Taming Monkey Number 8 – The Outcome

The official name of my August monkey was “straighten up my finances”. If you came here by accident and you don’t really know what I’m talking about, go ahead and read the introductory post. In brief, I decided to ditch all my new year resolutions in 2011 and instead pick an “inner monkey” each month and try to “tame” it. Read what an inner monkey is.

The Revenue Sources Issue

Initially, I wanted to use the term “problem”, but I realized it will be a little too much to call it problem. In fact, it was just an issue. Basically, my revenue sources were a little bit stretched. During the last 3 years, since I started to write on this blog, I did a lot of experiments in monetization. Some of these experiments generated more revenue than others, obviously. But the whole mechanism wasn’t really oiled. There were a lot of debris floating around. And some of these debris were thoroughly described in the first update about this monkey.

So, where am I now? What are my valid revenue sources and what are the things I should leave behind?

In short, I narrowed the circle of valid revenue sources to only 5 areas: ebooks, partnerships, iOS apps, consulting and live events. There was a strong desire to create an online course and I really wanted to get one done, but it just didn’t happen. So I think I will leave the online courses behind for a while.

Ebooks

This month I launched Brilliantly Better, one of the most challenging books I ever launched so far. In short, the book is a collection of more than 70 articles on this blog, hand picked and edited to create a meaningful package. The online version can be bought for 16.99 (which is a steal, when you think you get more than 500 pages worth of content), the Kindle version can be bought for 9.99 (yes, big difference) and the iBookStore version should come up in a few weeks, at the same price.

One important thing to mention is that I made a video for this ebook, which turned out to be more popular than the book itself. It’s on the sidebar and at the end of this post, feel free to watch it, it’s only a minute. Oh, and if you like it, feel free to share it.

Meanwhile, I have another 5 titles which are continuing to sell, without any specific marketing campaigns, just by being listed on this blog. Here’s a quick list:

• 100 Ways To Live A Better Life: CreateSpace | Amazon | Kindle | iBookStore
• 100 Ways To Screw Up Your Life: CreateSpace | Amazon | Kindle | iBookStore
• The Productivity Trap: CreateSpace | Amazon | Kindle | iBookStore
• The 7 Ages Of An Online Business: CreateSpace | Amazon | Kindle | iBookStore
• Natural Productivity – Assess, Decide, Do: Amazon | Web | Kindle | iBookStore

As a general strategy direction, I think ebooks will make at least 50% of my focus. It’s not only the revenue, which is of course, a steady one, but also the fact that I really like to write. It’s one of the things I’m doing almost effortless and, based on some of the opinions on this blog, it’s something that at least makes people think, if not something that they really enjoy.

Partnerships

I created a new partnership for my WordPress premium framework line of business. It’s called WPGalore, and we’re already working on it. The feature list is ready, the schedule in place, the team assembled and ready to work (it will still be a side project for some of the people involved, though, just to keep the risks low) and there’s even a landing page for you guys. If you want to know more about it, leave your email after you click on the link above and we’ll be in touch.

To be honest, I’m quite thrilled about this new line of revenue, which started early this year and which was almost on the verge of a huge success with WPSumo, if it wasn’t for that team glitch which kinda poisoned the partnership. I’m also happy that I was smart enough to leave a bad partnership behind (please note that the partnership was bad, not the people, all people were ok, we just had different ideas and expectations) and start a new one pretty fast. If everything goes well, we should be up and running sometime this year. We’re targeting November as the month of launch and there are pretty big chances that this will actually happen.

In terms of focus I will give 30% of it to the partnership area.

Oh, there are also another two partnerships in which I’m supposedly involved as a partner/adviser, but these are not even remotely at the same level with WPGalore in terms of management and development. I admit that in WPGalore I’m deeply involved at an operational level, making things happening every day, while in the other two I’m just an observer. I could surely kick some of the assess in those two startups, but I prefer to remain an observer for now and see if things will really take off or not. From the WPSumo experience I can reinforce the fact that the product or the market can be validated, but if the team isn’t, well, everything was in vain. That’s how business function, I suppose.

iOS Apps

When I’m talking iOS apps, I’m talking in fact about iAdd, my iOS implementation of the Assess – Decide – Do framework (just get the book from the list above if you want to know more about it). The app development was stopped, because I decided to wait for iCloud to launch. According to the latest information, this won’t happen until early October. I’m not supposed to talk about the beta releases of iOS 5, although I’m playing with them on a daily basis. All I can tell is that the development proved to be far more tedious than I anticipated. And the return of investment kinda slow.

I will continue to maintain iAdd for iPhone and iPad as I promised, and I will do my best to launch the desktop version by the end of the year. Like this, I will at least know that I created a complete productivity suite for Mac/iOS and take a break for a while from iOS development. In terms of energy and focus this project was really wearing me out. But it’s still a big priority for me, so I will give it at least 10% of my remaining focus. That means that out of 10 hours of work every day, I will dedicate at least one to iAdd.

Consulting and Live Events

I put these two line of revenue in the same paragraph because they’re pretty much similar. And because I don’t intend to give more than a combined 10% of all of my focus to them. Basically, I will just keep myself prepared and updated with all the major trends in this area and I will make sure my skills won’t start to worn out, but I won’t promote any of these specifically. If somebody ask me to provide, I will deliver, but that’s all for now.

The Overall Strategy

Just a few more words before going to the next monkey. As you see, I’m trying to create a mix of passive and active income. The passive income area will be illustrated by the ebooks and iOS apps, which will continue to generate revenue more after the work was finished. In total, they’ll be at around 60% of my focus.

The rest of 40% will be split between my partnerships (which will in turn create some passive income too, based on the business model that will be implemented, but it will require a constant investment of time and value) and my consulting and live events line.

I am pretty sure that I didn’t have any idea about the real balance between my passive and active income before this month, so even if I will take into account only this outcome, this monkey taming can be considered a huge success.

So, 60% passive versus 40% active revenue. It’s not so bad, but it could be so much better.

Monkey Number 9

In September I want to finish, and, if possible, to publish my first fiction book in English. It’s based on some of the stuff I wrote more than 20 years ago, but which still resists to one of the harshest critiques I know,and that would be me. After I read parts of that material again this month, translating a few important parts, I can confirm that. I don’t know if it will be a huge success or an epic blunder, but I know for sure this is one of the oldest monkeys I have.

I’ve been fantasizing to publish that book ever since I was 17. I think it’s time to get this done.

Will see how this goes.

“Assess – Decide – Do: Natural Productivity” Reviews

As promised, I am back with a few words about my latest ebook’s reviews. I initially planned to do this the other week, but some of the folks who wrote reviews told me they had a little bit of a hectic schedule and their reviews will be a little late. I wouldn’t want to let anyone out, so I waited.

Why am I posting this? First of all, as a sign of appreciation to anybody who took the time to read my latest ebook and post his own opinions. Second, because it really opens my eyes as how the ebook was perceived. Contrarily to what you may think, the reviews were quite different. For some readers, the motivational part sounded stronger, while for others, the tutorial in the end seemed more enjoyable. All in all, just browsing through these reviews will give you a very interesting bird-eye view of not only what’s in the ebook, but also about each of these bloggers expectations, values and, to put it in a simpler word, preferences.

Without further ado, let’s start.

Lyman Reed of LymanReed.com

Lyman is a personal development blogger for as long as I can remember. He’s also one of the most authentic guys I ever met online. Two highlights about his review: first, he gave away one copy for free to one of his readers (meaning he paid for that copy but the reader got it for free) and second, he started with a very funny joke (some of you may know it already):

Riddle me this, my friend:

Three frogs are sitting on a log.

One frog decides to jump.

How many frogs are still on the log?

.
.
.

Three.

If you’ve heard that little story before, then you know that it’s normally used to disparage people who don’t act quickly enough… who are always making a decision but never taking any action on those decisions.

Read his entire review here. If you want to know more about Lyman, he recently guest posted on my blog, you can find his article here.

Eric of EdenJournal.com

One thing you may not know about Eric (apart from the fact that he’s running a very cool blog, of course) is that he helped me a lot with proof-reading my ebook. He actually sent me back a PDF with annotations to help me spot that stupid grammar (and sometimes not only grammar) mistakes I did in my own text. So, here’s a short excerpt from Eric’s review:

As I started reading Assess-Decide-Do, Natural Productivity, I felt a little lost.  It’s like I was starting a new fiction novel, and I had to get to know the characters. [...] In addition to the new concepts he slides in some great advice, which I really enjoyed.  Things like, “If the decision will not change something in your reality, it’s not a decision, it’s still an assessment.”

For the rest of it (which also includes a table of contents and a very exact description of what you get) go read the entire review here.

Ruben Berenguel from MostlyMaths.net

Ruben is a programmer and he writes at his blog about topics including programming, linux and productivity (he will soon be featured on this very blog with a very interesting guest post, so keep an eye on your feed reader for this guy). What was interesting about Ruben’s review was the fact that he found the first two parts of the ebook almost “boring”. The light seemed to come from the third section, which, as I already said, is a very detailed manual for the iPhone / iPad app I created in order to implement the framework on day to day basis. Here’s a short excerpt from Ruben’s review:

Personally, I found the first two sections a little fluffy, and the third section brilliantly clear. I asked Dragos about that, and he said that some people were completely in reverse, saying the first two chapters were eye opening and the third, boring. We guess it has something to do with analytical/emotional type of thinkers. I am pretty analytical, in case you wonder.

If you want to know more, read the whole review here.

Steven Aitchison of SteveAitchison.co.uk

Steven is an old blogging friend (and, to be honest, we’ve been through so many challenges and we exchanged so many messages that I consider him a real friend, which is somehow weird because we never met in real life ). His review, also detailed, is the only one featuring a description of mine as being “swine”, which, to your surprise, may be sometimes pretty accurate. Joking of course, and so did Steven, but I thought to mention this here, just in case you need an extra incentive to read Steven’s review. And here’s a short excerpt from it too:

I am of the strong belief that life begins and ends with a decision, if we can’t decide what to do in life we will stagnate.  However the beauty in the guide is that it gives you the steps before and after the decision, which makes the decision and after effects of the decision so much easier.

For the whole cookie, go read his review here.

Sid Savara of SidSavara.com

I remember that my first serious encounter with Sid was a “let’s agree to disagree” situation. I can’t even remember what was the source of our disagreement, but I do remember that fact that we were both able to overcome it and maintain a healthy virtual friendship. In case you’re wondering, Sid’s review will win the prize for “the review with the bigger number of quotes from the ebook” so in case you’re looking for some ebook juice, go read it. My favorite part from Sid’s review:

An argument can be made for every phase being the most important, but for me, I think the key really is deciding.  As I’ve discussed in a previous article on metawork, I know all too well how to overanalyze and “overassess” a situation, and once I get going I can finish tasks relatively quickly.

The rest of the review is here.

Ian Peatey of QuantumLearning.pl

Ian is a real life friend, we met a few times in Bucharest. During the last few weeks he restarted his blogging routine at quantumlearning.pl and for that I am really happy, Ian is a wonderful writer (and, for me, the number one source for learning and implementing things about non-violent communication). My favorite part of his review:

Because Dragos isn’t a regular guy he doesn’t get a regular review. It’s a Lite Review:

You will like the book if you:

• like his site
• want to know how he’s so damn productive
• want a method to help you get productive yourself
• want to know how he’s so damn laid back AND productive at the same time.

Go read the rest of the review here.

ProductivityBits.com

This review came a little bit unexpected. In the pre-launch post I announced that I would give away a few copies of the ebook for free, if there will be a review following up (not a positive one, just a review). Here’s a short excerpt from ProductivityBits.com review:

1. I like that the framework proposed in this book is flexible enough that it can be integrated to any work style that anyone prefers.
2. I like the fact that the principles I learned in this book do not only apply to work in general but also to any other aspects of life.

For the rest of it, go here.

Abubakar Jamil of AbubakarJamil.com

Last, but definitely not least, my blogging friend Abubakar Jamil gave me one of the most interesting approaches on my own ebook.

There are only two kinds of books in the world. There are books that people write and then there are books that make people write them. I call the later—organic books.

Never realized that he was right, the ebook actually wrote itself. Go read the rest of the review here.

***

It goes without saying that I strongly advise you to subscribe to the blogs above. Each and every one of them will teach you something valuable, while entertaining you at the same time. I have a strong connection with many of the blog owners above and I support their activities 100%.

Well, those were the reviews on the blogs, but there were also countless mentions on social media, twitter and Facebook. I want to tell to each and every one of the people who helped me spread the word a big “THANK YOU”! And I mean it.

iGTD goes commercial, Omni Focus goes pretty well

From a blog post in the iGTD website I heard today that Bargiel, the Polish developer of iGTD, is planning to go commercial with a professional version of iGTD. The current development model of iGTD is donationware.

Well, this is something very predictible, and also very natural. We all have to make a living, in the first place, and if we do contribute a great deal of value through our actions, like giving a great software to the community, then it’s normal to receive something back, in terms of financial value. The core differences between the current version of iGTD and the professional version will be related to multi-user functionalities. There were some hints in the interface (have you noticed the “Delegated” status for an action? I guess it was inactive for a reasson, much more like a hint or a promise) and also some normal strategical thinking: if it’s something that you use for your own personal productivity then you’ll make a donation, if you want, but if you plan to use iGTD on a team, share tasks, contexts and projects (these are some of the goodies in the Pro version) then it is supposed that you will make some money out of it, and you can pay the fee to the developer. So, once again, this is not surprising at all. The only thing that I expect now, it’s the new application. I’m highly curious about it.

And the main reason for that is Omni Focus. I tested it pretty often in the last few days, and as far as I saw on the Omni blog, I’m not the only one . I must say that they are taking it very seriously, there were some days with two or three builds and tons of bug fixes. It starts to look like a pretty decent application to me. Even if it will costs money, the balance is favorable to Omni Focus. Why? Because I already have two of their applications: Omni Plan and Omni Outliner Pro, and if Omni Focus will integrate with them, then it will be a logical decision. And if I will use Omni Focus for my business, it makes little sense to continue to use iGTD just for personal user, I will end up with a ton of duplicated data.

This is why I am so curious about the Pro version of iGTD. Because, despite the quality of the Omni products (which I will continue to use) having a really slim application, fast and fat free, for managing my tasks at the office and at home, will be a big plus. And maybe a really hard decisions for me…

I am really happy to see the speed and the level of professionalism in the GTD world. It is expectable to see that for people that are obsessed with productivity, but still… I don’t see any other sector of the digital apps where the speed of development is near close to the GTD race (and I haven’t spoked yet about the second version of ThinkingRock, the java-based surprise that may come from Australia…)