Becoming an affiliate marketer is an awesome way to earn extra money. It can soon become your full-time income if you work hard enough.
If you are here, you are probably thinking about setting up your affiliate marketing business. This post is only going to deal with the website itself. Before you do this step, it is important that you have your strategy in place. This includes:
Select your niche. This might be kites or knitting or fashion
Doing your product and services research so you know what to market
Your Marketing Strategy. SEO or ADs or SOCIAL, or some combination
Domain name
Once you have decided this, you can find out how to set up an affiliate marketing website. These are the options you have.
The almost free route
If you have no money you have to learn how to make an affiliate website for free. You need to get googling. But basically, you are going to:
You have some money. Get a professional to build the site for you. This will give you time to work on the business. You can focus all your time on the money-making part. Product research, marketing material, and possibly Paid Ads.
Getting your creativity on and building an affiliate site can be mentally and financially rewarding.
You’ll learn a lot about your selected niche, business in general, and how online business works. You’ll find there are so many aspects, that once you start making money, you’ll pay someone else to do the parts that are hard.
It would be a bit of a lie to say that any side hustle will be easy. But, if you can find something you like doing or it takes you away from pain, then it could be seen as easier. We all want time and money freedom, but it only comes with putting in extra hours somewhere early on. So, what is the easiest side hustle then?
No two hustles are the same. And not all are equally easy. What is the measure of an easy side hustle?
It can be done in your spare time
When deciding on a project to earn extra cash, you need to know you have the time out of your busy day to do it. Especially if you are working full time with a family.
Something you are good at
It pays to work with skills you already have. By doing so, the learning curve will be quicker, and you’ll be able to make more money quicker. If you are good at building websites, perhaps this would be your starting point.
Something you are willing to learn
If you don’t think you have any real skills (very unlikely), or you want to learn something new, pick an area you are interested in. When I was building computer applications, it often took me to clients’ sites. From there I realized that I actually like communicating with clients. So I started a side hustle consulting on the side. I outsourced the actual work to better programmers than me.
Can fit in with your schedule
That same consulting business eventually could not fit into my schedule. It was just too time-consuming and not making enough for it to be worthwhile. So I focused on my job again. My current hustle in affiliate marketing is much better suited for me. I can do my 2-3 hours each day when I can fit it in. (Mostly in the morning when my brain is fresh!)
The question “What is the Easiest Side Hustle” has been answered for me.
Affiliate Marketing
If you are willing to put in consistent effort, over time you will learn all the skills necessary to be successful. And you just need to know a little about them all. When you start making money, you can outsource the ones you don’t like.
Although you can do this on your own, it’s always better to get the help and support you need to get it running like a pro. Six-Figure Mentors have guided me all the way. Their All-In-One Package costs $97 per month and gives you the following:
Hosting for your Website
Web Design Tools for WordPress
Training on how to build a Website
Training on where to find affiliate programs
Training on Email Marketing
Training on Social Media Marketing
Online Ads Training (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more)
Do you make these mistakes in Affiliate Marketing Online Business?
I heard that people make them, I made them, and I stopped making them. But I am sure you can learn from me. They are common. But if I can change, so can you!
1. Waiting Too Long to Launch Your Affiliate Marketing Online Business
Trying to be perfect stops you from earning money early in online business. If you are like me, you always need things to be perfect.
In one of my previous “business ventures”, onthemark, I made this mistake and it cost me. Designer custom logo, business cards, and a pretty website. This all cost me time and money. The time I should have been getting customers. The time I should have been promoting. Soon I was out of money and frustrated.
Even if you have no money for advertising, share your links on Social Media. Send out a weekly email to all your friends and family. Connect with new people on Social Media sites. I still chat with all my new and old connections on LinkedIn and see if there is a fit for them in online business.
Get whatever you have in front of someone and get feedback.
2. Forgetting Your Story in Affiliate Marketing Online Business
You got into online business for a reason. Do you need extra cash? Do you like the idea of being the star of the show? Or you got “gatvol” of your job. (Gatvol is an Afrikaans word meaning, without being rude, fed up)
And of course, there was a build-up to that too. Your childhood, your failed marriage, and even a drug story or two. But don’t forget the good. The promotion, your new partner in this world. Your furry friends are always around to cheer you up. We are all made up of so many intriguing life moments that we remember as stories.
These all make you who you are.
Great marketing is great storytelling.
Tell a story that your customers can connect with and share with others.
That’s how you expand your message beyond your own borders.
3. Focusing On The Little Stuff
Like I eluded to earlier, don’t waste time on things that don’t make money! Just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it makes money! Focusing on things like branding and website design and layout won’t help you early on. Make sure you focus on the money tasks. Blogging, advertising, customer support, and getting it in front of your audience.
And a new one I learned recently; I’m busy creating a strategy around it, guest post blogging to drive traffic back to my site. Backlinks build authority.
4. Inconsistent Emails in Affiliate Marketing Online Business
Smart marketers build an email list. Even smarter marketers build a relationship with that list.
Are you only sending emails when you have a new product to offer? Or are you only sending emails once a month? Stay in regular contact with your people. 2-3 times at least these days. Give them regular values. Link them to your latest Blog, Podcast, or video.
5. Doing Everything Yourself
businessman holding modern city building skyscraper on shoulders real estate agent concept. Humans are building cities on their shoulders. Concept of creating the world of humanity.
You’ve got to treat your online business, like a business. Sounds easy right. But that means stepping out the way when you can benefit in time from someone else doing a better job at something than you!
Are you the content creator, webmaster, customer support, and still working a job?
You don’t have time to do it all. Learn the basics of a skill, then outsource it. Bring in extra money doing things you like and use that money to pay for outsourcing.
Even if it means trading your time for money in a skill you are good at. Use the money to pay a professional for something you are not good at. i.e. If you are good at web design, build sites for other up-and-coming businesses. Use the money to pay for something you hate, blogging or SEO.
Six-Figure Mentors recently brought these mistakes back to my attention. Most people don’t make it online because they try to do it all, and forget the reason they were doing it in the first place.
And yes, I am guilty too.
It’s amazing all the mistakes you can make in this online world and still make money.
Free bonuses include: Special invitation to their next streaming Masterclass, walking you through the EXACT steps and skills you need to learn to make your first 10 sales online.
Seeing you launch your Affiliate Marketing Online Business.
One of the biggest challenges for anyone starting any business is the cost of starting. Many people don’t have access to the large amounts of capital required to start building a business. And this is a major limiting factor for many people. Today I will be delving into one business model that requires little to no start-up capital! Yes, it’s true there is a way to start a business with zero money, it is called affiliate marketing and you can even get started today!
Here is what I will be covering today:
Myths about Affiliate Marketing
Building a business without Boundaries
Why should you find a niche?
Why you need a blog?
Use Social Media to spread the word
Grow Your Email List
Be Consistent!
Let’s dispense with the Myths First
Affiliate Marketing, like any real business, will not make you heaps of money from day one, no business will! It is not a quick route to making money. It is a great way to start building an income for yourself, through your own efforts. If you are working and want an additional income stream, affiliate marketing can be a way to build a steady income that can grow over time.
As an affiliate, you will be promoting products and services that will earn you a commission from every person that buys that product. Instead of physically selling any products you are acting as a referral partner, and earn money for referring a customer. So if you look at it from a long-term point of view and invest now, down the line it will yield higher and higher returns as you grow your business.
A Business without Boundaries
One of the great benefits of an Affiliate Marketing business is the fact that you can run it from anywhere! It’s also not like a normal business where you need to be available during business hours. You also don’t need to only sell to people in your country, you can market your products anywhere in the world.
This means if you ever built a strong enough business that makes you enough money, you could live anywhere in the world. So you could truly be a digital nomad and live and work where you want. You could even travel while you work, the choice would be yours.
Why should you choose a niche?
One of the challenges facing anyone starting out is what to sell! There are just countless products and services in innumerable industries that you could sell. The problem is not if there are opportunities to sell, the problem is what opportunities will you focus on? Instead of trying to cover too many bases, focus on one niche or solve one problem.
This will help you be more focused on your marketing efforts! And this is a good thing. If you sell too many different unrelated products, it will severely undermine your content. This is also not ideal from a search engine point of view. So think carefully about what you want to sell by asking these questions:
Where are my interests?
What am I knowledgeable about?
What do I love talking about?
What would I love to learn about everyday?
What products or services do I use everyday?
What products and services am I knowledge about?
Dig into your strengths, passions, experience, and knowledge to find areas that will be more natural for you, as this will greatly help you when creating content. There are many tools online that can help you research the demand for online products and services. Doing a Google search can direct you to some free tools for viewing real data about your niche.
No! But although you don’t need a blog to get started, I would highly suggest setting up a basic blog for your business. Some affiliate programs will require you to have a website, so it depends on the affiliate network. You can share information about the products you are selling, and create a resource with your audience.
A blog gives you total ownership over your content. You are in control and can use it to centralize all your content in one place. Even if you decide to move from one social media platform to another, your content will still be accessible on your website. You can also use your web content to repurpose on social media platforms. This can help you maintain consistency, and help you to build traffic to your website.
Many hosting companies have basic webpage builders to help you set up a basic website, that won’t even cost you any more than your monthly hosting fee. Ask them to find out more!
Social media is a powerful content distribution platform to share your content and grow an audience. Your content can educate your audience about what you are promoting and create exposure for your affiliate products. Choose a social media platform where your target audience is to increase the success of your content. The better you connect with your target audience the more effective your affiliate promoting will be.
People will be more inclined to follow a link from a trustworthy source than someone that hasn’t taken the time to build a strong following. Social media can be powerful leverage for driving traffic, and it is free, so take the time to learn how to use it wisely and it could pay back dividends.
A great way to build a good affiliate business is to build an email list! If your customers have subscribed to your newsletter, they have already shown interest in your products and services. Now you can use this list to regularly send out information that can inform, educate and promote your products. But remember, put your customer first and don’t just cold pitch every email or you could land up with people unsubscribing faster than they join!
Be consistent
A mistake many affiliate marketers make is they fail to be consistent! To achieve success you need to be consistent, and that means working at your business every week. Create informative content for your readers weekly and share that on social media! Make it part of your email newsletter and keep your readers interested and your business will grow.
Lets Summarize, an Affiliate Business:
Can make you money if you take the time to grow it!
Can be run from anywhere in the world.
Can be run anytime of the day.
Should be based on your interests, experience, or knowledge.
Can be run with or without a website.
Can be run using Social Media as a primary platform.
Can be promoted through an Email Newsletter.
Can be successful by being consistent!
So, what are you waiting for?
Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
One of the challenges of affiliate marketing is building opportunities to generate leads for the products you promoting. Everyone today has an email address. And this means if you can collect someone’s email address you can send them news and information about what you selling. Email Marketing has been around for a long time and has matured over the years. And it is in no way losing its importance in marketing.
Why Email Marketing is Effective?
One of the reasons why marketers, bloggers, and affiliate marketers use email is because of its accessibility. Once you have someone’s email address you can communicate with them directly. You don’t need to be on social media or any platform to send an email.
It’s straight to their inbox!
Email marketing essentially gives you flexibility and control of how you can market to your subscribers, it has many benefits over other channels of communication.
Here are five reasons why email is an effective marketing channel:
Is a personalized marketing channel which can build trust.
This helps build lasting relationships through one on one communication.
You can measure its effectiveness through various metrics.
You can test the effectiveness of different campaigns to refine your strategy.
The cost of most email marketing platforms is reasonable compared with advertising.
You have full ownership over it unlike social media channels.
Email Marketing Platforms
One of the ways to simplify the process the creating and distributing email content is by using an email marketing service.
They offer you a one-stop platform that gives you the ability to:
Collect email addresses in a secure way
Create professional looking emails in a user-friendly interface
Manage your subscribers
Segment your audience for greater personalization
Track your email open rates, and other metrics
Automate welcome messages and other types of email communication.
Here is a list of popular email subscriber services:
Each one has its strength and weaknesses, but most offer similar features for varying prices. Most offer free trials or plans that allow you to get started and get a feel for the product.
One of the first places you should collect email addresses is on your website. You will either use a plug-in or embed code to create a subscription box on your website.
Once you have a subscriber box you can begin to collect email addresses from visitors. You could also share your subscription link on social media for your follower to easily sign up for your newsletter.
The key is to advertise your newsletter and make people aware where ever possible to increase your chances of attracting new subscribers.
Keep Your Subscribers Engaged
If you want to maintain loyal subscribers, you need to create interesting content. You want to provide value to your subscribers that will have them looking forward to each email. It’s your chance to share information and insights that your audience wants or you going to lose their interest.
You can even encourage your subscribers to share their ideas or ask questions that you can use as content for your future newsletters.
Conclusion
Email is a powerful marketing channel, and it’s not dead. It’s undoubtedly here to stay. And that means if you building an affiliate business or any other venture, email marketing can be an effective way to market to your ideal customer.
Start small, and build it slowly.
A monthly newsletter is perfect to get started!
Learn How to Earn Income Online
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
The internet has without a doubt become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Searching and sharing content is happening at scale from individuals to large corporates. Social media buzzes and pulses all day long with content that is posted and shared more times than we can fathom.
So the question is… is content really king?
Here are nine reasons that content marketing could very well be worth investing in:
The more you create and share content online the more people will see your content? It’s the medium through which your audience can connect with you. In fact the more you post, the more likely they will be to engage and interact with your content.
If you consistently create content on social media platforms or your blog you will be building a foundation that will build a strong online presence. And that means more opportunities for you in the long run.
Before you can sell your products and services you need to establish trust with your audience. This doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not a once of activity. Trust is built over time, and this is why creating content should be a long-term strategy to build your business. To build trust you need to be consistent, publish good quality content, engage with your audience, and add value on some level.
People are more likely to trust people or brands that have a consistent and established online presence. It’s a signal to people you are in this for the long run.
Content Can Help Build Your Brand
Content can be used to establish your brand both visually and verbally. By applying consistent design to your content you can help readers immediately recognize you by your visual signature. This can extend to the voice of your content. Is it funny, witty, edgy, or professional?
Your content gives your brand an opportunity to establish your voice and speak the language of your audience. It’s this brand that builds fans, followers, and customers. It establishes a clear way of communicating with your audience that will help you connect with the right people. The stronger this connection, the more likely they will be to support you, follow up and buy from you.
Your brand is your personality and the way you communicate. It’s that energy you express through your content. It can act as a magnet, if you use it well, you will certainly grow your audience.
Content Educates Your Audience
One of the most important functions that content serves is educating prospects. It offers you a medium to share information that is relevant to your reader. You can organize this information in ways that can help your audience to understand what you sell and do.
People are searching for answers every day. They are searching right now on Google for answers to questions they have. This is an opportunity to create content that your audience may be looking to find.
In fact, using keyword research tools can give you more detailed insights into what exactly people are searching for in Google. And this can help you figure out how best to structure your content.
Content Helps Your Audience
Probably the most valuable content is the content that helps your audience solve a problem. So when you start creating content you should be asking yourself the following:
How does this content help my audience?
Is it adding any value?
Why would my audience want to read this?
Does this help my audience achieve anything?
Would people find this interesting?
At the end of the day, you are sharing content to attract people to your social media page or website. If you understand what content will serve your audience best, you will be better able to grow your following.
Content Can Be Repurposed
One thing you can do with your content is to repurpose it. And that means taking content from one medium to another. For example, a collection of blog posts could become an ebook. This ebook could become a lead magnet on your website.
You could create a video from the content you posted on your blog and share that on social media. The point is that your content can be used in different ways and doesn’t have to stay a blog post or a video. It can be used to create even more content in different mediums.
Content builds community
When creating content on social media you will find people start to follow you. As these few people grow from a few hundred to thousands, you begin to have a stronger and stronger influence. This means you have the ability to leverage more and more opportunities as you communicate with more people.
Your following can then be monetized through offering your products, services or promoting affiliate products.
Content Improves Your SEO
By regularly posting content on your blog you will be improving your SEO. Google rewards websites that post regular content as it sees your site as active. If you want more traffic, post more content! Make sure it’s good quality and that people will find it interesting. You are primarily writing for your audience, but if you ensure your content is SEO friendly it will help rank your content better.
If you want to make money from your content, you can, by using affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is really promoting products and services that you either use or relate to the subject of your blog.
The more you write on specific topics the more people will find your content. When they read your content, there could be banners or links to products or services that are relevant. And there is a very high chance that people will want to buy these products.
This is how bloggers monetize their blogs. And it’s an industry that is growing every day as more products and services are available to market.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, content marketing is a powerful medium to create visibility for your business or blog. It can attract the audience you want to connect to and build authority in a chosen field. Whether you are building a brand, launching a venture, or monetizing your blog, content done right can not only build a global audience, it can earn you income.
Why not start today!
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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.
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’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 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!
Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!
With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
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.
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.
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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With a Step-By-Step Blueprint to Guide You to Success.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
