This weekend I asked the readers on the TMBA mailing list if I could help them out with any business questions. To those of you who asked the questions below, I’m happy to continue the discussion with further resources, links, and perspectives in the public comments.

What you’ll find below is a bunch of stuff I learned after I started my own business. Had I know this stuff before I started, I’d be in better shape. Your results may vary.

In 2011 I helped generate over $30,000 in profits for our company by writing blog posts. If you think of my blogging efforts as an independent business, I’m tracking nicely with the 1000 day rule.

People often ask me for advice on how to build an effective social media brand, which is funny given how all this started. Some folks, who have listened to our first year of podcasts, have said: “man, it’s inspiring to hear you sound like shit…”

Kevin Kelly, who wrote one of the best books I have ever read, also wrote an influential article for bloggers and artists called “1000 True Fans.”

I read this post the other day. What a great blog! A few weeks ago, when I wrote about the blogs that I read, everyone said: go read James Altucher! That’s what I did.

I was looking at this site’s RSS stats today. It says that 1575 souls have decided to receive the feed. Thanks! That’s how I read stuff too. If you don’t yet use Google Reader to read blogs, here’s a quick explanation of how it works.

In the business world, the art of defining is called marketing. Marketing is the most important skill set for anyone bootstrapping a small business. I don’t care if you are a developer, a sales hawk, yoga expert, or whatever– if you want to make successful businesses, start thinking of yourself as a marketer.

A few days ago, our business clicked past the $1,000,000 mark in annual revenue. That was a huge mental milestone for us. We’re thrilled. Despite that, I’m getting more frustrated about presenting the numbers that way. What if I could say: “we grossed 10K from our cat furniture brand last month and here’s how we did it…”

My friend is a really smart guy with a lot of varied talents and passions. He’s got his MBA. He’s got a high paying consulting job that isn’t very intense or stressful. He’s got the power to make whatever he wants with his life.

A few years ago when I was living in Vietnam and buzzing about all the opportunities I saw, I told a more experienced entrepreneur that I was thinking about writing a book about my travels and my business ideas.

Over a few beers the other night, I turned to DCer Travis Jamison and asked him to estimate how many Americans knew more about SEO than him.

“Chops” describes how talented of a business person I perceive somebody to be. Often there is a disconnect between the results somebody has achieved online and their chops index.

People who already have a lifestyle businesses don’t use those words as much. If you already have a business, you are more likely using terms like ‘hiring somebody,’ ‘building a product,’ or ‘evaluating tools or services’ to employ.

Forbes’ recent feature of Dropbox told the story of how Y Combinator’s Paul Graham insisted that the founder, Drew Houston, find a co-founder before he received funding.

Tomorrow I’m recording a podcast with Ian and Brendan about a business concept that Brendan recently brought to my attention: critical non-essentials or CNEs.

This post is a job ad. If it were posted on a job website it would be titled something like: “Location Independent Entrepreneur Seeks Full Time Intern.” How I wish I would have seen a job ad like that 5 years ago!

A few weeks back I started a membership site. It generates enough income that I could live off of it. My plan, however, is to invest the income back in to the community to make it better.

Ian and I have been interested in offshore corporations for just over a year now. Before that time, our discussions on business structure revolved around LLC vs C-corp and California vs. Delaware. We heard about offshore corporations, but we thought they were the domain of the rich and powerful-- the jetset and ballin'.

I was reading an article about John Mayer recently. Despite all the tabloid drama, John is truly a world class guitar player.