Hi all! Coming back around to this thread, which has been so full of great ideas and inspiration.

I have been exploring the Puttylike site more deeply and read a sample chapter of Emilie's book, Renaissance Business. I am definitely a scanner/multipotentialite, and I very much liked what she had to say, but $49.99 is steep for an eBook. I am surprised she's priced it that way. Even for $19.99 or $24.99 I might go for it, but $49.99 . . . has anyone read it?

From the sample chapter, I did get a good idea which is for someone who has diverse (sometimes wildly diverse) interests, it's good to choose an overarching theme for a business rather than a narrow focus. So my gluten free blog? I lost interest (unsurprisingly) in relatively short order. Same with another blog I started. But with an overarching focus, one can go in many directions and still "fit" into the business. So I might be doing some soul-searching about what that overarching focus could be, and right now I'm thinking it might have something to do with learning. The first blog I started, actually, about being frugal and green, might be broad enough, but I have to commit to doing at least SOMETHING with it.

I also liked the idea of an accountability group (did he call it "mastermind group?") from Zero Hour Workweek. Basically it is a few people who agree to get together and keep each other on the straight and narrow, doing high leverage activities like creating (as he says, "not checking e-mail or blog stats all day".) I am still very interested in the topics of my first two blogs I started up, but I don't populate them. I could have TONS to put on either of them, but I don't - I mean, look at how much I post here, and about 90% of it is about being frugal and green. Tons of possibilities. Perhaps something like this - even if I got my DH started posting! - could make a difference.

And the one that I can't quite get my head around how this idea works yet . . . in Zero Hour Workweek, he says that monetizing blogs as THE way to make money is the biggest mistake most bloggers make. That it's in publishing excellent, authentic and WANTED content, which leads to other moneymakers like eBooks and ____? Like I said, not quite understanding it. But I can see where to make a decent amount of money from ads is quite difficult.

Lots to mull over.

I do feel reassured by something else in Emilie's book: building a business takes time. And effort. (I'm not really putting in the effort, to be honest. So no wonder nothing has happened). Other books, like Making a Living Without a Job (which don't get me wrong, I LOVE) propose just DOING IT . . . quitting your day job and going for it. Not gonna happen in this house. So I guess it was good to read, ok, it's alright to take some time doing it . . . but DO IT.

How's it going for others? It's been a while since much action on this thread . . . do we have some new business ventures? Or lessons learned? I really appreciate all the expertise that's flowed on the thread so far. Happy new year, all!