JasonDeVelvis.com

Back in the day, if you wanted a good education, you had to go to school. You had to sit in a desk for four long years, and then maybe another two or three years, to come out with a piece of paper saying that you were really something. People who graduated with MBAs had a list of jobs to choose from, most starting in the six-figures.

Thank goodness that we don’t all have to go through that in order to be successful today. In fact, some of the most successful business owners in our country don’t have an MBA. Donald Trump, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey – they have all made it to extraordinary heights without sitting through years of business school. Read the rest of this entry »

“What is blogging?” a cousin asked me one day.

You’ll laugh but I honestly had to think long and hard before answering her question! This human being is pint-sized and all of 7 years old. I couldn’t give her too many details or too much explanation. So, I gave her the most basic.

“It’s writing entries in a diary, only the diary is found online.”

“So you make money keeping a diary?”

Hookay, that’s a funny way of describing what bloggers who earn from blogging do. But now that I’ve thought about it, it’s not inaccurate either. There are many ways one can make money from blogs. I know, I know, this topic has been discussed many times, but remember, I’m talking to a pint-sized human here. Kids ask questions that never seem to end, and they love lists. So, I drew up a list for her. Read the rest of this entry »

“My business will break me!” my friend, Jim, moaned.

“How so?” I asked, genuinely curious. Jim has a business called ‘Eco Deliveries’. He has a team of bikers running around the city, delivering packages. They’re called Eco deliverers because they make deliveries without polluting the environment, but I could sense that doesn’t have anything to do with his problem.

“I believe in my business, but these days, it seems to me I’m the only one who does. Customers aren’t exactly beating a path to my door!”

“Do people know Eco Deliveriers exist?”
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How often do you post? Not too long ago, a friend and I argued about the right frequency of blogging posts. I’m much more diligent with my posting. On a good month, I could make 3 to 5 posts. When I’m really knackered, I aim for 2. Not my friend Tim.

“I try to post at least 10 articles a week!” he declared triumphantly.

“10? Don’t you do anything else besides write?”

“I’m prolific and diligent. I never run out of things to say.”

“So how many people read your website now?”

Silence.
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A few weeks ago, the World Health upped the swine flue to a staggering Phase 6, and not surprisingly, everyone was talking about it. A friend who’s running a health blog and uses Twitter (among other sources) for blogging popular topics called me up, sounding frantic. “I’ve been infected!”

“What?!?” The first thing on my mind was, of course, H1N1. I asked my friend how she got it.

“Not me, silly. My laptop. I was following a trending topic and got directed to a malware site.”
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One of the dirty (or not-so-dirty, depending on where you’re coming from) secrets of many professional bloggers is that they don’t actually write their material themselves. They outsource some, if not all, of their writing. It’s a pretty smart and sound business model. But here’s the catch – outsourcing your blogging to a blog assistant may not be the dream arrangement you believe it to be.

My friend, Damien, keeps a pretty funny blog on cheeseburgers. One day, Damien received tons of emails from friends and acquaintances. “What’s with the weird English?” Read the rest of this entry »