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My Experience: 6 Months of Writing a Weekly Newsletter

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 12:08:13 GMT

Read Time: 4 Minutes

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to write one newsletter every week for the entire year and I've officially reached the halfway mark.

In honor of the milestone, I wanted to reflect on my experience and explain why I think other people would benefit from adopting a similar habit.

Why I decided to Write a Weekly Newsletter

There were three primary reasons that I decided to start writing a weekly newsletter. I wanted to:

Build an email list that I could eventually monetize
Become a faster writer
Improve my self-discipline

The Results

So far, I have accomplished two of the three goals above. Let's start with the good.

Writing Faster: I've absolutely become a faster writer. I've gone from spending 8-12 hours on each newsletter to waking up on Sunday mornings and writing, editing, and sending my newsletter all within an hour or two. I've also noticed that it takes me much less time to write/reply to things like client emails, text messages, and tweets. Basically, I'm now able to write everything more effortlessly and in a fraction of the time.

Improved Self-Discipline: Regularly doing difficult things that you don't want to do requires a massive amount of self-discipline. But here's the cool part: Self-discipline is like a muscle and the more you train that muscle, the stronger it becomes. Forcing myself to write each week has improved my self-discipline, which has made it easier to adopt other challenging habits into my life.

Building an Email List: If I'm being honest, this was probably the #1 reason that I decided to start a weekly newsletter. I wanted to build and monetize an audience. But pretty early on, I realized that writing about a single topic and becoming an influencer/guru does not sound all that fun. So I stopped writing for other people and I started writing about things that I find interesting. This made the process more enjoyable and it allowed me to develop my writing skills much more quickly. Unfortunately, this has resulted in my email list growing at a snail's pace; but I'm completely OK with that.

The Next 6 Months

I've always had a wide range of interests. I'm the definition of a "jack of all trades, master of none". If you've read any of my newsletters, you are well aware of this. I write about self-growth, golf, gadgets, gear, entrepreneurship, crypto, day trading, parenting, and more.

This has been great for building the habit of writing because it has kept things interesting for me. But now that I've developed a writing habit, I may try to narrow my focus during these next 6 months to see if I can actually build a small audience.

The most difficult part of this will be choosing my niche. Currently, my two greatest obsessions are golf and day trading, so I'll likely focus my writing on one of those. But then again, choosing between golf and day trading sounds almost as bad as having to choose between my kids. So on second thought, I may take baby steps and just become the "golfing day trader" guy. We'll have to wait and see.

Either way, I will write with a beginner's mindset. Similar to the way that Austin Kleon teaches in his book " Show Your Work ". I mentioned it earlier but I have no desire to become an influencer or guru. I don't want to pretend to be an expert. Instead, I'll write about my journey as I become a better golfer or a better trader. I will share my stories, my processes, and my successes & failures. This will help me learn faster and it will provide a path for others to follow in the future.

Alright, enough about me and my journey. Let's talk about you. Let's answer this question:

Should You Start a Writing Habit?

Absolutely! I really can't recommend it enough. Whether you write a weekly newsletter or you just write a daily journal for yourself, the act of writing regularly is one of the greatest things that you can do for your self-development.

It will help you become a better and faster writer. It will help you think and communicate more clearly. It will help you develop your self-discipline muscles.

If you're just starting, I'd recommend that you write about whatever you find interesting. Throw out the audience-building and monetization goals and just start writing. Over time, you'll develop your skills, find your voice, and maybe, just maybe, that will lead to some organic audience building. Or maybe it won't, and that is completely fine too.

That's it for this week. Thanks for coming along with me through this writing journey. If you have a moment, I'd love to hear about your writing goals and any benefits that have come as a result of writing regularly.

- Eric

Kid Caddie, My Trading Rules & Creating Atomic Habits

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 15:30:36 GMT

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Happy Sunday and happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. Here are a few things that I've discovered, done, or learned over the last week. I hope you enjoy.

G ear Find of the Week: The Kid Caddie

This one is for all of you parents that enjoy golfing. The Kid Caddie is a genius invention that turns your stroller into a golf push cart; allowing you to take your kids with you on your next golf outing. Pre-orders just opened up and shipping is expected to begin at the end of June.

I wish this had been around 4 or 5 years ago when my kids weighed a few pounds less, but I still plan on picking one up in the coming weeks.

My Trading Rules & Morning Routine

The past few weeks, I've found myself making some dumb mental mistakes while trading $SPY options. After reviewing my trades and talking with my trading mentor, I realized that I was letting my fear/greed emotions get the best of me. On multiple occasions, I either FOMO bought, overtraded, revenge traded, or hesitated when entering good trades.

I know that mastering my emotions is the key to becoming a good trader, so this week, I spent time creating a list of non-negotiable trading rules to help me conquer my bad habits.

Below, I've shared my new trading rules and also my morning trading routine. Keep in mind, this is not a "one size fits all" set of rules. Every trader has their own bad habits that require their own unique set of trading rules.

Eric's Trading Rules:

No trading until everything on my Morning Routine Checklist has been completed.
No trading unless I feel completely locked in, focused, and free of negative thoughts.
No re-entering a trade immediately after that same trade has been stopped out.
Risk 1% of my trading account on each trade
No moving my stop losses or profit targets as price approaches
Maximum of 3 trades per day
Maximum of 1 counter-trend trade per day
No trading after 11:30 am EST
All trades must be pre-planned with pre-set limit orders. No market buying allowed.
Every afternoon, I must review my trades from that day and add all trade details + lessons learned to my trading journal.
If I break a rule, I have to do 25 pull-ups, 50 push-ups, and 100 air squats before I can place another trade that day.
If I break two rules in one day, I cannot trade the following day.

Eric's Morning Trading Routine:

Do at least 10 minutes of mindfulness/meditation to calm my mind
Get at least 5 minutes of fresh air
See if there are any significant economic releases or news events that could impact trading that day
Look at higher time frame charts (1 week, 1 day, 1 hour, 15 minute) to determine the trend and any key price levels that might come into play that day.
Mark up my chart with key price levels, the prior day’s high and low, notable pre-market levels, and any relevant trend lines
Write down a trading plan according to how I think $SPY will move that day.
Review my trading rules, trading reminders, and trading setups

Book Recommendation: Atomic Habits

Atomic Habits is probably the most impactful book that I've read over the last 5 years. In it, author James Clear shares his framework for creating good habits, breaking bad habits, and getting 1 percent better every day.

My biggest takeaway from the book was that we should spend less time focusing on our goals/desired outcomes and more time focusing on the daily habits & systems that ultimately lead to the desired results. As James puts it, "Goals are good for planning your progress and systems are good for actually making progress".

Here's how I apply this to my life: When I set goals, I ask myself, "What are the daily actions that I need to take to accomplish this goal?"

Then I focus solely on those daily actions. The daily actions actually become the goal.

So if my desired outcome is to sign 5 new web design clients each month, my daily actions might be something like this:

Send 50 cold emails to prospects each day
Cold call 20 businesses each day
Spend 2 hours training or recruiting salespeople each week

If my end goal is to lose 30 pounds this year, my daily actions might be something like this:

Do 30 minutes of cardio & weight training each day
Meal prep 5 days worth of healthy lunches each Sunday
Avoid soda and other sugary drinks
Take the stairs instead of the elevator at work each day

When you train your mind to focus on daily actions and habits like this, the desired outcomes tend to take care of themselves.

This is just one of the many lessons that I took away from the book. If you haven't read Atomic Habits yet, I'd highly encourage you to pick up a copy.

That's it for this week. I hope you've discovered something useful, interesting, or entertaining. See ya next week!

- Eric

Trading Communities, 49" Monitors & Golf Instagram

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 20:51:02 GMT

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Here are a few of the things that I've been doing or learning about over the last week. I hope you enjoy.

Great Day Trading Community

I talked about it last week , but I've been watching a ton of videos from a YouTube channel called Trading Decoded to help me get better at trading $SPY options.

Since I've been learning so much from their videos, I decided to check out their Discord community , and I gotta say, it's pretty darn good.

If you click the link above, you'll be taken to their Discord where you'll be automatically enrolled in a free 7-day trial. Once inside, you'll find an assortment of helpful resources including free ebooks of best-selling trading books and detailed breakdowns of popular trading strategies. But the real benefit is their daily voice chat.

Each trading day, Trading Decode's founder (Jimmy) does a live stream from about 30 minutes before the market opens until the market closes. During the live stream, Jimmy shares his screen as he monitors the charts; sharing bar-by-bar analysis of what's going on with price action. The point of the live streams is not to be a call-out service but instead, it is to teach people how to read the charts and learn how to make better trading decisions. As Jimmy puts it, he's trying to teach people how to fish rather than just giving them fish.

After spending a week in the Discord and watching the live stream each day, I feel very comfortable recommending it to anybody that is in the early stages of their trading career.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is a $100/month fee once your free trial expires. Yes, it's a bit pricey, but I think it is well worth the price of admission.

The Ultimate Computer Monitor

About 3 years ago, I walked into the office of one of my web design clients and I saw something truly amazing. Sitting on their desk was a beautiful, curved computer monitor as wide as my wingspan. At 49 inches wide, this thing easily fits 3 windows side by side. It was love at first sight for my inner geek.

Shortly after, I decided to invest in one of these ultra-wide monitors; ditching my janky dual-screen setup that consisted of a laptop wired to an old 27" monitor.

And let me tell you something. That has been one of the best investments that I've ever made. Since upgrading to a 49" monitor, I've noticed a big increase in my productivity, my posture has improved dramatically, and I just feel more excited to sit down at my computer each morning.

I'm not entirely sure what the best 49" monitor is today but I went with Dell's UltraSharp 49" Curved Monitor and I've been incredibly happy with it.

Recent Obsession: Golf Instagram

I've never been a huge Instagram user but I recently discovered a corner of Instagram that I call golf Instagram and I'm kind of obsessed. There are two specific types of golf Instagram pages that I love. Pages that share golf instructions, tips & drills, and "play along" pages.

1) Golf Lessons: These Instagram pages are loaded with instructional videos and quick tips to help you improve your game. I regularly find myself bookmarking these videos so that I can pull them up when I'm at the driving range or practicing my short game. Here's an example of one of these pages .

2) Play Alongs: These pages are created by people that film themselves playing golf. Sounds stupid but I assure you, they are great. I'm about a 9 handicap so I enjoy watching 0-5 handicap golfers play. It's helpful to see how they navigate the golf course and approach different shots. I also secretly enjoy watching very average golfers as they film themselves hacking it up on the course. My favorite play-along page is probably @tothetee . I don't know the guy's name but he's a highly entertaining Canadian dude that posts videos of himself playing beautiful golf courses throughout Canada.

That's it for this week. I hope you've discovered something useful or entertaining. See ya next week!

- Eric

17-Minute Rule, Daily Journaling & Understanding Price Action

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 04 Jun 2023 15:32:04 GMT

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Here are a few of the things that I've been doing or learning about over the last week. I hope you enjoy.

The 17-Minute Rule

A friend recently told me something interesting. He said, "If you do something for 17 minutes per day, you'll log over 100 hours per year"

Crazy, right?

All it takes is 17 minutes per day. 17 minutes of exercise. 17 minutes learning a new language. 17 minutes developing a new work skill.

If you do that, it'll amount to 103.41 hours per year.

Just think about how much you can accomplish or learn if you put in 103.41 hours of work per year.

For me, the 17-minute rule is a great reminder that small, consistent efforts can lead to big achievements.

D aily Journaling

For the last month, I have been journaling each morning and I'm starting to see why so many people recommend it.

Daily journaling has helped me gain clarity about my goals and my fears. It's given me time to analyze what I'm doing well and what's not working. It's forced me to assess how I'm doing as a dad, husband, entrepreneur, and investor. It has helped me snap out of bad moods that might otherwise carry on for the entire day. And surprisingly, it's helped me become a better writer and a faster thinker too.

It's a habit that I'd recommend for everyone.

And the cool part is that you can journal about whatever you want. If you want to use your journal to document your life, you can do that. If you want to journal about your goals or fears, you can do that. If you want to journal about something that you're learning, to gain a deeper understanding, you can do that. It's completely up to you.

For me personally, I spend 10-20 minutes every morning journaling; using it as a way to think deeply - usually about how I can become a better person. Then I end it by writing down a single goal that I want to focus on for that day.

D ay Trading Education: Price Action & Trend Identification

My day-trading obsession continues. This last week, I've been trying to get better at reading price action on the charts and I'm also trying to get better at identifying the trend so that I can trade with the trend rather than against it (easier said than done).

Trading Decoded is a YouTube channel that has helped a ton with these efforts.

If you're just getting started, this playlist is great . My favorite video so far has been his " How I Trade SPY Options " video. In it, he does an excellent job of explaining how he identifies entry and exit points and how he manages his risk.

After you get an understanding of how he trades, I'd recommend binge-watching his "How I Traded SPY Today" videos. Each day, he produces one of these videos where he goes through that day's chart, candle by candle, and explains what he was seeing, where he bought, and where he sold.

These videos have been more helpful than anything else in terms of understanding price action and learning how to trade with a high probability of success.

And here are two other videos that I found helpful for understanding price action and candlestick patterns:

Best Candlestick Patterns (That Work)

15 Best Price Action Strategies After 15 Years of Trading

That's it for this week. I hope you've learned something today that will make your life a little bit better. See ya next week!

- Eric

Doing Things For The Last Time, Trading Journals & My Favorite Trading YouTube Channel

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 28 May 2023 15:10:38 GMT

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Here are a few of the things that have caught my attention over the past week. I hope you enjoy.

L isten to This

As I mentioned in last week's newsletter , I've been learning about mindfulness and practicing meditation using the Waking Up app. Each morning, I listen to one lesson on mindfulness and I do one guided meditation.

This week one of the mindfulness lessons had a huge impact on me and the way I think about life. The lesson is called " The Last Time " and it is a wonderful reminder that we do things and experience things a finite number of times. And we hardly ever know when the last time will be.

I would highly encourage you to take 4 minutes and 37 seconds out of your day and listen to The Last Time .

Trading Journal Software

Most professional day traders will tell you that one of the most important things a new trader can do is journal about their trades. Write down why you entered the trade, why you exited it, what you learned, how it played out, etc. Adopting this habit forces you to learn from your mistakes and it helps you identify the setups, patterns, and habits that increase your odds of success.

Since I started trading, I've been documenting my trades using pen and paper. This has been great for making me analyze what I'm doing but it's not great for identifying the commonalities between my winning trades and my losing trades.

So this week, I set a goal to find a better trading journal. After testing out 4 or 5 journaling softwares and playing around with a handful of trading journal templates on Notion and Excel, I have finally found a winner.

It's called TradeZella and it automates much of the journaling process. It syncs to your brokerage account and it automatically pulls in your trades. All you have to do is go through and add your notes. What type of pattern/setup was it? What were your expectations and how did it ultimately play out? What did you do well and what could you have done better?

Then, TradeZella crunches the data and identifies the commonalities between your winning trades and your losing trades. It tells you what times of the day you perform best, what strategies/setups are the most profitable for you, what mistakes are costing you the most money, and much more.

It's a little bit pricey at $49/month but the intel you'll gain from using TradeZella will quickly be worth significantly more than the monthly cost.

New Favorite Day Trading YouTube Channel

Channel: SMB Capital: Trading Insights From an NYC Prop Firm

This week, I came across a fantastic YouTube channel for anybody that wants to become a better trader. The channel is run by one of the biggest proprietary trading firms in the US and they've created over 1,700 no-fluff videos to help you become a better trader.

I'd recommend filtering their videos by "most popular" and watching a few of the top-ranking ones. One of my favorite videos that I've watched is titled " Options Trading Tips: Ten Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started "

That's it for this week. Thanks for being here and reading along. I hope you've learned a thing or two that will make your life better.

- Eric

Daily Meditation App, Learning to Day Trade & ChatGPT Plugins

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Mon, 22 May 2023 13:59:59 GMT

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Here are a few of the things that I've been exploring this past week. I hope you enjoy.

Daily Meditation App

The benefits of adopting a meditation or mindfulness practice are well documented. It can help you reduce stress, improve focus, and manage your emotions. I think of meditation as a workout for your brain, and it's a habit that I've been wanting to adopt for years.

The problem is that I've struggled with consistency. In the past, I've listened to random guided meditations on YouTube or Spotify but I always felt like I was missing something. I didn't have a good foundation set. I didn't know how to practice or how to know if I was making progress.

Enter the Waking Up app. Waking Up is a meditation app created by Sam Harris and it's a fantastic tool for anybody new to meditation. The app offers daily guided meditations, a variety of playlists, and my personal favorite, a meditation introductory course .

The intro course consists of 28 audio lessons and 28 guided meditations. The lessons are between 2 and 16 minutes long and they teach you the ins and outs of mindfulness. The guided meditations are about 10 minutes long and they allow you to practice what you learn. The great thing about it is that each lesson builds on the last, which makes it easier to feel like you're making progress.

As of this writing, I'm a little over a week into listening to one audio lesson and one meditation per day and I've already begun noticing the positive effects.

Bonus Tip: Waking Up costs $19.99/month, which in my mind is well worth it. But if you can't afford that, you can request a partial scholarship which will bring the cost down to $59.99/year. If that is still outside your budget, you can contact their support team and request a full scholarship - which gives you 6 months of free usage.

B ecome a Better Trader

As I've mentioned in previous newsletters, I've been learning how to day trade options. There is a steep learning curve, but I recently discovered a tool that has helped me practice what I learn without the risk of blowing my trading account.

That tool is ThinkorSwim , and more specifically, their OnDemand feature. If you're not familiar with ThinkorSwim, it is a trading platform created by TD Ameritrade and it's one of the most popular trading platforms on the market.

The thing I love about their OnDemand feature is that you can jump to a specific day/time from the past, and trade the price action in real-time, using fake money. This allows you to track the chart movements just like you would in real life and make buying or selling decisions based on what you see. Here's how I've been using it:

I go to a random day in the past and I set the time to 9:00 am EST (30 minutes before the market open). Then, I go through my pre-market routine. I zoom out to the weekly or daily chart and get a feel for the overall market trend, noting key support and resistance levels. I zoom into the hourly chart, noting the lower-time frame trend and any support/resistance levels. I look at the previous day's chart and the after-hours price movement, again noting key price levels. I practice making a trading plan just like I would if I was trading the live market with real money.

Then, when the market opens, I watch for the setups that I've been learning about. When I see a good buying or selling opportunity, I make the trade. I follow my rules for risk management and position size, I set my stop losses, I set my take profit targets, and then I analyze the results.

Doing this has allowed me to test everything I've been studying. It has helped me gain confidence in my ability to identify chart patterns and predict price movement. It has helped me get comfortable with the Thinkorswim platform. To me, it is a must-have tool for any beginner trader.

Note: Once you log in to your ThinkorSwim account, you'll want to click on the OnDemand button seen in the image below. From there, you can select any date or time from the past and trade it like normal (using $100k worth of play money).

C hatGPT Web Browsing & Plugins are Here!

This past week, I finally got access to ChatGPT's web browsing and plugin features and they have not disappointed. To be honest, I haven't had a ton of time to play around with them yet, but I've done enough to know that these features will be absolute game-changers.

If you don't have access yet, go sign up for ChatGPT Plus right now. It costs $20/month, which is an outrageously low price for what you get. Here is a video walking you through the process.

The thing I've been most surprised by is the sheer quantity of plugins. There are so many interesting plugins available, but to be honest, it's been difficult to wrap my head around how each of them can make my life easier/better.

I was watching some YouTube videos to learn how other people are using the plugins and I came across a video called " Unlock the Secret Potential of ChatGPT Plugins! ". In it, the creator shares a simple prompt that you can use to learn the ins and outs of each plugin. The prompt is as follows:

What can the [plugin name] plugin do? Output a table with every single available function and capability, a second column for a simple yet comprehensive explanation, and a third column with clear example prompts that show off the full capabilities of the plugin within GPT-4.

It works very well and in the coming days, I plan on using this prompt for each of the plugins that are currently available.

That's it for this week. Thanks for being here and reading along. I hope it's been worth your time.

- Eric

P.S. I'd love to know how you're using ChatGPT and all of the new plugins. Shoot me a message on Twitter ( @ericevenstad ) or via email ( hello@ericevenstad.com ) and let me know. It might even get you featured in an upcoming newsletter :)

Don't Miss This: ChatGPT Plugins & Web Browsing

OpenAI just announced that they have begun rolling out ChatGPT plugins and web browsing. Rumor has it, there are already 70+ plugins including ones from Instacart (grocery delivery), Kayak (travel bookings), and Zapier (automation tool). Here are a few things that these plugins will allow you to do:

Ask ChatGPT to create a week's worth of dinner ideas, make a grocery list for those recipes, get your groceries delivered, then give you a complete rundown of how many calories you consumed for each meal.
Ask ChatGPT to plan your next vacation. This could include booking your flights, finding a hotel in the hip part of a city that you're visiting, and even mappint out a travel itinerary based on your interests.
Ask ChatGPT to read through your company's CRM and send a personalized email to any prospect that requested an estimate within the last year but did not end up becoming a client.

Oh and with the browsing feature, ChatGPT will be able to browse the web and use current news and information in its responses to you. Want a summary of the week's biggest financial news headlines? ChatGPT will be able to do that for you. Want to know 2-3 key talking points from the "big game" so that you can impress the guys around the water cooler? Chat GPT can do that.

Here's a great video summarizing some of these plugin features and also showing you how to get access to plugins and web browsing.

That's it for this week. I hope you learned a thing or two that will make your life easier.

Have a great week ahead!

- Eric

ChatGPT Tips & News You Need to Know

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 14 May 2023 13:58:40 GMT

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Happy Sunday! This week I have a healthy dose of AI tips & info for you. I hope you enjoy.

Podcast Episode of the Week

The Tim Ferriss Show Episode 670 with Kevin Rose

Kevin Rose is an entrepreneur and investor that always seems to be ahead of the curve when it comes to things like crypto, NFTs, and tech. He also happens to be a regular on the Tim Ferriss Show, where Tim & Kevin chop it up about what new things are capturing their attention.

In this week's episode, I particularly enjoyed their conversations about affordable luxuries (17:12 minute mark), the current and anticipated state of AI (31:35 minute mark), and their analysis of the 1 million dollar bitcoin bet by Balaji Srinivasan (46:15 minute mark).

Creating a Trading Journal Using ChatGPT

If you've read any of my newsletters lately, you know that I've been getting pretty into trading crypto (and more recently, options). One of the things that I'm trying to get better at is documenting my trades and then analyzing what went right and what went wrong.

To help with this, I decided to ask ChatGPT-4 if it could create a better trading journal for me and the results were pretty cool. Here was my process:

1) I entered the following prompt into ChatGPT: "I want to create a trading journal where I document my options trades. I'd like to include entry price, stop loss targets, multiple take profit targets, type of setup that made me interested in the trade, results, profit and loss, and anything else that will help me become a better trader. Please create a trading journal template that I can use"

2) Below, you can see the exact response. ChatGPT gave me a complete list of data points that I should be tracking for each trade. The only problem was that it wanted me to manually copy/paste all of those headers into Google Sheets. Can you believe the nerve that these AI tools have?

3) Since I pride myself on being ambitiously lazy, I decided to ask ChatGPT to turn the trading journal into code that I could add directly to a Google Sheet. The result: Not only did it write the code but it also gave me instructions for installing the code on Google Sheets - which was a good thing because I had no idea how to do this. Here is a screenshot:

4) Time to test it out: I went step by step through the instructions, doing everything exactly as I was told, but then I got to Step 8. For some reason, I couldn't see the dropdown that it referenced. Rather than getting upset and cursing at my computer, I decided to take a deep breath and ask ChatGPT to troubleshoot the problem. Within seconds, ChatGPT provided updated instructions, and my new trading journal was magically created. It's not all that exciting to look at but here's the link if you want to check it out.

My big takeaway from all of this was that ChatGPT is much more than a simple content delivery system. This was the first time that I've used it to create any type of code for me and I was completely blown away.

Have ChatGPT Do Your Job For You

I've got some bad news. AI is most likely coming for your job. Whether you're a truck driver or corporate employee, AI will likely be able to do your job faster, better, and for a fraction of the cost within the next few years. Don't believe me? Check out this video posted on the OpenAI website where they show 3 examples of tasks that ChatGPT can do. The last two I found especially interesting.

My suggestion: Protect your job by embracing AI. Use it to produce better work more quickly. Become your company's AI expert.

Don't Miss This: ChatGPT Plugins & Web Browsing

Ask ChatGPT to create a week's worth of dinner ideas, make a grocery list for those recipes, get your groceries delivered, then give you a complete rundown of how many calories you consumed for each meal.
Ask ChatGPT to plan your next vacation. This could include booking your flights, finding a hotel in the hip part of a city that you're visiting, and even mappint out a travel itinerary based on your interests.
Ask ChatGPT to read through your company's CRM and send a personalized email to any prospect that requested an estimate within the last year but did not end up becoming a client.

Here's a great video summarizing some of these plugin features and also showing you how to get access to plugins and web browsing.

That's it for this week. I hope you learned a thing or two that will make your life easier.

Have a great week ahead!

- Eric

Google Calendar Trick, Documenting Processes & 100 Tips for a Better Life

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 07 May 2023 13:48:33 GMT

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Here are a few things that I've been thinking about or that have caught my interest this week. I hope you enjoy.

Google Calendar Trick

I'm the type of person that creates 3-4 notifications for each event on my calendar. It might sound excessive but it's what's needed to keep my overactive brain on top of things.

Until recently, I was manually setting up these notifications each time I created a new calendar event. It wasn't hard to do but if you know me, you know I hate doing these types of boring, repetitive tasks.

So I started digging around to see if there was a better way and I quickly discovered that you can automate this process by customizing your calendar's default notification settings.

Now, anytime I create a calendar event, my custom notifications are automatically added to the event. For me, that includes an email reminder 3 days before an event, an email reminder 18 hours before an event, an email reminder 3-4 hours before an event, and a desktop/phone notification 30-60 minutes before an event.

It might not sound like a ground-breaking discovery but it will easily save me 2-4 hours of mind-numbing work per year.

Here's a step-by-step guide explaining how to customize those settings... just in case you're the type of person that relies on a small army of event notifications.

Systematize Your Business with Tango

I recently started using a new software tool called Tango that automatically creates step-by-step written instructions (with screenshots) for any task in my business.

It's an absolute must-have tool for anybody that wants to quickly delegate tasks to employees or virtual assistants.

All you have to do is complete a task on your computer once and Tango works behind the scenes to document the entire process.

If you haven't already, go click the link in the previous section to see what it looks like.

100 Tips for a Better Life

Last week, a friend shared this article with me and I found it to be packed with wisdom for living a better, more fulfilling life.

In it, the author offers simple tips on everything from health to relationships to cooking.

My recommendation is to use it as a prompt for deeper thinking. Pick 2-3 tips from the list each day and spend a few minutes thinking about you read.

That's it for this week. I hope you've learned something new that will help you moving forward.

Have a great week ahead.

- Eric

Treating Life Like a Video Game, Ninja Lead Gen Tactic & a Crypto YouTube Channel I Love

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 30 Apr 2023 15:26:54 GMT

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Hope you had a great week. Here are a few things that I've been thinking about or that have caught my interest this week. I hope you enjoy.

Question to Ponder

Are you treating life like a movie or like a video game?

There are two types of people in this world. Those that treat their life like a movie and those that treat their life like a video game.

The movie type watches life happen to them and then complains when things don't go their way. These people tend to have a victim mentality.

The video gamers decide what type of life they want and then proactively do what it takes to get there. These are the go-getters.

So which one are you?

Are you treating your life more like a movie or a video game?

And what changes can you make to get yourself closer to the video game side of the spectrum?

L ead Generation Tactic I Love

Every day, I receive dozens of cold emails from people trying to sell me something. And since I'm a bit of a lead gen nerd, I actually open and read these emails. 99% of them are terrible but every once in a while I see someone using a novel technique to book leads.

Yesterday, I got one of the good ones and I had to share.

Instead of the typical cold email, this person sent me a Google Calendar invite. There are a couple of reasons why I think this could be an effective lead-gen tactic.

The invite showed up as an email in the Primary section of my inbox (as opposed to the Promotions section) which made it more likely that I would see it.
The calendar invite email created a pattern interrupt. For a moment, I thought I had agreed to this meeting and just completely forgotten about it. To clear things up in my mind, I opened the invite and quickly saw that it was a very clever pitch.

Here is what the calendar invite email looked like. Pretty good, right?

Honestly, I don't really need lead gen services but I liked this approach so much, I'm halfway tempted to hop on a call and see what they have to say.

Note: The one thing I would change about their approach is the calendar event title. "Fingers Crossed" felt salesy. I would choose a calendar invite that was a bit more personal. Something that would make it feel like an actual meeting. Something like "Eric/Faisal Lead Gen Meeting".

Y ouTube Channel I'm Loving

More Crypto Online

This is a crypto YouTube channel that is run by a guy named Ben that specializes in doing technical analysis using the Elliott Wave Principle.

Each day, Ben publishes 10-20 videos where he analyzes different crypto charts. He does a great job of laying out different scenarios, price targets, and invalidation points.

The thing that I appreciate most about him is that he is fluid in his opinions. He is not a hardcore bull or bear. He just analyzes what he sees and adjusts his opinions based on recent price actions.

If you're trading crypto regularly, I'd highly recommend turning on notifications and watching each video that More Crypto Online publishes (or at least the ones related to the coins that you trade).

If you're more of a long-term crypto investor, I'd recommend watching these videos before making any type of buy or sell. Chances are, you'll discover that waiting just a little bit could give you a better entry or exit price.

That's it for this week. I hope you've learned at least one small nugget of wisdom.

Have a great week ahead and don't forget to live your life like a video game ��.

- Eric

Visiting Austin, New Habits, Aeropress, AutoGPT & Managing Emotions as a Crypto Trader

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 23 Apr 2023 15:13:56 GMT

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Happy Sunday! Hope you had a great week. Here are a few things that have caught my interest this week. I hope you enjoy.

G reat Place to Visit: Austin, Texas

Last week, my wife and I took a kids-free trip to Austin, Texas with a couple of friends. After spending 3 days there, I can easily see why Austin has become such a popular place to live. It has warm weather, beautiful parks & bike paths, world-class restaurants, and an abundance of live music & entertainment. We had a great time so I thought I'd share a few of the things that we enjoyed most.

Where to stay: We rented an Airbnb at the Natiivo Condo Tower . It had all of the amenities of a nice hotel including a bar & coffee shop in the lobby, a well-equipped gym, and a beautiful rooftop pool. But the real reason to love Natiivo is its location. It's centrally located in the Rainey Street District and within walking distance of Lady Bird Lake, Downtown, and the South Congress area.

Things to do:

- Walk or bike the path along Lady Bird Lake in the center of Austin

- Swim at Barton Springs Pool

- Watch 1.5 million bats fly out from under Congress Avenue bridge at dusk
- Explore Austin's Central Library (sounds boring but it's worth a visit)

- Listen to live music pretty much anywhere

- Catch a comedy show at Comedy Mothership , Joe Rogan's new comedy club (we didn't get a chance to do this but it'll definitely be on the list for next time).

Where to eat:

- Intero : Incredible farm-to-table Italian restaurant

- Happy hour on the patio at Perla's for oysters & drinks

- Aba for cocktails & Mediterranean food and top-notch vibes (make sure you get a reservation)

- Terry Black's BBQ for Texas-style barbecue. There are other more well-known places for BBQ but if you want to skip the 3-hour line, Terry Black's is a great option.

- Grab a marg and some Mexican food at Guero's Taco Bar (the Burrito Especial with Chicken al Carbon is crazy good) and then head next door to their "Outdoor Cantina" for live music and drinks.

New Habit

I'm a learning junkie. If I'm not working or with my family, I'm deep in a podcast, book, or online course. But last week, I made it a priority to schedule more time with my thoughts. Instead of throwing in headphones while I walk my dog, I've been using the time to brainstorm, think deeply about my goals, and analyze what's working and what's not. It's given me a sense of calm and allowed me to uncover simple areas for improvement in my life.

Favorite Find

Aeropress Coffee Maker : For years, this has been my go-to coffee maker. It's compact, affordable, easy to travel with and it makes an exceptional cup of joe. It's not great if you regularly have guests over for coffee but if it's just you or your significant other, I don't think you can find a better coffee apparatus.

What Has My Interest

AutoGPT: I still need to spend a lot more time learning about AutoGPT but it appears to be the next big breakthrough in AI. Basically, AutoGPT turns GPT-4 into your own powerful assistant by connecting GPT-4 with apps, software, and web browsers. Here are some pretty incredible use cases .

Managing Emotions as a Trader: This week I took my first big L since I started to leverage trade crypto. I was on the wrong side of an impulsive move and it took a good chunk out of my portfolio. This is part of the game and I expected it to happen at some point, but what I didn't expect was the emotional reaction I would have to the loss.

In the days after, I found myself making poor investment decisions in an effort to "make up" for the loss. I threw my trading rules to the side, lost my confidence, and forgot everything that had previously made me successful. This resulted in me taking an even bigger loss and missing clear opportunities to get on the right side of the next trade.

It's now clear to me that I need to make it a priority to understand and regulate my emotions when I'm trading. I need to get better at setting up non-negotiable rules for when and how I trade. I need to create frameworks for how to trade after wins and losses and how to manage risk.

All of this will be a huge focus for me in the coming weeks and as always, I'll be sure to share what I learn along the way.

That's a wrap for this week's newsletter. I hope I've helped you discover or learn something new.

Have a great week ahead!

Eric

Early Adopter Twitter Account, How to Leverage Trade Crypto & My Favorite Golf Gadget

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 15:02:28 GMT

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Sunday! I'm back at it with some fresh new finds that I think you'll enjoy.

Twitter Account I'm Loving

Tom "Ozzy" Osmon ( @tomosman ) - Ozzy is the founder of the Shiny Object Social Club, an incredible Discord community centered around tech, AI, no-code tools, automation, and web3. I first heard about Ozzy while listening to him describe how he flipped this NFT for $1.3M in just 19 Days ��!

Ok, now back to his Twitter account. Ozzy is what most people refer to as an early adopter. He has an incredible way of being at the forefront of the latest tech trends, and fortunately for you and me, he tweets about everything he discovers. When I first started following Ozzy, his Twitter feed centered around NFTs and crypto, but lately, Ozzy has shifted his focus to exploring the latest AI use cases and no-code tools... and I've been loving the shift. Every time I read through his tweets, I walk away feeling more knowledgeable and excited about the future.

How to Leverage Trade Crypto

Last week, I talked about how I've recently become obsessed with leverage trading crypto. Since then, I've had a few people ask me how to get started with crypto leverage trading so I thought I'd put together a little guide.

Let's start with choosing a crypto exchange. The crypto exchange that I use for leverage trading is called Kucoin . If you live outside the US, there are several better options, but as Americans, we are not allowed to use those exchanges due to our elderly politicians and their over-the-top crypto regulations. The good news is that Kucoin will be perfectly fine for most of you.

To begin, you'll need to open a Kucoin account and deposit USDT, which is a digital currency that is pegged to the US dollar. If you already have USDT in a crypto wallet, you can simply transfer it into your Kucoin account. Otherwise, you'll need to connect your bank account to Kucoin, deposit money, and convert it to USDT.

From there, you just need to transfer your USDT from your Kucoin Main Account to your Kucoin Futures Account and you'll be ready to start trading with leverage. It's really pretty simple. The hardest part of it all is familiarizing yourself with the Kucoin platform. If you're struggling with that, I'd recommend checking out this video .

Now, a few words of caution before you get started. Kucoin is a centralized exchange (CEX) and it is inherently risky to keep large sums of money on centralized exchanges. We saw this play out a few months ago when another popular crypto exchange called FTX became insolvent after losing nearly $9B worth of customer funds . When this happened, all withdrawals were suddenly halted and FTX users lost all of the money/crypto that they had on the exchange. Some people had tens of millions of dollars worth of crypto vanish overnight.

The lesson here is to only keep as much money/crypto in your account as you need to trade with. I'd also recommend following a handful of crypto people on Twitter. Typically, Twitter will be the first to find out about insolvency rumors and if you move at the first signs of trouble, you may be able to get your money off the exchange before withdrawals are halted.

I should also mention that Kucoin has had its fair share of insolvency rumors over the last year. As of now, everything seems to be in good shape, but these things go from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. If you're not comfortable with Kucoin, the other option is to use a VPN to access popular non-US crypto exchanges like Bybit .

If you have specific questions about Kucoin or leverage trading, feel free to message me.

F resh New Find

Arccos Smart Sensors : This one is for all of you golfers out there. Arccos are golf club sensors that track the direction and distance of every shot that you hit on the course.

All you have to do is attach the unobtrusive sensors to each club in your bag and then download the Arccos app to your phone. From there, you simply play your round as normal while Arccos works in the background. Within a few rounds, Arccos will be able to tell you which club to use for every shot - factoring in past performance, distance, and even elevation changes. It's like having a professional caddie in your pocket.

I just recently started using these and I've probably shaved 4-5 strokes off my average score.

The other cool thing about Arccos is their app's stats section. There, you can review your past performance and see how different parts of your game stack up against other similarly handicapped golfers. As you can see from the screenshot below, I'm losing a combined 7.4 strokes per round on my approach shots and my putting compared to other 9 handicappers. Helpful knowledge for the next time I head to the course for a practice session.

That's it for this week. As always, I hope I've helped you discover something new or exciting.

Have a great week ahead!

- Eric

The Power of AI, Crypto Leverage Trading & the Best Pants on Earth

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 09 Apr 2023 14:33:53 GMT

Read Time: 2 Minutes

I received some positive feedback on last week's version of the newsletter and I enjoyed writing it, so I'm going to go with the same theme this week.

Here are a few things that I've been enjoying lately:

Favorite Podcast Episode

My First Million: Brainstorming ChatGPT Business Ideas with Billionaire Dharmesh Shah

There's been a lot of concern lately about the power of AI, with many tech leaders signing a petition urging all AI companies to pause the development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.

But not everybody is concerned about AI. In fact, this week's My First Million guest, Hubspot founder, and billionaire, Dharmesh Shah is so excited about the potential of chat-based AI that he recently spent $10M+ on the purchase of the domain name chat.com.

In this podcast, Dharmesh shared the use cases for AI that he is most excited about, he talks about why he thinks AI will amplify human power, and he explains how these AI tools actually work.

I found it to be a fascinating conversation about the big-picture possibilities of artificial intelligence.

W hat I'm Learning

For the last two years, I've been making money by trading NFTs, but it has become harder and harder to turn a profit. As a result, I recently started asking people in a few of my crypto/NFT online communities how they're making money right now and the overwhelming answer was leverage trading crypto.

So for the past few weeks, I've been learning everything there is to know about leverage trading and technical analysis.

Click on my YouTube history and you'll see nothing but technical analysis tutorials. When I'm away from my computer, I'm listening to trading mindset books such as Trading in the Zone and Thinking in Bets .

Two things excite me the most about leverage trading crypto:

You can make money whether crypto prices are going up or down.
If you do it the right way, you can put yourself in the position to make large gains with minimal downside risk.

Here are my suggestions if you want to learn about leverage trading crypto:

YouTube has everything you need to know. I'd recommend focusing on topics such as technical analysis, risk management, and trading mindset.
Speaking of risk management & trading mindset, I would highly recommend reading or listening to the two books I mentioned above.
Join some sort of online community where other crypto traders hang out. This will help you get a feel for how they think and it'll allow you to ask questions. My favorite community is called Wumbo Labs but joining requires that you own their NFT which costs around $3,000. Other cheaper options include the More Crypto Online community , crypto Twitter, or any number of subreddits.
Skip the paper-money trading account and open a regular trading account. Put $100 in and start trading with tiny position sizes. The fastest way to learn is to jump in, and having even a few dollars on the line will completely change your mindset compared to trading fake money.

Fresh New Find

If you like looking good AND feeling good, you need to get yourself a pair of Flint & Tinder 365 Pants .

These are the only pants I wear anymore. They feel like sweatpants but they're stylish enough for a business meeting or a date. Plus they're lightweight so you can wear them year around.

My personal favorite is the Charcoal Slim Fit but they have a wide range of colors and fits to meet your needs.

Go ahead, toss your jeans in the trash, and make the switch to Flint & Tinder.

That's all I've got for you this week. I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope your week ahead is a great one!

-Eric

Doing Things That Don't Scale, Hop WTR, the Silk Road & Fitness AI Prompts

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 20:57:21 GMT

Read Time: 5 Minutes

I'm switching things up this week.

Instead of writing a how-to article, I'll be sharing a few things that have captured my attention over this last week.

Similar to Tim Ferriss's 5-Bullet Friday newsletter but with my own spin on things. I hope you enjoy.

Favorite Podcast Episode

Bankless Podcast Episode 164: The FBI Agent Who Took Down the Silk Road with Chris Tarbell

Bankless is one of my favorite podcasts for learning about crypto and this week they interviewed former FBI agent Chris Tarbell. Chris is the person responsible for taking down the Silk Road, a massive online black market that sold everything from drugs to weapons to assassinations. It's a fascinating story that ultimately lead to the arrest of Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht and the seizure of 177,000 bitcoin (valued at over $5 Billion).

And oh, by the way, the US government just started selling the Silk Road bitcoin that they seized all the way back in 2013.

Business Lesson of the Week

Lesson: When you're starting out, do things that don't scale.

A few week's ago, I started preparing my 2022 crypto taxes. If you've never done crypto taxes, I'll let you in a little secret. They suck real bad.

My crypto taxes in 2021 took me close to 80 hours to prepare and I had 4X as many transactions to dig through in 2022.

I've been dreading my tax prep for months, but then I came across a new crypto tax software called Awaken . The tool itself is a big improvement over other crypto tax tools, but what really sets Awaken apart is the customer service.

Awaken doesn't have any help docs or support articles. In fact, I'm not even sure if they have a support email. But what they do have is a little chat bubble built into their tax software. And on the other side of that bubble is Andrew, one of Awaken's founders/developers.

If you have a question about anything at all, you just type it into the chat bubble and within minutes you'll receive an insightful answer from Andrew.

Over the last few weeks, I would guess that Andrew has spent 5-10 hours helping me. He has taught me how to use Awaken, he has shared countless tips & suggestions, and he has even whipped up new product features to help me complete my taxes more quickly.

Providing that level of customer support isn't sustainable, but Awaken is a brand new company and they are doing something really smart. They are creating raving fans by giving their early customers a "wow" experience.

And guess what I'm doing to say thank you.

I'm going out of my way to tell everybody I know about Awaken. Not only because I think it's the best crypto tax tool around but because I want to see Andrew and his team succeed.

F resh New Find

I love sipping a cocktail or crackin' open an ice-cold IPA after a long workday. It helps me turn off my overactive brain and transition from work mode to dad/husband mode.

But a few weeks ago, I decided to dial back my booze intake for a bit. I wanted to see what kind of effects a booze-free life would have on my sleep quality, energy levels, and overall happiness.

What I discovered is that I don't actually crave booze at the end of the day. I just enjoy the ritual of sitting down for a few minutes and drinking something besides water or coffee.

I was explaining this to my wife and she suggested I try HOP WTR , a non-alcoholic sparkling water that she'd heard about.

It sounded interesting so I looked it up and discovered that HOP WRT is just sparkling water infused with hops and "mood-boosting, stress-busting adaptogens and nootropics."

We decided to try it out and I'll say that I've been pleasantly surprised. By no means is it as tasty as a real beer, but I've found that it does a nice job of helping me transition from work mode to family mode.

It's hard to tell if those stress-busting hops are actually working or if it's just a placebo effect, but either way HOP WTR has made my evenings more enjoyable.

Tip: They charge a hefty $36.99 for a 12-pack so definitely keep an eye out for coupons. I was able to snag a buy 2 get 1 free coupon that made the price a bit more reasonable.

ChatGPT Prompt of the Week

Summer is around the corner which means it's time to start working on that beach bod.

I've been starting to get back into shape recently, but the one thing that I've always struggled with is coming up with an effective training program.

For some reason, creating a workout plan is way more challenging than actually doing the workout.

So this time around, I decided to see if AI could help.

I fired up OpenAI's newly released GPT-4 and asked it to create a training program that would help me pack on muscle over the next few months. It took me a little bit of tinkering to dial in my prompt but within 15 minutes, I had a great training program to follow. Here's the prompt that I used:

"I want to build muscle and put on weight. I'm a 35-year-old male. I'm 5' 11" and I weigh 150 pounds. My target weight is 165 pounds. I need a 3-day per week weight training program that can be done at home. My workout equipment is as follows: TRX, pull-up bar, resistance bands, jump rope, stairs, one light kettlebell and one medium kettlebell, a bench, and dumbbells that go up to 25 lbs. Please act as a personal trainer and create a 4-week training program to help me build muscle. Please also include a warm-up routine that helps me activate the muscles that I will be using during each workout. I prefer short, high-intensity workouts with minimal breaks in between sets".

Here is an example of one of the workouts:

I've done all three workouts that it created for me this week and each one has been fun and effective.

If you want to try it out for yourself, copy the prompt above and customize it according to your own fitness goals. You will have to be on a paid plan (as of right now) if you want to use GPT-4, but you can use GPT-3.5 for free and I'm sure the results will be comparable.

And if you struggle with the nutrition side of things, try using a prompt like this one to have ChatGPT come up with healthy meal options:

"On Sundays, I want to start making healthy lunches that I can eat throughout the week ahead. The lunches should be delicious, easy to make, and filled with protein to help me build muscle mass. Please act as a nutritionist and come up with 15 lunch ideas with recipes for each."

That's it for this week's newsletter. I hope you've enjoyed it and I hope you've discovered a few new nuggets of wisdom.

Have a great week ahead!

- Eric

Boost Your Business Skills with These Free Online Courses

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 21:10:28 GMT

Read Time: 2 Minutes

Want to learn new skills and grow your business without forking over thousands of dollars for an overpriced course from your favorite "guru"?

Well, I'm going to let you in on a little secret...

You can find a treasure trove of free online courses offered by your favorite SaaS companies and they are every bit as good as the courses that other people are paying thousands of dollars for.

Why You Should Learn From SaaS Companies

Most great SaaS companies are trailblazers in their industries, which means they've got the skills, knowledge, and experience that you need.

They are also incentivized to help you succeed. If they're able to teach you practical skills that you can apply directly to your business, you are more likely to become a customer of theirs.

Put simply, these companies want to create great content because they know that helping you grow your business will lead to more business for them.

A Few of My Favorite Free Courses

Automate your business with Zapie r: Zapier offers two free courses that will teach you how to automate your business using their incredible business automation platform. Take these courses and you'll discover creative new ways to save time and scale your business through the power of software automation.
Dominate Local SEO Rankings with BrightLocal . Looking to conquer the local SEO scene? Look no further! BrightLocal, a top-notch local SEO SaaS tool, has a collection of free courses that teach you how to boost your website's ranking on Google. Learn these ninja techniques and watch as your online presence skyrockets and your phone starts ringing like never before.
Master Website Design with Duda : Duda is a renowned web design platform and they offer a variety of free courses on everything from designing a great-looking website to building a thriving web design agency.
Build a Home Service Business with BookingKoala : BookingKoala is a popular tool that home service businesses use to operate their day-to-day business activities. This one isn't free but for just $80 you can get access to over 10 courses that will teach you how to build a successful home service business from the ground up.

Uncover Other Free Courses

The courses that I've mentioned above are some of my favorites but you might be looking to learn a completely different type of skill.

If so, here's my recommendation. Find the top SaaS companies related to what you're trying to learn. If you want to learn web design, visit Squarespace and Duda's websites. If you want to grow your coaching business, find the best SaaS tools for coaches. If you want to master sales, find companies that offer Sales or CRM tools such as Salesforce.

Then simply scroll down to their website footer and look for links to any educational resources like free courses, online webinars, ebooks, or templates. You might have to check out a few SaaS websites to find what you're looking for, but chances are, you'll eventually dig up a gold mine of information to help you master new skills and grow your business.

Unlock the Secrets to a High-Converting Home Service Business Website

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 12:27:26 GMT

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Over the last 10 years, I've analyzed well over 1,000 home service business websites and I've discovered that the best ones do three things extremely well:

Build trust with potential customers
Highlight their areas of expertise & services offered
Make it as easy as humanly possible for people to hire them

But the sad truth is, very few home service businesses have a website that does even one of these things well, let alone all three.

So I've decided to create a list of things that home service businesses can do to improve their website and turn it into a lead machine.

A Great Website Should Help Your Home Service Business Build Trust With Potential Customers

When your business requires you to enter people's homes, you need to prioritize building trust with prospective customers. Here are three ways you can use your website to build trust:

Use Those Customer Testimonials

Customer testimonials show prospective customers that you have a history of doing great work. We already know that you should be collecting customer testimonials on review sites like Google & Yelp, but you should also be adding them to your website. The best websites I see have 3-6 testimonials on their home page plus additional testimonials sprinkled throughout the rest of their website.

Pro Tip #1: When someone writes you a testimonial, ask them for permission to attach their name and photo to it. The name and photo is key because it differentiates you from all of the businesses that use fake reviews on their website.

Pro Tip #2: If you have separate website pages for each service that you offer, place service-specific testimonials on each page. For example, if your cleaning business offers move out cleaning services, you should include a moveout cleaning testimonial on that specific page of your website.

Don't Ignore the About Page

Your customers want to know what type of person they're letting into their home and the About page is your opportunity to show them that you can be trusted.

A great About page should include an image of you smiling ear to ear with either your family or your team. And it should also tell people who you are, when/why you started your business, and why you are the best choice for their needs.

Cover Your Website With Photos

One of the best ways to build trust is to show people examples of your work.

You don't need to hire a professional photographer or get a fancy camera. All you have to do is pull out your phone (assuming it was made in the last 3-4 years) and snap a few photos before you start a project and then again when you finish it.

Throw those photos on your website and you'll help people envision what their house will look like if they hire you.

Bonus Tip: You can get more eyeballs on your business if you get in the habit of also posting those photos to your Google Business Profile.

A Great Home Service Website Should Highlight Your Expertise & Services Offered

People don't visit your home service website for fun. They visit it because they want to see if you can fix their leaky faucet, build their dream deck, or clean their dirty house.

Your goal is to present your business as the solution to their problems.

Here are a few things you can do to accomplish this:

Make It Clear Who You Help

I can't tell you how many local businesses completely forget to mention who they help or where they operate. Even if your business doesn't have a physical location, you still need to tell people what cities/towns you provide service to.

I recommend putting the name of your primary city right at the top of your home page. An example headline would be "Seattle's Most Trusted Garage Repair Company". Then, you can also list out any secondary service areas in your website footer, on the About page, or you can even create individual website pages for each city/town/neighborhood that you service.

Tell People How You Help

You want to list your services on your website's home page and also in the navigation menu. If you're just getting started, a single service page that lists all of your services is fine. But as time goes on, you should create individual website pages for each of your core services.

This will help prospective customers determine if you can solve their problems and it will help you show up in Google search results.

Here are some insightful tips from @marcusmclayton about how to build better service pages.

Avoid Word Vomit

Yes, good old word vomit. You know it when you see it. Word vomit websites are the ones covered with paragraph after paragraph of dense text.

Let me tell you something. Nothing will send a website visitor packing faster than a word vom website.

Here's the truth: People don't read your website text.

Instead, they scan the page as quickly as possible to determine if you can solve their problem.

Your goal is to make your website easily scannable. To do this you should:

Use tons of white space on your website (i.e. don't pack every square inch of your website with content)
Ditch the long paragraphs in favor of 1-2 sentence paragraphs.
Break up content with headlines and images
Use your home page as a table of contents. It should provide basic info and then link out to internal pages with more in-depth info.

A Great Home Service Website Should Make It as Easy as Possible for People to Hire You

If you want to turn website visitors into paying customers you need to tell them what you want them to do.

Do you want them to call you? Fill out a form to request a free estimate? Use your scheduling tool to book a service?

Decide what action you want them to take and remind them to do it over and over again.

If you want people to request a free estimate, put buttons that say "Request a Free Estimate" all over your website.

Put one in your website header and footer. Put one at the top of your home page. Put buttons on every single page of your website.

Your goal is to have call-to-action visible at all times - no matter where someone is on your site.

Visitors should never wonder what they need to do to hire you. It's your job to make it blatantly obvious.

And don't forget about mobile.

You need to make your website easy to use and interact with on phones. Make your phone numbers click-to-call, make your content easy to read on small screens, and make sure your contact forms and scheduling tools are mobile-friendly.

If you make it as easy as possible for people to hire you, you win.

Want to learn more about building an automated home service business?

Make sure you subscribe to my weekly newsletter and follow me on Twitter .

How to Build an Automated Home Service Business

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 11:30:00 GMT

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Last week, I talked about why a home service business is the best type of business to start in 2023 .

In fact, it's becoming increasingly likely that a home service business will be the next business that I build.

For the last month, I've been researching successful home service businesses to better understand how they operate.

I went into it thinking that building a home service business meant that you either had to do the labor yourself or hire a team of employees to handle it (neither of which sounds all that appealing to me).

But then I discovered a third option that is waaaay better.

I call it the Automated Home Service Business.

The Automated Home Service Business

While researching home service businesses, I stumbled upon a small corner of Twitter dedicated to these automated home service businesses.

It turns out there are hundreds of people building local home service businesses without ever stepping foot inside a customer's home.

Instead, they focus on building marketing systems that attract new customers and then they outsource the labor to local independent contractors.

So if you were starting an automated window cleaning business, you would need to do two things:

Find customers
Find independent contractors that have their own equipment and already know how to clean windows.

Let's take a look at both of these things.

Finding Home Service Customers

Getting customers is actually the easy part because there is a huge demand for high-quality home service businesses.

First, you'll build a website that explains your services and gives people the ability to book an appointment.

Then you start driving traffic to your website. To do this you can:

Run paid Ads (Google LSA, Facebook, HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, etc)
Promote your business by posting regular comments on the NextDoor neighborhood app and in your local Facebook groups.
Set up a Google Business Profile to help you rank in Google
Knock on doors and hand out flyers
Cold call or cold email businesses that could use your services
Network with strategic partners that could be a source of leads

Your goal will be to test out a variety of marketing tactics until you find the ones that work best for your niche and your location.

Then, you just double down on whatever is working.

Finding Home Service Laborers

Finding high-quality independent contractors is going to be a bit more tricky. You need to find experienced window cleaners with their own equipment and they must be willing to work for less than what you charge the customer.

Ideally, you want to do a 50/50 revenue split with your contractors.

So if you charge a customer $500 to clean their windows, you'd need to find a contractor willing to do the work for $250.

To make this work you have to do two things:

1) Charge premium prices for your services
2) Find window cleaners that charge below-market rates

In order to charge premium prices, you'll need to answer your phone when people call and you'll need to provide exceptional customer service. People will gladly pay for quality and convenience.

To find cleaners, I'd recommend following this advice from automated home service business wizard, Sergio Silesky .

To summarize what Sergio says, you will post on NextDoor and in local Facebook groups asking if anybody has a great window cleaner that they would recommend.

When you do this you'll get people recommending window cleaners and you'll get window cleaners reaching out to you directly.

Contact all of those cleaners and ask them about their experience, availability, and pricing.

If they seem like a good fit, ask if they'd be interested in helping out with some of your window cleaning jobs.

Explain that you'll send them a steady stream of customers and you'll also handle all of the customer service, scheduling, and billing. All they have to do is clean the windows and they'll make the same amount of money per job as they do now.

Putting It All Together

Now that you have a team of window cleaners and a stream of customers, your job is to answer phones, play matchmaker, and make sure your customers are getting 5-star service.

There are a many tools that will make all of this easier but the most important one will be your CRM/booking software.

The tool that I hear about the most is called BookingKoala .

With BookingKoala, your customers can get instant estimates on your website, schedule services, and submit payments online.

BookingKoala also helps you onboard and manage your independent contractors and send marketing campaigns to past customers.

In the coming weeks, I'll dive more into the specifics of how to set all of this up, but I just wanted to give you a little glimpse into the world of automated home service businesses.

It's been super fun learning about all of the people that are building these businesses while working a full-time job or traveling the world.

And the cool part is that you can get started for less than $1,000 and you really only need to put in 5-10 hours of work per week once you get the ball rolling a bit.

No employees, equipment, or supplies needed.

All you have to worry about is getting the customers, keeping them happy, and then finding a team of reliable independent contractors.

Want to learn more about building an automated home service business?

Make sure you subscribe to my weekly newsletter and follow me on Twitter .

The Best Business to Start in 2023

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 05 Mar 2023 12:30:00 GMT

Read Time: 2 Minutes

For the last handful of years, my company Bootstrap Websites has been building websites for home service businesses. We’ve worked with electricians, roofers, window cleaners, mobile car detailers, and everything in between.

During that time, I've learned one thing...

Home service businesses are absolute cash machines.

Every time I talk with someone that owns a home service business, I'm always blown away by how much money they're pulling in.

And between you and me, very few of these business owners actually know how to run a business.

Most of them are simply trade workers that treat their business like a one-person job.

No marketing strategies. No systems or processes. No online scheduling or online payments. No appointment reminders. Nobody answering the phones.

It's actually insane how successful they are despite not having these things.

I've always been drawn to online businesses. Things like marketing & web design agencies, affiliate marketing, and e-commerce.

But the more I look into home service businesses, the more I think they are the best business to start.

Here are four reasons why I've come to this conclusion:

I've been calling home service businesses and I've discovered that most of them either don't answer their phone or they have extremely long wait times (sometimes multiple months). This means there's an opportunity to charge premium prices by simply picking up the phone and providing timely service.
A large percentage of home service businesses are owned by older people that will be retiring soon.
Many home service businesses do great despite not having a website, a Google business listing, or any type of marketing strategy.
The baby boomer population has money to spend and as they continue to age, they will be increasingly reliant on home service businesses. Additionally, people are having kids later in life which means new parents are more established in their careers and thus more willing to spend on home services.

In short, demand is growing and there's an easy opportunity to take market share from current home service businesses by providing a superior customer experience.

I saw this quote from Nick Huber of the Sweaty Startup last year and I still think about it regularly

He's so right.

You’re 100 times more likely to build a successful company if you’re competing against the local electrician that still uses a fax machine and knows nothing about business than if you try to compete against the boy genius that taught himself to code at the age of 5, graduated from MIT at age 17, and has secured millions in funding to build the next big tech company.

Home service businesses might be boring. You’re not going to change the world or have a billion-dollar exit with a home service business. You’re not going to become Instagram famous or appear on the cover of Time magazine.

But if you want a surefire way to build a successful business and an incredible income, a home service business is your best bet.

I'm in the process of studying the home service market and it is becoming increasingly likely that I will start a home service business of my own.

In next week's newsletter, I'm going to tell you how some of the best entrepreneurs I've seen are disrupting the home service industry and building highly profitable home service businesses while working as little as 5-10 hours per week.

A Letter to Side Hustle Steroids Subscribers

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 26 Feb 2023 12:30:00 GMT

Read Time: 2 Minutes

For the last few months, I’ve been creating content around the theme of building a side hustle.

I’ve been sharing what I’ve learned over the last 10 years of building businesses and I’ve been aggressively hunting for new side hustle opportunities that I can share with you all.

I’ve been studying Amazon selling strategies, affiliate marketing, drop servicing, and a million other side hustles.

I’ve had a blast doing it, but it’s become abundantly clear that I can no longer be your source of side hustle ideas.

The reason is simple.

I’ve discovered that I’m a full-blown side hustle addict with an extreme case of shiny object syndrome.

As it turns out, I’m incapable of studying side hustle ideas at a high level.

Instead, I get completely obsessed with the ins and outs of each side hustle opportunity.

I’ve found myself spending multiple days learning everything there is to know about each little side hustle. I absolutely love it, but it has come at the expense of my actual goals.

I still believe strongly that everybody should have a side hustle, but if you want side hustle ideas, you’ll have to look elsewhere from now on.

What You Can Expect Moving Forward

With that out of the way, let's talk about what you can expect from me moving forward.

From now on, I am going to focus on two things:

Sharing what I’ve learned while building a web design business that is now 95% automated. This will include outsourcing & automation tips, lead gen strategies, and helpful tools, tutorials, templates, and tactics to help you build an automated business of your own.
Documenting my journey as I build and automate an entirely new business from scratch. I’ll share everything from setting up bank accounts to getting customers to automating business operations. I’ll provide you with daily updates on Twitter, breakdowns of key decisions & insights, and even revenue reports so that you can track my progress.

My goal with all of this is to show you exactly how to build a business that runs on autopilot.

It may not be as exciting as learning about the next cool side hustle opportunity, but learning about side hustle opportunities is like reading tabloids. All fluff, no value.

Instead, we’re going to dive into topics that actually get you from where you are to where you want to be. No fluff. All value.

I hope you’re as excited as I am about what’s to come.

Sincerely,
Eric

P.S. If you haven’t already, make sure you connect with me on Twitter . I love getting to know my fellow business builders and my DM’s are always open for questions.

Affiliate Marketing 101: How to Make Money Promoting Your Favorite Products

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 19 Feb 2023 21:00:23 GMT

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Did you know you can earn money by recommending your favorite products or services to other people?

That's right. It's called affiliate marketing and it's one of the easiest ways to make a little extra income on the side.

If you're new to affiliate marketing keep reading because I'm going to teach you how to:

Start making money with affiliate marketing
Find great products to promote
Avoid getting into trouble
Turn affiliate marketing into a full-scale business

W hat is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when someone promotes a company's products or services in return for a small sales commission.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

First, you find a brand that offers an affiliate program and then you apply to become an affiliate.

Once you get accepted, you'll receive an affiliate link. If somebody clicks on your affiliate link, they will be sent to the company’s website (or to a specific product page on that website), and you will get credit for the referral.

If they end up buying something, you will receive either a flat rate commission or a percentage-based commission.

How Do I Find Good Affiliate Programs?

You’d be amazed how many companies have affiliate programs. You can find affiliate programs for:

Physical products/brands such as Nike, Petco, and Legos
Digital products such as software and online courses
E-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay

To get started, I’d recommend putting together a list of your favorite brands and products.

Are there specific products that you’re always recommending? Do you have hobbies or interests that you’re constantly talking about?

You want to align your affiliate marketing efforts with whatever you’re already doing.

If you love golf, sign up for the PGA Superstore’s affiliate program. If you’re a dog trainer, sign up for Petco’s affiliate program. If you’re an online business junkie like me, sign up for the affiliate programs of all your favorite software tools.

Once you have a list of brands and products, you’ll need to do a little research to see which ones offer an affiliate program. There are three primary ways to do this:

Check the footer on the company’s website for information or links related to their affiliate program.
Head to Google and search for "{company name} affiliate program". If they have an affiliate program, it will usually show up within the first few search results.
If neither of those work, you can contact the company and ask if they have an affiliate program. Usually, the answer will be no but every once in a while you’ll find a secret affiliate program; and those tend to be some of the best ones.

Finding Great Products to Promote

If you're new to affiliate marketing, I'd recommend starting with Amazon's affiliate program . Their commission rates aren't the best, but you can promote anything sold on Amazon.

Here’s the cool part: Let’s say you send somebody an affiliate link to a $5 toothbrush. If they click your link, you’ll get credit for anything they end up buying. It doesn’t matter if they buy the toothbrush that you recommended or a shopping cart full of Christmas presents.

From there, you can start applying for higher-paying affiliate programs with individual companies.

Keep in mind, physical products are great but some of the highest-paying affiliate programs are for digital products.

Many online course creators will pay hundreds of dollars for each new student that you send them, and I’ve seen software companies pay recurring commissions as high as 40%.

Recurring commissions are my absolute favorite because you get a commission payment every single month.

I’ll use Teachable.com to explain how it works.

Teachable is a software tool that allows people to create & sell online courses. They charge $159 for their premium plan and they offer affiliates a 30% recurring commission.

That means you get paid $47.70 per month for every customer that signs up with your affiliate link. And those payments continue for as long as they remain a teachable customer.

Turning Affiliate Marketing Into a Business

Personally, I treat affiliate marketing as a low-effort side hustle. It's just a way to earn a little bit of extra income while promoting products that I would recommend even if I wasn't paid a commission.

But many people treat affiliate marketing as a full-time business.

Examples include social media influencers, mom blogs, and product review websites like Wirecutter and Tom's Guide .

It's not uncommon for professional affiliate marketers to earn 5, 6, and even 7 figures per month with affiliate marketing.

If you want to get to that level, I’d recommend signing up for an affiliate marketing course like Authority Hacker .

It's a bit pricey, but they take you through every step of the affiliate marketing process. From choosing a good niche to identifying lucrative affiliate programs to producing content that drives massive amounts of traffic to your content/affiliate links.

Being Transparent & Ethical

Remember, your reputation is at risk when you recommend a product to someone. If you recommend bad products, you will quickly lose all credibility with your friends, family, and followers.

Promoting a great product with a small commission is always better than promoting a bad product with a high commission.

You also want to make sure you tell your audience that you will receive a commission if they buy through your affiliate links. In fact, the FTC actually requires that you disclose that information.

Here’s a great article if you want to read more about affiliate disclosure guidelines and best practices.

There you go. That’s the beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing.

If you have any questions, feel free to message me on Twitter and I’ll do my best to help you start earning some affiliate income.

The Ultimate Work-From-Home Guide: Essential Gear & Habits

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 12:30:00 GMT

Read Time: 4 Minutes

Are you one of the millions of people that have started to work from home over the last few years?

If so, this is newsletter is for you because I’m going to share 12 years' worth of WFH knowledge.

I’m going to tell you the 8 things that every home office needs plus I’m going to share 7 habits that will make working from home more productive and enjoyable.

The Essential Work-From-Home Gear

Standing Desk: Our bodies were not designed to sit at a desk all day. A standing desk allows you to switch between periods of standing and sitting - which improves posture, reduces back pain, and gives you extra energy throughout the day. I've been using the Fully Jarvis standing desk for years and I absolutely love it. I also recommend pairing your standing desk with an anti-fatigue mat .

49" Computer Monitor: Dual screens are for chumps. Do yourself a favor and invest in a 49” monitor. It is essentially 3 computer screens in one and it will turn you into a productivity master. I recommend Dell's 49" curved screen monitor.

A Good Chair: Buy Invest in a quality office chair that promotes good ergonomics. It’ll improve your comfort while reducing the back and neck pain caused by long hours hunched in front of your computer. A good chair is pricey but your future self will thank you. If budget isn't a concern, Steelcase's Gesture Chair is a fantastic choice. If you're looking for something more affordable, I'd recommend this Gabrylly office chair .

Webcam with Light and Microphone: Video meetings are the new norm. Impress colleagues and clients with a professional video setup. To stand out, all you need is a decent external webcam , a nice microphone , and a simple ring light .

Noise-Cancelling Headphones: If you live in a noisy environment or you have noisy roommates/kids/pets, a good pair of noise-canceling headphones is a must-have. They’ll help you stay focused while fending off all those noisy distractions. I love Google's Pixel Bud Pros but Apple Airpods Pro and Bose QuietComfort headphones are also great choices.

Exercise Equipment: Taking breaks throughout the day is critical for productivity. To supercharge your breaks, I recommend doing 5-10 minutes of light exercise. It'll give you a jolt of energy, improve creativity, and help your body stay pain-free. My go-to office exercise equipment includes a set of resistance bands , a pull-up bar , a TRX , and a foam roller .

Yeti Coffee Mug: Work and coffee (or tea) go together like peas and carrots. Buy a Yeti tumbler and give yourself the gift of hot coffee all day long.

Blue Light Glasses: The blue light that your computer screen emits is brutal on your eyes. It can cause eye strain, trouble sleeping, and even migraines (I've experienced all of these). If you stare at your computer for multiple hours per day, a pair of blue light glasses is a must-have. You can get a cheap pair on Amazon or you can have blue light filters added to your prescription glasses.

7 Habits to Make Working From Home More Enjoyable & Productive

Establish a Routine: A daily routine will improve productivity and help you separate your work life from your personal life. I recommend waking up at the same time every day (ideally early), eating a healthy breakfast, showering, and putting on at least semi-professional clothes.

Take Breaks: Regular breaks can help you recharge, reduce eye strain, and improve overall productivity. Using a Pomodoro timer is a great way to schedule periods of work and rest. If you’re not familiar with a Pomodoro timer, you can learn about it here .

Go Outside: At first, it’s nice not having to go anywhere for work (especially on those snow days) but after a while, cabin fever sets in. To improve your mood, increase energy, and trigger fresh ideas, make sure you schedule time each day to get outside for some sunshine and fresh air.

Stay Connected: Working from home can be isolating, and at times, the lack of human interaction can be a bit depressing. To combat this, I recommend setting up regular video calls, meetups, or happy hours with other people that work from home. If you're an entrepreneur, you can take it a step further and start/join a peer advisory group that meets weekly or monthly.

Set Work Rules: There is no shortage of distractions when you work from home, which makes self-disciple incredibly important. I find that creating a list of workday rules is essential for people that work from home. Your rules could include your daily work hours or things to avoid (i.e. TV, video games, unplanned snacks, and household chores).

Set Boundaries with Friends & Family: For some reason, when you work from home, your friends and family assume that you are “available” all day. They’ll call to chat during the middle of the workday, they’ll stop by out of the blue, they’ll ask if you can go golfing, or skiing, or take them to the airport. It’s hard to say no, but you have to set boundaries with them. Make it clear that working from home does not mean you are available at all hours of the day.

Schedule Time to Unwind: When you work from home, it can be difficult to transition from work mode to family/relaxation mode. One thing that has helped me is scheduling a 30-45 minute walk with my dog (or a workout) at the end of the workday. Giving myself that time to unwind allows me to be a more engaged dad and husband when I walk in the door.

Get to Work!

Boom. That’s it. 12 years' worth of WFH experience boiled down into 15 products & habits to make your work-from-home life more enjoyable and productive.

Did I miss anything? Shoot me a message on Twitter and tell me about your favorite WFH products and habits.

From Procrastination to Productivity: 9 Proven Techniques to Get Ahead

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 05 Feb 2023 21:30:31 GMT

Read Time: 5 Minutes

Procrastination is the ultimate killer of success, and it’s something that most entrepreneurs, especially new entrepreneurs, struggle with.

For years, I struggled with procrastination. If I’m being honest, procrastination has probably cost me thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in income. It has caused unhealthy levels of stress, guilt, and anxiety and it has damaged my self-confidence.

But today, I hardly ever procrastinate. I’ve gone from being a chronic procrastinator that struggled to make any money to a productivity master that runs multiple successful businesses.

These are the 9 techniques, tools & tips that have helped me the most and that I'll cover in this article:

1. Create a Prioritized To-Do List the Night Before

2. Time Blocking

3. Break up Intimidating Tasks

4. The 5-Minute Rule

5. The Pomodoro Technique

6. Block Notifications

7. Eliminate the Noise

8. Take a Walk

9. The Weekly Review

1) Create a Prioritized To-Do List the Night Before

There is nothing that our old friend procrastination loves more than when you sit down at your desk in the morning without a clear plan of action. That’s why it is essential to make time at the end of your workday to create a prioritized to-do list for the next day.

A couple of questions I like to ask myself include:

What is the first task I will work on in the morning?
What is the #1 most important task that I have to do tomorrow?

Then, I get everything out that I’ll need to accomplish those two things. I put any necessary paperwork near my desk. I open up any software programs or websites that I’ll need. I make it as easy as possible to get straight to work when I sit down at my desk the following day.

2) Use Time Blocking

Time blocking is when you block off parts of your calendar for doing specific types of work. For example, I do all of my writing activities on Mondays, I do editing and content scheduling on Wednesdays, I create processes, automations & virtual assistant training material on Thursdays, and I do brainstorming and planning on Fridays.

There are two major benefits of doing it this way:

It reduces switching costs. Every time you switch from one type of task to another, you create an opportunity to procrastinate. That’s because starting a new task is mentally difficult. When we switch tasks we have to dig into our supply of willpower. But that supply is limited. So each time you switch tasks it gets more and more likely that you’ll end up on Instagram or TikTok or whatever your procrastination weapon of choice is.
It allows you to focus on difficult tasks when you’re at your most productive. Ever notice how you’re more productive at certain times of the day? For me, mornings are the best time to do mentally taxing tasks like writing. If I don’t do it in the morning, it won’t get done. So I block off my mornings for that type of work and I schedule things like client meetings and managing my VAs in the afternoons. Everybody is different so just figure out what type of schedule works best for you.

3) Break Up Intimidating Tasks

We procrastinate when we face large, daunting tasks. If I were to put “Build a website for client A” on my to-do list I would get completely overwhelmed. A better technique is to break that task up into multiple sub-tasks. For example, I might say:

Find 5 similar websites and look for design inspiration.
Create mockups for the Home page, About page, Services pages, and Contact page
Add site content & images
Finalize the site’s design & launch

Those are much more approachable than “build a website” and they allow me to build momentum.

If you find yourself consistently avoiding an important task, try breaking it into bite-size pieces.

4) The 5-Minute Rule

I learned this rule from a fitness coach. He said, “Next time you don’t feel like working out, I want you to go to the gym and just do 5 minutes of exercise. If the 5 minutes end and you still don’t want to be there, you can call it quits. But you have to give it 5 minutes.”

What I found was that 9 times out of 10, I would finish the 5 minutes and decide to continue on and complete my workout.

That’s because the hardest part of any challenging task is getting started. But when you commit to doing 5 minutes, you’re able to build up the momentum necessary to push through.

The lesson: Next time you’re staring down an important task that you don’t want to do, tell yourself that you’ll do 5 minutes. Just get that ball rolling and see where it takes you.

5) The Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique is a productivity technique where you set a timer and do 25 minutes of focused, uninterrupted work on a single task followed by a short 5-minute break. That’s one Pomodoro. After 4 Pomodoros, you take a longer 15-30 minute break. Repeat throughout the day for insane productivity.

One little tip is to play around with the timing. When I started using the Pomodoro Technique, I found that I would be in the zone when the 25-minute timer went off and I wouldn’t want to stop for a break. I started increasing my work time and I discovered that 45-60 minute work stretches followed by a 10-minute break was perfect for me.

Test it out and see what works best for you.

Pro Tip: There are tons of great Pomodoro apps and websites that will alert you when it’s time to switch between work time and break time. And most of them allow you to customize the time intervals. The one I’m using today is https://studywithme.io/

6) Block All Notifications

The entire purpose of a notification is to steal your attention. They are designed to get you to stop what you’re doing and focus on something else - whether it’s a social media feed, a text message, or a news article.

Notifications are the enemy of productivity and they must be eliminated.

So grab your phone, go into settings, and turn off all notifications. Social media, news, email, text message - mute them all. Then do the same thing on your computer. If you want to start small, you can turn notifications back on when you’re done working but I’d encourage you to try turning them off for good. I promise you’ll grow to love it.

7) Eliminate the Noise

One of my favorite ways to mentally “check-in” to work mode is to throw on my noise-canceling headphones and fire up a go-to work playlist. I think at this point it’s kind of a ritual. My subconscious mind knows that when the headphones go on, it’s work time.

It also helps me block out distracting noises that would otherwise interrupt my work. I work from home so for me, it blocks out the barking dog, the screaming kids, and the Frozen soundtrack that plays on repeat.

For you, it might block out noisy neighbors and honking cars or it might signal to your roommates or colleagues that you don’t want to be bothered.

Here are two Spotify playlists that put me in the zone:

Binaural Beats Study Music - great for deep work that requires serious focus.
Lofi Beats 2023 - great for busy work that requires a little more fun & energy

Note: There are different types of binaural beats for different scenarios. Some are great for stress reduction or sleep and some are great for memory recall or concentration. Play around with different ones and find the type that you like. Then turn it on and set it to repeat the song for as long as you are working.

8) Take a Walk

Even when you do all of the things mentioned above, there will still be moments when you can’t bring yourself to get anything meaningful done. The friction that you’re feeling is most likely your body telling you that it needs a break. And it’s always best to listen to your body.

Next time this happens, stop what you’re doing and go move your body for 30-45 minutes. Personally, I like to grab the dog and head outside for a walk. But you could also do a quick yoga session, do a light workout or even just chase your kids around for a bit.

The key is to get the blood flowing. By the time you’re done, you’ll be re-energized and ready to tackle the next task on your to-do list.

9) The Weekly Review

One of the most common forms of procrastination is doing busy work that makes us feel productive instead of important work that gets us closer to achieving our goals.

This type of procrastination can be difficult to spot because we actually trick our brains into thinking we’re doing a good job. The next thing you know, weeks have passed by and you realize you haven’t accomplished anything of value.

To combat this, I’ve created a weekly review document (see below) that I complete every Sunday night. It’s just a short questionnaire that forces me to review my goals and track my progress.

Another benefit of the weekly review exercise is that it helps you identify what is working and what is not. And this added clarity allows you to make timely adjustments to your tactics and strategies.

I highly recommend that you incorporate the weekly review into your life. To help you get started, I’ve created a weekly review template . Feel free to copy it and modify it according to your own goals & habits.

Next Steps

There you have it: 9 ways to eliminate procrastination and start achieving your goals.

If you struggle with procrastination, start implementing these tips into your daily life. They will undoubtedly make you a more successful entrepreneur, they’ll reduce your stress, and they’ll help you achieve your most ambitious goals.

If you have questions or if you have other anti-procrastination techniques that you want to share, make sure you hit me up on Twitter @ericevenstad .

How to Build a Lucrative Web Design Business Without Coding: My Story + Blueprint

bootstrapwebsites@gmail.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 18:02:42 GMT

Read Time: 8 Minutes

Today, I’m going to give you a simple blueprint for creating a web design business.

My first successful business was a web design business. It’s a business that still brings in money every single day and I spend less than 5 hours per week on it.

It’s one of my favorite types of side hustles because it:

Has low startup costs
Generates large up-front income
Generates recurring monthly income
Offers you the ability to start making money in a very short period of time
Can be done anywhere
Does not require any special coding skills or experience

Great, so how do you start and grow a web design business?

Lucky for you, I’ve spent the last 10 years trying to figure this out. I’ve made all the mistakes in the book but I’ve also picked up a few tricks that have helped me grow and automate my business.

If I was starting from scratch, this is the blueprint that I would follow this 9-step process:

Step 1: Find a Website Platform

There are dozens of different website platforms that you can use to build your websites. The most popular amongst web design agencies is WordPress.org but it is also the most difficult to use.

If you are tech-savvy and have a little bit of coding experience, WordPress could be a great option.

If not, I’d recommend going with a no-code website platform like Squarespace , WebFlow , or my personal favorite Duda . All of these platforms offer simple drag-and-drop user interfaces that allow you to quickly build a website without knowing how to code.

The reason I like Duda is because it is built specifically for web design agencies. They handle hosting & security for websites, they have built-in client billing tools, and they offer dozens of free webinars and courses that teach you everything from web design principles to SEO best practices to sales tactics. It is the ultimate setup for beginners.

Step 2: Learn the Basics

If your website platform offers training material, make sure you spend a day or two going through it. Your goal is to get a basic understanding of how to use the platform and what types of features are available to your clients.

Next, you’re going to test out your new skills on yourself. Your goal is to build a simple one-page website for your new business. These are the four sections that you need (in order):

Website Header with your name or logo and a phone number or email address
A nice photo with your tagline overlaid. The text should say something like “Beautiful Websites For Accountants That Want More Business”.
About section that explains what you offer and who you help. Make sure to include a professional photo of yourself to build extra trust.
Call to action (CTA) with a contact form. The CTA will say something like “Request a Free Website Estimate” or “Schedule a Website Discovery Call”.

That’s it. Nothing fancy, but now you have somewhere to send prospective clients and you’ve gained a little bit of experience working with your new website platform.

Step 3: Pick a Niche

This is the #1 one thing I wish I had known when I first started. The easiest way to differentiate yourself from competitors is to pick an ultra-specific niche. It could be law firms, dog walkers, or psychiatrists; it really doesn’t matter. Just pick one and focus 100% of your attention on that niche. If a potential client comes to you asking for a website outside your niche, I want you to politely decline.

Niching down does three things:

It allows you to become a master of your craft: If you only work with one type of client, you will learn how to speak their language, you’ll learn their pain points & desires, and you’ll quickly discover how to get great results for them.
It allows you to create templates & processes: Once you figure out what works, you can create niche-specific website templates and processes that will significantly reduce the time it takes to build a website.
It gives you a marketing advantage: If you own a law firm, who are you going to hire to build your website? The agency that builds websites for everyone or this agency that specializes in websites for small law firms.

Step 4: Spread the Word

People overcomplicate sales and marketing. All you have to do is figure out where your target audience hangs out online and then put yourself in front of them. They might hang out in niche-specific Facebook groups, Linkedin groups, subreddits, or forums. Make a list and join all of them.

Then, start posting and adding comments. Your goal is to give before you receive. Spend 2-3 weeks adding value to the community. Focus on offering marketing/website-related advice. Doing this will help you get your name out there, but it will also help you discover common pain points & struggles. This knowledge will make it easier to create a compelling sales pitch when the time comes.

Pro Tip #1: You can use chat.openai.com to create a list of marketing/web design tips that you can share in these groups & forums.

Pro Tip #2: Set up great user profiles on Facebook, Linkedin, Reddit, etc. When you start posting in these online communities, people will click on your profile to see who you are. So you’ll want to have a professional photo, updated contact information, and a clear description of how you help your target audience.

Step 5: Get Your First Client

Now it’s time to go find your first clients. For this, you’re going to post in all of those online communities that you’ve been active in and you’re going to say something like:

“Hey everyone! I’m {your name} and I’m a web designer. I’m starting a new web design company in the {your niche} niche and I need to build 2-3 new {niche} websites to show off to potential clients.

Is anybody interested in having me build them a new custom website? It’ll be completely free."

Your goal is to find three people that you can build a website for. You won’t make any money but you’ll end up with three testimonials and three niche-specific websites that you can show to future prospects. Plus you’ll gain experience in a low-stress environment and you’ll be able to start putting together a repeatable web design process.

Pro Tip #1: When you start talking with people about building their website make sure they know that you are building the website for free but they will need to cover the monthly hosting fee. I’d recommend charging them just enough to cover your own costs. You should also make sure they are willing to write you a testimonial once the website is finished.

Pro Tip #2: You’ll need a payment processor in order to accept payments. I’d recommend Stripe because there is no monthly fee, it’s easy to set up and you can accept both one-time payments and automatic recurring payments.

Step 6: Build Your First Client Website

Your website platform should offer free (or paid) website templates. Find a different one for each client and use it as a starting point for their website. Then all you have to do is make small design changes and then add your client’s logo, colors, website content, images, and contact information.

But remember, you’re going to show these websites to future prospects so you want to go above and beyond. Your goal is to create three stunning websites that will leave your clients speechless.

Pro Tip #1: To get design inspiration, I’d recommend heading over to Google. Search for “Best {niche} in {city}” and analyze the top 3-5 ranking competitor websites. Do this for a few different cities and take note of any similarities. Is there specific wording that they all use? What types of website pages do they have? What is their primary call to action? Your goal is to figure out what works the best and then replicate those things on your own websites.

Pro Tip #2: Some people will already have website content but some will not. Rather than waiting for them to provide content, I’d recommend doing it yourself. You can use chat.openai.com to write the website content - just make sure you edit it a little bit so Google doesn’t penalize the site for having AI written content. If the client can’t provide good images, you can check free stock photo websites like pexels.com , pixabay.com , and unsplash.com .

Step 7: Make That Money

At this point, you should have three completed websites and three customer testimonials. Now, it’s time to start bringing in some paying clients.

I would start by asking your first three clients to recommend you in the online community where found them. Here is an example of a message you could send them:

Hey Tracy,

I’m trying to grow my business and I’m wondering if there is any possible way that you could recommend me in the Dog Walkers Facebook Group?

Here’s an example of a post that would be incredibly helpful. You’re welcome to copy it exactly or write your own.

“Thank you to @EricEvenstad for building my wonderful new website (www.dallasdogwalkers.com). He was so knowledgeable and easy to work with. Highly recommend talking to Eric if you need a new website for your dog walking biz."

Thank you so much!

Pro Tip: I want you to be ruthless about asking for these. Follow up relentlessly until they do it. Offer to pay them if you have to. Whatever it takes.

With any luck, those three recommendations should turn into a handful of inquiries from other members of your online communities.

One of the first questions that you’ll get is, “how much do you charge?”

For this, I’d start on the low end and work your way up over time. A good starting point is $500 - $1,000 to build the site plus $39 - $69 per month for hosting, security, and website maintenance. Tinker with these numbers and figure out what works best for your specific niche. For example, you can charge a law firm or a dentist more than you can charge a pet-sitting business.

Step 8: Build a Lead Gen Machine

It’s impossible to grow if you don’t have a steady source of leads. For this, you’re going to focus on two things:

Continuing to add as much value as possible in your niche online communities. Every day you should be sharing a tip or answering questions that other members have. Consistency is the key. Before long, you’ll be known as the web design guy/gal and warm leads will start rolling in. This is a long game but it’s worth the effort.
Daily cold outreach. For best results, I’d recommend knocking on doors or cold calling. If you can’t stomach doing that, you can also try cold emailing. I’ll get into the specifics of cold emailing in a future newsletter but just remember that cold outreach is a numbers game. You have to make it through a hundred no’s to find the one yes. Again, consistency is the key.

Pro Tip: You can use chat.openai.com to write cold calling scripts and cold emails. Plus you can even instruct it to act like a customer so that you can do mock sales calls.

Step 9: Systematize & Outsource

The goal is not to create a web design job for yourself. The goal is to create a web design business that generates money on autopilot. To do this, we’ll need to build templates, create systems & processes, set up automations, and become outsourcing masters.

Templates
The enemy of automation is customization so we are only going to build websites using templates.

Take those three initial websites that you built and turn them into three niche-specific website templates (this will be easy to do within your website platform).

Now, anytime you sign a new client, you’re going to tell them to choose from one of those templates. This will reduce your build time by 80-90% and your clients will not care at all.

I literally built my niche website company with a single website template and not one person even mentioned it.

Systems & Processes

You are going to create systems and processes for everything. When you build a website, record your screen and document every step. When you send a cold email record your screen. When you do sales calls, record your call.

These step-by-step instructions will allow you to get consistent results, become more efficient, and allow you to outsource repetitive tasks without sacrificing quality.

Automations

I’ll dive into automations in another newsletter but just know that automations can save countless hours. I use a tool called Zapier to set up and manage my automations. Examples of automations include sending a series of onboarding emails as soon as you sign a new client or creating an automated cold email campaign that sends 100 personalized cold emails per day.

Outsourcing

A virtual assistant can save you tons of time by tackling your recurring admin tasks like customer service, lead gen, and billing. But you really start to see the benefits of outsourcing when you hire a VA to build your actual websites. And since you have templates and clear processes, you won’t need to hire an expensive web design specialist. All you’ll need is someone that can follow clear instructions.

Additional Tips & Reminders

Don’t worry about getting a business bank account, an LLC or a fancy logo/website until after you’ve landed a few clients (Note: I’m not a lawyer or an accountant so do your own research)
Rude and/or needy clients will occupy 80% of your time. Avoid them at all costs.
Set client expectations upfront. Be crystal clear about what is included and what is not.
Don’t include website edits/changes in your monthly package. People will abuse it. Instead, charge clients an hourly rate for edits after their site goes live.
Do not do custom websites. Seriously, don’t do it.

Alright, that’s my blueprint for building a lucrative web design business without any coding knowledge.

If you follow this blueprint, you’ll be able to start generating extra income within a month or two and you’ll be able to turn it into an automated money-maker within 6 months.

If you have questions, hit me up on Twitter @ericevenstad .

Happy to tell you anything you want to know about building an automated web design business.

The Secret Goal-Setting Strategy of High Achievers

Sun, 22 Jan 2023 12:30:00 GMT

Read Time: 3 Minutes

Setting goals is one of the most important things you can do if you want to achieve success. It forces you to sit down and think about what you want to achieve. Your goals give you direction. They inspire you to grow and reach new heights.

But goal setting alone does not equal success. If it did, we’d all be rich with 6-pack abs (as the saying goes).

So why then, are some people able to consistently achieve their goals while others fail miserably? What is it that high achievers do differently?

These are the questions that I asked myself as I started to study people that consistently achieve their goals.

What I discovered is that just about everybody follows the SMART goal-setting framework. They set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

SMART goals are great. They tell us what our desired outcome is. They set the destination.

But they don’t tell us how to get there.

High achievers understand this.

They know that without a plan of action, a SMART goal is practically worthless.

That’s why they set a second type of goal that I call Habit Goals.

What High Achievers Do Differently

SMART goals tell you where you’re going. Habit Goals tell you how to get there.

High achievers know that you need both to be successful.

First, you set the SMART goal, then you set the Habit Goal.

Here are some examples of SMART goals:

Sign 10 new clients every month in 2023
Add $100k in annual recurring revenue in 2023
Lose 50 lbs by the end of 2023

Most people stop there. They never develop a clear plan of action. As a result, they fall behind on their goals, and many times, they end up abandoning them altogether.

That’s why Habit Goals are so important.

They tell us exactly what we need to do each day to achieve our SMART goals. They put us in control of the outcome.

Here are some examples of Habit Goals:

Cold email 25 prospects per day
Call 5 strategic partners per week
Run 2 miles per day

See the difference?

SMART goals tell you where you’re going. Habit Goals tell you how to get there.

How to Set Habit Goals

Let’s use the goal of signing 10 new clients per month as an example.

To set a Habit Goal for that, we have to work backward.

We must determine how many sales calls you’ll need in order to close 10 clients. For this example, let's assume you have a 33% close rate.

That means that your new goal is to get 30 sales calls per month.

But that’s not good enough.

Now, you need to figure out how to get those 30 sales calls. For this example, let's assume that you get all of your clients by cold calling. Let’s also assume that it takes 10 cold calls on average to book one sales call. That means that you would need to make 300 cold calls per month to book 30 sales calls.

Now we’re starting to get some clarity around how to achieve your goal.

But we need to go one step further because 300 cold calls is a daunting task.

So we divide the 300 cold calls by 20, which is the approximate number of work days in a month. This tells us that you need to make 15 cold calls every workday to book the 30 sales needed to land 10 new clients.

So your Habit Goal is 15 cold calls per day. This is the number that you must focus on. If you just make your 15 calls each day, everything else will take care of itself.

Can you see how much more clarity you get with a habit goal?

Instead of blindly shooting for some high-level goal, habit goals put us in control of the outcome. They tell us exactly what we need to do to achieve success.

I'll repeat it one more time. SMART goals tell us where we’re going. Habit Goals tell us how to get there.

So next time you set a goal, remember to start with a SMART goal, then work backward until you have a well-defined Habit Goal that you can take daily action on.

Maximize Your Virtual Assistant's Productivity: The Ultimate Onboarding Checklist

eric@bootstrapwebsites.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 12:30:00 GMT

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Last week, I showed you how to find and hire a full-time virtual assistant for as little as $500 per month .

Today I’m going to teach you something even more important. I’m going to show you how to train, onboard, and manage your new virtual assistant.

It may not be as exciting as hiring, but a great onboarding process and management system is the key to maximizing your virtual assistant’s productivity and freeing up your time.

And just like last week, I’m going to throw in a few of my favorite onboarding templates and outsourcing tools so that you can get your VA up and running ASAP.

Here's What We're Going to Learn

How to prepare for your VA’s first day
How to set clear expectations
How to train your VA like a pro
Cultural considerations when working with someone from the Philippines
Management tips to get the most out of your VA
Tools to help you communicate, assign tasks & send payments

How to Prepare for Your Virtual Assistant’s First Day

Your virtual assistant’s first day will be here before you know it and it’s crucial that you are prepared so that they can hit the ground running.

Here is what I do ahead of time to ensure that the first day is a big success:

1) Set up a company email address for them. I always recommend using Google Workspaces for this because it comes with email addresses, Google Chat, Google Meet (for video calls), Google Calendar, and Google Drive (for sharing files and collaborating on Docs).

2) Set up login access to other important software like your project management and CRM tools. In some cases, you’ll need to set up a separate user account for your VA. Other times, you’ll be able to provide them with login credentials to access your accounts.

ProTip: Set up a free LastPass account for you and have your VA do the same. This will allow you to give them login access to software tools without sharing your username or password. Here is a video I recorded a few years ago that walks you through all of this.

3) Prepare any necessary contracts or non-disclosure agreements that they will need to sign.

4) Record video tutorials or find 3rd party video tutorials on Youtube that explain how to access and use your primary software programs. Then add those videos to your project management tool and assign them to your virtual assistant.

ProTip: If you don’t already have a project management tool, I would recommend using Notion or ClickUp . Both are easy to use and they will make it significantly easier to train & manage your VA.

5) Send your VA an email the day before they start with instructions for their first day. This is the email that I generally use .

How to Set Clear Expectations

Setting clear expectations, discussing communication preferences, and outlining your VA’s role and responsibilities are all things that you want to do on the first day.

I will typically record a video ahead of time where I cover these things, but you can also schedule a live video call on the first day to do it in person. If you opt for the live video call, I’d highly recommend recording the call so that your VA can refer back to it later.

Here are a few important rules & expectations to cover:

Working Hours
For most of my VAs, I tell them that I want them to overlap with my work hours for at least 3 hours per day. This makes it easier to communicate and offer feedback. Then, I let them choose the other 5 hours of work time. You can do whatever works best for you, just make sure you communicate your preferences to your VA.

Communication Preferences
I prefer to communicate via Google chat and my company’s project management tool so that is what I ask my VAs to do too. Figure out what works best for you and explain your expectations to your VA.

Daily Check-ins
At the end of every day, I have my VAs send me a message explaining what they accomplished that day, what they struggled with, what they need help with, and any ideas they have to improve a system or process.

Performance Expectations
Clearly explain what success looks like. Discuss any quotas, goals, or metrics that you will use to assess their performance. It is also a good idea to schedule a performance review after 2 weeks, and then quarterly after that. Here is a Performance Evaluation template that you can use.

Quality Expectations
Some tasks require precision and careful attention to detail. Other tasks require speed. For each task that they are responsible for, I carefully explain what success looks like.

Policy on Asking for Help
From my experience, many virtual assistants from the Philippines are hesitant to ask for help or to ask clarifying questions. I think it’s just cultural differences, but it is something that you should address early and often. You must make it known that you want and expect them to ask questions. When they do ask a question, praise them. This will eliminate many problems down the road.

How to Train Your VA Like a Pro

Start by creating a list of tasks that your VA will be responsible for. If there is a task that you do at least once per week, you should outsource it.

The easiest way to delegate a new task to your VA is to record your screen the next time you do that task. My favorite screen recording tool is screencast-o-matic.com .

All you have to do is plug in a microphone, hit record, and explain what you’re doing as you complete the task on your own. Now you have a step-by-step training video that you can share with your VA.

Pro Tip: When I share a new training video with my VAs, I will ask them to watch it and then either send me a written message that summarizes what I want them to do or I will ask them to take the video and turn it into a written, step-by-step process that can accompany the video tutorial. The point of this is to ensure that they fully understand the task and it also forces them to ask questions about anything they don’t understand.

Here is an example of a written process in ClickUp.

Cultural Considerations When Working with Someone From the Philippines

Filipino culture is very different from Western culture. Everybody is different, but for the most part, I’ve noticed these things about Filipinos.

Family is extremely important to them. I always ask for my VA's birthday and the birthdays of their spouse and kids. Then I tell them to take those days off (fully paid) for as long as they are working with me. Doing this builds trust and makes my VAs feel like valued members of the team.
They value strong relationships. Take the time to get to know your VA on a personal level. Ask about their hobbies, their family, and their traditions. And don’t forget to tell them about yourself!
Filipinos are very respectful of authority figures, which includes you since you’re their boss. As a result, they may avoid asking clarifying questions or they may avoid offering suggestions when they see opportunities for improvement. The best thing you can do is encourage open communication and make yourself readily available and easily approachable.
Scheduling & time management: For some reason, I’ve found it difficult to get my VAs to show up on time every day. I think part of the reason is the time difference. If I want my VA to work during US business hours, that means they will be working in the middle of the night. But the other part is that I just haven’t done a good enough job of setting those expectations. At the end of the day, I usually don’t care when they do their work as long as they do a good job. But if you want your VA to keep a regular schedule, you’ll need to be diligent about setting those expectations.

Management Tips to Get the Most Out of Your VA

Offer Regular Feedback
The whole point of outsourcing is to free up your time, but if you’re not careful, managing your VA or team of VAs can turn into a job of its own. To combat this, I recommend reviewing their work daily for the first 1-2 weeks after you give them a new task. By offering regular feedback you’ll be able to set expectations and trust that they’ll do the job the right way for as long they’re working for you.

Focus on Recurring Tasks
Unless it’s a super time-consuming task, it usually doesn’t make sense to outsource one-time tasks to your Filipino VA - the training time just isn’t worth it. Instead, focus on handing off recurring tasks so that you can create a single set of instructions that they can follow over and over again.

Use Time Blocking
To increase efficiency, I’d recommend setting up a daily schedule of prioritized tasks for your VA. I use ClickUp to create a list of recurring tasks for each day of the week.

Use Time Tracking
Every so often I will ask my VA to track the time it takes to complete each task for an entire week. This tells me where they might be struggling and allows me to follow up with questions.

Record Their Screen
If I think my VA is struggling with a task, I will create a Loom account for them and ask them to record their screen the next time they do that task. This allows me to review what they’re doing and identify opportunities for improvement.

Express Gratitude & Use Positive Reinforcement
Your VA desperately wants to do a good job for you. If you are constantly telling them all the reasons they are failing, they will retreat into their shell. A much more effective strategy is to reinforce all of the things they are doing correctly. When you see them do something well, take time to acknowledge it and explain why doing it that way is so important.

Pay on Time
Don’t make your VA ask you over and over again for their paycheck. Be respectful and pay it on time. I send paychecks on the 15th of the month and the last day of the month. You can set a recurring calendar reminder or you can instruct your VA to email you an invoice on their payday.

Pro Tip: You can send money to your VA using PayPal, but your VA will get hit with some pretty hefty fees. As a result, I’ve started using wise.com to send money. It’s free for you, easy to use, and your VA will greatly appreciate the lower fees.

Ready. Set. Go!

I just hit you with a lot of information, but don’t let it overwhelm you. With the help of the templates, tools & tips that I’ve shared here, you should be able to create all of your onboarding docs and training materials within a week or two.

That’s when the fun stuff starts. That’s when you start to see your schedule open up as your virtual assistant relentlessly tackles your to-do list.

Outsourcing will change your life. Invest a little bit of time and effort right now and you’ll be rewarded with a passive income business in the future.

With that, I want to wish you good luck.

If you have any questions about outsourcing, please feel free to message me on Twitter. My handle is @ericevenstad and I am more than willing to help.

The Complete Virtual Assistant Hiring System + Bonus Outsourcing Templates

eric@bootstrapwebsites.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 20:58:15 GMT

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Happy Sunday to all my Side Hustlers!

Today, I have something special for you.

Today, I'm going to show you my step-by-step process for finding world-class virtual assistants for just $3-4 per hour.

I'm talking about highly skilled VAs that can tackle just about every task in your business - from data entry to customer service to operations.

And as a special bonus for Side Hustle Steroid subscribers, I'm also giving away my hiring docs & templates .

These are the exact processes & templates that have been used to hire over 250 virtual assistants over the last 5 years.

I'm telling you, the information in today's newsletter is going to change your life. It's going to:

Allow you to start outsourcing your boring, repetitive tasks to highly-skilled virtual assistants.
Free up your time to focus on the parts of your business that you're good at and that you enjoy most.
Give you more time to spend with friends & family.
Help you build a truly passive income stream.

But for this to work, you're going to have to step outside your comfort zone.

I know that hiring might be scary. I know that investing $500-$600 per month might be scary. I know that handing over part of your business to someone else might be scary.

But I want you to take a leap of faith and do it anyway.

If you follow the steps I've outlined below, you'll have a virtual assistant within 1-2 weeks and you'll be on your way to building a side hustle that runs without you.

Here's What We're Going to Learn

How to write an exceptional job post that attracts 30-70 qualified applicants within 2 days
How to use a test project to quickly identify the top 3-5 applicants
The 3-step interview process that will make it completely obvious which applicant is the best

Ready to hire a virtual assistant and reclaim your time? Let's dive in!

Step 1: Attract as Many Applicants as Possible

If you want to hire the best virtual assistant you need to cast a wide net.

To do this you need to figure out where the most talented virtual assistants hang out online, then you need to convince them to apply for your job.

Here's what you do:

Go to onlinejobs.ph and set up an account.

This is the best job board for hiring virtual assistants.

When you set up your account, make sure you select their Pro Plan for $69/month. It's a little pricey but don't worry, you'll only pay for one month. As soon as you find your VA, you can cancel your paid plan.
Write & post a job description.

For this, I recommend including:
Background info on your business - what you do, growth goals, and any company values.
A clear description of the tasks that the virtual assistant will be responsible for on a daily basis.
Other job details like salary, number of work hours per week, policies for sick/vacation time & holiday pay, and any other relevant job perks.

Remember, you are competing against other employers to hire the most talented virtual assistants so if you want to attract top talentm you need to write an enticing job description.

Pro Tip #1: To see what type of salaries and perks other employers are offering, you can browse through current job listings on onlinejobs.ph. This will help you create a competitive job listing of your own.

Pro Tip #2: To write your job description more quickly you can steal bits and pieces from the best current job listings on onlinejobs.ph or you can try using chat.openai.com to write your job description. If you're not familiar with chat.openai.com, it's a free artificial intelligence program and it will completely blow your mind.

Here is an example of a prompt I entered into chat.openai along with the resulting job description.

2. Narrow Down the Applicant List with a Test Project

Within a couple of days, you should have 30-70 qualified job applicants. Now you need to narrow down the list.

Most people start by sending their applicants a written questionnaire to learn more about their skills and experiences.

But doing that would require you to read 30-70 questionnaires. And all I gotta say about that is...

So instead, we're going to start with a test project.

The test project should take no more than 15 minutes to complete and it should resemble a task that they will be responsible for if they end up being hired.

The benefits of doing a test project are that:

It weeds out lazy applicants - typically only about half of the applicants will complete the test project
It allows you to test their skills and see who is willing to go above and beyond.
It allows you to test their attention to detail - I usually include a very small detail in the instructions. Something obscure like "email me your test project within 48 hours and write the email subject line in all CAPS"

If you create a good test project, you should be able to immediately identify the top 3-5 applicants.

Here is the test project template that I use. All you have to do is make a few tweaks depending on the type of skills you want to test for.

Pro Tip: You can do longer & complex test projects too but if your test project is going to take longer than 15-20 minutes I would recommend making it a paid test project. Otherwise, you'll end up losing too many good candidates.

3. Identify the Top Applicant

Now it's time to get to know the remaining applicants.

To do this, we're going to follow my 3-Step Interview Process which includes a written questionnaire, an employee profile review, and a video interview.

By the time you're done with these three things, it will be glaringly obvious who the best person for the job is.

The Written Questionnaire
Send each of the remaining applicants a written questionnaire. The purpose of this is to get a better understanding of their skills, professional/personal goals, previous work experience, and English writing skills.

This is also another great opportunity to test their attention to detail by including an obscure detail in the instructions.

I really can't overemphasize how important it is to find a virtual assistant that demonstrates the ability to follow instructions. In fact, it is probably the #1 quality I look for in a virtual assistant.

Here is my written questionnaire template . Tweak it to fit your specific situation and you'll be ready to go.

Review Onlinejobs.ph Profiles
If you navigate back to onlinejobs.ph you'll be able to view each of your applicants' employee profiles. Their profile will include their list of skills, past work experiences, and reviews from any past employers.

Your goal here is to identify red flags. Do they have negative reviews? Are there discrepancies between their profile and their written questionnaire answers? Are there any important skills that they are lacking?

Take note of everything so you can ask them about it during the video interview.

The Video Interview
At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of who you want to hire but you should still do a live video interview with the top remaining applicants.

The video interview allows you to:

Make sure they are the person in their profile picture.
Make sure their computer and internet speeds are good enough to handle a video call.
Test their English speaking skills (note: They might have a strong accent. That is OK. It's much more important that they can understand you and follow your verbal instructions).
Address any red flags that you found or concerns that you have.
Get to know them on a personal level and determine if you would enjoy working together. I typically ask them about their families, hobbies, interests & goals.

Pro Tip: When you are scheduling the video interviews, keep in mind that the Philippines is 13 hours ahead of the East Coast time zone in the US. If you can, try to find an interview time that does not require them to wake up in the middle of the night.

H ere are the questions that I usually ask during live interviews

4. Making the Hire

Now it's time to do a final review of the remaining applicants and decide who you want to hire. Typically the best applicant is pretty clear but if you're having trouble deciding I would recommend that you go with your gut.

I find that gut instincts rarely let me down in these situations.

Once you decide on a winner, you'll want to send them a job offer. Here is my job offer template to help you get started.

You'll also want to let the other applicants know that they did not get the job. If you had applicants who you really liked, I would try to leave the door open to hiring them in the future.

Tell them you'd like their contact information in case you hire again in the future or in case your new hire doesn't end up working out. Most applicants will gladly agree to this.

What's Next?

First, you celebrate because you now have an exceptional virtual assistant and you're well on your way to building a passive income side hustle.

After that, you need to start training your virtual assistant. You need to create systems & processes to ensure that your virtual assistant consistently performs at the highest level.

I'll share my training secrets and my favorite outsourcing tools in next week's Side Hustle Steroids newsletter.

Have a great week ahead!

Eric

P.S. I usually charge a decent chunk of money for the hiring docs & templates that I'm including in this newsletter. If you can do me a favor and not share them with non-subscribers, I'd be grateful.

4 Super Simple Side Hustles Anyone Can Start in 2023

eric@bootstrapwebsites.com (Eric Evenstad) — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 15:45:08 GMT

Read Time: 4 Minutes

It's the start of the new year and if you're like most people, I'm guessing you've set some new ambitious goals to better your life.

But have you set a goal to better your financial situation?

If not, I want to encourage you to take a leap of faith and start a side hustle in 2023.

It doesn't matter if you're a broke student, an overwhelmed parent, or a stressed out 9-5er. No matter what your situation is, I promise you have the ability to create a profitable side hustle in 2023. All you have to do is show up and dedicate 5-10 hours of work per week.

That's it. 5-10 hours per week.

One year of waking up an hour early each day. One year of watching one less hour of TV each day. Just one hour of consistent effort for a year and your financial situation will look vastly different at this time next year.

I want this for you because I know how impactful a second income stream can be.

To help you get started, I've put together a list of 4 super simple side hustles that anyone can start in 2023 . Read through the list and see if anything resonates with you.

1. Sell on Amazon

Did you know that most of the products you buy on Amazon are not actually sold by Amazon.

They are sold by people just like you and me.

There are many ways that you can make money selling on Amazon, but here are a few of the most common:

Retail Arbitrage

This is where you purchase products from retail stores and resell them on Amazon for a higher price.

For example, let's say you find the clearance section at your local Walmart. There, you find a product that costs $10 but when you look it up on Amazon, you see that it is selling for $20.

Wouldn't it make sense to buy all of the $10 products that you can afford, sell them on Amazon for $20 and collect a cool $10 of profit per unit (minus fees for shipping and selling on Amazon's marketpalce).

That's retail arbitrage, and it's a great place for beginner Amazon sellers to learn how to make money with Amazon.

But here's the thing. It isn't a very scalable business model because you have to physically visit retail stores. So at the end of the day, you'll always be exchanging your time for money - and that's not the type of side hustles we build here.

Online Arbitrage

Online Arbitrage is similar to retail arbitrage, but instead of finding your products in physical retail stores, you find your products online by searching manufacturer websites, wholesaler websites, or other online retailers.

Online arbitrage is much more scaleable because you don't have to drive to physical retail stores. Instead, you have the ability to eventually hire a virtual assistant to search the web for your next great buying opportunity.

The biggest drawback that you have to consider with online arbitrage is the fact that clearance items will eventually sell out. So in most cases, you are always hunting for the next item to sell.

Wholesale

Wholesale selling is where you purchase your products in bulk from a supplier or manufacturer. When you do this, you're able to buy at wholesale prices and then resell those products on Amazon for retail price.

With wholesaling, you're able to create predictable income because unlike buying clearance items, you will be able to buy wholesale products for the long term.

But wholesaling does take a little extra work because you not only have to search for quality products that you want to sell, but you also have to establish relationships with suppliers before they will allow you to sell their products.

Another thing to consider is the fact that most manufacturers have minimum order sizes for their wholesale accounts. So if you're going this route, you will need to be ready to invest a decent chunk of capital ($1000+) on your first wholesale order.

In my opinion, wholesaling gives you the best opportunity to build an automated business that generates that predictable income that we also desire.

Private Label

The last one that I want to mention is private label selling. This is where you create your own products to sell on Amazon. Private label has the biggest upside, but it is also the most risky because you have to invest a lot of money upfront in order to have your product designed, produced and delivered.

I would not recommend this method to new sellers but it is something to consider once you master the ins and outs of selling on Amazon.

If selling on Amazon sounds like a fun side hustle, I'd recommend going to Youtube and learning how to do retail arbitrage. This will force you to set up your Amazon Seller account and start learning how everything works.

Do this until you've made a little bit of money and then move onto online arbitrage or wholesaling.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Start a blog, YouTube channel or Twitter account and start creating regular content about a single topic that you are passionate about.

That could be cooking, sewing, gardening, tennis, parenting... anything.

The key is to create massive amounts of high quality content. More high quality content = more eyeballs (AKA money).

Next, you want to think about all of the products that you love. Go to that company's website and see if they have an affiliate program you can join.

Often times you will find a link in the footer of their website. If you don't see it there, you can do a Google search for "[company name] affiliate program" to see if they have an affiliate page on their website.

Every affiliate program is different, but typically you will receive either a flat rate payout or a percentage of each sale that you refer.

All you have to do is talk about that product on your blog, YouTube channel or Twitter account and then share your unique affiliate link.

If anyone clicks on your link, you will receive credit for the sale.

Some of my favorite affiliate programs are for software products because most software companies will pay you a recurring affiliate commission. A prime example is Click Funnels. I think they've lowered the commission recently but when I first signed up for their affiliate program, they were paying a 40% monthly commission for each customer you referred them.

Oh and by the way, their cheapest plan cost $99/month which means you'd earn a minimum of $39.60 PER MONTH for each person you referred to them.

It's not hard to see how fast that type of affiliate income can add up if you you're able to refer 20, 50, or even 100 people.

Affiliate Marketing Resources
AuthorityHacker.com -- In my opinion, these guys are the best affiliate marketing educators in the space. Start out by reading their blog and tuning into their YouTube channel .

When you're ready to go all in, I'd recommend their Authority Site System 3.0 course . Its a bit pricey but it will walk you through the entire process of building an affiliate marketing website that generates income on autopilot.

Side note: I have not signed up for Authority Hacker's affiliate program, but the link above to their course would be a perfect example of how you do affiliate marketing. Talk about a course, product or service then include an affiliate link so you get credit for any sales you refer.

Like I said, that is not an affiliate link but if it was, I'm guessing I'd earn a couple hundred bucks for each person that signed up for that course after clicking my link.

That's how you do affiliate marketing!

3. Content Creation Service

This side hustle is the one that will be the easiest to monetize quickly but it requires that you work with clients. Here's how it works:

Step 1: Figure out what type of content creation you want to specialize in. You could offer to manage a company's social media and write all their posts, you could write email newsletters for a business or influencer, you could write weekly blog posts that help drive traffic to someone's website, or you could start a Twitter ghostwriting business.

Step 2: Pick a niche. This will allow you to narrow your focus and become the go-to person. Example pitch: "I write weekly email newsletters for personal trainers that want to add 3-5 new clients each month"

Boom! How many personal trainers are gonna turn down an offer like that?

Step 3: Find out where your target market hangs out online. It could be Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook groups, industry specific forums, or maybe you just have to cold email them.

Step 4: Create a good pitch like the one I mentioned above and offer to do a couple months of free content for 2-3 people/businesses in exchange for testimonials.

Step 5: Do the work and do it well.

Here's a little secret. Use chat.openai.com to create all of the content. social media posts, blog posts, or newsletters. Within seconds, it will spit out well written social media posts, blog posts, or newsletters. All you have to do is go through it and add a bit of a human touch.

This will reduce your research time and your writing time by 95%, allowing you to service more clients in less time.

Step 6: Track your results. How many new social media followers, email subscribers or website visitors were you responsbile for? How much extra revenue did that result in? Track all of the numbers because you are going to create a case study for each of those "freebie" clients that you worked with.

Note: Before you start working with a new client, make sure you ask them for the key metrics that you will be tracking. That way you can do a "before and after" analysis.

Step 7: Bring on the paying clients.

Use the same outreach methods as before but this time offer your services at a premium rate. Use your new case studies and testimonials to show the value of your services.

This is also the time to move your free clients to a paid plan. This should be an easy sell because you'll have the results to prove your value.

Step 8: Create systems and processes for everything you do. If you're not careful a service business like this can turn into a huge time suck, so you want to hire virtual assistants to tackle the day-to-day operations.

Now you have an automated side hustle... and a very high paying one at that.

4. Sell Info Products

Are you an expert at something that other people want to learn?

If so, you can turn that knowledge into cold hard cash by selling online courses, Notion templates, sales scripts, ebooks, and more.

A great place to start is Gumroad.com

Gumroad is a marketplace for buying and selling info products. If you go to their Discover page , you will see an endless number of info products across every niche imaginable.

Find an info product that you're interested in and that has good sales then go create a better version of it.

When you're done, simply sell it on Gumorad or one of the many other digital marketplace and watch the sales roll in.

The benefit of selling a digital product is that you build it once and you get to sell it for a lifetime. Plus the profit margins are sky-high since your only costs are credit card processing fees and the fee that your marketplace charges.

But I do have one word of caution if you go this route.

The old saying "If you build, they will come" does not apply to info products.

For best results, I'd recommend building a social media following or an email list before launching your info product. Much easier to sell an info product to an audience that already knows, likes and trusts you.

Time to Get Started

There you have it. Four super simple side hustles that anyone can start in 2023.

No matter which option you choose, I want you to remember one thing.

Consistency is the key.

You may not get immediate results but it's the people that put in the work consistently over a long period of time that are always the ones that turn into the "overnight successes".

Good luck and Happy New Year!

P.S. I share all of my best side hustle tips in my weekly newsletter which you can subscribe to below. You can also find me on Twitter where I'm constantly talking about side hustles and sharing ins ights from my own side hustle journey.