Robert Frost, American poet and writer of four Pulitzer Prizes, said, “By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve hours a day.” Imagine waking on Tuesday with same relaxed feeling you have on Saturday morning? What if you could lose the Monday morning blues, Hump Day Hangover and TGIF?

So many Americans are working for the weekend. Muddling through the 9-5, fighting the commute, punching a time clock, taking scheduled 30-minute lunches and two fifteen-minute breaks. Working for the weekend.

One of the greatest benefits you can achieve with your digital farm is FREEDOM. Freedom from the daily grind. Freedom to generate income at your convenience, from the location you choose. Freedom to develop your passion and make money doing it.

Entrepreneurs don’t wake up in the morning with ulcers because the boss is waiting. Digital Farmers wake with the satisfaction of knowing they are in control of the day. Take charge of your income, take charge of your time. Take control of your happiness, take control of your life. Wake up Tuesday with the same measure of satisfaction that you have on Saturday.

Have you given some thought to what area of expertise you can offer? Did you sit down and complete the assignment of finding out what you want to do? Are you finding yourself eager to start?

There are two essential first steps you’ll need to take in building your digital farm online. When you start a business, you dream of the money coming in and try real hard to keep the money from going out right? We see ourselves affording the lifestyle that allows us to work anywhere while making money. But we all know there will be some expenses when starting a business. What some of us know, is that beginning your digital farm doesn’t have to take a lot of money.We found the best solutions that won’t break your bank. Getting started can be really easy now that we’ve mapped it out for you.Here are two essential first steps that you’ll need to take in order for you to establish your digital farm online.

1. Buy a Domain Name - A domain name is the address of your website (your digital farm). Think of it as something similar to your street address. You have numbers on your home that identify where you live.
   

   However, it’s hard for us remember everyone’s physical address, so we give their home a name. We usually identify somebody’s home with statements like “the Crawford’s home” or “Mary’s house.” A domain name allows people to find you on the web. You’ll want to pick a name that can people can easily identify with and remember where to find you. Take the time to think of a great name.

You’ll need to purchase one from an accredited name registrar. There are many businesses on the web that sell names and you’ll usually pay a yearly fee. Some will charge more than others but one of the best domain name resellers on the web is GoDaddy.com.

How do I get a domain name? You can get a domain name for less than $10 per year. This is the lowest price on the web. Don’t let the price fool you, however, as their service can’t be beat either. When you’re ready to choose your domain name, head on over to GoDaddy and use their nice tool for finding the name you want. Remember to choose a name that most closely resembles your niche market. Think of something creative, something that will be easy for visitors to remember.

2. Purchase Monthly Hosting - Think of hosting as the the field, where you’ll be planting all of your crops. It’s the storage space where all you’re files will be kept. It will be the place where you’re database of names can be stored. Where your visitors will come to look at your goods and make purchases. This space is rented for a monthly fee.
   

   Again, there are many businesses out there that offer this service. One of the best and least expensive we know is HostGator.com. You can get a hosting account with them starting at just $4.95 per month for one domain. If you plan on going with multiple domains and making many websites, you can check out their multi-domain hosting packages too. They have a trusted reputation and offer a ton of stuff for your money.

I’ve covered two basic, yet essential steps you’ll need to take in order to get your digital farm started. For less than $100 per year, you can have your very own digital farm on the web. If you choose the companies listed above, you’ll also have the confidence that you’re in the right spot with your website.

It’s really quite easy to get started. Once you’ve arranged your domain name and hosting account, you have taken some very significant steps toward your goal of making money while working anywhere. Now you can begin thinking about cultivating your new land and planting seeds that will grow into fruitful yields.

When you grow up on a farm, you experience the direct link between your labor and your survival.  If you don’t work, your crops don’t mature and your animals cease to exist.  Farming is a grueling entrepreneurial enterprise.  Just a few centuries ago, the majority of the world’s population farmed and people traded for goods they did not produce.  Existence was subsistence.  Unless one were in trading, manufacturing, mining or business.

A few weeks ago, a friend and I were discussing all of the people we knew who had acquired real wealth in their lifetime.   She observed that they all had their own businesses.  None of them were employed by someone else. Some of the “nouveau riche” had the good fortune to have had family members invest in their business adventure but the majority had simply started something small and had grown it into a successful business.  One fellow we knew started an indoor plant care and watering business.  In the early years, he pruned, planted, hauled and handled all of the houseplants himself.  Now, he has four different locations with 53 employees.

“You never get rich working for someone else,” she said, “All of your effort to grow the business goes into someone else’s pocket. You’ve got to invest your time, money and energy into yourself.”

You can’t turn back time but you can start investing in yourself right now.  You can begin by looking at what it is that you are really good at and what you love to do.  Think about the people who need and want what you do. This is your niche market.  What are those people watching and reading?  How can you let them know you are ready, willing and able to provide the product or service you love?  Tomorrow, I’ll write about some of the ways  you can use your computer to reach the people who need you the most.

Your assignment:  

• Set a timer for ten minutes.  
• In a notebook, write the things that you really love to do, the things you’re really good at, the things you’ll do even if no one wants you to do it.   
• When the timer goes off, stop writing.
• Set a timer for five minutes.
• On a new page, describe the people who would buy what you do. Write about publications they read, websites they’d visit, television shows they’d watch, where they’d meet friends. Any details.
• Stop writing when the timer goes off.

I grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Farm living is rigorous, to say the least. You live or die at the whim of Mother Nature. On top of that, farming is like the ultimate entrepreneurial existence. You have some land, plant some crops, raise some animals and hope you made the decisions that allows your family to survive — perhaps even thrive — for the coming year. If your decisions are poor or Mother Nature is particularly cruel, it can make for a tough existence.

I was quite young when I decided I would go to college and learn something that made life a little safer, more predictable and easier than feeding all of those animals in sub-zero temperatures. At the University of Wisconsin, I tried a lot of majors but ended up in broadcasting and digital media. And I fell in love with personal computers.

My first computer was an IBM-PC that cost $3000 with a processor that topped at a blinding 3MHz. I played HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and a text-based version of DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. I wrote screenplays on my PC. For the most part, it was a very expensive typewriter.But then, something amazing happened. I met a politician who wanted someone to database the names and addresses of all of the citizens in his city. And he was willing to pay well for it. So, evenings and weekends, my partner and I entered the 35,000 names into the computer. It was my first job as a “digital farmer.” My computer became my open field and I looked for the most profitable way to make money with it.

I moved from databasing and word processing to graphic design and then website design and now digital filmmaking and 3D animation. In much the same way one can choose to plant any number of things in the field, one can make money a lot of ways with a computer. It’s simply a matter of finding the people who need what you already know how to do.If you’re reading this blog, you either have a computer or access to one. The key to increasing your income is (literally) at your fingertips. The goal of this blog is to support you in finding how to get the most out of your digital farm.