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8. Introduction
Now mind you, some people do not view it as such. They simply get up every
day, go to work, come home, have dinner, maybe read the paper, maybe watch
some t.v., maybe work on a hobby, and eventually go to bed only to do it all
over again the next day. Then one day, they wake up 40 years later and all of a
sudden they realize that they are 65 years old and the best years of their life are
now behind them. Well guess what….NO THANK YOU. As for me, and now
you, I have found a better way. A way that will not make me as rich as Bill
Gates or Donald Trump or Robert Kiyosaki or fill in the blank, but it certainly
will allow me to quit the rat race and live life on my own terms. You also can get
to a state of financial freedom that will allow you to live life on your own terms
as opposed to the terms dictated to you by your J.O.B. Now maybe freedom for
you is simply time freedom where you can spend more of your time doing the
things you want to do with your family. Well if you follow my teachings, you
can reach the level of time freedom that you seek.
In this book, I will show you how you can start your very own home based
business in your spare time. Remember from above where I said…maybe read
the paper, maybe watch t.v., maybe work on a hobby…that’s the spare time that
I am referring to. Forget all that other stuff and pay attention here. Before you
know it, you will have built a nice business for yourself that you can even sell
for a tidy sum as you shall see. Eventually, what will happen is that you will start
to see a small (maybe even minuscule) amount of money flow into your bank
account from your online business. Once this happens, fireworks will start to go
off in your head. You will start to say things like “wow, this really works” and
“wow, that book I bought by John C. Borg was the real deal” and “wow, who
would have thought that you could really make money by working at home part
time with an online venture” and “wow, if I work hard enough at this, I really
will be able to quit the rat race”.
Right about now you should know something that is very very important. You
will see it here and I will mention it a few times throughout the book and then
again at the end. In a word, it is called commitment. You have to be committed
to quitting the rat race or it will never happen. You can think it and you can wish
for it but not until you commit to it, will it become a reality. So how do you
commit to it. Very simply…again in one word: ACTION. You must take action
and everything will fall into place. You will create an outline with your game
11. 1. Choose a product or service
What do you want: sell a product or offer a service? If you will sell a product,
what kind of product will it be? Are you planning to make one on your own, like
homemade soaps, orretail items, like antiques or collectibles? Selling products
will also include possible problems on storage, delivery, ordering,
manufacturing, packaging and retailing. Needless to say, selling tangible
products can entail bigger capital as there are more facilities, personnel and
volume required before the business can actually start its operation.
If you want to offer a service, do you even have the skills or technical
expertise to back it up? With this type of business, your biggest investment will
be your own time and skills, so lacking in that department will definitely not
help you gain reputation and credibility amongst your target market. Also
consider the extra manpower that is commonly needed for a service-type
business, plus the equipment – usually industrial levels – that might be
necessary.
As much as possible, choose something that you really have knowledge on
or something that you really love. Excitement wears off after stress and
frustration set in, but passion will always be there regardless of the hardships
that you will face in running a home business.
Lastly, as early as in the conceptualizing and planning stages, check possible
suppliers, distributors and partners, preferably near your area, just to make sure
that everything is really practical for you. It might surprise you, but working
from home does not entail exclusively working from home. There are raw
materials and finished products that will come in and out of your house. There
will be clients that you have to meet outside or entertain right at the comforts of
your workstation. There might even be stores involved, like in the case of
makeshift shops and in-house stores, literally.
15. 5. Register your business
Working from home is still working wherever you stay, so you need tax
identification number unless you want IRA knocking on your door. That means
you have to make things legal, whether you are employed or freelancing. If there
will be an actual commercial transaction happening, like when selling products
or offering services, you have to be registered to become legal. This covers the
registration of your business name and brand, and getting the trademark for your
logo, tagline and product/service.
Procuring a business license is also required, but additional licenses might be
necessary depending on the type of business you have. For instance, business
falling under the health and food industries will need additional EHS
(Environment, Health and Safety) and sanitary permits prior to operation. Some
states also require documentary approvals from the Health Department
and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Organization).
Fortunately, some states no longer require permits after registration has been
done. A home and small business may even operate without a business permit on
certain cities.
Finally, your legal structure should also be thought about because this will affect
your government support, loan capacity, tax amount and allowable number of
personnel. Check if your small home business venture is more appropriate for a
sole proprietorship, partnership (probably with your spouse or parents),
company, LLC or corporation. A small business normally falls under company.
Check special requirements from the Department of Consumers and Regulatory
Affairs (state-dependent), Office of Zoning (for any form of land cultivation and
development for commercial purposes), Department of Health (for anything that
concerns public health and safety, like with a catering business) and the
Department of Transportation (for public space regulation).
16. 6. Hire and train
A mom-and-pop normally does not need additional hiring because all the family
members help out with the business. However, if you will need extra hands from
outside, like for production, servicing, delivery, selling, etc., you certainly need
to learn the intricate system of hiring. There are seminars given by local
governments for home and startup businessmen to assist them in the hiring and
training process. Usually, free trainings are also provided by the United States
Small Business Administration (SBA).
Identify areas where you will need extra hands, so you do not have to over-hire.
If your current location is not appropriate for starting a home business, are you
willing to consider relocation? If not, maybe you just have to look for a separate
store somewhere else within your community. Image from Flicker by FG45
18. Business loan
You can try securing a business loan from lending and banking institutions. This
type of loan has a higher ceiling, but oftentimes, collateral is needed. Most banks
also consider business loan only if the applicant is registered as a small business
and has an already prepared business plan and feasibility study.
Secured personal loan
You can try a secured personal loan. It has higher approval rate than a business
loan and also has smaller interest. The credit investigation is also incredibly fast
prior to the approval. Usually, an application for this loan can already be
approved within a week or two. The best thing about this is that it is that lenders
encourage home businessmen to try it because the documentary requirements are
less.
There is a catch, though. Collateral is also needed.
Unsecured personal loan
You can try an unsecured personal loan. Unlike the secured personal loan, it
does not require any form of collateral and sometimes, not even a guarantor.
However, the screening process is stricter, approval rate lower, documentary
requirements more complicated (down to the permits and licenses) and credit
investigation much deeper. If you are not in a hurry to gain your dreamed
financial freedom, this is the most advisable for you. At least you will still have
more time to study your business concept.
25. 1. Join online forums and social media discussions
Online forums are excellent venues to disseminate information and create
awareness about your brand because people are participating, interacting and are
curious of what other people have to say. It is free and the best part of it is that
you can start conversations concentrated only on your specific field, in your
specific location, about your specific business. Some businesses even use forum
sites for the reviews of their products and services.
For many consumers, forums are more credible than review sites because here, it
is just ordinary people with ordinary experience who are talking – no
complications, no technicalities, just pure honest opinions. Apparently, it is a
great way to reach down to your target market, appealing to a personal level
rather than from a professional standpoint.
Gathering customer feedbacks through forums is also more practical as the
comments are more natural, straight-to-the-point and uninfluenced. At the same
time, you can immediately answer their concerns for other people to see, simply
to let them know that you are taking action of what they have to say. Moreover,
forums are great venues to drop your backlinks without looking desperate for
traffic.
Just keep in mind: no spamming and hostile reasoning.
26. 2. Spend on your website design
Website design is the first thing visitors notice when they entera site. Whether it
is a blog or Facebook page, you have to make your main site attractive to keep
customers coming in and new visitors hooked. If you are not adept in the graphic
design department, better let the professionals handle it. Remember that your
website design is a long-term investment, same as how receptions, lobbies and
building facades greet clients for real business offices.
Compare well-designed websites of the Fortune 500 to scam-laden websites of
multi-level marketing companies. Aren’t they very different in terms of
structure, navigation, design and content? Legitimate business websites tend to
be clean, comprehensive, navigable and simple, while unprofessional-looking
ones are cluttered, filled with startling effects and screaming headlines, lacked
internal navigation and linking, non-user friendly and on some cases, stippled
with malwares and spywares.
A good business website design should be engaging but not overly designed,
because over-designing means desperation. Focus your graphic design on your
banner and sales page to make your products and services more appealing to
customers. Internal navigation and linking should not be “dead” to allow your
visitors to go back and forth through pages without getting lost. The sales page
should be user-friendly, with features such as add cart, order now, view
details and a lot more security features.
Furthermore, all your business information, professional background, product
and service details, mission and vision and all the mechanics on how to use the
website and do transactions should also be clearly presented. If you need articles
and presentations but simply do not have the acumen to transform your ingenuity
to words, hire a freelance writer. There are a lot of freelancing sites where you
can pull your manpower from, such as Elance, Thumbtack, Freelancer and
ODesk. Craigslist is also popular but has more scammers than the rest.
In your overall design, do not forget to utilize one-click buttons that provide
convenience to customers. A readily available one-click button is also
sometimes the last push customers need to spend. These buttons include order
buttons and detail buttons.
28. 3. Build your online marketing strategy around a
keyword
TV and radio commercials use catchphrases to secure their slots in the memories
of audiences, and nowadays, to be adapted by social media and go viral. The
same goes with online marketing. It is important for you to find your own
catchphrase in the form of keyword that people can look up to in the internet
when needing your services.
The relevance of keywords varies from time to time, depending on trends, so
you also have to update your keywords and keyphrases consistently. However,
you should have one main keyword that will represent your whole business,
whole website and whole content so your SEO efforts will be consistent from the
time you start updating your site until search engines truly pick it up for ranking.
For instance, if you are going to sell personalized candles in Memphis, some of
the keywords for your contents would be Memphis candle, candle in Memphis,
personalized candles, personalized candles in Memphis and personalized candle
seller in Memphis. However, for your ranking to be more successful, you have to
choose one main keyword that will also be present in your business name,
tagline, headlines, domain name (if possible) and contents constantly.
You can use keyword research tools and analytics to determine the most
searched and most applicable keywords and long-tail keywords for your business
and contents. These online tools can provide keyword relevance on a daily basis,
so you can update your contents accordingly. They can provide accurate reports
on the trends, online traffic flow and guest lists, so you can target a specific
market more accurately.
There are online tools designed to help you penetrate specific communities, and
also SEO companies that work to target localities to maximize relevance to a
market. Some are free while some have premiums.
35. Chapter 4: The Beauty and the
Advantages of Money Making Online
Strategies
Have you noticed that money in your life seem to move with certain dynamics,
acting as if it is driving in a one way street, out of your pocket and straight into
the pockets of others?
Well, if you say yes, then it is time to lure the money straight back into your
pocket. I am really uninterested to preach you how to spend your money, my
only interest is to teach you how to thicken your wallet without thinning out your
nerves!
The three methods I will discuss in this book include online picture taking
money making gigs, paid surveys gigs and creative T-shirt campaigning money
making gigs.
How do you know if you are qualified to join the serious online money
making exclusive club?
If you are a living, breathing human being that has basic computer skills, then
you are more than qualified. As a matter of fact, just by knowing that you read
this, I proclaim you for qualified.
Every person needs to have its basic working equipment, and in this case, you
need a working computer with an internet access and a regular mobile phone
with a built-in camera or a point and shoot camera.
Usually, when you start your own business, you are required to have an initial
investment.
In this case, you need nothing, zero dollars!
What you need is a desire to work, have fun while doing it so you can load up
your PayPal account or your wallet, in case you prefer cash!
You can read all about these three online money making options, study them and
try your luck in one or all of them simultaneously, which I advise
wholeheartedly!
Your check loaded up with money from your online money making platforms is
within reach, what you need to do is reach out and grab it!
37. Chapter 5: What It Takes To Get The
Job Done
In order for you to embark on the idea of starting your own part time home based
business which will one day blossom into a full time income and allow you to
quit the rat race, you need to start with the right mindset. The mindset that I am
referring to is this. You need a full time mindset for this part time business. In
other words, you cannot be working a part time business thinking “ well I don’t
have to give it my all, because after all, it is a part time business” or “I can do
this while watching my favorite show because after all, I am only doing this part
time and if it catches on, than great”. Do you see where I am going with this?
When you are working on this part time business, you need to think and act
like it is the be all and end all. That it will be your main business one day and if
that is truly going to happen, you need to treat it with sincerity and your full
cooperation and attention. You have to develop a certain momentum and speed
if all your actions are going to add up to something that you can be proud of.
You will learn to leverage your time, your money, your skills, and everything
else that is necessary to eventually quit the rat race and live life on your own
terms. Just imagine what life would be like when you get to this point. You get
up in the morning and guess what…you can work OR you don’t have to. You
can do some chores OR you don’t have to. You can play with the kids OR you
can play with the dog. You can go shopping OR you can go to the beach. OR…
you can do it all because now, you are living life on your own terms. I hope you
“get it” by now.
The best “thing” about your new business is that the income keeps coming in
even if you don’t show up for work. Try imagining that scenario with your
current J.O.B. How long do you think the income would keep on coming in if
you decided not to show up for work? I thought so!
So what exactly is it going to take to get you from point A, where you are
today as a card carrying member of the rat race, to point B, where you can tell
your boss goodbye and tear up that card in front of all your co-workers?
You are going to have to learn a few new skills. Now mind you, these are not
hard to learn and in fact, many people overcomplicate them…totally
unnecessary. I will show you the exact skills later on in this book, but just stick
38. with me for now. You will then take these new skills and put them to good use
whereby they will get your new online business rolling down the track of
success.
As mentioned earlier, you will also learn to leverage your time and your new
skills so that you can get the most bang for your buck. Let me give you an
example. One of the things I am going to teach you is how to communicate with
a list of people that all have a similar passion in common. You will have to send
out many if not hundreds of emails, to hundreds if not thousands of these people
who are affectionately known as your subscribers. Furthermore, you will need to
do this on an ongoing basis. In these emails, you will tell your subscribers all
about useful and pertinent information that relates to this passion that binds you
all together. So right about now, you are probably saying to yourself…
“GREAT, I will be up past midnight sending emails to a bunch of people who I
don’t know, I just went from rat race A to rat race B”. Now calm down. I will
show you how to perform the entire process on auto-pilot. You will just press a
few keys and your emails will all go out automatically every single day or every
other day or whatever day you choose as you will soon see.
This new skill that was just mentioned will become one of the greatest assets
that you will learn to help you quit the rat race. Just like some of your current
skills that you employ in your current job, this new skill will allow you to
leverage your time far beyond your imagination. Along the way, I am going to
show you how to monetize these emails so that your subscribers will be more
than happy to hand over their hard earned money to you in exchange for the
valuable information that you are going to give them. This information of
course, can take on any one of several forms such as an ebook just like the one
you are reading now, or a membership service, just like the one I mentioned in
the preface, or a software download, or even a physical product. Only your
imagination can put a limit on what this information for sale will hold. The only
thing that is really important at this point, is that the information is valuable,
factual, and beneficial for your subscribers which will make them want to stay
“tuned in” to you and your future emails. You will develop a reputation in no
time and the last thing that you want to happen would be to tarnish that
reputation by sending out an email that is less than true or undesirable or not in
tune with your subscribers.
Another skill that you will learn that will bring you closer to quitting the rat
race is called outsourcing. I will talk more about this in chapter 6 which deals
41. diving and all of the different aspects of the sport. You could sell all kinds of
equipment related to the sport. More about this in chapter 4 where I talk about
becoming an Amazon associate. The point here is that you are not stocking or
shipping anything, just that you can offer the goods to your subscribers and if
they purchase anything, you will get a commission. You could also monetize
your niche with services such as becoming an affiliate for any one of a number
of diving operations and when someone books a diving trip through your link, or
buys something through your link, you would get a commission. Again more
about affiliate sales in chapter 4.
3) You build (or have built for you), a very basic website where all your
information will be found online. At the very least, the site will host a page for
attracting subscribers, known as a squeeze page because it will squeeze the email
address out of your site visitor. It will also hold some administrative pages such
as an About you page, a Contact page, a Terms & Conditions page and a Privacy
policy page. Don’t let this scare you as you can build a website for just a few
dollars. I will show you how in ch. 6 or you can outsource building it for not
very much money. Furthermore, all of the pages I mentioned are rather boiler
plate and can be had for free through a google search. You can even visit my
site:http://www.ratracebgone.com and copy those exact pages from me. Just be
sure to read them and change any words that won't fit your site.
4) You need to sign on with an auto responder service. This service will do all of
the heavy lifting for you in communicating with your subscribers. ( suggested
responders will be found in ch.6). Some auto responders will even have a
template for you to build a squeeze page which is how you gather subscribers.
The service will then start communicating with your subscribers for you, as
often as you would like. The emails that they send out are penned by you (or
someone that you outsource to), therefore your subscribers will know that it is
you “talking”. You can do all of this for free or at least for a free trial period. See
ch.6 for the details.
5) You will attract traffic to your squeeze page and get subscribers through a
wide assortment of free and paid traffic methods which are mentioned in ch.6.
They will be attracted to you because you are going to offer them something of
value for free. What exactly are you going to give them for free? A fair question,
but once again very easy to answer. Pay attention in ch.6 where I show you the
answer. Don’t let this scare you because you can easily outsource this part of
your new business building chores.
42. 6) Now that you have subscribers, you have to drip/share/communicate
information of value to your subscribers, on a regular basis. This is all done for
you through an email sequence from your auto responder…all on auto-pilot. The
emails could include such things as a report showing all the different spots for
diving in the Florida Keys and the anticipated fish that one might find there. An
email that deals with just the fish to be seen. An email that speaks about the
highlights and the lowlights of the different Florida Keys. An email that deals
with sunken treasures. An email that deals with shipwrecks. One email might
talk about how to get to all these spots. One email might deal with the equipment
needed. Another email might deal with the right boat for diving, if you were
inclined to get your own. I am sure you get the picture…just keep the valuable
information rolling in and your subscribers will certainly stay tuned in.
7) I saved the best for last (isn’t it always that way?). Throughout your email
series, maybe once every 2-3 emails, you will send out an email that has the
anticipated value that your subscribers have come to expect, but it will also have
an endorsement from you about a particular product. A product that you yourself
believe in and that you are certain that your subscribers will also appreciate
being exposed to. A product that will throw off a commission to you if anyone
buys it. At this point you need to make a choice just how much you talk about
the product in the email without coming off as a pushy salesman. I myself
choose to only casually mention it with a link to the actual product for anyone
who is interested in learning more. They will click the link, be taken to the
product’s sales page, make up their mind to buy it, and you get paid.
8) Optional. This step is for people who really want to go the extra mile. In
addition to writing emails that you will send out to your subscribers, you could
also publish similar information on your website. This is a very simple task to
perform if you build your website on a platform know as Wordpress, which I
will show you in ch.6. The advantage of doing this is because you will get
visitors to your website where you can capture additional subscribers and
additional sales as your readers are exposed to an even greater selection of
recommendations than they will see in their emails.
I would like to close out this chapter with a quote from capitalist Malcolm
Forbes and that is “ The biggest mistake people make in life is not doing for a
living what they most enjoy”.
44. Chapter 7: The Best Online Business
Model For You
In the last chapter, I gave you your outline for the business model that you
should follow to achieve the maximum amount of success in the shortest amount
of time. There is a reason why so many successful internet marketers use this
model for their own business…ready for the answer, here you go:
BECAUSE IT WORKS!
However, in the interest of full disclosure, you should be aware of at least a
few other business models, so that you will be in a better position to judge for
yourself, if the above model is right for your situation. In order of popularity,
they are:
1) Blogging
2) Affiliate Marketing
3) Network Marketing/MLM
4) Freelance Services
5) Article Marketing
6) Misc.
The main reason that blogging is in the number one spot is because many of
the other online business models can be performed through blogging. In fact,
many successful marketers started out as bloggers until they realized that there is
a better monetary model. Now if you are on a tight budget, it is entirely possible
to set up your own online blog for free. Blogger.com comes to mind but there
are others. Take my advice and don’t do it. If you use a free platform, the owner
of the platform owns all your hard work and if they cease to exist….guess
what….so do you.
A better alternative to starting your own blog on a free platform is as follows.
Start by buying your own domain name from any one of several sources,
Godaddy and Namecheap come to mind. You would pay about $10.00 or less for
it. Try to get a .com or a .net or a .org name extension as these are highly
regarded. As for the name itself, there used to be a lot of emphasis on getting
what is called an exact match domain name. So for instance in the diving
scenario alluded to previously, you might try to buy Floridakeysdivingspots.com
or .net or .org. Or something very similar. If you couldn’t get it because it was
45. already taken, you could try adding dashes as in Floridakeys-divingspots.com.
The truth of the matter is that exact match domain names don’t carry the weight
that they once did, so I wouldn’t stress out too much over it. As a matter of fact,
since you are not going to be relying on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) too
much to get a good ranking in the search engines, it really does’t matter anymore
what domain name you pick.
Since you are eventually going to be building an online reputation, you might
simply try to buy your own name as in Johndoe.com. This way, when you
eventually become an expert in Florida diving spots (or whatever), you will
become the go-to-guy for all things relating to diving in the Florida Keys. People
talking about that sort of diving will simply say “Oh just visit Johndoe.com for
that answer”.
Now that you have purchased your own domain name, you will need to have it
hosted for you. That is how your work will show up on the web. It has to be
hosted by a web server in order for other people to see it. Again, as in purchasing
a domain name, there are many hosts from which you can choose. Hostgator and
Bluehost come to mind. In some cases, you can let the company that you bought
the domain name from, also host it for you. At the time of this writing, Godaddy
was having a giant sale: 99 cents for a domain name and $3.49 per month for
hosting. A quick calculation shows that you can be up and running on the
internet for less than $50.00 per year!! Very reasonable, just read the fine print if
any.
In ch.6, we will talk about how to get your information onto your blog. This
can be performed all for free so the $50.00 figure just mentioned will not change
for you. For now, let’s turn to the other business models as they all build on what
we just went over.
Your blog is up and running so it is time to monetize it or to put it another
way, it is time to extract some money from your visitors. While there are many
ways to do this, many of them have a common denominator and that is you are
playing the role of an affiliate. An affiliate is someone who receives a
commission in exchange for sending someone (your visitor) to the affiliate site
in the hopes of garnering a sale. In some cases, no sale at all has to be made, just
simply sending a visitor is all that is required in order to receive a commission.
The most common version of this is known as being a Google Adsense Affiliate.
Google will place ads on your site/blog for free to you and if any visitor clicks
on the ads, you will receive a commission. Google will match the ads to the
46. material on your page, which makes sense. If you have multiple pages and they
are not related, Google will still match the different ads to the different pages. In
practice though, all of your pages should flow with a similar theme or concept so
basically the ads will all match.
Taking this a step further, most affiliate programs require the visitor to perform
an action or make a purchase in order for you as the site owner to receive a
commission. The affiliate program that you join, and by the way, this should be
somewhat related to the material on your page and website, will have tools for
you to use to market their program. So to use our dive example, you would sign
up with XYZ diving tours. A typical tour might cost $100.00. XYZ diving tours
will give you a banner to place in a strategic spot on your site so that when the
site visitor sees the banner, they might click on it because it is advertising some
great tour, and low and behold XYZ diving tours will pay you a commission of
$40.00 (or whatever) if your site visitor books a tour. You should also know that
there is a whole science devoted to placing these ads on your site that is beyond
the scope of this book. Here is a tidbit. When you land on a website, very often
you will find yourself scrolling down to read more or learn more etc. The area on
the screen that you are looking at BEFORE you start scrolling down is known as
“above the fold” and this is prime real estate for placing ads as they will garner
more clicks and hence more sales for the vendor and more commission for you
as the site owner. If you sign up to become an Adsense affiliate, which is free by
the way, they will teach you all about ad placement and the importance of each
size ad and positioning of the ad.
The last affiliate program that I want to mention here, I touched briefly on in
ch.3. That is becoming an Amazon Affiliate. Certainly everyone is familiar with
Amazon and everything they sell, which is just about everything under the sun.
Once you become an Amazon affiliate, which is free, you will be able to sell just
about anything from Amazon, on your site. They will start you off with a 4%
commission and it increases with volume. The nicest thing about this
arrangement is that if someone is on your site and they click to buy an Amazon
product that you may be displaying on your site, they will be taken to Amazon’s
site and anything else they buy from Amazon, even if it is totally unrelated to
your site, will also generate a commission to you. Of course, there is no shipping
of the product on your end, as Amazon takes over from there. There are internet
marketers who love this business model so much that they build what are known
as Amazon review sites. They will review related products on their own site so
47. that you as a prospective purchaser, can get the skinny on the product in
question, and hopefully click on buying something from their site.
In the resource section of ch.6, you will find some of the more popular affiliate
programs to join. These are umbrella organizations so that if you join one, you
will see many different offers from many different vendors.
We will now move on to network marketing and or multilevel marketing. This
type of marketing has developed somewhat of a bad name because of so many
people who have gotten burned by it. You know the routine. You join company
X to push their product and you are led to believe that the real money is in your
downline so it is in your best interest to recruit as many people as possible into
the network. Usually, there is an initiation fee and the prospect of eternal riches
if you and your downline buy a boatload of company x’s product. While there
may be many variations on this concept, the bottom line is the same…whose
company do you want to build….your own or that of company X? I think the
answer should steer you far far away from this type of business model. Even if it
is a solid company like Amway or Mary Kay or Avon…the question still
stands….whose company do you want to build…your own or that of company
X. I think you are tired of building someone else’s company which is why you
bought this book in the first place…right!
Next on the hit list is Freelance Services. At the beginning of ch.3, I asked you
about your skills. Maybe you are a good writer, or a graphic artist or maybe you
possess any other talent that is needed by website owners to keep functioning
day in and day out. If so, you can earn an online income by selling your services
outright or by joining a company that needs people with talent like yours. There
are three companies that come to mind that could put your services to good use.
They are Elance, Odesk, and Fiverr. But before you say “where do I sign”, keep
in mind that working for them as opposed to pure freelancing is once again,
building up some one else’s business.
Next, we have article marketing. Yes you could write some articles on your
chosen passion and have them link back to your blog but if you go down this
road you will become frustrated very quickly as it will not lead to the monetary
gains that you seek in order to quit the rat race. You are much better off using
your writing talent to write emails that you are going to send out with the
business model that we first spoke about. Believe it, Commit to it and take
Action. The money will follow and in no time at all, you will be able to quit the
rat race.
49. Chapter 8: Putting The Pedal To The
Metal
For anyone who doesn’t know, putting the pedal to the metal refers to stomping
on the gas pedal in your car. Now you are really accelerating, which is
something that you have to do if you want to walk away from your 9-5 job in 6
months. Maybe I am dating myself with that expression because it was a very
popular saying way back in the 60’s and 70’s. I got my drivers license in 1969 so
for the mathematically challenged, I am 60.
This is what you need to know if you are going to achieve your goals within 6
months.
1) Long term thinking should be your norm. By that I mean that you need to
focus on a business that is sustainable for the long term. You aren’t just trying to
earn some part time income here. You want to build a real sustainable business
that can thrive in good times and in bad. You want to build a business that is a)
going to completely replace your current J.O.B. b) bring you some time and
money freedoms that you can only imagine at this point and c) Last for as long
as you want it too and in fact become an asset that you can sell one day. If you
don’t believe this last point, there are many website brokers out there who will
take your listing and sell it for you. Just check out Flippa.com which is one such
site where there are 1448 websites for sale at the time of this writing.
Furthermore, the most expensive one is gradshop.com which is about all things
relating to graduation. The site owner brings in $160,000.00 per month on
average and is asking $3,500,000.00. You read that right…..a part time business
that has turned into a 3&1/2 million dollar asset!
2) Your Business will thrive best if it is built around your own interests or your
passion. This will be the best way for you to write freely about whatever it is that
the site is about. Furthermore, if you aren’t passionate about it, your readers will
detect that in your communications. Additionally, if you aren’t passionate
enough about your website, you will lose interest, your readers will lose interest,
and before you know it, you will give up. Do you remember the quote I used to
close ch.3? Let me repeat it here because it is well worth it. It is a quote from
the great capitalist Malcolm Forbes. He says “ the biggest mistake people make
in life is not making a living doing what they most enjoy”.
3) You will need a small amount of money to fund your new venture. Getting
50. this new venture off the ground will not be expensive, but more importantly, it
will not be free. You are going to need some capital for things like buying a
domain name, website hosting, an auto responder service, buying some traffic
and a few more odds and ends. Not much, but definitely something. This is a real
business that you are building and it costs real money to get going. You will
learn very quickly how to leverage your time and your money to get the most
bang for your buck. Figure on $10.00 for a domain name, $3.50 per month for
hosting, $20.00 per month for an auto-responder service and a couple of hundred
for traffic.
4) Stay away from naysayers! It is nobody else’s business that you are trying to
quit the rat race in 6 months, so there is no sense in broadcasting it. It will only
invite a bunch of negative people who think that making money from an online
venture is a completely foreign subject or a total scam, so why bother with it.
Forget those people, which by the way, is something you should do as a normal
course of business anyway. STAY AWAY FROM NEGATIVE PEOPLE NO
MATTER WHAT. You will succeed in spite of all those people. All you have to
do is: Believe-Commit-Action
5) Banish all mental barriers. The only thing that can hold you back now is
yourself. As long as you are true to yourself and serious about your goals, you
can do it. Once you learn to treat your part time home business as a real
business, it will only be a matter of time before you will be able to quit the rat
race.
While you can spend money on other things like outsourcing, the truth is that
you can have a legitimate business up and running for under $500.00 per year.
Image from Flicker by Vaniila47
51. Chapter 9: Picture Taking Money
Making Online Strategy Revealed!
Do you think that you need to be a big shot fashion photographer to make money
taking pictures? Think again. You can take miscellaneous photos and make
money, without investing in a high-tech equipment or start behaving
eccentrically, just to interest people in your work.
Now, while you are reading these lines, I can actually hear the questions
snowballing in your head, and you think: who would pay for my pictures, what
kind of pictures do I need to take, how can I sell them, who would buy them etc.
Please, hold your horses and still your mind. I will explain everything in the
simplest of fashions and tackle every question and every step with an utmost
diligence.
I need you to understand that your mind is an infinite vault filled up with
ideas, but due to the fact that the vault is dark, you need to light it up and
seek up the idea from your directory of concepts.
Sometimes, all you need is someone to offer you a lighter, and your creative
spark will ignite itself in a great, creative wildfire.
In this case, consider me the bearer of light. I am going to tell you how you can
transform a regular situation into a picture that is not only worth a thousand
words, but thousands of dollars also!
World Wide Web, Thank You!
All of us are now living in a global village where we can be researchers, teachers
or businesspersons thanks to the enormous online cobweb that entangles us
completely.
And just like in any other village, everything is within reach, so you can kiss
goodbye the days when you had to commute long hours to get to work, just to
feel miserable doing something that fills up your pockets, but not your soul.
Thanks to the internet, you can now work from your home, your garden,
basement or tree house, if that is what is what makes your creative juices flow.
Why Would Anyone Show Interest in My Pictures?
Again, it is all about internet! If you have a business, and you have not put it
online, then just as if the business does not exist in reality. 200,000 new websites
52. are launched every single day. 1 million websites are launched every single
week, andall of these websites need images, because customers always respond
to the image first and read the text later. All of these websites have
approximately 30 seconds to interest their prospective buyers, or they will lose
them over their competition. And all of these images have to be new, cheap and
avoid copyright infringement.
If every owner of a website had to pay for the rights of using the images of the
renowned photographers, then the only businesses that would have websites
would be the multimillion corporate businesses.
By climbing on board, you can play the role of an affordable photographer and
play up your part in expansion of the internet.
Do you now understand why people desperately need your pictures and they
would desperately pay money for them? And despair always translates into hefty
checks in the world of business.
Making Money While Playing With Your Camera is a Child’s Play
If you are still doubting my online money making platform, let me explain to
you plain and clear what is the core of the whole concept:
Every industry on this planet is now competing on the World Wide Web, and
they are all trying to emerge as the winners in this world that is completely
media-centered.
But before you hit the streets roaming for the next big photo catch, I ask you to
give me the chance and explain you how you can make some incredible sums of
money.
This short and in-depth guide will present you with all the tools and all the
wisdom you need in order to incept your new photographing online money
making platform.
You can always shoot for the stars, but this time, I need you to aim and shoot for
the money! Image from Flicker by Gerald
54. Chapter 10: Taking Pictures Worth
Thousands of Words and Thousands of
Dollars
We all know that you want to see the money rolling in on your account,
however, for this to happen, you need to start taking pictures that have certain
sales appeal. As a rookie, you will have a hard time deciding which images may
entice the prospective buyers and which will remain on your misunderstood,
unfit image portfolio, however, with my help and your nose for business, you
will hone your skills in no time.
Dusting Off the Archives!
Unless you have lived under a rock all of these years, then you surely have some
pictures on your computer, on your mobile device or in your photo album.
Browse through these old archives and see if you have some pictures in your
possession that may trigger an interest in someone.
Do not be very picky: celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, people happily
smiling, people making funny faces, pictures of babies, kittens, dogs, these
are the images that people want to see and buy.
If you have these, make a special folder on your computer, and keep them there.
Put on Your Photograph Attire and Hit the Streets in Search of a Good
photo!
Honestly, the pictures that are the most interesting are the ones taken at a special
place and in a special moment. So, in order to find the gold link, you need to
have luck. You know those moments when something unexpected happens and
you have it on camera? Well, that is the motherload of pictures. But if people
wait for these kinds of pictures, then the internet will have like hundred pictures
uploaded, not hundred billions, like it’s the case at the moment.
If you have luck and captured something like that on your camera, then good for
you. You can sell everything you own and move to Caribbean, where you can
spend all your life being pampered, living the good life.
Anyway, luck is overrated. If you do not have luck, do not give up on your
dream. You can still make money, and I will show you where you can find the
55. picture treasure.
Treasure Hunt for Attractive Photos!
The ideas I am going to list here are only the tip of the creative iceberg for you,
and should only serve and an incentive, to feel the excitement of being paid for
the pictures you took.
Remember how I told you that your mind is a vault with limitless ideas?
Use my suggestions, and come up with original ideas all by yourself. Since you
will have the inspiration, you can transform the impossible into a reality.
Kids, babies, and animals!
Do you dream of jetting off to your dream vacation destination? Well, if you
want to do it as soon as possible, I suggest you to take pictures of things that sell,
like children, babies and cute animals. These photos always sell.
Snap a picture of your kids while they are playing and are unaware of the weight
of the lens upon them. If you do not have kids, ask your friends and relatives if
they are willing to allow their kids to be the muses of your works of art.
Still, before you publish the photos of the children, you have to make sure to
protect yourself in legal terms, which means that the parents of the kids have to
sign an agreement of consent.
Online you can find thousands of these templates free of charge, and all you
need to do is fill in the form and you are golden!
Next, if the place where you live has a Zoo, then make sure to visit it and take
photos of the animals there. If there is no Zoo, you can always visit the park and
see bunch of dogs playing together.
And if you can combine the children with the dogs or some other animals,
then you will be jetting off to your dream vacation even before you can believe
in the reality of the financial momentum!
Your Home!
If you think that your home décor is inspiring, then start taking pictures of it.
Take picture of your bed with books scattered across it or adorned with a
breakfast tray, take pictures of your steamy bathroom after you take shower, take
a picture of yourself in the mirror, take picture of the sofa, of the kitchen, of the
meals you are cooking or you are eating at that moment.
56. If you have a basement or a garage, visit it at instance and start your
photoshoot ASAP. Snap a photo of your toolbox, your bike, the wrenches
perfectly lined up, saws and other hardware pieces, all of these are valued high
on the picture market, trust me!
If you have a garden, start taking pictures of the flowers, the gardening tools
and yourself getting dirty from the soil. There are thousands of landscaping
businesses launching every day, and the creative webmaster guys can pull off an
incredibly looking website with your photos on it.
Food!
Food sells. It is a fact. Anything that has some sort of relation to food is always
an interesting subject. In order to win the jackpot, think in terms of upcoming
holidays or seasons. If it summer, take as many pictures of summer related
foods, however, make sure to prepare in advance for the arrival of fall. You can
actually see a pumpkin in September, and what better way to be prepared for
Halloween than uploading a picture of a cute kid surrounded by pumpkins?
Go to the market and visit the fresh fruit and vegetable sections in the
supermarket, where the food is preselected, neatly organized and looks picture
perfect!
The farmers markets are always bursting in every color of the rainbow, and some
of the bestselling pictures are actually taken there.
Roaming the streets of your city!
Your city is an endless source of inspiration and also an endless source of
money. Right after you finish reading this, I want you to go outside and start
making mental notes of the things you see. You may notice a building in the
making, a bird on the sidewalk, people crossing the street, people riding bikes,
children going to school, street performers, local restaurants, waiters, the local
landmarks of the city, shops with unusual window decoration, parks, lakes or
rivers, just to name a few.
All of these subjects are relevant to a certain industry, and they will be very
much interested in purchasing your pictures, if you have a steady hand and an
eye for a detail.
Street style!
Click here if you want to make money with Instagram and Facebook!
57. Women and fashion! Can you honestly think of something else that has a
greater sales appeal than this? You walk down the street and you see men and
women wearing interesting stylish fashion outfits. You approach them,
compliment their style and ask them to pose for you. This is an interesting way
to make some serious money, plus meet some really interesting people and hear
their stories. The best job ever!
Your colleague and workplace!
The pictures of your workplace setting and your co-workers being busy at
work or chatting will certainly trigger an interest from people who are in the
same industry! Get a picture of your stationary, your computer, your snack, the
state of your office plants, people chatting next to the vending machine or the
water cooler, everything goes.
Extreme Weather Conditions
Do I honestly need to tell you that photos of extreme weather conditions are
always super-hot on the market?
Have you ever noticed how cool The Weather Channel looks like? Well, 90% of
the photos used by the Channel were produced by self-made photographers, just
like you and me.
However, catching the next winner of this year’s photography does not entail
paying the price of your life for it. If there are warnings issued, then you better
obey these warnings and stay inside. Do whatever it takes to be protected,
since you can put a price tag on your photo, but you cannot put a price tag on
your life.
Celebrations
During this month, there is a great chance that you will be organizing or at least
be invited to some sort of celebration. While you are there, take pictures of
everything: the table with the food, the cake, the outfits of the people, the décor
of the place, smiling people, singing people, gifts, the sky is the limit here.
The Ideas!
Here I just listed a small number of possible subjects for your pictures that
should help you get started. However, the list is really endless. If you want to
make it in this easy online business, then make your camera your best
59. Chapter 11: Converting JPEG to USD!
Now that you have taken thousands, maybe even millions of photos, it is time to
review them and endorse them to the prospective buyers.
The best way to earn money from your picture taking adventures is to upload
them to various stock photo sites.
What Are Stock Photo Sites and Why Would They Be Interested in My
Photos?
Stock photo sites are portals that endorse images that are not associated nor
taken for a specific purpose, product, service or company. This means that when
you take your pictures you are not being hired by a certain company to make a
photo-shoot of their products or services.
You are a freelancing enjoying life photographer and the photos you take can be
reused for several times.
The smaller companies cannot afford photo-shoots for their products and
services, so they visit these stock photo sites, choose the images that fit their
needs best and use them for much lower price than paying a photographer to do
the same thing.
All of the people who are creating new websites are in constant demand of new
pictures, and all of these people look at these stock photo portals as virtual flea
markets.
Which Stock Photo Websites Should I Upload My Photos To?
1. Big Stock Photo
If you upload your photos to BigStockPhoto.com, you will earn 50 cents every
time a customer spends credit on your image. If you decide to release your rights
to allow customers print your images on other products like greeting cards, t-
shirt or a poster, you will receive a special licensing commission at 35% of the
sale. The more images you upload, the greater the check!
2. Shutter Stock!
Shutter stock is one of my favorite sites for making money. You can earn up to
500 dollars per week with this site, however, in order to do that, you will have to
have their permission to upload the photos first. They have a bit tricky
acceptance process, but please, please do not let this discourage you. Online you
60. can find some really helpful tutorials on how to pass their quality guidelines
rules.
3. I Stock Photo
With IStockPhoto.com, you will be entitled to a royalty rate of 15% every time
someone downloads your image. And, if your images get lots of downloads,
your royalty rate will be increased anywhere from 22% to 45%. Plus, this site
accepts video contributions, so maybe you should try your directorial luck as
well.
4. Alamy
You got to love Alamy.com, because they allow you to earn an enormous 60%
royalty rate on all of your images, plus they do not force you to sign over the
exclusive rights of your image to them, which gives you the complete liberty to
resell your image through other stock photography resellers.
5. Dreamstime
Dreamstine is the place where you should try your luck first. They have a proven
pay record, and the better your images perform, the bigger percentage of the fee
you get. Before you know it, your daily pay rate as an online photographer will
exceed your previous job’s daily pay rate.
6. Fotolia
This is another site that showcases your images to thousands of customers every
day, every hour, every week, every moment. Fotolia is really, really popular with
web designers, so your ticket to your wealth can be titled Fotolia. The
commission you make on a single image ranges from 20 to 60 percent every
time a user downloads it.
7. Veer
Veer.com, enables you to earn a substantial amount by selling different sized
images. You can earn as low as $0.35 cents for every image that is downloaded.
As the size of your photo increases, so does your earnings, so please make sure
your photos are clean, bursting with colors and come in extra-large sizes.
You Hold Your Financial Future in Your Hands
You hold your entire financial future in your hands, literally. The camera you
hold is your pathway to financial independence, and your way of giving the
finger to the system that makes you work really hard and have a miserable life,
64. brokers sell your website for you, they will be more than happy to sell one to
you also! In other words, you could buy one right now that is up and running and
bringing in a current income…TODAY! How about that for a shortcut. A word
of caution here. Don’t even think of buying one until you fully understand all the
workings of running an ongoing profitable website or you will not be able to
sustain your purchase.
http://www.flippa.com
http://www.websiteproperties.com
http://www.sitepoint.com
7) Traffic Sources: Traffic is the lifeblood of any blog or website. Without
traffic, you may as well pack up, because you will be out of business. So how
are you going to get traffic to your blog or website. Once again, there are many
free and paid methods. Ideally, your blog or website will be filled with great
content and the search engines will reward you for it by giving you a prime
position in the rankings. So for example, when someone searches for dive spots
in the Florida Keys, your site will come up on the first page and if you are really
lucky, it will be high on the page. That requires a lot of skill and SEO (search
engine optimization) work which is beyond the scope of this book. That type of
traffic is know as organic traffic because it happens for free and it happens
automatically due to your ranking. Alternatively, you could pay to be on the first
page using a system known as PPC or pay per click. With PPC, you will be
bidding on keywords and the winner will receive the best place in the search
results. Both SEO and PPC will require you to learn as much as possible about
these two traffic sources. Start by Googling each and absorb all that you can.
So there you have two methods, 1 free and 1 paid. Another popular method of
paid traffic is to buy a solo ad for your website which will bring in a good
amount of traffic and hopefully this traffic will convert into sales which will
outweigh whatever you spent on the ad. The final method that I am going to talk
about is a free method known as forum posting. To do this, you would join a
forum or a few of them which are related to your chosen niche and contribute to
the discussions by offering good advice and just generally becoming a regular
contributor to the forum. Every post you make will contain your signature and
your signature will link back to your blog or website. So how do you find these
forums. Very simply put the name of your niche and the word forum in quotes in
a search box. It would look like this: “dive spots in Florida” + “forum” . Once
67. you are working you should not be disturbed. If you have young children at
home you are going to have to work around their schedule. Do not try to care for
a baby and type a corporate proposal at the same time. It simply will not work.
No matter if you are the business owner or are telecommuting for an employer,
make your home office professional. Make sure you have a door that closes and
a file cabinet that locks. Also use a password on the computer. You don’t want
junior hacking into client’s accounts. Be certain all of your equipment is
grounded and surge-protected. Save your work often and back up to a zip drive.
As mentioned more than once, STICK TO A SCHEDULE. The alarm is still
going to ring, although probably at a later time, and work still needs to be done.
Get up, get dressed and get ready for your day. Do not get sidetracked by the
laundry, the dishes or the ring in the bathtub.
If your computer equipment is old, junky or slow, get rid of it and replace it.
Technology is the heart beat of your business. Made certain you have a fast
internet connection, a scanner, fax machine and copier.
It is not going to be easy to avoid family members, friends and neighbors who
think that because you work at home you are available anytime. You will
probably find yourself bombarded with requests such as accepting packages,
letting in a maintenance person and other chores that they cannot take care of
because they work away from home. Try your best to be selective about what
you will be available for and do not allow helping out to impinge upon your
work hours. When people become too needy, simply state “Sorry, I’d like to, but
I cannot”.
Working from the comfort of your own home is a wonderful way to make a
living that is advantageous to you and your family.
WAIT! Don’t forget…
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69. to Increase Your Brain Power and
Improving Your Memory (Brain
exercise, Concentration,
Neuroplasticity, Mental Clarity,
Brain Plasticity)
Homesteading Handbook : A
Complete Homesteading Guide to
Self Sufficiency and Sustainable
Living: Homesteading for Beginners,
Homesteading Guide, How to
Homestead, Homesteading Skills
Dating Tips For Men: 20 Dating
Advice Of How To Be The Man That
70. Women Desire
Cheap Vacation Ideas: A Complete
Guide in How to Plan Your Perfect
Summer Vacation
Oh My God! The Scientific Evidence
for God's Existence
Jesus is Coming! How to Use Jesus
Calling in 365 Days?
Photography Tips for Beginners: A