Why don't most people start businesses? Why do most people prefer having a job ?
Most people know that running a business is the ultimate way to financial freedom...
You get to be your own boss, you make your own schedule, your own hours, you set your own salary. If you are working from home, you can even work in your pajamas or anytime you want !
But the truth is - most people who say they want to start a business aren’t actually doing it.
Are you a small business owner/entrepreneur whose business got affected by “coronavirus” ( “COVID-19” ) ?
Think you’re going back to doing “business as usual” after the “pandemic restrictions” get lifted/removed then you’re being over optimistic ( to say the least ! )…
As of today ( May 2020 ) we live in the country with NO ECONOMY !
The stock market is rigged…
The government is corrupt…
And NOBODY is coming to save YOU or your business !
For many intelligent people it’s become obvious by now that “COVID-19” was a planned event, and the biggest “wealth transfer” in the history !
But 2020 is just THE BEGINNING !!
We’ll have a short break before the “ruling elite” decides to move into the 2nd act of their plan ( hyperinflation, food shortage, famine, global depopulation, and one world “digital currency” )…
While it’s still not too late, take preventive steps to protect your business, and to ensure its growth ( or at least sustainability )…
Watch the video where I share some of the steps I’ve been taking since the Great Recession of 2008 to maintain my financial independence…
Have something to add/share that would help oher small business owners/entrepreneurs ?
Feel free to comment below, or get in touch to be featured on our channel !
Make money from Amazon whenever you buy anything though your own FREE Amazon sales page !
You already know that you can make affiliate commission promoting/selling products through Amazon affiliate or influencer programs...
But in April 2020, Amazon decided to slash its affiliate rates in certain categories which would make it extremely hard ( if not impossible ! ) to make decent money ( especially for beginners !! ) 😡
While there are a lot of affiliate marketing programs online, many of them are hard to join, have limited number of brands to work with, have low commission rate, horrible affiliate tracking software, incompetent affiliate managers, and often scam their affiliate by not paying hard earned commission using some B.S. excuse....
If you're are looking for the best ( and by "best" I mean - trusted, reliable, profitable, easy to join for beginners ), affiliate marketing programs in 2020, I've summed it up to only 3...
Why ?
Watch the video below :
1 - Amazon
The Amazon Associates program is often viewed as being an ideal affiliate program for beginners, but only for beginners. That doesn’t stop a number of super affiliates earning 6-figures per month as an affiliate for Amazon.
You do have to work with their varying commission rates though.
The flipside of that is that Amazon has tens of millions of different products in stock at any one time, so you’re more likely to make a sale.
So they’re still one of the best affiliate programs out there – they have more punching power than almost any of the affiliate networks.
URL: Amazon Associates program
Commission: 4% - 10% depending on a category
Cookie: 24 hours
Payout Threshold : $10
2 - Walmart
Unlike Amazon, Walmart doesn't have their own affiliate platform... Instead, they outsource their affiliate needs to Rakuten affiliate platform... Which means - you'll first have to join Rakuten, and then apply to become a Walmart affiliate...
This affiliate program will allow you to earn commissions on any purchases made by online traffic you send to the Walmart.com website.
As you may imagine, they offer thousands of different products in hundreds of different niches – although it may not be as extensive as Amazon – so whatever your niche is, I am sure you will find something to promote from the Walmart affiliate program.
Just like Walmart, Costco doesn't have its own affiliate platfrom either... But unlike Walmart, they use CJ ( Commission Junction affiliate platfrom ).
Costco Wholesale is a top retailer and trusted company. It has a robust presence in North America and continues to expand worldwide. Therefore, converting traffic into new members is made easier with Costco’s brand recognition and low prices.
Unfortunately...
Costco didn't start their affiliate program until...August 2019 (!).... Costco is a top ( "off-line" ) retailer... which means - till recently, they didn't invest into their online presence...
On top of that...
Costco pays a laughable commission rate. Affiliates will earn $3 for standard membership purchases and $6 for higher-priced executive memberships. Those fixed commissions are equivalent to 5 percent of sales. Unlike most retailers that pay commissions on goods sold, Costco doesn’t.
On the good side...
It all will change in 2020 and beyond, as more and more people will be bulk buying online !
Hopefully, eventually, affiliates will be able to make affiliate commission not only on Costco membership, but also on products ( and volume ! ) sold through their online presence !
If you're brand new to affiliate marketing, I'd definitely recommend getting started with Amazon !
Why ?
Because it's the easiest to join ( you can do it with a website, blog, or even a social media channel ( Facebook Instagram, YouTube, Twitter ), it's easy to promote ( with links, banners, native ads... ), and it's the EASIEST TO MAKE YOUR FIRST $$$ !
Even if you don't get accepted into the official Amazon affiliate or influencer program, we can help YOU build your own mini website/sales page for absolutely FREE !
But if you're truly passionate about skiing/snowboarding, here are a few ways YOU can make money doing what you love !
1 - Get a job as a ski/snowboard instructor
You don't have to be an Olympic medalist ( or a competitive athlete ) to get a job as a ski/snowboard instructor...
Personally, I got my job as a ski instructor even though I had started skiing/riding literally a month before that ! I did have education and experience working with kids, and my first job in the industry was teaching kids 4-6 how to ski.
If you're a decent skier/snowboarder, your experience, and passion for snow sports are all you need to get a job in the industry !
Not only will you get a free season pass, get paid, and have many job perks, but you can get great deals/discounts for skiing/riding at other resorts, and discounted season tickets/season passes for your family members !
And guess what ? There are people who've made this their career ! They travel around the world woking in the ski/snowboard/travel industry year round !
In theory, camping should be a very inexpensive activity since you are literally sleeping on the ground. But as with everything in modern day society, the simpler it appears the more expensive it actually is. Most people see the activity of loading up their SUV with a mountain of camping gear ( just so they'd spend a night or two in the woods ) as the highlight of their camping trip.
Plus, ( some ) camping gear nowadays is getting ridiculously expensive !
Like this carbon fiber camp chair from GCI Outdoor for merley ... $500 (!!!)
Personally, I believe that, nowadays, ANYBODY can make some extra money on the side pursuing their passion, or even turn it into a profitable business !
So, if you love biking, and looking for a way to support your passion, here I want to share with you my ideas of 10 ways to make money while biking:
For many people finding "life-work balance" is an ongoing challenge. Even though there are tons of books, blog posts, studies, and many "gurus" who teach how to find "work-life balance", achieving it can often feel like an impossible goal, especially for people who strive to give everything 100% ( like most ExtraHyperActive folks are ).
Last year, I made a decision to focus more on business, and hence, my "adventure time" in 2016 was very minimum. Yet, it was another year when I checked off a few goals off my Adventure Bucket List :
Nowadays, there are a lot of options to start your first online business for free ! In my previous posts, I wrote about 3 popular blogging and website building platforms : Blogger, WordPress, and Wix.com
Today, I'm introducing to you another great platform called Weebly.com !
I've built a few websites with Wix.com, and when I was introduced to Weebly, I realized that it was a lot like Wix.com
Since, Weebly and Wix are very similar, I won't go into details about advantages and disadvantages of Weebly, and instead, will share a blog post that compares Weebly vs. Wix, and a few other similar website building platforms - http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/website-builders-comparison-chart/
Weebly is a very user friendly, robust and reliable website builder. It’s one of the easiest drag and drop, code free website builders available in the market today. t also offers its users to start their first blog or a website for absolutely free !
I my previous posts I wrote about how you can use Blogger.com and Wordpress.com to create your wown FREE travel & fitness blog.
In those posts/videos I talked about why those platforms are considered to be for "amateurs", what makes travel & fitness blogs based on Blogger and Wordpress look unprofessional, and how to change it.
In this post/video, I want to recommend you another great, and what is more important, FREE platform called wix.com
Just like Blogger and Wordpress, wix.com is looked down upon by "professonal bloggers" and "online marketers". The main reasons are : it's too easy to use ( ?! ), and websites/blog created with wix.com look unprofessional...
Wordpress.com is a great way to start your first travel & fitness blog ! It's easy to use,
you can manage your website from any computer/mobile phone, no HTML editing or FTP software required, search engines love WordPress sites, your site can grow as your business grows, but the most important -it's FREE !
The downside of this blogging platform being free is that many people take it for granted, and treat it as a hobby, rather than a potential online business with the opportunity to grow. Most people use both blogger.com and wordpress.com for "personal blogging" - they don't really plan to make money from blogging, and do it just for fun.
Starting your first blog as a hobby, and as something new to learn, and to have fun with, is a great way to get started ! When you're just getting started with fitness & travel blogging, your first priority should be to see if blogging, and running your own online business in general, is something you'd want to do long term. Unlike popular belief - "build it and they'll come" - blogging requires a lot of time and dedication. Especially in the beginning, when there is many new things to learn.
As I wrote in my previous post, blogger.com is a great beginner friendly, FREE blogging platform offered by no other than Google itself. Even though this blogging platform has its own limitations, it also has many advantages :
many free gadgets ( plug-ins ) and themes
multiple blog accessibility ( you can create and manage as many blogs as possible and access all of them from one dashboard )
its very SEO friendly ( after all, Google loves its blogs ! )
Google gives you unlimited bandwidth ( so you won't have to worry about "high traffic" especially when you're just getting started )
have no worries or fear about the security of your blog; Blogger.com blogs are secured as far as your Google account is secured.
monetize your blog from the start with Google AdSense, third party ads and banners, affiliate links
One of the biggest "concerns" many "professional bloggers" have is that because your blog is hosted on Google's server, it can be deleted by Google any time. From my personal experience, if you use blogger.com with the compliance of Google's rules, you'll be fine ( and yes, I did have a few blogs deleted by Google for not following the rules ).
Personally, I believe that Blogger is a great platform for beginners to use ! But as I mentioned in my video, you would need to spend some time and effort to make your blog look professional.
Till recently, I thought my blog looked decent, before I came across "Just Chasing Rabbits" blog.
In my previous video about "4 Free Blogging Platforms" to start a fitness & travel blog, I mentioned a very popular , and free blogging platform - blogger.com
Blogger.com is a free publishing tool that offers free templates, widgets, and can integrate every possible tool provided by Google. It's beginner friendly, very easy to use, and to customize, but most important - it's absolutely free ! If you want to start a fitness & travel blog for absolutely free, you won't need a domain name, pay for hosting, or for anything extra.
When you start a free blog on blogger.com, your blog is hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com ( something like www.myblog.blogspot.com )
But you can also purchase your own domain name from sites like GoDaddy.com, and have your own domain name (like www.example.com). You can have up to 100 blogs per account !
Blogger allows its users to choose from various free templates and then customize them. Users may also choose to create their own templates using CSS ( coding language ).
Unlike another popular blogging platform WordPress.com ( the free version ) that doesn't allow ANY type of monetization, Google encourages its blogger.com users to start making money right from the start !
Blogger supports Google's AdSense service as a way of generating revenue from running a blog. Blogger also started integration with Amazon Associates in December 2009, as a service to generate revenue. You can also place third party ads directly on your blog. They ways to make money with Blogger are abundant !
Nowadays it's easier than ever to start a fitness & travel blog. More than that, it's cheap, or absolutely free ! With so many options out there, the hardest part is to choose which blogging platform to use.
The internet is flooded with tons of different blogging options for you to choose from and I have personally tested at least a dozen of them.
In the video below, I introduce my favorite 4. I won't go into details talking about pros and cons of each platform ( as I'll do it in my next video ), I'll just briefly show you how I personally used them ( after a few basic changes ).
Again, there are tons of free and paid options out there for building blogs, and websites. Your choice will depend on your personal goals, technical skills, and finances.
If you're a complete beginner who wants to start a fitness & travel blog on a shoe budget, these 4 options will work for you just fine:
You don't have to be a professional outdoor guide, or a sponsored pro athlete to get paid to do what you love. In my previous post "Teach Yourself A New Skill", I wrote about Jyoti Raju who was on a the verge of suicide, and was about to throw himself off a cliff. Instead, he taught himself rock climbing, climbed that cliff, and became a famous climbing and acrobatics performer.
When you combine your passion, hard work, and a bit of luck, opportunity will present itself. Just don't count on passion alone. While enthusiasm is a great place to start, it's not enough to sustain your business for the long term.
That's exactly what Becky and Kevin from Surf.Work.Travel would tell you. You have to work hard to build the life around your passion.
Kevin who is a law graduate, and Becky, a biology major, worked in various surf schools around Europe, got hooked on surfing, and wanted to continue to share that epic feeling. In 2011 they founded Hong Kongs’ first professional surf school, bringing international standards of safety and stoke to the local community.
Here is another "run of the mill" blog post on the topic of "how to make money travel blogging". If you had a chance to read our previous post about Matthew from Expert Vagabond, you won't find a whole of lot of new information in this post.
And, honestly, this what the whole "blogging business" is all about : there are just a few basics that can be learned, and implemented by ANYBODY.
You don't need any special skills or knowledge to start blogging. It's like writing a diary : you simply put your personal knowledge and skills into writing.
And because many popular blogging platforms are very easy to use, anybody without any computer programming skills can do it !
In her blog post "8 Simple Steps To Starting a Successful Travel Blog", Lauren from Never Ending Footsteps blog covers very basic steps to starting a travel blog.
Just like Matthew, she suggests tips on choosing the name for your blog, using Wordpress themes, hosting services, getting a logo, adding plug-ins...
Although many people claim to love being outside and taking part in outdoor activities, a large percentage of people spend the majority of their times indoors. With many adults and children spending up to 8 to 10 hours a day in work or school, there isn't much time left at the end of the day to enjoy fresh air.
However, fresh air is one thing that naturally helps improve physical and mental health and creates a feeling of calm and overall well-being.
A 2011 study found that outdoor exercise was associated with greater decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression when compared to indoor activity. Science suggest there are benefits to exercising outdoors that can’t be replicated on a treadmill, a recumbent bicycle or a track. Melanie Webb, wellness travel expert, thought leader and creator of Sol Fitness Adventures, shares the same beliefs. "The future of fitness is nature. " - she says.
There are tons of fitness and health blogs and websites out there. Many are run by professional personal trainers and coaches as a tool to provide extra value to their existing clients, bring in new ones, establish yourself as an authority in the field, and may be, to generate extra revenue through the sales of fitness related products and information.
But you don't have to be a personal trainer to start your own online business. If you're passionate about fitness and a healthy lifestyle, starting your own blog is a great way to share your love for fitness with others while making "some money" on the side.
Recently I came across a blog post "Build A Business" by Joe Vennare that offers great advice on how to start your own fitness business.
As a matter of fact, his very first advice is just that - DON'T start a blog, start a BUSINESS !
Think about it ! If you've been "into fitness" for a while ( and hopefully, not planning to stop :)), why not turn it into a long term project ?!
