Today, I am excited to have Pete McPherson on this podcast. He is the owner of doyouevenblog.com, and he shows people how to make money online. Like Pete, you can be successfully unemployed.
How Pete Makes Money With His Online Busines (Blog)
Pete runs a blog, podcast, and YouTube channel.
The primary way he monetizes these platforms is through a private, membership community for creators who are looking for ways to make money through blogs and podcasts.
He is also a freelancer, but that has died down over the last six or twelve months.
Take us back to before when you had a job. Talk about what you were doing before and how you got into this business.
Pete has no skills that provide him an extra advantage over anyone else.
He didn’t know what he wanted to do for a living when he was younger. He got good grades and went to college for music, because he liked percussion.
He dropped his music major, based on suggestions from friends, counselors, and family. He majored in about five different subjects when he was in college, including music and Italian.
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The University of Georgia kicked him out for a semester to give him time to figure out what he wanted to do. When he went back after that semester off, he found sociology and he finished his undergraduate degree in that major in 2008.
After graduation, he applied for jobs and couldn’t find one, because of the economy.
He was living with his girlfriend at that time and after they broke up, he moved back in with his parents. He went to a mentor and asked him what he should do with his life. The gentleman said Pete should go into accounting.
Pete went back for a Master’s degree in accounting. He wanted to get a job, so he studied hard and got good grades. After he graduated, he passed the CPA exam.
He applied for a job and got an offer for an accounting position for $52,000. He thought he was going to be rich.
At the same time, Pete was engaged and was about to get married. He moved to Atlanta to take the job, working 75 hours a week right off the bat.
He made a lot of money and he didn’t love it, but he didn’t hate it either.
Pete and his wife moved out of the city into the suburbs, he bought a new car, bought a house, got a different job and continued to climb. His job was amazing, but he was bored.
Pete was getting more interested in online businesses, side hustles, and creative endeavors.
When he started at a new job, he and his boss worked to consolidate it. His job started at 40 hours a week and then went to 20 hours and then to 10 hours.
Pete started his first blog in 2009 or 2010 and then quit it to start another one. He took about five years off and then decided to start a personal finance blog. He made great connections during this time.
Two years after he started his most recent job, he talked to his wife about quitting his job. They had a child and his wife was expecting another one soon. He didn’t know what to do.
A year went by and eventually they decided to scale back his work, he would take a part-time job, they would downsize their house, and he would start blogging.
He found a job in Rome, Georgia and moved into his grandmother’s house, because her house was vacant. Pete quit his job in corporate America and started working at a startup. His salary was less than he was making before, but he had health benefits, and it was part-time.
Pete was laid off after one paycheck, after he moved his family an hour away. They had a little money saved up and decided to try to make the online stuff work. That was three and a half years ago.
Did you start your blog after you got laid off?
They slashed a bunch of expenses, sold his car, and lived mortgage free in his grandma’s house.
Pete tried to start a local marketing agency for about three or four months. He didn’t like having clients, so he put that aside to work online. The answer was a blog.
He started 40 or 50 blogs or online businesses since 2009. The one topic he would not allow himself to talk about was blogging itself, because he thought it had already been done.
He liked talking about digital marketing, so he called his friend Bobby and asked if he could talk about his online business. He reached out to other bloggers and asked them questions about how they made money from their blogs.
On April 15, 2017, Pete decided to turn it into a podcast.
If somebody wanted to get started making money online, what are the steps? Where should they start?
Step 1: Manage your expectations. There are people out there that will try to sell you on success. Don’t allow other people to get you riled up.
Step 2: It is still possible to make money online, but it is going to be harder than you expect. It will require you to be uncomfortable.
Step 3: Start. The only way to get better is to start now. Don’t wait. It will probably change and you will need to go through some bumps and errors, and you will make mistakes. As long as you don’t quit, you will figure it out.
Step 4: Start small and aim small. It is easier to start with a small snowball and watch it get bigger as it rolls downhill. Pete’s goal was to make $1.00 in his first month. Aim for sustainability or to cover expenses first.
Step 5: Reach out to other people and network. Meet and connect with more people and serve others. Don’t be afraid to reach out.
 Watch the Episode with Pete:
Is there anything we missed in getting started in online businesses?
Technology has gotten to a point where it is now easier than ever to get a Shopify store or a blog up and running online. However, it makes it harder to stand out, because it is more competitive than ever.
You need to produce unique content, do interesting research, share data, and do unique interviews. Being unique has never been more vital. Try and approach it from a point of standing out. Add value to people’s lives.
If you don’t stand out, you will be invisible.
A great way to stand out is through your personality. Be yourself and be authentic. Let your personality come out.
With having more time, and wanting to stay busy, how are you giving back to make the world or the people around you better?
Pete is spending more time with his family. It helps his wife and his kids.
If you were to go back to your younger self and give yourself advice, what would it be?
Start sooner. When you find something you are interested in, don’t stop.
Pete started blogging in 2009, and he was really interested in it and then he stopped.
What tools do you use in your business or life that make you better or more successful?
Pete recommends Text Expander. It allows you to set up shortcuts on your keyboard for any text you type a lot, like URLs or email addresses. It expands shortcuts into sentences or paragraphs.
LastPass is a password manager that Pete uses.
What is one piece of advice you would give someone who wants to be financially independent and successfully unemployed?
Fight the urge to conform to those around you.
Pete got funneled through life, because he didn’t know what he wanted to do until he was 33 years old.
His friends made fun of him, so he quit. He let how other people thought of him affect his life choices. Do your best to fight through that and do what you want to do.
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The Non-Fiction Book Pete Recommends for Us to Read
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F#&@, by Mark Manson
onlineimpact.co
How can listeners find you?
Challenge: email dustin@successfullyunemployed.co and copy pete@doyouevenblog.com; reach out and #takeaction
Website: doyouevenblog.com