When I started this blog, my intention was to create a business that I can run from anywhere in the world. Although I am not quite there yet, I have made a lot of headway. Recently though, I have been facinated by social media and the Facebook and Twitter phenomina I find that I have been spending more of my time trying to understand this avenue and less to my real estate ventures.

To that end, I have decided to change the focus of this blog away from real estate and more towards internet marketing and social media.  I see more potential here to meet my goals.

I will still post about real estate issues, just not as frequently (as if I post frequently at all). I am also hoping that because of my strong interest in the medium, it will dicipline me to post more content. We’ll see.

So here is the gameplan for 2009:

1) Posting the series I had planned on how I got my first rental property.

2) Posting my progress on what I am doing to get my second property.

3) Posting some cool stuff on Internet Marketing, including stuff I am learning from my membership in The Immediate Edge and 30 Day Challenge Plus.

4) Posting other things I find in my journey, including articles on Freelancing and Entrepreneurship, 4HWW, and Life Hacks.

Although I will probably not post every day, I will try to post more frequently.

My next hurdle is to refinance the house before my $110K baloon is due in December. In today’s tight credit market, I am worried all available cash has dried up. I have a very good relationship with my banker, but it can only go so far.

Once that is done, it’s on to find my next deal.

I will compose and post my first entry in the series on my rental in the next few days.

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Turns out the answer is a resounding YES! If you have expertise in any subject, chances are very likely that there is a need for that expertise. The Internet allows you to reach a broad audience who would be willing to pay you for your knowledge.

For example, let’s stay on the theme of languages; there is a site called VerbalPlanet who’s sole purpose is to help you learn a foreign language. If you are fluent in a particular language, you can sign up to be a tutor. Payments can be handled via PayPal. You have the freedom to set your own hours, and price.

There are also sites for general subject matter experts. For example, Ether, allows you to set up a phone number that you can publish and market. People then call you based on the hours you set and pay you for your knowledge. Two other sites that operate in a similar fashion are BitWine and SkypePrime. I also found a site called Jyve, but they seem to be down for the time being.

As you can see, your specialized knowledge could be your path to a second income, or perhaps a location independent lifestyle.

But I will let you in on the real secret of my success and it is so simple to implement; yet I talk with other engineers on my team, and in fact other engineers I know, and they don’t do it at all.

After every customer interaction, whether I was on site or on the phone, I send an email to my customer that does the following:

1) Tell them it was a pleasure to work with them and that I was glad I was able to help them out.

2) Solicit feedback on the interaction.

#2 is the key. I tell them flat out that after every customer interaction, I send this email so that I can get valuable feedback – good and bad – on how the interaction went and what I can do to improve the way I support my customers in future interactions, and I thank them for their candid opinion.

It’s really that simple, yet so few people ever do it.

That feedback has been pure gold, and I have learned a lot from it.

Update: here is the link to the article from his site.

Update 2: Sorry the link no longer exists…

First, my wife had it in her head that the hall bathroom needed to be redecorated. So, she tore down all the wallpaper and left the rest to me. She wanted me to re-prep the walls for painting, and re-tile a section of the bathroom where the old vanity was standing to prepare for the new vanity.

So much for my weekends…

I mentioned in an earlier post how my daughter has begun driving. Well, we are now encountering the next milestone of growing up – the college visit. We started the trip last week, looking at the University of Georgia.  We then drove from Atlanta to Miami to visit the University of Miami. Finally, we went up to Orlando to visit Universal Studios for some fun (although we did take a side trip to Tampa to visit the university there as well).

Yes, I know; what kind of idiot spends the week of July 4th in the Florida heat…It actually was a fun trip. I try to make time for the kids, but scheduling is hard with my kids doing schoolwork and hanging out with friends and me with my job. Summer is a great time to re-connect.

Anyhow, one of the things I have been doing to move to an location independent lifestyle, is to teach myself web design. I found a phenomenal site called Skout that is just too good not to share… Those of you interested in Web Design should find this an indispensable resource; enjoy!