Franchise Business

August 1, 2018

Supplemental income Ideas

I’ve always been a fan of supplemental income ideas. Once you’ve given your soul to ‘The Man’, you’re trapped. It’s especially true once you build your life around a job or career. A part of your mind is duty bound to accept that it’s your ‘lot’ in life. What if the business fails? What if your job is automated? How about redundancy?

Supplemental income ideas can give you a ‘buffer’ so you’re not so dependant on your current income. Ideally, your supplemental income ideas will be capable of surpassing your current salary. This is the key. If your supplemental income is always supplementary, you’re still stuck in your job, even with this income. On the other hand, if it has the ability to surpass your current income, you’ll be much more likely to pursue it for long enough to make this happen. Here’s a few supplementary income ideas which I’ve found on the journey to find the ‘one’ which is scalable and automated.

Skip to the end if you want the short version summary!

Supplemental Income Ideas – 1

One of the first supplementary income ideas I found was through the auction site eBay. I started out just buying and selling items from my house and moved on to car boot sales and antique sales. I eventually found a clever little eBay hack which lets you find bargain items on the site itself. You can then either sell them on Facebook for free using the marketplace or local selling pages, or re-list them back on eBay to get a better price.

The strategy I found uses a clever Misspell tool which you can access here. Use it to find items which are misspelled on eBay. Because they are misspelled, they don’t get the views they should and, as such can often sell for much lower than they are worth. You can read the full strategy for this supplementary income idea in my article how to start a profitable ebay business.

Supplemental Income Ideas – 2

Here’s another clever little ‘hack’ if you’ve got a skill and want to monetise it. By using Google’s Places for Business listings, you can create a business listing completely free. If you pick up a few jobs there’s a nice little earner here. I used this strategy to get some work as a handyman in my local town.Wherever you are based, you can create a business listing and get yourself ranking on the top of Google for your particular business.

This could be a painter and decorators, handyman, music teacher, language teacher or anything else you might be good at. You can build up a free listing and you don’t even need a website to do this. Just head to Google Places for business and create a listing. This is a great supplementary income ideas and if you’ve got a skill of some kind, it’s very cheap and easy to get started. Also checkout my ebook below which explains creating a business listing in more detail.

Supplemental Income Ideas – 3

Car boot sales offer the opportunity to sell your old items but also to run the sales yourself. If you’ve got a tonne of stuff sitting around the house why not find a local car boot sale or sale and take it along? Running your own car boot sale can also be a lucrative supplementary income idea and you can run it on the weekends. You need to find a local field or place big enough to get a good turnout. Run an advert in the local paper and put up some banner adverts advertising locally.

Charge people to bring their cars and for entry. A good turn out can net you a nice little profit, if you get good weather. You can also scout about for bargains to re-list on eBay as per “supplementary income ideas – 1”.

Supplemental Income Ideas – 4

An online business presents an opportunity to anyone with a laptop and an internet connection. Most people simply aren’t aware of the vast opportunity of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a business model which lets anyone benefit from referring people to products and services around the internet. Digital products in particular can earn you 40% of their cost as an affiliate.

Because the internet has a global audience, this has the most potential of all the ideas listed here of surpassing your current income, whatever it is. An internet business can be largely automated too. By building systems and strategies which can run 24 hours a day on complete autopilot, you can send website traffic to offers and services to earn a commission. Regardless of your age and technical experience, you can do this. It does take some time to learn though.

You can access an online video series which will show more about it completely free here.

Supplemental Income Ideas – 5

Depending on your circumstance and location, you may be able to sign up as a TV extra. When I worked as a TV extra, I met a lot of people who had their own businesses. This was because they were able to take time out at short notice, something you’ll most likely need to be able to do.

supplementary income ideas

TV extras, or background artists. appear in the background on television to give the scene a more realistic appearance. You get to visit places and do things within your locality which you wouldn’t normally do, and earn money at the same time! Just do a search online for Extras agencies near you. You may have to apply to join an agency and wait a while before any suitable work appears. Work tends to be sporadic and unreliable. Depending where you are though, you may be able to sign with multiple agencies, although some agencies ask for exclusivity.

Here’s a quick summary of the ideas I’ve shared in this article.

Supplemental Income Ideas – Summary

Ebay – Buying and Selling using the misspell tool – See my article how to start a profitable ebay business.
Start your own small business selling yourself! Whether you can paint, play an instrument, speak a language or fix someone’s fence, there might be an opportunity to get work locally by using Google Places for business – get a free business listing. Learn how in my ebook.
Car boot sales present 2 opportunities both for running them yourself and for buying and selling in them. Start your own car boot business. Book a field, advertising and charge for entry.
Start your own online business. This simple and effective business system can be used by anyone to build a scalable and profitable online business even with no experience.
Become a TV extra! TV extras agencies offer local work on television and film production. Find an agency near you with a quick online search.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this article on supplementary income ideas. If you’ve got any more please comment below to include them for any readers!

My best supplementary income idea is an online business. Access a free 7 day video series and learn more about how to use a simple business model, even with no previous experience.

April 29, 2018April 26, 2018

Subscription Based Website Builder

Looking for a subscription based website builder? Check out the video below by clicking the image. This is the ‘digital business lounge’ which lets you skip the technical aspects of setting up a website. Built into the website is a fully digital automated sales funnel with a range of subscription based products within it.

Subscription Based Website Builder

So why are subscription products so useful for an online business? Simply because they allow you to earn from repeat commissions. Single products only pay you once. A subscription product can give you an income as an affiliate, rather than just a single commission. What’s an affiliate? Affiliate marketing is the business model which lets anyone build a sustainable income from the internet by selling other people’s products. There’s certain other considerations too, which are worth noting when building an online business.

Subscription Based Website Builder – Other Considerations

Subscription products are great for a couple of reasons. With digital subscription products, you can earn 40% commissions on a sale. Digital products also let you sell to anyone over the internet. That means it’s a global business model and this makes it very scalable.

But there’s a few other benefits from using the software you can see in the above video. Behind the subscription based website builder is a powerful sales funnel with a range of digital products within it.

High ticket items – Products ranging from $30-$30,000 from which you can earn 40% commissions (depending on your position in the business system).
Up-sells – These are sales made later to your existing customers. With up-sells you can earn from later sales closed by the company. You only need to refer the initial sale to benefit from up-sells too.
Multi-Tier Commissions are commissions based on the sales made by your team. This means you can continue to earn commissions from other people’s sales, if you initially referred them.
Built in sales team – a sales team closes sales on your behalf. Only refer the initial sale to benefit from continual up-sells and other high ticket products.

‘Gearing’ An Online Business – Subscription Based Website Builder

This kind of online business is ‘geared’ to give you the maximum return on investment. Compare it to a sales funnel which only has a single product. You’ll need to continually sell that product over and over again, just for single commissions.

Most sales funnels can pay the affiliate back $1 a month for each subscriber on average. A good sales funnel has the benefit of a high ticket product line, subscription products, multi-tier sales and a built in sales team. With a sales funnel like this you can expect a much higher return on investment – more like $5 per subscriber per month (on average).

This means you can more easily build a profitable online business using paid advertising strategies. As is becomes more difficult to rank for organic listings on Google, this leaves paid advertising as the main marketers ‘goto’ option for building an online business. There’s a couple of reasons why paid advertising is the best option for newbies to online marketing too.

Subscription Based Website Builder – Online Marketing, The Next Step

Once you have your subscription website set up, get started here, you’ll need to advertise it. With paid online marketing strategies, you can see instant traffic into your sales funnel. Organic traffic takes much longer to generate and is a skill in itself too. If you want to go the free route, check out my ebook Niche Blogging For Profit below. Be warned, this will take much longer and results are never guaranteed.

If you’re going to use paid advertising techniques, checkout my ebook The Ultimate Guide To Online Marketing. You can also learn online marketing strategies and get full training with the online business system and education platform here.

Subscription Based Website Builder – How Marketers Use A ‘Geared’ Funnel

Online marketers can build up a number of paid advertising strategies and test and measure the response. It’s called direct response marketing and it’s good for a subscription based website builder because you can start small and build up when you see a good return. Ultimately, top marketers scale up to spending tens of thousands per month on such campaigns. They know they are getting a good return on investment before they do however.

With a geared funnel with all of the above criteria, you have much more chance of success over the long term. As people move up your range of products, commissions increase dramatically. Plus, you can earn residual commissions too from your subscription products. This can allow you to maintain a paid for campaign and slowly increase your budget by reinvesting profits.

Access an online education and training platform which has a fully automated product “suite” you can use to build an online business from scratch.

April 27, 2018July 1, 2020

Side Hustle Online – 3 Internet Based Side Hustle Ideas

I wanted a side hustle online; something I could pick up and drop around other work. Not only that, but I wanted something with potential too. I wanted something which was better than what I already had! This was going to be a challenge!

I started looking to the internet for answers to my sketchy employment history. I was out of work more often than in it! I had to turn that to my advantage! So I did! I used my computer to find a side hustle online. This is my story!

Side Hustle Online – eBay

I started with eBay back in the 90’s. eBay had only just arrived in 1995. Back then I had a dial up connection. It wasn’t the greatest when I was putting in a bid for an item in the last few seconds. My dial up connection would time out and I’d lose the item! It was pretty frustrating. But then I discovered some software which put my bid in for me in the last few seconds. This was auctionsniper.com. It lets you snipe other bidders – you get the item at the last minute without pushing the price up and joining in a bidding war. Anyway I digress!

1. My First Side hustle Online – Buying and Selling on Ebay

The strategy I first used was simply buying and selling. You can use eBay to do your selling for you and buy from charity shops, other auctions, pound shops and car boot sales. If you’re into antiques, you can pick up antique items and flog them on eBay.

It’s a great little side hustle online. As long as you can make a profit on something, it’s worth buying. You can even check eBay itself before you buy, to see how much something might sell for. See my article selling products from home ideas.

2. My Second eBay Side Hustle Online

After a while of this, and having learned a lot about what would sell and what wouldn’t, I found an eBook which taught another strategy. The idea is to find badly listed items on eBay and sell them back on eBay with a better listing. By finding items which are incorrectly spelled, you can get things for far less that their worth. This is because there’s far fewer people who bid on those items.

side hustle online

People can’t see them when they are searching (because of the spelling error). Once you have bought your cheap item using the bargain checker website, and auctionsniper.com, simply re-list your item but with the correct spelling, more pictures, detail and more keywords. Also you should place a low starting bid to encourage more bidders and bidding war.

Checkout my full article on this simple and profitable strategy.

3. Another Side Hustle Online

So there’s two side hustle’s online which anyone can use. Despite a certain success with the eBay strategy, I was still not sure I was doing my best to use the internet and my time to their fullest capacity. I was spending a lot of time finding bargain items, bidding, waiting at the post office and re-listing items and emailing customers about various problems or queries. It seemed like I was tied in and I spend many hours working away, without really making enough money to justify all the work I did.

After purchasing the eBook which explained the above ‘system’, I realised there must be a better way. The eBook which taught the above system, was an automatically downloadable book. I purchased it from eBay itself through a listing. It struck me as the perfect business model because it was automated and could be used again and again. The book was a digital product and could be sold and re-sold without the owner having to lift a finger! Call me lazy, but that sounded to me like the perfect business model!

This idea led me to another business model – affiliate marketing. After some unsuccessful attempts at selling my own eBooks online, I decided to learn how to sell digital products online.

Why Digital Products Are The Future – Side Hustle Online

Digital products are the future because of the ability to:

Sell them globally
Earn higher commissions on their sale (Typically 40%)
Deliver the over the internet
Scale up the sales without limitation

Anyone can learn to sell digital products over the internet. The business model is know as affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is basically a performance based kind of referral marketing. By recommending products and services over the internet, affiliates can earn commissions based on the sales. Because the sales are then either automated, or delivered by someone else, the affiliate marketer can focus on marketing.

side hustle online

Digital products can be sold over and over again through the same platform. This makes them very scalable. With global products it also means you can sell them anywhere. As long as someone has a laptop and an internet, they can download digital products.

Why A Digital Business? – Online Side Hustle

A digital business can give anyone the ability to work from anywhere around existing employment and learn the best strategies for building an online business. You can:

Earn while you learn
Work from anywhere
Scale up your business
Start without any experience
Build an income which surpasses your current employment (disclaimer: income is never guaranteed)

Anyone can get on the path to becoming an affiliate marketer.

Access a free 7 day video series to learn more.

April 23, 2018July 1, 2020

Scalable Startup – An Internet Based Scalable Startup Business

What is a scalable startup business? The dictionary defines startup as:

noun

noun: startup

the action or process of setting something in motion.

“the start-up of marketing in Europe”
a newly established business.

plural noun: start-ups; plural noun: startups

“problems facing start-ups and small firms in rural areas”

Scalable Startup

A startup doesn’t have to be your own, it could also be an existing business model you use. Affiliate marketing and drop shipping are the two main ‘go-to’ scaleable business models. They are scalable mainly because there’s no need to get involved in the processes of the business itself.

You don’t need to deliver anything personally or speak to any customers. In the Tim Ferris book The 4 hr work week, he used drop shipping as a business model which can be scaled and grown from anywhere. Ultimately the goal of such a business is time and financial freedom. With a scalable startup like this, anyone can grow a business which is able to be operated from anywhere globally from an internet connection.

That’s quite appealing to almost everyone because it means you can build a business from your laptop, scale it and automate it. But who can do this, what are the barriers to entry and how can you get started?

How To Start A Scalable Startup From Anywhere

As more people come into this industry, new software has made it far easier to learn and operate the tools of the trade. Not so long ago, even building a website was the domain of the tech guru. You even needed to build from code not that long ago. Now everyone can have a website up and running in minutes and equally have an internet business which offers scalability and automation. Checkout this video which shows just how easily you could have a scalable startup running very quickly. (click the image below)

Scalable Startup – Scalable Definition

scalable

ˈskeɪləb(ə)l/

adjective

1.

able to be scaled or climbed.
2.

able to be changed in size or scale.

“scalable fonts”

Most businesses are scalable to a point. But then their location and business model stops them growing bigger and faster. An internet based business which uses digital products is much more scalable than say a local business which employees 10 staff.

scalable startup

That’s because a local business is limited by its location. Unless there’s a internet side of the business, there will be a limit to how many customers it can serve. Even then, having employees means that the systems in place are limited by the number of people you have. Whether your staff serve customers or create products, there’s limit to how much they can do.

An online business can be automated and serve multiple people at once through a website, for example. If you start an online business which sends prospects and customers to another business model, you don’t have to be concerned with the back-end – the day to day running of the show. Your only concern is the front end marketing side of the business. That’s the part which is very scalable, especially with an online business.

A ‘bricks and mortar’ business is limited too by its size. Growth requires expansion of physical premises. An online business has no such problems. It it already geared for massive scalability to a global scale.

What Makes An Online Business So Scalable?

An online business is scalable because it uses tools, systems and strategies which can be automated. Websites for example, run 24 hours a day without the need for human presence. Digital products can be bought and delivered instantaneously over the internet with automation.

scalable startup

Adverts can run 24/7 with no interference, delivering customers directly to the products they most need. Email marketing can allow online marketers to send a single email to tens of thousands of people simultaneously. The process can even be completely automated too. Emails can deliver service, build relationships and promote any product or service.

If you start an online business which lets you focus solely on the ‘front-end’ marketing side, you can grow and scale your business from anywhere globally. If your business model includes digital products you can earn 40% commissions on your sales. A good business model also allows you to earn back-end commissions (later sales made to your customers), subscription commissions (commissions for ongoing memberships and software products) and various other benefits:

A built in sales team – simply refer customers and benefit from in house sales
Multi-tier commissions – commissions made by sales of your team (your referrals)
High ticket products – Let you use paid advertising and scale up more effectively.

With the right business model an online business can continue to bring in commissions long after you have done all the hard work. Because it works with automation and systems geared for scaling up to a global audience, an online business offers anyone the one of the best scalable startup businesses.

Access An Online ‘Scalable Startup’ Business Which Anyone Can Run

Most people will say they are either too old or simply don’t have the technical ability to run an online business. As you have already seen, software and online tools eliminate much of the technical barriers to entry in a business like this one. There’s also plenty of people at all ages who are already succeeding in this area.

Join an online community and access online training and a proven business system. Learn how to start your own scalable startup, even with no experience. Access a 7 day video series here to learn more and get started.

April 17, 2018April 13, 2018

Off The Shelf Ecommerce Business

If you’re looking for an off the shelf ecommerce business, there’s a few things to consider. Firstly, how are you going to promote your business? Many off the shelf ecommerce business models offer a model which requires free website traffic. For example, any ecommerce model which uses only Google Adsense adverts to generate revenue. Or are you selling products from Amazon? Low cost physical products only pay out low commissions. Checkout the table below for details.

off the shelf ecommerce business

Off The Shelf Ecommerce – Business Model

An off the shelf ecommerce business should offer multiple ways to earn and a solid business system. For example, affiliate products vary in their commissions structure. Many affiliate products only offer low level commissions and only pay you once. By choosing a product structure which gives you ongoing commissions, you’ll be more likely to be able to make profit within the first year.

Ideally you should choose an off the shelf ecommerce business which offers:

High ticket commissions – This allows you to generate larger profits more easily and quickly. You can more easily scale up your business and offset advertising costs, enabling you to use paid advertising.
Up-sells- Choose an off the shelf ecommerce business which offers commissions on later sales closed after your initial referral; sales closed by a built in sales team which still give you the credit.
Multi-level commissions – This refers to commissions made for sales of your team. Depending on your placement in any ecommerce business means you can make more on the back end, from your referrals.
Memberships/Subscription commissions – with the right off the shelf ecommerce setup, you can earn ongoing commissions from previous sales. Memberships, software and subscription products allow you to do this. Does your off the shelf ecommerce business allow this?

Off The Shelf Business – What You Get

There are various off the shelf website businesses available. Many of these offer to build a website for you. But what about after that? Do you know how to market your website? You’ll need to learn if you don’t already know this. Does your off the shelf business offer to help you with this? Or, are they simply selling you a website which isn’t going to make any money?

Marketing your ecommerce business is probably the most important part of your business, besides the business model itself. Don’t expect your website to get found in the trillions of websites floating around the internet. You have to promote it, or you’ll never get any traffic.

An off the shelf ecommerce website is often sold as an automated business which lets you put your feet up and watch as the money rolls in. However, this isn’t the full story. You definitely want automation in your business model and a sound business system to give you multiple ways to earn from it. But you also need to realistically look at how you’re going to market your website, and how your business model effects this.

Off The Shelf Ecommerce Business – Website

An off the shelf ecommerce business can be set up very quickly with both a website and a ready made sales funnel. Checkout the video below by clicking the image. You’ll see just how quickly you can have a website (and business system), set up and running.

Off The Shelf Ecommerce Website

As you can see, most of the technical aspect of building a website has been removed. This means that anyone can learn how to build an online business without the need for massive technical knowledge. With this business system and education platform, you can also learn all aspects of marketing for your website and integrated sales funnel.

Access the full video series here and learn how to use this business system and what you’ll need to do.

Off The Shelf Ecommerce Business – Marketing

Unless you’re spending several thousands on a pre built money making website, you’ll need to market your website yourself. Even though there is a fully set up and working digital business (access here), you’ll still need to generate traffic to it, in order for it to generate any income. You can also learn how to do this with this same ‘all in one’ digital business system and training platform.

Marketing a website can be done in several ways. According to your preferences and situation you can take one of two routes, or use a bit of both:

Paid advertising
Free Content Generation

Paid advertising is the fastest method of generating traction in your ecommerce business. That’s why you need a business model which pays out the larger amounts if you want to go this route. Free advertising takes time and effort. It can’t be scaled like paid strategies can either. If you can get free traffic, that’s great. But it will depend on your particular business niche, and your ability to create useful content.

You can can access both my ebooks on the subject by signing up to the email series.

Off The Shelf Ecommerce – Summary

So before you rush in, make sure you know a little first about the business model you’re purchasing. Does your off the shelf business let you use paid advertising? If your business model offers high ticket products, subscriptions, back end sales and multi-tier commissions, you’ll be able to use paid advertising which is scalable.

Having an ecommerce business which relies on your building free traffic can take a huge amount of time and effort. Is that what you want for your business? Ultimately an off the shelf ecommerce should have the ability to help you generate more time and financial freedom. You’ll need to learn all aspects of online marketing and how your marketing should fit depending on your business model and particular niche.

Access an ‘all-in-one’ ecommerce business system, training platform and online community here.

April 8, 2018April 6, 2018

Millionaire Mentors Online

Looking for millionaire mentors online? Jay Kubassek and Stuart Ross are two millionaire mentors who have created an online community for entrepreneurs looking to build their own online businesses. Here’s a picture of me with Jay Kubassek at a London seminar.

Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek have helped thousands of online entrepreneurs realise their dreams of becoming independent online entrepreneurs.

Millionaire Mentors Online

So what can you expect from these two millionaire mentors online? Stuart and Jay are dedicated to their online company and community The Six Figure Mentors. They teach their students how to build online businesses through their webinars, live seminars and through their students and business leaders. They also offer their business system to their students to use as a fully operational business. Students can learn the fundamental aspects of online marketing while promoting any of the available products over the internet through affiliate marketing.

An Online Business System

The platform offered by Stuart And Jay is an online business system which gives anyone the ability to sell a range of digital products over the internet through a ready made sales funnel. Anyone can become an affiliate marketer and sell products over the internet. However, many attempt this and never quite make it. The Six Figure Mentors is a training and education platform designed for online entrepreneurs who are serious about transforming themselves into full time digital entrepreneurs.

This involves setting up a business system which can be automated, scaled and worked at from anywhere. As long as you have an internet connection and a laptop, you can operate this business. Digital products can be sold from anywhere to anywhere in the world. Affiliates can earn 40% commissions on a range of products and services.

millionaire mentors online

However, much of what Stuart and Jay teach is about mindset. This is because it is probably the number one reason why most people fail with affiliate marketing. For most of us, money is scarce. This leads us to make choices which limit us and our spending ability, therefore creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of continual poverty or scarcity. “There’s not enough so I’ll continue to make choices which limit my earning power”.

What’s Involved?

Millionaire mentors online Stuart and Jay don’t just offer a lot of whimsical fluffy advise and leave you to it! There’s a community of people to connect with, a huge variety of online training and education tools and regular events to plug into and learn from.

The SFM is an all-in-one digital learning program and digital business system. However, don’t expect it to be plain sailing. Building a successful online business takes a lot of hard work and continual effort on your part. It’s definitely not a ‘set it and forget it’ magic bullet system which does everything for you.

Initially you will need to work through the getting started modules if you decide to apply to join the SFM by purchasing the application. This will give you access to module 1 of the training modules in the training platform.

millionaire mentors online

If you decide to join the community and access the full training, you can start to build your own online business sales funnel. The sales funnel will allow you to build a website, email series follow up which contains a product suite. This can allow you to earn commissions on products sold through your own marketing efforts.

The Key To Online Success

You can also look over the shoulders of other online business owners who have already made process and achieved success with their online businesses. Stuart and Jay are also available via various online webinars and interactive live training courses. The key to success online is in connecting with other business owners and taking massive action once you understand how the business system works.

Tools, strategies and techniques will allow you to automate much of the selling process through your very own digital sales funnel. Learning these strategies correctly and “owning” your business is key to becoming a successful online marketer. Ultimately, if you put in the work in the right way, and over a long enough time period, you can automate much of your online sales system. This journey is different for everyone because everyone has different circumstances, abilities and learning curves. Earnings can never be guaranteed and results will be different for everyone.

Access a free 7 day video series to learn more here.

Why An Online Business? Automation + Larger Commissions

An online business is different to most because it offers the ability to automate and scale. Most business models don’t have a global appeal, nor can they offer to sell digital products over the internet. Selling physical products creates an immediate problem. To sell physical products you need to manufacture them, store them and post them.

Even affiliate marketers who sell other people’s digital products must forgo a large portion of their potential commission. Affiliates who sell digital products can earn 40% + commissions compared to 3-10% on physical products. This is partly because digital products are so cheap to store, manufacture and deliver. The profits can be shared with the (affiliate) marketers because of this.

Scalability

An online business also has the potential for scaling up to a massive audience. With digital products which offer a global appeal and can be accessed from anywhere, the opportunity to scale is unlimited. For many businesses, they are limited by their local audience, their staff, size of premises and a number of other physical boundaries.

Millionaire mentors online focus on digital products because of this ability to scale up and automate to process. By reinvesting profits and scaling up advertising, online entrepreneurs can reach an ever growing number of people globally with their products and services. This can mean you earn commissions through a number of different methods:

High ticket digital products
Subscription products
Software products
Up-sells – Products which you sell to existing customers
Multi-tier sales – Products sold by your team

Access a 7 day video series here.

March 31, 2018March 28, 2018

Adsense Micro Niche Sites

Adsense micro niche sites used to be all the rage. You threw up a website based around a keyword rich domain name, left it there, and earned money. I had a number of sites like this myself: a site called tedsheds.net which did rank for a number of years. Then there was a mushroom harvesting website which was top of Google for “when to harvest mushrooms” for ages. I had a number of these tiny micro niche websites which were poised to make money via Adsense income ‘trickles’. They did work for a time too, and I also sold a few affiliate products from some of them.

Adsense Micro Niche Sites

The main problem was, they all fell off the search results, even the ones I worked on tirelessly for years! Unless you’re going to put a lot of work in on these sites to keep them going, you’re better off doing something else with your time. Needless to say none of mine exist any more. It was once a good strategy back when there was much less competition. But now Google won’t even rank a tiny niche website which has just been thrown up. It can take months before they’ll even recognise it. Plus Google is more sophisticated these days. They look for social signals and interaction in order to give new websites any credibility.

You at least need to be passionate about your website, and make it good. Small “throw up” websites built make money seldom offer any value for their visitors, and Google wants value, not crap!

Adsense Micro Niche Websites

adsense micro niche websites

If you’re going to roll your sleeves up and make an awesome site around a micro niche, you’ll want to choose something you’re passionate about. Otherwise you won’t be able to write any meaningful content for long. You can of course get someone else to do the writing for you, but that’s going to cost you. You can use sites like fiverr.com to get work done for you.

If you do manage to get your site ranking for your main keywords, you’ll need to make sure there’s enough traffic to them to make it worth your while. This is where you do your research. Using Google’s keyword planner, you’ll want to find the ‘low hanging fruit’ keywords which both offer a reasonable amount of traffic, and are less competitive than most. I use a similar strategy which I explain in my ebook Niche Blogging For Profit.

My mistake was trying to build multiple websites around various niches. By focusing one one specific website, and making sure you align it with your interest or passion, you’ll have much more energy for the long term.

Google’s In Charge

The main problem with Adsense micro niche sites is that Google’s in charge. It’s in charge of whether it ranks your website and it’s in charge of your Adsense account too. I’ve heard of many stories, and known people personally, who have had their Adsense accounts shut down for one reason or another. Often for reasons out of their control. Imagine spending years building a website and earning an income from it, only to lose it all overnight.

Plus you have your website in the first place. This can take months or years of hard work before you see any results. Of course the ultimate goal is to have a passive income. This is worth working for of course, but only if you know what you’re doing. And nobody can ultimately say they do because Google’s algorithms are constantly changing. The ultimate goal of your website should be to offer value to the end user – that is, the person who is using Google’s platform to find information. Do this well and you’re much less likely to get yourself into trouble.

The Alternative – Affiliate Marketing + Paid Advertising

adsense micro niche sites

There is another way to make an income from the internet, automate it and turn it into a passive income. If you’re going to go to the trouble of building any Adsense micro niche sites, you might be much better off learning an implementing the various paid advertising strategies.

With paid advertising you can get your account shut down too of course. This is to protect the end user again and with good reason. Follow the terms and conditions and policy guidelines of each advertising platform, and you’ll be ok. Paid advertising strategies are arguable better than struggling for years with Adsense micro niche sites. This is for a number of reasons:

You’re much more in control with paid advertising than attempting to rank anything on Google’s organic search platform
Google want to make money, not give it away. They don’t want to rank websites which cost them money if they don’t have to. I’m not saying they are corrupt, just that they’re a money making business, so there’s a conflict of interest.
Paid advertising has become much more sophisticated with platforms Like Google’s Adwords, Facebook advertising and the many other platforms.
Re-targeting lets you ‘follow’ your website visitors around the web with your targeted adverts
Paid advertising is much more easily scalable – even if your site does rank for your keywords, there’s a limited number of people who are going to your website and clicking your adverts.
Pay per click adverts are growing much further into the organic results in many cases.
They are also less distinguishable from the organic results than they were only a few years ago. Now they are they same colour and there’s more paid ads above the fold (at the top of search results). Check out this article to see the history and changes of Google’s paid for adverts.

Paid Advertising Is Expensive – No Doubt

adsense micro niche sites

Yep, paid advertising costs money that’s true. If you’ve got a heap of time and no money, why not build Adsense micro niche sites? That was my logic because I had time, but no money when I started out online. But the niche sites simply didn’t work! I spent all of that time building sites which flopped, when I could have spent the time more productively in pay per click scalable advertising.

The main problem for most is that paid advertising platforms are prohibitively expensive. But there’s a way round this problem – use high ticket product ‘suites’ which offer multiple commission strategies. By choosing affiliate products which offer commissions for:

High ticket items – Larger value digital products help offset advertising costs
Monthly membership products – Subscription products pay you over and over for each sale you make
Up-sells – Choose products which have a suite (range of products). For each after sale purchase from your referral you’ll receive a further commission.
Multi-tier sales – Earn from your referrals sales (according to your business system placement)

Access a digital business system which lets you use all these commission elements (according to your business positioning), plus access a training and education platform to teach you all elements of advertising online.

March 8, 2018March 6, 2018

Vending Machine Franchise

Looking for a vending machine franchise? Have you thought about an online business? An online business lets you sell other people’s products and automate the process. Like a vending machine, an online business can be set up and left running, making sales while you sleep. The added benefit of an online vending machine is that you can tap into a global audience. You don’t need to refill or maintain any machines, because it’s all online.

vending machine franchise

Vending Machine Business – A Global ‘Vending Machine’

The internet can be made into a global vending machine. With the right products, know-how and attitude, anyone can learn how to build a virtual ‘vending machine’ and scale it up to make sales on near auto-pilot. See autopilot money making system.

So what’s involved, how does this work and how can you get started?

Other People’s Products

vending machine franchise

Anyone can now use the internet to sell other people’s products to a global audience. What’s even better is that some of these products offer commissions of 40%+. So you don’t need your own products to make money from the internet. But what products should you sell?

Many affiliate products offer the ability to sell over the internet for a commission. Amazon is the biggest affiliate website on the internet and lets anyone promote their products via a specific tracked link, and earn commissions.

What makes the internet similar to a vending machine is the ability to automate sales. The benefit is that you can reach a global audience and sell products over the internet. Digital products allow easy access instantly. You don’t need to post, store or manufacture products. Simply use existing digital products and promote them for commissions.

Vending Machine Franchise

An internet business which offers more than the average commissions, can be thought of very much like a vending machine franchise. An online business which lets you sell high ticket items and benefit from a back-end multi-level sales platform, has a lot of added benefits:

High ticket items – Allow you to earn higher level commissions and use aggressive marketing tactics to scale up into the higher level income brackets.
Multi-Tier sales – Let you earn commissions from second level sales (sales made by your referrals)
Built in sales system and team – After your initial referral, you can benefit from a sales team closing your sales on your behalf
Up-selling – Up sales come from a product range which is offered to existing customers. This is automated and a sales team will help close sales on your behalf.
Built in training platform and community of entrepreneurs

A fending machine franchise allows you to sell certain products within an established range. An online business franchise does the same. You can benefit from being able to sell online training and education programs. Promote a digital business platform and an online entrepreneurial community and learn the skills you need while you build your business. You can access the video series here for more information.

Vending Machine Franchise – My Story

I started out online looking for a business I could run alongside periodic work contracts. Initially I used eBay and bought and sold from the auction site. I found an eBook which taught a system to buy and sell from eBay. However, it was the eBook itself which fascinated me.

I could access it immediately over the internet by instant download. The whole sale was automated and no-one was in the ‘loop’ of the sale. The sale of a digital product also meant it could be sold over and over again through a single listing on eBay. The digital product was a repeatable business model.

I knew this was such a brilliant business model so I pursued the idea for a number of years. Initially I tried to copy it with my own products. After a while of struggle I started learning from online business courses. They taught me how to market a product online. This was the key ingredient which I was missing.

Over time I tried various online marketing and sales tactics. Digital products stood out to me because they could be sold anywhere globally. There was no postage difficulties getting in the way of a sale. I just needed the right products and to learn how to market them!

A Digital Business System – (Vending Machine Franchise)

I eventually found a clever business model and training and education platform which was co-founded by Stuart Ross and Jay Kubassek (pictured with me above). These guys were way ahead of the game! What I was thinking about, they did on a much larger scale. They were internet millionaires! I started from the 7 day video series and quickly saw the potential of this business system and model.

You can access the 7 day video series here FREE and start your online “vending machine franchise” journey today!

January 17, 2018July 1, 2020

Business You Can Start With A Laptop

A business you can start with a laptop should be both portable and scalable. I looked to the internet several years ago to earn some extra money in a flexible way and around other work. I initially looked at eBay almost 20 years ago and started selling things from my room. This turned into a part time hobby of buying and selling on the auction site. I would find items cheap from car boot sales and charity shops. Then I would re-list them on eBay and make a profit.

Business You Can Start With A Laptop – eBay

This strategy had a number of limitations. For starters it wasn’t portable because I had to buy stock in and then post it out. I had a room full of stuff most of time at one point and was constantly on the computer either looking for stock or answering messages. This definitely wasn’t the business model which was going to set me free!

I later found a little eBay ‘hack’ which let me find low priced items on eBay. You can read the full strategy in this article: how to start a profitable eBay business. At the time I thought it was pretty clever, it is. However, it also has a number of limitations. The system I used basically involved finding items on eBay which were badly listed or misspelled. By finding the misspelled items on eBay I could buy them for less than half their market value and then re-sell them again on an auction.

This strategy does work although there are some major limitations:

It’s a time heavy business model. To make it work you need to buy increasingly expensive items
It’s not scalable – you need to constantly be buying and selling individual items

Business You Can Start With A Laptop – Selling Ebooks

I found this strategy after purchasing an ebook from eBay itself. Although I had some limited success with the strategy in the ebook, it was the ebook itself which was a ‘lightbulb’ moment for me. I had bought an item from eBay which required no postage. Since I was spending so long queueing at the post office to weigh items individually and post them, this struck a chord with me. Ebooks were digital.

business you can start with a laptop

This meant they could be downloaded instantly from eBay. Although in the UK at the time, rules had recently come into place on eBay that digital products had to come with a physical disc which had to be posted. Despite this hitch I saw some magic in the ability to sell online. Downloadable products could be sold again and again through a single listing or website.

So I set about writing my own ebooks and I tried to sell them both on eBay and then on my own website.

The other thing about selling ebooks was there was no stock. It was all digital so I could sell from my laptop from anywhere. It was a business you can start with a laptop which needed no stock or postage, which sounded good to me.

Unfortunately I didn’t do very well trying to sell my ebooks. I don’t remember selling a single one. But the main reason wasn’t the ebook itself, it was my lack of marketing skills. So I looked for online courses which would help me.

Business You Can Start With A Laptop – Affiliate Marketing

I found various courses online which claimed to teach how to make money from your laptop. I tried most of them! What I realised very quickly was that the people succeeding online were not creating their own products. They were selling other people’s products. There were a few guru’s selling their own courses, but I couldn’t compete with many of the products already out there. So I became an affiliate marketer.

The model which allows anyone to sell someone else’s products is called affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is basically a kind of online referral marketing. By referring someone to a product on the internet, you can earn a commission.

With digital products such as an ebook, this can be as much as 40%+ of the cost price. You can also sell physical products from sites like Amazon and eBay too, but physical products pay less to affiliates. Physical products have postage and storage costs involved. Plus there’s the cost of manufacture, which is much higher than with digital products. Once a digital product is made, it can be sold again and again. That’s why product owners or ‘vendors’ can afford to pay out such good commissions.

Business You Can Start With A Laptop – Blogging + Pay Per Click

At around the same time I had joined several online business courses. Some of them taught affiliate marketing and other taught a different method. Google Adsense has a program which all blogger can use to put adverts on their blogs. When someone clicks on your advert, you earn a percentage of the amount the advertiser is paying. I studied on a course which taught this method for several months too. It required writing a lot of content and ranking it in the search engines.

This has become a fairly tall order. Since Google can change their algorithms whenever they like, and often do, many bloggers have fallen foul of the organic rankings. Some business owners who used to rank well have completely disappeared from the search rankings, losing their income overnight.

Although some do earn an income from Google Adsense, it is often used an an ‘extra’ income along with affiliate marketing. It takes time to generate the content needed to rank on the searches free. You also only earn tiny amounts for each click on your adverts. You need thousands of daily visitors to your blog in order to make a realistic living from it. If you manage it though, you can have a nice passive income for as long as your content keeps getting hits! I wouldn’t recommend this strategy though if you’re looking for a realistic income from the internet. There is a better way..

Business You Can Start With A Laptop – List Building

I had tried many strategies to make a living from the internet, and been disappointed many times. However, I was still convinced that from my small successes there was a better business model out there which I was about to discover! I had had some success. Mostly my success online had come in the form of paid advertising and list building – with an affiliate product.

I had joined as an affiliate to one of the training platforms I bought and I built a simple website and started sending traffic to it. Before long my inbox was full of sales for this course, one after another. I was about to make it big! All I had to do was increase my spending on advertising to increase my sales. Unfortunately my Adwords account got banned and I couldn’t recover it. I lost motivation and stopped entirely for some time despite getting so close to success.

No-one prepares you for the difficulties with an online business. Getting over these hurdles and carrying on is the hardest thing.

A Business You Can Run From A Laptop – Products

I saw an advert on Facebook which led me to sign up to a free video series (access the same series here). I decided that I had gone so far and needed to ’empty my cup’ and keep learning. This was to be the last course I would need. I knew that list building and affiliate products were the key. What I was missing though was the right kind of products and the right mindset for a digital business.

Digital Products

I knew digital products were the key for a successful internet business. 40% commissions on digital products was great and you didn’t need to speak to customers or handle any products yourself. Using digital products means you are instantly global too. A business you can start from a laptop should take full advantage of the fact that you have access to a global audience.

Automation

I knew the automation which came with digital products also made for a great business model. I just didn’t know the full picture. Websites, adverts and email autoresponders all could be automated and these were the main tools of an online business. With automation, digital products and the ability to scale to a global audience, you can have a virtually autopilot money making system, once everything is running.

A High Ticket Product Range & Subscriptions

This was the vital part of the equation I was missing. I was selling low priced items for $100. 40% commission left me with $40 which at first seemed great, because it was a novelty. However, to replace my income, I would need to sell a lot of items again and again. With a range of products and the ability to sell subscriptions (memberships), I could earn much larger commissions per sale and earn regular and ongoing payments from subscriptions. This made for a much more viable opportunity.

Support and A Community Based Training Platform

The vital final ingredient to a business you can start with a laptop: support. I struggled alone for years before I realised this vital point. Going it alone is difficult. Your friends, relatives and colleagues won’t necessarily support and help you with such a venture. More likely they will undermine your efforts. (See why your friends and family don’t want you to succeed). It’s not necessarily malicious, just that people like to maintain the status quo. You changing and doing better than them alters your relationship.

Mindset Training For Entrepreneurial Life

If you’re going to succeed at a business you can start with a laptop, you’ll need some help and advice. not just in the form of a community of support, but also in terms of your mentality. Unless you can overcome limited thinking, poor self image and old unhelpful belief systems, success will always be slightly out of reach. The ‘glass ceiling’ of a business is always limited by the thinking of its owner. This is why this training and education platform focuses on mindset development in conjunction with the nuts and bolts of building a long term sustainable internet business.

Access a training and education platform backed by a community and digital business system which people are using today to build a business you can start from your laptop. Access the free 7 day video series and learn more.

January 14, 2018July 1, 2020

Four Things To Consider Before Starting A Business

There are more than four things to consider before starting a business. But there are certain things which are fairly important for long term success and happiness. For starters what kind of business do you want to run? What would make you happy while working on something for the long term. Many people start down a path only to later realise that they’re miserable working in their business.

Does your business have growth potential? Here’s another major factor to consider. Is it scalable? A scalable business can give you more freedom back later on. Do you want to sell your business eventually, or is it a lifestyle choice. If so, does it offer the lifestyle you want, or is it going to get in the way having to work on it? Lets look a little deeper into why these are the four things to consider before starting a business.

Four Things To Consider Before Starting A Business

four things to consider before starting a business

I have a couple of businesses. One is a martial arts business and the other is a lifestyle/internet business. I love the martial arts and always have. It wasn’t until 20 years into my martial arts training that I started my own proper school. I always knew I wanted a martial arts school and I love teaching. Despite feeling a little trapped by it at times, it’s been a good decision.

I’ve also tried out many other small business ideas. I ran an eBay business for a while and eventually stopped. It didn’t give me either the income or the lifestyle I wanted and it kept me working almost all the time! See my eBay strategy here.

The main takeaways I’ve learned are that if you start up a business, choose something you love or which you have an interest in. Otherwise you’ll have a ‘ball a chain’ to carry around for a long time. If you choose a business just for the sake of the money, you’ll probably end up resenting it. This leads to the first of four things to consider before starting a business: what kind of business do you want to run?

1 – What Kind Of Business Do You Want To Run?

four things to consider before starting a business

There are all kinds of businesses. These days too you can own and operate an online business from anywhere. If you want a lifestyle/internet based business take a look at this video series to learn how you can get started. An online business can be built up around existing work and run from anywhere.

But it’s not for everyone. Not everyone has the patience to learn new skills or the ability to work on their own under their own steam. For some, an online business would be the opposite of what they want. Some are far better suited to be around other people all day and to be working within an office environment. To me that’s my idea of hell!

Knowing yourself is the first step toward deciding what kind of business would suit you. Sometimes you just have to try lots of things to get an idea of what you want. If you have an idea for a business, the best thing is to get started and get your hands dirty.

Think about what environment you work best in. Do you work better around others or by yourself? Would you like to build a business up to sell it, or because you want to work in it? Think about the long term implications of running a successful business. Do you want a lot of responsibility? Do you want to be in charge of others or be working on your own? What are you good at which can be useful in your business? What do you need others for? Take stock of your good points and bad points.

2 – Does Your Business Have Growth Potential?

four things to consdier before starting a business

How will your business grow over the long term? Can you outsource your business and grow it without being trapped by it? Are you building your business simply to earn a crust or a fortune? How much automation works in your business model? What do you want from it? Is your business sellable or scalable. If a business is scalable, you will need to think about whether you want to scale it up. An online business, for example, can be scaled up with automation and by selling digital products globally. Can your business do this?

Unless you have a growth mindset for both yourself personally and your business, it’s quite possibly that your business will stagnate. The glass ceiling of a business will always be its owner.

If your intent is simply to start a business in order to escape an unhappy situation, you may be focused on negative motivators rather than positive ones. This can impact your business. Some small businesses too are simply jobs that you own. A job that you own is a business, but it can be just as tiresome as a job over the long term when you become trapped by it.

Having a plan to grow and escape your business when you need to or want to is a good strategy. An online business lets you automate much of the process so it has built in flexibility and freedom. Does your business offer growth potential and the ability to escape it (and keep the income); or is it simply a job that you own?

3- Do You Want To Sell Your Business Eventually?

four things to consider before starting a business

If you want to build up a business and then sell it, you need to make sure you’re not the essential ‘hub’ which can’t be replaced. Is your business model sellable? A martial arts business is difficult to sell because it’s built around the instructor and the relationships they have with their students. You need to be able to automate your business and make it work without you, to build it up and sell it.

Think about the business model of your business. If it’s a franchise, you can’t sell it either because you don’t own the business. An online business can be sold if you own your website and have built it in such a way so you can hand it over once it’s doing well. Martin Lewis had successfully done this with the website moneysavingexpert.com. But if your website is built around you, like a travel blog for example, it might be more difficult to sell on, once it’s doing well.

Thinking about whether you will want to eventually sell a business, before you get into it, can make a difference to the business model you decide on. Don’t rush into it without thinking about the four things to consider before starting a business.

You might not be able to sell an online business franchise, but if it offers an automated and scalable income, you won’t want to either. Particularly if you can increase and automate your income and create a flexible lifestyle around it.

4 – Does Your Business Offer You The Lifestyle You Want?

four things to consider before starting a business

Your business is ultimately going to take up some time in your life. Does this fit in with your family, relationships and other lifetime goals and plans? Does it get in the way? Do you have an exit strategy or is your business going to be your main focus for the foreseeable future? Do you want start your business around other commitments or do you have the resources to make it your main living immediately? What is your current situation right now in terms of finance?

Some businesses will require more input than others. What do you think is required to make a success of the business you want to start? Is this realistic? Are you going to make a lot of money from your business or are you just needing a focus to keep yourself busy?

Look closely at your motives for starting a business. Is it to avoid a situation or create one? Do you secretly wish you could do something else? Are you going to enjoy both the process and the outcome of owning your own business?

Not all businesses are alike. Some will require a lot more time and effort than others. Some are scalable and allow you to build them up around exisitng commitments until they are profitable. Other require more financial input initially to get them up and running. What’s your financial position and how much can you invest in your business?

A lifestyle/internet based business will require a couple of years of hard work before you can expect to be profitable. For some it’s sooner and for others it will take longer. It depends on how much time and money you can put into it. Like anything, you get out of a business what you put in.

Learn How To Build A Lifestyle Business From Scratch

four things to consdier before starting a business

Lifestyle is what will happen while you’re building your business, as well as the lifestyle you can afford depending on how successful you are. Once you have it up and running, an internet based business can offer much more freedom and flexibility than most other businesses. A ‘bricks and mortar’ business, for example may require you to continue working for years to come within your business.

Is this your idea of what a business should give you? Or do you want more freedom and flexibility from a business? Lifestyle, both during the building and after your (hopefully) successful outcome are important factors to consider. Do you have space in your life for a business and will it affect your most important relationships? There are more than four things to consider before starting a business. Which is most important to you: your business or your friendships and relationships?

An online business can offer anyone the opportunity to build and develop their own business from scratch. It also offers a lot more flexibility and freedom because it can be built from anywhere globally from a laptop and scaled up. Once systems are running correctly and you have done much of the setting up, your business can run on ‘autopilot’.

This kind of online business system is already allowing many online entrepreneurs to live a much more flexible life from anywhere globally working from their laptop with an internet connection.

Learn how you can do this. Start here with this 7 day video series.

What are the most important four things to consider before starting a business? Please leave your comments below starting with the most important.