Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Open Letter For The Newly Unemployed, From a Blogger

March 13, 2009 | Life & Mindset

The current economic turmoil is affecting some people more than others. For many, life hasn’t changed that much but the mood is different because of all the bad news circulating on TV (which I recommend you ignore, BTW). For others, it is all too real because they may have recently lost their jobs.

It is to those who recently lost their jobs that I direct this open letter. If you’re not in that club, there is a lesson here for you as well.

lostjob If you happen upon this site, then you probably realize that I am a blogger. This is what I do for a living. I use blogs as huge attention grabbers and I then make offers and sell things. That’s how I pay my bills and how I support my family.

Technically, I’m unemployed. Whenever I fill out some application that asks for the name of my employer, I pause and wonder what to put. Myself? The name of my company? Leave it blank? However, my income certainly isn’t that of the unemployed. I’m doing fine. The recession, for me, is a motivator and not something to fear.

There is no doubt that losing your job throws a humongous sense of insecurity into your life. You may begin collecting unemployment, but you know that doesn’t last forever. Eventually, you’re going to need to do something else. You’ll either need to go find a new job or start doing something else.

Even if it doesn’t seem that way right now, trust me when I say one thing: Losing your job may be the best thing that ever happened to you. A blessing in disguise.

You now have an opportunity to pursue other lines of business. What’s more, if you are able to get unemployment, you actually have the chance to be paid while you do this. However, do NOT sit around! Don’t take the forced time off and start watching TV and wasting your time. You are now staring at the opportunity of a lifetime. You can begin your road into being an entrepreneur and you have all day to work on it.

I have a lot of readers of this blog who would love to make their living on the Internet full-time, but they are limited in their time because they have an existing 9-to-5 job. If you don’t have a regular job anymore, you are now free to pursue this with full vigor.

You might ask whether blogging is for you. I cannot answer that for you. If you like to write and you have a lot to say, then I say go for it. I am expecting to see a new wave of great bloggers come onto the scene as a result of this recession. You can be one of them.

Even if you choose not to be a blogger, the Internet represents a FANTASTIC opportunity to make a good living from home. You won’t need to answer to a boss. You will make your own decisions. And you’ll never have to worry about getting laid off. Besides, I think internet business is going to expand despite this recession.

So, the way I see it, you have three options:

  1. Use this time as a paid vacation. Sit on your butt. Accomplish nothing. Then, be in a rush to find work in an uncertain economy once your unemployment runs dry. Or sit there with your hands out and be a leech on others who actually bothered to do something with their lives.
  2. Go out and look for work immediately. This is what responsible people will do, however realize that the end result isn’t really that much different than what you had in your prior job. It means a paycheck, but it can disappear at any time and that decision remains somebody else’s.
  3. Start heavily into your personal development and begin developing your own new business, where you are the boss and you contribute to society as an entrepreneur. This might be the path least traveled, but it doesn’t make it the worse path. In my eyes, this is the best path. At the end of this path, you have a higher likelihood of having replaced your lost income as well as having learned new skills which now make you self-sufficient so that you never have to go through this again.

This blog is aimed at the people who choose #3.

I hope to have you as a reader.

When this recession comes to an end, things will look different. Markets will shift. Wealth will shift. And you will have some people on top of the heap and a whole bunch of others beneath them. This is the way it works, despite what some political philosophies may preach. Where you are in that heap depends on what you do here and now. Recessions and lost jobs are not times where you sit and be depressed. They are not times to sit and leave everything to chance and hope. They are times to bust ass. They are times to take action.

The choice is your’s.

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  • David,

    You are spot on. Losing your job is not really the end of something, it is only the beginning. You're probably aware that the newspaper industry has been in freefall the past couple of years or more, as it has been losing readers to the Internet, blogs, etc. Well, it finally caught up with me. After bemoaning my fate for a week or so it suddenly occurred to me that a huge opportunity was staring me in the face.

    Long story short, I'm now running my own website and having the time of my life (and supporting myself to boot)!

    Bottom line: The world is your oyster!

    Mark
  • Yet again David you have provided a great post which inspires people to achieve more. My dream is to, one day, be able to work for myself and have the freedom to be the instigator and sole decision maker towards my own success.

    Each post is insightful and anybody looking to make a success online needs to take note of what you are saying and become a regular reader of your content.

    Thanks,
    Darren
  • This is a great letter, many people need to realize there are other things they can do other than work a 9-5. Great insight.
  • Hey David

    I can't remember how I came across your blog, but it was at the same time I became unemployed mid Feb.
    It's been a real inspiration, and you're right, a time to actually put some hard work in and make something happen for myself, which is what I've been doing... although I think my Fiance' would like to see me out of my home office a little more, but she understands the need for it at the moment.

    I enjoyed developing websites in my spare time, so this has filled the gap up to now... but your Holiday Cruise Report really got me thinking, so I'm moving down the route now of making an income through blogging and selling what I do best, the information I know, that others would want to know!

    Thanks again, your blog is a great read and looking forward
    to seeing what your new project is all about, I'm intrigued!

    Cheers!
  • That is so true. There's no use over wallowing over your miseries. Take positive action and make use of your available resources. Life is short to be wasting it.:)
  • Great post sir! I wish there were more people that fell into the category #3, of course that might mean more competition for me. But I doubt it. There are too many #1 and #2 people around to worry about that.

    As for you never knowing what to put down, shouldn't you have a corporation set up with a cool name so you can put that down as your employer?
  • David,

    Many people all over the world are either facing the prospect of unemployment at the moment or will be facing that prospect during the next year or two, and the above discussion will be most certainly relevant to many of those people.

    Personally, I myself will be facing the prospect what may be a reasonably lengthy period of unemployment after the expiration of my current employment contract in August. Accordingly, I am currently trying to develop and grow my blog in order so that it can provide at least a small amount of income to help me through this period, and then provide a handy second income thereon after.

    Even for those whose position is not under immediate threat, I feel that it is important for employees to look toward ways of developing a handy second income in order to be better prepared in the unfortunate event that their position does not remain secure.

    Don't wait for it to rain - build your umbrella now.

    Nevertheless, I would point out one point of caution with respect to your discussion above.

    Whilst periods of unemployment may well provide an opportunity to develop a home based business, a considerable degree of time is likely to pass before such ventures can earn a substantial degree of income. Accordingly, whilst the development of some form of enterprise may well represent a proactive approach, I feel that it is important not to neglect any possibilities for new employment within one's current occupation or field in the process.

    Also, even if you decide to go full time on the new venture, I feel that it is important to stay up-to-date and maintain skills in one's former profession as much as possible so as to have something to full back on in the event that the new venture does not meet with the anticipated level of success.
  • Christi Wharton
    David,

    Thanks for this post and all of your posts. I lost my job last December. Thanks to you and the encouragement you offer on this blog, I am now blogging and working to make things happen for myself. Thanks!
  • Trenia
    Thank you for this awesome post. I received my 60day notice about a week ago. I am in no way SAD at all. I do see it as an opportunity. I have been in the process of planning to start a business for the last year and a half. I had to pay off all debt first except for the home (accomplished 11/14/2008). I am married, so I do have that extra income. I will definitely use this as a time to launch my business and take my life into my own hands.
  • This post was great. People that do not have a job any more should take the opportunity and try to make money doing something else. There are plenty of things you can do on the Internet and one of them is blogging.
  • David,

    What an awesome post! I was lucky enough to leave the corporate world by choice, but I see many people around me who are either in constant fear of losing their jobs, or have lost their jobs and have no idea what to do.

    I think one of the biggest things that motivates people like you and me is compassion. We see that there is so much potential for average people to not only survive, but prosper through internet marketing and blogging.

    I think you're doing a great job of showing people that this is indeed possible. Well done!
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