Robert Plank

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

My question to you today is: does working at a day job make me evil?

I have been balancing the day job and internet marketing thing for years.  It's not that bad.  I'm getting my first 3-5 year computer programming job on my resume, lots of free training that would otherwise cost $5000, really good health insurance, and a reason to get up in the morning.

I don't always work 9-to-5 hours.  Some days I work 6AM to 2:30PM, or 10AM to 6:30PM.  It's also not the most challenging job.  I don't have to work overtime, I'm not on-call, I don't take my work home.  So I'm free to do internet marketing stuff after work, during lunch, and on weekends.

Quick Story:

Sometimes I forget to pick up my paycheck at my day job.  Last month when I went to the receptionist to pick it up, one of my co-workers, a really cool woman in her 40's, noticed I'd taken a while to pick up my check.

She commented, "Someone else must be making those Mustang car payments..."

I told her nope, I pay for my car, but I wasn't making payments on the car... I bought it for $20,000 in cash last year.

She was surprised. I shrugged and said I'd saved up some money.  I forgot to add that I own a home at age 24, or that I pay double into my principal every month.

I also kept quiet the fact that I'd launched a product the night before, and made more in 90 minutes than she made in 30 days.

How about the fact that I dropped two months worth of pay at that job for a one week vacation in Hawaii during the winter break?

No one at work knows my secret, that I make more than my boss, his boss, and his boss.  Out of 800+ employees at my place of work, the only people who take home more money than me are the president and his 10 vice presidents.

When do you think I should quit?

When I have a year's worth of income in savings?  Don't give me that, "Quit when your internet job has replaced your day job" line.  I did that years ago.

I'm not going to be one of those guys who quits without health insurance.  When did you quit and do you have health insurance?  Who is your provider?

Once you lost that "time crunch" to get back to your day job, did it kill your productivity?

I am completely lost here... I had planned on being self employed right out of college but this REALLY nice and easy day job fell into my lap.  Some days it keeps my busy, some days I get bored and wish I could take a road trip or something.

Stay or quit?  Please tell me in the comment box below.  If I don't get ten replies maybe I'll just quit regardless.

Reading time: < 1 minute

I am now the OWNER of a 2200 square foot, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, cute yellow corner house... and I'm 23!

I am no longer going to screw around with the stock market. That $30,000 loss in January still stings a bit. That was supposed to be my financial shortcut to getting a house and it had the opposite effect.

My goal now is to work like crazy and build up exactly 2 years worth of living expenses, then throw more money at that house to cut the payments in half.

Comment below if you feel like congratulating me.

Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes

How the heck do you get a business partner motivated?

There is this guy, Steven Schwartzman. I have been working on internet marketing stuff for years... but... he can't freaking get a product launched to save his life!

My first contact with him was in 2003. I spent a week writing a PHP script for him, he paid me $650 for the job, it was all done and ready to sell. I even thought up a cool name for it. (HyperSplitter.)

We both made money, right? Wrong. In 2004... I get a message from him saying he needed some bug fixes. He waited so long to launch the product that some of PHP's changes broke the script.

I made the changes... then in 2005, I get a call from someone else saying, "Check out this web site... Hypersplitter.com. The script isn't for sale but I want you to look at the features on that site and clone the script. I would have bought resale rights but he isn't offering those either." I'm not even making that up... I really did get that phone call from Jaime Ojeda!

I think Steven eventually launched it but it only made a few hundred dollars. No big deal except it took him YEARS to launch it. Come on, Steven!!!

The guy is a great copywriter and he comes up with really great ideas for products. But he can't follow through! Everything he makes is half finished.

When I visited him last August he was working on a membership site. The last thing I said to him in person before getting on a plane and flying 3,000 miles back home was, "Promise me you'll have that product launched by the time I get back." It still hasn't been launched!

He does great when he's working for other people (writing copy and headlines) but for his OWN stuff... he just can't do it. He was supposed to write a report and registered a GREAT domain for it, but waited so long... that the domain expired... and copywriting legend HARLAN KILSTEIN snatched it up!

It was for that reason that I mentioned in Fast Food Copywriting about Mark Joyner's policy to never use the word "wait." You shouldn't be "waiting" on anything... ever.

Do everything you can right now. Focus on one thing and get it launched.

Steven had to study to take the LSATs for law school, he was sick for a while, he took a family trip to India and another to Portugal... okay, that's all behind you, it's time to get to work. Steven, can you launch just ONE product by the end of the week?

Come on dude. You come up with the BEST ideas I have even seen. If you just put products out consistently, you could be more popular than Brausch.

I'm sorry if I seem like a jerk here, or too nosy, but I want you to do well. All you need to do is keep posting special offers, keep building a list, and only work on things that will make you money. Not spending days helping someone else put up a web site for free.

Looking at my launch calendar over the past several years, I noticed that in 2006 I was lucky to even post one WSO. These days I feel guilty for going more than 5 days without posting one or sending a mailing out to my list.

Can you do one thing every day?

Please, give Steven some advice on staying motivated.
He NEEDS to get his ass in gear.

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

What do you do with the leftover internet marketing money you have laying around?

The easy answer is, reinvest it back into your business. That doesn't work for me because I very rarely do any outsourcing or advertising.

Okay, so what about financial goals? I already own a car, there are no specific places I want to travel.

I want a house. Actually I want a condo... I don't want to have to deal with keeping up a yard or mowing the lawn or any of that stuff.

With a 30-year fixed mortgage at 8%, I could get a $100,000 loan for equal to the same rent I pay now, living in a 2-story townhouse, with no roommates. Okay great you say, what homes in California sell for that much?

There are condos down the street slightly larger than my apartment... PLUS a garage... that sold for $250k this summer... that are now $160k. If I can put $50k down, my monthly mortgage payment on that thing would be close enough to the rent I'm paying now for me to be happy.

So how have I been doing? Since buying my car with all cash in June (I should have had it financed... but that's another story) I added $20k over time into a stock brokerage account.

With a little bit of work and a LOT of aggravation I built that up into $30k by December. I learned a lot along the way. I avoided so many of the usual stock trading newbie mistakes.

It was way too emotionally taxing to gain $1000 in the morning on some days only for the gains for the day to go back down to $0 by the end of the day. I would check several times daily, sometimes every 5 minutes.

What I learned quickly is that I was creating another job for myself. It wasn't even a fun job. Either I gained some money and started worrying about losing it, or I lost money and worried about how I was going to get it back.

I was a freaking full-time gambler and I didn't even realize it. So where do you stick your leftover money?

• Figure out a way to reinvest it back into your business. You need to find some way.
• Put it in a savings account and slightly beat inflation.
• Put it in a CD for a 4% yearly return.
• Invest it in an index fund or money market account for a 5% return.

I no longer daytrade.

Whatever you do, don't create extra work for yourself. Don't create an extra job. Your time is way more important than any amount of money.

What are your financial goals? (Seriously, post here and share them with me.)

What do you do specifically to reinvest your profits back into your business?

Would you still pursue internet marketing and create products for fun if you had all the money in the world?