How to Make Money Doing What You Love Learn advanced self-improvement techniques that will get you out of the job you hate and into making money by doing what you love.

As some of you have probably noticed, my posting rate has dropped slightly in the last few weeks.  This is mostly due to the insane amounts of time and energy I’ve been devoting to research, planning, setting up, testing, and tweaking the upcoming membership site I’ll be releasing soon.

One of the advantages I have while putting this membership site together is that I’ve got a lot of experience being a mentoree, and I’ve worked with a number of coaches in my life which has given me first hand experience in what works and what doesn’t work in coaching / mentoring situations.  Of course I’ve also done a bit of coaching / mentoring myself as well, and am currently mentoring someone one-on-one in the exact same thing my site will focus on, but I really think the biggest advantage is having been on the receiving end of mentoring advice.

Besides Blogging I am also learning all kinds of other Internet marketing systems out there, such as for example ones related to PPC Affiliate Marketing.  There are so many membership sites, home study courses, multimedia programs, video programs, eBooks etc. that I’ve gone through and I’m paying attention to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to “transfering wisdom” from one person to the next.

One of the shortcomings of most packages out there that I see is that they only focus on what I consider to be one of the three pillars to a great mentoring package.  Most packages focus on the skills, techniques and tactics involved and that’s it.

For example, here are a few of the skills, techniques and tactics I will be teaching in the program:

• How to register a domain
• How to get setup with a great hosting partner
• How to install Wordpress
• Which Plugins to install and run in Wordpress
• How to get traffic from social media sites
• etc.

Of course this is just a very short sample list, but I think you get the point of what i mean by “skills, techniques and tactics”.

This part of mentoring is very important and provides a lot of value.  For every “tip” you can get from a mentor, chances are they’ve already spent dozens if not hundreds of hours in research just to provide you that tip.

For example, in a PPC Affiliate marketing course I purchased and read through today I learned that when it comes to Google AdWords Ad Positioning the formula is Ad Position = Max CPC x CTR. What that means isn’t important, but what is important is that this simple little formula that took half a second for me to read and understand has probably saved me hudreds if not thousands of dollars in AdWords “experimentation” before I figure it out myself.

What’s deceiving about these little “tips” is that it can take a lot of time and resources to take things down to a simple answer like that.  For example, when I was setting up AMember to get the membership site going, I was getting stuck on one part.  Instead of spending a week trying to figure out how to get it to work, I found and joined a membership site on how to setup membership sites (I know, funny eh?).  Once I got access to the information inside the course, I was able to answer my question in a matter of minutes instead of wasting a week looking for the answer.

This is where mentoring can really help.  It can give you answers to questions that would normally take you forever to figure out on your own.  This is especially true for making money online.  There’s just so much information to sort through, it’s so easy to get lost.

These tips and tricks can be invaluable, but I don’t think they are enough by themselves.  To be fully inclusive I think a mentoring package needs these three components:

1. Techniques, Strategies, Tips and Tricks - This is all the tried and tested strategies that are being given to you in order to save you a lot of time and energy trying to figure them out on your own.  These are very important.  This is where most programs focus 100% of their attention.
2. Philosophy, Beliefs & Attitudes - This is a super important part of mentoring.  You not only need to know WHAT do do, but you also have to understand how to go about doing it, and you need to understand why you’re doing it.  Using Blogging as an example, you don’t just need to know how to setup a Blog with which plugins and how to write Blog posts, but you also have to understand the philosophy behind it all.  You need to adopt certain philosophies, beliefs and attitudes in order to be successful at Blogging and no amount of tips, tricks, strategies and techniques will help you succeed if these aren’t in place.  This, I believe, is missing in a lot of “programs” out there.
3. Support & Mentorship - This third element is also of paramount importance.  There have been hundreds of times when I’ve purchased an eBook, course, CD, or “program” of some sort and gone through it excited to see results only to get “stuck” on one little point that didn’t make sense to me.  Half the time, it’s not even me making a mistake but simply that one of the tools being talked about in the “program” doesn’t work anymore, or is outdated, or has been changed, or moved somewhere.  It can be so frustrating having 98% of the information you need to succeed.  Sometimes you just need to ask a mentor a question directly.  This is where forums can be an awesome help.  Also, the other part is encouragement.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten discouraged in a certain situation and only by working with a coach/mentor was I able to get the support I needed to keep going.  This part is also very often missing from most “programs” out there.

These three pillars of a successful mentorship program are what I’m building into my course.  Just today I got a forum setup for the mentorship program and I plan on being very active in there providing support, mentoring, encouragement and answering any questions my members might have about moving forward.  Even though I know I have a LOT to offer in terms of “Techniques, Strategies, Tips and Tricks” I really think the greatest part of the program will come to those who leverage the ability to “use me” in the forums to help them move forward.

I’ve very excited to work on this project.  Just wanted to give you guys an update on how things were moving along.  More to come soon.