about this part until you start gaining traffic to your site. But when you do, I would create a free account with MailChimp, and setup a link to your free newsletter on your posts that are gaining traffic.

I allowed comments on my posts. Then over time visitors started commenting specific questions they had. Then from there I built a Google Form to collect email addresses to keep in touch. Then from there, I was able to see what my audience really needed to help them. Then created my first product, and sold it as soon as I launched.

Communication is key to any relationship.

Once you get to this stage, it will be that much easier to offer your audience something valuable, and that will lead to an income. Then from there you can scale, and replace your teaching income. But all of this begins when you just start.

Please feel free to leave any questions you may have in the comments below.

Cheers!

-E

That’s a great question. A question I get asked a lot. I help bloggers go from having no blog, to bringing in a substantial income. This question is the most asked when first starting to help my clients.

There is a lot of mis information out there, and it gets really noisy the further you dig into this question. But most people think you can only make money from your blog, through affiliate marketing. That’s because there have have a very tiny few of bloggers, and I mean tiny, that have made millions of this strategy. That’s why it gets talked about so much.

But there are many other ways to bring in revenue from your blog.

Here’s a quick list:

• E-books
• A small video email series
• Digital products
• Audio based training
• Freelance writing
• VA work
• Coaching
• Photos
• Proofreading
• Web design
• Bookkeeping
• Blog management
• Show ads
• Offer sponsored posts
• Collaborate on webinars

Only there are so many ways to make money, other than just through affiliate marketing.

For me personally, I offer e-books on my business website. It brings in most of my monthly revenue, if not all of it. I currently am averaging over $2,000+ a month. Which has been pretty nice for my family and I. With affiliate marketing, so months I bring in anywhere from $12-$60 a month. Compared to $2,000+, that’s really nothing. Still some income though.

The nice thing about my business blog, is that I have only hundreds of visitors a month to generate that. I once talked to a fellow blogger, and her goal was to have over hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors to her website to generate enough through ads and affiliate links. I asked her what her monthly goals were for revenue, and surprisingly she said she wanted to get at least $2,000 a month to travel and work on her blog. I didn’t tell her, cause she was leading the training, but in my head I was like, “Ya, I already do that monthly, without wearing myself out to hit hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors”. I’m not trying to brag with that statement, I am just saying there is more than one way to bring in revenue from your blog.

Don’t let all the outside noise try to sway you in the wrong direction. Be true to yourself, and ask yourself, is this the only way to make income from my blog?

Please comment below, if you have any questions about this. I’d be happy to answer them. 🙂

Cheers!

-E

So my job is planning to not renew my contract in two months. They didn’t say that verbally, but with their eyes and body language, they said that. I have been working as a computer teacher at my current place for over two years now.

They just kept adding more to my plate as time went on. Now I have a million hats to wear, without any pay increase or help. Even in the public sector, your employer will try to squeeze everything out of you.

But I am willing to bet, that if I applied half of the energy they are requiring of me, to my own business, I would make a ton more, be my own boss, and be so much happier. I truly believe this is not some pipe dream, but a reality.

I am using this momentum of not having a job in four months, to push me to get creative, work smarter, and put the effort in to replace my income. Hopefully!

Let’s go!

-Emilio

Short answer: If the customers want it right now, give it to them!

I launched a digital product 6 months ago. Customers kept asking me for it, and I was like, listen, this is still a Beta version, so that’s what you’re getting. They didn’t care cause it solved their pain point.

But now, 6 months later, since I’ve increased prices, that want a part of the product fixed. So now that I have more revenue coming in, I forsure oblige to their demands. Cause without customers, my business does not exist. Happy customers, happy lives.

But, because this fix would take me 5 hours, and a lot of frustration. I just kicked it to one of my dependable contractors, who really doesn’t do this type of work, but likes money. It took him two business days, even though I told my customers it would take two weeks to make it happen.

Were they mad? Nope, they just said thank you and are waiting patiently.

The real question is, what if I never launched my product. This product to date, has brought in over $2,000 since I launched it. That’s not pocket change I would have lost.

Moral of the story, just launch it. If it sucks, they will tell you. Instead of offering a refund, let them know you’ll fix it, and send the updated version to them. Happy customers, happy life.

So, I know they’re q lot of bloggers out there, who want to quit their full-time job, travel, and just work on their blog. I love it!

For me personally, I have a lot of debt to still pay down, before I jump on that ship. I also have two kids and a wife, so most definitely not anytime soon for myself.

But, I’ve already hit $2,000+ a month from my blog. Super blessed to have hit this goal.

Here’s one possible way to accomplish that.

1. Niche Down. I know they’re are a lot of people trying to drive the most traffic to their sites. But what if you only needed 200-300 visitors a month. And not 10,000-100,000. Very doable.

2. Offer Supreme Value. I offer my own products at high prices, because I am scratching my own itch.

3. You already have a website. It’s not that hard to add value, where visitors will pay.

I plan to offer more help on this in upcoming posts.