by Jake Mogul on January 11th, 2010
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If you want more money the most obvious thing to do is get a job. But the vast majority of jobs involve trading time for money. If we do not enjoy the jobs we do, if they are not a calling for us, then the trade of time for money is more than just a trade, it is a sacrifice and a sacrifice that the vast majority of people make because they think that there is no choice. But in today’s modern world there are several ways in which you can generate income without making such a sizeable sacrifice of your time. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on January 4th, 2010
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Last week marked the beginning of a new year and a new decade. In the first 24 hours of 2010 the usual torrent of text messages came from virtually everybody in my phone book. One of them referred to the next ten years as “the teenies”, in the same vein as the twenties and thirties.
I want to begin 2010 the same way I begin every year: with a manifesto; a wish list, a list of action items and ambitions, and this year I’m going to post that manifesto on my blog (because now I have a blog. Last year, I did not).
Recent years have required me to do things that were not really me so I want 2010 to be all about reclaiming myself and my life. Getting back in contact with childhood dreams and being true to myself. And as hairy-fairy as some of that sounds, I believe it is true that to be truly happy, you have to be the person that you would be if there was nobody else to judge you for it.
So, here we go, in priority order… Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on January 1st, 2010
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It’s that time of year again! After a couple of weeks of turkey and TV, it’s time to look forward to the year ahead and think about how we intend to improve ourselves and our lives over the coming year. Every year millions of people make New Year’s Resolutions to change personal behaviours, kick habits and realize dreams. But every year, after less than 60 days, most people have surrendered to the world, admitted defeat and put it off until next year.
Whether you aim to stop smoking, exercise more, lose weight or just simply enjoy life more, in this article, I’d like to share with you some killer techniques I’ve gathered over the years on first, how to make a New Year’s Resolution and second, how to maximize your chances of keeping it. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on December 11th, 2009
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I think a lot. And I was raised to believe a lot of concepts and paradigms that didn’t really make a lot of sense to me. I never really dared say it out loud but I was always a little doubtful about various social constructs and the nature of working life. Then, one day, quite by chance, I came across a book – The Four Hour Work Week – a title which instantly appealed to me, because I was one of the living dead who didn’t want to waste his life working.
When I read The Four Hour Work Week, my life changed.If nothing else, it was proof of one thing: there was another human being in the world that thought the same way I did. And, further, he’d actually gone out and proved it. When I finished the book, I knew I was not deluded. I was simply a minority thinker.
I’ve always wondered whether quoting books in a blog is legal, because isn’t the book content copyrighted? But Tim does it all the time on his own blog, so I’m sure he won’t mind me doing it here. The parts in bold are in my opinion the real gems and parts I agree with the most. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on December 6th, 2009
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The media will have you believe that all successful entrepreneurs are high school drop outs. None of them ever went to university because they weren’t academic. Instead they possessed some intangible sort of “street savvy” that you cannot learn, but have to be born with. They all started out very young selling sweets to other kids at school and were probably dislexic.
Doug Richard finished high school, went to university and never did anything entrepreneurial until his mid 20s. He was seriously disadvantaged, he jokes. And yet, despite all the odds being against him, he still managed to create a software company and sell it to IBM several years later for £710 million.
Doug Richard, former star of BBC’s Dragons’ Den, while plugging his School For Startups, spoke like Dr House on business, about where his ideas come from, his biggest mistakes and how to know if your business idea has what it takes to make you millions. Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on November 29th, 2009
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3s MiFi Modem
I have an addiction. And the extent of my addiction has recently come to my attention. My name is Jake and I am addicted to the Internet. Whether it’s so that I can blog, or tweet or run my websites, I don’t like to be away from the online world for too long.
To satisfy this unrelenting craving I decided to invest in a Sony Vaio P Series portable PC. This is a small and easily portable laptop that has built in mobile broadband connectivity. The result would be that I never needed to be offline ever again.
But I never bought it.
Why?
I went to the Sony Centre with my Chinese friend Kelvin so that we could negotiate like chinamen and get the £800 netbook for closer to £500. And there’s no doubt that Kelvin is good at saving money. But in this case it turned out that his approach to saving money was to find an alternative route to the same functionality.
What I ended up with was a 3 portable modem with MiFi. This is a small device about the size of a small mobile phone which can connect to the Internet much like a mobile dongle. But the difference is there are no wires. It promises to create a miniature wireless network that several netbooks, or iTouches can connect to at the same time. But does it work? Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on November 15th, 2009
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It was bad. It was really bad. The numbers spoke for themselves. We were spending hundreds of pounds a week on Pay Per Click adverts, trying desperately to get targeted traffic to the website and after only a couple of days we had seen it: the ads weren’t the problem. The site was. Over half the traffic was leaving the website instantly. We had to take action, and we had to make a decision fast.
When your ship is sinking it can be difficult to be honest and objective. But I had to be.
I took a step back. I knew it was nothing personal. There had to be something wrong with the website. And when I took a look at it myself after so long, the answer was obvious. If it wasn’t my website, I would probably have bounced too. We made two changes.
What were the results?
An overnight decrease in bounce rate by 50%. And that wasn’t all, because as bounce rate went down, page views went through the roof. Actions increased. Goal conversions increased. And only three days later, the income started rolling in.
Here’s how we did it… Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on November 3rd, 2009
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In an attempt to complete one of the entries on my “Things To Do Before I’m 30” List, specifically item 12: “Get an article published in a magazine or newspaper”, I will be undertaking a diploma in journalism.
This is something I’ve always wanted to do. Long before I got interested in business or anything of an entrepreneurial nature, journalism is what I wanted to do. And now, with any luck, I will.
I start on November 16th! I’ll let you know how it goes! Wish me luck!
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by Jake Mogul on October 22nd, 2009
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If slash when I eventually have children (I hope it is when rather than if), one of the single most powerful pieces of life information I will teach them is to appreciate the value of books. During my teens, I began reading a lot, largely due to not having the kind of social life I wished I had and not having much else to do with my time. And out of the hundreds of books I have read over the past ten years, there are five I have picked that I think have revolutionized my life and thinking in various ways.
The five books I’ve chosen have been so influencial that I can say with confidence that had I not read them, I would be a different person, and the worse for it. If you enjoy the posts on my blog, I strongly urge you to read these books. And if you’ve read any of these books, I strongly urge you to subscribe to my blog because, well, you’ll enjoy it!
Without further ado, five books that changed my life… Read the rest of this entry »
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by Jake Mogul on October 15th, 2009
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- “The secret to happiness is freedom. The secret to freedom is courage.” Thucydides, Greek Historian (460-395 BC)
After finishing university and winding up out in the “big wide world” and undergoing a period of massive change, metamorphosising from a student into… well, a non-student, I realized life had come to another standstill. Things were not really advancing as fast as I hoped. I’m pretty good at noticing when things aren’t going the way I want them to.
I’ll admit that life is never perfect and there’s always something that could be better. But some of life’s deficiencies we decide to accept and live with, while others we really don’t want to do without. So, on the recommendation of somebody who has taught me a lot over the past few years, I decided to hire a life coach. Not knowing what to expect, I approached the spending of money on a phone call with caution. But having gone through a few weeks of the program by now, I thought I’d share with you some pretty cool things I’ve been learning. Read the rest of this entry »
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