Income 2018

Simple Affiliate Marketing and Income 2018

Affiliate marketing is a multi billion-dollar industry that’s been proven to increase the income of vendors and affiliate alike.

It can go both ways. You can recruit affiliates to market your products or you can become an affiliate partner to promote the products of businesses that complement your own.

Both work to increase your revenue.

The key in both cases is to find the right partners. Once you do, you’ll need to track what’s working and what’s not with the right tools.

There are multiple platforms dedicated to finding affiliate offers such as Click bank, Flexoffers, and even Amazon.

Before choosing an actual offer, make a choice about what type of affiliate offer you’d like to promote. This will help you narrow your choices to a manageable few within your niche.

1. Digital Downloads

This class of affiliate products pays a higher percentage of the sale amount because the cost of delivery and hosting is negligible. They also tend to be cheaper.

They’re online resources that customers can access instantly after paying for them.

They range from audio files, video files, or PDF files. An example is the entire Amazon Ebook marketplace or software such as WordPress plugins.

Since they’re relatively inexpensive, it’s easier to get the sale but you’ll have to sell a high volume to receive a sizeable income.

2.Hosted or professional services

Professional services are a great way to achieve another stream of income through affiliate marketing. Before you settle on a provider, it’s important that you can vouch for their services.

Professional services tend to be more expensive than digital downloads. Hosted services, on the other hand, are cheaper but tend to follow a recurring subscription model.

Choose services that can cater to a worldwide audience as opposed to only local clientele. These are professional services like digital marketing or SEO (search engine optimization). An example of a hosted service would be a product like Lead pages or Convert kit.

As an affiliate for a professional service, you’re usually paid for the initial referral and that payment is much larger than what you can expect from a digital download. Hosted services tend to pay over the life of the subscriber you refer so the payments are small but add up over time.

3. Online Courses

This is a great way to earn a large affiliate income. Online courses are becoming more and more acceptable for adult skills development.

Everything from photography and gardening to digital marketing and productivity is being taught using online courses. In fact, the online education space is a multi billion-dollar industry.

Many of them have a premium price point and pay close to half of the revenue in affiliate income. They’re very similar to digital products but with one distinction – they’re not downloadable.

Choose online courses from reputable providers in your space and market them to your current audience. Within a short time, you’ll have enough extra income to offset more costs in your business.

4. Physical products

Affiliate marketing started with physical products. They’ve adapted very well to the internet. The first thing you’ll notice about physical products is they pay a much smaller percentage than other types of affiliate products.

This is natural because there are more costs associated with manufacturing, storage, and delivery.

Choose products that are unique, premium, and noteworthy. Commodity products aren’t worth your time because the commissions will be too small.

Market your Affiliate Products .

Affiliate marketing can be a full-time business and it is for many people. That’s not what we’re after. We’re going to look at a few ways to promote your affiliate products to increase your revenue without taking away time and energy from your core business.

I’d recommend not placing them as a direct offer on your website. This may dilute the effectiveness of your core offer. Instead, we’ll mainly market to existing audience members.

for more details please click here.

5 Real Work-From Home-2018

Real Work-From-Home Jobs for 2020

If you want to coast into the future with real skills that pay, check out these real work-at-home jobs for 2020 and beyond:

Virtual Assistant

With so many businesses operating mostly, or even completely, online, it’s no wonder that many hire virtual assistants to help keep them organized and complete administrative tasks. According to the International Virtual Assistants Association, these workers are “independent contractors who (from a remote location, usually their home or office) support multiple clients in a variety of industries by providing administrative, creative, and technical services.”

Although virtual assistant jobs vary drastically, tasks can include composing and responding to emails, creating and distributing business-related documents, responding to media and business inquiries, writing and creating content, and more. Check out virtual assistant jobs at sites such as Upwork.com and Zirtual.com.

While pay varies, virtual assistants can typically charge between $15 and $75 an hour. However, what you’ll earn depends on who you work for and the level of skill required for your daily tasks.

Medical Transcriptionist

Although many medical transcriptionists work for hospitals or physician’s offices, most are able to work at home, and at a time or place of their choosing. Since their tasks involve transcribing recorded medical dictation, a computer, desk, and earpiece are generally the only requirements after completing a postsecondary medical transcriptionist program.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), medical transcriptionists earned a national median wage of $35,720 in May of 2019, or $17.17 an hour. Although many medical transcriptionists are self-employed, many find jobs through their local hospital, physician, or community college or vocational school.

Translator

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most translators do their work at home, and often under tight deadlines. Although some need a bachelor’s degree, the most important requirement for translators is, of course, fluency in at least two languages.

As the BLS notes, around 22% of translators were self-employed in 2019. The majority were spread among these industries: professional, scientific, and technical services (30%); state, local, and private educational services (23%); hospitals (8%); and government (6%).

The national median wage for this career was $46,120 in 2019, although the top 10% of workers earned an average of $83,010. Look for job postings for translators on sites like Upwork.com.

Web Developer

It’s fairly easy to build your own website if you take advantage of the many free learning opportunities online. However, much of the population isn’t equipped to build their own site, or doesn’t have the time, which is why so many people make a living building websites and blogs for others. According to the BLS, around 16% of web developers were self-employed in 2019, with the vast majority able to work at home, or anywhere with a laptop and speedy Internet connection.

Even better, the national median wage for web developers was $66,130 in 2019, with the top 10% earning an average of $119,550. And you typically don’t need an advanced degree to begin working in this field. All you need is some postsecondary education, applicable experience, and a portfolio of successful sites you’ve built and managed. There are even intensive coding boot camps designed to teach programming skills in just a few short months.

Travel Agent

Although the demand is expected to decrease over the next decade, the opportunities are still there for travel agents who can harness the Internet to earn clients and help them plan their adventures. According to the BLS, job prospects may be best for travel agents who offer expertise in certain regions of the world, have experience planning tours or adventures, or who focus on group travel.

Around 15% of travel agents were self-employed in 2016, but the vast majority of the rest of them worked in the travel arrangement and reservation services industry. Travel agents earned a national median wage of $36,460 in 2019.

How to Save Money

100 Ways to Save Money

First 10

1. Move bank accounts to take advantage of perks and earn more interest

If you’re paying a monthly fee for your checking or savings account, you would benefit from researching some of newest banking offers out there. Not only do some of the best banks offer sign-up bonuses simply for opening an account and setting up direct deposit, but some offer attractive interest rates to new customers as well.

It’s true that interest rates are not what they once were, but it’s still worth a look. Some of the best free checking accounts and best savings accounts can be found online. Here’s a guide on how to make that switch.

2. Turn off the television.

One big way to save money is to drastically cut down on the amount of television you watch. There are a lot of financial benefits to this: less exposure to spending-inducing ads, a lower electric bill (and perhaps a lower cable bill if you downgrade your subscription), more time to focus on other things in life — such as a side business — and so on.

Want to take things a step further? Consider cutting the cord to cable TV altogether.

3. Stop collecting, and start selling

There was a time when people thought their collections would bring them riches. Beanie Babies were a big fad at one time, as were Longaberger baskets. Now you can find those items on resale sites like Craigslist and at garage sales for a fraction of their initial cost, leaving many people who sunk thousands of dollars into their “investments” wondering what happened.

If you want to avoid that situation, don’t collect items of questionable value. And if you want to recoup some of the money you’ve already spent on collectible items, you can start selling them now and use those funds for any number of worthy financial goals. Read our “Guide to Selling Unwanted Items” for some simple strategies that can help you profit as much as possible.

4. Sign up for every free customer rewards program you can.

No matter where you live, you’ll find plenty of retailers who are willing to reward you for shopping at their store. Here’s the basic game plan for maximizing these programs: create a Gmail or Yahoo address just for these mailings, collect every card you can, and then check that account for extra coupons whenever you’re ready to shop.

You can add to those rewards and discounts by using rewards credit cards to earn points on purchases at a wide range of stores that can be redeemed for cash back or other benefits.

5. Make your own gifts instead of buying stuff from the store.

If you want to save money while also giving generously, creating your own homemade gifts is one way to accomplish both goals. You can make food mixes, candles, fresh-baked bread or cookies, soap, and all kinds of other things at home quite easily and inexpensively.

These make spectacular gifts for others because they involve your personal touch — something you can’t buy from a store — and quite often they’re consumable, meaning they don’t wind up filling someone’s closet with junk. Even better – include a personal handwritten note with the gift.

6. Master the 30-day rule.

Avoiding instant gratification is one of the most important rules of personal finance, and waiting 30 days to decide on a purchase is an excellent way to implement that rule.

Quite often, after a month has passed, you’ll find that the urge to buy has passed as well, and you’ll have saved yourself some money simply by waiting. If you’re on the fence about a purchase anyway, waiting a while can give you a better perspective on whether it’s truly worth the money.

7. Write a list before you go shopping – and stick to it.

One of the easiest ways to save money is to only shop when you have a list. Because when you’re without one, you typically end up making impulse buys and unplanned purchases – all things that cost money.

Creating a list before you go to the grocery store is especially important. Not only can it help you buy items that fit with your meal plan, but it can also help you avoid buying food you might waste. Always create a list and, more importantly, stick to it.
You can also take advantage of a cash back rewards card that gives bonus cash at grocery stores – just be sure to pay off the balance each month.

8. Invite friends over instead of going out.

Going out to eat or “out on the town” has a way of completely destroying both your food budget and your entertainment budget in one fell swoop. And no matter what, it is always cheaper to stay in with friends and come up with your own entertainment.

Instead of hitting the town, host a fun pitch-in dinner with your friends. Play cards, sit around a fire pit, or watch movies with your guests. You’ll all save money – and have a blast.

9. Repair clothing instead of tossing it.

Don’t toss out a shirt because of a broken button – sew on a new one with some closely-matched thread. Don’t toss out pants because of a hole in them – put in a patch of some sort and save them for times when you’re working around the house.

Most basic sewing jobs can be completed by anyone, and a little bit of practice goes a long way. Learning basic sewing skills is a great way to save some money – and extend the life of your clothing.

10. Don’t spend big money entertaining your children.

Most children, especially young ones, can be entertained very cheaply. Buy them an end roll of newspaper from your local paper and let their creativity run wild. Play ball in the backyard. Head to the park. Plant a garden. Teach them to ride a bike without training wheels once and for all.

Realize that what your children want most of all is your time, not your stuff, and you’ll find money in your pocket and joy in your heart.

How to Make Money

How to Make Money Online Without Really Trying

Start With Pat Flynn

The first place to start is checking out Pat Flynn, the founder of Smart Passive Income. It’s a tremendous resource with over 145 free podcasts and blog posts where Pat shares his wins, losses, and lessons, and interviews guests who are making money online in numerous ways. He could easily charge a monthly membership fee to access this gold mine of content, but he gives it all away for free (or at least 99% of it).

One endearing thing about Pat is his boyish honesty and complete transparency with how he makes money. There are a lot of online sharks and snakes out there, but Pat is not one of them. He publishes money reports where he details to the cent where every single bit of income he makes comes from. It’s been quite a journey, but I’ve seen Pat grow online from making a couple thousand dollars from an e-book to making north of $75,000 a month online.

If you start with the first podcast, you will learn from Pat about what moneymaking strategies he and others are employing. Pat is not one of those coding bros whose arrogance turns you off. He’s a family guy with a big heart, who lost his job and tried his hand at making money online.

Worth noting, Pat does not rest on his laurels. He’s constantly experimenting and exploring new ways to make money, and he is always humble and continually learning, recognizing that no stream of income is risk free. What if that site shuts down and your income disappears? Smart Passive Income is a fantastic place to start or continue your research. Pat is very responsive online; I’ve gotten multiple personal emails from him in response to my questions. He won’t lead you astray.

Create an Online Course

Education has shifted in major ways over the last 10 years as new technology has brought us an expansion in university classes online. We’ve also seen an explosion in classes taught by non-college professors.

Do you have a skill, talent, or hobby you could teach other people? This is one of those “work once, get paid many times” situations. Identify your skill(s) people are willing to pay for, whether it’s how to play the cello or how to cook Malaysian food. Determine the best platform(s) for it. Record your lesson. Then sell and market it.

Why is selling a video series, digital product, or online course a better option than in-person coaching or consulting? While both are nice, creating an educational video series allows you to make money while you sleep. Virtual coaching or consulting is great as far as controlling your schedule and working virtually, but you are still trading hours for dollars. If the goal is to create passive or semi-passive income, the game plan is to work once and get paid many times for the same effort or content. A great starting point for creating digital products or courses is David Siteman Garland and his Rise to the Top business.

Sell Through Webinars

Do you have a skill or expertise to share with the world? Have you cracked the nut of how to do something more efficiently to save people time or money? There are a number of ways to get your message and story out there. Webinars, for example, are a great way to do educational-based selling.

Say you are doing a 30-minute webinar. First of all, market it as many ways as you can beforehand. Then spend the first 20 to 25 minutes of the webinar educating your audience. Yes, give away your best ideas for free. No one wants to attend a webinar that is a sales pitch for your product, service, or company.

That said, if you deliver A+ content to your audience for 20-25 minutes, it’s perfectly acceptable to spend the last few minutes sharing opportunities for your audience to learn more, buy your product, or sign up for coaching or your email list (if they haven’t already). Not sure where to start or how to execute? Here is a great guide that Lewis Howes shares with Pat Flynn on how to run and successfully market a profitable webinar.

Write a Book or e-Book

With the self-publishing services offered by Amazon and others, you can self-publish your book online for free and keep as much of 70% of the royalties, giving away a percentage for the use of the platform and its marketing prowess. You can independently publish your book and still reach millions of readers across the globe.

The publishing industry has been turned on its head in the last decade, as traditional booksellers like Barnes & Noble and Borders have struggled and online marketplaces and self-publishing have bloomed. Learn more about publishing your first novel or guide on Amazon here.

Start a Blog

If the idea of writing a whole book or guide is intimidating, then start small. As the elementary school song “Little by Little” said, “If you can’t climb a mountain, then climb a hill, that’s much better than standing still.”

Starting a blog allows you the opportunity to contribute small pieces of content gradually, and with enough content and effective marketing, you can grow an audience. Once you have an audience, there are a number of ways to monetize the traffic, such as Google AdSense, affiliate links, a blog store, selling ad space on the blog, or curating your content into an e-book to sell, among others.

But do websites and blogs really make money? Yes. As businesses big and small are shifting their advertising budgets from the yellow pages, radio, and TV to the Internet, this creates opportunities big and small for websites to help companies get in front of their target audience. According to MarketWatch, the website WebMD made over $500 million in advertising in 2012. I have a feeling just a very small percentage of that would positively impact your life!

WebMD uses a variety of moneymaking strategies and is an example of an authority website, which is the go-to place for information on a given topic. In a similar vein, The Simple Dollar is an online resource and budding authority website on personal finance topics. We value our readers and try to provide you with valuable content to keep you coming back. But your focus shouldn’t be on making millions or becoming an authority website. Your goal should be delivering value, solving a meaningful problem, and making that first dollar online.

Sell on Amazon

Do you have a storefront and a business?  Have you been early to rise and early to bed running your business? Amazon has a marketplace with millions of shoppers for selling products that allows you to leverage a Wal-Mart-like superstore to sell your products.

Whether you want to sell a single product or build a business, Amazon has a fully functioning marketplace, handles payments that end up as deposits in your bank account, and allows you to do the shipping or have Amazon handle the shipping for you. Learn more about selling products on Amazon here.

Sell on eBay

Do you have some treasures lying around that you want to sell online? Could you be the neighborhood seller for your friends on eBay? If you have some basic computer skills, patience, good negotiation and pricing skills, and the ability to take pictures and write up clever and accurate descriptions, then you need to seriously consider selling on eBay.

I don’t have the patience or desire to negotiate on prices or respond to potential customer questions (which you definitely should do) and build up a good seller rating, but just because it’s not my cup of tea doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Many people have made good money selling on eBay. To learn more, check out these tips from eBay’s power sellers.

Sell on Etsy

Many people have been able to successfully monetize their skills on such sites as Etsy, a place to buy and sell handmade or vintage items. As a craft maker, getting a lease and paying rent every month may not make sense. With Etsy, you’ve got a 24/7 audience right at your virtual doorstep.

This California mom who started selling handmade headbands and socks on Etsy “hoping to make a couple extra bucks” now clears more than $70,000 a month. These results are not common, but I like this story because she went at it just hoping to make a little money and then took the opportunity further. The moral of the story: Start small, get started. Here’s a beginner’s guide to making money on Etsy to get you on the right track.

Earn Royalties and Sales Through iTunes

Royalties are the ultimate passive income: money earned in perpetuity for something you did just once, whether it was a book, a movie, or a pop song. Are you the songbird of our generation? Get your music on iTunes. Apple’s iTunes platform sells more music than all other digital retailers combined.

To get your music in the iTunes Store, you can work directly through Apple by filling out their application for iTunes, or work with an aggregator such as CDBaby. Aggregators are experienced experts in delivering content to Apple and streaming music sites such as Spotify and Pandora. Apple keeps about 30 cents per dollar when you sell a song on iTunes, leaving 70 cents for you; streaming sites might pay just a fraction of a cent each time your song is played. But even fractions add up.

For a fee, an aggregator will help format your content and get it to Apple and other digital distributors for you. Apple has an approved aggregator list, so if your voice is the next big thing we haven’t heard about, make sure you do your homework and go through reputable channels to start making money. Here’s some info on getting in the iTunes Store and using Apple-approved aggregators.

Regardless which path you take, promote it online through social media. By sharing what you’re doing with a larger audience, you’re increasing the likelihood of money ending up in your pocket.

Once you decide to go for it, experiment, hustle, and listen to your customers. Repeat as often as needed until you turn on the faucet of your online income. As you become more knowledgeable and experienced in the online arena, you will see more and more doors and opportunities to increase your impact and income.

Best of luck, and if you have a method that’s working for you, whether it’s mentioned here or not, we’d love to hear about it in the comment section below.

4 Home Business Tasks

You Should Be Outsourcing

When I first started running my own business, I figured that I would do everything on my own. After all, I’m a home business owner doubling as a solopreneur. However, as my business expanded, I realized that I was spending so much time on tedious administrative tasks that I didn’t have time to focus on the most important aspects of my business.

If your home business is growing, and you find yourself wondering why you never have time to focus on the big picture, it might be because you are getting swallowed up by the mundane. Here are 4 home business and small business tasks you should be outsourcing to someone else.

1. Content Creation

As a freelance writer, I create my own content. But there are plenty of small business owners who don’t have the time or desire to create content. However, today more than ever, good content is a necessity for business owners. Rather than creating your own content, consider outsourcing your content creation. A content creation site like topshops.biz can provide you with the content you need to boost your business. This site offers a number of different types of content in one place, so you just need to outsource once for your content creation needs.

Hiring a specialist to create your content can leave you free to focus on what you do best. If you excel at product development, sales, developing partnerships, or some other aspect of your business, you don’t want to spend your time worrying over website content, product descriptions, press releases, and other items. Hire someone else to write your business content, and you’ll be surprised at how much more you can get done.

2. Social Media Promotion

My Achilles heel for my home business was social media promotion. I spent a great deal of time scheduling tweets, answering messages, and posting on Facebook. Soon, I realized that I spent much of my peak productive time on social media.

Today, it’s important to have a social media presence. However, building that community and promoting your business using social media can be a time-consuming task. Outsourcing social media promotion can be a good way to maintain your sanity while you build your business for the future.

When outsourcing social media promotion, make sure that you go through the vetting process. This is important because you are trusting someone else to represent you on social media. Work with a person or a PR firm that understands social media etiquette, and who can help you make the most of your business social interactions.

3. Payroll and Invoicing

If you’re not an accountant, it can make sense to outsource payroll. Resources like ZenPayroll and FreshBooks can help you more effectively manage your payroll and invoicing. If your home business is still fairly small, these DIY solutions can make sense. However, as your home business expands, and as you hire people (even if you just hire independent contractors to help out), you might need someone else to manage your payroll and invoicing tasks. These are items that can take a lot of time, and if you don’t keep records, you could find yourself in trouble with the IRS.

As your home business grows, and as more of your time is taken up by these tasks, consider hiring someone else to handle the bulk of it. You’ll get a specialist that can make sure things are done right, and you’ll free up a great deal of time.

4. Scheduling

One of the issues I’m starting to run into as a home business owner is the fact that it’s harder and harder to manage my schedule. You might be surprised at how much time you can save when you outsource some of your scheduling functions. Provide someone else with your basic calendar, and he or she can manage your schedule. There are a number of meeting scheduler apps that can help you manage, but hiring someone to run your schedule can be helpful.

Plus, hiring someone to schedule you isn’t just about the people that come to you. The right person can help you land interviews on podcasts and TV shows, or help you connect with journalists. Taking the time to find people to talk to you can be time-consuming, and take your focus away from your business. With a basic knowledge of your schedule and your business, a good scheduler can help you get your name out there and book appearances and interviews without the need for you to spend all that time yourself.

While you might not have the choice to outsource when you first start your business, as the money starts coming in, it’s a good idea to outsource. Identify your weaknesses, and think about the tedious tasks that consume most of your time and distract you from your main purpose as a business owner. Those are the tasks you should outsource. In the long run, as you are able to work even more on the items of most import to your business, you will see outsourcing as an investment that pays off.

www.TopShops.Biz