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How to use this guide? If you are reading this guide, you must be looking for solution to live a life that you can enjoy fully in your own terms. I have been looking for solutions to get out of the ‘rat race’ and live a life that I want for many years. Most of the time, life takes over and we just carry on the way we have always done. However from times to times, we have this idea that there must be something else out there than just a 9 to 5 job. We all want to live amazing lives, where we can be fully ourselves and not try to fit into the mould that modern society wants us to conform into. You need to see this ebook as a guide to get this passport we all want to have – the passport of freedom. You might think this is just fluffing good thoughts but in this guide I will show you exactly how to do it by creating a business online that will generate a passive income and will give you that freedom we all want to have. I am not a writer, and English is not even my first language! But I genuinely want to share with you what is coming next because I believe the Internet is the best way for anyone to break out of what I call ‘modern slavery’.
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I used to work in London, the busiest capital in Europe. When sitting in the Tube (the Underground, or Metro – whatever you want to call it), I often caught myself looking at people’s face. I very rarely saw faces of people showing contentment; they most of the time looked tired and stressed. They were a mirror of my thoughts and emotions… After months of looking for a solution, I finally realized that what I had to do is to leverage the power of the Internet – to create the life I always wanted to have. And this was to my reach! For the first time, I believed I could make it. I had this burning desire to get started no matter how long it would take. However I needed to take action but didn’t know how! The more I was searching online, the more I was overwhelmed about all the information I could find on the subject of “starting an online business”. And there are countless opportunities out there! And some scams too… I can think of at least 6 ways to start a business online and generate a passive income. But I will focus on only ONE approach. Why? Because I want to help people who have absolutely no idea of all the ‘Web Stuff”. This guide is for anyone who has very little knowledge of the Internet but see the Internet as a solution to live the life in your own terms. You don’t need to be technical or even be a web programmer or designer to use the information available here.
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This guide is for complete beginners. Therefore I will focus on the easiest way to get started online. Before we carry on: I want to warn you in advance – I do not pretend to have THE Solution that will work for ANYONE. I just know a method that has worked for many people online – and it is up to you to decide if this is good for you or not. I am not here to waste your time – therefore I will always be as honest as possible at any stage of this guide. So are you ready to go into more practical things? Ok – let’s get cracking!
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Chapter one
What most people do first is to start building a website. I have done that mistake – twice! And wasted a lot of time building these websites before realizing that I didn’t start the right way – and especially I wasn’t true to myself. Frustrating as it can be, I had to start again and again. Until I find the right message I wanted to share that I was comfortable with.
What business model? Before you start online, you need to understand what business model you want to follow. As I was saying just before, I will focus only on ONE approach. And this approach is called “affiliate marketing”. You might have heard of it before however I will assume you haven’t and will explain a bit more about it.
What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is a business model that allows you to sell the products of another company and get paid a commission every single time someone buy their product through you. 5
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The advantage of starting with affiliate marketing is that you won’t have to stock any products in a warehouse or somewhere at home. You won’t have boxes of products waiting to be sold and shipped to customers. The other advantage is that you won’t deal with customers. The main company will provide customer services for any shipping issues directly to their clients. The ONLY thing you will need to do is to market their products online and bring them customers.
What affiliate marketing is not about? Affiliate marketing is not a multi level marketing business model. You might have heard of Avon or Herbalife. These companies offer to people the possibility to promote their products and get paid for it. The big difference with affiliate marketing is these companies train you to promote their product to people in 1 to 1 marketing activities. You are doing all the work for them. You go see the people (most of the time you chase them!) and try to convince them to buy their products. You also are responsible for any complain from your customers. If someone is not happy by the product, they will contact YOU. And you will need to solve their problems. You will also have to stock the products so you can sell them directly to people. MLM companies will not ship the products for you.
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Other business models available It would not be fair of me to not describe the other business models available online. You need to be able to have a good overview of the other opportunities. Some might make more sense to you and you might want to follow these other models instead of the one I am proposing here. And this is absolutely fine. Remember, I am not here to waste your time! Blogging Blogging is I believe the most difficult of all business models. It is very hard work to build a business on writing online articles. Expect if you are passionate about writing I would not recommend this business model to anyone starting online. Living from blogging takes time even if it is virtually free to get started. However blogging is an important element of any online business. Let me explain – how often you go on a website and see a blog section? Very often isn’t it? Companies are aware that they need a blog to communicate to their customers. However the blog is complementary to their business. To give you an example, if you decide to sell handmade candles, you might want to add a blog on your site talking about how to make candles at home for example. However the business is about selling candle, and not about blogging. 7
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Online retail Online retail is quite obvious. You create an ecommerce website that sells products online to an interested audience. So if you are into extreme sports, you might want to start selling very targeted sport gear to people interested in these types of sports. This business model requires you to purchase the products advance, stock them and hope for the best. It is imperative to really understand the expectations for your audience otherwise you might end up having a stock you are not able to sell because nobody wants it. You will also need to have a very strong customer service, as it is very likely that issues will rise with your customers. Delivery time will also be crucial to keep customers coming back. I am sure you would not buy again from a company that took 2 weeks to send you the product you bought from their website. There are many variables that require financial investment in this business model – it requires a fairly large capital when starting and make it work. Online training There is a real explosion of online courses out there. You can find online courses on absolutely anything. You can make money by selling salsa-dancing classes online or by selling classes teaching how to train your dog! This business model is my second favorite one, as you don’t need a huge capital to start with. You will need to take time to create the content first. This business model is a bit more advanced than affiliate marketing in the sense that you need to know how to create the content. You might want to ask someone to do it for you but in this case you will still need capital to start with. 8
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Sell Digital products/Solutions This business model is actually not really a business model, but more an online business idea. You might have this amazing idea of a product or service that you know people will be willing to pay for. This product doesn’t exist and you know this will work. In this case go for it! Invest your time and money to make it happen! It can be a software solution helping online small business owners for example or online service helping super busy people. I am obviously only throwing ideas here – but if you have an idea of a new service or product to sell you online, you might want to consider affiliate marketing as one of your selling channels! So now that you know a bit more of the different business models out there, you must understand why I am offering affiliate marketing as the best approach for total beginners. Still with me for the affiliate marketing business model? Ok, let’s carry on.
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Choosing the right affiliate marketing program The good news is that there are affiliate marketing opportunities about almost any type of products. I know affiliate programs giving you the possibility to sell yachts online! The important point before starting is to choose the right affiliate program that you know you will be happy to sell. Preferably, you want to choose products that you can talk about. For instance, if you like dancing salsa, you might want to sell dancing shoes through an affiliate program. As long as you know your market and what ‘salseros’ are looking for, you are good to go.
What are the best affiliate programs The best affiliate marketing programs are the programs that pay the biggest commission. Period. If you promote products of Company A and get pay $5 per sale when you can promote products of Company B and get paid $1000 per sale – the choice will be fairly easy to make on which affiliate program you will choose. And don’t think I am exaggerating here with $1000 commissions. I will give you an example in a minute.
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But let’s carry on here. These affiliate program offering high commissions are known as being “high ticket” affiliate programs, or “top tiers” affiliate programs.
What program not to choose I am going to put it simply – don’t use Amazon. Many people try to get out of the rat race by selling product through the affiliate program available on Amazon. To be brutally honest with you, the commissions are so small that it would make it very difficult to live out of these. You will have to sell thousands of products per months to get a decent passive income. In a large majority of cases, you will receive commissions below $15! Pointless to my opinion. Especially when it takes the same amount of time and effort to promote a high-ticket affiliate.
What programs to choose? There are several opportunities out there and I have personally joined several affiliate programs through the top tiers affiliate program: MTTB. This is the most popular one and for sure you can find the products to promote online with high commission rates. But my favourite one is the Six Figure Mentors (or SFM). They offer $1000 commission per sale and train you with weekly webinars how to sell online. 11
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I recommend the Six Figure Mentors because it is not just an affiliate program. It is also a training platform giving you all the digital marketing knowledge and digital tools to promote products online. Again, ideal for complete beginners with a long-term vision. You will make money while learning how to do it. Remember when I was telling you I would be as honest as possible? Here is my moment. If you want to live the life you always wanted in your own terms you will need to trust me a little bit here. I have been working on the Internet for over 10 years now and I have been looking all over the Internet the solution that would help me find the ‘passport to freedom’ – remember? The passport being the online solution that would help me getting out of that pointless life of ‘modern slavery’. You can obviously think that I am selling you the SFM because I am an affiliate of them. And you are right! I am selling you their solution because I am one of their members – and I know that they are offering an amazing platform that I have not seen anywhere else.
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They are truly unique in helping people like you and me who know there must be something else than just working 9 to 5. I come here with the best intention here and can only strongly recommend them to anyone interested in starting online as a complete beginner. I can only hope you take the best decision here. So what now?... Ok, I have explain to you why affiliate marketing and what type of affiliate marketing program to search and where to find them. Let’s move on to chapter 2.
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Chapter two Now that you know how to choose the right affiliate marketing program, you need to think about the market you are trying to sell this product to.
How to find your market? We will pick up a specific market that I know enough to give you clear examples – mountain biking holidays. Let’s assume I found a top tier affiliate marketing offering me the opportunity to sell holiday for mountain bikers with the possibility to make a $100 commission for each sale. As you might have noticed, I want to give you as many concrete examples for you to grasp the endless possibilities available to you when you picked the right product to promote.
In the search of an audience Below are 3 steps to take in order to have a better understanding of the online market.
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Because I know enough of mountain biking, I will search online where mountain bikers gather online. And I see plenty of websites targeting mountain bikers. As a matter of fact, I can see this is a very vibrant market. Good – this is what we want. You are looking for a market that has many potential customers. Sometimes you can see online people recommending to find a niche – and they are right. But they forget to say that the niche has to come from a market that is already established! Otherwise you will struggle. I will explain that point in more detail in a minute. Step 1 – Search online You best friend here is Google. Start searching with very generic key words In our example here, I started with ‘mountain biking’ From my initial search I found trends or categories that are relevant for this market. The trends I found are as follow: • Gear (for summer, for winter, waterproof…) • Holiday offers • Women mountain biking • Selling Bikes • Protection Insurance against bike thieves • Type of mountain biking style (downhill, cross country, freestyle etc…)
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Step 2 - Find your niche After making that search, I have a better idea of what people are looking for when doing mountain biking. In our case, we are trying to sell holidays for mountain bikers. So how to combine what we know about this market and the product we want to promote? The trend that catches my attention is ‘women mountain biking’. From the searches make online, I can see that many women are interested in mountain biking and specifically in cross-country. When men tend to be more engaged in downhill and free styling. With these facts in mind, you have a better idea of how to target this market now. For instance, you can focus on selling cross-country mountain biking holidays to women bikers. Here is your niche market! As you can see we came from a market that is established and found a niche in this market to match the product we want to promote. This is a powerful approach that allows you to focus on a market that has a demand but by being very specific on the audience you want to reach within that market.
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Step 3 – Your positioning Positioning is often overlooked when people start online. What is positioning? It is the art of standing out online. How do you want people to remember your website if you are selling holidays the exact same way as any other holiday website? What you need to do is to find the right tone of voice that will position yourself against competitors. Let me give you an example: In our example, you can position yourself by promoting the MTB holidays this way: “WomenMTBholidays.com – Mountain Biking holidays for Women” Of you can position yourself differently and sell your holidays this way: “WomenMTBholidays.com – For Dirt Divas in Search of Sensations” Your positioning is clearer and resonates better to your target audience by changing your wording. You define clearly what you are selling and you talk the same language as you target audience by using the words “dirt divas”. Ok, let’s summarize what we have done so far. We have found: 1. The product we want to sell through a high-ticket affiliate program 2. The target audience to focus on 3. How to position ourselves to reach potential customers
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I hope that by giving you all these examples, you will understand the approach that I am describing here. For any type of product, you will be able to go through the exact same steps and define your niche market this way. Follow me in chapter 3!
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Chapter three Finally the last chapter – the Website! Now that we know exactly what product to market and how we want to promote it, you are now ready to build your website. Don’t panic, you don’t need to have technical skills for that! You will realize that it is 100 times easier that you thought initially once we have completed this last chapter. Promise!
What is the purpose of your website? When creating a website, you need to understand what is the purpose of your website. In our case, it is fairly easy – we want to sell mountain biking holidays. And you need to make it clear to understand for your online visitors. Your online visitors need to see straight away whom you are talking to. You are not going to use images of riders with men if you are targeting women only. So make sure your copy and images support the purpose of your website.
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Wordpress There are hundreds of way to build a website – and I will focus on only one way to do it. I would have to write an entire book to go through all the different methods to give you just an overview of each method! Here I am going to teach you how to build a website with Wordpress. Wordpress is a free website builder used by thousands businesses online. It is built in a way that doesn’t require any technical skills and can be used by anyone.
Hosting your website First you need to find where you are going to host your website. What I mean by that? Let’s imagine, you have lots of photos of your last holiday, and you want to make sure you save them on your computer and find them again when you want look at them in the future. For that you decide to create folders where you will save all the photos. Hosting a website works the same (roughly!). A website is build with web pages. And these web pages have to be saved somewhere so people can find them online. In order to do that, you need a hosting solution. The hosing solution will save the web pages of your website on the memory of a server (a server is a super powerful
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computer), the same way you would save your photos on the memory of your computer. You don’t need to understand technically how these web pages are saved on the server – this is done automatically for you. My point here is to explain to you what we mean by hosting a website.
So what hosting solution to chose? There are few online that are quite popular. One of them offering this option is bluehost. You also have Godaddy or Hostgattor. Again, to make things easier for total beginners, I am going to recommend only one hosting solution; 123-reg I have used them before and know that you can install Wordpress with them with just few clicks! Instead of me replicating what they are already explaining in clear steps, I am going to give you links that will show you step-by-step how to use their hosting solution and install Wordpress. Step 1 – Choose you domain name Along the process of purchasing this hosting package, you will be promoted to enter your domain name. Better to have thought about it first and know how you want to call your website. 21
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You can find a domain name that is available by using their domain name search box in the top right corner of their website. https://www.123-reg.co.uk
You domain name should be: - Easy to remember - End with .com preferably if you are targeting a world wide audience
Step 2 – Choose the right hosting solution Click on this link: https://www.123-reg.co.uk/web-hosting/wordpress.shtml Choose basic option – what is offered in this package is enough for you to get started. And you can always update later but this option is far enough. Step 3 – Install Wordpress You should have completed the registration process and completed the payment now. Now you need to install Wordpress on your hosting server. Instead of me explaining you everything in details, here is the official step-by-step guide from 123-reg:
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https://www.123-reg.co.uk/support/answers/Video/Web-Hosting/ADDFUNCTIONALITY-WITH-CGI-SCRIPTS/how-do-i-install-wordpress-to-my-hostingpackage-4554/
Few tips: - Step 5 – make sure to leave the installation directory blank as suggested. - It can take a bit of time for your new domain name to be fully activated. This is normal and if it is the case, 123-reg will let you know when it is activated by email. - Check all the emails that will be sent to you during the installation process. These are essential for you to remember – so keep these emails safe in a place you can find them again easily!
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Resources: When the installation of Wordpress in completed, you will be able to login to your Wordpress account and start customizing your website. It might take a bit of time before you find your way around Wordpress but you will soon realise it is very easy to use. Check below the links for additional information on Wordpress. - Watch this video to know more how to use Wordpress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiaT4bR3xGA - Wordpress themes: https://wordpress.org/themes/ - Showcase of Wordpress websites: https://wordpress.org/showcase/
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Finally‌ I hope you found this guide as interesting as I enjoy writing it! This guide covers the essential starting steps for building a successful online business and start living a life in your own terms. As mentioned in my introduction, I focus on affiliate marketing as being the easiest way to start online when you are complete beginner. I wanted to explain you how to find the product to promote and how to position yourself online.
What’s next? I invite you to visit my website www.dotentrepreneurs.com and check the Six Figure Mentors platform that I am proud of being a member of. If you are new to the online world and not sure how to do it, then the SFM is the best starting point. Join their community and get started online the best way possible! Check out and if you have any question, speak to me directly! contact@dotentrepreneurs.com To your success, Lina - owner of dotentrepreneurs.com
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Disclaimer Even though I have all the faith in the world in this system, and as much as I hate to have to include this here, we do live in a society where litigation is rife. With that having been said, please note that the use of this guide is no guarantee that you will achieve the results and earnings mentioned or implied in this guide. Every precaution has been taken to ensure that the information in this guide is correct and complete, and no liability is assumed for any errors or omissions, real or perceived. The author reserves the right to update or edit this book in accordance with new conditions at any time.
All rights reserved. The contents of this entire guide are covered by international copyright and trademark laws. The owner of the copyrights and trademarks is Lina Gomes. No part of this book may be reproduced, utilised or shared by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage method, without the express written permission of Lina Gomes. This book does NOT include resale or redistribution rights. You may not sell any part of this book. Finally, remember that everything in this book is designed to compliment common sense – not replace it! It’s intended for educational purposes, and to help you grow your business. Have fun, and apply the principles to your business!
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