Category Archives: Business

Nas Business Ventures

Nas Business Ventures

 

Nas Business Ventures

There’s nothing out of the ordinary to learn about Nas’ business ventures. After all, it’s not uncommon for celebrities to use their status to endorse brands or new trends.

Previously, I’ve posted content of the famous giving praise to cryptocurrency.

However, a game changer has been for celebs, especially for Hip Hop artists, to invest in ventures that could earn them millions, most notably in technology.

Who can forget Dr. Dre getting a big check from his Apple deal? Or even Jay Z’s streaming platform, Tidal. And then there’s Hip Hop legend, Russell Simmons, founder of Global Grind (which was bought out by Interactive One).

The point being, there’s opportunities this generation can take advantage of.

 

Queensbridge Venture Partners Investments

QBVP, a venture capitol group investing in next generation technology companies in Silicon Valley, was founded in 2014. Since then, co partner Nas  currently made the news, even while staying low key.

According to Vibe publication, the recent among the Nas business ventures was Ring Smart Doorbell and it’s buyout by Amazon.

What Is Ring?

Reducing crime, as per their website, has been a mission statement of The Ring. These battery-powered doorbells connect to smartphones, PCs and tablets. Additionally,  anyone can answer from anywhere.

And now that the company was recently acquired by Amazon Key,  shoppers can expect to take advantage of the keyless mobile technology.

In the past, Amazon Key users needed an Amazon camera in the homes for delivery. However, with The Ring, there’s no longer a needed for separate surveillance.

Side note: I wrote a blog post titled, Uses Of Internet In Our Daily Life. There’s a section regarding the use of IoT technology and how it relates to home security.

 

Otherwise, to view a list of Queensbridge Venture Partners Investments’ ventures,  this page from Crunchbase.

Adzuna: Haven for Job Seekers and Employers

Adzuna: Haven for Job Seekers and Employers

Job Sites in uk

There once was a time Job Seekers browsed through newspapers in the Wanted section to inquire about employment. However, because of the Internet, the process has changed significantly. Just ask the creators of Adzuna.

Although job sites aren’t perfect (suppose one doesn’t have access to the Internet), they’re certainly a step up from the “old fashion” way of hiring.

There are millions of job search agencies in the UK, but few are as reputable as Adzuna.

Adzuna is one of the leading job search agencies not only in the UK but also in the world. It is the ideal portal for many job seekers, and employers also rely on it to get the best people for their vacancies.

However, many people do not know of Adzuna, and some may have the wrong impression of the agency. Here is a comprehensive review of Adzuna to get you started.

The Job Search Powerhouse

Since 2005, Adzuna has been working to improve its job search engine platform and, consequently, the users’ experience. To this end, it is one of the most advanced jobs search engines. Some of its features include:

·         Data Analysis.

Adzuna has developed a sophisticated data analysis system designed to give a better understanding of the job market. This system takes into consideration factors such as the number of job vacancies and their categories, the number of job seekers, wages, and demand against supply, among others.

This analysis has proven useful for employers and economic analysts. In fact, Adzuna’s reports have been used by the UK government in the past to aid in economic planning.

·         Resume Database.

Adzuna lists not only job vacancies but also CVs and resumes of job seekers. This database benefits job seekers by increasing their chances of finding employment as thousands of employers browse the database in search of reliable employees.

·         Privacy and Security.

Many job search engines are untrustworthy because of their poor security standards and lack of privacy. Job seekers often post sensitive information about themselves, and they expect this information to be available only to the relevant people. However, some search engines use this information for other purposes, including selling it to marketers.

Adzuna, however, has placed stringent security and privacy measures to safeguard its users’ information.

·         Search Filters.

The jobs posted on Adzuna scope thousands of industries and occupations. Nevertheless, it is possible to narrow your search to a particular job type through Adzuna’s filters. You can specify the exact job you are looking for by zeroing down on factors such as location, company, and title, among others.

 

Adzuna for Job Seekers.

Adzuna’s creators were inspired by the challenges faced by job seekers in the UK and the world all over. To this end, every aspect of the search engine is designed for the job seeker’s benefit.

For starters, Adzuna brings all job vacancies in one place, so you do not have to browse through hundreds of job agencies; this saves job seekers a lot of time and effort.

Additionally, the platform emphasizes on legitimacy when posting its job vacancies, making a majority of the posts credible enough to pursue.

Adzuna has accumulated a lot of knowledge and experience since it was launched. It has used this knowledge to not only better itself but also enlighten job seekers on the secrets of securing employment. The platform offers free guidelines and learning resources to job seekers.

These learning resources teach factors such as creating credible CVs, presenting yourself in interviews, and tips on staying ahead of the competition.

View video of  CEO, Raife Watson, discuss the sites unique feature, ValueMyCV:

The greatest benefit of using Adzuna is its popularity with employees. The search engine has maintained a good reputation since it was launched, and its marketing efforts have paid off well thus far.

These and other factors have made it popular with employers looking to fill vacancies. To this end, the search engine posts vacancies from all over the UK and internationally. As such, job seekers are guaranteed to get leads in their jobs of liking in formal and informal sectors.

 

Adzuna for Employers.

Employers also face challenges when looking for people to fill their vacancies. To this end, many employers seek to use leading job search engines such as Adzuna to find the best people for their jobs.

Adzuna offers employers free space to post their job vacancies and promises them thousands of leads from the thousands of job seekers visiting the site. What’s more, employers are assured that a majority of the job seekers who apply for their jobs are qualified; Adzuna’s reputation makes it popular with credible users on both sides. Employers can also hand-pick job seekers by reviewing their profiles and CVs on the site’s database; essentially, it presents the best of job seekers to you to make your pick easy.

Job vacancies posted on Adzuna receive responses almost immediately. As such, employers get to fill their positions quickly to improve their businesses’ performance.

Pros of Website

Adzuna has numerous benefits not only for employers and job seekers but also outside parties. They include:

·         Easy to use.

Despite holding tons of data, Adzuna is incredibly easy to use thanks to its efficient web design. For starters, the interface is neat, and pages are categorized well to make the site easy to navigate. Additionally, the site features search filters that narrow down searches to save users time. What’s more, Adzuna has a dedicated team of customer care agents who are always available to aid users.

·         Popular

Adzuna is the job search engine of choice for a majority of employers and job seekers in the UK. For job seekers, this means more leads to credible jobs as most employers choose the site to post their vacancies. For employers, on the other hand, this means getting more candidates looking to fill the vacancies.

·         Credible

The Internet is full of scammers trying to lure people for their selfish needs through job vacancies postings. Adzuna knows this too well, and it goes to great lengths to keep spammers out of its platform. As such, a majority of the vacancies posted on the site are credible, and job seekers do not have to worry about dead leads.

[ActionFraud: Recruitment Scams]

·         Cost effective

Employers no longer have to pay to post job vacancies thanks to Adzuna’s free platform. What’s more, job seekers do not have to spend money on tracking job boards and buying newspapers to view open vacancies as Adzuna brings all vacancies in one place at your fingertips.

·         Educative

Job seekers who visit Adzuna leave wiser than they came thanks to its educative resources. The site offers books and guidelines on tips for success in landing employment, and this goes a long way in helping job seekers escape unemployment.

Cons of Website

Adzuna also comes with few shortcomings that include:

·         Competition

Adzuna witnesses a lot of competition among job seekers seeking to fill limited vacancies thanks to its popularity. In fact, only a small proportion of people who respond to vacancies get a chance to interview, let alone fill the position.

·         Spam

A majority of job vacancies posted on Adzuna are credible, but some spammers still manage to pass the stringent security measures. As such, job seekers sometimes deal with dead leads that waste their time, energy, and money.

Conclusion

Thanks in part to the Internet and modern technology, the ability to fill vacancies has become easier.

If you are a job seeker, then you need to be privy to job vacancies immediately they come up. Employers, on the other hand, are always appreciative of qualified and driven candidates fighting to fill their vacancies. Adzuna has proven to guarantee both focus and offer many more benefits, and it is free to use.

As such, there is no reason why you should not sign up on Adzuna to escape unemployment or get the next star employee.

Whether Job Seeker or Seeking  Employer, give them a chance and visit their website now.

Log On To Website

 

Affiliate Marketing For Dummies To Succeed

Affiliate Marketing For Dummies To Succeed

affiliate marketing for dummies

The previous blog post detailed some success stories with individuals making money promoting affiliate programs. So, it’s only right to discuss the basics of affiliate marketing for dummies.

Now, this in no way implies anyone reading this is ‘dumb’. It’s just that this entry will attempt to explain this market in such a way that even this guy could understand:

affiliate marketing for dummies 2
We will try to make this blog post so simple even this guy would understand.

 

Make Money, Money!

Of course, there are several ways to earn an online income, some of which have been detailed previously. Of the 12 listed, online investing, blogging and affiliate opportunities have been a topic of great interest to me.

Yet, affiliate marketing should personally receive another post because of it’s growth and potential.

Why Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is an opportunity for website owners to earn passive income. There are several ways to become an affiliate marketer as well as implement the marketing process.

There are two important aspects of affiliate marketing, and both require research.

First, you need to develop a marketing plan that works for your audience, and then you will need to decide on the best ways to execute your plan.

Affiliate marketing does not have a one-size-fits-all formula, but everyone has the opportunity to develop the skills to perform well in this field.

How Do I Get Started?

Avoid The Scams

As one can see, success is possible, especially for those willing to put in time to learn the nuts and bolts of this industry. You owe it to yourself to invest a lot in becoming educated on this subject.

In fact, there’s a lot of scams out there, and that’s why it’s imperative for “newbies” to stay alert of vultures seeking hard earned money while offering nothing of value in return.

Trust me, I’ve seen the videos from Clickbank and YouTube where the guy pulls up to a big house in a luxury ride. They (allegedly) make $10,000-20,000 a month with minimum effort.

Some would have you believe you’re able to earn large profits in no time if you follow this simple system. (And it’s not lost on me that most of them love using the words “profits” and “systems” often!)

You may also wish to stay on alert in regards to online courses.

I’m not knocking paid training nor am I against the purchase of a simple to follow e-book. I actually own a course I had printed from Staples with an actual cover and binding spines.

Affiliate marketing course
Affiliate marketing course I had printed from Staples.

Just know that there are several options out there to learn and benefit from to avoid being ripped off.

In my early days of learning about affiliate marketing, I ran across lot’s of programs to join for a small fee, initially. From my understanding, browsing a popular online forum, most are nothing more than pyramid schemes with ridiculously priced upsells.

Your best bet would be to use Google and YouTube at your convenience to find as many useful tips on this subject. Because, most of the resources to help you are already available (and in most cases free).

View video (1:07:45 long):

 

Learning Resources

In the past, I’ve written about taking advantage of the free and premium resources from Affilorama.

With access to their quick-start guide, members are no  in obligation to purchase anything as it’s free to join.

With an online community forum and  over 120 video lessons, that’s more than enough to get anyone started.

 Finding A Niche 

If there’s a subject matter you’re well informed about (or at least willing to research) , then affiliate marketing may be the place for you.

For instance, if one has an interest in gold investments, traveling, shoes, etc., it would make sense to create a blog site around this topic. You’re goal as a blogger would be to provide value to readers by educating them in this area.

You would then compare and review products and services in that particular niche, including the affiliate link of the advertisers website.

The process would be the same for those interested in creating a social media page (more on that below), although it’s still recommended to own a website.

Affiliate marketing companies work as a middleman between the company requesting advertising, the advertiser, and the website applying to advertise on behalf of the business called the publisher.

As a publisher, you may create a space on your website for an ad. Every reader who clicks on the ad earns a few cents.

If you prefer a subtle marketing technique, you can include referral links in blog posts or via social media. In these cases, if a person arrives at the advertiser’s website and completes a purchase a percentage of the sale goes to the publisher.

The great thing about working with an affiliate marketing company is the opportunity to have a broad variety of products and services to host. A diverse list of partnerships increases the number of opportunities to advertise. On the downside, three parties dividing a sales profit results in less income. It can take a lot of clicks each month to earn a passive income as a publisher through affiliate marketing programs if you don’t choose the right ones.

Blogging & SEO

The larger your network, the more people you are communicating with that may click on a well-placed link or ad. When it comes to developing a blog for your business website the statistics are clear the average company that has a blog receives:

Hubspot explains their stats by pointing out, “Companies that blog have far better marketing results.” But just having a blog isn’t going to be enough to drive in traffic. You will need to make sure your blog is publishing great content frequently.

Most companies publish posts more 2-3 times a week. Consistent publishing is a benefit to affiliate marketing because it gives you many chances to feature links on your blog.

Keyword Usage

SEO (search engine optimization) is important to pay attention to with all blog posts. If you write a post that includes irrelevant links, broken links or too many links the search engines will identify your post as SPAM, and it won’t rank high (or at all) on search engine pages.

Additionally, with the presence of Google, many now know and understand keywords are important to driving traffic to a website.  But it’s not just any keywords.

Long-tail keyword phrases are much more specific and targeted terms searchers type in the search engines. The intent used are either for decisions on purchasing or details on a subject. It’s the duty of bloggers to provide valuable content around these terms (Neil Patel recommends long form content).

Take the example of an affiliate who blogs about gold investment. Because the phrase “gold” is too broad and comes with a lot of competition, it would make more sense to create content around terms like:

  • Best Gold Investment For Retirement
  • Gold Investment Companies
  • Gold 401k Rollover
  • Buy Gold Bars Online
  • Best (Company name) Review
  • Gold Affiliate Program

Take time to develop excellent blog content with each post, but especially with those that include affiliate links. If you are going to feature a product or explain why someone should purchase a particular customer relationship software, write “how-to” content.

Go through a tutorial of the product and describe a unique feature. Blog posts that teach someone how to use a program may give them the confidence to take the next step towards purchasing.

Helpful content has another important aspect to consider. Readers that trust you will come back, they will share your posts with their friends, and they are more likely to take your recommendations on purchases.

WordPress Setup

It’s probably a matter of personal opinion, but I’d recommend using the self hosted version of WordPress.  Most seasoned webmasters,  bloggers and affiliate marketers agree to the benefits of it.

Even Matt Cutts of Google, who uses WordPress, stated pros and cons of the platform:

Do not become intimidated by the idea of setting up self hosting. There are plenty of free resources available online to lean from.

Below, here’s an example of how one can create a WordPress website (1:46:30 long):

The video tutorial included a PDF website checklist which one could access here.

Social Media Marketing

Obviously, social media platforms have become huge areas of affiliate marketing. Companies have jumped onto social to push their brands, and it’s well-received when done properly.

A 2017 Sprout Social consumer survey:

“found that three-quarters of consumers surveyed believe there’s value in brands exhibiting humor on social but only one-third actually want brands to bring on the snark full force. This pales in comparison to the majority of consumers, who buy from brands that are honest (86%), helpful (78%) and friendly (83%). It turns out that at the end of the day, consumers want brands to use social as a customer care channel.”

Honesty goes beyond the legal obligation of identifying an affiliate link. If someone purchases an item because you raved about it and decided the quality is subpar, they are likely to distrust your future reviews.

There are several ways to promote affiliate links through social. You can share a link directly, share a blog post that has a link already embedded, or you can use a program like linktree on Instagram connect a photo to a website through your affiliate link.

For example, someone wears a t-shirt, talks about how amazing it is and then mentions if someone would like to purchase the shirt they can click on the photo.

An important part of social media marketing is enabling sharing options on posts. Social accounts need to be set publicly and include options to share. Blog posts and marketing emails should also have social sharing buttons enabled.

As with all marketing content, there is a balance between bombarding those who follow you and maintaining a relationship. Be mindful of how many posts are sales focused.

To avoid appearing as a spammer or “snake oil salesman”, consider using your social media page to engage with you followers.

Perry Marshall, author of Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising, offers great advice and tips which include:

  • Understanding the “80/20 Principle”.
  • Types of images to use for ad.
  • Finding targeted audience.
  • What to offer for free in exchange of potential customer opt-ins.

If interested, you may also read up on How To Set Up A Facebook Page.

Joining Programs and Networks

Once you’ve identified a niche, or a purpose for your blog site, it’s time to join an affiliate network or independent program.

Examples of most popular network companies are:

  • MaxBounty – You can earn commissions as a result of Cost Per Action, or CPA.  MaxBounty just happens to be the most recognizable of them all. If interested, check out the previous review of this website.
  • ClickBank – Popular network among many affiliates. Many of the digital products are easy to join.  For WordPress users, it’s recommended to use the Pretty Link plug-in to cloak their ugly links.
  • ShareASale – Product based network. Good for blogging, e-mail, PPC and SEO campaigns.
  • ClickSure – Similar to Clickbank with digital products. Many of the programs include (but not exclusive to) forex, make money online and binary options.

Independent programs are different from a network in that they’re separate from networks like ClickBank or Commission Junction. Based on the specific niche, you can easily perform a search of a program on Google or Bing.

Amazon Affiliate

Of course, while commissions are smaller, there’s been a lot of talk on joining Amazon Associates. And building a niche site around Amazon products definitely has a lot of potential of bringing passive income.

I’ve done a lot of research from blogs on successful Amazon Affiliate sites, and here’s a few things discovered:

  • Content Is Still King – While it’s an uphill battle attempting to outrank Amazon in the search engines, many marketers work around this.  Don’t believe me? Just study the examples of these sites.
  • Amazon Affiliates Provide Value – Potential customers type keywords into Google and Bing using phrases considered Commercial, Transactional or Informational.  Commercial Intent obviously are phrases like “Review”, “Best” or “Compare”. Like any affiliate program, Amazon affiliates provide value by helping readers understand more about the items they’re interested in purchasing.
  • The Concept Is Pretty Simple – While there’s still competition with Amazon Associates,  the concept seems simple. Find a niche, research the  keywords of that market and products, write blog posts for targeted audience.

E-mail List Building

Building a list of e-mails is a common practice of businesses and bloggers. At one time it was considered an industry norm to purchase records of e-mails and then send “cold-call” style sales e-mails. Google has changed their algorithms to protect their e-mail users. Mass e-mails that go to lists can now be identified and labeled as SPAM before they enter an inbox.

The best option for e-mail list building is to ask your readers for their address.

Asking can be done by just requesting someone sign-up to receive e-mails from you, or you can create a free offer that they’ll receive in exchange for providing you their email for future use.

A free offer could consist of any incentive pertaining to  the niche market of your choice.  You want to give potential subscribers a reason to opt in

Some clean ways to incentivise sign-ups:

  • Free PDF report (read this).
  • Video guide.
  • Deals, coupons, offers and discounts (Here’s an example).

Whenever possible, create an offer around a future affiliate marketing promotion. The content will allow you to identify best which of your readers are most likely to purchase the item you are promoting. If you are partnering with a stock photo company, a webinar on how to use digital photo editing software would be a relevant offer.

E-mail list segmentation is essential for list retainment. Hubspot research discovered 63% of people who responded to their email marketing survey indicating they unsubscribe from e-mails with content they consider irrelevant (source).

Marketing e-mails are a great conversation tool for your blog readers. An e-mail can remind a reader of an important blog post published a few weeks ago.

Sometimes a second review of information will encourage a reader to become a buyer.

E-mails can also follow up on offers and further promote an exclusive product.

“Email marketing databases naturally degrade by about 22.5% every year. So it’s important to have a strategy to make up for these lost contacts.” Hotspot.com

Obviously, relevant content sent to segmented lists as well as continued development of free content keeps databases growing.

Affiliate Marketing Tips And Book Recommendations

There is a lot of information about affiliate marketing. Just For Websites has compiled an updated list of the top  affiliate marketing books.

What’s ideal about this list is the way they highlighted variety. Additionally, you may purchase most of these books from Amazon.

Best Practices For Blog Content and Social Media

Follow industry standards at all times. There are strict regulations for both link disclosure and e-mail marketing. If broken you could be required to pay huge fines. Lawyer and Blogger Trisha Meyer lays out the basics for FTC guidelines and how to apply laws to affiliate marketing.

Following the law cannot be emphasized enough. Trisha wrote up a summary of a lawsuit that is worth your time to read.

Blogger Involved in FTC Lawsuit for Failure to Disclose: This is one of the biggest applications of the Guidelines so far. Both merchants and bloggers need to read my post on this case because it reiterates in practice much of what I said above. The merchant and the agency were held liable for the blogger’s failure to disclose. This was a paid placement rather than an affiliate relationship, but the principles are the same.”

The lawsuit verdict resulted in a $40 million penalty.

Also, to fully disclosing partnerships, write evergreen blog content. Affiliate links don’t have short expiration dates; your content shouldn’t either.

Engage with people who comment. If someone comments on a post you need to comment back. If you were trying to promote a product in person and someone asked a question you would answer it. The same should be true online.

Most importantly, to the Just For Websites list, the FTC guidelines on affiliate links is a valuable resource Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising.

E-mail Marketing Consideration

Write marketing e-mails for the reader. What information will they find helpful? Treat the person receiving your e-mails how you prefer receiving treatment. Marketing e-mails must follow the CAN-SPAM Act. Every individual email in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act is subject to penalties of up to $40,654. Read the entire law before sending emails, but the rules are straightforward. E-mails must be truthful both in content and without a misleading subject line. Your email address needs to be accurate, and you have to honor opt-out requests promptly.

Companies can set up additional rules around affiliate links in emails. Amazon affiliates are not allowed to embed links in emails. You need to make sure you know the specifics of every agreement you enter. You also need to make sure to optimize email for mobile. You cannot ignore statistics from Hubspot on the importance of e-mail optimization for smartphones:

Conclusion

Of course, Affiliate marketing is an ever-evolving industry that is available to anyone. Adding an ad or link to a website is not enough.

Lastly, do your research, partner with companies that your niche audience will be interested in, and develop honest and transparent content. Successful affiliate marketing that sets you apart will evolve in the details. Don’t stop learning and trying new things.

8 Inspiring Affiliate Marketing Success Stories

8 Inspiring Affiliate Marketing Success StoriesAffiliate Marketing Success Stories

 

 

 

 

Several businesses use the internet since it’s so advanced and most people have it, so what better way to advertise than online. There are so many businesses marketing their sites online, however, that if you don’t take the steps to market your business for the online world, your business may blend into the void of businesses on the internet.

 

Affiliate marketing can help by showing you how to utilize how people search online and how to successfully market your products. In affiliate marketing, the business rewards its affiliates for any customer or visitor that’s brought by the affiliate. There have been many well-known affiliate marketers who started from nothing and are now extremely successful, and here are some of their stories.

Meet The Successful Internet Entrepreneurs

In previous blog posts, we’ve discussed opportunities in affiliate marketing as well other ways to make money online. This entry on the other hand focuses on affiliate marketing success stories.

Many people wonder if they’re cut out for affiliate marketing. While it’s possible to achieve passive income from your laptop, it’s obviously a goal that requires hard work, the right up to date information and focus.

Of course, making money online, like other entrepreneurial endeavors, takes time before actually growing a stream of income. Just be mindful of any mistakes potential affiliate marketers make.

That’s why it’s refreshing to discover names of those who’ve succeeded in this highly competitive industry.

 

Kelly Felix

Kelly Felix has over 15 years of online marketing experience and has become one of the most influential affiliate marketers since his beginnings in 1997 when the internet was newer and less advanced. While pursuing an acting career in LA, Felix started to learn HTML to learn how to create things people can see online. His acting career wasn’t successful, so he focused all his efforts on his internet experience.

He started making money on a credit repair technique based on consumer law, which he sold online, until a marketing company found it and offered him a 50/50 split of the profits he made. His success made him realize that he could market his own knowledge, so he created The Rich Jerk, which is an affiliate marketing program that teaches the best ways to optimize search engines and make affiliate relationships to increase online revenue.

He eventually sold his website for several million dollars to create and sell other popular web properties, including his previous website Bring the Fresh, which offered updated affiliate marketing techniques to make money from affiliate sales for products online. Felix is responsible for teaching several successful online marketing experts and is still held in high esteem today.

 

Affiliate Marketing Success Stories 2
Don’t worry, success is within your reach. Learn from those who’ve made it and stick to the right plan.

Jubril Agoro

Imagine living on your mother’s couch one day, and being able to afford first class the next. It seems hard to imagine, but Jubril Agoro did just that when he got involved in pay-per-click (PPC) marketing ads and Facebook advertising. He started by watching Oprah around the time Obama became president.

Agoro was living in Chicago and realized with Oprah praising The Chicago Sun Times with Obama on the cover, there would be more searches like “Obama newspaper on Oprah,” so he went to a gas station, bought copies of the newspaper and ended up selling 100 copies online and made around $1400.

You may read the interview here.

Agoro has a PPC Marketing company and a video production company, and his companies are what fund his love of travel. Agoro has found a way to market his ideas as “Mr. Think Outside The Box” to be able to afford traveling 10 to 11 months out of the year. His original way of thinking and getting involved in online marketing with his two companies has taken him from the couch to the world.

Twitter page

YouTube page

Facebook page

John Crestani

Crestani started out making $200 a week at his theater job to making $1000 a day selling PDF files online. His education finished in 2010 after studying business at Southern Methodist University and marketing at California State University-Northridge. His post college life consisted of working for several companies as an internet marketing consultant, director of online advertising, and a search engine marketing analyst.

He is proficient at online business and marketing is knowledgeable in PPC advertising, Google AdWords, social media marketing, and search engine optimization. From cleaning up popcorn under seats to becoming the CEO of Nutryst, a private nutraceutical affiliate marketing network and making millions of dollars a year, Crestani is a prime example of a successful affiliate marketer.

Twitter page

Facebook page

YouTube page

 

John’s Internet JetSet free instructional webinar.

 

 

Affiliate Marketing Success Stories 3
Success from internet marketing is possible.
Chris Record

Chris Record was motivated to make money but struggled to do so when he failed to learn anything from the programs and programs he bought. In his search for knowledge, he ended up with barely any money in his bank account and was evicted from his apartment.

 

He had the option to move back home with his parents, but he was determined to become an entrepreneur. Just as he was about to give up, one of Record’s friends found an opportunity to sell products online, where he worked with a company to generate leads online and sold over a million dollars’ worth of the company’s products, which gave him almost $500,000 in commissions.

Tecademics: How To Rank Your Website On Google  Video Training

Now, Record is the CEO of his own company. Tecademics provides ways of learning and exploring digital marketing, through online courses and live seminars from experts in the field. Record proves that when nothing else works, you need to try harder.

Oh, by the way, did I forget to mention Chris has a Shopify Rap video. Check it out:

Twitter page

Facebook page

Mark Ling

Ling got his start from a squash tournament when a friend of his showed him his strategies for poster selling. His friend, Charles, was making $50 in a week through a banner advertisement on his poster sales website. Ling learned from his friend and started selling posters online, where he eventually learned how to create sites quickly that targeted larger audiences.

Ling stopped delivering pizzas and began recruiting some of his friends to help him raise his business. He spent his free time on the internet and figured out how to use search engine optimization for his poster sales site, which brought in more customers.

Ling used his knowledge to start more affiliate sites on various topics like learning a language, saving a marriage, dog training, and video games. He created Affilorama where he posts a blog, presentations, free tools, and webinars for those who want to follow in his footsteps.

He’s also responsible for AffiloBlueprint, which is a membership product comprised of 12 weekly guides to teach those interested in online marketing, and Affilojetpack which is made up of ready-made niche websites. What started as selling fan posters online turned into a business where he could easily double and triple his earnings.

If interested, you may read further about Affilorama or visit the website directly here.

Jamie Lewis

Jamie Lewis has been featured on ClickBank several times for having the number one affiliate product. He’s earned over $12 million dollars in online sales and has generated over a million views on YouTube. After getting sick of being ripped off by employers, Lewis dedicated his time to learning how to work from home.

He knew he wanted to create his own business, so he put his music on a website to start selling. He started using affiliates to promote his products.

After exploring different niches, he decided to start teaching what he learned from his years of affiliate marketing. The Singing Guru is his program to help beginning affiliate marketers become successful in the ever-changing online world. The program also has music incorporated into the presentations to make the learning entertaining.

If you’ve read the previous post in regards to selling domains, you’ll remember Lewis was featured throughout that entry. View the following for some of his home based ideas:

 

Anik Singal

Ever since Singal was a child, he felt pressure to follow in his family’s footsteps and work towards becoming a doctor, lawyer, or an engineer. He grew up trying to live up to his family’s legacy, but he wasn’t passionate about it. In college, he studied extremely hard to get a full scholarship and attain an Ivy League Pre-Med degree, but he realized he was working for the wrong dream.

His hard work didn’t feel right to him since he wasn’t passionate about, and he eventually listened to his heart. Singal focused his efforts to building a business online since he didn’t have much money.

After a lot of effort, Singal wound up making money online after growing his business which allowed him to travel the world to speak of his success in several countries and cities.

Singal was one of the Top 3 Business Entrepreneurs 25 and Under by BusinessWeek Magazine.  He was the CEO of Lurn, Inc. and VSS Mind, but went into debt and barely profited off making $10 million in sales one year. But he kept working hard and came back to his system of making money in the digital publishing world, proving that you can come back from losing it all.

Twitter page

Facebook page

Lisa Irby 

Starting out as an online entrepreneur since 1998, Lisa Irby has made a name for herself utilizing the internet to share and teach her various skills to others. This consists of premium courses, YouTube tutorials and website tips.

We’ve also featured Lisa in a list of Black female bloggers in a previous post.

Twitter page

 

How To Get Started On Your Affiliate Marketing Career

What one can gain from the above mentioned individuals is that they’ve learned from their mistakes and invested enough time and determination into the business, which has led to fruitful results.

Now we can honestly state there are no guarantees in any entrepreneurial endeavor, much less affiliate marketing. Even with hard work and the right information, one can still find themselves frustrated at attempting to make their first affiliate sale. However, it’s recommended to read and study every and all tips if you feel this highly competitive market is for you.

Perhaps you too can have your own affiliate marketing success story, and here are some tips for getting started.

Find a niche

Before you jump right into things, you need to find out what your site will target to get sales. Think about topics you’re passionate about and what there might be money in. You may have to choose between money and passion, but if you can find a niche you enjoy and make money off of, it will make your online marketing more successful.

Research affiliate programs

This is probably going to be the biggest chunk of your research to begin as an affiliate marketer. You need to dig deeper and find out what products you’re going to promote. Make sure you want to be associated with the products you’re promoting. It’s important to believe in your niche and the products. If there are certain advertisements, you may not want to be associated with, make sure you look up that information beforehand.

Build a site

You can utilize different site-builders like Wix, WordPress, or Weebly to build your site with little to no knowledge of coding. It’s relatively easy to pick themes and make your site easy to navigate. You’ll also want to buy a domain name, and think of several in case it’s already been taken. It’s a good idea to purchase hosting as well to house your files on the internet. Make sure the content on your website is creative and relevant to your niche.

If you’re interested in working from home, being an entrepreneur, and being your own boss to make money, affiliate marketing might be right for you. You can make money through the online, ever-changing markets that exist online. If you follow these tips, do your research, and believe in yourself, you could be on your way to making millions like these successful affiliate marketers.

MaxBounty Review And Reasons To Join

MaxBounty Review And Reasons To Join

 

MaxBounty Review

 

If you have a product, a service, a website or any sort of company then you probably know that one of the main pillars that holds your item together is marketing  and advertising.

The problem with these two factors is the lack of structure, resources and the unaffordable rates that people would charge you. If you are an affiliate marketer who can’t find a platform to connect you to the advertisers and their campaigns then this read is the one for you. One of the leading services out there that should definitely be your choice whether you’re an affiliate or an advertiser is MaxBounty.

MaxBounty is an online platform that connects well-trained affiliates with advertisers who are willing to pay large amounts of money. It is classified as the number one CPA network worldwide which shows how serious they are about their work. Let’s not get lost in the words and start learning more about the different features they provide.

[JOSIC: Free CPA Marketing Step by Step Guide]

The Connection Between Advertisers and Affiliates

 

Max Bounty Review
Typical MaxBounty banner. Image leads to website.

 

Features:

MaxBounty relies on providing the best features for your company’s  marketing needs. A set of features on the website can help reach a level of exposure you never knew existed together with raising funds to a whole new level. Here we are going to discuss the different features that are provided to MaxBounty’s clients.

Advertisers

With MaxBounty’s very strong advertisers program exist that will help in growing your business profitability. As a start, they possess a system of pay on results, which states that advertisers will pay per every new user. This ensures the safety of the advertisers money and shows that you get exactly what you pay for. Not to mention the huge network of MaxBounty which consists of almost 18,000 affiliates which help create even bigger network to help expose the content of the advertisers. At MaxBounty, affiliates alway try their best to deliver high quality leads that are worth your money. All the different opportunities out there will be directed to your choice and only picked when you agree fully with it.

Affiliates

If you are an affiliate then waste no time and start by joining MaxBounty’s team! The name MaxBounty shows exactly a fair image on their rate and how you will benefit from them. MaxBounty provides you with tons of different campaigns and opportunities to pick from which is a thing you will only find here. Another incentive for the new affiliates is the $1000 bonus.

This is a rule which claims that if you receive ratings higher than $1000 for your first three months, then a bonus of $1000 will be added to your fourth month. Imagine all of this money piling in your bank account weekly! Yes I said weekly, as MaxBounty provide weekly payments for the affiliates that works there. They ensure on providing you with everything that will keep you away from their competitors and working hard.

Careers

If you fell in love with MaxBounty too much, then here’s the part for you. MaxBounty’s very open for new applying candidates to join their team. Not to mention the different perks you will get by working in a company like MaxBounty. As stated explicitly on their website, you will get full benefits when you’re hired together with a total of 3 weeks of holidays. Furthermore, there are no skills needed for you to join the team, but actually they will be investing in you through trainings to help you learn what you need to know. Last but not least, are the different trade shows that happen worldwide which you will be a part off. Get your passport ready to visit the cities of your dream.

Trainings

One of the best features on the website is the trainings section. This section is created for the affiliates which helps by providing them with trainings that are needed in order to succeed in their work. Through a partnership done with LeadGadget, a database of online video based training programs is available for all the affiliates signed up with MaxBounty for free. These videos contain content that’s tailored for the affiliates of MaxBounty with just the enough resources for you to start a successful career.

Below, a YouTube user demonstrates how he runs an ad promotion on Facebook:

Campaigns

As an affiliate or an advertiser you have the feature to visit the campaigns page. This page shows you the different projects posted by advertisers and the tons of work that the affiliates has performed on each project. It shows exactly where you would be in a few hours after signing up to MaxBounty. This page divides the projects according to categories (example: Automotive, Biz Opp, Dating, download, etc…) and in each categories shows the project that lies under it. Furthermore, it gives you the rate per lead set by the advertisers which varies from a project to the other. For advertisers, this section shows you all the different things you can add to your campaign regarding allowed traffic types, countries allowed and even a description or extra notes for your affiliates.

MaxBounty Review 2
Sign up to become part of MaxBounty.

Pros and Cons

Now that you have read and learned about all the amazing features that MaxBounty provides, it ‘s time for the pros and cons table. This is a table of all the advantages and disadvantages of using MaxBounty. You need to think these bullet points through as this balance is probably what will make up your decision on using this service.

Pros (Advertiser)

  • Payment per result
  • A huge network of affiliates
  • In control of your decisions and leads
  • Project stays on till you remove it

Cons (Advertiser)

  • There are no guarantees
  • No affiliates are directly assigned to your projects

Pros (Affiliates)

  • High payment rates
  • Weekly payments
  • $1000 bonus
  • 3 weeks of holiday
  • Free training sessions

Cons (Affiliates)

  • A certain amount should be delivered weekly
  • No guarantees

Conclusion

In conclusion, MaxBounty is truly an outstanding website for both advertisers or affiliates. If you are an advertiser, you will receive professional help from trained affiliates who have dedicate their whole time providing you with the users and leads you deserve. Not to mention the fact that you will get what you paid for with full control over leads which are of high quality.

You will receive a huge network of affiliates and their circles which will create a huge traffic towards your service with optimal exposure. On the other hand, if you are an affiliate you will get the chance to work on a platform that provides you with high rates and free trainings thus helping you excel in this career.

You will have a lot of motivation and incentives from the MaxBounty team that will help keep you going. Not to mention the weekly payments which will help you forget what it’s like to be at the end of the month. Do not hesitate anymore and take your life towards success in the field of advertising and marketing. Sign up for MaxBounty and don’t miss the chance to meet all your needs and demands.

Is It Okay To Use Your Business Slogan In An Adwords Ad?

Is It Okay To Use Your Business Slogan In An Adwords Ad?

Is It Okay To Use Your Business Slogan In An Adwords Ad

 

Sure, using slogans in your Adwords ad sounds like a good idea. Slogans, by design, are short, catchy, and memorable, intended to creep into a prospect’s mind as a constant reminder of your product’s unique selling proposition. Makes sense, then, that if you insert it into an Adwords ad, it should do its job of stealing the prospect’s attention and leading them to click on your placement, wouldn’t it?

While the logic does seem sound in theory, practice has shown this to be a less than precise assessment. In fact, it’s often a large ways off the mark. Split-tested next to a well-crafted ad that focuses on offering specific benefits, demonstrating value, or addressing a prospect’s concerns, it will almost always fall short. Why is this so?

Slogans Can Be Cryptic

Imagine Wendy’s running an Adwords ad with nothing but their brand and tagline “Where’s the beef?”

Doesn’t exactly provide any information that’s likely to help your shopping decisions, does it? What about Panasonic and their slogan “Ideas for life” coming out when I’m searching for 50-inch TVs? Nothing about that tells me they have the product I am looking for. How about searching for the newest Lebrons and seeing an ad for Nike and “Just do it?” Again, nothing of enough substance to makes you want to follow the link.

[4 Of The Best Ad Networks for Publishers]

Good slogans are intended to be memorable and easy to repeat, all while leaving the consumer with a positive image of the brand. This is all well and good for positioning the brand and capturing mind share. When trying to convince searchers to hit a link and buy your product, however, they don’t exactly make for the most compelling argument, especially when questions the prospect has about the offer remain unaddressed.

People Aren’t Searching For Slogans

Say, a customer who has previously bought from you before sees a slogan-centered ad you’re running. The person sees the brand name, the slogan, and a brief mention of the specific product being searched for. Chances are, this individual who already knows your brand has already seen and heard your slogan. What they’re unable to find is more information about the offer in your ad as it relates to their specific search query. In this scenario, the slogan doesn’t really do anything to add clarity to what the prospect is looking for, leading them to look somewhere else that provides just a little more in the way of information.

Things are likely to get even worse with someone who is completely unfamiliar with neither the brand nor the product.

They see the brand, the slogan, and a call to action, but nothing in the way of answering any lingering questions about what a product is, what a store offers, and what kind of advantage they’ll get choosing this offer instead of the one on the link right below it. Slogans may give insight into some of those concerns, although in many common scenarios, they simply don’t.

It’s Worthwhile To Test

Will business slogans ever work in PPC? In some cases, yes. With the right search keywords and the right slogan, it could very well turn out as your best-performing ad. If you think your slogan has the potential to do this for your Adwords campaign, then test it by all means. Do not, however, rest your faith on that catchy tagline blindly. No matter how much you adore that clever slogan you’ve been using in the last five years of your business, it’s just one potential tool in your Adwords copywriting arsenal — one that you should be testing side-by-side with ads that do without it.

10 Top Day Trading Tips

10 Top Day Trading Tips

Day Trading Tips

 

If you’re looking for some day trading tips, we’ve come up with some great ideas. While it has it’s fair share of risks, there’s certainly a lot of potential.

Day trading has become more popular as a way to make money by stock trading, especially after Timothy Sykes’ story hit the media.  Many people got the idea that trading was an easy way to make money working at home in their pajamas.

This idea turned out to be a misconception.  Day trading takes a little time to learn, and it can be lucrative from where ever you’re located, but you need to learn the basics before you start.

[Wall Street Laptop: The Future For Investing Online]

The first lesson is to understand that investment trading comes with risks and it’s important that you do your homework before committing.

First, What is Day Trading?

Day trading is the process of buying and selling securities, or a financial instrument, during the same day or more than once over the course of a day.   Because many brokerages have moved to online trading, you can conduct your business from your location.

Basically, a person involved in day trading is looking to make money by taking advantage of little price movements in individual assets (stocks) or indexes.  Day traders look for three different things in a stock: volatility, liquidity, and trading volume.  To explain these terms:

  • Volatility is the measure of expected daily price ranges, such as stocks from a corporation that experiences a higher rate of variance in its cash flow.  These situations can be capitalized on by a day trader.  The higher the volatility can mean higher profits or greater losses.
  • Liquidity in the financial market refers to the ease and price in which a security can be obtained.  Liquidity allows for easy entrance and exit from a stock at a good price.  The more liquid a stock is, the more easily it is for day trading.  Liquid stocks also tend to be cheaper than other stocks.  Stocks from a higher market capitalization corporation are generally more liquid because it’s easier to locate buyers and sellers.
  • Trading volume is an excellent indicator to a day trader to the stock’s volatility and liquidity because of the volume.  The volume is how many times the stock is bought sold within a particular period of time, which is usually averaged daily.  The more volume reflects the interest in a particular stock, but it does not indicate if that interest is positive or negative.  Often, when the trade volume increases it is indicative of price movements that are going to transpire.  One tool day traders use is the Trade Volume Index (TVI) to help decide whether to buy a stock or not because of the amount of money flow into and out of an asset.

Timothy Sykes

In 1999, Timothy Sykes seemed to be like most high school students, but he soon became famous with a story that impacted the world of day trading.  Sykes saved his gift money over the years and it to start day trading penny stocks.

His investment was approximately $12,500, and it earned him about $1.65 million by his 21st birthday.  He’s now part of the social trading platform Profit.ly, and regularly post live feeds to site members from a personal.

Many thought if a young person could do this without being an expert, then it must not be that complicated.  This is partially true, but Sykes spent hours studying before he started.

10 Day Trading Tips

To get you on your way day trading, here are some basic rules and tips:

1) While you’re learning, take advantage of free resources like Youtube videos and blog posts.  When you feel ready, set up a practice account online (some websites allow you to do this) and test a few trades.

2) Have an enter price, exit price, and an escape price.  Before you press the button to finalize the deal, you need to know when to get in, when to get out, and a strategy to get out if things are not going as expected.

3) Always set your price targets before you do it and stick with your decisions.  It will help you keep from being overly greedy if the price spikes and limit any losses.

4 ) When the market opens, avoid trading within the first 15 minutes, especially if you are a newbie to day trading.  Those 15 minutes of action are full of market orders placed the night before and panic trades.  It pays to wait until you’re able to see a rewarding opportunity.

5) To find an entry point, look for situations where supply and demand are drastically imbalanced.  If a supply is nearly gone and there are still buyers, then the price will go up, and if there is a surplus of supply and no buyers, the price will go down.

6) An important lesson is to set a proper risk-reward ratio.  At least 3:1 will allow you to win big and lose small and can help you come out ahead if you experience losses on several trades.

7) Be patient and don’t make a trade because you feel like you need to “just do something.”  Make your trade plan and trade according to your plan.  It takes discipline, and impulsive decisions can become your worst enemy if you’re working alone.

Timothy Sykes was mentioned in a previous blog post as a successful penny stock trader from the social trading site Profit.ly. Click image to read more.

8) Don’t risk too much capital on one trade and only trade with money you can afford to lose.  Budget your day trading and don’t exceed it thinking you are missing an unseen opportunity.

9) Don’t limit yourself to day trading stocks.  There are three other asset classes to keep in mind: forex, futures, and options.  Any of these can present an appealing opportunity.

10) As you go, you’ll learn from your experiences and as you’re learning don’t second guess yourself or your set rules established for getting in and out.  Every day trader losses at times, so don’t be too rough on yourself when things don’t go as planned.

day trading tip 3
Day trading comes with its fair share of risks. Be sure to exercise discipline, patience, practice and smart study habits.

Pros of Day Trading

The biggest pro of day trading is that you can earn some serious money if you can afford to take the risk.  As you learn the inner workings of the marketplace and create your enter and exit plans, you can increase the returns on your money. If you enjoy cliffhanger moments, you can enjoy them regularly.  If day trading becomes your job, then you can gain freedom from punching a clock.  You can set your schedule, work from anywhere, and earn an unlimited amount of income versus a salary.

Cons of Day Trading

Day trading carries a high risk because there are no guarantees that you will make any money and you can lose the money you have.  There is some expense involved outside of having a current computer, and you may need to purchase software to help spot price variations and access financial information.

You will need some capital to get started, and the money could be lost.  Day trading can be stressful and time-consuming, especially when you begin, so pace yourself.

10 day trading tips
Timothy Sykes, a popular day trader, is an active member of Profit.ly. Click image to view website.

 

The Final Verdict

Day trading is risky, but it can also be rewarding.  As a beginner, spend the time to learn the ins and outs of trading and spend time watching the marketplace.  Initially, you may want to get a mentor to help you.  You will learn from a seasoned person that will help you avoid pitfalls and will help reinforce what you have learned.

Considering Moving Abroad Like Thailand or Brazil? Then Follow This Plan

Considering Moving Abroad Like Thailand or Brazil? Then Follow This Plan

 

Considering Moving Abroad

There are many individuals who have succeeded in leaving their native country in pursuit of another destination, and there are those who have attempted and failed. If you are seriously considering moving abroad, especially to the exotic country like Brazil, you are going to need a game plan.

Apart from getting your visa sorted out and purchasing airline tickets, a significant amount of preplanning is required to get you started with your new life in one of the most vibrant places in the world.

Don’t lose yourself in the excitement, and remember to adhere to the guidelines we are going to discuss below.

Save, Save and Save!

If you’ve made a move before, whether it is to another neighborhood or another city, it will take cash. Now that you’re considering moving to another country altogether, it’s going to take a lot more.

Think about it for a second and consider the many unique costs you’re likely to incur. Visa, legal clearances, shipping personal possessions, bit ticket purchases. These expenses are the ones you will incur before you even get there. Now let’s come to the living expenses when the wheels touchdown in the Promised Land.

If you are planning to start from scratch, then having at least about 5 to 8 months of living expenses is highly recommended. If you run out of money in a country where you don’t know the language or customs, it can be scary. Ensure that the financial aspect is covered before you even consider anything else.

Cost to Live A Comfortable Lifestyle in Thailand – According to Scott Mallon 

Do you have a support group in your desired destination? While some solo expatriates have been able to establish themselves own their own, consider the option of seeking out a support system or group of global entrepreneurs who may assist in the process.

These groups may be found on traveler forums or through the social networks. During years of reading the experience of many expatriates, most will advise to first spend a few months in your target before making any final decision.

Tips about Brazil – According to Room In The Moon

And take into account, if such online group does not exist, you may need to use Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to start one of your own.

 

Check and Then Double Check Your Paperwork

When you’re in the process of preparing for your departure, you will be filling out a bunch of paperwork for both, the countries, the one you reside in and the one you intend to visit. Remember to make copies of every document that has your signature on it and every other legal and policy document that is signed to your name.

Considering Moving Abroad2
City lights of Thailand

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because pretty soon, you will be jumping through hoops for international money transfers, filling out tax information, obtaining health clearances, and if you are bringing along a family member, the relevant paper for them as well.

Long story short, do not get on the plane before you confirm, multiple times, that everything you need is there with you, along with backups should you lose the said documents.

Address Any And All Health Needs

Whenever one travels to another country, there is a slew of medical verifications you must go through before you become eligible for a visa. In the case of Brazil, being an exotic vacation destination, there are certain vaccinations and in some cases boosters you must be inoculated with before you become eligible. For that you will be requiring proof, so get the relevant paperwork from the lab or your doctor.

 

Create a Steady Stream of Online Income

Let’s be honest, moving abroad requires money.  And when traveling overseas, the importance of having a sustained online business cannot be overlooked or over stated. Since you are going to need a lot of money to reach Brazil (or wherever) and get settled there, before you start earning again, if you have an online business it can help you stay liquid for the foreseeable future.

Such are the perks of being an online entrepreneur, even while traveling you can take your livelihood with you.  We compiled an extensive list of ways to make money from the internet which one can read at this blog post.

Some forms of online income could be, but not excluded to:

Obviously, it should be noted that generating any amount of income, online or offline, varies per person, and dreams of becoming rich over night (if at all) should be left as just that- dreams.

Additionally, as with all areas of money making, it’s the hard work and effort one must put in before reaping anything significant. The idea of waking up to log on to your virtual work station (Laptop) at the comfort of your desired location is certainly a goal worth reaching.

However, it may require an enormous amount of “elbow grease” depending on your niche.

Love him or hate him, Fred Mwangaguhunga of MediaTakeOut (cringe) has stressed the narrative of hard work. In an online interview, he states,

“as far as I’m concerned, I work 365 days in a year. So I’m working Christmas, morning, when people are sleeping, I’m up and I’m working….. I get up probably around 3:30-4:00 in the morning. And on a regular day, weekday, typical workday, I get up around 2:00 in the morning. And my days are usually somewhere around 12 to 15 hour days”.

Now in terms of finding work overseas, such as Brazil, it’s important to spend a few weeks or months on land to gather as much information as . Thus, once you’ve finally landed a job in Brazil, you will be pleased to find out that the local government regulations state that companies are required to pay their employees an extra month of salary at the year end. Imagine all you can do once you make the life you’ve been dreaming of.

 

3 Best Online Natural Hair Care Business Tips

3 Best Online Natural Hair Care Business Tips

Natural Hair Care Business

 

The hair business is among the most profitable businesses in the country, projecting an estimated annual total of $500 billion dollars.

With such a significant amount of black women returning to their natural roots, the door has opened for many small businesses to flourish and make some serious money. Some of the most popular brands started from home; Mixed Chicks, Shea Moisture and Miss Jessie’s just to name a few.

Whether you’re just looking to make some extra money on the side or you’re trying to start your own home-based business, here are a few tips on how you can get started making money in the natural hair industry.

Using Your Natural Hair Knowledge to Make Money

 

1. Join an Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs are a good way to earn some part-time money while having to do little-no work at all. Basically, you’re making money by promoting certain products to people and once they buy the product from your website, you earn commission. The pay rates differ for each affiliate program, but it seems to usually be about 20% of your sale. Most payout rates are about $50, meaning that your customer has to buy $50 worth of products in order for you to be paid, which would earn you $10 per sale. Perks to joining an affiliate program is that you’re usually given products at discounted prices, therefore you can try them for yourself and be able to give your customers an honest review about them. The best thing to do would be to research and compare natural hair affiliate programs to find the one that’s offers the best products and pay rates for you. Read the previous article for further details.

2. eCommerce: Your Personal Online Business

One thing that is great about working from home is that you won’t have to worry about renting out expensive business space. Selling your products/services online is not only one of the most efficient ways to do business, but it will cut down on your costs which will allow you to see more profit. The online natural hair community is always searching for new and better products to care for their hair, so why not see if your business is the answer they’ve been looking for? Here are a few basics to get you started:

  • Research– Understanding the market you’re entering is vital when starting an online business. You will need to view the pricing, habits and practices of successful competitors in order to see where your business will fit. Research will always be constant in your business since the market is always changing, so it will be important to stay on top of trends if you want your business to stay relevant.

 

  • Know Your Customer Base –You know you will be marketing to naturals (of course), but are you going the more specific route by targeting people with locs, or are you keeping your clientèle broad? You will also need to know what attracts your customer’s eye by understanding what they look for in a product/service. Knowing your customer base will not only set you up for success, but it will allow you to weed out any unnecessary factors of your business that may not profit as well.
  • Pricing –The price of your product/service will be based around the market price, but assessing how much the cost is to provide it will play an important factor as well. For instance, if you come across a competitor who lists their Argan Oil product at $4, you may also find that the majority of their product is petroleum based with about 5% of actual Argan Oil in it. On the contrary, you may find another competitor who lists their Argan Oil product at $20 and see that is composed of a host of other high quality ingredients, as well as the Argan Oil.
  • Marketing No matter how great your products are, no one will know about them unless you market them well. Thankfully enough, we live in an age where the greatest marketing tool ever created is usually right in the palm of our hands: the internet. You can acquire ad space basically anywhere on the internet that’s selling it, but you want to make sure your ads are on a site that your target audience visits frequently. From social media to popular blog sites, the possibilities are pretty much endless. The cost of ad space differs depending on the site, so if you’re trying to keep your costs down you may want to start out by just creating social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) pages for your business to try to get your name out there. One tip I suggest is marketing before you launch your website so that you’ll see some immediate profit. You can use those testimonials to secure your reputation in order to appeal to new customers. Once you generate a steady income, you’ll be able to set a fixed budget for marketing and ad space.
  • Time– Creating an online business will definitely take time, so if you’re a working business professional you may need to work on this during your down time. Once your website is up and running it may also take some time to generate a steady clientèle base, but try to be patient and stay positive. If you don’t have many hits, you may want to go back and review what you may need to change. You may find some mistakes that could be the difference between seeing no profit and seeing big profit.

3. Become a Blogger

Blogging is pretty easy for those who are gifted writers. With the natural hair care business (or any another niche), there’s plenty of opportunities for Black women as previously indicated in the past. The main thing about blogging is consistency; subscribers are more likely to stay with an active blog site that posts relevant content. Be sure not to overwhelm your audience with too many posts- posting about 3x a week should be good. A website with great in-depth instructions on how to start a profitable blog is Retireat21.com, but here are the main points on how the money is made:

  • Google AdSense– With GoogleAdSense, you’re basically renting out space on your blog for advertisements from other companies. You have the say in what ad content you allow on your blog, and the process is very simple. Just sign up with Google AdSense to get started. If your site is new and doesn’t generate a lot of traffic, you initially won’t make that much money due to the fact that you get paid per page view. Once you get a constant stream of viewers and subscribers, you’ll begin to rack in a good amount of money.
  • Affiliates– Refer back to “Joining an Affiliate Program,” above.
  • Sponsored Reviews-Sponsored reviews probably generate the majority of the natural hair care blogger’s income. Companies send you products for free and ask you to use and review them, honestly, on your blog. How easy is that? What you need to focus on with these reviews is honesty because readers are usually very good at spotting a B.S. review. One negative thing about sponsored reviews is that you may wind up with more products than you have room for, unnecessary items that you may never use again, or things that you just don’t like.

[Black Owned Beauty Supply Association]

Things To Consider

Just like any business, in order for any of these processes to work you need to put in the time and effort, but you also need to be passionate about what you are doing.

If you’re a professional business woman, make sure to choose something that doesn’t need your constant attention and time. Also, don’t overwhelm yourself with trying to do too many things at once.

[SFBAY View: BOBSA Founder Sam Ennon Meets With Chinese Gov. & Hair Manufacturers]

If you find that you don’t have the time to manage a blog, shut it down and try something else. On the other hand, if you’re self-employed (freelancing, small business owner, etc.), try something that will generate a good amount of income during times when your personal business isn’t making much money. You may find that doing a part-time blog generates a lot more income than your freelancing work.

Working a home-based business can be a simple process, but it can also turn out to be very strenuous so don’t put more on your plate than you can chew.

Since you’re working from home, you have ample opportunity to take some time for yourself in between the madness. In the words of Janelle Monae, “Everything is about balance. You can’t work, work, work, work without any play.”

12 Cool Ways to Make Money Online

12 Cool Ways to Make Money Online

Ways to Make Money

 

So you’ve decided that you want to create an additional stream of income to fund that exotic trip on your bucket list, and you’re determined to use the internet to supplement your earnings. You will want to find an online niche that is unique, useful to potential users, and can generate enough revenue to help make that bucket list a bit shorter. Beyond fulfilling bucket list items, you dream of success so great that you can fire your boss and strike out on your own to make your fortune.

Then perhaps you’ve been looking for some ways to make money.
Before you give the boss his or her walking papers, consider that finding a money making online niche and turning it into reality requires a lot of time, hard work and research. Information gathering is crucial, and not just any information, but the right information. Unfortunately, there are far too many “get rich on autopilot” scams, with empty or ambiguous promises of “being up and running in a few weeks”. This information, in the form of a “system” (at a special price) may actually be:

⦁ The Wrong Information
⦁ Outdated Information
⦁ Information That One Realizes Could Have Been Obtained for Free

Buying one of these “get rich” systems is tempting for sure, but chances are very high that the only person making any money will be the one selling the system to you! Hard work, persistence and tons of free information available in cyberspace and elsewhere will help you achieve financial success and independence. And therefore, behold, the (free) suggested list for what’s creating an online revenue stream.

Top 15 Money Making List

 

1 – Author a Blog 

Reading, contributing to, or commenting on blogs has become an everyday routine for many internet users. Expertise, commitment and business savvy are all important to success.

Blogging has created a fantastic conduit for encouraging diversity and advocating for minorities, with the likes of Necole Kane  (hellonecole.comxonecole.com), Fred Mwangaguhunga of MediaTakeout.com, Zoe Griffin, Andy Torres of Style Scrapbook, David Badash’s The New Civil Rights Movement, or Viviana Hurtado and The Wise Latina Club, just to name a few . These sites and many other top blogs enjoy huge amounts of traffic and a large following on social media.

[How to Start a Food Blog and Make Money]

Create your own successful blog and you’ll have advertisers begging to pay you for ad space (Read Advertising)!

Read this previous blog post which goes further in detail on blogging.

2 – Utilize Affiliate Marketing/Programs

You can become an affiliate marketer (free!) through your website, blog, review site, e-mail list (see below), newsletter or other online presence. Links, or ads, placed on your site produce income when a visitor clicks on the link and makes a purchase at the advertiser’s site, rewarding you a commission. Clickbank, JVZoo, CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction) and Amazon Affiliates are examples of companies that can assist you in becoming a successful affiliate marketer.

 

Max Bounty Review

[Best Affiliate Marketing Business Opportunities]

Other affiliate websites worth joining:

 

A word of caution: while there are many sites offering courses promising one to become a super affiliate, it’s recommended to take advantage of free resources to assist in proper guidance. The popular Warriors’ Forum has an enormous amount of recent and up to date discussion posts from seasoned Internet Marketers. Additionally, Affilorama offers both free and premium membership services.

3 – Wall Street Laptop – Online Investing & Trading

Your rent or mortgage payment is just out of reach, or that fabulous vacation you wanted to take isn’t going to be possible for another year. Why deny yourself what you want when you can use the internet to generate income?  Consider trading in the financial markets as a way to make money that not many know about.

[Wall Street Laptop: The Future For Investing Online]

These aren’t “get rich quick schemes,” you need to study and work at it for it to work for you. Be assured, with knowledge and effort, you can take these strategies and make them into money-making opportunities.

They are as follows:

  • Day Trading By day trading, we are talking about buying and selling stocks quickly during the course of a day.Sometimes you will hang onto to a stock for just a few hours, sometimes minutes. When you want to make money as a day trader, you would scout companies with high betas. This means looking for businesses which are more volatile than the overall market.You’ll find the most volatile stocks in the market are often what’s called penny stocks. These stocks trade for $5 or less per share. For example, if a stock has a beta of 2.1, the stock could climb or drop 2.1 times as fast as the market, if the market’s value begins to climb or drop. Day traders look for these potentials because fast gains can be had as they ride each volatile stock for only a short while. See this post to read more details on Jason Bond and swing trading.
  • FOREX Trading In the forex market, you buy or sell currencies.To do this, you place a trade in the foreign exchange (FOREX) market. The mechanics of a trade are very much the same as you would find in the stock market. If you have any experience in trading, you should be able to to do this fairly easily.The object of forex trading is to exchange one currency for another in the expectation that the price will change, so that the currency you bought will increase in value compared to the one you sold.  Potential investors can discover more by reading a previous post, social trading, as it relates to both forex and penny stocks.
  • Binary Options You can make money in binary option trading if you follow a system. The key is to control risk.  A trader can never lose too much money on any particular trade.

A put option is an contract giving the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell an underlying security, like stocks or bonds, at a specific price within a preset time. This is the opposite of a call option, which gives the contract holder the right to buy shares.

A call option is an agreement that gives an investor the right to exercise the option to buy an underlying security at a specific price within a preset time period.

In theory, you have a 50% chance of being correct on any trade whether you buy a call or a put option. To make money, you only need to be correct on about 60% of the trades you take. When you are making money in binary options, the outcome of a trade can be influenced by the other people participating and the outside environment. The outcome of a binary options trade can be anticipated by the current environment when the trade is executed. You don’t have to be right by much to be on the money making side.

  • Contract for Difference Trading Making money from CFD trading (Contracts For Difference) involves taking advantage of rising prices (long positions), or dropping prices (short positions) on stocks or bonds. The CFD is a contract between two parties, a buyer and a seller, to exchange the difference between the opening price and the closing price of a contract. When this difference is a negative amount, then the buyer pays that amount to the seller.

To make money, you need to:

  1. Understand past patterns, so you can better predict future movements
  2.  Forecast momentum, so you can “ride the wave”
  3. Swing trading by looking for stocks currently trading either above or below their normal range
  4. Taking out two positions in the same industry – one goes long while the other goes short

4 – Ad Networks

Selling advertising directly on your site can provide a steady cash flow. Using a tool such as Google AdSense can make the process easy and effective, providing access to a large existing pool of advertisers. Advertising networks love websites that attract a lot of traffic, so it’s important to work on generating unique and regular visitors each month, using this as leverage for placed ads to attract large audiences.

5 – Data Entry Online Jobs /Utilize Virtual Assistant Services

Fiverr, UpWork, and Time-etc are all examples of companies that specialize in providing virtual assistance in all kinds of business endeavors. You can freelance through these companies to use your skills and talents to make money doing what you love to do, and in many cases at your own hours! These services may include, but not exclusive to: Billing Clerk, Ghost Blogger, Business Card Designer, eNewsletter Publisher, Security Monitoring or Online Course Developers and Language Programming. Imagine taking advantage of freelance data entry jobs for hire on vacation in Thailand, Brazil or Belize!

See the previous posts regarding extra income from Udemy courses and data entry.

6 – Use Ecommerce Sites

Amazon and eBay are two well-known ecommerce sites that you can use to make money. Both provide platforms that allow you to sell products in different ways to hundreds of millions of potential buyers. Alternatively, you can set up your own site with the help of specialists, or give it a go on your own. As the saying goes, “If you build it they will come”. As an example, you could create the next best virtual flea market to bring potential sellers together in exchange for a percentage of each sale with dropshipping. Or, perhaps you have an idea of a product of your own? Either way, with the right amount of research and effort, the possibilities are endless.

 7 – Apps Development

Come up with an app that people decide they can’t live without, and watch the money roll in. Consider Chad Mureta of AppEmpire, now worth millions, who created his first app, a bestseller called Fingerprint Security Pro, with no prior experience. In-app purchasing can generate additional revenue, and in-app advertising is another potential money maker. Small business owners are realizing the impact that mobile apps can have on their bottom line, and the demand for those with the skills to create such apps is huge.

Many apps are bought and sold on Flippa.

8 – Freelance Writing

If writing is your thing, you can become a freelance writer for SEO content companies such as FiverrWriter Access,  BKA Content, or freelance exclusively for a company or a select blog or blogs. As online and social media presence becomes more and more important for a company’s survival, a gifted writer can use their talents to create some respectable income.

9 – Domain & Website Flipping

Flippa.com, NameJet.com and other auction sites facilitate the buying and selling of domain names that have expired for a variety of reasons. With some skill and tenaciousness, flipping domains and websites can be one of the simplest methods to make money online, in many cases for a considerable profit. Website flipping involves the buying of a site, improving it, and then reselling it at a higher price. A low initial investment and the chance to make money off the site even while improvements are being made can make this process lucrative as well.

Read previous entries for more: selling domains and social match phrases.

10 – E-mail List Building

Combined with a blog site following or strong social media base, successful marketers know the power of generating huge prospects, which serves as a rewarding source of passive income. In exchange for submitting an e-mail via an opt-in form, subscribers receive updates, free ebooks or discount deals (to name a few). The next step comes from sending an “e-mail blast” (MailChimp, Constant Contact and SendGrid are just a few of the top electronic marketing services used to reach potential leads) with products or services, such as those from affiliate programs. Whether you choose to build an email list with or without a website, it’s important to note that numbers are everything, giving marketers enough opportunities to monetize their website traffic or Facebook fans.

 11  – Write an E-book

With the advent of self-publishing, anyone can write and publish an e-book, with the potential to be read by millions all over the world. Whether it be fiction or non-fiction such as a how-to or a self-help book, the possibilities are limitless and the income potential great.

Brief demonstration from Stefan Pylarinos of K Money Mastery:

12 – Utilize YouTube

Creating original content on your own YouTube channel is a great way to generate revenue. The key is to create fun, engaging content that is not only appealing to many users, but to advertisers as well. Quality content submitted on a regular basis creates and nurtures advertising relationships that will last and create income over the long term. If interested, you may learn more here.

In Conclusion

Although there is no easy path to making lots of money online, there are so many opportunities available that there should be something for everyone. These 15 methods only scratch the surface of what is possible through hard work, determination, skill, lots of research, and a little luck. Choose something that appeals to you and go for it – you could be the next internet millionaire!

InstaForex Review