Other Stuff

I spent the last four days in Portland attending the World Domination Summit (a congregation of people living remarkable lives in a conventional world). It’s my second time – immediately after the first one I attended (2013) I bought tickets for myself and my mother to return this year. Since I wrote a little about my experiences last year, I …

I scouted out Tattoo parlors today, determined to get a tattoo and catch up in the Unconventional Race (a scavenger hunt activity) but ran out of time before the Portland Spirit Cruise. I was going to post a long, brilliant, witty and insightful post about taking big risks, always choosing to participate, and why getting a tattoo just to win …

Recently this blog wandered into uncharted territory. I thought I knew something about blogging from a handful of earlier blogging failures. I had a plan and knew a lot about how to do things the right way, some of which I’ve implemented into Creativindie. But because it’s not my main business or a source of revenue, I’ve also been kind …

Most of the people I know who are working online are selling hot air. In other words, they fill people with hope, motivation and inspiration. They get them charged up and excited. They tell them “You can do anything you want, if you just BELIEVE in it!” They say, “Just follow your passion and the money will take care of …

I’m up to almost 10,000 signups on my email list – that’s a hefty amount, worthy of celebration. Except that, using MailChimp, I’m paying $80 a month, or $960 a year. I only send emails once a month or so, when I’ve finished some big project worthy of sharing or have a new book out. Also, so far I’ve been …

This weekend Portland will be taken over by around 3000 people leading unconventional lifestyles for the 4th annual World Domination Summit. If you’re attending, you may want to read my 8 Tips on Preparing for WDS. The official WDS website has lots of information about the schedule, activities and meetup, but my guess is more than half of the attendees …

You need to share interesting, valuable content on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and other social media sites. Pictures get liked, shared and retweeted more than any other content. But where can you find awesome pictures that are relevant to authors that you can share to gain more followers? Right here! I’m going through my book, Write, Format, Publish, Promote and using …

If you’ve read any of my articles on book cover design, you already know I don’t agree with the standard rules most indie authors keep reciting. They say stuff like: use bright, bold colors use big, clear fonts that can be read even as a thumbnail don’t use white covers because they disappear on Amazon Today I’d like to tackle …

I’ve used PayPal for about a decade, and since all my businesses are online, I figure I’ve paid about $20,000 in PayPal fees. Recently I opened a new account for my wife, linked to her bank account in Taiwan. It worked fine for a little while, then Taiwan decided it couldn’t let PayPal accounts be linked to just any bank …

This past month I’ve been thinking big and buying up online platforms related to publishing and book design. My little blog gets some traffic, and my book cover design business is doing fine – I just want to be a bigger player. A couple weeks ago I found a little blog network for indie authors – it had a website …