I started looking for flexible work from home careers over 10 years ago. My search led me to several online “work from home” opportunities. If you want to find out where I ended up, and what I do now, skip to the end of this article!
Before I was really starting to take the internet seriously as a means to earn an income, I looked to eBay to make a little extra cash by selling things.
Flexible Work From Home Careers – An eBay Business Idea
This was back in the 90’s and eBay only opened it’s (digital) doors in 1995! I started by selling some things from around my home. Later, and when I needed some extra income, I looked to eBay for things to sell for a profit. This began with my then hobby of searching in car boot sales and charity shops. Before all the shop owners realised about eBay, prices used to be very low! Since charity shop owners and car boot people caught the eBay bug, prices went up!
I had a room full of stock which I was constantly selling on eBay at one point and I was always tied to the computer. There had to be a better way. I downloaded an eBook which taught me how to use eBay to find items for cheap, and then re-sell them back on eBay again. You can checkout the full description of this strategy here.
This strategy works well and can on its own make you a nice income. You just need to use it and learn from it. By choosing the right products and making a good mark up on each, you can earn entirely from the internet.
Flexible Work From Home Careers – Automation
But it ultimately wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted more time and money. But this model seemed to tie me into the computer in a way which I didn’t want. I was always answering questions from buyers and sellers. Or, I was searching for bargains scouring the internet for items to sell.
Downloading an ‘eBook’ gave me the idea of a more automated business model. I had paid for it over the internet (from eBay) and downloaded it automatically. This struck me as the perfect business model. It was able to be automated and scaled and I didn’t need to be “chained” to the computer.
I started by building my own eBooks but quickly realised I was out of my depth. I needed more knowledge about marketing a product online since I knew nothing of it. So I started looking for online courses which would teach me. This led me to a business model known as affiliate marketing.
Flexible Work From Home Careers  – Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing lets anyone earn from the internet by recommending other people’s products and making sales. This was the business model I eventually decided on. I had tried various other methods too, but none gave me the success I had from affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing struck me as the quickest and simplest way to earn money from the internet.
It is also one of the most flexible work from home careers which I found. Affiliate marketing lets you automate sales, scale up and build up your business around existing work. It takes time and effort, like any business, but the rewards for affiliate marketing seemed to be worth the effort.
Flexible Work From Home Ideas – An Online Business Opportunity
I struggled with affiliate marketing for several years until I found a community of online entrepreneurs who helped me. This was because of the support and help but also because of a unique business model which is slightly different to many of the affiliate products which I had previously sold. This business model offered a sales funnel and range of digital products which I could sell for a commission. It was different to the previous products because of a number of benefits which makes this business much more realistic, even for a beginner:
- High ticket products – Items valued at $500+ give you larger commissions for each sale
- Subscription products – Let you earn continually from each sale.
- Up-sells – The ability to earn from later sales to your existing customers gives you another earning stream
- Digital products – let you earn 40% commissions on your sales (as opposed to physical products which pay much less).
- The support of an online community – watch ‘over the shoulder’ of people who are succeeding and attend live question and answer webinars with your queries.
- A built in sales team – closing sales on your behalf.
- A sales funnel with a product ‘suite’ which you can use to sell globally.
Use a business system and online community which can give you all of the above benefits. Access a 7 day video series to learn more and get started.Â
Watch the video below to see how anyone can use this online business software to build a business online from anywhere, no matter their age and even without any experience.
