online business – Page 2 – Launch Digital Freedom

How to Prepare to Leave the Corporate World?

corporate world, your own business, business

If you are considering leaving the corporate world, it can be challenging, but it’s possible. In this article, I’ll cover a few ways you can start creating momentum to launch your own business. Taking your time to build your venture on the side is a great way to learn, gain experience, and grow your business with the security of a stable job.

Here are some things to help you be better prepared for jumping ship and going alone.

Don’t Be Hasty

I wouldn’t recommend just quitting your job. Unless you have ample financial reserves to keep you afloat for a long time, don’t. In fact, it’s better to start building your business on the side while you are still employed to avoid finding yourself in a desperate situation.

Consider thinking about the following:

Plan your resignation in advance.
Be financially prepared for going it alone.
What do you need to be able to run your business?
What skills and knowledge do you need?
What will you be able to charge?
Where will you attract customers?
Do you have an established business network?

You never really know how things will go. Perhaps it takes three months, maybe six, it could even take a year or more to establish a stable income. It might take time before you can even match your current income. You don’t know. And it is a massive risk to take a gamble like that.

Set a Deadline for Motivation

Start with the end in mind. If you don’t set a deadline to get your idea off the ground you are never going to get started. Choose a date, give yourself enough time, say at least 6 months. It takes time to build any business. Realistically it might take longer. The key is to set things in motion to move you forward toward the objective you have set.

Consider how much time per week or month you can set aside to build your side hustle. Will it be enough time to plan, research, and start building a viable business? By the time you leave your position, you want to have something that is at least starting to gain traction. That has momentum you can continue to build on.

Assess Your Finances Carefully

Probably the most important thing to consider is your current financial situation. The more stable you are the more you can focus on your business. But if you are struggling to make ends meet, or have little to buffer you, you are taking a huge risk leaving your position. Rather continue to build your business for longer and make sure you are generating income first before resigning.

What is Your Financial Situation?

Will your partner or spouse be able to cover certain costs with their salary while you build your business?
How stable is your financial situation?
What financial capacity do you have?
Do you have large amounts of debt?
Do you have high expenses and no savings?
How much have you got in savings?
Do you have money invested that could be used if you need it?
What expenses could I drop, and cut my overall expenditure?
How much debt do you have, do you have any installments to keep up?
What will you do if things don’t work out, what is your back up plan?

You need to weigh up your current financial situation, your savings, investments, and what the knock-on effect will be if you start your own business. There are always unexpected expenses and costs, so be prudent. And depending on how far your business is, it might take longer before you are able to cover all your expenses.

Do Your Research Thoroughly

Launching blindly into a venture is foolish. Don’t dive into it blindsided. Take time to investigate the ideas you may be thinking of pursuing. The internet offers no shortage of resources for this. Here is a list of ways to build a solid foundation of research:

Google It!

Okay, any search engine will do! The secret to deep research is don’t be superficial. Dig deeper. Seek out valuable resources and content that can help you understand what you are getting yourself into before you jump ship!

Follow People on Social Media

One way to learn more is to hear what others are saying about your desired business. If you want to learn more about digital marketing, follow digital marketers. If you want to learn more about blogging, follow bloggers. They are consistently sharing gold, so why not collect it while they give it away…

Scan Forums

There are forums like Reddit and Quora that can offer a hive of interesting information about all kinds of topics. Search out relevant forums that align with your area of interest and search content, ask questions and engage with the community.

Industry Hubs

There are many rich sources of information from industry hubs that share best practices, latest trends, information, and even host events you can attend. Search these out and join their mailing list to keep informed and up-to-date with events and articles.

Established Companies

There will be established companies that you could search for online. See how they engage with their audience, what information they share, and see what they charge. Researching companies that are doing what you want to do, is a great way to understand how to position yourself in the market and be competitive.

The key is to do your homework before jumping into a new business, as you’ll be far better able to handle challenges if you are prepared for it.

Take it Step by Step

Building any business is a process! It takes time. And you need to be patient. Break down the goal of your business, into small incremental steps. Make it attainable. Easy to comprehend and face. If you make your business into one massive mountain, you’re going to feel overwhelmed and probably not even try.

Conclusion

If you want to leave corporate life behind, it is possible. You can do it. But take time to prepare for it, get organized, and start building your venture on the side. Do it while you have financial security. Once you jump ship, you are on your own. If things go bad without the proper preparation and planning, you might very well regret it.

Get started today, and give yourself at the very least a few months to build the momentum you will need. How long you need depends on many factors, the key is balancing the risks. Don’t be hasty, be patient, and build a strong foundation before you take the plunge!

Learn How to Earn Income Online

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

How Building Your Venture in Public can be a Competitive Advantage?

Many people struggle to get their business ideas off the ground. It often takes longer than they think to develop their products or services. And this stops many from even launching into cyberspace. But that is changing. More and more entrepreneurs are opting to build their businesses in public. Yes. Even before they have products or services to sell.

This might seem risky or foolish. But there is a method to their madness. They may start by sharing how they’ve been researching their ideas. What they have learned. They may share what other companies are doing, and how they intend to improve the issues of those products or services.

And social media is where many entrepreneurs are talking about what they are building. Sharing their journey of discovery and development with the public eye. Many entrepreneurs actively engage with the public and get feedback, which can be a fantastic way to build an even better business.

Let’s take a look at why building a business in public can help facilitate opportunities for your startup.

Transparency Builds Trust

One of the biggest challenges in building a new venture is establishing trust with prospective customers. People need to be able to trust that you will deliver what you say you will. At the beginning of your business journey, you will start with zero customers. And that means you need to be able to attract interest in your offering. But how do you build trust?

Building in public is a way to establish trust. As people see you online, you will start to build up credibility as you interact with your audience. People will feel like they are a part of your journey, and will relate more than if you simply tried to promote what you were selling.

As you share more of your journey in public and people can see you are consistent, willing to listen, and give feedback, you will establish a strong sense of trust.

Establishes Your Brand

Establishing a strong brand is pivotal to building a successful business online or offline. And it ties in with the previous point on trust. Your brand presence can build a public image that can be a powerful asset to attract customers.

Brand versus Business

Your business is the behind-the-scenes mechanics of your venture. It’s the systems you use, the administrative side, the inner workings of your services, and operations.

Your brand is the public persona or image that people see of your business. It’s how you represent yourself in public, both verbally and visually. It’s the way you market your business, or how you talk to your customers. It’s fundamentally the outward character of your business.

And this is where building in public can help you build a strong brand, whether personal or organizational. The same benefits apply. The voice and attitude of your communication will establish a certain character for your brand. And this will attract a certain type of audience.

For example, if you are developing a service for corporate professionals, considering your audience can help guide how you represent your brand both verbally or visually. Appealing to one group might repel other groups of people. If some people don’t connect with your brand that’s okay. You are not trying to help everyone. If you attract the right audience, that is ultimately what matters.

And that’s where your brand can be a magnet. It can attract the right type of audience that you want to connect with online.

Attracts Your Audience

A problem many entrepreneurs have is selling their products or services once they are ready to launch. This can take a lot of time, effort and even money to do. And if you like many entrepreneurs, you don’t want to be starting from scratch when you are ready to launch your offering.

This is where building your audience before you launch can be invaluable. The advantage to this is that you are building anticipation for your launch. People are getting to hear about how you are building your venture. If you do it right, by the time you do launch your offering, you will have already created awareness and interest. And that means that you will not have to start from nothing.

Better Product-Market Fit

You might have an idea that you think is fantastic. You feel it’s so good it cannot fail. But what does the market think? Does your offering meet the demands and needs of your target audience? This is a challenge for any startup. You just don’t know how people will react to your idea.

And this is where building in public can come into its own. You can share your product or service offering and get feedback. Maybe people offer you constructive criticisms or ideas to make it even better. They might even be able to help you hone your product to meet the demands of your target audience.

If you want to succeed you need to listen to your audience, your prospective customers are a goldmine of information. Don’t dismiss them. You ultimately build something for them. And the more the public sees your openness to embrace feedback the more confidence people will have in you.

Test Your Offering

One advantage of building in public is that you can test your offering with a select number of customers. By gauging the feedback from your customers you can prepare for your launch. And ensure you iron out any issues before you finally go live.

By launching too soon, you might disappoint customers and lose valuable trust that you’ve taken time to develop. So rather take your time to gauge feedback from users and ensure it meets a certain level of quality before you make it available.

Conclusion

If you are considering building a new venture you might want to consider starting even before you have a clear direction. Sharing your journey can greatly benefit your progress and brand awareness.

Before you even have a clear vision of your business, you can start sharing about the area of interest and get feedback on ideas to gauge what people want. This can guide you toward a clearer idea for your offering, it’s really a win-win…

And all at the same time you will be building your online presence, establishing your authority, and growing your audience. This means when you are ready to finally launch your venture, you will have the audience you need to sell your product or service.

So… are you ready to start your journey in public yet?

References :

Entrepreneur Magazine, Building in Public: How Tech Companies Master Product-Market Fit

Learn How to Earn Income Online

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

An Introduction to Email Marketing for Beginners

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.

Recommended Reading: Is Affiliate Marketing a Legit Way to Make Money?

Build Your Email List

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.

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

Why Not To Quit Your Job To Start A Business?

We all have a unique journey through this life. And we can all find ourselves unsure of what we are doing and why we are doing it. It can be tempting to want to quit your job immediately and start a business. But, there are some key differences between having a job and running a business. There are lessons to learn which can be done while you still work for a boss. (In some ways, starting a business replaces one boss for many!)

So, take a breath, relax, and plan your journey.

While you still have your job

Understand your Financial Situation

When starting a business, there is a key difference in your finances. Regular income vs Irregular income (Maybe none at first). Having your salary paid in each month on a certain day gives the comfort of planning your living expenses.

So, before you quit your job, make sure most (all if possible) of these boxes are ticked:

Rework your budget and remove all excess expenses (This will require a conversation with the family)
Have as few liabilities as possible (Car payments, bank loans etc)
Have 6-months expenses in your bank for hard times

Do your Business Research (Plan)

What business are you starting? Who are your customers? Where will you find them? What is your unique selling proposition?

These are some of the questions you need to answer before quitting your job. Personally, I don’t believe in a complex business plan. I am more of a let’s get moving kind of guy. But you do need to workshop your business ideas and have a general direction to move on. And a business quarterly review/update.

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

Meet the right people

Find people that are doing what you want to do. Ask them questions about how they started and what problems they faced in the beginning. You can find them on LinkedIn, Meetup, and many other online platforms. Even if you can’t find specific people in your niche, connect with business owners and entrepreneurs. They have been through the pains of starting a business. You might be able to leverage their lessons.

Start on the foundations

While you are working a job, in your spare time, start doing the business you want to do. Just 1 or 2 hours a day consistently starts to show results in the initial months. Consistency is the key. In my business, there at 3 components, I need to keep doing. They are related to helping others in Online Business.

Write content
Send weekly emails
Social Media

Of course, there are many other things that need to be done, but you have to focus on money-making activities

Be consistent

As alluded to above, consistency is key. Get into good habits and stick to a plan. Here are some pointers on how to get into Good Habits.

When you are ready

Once you have to above in place, and you are confident in your approach, you can launch into your business full time.

And don’t forget to enjoy the journey and take time to relax and recuperate.

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

How to Grow your Online Presence with Content Marketing?

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:

Content Creates Visibility
Content Helps Establish Trust
Content Can Help Build Your Brand
Content Educates Your Audience
Content Helps Your Audience
Content Can Be Repurposed
Content Builds Community
Content Improves Your SEO
Content Can Be Monetized
Conclusion

Content Creates Visibility

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.

Recommended Reading: Is Affiliate Marketing a Legit Way to Make Money?

Content Helps Establish Trust

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.

Recommended Reading : How to Improve the SEO of your Website in 7 Steps

Content Can Be Monetized

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!

Learn How to Earn Income Online

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

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.

Want to join a mentorship program to help you step-by-step to build your own online business? Find out more about Six Figure Mentors!

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!

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

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.

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

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!

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started

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.

Get Started

A Blueprint to Start Your Online Business Faster

If you are starting out on your journey into the online business world, you might feel like you swimming in an ocean of confusion. The internet is filled with amazing content and no shortage of answers, except that you never get the information in a structured and organized way. In fact, often the content is too short and superficial. Other times the content is too technical without practical advice. If you want to get started you need the right amount of knowledge with practical advice. You want a logical path to follow so you can build a profitable online business.

So what is the alternative to random YouTube videos or endless Googling that just leads you from one rabbit hole to the next?

Save Time and A Learn Faster

One of the biggest problems that Six Figure Mentors solve, is the wasted time you spend searching for answers. Time is money. And why waste hours, days, weeks, and months trying to figure something out when you can scale your results quickly. There is a better way!

The way I started my journey into building an online business was through following their program and learning what I needed. It provided me the knowledge and the step-by-step plan to start building my business. It also saved me from the frustration of digging through piles of websites and YouTube videos to figure out where to start and how to be profitable.

The educational platform they offer is a great way to better your knowledge and skills on all things digital. It covers digital marketing to social media to web design. They offer high-quality video lessons that you can take at your own pace, with no stress. The lessons are easy to understand and you can then apply them to your business straight away!

My previous post on – Is Affiliate Marketing a Legit Way to Make Money?

Follow A Proven Formula for Success

As I’ve mentioned it offers you a clear path that is easy to follow even if you are a total novice. The goal of the program is to help you grow from a total notice to a functional business, and therefore the content is easy to digest.

As someone who has attempted to start an online venture a few times, it has helped me stay focused. This is a challenge when you don’t know everything. It is easy to wander from one thing to another. The clear set out steps has helped me move forward in a logical fashion learning what is relevant to my journey.

Is Six Figure Mentors for You?

The reason I signed up for their program was simple. I want to leave the high-stress work environment of Software Development and focus on building a business I can run from anywhere in the world.

But I needed a framework to build it. I didn’t want to have to guess or crawl around in the dark trying to figure it out on my own. I wanted to learn what I needed to, and get started sooner than later! Like many things in life, we procrastinate when we don’t have answers.

Six Figure Mentors offered me the answers I needed to get started!

So if you are ready to start your own online business, see How Six Figure Mentors Works and make your idea a reality!

Get ready to Launch into CyberSpace!

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

Your Business. Your Terms. Online. Anywhere.

Get Started