Ok, so once again I’ve been bad about updating this blog. I’m a mom, 3 kids, full time job and trying to create a passive income for myself. My bad.

Anyway….thought I would come in and give an update!

Niche Site Duel: You may remember my niche site BodyArthq.com and how it all started from my favorite passive income guy, Pat Flynn. If you are completely lost at this point, just reach back through previous posts and look for the ones titled Niche Site Duel for details. So what’s the news? I have found that most likely I probably shot myself in the foot with this particular subject. Traffic continues to be low, but I must admit a lot of that is probably due to the fact that I’ve given up on it. The topic doesn’t seem to get much in the way of searched keywords and the number of pages visited is EXTREMELY low.

On the flip side, during this process, I did take the time to revive a niche site at HomePhotographyBusiness.net that was another sort of “dead in the water” project. I finished and just released my first e-book which is WAY more than an e-book. It also includes a huge collection of business forms that photographers will find useful and a few other freebies. This was just released a couple of months ago and I have had a few sales at the $89 price point.  I am looking for ideas to market that e-book a bit more since it seems to informational and useful for photographers. The traffic on that website and the adsense revenue is higher than any niche site I have worked on as well.

I honestly think the reason the photography site has done so much better than the body art site is simply due to my knowledge and interest on the subject. I’ve read on other blogs from passive income earners how they choose their topics based on keywords and sometimes write about something they know nothing about or have any interest in (other than the money it can make them). I honestly thought I could pull the same thing off. I was wrong. For me personally, I think if something is going to work it is going to have to be something I have at least a minimal interest in and have some shred of knowledge about. I know, everyone has different reasons for the topics they are choosing and I’m not putting anyone down for choosing the topics that will make the most money rather than what they know, all I’m saying is that for my own personal way of working, that’s what I plan on doing from here on out to ensure a greater success rate for myself.

A final note…and more of a question. Anyone who reads this blog knows I am a casual passive income earner. Yes I probably should be more hardcore, and if I was I could probably be much more successful and further down the road to bringing a 100% passive income. But I’m a single mom of three. I have to think about medical insurance, putting food on the table and college educations soon. For parents out there who are making a good living from a regular 9-5 job, what are you doing to motivate yourself to keep plugging away t0 a passive income? How do you find time between work and family to have time to do this as well? It seems to be my biggest obstacle and like many of you, as much as I want a passive income, I can’t give up time with my kids to work on my passive income. What’s the solution you’ve come up with?

Almost through the first month…how are you doing?  It’s been an extremely busy month for me. I am STILL working on my e-book and it is a slow going process. In looking back on this project it makes me wonder if other people who publish e-books many times a year actually put this much work into it? My e-book keeps getting bigger and bigger and I’m even starting to think maybe I should have broke it up into multiple e-books for higher profits. I thought about it for a few seconds, and then decided “no…this first project is just gonna be spot on, perfect, informational and just a load of awesomeness”. I have the mindset that if people can see how totally useful this book is, they will come back for more right?

I was planning on having my first e-book finished by the end of January but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. Looks like it’s going to be February. But I think those who get the e-book will appreciate the extra work, extra information and extra products that will be included in it.

Still deciding how to price it however. No idea. Need to research that for sure in the coming weeks.

So there we have it. One month down, 11 to go and I haven’t quite completed any of my new goals for the year. How about you?

Well…I ate too much cheesecake and drank a bit of champagne but I finally made it through the holidays. I did some thinking over the holidays about what I really wanted to accomplish in 2011. Make money right? Easy enough goal. But ya…that’s not a goal that can be measured. So here are my own goals for 2011…and I would love to hear back from you what your goals are!

Launch 8 NEW Niche Content Websites

I’ve launched 2 total niche content websites and am still in the process of really building them up. But I want more. I’d like to start outsourcing a bit more, so I think 8 new ones this year is do-able with a little outside help. Oh…and did I mention I want them to ALL be profitable, at least by a little, at the end of 2011.

Launch 2 NEW E-books

I’m just about finished with my first e-book and plan to release it in late January and I’ve got my mind on another one that I hope to do by this summer, along with the paid membership website I have floating around in my head.

Launch 1 New Paid Membership Website

I know one isn’t a big number, and it’s possibly I may do more, but my goal for 2011 is to give it a try. I would be happy to do the research, build, promote and get actual paying members for just one paid membership website. I already have the topic in mind, so I think it will be a good project to try this out on.

Generate a Minimum of $1500 Per Month By the End of the Year

Yes, I realize this is probably a low expectation, especially with all the project ideas I have. But I work a full time job, have 3 kids and a life. Generating $1500 on passive income and having my mortgage covered every month would be thrilling for me!

Have a Little More Me Time

This is more of a personal goal, but I have tendency to get caught up in life. I am definitely a pleaser, I aim to please everyone…everyone except myself of course. So this year, I am going to try to be a bit more selfish (isn’t that a weird goal LOL) and do the things I want to do.

Happy New Year to all and I wish us all great success for 2011!

Motivation is the driving force that causes us to achieve goals. I actually looked that up on wiki just to be certain that is what I am lacking this month. Maybe it’s the holidays, maybe I am getting burned out on all the various projects I have going on. No matter what the reason, I need my motivation back!

I am about 80% done with my very first e-book. I’m not a professional writer but I do know the subject matter (photography) so I hope it’s good. But for some reason, I am finding that every time I sit down to finish writing it I start to stray off onto something else. Just last night, I pulled my almost finished e-book onto my desktop but then decided it would be more interesting to play World of Warcraft for 4 hours instead of finishing up a project that could potentially generate thousands of dollars. A few days ago, it was laundry. Another time it was a good movie that came up on HBO. I had planned on doing more tonight, but well…Tron comes out tonight, so ya.

This morning, I was having another lack of motivation day and I talked with a friend of mine about it. Together, we smashed our heads together and came up with a strategy to help get my motivation back and my head back on track and focused on making money, which is why we are here. I’ve decided to share my list here on Purely Passive Income because I have a feeling some of you may be in the same situation. So here it is. My 10 strategies to getting your motivation back!

1.       Just do it. How many projects or ideas do you have in your head that you haven’t even started?  5? 10? 20? Leaving those ideas in your head won’t allow them to grow and certainly won’t lead to the motivation you need to get them to completion. Take those ideas out of your head, write them down and stop procrastinating. As the saying goes….”Just do it!”

2.       Define your goals and deadlines. Setting a goal is simply stating what you want to achieve. For larger projects such as writing a book, break up the goal into several mini-goals. When goals are a bit smaller, they seem to be more attainable and that makes us a little more inclined to do them (aka motivation) instead of dreading the massive goal as a whole. Give your goals a date to be completed by and write them down so that you know exactly what and when it is you are working on at any given time.

3.       Don’t let yourself get burned out. When we start a new project, we naturally get excited and push ourselves head first into the project.  We don’t set limits, we just go go go! What happens if you use up all that amazing energy at the beginning of a project? It burns up! Don’t burn every ounce of enthusiasm you have for a project at the beginning. Set limits for yourself. Only work during certain hours, certain days or write a certain number of pages or blog posts. While it’s important to set deadlines to make sure you get things finished on time, it’s also important not to let yourself do too much.

4.       Socialize, communicate and mingle with others who are doing the same things as you are. Talking with others who are in the same situation as you are can help keep you motivated and on track. Many times in forums or even on blog posts and comments, we report our progress and discuss issues we have with our peers. Hearing about others issues can help you feel that you aren’t quite on your own and listening to their successes will motivate you knowing that you will soon be there too.

5.       Bribe yourself for meeting goals. When I was younger my parents would give me special treats whenever I would come home with an honor roll report card. It was a great feeling to get that reward and it motivated me to keep tying it for next semester. As an adult, I feel the same way now. As you are defining what your goals are, pick a few and assign a “bribe reward” to them that you will do for yourself when you complete them. It will make you work harder to achieve the goal and will keep you feeling happy about working on your project.

6.       Let others hold you accountable. This one is scary but sometimes the things that are the scariest work the best.  Commit to your goal or project by announcing either the completion date or some sort of timeline on your blog or website so that others know its coming. When others know something is on its way, it can be harder for you to slack off and not complete it. If people are expecting something and you don’t deliver, trust me, they will hold you accountable!

7.       Get rid of any distractions in your work area. The place you work should be your sanctuary. Your kids shouldn’t be in there hovering around you, your husband can’t come in asking you to wash his favorite shirt and you definitely shouldn’t have the TV on while you work. These are all distractions. When you have fewer distractions around you, you won’t be as tempted to stray onto other tasks or projects. Instead you will become more motivated because all that will be on your mind is what is set out in front of you.

8.       Don’t take large breaks on projects. Once you are “off” a project for a long period of time it is really difficult to get back into the swing of things. If you have a longer term project, try not to take any more than two or three days off from working on it. Not only will this keep the information fresh in your head but it will also keep you “connected” to the project and less likely to turn that two or three days into two or three weeks.

9.       Learn to walk away. Sometimes a project can keep us stumped, frustrated or just plain bored. If you’ve lost your motivation because of something like this, get up and walk away. Don’t even think about the project at hand. Instead, go call your best friend just to say hi, go for a brisk walk outside or hit the gym. Sometimes just taking a breather can be just what you need to get back on track.

10.   Visualize your goal! Most of the time, when we are working on a project, we have an ending outcome we hope to achieve. For example, it could be to make enough money to buy a car. Print out a picture of that car (or whatever your goal is) and post it up over your desk so you see it every day. Visualizing what it is you want and seeing it staring you in the face every day can help to keep you motivated to get what you want.

I read a lot…and I mean A LOT…of other passive income blogs. I follow so many people it’s hard to keep track. I’m kidding…I keep incredible track of all of them! One of them that I was reading today, escapingthe9to5.com I really enjoyed. The hip chick that writes for the website, Maren Kate, is not just a smart and savvy business woman but her attitude and personality is one of my favorites in the biz. A lot of people who write about passive income can sometimes focus solely on the business aspect, and to be honest, in this industry, you really have to keep a little bit of humor. What I love about Maren, she keeps A LOT of humor in her writing. She talks about anything and is pretty straight forward too.

But the reason I bring her up is that I keep seeing articles and posts about Virtual Assistants pop up and a couple of days ago she posted about the release of a new business she is starting called “Virtual Zeta” (<–affiliate link, you should join too!) Now, I am also a reader of Pat Flynn and Tyrone Shum and they also use Virtual Assistants. In fact, the more I look around at the passive income blogs that I follow, the more I notice MANY people use Virtual Assistants.

I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head, some of which I believe could be HUGE for my passive income opportunities. My problem: I never have enough time for the follow through. I look at myself right now, and I’m working feverishly on 2 niche content websites. TWO! I have about 12 in my head. Imagine if I outsourced a bit to a Virtual Assistant and with the small cost associated with them, I could get those other 12 ideas out and rolling and making money!

Over the next couple of weeks, and I say weeks because the holidays are here and it will definitely be weeks before I can hit this, I am going to put together my list of tasks. Starting with listing out all of the ideas for niche content websites I have that I want to create. Next, I’m going to come up with what tasks, I can outsource and what tasks I feel I need to do myself. I am really curious to see how fast I can churn these out with a little extra help. I’d love to hear your experiences with Virtual Assistants, good or bad.

If you haven’t yet heard about the Niche Site Duel, it is a challenge I am part of first presented by two of my all time favorite passive earners, Pat Flynn and Tyrone Shum. The idea behind it is to create a profitable niche website from scratch all without using any paid advertising. That means search engines baby! Ok, so I’ve been participating in this challenge and I am not even close to being successful with it…but don’t you worry, because I have just gotten started. But I am learning a few things that I thought I would share.

My niche target of “body art” I am very happy with as far as the topic goes. I have tons of content, however, I am running into a problem.

The term Body Art encompasses basically 2 sub-niches….tattoos and piercing. Inside those 2 sub-niches you can have henna tattoos, tattoo designs, belly button piercings, ear piercing, guaging, etc. Have you figured out my problem yet? The content that makes up body art, is content that people would search for, but DOES NOT focus on the keyword phrase “body art”. What I have basically done to myself, and I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, is given myself a ton more work to come up with content for these sub-niches instead of the main niche.

Most people won’t search for the phrase “body art” but they will search for “belly button piercing care” or “how to design a tattoo”. In hindsight, yes I probably should have focused more on a smaller niche such as Piercings and concentrated on that one area. But I see potential here. I am finding that as I write articles about body art, it is actually making up new keyword phrases that are definitely more searched on. For example, the other day I posted an article on “snakebite piercings”. I run a report on Body Art and still am not found in the top 200 results, but “snakebite piercings, I am creeping up at #95. And I have a feeling that will increase over time.

If I can’t get to the top with Body Art, that’s ok, because I’m not sure that’s a widely searched term. But I still think it is a good choice as a “hub” of sorts, to a huge library of information about body art with those individual items being searched on.

Oh…and let’s talk about HomePhotographyBusiness.net for one second. It’s not technically my niche site duel challenge website, but I am working on it at the same time. I have been JAMMING it full of content. I’ve written everything myself and have tried to focus it on the keywords I want to be found with as much a possible. Since the last time I posted with my google results for the phrase “home photography business” I have moved up to the #2 position! Traffic is steadily creeping in. I have started an aweber newsletter list for it and will be sending out a weekly photography business tip and when my first e-book is finished I will be promoting it with that as well. What have I learned from this website? Well…to be honest, it sure is a lot easier to write about something you know! I’m comfortable and knowledgeable in this subject and I think it definitely shows. It has also given me some additional ideas for more niche websites to work on with subjects I know a lot about.

This niche website stuff may just end up being my forte when it comes to passive income!