Have you ever wondered how some people seem to have all the time in the world and accomplish so much?
It can often feel like you’re just working harder and harder but not seeing the rewards. If anything you’re putting more time in and receiving the same money in return.
But it’s possible to completely change this by shifting your mindset to focus on one thing…
What is your effective hourly rate (EHR)?
Kelan from The Savvy Couple has completely changed his life through blogging since 2016. His wife, Brittany, and himself have created a 6 figure business with no prior experience in blogging, marketing or selling.
Another completely normal couple who have done extraordinary things to help others manage their money and time way better.
In this podcast with Kelan Kline from The Savvy Couple, we chat about:
How Kelan’s EHR has moved from $26 to over $300 in 3 years
Why Kelan gave up his dream job- and was OK about it
How the first year blogging is a real grind that people often overlook
Handy tools and resources mentioned in the Podcast
There was a lot mentioned in the podcast but here are some of the key ones…
Work Less Make More (non-aff link)- I’ve since read the book (audio & kindle) and ended up taking so many notes and doing the tasks. The EHR is a game-changer and James Schramko has so many tips on how to increase this that is perfect for bloggers/ online business owners.
Pinterest scheduler- Tailwind (this is an affiliate link- you can try scheduling 100 pins for free and if you upgrade you get a $15 discount)
Ad espresso– Facebook ads (I never heard of them but they sound really cool. You can plug in 5 different headlines, descriptions, images and it works out the best combination for you… Kelan is smashing FB ads!)
You can check out Brittany and Kelan’s work on their website The Savvy Couple.
Also, connect in their super active and helpful Facebook groups: Blogging with purpose or their personal finance group The Savvy Couple (Family. Finance. Freedom). They really do go above and beyond in here!
Kelan and Brittany also share exactly what they have done to become 6 figure bloggers. If you have a blog then check out their course, Blogger’s Secrets:
There is a lot of detail in this course with exact tips on how to help your blog make money. I particularly liked the information and advice on email marketing and sponsorships!
What did you take from this podcast? Have you already started a blog? Drop a comment below & feel free to share your blog
In the spirit of full transparency, know that article on blogging legal pages contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
Do you ever feel like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything you need to do?
Sometimes it can just feel like you’re chasing your tail to keep up with everything. And oftentimes protecting your blog moves to the back burner on the growing list of things to do.
But using blogging legal pages shouldn’t be one of these things.
If you ever get caught in legal trouble in the future these will be the most important pages on your blog. And here’s the truth:
You NEVER know when you may face legal issues.
It may never happen…
It could happen in a few years…
Or it could happen tomorrow (yes even if you don’t earn a penny from your blog!)
The good news is that by using templates these pages can actually be very simple to create.
In this podcast with Amira Law we chat about:
How one piece of paper could have saved her Dad thousands of dollars
The 3 most important blogging legal pages you need as a blogger
The difference between writing these blogging legal pages yourself and having a lawyer do it
Amira’s secret for becoming a master at anything she puts her mind to
If you’re like me this is probably the main question on your mind right now.
Why do something if it doesn’t need to be done, right?
There are many little reasons why you actually need blogging legal pages. But the main 3 that gave me a kick up the bum to sort this out were…
1. It’s the law!
So many beginner bloggers believe it is optional to have legal pages on their blog. Or if you have some generic policy you’d be fine.
I was one of them!
However, certain legal pages such as a Privacy Policy and disclaimer are actually a legal requirement in most states and countries.
There are different organisations around the world that are responsible for protecting the rights of consumers, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States.
If you breach these consumer rights you could face a hefty lawsuit such as these previous ones.
If you are providing any advice or collecting any information (i.e. email addresses in the comment section at the bottom of each post) then you could be liable to these lawsuits.
Simple legal pages on your website can protect your blog legally!
2. Prevent people from stealing your hard work
You may be thinking…
Eh, I haven’t really got much stuff that people could steal yet, so this one doesn’t matter.
But the fact is, your hard work and efforts on your blog could be copied by someone else with no consequence. It can completely damage your website’s authority and credibility if someone else copies your work.
Having the appropriate legal pages on your website means you can take the appropriate action to remove copy-cats content.
This is called a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and you can go straight to their hosting provider to remove their content.
If you can show you have the correct legal page on your website to do this (the Terms and Conditions) it can be relatively painless and easy instead of needing to go through any court or use external legal help.
3. To shield yourself if you’re sued
This is another area that you may think…
Ah, I probably won’t get sued so I should be alright.
Amira actually explains the reason why she got into law. It was because this is exactly what happened to her Dad when he was only 1 year into his business.
It completely crippled the company and his ambitions.
All of this could have been prevented if he had one piece of paper laying out the expectations with the correct legal wording on it.
But that would have cost him around $150 and he didn’t see the point at the time!
The point is, you never know when someone is going to sue you.
And you may feel it’s completely unjust.
But luckily for you, you can put the correct measures in place before this happens to make sure you are not liable to unfair claims.
Is your blog legally protected?
In the podcast, Amira talks us through some of the common mistakes bloggers make when trying to make sure their blog os legally protected.
But she also explains how every blog needs to have 3 pages:
Privacy policy (make sure you are GDPR compliant for any information collected on the website)
Disclaimer (disclaim the information you provide is not “personal coaching/ advice for everyone. Also disclaim any affiliate marketing that you do)
Terms and conditions (these are the rules for your website. How people should behave and act on the website etc.)
Getting these documents in place will help to make sure you are protected from most legal complications in the future.
Many bloggers don’t even know this.
And many bloggers try to do it themselves!
*Cough, cough… I was one of them*
Should you try to make blogging legal pages yourself?
If you want to have the peace of mind that your blog is protected…
No!
Seriously ask yourself if you will you know the technical jargon needed to make sure you are protecting yourself?
Amira even mentions a story about one of her clients in her day job as a lawyer…
Her client was being sued by one of their freelance workers. They had personally put together a contract with their freelancer at the start.
But because key terminology was missing from the document, there is nothing a lawyer or anyone could do to help.
By spending around $100 in advance on a piece of paper her client could have saved thousands of dollars and all of the time and hassle of the lawsuit.
Now, I can almost hear your mind wondering…
How to create legal pages for your blog
If you do not have any legal protection on your website then Amira recommends starting with the big three:
Privacy policy
Disclaimer
Terms and conditions
Once you have these set-up, your blog will be legally protected for the most common legal issues bloggers run into (being sued or having someone else steal your work).
But how do you actually do this?
Option 1: Hire a lawyer
You can probably guess this is not the most cost-effective method.
The good news about this method is you know you would have exactly the right wording and documents to protect your blog moving forward.
But, you would have to pay their hourly rate and as Amira explains in the podcast, this could be around $350 an hour. You would likely end up spending $700+ per legal document the lawyer writes for you.
Positives:
Completely specific for your website
Provides peace of mind that your website is protected and legal
But here’s the truth… you have no idea if these templates apply to your blog and cover all the bases.
You will also need to spend a long time making them appropriate for your blog and checking them to see if they seem right.
But even then, you will likely be guessing (unless you are a lawyer!)
Amira has run a legal audit for a friend before who used these free templates. She found there were so many holes in them that leave them liable to legal action.
As Amira is a blogger and a lawyer, she understands the language that needs to be included in these legal documents.
Positives:
It’s free!
Negatives:
Time-consuming
Never sure if you have everything covered or the correct terminology
Option 3: Paid legal templates
There is one simple reason that most bloggers use this option…
You get the benefit of professionally written documents by a lawyer for a fraction of the price of hiring them.
If you’re like me, you probably know that you could use a free template and adjust it to make it suit your blog.
But the truth is, you will have no idea whether you have covered all bases or even used the correct terminology to get you out of trouble. In the end, I accepted the law is just not an area to take a risk on!
Amira actually offers the 3 blogging legal templates in a bundle including:
Terms and conditions template
Disclaimer template
Privacy policy template
I have personally used this bundle and I had it set up and published on my website with 20 minutes of work… most of that time was just reading the templates!
The best thing for me is that you can use these templates for any of your blogs.
So if you have multiple blogs these templates are pure gold! It saves so much time and covers all bases for blogs in different niches!
If you need anything additionally after, such as a freelancer contract or coaching agreement, then you can check out her legal store on her website.
Positives:
Peace of mind you have the correct terminology to protect yourself
Get this for a fraction of the price of hiring a lawyer
Quick to add to your blog
Negatives:
It’s not free
Get in contact with Amira
If you want to reach out to Amira to you can contact her in two main ways:
Now, I know it seems like there’s a lot of information in this podcast with Amira.
And there is no escaping the fact that it’s the law to have certain legal pages on your blog.
However, you don’t need to panic or get worked up if you haven’t set things up correctly so far. There are just 3 legal pages you need to protect your blog:
Privacy policy
Disclaimer
Terms and conditions
These 3 documents come with a 40% discount if you purchase them in Amira’s legal bundle here.
It honestly takes 20 minutes to update the templates to suit your blog and then you never need to think about it again! Plus if you have any other blog or want to create one in the future you can use these templates for them.
If you think you may know someone else who would benefit from this, be sure to pin this page to share the information!
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this article on how to use Pinterest for blogging contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read the full disclosure policy.
So you spend all this time researching and creating the most amazing blog post.
1 week later you check your Google Analytics and you see this…
Where is all of this traffic everyone raves about?
Is there any point in writing this stuff if nobody is reading it?
But getting a lot of traffic to your blog doesn’t have to be this hard. There are some ways that are better at driving traffic than others. And one of them happens to be using Pinterest for bloggers.
This post will show you exactly how to use Pinterest for blogging to traffic to your website on tap.
Did you know Pinterest is pretty different from most forms of social media?
It sounds strange but hopefully, this will help explain why:
Facebook = user to user
Instagram = user to user
Twitter = user to user
Pinterest = user to content
Basically… most social media platforms try to keep you on their own platform (if you’re like me you’ve probably seen 3 hours disappear scrolling down Insta!)
However, Pinterest works differently.
The sole purpose of Pinterest is to help users find the content they are looking for and send them off to the best place (aka your blog!)
There’s even a “search bar” at the top of Pinterest for people to look for something…
Funny enough, this is actually very similar to Google and you may know a thing or two about the beauty of getting ranked using SEO.
But… Google can be a tough beast to crack and can take months or sometimes years to rank for certain keywords.
And this is where Pinterest for bloggers comes into its own…
Pinterest does not care how old your blog is or how many people link to it. All it wants to do is send its users to the content that they are looking for!
So now it’s your job to make sure you are providing the “pins” and content people are looking for on Pinterest.
Understanding Pinterest Demographics
So now you understand how Pinterest works a bit more.
But who is using Pinterest and why?
This may not seem relevant but it can impact a lot of decisions for your blog when you understand this a bit more.
You can enable rich pins here (lets you add more detail and a description to your pins)
Step one for using Pinterest for bloggers is done!
2. Pinterest profile photo & name
So you may think this step is pretty straight forward.
But many people get this step wrong when using Pinterest for blogging!
First of all, many people suggest you use a picture of your face to help people relate to you as a person. Personally, I don’t think you need to worry too much about this, but the profile picture is important!
As Pinterest is still mainly used by women it’s a good idea to use a happy picture of yourself if you’re a woman, or a couples picture if you’re a man.
There are plenty of accounts that do great by using a logo. The important thing is that the picture is clear and easy to see on a mobile device.
Here are two examples of accounts I have…
You should also make sure your name includes some keywords that relate to your blog too!
Sneaky tip- type into the search bar and use the autosuggestion to find what people are already searching for!
3. Pinterest bio
Now we’re really going to learn how to use Pinterest for business!
These next two steps can seem quite boring, but they are mighty important!
Make sure your bio includes some keywords that relate to your blog.
But avoid “keyword stuffing” (listing keywords).
Make sure you use full sentences to add in your keywords naturally.
For example…
You can also use a freebie offer in here, but it’s certainly not necessary as your profile is not the main place that people will look at. They just want to see your pretty pins!
Remember the sneaky tip- type into the search bar and use the autosuggestion to find what people are already searching for to find keywords to use!
4. Pinterest boards
That sneaky tip already mentioned comes in super handy here.
You want at least 10-15 boards relating to your content.
Obviously the more niche your website, the better it will do at ranking for certain keywords in the long run. But that’s a whole other decision for you when you choose your niche originally.
Once you have those boards set up, your aim is to get 50 good quality pins into these boards.
How do you find good quality pins?
Well, knowing a few “leaders” in your niche will certainly help.
You can find out about who some of these may be in this blog income report study that looks into 57 blogs in 7 different niches.
Do Pinterest board titles & descriptions really matter?
Here is your second sneaky tip…
These probably matter more than anything else you will learn on this page on how to use Pinterest for blogging.
They are crucial for your Pinterest SEO, which we will get onto later.
Just remember to make sure you are not “keyword stuffing” by listing a load of keywords. Write in full sentences and naturally place them in…
Part 2: How to design a Pinterest pin
If you have already tried using Pinterest marketing before, then I would bet my bottom dollar this is where you are going wrong.
Why?
Because it’s what I was doing wrong when I wasn’t seeing any traffic from Pinterest!
Simply put, if people do not stop and look at your pins, you won’t get any saves or anybody clicking on your pins.
That means no Pinterest traffic!
1. What does Pinterest Pretty mean?
If you have ever used Pinterest before you probably know that some pins catch your eye.
Some pins stand out and make you want to find out more.
For example, if you type in “Pinterest for bloggers” on Pinterest, these are the results that come up…
You can see there is a clear design and colour scheme that people are using for this keyword. The idea is to make something that stands out from the crowd…
But some stand out in a bad way that makes you scroll right on past.
The image on the left stands out… but not for the right reasons! It’s not “Pinterest pretty”!
The difference is that the pins that stand out and make you want to click are “Pinterest pretty”.
Typically that means the pins will have the following elements:
Vertical (2:3 ratio i.e. 600 x 900 px)
The image is clear andrelevant
Text overlay (usually an intriguing title)
Big, clear, easy to read words (especially if using mobile devices)
Warm colours tend to do better (pinky/ red vs blue)
These are just generic Pinterest tips, but you will have to play around and use trial and error to figure out what works best.
2. Basic graphic design tips
If you’re like me, you would like to know the easiest design tips to make the biggest positive impact on your pins.
Here are 5 killer tips, from a professional graphic designer, that will make your pins go from zero to hero quickly:
Proximity (each element should be in the same area of the pin)
Alignment (left, centre, right, justified… don’t mix and match)
Repeat colours and fonts
Contrast (colour, size, shape, space)
Hierarchy (make the most important things stand out first)
The good news is you don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to understand the basics and make great pins.
Using the example above it’s possible to make this pin “pop” and stand out even more in a “graphic design beautiful” way…
Typically this is where a lot of bloggers go wrong (myself included when I started using Pinterest!)
If your pins are not pretty enough or don’t stand out, you will never make people click on your pins…
But here is a quick video to show you the amazing Tailwind Chrome extension method that can help you pin hundreds of pins in a few minutes.
It’s a massive time saver!
If you really want to increase your traffic from Pinterest, then Tailwind can really help to automate and be more deliberate with your pinning strategy.
So this leads on nicely to…
Part 3: Pinterest marketing strategy
So you’re probably starting to wonder how you can get traffic to your blog from Pinterest.
This is often the part that most people get hung up on and think…
“Maybe there’s some secret strategy that I’m not using?
And this person says they only pin manually and they get loads of traffic!
Ah, maybe I need to use Tailwind Tribes way more!!”
However, there is a reason why your pinning strategy is part 3…
It’s probably the least important!
If your account is not set up correctly, or you are not designing beautiful pins, then nothing you do in this section will help.
STOP!
Now, re-read that last sentence.
1. How to use Pinterest SEO (search engine optimisation) for Bloggers
Did you know there are 2 ways that people find content on Pinterest?
Browsing and seeing something
Searching for a “keyword”
This is the most important “strategy” that you can use on Pinterest. Using Pinterest SEO means you can go from having a few people clicking on your pins to having tens of thousands of Pageviews every month.
The idea is very similar to Google SEO.
Your pins can “rank” near the top of a certain keyword search on Pinterest. Just like this…
Every time you pin something to Pinterest you can use “keywords” to help people find your content.
Here are the main places you need to make sure you have your keywords:
Words on your Pin images
Pin title
Pin descriptions (enabling “rich pins”)
Pinterest board (choose the most relevant board first!)
Board descriptions
URL of your post
Words on the blog post itself
Pinterest’s algorithms are becoming smarter all the time.
Just help them understand what your pin is about like this…
If you can make it clear to Pinterest what your pin is about and make them Pinterest pretty, then Pinterest will eventually reward you by placing your pins near the top of the search results.
And that means traffic every month… for free!
2. How often should you pin on Pinterest for Blogging?
This is one of the most common questions.
The simple answer is as much as possible without spamming the same pins to the same boards.
The answer you are probably looking for is at least 15 pins a day.
Why 15?
Because Pinterest loves content!
More specifically, Pinterest loves NEW content.
If you are not putting pins out there with a new Pinterest account, you will find it hard to get anyone to see your pins.
It’s especially important to pin good quality pins and content that is not your own at the beginning. Find the leaders in your niche and check out their accounts as a good place to start.
Rather than getting hung up on how many times to pin focus on only pinning great pins to relevant boards. If you only have 3 yoga boards then only pin a yoga pin to those boards.
Less is sometimes more!
Note I have spoken to some people who only pin a few times a day and still get traffic. But these accounts are much more established and have loads of pins “out there” already.
3. Pinning at the right time
This is actually a pretty important one.
You can use data to help decide the best times to pin to Pinterest.
It’s so much better to pin at times that people are actually on Pinterest. Typically that means do not pin during American working hours!
The most active time on Pinterest is from 8-11 pm in the USA, due to the most popular demographics of the users on Pinterest.
There are tools that you can use to find out when your audience is most engaged with your own pins.
Note- this time zone is Qatar… 8 hours ahead of EST i.e. 5 am = 9 pm EST
This leads on nicely to…
4. How to automate Pinterest
There’s really only one tool to recommend as a Pinterest scheduler any more:
Tailwind (try 100 pins for free with this link and get $15 off if you upgrade to the pro version)
Here are a few reasons why using Tailwind is so beneficial:
Tailwind creates “fresh pins” each time you schedule (Pinterest loves fresh pins!)
Optimise your whole schedule (saves time and makes your plan so much more specific and effective)
Pin at the best time of day (it even recommends time slots for you… this is perfect for me who lives in Qatar and has an audience active mainly around 3 am-6 am)
Better analytics than Pinterest (see the above screenshot)
Tailwind tribes mean you can get relevant accounts to pin your content and you return the favour!
There are too many benefits of using Tailwind to get into them all right now. All you need to know is that if you’d rather not spend all of your time on Pinterest and grow your traffic, Tailwind will help you do that.
5. Manual pinning vs schedule
It really isn’t better either way!
There has long been this debate but it has been proven that there really is no difference.
Some people swear by manual pinning.
Others don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t use a scheduler.
Here are the main differences though:
Manual pinning is free, using a scheduler like Tailwind will cost around $110 a year
Tailwind saves time and can help you pin to a plan much better
If you do manually pin, you will most likely need to create a spreadsheet with what pins you want to pin to what boards and tick it off as you go.
It is possible and some people love to have control of exactly what is being pinned and when.
However, I’ve personally tried it and it becomes super time consuming and confusing (especially when you live in another time zone!)
When you have numerous pins for each blog post it can become tricky to stay on top of it.
Using Tailwind means you can set up exactly what you want to be pinned at the exact time. The best thing is, you can be asleep or on a flight and your pins still go out at the best times.
6. Do group boards still work?
Yes.
But not how they once did.
If you read anything about Pinterest from before 2019, chances are you would have heard the advice…
Get on as many group boards as possible and pin to them like crazy.
The truth is… this can actually hurt your account now.
However, if you have a brand new account and you want to reach more people quickly, then good group boards are crucial.
Here are a few tips to find these great group boards:
Look for the leaders of your niche on Pinterest
Check out the group boards they are part of
Only apply to specific group boards i.e. “lose weight” is better than “best life advice from my favourite bloggers”
Check the quality of pins in the board (are they Pinterest pretty and have people saving them?)
Once you find them, it’s worth trying to actually reach out to the person who owns these boards. Check out their website, comment, share and message them to see if you can help them in any way.
If you connect with them personally it’s much easier and more effective to join their boards eventually.
Is this as easy to do?
No.
Is it worth it?
It depends on how seriously you take your blog!
Check out the short video below to check if you are on good group boards or if they may be harming your account…
How to use Pinterest for blogging summary
So there you have it.
Everything you need to know on how to use Pinterest for blogging to drive traffic to your website for free!
If you’ve just skipped to the end to find the main points summarised, I won’t disappoint you:
Make sure your account is set up for keywords related to your blog (find keywords using the Pinterest search bar and see what it auto-suggests)
Use basic graphic design principles to make your pins sexy (if you’re struggling for traffic, this is probably where you are going wrong!)
You are probably asking yourself… is Youngevity a scam?
Most people know that it’s possible to make money from MLM companies. It’s just that something always seems strange about how they work exactly.
Like will you have to sell to your friends and family to make money?
The person who introduced you to the opportunity probably told you not to worry, it’s possible to make money without doing that.
And they are telling you the truth… it is possible.
But is it easy?
This honest Youngevity review, with videos, will expose the hidden truths about the MLM program and let you make an informed decision as to whether the opportunity is right for you.
Youngevity review- The overview and rankings
Name: Youngevity
Founder: Dr. Joel D. Wallach in 1997 (70 out of 100)
Website URL: youngevity.com
Type: Nutrition MLM company
Products (Including Pricing): 20 out of 100
Success Stories: 10 out of 100
Price To Join MLM: $25 (but really $500+ just to start) (10 out of 100)
If you’re like me you’re probably wondering what the heck a “naturopath” is. Well here is the American Cancer Society’s summary of Naturopathy:
“Available scientific evidence does not support claims that naturopathic medicine can cure cancer or any other disease since virtually no studies on naturopathy as a whole have been published.”
Now, I’m not one to criticise what these big cancer research charities are doing.
But there really is a growing belief that major diseases can be prevented without the use of drugs by techniques such as diet and exercise.
Even if our diet and habits can’t prevent cancer you cannot argue that eating whole organic foods will do people any harm! And there is plenty of science that shows it prevents a whole range of other diseases.
Anyhoo… back to the point.
Dr Wallace is veterinary trained and has some question marks over how legit his “not scientifically proven” Naturopathy claims are.
He’s a man that ruffles feathers and claims there is a woman who lived to 250 years old in China.
It’s just important to be aware of where this “research” into nutrition products has come from so you can make your own judgement rather than taking one person’s word for how good the products are.
This leads us nicely onto…
How does Youngevity work?
Any MLM program works by recruiting “distributors” (sometimes called consultants or recruiters or influencers etc.) to help market the products and the company.
The distributors can get paid for their efforts in two ways:
Earning a commission on products they sell
Getting bonuses from people they recruit into the MLM company
Before we dig into the specifics of how to make money from Youngevity let’s dive into the…
Youngevity products
Youngevity really just started as a nutritional MLM company. However, over time it has expanded into a wide range of different “niches”.
Here are the main categories the Youngevity has products in:
Health & Nutrition – A wide range of nutritional supplements for different purposes
Home & Family – This include all the household equipment for cleaning, kitchen, gardening and even pet care products
Spa & Beauty – All the make-ups and personal care products
Fashion – Apparel, jewelry, handbags and accessories
Essential Oils – Singles, blends, diffusers and other equipment
There are way too many products and prices to explain here (that would be a whole article by itself). There are over 2,000 products, 31 brands and 15 categories!
The message is that humans need 90 different essential nutrients to reach optimal health. However, the human body loses 90% of its essential nutrients because it can’t digest them.
Apparently this product contains all the nutrients your body needs… and our bodies can absorb 90-98% of them (there’s no real science that proves this though!)
The 8-minute video goes into more detail about the company and the 90 for Life product.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6eZ58OuU4
Also note that there are many more MLMs that are selling the same stuff such as:
So you already know the main 2 ways to get paid from an MLM program.
And Youngevity is no different.
Before we dig in, it’s important to know…
How much does it cost to join Youngevity?
It costs $25 for the enrollment fee.
This is technically the ONLY cost to get going. Apart from it doesn’t come with any products. So how exactly are you planning on selling anything?
You will really need to buy product packages that come with a variety of products.
This ranges from $115-$499.
No prizes for what you can guess most distributors will tell you to get started with (yeah they earn commission on whatever product pack you buy!)
There is also the monthly “Qualifying Volume” (QV) targets you need to hit to stay “active” within the company.
This QV actually increases as you move up the ranks. Many MLM’s require you to spend an extra $100+ a month just to stay active and receive commissions from any sales you do make.
Youngevity compensation plan
Nearly every MLM company has a super complicated compensation plan.
I’m going to make it super simple for you to understand:
Make money if you sell their products
Get more money if you recruit members to the Youngevity MLM program
It looks super complicated, but remember, there are really only those two ways to make money from the Youngevity MLM program.
Here are the 9 ways that the compensation plan says you can earn money:
But if you like to learn from someone explaining it, you can check out the series of videos below…
Find the Terms and definitions here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmHDU5rfKFc
Find more information about the quick start bonus here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jihwl3P9cqQ
Learn more about the ranks and residual income:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pp4cWZgU2o
You can find out more about the coding bonus in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfmbROqcOTo
Find out about the car bonus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPzRKktLXI8
Is Youngevity a scam?
No Youngevity is not a scam.
There are two main ways a “make money from home” opportunity can be a scam:
Take your money and run off into the sunset, never to be heard from again
Provide some information but it doesn’t live up to their promises
Youngevity certainly does provide genuine products that real people use.
If MLM distributors sell the products they can get paid a commission for doing so. Plus the company has been around for over 20 years, so it has a proven track record.
However, it doesn’t mean it’s the best opportunity for you.
The rest of this Youngevity review will help you make an informed decision about whether you’d like to get started.
Just to be fully transparent with you, I have not purchased this program myself and I do not endorse it in any way.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
The DSA enforces certain rules and regulations that direct selling companies must follow to ensure business ethics and service to customers are followed.
#3 Revenue continues to grow
Yahoo Finance shows that the revenue of the company has continued to grow in recent years.
It’s gone from generating $80 million in 2013 to over $180 million so far in 2019.
This shows the company is still expanding and showing no signs of stalling as some MLM companies do.
Youngevity MLM: The hidden truths
Here are some of the bad parts of Youngevity that you should be aware of before diving in.
These are some of the things that you won’t hear from most distributors or people within the company…
#1 The products are expensive
The products aren’t even close to comparables!
I checked out a few of their nutritional products and this is the biggest red flag for me when I research an MLM company.
Youngevity’s multivitamins cost over $2 per serving.
Highly rated multivitamins on Amazon cost under $0.50 per serving!
There is a 500% mark up.
The reason MLM companies products are so expensive is that they make their “distributors” have to order a certain “quota” every month to stay active.
This means they get a huge profit just by making their products crazy expensive.
$2.13 per serving
$0.47 per serving & $0.34 per serving respectively
I included the nutritional values in there too so that you can’t think… “ah, but their products must be way better.”
The exact same vitamins are included in both.
Yes, the Youngevity vitamins may have higher doses but you could chew on 5 times as many pills of the other products and still be quids in.
#2 Too many products
Have you ever heard this phrase before?…
When you try to please everyone… you actually please noone
This is often a mistake that businesses make.
They try to be everything, which means their overheads are higher, resulting in less profit than keeping it simple and focus on one or two categories.
You may think having all of these products is a good thing, but wait until you read hidden truth #9 (which backs up my point I just made).
#3 MLM’S success rate (1%)
The FTC released an article with one eye-opening stat…
99% of MLM recruits lose money!
When you consider how much money it costs to get started and realistically how many people you need to recruit to start making money (at least 3 active members), you can see how this happens.
So many MLM distributors join for a month, realise it wasn’t what they thought it was and give up.
They pay the $500+ to start and realise they don’t want to sell to their friends and family because they like them… so they quit and lose money!
#4 Health claims not backed by science
If you can think of a disease that exists, chances are Youngevity has claimed they have a product that can fix it.
Some are pretty ludicrous and outright lies to get people’s money.
I’m a big believer in changing your lifestyle to become healthier i.e. eating more vegetables and doing more exercise (it’s not rocket science in my opinion!)
However, using claims that you’re a “doctor” to try and say you have some magic nutritional pill that can cure people is just plain immoral (in my opinion once again!)
#5 Not transparent
There are loads of outrageous income claims from distributors.
I get it.
You make some money from a company and you want to let other people know.
But the. way some of them make it sound like it’s super easy and you can “quit your job in a few months” is again just lying.
Yes, it is possible to make money from the company and some may be able to do it quickly.
But everybody’s situation is different.
The people that make a “super success” quickly almost always use an existing community they are part of i.e. a sports team or religious group or family members.
If it costs you a few hundred dollars just to start, chances are something is not right.
This is a clear sign that the main income stream is by recruiting people (as this is where you make big dollar!)
Not only do you have someone that joins your “downline” who can potentially sell more stuff to other people creating “residual income” for you. But you get a nice hefty reward when they join the MLM company.
The most ethical and legit MLM companies have a very low start-up cost and focus on actually selling the products.
I can certainly think of a few other things I’d rather do with $500…
No, I wouldn’t burn it… don’t be silly!
#7 Hidden additional fees
Well, this sucks!
Not only do you need to pay that $500 to get access to the products and actually start on the right foot, you then have these sneaky costs that nobody will tell you about until you’ve handed over your monies!
As you can see in the compensation plan… you need at least 50 PQV (personal qualifying volume) to stay “active” to be able to receive a commission.
As you can see from the picture above… 1 QV = $1 roughly.
That will equal around $50 a month additional outlay if you want to continue.
This only goes up as you progress through the ranks, which I’ve never seen before and I’ve reviewed dozens of MLM companies.
#8 Parent company is traded as a “risky penny stock”
Everyone knows penny stocks are pretty risky.
They are very volatile and the price change can be huge (just look at the 52-week range… $3.70-$9.28!)
Youngevity actually is owned by AL International in case you were wondering.
#9 Revenue goes up… earnings go down
Going back to the point about having too many categories means it increased your overheads…
The company may be growing in revenue (which is obviously a good sign) but they are also around $19 million out of pocket over the last 5 years.
Taking into consideration the expensive products, no clear focus on products and lack of transparency it’s not a company I would recommend.
This is before even taking into account that it’s not really growing anymore.
The best MLM companies to join are the ones in the early momentum phase when you can get in before the rush.
Here’s an example of what I mean…
Farmasi is an up and coming makeup MLM, which is way cheaper to join and has reasonably priced products. You can check out my Farmasi review here.
However, here’s the truth about all MLM opportunities…
The ones that do the best from them know how to use online marketing to sell for them 24/7/365.
And it’s rare to find any that teach you on the job (unless you get a great mentor!)
Is there an alternative?
It wasn’t that long ago that I was still trying to figure out how it’s possible for people to make money online.
I wanted to find a passive income system that ticked a few boxes:
I could work on part-time when I wanted (I was still in a full-time job)
Therefore I needed it to not cost a fortune to start and maintain
Didn’t need me to sell stuff to my friends and family
It was in September 2018 that I found Wealthy Affiliate.
In September 2019 I quit my full-time job.
The best thing about it is:
It’s free to start (no credit card details are required)
You are taught how to get qualified traffic brought to you for free (just think about how you found this review… there was no money or time spent from me promoting this!)
There is support from hundreds of thousands of other online marketers
You don’t need ANY technical skills to start
You can use these skills to create your own online business about anything (including promoting an MLM if you really want!)
That is how the 1% make money from MLMs!
When you try out this program you will see why so many people recommend it.
Youngevity review: The “MakeTimeOnline” final word
So is Youngevity a scam?
Absolutely not.
It’s been a legit business for over 20 years and is still increasing its revenue.
But if you really want to get started with Youngevity after all of the hidden truths, you better learn how to use the internet to your advantage unless you’re willing to lose $500+.
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out my review of my #1 recommended program and join the form below to get $950 worth of marketing freebies…
You can see her pin portfolio so you can get a feel for the exact service she could also provide you if you are looking to outsource your Pinterest marketing.
Here are some examples of her “beyond pretty” pins!
What did you learn from this chat? Have you got any Pinterest marketing tips for bloggers that have worked for you?
Struggling to get any real traffic from Pinterest?
Most bloggers know that Pinterest can be a great source of free traffic. But it can often feel like you are putting in a lot of time and effort and not seeing results.
Did you know that your Pin design is the main factor in someone clicking on your pin?
And you don’t need to be a graphic designer to create amazing pins. Just by following some basic design principles you can create some viral pins quickly.
This podcast with Kristin Rappaport from Applecart Lane will show you exactly how to create a pin for Pinterest that people will actually stop, save and click.
No… I need a manual pinning strategy! That will fix it!!“
Well here’s the brutal truth:
Your pin design is probably terrible!
When you don’t create “Pinterest pretty” pins, people won’t even stop to look at them.
FACT!
Simply put… your graphic design matters if you want to get traffic from Pinterest or make your blog look professional.
But you don’t need to hire a professional or become a full-time graphic designer to make this happen. There are some simple tips you can learn right now to improve your Pinterest game quickly!
Best design tips: How to create viral pins for Pinterest
So you’re probably still thinking…
“But I don’t have an eye for design.”
It doesn’t matter!
By learning the simple design principles below, it’s possible to quickly improve your design skills to create pins that grab everyone’s attention.
Basic Pinterest design rules
There are some basic Pin design rules that you need to know.
This is just Pinterest best practice and will help you get those “Pinterest pretty” designs:
The pin should be vertical (2:3 ratio i.e. 600 x 900 px… but you can play with the size)
The image should be clear and relevant
Text overlay helps get more clicks
Write big enough for people to read (especially if using mobile devices)
Warm colours tend to do better (pinky/ red)
No pictures of someone looking at the camera
Now that’s covered let’s get to the juicy part…
1. Proximity
Proximity is basically the spatial relationship between the different elements in your design i.e.
Header
Subheader
Call to action (CTA) i.e. click now to learn more
Picture of a freebie
All you need to know is that elements that belong together, stay together (I mean… should be close to each other.)
And other elements should clearly be separated.
The below image shows a poor design on the left and a great design on the right!
Pretty simple right?
2. Alignment
This is pretty obvious when you know it.
You won’t be able to ignore this ever again!
You can align your text to the left, middle, right or justified as below…
This is the same with vertical alignment.
The aim here is to keep each element of your design the same.
You can have a call to action aligned to the right, whilst your heading is aligned to the left. But it looks weird if you have part of you heading aligned to the left and part of it centred (I know I’m guilty of that in the past!… Thanks Kristin!)
3. Repeat, repeat, repeat
If you’re like me, you love time-saving tips.
The best thing about this is it will help you look more professional… and save time!
Again, this is pretty simple.
Choose a few fonts, colours and styles that you use regularly across your pins, logos and brand.
Here’s the best tips:
Choose 2/ 3 fonts
Create a colour palette of about 5 colours (you can include black and white and use a free colour palette tool to choose around 3 others)
Use similar styles i.e. arrows/ boxes
Now write them down in your notepad or somewhere you have access to regularly.
This is the way to make the biggest difference VERY quickly.
You can use contrast by changing:
Colour
Size
Shape
Space
This is really only skimming the surface as there are so many variations you can use. Even within one pin!
The aim is to draw your viewer’s attention to a particular element and make certain words “pop” off the page.
5. Hierarchy
My personal favourite new design principle!
There should always be a “hierarchy” of the order you want your viewers to see elements on your designs.
In a pin that order may be:
Heading
Subheading
Image
Call to action
Your URL
Check out the two pins below…
The one on the right draws your eyes to the words “harvest peas” first. The image of peas confirms your eyes read it right! Then you can see the CTA has a free checklist.
So you may want your viewers to see your CTA before your subheading.
Or maybe the image should be the first thing they see.
Your hierarchy is super important in conveying the message you want. And the majority of people do not even consider this when designing pins.
Boom!
You now know more than most blogger pin designers!
It’s free, has amazingly easy to use tools and saves so much time.
With that said, here’s Kristin to walk you through how to use Canva…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGN250JVVBs
But Kristin also added in an amazing value bomb in the podcast…
How to create 50 Pins in an hour
This is amazing!
Here’s what you need to do…
Time needed: 1 hour.
How to create pins for Pinterest quickly
Choose 5 of your best blog posts
Use Google Analytics to see what posts are performing the best recently (or the best posts ever). Top tip… choose one category if you have multiple categories you blog about
Create 5 pin templates on Canva
Use Canva to create 5 templates that you can use for your best posts. The image needs to match all 5 posts, which is why it’s important to. choose one category!
Create 2 headlines for your best 5 blogs (10 headlines total)
Pay attention to the hierarchy each time. You may want certain words to pop out or add in different CTA’s.
To be fair… Kristin did say you may need to spend a bit more time designing your 5 templates.
But this is certainly possible and a great little hack that I will personally be using… a lot!
One of the main messages throughout the chat was to…
Keep it simple stupid!
This is one of the most common mistakes when new bloggers are learning how to create a pin on Pinterest…
Most people try to add in fancy little design elements to make it look like they are a pro designer (I’m holding my hands up right now… typing with your nose is hard FYI!)
Just make your pins and all your designs simple.
Don’t add in crazy shadow effects or colour gradients.
Keep it simple = save more time + make your pins look more professional.
There were some other little gems thrown in by Kristin too…
Best free graphic design tools
Here are some super helpful (free) graphic design tools you can use:
Colorzilla (Chrome colour dropper extension to choose any colour you see on the screen… great for matching colours to an image)
Photopea (make transparent backgrounds and more fancy things)
Add title, description and URL & schedule to appropriate boards
Using the Tailwind Chrome extension
This is very similar to the Pinterest extension.
The two big differences are:
You can upload multiple pins in one go
You can schedule the pins to multiple boards
Here’s a great little hack to help you pin 100+ pins in a couple of minutes…
https://youtu.be/R_rOnHsRnV4
If you don’t have Tailwind you can see how much of time-saver it is! (that’s an affiliate link that will give you 100 pins for free to try it out and 1 month free if you upgrade!)
She has a 30-minute free course that walks you through these design steps in much more detail.
I’ve genuinely paid over $40 for similar “courses” before (I won’t name & shame them!) and learnt a fraction of the actionable tips that Kristin provides here.
The training is complete with over the shoulder videos and it includes:
More detail about the 5 design principles above
How to plan your graphics
10 common design mistakes people make
Branding basics
Graphic design checklist
Graphic planning worksheet
It’s epic and I doubt it will stay free for long.
Go to her website now to find out how to get it, before it’s taken down!
Kristin Rappaport podcast summary
So there you go… exactly how to create a pin for Pinterest and make it look amazing!
These “show notes” have ended up becoming a full-on blog post in itself because there really was so much to take away from this chat.
Graphic design isn’t just for people with an “eye for it”.
Anyone can learn these simple design techniques and use them to get way more traffic from Pinterest.
What are you going to do differently in your pin design from now on? Have you got any questions about graphic design?
I spent a ton of money on Pinterest courses trying to figure out the "magic strategy" to get traffic.
Then I used Kristin's pin design tips from her Pin Design Perfection course...
This is what happened to my traffic from Pinterest after that...
Click anywhere in this box to get Pin Design Perfection and explode your Pinterest game too!
You probably know that some bloggers drive some crazy traffic to their website every month.
However, many people suspect this traffic is not sustainable. Pinterest can be fickle and viral spikes make consistent traffic hard to find. But this isn’t the case for everyone!
In this Anastasia Blogger podcast, you will find out that by using Pinterest marketing SEO techniques it is, in fact, possible to generate this traffic every month.
We chat about:
Why Anastasia’s career set her up perfectly for Pinterest SEO
How Anastasia made more than her day job within one year of using Pinterest marketing.
The way that you can monetise traffic from Pinterest (every month)
Anastasia’s first job, in 2007, was as an editor working for an online magazine.
Her role included studying SEO (Search engine optimisation) for Google and social media platforms i.e. Facebook.
Therefore, she learnt a lot about the theory of online marketing, without even knowing it.
She worked for some different:
Digital agencies
In house marketer for companies
But it wasn’t until she moved to Portugal in 2017 that she ever considered moving from an…
Employee to Entrepreneur
She saw that her clients were making money as they were willing to invest a lot in SEO and social media marketing.
This led her to have the feeling…
“If a business can make money online, why can’t a blogger?”
Portugal is quite a poor country (but stunning!) and the job opportunities were terrible for her.
So in 2017, Anastasia started her blog as a side hustle.
After a year of slow growth, she found that her payment from one advertising network was about the same amount as she was getting from the day job!
Crazy huh?!
Now, I can almost hear your mind saying… so how does she make money?
Ad Networks
Ad networks are vital for Pinterest because they help to monetise traffic.
You literally don’t need to sell anything or do anything else other than get people to look at your website and put ads on there.
There are really 2 main ad networks that bloggers need to try and get on to receive decent money:
Mediavine
or AdThrive
Mediavine requires 25,000 sessions per month
It pays around $20 per thousand visitors.
170,000 monthly pageviews made around $1,500 in one month.
Note a session is how many times users engage with your website. Page views is how many pages are viewed For example, one person visits your website = one session They look on 4 different pages in that go = 4 page views
RPM = Revenue per 1,000 impressions
RPM can be the highest during the last quarter of the year because many ad networks have an annual budget.
So, they need to spend it all to get the same budget or more the following year.
AdThrive has a higher minimum requirement than MediaVine at 100,000 page views per month.
Both companies are great as they have excellent customer & publisher support. If you’d like to learn more then check out The 5 Best Ad Networks for Bloggers.
Anastasia tried both and found that Mediavine paid her slightly more each month compared to AdThrive.
I can almost hear your mind saying…
How did Anastasia achieve so many pageviews each month as a new blogger?
That’s a great question and the main focus of this podcast.
There is one answer to this…
Pinterest Marketing!
So Anastasia only started using Pinterest after a few months of blogging.
She noticed some bigger bloggers income reports showed they received 80%+ from Pinterest marketing alone.
She already knew it takes some time (1 year+) for Google to recognise your site.
However, Pinterest doesn’t care about the sites domain authority.
She didn’t see traffic immediately, but once she worked out the platform, her traffic started snowballing.
So will Pinterest still be able to bring you traffic in 2020 and beyond?
Pinterest is still improving its algorithm to fight spam.
There have been some recent major cleanups that ended up blocking lots of accounts including some legit accounts.
Anastasia explains how to avoid this in the video below. As someone who got caught up in the blocked accounts, take it from me that it can be VERY annoying if it happens!
Pinterest became a public company in mid-2018.
This means they are pushing harder for advertising on the platform.
Therefore, people are worried about the reach of organic pins.
Anastasia agrees it may be a transitional time that takes a couple of years to settle down, but it’s unlikely there will be drastic changes overnight.
Pinterest still needs to earn the trust of advertisers.
Hence, it will certainly take some time before organic traffic will take a hit.
It is still a search engine (search features like Google)
It cannot only show sponsored pins as regular users won’t like it
Google went into the direction of monopolising search results with ads, maps, snippets from the website in the search results so people won’t have to click on the website to find the information.
So what does this mean for you as a blogger?
Avoid Outdated Techniques
(37 mins)
There are 2 techniques, which have changed.
They still help to expand your reach (particularly for new accounts).
Group Boards
Mid-2018 Pinterest announced that group boards were not created for the way that “content creators” were using them.
Boards were not for the promotion of pins but for collaborations of smaller groups of bloggers.
Therefore they drastically reduced the distribution of spammy group boards.
These boards were hurting the accounts of those who were creating them and also the accounts that were saving pins to them.
Be very selective and only spend 10% of your time applying to them.
Manual repinning
Pinterest didn’t like it when people manually repined their own pins to other boards.
The most important thing to be aware of is this:
Pinterest doesn’t want duplicate pins on the same board more than once every 3 months.
Fact.
If you use the mobile app you get the warning saying you have already saved the pin to a certain board. If you get this message…
DO NOT REPIN IT TO THIS BOARD!
If you don’t get the warning sign then it should be OK.
Note this warning sign doesn’t come up if you are using a laptop.
Understanding Pinterest Marketing
If you’re like me, you know it’s important to understand how something works before diving in.
Well here are some little gems from the Anastasia Blogger podcast…
What is Pinterest?
Pinterest is really two things:
A social media platform
A search engine
Because of the two functions of Pinterest, it’s possible to get traffic spikes from viral traffic as well as getting traffic from SEO.
However, after 6 months or so there is a certain level of Pinterest traffic you will receive without viral spikes in traffic.
Psychology of Pinners
It’s important to understand the psychology of people using Pinterest too to get the most out of it…
People use Pinterest for inspiration, not always the exact answer.
That is slightly different from Google.
Therefore, Pinterest has much shorter keywords (75% are only 1-3 words)
Google tends to have longer keywords as people look for a specific answer to a question.
Pinterest Facts & Stats
Here are some important facts to be aware of too:
Users on Pinterest scroll down about 60 pins on average, so you don’t have to be in the top few to receive traffic.
The majority of Pinterest users are on mobile devices (which again means they will likely search for fewer words)
There is also a “search suggestions” tab based on the interests of the users due to their past history and activity.
Anastasia clearly has so much knowledge about SEO.
When you combine that with what she has since learnt about Pinterest you have someone that is ahead of many people in generating traffic from Pinterest.
Yes, there are changes to Pinterest.
But it’s certainly still possible to get organic (free) traffic from Pinterest in 2020 and beyond.
Keep changing for the better
Mike
P.S. What was your favourite takeaway from this podcast? Are there any questions you have about Pinterest SEO?
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this Karatbars review contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
You probably have seen the opportunity to make money from Karatbars and are interested to know more.
Most people think that buying gold doesn’t provide any form of passive income and is just a bet against the economy. However, Karatbars promises to be a way that you can own gold AND get paid!
This honest Karatbars review, with videos, will explain exactly what the company is about with the pros and cons of joining. This will help you to make an informed decision about whether it is right for you or not.
Price to join MLM: Free… but really €150-€3,017 note the prices are in euros, not dollars (20 out of 100)
Maketimeonline.com Rating: 46 out of 100
Karatbars Pros and Cons
Pros
Authentic gold is sold from Karatbars
There are no monthly fees to join the MLM program
It’s available in over 140 countries and growing
You get your own landing page and personal shop when you join the MLM
Cons
Karatbars news- there are fraud warnings about the company in various countries
It’s not BBB approved
There is a high mark up on the gold prices
Unrealistic earnings projections
There are negative Karatbars reviews online
There is no online marketing training to help you promote it
What Is Karatbars International?
Karatbars is a company located in Stuttgart, Germany, founded by Harald Seiz in 2011. It provides small quantities of 999.9 pure gold bullion as well as gold merchandising, gift cards and more recently cryptocurrencies.
It also offers a Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) opportunity for recruiters to earn additional income.
Here is Harald to explain a bit more in this short 2 minute video…
To date, they have provided business in 140 countries and have plans to expand to 194 countries eventually.
Why Even Buy Gold & Sell Gold?
This is something that I have personally researched a lot in recent years.
I don’t want to go into too much detail here as it will stray away from this Karatbars review.
However, it’s important to note that gold (and silver) have been used as money for thousands of years. It cannot be manipulated (or printed like our current “money”).
Check out Mike Maloney’s “Hidden Secrets of Money” YouTube series if you’d like to know more (it is eye-opening… especially episode 4!!)
Your true wealth is your TIME and Freedom!
The more you understand about the current financial system the more you realise that living paycheck to paycheck and hoping on a pension just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Anyway… back to this Karatbars review…
What Does Karatbars International Sell?
This is the part that makes Karatbars different to most MLM companies.
They sell Gold… specifically 24-carat gold (or 999.9 pure gold).
And they sell incredibly small amounts (1 gram), which makes it affordable to the masses.
There are some other products that Karatbars sells…
Karatbars Product Line
Here are some of the other products that Karatbars sells:
A range of gold “gifts” from birthdays to graduations (ranges from €60-$121 for one gram of 999.9 gold)
Karatbars events (Global summits ranging from €300-3,000 a ticket)
Merchandising (law of attraction audiobook for €101.15)
Your own branding card (€87 for 1 gram)
The CEO, Harald’s, 2 books (€53.49)
But there is a new product, which is yet to be launched…
Karatbank Coin Cryptocurrency
The Karatbank Coin cryptocurrency that will soon offer its ICO (Initial Coin Offering). The 2-minute video below explains a bit more about this…
The ICO is predicted to be released on 1st January 2020.
You can find out more about this coin at karatbank.io
How To Make Money With Karatbars?
This is probably the main reason you are reading this Karatbars review.
So let’s not beat around the bush here.
There are 7 ways you can make money with Karatbars MLM program:
Unilevel Bonus
Generation Bonus
Double Income
Direct Commission
Dual Team Bonus (Like Binary Team)
Matching Bonus
Auto Save
So you’re probably wondering…
How Much Does It Cost To Join Karatbars?
The membership is free and there are no monthly sales quotas or amount you need to purchase to stay active.
However, you do are encouraged to purchase one of the following packages when you start:
Bronze- €150
Silver- €699
Gold- €1,493
VIP- €3,017
You also need to pay for shipping and whatever of your own supplies you would like on top of this price.
Or you can watch the 20-minute video explaining it below…
Key Terms:
€100 = 50 points
1g Gold bought = 1 unit
A “cycle is when “team A” gets 50 points and “Team B” gets 25 points.
Direct Commission
This is the easiest income stream to understand. If someone buys a package through you then you get paid commission.
It is 10% if they buy direct from you or 3% or 2% if it’s from someone that you have enrolled.
Unilevel Bonus
Remember €100 equals 50 points.
By accumulating these points every month you get an additional bonus to the commissions you have already earnt.
Generation Bonus
You can get more bonuses as you help others move up the “ranks” in the company.
Double Income
You can earn double income during the first 6 weeks if you sell products from the 3D metal card product range.
Dual Team Bonus (Like Binary Team)
Your entire organisation is divided into 2 teams. In addition to the other bonuses its possible to receive bonuses from the work that your 2 teams do.
This can become confusing so check out the example below if you’d like to know a bit more about it.
Matching Bonus
You get weekly payouts from the “cycles” of your downline.
If your leaders keep achieving their cycles you keep getting bonuses.
Auto Save
You can automatically change your payout into gold.
Now, I can almost hear your mind starting to ask…
Is Karatbars a Scam?
The short answer is no.
The longer one follows…
There are two main ways an online course can be a scam:
Take your money and run off into the sunset, never to be heard from again
Provide some information but it doesn’t live up to their promises
Karatbars International clearly offers legit gold products.
However, as you continue to read this Karatbars review you will be able to decide if you thin the MLM opportunity is really as good as it sounds.
Just to be fully transparent with you, I have not purchased this program myself and I do not endorse it in any way.
I have researched the website, testimonials and information on the Internet to get to the bottom of what this program genuinely does. This is because I have been burnt from programs just like this in the past and I want to prevent others from making the same mistakes. If you’d like to learn more “Ways to Spot an Online Marketing Scam” then click the highlighted text.
Is Karatbars a Pyramid Scheme?
Technically Karatbars is not a pyramid scheme because it is clearly offering a legit product (gold) to be sold to other people.
If the only way you could make money was by recruiting more members then it would be a pyramid scheme.
This 5-minute video helps to see exactly what a pyramid scheme is…
You’re about to get to the juicy part of this Karatbars review!
Here are some of the things I like about Karatbars…
Key Terms:
Black Hat Methods – Using lies and unethical methods to make someone buy something
White Hat Methods – Being honest and genuine to help people make informed decisions about purchases
Pyramid Scheme – recruits members via a promise for payment from referring others to the service rather than providing a product
Affiliate Marketing- Connecting a customer to a product they are looking for and receiving a commission for doing so
Red Flag – A warning sign
#1 Authentic Products
Karatbars sells real gold.
999.9 gold is the best form of gold you can buy and the beauty of gold is that it has been worth something for thousands of years and there is no sign of that changing any time soon.
The same cannot be said for fiat currencies. In fact, every fiat currency that has EVER existed eventually goes to 0.
Stop!! Now read that again.
If you’re just hoping your money will be safe in the bank, chances are… it won’t be… especially if history has anything to say about it.
#2 No Minimum Monthly Fees
This is one of the best things about this Karatbar International MLM opportunity.
There are no monthly “quota’s” that you need to hit to stay as a recruiter.
You buy your initial starter kit and you can remain part of the MLM program for as long as you like.
This means there are no monthly fees that you have to pay to stay active.
#3 Available in 140 Countries Worldwide
This just shows how legitimate the company is.
There are people from all over the world that use Karatbars.
#4 Your Own Landing Page & Shop
When you join the MLM program with Karatbars you will get your own “landing page” and shop.
This means you don’t need to be a tech wizard to set up an online presence.
However, as you continue to read this Karatbars review you will realise what you actually will need to do…
Karatbars: The Hidden Truths
Here are some of the things I don’t like about Karatbars that you should be aware of before joining…
#1 Karatbars News- Fraud Warnings
Regulators in Germany and South Africa have issued fraud warnings regarding Kartbars International.
These are not the first time these warnings have been issued as can be seen from an old article that was published in Canada…
The concern seems to have arisen from people being offered to invest in the Karatbars cryptocurrency on Whatsapp.
#2 Karatbars International Is Not BBB Approved
The company has existed from 2011, yet there it is still not approved by the Better Business Bureau.
This leaves a question mark over how legitimate the business is still.
#3 They Bump Up Their Gold Prices
This is quite standard if you were to buy physical gold or silver from any online broker.
The broker needs to cover their “overheads” such as buying and selling transaction costs plus the work that is put into producing the gold in the format it is in.
This is not too unusual, but when you compare this to other brokers such as goldsilver.com the % mark up is quite high!
Here is the difference in % difference compared to the current price of gold:
Goldsilver markup- 3.9%
Karatbars markup- 41%
Note- The cheapest online broker I have found is BullionVault.com. You technically don’t receive physical gold or silver but you do get a contract with physical gold or silver stored in a vault.
#4 Unrealistic Earnings Projection
There are some ludicrous claims on the Internet about becoming an MLM partner with Karatbars.
Yes, these claims may not be directly from the website, but they still exist!
They are just empty words with no substance backing up how people are supposed to achieve these kinds of results.
#5 Karatbars Reviews: Negative Reviews
There are positive reviews for Karatbars, although there are no real success stories from people that I can find off their website.
However, there are also some terrible reviews for Karatbars…
#6 There is Minimal Online Marketing Training- You Will Need This to Make Money
Here’s the truth about ANY successful MLM recruiters in today’s information age:
They know how to use online marketing.
They use the power of the internet to sell for them 24/7/365.
Long gone are the days of “home parties” to show off the new “amazing products”. People do business online and are more than happy to pay for things online.
Karatbars may give you a landing page, but they won’t show you what to do with it.
Trust me here… a website without promotion or marketing, may as well not even exist!
Personally I don’t think it’s a very good MLM opportunity.
Not including all the negative reviews and suspicious sounding rumours around the company the simple fact is…
Hardly anyone actually wants to buy gold.
Anyone that does want to buy gold will buy it in bulk and certainly won’t want a 40%+ markup in price!
I know this because even trying to help explain to close friends and family why gold and silver are good investments right now (they are very good!) they aren’t interested. More people would probably be game for a “punt” on the cryptocurrency thing at Karatbars… but that sounds super suspicious!
If you’re like me, then you’re probably wondering…
Is There An Alternative?
It wasn’t that long ago that I was still trying to figure out how it’s possible for people to make money online.
I wanted to find a passive income system that ticked a few boxes:
I could work on part-time when I wanted (I was still in a full-time job)
Therefore I needed it to not cost a fortune to start and maintain
Didn’t need me to sell stuff to my friends and family
Qualified traffic is brought to you for free (just think about how you found this review… there was no money or time spent from me promoting this!)
You don’t need ANY technical skills to start- it’s step by step training
The truth is…
If you want to join an MLM program you will need to improve your online marketing. Wealthy Affiliate will hold you by the hand to set up an online business in anything that you want.
When you try out this program you will see why so many people recommend it.
No credit card details required– check out the bonus at the bottom of this page
Karatbars: The “MakeTimeOnline” Final Word
To sum up this Karatbars review…
It’s not worth joining the MLM program.
Yes, it’s a great way for everyday people to invest in real gold (as it comes in 1 gram). However, that is also the issue… most “everyday people” are not necessarily like you and me and interested in investing in gold!
If you have any questions about Karatbars, please leave them below. If you have used or currently are a member please also add your opinions below.
Keep changing for the better,
Mike
P.S. Since you’re still here, I’m going to assume that you are interested in making money online to free up your time. So check out my review of my #1 recommended program and join the form below to learn how I created an online business (and get a bunch of freebies!)…
What would being able to make $1,000 a month online mean to you?
Maybe it would help you:
Cover the rent
Leave your job and spend more time with your family
Pay off your debt quicker
Save more and invest for the future
Be able to travel more
Being able to make $1,000+ a month online can have a huge impact on your life. But most people believe it’s just a pipe dream that only people with “special skills” can achieve.
In fact, it’s much more achievable than you may think.
This article will show you 25 proven ways that real people use to make $1,000+ a month online.
They are just normal people like you and me, and they have all been on the Make Time Online podcast at some stage to share how they do it.
Feel free to play the podcast below to hear more about their stories and then skim your way through the article or read every word to see if you get any inspiration!
Just so you know, most of them had no idea how to do this about 5 years ago (some even much more recent!)
Can I Make $1,000 A Month Online From Home?
You probably saw the title to this article and immediately imagined…
In reality, this simply won’t happen any time soon. All of these methods of making money online took these people time and effort to learn.
However, none of these people are born geniuses or lucky because they were “rich and famous”.
As it turns out, almost anyone can make money online.
We’re just not taught about this in school.
If you can read and write it’s actually possible to make any amount of money online if you learn from the right source and put enough time into it. As you continue to read this article on ways to make $1,000 a month online, you will see exactly how.
Make Money Online Benefits
You probably know there are loads of benefits to making money online.
Here are some of them:
Your earnings are unlimited (you can scale your earnings online much easier than in a physical business)
It gives you the potential to quit your job (and make time form working online!)
Provides flexibility (work any time you like)
Allows you to work anywhere in the world
Reduces expenses (it can become a hobby to replace other expensive hobbies such as shopping)
You can start earning money online part-time (no need to quit the day job to start)
The benefits are endless especially if you make money online in a way that can scale and is passive income.
Now, I can almost hear your mind asking…
Is Making Money Online Easy?
Yes and no.
Yes in the sense that you can literally sign up to online paid survey sites right now. By clicking that link you can get paid bonuses just for signing up and then earn more money by filling out some surveys.
They are all completely free to join too (if a survey site is not free to join it’s likely a scam!)
However, if you are looking to make passive income online it will take longer than some people will tell you.
Are the skills hard or difficult to do?
No.
Does it take time to learn the skills you need and set things up to make it passive income?
Yes.
What Is Passive Income Online?
The definition of passive income can change depending on who you ask.
The definition of passive income online here is:
Put the work in once and get paid over and over again for it. It also requires a little effort to maintain it.
The best example I can give for it is…
If someone tells you it’s possible to make passive income by clicking a button and watching the money roll in… it’s a scam.If they say you can just do the work once and you’ll make money from it forever… they are lying.It is possible to make passive income online, but it’s important to be aware of what this means in reality.Therefore, this post explaining ways to make $1,000+ a month online is different to many others that you will find…
Make $1,000 A Month Online Ratings
There are so many ways to make money online but they are not all equal.The rest of this article will show you numerous ways that everyday people are making $1,000+ month.But it will also provide a ranking for 5 different areas so that you can quickly see what approach suits you.Each rating is a score of 1-5 with 1 being the lowest or easiest and 5 being the hardest or highest.
Difficulty
The difficulty rating just means how difficult it would be for you to start making some good money from the make money idea.It takes into account the time you would need to put inandthe skill level required.A score of 1 means you could start making money very quickly and easily.A score of 5 means it would likely take you some time to make money from the idea as you would need to learn some more skills on the way.
Skill Level Required
This is the rating that may put you off.However, none of the skills needed in this article is rocket science.Every real example you will see from someone making money in that way has learnt the skill either by themself (aka Google or YouTube) or finding a mentor or low-cost course.They have simply invested in themselves.A score of 5 means you need to have some very specific skills to make money from the idea. But often this means there is more opportunity as fewer people will attempt this.
Initial Investment
This is pretty obvious.A score of 1 means you need no money to start. A score of 5 means you will definitely need money to try this idea.*A score of 2 means you need very little money but some people may argue you don’t need any money to start!
Income Potential
Again another straight forward one.A score of 1 means you are unlikely to make much money from this. A score of 5 means the income potential is unlimited (seriously… I mean unlimited).
Passive Income
We’ve already discussed the definition of passive income.So if the score is 1 it means you will have to continue to trade your time for money to make money from the opportunity.A score of 5 means it’s possible for you to put in very minimal effort and time to keep making money.*Some ideas are possible to “systemise” or hire other people (aka freelancers) to make it more hands-off.
How Make Time Online Podcast Guests Make Money Online
As stated earlier in this article, every single one of these ideas has been implemented and spoken about on the Make Time Online podcast.No one is an astronaut or super genius.They are all completely normal people who have figured out to do this by themselves.The make $1,000+ a month online opportunities are split into different sections to allow you to check out the ones you are interested in.Enjoy!
Online Business Ideas
These areonline business ideas that you can start from home.Some of them may seem similar but there is actually quite a big difference between some of these ideas.Just knowing what business you are actually trying to build can be the difference between success and failure.
1. Start a Blog
Yes, a money-making blog is a business!The term “blog” still seems to have this negative connotation to it (like the word “vegan”!)People typically imagine some young lady who writes about what she had for dinner yesterday and how she’s feeling.via GIPHYWhereas, in fact, a blog is basically any website that you have ever looked at.A blog is simply a website that someone (or some people) writes articles (or posts) on.It’s become one of the most common ways for people to make money online as there is no real limit to what you can earn from a blog…And anyone can start one!Hearing about these blogs was what opened my eyes to money-making opportunities online.
Positives:
You can start a topic on something that interests you aka passion project i.e. write about being a Mom or a yogi or travel etc.
Very little technical skills or investment required to get started
Monetise the blog in numerous ways to create multiple streams of income i.e. affiliate marketing, display ads, selling products
Negatives:
Takes several months (at least) before you make any significant money
Easy to get distracted or not have a focus (shiny objects)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 2 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 4 out of 5
Listen in to my chat withAlex Nerney from Create and Go. Lauren and Alex built their health & fitness blog to over $100,000 revenue in their first year and now teach others how to do it (& Avocadu still makes over $20k every month!… oh, and they make over $1 million every year)If you want to know more about blogging, check out this article which explains EXACTLY how tomake $1,000+ a month online from a blog quickly.
2. Affiliate Marketing
This is actually how I started making money online.The concept is pretty simple.You connect people to a product that they are already looking for.If someone clicks your link and buys the product, you will get paid a commission.And commissions range from anything between 4%-90% (I actually promote a course that is super cheap & great and it pays me 80% commission!)There are heaps of ways to use affiliate marketing, but the best way to scale a passive income is also by using a website (aka blog).
Positives:
No need to spend time creating your own products.
Possible to make money from affiliate links quickly using social media platforms (i.e. you could joinAmazon Associates right now and recommend your favourite book on Facebook… if someone buys through your link, you’ve just made money online!)
Possible to scale the business for unlimited income (we’re getting to this…)
Negatives:
There are certain skills you will need to learn to make a good income from it (i.e. SEO, copywriting etc.)
It will take time to build passive income
Ratings:
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 3 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 5 out of 5
Check out my chat withBen & Jeff from Dollarsrpout who were making $240k/ month when I spoke to them in May 2019 (they only made their first dollar online 3 years before this!)… yes they learnt this all themselves!Plus, find out why I quit my full-time job after 1 year with my#1 recommendation,
3. Niche Blogging- SEO Focus
This is a very interesting make money online idea and one that you are taught about in my #1 recommendation.SEO stands for search engine optimisation.It basically means trying to get your website ranked on Google’s first page for certain keywords.A keyword is a word or phrase that someone types into Google.And some keywords get searched for a lot more than others, for example:“Gardening tools” gets more searches than “gardening in winter”.The idea behind it is to choose a very specific niche to write about i.e. gardening tools.You then would write specific articles (like this one you’re reading about how to make $1,000 a month online).
For example, you may use a keyword such as:
“Best Gardening Tools For Weeding”or“How to Use a Garden Hoe”By ranking on the first page of Google you will consistently get “traffic” to your website every month. You do not need to pay any money or advertise your website to get this traffic… people visit your website every month… for free!You can monetise this site with affiliate links or by placing display ads on the website. There are endless niches you can choose from including sewing, coffee or even thebest gaming gear.
Positives:
Once you rank for keywords on Google it can become very passive
It can be very low cost to get started (around $85/ year for website hosting & a domain name is all you really need)
Negatives:
It takes quite a few months for a new website to start to be recognised by Google
It can feel like you’re not getting anywhere and many people give up before they see success
Many people will use Pinterest as a way to promote (aka market) their blog.However, there are actually some people that set up their blog specifically for Pinterest.Are you wondering what the hecky mo I mean?via GIPHYWell, Pinterest is still mainly used by women with a median age of 40.So if you are pinning about quad bikes do you think you’ll get heaps of traffic from there? Of course not! You may be able to get some traffic, but nowhere near as much as other niches.
The niches that typically do VERY well on Pinterest:
Home decor
Recipes
DIY crafts
Women’s fashion
So if you create a blog focussing on any or all of these topics, you are going to be reaching a much larger audience.It doesn’t end there either.
There are 2 types of articles that people LOVE to read and save on Pinterest:
How to (or ultimate guides)
List posts (this is a list post… 25 ways to make $1,000+ a month online)
So some people deliberately set up their blog to focus on creating articles on one of the 4 big topics above and only write “how-to” or list post articles.This means they end up getting a lot of traffic… quickly!Once this happens…All the blogs need to do is place somehigh-quality ads on there and wallah… they make $1,000+ a month online very quickly (a few months).Here’s the kicker about Pinterest compared to Google (or SEO)…Pinterest doesn’t care how old your website is or how many people link to it. All they care about is if people save and click on your pins.The other great thing is that Pinterest has its own “SEO traffic” too because…
Pinterest is technically two types of platforms:
A social media platform
A search engine
At the top of Pinterest, there is a search bar that people type “keywords” to find something they are looking for.Note that pins that rank in the top 60 get eyes on them every single month! Google is really only the top 10 or so.
Positives:
Can be very quick to get traffic to your website
Once you get over 25,000 monthly sessions to your website you can use Mediavine ad network, which pays much better than other display ads such as Google Adsense.
You can also hire writers to continue writing under your name (ghostwriter) to make this method more passive
Negatives:
Writing long “list posts” can be time-consuming
Pinterest can be fickle and your traffic can come and go for no apparent reason
There is a learning curve to using Pinterest (creating “pins” to boards & scheduling them)
I’d actually never heard of this one before I spoke to this guest on the podcast.The idea behind this one is that you use a website that already gets some traffic each month. It could from Google or other social media channels, that doesn’t matter too much.
You can start this in a couple of ways:
Buy an existing domain with traffic
Start a new blog yourself and build the traffic up
Once you have a website generating 10,000+ page-views a month other people are more willing to “guest post” or “contribute” on your website as it helps them gain exposure.This way you can keep producing content and generating traffic to your website without writing anything yourself.The issue here is that you will need a network of “bloggers” looking to get exposure to their own blogs willing to write for you. If you are brand new to blogging this may not be the best idea.But then again you can network with other bloggers quickly in Facebook groups and slowly add the contributors over time.
Positives:
Very little work to maintain once you have contributors for your blog
There’s no limit to how much you can scale this
Negatives:
It will require networking and connecting with appropriate bloggers
The bloggers are likely to be quite new so the content may not be the best. You will need to sort the wheat from the chaff!
Ratings:
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 4 out of 5
Initial Investment: 3 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 5 out of 5
Check out my chat withElna Cain from Twins Mommy. She now manages 9 websites and had no idea what a blog was in 2013!
6. Creating and Selling Courses
This is the way that bloggers tend to go from making a few thousand dollars a month to making 5 or even 6 figures a month.Yeah seriously, there are plenty of “normal people” making 6 figures a month from their online business.Just think about this…Imagine you make 50% affiliate commission from a $25 e-book about how to use Pinterest. So you make $12.50 each time someone buys the course through your affiliate link.Let’s say you were making a consistent 100 sales a month due to getting traffic to a certain article abouthow to use Pinterest for bloggers.Now, if you create your own (better) online Pinterest course, you could charge $65 and keep all the profits.Your income jumps to $6,500 a month instead of $1,250!Now imagine that you create a course or product that you can sell for $500+… or create multiple courses…However, it doesn’t mean you have to create a huge or really expensive course to start making money in this way.
Example of smaller courses
You may know how to knit a jumper and there may be other people who would love to learn that.If you could create a short e-book or an online course on a platform liketeachable then you could make money from selling that course.Chris McGuire does exactly this with his websiteReal Estate Exam Ninja. It certainly helps if you have a blog (aka website) to help promote the course but some people use social media platforms to promote it for free.A great tip is to build an audience either with an email list, on social media or on your blog. Once you have an audience you can ask them what their struggles are and create a course that suits them. This way you won’t spend ages creating a course that nobody wants!
Positives:
You are more in control of how much money you make
It’s possible to create multiple courses or improve your course as you go
You can automate the sales by offering other people a chance to become an affiliate and using sales/ email funnels
Negatives:
You have to do the work to make sure people buy it
It takes time to create the courses
Ratings:
Difficulty: 5 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 5 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 5 out of 5
Check out my chat withPete McPherson from Do You Even Blogto hear how he’s made over $10,000 in one month from selling his own blogging courses (he made that with his website in under 2 years).
7. Affiliate Marketing Business Using Paid Ads
Some people are really just not interested in writing or creating a blog.I get it!I used to be one of them.It seemed like too much effort for too little reward…That was until I truly understood the value of a blog to help get free traffic from Google or social media channels.However, the good news is that it’s possible to create income from affiliate marketing without owning a blog.There are free methods that you can do this using social media channels. But that requires a lot of elbow grease from you. You will typically need to manually message people and the conversion rates are pretty poor with this method because of the lack of trust!So this leads onto the paid ads method.You can pay for ads on Google, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and almost any platform that exists now.
How paid ads work:
The platform loves it because you pay them money
You love it because you get targetted traffic
The audience loves it because they find products that they are looking for.
If you can make more money from affiliate commissions than it costs you to place an advert on one of these platforms, then you can imagine how quickly you can grow this!There are real people out there who use this method to generate an insane amount of money online every month like clockwork.But it is easier said than done.These ads are becoming super competitive and if your ad doesn’t grab attention and make people want to find out more, then you can burn through money like there’s no tomorrow!
Positives:
You can make money very quickly
It’s possible to scale your income to frightening levels if you can find affiliate programs with good conversion rates & write great ad copy
Negatives:
It’s possible to lose a lot of money very quickly if you don’t figure out how to get people to click on your ads (many people chase lost money here)
When you stop buying ads your income stops (it is possible to set up a long-standing advert or hire someone else to do it for you though)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 5 out of 5
Initial Investment: 4 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 3 out of 5
Many of the guests mentioned already have used this technique to promote their website which generally has affiliate links on there. There will be some guests in the new year who particularly focus on this business model though.
8. Podcasting
So as you can tell I also have a podcast (there is a podcast at the top of the page for this article in case you missed it).However, my podcast was never designed to make money. I, personally, just wanted to share what I was learning about making money online and have some really cool chats with people that are living life on their own terms.
Benefits of having a podcast:
Learning from experts in your industry
Creating a personal brand or branding your business
Getting some cool freebies from guests or sponsors (I’ve had some amazing courses from mine)
Save time- send people to a podcast episode rather than constantly repeating yourself if someone asks you a question (you still help them get the answer and you don’t need to spend ages writing a long message back!)
But it’s also possible to make money from a podcast. Even if you think you’re a nobody!Podcasts can have paid sponsors in exchange for you mentioning them during your podcast.It’s possible to find a small business or a “solopreneur” (possibly a blog owner) who wants to get their brand out there. People are willing to pay $100+ per episode, so if you make 2 episodes a week it’s easily possible to make $1,000 a month online.People like John Lee Dumas get paid tens of thousands of dollars a month from his podcast.However, when you are just starting you can offer small businesses something like:
I’ll mention your company 2 times per episode
I will promote your company on my Twitter account with X followers, my Facebook group with X followers etc.
I will send weekly emails to my highly engaged list of X number with promoting your company
This is amazing exposure for small businesses and many are willing to pay you good money for it!
Positives:
Podcasts can be really fun… you get to talk about a topic that you are passionate about
You can network with some amazing people who you normally wouldn’t be able to speak to
You can start right now, it takes hardly any special equipment or software to start one (see below)
Negatives:
It’s not really passive income as you have to keep creating podcasts to keep the money coming in (although you can outsource it to someone else eventually… but that kind of defeats the point!)
Connecting with people on the other side of the world in different time zones can be challenging sometimes (but I manage it on a weekly basis!)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 3 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 2 out of 5
Check out my podcast withTej from Tej Talks. He started his podcast because he wanted to learn more about investing in property and explains exactly how his podcast can make money.You can get your free checklist for what you need to start a podcast in thebenefits of having a podcast show notes.
9. MLM/ Network Marketing
Multi-Level-Marketing or Network Marketing is a type of business where “consultants” (also known as influencers/ recruiters etc.) get paid commission for selling a companies products.This is a similar way as affiliate marketing but there is one difference…They also get paid for recruiting more members to the program.Sometimes this will be a direct commission for recruiting members, and usually, they will get commissions from sales their “downline” make.This means they could be doing anything they want and their team could be making all the sales.In reality, it doesn’t always work like that.There are many stats that show the vast majority of people don’t make good money from MLM programs i.e.99% of MLM recruits lose money.But equally, there are people who take it very seriously and live an amazing lifestyle and enjoy the perks of the business.
MLM Benefits:
Free travel
Fancy cars
Personal development training
Some MLM companies still focus on outdated and poorly scaled techniques such as “home parties” where a recruit may invite people over to show off the products and explain the business opportunity.But the most successful consultants will always leverage the power of the internet to work 24/7/365. It may be on social media or building their own website.If you are considering starting an MLM company see if you can find one which ticks these boxes:
Low start-up fee – ✅
High-quality products – ✅
You don’t have to carry inventory – ✅
Generous compensation plan – ✅
An affiliate-like system (so you can sell online) – ✅
Company is in the early momentum phase – ✅
Also, be aware that some MLM companies are just pyramid schemes in disguise. They may offer a “product or service” but really the ONLY way you will get paid decent money is by recruiting more members into the MLM program.Check out this 5-minute video to see how to avoid a pyramid scheme…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBGfHk91Vrk
Positives:
Often includes excellent benefits and bonuses i.e. fancy cars, luxury travel and lucrative bonuses
If you build a good “downline” you can make passive income
Negatives:
In reality, when you stop working on the business it will stop making you money unless you get to a very high level
It is very competitive and often involves “selling” the company to your friends and family to try and get some more recruits
You need to have excellent people skills and be able to sell the products and vision to others
Ratings:
Difficulty: 5 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 4 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 3 out of 5
Barry Nelson has 3 successful businesses. One of them is a network marketing business. On the podcast, he explains how he manages his time between work and family and how his life has changed since starting this business… believe it or not he has more freedom now!
Sell Things Online
Nearly all of the business opportunities above also include selling things online.The majority of them are digital products that could be their own product or someone else’s, but every make-money opportunity involves selling something.This section covers the opportunities for selling physical products online.
10. Dropshipping
This has become a super popular way to make money online in recent years.First of all, let’s define a common misunderstanding of the difference betweendropshipping and Amazon FBA (Fulfilment by Amazon):
Dropshipping is when you act as the middle man between suppliers and customers. Therefore you don’t have to own or store any stock.
Amazon FBA is when you invest and store merchandise in an Amazon warehouse before being sold.
Here are the basic steps to getting a dropshipping business up and running:
Select a niche
Perform competition research
Find a supplier
Build an eCommerce website (Shopify is the most popular one, it costs from $29-$299 a month)
Acquire customers (i.e. using Facebook ads or other social media)
Analyse and optimise it
Image fromOberloWhilst it is actually possible to start dropshipping without any monetary investment (you can use sites like eBay for your supplier’s products), the most success happens when you own your own store and send customers to it.
Ways To Get Free Traffic:
Using social media/ connect with influencers
Guest posting on relevant blogs
Focusing on building an email list (MailChimp and MailerLite are free)
However, dropshipping can’t rely on SEO or long term free traffic methods because you won’t be writing articles using keywords like you will on a blog (aka website).Therefore, you will also need a budget to invest in Facebook or Google ads to send potential customers to your store.Similarly to the Affiliate Marketing with ads business model, the potential is unlimited and you can make a lot of money very quickly.If you can create an ad that generates more profit compared to how much the ad costs then your income is unlimited.However, that is easier said than done and you are likely to lose a fair bit of money early on if you’re brand new to creating ads. Some people give up before they find a successful campaign whilst others are aware of the risk and manage to break through to become profitable.
Positives:
No need to store inventory and you don’t need to write long articles or create products
Possible to make a lot of money very quickly if you can create a profitable ad campaign
Negatives:
If you stop working and creating ads then you will stop making money
It’s possible to lose a lot of money by chasing lost money on ads
You will likely need to invest in some training as creating ads and dropshipping requires specific skills (i.e. copywriting and marketing)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 5 out of 5
Initial Investment: 3 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 2 out of 5
Check out my chat withJeremy Ong from Hustlr. He explains how he started making $60k/ month from dropshipping vape cigarettes… he used to work 14 hour days making $600 a month in his day job.
11. Sell Things on eBay
This one’s a great one!Something that I have again personally done in the past and it’s great to make a bit of pocket money from some random junk you have in the house.However, there are actually more business savvy methods you can take with this one:
Dropshipping (as just explained in #10)
“Flea Market Flipping” (buying things for cheap and selling them on)
I won’t go into dropshipping model again but it’s possible to buy things from suppliers for wholesale value and sell them at retail value with this method.The same principle applies for “flea market flipping”.The idea is that you buy things (or find things) for cheap or even free.Then you can put them on eBay and make a healthy profit.
Here’s the eBay secret sauce:
Buy things locally
Sell them worldwide
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying…One man’s junk is another mans treasureIt’s possible to find amazing deals all over the place if you train your mind to find them. Here are some ideas:
Flea market sales
The dump/ tip
Big dumpsters in retail areas
The side of the road (no kidding!)
Lettings/ real estate agents (who deal with tenants moving out and leaving stuff behind)
Moving companies
It’s possible to get a great contact who comes across stuff left behind all over the place. It’s often a huge problem for them to dispose of it, so that leaves you with an opportunity to pick up things for free or dirt cheap and sell them on.You may think it’s hard to sell certain items but when you put it on a worldwide stage such as eBay, you will be surprised.
Positives:
No money is required to start (you likely have hundreds of dollars worth of items in your house that you don’t use and you can find things at the dump for free!)
Once you make a profit you can reinvest that and buy better items that can sell for more (it’s possible to make a lot more than you think as you’re about to find out…)
Negatives:
It takes some hard work and hustle to find these opportunities
It’s not the most passive income (although you can outsource tasks, such as finding the items at flea markets or uploading them to eBay etc.)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 2 out of 5
Initial Investment: 1 out of 5
Income Potential: 4 out of 5
Passive Income: 2 out of 5
One of my personal favourite chats on the podcast was withRob Stephenson from Flea Market Flippers. He explains how they are flipping a chair they found in the trash to make over $300k and buy a rental property in one year.His energy is amazing!
12. Buy & Sell Cars (Or Other Vehicles)
No matter where you live in the world, chances are… people buy and sell cars there all the time!Just Google “buy a car” and you will find numerous websites that you can buy and sell cars where you live.The idea is again pretty simple:
Buy cars at a discount
Sell them for more
You can even add a step in the middle if you know a thing or two about cars i.e. fix the car up or make it better.It doesn’t have to be cars though!
Other types of vehicles to “flip”
“Van Life” has become all the rage!People are realising they can live for a fraction of the price in a van and have the freedom and time to travel wherever they like. This isn’t even grown-up students just out of college. It includes “mid-life crisis’s” and newly pensioners!If you can learn how to convert vans into a campervan, you can earn some serious money from this.You can even target specialised vehicles such as VW campervans, which hold their value really well.Certain cars do hold their value well so it’s even possible to buy a car for yourself and sell it a couple of years later to make a profit (effectively giving you a free car!) Typically, Japanese models that are about 3-5 years old tend to do well for this.By using these tips it’s possible to make $1,000+ a month online by selling a couple of used cars per month… or fixing up one van every 3 months or so!
Positives:
You can make a quick profit if you can find a good deal on a car.
It can be a fun hobby to do during your spare time (i.e. converting vans into campervans is some people’s idea of fun… I’m one of them!)
Negatives:
It’s never really passive income unless you turn this into a business and employ other people
You can only make as much money as you can physically buy and sell… so it’s hard to scale the profits
Ratings:
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 2 out of 5
Initial Investment: 4 out of 5
Income Potential: 3 out of 5
Passive Income: 1 out of 5
The first time I mention him (but not the last).Grant Sabatier from Millenial Moneyexplains how he went from $2 to over $1 million in 5 years, whilst working a normal job. Flipping VW campervans on the side was one of his extra income streams.
Online Jobs From Home
Some people just don’t want to create an “online business”.Maybe you just want to make an extra $1,000 a month online by working for someone else. It may be that you don’t want the stress of having to build something yourself or continue to grow it (aka water the plant) over time.If that is you, then chances are one of these online jobs from home may be perfect for you.There are normal people all around the world that generate an income every month with one of these jobs.
13. Virtual Assistant
This is possibly the easiest and quickest way for anyone to start to make $1,000 a month online.Did you know there are tens of thousands of people who are looking for someone to help manage some smaller tasks for them every day?These tasks may include (but are not limited to):
Email management
Book appointments with clients
Following up with customers or clients
Answering calls
Calander management
Managing social media accounts
Organising files or documents
Research
Personal errands (booking holidays/ flights)
Transcribing
Networking
It is becoming increasingly popular for “solopreneurs” to build a business (an entrepreneur who builds a business by themself… often online) online these days.And oftentimes eventually they need help!If this sounds like something you’re interested in doing then here are a few…
Ways to find a Virtual Assitant job:
Fiverr (or other sites like Upwork, Freelancer etc.) – not the best
Network on social media (active Facebook groups are great for this) – recommended
Without a doubt, the best way to land one of these gigs is to get to know the person first.STOP.Re-read that last sentence.You can do that by following these steps:
Find out where they hang out (is it Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, a forum or somewhere else)
Interact with what they do (comment and share a blog post or social media post and join their email list and REPLY!)
Join communities that they are in and be helpful to people (share your knowledge, opinions and be honest)
Find an area you can see they need help in (i.e. if they have a growing Facebook group, can you help to manage that? Do they take a few days to reply to emails or even fail to do so?… you could help here! Do their blog posts need a spell check? Does their Instagram account suck?)
But whatever you do don’t become a stalker, like…via GIPHYWhen you use those 4 steps you are much more likely to work with clients that you want to… and you’re much more likely to get paid the amount you deserve!
Here are a few great tips from Drew DuBoff to get the best package:
Work out how long you think you will need to spend on the tasks at hand
If it’s your first one work on a $25 an hour basis
Work out how much that costs per month and aim to get that rate i.e. 40 hours a month (aka 10 hours a week) = $1,000 a month
Always aim for a “retainer package”… aka $1,000 per month to do X, Y and Z (not $13.49 an hour to check some emails)
You may need to try it out with your first gig and be a bit more flexible but it’s a great way to start making money online.
Positives:
You can make $1,000+ a month online quickly
You can use skills that you already have i.e. email management, Facebook group management, Instagram posting,Organising a calendar, research skills etc.
Negatives:
It is not passive income (although it is possible to turn it into a business and employ others to smaller jobs for you!)
Like a traditional job, there’s a limit to how much time you can give to other people aka a limit to how much you can earn
This is similar to Virtual Assitant work.But it typically involves providing some sort of specific work for your client i.e. Pinterest account management, writing blog posts, proofreading blog posts, researching blog posts, editing podcasts etc.The 4 steps in the VA section apply again here.The thing you likely have to offer compared to cheaper VA’s or freelancers from sites such as onlinejobs.ph is your English skills and your ability to connect with the clients.Just speaking from personal experience, I am much more likely to hire someone who I already know.If it’s a toss-up between a random profile on the internet or a real person I’ve messaged before I know who I will choose.
Here are some more tips to help you land some freelance work:
Use your own website to showcase your skills (have a “hire me” page on the menu bar, add any previous examples to prove authority)
Guest post for free if you are trying to get a writing Freelance gig (simply write “your niche + guest post” into Google to find opportunities… simple eh?)
Connect with other Freelancers (use Facebook groups and ask on social media if anyone is a freelancer)
Ask existing contacts if they know anyone that could use your services… and explain what your services include (sometimes they may even need them!)
Tips from Elna CainThere are 5 different ways you can get paid as a freelancer:
By the project, or flat rate
By the hour
How many words you write
By the page
Retainer fee, for ongoing work (the golden ticket!)
They all work for different people but the ideal one is if you can land a retainer fee for ongoing work.Whichever rate you (or your client) choose, try to make sure you are aiming for around $25+ an hour still.For example, if it takes you 3 hours to write a 1,000-word article and the client wants to pay you by the amount of word you write. You know you can accept that project if they pay:$75 divided by 1,000 = $0.08 per word (that would be $80 for 3 hours work!)The more skilled you get the more money you can demand (once you gain the confidence, you will no longer ask!)
Positives:
Can be a consistent income stream & you can start earning quickly
Possible to charge higher rates over time & no investment is needed
Negatives:
You still trade your time for money
Can be hard to find good opportunities
Ratings:
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 3 out of 5
Initial Investment: 1 out of 5
Income Potential: 4 out of 5
Passive Income: 2 out of 5
Numerous guests have done some form of freelance work, including Pete McPherson and Elna Cain. ButRyan Biddulph managed to island-hop and retire early thanks to smart blogging and freelance work.Top tip- you can get paid quickly fromElna Cain’s viral blog if you’re a Mommy blogger!… Plus, I’m always on the lookout for writers #justsaying
Work Online For Money
15. Running Ad Campaigns
Put your hand up if you know someone that owns a business.Keep your hand up if you think they would like more customers that are already interested in what their business offers.If you’re like me you have both hands in the air right now (it makes it really hard to type!)via GIPHYThese businesses would LOVE to pay someone to send targeted clients and customers their way.The big word there is targeted.
How to get targeted clients
If you run an advert on Facebook and Google and get 100,000 die-hard American football fans to click on a ballet workshop, how many do you think will purchase the workshop?Yeah… roughly exactly diddly squat!But what if you sent 100 parents of ballet enthusiasts who have signed posters of Misty Copeland in their bedroom? I have no idea who Misty is either… I just Googled famous ballet dancers!Yeah… the company would make a lot of sales!Here’s the truth:Google, Facebook, Instagram and all online algorithms are becoming so smart that they send targetted ads to people who are looking for them.Seriously, just think about the types of ads you see on YouTube or Facebook. Are you kind of interested in them?Of course you are!
You can make your ads super-specific including:
Age
Gender
Where they live
Language they speak
Interests
Behaviours
If you can learn how to create ads on these platforms that get clicked by targeted audiences then a lot of people would love to pay you for this skill.
Positives:
You can make a lot of money from making good ads
It’s also a skill you can transfer and use in your own business or help you to set up a profitable blog (i.e. send traffic to your sales pages, affiliate marketing programs etc.)
Negatives:
It is not a passive income stream as you are trading your time for money
Creating successful ads is much harder now (people are more aware of them) and you will need to keep learning the skill as it can be different on each platform
Ratings:
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 5 out of 5
Initial Investment: 3 out of 5
Income Potential: 4 out of 5
Passive Income: 1 out of 5
The second mention ofGrant Sabatier, who shall be known as the king of side hustles forever! He used Google ads to start making money as a side hustle and learnt about them for free on YouTube.
16. Writing White Papers
So a white paper is kind of a cross between a magazine article and a corporate brochure.It is supposed to help readers solve a problem, understand an issue or make a decision. Here’s anexample.Basically, it should educate and sell.This is why clients are willing to pay $3,000+ for a 6-14 page white paper.Just like any skill in life the more you practice writing these the quicker you will become.Chances are you have been to school.If you are lucky enough to have done so, you have probably been taught the exact skills needed for writing white papers:
Research
Writing
Typically you will find the best opportunities from business-to-business companies.These companies will often have complicated offerings and they want to convince another business to buy their product or service.This is an area where you may find it hard to get into if you don’t have experience in a particular industry. They can be complex and will often only want to hire people who have a good understanding of it.
But here are some tips to find an opportunity to write white papers:
Ask existing clients or contacts– explain what a whitepaper is if they don’t know and show them how it can help them
Look out for companies that write brochures or articles written online and explain how a whitepaper can be better for them
Offer to write one for a fraction of the normal price (or even free) to get started and build a portfolio (this is one of Grant Sabatier’s top tips for side hustles)
Once you have done one or two it’s much easier to show other businesses what you can do… ideally with their results (everyone likes results… aka how much money you will make them)Another top Sabatier tip- try to find clients in the same industry so you build on your knowledge after each white paper
Positives:
You can make a lot of money from a considerably low word count
It becomes easier to do with practice
Negatives:
You are trading your time for money
It can be hard to get started
Ratings:
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 4 out of 5
Initial Investment: 1 out of 5
Income Potential: 4 out of 5
Passive Income: 1 out of 5
Mention number 3 for Grant Sabatier! This guy had some crazy work ethic for 5 years! and still does!
17. Survey Sites
*Disclaimer- You will not be able to make $1,000 a month online from this method!*Maybe the title should be 24 ways to make $1,000+ a month online and one way to make a few hundred dollars (but it just doesn’t have the same ring to it).Yet some people will try to claim you can earn 4 figures a month from surveys. But they will almost definitely be about to scam you or are just lying!It is possible to earn $200+ a month online from survey sites though.It’s not easy to make a lot of money from them but here are the…
Top tips to make surveys worth your while:
Create a separate email address so you only get survey emails in there
Sign up to as many legit survey sites as possible as they don’t all send surveys out every day
Always be honest (it can get confusing keeping up any white lies)
Create a habit and complete surveys you are accepted onto at the same time every day i.e. after your breakfast, during your lunch break or my favourite… when you first get to work… cheeky monkey!
Avoid paying for a survey site… EVER
Companies are happy to pay people for their opinions as it helps them to make sure their ideas are suitable for the market.via GIPHYAll you have to do is sign up to legitimate survey sites and offer your honest opinions.
Positives:
You don’t need any special skills, just the internet!
You’re about to find out that you can make $40+ within the next 30 minutes
Negatives:
Some survey sites refuse your surveys (if you don’t fit their criteria)
It’s only realistic to make a few hundred dollars a month from this method… you’re not going to quit your job from it
Ratings:
Difficulty: 1 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 1 out of 5
Initial Investment: 1 out of 5
Income Potential: 2 out of 5
Passive Income: 1 out of 5
Many of the Make Time Online podcast guests admit to doing a bit of this to earn some pocket money in the early days. Check out15 legit survey sites that pay you money if you’d like to earn $45 in the next few minutes (that’s just from signing up to them!)
18. Dog Walking/ Pet Sitting
This one is technically not online (obviously).However, it is possible to find opportunities online or through certain apps, such asRover.You are probably thinking… is it even possible to make $1,000 a month from this side hustle?Would you believe me if one guy made over 6 figures a year from this side hustle?He obviously created a system to outsource it and make it more like a business but it just shows what is possible from seemingly simple money-making opportunities.Grant Sabatier’s friend was still working in a full-time job when he did this too!You would be amazed at how many people would love to walk dogs and get paid and there is a growing trend for people to own a dog.
Positives:
Easy to start as no specific skills are required (apart from walking)
You can use this as a side hustle in your free time and at times that work for you
You get to play with dogs without being tied to owning one!
Negatives:
It’s not passive income (unless you create a business)
It’s hard (but not impossible) to quit your day job from dog walking
Ratings:
Difficulty: 1 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 1 out of 5
Initial Investment: 1 out of 5
Income Potential: 3 out of 5
Passive Income: 1 out of 5
Grant Sabatier actually even did this as a side hustle himself! Technically it’s not online but you can use websites likeindeed.com to find the gigs almost anywhere.
More Techie Online Work
So these side hustles require you to have a bit more knowledge into certain technical aspects.It doesn’t mean you need to be able to code really hard stuff.And these skills you need can certainly be learnt quickly and cheaply (or even free thanks to YouTube!)
19. Domain Flipping
Did you know that website URL’s are kind of like a piece of property or real estate?You can buy websites that are already making money and carry on taking income.Kind of like buying then renting out a house.Or you can buy a website to add value by fixing it up and selling it for a profit (as you can do with a house too).
These are some tips for what to look for in a domain:
Once you buy a website you can also improve its value by “fixing it up” or making it better.
Here are the most common ways you can improve a website:
Improve the SEO of the website
Getbacklinks to the website from trusted websites (helps to improve Domain Authority and hence SEO)
Improve the websitespeed (add or remove certain plugins)
Use high-speed themes & designs i.e. Genesis (coding can help here)
Write more content to help rank for more keywords
Add appropriate affiliate links or display ads to improve the monetisation from the website
This may sound complicated but these are all skills you can learn and there are loads of tools you can use.For example, Ahrefs has the industry’s most accurate backlink checker, which can help you see what backlinks any website gets…And as with everything you will only get better at picking these bargain domains over time.
Positives:
Possible to make money quickly from cheap domains if they have expired
There is no cap on how many domains you can own & some domain names will go up over time without doing anything (if they become popular or in-demand)
You can “force” an increase in value quicker by “fixing it up”
Negatives:
It’s possible to lose money by buying a domain for more than you can sell it for
It’s not really passive income (although you can buy and hold the website if it generates income)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 5 out of 5
Initial Investment: 3 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 3 out of 5
Grant Sabatier admits this was his most profitable side hustle. You can also useFlippa.com to buy and sell domain names.
20. Build Websites
If you have never done this, it may seem very hard to do.However, it has never been easier to build your own website. In fact, I can build mine from scratch in 30 seconds thanks to the tools from my #1 recommendation.I don’t know how to code and I had no idea how to design a website before the one you are reading right now.UsingWordPress means that you can use plugins to make the design and speed of the website very good very quickly.There are thousands of website themes that you can use, either free or paid versions. This means you can make your website stand out just by uploading a different theme, without needing to know how to code.
Here are some tips for building a website as a side hustle:
Find a small business or entrepreneur who has a poor quality website or is looking to make one (same tactics as earlier… join FB groups & network on social media… become a friend, don’t stalk people!)
Go above and beyond for your first client (really understand what they want and do it for whatever price they are willing to pay)
Once you know how to do that you can use it as an example for another bigger client in the same industry i.e. law firm/ accountancy/ real estate broker etc.
By using those 3 simple steps Grant Sabatier managed to make $50,000 in 4 days from his second client that he built a website for!
Positives:
People are prepared to pay a lot of money for a good quality website
You can offer a very specific solution to people’s problems
Negatives:
There is a learning curve for creating a website exactly how you want it
Some clients may ask for more technical bits than you are capable of delivering. However, it is possible to outsource those parts or learn them in time.
Ratings:
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 5 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 1 out of 5
Another side hustle for Grant Sabatier… that’s number 6 for him! Check out mynumber 1 recommendation to see an example of someone selling a website for $40k.
Other Business Opportunities
It’s possible to use online marketing and the internet to promote or make money in other businesses.There have been numerous guests on Make Time Online that have utilised these opportunities.
21. Promote Existing Business
You may have your own physical business already.It’s easily possible to additionally make $1,000+ a month online by utilising a website and online marketing skills.Seriously, just imagine you have a plumbing business in San Francisco…How much more business could you get if you were to rank on page one of Google for “San Francisco Plumbers”?If you have a niche business in an area that is not competitive, it may be much easier than you think to rank for keywords that can help your business (check out #3 for more info on SEO)Also, it’s possible to get a lot more attention to your business just by using social media content.
Examples of social media content to grow your business:
User-generated content. Can you add a competition or prize to someone that posts a picture of something with a #yourbusiness?GoPro does this really well (see pic below)
Facebook Livestreams show up on peoples notifications
Live webinars to give people the chance to interact and ask questions (you can upload these to YouTube or Facebook after to re-use the content)
Client testimonials (videos are ideal)
Guides or eBooks
GoPros User-generated content
Getting people to engage and interact is one of the best ways to grow your business. All social media channels can help you to do that.
Positives:
Your business can grow exponentially
Very little monetary investment is required to build an online social media presence
Negatives:
You may need to invest some time into learning how to create a website and write content to be found in Google
It can be time-consuming to try to use ALL social media channels (focus on one or 2 to build engagement before trying to be everywhere!)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 4 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 3 out of 5
Riaz Shah explains how he used his online marketing knowledge to promote his events company and now generate over $20k a month.
22. Build a Personal Brand
This is quite a hard one to measure.It also closely links to the previous make money idea.But, it’s possible to use the internet to create a personal brand that can help you in any business or area of life you move into.
Here are some ways to build a personal brand:
Social media channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube etc.)
Starting a podcast
A website or blog
A personal brand means you are much more likely to connect with your audience and build trust over time. This means if you come to sell anything in the future or are looking to raise capital, you will already have people from around the world that know and trust you.The key to building this brand is to be completely yourself and honest at all times.People can tell when someone is being fake or trying too hard to be someone they are not.If you don’t know something or are trying to learn something then let your audience “follow your journey” rather than claiming to be an expert already.Or you can even be a “research assistant” for them!
Positives:
It’s not very much extra work to take a picture or video to share what you are doing
It can help you to stay accountable with your goals and vision
Negatives:
It can feel like you are putting in work without seeing an instant reward
It’s hard to measure exactly what value your personal brand actually has
Ratings:
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 2 out of 5
Initial Investment: 2 out of 5
Income Potential: 3 out of 5
Passive Income: 3 out of 5
Tej’s second mention but he explains how it’s possible to use online marketing, social media and a podcast to build a personal brand from the comfort of your own home.
Investing
Some people think that you can only invest when you have money in the bank to do so.But this way of thinking is exactly why some people never have any month at the end of the money.It’s possible to find investment opportunities online for anyone’s budget and with a bit of creativity.It’s also possible to make $1,000+ a month online using these investments.Just by planning for these opportunities, it helps to set a budget as you know exactly what that money is going towards.
23. Invest In Index Funds
The hidden in plain sight secret of the rich…If you’re looking for truly passive income this is the one for you.Obviously you need to have the monies to invest in the first place but by using “the 4% rule” it’s possible to retire early and be inflation-proof!
“The 4% Rule” Overview:
Work out how much money you (and your immediate family) spend in a year
Times that number by 25
Stick it into index funds
Retire & never need to work another day in your life
The reason this works is that index funds will return aconservative 7% interest per year over the long term.So if you were to take 4% out of your “pot” at the end of the year, you still are leaving the “pot” to grow by 3%+ each year (which should cover inflation).
For example:
You spend $40,000 a year
$40k x 25 = $1 million
After one year your pot = $1,070,000
You take 4% to live off aka $42,800
Your pot is now worth $1,027,200
Repeat and grow!
If you’re like me you’re probably thinking, well how am I supposed to get a pot of $1 million?Erm… hello… have you not been reading this article?!!I’m not saying it’s easy but guess what… it has been done (no prizes for guessing which podcast guest did it!)
Index funds capitalise on 3 things:
Compound interest
You pay the lowest fees for a “managed portfolio of stocks and shares
You limit human error (and emotions of buying high and selling low)
I’m not going to go into detail here about why index funds beat any other form of investment in the stock market over the long run (the podcast series below does that for you)https://twitter.com/olorrain/status/726455414305468416Index funds beat hedge funds by 300% in 8 years- Warren Buffet (the greatest stock market investor of all time) has instructed his financial planners to stick all of his wealth into index funds for his family when he dies.
Positives:
If you invest with vanguard it is truly passive income (you only need to login once a year to withdraw your $40k!)
If you don’t live in the USA, UK or Australia you can invest with Saxo bank or Internaxx in index funds ETF’s
Negatives:
You need the money in the first place
You are reliant on the market to continue what it’s done for the last 100+ years (until the current financial system changes it is very likely this pattern will continue in the long run)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 2 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 2 out of 5
Initial Investment: 5 out of 5
Income Potential: 4 out of 5
Passive Income: 5 out of 5
This is the exact strategy Grant Sabatier used to retire early. You can check out the 3 part podcast series on index funds (roughly 20 min an episode):
Scheduling these 3 episodes for when you next drive to work or go to the gym could change your whole financial future for the better.
24. Invest In Property/ Real Estate
So property can be more hands-on than paper assets, such as index funds.But it does mean you have more control if you have the right knowledge.If you buy a property with positive cash flow (the rental income makes more money than it costs each month) then you are “property bubble proof”.Hence, if the market crashes, you can hold your property and continue to rent it out for a profit.Over time the value of property continues to rise (for the same reason index funds do… the current fiat currency financial system).
You can actually use online systems to help build a portfolio, such as:
Social media
Podcasts. You can start one yourself (like Tej did) orThe Property Podcast has everything you need to invest
Blogs
You may be wondering how.Well, Facebook for one is full of property groups.Even if you don’t have the money to invest but want to get involved you can start trying to find “property deals” on and sell them on.Again, if you have good personal branding online this will really help to find potential investors that would love to buy that deal from you.This is, in fact, how I have managed to turn a 3-bed terraced house into an 8 bedroom HMO in the UK, whilst living in Qatar. I connected with many property investors and developers until we found a deal that suited us.If it wasn’t for social media this wouldn’t have been possible.
Positives:
It’s possible to find deals on social media or other online channels
It’s possible to sell deals in the same way
You have a lot of control over the asset with the right property education (there are so many strategies)
Negatives:
Property is less liquid than other assets and can be slow (due to regulations and hoops to jump through)
Even if you use lettings agents and outsource work it’s not as passive as paper assets
If you need to sell at a bad time you can lose a lot of money (the key is to only invest what you won’t need in the near-mid future)
Ratings:
Difficulty: 4 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 4 out of 5
Initial Investment: 5 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 4 out of 5
Check out my chats with Barry Nelson,Grant Robe (who we invested with) orSaif Derziwho have used the internet to network and help them invest in property in the UK.
25. Invest In A Friend/ Startup
This one is riskier than other methods of investing.But the rewards can be much larger.These opportunities can also be presented from people building a personal brand online. If you know the person and trust them, you’re much more likely to invest in them.There are startup companies starting all the time and they often need investment to get them off the ground.Before investing in a startup make sure you do your research and don’t just jump in because someone is your friend!via GIPHY
Here are some things to look for:
A strong target market for the product or service
Good margins
Strong management team
Credible business plan and projections
An exit strategy
Passion and commitment
It’s possible to invest in startups on crowdfunding platforms or if you know someone starting a business.
Positives:
Possible to make a big return on your investment
It’s possible to get paid passive income from dividends or a lump sum if there is an exit strategy to sell for a certain price
Negatives:
It can be very hard to know which startups will be successful and which ones will flop
Your investment can be tied up for some time before you get any returns
Ratings:
Difficulty: 5 out of 5
Skill Level Required: 4 out of 5
Initial Investment: 5 out of 5
Income Potential: 5 out of 5
Passive Income: 5 out of 5
The last one so it’s only fair we finish with Grant Sabatier’s 8th mention in this list of ways to make $1,000+ a month online.
Proven Ways To Make $1,000 A Month Online Summary
So there you have it!25 legit ways that “normal” people make $1,000 a month online.Feel free to check out the podcast show notes at the bottom of any opportunity that interests you. Each one will have more tips and advice on what to do to get started for that money-making idea.Here’s the brutal truth though…None of this is taught in schools.And nobody is going to help you or your family learn this.So if you think this could help someone you know please do share this in any way you can.
In the spirit of full transparency, know that this Elna Cain podcast show notes contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read the full disclosure policy.
You probably know that blogging can be a great way to make money online.
Some people think there is only one way to do it. In fact, it has been proven by real people that it’s possible to make money from blogging using different strategies.
This podcast with Elna Cain will show you 5 different ways you can make money online using blogging.
Listen in to hear us chat about:
Different websites that Elna has used to make money online
How she started making money online with twin babies (they were 1-year-olds at the time!)
How Elna has created an amazing community of 11,000 Moms in under 5 years.
What she would tell herself if she could go back in time
This one has been covered quite a few times on the podcast.
It’s really the number one way that bloggers tend to go from turning their hobby into a 6 figure (or more) business.
Positives:
Unlimited income potential (you set the price and sales pages etc.)
You can use funnels and techniques to automate sales
You will likely to create something that you enjoy talking about or are passionate about.
Negatives:
Time-consuming to create
It takes more learning to create the sales pages and get used to the different software or systems needed
There’s no guarantee anyone will buy it, it’s up to you to spread the word at the start
You probably already noticed this.
But, many of the strategies Elna mentioned involved…
BONUS- Pinterest Focus
First of all, it’s important to realise Pinterest can be fickle.
Traffic can come and go due to viral spikes.
BUT…
Pinterest is still the quickest way to get a lot of traffic to your blog.
Many of Elna’s websites have used Pinterest to get traffic quickly.
Her top tip for getting traffic quickly:
Focus on Pinterest SEO
This will help you hone in on the right type of audience & followers.
The amount of followers you have is not super important, but the right audience is very important. If they don’t engage on your account then your pins will never be shared.
How Long Will it Take to See Traffic From Pinterest?
Elna explains that if you have things set up well you can see traffic within 30 to 60 days.
This will only work if you use Tailwind and also get onto good group boards early.
However, group boards are not what they once were.
Saying that, if you only get into good group boards they can really help especially at the beginning.
In fact, pinning to poor group boards can really hurt your Pinterest account.
Here is a great way to check and see if a group board is worth pinning to.
It’s recommended to use Pinterest at the start for many niches, then branch out with other platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and SEO.
Bloggers Tools & Advice
A really important point that Elna makes is that your first blog may not be a success.
But that’s OK.
Use your first blog as a chance to test things out. Try YouTube or different social media platforms if you want to.
You can always start a new one with the skills you learn.
Another great tip is to find ways to delegate and outsource things as soon as possible.
This leads nicely onto…
The Best Blogging Tools
Even if you cannot afford to pay someone to help out, you can easily use some of these tools to help:
