In Part One of the series, How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas, I said:

This is the start of a series of posts I will be doing that essentially shows you how to be me – no, that’s not quite right. How to do what I do – no, that’s not it either. How to do what YOU do, but how to do it in a way that is similar to what I do.

In Part Two, I’ll be explaining this concept in more detail.

How To Be Me By Being You

I also mentioned in Part One, that:

By the time you finish this series of posts, hopefully, you will have figured out both WHAT to do to make a living in your pajamas, as well as HOW to do it.

This is where we define the WHAT of your new career. What you choose to do online to make money is completely dependent upon you and your skills, interests, and talents. You probably can’t do EXACTLY what I do, because your skills, interests, and talents are very likely not the same as mine. So the first thing you need to do is determine what those skills, interests, and talents are.

If I were only speaking to one of you, and I knew you personally, I could probably throw out some ideas that might mesh very tightly with what would work specifically for you. But since that’s not the case, let me throw out a wide-ranging mix of ideas just to show you how to get started on thinking about this.

Many of you probably think to yourselves, “I don’t really have any skills, interests, or talents that would make me any money on the Internet”. I’m here to tell you that you are 99.9% likely to be wrong. (I do have to assume that there might be a very slight chance that there is at least one person out in the world who really doesn’t have any skills, interests, or talents that could make them money on the Internet, but I highly doubt it).

You would be amazed at the things that can be turned into a profit. Of course, some things are capable of making more money than other things, but we’re not concerned with that at the moment. First, think about the things that interest you.

• What kind of magazine would you be most likely to pick up at a news stand? What’s that topic about? Do you know much about the topic?
• What kind of products do you most enjoy buying at a department store? Clothing? Jewelry? Makeup? Shoes? Tools? Electronics? Toys?
• What kind of music do you listen to?
• What kind of activities do you participate in? Sports? Hiking? Swimming? Bowling? Board games at home? TV-watching couch potato? Gamer?
• What do you know a lot about? Maybe you know a lot about TV reality shows. Or maybe you’ve watched every episode of a soap opera for the last 30 years. Or maybe you can name every type of fish that lives in the waters in your area. Maybe you’re good at juggling the bills each month because you always owe more than you can pay.
• What do you chat about with your friends? Politics? News? Kids? Family life? Sports? TV?
• What types of things do friends and family ask you for advice? How to fix something? How to cook something? How to….?
• What business or social groups are you a member of? What is the primary interest of those groups?
• What do you currently do for a living? What do you know about that job position?
• Do you have any talents at all? Are you musically inclined? Are you good at a sport? Can you juggle? Can you balance a coin on your nose? Do you make people laugh? Are you a good listener? Are you a good writer?

I could probably write an entire book just about this one subject – just asking you questions such as these. The answers to any of the above questions could potentially be a skill, interest, or talent that could enable you to make a living in your pajamas.

While there are an infinite number of ways to make money from the Internet, I’m only going to be focusing on one that I believe would be of benefit to the most people. Not everyone can create the next Google or MySpace, nor can everyone create and sell the next high-tech invention online. If you can do anything like that, go for it. But this series is aimed at the average person (like me) wanting to make a living from home, in their pajamas (like me).

So your first assignment is to determine the WHAT. Don’t concern yourself with how you’ll make money from the WHAT just yet. For now, just decide what it is you know best, or what it is you do best, or what it is that you have the most interest in. What can you share with others? What can you teach others? Even if it seems silly, consider it.

If you come up with several possible WHATs, list them all. You may end up wanting to utilize each of them in some way. But for now, list them and order them several different ways.

• List them in order by which ones you know the most about.
• Now list them in order by how many people in the world probably have the same interest.
• Now list them in order by how passionate you are about each one.

If any of the topics appear at the top of more than one of those lists, consider that to be your #1 WHAT. This is WHAT you’ll do to make a living in your pajamas.

Ready for Part Three?

The entire series of How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas:

• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part One (The Introduction)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Two (The WHAT)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Three (The DISCLAIMER)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Four (The Domain Name)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Five (The Hosting Plan)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Six (Installing WordPress)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Seven (Your WordPress Theme)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Eight (Your Blogging Voice)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Nine (Making Money)
• How To Make a Living in Your Pajamas – Part Ten (The Summary)