My daughter can hardly speak, but because of her I finally made a crucial, career-changing decision that haunted me for months if not years. It’s about marketing myself and shifting my efforts from my own brand name to the websites I manage.
In short, I’m about to kill Jim Makos name. Sort of.
You see, having a personal brand name is cool. It’s exciting. It’s narcissistic. People get to know me better, my name is heard among conversations all over the world and I am recognized online. For me, it’s better to have a pen name rather using the real name.
And all of that will be gone when I am dead.
Now, that doesn’t matter to me at all. I’m not looking to leave a legacy behind.
The thing is that I have built a couple of websites, tailored to my hobbies and activities. I did that as I wanted to keep this blog more personal and also to build brand names that will stand the test of time and provide some income. I have websites for sports betting, finance, poker and other niches. What troubled me for a long time is this:
Should I be more active and write as Jim Makos, or should I promote other, non-personal websites more?
I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours considering the pros and cons of each.
On the other hand, though, I’d like to provide the best for my family, even when I’m gone. Although I’m still young at 36 (laughs) and shouldn’t spend my time on my heritage just yet, my daughter made me realize that I’m building a brand name on the sand. Like driving in a dead-end.
What happens to my blog when I’m gone? Surely, they can renew the domain fees and keep it alive. But there won’t be any posts by me, will there? And given I don’t have any advertisements in my personal blog, it got no revenue, no incoming stream of income.
My heirs will just burn money by maintaining my then-silent blog.
Now, building a personal brand name is super cool when you are looking to be hired. Remember when I told that you are being popular, your name is heard to every other corner of the planet? Well, yes, that helps you land freelance jobs. It’s excellent in that matter.
While people do hire me from time to time and I take part in all strange partnerships, by the time I’ll be lying on the ground I won’t be able to work anymore, will I? From the investing’s perspective of things, that will severely affect my daughter’s return-on-investment. With no more rewards and having all the risks of paying this blog’s costs, the risk/reward ratio will skyrocket.
How about building brand names that she can actually manage and provide herself a passive (if not active) income?
I am talking about by betting blog at BetStories.com, my financial blog at TradingGraphs.com, my newborn poker blog at PokerTape.com and other websites that my web publishing company at Weberience.com manages. All these projects can keep on working without me, as long as I teach others how to do it.
That won’t be difficult. Even if my daughter doesn’t have an interest in gambling (and I hope she doesn’t), she can still make some deals and hire freelance web developers, writers and editors to keep the wheels rolling. That would allow her to spend all of her time in things she likes and, most importantly, fund her ideas!
Imagine you had a passive income of one, two or three thousand euros/dollars/pounds for life. How less stressful would you be? How free would you feel to chase your dreams?
I am looking to provide that situation to her. I know it’s something I want now and I know most people dream of that.
And I came to realize that I won’t be able to offer that by building more on my personal brand name.
If I was still single, I probably would still struggle to find a solution I’d feel comfortable with. So, I owe it to Eva for this decision and for taking a huge weight off my shoulders.
And she doesn’t speak yet!
Thus, from now on most of my original blog and social sharing posts will go straight into other websites and channels. I will be linking to those posts from my personal social pages, of course, which would drive my readers to other websites. I’m not abandoning on my following. It would be crazy to do. You all have made my voice louder. Just, expect more random stuff in my social streams and a lot more links to websites other than this personal blog.
It’s still my voice heard after all.
Also, don’t forget my recent marketing change that happened in this blog. I am publishing ALL of my posts in this very blog, wherever they are originally posted. So, by subscribing with your email address, you’ll never miss a post of mine, even if you don’t follow my other websites or like my partners.
Know this, though: if I suddenly die tomorrow, this blog and my social media profiles will be dead. You can support me in the after-life by and I will make sure you will be treated well when you join me.
