Thank you for being part of this program.

Before we begin, may I ask that you do the most important thing you do during this course?

Take a moment to think about what you want out of this course. Choose something that you can easily measure, maybe online income you will earn during this next year. We already have a deadline. It is 12 months from now. All you need is a target to reach by then. If you have a diary that extends to next year, then put that amount in on the appropriate date. Maybe "Earnster.Ninja target income: 3000/month"

I use the Google calendar site to do this kind if thing. For instance, I create a daily reminder to myself about how much money I should be making this month. I also have a monthly reminder telling me how much money I am aiming to earn this year.

Post-it™ notes get lost. But that daily reminder coming at you day after day soon starts to nudge you back on target.

Start Here Once you've read the 1000 fans philosophy below…

On the top right of this screen (and every screen) is a round button with horizontal stripes. This is the universal icon for a Menu. The Course Index in that menu will take you to a single page that lists every segment of the course.

This program has two sections. Please start with the Accelerated 12-session course. This is a fast track aerial overview that most Ninjas report has been a very fast intro, and very informative.

Then you can start with the 48-session detail from a much more informed background.

If you have not found/developed an income-generating idea by the time you finish the Ideas section (Week 8 in the 48-session course) please email me. At this point we need to talk through your specific options.

One key philosophy: 1000 Fans

Kevin Kelly, who wrote about how we will look back and say "I wish I was an entrepreneur back in 2014", wrote an amazing article about the concept of 1000 fans more than a decade ago.

This is a concept that forms the foundation to my online efforts. It's worth sharing up front because it's very easy to get lost in all the noise and writing and video and the 2.7 billion people who are online.

Kevin was replying to a question about how an artist might expect to make a living online when stuff was being given away free, when people were stealing their soundtracks, when record companies were in trouble, and so on.

Before the Internet very few artists made it big. Millions of artists just never made it. It's a number that correlates with the 90% of us small business owners that close our doors early. The artistic process was to put in your time playing gigs in pubs and clubs, playing whatever you could whenever you could to whomever you could. And hoping that a spotter from a record company would hear you and sign you up. For the few big bands, the arrival of the Internet and file-sharing was very scary. As it was for the companies selling their DVDs.

It was for these people that Kevin Kelly wrote about his concept for an artist making a living from the web. He said that the artist needed just 1000 fans to make a living.

He defined a "fan" as a person who likes you enough to travel across the country to attend one of your concerts. A person who will buy every CD or DVD that you produce even if it contains songs from previous DVDs. A person who wants to buy a T-shirt with your brand or name or picture.

And he suggested that such a person would be happy spending $100 each year on seeing you or buying what you sold. 1000 fans at $100 each year equals $100,000 per year. In South African Rands that would be just over 1 million per year. In Norway it would be around 600,000 kroner per year. No matter which country you live in, that $100,000 would represent a decent lifestyle for most of us.

That 1000 fans concept will be a cornerstone of this programme. Your market isn't "everyone". Your market is the 1000 people happy to give you $100 each year. Obviously that's not an exact number, but rather a concept. It might be 500 people each giving you $200 each year. Or 200 people each giving you $500 each year. But, and this is the point, it's not 2.7 billion people.

If your goal is to get as rich as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, then I'm afraid I'm not the person to teach you that. They are unusual enough for most of us not to fit into their shoes.

I would rather show you a route that is much easier to follow. A route that is much easier to replicate over and over. A route that incurs almost zero risk to you. In other words, a skillset that you can apply to any problem you face in future