Reading recommendation: 279 days to overnight success

I quite enjoyed reading 279 days to overnight success by Chris Guillebau. It's a useful guide to people that want to earn their income from blogging. And if this is not your aim (as is the case with yours truly) it contains some useful ideas that apply to many fields from writing to building online businesses. Here's a few ideabytes that I took the liberty of elaborating on:


Instead of targeting the 'general audience' choose a specific niche instead. Or even better - create a totally new niche.


Quantity begets quality. Chris recommends to write a thousand words a day, if writing is where you earn or want to earn your main income. If not, the same principle applies. Some successful salespeople focus on making a certain numbers calls or client visits per day, no matter what. This 'input metric' is a hundred percent under your control and if you reach it every day then not only do you probably reach your 'output metric', whatever it is, but you'll also get closer to Malcolm Cladwell's 10.000 hours.


Spend as much on marketing as you do on writing. Again, this is true no matter what you do. Unless you work in marketing, because you'll probably get fired if you only work half the time.

Keeping track of my favourite wall in Shoreditch

This wonderwall near my home is a good example of immaterial benefits of living in East London. This was before.


Then one morning late last summer it had been replaced by this:


And now it's this:



This clearly outweighs having to dodge armies of pissed people on weekends and streets filled with kebab wrappers, no?

No frills, and no thanks to Ryanair

Last week I had the opportunity to experience two very different no frills concepts. First was Riders Palace, a snow hotel in Laax, Switzerland. The owners obviously know what's important for boarders who travel without kids - a bed, a good shower, proximity to ski lifts, a lobby bar. Period. There's no real need for a telephone, 24H room service, minibar, TV or horrible kitsch art on the walls as you'll anyway be sleeping the whole time you're in your room. It cost less than 160 pounds for three night including a three-day ski pass. And it's cool, using only concrete, wood and glass as materials. Brilliant, if not no-frills chic.

I also experienced a Ryanair flight to Friedrikschafen that cost less than a hundred pound on paper and 200 pounds when including luggage, payment fee and a 10-pound online check-in fee. The total price and first two extra items are reasonable but the last is tricky to categorize under "no frills" as you just can't board a plane without checking in. Anyway, I had forgotten to check in and had to do it at the airport. My bad, and I kind of understand I had to pay 20 pounds extra to check in at the airport without being refunded the 10 pounds I had paid for online check-in. This is according to our terms and conditions as a lady trying to get a queue of people like me organized explained to me in a bored manner. But I also lost my right to check in online for the return leg and had to pay another 20 euros extra on the way back to London. Also brilliant, but in a very different way. In a way where you think: gosh, they must have a team of lawyers and extremely creative product managers to figure out more ways to fuck your wallet in the ass, no lube. (Mom, I only use this kind of language when talking about Ryanair, I promise). What's next after charging for using toilets? Charging for life jackets under your seat and pilots that have had their eye-sight checked in the last 24 months? Despite loving low airfares (and 200 pounds for a 2-hour flight is not that cheap, is it?) I guess I have to say no to the thrills and chills of flying Ryanair in the future. If you ever fly them, make sure you don't forget to check in beforehand.

Obama, I know how to save your country

When over at California two weeks ago, I couldn't help but notice what an incredible opportunity this financial crisis-ridden country has missed. The answer lies in TV, or rather geniuses whose ideas local channels so kindly mediated.

They have these wonderful programs and books that are _guaranteed_ to work. Take the real estate program that makes anyone rich even without putting in any personal money. One doesn't even need to leave the house. And your credit rating can be as bad as the songs of Eurovision.

Who needs a trillion dollar rescue package when you can a book for each American for 29.95? (19.95 if Obama acts right now.) Once that's done, buy every citizen the lactose and gluten free diet program that will solve every health issue. And there's still money left over from the trillion dollar purse for wars and foreign aid!

It's really a shame I haven't had a TV for eight years and I can only be enlightened when staying at hotels.