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9 Free WordPress Plugins to Make Your Site Leaner, Meaner, and More Profitable

March 25, 2018December 21, 2015

The universe of free plugins is one of the most important benefits of WordPress. If there’s some functionality you’re looking for, odds are someone else has already built it!

Now I’ve been called — and this is true — a bit of a plugin junkie in the past. And there is a dark side to all this delicious free software; installing too many plugins can slow down your site, break some functionality, or even put you at risk for security breaches.

Here are a few I think you should consider, organized by functional area.

My First Pay What You Want Pricing Experiment: $692.27 in 4 Days

October 15, 2018November 30, 2015

In October, I wrote about how I built a membership site on the cheap. Today I want to share a little more about what was “behind” the membership wall and how I found my initial beta testers. I created a curriculum for a 30-day challenge to help people earn their first side hustle income. I … Read more

Should I Get an MBA or Start a Business? 41 Experts Weigh In

April 26, 2024November 9, 2015

A few years ago, I debated getting an MBA.

A lot of my friends were doing it, we have some world-class schools nearby (assuming they’d even let me in), and it seemed to be a solid investment in education.

For the most part, I’ve always been comfortable in school. I was a good student, and the structure of education made inherent sense: you show up, learn what you’re supposed to, and then pass a test.

The Journey is the Destination

May 11, 2017November 2, 2015

As a kid, I wasn’t much into Star Trek, but I was fascinated by the idea of teleportation.

Beam me up!

It’s so elegantly efficient; I mean who wouldn’t want to skip all the transit time and instead just instantly arrive where you need to go?

I was all about the destination, and would have been happy skipping the journey entirely.

Are we there yet?

It’s taken me a long time to realize this, but there is no “there.”

How to Build a Membership Site for $10.95

March 31, 2025October 19, 2015

In this post you’ll learn how I built a membership site for just $10.95.

At Podcast Movement this summer, several friends (Alex, Meron, Bryan, and others) encouraged me “launch a product.”

If that sounds super Internet Marketing-y to you, it did to me too. They argued this was the next logical step for Side Hustle Nation (all the cool kids are doing it!) both from a business standpoint and actually from a helping people standpoint.

Q3 2015 Quarterly Progress Report

November 3, 2021October 12, 2015

This is the third installment of my quarterly progress reports. If you want to travel back in time, you can check out the first two here and here. Why “progress”? Because that’s what it’s all about. To me, progress means forward motion, or actively taking the steps to improve each day. It’s one thing we … Read more

The 3 Laws of Side Hustle Physics

September 9, 2019September 28, 2015

Ready to get nerdy with me?

I’m all scienced-up after reading The Martian, so consider that the inspiration for this post.

As you go about your week, think about the physics of your side hustle: Inertia and momentum, Force and impact, Action and reaction.

My Time Tracking Results: My Decidedly Un-4-Hour Workweek and Passive vs. Active Income Time

January 27, 2020September 21, 2015

Last week I shared one of my favorite productivity hacks: tracking your time. This simple act helps keep me on task during the day, plus gives me some cool insight on where my hours actually go. It all goes back to Peter Drucker: “What gets measured gets managed”, right? My Results – How I Spent … Read more

Try This Dead-Simple Productivity Hack

October 18, 2021September 14, 2015

To make the most of your side hustle hours, try this super-simple productivity hack: tracking your time. There are a bunch of fancy apps that will do this for you (Toggl is one I’ve used in the past), but for my latest trial I just logged tasks and hours in an Excel sheet. Each day … Read more

The Truth About Online Business

October 15, 2018August 24, 2015

There’s a seldom-discussed truth about online business:

No one really knows what they’re doing.

It’s a practice, a process, a call-and-response experiment. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes blog posts get a great reaction and sometimes they’re met with crickets. Sure, there are systems and formulas and “best practices” to follow, but no one can guarantee success.

Usually Hustling, Occasionally Social