“Keep heat in your body by tightly packing all orifices with fiberglass insulation.”

– The Onion

I haven’t gone to a bar or club in roughly six weeks. It’s been one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made.

The last time I went out I spent $25 in gas, $5 on parking, and $10 on a cover charge. Because of some dispute at the door, I stood in the freezing cold for at least fifteen minutes. When finally I stepped in the club I was greeted with roughly three dudes to every girl. By midnight I was headed home to browse the web and get a good night’s sleep.

I basically spent $40 to realize that I was wasting my money.

Since that night I haven’t bothered going out. The holiday season is known for being a dudefest, and sub zero weather has removed whatever incentive might have remained.

This turned out to actually be a good thing.

In the past I used to go out twice a week. Because I don’t drink my total expenditure was usually $80. By not going out for six weeks I’ve save roughly $500.* It’s not a ton of money, but it is enough to cover a month’s rent.

What have you been doing instead?

I’ve spent my time focusing more on making money and hitting the gym. I’ve been free writing, studying Spanish, going to bed earlier, learning how to use video cameras, and I even took up playing video games. Basically everything that I’d have wanted to do anyway.

Since 30 Days To X target demographic seems is young men I’ll also answer the question that most readers will be wondering: If you aren’t going to bars where are you meeting women?

When i quit going out I was actually worried about this too. Traditionally winter sucks for any single man in the Midwest. Nightlife dies off and every girl gets a boyfriend. From December 1st until the middle of February it’s pretty much forever alone time.

The answer turned out to be really obvious. Go online.

In all seriousness, online dating in Iowa has, to the best of my knowledge, never really been a thing. I couldn’t think of a single guy I hang out with who uses dating sites. Likewise I can only think of three dudes who use Tinder. Stuff like that isn’t very popular around here. Or so I thought…

When my flaky client with the Adult Friend Finder knockoff hired me, I decided that I’d throw a up an actual profile on a legitimate dating site. My initial plan was to use it for trolling purposes, but I was quickly surprised to discover that there were a mountain of college girls with actual accounts. I even knew some of them in real life.

While I haven’t broken down the stats yet, I will say that its safe to assume that I’ve actually been doing better online than I have when I’d go out. From a financial perspective I’ve also seen tremendous gains. When I went out my initial investment was $40. That meant that there were nights when I’d pay $40 to go somewhere that was dead, infested with rednecks, have a fight erupt in it, or experience any number of other occurrences that put a damper on my night.

* The other $20 would have been spent on coat checks and tips.

“Items that I enjoy include but are not limited to: lakes, music, children, fertility, breakfast, walks, sexual intercourse, animals.”

– Craigslist Personal

I had a solid Craigslist lead. Writing fake profiles for an Adult Friend Finder type site. $100 a day, I could even get paid in Bitcoins if I wanted. It was a sweet deal and I was excited.

The guy bailed at the last second.

Just vanished.

Craigslist is actually a lot harder to find work on than I’d imagined. Half the jobs are obvious scams. The other half offer no pay. I have zero interest in writing for an “exciting” construction blog without getting paid.

However, my Craigslist adventures have taught me one very valuable lesson. Never write for free.

When I was in school I always heard about having to “pay your dues.” Unpaid and underpaid internships were, for whatever reason, considered normal. It was the experience that counted, not the money.

F*ck that.

If you want to write for free start a blog. I have 280 published posts. I had fun writing all of them. An article about dinosaur porn or sex might not be politically correct, but it will get far more attention than a piece about carbon steel I beams.

Sit down and think of the last five articles that you voluntarily read. I bet that none of them were about innovations in the quick dry cement market.

When I write bland articles I get paid for them. They’re tedious to write and tedious to read. If there wasn’t money involved no one would publish them.

If you want to write for free, do it for yourself. Write about something that interests you.

“While money can’t buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.”

– Groucho Marx

According to a hasty Goggle search that I conducted, the cost of living in New York City is roughly 200% more expensive than it is in Iowa. Considering the fact that half a million will get you a mansion in my area, I assume that the price difference is actually a lot greater.

Of course there is a trade-off. While you can have a massive house and spend your days riding around on horses and shooting guns, there’s not a lot of other stuff to do. Most of the museums are pretty lacking and there aren’t a lot of quality ethnic restaurants. Also, outside of the school year, things are pretty dead.

My various business ventures are currently doing well enough that I can support myself. I plan on being on my own within the next month.

While I was originally planning on living in the states, I’ve decided to spend some time abroad. The place I’m going is cheaper than Iowa, and has a lot more to do. I’m excited to spend my days honing my boxing skills, and my evenings making money.

The weather is going to be nice, the food is some of the best in Latin America, and they have great beaches.

I’m pretty excited for my move and I’ll actually spend less than I do now.

“Common sense is not so common.”

– Voltaire

A long time ago I ended up on Seddit, Reddit’s message board about picking up girls. The posters were all arguing about nonsensical jargon. “If the HB12 IoI’s your sarge and he AA’s…” It read like a military handbook.

While I can’t speak from experience, I can almost guarantee that any guy who’s going out to “K-close,” is probably going to look a little dorky.

Two years ago I had no idea how a business worked. I thought you had to have a degree in order to run one. Every book I read or forum I looked at was filled with dudes throwing around terms like “synergy” or “Core Competency.”

Even when I had a job, that was a horrible era, I heard people throw around nonsense terms. “Our tiger team really moved the needle this quarter.” It was stupid.

In reality business is pretty simple. I probably could have run most of my current ventures when I was still in my early teens. Most of what I do is blatantly obvious. Here’s my basic guide to learning business:

Common sense and you

1. You’re going to need to offer something.

This blog is a hobby. It pays for itself, but that’s about it. In 2013 I made about $200 from 30 Days To X. That’s not enough to live on. Other than advice there isn’t much of a service that this site offers. While I plan to start selling consultations, this place is still just my hobby.

If you want to actually earn money you’ll need to have something worth buying. There has to be some kind of service. It could be anything from building dating profiles to selling eBooks.

2. You want to have a low investment cost.

Inventing a cure for cancer might be noble but it will never make you money. A medical degree, research facility, and government license are going to drive you bankrupt. In contrast, writing pornographic stories isn’t noble but turns a profit. A few hours of writing and a book cover are fairly small investments.

3. Start small.

When I launched my Fiverr business I got way to far ahead of myself. I made a ton of random gigs and tried running them all. It ended up being way too time consuming. I scaled back and only offered three services. They ended up making me just as much money and only took half the time.

A couple clients that I’ve worked for, or people that I’ve seen on forums, end up biting off way more than they can chew. They come up with a grandiose scheme that will “revolutionize” an industry that they haven’t even experienced yet.

4. Have an edge.

Recently I was cleaning out my room and found a massive garbage bag of video games. Flipping through them I realized that most of the games were pretty much identical sans a few minor features. Every one on them followed a similar template (i.e. shooting aliens, racing cars, sneaking around buildings) but had a unique gimmick. Burnout and Need For Speed are pretty much the same game, except one has an emphasis on crashing into things while the other is all about swerving to avoid other racers.

Subway and Jimmy John’s are basically the same concept. They’re both chain sandwich shops. However, Subway revolves around the gimmick of being healthy while Jimmy John’s main selling point is not tasting like an old shoe.*

5. Marketing.

Fun fact: I have never spent a dime on marketing of any kind. I haven’t even promoted my blog in a couple of months. As much as Internet marketing gurus like to talk about “link wheels” and SEO, content is all that matters. A horrible website, book, or physical business isn’t going to be around for long. While you can fool some of the people all the time, and that number seems to be growing, you’d be better off making a quality product.

Even when I do things like write books on cocktails and recipes, I still put in an effort. They aren’t subject’s I’m interested in, but other people buy them and have yet to complain.

If you have any additional suggestion, feel free to post a comment.

* Explanation for foreigners: Subway is really bland.

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

– Benjamin Franklin

I spent New Year’s Eve in bed writing.

By ten o’clock I was asleep.

It’s too cold to go out. Plus I’m moving shortly anyway, I need all the money I can get.

Spending a hundred bucks to go to a club is out of the budget.

This month I’m going into shut-in mode. Aside from hitting the gym and buying food I’ll be spending most of my time at home working. I want to set up as many small income streams as possible. Having a couple dozen ventures that each make me a few hundred dollars is my new goal.

As such I’ll be spending this month trying to make more money. I’ll be doing everything from affiliate marketing to figuring out Elance.

It’s not going to be the most exciting month, but I think it will be pretty productive.

My basic goals are as follows:

• Make over $250 from affiliate marketing

It’s a doable amount and it’s enough to cover my phone and Internet bill. I think I’ll be able to manage it.

• Make $500 off Elance

Right now I’ve been having some trouble getting jobs off the site. I’m hoping to change that and get my article writing services off the ground.

• Make $800 off Fiverr

With my other ventures going on, I’ll probably ease up a bit on Fiverr. I’m looking to transition more to Elance anyway. Despite this I’m still going to make money off the site. Fiverr is so easy that I’d be a fool not to use it.

• Make $250 off eBooks

I recently read an article about a woman who made enough off writing Bigfoot porn that she was able to pay for her kid’s college. I’m sure I can crank out enough $0.99 smut to earn $200.

• Make $250 off Craigslist

Craigslist isn’t just for discretely hooking up with transsexuals in the bathroom a Denny’s, it’s also a decent place to find random jobs. I’ve already gotten a couple gigs off it and I’m hoping to get a couple more.

If I end up reaching my goal I’ll make over two thousand dollars. Since January is the slowest business month of the year, it won’t be a bad haul.