22 year old college student. Are the online biz path outlined in Efficiency still viable if one doesn’t have a lot of starting capital? And if so, should I do any changes to the path if money is very limited?
Still entirely relevant. Our view is two streams: get a white collar job that is easy and build it up on the side
Affiliate marketing legit route: hard to get paid traffic camps profitable when selling legit products because the offer payouts are so low and meant for seo traffic.
How do you combat this issue as an affiliate (legit route)? Is it all abiut finding an offer with high payout + little bit of luck involved?
Im aware of dropshipping with higher payouts but as you mentioned is saturated and dont have enough side $ to build own product so committed to affiliate route.
You basically nailed it on the spot my man! Hogh pay out a little bit of luck and you are in good shape.
This is why if you can sell “okay” deals, the game get easier later in life
I’ve got talent in numerics and synthesis, I’m going to branch out into affiliate marketing as a way to brush up on online sales.
When I did in-person sales for consumer items I was able to calibrate to the person in front of me and get a sale a lot of the time. I have no idea currently of how to do that online.
One issue is I’m not one for buying a lot of stuff myself. I understand about pain points and emotional triggers, but find it difficult to relate those to a lot of the stuff for sale out there.
Any tips on how I can go about understanding where other people are coming from with regards to purchases that I’m unlikely to make myself?
You should come back after you try. You’re assuming failure with no information. How can we help you if you haven’t even tried it yet?
This question does not make much sense. If you’re good at sales you’ll have to try for a few months and see if there is a stick point or not.
What do you think the future of affiliate marketing is and how sustainable is it? I hear all the “big shots” are just bs motivational speakers that bank off of “teaching” instead of actually “doing”
Have more than $5k to spend as that ‘s what you said in a previous post in this page to start affiliate marketing, but seems like it’s super saturated and black hat/unethical.
Also – what do you think of the website/forum STM (Stack That Money) for information? Worth paying the monthly fee?
Love your content.
THx
It is very competitive and wil likely be around for a while. Very unethical people in there as well if you go down the “seminar route” that is what they are actually doing.
We haven’t used Stack that money before. We logged in for free once just to see what it was like
What is the best way to promote products and send QUALITY/QUALIFIED traffic (ie a custom clothing line, service, etc) to my business online? Have a good website, but without traffic, it dies in cyber space and no one will ever go to it.
Tried FB ads – didn’t seem to work so good, but maybe just not that good at targeting. Any advice would be appreciated.
Also tried instagram influencers – total BS for the most part nowadays and the legit ones charge an arm and a leg.
Would love any advice on how to promote my webpages/services. Really do believe in my products and have had people purchase orders (over 50+, but over a long span of time — only have about 12 visitors/day. pretty depressing)
Thanks
If you can’t get traffic from facebook we don’t know what to say, they have immense scale. Try adjusting your targeting because if you can’t sell with Facebook it just won’t work to be honest. Not a single sale with facebook traffic = product isn’t good.
Gentlemen,
First of all thanks for all your work.
Question: Wouldn’t put writing the more liquid ETFs be better than DCA into them? I’m thinking better returns, cash flow and risk management.
Go OTM and/or short term if you’re afraid of a correction and viceversa if you don’t want to lose the upside or want to get in at a better price.
Thanks again and please keep it up!
Sure if you own the underlying writing long-term puts over and over is a Warren Buffet strategy.
If you are naked writing them you can get killed in a recession.
Thanks for clearing it up!
Early 20s Graduate Software Engineer. (Numerics Intelligence)
A well established mentor of mine has told me to work small business, given my personality I’ll be eaten alive by the bureaucracy and politics at large corps.
Small business means I should be able to get closer to impacting the bottom line, I’m not confined to a single role.
However, I’ve noticed the following:
– Cheap bosses hiring at below market rates.
– Better network and connections at larger corps.
I’m cutting my work days down to 4 days a week so I can prioritise building a business on the other 3. However I don’t feel my skills are established enough yet where I can build anything of value.
Should I ignore my mentors advice and find work at a major corp, or keep on working at small business?
The worst situation I could end up is failed business and still being exploited at a small business for low pay.
Choose the path with the least hours if you have the skills to build a secondary income. We say this a million times but no one ever listens.
If you only have one form of income you’re basically a sitting duck ready to die.
Bigger corps have a much lower expectation for work than startups. If you want to significantly reduce the number of hours you spend switch. Pick a big older company with in-glamorous products like IBM. Office politics won’t matter if you aren’t looking to move up there (and you absolutely shouldn’t. you’ll almost always want to move companies when you move up)
I’ve worked in a number of different sized companies and the amount of time needed to keep suspicion about not working away is pretty much inverse the size of the company. I recently switched from startup doing about 60 hours of hard work per week to a big-co and am doing about 3 hours of easy work per week. A couple of buddies of mine in big co’s have the same story.
If you go this route be aware that big-co’s almost always have very draconian IP assignment agreements where they own everything you do. You’ll have to quit and destroy the evidence you worked on it there before launching the side venture.
WSP,
How do you deal with disrespect in the office?
I’ve recently landed an enterprise sales role, and there’s one guy who keeps trying to put me down – either makes a comment about my appearance (I have red hair) or rubs it in my face that he sells more than me (bearing in mind I’ve just started out and he’s been there for over a year).
Annoying thing is that other coworkers laugh at what he says. Is it best to continue to smile, nod and agree (feel like a retard doing this in the context though), or take him to one side and call him out on it, and/or speak to my boss?
He is just insecure otherwise he wouldn’t care to bother with trolling you. Probably best to either get a new career if it is bothering you this much
Ok, but I can’t leave at the moment due to other reasons – you guys saying I should just continue to ignore?
There is no other option. If you have a “chat” with him he’ll just give you a terrible review. So look for a new spot and leave.
Read both Triangle investing and Efficiency…
Currently 25 yrs old. Made a substantial amount of $ in crypto and cashed out before the dip. Currently lost motivation bc the amount of $$ made could pay living and travel expenses for the next 2-3 years…
Found myself going to work and not giving a shit anymore. I’d rather be traveling and working on personal projects. How would you recommend I go about gaining motivation to go to work again?
Easy 2-3 years is nothing? That’s not even a drop in the bucket to be honest. Unless you don’t have to work for 40 years… probably not wise to give up.
Realistic timeline/cost for starting an affiliate marketing website for the first time?
$5K
Or $250 hosting domain and wp theme
Thanks for sending the elevator back down! Wish I’d come across your blog and Efficiency even earlier in my life.
Late-20s, just starting a career in sales – no side income yet. I’ve analyzed a number of markets where I have product ideas, but keep getting hung up when it looks like the market is oversaturated, or the product for one reason or another doesn’t seem viable. However, I have found some multi-family properties that fit the criteria laid out in Triangle Investing. With $60k to invest, do I go for one of these properties and use leverage, then get back to work on market analysis for starting an online business while rebuilding savings to launch a product, or would you recommend holding off on any real estate investing until a person has got a side business up and running? Thanks!
Always the same answer second form of income is first
Having a tough time coming up with a good question since you seem to have already covered everything.
Bought the home I live in and have a good % in both stocks and crypto. Planning to buy my first investment property as outlined in Triangle in the next year or so. Should I just keep the money I accumulate for this in something like a CD for now? I am assuming second source of income is higher priority than this?
Thanks for all the knowledge you continue to share.
Same answer again… always second stream before anything else. Your Career/business could go to zero overnight.
What’s the game plan for a recession? Would it be through dollar cost averaging through the recession? Or investing aggressively through every incremental drop (Ex. 20% -> 30% -> 40% -> 50%) in markets into long-term hold stocks outlined in Triangle Investing?
See latest post
I’m 20, skills in numerics and synthesis, extreme dislike of formal schooling so didn’t do well in high school, currently studying cs and math at a mid-tier university, which I don’t like either. Have done internships at FANG companies in software and data science. Mid 5-figure net worth from various side hustles and crypto quant trading, but rapidly dwindling from paying tuition. Currently starting an online biz that is promising (low revenue, but growing fast) and I’m struggling to find time to work on it with schoolwork.
My options:
1. Suck it up, finish school, go into sv tech job, keep online biz and crypto on the side (when to switch to full time?)
2. Same as above, but pivot to quant finance
3. Drop out, all in on online biz and crypto, go back to school if it fails
I am super tempted to go with 3 because I know I would enjoy it much more, but maybe finishing school is a good backup. I also don’t know if making the effort to transition to quant finance would be worth it. Thoughts?
Easily number one. A backup career at a FANG company is fantastic.
Finance is largely dead except for M&A over the next 10-15 years.
I graduated undergrad in ’17 and work in tech. On track to earn in the mid/high 32% bracket and living in NYC. I’ve come to realize I can jump well into the 35% bracket by jumping ship, but odds are good that I’d end up in SF, even factoring in hedge funds etc that are on the east coast. At the age of 23, would it be worth giving my social life by a significant factor for this large an increase income? I’d even have a large one time increase as signing bonus in tech are mid to high five figures. I want more capital so I can pursue my business ideas more freely (buy hardware, website, etc) so having vastly more in savings per year would certainly help. Interested in the quality of life vs money tradeoff at my age.
You’re only 23? So the answer is follow the money till financially set.
How would you recommend assisting aging parents (late 40’s, early 50’s) who were not the most financially savvy in life?
My parents worked their way up from _extremely_ humble origins, and through their sacrifices and support, I am where I am today (early 20’s, low six figures in tech). Recently, when I examined their finances, I found they’re considerably in debt, with much of their savings wiped out, due to a small crisis. In the past, they made their money through specialized blue collar work, leveraging overtime hours, and to a lesser extent single family real estate. At their age, I would prefer they not continue relying on trading time for $$$
One approach I am considering is quietly shouldering the financial debt myself, and having them focus on reinvesting in new skills, their health, and businesses rather than laboring away in overtime work. Any thoughts or recommendations on how best to assist?
This is covered in Triangle Investing. If you can do it then go with your strategy
22 year old college student. Are the online biz path outlined in Efficiency still viable if one doesn’t have a lot of starting capital? And if so, should I do any changes to the path if money is very limited?
Still entirely relevant. Our view is two streams: get a white collar job that is easy and build it up on the side
Affiliate marketing legit route: hard to get paid traffic camps profitable when selling legit products because the offer payouts are so low and meant for seo traffic.
How do you combat this issue as an affiliate (legit route)? Is it all abiut finding an offer with high payout + little bit of luck involved?
Im aware of dropshipping with higher payouts but as you mentioned is saturated and dont have enough side $ to build own product so committed to affiliate route.
You basically nailed it on the spot my man! Hogh pay out a little bit of luck and you are in good shape.
This is why if you can sell “okay” deals, the game get easier later in life
I’ve got talent in numerics and synthesis, I’m going to branch out into affiliate marketing as a way to brush up on online sales.
When I did in-person sales for consumer items I was able to calibrate to the person in front of me and get a sale a lot of the time. I have no idea currently of how to do that online.
One issue is I’m not one for buying a lot of stuff myself. I understand about pain points and emotional triggers, but find it difficult to relate those to a lot of the stuff for sale out there.
Any tips on how I can go about understanding where other people are coming from with regards to purchases that I’m unlikely to make myself?
You should come back after you try. You’re assuming failure with no information. How can we help you if you haven’t even tried it yet?
This question does not make much sense. If you’re good at sales you’ll have to try for a few months and see if there is a stick point or not.
What do you think the future of affiliate marketing is and how sustainable is it? I hear all the “big shots” are just bs motivational speakers that bank off of “teaching” instead of actually “doing”
Have more than $5k to spend as that ‘s what you said in a previous post in this page to start affiliate marketing, but seems like it’s super saturated and black hat/unethical.
Also – what do you think of the website/forum STM (Stack That Money) for information? Worth paying the monthly fee?
Love your content.
THx
It is very competitive and wil likely be around for a while. Very unethical people in there as well if you go down the “seminar route” that is what they are actually doing.
We haven’t used Stack that money before. We logged in for free once just to see what it was like
What is the best way to promote products and send QUALITY/QUALIFIED traffic (ie a custom clothing line, service, etc) to my business online? Have a good website, but without traffic, it dies in cyber space and no one will ever go to it.
Tried FB ads – didn’t seem to work so good, but maybe just not that good at targeting. Any advice would be appreciated.
Also tried instagram influencers – total BS for the most part nowadays and the legit ones charge an arm and a leg.
Would love any advice on how to promote my webpages/services. Really do believe in my products and have had people purchase orders (over 50+, but over a long span of time — only have about 12 visitors/day. pretty depressing)
Thanks
If you can’t get traffic from facebook we don’t know what to say, they have immense scale. Try adjusting your targeting because if you can’t sell with Facebook it just won’t work to be honest. Not a single sale with facebook traffic = product isn’t good.
Gentlemen,
First of all thanks for all your work.
Question: Wouldn’t put writing the more liquid ETFs be better than DCA into them? I’m thinking better returns, cash flow and risk management.
Go OTM and/or short term if you’re afraid of a correction and viceversa if you don’t want to lose the upside or want to get in at a better price.
Thanks again and please keep it up!
Sure if you own the underlying writing long-term puts over and over is a Warren Buffet strategy.
If you are naked writing them you can get killed in a recession.
Thanks for clearing it up!
Early 20s Graduate Software Engineer. (Numerics Intelligence)
A well established mentor of mine has told me to work small business, given my personality I’ll be eaten alive by the bureaucracy and politics at large corps.
Small business means I should be able to get closer to impacting the bottom line, I’m not confined to a single role.
However, I’ve noticed the following:
– Cheap bosses hiring at below market rates.
– Better network and connections at larger corps.
I’m cutting my work days down to 4 days a week so I can prioritise building a business on the other 3. However I don’t feel my skills are established enough yet where I can build anything of value.
Should I ignore my mentors advice and find work at a major corp, or keep on working at small business?
The worst situation I could end up is failed business and still being exploited at a small business for low pay.
Choose the path with the least hours if you have the skills to build a secondary income. We say this a million times but no one ever listens.
If you only have one form of income you’re basically a sitting duck ready to die.
Bigger corps have a much lower expectation for work than startups. If you want to significantly reduce the number of hours you spend switch. Pick a big older company with in-glamorous products like IBM. Office politics won’t matter if you aren’t looking to move up there (and you absolutely shouldn’t. you’ll almost always want to move companies when you move up)
I’ve worked in a number of different sized companies and the amount of time needed to keep suspicion about not working away is pretty much inverse the size of the company. I recently switched from startup doing about 60 hours of hard work per week to a big-co and am doing about 3 hours of easy work per week. A couple of buddies of mine in big co’s have the same story.
If you go this route be aware that big-co’s almost always have very draconian IP assignment agreements where they own everything you do. You’ll have to quit and destroy the evidence you worked on it there before launching the side venture.
WSP,
How do you deal with disrespect in the office?
I’ve recently landed an enterprise sales role, and there’s one guy who keeps trying to put me down – either makes a comment about my appearance (I have red hair) or rubs it in my face that he sells more than me (bearing in mind I’ve just started out and he’s been there for over a year).
Annoying thing is that other coworkers laugh at what he says. Is it best to continue to smile, nod and agree (feel like a retard doing this in the context though), or take him to one side and call him out on it, and/or speak to my boss?
He is just insecure otherwise he wouldn’t care to bother with trolling you. Probably best to either get a new career if it is bothering you this much
Ok, but I can’t leave at the moment due to other reasons – you guys saying I should just continue to ignore?
There is no other option. If you have a “chat” with him he’ll just give you a terrible review. So look for a new spot and leave.
Read both Triangle investing and Efficiency…
Currently 25 yrs old. Made a substantial amount of $ in crypto and cashed out before the dip. Currently lost motivation bc the amount of $$ made could pay living and travel expenses for the next 2-3 years…
Found myself going to work and not giving a shit anymore. I’d rather be traveling and working on personal projects. How would you recommend I go about gaining motivation to go to work again?
Easy 2-3 years is nothing? That’s not even a drop in the bucket to be honest. Unless you don’t have to work for 40 years… probably not wise to give up.
Realistic timeline/cost for starting an affiliate marketing website for the first time?
$5K
Or $250 hosting domain and wp theme
Thanks for sending the elevator back down! Wish I’d come across your blog and Efficiency even earlier in my life.
Late-20s, just starting a career in sales – no side income yet. I’ve analyzed a number of markets where I have product ideas, but keep getting hung up when it looks like the market is oversaturated, or the product for one reason or another doesn’t seem viable. However, I have found some multi-family properties that fit the criteria laid out in Triangle Investing. With $60k to invest, do I go for one of these properties and use leverage, then get back to work on market analysis for starting an online business while rebuilding savings to launch a product, or would you recommend holding off on any real estate investing until a person has got a side business up and running? Thanks!
Always the same answer second form of income is first
Having a tough time coming up with a good question since you seem to have already covered everything.
Bought the home I live in and have a good % in both stocks and crypto. Planning to buy my first investment property as outlined in Triangle in the next year or so. Should I just keep the money I accumulate for this in something like a CD for now? I am assuming second source of income is higher priority than this?
Thanks for all the knowledge you continue to share.
Same answer again… always second stream before anything else. Your Career/business could go to zero overnight.
What’s the game plan for a recession? Would it be through dollar cost averaging through the recession? Or investing aggressively through every incremental drop (Ex. 20% -> 30% -> 40% -> 50%) in markets into long-term hold stocks outlined in Triangle Investing?
See latest post
I’m 20, skills in numerics and synthesis, extreme dislike of formal schooling so didn’t do well in high school, currently studying cs and math at a mid-tier university, which I don’t like either. Have done internships at FANG companies in software and data science. Mid 5-figure net worth from various side hustles and crypto quant trading, but rapidly dwindling from paying tuition. Currently starting an online biz that is promising (low revenue, but growing fast) and I’m struggling to find time to work on it with schoolwork.
My options:
1. Suck it up, finish school, go into sv tech job, keep online biz and crypto on the side (when to switch to full time?)
2. Same as above, but pivot to quant finance
3. Drop out, all in on online biz and crypto, go back to school if it fails
I am super tempted to go with 3 because I know I would enjoy it much more, but maybe finishing school is a good backup. I also don’t know if making the effort to transition to quant finance would be worth it. Thoughts?
Easily number one. A backup career at a FANG company is fantastic.
Finance is largely dead except for M&A over the next 10-15 years.
I graduated undergrad in ’17 and work in tech. On track to earn in the mid/high 32% bracket and living in NYC. I’ve come to realize I can jump well into the 35% bracket by jumping ship, but odds are good that I’d end up in SF, even factoring in hedge funds etc that are on the east coast. At the age of 23, would it be worth giving my social life by a significant factor for this large an increase income? I’d even have a large one time increase as signing bonus in tech are mid to high five figures. I want more capital so I can pursue my business ideas more freely (buy hardware, website, etc) so having vastly more in savings per year would certainly help. Interested in the quality of life vs money tradeoff at my age.
You’re only 23? So the answer is follow the money till financially set.
How would you recommend assisting aging parents (late 40’s, early 50’s) who were not the most financially savvy in life?
My parents worked their way up from _extremely_ humble origins, and through their sacrifices and support, I am where I am today (early 20’s, low six figures in tech). Recently, when I examined their finances, I found they’re considerably in debt, with much of their savings wiped out, due to a small crisis. In the past, they made their money through specialized blue collar work, leveraging overtime hours, and to a lesser extent single family real estate. At their age, I would prefer they not continue relying on trading time for $$$
One approach I am considering is quietly shouldering the financial debt myself, and having them focus on reinvesting in new skills, their health, and businesses rather than laboring away in overtime work. Any thoughts or recommendations on how best to assist?
This is covered in Triangle Investing. If you can do it then go with your strategy