Mind the Beginner

Chances are that you’ve read the four hour workweek, it’s also very likely that you know who Seth Godin is and the name Leo Babauta might even ring a bell. Just a few resources (almost) all people into lifestyle design have heard about.

But names these to just about anyone in daily life and they will have no idea what or who you are talking about. The whole idea of Location Independence (after all, a goal for most lifestyle designers) is completely unknown to them and they are certain you are out of touch with reality. Or at least have very romantic views on how the world works. The possibilities of Internet in the field of generating passive income streams is shrouded in mystery and above all, in disbelief. What are the actually chances of setting up such an income?
Maybe 1 in 1000 people will find a way to generate such an income, and just a few of those will be able to life from that income alone.

Blogging isn’t the way to make loads of money, we all know that right? Yes there are a few bloggers out there who have managed to do very well indeed. (Leo and Darren for example) but most Location Independent Professionals (LIP’s) have different ways of generating their income. Through sales on their blogs/websites, through affiliate programs and general advertisement.

Although I don’t have exact numbers (if you have them, please do share them) I like to believe that it’s not that hard to set up a passive income online. They key here is knowledge.

• Americans under age 60 with incomes under $30,000 per year and those with a high school education or less are considerably less likely to use a computer than their higher income and more educated counterparts
• 49% of adults say they’re keeping up (with computer development); 49% say they’re being left behind
• 75% of Americans use the Internet and spend an average three hours a day online
• Only 30% of cell owners send text messages – but that’s double what the number was two years ago
• One in three cell owners doesn’t know how to use their cell properly (that is, simple configurations)
• a new blogger [joins] the crowd every 40 seconds
• 94 % of high-school seniors have Internet access

A few random statistics that tell us that certainly not everyone is keeping up with all the online developments and there are enough people who -quite harshly said- simply aren’t tech savvy enough to make full use of the networks on offer. Yes, there are millions upon millions of bloggers out there. But what percentage of those bloggers has heard of lifestyle design? It’s a small niche. I’ve been asking around in class and nobody seems to have taken a serious look at things. (and mind you, I’m talking about future software engineers and information scientists here)

If you think what you know about lifestyle design is general knowledge, ask around on the following topics: polyphasic sleep, speedreading, outsourcing, raw food, flashpacking, purple cows, tribes and vagabonding to name but a few.

Grasping the possibilities

If these people, who spend almost every waking hour in the vicinity of a computer with Internet access don’t seem to grasp the full potential of the passive income stream chances are very few people out there really give it a go. Of those who try, most will fail, quite simply because they haven’t done enough research to find out how things actually work. Finding a niche is one of the toughest things you have to do if you want to be successful at this game. Mind you, although in your real life you might be the only one thinking about these things (I know I am…) there are thousands out there trying to do the same. Of those thousands there are a few hundred with enough knowledge to make it work, of those a couple of dozens found a viable niche….

Now putting it all together: Although the Internet is huge and expanding faster than the universe right after the big bang there is just a statistical handful of people who seriously explore the possibilities of lifestyle design and location independence. We’re right there at the front edge of the field, the early adopters. And being here gives us a huge advantage. We know what others don’t know yet. If you’re able to put all the knowledge to action and really give this a go you’re a very rare breed indeed.

You can be the one type, those who don’t try and those who don’t know are the other. Who do you want to be?

Tags: bloggers, knowledge, Lifestyle design, niche, possibilities

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Lifestyle design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.