Posts Tagged ‘ make money online ’

Are you interested in starting your own home based business , but not sure where to begin? Why not start with yourself?

Here are a few steps you can take to determine what you really want to do. But first, have a pen and paper ready in front of you…

Done? Ok, here we go…

1) What Are Your Hobbies?

Write down all the things you love doing in your own free time. Don’t hold anything back, because I’m not here to examine your answer. There is no right or wrong here, only the truth, only what you feel straight from your heart.

Why do this? The answer is because hobbies are a great source of motivation and energy for anyone. If you’re willing to do something without being paid, you’d definately do it for money. The only difference is, money will only come second, as compared to the immediate satisfaction you get from doing what you love. Write everything on that pice of paper.

2) What Specialized Knowledge Do You Have?

In your current or past jobs, you would have accumulated a great deal of knowledge on a certain subject. Thanks to your boss, you may have become an expert at something. And this expertise, believe it or not, can help others around the world. Don’t let this go to waste.

So write down any specialized knowledge you have. Write down any specialized skills you may have developed too, and it could be in sales, event organization, public relations, accounting, counselling, etc.

3) What Corner of The Book Store Do You Go to First?

When I heard someone ask me that, I was like “What? What has that got to do with anything?”.

It has got to do with everything. Which corner of the bookstore you visit FIRST usually indicates which topics you love reading about. In a conversation with one of my team members a week ago, I asked him the same question, and his reply was “Well, Gobala, I never thought about it, but I actually go to the self-help section first, because I like reading about how I can improve myself to be a better human being.”

Ditto. Your sub-concious actions may hold the answer to your problem. Now we’re getting somewhere, so write YOUR favourite section down on that piece of paper.

4) What Did You Love Doing 5 Years Ago?

My life now is VERY different from what it was 5 years ago. How about yours? What did you love doing 5 years ago, but simply cannot find the time for it right now? Did you plan to start something new 5 years ago, but for some reason it never happened?

Our lives change all the time, but if there was something in your past that you’re still passionate about, write it down now.

5) What Are You Naturally Good At?

To answer this question, you MUST ask your friends, not yourself. Whatever you already know about yourself is not going to help. Only things you never knew you were good at are going to open doors to your own home based business. So go ahead, call 10 of your best friends, and ask them “What do think I’m good at?”

Make a mental note, or write all their opinions down on your piece of paper. The key to getting this right is to NEVER question or argue about their opinion of you. Take the good with the bad, take it all. By the time you’re done with number 10, I guarantee you’ll start discovering things about you that you never knew you were good at.

I found out that I’m good at teaching. I also found out that I can explain things in a simple way, and that I have patience when dealing with others. Trust me, I never knew that before I asked. It’s amazing what others know about you that you don’t know yourself.

The Road Becomes Clearer

When you’re done with your list of all the things you love, all the things you’ve become an expert at, and all the things you found out you’re naturally good at, have a good look at it. Does your dream home business seem a little more clear now? Do you see the begiining of an exciting journey, instead of an intimidating one?

You now have many ideas on what type of home based business you can do, and all you have to do is choose. Choose the one that you’re most excited about RIGHT NOW and are eager to start RIGHT NOW.

If you rushed through this article without the pen and paper, without taking notes and asking yourself these questions, then let me tell you the truth:

It takes YEARS to build a steady five or six figure income from your own home based business. You can’t do it in months, no matter what anyone else out there may say. The only way you’re going to get through the initial “make-or-break” years is if you’re doing something close to your heart. Something that will seem like fun, not hard work.

Seek the truth, for the truth shall set you free, and show you where you want to go. If you don’t know where you want to go, it’s no secret that you’ll never get there.

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It doesn’t have to be unpleasant or messy, but it does have to be done. You may be well on your way to building a full-time home-based business or may just be tossing the idea around right now, but having a clear understanding of your current and future financial commitments will play a MAJOR role in your strategic plan for business success.

Home-based business owners don’t normally wake up one day and say, “Yep. I’m quitting my job today and starting a home-based business.” There is usually a period of time for contemplation, exploration, making the decision, creating a plan, and then starting to execute steps within the plan to achieve the final goal.

The process can take anywhere from several months to several years before an employee is in a position to walk away from her job to begin life as a full-time entrepreneur.

Being financially responsible is critical to not only home-based business success, but to create the financial cushion required to transition from being an employee to a full-time entrepreneur.

Understanding your current financial position is mandatory and doesn’t have to take more than an hour of your time if you follow the five basic steps below.

1. Calculate how much money you currently have sitting in bank accounts, investments, registered retirement savings plans, GIC’s, real estate, etc. If you were to leave your job today, would there be any form of payout (ie. sick plan credit, pension plan contributions, unused holidays, anniversary pay, etc.)?

2. Determine how much you earn on a monthly basis either through employment, child support payments, rental properties, dividends, your existing home-based business, etc.

3. Record your monthly household expenses. Some examples to get you started are:

- mortgage/rent
- property tax/house and mortgage insurance
- utilities (heat/water/hydro)
- phone/cable/satellite/Internet
- yard maintenance/snow removal
- groceries and household supplies
- vehicle fuel, insurance and maintenance costs
- medical
- child care
- personal care (hair/nails/clothing)
- entertainment (movies/sports/books/plays)
- club memberships, publications, etc.

4. List your monthly business expenses, for example:

- Internet
- phone (separate business line)
- autoresponder
- shopping cart
- long distance
- bank fees
- office supplies
- tools
- web hosting
- marketing
- advertising
- part-time help
- coaching services
- shipping/postage, etc.

5. Identify your outstanding liabilities such as:

- credit card balances
- personal loans
- lines of credit, etc.

When you calculate your earnings and revenue on an annual basis and deduct your personal and business expenses. How much do you have remaining at the end of the year? Can a portion of this be put aside to build your financial cushion?

If your current business revenue isn’t enough to cover your business and personal expenses and if you were to quit work today, how long would you be able to survive on your other revenue sources or savings and assets, taking into account your monthly expenses?

Have you considered all unexpected expenditures that could arise in the next year or two?

Is your car running on its last two cylinders?
Has your furnace almost reached its life expectancy?
Is your vacuum cleaner starting to growl at you?
Is your partner’s job secure or do you foresee unstable times ahead?

This exercise is by no means intended to scare or discourage. Financial stability is an area that needs to be addressed so you can keep your feet firmly planted and plans realistic as you build your home-based business.

Understanding where you are and what potentially lies ahead will help you make sound financial decisions as you plan your future.

After completing these five steps, you may realize your dream to break free of your job might take a year longer than expected, or you may learn that in order to move forward at a quicker pace, you may have to bring in a partner or investor, or learn to leverage your time, money and effort more efficiently to expedite progress.

Perhaps seeking professional guidance on reducing debt and managing finances is in order?

No matter what results you generate, don’t let them shake your spirit. Knowing exactly where you are financially will help you make informed, practical decisions so you can create your ideal future.

To increase your level of success at home-based business, make sure you have a financial advisor and accountant as part of your success team.

2006 © Laurie Hayes – The HBB Source

You hear it al the time if you have been involved or are involved in the home business or internet business industry:

“You need a system to succeed.”

I like to take this a step further. You not only need a “system”, but in order to get the most out of your home business opportunity, you need to have an Automated System. To take that even one step further, your Automated System must hit your prospects from EVERY angle in order to achieve the highest levels of prosperity.

Here are four techniques that if used on all of your prospects WILL increase your earnings with ANY home or internet business opportunity.

Step 1: Create a “capture” or “squeeze” page.

Even if you have no idea what this is, you have almost certainly seen a capture page and even been “captured by one. A capture page is simply a page that is set up to give some brief information about a product or service, but then requires the prospect to enter their info to get the full details. It is often a teaser or hyped up page to get the prospect to want to know more. The most effective capture pages touch on the prospects personal or financial needs compelling them to find out more by filling in their information. Once they do, you own their information for life and can continue to follow up with them or contact them about other offers of services you have no, or develop in the future. Capture pages are a MUST to start building your list that you will be able to promote any product or service. A great program that allows even the most novice person to create capture pages in minutes is Lead Page Generator.

Special note: NEVER LOSE YOUR LIST OF CAPTURED NAMES, ADDRESSES, EMAILS, ETC.

Those that are highly successful in any home business or internet opportunity have a list of thousands that they have built over the years. Any time they have a new product, service or opportunity to promote they send it out to their list first. This gives you a big head start and if your products, services and opportunities have been successful in the past, your list will follow you everywhere.

This all leads into the second technique to creating a totally automated system, email auto responders.

Step 2: Follow up with prospects via email

This is the easiest and most recognizable form of follow up. When creating a capture page, all you have to do is tie the information form into an auto responder. This can be done very easily using services such as aweber. Now, when a prospect fills in their information, you not only get to keep their information for your list, but now you can follow up with them daily, weekly, monthly without having to lift a finger. Of course, you have to write your email follow up messages ahead of time, but once you have them completed, you are following up with your prospects over and over while doing no additional work.

While email is a nice tool to make your system automated, it is far too often the ONLY tool people use. This is a huge mistake. Fact is, that email follow up and marketing is becoming far less effective due to spam laws and people filtering their email accounts.

In order to reach as many people as possible, you need to come at them from different angles.

Step 3: Follow up with a voice broadcasting system

Voice broadcasting gives you yet another method of following up with prospects. It is an awesome tool and as of late has been sort of the “new email.” Because email is getting caught by filters and spam control features, it is necessary to try and reach prospects using other methods. Outside of email, voice broadcasting is the easiest and least expensive means of following up. In addition, voice broadcasting can keep your system totally automated. You can record a simple message or series of messages, collect the prospects phone number on your capture page and then simply set up your voice broadcasting software to call them once, weekly, monthly or whatever you choose. There are lots of services to use out there. Goldcalling, voiceshot, probuilderplus, and protus are just a few.

Step 4: Postcard follow up

Direct mail is by far the most forgotten means of follow up, but often the most effective. Postcards are a terrific way to make sure that your prospects hear form you. By simply collecting their mailing info on your capture page, you have set yourself up to use an incredible tool that will definitely help increase your sales and income.

There are a couple of services that allow you to set up a direct mail campaign to work just like an email auto responder. The best service in my opinion is PostCardAutoresponder.com. You can input a prospects mailing address and set up a campaign that will send them a postcard once, twice, weekly, monthly, or whatever you choose. Just set it up once and forget it. You can contact a prospect for an entire year on autopilot . You can even create custom postcards for any business , service or opportunity.

If you use that simple 4 step plan to create an automated system for your business, you will definitely increase sales and income. Plus, you will not only have an automated system that works for you while you are doing the things you enjoy, but it will be one that contacts prospects from every angle so they are sure to get your message early and often. Remember, it is not always enough just to have a system. You need to have an automated system that you can plug each prospect into that will run itself while you focus on building your business.

Buying a Franchise is a huge step, just like buying any business.

The best part about a franchise, though, is that you should expect a great track record and the answers to any and all questions you have, because the franchisor should have been there and done it all before!

This article will give you plenty of questions to ask.

NB: You may have to sign Non-Disclosure documents and actually apply for a Franchise before you can get answers to some (but certainly not all) of these questions. If you find a franchisor is reluctant to answer these questions, that should tell you something, shouldn’t it?

1. Is the Franchisor a Member of the Franchise Council of Australia?

2. Does the Franchise comply fully with FCA Code of Conduct and Member Standards in all regards?

These two requirements are compulsory for membership of the FCA, so you can be assured that if they are an FCA Member, they have already been vetted for compliance with these.

NB: Membership is optional – if Franchisors are members, it may provide a degree of credibility, however, many good Franchisors are not members of the FCA.

3. Was the Business successfully piloted (run as business) by the Franchisor?

4. How long has the Franchise been in operation?

5. How many franchises have been sold?

6. How many franchises are company owned?

7. How many Franchises are there in active operation?

8. How many franchisees have sold their franchise as an ongoing concern?

9. How many active franchisees consistently meet franchise revenue and profit projections?

10. How many legal suits have been lodged by franchisees against franchisor?

11. How many Franchisee council meetings have been held in last 12 months?

12. What marketing is generated by Franchisor?

13. What level of Training is provided?

14. What level of ongoing support is provided?

15. How is training and support provided?

16. What is the makeup of the head office team?

17. What are the Customer profiles?

18. Time and lifestyle outcomes (5 days a week, 7 days a week, etc.)?

19. Is employment of staff required?

20. What guarantees are offered if any, regarding:

a) Marketing

b) Income support

c) Business generation

d) Franchise buyback

21. Can you speak with as many franchisees as you want, and will they give you some contact names and numbers?

22. When you have spoken to a Franchisee with less than 12 months in the franchise, get them to give a rating out of 5, where 5 is highest, 1 is lowest about:

a) Marketing support
b) Level of ongoing Support
c) Level and quality of Training
d) Business generation as a result of franchisor marketing
e) General satisfaction

23. When you have spoken to a Franchisee with more than 12 months in the franchise, get them to give a rating out of 5, where 5 is highest, 1 is lowest about:

a) Marketing support
b) Level of ongoing Support
c) Level and quality of Training
d) Business generation as a result of franchisor marketing
e) General satisfaction

24. Will the Franchisor provide vendor finance or assist with finance (ask if you will require financial assistance)?

25. Is the market for the services or products likely to grow in the future?

26. What market share does the franchise have / how strong is the competition?

27. Is it easy for competitors to start up alternative franchises?

28. What market awareness (branding) does the franchise have in their marketplace?

29. Are they the leading player in the sector?

30. What is their competitive advantage?

31. Is their competitive advantage unique or can it be easily copied?

32. Are they first mover in their industry?

33. What innovations has the Franchisor made in the business model over the past 12 months to stay ahead of competition?

34. Will the business grow in value as business grows?

35. Will I be able to sell my online business?

36. Has there been franchisees who sold out for a money making profit?

37. Is there an exit strategy (sale, employee buyout, company buyback, etc) in the Franchise system for me to get out of the franchise?

38. How many days a week will I have to work?

Hopefully, these questions made you think a bit harder about the franchising opportunities available. But if you just haven’t got the time to make contact and ask all those questions, simply go to the website to sort the sheep from the goats.

When people decide to join an affiliate program to make extra money, or to have a full time job, they often do so with illusions and no idea of how the affiliate program actually works. Read the following top 5 mistakes people make when it comes to choosing an affiliate program and avoid these mistakes at all costs. Then, you will be able to be more effective and make more money for your time, so it is definitely worthwhile to read these warnings and avoid them.

#1 Don’t Compete, Support
Too many affiliate programs compete against their competitors which wastes money and puts affiliates out of business. However, if you are part of an affiliate program the more affiliates the better for getting more information and more money. One of the worst things to do is choose an affiliate program that believes in competing against other affiliates. Instead, choose an affiliate program that agrees with supporting and growing other affiliates to have a larger network and access to more affiliates.

#2 Little Reward
Another mistake people frequently make when choosing affiliate programs is choosing a program that offers little reward for the individual’s hard work. Too many affiliate programs pay too little and as a result affiliates find it difficult to make the money they should be making. Look for an affiliate program that has a good pay rate for your work.

#3 Old Statistics, if Any
You want an affiliate program that offers good, solid, real time statistics, not old statistics or ones that are no longer valid. There are not many affiliate programs out there that provide the kind of statistics an affiliate manager needs, but do your best to find an affiliate program that offers the most.

#4 No Support
Too often affiliates find themselves waiting days for an answer to an e-mail and an important question for their business. You want an affiliate program that guarantees you support round the clock if possible or at least within 24 hours. If not, keep looking for an affiliate program that wants to help you help yourself.

#5 Fresh Ideas, Creative’s
Many affiliate programs provide few ideas or creative’s to their affiliates and so thousands of web pages end up with the same advertising. However, affiliate programs would have a better success rate if many different ads were made available so affiliates could alternate ads and place different ads on different sites, depending on the products sold.

Commit these five mistakes to memory so you know exactly what you are looking for in an affiliate program, as well as what to avoid. You will be much more successful and happier as well if you do not get caught in these traps!
5 Tips To Choosing The Right Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs can be a great way to make money online. You don’t have to spend time developing your own product, worry about taking orders, or take care of customer service.

If you already have a high traffic website or run an e-zine you can stand to earn a steady flow of commissions every month without a lot of extra work on your part.

To help you get started promoting affiliate programs, I’ve provided the following 5 tips to help you choose the affiliate programs that are right for you.

1. Choose affiliate programs that match the content of your site. If your site targets a niche market than choose affiliate programs that offer products to that niche market.

2. Choose affiliate programs that pay a high commission. For example 30%-50% on your direct sales.

3. Join affiliate programs that pay two-tier commissions. This enables you to not only earn commissions on your own sales but also on the sales of people who you introduce to your affiliate
program.

4. Join affiliate programs that offer a line of products so that you can earn commissions when your referrals come back and purchase other services or products.

5. Join affiliate programs that offer their affiliates great marketing support. Many affiliate programs offer their affiliates pre-written ads to use or get ideas from, sales letters, marketing courses, and articles to use in promoting their services.

Remember, the best affiliate programs will see their affiliate program as a partnership with you and combine high commissions with excellent support so that you can start earning money promoting their products as quickly as possible.