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5 Easy and Profitable Online Business Ideas for the Software Developers

Are you a software developer looking to start your own profitable online business? Let me start by stating first: Business is always going to have its challenges. And it will be hard to continue at times. But once you have looked at all profitable online business ideas, picked one and pushed hard at it for several years, you’ll look back with pride at what you have achieved.

Maybe you have already tried to develop code for a friend’s business in your spare time. (Probably for little money) And it can be tough. Developing 8+ hours a day at your full-time job, then having to do it nights and weekends too. That can be taxing for anyone and will put undue pressure on your family and social life.

Although you might be in a very specific discipline, like Java, there are many alternatives to making money online other than coding. Your skills are very adaptable to many types of online business. There are many profitable online business ideas, but here are the ones I like. I’ve even made money from a few of them. After coding each day, it can be refreshing to focus on a different type of venture.

5 lucrative online business ideas

Web Development\Design Services

You can create Websites using classic programming languages like Java, Python or c#, but most of the time this is overkill. Many clients out there just want a website, landing page and maybe a sales funnel. All these components already exist in many free, or cheap, content management systems (CMS)

Solutions like WordPress have taken all the hard work out of creating a website, online store (WooCommerce) and blogging. The hardest thing to get your head around using these products is that there is minimal code. Most of the time you a building pages using a page builder and installing plugins.

It’s so easy these days, even non-technical persons can get into it with a bit of effort.

Thrive Themes is a plugin for WordPress that provided you with templates to build your websites. If you want to learn to build with Thrive Themes click HERE.

Online Software Development Course

If you are good at teaching what you know, create a course, and sell it. You can use WordPress Technologies like Thrive Apprentice (another one of those WordPress plugins) to house your online course. There is a yearly cost for Thrive Apprentice, but you can use it over and over and it does it all for you.

Here are a couple of my favourite online authors. Courses I have bought and used in the last few years of my software dev journey.

Josh Moroney, Ionic Expert, and independent creator. He leverages online technologies to showcase how to use Ionic. He has a blog with many posts on specific aspects of Ionic, and a full paid-for course on how to create solid, secure mobile applications using the Ionic Framework.

Another favourite of mine, Marco Behler utilises online technology to share his expert knowledge on Java and specifically Spring Boot Framework. With a free chapter or 2 in his course, I bought the rest because it helped me understand the framework and how it was built.

SEO Consulting Business

SEO is one of my favourite topics right now. I’ve been learning and implementing this in my business for the last couple of years now. But I have also been able to apply my knowledge to other businesses and gain them a competitive advantage, bringing them customers.

SEO is a long-term project for your website that will bring organic internet traffic to your site over time. Long-term means anywhere for 6 months to 2 years depending on your business type and competition in it. Consistency up to that point and beyond is key to SEO success.

SEO Requires:

Links – Relevant Links to both external and internal pages. They help Search engines like Google to qualify your authority. Site owners are only likely to link to reputable sources. So, you need to build your clients reputation with other sites too so they link back to your site.
Content – Search engines crawl your web pages to find relevant information that they can provide to a user doing a search. The closer the wording of your content is to a search, the more likely the search engine will rank you. The more people visit your site, the more the search engine will see you as an authority and push you higher in the search. Your aim is to be Number 1 in popular searches.
Page structure – The third component of SEO is page structure. Pages are written in HTML. So, when Google crawls your pages, it sees the HTML Tags. In HTML 5, the tags were enhanced to indicate much more information to the search engines. So, if you structure correctly, and embed the correct metadata, Google can index more correctly. This will in turn help you when being ranked. WordPress has plugins that allow you to set this data without ever looking at the code!

And of course, there is no contest when it comes to quality content. The more users use your information and the longer they stay on your page, the more authority you will gain over time. i.e. Higher up on the Google Search.

How to Improve the SEO of your Website in 7 Steps

Online Technology Writer

So, you have all the tech jargon and savvy, and no one to share it with?

Why not hone your skills as a writer, and deliver difficult to communicate information with a diverse audience of people?

You can write anything from Software manuals, API documentation, support documentation for systems. People buy these skills. It’s often easier to outsource to maintain quality.

You can check out Upwork if you are looking for a contract of any length. And you will never run out of new technology, so it’s an endless business (what you want!)

Digital Marketing Business

Digital Marketing is a broad term for helping your client, or yourself, sell your products or services online. It is focused on getting you to stand out from the crowd.

But in essence, you need a:

Platform Where can you find your prospects? Where are they likely to be hanging out online? It can be Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or any other social platform. Here you can either run paid ads or simply post relevant content to your audience. If they like it, you need a call to action. Usually, a link to your landing page (fancy word for sales funnel/website)
Landing Page The landing page has a more detailed sales copy. It will highlight your product or service benefits and perhaps you’ll give away a gift to capture their name and email.
Ongoing Marketing Strategy This part is the key. You are unlikely to make a sale just because they gave you an email address. Once you have an email, you can market to them weekly. (Just don’t spam) You must manage your email list and provide the prospects with value every week. You also must keep offering your products or services. When they are ready, they’ll buy.

The Best Ways to Learn Digital Marketing Online?

With that…

Software Development is a great career to be in. It often allows you to work from home, and with a team worldwide. And the pay is great.

But not everyone wants to program forever, like me. Some of us want to learn new skills in writing, client management, online authority and managing a business.

All these skills mentioned can be self-taught, you just need to apply yourself and learn.

Happy decision making!

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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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How Social Media Can Accelerate the Growth of Your Business?

Social media has become a vital part of our daily lives, and its influence is set to only increase in the future. So why is this important to you, or even your business? Well, it’s simple. Social media offers us interconnected networks where it is possible to be connected with most of the world’s population in the palm of your hand. And if you want to sell anything from products to services that’s something you might want to leverage. Yes… and it is free to use if you need a good enough reason to get started?

What is Social Media?

If you are unsure what social media is, let’s break it down.

Social media is a web-based platform designed to allow people and organizations, to share information and media, seamlessly via an interconnected network. This network allows people to find, connect, engage, share and communicate on a common platform. Where the internet allows you to find separate websites, social media brings all the people on a platform together. And this is where the true power of social media lies. In the interconnected nature of its platform.

That means if you are in the US you can effortlessly connect with people in Europe, Africa, or Asia by searching for content, people, or businesses. You can instantly interact, comment, or message a social media user. This creates huge opportunities to communicate with people from around the world.

How Brands are Using Social Media?

Social media enables businesses to share information about their products or services. And many brands have created community based initiatives to encourage interaction and sharing to gain greater exposure.

Dove is a brand that has used social media as a platform to create exposure through various social campaigns.

In 2004 they launched the “Real Beauty” campaign. Dove has used it to challenge people to not only see beauty as an aesthetic quality.

Dove launched its latest campaign in 2020 to highlight a message to look deeper than aesthetic beauty! Their campaign “Courage is Beautiful”. It was launched to honour healthcare workers that had sacrificed their time, and energy to serve others during the global pandemic.

Another way brands use social media is to encourage users to post images of themselves using the products they buy. This can further promote their products. Often these brands offer prizes or some form of recognition for their customers, which further grows brand loyalty.

At times brands have gone viral over posts they shared due to the controversial or humorous nature of the post. When this happens a brand may achieve massive overnight exposure through simple marketing campaigns.

Encouraging customers and prospects to interact with their content, brands can create greater exposure leading to greater sales and revenue!

Why is Social Media a Powerful Marketing Tool?

If you doubt the importance of social media in our lives and business just look at the numbers. Statistica states the following about the growth of social media usage in the next three years:

“The power of social networking is such that the number of worldwide users is expected to reach some 3.43 billion monthly active social media users by 2023, around a third of Earth’s entire population”

Many people consider social media for young people and question whether it is even a good strategy to use to grow their business. This couldn’t be further from the truth as both the younger and older generation are using social media to consume content, and engage with others.

Since the time of the pandemic many more people streamed to social media to not only keep updated with current affairs but also began engaging and sharing due to the lockdown restrictions which prevented us from interacting face to face.

According to Statistica not only is the number of users on social media platforms growing across the world but the amount of engagement from users as well. This has prompted brands to leverage opportunities to grow their businesses by using content marketing and advertising to take full advantage of this massive phenomenon.

“Despite the ubiquity of social networks, market potential is still increasing, as not only user figures but also user engagement continues to grow. On average, global internet users spend some 144 minutes per day surfing social networks. This prompts worldwide brands and their marketers to use that time and screen space to promote various products and services via social media marketing or social advertising.”

More organizations are investing in social media campaigns due to the massive reach and almost universal usage of the platform.

Social Media Benefits for your Business

To put the above into perspective from your business, here are some ways that social media can drastically benefit your business and complement any existing marketing efforts.

Opening a social media account is free.
It is simple to use.
You can use it on your computer, tablet or phone.
You can brand your profile.
You can post written content immediately.
People can engage and give you feedback.
You can share multimedia based content including audio and video.
You can potentially reach a vast audience.
It shows prospective customers what you are doing.
Create a sense of transparency.
Can help you promote events.
Can help you promote your products and services.
Can help you build a community around your business.

How to use Social Media to Market your Business?

There are many ways to use social media to grow your audience and gain exposure for your brand, here are a few points to get started:

Post original content about your business or industry.
Respond to customers or prospects’ comments.
Share news and content that is relevant to your business or industry.
Interact with others posts and grow your reach through engagement on other’s posts.
Contact potential customers directly.

So if you are thinking of marketing your business, seriously consider how you could use social media to grow your reach online. Start simple and grow, one post is the first step, and will start you on your journey!

Article Credits: Statistica Article about Social Media Growth.

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