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I was reading a post by The Financial Philosopher today and decided to answer the questions that he posed in his blog:

When has your life dramatically changed as the result of some seemingly random external influence?

I first started blogging when I Googled Eriopolis, my friend’s online name. I found out that he had a Xanga account and signed up for my own. Almost 3 years and 450+ posts later, I’m beginning to connect with new and interesting people from all walks of life. If it weren’t for blogging, I wouldn’t have rediscovered my passion for writing.

How much do you feel in control of the course of your life?

Right now, I feel very much out of control of my life. I still feel that my parents are running my life and they’re not fully understanding what I wanna do with my life (become a writer). I feel that this will change once I move out for good.

Is it easy for you to ask for help when you need it?  Will you ask for help?

I do find it hard to ask for help, but I am getting better at it. When it comes to the situation I’m in right now in my life, I can’t really do anything responsible to fix it at the moment because I have nowhere else to live at until I get on my feet.

Where would you choose to be if you could place yourself anywhere on a scale from one to ten, where one is hardship, struggle, and extraordinary accomplishment and ten is comfort, peace of mind, and no accomplishment.  Why?  Where are you now?

I would put myself at 4 because I don’t have to worry about shelter, food, clothes, and things like that. I’m also beginning to make something of myself online. However, I also feel that I can do so much more that what I’m doing now. I feel that I’ve taken several steps back over the course of my adult life. Moving back in with my parents and getting my old jobs back would be two major examples.

If you were to die this evening with no opportunity to communicate with anyone, what would you most regret not having told someone?  Why haven’t you told them yet?

That I love my family and friends. I frequently tell people how important they are in my life, but I’d still miss saying it one last time. Although I may be indirect in saying “I love my family and friends” at times, sometimes just talking to them about what’s going on in their lives does more.

If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience would you do so?  If not, why not?

I would. Although my conscious mind may not remember the events that occurred during my one year of zen, my body and subconscious mind would. I feel that they would help me get back on track to finding perfect happiness again.

Would you rather be extremely successful professionally and have a tolerable yet unexciting private life, or have an extremely happy private life and only a tolerable and uninspiring professional life?

If I had to choose, I would want an extremely happy private life and only a tolerable and uninspiring professional life. I have found that my connections with the people around me (my family and friends) have been the greatest source of joy for me. Just thinking about hanging out with them can help me get through any boring work day because I have something to look forward to at the end of the day. Believe me, I was there! I still am kinda there, but my professional life is beginning to look up.

Do you have any specific long-term goals?  What is one and how do you plan on reaching it?

One of my long-term goals is to be able to life comfortably on my own doing what I want to do and not what I’m forced to do. I plan on reaching this goal first by blogging and second by selling a product. As far as what the product is, I can’t say at the moment.

For what in your life do you feel most grateful?

That I’m still alive, able to change my life for the better, and young enough to be able to see these changes come to full fruition.

Does the fact that you have never done something before increase or decrease its appeal to you?

I’ll admit, I do get scared of leaping into the unknown. Really scared in fact. However, as Steve Pavlina once said, “Whatever you fear you must face.”

If 100 people your age were chosen at random, how many do you think you’d find leading a more satisfying life than yours?

I’m not really sure to be honest. I’m pretty sure that there wouldn’t be much middle ground. Either everybody’s life sucks or it’s going great.

Would you like to know the precise date of your death?

It would be nice to know, haha! However, if I did know, I’m afraid that I might become cynical and wittle my life away. I might also become paranoid and disconnect myself from the world, which is essentially like dying anyway.

Would you accept a guaranteed, lifetime allowance of $50,000 per year (adjusted annually for inflation) if accepting it meant that you could never again earn money from either work or investments?

Although there are ways of working around this sentence (like earning gifts instead of money), I would say no. The reason being is that although my current personal needs would be met (and still be passable when I start a family of my own), I like money because it means possibilities. A pool’s a pool, but money can be exchanged for virtually anything. Even a pool!

If you learned you would die in a few days, what regrets would you have?  Were you given five extra years of life, could you avoid those same regrets five years hence?

My regrets would be not living on my own and seeing the world. I’m not too sure, but I feel that I would give less of a shit about some things and just hop in my car and go.

What would you like to be doing five years from now?  What do you think you will be doing five years from now?

Five years from now, I would like to be living on my own and earning a substantial income from blogging as well as making music as part of a band. As far as what I think I’ll be doing in five years, I have no clue. I do, however, have faith that I’ll get to do what I like to do; I just have to let go of my big plans because they never seem to work out in the end.

Since so many people place an emphasis on a happy private life, why do people often wind up putting more energy into their professional lives?  If you feel your private life is more important to you, do your priorities support this?  Are you simply unwilling to admit that work is more important?  Do you use work as a substitute?  Do you hope professional success will somehow magically lead to personal happiness?

Because professional lives take so much more time and energy from us compared to our private lives.

I believe that most of my priorities do support having a better private life. However, I also believe that until I become the owner of my business, I will not be able to have all of my priorities aligned with having the best personal life possible.

I do not believe that any field of work is more important than your private life. The connections we make with others, both in business and in personal life, are the most important things in the world.

I do not use work as a substitute for my personal life. They are two separate and unequal beings.

I believe that success can permeate through our whole life. If your personal life is going great (had sex, bought a new house, met somebody new, etc), then you can breeze through your work day. If your work life is going great (you made some extra money, you got promoted, you’re getting more business for your startup, etc), then you come back into your personal life with a sense of accomplishment.

Do you feel you have enough time?  If not, what would give you that feeling?  How much has your attitude about time changed as you’ve aged?

Right now, I feel like there’s never enough time to do all that I want to do in this moment. Conversely, I feel that there is an eternity ahead of me.

Being raised in a society that favors immediate gratification as well as someday plans (”Someday, I’ll start a company that’ll make me lots of money so I won’t have to work again!”), I’m not surprised that I feel a sense of time starvation. However, when I think of the grand scope of things (I might live for another 60-70 more years), I feel that I have too much time to spare.

Can you envision how you are likely to look back upon things you are doing today?  If so, how much do you try to live now as you think you will one day wish you had lived?

“Why the hell was I so worried about that?!” I do that all the time when I look back at some of my old posts. I can see the progressions that I’ve made, both in my life and in my writing skills. I also see some of the things that haven’t changed in my life as well (wanting to hang out with my friends, not wanting to work at a crappy job, having more money, etc).

I try to change a little bit everyday so that I am not the same person as I was before. Whether it’s reading a new article, meeting somebody new, or visiting someplace new, I am constantly pursuing my own personal growth and trying to help others along the way.

Did You Really Read It All?!

Wow, this article has got to be one of my longest yet! 1,742 words to be exact!

Well, I’m gonna cook up something to eat and then I’m gonna read a new article on my Google Reader. See-ya!

TheAndySan

So another Monday bites the dust!

I’ve been feeling kinda depressed lately. I miss hanging out with my friends. I know that they’ll be home in December for their Christmas Break, but still. I feel really lonely without them, but I don’t wanna sound like one of those clingy friends.

I managed to sell my old iPod so that I can recoup from buying that guitar I mentioned before. I really wanted it, but buying it wasn’t the smartest move financially to make.

My mom’s mad at my stepdad for not letting me buy Jon’s old car off of him and fix the windshield so that I can get a job. During one of his crazy spells, he painted parts of the car orange and black. Combined with all the dents and the cracked windshield, it looks like it was rolled. My stepdad wants it off the property by this Friday and Mom wants me to buy it from Jon and ask my cousin if I can park it at his place.

I dunno, this whole situation has got me going crazy. I’d like to stay until I can properly move into an apartment, but with my stepdad constantly hounding me to “get a fucking job”, I just don’t know.

I mean, I’m beginning to come into my own as a blogger. Sure I’m not making enough money to live off of yet, but I know that it’ll come with time and the refinement of my writing and marketing skills.

This whole thing makes me wanna just take the car and drive as far away as I can! I feel so angry at my stepdad for not understanding what I wanna do with my life!!

I want to be a writer and a musician. I don’t want to slave away at a job I hate. I want to wake up every day with a sense of meaning and purpose, not of confusion and self-loathing. I want to be happy, dammit!

I apologize if I seem a bit ranty, but I’m just getting some big things off of my chest. If you were in my situation, what would you do? Is there any way that I could continue to just blog & write for a living or should I get myself a job until I make enough online to support myself? Leave me a comment.

Well, I’m gonna take a shower to clear my head so I’ll see you guys later!

TheAndySan

This is a post that I submitted to and was accepted by Associated Content. You can find some of my posts before they hit TheAndySan.com at http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/343794/theandysan.html

It All Started With A Question

My friend Adam asked me a question on FaceBook today. He asked:

So I’ve seen quite a few people actually try to make some dough with blogs. Some succeeding.

I used to blog.. on Xanga.. but then everyone stopped doing it.. so I stopped doing it too.

If I could make 10-30 bucks a month.. that’d be sweet. So where do i start if i wanna make money with it? Give me some help dude. I wanna document the life and times of an aspiring jazz musician in acollege of music.

Buying a Domain Name & Hosting

Well Adam, that’s fairly easy, especially since you have a good topic (my problem is I can’t stick to one topic). If you want to get a good start as a blogger, purchase your own domain name. Sure, you could go through third-party blogs like MySpace, LiveJournal, Xanga, etc, but you’ll have the most freedom from purchasing your own domain name.

I use WordPress as my blog software. For hosting, I use DreamHost. It’s been pretty reliable so far.

When you’re thinking of a domain name, I’d go with something instantly recognizable and without numbers. For example, www.minording.com is available.

After you’ve settled on a domain name, go through a hosting company like DreamHost, BlueHost, Laughing Squid, etc. Make sure that they can do an auto-install of WordPress. That’s one of the major reasons I went through DreamHost is because they have one-click installs. Sure, I could install everything myself, but I want to make the whole process as efficient as possible so auto-installs are the way to go!

Once WordPress is installed, just follow the prompts to build your website & blog. Although I just have a blog on my website, WordPress can build an entire website as well as a blog.

What Are Your Visitors Doing?

One of the most important things to put up in your blog is Google Analytics. It give you a comprehensive overview of your website. It tells you where your visitors are coming from, how many you’re getting, everything. I can’t recommend it enough!

How To Make Money, Money, Money!

Now as far as monetizing goes, the king in that regard is Google AdSense. Just follow the instructions and you should be good to go. Another service that’s been working great for me is Text Link Ads. If you have a PayPal account, I’d definitely put up a Donations button.

One way you could monetize your content is by going through a service like Associated Content. You can submit virtually anything in about any format (text, video, audio, picture, etc). If you choose to submit content that is Non-Exclusive (recommended), you can later submit it to your blog once it’s published on AC. This way, you get more content for your website AND you get paid for it via AC before it hits your website. It’s a win-win!

You have an excellent topic in hand (becoming a successful jazz musician). You have a variety of means in which you can add content to your site. You can give out lessons, either via text, pictures, or video (I’d recommend all three at once). Post some lessons on YouTube and embed them in your post. For pictures, I’d go through something like Flickr or Picasta or something like that and embed them into your post. You could post pictures of close-up hand positions, tabs, musical notation, etc.

In addition to posting lessons, you can also record your gigs. This not only gives your viewers your resume-of-sorts, but it can also help land you gigs if you get enough exposure. Just look at what it did for Tay Zonday aka the Chocolate Rain guy!

I would also post about your experiences and what you’ve learned from them. Experience is what makes the difference between learning from a book and learning in real life. It could be about gig disasters, meeting your heroes, making a difference in someone’s life through your music, etc.

Remember, the name of the game is exposure. The more you put yourself out there, the more possibilities and opportunities open themselves for you.

How Monetization Really Works

Adam then asks:

Yeah. So like you did calculating.. how many hits/clicks would I need for like.. 300 bucks or something.. an estimate.

It varies a lot. It all depends on what keywords are clicked, how many clicks you get, how many visitors you get, etc. One click could range from a penny to a dollar to five dollars to more. For example, somebody clicked on one of my text link ads and I got $5 from it. Another text link ad got me $1.05. Going from my examples, you would need between 60-286 clicks to generate $300. If you’re pulling in the traffic, this is an easy task. That’s kind of where I’m at right now; I’m building content, seeing what connects with people and what doesn’t, and slowly building a following (I’m averaging 28 visitors a day).

Express Yourself

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t focus a lot on the making money part until you have at least a month’s worth of content. That’s not to say that you can’t immediately monetize it; it’s just so much easier to make money when you have something on the table to offer people.

These things generally take time to build up the traffic and the money, but the payoff is well worth it because although I only average 28 daily visitors, it feels good to know that 28 people took time out of whatever they were doing to read and/or watch what I’m doing.

Bottom line: be creative and be yourself. Sure, I use an online nickname (TheAndySan), but I use that to differentiate myself from all the other Andys and AndySans and whatnot.

If you have any more questions, feel free to leave me an email at xadawg@gmail.com. Good luck!

TheAndySan

Before I begin this blog entry, I would like to point out that I have made two separate Amazon wish lists on my sidebar: one for Little Kids Rock (whom I will donate 100% of the instruments on that list to) and my own personal list. I’ll be adding items to it until December 1st.

Helping Steve Out

I was reading Steve Pavlina’s blog today and he seemed depressed about his juice feasting experiment.

When he debated on quitting the experiment, I told him this in his forums:

I think that you should continue with the juice feast.

You’ve already established a deadline (69 more days) and I feel that if you were to stray from that, you would become more inclined to do so with your future endeavours.

If you feel disconnected from your family during meals, why don’t you drink with them? Just pour yourself a small glass if you’re not that hungry. Before the juice feast, you were the only one in your household who ate 100% raw vegan while the others eat mostly cooked vegan and you were still able to connect with them at the dinner table. Have them try out some of the juices if they want to, so they can better connect with what you’re doing.

I’m glad that you’re honest in sharing the disconnection you feel with your family. However, I believe that simply calling it quits now would not be in your best interests. I feel that you should instead find ways that you can connect with your family (like I said above). Take a drive, go for a walk (I dunno how cold it is this time of year in Nevada), play board games. Sometimes the simplest things can bring us together the closest.

If you were to quit the juice feast before the 92 days were up, your Power would become weaker because you didn’t discipline yourself to go the full distance. You think that eating solid foods again with your family would be like hitting the reset button. You are denying the Truth, which is that you can always connect with anyone and are always able to accept Love.

Of course, after the 69 days are over and you feel that you didn’t get the results that you were after, nobody’s gonna force you to do it again but yourself. Also keep in mind that you were pretty healthy to begin with due to eating 100% raw, so I wasn’t that surprised when you weren’t losing a lot of weight.

Hang in there, Steve! I know you can do it!

Steve then posted a response:

Just checked the poll results, and it’s 11 for and 11 against. 11-11 rears its head again, but what does it mean?

I’ve been getting some email feedback on this too, and the results there are split about 50-50 as well.

I should mention that it will take me 6 days to progressively break the juice feast, regardless of whether I stop now or at Day 92. This is to ease my body back into solid foods and avoid getting sick from an abrupt transition.

I should also mention that I can do the liver and parasite cleanses after a juice feast if necessary. They can be done at other times. They might be more effective as part of a juice feast though.

My default decision is that I’m going to keep going unless I gain sufficient clarity to say that stopping is really the best choice for me. If I continue to feel ambivalent like I do now, I’ll keep pressing on.

I really appreciate all the feedback. It certainly gives me a lot of angles to consider.

I’m so glad that he’s continuing the experiment! I wish Steve the best of luck in making it the full 92 days without solid food.

TheAndySan

P.S: My new guitar should be coming in soon. Financially, I regret buying it. However, it felt so right when I put in my bids. Because I’m running out of money in my saving account, I might have to get a job soon. Oh boy…

I really want to cap this year off doing something great! I thought about donating some of my old toys and stuff to charity, but these days, even kids in B.F.E. have at least a 4G iPod along with some Hannah Montana and Rock Band. I’m sure some kids would enjoy playing with my old toys, but I feel like I need to really do something to get me out of karma debt.

Doing Good Things For Others: A Personal Backstory

-When I was in college, I’d almost always rush forward and open the door for others. Nowadays, I notice that I slow down so that other people open the door for me.

-I never donated anything except for my old clothes to our local Goodwill clones.

-Whenever I would go to the BMV, I have never donated $1 to help blind kids.

-I was taught to tresure what I have. On one hand, my things last longer because I take good care of them. On the other hand, I was inadvertedly taught not to share. Whether it was my toys or my feelings, I usually kept them to myself and felt very uncomfortable when someone else had them.

Building Back My Karma, One Good Idea At A Time

I don’t want to end up like my parents. They have to work themselves to the bone in order to just get by. I know that if I really want to succeed, I need to be surrounded by like-minded and supportive peers. Despite going into a depression because I felt unable to control my life, I was beginning to do some good things for others in college.

For one, I helped start the campus’ first anime club, Genshiken UU. Although my best friend Eriopolis did everything in getting the club off the ground, I feel that I contributed a decent amount to the club as well. I designed the logo that’s still in use today. Although it may sound presumptuous for me to say this, but I think that I helped kickstart the idea of an anime club.

I showed Eriopolis the anime Genshiken, which is about an anime club of the same name and their various hijinx. I definitely recommend watching it if you’re into the slice-of-life genre or are really into anime. The casual fan might not be able to connect with it as much as a diehard anime lover.

After watching the series, I said to Eriopolis, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we did that? It would be so awesome to start an anime club on campus!” He said that he was thinking about doing it before, but I feel that watching Genshiken helped pull the trigger and made the idea a reality.

Get To The Point Already!

As I said before, I want to do something really good this year, but I need your help. I put up an Amazon wishlist (which I’ll better organize later) and I want to donate at least half of the musical instruments, as voted by you, to Little Kids Rock. The list is a work-in-progress and I’ll be adding less expensive items to it so you don’t have to worry about not having enough money to buy an instrument. You can also donate money via Paypal by clicking on the orange Donate button. Please be sure to put in the comment “Little Kids Rock Donation”.

If you guys have any comments, concerns, and/or suggestions, feel free to leave me a comment below!

TheAndySan