Cory Miller | Adventures in Entrepreneurship

How To Make Money with WordPress Webinar

Cory Miller — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:52:18 +0000

WordPress is an amazing piece of open source software with a huge community behind it. As with that comes opportunity to use it to make money (in the right way).

For the past 6+ years, I’ve been using WordPress in a number of ways to make money personally and build my personal brand and an audience. Of course, the last four years we’ve been building an entire company based on it — with over 180+ professional themes and plugins and over 350+ hours of on-demand WordPress web design training.

I recently gave a talk to a local group on this subject and wanted to share it also for the benefit of our community via a free webinar on Wednesday, May 23 at noon central standard time.

In this webinar, I will talk about the four categories of making money with WordPress and offer 5 tips for making money with it from my experience working in the community as well as starting iThemes.

By the way, this talk and presentation could easily be applied to other open source software projects — not just WordPress.

How to Make Money with WordPress: Free Webinar
Wednesday, May 23 at noon central standard time
Signup for the webinar here

My New Book: I Want To Hire You But Your Resume Sucks

Cory Miller — Mon, 14 May 2012 21:09:53 +0000

I just launched my new ebook called “I Want To Hire You But Your Resume Sucks,” filled with 30+ tips to get a job. It’s packed with things I’ve learned as both an employer and employee.

Here’s a snippet about what it’s about really ….

A resume is just piece of paper. But it’s also a brochure that sells your services to employers.

But the fact is: Most resumes suck.

Not because of the paper or even format, but because you haven’t done the work building the key areas employers look for to make it rock.

The statistics about those who are underemployed or unemployed are depressing.

I have some theories on why those stats exist. Namely, you aren’t ready for a real job.

You haven’t done the work to GET hired. But I want to help.

In “I Want To Hire You But Your Resume Sucks,” I give you 30+ tips for how to start doing the things that will make you an attractive free agent to prospective employers.

Warning: They will cost you mostly time and energy. But you should have a lot of that on your hands.

You can get this ebook for free by joining my new blog community at Purposeful Paychecks where I’m going to be talking about work-life alignment and offering blunt career advice.

My New Blog about Work-Life Alignment

Cory Miller — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:22:51 +0000

As I’ve looked back on my life, I have a couple of themes that I’m passionate about. And for the ones that rise to the top and that I can’t stop talking about or having an opinion on, I just start a blog around that topic.

For my passion of entrepreneurship and for helping people start businesses, I started Startup Sofa. It’s been around for over a year now and I still blog on it about once a month.

But one other passion (and theme of my life) that I just couldn’t shake was about work. About work-life alignment. And my core value, philosophy or whatever you want to call it that work should be about the profitable pursuit of fulfilling your purpose while following your passions.

Plus my post on How to Be a Professional is consistently by far the most visited post on the Startup Sofa blog. And I needed an outlet for all this that went beyond entrepreneurship.

So with the help of my wife Lindsey we came up with a name for this new blog called Purposeful Paychecks.

I just did my first post on this new career advice blog … and have also had an ebook titled “I Want To Hire You … but Your Resume Sucks” in the works for a couple of months now.

I figure by announcing the blog it’ll give me the momentum or accountability to finish it (it’s not over 6000 words).

But I have much to say (I think) on this subject of finding meaningful work and I’m eager to share it. So go signup for the community email at Purposeful Paychecks today.

How to Get Paid Well To Do What You Love: Free Ebook

Cory Miller — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:58:48 +0000

My post on How to be a Professional has been by far the most popular post at Startup Sofa.

So I thought I’d expand on that after getting asked to speak to high school students at our local career tech recently and repurpose for you in ebook form (there’s the slideshow below too).

I’ve got five basic keys to share that I believe if you do these things, you’ll be successful in your WORK, whether you go to work for someone else or start your own business.

[ DOWNLOAD THE FREE PDF EBOOK ON GETTING PAID WELL TO DO WHAT YOU LOVE HERE ]

The Short & Sweet Slides Version

View more presentations from Cory Miller

What’s Holding Back Your Entrepreneurial Dreams?

Cory Miller — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:30:39 +0000

As part of my StartupSofa blog where I try to offer resources to budding entrepreneurs, I’ve just released a survey to see where you are in the entrepreneurial adventure.

If you’re looking to start a business, or already doing one part-time (or heck even full-time), please take 30 seconds to fill this out survey so I can better serve you.

The StartupSofa Entrepreneurial Survey

Our Plan to Invest in You This Year

Cory Miller — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:25:21 +0000

I’ve just rolled out our LifeDev plans as part of our Make Waves Manifestos at iThemes today.

It is our way to invest in you — our community and our team. It is one way for us to give back and give of ourselves and I hope you will join us in doing so.

Throughout the year (or next 10 months), we’ll be rolling out training through webinars and blog posts on certain life themes I feel have been instrumental in my life and helping me maintain happy and health relationships.

These are the things I’ve gathered over a lifetime of seeking to learn and grow and improve my life. As such I’m championing this endeavor for iThemes but will be recruiting guest experts to come and share with us.

My goal is to have 200 people signed up … but I think maybe I was thinking too small now.

The commitment to be a part of LifeDev is pretty small honestly. We want you to commit to read one book a month (either from our list or your own); share what you are learning with someone else; and report back to us how you’re growing (so we can measure the impact we’re hoping to make).

It doesn’t cost a thing. It’s our gift to you. But it will cost you time and energy, but it’ll be well worth it!

All in all, there are 6 ‘Make Waves’ Manifestos for us this year … and LifeDev is just one. You can learn about the others on the MakeWaves2012.com site (and be sure to sign up for others that resonate with you).

But in the meantime, I hope you’ll join us for LifeDev this year and let us invest in you and your success!

7 Keys to Successful Business Websites: Free Webinar

Cory Miller — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:46:09 +0000

Websites are the best, most affordable, yet underused marketing tool for small businesses.

But sadly few businesses understand how to utilize these powerful, measurable marketing vehicles for their businesses.

At Made by Wheat, our professional web design services company, we’re doing a special educational workshop on Feb. 23 titled “7 Keys to Successful Business Websites.”

In this free webinar you’ll learn how to:

Get a Website You Can Control
Start Talking to Google
Get Blogging
Help Customers Easily Contact You
Build a Following
Motivate Actions
Evaluate and Refine Your Website for Maximum Impact

Signup for this special workshop led by myself and Ty Carlson of Made by Wheat here:

7 Keys to Successful Business Websites
Thursday, Feb. 23 at Noon Central Standard Time
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/227459018

Score One for Web Freedom

Cory Miller — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:13:43 +0000

The good news is … SOPA and PIPA have been delayed by the House and Senate.

The bad news is … they will come back with brand new clothes, a shiny new name, and more teeth soon. In fact, they could come back with a venegeance because of the forces behind them.

Millions of people rallied together to tell those who represent us that we will fight to protect our freedom on the Web — the greatest communications tool ever invented.

These are historic times. People coming together to present a unified voice. I am inspired. I think we all are.

The protests were billed as the largest online protests in history with sites blacking out. WOW!

I know this for a fact though: People will come together only when something seeks to destroy what they hold dear.

SOPA and PIPA did that for those of us who enjoy, respect and cherish our web freedom. It rallied us all together.

But the fight is not over.

YOU, like us, must be ready to let your voice be heard …. and the power of your vote known to those who represent us. The message must be clear:

Seek to take away our web freedoms by legislating crappy bills, and we’re going to put you on the unemployment line.

Looking at these numbers … I think some people in Washington started to take notice.

We can and we will vote them straight out of office. So I hope the lobbyists helping to create these flawed bills have a job open for them when that happens.

So this week is an epic week, a historic week … one we cannot forget. They will simply wait for our fervor to die down, and sneak something sleazy in again.

We must be ready for the next wave.

In the meantime, here’s a quick thought for the industries who have sought to buy (I mean “lobby”) the votes to get this legislation created and passed:

Instead of protecting your once cash cow, now withering business models and spending millions of dollars to legislate it back to relevance … HOW ABOUT REINVENTING IT INSTEAD?!

Make [whatever you produce] BETTER for the world. Not just your pocketbook.

Think about value instead of how fat your vault is.

For examples, please look to iTunes for the music industry. Netflix for the video rental industry. And Google for the entire advertising industry.

If you don’t … we’ll continue to vote you out of business with our pocketbooks … and as you recently saw, the people who represent you.

The Entrepreneurial Adventure Book is Here!

Cory Miller — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:24:58 +0000

In 2008 I started my entrepreneurial journey with the founding of iThemes. This month, in fact, is my four year anniversary of becoming a full-time entrepreneur and living my lifelong dream.

Throughout the years as we’ve enjoyed our definition of success and others have seen it, I’ve been increasingly asked by friends and acquaintances about how they can get started in entrepreneurship.

Thus, I started StartupSofa to be an online resource for budding entrepreneurs, done talks, webinars and workshops, and now am proud to release a short book called “The Entrepreneurial Adventure: Is It For You?”

Entrepreneurship is an adventure — a long, arduous journey like climbing one of the world’s highest mountains. As such budding entrepreneurs should know the risks involved, what an entrepreneur does for the world and ask themselves some tough questions before starting on the journey.

In this book I share my experiences as a startup entrepreneur and offer advice on aligning your life’s passions and purpose, and how to prepare for the entrepreneurial climb.

It’s short enough to read in less than an hour, but I’ve packed with lessons I’ve learned and resources I’ve found extremely helpful for starting a business.

In this book, you’ll …

Learn how a compelling vision of the future helps keep the right motivations aligned
Realize the risks and rewards of being an entrepreneur
Be challenged with essential questions to unearth your life’s passions and purpose
Understand what an entrepreneurship does for the world
Get tips for starting a business without risking everything
Find a blueprint of essential books and resources to prepare you for your entrepreneurial journey

If you’re an aspiring or budding entrepreneur, this book is for you.

Here’s how to get the book:

Purchase it in the Kindle Store
Signup for this email newsletter (or be an iThemes customer!)
(Coming Soon! In print)

Here’s to those daring and ready for the entrepreneurial journey!

Creative Services to Offer Custom WordPress Design

Cory Miller — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:26:19 +0000

I’m pleased to announce our new web design services division named Creative Services by iThemes and led by our newest team member Ty Carlson.

I began my entrepreneurial journey first as a freelance web designer in WordPress before I started iThemes full-time in January 2008 (and still get random requests for custom work which I don’t do anymore).

As such we’ve endeavored to build tools and offer training to help others become web designers and build high-quality sites for their clients.

I continue to be amazed at the opportunities for good, quality web designers all over the world, but none of us should be amazed at it. (Google with over 30,000 people and almost $30 billion in revenue didn’t even exist 15 years ago!)

Dependable and able designers and developers are hot commodities right now. There is more work than able and/or available people to do it!

Through our Creative Services division, we want to serve a different and unique kind of client who doesn’t fit our iThemes “ideal” customer, but wants more custom, hands-on consulting and design services.

Often I say that iThemes is like the Home Depot of web design. You come to our store, pick out the tools and templates you want to use and you do-it-yourself. We offer a great support forum backed by knowledgable and helpful moderators, but ultimately, you build your sites yourself.

Made by Wheat will serve customers who want to pay someone else to just do it for them.

So with this introduction, I wanted to offer some details about Made by Wheat and what you can expect.

WHAT IS CREATIVE SERVICES BY ITHEMES EXACTLY?

It is a team (or company within a company) we started to offer custom, high-quality web design services using and showcasing all of our products — from iThemes Builder to BackupBuddy and everything in between.

It is led by Ty Carlson, a veteran web designer / developer from Oklahoma City.

This is our custom services division. We will work hard to keep the brands separate, except for showing off work done through it that illustrate what you can do with our products. Made by Wheat will market and find its own clients.

WHY ARE WE DOING IT?

We decided to push forward with this for a number of reasons, including:

1. To give our customers what they have been asking for – which is custom services for our products, primarily, iThemes Builder. We’ve long had a services page on iThemes and have gotten an increasingly large volume of requests, but to date have been referring to other outlets. We will continue to refer most of those services out to others, but this will give us an outlet for custom sites. And we’ve actually done client services before. Almost two years ago, we were doing all client work through WebDesign.com before we unveiled our training membership. We ultimately shut that down as it was bad timing on our part.

2. To be a showcase for our products – We want to show what’s possible with our products through our services division, in particular, iThemes Builder. You can see Ty’s work on my personal site here at CoryMiller.com, built with iThemes Builder.

3. To be a shining example of how a custom web design shop can be run – I anticipate us using the things we’re learning, almost every day, with this team through our WebDesign.com training division and other venues. As such, it will serve to be an actual R&D lab. My hope is we can share tips, tricks, ideas, trends and more to our community.

4. To give input to our dev teams on how to make our products better – having a custom shop in our company allows our dev teams from iThemes and PluginBuddy to hear from and see how the Made by Wheat team is using it, what needs to be improved, and what gaps we have in our product offering.

***

There’s a little bit about Creative Services by iThemes.