Posts – Page 4 – Launch Digital Freedom

6 Easy Steps for Maintaining Good Habits

I have recently started running again. Usually, I set myself a goal and I go all out until I hit my target. (My new goal is to run 21.1 km in under 2 hours) But once the running goal is achieved, I tend to fall into lazy habits again. So how do I keep on maintaining good habits?

What is a good habit?

Before we get into how to maintain good habits, we need to understand what a good habit is. The free dictionary defines it as A behaviour that is beneficial to one’s physical or mental health, often linked to a high level of discipline and self-control.

Whereas many of these good habits can be general and common, it’s better you define your own good habits. At least define them in your own way. One person’s good habits will not fit another person’s good habits. It often helps you to define your values first. Knowing your values will allow you to form habits that you will be more likely to keep.

For example, my values include family, time outdoors, and exercise. One habit I have no trouble keeping is taking regular walks in the park with my family (That includes my best friend, Bruno!)

How habits work

The world counts have a great article on Habits. The importance of Good Habits. They explain habits in an interesting way.

There is a habit loop.

A trigger: This can be a place, time, person or even feeling
Routine: Something you do because of the trigger (i.e., watch TV)
Reward: This is a chemical response from your brain.

Because of the reward, the habit loop is reinforced. The loop is a self-reinforcing mechanism that over time becomes automatic. Knowing this means we can create good new habits.

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What is the importance of maintaining good habits?

So why is it even important to maintain these good habits?

They can keep you healthy

Eating good foods, exercise and mental health can all be set by creating habits. You need to identify them in your unique frame of reference and set the habit in motion.

They help you to reach your goals

Habits are the building blocks of doing things consistently to produce results. You will need to tweak, change, and reset your habits from time to time when you need to make the step to your next level.

If developed correctly, they keep you focused

By forming the correct habits, it can keep you focused on your goals. For example, I have a daily method of operation which includes a list. My habit is to get this stuff done first. If you want to learn more about DMO, check out this post. Daily Method Of Operation Simple and Fun.

Habits get you through the mundane

And let’s face it, a lot of the things we know we need to do to get where we want to be are not “fun”. Some of them can be rather mundane and easily skipped if not placed into a good habit. One thing I would not do if it were not a habit is to follow up with prospects.

6 ways for maintaining good habits

So now we know what a habit is, how habits work and why habits are important to keep. So here are 5 ways that will help you in maintaining them.

1 Access your goals (Regularly)

It will be very hard to keep a habit that is not in line with your goals. Make sure you have a defined goal, and a plan to get there. If these are in place, it will help you form the habit necessary to get there.

2 Start today

Start immediately. Don’t wait till next Tuesday. Habits are all about momentum. The momentum you have from the thought of what you need to do only lasts for this moment. Next Tuesday there will be an unforeseen problem preventing you from starting.

3 Start small

If you are unfit and decide to run 10 km tomorrow, you might do it once or twice. But when you feel sore and in pain tomorrow and the next day, your body will relate it to a painful experience. What we need for the habit is related to a good feeling. Rather run 1 km a day every second day for a couple of weeks. Build on that once the habit is formed.

4 Schedule it

Related to starting today, and starting small, just make sure it’s in your calendar. To begin with, it may be hard, so get it done first. Get it out the way. You’ll feel better when you get into bed at night. That is the feeling you need. In time the habit will form, and one day you even notice you are doing it. That is the ZEN in forming habits.

5 Get Accountability

If you find it hard to get started on your own, get a friend to hold you accountable. Just let them know what you are doing and why you are doing it. Share your schedule with them. Hopefully, they check in with you regularly. Eventually, hopefully, you will be telling them of your daily success before they ask the question!

6 Create new goals

I started this article with my problem. How will I keep a good habit going once my goal is achieved? Well, I think I may have answered it here above in a way. I need to make sure it aligns with my values (checked) and I will need to create a new goal before I reach this one.

The new goal after this one is: Run a marathon. 42.2 KM

Just a note here: Make sure you enjoy your success in between goals. Otherwise, you might lose the point of why you are doing what you are doing

In Closing

As important as it is to form habits, a habit can go into overdrive. Picking up this overdrive can be tricky, as habits are invisible when in motion. So just remember to regularly access your values, improve your goals, and listen to those around you. You should be able to spot one in overdrive.

So, happy habit forming!

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How Jarvis.AI Can End Writers Block and Help You Write Better and Faster?

Have you ever found yourself staring at your computer screen wondering what to write? Well, you are not alone! I think everyone has had this experience at some point or another. Maybe you need to write a post for your company’s website. Perhaps you need to write a social media post or advert? Whatever you may need to write, the fact is, sometimes writing is a lot tougher than it sounds! And well, that’s where a little help can go a long way. Artificial intelligence has been gaining momentum over the past decade or more and has started to filter down into our everyday lives. Take social media and search engine algorithms as an example. Intelligent systems are used to deliver intelligent results based on large arrays of data. We see the effect of these systems every day as we interact with these interfaces.

So has AI reached a point where it can write content?

What is Jarvis?

Enter Jarvis! A revolutionary new writing tool using artificial intelligence to help anyone from seasoned writers to beginners. It has the capability to write different types of content based on the inputs that you give it.

Creepy… but true.

The team at jarvis.ai has managed to train this AI writer to generate content for various short and long-form content. Give it the right inputs and you can get the kind of content you need. It does require guidance but it can be guided to write some interesting types of content.

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How does Jarvis work?

Jarvis is based on an Artificial Intelligence framework that is capable of learning languages in order to be able to write. The information that Jarvis draws from is sourced from the internet. The company states that Jarvis has read close to 10% of the world’s content from blog posts, Reddit threads, websites, newspapers and much more.

Through the sheer volume of information, Jarvis has consumed, it is able to evaluate how language is used and how to write expressively. Yes, believe it or not, Jarvis can actually express emotions through adjusting the tone of voice he writes in. This allows the content created to be engaging for the reader, quite an astounding achievement.

According to their website, “The base training was completed at the end of 2019. That means Jarvis doesn’t know about current events from January 2020 and beyond. Jarvis doesn’t know COVID-19 happened.”

Even though the AI doesn’t “know” that the pandemic happened, it can still write content based on the inputs you give it to generate relevant content that is based on current affairs.

“While Jarvis may not know about COVID-19 or that the Lakers won the 2020 NBA Championship, he does know vast amounts about coronaviruses, pandemics, Wuhan, SARS, Lebron James, Basketball, The Lakers, and NBA. By feeding Jarvis updated information about the topic you’re writing about, you’ll see Jarvis can typically do a great job of writing about it.”

Why would you need Jarvis.ai?

Writing isn’t for everyone!

In fact, even writers can get writer’s block at times. It happens. It’s a real thing. And this is the very reason why you would want to consider using an AI writing assistant.

You could even use Jarvis for generating ideas or outlines for blog posts, websites, adverts, or other content. In fact according to their website, “While Jarvis has read much of the internet, the way he is trained to write causes him to put more emphasis on creativity than factuality.”

The point is that Jarvis has been designed to focus on creativity first and I can imagine as time passes it will be able to generate more factually accurate content. So you will need to make sure that anything that Jarvis writes is factually correct. This is fair as you are ultimately responsible for any content you publish.

Having said that there are many things Jarvis can do that can help break writer’s block and help you create content that can be used as needed.

Templates for Writing

Jarvis has around 50 templates and growing that can help you get started with various writing projects. These templates make it as simple as adding a title, a description, and setting a tone of voice. The clearer your inputs the better Jarvis will understand the brief so take your time to clarify what you want written.

Long-form content for blog articles and other content.
Text summarizer – get a breakdown of the text you input.
Engaging questions – ideas for questions to ask your audience.
Press Release Title & Introduction – Write the opening paragraph of a press release that people will actually want to read.
Unique Value Proposition – Create a clear statement that describes the benefit of an offer in a unique way.
Personal Bios – Create an interesting personal bio that grabs attention.
Company Bios – Tell your company’s story in a captivating way.
YouTube Descriptions – Create descriptions for your Youtube videos that rank well in search engines.
Video Topic Ideas – Brainstorm ideas for your next video.
Google Ads Description – Create high converting copy for your Ad description.
And much more…

Boss Mode

If the templates are not enough for you then Boss Mode might be the choice for you! It allows you to interact directly with Jarvis but you can only enable Boss Mode on the top-tier package. What this does is allow you to type commands, or use voice commands to tell Jarvis what to do. Pretty insane, but true.

If you want more control over how Jarvis writes you definitely want to invest in this feature! You might even feel like Ironman, just saying…

Training

Once you’ve signed up and had access to Jarvis, I’d highly recommend running through the Jarvis Bootcamp. The Bootcamp will explain concepts like how the AI learns language, writes, and how to get the results you want. I wouldn’t suggest diving headfirst into it as you might waste time and your allotted word count.

I think they’ve done a fantastic job in creating a fun format for learning about Jarvis. The training is short, to the point and the videos are done in a fun and entertaining way that I found helpful, informative, and easy to grasp. So invest the time, maybe 45minutes to an hour so you can get better results from the platform.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is here and it’s making waves. Is it good enough to replace a writer altogether? No, not right now. It still requires you to input information and guides it. Is it worth considering as a writing aid? Definitely! It can help writers brainstorm, create written paragraphs, and help generate content when struggling to get the creative ball rolling!

If you write content regularly it might be a great tool to assist in the process. Jarvis offers a 5 day trial with 10 000 word count, so you can test it out for yourself.

Write on…

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Is Affiliate Marketing a Legit Way to Make Money?

Maybe you’ve heard about affiliate marketing, and you’re not sure it’s a legit thing. Maybe you wanted to join an affiliate network and decided against it. The point is, you might be feeling skeptical about whether it is safe to pursue. That’s exactly what I’m going to answer in this article… is affiliate marketing just another scammy business model?

Why is Affiliate Marketing Perceived as a Scam?

Unfortunately one of the biggest culprits is dodgy affiliate marketers that use bad practices or misleading strategies to get people to click on links and buy products. Yes, just like every industry there are always bad apples. And well affiliate marketing is no different.

In the early days of the internet, all manner of dodgy tactics were used to get clicks. And well, yes, still now there are plenty of chancers! This isn’t a reflection on affiliate marketing, but rather on the people trying to cheat the system.

Today affiliate networks use more sophisticated technology to track purchases! This is to ensure there is no foul play by catching scammers who misuse their affiliate programs.

Is Affiliate Marketing a Pyramid Scheme?

A pyramid scheme is where everyone has to pay up to join with all kinds of false promises of great returns on their investments. On top of that often they are conned into paying more and more down the line. The people at the top, generally the scammers, will make off with all the money and leave everyone else out of pocket!

Affiliate marketing works on a commission model and rewards affiliates for referrals. It doesn’t require you to pay money to gain benefit from it! You see, affiliate marketing is simply a referral strategy for businesses, large and small. It helps them grow their audience by rewarding people or businesses that promote their products.

And this is a safe and easy way to earn money without having to invest large amounts of capital. No need to build up a stock of products, to then ship to your customers. It takes the complexities of running a business out of your hands! It allows you and me to promote products we like or use, through a blog or social media page at no upfront cost. This is awesome for anyone with limited resources to start earning a commission for their efforts.

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So are Affiliate Programs Equal?

Well, the answer is obviously no. Different brands will offer different commission rates based on the value of their products. As a general rule digital products will often earn you more commission than physical products. This is due to the profit margins on physical products. It would be worth researching what digital products would complement your offering.

Even if you have an established business, you could still promote products on your site or social media pages and earn a commission. It doesn’t even need to be a direct connection to your business, it might just be a service you use but promote on your site.

How can you Earn Money promoting Affiliate Products?

Let’s say you are an accountant and help local businesses with their accounting and tax requirements. You could sign up as an affiliate partner for accounting software you use and other related products that your customers need. By doing this you can generate commission from each client who buys the software through your link. You could also promote it on your website, or social media pages.

You could also email new clients your link for them to purchase the software you recommend, and so enhance your service. What’s great about this model is that you can literally use your affiliate links in all kinds of places as outline above and so maximize your earning potential.

What big brands use affiliate programs?

Okay, so maybe you think that’s great, but what brands actually even have affiliate programs. Well, the answer is many, in fact, some of the biggest brands have affiliate programs including Amazon, Apple, Udemy, and many more!

Amazon Associate Program

Amazon’s affiliate program is one of the oldest programs around and allows members to market products by sharing links in their content and earning a commission for every referral that ends in a sale. Commissions aren’t as high as other affiliate programs, but the sheer number of products means there are many products you could market.

Again everyone is different and has different interests, so finding products that fit into your overall business plan is the primary goal.

Udemy Affiliate Program

Udemy offers one of the biggest collections of training and learning programs online. They offer anyone the opportunity to promote their courses and earn a commission.

As an affiliate, they offer many tools to help you earn a commission, including links and banners you can simply insert into your content. So they make it as simple as adding links and banners which makes advertising their products simple.

Earn commission by sharing relevant content and offers with your audience
Choose from thousands of courses and exclusive promotions.
Promote Udemy content with tracking assets, including course-specific links, sitewide links, and custom links with deep linking capabilities.
Drive sales using promotional assets and tools from Udemy.
Access creative assets and tracking links to add to your website, blog, social media, or email newsletters.
Earn money with competitive commission rates for valid purchases made through your affiliate tracking links.
Understand your sales by tracking performance through your network account.

Join Trusted Affiliate Networks

If you decide to sign up to any affiliate networks, always do your homework and be sure it’s a trusted network. Always remember this is the internet, and there are always people out there to mislead you. So as long as you joining affiliate networks that are trusted and legit, you will be fine!

Let’s Sum it Up!

Affiliate marketing is a legit business model and is used by many large brands to grow their reach. They do this by offering a financial incentive for promoting their products online. This can be a viable way to monetize your content. If you are thinking about starting a business with little to no capital, affiliate marketing can be a great way to start promoting products you can earn commission selling!

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Why People Burn Out from Climbing the Corporate Ladder?

Many people envy corporate life as the ultimate destination for success. The place where the money is. Where you climb the ladder of success to your dream position. Yes, that’s what many think about the corporate lifestyle, especially those that haven’t worked in such an environment before. Yes, the salary might be great. The perks may be exemplary. Maybe you even own all the things you ever wanted. But eventually, the corporate glitter and glamour may fade to grey as you find yourself trapped in the prison of your own making.

The corporate world offers many opportunities, but it has its disadvantages.

In fact, as I scouted forums and social media, I found some interesting posts from folks worn out, burnt out, and fed up with corporate life. I realized it’s not just me feeling this way. There are many people that feel the same way. And I don’t blame them. Because I’m there. It’s the reason I started Launch Digital Freedom in the first place. As a way to build a bridge forward and out from where I am to where I want to be.

After almost 2 decades of working in the corporate world in software development, I reached a point where I had just had enough. I was tired of the daily stress of wading through hours of peak hour traffic. Tired of sitting in my office working at my desk hours on end being dictated to by my company. And above all the escalating stress.

But what I really find interesting is what I found in my research, and I’m going to share what many people seem to be saying about how they feel about working in the corporate world.

Obviously, I won’t be mentioning people’s names, but rather I will be paraphrasing what they said.

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Time Spent Traveling

One of the biggest downsides of living in a city is traveling time. Depending on where you work, you may have to take the bus, subway, and travel for long periods of time. Not only can it be exhausting, but also add up to so much time lost. Often you have to leave early in the morning to make it on time to work. And then of course there is the journey back home again in the evening. Many people stated they hated leaving for work when it was dark and then arriving back home after the sun had set. Over months and years, this can take its toll on the most enthusiastic and committed individuals.

The Work Environment

One of the first posts I found was someone complaining that they felt like they couldn’t be themselves. Rather they had to put up a facade that felt unnatural and wore them down over time. People seemed to want to be in an environment that allowed them to feel natural and accepted. Someone who had been in the corporate world finally packed up to move to a smaller town and take a smaller job to live a more simple and easy-going lifestyle. Another said they gave up everything to take a job where they could walk to work. They felt happier to be in a more casual environment and have more time to follow their own interests.

Some people decided to leave their jobs to pursue their own businesses. They said they were prepared to take a salary cut, and even the security of a corporate job to do their own thing. They said they were bored and unfulfilled and felt like they needed a new challenge.

Many people seemed to mention they hated being micro-managed and told what they could and couldn’t do around every corner. Many said they felt they were trapped and were not able to express themselves in fear of reprimand. These are just random examples and may not reflect every corporate environment. I’m not saying the corporate world is all bad. I am saying over time it may feel like it’s not for you, and you may feel like you want a change.

The Stress Factor

One of the reasons many people stated as a reason they wanted to leave their corporate job was because of the escalating pressure. Many felt they were constantly under pressure to finish work projects and often worked on weekends. Sure we all know you need to work hard to get anywhere in life, but it has to be sustainable. There is just more to life than staring at your computer screen, having endless meetings, and phone calls, and stressing about work.

Not only is it unhealthy, but it’s just not enjoyable or sustainable long-term. Many people just start feeling unfulfilled with dedicating so much of their life to an organization where their very position isn’t even guaranteed. In fact, since the pandemic, many people have found out firsthand that there are no guarantees you won’t lose your job.

Lost Time with Loved Ones

Probably the most important reason many felt they’d rather leave the corporate world for a simpler life was to spend more time with their spouse and children. Many felt that they were frustrated that they had to spend so much time at work. Some said they were prepared to simplify their lives and earn less to be with their loved ones. One person stated that if they were on their death beds, they didn’t want to look back and think they worked themselves to the bone for a company. And failed to spend time with their family doing what mattered.

Why : The Perfect Time to Launch Your Business is Now!

A Way Forward

So what can you do to get out of the corporate world if you’ve had enough of it?

Start looking for opportunities that could help you start a side project you could possibly launch into a full-scale opportunity.

Take the time to start planning your exit, you don’t want to leave your job without at least a plan in place. Best to start creating the momentum now. Once you have enough in place then take the step to your own happiness!

If you are interested in learning more about how to build an online income, feel free to look around or take a look at the Six Figure Mentor program which has helped me start building my own online business.

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Improve Your Productivity in 9 Simple Steps!

Running a side hustle ain’t easy! And presents many challenges! Often you are working after hours to get things started. But in time you might need to pay someone to do tasks for you. Either way you not going to be productive if you aren’t managing your tasks effectively. In this article I’m going to give you some valuable tips to manage your tasks more efficiently and get things done!

So here is a step by step strategy to get you on top of your Side Hustle!

Learn why its : The Perfect Time to Launch Your Business is Now!

How to Manage Tasks Effectively

1. List all your Tasks

If you feeling overwhelmed or just unclear about where to start, begin by listing all your tasks at once. Open a word document, spreadsheet or note app and start listing all the tasks you need to get done. I would suggest a simple spreadsheet as you will want to use the data filter option to sort priorities. As show below you will be able to sort your tasks using various criteria.

2. Categorize your Tasks

Once you have a list of task, you can organize them according to category. For example organize all your marketing tasks together. This will help you get a feel for what areas in your side hustle need more or less attention.

3. Set a Priority for Each Task

Now that you have created a list of tasks, and categorized them you can now set a priority on each task. I would suggest simply using three levels of importance:

HIGH
MEDIUM
LOW

4. Assign Each Task

If you plan to delegate a task to someone else, enter a person responsible for each task. Once you have all the tasks outlined for a specific person, you can generate a list using the data filter function and forward it to that person.

5. Set a Deadline

Every task should have a deadline. This will keep tasks from perpetually being deferred. Set a deadline that is realistic and complete each task with in the required time to maintain momentum.

6. Assign Tasks for Everyday.

Create a prioritized list of tasks that can guide you every day. Preferably complete all high priority tasks first. But be flexible. It might be better to get smaller tasks done first! Then have the rest of the day to focus on high priority tasks. It can also be beneficial to complete similar tasks together. This can prevent you from having to switch gears back and forth between different types of tasks.

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7. Prioritize Uncompleted tasks

Accept that there will be days when you carry over tasks. That’s okay. Simply shift them to the next day. But maybe prioritize that task before the others. Be flexible and simply adapt to the flow of life and business!

8. Set Time to Plan

A good strategy to manage your side hustle is to plan weekly and monthly. Set time aside at the end or beginning of the week to consolidate your tasks for the week or month ahead. This will greatly reduce the stress that goes along with the challenges of building your side hustle!

9. Set Time to Review Performance

Apart from simply getting tasks done, its important to consider how productive you are. You can do this by assessing the time taken to complete tasks, how many tasks you completed per day, etc. This can give you insights to help you improve your productivity and efficiency in the future.

There you have it, a better way to :

Capture Tasks.
Prioritize Them.
Get Thing Done!
And Improve Your Productivity.

Are you ready to kick those tasks?

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Why WordPress is the Easiest Way to Build Your Website?

A website is one of the fundamental parts needed to build an online business. It is the digital space you can showcase your business, share information and news, share images and videos to demonstrate what you do. This is the new business premises. So there is no surprises when you realize that there are now almost 2 billion websites on the web. No small number. And its climbing everyday as more and more people and businesses build their digital presence.

What do you Need to Setup a Website?

A domain name. This is the name of your site. Example: launchdigitalfreedom.com
A hosting package. This is where you can place your domain to be accessible worldwide.
A website. This is the actual site you will load on to the server at the hosting provider.

Now you have a few options to create a website:

Code the website yourself from scratch.
Pay someone to code a website from scratch.
Install a Content Management System or CMS ,to create a website.
Get someone to install, setup and customize your CMS site.

Now if you are the adventurous type and have some tech-savvy skills you could take on the challenge of setting up your own website using a CMS like WordPress.

What is WordPress?

WordPress is one of the leading CMS frameworks used to setup blogs and websites.

WordPress was founded back in 2003 and its purpose was to create a user-friendly platform for people to publish their personal content. Since then it has matured into a robust content publishing system that is use on millions of sites throughout the web. According to WordPress themselves “It is also the platform of choice for over 42% of all sites across the web.”

What makes WordPress an attractive platform for building websites is its easy to install platform, available on pretty much all leading internet hosting companies. It is fairly easy to navigate for even beginners and also allows more competent developers to further customize and modify code as necessary.

If you new to website design and are looking for a way to build a blog or website, WordPress can offer you a platform to do so with even limited technical skills. Find out from your service provider if they offer basic configuration support to help you setup the basic site. Once setup you can learn more about how to setup your blog by accessing the website.

Designed Content Creators

What makes WordPress especially appealing is the easy with which you can create content. It take simply selecting a new post or page. In the old days of creating websites you would have to code in HTML to create a page on a site. WordPress takes the headache of coding away and allows you to focus on writing your content.

Adding images, animations and video is also seamless as you can simply choose to add your media and then upload it from your computer with the click of a button. Even embed YouTube videos from your YouTube channel or embed relevant videos.

WordPress Themes

One of the cool things about WordPress is its ability to change the look and feel of your entire website simply through changing the theme. This will change numerous variables including layout, fonts, colours, menu position, and many more.

You have two options for getting themes, use a freely available theme, preferably download from wordpress.org, or buy a paid theme.

Paid vs Free Themes

As with all things, you get what you pay for! For some a free theme may fit their needs. Many free themes offer limited features and require you to pay for the full set of features. If you want there are still many ways to customize a free theme. For example you can have a custom header, or featured images for each page. Often for simple sites a free them may be good enough.

If you require more robust features and would like more freedom then a paid theme will be a better choice. If you interested in finding a solid paid WordPress theme for your site, ThriveThemes offers a large variety of conversion focused WordPress themes.

WordPress Plugins

One of the advantages of WordPress is its impressive library of plugins available to add further enhancements. From analytics to design features, security and forms, you will find a massive array of options to pimp your site. And although you may be carried away to add multiple plugins, I’d suggest to keep the number of plugins to a minimum. As the more plugins that are running the more resources they need which could adversely affect your sites performance.

Google Site Kit Plugin

The Site Kit plugin is an official WordPress plugin from Google which provides insights about your site traffic and how people are finding you online. Site Kit plugs into Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Page Insights. Therefore the data that it provides is both accurate and inline with how Google is seeing your website. Its simple and easy to install and is free for use. Definitely a plugin to get loaded straight from day one.

WooCommerce

If you planning to sell products on your WordPress site then the WooCommerce plugin is without a doubt the plugin of choice. It is the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution and is free which means you retain full ownership of your store’s content and data forever.

WooCommerce allows you to build online retail stores which can blend your blog style site with e-Commerce like features. One of its key benefits is the availability of information for users and simplicity to implement. A worthy choice if you planning to start a business on a budget and need the tools to build your store.

Who Should Choose WordPress

If you are a absolute beginner looking to get your own website up WordPress is a great choice. It provides a simplified framework that is user-friendly to use, is opensource, widely used across the world, and is supported by a large community around the world.

What ever your take on WordPress, its a platform here to stay and only set to grow in strength.

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What is focus time? (5 ways on how to achieve more!)

Every one of us has 24 hours in a day. Why do some people achieve more results than others? As a manager in a software business, there are so many different aspects that I must keep my eye on. Project management, team management, client relationships and some more technical aspects. To deliver a project on time and with quality, I must divide my teams time and my time. So what is focus time?

Focus Time is a simple time-management technique that can change your life. The technique, when set up and implemented, requires you and your team members to work several defined short intervals. Outside of that time, you can attend to the clutter (emails, social media and other distractions).

Why do you need focus time?

Being able to focus on one thing for a well-defined period produces better work. It also helps get the work done quicker. With less noise, you also tend to have less stress and worry. If your mind is in a stress-free environment your creativity booms.

To be focused means you need to have goals and objectives defined. Once you know where you are going you can organise your time around achieving the goal is short, focused bursts.

How to get more Focus Time

In a complex work environment like today’s, each person must wear many hats each day. To find the time to focus can be a challenge. Here are some techniques I use myself and for my team. Later, I will show you a tool, RescueTime, that shows you where you spend your time, how much and for what periods of time.

1) Improve Self Belief

You need to believe in your own ability to follow through on a schedule. Focus becomes a lot easier when you can manage up and down and know the urgency at the moment. Most urgent tasks are not important and can wait for later. You need to believe in your ability to make the right call.

2) Get Rest

Not getting the right amount of sleep for you can lead to impaired cognitive ability. To set yourself up for success, make sure you get 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

3) Set Daily and Weekly Goals (Get accountability)

As a manager, setting the tone of what is important for the day or week will help your team to get their focus dedicated to the right tasks. By communicating and providing the schedule, it’s clear what needs to happen. There will be urgent issues that arise during the day and can derail a schedule. Working together and continually defining the focus will keep you on track.

4) Schedule in advance and with set focus periods

Once the goals and objectives are defined, it’s up to you to focus your own time. Getclockwise defines it like this.

Swerve, Stack and Schedule.

Swerve: Learn how to ignore people: Delay your response to incoming messages. Rather have a focus time for that. It will allow you to be more thoughtful in your response and reduce the back and forth of emails.
Stack – Schedule your meetings back-to-back in your calendar: First thing before you start your workweek, re-arrange events to maximize your (and your team’s) productivity. Try to create more meeting zones so that you have larger chunks of time to dedicate real work focus time.
Schedule – Block off Focus Time on your calendar: Once you have the blocks in place, you and your team can look at the week’s goals. Place the focus blocks in your calendars’ and stick to them. Protect your focus time.

To add to this, make sure your focus time is at your peak performance times. If you are sharper in the morning, make sure your plan pushes more focus time here.

5) Declutter your space

I don’t know about you, but I work better when my workspace is clean. Sometimes I find myself cleaning up my space before getting to the focus time. Everyone’s circumstances and preferences are different, so you need to figure this out. For example, if you work at home and it’s too busy to focus, think about going out for periods of time. Have a look at this blog post on how to declutter your brain.

Rescue Time

Rescue Time is an Automatic time-tracking and distraction blocking tool you can run on your PC all day long. RescueTime shows you exactly how long you spend on apps and sites down to the minute.

Find out more and use the free version. Upgrade to premium for 14 days free.

RescueTime

Features

See exactly where your time goes.
“Turn off” distractions like social media and news.
Stay focused on goals all day long.
Keep track of time spent in meetings and calls with one-click.

Summing it up

Focus time can help you and your team achieve your goals. With more time dedicated to the right tasks, you should see more quality work. Your team will also feel less stress and learn skills to manage time more effectively.

So now that you know what focus time is, it’s up to you to find the time.

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8 Components of Digital Marketing (In the Affiliate Space)

My journey into online business has brought me to the conclusion that there are many components of digital marketing that need attention when it comes to online business. Some areas need work at the beginning, some of them need work consistently, and others can come later. Each aspect can require specialised sets of skills. Even if you must do all of them at the beginning, which is a good thing, you will be better placed in outsourcing them one at a time as you start to earn money. (Re-invest into your business)

You don’t need all areas running at once, but you do need to get started. I’ll order them in the way I think is best to get started.

So, let’s get into the areas.

Product, image, brand, and primary message.

If you need to define your vision and values it can help to utilise a professional. A virtual meeting can go a long way. Try Tricia Jones, she helped me really become clear about what I wanted from my business. I’ll touch more on creating your vision and values in a future post.

The following components house your values, vision, and mission.

Sales Funnel

A Sales Funnel is essentially a page on the internet that has some marketing of your products or services. Its primary function is to get the user to perform an action. Normally it’s to get a name and email address.

To get someone to enter a name and email, you often need to entice them to do so. Perhaps offering them access to a free webinar or a free PDF that has extreme value to that person. Getting the name and email is key to your online business. This person might not buy today, but because you have their email, you can provide them with value and offers until such time as the person decides to buy or unsubscribe.

Email Marketing

We have an email address now (Hopefully many!)

The cool thing about online business is you can automate your email. Write once and send it to your subscribers as they join up. Over time, your email sequence can grow. If you write 1 email a week for 1 year, you have a decent sequence. (You can go back and modify when needed)

You can also send them broadcast messages too from time to time. These can be used to push special offers or updates to your subscribers.

A great product I use is Aweber. They make it easy to create, publish and monitor.

Website

If you can push traffic to your funnel, and implement the email marketing aspect, you are essentially in business. You can market and try to make sales.

But supplementing the funnel with context builds trust in your target audience. This is done with a website the houses your Vision, Mission and Values. It provides valuable content to show that there is a real person (or business) behind the scenes.

Another key aspect of the site is a contact page. You need to be contactable and converse with your potential buyers. The more you engage with your audience and show a willingness to assist, the more trust you build. And in the end, all business is done on trust. (Launch Digital Freedom Privacy Policy)

Aspects that drive traffic

What drives an audience to your funnel, website, and email list? There are a few ways you can target your audience. Some of them cost money, the others will cost you time (consistent time)

SEO

In short, it is the skill of structuring your website, content and building authority for your website. It includes both content related techniques and technical aspects that can enhance the content of your website for search engines and help you rank higher.

It includes your keyword research. The words your audience will be looking for in the search engine. For example, if you are selling Canon Cameras online your audience might search:

High-Quality Cameras
Canon camera for a far distance shot
What camera should I use?

Your site and content will need to target these keywords and phrases. With time, consistency and quality content, your site will show up in search engines higher up and more often.

SEO also includes making sure you link to internal and external sites for reference. If you want to know more about search engine optimisation, visit this post, How to get Started with Search Engine Optimization?

Content

On the side of not spending money, you would have to create quality content over time. Consistency is key. The more you produce, the more quality you have, time will bring you internet traffic.

Types of content online include

Blogs
Listicles
Ebooks
Infographics
Videos
Podcasts
Guides
Case studies and many more.

Begin with one and stick with it for 3 – 5 years. Become an expert.

The content shows search engines that you are committed to producing value, and your reward will be traffic. This together with your keyword strategy is key to your online success without spending money.

Learn how to Promote Affiliate Links On Your Blog

Social Media

With your Sales Funnel, Email marketing, and content in place, we can find other ways to bring traffic to your products. Once again, there are a whole lot of options available. Don’t try and market on all of these at once. Rather, find out where your audience hangs out and target them.

In my SFM business, my audience is full-time employees that know there is a better way to make a living. And so, LinkedIn provides the best opportunity for me to find my audience. Do a little research on how to use your social media platform effectively and be consistent.

Find out which platforms you might be able to find your customers. 8 Social Media Platforms to Promote Your Business

Find out more about: The Best Ways to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

Online Ads

If you have the cash flow to run ads, it’s the perfect way to bring a targeted audience to your sales funnel. Most of these platforms allow you to pick specific details of your audience. Age, job title, interests and much more.

It helps to be very specific in your audience and speak directly to that person (Your avatar). If your Ad images and content appeal to your target, it will interest them, and they will click your ad. It will take them to your sales funnel, and you can get their email.

Once you have a list of emails, you can nurture that list over time and generate commissions.

Monitoring

An overriding aspect of digital marketing is measuring what you are doing. If you can measure it, you can adjust what’s not working. Most of the components mentioned above have metrics that you can measure over time.

For example, your email marketing lets you know how many emails were opened, how many people clicked your link and even if emails were not delivered. When you run ads on LinkedIn and Facebook, it measures the success of your ad. In fact, the more successful your ad the cheaper the cost to you! They allow you to measure impressions, clicks and even the position of ads on platforms that were successful.

To Finish

As you can see, there is lots to consider in an online business, but you don’t have to have to all running in 1 day! Take your time to learn and implement each aspect one at a time. There is plenty of support on the internet on how to do everything, but don’t fall into the habit of overlearning. It’s something I still catch myself doing from time to time. The best way to learn is to do.

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My Successful Affiliate Marketing Journey So Far

It’s been 8 months since purchasing the monthly Six Figure Mentors All-In-One package. Is it all it’s cracked up to be? And is it worth the money? What do I get for my $100 per month?

First off, there were two options I had right at the beginning. Utilise paid ads to generate traffic and build an email list, or SEO and Content Strategy for organic growth to build an email list. Having no space in my finances to do paid ads, I chose the slower SEO and Content Strategy. This one is long term and allows Search Engines to recognise your site as an authority over time. Eventually, the web will be recommending your site and services more often on search engines.

1. What have I learned in my spare time over the last 8 months?

How to Build a WordPress Site

After following the step-by-step tutorials, I selected my domain name, published the default site, and customised it. I did what was suggested and got it up and running. When I needed help, the six-figure mentor’s community was there to assist. With a desire to learn it, anyone can do it.

How to create a Sales Funnel

Choosing to market the SFM system, I was able to leverage a done for you sales funnel. You can see the Sales Funnel here. All I had to do was link it to my WordPress site. Then make sure it was connected to my Email marketing account (Get Your AWeber account). If you want to market your own products, there is a section on how to build sales funnels from scratch. Stuart from the SFM says just do it! It doesn’t need to be perfect. It just needs to work.

How to plan your marketing

Then be consistent. So, I quickly moved onto marketing. The part I probably did and still do need to most help with. Learning from the tutorials, I was able to build up my customer avatar. Now I knew exactly who I was talking to. After some research into my customer avatar, I could identify with him and knew exactly where to find him. Turns out LinkedIn! Knowing what they want, I was able to start producing targeted content for my customer. It’s what I am doing each week so far this year. The more quality content you produce, the more search engines love you!

Find out more about: The Best Ways to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

Cost-value graph made with white chalk on a blackboard.

2. What does it cost me each month?

I did not have spare cash after my initial $100 investment each month. So, I had to do all the work myself. Some of my early blogs were about lessons I would need to learn along the way to free up time and money. Blogging was hard at first, and all over the place. But going through the process allowed me to learn blogging skills as well as time and money management skills to get this business going. Not to mention SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) needed to make sure my content is noticed by web crawlers.

Through applying the money management skills I had learned, I was able to free up cash and start to outsource. I have brought in an online SEO and content specialist to do my blogging and SEO now, but my budget doesn’t feel the impact! And my blogging is much better and more consistent because of it. It frees me up to focus on the social media and email marketing part of my business. Eventually, I will outsource that too.

I have also made extra income by building websites for friends and family businesses.

My Investment So far

Although I have invested $1145 for the first half of 2021, I have cleaned up my personal expenses and it now costs me less than $100 per month.

I have not made a sale yet, but the traffic in building to my site! My 11 subscribers make me confident it’s working. And I am proud of that.

The program so far has been amazing, and I keep learning each day. There are moments where I feel completely overwhelmed, but I just remember why I am doing it. To find my own path in life.

What I get for my $100?

Site Hosting
Free Tool to build Sales Funnels
Getting Started Modules
Weekly Training (Mindset, business etc)
LinkedIn Learning Free
A community of like-minded people happy to answer my questions
Access to Content Writers
And much, much more!

I will publish another blog at the end of the year to show my progress updates again, but for the time being, I need to…

Stop Doing

Overtraining, and underdoing. The more time I spend on consuming, the less time I work on producing. The name of this game is to produce content often, and of good quality. 80% of your time needs to be spent on the things that build your business. Only 20% needs to be spent on learning.

Keep Doing

Keep outsourcing. There are so many people who are better than me at each digital marketing discipline. Just leverage them. Keep doing the things that you are good at in the business and outsource the rest.

Start Doing

Focus on Email Marketing and Social Media consistency. Once you have some followers you need to keep giving them value and offering worthwhile products and services. They want to know you are there. I am also going to utilise Social Media more effectively in the next half of the year.

Also, write more content. I will start to produce more content to complement what we already produce.

So was it, and is it all worth it?

You can probably find all this information to start an online business free on the web.

But, the bottom line is it helps to learn from the ones who have succeeded. And to be a part of a great community of people to share your successes and to help you through the tougher time. Definitely, the best investment I have made in years.

Find out more about: The Best Ways to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

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Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

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Online Business Ideas for Stay at Home Moms

Being a mom is a twenty-four-seven, three sixty-five kinda job. The problem is you might need extra income. While you are at home you have the opportunity to pursue a part-time gig. The question is what would be the right fit for you. In this article, I will look at a few business opportunities for stay at home moms that you might want to consider that will give time to take care of your little ones.

The Digital Business Model

You want a business that you can run while taking care of your children. It needs to be flexible enough to take care of your daily responsibilities and still offer you an opportunity to work. Digital businesses offer you the platform to build services that can be run from home or anywhere. It also offers protection from the dangers of contact with the outside world. So let’s assess what would make a good business.

Flexible Work Hours

You want the flexibility to work when you have time, or once you have a gap in the day. This means you need a business that allows you to have a flexible schedule.

Minimize Contact with People

You also want a business you can minimize contact with new people. You have children and want to keep them safe from exposure to people during the pandemic.

Leverage your Passion

Passion drives us not only through good times, but through tough times. You want to be driven to succeed. And being passionate about your business is key to long-term success. Choose something that gets you up and keeps you motivated. Maintaining enthusiasm is key.

Be Purpose Driven

Having a strong purpose for your business is key to keeping you motivated and focused. Knowing what you do is important, and has purpose, will help you maintain perspective. It will help guide all your decision-making.

Find out more about: A Blueprint to Start Your Online Business Faster

Business Ideas for Stay At Home Moms

You might have experience in a specific field, like administration, sales, or technology. You could consider looking into opportunities in the field you already have experience in. Use your experience or passion to build a virtual service.

1. Administrative Business

If you have a background in Administration, you could build a business offering relevant services to businesses. You could consider offering Administrative services for clients either locally or elsewhere. Research what specific services are in demand. Once you know more about which services to promote, structure your business around these services. Focus on the high demand and lucrative ones, and offer the others as secondary.

You will be able to meet with clients through video calls and be able to submit your work to clients electronically via email or sharing of documents. A great business if this is what you enjoy.

2. Consulting Business

If you have experience in a field that could require consulting services, you could offer clients applicable services. If you have experience in managing software development teams you could offer team managers, consulting services around your expertise. If you have experience in sales you could offer organizations solutions to improve the performance of their sales teams.

Whatever your experience maybe you could offer it as a service to help customers that are struggling with problems that arise from a particular function. Assess your skills and experience and look for what problems you could help businesses solve.

This business could also be run remotely and could be a flexible option for those moms with a depth of experience in a specific field.

3. Online Teaching Business

Since the pandemic, video calls and conferencing have exploded. And its application is far and wide from private group meetings, online workshops to business meetings. This trend has also created a great opportunity for anyone wanting to start offering remote learning. If you have a teaching background or have skills you could teach, this could be a great way to put your knowledge to work.

In fact, the list of online classes is really diverse. As long as you can find students to teach, you can turn this into a business.

Here are some examples of online teaching:

Language Classes – know a language, teach other to speak it.
Fitness Classes – have a passion for fitness, help motivate and train others.
Computer Classes – have a specific technology skill, teach others how to get started.
Baby Classes – are you a passionate and experienced mom, help other moms who are struggling.
Online Tutor – Help other parents with tutoring their children.
Art Classes – Passionate about art, why not teach others how to get creative.
Music Classes – Know how to play a musical instrument, show others how to play music as a hobby.

The sky is the limit and all it takes is a skill, passion, and the right setup to start making money!

4. Sales Agent

If you have a knack for selling and have a background in sales, why not offer your services to companies struggling to get sales leads. Offer your services to businesses that can’t yet afford full-time staff, and help them expand their operation. Today more than ever with the pandemic, businesses are hesitant to employ staff unless they are certain they can afford them.

Your services would help companies grow but at a lower cost. You could work remotely and still be available for your family while earning income on the side. You could work a flexible schedule and set meetings at optimal times when everyone in the house is busy or sleeping. Draft a plan and approach businesses you think will benefit from your services. If you don’t try you’ll never know!

Learn more about : Affiliate Marketing as a Passive Income Source.

5. Promote Affiliate Products

Building a business that sells and delivers products can be a challenge. It generally requires plenty of capital and logistics. But there is an easier way! Promoting affiliate products and earning a commission.

Affiliate programs are free to join and can be set up quite quickly. Where the work lies is in marketing these products online. This could be through a blog or on social media. You could also use email to send information to potential customers. In fact, you can get quite creative in how you promote these products as long as you follow the guidelines provided by each affiliate.

Why Affiliate Marketing can be a great model:

You can work in your own time.
You don’t have to deal with customers.
You focus on educating and promoting products online.
If anyone follows a link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
It is highly scalable as there is no limit to how much you can sell.

Find out more about

You can do it!

If there is a will there is a way. And starting a home based business isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Find out where you can add the most value, that’s where to start! Make a list of skills and talents you have, and find at least two you could offer as a service. Do your research and find out if there is a demand for it.

Then, go for it!

Good luck!

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

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