Looking for flexible working ideas? The idea of having a flexible job is quite an attractive one. Choosing your own hours and working at your own pace sounds like a dream for the average person who is stuck in a 9-5 job. How about also being able to choose where you work? Working a flexible job from your laptop gives you a huge amount of freedom but it doesn’t happen over night. You still need your regular income until you can earn as much or more than you earn from your regular job. An internet based business though, is the perfect flexible job.
What an internet business offers
An internet based business offers complete autonomy from a boss or regular working hours. You can work from your laptop at your own pace. The downside is that you will have to learn as you go and it can take time before you are turning a profit. One of the benefits of an online business is that it can offer an ongoing and largely automated income stream, which can be built on over time.
Portfolio income
Working more than one job offers the ability to have a flexible work pattern, however this can be difficult and often trying to juggle too many jobs or ‘careers’ can mean you are spinning too many plates and it is hard to focus on any one of them properly. Flexible work isn’t always flexible to your benefit and often it means fitting in with your employers needs rather than your own! However having a ‘portfolio income’ or multiple sources of income and more than one job can mean you are not reliant on any one should times get difficult in any particular trade.
Job For Life
Many people now have more than one job and the idea of a ‘job for life’ tends to be an idea from a bygone era for most people now. Companies are employing people on a ‘self employed’ basis so they don’t have to offer sick pay and holidays. The idea of ‘job security’ no longer really exists in the long term for many.
This is all the more so for trade industries who are being overtaken by the digital world. Many companies have suffered from the increasing trend in online spending. The drive to automate through technology is also seeing off many employees. If you’re in business and are not joining the digital shift, you’re being left behind by it.
One of the best ways to start an internet business is through marketing digital products through affiliate marketing. This is (simply put) selling other people’s products for commissions. The benefits of this way of working are huge and there are not many start up businesses which can be compared to affiliate marketing for low start up costs and a completely flexible lifestyle. Learn more by signing up to this video series.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affililate marketing lets you promote goods and services from around the internet to earn commissions. It’s a business model which thousands of people already use to earn a full time income from their laptop. By linking to other people’s products and services around the web, anyone can earn money through commisssions based on their sales.
Digital Products
The sale of digital products means affiliate marketers can earn 40% + on sales they generate online. Digital products also are easy to deliver automatically and cost nothing to store, since they can be stored digitally. That’s why vendors (owners of digital products) can afford to pay their affiliates o much for a sale.
Affiliate Marketing And Flexible Working Ideas
Affiliate marketing probably offers one of the best solutions to flexible working. You can work any where and at any time with an affilaite marketing business. The internet allows you to sell digital products globally from your front room. You can even work by the pool in your holiday home providing you have an internet connection.
Ebay and Flexible Working
Before I found affiliate marketing I used ebay. I would buy and sell items for profit on the giant auction site. Take a look at the strategy I used in my article how to start a profitable ebay business. Ebay is a useful platform for buying and selling but it has its limitations too. With digital products you don’t need to physcially store or post items. You simply direct customers to products. This can be done in several different ways.
Affiliate Marketing – Content Generation
Generating content (like this article) is one way to build website traffic. From this you can promote various items which may be of use to your visitors. You can also create videos for youtube, hold webinars and seminars and build an email list of subscribers to send your content to.
Affiliate Marketing – Direct Response Marketing
One of the best tools for flexible working ideas is direct response marketing. With direct response marketing you can set up adverts to be shown to people already searching for your products and services. By tapping into the global online search tools like Google, Bing and Yahoo you can sell product directly to people already searching for them. You can also use Facebook to market products to well chosen audiences. See why target marketing is important.
Other Flexible Working Ideas
Although I found affiliate marketing to be the best of many flexible working ideas, here are a few other ideas.
TV Extra – Work on the TV around existing work. Sign up for an extras agency near you for more information
Ebay – Checkout my post on how to start a profitable ebay business.
Car Boot Sales – Buy and sell from a car boot sale or run your own car boot sales
DIY Business – Set up your own DIY business from home helping people do small DIY jobs! All you need is a small Google Places advert. See my ebook The Ultimate Guide To Online Marketing for details of setting up.
Teach Part Time Classes in the evenings – If you have a skill, play a musical instrument or can teach after school classes why not set up a small business teaching from home?